The sealed kunai

Chapter 21: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Tayuya let out a huff as she, Kakashi, and Shikamaru sat in restaurant after finishing another day of 'information gathering' which was pretty much them being tourists. Looking around at the lazy jounin and the lazier chunin she felt her temper slipping, "Alright Kakashi. Seriously, can you tell us when Shithead is getting back? At least if he were here this would be mildly entertaining somehow."

Kakashi let out a sigh, she had been asking him about this for the last three days, "Tayuya, for the ten thousandth time; he'll come back when he comes back. I'll know when he's on his way and I'll let you all know."

Tayuya grumbled and crossed her arms, "Shithead... he'd better have a damn solid excuse for ditching us here like this."

Shikamaru yawned, "Whatever, you troublesome woman. All I know is that this is my kind of mission. No fighting, no running around, just relaxing and doing nothing. Maybe I should try and go on more missions with Naruto and Kakashi-sensei more often."

Kakashi eye smiled at Shikamaru, "See Tayuya? Shikamaru has the right idea here."

Tayuya let out an undignified groan and dropped her head on the table with a thud.

XxX

Two fast moving blurs shot through the brush, one following the other. They were moving swiftly through the wilderness of Nami no Kuni in a specific general direction.

Naruto kept close on Sai's heels as they ran further into the country, "Hey Sai-kouhai, I kind of figured that a village named for whirlpools would be by the ocean or something."

Sai kept a dull look on his face as he lead the blonde chunin along, "It would seem like the most logical place Naruto-senpai, that's why it isn't anywhere on the coast. Uzushiogakure was actually one of the villages that were hard to find."

Naruto nodded in understanding as he kept up with the Root shinobi, "So you've got the terrain memorized completely? That's actually very impressive. I haven't seen you pull out a map once."

"A map would have been too dangerous to bring Naruto-senpai." Sai admitted as they continued on, "Remember, there can be little to no evidence of your relationship with Danzo-sama other than to those that already know. And even then, it would be far better if they didn't know that you are still in contact with us."

Naruto could only imagine the shitstorm that would commence if Tsunade or Jiraiya found out that he was still in contact with Danzo. There was no way that Naruto could convince them that Danzo was simply doing the duty he swore himself to doing when he said he would protect Konoha. If he came to them with that argument they would just say that Danzo had brainwashed him like the rest of Root when he was a child and that would be that, he would be locked in a cell, or even worse, sealed again. Naruto liked being able to think clearly and logically thank you.

Naruto's thoughts wandered towards the capabilities of Sai. He didn't know how good he really was. Chances were he was probably better in practice than the majority of the other ninja his age, as Danzo would never have made him his contact if he wasn't. He still had no idea what Sai could do. He figured that Sai was able to draw animals and bring them to life as evident by the attack he launched when Naruto was unaware of his presence, but what else could he do?

Now wasn't the time for that. He was searching for something, Sai was helping. He had more important issues to think on. What would be waiting in Uzushiogakure? Would anything even still be standing? Does Sai really even know where he's going?

Keeping his thoughts to himself he followed his paler Root companion, "We are close Naruto-senpai."

Naruto frowned, "How do you know Sai-kouhai?"