Something Precious

Chapter Twenty Six

"Hey." Naruto waved as he and Kakashi walked into the restaurant where they had agreed to meet the others. All three heads snapped up from their conversation at the same time, the corner of his mouth twitched in hidden amusement. They were talking about me, he thought which was confirmed when Obito tried clumsily to play it off.

"Oh heyyyyyy Naruto, we were just talking about what to order." he said exaggeratedly, his picked up the closed menu in front of him and pretended to flip through it. "Hmmmm. I think I'll have the ramen." he decided with a nod.

Naruto sat himself beside the boy and looked over his shoulder. "Obito that's the drink menu." he pointed out. Kakashi face palmed at his comrade's idiocy.

"Right." Obito chuckled nervously while scratching the back of his neck. He sheepishly turned the page to the actual food menu, his face turning a bright red.

The team had friendly conversation as they waited for their orders but once the food arrived the air around them turned serious.

"I asked around about the bar that the rumors mention." Minato started; his face dusted with pink. "It is a... an adult bar." he told them while glancing at the three young chunnin. Naruto nodded in understanding.

"I see." he said, trying not to think about it too hard. "Well, it may be better if only the two of us were to go anyways, large groups tend to draw more attention. Even if we split up, if there are really ninja there it wouldn't take them long to notice." he said. The three chunnin were put out by this turn of events.

"What are we supposed to do then?" Obito asked.

"You three should spread out. Check the local inns to see if they checked in at any of them. Another one should ask around at the local shops, see in anyone noticed anything suspicious. Rin can do that, you're more innocent looking, they will most likely to talk to you." Minato instructed his team. Naruto listened intently, nodding along.

"I think one of you should go to the bathhouse as well." Naruto suggested. "I saw one of them just outside of it yesterday just after I left. You might be able to get info from the staff there."

"Wait, you saw one of them?" inquired Minato irritably, why had he not told them sooner? Did he deem it unimportant or something? Was he not taking this mission seriously? It was a serious matter. These questions swirled in the jounin's mind though his gut told him that he wasn't seeing the entire picture.

"Well he didn't seem all that suspicious." Naruto lied. He felt a need to defend his former mentor even though he was now technically the enemy. If he was being completely honest it would be hard for him to fight the four other Great Nations. He had fought beside and even commanded them in his time and it was hard to suppress that now. Naruto inwardly sighed, this was going to be troublesome.

He was pulled from his thoughts by Minato's voice which portrayed that he was holding back anguish. "You didn't tell us because he didn't seem suspicious? He's an enemy, a shinobi from another nation that we are at war with and he didn't seem suspicious?" Kakashi also looked miffed while Obito and Rin leaned away from their sensei who was unconsciously releasing a small amount of killer intent. It was especially intimidating because it wasn't often the Minato got angry.

Naruto however, remained unaffected. He shrugged and slurped up some noodles which caused Minato's brow to tick a little. "I just told you now, didn't I? And besides, what would telling you yesterday have done? It's not like you would have been able to do anything about it, you would just lose sleep is all." Naruto pointed out. Minato knew he had a good point but his nonchalant attitude was aggravating. Why was he seemingly so unaffected? He looked so relaxed, just eating his ramen, did he miss the part where they were in a war?