The Red Maelstrom

[42] Glimpses of the Long Lost

"AAAH!"

"I'm back, everyone!"

Haimaru-sensei's feet touched down upon the dirt so gracefully that Kohana was barely jostled in her seat. She marveled at how quickly he had acclimated to traveling through Flying Thunder God. He certainly was a tough dog, and very smart at that. As they were hunting for a place of sanctuary, Haimaru-sensei had led Kohana to a river system. He'd had a full understanding of the urgency of the task and allowed Kohana to ride on his back so they could move faster. Only halfway through their run did Kohana realize where Haimaru-sensei had been leading her, and together they searched for the perfect place of rest.

The group stopped moving momentarily to wait for Kohana to dismount from Haimaru-sensei. Kohana took quick stock of their current whereabouts; it appeared that she hadn't been gone for a while. There were little, if any, changes to the type of dirt and trees present. They were barely out of the thick Fire Country forests, but the groves around them weren't as dense as those that encircled Konoha, so that meant they had made significant progress in a single day. Good.

Once dismounted, Kohana giggled when she looked down to see her brother at her feet, thoroughly spooked. As she stooped down to help him up, she couldn't resist teasing him: "You get scared too easily, Naruto. Didn't I tell you I'd be using the formula on your hand?" Behind them, Sugi was laughing so hard she had doubled over from the force of it. Sasuke made a face he only made when he was about to provoke Naruto.

"Yeah, but you could give a warnin' or something, y'know?" Naruto whined. Kohana couldn't spare him any slack; he was all pink from being made fun of by some brat, but because Fume was there, he didn't start hollering at Sugi for finding his little accident hilarious. Endeared, she pinched his whiskered cheeks.

"You gave us all a fright!" Ueda huffed. He had a sickly pallor to him that Kohana could scarcely believe had been caused by her arrival. Was her arrival so appalling that the man ended up looking sick from witnessing it? "I'd thought bandits found us; be more discreet next time!" Now his words were fueled by genuine anger. Beads of sweat had begun to form on his forehead, his neck, and the span of his upper lip. His wife began to pull him away by the arm when he started on Kohana, whispering things to him until he calmed down. Haimaru-sensei, sensing Ueda's hostility, pointedly inserted himself between them. Kohana rubbed the back of his neck in gratitude.

Someone nudged her from the back. It was Sasuke.

"It wasn't that bad," he said quietly, loud enough only for the Haimaru-sensei, Naruto, Sakura, and Kohana to hear.

"That was quick. Did you find us a place to rest, Kohana?" asked Kakashi.

Kohana immediately latched onto the question, angling her body away from the clearly upset Takenaka. "Yeah! I found this clearing. It's small, but it's at least right next to a river and it's not too conspicuous for a barrier ninjutsu. We'll get there just in time until the sun sets." At the back of her mind, Kohana thought about moving all of them quickly to their resting point, but even she understood why that would be a foolish decision in the long run.

Hana grinned. "Oh! Well done, Kohana-chan. We can let Haimaru-sensei and Haimaru-sama lead us there. You can walk with us."

"Okay..."

"Good job, Kohana-chan. This mission might go much more swiftly than I'd initially calculated," Akano remarked from where he stood next to Sasuke. Kohana blushed at the compliment. "I'll continue to try my best." The words sounded foreign on her tongue, but judging by the nod of approval Akano sent her way, he was satisfied with it, and so was she.