Secrets out pt. 2
Later that same night
Everyone left the restaurant in silence that night, not wanting to talk about what had just happened. A simple misunderstanding turned out to be not so simple after all, leading to a small fight to break out between Gaara and his former siblings. However, E and Raza were able to keep both sides from killing each other, while Shikamaru, Naruto, and Hinata managed to talk Gaara out of doing anything that would blow their cover. Haku, also trying to keep the peace, noted that the Kazakage didn't take his eyes off of Gaara since they got to the restaurant. Haku took note of Raza's interest in Gaara as soon as they entered the village. He wasn't sure if the others had noticed it yet, but since this confrontation occurred, it might be time to let them know. As they were all leaving the restaurant, he noticed something else out of the ordinary. It seemed that Temari and Konkuro noticed something about Gaara, he wasn't sure what they knew, but he knows that it couldn't be good for them. Back at the hotel, Haku called everyone into one of the hotel rooms that they were using to talk.
"Haku? What's up?" Hinata asked as they all sat around the room.
Haku had a thoughtful look on his face as he spoke, "they know something," was his simple answer.
No one in the room, save for Shikaku, had to ask what he meant by that, they knew what he meant. "What do you think they know?" Naruto asked from his spot next to Gaara, "I mean, it must be something big, and it has to involve Gaara."
"What makes you say that, Naruto?" Shikaku asked.
"Isn't it obvious? They must have gotten some news about Gaara from somewhere and want to confirm what they know." Naruto stated, "I noticed it when we entered the village and met up with Bake again, he must have seen Gaara that one time before half of his face was burnt off. I think that when he got back to the village back then, he would have told the kazakage, and then the Kazakage would most likely have tried to put two and two together. If that's the case," he took in a deep breath and held up his fox mask, "then I'm not sure that this mask that we had behind will cover us anymore. If word got out that Gaara's been in Kumo all this time, then how long until people from our villages start asking questions? How long until our so-called parents start to come looking for us just to drag us back home to the same thing that we ran away from?" He looked up at the rest of the people in the room, "we're walking on thin ice here guys."
Hinata nodded, "Right, I don't think that we can stay very long here. As Naru-chan said, we're cutting it pretty close," she sighed, she looked a little tired when he did so. Her skin looked a little pale, rather than it's usual light tan she got from the ritual a few years back, "and then there's the case of a hunter ninja following us since we left the border of the lightening country.
"What! Did you notice them too? I thought I was just seeing things out of the corner of my eyes again," Shikamaru blurted out. Realizing what he just said, and who was in the room, he quickly covered his mouth.
This caught both Shikaku's and E's attention, Kurama had his doubts about Shikamaru, but his comment confirmed it. "What do you mean by, 'again'? Was Kurama's calm answer, Shikamaru looked away from his new mother figure's eyes, refusing to answer the question. Kurama narrowed his eyes, "we'll talk about this later," Shika knew that there was no escaping this and just nodded with his head down. Turning back to everyone else, he said, "Hina-chan? You look tired, you haven't been overusing Peek-a-Boo have you? You know you still need to build up a tolerance for it to use it for longer than twenty-four hours, dear."
Hinata nodded, "yes mama, I know, but still, I couldn't take my eyes off of them. Not even for a second," she insisted, and..." she trailed off to take out the mentioned camera from her bag, "we caught something a few days ago."
"You caught something? On Peek-a-Boo?" Gaara asked, "you mean the new system I installed worked?"
Hinata nodded, "yep," she said as she moved closer to the center of the room. A few days before everyone had left Kumo to come to suna, Gaara and Hinata were working on a way for them to capture pictures on and videos on Peek-a-Boo. Pictures and videos that would show up clearly while using the night vision and inferred settings of the camera, however, since they had only just come up with it, the system was imperfect. To take a picture, the user had to have a clear shot of the thing or person(s) that they were trying to take a picture of. To do this, and not get caught, the user, if they had the byakugan, they could just channel chakra into their eyes and then the camera. The camera, since it wasn't directly facing the target, would need twice as much chakra than normal before it could take the picture, for a video, it would be about three or four times as much chakra. Since the video is longer than just a split second picture, the user would need either large chakra stores and one soldier pill, or lots of stamina, three solder pills, and half a day's rest to take a video longer than three to four minutes. This process of chakra draining is dangerous because, like the shadow clone Jutsu, it draws upon a lot of chakras and could kill someone with less than jonin chakra levels. With that in mind, even though Hinata and the other's did get a chakra boost from Kurama during the ritual, using the video setting on Pee-a-Boo takes a little more than half of that for a three-minute video.
"How long have you had this setting on, Hina-chan?" Haku asked worriedly, he stepped closer to her when he noticed a sway in her step.
"I'm fine, I've had it on and off since we left the border," Hinata held out the device for all to see.
Shikaku took a look at the camera, "wow, it's just as Shikamaru described it," he said.
"Here, this is the video that I was able to get on the way over," she tapped a button on the back of the camera and pointed the lens upward. Without warning, a hologram shot up from the lens, widening itself, it showed three figures, one was tall with a dog mask, the other two were medium to average height. The last one was of average height, one wore a snake mask, he other wore a bear mask, all three had on the leaf's ANBU uniform. "They're from Konoha, I can tell from their clothing because I had seen some of the Hyuuga's from the main branch wearing them before I left that day."
"Hmm, so this means that Minato must have had a lead or something on your eyes before he even sent me. Huh..." Shikaku looked at the holographic images moving ever so silently across the terrain, hopping from trees and blending in with the shadows. The perfect depiction of what a true ninja was meant to be in the field, when suddenly, Shikaku pointed to something in the corner of the playing image. There, just to the upper corners of the video, there was another person following the hunter ninja from Konoha, "we've got extra company, other than just those three."
He drew everyone's eye to the extra image on the screen, he was tall with shaggy black hair, a jonin vest, a slanted headband that they couldn't make out which symbol was on it, and the lower half of his face were wrapped in bandages. "Who even is that? Who's village is he from?" Naruto asked, staring contently at the figure that followed the Konoha ANBU.
"His clothes," Haku started, squinting his eyes as if that would make the image better.
"Do you know this person, Haku?" E asked.
Haku shook his head, "no papa, I don't, not really. But...but his clothes," he pointed to the person when they came more into view, "there, I've seen those bandages before."
"You sure?" Gaara asked.
Haku looked at the video a moment longer before nodding, "yeah, it's from the mist. I've seen it plenty of times to know it by now-and that face."
"What about it?" Naruto asked, "do you know it?"
"No, I don't know it, but I have seen it before." Haku looked around the room, "before I left my village, there was a story I had heard long ago, maybe when I was four or five. It scared me back then, still gives me the chills now sometimes."
"What was the story?" Hinata asked.
"It was of a boy who had passed the village's graduation exam, back then, the only way to become a ninja in that village, you had to kill all of your classmates. Mostly, there wouldn't be a lot of people who could do the exam, but there was one. This one boy took the exam and passed it with flying colors." Haku shivered, "his name was Zabuza Momochi," everyone in the room, mostly the kids, gasped at the mention of the name.
"But, what could the demon of the mist want with us?" Naruto asked slightly panicked.
"I don't know what he could want, but I think I know what he would want," Kurama stated as he walked over to Hinata. He took the camera and turned it off, "we've got some heavy hitters coming at us and hard, who don't know when they'll strike. Where they'll make their first move, what they'll do to get it, or even what their initial order was, but-" he turned hard eyes onto the room, "either way, whether we like it or not, we've got a fight on our hands. A fight that could mean life or death, depending on how the thing plays out, so tomorrow, I say we train as much as we can, whenever we can."
"I agree," E spoke up for the first time since they entered the room, "I may have been the rikage, but even I know my limits. Tomorrow, just like Kurama said we'll be training for the unexpected, try to get some rest tonight and be ready for the day ahead. Especially you, Hinata, Gaara, you need the rest the most. Understood?"
"Hai!" Said Naruto and the others, saluting on reflex.
"Good," turning to Shikaku, "you are more than welcome to join us if you like. I would hate to shorten your reunion with your son during your stay here."
Shikaku smiled a small smile, "well, don't mind if I do, who knows, maybe I could teach them a thing or two myself."
Kurama chuckled, "sorry, but I think they may be the ones teaching you a thing or two tomorrow."
Shikaku was curious about what the red-headed fox demon meant by that, but he guessed that he would have to wait and see. Until then, they all wished each other good night and went their ways. Shikaku went down to his room, four floors below the one he was just on, and made his way to his room. When he got there, he was about two doors down from his own, when he felt someone else's chakra up ahead, it was a familiar one, Kakashi's. It was in this moment that Shikaku realized how much time he had spent with his son and the others, hoping that the Hatake would be asleep by now, he cautiously opened the door. He looked around the darkroom, trying to see if his mission busy was in his bed, however, he didn't have time to check when the door shut behind him. "Hello Shikaku, is there something that you would like to tell us?"
TBC.....