Chapter 4
By the time Sasuke wakes up, Roushi has invented pancakes from first principles, and Gaara has invented burnt pancakes. He apologizes and eats the burnt ones while Sasuke goes to open the window to let out the smoke. It’s not soon enough, though, because Itachi wakes up with a coughing fit that makes it sound like she’s going to vomit up her lungs. Gaara guiltily leaves the apartment to sit on the steps outside.
Itachi comes out to tell him in a raspy voice that she’ll be all right, but she looks tired. Gaara tells her what happened to Utakata, and then she looks exhausted. “I’m very sorry, but I think you will have to leave. It would be too risky for the village if you and Roushi stayed here. I’ll ask to have Fuu suspended from active duty to keep her out of danger, but perhaps you can contact Naruto. Isn’t his team training with Jiraiya of the Sannin?”
Gaara has no idea whether this is true. Itachi is the spymaster, not him. He shrugs, and nearly drops into a trance before hesitating. He hasn’t seen Naruto or the nine-tails in mindspace at all, and from the fact that Naruto doesn’t call his bijuu by name it’s likely that they don’t trust each other enough to enter it yet. “Can I borrow one of your crows? I don’t know if I’ll be able to contact them the normal way.”
“It will take a long time to find him from the air,” Itachi warns him. “But I’ll tell Suchi to check Konoha first, in case he went back already. She’ll have to search for his chakra.” She tries and fails to suppress another coughing fit, hunching over her legs. When she sits up again her eyes are watering and her face is flushed.
“Are you… all right?” asks Gaara.
“The medic nin are working on it,” she murmurs. “There’s no need for you to worry. But you should start getting ready to send your letter and go. I’ll summon Suchi for you and then go to inform Shibuki-san of the threat Akatsuki poses.”
Itachi leaves without eating, and her crow sits on Shisui’s head while he’s making pancakes that are actually edible. Gaara sends her off with his message: Naruto, have you felt anything strange recently? Han and Utakata have been captured or killed by an organization called Akatsuki. Roushi and I are going to start looking for you in Fire Country. If you can, leave a note in mindspace telling us where you are. Watch out for ninjas in black cloaks with a red cloud pattern. –Gaara.
He and Roushi leave as soon as Fuu finishes making them promise to stay safe. Gaara carries them both on his sand because it takes very little chakra, comparatively, and they go toward Konoha. Because they’re travelling as the crow flies, so to speak, Suchi will know where to find them if she gets a reply from Naruto.
Surprisingly, though, Son Gokuu finds Naruto before the crow does. “Son can feel his chakra,” says Roushi suddenly, on the second day. “He can’t be more than an hour east of here.” Gaara doesn’t feel either Naruto or the nine-tails, but that’s not surprising. Shukaku is no sensor.
They land near the border of Fire Country with Rice Country, where Naruto’s team seems to be passed out in a field. Nearby an old man is writing something on a scroll, but he jumps to his feet when he sees them. “What do you want?” he says loudly. “You don’t want to mess with me. I’ll have you know that I’m the Sage of Mount Myo—”
“We know who you are, Jiraiya-san,” says Roushi with a long-suffering look. “We came to talk to Naruto about the attacks by Akatsuki members.”
Jiraiya straightens up and frowns. “Who’s being attacked by Akatsuki members? And who the hell are you?”
“To answer both of your questions,” says Roushi, “jinchuuriki. They’ve already taken two missing-nin jinchuuriki. The two of us are probably the next on their list, and then they’ll start coming after the ones who are out on missions. Like Naruto.”
“Dammit,” mutters Jiraiya. “It’s impossible to get good intelligence on Akatsuki. So this is what they were planning? OI, NARUTO. GET YOUR LAZY BUTT UP AND COME OVER HERE.”
From ten meters away, hidden by the tall grass, Naruto can be faintly heard saying, “Whaaaat? You said we could take an hour-long break!”
“SOME FRIENDS OF YOURS SHOWED UP AND THEY SAID SOMEONE’S TRYING TO KILL YOU.”
“Geez, all right, I’m coming.” His head appears in the stalks of grass and he comes over, rubbing his eyes. “Oh, Gaara! And, uh, you! What’s going on?”
“Roushi, four-tails.” He sounds put out that Naruto doesn’t know him, although as far as Gaara knows they’ve never met. “Have you noticed a feeling of loss recently?”
“Yeah, every time Pervert Sage makes me skip breakfast. What, you mean like, a magic feeling? Not really.”
“How long have you been training this boy?” Roushi turns an accusing glare on Jiraiya. “You still haven’t taught him to talk to his bijuu properly? Even when I hated mine I could talk to him. We could get so much more done if he could meet us in mindspace.”
“Why would I be the one to teach him to talk to a bijuu?” asks Jiraiya, looking sullen. “I’ve been trying to teach him how to keep it from killing him. Or me.”
“I’m right here, you know,” says Naruto. Roushi and Jiraiya ignore him, apparently more interested in getting into an argument.
Gaara approaches him and says quietly, “While they’re arguing, can I ask whether you’ve ever spoken to the nine-tails?”
“Uh, yeah, I guess. He really doesn’t like me, though. And he’s kind of creepy.”
“Remember who my bijuu is? If Shukaku and I can become friends, I have no doubt you can make peace with the nine-tails.”
“Well, maybe. What’s this mindspace thing? That sounds kinda cool.”
Gaara looks over at Roushi and Jiraiya, who look a few seconds away from coming to blows, and then at Naruto’s teammates, who have finally gotten up to see what’s going on. He sighs. It seems they’ll have plenty of time to talk about it.