10 Interlude 1 - Silver-Haired Anbu

A silver blur raced through the trees with Chakra enhanced speed. The branches barely rustled as they deftly tore through the treetops with each successive hop. Only the light shifting of leaves, and the brief flash of silver hair signaled of anyone passing by.

When the figure had traveled several hundred miles, keeping up his ridiculous pace, they finally tired, and stopped for a break. Their figure basically materialized next to a nearby creek as they hurriedly gathered their things. A water bottle sunk into the river to begin refilling. A couple rations pills were taken and consumed even when it was stated that they were a horrible substitute for any meaningful meal. Finally, then did the figure stop and take a moment to be still.

The person was revealed to be a teen around the age of eighteen. A spiky fringe of silver hair stuck out from the dog mask that covered their face. Their figure was lean with purposeful muscles that set off warning to anyone who knew what to look for, that he was dangerous. Though, the short, straight edged blade could certainly prove the point more.

The teen wore long a black undershirt that stretched all the way to his equally black gloves. His pants were in a similar color scheme, but were held close to his ankles by thick, ink colored wraps. Sandals in, you guessed it, black ordained their feet.

They wore armor as well. A grey, leather vest hung from thick straps on their shoulders, and matched the grey vambraces that covered their forearms.

Anyone who knew of him would certainly plead that they didn't. As the teenager was part of Konohagakure's most feared assassination unit: the Anbu.

They were ghosts with skill unmatched by any Shinobi, and were ruthless in carrying out their orders. If death had a face, then most Shinobi from any village would say the Konoha's Anbu were most likely it. They had come to know the fear that even a single member of the Anbu wrought.

And this Anbu was furious.

Kakashi Hatake, or Kakashi of the Sharingan as is the name he is most commonly feared by, was a man, or teenager, on a mission. He had stopped several times during his journey due to exhausting his Chakra reserves if only to speed up his travel. One visible eye burned as he hadn't even slept a wink since he had heard the news.

Naruto Uzumaki, the nine-tails Jinchūriki, had been somehow kidnapped along with some heiress from the Hyūga clan. Honestly, Kakashi didn't really care about her too much, but he had orders to bring them both back. Though, those orders came long after he had departed.

All Kakashi knew was that he had failed his mentor. In the back of his mind he noted that he had broke another promise. No one else took the kidnapping of Naruto harder than him, or maybe the Hokage.

He had asked to be assigned to watch Naruto sooner, but, as an Anbu, his orders were absolute. And he was supposed to be protecting the Hokage right now with all the tension between the Kumo-Konoha peace treaties. Kakashi told them all to go screw themselves before he left to find his mentor's only child.

He had been told that the treaty was actually going along quite well as Kumogakure had kept pushing for peace. Though, Kakashi knew it was only to stop retaliation from kidnapping one of Konoha's most vaunted clansmen. The Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was rather reluctant in finally accepting.

Kakashi had little to no experience in politics, but he was smart enough to tell when the Hokage was backed into a corner. The enraged Hyūga clan really didn't help, and Kakashi could only glean some second hand information that the clan leader had been on house arrest from trying to detain and torture a Kumogakure foreign dignitary. As the choices were between losing relationships with one of the main clans, or starting a war that Konoha's still greatly wounded forces couldn't hope to survive, the Hokage was most definitely backed into a corner.

Kakashi decided then and there that he would never become Hokage. Too much stress.

To make matters worse, Kumo had just gained access to another tailed beast in the form of Naruto. From information, they had already gotten two of them, but if they gathered a third then they would effectively be the most powerful village in the entire Elemental Nations.

Of course, that was only one of the reasons why Kakashi had been after Naruto.

Kakashi, getting up from his small rest, quickly packed up his gear before running his hands through a series of signs. A thrum of Chakra spread through his body, and he molded it to fit his needs. His palms smacked into the ground as symbols spread out from the impact.

Suddenly, a loud pop echoed in the quiet forest as smoke was conjured as a side effect of imperfect Chakra control. Still, Kakashi's Jutsu didn't need perfect control as the cloud cleared to reveal his helpers.

Dogs of all species and size huddled around the teenage Anbu. They all were wearing matching vests that had a face-shaped design squared promptly on the back. some even wore headbands with Konoha's symbol proudly on display, a leaf that looked more like a spiral.

"Have you found any of their scents?" Kakashi asked, his voice level. He was always calm even when broiling mad.

A small pug, sitting on a larger dog's head, snapped up into attention. "We found traces, but probably not the best to go on…"

"What is it then, Pakkun?" Kakashi queried. He wasn't in the mood to play word games, and his voice probably cracked out harder than it should have. Or it was puberty. Kakashi despised puberty.

"It's…" the pug, Pakkun, paused before sighing. "We all found the trail; it wasn't actually hard to track. They moved along a well known merchant route from the Land of Tea of all places, so we basically just followed the road. My guess is some fresh Chūnin, or extremely incompetent Jōnin."

Kakashi nodded, this is what he liked to hear. Something easy where retrieving Naruto wouldn't be too much of a hassle. Then cynicism hit, "What's the bad news then?"

Kakashi almost felt his heart stop when Pakkun didn't speak for a bit. It didn't actually stop, Kakashi had trained to do that himself, but he certainly felt like he gained a year or two of stress in the silence.

"Around the border of the Lightning Country and the Fire Country there were… oddities."

Kakashi motioned to continue. He loved his summons, he truly did, but right now he wanted to strangle Pakkun for taking so long.

"Naruto-boy's scent basically was everywhere when we found the place." Pakkun started, pointing a small, furry paw at two other dogs. "They said it was like he was blown up and scattered several times over, and, from all the blood we scented as his, it was a fairly reasonable guess. That is until we found the bodies."

"Pakkun, I'm going to ask you this just once." Kakashi interrupted, taking a moment to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was the picture of calm and collected. Or as close to he could get without killing someone. "Explain things faster."

"Right, sorry boss. Anyways, there were quite a few bodies of samurai that we suppose were guarding the merchant caravan, but there were four bodies of Kumo-nin. One in particular, 'One-slash' Onikaze. An A-ranked Jōnin."

Kakashi pursed his lips at the new information. The fact that there were four dead Kumo-nin was a plus in his books concerning the kidnapping. However, that led to why there were samurai even fighting them, or how Naruto and that Hyūga girl had escaped. The dead Jōnin was just another tick of information that didn't quite sit well with him.

Three year olds and samurai alone could not have handled a Jōnin by themselves. Especially, if that one was ranked pretty high up in the bingo books.

"Did you find any traces of Naruto or a Hyūga nearby?" Kakashi had an idea of what was going on, but he would like his gut to be wrong.

Pakkun solemnly nodded. "Yes, many actually, but they suddenly disappear on and off like they are suddenly getting better at hiding. We used traces of Chakra in the air to track Naruto-boy's pretty distinct Jinchūriki Chakra all the way here. Now, however, it's like he suddenly doesn't have Chakra then does. The traces are too hard to follow."

Kakashi's gut feeling hit harder as a horrible thought came over him. "Did you find any traces of someone else with them?"

The dog summon nodded once more, this time even it appeared to be having the same terrifying feeling. "Yes, we found quite a bit of someone else's trace when we were checking the bodies of the Kumo-nin. It was actually rather similar to Naruto-boy's, but…"

"Pakkun." Kakashi's eyes narrowed underneath his mask.

"Sorry, sorry, it was just that I had scented something that I could only describe as wrong."

"Explain."

Pakkun didn't look like he wanted to explain. The dogs that Pakkun had pointed to either were also whining loudly in compliant. Kakashi had a headache as he was putting his thoughts together.

This situation had only happened one other time.

"Orochimaru…" Kakashi growled, losing a slight bit of his cool.

His dog summons were one of the peak tracking summons, and he had been once tasked to find the recent traitor Sannin, Orochimaru. It was only about a year of so ago when the Hokage had discovered the insane man's bloodline research; though, finding that out when said man was elbows deep in someone else's chest cavity was certainly not a pleasant thing.

As for that mission, halfway through the hunt, the snake bastard had developed something that not only confused his ninken's senses, but also made them actively find the scent extremely wrong like it was as if a corpse had come back to life or something.

"There's a possibility it's him, boss." Pakkun supplied, unhelpfully.

Kakashi ground his teeth. There was little he couldn't do. He was a genius, after all, but the snake Sannin could easily manhandle him like an adult fighting a toddler. However, if that man had Naruto…

Kakashi sighed, his tension falling to a more relaxed posture. He really needed a break. Maybe he should try those books that he was recommended?

He pressed his mask closer to his face. That would be for later.

Now, though, he had a duty to fulfill. "Do you know where they might be heading towards?"

"Yeah that's easy," Pakkun bragged, puffing out his small chest. "If they stay on track, then they should be headed towards the Wind Country."

Kakashi dipped his head in thought. If he was Orochimaru, and said man had taken the children, then why would he go to a place where Konoha was allied with? Was it a false lead?

Or was something else there?

"Thank you, Pakkun. I'll take it from here till I need you guys again." Kakashi had a lead, and he would be relentless.

The dogs then went up in smoke as the Jutsu sent them back. He wasn't too sure where they went, but Kakashi would find out later.

With a place in mind, and a rested body, the silver haired Anbu got on towards Wind Country. He would even go so far as to request to see if their allies in Sunagakure could help. It would certainly spurn the feelings of them being partners, too.

Hell, he felt like he should be a politician from that thought alone.

He had failed in saving his most precious friends once, but he won't fail in saving his mentor's son. He won't lose another family.

There was a reason why they sent him to be the tracker. And Kakashi was either going to be leading the children home, or leading the Hyūga into the assault against Kumogakure.

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So here's a link to the map of the Elemental Nations that I'm using. In case that helps stir some geographical bone...

https://www.deviantart.com/xshadowrebirthx/art/Elemental-Nations-Geographical-Map-317422439