Chapter 44: A familiar Scene

On the bustling streets of Konoha, people of all ages wore warm coats and scarves, friends roaming the village, girls going from shop to shop to buy gifts and clothes of the newest fashion, couples and families enjoying the relaxing and peaceful atmosphere of the newly established cafes.

In one such rooftop cafe, a young teenager with long black hair with white streaks, tied into a loose bun and wearing black robes with red highlights, sat at a table for two. In front of him was a black cat with red and blue eyes, sitting elegantly and purring while noshing some tasty fish flavored treats. The boy drank some warm tea as he wore a gentle smile while looking down at the passing shoppers on the street. It was a picture from a fairytale as many young girls often visited this cafe to catch a glimpse of this young man.

A young waitress in a smart suit came to his table and put down a plate with a piece of Pineapple vanilla cake and spoke respectfully, "Would you like anything else sir?" The boy gave her a kind and brilliant smile that struck at the heartstrings of many customers and staff alike as he replied, "No, thank you." The girl went away as the boy started to eat the cake, one tiny forkful at a time.

The sale of that cake went through the roof that day and Shin was all the more richer for it. And This perfect scene continued until an unexpected visitor landed upon the rooftop, "Yo! You seem to be having fun." spoke the white haired man as he squatted on the table Shin was eating at.

Shin put down his fork and gave the man a death stare, "Kakashi, do you have to do that, everytime?" The gleeful ninja casually shrugged, "I have no idea what you are talking about." Shin could feel the smile behind that face mask so he went to the point, the atmosphere was ruined anyways, "Why are you here? Better not be for another free meal." Kakashi looked offended as he replied, "How could you treat your favorite senpai like that?" Seeing Shin's impassive look the white haired man relented and spoke why he was really here, "Hokage sama would like to see you, looks like your vacation is getting cut short."

Shin nodded and got up, Pineapple jumping to his shoulder and Shin put two fingers on his forehead, "See you there." Shin disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a gasping and aweing audience as Kakashi shocked his head, 'Show-off.' before disappearing the same way and achieving a similar effect.

Shin appeared in the middle of the Hokage office where the elders and a nobel from the daimyo's court were present. The nobel was an elderly man with a long beard and an elegance worthy of his station. Unlike most civilians, this man remained unsettled at Shin's sudden appearance but instead started to study him before nodding, "So you are the famous Black cat, I see where you get the name." He looked at Pineapple as he spoke. Soon after, Kakashi also appeared and the nobel bid the Hokage farewell and left the room with him.

After the nobel was gone Hiruzen sat back down on his chair and sighed, turning to Shin, "Shin, I'm sorry to cut your vacation short but Ihave a mission for you." Shin nodded as he received a file from the old man, the information inside surprised him as he looked back at the old man.

Instead of Hiruzen, it was the other elder that offered the explanation, "The Daimyo has ordered that due to the dangerous state of the ninja world, the sannin be called back to the village as soon as possible. Just having one of them back here would act as a deterrent to our enemies and especially this Panda master."

As Shin read through the file Hiruzen spoke up, "The Daimyo expects a swift report which is why I had no choice but to assign this mission to you. You don't have to convince them to come back, as long as you deliver the message, the mission will be considered a success."

Shin nodded and he put down the file, "It's fine, I was getting bored anyways."

Shin left the same day, after leaving a message to Ibuki, and made his way straight to the land of hot springs. His mission was to track down and deliver hokage's message to the two sannin that hadn't betrayed the village and bring back their responses. It was an s-rank mission due to the confidentiality and the possibility of danger since Jiraiya was doing undercover work and that could spell trouble for anyone looking for him.

Shin started with the land of hot springs because there were many gambling dens around the place, including Tanzaku-gai which was a famous gambling den and where she was found.

Shin spent the next week traveling from town to town, searching for the sannin but there he failed to find them. There were many people that knew them and had interacted with them before but no one could tell where they were now. After a week of searching, Shin decided to take a break at a local tea house. It was close to evening so the tea house was nearly full.Listening to the chatter often led to unexpected harvest.

"I'm telling you man! I swear I saw lightning!"

"Yah yah, whatever you say. Last Time you saw a phoenix, today it's lighting, tomorrow it will be a unicorn! Just drink!"

"No way! I told you'd knock her up! You're lucky she has a husband."

"Oh man, I lost all my money! My wife is gonna kill me!"

"Hey did you hear? The legendary sucker went to Zaji's and lost nearly a million Ryo!"

"What!? Damn it! Why didn't I go there today! I just went there yesterday!"

Shin's ears immediately perked up as he quickly finished the tea and left the shop, finding a deserted ally and creating low chakra shadow clones to search the whole town. Shin didn't even have to wait an hour before he found something; three men going around town looking for a blonde with bigboobs(their exact description).

Shin followed them to an inn and saw them get swindled by the woman into lending her even more money than what she previously owed them. 'This is the person that became the 5th hokage.' Shin face palmed. 'But, somehow this all seems familiar, I wonder why.' Shin decided to observe while staying hidden.

Shin followed the pair of women going to a tavern and drinking themselves silly but what really caught his attention was a huge muscular black man that entered the same tavern as her and was introduced by his subordinate as "Raikage-sama". Instantly it clicked and Shin remembered it from one of the countless filler episodes. Shin used his sharingan to observe the man, 'Yup, I can definitely see the exploding bug inside him, sucking away the chakra.'

Shin created a shadow clone to search for the Nokizaru that had planted these bugs inside the Raikage and his team while he waited till morning and saw the black man stand outside like an idiot, waiting for the sleeping Tsunade.

When morning came, Tsunade and Raikage had an arm wrestling match and Shin used his sharingan to observe the duo, taking in every muscle twitch and every chakra movement. His special focus was on the Raikage as he used the famous lightning chakra mode. Shin even used his mangekyou to make sure he didn't miss anything.

*Crack!*

The stone table broke and Tsunade lost her match and agreed to go with A but just before they left, A grabbed a piece of stone from the broken table and threw it straight at Shin who was surprised at the man's perceptive abilities. The stone struck the tree where he was and Pineapple sprang down, hissed at the man and ran away.

The group then left and Shin followed. 'Hm? Guess my clone found them.' Shin created another clone to follow the group while he changed directions towards the rogue ninjas, picking them off one by one, trapping them in a genjutsu using his sharingan. Seeing how easy it was to take care of a group of ninja, Shin sighed in pity towards the ninja world, 'Sharingan is far too powerful and I have more than enough chakra to overpower most ninjas. It's like playing on easy mode; things are fun for a bit but then they start to get boring.'

After dealing with the rouges, he waited for the operations to be done before casually sneaking up on them, just for giggles. A was thanking Tsunade for her help when he suddenly turned and punched at Shin that had just appeared on a broken wall next to them while yelling "I got you now you bastards!"

Shin simply deflected the punch with a backhand and flickered inside the house they were occupying, the punch shattering the wall to pieces. "That's not very nice, even after I took care of those pests for you." Shin tossed a burnt piece of headwear that one of them was wearing.

A was surprised but his men quickly came up to him and revealed Shin's identity, "Raikage sama! That's the Black cat of Konoha! He killed many of our ninja!" A's face twisted in anger as he spoke in a dangerous tone, "You brat! You have some guts coming here in front of me!"

Shin smiled behind his mask but the tone conveyed his glee perfectly, "Who was the one that said, "Let bygones be bygones" just last night?" A halted and the Kumo ninja hesitated, their lives had just been saved by a Konoha ninja a few moments ago when they begged Tsunade to forgive their transgressions and now they themselves were pursuing vengeance.

A took a deep breath as he waved down the other cloud ninjas, "You're right and we owe our lives to a Konoha ninja. But why are you here?!" Shin pointed to the blonde woman, "It's a private affair." A nodded, thanked Tsunade once more and commanded the other ninjas as they disappeared, leaving behind Tsunade, Shizune, Shin and Pineapple that suddenly poked her head out of Shin's robes.

"So, why are you here?" Tsunade asked in her usual smug tone, or maybe Shin just heard it that way. Shin tossed her a scroll as he explained the situation, "You probably don't know but right now Konoha and Kiri are in midst of an alliance talk. If it goes as planned, the land of water will sign an alliance treaty with the land of fire."

Shin's words caused both women to be surprised as the younger woman spoke up, "That's impossible! There is no way the Mizukage will ally itself with Konoha.This has to be a trap." The older woman read through the scroll as she rejected Shizune's conjecture, "Calm down Shizune. I doubt Konoha's top brass can be tricked so easily. What!?" as she came upon a line that spoke of how the 4th Mizukage was killed, she couldn't help but be surprised. Shizune also peered to see what caused her such a surprise.

After reading the scroll, Tsunade sighed while wrapping it up again and throwing it back to Shin, "I know what he is trying to do, you can tell the hokage that I will not be returning to the village." she spoke decisively and Shin could see the younger girl's gloomy face at her words.

Everyone wanted to get her into the village, once the alliance was announced, there would no doubt be an attack and having her there would be better then not having her there."You don't have to come to the village, just the location where the treaty is going to be signed. Having you there would deter many attackers and allow us to leave more jonin in the village for its defense. Besides, City of the Edge is known for its gambling dens, I could even try to get you some spending money."

Shin tried to sweeten the deal and the words gambling and money struck home and she agreed to be at the location at the time when the treaty was signed. Afterwards Shin left to track down the other Sannin.