Finding

Naruto stood very still and listened. But whoever was out there didn't say anything else.

What to do? The smartest thing would be not to answer and wait for the person to go away.

But, he was transformed and no one would be able to tell it was him, so what would be the harm in seeing who was at the door? It was obviously someone who knew him, and that made Naruto curious.

"I heard you in there," the calm voice came again. "Are you hiding from Sakura for some reason? Should I pretend that I did not hear you? If yes, knock once."

An expectant silence followed.

"Oh, right; if no, let me in."

Another silence followed.

Naruto's eye twitched. How was he supposed to ignore that? Besides, they already knew he was there, so it would be better to let the person in than to raise suspicions. Yes.

Squashing his doubts, Naruto walked over to the door and opened it.

The visitor was an older teen boy with jet black hair and eyes, and unnaturally pale skin. He wore a purple long sleeved button-up shirt, with matching purple pants and black sandals. He was carrying a spiral notebook. Naruto could not see a headband, so he couldn't tell if the boy was a shinobi or not. The only thing he was absolutely certain of was that he had never seen this person in his life.

If the boy was surprised or embarrassed to find he'd been talking to the wrong person, he didn't show it. He just looked down at Naruto with his head tilted slightly to the side.

"Oh, excuse me," he said mildly. "I thought this was my teammate's room."

"Teammate?" Naruto echoed.

"Yes. Uzumaki Naruto of Team Kakashi, under the command of Hatake Kakashi. I was under the impression these were his living quarters." The boy's voice never seemed to vary in tone, but kept the same light, vaguely pleasant intonation throughout. It wasn't a monotone, exactly, but it was the same type of artificial lightness one found in instructional videos and public announcements. It was unsettling.

"He... he left on a mission earlier this morning," Naruto said, trying to act normal. "Um, the Hokage is letting me stay here temporarily while some more apartments are being built."

He smiled resolutely through feebleness of his own excuse, but the other boy seemed to accept it.

"I suppose that makes us neighbors then, if only temporarily. My name is Sai," he said with a weird smile that didn't look right on his face. He held out a hand. "It's nice to meet you..." he paused, looking at Naruto very intently.

Crap, I haven't thought up a fake name or anything! Naruto thought frantically. Now he's waiting for me to say something!

"...Stupidface," Sai said finally, and he gave his weird smile again. "I hope that we can be good friends!"

A silence fell. If one listened closely enough, they could hear the snap of his self-control breaking.

"What did you call me?" Naruto bared his fist. "It's no more stupid than yours, with that creepy-ass smile you've got! What's your problem?"

Sai laughed sheepishly, which made him seem a little more human, but only made Naruto more confused.

"No good, huh?" he glanced at Naruto and then away, scratching his cheek. "Maybe Naruto and Sakura were right. I should probably stop trying to give people nicknames."

"Eh?" Now Naruto wasn't sure whether to be angry or not. "Well, whatever it was they told you, I'm sure I agree with them."

Sai dipped his head. "Sorry to bother you." He made as if to leave.

"Wait, um..." Naruto started. Here was a person that didn't know they weren't supposed to tell him anything. If there was any way to get information out of him, Naruto wanted to try it.

"Yes?" Sai said curiously.

"Um... if you wanted to leave him a message, I could pass it on... if I see him, I mean. I don't know when he's coming back," Naruto said.

"It's nothing really important. I was just going to ask him about yesterday when he disappeared from the ramen shop. I'm sure Sakura knows what happened, so I'll just ask her."

"Where is she?" Naruto asked before he could stop himself. He winced internally, hoping it wasn't too odd of a question.

"She's been spending the majority of her time with the Medical Corps lately, though she's probably doing work for Hokage-sama this time of day," Sai said. "Do you know her?"

"Not... not really," Naruto said cagily. "I mean, I know of her, I know who she is, but she doesn't know me."

Sai stared at him for a while. He may have been surprised—his eyes were just a fraction wider, though it was hard to tell—but then the corners of his lips lilted slightly. It was a much fainter but much nicer smile than before.

"Oh. Is this what they call having a boyhood crush? I read about that in here," Sai said cheerfully, pulling a book out of his pocket—and for one horrible second Naruto thought it was Icha Icha— but it was titled Making and Keeping Long-term Relationships. "Although, I'm not sure if she'd be interested in a puny little shrimp like you—" (Naruto's eyebrow twitched; this guy seemed to have a knack for saying inflammatory things in the most pleasant of voices) "—but at least, you're pretty brave for liking someone scary like her."

"Forget I said anything about it," Naruto said loudly.

"Already failing to keep quiet, I see," Kakashi said cheerfully, appearing behind Sai's shoulder.

"Did you find out something?" Naruto asked instantly.

Kakashi gave him his infamous dead-eye look. "You do realize there's almost no chance the message has even reached them yet, right? We only sent it a couple of hours ago."

"How the hell was I supposed to know that?" Naruto grated. "I was just going by what you said! What were you doing, then?"

"Oh, nothing," Kakashi said lazily. "Just got the boss to spring you from your prison cell. You're welcome."

"What? Really? So wait, that means I don't have to stay cooped up in here? How did you manage that?"

"Um..." Sai shuffled to the side to get out from between Kakashi and Naruto. "I'll just... go..."

"Wait." Kakashi caught his arm. "I need to tell you about your new mission. Come in here for a minute."

Looking bemused, Sai allowed himself to be led into the room and Kakashi shut the door behind them. The Copy-nin settled down at the table and Sai and Naruto followed his lead.

"I'll make this quick," Kakashi started. "Right now, I'm heading out in the second wave with my ninken to help with the scouting. In the meantime, we think that it's safe within the village's boundaries—or at least, it's no safer in this room than any other place in the village." he smiled. "At any rate, we still need to be very cautious until the investigation is complete, even if there is no particular point in keeping you in here, specifically."

"I don't understand, Kakashi-sensei," Sai said.

"I'm putting you on the same protection mission I have," Kakashi said. "It will only be C-rank in terms of difficulty, I hope. But it's A-rank or higher in terms of importance to the village—and the level of danger, if it appears. The two of you need to stick together like glue until I get back."

Sai looked at Naruto and then back at Kakashi. "I'm sorry, I still do not understand. I don't think an A-rank is any place for a genin, even if it is easy for the rank."

"He's not going on the mission with you. He is the mission."

"I don't need a babysitter!" Naruto growled. "Who is this guy, anyway? He acts like he's from our class or something, but I don't remember him at all. Is he really on our team?"

"It's a long story, Naruto. Can we just focus here? You need someone competent with you if you're going to be allowed any freedom at all. Get over it."

"Naruto?" Sai said confusedly, staring at Naruto.

"Listen up. And don't interrupt me again, squirt," Kakashi added with a pointed look at Naruto. "Sai, I don't have time to go into the 'why's and 'how's—we don't know all of them anyway—so just go along with it for now. This kid is Naruto." He gestured at Naruto. "Tsunade put a henge on him. The reason for that, and the reason he doesn't know who you are, is because he isn't the Naruto you know. Someone used a kind of summoning or space-time ninjutsu we don't know about and brought him from the past into our time. He is Naruto from four years ago."

Sai's eyes were definitely noticeably wider this time. "That's..." he looked at Naruto.

"Very bad," Kakashi supplied. "They wouldn't do something like that without a reason. Fortunately, it seems they didn't have very good control over where they brought him, because he ended up close to the village and still managed to get here without being attacked."

"Unless that was their intention," Sai pointed out.

"Right." Kakashi sighed. "It's risky, but I'm glad he's not out there. At least here, there are lots of other shinobi around, and he can blend in with the henge. But I need you to stay beside him while I'm gone helping with the investigation." Kakashi's eye crinkled. "Tsunade-sama might be in trouble once the Elders find out, but fortunately, you're a good choice for this mission. You can quickly send information or an SOS to the Hokage if necessary. I will also leave Pakkun with you. I'll reverse-summon him if we find anything out there." Kakashi bit his thumb and went through some seals. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

A pop and a puff of smoke revealed the diminutive pug sitting attentively on the table where Kakashi had slammed his hand down.

"Leave it to me, I'll keep an eye on them," Pakkun said, saluting with a paw.

"Pakkun!" Naruto said happily. "You haven't changed a bit!"

Pakkun looked over his shoulder at Naruto. "You have, though. Are you really that short, or is it just the henge? I don't remember being able to stand eye-to-eye with you."

"That's—! I'm sitting down, and you're on the table!" Naruto jumped up to demonstrate he was still, at least, taller than a dog.

Sai laughed. Naruto shot him a disgruntled look, but didn't retort. It would have been easier to react if the laugh had been distinctly mocking, but it wasn't. It was genuine and warm.

"No, you really haven't changed all that much," Sai said. "Actually, I'm surprised I didn't figure out who you are sooner."

That was certainly discomforting, coming from a complete stranger.

Sai tilted his head thoughtfully. "Though I wonder if at a younger age, you have even less of a—"

"Okay," Kakashi cut in neatly. "Another thing, Sai, is that while this isn't exactly a secret, we want to keep it quiet until a decision can be made by the Hokage and the others. That is also why you're a good fit for this. I doubt it will be necessary, but if anyone asks, he's a survivor from Root that you're mentoring."

"Ah," Sai gave an understanding nod, but Naruto was completely lost. "That is good. It won't be necessary to explain his lack of a background then. The knowledge of most of our true identities died along with Danzo-sama, after all."

"Right. Naruto's personality doesn't exactly fit that, but it's all for the time being anyway, while the higher-ups have their meeting." Kakashi stood up. "By the way, Naruto, before you go out, I have to warn you..."

Naruto sighed. "I'll behave. And I won't run off. I just want to see things and help the village if I can. Even I can tell this isn't a good time to be pulling jokes."

"True, but that's not what I was going to say. Your cover might not fool everyone here. Still, you need to try to act normal, even if you see or hear something that surprises you. Can you do that?"

Naruto nodded cautiously.

"I really mean it," Kakashi said dryly. "You need to stay calm no matter what, or we'll have no choice but to hide you in an underground bunker until Akatsuki goes away. And if Sai tells you to run, or stay out of a fight, you need to do that without complaining."

"You're making me nervous, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said with a quavering laugh. "Is it going to be that risky just to walk around a little bit?"

"Probably not," Kakashi admitted. "But never forget that capturing you is one of Akatsuki's objectives. Don't draw attention to yourself. If they attack the village again in the state we are in, there's a good chance they'll succeed in taking you." He eye-smiled, but his words gave Naruto a chill.

"Okay, okay, I get it," he mumbled.

"Great. We can't keep you in the dark about everything, but... Sai, try to keep him out of anything that's too big to be dealing with right now. He says that he left the night of Tsunade's inauguration, before..." Kakashi didn't finish the sentence, but his hand gave a strange deliberate twitch, like a hand sign, only it wasn't any Naruto recognized. He barely saw it, but Sai looked very grave and nodded.

"Understood," he said.

"Be good and stay out of trouble, you three. Later!" and Kakashi disappeared with a puff of smoke.

"Kage Bunshin," Sai said. "They must have already left."

"Yep." Pakkun raised his paw. "They were ready to go as soon as Kakashi showed up. He didn't even have to give Hokage-sama his puppy-dog look to convince her. They're both so soft on the brat."

Feeling awkward and unsure what to do, Naruto walked over to the trunk and started putting away the clothes he'd pulled out.

"So..." he started slowly. "Why are they sending out a search right now? I mean, what are they looking for?"

Sai watched him impassively, head tilted slightly. "It's safe to assume if someone deliberately brought you here, they would be looking for you. If that person knows where you first appeared, they are probably heading there now. If we send forces there, then maybe we can catch them."

Naruto snapped the trunk closed and stood up fully to frown at Sai.

"What?" Sai asked.

"I'm sorry, I really can't figure you out." Naruto scratched his head. "Are we... friends? In this time, I mean."

"We're comrades."

"We're comrades but we're not friends?" Naruto crossed his arms, unimpressed.

"Hm." Sai shifted uncomfortably. "It's not that. I'm not entirely sure how the friendship thing works. If it makes you feel any better, though, I think the older you would say we are friends. I've been reading up on it," he tapped his pocket, "but I've come to the conclusion that learning will take time."

"Oh." Naruto thought about it. "See, this whole time I've been trying to imagine—figure out what kind of person I am in the future. Not that I mind having more friends, but I don't get you."

Sai shrugged and laid his notebook flat on the table, smoothing the cover. "Back when we first met, I thought it would be easier to interact with people if I put on an act that kept them from caring about me. So actually, you hated me." He started absently flipping through his notebook. Now that it was open, Naruto could see that it was actually a sketchpad, and he walked over to get a closer look. Sai paused on a pastel drawing that didn't look like much of anything, just a swirling mass of different colors. He tapped it with his finger and smiled. "Sakura punched me really good in the face once."

Naruto winced. "Yeah, I know what that's like."

Sai shook his head, closing the sketchpad. "Do you? Anyway, after a while, I decided to drop the act and be myself. So we get along pretty well now," he offered a small smile over his shoulder.

"So you like to draw?"

"Yes. It's also part of my jutsu. I can show you sometime if you want, but aren't you interested in seeing the village?"

"Yeah! What Kakashi-sensei said freaked me out a little bit, but I want to see how things are going after the attack. I didn't see much when we were walking here."

Sai nodded and stood, tucking his sketchpad under his arm. "Is there anywhere in particular you want to go? If you're hungry, they just reopened Ichiraku's not long ago."

Naruto's stomach growled at the thought. He didn't have to ask how Sai knew it would be a tempting offer. Strange, but it was pretty convenient to meet someone that already knew him. "Ahh, now you're talking! I haven't had any lunch yet. It's good to know that Ichiraku's is still around. It wouldn't be right otherwise!"

'Operation: learn about Konoha of the future' was about to begin. It just so happened that the ramen bar was as good a place as any to start.

"I love the new place!" Naruto gushed as he settled in on a stool. "It looks like it's been expanded! Thank goodness the menu is the same, though," he added, looking over one of the signs hanging up.

"Oh? Thanks!" Teuchi looked up from his chopping to smile proudly. "It's thanks to Naruto that I was able to reopen so quickly. He wouldn't rest until Yamato-san made it a priority. What can I get you?"

Naruto's grin was a mile wide. "A large tonkotsu miso with pork cutlets please! Oh, with some eggs too."

"Same for me," Sai said.

"Sure," Teuchi said. He tapped the blunt edge of the knife against his shoulder contemplatively. "Sorry, I don't remember seeing you in here before, kid. What's your name?"

Teuchi had a sharper memory for faces than any ninja. He made it a point to keep a rapport with all of his customers.

"It's—er—um... Shinji," Naruto mumbled out. He glanced at Sai nervously.

"Apologies, Teuchi-san," Sai took over. "He was in Root."

"That group, huh?" Teuchi said with dark understanding. "If it wasn't bad form to speak ill of the Hokage, even just a candidate one..." He muttered and turned around to start his work.

Seeing that it had been so easy to deflect suspicion at the simple mention of Root piqued Naruto's curiosity. Kakashi's lazy attitude had given him doubts, but it really seemed to work.

"What is this Root thing, anyway?" Naruto whispered to Sai behind his hand.

"Later," Sai said.

After they got their ramen, Naruto ate quietly, turned halfway in his seat to watch the street through the open doors of the shop. Plenty of new questions occurred to him while he was sitting there, but he didn't want to ask while Teuchi was working in the background. Pakkun was staring at him none-too-subtly, and Naruto gave him a few pork cutlets from his bowl.

"I wonder if they found anything yet," Naruto said.

"Nothing worth summoning me back, anyway," Pakkun said. "And I don't hear the village sirens going off either, so that's a good sign."

"Maybe it wasn't anyone after all. Maybe it was just a freak accident."

"That seems unlikely," Sai said. He put some coins down on the counter. "You don't have any money on you, do you?"

Naruto made to pat himself down, then remembered that he'd traveled to the future in his pajamas. "Ah—! Crap, I forgot about that. Sorry. I can pay you back if—you think they'll let me pick up a few D-rank missions around the village or something? I should help work while I'm here, anyway."

"It's no problem." Sai counted out the amount for Naruto and put it down. Then he turned and strode out. Naruto trotted after him.

"Would you like to visit Sakura?" Sai asked suddenly.

"Eh? Would that be alright? I mean, I'm not gonna complain if you're suggesting it, but..."

"It should be. I'm not certain, but I believe Kakashi-sensei gave you those warnings because he knew you would want to say hello to your friends. This way. We'll check at the Medical Corps first."

Naruto caught up to him. "If you say so. I want to see how strong everyone's gotten!"

"I can't tell you much about that, since I only joined your team this past year. I do know that Sakura couldn't have started apprenticing under Tsunade-sama until after she became Hokage, so I suppose that might be different."

"Sakura's apprenticed under Tsunade-baachan?" Naruto said curiously. "How so?"

"She's a Medic-nin now," Pakkun said. "Our little Sakura-chan has gotten to be very reliable."

"That's awesome!" Naruto grinned. "But… something confuses me, Sai. I didn't understand when you said I was your teammate, but all that with Kakashi-sensei, and just now, when you said you joined our team this year... are you saying you're really a permanent team member? How does that work, when we've already got our Team 7?"

Sai was quiet for a moment. Pakkun looked up at him, but didn't say anything either.

"Team 7 as it was, a training unit under a jounin instructor, no longer exists. Now we are Team Kakashi, which, while maintaining the structure of the original Team 7, is a regular unit that's subject to adjustments as necessary. For example, sometimes Yamato-taichou takes command of the team instead of Kakashi-sensei. Right now, Yamato-taichou is with the older you on the way to the Lightning Country. With those two gone, and Sakura spending most of her time working for Tsunade-sama, our team is a bit scattered at the moment."

"So where's Sasuke?" Naruto pointed out the obvious omission.

Sai laughed nervously and Pakkun bit him on the ankle. "Oww! Ah, um. I don't think I should really get into what he's doing out there, but the last correspondence with him was near the Land of Iron. I believe you, Sakura, and Kakashi-sensei met with him there not long ago."

"He's on some kind of secret mission? Without us?" Typical.

"Something like that." Sai studied the row of new shops across the street. "I really can't say anything about it. So, why Shinji?"

"Huh?"

"The fake name you gave Teuchi-san."

"Oh." Naruto shrugged. "It was just the first random name that popped in my head. It's the name of some jerk I met on the way here."

"Ah, that makes sense," Sai said without the slightest hint of irony. "I just thought it was funny that you chose that, since it reminds me of my older brother. His name was Shin. And he was in Root, just like I was."

"Again with the Root? What is it?"

"Later."

"You're doing this on purpose..."

Kakashi found it easy to retrace Naruto's steps back to where he appeared. He mostly stayed on the road, after all. Kakashi and his ninja hound Shiba led the way with a small group of ANBU behind them.

When they arrived at the tiny farming village, they held back, hiding in the trees to observe. They already found the place where Naruto had emerged from the woods to look down on it. Kakashi's eye narrowed as he scrutinized the place from up in his tree.

It just looked like a normal, peaceful little hamlet. Most of the residents had left to lend their carpentry and building skills to Konoha. Only a handful remained to tend the crops. They had suffered no collateral damage from the blast that had destroyed Konoha, so there had been no need to stage a cleanup here, nor had there been any reason to keep the Chuunin who was stationed there. It was vulnerable, but not at risk. Until now.

Kakashi touched the microphone on his neck. "There's no one in the fields or on the street. The whole place looks like a ghost town."

"Proceed with caution," Boar's voice sounded in his ear. "I will back you up. Raven and Tiger, stay in the trees and out of sight. It doesn't look like much is going on here, but we won't know for sure until we can make contact with some of the residents."

Kakashi heard the other two give their affirmative and he jumped down from the tree and sprinted through the grass, Shiba bounding beside him easily. He heard Boar behind him, his steps a faint whisper on the ground, surprisingly quiet for a man his size.

Shiba's nose was to the ground. He sniffed along the street and paused beside one of the fields, giving it several sniffs and turns.

"Naruto met up with some people here," the ninken said. He trotted down the street a little more and ambled over some freshly plowed earth toward a house on the edge of the field. "Looks like they went in there," he raised his head to stare at the house.

It was a simple wooden structure like all the others. It couldn't have held more than one or two rooms. Kakashi could see a small tendril of smoke rising from the chimney, which meant someone was home. He strode up to the house and knocked on the front door.

There was no response, but at this point he hadn't really been expecting one. Something here felt very wrong.

"Is there anyone in there?" he mumbled to Shiba. Kakashi's own nose wasn't all that bad, and he knew what it was telling him. Still, it didn't hurt to have a second opinion.

"Yes," Shiba said with certainty.

"How many?"

"Three. No enemies... I don't think."

Kakashi opened the door and walked in cautiously. He saw that the fire in the hearth was really nothing but a collection of cinders. A pot of stew was over it, still warm. He could smell white rice and daikon and beef.

And there were three bodies splayed on the floor. They were lined up all in the same posture: knees slightly bent and their hands tied behind their back. An old man, a young man, and a boy. It looked as if someone had lined them up on their knees and killed them one by one, leaving them slumped over wherever they fell.

Bizarrely, there were no wounds. There was no blood. Poison? Kakashi bent down and sniffed at the abandoned food around the hearth.

"Senpai?" Boar said from the doorway. "Did you find something?"

He came further into the room and saw the bodies. Boar uttered a soft curse under his breath and tapped his radio. "We have three bodies. Move in and search the other houses. If you find anyone, don't move them unless they are still alive and need medical treatment. Prioritize the recovery of any survivors. We will regroup after searching the whole village."

"What do you think?" he asked Kakashi.

"It isn't poison," Kakashi said, standing up from his inspection of the bodies. "There's no scent of it on their mouths or food and there are no puncture wounds from a syringe. We will need an autopsy to be sure, though. The way they are tied up suggests they were restrained and kept alive for a little while before they died. My guess is that someone interrogated them. Maybe they died from some sort of mind-destruction jutsu."

"The enemy could have realized these people had contact with Naruto," Boar theorized. "But it doesn't seem like they were tortured for information. Why would they just kill them outright like this?"

"If they didn't bother with asking..." Kakashi said slowly, "if the method of getting the information itself was the cause of death."

Boar became very still. "We have seen this before... but that's..."

Kakashi drew in a very long breath. "What is going on here?"