Dosu's Great Escape

Chapter Eleven: Kabuto

Naruto, Ino, and Hinata were walking back home after a long, long day. The sun was setting now, and Naruto was feeling weird. It had only been a day, but he felt like they were friends. But what had happened was bugging him.

He looked to Ino. "So what do you think is going on here, Ino?"

Ino sighed. "I don't know. But we shouldn't talk about it, Naruto. Remember what Iruka-sensei said?"

"Well yes, but... ah, alright," said Naruto. He wanted to talk about it. The whole thing was just so wrong.

They came to Ino's house, and she slipped her bag off her shoulder. "Well, this is where I break off. Can you guys make it back home on your own?"

"Yeah," said Naruto.

"Don't worry about me," said Hinata.

"See you tomorrow," said Ino.

Then they broke off. It had been a good day in some ways, and a bad one in others. Naruto hardly saw the way home as he got back to his apartment. But when he got there, he found that there was yellow and black tape covering it.

"What's going on here?" asked Naruto. Then he saw the notice:

'By order of the committee of public safety, this apartment is condemned as a safety hazard.'

"Oh, come on!" said Naruto. "You gotta be kidding me!" He turned and stalked back down the steps. Looking up, he saw that clouds were gathering in the sky. It looked like rain, and he was out an apartment. "Well, this is just great! Mizuki-sensei is in trouble. That creep Kabuto is skulking around. And now my apartment blocked!"

"Mizuki?" said a familiar voice.

Naruto looked up and saw Kin and Zaku making their way up to him. Naruto ran up to them. "Oh Kin, Zaku, you're here. Where's Dosu?"

Zaku sighed. "We had some D ranked missions that ran late. Dosu had to deliver some reports to the Hokage. I'm guessing you didn't do much better."

"Yeah, you could say that," said Naruto. "First some creep put a letter on Mizuki-sensei's desk and then when we went to find out who he was, he was getting blamed."

"Note?" asked Kin, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, see, um, see my friend Hinata saw this guy, Kabuto, sneaking around during lunch," said Naruto. "He put a note on the desk, and it had all this weird code. Anyway, we went to find out who he was, and now Mizuki is getting in trouble."

"Did this note have anything special about it?" asked Kin.

"Special?" asked Naruto.

"You know, like, a seal or something?" asked Kin.

Naruto thought about it. "Well, there was this weird snake symbol in the sign of infinity. I guess that was some kind of code. It turned out this Kabuto guy was part of the hospital or something. I dunno." And then he remembered what Iruka-sensei had told him. "Ah, damn, I wasn't supposed to tell you guys that.

"Listen, I need you not to tell anyone."

"Don't worry. We won't," said Kin. "So what happened to your apartment?"

"Oh, it got condemned," said Naruto. "It wasn't dirty at all. Can I crash with you guys?"

"Sure," said Kin, before looking to Zaku. "Zaku-"

"I'll go get some snacks," said Zaku.

"I don't need snacks," said Naruto. "And it looks like rain."