"Dad! I'm heading over to Tenten's now! Bye!" Ino informed as she left through the front door of her family's flower shop, hearing him call back from behind her as the door shut. She made her way down the street and looked around at the people going about their days.
"How can they be this happy when people have gone missing?" she asked herself. Deciding to stop thinking about it, she gave a sigh and began her run to Tenten's home.
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"So you're saying that you and Tenten aren't going out?" Shino asked, earning a shake of his friend's head. He and Neji were waiting for Tenten's house to begin to burn, as that was what they had decided upon for a signal to depart. The group had decided to leave the day before Kurama returned because, for some of them, one more day would be torture.
"No, we are not," the Hyuga confirmed. "We actually went on a date once, but we decided we weren't a match. It only stayed in a friendly atmosphere. We have more of a best friend thing."
"Interesting."
"It may sound harsh, but I can't imagine the guy she'll end up with."
"Why's that?"
"You didn't hear this from me. But whenever we go on missions, she will always check-out the men we come across." Shino stifled a laugh. "But she's shy whenever she gets hit on, so she's rather weird."
"That's true friendship right there," the Aburame teased before they both spotted the house glow.
"That's the signal. I'll see you in the Land of Waves," Neji whispered before they both moved from the tree, Neji himself heading for the east side of the village. He reached the wall before quickly scaling it, jumping off into the trees upon reaching the top. He did not take any time to rest as he took to the trees, darting away from the village.
They had split up to make it harder on the tracking shinobi. If they were to run into opponents, they were on their own. After going through all the possible issues, they had decided upon each taking a highly different route. Ino went southeast and Tenten, southwest. They would later meet up and make their way directly to the Land of Waves. Neji, on the other hand, would at first go south and later turn southeast, heading to the Land of Noodles. He would then make his way north by boat. Shino went northwest to throw off the tracking shinobi if he had any. After losing them, he would head to the Land of Hot Springs and island-hop down to the Land of Waves. In conclusion, were the plans to go smoothly, Neji would be the last to arrive.
Activating his doujutsu, he searched the surrounding area. He counted three shinobi and two dogs on his trail about three-hundred and forty meters away. He quickly searched for a body of water ahead of him, finding one just on the outstretches of his sight, that being around eight-hundred meters. After what seemed like a few minutes, he reached the river and landed on the water's surface before he dropped himself into a shallow area, the liquid reaching his waist. Climbing back onto its surface, he began to run eastbound. He counted himself to be lucky as the river was running in the direction he needed to go.
A few minutes later, upon checking on the whereabouts of the shinobi, he found they had gone south across the river.
"I've lost them. Good." He relaxed his pace, prioritizing chakra to his eyes over his feet for the time being.
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A week had passed by the time Neji reached the border of the Land of Noodles. He had stopped by a village to restock on food and ask around for a fishing village.
"Shino should be island hopping by now, and the girls should already be there..." he mumbled to himself, picking out some oranges from a pile in a small food shop. After purchasing them, he asked the clerk about a place he might find a boat to take him north. He learned there was a small village not far to the east that frequently took people to the Land of Waves. He thanked the clerk and exited the building to be met with people looking at the roof above him. Upon activating his byakugan, he let out a sigh. He turned to a woman who was standing just next to him and asked if she could hold onto his bag for a moment before he jumped up to the roof.
He held back a sigh of irritation as he came to look upon Rock Lee and Might Gai. The two were whispering about youth as they always did, though the whispering was more of a talking volume. Granted, that was not new either. They finally spotted the other man and their eyes visually bulged out of their heads.
"How did he find us, Teacher Gai!?" Lee shouted.
"I'm not sure Lee, but we must take him back to the village now!" the older man responded.
"But Teacher! How can we defeat him quickly!?"
"Lee, you have a way to go. Isn't it obvious? With the power of youth!" Gai exclaimed, tears forming in his eyes.
"Oh, Teacher Gai! You're right! I still have so much to learn!" Lee yelled, crying. They embraced each other, oblivious to Neji as he approached them. In one swift movement, he blocked all of their chakra points and they fell to the ground. He made a point to hit the ones near their mouths, making it so they would cease to annoy the population for the time being. He reverted his eyes and gave a sigh of annoyance.
"Imbeciles." Dropping off the roof, he landed next to the woman who had agreed to hold his bag for him, thanking her and taking it back. He turned to the crowd that had gathered. "If they ask where I've gone, please tell them I went west. These creeps have been chasing me for weeks, and I've only now gotten the opportunity to attack them."
The crowd nodded unanimously before they went back to what they were doing.
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Around the same time, Shino sat on a small fishing boat that had been headed directly to the Land of Waves. The ship would soon be arriving at the port. The man sat on a crate watching the water go by when he heard orders beginning to be shouted from different parts of the vessel. A few men rushed by him and he stood, catching another one by the arm as he felt the ship begin to turn.
"What's happening?" the shinobi asked.
"The village, it's burning!" the fisherman yelled as he pointed in the direction of the island. He turned his eyes to see pillars of smoke and flames from the settlement that could be seen from where they were.
"So you're turning around?"
"That means it's probably under attack! We would love to help them, but we can't!"
"Tell your captain to keep heading there. I'll take care of the attackers and when you get there help me find all the survivors." After a moment, he nodded and ran away. Shino jumped over the side of the boat and landed on the water before darting toward the island.
As he grew closer, he could sense that there were shinobi in the village. He released some chakra-draining beetles and began heading along the coast to a tall house that sat next to the water. There were many chakra signatures in the building and he began moving faster as a wall of the house blew out. As he grew closer, he heard yelling from the inside, the voices sounding panicked. He forced himself to go faster in the last stretch and came to a halt upon reaching the large hole in the wall.
He quickly analyzed the situation; seeing a woman being backed into a corner by two men, a boy being held by another, and an old man being held by two. As the boy yelled for the men to leave his mother alone, Shino created a shadow clone.
"Com'on kid, we just wanna' have a little fun," the man holding him cackled. Shino's clone shot at the man holding the boy and he himself jumped at the two going after the woman. Upon being released, the teen ran at the two holding the old man at the same time Shino did. The two men were dispatched, clearly not having been too skilled. Shino noted that the boy was pretty quick with a kunai and wondered where he had gotten the one he had used. When the old man was released, he ran over to the woman who was sat in the corner crying, obviously shaken from the experience.
"Tsunami!" he cried, bringing her into a hug which she reciprocated. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I couldn't protect you! What kind of father am I!?"
Shino looked at the boy who was much more collected than the other two. The Aburame made note of this, seeing great potential for him if he ever wished to be a shinobi.
"What's happening here?" the newcomer asked. The boy quickly bowed in thanks and looked up, only for his expression to grow angry as his eyes landed on the man's forehead protector.
"Why are you here?!"
Shino's brow furrowed in confusion.
"What?"
"We don't need Konoha's help!" he shouted, becoming defensive. His words clicked in the young man's mind. Reaching up, he used his kunai to put a slash through the symbol for the Leaf Village. The teen looked at him in surprise.
"Thank you for reminding me. I defected from Konoha to meet with a friend. Do you happen to know if a pink haired woman has been around this area?"
"You're one of Sakura's friends?" the younger male asked, skeptical.
"You know her then. Kurama sent us a letter—"
"Oh, alright," he nodded, believing him. "Well, her and the others went to Arashijima two weeks ago. They said they'd be coming back about now."
He shook his head. "But we have a big problem right now!"
He pulled something from his pocket and handed it to the older male. Shino looked down to find a green headband with a forehead protector engraved with a star. "You said you're here to join Sakura, right?"
The young man gave a nod. "Then welcome to Arashigakure. Questions can wait 'till later. I'm still a shinobi in training, so I'm probably gonna' need your help to take out the bandits."
"Right." Shino gave another nod and replaced his old protector with the one he had been given. "Let's go."
As they turned to get the other two out of the house, the man the boy had taken down began forming hand signs as he stood.
"Get out, now!" Shino yelled, jumping over to the two in the corner and breaking down the sliding doors that were just next to them. The man let out a yell, completing the jutsu he had been performing.
"Fire Style! Great Beyond!"