Sai entered the small restaurant with Ino still on his back, her head leaving his shoulder and perking up at the smell of food. The two looked around and spotted their friends to their right and joined them at their table. Ino hopped off of Sai and onto the floor with a thump. She then took a seat next to Tenten as Sai sat next to Neji, who had only just finished gathering names.
"Good morning, Neji. How's the list?" Sai asked as he took the plate of eggs Kosai had held out for him. Neji took a drink of water and set down the glass in front of him as he skimmed through the papers that were spread out on the table. He sighed, placing his head in his left palm as he tapped his pen on the wood.
"There are twenty-six villagers who are leaving. Fifteen are staying here and naming this as a branch of Arashigakure. Twelve of the sailors that Shino came with will get their families and are coming back, adding their families make thirty-two. If we include the sand siblings, Shikamaru, and all of us then that makes..." he paused for a second and counted in his head. "Eighty-six members of Arashigakure."
"More than I would have thought," Shino added.
"I'm not used to seeing this much of your face. It's weird," Ino teased, causing Tenten and Sai to laugh.
"I actually quite like the clothes Lady Iro made for me."
"I didn't mean it that way," Ino chuckled, gaining a small grin from the Aburame. They continued their breakfast in silence until Tenten turned to Ino.
"That girl, Kirai. She hasn't shown up..." she whispered. Ino looked around and frowned.
"Her best-friends died, she's probably still in bed." They continued to converse over the different villagers, telling each other who they'd met. Meanwhile, Shino and Kosai discussed chakra.
"I've never really been good at it, Teacher Iruka–... Iruka always said I had special chakra. Like, I can perform the rasengan but wind isn't my first chakra type."
"Did you ever go through the chakra paper test?"
"Yeah, but it didn't work right," Kosai grumbled as he prodded the sausage link on his plate with a fork.
"How so?" asked the older of the two as he took a sip of coffee.
"Like, I did it, and it got wet and ripped in half."
"So you have affinities for water and wind?" Shino asked, raising a brow as that was something that was common.
"That's what I thought too, 'til it shattered." Shino paused before moving his cup away from his lips.
"Shattered?" he questioned slowly, wondering if he had heard him correctly.
"Yeah, like I dropped glass or something."
"Odd... I've never seen something even close to that before. Are you sure it didn't crumble?"
Kosai shook his head.
"I mean it shattered like I dropped a glass of water on the ground. It even cut me. I got a few scratches on my face and arms." Shino furrowed his brows in thought. Kosai gave a yell of surprise as Inari placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I heard you talking about chakra paper!"
"What the heck!?" Kosai snapped, his teeth sharp as he turned to his friend. Inari held his hands up in surrender as he let out a laugh.
"You're so jumpy! Geez!"
"Don't just come out of nowhere!"
"But do you think chakra paper can be bad? Mine didn't work right either," he stated, looking at Shino.
"Did yours shatter too?" Kosai asked in surprise, having calmed down. Inari shook his head.
"It sort of... fell apart... I don't know. It didn't match any of the descriptions in the textbook."
"Wait, but you had a seal."
"Yeah, I woke up early the day after Sakura removed it and used the piece of chakra paper that I bought a few years ago," he explained. "But like I said, it didn't do what it was supposed to. I guess it was too old?"
"I'm not sure that it expires..." Shino muttered, still thinking about what could have happened. He turned to the others.
"No one would happen to have any chakra paper on them by any chance, would they?" The others looked at him and shook their heads. Shino sighed, "Ah, wait a minute. I'll be right back."
He stood up and walked out the door, going over to the bookstore they had been staying in. He then made his way up to the room Sakura was meant to be staying in as it held the section over chakra. He opened the door and was startled to find Kakashi sitting in a chair, watching over a sleeping Sakura. The older man looked up to see who had entered.
"Hello, Shino," he whispered.
"Where were you two?" Shino asked quietly, as to not wake the pinkette.
"The woods... it's hard to explain..." he muttered, his eye downcast on Sakura.
"Do you know how worried everyone was?"
"She went off on her own to find me, didn't she?"
"I'm talking about you."
The man tore his eye from the sleeping kunoichi to meet with Shino's glasses.
"What...?"
"Even if you weren't my teacher, we were still worried about you. We are here for Sakura and for each other. The others feel the same." Surprise overtook the older man's features. "You also shouldn't worry her like that. I can't even begin to explain how worried she was when Kurama said you were missing."
Surprise changed to guilt as he looked at her.
"It's true." Both men looked to the doorway to find Sai. "When I saw her in the street, she looked the most lost I've seen her in a long time. You mean a lot to her. She'll worry if you just suddenly go and disappear."
"I didn't mean..." Kakashi murmured as he gripped his Arashi headband that was over his left eye. "It's just..."
"I'm not sure why you ran off, but I hope you understand now that we were worried," Shino finished. Kakashi stood up and walked past them into the hall. He stopped at the top of the stairs.
"Follow me."