Ninetails 44

No walk with Naruto ever stayed silent for too long.

"So, what the hell is up with the Sasuke situation?" Naruto asked in annoyance. 

"I'm guessing you're not happy he's still on the loose," Kakashi said with a frown. "If it helps, neither am I?"

"Kakashi, I'm not stupid. I know a lot of details can't be shared over messenger birds and scrolls. So, while we're walking, could you fill me in on how he managed to get away?" Naruto asked with a slight growl in his voice.

Kakashi sighed deeply. "It wasn't him."

Naruto paused, glancing up at his forehead. "Hmm?"

Sasuke didn't get away on his own. Someone broke him out and got him away," Kakashi paused, glancing out on the open sea. "It's being kept on the need-to-know, but Jiyaiya and others believe a teleportation Jutsu was used, leaving us to follow a false trail set up in advance." 

Naruto remained still for a moment before continuing his walk across the waters. "Are those jutsu rare or something?" he questioned curiously.

"That's a complicated question," Kakashi said with a sigh. "The textbook kind of complicated. Most jutsu don't teleport so much as travel at high speeds. True teleportation? That's rare. The summon jutsu counts as one, but it's very...specific about how it can be used." 

Naruto hummed in acceptance. "Alright, someone pulled some weird powers to take him somewhere you couldn't find easily. And there's been no sign of him?"

"No, and that's the strange part," Kakashi said in agreement. "It seems like he hasn't gone for Sound, unless he was taken directly to Orochimaru."

"Right, I can see how this throws everything off," Naruto grumbled. "But if the snake fucker could do that, I think that invasion he had with Sand would have gone a lot worse."

Kakashi tilted his head. "A good point. I didn't think you'd realize that so fast."

"Look, the instant you said what kind of jutsu, I was imagining Orochimaru having it," Naruto explained with a shiver that caused some small waves around him.

"I'm guessing you haven't seen any sign of him?" Kakashi asked, almost rhetorically.

"...."

Kakashi blinked. "Naruto....?"

"Shut up for a second, sensei," Naruto said as he slowed to a halt. "I haven't, for the record, but....."

Kakashi was on edge as Naruto seemed to grow uneasy about something. His ears twitched, his eyes narrowed, and his snout kept sniffing at the air.

"I think I see the boats," Naruto said, pointing with his snout. "Over there. I can just barely see and smell the smoke." 

Kakashi pulled a pair of binoculars from his jonin vest, holding it sideways to only use one of them. "I can see the smoke cloud, but only just," he said, eyeing the dark plume that was tiny even with the binoculars. "Now tell me, what has you so on edge?"

"I don't know. Something just feels...wrong, off. I can't explain it," Naruto admitted. "But that smell, that's not wood burning."

"Coal?" Kakashi suggested. "Have you not smelt burning coal before?"

"Not enough to notice since I became a giant fox," Naruto remarked under his breath. "If I get much closer, they'll probably spot me." 

"We could just wait until it's dark, and have you float with just your head above water," Kakashi suggested. "I can head in alone  once we have the night as cover."

"Yeah, we could do that," Naruto said in a tone that implied that he had other plans on how to proceed.

Kakashi had a bad feeling about this. "Naruto, what are you thinking?"

"Something we'll probably never want to speak about again," Naruto admitted reluctantly. 

Meanwhile

Sokyoku sat peacefully in the campfire atop the plateau. In truth, the fire should have gone out long ago, now sustained only by his own power and will. It required a steady, constant, but ultimately minor flow of his chakra to maintain. He was not sure, but he found the experience similar to meditating, a soothing repetition.

Slowly and gracefully, he brought his wings up, flames rising and dancing between the twin limbs of fire. The fires took shape between the tips of his wings. First into a blazing sphere, and then into other shapes.

He started simple. Triangles, squares, but the next and more complicated ones kept failing to materialize properly. Still, Sokyoku merely laughed at his own shortcomings. "I suppose it is too early for me to make the fires take on the shape of my lord. Too many limbs," he decided before trying something simpler. First, a goose, his own farm being instinctively familiar, but then to a human. It was rather impossible to make distinct features without making the flaming shape much larger.

He hummed as he released the fiery construct and let it fade away.

Then he rose, his webbed feet becoming flaming talons, his form transforming into a predatory avian of fire.

"My Lord tolerates your ilk's presence because it suits him. Do not press your luck with me in his absence," Sokyoku warned sternly, not even turning to face the foes behind him. "After all, I would so hate to dirty my Lord's land with the scent of your blood."

They didn't rise to the taunt. Either unnerved or unfazed.

Regardless, the choice, the first move was theirs to make. 

Meanwhile

Kakashi tried not to react too much to his situation.

He was inside Naruto's mouth, the jaw clenched shut to avoid letting the seawater flood in. The tongue underneath him tried not to move, and he tried not to disturb it in turn.

It was a good plan, Kakashi admitted. Naruto dives under the water with Kakashi in his maw and sneaks up on the boat to allow the jonin to surface near the vessels. It helped that Naruto didn't need to breathe himself, so there was actually plenty of air in the mouth, for now at least.

Still, this was up there with some of his strangest moments as a ninja.

"Almost there, Sensei. Mind the teeth on your way out," Naruto cautioned.

"Trust me, Naruto, I wasn't going to forget about that," Kakashi assured, eyeing the massive fangs.

There was silence for a bit longer, Kakashi trying to keep himself stable as Naruto shifted back and forth while swimming in the water. 

"....Huh."

"What is it, Naurto?" Kakashi asked, noticing the tone. Not being able to see didn't bother him too much, having been on numerous missions where he had to rely on someone else to relay information. The problem was, given the situation, there were bound to be a few details that Naruto would have trouble conveying.

"Well, the ship is pretty big, but... It's got some kind of spinning things at the bottom rear. I think they're making the ship move?" Naruto explained as best he could. "Watch out for those, Sensei. I don't know what they are or how dangerous they might be, so you should get to the surface fast. I'll try to let you out ahead of the boat, near the side of it."

"Thanks for the warning," Kakashi said as he prepared himself as best he could.

"Just be careful, Sensei. Something feels really odd about this ship." 

Kakashi took that to heart, wondering what could be setting off Naruto's senses like this. 

.

Naruto's jaw loosened slightly, and water began to leak in. Kakashi took a deep breath and braced himself as Naruto opened his mouth fully, the seawater rushing in and swirling about briefly. He quickly righted himself and swam out from between the teeth, mindful to not get caught or scratched on them.

He looked up to quickly take in the underside of the ship. It was metal, and it was fairly large too, larger than most boats he had seen. And he could see the spinning devices Naruto had mentioned.

A spike of killer intent dragged his attention downwards to the side. There was a shark approaching him, the predatory intent obvious. He wasn't too surprised; sharks often followed ships for potential meals thrown overboard. This one had either been too hungry or foolish to flee at Naruto's approach.

He wasn't surprised to see Naruto's jaw snap over to bite the shark in half. He chewed up the predator casually while giving Kakashi a nod.    

Kakashi gave him a thumbs up in return before swimming to the surface, making sure to stay near the side of the vessel and not get caught. The surface was smooth and slippery from the water, making it hard to hold onto even with chakra, at least while his body was still mostly in the water. 

He glanced up. The curve from the deck to the keel gave him a bit of cover if anyone looked down. With that in mind, he used chakra to climb up and stand on the water, running to keep up with it. It was much faster than he expected. Interesting, considering he couldn't see any sails, only a lot of smoke.

Where did this ship come from? And where was the crew headed? The only thing further west of here was the Land of Wind, and they certainly didn't have the means or interest to create something like this.

Well, only one way to find out, he decided as he began to scale up the hull. As he ascended, he kept an eye out for not only any who might notice him by chance, but an easy way to slip inside, but found no such luck. He decided he might have to try to disguise himself with the transformation jutsu, but first, he had to see what the crew looked like.

He reached the deck and pulled up his headband. Just one look would be enough. He slowly moved up to peek through the metal railing.

His brow furrowed at what he saw. The crew seemed to consist of people wearing large, bulky, roundish armor. Not the most practical thing for sailors. More than that, he was beginning to understand what had Naruto so on edge, partially. There were no voices. The only sound was the heavy footsteps.

One of them turned in his direction, but Kakashi had already ducked down before they could see him. He sighed heavily. This was a lot more complicated than he thought. He glanced down at the waters, sensing Naruto lurking below. No doubt he'd arise out of the sea if Kakashi found himself in need of help. 

No point in leaving without some information.

Elsewhere, Naruto watched the bottom of the boats impatiently. Everything felt calm enough. He couldn't sense any alarm or chakra spikes from Kakashi. These bats, or perhaps whoever was on them, were still bothering him. He couldn't place it, but it reminded him of the first time he woke in a hospital, noticing how sterile everything felt. Something more unnatural than just plain wrong, which made less sense in his own head than he liked. 

He was pulled from his musing as he saw something familiar approaching with a sense of dread.

Swimming out of the blackness was the giant octopus once more. Naruto glared at his neighborhood foe, not wanting to deal with this thing right now and drawing unwanted attention.

But the octopus kept a respectable distance between them. The cephalopod seemed to share Naruto's uneasy fascination with the vessels above.

The octopus didn't like these things either, it appeared. In fact, it seemed to be eyeing Naruto, as if questioning why he hadn't done anything about them yet.

Naruto could only stare. Why did it always feel like this thing was mocking him in some way?

Their silent exchange was cut off as something dropped into the water. Or rather, someone.

Before the octopus could even try anything, Naruto opened his mouth and took Kakashi back into his jaw. The octopus seemed slightly surprised by this, but Naruto paid him no mind as he quickly swam away.

Soon, he surfaced, but just his head as he let the water drain out, and Kakashi took a lung full of air. Naruto wasn't sure if he had made it far enough, but he didn't want to risk his sensei drowning on him. 

"I'm good, Naruto," Kakashi informed. "Take us back down before you're spot-"

Something exploded behind them, and Naruto quickly dived as he closed his mouth. "The hell kind of jutsu was that?!"

"Are they attacking you?" Kakashi questioned with a frown.

"....Uhh, no, actually," Narut said, hearing more explosions, muffled by the water. He looked back in the general direction of the boats to spy the situation. "Ah. The octopus decided he wanted to take them on."

"Well, at least they're distracted," Kakashi mused with a quiet, distant tone.

Naruto frowned. "How bad, Sensai?" 

"I'm not sure, but I doubt it's anything good. Your instincts were right about how... wrong things are on those boats," Kakashi answered.

"....Should I go back and help sink them?" Naruto questioned, glancing back contemplatively.

"Believe me, I'm tempted to say yes," Kakashi said. "Whoever they are, they're not from around here. The writing I saw is nothing I've ever seen."

"And are they all mutes, like Sokyoku said?" Naruto questioned.

"None of them talked, but that seems to do more with what they are," Kakashi admitted. "The trouble is, I'm not sure of that myself."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked with a troubled look on his face as he kept swimming.

"I saw this room filled with people in these... strange orbs. I saw someone being placed into them to create a walking suit of armor. It looked... almost like they removed their souls to make it work," Kakashi said with a frown.

"Oh great, as if the Hakaju wasn't creepy enough," Naruto muttered in frustration.

"I'm not certain if those people were being used to make those...things, or if they can control them. Like possessing a puppet, maybe? Either way, the ship was filled with only those things, as far as I could find."

Naruto paused and thought about that for a moment. "....Yeah, even if they're just controlling the armor, I can't think of a good reason for the entire crew to be doing that. Either way, they're expecting a fight with someone. Why am I not sinking them? Or at least dragging them onto land?"

"You know why, you just don't like it," Kakashi said with an eyeroll. "There is a chance they might just be overly cautious, or they were attacked by pirates recently. If these people are foreign to the Elemental Nations, we don't exactly want Fire Nation's first contact with them to be starting a war with them unprompted."

Kakashi was right, Naruto didn't like it even if he knew it was right. "So, what now?"

"Now, we head back to the beach. I'll send a message back to Konoha about what's going on. And then we'll go back to tailing the boat. By that point, it'll be nighttime. There will be nearly no moon tonight, so it should be a decent cover," Kakashi explained.  "Also....I need to check a map."

"A map? Why?" Naruto questioned.

"I found one on their ship. It was crude, but I'm fairly sure it's supposed to be somewhere nearby. Relatively, anyway. I should be able to figure out where they're going if I look at a proper map," Kakashi explained before chuckling.

"What's got you laughing? "Naruto questioned.

"Nothing. Just amazing how you keep finding new kinds of trouble to step in," Kakashi mused.

"Well, obviously! I'm a trouble magnet! Becoming a giant only made me more trouble-magnet-y," Naruto retorted. "....Never tell anyone I said that."

"I'd say it sounded better in your head, but I can attest, it didn't sound good even from here," Kakashi teased.

The banter was all they could do to stave off the unease they both felt.

"Also, could you let me out when we're far enough? I'm sure neither of us wants me traveling here more than needed," Kakashi requested.

"Trust me, I'm washing my mouth out the first chance I get."

Meanwhile

"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Konkuro asked amidst the many shinobi mobilizing outside the Kazekage building. "Why are we heading to the coast? I forget we even have a coast most days!"  

"Everyone does," Temari said in annoyance, the other ninjas muttering in confusion around them. "And do you think I know any more than you? It's an emergency mission, dumbass! They only told us to prepare to travel to the coast as quickly as possible."

"We might be at war," Gaara said, arms folded while leaning against a wall.

"Huh?" Konkuro said, both siblings looking to Gaara in confusion. "How'd you get to that conclusion?"

Temari glanced around as she stepped closer, lowering her voice. "Are you spying on the council again!?"

"Only when I'm feeling impatient," Gaara answered levelly. "There are enemies down there. It seems too serious and too many to be mere bandits or nukenin."

"Who'd be coming at us, and from the coast?" Konkuro asked in cun Fire Country would have an easier time attacking up from the border, and there is no way Kiri is using whatever strength they pulled together to attack way over here, right?"

"A mercenary group, perhaps?" Temari proposed.

"We'll soon find out," Gaara said, looking to the side as a figure appeared.

"Listen!" Baki called out, gathering their attention as he stood at the front of the group. "Everyone, this is an emergency mission of S-Rank importance! We've received word that unknown enemies have appeared on the southern coast, attacking villages and ports."

"Enemies, at the coast?"

"Are we at war?"

"With who?"

"At this time!" Baki spoke up again, getting their attention again. "We do not know their origins or motives. And they are irrelevant for now. For now, we need you all to move swiftly to defend the Land of Wind. The daimyo has already ordered troops from the nearby areas to attempt to repel the invaders until we can arrive." 

One jonin raised his hand. "Who shall lead this mission, Baki?"

Gaara hummed. Baki himself might have been the leader normally, but he was needed here. For the time being, he was one of the ninjas doing the duties of the Kazekage while the seat remained empty. Not to mention, they could not afford to leave Suna without capable ninjas and leaders if the village itself was attacked.

"This mission will likely require you to split up," Baki informed, turning to the three Subaku siblings. "Temari. I'm entrusting nominal leadership to you," he said, tossing a scroll to her. "On there are the known locations of the enemies."

Temari nodded firmly. "Understood, Sensei. Anything else?"

"Traveling there would take upwards of three days, two if the weather is kind," Gaara remarked, his voice cutting over the others. "Might I make a suggestion, Sensei, Sister?"

"My opinion isn't even worth asking for?" Konkuro muttered to himself.

"What is it, Gaara?" Temari asked curiously.

"I can get us there faster with my sand," Gaara informed. 

A number of the ninjas looked a tad uneasy at the idea. After all, Gaara's sand had been nothing but a herald of blood and death up until recently. It was a change many were still adjusting to, or even believing.

"Gaara, even your chakra would be getting low taking us all there," Konkuro cautioned.

"That's what food pills are for," Gaara answered simply. "The longer we take, the worse this situation might get. And I don't think I need to explain why one sleepless night won't be a bother for me."

Temari smirked. "Well, aren't you rather determined, Little Brother?" she couldn't help but add a hint of teasing to her tone. Gaara wasn't flustered and might have even been minutely confused by it. "Fine, we'll do this your way."

"Just none of you get lazy and get used to mooching off my brother!" Konkuro warned the others in an overly serious, almost protective tone.

Some of the others almost laughed at the joke.

Gaara was not blind or stupid. His socialization skills might be very underdeveloped in some ways, but he could plainly see his brother was trying to put everyone at ease. He was grateful, in a way. Changing people's perspective of him was not an instant thing. But Temari, Konkuro, and even Baki helped in many ways. Even if he still didn't quite understand all of them.

Baki nodded, looking at the whole group. "It's settled then. Good luck to you all. Dismissed!"

Gaara narrowed his eyes as they all began to move to the village exit, his mind turning inwards. 'I don't suppose you would know if this is another monster attack?'

'Hell if I know!' Shukaku answered abrasively. 'But if you get into a squeeze, just let me out to play! I'll be sure to give them a proper welcome to the desert.'

Gaara hoped it didn't come to a point where he'd have to consider that. If he did, well, that would only mean their enemies were that dangerous.