Fate Of the Wolf Goddess (Naruto Fanfic x ATLA aspects)

Training and Patience

Naruto POV

"Come on, Sakura! Kakashi-sensei gets released from the hospital today. Let's go already!"

"Okay, okay. I'm coming. Sheesh. Way to be patient, Naruto." She grumbles. I watch as she exits the library with Sai.

"Eh? What's he doing here? You coming with us, Sai?" I ask.

"I-If that's alright?" He stutters awkwardly.

"Well. . ."

Well, he's not on that creep Danzo's side anymore.

He said he'd help us get Sasuke back, so I guess he's okay.

He's just socially awkward.

But a good guy.

"Of course you can come with us!" Sakura says in a cheerily voice after pinching me. "Naruto, be nice to Sai. He's on our side now, or did you forget?"

"Ow! I didn't forget! Quit pinching me!"

"Do you two mind telling me what happened to Kimiko on our mission then? She didn't come back with us." He says with that weird smile on his face. Although I guess that's his real smile now.

Sakura and I both freeze at his question.

Moriko went after Sasuke to keep track of his movements. She did tell us that we'd warm up to Sai, and we did just like she predicted, but that still doesn't clear us to tell him about her whereabouts.

Moriko-nee said there's a seal on Sai, and that this Danzo guy can still somewhat control him when it comes to revealing information. We won't be able to get any info on Danzo from him yet. Not until she figures out how to get it off him without Danzo finding out.

She said she left clones in the village to work on it, so in the meantime, we shouldn't worry about that. I told her that I'm gonna focus on my training and also befriending him, so that's fine. I didn't tell her that I actually planned on looking into the seal anyway, seeing as how she didn't want me to worry about it.

My fuinjutsu has gotten better over the years, so surely there's something I can do to help him out. Sakura said she'd do research too. We're not leaving everything to Moriko-nee; Sai's our friend now, so we'll help in any way we can.

Still, to be on the safe side, Sakura and I decided we'd tell him more about Sasuke, but nothing about Moriko. She's got her own story to tell him so we don't wanna mess it up. It's just until we can get the seal off of him.

She was targeted by the Root after all.

"I'm right here Sai!" A familiar voice says. We both turn to our left and see Moriko--- er, Kimiko--- sitting beside us in her wolf form, grinning from ear to ear.

"Ah, I see. Where'd you go? Even Captain Yamato was worried. He thought you went to track Sasuke."

"I did! But I lost his trail sadly. Took a few days to get back to the village. I already told Yamato." She replies, still smiling happily and wagging her tail.

Wait, did she really lose him?

No, wait. She's lying. I can see her tell.

So then. . . . this is a clone Moriko?

"There you have it! She's right here, heh-heh." Sakura sweat drops, laughing nervously.

"Yeah, heh-heh. C'mon, let's go see Kakashi-sensei!" I announce to everyone.

Everyone starts walking towards the hospital, and we chit-chat on the way there with Sai. Apparently, he was in the library reading up on how to make friends. Things like nicknames and dropping the -san, and -kun and stuff.