A Thousand Years

The War

"WHY CAN'T YOU HELP ME?"

The yell made its way to the ears of passerbys below.

"BECAUSE I HAVE WORK TO DO!"

Shizune passed the office where the yelling was coming from. She shook her head lightly and decided to come back later. The documents weren't that important anyways.

"NOT LIKE YOU EVER DO ANY OF IT!"

"AS IF YOU WOULD KNOW."

"Am I inturrupting something?" Jiraya poked his head into the office, a grin plastered on his face.

"Not at all, the kid was just leaving." Tsunade glared at Naruto who humphed and walked out the door, brushing past the old sage.

Jiraya turned to Tsunade and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him.

"So how have things been? It seems you've got the village running pretty smoothly as of late." He commented, settling in one of the cushioned chairs by the desk.

Tsunade crossed her arms.

"Save the small talk, Jiraya. You never come here without news, so what is it?" She asked impatiently.

Jiraya chuckled at her frown.

"Straightforward as always, eh? Well you're not wrong. Remember that thing you asked me to help you with a few weeks ago? So it turns out the bird that brings the messages isn't actually a bird. Its just an animated clump of chakra that disappears when the caster wills it to. I couldn't track it like you asked, but I've been watching it. I found out that it always circles over a certain part of the village for a bit prior to disappearing." His eyes shifted to stare out the window.

Tsunade turned to see where he was looking, puzzled.

"The First Conference Hall?" She questioned, receiving a nod. "You mean to say the person who has been trying to communicate with me is spying on the elder's meetings?" She frowned in frustration.

"I don't think so. At least, not for the reason you're thinking. If whoever they are wanted to spy on the Council or elders, they wouldn't be taking the time to send you letters. As I'm sure you're aware, controlling something from a distance without direct contact takes a lot of concentration. I doubt they would take time to do that if they were only aiming to spy on the Conference Hall for a few minutes." Jiraya concluded.

"Then why would they be circling the Hall every time they send a message?" Tsunade asked.

Jiraya shook his head.

"I don't know. My only thought was that maybe they weren't looking at the Hall. They might have been surveying something else." Jiraya shrugged, offering everything he had come up with.

"Alright, thanks for the information. You were a big help, Jiraya." Tsunade thanked with a nod.

"Not a problem. I'll keep an eye out for anything suspicious in that area." He stood and turned to head out the door. "I'll be back if anything comes up." He waved and disappeared down the hall.

Tsunade sat at her desk, hands clasped under her chin in concentration.

"If she isn't aiming the Conference Hall, then what was she watching...?" The image of the white haired woman was stuck in her mind. Why had she come to her office? Why does she keep sending messages?

"...who are you...?"

Naruto sighed as he wandered the streets near one of the bigger, more popular training grounds. Hinata was still nowhere in sight.

'She usually isn't late.' He thought, staring up at the clouds that drifted across the bright blue sky. The sun was beaming that day, a rare occurrence for being so close to winter. A few other people were training in the area but they were pretty spread out, enough so that no one needed to worry about getting hit by someone else's shuriken.