Fire and Water

After Three Years

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Hibana's POV

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed in fear as the blond ninja collapsed to the ground.
He still hasn't recovered from the Nine Tails state.
"We'll have to leave him behind." Captain Yamato said which earned him a shocked look from Sakura.
"Kakashi and I are very different, I can't tell you that I won't allow you to get hurt." He carried on.
Naruto pushed himself off the ground and forced himself to stand up.
"I'm fine, didn't you say we had to hurry to catch up with them?"
Kazan looked up at me and I nodded.
"Are you sure you're ok to keep moving?" Yamato asked.
"Of course he's not!" I intervened.
Naruto stared at me.
"Hibana-chan!" He tried to protest but I held my hand up for him to stop.
"Summoning jutsu." I said after weaving a few hand signs.
Once the smoke cleared it revealed a small panther with a red diamond hanging from her neck.
"Hibana-sama and Kazan-sama what can I do for you?" She asked bowing her head, her claws lengthening dangerously.
"Majo can you help Naruto-kun?" She glared at the ninja who shrunk away in fear and eventually nodded, shrinking her size so she was able to to cling to Naruto's shoulder without causing him any discomfort.
She clambered onto his shoulder and started to glow green.
"Medical jutsu." Sakura breathed impressed.
"Right lets get moving then." Yamato said and we all shot off to follow the trail.

We tree hopped for a while when all of a sudden Yamato called us to stop so we all landed back on the forest floor fixing him with a questioning look.
"We should take a break."
"Why?" I questioned.
"We all took a beating in the fight with Orochimaru and Kabuto." He glared at me mentally reminding me that I did come in physical contact with the NIne Tails chakra.
Not like it hurt much.
I puffed my cheeks out in annoyance and just sat down under a tree with Kazan and Majo in kitten mode snoozing on my lap and Arufa lying down next to me while I stroked his fur.
Sakura parked it next to me and pulled out Sai's picture book we recovered from the crater while Yamato took Naruto further away to talk to him. And but judging from the look on his face I would say that he told him what really happened at the bridge.
"No way! Hey you guys come look at this!" Sakura called to Yamato and Naruto.

Shizuku's POV

Luckily Kabuto and Orochimaru never noticed that Nami and I were following them.
Eventually they led us to a barren wasteland with large rock formations.
Nami and I hid behind a rock while we watched them open a secret entrance to one of the formations.
Once the entrance closed we walked out into the open.
"Nami tell Arufa." She nodded and then howled at such a frequency that a human wouldn't be able to hear (except from me.)
We waited for a few seconds when we heard Arufa howl in return.
"They're on their way."

Hibana's POV

"ONEE-CHAN!" I ran up to Shizuku with my arms extended, tears in my eyes.
She sweat dropped as I Helen hugged her.
"We've only been apart for a few hours." She said as I let her go.
I gave her a closed eye smile and tilted my head cutely to the side.
"Thanks Majo." My panther nodded and then poofed away.
"Right, we'll enter through the ground with my earth style jutsu, I'll go first followed by Sakura, Shizuku, Naruto then Hibana. Only enter on my signal." Yamato told us which we nodded to.
He made a large enough hole and jumped down. Soon after he whistled for us to come down. Sakura, Shizuku and Nami -who was clinging to Shizuku's shoulder in puppy mode- all jumped down.
Naruto and I waited a little longer catching each other's eye.
We've finally found him.
I picked up kitten Kazan in my arms and jumped down after Naruto.
We all walked for a bit in the tunnel when we found a rock wall blocking our way.
My fist fired up and I was about to punch the wall when both Sakura and Shizuku jumped on me stopping me from moving.
"That's gonna alert the enemy!" Sakura said and Shizuku nodded while Kazan growled at me.
Yamato used his wood style jutsu to break the rock and form a entrance for us to crawl through.
"Sai is this way." Shizuku said already walking casually through the tunnels.
Kazan, Nami and I followed her without any complaints. Naruto and Sakura shrugged and followed while Yamato held out his arm with a dead look.
"Come on Captain." Naruto called back and he ran up to catch up with us.
Relying on Nami and Shizuku's amazing senses we strolled through the endless tunnels eventually reaching the room Sai was locked in.
Yamato picked the lock and opened the door revealing Sai standing in the back of the room.
I stood there bored as Kazan and Nami cornered the ninja growling and snapping at him. Sakura gave him back his picture book and I saw the quick flash of relief in his eyes.
I watched as they interrogated Sai for a while while he told them about his real mission BLAH BLAH BLAH....
"Just so you know, Kabuto is on his way." Shizuku and told us.
Yamato tied Sai up with his wood jutsu and we were outta there.
Back up at the surface we stood in front of Sai who was incapacitated.
Sai had that whole moment with Naruto where he told Sai that Sasuke was his best friend and they had a special bond and that he would do anything to save him.
Suddenly!
A wild Pokemon appeared!
It's a Kabuto!
Hibana sent out Kazan!
Kazan used Flaming Slashing Claw!
Critical hit!
Hehe I'll stop now.
Naruto advanced with his Rasengan which Kabuto was able to beat with ease and Yamato used his wood style jutsu which Kabuto had to run away from carrying Sai.
Sakura ran forward about to punch the ninja, Kabuto dodged, however Sakura still punched a hole in a hornets nest.
The whole nest headed towards Kabuto and he freaked out killing all of them.
Kabuto freed Sai and smirked at all of us acting like he had won.
However to everyone's surprise Sai held Kabuto in a restraint hold explaining that he wanted to change and to see Naruto and Sasuke's bond.
"Hold him still Sai." Commanded Yamato as he bound Kabuto with his wood.
"Summoning jutsu!" Arashi appeared bowing his head to Nami and Shizuku.
"Keep an eye on him; you to Arufa." The two wolves nodded and went to stand near Kabuto snarling as he flinched in fear.
"Tell us where Sasuke is." Yamato demanded.
"By now he's probably finished training and retired to one of the inner rooms." Kabuto said.
"Inner room is quite vague wouldn't you say." Shizuku said looking quite unimpressed.
"Even I don't know where it is, this place is riddled with isolated rooms. We're not just talking about one or two."
Naruto burst out saying that we'll just have to search them all.
"If you aren't careful..."
"...YEAH YEAH OROCHIMARUS ROOM IS THERE TO, WE KNOW!" I couldn't take it anymore and already started to walk back to the tunnel leading to the hideout.
"Hibana-chan! Wait up!" Naruto called after me followed by the others.
After running through the tunnels for a bit we stopped.
"We'll split into three teams, Sakura and myself, Sai and Naruto and Hibana and Shizuku. If anything happened, infuse your chakra I'll come as soon as possible." Oh right. I forgot about seeds he made us all swallow.
"Let's go." Nami said and we nodded all running off in different directions.
"Wait here." I told my team as they stood still.
I activated my second state and fixed my footing.
Baring my fangs in excitement I shot off with such incredible speed I created a sonic boom. I had searched all the rooms on this floor and had returned back to my team in under three seconds.
"Had fun?" Shizuku smirked.
My yellow eyes widened in ecstasy and my tail and ears flicked with enthusiasm.
It had felt so good to run at my full speed for once.
Nami's ears shot up.
"Shizuku, Orochimaru is with Naruto and Sai." She nodded and activated her own second state.
"You think you can keep up?" Kazan teased the two wolves while I smirked my Uchiha smirk.
"You bet!" Shizuku bared her own fangs with Nami lowering herself to the floor ready to run off.
"GO!" At my signal we all sprinted off.
"Striking shadow snake!" We heard up ahead.
Shizuku increased her pace and jumped in front of Naruto with her twin daggers raised. As the snakes got closer Shizuku's smirk widened and in one smooth sweep all the snakes lay dead at her feet.
"Naruto!" We heard Sakura call from behind us.
"It looks like I'll let you live this time. I have some business with Sai." With that he disappeared.
"Where is Sai?" Yamato asked.
Suddenly Kazan's ears flicked and he ran off in the tunnels.
"Kazan!" I called out to him in protest running after my guardian.
"How troublesome." I heard Shizuku mumble after she and Nami followed us.
We ran for a bit before we felt the ground shake and the sound of an explosion caught our attention.
We didn't stop for long because Kazan continued to run.
Finally we saw a bright light up ahead.
We all walked towards it as we knew what would meet us there.
Just as we were about to walk out into the open I stopped.
"What's the matter Hibana?" Shizuku asked.
"Go on ahead I have something I gotta do."