Raito was trailing Hayate. The man had been suspiciously following Kabuto, and Raito was beyond worried about it. He'd had his own suspicions about Kabuto that only rose higher when he'd been told about Sasuke's curse mark.
Hayate was not aware of this fact himself. He was trying his best to hide while following Kabuto as he approached a sand ninja. Hayate narrowed his eyes, wondering just what a Konoha ninja would need from a Suna ninja. Kabuto was meeting with a Suna ninja who had a half shawl across his face and cheek tattoos in a triangle shape.
Raito watched from a rooftop, his Hikarigan activated to level two. Seeing the chakra, he controlled his chakra flow to be able to see through Hayate. When he noticed the other ninja, Raito flashed to the other side of the clearing and kept his chakra low.
Hayate listened in on the conversation.
"...It's alright. He fulfilled his purpose long ago."
The sand ninja replied, "I thought he was a guinea pig for the Sasuke kid…"
"Oh no! There's no need for that… In fact, I've already been given the order to capture Sasuke-kun," Kabuto paused and from Raito's view he could see the man's face turn serious, "I made a miscalculation, though."
"What?!"
"They know I'm a Sound agent. Plus, I fear that this Yokage could put a wrench in the plans."
Hayate was thinking, How could Sunagakure, our supposed ally, betray us like this? Especially teaming up with Otogakure, such a young nation.
Raito, on the other hand, was seeing where the conversation was headed. They knew Hayate was trailing Kabuto, or at least Kabuto did.
"You know.. I heard you were Orochimaru's right-hand man. Yet you nonchalantly approached me despite knowing you're in the spotlight. That's foolhardy."
Kabuto said, "All I wanted to see was the reaction from Konoha. Anyways, we've got a plan set up to take Sasuke anyway."
"You, Sound Ninja, proposed this scheme to us. If you continue to make such blunders, we will withdraw our support."
"Suna will not make its move until the very end. That was Lord Kazekage's will and still is."
Hayate began to move; he had seen where the conversation would lead.
Kabuto said, "Good. Here are our plans… so tell it to your subordinates. One last thing, I'll take care of whoever is on our trail. He'll be gone very soon."
The other shinobi replied, "Why don't I, as a gesture of good faith in this alliance?"
Hayate dashed away only to see the sand ninja on his tail. They appeared on top of a statue near the embassy building. Raito prepared his eyesight, switching to the first stage; he'd need to let Hayate escape in an instant.
The sand ninja grinned and said, "My…My proctor, why are you out here all alone?"
"I guess I've got no choice but to kill you."
[Konoha Style: Crescent Moon Dance]
Raito grinned; he'd never seen a true kenjutsu technique in action, and it was beautiful. Hayate gracefully slunk the blade into the Sand ninja's shoulder. However, that's when the tables began to turn.
"The Crescent Moon Dance.. Mastery at your age is rare; leave it to Konoha to hog all the talent."
Raito saw Hayate physically struggling to take the blade out. This sand Jonin was keeping it stuck.
"It's an easy thing to halt a physical blade, but wind blades… Now that is impossible…"
Raito saw it. A wave of light perfect for his attachment. First, he released his genjutsu he'd placed on himself and then whispered his jutsu name. In a flash of white light, Raito disappeared, unseen by anybody.
[Light Release: Instant Doubling]
The Jonin's smile faded. As the wind cleared, he saw no body. So he wondered how Hayate had escaped such a powerful jutsu.
Raito reappeared far away from the Sand Villages' embassy. There, he looked upon the man he saved. Hayate was surprised to see a genin, but when his eyes focused, he understood.
He thought, No wonder. He beat out Rock Lee in taijutsu, and I couldn't keep up with his movements while he did. Speed is the boy's forte.
Outwardly, Hayate replied, "Thank you, Raito-san. Did you trail me?"
"I did. I wouldn't have expected you to detect me at all. It's a good genjutsu. Learned it from a friend…"
Gekko Hayate nodded and said, "I need to report this to Hokage-sama. Will you be reporting this to the Yokage?"
"I'll tell my mom. She'll get in contact with her husband. We can organize a solid defense without alerting them."
"I agree. Now I must go."
Hayate was gone before he finished his sentence. Raito stood for a moment and then headed out. He needed sleep for what was to come.
Naruto had spent the last week avoiding Kakashi, despite knowing he needed to talk to the man. He had spoken with Sasuke and Sakura and even went to get food a couple of times with them. However, he couldn't help himself; the hurt was still lingering.
It was the last day of that week, and Naruto had gotten into a rhythm. His rhythm had just been severely overridden by the man standing at the door. Kakashi Hatake looked at Naruto with little light in his eye.
Naruto grumbled out, "What do you want?"
"I need to talk to you. It's about your training."
Naruto stepped out of his apartment and nodded for Kakashi to continue. The older man leaned back onto the railing.
Kakashi said, "I have this paper. I need you to seep chakra into it. I'll give you a jutsu to learn over the next month."
"Okay."
Kakashi pulled out chakra paper and handed it to Naruto. As Naruto let his chakra spill into the paper. It is cleanly cut in half. Kakashi widened his eyes and then sighed.
"I have no wind release jutsu. It's the only release I physically cannot accomplish. I'm sorry, Naruto; however, I can teach you how to do a different type of jutsu. I can't do it myself, but my sensei, the fourth Hokage, taught me."
Naruto nodded and said the question he wanted to, "You're not going to focus on just Sasuke during this month, right?"
"No, I've recovered and surpassed my former strength, Naruto. Fighting Zabuza showed me how far I'd fallen. I used to wipe the floor with men like him; now I can do so again. A shadow clone will attend to all three of you. Then I, too, will be training with Guy."
Naruto nodded and said, "Good. I'll see you and the team later today."
Naruto turned around and heard Kakashi leave, and then heard someone approaching. He turned to see white-eyed Raito standing on the railing.
"Glad to see you're fine. I wanted to talk to you about the secret."
Naruto nodded and motioned for Raito to follow him inside. When inside, Raito looked around for any seals that would listen in. He found none and so decided to start the conversation.
"My mother is here. She's a seal expert, and I convinced her to take a look at your seal and teach you some stuff about it. It'll be real basics, but the basics are good."
Naruto said, "No way! What do seals do?"
"I have eleven seals on me. Nine of them are gravity seals applied by my mom just the other day, and two are chakra storage."
"So they can have real consequences, huh? When does she want me to meet her?"
Raito grinned and said, "Tomorrow. I'll lead you to the Embassy we're staying at. Then I've got to head out to do my own training."
Naruto's face split with a smile, "Awesome! I'll be even stronger than you by the end of this. Can I get a gravity seal?"
"I assume so. However, it might be affecting your actual seal, so I'd ask my mom about it. If you meet my little sister, ignore her. She will pester you to teach her a jutsu when she just got into the academy."
Naruto laughed, and then the two friends had breakfast before heading their separate ways.
Kakashi waited as Naruto arrived at the team training grounds. He stood lazily next to a bag of water balloons while reading his Makeout Violence edition. The yellow-headed boy arrived ready to begin his training.
Kakashi started, "As I said, I can't do the jutsu without severe problems. So I'll teach you the steps to get there."
"Alright!"
"Simply put, you know how to do tree climbing and water walking. So now you're going to practice steadily streaming your chakra into this water balloon. What you want to do is steadily expand the chakra without losing control and eventually pop the balloon. This should be easy for you, especially with shadow clones."
Naruto nodded.
"Then," Kakashi reached into his back pocket and tossed a scroll on the ground, which poofed into a basket of rubber balls, "Then your goal will be to pop this one as well. If you finish both stages, meet me at the training ground the day after you've done it."
Naruto got to work.