Unaware of the sort of dangerous words Shikamaru was directing towards him in his absence, Naruto arrived in an alleyway in the heart of the shinobi district of Konoha. This was a location where he had previously left one of his markers. Additionally, this spot was also situated behind one particular weapons store. Naruto would go there for his weapons and had also frequented it during the previous timeline.

It was the store that belonged to Tenten's father and the motivation which drove her to become a kunoichi specialising in weapons.

For Tenten, he had prepared a complete and comprehensive set of techniques that would enable her to utilize the qualities of her various weapons to the fullest. There were even several jutsu that were designed to fully bring out the potential of a weapon and some that enabled one to imbue power into them. All of this required a considerable volume of chakra, which Naruto was also aware that Tenten lacked in. He had considered this problem a long time ago and subsequently provided her with several meditation techniques (a relic from ancient times; rare techniques bythat enable the conversion of nature energy into chakra) that he had deemed most suitable for her. He had also secretly helped to widen her chakra pathways in her sleep on several occasions. Another of his previous gifts to her was a vial containing pills that he refined specially to enhance one's ability to absorb energy from nature. Since they were formulated for those who utilised the meditation techniques, these he left in Tenten's room that was situated above the shop.

Next, he walked through the streets of the shinobi district. Somehow, no one even glanced his way despite his odd clothing (it was in the middle of summer, after all). He had no presence whatsoever even as he strolled right into an apartment building on the outskirts of the village. It was a cheap flat with barely the adequate basic amenities to sustain one's daily life. The building was shabby, the paint cracked and peeling in places with ivy growing all over it. It almost looked abandoned, but there were still a few people living in it. Naruto walked in through the main entrance and even openly climbed up the only functional staircase as he made his way towards his goal. He ignored the dirt and grime that covered the floor and walls. It was worse than the apartment that he lived in the last time around, but that was only because it was Jiji's arrangement. If not for Sandaime's help, he would probably have lived under even worse conditions. Even then, he had lived alone with no one daring to reside within the same apartment building as himself. It was sad, honestly.

He soon arrived at a clean but simple-looking wooden door that had been carefully painted green and unmistakably appeared to have received its paint job fairly recently. Naruto did not even knock, turning the knob and opening it as though it was not even locked. This was because the door used a fūinjutsu-type mechanism instead of a physical lock. It was a impenetrable and foolproof lock that would be perfectly secure in any other circumstance. Credibly, it was a type of lock known to others to be impossible for any uninvited guests to bypass. However, it was useless in front of Naruto. He knew that Lee should be running and enjoying the sunset at this time -- he had failed to sense any person within the apartment. As such, he did not even have to sneak into Lee's room to put down a pair of simple-looking gloves that had a function that was anything but simple.

Naruto found it ridiculous that Lee would wear bandages wrapped on his arms. It was true that he concealed weights there and his every finger was covered in scars from his self-destructive training, but that did not stop him from wearing gloves instead. The black gloves were made to channel Lee's innate chakra. The Hachimon technique that Lee practised involved unsealing certain tenketsu. The Eight Gates existed to restrict the flow of chakra within an individual's body. Ordinarily, one could use no more than a fifth of their body's full potential. This was the brain's way of protecting the individual from harming their body by overexertion. With training, one can even learn to remove these limiters. This was referred to as "opening" the gates. With each opened gate, individuals would be given access to more of their body's chakra, thus increasing their physical strength as well as speed. However, this was a terrible thing to do considering the harm it did to one's own body. Moreover, Lee could not channel his own chakra. That was the true reason why he had to rely on the Eight Gates that even he could use. However, these gloves would draw out his chakra and imbue them into his attacks.

It would thus create a result not too far off from Tsunade and Sakura's terrifying superhuman strength once Lee masters the abilities of the gloves. Naruto had recently thought of this brilliant idea and had taken several weeks to make his first functional prototype and another week to perfect. He was still in the process of devising a method to limit the harm done to the body by opening the hidden gates. Already he had left ointments for healing wounds from training and various precious pills that would strengthen the body's structure itself (which would cause a significant increase in strength, durability and endurance of the body itself).

Even so, none of it was truly viable as a solution to prevent Lee from burning out after using the gates. One insane idea had recently crossed his mind to reinvent the technique completely to contain the damage to one's body after supplementing it with the effect of fūinjutsu, which was even more necessary for Lee because of his atrophied chakra pathways that prevented him from using jutsu in the first place. That would require Naruto to draw seals directly onto Lee, so it had to be put hold -- he would do it after he revealed his capabilities in fūinjutsu to the rest of the world and also properly befriended the youth-obsessed boy.

Once that was done Naruto used Hiraishin once again. Before heading to Shino's residence in the Aburame compound, he had one final stop.

ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ

When the world around him cleared once more after the momentary haze that accompanied teleportation (though the benefit of using the Hiraishin as a transportation technique was that the transition period was so short that it was practically nonexistent), he was standing in the middle of a dimly-lit room situated in a dark cavern deep underground. It was a place that was situated far beneath the bright hidden village of Konohagakure. It was an empty, bleak place.

Yet one thing was most unusual.

This place was clearly inhabited, with one individual sitting on a narrow and thin futon and staring at Naruto with an inquisitive look on his face. However, this was not the strange part of this situation. Truly, this was not weird at all. Naruto's Hiraishin marker had been placed on this person, after all.

It was the identity of this individual.

It was a member of ROOT and someone that he had known in a past life as "Sai".

Naruto grinned at the idle ROOT agent who sat before him, feeling quite proud of himself as he took special note of the emotions which were prominently displayed on the other boy's face.

"Kaien."

開縁 was how it was written. Naruto had thought of it when he realised that he was creating a new future with his own hands. It was the moment when he first met a younger version of the friend that he had known before. He had discovered that the boy was innocent, so much so that he could hardly bear to link the child before him to his jaded and unemotional counterpart of the future in a different timeline. It was at that moment when he had decided to befriend him to prevent that very same future, damning the consequences.

He had never once regretted it.

Originally, he had thought to give him another name since plain "Sai" meant little more than the name of a weapon. He did not want that. It was not a name that suited the child that he saw before him. As such, he had chosen a more appropriate one (with the child's permission, of course, if that meant anything at all). 開, read as "Kai", meant open in the most literal sense while 縁, which read as "En", meant destiny, fate, karma and bonds. It was something that he truly wished for his old friend. He hoped that the small innocent child he saw would have an open destiny. That way, he would be able to choose what he wanted. It meant that "Sai" would never have to exist, as he would never have to be broken down and suppressed as he had been in a past life. He never discussed this with Sasuke and Sakura, but he hoped that the Sai he had known in the previous timeline will be free to create and maintain his bonds with others without interference from the old war hawk Danzō. He had wished the best for the future of the younger version of his former friend, who had only just started realising what it meant to feel emotions when he had passed.

"I can never understand how you manage to just appear in the middle of the ROOT HQ just like that," Kaien commented while furrowing his eyebrows.

Naruto's grin widened.

"I told you already, didn't I? I can appear wherever you are. So don't hesitate to call should you ever need help," Naruto replied, sounding half-serious and half-joking.

The boy who would be called Sai in the future frowned in annoyance as he ran his fingers through his hair with a huff.

"You know that's not what I meant. What I was trying to ask is just how you get through all the security? Surveillance has become even tighter around here ever since that had happened. It's a completely different level of difficulty. Should you wish to bypass it, I doubt even you can do it so effortlessly," Kaien grumbled with a friendly glare.

Naruto just laughed. "I can naturally appear by your side whenever and wherever."

Kaien groaned in exasperation.

"You say the most embarrassing things without any shame. I can't help but wonder how you do it. Say something like that to a girl instead. Well back on topic, even if you did possess the ability to appear wherever I am, how can you possibly get the perfect timing every single time? It's not like I'm always alone here, you know. In fact, all training sessions involve sparring with the other operatives. Other than on missions, what little downtime I have to spend alone is just so sparse that even I cannot possibly forsee when my next off day would be. If I believed the claim that you simply appeared by my side, that will mean that I would need to believe that you can also predict my schedule better than myself too. How can I possibly accept that? The only other possibility would be that you keep tabs on my activities, but from what I know of you, it looks as though you are a fairly busy individual, with quite a significant position too. As such, there is simply no way that it can even be possible for you to be so successful," Kaien ranted, seeming infuriated by the fact that he could never seem to figure out anything about the strange boy who would always visit him to talk or just give him presents and called himself Santa.

Naruto was completely unfazed by Kaien's complaints. His expression was tranquil and he did not seem worried that the other would do anything excessive, though admittedly he probably would not be harmed even if Kaien were to report his visits to Danzō himself. He had the perfect card to pull in the car of any danger that he could not handle with his current strength.

His current ability was limited, after all. Though his memories and chakra reserves followed him back into the past, most of these said memories were of techniques that he would be able to practice only after he had recovered to sixty per cent of his former level. Thankfully, that was without considering the increase in chakra capacity he had ended up with after the Rikudo Sennin had bestowed him with power. He currently only had a mere five per cent of his total sealed chakra released at this point but his training and the stimulation from the boundless chakra within him, be it from the bijū or his sealed powers, caused the chakra capacity of his current self to grow to be many times that of the Naruto of the past at this point of time. In fact, he would reach the required quota with just a month or two more. For one, if he could just unseal a hundredth of the chakra he had brought over when he transmigrated, he would be more than qualified to use the jutsu he had in mind. After that, altering it to be done without hand seals and then figuring out how to imitate it using his element-control was but a simple affair.

Noting Naruto's lack of reaction, Kaien sighed.

"Whatever. Anyway, what is your purpose in coming to visit me today?" he questioned as he flopped back onto his bed, resuming the comfortable posture.

Shaking his head in mock disappointment, Naruto spoke, "What happened to that adorable child I watched growing up? Why do you seem so annoyed when I come to see you now? Can I not be here just to see you?"

Kaien winced exaggeratedly. "Say those things to a girl. If I didn't know any better, I would think you were flirting with me."

Naruto was a bit stunned by this.

Blinking, he murmured, "Oh?"

Yet it did not take long for his surprise to turn into mischievous taunting as he teased Kaien with a smirk, "And what if I was?"

Kaien flushed red and started spluttering, at a complete loss for words as his mind practically went blank from shock. He had always known Naruto to be playful, often even shameless, but this was a first. He did not even know what he was supposed to think in this situation. How in the world was he supposed to react to Naruto's teasing? It was different from how he usually mocked Kaien. This had a different note to it and had a completely different connotation altogether. He briefly regretted having led the conversation in such a direction. He should have known that Naruto would end up using what he said against him (though he really should not have known, considering that Naruto saying such a thing was completely uncharacteristic of his usual self).

Naruto himself was a little surprised by how boldly he had said those words. It was his first time saying anything of that sort. He never even had a conversation that was even remotely linked to this topic before and it was slightly confusing. He did not know very well what was supposed to be said either, and had literally just gone with the flow, but well... it surely did seem that there was something wrong with what he had said. Even so, it was fine since the other party was just Kaien. Right...?

He resolved to never respond to any similar comments made by his other friends in the future. The conversation would positively end up becoming weird again, Naruto decided of his own accord. If Sasuke or Sakura had heard this sad train of thought, they would slam their foreheads into the nearest wall in frustration. Just how many girls had fallen for Naruto back during the climax of the war? This ignorance would cause the heartbreak of countless young women who would try to get closer to Naruto to no avail. Sakura would be annoyed beyond belief. For Naruto to simply label flirting and the associated teasing as off-limits all because one random conversation he had with Kaien had gone in a strange direction (and there had already been prior experience with Sai, so the two already knew just how frequently conversations with Sai ended on an odd note) was simply too much. However, Naruto would never make such an embarrassing admission to either of his teammates. As such, it seemed as though the hopes and dreams of all those young women can only be shattered.

The two socially awkward males who knew close to nothing about romance wordlessly agreed to pretend that nothing had happened earlier as both came to the rather dangerous(?) assumption that the act of flirting was forbidden. Just who would know what will become of this odd misunderstanding by two boys who had absolutely no clue that they had misinterpreted the purpose of flirting to a girl? The most disastrous scenario would simply be that the two would be hated by women for the rest of their lives. After all, if they were to act so very uncomfortable whenever a female approached either of them with such intentions, it was quite unlikely that they would get very far in any romantic relationship.

Naruto coughed awkwardly and continued while pretending that their earlier exchange had never occurred, "That aside, I have a little something for you."

Kaien felt a little bit stupefied.

He had been convinced that Naruto had come with intent to request of him to complete a task. That was the reason why he had been slightly hostile and guarded ever since Naruto appeared. He was not sure what would be asked of him and was unable to calm down. He recently learned that people associated with one another based on how much one was able to benefit from the other. As such, he had believed that the next time Naruto visited (the truth was that Naruto had taken much longer than usual between his visits to the extent that Kaien started entertaining the idea of Naruto having abandoned him) would be the time when Naruto would make it known what he wanted.

Kaien knew that he could not refuse Naruto. It was, in part, out of obligation due to the sheer gratitude he felt to the other. However, it was largely due to the bond that they shared. Kaien owed his everything to Naruto. Everything that he knew now was taught to him by Naruto. He would not have known how to feel emotions if not for the fact that Naruto helped him to keep himself intact despite the harsh training that he endured. It had been Naruto who taught him to conceal his emotions such that it would appear to others that the work done to suppress them had been effective. It had been Naruto who had helped him through his grief after Shin's death. The feelings he had for Naruto were beyond mere gratitude and were almost on the same level as worship. That was just how much Naruto meant to him.

He knew that the name Santa was just an alias. Naruto had never made to tell Kaien his actual name, though. With that in mind, Kaien never asked. He did not particularly care about the identity of his saviour. Whoever Naruto was would not -- could not, change how he felt.

"What is it?" Kaien could not help but ask as he felt anticipation bubble forth from within him while childish excitement caused him to leap right off his bed.

"A summoning contract," Naruto told him with a smug and pompous look as he flourished the scroll he withdrew from a storage seal.

Kaien's eyes widened as his jaw dropped when he realised just what that meant. A summoning contract was an incredibly rare thing that could only be found by those who possessed luck and strength in equal measures. One had to chance upon their sacred lands to even obtain a chance to meet the boss summons. Even then it was hard to get the trust of the boss summon and even more difficult to convince it to allow one to sign their contract.

To be able to obtain one was already no simple task, not to mention giving it away to another person. Even blood brothers would fight one another for a chance to own a summon. There was just too great of a benefit in having one. It was already fantastic to be able to summon the boss of any ordinary summons! There was no need to even mention the fact that whatever Naruto offered was on a much higher level than possible by anyone else.

"This includes a jutsu that enables you to reverse-summon yourself to a summon world where you will find the summons that is most well-suited to yourself. As long as you reverse-summon yourself there successfully, you will be acknowledged by the boss of that particular summons," Naruto explained, purposely leaving out a lot of information.

He had learned about this from Kurama. Kurama told him that the bijū were beyond all summon bosses except for mythical ones. As this was the first time he had ever heard about anything like that (it was his first time hearing that mythical summons even existed), he asked about it and the bijū informed him no summons were worth mentioning besides the mythical ones. Mugetsu was the one to inform him of how the mythical summons accepted their summoners as well as what requirements they had. It was, originally, well-established fact that one would first have to undergo a series of trials to prove themselves worthy of being able to harness the power of the mythical summons that they desired. However, Mugetsu had been able to help him prepare a "back door" of sorts. By leaving his mark as the master of the Jūbi on someone, that person would be exempted from the tests naturally. Then all the boss summon of their fated mythical summon will do would be to test the character of the one who wishes to obtain their contract.

He did once tell Sakura to just attempt the Kuchiyose no Jutsu and hope to somehow reverse-summon herself to the summon world. That had even been before Naruto had gotten Mugetsu and Kurama to explain the mythical summons to him. It turned out that there was a much safer jutsu to use in place of the original one, which was intended to enable one to travel there to make contact with a specific summon that was most suited to oneself. The two bijū explained it to him and he managed to reverse-engineer it to obtain a technique that the two bijū approved of sufficiently. Apparently, it might have even been better than the one that they witnessed the Ōtsutsuki family use back in the ancient times.

Since he had no idea how to tell Kaien all of this without revealing the fact that he had the Jūbi living in his body, Naruto chose to simply keep quiet about it all. No harm done. Kaien would just have a misunderstanding about everything (as long as Naruto is not exposed by the boss of whatever summons Kaien receives, that is).

Naruto felt himself hesitate for a moment. This was a much younger and more emotional version of him, but Sai had always been scary whenever he got upset about anything... He had the most terrifyingly vindictive personality. It was just that most did not realise that fact due to how passive he acted most of the time. Sai had been rediscovering his emotions then, too. Perhaps Kaien might be scarier if he ever learned that Naruto had hidden so much from him...? Just what would Kaien do? Would he just quietly accept the fact that Naruto was a completely different person from what Kaien had likely thought him to be? Naruto somehow felt both guilty and fearful at the same time.

Even so, it was not like he could reasonably tell Kaien everything. For one, Sasuke and Sakura would likely kill him for doing something that big without consulting them. If they did not already kill him for doing such major things behind the scenes without even letting them know, that is. Naruto suddenly had the foreboding sense of what might have been his death right around the corner.

"What? You mean that if you go to the sacred land of a summon, you would unquestionably be able to obtain it?" Kaien uttered in disbelief.

This sounded completely unbelievable. If it were so, then just what was the rest of the shinobi world thinking? If it was indeed all that simple, everyone else would be doing that! In such a case, the most likely outcome would be that summons would be widespread. It would no longer be such a special thing that would even be able to make up a big advantage over one's peers or even challenge those with greater strength than oneself.

"Yes," Naruto replied simply, perfectly acting as though his earlier dilemma had never occurred.

Kaien blinked once before staring at Naruto intently.

Finally, he shook his head.

"Nope. This time, I won't believe you. What you said sounds like an impossible hope to me. The truth is probably that while it is true that when I use this method, I'll have a simple shortcut that would enable me to obtain a suitable summon, anyone else would have to pass difficult tests to do so. Though I cannot fathom what in the world you could have done to ensure such a thing, I know you well enough that I can easily guess that this is impossible for anyone else. It is just like how you gave me a brush that can create form and that technique that grants it life. This is not even considering the parchment which forms substance or that ink that can create a "soul", an individuality. If I just look at all the things you have given to me before, it is not hard to guess that this probably surpasses everything I have gotten in the past," Kaien said flatly, voicing his guesses with such certainty that anyone else would think that he truly knew that what he was saying to be true.

Naruto could have concealed his reaction, but he chose not to (in the hope that Kaien would be less mad later on that way). As such, Naruto winced slightly and shrugged. Kaien, being the most perceptive person that Naruto knew, will surely be able to gather that he wanted to tell him the truth but was unable to do so due to a reason that he was unable to voice at this point in time. He had that much trust in Kaien.

"Have fun with that. You can take a long-term mission with completion criteria that you can carry out within a shorter duration than is allocated and do it then. That seal matrix that I prepared for you only works once but, besides that, you just need to learn the necessary hand seals and activate the jutsu with a small blood sacrifice. One drop would be enough, so don't cause yourself too heavy an injury. Enclosed in the scroll are the specifics of the procedure, so read that in your own time. Don't worry about being discovered. Only you can see or sense the scroll that I gave you," Naruto spoke with a wink.

Kaien nodded mutely, but his gratitude was visible in his gaze.

Naruto also knew this and smiled warmly at his one and only secret friend.

"Mata ne!"

With that, Naruto disappeared just as elusively as he had come.

Kaien also smiled a little sadly as he continued to watch the space where Naruto stood before.

"See you soon, Santa-sama. Whoever you are, I will always stand by you. I wonder if you would ever realise that. I owe you my everything. Just when will you trust me enough to tell me those secrets you hide deep within? You always smile, but that darkness in your heart cannot lie. Tell me, Santa-sama, just what must I do to be able to help you?"

Kaien's heartfelt words never found their recipient, hanging mournfully in the air as Kaien closed his eyes and began to silently contemplate.

As they always did whenever Naruto was not around, his hands found the familiar touch of the notebook which detailed his life with Shin.

Unlike its counterpart in the alternate timeline that had never been completed, this notebook was entirely filled with paintings and sketches that almost seemed to be alive due to the sheer emotion that had been poured into them when he painted them. Kaien gently ran a finger over the image of himself and Shin standing together with happy faces and finally snapped the book shut with a note of finality. He rose from his seated position on his small bed and purposefully walked across the room to kneel before a chest.

As it clicked open, scattered pages of uniform size filled with images with no less emotion than those within the notebook were revealed. However, while those were monochrome, only painted in varying shades of black and white, these were filled with vibrant colours. Where the monochrome pages were all happy, filled only with the memories of peaceful and joyous times that he wished to commemorate, the colourful ones had a plethora of emotions. There were happy ones and sad ones, frustrating moments permeated with anguish and uplifting moments overflowing with hope. Despite this, it was clear that much care had been put into producing every single stroke on each creamy page of canvas.

Kaien carefully gathered these paintings into a neat stack as a warm feeling began to surge in him. He placed the notebook into the emptied chest and bowed his head to it. Even as he did so, he held the new stack of papers close to his chest.

"Farewell, Shin," he said softly, "your little otōtō has grown up. I will always remember you, but I will set aside the past from now on. I am Kaien now, not Unit 1021. I will continue onwards and look towards tomorrow, living life to the fullest just as you asked of me. Only... I never did what you asked. I've never suppressed my emotions. I never had to. Right after you passed, I met him. He saved me from myself and ROOT. I may still remain here physically but I'm no mere ROOT operative anymore. I am also Kaien, someone whose life was saved by that person. You told me once to live on and I'm living quite well now if I must say so myself. I can't say this for sure since you are not with us in this world right now, but I do think that you would like him too. Everything I have now was given to me by him. I will live my life for his sake from now on. I'm not asking for your permission or anything, though. I can't lie to you about this either. I will simply tell you now that I'll live for the future from now on and will not have any more regrets."

Kaien rose to his feet and placed a hand on the lid of the chest.

"I hope that you will support my decision from wherever you are now, as long as you still exist on any plane. Even if you don't, I'm afraid I will not change my mind. Despite everything, I am will continue to be grateful for your support in the past. It is just that I will now live for a future envisioned by that person."

With a peaceful expression on his face, Kaien closed his eyes briefly as though making one final farewell and shut the chest. He locked it tightly and turned his back on it. He never did look back.

ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ

Naruto paused in his step, suddenly feeling a little empty inside.

It was an unanticipated sensation.

(And no, he was not feeling hungry. That wasn't it at all.)

Had he forgotten something? He could not help but wonder this. He felt like he had just missed something very important.

Unable to figure out what it was, Naruto did not take long to give up on wondering. He casually abandoned the thought to one faraway corner in his mind. It would not do for him to dwell so heavily on something that he would not be able to solve for so long. It would just be a waste of time and effort.

"Hmm?"

Naruto could not help but notice as a familiar silver-haired jōnin hummed while walking by, reading one particular orange-coloured book.

His eyes gained a mischievous spark that had not been there before as an urge overcame him. It was an urge he neither had the drive nor reason to suppress. He just felt like messing with his former (future?) jōnin instructor. There was just something particularly amusing about bullying Hatake Kakashi. It was a shame indeed that he could never do so as Takamatsu Sōjirō despite the numerous opportunities he has had thus far (he could not break character, after all). There was an appeal to doing so that Naruto had never been able to explain.  Kakashi's reactions were always most gratifying. They were simply the most delightful to watch.

Naruto decided to start with a much less severe first prank as a sort of greeting, lest he ended up scaring his future instructor off.

Noting with satisfaction that the book that the silver-haired man was reading was really one of the limited edition books in Kakashi's prized collection (his favourite one, at that), he did the right thing and marked Kakashi with a Hiraishin marker. He used pure chakra to do so, leaving it on a spot on his scalp near Kakashi's ear. There was a high probability of the jōnin suffering due to hair loss for the next few days, especially at the area where he had left the mark, but it was unlikely for him to ever discover the Hiraishin marker. He would have done it while he was on ANBU duty as Kitsune or made the blood clone that he had named Takamatsu Sōjirō to do it, but Kakashi had always been all too aware of him when he was in that form for him to ever be able to do something like that without Kakashi noticing. Perhaps Kakashi just did not trust Sōjirō all that much, Naruto mused. He would have done it while the man was asleep, but he had the feeling that doing it at that time would likely not bode well for him. It was an instinct, a feeling without any basis, but he had decided to trust it lest something did go wrong, leaving him with nothing but regrets.

With that done, he used a swift Shunshin to get near Kakashi and snatched the book from his hold and placed a book filled with drawings of dogs in Kakashi's pocket instead before making a quick getaway with yet another Shunshin. He also proceeded to use a Hiraishin to get behind Kakashi and carefully remained in the jõnin's blind spot. He did not make to leave as he patiently trailed behind Kakashi, who searched high and low for the missing book with a look of panic emerging in his usually apathetic gaze.

It was rather comical watching the usually collected man ducking under vegetable carts and searching between rafters for the book (or perhaps the culprit who had snatched it from him without him noticing until it was too late).

It was only after he had searched through the entirety of the civilian district that he finally gave up, his breathing more laboured than usual as he bent over. He supported his weight with his hands on his knees. He never panted even after an assassination mission but was doing so thanks to Naruto's little prank on the spur of the moment. This thought made Naruto snicker quietly to himself from his hiding spot not too far from said shinobi.

Indeed, it was worth it getting sidetracked to be able to receive this first-class entertainment. That incident had affected Kakashi too (he had even still been in ANBU at that time and looked utterly hilarious wearing his pants as some sort of headdress and his hitai-ate as a belt. His shirt was worn like pants and his vest had been somehow used as a replacement for shoes -- his sandals had ended up attached to his wrists instead with his gloves stuffed in them. It had been a most amusing sight (and no, Naruto had randomised the effects while ensuring that the ANBU members would remain decent and did not exactly plan that). Even so, this was a little more satisfying than that. (On the whole, the mass pranking event was still more interesting to watch though.)

That was the moment where Kakashi finally noticed the book filled with dog drawings (by Kaien, or Sai, courtesy of Naruto who borrowed the Inuzuka dogs from their kennels for a day to give him the necessary inspiration). He pulled it out from his pocket and started to flip through it slowly, his angry look gradually softening until he stopped looking upset altogether and was even somewhat satisfied instead. He seemed to give up completely on his missing Limited Edition Icha Icha Pursuit of Love and started to walk away while happily looking at pictures of dogs and puppies alike in adorable poses that drew out even more of their canine cuteness.

His embarrassment was long forgotten and he simply continued on his way as though nothing had happened.

"Does Kaka-sensei perhaps have selective memory?" Naruto could not help but muse aloud as he watched this play out, a little surprised by the unexpected turn of events.

Then he simply shrugged.

"Oh well. Whatever."

Naruto proceeded to vanish and reappear in ROOT headquarters (with a Hiraishin, naturally) where he "collected" a blindfolded Aburame operative and before teleporting once more with his new "cargo" in tow. He reappeared in the middle of the Aburame clan compound and dropped off the Aburame in Shino's bedroom. He first used several seals to help undo the majority of the effects of Danzō's brainwashing and removed the seal on his tongue though. Then he placed Torune into the sack (which he added a bow on) that he had been carrying around and just left the clan head's residence with a cheery look on his face. He was now empty-handed after finishing his rounds and was quite satisfied with his achievements.

He used Hiraishin once more to return to the civilian district and noticed that Kakashi had paused somewhere and was admiring another page within the dog book and sniggered.

Sakura would be most pleased to see that Kakashi had quit reading erotica.

Hopefully, this would get her to forgive him for not telling them anything at all about his recent escapades.

Hopefully.

Author's note:

If it was not clear enough, Kaien is Sai. He will be referred to as such in most of his appearances unless the part happens to follow the perspective of someone other than Naruto or Kaien himself.
Whoever is reading this, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!