Kōmei's residence was quite a bit larger than Mōsō's. A structure made in a much more traditional style then what's found nowadays, the mansion where the tactician resided possessed paper walls, a sloped roof, lifted flooring, and was about six to eight times larger than that of the adviser's.
That did not mean that the structure was large, while it was definitely a decent size, and would easily be considered massive when compared to the buildings surrounding it, the house was still very small compared to many of the buildings in Konoha.
Naruto found himself leaning against the wall behind one of the many bushes located within the mansion's walls. It was nearing dawn now, the sun was beginning to lower on the horizon, casting a darkened orange light against the ground that made the shadows that much harsher.
'Do you really think this will work?'
'Yes,' Naruto answered, his eyes closed as he tried to get some rest before he had to move into action. It wasn't like he needed his eyes to see anyways, there were twenty four kage bunshin surrounding the building, all of them henge'd to look like inanimate objects. 'All we need to do is wait, patience is the key here.'
'Patience?' Kyuubi's voice adopted an amused tone. 'You wouldn't know patience if it hit you in the head with a frying pan.'
Naruto just barely managed to withhold his scowl at the woman's taunt. 'I'll have you know I am very patient... when I need to be.'
'Hmmm... I suppose you have gotten better since becoming a genin,' the red haired vixen admitted. 'Still, I can't really picture you and patience in the same sentence.'
'Hmph! Whatever.'
'Aw, don't be like that, I was just teasing,' Kyuubi giggled in response to Naruto's huff. Her voice calmed down a second later, though it still held its tone of amusement to it. 'You know this whole plan you hatched is based upon the belief that Kōmei knows who the Cursed Warrior is, or at least has a hunch and is willing to follow up on it.'
'I am well aware of that,' Naruto replied. 'However, given that he encountered the Cursed Warrior before, I believe he would at least have a theory on who it could be. And I'm willing to bet that he'll follow up on it soon, hopefully tonight.'
'You're just getting restless,' Kyuubi teased. 'I don't think you'd be able to withstand another day of staking out someone's house before going stir crazy.'
Naruto's eye began to twitch, and he would have said something to dispute her claim, perhaps something along the lines of how he was more than capable of sitting around for days on end so long as he could accomplish his mission – a lie if he ever knew one – but the very moment he chose to open his mental mouth, a figure emerging from a backdoor of the mansion caught his eyes. The figure was wearing a blue kimono with the traditional slit in the shoulders that seemed common place in Tori no Kuni, but the thing that got Naruto's attention the most was the dark hood with a facial mask that covered all but his eyes.
'You see that?' asked Naruto, a sense of smug satisfaction in his voice. 'It looks like I was right. There's no other reason for him to head off without his attendants unless he is going to meet the Cursed Warrior.'
'Hmph,'Kyuubi huffed, and Naruto could almost picture her crossing her arms in annoyance. 'Well, I guess even you can be right at least once in your life.'
Rather than be angered by the insult, Naruto just smiled. 'I'll remember you said that the next time I'm right and shove it in your face.'
'Whatever,' Kyuubi rolled her eyes. 'Just follow the tactician before you lose sight of him.'
Naruto's smiled widened slightly as he took to the roof and began following the hooded figure he suspected was Kōmei. It looked like he had finally got one up over the woman sealed inside of him, and he was going to savor that victory like a fine wine.
With all the stealth a ninja of his caliber possessed, which was quite a bit considering the number of pranks he had gotten away with while running from Chunin – or at least, pranks he would have gotten away with were it not for Iruka-sensei – he followed the hooded Kōmei.
The man in question was walking along the streets, a lantern in his hand, which he had lit once it began to get dark out. Naruto had taken to the roofs, silently hopping from one to the next without Kōmei being the wiser. It didn't take to long for the tactician to reach his destination, whilst Naruto himself took to crouching down on a branch of a nearby tree.
'This is the same place we ran into the Cursed Warrior,' Naruto furrowed his brows as he took in the small shrine once more. He really didn't like this place, though that could just be because this was where he had confronted the gho – man! There was no such thing as ghosts! – where he had confronted the man pretending to be a ghost.
'It looks like you were actually onto something.'
'Are you saying you doubted me?' asked Naruto, raising an eyebrow in spite of the fact that he knew Kyuubi could not see it.
'Yes.'
Naruto sighed, but didn't respond to the woman's taunting. He had a job to do, and he couldn't do it by allowing himself to be reeled into an argument with the fox woman.
It was a good thing he hadn't bothered arguing with Kyuubi some more, Naruto decided, because less than a second later the door to the shrine opened up and out walked the white clad figure of the Cursed Warrior.
It's gait was slow, lilting, as it made its way out of the shrine and into the cool night air. It's armor clacked with each step it made, a haunting rhythm that was almost enough to send chills down Naruto's spine. Only his incredible stubbornness and inherent ability to deny reality kept him from freaking out.
As the figure clad in pale white Samurai armor stopped moving, Kōmei removed the face mask and hood from his head. Naruto narrowed his eyes, frowning for a second, before deciding to get some insight from his inner vixen.
'Kyuubi.'
'Already on it,' Kyuubi replied, pausing for a moment as Naruto allowed her to extend her senses from the seal. 'The Cursed Warrior before you is definitely not the one you faced last night. This one has a person inside of it.'
Naruto closed his eyes and sighed. 'Which means that there are either two Cursed Warriors, or the one last night was being controlled by someone from afar.'
'That last one isn't very likely. Even if they had been using chakra strings and were a mile away, I would still sense them. No, your theory on their being two different Cursed Warriors is much more plausible.'
'I thought so too,' Naruto agreed. 'Which means that there is much more going on here that we're unaware of.' He blew out a long breath at the realization that this task had just gotten infinitely harder. 'Why can't things ever be simple with me.'
Seriously, it was like some kind of curse. Almost all of the missions he had ever gone went FUBAR in some way, shape, or form. Either someone up there hated him, or this was just Murphy's Law getting in its kicks, which, come to think of it, may translate into someone up there hating him.
'Because Kami loves you,' Kyuubi told in the way that only she could. Naruto would have rolled his eyes, but he was already getting ready to move out. 'What are you planning to do now?'
'What else, I'm going down there and kicking ass,' Naruto replied in a way that implied his answer should have been obvious. 'If this is a trap, than now is the best time to spring it, and if not, I can at least get some information by interrogating Kōmei and the Cursed Warrior.'
'Not a bad plan,' Kyuubi said after a moment or two. 'I suppose even you have to get lucky once in a while.'
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