Time passed quickly, if a bit monotonously. Team seven and the Teru squad continued to switch off on guard duty, switching between the bridge, Tsunami and Inari. Those from Teru gave all their rations to the people in the village and continued to sleep out in the forest and scavenge for food. Yagura, being rather pleased with this arrangement, made everyone gather twice as much as they needed and together with Fu, taught Naruto and Gaara how to cook. In the morning, whoever was going into town with Tsunami would take the extra food with them and hand it out to the people in the village-when team seven were the ones guarding Tsunami, Yagura entrusted this task to Iruka. All of Teru continued to make shadow clones that trained in the forest while they were attending to their assigned tasks. Nothing really happened for the first month or so except Naruto Gaara and Fu learning some new games from playing with the village children when they were assigned to Inari, and them, along with Yagura starting to help out with the bridge because people continued to quit working due to fear of Gato and his men.

Yagura, Iruka, and Kakashi grew suspicious as time wore on, paranoid of what Gato could possibly be planning.

One day, while heading out to their usual clearing in the forest, Teru stumbled upon a boy in the forest who was wearing a pink Kimono with swirl designs on it and carrying a basket. He could have easily been mistaken for a girl with his long black hair and rather feminine face, but all of Teru recognized him as a boy. They were about to pass him without a second thought when he stopped them "Excuse me, would you happen to know where I could find some medicinal herbs? I've been looking for quite a while, but still haven't found any."

The team turned to him as one, and Yagura told him "If you'll follow us to our clearing, we gathered all the herbs that we thought that we could possibly need while staying in this forest. We're willing to share if we have the herb you're looking for."

They turned back in the direction that they were heading a Haku hurried to follow them, staying a few feet behind them at all times. Yagura glanced a Fu and, taking her cue, she fell back to talk to the boy.

"So! What's your name? I haven't seen you around in the village before, and we've been here for about a month now."

"I'm Haku, I haven't really been around the village recently, my friend is rather sick you see, and I have been tending to him."

"Ah! So that's what you need the herbs for! ....." Fu continued to chat cheerfully with Haku while the rest to her team continued to lead the way, glancing back at them occasionally and communicating using their mental link.

"So, what do you think?" Yagura asked them.

"I think that he is a rather suspicious person," Gaara answered.

"Yeah! Yeah! He's super suspicious! Who just waves down random strangers in the forest asking for herbs? For all he knows, we could simply be wandering around this area and know nothing to herbs. Wouldn't most people just continue looking around on their own, even if they cross paths with someone else?" Naruto agreed.

"Well there's that, and the fact that he has a developed chakra system. Plus, he doesn't act anything like the people from around this area, even if he is dressed similarly. The people around here tend to be either submissive, hopeless, and fearful or rebellious and fearful. He is neither. Anyone from this area is generally wary of strangers too. He's obviously not from here and knows how to fight. He's either a forward idiot who knows how to fight, or he is planning something. I'm more inclined to believe that second one."

"Yeah the chakra signature in the trees following us makes in pretty hard to think that he isn't up to something," Naruto agreed.

"What chakra signature? I don't feel anything." Gaara asked.

"Yeah, I don't feel anything either. It's probably the Uzumaki sensory abilities kicking in. Whoever this is must be suppressing their chakra. Be careful," Yagura commanded.

"Got it!" everyone chimed in.