Kakashi smelled them before he saw them, the coppery sweet tang of blood slipping through his mask with ease. He and Shikaku alighted on a branch high above a clearing. Down below, his self-proclaimed rival sat beside Neji Hyuuga and what must have been a genin from Suna. They were all haggard, and Guy sported a bandage wrapped around his thigh. Two corpses lay discarded off to one side, face down in the dirt.

He made to jump down, only to be stopped by Shikaku's outstretched arm.

The older man set dark eyes on him. "Do you hear that?"

Kakashi stilled himself and listened.

Oh.

"There's a sensory seal," he muttered, only now realizing that, despite their moving mouths, he couldn't hear anything from the people below. "Only audio?"

Shikaku hummed. "It looks like it, though we may be out of range of the visual effects."

That was likely. Momiji—he'd forgotten about her—leapt down from his shoulder onto the branch beside them.

"Princess sent out Sano and Tetsu to look for them," she said softly, her voice a mix between little girl and yappy dog. "I doubt those fools would have considered masking their scents, so it's surprising that they aren't down there."

Indeed.

"Maybe they ran into trouble," he suggested. "Guy's mini-me isnt' down there, and I imagine there are other Suna nin around here somewhere."

"You might be right," Shikaku agreed. "But right now, we need to dismantle the seals." He looked expectantly at Kakashi.

He felt his eyebrows rise. "You want me to do it?"

"Don't play dumb, Hatake. Aside from your daughter, you're the most experienced fuinjutsu user in the village."

The 'right now' went unsaid.

"I don't know what you expect me to do," he groused. "I didn't even notice they were there. We would probably be better off finding my kid and having her do it."

Shikaku huffed a laugh. "Yeah, you're probably right."

Oi.

Ignoring Kakashi's carefully crafted hurt expression, Shikaku spoke directly to Momiji. "Can you take us to her?"

She cocked her head to one side. "Probably. I don't know what you plan to do once you're inside one of these seals, though. Our advantage comes from being outside them."

That was true. Hanako's proficiency with seals was a point a pride for her and Kakashi, both, but could she disable one while under its influence? That wasn't something they'd ever thought to test. If, after an entire day within one, she hadn't freed herself, then she likely couldn't.

Damn.

He shared a look with Shikaku and he knew the other man had reached the same conclusion, likely in half the time.

Kakashi sighed dramatically. "Mah, I guess I have no choice, then."

Without preamble, he began circling the clearing, looking for the seal's anchor point. Calling it a seal was a bit generous, he mused. It was in all likelihood just a genjutsu being remotely maintained by sealed chakra, freeing up the caster to come and go as they pleased. Setting something like that up would have taken some serious planning.

The poor kids walked right into an ambush.

Finally, right when he was considering uncovering his Sharingan, he saw it. The glint of metal up above him, reflecting the light of the rising sun, drew his attention. There, the hollow of a tree, sat a kunai, a paper tag tied firmly to its handle. He really did use his Sharingan then, just for a moment. The dojutsu picked out the traps he'd expected, and he deftly disarmed them before ripping the paper from the weapon.

"—every confidence that our comrades are well and on their way! Rest assured, I shall reunite you with your siblings or run all the way to Suna on my hands!"

Ah, Guy. The poor seal must have been straining to keep his volume contained.

Kakashi took a moment to bolster himself before jumping down into the clearing, landing behind Guy.

"Yo."

His long time friend jumped in surprise, falling into a comical defensive stance. His fierce expression almost immediately brightened into a wide smile.

"Kakashi, my friend! What a fortuitous surprise!" His bushy brows fell into a confused scowl. "I'm going to assume you know what happened."

Kakashi jerked his thumb over at Momiji where she and Shikaku landed beside the Suna genin—much to the poor boy's surprise. "The kiddo sent her dog ahead."

Guy's smile returned before fading. "Ah, young Hanako! I am sorry, my friend. I have been unable to find her. I shall perform 10,000 laps around the village as penance!"

Kakashi held up a hand. "Mah, Guy, don't worry about it. She can take care of herself." He looked over Guy's shoulder to the edge of the clearing where another dog was stepping into view. "She's trying to take care of you, too, it looks like."

The Collie—Sanosuke, if he remembered correctly—trotted up to them with his tongue lolling. "Yo," he said, panting. "You guys were hard to find."

Momiji sniffed derisively. "Did the sensory seal block your nose, too?"

Sano plopped down onto his belly with a gusty sigh. "Is that what it was? I could only follow the trail so far before it started going in circles."

Hmm, so maybe they had guarded against scent. Did that mean they—whoever they were—had known his kid would be with them? Or had it been a general guard against scent based trackers in general? The Hatake were hardly the only ones in the village, after all.

"Can you take us to Tetsu?" Momiji asked. "I'll bet he's having the same problem."

Sano groaned loudly in protest.

"Uh," the Suna genin pointed to the ninken with a wide eyed expression. "Are the dogs supposed to be talking?"

Kakashi managed to contain his snort of incredulity—barely.

"Mah, does Suna not have ninken? They're everywhere in Konoha, you know."

The poor boy looked even more confused, but Kakashi didn't feel like explaining further. If he was really that curious, he could ask the dogs, themselves.

Shikaku loaded the corpses into a seal of his own, the delicate loops and swirls a familiar design. Together, the five of them followed the ninken as they lead the way to their packmate. Only fifteen minutes of travel at half genin speed had them standing beside a shameful Tetsu.

"Sorry, boss," the Shar Pei said. "I failed the Princess."

Kakashi idly pat him on the head as he turned to Neji. "There's a seal filled with chakra around here somewhere. Mind finding it for us?"

Why use his Sharingan when there was a better dojutsu for the job?

One located and dismantled seal later, and mini-Guy was reunited with his sensei. The Suna genin's teammate—sister?—and sensei—Baki—were relieved to see him, but still tense.

"This is bad," Baki said under his breath to his students, clearly ignorant of Kakashi's enhanced hearing. "Gaara's out there alone. We can't risk him killing the girl."

Ahem, what?

"Do you have something to share with the class?" Kakashi asked, a smile firmly in place. The three Suna nin didn't even hide their surprise, and Shikaku sighed beside him.

"If you know something we don't, I'd consider telling us. We're going in blind as it is, since none of you bothered to keep anyone alive for questioning." That last bit was more of a grumble than anything else, and Kakashi might have laughed at his expense if his kid's life wasn't apparently at risk.

The genin shared a look, both a little green around the gills. Baki cleared his throat.

"Ah, well, my youngest student is a little...ah, high strung. He has a tendency to...use excessive force and has been known to...jeopardize his teammates' safety."

He was obviously picking his words carefully, likely downplaying the danger his kid was facing in order to protect his student. Kakashi could understand that, to a certain degree, but it was his kid being threatened here.

"Well," he said, voice artificially sweet. "We'd better go find them, then. Momiji, if you would."

Once again, they followed the dogs, the air tense and rife with potential violence. It took them longer to get there, this time, and there were two chakra loaded seals rather than one. The result was a wider range of visual dampening, and Kakashi felt his hackles rise higher for every second he couldn't see his kid. The odds of these attackers planning for her involvement were rising far beyond comfortable levels. If his hands shook while disarming the traps around the second seal, neither Guy nor Shikaku said anything.

"—and that's how you make a truth seal. You're basically just blocking off their ability to tell untruths, rather than encouraging truths on their own. It's way easier to negate than to promote, so eliminating other options is typically the best way to get what you want."

And, just like that, all his gut twisting apprehension left him in a dizzying rush. There, in another clearing, was his kid. She was kneeling in the grass, leaning over a paper tag with an ink laden brush. Beside her, a red headed boy watched as she painted, engrossed in her lecture. Off to one side, a man sat cocooned in sand, head lolling to one side.

Well, then.

He made to leap down, but was once again stopped by Shikaku. He leveled his foulest glare on the Nara clan-head, but it was ignored. Shikaku caught Baki's eye.

"If your boy is as volatile as you say, maybe you should go down first."

The Suna jounin stiffened, eyes wide and face pale. He opened his mouth to speak, but a voice from below interrupted him.

"I can hear you guys," Hanako called up to them. "You may as well come down."

Kakashi shot a smug glance at Shikaku and jumped down, moving immediately to place a hand on his kid's head. "Yo."

She smiled up at him, her happiness clear in her eyes. "Hey, daddy. What took you so long?"

"Mah, kiddo," he chuckled. "You're a long ways from the village."

"Yeah, but you could have had Momiji summon you back."

Ah.

He hadn't even thought of that.

"If we'd done that," Shikaku said with a wry smile after touching down. "We'd have been trapped within the sensory seal along with you."

She cocked her head. "Is that what it was? Do you have one with you?"

Kakashi reached into his hip pouch to pull one out for her, but Shikaku stopped him. Again.

"Now's not the time. I see you kept yours alive."

She looked over her shoulder at the captive. "Of course, we did. We interrogated him, too."

She pulled a green folder from her seal and presented it to her sensei with both hands. The jounin commander smiled as he took it.

"Ah, brat, you're a blessing."

She chuffed a short laugh. "I'm gonna quote you on that."

"Don't you dare."

She turned to the red headed boy who'd watched their interactions with placid green eyes. "Ne, Gaara-kun, these geezers are my dad and my sensei. Dad and sensei, this is Gaara-kun. He's my friend."

The boy looked at her sharply, lips parting in the smallest indication of surprise. His previously cold expression softened the slightest bit and Kakashi lamented internally.

Not another one.