Naruto: Paws and Whiskers

As Takeshi ran for a while, he finally breathed in the fresh air, feeling the exhilaration of freedom. It had been suffocating to be cooped up in the camp for too long, with strict rules that kept him from playing around.

After a long-distance run, he finally saw the town that Naoki Gekko had mentioned. He had passed through here before when escorting a caravan during a mission.

As he entered the town, he changed his appearance back to his previous dirty and ugly look and strolled casually down the street. The Land of Grass was currently peaceful, with no news of war. People lived and traveled freely, and the town, being close to the Land of Fire and a key junction on the trade route, was relatively prosperous.

He noticed several ninjas patrolling back and forth on the street. Although they all looked like Genin, they were still ninjas, which was much better than many towns having no protection at all.

Takeshi deliberately took a stroll around the town, and no one noticed anything out of the ordinary about him. Not long after, as he wandered through a street, he saw Naoki Gekko disguised as a merchant from the Land of Grass.

Takeshi didn't follow him. He hadn't had enough fun yet, and it wasn't time to meet up yet, so there was no need to rush.

But honestly, the town in the Land of Grass didn't have much to offer, with only small shops selling food and daily necessities. Although Takeshi had the dividends and profits given by Kabuto, using money here as a cat would be incredibly suspicious, so he could only sigh at the delicious food.

After wandering for a long time, he suddenly saw a beggar. The beggar was quite small and looked quite young. She was wrapped in linen and huddled in a corner, seemingly afraid of the people around her and not daring to approach them to beg.

At that moment, someone came to throw away garbage. The beggar's eyes immediately locked onto him, and when he left, she stood up with her head shrunk, as if she was going to walk towards the garbage dump.

Takeshi walked over, and after a few steps, the beggar looked at him vigilantly. It was a girl. She stared at Takeshi, her hands tucked into her sleeves as if grabbing something, but there seemed to be fear and hesitation in her eyes, wondering if she should fight the cat for food.

After a couple of moments, she gave up, wrapped her tattered robe tightly around herself, and sat back, moving further away from the garbage dump.

'...It seems she thinks I'm coming to fight for food.' Takeshi felt very sad, but when he thought about it carefully, it was understandable. His current appearance was worse than the beggar's.

At least the girl was wearing a robe, and he didn't even have one. But he was not a real stray cat, just disguising himself as one, so he had no intention of snatching food from her. He was just a little curious when he saw the female beggar.

Takeshi went to the edge of the garbage dump, pretending to rummage through something, and then quietly took out a banknote from his space and walked to her side with it in his mouth. He put the banknote in front of her. The girl was stunned for a moment. "Meow!"

"Are you giving it... giving it to me?" Her voice was nice but very weak.

Takeshi nodded. The girl hesitated for a moment, then looked around, picked up the money, and stood up, walking to the store in front of the street and handing it over.

Takeshi followed while sneaking. The storekeeper took the money and said, "This is the currency of the Land of Fire. It seems that you have met a kind person..."

'The currency of the Land of Fire?' The girl was stunned and nervously wrapped her headscarf, waiting on the side.

The storekeeper didn't take the money by force; instead, he gave her a few rice balls and then gave her change. Takeshi hurried back to his previous position.

The girl walked back carefully with two rice balls in her hand, put the one in her left hand in front of him, and said, "This is for you." Her speech was not fluent, maybe because she hadn't spoken for too long, Takeshi guessed.

He ate while observing the girl further. She seemed to care about the headscarf very much and kept nervously glancing around. When she understood what the shopkeeper meant about the currency of the Land of Fire, she was stunned. So she should know what this meant.

Takeshi guessed that she is not an ordinary beggar.

He looked closely and saw that the girl wrapped her headscarf very tightly. But because there was a cat in front of her, and because of hunger and delicious rice balls, she relaxed her guard, loosening her hands a little to let the headscarf loosen, revealing a few strands of red hair behind.

Red-haired, about fourteen or fifteen years old... It was indeed her. A girl from the Uzumaki clan, who appeared here at this time, was most likely Karin's mother, the miserable woman whose name was not mentioned in the anime and who was abused for her Kekkei genkai until her death.

Calculating the time period, it was likely her. This moment was a period of frequent wars. Although according to the anime, she would soon be discovered and used by the Kusagakure because of the war, which would greatly shorten her lifespan.

'Should I bring her back to the village? No, I am currently on a mission, and the mission will be interrupted if I took her back.' It might not be a good idea to take her back rashly now. Maybe she will be taken to drink tea immediately and absorbed into the roots...

He pondered for a while, and an idea came to his mind. He could send her to the Nekomata. But on second thought, he had a headache. 

Nekomata would have definitely eaten the luxury cat food. So he may fallen into a deep sleep and not wake up for a few days.

Using the Flying Thunder God to send her over would only put her in trouble. 'What a mess!' Takeshi didn't know what to do for a moment.

Another major issue was that he didn't want to use the Flying Thunder God so early in front of so many people. 

Although he had used it once before, it was at night, and others couldn't see it clearly, with only Rin and Nekomata present.

"You are not an ordinary cat," the girl whispered.

"Meow?" Takeshi was startled and looked up at her. After a few seconds, he understood. The perception ability of these Uzumaki clan members, like Karin's Mind's Eye of the Kagura, was quite strong, and her mother's perception was probably not bad either.

At this moment, Takeshi felt even more tired. As a Special Jonin, his first mission is to infiltrate and gather intelligence, but on the first day of the mission, he was exposed, and it was a female beggar who saw through him... This is even worse than what other Special Jonin's felt when he got promoted.

After a few seconds, he whispered, "Meow~ My name is Takeshi, and I'm a ninja cat from Konoha."

"Konoha?" The girl seemed to recall some distant memories when she heard the name and hurriedly grabbed the headscarf on her face, but then she thought that this was just a ninja cat and might not recognize her hair.

She thought for a while and whispered, "My name is Kanna, I am an orphan."

"Meow~ Kanna, do you want to go to Konoha with me?" Takeshi wanted to lick his paws out of habit but then thought that he had just rummaged through the trash can, so he forced himself to resist this bad habit.

"Konoha? I, I don't, don't want to go." Fear flashed in Kanna's eyes. If she had wanted to go to Konoha, she would have already run to the Land of Fire, not wandered to the Land of Grass in tattered clothes.

"Meow~ Then how about coming to my place, but you may have to take care of a big cat and a group of cats," Takeshi said after thinking for a moment. 

The Ninja Cat Castle was relatively remote and generally closed off, and usually only those ninjas who were extremely bored would go there.

'Hmm, that's not right. Neko Granny seems to post some annoying missions from time to time. I'll have to ask Nekomata to tell him to stop posting those boring missions again.' He pondered in his mind and then gradually came up with a detailed plan.

"Your place... with cats?"

"It's a gathering place for cats. There's a pretty good little castle. It's definitely no problem for you to live and eat, meow, but you might have a hard time." As a cat, he understood the morality of other cats.

Especially since Kanna had no fighting ability. If she went to the Ninja Cat Castle, she would probably be bullied by those cats. Even so, her life should not be in danger. At most, she would just be teased.

"Alright!" After hearing this, Kanna nodded heavily. She had experienced too much killing in these years and knew very well what the attitude of the world was towards the Uzumaki clan. This kind of place would simply be a paradise for her.

"Meow~ It's a deal. I have a mission for now and can't stay with you, but..." Takeshi clapped his paws and made another mark. With the mark, he could come here at any time.

He wasn't familiar enough with Kusagakure. If she was found and targeted by someone or her identity as an Uzumaki clan member was discovered, there would be a lot of trouble.

There is no way to confirm her safety through just a mark. If the Flying Thunder God had this function, Obito and Rin wouldn't have died. 

He was a little worried. After thinking for a long time, he waved his paws at her and said, "Come with me, meow."

"Huh?" Kanna was a little alert. She didn't think Takeshi had any bad intentions towards her. It was just an instinctive reaction of being tricked. After couple seconds later, she reacted and nodded to follow.

"I'll teach you the transformation jutsu. Listen carefully, meow." Takeshi took a moment to recall and then repeated some of the tips and tricks about the transformation jutsu he had learned in the Academy. Kanna seemed to be quite talented and mastered it in a short time.

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