Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ After the Dream ❯ Sweet Surrender ( Chapter 21 )

~b~ normal story

~B~ flashbacks

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Sweet Surrender

The surrounding scenery varied little, adding to the monotony of the group's journey. By the time the sun had risen, they were far, far away from Utsuro and all four members of the traveling party were growing antsy. Whenever she got the chance, Rin stole glances at the three teens, and judging by the eyes she often felt boring into her back, at least one member of the group was doing the same to her.

Despite the months she had spent searching for them and planning for this moment, Rin had no clue how to handle them. She had stayed up all night trying to decide how to convince the dysfunctional teens to stay with her. As much as she knew about the three, she hadn't been able to come up with anything that didn't technically count as extortion. Admittedly, if it came down to it she wasn't against using blackmail. Kami knew it always worked on Kakashi.

Rin glanced back to see Naruto studying her intently. She looked at him in false confusion for a moment before turning back around and smiling. If she was lucky, the boy might actually figure it out and save her the trouble. Then again if she had been lucky, she wouldn't have been forced to use henge and travel around Fire Country searching for three kids that were supposedly dead. Especially, when at least two of them should have had ANBU guards hounding them from childhood onwards.

Rin looked up at Sakura and Sasuke for a moment before shrugging imperceptibly. It wasn't her fault the village had messed up; it was simply her responsibility to correct those mistakes. “Not a morning person?” she asked, falling back beside Naruto. The younger boy had been lagging behind all morning; even if his `siblings' chose to ignore his behavior, she figured it would be impolite not to notice.

“Not really,” Naruto mumbled in reply. Sakura glanced back when she heard them speaking and slowed her pace a bit. Sasuke was forced to do the same and within several minutes the group was walking along, speaking, and trying to ease the many different troubles on their minds.

“So, where are you from?” Sakura finally asked.

“Up north,” Rin replied, grinning as she threw Naruto's words back at him.

“Were you in Utsuro on business?” Sakura inquired.

“Yes, I had to pick up a few things for a friend,” Rin explained.

“I hope we didn't rush you out of town too quickly then,” Sakura said.

“No, I've got what I came for,” Rin replied. Naruto wasn't sure if he was frightened or comforted by the smug look on her face. While Rin continued to speak with Sakura, he took his time to study her. The cut of her shoulder length dark brown hair looked familiar, but none of her other features did. Her clothing sort of looked like something a shinobi would wear, but there were no signs of any weapons. There was no doubt in his mind that he knew her from somewhere, he just couldn't figure out where. He glanced over at Sasuke and noticed that he was also watching Rin intently.

“Do you mind if I ask where exactly you're from up north?” Sasuke asked, shocking the group.

Rin looked at him for a moment and smiled slightly. After some quick thinking she decided she wouldn't lie too much, it wasn't really necessary anyway. “I was born in Konoha, but the life of a shinobi wasn't really for me,” she began, “I left there and settled in a town called Yasumido for a while. I left there about six months ago and I've been traveling around ever since then.”

“Konoha,” Sakura choked out, trying to hide the sudden fearfulness in her eyes.

“Yeah, nice place if you know the right people, but I never really found my place there,” Rin said.

“Oh,” Sakura stated.

Rin looked at them in amusement for a moment before deciding to take pity on them. It wouldn't do to scare them off by noticing their badly schooled reactions. “You three thought I was from Sound or something, didn't you?” she questioned jokingly, changing the subject.

“Sorry,” Sakura replied sheepishly. “You can never be too careful and I heard skirmishes along the border have gotten worse,” she added.

Despite their reactions, Rin had to give them credit for a fast recovery. “Yeah, a few of my friends are Jounin up in Konoha. One of them told me they catch at least two Sound Nins a week trying to sneak through the border, most of them are just lower level lackeys. Pathetic if you ask me, stupid as well, shinobi from Konoha are scary when they're pissed off,” she said.

“What do you mean?” Sakura asked, trying to get more from the woman.

“Very territorial,” Rin said. “Fiercely protective,” she added, “especially of the younger generations. That village develops some of the closest relationships between their Genin and older shinobi, especially senseis. That's why there was such a backlash when those three Genin died.”

Sakura swallowed a bit too loudly, but Rin ignored it. In truth they hadn't heard anything they didn't already know. Kakashi-sensei's behavior during their mission to Wave Country had shown them how protective others could be, and the way the older shinobi handled the invasion had also been a good example. It was still a bit odd hearing it from someone else.

“Then why'd it happen in the first place?” Sasuke mumbled, not really expecting an answer. Rin and Sakura both looked at him in surprise; he glanced up apologetically but didn't say anything else.

Rin glanced at Naruto and noticed that he was staring intently at the ground. These kids hadn't worked out as many issues as they pretended to. She drifted in indecision for several minutes before deciding to give them some sort of answer. “I'd say they made a mistake,” she answered honestly, “it's just a pity three kids had to pay for it this time.” All three looked at her in shock, but Rin ignored their reactions once more, and continued on the road. After Rin's comment, the group quieted again and continued traveling in near silence. Although Sakura did note that the silence was much more comfortable this time around.

Several hours later the group took a break for a quick lunch. “How much longer do you think it will take us?” Sakura asked, as they packed up to continue.

Rin looked around judging her surroundings. “I'd say two or three hours at the most. We left pretty early, and we've kept a nice pace along the way so we've made more headway than I expected,” she answered.

They were barely ten meters from their resting spot when Sasuke and Naruto froze. The latter spun around just in time to see an arrow strike the ground in front of Sasuke. “Not now,” he muttered, looking around for their attackers.

An adversary showed himself a moment later when a smug Zouri stepped out; Naruto noticed that unfortunately this time he had his sword with him. “I told you, you brats would get kicked out of there eventually,” he said, reaching for the hilt of his sword. As if on cue, twenty more members of the Yozoku stepped out as well.

“Shit,” Rin muttered, looking at the heavily armed bandits. From Itachi's description of his encounter, and her own memories of her last one, she had assumed the Yozoku were all low level thugs. These guys could pose a bit of a challenge, especially with sheer number.

“Neh Chi, I think we're a bit outnumbered,” Naruto stated nervously.

“Yeah,” Sasuke managed to reply. He glanced around once before turning to Sakura. “Haru,” he hissed, “Take Yu-san and get out of here.” Sakura looked at the Yozoku and was about to argue when Waraji stepped out as well. “Get her out of here,” Sasuke reiterated.

“Yeah,” Sakura muttered, before grabbing Rin's arm and taking off.

“Well that was stupid,” Zouri muttered, “that sister of yours hits harder than either of you.”

“Can we just slice `em up now?” Waraji asked. “Yeah, but I want a couple of you to go after the girls,” Zouri responded. Waraji nodded and directed five of his men in Sakura's direction, before turning back to Naruto and Sasuke. “This time, you won't be the ones killin',” he said, unsheathing his sword.

Naruto and Sasuke each pulled out a kunai and fell into cautious stances. Waraji snickered and lunged forward aiming to drive the two boys apart. He succeeded, but instead of gaining an opponent he lost both as they dodged his blow and jumped into the middle of the grouped bandits. Within moments the small road turned into chaos.

Sasuke looked around desperately for Naruto, but he couldn't spot him in the frenzied brawl that had quickly started up. He dodged another blow uncertain as to which of his attackers had actually thrown it. He jumped to avoid a low blow and managed to launch a spinning kick that struck three of the bandits in the jaw.

He could almost hear them snarl over the din being created by the group. The atmosphere was far too stifling for him to properly fight in. Silently hoping Naruto was still alive somewhere in the ruckus, he dodged a blow and managed dive out of the center of the group.

Once out of the chaos, Sasuke was able to take a deep breath and take control of the situation. At least that's what he hoped he was doing when he pulled out another kunai and jumped to avoid yet another punch aimed at his stomach. As formidable as these bandits looked, it was obvious that creative hand to hand combat was not their forte. He used that man's body to launch himself higher and twisted into flip, slinging one of his kunai downwards at his assailant. While still airborne, he managed to deflect two lances thrown in his direction before landing and continuing the fight.

Meanwhile, Naruto was barely managing to resist the part of his brain that told him to screw it all and just use kage bunshin. He growled and barely managed to parry a sword thrust with his kunai. These guys were pulling out larger weapons and he didn't have the space or weaponry to handle all the blows being sent his way. It would have been easier if his mind wasn't focused on Sakura and Sasuke instead of his own opponent.

Growling once more in frustration, he lashed out with one of his regular kunai. Luckily the blow wasn't in vain; one of the bandits on his left fell over clutching his abdomen. He quickly snatched his kunai back and ducked under another punch. Naruto kicked out at the assailant behind him and was met with a crunch that he hoped signaled a crippling blow. He flipped backwards over his victim and fleetingly noticed that it looked suspiciously like Zouri.

Naruto happily noticed that the ranks seemed to be thinning out a bit. Hopefully that meant that he and Sasuke had landed enough crippling blows to at least stun several of their attackers and not that more had gone after Sakura and Yu. Naruto dodged another punched and thanked the small part of his brain that was still focusing fully on the fight at hand.

He quickly glanced around and saw Sasuke about five meters to his left. There were two bodies on the ground near the other boy, but it appeared Waraji had joined the fight against his teammate. Sasuke was currently holding a katana in one hand and four kunai in the other; Naruto assumed that he had taken the katana from one of the men on the ground.

Zouri recovered from Naruto's kick to the stomach and immediately sought him out. He unsheathed his Katana and lunged forward hoping to strike Naruto's unguarded right side. Naruto twisted his body at the last second avoiding the blow, but Zouri easily followed through landing a blow to Naruto knee with the blunt side of the blade. Naruto stumbled, but recovered quickly enough to roll away from the blow.

He landed next to one of Sasuke's victims and reached out to pull a kunai from the man's back. He used it in conjunction with his own to parry a downward swipe from Zouri. Naruto bucked up and managed to kick Zouri hard enough to send him several meters away.

He quickly got to his feet and reoriented himself; Sasuke was just a meter away fighting Waraji. Oddly enough the majority of the other members of the Yozoku were holding back and giving the two room to fight without interference. Naruto took advantage of their lack of assistance and threw both of his kunai at Waraji's arm.

Without hesitation he followed their path while pulling out another one. He glanced down at the odd weight in his hand and found that he had accidentally pulled out one of the ones that had been a gift from Mato. A disadvantaged fight wasn't exactly the best place to learn how to use it, but he didn't know where his others were at the moment, and he couldn't waste time looking for them.

He felt several drops of blood squirt onto his face and glanced up to see that both kunai had lodged themselves in Waraji's sword arm, causing the man to drop his katana. Sasuke had reacted quickly and was currently holding the blade. He lunged with it driving Waraji back towards Naruto. The former blond landed a roundhouse kick to the middle of Waraji's back sending him forward towards Sasuke's out stretched blade.

If it had been a scene in a movie, Waraji's decent onto the blade and subsequent death would have been in slow motion. As it was, Naruto and Sasuke quickly turned their backs on their fallen opponent, in favor of focusing on the other bandits. At least ten bandits were left relatively unharmed by previous attacks and neither Naruto or Sasuke were unscathed.

Naruto backed up until he bumped into Sasuke's back and circled to keep his eyes on his opponents. They were hesitating again, and he couldn't figure out why. “Chi,” he hissed.

“What?” Sasuke snarled back.

“You have your contacts in, right?” he asked.

“Of course dobe,” Sasuke responded.

“Then activate the damn thing. It isn't like they'll be able to see it,” he muttered. “Hurry up and do it. We have to finish up here so we can help Sakura and Rin,” Naruto added.

“What?” Sasuke said, completely turning to face his teammate.

“Hurry up, we need to get ahead to help Sakura and Yu,” Naruto repeated exasperatedly. He shoved a still unresponsive Sasuke to the side and lunged at one of the bandits that had decided to take advantage of their inattentiveness.

Sasuke shook his head. Choosing to ignore his teammate's slip of the tongue, he quickly and silently activated his sharingan. He couldn't help but grin at the first man he easily avoided. Grabbing the katana he had been using earlier he parried a second blow flinging a kunai at his opponent. He ignored the man's shout of surprise and quickly reclaimed his kunai before switching opponents.

Despite the advantage Sasuke's sharingan gave them, their opponents still proved that they were not simply unskilled bandits. They showed skill with their diverse weaponry and Naruto and Sasuke's small arsenal were barely enough to protect themselves with.

Sasuke was growing more and more disgruntled with the performance of his sharingan. Even though he hadn't used it in a while, he hadn't expected to have any difficulty with it. As it was, he felt like he was in the fight against Rock Lee all over again. For some reason he was only just able to keep up with his opponents. He didn't know if it was because of his lack of experience with these weapons, or what. Even knowing what his opponents were about to do, for some reason he still wasn't able to do more than dodge and occasionally throw a kunai in someone's direction. Sooner or later he would run out of projectiles, and he really didn't want to use those weird kunai Mato had given them; Naruto may have found them easy to pick up, but he wasn't willing to risk it.

Three meters behind Sasuke, Naruto slid through his opponents legs and took the man's open back as an opportunity. The next moment the man collapsed with a kunai wedged between his shoulder blades. Naruto quickly snatched his kunai back and back flipped away right before an axe was imbedded in the ground.

He lunged forward delivering a stunning blow to the man, snapping his jaw upward and sending him back a meter. Naruto blindly threw a kunai in the man's direction before turning to another foe. He was so engrossed in his new match that he didn't hear the tell tale noise of a hit.

By the time Naruto made it back over to Sasuke, they had managed to thin the ranks even more. The two stood panting side by side facing Zouri and another, much larger, man standing menacingly behind him. “You take the giant,” Naruto said, jumping headfirst for Zouri.

Sasuke clutched the katana tighter in his hand and was prepared to lunge when his opponent held up his hand in defeat. “I've got nothing against you kids. Let me live; I'll leave and never come near you again. Not only that, but I'll keep the others away as well,” he said shocking Sasuke.

“You actually expect me to believe that,” Sasuke deadpanned once the man's words had caught up to him.

“I'm not an idiot like them. You two are holding back some of your skill, and from what I've heard that sister of yours probably did as well. I'll hold the rest of the Yozoku off of you, if you agree to leave us alone as well,” the man said.

“The minute we turn are backs you'll attack. We've seen you at work before,” Sasuke said.

“Some thieves have honor,” the man claimed. He pulled out a scratched up forehead protector, revealing the insignia of Iwa on the plate. “I'm a former shinobi. I swear that the Yozoku will not trouble you anymore,” he promised.

Sasuke eyed the man for a moment before slowly lowering his blade. The man watched him cautiously and the moment the sword held no threat, he bowed in thanks and turned to go leaving his fallen comrades behind. Sasuke turned his attention to Naruto and his eyes widened when he saw blood streaking down the other's cheek. Fortunately, there were no standing opponents; Zouri was on the ground a meter away from him.

“What are we supposed to do about this?” Naruto asked, indicating the bodies on the ground.

“How many of them are dead?” Sasuke asked.

“I don't know, probably half,” Naruto responded.

“We should at least move them off the road so that no one comes along and finds them right away,” Sasuke finally declared.

“I'll do that, catch up to Sakura and Rin. I'll catch up to you,” Naruto said.

“What?” Sasuke asked. That was the second time Naruto had said the name Rin, and he had no clue who she was.

“Catch up to Sakura and Yu. We weren't the only ones under attack,” Naruto said indignantly.

Sasuke eyed him for a moment before nodding and turning to go. He'd ask the idiot about his slip of tongue later.

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Rin followed Sakura's lead as the former Genin sped away from their attackers. If Sakura was shocked that Rin could keep up, she didn't show it. The two hadn't even made it a hundred meters, when Rin felt several people separate from the main group and head off after them. “We're being followed, but please don't panic,” Sakura said a moment later.

The two made it another hundred meters before their pursuers caught up to them. Rin looked at the group suspiciously; for a bunch of bandits, they were very fast. The bandits eyed the two women with smirking faces. Rin hated people like this, and judging from Sakura's face, so did she.

“Why don't you two little girls just behave and come back with us?” one of the men sneered.

Sakura glared and pulled out two kunai while stepping in front of Rin. “Please stay behind me, Yu-san,” she instructed politely. Rin looked down at the girl in surprise, but decided to see what Sakura was capable of.

The bandits smirked before two lunged at Sakura. She quickly jumped forward meeting one of them with a fist to the chest. The punch was accompanied by a loud crack that Sakura hoped signaled a breaking rib. The man winced as he was thrown backwards. He landed in a heap fifteen meters away.

His companion had paused when Sakura attacked, but he quickly renewed his attack with even more vigor. The others joined in as well after seeing their comrade taken down by one punch. Sakura flipped out of the way, hoping that her attack would keep them focused on her instead of Yu.

The man on Sakura's left pulled out a short sword and Sakura cursed. She had no experience fighting this type of weaponry. She threw one of her kunai at her second attacker and turned to the others waiting for them to make the first move. A clang told her that her kunai had been deflected and she grimaced. Not only was she down a kunai, but she hadn't managed to even wound the man.

The one with the sword lunged at her, so Sakura focused her attention on him. She pulled out another kunai and attempted to repel the man's attack, but her lack of experience caught up to her and she was barely able to hold him off. She forced her self to fall backwards and quickly rolled out of the way kicking out at the man's knee. He grunted and slipped toward the ground, but she wasn't sure if it was disconnected.

She flipped over him and back towards Rin. She glanced around and her eyes widened when she only saw three figures. She spun around and ducked just in time to avoid the attack aimed for her chest, but the second man had aimed a kick to take out her legs and she barely managed to get her arms up in time to take the blow. She skidded back several meters, but quickly recovered.

She stood up shaking her arms to bring the feeling back into them and found the men stalking towards Rin. She couldn't let their client get hurt.

Rin winced when she saw Sakura take the kick. She assumed that the girl would be down for the count and prepared to take on the others herself. While the three men circled her, she slipped her hand onto her hip and traced her waist line until she found the kunai hidden in it. Instead of immediately pulling it out she glanced up and fought the urge to roll her eyes when she realized where the bandit's eyes were. Instead of drawing attention to the kunai that was hidden, she quickly reached down and pulled two others out of the pocket on her leg. Before their adversaries could react, one of them collapsed with a kunai to his heart.

She sent the second at the man Sakura had wounded earlier and was preparing to turn around when she felt something smack into her forehead. The next moment she was on the ground with Sakura on top of her. The younger girl was barely managing to keep a sword off of the two and Rin's eyes widened. She hadn't felt the blow coming. Sakura finally managed to toss the sword back to the man and she rolled off of Rin, allowing them both to stand up.

Sakura stood up trying to ignore what she had seen moments before. Two of their attackers were now dead, and another injured and hopefully down. She held her kunai tightly and examined the two fighters still standing. They were the two that had managed to kick her earlier, so Sakura knew they had good teamwork and combos. If she could avoid fighting them at the same time she would probably stand a better chance.

When one of them attacked her head on, she took the chance to meet him. Luckily the man wasn't using a weapon and his partner seemed more concerned with cautiously watching Rin than attacking Sakura. Instead aiming high like she had previously, Sakura ran head on before ducking backwards and catching herself with her arms. She kicked up into the man's rib cage.

The force of her kick sent the man soaring upwards. She considered following him, but decided to turn to the other man before he could attack Rin. He hadn't made a move yet, so she cautiously made her way over to Rin's side. The man was staring at Rin unblinkingly. Sakura looked closer, ignoring the thud behind her, and saw sweat drip down the side of his face.

Rin glanced down at Sakura and the man slowly regained his senses. He probably would have run away if he could have, but when Sakura saw him twitch and prepare to move she assumed he was attacking. She lunged forward landing a debilitating punch to his abdomen. When he landed twenty meters away, he was as dangerous as a rag doll.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief and turned to see that the man she had kicked was also lying in a heap on the ground. Apparently his fall had knocked him out and rendered him a nonentity.

Sakura turned to Rin and looked at her suspiciously. “What did you…how…” she stuttered trying to figure out what she wanted to ask first.

“Look I've had a little more shinobi training then I admitted earlier, but I swear I'm not a threat. Let's go get your brothers and tonight, if you still want answers, I can give them to you,” Rin said instead of allowing Sakura to ask.

“What am I supposed to do? Do you think I'm going to ignore the fact that it took nothing for you to kill two of these guys?” Sakura asked.

“For now, I think that would be the best road,” Rin countered, “speaking of which, one of your brothers is heading our way on this one.”

Sakura turned to see Sasuke sprinting towards them and looked around for Naruto. When Sasuke reached them he answered her unspoken question when he said, “Maki will be here in a minute. I came here to make sure you guys were okay.”

Sakura nodded and turned away trying to hide the suspicion in her eyes. Sasuke ignored it in favor of looking around the area. He paused when he saw the two dead bandits, but turned when he felt eyes on him. Sakura wasn't looking at him, but Rin was eyeing him inquisitively. He glanced at her suspiciously still trying to figure out why Naruto had misstated her name twice. He had yet to come to a conclusion when Naruto appeared several minutes later.

The boy skidded slightly and blinked at the sight in front of him. He and Sasuke dragged the two dead bandits off the road before returning to the girls. After a moment he shrugged and turned to the others. “Everyone alright?” he asked.

“Yup,” Rin responded a bit too cheerily for Sakura.

Naruto turned and squinted slightly. “Then what happened to your forehead?” he asked.

“That's my fault,” Sakura claimed, “Sorry about that hit,” she added, grimacing slightly as she caught sight of the bruise blossoming on Rin's forehead

“I think I prefer this to the wound I would have gotten if I had taken the blow,” Rin replied thankfully. Sakura nodded apologetically once more, but Rin waved it off. “Remind me to double your pay or something when we get to Monogoshi,” she added.

“Actually I think it was our fault they attacked,” Sasuke admitted.

“Yeah, but you three were the ones who just risked their lives to fight them and protect me. I didn't actually believe him when Mato said we could run into trouble,” Rin said.

“Really, it isn't necessary,” Sakura replied.

Rin studied them for a minute before shrugging. “Stubborn brats,” she muttered, “at least let me buy you dinner when we get there.” Naruto perked up a bit at the mention of food, so Rin decided to push her luck. “Ramen?” she offered.

Sakura grinned at the Naruto's pleading gaze and nodded in acceptance. If it weren't for the fact that her adrenaline rush was wearing off, she might have been suspicious about the convenient offer.

Rin grinned and turned to look at the three again. “Maki-kun, it looks like one of them managed to land a hit,” she said, indicating the wound on his cheek. Sakura looked at him apologetically; if Yu hadn't been there it would have been simple enough for her to heal it. “It's nothing,” Naruto responded, shrugging it off. “Nothing? It looks fairly deep,” Rin diagnosed, walking up to get a closer look. A soft green glow enveloped her hand as she brought it up to Naruto's cheek. “See I'm not completely useless,” she chirped when she removed her hand revealing a healed cheek. Naruto swallowed thickly and attempted to push down a wave of memories.

“How did you do that?” Sasuke asked looking at Rin suspiciously.

“I told you I'm originally from Konoha. I learned some healing techniques from my father before I left,” Rin explained simply. Sasuke didn't look very convinced and panic was beginning to set in for Sakura, so Rin decided to change the subject. “The quicker we head out of here, the quicker we'll get to Monogoshi and that dinner I owe you,” she stated.

Naruto came out of his daze immediately, and grinned as he began walking again. “So do they have good ramen in Monogoshi?” he asked Rin as she walked alongside him.

“Don't know. I've never been there, but I'm sure they do,” she answered.

After a minute, Sakura and Sasuke caught up to them, but neither said a word for the rest of the trip.

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Late that night Sakura stood in front of the door to Shintei Yu's room. They had arrived in Monogoshi just over an hour after they had finished with the bandits. Yu treated the three to an early dinner of ramen and then walked with them to the hotel. Instead of following Naruto and Sasuke into their room to talk, Sakura went into her own room and quickly fell asleep. When she had woken up, both boys had been asleep and she had decided to take a walk: she had ended up here.

She hesitantly knocked, unsure of whether or not she really wanted any answers. Part of her wanted to run back to Naruto and Sasuke's room, wake them up, and convince them to leave Monogoshi immediately. It wasn't that she didn't trust Yu, for some reason she couldn't help but trust her. That was what scared her the most; there weren't many people she trusted like that. Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, and Tsunade-sama were the only three people she had trusted so readily. Even Naruto and Sasuke had taken some time to earn her trust; though that had more to do with whether or not they would be too busy trying to gain glory to protect her.

“Haru?” she heard Yu say snapping her back to reality. Sakura turned to see Yu walking down the hallway towards her most likely from the inn's bath house. “Go on in; it's unlocked,” she added.

Sakura nodded and opened the door stepping in. She held the door long enough for Rin to catch it, before stepping farther in and looking around the room. It was exactly the same as hers all the way down to the bedroll lay out in the middle of the floor. The main difference was the small pug dog currently curled up asleep in the middle of said bed roll.

Sakura's breathing hitched when she looked closer to the dog and saw the small forehead protector tied around its head. “Shit,” she heard Yu say before quickly closing and locking the door. Apparently that was enough noise to wake up the small dog that looked around sleepily before doing a double take on Sakura. “Oops,” he muttered looking at Rin.

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After Sakura left them, Sasuke had herded Naruto into their room to talk. “Who's Rin?” he asked bluntly.

“Eh?” Naruto managed to reply.

“You said her name twice today; each time I questioned you changed it to Yu. Who is she?” he asked again.

“What do you mean?” Naruto asked cautiously, using the same tone he had when he had tried to avoid questions about his childhood.

“When you told me to activate the sharingan, you said, `We have to finish up here so we can help Sakura and Rin,'” Sasuke explained, “You said the same thing later when you told me to go ahead once the fight was finished.”

“Oh,” Naruto responded intelligently.

“Is that who this woman reminded you of?” Sasuke asked finally.

“Maybe,” Naruto replied hurriedly.

“Just answer dobe,” Sasuke said irritably.

“Fine, yes she was,” Naruto answered shortly, causing Sasuke to glare at him.

“So who was she?” he asked a minute later, after Naruto had failed to continue.

Naruto looked at him nervously and scratched at the back of his head. “Umm… I'm not completely sure. I think I only met her once, but…” he trailed off when he felt Sasuke glaring at him. “She was Kakashi-sensei's teammate. She was in Konoha the day Kisame attacked,” Naruto added quickly.

“When did Kisame attack,” Sasuke asked in confusion.

“The day before he killed Sakura's parents. Anyway she was really nice, and obviously knew but didn't care about the Kyuubi,” Naruto finished lamely. Although with the last sentence, he had given Sasuke everything he actually needed to know.

“So what is it about her that made you confuse them?” Sasuke inquired.

“I don't know,” Naruto responded, “everything?”

“Well that's helpful,” Sasuke muttered. Naruto glared at him while he set up his futon and went to sleep. Not long after he followed his lead.

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“Pakkun,” Sakura muttered in horror as the small dog walked towards her. He sniffed around her for a moment before turning to Rin and saying, “Yup, it's her.”

“I knew that already Pakkun,” Rin responded tightly, “but if you keep doing that you're going to scare her away.”

Pakkun shrugged and lay down at Sakura's feet. “Who are you?” Sakura finally managed to ask.

Rin sighed and dropped her henge. “I doubt you remember me seeing as you were in shock at the time, but we've met once before. My name is Chiyu Rin; I was the one who healed your ankle after Kisame's attack,” Rin explained.

“Were you sent after us?” Sakura asked, “How did they find out we're alive?”

“As far as I know, only three people from Konoha know you're alive. I'm one of them and I was sent by the other two,” Rin said.

“Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama,” Sakura asked shakily.

“No, those two have a village's future on their minds. They were forced by those around them to accept what they saw. Kakashi and Itachi asked me to come find the three of you,” Rin said.

“Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura asked.

“He's worried about you three,” Pakkun added.

“We can't go back,” Sakura stated fiercely, stepping away from them.

“Under no circumstance do we intend to bring you back,” Rin countered causing Sakura to pause in confusion. “What?” she asked. Rin glared down at Pakkun when she heard the pug snicker. He quickly loped over to Sakura and pawed at the girl until she hesitantly picked him up. “Take a seat and I'll explain,” Rin said. Sakura gave her one last wary look, before sitting down to listen.

XXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXX

That morning Sasuke and Naruto woke up to the sound of knocking at the door. When Sasuke finally opened the door, a sleepy looking Sakura grinned at them. “Yu-san has breakfast for us in her room,” she said.

Naruto had to be dragged out of bed and down the hall. He didn't fully wake up until Sasuke shoved him into Rin's room. He landed painfully on the floor and wearily blinked his eyes open. “Go away,” he said to whoever was licking his face. A moment later, he had jumped up and was standing next to Sasuke against one of the walls. Sakura walked forward and picked up Pakkun before turning to grin at the two a bit guiltily.

“Sakura, what's going on?” Sasuke finally managed to say.

Sakura pointed to Rin who was leaning against the door. “I think you guys should listen to her,” Sakura said, sitting down with Pakkun.

“Rin,” Naruto mumbled, catching Sasuke's attention.

“You're Rin?” Sasuke asked.

“Chiyu Rin,” she answered. “I was Kakashi's teammate when we were younger. When we learned that you might be alive, I offered to look for you.”

“How did Konoha find out we were still alive?” Sasuke asked.

“They didn't,” Sakura answered, “Just Rin-san, Kakashi-sensei, and…”

“Itachi-kun,” Rin finished, understanding the girl's hesitation.

Sasuke immediately went on guard. “What do you want?” he asked.

“I don't want anything. I came to make you three an offer,” Rin claimed.

“What do you mean?” Sasuke asked suspiciously.

“You three each left Konoha for your own reasons; we understand that. We know what the village did, probably even more than you do. As I informed Sakura last night, under no circumstance will we ever so much as request that you go back to Konoha,” Rin began. “But as capable as you are, you're not safe out here. All we ask is that you allow us to help you,” she said.

“We don't need your help,” Sasuke mumbled.

“You three were gone from Konoha less than three months before you made the Yozoku your enemies,” Rin countered. “Even without outside influences, between the Kyuubi and Sasuke's curse seal, something is bound to go wrong that will draw attention to you,” Rin replied bluntly. “You three know nothing about either. Between Itachi, Kakashi, and myself we know enough.”

“Nothing will go wrong,” Sasuke stated.

“We don't know that,” Sakura countered meekly, “like she said we don't know anything about these things.”

“If the curse flares up, Orochimaru could find you,” Rin said, “Is it worth that much of a risk.”

“Please,” Sakura muttered, reaching up to rub at her eyes.

Naruto had remained silent since he recognized Rin, but Sakura's tears seemed to snap him out of it. “Damn,” he mumbled, looking over at the girl. He glared at Sasuke momentarily before turning to Rin. “What do mean by help?” he asked.

“Stick with me,” Rin said simply. “I'm no longer a ninja in Konoha so I don't go there anymore. If you stick with me long enough, I can help you answer a few questions.”

“What answers?” Naruto asked.

“What questions do you have?” Rin countered. “So do you accept?” she asked, breaking the silence a moment later.

Sakura glanced quickly at the two before she ducked back down and sniffled pathetically, causing Sasuke and Naruto to glare at each other. “We accept,” Sasuke finally answered.