Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ After the Dream ❯ Help ( Chapter 26 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

~b~ normal story

~B~ flashbacks

~B~ this will most likely only be used in this chapter. It distinguishes writing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Help

Sakura sighed for the tenth time in less than an half an hour. Kakashi and Itachi hadn't stopped by in a month and a half; they knew the two would be tied up with missions scouting the Akatsuki and everything, but Kakashi had promised to check in with them, especially with Rin's advancing pregnancy. Sakura snickered as she thought of Rin's constant mood swings, growing girth, and random habits. Tsunade-sama had discussed some of the basics of pregnancy with her during her short apprenticeship; however, they hadn't progressed to the point where it was covered in detail. Rin had become a sort of case study for her; interestingly, the older woman had experienced a very normal pregnancy.

At least she had up until two days before. Mitsutori had written to inform her that she would have to delay her visit by a week and a half, until Itachi and Kakashi had a break from missions and Rishito would have a place to stay. It hadn't come as much of a surprise, but it had put a slight hitch in Rin's plans apparently. Sakura had yet to figure out why; the woman wasn't due for another month at least. Sakura had finally decided that it was a product of the mood swings. She had spent the past two days staying out of Rin's way when she needed space, and studying some of the medical scrolls Rin had passed on to her. Similarly, Naruto and Sasuke had spent as much time outside sparring and pouring over their scrolls as she had. She had sparred against them once or twice, but the gap was still obvious. Rin had promised to help her out once the baby was born.

“Sakura,” Rin called out from the kitchen.

Sakura looked through the open door in confusion. Rin was hunched over the sink, gripping the edges. Sakura set down her scroll and made her way into the kitchen. “What is it?” she asked nervously, maybe Rin hadn't been worrying without reason.

“You know how I said I would never, under any circumstance ask any of you to return to Konoha,” she said, turning around to look at Sakura who nodded vaguely. “I need to break that promise. I need one of you to go get Mitsutori now; the chances of me keeping this baby in for another week are rather small at the moment,” she stated.

Sakura's eyes widened. “What's wrong?” she asked

“Nothing's wrong,” Rin muttered in response. “I didn't carry Rishito full term either. It happens a lot among female shinobi. You remain active during the pregnancy and occasionally it causes premature birth.”

“And it's going to happen this time,” Sakura stated, gaining a nod from Rin.

“I'd rather not send any of you into Konoha, but they don't have competent medic in this town. Mitsutori and I delivered most of the kids under eight in this town; I'm not sure who did before us,” Rin explained, taking a seat near the table.

“I'll get one of them to come with me,” Sakura said, turning to go speak with her teammates.

“Take Sasuke,” Rin said before Sakura had made it outside.

“What?” Sakura asked.

“I want you take Sasuke with you,” Rin repeated. “Call both of them in so I can talk to them,” she added a moment later. She appeared to have mostly recovered from whatever spell had caused her to yell out to Sakura earlier.

Sakura nodded and called out the door to Naruto and Sasuke. The appeared a moment later, panting slightly from the exertion of their sparring match. “What is it?” Sasuke asked.

“I need you to go with Sakura to Konoha,” Rin said cautiously.

“What's wrong?” he asked, ignoring the terrified look on Naruto's face.

“I need you to get Mitsutori and tell her to get out here,” Rin explained. She fought the urge to laugh at the boys as their faces paled, “I'm not going into labor now, but it will be sooner than expected,” she explained. Both boys calmed enough to stare at her in disbelief. “Look if I thought there was an alternative I'd take it, but right now I can't send one of the villagers because they wouldn't get there in time to bring Mitsutori back by the time I need her here. Plus one of you will have to stay with Rishito for a day or two,” she added exasperatedly.

Slowly Sasuke nodded in agreement. “I guess that means I'm staying with him,” he said, gaining a nod from Rin.

“You two should pack a few things. I'll get everything ready so that you can get into the village legally,” Rin said, nodding towards the stairs. Once Sasuke and Sakura had headed up to their rooms, Rin stood and indicated for Naruto to follow her. “Give me a hand in here,” she said, entering her own room.

“Grab the box in the top of the closet,” Rin said, pointing to one of the many boxes cluttering the area. “Not that one, the one next to it,” she corrected, when Naruto grabbed the wrong one.

He pulled down the correct box and brought it over to Rin. “What's all of this?” he asked as Rin started pulling various scrolls and documents out of it.

“Your pasts,” she said, pointing to three main documents.

Naruto did a double take before picking up the three papers and reading. On a paper with his own picture, one he hadn't known Rin had taken, it read:

Name: Nami Kyokki

Gender: Male

Birth date: 8/22

Age: 14

Hometown: Anraku

Hair: Light brown

Eyes: Black

Height: 165.1 cm

Weight: 52 kg

The other two he immediately recognized because of the new pictures of Sakura and Sasuke.

Name: Shingao Hana

Gender: Female

Birth date: 5/21

Age: 15

Hometown: Settei

Hair: Red

Eyes: Blue

Height: 160.2 cm

Weight: 45 kg

Name: Shingao Eiki

Gender: Male

Birth date: 5/21

Age: 15

Hometown: Settei

Hair: Black

Eyes: Blue

Height: 164. 8 cm

Weight: 53.3 kg

“How come they're still older than me?” he whined, once he had read through them. Rin smiled at him and held out her hand. Naruto scowled as he handed them over to her.

“At least you're taller than both of them,” she said, trying to soothe his ego a bit.

“You're joking, right?” Sasuke deadpanned from the door.

“Nope, I measured each of you right before I had these made,” she said, still holding the three documents that Naruto had gotten for her. “It's not by much, but he's the tallest. Remind me to feed the three of you more; none of you weigh enough,” she muttered, re-examining the forms.

“What are those?” Sakura asked, sneaking up next to Rin.

Rin handed Sakura and Sasuke theirs and then stood up, placing Naruto's back in the box. “Mitsutori and I had those made in Anraku. They're as real as they come, so don't worry about being questioned. Settei was destroyed by Sound about five years ago, the destruction wasn't attributed to them until recently, but don't be surprised if you get a few pitying looks,” she explained. Sakura and Sasuke nodded, stuffing their passports into their bags. “If someone asks why you're there, just tell them I sent you; they'll leave you alone after that,” she added smirking slightly.

“Where is Mitsutori staying?” Sasuke asked.

“She's in my old house. The address is on here,” Rin said, handing them another slip of paper. “Sakura should head straight back with her. If she needs someone to stay with Rishito it should be Sasuke,” she said, ushering them out of her room.

“I'll be back with Mitsutori in a few days,” Sakura said as the two took off out the door.

For the second time that day, Rin turned to Naruto the minute they had disappeared from view. “Could you go in my room and grab that box you accidentally picked earlier? We need to talk,” she said, stepping back inside. Naruto looked at her in confusion but headed back into her room. Rin sat down on the couch with a sigh; this was going to be a long day.

XXXXXXXX

“Woohoo!” Anko cheered, skidding into the bar. Konoha had been far too boring for her tastes since Rin had taken off again almost a year before, but it seemed like Tsunade was finally making up for it.

“What lifted your mood?” Ibiki asked from his table with Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai.

Anko winked at them as she slid into the booth alongside them. “I finally got a mission,” she crowed.

“This is your first in how long?” Kurenai asked.

“Don't remind me. I don't know how we went from being gone nonstop after the invasion to having almost nothing above A rank and those are so boring,” she responded.

“You got an S ranked mission?” Asuma asked in disbelief.

“Two weeks ago, two members of the Akatsuki were seen leaving Lightning Country and heading south along the shore,” Anko answered.

“Skirting Sound?” Kurenai asked.

“Yeah, according to Itachi a couple of members defected and joined Sound; it would make sense to avoid that,” Anko responded. “Anyways, one of Jiraiya's informants believes they're heading back to River Country. We're hoping to catch them when they come through Fire Country. We head out in two days,” she added happily.

“Who's `we'? If you're going against two members of the Akatsuki Tsunade must be sending at least a full team,” Ibiki muttered, causing Anko to snicker.

“She decided to send three of her most trusted, most dedicated, most talented…” Anko trailed off when Ibiki glared at her. “It's me, Kakashi, and Itachi; we're not supposed to engage unless they pose a threat. Hopefully they'll pose a threat,” she added under her breath.

“Those two don't look happy about the mission,” Kurenai said, pointing to Kakashi and Itachi who had just walked into the bar. “I still don't believe he's old enough to be in here,” she added.

Anko snickered as Itachi turned glare at them. “I think he heard you,” she giggled.

“You'd think this would be something Itachi would be eager to get over with. I'm surprised it's taken the Hokage so long before taking action against the remaining members,” Kurenai stated.

“She's been making sure Sound was taken care of for the time being. I'm not sure she ever really wanted to risk going after the Akatsuki; from the looks of things they probably decided not to go after Itachi, so she was going to ignore them. This situation just happened to present itself; it's one we can't pass up,” Anko explained, gleefully rubbing her hands together.

Anko's fun was ruined, when Itachi and Kakashi passed her an hour later on their way out. “We're leaving tomorrow morning; meet us at the East gate,” Itachi said.

“Don't forget to say goodbye to Iruka-kun,” Kakashi quipped, waving.

“Well at least he's in a good mood now,” Anko muttered, preparing to leave. “I wonder why we're leaving early,” she added under her breath as she walked out.

It took Ibiki and the others half an hour to realize she had left them with the bill.

XXXXXXXX

“This is the type of mission I'd prefer to have Rin along on,” Kakashi muttered as he and Itachi awaited the arrival of their teammate.

“I believe her current…status makes that a bit difficult,” Itachi quipped back. Kakashi glared lightly at him until Anko strolled up to the two.

Kakashi turned away from her questioning gaze, but Anko swore he had been pouting. She didn't know why he could possible be upset; this was the Jounin's first real mission in almost a year and a half. Tsunade had muttered that she had been trying to make up for sending him out on so many during the first year of her Hokage-ship. Admittedly they were up against some very strong enemies…but that just meant the fights would be more fun. “Are we waiting for anyone else?” Anko asked, looking around. Kakashi turned to look at her and shook his head. “Then why aren't we leaving?”

“We were waiting for you to stop fantasizing about the mission,” Itachi answered.

Anko fought the urge to growl at him and instead turned towards the gate. “Let's go,” she huffed.

XXXXXXXX

Sakura and Sasuke managed to make it to Konoha early the next morning. The guards at the gate had merely glanced at their identification papers before ushering them in with a sympathetic glance, just as easily as Rin had said it would be. They quickly threaded their way through the streets heading for the address Rin had given them.

They neared the small house and were disappointed to find it looking rather deserted. Sasuke knocked on the door hopefully, but when it went unanswered for ten minutes they were forced to admit that no one was there. “I know Rishito is probably at school, but where could Mitsutori be?” Sakura asked throwing her hands up and sitting down on the front step.

“She's probably out do errands. It isn't like she was expecting us,” Sasuke answered sitting down near her. He began nervously fiddling with the bandanna he was wearing; he had grown rather attached to it while they had still been hiding their appearance in Kumoma. Naruto had joked that he had looked like Ebisu; Sasuke had decided not to ruin his fun by telling him that he had no idea who Ebisu was.

“Stop it,” Sakura said, glancing over at him. Two minutes later she had begun to fidget and toy with the hem of her vest.

“Stop it,” Sasuke repeated playfully, causing Sakura to scowl at him.

XXXXXXXX

Mitsutori was having a rather good day. She had unfortunately needed to go grocery shopping for the second time in two days, but that was simply because Rishito wanted to have his friends over for dinner. Of course when she had finished shopping she had found herself with a slight problem; she had far too many bags and not enough hands to carry them.

It was at that point that her savior had arrived. Yes she knew that Rin and Kakashi found him odd, mainly because insisted on challenging Kakashi to games of rock-paper-scissors every chance he got, and quite frankly Itachi seemed to be frightened to be around him without Kakashi there, but that didn't mean that he wasn't courteous. In fact he was far more courteous than Kakashi or Itachi had ever proven to be. He had strolled up just as she had begun to struggle with her bags and had quickly offered not only his own services, but those of his team as well.

They had been walking along rather happily, Gai and Lee made sure the whole group was entertained, until they came within sight of the house. “Are you expecting someone?” the Hyuuga boy asked.

Mitsutori looked at him in confusion and followed his line of sight to the two figures sitting rather downtroddenly on her front steps. “What are they doing here?” she muttered, putting her helpers on guard.

“Do you know who they are?” Gai asked, immediately sobering up and looking at the two teens suspiciously.

“Yes,” Mitsutori said, hurrying to end their worries. “I just don't know why they came,” she added quickening her pace. “Hana-chan, Eiki, what's wrong?” she asked quickly approaching the two.

Sakura and Sasuke jumped to their feet when they heard Mitsutori approach them. “Rin sent…” Sasuke trailed off when he saw the others behind them.

Mitsutori seemed to take the hint and quickly ushered everyone in side. “Could you take all that to the kitchen?” she asked, herding Gai and his team down the hall. “Wait here,” she added, showing Sasuke and Sakura into the living room.

They took a seat and waited as patiently as they could for Mitsutori to hurry the others out of her house. A minute later they heard feet hurrying by and Mitsutori thanking Gai and his team before closing the door. She hurried back into the living room to find Sakura beginning to fidget. “They've barely changed,” she heard the girl mutter to Sasuke before she cleared her throat making sure they knew she was there. “Why did Rin send you?” she asked, sitting down next to Sakura.

“Rin doesn't think she'll carry full term. She expects it to happen in about a week,” Sakura explained.

“Again?” Mitsutori muttered, gaining a small grin from Sakura.

“She said Sasuke should stay here with Rishito and I'll head back with you,” Sakura explained.

“Alright, let's get to work. We have a lot to do before I can leave,” Mitsutori said standing up. She hurried into the kitchen and Sakura and Sasuke followed. “I hate to make you do this, but could you put some of that away while make a list,” she added searching for some paper.

Sasuke glared slightly at the order, but after a smack from Sakura he started putting away the woman's groceries. Mitsutori finally found her paper and began writing furiously. Once she had finished she slammed down the pencil she had been using and rushed out of the room. She came back a minute later with a bag. “Sakura everything on the first half of that list can be found in the back room. Put it all in the bag for when we leave. When you're finished help Sasuke start dinner,” she added nervously, trying to slip out the door.

“Sasuke's the better cook anyways,” Sakura muttered, heading into the backroom.

“I'm going to tell Rishito where I'm going. When I get back we'll leave as soon as the preparations are finished,” Mitsutori shouted right before walking out the door. She hurried through the street towards the Academy. She didn't really want to pull Rishito out during class and catch that much attention, but she knew his break had ended fifteen minutes before.

When she arrived outside of Rishito's classroom, she took a minute to straighten her hair and listen to make sure she wasn't interrupting anything. It sounded like Rishito's sensei, Iruka, was just assigning his students busy work. She hoped that meant she wouldn't really be interrupting. She knocked on the classroom door and stepped in. “Can I help you?” Iruka asked looking up.

“I'm sorry to interrupt; I need to speak with Rishito for just a moment,” Mitsutori answered.

Iruka looked at her in confusion for a moment before nodding to Rishito. The boy reentered a minute later and happily made his way back to his seat. Iruka shook his head in amusement as five heads turned to watch him curiously, each one promising to find out what had lifted his mood.

Mitsutori quickly made her way back to the house. She and Sakura left half an hour later.

XXXXXXXX

By the time Rishito returned from after-school training with his friends in tow, Sasuke was grudgingly finishing up the dinner Mitsutori had planned for them. “Is she gone already?” Rishito shouted as he came in the front door.

Sasuke heard one of his friends ask in confusion, “Is who gone?”

“She left this afternoon,” he called back. Sasuke heard the group make their way into the kitchen.

“Yo, Eiki!” Rishito chirped sliding into a chair at the table. His friends stood in the doorway looking at Sasuke curiously.

“You can sit down,” Sasuke said, returning their gazes in amusement. He turned his attention to Rishito and smirked as his friends began to take seats. “You on the other hand are going to help me,” he said, causing Rishito's grin to slip off his face as he stood up grumbling. When Konohamaru snickered at Rishito's misfortune, Sasuke turned to him as well. “You can help too,” he said smirking. Konohamaru's jaw dropped but he also stood grudgingly and pitched in as they set the table and brought the food over.

Instead of joining Rishito and the others, Sasuke took his food and sat on the counter. Around Rin, the three of them had developed rather odd habits, especially ones that carried over from time spent living alone. Meals had proven rather amusing since they tended to sit wherever they liked as long as they were within hearing distance of the others. It had gotten more unorthodox during Rin's pregnancy; since she found the couch much more comfortable, they had stopped bothering with the kitchen altogether.

“So what year are you all in?” Sasuke asked trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

It worked like a charm. Seeing as how only Hanabi and Udon weren't complete chatterboxes, and even they had their moments, the rest of dinner was quite loud. After dinner, the six retreated to the backyard to train more; apparently it was all they did. Sasuke got a slightly uncomfortable sense of déjà vu, but at least they weren't trying to get strong enough to kill someone…he hoped. They were all pretty good for still having a year left in the academy; if they were given permission they could probably graduate early thanks to all the extra help they had had outside of school.

An hour later, as it began to get dark, a knock on the front door broke Sasuke out of his trance as he had been watching them train. “That's probably Neji nii-san,” Hanabi explained as Sasuke got up to answer the door. He needn't have bothered; he had just stepped inside when he heard the front door open. “Nami-san?” he heard someone call out.

“She isn't here,” Sasuke responded stepping out into the hall. “If you're here for one of Rishito's friends, they're in back,” he added, looking at the group that had walked in.

“Do you mind if we go back to see them?” one of the others asked. Sasuke shook his head and stepped back into the kitchen. He watched as nine of his former comrades walked past him and into the backyard. Sasuke took a moment to make sure that he was completely collected before he followed them out and reclaimed his seat. “You guys are doing great,” TenTen stated as he sat down, “I won't be surprised if Iruka-sensei decides to nominate you for early graduation.”

“Woo-hoo!” Rishito and Konohamaru shouted in unison.

While the others continued to speak to the students, Shikamaru and Neji turned to Sasuke. “So where is Nami-san? You were one of the ones here this morning, right?” Neji asked.

Sasuke nodded. “Shingao Eiki,” he said introducing himself. “Mitsutori was needed back home,” he explained.

“Earlier you mentioned Rin; isn't that Rishito's mother?” Neji asked, peaking Shikamaru's interest further.

“Yes, she,” Sasuke was cut off when he felt something slightly wet brush up against his leg.

“Akamaru,” Kiba admonished, walking over to them. “Sorry,” he added grabbing Akamaru's collar, “he's just curious.”

“It's okay,” Sasuke responded, taking a step away from the small dog.

Akamaru studied him curiously for a moment before giving a yip of approval. Kiba shrugged apologetically. “He's naturally suspicious; that's what he's trained for,” he explained.

`That's understandable. Kakashi's dogs are the same way,” Sasuke responded.

“How do…” Shikamaru's question was cut off, when Hinata and Hanabi walked over.

“Neji nii-san, we need to head back,” Hinata said, nodding towards the house.

“Thank you for allowing us to come for dinner,” Hanabi said, bowing slightly towards to Sasuke before turning to leave with Hinata. Neji glanced back at Sasuke once more before turning to follow.

“We should probably head out as well,” Ino said walking over and smiling brightly at Sasuke, he fought the urge not to shudder at the once familiar gesture. “You should come hang out with us tomorrow while we're training them,” she added with a wink as she walked out.

“Well she works quickly,” Sasuke muttered, gaining a slightly sympathetic glance from Chouji as the others walked out, taking Konohamaru and his friends with them.

The minutes Sasuke heard the front door shut, Rishito turned to him with a grin. “Can we train?” he asked excitedly.

Sasuke smirked at him and shook his head. “I promised Mitsutori that I wouldn't train you within Konoha's walls; it's too risky. I also promised that I wouldn't let you train past seven thirty, which came and went an hour ago,” he stated. Rishito scowled but nodded sullenly and walked back inside. “That doesn't mean I can't train you at some point during my stay; we'd just have to go out in the woods for a few hours, or we could use one of the Uchiha Clan training grounds,” Sasuke added, walking in after him. The younger boy didn't respond, but Sasuke figured his skipping was a sign that he had been forgiven.

XXXXXXXX

The next morning Sasuke slept in until long after Rishito had gone to school. When he finally woke up, he spent an hour fidgeting before finally leaving the house and making his way as swiftly as possible through the streets. It was the first time he had walked through the village's streets without being showered with attention; even when his clan had been alive he had often been stopped by random friends of his parents asking after them or his brother. He glanced swiftly down the street as he passed the entrance to the Uchiha sector, but decided that he wasn't in the mood for that particular set of depressing thoughts.

Sasuke's mind drifted towards another set of depressing thoughts as he neared his destination. The minute he set foot on the field the memories started flooding back to him. He fought the urge to grin as he walked past the logs they had eaten lunch at together for the first time; Naruto had of course been tied to the log at the time.

He finally stopped when he found himself standing in front of the memorial stone. He had never had any reason to visit the stone while he still lived in Konoha. His family wasn't listed on there and neither was anyone else that he had ever known. Now his team was on there. It was almost unfair that he had them back and the rest of the village was left to mourn them.

Sasuke bent down as he studied the names carved into the stone. It wasn't until he reached the end of the list that he found any he recognized. Not far from the end were the Harunos'; all three of them were listed in row. He wondered if Sakura knew that she would be placed so close to them. Naruto's name was right after hers; Sasuke wondered if Naruto remembered claiming he wanted to have his name on the stone.

Sasuke was about to stand up when he glanced at the names after theirs; he had simply been wondering if anyone they had known had been lost since their departure. He hadn't been expecting to see his own listed among theirs.

He was still staring at the stone half an hour later when one of the academy students stumbled onto the training field. After a moment of hesitation, the little girl shrugged and continued on towards the stone. She sidled up to Sasuke and looked at him curiously, “Do you know any of them?” she asked.

Sasuke shook his head negatively. “Only through reputation,” he responded standing up. He blinked twice when he got a closer look at the girl who had spoken to him and had to fight the urge to smirk, this was sure to give him something to tell the others about even if he chose not to bring up their old friends. “You look a bit too young to be out of school,” he stated.

The little girl smiled nervously and thumbed the flowers she was holding. “My class is in the field next to this one; I snuck away to bring these over,” she said pointing to the three flowers.

“You know someone on here?” he asked.

“No. They're from a girl that stayed with us last year. She asked me to bring them by because she and her brothers weren't going to be able to bring them herself,” she responded.

XXXXXXXX

“According to Jiraiya's source, their path would have had them entering Fire Country about five kilometers south of here,” Kakashi stated.

“Hoods up then,” Anko said with nod, reaching back and pulling the hood of her ANBU cloak up and over her head. It felt good to be back in uniform; she had to fight the urge to grin when she remembered the one ANBU assignment she, Kakashi, and Rin had been on - Sandaime decided the complaints weren't worth it enough to let them work together again. Kakashi and Itachi followed her lead and the three slowed taking in full acknowledgement of their surroundings. “So why did we leave a day early?” she finally whispered, when Itachi motioned for the others to halt.

“Deidara and Sasori are faster than his informant gave them credit for,” Itachi replied, switching on his sharingan. Anko blinked and wondered why he hadn't done so earlier. “Leave Sasori to me; without the sharingan you don't stand a chance. His puppetry is too unpredictable unless you're familiar with it,” Itachi stated.

Anger flashed across Anko's face as she briefly considered arguing with him before deciding he probably knew their fighting styles well enough to pass judgment. “So who do I get to fight?” she asked, turning the conversation in her favor.

“Deidara is an explosives expert from Iwa; you'll fair better in that fight,” Itachi claimed.

“So how I will know which one's which?” she asked.

Itachi paused in consideration for a moment, before turning to look straight at Anko. “Go after the androgynous one,” he said, turning back around.

“Androgynous? How the hell is that gonna help me?” Anko retorted. Itachi simply smirked and motioned for her to follow as they once again began to move. “Shit!” Anko muttered a moment later when her senses were assaulted by a powerful aura.

“They aren't even trying to hide their presence,” Itachi muttered before compressing his own chakra even more.

Anko and Kakashi quickly followed his lead. “Split up now; remember the Hokage's order: don't engage unless they start it,” Kakashi ordered. He ignored the smirks on his teammates' faces as they darted off into the trees at his side and tried to hide his own as he shot upwards into the overgrowth.

The three quickly closed in on the two Akatsuki affiliates and followed from a safe distance as they continued to move southward. “How much farther, hmm?” Anko heard one of them ask. Her position in the trees to their left didn't give her the best vantage point; she still wasn't sure which one she was supposed to cover when… if they engaged, she reminded herself.

“Kumoma is not far from here,” the other responded. Anko still couldn't distinguish who was speaking, but for some reason Kumoma was ringing an alarm in her mind. She heard Kakashi curse in the foliage above her and could only assume that it had alarmed him as well. Maybe now they really would get to fight. A moment later her wish came true. One of the figures disappeared from the clearing.

“I guess that means they engaged,” Anko muttered, when an explosion rocked the forest around her. The tree she had been standing in tilted precariously and groaned as its roots were dislodged. Anko dove from the tree as it began to fall and landed on the rippling surface of a rather convenient river. She hoped none of her opponents knew very many water based jutsu.

Anko blinked when one of the cloaked Akatsuki members landed in front of her. She slowly raised an eyebrow at the figure in front of her, “Androgynous?” she muttered when she felt Kakashi land next to her.

Kakashi's sharingan was fully exposed as he restlessly shunted the hood and cloak off his form. “Hatake Kakashi, hmm…we weren't expecting to run into you or anyone hmm,” Deidara pondered staring at the two. Finally he shrugged and removed his hat, tossing it lightly to the side.

Anko attempted not to gape when she finally got a full view of the figure in front of her. With his hair and face fully exposed, the man in front of her didn't even qualify as androgynous…he was more feminine than Orochimaru on a bad day. “Hmm…I wish you hadn't stopped us; we were on an important mission. We need to clean up our messes before we can move on…hmm,” Deidara stated, looking at Kakashi curiously.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes as he gazed at the effeminate Missing Nin in front of him. Instead of waiting for Deidara to make the starting move he launched into a set of hand seals. Anko vaguely heard him mutter, “Suiton: Suikoudan no Jutsu,” which was followed by several columns of water sprouting out of the small river and bulleting towards the shore. She could've sworn the wo…man on the shore actually rolled his eyes before easily dodging into the trees for shelter. The water died down and flowed back into the river, revealing a number of shattered trees along the shoreline but no sign of their opponent.

The beating of very large wings and sharp gust of wind downward alerted Anko that something was wrong. She and Kakashi had barely made it onto shore when the water they had been standing on exploded; the shockwave knocked them further back into the forest, but they easily recovered and jumped back towards the more open shore. Deidara was still sitting on the back of …whatever it was, looking far too nonchalant for Anko's taste.

She definitely needed to wipe the smirk off that bastards face; Kakashi's movement beside her confirmed that he felt the same way. “This ought to be fun,” she whispered.

The two quickly dodged the explosion sent by Deidara. Anko felt a trickle of blood on her cheek and reached up to touch the small cut that debris had torn near her eye. She glared up at the bi…bastard. “If he wants to hide in the sky to avoid us, I'll just have to bring him back down,” she muttered angrily as she searched for Kakashi. She located him on the opposite bank, sharingan exposed and watching their opponent. It had been a long time since she had worked with him, but if there was one thing Anko remembered it was that when he had worked with a team he had allowed others to make the first move. She grinned and decided to do so. “Futon: Daitoppa no Jutsu,” she muttered as she completed the hand seals.

Kakashi watched in near amusement as a large updraft shot towards Deidara and his …steed. Unfortunately for the Missing Nin, flying animals - especially those with artificial intelligence - had trouble keeping their paths when faced with opposing wind currents. Deidara was smart enough to be clinging to the bird with chakra, but losing a wing mid flight doesn't make flying very easy. The explosive kunai that Kakashi had managed to launch while the bird was struggling to stay aloft had hit the underside of the wing joint.

Anko watched as the …thing tried to compensate, but it had no luck. She sped up as it crashed towards the ground, taking its rider with it. Anko launched several more explosive kunai and was shocked to see two of them deflected. One kunai apparently missed its target completely, but the other two landed squarely and the explosion only further devastated Deidara's mount as it crashed into the ground.

When two small explosives flew towards her, Anko dodged out of the way completely missing the third one. “Suiton: Sujinheki no Jutsu,” Anko heard before her world turned blue. A wall of water stifled the explosion and Anko turned around to see Kakashi standing behind her.

“I could've dodged,” she mumbled, gaining a chuckle from Kakashi. The wall of water flowed back into the river revealing a slightly charred and very pissed off opponent.

Deidara glared at the two shinobi from Konoha. Kakashi's sharingan caught the seals even before Deidara began forming them. The Jounin easily kept up with the seal pace and called out, “Honshin no Jutsu,” at the same time as the other man. That was when Kakashi realized his mistake.

Anko cursed behind him as the ground under her shuddered violently before cracks began to appear. “You couldn't have waited to perform it until after you knew what it did?” she asked, remembering the last time he had put them in a similar situation. As the earthquake grew, supported by the input of two jutsu users instead of one, the river grew violent as its bed was disturbed and the trees along the edge of the forest groaned as several were uprooted.

The two were forced to ignore their opponent and temporarily abandon their fight as they struggled to remain standing. When the earth finally settled down several minutes later, the landscape had been significantly changed. The river had been split, but the smaller branch managed to meet up with the original course farther down. Dozens of trees were strewn about with their roots hanging in the air and the land was riddled with craggy mounds of earth that jutted out of the ground.

Worst of all was their lack of opponent. An explosion in the woods alerted both to the potential trouble their partner was in and the two took off the direction of the smoke. When they arrived, Itachi was standing nonchalantly opposite the two Akatsuki members. “We don't have time to deal with this,” Deidara muttered, turning to look at his previous opponents.

Anko watched as the larger of the two, she assumed he was Sasori, turned around to look at them. The …man stared at her for a moment before muttering one word that nearly had Anko seeing red, “Orochimaru.” She growled at him and Kakashi stepped forward to prevent her from doing anything stupid. “You're his apprentice; aren't you?” the larger man asked, gaining another growl from Anko.

“Former,” Anko finally bit out, “What do you know about him?”

The man continued to stare at her but his wooden features betrayed nothing of his thoughts. Anko growled and opened her mouth to push her questions, when Deidara beat her to it. “We really don't have the time for this,” he muttered as his hand reached into the bag hidden under his cloak. “How about we clean up this mess; it saves us the time of finding them later, yeah?” he muttered to his partner.

“How much fodder do you have left?” Sasori remarked, gaining an aggravated shrug from the other man.

“Let's just finish quickly, hmm?” Deidara said, turning back to Kakashi and Anko, “Finish off the traitor and I'll blow them up.” His eyes widened as he caught the tail end of Kakashi's seal sequence just before he slammed his hands into the ground. Deidara attempted to steady himself as he reached for his clay, but the moment it was out a strong blast of air shot at him from Anko's direction. He watched angrily as the clay flew far out of his reach and lodged itself in a tree several meters away. He lunged after it but was forced to dodge almost immediately as a jet of fire cut him off from the bag; he growled as the tree and his clay were baked by Itachi's jutsu. It was useless to go after it now.

Deidara dodged again when he heard Itachi and Kakashi both say “Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu.” The twin flames missed Deidara, but Sasori's tail, which had been aiming for Anko, was caught in the crossfire. Anko landed next to Itachi cautiously, watching both members for any more sign of movement. “His outer shell is a puppet; be prepared for what it throws at you,” Itachi warned.

Anko squinted at Sasori for a moment before turning back to Itachi with a small grin. “Why don't I leave him to you then? At least the girly one's been slightly hampered,” she quipped before jumping away. Itachi snickered as Deidara turned to glare at the spot Anko had been in the moment before.

“Over here,” Anko whispered popping up from the ground beneath Deidara. The former Iwa Nin had only a moment to react when he heard Anko mutter, “Nan no Kaizo,” before he felt her body wrap around him. “Kakashi now!” Anko shouted as Deidara's arms were pinned to his sides.

Kakashi launched two kunai that Deidara was unable to dodge. Anko slipped away as Deidara slumped over; she doubted his wounds were actually fatal and began to reach for her weapons when the sound of chirping reached her ears. She jumped away for a better view of the clearing and nodded in Kakashi's direction right before he plunged his hand into Deidara's chest hopefully ending the Nin's life. “One down,” Kakashi muttered as he jumped back towards Anko to see how Itachi was faring.

“That was almost too easy,” Anko responded.

Kakashi nodded and turned to speak when a voice Anko didn't recognize called out, “Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu.” Water exploded into the clearing knocking Anko off her perch and into Kakashi. He quickly moved onto a higher branch before letting her regain her footing. When the water finally cleared out Deidara's was body was nowhere to be seen and a new member of the Akatsuki was standing next to a slightly battered Sasori.

XXXXXXXX

“What's he doing here?” Ino whispered.

“Who?” the woman next to her asked.

“That guy by the memorial. I saw him yesterday; I think his name's Eiki. He's watching Rishito while Nami-san is away,” Ino explained.

“You mean Chiyu Rishito?” the woman asked turning to stare at Ino.

“Yeah, Nami-san had to leave pretty suddenly. Neji and Lee said that Eiki and some girl were at her house yesterday morning. They didn't seem to want them to know what was going on,” Ino claimed. “What?” she added when she realized her colleague was staring at her.

“Chiyu Rishito as in Chiyu Rin's son?” the woman asked.

“Yeah,” Ino replied, “Why?”

“I remember her from the Academy. She graduated before I did, but we're about the same age. She ended up on Yondaime's team along with Hatake-san and an Uchiha. Very talented, but she made a lot of people angry,” the woman answered.

“Why?” Ino asked again.

The woman sighed and turned to look at her. “Please understand that I never held any negative opinion of the boy. I know you were at least friends with his teammate, and that most of you kids think highly of him for good reason. After Yondaime's death a lot of people blamed the Uzumaki boy; I'm fairly certain that you know the reasoning behind that,” the woman said, gaining a somber nod from Ino. “Most people expected Rin and Kakashi to lead a front against the boy. Instead they took care of him. Both of them were already Jounin, but whenever they were around they were with him. Even after they were promoted to ANBU any spare moments were spent watching over him. People thought it was disgraceful; they sort of expected it from Hatake-san, but not from Rin.”

“Is that why she left?” Ino asked.

“I doubt it considering Rishito's age. They adored that kid. Mitarashi Anko hung out with them a lot too after her sensei defected; she seemed to like him too. The funniest thing was, despite their troubles with the Uchiha clan, Itachi seemed to like them as well. Uchiha Ashitaba stuck up for them all the time, even to the clan,” the woman explained.

“She did seem familiar with Anko when she visited, but I never would have guessed they used to be such good friends,” Ino commented.

“Sometimes I think Anko was honestly frightened of her. Everyone was very surprised when Rin joined ANBU, but Anko wasn't. It was like she and Kakashi knew something about Rin no one else did, except for maybe Sandaime-sama and Ashitaba-sama.”

“Who was Uchiha Ashitaba?”

“Itachi and Sasuke's mother,” the other woman explained. “Go grab Ayame-chan and come back,” she added getting up.

Ino nodded and stepped away from the other woman. She sighed again wondering what Eiki what was doing at a shinobi memorial. Did he even know Rin? Or any other shinobi? She shook the thoughts out of her head as she approached the two; they appeared to be discussing a mutual acquaintance and Ino couldn't come up with a reason that they would have one.

“So why aren't they in Fire Country any more?” Ayame asked.

“Last time I saw them was in Kaiin. When they left they said they were heading east and they were going to try their luck in Wave Country,” Eiki asked.

Ino decided to interrupt and cleared her throat. “Ayame-chan, you know you aren't supposed to wander away from class when we're in the field,” she said.

“Sorry Ino-sensei,” Ayame stuttered jumping to attention.

Ino took pity on the girl and shook her head. “It's okay, but we need to head back,” she said. Ayame nodded and quickly set down the flowers she had brought. She turned quickly to go but Ino was staring at the flowers. “Where did you get those?” she asked.

“Haru gave them to me. She asked me to bring them here, but I haven't been able to since I came. My aunt doesn't like me going out alone, so this is the first time I've been able to come to the memorial,” Ayame explained.

“Who is Haru?” Ino asked.

“She stayed with my family last year; her and her brothers. We met them on our way home; they saved us from some bandits,” Ayame explained proudly. “What's wrong?” she asked when she noticed Ino still staring at the flowers.

“Did you know that every flower has a meaning?” Ino asked.

“You taught us that,” Ayame said, nodding.

“These flowers have very special meanings,” Ino began to explain. “This one here is an azalea,” she said pointing to one of the flowers, “do you remember what it means?”

Ayame thought hard for a few moments before shaking her head.

“Azalea means `take care of yourself for me'. The one next to it is heather; it isn't native in this area. Do you remember what it means?”

“Wishes come true?” Ayame mumbled.

“Close, that is one of its meanings. White heather means `protection' or `wishes come true'. This one is purple hyacinth; it's not from around here either. Do you remember what it means?” she asked.

“I'm sorry,” Ayame replied confusing Sasuke.

“Yeah,” Ino replied, “`I'm sorry' or `please forgive me.'” Sasuke fought the urge to curse and wondered if Sakura meant for someone to figure something out. Hopefully Ino wouldn't equate the Chuuins with them. “We need to get back to the class,” Ino finally said standing up.

“Bye,” Ayame said to Sasuke waving as she followed her mellow sensei back to the rest of her class.

XXXXXXXX

Itachi spared Kakashi and Anko a glance before turning to the two in front of him. “Your techniques are too flashy, as always,” Itachi stated looking the taller of the two figures in the face.

“Itachi-san,” Kisame responded calmly, looking directly back at him.

“I'll leave him to you; I'm sure you have things to settle,” Sasori said, lurking away towards the tree Anko and Kakashi were in.

“Suiton: Suikodan no Jutsu,” Kisame shouted as Itachi reached towards his weapons pouch. He rolled his eyes as the predictability of his former partner and quickly dodged not only the incoming water attack but the Samehada as well. “Flashy and predictable,” he muttered as he stepped past Kisame.

Kisame turned with slightly wide eyes. “You've gotten faster,” he growled, gaining a nonchalant shrug from the Uchiha.

Itachi once more reached beneath the heavy ANBU cloak towards his weapons pouch before thinking better of it. Kisame glared at his nonchalance and attacked again attempting to distract Itachi with a barrage of swipes from the Samehada. Itachi easily dodged the sword and reached up to unclasp his cloak; he swept it over his head and allowed it to fall towards Kisame temporarily blocking the other Nin's line of sight.

With his cloak out of the way, he reached back towards his sword as he recalled the conversation he had had with Kakashi the day before. He could almost picture the other man's smug face if he realized he had convinced him to bring it along. At least against an opponent like Kisame it would be put to good use.

Kisame gave another growl when the cloak hit his face and he was temporarily distracted by the childish act as he struggled to untangle himself from it. He finally looked up past the cloak only to find Itachi in the air above him lunging downward with sword pointing at him. He blocked the incoming strike with the Samehada and managed to push Itachi off him. If he wanted a sword fight, he'd get one, Kisame thought as a grin blossomed onto his face.

Itachi eyed his opponent warily. He was faster than Kisame, but the other man was no slouch and even with the Sharigan he'd be hard pressed again the ferocity of the attacks he knew Kisame housed within his sword. He adjusted his footing slightly as Kisame lunged forward; he blocked the Samehada with his one sword and swiped at Kisame's unguarded abdomen with a kunai only to have it swatted away by Kisame's hand.

“I guess you three being here means they didn't complete their mission,” Kisame muttered, pushing Itachi back farther and opening up his sword for another swing. Itachi ignored him and ducked under the sword, managing a small swipe across Kisame's gut. Kisame instinctively backed off but quickly recovered and moved in for another strike. “They were supposed to back at base by now, but they must have met more than just you along the way. Maybe that means she put up a bit of fight before they killed her,” he said smirking at Itachi. “I gotta admit, I was disappointed when I learned both of you had betrayed us. I kinda liked her,” Kisame added licking his lips lightly as Itachi slowly raised an eyebrow at his amused expression.

“It's a real pity he sent those two to kill her, I would've liked to play with her a bit beforehand,” he said lunging in towards Itachi. The man in front of him dodged twice but his third swipe cut into Itachi's side. His eyes widened when the splatter of blood was replaced with a cloud of smoke as his victim disappeared.

“You're distracting yourself more than me,” Itachi said from behind. Kisame turned on his heal to counter only to find no one behind him. A pain in his back a moment later alerted him to Itachi's position and he turned around again.

“That sword's so small it can't do any real damage,” he snickered despite the pain in his back. He wasn't quite sure what Itachi had cut, but it hurt like hell.

“Pathetic,” Itachi murmured for once allowing his annoyance to show as he rolled his eyes at Kisame. Kisame's snickers died down as he glared at Itachi, he completely failed to notice the small trail of blood that trickled out of Itachi's sleeve and down his hand. “I wouldn't recommend repeating any of what you just said to either Anko or Kakashi,” Itachi said stepping back from Kisame and into a better stance just in time for Kisame to lunge at him again. “Very uncreative,” he added as Kisame's attacks grew repetitious. Kisame's responded by ramming the hilt of his sword into Itachi's ribcage.

Itachi glared and flipped away before the scaled edges could hit him again. He landed near a large puddle, the remnants of Kisame's opening jutsu and jumped away quickly when he caught the seals Kakashi was performing. “Kuuden Shintou no Jutsu,” he heard before he turned his attention back to Kisame, the others would be finished shortly and he was tired of dealing with his ex-partner.

The smell of smoke behind him was slightly confusing but he ignored it in favor of pouring a bit more chakra into his eyes. He almost missed Kisame's movement and moved enough to avoid the majority of the blow, but when Kisame jerked his sword back towards him the numerous edges tore into Itachi's upper arm. Itachi cursed and used his right hand to shove the Samehada away from him causing a few tears to appear on his skin. Kisame snickered again and looked up to taunt Itachi only to be caught by the red and black eyes staring back at him. He fell into blackness, the sound of chirping not even registering in his ears.

Itachi looked up from Kisame's form as Kakashi jerked his arm out of the other man's back allowing the body to slump forward. “Sasori?” he asked.

“Got away; I'm not sure how, but he did,” Kakashi responded walking over towards him. “Anko's trying to find his trail but”

“No luck,” Anko said, cutting him off as she reentered the clearing. “He shed his shell about fifty meters from here, after that there isn't a trail,” she explained.

“Fine, let's get rid of this body. I'm not sure what they did with Deidara's but it isn't around here either,” Kakashi decided shrugging.

It was around then that Itachi passed out.

XXXXXXXX

Kakashi had sped out of the town hoping to make it to Kumoma and Rin's place within several hours. After Itachi had passed out, he and Anko had quickly cleaned up the area and headed for a nearby village. Once there they had checked into an and turned their attention to Itachi. They had managed to stop the bleeding, but neither he nor Anko could boast particularly good healing skills. That and he was fairly certain you weren't supposed to inflict more trauma, which was basically what he had done right before he left when Itachi had started to wake up. Less than two hours later, Kakashi paused to catch his breath on a tree twenty meters before the turn off to Rin's. At a slightly more leisurely pace, he set off down the road finally starting to wonder exactly how Rin was going to be able to travel, let alone travel as fast as they would need to.

His first clue that she wouldn't be able to was Mitsutori answering the door. “Aren't you supposed to be in Konoha?” he asked stepping inside.

Instead of answering, Mitsutori winced as a shout rang down from upstairs. A moment later, Naruto and Sakura darted down the stairs and into the kitchen. Kakashi watched in amusement as a confused Naruto poked his head back out of the kitchen to stare at him. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“What's going on?” Kakashi asked, looking between the three as Sakura poked her head out next to Naruto.

XXXXXXXX

Anko was beginning to panic. Kakashi had left almost five hours before promising to bring back a healer more competent than the idiot the town had offered. She could only assume that he didn't mean one from Konoha; after all, he had promised to be back within six hours. His deadline was getting closer and she was getting more nervous.

“Hmmm…this really does look bad,” the doctor said, looking up from Itachi.

Anko was fairly certain that had Kakashi not knocked out the Uchiha he would have punched the man poking at his shredded arm. “Well then maybe next time an urgent messanger carrying a request from a badly wounded shinobi reaches you, you should come a bit quicker,” she growled out.

“Now, now it couldn't be helped. I said this looked bad; I didn't say there was nothing I could do,” the man tutted as if speaking to a child. Anko growled again as he turned around and began to slowly unwrap the bandages that Kakashi and Anko had spent nearly twenty minutes precariously applying.

“Don't do that!” someone shouted from the window, throwing Anko off guard. She chided herself for not being more wary; maybe she was more tired than she realized. “Who are you? And how did you get up here?” she asked looking at the two teens currently standing on the balcony.

“Mitarashi-san?” the girl questioned, gaining a hesitant nod from Anko. “Kakashi-san sent us. He was too tired for Rin-san to let him accompany us back,” she continued, glancing carefully at the boy next to her.

Anko shook her head as she suddenly felt incredibly tired as well. “Why are you on the balcony? And how did you get up there?” she asked, wondering how two civilian teenagers had been able to reach the third story balcony.

“Ummm…we climbed up the ladder, because the manager wouldn't let us up. He said something about not disturbing the injured shinboi,” the boy answered, shrugging.

“If you don't mind young lady, I'd like to get back to my work,” the doctor said drawing attention back to himself.

“I do mind,” the girl responded huffily. “He suffered from severe lacerations on his arm,” she continued, walking towards Itachi and leaning down next to the doctor. “There's possible internal bruising and bleeding due to several of the attacks and he has two broken ribs,” she appraised, recalling what Kakashi had told her. “The first thing that should be dealt with is the internal damage. The arm is already wrapped; so it's best to leave it until later,” she chided the doctor.

“Now see here-” the doctor prepared to reprimand the redhead in front of him when suddenly her hand was enveloped in a soft glow and she ran it along the front of his patient's shirt tearing it down the middle. He winced slightly at the bruises revealed on the young man's chest.

As the teen began to diagnose Itachi, Anko felt her resolve against sleep slip slightly. How had she not realized how tired she was, she wondered as the boy eye's flitted back and forth between where his friend was arguing with the elderly doctor and herself. “Hmm…I think there might be a third cracked rib; at least it didn't puncture the lung,” the girl said. It was about then that Anko passed out.

Naruto watched as Anko swayed unsteadily on her feet. He wondered if she knew she looked like crap. When she finally passed out, Naruto caught her and lay her down to rest on one of the futons that had already been set up. The inn manager had apparenly been kind enough to loan them an actual cot to place Itachi on. “Umm…we don't really need your help,” he said, walking back over to Sakura and the doctor.

“Young man, I am not leaving this shinobi in the hands of two teenagers. Do you have any idea who he is?” the doctor responded, jabbing a finger into Itachi's stomach. He quickly recoiled when Sakura turned her glare on him.

“He's a family friend,” Naruto responded. “We were asked to come and take care of him.”

“This boy is the last living Uchiha. He is one of the most vital members of the hidden village of Konoha. I am not leaving here unless you give me a very good reason to do so.”

Naruto stared at the doctor for a moment in consideration before shrugging. He was fairly certain that Mitsutori's parting words had been a joke, but it was worth a try to get the old man out of their hair. “I'm Nami Kyokki; this is-” he trailed off when the doctor spun around to stare at him. Naruto blinked twice as he began to realize that maybe Mitsutori hadn't been joking.

The old doctor glanced back and forth between the two teens in front of him. The girl was still stooped over the Uchiha concentrating on the worst of the internal wounds; the Nami boy was watching him intently, and he was admittedly a bit disconcerted. Finally he stood up and headed to the door, if the girl was with the Nami family and the Uchiha's teammate had trusted them enough to send them then it wasn't his place to stop them from doing their work. Besides the girl appeared competent. “I have other patients to see to. If anything comes up and you need help, just ask the manager to send someone for me,” he said, edging out of the door. The Nami boy nodded in understanding, but his friend didn't even bother to look up at him.

XXXXXXXX

Anko woke with a start the next morning and instinctively reached for the kunai she always kept under her pillow as she grabbed the arm that had been attacking her. When she came to her senses a moment later, she heard someone snickering at her and looked down to find a slightly wide eyed teen blinking up at her. “Sorry,” she muttered, releasing him as she identified the source of snickering as Itachi.

“My fault,” was the response she got. “I tried to wake you up first, but when you didn't respond I figured you would just stay asleep,” the teen explained.

“Stay asleep during what?” she growled out. She looked up in shock when she heard Itachi's snicker turn into a genuine laugh.

“You fell asleep last night before Hana-chan could heal you and then she fell asleep right after she finished with Itachi. If she wakes up and you're injured she'll feel guilty, so I was gonna take care of it,” the boy answered quickly, glaring lightly at Itachi.

Anko blinked down at him and then turned her attention to her hand. It had been bruised and scratched the day before, but now it looked perfectly fine. “You did this with chakra?” she asked.

“Rin taught us a bit, she said she got tired of fixing up Eiki and me every time we got into a fight,” he explained.

“Rin?” Anko repeated in confusion.

“She's in Kumoma right now; she couldn't leave `cause she was too busy with a pregnancy in town,” he explained, sitting back sleepily. “She said to bring Itachi there when you're ready to move out; he's not fully healed yet,” he added.

“Looks fine to me,” Anko muttered angrily, looking up at Itachi's smirk.

XXXXXXXX

After the first two days, Sasuke spent a rather uneventful week in Konoha. He took Rishito to the Uchiha clan private training fields twice to train. By the end of the first half hour he realized that TenTen had been right, they probably would be nominated to take the next graduation exam. The rest of the week had been spent ignoring Ino's flirting and the many personal questions that had been launched at him by, well everyone.

He woke up on the morning of what would become the last day of his stay and finally gave into Rishito's pleading. The academy students had the day off and the former “Rookies” had once again offered to spend an entire day training with them. Sasuke had reluctantly agreed to accompany Rishito and spend the day watching them train, which would put him in close proximity to Ino and to the former Jounin sensei who he had managed to avoid the entire time.

Rishito happily dragged Sasuke to the field chatting about how much he was going to achieve during the training session; he had proven surprisingly resilient against Sasuke's sulking, managing to ignore it completely. They arrived at the field and Sasuke fought the urge to curse when he realized Gai-sensei, Asuma-sensei, and Kurenai-sensei weren't the only adults supervising. Iruka-sensei was there speaking with two Jounin that Sasuke vaguely recognized from his Chuunin exam. There was a third Jounin that he didn't recognize currently in conversation with the last…well third to last person he didn't want to see at the moment: the Hokage.

Sasuke was fairly certain that as good as his new identity was it wasn't meant to hold up against a Hokage. In fact he was fairly certain that Rin would have preferred the Hokage not learn about his stay in Konoha. He glanced down at the bubbly eleven year old next to him and tried to think of an excuse that Rishito would buy. He was too late.

“He came!” Ino squealed excitedly, to Hinata and TenTen. The two girls tried to hide the smiles that her behavior was giving them.

“Who came?” Tsunade asked, breaking away from her conversation.

“Why don't you leave him alone?” Shikamaru muttered, rolling his eyes and pointing to Eiki for the Hokage.

“Who's that?” Ebisu asked.

“Shingao Eiki,” Neji answered.

“Ino are you incapable of not flirting with every guy you meet?” Shikamaru asked; his voice was dripping with aggravation.

“You could always just ask me out and then I wouldn't even look at other guys…much,” Ino answered. The blush on Shikamaru's scowling face as he turned away was enough to make her smirk triumphantly.

“Is that the boy that came to see Mitsutori the other morning?” Gai asked once Sasuke and Rishito had moved a bit closer.

“Yes, he most graciously agreed to stay with Rishito while Nami-san spirited away to take care of her business,” Lee answered.

Gai gave a proud nod while looking at Sasuke. “What a courteous young man. Such responsibility, such maturity, such…” his admiring was cut short by Ino.

“We get the point; you're as enamored with him as I am,” she mumbled, causing the other adults to chuckle.

“Mitsutori left?” Tsunade asked, turning to the group in confusion.

“About a week ago, I don't think it was anything too bad. She spoke with Rishito before she left and he appeared quite happy over it,” Iruka answered.

“Yeah neither of them seemed worried at all,” Ino added.

“Oi, are we gonna train or what?” Konohamaru demanded.

“Yeah, yeah we're coming,” Kiba responded walking over; Ino squealed and walked over to Sasuke who was still standing near Rishito and his friends.

She pulled him over to the others who weren't occupying themselves with training. The adults couldn't help but chuckle at the slightly distressed look on Sasuke's face as Ino latched herself onto him. The blond snuck a glance at Shikamaru just long enough to stick her tongue out at him, before turning back introducing Sasuke to everyone. He had to admit that the bandana made him look a bit like Ebisu, but he'd be dead before he admitted it to Naruto.

“So you're staying with Rishito,” Tsunade stated looking at him curiously. Sasuke nodded as off handedly as possible, talking with the Hokage wasn't exactly something he wanted to do. “Do you know Rin then?” she asked.

“Yes,” Sasuke answered, turning to look at Kiba and Chouji as they set the students up in sparring matches.

Tsunade's eye twitched as the boy she was talking to shifted his attention elsewhere. “Isn't Rishito a bit old to need someone to baby sit him for a week?” she asked.

“He's old enough to take care of himself, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't have someone stay with him,” Sasuke answered.

“I'd say it could make him dependant,” Tsunade responded.

“That's only a bad thing if you enjoy solitude. Solitude isn't good for most people because it leads to less than healthy practices,” Sasuke responded, partially from personal experience.

Tsunade's mouth gaped for a moment at the insult he had just thrown out. “You don't particularly like shinobi, do you?” she asked.

“I'm merely saying that Rin didn't want him picking up those habits,” Sasuke commented. He smirked slightly and continued, “She said dealing with Kakashi was bad enough.”

“Is that so?” an amused voice asked behind him. Sasuke turned around and smiled at him with a slight shrug. Kakashi returned the smile and turned to Tsunade, “I left Anko in your office in case you returned while I was gone; I didn't really expect to find you here.”

“Where's Itachi?” Tsunade asked.

“He's with Rin. He received some injuries and it was easier to leave him there until he recovers than try to bring him back here,” Kakashi explained stepping up next to Sasuke.

“I'll head back now to hear your mission report,” Tsunade said, turning to leave. Kakashi nodded and followed. “Wait here until I get back,” he added with a wave to Sasuke.

An hour later Kakashi, Tsunade, and Anko returned to watch as training wrapped up for the day. Kakashi squinted in Rishito's direction and turned to Sasuke who was trying valiantly to ward off Ino, “Has he been sparring the whole time?”

“Yes,” Sasuke responded, ducking away from Ino. Anko snickered at her and Ino pouted in return.

Kakashi shook his head in amusement before deciding that he wasn't in the mood to watch a sparring match. “Tell him to get ready to head in; I'm starving,” Kakashi ordered good naturedly. Sasuke chuckled and walked towards Rishito as Kakashi turned back to the questioning adults.

“Are you sure you aren't punishing the kid? Cutting his training short is probably the worst thing you could order,” Anko said staring at him incredulously.

Kakashi snorted and rolled his eyes at her; turning to Iruka instead. “Rishito's going to miss classes for the next two weeks,” he stated.

“What?” Iruka responded in confusion.

“Rin wants to see him and she's a bit tied down at the moment so I said I'd bring him to her. Mitsutori will bring him back in about two weeks when she's finished her business,” Kakashi explained.

Rishito's shout of “He's back?” cut the conversation short.

Kakashi looked up to see Sasuke pointing in his direction and Rishito jumping up and down in excitement. “Let's go!” Rishito shouted, pulling Sasuke along and leaving a baffled Konohamaru behind.

“Oi! Where are you going? We weren't done yet,” Konohamaru shouted.

“We'll spar later,” Rishito responded cheekily.

“Why can't we finish now?” Konohamaru asked.

“I don't see why you're so upset,” Rishito commented, “I was winning.” Konohamaru scowled as Rishito snickered and dashed off towards Kakashi.

“You can spar with Hanabi,” Moegi offered, “I was losing.”

Konohamaru froze and the adults watched in amusement as he turned to Inari and Udon, “How `bout two on one?”

“Oh come on!” Hanabi shouted in frustration. “Moegi and Rishito are the only ones who'll ever spar against me even if I promise not to use the Byakugan,” she muttered.

Sasuke looked at Konohamaru carefully for a moment before glancing over at Kakashi. The man was busy dealing with a very angry Anko so he turned back to Konohamaru and the other students as Kiba tried to sort everything out. “Didn't you say you were a Sarutobi,” he said catching their attention. Konohamaru nodded at him in confusion. “Seems pretty doubtful,” Sasuke said deciding to channel Naruto as he goaded Konohamaru on. “I've heard a lot about that clan and I don't think they could turn out someone who was afraid to accept a fight; regardless of what clan their opponent is from.”

“What did you say?” Konohamaru growled out.

“I'm just saying it's pretty cowardly to turn her down,” Sasuke stated turning to leave. He was pleased to hear Konohamaru shout a challenge back at Hanabi a moment later.

“Ready to go?” Kakashi asked when Sasuke walked up. He nodded in return and Rishito latched onto his arm as he pulled the two out of the clearing. When they were out of sight and earshot Kakashi grinned down at Rishito's expectant face. “Her name is Nakera,” he said smiling.

Agent's Spiel: I'm just gonna list out ages, if you don't care you can skip this section.

The majority of the former “rookies” are now 15, (Naruto will turn 15 in two chapters)

Konohamaru, Rishito, etc. are 11.

Itachi is 20.

Other ages aren't really important, but if you're curious just ask.

Quick conversions: 165 cm is about 5 ft 4 in. (Sasuke and Naruto). Yes Naruto is currently slightly taller than Sasuke. 160.2 cm is about 5 ft 2 in. 45 kg is about 100 lbs. Like Rin says, Sakura needs to put on a bit of weight. 53 kg is about 115 lbs. (once again Naruto and Sasuke).

Jutsu Translations:

Suiton: Suikoudan no Jutsu Water Shark Projectile

Futon: Daitoppa no Jutsu Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

Suiton: Suijinheki no Jutsu Water Release: Water Encampment Wall

Honshin no Jutsu Main shock Jutsu (original)

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

Nan no Kaizo Soft Physique Modification

Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique

Kuuden Shintou no Jutsu Static Shock (original)