Naruto stood in the office of Tsunade again. "We will be leaving now..." Naruto says. "Very well. But did you have to drag along Team Eight to do it?" Tsunade asks. "We need trackers," Naruto says. "Very well," Tsunade sighs and waves him out of her office. "I'll leave my clones in here... Do take care of them. Ask them to contact me if you need anything," Naruto says as he forms four wood clones in the office corner. They sit down and start working with the notebooks Naruto got yesterday. Naruto walks out of the office with his hands in his pockets. He goes down the worn path of the Konoha main road. He opens the door to the Senju complex. He packs the necessary things for a drawn-out mission away from home. He seals the items inside a storage scroll and puts the scroll in one of his pouches behind his back.
Naruto decided to take a detour. He needed to switch some words with a particular captive. He walks into the I&T department and sees Inoichi. "Hello there, Naruto. It is rare for you to come here... Did something happen to Ino?!" He asks panically. "No you have nothing to worry about. I just came here to see Kabuto," Naruto says as he tries to calm the usually calm man down. "Oh.. okay...whew what a relief..." he says. "Can I?" Naruto asks again. "Yeah... right... sorry. Of course come this way," He says as he leads the young man towards a cell. He opens the door.
"You have 10 minutes," He says and closes the cell door behind him. "Hello there, Kabuto..." Naruto says as he sits down on the empty chair opposite Kabuto. He looked surprisingly well for someone in his position. "Hello there yourself, Naruto-kun," He says in his smug voice like it was his choice to sit here confined to a chair. "I take it Ibiki hasn't been able to break you yet..." Naruto says. "What he does is nothing compared to the training Orochimaru has given all his subordinates," Kabuto says proudly. "I see... Well give it some time. I'm sure he can get through you evantually," Naruto says. "Escpacially now that Orochimaru is dead..." He adds after a slight pause. "Like I would believe such an obvious ploy..." Kabuto says as he deepens his smug smile. "I don't lie Kabuto... " Naruto chides him. "The rumour mill has produced quite a story as well... Apparently Sasuke went ahead and killed him when Orochimaru was going to take over his body..." Naruto says as he stands up. Kabuto was looking more and more crushed the more Naruto talked. "Well it was fun talking to you again... Though I doubt this is the last time..." Naruto says as he leaves the room.
"Thank you for the time, Inoichi. It was nice seeing his face again. Hopefully, we can get some more information out of him now." Naruto says to his girlfriend's dad. "You knew exactly where to strike that blow... Maybe you have some future in this department after all..." Inoichi says, shocked as he looks into the cell of the broken Kabuto. "I am going for the hat. Doubt I'll have enough time to play interrogator when I am Hokage," Naruto says as he waves goodbye to the older man. The man just waves back with a small smile.
Naruto stood before Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, and Sai. "Basically... rumour has it that Sasuke killed Orochimaru," He says bluntly. "No way!" "What is his plan now?!" "What are we going to do?" Came the predictable response from the group. Naruto raises his hand to stop them. "That is why I assembled this team to find Itachi and capture him," Naruto says. "I have gotten the go-ahead from Tsunade... All I need to know is who is coming along," he adds. All of them raise their hands. "Good... we needed a couple of trackers anyway..." Kakashi's voice came from behind Naruto. "This is my operation... You think you can just barge in and take charge?" Naruto asks with a tick mark on his temple. "Who said anything about taking charge..." Yamato says as he pops up next to Kakashi. "He is a jonin. He automatically gets to be incharge..." Naruto says. "Well when you say it like that..." Yamato says quietly. "You get to be lieutenant though... Isn't that close enough..." Kakashi says. "Everyone go home and pack your things this will be a long mission," Kakashi says to the ninja assembled. Naruto sighs and begins to move towards the gate.
Heavy rain was falling. Team Eight and Nine were wearing white capes with two red bands running on their bottom. Tsunade and Jiraiya were there to see them off. "Good you guys are ready to go. Remember this is a capture mission, use nonlethal force when handling Itachi," Tsunade reminds them. "We know..." Naruto sighs. "Will you ever let me handl esome things on my own..." Naruto complains to Tsunade. "Yes when The mess with the Akatsuki is handled. Then you can lead how many missions you want," Tsunade says as she puts her arms underneath her chest. "That can be years from now..." Naruto sighs. "Yosh! I hereby assign you the mission of locating and capturing Uchiha Itachi!" Tsunade says to the entire group ignoring Naruto's complaints. The two squads move out.
The trackers were looking for anything they could use to find an Akatsuki member. Naruto was stretching his senses as far as possible. He was even using Sage mode. He found that that mode was exemplar when sensing. "We aren't finding anything," Kiba sighs. "Let's split up," Kakashi says as they land on a roof. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Kakashi says, and eight dogs pop up. "The goal of the Akatsuki is to find the tailed beasts. Therefore, Naruto will be going together with Yamato, Hinata and Bull. The rest of you will get two dogs each," Kakashi lays out, and they nod except for Naruto, who grumbles about being the strongest ninja here. "We search in all four directions for five kilometres with this as the starting point," Kakashi says. "Five kilometres? That exceeds the range of the radios," Sakura says. "That is why he summoned us," Pakkun says. "We can hear each other further away than your radios," He adds. "I see," Sakura says. "If we don't find anything within these five kilometres, we move the central point and try again," Kakashi explains. "Any questions? No. Good. Scatter!" Kakashi orders.
Naruto, Yamato and Hinata were walking in the forest. Bull was sniffing the ground seeing if he could find any traces of Sasuke or Itachi. Naruto activated his sage mode again. "Still nothing out of the ordinary," Naruto sighs. They continue to press forward through the forest. Naruto perks up. "I found something... It feels like Sasuke!" He says to his companions. "Bull, contact the others. We are going into persuit of Sasuke. It seems like he has a team of three others now. Tell the others to be careful!" Naruto says as he begins to run off towards the chakra he thinks is Sasuke.
Naruto was ahead of the search effort. The remaining members of the pursuit team had just arrived. "Naruto, slow down! We can't keep up!" Kiba exclaims. "Then let me go ahead!" Naruto shouts back. "You are the one who has a trail!" Sakura tries to argue. "Mokuton: Moku Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto says, and a clone separates from his back. "Now he can help you at a slower pace," Naruto says as the clone takes up a place in the ranks. "Very well..." Kakashi finally lets him go. Naruto smiles and takes off faster than before. "Talk about overpowered..." Kiba sighs and the clone laughs lightly at Kiba's predicament.
Naruto was speeding through the forest alone. He lands in a clearing. "You can come out now..." Naruto says into the air. "That is what you should expect from a mokuton user..." The deep voice of Itachi says as he walks into the clearing from behind a tree. "And you seem to have unlocked a new chakra mode as well. I have never felt anything like it," He says when he sees the markings of Sage mode. "You don't seem like you want to fight, so what do you want?" Naruto says as he analyses Itachi's relaxed stance. "How preseptive of you..." Itachi says in his monotone voice. "Why should I even let you speak? If I capture you now I can force Sasuke to comeback to Konoha," Naruto says to counter his presumed objective. "Why are you so oppsesed with my brother?" Itachi asks instead of answering Naruto's question. "I think of him as my brother..." Naruto says with a small smile. "I see..." Itachi says, and Naruto thought he saw a slight smile on the older man's usually stone-like expression.
"You didn't kill your clan for selfish reasons, did you..? You don't seem like the type," Naruto asks, and Itachi takes a small step back. "You are way too preceptive, aren't you?" Itachi asks back. "It's a bad habit to answer a question with another question, you know?" Naruto says with a lopsided grin. Itachi lifts his hand and closes his eyes. "Am going to give you something for safekeeping... Keep it safe and defend the village. If you are able to help Sasuke, please do," Itachi says and opens his eyes. Naruto finds himself in a Genjutsu. "What do you think I have been doing all these years," Naruto sighs. A crow with a Sharingan suddenly begins to crawl its way down Naruto's throat. Naruto was close to throwing up. "Was there no other way to hand the thing over..." Naruto says between pants when he comes back to the real world. "I am afraid not... I will be leaving now," Itachi says and turns into crows. "Right..." Naruto says and takes up his pursuit of Sasuke again.
Sasuke and his team were moving. That much was clear to Naruto. Pretty fast too. They must have a sensor in their ranks. Naruto was still moving faster, so he counted on catching up to them in a few minutes. He jumps from a branch, and a few rays of sunshine shine through the tree crowns. He felt something touch his shoulder. He reaches out and touches his shoulder instinctively. Nothing was there. Suddenly an overwhelmingly depressive aura overflows him. He pauses for a second. 'Ero-sennin...' He thinks, and a small tear rolls down his cheek. Now was not the time. He needs to catch up to Sasuke.
Just as Naruto predicted, he caught up with Sasuke's team within ten minutes. "Yo... Sasuke..." He says from above them. "Naruto..." Sasuke says flatly. "Seems like you built yourself quite the team..." Naruto says as he lands on the branch ahead of them. He squats down. "An Uzumaki... A swordsman... and a nature chakra user..." Naruto identifies as he gazes over the team members with a small smile gracing his lips. "This guy is trouble..." The Uzumaki warns. "So you are the sensor I have been fighting... Quite apt as well..." Naruto mutters. "Am I not here to fight... I've realised that that isn't going to work with you," Naruto says as he closes his eyes. The swordsman grabs his sword and starts to run towards Naruto. "Wait Suigetsu!" The nature chakra user screams out. "I remeber that sword... Zubuza used it before right?" Naruto asks as he drops down from the branch to evade the strike. "Talk about nostalgic..." Naruto says quietly to himself as he lands on the ground in a squat gracefully. His eyes are still shut. "You shouldn't throw that thing around willy-nilly..." Naruto says.
"Stand down! Suigetsu!" Sasuke orders. Suigetsu, the swordsman, jumps back to the others. He still had his sword drawn. "I told you... I am not here to fight..." Naruto says. "What do you want, Naruto?" Sasuke asks. "What I want is for you to come back to the village... But I get the feeling you aren't going to drop everything and come back..." Naruto says as he sits down in a lotus position on the floor. "You are right about that," Sasuke says. "Itachi confirmed something for me when I ran into his shadow clone," Naruto says. "And what would that be?" Sasuke asks. "He didn't kill the clan for selfish reasons. That is what he confirmed," Naruto says. "I'm leaving," Sasuke says as he begins to walk past Naruto. "I don't know his reason, but there must have been something going on around the time we were born or later," Naruto says when Sasuke is next to Naruto. "I don't care," Sasuke says as he jumps away. His team was not far behind. "I'll come talk once you are done then..." Naruto says to his retreating form.
(After today, there will be no more daily updates. Don't worry. The story is not cancelled. I just have to focus on school again... Easter break is kinda short here in Sweden...)