"Gamakichi?" Gamabunta asked. "What are you doing here? Where's Jiraiya? He should be near here if he summoned me!" Gamabunta roared.
"Hey!" Naruto shouted somewhat offended. "He didnt summon you! I did!" Naruto claimed proudly as he couldn't help but puff out his chest. Gamabunta glanced up at Naruto before bellowing with laughter. Gamakichi watched the scene play out, and he couldn't help but feel even the tiniest bit bad for Naruto, as he had seen how hard Naruto had worked to accomplish this. Feeling the need to help out, Gamakichi shouted,
"He's right pops! He summoned you. I saw it myself!" Gamakichi came to immediatley regret every thing he just said when he saw Naruto's ego grow bigger. Gamabunta stopped laughing and took another look at Naruto. Though this time instead of a quick glance, it was a thought out look, as if he was trying to find out all his secrets.
He looked familiar. Strange.
"Hm." Gamabunta said, deep in thought. Only a minute or two of awkward silence after that, or it was awkward for Naruto and Gamakichi, two new voices entered the area.
"Hey Naruto, it's getting pretty late, why don't you come bac-" Jiraiya froze staring up at Gamabunta, while Gamatatsu, who was hopping on the ground looked at Jiraiya confused as to why he stopped talking.
"Hey, what's up?" Gamatatsu asked the sage who just stared in surprise that Naruto was able to summon the big toad.
"Gamatatsu!" Gamakichi cried. "Look! It's pops!" Gamatatsu looked up in surprise and grinned widely seeing Gamabunta.
"Pops! What are you doing here? Did Naruto summon you?" Gamatatsu asked running up to him.
"Yeah. Did Naruto summon you?" Jiraiya mumbled looking up at the fourteen year old in question. Naruto grinned proudly and nodded, hiding his exhaustion from chakra use.
"Apparently the brat did summon me." Gamabunta admitted. Jiraiya looked up at Naruto, expecting to get a reaction out of him. Naruto who was too tired to catch the insult just jumped down from Gamabunta's back and onto the ground beside Jiraiya.
"Yeah pervy sage! I did it! It took awhile, but I got it." Jiraiya noticed how proud Naruto was of himself and he couldn't help but give him a pat on the back.
"Good job kid." Naruto beamed at that.
"Jiraiya," Gamabunta began. "Gamakichi and Gamatatsu have been here with you the entire time?"
"No," Jiraiya began. He then went on to explain how the two small toads ended up here, being careful with how he explained things, especially the part about the two not being able to return until Kabuto releases his "hold" on them. Gamabunta wasn't happy about, and wanted to go after Kabuto, but after some persuasion from Jiraiya, the big toad was calmed down.
"Jiraiya, I trust that you will protect them, and keep them with you." Gamabunta claimed. Jiraiya nodded. "Alright then. I must go back, but I will inform the others of this. We'll try and find a way to counter this."
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"Sensei? You're not going to tell anyone that you saw me right?" Sasuke asked Kakashi. Kakashi glanced up from his book, his empty plate on the table in front of him.
"Sasuke I already said I wouldn't turn you in." Kakashi claimed. "I understand why you left and it's okay. I won't tell Hokage-sama, as long as you promise to come back." Kakashi gave him a pointed look.
"Yeah, yeah. We'll come back, I'll come back. But right now Sakura's in Suna, and Naruto is who knows where." Sasuke ran his hands through his hair. "I know you said that everyone was okay now, but the letters we send, do they help at all?"
"In some ways, yes. It gives your parents relief knowing that you're okay. Itachi is happy to know that you're growing stronger. I'm proud of you Sasuke. A lot of us at Konoha are." Sasuke looked up at Kakashi, who offered him a closed-eye smile. Sasuke couldn't hold back his smirk at the next statement he made.
"Well then sensei, I guess you should start training. Because us youths of team seven have a mutual agreement to rechallenge you to the bell test. This time we won't resort to any embarassing tactics."
"Youths." Kakashi muttered to himself. "How old do you think I am?"
"Well according to Naruto, your gray hair ages you." Sasuke chuckled.
"It's silver." Kakashi protested. Before he could get another word in a booming voice interrupted their conversation.
"Hatake-san, the Raikage requests your prescense." Kakashi nodded and bid Sasuke farwell before making his way to the big tower.
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Sasuke only saw Kakashi once more after that, and that was for Kakashi to give him a proper goodbye. He was right in assuming that Kakashi was going to leave after his meeting. Two weeks after Kakashi had left and Sasuke found himself missing his silver haired sensei even more than before. After hearing so much about what was going on in Konoha, Sasuke found it harder to say goodbye to his only connection home. He was glad to know that it had been accepted that they left, but it left a kind of bitter taste in his mouth as well. Them leaving Konoha was the start of an adventure, yet as of now their adventure still had time to take a dark turn. Without the protection of Konoha they were on their own.
"Yo Sasuke. If you really miss them why not go back?" Bee asked Sasuke who was sitting on a tree branch. Sasuke looked down to see Bee and Omoi staring up at him. He shook his head.
"I can't. If I went back, I'd be completely leaving Naruto and Sakura. We started this together, and though we went separate ways, it'd still be wrong to just up and leave. I'm going to stick with them. Once they feel comfortable going back then we'll go back." Omoi sniffled and wiped his imaginary tear.
"Sasuke that's so sweet." He cried earning an eye roll from Sasuke.
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Sakura's training under Chiyo went by quickly. As the month of March flew by and April was just beginning. She had spent much of her time with Chiyo, the rest of the time she spent to herself or with the sand sibilings. Teki Tsuyoi was to be announced as the official Kazekage in just a couple of days. Sakura and Chiyo had spent the past week waiting for Sasori's return, while the sand sibilings spent their time dreading the day where Teki would become Kazekage.
Today, though, was different. Sakura and Chiyo had spent their morning in the market where they met up with the sand sibilings. After that Chiyo had decided to visit Temari's dad while Sakura went with Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro.
The four of them walked around the village as usual, talking and discussing techniques or just goofing off. Now that was normal. But whenever they passed an alley, Sakura, who was on the end of their line was pulled into the alley by a pair of strong arms. Just before she could cry out a hand covered her mouth.
"Sakura. It's me." A smooth voice entered her ears and she instantly relaxed after hearing it. Just as she turned around to face the figure she heard Temari call out for her. She poked her head out of the alley and caught Gaara's attention. Nodding to the inside of the alley, she went back in and turned to the figure that pulled her in the alley in the first place.
The figure was hodded, but their black cloak was torn up. There were cuts and bruises on the parts of their body that she could see, and probably more. With the way they were leaning against the wall and had one foot barely against the ground Sakura suspected that they had a sprained ankle.
"Sakura, what's-" She heard Temari's voice approach her, but Temari came to a sudden halt when she saw the cloaked figure, and she immediatley took a defensive stance.
"Temari," Sakura called seeing Temari's instant battle stance. "It's alright. It's just Sasori." Sakura claimed. The cloaked figure nodded and took off his hood to reveal Sasori's face. Though his handsome features weren't so handsome. He had a black eye, and a bruise right under his chin. There was a cut on his cheek and his hair was all dirty and grimey. Seeing his face kicked in Sakura's medical instinct and she immediatley ran up to him and began healing his face. "What happened?" She asked. Sasori looked around.
"I can't explain here. Too many people could be listening. We should go somewhere more secure." Sasori claimed. His voice, though he tried to suppress it, was raspy. Temari looked at Sasori and then to her brothers.
"Our house. Ever since Teki was announced as the future Kazekage he thought something was up. He has seals on the place so people can't spy. Chiyo-sama is there right now too." Temari offered. Sasori nodded.
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Rasa was surprised to see his children come home with Sakura supporting a limping figure. As soon as they got closer, he was even more surprised to see the limping figure was Sasori. Chiyo had a difficult time hiding her shock as her grandson limped in the room looking as if he had just been in a bar fight against the third Kazekage, without any chakra.
"Sasori?" She asked. He nodded to her curtly as Sakura helped him on to the couch. "Your mission-"
"The whole mission was a trap." He stated bluntly. Sakura furrowed her brow and gave him a confused look. "I'm pretty sure it was just an attempt to get me out of the picture and make it look like a KIA. I traveled to Otogakure, and they were there waiting for me. They easily outnumbered me, but they didn't kill me right away. They took me down to their prison. Kept me there for who knows how long. I can only guess as to why. While I was there I was just kept in a cell. The had chakra seals placed on it. I would sit in there for days. Oto-nin just walked by discussing the daily gossip. They gave me food and water. It wasn't until three nights ago I was finally able to make it out. Of course once they found out the put up a fight. There was no way I could've gotten out of there by mysef." Sasori explained.
"Sasori," Rasa interrupted. "They sent you to Oto?" Sasori nodded.
"The Elders sent me there. I was supposed to get information on the village, as they suspected it to have gone rouge considering that the village hadn't been responding to any of Suna's ally attempts." Sasori claimed. Rasa shook his head, but before he could continue Sakura interrupted.
"You said that you couldn't have gotten out of there alone. What did you mean by that?" She implored. Sasori nodded to her.
"Well when I had reached the outside of the village they had found out I had escaped. I was completely outnumbered, and they had done some serious damage. Then he came. I had met him when I was on a mission a couple of years ago. I saved his life. He claimed to have owed me, and promised to pay me back one day. There we were years later and he happened to be in the area. His name is Deidara. He helped get out of the fight and he brought me right to the edge of Suna's border. Said we were even. From there we parted ways." Sasori explained.
"If the Elders sent you to Otogakure then they wanted to get rid of you." Rasa stated. "Every other ninja they send there disappears. You were just one of the lucky ones to make it out alive." Sakura and Sasori looked at Rasa curiously at the statement. Seeing the looks he was recieving Rasa elaborated.
"The elders sent me and Yashamaru there on a intelligence mission. It wasn't a trap, but we didn't have the experience to handle what we were thrown into. Yashamaru died in there." Sakura's eyes widened. Rasa looked down at his statement.
"Why would the Elders want you dead?" Kankuro changed the subject. Sasori closed his eyes and directed his head towards the ceiling.
"When I was there I heard somethings." He stated dryly. "Some of it didn't surprise me at all."
"What? Sasori, what did you hear?" Chiyo asked.
"The Elders and the soon to be Kazekage have been plotting with an outside force. When Teki assumes the power position in Suna, the outside force will strike. With most of the ANBU on missions, and me gone, Suna's man power will be depleted, and won't be able to put up much of a fight. Suna will have to surrender to the outside force. The territory will be under the control of the outside force, but Teki will still hold the position of power." Sasori explained.
"So Suna's going to be attacked." Temari restated. Sasori nodded.
"Suna's going to be attacked."
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A/N: Long chapter for y'all. Sorry I haven't updated. I'm trying to keep a three week max., but we see how that's working out. Keeping this authors note short because I need to go to bed.
Any suggestions?
Hope y'all enjoy.