Chapter 80 We three from Sona

It was early morning when Team 7 formed up by the main gate, all of the newly promoted chunins were wearing their green combat jackets now. There were little details such as Sakura had scrolls in her vest pockets that held medical equipment as well as medical scrolls that Tsunade wanted to study while she was away. For Sasuke he had added on the Uchiha clan symbol on the back of it. Naruto had the small sword of his grandfather attacked to the back of it.

Although Naruto's odd behavior was what the entire team noticed more. Instead of the usual hyperactive self he looked a little haggard and was dragging himself along like he was on a death march.

"What happened to him?" Sasuke asked Kakashi figured if anyone knew he would.

Kakashi just shrugged, "I honestly have no idea he came home like that and has been like this ever since. Although I think he's doing a little better. Every time I ask he just says that he doesn't want to talk about it. I pretty much hope he snaps out of it soon, I haven't seen him this down since that time there was the ramen shortage."

"Oh yeah he was pretty down that one time it happened," Sakura did remember how that happened years ago. Looking at him now made her remember that. "Naruto are you okay?"

"I don't want to talk about it," He said glumly.

Both Sakura and Sasuke looked to Kakashi who only shrugged as if to say that he had told them so. With that Team 7 started to make their way to the meeting spot. It was to be in a village inn that was in the same country they were investigating. The trip would take a few days to get there so they traveled as fast as they could. They weren't pushing themselves as they had plenty of time, at least along the way Naruto started to lighten up but he didn't talk about whatever happened at the Hyuga place.

By the time they had crossed the border Naruto was back to his old self, they spent all their time training and getting used to the new jackets as well as breaking them in. Finally they had arrived in the village they were to meet in. So far it looked like your average village, nothing too big there were the usual shops and merchants. There didn't seem to be much in the way that made the village stand out either. It was like any other village that had seen the kind that you might stop off for a night to rest before moving on, the kind with families and close neighbours.

The village most likely had something for merchants, there was plenty of wood, maybe some farm land or a mine to help with the economy but nothing really apparent.

They asked around for the inn and soon found themselves standing outside of a three story hotel. Again nothing out of the ordinary at least until they say the name plate. Kakashi had thought that the name they were given had been wrong but there it was.

"Who in the world names a hotel the Silver Snail Inn?" Naruto asked nearly deadpanned.

"Someone with a warped sense of naming," Sasuke answered at the sign that had a large silver snail on the wooden sing with the name written in the shell of the snail. How a place like this stayed in business he wasn't sure but looking around there wasn't much in the way of inns so maybe it was just not having much competition.

With a group shrug they all went in and got lodgings for the night as the sun low in the sky they only had a few hours of daylight left. Plus after being on the road a nice bed and meal would do them all some good. They could resupply in the morning when they left the inn in the morning and hopefully they would meet up with the Suna team.

"Man where are they?" Naruto muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. "Wasn't there something about more about where we meet them?"

"Nope just this inn that's it," Kakashi told his son.

"How do we know they're even here, it's not like we can ask if three ninja from Suna showed up." He asked again. He doubted that any ninja would tell the inn keeper that plus what if the ninja team wasn't wearing Suna symbols? If they were trying to keep their presence secret would they even be wearing anything that could identify them as Suna ninja?

Naruto wished they could have at least said who it was they were meeting, a description or something or where they just supposed to hang out here until the Suna team arrived? He placed his hands into his pants pockets getting impatient already. He was going to at least look around the place to see if the inn had anything going for it. Maybe a game room or something to relax in some inns had recreation rooms or maybe a nice outdoor bath or something. He had already remembered the room number they were using anyway.

Naruto didn't get far as he turned a corner and nearly slammed into a very familiar face with red hair and a tattoo over one eye.

"Gaara!?" Naruto nearly fell back from suddenly running into the boy.

"Naruto Hatake," Gaara said in his usual monotone voice only there wasn't the old malice in it. Sure there wasn't much emotion behind it but at least there was no bloodlust. Gaara looked at the masked boy surprised as well to see him there but unlike Naruto didn't show much of a reaction.

Now just because Gaara's emotions were usually very well hidden didn't mean the boy didn't have them. In fact ever since he had left Konoha and his talk with Naruto if left Gaara thinking on a lot of things and the boy had spent a lot of time trying to figure himself out. For years he had only thought of himself as just a weapon that killing others was the only way to prove his existence that only he could love himself.

But Naruto had shown him something more something Gaara had forgotten and buried a long time ago after the pain of the betrayal of his uncle. In that time Gaara had slowly been taking steps on trying to be better person to slowly relearn what it was like to be more human than just a weapon of the village.

"Hey uh...how are things?" Naruto nearly smacked his head thinking if he could have come up with something even more lame than that.

"Better," Gaara said simply.

"Oh well that's good...so...what are you doing here?"

"We have a mission here."

Suddenly it clicked for Naruto, "No way, hey are you the Suna team that we were supposed to meet up with?" With Gaara's nod Naruto got his answer. "Hey that's good to know I wasn't sure who it was we would be with but at least it's with someone I know. Come on my dad and team are here too so let's find them."

Naruto quickly ran back to get his team and show them that he found part of the Suna team but today wasn't his day as he once again ran into someone. Although this time when he turned the corner he had been going too fast to react before slamming face first into something. He wasn't sure what it was that his face hit only that it was kind of soft and felt nice. He smelt something like light perfume and was about to pull back before a woman's indignant outcry was heard and soon a nearly blinding pain slamming into his skull.

Naruto fell onto his back looking up holding his head in pain.

"What the hell do you think you're doing you pervert!" Temari roared out covering her chest with one hand. She had been looking for Gaara a little worried about him, he had been acting a lot nicer lately but she wasn't sure he wouldn't lose his temper with strangers. The last thing she wanted was to have some little pervert ram their face into her chest.

Naruto looked up to see who it was and pointed at her in shock.

"Ah you're..." he sweat dropped as her name escaped him at the moment maybe she had knocked that info out of his skull. "You're...Gaara's sister!"

That only angered the girl more, "It's Temari! At least remember a girl's name when you sexual harass them!"

"I didn't sexually harass anyone it was an accident!"

"Temari what's with all the yelling did you find Gaara yet?" Kankuro asked walking into the scene. He had heard his sister yelling at someone and was wondering who had been stupid enough to get her pissed. Temari was slow to anger at times but when she did get angry it could be almost as scary as Gaara although for entirely different reasons.

When he found his older sister and younger brother in a hallway with a familiar masked ninja on the ground he looked down at the Leaf ninja.

"Hey you're that guy from Konoha right? Naruto Hatake was it?"

Naruto looked at the black clothing wearing boy he looked a lot like he had in the chunin exams only now he was carrying another bundle on his back and his war paint was different.

"Oh yeah you're...," He mentally cursed. "Uh...Gaara's big brother right? The make-up guy."

"It's war paint not make-up, you want to die?" He yelled back at the boy. "And my name is Kankuro!"

"Hey I'm first he's the one that groped me." Temari told her brother angrily making a point to cross her arms over her chest.

"I didn't grope you I ran into you!" Naruto defended himself although he was in some trouble he had to admit he could still remember the feeling of where his face had been. He hoped he wasn't blushing because it would just make him look guilty. How was it that he somehow always got into trouble? Well yeah some of it had been his own fault but this had been a total accident.

"You groped her do you have a death wish or something?" Kankuro asked him wondering if he should just step back and let his sister deal with this given she never took it easy on anyone especially if they pissed her off.

"What is going on over there?" Sakura yelled out hearing shouting and knowing that one of the voices had been Naruto's so she had come over to see what was going on. When she saw three familiar faces looking at her she stopped in her tracks.

"Eh...you three?" Sakura blinked. "Are you three the Suna team were told we would be meeting up with?"

"Wait...you guys are the Leaf members?" Kankuro asked them. "I thought we were going to get chunin for backup."

"They're wearing vest," Temari told him as she now took the time to notice that Sakura and Naruto both had on chunin vests that Konoha ninja liked to wear. By the looks of it they had been promoted, well the mission called for chunin and nothing was said for experienced chunin although she would have preferred some with some experience to be honest. Then again her village was hurting as well for people given that the number of Suna ninja killed while attacking Konoha had been higher than they would have liked to admit.

"So what's going on here with all the shouting?" Sakura asked shaking her head getting back to what brought her here.

"It's because this little-"Temari started to say before being interrupted by Naruto quickly.

"I ran into her by accident!" Naruto quickly said hoping that if he talked quickly enough he could change the subject. "Anyways I found Gaara and then these two, we should find dad so that we can all get together right, right? Come on Gaara this way!"

He quickly grabbed Gaara and went past everyone looking for his dad hoping his little distraction worked at least long enough to get out of the immediate area. Gaara just went with it mainly because this was the first time someone grabbed him without any fear of himself. Normally he wouldn't even let anyone touch him but it had been one of the things he had been working on.

"Hey what the, where do you think you're going?" Temari demanded taking off after the masked boy who was dragging her brother away something she thought she would never see.

Sakura looked at Kankuro confused as she silently asked him just what was going on. He considered telling her but he just signed and waved it off. "Don't bother asking I think it's just too much of a headache to get into anyway."

He put his hands into the pockets of his jumpsuit walking off leaving a confused Sakura behind. She just sighed and walked off as well as she didn't want to be left behind.

It didn't take long to find Kakashi and Sasuke as all of them decided to meet up in one of their rooms. They all gathered around a small table in the large room that Team 7 had gotten although it was a tight fit with everyone there around the table and Temari wouldn't stop giving Naruto glares now and then making sure to fit far away from him. She knew he wouldn't try something but she was still pissed at him and wanted to let him know it.

That didn't go unnoticed by everyone else but they didn't comment on it as the tension was already enough. Given that the last time they had met Gaara he had been in the hospital after Naruto had put him in there which was also after he had tried to kill Sasuke in the exams and had gone a little bloodthirsty while transforming. Which was why Gaara was flanked by his siblings although Sasuke kept an eye on the boy, Gaara was surprisingly calm.

Normally where this air of danger hung around the boy it was replaced by a more silent calmness. Even Temari and Kankuro seemed more relaxed around the boy.

"So is it just you three?" Kakashi asked the three Suna ninja. "If I remember you had a jonin sensei of your own."

"Baki-sensei was already on another mission," Temari explained to them. "But given our team's history it was decided we could handle it on our own." Although one of those reasons was that people were still freaked out about Gaara. This way they got him out of the village and given the dead of their father their village was really split on what to do about Gaara. Their father might not have been the most warm person but he had kept the village in line.

Now with him gone there was just so much uncertainty on what was going to happen, the council was so far keeping things together but until they found a new leader things were going to be tough. There were the ones that had lost loved ones to Konoha and Sound. Some wanted revenge against Sound for their betrayal by killing their leader and Orochimaru posing at him. Others wanted to finish what they started as there had been resentment over how Konoha had been getting more missions than them which were the life blood of ninja village.

Some did want peace and to rebuild themselves in case the other three great ninja villages felt that they could take Suna off the playing field. It was all of this that Temari felt that her team should maybe leave the village for a bit and this mission seemed like the perfect opportunity. It would get Gaara out of the village for a bit and maybe start to heal some wounds between the villages.

Kakashi looked the girl over and nodded she was very mature for her young age as she seemed to carry herself well. She had potential to be a good leader one day he felt her brothers well Kankuro was easy enough to read but Gaara. That boy had changed although into what he had no idea at the moment, the boy's face and mood was as unreadable as his own.

"Well now that we got together we should start in the morning searching for Jiraiya," Kakashi leaned back in his chair. "It's late so why don't we meet up tomorrow and we can plan out how to find him."

"Are there any leads to where he might be?" Kankuro asked thinking about it. "I mean he's one of you guys right?"

"Yes well the thing about Jiraiya," Kakashi tried to think of a good way to explain it. "He kind of does things his own way. He sends messages in but he keeps very mobile because of the nature of his work. Although we have an idea on how to find him but we should see if people in the village have seen something that matches his description."

"So...where do we start?" Temari asked.

"This town has a red light district?" Naruto asked.

"What!?" Temari shouted at him glaring at the boy thinking he was trying something funny again.

Before Naruto could explain himself further Kakashi quickly covered his son's mouth in case he dug himself deeper. He did have an unnatural ability for his mouth to get him into trouble at times.

"Don't mind him we've been traveling for some time and I think we all could use some sleep," Kakashi eye smiled at them.

Temari wasn't buying it but she kept reminding herself that this was supposed to heal the rift between Suna and Konoha and killing a certain little blonde masked boy might be seen as going against the spirit of this whole thing. She got up as her siblings followed her lead.

"Fine we got a room down the hall," Temari told them.

Kakashi nodded to her as the Suna team made their way to the door to the room, Temari was the taking the rear as she managed to catch some of the conversation that Kakashi was having with Naruto.

"So what did you do to get her all pissed?" She heard Kakashi ask Naruto as the boy at least had the decency to blush and looked embarrassed. He said something that she couldn't hear but by Kakashi's reaction of how he suddenly stood up a bit more straight she had a guess what he said.

"Yeah that would do it, better be careful you don't want Hinata thinking you're cheating on her," Kakashi joked.

"The Leaf are full of perverts," Temari muttered darkly as Naruto tried to say that he wasn't cheating loudly enough for them all to hear.

"I knew I should have worn my clothing with the breast plate on it," Temari muttered to herself making a mental note to change into that uniform later on when she had the chance. It was a bit more flashy than the white battle dress she was currently wearing but she would gladly trade that away at the moment. She had it in her room and she would wear that for this mission if only to make herself feel better.

-Land of Rice Fields: Secret Sound Base-

In one of the many underground facilities that had been secretly set up, Orochimaru currently called this one 'home' as it were. Like all his bases they were created under the ground with rock walls, floors and ceilings with torches the only real light sources given there were no windows this far down under the ground. These bases were a little claustrophobic but it paid off for security and secrecy. Villages tended to be set up like normal villages but Orochimaru took lessons from snakes, he build his facilities under the ground where they could stretch for miles and ninja could just walk right over and miss them.

He also didn't centralize the village but split it up into different sections, usually they were specialised and set up for specific purposes. This one was one of the bases set up for some of Orochimaru's experiment. Currently Orochimaru was in his private quarters sitting at a desk with scrolls all around him with notes set up neatly. He was doing basic research into more jutsu that he could use and also looking up information that could prove useful to later.

There was a knock on his heavy wooden door since only a few people were allowed accessed to his room and they all knew better than to disturb him unless it was important he set aside his work and turned his chair around.

"Come in," he called out as he watched Kabuto walking into the room.

"Forgive the intrusion but we recently got a report in from some of our ninja on scouting duty in this area." He handed the report over to Orochimaru. "They spotted a team from Konoha entering the area at first I didn't think much but the leader was identified as Kakashi Hatake and the three young ninja in his command match that of his team."

Orochimaru chuckled as he read the report himself, "Ah so Sasuke-kun had arrived and if I'm not mistaken the Jinchuriki boy is also there. This might prove to be a very good opportunity for us. We can get Sasuke-kun for ourselves and if we can take out the Jinchuriki it would really hamper the plans for Akatsuki if the boy were to die before they got what they needed from him."

After he had left that organization he made it one of his priorities to slow them down, although he wasn't sure what the Akatsuki end game was as Pain hadn't been very forthcoming with everyone, Orochimaru could tell that it was big. Gathering data on all the hosts for the Tailed Beasts and there were reports of them going after the hosts lately. Only two had been taken but he could see something was happening.

Although he wasn't sure what he knew that if he could kill one of the hosts it would be a major setback plus it had been that boy that he stopped his fight with the Third Hokage. Although the plan to blow up the building in order to break the seal had been very lateral thinking, he had been furious that his goal of killing the old man had been stopped. As soon as the building had stopped falling down he had seen the barrier down and knew that Konoha would come down on him. The First and Second that he had brought back had been buried so he had to release the jutsu on them before leaving.

He had thought about letting them loose to cover his escape but if they had them immobilised they might have figure out his jutsu even if it was forbidden he never liked to take chances. Plus they had also gotten in the way when he had been after Tsunade, there hadn't been time to try and convince Sasuke to seek him out for power either.

Reading the reports it looked like only Kakashi and his team so far, if he could take out that team it would hurt Konoha to have lost one of their best jonin, their Jinchuriki and the last Uchiha. The girl as far as he could tell was no one of consequence at the moment but still you could never be too careful.

"This is good news," Orochimaru grinned looking at his most trusted right hand. "Are they still following them?"

"Yes but I gave orders not to take any chances," Kabuto replied. "Given that this is Kakashi we should be very careful that he doesn't notice anyone. I sent our best trackers to help but they are to remain out of sight at all times and sent a runner back to report every day."

"Excellent, then I think it's time we plan to welcome them to these lands. Although I am curious why they are here, get the Sound Four ready I'm sure they are eager to make up for their inability to keep the barrier up in Konoha."

Kabuto nodded his head, "They have been very sore over that."

"Good they can take on the Sasuke-kun's friends while I deal with Kakashi."

"And myself?" Kabuto asked.

"You can restrain Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru wasn't taking any changes this time. Sasuke had already slipped through his fingers twice already and there would not be a third time. If he couldn't convince Sasuke to follow him then he would take the boy by force. He needed a new host body soon, he could already feel this body starting to wear thin. He could feel himself slowing down one of the first signs that the body was starting to burn itself out.

He would need a new body soon a stronger one and with the sharingan he could do more in the few years he had that body then he could with half a dozen or more. There would be no stopping him once he mastered those eyes, he would seek out every unique ninja in the known world and gather more jutsu than any ninja on the face of the planet. When Sasuke's body eventually wore out he would know more than anyone on the planet. He truly believed that knowledge lead to the path of true power and he would be the most powerful ninja in existence.

He would live forever and keep on learning until he stood at the top of the world he would be the ultimate ninja. It would be glorious and it was all so close now that he could almost taste it, he had failed to get Itachi and if had known of the slaughter of the Uchiha would have happened he would have taken a few before but that was the past. He learned from his mistakes and missed chances and this time he wouldn't take any chances.

He would get Sasuke this time no matter who he had to sacrifice for it.

Next up Chapter 18: The Search for Jiraiya