Sasuke walked through the woods near some familiar territory. Puzzled, he knelt down and felt some of the soil. For some reason, this land seemed very familiar, but he just couldn't place his finger on what it was.
Still, even walking on suspicious land was better than being ordered by Orochimaru. Sasuke furrowed his brow with anger. One day, he was going to give Orochimaru what was coming for him.
Really, the chunin wasn't heading in any general direction. Orochimaru had given him some time to himself, so he was just letting his feet lead him. Sasuke looked around, still perplexed. But where on earth were his feet leading him? Was this some sort of evil plot, maybe Kabuto or someone putting a jutsu on his feet to lead him into a trap?
Sasuke shook his head to clear his thoughts. This was silly. Whenever he killed Itachi, he was going to go somewhere farther from Orochimaru than he could imagine. That guy gave him the creeps.
The Uchiha survivor closed his eyes and allowed his feet to guide his somewhere. He wouldn't open his eyes for awhile until he knew that he was finally at a place where he could just relax.
For the first time in a long time, Sasuke felt a smile crawl on his face. It actually felt…good, in a way.
Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno sat eating ramen at the Ichiraku ramen stand. Sakura sighed wistfully as she took a bite of her meal.
"Man, the mission today that I got back from was about the most confusing one I've ever had." Naruto glanced questioningly at his squad mate.
"Why? What happened?" he asked.
The chunin stirred her ramen around her bowl. "There were these three guys who wanted to go to this village, but they had to solve some sort of riddle or something. Then all of a sudden, this huge person walks up and demands that she's one of their mothers! It was really weird."
Naruto drank his broth and sat down his bowl. "Yeah. If there's anything that I've ever learned, you never know what's going to just come walking up to you."
Naruto grabbed another bowl of ramen, and was just slurping up the noodles when a smiling Sasuke walked past him.
Sakura and Naruto exchanged wordless glances. Their eyes bulged out as they nodded to each other and jerked their heads the way the figure had sauntered off in.
"SASUKE!!"
Sasuke stopped cold. He slowly opened his eyes, and screamed when he looked around his surroundings.
"What the-?!" He looked down at his sandals. "Stupid feet! I should've never trusted you!!"
Naruto and Sakura dashed over to their squad mate. Sakura touched Sasuke's face gently.
"Sasuke…? Is it really…?"
The Uchiha ninja didn't really know what to do. He looked from Sakura to Naruto.
"No! This is…this is all one big mistake! I didn't mean to…"
Naruto put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "You didn't mean to what, Sasuke?" Sakura put her hand on his other shoulder.
"You…didn't mean to leave the village in the first place?"
Sasuke shook his head profusely, shaking off his two former teammates. "No, no, NO! I really didn't mean to come here! I just wanted to relax a little from Orochimaru, and my feet led me here! Aw, man!"
Naruto grabbed Sasuke's arm. "Well, you aren't leaving here again, mister emo! You have any idea how much pain you've caused?!"
Sasuke's eyes bulged. "Yeah, but…"
Sakura grew worried. "You wouldn't think about leaving me again…would you, Sasuke?" Sasuke glanced at Sakura.
"Well…"
Suddenly, Naruto let go of Sasuke's arm. Then he smiled and summoned a shadow doppelganger. "Unless, of course…you want to finish our old battle. Is that what this is?"
Sasuke felt beads of sweat roll down his neck. Just then, Sakura grabbed onto Sasuke's stomach.
"No-! You can't…"
In the dead of night, Sasuke blinked awake. He gasped as he jumped up and looked around. Trees surrounded the Uchiha ninja, and there was a quiet rustling in the distant trees.
He sighed. What on earth was that about? Did I really…?
Just then, something inside of Sasuke blinked awake. "Oh, no! I snuck out of the Sound Village without Orochimaru knowing. He's gonna be after me…"
Stretching, the ninja began his trek back to the Sound. As he was going through the trees, he realized that he was unusually close to Konoha. He fondly remembered these woods from his genin days.
Suddenly, a kunai stabbed the ground in front of Sasuke. He looked around, tense enough. Would he have to fight anyone?
Then he noticed a note was tied to the end of the kunai. Sasuke walked over and unfolded the small scrap of paper. In small kanji, a letter was written.
"Hey, Sasuke-don't be a stranger."
Sasuke glared up at the trees just in time to see Naruto looking at him through the branches.
When he blinked, the orange ninja was gone.