A meeting had been gathered in the Hokage's office. It obviously dealt with the Konoha twelve, since all—except for two—were there. Tsunade was looking absentmindedly at some paper work. She seemed not to notice that there were ten teenagers in her office, or remember that she has called them there. She picked up a mission form. Lines appeared on her forehead as she read it. She slammed it down, finally looking up.

"Do you know why I called you all here?" The Hokage looked at all their faces in turn.

Everyone glanced at each other before landing on Sakura. Her face showed she didn't know either.

"No one?" Tsunade asked, raising an eyebrow. She seemed to be mocking them some way. "This should help. Who are the two people not here?"

The room echoed Sasuke instantly, voices fading as they looked for the second. Shikamaru did a quick count of the teams. Ino and Choji are here, I walked with them. The quiet Hyuuga girl is here with dog-breath and bug-boy. Little Gai, the destiny kid and Tenten. Sakura's here too…But that troublesome Naruto isn't.

"Naruto," Shikamaru said. The group looked around to confirm it.

"Right," replied Tsunade. "Who knows where he's been the past week?"

Hinata raised her hand, causing Kiba to feel a sharp pain in his chest. He ignored it. Always Naruto…

"Hinata?"

"He went on a mission to the Sound Village, Tsunade-sama," she said in her shy voice.

"Correct. The mission details have been kept secret. But here's the form filled out for it." She passed the paper to Sakura. Sakura read it, her face paling. She passed it to Ino, then Choji, Shikamaru, Lee, Neji, Tenten, Hinata, Kiba, and finally Shino. Shino and Neji were the only ones who didn't react. The rest all had shocked expressions on their faces.

Sakura was the first to speak. "He was sent to retrieve Sasuke? Alone?"

"Yes. I thought if he was alone he would get to Orochimaru's hideout without anyone to slow him down. He's ANBU so I felt he would be alright. It's my fault he isn't back."

"I thought we had given up on Sasuke," said Shikamaru.

"Secretly, I've sent ANBU members after him. He's too powerful to be against Konoha."

"Then why are we here?" asked Neji. "And why have none of us gone after Sasuke? Some of us are ANBU."

"I sent none of you because of your attachment to him. But now it's because of your attachment to Naruto that you're here. I need you to see what's happened to him. Simply reconnaissance. Not all of you will go, though. Just the ANBU members. Because all of you are friends with Naruto, I felt all of you should know. Everyone except for the ANBU may leave."

Slowly most of the ten left the room. Once the door had been closed, they all waited outside, listening.

The ones left in the room were Neji, Sakura, Shikamaru, Kiba, Lee, and Hinata. Hinata had been made ANBU only a week ago.

Tsunade intertwined her fingers with her elbows on her desk. She closed her eyes, then looked over her hands.

"You will leave immediately. Go to the Sound Village and find out where Naruto is. I expect you back in a week. A week and a half at the latest. This mission will not be kept on record. Dismissed." She went back to her paperwork.

The ANBU members put their masks over their faces, looking at each other as they did so. They didn't leave through the door, but the window, and were soon out of sight of the Hokage's office.

This is supposed to be a KibaxHinata fic. I dunno where it'll go just yet. Somewhere around there...

Please review! I write faster with reviews. Makes you feel good inside, no?

-wolf