Hi! :) So firstly I don't own Naruto, secondly Review.. DFTBA :D Emily xx


Hidden away, shrouded by foliage and protected from the harsh sunlight of the fire country, was training grounds twenty one. They were barely used as the entire site was ridden with chakra bombs that had never gone off. It was a hazardous place – even Kakashi didn't like to train there. But within its hold, two men were training with all their might. Both dreamed of being better, stronger, and the rest of the training grounds free that day weren't up to scratch for their skill levels. Like the great Uchia and Uzumaki would be satisfied with a badminton court. They were so much better than that, even if they had a way to go yet.

Warped within his own chakra field was Sasuke Uchiha, the pride of Konohagakure, who was sparring with his ex-team mate. It was an intense battle, as both of them had goals which they wished to achieve within the battle. Neither was willing to give up. Uzumaki, known as Naruto to most of the people at the village, would never rest until he was stronger than Sasuke. That was how they ended up here; fire and wind rippling through each other across the clearing, each trying to push the other back and come out victorious. Sparks broke free from the main chakra flow and scattered upwards into the sky to dance and swirl amongst the clouds. Each boy was stood, stance determined and face moulded into a grimace at the ache of their muscles. They concentrated on nothing but the spar. Nothing else was important to them. The chakra cackled and roared across the clearing due to the immense energy that was being released by both boys and it would have scarred anyone who so much as touched it. Where the odd spark touched the grass, the strands turned black and fell to pieces. The fight seemed violent, but in fact they were two brothers who couldn't think of anything worse than hurting each other again.

This spar was a rare event between the two after Sasuke's disappearance from Konoha. When the two were still genin, Sasuke had left to join the ranks of much stronger ninja to try to complete the unspeakable. Yet, after a horrendous disaster when Sasuke ran into the Atatsuki, he'd been forced to with draw as he'd almost lost all use of his chakra. They rarely sparred now as Sasuke was still building up his strength but now they were back training, and Sasuke was decided that he wanted to prove to his best friend just how far he'd come.

The trees, their leaves darkening from the heat of it all, were trying to escape the battle yet they were tethered to the ground by their own limbs – a suicide of sorts yet it was like jumping from a bridge, while you step off, while you form your roots, it seems perfect yet once you're over the edge and you can feel how bad it's become and you want to escape but in all honesty it's too late to do anything. Sasuke and Naruto could feel the energy, feel all the life in the area begging to leave, and they knew they needed to release it all. Furrowing their brows, the boys both concentrated their chakra towards the ground, having studied enough physics to know it'd absorb most of the power. They'd gotten out of control. The chakra was brought in pale ribbons and focused towards the ground – they'd reabsorb some and make up for that which they had lost later on when their bodies could manage it. The ribbons of light danced until the boys regained enough control to force their chakra into the ground. Sweat dripped from their brow, their limbs fell limp and their brains were going into shut down but they had gotten rid of the danger for now. Yet, the two wouldn't settle for that. No, the second the chakra was gone, they decided to work on their karate.

As the two boys manoeuvred around each other, every move precise and powerful despite their growing exhaustion, many fights were occurring around the village hidden in the leaves. The one that concerns us the most though was that of a mockingbird. With a scroll precariously balancing between the two halves of its beak, its fight was against the wind which was also making its way between the branches of the great forest. The tiny bird felt its delicate wings being dragged backwards by the ferocious wind. Yet, it had been trained in a very idyllic town, so it had been trained to be one of the best fliers in the nation. That was why this scroll graced its lips and no other birds – it had the best chances to get to its destination. Skimming a branch, it made its way deeper into the forest as it knew this was a shorter route by about three hours. The mockingbird had come from a village near the border to the land of rivers called Midori so it'd been travelling a day or two at top speed. This message was of paramount importance – without it Midori would fall. The tiny bird swerved out of the way of yet another branch, its feathers glistening due to the droplets of water which were beginning to fall from the sky, meandering between the branches with a skill that the bird wished it had. It did not distract itself – it had to get to Konoha.

As the little bird made its way to the edge of the forest, it felt its wings have to fight against the wind even more. It had expected a little fight from the border guards as there had been no warning of a message from Midori so they wouldn't expect one of the trademark Mockingbird of Midori. Swerving down through the branches, it was trying to reach a point where the guards could see it rather than hear it. Yet, even if it got past the guards, that wasn't enough. It had been given strict instructions not to stop flying until it reached Shizune's arm. Its feathers, streaked with water droplets, were holding it back a little but within a few seconds it dropped gracefully onto one of the thin branches of the lower tree. With a beaded eye, it gazed out across the landscape, taking note of the guards' desk near the south. The man stood behind the desk was pretty obviously embracing his feminine side with a long, dark bony tail that seemed oddly familiar to the bird. With one twitch of its wings, the little bird propelled itself so it landed on top of a stack of paperwork which sat in front of the ponytail boy.

"What's this?" The ponytail boy asked, his voice soft yet strong, as he tried to prise the scroll from the beaks of our dear mockingbird. When the mockingbird refused to budge, he noticed the familiar lilac seal of the Midori and the violent stance warned him this was a trip of urgency: that the messenger knew he had to escort it to the last leg of its journey. The ponytail boy, more formally known as Iruka-sensei, stood up from his post, sending a fleeting glance to his partner before walking through the village hidden in the leaves – bird still perched upon his files.

The leaf village was a quiet place near dawn, most ninja were training somewhere around the villages outskirts and those who were still at the academy were there, receiving guidance by the sensei. Iruka normally spent his day teaching at the academy, but one of the guards had fallen ill that day so he'd given up his usual post to take over the duties. He doubted he could have picked a worse day to take over though, as he was unsure what would come to be the tale of this mockingbird. With a firm grip upon the papers, he power walked t'ward the offices where Tsunade and Shizune resided for most of the day. Lord knows what they did up there…The soft wind that often graced Konoha was present that morning, so they helped to guide the tiny drops of water from the bird. The scroll remained dry.

The offices were a huge building, Lady Tsunade resided upon the top floor, but Iruka-sensei made his way through the building in a few moments, the little bird still upon his folder. It twitched a little, as if being inside the building was bugging it a little, as if it wanted to leave as soon as possible. Midori was known for its love of the outdoors as most of the villagers slept under the stars and the animals had equal say as the humans. He supposed it made sense that the bird felt trapped and threatened inside the huge building – it had probably been a building once or twice in its existence. Admittedly, this was one of the worst buildings for claustrophobia. The filing cabinets loomed overhead like mountains even for someone like Iruka-Sensei. Somehow he felt like the lift would be a very bad idea with the little creature in his company so with a laden sigh, he began to make his way towards the steps.

By the time he reached the top of the staircase, Iruka was heaving for air and doubled over. The little bird fluttered beside him, still clutching the scroll, as if begging him to take it to Tsunade and Shizune. Iruka-sensei mumbled under his breath that he deserved a raise for that walk but the bird was fluttering ahead and he knew his job was to escort it to the ladies so he raised himself shakily to an upright stance and found his way to the offices – his cheeks flushed and breathing laboured. Collapsing against the wall, he had barely drawn in one breath before the big busted brute that was Tsunade was stood before him, arms folded and brow furrowed.

"Iruka, what are you doing there lazing about? I set you on guard duties. You better have a blasted good reason for wasting my time." In reply, Iruka flung an arm in the general direction of the mockingbird which was hovering and staring intently at Tsunade. With a delicate hand, Tsunade plucked the scroll from the curved beak of the mockingbird before breaking the seal with a long nail and scanning over the text it contained. Her eyes skimmed it a line a second but she was seemingly picking up the details as her brow deepened and her face was set in a frown.

"Shizune," Tsunade screeched, her voice reaching new frequencies "I need you to gather four individuals for an A ranked mission. Get me Uchia, Uzumaki, Hatake and Haruno. Now!"

With that final order, Shizune darted out of the room. She knew from the records that Sasuke and Naruto had booked training grounds twenty one for the day so she expected that they would still be there. Her feet smashing against the road, she reached the training grounds in less than a minute. Something in Tsunade's voice had told her this was a dire situation – she would never place Uchia and Uzumaki on a team without reason. They were still learning to act around each other again. It didn't seem wise…

In the training grounds, Sasuke's head shot up after hearing shaky breathing 200 meters to the North West; he was normally much less anxious but he felt vulnerable after that fight. With shaking hands, he started to concentrate his chakra into his hands as he nodded towards Naruto who was preparing his razengun. No one came here much, only an invader would be so stupid. But, when he noticed the familiar face of Shizune, both boys let the chakra dissipate and hurried to her weary side.

"Tsunade… She requires your assistance in the offices along with the presence of Kakashi and Sakura." Shizune forced out between gasps before she spun on her heel to find the other two. A short glance was shared between the two boys before they both started running down the track between the trees. Dirt spun up behind their heels in great clouds but they could see the urgency – they were only put on the same team for dire situations so this worried them a little although it made adrenaline fly through their veins. The offices were coming into sight, slowly and hazily, but there they were. As worried as the two were, they were equally as curious to what their mission was going to be.

As they entered the building, they could see Sakura and Kakashi stood by the elevator, looking just as anxious about this all as the two boys were. Yet, they knew they could crack and case it was just the urgency that threw them off their usual calm demeanours. As they tried to make their way to the top floor, they found themselves travelling way too slowly. The lift drug through the air at too slow of a pace and Naruto, impatient as ever, twiddled his fingers and glared at the ceiling willing the tiny compartment to move faster. Yet, it never did. When the bell finally rang to announce they had reached the right floor, the four of them hurried out of the elevator to be greeted by a very anxious Shizune.

"Tsunade isn't impressed by how long you took. This is A-rank not D! Get in there!" She squawked at them causing the four pairs of eyes to jump from their eyes and 8 feet to drag their bodies into the little office. Inside the room, Tsunade sat behind the desk where she always resided at this hour. Unrolled and annotated, a scroll lay by her. With one glance you could tell it was in code, so the notes must be the translation. The four gathered in front of her – stood in a perfect line and eyes darting between each other.

"Midori, the village on the border between ourselves and the river country, has been attacked by the Akatsuki. I need you to go there and bring the Akatsuki down as well as return peace to the village. Take your leave now; I expect to hear word of your arrival in three nights."