Well hello there! Mostly to the people who have enjoyed and read 'The Last One'. This little story means some good news and bad news, well depending on who's reading it actually. After what's been like ages since I last update, I finally came to a very unavoidable conclusion. Tired of viewing this story as those stories that have spawned the same general ideas to many times. Naruto brings Sasuke back, big reaction from Sakura and the village, comes back all powerful like demi-god, Itachi and Kisame turned good guys, well...you know. May be something different. (Oh man, I can already feel some people going to kill me for this) So, yeah, apparently 'The Last One' is regretfully abandoned.
I'm sincerely, really, oh please, (down on my knees right now) sorry.
What hopes to be good news is that I hope to incorporate some things from 'The Last One' into this one, certain characters of my own, and unrevealed plots I've planned into 'The Last One'. I'm very much sad just how average the Akatsuki members have been portrayed in the Naruto series, and definitely want to set a higher standard for them. Oh man, the plots and setting of characters have been a doozy... I just hope my mind and writing skills haven't dull or rusted from the long period of not writing. I can already feel Shadow of Archon breathing down my neck with blood shot murderous eyes...
Reposted and edited (final work of chapter 1).
Thanks a million to my beta reader, demonicnargles for going through and putting up with all those slow and bumpy obstacles.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other form of references to any related copyrighted works. I never did, never will own them, since they obviously belong to the copyrighted owners. Well you know...
"Sometimes I think that boy's dislike towards vegetables all these years is just another harmless sign of the Kyuubi sealed inside him." -Jiraiya, finally getting the idea it's not just a phase
Flashback
The bright sun shone down upon a group of people standing together at the main entrance of a remote village, as if giving the sun itself was there to give its blessing. The red leaves on the trees hanging loosely from the trees and littering the ground signaled that the season of fall was underway. Three people with heavily loaded packs stood silently, ready to leave on a long journey. A little boy, barely seven, stood deep in thought before these three older travelers, his arms crossed. The others were waiting for whatever response the boy had in store for them on this occasion. Seeming to muster all his mental faculties, the boy opened his blue eyes and smiled.
"How about we make a promise?" the young blonde asked quickly, turning to grin to at somber looking girl with shoulder length rose-red hair.
The girl, one of the three carrying packs, cried silently, tears running down her face, as she tried to control her reaction to hearing what the boy had said. She had already cried herself to sleep last night, thinking that get her crying out of the way, and avoid letting this boy see her tears. She rubbed her red puffy eyes, perking up with a smile at the young boy's foxy grin, knowing that he would never say anything to upset her. The other two standing with them smiled in amusement at those antics and waited in expectation of what the blonde had to say.
"…..A promise? What kind of promise?" asked the girl with slight hiccup, eager to know what fun that excited tone of his meant on this occasion.
"We promise, when you come back, the both of us will be really strong!" answered the boy, flinging his arms wide.
His red haired friend did no understand, and she looked at him curiously.
"Strong! Stronger! Much stronger! Then we don't have to go and train far away from each other anymore," explained the little boy, looking unhappily at the last two people there, the girl's parents.
The girl's mother beamed affectionately at the boy's pout, and her father bent down patted the boy's head. Fuusetsu Raetsu ruffled that wild carefree blonde hair vigorously, though it did not remove the boy's frown. He had red hair, the obvious sign from where the girl inherited the color of her hair, by far wilder than the boy's own. The red haired Raetsu, obviously the source of his daughter's red hair, squatted down quickly as though the heavy load on his back was nothing, bringing himself between the boy and his daughter at their eye level. "You can be so funny, Naruto, even when you're not trying to. Ah ha ha ha…."
"It's not funny!" protested the boy, who on rare occasions such as this one can act much older than his age. "We'll be strong! Both of us. Really strong! Just you wait! When you come back, I'm going to show you!"
Raetsu saw the unusually fierce determination in Naruto's blue eyes, and heard the firm conviction in every word the boy had spoken, though he was not sure if the boy really understood what he had promised. The blonde boy was indeed the maelstrom of both his father and mother put together, and yet he could be so much more. How Raetsu regretted to remember that those two shinobi were no longer alive, or, more significantly, able to be a large part of their boy's life. Fuusetsu lifted his hand from the boy's hair, musing to himself as he rested his hands on his knees. "Oh? Does that mean you going to beat me?"
"Yeah!" replied Naruto, appreciating that the man before him was finally understanding what he had meant. "I'm totally going to beat you!"
Asami's father prodded on, wanting to know more what else was brewing in the unpredictable boy's head. Knowing some time in the future Naruto would. "Aha ha ha ha ha, and then what? Hm?"
"Then Asami-chan will show Jiisan just how strong she's become!" Naruto continued on, turning around and looking all the way up as much as he could, at the large looming figure that was his guardian. The guardian too shared the same mused feeling that the father had, with other adults around lightly smacking him on his back. That definitely grabbed their attention.
Raetsu's cocked his head to the side a bit. "Why him?"
Naruto answered without hesitation, "Because Asami-chan said she always wanted to."
"You do?" Raetsu turned his attention to his only child and daughter, the girl only nodded. Surprise, surprise. This little friend of hers was affecting her in ways that a father could only hope were the best for her.
"I guess you better watch out, this little girl is going to wipe the training ground clean with your ," laughed an adult, giving another pat at back of Naruto's guardian.
In turn, the adult received a light smack on his back from his wife, uncomfortable for his choice of words. "There are kids here, Toshirou."
Naruto turned back to the girl again, ignorant of the word, "Right, Asami-chan? You'll be stronger and beat Jii-san, I'll train very hard and you train hard too! I'll wait for you. No matter what."
Little Asami stifled, directly nodded in agreement with a slight blush, with a new found determination with her best friend. She slowly held out her hand, followed later by what Naruto saw her little pinky finger pointing out, "You promise?"
"I promise!" answered on Naruto, hooking his pinky with Asami's little finger without hesitation. "Then we'll be together and play like we always do!"
A few moments past, the kunoichi-in-training apprehensively began letting go of her little finger. Naruto thought she might cry again, but she merely stepped back as her father said his good-byes to the others. Asami bade another good bye with right hand, her left holding onto the strap of her bag tightly.
Naruto waved his own, finally showing his sadness as he watched her and her parents began to set off on their journey and training. Asami didn't look back, but Naruto watched on until her family finally disappeared from view, heading for some place in their clan's sacred grounds situated on Mount Fuusetsu. They never said how long it would actually take, not that he would actually understand about the explanation of time anyway for someone of his age, but it didn't matter. He would wait, no matter how long...
End Flashback
"Come on, wake up you sleepy head," came out a serene female voice out of nowhere.
"Hm……? Wha…?" sighed out a male voice drowsily, an eye fluttered open for a small peak as to what in the world was going on. The female voice carried on, gently shaking him again. "Naruto, time to wake up."
"Just five more minutes…," slurred the male voice in reply, closing his eye as he rolled back over, putting his back to the owner of the female voice.
Instead of another reply or attempt to wake him up properly, he suddenly felt a smooth tender touch as it slowly began to trail over his right cheek repeatedly, going up and down as if caressing him back to another nice long sleep. Slow and relaxing to the skin, just the way he liked it, continuing on as a false sense of ease and comfort began to spread over his face, but somehow his awakening natural instincts told him otherwise. His blue eyes shot widen open in a frightening realization, as his voice escaping out of his mouth in desperation, "Wait! Wait!"
Too late.
He gasped as he jerked backwards on reflex, out from his sleeping spot and into the open grass. He rubbed the whisker-like marks on his cheeks, and fixed an annoyed gaze on the merciless tormentor who had shocked him awake. Having a bucket of water as an alarm clock was one thing, but a bucket of icy cold water that would chill down to the very bones was another. Naturally, chakra that wasn't originally his own was already beginning its work in relieving the muscles and sensory neurons of their brief pain and any possible damages. May be that was the reason why he's the only one she would wake up in that way, knowing he's one of the people who just can't really stay angry no matter what she did.
Uzumaki Naruto narrowed his eyes, his usual pout of annoyance in tow. "Jeez, didn't you hear me say to wait? That was beyond cold!"
The girl that had recently been in his dreams, now all grown up, simply chuckled, "Quit complaining, it's not like that was your first wake up call."
Hazel brown eyes that he could simply stare into for hours on end met his blue eyes. The female had long, crimson-red hair, in keeping with her clan, hair that trailed down behind her back and ended right in between her shoulder blades. It was as beautiful as ever, despite how the third member of their team had once commented it looked like hair dyed with blood. Asami was dressed modestly, with her dark long sleeved shirt, the results of her parents' hard work put into raising their daughter to be modest, despite working in a profession that included 'distracting' enemies. Naruto knew she wore her forearm guards, and saw that she had left her black and white jacket, reminiscent of a snowboarder's and with its own detachable black hood, lying on her already packed bag.
"Wake up call she says…," grumbled Naruto to himself, getting up already wearing a pair of black pants with three sand brown colored stripes trailing on each sides. He had slept through the night without taking off his standard dark blue shinobi sandals, though without a shirt on, despite how cold the nights could get.
"It's your turn to get breakfast, Naruto." Asami reminded him, standing with her left hand on her hip. Naruto knew better than to indulge himself into some pointless morning argument, and he stretched out, trying to release the irksome drowsiness in his muscles. He scratched the wild yellow mess that was his hair several times, noticing that his other teammate was still asleep, apparently not the least bit disturbed by Naruto's outburst. Naruto tried to recall what exactly he had been dreaming about. More than half of his dreams were random trips down memory lane, shuffled from different times of his life, ever since the day he'd incorporated mass numbers of Kage Bunshin in his short cut training. Perhaps it was a way for his mind to sort through his memories. The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki might be a heavy sleeper, but his teammate out did him by far, sleeping as though imitating the dead.
Asami answered what she thought was going on, "He turned up from guard watch shift ten minutes ago,"
"So Jiisan is on the watch then?" Naruto asked after giving a large yawn while summoning his bag out of a sealing scroll.
The long forged friendship never did make Asami answered mockingly at his obvious questions. "Yes, he is. Now get going already."
Naruto was busy putting on his usual long sleeved net shirt, soon to be followed by the usual plain black t-shirt. His female teammate leaned against a tree trunk, curiosity invading her mind, thinking it might take a while, "Just what exactly were you dreaming about anyway?"
It had become an odd, infrequently asked question, something that the neither of them had talked about since they had crossed the teenage barrier. Sure they had their conversations about funny dreams, dreams of the future, nightmares, and other things. But those sort subjects simply died away, may be it all really started when Asami had her absolutely weird and confusing first wet dream. Somehow, she couldn't help but think this meant there was the eventual testing on the possibility of elevating this bond of friendship to another level. In which the both of them were perfectly aware of. Naruto's head made out from the black shirt, "Sure you want to know? I mean..."
"Forget I asked," interrupted Asami with the creeping of a light blush over her face. It was a really stupid thing to ask if it really turned out that he had 'those' dreams. "That was a silly ques-"
"It was about you." interrupted Naruto easily. Asami heard those four words, and remained silent.
Too late for that. He thought back, a look of concentration on his face, appearing dissatisfied with his first answer, "About us really."
Definitely too late for that. It only deepened Asami's blush even further, getting the wrong idea about the things he had just said. It was bad enough when she heard him the first time, but the second time just made it worse.
Naruto completed his humble sense of fashion for the outdoors by zipping up a long sleeve jet black and dull sand brown jacket. The jacket wasn't puffy or anything, complementing his pants like it was a uniform altogether. Asami once thought it had just too many zippers all round, without a single upside down pocket that were usually found on Konoha's Chuunin or Jounin vests. The zipper from the collar down to the end, well that was necessary and obvious, the fabric trailing along the zip line was black in color. A long zipper line trailed over on each of his entire sleeve, starting from the tops of his two shoulders and going all the way to the end near his wrists. She only came to understand what those parts were all about. A large clan crest was visible on the back, the dark blue and black whirlpool vortex within the outlines of a nine edged spiraling shuriken, looking like it was the very core of the ninja weapon.
Okay, may be not so a humble sense of fashion. But then again, his guardian by far had one of the worse tastes of fashion. At least they weren't bright colors that screamed attention and were much more suitable for camouflaging.
Naruto turned to the direction of the river that he had swum in last night, his back to his fellow teammates. "It was at the time when we made that promise when we were six I think. You know, that one about us getting stronger so we would never be apart ever again. Remember, Asami-chan?"
The blush fading away, Asami thought back to those various moments after deep thought, "Of course I do."
But apparently she realized she had said that to no one, seeing as Naruto was no where to be seen, probably already going to fetch his team's breakfast. How Naruto can be just so annoying at times...
Asami sighed, looking at her pinky finger, smiling and repeating, "Of course I do…"
Scene change
Nothing out of the ordinary had happened, even with everything going on, contrary to what any of the four shinobi had thought. It had been a routine for them, even if their leader left for a day or two to gather information. The night shift guard was still sleeping, and neither of the other two bothered to wake him, instead getting ready for breakfast. Soon enough, there was a small camp fire crackling, slowly cooking the dozen skewered fishes that hovered above it. Naruto squatted himself in front of the fire, in charge of making sure that their breakfast didn't get overcooked. Catching some fishes from the river never was a problem when he had clones in his arsenal. Asami still didn't bother herself to rouse her teammate awake, knowing that the enticing aroma of the food eventually would. Sure enough, it did.
The sleepy, yet more importantly hungry, teammate had finally got up, squinty eyes looking right at the camp fire. A left hand searched the ground around, finding the desired object and lifting it up in a familiarity that had been nothing but years of practice.
The sleepy medic-nin of the team, Yakushi Kabuto could only say, "The pleasure of night watch is a breakfast in bed."
"Yeah, Good morning to you too," said Asami with a smile, helping herself with the first meal of the day as Naruto handed the fish over to Kabuto.
Suddenly, a large figure suddenly jumped down from the top of the trees, with a body frame obviously larger than any of the three. Radiating a huge killing intent honed from decades of experience, and with a cold steel kunai was already drawn out to a throat, any average shinobi would have perceived it as an attack.
Naruto, Kabuto, and Asami kept on eating, as if the attacker never existed. "How many times do I have to this, huh?" demanded the large figure in frustration in a deep voice, clearly upset at the clear lack of response, and put the kunai away.
The three younger shinobi kept on eating, only sparing him a look for a second or two to acknowledge that they had heard him before continuing on with their most important meal of the day.
The figure sighed, and continued, "What if I happened to be an enemy shinobi bent on killing three intruders? I'd be walking away with more than a hefty ready made breakfast."
The silence was killing him. "Well? Any of you three are going to answer me?" Kabuto chewed and swallowed the last share of his fish, his fingers prying off the morsels from the fish on a stick, before saying, "It would be rude to talk with my mouth full."
"I mean really…Jiisan," Naruto asked, "after all these years, do you really think we need to go through these practices?" Naruto beamed at the guardian that was like a young grandfather figure to him, and glanced at the hermit's distinctive clothes, "We're not Genins, you know,"
"You're acting like one," countered Jiraiya.
"You forget that I would know it's you as long as you carry that thing around," said Naruto, pointing his skewered fish right at the older shinobi's heart. But before Jiraiya had anything to say in return, he barely heard a small sound coming from his feet. He looked down to the source of the sound and remained silent, spotting a stick that had embedded deep into his wooden sandals, just between his toes. Jiraiya couldn't complain, the marksmanship coming from the position of the stick meant to say, 'Is that a reaction you were looking for?'
"If you really want a decent fight that much…, Jiraiya jii-sama," Asami gulped down her breakfast. Fuusetsu Asami went on with second, her left hand throwing the remains of her first fish into the fire. She might be one of the most understanding at times, but those other times meant messing with the strongest kunoichi of the Fuusetsu clan would at least lead to some very unnecessary and unforgettable injuries. Jiraiya sensed that this was one of those times.
"May be another time," dismissed the Toad Hermit a little too quickly, deciding that he was the one overreacting, he joined them for breakfast without another complaint.
"So? Any leads? Any word, for that matter?" asked Kabuto tentatively, always the first one to finish eating.
Jiraiya made his first bite, though not a mouth full, "Actually, we do."
"We do?" Naruto perked up by this revelation of good news, Asami and Kabuto were actually relieved than excited.
"But this one isn't about their whereabouts. It's about that background check we need, hopefully that will give us more leads. Because our contact has finally sent word. "
"Any hassle over this is worth it. I mean something is better than nothing, at this point," commented Naruto happily, still on his third fish, asking a question he already knew the answer to, "So he's in?"
"A few complains and conditions on his side here and there, nothing we can't handle, but he's in." answered Jiraiya.
"Finally!" Naruto shouted triumphantly.
Kabuto was eager to know more about the details of this news, "What did he say, actually?"
Having read the encrypted letter over and over again, Jiraiya answered in summarizing, "He'd explain everything later. The first thing we need to do is to sneak into the Land of Fire, and meet him at Rakan Lake."
Asami was finally finished with her food, about to drink from the water container made out of bamboo in her hand, "How long do we have? Give or take."
"Three days exactly, starting from today. More than enough time for us to reach there," explained Jiraiya, he seemed serious as ever, "It's better if we meet him as soon as possible, given his circumstances."
Naruto, Asami, and Kabuto nodded in agreement altogether. They've spent too much time already in waiting for this desired response. "So we're finally entering into a shinobi country? Oh well, it was good when it lasted," said Kabuto, thinking the different situations that would come back in routine.
There was a significant difference to their usual activities when they entered shinobi country. More work, security, and precautions had to be taken, with fewer opportunities to eat decent food. But then again, all the grueling training and lessons might dull or simply waste away if they remained in this country a day more. No further discussion about the plan followed, whether about the possibility of this leading to potential traps and dead ends, it had always been part of their search. All that matters for now was for them to pack up what few belongings they possessed, to cover any sort of evident tracks they could have left behind, and for Naruto to finish all the fish he had left. Soon enough, all four of them found themselves jumping from branch to branch and tree to tree. By noon, they were crossed the borders of Fire Country. With their destination just another half a day away, none of them thought stopping except for a decent rest would be a bad idea.
"May be we're too early. He did mean three days," pointed out Asami, sitting under the comforting shades of tree, with the great Rakan Lake before them.
Naruto looked around again, casting his view on the lake once more in what should be the place where they were supposed to meet their so called contact. "Just where exactly are we supposed to meet him again?"
"I told you, right here," replied Jiraiya for what he thought was the third time. "Where exactly have all those lessons about patience gone to?"
"Who knows, may be he meant the other side of the lake," thought of Kabuto, adjusting his glasses as he looked to the far off shores of the lake.
"Great…Just great……," sighed Naruto, slouching himself as he walked and was sitting himself not too far away from Asami, "Anyone wants to bet we're going to be waiting here for another three whole hours for nothing?"
Another three hours had followed after, and the four shinobi amused themselves with various activities instead of keeping watch like average shinobi. Asami was dreamily gazing up to the many clusters of stars sparkling in the heavenly night sky above. Kabuto the Beta reader was proofreading Jiraiya's rough draft, a book with a handwritten title on its cover. Meanwhile, Jiraiya kept his eye on the legacy that had thrust into his protection since the death of that boy's mother. Uzumaki Naruto had long since closed his eyes in some form of deep meditation; though he had his right hand busied itself with playing a yoyo. The toy rolled itself up and down from its owner's hand, spinning in the end for several seconds before he would jerk the string and catching it back in his hand. The sequence repeated again and again for the last hour and a half. Obscured in the darkness of the night, were the sealing characters and symbols inscribed under the surface of decorative stickers and brand name. Also obscured was the fact he was using his chakra as a string that formed from his middle finger, giving the impression that the yoyo was spinning up and down with a luminescent string. Asami was the first to snap out of her daze, as though her dream bubble just popped, which brought the attention of Jiraiya. The Toad Hermit didn't have the need to alert the other two. Not too long, the turquoise blue eyes opened as Naruto caught his returning yoyo for one last time, its long chakra string quickly dispelled into nothingness, and had it stowed away back inside the comfort of his jacket's usual pocket.
Kabuto knew something was up, "Someone or something?"
"Not really sure, too far away to tell. Wait, someone's coming, alright," Asami was standing up and turning in the direction where the sun had set over the horizon hours ago.
Jiraiya summarized all his thoughts, "Good. Better pray it's him. If not, well…. We'll see how things are going to turn up."
After waiting for another good seven minutes, the person that had intruded into their sense had stopped. If it was a stranger, he would have notice their presence and slowly sneaked closer to check who they were. But that person had basically walked right out towards them. Luckily for them, it did turned out to be their awaited contact, as he finally walked out through some bushes and out into the cleared shore. A moon light shone down to reveal few features that he had on his face, only one visible eye. Everything else was covered by his tilted headband and face mask.
Naruto beamed as the man approached, "Do you have any idea how long we've been here? You better have a good excuse, or I going to punch you in the face."
"Sorry, I got lost on the way and had to ask a passing monk for directions," answered the so called man of a thousand jutsu, Hatake Kakashi as he rubbed the back of his hair.
Jiraiya, Naruto, Asami, and Kabuto didn't seem to believe any word that came through the Jounin's face mask. Under their scrutinizing looks, Kakashi could only hope these shinobi might be just as tolerant and enduring as his members of Team 7 were.
Asami raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Really. But enough of that, we have more important matters to discuss, unless you want to continue why I'm actually late," answered Hatake Kakashi in a suddenly all too serious manner.
"Fine," said Asami, though she still appeared to be not settled on the matter.
"By the way, before we start," Naruto closed in to the Copy Ninja, his radiant smile still etched, "I have something to give you. I mean after all the trouble we've put you through or what we're going to put you through..."
Kakashi was back to his friendly behavior, "Huh? No…You shouldn't have."
Naruto shook his head, his left hand reaching into his pocket. "No. No. I insist. This one's on me."
The next thing Kakashi knew, he was blasted from where he once stood with a nerve wracking pain throughout the left side of his face. The Leaf-nin skidded along the ground several meters away before coming to a stop, while Naruto held his right arm out in the fist he had used to punch. Kakashi was surprised that he hadn't seen that coming, and that he was too slow to even perform a kawarimi. Hatake Kakashi had felt different types of pain as any veteran shinobi would, but even though his record being in ANBU showed him to be above the average veteran, this pain had something unique about it.
That really hurt. A voice, of what most female residents or members of a certain fan club in Konoha would consider blissfully cool, could be heard by all four shinobis. "That was a bad move."
Leaves rustled as three shadows blurred into existence from the forest, coming down amongst the four shinobi that did nothing but stand motionlessly. A long chokuto was held too close to Naruto's neck, and the blood limit Sharingan shone red behind his head as Uchiha Sasuke took charge. Three kunais had been drawn out to the other shinobi's throats, as sixteen year old Haruno Sakura stood guard over the slightly taller Asami, slight jealousy of the red head's beauty showing in her jade green eyes. The member of the 'Root', Sai, used both hands to hold kunai over Jiraiya and Kabuto's spines.
"So I guess this was a trap after all," said Kabuto, no sign of shock or worry in his tone, slowly raising both hands up in a sign of defeat.
"There will be no need. Keep your hands down," directed Sai, letting Kabuto feel the tip of the cold hard metal kunai at his back. Kabuto complied with those commands easily, as his hands that had healed and killed numerous people went back to the sides.
Asami rolled her eyes, "It would've been better if we could have at least fallen into this trap six hours ago."
"Well this time, I'm really sorry," replied Kakashi groggily, holding onto his profusely stinging cheek since the vicious sensation was still coursing through the left side of his face.
"Aren't we all," said Jiraiya, the Toad Hermit could only imagine the possible annoying conversations that might soon follow. Naruto kept his eyes on Kakashi, a slight grimace on his face, "So no deal, then? I only punched you because that your answer really sucked. What kind of veteran shinobi turns up six hour late? At a rendezvous point he himself set?"
Sai answered the question what Naruto thought wouldn't be directly answered, aggravating both Sakura and Sasuke in the process, "Sadly, for all of us, he's that very kind of shinobi."
Sakura seethed the words through clenched teeth, after seeing the widening smile on Kabuto's face. "Shut up, Sai."
Naruto found it slightly ironic having the dangerous blade just millimeters away from his throat, when Jiraiya had held his kunai right at that spot at breakfast so many hours ago. His blue eyes could see nothing of the Uchiha behind him, though he already knew how the raven haired shinobi looked. All members of Team 7 found it peculiar about their hostages, since they don't seem to be the least worried about their captivity. Team 7's medic kunoichi didn't think that point was relevant at the moment, "It doesn't matter. Thankfully they decided to make the biggest mistake by contacting you out of all people, Kakashi-sensei. They may end up being scapegoats of their country."
"Well I guess you guys have everything well wrapped up," thought of Kakashi.
"Must be a bunch of amateurs," commented Sasuke all of a sudden. "You guys must be desperate for this meeting to work, to the point of letting your guards down this low. No plans of escape or back up should anything go wrong."
Naruto was irritated, 'Isn't there any shinobi out here that won't point out their enemies' mistakes?'
"They're most probably Rock-nins or Cloud-nins, they don't have any apparent heavy weapons like Mist-nins do," pointed out Sai, since they could not see any forehead protectors. Kakashi had one hand to the elbow of his other, the supported hand holding onto his mask covered chin, "Ibiki will take care of that and get all the answers out. We'll have to find out what they're up to, whether they're from the Land of Lightning, Stone, or anywhere else for that matter."
"I'll be more than happy to save you the trouble and answer that question," Naruto responded with unnatural intensity, as a sign to Asami, Kabuto, and Jiraiya. Kakashi's instincts were telling him to lift up his headband. He could sense from the blonde's demeanor that there was definitely going to be trouble. It was too late to tell his team anything. Kakashi thought his team would be better off simply killing all these intruders instead of troubling themselves to handle them as prisoners.
"We're from the Land of Whirlpool," said Naruto, staring right towards Kakashi's only opened eye, just as he was lifting up headband.
So Kakashi's Sharingan finally came into view, but before he could do anything, all eight shinobi were engulfed in a sudden blinding flash of pure white light. Everything went blank, despite Sasuke having his back towards the source of the blinding light. It was all too fast, and in those short moments, he felt a blow right to his neck as the vision of everything that was white had transformed pitch black.
AN: Uh...well? I know a lot of things have yet to be explained. As always, no big surprise there... But you can still expect the usual twist and turns, unimaginable things ahead like those in 'The Last One'. Battles and mischief ahead. I only hope my skills haven't dull or rusted over the long period of updating.
So...er (finger scratching chin at the moment), Rate and Review? Please...?
With a cherry on top?