Man, my energy for writing Naruto has been RENEWED! The damn fillers are over finally! Anyways, I have had this idea floating in my head for a good time now, and after reading a few fanfics, I have finally decided to write another one… (And hopefully complete this one.)

"Speaking"

Thinking

Edit: March 1, 2010

Who knew my energy to write this would go down the drain once I realized that the new series was almost as bad as the fillers? Haha, yeah, I don't know why, but I looked at my stories, and this one really interested me. I am not sure if I will get around to a second chapter, but I at least wanted to fix up the first chapter a little bit.

XxXxXxXxX

The purpose of this trip, it was to train, right? It was for the time when he and Sakura would go and save Sasuke! He needed to be stronger, but this - This isn't exactly what he'd call training…

All around, huge trees stood multiple meters from the ground. Little beams of the morning Sunlight would shine in through little cracks of the leaves, and the ground glistened with the dew still stuck on it. It was overall, a peaceful place to be alone to think.

Naruto sat against a lone tree thinking. For almost a year now, he had wandered with his sensei, Jiraiya. He had gotten new clothing, although it was pretty much as bright as his old suit. He grew out his hair, but unfortunately, he did not grow stronger of all things.

"Was the purpose of this trip?" He muttered with a bit of gloom, "To have me avoid Akatsuki?"

It must have been… All he had been doing was stupid chores for the old man, whenever they went to a town for a short visit, Naruto would point out some weights he wouldn't mind getting - they were cheap to boot! – Unfortunately Jiraiya said no.

They'd slow me down? He thought bitterly, what kind of pathetic excuse is that?

He finally stood up and took in a deep breath. "At this rate I won't be able to fulfill Sakura's promise…" His face darkened again, "All my friends, they're all probably stronger than me already… Even Sakura-chan!" He could feel some tears stinging at his eyes. "This is useless! She's being trained by one of the Sannin! She'll be stronger than I'll be by light-years by the time I get back."

He grabbed a Kunai and threw it at a nearby tree. It hit almost twenty centimeters from the center of the target he created, no better than all his other tries.

"I'm not improving at all…" He looked down in pain and confusion. "Why would Tsunade do this to me?"

He held back a yell of anger and stomped over to his kunai he threw and plucked it out along with the other three he had thrown earlier. This is it… I'm leaving tonight! He smiled at the thought. Jiraiya was supposedly going to town for 'information' on where they would go next. Naruto knew what he was really going for however.

It is my best shot at escaping without him noticing for almost a day! A small grin appeared on his face. Whenever his 'sensei' went to town, he left Naruto at their campsite to protect it from any bandits, or that's what he'd say.

Tonight, he would leave by himself to train. He'd be better self-taught than what was occurring right now. With a determined look in his eyes, he wandered back to where the old man was sure to be right now.

Tonight… Was his last thought as he left his small training area and walked back to the camp.

XxXxXxXxX

Sakura was not having a good day. Actually, she was having a terrible day. Nothing could compare to this. Absolutely nothing.

She was currently aimlessly walking through one of the multiple parks of Konoha; it was quite a beautiful place. If only her mood was as bright and colorful as the place around her…

The fourteen year old brushed her hand through her pink hair. Unlike Ino, she had decided to keep it short, claiming that it helped not get in the way of her work. She felt a rising urge to let out a cry of annoyance once her hand left her hair however.

Earlier that day she had gotten a letter from Naruto. Usually, this brightened up her day, because Naruto was funny and he always wrote to her about where he was traveling. Unfortunately, in the latest one, Naruto admitted what he really thought what was going on. She felt her heart fall at the words of the letter.

He's not training at all? She thought in dread, Great… Alone I can do absolutely nothing to retrieve Sasuke-kun back… She felt like crying, but held it in, not wanting the people around her in the park to see her cry.

Unfortunately for her, that was not all the bad news she was going to receive that day. Ino had found her wandering the park, and had told her that Tsunade wanted to see her.

Pocketing the letter she quickly left to see the Kage.

When she entered the office, the smell of alcohol was present, but she ignored it and pressed forward. "You needed me Tsunade-sama?" She asked uncertainly.

"Sakura." The older woman said in a serious tone. From behind her desk she had a very calm look on her face. He blonde hair sat easily on her shoulders, the diamond shaped thing atop her head gleamed with a nice shade of purple. "The life of a ninja is one filled with both danger and risk."

"Of course Hokage-sama, but why tell me this?"

"Sakura… Your pursuit of Sasuke is pointless." The Hokage said bluntly, "I know that was the only reason you wished to continue this career." The older woman let out a silent but steady breath, "Sasuke is gone, and he's too corrupted to be saved."

"What? Do you think I am that stupid?! Speaking of Sasuke, how do you know that he is corrupted?!" She shouted, not caring that it was towards the Hokage.

"Jiraiya." She simply stated, "He sends me letters and updates me every other month of the journey. He sends me all the rumors that he has heard, and tell me how true each could be." He sighed, "As stupid as the idiot can be at times, I fear that his latest information is not false."

"How would you know-." She was cut off.

Tsunade slammed her hand on a stack of papers in front of her. "Here are all the reports of Sasuke. Each one states a rumor of the Uchiha, and some little known facts." Sakura felt her heart go deeper from this news. "He's been killing some of our border patrol, he's too deep into darkness now… Even if he does come back, he'd have to stand trial."

"But…" Sakura could now feel tears stinging the end of her eyes. "He couldn't! It's been only a year since he left!"

Tsunade felt pity for the child and said, "I'll allow you to quit your career as a ninja if you want. No one will think low of you to do so. You've seen some things that a child of your rank and experience should not have seen for another ten years."

Sakura was lost in thought. Sasuke… Lost? She shook her head, is he the only reason I became a ninja? She wondered.

"At first…" Sakura stated, "Sasuke was the only reason I was encouraged to become a ninja of the leaf, but now… I have so much to prove… Please Tsunade, maybe if you took me more seriously, and had Jiraiya-sama actually TRAIN Naruto, we could save Sasuke!"

Tsunade stopped a gasp from coming out of her lips, "Why would you think we'd not train Naruto?"

"He sends me letters too…" Sakura said with some venom in her voice, "He says that it is even obvious to him that all he and Jiraiya-sama are doing is running from some group… Akatsuki… Or something like that."

Tsunade felt the blood from her face drain. "What? Can I see the letter you're speaking of?"

Sakura nodded, hoping the Hokage would do something about it. "Here, I have it in my pocket." She pulled it out and gave it to her sensei.

Tsunades eyes darted from top to bottom several times until it became clear to her. "He's not going to let this pass… What if he tries something stupid?" She muttered to herself, only loud enough so Sakura could hear her.

"Tell Jiraiya to train him like he was supposed to!" Sakura stated. That was the easiest thing she could think of to do, and it would benefit them all.

"No… We can't have that. If they find him and he's too beaten from training, he could do nothing and they take him away…" Tsunade sighed, "Sakura, whenever you get your next letter from Naruto, inform me. I'll send one to Jiraiya right now to tell him to make his plan less obvious."

Sakura felt anger rising, "Hokage-sama! He has to train! He and I are going to go save Sasuke when he gets back! He needs to be strong so we can actually do this!"

Tsunade simply shook her head; "I'll see you tomorrow."

Sakura was abruptly taken out of the room by two chuunin standing next to the door.

This was not what was supposed to happen… Not at all. She was never taken seriously, and worse, neither was Naruto. How could they complete their goal if they were constantly running into huge brick walls?

Searching through her mind, Sakura could find a very attractive logical and yet, a very illogical and stupid thing to do. "I have to run away, and train on my own, and try to find Naruto…"

Of course, this was easier said than done, she'd have no guidance, and finding Naruto would be much harder than looking up at a sign saying, 'Naruto, - Next left'. All the information she gained from this letter was that he was near where their first big mission took place…

Looks like I'm going to revisit some old friends of mine… She thought to herself, and went home to begin packing her things for the trip.

XxXxXxXxX

Everything was supposed to be all good. After he turned good, stopped killing people, and sending out huge killing intents, he figured people would stop shunning him like they had for years, and finally come back to accept him… He was wrong.

He'd walk through the sandy streets of the village of the Sand, Suna. People were quickly avoiding him as he slowly walked through the street, without his gourd even. He didn't send out any intent to kill, nothing at all to gain this behavior towards him.

He knew the recovery of gaining trust would be a long one, but not so much a harsh one. He always got rid of the feeling within him now by killing, but with sense knocked into him, he quickly found that killing others to find a purpose was 'wrong' for lack of better words.

He felt void of all emotions, unlike the last time that he was in control of all his thoughts and such. He envied others, who were able to show happiness, sadness, and even fear of such small things. One thing he had always wanted though was to be loved, even as a child, it was his one true dream… He knew his mother had cursed him, he knew his parents both hated him, the village did, and his dead care taker hated him as well.

Gaara let out a sigh.

He emotionlessly looked around the street he was on. People were running into buildings to avoid even being looked at by him. It hurt on the inside… Just like when he was a child. He closed his eyes, and let out a slightly depressed sounding sigh.

He had to amend for his past behavior and such. He'd have to start by speaking with the people, and getting an understanding between him and them.

He walked over to a girl around his age, who was currently busy making some food for the stand she ran. She was completely oblivious of Gaara's presence.

"H- Hello." Gaara managed to get out. Even a greeting was tough for him to do.

"Hi, what'll you-." She stopped mid sentence upon looking up at her customer. She ended up breaking down and silently saying, "Please! Don't kill me! I'll do anything you want! Just… please…"

Gaara looked down and said, "I will not hurt you, I merely wish to-"

All this fell on deaf ear to the girl as she began to yell out, "Please! I don't want to die yet! You already tried to kill me when I was young!" She cried out.

Gaara inspected the girl. Suddenly it came to him, "You're the one that I said sorry to…" Gaara felt a quick intent to kill leave his body and he quickly crushed it and looked back down at her, but she was frozen from the aura he released for only a second. "Please, like last time I only want to… Talk…"

She looked up, some confusion in her eyes, but before she could say anything, others began to scream out.

"L-leave her alone D- Demon!"

"You should have been killed the day you were born!"

"You've been nothing but trouble!"

"You should just do us a favor and die!"

More and more shouts entered the air, and the somewhat confused look in the girl's eyes was replaces with anger and hate. "Yes Demon! Leave now!"

Gaara felt an emotion that he had long ago thought he had gotten rid of; sadness… He felt worthless right now. Was this the reason he allowed his demon to take over? He quickly made his way from the girl and the now screaming crowd and wandered to the border of the village.

He figured now, the feeling within him, was hate. Hate for the villagers. "But why," He muttered to himself, "Why must I be the one born with this… curse?"

He saw some water hit the ground. A raindrop? He thought and quickly looked up; there were no clouds within the area. He looking back down and raised his hand to his face and rubbed an itch in his eye. When he removed his hand he looked to a little bit of water on them.

"I'm… crying…" He said to no one in particular. It felt wrong, but at the same time, it felt so right as well. This is why he hated emotions… They cloud with mind with irrational thoughts.

"I need to get away from here." He muttered to himself. Looking up and the wall, he quickly gathered sand around his back to form a gourd. Although it wasn't his preferred sand, it would have to do for now.

He jumped on top of the wall and turned around to face the village, "Bye." He simply said as he jumped down on the other side.

XxXxXxXxX

A young woman sat on her bed in her room crying. She had black hair that was about shoulder length, and a black jacket on, her eyes were a lavender white color, very unique some would say, to be among her clan.

She removed the tissue from her face; her tears were wiped away for the moment. She had unfortunately had to go through another round of having her younger sister beat her, and then be mocked by her father and every other important figure of her clan...

Why did her life have to be like this? She had just wanted to be a normal girl… Wanted to have other friends, and do things with them, not be the sole responsibility of the whole Hyuuga clan. When she was eligible by her fathers' standards, she would become the clan head, but her fathers' standards were too harsh, and she'd never reach them…

"Why am I so weak?" She absently asked to no one in particular. "Why was I born like this?"

She muttered some other things and looked longingly at the photo by her bed on her nightstand. There sat the whole Academy class, back seven years ago. She looked though, at only one person in the picture.

"Naruto-kun…" She said silently, and felt more tears come to her eyes. She was unable to see him off, and had not seen him for almost two years, the last time she could even recall seeing him was right before the Chuunin exam.

She was about to cry some more, but a knock on her door made her have to quickly compose herself. "Hold on!' She said in a calm voice. "I'll be right there."

"Hinata-sama." A voice behind the door said. Hinata relaxed a little, it was only Neji, the one member of her clan whom she could rely on in tough times.

"Come in Neji." She muttered with sadness evident in her voice.

Neji hesitantly walked in, with care he quickly shut the door behind him and walked over and sat by Hinata on her bed. They sat in silence for a moment before Neji said, "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault Neji-" She tried to say, but he cut her off.

"No! It is. You're suffering. I have treated you with hate and dislike for so long, that I must have made that pain worse than it was before…" He looked down regret evident in his voice, "I'm surprised that you're so forgiving, after that attack I did to you…"

Hinata, with a little confidence, said, "Neji, that was about two years ago. I forgive you, Isn't that what cousins do – comfort each other?"

Neji smiled for a bit and said, "Yes… I suppose that is how relatives should be with each other."

Before they could speak anymore on the matter, another knock came upon the door of Hinata's. "Hinata-sama, you're dinner is prepared."

Neji turned towards Hinata and nodded, "I'll be excusing myself." He got up and walked away leaving Hinata to lonesome. "Please, be well Hinata-sama."

Hinata nodded and quickly prepared for dinner. She hated this time of day so much. It always consisted of her being mocked by her younger sister and sometimes her father, then her father would give her harsh words and make her feel worthless. However, she was now use to this.

"Tell father I'll be right there." She told the servant who came to tell her of the news.

She quickly dressed into her formal clothing, and left her room. She walked through the long hallways of her house. How she hated them so much… It reminded herself of how alone she always was… No one was ever in the halls with her.

Finally she managed to make it through to make it to the dining area. Where she, her father, and her sister all ate in relative silence never even acknowledging each other's presence.

"Hinata." Her father stated after they had been eating for a while. "You have to improve. I am feeling as though I am teaching a non-Hyuuga. You're falling behind, on all your work, and your sister is even passing you in several areas of your study."

Hanabi, Hinata's sister, smirked while she ate her food.

"If you keep this up, your sister will take your place as heir to the clan." Her father stated.

Hanabi smiled and said, "Isn't it true that whoever doesn't become the head gets the seal on their head?" She was rubbing salt on Hinata's wound.

Their father said nothing, but both of them knew the answer.

Hinata felt a pain come from inside of her. "Father, may I be excused?" She asked in a kind voice.

He nodded silently, and she left the table, but her sister wanted to say one last thing, "Looks like you're too weak to eat with father now." She said off-handedly.

Hinata panicked and quickly ran back to her room, through all the halls and such and entered the safety of her room once more. She felt tears exiting her eyes again and sat down crying once again. I'll never be strong like Hanabi or father.

She kept this up for almost an hour until she felt secure enough to exit the house without breaking down. She walked pass the guards and waved at them, but they simply ignored her.

She walked further until she finally reached a park next to the western wall of the village. She looked up at it. If only I could be free… She stopped the chain of thought however, when she felt an itch in her eye.

Naruto-kun is free out there… training. Unlike me, I'll never improve… She thought unhappily. She sat on a bench and kept glancing at the wall, until she finally decided what she should do.

Naruto-kun… I'll find you… and train with you and be strong… then father will be proud of me! She smiled at the thought of her dad being proud of her and walked back home. Tonight… She thought, Tonight I'll go find him.

XxXxXxXxX

That night, two girls left Konoha, while most of the population was asleep.

Chapter one – END

A/N – Why was I so addicted to ellipses? I think I deleted over 20 of them to make the story flow better, and there is still a ton in there. Jeez. I was a terrible writer back then. Haha. I hope you guys enjoyed this slightly revised and edited chapter!