Chapter ONE

Sakura inspected the seemingly abandoned city. She then looked up at the sign above the gates they were going through. "Soraku..." She quickened her pace to catch up with Sasuke, who was walking right ahead.

Suigetsu seemed slightly impressed. "Wow. A hideout actually exists in these ruins. I didn't know about it."

"This isn't a hideout, and it isn't related to Orochimaru. It's a weapon house that my clan owns." Sasuke glanced over his shoulder. "We'll prepare here."

"Geez, everything's so similar." Suigetsu muttered.

"The air's thin." Sakura noted. "But it's damp. I can feel water."

Suigetsu just ruffled her hair.

"This place irritates me." Karin said. "Such irritating places are bad." She paused, then whirled around with a confused "Huh?"

Jugo did the same a split second later.

Sakura hummed at the sight before her. "Kitty kitty." She murmured.

"It's been a while, Hina, Denka." Sasuke smiled faintly.

A few feet away were two cats.

"Ha! I knew it was that Sasuke-boy." A cat with the word 'shinobi' on its forehead said...meowed?

"What are you doing here, nya?" The other, a cat with the katakana 'ki' on its head, asked.

"Weapons and medicine." Sasuke said. "And other things of that sort."

"That's..." Karin trailed off, eyes wide.

"Oh! It's a talking tanuki!" Suigetsu leaned forward.

"It's a kitty." Sakura told him. "It's a kitty cat."

Sasuke sighed as the two siblings bickered playfully among themselves.

Suigetsu, who had been reaching towards the cat during their argument, withdrew his hand when a clawed paw lashed out. "Whoa."

"These are Nin-neko." Sasuke said. "Don't feed them. They bite."

Both cats looked very pleased with this. "Did you bring us anything nya?"

Sasuke pulled out a bottle and held it up. "Of course."

The other let out a purr of satisfaction. "I'll take you to Neko-baa." The cats got to their feet and trotted off.


Sakura inspected the insides of the building they were in. A little distance away, Sasuke was crouched in front of Neko-baa, receiving a scroll.

They were talking about that 'Itachi' guy again.

Sakura tore her gaze from them and instead turned to face the cats crowding around her.

"Why'd they like you, but try to bite me?" Suigetsu asked. He pulled his hand back when another cat tried to scratch him.

"That's cause you suck." Sakura scratched a cat around its neck and it let out a content purr.

Suigetsu huffed.

A little to the right, a girl was trying to find clothing that would fit Jugo. "Grandma! Do you have bigger clothes for this person?"

Sakura looked and giggled at the sight. The orange haired teen towered over the girl attending to him.

"He can wear that curtain over there! This isn't a clothing store!" Neko-baa yelled back.

"Grandma, they're paying! Be a little more generous..."

Jugo yanked at the curtain and wrapped it around himself, a satisfied look on his face.


Once satisfied, Team Hebi said their thanks and farewells before departing from Soraku. They had been travelling for a while when it began to rain.

Sakura's eyes brightened as she looked up at the sky. The cloaks Neko-baa had given them kept them dry, but she half wished to feel the rain on her skin.

Sasuke took a deep breath then glanced over his shoulder. "Let's go."


They managed to find an inn to spend the night. Sasuke ordered them to meet up in his room in order to plan their next few steps.

Sakura and Suigetsu were the last to gather and Sasuke shot them an annoyed look before he gestured for them to sit.

"As I've already said, my aim is to kill Uchiha Itachi." He began. "Itachi is part of an organization called the Akatsuki and we are going to begin by gathering information on this organization." He turned to Sakura. "We were on the move back then and I didn't get to ask. What are the limits to your abilities?"

Sakura perked. "Well, the most basic is that I need a source of water." She said. "Enough for me to dip my feet in, I guess. And the person I'm tracking has to be near water too, as in close enough to a body of water that I can see them." She frowned. "And I can only be in one place at a time so I need a basic idea on where to start."

"She needs chakra." Suigetsu added. Sasuke ignored him.

"Is that it?"

"While I'm walking around in my water form, I need to keep contact with the body of water." She said. "So I wont be able to move around." She then nodded hesitantly. "Also, I've never been seen unless I adjusted myself to let them, but-" She looked at Jugo. "He sensed me, so I guess there are exceptions. I think that's it."

Sasuke nodded. "Very well. So, in order for you to be able to track Itachi, you need some sort of starting point."

Sakura hummed an affirmative. "Yeah. Something like a 'recently spotted here' location or...yeah..."

"Something like this?" Sasuke passed her a scroll. "It's not Itachi, but an Akatsuki member known as Kakuzu was recently spotted in this village."

Sakura eyed the scroll, then nodded. "Yeah." She said. "This'll work."

Sasuke nodded briskly. "Check it out by today. Tomorrow, we will split up and begin our research on the Akatsuki."


While Suigetsu filled the tub, Sakura examined the map handed to her by Sasuke. She needed a vague idea of the distance she had to jump, though it had never been much of a problem.

"It's done!" Suigetsu called from the bathroom.

Sakura, who had been sitting on the bed, rolled up the map and made her way towards her brother.

The rest of team Hebi followed, curious but not ready to admit it.

Suigetsu stepped back from the bathtub he had filled and Sakura stepped into it, clothes and all. The water went up to Sakura's knees. The pinkette sat on the edge of the tub and closed her eyes.

The location of her search wasn't too far away, the puddles from last night's rain was still there. She glanced around the streets, noting the people walking around, before narrowing down where she guess someone like Kakuzu would hang around. She knew of this man, for she had seen him before, once, in a bounty shop in Konoha. She had heard him being mentioned by Orochimaru a few times as well.

She paused upon seeing the sign '質', the name of the pawn shop.

A bounty hunter could use a pawnshop, right?

She searched for another source of water near by and decided that it was a day when she realized that someone had tracked water into the store and no one had bothered to clean it afterwards. The store was closed too, which was good. There were a few people downstairs...

Ever since Jugo had sensed her, Sakura was starting to feel worried. Was he the only one?

Suigetsu had told what he knew about Jugo's abilities and maybe that was the reason.

She shook her head then reappeared inside the store. She peeked around the corner, reaching as far as she could without stepping out of the puddle. Now that she was there, she noticed that it was water from a broke vase. She noted that there must have been a fight of sorts there, for there were other broken objects around.

It was a very good day indeed.

There was a group of men sitting around a sofa. Nearly all of them held weapons but Sakura couldn't sense enough chakra from them for them to be shinobi.

Even if they were, they weren't very skilled.

She stayed there for a while, until the name 'Kakuzu' caught her ear. She hammered everything they said to mind before deciding that she had been here long enough and she cut her connection, jolting back to reality.

Suigetsu was instantly in her face. "So, what'd you find?" He asked.

Sakura playfully pushed him away and giggled when his head erupted into water. She caught Sasuke's impatient look and straightened. "There's a pawnshow called 'Shitsu'. Kakuzu seems to go there often. His name was mentioned. The people there carry weapons, but are not shinobi." She rattled off.

Sasuke closed his eyes. "Suigetsu, you and Sakura will be in charge of looking into this pawnshop." He glanced at Karin and Jugo. "You both have locations you were assigned to. We will later meet up at the location I told you of."


Sakura stood behind Suigetsu as he beat up the guy who was standing as guard then patiently kept still while he stormed down and beat up everyone else. She winced at the loud noise and glanced around. Had no one heard the commotion?

Karin had been sent to another village near by while Jugo was following the tracks left by some other member.

A while later, Suigetsu marched out of the pawnshop, his sword hanging over his shoulder. He had a wide smirk on his face and it widened as he stopped next to her. "We're done here!"

Sakura nodded and opened her mouth to say something when a huge explosion shook the area. Both of them whipped around to look at the source of the sudden heat wave.

"That's the rendezvous zone!" Suigetsu exclaimed. He whipped his cloak to the side and yanked out a scroll with the picture of a snake on it. "He didn't...oh my god, he did!"

Sakura's eyes widened. "Whoa..."

"You got that right." Suigetsu shoved the scroll back into his cloak then turned to her. "Let's get going."


Suigetsu spread the scroll on the ground then pulled out a bottle. Sakura stood a little away, keeping watch.

"There we go..." Suigetsu leaned back, then slammed his palm onto the scroll.

'Kuchiyose no jutsu!'

There was a huge puff of smoke and a huge snake appeared, lying on its side.

Suigetsu whistled. "So...this is Orochimaru's snake summon. How could he control something like this when even Orochimaru had trouble..." He glanced into its eye, just in time to see the tomoe of the Sharingan vanish.

"He's huge." Sakura chirped.

Just then, Sasuke stumbled out from the snake's shadow and fell to his knees. Suigetsu ran up to him. "Man, you're all beat up! Who did you fight?"

"You..." Everyone looked up at the snake. "You used me... You used those...those eyes to control me..." He trailed off, never to speak again.

"He died." Sakura muttered.

"Man, you do know that this guy was Orochimaru's favorite pet, right?" Suigetsu asked. "You need to treat animals better than that. And you controlled them with a genjutsu and stuff..."

"I had no other choice. There was no other way..." Sasuke trailed off.

"There!"

Sakura glanced over her shoulder to see Karin and Jugo running towards them. "You chakra suddenly vanished, but you were just teleporting?" Karin called.

"Well, I don't care about how you used Manda to shield yourself then teleported away, or something. What I want to know is why you're so beat up." Suigetsu said.

"Just before we were able to escape, we were hit by a part of the explosion." Sasuke said. "I was up against an Akatsuki member. He was better than I thought."

"Explosion...an Akatsuki member...Deidara?" Sakura asked. "A blond guy that looks like a girl?"

Sasuke shot her a look and nodded.

"I was...uh...there when he was out on a mission with his former partner...Sasori, I think." Sakura waved her arms. "I mean, there as in with my water form."

"Well, we should probably take a break." Suigetsu said.

"Hey! Is this the level of the man who took out Orochimaru?" Karin asked.

Sasuke hissed. "Orochimaru was already weakened. That's all there was to it..."


They passed the next day in a hostel.

"Did anyone get any leads on Itachi?" Sasuke asked. He was sitting in bed, his wounds wrapped in bandages. Sakura had put her medical ninjutsu, which she had picked up from watching Kabuto, to good use but she wasn't advanced enough to fix everything. She decided to train there when she had the chance.

"Are you kidding me? You're half dead and you're still acting though?" Karin asked.

"I heard plenty about the Akatsuki as a whole, but nothing specific on Itachi." Suigetsu shrugged. "Besides, Kura seemed to know most of what I found out anyways."

Sasuke turned to Sakura. "Really?"

Sakura nodded slowly. "I had a lot of time...and rumors always tend to have a hint of truth in them."

"They're after people with special kinds of chakra." Suigetsu said.

"Special kinds?" Sasuke asked.

"From what the animals tell me, the Akatsuki has several bases they operate out of." Jugo said.

"One of them was this huge cave near Sunagakure." Sakura supplied. "Deidara and Sasori kidnapped the Kazekage and that was where Sasori died."

Sasuke nodded. He had heard of the Kazekage's kidnapping too. "What is the source of your information?" He asked.

"A couple of drunks walking around the Fire daimyo's palace." She paused. "And I heard Orochimaru mention it once, I think, but the water source was far away and he was walking with Kabuto, so they were too far away for me to hear anything else."

"The animals say that they feel strange, unpleasant chakra coming from those places." Jugo supplied.

Suigetsu chuckled. "I never would have thought that a bunch of stupid animals could sense chakra. Then again 'stupid animal' describes Karin pretty well, so I guess that makes sense."

Sakura just giggled when Karin kicked Suigetsu, turning him into a puddle of water.

"Sasuke?" Sakura called.

The Uchiha turned to her.

"While I was checking the area around us, I sensed a few chakra signatures I recognized to be shinobi of Konoha." She told him. "They've been running around near by." She paused. "One of them was the Kyuubi container."

"Naruto..." Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"It's no question that they would come across the battle field between you and Deidara. There were a few Ninken."

Sasuke nodded. "Keep an eye on the explosion site."

Beside them, Karin and Suigetsu's fight was escalating.

Sasuke shot the two a glare, trying to stop them.

Just then, Sakura felt an ominous chakra radiating off Jugo.

She had been in the Northern hideout and had felt this feeling long enough to know what it meant.

"Kill...I want to kill someone...anyone..."

In the next second, she was flying at Jugo, exploding into water in front of his face. By the time Jugo's marks had appeared on his face, she had him restrained with coils of rope made of water.

By then, Sasuke, Suigetsu and Karin had been alerted to Jugo's shift. Suigetsu and Karin moved to help Sakura hold him back. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and a second later, Jugo collapsed.

"S-sorry."

Both Suigetsu and Karin released him and Sakura followed, puddling on the floor and slowly bringing herself together.

"Meh." Sakura spread her arms and looked up at the ceiling. "No problem."


It was past noon when Sakura saw the firs of the Konoha nin approaching the explosion site. After a while, the whole team seemed to gather. She counted eight in total, recognizing a few when she had been wandering around and a few from a bingo book she had seen back when Mangetsu had been alive.

She noted the members, then the one dog left behind while the others were sent back.

She jolted back into her own body right after.

"Did you find anything?" Suigetsu asked.

"The team of Konoha are gathered at the explosion site." She reported. "They're planning to track us via scent."

"Scent?" Karin asked. "But Sasuke teleported out of there."

"The Inuzuka I saw seemed pretty confident."

"What're we gonna do, Sasuke?" Suigetsu asked.

Sasuke opened his eyes slowly. He had been sitting up in his bed, his arms crossed and eyes closed.

"We'll go after Itachi. Hebi will now follow the map Jugo had drawn out for us and head to the various Akatsuki hideouts."


So, here's the next chapter.

WOZ RUSHED WARNING...

In case you didn't know 'The Path of Endless Togethers' has ended, and if you haven't read it yet, or something, please do check it out!

Darque: So, I've been thinking. How many of the dead Naruto characters would be alive if they could Shunshin or Kawarimi? Like, those two seem like such useful techniques and they're rarely used in the time of need...Then again, it might just be me, cause I haven't read/watched NARUTO.

Raven: A lot.

Darque:...

Raven: What? It is a proper answer! But I agree...I think many of the dead characters will be alive...Also, the part I'd focus on more is...WHERE DO THEY GET THE LOG FROM? It's always a perfectly shaped log...I bet they carry it around and scatter it before the fight so that they don't embarrass themselves by switching places with a weird object.

Darque: I agree with the 'where do they get the log' thing, but not with the second part...and technically, you haven't answered my question.

Raven: Well, I don't know exactly either.

Darque: True enough...

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