Chapter 2: The Beginning of Something

Some days have passed. Naruto is finally out of the hospital: what he truly wished! Everybody is together in Konoha, but not for long… What fantastic adventure is waiting for our heroes?

Shizune has been carried with the simple mission of delivering the new mission scrolls to the Hokage. As she was walking to the Hokage Tower, she was thinking about how much her life had changed since Lady Tsunade had been hired for such an honourable and respectful job.

To be honest, besides the missions she was responsible for, which were now quite rare since she was occupied being the assistant of the Hokage, her life was just completing tiny tasks of minor responsibility and stimulate Lady Tsunade since she was the laziest woman she had ever met.

Before this all thing happened, her life was so more exciting. She and the actual Hokage were always travelling from town to town, mostly for the gambling. But she didn't care much about Tsunade's hobbies 'cause she could do whatever she was up to while the great medicinal ninja was at the gambling houses. It used to be so much fun!

Now, she was just an employee, carrying the boxes and taking care of the hard stuff. What a boredom…

She finally arrived at the Hokage's personal room. She dropped the scrolls box on the floor and yawned. She hadn't slept very well the night before. "Here they are, Lady Tsunade. The mission scrolls."

"Let's see what we have this time, then…" The Hokage wasn't very excited about the idea of having to distribute all those tasks again. "It's almost everything low ranked missions… I must say I'm surprised! After all the things that happened, the situation has been quite calm! Oh…"

"What is it, Lady Tsunade?" Shizune was curious, indeed.

"This could be something." Said the Hokage, almost whispering.

/-/-/-/

Meanwhile, in the Sand Village…

The council was summoned to discuss the Kazekage problem. For some reason, the people on the table had their faces hidden. Anyway, they were in a serious dilemma. Most of the council voted to elect the Shukaku host as the Kazekage, not only because it was a better way to keep the boy in control, but also because Gaara was extremely powerful and there was no question he would be the village's great defence.

But the people feared him. The boy was the main target of malevolent glances in the streets, since ever in his life. He was rejected by everyone. Well, not everyone. In his fight against Naruto, he learned something that completely changed him. As a Jinchuuriki, he was would always have to deal with this type of behaviour by some or most of the people, but he would have to find the ones who would care about him. It was then that he understood that there were two people that had always been there when he needed, even if he treated them in the wrong way: Temari and Kankurou. They have been his brother and sister and best friends since ever and, before fighting against Naruto, he hadn't even noticed it and he had treated them badly, underestimated them, but they were still there, on his side, ready to risk their own lives for him. Could he have asked for better friends than those?

This were Gaara's thoughts as he left the village without permission. He knew that this would have bad consequences: he would really miss Temari and Kankurou, even if he didn't say it out loud, and his name would automatically be written in the Bingo Book. However, this would permit him to get rid of those awful glances and whispers he had to live all his life with. That sure was a huge relief…

Just one problem: he had no idea where to go. The idea of going to Konoha sure was comforting. To be with his old friends would be great and he really wished it, but if he dared to do so he was sure that he would get caught. Seems like there was no other choice: he would have to refugee in a little town far away from there where nobody would recognize him. It couldn't be that bad, could it?

/-/-/-/

And back to Konoha…

Jiraya had been thinking about this for quite a long time now and he needed to share his thoughts with someone. Someone who understood.

When you train someone, you normally get to know your student better than anyone else. The white-haired man remembered the time when he used to teach the Yellow Flash, Naruto's father. The Kyuubi host sure was like his ancestor: the face, the hair and, most important, the personality… Someone who didn't know how to give up really was someone to admire, like the Jinchuuriki's father, and now that he knew his actual student a little bit better, he admitted that Naruto would be exactly like his dad: a person to admire… if he wasn't so already.

But this deep knowledge about someone else could and did bring negative aspects, especially in a Jinchuuriki's case. As he trained the blonde-haired boy, he started to understand this great power his student had inside him and that what he showed when he had those "chakra explosions" in those anger moments were just the tip of the iceberg. This could reveal a great danger for Naruto and, as his sensei, of course Jiraya was hugely preoccupied.

And more worried he discovered himself when he found out what type of mission his pupil was going to be in charge of. He really needed to share his thoughts with… the Hokage.

/-/-/-/

Naruto was truthfully happy! He had gotten out of that damn hospital two days ago! He was free to go wherever he wanted with whoever he wanted whenever he wanted however he wanted! He was wishing that since he got back to Konoha! While he was in the hospital, Sakura was enjoying her life with all her friends and taking advantage of that time without missions! Or maybe she was training… Most likely that… Well, training or not, he just wished he would have been in her place during that hospital days… If only he could switch bodies… But, well thinking, he didn't want Sakura to be in hospital either! This was such a brain teaser…

Anyway, the very first thing he decided to do was pretty obvious to everybody who knew him: have some ramen at Ichiraku's! That was something he was evidently missing, too. He wouldn't think twice if somebody would invite him to some ramen, specifically at his very favourite ramen shop!

He was right in the middle of his precious food when somebody interrupted him. He looked back at the person holding his shoulder. The black-haired female ninja was looking seriously at him.

"Shizune! Hey! What's up? Why that severe face, huh?"

"New mission, Naruto. An important one." Her face really was grave.

"Alright!" Naruto showed a ear-to-ear smile and his eyes shined.

The trip to the Hokage's room was pretty fast since Shizune really was in kind of a hurry. Naruto decided not to ask why. Lady Tsunade started the conversation.

"Naruto, I have a new mission for you."

"For me? Only me?"

"No. Not only you."

"Then why am I the only one who was called?" This all was very confusing to Naruto.

"The others will also be called. I just wanted to talk to you in privet first, since you may have some special connection to this mission in particular."

Naruto's heart started running faster. What could she mean with "special connection"? Tsunade continued her explanation.

"We received a request from the Sand Village." Just this two last words, "Sand Village", were enough to put the Kyuubi's host's heart running even faster than before. All the memories of Gaara, Temari and Kankurou passed through his head. Good and bad ones, but mostly good ones. This made him softly smile. The mission report proceeded.

"It seems like one of their best ninja ran away."

"Who?!" Naruto immediately asked.

"Gaara."

The Jinchuuriki's face turned grave in a snap's instant. Now he understood what Tsunade meant with him having a "special connection to this particular mission". Since both he and Gaara were hosts of maleficent monsters, they were able to truly understand each other's suffer and they had developed a quite strong friendship, even if they didn't see each other very often. He was automatically able to complete the Hokage's conversation.

"And they want us to retrieve him."

"Exactly."

"And who am I going to rescue Gaara with?" As he was saying this, somebody knocked at the door.

"Come on in." Tsunade said.

The door opened to let five figures enter the room. Naruto smiled as he saw his dear friends and realized they were his mission partners.

"Shikamaru, Neji, Lee, Chouji, Hinata! Naruto will explain you your mission. All of you will leave in an hour time." Everybody nodded at the Hokage's statement. They were ready to leave the room when they were stopped by Tsunade. "One more thing: Shikamaru, since you're already a chunin, you'll lead in this mission." The genius nodded. It was the time for Neji to talk.

"Permit me to ask you two things. First: missions are normally executed by groups of three people; why are we six people?" Tsunade found it a very pertinent question.

"You may not realize it now, but when Naruto explains you the task, you'll understand the importance and the difficulty of the mission along with the number of people requested."

"Second: why am I going to be sent in this mission along with Hinata, since we have the same kind of abilities?" Hinata softly flushed.

"I've been observing Hinata and the development of her missions and I think that, with your help, she may increase her self-esteem by being sent in such an important mission." Hinata didn't know what to think about this and that made her flush even more. "Now go."

They all left. After they had all prepared their own stuff to the mission they met at the village's main gate and Naruto explained the task. They were all informed. The six ninja were ready to leave when something caught their attention.

"Naruto! Lee!" Sakura was screaming and jumping from roof to roof in their direction.

"Sakura! Is something wrong?" Naruto asked.

"No. I just came to say goodbye as soon as I discovered that you two were heading off in such a dangerous mission!" The two boys smiled and flushed at this statement. "Here." Sakura said as she gave one little flask to each one. "It's a medical cream. It should cure every injury in an instant, of course, if it isn't too serious." She smiled.

"Wow! Thanks so much, Sakura" Naruto said.

"Thanks." This time Lee answered.

It was grateful to know that someone actually cared about you. That was what everyone was thinking at that point. Naruto and Lee were more than happy to see that Sakura was concerned about them. Shikamaru and Chouji looked at each other, reading each other's minds and smiling because they knew they could count on each other.

"Don't you die on this mission, man." Shikamaru said.

"That's what I was going to say, actually." Chouji said as he put a ear-to-ear smile on his face.

Naruto felt that something was missing… Oh, yeah! Hinata! He screamed.

"Hey, Hinata." This made her wake up from a deep thinking. "Be careful on this mission, ok? I want to go for some ramen with you when we come back and for that you should be alive, ok?" He let out a true smile. Hinata's face turned as red as a tomato; she almost passed out, but she refrained and nodded.

Neji realized everyone had someone there to wish good luck… excepting him. That made him a little melancholic. They were about to take off and there was nobody there to support him, to cheer him up, to make him really want to be back alive.

They started walking, but they hadn't walked five meters when they were attacked. Well, Neji was attacked. A kunai passed extremely close to his head. Everybody took a defence position.

"Ten-Ten…" The Hyuuga boy whispered. "Don't worry. It's her." He said now more loudly, genuinely smiling.

"Her? Who?!" Naruto said maybe too loudly.

They turned back to face the tool user just standing there, smiling to Neji. He was smiling to her, too. All his sadness disappeared. He also had someone who cared for him.

"Did you really think you were going to leave without even saying me a goodbye?"

"No. I was just waiting for you to appear." They were both truly happy.

"Just wanted to say… come back alive, ok? I need someone to train with here." They were almost screaming to each other because of the distance. The Hyuuga boy nodded: he was now more than ready for the mission!

And our heroes leave Konoha to their next great adventure! Good luck, ninjas!

This is it, Chapter 2! Hope you'll enjoy it!