..Chapter Two..
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Two young men and two older ones begin to set packs down on the cool ground. It was another day which passed them in the last month since they'd crossed paths. Another week until they reached Leaf. A few more nights of this and they'd finally be home. Six years was long enough, after all.
"Naruto," Sasuke muttered, tossing him an energy bar.
The blond grabbed it with ease, not even bothering to look. He had his back to the ebony haired team mate as he dug through his bag with one hand. He glanced at the bar momentarily. "Peanut butter? The hell, Sasuke? Don't you have any chocolate left, bastard?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and pulled out his sleeping bag. It was set on the ground beside him and rolled out. Two more bars were pulled from his bag and given to Jiraiya and Kakashi. "No, dropout, you ate the last one the other night. Don't you remember?"
Naruto muttered something that sounded distinctly like 'freakin' bastard' under his breath while he pulled out his own sleeping bag.
"What'd you say, dumbass?"
"I said you got a stick shoved so far up your ass you're likely to die from it damaging your brain, you freakin' bastard." He rolled the sleeping back out and sat down on it while Kakashi and Jiraiya started the fire.
"At least my brain isn't already damaged, dropout." He took a seat as well. It was a second later a large hawk landed on his right shoulder where some thick leather wrapping was. The material that wound itself across his chest kept the bird from tearing into his shoulder.
"Man, get rid of that creepy bird already. That thing hates me." He made a face at the creature childishly. The animal responded back with a screech.
"You're such a jackass. If you recall Stalker saved you on more than one occasion. Had it not been for his warnings to me you'd have been toast with those missing Mist nin." He smirked smugly.
"That's bullshit. I had it under control until you came in and tried be all badass." He flicked him off.
"Whatever, dropout. At least you should admit when you need help. Then again this is you were talking about. It's just not in your vocabulary to know when to withdraw."
"Ha! Yours either!"
"Yeah, but I normally complete my missions with ease. That's the difference."
"Bastard."
"Dropout."
"Asshole."
"Shithead."
"Masochist!"
Pause....
"Where the hell did you come up with that one?" Sasuke stared blankly at him. "Do you even know what it means?"
Naruto snorted playfully. "I'm not a complete moron, bastard. Yes, I know what it means."
"And?" He waited curiously, idly brushing through Stalker's feathers with one hand.
"And what?" Naruto said before diving into his energy bar. "'And' do you want the definition or 'and' do you want to know why I called you on?"
"Both." He smirked.
"See I just figure you throw yourself carelessly into shit like a kamikaze because you like pain. And the meaning is pretty much summed up in that sentence if I do say so myself." Naruto was the one who looked smug this round.
"Feh," Sasuke muttered, "you're still and idiot."
Jiraiya and Kakashi said nothing through all of this. It was a conversation, banter, they were both use to. At least by now the only thing they flung back and forth were insults. Fighting was carefully saved for attacking enemy ninja or training exercises.
"If you two are both done," Kakashi drawled, "I'd like to go over the information we've all gathered."
Naruto arched a brow between bites. "You're sure it's safe?"
Jiraiya nodded. "We're far enough in Fire Country now to not have to worry too much about enemy nin overhearing us."
"Good," Sasuke agreed.
Kakashi pulled out a book from his pack, a journal of all he and Sasuke had gathered while gone for the last couple of years. Anything they could find on Itachi and the Akatsuki. He watched as Jiraiya pulled out a scroll with much the same intention.
"I'll let you start," Kakashi offered, "since I'd rather not repeat any information about Itachi we've gathered."
Jiraiya nodded and began to speak. "So far we know there are nine members. There use to be ten but Orochimaru defected shortly after joining." He shrugged. "No one I've talked to knows why. And since then no one has taken his place as the tenth member. I could give you detailed information on each one, but it'd take too long. You can read over the files when you wish." He pulled the scroll out further and continued to explain. "The man who operates the group is only know as Leader. However, I have a sneaky suspicion he isn't the one running the show at all. Who is? No real idea. And of course we all already know they're after the tailed beasts. It seems they've captured a number of them already." He shut the scroll carefully. "All in all, not too damn much to go on. At least we have detailed files of the members though. That was the main goal for when we finally face them."
Kakashi nodded. "Good, nothing I don't have already. Now," he began as he flipped through the book, "from what I've gathered, and this may sound.. odd... Itachi's actions over the past few years have almost indicated he's not exactly operating under direct Akatsuki orders."
"What does that mean?" This from Naruto and he stuffed his empty candy bar wrapper into his bag.
"What I mean is he's not acting normal. Not as we've expected. Some of his actions almost make me want to think he's got another goal in mind." He flipped a page and scanned. "When he first encountered Naruto and you came along Sasuke he was obviously after the nine tails. But since then he hasn't been trying to nab any tailed beasts. He hasn't taken down one. All he's been doing it taking us on a wild goose chase across the globe. Each time we encounter him he just disappears again. I do know he's searching for something, but what I have no idea." He snapped the book shut.
Sasuke and Naruto sighed.
"So, basically, we know about as much as we did when this trip started?" Naruto muttered.
Jiraiya shook his head. "No, we've gathered a lot of info on the group. And whatever Kakashi had gathered on Itachi and Kisame will be added to my files when I hand them into Tsunade."
Naruto grinned. "One more week, Sasuke! Then see Sakura-chan!"
Sasuke just smirked and scratched Stalker's neck.
"Ramen!" Naruto chanted with jubilation.
Kakashi and Jiraiya chuckled.
"Yes, ramen. I'll buy your first bowl, Naruto," Kakashi offered playfully before delving into his 'Come! Come!' book.
"Sweet!"
Sasuke looked over at Kakashi, his face a tad serious. "What do we do after we get Sakura?"
Kakashi shrugged, not bothering to looking away form his reading. No one was ever really sure if he was actually multitasking or pretending to read. "It all depends on what Tsunade says. Personally I'd like to take a week off. We've been gone for a long time. There's people I'd like to see."
"Ditto," muttered Jiraiya in agreement.
Naruto chuckled at the white haired sanin. "You just wanna see grandma." He snickered.
Sasuke snorted. "Pervert."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "You try spending six years with a horny sage and see if you come out of it unaffected."
"Hn, what do you think Kakashi is, dropout? He reads the old man's books like it's his own personal religion."
Naruto blinked just as Kakashi said 'hey!'. "Touche."
"Thank you."
Jiraiya just laughed at Kakashi's obvious distress as he coaxed the fire. And the night went on from there. Quiet banter turned to discussion, turned to yawns which eventually turned to sleep for the two young men. Everyone said their goodnights and it was Kakashi and Jiraiya who'd stayed up long past the kindling of the flamed died and long past the boys fell asleep.
"We've been gone too long," Jiraiya idly said after the long comforting silence.
Kakashi nodded and set his book aside. "Yup."
There was an even longer pause. A night own hooted, alerting Stalker only enough for him to ruffle his feathers slightly on his nearby perch near his master. Crickets chirped and somewhere in the distance the howl of animal was heard.
"I heard you wake up last night," the old toad sanin murmured.
Kakashi said nothing a moment. His gaze lingered on the hawk. "Did you?"
"Mm..." was his response as he poked a stick into the dying embers of the fire.
"What did you hear?" He knew where this was going.
Jiraiya didn't bother looking up. "You were crying out their names again." Pause. Nudge the coals. Pause. "Nightmare?"
Another pause. Another distant look. "Yeah."
"Mm..." He gave an idle yawn, not wanting to dig too deep. "How long's it been?"
"Eighteen years, nine months, three days, five hours and six minutes... five minutes." He said without missing a beat.
Jiraiya's eyes suddenly flashed to Kakashi's face. He stared a long while. And then as if he realized his own expression he looked down solemnly at the embers again. "I understand."
"You?"
He shrugged. "I try not think of how long..."
"But you know it exactly." His voice was soft yet firm as he hunched forward on his sleeping bag, legs spread and bends of his elbows on his knees.
"I do."
Pause. More nudging of the embers and more staring at the sleeping, but ever ready bird.
"Minato-sensei was a great man."
"He was my best student," Jiraiya agreed. His eyes turned over the patch of spiked blond hair peaking out from the sleeping bag. "I miss him greatly."
Another long and comforting silence seemed to drag between the two men. Memories were recalled; regrets and plenty of what if's. A man incurred a lot of what if's in his life as he aged. A lot of bloody broken promises and half patched ideals. As you aged, in the shinobi world, life seemed to warp your mind. It was hard for a honorable man to stay that way. It was easy for a man to succumb to his own darkness.
"Naruto is a lot like them both," Kakashi smiled slightly beneath his mask. "At least Obito was. I'm not sure about Minato..."
Jiraiya chuckled. "Naruto is more like his mother was in the personality area."
"I never met her," he admitted.
Jiraiya smiled sadly. "She was a wonderful woman..."
He nodded. "Does it ever go away?"
Jiraiya looked at him again, gazes catching across the dimming ember light and shining moonlight. There was just something about looking into the hollow of another man's eyes and knowing exactly what bothered him that made Jiraiya's blood run cold. He knew the look well.
"The regret or the pain?"
"Both," Kakashi replied.
"Do you want an honest answer or a sugar coated one?" He didn't mean it as a joke.
"Honest."
Another pause... but this one was longer. It seemed to drag for minutes as Jiraiya tried to half heartedly rekindle the flames. "No."
It was then Kakashi did nothing more than nod and roll over as he covered himself in the sleeping bag and attempted to go to sleep.
As the hours passed and sleep finally won out Kakashi found himself once more dreaming of a black haired boy with Sharingan eyes. He found himself once more seeing a young girl with purple-brown hair crying as she held the young boy's hand. And this time it got worse when he imagined Minato-sensei dying during the fight against the Kyuubi.
The years had worn on him and in all that time he lost more and more people. The only one's he'd never managed to lose and who were now called the new Team Kakashi were Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke. He always counted himself lucky. He always prayed that when they died he was not the one left standing.
People say parents should never bury their children, but, some also say... teachers should never bury their students. And in Kakashi's case, more real than the other two phrases... he never wanted to bury his own team mates.
Obito's body had never been recovered. He was glad for that. He didn't think he would have ever been able to stomach having to know or chance to see what he looked like after that day. Seeing him crushed under a rock was enough. Seeing Rin pour her eyes out over their good friend, their brother, was enough.
There had been many casualties during the Third Great War. Many loses and much death. Kakashi was glad people no longer had to die shamelessly like that anymore. He was glad his team mates lived in a world where the chances of him seeing them tomorrow was greater than ever before. Even with the Akatsuki being the huge threat they were, the world was still relatively safe by comparison to what it had been over nineteen years ago.
The dreams plagued him for hours. Jiraiya would hear them all night. And when morning finally came, that was when he was allowed his reprieve.
