Insert Standard Disclaimer Here. CHAPTER 2 LET'S GO.

The forest was thick and dark, but the gloom that shadowed over the Sasuke retrieval team was darker. They had failed. No matter how prepared they had been, how hard they had tried, they had still failed.

A silence deeper than lack of sound penetrated the group. It emanated from Naruto, who was usually the source of all noise with his incessant chatter. The weight of failure lay heavily upon his shoulders. Every single time he tried to bring back his best friend, Sasuke had been pulled out of his grasp. It was starting to seem impossible. Sasuke was always too far away for Naruto to catch.

Sakura, too, felt the heaviness of loss. To have so much hope, to be so close and then have it all shattered hurt her deeply, more deeply than she showed. How she longed for things to be like they were, back when Team Seven was really a team, not just scattered remnants of what could have been.

Hinata wished she could have done more. She could see how much the outcome of their mission was hurting Naruto. She wished there was something she could do or say to ease the hurt. Her heart ached for him.

The rest of Team Eight remained silent, even Akamaru, to not break the mood. The boys were frustrated. Their techniques had been rendered useless in the face of the masked Akatsuki member. Were they really that weak? Shino appeared calm on the surface, but inside was roiling with irritation. Kiba would occasionally shake his head violently and growl to himself, lost in his own thoughts.

Kakashi pretended to feel nothing as they made their way back to the village. There were more important things at the moment than the renewed wave of disappointment that had settled on his soul. Tsunade had to be informed of Itachi's death, and of the information on the Akatsuki from Kabuto's book. Kabuto himself also needed to be dealt with as soon as possible.

Yamato and Sai followed Kakashi's lead.

The rain over the trees had let up enough to reveal the rise of evening. A few bright stars twinkled between the dissipating clouds.

Kakashi called for a halt as they reached a clearing.

"We'll stop here for the night. We all need some food and the rest will do us good."

There was mumbled assent from the group at large, each person had their own troubles on their minds and didn't really care what went on around them. The depression of the team was almost tangible.

It's for the best that we stop now, Kakashi thought, We're close enough to Konoha that we aren't risking being attacked, but we won't bring such a dark mood into the village. Hopefully they'll all feel a bit better in the morning.

Yamato came up beside him.

"Should we really be stopping now? We're only a few more hours from the village."

"A few more hours may be enough time for one of them to lose it. We need this team in one piece when we return. Tsunade will have our heads if Naruto or Sakura goes off with the crazy idea that they could find Sasuke better on their own."

"Alright then."

Sluggishly the teens were setting up camp. The only one who seemed to be truly paying attention to his task was Sai. He could not quite understand why everyone had become so quiet. Naruto and Sakura were sad, his books had shown him what sad faces looked like. They were unhappy that the mission was a failure. Why the others were acting abnormally was not something his books elicited. It had not said anywhere that sadness was contagious, but that seemed to be the case. Sai wondered why he was so immune to the others' pain.

Naruto was more of a hindrance than a help in setting up camp. He would begin a task, then randomly abandon it, swearing under his breath, and start a new one. Sakura was little better, barely paying attention to her work. It was only when Hinata gently eased the bedroll out of her hands that the pink haired girl realized she had been trying to unroll it without undoing the straps.

All in all, it was nothing short of a miracle that camp got set up at all. It was fully nighttime when everything was in order and the team was ready for bed under a rudimentary wood hut that Yamato had produced in case it began to rain again.

Naruto was curled up in a corner, his back to the rest of the group. Sakura lay next to the opposite wall, beside Hinata who had taken it upon herself to watch over the other girl. Akamaru was between the Hyuuga and Kiba, who was next to Shino. Sai lay on his back one over from the bug user. Yamato lay by the entrance. Kakashi took the first watch.

As he stared at the wavering sky scattered with stars with his one visible eye, he hoped that things would be better in the morning.

As night fell, Sasuke and Juugo continued their journey through the forest. They had started so near sunset that it seemed pointless to make camp after only a few hours. It would also be dangerous and a bit foolhardy to camp so close to Konoha. There were probably patrols out that would come across the two boys and there would be trouble. A missing-nin and comrade camping so close to a village would practically scream that something wasn't right. Sasuke felt it was unnecessary to risk such a situation occurring.

As the pair went deeper and deeper into the forest, the trees began to grow larger, obscuring the star-spattered sky from view. The night was cool and quiet, with few animals about. The quiet was almost eerie without Suigetsu and Karin's constant bickering, but neither Sasuke nor Juugo had anything they felt the need to say.

Both boys were dwelling on the future. Sasuke wondered how he would be treated when he returned. Would they welcome him back with open arms? Would he be treated like a hero for eliminating some of the most dangerous missing-nin in the Bingo Book? Or would they imprison him as a traitor for abandoning the village? What would Konoha do to Juugo if that happened? Sasuke doubted that the latter possibilities would come to fruition, not if Naruto had anything to say about it.

He absently wondered what Naruto would say to him when he got back. Before this train of thought went anywhere, Juugo interrupted it.

"Sasuke," the taller boy said slowly, "Will Konoha let me stay?"

"I don't know."

"Will they kill me?"

"No," Sasuke said, even though he wasn't quite so sure on the matter. Konoha wasn't like Sound, in that it didn't kill those who wouldn't be of use to it, but it was still a ninja village. It had to protect itself from internal and external threats. Juugo, with his instability and violent tendencies, would be certainly deemed a possible threat at the very least. What Sasuke himself would be considered by the village, not even he knew.

He had been marked as a missing-nin in the Bingo Book, but he didn't think anything much worse was in his entry. Sasuke had also killed (well, one was a suicide, but it sort of counted anyway,) three missing-nin that were registered as threats to Konoha. His future depended on how each of his deeds weighed against the other, and he wasn't certain how Konoha would consider them.

The forest was becoming familiar now. Sasuke had been relying on fairly good guesswork to get this far, but now he knew that he and Juugo would reach the outskirts of Konoha very soon.

"We are approaching our destination," he informed his comrade.

Juugo nodded then said, "Do we just walk in then? That can't be right."

"There will probably be guards at the gate. We will adapt from there."

Juugo could tell that Sasuke was becoming annoyed with his questions. It seemed that everything he asked served as a reminder that the Uchiha had very little idea of what he was getting himself into. It would be best for the taller boy to remain silent until necessary.

The trees were thinning now, the patches of night sky becoming larger. They were close to the village now. Sasuke idly wondered if there were perimeter guards set up by now. There hadn't been when he had left.

A rustling sound came from the trees above them. Sasuke and Juugo both tensed, ready for an attack.

Instead, a fat squirrel scurried down from the foliage on their left. Sasuke stared at the small, furry thing. He hadn't seen many mammals around in Hidden Sound, only reptiles and a few birds. He supposed that the animals could hear the techniques of the ninja there and fled for a quieter home.

The squirrel stared back at him, paralyzed for a moment, then scampered past them to another tree.

"Does that happen often?" asked Juugo.

"What?"

"Squirrels being out at night."

"I wouldn't know."

"I hope that an owl doesn't eat it."

"Hn."

They continued forward, the sky nearly fully visible. The moon was past the zenith of its voyage through the heavens. It was some time in the unholy hours of the morning.

Sasuke could see one of the outer walls of the village through a break in the trees. It looked the same as he remembered. Everything was so familiar.

Now more rustling came from around them, too much to be another squirrel.

And so it begins, thought Sasuke, and he waited for the guards to announce their presence.

They didn't. Instead, Sasuke felt his arms being bent in directions they were not comfortable in going. He did not struggle. Sasuke was forced to the ground from behind. His entire field of vision was dirt. A loud thud and a moan from his right suggested that Juugo was going through the same thing.

"State your name and business with the Village Hidden in the Leaves!" ordered one of their captors. Sasuke knew only protocol that they asked his name, it was impossible for them to not know who he was.

"I am Sasuke Uchiha. The one traveling with me is Juugo. We seek an audience with the Fifth Hokage of Konoha. We have no intent to harm the village or its citizens."

If he took his quest straight to the highest authority in the village, things were more likely to go his way. It was easier to convince one person than to work his way up through the chain of command. Naruto knew the Hokage as well, from what he could remember, and whether Sasuke wanted to acknowledge it or not, Naruto's influence could be the one thing that would prevent his execution.

"Why should we let you in the village, traitor?"

This came from a different ninja than before.

"Itachi Uchiha is dead," Sasuke replied quietly.

That was all it took to convince them, it seemed. The Konoha-nin pulled their captives off the ground, and released one arm of each. One of them stood in front of the group, facing them. This one was ANBU, a woman.

"You will both leave all of your weapons here. If you retain anything, it will be considered hostile intent and you will be executed on the spot."

Wordlessly, Sasuke handed over his Kusanagi, sheath and all. He extracted his kunai, senbon, and wires from within his clothing. Juugo did not move.

"You too there," said one of the guards.

"I'm sorry," Juugo said, holding up his free arm to reveal the clothing hidden by his cloak, "I have no weapons."

The female ANBU tilted her head. If she hadn't been wearing a mask, Sasuke was sure he could have seen the skepticism written all over her face.

"Get back on his other arm then," the woman barked. She wasn't stupid, Sasuke would give the ANBU that much credit. She had figured that, if he wasn't carrying weapons, Juugo must rely on skills that would require both hands to perform. By binding their hands, the guards could theoretically prevent them from using any jutsu that required handsigns. Sasuke also noticed that the guards had come from behind, deliberately remaining out of range of his Sharingan. Konoha had indeed upped its security since he had left.

Content that everything was in order, the ANBU collected the weapons.

"These will be returned to you if the Hokage and the Council find it acceptable."

Sasuke had bristled at the mentioning of the Council, his captors took note of it.

"You will both be escorted to holding cells until the Hokage is available to meet you. Do not resist or we will execute you."

Sasuke glanced at Juugo out of the corner of his eye. It shouldn't take long for the Hokage to meet them, the redhead should be able to control himself for a while.

He nodded. The guards began to march them into the village.

The female ANBU member took off ahead of the group. As leader of the guards, it would be her job to explain why the hell she was waking the Hokage up at 2:47 in the morning. She could only hope that, half-asleep, Lady Tsunade wouldn't have such great aim.

Right. So. Mad early update because I won't have computer access a proper week from the time I updated chapter 1. I'd rather not have posted this until I was finished with the rough of chapter three, so I will have a full chapter to work with during the week (a cushion in case I get writer's block or a buttload of homework for a week).

This kind of thing won't happen that often. More likely than not, I will be late on updates. And the updates will probably be around Wednesday/ Thursday.

With that out of the way, I'd love to thank all my watchers/author/story alert people. Waking up to 11 e-mails all full of support and stuff kind of made my Sunday. So thank you muchly.

Special thanks to those of you who reviewed: BrokenAvenger21, Error 410, TheLastKorosu, Linear Kitsune, and Dancin'WithTearsInMyEyes (specials for being first!)

So. Reviews are always appreciated. So review.

See y'all in chapter three!

-Starcube Out.