Chapter Two

"You're late."

"Sorry!" The jounin slipped his book away and gave her a kitsune grin. "I got stopped by a parade sponsored by the Ichiraku celebrating the 100 millionth bowl of ramen Naruto has eaten!"

With all the excuses this man came up with Tsunade could write a book. Instead of yelling at him she took a deep breath; she reserved her best insults for Jiraiya.

"I have a mission for your former students, Kakashi-san." Tsunade handed him a report she had only received that morning.

"For my old students? Why do you need to call me when you have three able chuunins?"

"I'll get to that. You've heard of the "Sound Village Specter," right? I'd sent one of the new genin teams to check it out and they came back empty. But this report came to me this morning from some Anbu scouts passing that way. Seems like the rumors might be more than children's ghost stories."

Kakashi took the report and scanned it.

"An Akatsuki member." He already suspected who it was. "Not...?"

Tsunade shook her head. "No, it's not who you think. It's an old acquaintance of the Leaf. A former Sound Village spy."

"Kabuto."

"From the brief description the scouts got it's most likely. It also seems natural he'd have joined the Akatsuki. But we haven't had a report on his whereabouts since..." Tsunade trailed off for a moment about to lose herself in old thoughts, but quickly snapped back to the task at hand. "For six years now."

Kakashi laid the report back on Tsunade's cluttered desk. "What are their orders?"

"They'll leave tomorrow morning. All I've asked is for them to spy on the village until they've confirmed there is activity there. If it's safe, and possibility of discovery is low, they should proceed to confirm the identity of anyone entering or leaving the Sound Village."

"Sounds cut and dry, but Hokage-sama, I have one more question. Why did you tell me this when this is their mission?"

Tsunade looked at him in all seriousness.

"I'm testing them." Tsunade handed him a scroll. "This contains their orders. This..." She produced another one, "Is yours."

Kakashi read through both. With a nod of his head he disappeared in a small puff of smoke.

Tsunade slumped forward on her desk. Maybe she had a few minutes to...yawn...take a nap before Kotetsu and Izumo returned from their errands. She laid her forehead on her arms and returned to the words she hadn't voiced to Kakashi. She didn't speak of them to anyone, and still didn't want to open up to Jiraiya because she just didn't want to bring up the past ever again.

We haven't seen Kabuto since Orochimaru's burial. At least, Jiraiya and I, everyone else had ceased to see him before that.

Tsunade felt so tired. And not just because she liked a good nap. She had a feeling Orochimaru's plans hadn't ended with his death. And it had something to do with Kabuto's reappearance. She hoped that the mission she'd given wouldn't be the beginning of a new end, but she had learned not to get her hopes up.

"Hokage-sama!"

"HOKAGE-SAMA!"

"Huh?"

"Were you napping, again?"

She suddenly launched up from her desk and glared at the two chuunins, "Are you saying that the Hokage was sleeping on the job?! Of course I wasn't! Here!" She dumped another pile of reports into their arms. "Go ahead and file these away." She flashed them a cute grin. Kotetsu gave a loud sniff before turning and stomping out of the office; Izumo muttering after him, "We never get to take a nap..."

Tsunade's expression returned to its previous seriousness. She waited for the door to close before she rose and went to her window and looked out over the Leaf Village.

"I don't want to see this place get wrecked again. I don't want..."

...anymore death.

Kakashi strolled on his way back from his meeting with Tsunade. His three students had been doing a lot of work on their own since acquiring their chuunin vests five years ago. Naruto still ran off on his trips with Jiraiya. Tsunade had taken to Sakura and given her training in medical jutsu and was still learning from Tsunade today. Kakashi had again taken Sasuke under his wing, whenever the dark-eyed chuunin asked for more training, but Sasuke usually found it best to train alone.

Kakashi pulled out the latest in the "Icha Icha" series and flipped to page 69, this book was starting to get really good. But Tsunade's answer was still ringing in his head. I'm testing them. Kakashi himself had been wondering when the time would come. It had been six years since Orochimaru's death and Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had each had a great hand in the battle.

Naruto had come back with a grin on his face. He saw he and his teammates defeat of Orochimaru as the next step in becoming Hokage. Sakura was surely a hero. She had brought her two teammates back from the brink, her strength had grown enough that she wasn't just a third wheel, but a true team member. And Sasuke....

Sasuke had come back stronger and free of his curse seal. But it had taken time for his fellow genins to not look at him with some trepidation. Neji never looked at Sasuke the same way, not that Neji had ever looked at most people with more than arrogance from those white eyes. But it had taken Neji time to recover from his wounds that had been the most serious of the returning team of Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Naruto, and Lee. The massive shoulder injury alone had taken months to heal, even with Tsunade's attention, and it had held back his two teammates from completing the second chuunin exam that year and the one after that. Sasuke had never been forgiven by Neji or Tenten. The rest of the group seemed to fall into old ways until six years later things were normal. But sometimes Kakashi saw the group that had encountered Orochimaru's Four Sound Nins and that strange boy Kimimaro and you could see how much they'd truly matured. Six years had helped patch some wounds, but they had been deep wounds.

Kakashi took up a position in a tree and read as a blush crept onto his masked cheeks. A few moments later and he suddenly heard two familiar voices passing by.

"SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP YOURSELF!"

Kakashi shifted a bit and with some easy jutsu rendered himself invisible. He saw Naruto and Sakura nose to nose. Well, Naruto and Sakura were chin to nose; he had finally gone from being the shortest member of Team 7 to the tallest. Naruto's resemblance to the Fourth Hokage was even more uncanny.

Sasuke stepped into view a moment later and would have rolled his eyes at the altercation between the two, but instead decided to only deign it with a "hn" and turn of his head. Sasuke was not nearly as tall as Kakashi, but he too had hit his growth spurt; and not to mention with his mastery of the Sharingan, looked more like his older brother. Sakura was Sakura, she had only matured in looks that rivaled Ino's beauty.

"We need to prepare for tomorrow. Pack and then you can go eat ramen."

"Sasuke-kun's right!" She reached up and bopped Naruto on the head. "Let's go!"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto gave the pink-haired ninja watery blue eyes. But already she had grabbed Sasuke's wrist and was stalking towards town.

"Wa-wait!" Naruto scrambled up from his heap on the ground and followed the fuming Sakura and flustered Sasuke.

Kakashi turned to page 73 and heard Naruto's whines and Sakura's yells fade. Each of them 18 years old and still it seemed as if things were the same as six years ago.

He closed his book and slipped it away again as he disappeared with a "pop!"

The three chuunins had already made most of the preparations for their mission tomorrow. After they'd gone over the map Tsunade had offered them and double checked everyone's checklist (Sasuke insisted on going over Naruto's twice), Naruto had run off to enjoy some dinner. He took his usual seat at the Ichiraku Ramen stand.

"Miso ramen, please!" And handed the man his ticket for a free bowl. Naruto could afford to buy the ramen from his chuunin salary, but old habits die hard. He had his backpack waiting at home, which he'd packed and repacked twice; he still had the bad habit of bringing way too much by way of ramen cups and weapons and other random trinkets. But he was beyond excitement for this seemed like the first mission in a long time that might be interesting. But his thoughts weren't on the mission right now; four bowls of ramen later and the blond was already home, had pulled his sleeping cap on, and was flopped into bed asleep.

Sakura too was already prepared. She had spent the evening over a light dinner and some hot tea with her mother, but retired early. Alone in her room a constant frown was on her brow as the same memory played over and over in her mind ever since receiving the Hokage's orders that morning. As Sakura fell into sleep, Sasuke's clouded face on the day they'd killed Orochimaru and returned to the Leaf Village kept her from truly getting a good rest.

Of the three, Sasuke was up the latest. Looking out from the balcony of his room he'd watched the moon reach its highest point before he told himself that he should retire.

"The Sound Village, huh?"

He went inside and to bed. In his dreams he was covered in rippling black marks as an intense pain speared his neck. He awoke early drenched in sweat. After a hasty bath he left and waited for Naruto and Sakura; he hoped they wouldn't notice the circles under his eyes. Thankfully, both of them arrived on time, made no comments, and they were off.

It took them two days of travel through thick forest to reach the Sound Village border. It had been an uneventful journey but Sasuke stopped them as they neared the area marked on the map as the outskirts of the Sound Village. They assembled on a high branch.

"Naruto."

Naruto crossed his arms and threw Sasuke a searing look. Eighteen years old and Naruto still had the youthful pout of his twelve year old days. He hated that Sasuke was pulling the "I'm the leader thing" on him. With his usual grumble he pulled from his backpack a dark blue cloak and spun it onto his shoulders,

"It's not fair that I have to wear this."

Sakura spoke up, "But it's cool, Naruto. You're just not used to wearing it." Even Sasuke admitted to himself that the cloak with the Leaf's (and Naruto's) trademark swirls on the back and shoulders was pretty wicked.

"You happy now, baka?" He glared at Sasuke who returned the favor.

"Yeah, let's go dobe."

They moved as swiftly and silently as they could. Their chuunin vests helped them blend into the dark greenery. Sasuke was as always in trademark black though his style had changed to include a short sword. Sakura still wore a semblance of dark red and green in a style very reminiscent of Tsunade's. Naruto's outfit, as previously demonstrated, was still a subject of argument between the three. He refused to exchange his bright orange duds for the muted colors of the usual chuunin uniform. Tsunade had argued with him whenever Sasuke and Sakura brought up the issue of Naruto's less than subtle ninja uniform. But Naruto always left triumphant and Tsunade didn't really care, though seeing Naruto wear the robe brought to mind a certain Hokage who had worn a coat marked with fire and the Leaf's symbol. The compromise on missions of this nature was the cloak.

Naruto kept the sights of Sasuke's black and Sakura's green and red at the edge of his vision as he focused on leaping from tree to tree. Everyone's eyes were peeled, but waiting for Sasuke to make the final move to indicate the precise location where they would split and find an appropriate place to keep the main entrance of the complex and each other in sight. Only minutes later and Sasuke raised his right hand.

Naruto looked down and there was the low facade of the old Sound Village's main building. He turned to Sasuke and Sakura and the three shared a look before each nodded and darted off for a prime spying spot.
Notes (I'm sure most of you are well acquainted with these words, but just in case.)

Baka: Idiot.

Dobe: (Rough English translation--->) Dead last.

Preview: Kabuto revisits the Sound Village and has another eye-opening meeting with Hidako. Team 7 finds the ghosts of the past might be closer to the present than they think!

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