Chapter Two

Suddenly very alert, Naruto throws his gaze all over the forest. His body tense for an attack. But he sees nothing, only more and more trees and the occasional droplet of sunlight from the broken canopy.

"Sensei...are you sure?" He asks in low voice.

"Yes. There are traps everywhere." Kakashi elaborates, mindlessly touching the spot in his pouch where the scroll is being stored.

"Traps?" Sakura asks, still looking for the whatever her teacher's eye had spotted. "This is the same way we came earlier and there were no traps then..."

"Exactly."

Naruto glances back at Sakura, just putting his restless mind at ease that she was still okay. He suddenly felt very stupid for being so far from them. What if they got attacked? Sakura might need his help and he would be too far away to do much good. "Where are they?" The blonde asks, all business now.

"About four feet ahead of you." He says. "All over the trees."

"We should walk on the ground then." Sakura tells them. "Sensei, do you see any more on the ground?"

"Not many. Whoever put them there must not want to injure random travelers." The silver-haired man says.

"But they want to injure us?" Naruto relaxes slightly, knowing Kakashi would see an ambush before he would. "Do you think they're after the information our informant gave us?"

"I don't see what else they would want." Sakura points out and, turning to Kakashi, asks "How should we proceed?"

"Drop straight down. There's nothing below any of us."

Without another moment's hesitation, the team drops to the ground. Landing, silently on the balls of their feet. Naruto stands up, orienting himself. It's only then that he sees a small, blinking light half-hidden under a pile of dead leaves.

"Are they landmines?" He gasps.

"That's certainly what it looks like..." Sakura agrees, eyeing the small gray discs with a wary expression. Now that she had an idea of what they looked like, they would be much easier to spot. Soon, she was achingly aware of just how 'surrounded' they really were. Everywhere she looked, there were two or three blinking red lights, threatening to blow her into oblivion if she made one wrong move.

"Alright, you two." Kakashi begins. "Let's keep moving. As long as we're careful, we should be fine."

"Right." Naruto nods and starts walking again, consiously slowing down so he won't stumble over a trap by accident.

"Okay..." Sakura follows suit, watching her footing very carefully.

Hours pass at a crawl as Team 7 cautiously picks their way through the woods toward home. The blinking lights and small discs scattered about act as a constant reminder of an ever present danger, lying just beneath the surface of every stone, every leaf, every branch...

It's obvious whoever did this did not have plans for a direct fight. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been as thorough. Or at least would have attacked us by now. Kakashi muses. He looks back to his student, both of which haven fallen behind him since he has the advantage of the Sharingan.

Naruto and Sakura walk together, a few feet behind their sensei. Quietly pointing out traps to one another as they travel.

Well at least I don't have to worry about them working together. If Sasuke were here, that'd be different story... Kakashi frowns under his mask when his thoughts take that unexpected turn. Sasuke... He and Naruto, while best friends, had always been rivals. And they always wanted to outdo each other. Kakashi wouldn't put it past Naruto to do something stupid just to impress the Uchiha. Which, of course, would mostly likely have ended in setting off a landmine...or five...

While Kakashi was thinking about the past of his team, Naruto's thoughts had taken a similiar turn. Seeing as how Sasuke was never far from the Uzumaki's thoughts. Where are you right now...Sasuke...? He wonders. Are you even still-

"Ah-!" Sakura gasps in shock as her foot slides on a mound of wet leaves. Stumbling to recover her balance, she quickly makes sure there are no mines around. But right there, just under where her foot will land next...

"Sakura!" Naruto jerks forward, grabbing her wrist to keep her from falling on the explosive trap. "Are you okay?!"

She nods. "Yeah, I just slippe-"

Beep, beep, beep, beepbeepbeep...

Naruto's heart clenches at the sound. Turning, he finds his hand hovering right over a landmine which had been taped to the tree he used to support himself while grabbing for Sakura.

Its light was flashing bright and dangerously, a warning it was about to blow.

"Run!" Kakashi barks.