A/N: I hope you liked the last chapter! I'm doing my best to keep these stories on as long as I can. Well, one with the story!

Where are you? Or should we get over you?

Chapter 2: On to the Mission We Go

Training Grounds

Tea stood in the training grounds panting for air. She had been up for hours, training. She knew it wasn't good for her, training so much. Sasuke or even Sakura would kill her if they saw her up training so late. She leaned against a tree and slumped against it. Sitting on the ground she looked up in the sky, the stars were starting to disappear, and she knew she would need a few hours of sleep. She pulled a watch from her pants pocket and her eyes widened at the time. "Two in the morning," she gasped, "already! I gotta get ready!"

She began to run home, but ended up falling flat on her face. She growled low in her throat. She was weak, weak from training. She sighed, she knew a jutsu that could get her home in seconds, but this jutsu would take a lot of chakra. She sighed again." I'm sorry Sasuke." With that she disappeared in a puff of smoke, and reappeared in a semi clean house. She stood up wincing from the pain in her arms and legs. She somehow managed to get in the shower and took a very ice cold shower to loosen her muscles and wash the dirt and blood off.

When she was finally done, she cooked her self a breakfast that would, hopefully, restore her energy. Cooking her self some food, she then packed her self and her teammates food for the trip. She threw a couple clothes in a bag, a toothbrush, a brush, and shampoo soon followed after. While still eating, she put on her ninja suit, under dark blue jeans and black shirt. Pulling on her shoes and putting her up and hat on she began to run out the door, or more like stumbled out the door. Her bag was on her back, and she finally managed to get her shoes on, hair up, and hat on. And she finally finished her breakfast as she got to the gate.

Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sakura weren't there yet. She still wasn't even sure Sakura would come.

When Sasuke finally appeared, he was scolding Kakashi, as a pink haired girl dragged their silver haired teacher to the gate. "Hi Sakura, Sasuke…uh Teach!" She blinked a couple of times. "Is he asleep?"

Sakura looked at their teacher and dropped him. Tea and Sasuke covered their ears; they knew exactly what was about to happen. "WAKE UP KAKASHI!" Sakura yelled in his ear.

Kakashi jumped up saluting as if he was talking to the Hokage. "Yes ma'am!" He said as if he was in the army. "Your order is my command."

Sasuke and Tea covered their mouths quickly, but a few giggles escaped from both of their mouths and in-between their fingers. Kakashi finally snapped out of his sleep mode and they were on their way to find their long lost friend.

As they walked, suddenly Tea stopped right in the middle of the path. "I meant to tell y'all, we have rules on this mission." She turned toward them, her face changed. "Rule one, if I disappear don't come looking for me. Just keep walking, I'll find you. Also, rule two, ask questions never. Rule three, I'll do the fighting, no stepping in."

All three nodded. They knew how Tea was; she was called a loner before she came to Konoha, and then she become apart of their team. After replacing Naruto, she was thought of an individual or independent. Sasuke gave her one of his houses of the Uchiha estate. She paid rent, ever though he really never accepted it. She was also thought of a cruel person, but once you got to know her, she wasn't one. She was a protector; a protector protected his or her friends. She never gave up, but now they didn't know what to do when she took it too far, like Naruto.

Sasuke sighed. "We got it Tea, we should know your rules by now, especially now. We know you won't let us get hurt, but sometimes you must let us fight. We are going to fight, even if you don't like it.

Tea sighed. She knew that one day, she would have to up on these rules. She heard that this Naruto that they were looking for was pretty stubborn, like herself. Also, she didn't have enough strength for fighting right now. "You will do as I say," she said as she began walking again, "as long as I am here, you'll do as I say no matter what."

All three of them began following her when someone jumped in their way. It looked like a young man about their age. He had a mask covering his mouth and nose, and his hair was covered by his hiate. He smirked, "What are you ninjas doing on my property? Ger out, now."

Tea pulled out her kunai. "We will not leave," she said, her eyes were burning with fire. "We will finish what we've started."

The young man charged at her. "If you will not leave, then you will perish." He said as he did a couple of seals. "Kage No Bushin Jutsu!" Twenty of the young man appeared and nineteen of them ran at her with kunai, but one was running at her friends.

She growled low in her throat. "Rasengan!" she yelled after she gathered most of her chakra in her hand. She fired it all of the nineteen men running at her and they all disappeared. She then did another jutsu that Sasuke taught her. "Chidori!" She yelled gathering more of her chakra in her hand and fired it at the real young man. He fell back and she smirked as she fell to her knees. "It looked like you perished." She said and then stood up and walked or limped toward her friends. "No one touches my friends, especially the ones I love." She never glanced at them, but they knew whom she was talking about.

The young man smirked. "Rasengan and Chidori? How nice, I know a man who can use Rasengan too, but I didn't know that a girl could us both attacks. I'll have to report it to my boss, and see what he says." The man started to do seals and before the last, he said, "Expect more competition before you find the one you desire or should I say face." He finished the last seal and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Tea sighed as she slumped against a tree. "More fights, more people, more attention, and more wasted chakra."

Sasuke glared at Tea. "So you did do what I told you never to do anymore." His arms were crossed, and his eyes were cold and glaring at her. "You promised."

Tea stood up shaking. Her feet were going to give out on her soon, and she knew it. "I'm fine thank you, and also don't worry about me, worry about them." She began walking again, but after a couple of miles, her legs gave out. She would have fell ungracefully, but a chair made of sand caught her.

"You alright?" Asked a red headed boy. He had black circles around his eyes, and a huge bottle (or whatever you want to call it) was on his back with the cap off. "You would think Loner that that you would know better by now."

Tea winced. Loner was what Gaara called her before she went to Konoha. "Hi Gaara," she said with a weak smile. "How's it going?"

Gaara shook his head at her strained voice. "Well you see Loner, everything was going ratherly perfect before I ran into you." He looked at Sasuke and Sakura. "What are you doing with them?" He asked coldly. "And where's the annoying one, Naruto?"

Sasuke and Sakura turned away as Tea looked at the ground. "Naruto…he disappeared three years ago, Gaara. I was given a mission to find him, and I brought them with me, but we've had no luck so far. Naruto…hasn't returned from his mission. So the Hokage asked me to look for him, and I brought them with me, they are my new teammates."

Gaara smirked. "Teammates?" He shook his head. "Last time I checked, you, Loner, were telling me that you didn't work with teammates."

Tea's eyes were getting heavier by the second. "So what," she said, her voice wavering as she tried to stay awake. "I've changed, that's all that matters."

Gaara could tell she was tired and shook his head again. "Yet you are still weak as you were a long time ago." He then looked at her concerningly. "You should rest, we'll make camp and stay here for the night."

Tea nodded. As her eyes began to close. "Thanks," she whispered faintly, "for everything."

Sasuke sighed as he put the tents up. "I guess we got lucky you ran into us, huh? Tea has changed you know, she knows all the attacks that," gulp, "Naruto…" he paused, "and I know. Rasengan and Chidori at that, she knows both of those, and you shouldn't call her weak. She was just tired because she was up all night training again." Sasuke took a quick glance at Tea's sleeping figure and turned away. "She has gotten a lot stronger."

Gaara sighed. "I know. I've been watching her. Tsunade asked me to keep and eye on you guys, especially her. I only told Tea that she was weak because it helps her get stronger. You know how stubborn she is, just like you old teammate."

Sasuke nodded. "She is…"


A/N: It's long, wow! I wasn't going to introduce Gaara till later, but that would be boring. Now, I hope to you, its getting interesting…well to me it is! R&R!