Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I wish I did, better yet, I wish my cousin owned Naruto. (He's a fabulous writer, I'm trying to get him to post one of his fan fics on here)
Rated M: Language, Lemons, and Ect. Angst-ish. It was supposed to be worse, but oh well…
Thanks for all the comments/reviews. And thanks for the verbal abuse cuzzy.
Dedicated to Em, Chance, and his boyfriend Damian.
Itachi just laughed. Yes, laughed. Evilly, but he was still laughing.
"What's so freaking funny?" Naruto asked defensively.
"Did Sasuke put you up to this?" he managed to say.
"No, I'm here of my own free will," the blonde replied honestly. He just wasn't getting the 180 the Uchiha had taken.
"Seriously? Why the hell would you do that, I mean really, YOU think you good enough to join us?" mocked Itachi. Naruto was getting fed up. He heard another set of laughter he figured was Sasori and Deidara.
"If you haven't forgotten, I AM the jinchuuriki for the nine tailed fox," Naruto pointed out. Itachi snapped back into reality.
"Um, good point," the elder Uchiha said, "But I'm not the leader. You'd have to talk to him. Plus, you don't really just show up and get to join, you sort of have to be recruited."
"I'm sure leader-sama would make an exception, Itachi. When has a tailed demon come to US instead of us having to find it," the fish-man said.
Naruto was starting to get nervous. The way the blue guy had said that made him worried he'd just made a horrible mistake in coming to find Akatsuki. He'd been warned not to go after them in the first place, but he hadn't listened. Now he was severely wishing he had.
There was an odd silence before Itachi spoke, "Fine. We'll take you to Leader-sama. He'll decide."
"Sasuke? What the hell are you doing here?" Sakura asked, shocked.
"What did you do with Naruto?" Neji accused. The whole group was on edge.
"What do you mean what did I do with him, I haven't seen that dobe since the last time we fought," he snapped. He was NOT in a good position and he knew it. Plus, Naruto wasn't there to stop them from doing something drastic.
"Please, Naruto goes missing and-"
"Naruto's missing?" Sasuke asked, making the mistake of standing down. Naruto's missing? Why would he leave without telling anyone? That's not like him, not at all.
"Yeah," Sakura told him, "We we're supposed to leave today, but no one can find him."
Someone suddenly ran out of the gates. He looked around and spotted the group. The man ran over to them, "I think you should see this."
"What is it Sai?" Sakura asked. She took the piece of paper from the guy and read it over. Several people peeked at it. She frowned and shoved the piece of paper toward Sasuke.
"What?" asked the Raven. He took the paper.
Dear everyone,
I went to find Itachi. I don't plan on coming back, at least not soon. I'm sorry I left without saying anything, but if I had you would've tried to stop me. Good luck to you all, I hope to see you again.
Naruto
P.S.
Don't bother looking for Sasuke anymore, I've got it covered.
P.S.S.
When I get back I'm taking you on a date, Sakura.
Sasuke read the letter several times. His looked turned from uncaring, to concerned, to utterly worried. He looked back up at Sakura and the rest of the group.
"I'm taking it you know something we don't," Shikamaru said as he examined the teens look.
"Naruto's in trouble, really, really big trouble," he said simply. He was more than worried. Finding Itachi meant finding Akatsuki. The only good Naruto would ever be to them is they would get Kyuubi. If they extracted Kyuubi, it would kill the blonde.
"Well how do we find him?" Sakura asked. She had the faint glimmer of hope that this would mean Sasuke would at least work with them, and maybe, just maybe, come back.
"If I knew how to find Akatsuki I would have come back along time ago," he told them.
"Then what can we do?" Lee piped up. Sasuke had forgotten he was there.
"There's nothing YOU can do. But-" Sasuke cut himself off. He grabbed Sakura, "hurry up, there may not be much time."
The rest of the group was about to follow when Sasuke stopped them.
"No, stay here, if something happens you're going to need to protect Konaha," he explained. Sasuke was making his plan up as he went. Right now it only included him and Sakura, and Naruto once they saved him.
Naruto really wasn't enjoying his situation. Fist off, they had insisted in blindfolding him. Then they seemed to have walked for hours. When they had finally taken the blindfold off he had absolutely NO idea where he was. It smelled weird though. He didn't like the look of the leader either. Too many piercings.
"Well this is an interesting situation," the leader said to Itachi and Kisame. Deidara and Sasori had disappeared.
"Well, none the less, we could get Kyuubi," he pointed out.
"True, very true."
"He could take Orochimaru's place," Kisame pointed out.
"No, he couldn't, that stupid bastard took the ring with him," the leader said angrily.
"Um, you know, I AM standing right here," Naruto pointed out. They seemed to suddenly remember that the very blonde they had been talking about was indeed in the room.
"Fine, we'll have him on a trial period. Get him some cloths," he said to the girl that had been standing next to him.
Naruto's plan was working perfectly.
Sasuke rushed toward Orochimaru's hideout, Sakura in tow. If he didn't like the company, too bad, Sasuke wasn't going to stay long anyway. He stopped and Sakura nearly slammed into him. She was out of breath.
"Damn Sasuke…you've gotten… fast," she panted.
"We'll stop here so you can catch your breath. A death man could hear you coming a mile away," he said. He was being oddly rude.
"Well sor-ry, I'm not the one who ran away to a creepy snake man and got tons of training in. I've barely gotten any serious training because Naruto's been dragging my ass to hell and back trying to get YOU to come home!" she replied.
"That's not my problem," Sasuke replied coolly. He rarely lost his temper anymore.
"What the fuck do you mean it's not your problem! It's entirely your problem! If you hadn't left you wouldn't have done that to Naruto and-and-and, oh screw it!" she ranted.
"What did I ever do to Naruto?" Sasuke suddenly felt a wave of regret he didn't understand.
"Never mind, just keep being the selfish bastard we all know and hate,"
"No, you brought it up, tell me," he said frustrated. Sakura's attitude and obsessive ness was one thing he really hadn't missed.
"If you can't figure it out then I'm sure as hell not going to tell you," she said. It was obviously time to go. Sasuke took off without warning. Sakura followed. He decided to slow down a little for her.
Sasuke knew most of what was going on was his fault. In honesty, he hadn't expected any one to follow him. When they did it complicated things and made it harder for him to say goodbye to everyone. He'd tried his best, but it wasn't good enough. Most people had been easy to forget, like Tenten. Others, like Kakashi and Sakura had been a pain. He'd never been able to get over Naruto, and the fact that he kept coming after him was not helping. What he was really wondering was what Sakura had meant when she said he'd done something to Naruto.
It hurt for some reason. The thought that he'd hurt Naruto in some way was causing him emotional pain. He REALLY didn't like that.
Naruto examined himself in the mirror that Konan had showed him too. That was her name, the girl who had given him the cloak. It wasn't that bad. A little tacky I guess, but it's comfortable, he thought absently. He'd stashed his headband and Sasuke's in the outfit. There were a million pockets on the inside. Konan reappeared in the doorway.
"Pein wants to speak with you," she said calmly. She waited for his response, it took him a few moments, he sounded different to himself.
"I'll be right there," he said in monotone. Konan nodded and left.
Naruto wandered out into the main room not too long after that. There were several more people he didn't know there. Deidara and Sasori had magically reappered. The entire group left when he came in.
"I never thought I'd see the day a jinchuuriki joined our ranks," Pein said, only mildly interested.
"Trust me, I never thought I'd come join you guys," Naruto told him. He noticed Itachi and his partner Kisame out of the corner of his eye.
"Hn, I suppose not. Anyway, since there isn't any single member's I want you to tag along with Kisame and Itachi. I want the three of you to go get that ring back from Orochimaru. That shouldn't be too much trouble, will it?" Pein instructed.
"No, not at all leader-sama," Itachi said cooly.
"Good, now get out of here, I'm sick of looking at you," he said rudely. The trio left.
Okay, I have to explain the Pein thing, as in, I can't exactly call it OOC because I really don't know how he acts, but I figured he'd be kind if mean.
Anyway, I hope you like this one. I think it's a bit short, but the next one is long so eh.
Please review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRR! If you don't then I'll…I'll… I'll do nothing because I don't know you! anime sweatdrop
Stay tuned!
