Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Ashley thanks for betaing

A/N: I would like to thank people who reviewed, each and one of them means a lot to me.

Enjoy!

Sakura had left the café two hours ago after gulping her tea in record time. She originally planned on resting there but the plump, nice looking lady was being awfully nosy; apparently she had some hidden intentions.

To curb her curiosity about why a nice, pretty girl like Sakura was traveling alone, she hid behind her fake smile and started to approach her.

Before she could get close enough to start asking questions though, Sakura stood up leaving enough money on the table to pay for her tea and left the same way she came; without a word.

She stood outside the old building staring at nothing in particular for a couple of minutes before regaining her senses. A sigh left her lips, she knew now was not the time to relax; she had more important business to attend to. Her thoughts had been focused on Akatsuki, and she decided that from now on no more time could be wasted.

After putting her thoughts together she decided to look for a place to conceal herself, and the trees behind the market place seemed like a good place to hide.

"Ne, Itachi-san? How come Kisame is not accompanying you on this mission? But I got chosen instead?"

"Kisame wasn't available."

"Why?"

Being one who only spoke when necessary, Itachi decided not to answer.

'I think I'm going to need a tweezer yeah, to pull out the words from his mouth.' Thought Deidara.

"Itachi-san, are we going to leave right away after we see the old man?"

"Yes."

"Can we just.."

"No, leader is waiting for us and we're already late. After we return you can go and do what ever you want, I don't care."

Deidara was happy knowing that Uchiha Itachi had just phrased the longest sentence he would hear all day, but sad because he wanted to spend more time in the village.

Once upon a time, the bridge was the official meeting place for team 7. Back in those days everything had a meaning: Sakura being the annoying fan girl; Naruto being the dumbest ninja; and Sasuke being the cold guy. Yeah, back in those days Kakashi-sensei had a reason to wake up in the morning, and to come back alive from an A-class mission.

But now all those reasons were gone. Sasuke and Sakura had both betrayed Konaha choosing unacceptable paths, and Naruto just did not seem to be himself anymore.

Was he the cause of all these disasters? First he had lost his own teammates Obito, Rin and his sensei. And now he lost his own students. Truly fate was against him. Maybe if he had showed them more respect by showing up early or taking them seriously; maybe he could have saved them.

Kakashi stood on the bridge staring into the stream below getting lost in his thoughts. He had never been more thankful for the mask he wore that was hiding the miserable look on his face from those passing by.

'I'm never going to teach again.' thought Kakashi

Because ninja are not allowed to show emotions, Kakashi did not allow himself to cry. Last time he had was when his sensei, the Yondaime, had passed away. He had loved and cherished him more than anything, even coming to respect him more than his own father.

Thinking about his life style as a shinobi, he realized he hated the harsh rules he was bound to. A true shinobi was not allowed to shed tears, though at the moment he didn't care. He thought that anyone with a heart should be allowed to pour out everything instead of burying it inside; shinobi or not. And he did, he didn't stop the tears that were pouring out of his eyes, he cried for the children he had lost, he cried for each and every one of them.

After a while there were no more tears left and with a mixture of different thoughts he started walking down the path which led to the Hokage tower, he was going to have a word with Tsunade about the new team he was going to be assigned.

Sakura had been sitting on the same branch for the past three hours and her back was starting to ache. She was also losing her patience, the sun was setting and there was still no sign of Akatsuki anywhere.

'Could Jiraiya-sama be wrong? Maybe akatsuki had a change of plans and decided not to show up.' Thought Sakura.

This thought all by itself caused Sakura to groan mentally.

'They better show up, otherwise I'm going to have to hunt them myself.' Thought the kunoichi.

Personally she didn't want akatsuki to have any changes in their plans, because it had taken her a lot of effort and courage to mentally prepare herself for this mission. And she wasn't planning on backing out anytime soon.

Itachi and Deidara had reached the village over an hour ago and were now waiting for nightfall to put their plans into action.

"Deidara when we reach the house you'll go and patrol the back of the house; I will talk to the old man."

"Hai, but what if he doesn't talk?"

"Then he will die."

Since the first time Deidara had met Itachi, he had never seen Itachi show any pity to anyone. Itachi was always harsh; it seemed the man had a heart made of stone.

Upon receiving a mission, he never backed down and only returned after fulfilling his orders. Deidara felt bad for Kisame sometimes, being partners with Itachi meant he had no choice but to go on missions with him and spend most of his time with him.

But leader had paired each team on purpose; he didn't put two positives or two negatives together, he paired them as a positive and a negative.

'So Itachi-san must be the negative and Kisame the positive' thought Deidara.

Deidara gave out a sigh, he was thankful that he was only assigned to be Itachi's partner for this one mission.

Now both of them sat in the giant oak tree waiting for the cover of night fall to conceal the events that were to take place.

Naruto woke up to the beautiful image of a pastel colored sky and realizing that the sun was about to set, knew had been asleep for just a couple of hours.

He left the bed and walked over the window staring outside. Though his gaze was on the sky above, his mind was truly somewhere else entirely. He just couldn't stop thinking about the events that had taken place earlier that day.

He had hoped it was all just a bad dream, yet he knew it wasn't. Sakura, one of the last people he had ever expected to, had betrayed Konoha.

"I guess I was mistaken after all, I didn't know her very well." A sad smile was placed upon Naruto's lips. From now on, he wasn't going to be the old cheerful and trustworthy Naruto.

It seemed the betrayal of his friends had left a big, unfixable scar on Naruto's heart.

Gorou Yamada was a man of many secrets. The things he had done in the past caused him to constantly move from place to place to conceal himself. To others he seemed like a normal and harmless old man who liked children and cared for others. In reality he was the total opposite. He had caused a lot of harm and betrayed a lot of people; mostly mobs and loan sharks, but one man he betrayed was one he never should have dared to. From hearing passing rumors he had discovered that this man was now the leader of a group known as Akatsuki. He was sure they were coming for him, and that the punishment for his betrayal was death.

But for now he knew that the nice, old man disguise was buying him some time before having to relocate. But he just couldn't shake the bad feeling that had been plaguing him all day.

Bored to death was the right way of describing Deidara's feelings at the moment. He loved living his life in action and sitting on a tree branch just didn't seem that exciting to him.

While sitting there day dreaming he almost lost his balance on the branch when Itachi suddenly spoke.

"It's time we move."

Upon hearing this, Deidara's feeling made a 360 degree turn from boredom to excitement. He was quite ready for the action that was about to take place.

Being elite shinobi, both men reached the place in just minutes. Following their plans, Itachi quietly entered the house while Deidara began patrolling the area.

Tired of sitting on the branch, Sakura got up to take a look around. She decided to go by roof top instead of using the street to keep from being detected.

While jumping from roof to roof her sharp eyes caught something,

'Black cloak with red clouds' emerald eyes widened.

"Finally I found you guys" whispered Sakura.

Being as quiet as she could, she started slowly approaching the men from behind. After getting as close as she dared, she ducked behind a nearby tree so as not to get caught.

The men had their backs to Sakura so she was unable to see their faces.

'So this place must be one of their hiding spots.' thought the kunoichi.

A couple of minutes passed and there still wasn't anything happening, and it had become awfully quiet.

Suddenly Sakura felt a strong chakra behind her, and when she turned there stood Uchiha Itachi; kekkei genkai activated.

To be continued...

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Kainat