Decipher

Chapter Four

Author: Atthla

See Disclaimer and Warnings in chapter one.

The forest was quiet.

They had stopped for the night despite Naruto's protests. Sasuke wouldn't go anywhere, Kakashi had told him with a tone of voice that did not leave any room for argument. He asked you to come, didn't he?

Naruto leaned against a tree, glaring at the campfire blazing cheerfully in front of him. Supper had come and gone, simple – almost extremely frugal – but everything had gone untasted by him. Sakura had insisted him to eat more but she didn't seem to be eating much herself, so all he had to do was throwing pointed looks at where she had sat and it had effectively shut her up. Kakashi had gone since dinner had been over. The group was tense.

At the other side of the fire was Shikamaru, head bent low that his chin touched his chest, either asleep or deep in thought. Somehow, Naruto was not surprised to find the genius ANBU as the fourth member of the team and secretly, he was glad. At least it was Shikamaru, once the leader of a mission to retrieve Sasuke, not some ninja who barely gave a damn whatever would happen to the Uchiha. While he might not be a close friend of Sasuke, they still had grown up together, attended classes together. They knew each other. And a brainy brain was always a welcome addition to any mission, especially if it might involve more riddles like Kakashi-sensei had said in the briefing.

And of course, it was always good to have more friends, even one as indifferent as Shikamaru. He had somewhat changed after his sensei's death, less lazy and much more serious, but a good friend nonetheless. There was one time when he had been in a mission with Shikamaru and Kiba and the genius had gone all the way back to save them while their other comrade had returned to the village to deliver the objective of their mission. It had not been easy and he could have been killed simply by trying to slip into the enemy's area once more and still he had done it.

Friends didn't have to be overly sympathetic; Naruto had realized it that day. He had been surprised, irritated even, to find Shikamaru suddenly take on a strangely sarcastic personality after the incident with Akatsuki more than two years ago. It was just his way to deal with his loss. Like Ino and her crude mouth. There were myriads of other things to prove that one was really a friend than being sugary-sweet all the time.

The last but not least, there were only few Naruto could trust to watch his back and Shikamaru was one of them. He didn't want to expect danger in this mission, but it was stupid not to expect danger in something that involved Orochimaru. Yes, Sasuke was with him. He should have tried to accept and live with that fact by now.

A rustling sound behind him broke his train of thoughts and he turned around abruptly with kunai ready in hand, already expecting the worst. When a flurry tail could be seen scuttling away, he shot it a suspicious glare before turning back to the fire, feeling his heartbeat faster still than normal.

He was being paranoid. This mission made him paranoid. Or Sasuke did.

"What is it?" Shikamaru's lazy voice floated above the silence, one eye cracked open.

Naruto stabbed his kunai into the ground and waved a careless hand. "Nothing, just a fox," he replied, trying to sound offhanded and knowing that the attempt had failed miserably.

Shikamaru opened his other eye but not yet moved from his meditative pose. "This forest is crawling with them," he said, glancing to the dark clusters of trees as if to make a point.

"I know," the blonde grunted, slightly annoyed that his companion seemed to be able to pick up his restless vibe. Talking about a genius. Sometimes it was irritating to have an overly smart friend, frightening even.

Said friend did not look as if he had heard the grunt as he continued to look around nonchalantly, for once looking like the old Shikamaru who liked to spend his every time gazing at clouds drifting away. Naruto felt frustrated. It was like he had gotten riled up for nothing, but then Shikamaru threw a glance his way and he knew that his intuition was true. It was only a fleeting look, but Naruto felt like he had been stripped in that second, his soul bare for his friend's eyes to see.

Maybe he was really easy to read.

"I'm alright," he finally muttered, sounding sullenly defensive even without meaning to.

"Okay," Shikamaru nodded as he returned his gaze to a spot somewhere in the campfire, looking as interested as he was to the subject of nail-polishing. Naruto resisted the urge to wring his neck. Some people just didn't have to try to be irritating. It reminded him to Sasuke in a way.

It was then when Sakura decided to make her entrance, back from the river not far from their campsite. She looked at her teammates questioningly, noticing the less-than-friendly atmosphere for certain. "Everything alright, guys?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru murmured as he stood up, stretching a bit. "I'm turning in for the night. Wake me up if it's my turn. Night, everyone."

"Good night, Shikamaru," she gave him a little smile and took the spot he had vacated, gazing across the fire at Naruto. "What was that?" she demanded, her voice lowering to almost a whisper.

"Nothing," he answered with a shrug, "just him being the smartass that he is and me the idiot that I am."

She glared at him with disapproval and chided, "Don't be stupid, Naruto."

He shot her a weak grin. "Even you admit that I'm stupid, Sakura-chan."

"Well, you are so intolerably stupid sometimes that even I am forced to be honest," she pointed out with an innocent smile, in her eyes sternness that told him to just drop the matter. He complied.

A comfortable silence settled in as he gazed at her and she into the fire and he found himself entranced by the way her hair looked almost red in the flickering firelight. Sakura was still very beautiful to his eyes, but he had lost it, the crush that had made him hate Sasuke long time ago. He would still flirt with her now and then, but she never quite retaliated and so he directed the rest to Ino, who to own his chagrin always had no difficulty to include Hinata in it in the end. That was why rumours were circulating about them.

Naruto had never actually thought about his love life. After Sakura, there was no one else. Except Sasuke. Not that he was interested in that bastard of a teammate of his in any way, it was just that he had spent so much time thinking about the Uchiha that he hardly could be attracted to anyone else in a romantic way. The old sennin had commented that it was not healthy – seventeen-year-old boys should think about many seventeen-year-old girls – but he had just told him to mind his own business.

Sometimes he wondered if thinking about Sasuke too much made him a little like him. He winced at the thought. His former teammate didn't exactly have the nicest personality in the world.

But it didn't matter. All he wanted was to get Sasuke back. It might be for his own selfish reasons, but if there was something Naruto didn't want to happen, it was to have a person precious to him taken over by Orochimaru. It was simply the worst possible way to die.

"You're silent."

Focusing his sight, Naruto realized that he had been staring off into space and now Sakura was looking at him with a funny look on her face. "Huh? What?"

"You're silent," she repeated, stressing on the latter word. "It's weird, you know, to be sitting here with you, the loudest ninja ever, and hear no sound but fire crackling."

"Sakura-chan, that's mean," he feigned a pout. "I was just thinking about the mission. Of course I have to be all silent and serious."

The pink-haired kunoichi only shook her head and didn't pursue the subject. "You were surprised when I was there in the briefing yesterday, weren't you?" she said after a pause.

"Yeah, kind of," the blonde admitted. "How did you convince the old hag by the way? It's tough as hell to get her to change her mind."

An amused look settled on her face as Sakura shook her head once more. "I didn't do anything. Yesterday evening, Kakashi-sensei just popped in and said that I'd join the mission."

It was not unexpected but Naruto was surprised nonetheless. "Really? Was it him?"

"I think so," she answered with a smile. "He just doesn't want to admit it."

"The shyness of a perverted old man," he shuddered. "It's so damn creepy when he does anything like that. By the way, where is he?"

Sakura shrugged but looked concerned. "Looking around, he said, to make sure nothing is lurking in the darkness. I don't know but he seems a little moody today. Do you know why?"

"No."

"I hope everything is alright," the kunoichi sighed. "Sometimes it makes me wonder if he is as affected as we are about Sasuke-kun."

Naruto didn't answer. He knew for sure that his former instructor had been affected, only to what degree he could not fathom. The older jounin was not one to let you see what he felt or thought and that mask of his did not help. They had not been especially close – he had been closer to Iruka and before he had gone with Jiraiya, Kakashi had poured most of his attentions to Sasuke – but it started to change after the last Sasuke-search.

He closed his eyes and suppressed a quiver. It had been a dark time. Sakura's eyes had always been red and all the faces around him had worn this look that was torn between pity and concern. He had always thought the worst, yelling at them because no, you don't understand how it feels so don't pretend like you goddamn do. He vented his anger, frustration in a way that no one who knew him – including himself – thought possible.

He left the village.

It was Kakashi who had discovered him somewhere in the forest, alone, tattered, skinny, broken. He had said nothing, only made him sleep with a genjutsu and the next thing he knew, he had been lying on his former instructor's bed, all wounds tended. They had never really talked about it, because sometimes Naruto thought that he saw the same pain in the older man's visible eye and remembered something Jiraiya had told him about Kakashi and his team, about a loud, brash boy named Uchiha Obito and his Sasuke-ish teammate.

This was a person who knew how it felt.

He didn't exactly remember how he had blended into the society and his usual daily life once more. It just happened, with him meeting Sakura and a lot of his other friends and them bugging him endlessly. Kiba and Lee were especially good in that. The Hokage, on the other hand, had said nothing about his temporary desertion but handed out many trivial D-level missions to him for a while, which he thought was her way of giving him punishment. In the end, she had still allowed him to take the chuunin and jounin exam.

Life had been normal for the next two years. Reports said that he was still targeted by Akatsuki, but apart from extra caution while carrying out missions, he couldn't bring himself to care. His only wish was to defeat Orochimaru and take Sasuke's body back, even if he had to squeeze the snake's soul out of it. It had become almost an obsession.

The one who kept him back, who restrained him from going the same road Sasuke had was Sakura. His pink-haired friend had made sure of it through every possible method, including popping at his apartment every morning to make both of them breakfast. Looking across at her, Naruto couldn't say how grateful he was.

His companion, aware that his eyes were on her, stared back and asked, "What?"

He gave her an endearing smile. "I'm glad you can come, Sakura-chan."

She unexpectedly blushed. "You can seriously make a girl fall for you by smiling like that, do you know? And stop saying stupid things, Naruto."

He could feel his smile already breaking into a grin. Well, Naruto was not exactly oblivious to the impressive development of his looks and physique and the effects they had to the opposite sex. "Does that mean you're falling for me, Sakura-chan?"

"Of course not," she scoffed, rolling her eyes, "I'm much too smart to get trapped by your shameless flirting."

The blonde exhibited another harmless smile before suddenly turning serious. "I'm not flirting. I'm really happy that you're here, Sakura-chan."

She didn't answer immediately, but then her eyes softened and so did her voice when she answered, "Me too. I'm glad I can go with you. And we have to bring Sasuke-kun back this time."

He nodded. "We will."

There was no short cut in this. They would get Sasuke back with their own power.

The kunoichi smiled, comfort and newly-restored spirit in her eyes, and Naruto knew he would do everything to keep that spirit there. Settling his hand on top of his stomach, he felt it beneath his jounin vest, beneath his orange jacket, an old hitai-ate with its Konoha symbol slashed. It was a reminder, an oath he had taken to himself, one he would – must – fulfill this time now that he knew it was not lost.

I'll get you back, bastard.

It was five, possibly four hours before dawn.

Genma slowed his pace down, sensing the weakened set of chakra on his trail. His team had been going at their top speed since the evening two days ago save for two brief stops to eat and catch their breath a little. It was easier to travel on daylight, at least for visibility, but the night had its advantages too, among them the lack of scorching sunlight. Autumn was already creeping in but it did little to the heat, especially in the Fire Country.

But a few hours ago they had passed the border and were fast nearing the place he had intended for their next rest. It shouldn't be that far anymore. Tying not to think about his own aching feet, Genma picked up his speed again, the others still following him devotedly. The night was clear but cold and he was certain that as they neared the river, there was bound to be fog.

Speaking of the devil.

He made a halt at a cliff overlooking the great river – or sea he should say, judging from the size – any vista he should be able to enjoy from this vantage point currently blurred by the fog. He lifted a hand, signaling the others to stop, and waited until they had gathered around him. The masks were still in place but Genma didn't have to see to know how tired they were.

"We'll stay here until sunrise."

A soft sigh came from the only female member of the group and he found himself smiling as he took off his mask. He gave in to his own urge to breathe deeply in relief as cool breeze drifted across his face, cooling down hot sweaty skin. It was one of the most annoying things about wearing a mask. That and the lack of freedom to have something long and pointy dangling from his mouth.

More out of habit than anything, he pulled out a senbon from his pouch and put one sharp end into his mouth as he walked to the edge of the cliff. The fog was indeed thick but he could still make out a big, dark shadow which protruded above the rest. That must be it.

"Come here, you three," he motioned for his team to draw near. "Look, that's the bridge there."

"The Great Naruto Bridge, right?" Ino's voice sounded amused.

He nodded. "That's the name. We'll cross it tomorrow morning, in disguise, and start gathering information. But four strangers at once will seem too suspicious, so we'll separate into two groups. It's a small country and the area we should be covering isn't that big either. This is more of a recon mission so anonymity is important."

If any of his team members was perplexed about the same thing he had asked the Hokage before the mission, they didn't show it and so he continued, turning to his right. "You need to get in there, Neji, so you're going with me to the village. Kotetsu, you stay with Ino at the forest near the bridge. Keep an eye on the surrounding and for Kakashi's team. We'll stay at the inn– what's its name. Rippling Waves or something."

"When are they going to arrive?" Kotetsu asked.

"Three or four more days, I think, they aren't going as fast as we are," Genma said. "If anything happens, one of you must notify us. And if it's you, Ino, tone down your make-up a bit. I don't want any commotion like last time."

She winked at him. "Whatever you say, Captain."

"What about mission names?" Neji spoke up, his pale eyes a stark contrast with their dark surrounding.

"We'll go with the usual. I'm Seiichi, you're Nida and Ino, you're Yonaka. Kotetsu, you'll go with the name Sanagi if you need to, but I don't think you or Ino will have to use it except when going into the village."

"One two three four?" Kotetsu commented with a chuckle. "What's with the name, Captain?"

Ino mocked a deep sigh and whispered conspiratorially to him, "You won't believe their naming sense before I got into the team. Kinda tells you what hopeless really means."

"You can go with Natsumi or Akiko if you want," Genma suggested dryly, which earned him an injured look from the blond kunoichi. He hid a smile and waved a dismissing hand. "Okay, that's all. Get some rest, all of you. I'll take the first watch."

His offer was greeted by, though not explicit, obvious eagerness. It was not long until their breath had evened and he was left awake alone with the blinking stars. Genma fought his own urge to lie down and just shut his eyes for a minute or two; it was not wise to let his guard down in a mission that involved Orochimaru.

It was a point that made him wary, especially since his current team members had not found what he called their teamwork's rhythm. He had worked with Neji for more than a year but Ino had just joined less than four months ago and Kotetsu was only a temporary replacement. He regretted Endou's decision to retire from the ANBU but understood why. Sometimes the killing got too much and honestly, it was mostly – if not only – what they, ANBU did. It also had been his reason to leave the group years ago, so he wasn't about to object.

Sometimes he still wondered why he had let the Fifth talked him into this again.

But, he looked around with a little smile, it wasn't that bad. At least being with this team wasn't bad. Both Neji and Ino – and Endou too once – were much younger than he was and to interact with them was different than with his colleagues of the same age. He had never picked up a gennin team but maybe the feeling was similar. All of them still called their former instructor 'sensei' anyway and never addressed him by his first name. Always 'captain', or 'Shiranui-san' in front of others. Being an examiner once surely left a deep impression, he thought with a smirk. He still remembered the exam with Neji in it and those stuffs about a bird and a cage.

And Uchiha Sasuke too.

The last heir of the Uchiha clan and a deserter. If not for his relationship with Kakashi, Genma was sure he would regard the boy as nothing more than a normal traitor. Secretly, he was glad that the Hokage had not given a straight order to simply kill him. There were too many knots in here, tangled and cluttered, and they needed more than just one assassination to unravel.

They needed friendship.

End Chapter 4

Notes: Naruto is the hottest thing in the world. Ino is the sexiest thing in the world. Shikamaru is the coolest thing in the world. Neji is the prettiest thing in the world. These are my reasons for the team members. Yeah, I know I suck. Why Kotetsu, you say? I like him, as simple as that. And of course Genma is my favourite character in the whole series.

Phew. This chapter is some kind of a filler chapter, but I need it to fill some necessary background for the story. I hope no one gets really bored reading this, but let me just say it again: We won't see Sasuke anytime soon. But once we meet him, we're not going to leave him again, I promise.

Thanks for reading. Review pretty, pretty, pretty please?