Story: Returning

Chapter Four

De-Briefing

DISCLAIMER! I DON'T OWN NARUTO!!!!

Naruto

"Alright." He switched in to his Hokage Mode. The appearance was slight but hugely noticeable. His eyes changed from their usual iced sapphire color to steel. His face lost its usual light and laughter. To anyone in his visual vicinity automatically noticed the difference. Suddenly, he radiated power and authority. One word from him and everyone would be scrambling to their feet to wait for his orders.

"Shikamaru, start with your mission. I haven't heard from your squad in almost 5 months."

"Hai, Hokage-Sama."

"Nara…"

"Right, sorry Naruto. It's a habit. It took a little longer than we thought to find Sasuke, because he was convinced that we were ninjas from the Raikage. Eventually though, we caught up to him. I read off the terms set for him and we camped out there for a couple days. After a week, Sasuke agreed to the terms. So we started back that day. We traveled for about 3 days and then we were attacked. The ninja we were attacked by didn't wear any symbol, but their shuriken were not the normal design. They had one extra spike and a hole in the center. They were also spiked with some kind of poison. Sakura and Kiba know more about than me. We got in to a full out battle. They were really strong, so we were separated for a while. Sasuke was lured away, and Hinata saw this, so she went after him. I'm not one hundred percent sure what happened with them. Sasuke didn't say much besides that Hinata got hit by the Shuriken trying to get Sasuke back to us. Sasuke only got a scrape, but it was enough for some of the poison to leak in. Hinata figured that you wanted Sasuke alive. Then after Hinata returned to us, the ninjas immediately disappeared. Their fighting style made it hard for us to count how many ninjas there were total. But I'm going to take a guess of eight. After this, we made it back to the village as son as possible. Ino tried to heal Hinata, but every time that she tried to send chakra through Hinata, Hinata just screamed like she was dying. Finally we couldn't stand it anymore, so we forced her in to an unconscious state. We reached the village the next day. We didn't stop through the night. That's when we met Sakura."

Hinata… I was right to send her.

"Fourteen."

All heads spun to the owner of the voice. "Sasuke? What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

"Fourteen. There were fourteen ninjas. 3 were in the trees the entire time. Eleven were fighting us. One of them disappeared in the middle and one of them became injured because of Shikamaru and Kiba in the middle. My sharingan saw it all." He explained.

Fourteen… That's how many attacked me…

"You were attacked 2 days ago at what time?" Naruto asked.

"A little after noon" came the reply from Shikamaru.

"After we stopped for lunch at 1." Sasuke said.

He knows more than he lets on. I wonder what really happened when he and Hinata were alone…

"That's the exact same time that I was attacked. They couldn't have been the same ninja, but they could be from the same group. Fourteen attacked me too. They had the same strategy. Three in the trees, eleven fighting."

"Did two disappear?" Sakura asked.

"No. They all ran away after I took down seven."

Sakura smiled and kissed him on the cheek. This was what she liked about him. He never showed off for her anymore. He stated facts and only when asked too. At least… when he was in his Hokage mode. When he was just Naruto, he was like the little kid she used to know.

"Ahem" Neji cleared his throat. Naruto turned red and came back to his senses.

"Sorry, did the patrols find anything?"

"Nope. Nothing."

"Sakura-Chan what about you? Did you figure out what happened to Hinata and Sasuke?"

"Menai Tsukinai." She muttered quietly. Everyone in the room gasped, except for Ino and Kiba.

"How is Hinata?! Did you guys manage to get it out of her?! Is she going to be okay!?" Naruto asked completely losing his cool.

"Me, Ino, and Sasuke got it out. We nearly exhausted our energy, but she's going to be fine after about a week of rest." Sakura reported back.

Everyone released the breath of air they hadn't realized they'd been holding. "Good. I'll go visit her tomorrow and see if there's anything I can do for her." Naruto said decisively. "Most of you haven't slept in almost 3 days, so get some sleep. We'll continue in the morning. I'm going to send the village in to code red." Naruto decided.

With that, everyone went to bed, but little did any of them know that none of them would be getting any sleep that night.

Hey guys! Sorry that was so short, but I'll update within 2 days, but I'm running out of tiem right now so, peace out!

Review as always!!!