Naruto nuzzled further into Itachi's neck. He smelled like something between ash and honey. She found that she liked the smell, familiar, even at a long distance. He tightened his hold on her waist and walked over to the bed sitting down. Both of them just enjoyed seeing each other after so many years. After a few minutes Naruto remembered that she was only in a towel and went to go change.

Coming back out in a tank top and shorts she sat down near the desk. Taking a look at how much he changed she hid a frown. He wore a plain black shirt and ANBU pants with fishnet, simple yet attractive. "So… how have you been?" She asked, not knowing how to exactly handle this situation. She never really thought that they would meet up again, even if that was what she always wanted to do.

"Nothing much. It was a pretty big shock when the leader of Akatsuki died. After we broke up I was just traveling around, then I heard of someone extremely powerful. I tried to find her, not every day you run into techniques like yours you know." He teased. She sighed, "Not like anybody can handle the way I fight either. I hear that it's not exactly healthy."

He chuckled quietly, "Yah, I guess not. What about you?" She looked down for a minute, "Pretty much the same, mainly staying out of Fire country though. Just like you I guess. What do you mean by you heard of me by the way? I thought I did a pretty good job with witnesses."

He mocked shock, "Do you not stay updated? I thought that the Shadow Fox would know better." She rose an eyebrow, "Shadow Fox? That's kinda sad, in addition to ironic." He tsked and pulled out the latest bingo book. "Says the person with who has relations with a fox and has a fox mask. Check out page 22."

Naruto glared at him, "Hardy-har-har." He smiled.

"Page 22, okay."

(This is the page)

'Name: Unknown (NO PHOTO)

Age: Most likely late teens

Gender: Female

Country: Unknown

Status: Unknown

Rank: S

Bounty: 1.5 million ryu

Specialties: Uses the shadow at will. Kenjutsu, Fuinjutsu, Taijutsu,

Aliases: Shadow Fox, Flash Fox.

Apparel: Dusty white fox mask, navy blue hooded cloak.

Warnings: Do not engage. Try to run away.'

She rose an eyebrow, "First off that's depressing how general that is. Secondly, how did you figure that that, was me?" He smirked, "It's not like I had anywhere to go. I mean if it wasn't you, I just keep looking."

She looked away, hiding a smile. "I guess. Now what's yours like?"

"I took mine out. However, it actually has info. Rank is S as well. But I'm at 3 million, so there." She laughed, "Maybe I'll catch up one day than." Their chuckles died down, the air was so thick it was almost awkward. "So, what do you plan on doing?" Itachi asked.

She rubbed her face tiredly, which made sense since it was almost 3 AM. "I don't know, sleep? I booked the room for a week, after that I was thinking about heading to Mist for a while, they still have a lot of nins after that huge bloodline purge. I heard they got a new Kage recently. What about you?" He sighed, "To be honest I've been looking for you for the last year, so stick with you. Whether or not you like it or not, you're pretty much stuck with me."

Silence…

"OK…. Well it's getting really late. Are you going to get a room?" She asked. He hid a smirk and shook his head. She looked confused, "What, why not? What are you going to do then?" "I'm staying with you." He nodded sagely. She looked baffled, "W-who said you could stay here?"

"Can I not stay Naru? I thought you missed me after so long." He hurt. She turned red, from embarrassment or anger he didn't know. He was having too much fun to care at the moment, he really missed her. She looked down and wringed her hands out muttering about how unfair this all was. She threw her hands back up, "You can't say that! How it that fair? Fine, stay I don't care anymore. I'm too tired to deal with this." She replied.

He smirked, then couldn't hide his shock when she came and pushed him off their bed. (*Her bed but what's the difference?) He popped his head off of the floor, his eyes widened ever so slightly, "What was that for?" He asked.

She sat back up from the covers and smirked, "What? I'm not sleeping on the couch. It's my room after all." He narrowed his eyes, "There is no couch." She gasped, "What? Oh, I am so sorry I never realized that, my bad." He pouted, "Why can't I sleep on the bed with you?"

She leaned back on her arms on the bed. "Because, there is a nice spot right there." She pointed to the door, downwards. He gaped, "What am I your dog?" She shrugged and slipped back into bed, turning off the lamp in one fluid movement. "I don't know, maybe. It's not my problem. Good night, Itachi." With the lights off there was no point to hide his sulking, nor her relieved smile.

XXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXX

Naruto sighed happily as she snuggled deeper into her pillow. 'It's so warm, nice morning.' She thought. She froze when she realized that her pillow was moving. 'What?' She opened her eyes and growled.

"I told you not on the bed!" She yelled as she pushed Itachi back off. She threw the blankets back over her head. "So much for a good morning." She mumbled to herself.

Itachi stood back up pretty fast. "Good morning to you too you know. You didn't have to push me off though." He said dryly. "What was wrong with the floor?" He drew a blank momentarily, "I..Uh…It was… very uncomfortable." He tried, very hard. She threw a pillow at him and went to go change. Itachi just sighed, 'Why must she be difficult.' He thought as he fixed his pony tail.

Naruto came out a few minutes later in more civilian like clothes. Simple black pants and a red tank top with a jacket. "So, what now?" Itachi asked as he finished, discreetly, checking her out. She rose an eyebrow, "Well I am going to go through the town. Gamble, shop and eat. What are you going to do?" He moved to the door with her following, "Gamble, shop and eat, after you..." He replied as he opened the door, signaling her to go out with his arm.

She scoffed and lightly pushed his arm as she walked out, hiding a soft smile. After they hit a smaller café for breakfast they went to a couple other shops. "What exactly are you looking for today?" Itachi asked as he rubbed his hands together. She sighed, "My other clothes were getting old, I've had them for a few years, ever since my training with the pervert, so I figured I could use a change. Do you have any other clothes?" He shook his head, "No not really, though I could use a change as well."

|Later that day|

Itachi groaned from off the grass. That flip really hurt. They got bored with the market around seven, since it was late spring the sun would still have a few more hours till it went down. So, they did what logical ninjas would do… Spar.

It wasn't going so great for Itachi. He didn't expect her to be so good. Seems like time gave her the ability to improve her skills.

"Ugh. That was harsh." Naruto laughed as she knelt down to his eye level. She hummed, "No, it was a spar. A pretty sad one at that too. Were you even trying?" He huffed as he glared only gaining a smirk in response. Naruto pulled him back up and they headed back to the hotel.

Once they got to the hotel they sat on the bed on opposite ends eating some food they got from takeout. It was quiet as Itachi was trying to think of how to approach what was on his mind. Naruto sighed, "What are you thinking about? If you want to ask something just ask."

Itachi glanced back up at her than set his food down. "I know you haven't been home for some time…'' He ignored Naruto's glare and continued. "But I was wondering ho-how was Sasuke when you last saw him?"

Naruto's eyes lit up in recognition and let go of the 'home' comment. She played with her rice for a bit than sighed and set it down next to the ravens. "First off, that's not my home. But… uh, he seemed pretty good. He lost the memory seal, that's why he came back. He seemed less distant as well, or at least to me. But, I just screwed that up. But last I saw him which was a week or so before Pein attacked he seemed good. Less avengy-like."

He nodded than stopped, "That's good but, what do you mean by a week before the attack and how would you screw that up? Didn't you talk to him at all? What happened?" She looked down and saddened. Looking up her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears, small bitter smile gracing her features. She told him what happened.

"As you know Sasuke came back about eight months before the attack. He would look at me strangely, he probably remembered me from when we were younger. In my girl form anyway. So anyway, Jiraiya died than a few weeks later, Pein attacked. I beat him pretty much by myself, most of the others were helping civilians or passed out. Or just too scared, not that you could really blame them. Nobody visited me, but then again why would they? As you know Konoha only saw me as a demon, that's why it's not my home. I don't have one. But the day after the attack I got banished. I had '24 hours or else the ANBU would make sure that I couldn't harm anybody else.' Or at least that's what they said, the civilian council. Tsunade and the clan heads were out of the meeting that's how it passed. But, I left that same night. But I couldn't just leave. So, I wrote letters."

Naruto started to cry silently as she talked. Itachi just listened intently. Though, he started to get more worried and upset the more he did. He held her hand but didn't say anything.

"I wrote to the graduating class and their senseis. But the hardest ones were, Tsunade and Sasuke. But I couldn't just leave without giving him anything. So… I told him about your mission. I also gave him a picture from his seventh birthday, the ones in the garden. I just.. I, I knew that it was bad not being there for him when he found out. I just left him there, I don't know how he's doing now or anything. But- he knows now and I just left him there when the only reason he came back was to know the truth. That's how I messed up."

Itachi absorbed all he could but stayed silent. He knew that Sasuke was tough and that he would be ok. Inwardly he was somewhat relieved that Sasuke now knew. But looking at the blond now he couldn't help but wonder if it was the right call. He knew it was a good idea for Sasuke but right now, it didn't seem that great to Naru.

They stayed like that for a few minutes until Itachi spoke up. "You know Naruto, I still think that you did the right thing. Sasuke is strong, that's how I knew that he would be ok in your care when he was younger. But, now he's older and more open. He'll be fine. So, you did the right thing, ok?" Naruto looked at him and nodded hesitantly as she stopped crying. "Thanks, Tachi." He smiled. They continued to talk for about another hour before they both fell asleep.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxx

Over the next week they did what Naruto was planning on originally, just with a plus one. On the first day that they met up they put an order for new clothes in and they picked them up on the day that they were going to leave. They now stood by the town gates and started to head to the Mist.

Itachi wore pretty much the same thing as he did before. He still had fishnet but it went to his elbows and a black muscle shirt that had the Uchiha symbol embroidered on by Naruto in the bottom right corner. He had plain black shinobi sandals and a black cloak that clasped by the clan symbol again. To be honest he was happy that he could wear it now, knowing that Sasuke knew what happened.

Naruto however changed her attire quite a bit. She had black shorts that ended mid-thigh and black boots that went to her ankles but, had red stockings that went a couple inches above her knees. She wore a red tank top over long sleeved fishnet that went around her ring finger. She actually grew attached to the title shadow fox. She ignored Kuramas boasting about how it was thanks to him that she got the title when she got her cloak. The cloak was longer and trained in the back with the hood. It was a charcoal grey and had the kanji for ShadouKitsune on the back going down in a dark red.

Naruto was only wearing her face mask right now and not her ANBU mask as they were walking through the opening. They weren't really talking but that was fine for them. After a few hours of walking they decided to take a break for lunch. Naruto set up the camp and Itachi went to go get the food.

Naruto finished with the camp fire when she actually looked around. It was easy to tell that they were getting close since you could smell a lot of salt, mainly from the surrounding oceans to the country. Naruto sighed as she pulled over a log to sit on near the fire.

Itachi came not to long after that with a few fish, nuts and berries. They snacked on the berries and nuts while the fish cooked. It wasn't long before Itachi spoke, "So what made you decide to go to Mist? There had to be more to it than just going after the missing nins."

Naruto hid her surprise quite well but Itachi was able to tell. She sighed when she realized that there were no secrets between them. They both knew each other well, maybe even too well. She thought for a second on how to put it. She didn't want to tell anybody but this was Itachi after all.

"You're right, in fact I'm not even there to kill the missing nins, you could say I want to recruit them." She said than looked to see his reaction. If it wasn't such a serious matter than she would have laughed. "What?" He was, dare she say, adorably, confused. She sighed and scratched her scalp, it would take a while to tell him.

"Ok, so when I went on the training trip with Jiraiya we traveled as you know. We traveled around a lot but we spent almost a year in Mist helping them out with their uprising."

Itachi stopped her right there. "Why?" Naruto glared. He looked normal but you could see the little bit of embarrassment in his eyes from cutting her off twice already.

"This will probably help. When I was still a genin with team seven we got our first C rank about three maybe four months after we graduated. The problem was that Momochi Zabuza was involved, bringing it up to an A rank. We did the mission and stuff, Kakashi always thought that he killed Zabuza and his apprentice. But in reality us three, Haku; his apprentice, Zabuza and I talked. We found a way for them to fake their deaths. I used some blood clones that would last a couple of hours after the initial death. They escaped. You following?" She asked and received a semi-confused look and a nod.

"Ok, so after that Zabuza and Haku and I raided the evil pigs base. They kept most of the money and I kept most of the Uzumaki artifacts that he stole from the Uzu ruins. After that they went back to Mist and pretty much funded the uprising. Than a couple months after that was the chunnin exams, then your brother defected. I went on my training trip than got a letter from him seeing if I could help. I of course agreed even though Ero- sannin didn't agree that we should go. He thought that it was a trap. I persuaded him that it wasn't and we went."

Itachi nodded but he was even more confused. Ok, but what was up with the missing nins then? He thought. Naruto saw his look and hung her head, he was making this difficult.

"Ok, so we went to Mist and helped. This took place like, my second mid- third year of the trip. Once we got their I met the leader of the retaliation, her name's Mei Terumi. She's the current Kage there. Zabuza was her right hand man in all of this. But anyway, her and I get along really well. People actually thought we were related at first. I always thought that it was weird, so did she actually. But, a lot of people were saying it so we looked into it. It turns out that her family were actual blood relatives to the Uzumaki. So long story short we're related."

Itachi was really surprised. He knew that Naruto must be happy that she had actual family, blood that was still alive. He kept his thoughts to himself and waited for her to continue.

"So, I stayed there for a while and we won the war. She's actually been the leader for a while but they just got it all official that's why it just started to go around. About a month ago she sent me a letter. It turns out that most of the mist nins that are missing, ran away when the previous kage ruled and only left because they didn't like what he was doing. Mei asked me to see if I can convince any to return and since she learned about my banishment, see if I would want to stay."

He took it all in than spoke. "So pretty much you know the Mizukage, personally, and she wants you to return missing nins since they didn't want to leave the country, just the previous ruler?"

Naruto thought for a minute, "Yeah, that's pretty much it." He just sat for a minute than chuckled lightly, of course she would be friends with a country's government leadership. What else could it have been?

"So, are we going to stay there then?" He asked. He actually likef the idea quite a bit. Sure, it's not Konoha but it would be nice to have a place to call home for a while. He missed having a home, but then again wherever Naruto was, then that would be his home.

She laughed lightly, "We, eh? Uh, I don't know. I'll just see how it goes. What would you want to do?" She wanted help, she didn't want to cause any potential problems for her sister figures new country. But, then again she wanted to see what Itachi wanted to do. She didn't want to force him into something that he didn't want to do. Plus, she couldn't decide right now. Her hopes were crushed when he only shrugged.

She sighed dejectedly. She nearly jumped when Itachi stood up quickly. She saw happiness in his eyes and smiled. "What?" She asked.

Itachi calmed himself. This was actually great. One of the only things he like about the Akatsuki was his partner, Kisame Hoshigaki. They had similar stories after all. He scolded himself a little when he realized that he was slow about what Naruto was saying. Kisame himself didn't want to leave the country, in fact he often boasted about how great it all was, besides the leader of course. They always talked about wanting to go home but couldn't since they were rouge. He would be so happy to hear this!

"Hey, did she maybe give you a list about what nins to gather?" He asked, masking his hope. She eyed him wearily for a moment. "Yeah, she did, why? Do you have a name?" She asked than her eyes lit up when she realized where he was going with it. When they were in the previous town he always talked about another of the seven swordsmen and partner in the Akastuki, his partner Kisame.

She didn't really give him time to respond. "Do you think that Kisame would really come back? He was personally requested by a lot of the people there. They would love it if he came back." He nodded, happy that his partner would be able to go home.

"Yeah, we always talked about going back to our home villages. If I were to send him a summons he would probably meet us within a couple days." She nodded and smiled, "Well, what are you waiting for then?" He shook his head with a smile. Kisame would be so happy and he actually missed his partner a little bit.

Not even five minutes after he sent it, the summons returned with a letter saying that Kisame would meet with them in two days' time. At a town that they could get to tomorrow. So, they said that they would see him then. Who knows? Maybe this could be a better start for the three of them.