A/N: I do NOT own Naruto. Only the character Jesshika. Bloodytears87 is the owner of Saara.
The next morning just at dawn we heard someone knocking on the doors. Saara and I opened our doors and looked out. Gaara and Kankuro were standing there.
"Yes?" we said sleepily in unison. Gaara and Kankuro just stared at us saying nothing. Just then we could hear footsteps. Sasuke and Naruto appeared shirtless behind us.
"Who is it babe?" Sasuke asked looking out.
"Is something wrong, honey?" Naruto asked, also looking out the door. Gaara and Kankuro looked on in a mixture of surprise and anger.
"We just came to escort you on your way out of the village." Gaara said coldly. Sasuke and Naruto grabbed us by the waists and pulled us behind them.
"Just give us time to get dressed. We'll meet you downstairs." Naruto said, closing his door. Sasuke smirked.
"Don't worry. We won't take long." he said before closing his door. Gaara and Kankuro growled before going downstairs to wait. Ten minutes later the four of us appeared in the lobby. Saara and I were laughing and joking while Naruto and Sasuke walked a little behind us, their hair still dripping from the shower. Gaara and Kankuro were standing off to the side waiting for us. Saara and I stopped talking as we drew closer, noticing they were staring at us.
"Good morning, Lord Kazekage, Kankuro-san." Saara and I said politely bowing.
"Morning." they replied coldly. Kankuro acted like he wanted to ask us something but seemed to change his mind after the guys caught up to us. Gaara stepped forward.
"I trust you rested well?" he asked. Saara and I looked at each other and blushed. Sasuke and Naruto grinned at each other.
"Ver...very well, Kazekage-sama." Saara and I replied. Kankuro went to step forward until Sasuke and Naruto put their arms around our shoulders.
"We must be off. We still have a long way to go." Sasuke said.
"Lets go girls." Naruto said. They guided us out the door past Gaara and Kankuro without bothering to see if they were following or not. When Gaara and Kankuro realized we just brushed them off, they hurried out of the hotel after us. When they finally caught up to us Kankuro and Gaara grabbed our arms to stop us. We turned to stare at them.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I growled.
"Let go of us this instant!" Saara said dangerously. We yanked out of their grasps and walked away. Sasuke and Naruto stepped in front of us protectively once we rejoined them.
"We just want to talk to them." Gaara told them. Sasuke and Naruto glanced at each other before looking back at us. We stepped forward.
"It's alright. They won't dare start anything." I said.
"Not if they don't want a war with Konoha." Saara added. Sasuke and Naruto stepped aside but did not go far. We looked at Gaara and Kankuro.
"What do you want, Kazekage-sama, Kankuro-san?" Saara and I sneered. Kankuro growled but was held back by Gaara.
"We want to know why you spent the night in their room." Gaara asked. Saara and I looked at each other.
"That's no longer your concern." I said coldly.
"You lost that right when you accused us of cheating." Saara said angrily. We turned our backs on them and walked away. We walked in silence the rest of the way to the gates.
"For your information, we didn't get depressed over you cause you weren't worth our time to miss." I said coldly. Saara smirked.
"In your face! You know, as boyfriends, you two sucked ass." she said.
"Believe it!" Naruto cried before putting his arm around Saara and me and walking off. Sasuke looked from Kankuro to Gaara.
"Hn, and I called them dobes, losers." he said before turning to run after us. Gaara and Kankuro stood staring after us dumbfounded and speechless until we disappeared from their sight.
"Where do we go from here?" Saara asked as we walked through the desert.
"We look around for any signs of Hidan and Deidara being here." Sasuke said.
"What if we don't find anything?" I asked quietly.
"Then the next place to search is the Ame village. That's where their base was." Naruto said. Sasuke nodded.
"That's the next logical place to check." he said. We agreed and began to look for any signs Hidan and Deidara had been there. We walked for over two hours until a sandstorm blew up suddenly. We ran holding hands so we wouldn't get separated until we found a large cut away in the rocks. We ran into it to wait out the storm.
"Jessie-chan? Will you be alright in here?" Saara asked in concern. I nodded.
"I'll be fine since it's not dark or too small." I said.
"Are you sure?" Naruto asked.
"As long as I'm near the opening I'll be okay." I said smiling. Sasuke looked back and forth between the three of us in confusion.
"What are you talking about?" he asked finally. We turned to face him.
"Jesshika has problems with small dark places." Naruto explained.
"Oh." was all Sasuke said. Getting tired of waiting, we began to look around. Suddenly Saara stopped walking and began to yell excitedly. We quickly ran to where she was.
"Saara-chan? What is it?" I asked. She knelt down and pointed at the ground. I looked to where she was pointing and gasped.
"Is...is that...?" I stuttered. Saara nodded franticly.
"Hai! It's Dei-kun's clay! I'd recognize it anywhere." she said happily. Sasuke and Naruto came closer to look. Naruto bent down and scooped some into his hand before looking at us.
"This is definitely the clay that he uses. It's not hardened so they couldn't have left too long ago." he said. Saara and I hugged each other excitedly.
"They have to be close. They have to be!" we yelled. Sasuke and Naruto watched us smirking at our antics.
"Calm down. Even if we know they are, we still can't do anything until this sandstorm ends." Sasuke stated. We stopped yelling and sat down.
"When is it going to end anyway?" I whined.
"It should blow over soon, right?" Saara inquired.
"I don't know how long it will take before it stops." Sasuke said. Saara and I sat at the opening, watching and waiting. We remained in the cut away for the rest of the morning until the storm finally ceased that afternoon. Naruto and Sasuke came over to wake us up as we had fallen asleep from boredom.
"Huh? What is it?" Saara asked sleepily.
"Storms over. We can go now." Naruto replied. We jumped up and ran to the entrance, peering out. The sun was low in the sky and there weren't any signs that there had been a storm recently anywhere.
"Great. Just great! How are we going to find them now?" I asked.
"We'll just have to continue towards Ame and hope we pick up any clues on the way." Sasuke answered. Sighing, Saara and I looked at each other.
"I knew it was too easy." I muttered. Saara nodded.
"Yup, way to easy." she said. We left the cut away and continued our trek through the desert. We walked for the rest of the afternoon on into the night before we finally reached the Wind Country's border. We continued walking for another three hours before deciding to take a rest.
"Are we going to cross the border into Kawa (1) Country or just follow the border up through until we reach Kawa?" Naruto asked Sasuke.
"It'd be safer to just go along the border and then cross when we have to." Sasuke mused.
"That's true." Naruto replied. After we were rested we decided to walk as far as we could before having to settle down overnight. We were halfway to Kawa Country's border when we finally decided to make camp for the night. This time Sasuke, Naruto and Saara slept in the tent while I took the first watch after promising to wake Sasuke when it was his turn. While they were getting ready to go to sleep, I went to do a perimeter check. On my way back, I could hear Saara giggling, so I suppressed my chakra to keep them from noticing me. I crept closer to the tent to see what she was laughing about.
"Naru-chan, I can't sleep!" I heard Saara say. I could hear shuffling around inside the tent.
"So? What do you want me to do about it?" Naruto was heard asking.
"Do you think you and Sasuke could make out some? Just until I fall asleep, I mean." Saara replied. It became quiet inside the tent.
"WHAT?!" Naruto and Sasuke yelped. I had all I could do to not burst out laughing at their reaction. I crept away as the tent flap was flung open and Sasuke appeared red faced. I watched as he sat down by the fire before letting my chakra slowly become noticeable. I jumped down out of a tree and landed next to him.
"Sasuke? Is something wrong? Why aren't you sleeping?" I asked with a straight face. He turned to look at me before looking back into the flickering flames of the fire.
"Hn." he said. I growled at him causing him to look at me in surprise.
"That is not an answer Uchiha-kun." I said. Sasuke shook his head before once again turning back to the fire.
"There is something seriously wrong with your creepy friend over there." he said while pointing at the tent.
"Naru-chan or Saara-chan?" I asked.
"Saara." Sasuke replied. I raised a brow at this.
"What?" Sasuke asked noticing my expression.
"Isn't she your creepy friend too?" I asked. Sasuke stared at me blankly before answering.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." he said chuckling lightly. I moved to sit closer to him and put my arm around his shoulder.
"You know, all you have to do is give in to what she asks. It will be alot less painful in the end." I said. Sasuke whipped his head around to look at me in surprise.
"Do you have any idea what the hell she asked me and Naruto to do?" he yelped. I smirked.
"Not really, but if it's Saara-nee-chan, I can probably guess." I answered. Before Sasuke could answer the sound of movement came from behind us. We jumped up and turned, kunai at the ready. When we realized it was only Naruto and Saara we looked at each other blushing and laughed, before sitting back down.
"What's going on? You two seem quiet jumpy." Naruto said.
"Nothing." we said in unison. Saara and Naruto exchanged glances before joining us.
"Are you sure? There's nothing funny going on with you is there?" Saara asked waggling her eyebrows. We blushed even harder and looked away.
"There is absolutely nothing going on." Sasuke said glaring. Naruto and Saara looked at each other before laughing again.
"You three really need to get some sleep. Sasuke, you have the next watch." I said.
"I know." he replied.
"Saara and I can't sleep." Naruto whined. I shook my head and turned back towards the fire. We sat in silence for a while before Naruto broke it.
"Did you see the looks on Gaara and Kankuro's faces when we pulled you girls into separate hotel rooms with us?" he asked laughing. We joined in laughing as well.
"Yeah. They looked so pissed off!" Saara cried.
"It was even better when they came the next morning and you came out half naked behind us." I said, wiping tears away from my eyes. Sasuke just sat there smirking.
" I told you that teleportation jutsu would come in handy." he said.
"Do you think they will ever figure out what we did?" Saara asked.
"I doubt it. If they do, we'll probably hear from them." Naruto said. We talked for a little longer before Saara, Naruto and I began to get tired. I stood up yawning and began to move around.
"What's wrong?" Saara asked.
"Nothing. Just stretching a bit." I said as I tried to hide another yawn. Sasuke stood up as well and grabbed my arm, turning me towards him.
"You are exhausted. So isn't Saara. You go ahead and get some sleep. I'll take watch now." he said.
"But Sasuke..." I started to protest.
"But nothing! Just go." Sasuke commanded. Naruto and Saara got up and grabbed my hands.
"Come on you. If you get too tired you won't be able to keep up tomorrow." Naruto said as they pulled me once again into the tent to sleep. Sasuke went to do another perimeter check before coming back. Not long after coming back, Sasuke checked on us in the tent once again. Seeing that we were asleep already, he went back to keep watch. A few hours later the first rays of the sun began to show on the horizon. Sasuke and Naruto had changed positions so Sasuke could get some sleep. Naruto came in and woke us up a little while later. We crawled out of the tent and sat down next to Naruto who immediately handed us a cup of hot tea.
"Thanks, Naru-chan." Saara and I said before taking a sip.
"Hn, thanks dobe." Sasuke replied.
"Teme!" Naruto retorted sticking out his tongue before sitting back down. After we had drank the tea and woke up more, we began to discuss what we have seen so far.
"If Deidara and Hidan have gone back to their original base in Ame, they must have crossed into Kawa." Saara said.
"Yeah, we haven't seen any sign of them anywhere." I said.
"Perhaps you're right. Maybe we ought to head into Kawa?" Naruto asked.
"That would be the best thing to do right now. We have to find their trail again." Sasuke agreed. We quickly cleaned up the area we had stayed in to conceal all traces of our presence. Once we were done, we took off across the border into Kawa Country. We traveled along the border looking for any signs of the two Akatsuki members. Occasionally we would find a small clue here and there that would lead us in the direction of their old base. We walked for four days before coming upon the seemingly deserted base.
"Do you think anyone's in there?" I asked quietly. Sasuke felt out with his chakra.
"I don't sense anyone but it doesn't mean there isn't anyone in there." he said.
"Should we go in then?" Saara asked.
"Well we won't know anything unless we do." Naruto said.
"I'll go first, then you girls follow me. Naruto, you watch our backs." Sasuke said. Naruto nodded.
"You got it." he said. We walked quietly towards the base and Sasuke signalled for us to wait.
"I'm going in first. Wait for my signal then follow one at a time." he said.
"Okay." we said. Sasuke nodded once before ducking into the base. After a few moments, we heard a low whistle and Saara quickly went in. A couple more minutes went by until we heard the whistle again signalling me to go in. I hurried in to where the others were waiting. As soon as I reached them, Sasuke whistled once more and waited. Naruto was soon by our side. We walked silently through the base checking every door and hall looking for any clues. We entered one lit hall lined with doors. We decided to split up and check all the rooms. The first five doors yielded no results. I ran to the end of the hall and slowly opened the last door on the right. Upon looking inside, I let out a soft yelp. The others were by my side in an instant.
"What is it?" Naruto asked in concern. He brushed past me to look in the room. He gasped when he took in the scene before him. There was a Jashin symbol in what looked like blood on the floor. When we looked closer, we realized it wasn't blood, but paint. Sasuke and Saara came up behind us and we all walked into the room to look around. I immediately went to the empty bed and climbed on to it. I grabbed the pillow and pulled it to my body, hugging it while the others searched the room. I put my hand behind me to support myself as I reclined back until I felt something wet and sticky. I quickly sat up and looked at my hand. It was covered in blood. I paled just looking at it. Saara noticed my expression and immediately came to my side.
"Jessie-chan? What is it?" she asked with worry in her eyes. I said nothing and continued to stare at my bloody hand. Naruto and Sasuke came over to where we were. Naruto grabbed my hand and turned it towards him so they could see what I was looking at. Their eyes went wide when they saw the blood.
"Jesshika? Are you hurt?" Sasuke asked. I still didn't move. Naruto tried shaking me to snap me out of my daze but it didn't work. Saara stepped forward.
"I'll take care of it." she told them softly. They nodded and backed off. Suddenly a loud smack could be heard. Sasuke and Naruto stared in horror as I lifted my other hand to my face.
"What the hell did you do that for?" I yelled looking at Saara.
"Sorry, but you were out of it for a minute." Saara replied. I continued to stare at her until I noticed my other hand had blood on it. I looked back up at Saara with tears in my eyes.
"This is Hidan's room. I think this is his blood. What if something happened to him?" I began to cry. Saara leaned forward and pulled me into a hug.
"He's alright. Remember he is immortal. He'll be fine." she said softly. I nodded and pulled away.
"I know but there's still so much blood." I mumbled. Sasuke stepped forward and pulled the blanket off the bed. He stuck his finger in the blood and rubbed it between his fingers while Saara grabbed a cloth from her pack and cleaned off my hand.
"This hasn't been here that long. It's maybe a day or two old." Sasuke said.
"So what do we do now?" Naruto asked.
"We've checked every room in this base and we know they aren't here. We need to find out where they went." Sasuke mused. I dropped my gaze to the floor.
"What if we follow that?" I asked pointing to the blood drops leading out of the room. Everyone looked to where I was pointing.
"That just might give us a clue to where they are heading now." Saara said. We followed the trail out of the room down the hall towards a small door that we hadn't noticed before. Sasuke quietly opened the door and peered in. It was another room bare of anything except a table, two chairs and another door.
"Empty." Sasuke said. We walked into the room and looked around.
"The blood leads out that door." I said. We hurried to the door, this time Naruto opening it. To our surprise, it lead outside the base. We walked through the door and out into the warm sunshine. We looked around searching for clues. This time Naruto found something.
"Hey guys. Look at this." he shouted holding up a piece of paper. We went to him to see what he had found.
"What is it?" I asked. Sasuke grabbed the paper from Naruto, earning a low growl from the blonde. Sasuke glared at him before reading the paper.
"It's a note of some kind, but I don't understand what it says." he said.
"What do you mean?" Saara asked. Sasuke handed her the paper and I looked over her shoulder to read it.
"It says Hida-kun, Dei-dei, and Jiro." Saara said.
"What does that mean?" Naruto asked confused.
"Hida-kun and Dei-dei are the nicknames we gave Hidan and Deidara." I said.
"But who or what is Jiro?" asked Sasuke looking at us.
"Jiro? No idea although it does sound familiar." I said. Saara scratched her head for a minute.
"Naruto, do you have a map?" she asked.
"I think so." Naruto answered before pulling off his pack and setting it on the ground. He opened it and began pulling out scrolls and containers of ramen. Sasuke's eyes widened in disbelief at the amount of ramen he had packed.
"Aha! Found it!" he yelled. He unrolled the map and placed it on the ground before looking up at Saara.
"What are you looking for?" he asked. Saara didn't answer for a few minutes.
"I thought so!" she said.
"Did you find something?" I asked.
"Jiro is an island off the coast of Tea Country." Saara explained pointing at the map. We looked to where she was pointing.
"That's where they are going?" Sasuke asked.
"I'm sure this is where they are going. But why are they going there?" Saara said. Naruto was quiet for a few minutes.
"Jiro Island? Isn't that where Orochimaru had one of his bases?" he asked.
"Hai! I knew it sounded familar to me." I cried.
"It does?" Sasuke asked. I nodded.
"Jiro Island is actually in the Sea Country. Gennie took me there once when I was little." I said.
"Why did he take you there?" Naruto asked curiously.
"Gennie had a mission to deliver a scroll there and since we had just lost our parents, he refused to leave me behind." I said.
"It looks so far away. How long will it take to get there?" Naruto asked. Everyone turned to me.
"It took a little over a month to get there from Konoha." I said.
"But now we are farther away from Konoha! Now it's going to take even longer!" Saara yelled.
"Then we had better get moving." Naruto said. Sasuke nodded.
"We'll stop in the nearest village to replenish our supplies on the way." he said.
"Alright. Lets go then." we said. We turned and began to travel south back towards Konoha. We planned to bypass the village and then keep heading south towards the coast. We would figure out where to go from there once we reached it. We crossed the border into Fire Country and traveled for three days before reaching the village of Tanzaku Quarters. We stopped to replenish our supplies and find a place to sleep overnight. Saara and I looked around as we walked through the village. Men kept staring at us, some whistling and others gesturing for us to come over. We felt very uncomfortable and edged closer to Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke gave us an odd look.
"What's the matter with you two?" he asked brow raised.
"There are men watching us." Saara said.
"Yeah and there's at least three that have been following us since we got here." I said. Naruto and Sasuke glanced back over their shoulders and caught a glimpse of the men as they ducked into an alley. Naruto was quiet for a few minutes before something dawned on him.
"I know this place! Pervy Sage dragged me here to find Tsunade when I was a genin." he exclaimed. We stopped walking and turned to look at him.
"You mean this is the place where you found her?" Saara and I yelped in surprise.
"Yup. This is the one." Naruto replied. He pulled Sasuke aside to speak with him.
"Sasuke, we can't let the girls out of our sight at all while we are here." he said sternly.
"Right. Lets just find a room out of the way and rest for now. We can go get supplies later." Sasuke said. Naruto nodded before turning back towards us. They were surprised to find that we weren't where they left us, but up against the wall of a gambling house with four guys surrounding us. Naruto and Sasuke growled before running to where we were.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing with our girls?" Naruto yelled. The men turned towards them but never stepped away from us.
"Nothing. We just thought we would have a little fun and show them around since they are new here." a red-haired man said. He seemed to be the leader of the little group. A short man with blonde hair just snickered.
"Jesshika, Saara, are you alright?" Sasuke asked us. We nodded.
"We're fine, Sasuke-kun." I replied.
"Naruto-chan, care to get rid of them for us? We are really tired." Saara added. A black haired men stepped back and grinned.
"Aww you're tired. Why don't you let us take you to a nice hotel so you can rest?" he asked, grabbing Saara's arm. Another man with black hair began to laugh and grabbed me as well.
"Is Sasuke-kun your man?" he asked me with a smirk. I didn't get a chance to respond before Sasuke spoke up.
"She's my wife. Now kindly let her go." he growled.
"And she is my wife. Step away before you get hurt." Naruto said angrily. We stood shocked for a minute before quickly recovering. We smiled at the men before Saara and I began laughing. The other men turned to us with a questioning look.
"What is so damn funny?" they wanted to know.
"How long do you plan to play around with these bakas? We want to get to a room to rest." we said smirking.
"Alright alright. Sasuke?" Naruto said. Sasuke nodded.
"Lets get this over with." he said. They rushed forward and the two men not holding us swung at them. Naruto kicked the first one in the stomach making him double over before kneeing him in the face, knocking him out. Sasuke grabbed the other one by the arm and bent it behind the man's back. Sasuke took his empty hand and smacked the man just below the neck knocking him out as well. The two men holding us didn't know whether to let us go and run, or try to fight. We made the decision for them. Saara and I stomped as hard as we could on the men's feet making them let go. As soon as we were free, I threw a senbon into the neck of the man who had held me. He staggered a little before falling to his knees, then face planting into the dirt. Saara performed her special Kamizuki family roundhouse to the back of the other man's head, instantly knocking him out. Sasuke and Naruto ran over to where we were.
"Why didn't you stay where we left you?" Naruto demanded.
"Or at least yell to us." Sasuke said. Saara and I crossed our arms and huffed.
"We didn't get a chance to yell." I said miffed.
"Yeah, they just surrounded us and pushed us over here." Saara said angrily.
"You two could have taken them out, so why didn't you?" Naruto asked.
"We thought it would be best to keep a low profile in this town." Saara answered.
"Especially with all the men watching us constantly." I said.
"That's true enough I guess. We better find a place to stay for the night." Sasuke said.
A/N: (1) Kawa is the Japanese word for river. This is a work in progress. Let me know what you think! Reviews are always appreciated! Arigatou!