Title: New Future of the Legends
Author: Nakora-chan
Email: nakora(dot)chan(at)gmail(dot)com
Series: Naruto
Rating: T (may end up M later on)
Pairings: None (If I have time later on, I will create an alternate version with pairings)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: Three years have past since Naruto has left Konoha. It is about time that he returns, but when he does, he reveals things about himself and Konoha that has never been known to the public. Despite what he has become, he strives to break free from all bonds.
Warnings: AU, OC, OOC, blood, abuse, mutilation (last three will occur later on)

Interlude: Hope for the Forsaken

She had been called in not five minutes after the meeting on top of the Hokage Tower had ended. Throughout the entire meeting, she gathered information, analyzing it and storing it for later use, but now, she wondered if there was any later use for the things that Tsurugi had said during the meeting.

She sat on the bench outside the Hokage's office and waited for her shisou to call her in. Her head buried in her hands, she felt the hopelessness fill her and could do nothing to stop it.

Plitter platter…

Her head rising from her hands, she looked up out the window and saw the sky outside of Konoha was graying and dark; gentle droplets of waters hit the glass of the windows before sliding down slowly down the windowpane. Just five minutes ago, the sky had been clear and the sun shining, but now, the sun disappeared behind the clouds that rained down on the village.

Her eyes staring out into the darkness of rain that covered the area for miles for what she could see, she breathed in a shuddering breath before letting it out. The rain was calming; it hadn't rained for weeks and suddenly, the rain came pouring down. Thunder rumbled above her, but she paid no attention to it. The rain was all that she needed to chase away the hopelessness.

"Sakura."

She turned and put on a grateful smile as her former sensei walked towards her, a concerned expression on his face, or rather what could be seen of his face. Getting to her feet, she asked him, "Tsunade-sama asked to see you too, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi merely nodded and didn't say anything as he studied her for a moment longer.

She looked away; the scrutiny brought her paranoia back full force. Kakashi knew something and he apparently thought that she knew of it too by the way that he was studying her so intently, but she knew nothing that he probably didn't know already. Yet… there was still a memory squirming in the back of her mind that caused her paranoia; probably the same memory that Kakashi had too.

Her jounin-sensei stepped back and smiled warmly. "She asked for Gai and his team as well."

She nodded. The only reason why she, Kakashi, and Team Gai would all be called together would be for a mission, a high ranking one at that. At least, the mission would help push away the thoughts that ran rampant around her mind, but she knew it was only a way to delay the inevitable.

The door opened beside them, and they both moved their heads to see who came out.

Tsurugi Tenkou emerged from the door way but didn't seem to move any farther from it. The way that he held himself, she could only deduce that he would join them on their mission or he was privy to whatever her sensei needed to tell them. Before the meeting, she would have thought the former, but now, after the meeting, she couldn't tell.

In her mind, Tsurugi was a person that was no longer subject to the law. In a way, he was above the law; he was the head of the clan that both he and Tsunade were in, so Tsunade was honor-bound to obey whatever orders the boy gave and she was the Hokage. He had leverage in almost any political or legal matter in the village, and there was nothing that any law could prevent his ascension so long as Tsunade was Hokage.

Just yesterday, she trusted him not to do something that would betray that trust, and true, he did not harm or hurt that trust, but now, whenever she just things about him, her mind cringed away, huddling in a corner from the cold that he exuded, the cold that she yesterday didn't notice.

He stared at them for a long while, studying their features seeming to define the impression of him just by the expressions of their faces and their stance. Done with his examination, he said to them, "The Hokage will now see you."

She took stared at him but not for as long. Getting to her feet, she gave a sideways glance at her former sensei and noted that he had pulled out his perverted book (that needed to burn in all nine layers of Hell) and had already started reading it while Tsurugi studied them. Ignoring the sudden tick that she got from just being beside the pervert of a sensei, she passed Tsurugi holding the door open with Kakashi trailing her and openly advocating his opinions of porn in public.

Entering her shisou's office, she immediately noticed that the lights were off and the only light in the room came from the darkness outside. The room as usual was full of paperwork, finished and to be completed, and most of it surrounded the lone desk in the room. Lightning lit up the sky and the room, Tsunade a dark figure against the white of outside, before returning back into darkness, and thunder cracked.

Her body automatically moving to a spot a meter away from her sensei but little to the side, she turned to see the door still held open by Tsurugi after Kakashi came in, taking a spot near her. Not a moment later, Team Gai walked in and stood across the room from both Sakura and Kakashi, all of them forming some sort of broken semicircle.

Once everyone was in their spots, Tsurugi let the door behind him gently close and stepped up between Team Gai and Kakashi and Sakura and directly in front of Tsunade.

Her eyes flicked over to Tsurugi, and she briefly wondered why he was standing on their side of Tsunade. Surely, if he was there only to hear out their mission specifications, he would be standing next to Tsunade; but he was standing with them.

Pushing down the dread that abruptly rose, she turned her gaze back to the Hokage and kept her gaze there, just to avoid any unwanted thoughts and any thoughts that might incite an improper response.

Tsunade's eyes casually perused the faces of the shinobi in front of her, and her face was cast in an unreadable expression. "The Kazekage has been taken by Akatsuki."

CRACK!

The room lit up once more before being enshrouded in shadows followed by the loud thunderous crack of lightning.

She stood at an absolute standstill as they all stared at Tsunade. As soon as she heard those words, her mind raced through all her memories of going into classified files and digging up any information that Tsunade might have on the organization.

Digging up any information on Akatsuki was difficult and more difficult still was hiding that she knew and had found out by looking into classified information from the Hokage. As the apprentice to the Hokage, she certainly had access to many classified files that even normal jounins would have difficulty in accessing; she had tried not to abuse the privilege since it was only there because she often times helped her shisou with the normal everyday paperwork that piled sky-high. But it was too much of a temptation, and she had succumbed if not for herself but for the sake of her team, a team that ended three years ago.

She searched for any information concerning the Uchiha clan, especially the oh-so-illusive Uchiha Itachi. Three years ago, she had known very little about the Uchiha massacre other than he was the last member of the blue-blooded clan; back then, exactly how he was the last member of the clan had never crossed her mind, the thought probably blocked by the fanatical obsession she embraced. Yet as soon as both of her teammates had left the village and her duties as Tsunade's apprentice allowed free time, she used her access privilege to her advantage and searched for information regarding the clan and found the perpetrator to be none other than his older brother, Uchiha Itachi.

After finding the name, she immediately started cross-referencing the name with any other records that she could get a hold of. Of course, she couldn't access all files but majority of them, she could; even with her high access privilege, she still wasn't able to get the information. But then one day, out of the blue, her shisou had fallen asleep while reviewing several files that she had never seen before. Taking advantage of the situation, she immediately started reading the files and discovered the existence of Akatsuki.

Apparently, Akatsuki was an organization of nine S-rank nuke-nin, one of them being Uchiha Itachi. In the files, she learned only that Uchiha Itachi was partnered with the equally as infamous Hoshigake Kisame from Kirigakure no Sato and that Naruto was the target of the pair. Even though she had the information, she couldn't figure out exactly why the duo was after Naruto, and now, with more information regarding Akatsuki, she still couldn't understand. Until she understood the relationship and the similarity between Naruto and the Kazekage, she knew that she wouldn't be able to understand exactly why Naruto was targeted.

"Team Gai, you will head to Suna, determine the situation, relay it back to Konoha. After that, follow the orders of Suna and back them up. Sakura, you will be the medic-nin; and you, Kakashi, will assist in tracking Gaara if the Suna Council permits it."

After Tsunade stopped, everyone in the room turned to look at Tsurugi, who merely smiled back, one of those creepy smiles seen only on the faces of insane mass serial murderers.

With an easygoing smile on her face, one very similar to the one on Tsurugi's face, Tsunade went on saying, "And Tenkou will be there as a seal master."

She frowned, not completely understanding why this shinobi was going with them, and asked, "Isn't Kakashi-sensei good enough with seals?"

The easygoing smile on Tsunade's face faded into a grim one, and she could suddenly feel the coldness creeping closer. Just as Tsunade was about to answer, someone else answered for her.

"Hatake-san is not a seal master, and it is likely that Akatsuki will do something to the Kazekage that will eventually kill him. I can stop that," declared Tsurugi, firmly. The look on his face was resolute and just looking at him, she knew that he could do everything he claimed, but there was still that coldness that kept creeping deeper and deeper.

Looking around at the others in the room, she protested albeit weakly, "We don't know anything about you."

Tsurugi's face went from resolute and determined to pensive yet frosty. With a slightly confused tone, he replied carefully, "I told you my entire clan history just a few minutes ago, Haruno-san, and I do believe that I've already displayed my abilities to you as well."

She once more looked at the others in the room and saw no support. She gazed at her former sensei's face the longest, trying the best to decipher what the aloof expression on his face meant.

"Sakura."

She looked at her shishou and saw the stern and somewhat disappointed look on her shisou's face. She had never expected to see that look on her shishou's face and quickly looked away, trying to hide her face behind her hair, to hide the hurt expression she knew she wore. The coldness chilled her from the inside out, and she couldn't help but shiver despite the normal room temperature.

And she wondered, 'What will make this cold disappear?'

Kakashi watched his former student with care. It wasn't like her to protest Tsurugi's placement on the mission; she usually went along with whatever the Hokage ordered to do. Yet today out of all days to protest and start rebelling under her teacher's orders, she had been adamantly against Tsurugi when the rest of the group knew the advantage of having a seal master joining them.

Seal masters were rare in Konoha. There were plenty of shinobi that had some sealing knowledge, and some would have the nerve to boast of having the same prowess his Sensei had. Usually, those people ended up dead attempting a sealing. Having a seal mastery was really a true honor; no seal mastery had been granted since Sensei had gotten his.

But then suddenly out of nowhere, a totally unknown shows up and presents a seal that could be basically called the cure to Orochimaru's cursed seal.

Most shinobi have some sealing knowledge, and it's enough to get them through most situations, and again, seal masters were extremely rare, not only in Konoha but in all shinobi countries. The sealing knowledge that most shinobi knew came from years—years of experience and knowledge acquired and needed for missions. For someone like Tsurugi to claim to be a seal master, then he can undeniably back up his claim.

Sealing was not a subject to trifle with. Out of all shinobi areas of expertise, sealing was probably the most dangerous. One small mistake, such as not putting enough pressure in writing a character or not focusing for a split second, could cost the lives of the target and the sealer, and maybe the people within the vicinity, depending on exactly on how severe the mistake. Since sealing had such a high rate of casualties, many shinobi tended to avoid learning the subject, unless again, it was required or acquired.

Sensei always said that only idiots learn sealing and only idiots who can't stop being idiots die from sealing. Honestly, he never understood his Sensei's philosophy but strangely enough, it made some sort of sense.

So, applying his Sensei's philosophy to the situation at hand, Tsurugi had to be actually good at sealing since he didn't die from it already.

Glancing at Tsurugi as Sakura turned away from looking at the Hokage, he saw a strange flash of emotion cross Tsurugi's usually guarded expression. He couldn't decide whether it was disappointment or sadness, but the tension around Tsurugi unexpectedly got heavier. Just as the flash of emotion appeared, it was replaced by another more amiable lightheartedness.

"Don't worry about me," Tsurugi reassured with a careless wave of his hand. "I'm a special jounin and I'll handle myself, so pay me no mind. I'll only interfere with the mission if the situation requires a need of a seal master."

The air was lighter but the tension around Tsurugi was still the same, though no one noticed it save he, Gai, and the Hokage.

Once sure, Kakashi turned to the Hokage and told her. "I have no qualms with Tsurugi on the mission."

Sakura's head spun around to look at him, but he didn't dare look at her in case she found something in his expression that would cause her to protest all the more. He kept an eye on Tsurugi and was mildly surprised when the sure sign of gratitude and happiness shined in the boy's eyes. Without warning, he realized that Tsurugi was just a boy.

Tsurugi was only a boy. Even though he was fifteen and a shinobi, well on his way to greater things, Tsurugi needed someone to stand up for him and judging from the expression that was on the boy's face not just a moment ago, he hadn't had been accepted when he was younger. The boy was just that: a boy; and it reminded him of just how much children had to lose in order to protect the ones they loved.

Gai spoke up from the other side of the room in his calmer-than-usual-but-not-normal voice. "I agree with Kakashi. Considering the Kazekage's condition, it would be advisable to send Tsurugi on the mission."

Tsunade nodded and explained a little bit more. "I would be sending Jiraiya with you but he has to go somewhere and gather more information."

Everyone gave a small nod, understanding their predicament.

Kakashi gave just another sideways glance at Sakura, and from the look of utter confusion on her face, he knew that she had concluded that he was just being his normal 'I don't have a problem with anything'. Never had he contradicted her in any of her or her teammates' conclusions of him, and he doubted that he ever would. It just wouldn't be him to do so, so he let everyone think whatever they wanted to think.

His gaze going from Sakura to Tsurugi, he stared at the boy before blinking and staring again, only the second time, he saw the same thing he had been seeing for the past several days. For just the smallest second, he thought he had seen… he thought he had seen… Naruto.

An older, mature Naruto dressed in a black kimono under a plain white haori stood exactly where Tsurugi was standing.

Then the moment passed and Tsurugi was there once more.

As if feeling his stares, the boy turned, and once more, a flash of a cheerful grin on an older Naruto's face compelled him to blink, and the image was gone once again. The boy looked at him with a genuinely confused look. "What's wrong, Hatake-san?"

Looking at the feminine boy, he knew that no one knew this person except maybe the two Sannin in the room. The only person to have taught Tsurugi most of what the boy knows about sealing had to be Jiraiya as the man was the other of Konoha's two seal masters; so it was obvious that Jiraiya would know the boy. Tsunade… well, who doesn't she know well?

This mission. It would help all of them learn more about Tsurugi, and most of all, it would help him learn why he saw Naruto whenever he was supposed to be seeing Tsurugi.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong."

Jiraiya stood at the gates, Tsunade at his side, both waiting for the arrival of the shinobi leaving for the mission. The rain had let up a few minutes ago but the sky was still dark and gray. The ground they stood on was moist but not wet or soggy enough for their feet to start sinking into the mud.

He looked at the road out of the village and said tonelessly, "We all are leaving soon."

Beside him, Tsunade just nodded.

"He has to relearn all his lessons again," he said, without a look at his teammate. "Out there, he lost all he learned just to keep himself safe. He lost most of the trust that he had in himself and in others, so he must relearn his lessons again."

His hands clenched, and she saw the tension in his posture. He knew that she wanted to say something, but still she offered no words, just understanding. He wanted to drink away his sorrows again before leaving; he already drank his ass off a few minutes ago, but he hadn't drank anything away. She understood because she too drank away sorrows though they always came back with a trembling sadness.

Turning up to look at the gray sky, he closed his eyes and let out a shuddering breath, the only sign of inner turmoil. The tension in his stance ceased, and all calm returned to the Frog Sennin.

The stress gone from his shoulders, his gaze turned towards Tsunade, and he immediately saw the worry around her eyes though the rest of her face was relayed none of her other emotions. Inwardly, he smiled a grim smile; Tsunade worried about the brat just like he did. He had told her about what had happened during their three year travel abroad and the changes that it wrought on the brat that they both cared deeply for. Since she now knew about their adventures, she too felt the worry and guilt that he too bore when he was first confronted with the event just a week after leaving Konoha.

But that was the past; there was nothing either of them could do to change what had happened. The only thing they could do was support the brat in all his endeavors and be there when he needed them.

"There's a jutsu he learned, Tsunade," he started, abruptly casting them away from the string of negative thoughts. "He started learning this jutsu, and I didn't tell you this because adding this information to what I already told you would be too much."

Again, she nodded.

Eyes glancing around and his senses spreading out trying to locate any eavesdroppers, he lowered his voice and said, "I've warned him against using the jutsu just before we arrived in the village, but just in case, I should warn you that—"

Jiraiya stopped and the two turned to watch five figures coming towards them. As the figures approached them, they soon recognized the five as Team Gai with Sakura, all five of them conversing in low voices and trying to rein in their emotions. As soon as the approaching were within hearing range, both he and Tsunade tuned their hearing to eavesdrop on the conversation.

"What more do we know about Tsurugi?"

"His style, the Zen'in no Buddha, is an effective style and his speed is up to par, so I believe we don't have to worry about defending the seal master," the other of the two of three younger shinobi that had been there for the evaluation calmly replied.

They could practically see the frown on Sakura's face as she argued Tsurugi's presence. "We have never worked with him before; think of how it'll affect us."

"As I said, he is a special jounin and capable of defending himself. We do not need to worry about his presence," Neji repeated.

"But—"

"Sakura-san, Neji-kun has a point. Even though I have never seen Tsurugi-kun fight, from both Neji-kun and Gai-sensei's opinion and words of him, he is a very capable shinobi." Surprisingly, that came from Lee, who remained calm and focused, not siding with the person that he exclaimed to love.

"Lee, your flames of youth have grown stronger! After this mission, we will rejoice by running around the village one thousand times on two hands blindfolded before nightfall!"

"Hai, Gai-sensei!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

And it kept on going on and on like that, with the rising sun effect in the background. Everyone in range of that… um… scene cringed and inched away from the spandex-wearing duo, even the people that weren't relatively near the two.

As soon as the spandex fest started, Jiraiya and Tsunade tuned out the conversation knowing that it would amount to nothing and it would only be damaging on the psyche. Shuddering, they briefly wondered whether or not to wash their eyes with bleach to get the image out of their heads.

Before long, the group of five joined by Kakashi, who apparently fell out of a tree reading his Icha Icha Tactics that he didn't know he had but left the matter aside since the book was the brand new Icha Icha Tactics that hadn't been released yet, reached the gates. They looked around and spotted Tsunade and Jiraiya, but not the subject of the conversation during their walk.

Sakura gave a light frown, not one that would overly display her dislike of the last member of their impromptu team, and her hands clenched into fists. Whatever she was going to say to the two elder Sannin, she decided not to voice her opinion and let her thoughts stew in her mind.

Jiraiya glanced at Tsunade, who frowned at her apprentice's actions. The frown let absolutely no doubt in his mind that Tsunade didn't understand why Sakura distrusted Naruto. Tsunade was shielded from the overwhelming coldness because she was Naruto's blood relative; even though he too was related to the blonde (now raven-haired bishounen), there was no blood connection. Most people were able to ignore the coldness, but some people were more attuned to chakra signatures and they felt the cold that unconsciously and reluctantly flowed from Naruto.

The coldness that the boy exuded could overwhelm anyone who was more attuned to chakra, and he felt it before, several times during the three year trip. The times he did feel that cold, it came with an inexplicable sense of fear and sometimes, a killing intent that he hadn't felt since the incident at Naruto's birth.

Of course, Naruto himself couldn't feel the cold, and whenever he was in range, the coldness was gone as if it had never been there in the first place. Naruto's seemed to be the eye of the storm, but every other place was caught up in the middle of the storm.

"Jiraiya-sama, can you tell us anything about Tsurugi-san…" Sakura trailed off as her head turned to the direction of the last approaching figure.

He too looked in the direction of his approaching student and frowned. The brat was wearing usual attire but still disguised as a raven-haired bishounen, which still annoyed him to hell. The white haori and the black kimono; sometimes, he wished he had killed those monks back at the temple before they gave the brat all those kimonos and formal wear.

The only one difference that he noted was that the brat wore his hitai-ate around his neck instead of on his forehead, and his lips quirked up into a grim smile at that. So the brat was actively trying to get the Akatsuki to take notice of him to draw their attention away from the others, all to protect them from the organization after him. Besides, the brat had made a name for himself in his disguise, and many heard how he looked like, especially with a hitai-ate around his neck rather than on his forehead.

As his – heavens forbid that he admit it aloud to anyone, especially the brat himself – student drew closer, all the conversation gradually ceased as everyone's attention focused on the brat.

When he finally reached them, the blonde-turned-bishounen gave everyone a creepy smile, a smile reminiscent of the smile just a while ago. Just from the looks on those that didn't really know the bishounen well (everyone except Jiraiya and Tsunade), they all expected the long-haired boy to say something or do something, but Naruto didn't do anything. He merely waited.

Once they realized that the brat wasn't going to say anything, Kakashi discernibly cleared his throat to gather everyone's attention. "Well, we'll start off with an inventory of everything we have."

All nodded, and the two Sannin just watched as the team took out all their weapons and items that they had with them. Kakashi carefully and meticulously went over each shinobi's inventory, deemed it satisfactory, and moved onto the next person. When he finally reached Naruto, the singular eye blinked in surprise when the boy held out his arms with a bright smile.

From the sidelines, Jiraiya smirked. No one was expecting that, even just looking at him, the brat didn't look like he had anything. In a way, he looked like a civilian if it hadn't been for the shinobi hitai-ate around his neck. The brat was armed in a fashion similar to the Legendary Sannin; all the Sannin hid their weapons and had no weapons seen on their bodies. Of course, out of the three of them, Orochimaru was the one that used weapons most often, but still no one saw Kusanagi since it was kept in the Snake Sennin's stomach.

Not many shinobi nowadays kept all weapons hidden; not many shinobi neglect to carry weapons. Well, maybe 'neglect' wasn't precise enough of a word. His – he couldn't believe that he was admitting it again – student chose not to carry weapons because the brat thought 'it's to big and bulky; it doesn't fit my style'. The brat had the nerve to tell him, the legendary Frog Sennin, that weapons didn't fit his style. The brat didn't carry a scroll like he did either, said it was too 'unappealing'. Oh, if only the monks hadn't taught the boy how to effectively defend and carry himself…

But enough about what the brat did or did not have on his 'oh so appealing' body…

Those that had finished putting away all their things glanced over worriedly to Kakashi and Naruto.

Sakura frowned lightly and asked, "What's wrong, Kakashi-sensei, Tsurugi-san?"

Kakashi took a step back, indicating that he was finished his inspection, and shook his head. "Nothing. I was just finishing up." The jounin cast a fleeting look at the smiling special jounin before walking away to talk to the entire group.

Both Jiraiya and Tsunade chuckled lightly at the situation. Obviously, Kakashi hadn't remembered how it was like with a seal master; after all, the last time, the man had been a fourteen-year-old boy fighting in the Third Great Shinobi War. Years had gone by, and Kakashi didn't remember all the abilities available to seal masters. They wondered for a moment what his reaction would be when Naruto finally revealed what he hid in his sleeves. After all, those sleeves were quite voluminous.

Still, compared to everyone else's baggage, he wore nothing at all. All he had were the clothes on his back apparently.

"Okay, everyone, it's going to take three days to reach Suna; we will make as few stops as possible, but if you don't feel well, we will stop to rest. We can't risk the slightest decrease in manpower until we determine the situation in Suna." Kakashi watched all them carefully, save Gai. Obviously, the two jounin trusted each other to decipher the hidden messages in the explanation. "We are likely to meet up with members of Akatsuki; you are under no circumstance to confront them without either me of Gai at your side."

They nodded, though Naruto's nod was more enthusiastic than the others'.

Kakashi nodded in return.

"Tenkou!"

The team turned around to see a stony-face Jiraiya advancing towards them. His strides were large as he came towards them, more to face the extremely feminine boy of the group. The Sannin stopped in front of Naruto, and he studied his – kami-sama, he had to say it again – student.

Naruto's face was schooled to perfection, fitting his fake persona almost perfectly. The only evidence of worry and anger was the strange glint in the boy's cerulean eyes, and he hoped that when the boy came back, that glint would be replaced by something with a lighter feeling. He knew that what he was going to say was useless, but he couldn't help but need to say the words.

"Tenkou, I know that you are near unflappable, but you're not a god or inhuman at all. Remember that."

The smile that was plastered on the brat's face faded into a set line. He replied stoically, "I know."

Watching the emotions flash across the cerulean eyes, Jiraiya paused before setting his face into a sterner countenance. "Then, I know that you know, but…" Again, he paused before saying, "Don't use that jutsu."

Naruto almost immediately looked down then away but nodded in acquiescence. Before turning back to his team, the boy fought himself into setting his face back into the smiling visage of Tsurugi Tenkou.

Kakashi watched them with careful consideration, and as soon as the confrontation was over, he garnered attention. "Let's go."

Everyone, including… especially Naruto in his Tsurugi Tenkou disguise, nodded, and they all jumped off, leaping away.

Eyes following the shinobi as their figures got steadily smaller in the distance, the Frog Sannin stood there when his teammate walked up beside him. She watched with them, and she didn't offer him any glance to know what he was feeling. Still, she began, "Are you—"

"No, not really," without warning he interrupted. "I trained him. He's been trained. He knows his stuff."

He looked at her and saw her smiling in the direction that the team had departed. She said, "Maturity is a weird thing."

Walking down the path back, Temari kept thinking back to the cracked cup at the dango shop.

Normally, she would have ignored it and yelled at the waiter to get a new cup of tea, but the sense of foreboding wouldn't leave her be. It kept niggling at the back of her mind; so every once in a while, she would look back in the direction of the dango shop as if the shop was her source of discomfort. Well… it did provide the cup that cracked.

She had left Konoha early this morning and stopped at the dango shop for a brief reprieve and some dango. She wouldn't hear of any news of what was happening in the shinobi world until she reached Suna or until she could contact someone. All of her options left a deep disquietude.

"Temari-san!"

Looking up with caution and slight surprise, she caught sight of a group of shinobi approaching. She wasn't surprised when recognizable faces dropped down behind her as she turned around to face them, her hands twitching in preparation for an unexpected attack. But reaching her sensing out, she felt their chakra signatures and recognized most of them.

She waited as the group caught their breath but her eyes looked straight to the only person of the group that she had never seen. Studying the newcomer, she mentally blanched, 'BISHOUNEN!'

Despite her immediate reaction to him, she identified the hitai-ate worn he wore around his neck and frowned. She had never seen him before in the village. So, trying for subtle, she reached out with her senses to get a feel of his chakra signature only to discover that he wasn't even there according to her senses. Pulling back, she nodded at him unsteadily.

The bishounen smiled and nodded in return.

The others noticed her perusal of the new member of the group, and immediately, Sakura stepped up to introduce him to her. "This is Tsurugi Tenkou, special jounin and a seal master. He just came back to Konoha after a long term mission." Sakura then turned hesitantly to Tsurugi, "Tsurugi-san, this is—"

"Sabaku no Temari, jounin and older sister to the Godaime Kazekage," Tsurugi interrupted benignly, no malice or ill will intended. Bowing politely, he added, "We've met."

She then frowned, "We have?"

Tsurugi nodded.

When had he met her, and why didn't she remember who he was? Thinking back, she couldn't at all place his face on any of the people that she met in the past; his looks were enough to warrant some space in her memory. But if his looks weren't enough, she could at least recognize the name or at least recognize it through one of her contacts. Yet every time she went through her memory, she could bring up nothing that could prove his previous introduction.

Probably seeing the confused look on her face, he waved the matter off, "It's alright if you've already forgotten me."

With her frown set on her face, she realized that this shinobi was trying to tell her something else. To any normal person, to forget someone was an insult, but Tsurugi pushed it aside as if it wasn't an insult in the first place. In a way, he was implying that he was an important part of her life, or maybe not even in her life, but in the life of someone very close to her. Just from his words alone, she concluded that his name and his guise was a cover for who he really was.

At last, she nodded and turned to the superiors of the group. "What's wrong?"

Both Gai and Kakashi held their faces impassively, and Gai stated, "The Kazekage has been taken by Akatsuki."

"What?" She stared at them, her eyes wide, shock evident on her face. "Gaara?"

The Konoha group didn't say anything, and their silence only confirmed the statement.

Her head drooped, anguish hand in hand with guilt gripping her face, in sudden remembrance. 'The cracked cup.'

How she hated omens. The cracked cup was probably one of the most common omens to befall anyone, and it always came with bad news to anyone close. That sense of foreboding that followed her from the dango shop was confirmed, and she cursed herself for not trusting whatever god up there that sent her the message.

Her brother's capture came at the worst possible time; the village had let go of the gripping hatred and fear that they had for years since he was born. Now, as Kazekage, he got respect and acknowledgement for his actions though there were times that there was little that he could do. The village had gradually gotten to love him, and see past the emotionless mask that he constantly had on. Their love and support of their Godaime Kazekage had grown, but now that he was gone, what would become the relationship between him and the village?

She didn't want to think about it; it didn't bode well for her and her thoughts would only grow darker if she kept mulling over the topic.

Finally, while looking down and away, she admitted to the group, "I had a bad feeling."

"It'll take three days to reach Suna from here. Let's hurry."

The Konoha group knew the anxiety and the anguish that she felt, even if they couldn't comprehend it fully. They didn't know Gaara; they didn't know the hardships that he went through to become the Kazekage; they didn't know what he meant to anyone he had met. They simply didn't know. They knew how she felt, but they didn't know the depth of it.

Quickly, she glanced at the newcomer of the group, and she saw eyes that matched the feelings that she held inside. He knew. He knew those feelings, and in some way, she knew the felt the same way she did when she heard about her brother's capture.

His eyes remained glued to her, and she merely looked back in response. Though his face was set into a grim smile that tried to reassure, she knew that that smile meant nothing because it was just a farce. His eyes were all that she needed to get the answers to the questions that she had.

Seeing the reassurance in those eyes, she stepped away from the group and indicated her agreement. "Okay."

As they took a step to leap away into the trees, she only hoped that she could get to her brother in time and that those understanding-filled eyes weren't really a trick of the mind to replace blank eyes.

To be continued…

Author's Notes:

A little bit less than two weeks. I thought that I could get this chapter out by Tuesday since that day is my usual finishing day, but since the last update was a little bit late, my schedule has been thrown off. So I decided that I would move the update to whenever I could finish this chapter, since I was hurrying to do so. I think that this chapter wasn't as good as the previous chapters, and I know that I've based a lot of stuff off of canon, but I'm adding my own twist to just about everything. Anything that is written has a twist, so just as a spoiler, I won't be doing the Sakura-Chiyo battle because that will go according to canon. That's all I can spoil for now.

There are a lot of little things that I've written in the past chapters that I've forgotten to take note of, like the cursed seal facility that I mentioned earlier. I forgot about it because I didn't go so much into but now that I did catch that little plot "hook", I plan to take good care of it until it comes up later on in the story. With all the little catches in the plotline, I've decided that I might make this story a bit longer than the intended 45 chapters. The 3-year travel itself is supposed to take 5 chapters, but with the way that I'm writing now, I expect that it might take much more than I want it to.

This chapter's POV include: Sakura, Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Temari. I've already decided on the plot for the next chapter, which you all can expect in two weeks, and as a teaser, I'll tell: Kakashi, Kankurou, Chiyo. It's only a 3 POV chapter, which I now decide will be an average. I don't want to do too many POV changes since it only gives me more headaches.

Okay, to the explanations now. Omens. Everyone knows, but I'll just say it again. In the Naruto manga, there just about always a cracked cup when something bad happens. Now Tsunade's omen isn't usually cracked cups (it's winning at gambling), though she did get one sometime during the manga (don't remember when, so don't ask). Kurenai's cup cracked (I'm not spoiling that part, and I haven't even decided the final verdict for that portion of the story). Temari's cup cracked, indicating Gaara's bad fortune. To explanation 2: rain. Rain in most manga/anime is usually equal to bad things happening, or at least melancholy. So it's no wonder why Sakura at the beginning is feeling melancholy and down; the cold that Naruto naturally exudes will be explained later but it's not the only reason why Sakura was feeling melancholy. Again, all this will be explained later.

I've noticed that plenty of people read this fanfiction, and I think it's great that the story has gotten so many hits and gotten onto so many alert lists, C2s, faves, but still… I NEED REVIEWS! As a little incentive, if more people review, I will write longer chapters, possibly as long as the ones of the previous version of this fanfiction. NEED REVIEWS!

If you have any questions or concerns that you need me to address immediately, just email me or send a review (which I really want by the way) and I'll try to respond as quick as I can. Just to let you know, I'll probably address all questions in my author's notes or in the story itself, so don't worry too much about some things.

This chapter hasn't been beta'd so I'll need someone to beta this chapter as well as the rest of this story for me.

REVIEW!