Chapter 7:Mission Rescue Sasuke II
The next two weeks went by as Yugito spent her free time having sparring matches with Lee and Naruto. She mainly did this to avoid going shopping and talking about boys with Ino and Sakura again. Plus she liked sparring with Lee. Lee's taijutsu was completely different from hers or Naruto's. While her taijutsu was more of a finasse and fluid movement, Lee's taijutsu had more straight punches and hard hits. Naruto's taijutsu was different from her's and Lee's, he liked to grapple more than both of them. Overall she had fun having these sparring matches.
Naruto and Yugito were eating at Ichiraku when Kakashi came from behind them. "It's time Naruto, Hokage-sama wants you in her office."
"Alright, let's go then. You ready Yugito?" He asked her. She nodded.
They took off to the Hokage Tower and entered the Tsunade's office. When he entered the room he could already see that Sakura and Jiraiya was already there. When he took a look at Tsunade, Naruto saw that her eyes were red and her cheeks were slightly pink, almost like she was crying just a moment before. Maybe, she just had a drink right before the meeting, Naruto thought to himself. He proceed to scan the room. To his surprise Kakashi was missing. He and Yugito went to stand next to Sakura's left side. Jiraiya was on Sakura's right side.
"Is Kakashi-sensei going with us?" Naruto questioned Tsunade.
"No, Jiraiya is taking his place. Kakashi will be doing some other mission," she responded in a calm voice. Naruto did not like this. It wasn't that he didn't like that Jiraiya was coming with them, but the fact that he thought Kakashi would also be the one coming with him and Sakura because he was after, all the former sensei for team 7.
"I know what you're thinking Naruto, but it's the only way. Sorry, Kakashi can't come on this trip. The mission that he's on right now is very important," Jiraiya told him.
"Oh ba-chan this is my teammate from the Hidden Village of Cloud. Sorry I didn't bring her to you before. My friends wanted to take her out and we didn't have the time," Naruto told Tsunade.
Did I hear him right? Yugito thought. Did he just called her ba-chan? If I'm not mistakened the Hokage for the Hidden Village of Leaf was a sennin just like Jiraiya. First Jiraiya-sama and now Tsunade-sama. He must have a skill for survival. A person does not live long when they insult a sennin, never mind that Naruto has already insulted two of them.
"I don't think you should call her that Naruto nor should you called Jiraiya-sama, ero-sennin," Yugito said to him.
Naruto just laughed at her, "You know, your pretty funny sometimes Yugito for such a serious shinobi. You call them what you want and I'll call them what I want. Deal?"
"Naruto, I like your friend already. She has manners," Tsunade interrupted them.
"Okay, here are the briefings for the mission. This is going to be a S-Class mission because you're going against a sennin," Tsunade told the group.
"Unlike Kages, Orochimaru doesn't operate in his village. Only a few number of his most trusted followers know where he is at, mainly only Kabuto. Sasuke is also most likely there because Orochimaru is probably protecting his most precious vessel. Most of the time when he wants something done by the Hidden Village of Sound he gives his order to his subordinate Kabuto to handle the job. Orochimaru's location is three miles west of the Hidden Village of Sound, here," she pointed to the map indicating where the location was. "Your mission is easy, kill Orochimaru and Kabuto. Try to bring Sasuke back, but if he's a threat to your life also, you may kill him."
"Yeah, real easy, just kill a sennin and subordinate, and rescue his strong container. Got it," Naruto said, slightly wiping his hands in opposite ways like the job was already finished.
"Tsunade-sama, shouldn't we take some of our friends to help us rescue Sasuke," Sakura asked her sensei.
Naruto answered her question instead of Tsunade, "No, we shouldn't have more than four people. The more people that we have, the slower we move and the easier it is for enemy patrols to locate us. If they happen to locate us, back up would arrive and we would be fighting a whole Hidden Village. Our mission is not to fight the whole Hidden Village, but to rescue Sasuke."
"Yes, Naruto is correct Sakura. Any more people and enemy patrols might locate you guys. This mission is going to consist only four people," Tsunade told her.
"Alright you may leave when you're ready," Tsunade mentioned to the group.
"Yes," the group responded. With that they left the office.
Jiraiya looked back and gave Tsunade a warm smile before he left.
"Okay, you guys go get your stuff and we'll meet in the front of the village," Jiraiya told the group when they left the office.
They all went to get their gear and set off to the front of the village where Jiraiya was already patiently waiting.
"It will take approximately two days before we get to Orochimaru's hideout if we hurry," Jiraiya told the group as they arrived. "Let's move out. We won't have a formation yet until we get to the border of Fire country."
Jiraiya and Naruto were in the front while Sakura and Yugito were in the back. They weren't far from each other, but they were far enough not to hear each other's converstion. Naruto and Jiraiya seemed to be in some sort of conversation.
There was a weird silence between Yugito and Sakura so Sakura decided to break the silence. As she looked at Yugito's outfit which looked almost identical to Naruto's, she said, "So I guess you were the one who got Naruto out of that eye-sore looking outfit."
Yugito replied, "Yes, but it took a long time for him to leave that orange jacket and orange pants. I kept bugging him about his outfit and told him to change it, but he never listened. He changed it after we went on an B-Class mission."
"What happened?" Sakura asked her.
"Well, it was a stealthy mission and long story short, the enemy noticed Naruto's jacket when we were hiding. It was only a very small part, but he noticed it. That almost costs us our lives. The next day Naruto asked sensei for some different clothes," Yugito replied. She was going to tell Sakura that her clothes weren't at all stealthy also, but decided not to because Yugito didn't know her that well yet.
"So what do you really think of Naruto since it's only me and you now without Ino around?" Sakura asked Yugito.
Yugito answered, "To tell you the truth he doesn't talk to me much, he talks more with our sensei."
"You must be kidding," Sakura commented. Has Naruto changed that much?
"No I'm not, I can't put my finger on it, but it seems like he tries to avoid me. I don't know why. The first day that we met he seemed opened, but after that day it seemed that he shut himself out. We would talk often and a lot, but not anything of importance, just chitchat," Yugito told her.
I'm going to pound Naruto after this mission, Sakura thought.
"Well, he's pretty strong like I said before. We're about even when we spar or train," Yugito continued.
Wow, this girl is strong if she's even with Naruto. Naruto is about Kakashi's level so that means that this girl is also near that level, Sakura thought to herself.
"So do you like him?" Sakura asked her.
"Of course, he's my teammate. I have to like my teammate to be able to work with them," Yugito replied.
"You know what I mean," Sakura said to her.
Not this again, Yugito thought.
"I was trained not to have emotions towards other people," Yugito told Sakura.
Sakura just looked at her strangely.
Yugito wanted to changed the subject so she asked Sakura, "you're his ex-teammate also, so what do you think of him since Ino isn't here now also?"
"When I first met him, I can't deny that I didn't like him. I was more interested in Sasuke since he was the best ninja and most handsome boy in the class. I didn't treat Naruto like a normal person. He used to bug me a lot and would always try to get me to go on a date with him," Sakura told her with a sad voice. At this Yugito frowned, Naruto always mentioned good things when he talked about his former teammate.
"I wish that I could take that back, but it's a part of my past and I can't," Sakura replied in the same sad tone when she noticed Yugito's face.
"There are a lot of good qualities about him though. He's a person who keeps their promises no matter what. I think that's the best personality trait in him. He's also very caring for the few friends that he have. I know he wouldn't hesitate to give his life to any of them," Sakura continued in a more cheerful tone than before.
Does Naruto consider me a friend or just a teammate? Yugito thought when Sakura mentioned that he would die for his friends.
"What about yours and his former teammate, Sasuke? Naruto doesn't like to talk about him much," Yugito asked Sakura.
"I think it Naruto doesn't talk about him much is because it was one of the mission that he has failed. Not only that, he feels like he failed to save his friend from a disaster," Sakura answered her.
"But to answer your question. Sasuke is a cocky and very prideful person. I think this was because he was the number one rookie in our class. I think that's one of the reason why he went to Orochimaru," Sakura told her.
"Why do you think that?" Yugito asking her to continue.
"Well, at first Naruto was way below Sasuke in skill level and Sasuke didn't care about him much. But, as time passed Naruto became stronger and stronger while Sasuke felt like he wasn't improving as much as Naruto. I think he somehow felt inferior to Naruto and left to get more power from Orochimaru. I know it's real stupid for Naruto to blame himself, but he felt that it was partially his fault for Sasuke's betrayal," Sakura said.
So, Naruto felt like it was partially his fault that Sasuke went to Orochimaru. Why do you look at things in such a stupid way Naruto? Sasuke left because he wanted to, not because you made him, Yugito thought.
Sakura continued, "I can see why Naruto wasn't as strong as Sasuke in the beginning. I mean, Naruto didn't even have a family to teach him anything while Sasuke came from an elite ninja family which taught him before he was even in the academy."
"Naruto didn't have a family? He never told me that," Yugito said to Sakura.
Stupid Sakura, you and your big mouth. Well, you can't take that back now, Sakura thought to herself. "Yes, Naruto never knew his family. He was raised by an orphanage until he was old enough to join the academy."
No wonder why his house is so small, Yugito thought.
They continued to talk until it was near sunset.
"We should rest here," Jiraiya said when they got near the border of Fire country. They set up two tents and cooked some fish that Naruto caught by the stream.
It was around 10 o'clock at night when Jiraiya said, "I'll take the first shift of look-out, Naruto will take the second shift, Yugito you take the third shift while Sakura will take the fourth. Each shift will be two hours and we'll leave at 6 o'clock sharp tomorrow. Okay get your sleep now."
At that Naruto went to one tent while the two girls went to the other.
Jiraiya was sitting on a branch near the top of the tree when he felt someone coming. It was a familiar chakra so he wasn't worried. It was about an hour and thirty minute into his shift already. "What is it Naruto?"
Naruto took a seat next to Jiraiya. "Hey, ero-sennin what's the chance of us accomplishing this mission?"
Not wanting Naruto to know that he had a lot of information on Orochimaru and Sasuke he said, "I don't know Naruto."
It wasn't that he didn't want to tell Naruto, but he remembered Tsunade told him that she had lied to Naruto about Sasuke to keep him safe. It would seem kind of weird if he knew a lot about Orochimaru and Sasuke's strength.
"I know you know. I also already knew that ba-chan knew snake-man's location before I even went back to Konoha," Naruto told his sensei.
"What makes you think that?" Jiraiya said still pretending that he didn't know.
"Many reasons. One, ba-chan mostly likely got her information on snake-man from you. Going by how easy you keep tabs on Akatsuki, it'll be pretty easy for you to also keep a tab on your old friend. Two, the reason why I didn't bug her more about it was because I knew ba-chan was just worried about my safety. I figure the two months delay was just extra time for you to figure out the locations of Akatsuki in case they were close to me. Three, you guys must have more information because she knows that I would never forgive her if something happened to Sasuke and somehow I find out she already knew the location of snake-man's hideout. So I think it would be better if we were straight with each other," Naruto said.
When has Naruto learned how to analyze so good? Has he actually grown up, not wanting to get the answer out of Tsunade when he knew she was lying? Can't he just go back to the Naruto that didn't question such things? Jiraiya thought. "First, I want to if it was Kato who taught you these analyzation skills?""Yes. He would let me lead sometimes during missions. Unless my command was totally dangerous or something that would put our team's life in danger, we would follow my commands without question. After the mission was over, Kato-sensei would suggest things and strategies that would have been better," Naruto said.
"Did you know I almost pounded his face the first time we did this? When we got back to his house, I thought that I did real well because he didn't correct anything while we were on the mission. But, when we reached the house he told me all the errors that I made. I got real mad at him, not because he told me my errors, but because he saw them while we were doing the mission and didn't correct it right there. This was what I actually said to him, 'You put our team in danger just so I can improve my analyzation skills?' To my surprise he just laughed and said that I was going to be a great leader. He told me that I cared for safety of the group and that's what a good leader should do. He mentioned that I should not worry because unless it puts the team in real jeopardy then it's okay. It's all part of learning."
"Another thing that he'll let me do is analyze mission reports. Some of the missions were pretty vague. He would let me analyze the mission request to see what I thought of it. Many clients know that if they reported what would really happen the mission would be a higher class so they just put in vague desciptions. They want it to be marked at a lower rank so they won't have to pay that much, kind of my first C-Class mission," Naruto told Jiraiya.
"I told him to teach you taijutsu, not analyzation skills also," Jiraiya commented while having a smile.
"Okay, I'll tell you the truth. Yes, Tsunade already knew the location of Orochimaru's hide out before you went back to Konoha. Your other assumption is also correct, the two month delay was to give me time to figure out the location of Akatsuki before Tsunade let you go and rescue Sasuke. As for the third one, Orochimaru won't be taking Sasuke's body for another three months or so," Jiraiya told him.
"Why's that? I thought he could take him already," Naruto said.
"Technically he could, but he wants Sasuke to be a more permanent vessel and for that to happen the Curse Seal has to take full effect. I think Sasuke has a couple of months before he's completely under the control of the Seal," Jiraiya answered his student.
"Back to my first question then? What are our chances of accomplishing this mission?" Naruto questioned him.
"Orochimaru and me are about the same level. Sasuke is about your level and Kabuto is about Kakashi's level, which is around your level. Yugito is also about your level so I say it can go either way, though it favors them a little bit more," Jiraiya said to him.
"It's because you know I won't try to kill Sasuke am I correct?" Naruto asked.
"Yes, because you won't use your full force to fight Sasuke this could be bad. We don't know if Sasuke will hold back when fighting you. He might, but I highly doubt it, he's been under the Curse Seal for so long," Jiraiya told him.
"Is it also because of Sakura," Naruto said more of a comment than a question.
"Yes, that also. Having Sakura on the team can go two ways. One, she'll be a big help to us because we have another person and a healer or two they can use her as bait or hostage," Jiraiya answered.
"Tsunade also told me that she's a jounin, but isn't as strong as any of the elite jounins yet, so I don't know if she has the strength to compete with them." With that Jiraiya lept down to a lower branch.
"Alright nice talking to you Naruto, but I got to get some sleep and it's your shift now," Jiraiya told him. Jiraiya proceeded down the tree and went to the tent.
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It was 5:30 and everyone was already up getting ready. Everyone was gathered around in a small group waiting for the instructions from Jiraiya.
"Okay, here's the formation. I will lead since it'll be easier for me to do give out orders when I'm in the front. Sakura you will be behind me since you're the medic of the team. We need to protect you the most. Naruto you will be behind Sakura because need to get to Sakura as fast as possible if they decide to attack her. You are stronger than Yugito and can take a hit for Sakura if needed so you need closer to her. Yugito can cover the back since she's a little faster than you, Naruto. Okay got the formation?" The team nodded.
"When we get there I will face Orochimaru while Naruto will face Sasuke and Yugito will face Kabuto. Don't worry about not looking at his eyes. To my knowledge Orochimaru hasn't taught Sasuke how to cast genjutsu through his eyes. Mainly because he doesn't know how and I don't think Sasuke had time trying to figure it out yet. Yugito even though Kabuto is a medical nin, don't let that fool you. He has many tricks up his sleeve. He uses chakra blades to cut your muscles. Sakura you try to avoid the fight as much as possible until you see one of us injured. If you're injured then we have no way of healing ourself. If worst comes to worst then you will have to join the fight also. If Tsunade was a good teacher she would have thought you a lot of dodging skills and at least some taijutsu skills," Jiraiya said this to the team. They all nodded again stating that they knew what he was saying.
"We will probably reach the base near sunset, move out," Jiraiya said.
They started heading west hoping that they wouldn't meet any enemy shinobis. Luckily for them they didn't. It was sunset and they reached Orochimaru's hideout.
The hideout didn't really look like a hideout in Naruto's opinion, it had a small opening in the ground about the size of a man.
"Hey, ero-sennin are you sure this is the place?" Naruto asked him.
"Well, it is a hideout right. He's not going to have some board stating 'Orochimaru's hideout, Welcome All.' Yes, I'm sure this is the place. I'll go first," Jiraiya said to his student.
Jiraiya crawled into the small hole and Naruto followed. It was really small, it could only fit person at a time. After he got through the hole, he found that he could completely stand up. It was almost like a cave. It was completely dark, but Naruto could feel that the roof was about eight feet high and the sides were just about 4 feet wide since he could touch the sides if he outstretched his hand. It was a real tight fit. The pathway wasn't straight either, it had a forty five degree turn about every 5 feet. Naruto guess this was to make escaping easier. After walking for about five minutes there were many directions to choose from. There were 6 directions.
"Which way now ero-sennin?" Naruto asked in a very small voice so that no one else can here.
Jiraiya pointed at the door to their left. They all proceed to follow him. They took this path for about 10 minutes and came into a very big room. This room was dark also, but had snake-like candle holders with a very small flame in them to eluminate the whole room. The room was about 50 feet across and 20 feet from top to bottom.
There heard three footsteps coming from the other side of the room. Three men appeared before them.
In the middle stood Orochimaru and to the right of him stood Kabuto. They haven't changed much in three years. They still wore the same clothes as before. Sasuke stood on Orochimaru's left side, zombie-like. He grew a little taller and wore a white long sleeve shirt which was open in the middle. He wore dark purple pant that was held up by a light purple rope which he tied to his side.
"Kukuku, if it isn't my old teammate and look, he brought Naruto-kun and two girls," Orochimaru said to Jiraiya with an evil grin on his face.
"Naruto-kun I really have to thank you and Kakashi. Without yours and Kakashi's help Sasuke would never have come to me this early. When he saw you improving and passing him he couldn't stand it how a dead-last like you could surpass him. I have to thank Kakashi for putting that seal on him. He didn't realize that the level 2 Curse Seal actually takes over his brain until I took Kakashi's seal off. After your fight with him he never tried to use the Curse Seal again, but the damage was already done. Once a person uses the level 2 Curse Seal even once it'll start taking over their body," Orochimaru said.
"Shut up snake-man. Sasuke come on, I don't want to fight you," Naruto said to Sasuke.
"He won't respond to you Naruto-kun. The Curse Seal has already affected his body too much. He only listens to me now. The only thing I can't make him do is use the Curse Seal, but it doesn't matter I can wait," Orochimaru said to Naruto.
"You know Naruto-kun, if you let me take Sasuke I can help you take care of your other problem also. I also don't want them having power you know," Orochimaru said to Naruto.
Yugito was wondering what Orochimaru was talking about.
"Like I'll believe that. Wouldn't it be easier just to come for me after taking Sasuke's body," Naruto replied back.
Orochimaru laughed, "Well well, looks like you also improved your intelligence. Where did you learn this? It couldn't have been from Jiraiya."
As Orochimaru finished his sentence he began to stick out his long tongue and wrapped it around Sasuke's body, not suffocating it, but caressing Sasuke's body. The tongue kept going around Sasuke until the end of the tongue was near Sasuke's belly button. Orochimaru then proceed to move his tongue lower and lower until it was almost in Sasuke's pants threatening to go down there. Naruto could see that Sasuke was twitching and didn't like the experience, but somehow Sasuke couldn't manage to move out of the way.
Naruto couldn't take much more and he rushed at Orochimaru.
"Naruto not yet," screamed Jiraiya, but it was already too late. Naruto had already left.
"Sasuke, Kabuto, now," Orochimaru said.
No jutsu this chapter