When Naruto woke up the next morning he felt that he was naked under the sheet that was covering him; then for some at this point unknown reason to him, he felt a sense of something that he thought was akin to dread. As a matter of fact he had felt it only one time before in his entire life & that was when he failed to prevent Sasuke from defecting to the sound village... it was regret. For a moment he was unsure of the reason for the regret that he was feeling, and then he looked to his left and saw an equally naked Hyuuga heir lying next to him and suddenly he had a flashback to what they had done the previous afternoon and well into the early hours of the current day and groaned to himself "oh no" and then continued thinking to himself *no, no, no, this cannot be happening. Right, my only chance for any of my plans to succeed I need to leave right now and summon Gamakichi to give Hinata the scroll and summon 'ma.'* With a plan in mind he got out of the bed that they were in as quietly as he possibly could, got dressed and went to his temporary room to collect all of his meagre possessions and then went to the living room and summoned Gamakichi.
Naruto explained the situation that he was in to Gamakichi and then said "... so I'm going to leave before anyone gets up so I can slip away unnoticed, alright."
Gamakichi replied "sure thing, girl troubles sure can be tricky to get out of."
"Yeah, tell me about it" Naruto said in a bantering type of way then said "so, while you wait here to tell them I've left, give Hinata the contract and summon 'ma' I should have at the very least have been able to get out of wave country."
"Yeah, should be easy with that 'Hikazeshin(1)' that you developed while you were with us."
Naruto said in a commanding tone that he didn't use very often "I told you never to tell anyone about that, root would have people after me to get me to teach them the secret behind it hoping to be able to do it themselves though only someone with a wind affinity can use it. Unfortunately for Konoha of the two people that do have a primary wind affinity one of them was killed by the Akatsuki and the other just got banished."
"So to surmise the jutsu would be absolutely useless in the hands of any Konoha shinobi" Gamakichi said.
"That's right. Well, I'd better be off now, after all sunlights a wasting."
"Yeah, see ya."
"Oh, right before I go, is it possible for me to have more than 1 summoning contract at once, or would I have to break my contract with you first?"
"Hm, I really wish that I could help you, unfortunately you'd have to swing by the Myobokuzan Mountains to get that question answered."
"Right, see you in about a year and a half then." And with that Naruto left the residence of Tsunami and got on his way out of wave country; unfortunately Kakashi was waiting outside of the house and said "where exactly do you think you're going?"
A face-fallen Naruto said "away."
Kakashi asked "why?"
"Because I made a terrible mistake and now Hinata might want to come with me, and I can't have it on my conscience" Naruto then thought to himself *plus I'm meeting Karin in a few months as well.*
Kakashi said "you know how her family is going to take it don't you?"
To this Naruto said "well then, if the stiffs in the main branch of the Hyuuga clan have any problems with her after this I want you to tell them of who exactly my parents are, oh yes, and also that I'll know about it and come back to beat them into submission."
Kakashi said "you know that last little bit won't go over very well, right?"
"Yes, that's exactly the point" Naruto replied.
Kakashi said "alright then, what about her then?"
"Gamakichi'll think of something."
"Alright then, see ya later then."
"Yeah, see ya... make sure she doesn't do anything stupid for me, will ya?"
"Sure."
And with that Naruto left the Wave country and headed towards Suna.
Back in Konoha Karin passed the guard at the gate claiming that she was here to 'comfort' the ninja in their hour of need and went to look around for the medical station. When she saw a blonde girl wearing purple she went up to her, put her hand on her shoulder and asked her "would you happen to know where a 'Haruno Sakura' is?"
The blonde asked "why do you want to know where forehead is?"
Karin said "uh, who's this forehead you're referring to? I'm asking about Haruno Sakura. Oh, uh, I'm Karin, what's your name?"
"Ino, and I am referring to Sakura when I say forehead."
"uh, why?"
"Simple, it's because her forehead is as large as a billboard."
Karin had a sweat-drop appear on the side of her head and said "uh, right. Ok at any rate, I have a message for her."
"Ok, I'll tell her your message then."
"Uh, I think that it'd be better if I told her myself."
"Really, why is that?"
"Uh, it's about the fox and the black knight."
Ino not knowing what to make of what the, in her mind, strange girl that she just met was talking about black knights and foxes, but one thing she did know was that the girl had a lot more chakra than a normal person, she moved extremely quietly and she also moved with the gracefulness that one only finds in a ninja. With these thoughts going through her mind one thing became abundantly clear... the girl that she was with was no Konoha kunoichi. With that in her mind she decided to ignore her request and actually lead her to the temporary 'Torture and Interrogation' headquarters; unfortunately all of these thoughts came to naught as the kunoichi that 'Karin' had been seeking came around the corner of the cleared out rubble that passed as a road.
When Karin saw Sakura come around the corner she called out "Haruno Sakura."
Sakura looked up from the daze she had seemingly been in since finding out about Naruto's banishment and said "huh, do I know you?"
Karin replied "uh, no we don't."
"so what do you want? Ummm..."
"Karin."
"Ah, Karin alright, so you needed me for something?"
"Yes, well, you see, recently there was a reunion of the fox and the black knight."
Sakura, who by being Tsunade's apprentice, had gained access to the Hokage library and subsequently learned about the sealing of the Kyuubi into Naruto, knew that the fox part of the riddle was referring to Naruto then thought *well, if I take Naruto to be the fox, then who would be the black knight?* Sakura, deep in thought said to herself more than to anyone else "hmm, so I he is the fox, then who would be the black knight?" she then continued on to think about the reunion part of what Karin had said and came to the conclusion that Naruto could only be having a reunion with one person that could be described as being a black knight(that she could think of anyway), so she came to a decision and said "we have to take this girl to Tsunade-sama."
Ino said "take her to the Hokage, but Sakura she's a..."
"I'm quite well aware of the fact that she's a foreign shinobi Ino."
"Well, if you know then why do you want to take her to Tsunade-sama?"
"Because, if she's telling the truth then that means that she has recently been in contact with Naruto... and who exactly do you think the 'dark knight' could be, hmm? Come on Ino, I thought that you were a prodigy in the interrogatory arts."
"I am, unfortunately most of my skills in that area are jutsu based or undertaken with some tools that I currently don't have access to."
Karin interrupted by saying "uh, sorry to interrupt, but, shouldn't we be going to Tsunade right now. It's kind of tiring seeing a blonde arguing with someone she claims has a forehead the size of a billboard."
Sakura's fists fell to her sides as she looked at the floor about a foot away from her and growled out "Ino-o-o-o..."
When Ino looked into Sakura's eyes she saw that they were crimson in colour. Seeing this she started backing away shaking her hands palm outwards in front of her and said "um, S-Sa-Sakura... don't do anything foolish now..."
Sakura too caught up in her rage from hearing Ino's insult coming from another's lips gathered up all of her chakra into her fist and punched Ino halfway to Wave country.
Karin said "uh, sorry about that..." and then almost whined while covering her head with her arms "... please don't hit me."
Sakura smiled, laughed and said "don't worry about it, that was just pent up rage and frustration from everything that's happened lately."
Karin said "entirely understandable."
Sakura said "I'm glad someone thinks so."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Oh, nothing, it's just that Ino's probably going to tell her dad about what I just did."
"Is he important or something?"
"Not so much no, unfortunately for me though, he is the second in command of Torture and Interrogation." "Ah, I see, that could get a little sticky, want to arrange some blackmail material then?"
"Such as?"
"Oh, our pretty little blonde, having a lesbian encounter."
Sakura blushed and said "uh, I'm not sure that I..."
Karin smirked and said "don't worry about it, all you'll have to do is take the photo's, I'll be the lead actress."
Sakura said "If we do this i don't know if you'll be able to becom..."
"oh, don't worry about lil' ol' me, I'll be gone in a few weeks anyway."
"Really, why?"
"I'm going to meet a friend."
"Really?"
"Yeah" Karin said while a small bit of saliva dripped down the side of her lip.
"Ah, so that kind of meeting huh?" asked Sakura.
"Yeaaahhh" Karin moaned sensuously while thinking *maybe I really do have a thing for blondes*.
Sakura blushed at the sounds that Karin was making and the images that they were provoking in her head and then said "I don't think that I want to blackmail her at all, so let's not dwell on such thoughts then, yeah?"
"Heh, you're no fun."
"Y-y-yes I am."
"Doesn't really matter right now anyway, does it?"
"Heh, I guess not."
"Good, now onto the Hokage."
"Right. We're almost there."
"Almost where?"
"The temporary headquarters of the Hokage."
"Really, all I can see is the Hokage monument."
"Yes, well, HQ is actually inside the monument."
"Fascinating."
"I know, isn't it just?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, you know how to climb trees without your hands, right?"
"Of course" Karin said in a disapproving tone that indicated exactly what she thought of the, in her point of view, pointless question.
"Uh, sorry, I had to ask."
"Alright then."
The two kunoichi then proceeded to run to where all of the Hokage's' heads were displayed on the mountain and went over to where the Shodaime Hokage's head was and walked to where the symbol of the leaf was on his forehead protector and Sakura pushed the centre of the spiral. When she did this the left eye on the Nidaime's face opened up and Sakura walked over to it and then walked into the abscess left by it's opening. When Karin saw Sakura disappear she called out "Sakura, wait for me" and then ran into the opening after her. When Karin arrived inside the Hokage's temporary office she could only say "wow, I wasn't expecting this." What she saw that so stunned her was all of the 'rookie nine' minus Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke and Ino as well as Neji, Tenten and Lee; all of them were staring right at her and after she could talk again raised her right hand so it was at the level of her eyes, said "Yo" and formed her raised hand into a fist with her thumb, index and middle fingers detached from the fist and flicked her hand to the side. All of the gathered shinobi and kunoichi had a sweat-drop appear on the side of their heads as a result of hearing the familiar greeting coming from the girl's mouth. When Tsunade got over her temporary disbelief she said "so, what did you want to see me about?"
Karin said "what I have to say is of the utmost importance and secrecy."
"Is that so, I think that I should be the judge of that."
Karin said to Tsunade "it's about the red eyes and the fox."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow and replied "really, well I think that you can talk freely about Naruto and Sasuke here."
"Well, if you say so," Karin then looked away from Tsunade and at the other people gathered who she was unnerved to find out, were now staring intently at her; she then continued on to say "well, Sasuke found out that Itachi Uchiha was in actual fact ordered to massacre his clan by the upper echelons of Konoha's leadership."
There were gasps of surprise by the gathered shinobi and kunoichi other than Tsunade. Seeing this Neji asked the first question to come to his mind "did you know about this Hokage-sama?"
Tsunade said "no."
Neji asked "then why did you just have no reaction of surprise or shock at such an announcement?"
"Because I'm just simply not at all surprised by the actions of the council..." Tsunade scoffed and continued "...they've been trying to undermine me for years, so why wouldn't they have tried to do it to sensei too?"
"I see, that still doesn't explain why they'd want the Uchiha clan exterminated though."
"Probably they were just reaping what they had sown."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Heh, I guess there's really no point in hiding it anymore. You see, when Konoha was formed the Uchiha were just as powerful as the Senju, so naturally they would need some form of powerbase in the running of Konoha, so my grandfather gave them the job of military police. Basically they monitored the goings of any shinobi's that were displaying suspicious behaviour as the only people able to keep the Senju in line as it were. Unfortunately some among the Uchiha perceived this as a way to distance them from the running of the village and decided to try to rebel against the leaders of Konoha. Because I was the last Senju and tested in battle, the councillors and Danzou naturally asked me to assist in the, as they put it 'getting rid of a potential thorn.' Naturally I refused. That apparently had no effect on their resolve to destroy the Uchiha out of fear though."
Sakura asked "so if this was known to the Sandaime, why didn't he move to stop them?"
"You need to understand, the Uchiha and Senju are the only ones with the power to absolutely control the tailed beasts. It was well known that only the Sharingan could control the Kyuubi."
Shikamaru grasping the implications said "so everyone in the council assumed that the Uchiha were responsible for the Kyuubi attack then?"
"Exactly" replied Tsunade.
"So because they were afraid that the Uchiha were going to incite a civil war, wether real or imagined, they got someone with the power necessary to take on the Sharingan... Itachi?" Sakura asked.
"Yes. Ok girly, you have my attention now, what else did you want to tell me?"
"Oh, yes, right. Well, Sasuke has decided to complete his revenge and would like some assistance."
Tsunade asked "assistance. Why?"
"Because, we need help with the elimination of 'root.'"
"Alright. All of you as of now you are under Sasuke's command as team captain with the mission of the destruction of 'root,' I take it that Sasuke wants Danzou for himself?"
Karin replied "that would be correct."
Tsunade said "very well then, Shikamaru you are Sasuke's second in command, dismissed."
Karin said "alright, currently we're based out of just outside where the north gate was."
Shikamaru said "very well, follow me."
All of the shinobi and kunoichi that were now officially under Sasuke's command followed Shikamaru out of the hidden office and up to the top of the mountain where they turned left and went down the face of the cliff where no one was able to see them, they then proceeded to where Karin had said that Sasuke and his group would be. When they got there Shikamaru said "Sasuke, you have been appointed team captain for this mission."
"Heh, that so. Good to see you again too."
"I'm second in command. This has been classified as a 'S' class mission."
"Alright. Shikamaru Naruto told me that you're one of the best strategists that the leaf has, you'll be needing a plan to take out the underground 'root' base."
"Alright the way I see it is we'll need someone that has a great deal of experience with earth jutsus, that'll be you, Chouji. Sasuke, you'll take Sakura, lee and Tenten. Sakura is a medic-nin with a great deal of skill in genjutsu, lee's taijutsu is second to none and Tenten's skill with ranged weapons is legendary in its own right. I'll be taking the rest of your team and the other's gathered here."
"That's fine by me, you'll have to keep an eye on Juugo though, he has fits of uncontrollable rage that take control of him at times."
"Alright. Okay then, do you know where Danzou is right now?"
"I'd assume that he'd be busy trying to convince the village leaders that it's a good idea to get rid of Tsunade as Hokage."
"Yeah, you're right, in which case he's probably in the council's hidden chamber which is in a cave behind the Hokage monument cliff."
"Alright, Sakura, Lee, Tenten, let's move out."
Sakura, Lee and Tenten with serious faces simultaneously say "hai" and they rapidly disappear into the distance.
Shikamaru then turns to Suigetsu and Juugo and says "right, what are your individual skills?"
"Well, I've got a body made of water and I use this here, Kubikiri Hōchō."
"Okay then, nothing special."
"What was that!?"
"Just joking calm down. Now then, Juugo?"
"I'm the source of Orochimaru's curse mark."
"I see, okay then; Juugo, you're with me, Sai and Neji as well. Kiba, Shino, Suigetsu and Chouji, you are team 3 with Shino as team leader."
Karin then spoke up and asked "uh, I kind of promised Naruto-kun that I'd search root's library for him and I'm a sensor."
Shikamaru said "good, you're with me then. Alright, do any of you know exactly where root headquarters is?"
"Naruto said that he felt a large chakra source under the Hokage's old office."
Shikamaru said "alright then, Karin I'd like you to double check what Naruto reported."
"Very well" Karin then brought her hands together in a hand sign that had both of her index fingers pointing up and after a second she said "Naruto was right there is indeed a large chakra source underground."
"Alright then, let's do this" and with that they raced of to where the Hokage tower used to stand.
End Notes
Hikazeshin = Flying Wind God
