An: Don't own Naruto.

Days passed as they traveled from Grass to Earth. Sasuke looked down at the landscape below him. The trees were further apart than in his home village in Fire Country. There were also rolling hills. He'd never been on the ground in Earth Country. Something white caught his eyes considering it would be out of place against the brown. Then another white spot joined the first and they were following the black spot that was Sakura and Shadow Dancer. Both white spots flanked Sakura as she ran. He noticed her pace didn't even change as they did this knowing that maybe for the time being they weren't a threat.

"They're Unicorn Riders aren't they?"

"Yes," his dragon replied but he knew that he was going to say more. "However; I find it odd that there are two of them out here at once."

"I thought Unicorn Riders rode solo," Sasuke thought aloud.

"So did I."

Sasuke pondered on that for a moment and he couldn't come up with an answer to that one. Decided that he'd better ask Sakura about it. When on duty the Dragon Riders had a partner unless they requested to be solo. More often than not it was because their dragon didn't want another dragon anywhere near them, or even sometimes the rider is anti-social. Sometimes Sasuke wished that he rode solo. Naruto and his orange and blue dragon, Seiryoku got on his nerves more often than not. He watched carefully as they flew closer to the village. Fire Storm landed outside the village gates with grace and ease. There was an unspoken agreement that if Sasuke needed his dragon he'd call for him since the village wasn't as wide open as Grass had been. Moving through the village he couldn't help but notice the looks that people were giving him. He wondered if this village was predominately Unicorn Riders. He finally caught a flash of pink and moved towards it. It was Sakura thankfully. He'd need to speak with her about leaving him behind like that. More or less; whether they like it or not they were supposed to stay together. There were two riders with her at that moment. One rider he could see clearly but the other one was on the other side of their Unicorn. Though Sasuke couldn't tell if the red head was a guy or a girl. They were standing around next to their partner. The red head had short shaggy hair. The rider's unicorn was white with a red mane and tail. The other rider's unicorn was white with a pale blue snowflake on its flank and its mane and tail were the same color as the snowflake. Sakura seemed at ease with these riders. He moved to stand beside Sakura all conversation stopped. The red head's golden eyes narrowed as they locked gazes. There was no doubt this rider was male.

"You're a guy?" Sasuke asked in disbelief.

"Obviously, Sasori is a guy," the other rider growled.

"I didn't think there were male riders."

From the other rider's voice he could tell it was a female rider. She stepped from behind her companions. Her hair was long and white and in a braid. Her eyes were cat-like and amethyst, but what caught his eye was her pointed ears. To his senses she was screaming dangerous with a capital "D". That had happened only once and it was when he'd come across Kisame, even though Naruto was just like Kisame the blonde idiot didn't scare him in the least like Kisame had. There was a raw overpowering power that the shark demon vessel had that made his skin crawl at first.

"Some idiot got it into their head that male Unicorn Riders were more of a threat than their female counterparts, so there are very few male riders left in the world."

"Is there some reason this Dragon Rider is following you Sakura?" the red head, Sasori, he had to remind himself asked.

Getting a good look at this guy he kind reminded him of Gaara. That fact in itself set the Uchiha on edge.

"Sasuke's helping me out."

The Uchiha snorted at her words. If anything he was here because he had to be not because he wanted to be. He figured the two Unicorn Riders knew that and that's why they were giving him the evil eye. "Anyway, Sasuke this is Sasori of the Red Sand and this is his partner Alexial. Guys this is Uchiha Sasuke."

"Of all people you have to get stuck with it had to be an Uchiha," Sasori sneered.

"That's enough Sasori. I need to know if you heard anything lately concerning the movement of the object we discussed before?"

"It hasn't been moved and you know that only the most powerful black rider can get it. Takashi precedes you there so you'll have to find him."

"Correction," Alexial murmured sadly. "Only Sakura has the rights to it now. Takashi was killed three days ago in Rain."

"Dragon Rider?" Sasori accused while looking at Sasuke.

Alex shook her head at his comment.

"No, it was a Hunter this time. How they managed to catch…"

Everything went quiet as everyone's gaze turned to Sakura and Shadow Dancer. She was petting the stallion and whispering soft words in his ear. Sasuke couldn't imagine what it was like to be the last of a clan. He knew if he did he'd want vengeance on the person responsible.

"Who has the stone?"

"It's under the care of the Kage of Mist. She's not happy it's in her village." Alex snorted. "Her father had no problem caring for it since he was a Unicorn Rider. Now we have to listen to her bitch about how much she hates how much attention it draws to her nation. We keep telling her when you were ready you'd come for it."

"We'll go for it soon. First we need to go to Leaf so Sasuke can get his from the Hokage," Sakura murmured.

Sasori nodded his head in understanding. Alexial sighed tiredly as if something heavy were weighing her down.

"I'm going back to Suna," Sasori finally said to break the silence as he moved towards his partner and hauled himself gracefully up on the unicorn's back.

Alexial and Sakura snickered at his words.

"Going back to Asami?" Alexial teased.

Sakura was smiling at their exchange. Both females knew that Sasori was going back to Suna to visit his girlfriend. Since Asami was a civilian still they were apart a lot so any chance he had to go anywhere near her then he would.

"Can it Alex."

Both girls couldn't keep a strait face and started laughing. Sasuke hid the small smile that threatened to bubble up within him at the beautiful sound Sakura made as she laughed. Then Sakura calmed a bit and looked towards the white haired rider.

"So where are you headed Alex, back to Snow?"

"If you don't mind I'd like to go with you. Going into Leaf will be dangerous for you.'

"Hell no," Sasuke growled in protest. "It's bad enough she's going near Leaf with me so you're not coming."

"You Uchiha have no say in this."

"Yes, I do…"

Sasuke thought for a moment he saw her eyes flash crimson. That wasn't possible… but then he remembered that Naruto when extremely pissed relied on the Kyuubi's chakra and his eyes bled crimson. He didn't think there were many demon vessels left.

"Listen Uchiha I've got business in Leaf and when it concerns my leader you have no say. Sakura is the most powerful rider out there so don't proceed to tell me what I can and can't do," Alex growled dangerously.

"Sasuke, Alexial is only concerned with my well being and wishes only to help."

"Can't trust a Dragon Rider?" he snarled.

"It's not you Uchiha I assure you. You pose no threat to Sakura, but Orochimaru does. I'll be there to protect Sakura when you can't."

Sasuke wondered how the other rider knew of Orochimaru. He was a bit insulted that she even implied that he wouldn't be able to protect Sakura when it was his job to make sure she stayed alive until Orochimaru could be defeated.

"When will I not be able to protect her?"

"When Sakura bathes and sleeps unless of course your relationship is like that at this point?"

Sakura turned ten shades of red. Sasuke just had a light dusting on his cheeks.

"Alex I know you smell that we're not like that," Sakura protested.

"Smell?" Sasuke asked in confusion.

"I'm a demon, Uchiha."

The sound of pounding hooves made all of them look up. Fire Storm came darting from where he was standing by. A woman with long blue hair came riding up on a dapple gray with blue tack. A huge blue and silver dragon was chasing them. Sasuke recognized the dragon; it was Tsunami. Her rider was a friend of his brothers. Fire Storm in respect to Sakura leapt up and got in between Tsunami and her prey. The rider did an about face once she was behind Sakura. Her animal danced beneath her trying to calm down. Once the animal calmed down the rider slid off the back.

"Kiri?" he heard Alexial ask.

"Finally I've found you Sakura. Kisame had said he'd seen a black rider."

"You know Kisame?" Sasuke asked in disbelief.

Kiri looked at him oddly. Tsunami landed beside Fire Storm and Kisame joined them. He stood tall behind Kiri.

"We've been in an arranged marriage since we were little so yeah we know each other."

Sasuke looked at her in shock. "Our families are close so we don't hold the same prejudices against each other for something that was out of our control to begin with."

Then the Uchiha realized that the dapple gray was in fact a unicorn. Sakura looked at Kiri for a moment before speaking.

"You were looking for me Kiri?"

"Why was Kisame chasing you?" Sasuke butted in.

Kiri looked at the Uchiha in confusion as if she didn't understand what he was asking of her.

"Chasing? He wasn't chasing me. It's hard to find Sakura since she doesn't stay in one place for to long. We were in a hurry aside from that. Kisame was leading me at first. Tasha has to run really fast to keep up with Tsunami. Besides how… you must be Sasuke then. Kisame said that Itachi had a younger brother."

"Kiri?" Sakura asked in a more demanding tone to let her know she was wasting time.

"Sorry Sakura. I have a message from Neji. He's curious on how you were doing and wants me to give you this to take to his partner Lee who is currently stationed in Mist."

Sakura groaned in annoyance. Everyone but Sasuke and Kisame snickered at her groans. Kiri handed her a small package. "Sasori," she said as she turned to the other Unicorn Rider. "Gaara requests your presence back in Suna."

"Of course he does," Sasori replied in a sarcastic manner.

Shaking his head he moved to stand in front of his partner and shook her hand. "Good luck Alex."

"Ride hard red sand brothers," she murmured softly to her partner.

Sasori gave a curt nod to his fellow riders before vanishing into the foliage.

"Anything else?" Alex encouraged.

"Not at this moment Sakura."

Kiri took her fiancé's hand and smiled towards her fellow riders.

"Sakura you haven't formally be introduced or met for that matter. Kisame this is Sakura and her partner Shadow Dancer. Sakura, Shadow Dancer this is Kisame Hoshigaki and his partner Tsunami."

Sakura bowed respectfully towards the dragon and her rider.

"It's a pleasure Kisame," Sakura murmured softly.

The blue skinned shark demon vessel dipped his head in greeting as did his partner.

"I'm sure that we'll meet again Sakura since you'll be heading to Mist for the stone."

She nodded her head towards the man. He headed back towards his dragon and hauled his massive body up onto her back.

"Come on Kiri we need to be going that other message needs to be delivered today."

She sighed softly as she nodded her head. The two vanished over the next hill with their partners in tow.

"Come on Sasuke we should head out too. Daylight doesn't wait on us."

He grunted in response and headed back towards his dragon. He didn't get far before Sakura came pounding up behind him.

"Sasuke we have to go! Take my hand."

Fire Storm shot up into the sky and started flying away. Confused he took her hand and she managed to get him up behind her. His arms wrapped around her waist as they spun on heel and took off. Alexial followed behind them.

"What's going on?"

"Hunters."

He growled dangerously. For some reason his arms tightened around her waist as they moved and it didn't go unnoticed by Sakura. Something within her broke. The quest for the stones was more or less useless. It was an excuse to spend a lot of time together and learn each other's fighting styles so in the end they could work together with some level of trust between them. By the end of this he was going to hate her. She just knew it but there was some part of her that kept the hope alive that he'd still love her in the end. Her hand came up and rested on his as they continued through the forest. Heading back the way they came.