Enjoy As Always :)

Nakashima jolted awake from his bedroll, sweat pouring down his face as he quickly looked around. He was out on the mission with his team, and the sun had not come up yet. He sighed and quietly stood up, then walked over to a nearby tree on a small hill overlooking a large part of the river that they were camped out at.

Nakashima noticed a few of Naruto's clones watching out around where the group was camped, he reached into his back pocket of his bag and pulled out a small flask with a bit of dulled down Sake in it. He took a quick swig of the flask, letting the taste savour in his mouth before he swallowed, and then quickly put the flask away.

"The same damn Nightmare again and again . Does it mean I'm fucked up? Or maybe it's something I need to find... I dunno" Nakashima thought to himself.

"Hey are you okay" A female voice said from behind him.

Nakashima turned around to see Sakura standing there. Nakashima could tell she had just woken up because her hair was all messy.

"Yeah just a damn nightmare, Sorry if I woke you" Nakashima said.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sakura asked, sitting down on the opposite side of Nakashima.

Nakashima sighed. "Well I guess we are team mate's and your also my friend. So ill tell you" Nakashima said.

Sakura took a more relaxed seating position and then waited for Nakashima to start talking.

Nakashima sighed. "I'm an orphan as you know, but I wasn't orphaned like Naruto was" Nakashima said.

"What do you mean" Sakura asked.

"I mean im not an orphan because of the nine tailed fox, I was orphaned when I was 5 years old. I remember so very little about my mom, except she had red hair like I do. And as for my dad, all I can remember that he was a hard working man that looked after us." Nakashima said looking at the ground.

"Does this have to do with your dream? Was it about your parents." Sakura asked.

"Yeah, it was. I've been having the same dream again over and over, In my dream, im me... but when I was 5 years old. I run down the street into a candy store, called the Kenta candy shop, im guessing it was my parents shop, I give some money to a red haired woman, my mom..." Nakashima said trailing off at the end.

"What does she look like?" Sakura asked.

"That's the thing, I don't know.. All I see in my dream is the red hair. anyway I picked out a piece of candy and went to leave the store, but outside I could hear violence and bloodshed. my mom told me to run home and lock the door and not come out for anyone... I was terrified... I was...crying" Nakashima said looking more intently at the ground now.

Sakura didn't say anything, she just listened to what the boy had to say.

"I ran into my room and hid under the bed, and the whole roof collapsed around me. I got knocked out by a piece of falling debris, when I woke up. I was trapped. I dug my way out of the rubble and then I saw..." Nakashima said then trailed off at the end, tears now starting to form in the corner of his eyes.

"what did you see?" Sakura asked.

"It...it was horrible, the entire street was destroyed. there were bodies everywhere.. so much blood... I..I screamed out for my mom... but she wasn't there... nobody was... then a figure appeared in front of me with long spiky yellow hair and knocked me out... Then I woke up.." Nakashima said, tears now clearly seen in his eyes.

"Oh my god, what has this poor kid gone through? I can't imagine something so awful." Sakura thought to herself.
"I keep having the same nightmare over and over, I just wish I knew why. I know what happened." Nakashima said, his head not moving from looking down at the ground.

Sakura, simply wrapped her arms around the boy and hugged him, Nakashima sobbed slightly and hugged the girl back in a friendly hug.

The two broke apart and Nakashima smiled "Thanks sakura.. I needed that." He said, then he wiped the tears from his eyes with his sleeve.

"It's okay Nakashima.. and I want to thank you for telling me about this.. This is all very personal to you isn't it." Sakura asked.

"Yeah it is.. I just want to know who my parents were" Nakashima said looking up at the stars.

"you know, I feel like im the lucky one in our group" Sakura said.

Nakashima looked down at sakura. "What do you mean?" He asked confused.

"Well you,Naruto,and Sasuke all have no family, you all are orphans.. im the only one with a mom and dad, I feel kinda bad about it." Sakura said calmly.

"Don't feel too bad, having nobody is what pushes us on so hard, It's why we push ourselves so hard to get to our goals, we had to work for everything ourselves ya know" Nakashima said.

"Yeah.. I want to become a good ninja to. so that Sasuke notices me." Sakura said.

"Sakura.. I hate to break it to you. but Sasuke doesn't like you in the way you want him too, and he probably never will... " Nakashima said.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

Nakashima remembered back to a few hours ago, where he had talked with Sasuke.

FLASHBACK! BEGIN:

Nakashima awoke from his bedroll "Gotta piss" He thought to himself.
He jumped up and headed to a nearby tree and relived himself. after he had finished he turned to see Sasuke sitting on a log staring up at the moon.

"You should be sleeping man, we got a hell of a walk ahead of us tomorrow" Nakashima said quietly to Sasuke.

"Hn" Sasuke said without turning his head from the moon.

Nakashima took a seat next to Sasuke, and looked up at the moon.

"I met him you know." Nakashima said. earning a confused look from Sasuke.
"Met who?" He asked.
"Your brother" Nakashima said, he watched as Sasuke's eyes turned to daggers.
"Calm down, I met him when I was little, before all the bullshit." Nakashima said. Sasuke then calmed himself down
"When?" Sasuke said simply.
"When I was little, your family was killed after mine. I was a fucking mess, I was hungry and all fucked up from what happened to me. Your brother actually saved my life." Nakashima said
"Hn, I will kill him" Sasuke said with his cold attitude.

"Dude fucking drop the attitude you don't need it, I can understand with the fan girls sure the would piss anyone off, But you don't need to give everyone a cold shoulder just because your seeking revenge.. I'm after revenge too and you don't see me treating everything like crap." Nakashima said firmly.

"Your after revenge too?" Sasuke asked curiously.
"Yeah, I know the guy that fucked up my life.. His name was Orochimaru. he destroyed everything I had, so I'm gonna destroy that motherfucker when I see him" Nakashima said.

"So your an avenger as well?" Sasuke said.
"Maybe as a second priority yea. I won't let my life be ruled by revenge, it only turns you down a dark path, you seek power to no end, and it doesn't matter where it comes from." Nakashima said.

"Power is everything.. You need power to become stronger and avenge your family" Sasuke said.

"Yes but power is something that has to be earned man, im not strong enough to take on the likes of Orochimaru, and I heard Itachi ain't no peice of cake either." Nakashima said.

"Don't say his name in front of me" Sasuke said angrily.
"Sorry sorry, I'm just saying man don't let anger rule your world.. Anyway a less depressing subject what do you think about Sakura?" Nakashima asked
"She obsesses over me, but she's weak.. she is letting our team down." Sasuke said.
"Yeah but I mean come on.. she isn't that bad looking and you could train her into a perfect wife." Nakashima said.
"There's... someone else..." Sasuke said, and this shocked the hell out of Nakashima
"Never would have thought that, In our village or?" Nakashima asked.

"No.. I met her when she came into our village, she is from the land of birds. She is powerful." Sasuke said.
"Do you love her?" Nakashima asked.
Sasuke thought about this for a moment.. "It's hard to love when you have lost everything" Sasuke said.
"yeah that's true... Mind you im in love myself, one of your fan girls. or more or less Ex fan girls." Nakashima said.
"They are all weak" Sasuke said.
"Yeah but she's gonna become very strong I know it." Nakashima said looking up at the clouds.
"So why aren't you with her?" Sasuke asked.
"I'm her friend, im taking things slowly man, I got to get her to love me back" Nakashima said.
"The girl... I do love her.. But emotions like love are weak" Sasuke said. looking down at the ground
"hah there what drive us on man, Love,happiness,sadness,anger,lust,pain. All that stuff makes us who we are." Nakashima said.
"So you think it is okay to love?" Sasuke asked.
"Yeah man" Nakashima said.
"Listen, im good friends with sakura. I may be able to get her off your back if you let me tell her a bit about what we talked about tonight" Nakashima said
"Hn, Tell her to get stronger" Sasuke said.
"Ill take that as a yes" Nakashima said.

Nakashima then looked up and saw that the time. "Right I gotta go get some sleep." Nakashima said standing from where he was sitting and heading back to the camp-site.

"Nakashima" Sasuke called out, causing Nakashima to turn his head back "Thanks..." Sasuke said earning a smile from Nakashima, who just nodded.

Flashback End...
"Did you ever consider the fact that there might be someone else in his life?" Nakashima said.
"What do you mean?" Sakura said.
"I had a pretty long talk to Sasuke the other night, and he told me some pretty personal stuff" Nakashima said.
Sakura's eyes went wide from shock at this.
"You have to tell me, if I know I can do whatever Sasuke needs me to do so he will notice me" Sakura said.
"Well one of the main things he told me is he is in love. and I'm sorry to say it isn't you" Nakashima said firmly.
Sakura's eyes went wide with shock... she couldn't believe what she was hearing, Could Nakashima be lying? but then again Nakashima had no reason to lie to her.

" is it?" Sakura asked, tears now starting to form in her eyes.
"He didn't say her name, but she said she was from outside the village" Nakashima said.
"But... my dream is to be with Sasuke" Sakura said.
"Well dreams don't always happen." Nakashima said.

Sakura took a little while to process this, before she broke down crying. Nakashima simply hugged the girl and let her cry into his arms, like she had done for him a little while ago.

after about 10 minutes Sakura's crying stopped and she released the hug from Nakashima.
"I..I have a lot to think about.. so I'm going to go back to sleep okay." Sakura said before she quietly went back down and lay in her tent.
After a few more minutes Nakashima did the same, laying down on his bedroll near the fire and drifting off back to sleep.

"Hey Nakashima wake up" Kakashi said gently shaking Nakashima awake.
Nakashima rubbed his eyes and woke up "Morning Kakashi-sensei" Nakashima said
"Pack up your stuff we have to get going" Kakashi said and Nakashima nodded.

Nakashima quickly packed up his stuff while Kakashi went and woke up Naruto,Sasuke,and Sakura.

The group quickly packed up their stuff and headed off. However after a few minutes of walking Kakashi could defiantly tell something was up with his group of genin.
"Nakashima is half asleep, and Sakura seems so distant... I wonder what happened to them last night" Kakashi thought to himself.

The group went along the road in silence, most of the group was thinking various things.
Sasuke of course had a one track mind and was thinking revenge. Nakashima was thinking about his nightmares, as he did every time he has them.
Sakura was thinking about what Nakashima had said to her last night, about how Sasuke was in love with another girl. "Does this mean I should give up on him?"She thought to herself as she walked along the road. Then she started to think about her crush on Sasuke, and thought about if that's all it actually was... a crush. "I cant think about it now, were on a mission" Sakura thought and looking up the road towards where they were walking.

"Hmm, Sakura hasn't talked to Sasuke all day, and Nakashima looks like he didn't sleep very well." Naruto thought to himself as he looked over at his team-mates. Sasuke was the only one that seemed normal "Guess he never changes" Naruto thought

Kakashi walked a bit slower and went back in the group a bit to talk to Nakashima

"Hey did something happen last night?" Kakashi asked Nakashima quietly.
"Yeah a little bit of drama but I wouldn't worry" Nakashima said quietly back.
Kakashi nodded and walked back to where he was standing in the group.

Then all of a sudden out of nowhere, three men with masks covering there face's appeared in the middle of the road.

"Right, give us all your money and nobody gets hurt" One man called out.

"Bandits?" Nakashima asked quietly.

"Looks that way" Kakashi said.

"Didn't you runts hear me? I said hand over your goods, or do we have to start cutting people" The same man replied.

"Go to hell, we aren't giving you anything" Sasuke called out.

"Is that right?" One man said, smirking under his mask.

Within the blink of an eye one of the bandits appeared behind Sakura and grabbed her, pulling her back to the group of men.

"Right let's try this again, Hand over your goods, Or we might just take Pinkie here instead." The man said grabbing one of Sakura's breasts to emphasise his point.

"Let go of me you pervert" Sakura yelled out trying to kick away from the man.

Nakashima acting quickly threw three hand signs together and threw his palm forward, the men flew backwards about 5 feet and crashed into the ground, giving the chance for Sakura to get away.

"Fucking idiots" Nakashima said walking over to the men but he froze instantly when he got there.

One of the bandits had a kunai knife, and due to the force that Nakashima produced, when he flew backwards the kunai knife had hit the ground first, sticking upright and was through the man's neck.

"H. 's d. " Nakashima said, looking wide eyed in shock.

Realising what had happened Kakashi walked over to Nakashima and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Nakashima, this is your first kill I take it." Kakashi said in a serious voice.

Nakashima, who was now shaking from head to toe, nodded quickly.

"Listen, The way of the shinobi is one of blood, we are soldier's, Warrior's for our village, Your not evil for killing this person. you did it to protect your friends. Death is one of the main parts when your a ninja, and it's always hard" Kakashi said in the same serious voice.

Nakashima took a deep breath, he stopped his shaking and looked back at sakura.

Sakura was slightly shaken up from the man grabbing her like that, and Naruto of course was consoling her.

"All right, we have a mission. Lets go" Nakashima said walking back to the group.

The group nodded and headed onwards, leaving the corpses of the bandits behind.

"You all right man?" Naruto asked Nakashima quietly after the group had kept walking.
"Yeah.. I'm dealing with it man" Nakashima said, pushing the thoughts of the kill he had made to the back of his mind.

"Good, Remember there's are other bad guys out there too" Naruto said
Nakashima nodded and looked and kept his guard up as he watched the surrounding area as they walked.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, until the group had a small lunch break near one of the many streams in the land of fire.

Sakura was sitting with Naruto under a tree, the two were talking about jutsu and sakura was trying to explain some of the theory of a few of the jutsu's.

Nakashima was standing under a different tree, eating a small rice ball he had packed away.

"Hey...Nakashima" Sasuke said walking up to Nakashima.

"Yeah? what's up man?" Nakashima asked turning to Sasuke.

"That jutsu you used on those bandits.. I want you to teach it to me." Sasuke said in his usual voice.

Now some people would have seen this as Sasuke demanding something and being a jerk, but after knowing Sasuke for a while Nakashima knew that he was asking the nicest he actually could.

"I cant man" Nakashima said.

Sasuke then stared daggers at Nakashima, but Nakashima realised this

"no no it's not that I wont man, I mean I physically cant. I've tried teaching it to Naruto and other people have tried to copy it as well, it just doesn't work for anyone. I can show you how to do it and see if you actually get somewhere, but I doubt it would work." Nakashima said.

"It might be a bloodline limit, but I'm an Uchiha, if it's going to work for anyone it will work for me." Sasuke said and Nakashima nodded.

Nakashima then showed Sasuke the hand signs and the movement for his jutsu, that Sasuke replicated perfectly, but with no results.

After a few tries Sasuke gave up. "Yeah that's a bloodline limit. nobody but your clan can do it" Sasuke said.

"Like nobody can have the sharingan at the moment but you right?" Nakashima asked.

Sasuke nodded

"Well that would make alot of sense, I mean I did pick it up on complete accident. when you awaken your sharingan ill get you to look at it again" Nakashima said.

"Yeah I will, thanks for trying anyway" Sasuke said, a bit of disappointment in his voice at not being able to use the jutsu.

"No worries" Nakashima said and Sasuke walked off.

"Damn, A jutsu like that would have helped me kill itachi, but I can't blame Nakashima for it, he tried to teach it to me" Sasuke thought to himself.

After the lunch break, the group headed off again towards the land of birds.

"We should be arriving on the border soon, after that we can catch an early boat tomorrow morning." Kakashi said after a few hours of walking with nothing very interesting happening.

"Thank god." Tazuna said, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.

"Kakashi sensei, the next person they send won't be like the demon mist brothers... they will be probably your skill level" Nakashima said

"That's true, I don't know who they will send next." Kakashi said.

"Whoever it is.. we can handle it" Naruto said, a big grin spread across his face.

"I hope so" Sakura said, a small hint of panic in her voice.

"Sakura, don't worry, I won't let my comrades die. Ill protect you all no matter what." Kakashi said firmly calming Sakura slightly..

"Well let's hope it doesn't come to that." Nakashima said. earning a nod from the other genin and Kakashi.

The group kept going for most of the day, running to no trouble whatsoever on the way there, after a good 5 hours of walking, and a few rest stops, the group arrived at the border of the land of waves just as the sun was setting on the horizon.

"All right guys, same deal as last night, Naruto make some clones to sit on watch, Nakashima grab some firewood and do your thing, sakura Sasuke, set up your tents. Then after that we have to talk about our plan for whatever is coming next." Kakashi said firmly.

All of the genin nodded and started to do their various chores.

Sasuke and sakura set up there tents, Sakura setting up hers away from Sasuke's surprising Kakashi
Naruto quickly made a few clones and helped Nakashima with the firewood.

After Nakashima and Naruto had finished getting enough firewood, Nakashima, much like the other night, went down to the nearby stream and caught a few fish for the group to eat.

after he had caught 7 fish he went back to the fire and pulled a backpack off his back.

"Glad I saved a few of those herbs from last night" Nakashima said to nobody in particular. he prepared the fish on the fire and watched as it slowly cooked.

The night was pretty uneventful. The group had there fish and went to bed early, they needed to be up before sunrise.

After a good few hours sleep Kakashi woke the group. they quickly packed up their gear and went down to the docks. the boatman who was expecting them, quickly ushered them on to the boat and they started rowing towards the land of waves.

The group went through some heavy fog on the way to the land of waves.

"Man this fog is thick" Nakashima said quietly.

"We are almost there" The boat driver said.

After a few more seconds a massive half built bridge appeared in front of the group, Nakashima,Naruto sakura and Sasuke all looked on in wonder at the massive bridge to be.

"That thing is huge!" Naruto exclaimed, a little louder than he should have.

"Hey quiet, I told you no damn noise, We don't want them to find us" The boat driver harshly whispered.

"Sorry" Naruto said quietly.

"Right Tazuna. Why don't you tell us why these guys are after you" Nakashima said turning to Tazuna.

"Yes I was just about to ask that myself. If you don't tell us,I'm afraid we will have to end this mission when we drop you ashore.

Tazuna sighed "If you did that, they would kill me before I even got home. It looks like I have no choice...No I want to tell you about the barbaric bastard that is after me. He set his sights on the land of waves about 2 years ago." Tazuna said (AN: Not sure if 2 years is right but that's what it is in my story)

the four genin just listened quietly and waited for Tazuna to continue.

"You know him, at least im sure you have heard his name. Gato the business tycoon, He's one of the richest men alive" tazuna said.

"Wait wait wait, Gato of Gato transport? He's a business man, ive used his company a bunch of times." Nakashima said, not believing what he had just been told.

"Hey may look like a normal businessman to most people, but underneath that, he sells drugs and contraband. He hires ninja and bandits to kill his enemies, while he reaps the rewards. He used his vast wealth to manoplize our transport and shipping companies, A person who control's the sea on a island nation control's everything. our wealth,even our lives." Tazuna said.

"But he fear's the bridge right? Because that will break his monopoly in the island and allow trade from the main island" Nakashima said understanding what was going on.

"That's right. That's why he is sending ninja after me. As I said before, if you ended the mission when you dropped me ashore. they would assassinate me before I even reached home. I would never be able to see my family again." Tazuna said.

"But if you knew, that gato was after you. If you knew there would be ninja after you, why did you hide it from the hokage?" Nakashima asked.

"Because the land of waves is a poor and poverish nation, even our nobles have no money. We cannot afford a higher rank mission." Tazuna said.

"You underestimate the Hokage Tazuna, you could have worked something out." Nakashima said.

"But it's a bit late for that now, Ill leave the decision with my team." Kakashi said.

"The cause was noble, even if he did lie to us, I say let's keep going" Nakashima said.
"No way I'm backing down!" Naruto called out excitedly, earning another shush from the boat driver.
"Hn" Sasuke said, of course he wouldn't back down.
"Ill go to" Sakura said firmly, she knew she wasn't much help but she could still guard tazuna.

"Then looks like were still going to guard you" Kakashi said.

"Thank you... All of you." Tazuna said.

The team was then silent for the rest of the boat ride, until they finally reached the land of waves.