Chapter 7

Itachi's look of blank shock was so funny that Naruto fell over laughing. He had seen Sasuke surprised before, quite a few times, but he never knew that Itachi would look so comical when the expression came to his face. The look developed even more when Naruto fell onto his chest, laughing so hard the Uchiha was sure someone would hear and come to investigate.

As it was, when Naruto had stopped laughing and simply lay against his chest trying to get his breath back, Itachi realised how little the blond weighed. He knew he was strong, but he surely should have felt something when the last Uzumaki royal fell against him.

Looking back down at the blond, he raised his eyebrow when he saw the blond completely composed and a back pack that he was sure wasn't there before slung over his shoulder.

"All ready to go!" The blond cheered. Raising his other eyebrow, Itachi lowered them both and sighed when he saw Naruto march off in the wrong direction.

It was going to be a long journey.

. . .

Itachi was right. It was a long journey. It was two o'clock in the morning and he was still running through the trees, Deidara circling above him on a clay bird and Naruto fast asleep on his back. He was pretty sure that the backpack the blond was still wearing weighed more than the blond himself. But that wasn't the point - the point was, was that they had a group of seven chunnin to jounin level bandits chasing after them, all after something he was pretty sure they didn't have, and he happened to a have an asleep, injures - which he only found out about after Naruto had fallen asleep in a tree and fell out and screamed in pain. He had fallen out of trees before, it didn't hurt that much, so he had checked the blond over and seen the still horrible injuries - actually, now that he thought about it, maybe Naruto was unconscious, not just asleep.

"Deidara, stay back and attack. I will go forward with Naruto and find somewhere safe. You will find me."

Not waiting for a response, he set off for the mountains he could see in the distance, hoping to find a cave in them somewhere.

. . .

When he did find a cave, it was barely half an hour later. He carefully set Naruto onto a one handedly unsealed beanbag, pretty sure that Pein-sama wouldn't be happy if the blond was injured more than he already was, and knowing that if his brother found out, he'd be blamed and would soon be dead - oh, the wonders of having an over-protective of a certain blond brother.

Pausing, he quickly thought back on his words, before he realised what he had been thinking the past few minutes, and he contemplated it silently until he came to the conclusion he was tired.

Taking a few minutes before he settled down in his own sleeping bag, he set a few traps around the cave entrance, and a few more a bit further in, as well as adding a bit more wood to a hastily made fire before kicking of his sandals and taking off his cloak and settling down for a few hours sleep.

. . .

When he woke in the morning, it was to the bright light of a late morning sun and the smell of a cooked breakfast. Looking towards the fire, hoping it wasn't Deidara attempting to make breakfast - the last time he had done that, the whole base had been without a kitchen for a week, living of cereal for the most of it - and was pleasantly surprised when he found the small blond boy who had been sleeping near him last night frying bacon - where did he get that from? - over the open fire.

"Good Morning, Naruto." He said cordially as he slipped into his cloak and strapped his sandals on.

"Good Morning, Itachi." The blond replied quietly, concentrating on his breakfast making task.

Itachi walked over, noting the smaller bags under the beautiful eyes, and almost nodded at the sight before he remembered that Uchiha's don't show that much emotion.

. . .

Deidara joined them an odd twenty minute later, in which Naruto and Itachi had used the time to discuss various ninja techniques they had learned over the years.

"Morning, People!" He greeted loudly, making to jump on the smaller blond until Naruto moved away at the last moment, letting the older blond hit the dusty floor.

"Here you go." When he had rolled over, Naruto passed Deidara a small plate filled with bacon, eggs and beans. Grinning in thanks, Deidara started shovelling the food into his mouth as fast as he could swallow.

He was done within minutes, and Naruto stared at him, blinking in shock. Itachi just shook his head and moved towards the entrance after packing everything away, tapping the full blond locks as he passed as signal to move.

Naruto jumped up as soon as he had passed moving towards the cave mouth, and then looked back at Deidara.

"You coming?"

. . .

They arrived at the current base, a beach house on a beach somewhere on the outskirts of Kaminari No Kuni, on the 30th October, much to the annoyance of the leader.

"Where were you!? You were meant to be back yesterday! And where is Naruto-kun?!" He would have continued shouting at his agent if a tanned head of blond locks hadn't popped itself over the Uchiha's shoulder.

"Hi!"


Sorry that its so short, I just thought that this would be a good place to finish. I don't know when I'll post it, but it will hopefully be linger then this. Hope you enjoyed it. Review, please!