An: Sorry for the long wait. My writing time has been drastically reduced due to work but I keep plugging away where I can. Anyway thanks to all those that take the time to review as always, your humble author S. o. t. A.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I'm doing this for fun not profit.

Chapter 10: First Impressions

Sakura landed on a branch barely pausing before she leapt again. Staring at Naruto's back, she watched as he scanned ahead for danger. Then looking to her left, she could see another Naruto doing the same in that direction. Moving her gaze forward again, she assumed that the Naruto behind and the one to her right were also scanning the directions they had been assigned. They were currently traveling in an Advanced Manji Formation which was a variation of the one Team Seven had used when protecting Tazuna from Zabuza. The major difference being this version of it was to protect a shinobi who could move along as quickly as those guarding him.

The formation was good for much the same reasons as the normal version although it suffered from a few additional weaknesses. A weakness that Jiraiya exploited as they were all in mid-air, when he appeared from beneath the ground having hidden himself using the headhunter jutsu.

"I've got you," he said as he rose into the air to grab her.

Sakura sighed and knew that once again Jiraiya had managed to get through Naruto's defenses. However, hearing twin shouts of, "Oh, no you don't," caused Sakura to direct her attention upwards. Where two more clones that even she hadn't been aware of dropped to the earth towards the Sannin, but Jiraiya proved why he was worthy of his title when he battered one away in mid-air as well as actually avoiding and using the other to propel himself towards his target even faster.

Snatching Sakura out of the air, Jiraiya landed on a branch holding her around the waist under his arm saying, "Ha, ha, not bad kid but you still are a million years from being able to stop me."

The four Naruto that had been around her glared up towards him from the various branches they had landed on, before three of them disappeared and the one that remained said, "Dammit, best three out of five, Pervy Sage."

Dropping to the ground before letting Sakura go, Jiraiya replied, "Sorry, we're near enough to the village that it'd be a waste of time. If a group traveling in the Advanced Manji got this close to their destination it would force the attackers to confront them head on." Beginning to walk along the road leading to their destination with the two genin following behind Jiraiya asked, "Now, what did you do wrong this time."

"I didn't prepare enough for the weakness of an attack from below," Naruto said, enjoying the formation practice despite his many failures to save the target during the trip.

"Nope," Jiraiya said confusing the blond jinchuriki, "After all you did add those two clones. By the way when did you make them?"

"I just didn't dispel the survivors from my previous failure and hid them till we started," Naruto answered, "But what did I do wrong then?"

"Well for one you are judging your lack of success on your inability to prevent me from reaching Sakura. You have to realize that I am a Sannin and the years of experience alone would make the odds of you actually stopping me laughably small." Jiraiya chuckled as Naruto glowered at him but continued by saying, "Therefore you should be concentrating not on stopping me, but on what you did wrong that would tell an enemy waiting to attack the person you are guarding, now is the moment to strike."

Naruto closed his eyes to concentrate and Sakura who was also confused by the Sannin's words followed his lead. Going over the failures, Sakura was forced to admit that she didn't see what Jiraiya was talking about. Although she knew he wasn't stupid she was still surprised when Naruto suddenly said, "We were all in the air when you attacked."

Surprised, Sakura thought back to all the failures and realized that Naruto was right in that every time Jiraiya had appeared, all of them had been in mid-leap. Beaming at his student, Jiraiya said, "Exactly, by all of you leaping at the same time it allows an attacker a shot at their target without fear of reprisal until everyone lands. Even the clone in back that should have been able to stop me was in the air and therefore unable to come to Sakura's aid. To counter this you should be staggering your leaps so that at least two clones are on a branch when everyone else is in the air."

"But that opens up gaps in our defense," Naruto said, "I thought the goal of this training was to get in synch with my clones."

Jiraiya nodded saying, "True, however the ability to respond to threats more than makes up for the temporary holes that open. Plus, I think you'll find it is a lot harder to stagger your clones then to travel with them at the relatively same pace. If Tsunade's not in this village, you'll see what I mean as we move on to Tea Country."

"What makes you think she'll be stopping at this village?" Sakura asked as she consulted her atlas. "It's not really known for much of anything."

"True," Jiraiya admitted, "Or perhaps it isn't just yet. Last time I was in the area they were just beginning construction on a mega-casino. The village was hoping to cash in on some of the many wealthy travelers that move between Tea and Fire Country. Since Tsunade has broken from her normal pattern it's just the type of place she would visit. Now, get into the normal Manji."

Naruto responded by creating three clones and then moved to surround Sakura but Jiraiya stopped him saying, "Hey, I didn't say to protect her. I'm the important traveler here."

"But you're the great and powerful Sannin. Why do you need a genin's protection?" Naruto asked his tone making Sakura smile as it told her the boy was holding a grudge about Jiraiya's comments on his ability to stop the Toad Sage.

"That's very true," Jiraiya said sounding smug, "And I don't. But when we hit the town I want to appear to be just another rich traveler with some shinobi protection."

Naruto nodded so he and his clones moved to surround the Sannin. Sakura felt a little left out so moved to walk near Jiraiya but was surprised when the man asked quietly, "Hey, what are you doing?" Sakura looked up at him confused so he elaborated saying, "His clones aren't the only thing he should practice getting in synch with."

Catching the hint, Sakura nodded moving to one of the clones and told it to dispel itself so that she could fill its spot in the formation. Jiraiya smiled as the girl smoothly fell in step with her teammate confident that soon he'd be hearing tales of an army of blond shinobi with a pink terror hidden in their midst's.

Arriving at the town, Jiraiya couldn't blame the two genin for going slack jawed as he said, "Yup, Tsunade was definitely here." He felt a little tinge of fear at the sight himself as he added, "It appears she still has a frightening temper."

This was due to the casino looking like an eight hundred pound gorilla had gone berserk inside of it. Staring at a roulette table sticking out from the second floor of a building across the street from it, Jiraiya wondered just how far some of the other gaming tables that the many holes suggested had been propelled from the casino had landed.

"I guess this means she's losing again," Naruto said in awe of the destruction.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Jiraiya said looking around for a place where he could learn about what happened. Finding a bar, he began walking towards it after tossing his pack to Naruto calling over his shoulder, "Scout the town a bit and see what you can learn." The two genin nodded so he began heading to the bar figuring that it may be owned by the same man that had built the casino due to the similar theme they shared. Stepping inside, he ran his eyes over the place and spotted a man in a rather expensive suit that seemed to be lamenting his loss and filling himself up with righteous anger. Guessing him to be the one to talk to Jiraiya made his way to the back corner where he sat and without asking permission took a seat in front of him.

"Who the hell are you?" the man asked giving him a glare that told Jiraiya if he wasn't careful he could end up in a shallow grave somewhere.

Guessing the man was a less than honest business man with some gangster ties, he said, "I may be someone who can help you with your problem."

Eyeing Jiraiya wearily the man said, "Yet you didn't answer my question. Get lost; I've already hired someone to deal with the blonde bitch."

Jiraiya kept his anger in check since he was hoping that he could convince the man to hire him so that he'd be able to collect Tsunade and buy the guy off by paying for the damages without it turning into a fight against whatever shinobi the man had hired. "Hey, no need to be rude. I'll deal with your problem in a way in which you won't call down Konoha's wrath upon you and can come out ahead. I'll even do it on the cheap too."

Snapping his fingers the man called forward two of his goons as he said, "Well unless you plan to work for free there ain't nobody cheaper than the Akatsuki."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed at the mention of the group and the small amount of killer instinct that it caused to leak from him had the gangster sit back in his booth trying to push himself through a wall to escape. Moving faster than any of the people present could follow; he grabbed the man's first goon and slammed his head into the table breaking it. As the gangster's food and drink flew into the air, Jiraiya stood from the booth and sent a kick into the second goon's chest that sent him flying into another table collapsing it under his weight. Towering over the gangster, Jiraiya said, "I tried to do this the quiet way. Now tell me everything that happened as well as who Akatsuki is sending."

The man nodded his head up and down so rapidly Jiraiya feared it would come off so sitting across from him again and placing his foot on the unconscious goon's head lying where the table used to be, said dangerously, "I'm not hearing anything."

"She rolled into town several days ago like a damn money sucking hurricane. Everything she played was fucking paying out big time. If that kept up she'd ruin me so…"

The man's voice trailed off leaving Jiraiya to guess he was about to admit to doing something illegal so he helped him along saying, "Naturally you couldn't allow that so decided to bump up the house's edge."

"Yeah…anyway we loaded some dice when she moved to the craps table and well she began losing as you can imagine. Hell, I would have been happy to make back a third of what she won. But it almost seemed like losing was calming her down as she blew through all her winnings."

Jiraiya nodded, almost able to picture Tsunade making obscene bets despite it being obvious that things were not going her way. He focused again on the man as he continued, "Well after losing almost everything she moved onto slots next and almost immediately hit it big. In one goddamn pull of a lever she was right back to where she started."

Jiraiya didn't need the man to continue to know what had happened next, but remained silent as the man talked while he imagined Tsunade staring at the winning combination on the machine. He could clearly see her slowly turning back towards the craps table where she had just lost big and her stomping towards it. He didn't know how she got a hold of the dice but figured they were still in play since it would look suspicious if they were removed as soon as she walked away. But he knew she'd use her incredible strength to crack them in her bare hand like walnuts and seeing the weights inside, well he already saw the results of her anger.

The man lapsing into silence pulled Jiraiya's attention to him. Tapping his geta on the goon's head it was resting on he said, "Here's what you are going to do. You're going to call off Akatsuki, because if you don't things are going to get really bad for you."

"I-I…I can't do that."

"Sure you can, it's just a matter of telling them the job's already been handled."

"No, you don't understand…they're already here."

"Shit…" Jiraiya cursed standing and ran out of the bar looking for his apprentice. He was confident Tsunade could handle herself and was more worried that if they heard Naruto was here they'd put off dealing with her in favor of taking him.

Tsunade Senju had been laying low in a cheap bar having given Shizune the slip so she could pretend to enjoy herself. However that quickly ended as she had noticed the two Konoha-nin walking past. She feared for a moment that the scumbag that had rigged the craps game had sent a message to Konoha, but doubted Sarutobi would send a couple of fresh faced genin after her. Not to mention the casino owner's cheating would also come to light if he went about settling things with her using that route. Still, considering her winning streak, she didn't think their appearance in the village was pure coincidence so followed after them when they moved on.

Henging her features and clothes to blend in with the townspeople going about their business so that she could follow them. Tsunade was left with the impression that the two genin were pretty recent graduates of the academy from the way they took in the sights. For a moment, she remembered how things had been on Team Sarutobi when the three would be Sannin were allowed to explore new towns and villages, at least before becoming jaded by blood and death. She was forced to amend that thought though as Jiraiya had never truly given up his exuberance about learning all he could about new locations or performing his 'research.'

Still watching the blond boy and pink-haired girl filled Tsunade with sadness due to her knowing it wouldn't last. She had just turned away in order to collect Shizune to leave quickly and quietly when a voice cut through the crowd like a knife. "Hello Naruto," the voice said causing Tsunade to spin towards it to see two men dressed in cloaks covered in red-clouds and whose heads were covered in large bamboo hats from which tassels hung, "I think it would be best if you come with us."

Tsunade didn't recognize the speaker's voice except in the sense that the man was a shinobi and probably a highly efficient and deadly one. The young blond shinobi he addressed shot back angrily, "I don't know who you think you are, but the old man always told me to stay away from strangers."

"The brat has quite the mouth on him doesn't he Itachi," the larger of the two cloaked men said reaching for the bandaged covered sword on his back. "Let's see if he's so lippy after I shave his legs from beneath him."

"Just be quick about it," Itachi said turning, "It was mere luck that our target was here. But I doubt he's here without at least his jounin-sensei."

His partner charged the two genin and despite a small part of her wanting to help them, Tsunade turned away telling herself it was no longer a concern of hers. But the sound of a kick landing on something solid followed by the skidding of feet caused her to turn back. She gasped in surprise seeing her teammate Jiraiya glaring at the two men, and guessed from the way the tall man held his bandaged sword that Jiraiya's kick had landed against it causing the man to skid back.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size," Jiraiya said his voice telling Tsunade just how serious he was taking the two men in front of him.

The shorter of the two turned back to face the Sannin saying, "Lord Jiraiya, I see the boy is well protected."

Pulling his bamboo shade off to reveal dark-hair and active Sharingan, he began snapping the top several buttons of his cloak. The young kunoichi gasped saying, "Sasuke…" upon the man's face being revealed.

Ignoring her, Jiraiya said, "Itachi Uchiha, I must say I'm surprised that you'd join a group that is willing to hire itself out to low-rent gangsters. I'd expect more from you."

"Ha-ha," his partner laughed, pulling his own hat away saying, "My Itachi you certainly are hated back home. It makes me nostalgic to visit Kirigakure."

Itachi's eyes watched Jiraiya carefully before saying, "Kisame, we're leaving."

"Damn, here I thought we finally get to have some fun." Faster than anyone but the two Sannin present could follow the two men disappeared rapidly retreating from the town.

Sounding shaken, Naruto asked, "W-who were those guys, Pervy Sage."

"Trouble," Jiraiya replied while thinking, "Damn, I didn't think Akatsuki would be moving so soon."

"Why'd you just let them run away then?" Naruto asked still feeling the fear that had welled up in him just from the man's presence.

"Because it was the best case scenario for the situation," Jiraiya said ushering the two genin to follow him. "A battle against a couple shinobi of those two's caliber would have left this town in ruins. Itachi recognized that as well and since Akatsuki seems to want to keep a low profile they retreated."

Seeing that Jiraiya was guiding them to a hotel, Sakura asked, "Shouldn't we move on, if they are so dangerous?

"Can't,"Jiraiya answered, "Tsunade was here and my gut is telling me she's close. That little standoff may have alerted her to our presence." Checking into the hotel, Jiraiya added, "You two settle in for the night. Don't worry. They won't be back as long as I'm around. I have to set up a toad net around the village to prevent Tsunade from slipping out undetected."

As the two genin headed to their room on the first floor and which had an onsen, Jiraiya sighed since he was positive that Tsunade was nearby in the village and the fact that she hadn't showed during the short but tense standoff meant that convincing her to return to Konoha may very well be impossible.

Sakura and Naruto had remained silent as they made their way to the room. Sakura for the most part still couldn't believe just how much the menacing man had looked like Sasuke although after hearing the name realized it was because they were brothers. Coming face to face with the butcher of the Uchiha, she supposed she could understand why Sasuke always ignored her and the other girls that had pursued him, although she still felt he didn't need to be as cold about it as he had been. But she imagined it was hard to care about such things when you knew a monster like Itachi Uchiha was out there. Guessing him to be the man that Sasuke had talked about needing to kill when Team Seven had talked about their dreams, she believed she now knew why he took Naruto's rapid improvement as a challenge against his own.

Directing her gaze to Naruto, she could tell he was still shaken by the meeting but also guessed why he didn't bounce back and give chase to the two missing-nin was due to her presence. She had little doubt the reason Akatsuki would target Naruto was related to the Kyuubi and even if he didn't realize it fully yet. He did recognize there was a possibility of it coming up.

Hoping to kill some of the tension she could feel she said, "Pretty crazy day, huh?"

Naruto chuckled mirthlessly busying himself with pulling out and folding some of the clothes in his pack. Sakura frowned, since he never bothered to in the past as he often just stuck things in or pulled them out just as haphazardly. Also the way he simply kept his back towards her told Sakura that he was hoping she'd just pretend the whole thing had never happened. Still not willing to let the chance to possibly bring up Naruto's being a jinchuriki slip away. She asked, "Naruto, why would they want to take you with them."

Naruto tensed and he slowly turned to face her. She could see a little fear in his eyes and his mouth opened and closed several times before finally he said, "Gee, Sakura I don't know."

Although on one hand Sakura expected such an answer. On the other, receiving it was like a slap in the face. Therefore she was unable to keep the anger and hurt from her voice as she said, "Really, you can't think of one reason why a pair of S-class missing-nin would come after you."

"Well…uh…maybe they…Where are you going?"

Sakura stopped at the door unable to stand hearing Naruto come up with some lame excuse so said over her shoulder, "What do you care?" Opening it she turned back to see Naruto still trying to think up any reason for Akatsuki's interest in him. Any excuse but the truth, so glaring at him slammed the door shut hard enough to crack the surrounding wall. Making her way out of the hotel, she was unaware that her angry exit was being watched by the woman they had been sent to find.

Tsunade smiled as the kunoichi left the hotel in a huff. Partly due to her recognizing that it was most likely due to boy troubles and that in such situations sometimes a friendly ear was exactly what a young woman needed. Adjusting her henge so that she appeared much as she did almost some forty years ago she followed behind the young girl.

As they moved through the town Tsunade was convinced that with the presence of Jiraiya it meant that she was the reason behind their appearance in the village. She had almost followed Jiraiya as he left the hotel but doubted she would be able to escape his notice and was confident that at this very moment he was out making sure that if she left the village he'd be alerted to it.

Cursing her decision to stay in the village to see how much trouble it would cause for her after her rampage, she had decided to keep tabs on the genin in order to learn when they had moved on. However as she watched the girl she could see that the anger she felt was fading as a look of worry began to appear on her face. As a result, her pace was slowing and eventually she stopped in order to look back the way she had come. Knowing her window of opportunity to approach her was closing Tsunade slipped around a building to approach her from the side. Just as her target was about to walk back, Tsunade said, "Let me guess, man troubles."

The kunoichi spun quickly her hand reaching for the pouch at her hip causing Tsunade in an exaggerated motion to fall back onto her rear while holding her hands up as she shouted, "I'm sorry don't kill me."

The kunoichi kept her hand in her pouch as she eyed Tsunade, who appeared dressed as a townsperson and her henge made her appear like she did when she had first joined Team Sarutobi. The kunoichi eyed her several more seconds before she removed her hand from her pouch and offering it to her said, "Sorry, you startled me."

"I could see that," Tsunade said excepting the hand up, "Whoever he is he must have really made you upset."

"Um, what makes you say that," the kunoichi said obviously surprised at Tsunade's accurate guess.

Giving a friendly smile Tsunade said, "Simple, the only thing that can make a young woman storm off in a huff like that, but still make her want to go back is when a boy she likes is acting like an idiot."

"Yeah, but…well I might have overreacted. In any case, I should probably head back. It was nice to meet you."

The kunoichi began to head back to her hotel so as she passed Tsunade placed an arm over her shoulder saying, "You don't want to head back too soon, trust me. Make him sweat a little. At the very least it'll make him think twice about acting like an idiot. Come on, how about we talk about it some."

Sakura bit her lip as she admitted it would be nice to talk to someone about how she was feeling and Jiraiya was definitely not someone she wanted to go too and looking at the blonde haired girl sort of made her think of Ino so she said, "Sure, but only for an hour or so. By the way my name's Sakura."

"Mito," Tsunade said not allowing the victorious smile she felt to appear on her face. "Come on, I know a nice quiet place where just us girls can talk."

Naruto stared at the door for what seemed like forever and began to lament his not chasing after Sakura. But he knew unless he was willing to tell her about Kyuubi all he'd do is make things worse. Sitting on the bed, he wondered why of all the times for the Kyuubi to become an issue it had to be now. After all, he had lived his life for thirteen years in a, if not blissful ignorance, it had been ignorance all the same and now that he knew about it, people he had never even heard of were crawling out of the woodwork to get a piece of it.

In all honesty, he really didn't understand Sakura's reaction as he had needed to have things that most of his fellow genin already knew such as bloodlines limits explained to him, often by her. So why would she think he knew why two missing-nin were after him. Placing his hand over his stomach, he wondered if she already knew about the Kyuubi, but rejected it almost as quickly. As almost everyone in the village had treated him like dirt because of the creature, surely if Sakura knew there'd be more than just calm acceptance. Unless someone had told her, but since the Third had informed Naruto of his law he couldn't think of anyone willing to break it, outside of Mizuki that was.

For a moment Naruto considered that maybe Mizuki had, as the former teacher no doubt would have considered destroying any chance that he had with Sakura as a bonus. But again it didn't seem to fit since he'd imagine she'd have reacted differently to him during the academy the only time Mizuki could have told her and she had only really began to change towards him after they had joined Team Seven.

Falling back on the bed to stare up at the ceiling Naruto figured he was really starting to over think the matter. As for all he knew he had lied so horrendously that even if she didn't know why he had, she still had known that he had. Naruto knew that left him with two choices, tell her the truth or commit to the lie.

Before he could give the matter much thought the door was thrown open and a worried looking Jiraiya popped in shouting, "Naruto!"

Sitting up in the bed, Naruto asked, "What's wrong Pervy Sage?"

Upon seeing the boy the Toad Sage calmed saying, "Nothing I guess. It's just when I saw the door…" Dropping his head in his hands he asked, "Sakura?"

Sighing sadly, Naruto nodded. Stepping into the room Jiraiya sat next to the boy asking, "What happened?"

"I…I screwed up, I guess. She asked me why those Akatsuki guys would want me to go with them. Even though I wasn't sure, I knew it had to do with the Kyuubi and well…"

Getting the picture Jiraiya said, "You told her you didn't know."

"Yeah…"

Eyeing the door, Jiraiya asked, "I'm taking it that she didn't react to well to it."

"No, and I don't know why. I mean she might have guessed I wasn't being truthful but still, why get so angry?"

Placing his hand around the boy's shoulder Jiraiya asked, "Why do you think she came along, Naruto?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well think about it. I doubt it was for me and my antics. Plus there's no guarantee if we find Tsunade that she'll train her and not to mention that thus far the training has really focused on you. So again, why do you think she's tagged along?"

Jiraiya could see what Naruto wanted the reason to be, but that he was unwilling to give voice to it for fear it wouldn't be true. Able to relate, he let him off the hook saying, "Regardless of the reason, you have to know at the very least she values you as a teammate. Therefore seeing a man that murdered an entire clan as well as a Former Swordsmen of the Mist targeting her teammate means she's going to worry about you and you telling her less than the truth to her question tells her that she probably hasn't gained your trust. Not only that, but that you are actively putting up walls between the two of you."

"But this thing in my gut was the reason I've been alone for so long, Pervy Sage. What if…what if it drives her away too?"

Hearing the fear and pain in his apprentice's voice, Jiraiya almost told him that Sakura already knew. But he held his tongue knowing that telling her was something that Naruto needed to handle. "I know you're scared that will happen. But you need to decide what kind of relationship the two of you will share. If she means as much to you as I think she does then you're going to have to tell her eventually. It'll mean more coming from you as it means you trust her." Naruto didn't look any more at peace with the idea but Jiraiya could see that his words did reach him. Standing Jiraiya said, "Come on. I doubt Itachi and Kisame will be back anytime soon. But who knows what trouble she'll get into on her own."

Following after Jiraiya, Naruto knew that soon he'd have to decide to either trust Sakura with his secret and heart or let her go.

Tsunade watched Sakura's head loll slightly before shaking it to fight off the drowsiness she was feeling. Having taken Sakura to the bed and breakfast she was staying at confident that Shizune was no doubt looking for her throughout the town and due to her rampage at the casino would at least be keeping a low profile, Tsunade had pulled out a few of bottles from her collection of sake. She had convinced Sakura that they were her mother's and that a few wouldn't be missed.

She got the feeling the girl was rather straight laced, but was prone to folding under peer-pressure so after taking a few sips herself had again offered. To be fair, it had taken more convincing then she thought it would but eventually the girl had given in. Of course what she didn't know was that although the sake she was drinking tasted light and sweet it was probably one of the most potent in her arsenal. As she had slowly gotten the genin drunk by keeping her distracted by using her anger at her teammate, Tsunade had remembered the time that she and Jiraiya had used a similar tactic against a Daimyo in River Country to learn about several bases he had allowed Suna to build in his lands.

However, as she had learned then as she had often needed to force the man to keep his distance while he had tried to grope her in his drunken stupor; it was a tactic that made the target difficult to keep on track.

"And despite me coming all this…(hic)… this way to be with him. (Hic)…He had the audacity to…(hic) lie right to my face." Sakura said waving the sake bottle around as she talked.

"Men, what good are they," Tsunade said feeling annoyed that she had used all her good sake and thus far learned less than nothing about the girl's mission or the boy's secret that he had apparently lied about to upset her, "Now, how about you tell me why you are out here."

Carrying on as if she hadn't heard the question, Sakura said, "Still, I shouldn't be surprised…(hic)…it's not like he has a…(hic) lot of experience with people." Sighing she continued, "I suppose it's my own fault (hic) for ignoring him for so long." Looking at the henged Tsunade, Sakura said seriously as she awoke a little, "You want to know the…(hic) funny thing."

Getting annoyed at her inability to direct the conversation Tsunade said, "Not really."

Again acting as if she didn't hear the woman Sakura carried on saying, "I used to like Sasuke because he was all dark and mysterious…(hic). But when it comes to being mysterious, he doesn't even come close to Naruto. I mean take all the jutsu Jiraiya's taught Naruto so far. They're all closely associated with the Fourth (hic). He tries to play it off that it's because the Fourth totally screwed Naruto over. But, it can't be that simple can it?"

Deciding enough was enough Tsunade said annoyed that the genin drank all her good sake and she had nothing to show for it, "Sure it can be. Now I think it's time for you to go."

Beginning to drag the girl to her feet she was surprised when Sakura pushed her away as her drunken mind began making a connection her sober one had been playing with for months, "They're related! Why else would Jiraiya be so (hic) interested in him? He's teaching Naruto the things his…" Sakura's eyes went wide as she finished her thought "…father never got to." Wobbling as she got to her feet she began walking to the door, "I need to talk to Jiraiya about this (hic). Why wouldn't he tell Naruto it would mean so much to him?"

She made it to the door when it opened knocking her back onto her rear. "Ouch," she said as she rubbed her behind.

Sakura gazed up at a dark haired woman as she stepped into the room looking nervous as she said, "Lady Tsunade, there are some people who wish to talk to you."

Jiraiya and Naruto spent almost an hour looking for Sakura and the young blond was beginning to get frantic saying, "It's all my fault."

Calming his apprentice, Jiraiya said, "Naruto relax. I told you if Kisame or Itachi returned, I'd be made aware. Besides they won't be in a hurry to tangle with me and know I wouldn't hand you over so taking her as a hostage is pointless. She's probably just blowing off some steam. This may come as a surprise to you, but she has a bit of a temper."

Naruto did relax a little, yet his mind still was coming up with horrible situations Sakura could have found herself in. Mentioning one he began to say, "Still what if she…"

"Relax kid," Jiraiya said cutting him off as he looked up and down the street for some flash of pink. He found it but not in the way he was expecting as he saw a pig wearing pearls and a vest being followed by a dark haired woman as they left a bar. The pig had its nose to the ground and was sniffing as if following a trail. His focus shifted to the woman and although she had aged in the years since he had last seen her. He had no trouble recognizing her as he shouted surprised at stumbling into her, "Shizune!"

Responding to the voice Tsunade's apprentice looked up from the pig quickly and appeared to be attempting to see if the person the voice belonged to was a threat. Her eyes quickly found Jiraiya and just as surprised as he had sounded she said, "Lord Jiraiya."

"Ha-ha, what a lucky break. It's been a long time Shizune; my you've grown into a lovely woman."

"Hey Pervy Sage, we don't have time for you to be hitting on some woman right now. We have to find Sakura."

"Sorry Naruto that's going to have to wait. Shizune here is Tsunade's apprentice and I'm willing to bet she knows where she is."

"Actually I don't," Shizune said sounding nervous obviously wondering why Jiraiya was looking for her master, "She's been avoiding me since an altercation she got into this morning."

"I see. Then I guess you'll just have to take us to the hotel you are staying at. I'm sure she'll show up there eventually."

"Uh, maybe first I should tell her that you are in town and wish to speak with her. You know how she can be."

"Sorry Shizune, I'm afraid that I've been sent on a mission to retrieve and escort her back to Konoha."

Shizune's eyes went wide since it was likely the order to return had come from either the Hokage or the Fire Country Daimyo. In either scenario if Tsunade choose to ignore the order, it would mean she could be branded as a missing-nin. "It isn't related to her debts is it Lord Jiraiya? I've tried to pay a few of them but it seems that some of them have been forgiven."

Not wanting to leave Tsunade's apprentice in the dark, but knowing not knowing may put some pressure on Tsunade he replied, "I'm afraid the reason for the summons is between Tsunade and the Hokage. I'm simply the messenger."

Shizune hung her head as she replied, "I understand," although a part of her was happy for the summons, she was afraid that being branded a missing-nin wouldn't be enough to prevent Tsunade from attempting to ignore it. Turning she waved the two men to follow her to the room she shared with her master.

The trip was made in silence as Naruto wasn't happy the search for Sakura was put off in order to possibly locate Tsunade, while Shizune nervously looked over her shoulder at Jiraiya and the Sanin knew she was possibly contemplating making a run for it. Jiraiya feared it reflected how likely the woman believed it to be Tsunade would return. On the off chance Shizune did bolt and got away. She could later claim Tsunade had never received the summons to return thereby protecting her master from any punishment the Hokage levied down for the disobedience. It could be a death sentence depending on how harsh the Hokage chose to be. Although he knew Sarutobi would never hand one out to the young woman he still felt it prudent to warn her by saying, "I wouldn't if I were you."

Shizune looked back her eyes showing the surprise she felt at his guessing her intentions, but with a sad nod she accepted her chances of escaping were near zero. Coming to that decision, Shizune picked up her pace reaching a small bed and breakfast. Entering the building, Shizune nodded to the old lady that ran the place before proceeding to the room she shared with Tsunade. She paused at the door for a moment and with a heavy sigh, she pushed it open.

Hitting something with the door she was surprised to see a young girl staring up at her woozily. However seeing the headband, she shifted her attention to the other occupant in the room and seeing her master henged as her younger self as well as the empty sake bottles realized what Tsunade had been up too. Keeping the disappointment she felt from her voice she said, "Lady Tsunade, there are some people who wish to talk to you."

She was about to move to help the young kunoichi up figuring she was the one the boy with Jiraiya had been fretting over, when said boy noticing his teammate rushed into the room shouting, "Sakura!"

Sakura who had been staring up at the newcomer with a drunken stare that was asking, "Who are you?" Instantly recognized her teammate's voice, and upon focusing on him forgot about what she had been heading towards the door for as the anger she had been venting to the henged Tsunade came back full force. Narrowing her eyes at him she said, "Oh, it's you."

Naruto paused in his moving towards her at the tone in her voice but as she struggled to stand went to help her up. However as he grabbed her arm to pull her to her feet she jerked it free saying, "I don't need your help." However she proved herself wrong as once free of Naruto's grip she fell back to the floor.

Naruto stood back afraid to anger her further, but Jiraiya said his eyes never leaving Tsunade who watched on dispassionately, "Naruto take Sakura back to the hotel."

"I don't need his…"

"Don't argue with me," Jiraiya said his serious tone surprising both genin, "You're so drunk you can barely stand. If she had been an enemy there's no telling what danger you could have brought onto us and you. Have you forgotten what happened this afternoon? What if they had decided to risk grabbing you in order to lure Naruto out?" Seeing his words register in the girl's eyes he eased up saying, "In any case considered it a lesson in why you should never drop your guard around people you don't know."

Naruto moved in to help Sakura stand and this time she didn't fight him. The two genin left the room as the two Sannin stared each at each other. Jiraiya although he didn't look away said, "She's a little young to be using that old trick on isn't she?"

"Pfft, she'll get a taste for it soon enough," Tsunade replied bitterly. "All it will take is a few of her friends to stop coming home. Now what to you want?"

Straightening a little since it appeared that instead of it being a friend informing another of the Hokage's decree it would be a shinobi informing another he said politely but distantly, "Tsunade Senju, you have been ordered by the Hokage to return to the village to meet with him."

"About what?" she asked a little trepidation creeping into her eyes since the Hokage could want to see her for a number of reasons, her rampage that morning being but the latest.

"I'm not at liberty to say," Jiraiya replied.

Tsunade's eyes hardened angrily as she said, "Who the hell do you think you are talking too? I'm not some damn genin you can intimidate into returning to the village with her tail tucked between her legs. Now what does he want, I know he told you?"

"He did," Jiraiya admitted keeping his cool easily in the face of her rising anger.

"And…?"

"You'll find out when you return."

"That's not going to happen," Tsunade said her tone carrying a hint of finality too it, which caused Shizune to gasp.

"Lady Tsunade…"

"Shut up Shizune," Tsunade snapped at her long-time traveling companion who promptly did as she was told.

Jiraiya eyed the young woman sadly as she obeyed her master before turning his attention to his fellow Sannin and said, "I think what Shizune is trying to say is you are not thinking very clearly on this matter and don't understand the consequences your actions can carry."

Narrowing her eyes, Tsunade said, "I understand them just fine."

Nodding gravely Jiraiya said his tone heavy with grim resolve, "Very well Tsunade, but understand this I'm not here as an old friend or teammate. I'm here fulfilling the orders of the Hokage. I'll give you the night to think about it to make sure. But if you try to leave the village or you stubbornly refuse to return then I'll treat you as any other missing-nin scum who would abandon their village and their duties."

Tsunade gasped looking shocked that Jiraiya would agree to carry out the punishment her refusal would bring about, having been confident another team would have been dispatched. Turning quickly so she wouldn't see the pain such an outcome welled up in him, he moved to the door nodding to Shizune as he left the two women alone. On the other side he paused a moment to close his eyes and prayed that the next day wouldn't see him have to take down the woman he had always cared for.

Naruto was carrying Sakura on his back much the way he would back in Konoha when she pushed herself too hard. She hadn't exactly been thrilled by the idea but after stumbling several times already she had reluctantly agreed to the arrangement. Naruto sighed as he tried and failed to think of something to say that would erase the blunder he had made in lying to Sakura. Sadly everything he came up with died on his tongue as being insincere, in part to the fact that he still felt the pang of fear she would abandoned him upon learning the truth of what the Fourth Hokage had sealed inside him and so would only end up lying to her.

Sighing again he was surprised when Sakura said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have stormed off."

In the safe territory of Sakura's own mess up Naruto said, "It's okay Sakura. Although I was really worried… I understand why."

Sakura's arms tightened around his throat momentarily cutting his oxygen off and for a moment feared he had upset her again. But they relaxed as she buried her face into his back as she despondently said, "I…I just wish that you trusted me."

"I do Sakura," Naruto responded immediately.

"No you don't," she responded just as quickly but in a way that made Naruto think she just heard the words but not him, "How could you after how I treated you during the academy?"

"Sakura…"

"I-I-I just wish I knew if I was making progress with you…," she carried on over him. Which made Naruto guess that due to her relative intoxication, she was venting more to herself then to him and that it was only his presence that was drawing the conversation along its current path. Listening in as she continued by saying, "That I mean enough to you that you will tell me everything."

Naruto stiffened as she said that making him think, "Does she know?" However he didn't understand why if she knew about the Kyuubi then why hadn't she ever said anything about it. Guessing that it may be related to Akatsuki wanting him and the lie he told her, caused him to believe that she didn't know of the Kyuubi yet. Still, remembering how she had found his quick healing to be strange, he suspected that Sakura knew there was more to him than meets the eye. Upon coming to that conclusion he realized that in reality he had told her nothing of value about himself.

Deciding it was time to face the music and at least open the door to the possibility of telling her the truth he said, "Sakura…"

But upon receiving no reply looked over his shoulder to see his teammate had lapsed into a drunken sleep. Feeling relief despite what he had just promised himself to do, he quickly squashed it so as not to chicken out on at least bringing the matter up.

Shizune looked up at the stars feeling torn between her loyalty to her master and her loyalty to her home. Almost as soon as Jiraiya had left Tsunade had turned to the young woman to say, "Pack your things we're leaving." Shizune had done as she was told but then Tsunade had moved to her bed saying, "We'll leave in the morning when the foot traffic is highest. If I know Jiraiya, he has those damn toads watching for us and I doubt we'll be able to slip out tonight. We'll head to Degrashi Port in Tea Country. I'm sure Jirorcho will offer us sanctuary." With that said she had pulled back the covers of her blanket and promptly gone to sleep.

Shizune had been unable to follow suit in part to the fact that she was fretting over her master's decision. In truth she almost could no longer recognize the woman that her uncle had fallen in love with as she had become but a shell of the person she used to be. She knew that if Tsunade went through with her decision in the morning that any chance Tsunade Senju had of reclaiming the woman she had been before leaving Konoha would be lost forever. Unwilling to let that happen she disappeared as she shunshined from the top of the bed and breakfast they were staying at to turn to the one person she hoped could help.

Sasuke smiled as he listened to the sound of a thousand bird's chirping before charging the dummy in his family's dojo and buried his fist in its chest. Breathing hard, he let his smile slip as he thought about the fact that it had taken three months to finally master the jutsu. The only reason he had learned it in the first place had been because of a mission in which Kakashi and he had encountered a group of bandits with missing-nin support. In the end Kakashi had needed to resort to his Chidori in order to kill the missing-nin. Sasuke had simply had the good fortune to have seen the handsigns while his Sharingan had been active.

Sasuke felt a spike of anger as he remembered seeing the concern in Kakashi's eye when he saw Sasuke's own activated Sharingan. The famous copy ninja had then quickly moved on to mopping up the rest of the bandits and let the matter drop. Sasuke knew better than to ask his sensei to teach him the jutsu having long come to the conclusion the man was holding him back.

Pulling his hand free of the dummy's chest he said to the presence he felt, "You have a nasty habit of hiding in the shadows."

"True," Kabuto said chuckling as he stepped into the fire light of the dojo, "But this time I have your permission to be here and unless my eyes are deceiving me that jutsu is the famous Chidori. I'm surprised Kakashi taught it to you."

"He didn't," Sasuke said angrily.

"Ah, I see the Sharingan is truly a marvelous bloodlines to allow you to infer how to master such a jutsu on your own. However, I'm curious as to what you want, it's been three months since I made my offer."

"Yeah, about that, where is the loser and his girlfriend? Kakashi says they are on a mission to locate someone for the Hokage, but he won't go into the specifics of who is leading it."

Kabuto chuckled saying, "For good reason I imagine. He no doubts fears that you'd become rather jealous if you learned they were currently learning from Jiraiya of the Sannin while searching for Tsunade Senju." Kabuto smirk grew bigger as he saw Sasuke's fist clench at hearing the news of where his teammates had been for the past couple of months.

Finally giving release to his anger Sasuke shouted, "Argghh, damn them. I'm stuck in the damn village learning crap jutsu while they're learning who knows what from a man of Jiraiya's stature. I'm an Avenger god-dammit how am I supposed to kill Itachi if they won't train me."

"Are you now?" Kabuto said pulling Sasuke's angry gaze towards him. He could see that his words confused the boy so clarified saying, "An avenger I mean. As far as Konoha is concerned you are but another shinobi in a long line of them. It doesn't care about your goal to kill your brother. Has Kakashi's teachings not shown you that already?"

"What do you suggest I do then?"

Smiling widely Kabuto said, "Oh I'm sure you already are well aware of what you should do and I can arrange it so that it happens."

Sasuke admitted Kabuto was right so said, "Tell me more."

"Rasengan," a familiar voice shouted waking Sakura, who shot up in bed. Doing so was a mistake as her head began pounding and a dizzy sensation fell over her.

"Oh my head," she whispered to herself but had to fight back a wince as it sounded like she had been shouting. Trying to think of why her head hurt so much she was assaulted by images that didn't seem to make a lot of sense. One such one was that of a girl that suddenly burst into smoke to reveal the woman they had been searching for. As she slipped from the bed her mouth feeling like cotton balls were stuffed into it and she had a vague sense that she was forgetting something important. Remembering storming off after Naruto had told her he had no idea why Itachi and his partner were after him, she wondered how she got home and had a vague sense of being carried but couldn't really remember.

Hearing another shout of, "Rasengan," as well as a loud explosion that caused her head to pound so bad it made her bones ache, she moved to the sliding door that led to the onseen of their hotel room. Throwing it open, she recoiled from the light as she was about to yell at Naruto despite the further pain it would cause her only to see that the smoke of the explosion was coming from the other side of the fenced off area.

Cursing her noisy teammate, she began to head towards it, but paused upon realizing she was still dressed in the clothes she had worn the previous day. Shaking it off as another part of the missing time she had from the night before. She climbed the fence and made her way to where the smoke was coming from. Easily finding her teammate she came upon a sight she had seen many times in the past few months which was a bunch of trees bearing the marks of being hit with an unfinished Rasengan. However the tree her panting teammate was currently in front of was different in the fact that it had fallen due to having a good portion of its trunk destroyed.

As he turned she could see a small smile gracing his lips and knew he had experienced a break through. However it faded upon seeing he,r instead being replaced with surprise. "Sakura," he shouted causing her head to punish her for being around such noise.

"Shhhh," she said.

"Sorry…Pervy Sage said you'd probably be hurting this morning. Did I wake you?"

"Yeah…um what happened last night?"

Naruto looked away ashamed saying, "What do you remember?"

Thinking which hurt as well she finally said, "Not much after leaving the room. I think I met someone and after that everything's kind of a blur."

Naruto nodded saying, "Yeah, well you met Tsunade who henged herself to look younger in order to get you drunk and…"

Sakura listened on in mortification as she learned that she had been tricked into getting hammered. Seeing how uncomfortable Naruto looked now that she was around she asked, "Um…did I say anything I shouldn't have?"

Naruto moved his hand to his stomach for a moment before consciously pulling it away saying, "Not really. You made it clear you don't think I trust you." Sakura's eyes widened and she quickly tried to say she was drunk but was cut off by Naruto saying, "Sakura…I…I know you've noticed some things about me that don't exactly add up. And that I've been less the forthcoming about them… I-I think I'm ready to talk about it…but would like to wait until we return to the village."

Sakura nodded saying, "Are you sure?"

Naruto tried to smile saying, "Yeah, it's just I've never had to talk about it before so need a little more time."

Sakura gave him a smile saying, "I won't let you back out now you know."

Seeing Sakura's smile filled Naruto with a sense of hope that he was making a bigger deal out of his being a jinchuriki then it needed to be so found it easier to smile as he said, "I'm counting on it."

Before either teen could say anything further Jiraiya dropped down saying, "Naruto, we've got to go. Tsunade's making a break for it."

"I'm coming too," Sakura said despite the pounding headache that seemed to be returning full force now that she was no longer focused on Naruto.

"You sure you up to it?" Jiraiya asked eyeing her wearily, "I wouldn't blame you if all you wanted to do was stay in bed."

"I'll make due."

"Alright, let's go. She's taking an old hunter's path to Tea Country if she reaches Degrashi Port we may have to let her go."

Both teens nodded gravely not wanting their mission to be a failure after dedicating so much time to it so quickly followed Jiraiya as he began running deeper into the woods in an effort to get in front of his teammate.

"You sent for me Lord Hokage?"

"Ah yes Kakashi. I've been sitting on a mission for your team for some time now and while I was hoping Jiraiya would have found Tsunade by now. Jiraiya's last message had them heading towards Tea Country following a few leads. Therefore, I want you to link up with Sakura and Naruto and then proceed to Grass in order to extract a kunoichi by the name of Karin."

The Hokage noticed a small amount of apprehension appear in Kakashi's eye so asked, "Is that a problem?"

"Well to be honest sir, I fear how Sasuke will react to learning Naruto and Sakura have been with Jiraiya all this time. Maybe it would be best if you assign another team of genin."

"I'm afraid that's not possible. I'm just as troubled as you are by Sasuke's development. That is one reason for this mission. If you think he is incapable of reeling in his bloodlust for his brother and start acting as a proper shinobi should then we'll have to take steps to bring him in line or drop him completely."

Nodding Kakashi said, "And the other reason?"

Smiling Sarutobi said, "Well due in part to Naruto's being the one to convince her to defect and her ability to sense chakra at such long distances. It almost has to be Naruto. I told her that when it came time to help her leave that she'd be able to sense it. Once she senses Naruto's chakra coming closer, I'm sure she'll take the steps necessary to make her leaving go smoothly."

Kakashi nodded before leaving the office. As he shut the door behind him, he couldn't shake the feeling that it was often on missions where trouble wasn't expected that it almost guaranteed that it would make an appearance.