Chapter 10
Two figures leaped through the trees of Fire Country, tracking their prey like hounds after a fox. Swiftly they ran, somehow following a trail at high speed from the trees. An impressive feat, that.
Why, they didn't even bother to slow, moving at speeds most would consider absurd to even consider trying to reach unaided by machine, much less by leaping from tree to tree. Trackers they be, highly trained in the art of stalking their prey.
It helped that in this case the man they were pursuing was putting little effort into hiding his trail, choosing speed over safety in his getaway.
So, ok, maybe the trail was a trifle obvious.
"How many shoes is that guy wearing, and why the heck does he keep dropping them as he runs??"
Fine, maybe the kidnapper was making it extremely obvious.
Naruto and Tenten continued towards Rain, hoping to head off this Tobi fella who had somehow managed to kidnap Temari. Jiraiya stealthily followed behind the children, despite being far more nervous than them.
Naruto wasn't nervous in the least. After all, he was the hero, and he saved the day. That's what Hokage's did, right? And if he wanted to be Hokage, he'd have to be a kickass ninja who could rescue girls from situations like this with no problem. Heck, wasn't it even part of the job description?
Naruto could see his future business cards now...
"Uzumaki Naruto, Hokage Extraordinaire
You know an asshole who needs beating
Or a princess who needs rescuing
I'm your man!"
'Hell yeah! Those would be awesome!'
While Naruto considered other aspects of being an awesome Hokage, Tenten WAS worrying about more pressing concerns. Well, she wasn't that worried, but she was a tad nervous. Tenten remembered quite well that Temari beat her in exams. She also remembered that Gaara was some kind of psychopathic sand monster. Whatever it was that made him back down and surrender his sister wasn't someone that Tenten wanted to meet.
But at the same time she was with Naruto, who, she remembered, had beaten Gaara when he went all 'crazy sand beast'. He'd also killed Orochimaru, captured that guy who'd stolen the Raijin, and caused S-ranked ninjas to run away in fear
So while running through the woods to rescue a girl she didn't like, from some kidnapper (who had stolen her from a guy who was freakin nuts), Tenten wasn't as worried as she frankly should have been.
After all, Naruto was there. And he'd make sure nothing bad happened to her.
Jiraiya was torn. On the one hand, Naruto rescuing Temari would be quite the perfect ending to his newest book. Well, it would be if gratuitous nudity and a threesome was involved, and Jiraiya could handle making that part up himself if he had to. Either way, this was the sort of thing he couldn't miss, as it would be way too perfect a way to finish his story.
On the other hand...
He DIDN'T want to have to go to Rain.
Rain had some very bad memories for him, thank you very much. Hanzou was one scary mother-fucker, and the further Jiraiya could stay away from the mess that was Rain, the better.
It was tempting to sweep Naruto and his woman up and carry them back, but the political fall-out from losing the former Kazekage's daughter was also something that he had to consider.
The best idea Jiraiya could come up with was just to follow Naruto and see where he went, and make sure he didn't fuck things up too badly.
Finally, at a distance, but closing quickly, were Gaara and Tsunade. Tsunade, much like Jiraiya, really didn't like the idea of going to Rain -for pretty much the exact same reasons, actually.
That, and there may or may not be a casino on the Konoha side of the border, that she may or may not owe a large sum of money in gambling debt to.
Maybe.
Gaara... Gaara was just hoping that his sister actually succeeded this time, and that he didn't have to take such a direct hand in her love life anymore. For pete's sake, he was pretty much having to do all the work for her! It was like she wasn't even serious about the whole thing!
But he had promised to be a good brother, and hopefully make it harder for the Ichibi to take over his head and make him kill people that he didn't necessarily want to. Or at least wouldn't act on normally.
'Stupid human social interactions, and their goal of limiting bloodshed...'
If this is what normal people had to deal with everyday, he'd take being a murdering pyschopath anytime.
Dealing with love was a pain in the ass.
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'Bwahahahaahahah! They're falling right into my trap!'
Tobi cackled as he ran, thinking of how perfectly his awesome plan was going.
It was more of a skip, really... Or maybe a prance. But he certainly was doing it quickly, all the while attempting to laugh evilly and throwing shoes over his shoulder every so often.
Temari, having woken up sometime through the run, didn't want to know.
Tied up and gagged, she didn't want to have to deal with whatever insanity this nutjob that Gaara had pawned her off to would come up with.
Especially with the sheer volume of shoes he had offhand.
Temari wasn't quite certain where Gaara got his ideas from, but the second she actually was able to get a word in edgewise with him, she'd let him know in no uncertain terms that this wasn't how good brothers acted.
She had no idea how this wacko had gotten a hold of her, and she was more then a bit worried that not only did her brother have a huge hand in this... But that he though that he was also doing her a favor by it.
Whatever reason for her being kidnapped, though... She just wanted the fuck away from this guy.
Tobi, though... Tobi knew today was a good day. A glorious success for all of Akatsuki! The perfect set-up had been presented to him to finish his own plans, and goshdarnit he was going to take it!
All he had to do was lure Naruto close enough to Rain... then he'd be able to spring his trap!
'Oh, if only Kakuzu and Hidan were here... they'd want to be my friend for sure now!'
Tobi's laugh turned slightly more sinister... If one could actually call it that. Instead of picturing, say, a kitten laugh evilly, imagine it was an angry kitten laughing evilly.
'Soon, the Akatsuki's plans will be complete! Everything is going perfectly! All my plans... All my goals... It will come to pass! It WILL be mine! Muwahahhaahahaha!'
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"Man, I needed a break. Nonstop missions for months like that I can handle... But its nice to have some time to relax."
Kisame wandered about the Akatsuki base, bored. Its not like it was a place bustling with activity or anything, but it was too peaceful.
The low level goons tended to learn pretty quickly not to irritate the S-ranked criminals who had no problem with indiscriminate slaughter, after all.
"Still... I wish someone other then Itachi was here..."
But... There was nothing to do in the base! Hell, Itachi wouldn't even play Yahtzee with him! The first and only time that Kisame had asked, Itachi had stared with such intensity at the cup filled with dice that it actually spontaneously combusted. Since then, Kisame just hadn't bothered.
'Then again, he never seems to want to play any of our boardgames for some reason...'
But, Kisame had a plan for today. Not many knew it (though frankly, no one would be surprised if they heard it), but Kisame was an expert fisherman. Under an assumed name (which, unsurprisingly, didn't actually mean that no one knew who he was. He still looked like a giant fucking fishman), Kisame had competed in and legitimately won numerous fishing contests over the years.
And there just happened to be a rather nice lake right by the border to Konoha that had some fish ready to become his lunch. So Kisame donned full fishing regalia, picked up his tacklebox, and strapped his fishing pole to his back next to Samehada.
"Now, where did I leave my hat?"
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"Hey you! Kid! Wake up! You've been lying there for an hour now!"
"Huh? Wha?"
Sasuke came to on the floor of Ichiraku's, where he was being nudged with a broom. In the face. A dirty broom that had just been used to clean the stand's floors.
Yuck.
Sasuke flailed his arms about, trying to push the broom away from his face, before regaining his senses.
"Stop that! What the hell... happened..."
It all came rushing back to Sasuke. Uchiha Itachi, his brother... his nemesis... the man he was destined to kill... was scared off by Naruto?!
Seriously? Naruto?
'But... Why? What is it about Naruto that could scare HIM?'
Sasuke stood up, brushing himself off nonchalantly, as if he wasn't just woken up from a dirtnap. Ignoring Ichiraku, Sasuke slouched a tad, putting up his cool facade that had all the prepubescent girls squealing.
'I must... brood on this. My brother has presented a weakness, and I shall exploit any possible weakness to defeat him! Any!'
Sasuke stood a moment, trying to remember if Naruto had revealed anything else about his encounter, anything at all that might have caused Itachi to leave for a reason that wasn't fear, a fear of goddamn moronic dead-last student who could barely fight his way out of a wet paper bag.
Sasuke steadfastedly ignored all Naruto's recent successes. When you're a stubborn genius prodigy, ignoring the obvious or the truth were easily accomplished.
Case in Point: Neji. If he could blame all his problems on Hinata, by God, Sasuke could ignore how incredibly wrong (some of) his perceptions about Naruto were.
Sasuke was just really hoping that whatever secret weakness Itachi had, it wasn't something like orange clothing.
He looked ridiculous in orange.
Just as Sasuke was about to go, though, someone tugged lightly on his arm. Alarmed at not noticing the person sneaking up on him, he swiftly turned to face them.
"Oh. Its you, Hyuuga-san. What do you want?"
Hinata had returned to the ramen stand, after sneaking back into the Hyuuga mansion (an extremely difficult task to accomplish, for rather obvious reasons) and putting on clothing that actually hid what it was supposed to. Though it should be noted that after seeing the affect it had on Naruto, Hinata hid the shredded clothes under her mattress to be saved for later 'use'.
"Do you... Do you know where Naruto-kun went?"
'Sigh. Why was everything about Naruto lately, anyway?'
Sasuke was used to girls bothering him with stupid questions. Fuck, he had at least 3 girls that he could count hiding in clothing racks in the store across the street staring at him. But he wasn't used to the idea of girls seeking out Naruto. As far as he knew, other then Hinata and her blatant stalking, no girl had been even remotely interested in him. And even then, Hinata was far too shy to ever actually speak to someone about the guy.
"No, Hyuuga-san, I do-"
"Sasuke! Have you seen Naruto?"
'Is it possible that Sakura was actually easier to deal with and less irritating when she was obsessed with me? Is that even possible? At least she was polite to me then...'
Sakura, living significantly further away from the ramen stand then Hinata, had instead to deal with the run to her house and then the run back, which strangely took the exact same amount of time it had taken Hinata to sneak into her own house and then back out.
An odd coincidence, that.
"Wha- No, I haven't seen him, Sakura. And if you guys are just going gossiping about Naruto, I'm out of here. I have training to do."
Just as Sasuke was about to leave, someone else spoke up.
"You're looking for Naruto? He went off to rescue some girl who got kidnapped, or something. Her brother came here and ordered Naruto to rescue her. It was pretty strange, actually..."
All three kids turned and looked at Ichiraku.
"Rescue some girl? Goddamn, which skank is it this time?!"
Sasuke turned sharply to Sakura. 'What... What the hell does skank mean? And good god, why does she look so pissed? Isn't rescuing women part of a ninja's job description?
'Maybe that's just one of those things they don't teach the girls about when they drag them off to learn about flowers or whatever.'
After all, even though Sasuke ignored all the fangirls who stalked him around, its not like he didn't ignore women in general. He just didn't like them crazy, and pretty much every girl he had met his age had been, well, fucking nuts.
In fact, the most normal girl he knew of was the one that Naruto apparently was interested in. Maybe he wasn't such an idiot after all?
"Which way did they go?"
Sasuke's head whiplashed to the other side when he heard a deep growling... coming from Hinata? What the fuck?
"I think... I think they said towards Rain? Yeah, that sounds right."
"They? Who went with him?!"
Sasuke actually whimpered, as an almost palpable aura of righteous anger was forming around Sakura. It struck a primal chord within him... a fear that he instinctively knew was one that wasn't to be ashamed of. A fear that he somehow knew was universal.
'Just inch away...'
"Oh, just that little girlfriend of his. You know, that girl with the swords."
'slowly... '
It was a fear of the enraged woman. An enraged woman who decided that maybe taking out her anger on you would be a good idea, and that heck, you probably deserved it anyway.
'don't make eye contact... slowly....'
For some reason, the picture of Sakura wielding a giant mallet flashed through his head, and just the thought of it nearly made him run in terror.
'then make a run-'
"Oh no you don't, Sasuke. You're coming with me. We need to make sure our teammate is... safe."
If Sasuke was even slightly less stoic, tears would have formed in his eyes when an iron grip formed around his other arm.
"He's... He's coming with us."
'Why... Why did he have to wake me up?'
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'Hehehehe... Good, the lake looks just like I left it, and its a perfect spot for an ambush! It's perfect! Now to set the traps... Oh, if only Kakuzu could see me now! He'd be so proud!'
Temari could only stare, confused, as the man seemed to pace aimlessly about, poking the trees and flowers with a... spoon?
To be fair, it was more of a ladle then a spoon. But, seriously? A spoon?
But try as she might, Temari just couldn't understand why the crazy man with a spoon had taken out a large pot, nor why he was starting a fire. She especially didn't understand why he was puttering about the lake, or what he was saying when he'd mumble quietly while making hand seals. It was clear he was doing something... But she just couldn't figure out what.
Unfortunately, Hidan and Kakuzu were still mapping out Konoha's defenses, and hadn't noticed the practical train of people chasing Tobi away towards Rain.
Whether that was lucky of them or not is up to interpretation.
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So it was that everyone was converging on the lake. Tobi's traps, whatever they might be, we're set. His plan, whatever madness it may be, was nearly complete.
Naruto and Tenten were on the way. Jiraiya followed, as did Tsunade and Gaara. And bringing up the rear were Sakura, Hinata, and Sasuke, all following the trail of shoes.
And Kisame?
He would forever regret that early morning decision to go fishing and that particular lake...
Author's Notes: Been a long time, eh? Final's came around again, and thus suddenly the urge to write welled up in me. The same as it has for the last 4 semesters or so.
Shit's coming together. Expect an evil monologue by Tobi next chapter, explaining his 'sinister' plan. Kisame's issues with his sword will be revealed. Maybe. Possibly. It might happen...
Naruto might even realize what's going on, too.
And for those of you who didn't get it (and I recieved a couple of reviews and private messages that made it clear some didn't), the Omake from last chapter not only wasn't written by me, but it also has nothing to do with this stories plot. It's just an amusing outtake that a fella did over at TFF that I greatly enjoyed, and thus (with permission) attached to this story.