Yay! Chapter 10! I'm amazed at myself for typing so fast, but now that another week of school has begun, I'll probably slow down a bit.

To be honest with you all, I haven't seen all the episodes of Naruto yet. I've only seen episodes 1-60, 83-85, 127-134 and 160-168. I have read all the manga though, so I think that makes up for it.Because of this, if I get something wrong, feel free to correct me.

I think I've been kind of dragging out the Element Users bit, so there's some info about that in this chapter.

Other then that, here's chapter 10. Enjoy!

Chapter 10:

The Second Meeting

In no time at all, the victorious Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Ino were assembled in front of Tsunade and Shizune.

"I take it you all know the current situation," Tsunade asked, getting straight down to business. "The hidden village of Kumo has broken the alliance that they had agreed to. The purpose of this is still unclear, but we do know that they don't know the way to Konoha completely. Shikamaru, you will take the genin here and help Kakashi and Sakura drive these ninja back to their own land. After that, we will send a messenger to figure out what has gone wrong. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Ino said, putting up her hand. "You said you would send a messenger. Does that mean we get to come back afterward?"

"Yes, if you can mange it without getting them to follow you back."

"When do we leave?" Shikamaru asked.

"Now. Go."

One by one, they all filed out of the office. Shikamaru in the lead with Naruto second, Ino third and Sasuke last.

"Sasuke, you won't be joining them just yet," Tsunade called to him.

Sasuke turned around slowly and motioned for the others to go on. Shikamaru shrugged and kept walking followed closely by Naruto and Ino.

"Tsunade-sama, why not?" Shizune asked slowly.

"Sasuke, you know why they're after Konoha, don't you?" Tsunade asked curiously.

Sasuke's head dropped slightly. "Sort of."

"Well then, why?" she asked, slightly annoyed with his attitude.

"They were told that the Element User of the Lightning Country is most likely the weakest of the twelve," He explained. "They were also told that the Element User of the Fire Country was the strongest. Now they're after it."

Tsunade sighed. "I had totally forgotten about the Element Users. Well, the Uchiha clan knew most about them, and apparently still do. You are now in charge of any Element User information that comes into the village." She explained to him. "Understand?"

Sasuke nodded and headed out, going straight to the Uchiha compound before leaving. He walked pass his old house and bowed in front of it, settling any sprits that may have been disturbed by his visit. After that he headed for the Uchiha Temple, a temple that is only reachable if Uchiha blood runs through your veins.

The temple had been built by the first few generations of Uchiha and had stood ever since. It was set up on the far side of the Uchiha compound and always had a barrier around it; a barrier that kept out anyone that wasn't any Uchiha. Even Kakashi couldn't see or get to it. Anyone watching Sasuke now would merely see him there one second, and gone the next.

Sasuke quickly walked up the few stairs to get into the actual temple. The room was as empty as it had ever been. The only difference was the cold air that seemed to fill the whole room. Sasuke walked into the middle of it and was surprised to have the mini polar bear jump down onto his head once more.

"I thought I might find you here," Sasuke said, taking to polar bear off his head and putting into his arms.

It snuggled up to him as he scratched behind its ear. It made a purr-like-sound and quickly fell asleep.

"I seem to be seeing you a lot lately," Sasuke said to the air.

A white figure emerged from the shadows. It was the same white-obsessed boy that Sasuke had been with the other day; the same white cloaked, pale skinned, white haired boy that had given Sasuke the mysterious medallion. Sasuke looked up and noticed that his eyes were white as well, the white eye colour of the Hyuuga Byakugan.

"How do you always know where I am?" he asked, seemingly annoyed.

Sasuke shrugged. "I had help from her this time," he said, referring to the polar bear.

The polar bear opened its eyes and stared at Sasuke.

"I know you know my name," she chirped. "In case you forgot, it's Shive."

Shive had a high pitched voice. It wasn't exactly like a bird, but it was close. Standing about the size of a football, her rosy fur around her cheeks gave her an innocent look. She jumped out of Sasuke's arms and onto Kohaku's shoulder.

"So, what did she say?" Kohaku asked.

Sasuke shrugged again. "Stuff. She's put me in charge of all the Element User information and the cloud ninja found out how weak Kora is. Now they're attacking Konoha."

The white boy raised his eyebrows. "They know it's Kora?"

"No," Sasuke replied simply. "They found out that she's weak. Nothing more."

Kohaku sigh deeply. "Do you know how hard it is to get information out of you?"

"Probably not."

"And you never will."

"How dare you forget about me!" Shive cried. "I try hard to make myself noticed, but no. You don't even pay attention to me!"

Kohaku patted her head. She sighed stubbornly and jumped onto a huge statue of the first Uchiha and turned around. She put her head down and fell asleep almost right away.

"Sorry about her," Kohaku apologized to Sasuke. "We've been traveling a lot and I don't think she likes to travel that much."

"You think?" Sasuke asked out of pure boredom.

Kohaku scowled at him. He sighed again and turned around.

"I'll need to speak to you again in two weeks," he said through gritted teeth.

Sasuke nodded and began to walk out of the temple. He was reassured that the other boy was gone by the sudden rush of cold air and the snowflake that landed beside him. He sighed and jumped into a nearby tree, getting his bearings so he could catch up to Naruto. As long as he and everyone else didn't know, he could stay in Konoha, at least a little longer.

Meanwhile, while all that was happening…

"Hey Shikamaru, shouldn't we wait for Sasuke?" Ino asked.

Shikamaru tightened his forehead protector around his arm and sighed.

"It's troublesome, but we have to leave now. He'll have to catch up later. Sakura and Kakashi need us right now."

"I don't agree," Naruto spoke up. "Sasuke was in that room, so he should be on your team thing."

"Yeah!" Ino agreed.

Shikamaru sighed. "As troublesome as it is, I'm in charge of this group, and I'll decide when we leave. Ino, you have to get your ninja gear. That shouldn't take you more than 2 minutes. Meet me and Naruto at the Konoha main gates."

Ino nodded and ran off to her house as Naruto and Shikamaru headed for the main gates.

"You don't have to act so bossy you know," Naruto said when they were on the other side of Konoha. "I'm going to be a chuunin this year and then I'll show you that you need all your members of your group before you go anywhere."

Shikamaru was propped up against a tree and was staring at the clouds. He closed his eyes and imagined that Naruto wasn't there, that he wasn't talking and he wasn't being a troublesome idiot. When he reopened his eyes, a cloud passed by that reminded him of Naruto's toothy grin.

"So much for forgetting he's there," Shikamaru thought.

"Hey Naruto," he said out loud. "You do know that there are only two more weeks left in this troublesome year, don't you?"

"Sort of," Naruto replied.

He had completely forgotten that Christmas had happened only one day before he left for his mission. He had received many presents, most having to do with ninja gear. Jiraiya was one of the two only people that had gotten him something that didn't have to do with being a ninja. He had gotten him a calendar, and Naruto had already circled all the hot babes that he took interest in. The other thing that wasn't ninja related was piece of moss from a favourite log of the Gamma family. He didn't quite remember where he had put that,

Just then Ino came running up the path. She was panting when she reached them, and she had changed her hairstyle. Now she had her hair braided into two long braids with her forehead protector around her stomach again.

"Are we ready to leave now?" Shikamaru asked impatiently.

Ino nodded and Naruto shook his head.

"We have to wait for Sasuke!"

Shikamaru sighed again. "Ino and I are leaving now. You can do either two things:

One, you can stay here and be useless while you wait for Sasuke. Two, you can come with us and help your sensei and Sakura drive back a whole bunch of cloud ninja from entering Konoha and most likely destroying the entire village. It's your choice."

Naruto was stunned. Shikamaru only spoke like that when things were really serious and important. He gulped and ran to catch up with them.

"Hold on a little longer Sakura," he thought. "I'm coming."

Ok, just to clear something up, the polar bear's name, Shive, that is pronounced ina Japanese accent. Thus, it is pronounced shi-ve, sort of, kind of, so yeah. Just making sure that it isn't mistaken for a different word. Hope you enjoyed chapter 10!