Yes, another update! Went a sort of different path with this chapter, tell me how you like it! I love your reviews and I want to thank you guys for supporting the story, it really means a lot. I'm going to try to be good and update more regularly, and I promise (PROMISE) that some juicy slashy (lemony) stuff is coming VERY soon. So enjoy this one and let me know what ya think! Love you guys, until next time.


Seriously…like, every time? Every time I think I catch a break, some stupid ass shit has to go down and ruin it. What's the use of admitting my gay love for Naruto if every time we try to get nasty, a Jonas or a Sakura pops up to ruin it? Pointless. But I was promised sexy time in the woods, and if earlier was any indication, I'm thinking sexy time means fucking hell yeah sexy time.

"Jonas," I said in a friendly voice. "No joke." It would be even more important to mask my relationship with Naruto now that this closet case is back…who happens to be lusting after my ass. Is this the kind of shit girls deal with all of the time?

Before Jonas could delve further into conversation, Tenten showed up in a flash, holding the map to our destination in her hand. "It's not too far," she said easily. "If we don't see any trouble, we should be there by sundown. Two days will go by in a hurry."

"Hopefully," Leland sighed. I've never been on a mission with him, so I have no idea how good he actually is. In fact, aside from seeing a few neat tricks here and there, I don't know how half of the team does in missions. This would surely be a problem if, say, Orochimaru decides to stroll along the border of the Sound and see us chilling right there. Dead. Meat.

I looked over at Naruto, who was ready to get on the road. I could tell his mind was elsewhere, but it was hard to read that blonde ball of…cuteness? No, way too gay. I don't know where I was going with that. He was either thinking about me, or about the mission and potentially running into Sasuke. What is that in your gut, Kiba? A pang of jealousy? I really need to get a grip.

"Any questions?" Tenten asked, examining the group as if she was just now realizing how fucking random this was. "Random." See?

"My thoughts exactly," I agreed. "What if we run into something dangerous? Doesn't Tsunade realize this squad can't do shit for teamwork?"

"She wouldn't have sent us on a mission like this if she thought it'd be too dangerous. There'd be a lot of teams getting screwed if we were to die out there," Tenten mused, looking over the group once more. She then pivoted on her foot and burst into a sprint, the rest of us instinctively following. We kept pace with each other enough to engage in conversation. "Yeah, six Konoha squads out a member. I don't know about you guys, but Neji would have murdered Lee long ago if I weren't there to keep the calm."

I rolled my eyes. What a crazy squad that was. That Guy guy…I mean, green spandex? And even that wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the complimentary bowl cuts and caterpillar-esque eyebrows. Sigh, I'm digressing. Neji and Tenten seemed to have their heads on straight, which is good considering she's been put in charge.

"We're already down a member," Leland added sadly, speaking of his teammate who went missing a few months ago. For some reason, it was kept very hushed up, especially considering how much publicity Sasuke's disappearance caused. Whatever, Uchiha boy's been stealing glory for ages now, everyone should be used to it.

"Is anyone even searching for Taeko?" the blonde girl asked. Damn, I suck at names. I hope she doesn't address me anytime soon. But yeah, Taeko was Leland's teammate that went missing. "Last I heard they saw her over where we're headed. Think maybe she was looking for Sasuke?"

Naruto and Leland both flinched at the question, which immediately irritated me again for some reason. What is this? Blech. Why does he care about that guy so much? I might have to ask him. Then again, maybe not. I do not like what this whole 'love' thing is doing to me. Bull. Shit.

"Kimiko and I have racked our brains trying to figure out why she would leave, and if it was even her decision," Leland said shortly to the blonde. I found his word choices ironic considering both he and his other teammate Kimiko were definitely not known for their startling intellect. He had a disgruntled look on his face though, so I held my tongue. "She never said a word about Sasuke. You hear something else, Reika?"

Oh, Reika. That was her name. Try to remember for next time. Wait, what was it again? Fuck! I can't really keep a focus on things with that steamy Naruto encounter I had earlier. Damn, I think I'm getting hard just thinking about it…forgiving my bluntness, of course. But damn Naruto, we better be 'setting up traps' sooner than later.

"Just offering an alibi to the alternative," Reika responded coldly before falling back a little. Leland scowled immediately but didn't say anything to push the issue. She was talking about how the popular opinion around Konoha was that Taeko left to join Sasuke and Orochimaru, as she was last seen heading out that way. It's so hushed up, it's hard to tell what's actually happened, but I think Leland and Kimiko are both keeping something key from the rest of us on the issue.

Feeling slightly awkward, I dropped back a little to talk to Naruto, who smiled at me when we briefly met eyes. Jonas, who was several yards behind us, gave me a look after I smiled, but then he shook his head and turned away. Holy shit I hope he didn't see me smiling at Naruto. That motherfucker will know something is up immediately. This mission is going to be harder than I thought. No pun intended.

I decided not to talk to Naruto like I originally planned, which would have been a key tip-off as it would be strange to see the two of us suddenly conversing like friends. Instead, I threw Jonas a curve ball by dropping back a little further to keep up with him. Akamaru yelped from my jacket in protest to the constant change of speeds, but I patted him and he was good again.

Jonas looked over with a surprised slight smile on his face. "To what do I owe this pleasure, gorgeous?" he asked in a mock woman's voice.

I managed a grin. "You, me, and Naruto again, huh? Hokage's got us working over time. What happened to Eva and Aven?"

Jonas raised an eyebrow in thought. "I'm not too sure, but if I had to guess I'd say Eva's sleeping and Aven is in some dark alley somewhere trading something illegal." He grinned at his pseudo-joke, obviously impressed with himself. I rolled my eyes. How could I forget that Team Twelve is weird as shit? "What about you? Where's, uh, Captain Cockroach and, uh, Hyuuga?"

Jonas must be as bad at remembering names as I was. "Hinata and Shino? I don't know, probably being socially awkward around each other. They didn't get the memo about this mission, so I guess they were busy doing something else." Come to think of it, maybe they're having a passionate love fest right now and everything will be awesome and not awkward and…wait, what? I'm grossing myself out.

Jonas laughed and nodded. "What do you think about this mission?" he asked suddenly, his voice slightly more serious.

"What do you mean?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. The fuck? I think it's lovely and would like to ask it out? What does he mean, it's a freaking recon mission, the opposite of exciting. Well, unless you have a Naruto to make sexy, wonderful love to, but HEY, NOT going down that road again. I need mental censors for when my thoughts betray me. Damn, that ass.

"I don't think this is just another one of Tsunade's 'keep the kids busy' cheapskate missions. I think there's something out there that they want us to see," Jonas continued in a slightly paranoid tone, which was weird because I had never seen him like this. The many sides of Jonas.

"I'm not following you," I said honestly. Seriously, is he a conspiracy theorist now? Where's he getting this? Unless he's right, which would probably be equally as scary.

"The reason I was late to meet up for the briefing was because I stopped to listen to a conversation between Kakashi and Anko. They were talking about the Sound, and Orochimaru, and Sasuke. Something's happening there, I think, and they want us to see what it is," Jonas explained, keeping his tone rather hushed. He had definitely piqued my interest at this point, but I was still not sure I believed him.

"Why would they send us instead of a Jonin or ANBU squad, then?" I asked. "We're practically a new team considering we have absolutely no teamwork at all."

"That's where I get lost," Jonas admitted, his brow furrowing. For a second, the way his eyes looked reminded me of myself: feral, capable of ripping something to shreds, yet sentient and emotional. Big words, I know. Shino's been rubbing off on me. "The only thing I can think of is that we'd get Orochimaru's attention. Maybe that's what she wants. I don't think Tsunade feels that Konoha is truly safe with him still out there. But she doesn't want to start something, because that would damage Konoha politically,"

"So she's sending us to get his attention in hopes that he'll make the first attack? That seems rather cruel for Tsunade," I returned. If that were in any way true, I'd feel a little sick at my stomach. I know other villages get away with bloody, barbarian-like rituals and rites, but I thought we were better than that here in Konoha.

"Then you don't know about government and war, my friend," Jonas said simply. "Cruelty and lying and manipulation…it's how things are kept running smoothly. A few get hurt for the greater good of many. It's always been that way."

I growled but bit my lip. I wasn't about to argue politics with Jonas, but the topic did get me so involved that I forgot about both his sexuality and mine. However, the orange blur several yards ahead of me quickly pulled my attention toward it once again, as if Naruto were his own little whirlpool of attention. Well, no pun intended once more.

I was about to retort back to Jonas when suddenly Tenten stopped. The rest of us stopped yards ahead, realizing that she had stopped. We were all silent, as our training had told us to be, but we all looked to Tenten. She was frozen, her right hand on her weapon pouch at her side. Her eyes looked out to the woods to our left. Travelling in plain sight was much faster, but it also attracted trouble. She probably heard some bandits trying to sneak up on us.

I sniffed the air, and Akamaru and Jonas did the same. After a few sniffs of nothing, I was soundly convinced no one was there. Jonas nodded at me, indicating he reached the same conclusion. Naruto was ready, his hand in front of him clenched into fists. Leland was a few feet away, his left arm gripping the bandaged hilt of a large, coal-black spiked club he had attached to his back. I noticed Reika, too, looking down at the ground as if it were saying something to her. However, if there was nobody to smell, nobody was here. Three of Konoha's most powerful noses couldn't all be fooled.

"Tenten, nothing's here, so we should-"

"Shh!" she hissed, looking at Reika intently, who had unattached her own weapon very slowly. She had something I had never seen before- a sphere about the size of a soccer ball that was made of wood but rounded out so it rolled perfectly. It had several grooves in it, but I don't know what they were for other than aesthetics.

Suddenly, Reika performed a series of hand seals at an alarming rate. "Grass Release: Green Exodus!" she cried, leaping high into the air with her ball in her hand. Flipping downward, she launched the ball toward the ground, which hit and ricocheted straight back up to her. The grooves were now glowing bright green. With another flip, she brought her foot down to meet the ball at its peak and sent it crashing to the ground at an extremely high velocity. As soon as it touched the grass, it was absorbed into the earth as if it were water. Seconds later, there was about a dozen explosions of grass, revealing just as many shinobi. They drew their weapons and looked to us venomously.

I snarled. Wow, travelling underground to avoid detection. It's all so obvious…especially now that their smell was clearly evident. These were ninja from Kusagakure, the Hidden Grass. What the hell did they want? Leland and Naruto both tensed, with the former releasing his weapon and bringing it to his side.

As Reika reached down to the grass to retrieve her weapon, one of the Kusa Shinobi stepped forward. He was wearing a large rice hat with Kusa's emblem branded across the top. He had two katana strapped to his waist, his hand on the bottom one. Only his beady eyes were visible through a mask he was wearing, but he narrowed them at Reika and began to pull his sword out.

Suddenly, all of his men followed suit, pulling out swords and holding them dangerously in front of themselves. With a thrust from the man's sword, the others roared into the air and then charged. I wrinkled my face and readied myself, running into battle. Nobody had better fucking touch Naruto.