The Land of Grass

"Sasuke I don't know how much I can take of him" Karin whined. Natsu and Suigetsu were in the restaurant having a competition on who could eat the most. One would have thought that fire and water wouldn't mix like fire and ice but the two of them got along very well.

"Karin, shut up and let me think" Sasuke put his head down to think of his next move.

Sasuke: I had originally planned to assassinate the Elders of the Leaf with Team Taka but keeping that knucklehead with me for an assassination would be suicide. I'm already so close to the Land of Fire, I can't just leave without accomplishing my revenge. I'll need to buy some time before reaching the Leaf to properly analyse Natsu's powers and I can't stay in one place for too long."

"Ok it's time to leave!" Sasuke called to the rest of his team. "Now? I haven't eaten my fill yet!" Natsu replied. "Sasuke said we are leaving now! Don't you dare disobey him!" Karin warned Natsu. Jugo stood outside the restaurant keeping guard for any ninja's that may know their identity. They left the village with no further qualms.

"Sasuke, why are we going around the outskirts of the Land of Fire? This will add on days to our journey to the Leaf." Jugo asked. "It's the only way we can get near the Leaf with the smallest chance of getting found out." Sasuke replied.

"But we are still in their territory, the longer we stay in the Land of Fire, the higher the chance we will be caught."

"That's where you're wrong Jugo. After the attack from Pain, the Leaf's defences has been concentrated near the Leaf, they shouldn't have many ninjas posted around the Land of Fire because they lack the manpower." Sasuke explained, he then glimpsed over at Natsu and then looked forward once again. Jugo knew that Natsu was the real reason behind going all the way round the Land of Fire but didn't say anything about the matter.

"Yo, Sasuke!" Natsu called but was blatantly ignored. "Sasuke!" he repeated and ran beside him. "I'm going to be serious now, what did you do?" Sasuke looked at Natsu puzzled. "I'm not an idiot, I know you have been avoiding the authorities. You did something didn't you?"

Sasuke looked straight again and replied "I'm a rouge ninja, I abandoned and betrayed my village."

Natsu's eyes grew wide. "But isn't your village where your family and friends are? You can't just abandon them! And what about Suigetsu and the others? Did they abandon their villages too?"

"My family was murdered by the village. As for the others they were part of experiments, I freed them and they joined my team to take vengeance on the Leaf village." Sasuke thought about Itachi and how he was forced by the Leaf to kill the Uchiha.

Natsu stayed quiet for a few seconds then asked "What about your friends in the Leaf?"

Glimpses of Team 7 crossed his mind before he said "I don't have any friends there."

After two days

Sasuke and Jugo were standing, side by side, leading the group. Karin was following closely behind as she looked at Sasuke's back with admiration whilst Natsu and Suigetsu had a chat right at the back of the group.

"We have just about reached the western coast line of the Land of Fire now." Jugo reported. "Sasuke stop!" Karin shouted. She closed her eyes concentrating hard on her surroundings. "It's gone now, but I swear I sensed something near-by. They maybe concealing their chakra. I suggest we should proceed with caution."

Natsu sniffed the air a bit, searching for one of his friends scents.

Natsu: It's Jellal. He should know I'm here then why is he concealing himself? I won't tell the others about him for now.

After walking for another hour, Sasuke decided it was a good place to stop. Karin hadn't detected any more suspicious chakras and they made base camp where they stood. Natsu niffed the air frequently during the trip and knew that Jellal had been following them. "Suigetsu you will be standing guard today." Sasuke announced.

"Why me?! This is so not fair! Why can't you asked Karin to do it or something? She's practically useless in a fight!" Karin scowled at Suigetsu's comments.

"Don't worry man, I'll stay up with you." Natsu said to Suigetsu. Which was enough for him to stop complaining. Sasuke was still suspicious about the chakra from before and had noticed that Natsu had been unusually quite since Karin mentioned it.

After everyone went to bed, Natsu and Suigetsu were just talking about their pasts. Suigetsu had told Natsu about his brother, the seven swordsmen of the mist and how he was going to surpass them all. Natsu talked about his father being a dragon but mentioned very little about Fairy Tail. He didn't want to risk the chance of his mission slipping out by accident.

"Hey I'll be back in a bit. Erm… Nature calls" Natsu told Suigetsu and he quickly ran into the forest towards Jellal. It didn't take very long to find him. "Hey Jellal!" Natsu said quite loudly. "Keep it down Natsu we don't want to alert the other members of your team." Jellal ushered Natsu down.

When Natsu left, Sasuke got up and told Suigetsu to stay put and not try to follow him. Sasuke made sure to keep his distance because of Natsu's keen senses. He saw Jellal and Natsu meet up and got in a good position to eavesdrop on them.

Sasuke: I knew it! Maybe now I'll get some answers.

"Jellal how come you were hiding all this time? You should have just come out." Natsu told Jellal causing him to sigh. "This is supposed to be a discreet mission Natsu. We don't want people to know about us, anyway have you gained any information about the mission?"

"About the nine tails? No not yet." Jellal flinched, he didn't know if they were being watched because he didn't know much about chakra yet.

Sasuke: The nine tails?! They mean Naruto, don't they? So even these people who barely know anything about the ninja world know about the tailed beasts.

"Natsu please refrain from mentioning any specific details about our mission." Natsu looked confused. "You know what forget it. What about the others? Do you have any idea where they are?" Jellal queried. Natsu replied in the negative.

"This is not good. We have lost all the members of our team, not only that, we have been here for nearly week and we still haven't got the slightest bit closer as to finding out anything about the nine tails. Damn it! Alright Natsu you go back to camp, I'll see if I can find out any more information about our mission." Jellal said.

Sasuke: That conversation just told me that they want to find the nine tails and that there are others. But I still have too many unanswered questions, I can't pass up this chance.

"I know something." Sasuke said as he revealed himself. "Oh hey Sasuke." Natsu said smiling. Jellal suspiciously looked at Sasuke and said "Go on"

"The nine tails is in the Leaf village." Sasuke said. "Isn't that where we are headed now?" Natsu asked. "So you do listen Natsu. Yes we are headed there."

"Well then I'll head over there, Natsu you come to the Leaf Village with Sasuke" Jellal ordered.

"Before you leave tell me the reason as to why you are here? Tell me something."

"I can't tell you the specifics of Natsu's mission for obvious reasons but since your helping us out, I'll tell you a little about mine. There is a dark wizard called Zeref in our world, he has immense power and my guild is dedicated to annihilating him. He made a rip in both of our lands, joining something that was never meant to be joint. My mission is to try and close this portal but since we don't have any knowledge of how to do that in my land we decided to check here. I accompanied Natsu's team here and I am helping them whilst trying to complete my own mission. I hope that has filled your curiosity for now. I'm sure in due time you'll figure out what Natsu's teams mission if you stick around with them long enough." Jellal said his goodbyes and left.

A/N- Yay! someone from Natsu's team finally met! Hehe! Now on to next weeks chapter! That one is going to focus on Gray :)