A/N: So I guess I decided that I didn't want to end it at the last chapter. I'm indecisive like that. I also realise that I mucked up the timeline a little bit, but I'm just going to do what I want to make it fight my plans from now on. I'm just going to make this sort of part 2, you know?

Arc 2: What do you find when you leave Sound behind?

Chapter 14: Investigation's don't always go the way you want them to.

Two months had passed since Sasuke and Yumi joined up with the band of travellers. Yumi had easily adopted her true last name, although she never needed to use it. For the sake of disguise she had gotten blonde streaks in her long black hair. She hated it, but it would make it harder to recognise her at a distance so she didn't have to travel with her hood up all the time. Sasuke however refused to die his hair, so when they approached suspicious looking groups he would put up a henge for the sake of disguise.

During that time they had come to know everyone in the group, although not any more than need be, for there was always the chance that the two of them would suddenly decide to leave again, and in that case it was pointless knowing everyone's life stories. Akihiko was the oldest, in his late fifties, and it was mostly him who made decisions but also him who caused the group to travel at such slow paces. Yousuke, Minato, Junpei and Takeshi were all in their thirties, and Yousuke appeared to be the active leader, or in this case the co-leader since Akihiko was the true leader. Sadahiro and Kosuke were in their twenties. Sadahiro was Akihiko's son, and the two were the only true family in the group. And then there was Touma, the youngest at just 18. Of course, he wasn't the youngest any more, with the addition of the now 16 year old Sasuke and the 14 year old Yumi.

Over the two months Touma had managed to work his way into Yumi and Sasuke's training sessions, although Sasuke refused to train with him, saying that he was too inferior to bother with. That left his training to Yumi, although she didn't really mind. She could understand his desire to get stronger; he wanted to be able to protect the group himself. She was happy to help him, since she had a feeling that her and Sasuke would be leaving eventually, although that wasn't surprising considering they still had to find and deal with Itachi.

Yumi glanced up at the sky, noting the position of the sun. She sent Sasuke a look before running up to the front of the group. It was mid-afternoon, and they hadn't been able to train the last few days since they were trying to make good time towards their next destination. She had no idea where they were headed, and it didn't really matter to her. So far they had managed to avoid going to any of the hidden villages, and that was without either of them even saying anything to Akihiko.

"Let's stop here for today." Without even trying Yumi had developed a sense of authority, and for the most part they listened to her. Yousuke and Junpei had a quick talk before nodding in agreement.

"Sure, I bet you want to spar with Touma today right? Sorry we haven't been giving you a chance for that lately." She shook her head, it wasn't exactly training that she wanted to stop for, but that would end up included in her plans whether she wanted it or not. Sasuke had been the most annoyed about the lack of training time recently, so she knew he was going to pester her until she agreed to spar with him.

"Give me five minutes." She muttered as she walked past Sasuke and Touma, heading away from the group to find a secluded area. There was something she needed to do, and she'd rather not have an audience for it. It had been two months since they had left, but while she had been keeping an eye out for information she had yet to find anything concerning the Sound. Now it was time for her to do a little investigating, for she had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"What is she doing?" Touma wondered aloud, watching as Yumi slipped off into the trees. He made to follow her but Sasuke put a hand on his shoulder, holding the older boy in place and preventing him from following her. He was surprised, but submitted, having learned that the strange young boy preferred not to get too close to them unless he absolutely needed to, meaning that Sasuke knew what she was doing and it was something the rest of them weren't supposed to know about.

Yumi threw a quick look over her shoulder, reassuring herself that no-one had followed her, before settling herself down on the grassy ground, folding her legs under her and looking at the ground. Closing her eyes she brought her hand up to her mouth, biting her thumb before laying her hand out flat on the ground before her.

She focused on who she wanted to summon before whispering "Summoning jutsu." There was a small cloud of smoke and when she opened her eyes her favourite snake was sitting on the ground in front of her. Kara slithered up and wrapped herself around Yumi's shoulders. The teenager hadn't seen or spoken to Kara since before her last encounter with the kyuubi brat Naruto.

"Long time no see." Kara commented, making Yumi laugh. Back with the group Touma and Sasuke heard the laughter, making Touma just that much more curious to see what it was she was doing.

"That's a bit of an understatement." Using one finger she stroked Kara's head in a bit of a silent apology to her serpent friend. "Unfortunately this isn't a social call. Have you been to the base recently? Have you heard anything out of the ordinary? I need information about Father's whereabouts and actions recently." Kara let out a low angry hiss, tensing on the girl's shoulders.

"You took that boy with you didn't you? That's why you expect something to happen." Yumi nodded, blonde hair falling over Kara. She sighed, slithering down Yumi's arm to the ground once more. "Fine, I'll check it out for you, but if I get caught I'm never doing recon for you again."

"Thank you Kara, you're a real life saver. How long do you think you'll need?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe an hour? I'll contact you when I'm inside."

"Alright." Footsteps approached her location as Kara disappeared in another cloud of white smoke, leaving Yumi alone in the clearing as Touma and Sasuke came into view. The younger boy was angry, it would seem that Touma hadn't listened to his warning and gone after her anyway.

"What are you doing?" He asked curiously as Yumi climbed to her feet. She flashed him a fake smile before sending Sasuke a serious look, in other words informing him that they would need to talk in private soon. He nodded once before stepping forward.

"Now that that's done, can we train?"

"Definitely, I've been getting restless these last few days."

"Does that mean we can do THAT?" Touma gave Sasuke a funny look.

"What does that even mean?" Ignoring Touma's question she scratched the side of her head, slipping her beaten and worn headband off of her head and putting it in her pocket. There was a deep scratch in it through the symbol engraved in the metal, showing her allegiances had changed, but she always took it off when she sparred with Touma, almost to remind herself that he was weak and less skilled than she was, that he wasn't a trained ninja and she needed to go easy on him.

"Maybe, but you would have to let me get Touma's lesson out of the way first." He sent her a curious glance, never having expected her to actually agree.

"That's fine." He confirmed, jumping up into a tree to wait for his turn. The older boy turned to face her, excitement lighting up his eyes as she removed her bag and cloak, throwing them out of the way and revealing the clothes she had picked up in the last village; knee-high black boots, black skin-tight shorts, a long-sleeved mesh shirt and a purple tank top over that. It might have been a bad call, still wearing so much purple, but being raised the way she had it had become her favourite colour. She pulled a purple ribbon from her leg pouch, tying her hair up in a ponytail.

"Ready to go?" She asked, dropping easily into a fighting stance. He nodded, charging at her. His speed was still lacking compared to her own, and his strength was lacking, so Yumi always played on defence so that he could practise actual fighting as opposed to how to dodge. Dodging seemed to play a large part in the self-defence that Saya had taught him, so it seemed wasteful to focus too much on it. Trying to land a hit on her would train his reflexes and speed anyway, which was what he needed for avoiding attacks.

Unfortunately her mind was drifting, preoccupied with waiting for a sign from Kara. Touma grinned as he found an opening, kicking her in the stomach and sending her to her knees. She groaned, more out of shock than anything else, and his eyes widened in fear. He had never been able to hit her before, never in all of the two months that she had been training him, and he knew that the first hit he made would barely touch her, and it wouldn't happen for a long while yet. Something was off with her, she had had a distant look in her eyes when he had hit her.

"Hey what's the deal, getting hit like that?" Sasuke berated her, a hand on her shoulder. The older boy hadn't even noticed him leave the tree.

"He just caught me off guard, that's all." Sasuke obviously didn't believe her, but it was enough to reassure Touma that she was okay. She climbed to her feet, walking over to collect her headband. Touma watched as she put it back on, still not really grasping why she only took it off when they fought.

"I guess it's my turn." Sasuke smirked, turning to face her. "And how are we doing this today?" Yumi held a finger to her lips, waiting for him to stop talking.

"Touma, you may want to leave for this." The boy in question shook his head, a determined look in his eyes.

"No way! Your fights are amazing. If I'm going to learn to be as good as you guys then I have to watch your fights." She rolled her eyes, cracking her knuckles.

"Suit yourself." She waited for Touma to move out of the way, watching Sasuke as she did. Holding a hand over her curse mark she stared into his eyes, sharing a silent conversation that no-one else would understand.

Dark black splotches began spreading across Sasuke's body as Yumi's skin turned a pale grey colour, spreading across her entire body as it fanned out from her curse mark. She was moving to attack when she heard a voice in her head. Her skin quickly reverted to its normal colour as she sank to the ground, sitting cross-legged once more in the grass. Sasuke frowned, retracting his own curse mark as he watched her. He figured that her messenger must have come back.

"What's she doing this time?" Touma asked, apparently oblivious to everything else he had just seen. He moved to crouch in front of her, waving a hand in front of her face. He gaped as he saw her eyes. They were unseeing and unblinking. When he reached out to touch her Sasuke grabbed his wrist, throwing him back almost a metre. Under ordinary circumstances one might say that he was being overly protective, but after seeing her eyes he fully understood what she was doing.

"What the hell was that for?" Touma complained, nervously rubbing his wrist. Sasuke ignored him, standing watch.

"What the… Kara are you sure this is it? This is madness." Sasuke turned to her when he heard her voice, a spark of curiosity in his eyes.

"What do you see?" He asked her, ignoring the utterly confused expression on the other boy's face.

"The base has been trashed. Oh Kara, turn left there." Sasuke's frown deepened. He had grown accustomed to her strange abilities in regards to animals, right then it would appear that she was looking through the eyes of one of her snakes, but she never usually spoke whilst doing it, for it was extremely unnerving.

"Trashed? How so?" Touma began to crawl closer, stopping when Sasuke turned his sharingan on him.

"Hold on… Ah, Kara, stop there! What the hell? No way, that's impossible." She stretched her right arm out in front of her, palm facing up. "Sasuke, I need your opinion on something." As soon as the words left her mouth he sat down in front of her, taking her hand in his. He had always been curious as to how her power worked, but until then she had never let anyone else in.

"This is the base?" He asked, Touma inching closer to see Sasuke's now unseeing eyes as the two missing nin faced each other. "What on earth happened?"

"That hole in the ceiling, if you look at the edges, doesn't it remind you of the kyuubi kid's rasengan?" She asked, confusing Touma further as she spouted off words he didn't understand.

"So Naruto was there huh? What about Kabuto and Orochimaru, have you found any sign of them?" The older boy scowled at the mention of Kabuto, having a bit of a grudge against him for obvious reasons.

"Nothing. The base is abandoned. Whatever happened there must have happened at least a month ago." She was suddenly reminded of the pink haired girl she had seen on the day the left. "Or it may even have happened the day after we left."

"So it was her?"

"That's what it seems." Touma had had enough sitting around; he wanted to know what the heck was going on.

"Hey guys I want to see too." He reached his arm out, going to put his hand on top of Yumi and Sasuke's intertwined fingers. Yumi tensed, moving to stand up without breaking the connection she had with Sasuke.

"No Touma, don't!" She cried out in warning. It was too late.

A/N: Cliffhanger! Haha not really… Reviews? Maybe? Please?