Chapter Fourteen

My feet tap silently on the familiar stone road as I enter the small town. People, so many people walk through the large streets. My reminiscent eyes wander dreamily through out the town, pausing briefly every once in a while on familiar faces, not sure weather or not I wanted to try to remember any connection I may have had with these people. So many people- so many life's I've tried and tried to forget, unfortunately I failed to forget any of them. I hold my eyes closed for a moment, trying to wipe clear these moments. To these people, I can be nothing other than Riaru, and these people must no longer mean a thing to me.

"We need to go to the hotel we will be staying at and inform them of our arrival," Sasori says, in a mellow voice that hardly seemed like it could ever actually come from Sasori. I frown.

"Why do we both need to go?" I ask, not sure what to think. "One of us can easily handle that while the other gathers some information," "I offer, not understanding why Sasori would want for me to tag along by his side all day. He would usually think of me as a nuisance or annoyance. Is he becoming friendlier with me?

"Don't flatter yourself," Sasori says, as if he knew exactly what was on my mind at the moment. I look to him, curiously waiting for his reply. "I'm only having you remain at my side at all times, Riaru, because I can not trust you enough to expect you to stay on mission when you aren't with me," he says, making sure to call me Riaru, and being just vague enough with what he said to make it so that only he and I could possibly know what he was trying to tell me. That explains everything- he doesn't want for me to go off and search for Sasuke, getting off of the mission, after all, it would be difficult for just him to carry hyper Naruto back to the Leader.

I guess I already knew that he had meant that; but it still annoys me to think about it. I try not to look as disappointed as I actually am, and let my eyes again skim over the faces of even more familiar people. Sasori keeps his gaze straight ahead, not pausing for directions to the hotel, or stopping and looking at street signs. As if he knew Konoha like the back of his hand- how many times has he been to Konoha before this?

Silently, I glance over to my left, and my vision catches on an extremely familiar face- I know her very well, and if I don't look away, she'll probably recognize me. I've known her since before the ninja academy; she was my first real friend- yet, also my first true rival. Glancing back, I make sure she didn't see me. Ino keeps her head looking down at some flowers she was carrying in her arms. I smile. When we were younger, she once compared us to flowers like the ones she's carrying. We stopped talking as friends when I discovered that she also liked Sasuke, maybe if I had known then what I know then, we could have kept our friendship.

I try to forget her, and I almost do, but then thoughts of others leak into my mind, like Kakashi-sensei. Even though he hasn't been my sensei for two years, I still call him one. I smile to myself; I'm still a kid, aren't I? I mean, fifteen is still a young age. What am I doing being caught up in this? I glance at Sasori as if expecting him to have heard my thoughts and to slap me and say 'stay on mission'. Why is he only kind when he's lying?

My heart walks up and down the streets of my childhood. This is where I grew up, I can't imagine growing up anywhere else. The academy looms over the end of the street, and an empty bench sits in front of it. I remember years ago when I was a brand new genin, how close I came to kissing Sasuke. Why did I want that so bad? All I can long for now is my Itachi, and Sasuke took him away from me. My thoughts rush away from me as I see a flash of bright orange clothing and blonde hair.

Looking up my eyes catch on a face and I feel as if the world is spinning around me, I stop walking and stair, finally realizing what I'm here to do. Sasori glances at me, a confused look on his face, then follows my gaze with his eyes, to see what was bothering me.

Bright blonde hair and liquidly blue eyes shine brightly in the sunlight, new clothing was on him, but that didn't change how easily it was for me to recognize him. That goofy grin played on his face, those whisker-like scars on his cheeks wrinkle some when he does that. I smile some, laughing at memories of a long ago time- what am I doing? Quickly, I look away from him and towards Sasori, wondering if Sasori could sense my insecurity about the mission. Sasori pulls his eyes away from Naruto, then looks at me, piercing me with them, digging into my mind for the answer he wanted. I keep my gaze on his eyes, if I look away, or even blink oddly, he'll know- I can't let him.

After a moment of silence, Sasori take's his eyes off of mine, a thoughtful look on his face. Slowly, I go near him so that he could be the only one to hear me, he looks up, surprised at how near I was to him. "Should we get him now?" I ask, hating myself for how casual I sounded for asking if I should betray an old friend. Sasori looks at me again, then shakes his head.

"We need to wait, if we do it quickly, we won't be able to gather information. Besides that, leader said to report within a week- he doesn't expect, or want for us to capture him instantly on sight," Sasori explains calmly, his voice for the first time since we got here sounding like it was his own. I nod, understanding, and glance over at Naruto; I scared myself so much with how I had reacted to him.

We begin to walk again and I keep my eyes on the ground as we pass Naruto. How am I going to do this? I can't even look at him anymore, much less give him to the Akatsuki leader! I take in a deep breath and look up and around at Konoha, it now feeling like some foreign land to me. I have no choice.