"Y-You know where his base is?!" Naruto exclaimed, voicing the excited thoughts he was sure everyone else shared as well.
Akio nodded, "Yes, I do."
"Where?" Shikamaru asked in a semi-warily way; he wanted a general idea before there was any drastic action taken.
"It's… It's in the Land of Rain…" Akio said, looking down at his lap again.
Everyone was surprised, though they all suspected that it would be in the Mashima hometown. What surprised them was the fact that they'd have to GO all the way to the Land of Rain.
"So... Wait a minute…" Kiba said, a tad on the disbelieving side, "You mean that in order to stop this guy, we have to go all the way to the Rain Village??"
Akio nodded, "That's about the size of it."
Everyone was silent for a while. It was true, the Mashima Clan needed to be stopped at all costs, and they would do anything to accomplish that, but the Rain Village was a ways away.
Naruto was the firs to get irritated by the apparent hesitation in the group. He did his signature confused growl, "Well, what are we just standing here for?! Let's go!"
"Someone's sure got his mind made up…" Kiba said, "But yeah, I agree with Naruto: what's there to hesitate about?"
"Well, for one thing, there's the defense of the Sand Village," Shikamaru said. The others were caught off guard; they hadn't thought of that, "It's true that we don't know their real reasons for attacking this village, but it's also true that they could very well attack again…" He turned to the Sand ninja present in the room, "How are the defenses for the Sand Village?"
"When the explosion of the Kazekage's Mansion happened, our defenses were pretty scattered," Temari started, "Our ninja were off on missions," Her expression hardened, "But now we have all of our defenses here, ready 24/7. There's no way the three of them could take all of us on," She said this in a very determined way.
Shikamaru nodded, "Right. That's good," He turned to face the rest of them, "If the Sand ninja are here ready for an attack, we should be able to sneak out to the Rain Village," He sighed, "But what a drag… How long would it take to get there Akio?"
"If we moved quickly, even at night, "The ex-ninja responded inquisitively, "Probably a day. Maybe two."
The Leaf ninja shared sour glances. Moving even at night? Damn, that'd be an energy-consumer.
Akio smirked, seeming to read all of their unenthusiastic expressions, "Don't worry; I know shortcuts to get there. It is my home country after all."
After that, Shikamaru went into plan mode; this time it was a simple one. The Sand village ninja would tighten their defenses heavily, so they'd be ready for anything the Mashima trio could throw at them, and the Leaf ninja would follow Akio's lead to the enemy's hideout. It was decided, though, that Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari would all go with the Leaf shinobi. The reasons were simple ones: this wasn't going to be easy. In fact, it was going to be incredulously hard. Saburou Mashima wasn't going to be an easy target, and they needed all the help they could get. Fortunately for them, the Sand siblings were more than happy to help in the destruction of the horrible clan that had burned their Kazekage's Mansion and murdered their ninja mercilessly.
The rest of that day was for preparations and resting. Everyone would need all of the strength they could muster, so not a second was wasted. If the group that was setting out wasn't packing, they were sleeping.
Needless to say, the next day Naruto was totally fired up: "Alright! Let's get going!! I can't wait to blow that creep Saburou away to next year!!"
"Naruto, would you put a lid on it?" Shikamaru asked tiredly. 5:00 A.M. was WAY too early in the morning for him, "Yelling will just waste energy."
"Well, looks like we're screwed," Kiba laughed.
"Yeah, Naruto yells more than he talks," Choji agreed with a smirk.
"Shut up you two!" Naruto said, yelling out once again.
Akio, however, thought it was very amusing. He laughed heartily, "I don't think it's that bad; it adds morale to a long journey."
"Yeah!! See, Old Man's with me!" Naruto cried out triumphantly.
"Are you always this annoying?" Temari muttered, crossing her arms.
"Whatever, let's just focus on the task at hand here, ok?" Shikamaru asked in an annoyed way, wanting to end the inevitable argument between the group and the blond idiot.
The group nodded and, after checking in with the Sand Village head ninja, all set off at breakneck speed.
To everyone's surprised, Akio was fast; he stayed in the front without much difficulty. Naruto had to sprint to catch up to him.
"You're fast, old man!" He said with a smirk.
Akio chuckled lowly, "Well, I tried to keep in shape even after I stopped my ninja training."
"You seem like you're way more than just 'in shape'!" Naruto exclaimed.
Akio's smile stayed in place, "Thank you Naruto. I do what I can."
Naruto had fallen back a little after his chat with Akio to stay with the others, who were also surprised at the man's speed. However, the situation being as dire as it was, they figured they all had a reason to go faster than usual.
"Yo, Shikamaru, how much longer do we have to go, anyway?" Kiba asked after the sun started setting, a bead of sweat rolling down his face. This was a long, long time to be running nonstop.
"Well, based on what Akio said…" Shikamaru responded, also quite winded, "We still have a little ways to go. If we keep on moving," He stopped for a breath, "we should be able to get there by tomorrow morning…"
Naruto groaned, "Man! This is taking forever!!"
Akio heard the unpleasantness in Naruto's voice, "Sorry about the long trip guys, but we should be able to stop when it gets dark out."
Fortunately, the group's prayers were answered soon when the sun finally went down. Everyone collapsed on the ground as soon as the first star glittered in the sky.
"Thank God!" Choji sighed, lying limply on his back.
"Here here…." Naruto agreed, in the same position as Choji.
After they had camp set up, everyone almost went right to sleep. Everyone, except for Gaara, of course. Akio noticed that Gaara wasn't sleeping and found that curious.
"Gaara…" He said softly, sitting down by the Sand shinobi.
"Yes?" Gaara replied, matching Akio's sound level.
"Why aren't you asleep? Aren't you exhausted??" He was almost disbelieving.
Gaara was slightly hesitant to answer, "I… I have the demon Shukaku within me. I don't like to sleep more than I have to."
"Oh…" Akio said, casting his eyes down. He understood Gaara's implied message in his words, "I see…. Well, that's quite understandable…"
Gaara glanced to the side after he noticed that Akio wasn't leaving, "Is something the matter?" He asked, "You seem anxious…"
"Oh," Akio murmured in realization that he had been twiddling his thumbs, "Just… A little nervous about facing off against Saburou…."
"He's strong. That fear is understandable."
"I don't think you all know what you're doing…" Akio said quietly, almost as if he didn't want Gaara to hear, "Because this… This will really be the mission to end all missions…"
Author's Note:
Sorry for not updating in so long, guys! I just got caught up in a lot of different things (mostly including school) and couldn't update for a while…..
That and it takes me a little while to get into the 'mojo' of this story…. I still hope you're all enjoying it though! ^^