Author's Note: Just a quick warning there has been a slight change in plans so next chapter or the one after will be the start of they're training trip. Enjoy, and please review! :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Mamoru.

Chapter 21

Despite Konan's determination for leaving the next day, they would all have to go within the next few days due to troubling news about Konoha from Jiraiya. She wasn't happy about it but she did understand the logic behind it. Right now she was sitting next to Jiraiya, listening to Pein and him talk over what they should do.

Pein rested his chin on top of his hand as he thought over what Jiraiya recently told him. The best thing for them to do would be to keep the children here at the base until Konoha got things straightened out. His only problem with this was Konan who was even more determined now to take the children on the damn trip.

"Do you have any ideas on what we should do Jiraiya-sensei?" Pein questioned even though he knew what Jiraiya was going to say, and also he knew Konan wasn't going to be happy with the answer.

"Keep the kids here." Jiraiya stated simpily. It would be foolish to take the kids anywhere right now with all the Leaf nins about.

Both men looked over at the now not so happy looking Konan. "I'm not changing my plans." Konan said stubbornly.

Pein sighed softly. "I'm not going to allow you to take them right now. Its to dangerous."

"You already agreed to letting me take them, and besides where I'm wanting to go Konoha ninja won't be there." She replied.

"And where exactly would that be." Pein asked, raising an eyebrow. She had yet to tell them where she was planning on taking the children.

"Sunagakure." Konan answered, ignoring the surprised looks she received. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Pein blinked. "Isn't that a bit far to be taking small children?" Pein questioned after a moment. He was worried that the children wouldn't be able to take the long journey or the heat from the desert.

"Why Suna of all places?" Jiraiya added curiously before Konan answered. He hadn't been to Suna in a while, or heard much of the happenings there.

"I'm sure they'll be fine, its not that far away. It'll only take us about a week and a half or two weeks to get there. We'll only be traveling in the desert for about three days anyways." Konan replied to Pein's question, then looked over to Jiraiya. "I choose Suna because its one of the less dangerous places to take the children, and its highly unlikely for anyone to recognize the Hyugas. I did some research to make sure it was safe before mentioning anything about taking them there."

"Its still an extremely bad idea to take them from the base. If we're caught by Leaf nins theres a huge chance that their going to kidnap the kids back, and if they catch me traveling with you and the children what are we going to do then? Theres to many things that can go wrong if we leave now." Jiraiya said after thinking it over again for a few minutes.

"Your right about the draw backs if were caught. We however won't get caught though. We're both highly skill shinobi so I'm sure we can get around a few Leaf nin." Konan stated determinedly. "There is another reason I choose Suna which I believe will benefit the Akatsuki, and Ame."

Pein looked over at Konan curiously. "How could your trip benefit Ame?"

"Truthfully I did just think of this, but I remembered you saying one day that maybe it would be a good idea to start looking for alliances for Ame since we've managed to repair most of the damage from the war. So I was thinking why not request an alliance with Suna? They're fairly powerful and it would be good to have powerful support should Konohagakure or any other place try and declare another war on us." Konan explained, pausing a moment to let the information sink in.

"You know this is going to set your plans back quite a bit right?" Pein questioned. He didn't think her plan was bad at all, and it would allow them to stay in Suna for a while without having to sneak around while there. It would be much more safe that way too.

"Yes I know that." Konan confirmed. "But this way I have a good reason to go, and you won't be able to say its not safe, because by the time we get a response back after you send the request the Konoha shinobi will have cleared out from the way we will be taking."

"Doesn't Suna have the Shukaku jinchuuriki there?"Jiraiya cut in. "Are you sure your real motive isn't for your son to get close to the other jinchuuriki so you can just bring him back and extract the bijuu?"

Konan glared at him. "Let me get one thing straight, I will never use my son. I will admit though that I was planning to try and get Naruto to become friends with the jinchuuriki, not so we can get the bijuu, but so Naruto can have a friend who is like him." Konan snapped. She couldn't believe Jiraiya would accuse her of using her son in such a way.

"Jiraiya-sensei your dismissed." Pein said before things could get out of hand, and also since he did bring up a point that he couldn't discuss with Jiraiya in the room.

"What! Your kicking me out for asking a simple question?" Jiraiya exclaimed in disbelief. He could believe his student.

"Clam down. I'm not telling you to leave because of that. I need to talk to Konan alone. Now leave." Pein ordered, nodding his head towards the door.

Jiraiya sighed in irritation and defeat as he stood up from his spot. Before he walked out of the room he turned to his students. "I don't know what you organization is going to do about the jinchuuriki but I want both of you to drop your superior complex and listen well to what I have to say. Both of you have a child you have to like about, and remember what ever choice you make will effect him much more than it ever will for you. If you make the wrong choice you two are going to get him killed." And with that Jiraiya left.

Pein and Konan sat in a somber silence as they thought over their sensei's words. It was true that they needed to be careful, for if they weren't they could loose their son in the middle of completing their goals.

Pein closed his eyes and relaxed in his chair as he tried to sort out his thoughts. He wasn't sure on what they were going to do about the other jinchuuriki. Madara wasn't going to allow him to stop the capturing of the bijuu just because his son happened to hold one. If anything Madara would try to force him to find a way to extract the Kyuubi from Naruto when the time came, or even worse Madara would do it himself.

"What are we going to do about the other jinchuuriki?" Konan questioned softly. "I don't want to hurt Naruto by killing the other jinchuuriki but its not like we can just stop our goals."

Pein opened his eyes to look at her. "I know, I was just thinking about that." Pein informed. "I don't know what Madara is planning right now and I don't want to make any decisions only to have him turn them against us."

Konan frowned. "Do you want to wait and talk with him to see if you can pry something out of him before deciding anything?"

"I think it would be the smart thing to do." Pein replied. "I know your determined to take the kids training, but do me a favor and wait for me to sort things out. As Jiraiya-sensei stated earlier it would only be problematic right now."

Konan looked into her best friends eyes that seemed to plead to her to listen. "Alright. I'll tell the children in the morning that we won't be leaving for quite awhile yet."

Pein was relieved that he wouldn't have to go through another argument with her about this. It seemed she understood his reasoning.

"Why don't you head off to bed now? Lets discuss this tomorrow its late." Pein suggested as he got up and walked to the door.

Konan merely nodded in response and got up to follow him. They both walked up to their rooms together in silence.

Konan noticed Pein stop and turn to Naruto's room before going into his. "Is something wrong?" She asked worriedly.

Pein shook his head. "No nothings wrong. I'm just going to go and check on Naru before heading off to bed." Pein answered. "I'll see you in the morning." She nodded and watched him walk over to Naruto's room before entering hers and preparing for bed.

Pein opened the door to his son's room as quietly as could so he wouldn't awaken his son. Looking in, he could see that Naruto was in a blissful deep sleep. Seeing that Naruto was fine and fast asleep, Pein shut the door and headed to his own room for a goodnight sleep.

-Afternoon-

Naruto was walking through the forest with his father and Neji. His dad decided that today they were going to do something different today for training, although he hadn't told them what it was.

"Dad are we almost there?" Naruto whined as he tugged on the sleeve of his dad's Akatsuki cloak, causing his dad to sigh. He knew he was driving his dad crazy with his whining but both he and Neji were eager to start training, and to him it felt like they they had been walking for an hour.

"Musuko I just told you that we're almost there. Just be patient and stop whining." Pein replied patiently. One thing Pein learned during his short time of parenthood was that you need a lot of patients when dealing with young children.

"But you said that five minutes ago." Naruto grumbled, still holding onto his father's sleeve.

Pein held back a small smile when looked down at his pouting son. He just couldn't get mad at his son for whining, he was to cute. Turning his head slightly he looked over at Neji. He wasn't sure of what to make of the boy. He had expected to have a bit of trouble with the boy on following orders since the child had been a servant to the head of his clan all his life.

To his surprise though the boy seemed to respect him quiet a bit, and had no problem with following any order he gave him. Neji also seemed to enjoy being around his son, which was also a surprise to Pein. He had thought the boy would have tried to treat his son as he did his cousin, but he was just as respectful to Naruto as he was to him. Pein figured that the change in behavior was because it was no longer his clan he was having to serve, and the fact he was bringing out Neji's full potential also helped.

Neji fidgeted a bit under his leader's gaze when he noticed that Pein was watching him. He noticed that his leader was deep in thought about something, and couldn't help but wonder if he had done something wrong. He hoped he hadn't since he was doing his best to please his leader by behaving.

Usually Neji hated anyone that ordered him around, but this man had taken him out of his miserable life with his clan, and gave him a second change at a better and happier life. He was also determined not to disappoint his new leader since the man had given him the honor of being trained by him and to train with his son, which was something his uncle would have never done.

"Leader-sama did I do something wrong?" Neji asked a bit nervously, snapping Pein out of his thoughts.

Pein turned his attention to Neji. "No, why do you ask?" Pein questioned curiously. He hoped he hadn't scared the boy while he was thinking, he didn't even realize he had still been looking at the child.

"You were looking at me and I was wondering if I had upset you or something." Neji replied still a bit nervous.

"You've done nothing wrong, I was just thinking and didn't realize I was looking at you." Pein said, then looked back in front of him.

"Dad won't get mad at you unless you do something stupid like Hidan, or blow up stuff in the base like Deidara." Naruto informed Neji. He didn't understand why people were so jumpy around his dad, to him his dad wasn't that scary.

Neji felt a bit relieved at Naruto's words, but he would still be very careful around leader-sama. Naruto didn't seem to realize that Pein was much more intimidating to everyone else. Neji figured that it was because Pein was Naruto's father.

Once Naruto saw his friend relax a bit more, he turned his attention back to his father and began tugging on his sleeve again. "Daddy a-" Naruto began but was cut off by Pein.

"Yes musuko we're there." Pein stated before Naruto could continue his whining.

Both children looked around the clearing they were in. They were in a large open area that looked like it would be used for a making camp. There was nothing there for their training which made the children even more curious as to what they were going to do.

Naruto and Neji looked up at Pein, who was waiting for them to stop observing the clearing and give him their attention. "Now that I have your attention I'll tell you what you'll be doing for todays training." Pein stated before pulling out a sealing scroll.

They watched as he opened the scroll and took out three red metal bars. Each bar was about a foot long, and they all seemed to have a little bit of chakra in them. There wasn't much, just enough for the two boys to be able to sense them.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he focused on the chakra coming from the bars in his father's hands. His dad had been teaching him how to sense other peoples chakra, and even though he was very good at it, he realized it was his dad's chakra that was coming from them.

"Hey dad, why do the bars have you chakra in them?" Naruto questioned curiously.

"I'm proud that you sensed it was my chakra so quickly. I was planning on giving you sometime to figure it out, but it doesn't seem I need to." Pein praised his son. Naruto wasn't doing very well with sensing chakra, even his chakra was difficult for Naruto to sense, and it made him proud that Naruto figured it out quickly.

Naruto blushed lightly at the praise from his father, and grinned at his achievement. Neji however was now doing his best to memorize the chakra so he could sense it as his leader's. He was having a bit of trouble with it since he hadn't been taught how to sense a specific chakra signature.

"Neji, were you taught how do sense another's chakra signature?" Pein questioned, turning to the boy.

"No leader-sama." Neji replied. No one in his clan had bothered to teach him how, but he had heard a couple of older shinobi talking about it, which was why he was trying to focus and memorize the chakra from the bars.

Pein nodded. "The point of this exercise is to teach both of you how to focus on someone else's chakra." Pein explained as he took three more bars out. "It will also teach you how to work together better. Both of you have certain skills that the other does not, and I want you two to figure out what they are and how to use them together to find each bar."

Naruto and Neji listened closely to what Pein was saying as they both observed the new bars. Each bar was a different color; black, blue, and white. The black one had the most chakra coming from it, while the chakra in the blue one was much weaker, and they could hardly feel anything coming from the white one. Naruto also noticed that it wasn't his dad's chakra in these bars.

"Today I'm only going to have you work on finding the bars that I put my chakra into. Once you get the hang of it though I'm going to only use the other three which are each very different from each other." Pein continued his explanation. "You two however only have ten minutes to find the bars before I move them to a different location. Now wait here, I'll be back in a minute."

Naruto watched his father leave before turning to Neji. "Do you think we'll find them before he moves them?" Naruto asked curiously.

Neji shrugged. "I don't think we'll find them that quickly but I don't think it will take us to long. Are you nervous?"

"I'm not really nervous, just worried that we won't find any of them." Naruto replied.

"Even if we don't find all of them this time we'll at least know what to look for when we do this again, but if sure we'll do fine." Neji said, trying to assure his friend.

"I guess your right." Naruto said, giving Neji a grin.

They continued talking for a few minutes until Pein came back. Both boys walked over to him and waited for their instructions.

"This training will last an hour, which will give you six chances to try and find the three bars. I don't expect you to find them all this time, since this is your first time. Next time I will expect you two you get a least one of them. Time starts now." With that said Pein disappeared, leaving Naruto and Neji alone again.

"So which way should we go looking first?" Naruto asked, looking at Neji.

"Lets go... left." Neji said, pointing in the direction. Now that it had been decided they started their search.

Naruto tried to focus on the area around them as they walked, but to his disappointment he couldn't sense anything. Neji was also doing his best to sense one of them, and was using his byakugan.

After about eight minutes passed Naruto stopped walking. He was sure he could sense something over there next to the tree. "Hey Neji could you use your bloodline over there where that tree is." Naruto questioned, pointing to the tree he was talking about. "I think I sense something."

Neji nodded and quickly scanned the tree, and to his happiness something was there. "Your right, one of the bars is right the-." Neji stopped talking and blinked in shock.

"Whats wrong?" Naruto asked worriedly. His friend seemed upset about something now.

"I think the first ten minutes just passed. You were right about it being there but we ran out of time." Neji said a bit putout.

"Oh.. Well thats ok! Lets just hurry up and try to find the other ones." Naruto grinned and grabbed Neji's hand before running to a different direction.

For the rest of the hour the boys searched as carefully and quickly as they could for the bars. Each time they came close to one it would disappear, which had happened three times. Neji could also sense the chakra a bit better now, which was a big benefit for them.

Knowing that the hour was almost up they were running through the forest trying to find one of them. Neji, with his byakugan activated, scanned as much of the area as he could as they ran.

"Naruto-sama over there!" Neji yelled, pointing to bush. He knew the time was practically over but maybe they could get that one.

Naruto rushed off to where Neji pointed. Naruto could only hope that he could make it in time to get it. As he reached down to pick it up he heard the beeping of an alarm and a much larger hand reached out and picked it up before he could.

Naruto's shoulders slumped as he looked at the bar he almost had in his father's hand. Naruto looked up at his father when he felt him ruffle his hair.

"You both did very well today." Pein praised, looking to Naruto then to Neji who was walking over to them. They seemed to perk up a bit at being praised.

"Come, we need to get back to the base now its getting late." Pein said and began walking.

He thought over the past hour as he led the children back to the base. They had done well, but he had thought that the Hyuga would have had a bit more skill. This training had actually been a test for Pein to see what the children needed help most on, and his conclusion was that the children still had a bunch of work to do. Until they got much better he wouldn't have another test. At least now he new what to do for Naruto's training.

He couldn't really have the children do much training wise until they got older. He personally didn't think children his son's age should go through extreme training like how, for example, the Uchiha pushed their kids. He wanted Naruto to have as much of a childhood as he could give the boy, but raising him in the Akatsuki wasn't exactly the best environment for kids.

At times like this he couldn't help but wonder how he had gotten so attached to Naruto, especially since he hadn't wanted kids. He was happy though with how things turned out.

Author's Note: I really hope you guys liked this chapter, because I'm not to happy with it. I know that the whole training part of this was terrible. When I was in the middle of writing it my whole inspiration for it decided to disappear. So I'm sorry if you didn't like it.

I've had to change the time for their trip for my plans on Naruto befriending Gaara. I wasn't planning on doing it this way but I've run into a problem with Madara. Most the next few chapters will kind of be setting up things for future events so if I say something is going to happen just be warned it may not turn out this way because my plans end up changing once I start writing the chapters.

(Sorry for typos and misspellings I don't catch all of them!)