Axelpro: Well I started looking over my chapters before posting them so there should be less errors. I hope you enjoy.
"Well are we all set?" The Jounin was standing in front of Naruto and Sakura made the comment as he saw Keta appear. The Shinobi was tying his headband onto his forehead as he walked towards the group.
"I thought Hatake Kakashi was the leader of Team 7." Keta made the observation as he put the final knot in his headband. The person he saw when he looked up had brown hair so unless he had his hair dyed this couldn't be Kakashi. Then Keta looked to Naruto's general area and noticed that there was yet another person that he could not identify. "Wait so there are now five people in this group?" To that question Sakura could only nod.
"Yes, we are doing this based on a worst case scenario in which case you, the fifth member would be a great asset. As for me, my name is Yamato, and he is Sai. Now are we ready to move?"
"Yes, the more time we waste the farther we are from reaching Sasuke!" Naruto's intensity towards finding Sasuke was nowhere to be found in Keta or Sai.
"All right, let's move out." The five man team began walking along the path set out for them. "We are a little behind schedule, but we'll pick up the pace somewhere so it will be fine." Naruto clenched his fist in thought as Yamato spoke.
There was a quick rapping on the door to the hospital room. The person inside opened his eyes slightly and looked at the door as another set of knocks came. The person under the bed groaned slightly and the door slid open. He didn't even care to look at the nurse entering, once he saw the white outfit he relaxed his head and focused on the ceiling.
"Oh come now, don't do that. You should at least pay a little more mind to the people coming into your room." What piqued Kakashi's interest about the source of this voice was the fact that he didn't recognize it at all. His eyes lowered and widened at what he saw. "See, you might have been less surprised before I got this far had you payed attention when I first came in." The nurse gave him a slight peck on the forehead.
"Rin!" He sat up in his bed as she smiled.
"You can come in, he's fine."
"Well if he was fine he wouldn't be in a hospital bed." The other person whom Kakashi didn't recognize walked into the room. This person walked up to Kakashi and glared at him for a moment. "I hope you treated it well." Kakashi was utterly baffled by the statement as he continued to look at the person standing beside Rin.
"What do you mean by that?" The man sighed and took something out of his pocket. It was an eyepatch which he fastened to cover his eye. Then he pointed to it obviously giving Kakashi a hint. Kakashi put his hand on his left eye that had the scar over it. "That's not a very funny joke you know. Even worse to play on someone you don't even know." Again Obito sighed and took off the eyepatch.
"How about now?" Obito raised his hand gathering chakra and as he did so his right eye began to change to a crimson color with three black dots. His left eye on the other hand didn't change. "You have my other biological eye, and the Uchiha blood doesn't make Sharingan eyes, only makes them easier to use. I hope you liked that gift I gave you. Was it useful?" After that phrase Kakashi began to see it. The faint traces that made Obito, well Obito.
"I don't see how you could have survived. And you brought Rin back to the village? This present is much better than what you gave me last time, and this is just a get well gift."
"Well I asked the head doctor and he consented to letting me be your nurse, so whenever I'm on duty I'll be the one tending to you while you're here."
"Aw don't say that, you'll make me want to get hurt on purpose." To that Rin smiled as a tear formed in her eyes. Kakashi was quick to wipe it away. "I don't want that, there's been too much of that. This is the time to enjoy the reuniting of the Fourth's team."
"It's too bad Minato-sensei isn't here to see it for himself." Rin and Kakashi could only look out the window towards the Hokage mountain as if to hope that the Fourth was looking down on all of them with a smile. "Shoot, I have a lesson with Isaye and I'm already late. I've got to go!" Obito jumped right out of the open window.
"Same old Obito," she smiled as she leaned out the window to see if there was any trace of Obito.
"I can't say I agree, he's a lot more mature. And I can almost say with certainty that he is a hell of a lot stronger." Rin looked at Kakashi as he slumped back down in his bed. "So I'm ready for that sponge bath that the nurses promised me."Rin shot Kakashi an incredulous look to which the Jounin just laughed. "Joking, I'm just really tired right now." He closed his eyes as Rin pulled up a chair to watch him sleep before she too had to get back to work.
"So how did you survive exactly?" The five Shinobi were walking across a bridge as Naruto threw the question at Keta.
"I don't really know, there was a girl ,Suzuki, who claimed to have saved me, but I can't say for certain because I woke up about a week after the fight with Sasuke." At the mention of the name Sakura and Naruto began to drift off most likely picturing the last time they had contact with Sasuke. "Well anyways I was planning on staying at that village for the rest of my life, but some bandits attacked the village interrupting my plans. I fought them off, but since the didn't really have a town guard or anything I couldn't beat them before they set the village ablaze." Now it was Keta's turn to pause and remember the screams of all the villagers. "What remained was Suzuki along with a handful of villagers. They agreed among themselves to do what is necessary. From there I went to another village that had a elderly Rock-Nin. He was able to teach me some stuff, but not much before I met the person I came into Konoha with. He taught me a lot of the stuff I can do to this day."
"And you never once came in contact with Orochimaru or Sasuke?" Keta shook his head and Naruto's eyes went downward.
"Naruto, I wasn't exactly looking for him, but don't worry. I'm sure we'll meet him before this mission is over."
"Keta, the mission is to meet and gather information from Sasori's contact within Orochimaru's ranks. There's no reason to even meet Sasuke." With a faulty smile Sai looked at Keta. Naruto clenched his fists and glared at Sai along with Sakura. "Why should we care about someone who so willingly betrayed the village?"
"No, we aren't starting any pointless arguments. There's no time for that." Yamato cut in and the situation was eased. Sakura was now able to focus on the story Keta had just told them.
"Keta what do you mean by "necessary"?" Sakura was puzzled about that portion of Keta's story and upon mentioning it Naruto nodded in agreement.
"I'll tell you when we have a chance to rest. If you really want me to tell you then be sure to remind me." Keta continued walking forward.
"We are going to rest here for the night. We'll pick up a light run when we leave in the morning."Yamato walked towards the large resort.
"This big place? It must be a fortune!"
"No price is too much for my team." Yamato had a smile on his face as he looked at his subordinates. It didn't take much more than that for everyone to be smiling, though Sai's was still a faulty one. The group checked in and proceeded to the hot spring. Sakura went into the women's section and Yamato, Sai, Naruto, and Keta went into the men's. Naruto could only let out a sigh of relief as he sat in the soothing water. Keta was propped up against the wooden barricade that separated the men and women springs. It was this time that Naruto moved closer to him.
"What do you want Naruto?"
"You said you would explain Sakura's question once we got a chance to rest, so?" At this point Keta heard some noises coming from the women's side of the spring.
"Well were you the one to ask the question?" Naruto as if embarrassed that he asked the question began touching his index fingers together like Hinata. "To answer now would be a disservice to Sakura." As soon as those words were heard there was a sigh that came from the women's spring. "You're welcome Sakura."
"Eh!?" Suddenly there was an obvious scramble then splash of water. Yamato smiled as Naruto chuckled a little.
"Well I'll leave you three to bond more." Yamato rose from the springs and wrapped the towel around his waist. "I'll be in my room, don't stay too long, dinner will be ready soon."
"All right," the blonde dunked his head deeper in the water as he looked to his left, where Sai was giving Naruto a disapproving look, then to his right, where Keta simply looked into the sunset with his own far off thoughts. Naruto began making bubbles "This sucks, there's nobody to talk to."
"What's wrong Naruto? Feeling inadequate while in the water with us?" Naruto's eyes sharpened at the insult that was dished out.
"What are you implying!?" In an attempt to show force Naruto rose out of the water cocking back as if to show that he was ready to attack.
"So you do have one."
"Come on Naruto, some decency!" Keta's words brought Naruto's senses about and his body suddenly disappeared under the water.
"Quit looking at it, you guys are sick!"
"I don't have time for this. Come inside when you're done displaying." As Keta stood and wrapped himself in his towel he could hear giggles from the women's spring. Once inside Keta took his clothes, a black sleeveless shirt, black pants with a white belt, a long gray scarf and a faded black cloak. He couldn't exactly put them on while his body was still damp so he put on a bath robe and continued up to the room where Yamato was. He opened the door and saw Yamato fiddling around with his equipment. After leaning up against a wall and sliding down into a sitting position Keta crossed his legs and looked over towards Yamato, "Hey Captain." Yamato made a sound acknowledging that he heard Keta. "I've never seen you before in the village. I mean I remember a lot of the Shinobi's faces, but I don't get anything from yours."
"Well I've been in the village for some time seeing as how I was born there and became a ninja there. I'm not exactly sure why." That was obviously not the answer that Keta wanted as his face went from a nonchalant look to an aggressive one.
"You're sure you aren't ANBU?" To that Yamato tensed slightly letting Keta know unknowingly that he had hit his mark. "Why would Tsunade send an ANBU on a reconnaissance mission like this with a team of non ANBU? Why not just get a normal Jounin to sub in for Kakashi?"
"I'm not ANBU, you must have forgotten my face since you were in that coma for so many years." Keta now flinched as it now seemed that Yamato had stuck a nerve. Yamato pulled out a small paper. "It's a copy of your file, but just up to the part of your death. Tsunade thought I should have it so I could look over it in order to prepare for worst case scenario."
"So you don't trust me?"
"Should I?"
"A Shinobi has just returned to the village after almost killing a squad that was out on a mission. Upon returning he wants to join up on a mission to go and find information about the one who supposedly killed him in the record books. No I suppose you shouldn't."
"Though don't get me wrong, the worst case scenario, in my opinion, isn't you running off on a rampage to go and kill Sasuke. The worst case scenario is that you follow Orochimaru and team up with Sasuke." To that Keta gave Yamato a quizzical look. "Sakura told me and Naruto of your position on this whole Sasuke business. Naruto believes that you will help Sasuke get back to Konoha, no matter how you word it, but I think you might just be putting Sasuke over Konoha in this one. Sakura is kind of in the middle. "
"Well let me just say that you are all wrong." Keta smirked as Yamato continued to look at him, "Or maybe your not. Either way I answer it raises suspicion so I'll just answer with my actions when we get there."
"Well I suppose that will have to do." Sai opened the door, he was wearing his normal clothes because he dried off as soon as he got out of the springs. He immediately went to his backpack and began fumbling around with some of the items inside. It wasn't long before Sakura came in, she had a robe on. She, unlike Sai, paused feeling the tension in the air. "The food should be here any-" Yamato was cut off as there was a knock on the door.
"Sorry to interrupt sir, but the food you ordered is here."
"Good timing, come in." The door opened and multiple carts began pouring into the room.
"We'll need second to prepare sir."
"No problem, I have to change out of these robes anyways."
"Yeah me too," Keta rose up along with Yamato and he moved towards the door so as to go to his own respective room that he was sharing with Sakura, Naruto, and Sai.
"Me three," Sakura noticed the ease and tension and managed a smile.
"Me four," the shaky voice piped in and all heads turned to Naruto who was standing at the door in his robes. His face was flushed from the extreme exposure to the hot water of the springs.
Sakura took one look at the food with a smile, "This looks magnificent."
Keta looked at the food, "This looks expensive."
Naruto looked at the food with a grin, "This looks delicious!"
Sai simply stared at the food with his smile.
"Well it's the least I can do for my new team. Eat up," Keta caught a fleeting expression on the Captain's face, but couldn't describe the emotion. Before he could think on it further he saw Naruto begin to snap up food with his chopsticks.
"Naruto!" Keta slid his chopsticks in between the blonde's, not allowing him access to a certain piece of seafood. "I won't let you." Naruto pulled his chopsticks back only to plunged forth again. Of course this meant Keta's chopsticks were there to block him again. It was as if the two were battling with ferocity. Sakura seemed to enjoy the show.
"You know the more you block me out the less you get to eat anyways. I have already eaten some, but-" Naruto thrust his chopsticks again only to be blocked again, "You haven't had anything."
"Not true, something I learned in my travels. Take this lesson to heart as I did." Keta pulled out another pair of unused chopsticks. In his left hand he broke them and threw the seafood that Naruto desired into his mouth. Naruto's mouth was ajar during the entire spectacle.
"Oh that's just not fair!" Naruto came in with his chopsticks hoping Keta would be distracted with the use of his second pair of chopsticks only to be blocked once more.
I had to learn this eating technique to keep Obito from always eating all my food. Heh, he said it was training.
"There has to be a rule against this!" Again Keta lifted a piece of food into his mouth while still blocking all of Naruto's advances. Yamato and Sakura were laughing at the show between Keta and Naruto. Finally Naruto pulled back and thought for a moment. Now with a new idea hatched he rushed forward with his chopsticks. Keta deflected the attempt, but this time he hit limp chopsticks as Naruto had let go of them and pulled his own new pair of chopsticks out. With this method he reached the food and quickly pulled out with the treasure. As he moved the chopsticks towards his mouth and opened he found nothing. When he looked it was apparent that Keta had stolen the food right off of Naruto's chopsticks. "Oh what the hell!?" He finally put the chopsticks on the table and sighed. He took the chopsticks in his hand and pressed his hands together. "Kage Bunshin" With a cloud of smoke another Naruto was sitting on the other side of the table with chopsticks in his hands. Now the Bunshin hit Keta's chopsticks that were being used to guard Naruto and Naruto began eating normally again.
"Okay okay you win Naruto."
"That's right." The clone disappeared the same way he came to be and Naruto continued to eat in peace and a giant grin of victory to boot.
"You would need to use a Jutsu to beat him." At Sai's comment Naruto reddened as Sakura and Yamato laughed.
"I'm stuffed!" Naruto flopped onto his bed with a sigh as he held his stomach. Sai was laying on his own bed. Keta was sitting in a chair while Sakura sat cross legged on her own bed.
"So Keta, are you going to tell me now?"
"What?" Sakura leaned in towards Keta with a look of intent.
"You know, what you meant by "necessary" back on the bridge." To that Keta looked towards the blackened sky that was just beyond the closed window.
"All right," Naruto propped himself up to hear the story better and Sakura leaned in even more. "The village where I stayed, they didn't have any Shinobi protecting them or any kind of police force since everyone contributed to the community so there was no need for any real outside contact. The way they protected themselves should danger come was that they had one sword and one chosen one. The chosen one would be the sole warrior standing between outside forces and the village, and he acted as the village's Spiritual figure. Under him was the village elder who would make all the decisions for the village while the chosen one continued to train himself in chakra usage and the ways of the sword. When the chosen one reached a certain age he would then allow a maiden, a lesser Spiritual figure, would take every part of the chosen one's non-physical being and put it inside the one sword. This was a commonly accepted tradition that lasted for over 1000 years."
"Wait, 1000 years!? That's longer than any of the Hidden villages existed. Are you sure?"
"That's what they said, and since I do know for a fact people existed before the Hidden villages came about I have no reason to doubt them Sakura." Keta cleared his throat and made a quick glance over everyone. "As I was saying over the course of 1000 years many chosen ones were infused into the sword and it took the name "Sword of 1000 souls". As I was saying before the village was attacked by bandits, Rogue-Nin to be precise. I'm guessing they needed some quick cash, but I am not totally sure. One of the first to die was the chosen one as he was going for the special sword. At the time I was busy fighting off the bandits that were coming at me as I made my way to Suzuki, the one who rescued me." Keta had to take a quick break from the story telling. "All right now, by the time I reached Suzuki my chakra was spent from fighting ex-Shinobi after ex-Shinobi. I was about ready to collapse when Suzuki led me to the sacred sword. She gave it to me in hopes that I would be the chosen one, but unfortunately I wasn't. When I drew the blade-" Keta took the sword from beside his bed and unsheathed it. There was a terrible noise, as if there was an indefinite amount of people screaming for their very existence. Then Keta's hand began to glow with a blue sensation and the screaming stopped. "That happened, and it gave our position away really quick. Of course the screams didn't bother me enough to drop the sword, and I realized that the screams were making the sword vibrate wildly at a high frequencies making it act as an anti-sword in some respects. As I continued to fight I realized that the sword would stop screaming any time I exerted chakra on the hilt. In a sense I could force it to accept me. The sword would quiet down, but the vibrations intensified making the weapon look still, but still act as an anti-sword almost ready to chop through any type of material. I also realized that this sword, while I had to put chakra into the hilt to gain full control of its powers it would supply me with the chakra that was stored in it from its previous wielders. In the end I was able to beat away the bandits and only a few villagers remained, not enough to rebuild. They agreed to allow Suzuki to put their essence into the sword and let the village live on with the sword. Suzuki did so and then put her own being into the sword. Then I was left with nothing, so I had no choice, but to look for somewhere else to live."
"I'm sorry Keta, while the rest of us trained you dealt with more death. It must've been hard." Keta only nodded in agreement as Sakura continued to wonder about him.
"Doesn't that chakra run out then?"
"No Sai, somehow the sword as a primitive chakra system kept running by the thousands of compounded life energies inside the sword. Thats why the maiden's don't just put the dead inside the sword." Keta got up, sheathed the sword, and moved towards his bed to lay down on it. His eyes locked onto the ceiling after getting comfortable, "That's all you guys need to know about that. Anything else would just be needless emotional filler and I've moved beyond that." Keta slowly drifted off into as slumber.