Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
OMG, it seems as if I can upkoad from my home-computer OO
A/N: Sorry for the late update! School has been really hectic and pretty much still is. Last week was the worst though, had four major tests that week alone. I guess this is what a high-school student in america would call mid-terms. All the courses are ending and shit like that.. xD
But now I'm back with another chapter!
Chapter 26: The way through Earth
Naruto woke with a start. Something just felt wrong. He was cold-sweating and breathing heavily.
"It was probably just a nightmare" he said to himself.
He looked around the tent that he was sleeping in with Kakashi and Jiraiya. The latter one had watch duty at the moment so he wasn't there. Naruto could hear Kakashi grunt low and turn in his sleeping bag.
The blond boy felt that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep again so he got up and went out of the tent. He looked over at the fire and saw that Jiraiya apparently wasn't alone there. With him was Rin sitting there watching the fire.
Both of them looked up at him when they heard him come out of the tent. Jiraiya looked as if he was eating something, what ever it was Naruto didn't really care about.
"Hi Naruto" Jiraiya greeted his apprentice as Naruto came up to the fire.
"Hi guys" Naruto answered. He got merely a grunt as a recognizion from Rin.
"So what are ya doin'?" Naruto asked happily as he plopped down with them around the fire.
"Nothing" Rin answer grumpily looing away. Jiraiya looked at Rin with something close to sympathy – or maybe it was pity – in his eyes.
"Soo… what are you doing up anyway Naruto?" Jiraiya asked Naruto after a while sounding as if he was trying to turn Naruto's attention to something else.
"Think I had a nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep" he answered with a shrug.
"Hey, how 'bout you Rin-chan?" he asked the girl as if suddenly realizing the fact that she wasn't supposed to be there.
"Something like that too" she answered low still not looking at Naruto.
"O-okay" Naruto answered looking confused at Rin.
"Hey, Rin-chan wha-" Naruto started after a while only to get interrupted by Jiraiya.
"What was the nightmare about anyway?" Jiraiya asked the younger boy with something that was clearly a fake smile. Naruto looked at him slightly disoriented for a while before he answered.
"Eeh, don't really remember" he said.
"Haha, that is so much like you" Jiraiya laughed – not convincing what so ever – as he dunked Naruto in the back.
The old man looked as if he was laughing his ass of just because Naruto didn't remember what his nightmare was about. Naruto's eyebrow twitched at how weird his teacher was acting.
He looked over to Rin to get her quiet consent that Jiraiya was crazy. She was however not even looking at Jiraiya. Naruto's expression turned in to a conserned one as he watched the red haired girl. He walked over to her ignoring Jiraiya that by now was choking on whatever he had been eating.
"Rin-chan" he said to the side of her face.
"Hnn" he got as a reply.
"What's wrong?" he asked her softly.
"Nothing" she answered.
"I can see that something's wrong Rin-chan" he replied to it still just as softly.
"Really it's not something important Naruto" she continued on stating.
That was when he knew that there really was something troubling her. She never called him Naruto unless she was troubled over something. It didn't really matter if it was something important or not, as long as something troubled her she never had the energy to call him Teinousha. That unnerved him, what could it be that troubled her at the moment?
"Rin" he said, his voice was still soft, yet but it held something definite over it.
She flinched slightlyat the sound. Even though none of them ever acted that way he still yet was the one in control over her when it was for real. She had wondered how come she just gave in when he sounded only slightly angry. After a while however she had just accepted the fact that he was the one in charge in their friendship, almost as if she was his younger sister.
"Naruto, please" she said, her voice was barely more than a whisper. Suddenly Naruto's approach changed as he clasped his hands toghether as if he was praying. At the same time he got down on his knees infront of her.
"Please, please, please Rin-chan" he pleaded with puppyeyes. Rin laughed and smiled at him. For her it was so much easier to say no when he was goofed around like that, this was something that he knew of. For him to act like this was like saying that she didn't need to tell him unless she wanted to.
"I won't tell you Teinousha" she said trying to sound irritated without succeeding very much, instead she sounded somewhat playful.
When she spoke she jumped up from her spot so that she was standing some way away from him. She positioned her nose high in the air as if she found herself important.
"Please, please, please" he repeated himself, walking up to her on his knees.
Suddenly Jiraiya shot up from the ground gasping violently for air. They both looked at him shocked as he desperately fought for air. Neither of them made a move to help the old man as he coughed away, instead they just stood there ine the same position with Naruto kneeling on the ground in front of Rin. When Jiraiya finally had seemed to regain the ability to breath properly he looked at Naruto and spoke.
"Stop pestering her about it. She clearly doesn't want to tell you how she feels about the whole situation with Sa-" suddenly he got interrupted. Rin had shot out a string of chakra and clamped the end of it over Jiraiya's mouth.
"The whole situation with what?" Naruto asked, being curious once again. Rin just shot him a sad look and he understood.
"Sorry, I didn't think" he said as he slowly waved his hand infront of him in an apologizing way.
Rin smiled at him shortly before turning to Jiraiya again.
He was still laying there with her chakra over his mouth that unabled him to breathe. She glared at the practically helpless man - it was hard to believe that he was one of the three legendary Sannin.
Rin walked over to him, releasing her hold on his mouth as she reached him. He immediately gasped for air a second time. Rin stood there and looked at him for a while before she kicked him once in the stomache and then walked over to the girls' tent. Naruto just looked at Jiraiya, shook his head.
"tsk, tsk, tsk you really should stop agrevate her" Naruto said before he walked pass Jiraiya – who was still laying on the ground desperately trying to breathe – and to their tent.
--
Rin cursed to herself as she undressed for a second time that day.
"Damn Jiraiya-sensei" she said as she tossed her shirt aside.
If she had been just a fraction of a second slower Naruto would have known that she had been talking about Sasuke with Jiraiya. Luckily the Teinousha was so dense that he wouldn't be able to figure it out by just the first two letters.
Why had Jiraiya said anything anyway? Naruto hadn't even been pestering when the older man spoke up.
She sighed to herself as she stood there in the tent in her pants and bra. For some reaon she looked down on her seal. In difference to Naruto she didn't have her seal on her stomache. Instead her seal was placed above her breast – the reason why she had a polo-shirt; it was the only kind that cowered the thing.
She slowly traced the spiral seal with her index-finger. Even though she might not be acursing her own seal as much as Naruto was his she still yet often wondered what she had done to deserve such a thing?
Had she done something wrong in an earlier life?
She sighed a second time before she quickly took off the rest of her clothes and went to bed again.
The next morning they packed away their usual clothes and put on civilian ones.
"Damn thing" Naruto said as he struggeled with his obi.
"What are you doing baka?" Sakura asked him.
"I'm trying to fix this damn thing" Naruto said as he desperately fought with the piece of clothing. Sakura sighed irritated before walking over to him.
"Stand still" she told him as she grabbed his arms holding him still focusing a bit of chakra to make sure that it would be impossible for him to move against her strength.
"I'll help you" she told him boring her gaze in to his eyes making her offer of help more in to an order. Naruto merely nodded at her. With Sakura's help the thing was done in just a few seconds. Afterwards Naruto sretched awkwardly.
"What is it now?" Sakura asked him irritated.
"It's hard to move in these damn clothes" he answered as he continued on stretching. Sakura just sighed at him and walked over to the girls' tent again to continue on packing.
She was actually curious about Kakashi and how he would solve the whole 'cover up his face' thingy.
"Wonder how Kakashi-sensei will do it" she said to Rin as they both packed their things.
"What do you mean?" Rin asked the other girl looking up from her bag.
"Well with his face and all, how will he cover it up without looking suspicious" Sakura said arching an eyebrow knowingly with a smirk at Rin. The red haired girl looked a little surprised at first before she smirked back at Sakura just as knowingly.
When the girls had packed everything they went out of their tent hoping that Kakashi was finished. To their dismay Jiraiya said that he was still in their tent packing, apparently he had shooed Jiraiya and Naruto out of the tent saying that he needed some time alone.
"Acting like a damn woman" They could hear Jiraiya mumble as he fixed with the fire.
The two girls sighed as they moved on to packing their tent.
When the tent finally was packed away Kakashi walked out of the other one. The girls looked up when they heard the tentflap open. Out stepped Kakashi, he had an eye-patch to cover up his Sharingan and instead of the ususal mask his face was now covered in bandage.
"What the..." Sakura said as she looked at the man.
"What is it Sakura-chan?" Kakashi asked her sounding innocent.
"Er... No nothing Kakashi-sensei" Sakura said waving her hands in front of her face when she finally snapped out of her slight shock.
"Okay, good" Kakashi said as he started to dig through his bag after something.
"Will you take that long every morning Kakashi-taicho?" Rin asked him.
"No, I just needed to learn how to bandage my face once" he answered without looking up.
"You know Kakahsi-sensei. I'm a medic I could've helped you" Sakura said sounding slightly disappointed with him.
"Hn" was all he replied as he finally managed to get up the book he had been looking for. That orange book that often did an even better job at covering his face than the mask did.
Sakura sighed at him knowing that she wouldn't be able to get an answer out of him now.
When they had packed everything and removed every trace that they had spent the night there they started to move again.
They managed to cross the border - in their civilian yukatas and appereance – and to the first town without any problem. It had taken nearly all day to get there.
"So, we should find a place to stay" Jiraiya said as they entered the town.
"What, but it's barely dark Ero-sennin" Naruto complained.
"Yes, but we won't be able to get to the next town until tomorrow" The Toad Sage answered tryng to sound calm.
"So, we don't need to sleep in town" Naruto tried to argue. Jiraiya sighed irritated at the nearly stupid boy.
"We're civilians, remember Teinousha?" Rin basically whipered in his ear, remembering him about the fact that they weren't traveling the usual way.
"Oh, yeah right" he said as if he suddenly rememebered. The rest of them shook their heads at him and his stupidity. He laughed nerveously as he scratched his neck with his elbow sticking up in the air.
They managed to find an inn to stay at fairly quickly. In difference to their last mission they weren't eight people and a huge dog. They were only five people, if you could call that number only. They were at least not in a town that had a bunch of visitors because of an 'exotic week' so this time they could even get two rooms.
The days continued in this boring way for two more days. Naruto was bored to death by traveling this way and longed for some exitment. So as Sakura spoke up that time he welcomed her words, well at least for a short time.
"I can sense chakra-signatures heading this way" Sakura broke the silence speaking in an normal tone.
"Shinobi?" Jiraiya asked her, sounding just as calm as she did.
"Yes, low-level Shinobi" Sakura answered.
"Finally a little action here" Naruto said sounding exited.
"They're not too many, so keeping up the charade shouldn't be too hard" Sakura continued, ignoring the blond knucklehead.
"Huh?" Naruto looked confused. "Charade?" he then added. Sakura looked over at him annoyed.
"We are still acting as civilians" she said with a tired sigh.
"Yeah, and?" Naruto asked them still not understanding what the problem was.
"Which means we can't fight them as we normally would since that would mean we would blow our cover" Kakashi answered before Sakura could. At the same time the man put away the orange book again knowing that he now probably would have to stay focused.
"What? We can't fight?" Naruto asked them sounding almost desperate.
"Not properly at least" Kakahi answered him in a bored tone. Naruto sighed in despair and hunched in an exaggerated way.
"Up with your chin, they're coming now" Sakura said happily.
The next moment two men suddenly stood in front of them blocking their way. What shocked every single one of them was the fact that they wore ANBU masks. All of them froze and looked at the two men.
"I thought you said low-level Shinobi" Kakashi said through gritted teeth to Sakura.
"That's not them" she answered sounding slightly panicked.
"What?" Kakashi asked back.
"The low-level shinobi is still hiding, too afraid to come out at the moment because of those guys - which I couldn't feel until I saw them stand there" Sakura answered still as panicked.
"But I thought that there were no way to hide from you" Kakashi said, thinking about Sakura's newly found kekkai-genkai.
"Apparently they managed" she answered.
Suddenly one of the men standing there started to walk towards them calmly. He was wearing what looked like a cat-mask. All of them was still just standing there. Even if they probably would have been able to beat two ANBU shinobi, with Kakashi and Jiraiya there, they didn't want to blow their cover.
"State your business" the man with the mask said to them as he came closer.
All of them relaxed slightly at his words, he wasn't there to kill them, unless he needed to of course.
Jiraiya stepped forwards slightly to speak. The man turned his gaze towards the white haired man without loosing any focus from the rest of the group and their actions.
"We are just traveling through here" Jiraiya said as he looked at the shinobi.
"You do look as normal travelers. Where are you going?" the masked shinobi continued asking them.
"The Hidden Stone Village" Jiraiya answered him.
"Okay, follow us" the man replied before he turned around and started to walk.
They looked at each other a little confused before they reluctantely followed the two shinobi. Sakura felt how the low-level shinobi she felt earlier followed them from the shadows.
"This village is at the moment under a threat so the Tsuchikage sent out a group of shinobi to protect the village" cat mask explained as he and the other man – carrying a Owl mask – led the way.
As they went over a smaller hill the village presented itself in front of them. It was a rather large village that seemed to house many rich people. There didn't seem to be any real order to how the houses were placed. It seemed more as if people had just put houses there where they had wanted to, and eventually it grew in to a town. The two men stopped suddenly, cat mask turned to Jiraiya once more.
"You are now within the safe area and may continue on your own. If you excuse us we must go and take care of the small fry that accompanied us from the safety of the shadows" he told them.
"Somebody was following us?" Sakura asked him surprised.
"Yes, I did not wish to alarm you. There was however nothing to wory of and there is not anything now either. So, please just continue in to town" he answered her question.
"Of course sir" Jiraiya said with a slight bow before continuing towards the town. The others in the group followed his example and bowed to the shinobi.
When they had walked a little bit Naruto stretched himself and spoke.
"That went easy" he sounded relieved.
"You shouldn't speak too early about that" Jiraiya said to him.
"Huh?" Naruto sounded.
"Since the village is under surveience there is bound to be shinobi in town as well. Doing the cover thing even harder for us. Especially if they suspect anything, in that case we won't have any choice but to blow it" Jiraiya answered the sound. He didn't look at Naruto as he spoke but kept his gaze forward.
Just as Jiraiya foretold the village was filled with shinobi, there to protect it.
They had to think twice about every decision. How to walk, talk, act and even breathe sometimes.
This was really straining Naruto and his already bored mind together with his chakra control. Since some of the shinobi there to protect the town was high-level shinobi they had to hide their chakra as well as possible. This was not something easy for Naruto with his bad chakra control and extreme amount of chakra so when they finally went to bed that night he fell asleep immediately.
The next day thay went up early and made sure to get out of the town quickly, not wanting to stay there and wanting to continue on towards the Hidden Stone Village.
They traveled for four more days because of the slow way of traveling. Pretending to act as civilians really unabled you to travel particulary fast.
After those four days however they finally managed to reach their destination.
The Hidden Stone Village was created for war. Thick walls surrounded the town, in the middle of it stood the Tsuchikage tower, clearly visible above all the other houses. The town was built with the highest buildings in the middle and the lowest along the wall surroundning it. In that way, it didn't matter which roof you stood on, you could still see out of the village.
They walked up to the gateways where two shinobi – probably chuunin-level – sat, just as in Konoha. They walked up to the booth where they sat.
"Hello, we are travelers here to do business with some of the Bakudan-clan" Jiraiya said with a slight bow, which the rest of the group mimicked.
"Hello, if you please would sign your names here first" one of the men sitting there said as he put a book with a pencil in front of them on the table.
"Hai" Jiraiya said as he picked up the pencil and wrote down a false name, then giving the pencil to Kakashi who did the same. They had already decided on names, which they had used during their entire time in Earth Country. When they had all written their names the man stood up and spoke.
"Hai" he looked at the book in his hand before continuing "Yamehada-san, the compound of the Bakudan-clan. This is how you get to it" he said looking at Jiraiya before starting to explain how to get to the housing of Tori's clan.
It didn't take too long before they managed to find their way to the compound. It didn't look extra ordinary or anything, just a large place that could house a large family.
"Okay, so here's where the cover ends tonight?" Sakura asked out loud as they stood and watched the building.
"Hai" Jiraiya answered her. Suddenly they could hear a huge boom to their right. Extreme heat radiated from the same place making their skin dry up as they turned their heads. Rolling their way was a huge explosion threatening to engulf them in its heat.
A/N: Another Cliffhanger! Plus the fact that the one from the last chapter still stands ;)
I don't know about next chapter, but chapter 28 will probably take a little time before I manage to finish.. I'm still yet not entirely sure about all the details. I'm pretty much not sure about any of the details '
Anyway please review! They truly make my day and skyrocket my will for writing!
So any one of you who noticed anything similar to Eragon?
It wasn't really something I planned as a fun thing, rather I was low on imagination...