Sonic: Guess we had the same traumatizing experience, huh?

Sasuke: (raises eyebrow) What are you talking about?

Sonic: We both had disgusting slop to eat.

Sasuke's stomach: Gurgle gurgle…

Sasuke: (grimaces) Oh please don't remind me…

Sonic: (grins) Ha! Sounds like yours was worse than mine. Especially with Lee's sweat-

Sasuke: What did I just say?

Sasuke's stomach: Rumble rumble…

Sasuke: (places hand over mouth) Oh no… (runs out room doubled over)

Sonic: (laughs) I know that was mean, but it's so funny!

Mongoose

Kakashi POV

As soon as I wave goodbye to Sasuke, I warp and instantly find myself standing before the desk in the Hokage's office. Pocketing my beloved novel, (I'm almost finished with this one, isn't that great?) I lazily look around the most important room in the village hidden in the leaves.

Along the back wall behind the wooden desk, there are multiple large rectangular windows letting whoever see the entire village. Right now, the moon is shining down on the sleeping community, illuminating the whole land with the help of the yellow light from the street lamps. There is a sudden cool breeze rustling my silver hair and I glance over to the still present hole in the wall, caused by a short fused hedgehog.

Speaking of Shadow, I wonder how long it will take for him to fully recover. Sasuke said that he had some breathing problems, so that will heal in a couple of days and so will the gash with the help of the stitches. His body would be sore for a while though, taking a beating like that. It's surprising that he isn't mad at Sonic after what he had done. If I was in his place…I rub my fingers across the bandages still on my arm. When I returned from the prison when I dropped Sonic off, Sakura wanted to heal the bite, but I just waved her off saying that it was just a flesh wound; it'll heal in no time.

Dragging myself out of my thoughts, I focus on another medical ninja in front of me sitting at her desk. Or more like sprawled all on top of it. The blonde is laying on her desk with a bottle of saké (it's amazing that it's the only one in the room) in her hand, which dangles off the front of the table. Her hair is slightly messed up and soft snores come from her open mouth. Paperwork is scattered everywhere on the dark wood, some are even in random places around and under her chair.

Knowing that she's supposed to be doing the paperwork and not sleeping on the job, no matter how late it is, I sweat drop at the sight of Tsunade. At this rate, she'll have even more stacks to do tomorrow since she won't have them done today. Letting out a muffled sigh, I go up to her desk and knock on it loudly, making the Hokage jerk awake. In doing so, she slides more paper off the table. With fast reflexes, I catch them all and place them back where they were before. A still unfocused Tsunade sleepily nods at me before taking a swig of saké before realizing that it's empty, placing the bottle on the corner of her desk.

She yawns and rubs her eyes, coming back to reality. A couple of seconds pass until she glances around at her mess like she had just now noticed it, and frowns. "Damn, this is way more than I remembered. It's gonna take me at least another hour."

I smile, but it's hidden by my mask. "Good thing I woke you up then."

Tsunade shakes her head with a small smile. "Yeah, whatever." She then puts her elbows on the table and laces her fingers, Sasuke style. A blonde eyebrow rises. "So Kakashi, what are you doing her at the dead of night? Not just to come wake me up, I know."

"You're right." I say, shifting my weight on one leg to get comfortable, for I know this isn't going to be a short discussion. "I came here to ask permission to leave the village."

Her honey eyes widen in mild shock. "Why? Why is there a reason for you to leave by yourself? You haven't been provided a new mission yet." Tsunade drums her fingernails on the desk. "In fact, I was going to come over to Sasuke's house tomorrow and tell all of you that the current mission has been canceled, Sonic being in prison and all. Ultimately saying that y'all could move back out."

"Ah." Honestly, I was expecting this because without Sonic, we would be just sitting on our butts doing nothing when there were missions to be done. "I see, but I think we should go on this 'mission' of mine first."

Tsunade scrunches her brows. "'We'? Who else is going with you?" Before I could answer her question, there is a knock on the door behind me. The older blonde peers around me and calls out, "Come in!" There is a quiet creak as it opens and I glance back to see a jonin with long dirty blonde hair tied back into a low ponytail. Her grey eyes lock with mine for a brief moment before shifting over to Tsunade.

"I've come back from the Hidden Stone Village with my mission report." She states calmly while pulling out her scroll with said message. The young women starts to walk forward, but Tsunade holds up her hand.

"Ok, I'll get to you in a minute. Just wait by the door for a moment, please." The jonin nods and stays where she is.

Tsunade turns back to me. "Now, back to my question…"

"I was going to take the genin under my charge with me." I watch her face to gauge her reaction.

She leans back into her chair and crosses her arms, eyeing me critically. "Kakashi, I know you are a great ninja, but, I don't think it's a good idea to take all of them with you…where ever you're going. How many are there again?" The Hokage looks up at the ceiling and she puts up a finger for every name. Honey eyes return back to me when she finishes. "Twelve, there are twelve of them."

I actually haven't thought about this part. It does seem a bit overwhelming having only one jonin look after a dozen kids outside Konoha, and with what I want to do, it would be downright dangerous and could cost multiple lives. Yep, all that totally slipped my mind.

Nervously chuckling, I scratch the back of my head. "In that case, are Kurenai, Guy, and Asuma on any missions right now?"

"No…" She answers with suspicion in her tone.

"Good. Could you call them in here tomorrow preferably before noon and tell them to meet all of us at the gate around six? I want you to call them early so they can get packed with the necessary supplies."

"Kakashi." Tsunade says with a frown. "What are you going to do out there that requires three other jonin and all of the genin to go with you? Something tells me that you're not just taking a vacation."

I inwardly sigh. Here we go. This is the piece of information I was waiting to give because I know Tsunade will be angry. With a straight face, I answer, "I want to go find Orochimaru."

Uncharacteristically, Tsunade stares at me blank faced with no emotion what-so-ever. It's also worrying that she has halted all motion also…It's like she's frozen. I'm a bit unnerved here, being the victim of the look. Then, the Hokage stiffly turns to the other jonin in the room. Curious, I follow her gaze to see the dirty blonde break out in a cold sweat at Tsunade's empty look.

"Hand me your scroll." Tsunade quietly orders, outstretching her manicured hand.

Swallowing audibly, the shinobi walks up to her albeit with some hesitation. She hands over the rolled up paper and Tsunade gently takes it. Pouring some chakra into the scroll, the older blonde opens it and begins to read. Her eyes zigzag back and forth as they follow the words describing the mission. I'm slightly interested in what her assignment was, but I know it's none of my business and I probably won't get told either way.

After about a minute, Tsunade rolls the scroll up and places it on the side of her desk on top of multiple sheets of paperwork that I doubt she'll get to this week. She smiles at the other jonin and I can tell that it's fake; from the look on her face, I think that the newcomer knows also, but doesn't comment on it. "Thank you, Mayu. Now, I suggest that you get some rest and get ready for your prison shift tomorrow." She suggests with a sweet voice. Like sugar mixed with honey sweet. I don't trust it.

Mayu quickly bows, not taking her wary ash eyes off of the still smiling Tsunade. "Yes, Lord Hokage." She says with in calm voice that hides the caution in her. The darker blonde then turns around and exits the room without another word.

As soon as that door closes, all hell breaks loose.

Tsunade propels up onto her feet with a rage filled yell. She flips the desk over and if I didn't have fast enough reflexes to jump back a couple of feet, I would've been crushed under the heavy wood. The papers scatter everywhere, the single bottle goes flying and smashes against the wall, the scroll falls until the floor, forgotten for the time being. When the debris settles, I see Tsunade standing in front of her chair (I'm surprised she didn't throw that. It's usually the first thing she gets her hands on.) with her eyes closed, breathing heavily. A tick mark appears on her forehead and my life feels slightly threatened. Just a bit.

"So, you're meaning to tell me…that you came in here…at midnight…so you can plan to go find my former teammate? A legendary Sannin?" She grits out and I can feel the irritation radiating from her. "And let's not forget…a ninja that would do anything to get rid of Konoha and its ninja?!"

"Yes." I respond. It's time to get serious if I want this to happen. "I did, and no, even if it seems like it, I didn't plan for this to be a Kamikaze mission. Sooner or later, Orochimaru will inevitably come here to destroy the Hidden Leaf or, I hate to say it, take Sonic back." Tsunade opens her eyes at that and she looks like she hasn't even considered that outcome. "Even though we have the emeralds in our possession, Sonic can be a huge threat because we still don't know the extent of his abilities. He can still pull anything out of his sleeve." I pause to think for a second. "Or in his case, his gloves."

The Hokage frowns and crosses her arms, letting my words sink in. Another zephyr blows through the room, causing goose bumps to rise on my arms. There is a few moments of silence until she speaks again. "Ok, I understand what you're saying about getting Orochimaru before he comes here." Honey eyes lock onto my one. "But, why do you want to take the genin too? It would be way too dangerous. Too many lives at stake."

I nod, understanding her concern. "I know it's a risk," I say slowly, thinking about how I'm going to convince her. "but one genin most likely won't let me go out of the village when he finds out that I'm going after Orochimaru with the other senseis."

Tsunade cocks her head at me in confusion. "Who?"

"Sasuke."

If anything, this makes her angrier. In another fit of rage, she promptly turns around and lifts the chair over her head. With a shout, Tsunade sends the chair crashing through on of the windows, falling down to the deserted streets below. A low thud signifies the landing of the office furniture. The pigtailed blonde turns back around with a scowl and I regret saying anything about the raven.

"Just send Sasuke to the one person who wants him for his own personal gain!" Tsunade starts to pace. "No consequences will come out of that at all!" She says sarcastically.

I sigh and cross my own arms. "This will help him."

The Hokage falters in her step before whirling around to face me in bewilderment. "This will help him? Kakashi, I think you're losing it."

Inwardly, I chuckle. This coming from the young-looking fifty year old with amazing strength who throws desks when she's angry. Yep, I'm the crazy one.

"Just hear me out. Orochimaru's death will help him because he won't have to worry about the curse mark anymore. That threat will be gone."

There is another moment of silence as she calculates my words. Her eyes soften and she runs her fingers through her hair. "I don't completely agree with the idea of you taking him, but there won't be much of a choice will there?" I chuckle at that and she joins me, both knowing about the Uchiha's stubbornness. We calm down and Tsunade glances outside at the village. "What about the other eleven? They don't need to go." Her voice shows more emotion than it would when she's talking about any other ninja. I can guess what she's worried about. Or rather who.

"This is about Naruto, isn't it?" I ask, walking up next to her and staring out the window at the sleeping village. She doesn't respond, but the answer is obvious. "You know that if Sasuke's going, Naruto would want to also, without a doubt."

In the corner of my eye, I see Tsunade's lips twitch upwards. "I know." She says softly as she shakes her head. "That brat…"

I pat her gently on the shoulder. "I will protect him with my life, and I'm positive the other jonin will do so as well." That hand then falls to my side. "As for the others, Kiba will want to go because Naruto's going, Shino then would want to go, then Hinata, then Sakura and Ino, then Shikamaru, then Choji."

"What about Guy's team?"

"Oh yeah, Neji would go because of Hinata, Lee would want to follow his 'eternal rival' (insert shudder here), and finally Tenten would go because she wouldn't want to be left out." My eye shifts from outside to Tsunade and she meets my gaze. "I won't let any of them get hurt either. Not on my watch."

Tsunade just sighs. "Injuries are inevitable, Kakashi."

"I know. By hurt, I mean fatally wounded. If any of them dies, by my decision no less, I will never forgive myself."

The Hokage frowns and shakes her head, walking away from me and back to her upturned desk. She squats down and grunts as she turns it over so it is standing. Tsunade leans on it and sighs again. "Imma need another chair..." She mutters to herself.

I stroll back to my original spot, eyeing her. "Tsunade?"

"Kakashi." She looks at me with harsh eyes. "You're plan is insane, irrational, ridiculous, illogical, and too risky. There is no way I could let any ninja go through with that."

I stare at her in shock. I thought for sure she would give me the okay, but apparently not. Tsunade then proceeds to pick up the scattered papers all around the room, ignoring me. Getting the hint, I make the hand signs for my way to get home. Just when I'm about to pour some chakra into my fingers, the blonde's voice stops me. "Sigh…Kakashi." I glance at her, waiting. She shuffles the papers in her hands before turning towards me with a small smile. "But you're not any ninja. I'll let Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai know about the mission." That smile disappears. "Just don't die, alright?" I nod towards her and finish my jutsu, warping out of her office.

The smile on my face couldn't be wider.

Sasuke POV

I'm woken up from my dreamless sleep by the sweet aroma of breakfast. Bemused, I make my rested muscles move and turn me over so I could read the clock. It's eleven. Wasn't Sakura supposed to wake everyone before going downstairs to cook breakfast? Everyone as in, all of the others plus me. Sitting up in the bed, I get to my feet and stretch, trying to wake my body up. Well, I guess it isn't so bad that she didn't wake me up. Getting home late and waking up early isn't a good combination.

Changing out of my sleeping clothes and into my day ones, I yawn. After leaving my room and shutting my door, my feet take me down the hallway towards the bathroom. The closer I get to it, the louder the voices from downstairs in the kitchen. Yep, sounds like the others are wide awake. They should, they weren't the ones who were up at insane hours last night.

Entering the bathroom, the first thing my eyes latch onto is the dangerously bulging clothes bin filled with dirty articles. Groaning, I feel like hitting myself. In all the drama yesterday, I forgot to take the bin to Iruka's and now it's an eyesore that's stinking up the bathroom. Procrastination rearing its ugly head, I decide to take it to him tonight, no exceptions.

After washing up in the not-so-clean-aired bathroom, I make my way downstairs and to the kitchen. Upon entering, I realize I was wrong about everybody being down here. All of the others are eating their breakfast, even Kakashi, besides a blonde haired boy.

Slightly worried, I go to my seat and start eating my food that was already at my spot. With eating, I listen to the ongoing conversations with various grunts and nods if I'm addressed directly. That is until Sakura asks me a question I don't know the answer to.

"Hey Sasuke." I look up to look at Sakura who has a frown on her face.

"Yeah?"

She takes a bite out of her waffle and swallows before speaking again. "Did you see Naruto up there?"

I shake my head. "No. I thought he would be down here with you all." However, considering what happened last night between him and Sonic, which is still a mystery to me, Naruto would be a little down in the dumps today. But, it's not like him to pass up food.

"Nope. He hasn't shown up." Kiba says, stuffing his face. He coughs some when the food goes down the wrong way and he drinks some milk to help with the problem. Wiping his mouth, he regards me fully. "He didn't even respond when Sakura knocked on his door, and we know he was in there."

"Well, Sasuke didn't answer either." Ino adds.

"That's because I went to sleep later, and so did Naruto. We both came to our rooms about the same time, so he should be awake by now."

"He better get down here." Shikamaru yawns, stretching in his chair. "His food is going to get cold soon."

"There's another reason why he should." Kakashi eye smiles at all of us when we all look at him, urging him to continue. "There is some news I would like to share with all of you!"

Neji raises an elegant eyebrow. "What? Can't tell us if it's good or bad?"

The jonin glances up at the ceiling in thought and scratches his nose. Of course he's already done with his food before anyone could see him. "It really depends on how you take it."

Neji grunts and gulps down his orange juice. "Now I'm curious. Hopefully Naruto comes down soon."

As if on cue, the sunshine blonde enters the kitchen with a bright smile that doesn't reach up to his eyes. I'm certain that no one fell for the façade either. Naruto lifts a hand in greeting. "Good morning, guys!" He plops down in his seat and scarfs down his food. "I got back late yesterday." Despite his smile and sunny disposition, I can see how his eyes are puffy from the crying last night and how they are a little bloodshot. I can bet he didn't go to sleep when he first got in his bed. Kakashi and I share a knowing look.

"Hey, Naruto." Kakashi drawls out. "You ok? Your eyes are red around the edges."

I don't know if anyone else noticed it, but Naruto subtly tenses before waving the jonin off. "I'm fine sensei! Rough night, is all."

I frown at that. It was more than a rough night. "Are you sure dobe? Because after you left the-"

Naruto's smile becomes strained and forced. "I'm alright." He interrupts, eyes becoming harder as he focuses on me. "I just wanted to get back here fast so I could get enough sleep." My eyes narrow at him. Something happened between him and Sonic and its grating on my nerves that I don't know.

Choji glances from Naruto to Kakashi to me. "Did I miss something? Why is there so much tension in the room now?"

Tenten leans back in her chair. "I don't know, but I think something happened last night between those two." She says, gesturing at me and Naruto. Tenten is partially right; something did happen last night, but it wasn't between us two. Team Guy's kunoichi smirks. "So, spill." Everyone's eyes shift to Naruto, but, surprisingly, he weakly shrugs, not saying a word.

Hinata furrows her eyebrows. "S-Something the m-matter, Naruto?"

Said blonde just shakes his head. "Nothing's wrong. I think Sasuke would be better to tell the story." He responds softly, dropping the mask.

Multiple eyes look at him in worry before locking onto me. A sigh escapes my lips and I place an elbow on the table, leaning on my hand. "I don't know why you would volunteer me, you obviously know more than I do." Naruto glares at me, but it goes over my head. "Whatever." I focus on the audience. "When we left, I wanted to get Naruto back for making me eat that soup." Ino and Sakura wince at being reminded of the slop. "We went to the secret training ground and spared for some time. That ended when I threw-uh…got tired and I took a nap out there." When I hastily correct myself, in the corner of my eye, Naruto cracks a smirk. "The dobe was supposed to wake me up, but he fell asleep to so we slept out there for hours." Looking over to Naruto, he's eating his food slowly, stuck in his own thoughts. Inwardly frowning, I continue. "Then I figured that we should visit Sonic again."

"Why?" Lee asks two seats down from me.

I don't think it's a good idea to tell them that I wanted to show Naruto that he was innocent. Kakashi would be fine with it, but I don't know about the others. "Just to see how he was." Before anyone else could question my actions, I keep going. "When we got there, everything was fine until Naruto started to yell at Sonic." I glance askance at him. "Sonic got angry too and told me to leave, so I did. I don't have any clue what was said inside."

"Why would you leave him in there all alone?!" Kiba shouts. "He could've gotten hurt!"

Naruto gives a raspy chuckle. "I didn't. In fact, I socked Sonic right in the nose before leaving."

"Wait, wasn't his nose hurt before?"

Naruto looks at Kiba and grins. "Yep. I'll be surprised if he can smell out of it! I actually think I helped him because I heard that the prison food is rancid!" He makes a show of waving his hand in front of his nose and the others, besides me and Kakashi, snicker at his actions. Naruto changed tactics and is trying to get everyone to forget about what was said in the prison by making jokes. That raises my suspicion even more.

Kakashi then claps his hand to get the table's attention. "Now that story time is over with, time for my news."

"News? What news?" Naruto questions.

"He said he had something to tell us and that it can be good or bad, it depends." Shikamaru informs him.

"Oh ok. What is it Kakashi sensei?"

"Alright, are y'all ready for this?" We all nod simultaneously, wondering why he is so excited. "For the next couple of days, we are going to be a group of mongooses! Or mongeese. However you prefer."

Everyone slowly blinks.

"Um, what?" Ino speaks up, staring at Kakashi like he had gone crazy. I'm starting to believe that the ninja job has finally gotten to him.

"You heard me!" He bubbly answers.

"I know you said mongoose, but why?" Ino questions further.

Kakashi stands up out of his chair and cracks his back. "Because we're going hunting."

That's when it clicks for me. Mongooses hunt and eat snakes. We are the mammals while a certain someone is the slithering reptile. My eagerness and excitement rise greatly only to be beaten back down harshly by common sense. What are some genin and one jonin going to do against a legendary Sannin? I'm not underestimating us, but let's be real here.

The others at the table seem to be still confused, even Shikamaru, so I decide to enlighten them in my own way. "Kakashi, what makes you think that taking down Orochimaru with just us is going to be a walk in the park?"

As expected, my words start an uproar.

"We are going after Orochimaru?!" Sakura shouts out nervously.

"But he's the one who killed the Third!" Choji gulps.

"We are so dead…" Ino shakes her head in defeat.

Then there are people who are saying the opposite.

"Hell yeah! It's payback time!" Kiba pumps his fist.

"Yeah guys, cheer up! It's time to show our flames of YOUTH!" Lee's teeth glint in the light.

Naruto laughs, eyes lighting up from the dull blue of before. "He'll never know what hit him!"

Kakashi moves his hands in a soothing motion. "Calm down everyone. I know some of you are nervous, but hear me out." He then turns to me. "I never said it would be easy, Sasuke. It's going to be extremely difficult, but possible, especially if the other senseis are coming."

"So you mean Guy's coming?" Tenten asks.

"And Asuma?" Shikamaru is studying Kakashi closely.

"And K-Kurenai?" Hinata smiles as she speaks.

Kakashi returns the smile. "Yes. All of them will be joining us. Now," He says in a firm tone. "even if this sounds like fun and games, it isn't." We all stop talking and pay rapt attention to the jonin. "This is a very serious mission and any moment could become life or death. So, all of you will need to pay attention to whatever I or the other jonin say. We will be traveling to the ghost town of the Hidden Sound because that was the last place Orochimaru was seen. He could ambush us there, so be ready for anything."

As the words sink in, the excitement grows again and common sense lets it since Kakashi wouldn't be the only upper class shinobi joining us. It's about time I get revenge on Orochimaru, both for me and Sonic. That snake is reaching his last days.

Kakashi starts to walk out of the kitchen. He turns back to look at us. "With that said, get with the things you would need to live on for a couple of days. We leave around six, so you have about that many hours to get all your stuff together. We will eat dinner on the road. And by dinner, I mean granola bars." He eye smiles. "Ja ne!" I then hear his footsteps leading upstairs and the sound of his door closing.

"Wow…" Sakura breathes out and looks wide-eyed at all of us. "We are really doing this, aren't we?"

"Totally!" Kiba grins. "This is the first time we've left the village in a while!"

Ino shakes Sakura's shoulders. "Its ok, Bill board brow! When he said that our other senseis are coming, I realized that we actually have a chance! And plus, how good would you feel beating the crap out of him?"

Sakura smiles. "Really good."

Ino laughs. "That's the spirit!"

"Guys, I still don't know about this…"

"Just go with it, Choji." Shikamaru leans back in his char on two legs, rocking back and forth with his legs on the table. "Worrying about it will only stress you out. Just hope that this mission won't become troublesome…"

Choji chuckles at his friend while Neji stands up from the table. He crosses his arms. "If all of you will stop talking about it, we have to go get ready for later, or did you all forget that quickly?" He asks with a smirk.

"You're right, Neji! We do have to get ready for this expedition! This is why you are my eternal rival!" Lee jumps up from his seat and sprints out of the kitchen and upstairs. Neji's smirk melts into a scowl as he follows Lee's footsteps at a much slower pace.

Chairs scrape against the floor as all of the others, sans me and Naruto, stand up. "I believe we should heed Kakashi's words." Shino comments before walking out. The others trail him chatting about the upcoming mission and unavoidable fight.

When they leave, there is an awkward silence in the room. Naruto's now looking down at the table, cheerfulness having left the room when the other genin did. I just sit here, eyeing him and wishing that I could pry into his mind to see what's bothering him so. Some powerful words must have been thrown back and forth in those short five minutes in the office alone with Sonic.

We sit there at the table for a couple more tense moments before I let out hot breath through my parted lips. Without a word, I stand up, push my chair in, and slowly stride over to the door to the living room. When I'm about to take my first step upstairs, a hand grabbing my arm pauses my movements. Alarmed, I glance back to see Naruto nervously smiling at me. He lets go and rubs the back of his head. "Your part of the deal just slipped your mind, huh?" His reserved voice doesn't match with his words, but I don't question it. My brain is instead busy trying to figure out what the heck Naruto is talking about.

"What deal?"

Naruto just shakes his head and instead of going up to the next floor, he trudges over to the front door. Opening it, he glances back at me. "The deal you made that got me to go to the prison in the first place?" I stare at him, trying to recall that memory-Oh! The ramen. But wait…

"You want ramen right now? We literally just ate."

Naruto rubs his stomach. "Any time is ramen time!" I scrunch my nose at that and he grins a bit. Glad to know that he isn't too depressed that he isn't himself anymore. "I'm kidding. If I had anymore to eat, I'll probably puke."

I grimace as I start to walk across the living room. "Don't say that word. I really don't want to be reminded." Naruto chuckles lowly when I walk out and shuts the door.

"I won't." We stroll away from the house, heading to the streets of Konoha. Naruto links his hands behind his head, looking straight forward. "Continuing our conversation from before, I don't want to go to Ichiraku's right now. I just want you to buy some instant ramen for the road! Those granola bars are so bland."

"Naruto." I say with as much patience I can muster. "You realize that we will be mostly moving and that you won't have time to cook the noodles?"

The blonde shrugs, soaking in the warm sun. "Did you know that you can eat the ramen right out of the square package? I've tried it before and it's actually pretty good. Not that much different from when you cook it."

I deadpan. He would do anything to eat his ramen. "Are you sure that it's healthy to eat uncooked noodles? Don't you get salmonella, so something?"

Naruto seems to actually think about that as if he never thought about it before. "Hmmm…I don't think so. I've done it many times and I haven't gotten sick." I don't respond to that. His stupidity is too much to put into words. Naruto's worst enemy is himself most of the time.

We walk to and though the village in comfortable silence, way different than the one in the house. We both observe our surroundings, the dense trees transforming into compact buildings with the hum of people in the air. The villagers here are at their busiest, it being close to noon. As we walk around in the streets going to the market, we pass many kinds of people, from adults to children to advanced ninja to other genin. However, the more citizens we come across, the more I notice something going on with Naruto.

When a person strolls by, they usually shy away from the blonde or totally ignore him altogether. That isn't what fazes me. I'm observant, so I've noticed how the villagers look at Naruto, with disdain or plain anger. My teammate would just ignore them back or his eyes would darken, keeping his pain secret. But now, when someone glares at Naruto, he very subtly cringes and marginally gets closer to me. This is something an untrained eye wouldn't pick up, but I mine does. Naruto eventually ends up brushing his shoulder against mine. A little agitated that Naruto lets them get under his skin so much, I stop in my tracks.

Naruto immediately notices and turns around to face me with a confused glint in his eyes. "What's up?"

I glare and gesture to the people walking on the road. "What's the matter with you? Why are you so jumpy now? This has something to do with Sonic." I take a step towards him. "Tell me."

Naruto's face is free of any emotion. "Don't worry about it." He begins to walk away but I stop him by grabbing his shoulder.

"Naruto-"

He jerks out of my grip. Naruto glances back at me with dead eyes. "Just drop it, Sasuke." He continues his way to the store. "You wouldn't understand anyway…" I hear him mutter to himself. Knowing that prying won't get me anywhere, at least right now, I cross my arms with a grunt and follow him to the market.

Buying the ramen in the store was uneventful, despite the fact that Naruto made me buy about fifteen flavors of the noodles, some I didn't even think existed. Naruto dragged me straight to the specific aisle and pointed to every pack he wanted, previous seriousness gone. "I want that one…this one…Oh! Haven't tried that one before…this one's my favorite, get it…grab that one too…"

Now, we are heading back home with Naruto carrying the bag of his favorite food. The trip is silent and I sneak looks at Naruto, who has gone from cowering under harsh glares to having a thoughtful look on his face, frowning. About five minutes later, when we reach the edge of the village, Naruto lets out a very loud groan aimed at the sky, making me jump at the unexpected guttural noise.

"Was that really necessary?"

Naruto sighs and hangs his head. "Yes. I realize that I'm really, truly, stupid."

I raise a black eyebrow. "And you just figured that out now?"

He weakly glares at me. "Shuddup teme…" Blonde locks sway as he shakes his head slowly. "I'm so dumb. Ugh…Sonic was right."

What in the world…? "Sonic? He was right about what?"

"I let my feelings about him got in the way of the truth in his words." He ignores me and I stay quiet, letting him ramble on so I can try to piece together what happened yesterday. "Even though they hurt, there were no lies spoken. The way the villagers treat him…and how they treat me…it's the same!" Naruto throws his hands in the air, jarring the plastic bag. "Then I went and punched him in the face! Why am I such a bad person?!" The blonde slumps his shoulders. "I shouldn't have been so harsh…"

I blink. That didn't help me at all! Naruto's whole monologue could've been about anything. Well, not anything…but he danced around the whole subject of that conversation!

Irritated by the lack of information, I scowl. "Naruto, what are you talking about?!"

The dobe then focuses on me with surprise written all over his features, like he had forgotten that I was here. Naruto nervously smiles and chuckles. "Um, nothing?" He then sprints away, bag hitting his side. "See you at the house!"

Growling under my breath, I chase after him. "Get back here, moron!"

About five hours later- Sonic POV

When I slowly regain consciousness, I feel the fabric of the old and overused mattress on my stomach. Pricking my ears, they make out the slightly muffled sounds of talking and laughter that are getting clearer by the second. Blinking emerald eyes open, I quickly hiss and close them again, the bright light making my still pounding head hurt worse.

Trying again, I crack open my eyes and force them to stay like that so they could get used to the brightness. Checking one thing off my Waking Up Back Into Reality checklist, I groan and move my hands under me to push myself into a sitting position. Eventually, I find myself on my butt, one hand on my head trying to sooth the dull pain. Moving it back some, I wince when my fingers come across the area where my skull smashed against the metal wall. Naruto's punches are no joke.

Getting an itch on my nose, I reach up to scratch it only to immediately recoil when sharp pain spreads across my face. When the shock subsides, I glance down and see that it isn't broken, at least. It just needs to be left alone for a while to heal. Feeling something above my lip, I reach up and touch some kind of drying substance. After scratching at it, I hold up my finger to see dried blood under my fingernail. Nice to know that Ibiki was compassionate enough to clean me up.

With a grunt, I pick myself up off of my less than adequate bedding only to stagger a bit while my legs regain their strength. Man, how long was I out for? When I think I can move without falling, I take a few steps over to the sink and turn on the water. Looking out of the barred window, I see that the sun is going down and know that it's sometime in the evening. Grabbing the rag, I hold it under the lukewarm liquid to get it moist. Sighing, I bring it up under my nose and wipe off the left over blood from my nosebleed. Thinking I've got it all, my hand returns the rag only for the last voice I wanted to hear speaks.

"Well, well. Look who's awake."

Not really wanting to deal with Kenji about three minutes after waking up from my hit induced mini-coma, I just turn around and look at him with blank eyes, putting my hand on my hip. Kenji is laying down on his own mattress, eyes glaring with a cruel smirk on his face. "You've been knocked out since yesterday." He snickers. "Whoever visited you sure did a number on your body." I narrow my eyes, but stay quiet, not taking his bait.

He apparently doesn't appreciate that. The smirk disappears to be replaced with a deep scowl. Kenji stands up, and to my hidden pleasure, has some trouble doing so because of his still hurting ankle. "You're giving me the silent treatment?" He growls out, holding the bars to keep his weight off of that foot. "If anything, I should be giving you the goddamn silent treatment after you twisted my ankle!" I let out a smirk at that, proud of my handiwork. Steam is basically coming out of Kenji's ears. "You think this is funny, asshole? As soon as we get out for dinner I'll-"

"Shut up, Kenji! I've had enough of your yelling." My ears perk up at Takeshi's voice. "Hey, Sonic? So you finally up, huh?"

The smirk turns into a grin as I regard him, totally ignoring Kenji's cut off threat. "Sure am. I've really been asleep since yesterday?"

"Yeah, even missed breakfast which I doubt you would've been able to go to since sir yells-a-lot wasn't able to go because of the fight." There is a shift on the opposite of the wall sounding like Takeshi is getting himself comfortable on his mattress. "By the way, what happened yesterday? I was surprised to see you get dragged in here with a bloodied nose."

"What the hell?" Kenji shouts out in anger. "I was talking!"

I shrug even though Takeshi can't see. "Uh…it just got really heated in there between me and him."

"So, you two had a full out fight in there?"

A chuckle escapes my lips. "No. It's more like he sucker punched the crap out of me."

"What am I? Chopped liver?" The green-eyed annoyance speaks again only to be pointedly ignored a second time.

"Damn. That guy must have a hell of an arm."

Remembering when Naruto's blue eyes melted into a violet color, no doubt signifying the presence of the Nine-tailed fox's chakra, I answer, "You can say that again."

"Fine! I give up!" Kenji plops back down on his bed with a badly hidden cringe. "You'll get what's coming to you sooner or later…"

"I don't mean to pry, but caused the fight?"

I frown. I still have to keep my promise even if we aren't on good terms right now. "I rather not say…"

"Alright, you don't have to." I'm legitimately surprised that he doesn't keep questioning me. My stomach then growls loudly and Takeshi barks out a laugh. "Well, Sonic, you woke up at the perfect time because the jonin in charge of our branch should come get us for dinner anytime now." As soon as he says that, the door to our room clicks open and I hear multiple footsteps.

"Time for dinner." That same feminine voice calls out that I heard when I first came here. "Go and open their doors." She tells the other jonin.

There is a soft pitter patter as they spread out and get to our cells. The sound of metal doors screeching fill the air and inmates flood out of the doorway into the hallway, ready to eat. A male shinobi unlocks my cell before moving to the one to the right of me. Stepping out, I stretch, popping some of my stiff joints. Kenji is already out of his cell because some other jonin let him out before me. Takeshi is leaning on the wall separating our cells. When I finish stretching, he pushes off the divider and starts to head for the door. I quickly fall into step with him as we make our way to the cafeteria.

"Don't worry about Kenji." Takeshi suddenly says as we walk. I tilt my head up at him. His hazel eyes glance down at me. "Or should I say, you don't have to worry about anymore confrontations with him."

I grin at him. "I dunno. He looked pretty mad that we ignored him before."

He stifles a chuckle. "No doubt about that, but what I mean is that the ninja watching us will be keeping a keen eye out for you two. At the first sign of a fight, they will intervene."

"Oh dang it. I was hoping that I could get into another bloody fight and break my nose again!" I say in mock disappointment.

Takeshi playfully punches my shoulder. "Shut up."

Entering the huge room, we automatically head for the trays and get into line. Looking around the place, I notice that has that empty feel it did before. Weren't the girls supposed to be in here too?

"Hey." The dark haired convict answers with a hum. "I thought you said that girls in another branch ate in here too?

Takeshi turns his head towards the metal doors of the room. "Oh, they do. We just come first so that there isn't an insanely long line." Ok, that makes sense.

When we get to the food station, I hold my tray up for an ashy eyed, dirty blonde young woman to place a piece of pizza on my tray that barely passes to be soft enough to be edible. With a sigh, I continue on to grab a cup of water before walking with Takeshi to our table. This time, there are two other people there.

They must be the twin wanna be escapees because they look exactly the same besides a scar under the eye of the one sitting to the left. They both have muscular builds similar to Takeshi's with buzz cut black hair. They are both pale, but not as snowy as Sasuke. Two pairs of blue eyes follow Takeshi and me as we head toward the table.

When we get there, my cell neighbor sits down and nudges the one without the scar. "Hey, Jiro." He then leans forward a bit to nod at the scarred man. "Ken."

"Hey, Takeshi." They return simultaneously, voices almost identical. Ken's being slightly deeper than Jiro's.

I plop down beside the long haired ninja awkwardly. "Aren't you gonna introduce me?" I whisper to Takeshi who's chewing a mouthful of charred pizza.

"Huh?" He intelligently asks before swallowing the food. "Oh, yeah." He turns to the twins talking amongst themselves. "Guys, this is Sonic. Surely y'all have heard of him."

Ken leans his elbows on the table with his arms crossed. "Yeah, we have."

Jiro scratches his cheek in thought before pointing at me. "Aren't you that hedgehog that took out all those villages?"

His brother rolls his eyes. "Jiro, how many other hedgehogs do you see around here?"

Jiro holds his hands up. "Hey man, I was just making sure!"

Smiling at the two, I nod. "Yeah, I'm that hedgehog." The smile slips some. "Even though I'm not proud of it."

"I don't think any one of us are proud of the things we've done." Ken says, picking up his pizza, getting ready to take a bite.

"Well, maybe except Kenji over there." Jiro jabs a thumb backwards and I follow to where he is pointing to see the brown haired inmate sitting with others at a table across the room. My emerald eyes lock with forest green ones. The latter ones narrow into a glare before shifting over to a jonin who has taken sharp interest in our silent interaction. Kenji scowls at him and the shinobi frowns. The former then meets my eyes again in warning before focusing back on his table mates.

Inwardly sighing at his behavior, I turn back around and take a bite of my pizza. "That guy is something else. But enough about him." I gesture to the two brothers. "So I've heard that you two tried to escape."

Ken raises an eyebrow at Takeshi. "You told him?"

My neighbor shrugs. "I was trying to make conversation."

The scarred brother weakly glares at him before giving up when Takeshi doesn't seem bothered by it. Ken looks at me. "We did try. As soon as that door was open, we bolted. We would've made it if Jiro had ran faster. When one of the patrolling ninja caught him, I slowed down and looked back for half a second. Apparently that was enough time for one to tackle me."

"You shouldn't have slowed down." Jiro says, bits of pizza flying out of his mouth. We all flinch in disgust, but he doesn't seem to notice. "You should have kept going."

Ken takes a gulp of water. "I wasn't going to leave my little bro here alone."

Jiro widely smiles before hugging Ken. "I knew that inside you had a soft heart!"

Ken's cheeks flush in embarrassment before he pushes his brother off. "Get off me, you oaf." Takeshi and I laugh at the siblings. After that, the table quiets as we eat. With no immediate conversation going on, my ears focus on the topics of others around the room. Nothing really catches my attention until I hear the same jonin that gave me my pizza start up a conversation with a fellow worker.

"So, Emi, how's your day so far?"

"Mine is pretty mundane up to this point. Nothing special, yours?"

"Same here. Slept in late because the mission I had the days before was a hassle. I had to escort this family of three all the way to Iwa. The mother and father were fine; it was just their two year old son crying the whole way. Grated on my last nerves."

Emi laughs. It's high pitched like a wind chime. "I would've hated to be you then. Would've called it quits if I was in that situation."

The dirty blonde scoffs. "I couldn't do that. I really needed that C rank pay."

"True that."

"Oh yeah! Something happened that was interesting when I went to turn in my mission report." I snicker as I take another bite. She seems like the gossiping type. "You know that jonin with silver hair, a mask that covers half of his face, and his headband that covers one of his eyes?"

"Kakashi?" My curiosity is at its peak now and I zero in on their conversation even more, blocking out any outside noise.

"Yeah, him. He said something that made the Hokage completely freeze up."

"What did he say?"

"He said that he was going to find Orochimaru!"

My body stops moving and I drop my pizza back onto the tray. If my ears aren't falling me, I just heard that Kakashi is going to find that dreaded snake. I look up and glance out of one of the bigger and greatly reinforced windows, watching the sun set. Did he leave yet? Or is he still here?

I'm thrown out of my thoughts at Emi's voice. "Mayu! Are you completely serious right now? He's going after him?"

"I'm not even kidding you right now! He said that he was taking some genin and wanted to meet other jonin at the gate around six!"

'Some genin'? That has to be the others at the house! Also, there is no doubt that the other jonin are going to be Asuma, Kurenai, and Guy. My eyes shift towards the clock hanging on the wall. It's five forty-five right now.

I have time.

I don't know how, but I'm going to get out of here so I can help them find and take down Orochimaru. Because of all the damage I've done, I feel this should patch up some of the rifts between me and the others. Even if it might not make everything right, I want to try anyway. Looking at Takeshi enjoying his lunch, I feel sort of bad in not telling him about my escape plan (if you could call it that. I have no idea how I'm gonna get out of here.). Ok, time for my acting skills to kick in.

With a loud and exaggerated groan, I hug my stomach tightly. Takeshi sends a worried look my way. "You ok there, Sonic?"

I shake my head rapidly. "No…" I moan and cough slightly, hoping this looks realistic. "I don't think that pizza agreed with me…"

"Really?" Jiro asks. "Today's pizza wasn't half bad."

"Maybe it was just my slice…" Lurching forward, I cover my mouth with my hand.

Takeshi scoots his chair over, almost touching Jiro. "Dude, if you think you're gonna hurl, our door to the branch room is open. You better use your toilet." That is the information I need. I didn't know if the jonin locked the door after we left the cell room.

With a swift nod, I dash quickly to the cafeteria door and push it open. I then run into a person who is close to the doorway. Staggering back some, I glance up to see a very well built women with various scars on her face. She looks down at me and scowls before pushing me out of the way with ease. "Move out the way, shrimp." Helga (that's the nickname I dubbed her) stomps her way past, the other women following in her footsteps. None of them looking any nicer than Helga.

Actually glad that I'm not going to be sitting with any of them, I slip out into the hallway and focus on the door down the hall leading to Ibiki's office. There is no way I'm getting through two metal doors both locked and sealed with chakra. What's another possible escape route I could take? Think fast, think fast!

I snap my fingers. The window!

Zipping over to my branch, I make it into my cell within seconds. Stepping inside it, I examine the barred window. There are three solid metal cylinders crossing the otherwise open window vertically. Hmmm…I think that if I slice through the middle bar, I can squeeze my body through that space and drop down to the ground outside.

Slipping into a ready stance, I'm about to spin dash the metal when a thought flashes into my mind. Sure, helping the others with Orochimaru would help (at least, I think it will) fix the bond between us, how would my actions now affect the already fragile bond I have with the village? Being labeled as an escaped convict isn't going to help matters much. My body relaxes from its stance. Should I just stay here and let them take care of the snake?

Screw that.

Yes, I want to take his down because of the others, but I want to do this for me too. Just knowing that this thing is on my neck makes me sick. I want it gone.

Without any second thoughts, I propel myself up to the window and curl into myself, spinning at break-neck speeds. I feel my body grinding up against the round metal and vaguely hear the saw-like sound it creates. It doesn't faze me for I've spin dashed many times against metal. (cough, Eggman, cough)

This goes on for about five seconds before I drop down from the window. Uncurling myself, I land on my feet and note my progress. Cursing, I realize that the metal is much stronger than I thought it was because I'm only about a fifth the way through the bar. Gritting my teeth, I try again, and again, and again.

Now, I'm feeling a little winded; however, I'm jumping with joy on the inside seeing that with one more spin dash, I'll be out of this prison. When I position my body again for another go, I hear footsteps entering the room and coming toward my cell. Turning around, my eyes widen when they see Kenji stop at my open cell down, panting a bit. He stares at me and my heavily breathing form before glancing up at the window. His green eyes also widen in surprise before narrowing at me.

"I knew something was up when you ran out of the cafeteria like that." Kenji points at the weak bar in the window. "You were just wanting to do this!" He then lets out a chuckle. "If you think that you could just go free while everyone else just rots in here, you're mistaken!" Kenji then unexpectedly lunges at me, ready to grab and stop me from leaving.

Thinking that there is no way that he was going to stop me when I'm literally right there, I take a final jump out of Kenji's path and toward the window. Hugging my knees, I spin and slice though that one bar, squeezing through the other two because of the momentum, and fly out into the evening sun.

Landing on the ground, I breathe in a lungful of fresh air and let out a relief filled laugh.

I'm free.