Sai, Sakura, Shikamaru, Hinata and Neji travelled fast through the known forests of the fire country for 2 days; until they finally reached the coast, and found themselves in front of The Great Naruto Bridge.

They stood in front of it for some seconds, Sakura reminiscing the story of why that bridge had been named after Naruto; and Sai remembering painfully that Sasuke's life could have perfectly ended there; for he knew the story from both Naruto and Sasuke.

Even though, the merchants and travelers kept moving from both sides, and they had to move too, as they knew that at the other side they would be meeting the other ninjas undercover. None of them were wearing anything that could betray them as ninjas, in fact, they were just dressed like travelers; and they moved calmly; but none of them seemed to be in the mood for talking. Shikamaru was looking at the sky, but the rest of them were carefully looking for any sign of spies following them or the other ninjas from the different villages.

They went to eat to a restaurant, and the food finally made them relax slightly. Sakura said,

"Everything has changed so much… Well, it has been a long time since we came here."

"Well, it had to change. The politics and the commerce have been increasing a lot since then." Neji answered. Shikamaru was resting against the wall, smoking; and Hinata had gone to the bathroom.

Sai looked around, searching for any ninjas, either enemies or friends; when a woman brushed her hand against his back softly and let a paper fall softly on the bench next to him. He took it and stared at the woman, but she was wearing a long cape over her shoulders; but he could tell it was a woman from the second he saw her hand.

The message read,

"Glad to see you're finally here. We'll be leaving at dusk in the appointed place."

He looked up again, but the woman had already disappeared; although he was sure that she was the Mizukage. He crumbled the paper and then swallowed it with a gulp of his tea. Neji stared at him and he shook his head, but said,

"It's a long time until dusk… Let's go to the baths, to relax, shall we?"

"That would be nice." Hinata said, as she walked towards them. Sakura nodded, and Shikamaru looked at them and sighed as an approval.

The village was busy and quite lively, and the bathing house was somewhat empty, as it wasn't a very usual hour to be there. Either way, the woman and men went separate ways; and relaxed as much as they could, since they would need their strength in order to finish the mission as quickly as possible. Shikamaru asked to Sai,

"So, you and Sasuke?"

"Yeah. Find anything surprising in that, Shikamaru-san?"

"Well… it would have been more likely for you two to hate each other, since you were his replacement, and you did try to kill him." Shikamaru answered.

Sai smiled, but it was his false smile, since he couldn't help but to ponder Shika's words. Even though, he saved them for later, and asked Neji,

"Well, Neji-kun, forgive my curiosity; but why don't you have a partner?"

Neji turned away at the question, but answered,

"I haven't found anyone yet."

Shikamaru observed him, but said nothing and Sai remained silent at the answer. As far as he knew, Neji's only relationship had been with Tenten, but that had been when they had been in theirs twenties, not to mention that the girl was now dead; so it had been several years since then. Naruto probably knew more about the quiet Hyuga, since the two men were quite close; but the blond rarely gossiped about his friend's lives.

"Your wedding is going to be next month, right?" Neji asked Shikamaru, and a small smile appeared on the Nara's face as he nodded, saying,

"Yeah… there will be two weddings, because of that troublesome woman."

Neji chuckled slightly, as he could tell that the lazy ninja would do more than troublesome things for Temari, and Sai smirked.

o-o-o-o

The afternoon went away slowly, almost lazily, but just as the Sun began to disappear, the five ninjas where in an abandoned dock, somewhat far from any town; so it was unlikely that anyone had seen the Water's ship there. The Mizukage, along with the other teams from the different villages were already there.

From Suna, Sai immediately recognized Kankuro and Baki, the Suna sibling was the one that would be in the team along with the Mizukage and Sai himself; while the older ninja would guide the four-cell team from the sand. He also recognized one of the advisors from the Raikage and another one from the Tsuchikage, whom bowed slightly upon meeting him.

They went over the attack plan again, about how each man from the Mizukage's team would communicate with the others from their own village and how would they attack. The only ninja from the mist was the Mizukage herself, but she explained that as they attacked the six islands, her spy ninjas would join them, and Sai almost smirked, knowing that there were some spies from each village in the islands they were about to attack.

True enough, Naruto trusted Hitomi, but that didn't mean he was as foolish as to think that there wouldn't be a possible treason from any ninja village, just like every other kage. The relationships between countries was always like that, neither trusted each other entirely.

The spies, of course, already knew about the attack and had provided enough information to know how they would dispose of the enemy ninjas as quickly and silently as possible; in order to avoid an all-out attack.

Finally, they parted to the islands, and waited for the sea currents and wind to carry them on time.

Naruto could help but to feel extremely nervous during the following days after the team's departure, and Sasuke watched him pace or just look into space while they were in the office. The Uchiha would sigh then, and remembered Naruto that he still had a village to rule and other missions that had to be looked over and given to the ninjas that remained there. Naruto would chuckle and sat down again for some hours, before starting to pace again and the cicle repeated again and again.

Sasuke was just as anxious as the blond, but he had a better control over his emotions and managed to keep himself calm as they worked during the two days after Sai had left. The afternoon of the second day, Naruto said,

"They must have already arrived there. And will be leaving at dusk, I guess."

"Yes, Naruto, the kages agreed that during the meeting." Sasuke sighed. He was tired and nervous, and Naruto looked at him and chuckled slightly,

"Sorry bastard, I know I must be driving you mad with all this."

"Hn."

Naruto knew that that meant "yes, and I'm deciding whether to knock you unconscious or not if you keep it up." The blond sighed, and shook his head.

It wasn't the first time he had sent anyone into an S-rank mission before, and all the ninjas he had sent were beyond experienced in that; but he couldn't help it. It wasn't that he felt that something would definitely go wrong, it was simply that he was nervous because he couldn't know if they would return safely back to Konoha, and whether this would actually stop the war with the Temujin land from happening.

This was bigger than just Konoha, it would change the course of history in both the ninja and the Temujin continent; and he had never felt such a big responsibility on his shoulders. If only Tsunade had been there to advice him how to act…

He had never felt this kind of lack of confidence, and he couldn't help but to ponder if he had made the right decision. What if he had over-looked something? What if one of the villages had decided to betray them and he had sent his ninja to their death? What if this just enraged the Temujin lords and decided to march over the continent?

Doubt was eating him away, when he heard a sigh beside him, and Sasuke suddenly came to sit on his lap.

"Sas-"

The Uchiha put a finger on his lips, motioning him to be silent and then he looked into his eyes,

"Naruto, you made the right decision by sending them. Our spies or Jiraiya's people would have let us know if something had been off or someone had slipped about the attack. You know all of them are strong and know what they are doing; and more importantly, will look after each other no matter what. In case something goes wrong, you know Gaara's team will help us and we'll help them."

Naruto stared at Sasuke for some seconds, his black eyes telling him more than words could. He could see fear, but there was also confidence and trust, and above everything, love. Sasuke sighed,

"We trust you, Naruto, and they will come back. They… no, we learned from you to always come back to Konoha, to you."

The Uchiha didn't know what made him say those words to comfort the blond, though in a way, he was comforting himself. He had doubts, he knew something could go wrong; but he wanted to believe everything would be fine and that Sai would come back to him. He needed to convince himself of that, and to convince Naruto that that was what would happen, because a big part of him believed in what Naruto believed. If Naruto was afraid, he would be afraid too; and he didn't want that.

The blond placed his hands on Sasuke's cheeks, cupping his face in a gentle manner, but didn't say anything. As they stared at each other directly into their eyes, he swallowed and whispered,

"Thank you."

And he pulled Sasuke towards him, kissing him gently. Even if they had grown accustomed to sweet caresses and kisses on their cheeks or foreheads, they rarely kissed on their lips; so it was still an unknown territory. The kiss was chaste, comforting, trusting. Sasuke placed his hands on Naruto's face as well; and after some seconds, they pulled apart, but their foreheads kept touching, and they closed their eyes in contentment. They continued to caress each other, and Sasuke kissed Naruto's head several times, but didn't utter another word, nor kissed on their lips again. Even though, they soon felt drowsy, and the Uchiha rested his forehead against Naruto's shoulder, as the blond closed his hands over his back and they fell asleep quickly on the Hokage's chair.

As such, they didn't realize that somebody had watched the whole ex-change from an open window, and then went away silently.

o-o-o-o-o

When Naruto woke up in the middle of the night, he felt like if Neji had decided to give him a kick ass beating using his byakugan from the way his back felt. He opened his eyes; only to find Sasuke still sprayed over him like a blanket, though the Uchiha seemed to be shivering. He realized that one of the windows was open, and pushed Sasuke gently, but the black haired man just grunted and went back to sleep. Naruto said,

"Bastard, wake up. I don't know about you, but I'm fucking uncomfortable here."

"Naruto… why are we here?" Sasuke asked, yawing and shivering slightly as he noticed they were still in the office.

"We fell asleep… but I want my bed." Naruto explained as the other stretched.

"Hn."

Sasuke got up and closed the window, but a strange smell over the window caught his attention. It was a known smell, and yet, why couldn't he place it?

"Naruto…" He called.

The blond was stretching as well, and he could feel all the bones in his back cracking, when he turned to see Sasuke by the window. He got up and asked,

"What is it?"

"Smell." Sasuke ordered, and though Naruto raised his eyebrows, he did as told.

He frowned, recognizing a familiar and yet unknown smell. Even though, his senses were better than Sasuke's, and he could recognize it as the smell of a man, even if he didn't know whom.

"Do you know it?" Sasuke asked.

"It's familiar and it's from a man, but I'm not sure who could leave it." Naruto answered.

Sasuke nodded, but he somehow felt strange. He didn't know exactly why, the smell made him feel uneasy. They hadn't seen anyone coming or standing by the window that day. Usually Kakashi or Jiraiya would come through it, whether to just say hello or simply stare at the village; but Sasuke was sure that the smell didn't belong to either of them.

Naruto shrugged, before taking the Uchiha's hand and pulling him to disappear in a cloud of smoke. He didn't really felt worried about the strange smell by their window, and he needed to sleep; so they appeared in his house some seconds later.

Sasuke was silent as he changed into his pajamas, which he had left in Naruto's apartment after they had both decided to sleep some nights together, and got into bed. Naruto followed him, and sleep claimed them both soon enough.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The following morning, everything was going as usual, when an ink bird came flying through the window. Sasuke looked at it, and couldn't help his sigh of relief. It was the first message they had gotten from Sai ever since they had departed, and Naruto quickly sprayed a scroll for the bird to settle over it, forming words,

"Arrived safely to the rendezvous point. Parted an hour after dusk. Everything is well. Arrival to the first island tomorrow's night."

It was simple, but enough to let the two men know that their friends were safe and Naruto sighed in relief and sat happily on his chair.

"I'm so glad that this finally came… Aren't you, too, Sasuke?"

Sasuke smiled, but then a smaller ink bird came through the window and settled on his hand,

"I love you."

He just stared at the ink message, and didn't know whether to blush, smile or just sent one of his summons with the same message to the other man. He sighed, but then the blond said,

"Isn't he sweet?"

"Shut up." Sasuke answered, and hid his hand from view; as he knew that the blond wouldn't stop to tease him about the fact that Sai still took his time to write him something so corny.

Sai and the rest of the ninjas kept pacing around the ship as the hours drawled by. There wasn't much talking and everyone seemed to be nervous. It would take them the whole day to reach the first island, and there wasn't much to do but to see the blue sky and sea that extended for miles and miles around them. The hours went by slowly, with the Sun moving over the sky until it was dusk. When the sun started to set upon them, they could distinguish the island in the distance and the Mizukage said,

"We'll arrive in a few hours. Everyone, get ready."

Sai stared at the island, and then turned to look at Neji, who just nodded at him. They were both nervous and excited. There was nothing like the rush before starting an assassination mission, it was something that ran deep in all the ninjas that reached the jounin level, the powerful feeling of having control over the lives of others. It was exhilarating, and Neji and Sai knew that feeling quite well.

Sakura and Hinata, though, were slightly more nervous than their male teammates. Even if both of them had been in this sort of missions before, Sakura's job was usually to heal her teammates and watch over them, while Hinata was usually the spy or the one making the recognizance; but both of them were skillful when it came to kill others.

As for Shikamaru, his usual laziness was gone, and he seemed to be in deep thought, considering all the possibilities that came to his head for the up coming attack and the response from the rogue ninjas.

Finally, after the long wait, they stopped the ship some meters away from the island and jumped into the sea, to run to the island. There was no moon that night, and their steps on the water were muffled by the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks. Swiftly, the six teams crawled up the cliffs, and like shadows, disappeared into the jungle.

Gaara kept pacing in his office, looking to his village, and wondering what was happening with the team he had sent to the mission. As his village was too far from the islands, he had just gotten the message that they had arrived safely to the wave country and had already met with the Mizukage; but they were surely already killing the ninjas in the first island; it was night already.

The door opened and Temari came into the room, regarding her little brother with kind eyes. He hadn't told her that her fiancée had been chosen by Naruto to go to the mission, but he didn't see the point in worrying her. She asked,

"Are you alright? Are you worried about Kankuro?"

He nodded with a sigh, and she came to hug him for a second before saying,

"It will be ok, Kankuro is strong."

She placed her hand on his shoulder and Gaara placed his own over hers. After a few seconds, he said,

"After this is over, I'm resigning."

"What?!" Temari asked, almost jumping.

How could Gaara be even thinking of resigning his post as the kazekage? She knew how much he had worked to get the position and how hard it had been for him to gain the respect and love of the villagers, losing his life once in the process. There was nothing Gaara loved more than protecting and watching over his village; not to mention that he had done a great job.

Gaara sighed and said,

"I took this job when our village was in a great crisis, and my desire was to save it and make it flourish. I also wanted to gain the love of the villagers and their respect. All of this has been done."

"But you are probably one of the best kages we've had! And as you say, the villagers love you and want to continue under your rule." Temari answered, a bit bewildered.

"I've been ruling this village for 14 years, Temari. And I love it, but…"

Gaara wasn't sure how he should phrase it. Temari stared at him for more seconds, before smiling softly and said,

"This is about Naruto, isn't it?"

Gaara nodded, and Temari sighed,

"Little brother… Who will you appoint as your successor?"

"I'm not sure." He answered.

He had to think about that, not to mention that he had first to write to Naruto and ask him if he could go to live to Konoha with him; and of course, he would have to talk to Suna's council, but he would have to wait. First he would make sure his village was safe again, before taking that decision.

Temari nodded and then said,

"The council will probably have someone in mind. Go to sleep, Gaara, there isn't much you can do by sitting here."

Gaara nodded as his sister left the room; but he was just too nervous to sleep. All he could was to meditate, and wait for good news.

As Sai cut the throat of another ninja, several explosions and screams could be heard coming from all directions around the clearing he had opened in the middle of the forest.

The dawn of the third day after the attack started was coming closer, the fighting had been going on and on for two days, but thankfully, they were already in the last island. He knew that his chakra reserves were near their limit, but he knew he had to keep fighting.

The mizukage was already engaged in a battle with an S-rank criminal several meters away from him, but he could hardly help her, as several ninjas were still surrounding him. His ink beasts were dealing with some of them, but Sai didn't stop to think about them.

He had been trained to do this, and now it came to him like a second nature, almost by instinct. Another body felt to his feet, but he didn't even bother to look at its face. He sent a kunai to the back of another man, when he suddenly felt a known chakra behind him, and turned around quickly, only to see Kankuro's back, and one of his puppets strangling a man.

"I can handle this. Help the mizukage." Sai said, and the other man looked at him for a second before nodding and disappearing into the jungle, into the direction of the mizukage.

There were only 5 more men left, and judging by their chakra and movements, they were all between chunnin and jounin level.

His hands moved quicker than ever, as he called out the sea to perform a water technique. He could never be strong enough to use water without a source near like the second Hokage had been able to, but being in an island gave him the advantage. The surprise of his enemies gave him just some seconds to disappear in a blur to call out more ink beasts, before searching his enemies' chakras. One of them suddenly disappeared, and when he looked into the clearing, he saw Neji fighting one of them.

The Hyuga looked extremely tired, but he kept fighting, like everyone around them. The fight should be near its end now, and the alliance was winning; but Sai kept thinking about how many casualties there would be when they finished. He didn't have to time to concentrate and search for the chakras of the other Konoha shinobi, so he only knew Neji was alive as well.

He jumped into battle again, fighting side by side with the Hyuga, and took out his sword, stabbing one of the ninja in the stomach. Only three more to go, he thought.

Neji was using his byakugan to strike the chakra points of his opponent, and Sai focused on the last two. He knew that he could use only one more elemental technique or two non-elemental techniques at the risk of passing out, so he preferred to face them with taijutsu.

As he kicked the shinobi against a tree, strongly enough to make it break, Neji came to his side and asked between gasps,

"Everything… alright?"

"Don't use your byakugan anymore." Sai answered, and Neji's veins around his eyes disappeared, signaling that he was no longer using his bloodline limit.

A sudden rain of needles made them jump to the sides, as it seemed that the two last enemies still had energy. Sai wasn't sure what they should do, for they were both exhausted and their enemies weren't. He could no longer paint his ink beasts, and using an earth technique could mean leaving himself completely vulnerable, not to mention that he couldn't be sure that it would work.

Neji had more or less the same amount of chakra left, so that meant that they had to kill them with just one blow. Neji looked at him for a second, before nodding and the two of them jumped into the clearing, waiting for their enemies to appear.

The two rogue ninjas jumped into the clearing to face them, and they stared at each other for some seconds before Sai ran towards the one in front of him, and Neji did the same. The two men had a smirk on their faces as they thought that this was a foolish front attack, but a second they fell to their knees, as a shadow clone of each of the Konoha ninjas embedded several kunais into their bodies.

Neji and Sai had distracted their enemies, but now both of them were dead, and the two clones disappeared with a cloud of smoke, leaving them alone in the clearing. Sai sighed, before making sure the two men were dead and then went to check on Neji, who had fallen to his knees and whose breathing was ragged. He placed a hand on his shoulder and said,

"Whare are the others?"

"Sakura and Shikamaru have taken the hostages to the ship. Hinata was with the sand team the last time I saw her."

"Good. Let's retreat, we can't do more here." Sai said, and helped the other man to his feet.

Just as he did that, and Neji smiled at him for a second, he heard the sound of metal flashing through the trees behind Neji and without thinking, he pushed the other man to the side, but there wasn't enough time for him to move and he heard, more than felt how it pierced into his upper chest, and then there was an explosion of blinding pain spreading through his body.

Neji, with his quick reflexes, sent a kunai into the direction from were it came from and heard a satisfying thump on the wood before turning to see his companion. Sai was obviously in pain, as he was already sweating and his skin looked like marble and his lips were purple.

He immediately looked at the wound, but thankfully, it was right under his collarbone and hadn't hit any internal organs. Yet, the kunai was really big and it was oozing a green substance. Neji paled immediately, and said,

"Hold still."

Sai was biting his lip in pain, and let out a yell as Neji took out the weapon. The Hyuga was careful to put it inside one of his empty bags without touching the substance and took Sai's arms, saying,

"Hurry, we must get to Sakura."

Sai barely heard him, he felt that his skin was on fire and the pain was almost unbearable, and upon noticing this, Neji made him get on his back, to run as quickly as he could back to the ship, where he knew that Sakura was.

As he ran through the forest and over the sea, he felt a warm liquid staining his back, and realized that Sai had already fallen unconscious. Knowing he didn't have too much time to get help, he ran.

Sai, as soon as they had left the forest, felt that everything was going around him. The last thoughts on his head were:

"I'll come back, Sasuke. I promise."

Bwaahahahahahahaha! I bet you did see that one coming. XDD

Will Sai be healed or not? What will happen? Will Naruto and Sasuke learn of Sai's injury... kukuku. I'm evil like that, I know.

Either way, I'm really sorry it took so long to take this chapter out. The fact is that between studying for the entrance exam to university and a surprise visit from my father, I really lost a lot of time, like a whole month without wring. I mean it, I didn't even beta one of my friend's work or check my mail for several days.

But now the peace is back and we can focus on this juicy story.

What do you think that will happen now? Please review!