Naruto yawned and laced his finger behind his head, "How much longer until we get there?" He asked loudly, not even glancing at Itachi.

"Ask again and I'll cut your tongue out…" Kisame said through gritted teeth. He didn't mean the threat though; the little ninja was starting to grow on him.

"So Sharky, hows about stopping for lunch?" Naruto unlaced his fingers and placed a hand on his growling stomach.

"Might as well before you start trying to chomp on something you shouldn't," Kisame grumbled as he glanced at Itachi. "What do you think Itachi?"

Itachi nodded slightly then twitched an eye. Kisame took the hint, "I'll go get some wood, be back in a minute." He took off whistling into the thin bushes looking for some good sized logs, taking more time then necessary.

"Why are you upset?" Itachi said with out hesitation.

Naruto glanced at him, "Why do you always act so damn anti-social around others? You don't care when you're with me alone. But the minute someone gets close you shut up and don't even blink when I talk to you," Naruto huffed and stuck out his lower lip.

Itachi caught a sigh before it escaped his lips, "It's one of the ninja codes, Do not show more emotion then necessary or it may be used against you; didn't they teach you that in the Academy?" Naruto shook his head.

"They might have, but I never really paid attention. If you want to know what they teach in the Academy ask Sakura, she knows almost everything," Naruto said before sighing. "Well, now that I know why you weren't paying much attention to me, I guess I can allow it. You got a good reason and all, I'll just have to get used to it."

Itachi nodded slightly and looked in the direction Kisame had wandered. He gave a sharp whistle and the ex-water Nin wandered back into view. "You done?" Itachi nodded in his non-nod way again and Kisame smirked. "Damn time, I thought I was going to be stuck out there a while!" Naruto frowned.

"So that's why you took more time then needed," Naruto said, "Fish Breath." He added with a smirk.

"I hate you."

"Oh, that hurts my feelings," Naruto said with a pout before smiling evilly. "There's a question I want to ask you, do you eat shark steaks?"

Kisame growled deep in his throat and kneeled down to start a fire. Naruto started laughing and Itachi blinked. Naruto looked over at Itachi, "Do you like ramen?"

"If we get back onto this topic I'm going to separate your head from your shoulders…" Kisame growled as Itachi glared warningly at him, "It was just a thought!" Kisame defended himself against Itachi's unspoken scolding. He shrugged and continued to make a fire.

"There was a problem in your statement, Sharky," Naruto said cocking his head and frowning.

"What would that be?" Kisame asked raising an eyebrow.

"Technically you can't separate my head from my shoulders since it's connected to my neck not my shoulders… so you'd have to be trying to remove my head from my neck or my neck from my shoulders… not my head from my shoulders," Naruto said blinking. Kisame stared at him for a moment before roaring with laughter. Itachi resumed the building of a fire as Kisame attempted to wipe the tears off his face that had resulted from laughing to hard. Naruto just glared at him.

"At least you tried to sound intelligent," Kisame managed to sputter out during his bought of laughs, Naruto just blew air threw his nose like an angry bull.

"Like you would know what intelligent sounds like," he muttered under his breath, Kisame glared at him and Itachi couldn't help but give the slightest of smirks, he bent his head slightly down so that the collar of his cloak would hide it from view. Naruto caught the quick flash of Itachi's smirk before it ducked behind the black cloth of the cloak and smiled widely, now he had something to call Itachi on.

Soon they were eating fish beside a dying fire, "Why are we always eating fish? It's getting kind of boring…" Naruto complained spraying chewed fish everywhere. Kisame grimaced and flicked a small piece of fish of his cloak as Itachi looked out the corner of his eye at Naruto who had resumed chomping on his food.

"Because it's the easiest thing to get around here, soon we're going to be living off of plants and small animals as we move higher up," Kisame said with a yawn as he pulled the Samehada into his lap and began to unwrap it.

"Whatcha doing?" Naruto asked cocking an eyebrow as he studied the Samehada's razor sharp spikes.

Kisame didn't look up as he expertly lifted the sword with one hand and began to inspect every nook, cranny, and plane of it. "I'm making sure that there are no scratches, nicks or shavings on it. I also want to wash the wrappings on it soon, either that or replace them, that way the Samehada is protected from rocks and such until my next battle," He murmured running a finger delicately over the smooth side of on of the spikes to rub off a small speck of dirt. Naruto nodded slightly.

"How did you learn to use such a big sword?" he asked after a little while. Kisame glanced up at his serious face.

"Interested in it are you? Well let me tell you, many years of practice, training and muscular building. It's definitely not as easy to use a sword as large as the Samehada as I make it seem!" Kisame smiled slightly as he looked at his sword with pride.

"Well, it is pretty obvious that you are talented with swords fighting, I did some research on you guys. You're one of the… um, what did Sakura call it….. Seven Swordsmen of the Mist! That's the name she said! And then Itachi over here is the Uchiha prodigy or what ever… I didn't really understand everything I read or heard, but I can remember most of it…" Naruto said narrowing his eyes and chewing thoughtfully on his lower lip. Itachi narrowed his eyes in amusement at Naruto's admittance that he didn't fully understand everything he had learned, though the fact that he could remember the information was clearly surprising to Kisame.

Kisame chuckled, "So, after we left you alone you decided to find out as much on us as you could…" he said shaking his head slightly, "Did you think it would help you face us?"

"No, personally I didn't think it would help diddly squat, I just wanted to know how powerful it was said that you are. Though clearly, their understanding of you guys if limited only to the battlefield. I didn't find a single mention on Itachi's anti-social syndrome or your strange sense of humor and hate of shark jokes!" Kisame chuckled again and Itachi made a movement that just barely qualified as shrugging his shoulders as if he was agreeing to Kisame's snickers. Naruto smiled and rubbed the back of his head laughing quietly, "No, but seriously, I really don't think that they have the right information on you guys. According to my experiences with you guys, you're both way more powerful then they've documented!" Kisame's face shined with the praise and Itachi just muttered a slight humph. They sprung to their feet as a slight rustle in the bushes beside Naruto distracted their attention.

o&l: Thanks for pointing out the small problems in my story, but I must say, some of them were intentional. ;P I'm not going to give everything away right now, but the ANBU not putting up a great fight like they should have, Naruto, Kisame and Itachi being so open with each other, and how their fighting style was blended together so well…. Well actually the last part I can explain now. Obviously, because of how long Itachi and Kisame have been working as partners they know how to fight side by side with out getting in each others way, and Naruto has always had a three man team. Therefore Kisame and Itachi just simply angled their poses when Naruto joined the defensive stance so that they could make room for him. And Naruto didn't even have to think about the stance, he just acted on habit of taking a triangular stance since he would have done the same thing if he was in a group with Sakura and Sasuke (or in the manga right now, Sakura and Sai). I know that I forgot to add small little details that would make it seem like they had some slight problem fighting together, but I guess that they didn't really fight together as much as I made it seem. And the whole problem you found with the Mangekyou will be explained in the next chapter… . sorry that it seemed liked I've had so many mistakes; I'm doing some of it on purpose. Except for the slight OoC on the Akatsuki part, but I'll figure out a way to put them back in char with out it seeming like too big of a change in their attitudes.

Well, see you all next chapter and I'll try to fix my tinny tiny mistakes! (Still looking for a beta, so if any one wants to offer I would appreciate it!) Also, I am offering a probably once a story thing… the 35 reviewer that I get will get an one-shot (if I don't think up too complicated of a plot) story to them involving any characters or plot they desire! However, I will not do any more of a sex scene that a risqué pg16 which just happens to be my own rating! I will work hard on making the next chapter tie up some loose ends that I almost forgot about, but don't worry, as every problem will be coming to an end soon… and then more will arise!