The three jumped to their feet as the bush continued to rustle. Kisame held onto the handle of the Samehada with a relaxed grip, but his face was showing otherwise. The bush stopped it's quivering as a small clay statue rolled out from it. Itachi bent down and picked it up, "It's one of Deidara's all right," Kisame said looking at it. Naruto just blinked. "He must have a message for us if he sent something that could have given away that he was here."

"He can wait until morning…" Itachi said. Kisame nodded and set the Samehada down as he yawned and returned to looking at the fire.

"Who's Deidara?" Naruto asked blinking again. Kisame laughed before beginning to explain.

…………………………

Itachi looked up ahead, "I'm going ahead to tell them that the Kitsune is going to be there soon," he said looking at Kisame who only nodded. Naruto grunted and rubbed his eyes, it was early morning and he was still partially asleep.

Kisame looked at the "captive" and smirked, "Not a morning person are you?"

"Shut up Shark face," Naruto rubbed his eyes again, "Even without brushing my teeth for three days I have better breath then you ever could."

Kisame smiled, "Still witty this early in the morning huh?" he said with a teasing manner. "I'm surprised you're witty at all to tell truth."

"And I'm surprised that you actually know how to be surprised, how long did it take for you to figure that function out?" Naruto yawned widely and looked around. "It looks rocky."

"No shit Sherlock, we're in the mountains."

Naruto blushed at his stupidity and looked for something to bring up another topic, "How did you get your sword?" he asked waiting for Itachi to return. Kisame grunted.

"Too long a story to tell right now," he said stifling a yawn the best he could.

"You're not a morning person either, huh?" Naruto said with a chuckle as he nudged Kisame in the ribs. Kisame growled yet again before he lengthened his stride. His face was eager for some reason and Naruto furrowed his brows. "What's got you all excited?"

Kisame glanced back at him, "The idea of a real bed," he retorted with a dreamy look. Naruto had a feeling that he was longing after the privacy of a room to himself, he grimaced remembering how Kisame had been murmuring in his sleep about sushi the other night. Itachi reappeared in front of the two with an aggravated frown on his face.

"We have to head back, the base was found out by the Rock nin. Deidara and Tobi will be joining us shortly for the trek to the new base in the Land of the Wave." Kisame frowned. "Let's get going, it's going to be harder on the way back…" he resumed his quiet anti-social self as he started walking down the path they had just come from.

Naruto's mouth fell open, "The Land of the Wave; that means that we have to either trek through the Fire Country or Sound Country. Both seem rather unpleasant," Naruto wrinkled his nose. Itachi glanced at Naruto.

This must be hard for him, not only knowing that he is most likely going to die soon, but that he has to go through the place he once called home in order to get to the place where he will die. I never considered or cared how this might affect him before, why am I thinking about it now? This should just be another mission; I shouldn't have to care about this. Itachi's frown deepened as he became lost in his thoughts. Naruto and Kisame started carrying out their own conversation as they waited for him to snap back. They didn't have to wait long for that to happen.

"Hey!" shouted an energetic young boy with a mask on as he bounded into the group. You could tell he was smiling by the tone in his voice as he began to tug on Kisame's sleeve asking if they had any ramen. "Deidara-senpai won't buy me any and he said that if I got any he would lace it with poison, so do you got any?" A blond man melted into the group as the wind blew his long hair behind him. Naruto sneezed as he sniffed the smell of clay radiating from the man and he stepped back.

"Problem, un?" the man said turning to him.

"Sensitive nose and you smell like clay." Deidara just shrugged, Naruto took another sniff of the air, "Do I smell rose fragrance?" he asked sniffing the air. Deidara flushed.

"I sprayed Deidara-senpai with some a little while ago to try and make the clay smell go away!" Tobi exclaimed moving away from Deidara who had moved his hand towards a clay pouch.

"I would have done the same," muttered Naruto to Tobi who only turned to look at him. Naruto smiled widely at him. They continued walking as they talked about ramen, at the same time they laced their fingers together behind their heads. Kisame and Deidara chuckled at how similar they were as the group continued towards Naruto's past home.

"Sasuke?"

"Hm?" Sasuke looked at the pink-haired kunoichi beside him.

"Your hair has peanut butter in it," she said trying not to laugh. Sasuke reached up to touch his hair only to make contact with a large gooey blob of the disgusting substance. Sakura smiled in amusement as he pulled his hand away and tried to shake it off. She sighed and grabbed his wrist and pulled a handkerchief from her supplies pouch. Gently she wiped off the mess from his fingers and then started to wipe it from his hair, being careful not to rub it in more then the tired teen had already.

"When did this happen? Sasuke asked quietly.

"When did what happen?" Sakura replied as she continued to clean the sticky mess up.

"You getting all motherly and mature," Sasuke frowned, "What happened to the giggling fangirl that was always following me around?"

"I realized that I was being dumb, if I really had loved you I would have taken care of you, not followed you around until you wanted to stick a kunai in my throat," she replied absent mindedly as she removed the handkerchief from his head and began to fold it up. "How did you get peanut butter in your hair anyways?" Sasuke shrugged,

"Probably during the food fight that started between Kakashi and Gai when he was making his morning report," Sasuke said with a yawn.

Sakura chuckled and smiled at him, "That food fight definitely was funny to watch though!"

"It was until we had to break it up," Sasuke said stretching his arms out. He blushed slightly as his stomach growled loudly.

"It's getting pretty close to lunch," Sakura said. She stood up and walked over to a group of kunoichi who were in charge of the food rations. The talked briefly and Sakura nodded, "Lunch in half an hour!" she shouted to the camp, she smiled when everyone shouted their happy responses. She ambled back to sit down next to Sasuke.

A large puff of smoke beside them alerted Sasuke and Sakura to Jiraiya's arrival. "Any new info?" Sasuke asked turning to look at him.

"Some good, some bad," Jiraiya said with a frown. "Good news is that their base was found out. Bad news is that they are heading back towards us."

"Isn't that good news?" Sakura asked with a slight frown.

Jiraiya shook his head, "It could be taken as such, since it's lengthened Naruto's time to live, but they are headed to a new base which means that if we do meet up with them, there's going to be a fight," he dipped his head, "Also, there is reason to believe that two other members of Akatsuki have joined their group, meaning that our plan to overtake them isn't going to work."

Sakura pursed her lips and Sasuke growled in frustration, "The others need to know about this," Sakura said after a short stretch of silence. She stood up and pushed a small piece of hair away from her face, she quickly wiped some dirt off of her clothes and walked to the tent that Kakashi and Iruka were sitting near talking.

She talked with them briefly and they both stood up shouting in anger as she explained to them the recent developments.

"We weren't ready for something like this! The ANBU who we had purposely act so weak are still partially recovering from their injuries! If they find out that they did all that for nothing…" Iruka shouted slapping a hand to his forehead. Kakashi tried to quiet him down and Sakura only hung her head.

"I know, Iruka-sensei, now please try to calm down," Sakura said, "The ANBU aren't rookies. They will understand that the setting has changed without warning, it does so all the time."

Iruka sighed, "I know, sorry," he said in a quieter voice his shoulders slumping.

Kakashi smooth his mask with a single gloved hand, "We'll have to come up with a new plan to get Naruto back. The only known thing we have going for us is that they aren't traveling as quickly as they are able to… most likely a side effect of Itachi using the Mangekyou so much in our last battle," The others nodded in agreement as Sasuke and Jiraiya walked over.

"Call the others together?" Sasuke suggested. Iruka nodded gravely, he was still sulking.

A/N: I'm posting this without any betaing… bad me, very very bad me… I went through it with a fine tooth comb so I hope it's fine, but I'm still not happy about it not being betaed, oh well. I was getting angry PMs about not updating my stories lately so I figures, Oh, what the hell… I'll post it and get scolded later! Yay for Mitchis! Tell me if you find any thing wrong with my editing and some of the loose ends are finally starting to tie in… MWAHAHAHAHAHA!