Hello!
Back for another chapter of Trip Down a Hill, now with new grape flavor!
This is basically a set-up chapter, though i'd like to think I did a good enough job keeping it entertaining that you can forgive me.
Nothing much to say, let's get into it!
Chapter 22: An Unfair Declaration
"And so, there we were…" Naruto held his hands out in front of him, Setting the scene as dramatically as he could. "Trapped in the forest of death, facing off against an opponent 4 times our size."
"He was of average height." Sasuke corrected from the seat on his right, swirling his chopsticks through his tonkotsu broth before lifting the captured noodles up to his mouth, sucking them in in but a moment.
"Yes, but his aura made him seem 10 feet tall!"
"That's only twice your height."
"A-anyways, It was only Me, Tenten, and Sasuke-"
"Tenten, Sasuke, and I, Naruto." Sakura interrupted from beside Sasuke, a coy smile on her face.
Naruto shot the both of them an annoyed stare, before continuing.
"Sasuke was carrying the unconscious Sakura along on his back, making the both of them effectively useless."
They both coughed loudly, but otherwise said nothing, which, in Naruto's eyes, was effectively conceding the point.
"Still, with some genius planning, I managed to shake the man off of our tail using a state of the art ninja tool! After that, the man continued to pursue us, constantly nipping at our heels. Through my sheer genius, I was able to once again come up with a plan." Naruto walked his audience through it, talking about the shadow clones he'd sent out and how he had, basically, stopped the Sannin all on his own.
"Wow," Haku smiled calmly over at him from his left, sipping some broth from his bowl as he did. "To think you all fought against Orochimaru and lived. That's really quite impressive."
"Fought against? Hah!" Zabuza shot him a look from across the bar, off to Haku's left. "If that man were serious, the three of you wouldn't be here right now. He wasn't after your lives, was he?"
"W-well no, but-"
"There, see?" The man pointed his chopsticks in Naruto's direction. "He had some other motive for targeting you. From what girlie says, it's that he wanted to place a curse mark on the Uchiha. Even then, the fact that he didn't just do it immediately when he saw you three shows me that he was after something else as well." Zabuza yawned as he leaned back, stretching his arms as he did. "If you ask me, he was probably testing you."
"Well yeah…" Naruto let out dissapointedly. "We kinda' figured that out."
"Then don't go shouting about how you're all grand warriors, when in reality, you got bailed out by that damned sage."
"Wait," Naruto uttered confusedly. "Sage?"
The man seemed to realize his mistake, because a second later, he coughed loudly, and suddenly shouted "Oi, old timer, another bowl!"
"Comin' right up!" Came Teuchi's voice from the back of Ichiraku.
"Hey, Zabuza Sensei, you're avoiding the question!"
"No idea what you're talking about kid." The man spoke up a second later, giving a rough grunt that could've been construed as thanks to Ayame, who rolled her eyes, but accepted it anyways as she walked off.
"Well, I think you did fantastically, Naruto." Iruka spoke from Zabuza's left side, smiling at him in an almost motherly way. "I got to catch your match at the arena the other day. Your trick with the transformation jutsu was phenomenally well set up."
Naruto blushed as he drank the last of his broth, about to raise his voice to ask for another before Ayame placed a fourth bowl in front of him, smiling down on him with a look that said 'yeah, we already know.'
"Still…" Iruka continued, barely missing a beat. "It's a real shame that your first opponent is little Hinata."
And there goes my good mood. Naruto thought glumly.
"Ah! Iruka Sensei!" Sakura sounded annoyed as she slapped their teacher lightly on the arm. "You weren't supposed to say the H-word!"
Their teacher laughed a bit, but it seemed the somber atmosphere Naruto let off was spreading, because the conversation around the entire table was gradually growing quieter, until there was no one speaking at all.
Even the two ramen chefs in the back had gone back to cleaning their instruments, wanting to listen in on what Naruto had to say. With anyone else, he might not have been willing to keep speaking, but Teuchi and Ayame might as well have been family, so he swallowed his doubt, and spoke freely.
"Honestly… I'm sure anyone else would be thrilled to be matched up against Hinata. She's not all that powerful, and she doesn't have any real points of strength, other than the Hyuga style, which even then she uses at a very mediocre level." Naruto knew that his words were being a bit brutal towards the girl, but felt that revealing his feelings was crucially important. "But… she's already dealt with a lot in her life, even I can tell that. I… I don't want to have to hurt her pride anymore than it's already been."
"You're that confident you'll win?" Zabuza spoke, before snorting a second later. "What am I saying, the only reason you're saying this is because you're so sure."
"Hinata's not terrible." Sasuke spoke up, leaning back in his chair and letting his hands fall back behind him. "Problem is, Naruto just does everything she does better. Close quarters combat? Naruto's better. Dodging and reacting? Naruto's better. Chakra reserves? Naruto's better. Planning? Well… you get the idea. She doesn't have any means to attack him with."
"You're not planning on throwing the match, are you?" Haku asked, looking slightly appalled.
"Of course, he's not." Sakura spoke up, as if it was completely obvious. "As if that wouldn't destroy her pride in it's own way!"
"S-sorry, I just-"
"No," Sakura sighed, running her hand through her hair. "I'm sorry, it's my fault. You were just worried as well. I think I'm a little on edge about my own fight as well."
"Is it because of what Ino told you?" Sasuke asked, looking over at Sakura.
"Ino-san?" Haku's head turned so fast that it audibly cracked, making the entire table wince as the boy massaged it. "W-what's she up to?"
"Great save, Brat." Zabuza sighed, rubbing his temples as he did. "Great save."
"Yeah, I went to console her yesterday at the flower shop, and Ino told me about her fight with Gaara," After a second, Sakura clarified. "Gaara is the boy I'm facing in my third exam fight."
"Oh," Haku nodded. "Okay."
"Is he strong?" Iruka spoke up, taking a sip of his water as he did.
"I don't know, according to Team 8, he killed a few people in the forest, but even then, I don't have any more information than that. Ino surrendered immediately when she fought him, apparently because, when she entered into his mind, she found a giant monster inside of him."
It felt like Naruto's stomach, directly above his seal, had a bucket of ice poured onto it. He gasped loudly, drawing everyone's attention towards him.
"Naruto?" Sasuke looked towards him worriedly. "You alright?"
The feeling hadn't subsided, but it had dissipated somewhat, allowing Naruto to simply grin and bear it, pretending to be completely fine.
"Yeah, I'm good." He lied out of his teeth, looking back towards Sakura to divert the attention away from himself. "What were you saying?"
"Right…" The girl eyed him suspiciously, but eventually continued. "According to her, it was a giant creature made out of… well, she said it was a giant sand raccoon, but that sounds a bit ridiculous."
'It's not.' A voice murmured from within his seal.
"It's not…" He spoke without meaning to.
Once more, everyone turned towards him, giving him an odd look.
"I'm not sure what it means, but… the moment you said that, I got this weird feeling coming from my seal…" Naruto tried to articulate his thoughts, though it didn't seem to be working all that well. "I guess… maybe the Nine-Tails' knows something?"
"That's an awfully harsh assumption." Zabuza laughed harshly as he turned towards him, gesturing towards Naruto's 4 finished bowls of ramen. "You sure you didn't just get a super coincidental stomachache?"
He nodded, completely serious, and for once his feelings seemed to reach the man across from him, for Zabuza's eyes widened momentarily, before he suddenly sat straighter, taller.
"Then in that case, let's take this conversation elsewhere." He tilted his head towards the Ramen chefs, who, even if they were trying to make themselves scarce, were at most 4 or 5 feet away from them. "We can go find that girl Ino and Naruto can ask her about it directly." The man sighed. "Gods know Haku will like it."
They all nodded, Iruka paying for all of their meals as they headed out, much to the man's distaste.
"Aren't you a working adult ninja?" The teacher chided, pointing his finger into the face of one of the world's most dangerous Jonin. "You can't even pay for your kid's meal?"
"Haku ain't my kid." Zabuza corrected harshly, getting in the teacher's face. "And you said you were treating, did you not?"
Despite what one might've expected, Iruka didn't back down, instead leaning into the man, despite being an inch or two shorter.
"I told Naruto and his team that I would treat them."
"Well unfortunately for you, I've been drafted into 'Naruto's team'. That means you're paying for all of us."
"And that boy?" Iruka pointed at Haku, who seemed to look back and forth between the two, completely confused as to what was going on.
"Uhm, I can pay for the meal, sir." The Ice-user spoke awkwardly.
"No, I treated you."
"But you just said-"
"I said that this man-" Iruka pointed at Zabuza, his finger perhaps an inch from the man's face. "Should've paid for you. I did not, however, mean to imply that you should pay for yourself."
"This is confusing." Naruto spoke quietly.
"Agreed." The other members of Team 7 echoed.
After a few minutes, and more than a few more attempts from Haku to simply pay for his and Zabuza's share of the meal, all of which went unaccepted, The demon of the Mist let out the heftiest sigh Naruto had ever heard, and shoved a few hundred yen into Iruka's waiting hands.
"And so the saga of Iruka Sensei getting the world's most famous assassin to pay for his own ramen comes to a close." Naruto bowed towards the two, as did Sakura and Sasuke. "Truly, we have witnessed the end of an era."
"Can it, you three!"
/-/
"Hello! Welcome to the Yamanaka – Oh, hey Sakura!"
"Hey Ino!" Sakura called out as she waved back to her friend, stepping inside of the small flower shop, flanked on both sides by Naruto and Sasuke, and followed shortly by Zabuza and Haku, Iruka having gone home for the night.
"What'cha all doing?" The girl asked as she vaulted the counter, taking a few steps over towards them before stopping in her tracks, an almost malicious smile spreading across her face as she linked her hands behind her back. "Oh, how are you today, Haku?"
The boy in question went about as red as one could, sputtering out something that very well may have been a greeting, but for all intents and purposes came out as a serious of choked gasps.
Ino giggled, which in turn made Haku's face somehow redder, but a second later, Zabuza stepped in front of him, both shielding his brat from further embarrassment, and allowing them to finally get to the topic at hand.
After hearing what they had to say about Naruto's own experience, Ino seemed perplexed.
"I'll be honest with you, I've already told Sakura all there was to tell." Ino rubbed her chin with one hand, trying to come up with anything that she could to help them out. "I encountered a monster in the boy's head, I screamed and exited immediately. He attacked me afterwards, but I don't think it was related to that monster at all." She paused for a second. "Yeah, that's about it unfortunately."
"Hmph," Zabuza muttered from the back wall. "Not a lot to go off of, is it?" He turned back towards Naruto, eyeing the boy curiously. "Well, kid? Get anything out of that?"
He tried to search his mind, ran his hand over his seal, but in the end, nothing came of it. There was no sudden flash of information as he'd been hoping, and instead he was met only with silence.
"No… I didn't." He admitted with a disappointed sigh, looking back up towards everyone with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, guys, looks like I wasted your time."
His friends all laughed at that, which had him a bit confused.
"Honestly, we're not wasting our time, you dummy." Sakura smiled at him, wrapping her arm around his shoulder. "I'm just happy to see Ino, and I'm sure Haku could say the same."
The boy let out a quiet "meep!" before once again disappearing behind his master.
"I'm sure one day he'll be honest with himself." Sakura whispered to him in a not so subtle way.
He felt his mood lift significantly, an easy smile once more settling back on his face.
"I wouldn't count on it if I were you." He whispered back.
"Besides," Sasuke spoke as he walked over to the two of them, looking down at Naruto with a fake annoyed expression. "You've been looking way too cool lately, if you didn't mess up every once in a while, then I'm fairly sure the world would cease to be."
The entire gang laughed at that, sans Zabuza, who was still trying to deal with Haku cowering behind him.
"You've faced down B and A-Ranked Ninja's Haku, and a little girl is the first thing to scare you!?"
"I-I don't know what you're talking about."
Ino herself laughed, muffling it into the side of her hand as she looked over to the three of them.
"So, since you're all here, how about helping me wrap some of the bouquet's for tomorrow's sales?" Ino leaned into them, wrapping her hands together. "Pretty please, you guys?"
Sakura groaned loudly, but otherwise relented, walking behind the counter and grabbing some wrapping paper, muttering all the while about how she shouldn't have come here in the first place, even if Ino was hanging off of her and laughing the entire time.
Sasuke and Naruto themselves did the same, lightly chiding one another on their skills (or lack thereof) regarding flower wrapping. They'd done it many times in the past, Ino was never one to skimp on making her friends help her out, and yet they never seemed to get any better at it.
As they neared the end of the night, however, it seemed they would finally learn new information.
"Oh!" Ino shouted suddenly, turning towards the three of them with an excited smile adorning her features. "I just remembered something else! That thing spoke to me!"
"Really!?" Naruto turned towards her, thrilled to receive anything at all. "What did it say?"
The girl thought for a moment, before looking rather annoyed.
"Aaagh!" Ino ran her hands through her hair, gaze directed at the floor. "I can't remember the words exactly, I'm sorry."
"That's fine, honest." Naruto tried to comfort her, even as Sakura and Sasuke crowded around them. "Do you remember the gist?"
"Yeah, I do." Ino answered. "It was something along the lines of "Hey, who are you!?""
That's... Not a lot to go off of. Naruto admitted with a mental sigh.
"But... it was odd." The girl continued. "From what I saw, his mouth didn't really move. It was more like... I heard the voice directly in my head."
Just like me. Naruto realized with wide eyes.
"Naruto, you getting anything from that?" Sakura asked, hope seeming dim for the girl.
"Yeah, actually."
His friends looked over at him like he was crazy, but the excited smile on his face must've told them something was up, for everyone in the room turned his way, looking tense, but curious.
"I think that whatever's in Gaara's head... Is a creature a lot like the Nine-Tails." Naruto concluded, looking over towards Zabuza. "Hey, Old man-"
"Don't call me that!"
"S-sorry." Naruto apologized, before continuing. "Anyways, have you ever encountered another monster of that nature, or... or heard about one?"
The assassin went quiet for several seconds, evidently considering something. With a worldly sigh, he looked back up at the five of them, eyes hard.
"What I'm about to tell you... Isn't technically a secret. Knowledge of the Tailed Beasts isn't restricted in any real way, in fact, among higher level ninja, it might as well be common knowledge."
...Tailed beasts? Naruto thought curiously.
"I won't tell you about the legends, they honestly don't matter at all, but I can tell you that in this land reside nine Tailed Beasts. I, personally, have talked to men who saw the Three-Tails with their own eyes."
"So... Which one of them is the one Ino saw?" Sakura spoke up.
"Honestly, I have no idea based on the information, but we can assume based on the village it came from." Zabuza turned to Ino. "Girlie, you said that Gaara was a member of the Sand Village, correct?
"Y-yeah."
"In that case, you've only really got one option." Zabuza spoke, sighing as he looked around at them all. "Shukaku. The One-Tail."
It was as if his seal agreed, a rumbling in his mind that sounded almost like laughter echoing throughout.
No one spoke for a while as they all contemplated the news. It wasn't exactly a shock to learn the existence of more monsters for Naruto, given that one literally lived in his stomach, but he imagined that, for the other's, it might've been a bit of a surprise.
"What do we do?" Sasuke spoke up, looking towards Zabuza. "Should we take this information to the Hokage?"
"You all," Zabuza pointed to the five of them. "Aren't doing anything. I'll take the information to him, and even then, all I'm taking is a hypothesis, albeit one backed up with some pretty good evidence."
"Thanks, Old Man!"
Zabuza turned back towards him, opened his mouth to speak, and then simply sighed, raising his hand in goodbye as he stepped out of the flower shop, Haku on his heels.
"G-good night, Ino-san."
The girl giggled.
"Good night, Haku."
Once more, the boy let out a small "meep", before rounding the corner and following his master.
"Alright," Sakura spoke up, stretching as she yawned tiredly. "I think we should all follow their example, it's getting awfully late."
"What are you talking about?" Ino spoke curiously, and just a tad maliciously, to her friend.
"Huh?"
Ino held up a few hundred pieces of wrapping paper, along with a makeshift bouquet.
"We've barely even started!"
/-/
Jiraiya sat silently atop one of the leaf's many water tower's, watching the Leaf's young Jinchuuriki make his way back home after a long evening of wrapping flowers and chatting with his friends.
And he'd been forced to watch the entire thing, on the off chance someone tried to attack him.
"Honestly," Jiraiya complained, lying back on the cool metal beneath him. "Saddling me of all people with a simple protection job, how lame."
At the sound of footsteps behind him, he didn't even budge, instead, he turned casually towards them, groaning as he saw one of Danzo's Anbu before him.
"Man, why'd it have to be one of you guys," He rubbed his head, yawning as he did. "You all are never any fun."
"Lord Danzo requests an update on your mission." The man kneeled before him. "You have not once reported to him the entire time you've been in Konoha."
Jiraiya snickered, flipping off the tower and landing in front of the man, looking down at him with a lazy smile.
"And he didn't think that, maybe, just maybe, that was a pattern?"
"My lord has always thought of you as a powerful ninja, but one that does not take his duty seriously enough. Thusly, he asked for a confirmation of-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it already." Jiraiya took a small scroll out of his coat, quickly jotted down the words 'Nothing to report' and handed it over to the man before him. "There. If he wants anything more, tell him to suck it."
"I will not." The Anbu replied simply, before disappearing off the rooftop.
The Toad Sage sighed, looking back down one final time at his objective, who was now laying in his bed, and snoring rather loudly out of his open window.
"Charming." He deadpanned.
Suddenly, Jiraiya heard a distinct "Ribbit" in the distance, which meant that someone, or something, had breached his perimeter.
That wasn't unexpected, people walked around the streets even in the dead of night, but this one was a different cry, made specifically for a group of very particular ninjas.
His entire posture changed, going from lazy and tired to serious and alert in half a second, coasting along the rooftops at a decently high speed, moving towards where his frog had cried out.
When he arrived, he saw exactly what he'd been hoping for.
"Heh…" Jiraiya laughed confidently as he stared down at his new targets for the evening. "One Zaku Abumi and Dosu Kinuta. I wonder what you're up to?"
/-/
"So, Kin's still recovering after more than a week, and yet here you are, walking along as if you didn't just have your arm blown off." Dosu shot him a look of doubt, one that Zaku couldn't help but wilt under.
"Yeah, well, Orochimaru didn't call her out here." He argued back, turning down an alleyway as he heard the croaking of a frog off in the distance. "He asked the two of us specifically to be there, not a lot we can do to be honest."
His right arm was still in a splint, and from what the doctors had said, it likely would be for quite some time.
"Hmph, I guess you're right." Dosu conceded, sighing wearily as they turned towards a more barren part of the leaf village, through cramped paths and deserted streets.
They finally reached their goal in the form of a worn-down shack. It seemed to have once been used for the creation of alcohol, but that had to have been years and years ago. It looked to have been long since abandoned, but that was fine. It catered to their group's needs nicely.
When they walked inside, they were immediately met by two sound Jonin, who greeted them with a pair of kunai, and immediately searched them. Zaku himself grumbled annoyedly, but otherwise stayed quiet. There was nothing to be done about Orochimaru's cautious nature.
After the ninja's finished and ushered them inside, they were greeted with a small set of stairs that led downwards into the earth. After walking for half a minute, they emerged into a decently large room, perhaps twice the size of the shack they'd been in earlier.
"How nice of the final two to join us."
The raspy voice of Orochimaru echoed within the small metal chamber, and as Zaku and Dosu somewhat nervously took their seats, the former couldn't help a small amount of shock as he spotted a familiar face.
"Wait… Kabuto?" He uttered without meaning to.
"Ah, I see you've noticed, then." Orochimaru's voice rang out, sounding mildly intrigued. "My dearest apologies, but I felt that revealing Kabuto's nature to you before the Second Exam might have inhibited your ability to compete. I'm sure that's no problem at all, is it?"
"Of course not, sir." Dosu bowed, and Zaku followed, having learned his lesson from his arm being broken a few days prior.
His arm having been broken, and then blown off a few days later turned out to be an odd mix of problems, because, from what the doctors had told him, they hadn't been able to completely fix it. They'd done him the favor of sewing parts of his left arm back together as well, and, thank the gods, removing the beetles from underneath his skin.
He shivered just thinking about it, his bravado during the fight a thing of the past now.
Even still, from what they said, it would take many months, along with continued treatments, to bring his right arm back to the point where he could fight with it.
It was a shame, then, that if their plan went off without a hitch, his arm probably wouldn't be getting that treatment. Obviously, Orochimaru had doctors, but they weren't generally the best of the best. You didn't need to work for a maniac if you weren't, likewise, a little off in the head.
As he contemplated this and that, Orochimaru began speaking.
"The invasion of Konoha has, so far, gone as planned. Each of you has a role. Most, if not all of you, will be acting as front-line fighters. You will storm the gates, scale the walls, or summon creatures that will do it for you." Orochimaru's commanders all nodded towards him. "This will be a two-pronged assault, attacking the main gate with a massive summon, while also sending half of our forces around the back, scaling the Hokage monument, and raining fire from the back, attacking the civilian encampments and causing mass panic."
A shiver ran down Zaku's spine at those words. He silently prayed that he wouldn't be assigned to the unit in charge of murdering civilians.
"However, there are a few people present at this table who will have more involved roles in this mission." Orochimaru first gazed towards Kabuto. "You, of course, already know your role, correct, Kabuto?"
"Of course, Lord Orochimaru." Kabuto bowed, smiling maliciously as he did.
Y'know, Zaku thought to himself, eyes narrowed slightly. They could do to be less obviously evil.
Orochimaru went down a makeshift list, telling them all about their roles and what they'd be doing. Most weren't at all complicated. Assist with either the frontal assault, or the rear assault.
"And lastly, you two."
Zaku stood ramrod straight as the man addressed he and Dosu, smiling in that way that seemed to pick at his very being.
"You are, obviously, being entered in to the main competition. You will have a variety of jobs, from buying the plan time if we need it with your fights, to speeding the plan up by conceding early. You will, also, be reporting in from time to time on what you're able to find out about the arena. Security, Attendees, fighters, that sort of thing. Yours is a role largely supportive in nature."
"Right." The two of them responded.
Orochimaru took a while longer to finish outlining the plan, setting them all up with a variety of jobs, each unique, though some sounding much less important. Zaku couldn't help but notice just how minor their role was, it felt like they could've been killed and Orochimaru would have barely been hindered at all.
Perhaps that's the idea.
As the meeting finally finished, Orochimaru called out to the two of them.
"Oh, you two, meet with me after this is over, I have a job specifically for the both of you."
A small insidious core of fear bloomed inside Zaku's heart, and he realized in that moment that, if Orochimaru desired it, then they would die right here. Surrounded on all sides by enemies, he could do whatever he pleased.
No point in worrying about it. A part of him that was sounding far braver than he felt spoke out. He could've killed us at any time, why would he do it now after taking the time to explain all of that to us?
The rational logic there made him feel just a bit better, and so it was with heart beating a million times a minute that he and Dosu walked towards the man after the meeting was over, facing him down at the back of the room as he smiled at them.
Oddly enough, the Sannin was holding a small toad in his hands.
"Well, you two seem to be adapting rather nicely." The man put a hand over his mouth, his eyebrows racing in mock concern. "Ah, Zaku, how has the arm been doing?"
Anger filled him, but he couldn't let it show. Instead, he gritted his teeth and smiled.
"It's been doing much better, thank you for asking, sir."
Orochimaru smiled, clearly amused at his response, and then apparently decided to get back to the topic at hand.
"Now, the two of you have been doing rather well lately, so I felt it was the time to approach you with this now." He reached behind him and brought out two flak jackets. "As long as you finish the next mission that I'm about to assign to you, you will each be awarded the rank of Chuunin in the Sound Village, and be awarded greater protections."
That's…!
"That's amazing, sir." Dosu spoke simply, bowing his head as he did. "Thank you very much."
"Please, it is of no meaning. You two have really proven yourselves these past few days."
…There was something wrong there that Zaku couldn't quite catch. He couldn't tell if it was present, or if it was missing, but something was out of place.
"So, Lord Orochimaru." Zaku cut in, eyes narrowed in a distrusting way. "What is this mission you'd be having us do?"
"Ah, good of you to ask, Zaku. It's rather simple, actually. You see, there's a certain member of our organization who hasn't been pulling their weight as much recently."
Ice shot up Zaku's spine.
"I'm afraid that they haven't quite met the same level of success as the both of you have, and thusly, they've been deemed unnecessary for the plan to continue." Orochimaru's smile was one filled with such malice, such venom, that Zaku felt himself growing sick just looking at it. "So, I've decided that the two of you will be cleaning up after her."
Zaku's eyes were wide, even as his hands shook.
"Go to Kin Tsuchi," Orochimaru declared. "And dispose of her."
End Chapter 22
Okay, I'm sorry about this one.
Excitement, Thrills! Nintendo Direct is on today, and theoretically there should be some Xenoblade news. If there is, I'll be superdy-duperdy hyped.
Next week, Zaku must weigh the importance of the two things he desires, Survival, and friendship. Naruto and the gang continue to search for information about the Tailed Beasts. And a certain someone makes his reappearance after like 15 chapters of being absent.
Anyways, see you all next week!