Beta By: RedCommander72. Thank you for being such a cool beta. Lots of love girl.
A/N: You guys know the drill, if you happen to find any mistake, let me know.
1.4. Strike When the Iron is Hot!
"Time travel is impossible," Madara stated, his orange mask distorting his voice. "So, if he mentioned time travel, he is lying."
"Yes, but this is twice he has managed to stop our plans," Pain said, his unblinking cold eyes fixed at Madara's single eye hole.
"Also...Sasori never came back from the Sand. We need a new member," he added, frustration boiling up with his words.
Madara nodded. "Yes, I will look into that. In the mean time we need to find more about this Sora individual. I will put Zetsu on it.''
The black and white figure was silent through the whole discuss now moved away. He knew his assignment and target, Sora, one of the Red Twins of Sand were overdue for a visit.
Line break...
"This does not sound good," Gaara said.
Kakashi thought that was understatement of the year. Lady Tsunade, after becoming the Hokage, came to know all about Sora and his little leap to the past or an alternate reality (honestly, this is now getting way too confusing for everyone!). Both the villages have been coordinating since then to stop the Akatsuki in their tracks. So naturally both the village Kages knew about the attack on Gaara's life and they were ready. Kakashi along with Sakura and Team Gai came to aid The Sand. Only Kakashi knew the whole story and the others were mostly kept in dark.
Gai, being a damn good, seasoned Jonin, was too prospective for his own good and guessed there were more to the story then some intelligence report about a potential attack on the Kazekage's life. Then again, Gai was also extremely loyal to ask too many questions and thus Kakashi could avoid his questioning gazes for the time being.
The mission went perfectly well, a little too well for Kakashi's paranoid soul. Sasori was apprehended. Deidara escaped. Gaara as well as lady Chio were safe. The leaf party were getting ready to get back when Sora came back and along with him came the six tailed host, Utakata.
"Yes. I know now why Pain refused to believe me," Sora concluded tiredly. The teen was a mess to say the least. Extreme chakra exhaustion along with multiple third degree burns and not to mention the injuries. Sakura and Chio both had to work a whole day to heal Sora.
As soon as Sora was cleared to talk, Kakashi, Gaara and Utakata boxed themselves together for a meeting with multiple privacy seals. Sufficient to say, they were not having a good conversation. Sora informed that about the existence of alternate realities and him jumping over them. He also tiredly explained about his little meet with the drunken bastard, Sora's words, aka Sage of Six Paths and what he has learned about the universes and their parallel existence. Kakashi frankly had his mind blown. Sora kept the part about going back and meeting his Naruto to himself, that wound was too raw for anyone to see but her.
Frankly, all these talks were making Kakashi's hair turn grey, pun intended.
"So, do you need to meet with Pain again?" Utakata asked.
"I don't know if he will be willing to listen to me, given our last encounter being the waterfall of cheer it was, I highly doubt he will not kill me or try to capture me on site," Sora answered dryly. He had his back pressed to his hospital bed, half sitting with an arm in a cast and still nowhere near his original state of strength. Sora was in a foul mood and didn't give two shits about who knows it.
"True. For now, we need to go find the other Jinchuuriki," Gaara said. Kakashi frankly still couldn't get over how similar both versions of Gaara were, physically at least.
Sora nodded. "Yes, and Kakashi can you try to talk with Obito, if possible? I have to say he is highly annoying."
Kakashi was dreading this request ever since he came to know who this orange masked guy really was. The copy-nin still wasn't sure how his alternate versions dealt with the personal shit Kakashi's life seemingly was. " Do I have any choice?"
"Not really. We don't need Kaguya and certainly don't need the hyper Zombie version of Madara again. Fighting that psycho once was more than enough," Sora grumbled.
Kakashi uncrossed his arms and straightened up from his leaning position near the window.
"Well, I believe we leave and report back to Lady Hokage. Sora needs to recuperate and I am sure Gaara needs to sort out the paperwork about Utakata," he said nodding towards six tailed jinchuuriki.
"Yes," Gaara said and unsealed the room for Kakashi and Utakata to go out but remained seated. "You two get going I have some things to discuss with Sora."
Kakashi took one last look at the war driven man in a teens body and left. He had a shitty long and complicated report to write and he hated paperwork. Kakashi briefly wondered if he could bull-, err- convince Tenzo to write the report for him, just like the good old ANBU days.
Once the room was cleared, Gaara turned to Sora. "What are you hiding?"
Sora didn't even need to pretend; he was expecting the question after all. One can't exactly hide things from one's own self.
"She wanted me. She wanted 'us'," Sora whispered leaning his head against the hardboard of the bed and closing his eyes.
Gaara frowned. "Explain."
And Sora did, reliving his misery again. The pain increased with each word, each moment bringing new heart ache. At the end his eyes were moist and his throat dry.
"Is there any way you can go back to your universe?" Gaara asked softly at the end of Sora's tale.
Sora opened his eyes and the look in his eyes made a shiver run down Gaara's spine. The intensity, pain, loss and more, Gaara had never seen such look on anyone's face, let alone a copy of his own. Blazing with desperation Sora says, " If I could... nothing in this world or universe will stop me from getting to her." His voice breaking at the end and finally letting the tears he was holding back since he woke up flow freely. Sora pushed his head down between his knees and sobs broke free from his troubled soul. Gaara lifted his hand and a cocoon of sand came to embrace Sora, comforting him, hugging him, reassuring him of a friend's presence who can be trusted explicitly. They never exchanged any more words that afternoon. Not too long after, Gaara came out of the room, Sora fast asleep still wrapped up in Gaara's sand.
"If I can, I will send you home," a tender promise was made. No one but a tailed beast heard the promise and for the first time in a long while the beast remembered a time when he used to live alongside eight other beasts just like him and felt a little tug inside his heart.
Line Break...
"Will you slow down Naruto?" Iruka chucked, happy beyond measures to see Naruto back.
Naruto answered without looking up or stopping to take a break from her bowel of ramen.
"I can't Iruka-sensei. I had dreams about this food. You know, no one in the whole fire nation make such good ramen." She stopped to present Iruka with a giant grin which made the chunin smile tenderly.
"Well, in that case one more bowl Ayame!" He called out happily. Empty wallet be damned, the girl he considered family was back and it was his treat!
"So, did you heard about Asuma and Kuranai-Sensei being a couple?" Naruto asked once she was finished with her food. It was a fine morning and Naruto had gone and greeted Iruka at his apartment and the chunin was extremely pleased to see her. Iruka had immediately invited her to join him for breakfast and the duo had gone out to galp down the food from heaven aka ramen. Since the village was at an uproar just two days ago, the ninja academy was closed.
"I didn't. Is that what Kiba was so excited about last night?" Iruka asked wondering how Konohamaru will react to the development.
Naruto nodded. "Yes, and apparently there is some sort of brawl going on in the village? I heard a lot about it yesterday and watched the last one too."
Iruka laughed. "Yes, your team is doing very well. Although, my students are the newly made Genins aren't too happy about the brawls. They usually end up with a lot of destroyed fields."
Before they could continue with the easy discussion Sasuke appeared in front of them a little out of breath.
"Naruto, there you are I was looking all over for you," he said, politely nodding his head towards Iruka who smiled back. "Can I take her?" Sasuke asked the chunin.
Iruka waved his hands. "Sure. I will see you both later."
Naruto bids him a goodbye and followed Sasuke without any question. Once they were running over the roof top she asked. "What is it?"
"Have you gone to meet with brother yet?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto shook her head. Technically she hadn't. "Are we going now?"
"Yes, we have a bell test tomorrow, Kakashi will be back by then. So, we will be busy all day today. So, I thought it is better for us to drop in to say hi to brother before we hit the grounds."
"Okay," she answered. Sasuke sped up without saying anything else, Naruto right on his heel.
They didn't bother to go in from the main entrance, deciding to swing in from Itachi's window.
Itachi was in middle of eating his breakfast. "You know, I am flattered that you guys came to see me first thing in the morning. But, did you have to swing in like monkeys? There is front door and I believe both of you know how to use it."
Sasuke plopped down on his bed and gave Itachi a long look. "This way is easier."
Naruto climbed in following the younger Uchiha and pulled a chair to sit down. "What he said," she promoted.
Itachi looked at them with a raised eye brow, amused at their collective answers. "Yes, I can see how you guys get along so well. In some other life you must been related. Going around being monkeys." Sasuke and Naruto didn't know they were reincarnation of Asura and Indra, but Itachi knew and thus couldn't help himself but teased them. He was also delighted to see two most important people in his life first thing in the morning.
Sasuke and Naruto quickly looked at one another and looked back at the older and clearly very amused Uchiha and Sasuke decided his brother was having way too much fun.
"Yes, well she is quite strong. I don't mind being related to her."
Naruto smiled at his words. How nice of Sasuke to say something like that. She felt blessed to have such a kind team mate.
Sasuke wasn't finished so he continued. "In fact, I would very much like to be related to her in this life time as well. What do you say, Naruto?"
Itachi narrowed his eyes. Exactly where the hell his little brother was going with this line? Something seems fishy.
Naruto, oblivious to Sasuke's devilish mind answered innocently. "That's nice of you to say Sasuke. You can call me your family," an almost shy but tender smile followed her sentence. Itachi felt his heart skip a beat, she just looked more angelic in the morning with the sun reflecting in her blue eyes and that smile lighting up her face.
Sasuke was waiting for a moment exactly such as this. His older brother had his guard down, and you know what they say, strike when the iron is hot. So, strike Sasuke did.
"Yes. So, Itachi now that she agrees to be family, you can do the honour and marry her. I can call her my sister."
It was quite comical to watch Naruto go red. Sasuke noticed she started from the tip of her ears and the blush spread from there to all over her face. She looked like a tomato, not bad. Sasuke liked tomato, another brownie point in favour of why Naruto was perfect for his older brother.
Itachi on the other hand did not go red in the face. Rather, the older Uchiha activated his sharingan. "Sasuke," he said sweetly.
"Yes brother? Want me to book the wedding venue brother?" Sasuke asked equally sweetly.
"Get out," Itachi said. "Or trust me I will make sure to ruin tomato for you."
The winning smirk on Sasuke's face fall a little. "You can't. You wouldn't."
"Want me to try?" Itachi asked, his voice stilled dipping with honey.
Sasuke abruptly stood up. "You know I need to do that thing I remember. I will see you at the training grounds Naruto. Bye Itachi take care," the younger Uchiha babbled and got out of the window like his ass was on fire.
Once his foolish little brother was gone, Itachi turned to a still flushed Naruto, quickly deactivating his eyes.
"He can be such a handful sometimes," he muttered, little annoyed but mostly amused. "Naruto?" he called out. A little worried about her reaction, Sasuke has been teasing him for quite a while now. But this was the first time Sasuke targeted both Naruto and Itachi together.
"Is he-? Why he-I mean when did Sasuke-?" Naruto desperately tried to hide her bewilderment and embarrassment. Still flushed red. Itachi found her reaction utterly endearing and cute.
"When did he became such a tease? Or since when does an Uchiha make jokes or is it when did Sasuke became so utterly foolish?" Itachi set down his chopsticks and stood up on his bare feet and started to put on his shoes.
"Umm...? All of it?" Naruto said, a little more under control, tilting her head.
Itachi noticed her reaction from corner of his eyes as he finished putting on his shoes and stood up to his full height. A small smile gracing his face. He walked to the sitting girl and hold out his right hand. "He was foolish since birth. Uchihas do make jokes, we aren't that dull. You should know by now, we have been friends almost our whole lives, also welcome to puberty, get ready for more weird reactions from him and all the guys of your age group."
Naruto blinked up at him and accepted his hand and stood up as well. "That is quite an explanation, you know 'Tachi," she beamed up a him. All embarrassment forgotten, Itachi always made everything seems easier and comfortable. This was the Itachi she remembered, safe, comfortable and trustful.
Itachi smiled down at her. "Yes, I know," and pulled her out through the window.
Naruto let out a soft giggled then. "Where are we going? You are still in your hospital robe dattebyo!"
Itachi half turned at her, a small smile playing on his lips while running over the roof tops, still holding her hand. "I can't stand that room for another day. I am fine, your crystal did wonders. I was going to get discharged this afternoon, I am just doing them a favour by getting out sooner anyway."
Naruto shook her head and sped up by his side. She was used to both Kakashi and Itachi running away from hospitals, yet another thing which didn't change.
"As for where we are going," Itachi continued. "Our place of course!"
Needless to say, both ended up over second Hokage's head once again, chatting a mile in a minute. Both had tons of stories to share and tons of things they wanted to say to each other. Laughing and talking away the whole day and into the afternoon. They only separated when an angry hospital stuff showed up to give Itachi his discharge papers and claim the hospital robe back.
"Let's meet for lunch. What do you say?" Itachi asked ignoring the fuming hospital chunin. Naruto was desperately trying not to burst with laughter while Itachi played the innocent and just recovered from a major injury card over the annoyed and angry medical chunin, which didn't really fool anyone.
"Y-yes, please go change and I have to go tell the others why I didn't show up for our morning team session," she said trying to gulp back the giggles.
Itachi nodded and gave her a little wink before following the medic. The medic pretended not to notice Itachi's antics, as a medic he was used to Shinobis and their madness. Not noticing saves a lot of time and energy.
When a guilty looking Naruto showed up at the training grounds to meet her teammates, she was surprised to know that Sasuke already informed the others that she will be late. Naruto gave Sasuke a mock glare and received an extremely innocent, yet suspicious smile in return. Soon the whole team started discussing their strategy against Kakashi for the upcoming bell test session.
Line break...
"Yay! We finally have our first tailed beast!" sang a very happy Tobi.
"Tch! Shut it you orange masked freak. You didn't do a damn thing, hm!" yelled out a very unhappy Deidara. The blond was stuck on a team with the weirdo for the time being since Sasori got himself killed back at the sand village. Deidara wasn't the biggest fan of the puppet freak, far from it, but he would take Sasori over this overly cheerful freak any day.
"But we have the three tails now, surely you are happy Deidara?" Tobi asked innocently.
Deidara just decided not to waste his energy trying to talk with the masked freak. Capturing a tailed beast was heard work and now they gotta seal it inside the Gedo statue as well. He needed his energy.
The Akatsuki had moved up their plan very suddenly. Deidara wasn't sure why but the Pein guy seemed restless these days. Whatever was bothering Pein, Deidara wish he would just order the blonde to blow the stuff off. Art, after all was a beautiful explosion!
A/N: This might be the last chapter I post this year, so enjoy the holidays guys. Merry Christmas in advance! Don't forget to Review and make my days a little better as well.
