Chapter 16 Wow, most reviews after a chapter yet. Max Knight: Yeah, opening five gates is a dangerous feat, but only if you keep it open for a while. beyond that it gets a little troublesome. But Janus only had seven gates open for literally seconds, three or four, while Lee had the fourth open for like five, opening the fifth at the last moment. Janus only wanted to get the sword from getting to Kabuto so he wasn't planning on keeping them open that long, I just wanted to introduce the technique of forcing gates open. I also hope I included enough time for Janus to heal the muscles he over used in the fight to fully heal, even with Tsunade's help.
Erik3: Thanks. Yeah, I'm in the dark to, but oh well. And I hope I'm doing a good job with the grammar and spelling because I don't have a pre-reader or anything save Spell-check.
animewatcher: Sorry, not really a lot of action in this chapter, but there will be more in the next one, guaranteed.
Thank you all for reading! Keep the reviews coming.
I limped into the meeting hall. Stupid Tsunade, making me walk halfway across Konoha at seven in the morning. I followed the ushers to a reserved seat for me in the front row. Shikamaru was in the seat next to mine.
"So, they made you come to, huh?" I looked over at him.
"Yeah, I guess. I had to get up two hour ago just to get here a minute early, it sucks." I groaned as I relaxed into the chair. "I so can't wait till I stop feeling pain in my legs."
"Yeah, my finger still aches where I broke it. But you should feel lucky. I was cleared to be reassigned missions yesterday; you probably still have a week or so. I assume that's why the two of us were invited here to the front row; Tsunade-sama has our new assignments." I nodded slightly, still relaxing in the chair. Tsunade soon came out wearing her own form of the Hokage's robes. I heard whisperings behind her suggesting that she was showing more cleavage than she should as Hokage. I glanced up at the comment. I chuckled slightly as I tilted my head back to look at the ceiling. Tsunade showed so much more when I first met her.
"...Uzumaki Janus and Nara Shikamaru, please step forward." Shikamaru hit me and I jumped slightly. I had fallen asleep. I heard slight chuckles around the room and I saw an evil grin on Tsunade's face as I struggled to get my crutches to properly support me. A minute later I was standing alongside Shikamaru in front of Tsunade and the senior council members.
"Now then, as chuunin you have to this point only had one mission each. Taking into account that both of your introductory month of training is long over, we decided that it was about time to give you official assignments. Nara Shikamaru," Shikamaru looked up at Tsunade. "You will be assigned to a team of genin as second of command to Jiraiya. The team will be Uzumaki Naruto, Akimichi Chouji, and Inuzuka Kiba. You team will mostly be assigned to B-Rank missions to take the load off of chuunin teams and jounin. Uzumaki Janus, you will be assigned to another team of genin as a second in command to myself. The team will be Hyuuga Hinata, Haruno Sakura, and Yamanaka Ino. The missions you will be mostly taking will be C- Rank." My jaw dropped.
"Hokage-sama, I protest," I looked over at Shikamaru. "Could I trade with Janus here, I think he would much prefer..."
"I'm sorry. This is what usually happens when you become a chuunin. When you first become genin, you get assigned into teams based on your grades because that's all we know about you. But, after we see your work in the field, we assign you teams that best fit your skills to complement each other in the team."
"But isn't Shikamaru's team a little over powered though?" I spouted as an argument."
"For now, yes. But they are progressing fast enough that I'm soon going to be moving them up to A-Rank missions. I'm sorry, Janus. But we need a team for an important B mission to leave tonight and you just aren't ready. You ninjutsu skills still need work. So, as such, I placed you in a team that also needs work, if it's confidence or strength. Don't worry, by the time your team is ready to go on missions, you will be an elite fighting force, just like Shikamaru's team. Your new team members are outside. Shikamaru, tell you team to meet Jiraiya at the front gate tomorrow at 8:00. Janus, tell your team to meet on Field 7 at the same time. You two are dismissed."
"How troublesome." I glanced over at Shikamaru as we left the building.
"You know, this time I agree with you so much." We walked down the stairs seeing the six genin waiting. Ino and Sakura were yelling at each other. Chouji was eating ramen with Naruto. Hinata was sitting near Naruto, trying to participate in their conversation. And Kiba was wrestling with Akamaru.
"Hey," I said, touching down the last step. Everyone looked my way. "What's up?"
"Janus, what are we doing here? We've been waiting for an hour. Is Kakashi coming?"
"No, Naruto, Kakashi isn't. I guess Shikamaru and I should tell you that everyone has been assigned to a new team." Everyone started yelling why it wasn't needed.
"It wasn't our choice either," Shikamaru said, silencing them. "Hokage-sama didn't give us a choice."
"Stupid, Tsunade-obchan." Sakura hit Naruto. Naruto started rubbing his head. "Ouch...."
"Anyways. Kiba, Naruto, Chouji, we are going to meet our sensei, Jiraiya at the front gate tomorrow for our first mission." Kiba stood up.
"What, don't we have to train together first?"
"Not this time. They have a mission for us and can't wait. Until tomorrow." Shikamaru left. I threw a rock at his head which he easily dodged. I looked back and saw that everyone was watching me funny.
"Janus-kun, what about the rest of us?" Well, one of them was going to ask.
"Hinata, you, Sakura, and Ino are going to be on my team under Tsunade. We will meet Tsunade at 8:00 at Field 7 tomorrow morning."
"Oh just great," I glanced up at Ino. "We get the cripple on our team. This is going to be..." She stopped talking. She was probably scared out of her wits when she saw the Kusanagi an inch from her face.
"Don't. I don't like it as much as you for the very same reasons. But do you know why I've been walking around on crutches for the last week after I woke up from my coma?" She fearfully shook her head. "It's from the time I stole this sword from its last owner." I sheathed it on my back. She sighed in relief. "The sword belonged to Orochimaru." The girls gasped, Naruto had already told the guys where I had gotten the sword. "I think it's damn lucky that I came out of a fight with Orochimaru with just two injured legs, understand?" I just stormed off. I just couldn't deal with people who...
"I didn't think you could walk that angrily on crutches, Janus-kun." I looked up as Temari appeared in front of me.
"It is if you just got assigned to a team with not only Sakura but Ino as well." Temari laughed while I glared at her. "It's really not funny."
"But I agree with Temari-chan, you really should just take it with a grain of salt." I turned to see Tsunade walk up behind me in her normal clothes.
"And people said your robes were flashy." This earned me a laugh from Tsunade and a slap from Temari which just caused Tsunade to laugh harder.
"You know Temari-chan, if he starts making more comments like that you might have to start taking after me in order to compete for his attention." Temari blushed slightly.
"Yeah, like you're competition to her, Tsunade-obchan." She gave me a death glare as Temari laughed. Her glare soon faded as we were holding our sides laughing.
"Yeah, you're probably right. But Janus, there are actually several reasons I put you in my group. One of the reasons is that the girls know you're taken and won't go after you. I know that Sakura has a thing for Sasuke, Hinata has a thing for Naruto, and Ino has a thing for Sasuke and something for Shikamaru."
"So, that's my job. To not distract them."
"That and I also want to keep an eye on you because your not fully healed and according to Jiraiya, Akatsuki is interested in you and I know Orochimaru has a bone to pick with you. I guess I want to keep you at arm's reach because outside of the village is more dangerous for you right now than almost everyone else."
"So, I get to be coddled." Temari punched me.
"No. She just doesn't want to see you put yourself into more danger than necessary and I agree with Tsunade-sama, this will be the best way to keep you safe until you are powerful enough to defend yourself."
"Alright, alright. Man, this was the last thing I wanted. The two most attractive women I've ever met teaming up against me. I glanced up to see slight blushes appear on their cheeks. I poofed down the alleyway and tried to hurry away. Temari appeared in front of me glaring.
"Stupid crutches, hampering my get-away." We laughed as we walked side-by-side down the street.
"Isn't this the third time in an hour I've caught you with the same kind of trap?" I looked up at Ino who was hanging from a tree above me. She glared and stuck her tongue out at me. I laughed as I walked over towards my other two team mates. I looked around the tree just in time to see Sakura fall on her rear.
"Sakura-chan! I'm so sorry!" Hinata rushed over to check on her fallen comrade.
"It's alright. That was a good attack, though. You are really improving in the taijutsu form Tsunade-sensei taught us." Hinata blushed. "Oh and Janus are you going to stand there or are you turning into Jiraiya and peeping on us." I laughed as I walked from my hiding spot.
"Sorry but I only peep on Temari-chan. Besides, Naruto would kill me if he found out."
"And why would that be." Sakura had asked, standing with Hinata's help. "We would be the ones beating him up if we ever caught him peeping in on us."
"Naw, he just doesn't want his brother and his sensei following the same path." We all laughed. Something felt wrong when I counted the laughs. I turned and poofed into a tree nearby.
"Something funny, Temari-chan?" She fell out of the tree, landing on her feet on the ground.
"Warn me next time. Who ever knew a guy with a cane could be so silent." I jumped down next to her as Hinata and Sakura walked up, Ino came back steaming from where I left her, and Tenten dropped out of her own tree. Temari's team had gracefully picked up Tenten as a member with Neji still in the hospital and Gai focused on Lee's rehabilitation. I was quite impressed on how much she had improved in just the two weeks after she got picked up. Tsunade had been negotiating with Sand trying to get them to teach us their training methods.
"Yeah, I know. I don't really use it anyways. Thankfully this is the last day Tsunade is making me carry it around with me."
"So, you're back to 100% then?" Tenten asked.
"Unfortunately, no. I'm only at about 91% of where I was before my fight but that is probably just due to a month and a half of lacking intense physical training. So, how is Neji doing?" Tenten immediately started to blush as the girls started pelting her with questions. I saw her looking in on him a couple of days ago before she left on a mission with Temari's team, which had been temporally named Team 4. I slowly walked away, using some genjutsu to make it so that I faded into the surroundings. Then the warning bells started ringing.
"Crap," I canceled my jutsu and rushed back to the girls.
"Janus-kun, what do we do?" I looked over at Hinata. Normally genin teams defend the retreating civilians but we were to far out and not exactly at genin level anymore.
"Ummm, the bell sounds different, give me a minute." I focused into the bell. It's ringing to long, why is...
"There are two bells being rung!" Ino shouted. I looked over at her and heard it to. The clear striking of two different bells. They started asking me what it meant. I was frozen. He was back! Two bells ringing almost exactly on was the warning that Orochimaru was coming. Damn Tsunade for not telling me what our mission was for this situation.
"Ok, ok, calm down. Tsunade, let's go to Tsunade and she'll tell us what to do." We all nodded and started racing back towards town.
I landed on the back of Katsuyu, the Lord of Slugs and stood behind Tsunade. The rest of the girls followed suite, some how keeping up. I must have lost a lot of speed.
"Tsunade, what do we do?" She didn't turn around. I then looked before her and saw the largest snake I had ever seen.
"Well, seal boy, I thought I wouldn't have the pleasure of hunting you down. Now then, just give me back the Kusanagi and I'll let you go free. However, the rest of Konoha perishes today." I leaned down, tossed the cane from my right to my left hand, and grasped my hand around the sword on my back.
"Don't, Janus-san. Take the girls and run." Janus-san? She never calls me that unless... I understood. This is what we are doing. What a sad day.
"Come on, let's go." I jumped off the slug, heading over the Hokage Mountain. The girls were asking me what was going on but I paid them no heed. A half hour later of strait running I slowed down slightly for the girls to catch up, they deserved to know this.
"What the hell are you doing, Janus!" Sakura yelled. The rest of them shouted in agreement.
"We're abandoning Konoha." I replied, they all gasped. "We judged the damages and the amount of time to required to fully repair the town and we couldn't do it. Sound took longer than we thought they would to rebuild their forces but it's still too soon. We can't defend Konoha. Once Orochimaru finds out that the only people left are clones he will level the town. Our new town is still under construction. When it is complete we will have a much easier time of defending ourselves. Four generations of peace allowed us to expand our town to large to be defended against an attack."
"So, what are we supposed to do in the mean time and were are all of our families and friends who were still in town?"
"Well, Tenten, they might have already left for a hideout, gone to help with building the new town, or..." I left the end in silence. They knew what I meant.
"You still didn't answer what we are supposed to do. I mean, could you run any faster?" Temari shouted, annoyed.
"We are headed to a location beyond the western mountains. That was the instruction Tsunade gave me if she was ever to have a clone tell me to leave. We will make a quick stop in Hidden Stone for supplies. She told me to buy supplies for ten days in the mountains. Why, I'm not sure of. What she did say was that when I got there, I look for Jiraiya and the guys."
Two days later we arrived at Hidden Stone. They were wary of us until I showed the guards the seal that Tsunade had given me. The immediately directed me to the towns storage buildings and outfitted us all with ten days of mountain supplies, clothes, food, everything. After a quick stop before the Tsuchikage we were on our way to the mountains, with an honor guard of Stone ANBU till the border. A day later we arrived at the border, the leader of the ANBU handed me a scroll and left.
"What's it say?" Ino said, walking over. I was quite surprised that Ino, of all people, wasn't upset at getting handed a fifty pound backpack for the trip. Thankfully we had been instructed on how to use our chakra to make the pack lighter on the run here. I had intentionally not taken their advice. What better way to train?
"Let me see..." I opened the scroll and began reading as I started walking up the small trail. "'Refugees from Konoha', blah blah blah...bunch of political title stuff...ah here we go. 'All of you, who have embarked on the journey over the Western Range, know this. No one has ever returned. This is the second time, at the request of the Hokage, Tsunade-sama, that a group of Leaf Shinobi ventured through our territory on the same journey. I wish you luck and hope you return safely. Tsuchikage.'" I rolled the scroll up and stuck it in my pack.
"No one has ever returned? What does he mean?" Tenten said worried.
"He probably expects us to die on the trip." Sakura replied.
"But we have to have hope, we are following on Jiraiya's footsteps. As long as we keep that in mind, we will be fine, I promise all of you." I looked back at them. They smiled in reassurance. I turned around and my own smile faded. We won't survive this. But I have to trust Tsunade. She sent me here for a reason. I just have to figure out what that is. Unfortunately now I have five teenage girls to worry about as well. Kami save me...
Erik3: Thanks. Yeah, I'm in the dark to, but oh well. And I hope I'm doing a good job with the grammar and spelling because I don't have a pre-reader or anything save Spell-check.
animewatcher: Sorry, not really a lot of action in this chapter, but there will be more in the next one, guaranteed.
Thank you all for reading! Keep the reviews coming.
I limped into the meeting hall. Stupid Tsunade, making me walk halfway across Konoha at seven in the morning. I followed the ushers to a reserved seat for me in the front row. Shikamaru was in the seat next to mine.
"So, they made you come to, huh?" I looked over at him.
"Yeah, I guess. I had to get up two hour ago just to get here a minute early, it sucks." I groaned as I relaxed into the chair. "I so can't wait till I stop feeling pain in my legs."
"Yeah, my finger still aches where I broke it. But you should feel lucky. I was cleared to be reassigned missions yesterday; you probably still have a week or so. I assume that's why the two of us were invited here to the front row; Tsunade-sama has our new assignments." I nodded slightly, still relaxing in the chair. Tsunade soon came out wearing her own form of the Hokage's robes. I heard whisperings behind her suggesting that she was showing more cleavage than she should as Hokage. I glanced up at the comment. I chuckled slightly as I tilted my head back to look at the ceiling. Tsunade showed so much more when I first met her.
"...Uzumaki Janus and Nara Shikamaru, please step forward." Shikamaru hit me and I jumped slightly. I had fallen asleep. I heard slight chuckles around the room and I saw an evil grin on Tsunade's face as I struggled to get my crutches to properly support me. A minute later I was standing alongside Shikamaru in front of Tsunade and the senior council members.
"Now then, as chuunin you have to this point only had one mission each. Taking into account that both of your introductory month of training is long over, we decided that it was about time to give you official assignments. Nara Shikamaru," Shikamaru looked up at Tsunade. "You will be assigned to a team of genin as second of command to Jiraiya. The team will be Uzumaki Naruto, Akimichi Chouji, and Inuzuka Kiba. You team will mostly be assigned to B-Rank missions to take the load off of chuunin teams and jounin. Uzumaki Janus, you will be assigned to another team of genin as a second in command to myself. The team will be Hyuuga Hinata, Haruno Sakura, and Yamanaka Ino. The missions you will be mostly taking will be C- Rank." My jaw dropped.
"Hokage-sama, I protest," I looked over at Shikamaru. "Could I trade with Janus here, I think he would much prefer..."
"I'm sorry. This is what usually happens when you become a chuunin. When you first become genin, you get assigned into teams based on your grades because that's all we know about you. But, after we see your work in the field, we assign you teams that best fit your skills to complement each other in the team."
"But isn't Shikamaru's team a little over powered though?" I spouted as an argument."
"For now, yes. But they are progressing fast enough that I'm soon going to be moving them up to A-Rank missions. I'm sorry, Janus. But we need a team for an important B mission to leave tonight and you just aren't ready. You ninjutsu skills still need work. So, as such, I placed you in a team that also needs work, if it's confidence or strength. Don't worry, by the time your team is ready to go on missions, you will be an elite fighting force, just like Shikamaru's team. Your new team members are outside. Shikamaru, tell you team to meet Jiraiya at the front gate tomorrow at 8:00. Janus, tell your team to meet on Field 7 at the same time. You two are dismissed."
"How troublesome." I glanced over at Shikamaru as we left the building.
"You know, this time I agree with you so much." We walked down the stairs seeing the six genin waiting. Ino and Sakura were yelling at each other. Chouji was eating ramen with Naruto. Hinata was sitting near Naruto, trying to participate in their conversation. And Kiba was wrestling with Akamaru.
"Hey," I said, touching down the last step. Everyone looked my way. "What's up?"
"Janus, what are we doing here? We've been waiting for an hour. Is Kakashi coming?"
"No, Naruto, Kakashi isn't. I guess Shikamaru and I should tell you that everyone has been assigned to a new team." Everyone started yelling why it wasn't needed.
"It wasn't our choice either," Shikamaru said, silencing them. "Hokage-sama didn't give us a choice."
"Stupid, Tsunade-obchan." Sakura hit Naruto. Naruto started rubbing his head. "Ouch...."
"Anyways. Kiba, Naruto, Chouji, we are going to meet our sensei, Jiraiya at the front gate tomorrow for our first mission." Kiba stood up.
"What, don't we have to train together first?"
"Not this time. They have a mission for us and can't wait. Until tomorrow." Shikamaru left. I threw a rock at his head which he easily dodged. I looked back and saw that everyone was watching me funny.
"Janus-kun, what about the rest of us?" Well, one of them was going to ask.
"Hinata, you, Sakura, and Ino are going to be on my team under Tsunade. We will meet Tsunade at 8:00 at Field 7 tomorrow morning."
"Oh just great," I glanced up at Ino. "We get the cripple on our team. This is going to be..." She stopped talking. She was probably scared out of her wits when she saw the Kusanagi an inch from her face.
"Don't. I don't like it as much as you for the very same reasons. But do you know why I've been walking around on crutches for the last week after I woke up from my coma?" She fearfully shook her head. "It's from the time I stole this sword from its last owner." I sheathed it on my back. She sighed in relief. "The sword belonged to Orochimaru." The girls gasped, Naruto had already told the guys where I had gotten the sword. "I think it's damn lucky that I came out of a fight with Orochimaru with just two injured legs, understand?" I just stormed off. I just couldn't deal with people who...
"I didn't think you could walk that angrily on crutches, Janus-kun." I looked up as Temari appeared in front of me.
"It is if you just got assigned to a team with not only Sakura but Ino as well." Temari laughed while I glared at her. "It's really not funny."
"But I agree with Temari-chan, you really should just take it with a grain of salt." I turned to see Tsunade walk up behind me in her normal clothes.
"And people said your robes were flashy." This earned me a laugh from Tsunade and a slap from Temari which just caused Tsunade to laugh harder.
"You know Temari-chan, if he starts making more comments like that you might have to start taking after me in order to compete for his attention." Temari blushed slightly.
"Yeah, like you're competition to her, Tsunade-obchan." She gave me a death glare as Temari laughed. Her glare soon faded as we were holding our sides laughing.
"Yeah, you're probably right. But Janus, there are actually several reasons I put you in my group. One of the reasons is that the girls know you're taken and won't go after you. I know that Sakura has a thing for Sasuke, Hinata has a thing for Naruto, and Ino has a thing for Sasuke and something for Shikamaru."
"So, that's my job. To not distract them."
"That and I also want to keep an eye on you because your not fully healed and according to Jiraiya, Akatsuki is interested in you and I know Orochimaru has a bone to pick with you. I guess I want to keep you at arm's reach because outside of the village is more dangerous for you right now than almost everyone else."
"So, I get to be coddled." Temari punched me.
"No. She just doesn't want to see you put yourself into more danger than necessary and I agree with Tsunade-sama, this will be the best way to keep you safe until you are powerful enough to defend yourself."
"Alright, alright. Man, this was the last thing I wanted. The two most attractive women I've ever met teaming up against me. I glanced up to see slight blushes appear on their cheeks. I poofed down the alleyway and tried to hurry away. Temari appeared in front of me glaring.
"Stupid crutches, hampering my get-away." We laughed as we walked side-by-side down the street.
"Isn't this the third time in an hour I've caught you with the same kind of trap?" I looked up at Ino who was hanging from a tree above me. She glared and stuck her tongue out at me. I laughed as I walked over towards my other two team mates. I looked around the tree just in time to see Sakura fall on her rear.
"Sakura-chan! I'm so sorry!" Hinata rushed over to check on her fallen comrade.
"It's alright. That was a good attack, though. You are really improving in the taijutsu form Tsunade-sensei taught us." Hinata blushed. "Oh and Janus are you going to stand there or are you turning into Jiraiya and peeping on us." I laughed as I walked from my hiding spot.
"Sorry but I only peep on Temari-chan. Besides, Naruto would kill me if he found out."
"And why would that be." Sakura had asked, standing with Hinata's help. "We would be the ones beating him up if we ever caught him peeping in on us."
"Naw, he just doesn't want his brother and his sensei following the same path." We all laughed. Something felt wrong when I counted the laughs. I turned and poofed into a tree nearby.
"Something funny, Temari-chan?" She fell out of the tree, landing on her feet on the ground.
"Warn me next time. Who ever knew a guy with a cane could be so silent." I jumped down next to her as Hinata and Sakura walked up, Ino came back steaming from where I left her, and Tenten dropped out of her own tree. Temari's team had gracefully picked up Tenten as a member with Neji still in the hospital and Gai focused on Lee's rehabilitation. I was quite impressed on how much she had improved in just the two weeks after she got picked up. Tsunade had been negotiating with Sand trying to get them to teach us their training methods.
"Yeah, I know. I don't really use it anyways. Thankfully this is the last day Tsunade is making me carry it around with me."
"So, you're back to 100% then?" Tenten asked.
"Unfortunately, no. I'm only at about 91% of where I was before my fight but that is probably just due to a month and a half of lacking intense physical training. So, how is Neji doing?" Tenten immediately started to blush as the girls started pelting her with questions. I saw her looking in on him a couple of days ago before she left on a mission with Temari's team, which had been temporally named Team 4. I slowly walked away, using some genjutsu to make it so that I faded into the surroundings. Then the warning bells started ringing.
"Crap," I canceled my jutsu and rushed back to the girls.
"Janus-kun, what do we do?" I looked over at Hinata. Normally genin teams defend the retreating civilians but we were to far out and not exactly at genin level anymore.
"Ummm, the bell sounds different, give me a minute." I focused into the bell. It's ringing to long, why is...
"There are two bells being rung!" Ino shouted. I looked over at her and heard it to. The clear striking of two different bells. They started asking me what it meant. I was frozen. He was back! Two bells ringing almost exactly on was the warning that Orochimaru was coming. Damn Tsunade for not telling me what our mission was for this situation.
"Ok, ok, calm down. Tsunade, let's go to Tsunade and she'll tell us what to do." We all nodded and started racing back towards town.
I landed on the back of Katsuyu, the Lord of Slugs and stood behind Tsunade. The rest of the girls followed suite, some how keeping up. I must have lost a lot of speed.
"Tsunade, what do we do?" She didn't turn around. I then looked before her and saw the largest snake I had ever seen.
"Well, seal boy, I thought I wouldn't have the pleasure of hunting you down. Now then, just give me back the Kusanagi and I'll let you go free. However, the rest of Konoha perishes today." I leaned down, tossed the cane from my right to my left hand, and grasped my hand around the sword on my back.
"Don't, Janus-san. Take the girls and run." Janus-san? She never calls me that unless... I understood. This is what we are doing. What a sad day.
"Come on, let's go." I jumped off the slug, heading over the Hokage Mountain. The girls were asking me what was going on but I paid them no heed. A half hour later of strait running I slowed down slightly for the girls to catch up, they deserved to know this.
"What the hell are you doing, Janus!" Sakura yelled. The rest of them shouted in agreement.
"We're abandoning Konoha." I replied, they all gasped. "We judged the damages and the amount of time to required to fully repair the town and we couldn't do it. Sound took longer than we thought they would to rebuild their forces but it's still too soon. We can't defend Konoha. Once Orochimaru finds out that the only people left are clones he will level the town. Our new town is still under construction. When it is complete we will have a much easier time of defending ourselves. Four generations of peace allowed us to expand our town to large to be defended against an attack."
"So, what are we supposed to do in the mean time and were are all of our families and friends who were still in town?"
"Well, Tenten, they might have already left for a hideout, gone to help with building the new town, or..." I left the end in silence. They knew what I meant.
"You still didn't answer what we are supposed to do. I mean, could you run any faster?" Temari shouted, annoyed.
"We are headed to a location beyond the western mountains. That was the instruction Tsunade gave me if she was ever to have a clone tell me to leave. We will make a quick stop in Hidden Stone for supplies. She told me to buy supplies for ten days in the mountains. Why, I'm not sure of. What she did say was that when I got there, I look for Jiraiya and the guys."
Two days later we arrived at Hidden Stone. They were wary of us until I showed the guards the seal that Tsunade had given me. The immediately directed me to the towns storage buildings and outfitted us all with ten days of mountain supplies, clothes, food, everything. After a quick stop before the Tsuchikage we were on our way to the mountains, with an honor guard of Stone ANBU till the border. A day later we arrived at the border, the leader of the ANBU handed me a scroll and left.
"What's it say?" Ino said, walking over. I was quite surprised that Ino, of all people, wasn't upset at getting handed a fifty pound backpack for the trip. Thankfully we had been instructed on how to use our chakra to make the pack lighter on the run here. I had intentionally not taken their advice. What better way to train?
"Let me see..." I opened the scroll and began reading as I started walking up the small trail. "'Refugees from Konoha', blah blah blah...bunch of political title stuff...ah here we go. 'All of you, who have embarked on the journey over the Western Range, know this. No one has ever returned. This is the second time, at the request of the Hokage, Tsunade-sama, that a group of Leaf Shinobi ventured through our territory on the same journey. I wish you luck and hope you return safely. Tsuchikage.'" I rolled the scroll up and stuck it in my pack.
"No one has ever returned? What does he mean?" Tenten said worried.
"He probably expects us to die on the trip." Sakura replied.
"But we have to have hope, we are following on Jiraiya's footsteps. As long as we keep that in mind, we will be fine, I promise all of you." I looked back at them. They smiled in reassurance. I turned around and my own smile faded. We won't survive this. But I have to trust Tsunade. She sent me here for a reason. I just have to figure out what that is. Unfortunately now I have five teenage girls to worry about as well. Kami save me...