Disclaimers: I don't own Naruto.

Author's notes: laughs nervously Well... I notice many people say that Gatoh can't possibly survive because of what Zabuza did. Yeah. I know what really happened there but I tend to follow the anime more than the manga. ; Forgive me though. This is my story and you can't interfier! Mwahahahaha!!! laughs Ehem. Forgive me. Neways, thanks everyone for the reviews. I appreciate it. About the characters, well... I have accepted two characters. Akabane Ame (Sorry. I'm not really watching Getbackers so I don't really know who Dr. Jackal is. I might also change a few of her techniques: made by Anael Razualle) and Mikaze Mika (made by liquid fantazy). About Uchiha Hro... I'll think about it. Sorry. And yes. I know that Itachi would never ally himself with the sound but then, this is AU. I also made their ages from nine to twelve. They seem so young for a war, don't you think? One more thing. At chapter five, I first said that Kiba and Tenten would spy on the northern boarders then I also said that they would stay in Konoha. Well... they would be at the boarders. And well... yeah... the chidori IS an assassination technique and it would be weird that a father would teach that to his children at such an early age. But, Sasuke has a reason. Let's just say that he's confident enough with his kids' skill. I'm just a weird authoress whose crazy ideas are put into action though stories. Neways, let the chapter start!

Chapter 6:

"Ring-neesan, how far is it to the Water country?" Reika asked. "I don't really know. I just followed Gaara-sensei."

Reika stole a glance at Gaara and sweatdropped. "He still gives me the freaks." "I'm telling you... Gaara-sensei is cool."

Kakashi halted to a stop. "What is it Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke asked. Neji narrowed his eyes. "Does anyone feel anyone here?" Kakashi asked.

Silence.

"Neji, you know what to do?" Neji nodded.

"Byakugan."

"Well?"

"No. No one's coming." He said. The others nodded. "Very well. Everyone, set up camp. We'll rest for the night."

They went down from the trees and went to a small clearing. Reika and Ring looked around for dry twigs and leaves, while Sasuke and Neji prepared the tents. Gaara said that he didn't need a tent for he never sleeps anyway. Kakashi started reading his dirty book.

Later on, everyone was sitting around in the fire as they ate some fruits that they found in the forest.

"Gaara, could you stand guard while we sleep?" Kakashi said. Gaara nodded silently. Ring stood up and got a few of her senbon needles.

"Ring, where are you going?" Kakashi asked. "I'm going training."

"Training? At a time like this?" Reika wondered. She stood up and followed her.

Silence surrounded them as the other remaining shinobis sat around in the fire. Everything was peaceful until...

"Who's there?!" Neji exclaimed.

The leaves on the bushes were ruffling. Neji activated his byakugan as Sasuke activated the sharingan.

Out of the bushes came a girl that had long hip length silver hair and grey eyes. She was about Ring's age.

"Who are you?" Sasuke, at last, asked. The girl looked around as she spotted Gaara sitting down in silence.

"Gaara-san, Temari-sensei sent for me." She said coolly. Everyone looked at Gaara. Gaara nodded as the girl went near him and bowed down a little in acknowledgement. At that time, Reika and Ring came back.

"Hey! Mika-san!" She called out. The girl turned to the direction of Ring. "Oh. Ring-san, it's you. How are you?" She asked. "I'm fine. What are you doing here? Oh. And where's Ame?" Ring asked.

"Ame's with Temari-sensei. She'll meet us when we finish the mission." She said calmly. Ring raised an eyebrow. "Then what ARE you doing here?"

"Temari-sensei sent me to help you in the mission. By the way, I'm Mikaze Mika." She said.

"We don't need your help, Mikaze-san. We're fine on our own." Reika said as her white eyes glared at Mika's grey ones. "Who are you?" Mika asked.

Reika continued to glare at her. "Hyuuga Reika, if you must know."

Mika closed her eyes. "Gomen-nasai Hyuuga-san. But I fulfill what my sensei ordered me to do."

She glared harder at her. "Reika." Neji called out. "Don't make a scene." Reika calmed down. "Hai otousan."

She sat back down beside Neji as she continued glaring at the calm girl who sat beside Ring.

"Kakashi-sensei, why do we need another one for this mission? We could do this on our own. We don't need the help of the sand-nins." Sasuke said coolly. It is pretty obvious that he doesn't want help at all.

Kakashi looked down from his book to look at Sasuke. "Tsunade-sama gave out this order that the sand-nins would help us. We don't have the right to argue."

Sasuke silenced.

A couple more minutes passed. Kakashi finally closed his book and stood up. "Everyone, let's get some sleep."

Sasuke and Kakashi stayed on one tent, Neji and Reika in one, and Ring and Mika in the other one. Gaara stayed outside and stood guard.

Back at Naruto's place, he was leaning against the wall outside Tsunade's room with other ANBU guards.

"Man! Am I bored..." Naruto complained... again. "Uzumaki-san, please be patient." ANBU 1 said. Naruto sighed and took out an instant ramen from his pocket and handed it to ANBU 2. "Could you please go and pour some hot water on this for me?"

ANBU 2's expression: --# to himself What kind of shinobi is he?

ANBU 3's expression: ; to himself At a time like this he still thinks about his stomach?

ANBU 1's expression: -.- to himself This is expected from him.

"Naruto-kun, I brought some food for you." A voice said. The ANBU's stood guard. "Who's there?!" ANBU 1 demanded.

Naruto raised on of his hands. "Uzumaki-san..."

"Don't worry. I know this person. Hinata-chan, come out now." He called. Hinata came out from her hiding place and smiled shyly.

"Naruto-kun, here. I've brought ramen."

"YOSHI! RAMEN! ARIGATO HINATA-CHAN!"

"SHH!!!!!!"

"Ooops!!! Gomen." Naruto said as he scratched the back on his head. "Everyone, here you go." Hinata gave the other ninjas their own food box.

"You're Hyuuga Hinata, right?" ANBU 2 asked. Hinata nodded. "Arigato Hyuuga- san."

"ITADAKIMASU!!!"

"SHH!!!"

Naruto sweatdropped. "Gomen-nasai."

Over at the northern boarder, Kiba, Lee, and Tenten stayed at hidden as possible as they continued to look over the boarder as the sound-nins were at camp.

"Hmm... Akamaru, how long do you think it will take for those sound-nins to reach the northern boarder?" Kiba asked his dog.

"Ruff!"

"What did he say, Kiba?" Lee asked. "He doesn't know." Kiba said. "Hmm... at this rate, if they start to move, they would reach the boarder in about three days to a week more. They are still a blur over here." Tenten said.

"Lee, go over and report to Tsunade-sama." She said. "Alright."

At the southern boarder...

"Ayumi-san, how are you hanging in there?" Ruchi asked as he jumped down from the tree he's in. Ayumi jumped down from the top of her own tree. "I'm okay. Asuma-sensei, how's it?"

"Not that bad. But it seems like most of the sound-nins are over the southern boarder." Asuma said as he looked at Ruchi. "Ruchi, report back to Tsunade-sama."

"Hai."

At Lan and Keiki's place...

"Keiki here on point B. Nothing's wrong here, Lan." Keiki spoke up on his earphone and mini microphone. (Uhh... you know... the gadgets that team 7 used when they were going to retrieve Taro (?) the cat?)

"Lan here on point A. Nothing's wrong here too."

"Man Lan! I hate patrolling!" Keiki exclaimed over. "Sheesh... Keiki, people are sleeping. How many leaves have you got?" Lan asked, remembering the small training that Naruto told them.

"Hmm... wait a second." Lan heard Keiki whispering over as he counted the leaves that he got. Lan sweatdropped. "Keiki, you don't have to count."

"I got twenty-five leaves here. How about you, Lan?" Keiki asked. "Fifty." Lan said plainly. "Awe man! You're number doubles mine!" "Keiki you don't have to scream. I can hear you perfectly."

Silence was heard.

"Keiki, are you there?" Lan asked. "Yeah. I'm here. How's Reika now? I hope she's alright." Keiki said. Lan's eyebrow twitched a bit as he remembered that his twin brother is also his rival for their female teammate's affections.

"Lan? Lan are you there?"

"Yeah I'm here. I'm sure she's alright."

"I do hope you're right."

At Shino, Ino, and Gai's place...

"Ahh!!! My legs are sore!" Ino exclaimed as she sat down on the bed.

So far, they had already formed an alliance with the Lightning Country and the Water Country. They had just been at the Grass Country but their propose have been declined rudely.

FLASHBACK:

After explaining the current situation to the leader of kusagakure...

"Please be our ally. I'm sure that the sound would gladly take the opportunity to attack this country next if he succeed in taking over our country."

"No."

"Why?"

"The Grass Country does not need the help of the other countries. We do not associate ourselves with this unknown war."

"But..."

"Dismissed."

"Hai. Thank you for your time."

REALITY:

"Great! Just great! He rudely declined our offer when all we want is to prevent the sound from getting to other countries!" Ino exclaimed.

"Ino, we can't expect every country to be at our side." Shino said. Gai nodded. "Shino's right. We just also recently found out that the rain country and the waterfall country are now an ally of the sound. Currently, the sound has about a thousand nins. With the force of the rain country and the waterfall country at their disposal, their forces may exceed more. We need to hurry and talk to the Tsuchikage tomorrow." Gai said.

Currently, they were at an inn at Iwakagure no sato. They were supposed to meet with the tsuchikage tomorrow morning.

"You two. Get some sleep."

"Hai Gai-sensei."

Back at Konoha...

"Everyone! We need to train harder! War is about to come!" Kurenai commanded as she looked at the other ninjas sparring with each other.

Anko and Ibiki were now there too.

"Kurenai-san, how are things going over there?" Anko asked. Kurenai looked at her. "Everything is fine, Anko-san. How's Ibiki-san doing?"

"He just recently finished his mission. He is currently training the others over there at the far north of Konoha. He seemed a bit strained, but he's doing fine." Anko said. Kurenai nodded.

"That's good." Kurenai got out three food pills from her pocket and gave them to Anko. "Here. Have one of those then give the rest to Ibiki-san. The two of you need that more than I do and I have already given all of the shinobis here their own supply of food pills."

Anko swallowed one and smiled at Kurenai. "Arigato Kurenai-san. I'll give this to Ibiki now. Later!" Anko then disappeared.

Kurenai faced the shinobis that were training before her. She sighed. "I do hope that this war will end well."

Back at Naruto's place...

"Arigato Hinata-chan! The ramen was great!" Naruto said as he smiled at Hinata. Hinata automatically blushed.

"I-it was n-nothing, Naruto-kun. I just made a simple m-miso ramen... n- nothing special." Hinata stammered. Naruto smiled gently at her.

"It is special to me because you made it for me. The ramen that you made is more special than any ramen that Ichiraku makes because you made it with your heart." Naruto said.

This made Hinata blush more. "A-a-a-a-a-arigato N-n-n-n-naruto-kun..." She said. "You're welcome Hinata-chan. Drop by anytime you can. I'm sure that Tsunade-baba would agree."

Naruto felt the piercing glares of the ANBUs behind him because of his disrespectful way of addressing Tsunade. He sweatdropped.

"Gomen-nasai?"

Back at the assassination team...

Reika tossed and turned on her sleeping bag but she couldn't get to sleep. She was lucky that their tent was big and she wouldn't disturb her 'sleeping' father.

She unzipped her sleeping bag and sat up. Her eyes still have that glare.

"Can't sleep?" A voice cooed.

"Huh? Otousan, you're awake?" Reika whispered. Neji opened his eyes but didn't sit up. "What's bothering you, Reika?"

"Ne... I still don't trust Mikaze-san. I don't like the aura surrounding her. It's scary and I smell blood. It seems that many deaths have passed by her. It seems that she gives no mercy. It seems that she's familiar with the art of death. It scares me. Many deaths seemed to have flowed in her hands."

"You felt it too?"

Reika nodded. "Hai."

It was rather unusual that Reika would know what a person is like by the aura of the person. It's rather difficult for a shinobi to do that. To know what a shinobi is like just by a look.

"Don't worry Reika. Everything's going to be fine." Neji said as he tried to calm his daughter. "Don't be frightened."

Neji was confused as he saw his daughter's lips curl up into a slight smirk.

"Scared otousan? Who's scared? In fact, I would like to test her strength. Her scary aura do makes me nervous in some way. But it also intrigues me at the same time."

Neji sighed at his daughter's personality changes. "Just go to sleep."

"Alright."

Outside, Mika silently went outside the tent only to find Ring sitting with Gaara in silence.

"Hmm... why didn't I notice her missing? Am I losing my touch?" She though. Ring looked at her and smiled. "Mika-san, can't sleep too huh? Come on. Sit down."

Mika sat down silently.

"What's bothering you, Mikaze?" Gaara asked. Ring looked at her sensei with a weird look. "Sensei, is that you? You don't usually give a damn about anyone at all. Let alone your student. What's with the sudden change?"

"I'm not talking to you, Ring."

"Gomen sensei."

"Well... that Hyuuga girl. She intrigues me. It seems that she knows what I'm really like at first glance. And it's quite surprising that instead of giving me a scared look like anybody else would have done, she glared at me. No one has ever given me that reaction... it's quite amusing."

"Is that so?" Gaara said as he silenced again.

"Of course! Reika-chan's a rookie, but she sure is insanely strong. I have to admit but she's stronger than me." Ring said.

Mika looked at her. "Really? I would like to challenge her sometime."

Ring's expression suddenly became dark. "Seems that you found your match." "Yeah. I'm going back to bed. Oyasumi-nasai." Mika said as she went back inside her tent.

Inside Sasuke and Kakashi's tent...

"Kakashi-sensei, you're awake. You don't need to hide it from me." Sasuke said. Kakashi opened an eye and smiled. "Yeah I am. Why? Want to discuss something?" He asked.

"Hai. I'm worried about Konoha. I mean, we're here at the forest doing a mission while back there a war might start any moment soon. We don't have time to rest."

Kakashi raised a visible eyebrow. "Is that it?"

"Nani?"

"Is that the only reason you're worried?" He asked. Sasuke thought for a moment and shook his head slightly. "To tell you the truth, ever since Sakura and I got married before she died and she gave birth to the boys, I realized... that my ambition is not the only important thing in my life. I now have my friends. Naruto, Neji, Hinata, and everyone. I also have my sons, Lan and Keiki. Neji's daughter Reika is also there. I realized that there are many things that I cherish more than my ambitions... I want to protect them at all costs. I'm worried for their safety... for everyone's safety."

Kakashi nodded. 'He really has changed.' He thought. "Well then. We better sleep now if we want to wake up fully energized tomorrow so that we can return back to Konoha to help them."

Sasuke nodded and closed his eyes. He slept in an instant.

In a place not far from the boarders...

"Will I now take action?"

"Yes. Do as you please. We must have Hyuuga Hinata in our hands."

"Hai. I will get her soon."

"Dismissed."

"Yes sir."

Author's notes: Whew! I hope that you like it. I'm sorry for whatever confusion I gave you everyone. Let's just say that in this story, Zabuza never cut off Gatoh's head. Everyone just thought that he was killed. This is an AU fic after all. I hope that I don't offend anyone here okay in one way or another. Continue on e-mailing me your characters okay? Again, the add is: bluefeather404yahoo.com okay? That's it then! Questions will be answered when you have some. Reviews please!