First Kiss--Chapter 28 (Beginning of Book 4--Rescue)

"Welcome to the rest of your life. . .Naruto. . ."--Hojo

AN: Sorry so much for the long delay, I had to go to Pennsylvania, then after that my mind was really off, I couldn't think of anything to continue this chapter on, but now I've got it down. Plus, during the beginning of the week I was uber busy. And oh yes, please visit

Deep inside of Naruto, Naruto himself awoke, he looked around him, all he could see was dark. He started to walk around, wondering where he was. "Hello?" he said.

"Naruto. . ." said a giant voice.

The voice came from behind him, so he flipped around to see what it was. The kyuubi stood in its cell. "What. . .am I doing here?"

"You are here because right now you are knocked out, you went into shock as well, but only for a short time. . .You probably should be dead now, but I took you here so you wouldn't die."

"Wouldn't you want me dead?"

". . .yes and no. I want to see you dead yes, but if you die, I die. After being in this cage for so long. . .not being able to use my strength, I've found that the only way to let chakra go, to get the joy of using strength back, is to give chakra to you." Naruto looked up at the kyuubi, both he and the kyuubi had changed dramatically since they had met last. "Now I am saying this not because I care for you, but because I don't want to die. Naruto. . .if you let yourself give up here, after figuring out that your eternal goal was broken, then you are weak. Your goal will change thousands of times throughout your life whether you like it or not, and you must go with it each time. What is your new goal?"

". . .I don't have one. . ."

"Search for it. I know it and I know you do as well. . .it's just you need a right situation to open the goal up. I'll just say this. . .Naruto. . .your new goal is to figure out what your real goal is. Now go find it. . .I'll give you a parting gift as well."

Naruto felt the annoying tingling of sweat pouring from his head as he held his stomach, panting. His eyes opened and he looked up at Hojo, who gave him a worried look. ". . .Naruto. . .?" he said.

"Sorry. . ." he said as he stood up, the worry of the situation imprinted in his head. "I just. . .freaked out. . ."

"Well. . .I ran away from my village in order to join Mr. Taguchi's dream. . .so. . .like he told me when I first got to Sachi, welcome to the rest of your life. . .Naurto. . ." He smiled, and this comforted Naruto, as he looked back on the path.

"I'm sure Mr. Tao is following is running after us, probably pissed at us, so, lets continue." Hojo laughed as he continued walking with Naruto. Naruto looked up into the sky as he smiled gently, and then thought to himself.

"Thank you. . .Kyuubi," he thought. He then wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve and sighed.

Mr. Tao jumped onto a carriage and quickly held onto the reigns, "Hurry up! Sakura, Hinata, Aya, get on this carrage, you three get the one behind me! It's not that hard to drive them, just pull the rope one way to in that direction, then the other for the other direction, get it?"

"Yeah yeah!" shouted Ino as she greedily grabbed the ropes. "Hahah! Let's go!" Mr. Tao's carrage pulled out first, then Ino's, Shikamaru and Shino fell back off the seating after the sudden jump in acceleration.

"What the hell!" said Shikamaru, "you're going faster than Tao! You're gonna pass him!"

"Whuh? Oh!" she pulled back slightly on the ropes and the horses slowed down a bit. "Hehe, this thing's pretty easy! You should try sometime Shino!"

". . .I think that I'd be safer behind your driving," said Shino as he stepped back onto the seat.

Back in the Leaf, Kakashi walked through the village, he stopped at a cafe and looked at the paper in front of him. A ninja sat down on the other side of the table. Kakashi handed him the clipboard the paper was on. "Look at this. . ." said Kakashi.

". . .we've lost one two, three. . .about five teams. What are we gonna do?"

"Well. . .we only got five jounins that volunteered to train teams, and five chunnins, which were Naruto, Shino, the others you know, they were all going to be promoted to jounin as soon as they got them. . . but now. We must recruit some more ninja I'm guessing, or at the very most, force five more jounin to train some teams."

"What if we add another ninja per team? Or maybe two?"

"That would be too much of a hassle. Damn it Naruto. . .you plan on taking this village down. . .you already took our strongest chunnin. . ."

Ota pushed a door open in front of her, it was a traditional Japanese door, and it slid past her, making a small sound as reached the end of how far it could go back. She was still wearing a kimono. As she walked through the house, it seemed completly traditional, as if the modern times weren't existent in this house. A man passed by her, he was taller than her and had not aged well. "Hello Rui," he said smiling to her.

"Hello Mr. Asuki," she said, smiling with joy. The two passed and she closed her eyes, sighing, she then bit her lip. Ota stopped at another doorway and looked up, a sign sat on above the door. It read "Send Room". "This is it. . ." she slowly said, as it had been the first time she had been there.

The door suddenly opened, a man behind it, Ota jumped back, being suprised. "Hello Ota. Sorry, but we didn't expect you so soon. Soonichi and Ishida are still transporting him."

"W-Well. . .without them I could get here faster, they should be here in about one hour. I had little weight on my carriage so I could go faster." She fell to her knees and then bowed to him as she spoke.

"You can stand."

"Yes sir. . .can I do anything else for you?"

"No. . ." he looked down at her and then crouched down to her, she was still bowing. "I said you can stand."

"Oh yes. . .s-sorry I forgot." She stood.

"Good job on capturing this Sasuke. I've heard that he was extremly strong. . .and yet, you took him without any trouble. . .how did you do it?" Ota stood up and then looked down the hall.

"I walked into the village. . .that night they were having a holliday so everyone was either drunk or having fun, so everyone was unaware. I basically had to just walk up to Sasuke and then use a jutsu that Ishida taught me. It knocks someone out for a long while, and all I had to do is run away with him after that."

"I see. . .well. . .you are still a chunnin correct?"

"Yes sir."

"You are now a jounin."

"Thank you Mr. Shindo." Ota bows once more, but stays standing during this one.

AN: BACK! Finally on track as well. Sorry so much by I started to read Hikaru no Go and I'm addicted now. No character things today cause those characters won't have much to do with the future storyline.