Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...

Note: Hello again! I was able to update a little faster, due to the three day break that I got from school. Hehehe, that's why here's the next chapter(yes! you don't need to wait for a week for this!) Here we go!

Normal - conversation/narration

Italics - thoughts/voices in one's head

Italics and Bold - jutsus

Ero-SENIN: Hehe, well even though the Akatsuki are a bunch of S-rank criminals, they're still people, right? I don't want them to look like a bunch of dark, brooding, hermit-like group, so made them like that. (of course they do know when to get serious)
Silver Kitsune: thank you! Here's the next chaper!
Sirius183: oh sorry if the ending was kinda not like an ending at all, but that chapter was just like a "filler" anyway... I needed to make it a connection between the previous 10 chapters and the next ones.
Chocobaby: well, you don't need to eait (yes, yes, I know you meant wait ) any longer, coz here's chap. 12!
PersonaJXT: Ooooh, nice ideas... hehe, i'll keep those in mind, but I can't assure you that it'll go the way you want it... you made me think of alot of new ideas though. thanks

Chapter 12: Begin!

-

Sasuke inspects his surroundings carefully, and quickly formulates his plan. His legs were still stinging from the wounds that he got from his previous encounter with Naruto, and he absently clutches the Heaven Seal that Orochimaru had given him.

"I will be on equal terms with my brother. I WILL!"

Sasuke then draws a few kunai from his pouch and runs toward the target right in front him which was hanging at the middle of a large tree. He then jumps up in the air, twirls, and throws a kunai towards each of the targets which were hidden amongst the branches of a tree or in bushes, while throwing an extra one in a random direction. After achieving a full 360 degree spin, he then flings his second to the last kunai right at the target in front of him, and he then throws his last one at the extra kunai, sending it at such an angle that it drops down and hits something with a loud 'clunk'.

Every single kunai was right at the middle of it's target, including a target which was hidden completely in his blind side.

"Very impressive, Sasuke-sama."

Sasuke looks up at the trees towards the speaker, and finds Rui sitting right on a tree branch, smiling at him.

"Hmm, should I smile back? Is that what this girl wants? If this girl was Sakura or Ino, would she have wanted me to smile back? Oh what the heck, I might as well just do so."

A small smile creeps up in his face, and Rui's expression changes from a smile to amazement.

"Don't I smile enough times? She looks like she's never ever seen me do it before."

Sasuke then proceeds to retrieve the kunai he had thrown, and he notices as Rui jumps down from the tree and starts picking the kunai as well.

After collecting everything, she then heads over towards Sasuke, and gives them to him with a blush and a smile.

"Thank you… Rui."

Rui blushes even more as he looks her right in the eyes, and she turns away.

"Um, n-no problem, Sasuke-sama."

"Let's go eat somewhere, shall we? I'm hungry, and I haven't had lunch yet."

-

Rui looked like she was the happiest girl in the world as she walked right beside Sasuke as they went towards a small restaurant inside the 'Higher Octave'of the village.

"I've never been able to eat alone with Sasuke-sama before. This is so exciting! Maybe he finally likes me?"

She remembers the time she spent with in the medical room a few days ago as he was being treated. She had almost never left his side, and she was afraid that he would be unable to walk again because of the ice jutsu that froze the blood and the veins in his legs. She secretly loathed the man named Uzumaki Naruto for doing this to Sasuke, but she also secretly thankedthe same manfor changing Sasuke.

After Sasuke was allowed to go, she had noticed a small change in him, and she was happy not only to see that he was now mobile but also that his dark nature and brooding nature had seemed to slightly improve.

They walk right into the restaurant, and sit in a table for two.

"I'll have some Sukiyaki and tea, please," Sasuke asks the waiter that comes close.

"I'll be having some Miso Ramen, and tea as well."

Sasuke chuckles a little, and Rui faces him.

"Is something wrong?" Rui asks with a puzzled face.

"No, it's nothing. I just remembered something."

Rui was glad. Sasuke looked thoughtful, and she liked the new Sasuke that was before her.

They ate their meals in silence, mainly because Rui didn't know how to start a conversation with the Uchiha.

After the meal, Sasuke looked thoughtfully at her, and she couldn't stop blushing.

"Rui…"

"Y-yes?"

"If I were to leave or to die, what would you do?"

Rui was suddenly worried. "If you were to die, then I would… cry. And cry some more. You know how much I care for you, Sasuke-sama."

Sasuke's small smile was very mysterious. She couldn't tell if he smiling because he was laughing at her or if he was truly concerned about her response.

"And… if you were to leave, I… I would want you to take me with you. I'll go with you wherever you go, no matter what."

Sasuke takes her hand, and smiles at her again. "Rui, thank you. But, you must know right now that I, Uchiha Sasuke, am an avenger. And, because of this, I may die right after achieving my goal. I just want to tell you not to get too close to me anymore, because I don't want to hurt you."

"S-Sasuke-sama, I can't do what you want. I just… can't… b-because I love you, Sasuke-sama."

Sasuke looked a little stunned, and then suddenly turns a little serious.

"I don't know what to say, Rui… I really don't know what I feel about you, but I don't want you hurt…"

Rui looks Sasuke and smiles. "Sasuke-sama, if you want to be an avenger, by all means become one. I won't stop you... I'll just always be there for you."

Sasuke looks at her, but looks away immediately. "What if I told you… that part of my mission… part of my goal in life… is to kill our current kage, Orochimaru?"

Rui didn't change her expression. "I already know that, Sasuke-sama. I could already tell. But I don't care. I'll still go with you, no matter what the situation."

"Thank you, Rui."

Rui was suddenly surprised as Sasuke suddenly stands up and moves towards her. He brushes a few strands of hair from her face, tilts her chin a little upwards and then kisses her lips lightly.

The kiss just lasted a second, but for Rui that second was like an eternity. Sasuke then takes her hand and stands her up.

"Let's go, Rui. I still want to train a little more."

Rui blushes and smiles. "Yes, let's go, Sasuke-sama."

-

Gai looks ahead into the distance as he moves quickly through the forest, coming closer and closer to Konoha. He then looks back and sees the Leaf and Sand shinobis gradually slowing down.

"Hmph, these ninjas need a lot more training, I can't believe they're getting tired already!"

He looks at the figure right next to him and grins. Lee was the only ninja in the whole group who was capable of keeping with him, and he was proud of his student, despite his inability in the areas of gen- and ninjutsu.

Lee had not changed much. He still had the will of fire, even more so this time than in the past. He still had those thick eyebrows, but his hair was just a little longer. He still wore the green suit, but he now wore blue pants a chuunin vest (specially made by Gai, it had weights!) which he wore over the green suit. Lee also wore heavy arm guards which looked a lot like gauntlets, and he still wore the warmers on his legs (the warmers with the weights, this is the strength of youth!).

And yet, even with all those weights on Lee's body, he was STILL capable of coping up with his speed. Gai looked at his student proudly.

"Gai-sensei, I believe we should wait for the others! They seem to lagging behind quite a bit."

"Alright, I'll slow down my pace, but you must remember, Lee, that Konoha is in trouble! We must get there as soon as possible!"

"Yes, Gai-sensei! We must protect Konoha at all costs!" A silent fire burned in Lee's eyes as he said this, and Gai once again looked proudly at his student.

"Gai! Let's stop for a while!" Baki calls out from behind.

"These ninjas need a LOT more training… I can't believe they want to stop already!"

Gai then takes one large leap and lands on the ground with Lee doing the exact same thing. The other Sand and Leaf jounin arrive a few moments later, followed by the other ninjas, every single one of them trying to catch their breaths.

"You ninjas need to work out more! Look at Lee! He was capable of keeping with me!" Gai announces.

"Tch, of course Lee can keep up with you!" Kiba shouts roughly. "He was your student, for crying out loud!"

"Aha! That conclusion is fallacious!" Lee shouts back. "Neji can't keep up with Gai-sensei, and he was a part of my team when we trained with Gai-sensei!"

"Kuso, shut up, Lee," Neji whispers hoarsely, still trying to catch his breath.

All of a sudden, roots suddenly sprouted out from underground and held everyone in place. A second later, tree-like structures suddenly appeared from the earth behind each ninja and branches suddenly grabbed their bodies completely making movement impossible.

"Wha-what is this!" shouts Kankurou.

-

Koujiro walks silently towards the group of Leaf and Sand ninjas.

"I wonder what happened to the quality of ninjas… only two of them were able to escape my ninjutsu… and one of them is that man,Maito Gai."

Gai suddenly appears to his left and gives him an extremely fast kick which he blocks. Koujiro then ducks down and gives Gai a quick kick right at the jaw which Gai somehow evades, to Koujiro's amazement.

"So it's true that Gai's taijutsu skills are on a whole different level than most jounin… good thing I train my taijutsu with Hibiki…"

They jump at opposite directions and almost immediately let a few kunai fly at each other. Both of them are hit, revealing both to be replacements.

"Damn, he's better than I thought, I can't believe that at my speed, he's still capable of keeping up with me… I sorely underestimated his skill."

Koujiro jumps and lands upside-down on a branch, just as Gai crashes right through the tree he had been hiding against with atechnique. He then jumps toward Gai who was just regaining his balance after the technique, and tries to punch Gai, who evades quickly.

Koujiro lands and immediately balances himself on one hand and begins to use his spin kick."Konoha Senpuu!"

Gai is caught unawares by the technique, but is able to dodge it. However, Koujiro was already performing hand seals. "Raiton Raiken!"

A sword of lightning appears right after the taijutsu technique and Koujiro prepares to swing the sword right at Gai's legs but fails to do so as another figure shows up and hits Koujiro right at the face with a kick.

The sword of lightning dissipates as Koujiro is launched straight at a tree. However, he changes position in mid-air, lands on the tree trunk on both feet, looks at his two opponents.

Before him was Gai, and a seemingly smaller version of Gai, complete with the thick eyebrows.

"Uhhh, is this Gai's son?"

"Lee, so nice to see you! With you as my partner, we can defeat this evil man in a flash!" Gai says in a pose with his right arm forward and the thumb sticking up. His teeth create a tiny sparkle, and Koujiro almost loses his balance on the tree as he looks at the strange pose.

"What a strange man… a strange man indeed…"

The smaller figure suddenly answers, and does the same pose. "Yes, Gai-sensei! Together, we are unbeatable!"

Koujiro jumps down from his position and shakes his head a little. "No, not strange… crazy is more like it…"

Gai suddenly points straight at Koujiro. "You!"

"Uhhh, me?"

"Yes, you! Why did you attack us? What is your purpose?"

Koujiro clears his throat. "I'm here to pursue two traitors who ran away from my village. I have reason to believe that those traitors are actually spies from the Leaf, and since I conveniently find a whole party of Leaf and Sand nins here, it just means that you must be the group backing them up, just so they can escape. I will just have to kill them and your group, then."

The man named Lee answers back. "Aha! Why then, are you going by yourself?"

Koujiro grins. "Because I alone am needed to take care of those traitors and all other who stand in my way."

"From the forehead protector, I can see that you're from the Hidden Sound Village. Hmmm, I see, Orochimaru has begun his operation then…"

"Good, that's exactly what I want you to think, Maito Gai. Yes, embed it into your skulls. Know that Orochimaru will be attacking the Leaf with a large force, and even now, he prepares his army."

"Get out of my way!" Koujiro shouts as he charges straight at Gai and Lee.

Gai readies himself as he sees the unnamed Sound nin charge straight right at him and Lee. Suddenly, the Sound nin disappears without a trace, but Gai knew that he was just moving extremely fast.

"What is this? This man knows how to open his gates as well… it's impossible for any normal human being to go that fast without them!"

"Lee, be careful! This man can open the gates as well!"

But Lee was already flying towards a tree as he sees the blonde elbow Lee right at the stomach, followed by a backhand right across the face.

"Tch, this guy… it looks like I have to use Renge on him."

Gai opens the first gate and attacks the blonde sound nin at high speed. The blonde nimbly dodges Gai's first punch and moves right behind Gai, giving him a kick to the back of the head. Gai blocks the leg and grabs it, pulling the blonde closer to him and giving the blonde an elbow right at his face. The Sound nin moves his head slightly to the side, narrowly missing Gai's elbow and uses his free leg to hit Gai's side, which causes Gai to release his hold on the other leg.

The blonde lands on both hands and pushes himself upward before Gai can hit him with a sweeping kick. Gai looks up only to see the blonde completing his hand seal sequence.

"Katon Choukakyuu no Jutsu!"

A powerful fire blast is expelled from the Sound nin's mouthburning a large areawithin itsrangeand spreading it's fires by creating waves of flames.

Gai jumps out of the way of the jutsu, but his legs are still caught by some flames. Searing pain coursing through his legs stops Gai right in his tracks and he stumbles as he tries to stop, losing his balance along the way.

"Kuso… that fire jutsu, that was an extremely powerful fire jutsu that I've never seen before. That ninjutsu level…that level isalready comparable to what the 3rd can do!"

"It's over," Koujiro states from behind Gai.

Gai was stunned. "He's… behind me?"

Gai tries to form a few seals butrealizes that he could not move his right arm.He looks at his right shoulder and sees a kunai sticking right through his shoulder blades. Blood was flowing freely from the wound, but Gai didn't mind the pain. He spins around by shifting the weight of his body and props himself up using his left hand, while forcing his partially burnt legs to hit the Sound ninja. The blonde merely blocks the kick, grabs it, and spins Gai around, throwing him towards the trunk of a tree.

"Damn it, this guy is too strong…"

"I told you, it's over,"Koujiro states again.

"No! It's not over yet!"

Koujiro barely sees the flash of green coming from underneath him, before he gets hit by an upward kick from Lee.

Gai's eyes widen. "No Lee! STOP!"

"Is the boy going to use Omote Renge? Hmm, a powerful technique, but against me, that's worthless…"

Lee keeps kicking Koujiro higher and higher up into the air. Lee then goes right behind the injured Koujiro and wraps bandages coming from the inside of his arm guard around him.

"Uwaaaaahhhh! Omote Renge!"

Lee then grasps the body, and begins his downward spin.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

Koujiro goes along with the downward spin, but shifts his weight drastically to the side, causing the vertical spin to slant.

"You'll be the one getting the brunt of the blow, you know."

Koujiro then tears through the bandages and grabs Lee's arms, which were still grasping him.

"What?" Lee exclaims in surprise.

"It's over, you won't be able to loosen your hold on me on time, and thus you'll be the one taking the Omote Renge."

Koujiro slips out from Lee's grasp and throws him downward, right before impact, and Lee is driven into the ground with a large crash.

"LEE!"

Koujiro calmly stands from where he had landed, and walks towards Gai.

"Y-you bastard…"

"Hmm, it looks like you barely have enough strength left to even move. You also don't even have enough chakra. You won't be any more trouble to me, then."

Koujiro silently walks away from Gai and goes towards the larger group which he had trapped with a jutsu.

Suddenly, a high-speed spinning figure appears from above and crashes down on him. He avoids the corkscrew-like attack, but loses his balance as the earth underneath suddenly erupts like an earthquake. A figure with long hair suddenly appears right behind him and does a series of palm strikes, which he avoids, but the long-haired figure takes an extremely fast and powerful strike and lands it right on Koujiro's stomach.

Koujiro staggers back a little bit, and suddenly realizes something.

"What? My chakra flow… it became irregular... when that guy hit me. Is this the Jyuuken? Is he a Hyuuga?"

Koujiro looks around him.

"Well, well… it looks like I'm surrounded. In front of me, a Hyuuga, from what I can see from the white eyes. To the side is a guy from the Inuzuka clan, because of that dog which is right beside him. And behind me seems to be a medic nin with monstrous strength."

Koujiro looks around some more, spots his target, and smiles.

"Sorry, I can't play with you guys right now. I have a job to do."

And before any of them can react, Koujiro runs off towards the target.

"Two people, a girl and a boy, wearing Sound forehead protectors. Hehe, what a mission…"

Koujiro catches up with the two and throws a number of kunai right at the back of the guy, who falls down because of the impact of the kunai. The girl then turns around, but he hits her squarely on the stomach, shoulder, and face, causing her to lose consciousness.

"Well, it's about time…"

A large number of number of Leaf and Sand ninjas were now surrounding him, readying themselves for battle.

A sand jounin comes forward. "Give up, Sound ninja. Or else, you die."

-

Koujiro looks at the cell he now occupied, and then sighs.

"Oh well, the discomforts I have to take to accomplish a mission…"

The road to Konoha had been an uneventful one. He was basically tied up, guarded, and led right into the Hidden Leaf Village. He was presented before Tsunade, the 5th Hokage, who recognized him almost immediately, and was sent to a maximum security prison cell guarded by specialized ninja guards who were former members of the ANBU.

Of course, quite a few number of Leaf shinobi still remembered who he was, and wanted him killed for his crimes, but that was another story. Right now, all he knew was that it was either life imprisonment or the death penalty for him.

Koujiro lies down on the hard bed and looks right at the ceiling.

"Hah, what a homecoming. It's actually nice to see the Hidden Leaf again, but what's not nice is having to stay in this place for the remainder of my stay here. Darn, Naruto-kun and Asuka-chan have all the fun."

A figure suddenly stands right in front of his cell, and the guards unlock the partial seal set into the doors. A familiar face and voice speaks out.

"Yo! Long time no see!"

"It's not been that long a time…Remember, we did meet a few weeks back."

"Oh?"The man laughs."Yes, yes, I remember that now. No need to be so serious about things, Koujiro. You'll get old quickly if you don't look at the bright side of life."

Koujiro sits up from his bed and looks at the Leaf jounin, Hatake Kakashi, and then smiles.

"Nice to see you again too, Kakashi-san."

-

Glossary:

Konoha Senpuu (Leaf Spinning Wind) - a taijutsu technique wherein the user performs a powerful spin kick which sends the opponent upwards.

Raiton Raiken (Lightning Release: Lightning Sword) - a special type of ninjutsu wherein the chakra is gathered in the shape of a sword.

Katon Choukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Mega Fireball Skill) - the user expels an extremely powerful blast of fire that incinerates the target area and spreads a wave of flames which extends the radius of the initial blast

Omote Renge (Secondary Lotus) - a forbidden taijutsu technique that increases the user's speed and power but destroys the body as well; a kick to the jaw launches the opponent into the air, and using bandages to wrap around the opponent, they are spun down towards the ground with extreme force.

Author's Note: Hope you liked this chapter! Review please!