Chapter 4: Bandits from the West.

Naruto woke up the next morning before every one else except Gabriel was missing.

"Gabriel!" Naruto called out quietly trying not to wake everyone else up, especially Sakura, she looked so peaceful and beautiful, "Where are you?!"

"I'm up here," came Gabriel's soft voice from up in one of the trees. Naruto jumped up into the tree to see what he was doing. Gabriel was staring into the sunrise, "It's beautiful isn't it?"

"What is?" Naruto asked confused.

"The sunrise, this is my first time seeing one," Gabriel said, a tear rolled silently down his cheek.

"You've never seen a sunrise?" Naruto asked, "What, do you live underground?"

"They don't call Morelion The-Village-Hidden-Underground for the fun of it," Gabriel said, "It's actually underground."

"Oh," Naruto said awkwardly, "well I'm gonna get breakfast, see ya."

Naruto jumped down from the tree and walked to the stream. He pulled out a kunai and waited.

Shino woke up hearing a fire crackling. He shot up and saw Gabriel working on a cooking fire.

"What are you doing?" Shino asked.

"Naruto is out catching breakfast, and I'm hungry so I want to eat as soon as possible, so I'm getting a fire ready," Gabriel answered throwing some fuel into the fire.

"Yaaawwwwnnn, morning every one," Ino sighed rubbing her eyes.

Over time every one woke up and Naruto returned with a load of freshly caught fish from the stream. The morning was very quiet, it was either every one was still asleep or they were too hungry to speak. Every one was munching on breakfast, except Shikamaru, Sasuke and Gabriel.

"What's wrong?" Hinata asked quietly.

"Quiet!" Sasuke snapped, his eyes scanned the forest the group went dead silent.

THWACK, a shukrien came out of no where and stuck to a tree behind Gabriel.

"Ha, ha, ha, what have we got here?" said a voice in the shadows, and then a chorus of laughter fallowed the voice. The 10 ninja got into a circle formation facing the outside. A large group of bandits surrounded the small team of ninjas.

"Pity, they have no where to run," said a large burly man in a mock sigh.

"Why would we want to run away from a bunch of bozos like you!?" Naruto shouted at the bandits.

The bandits started laughing again, "You think you can beat us, you've gotta be kiddin'!"

"Just try us," muttered Gabriel under his breath. Naruto noticed he changed; he went from being a quiet mild-mannered man to a battle-hungry ninja.

What's up with him? Shikamaru thought.

"You heard 'im boys get 'im!" yelled a gruff looking bandit and shook his fist menacingly.

Then the bandits attacked! Naruto fought three bandits, while all the girls teamed up and fought a group of seven. Sasuke had six bandits wrapped up. Shikamaru was taking care of five bandits while Gabriel had nine. But there was more. The ninjas fought with ferocity, but none of them could compare with the thirst for blood as Gabriel. After about thirty minutes of fighting bandits numbers were reduced from 39 to 12. The leader of the bandits fell backwards and looked up to see Gabriel advancing towards him.

"RUN!" his voice cracked and took off running in the opposite direction, the others followed his lead.

"COWARDS!" Gabriel yelled as the last of the bandits disappeared.

The whole group seemed out of breath, especially Gabriel. Then Gabriel started laughing.

"Man, that was fun, too bad they were only bandits, it would have been better if they were ninjas," chuckled Gabriel whipping his eye.

"What's with him?" Ino whispered to Hinata, she shrugged her shoulders. Then Ino realized there was a long knife sticking out of Gabriel's back, "Gabriel, you're hurt!"

Gabriel looked back and saw the knife, "Oh, would you look at that," he muttered, then with slight tug Gabriel pulled out the knife.

"We should put some disinfectant on it," said Sakura moving closer.

"Don't worry about it, it'll be fine," Gabriel said calmly.

"Are you sure?" Sakura asked worried.

"I said don't worry, see? It's already stopped bleeding," Gabriel said shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, we should get going if we plan on making any progress today," Sasuke said stating to pack up camp.

"I was thinking," Kiba said finishing packing.

"That's new," Naruto grunted while he wrestled with his sleeping bag. Kiba knocked his head in the dirt for that.

"I was thinking, if this place is as far north as the map says wont we need snow gear?" Kiba asked scratching the side of his head.

"Yeah, we will," Gabriel answered putting out the fire, "there's a store that'll rent us the stuff just before it starts to get cold.

"Well I'm tired of waiting, let's go!" Naruto said getting his face out of the dirt.

Teams 7,8 and10 with Gabriel left the camp site and headed north. It was quiet until about 1 O'clock.

"If we keep going at this pace we should make it to wave country by sundown," Hinata said looking at the world map, "Do we know anybody there?"

"I know! We can stop by old man Tazuna's place, and see Inari," Naruto answered cheerfully.

"I guess we could stop there," Sakura thought out loud.

"Alright, we could stop there, but we'll only stay for one night," Sasuke said matter-of-factly.

"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed happily.

"He is so annoying," Kiba muttered under his breath and sighed.

The rest of the day was filled with walking and the occasional comment form someone. But the day was very uneventful. By sundown the party was walking on the bridge that Tazuna built, and team 7 protected him while he built it. There was a lot of traffic on the bridge.

"Man, this place bring back a lot of memories," Naruto said with a smile.

"Please don't get all sentimental," Sasuke sighed as he rolled his eyes.

They continued to walk and they finally reached Tazuna's house. It looked like he did a lot of remodeling; the house was a lot bigger, and much cleaner. Naruto walked up the front steps and rang the doorbell.

"I'll get it!" Said a voice coming from the inside, Naruto didn't recognize it. The door creaked open the there inside stood a 15-year-old Inari.

"NARUTO!" Inari exclaimed excitedly, "Is that you!?"

"Yes it is!" Naruto replied happily, "What have you been up to?"

"Not much," smiled Inari then he noticed all of the ninjas standing behind Naruto, "Who are they?"

"Oh, starting from the left is: Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, you know Sasuke and Sakura, and Gabriel," said Naruto.

"So what are you guys doing here?" Inari asked kindly.

"We're on a mission, and you're place seemed like a convienent place to rest," Sasuke answered.

"Alright, well come on in!" Inari said beckoning the group into the house.

"Hey, Inari, where's your Grandpa?" Sakura asked.

"He's away on business," answered Inari.

The group was enjoying themselves over a nice dinner provided by Tsunami.

"So what are you doing on this mission?" Tsunami asked pleasantly.

"We're making sure that our friend here gets back home," answered Kiba looking over at Gabriel.

"Oh, really? So what kind of dreams do you have planned for the future?" Tsunami asked Gabriel.

The group went silent; they knew what was in store for him when he gets home.

"My dream is that my wife can live a full and happy life, and for my son to become the man he wants to be, and that his own dreams come true," said Gabriel looking up at the ceiling. There was an awkward silence; Gabriel stood up, "May I be excused, I need to take a walk."

"Sure," Tsunami said trying to figure out what she heard; he can't be old enough to have that kind of family, could he?

Gabriel was walking through a path in the forest. He would do anything to be with his family at that moment to tell them how proud of them he was and how he missed them so much.

"Gabriel!" Called Naruto and he caught up with him.

"Why are you following me?" asked Gabriel.

"Sorry, just following orders, we were told to keep at least one person with you, at all times," Naruto answered.

"It's getting late we should head back and go to bed," said Gabriel as he turned around and headed back towards Tazuna's house.