It was hell trying to figure out the next part of this story. This chapter will divulge Naruto's and Gaara's plan to get their enemies in one battle ground for their last battle. I have two people to thank for my inspiration, or rather, the main part of my inspiration. I took the main elements, combined them, tweaked them, added my parts… So yeah, thanks to you two people.

If you'd like to know who those two people are… Okay, I'll tell you just to be nice. Thank you "Madnarutofan" and "Akkikage". To see their full ideas in their originality, just check out their reviews…

On with the show.

Chapter Fourteen

Naturally, Sakura had to keep her distance from the two elite ninja ahead of her. As soon as she realized Naruto had stopped his traveling, she began to panic and thought that she'd already been detected.

However, she figured out that he had just met up with Gaara, and using every stealth ability she could, she got close enough to them to hear the majority of their musings. She gathered from their talk that they both agreed it was a good idea to get both Orochimaru and Itachi into one battle ground…

How will they do that I wonder? She thought to herself. I'm starting to think it wasn't much of a good idea to come along on this trip… I could get in the way if I'm not careful.

The next morning, Naruto and Gaara awoke to determine what their course of action would be… "We have to lure one to the other, or both into a midway point," said Gaara plainly, like it was obvious. In essence, it was the obvious solution, but as many things go, it was easier said than done.

"Way to go Gaara," said Naruto jokingly. "You've pointed out the answer to all our problems." Gaara stared coldly at Naruto. It chilled the blonde to his core. "Right, moving on to business."

"Any ideas?" asked Gaara. "I mean, Orochimaru and Itachi are both very intelligent shinobi, and they're both very strong. Anything we do has to be carried out flawlessly."

"Well, let's see," mused Naruto aloud while taking a seat with his legs crossed. "Orochimaru's closer by about a half day's travel. Itachi and Orochimaru are approximately twelve hours away if you're measuring by running speed."

"Yes, we've kinda established this one already," said Gaara in slight frustration.

"It can't be as simple as running each bad guy from their homes into the middle," said Naruto. "It'd be obvious that something was amiss if one of us just showed up and knocked only to say, 'Come and catch me if you can!'" Naruto laughed. "But it would be funny to see their faces. I bet even Itachi would crack."

"Let's assess things a little carefully first," said Gaara. "Orochimaru and Itachi both want your hide. We know Orochimaru just wants you for the Kyuubi in you, and why Itachi wants you is beyond us both. However, Orochimaru would also be content with my as a substitute because he's getting fed up with waiting for you to appear…"

"If he sees me or gets wind of me being out in the open…" thought Naruto aloud.

"He'll jump on this as his only chance to get you," finished Gaara. "Alerting Orochimaru to your presence, he probably wouldn't even think twice before trying to pursue you. He's really desperate for your body as a container for his soul, and it's coming to crunch time for another person to possess. His three years are about up."

"So I guess we've kinda got that figured out," said Naruto. "We know how to get Orochimaru's attention."

"You still can't just waltz right up there though," said Gaara. "You can't look as though you're trying to get his attention. It has to appear that you 'accidentally' let him find out you're close by."

"So how do we get Orochimaru in on this as well?" asked Naruto. Gaara sighed. "What?" questioned Naruto. "What is it?"

"It's highly risky," said Gaara. "So it's also very dangerous. It's a long shot, if you will."

"Spit it out," urged Naruto. "The suspense is killing me."

"Well, we also need you to be the one that attracts Itachi's attention," said Gaara. "But we can't have you in two places at the same time. This means we need to use you Kage Bunshin technique you're so good at."

"Go on," urged Naruto, his curiosity piqued. "And it involves an advanced Henge as well. First of all, I will be the one attracting Orochimaru out here, disguised as you using the Henge Jutsu. It shouldn't prove too difficult to act like an idiot."

"Hey!"

"Moving on. At the same time, while I'm out in the Sound territory, you need to send three Doppelgangers out towards Akatsuki, and two of them need to perform a Henge Jutsu."

"Wow," said Naruto. "Kage Bunshin to Henge… It's complicated, but it shouldn't be terribly difficult. Who should I duplicate?"

"Orochimaru," answered Gaara. "You need to become a perfect clone of Orochimaru. Actually, just one of your Doppelgangers needs to be Orochimaru, while another remains as Naruto. Your third will act the role of and Akatsuki agent who tells Itachi that Naruto has been spotted fighting Orochimaru. The more you make it sound like Orochimaru's winning, the better. This will stir in Itachi a sense of urgency, as he needs you and can't afford to have you die at Orochimaru's hands…"

"It's making sense now," said Naruto, standing up quickly. "I understand it."

"Good," said Gaara plainly. "You have to be extremely careful. This especially applies to the fight you stage between your two Bunshins. If either of them harm each other, they'll disappear, and the jig, as they say, is up."

"Got it."

"I'll be waltzing around the forests near Sound," continued Gaara, "as you of course. This will of course be noticed by an agent of Orochimaru, and said agent will alert him immediately. As soon as I am aware that Orochimaru is after me, I'll send you a signal with this…"

Gaara held out a small ear piece in one of his hands. "We can communicate with these. As soon as I give you the word, alert Itachi that you are fighting Orochimaru. I'll start running towards the midway point, and you get your two Bunshins fighting there so Itachi arrives as well."

"We have to do this in perfect symmetry as well," said Naruto, inserting the ear piece. "Theoretically, I should be able to triplicate the earpiece as well as my own body if it's on my person. What do you want the real me to do in the mean time?"

"Hang at the halfway point in the trees and hide," said Gaara. "It would be simple of course to have you fill the role of one of your clones, but we want to risk as little injury to you as possible, and you need to be well rested."

"What about you?" asked Naruto. "Could't you just send a clone of yourself in the Henge form to do your roll?"

"…No, I can't," said Gaara. "I can't perform any cloning techniques of any sort because of my gourd. It can't be duplicated for some strange reason. The Shukkaku in it can't be cloned, and if it's attempted… bad things will happen."

"Whatever," said Naruto dismissively. "Let's get moving. If we leave now and move at a steady, fast pace, we can be ready by tomorrow afternoon."

And just like that, Sakura watched the two nins jump into the trees to continue their journey to death. "Dammit, they're fast," she cursed as she took up pursuit. I can't let them discover me though. I have to hang back enough that I'm undetected, and I have to use every stealth ability I learned from Hokage-sama. I didn't spend years working so hard for nothing. That old woman is useful indeed.

End Chapter Fourteen.

Go ahead. Scream. This chapter sucked. This chapter is short and has almost nothing in it. I'm sorry. It must suck. I know. I left you guys for more than two weeks and came back to give you a shitty chapter. I really am sorry for being so rude. I just wanted to end it here because the next chapter will pick up with the plan being put into action, and I didn't want to start that here and leave it in the middle of something. It's the best chapter break I could come up with, but the next one should be considerably better.