Well, I've been watching Naruto, and once again I'm struck my how little I like Sasuke sometimes… Rock Lee, now THAT'S a great man… I wonder if it's too late to get rid of Sasuke in this story and replace him with Lee… (before anyone kills me, I'm only joking…) Enjoy the chapter!

:BREAK:

Exodus

Chapter 3

"Whew!" Uzu grinned as he poured a bottle of water over his head. He then proceeded to shake his head wildly, spraying his family with small drops of water and earning himself several dirty looks. "We're really making good time!"

A matching smile spread across Naruto's face as the blonde man jumped to his feet. "Of course! If we continue at this speed we'll reach the ocean in no time at all!"

Tenmar shook his head as he wiped some offending water droplets off his face. It was true, they were making good time the last couple days; as slow as the first two days had been these last couple were fast. A normal human group of this size couldn't have made it, but because of both Rin's ability and his father's natural forest aptitude they managed to avoid complete contact with both people and animals. If Ganten's calculations were correct (and they always were) they would reach the bay with only one more day of travel. After that they would be forced to island hop for a while and then, the Great Sea.

"What has me concerned," Ganten said, picking up a stick and then clearing a space on the ground, "is this." He took a moment to draw a crude map of the area. "There should be no ninja villages between us and the sea, so I foresee only a small chance of conflict, but once we reach the bay area, here, how are we going to get to the next island? The nearest bay-side village is far enough away to be a problem, at least a half a day out of the way." He looked up to stare at his father, "Do you have a plan on dealing with it?"

Naruto scratched his cheek; his sons could almost see the wheels turning in his head. "Nope, haven't really thought about it."

"Haven't thought about it? Father, I thought you had this all figured out!" Tenmar cried, in an I-knew-I-shouldn't-have-left-all-the-planning-up-to-someone-else type of voice.

Naruto shook his head, looking at his sons. "I thought we could swim it."

"That's a good idea for the four of us, but what about Mina and Rin? Not to mention Moab." Ganten interjected softly, trying hard to keep his tone respectful. As much as it felt like it, this wasn't one of Uzu's harebrained ideas, it was his father's.

Naruto grinned, trotting a bit away from camp and pulling off his clothes. Quicker than the eyes could follow he began his transformation until, standing where the tall blonde had been was instead a gigantic furry leg attached to an equally gigantic torso. With a rush of air, Fox-demon-style Naruto lowered his head, tongue lolling out. A booming voice that sounded like a mixture between a growl and Naruto's laugh roared out, "They can ride on me, don'tcha think?"

"We could ALL ride on you." Uzu yelled, eyes dancing.

"What?" Naruto replied, already shrinking back down to his human form.

"Father, please, your pants!" Tenmar interjected, blushing slightly as a naked Naruto rejoined them around Ganten's ground map.

Rin eyed the blonde for a moment as he pulled his pants on, grinning all the while. It wasn't a bad view-

WHERE are you looking, bastard? That's my FATHER!

Rin's eyes bolted towards Ganten as the white haired boy hollered mentally at him. It was amazing how Ganten managed to hold a perfectly calm face while envisioning exactly what he'd do to Rin if he looked at his father like that again. Rin grinned sheepishly at the boy, even if Ganten lacked mind reading abilities his natural perception was far too sharp sometimes. "Sorry. So you're proposing that we ride you all the way across the bay?"

What's he apologizing for?Tenmar thought as he shrugged. "Why not?"

"Well there is the problem of how to keep Mina, Moab and Rin from falling off. Rin may have use of his arms, but he'd have a hard time holding on as he's not healed yet." Ganten replied. "And then there's the problem of Rin's abilities. If he's on Father's back than he'll be in Father's mind the whole time. That may be… hard for Rin, considering the slightly more animalistic thought process that occurs when transformed."

"We can hold onto them as we go across and…" Uzu sighed, looking to the sky, "Uh, wrap Rin in a blanket so he doesn't have to touch Daddy."

Tenmar looked up, "Or we could build a make shift raft and have Father pull us across the bay."

Ganten shot his brothers a skeptical look. "Do you know how large the bay is? It's almost as far across as the distance we've walked so far. It is scattered with islands that are either heavily populated or uninhabitable, which means no stop-overs. If the islanders SEE Father while he's in his giant fox form, or if a boat sees him, we may end up being attacked."

Naruto sighed, shoulders slumping as his son explained the situation. "I'm not good with this 'planning ahead' crap." After a moment he gave out another long-suffering sigh. "Alright, what do you think we should do, Ganten?"

"Well, the Hokage left you with some funds to aid our travels, correct?" Without pausing for an answer Ganten plowed onward. "My estimate is that the amount should be enough for boat costs across the bay, and then again for boat fees across the ocean, once we reach it, with enough left over to buy provisions to cross the desert on the new continent. The only problem with that is, as mentioned before, the nearest bay-side village where we can find a boat to ferry us across the bay is half a day's travel away, and we can't easily go waltzing into the town with Mina the way she is."

"Hum…" Naruto looked down at Ganten's map thoughtfully. "Well, we could go AROUND the bay, right?"

"That would add about a week onto our trip." Ganten replied, wondering what his father was getting at.

"Not if you all ride on me. I know it would be hard to hold onto Mina, Moab and Rin, but if it's for short, say eight to ten hour increments at a time, it should be OK and get us to the other side with only about a day lost, if this map is right."

"It's Ganten; the map is right." Uzu ruffled his younger brother's hair affectionately.

"He's right." Tenmar added, slight note of pride in his voice. Ganten's amazing…With a look of unveiled admiration he asked Ganten, "How do you know this area so well? We always lived in the opposite direction of Konoha."

"After the battle with Kentaar I knew that our leaving was the most probable outcome, either forced or otherwise. I also knew that Father would be eager to find his brothers once he left Konoha, so I made it a point to use the maps in Sasuke's house to research the area. I know every major city between here and the great sea." Picking up his stick once more, Ganten went back to his map. "This stretch of land on the other side of the bay, here, is pretty thin. It'll be half a days travel max once we get here until we reach the sea, then we just have to find an ocean bearing boat. My understanding is that, although little is known of the other continents, there are ships that travel to their borders. My theory for the reason for this is that the ninja are the ones keeping the 'Ninja Continent', from lack of a better term, separate from the others in order to keep the countries within this continent safe from outside invasion AND to maintain control over the defense of these countries. Although, periodically-"

"OK, OK we get the picture!" Uzu wrapped his hand around his younger brother's mouth, effectively silencing him. "You can tell us the history of the 'Ninja something or other' when we're trapped on a boat with nowhere to run!" God, give him a little attention and he goes on and on and on…

Ganten pushed his brother away. "Fine." Does EVERYONE think I'm boring?"Traveling north around the bay is probably the best move, but we'll have to be wary about running into any people while we do it. If we are going to ride on Father than we'll also have to be careful about time, as it is very exhausting, even for you, Daddy, to be in fox form for huge amounts of time multiple days in a row. We can't allow you to be in fox form for more than five days without taking at least a day's rest. On top of that, any ninja within a pretty large radius will be able to sense your power, that's where Rin's ability'll come in handy. If he so much as notices a ninja sneezing in our direction, we'll know to hide. That is assuming, of course, that there are any that will be able to catch up with Father."

Naruto was beaming. Once more, Ganten had slipped up and referred to him as 'Daddy', it was such a happy moment in his life. With a proud smile on his face he wrapped his arms around his youngest son, pulling him into a fierce hug. "You're amazing!"

Ganten blushed, for a moment happily surprised by the sudden hug. The last person to hug him like this had been Mina, and that had been years ago. Maybe it was nice, sometimes. When did I stop hugging Mina? Maybe she wouldn't have been so sad if we-no, if I had been a little more affectionate. I was the closest to her. When did I push her away?Ganten allowed the hug to last moments longer before pulling away a little regretfully. It was first time since childhood that his father had held him just because; that he had praised him for being him.

Uzu's mouth curved down in a pout. "Daddy!" Uzu said, crocodile tears forming in his eyes. "Do you love Ganten most?"

Naruto glanced at his middle son and held his arms out. "Do you want a hug, too, Uzu?"

With a sniff, Uzu nodded.

"Alright, come on." Naruto dutifully put his arms around his son. Although the gesture was done in a dutiful way, it was obvious that Naruto was actually enjoying his children's attention. When he was done hugging Uzu he also gave a hug to Tenmar and then, for good measure, to Mina, Moab and even Rin. "My wonderful family."

With a blush Rin realized that he was actually happy about being included. It had been ages, a different life time, since he had felt like part of a family. It was nice. He realized when Naruto gave him the fatherly embrace that Naruto was also thinking about how wonderful it was to finally have an actual family, but in the back of his mind he was also thinking about a certain dark haired boy he left behind.

:BREAK:

Shikamaru glanced at Sasuke from across the fire they had built. They'd been traveling for most of the day in silence and now that they had stopped to rest for the night the silence continued. Shikamaru sighed. It was all completely annoying. Whatever Sasuke's plans for the trip were, they were a mystery to him, all he knew was they were heading East and from the look of it, they were going to at least go all the way to the Bay. He knew that, when Sasuke had so easily agreed to him coming along, there was the possibility that the dark haired boy would attempt to leave him behind during the night. Shikamaru had already prepared some measures to stop that from happening.

Sasuke glanced at Shikamaru as the spiky haired boy sighed again. Was he expecting Sasuke to talk to him? It was enough that he'd allowed the boy to tag along, why should he try to come up with ways to entertain him as well? When he'd agreed to allow Shikamaru to join him it had been more an act of desperation to get farther away from Konoha. If they had stayed in the area and argued the chances of being found and stopped were higher. Now that they had gotten this far together, however, Sasuke was pretty certain that he couldn't loose the other boy. Even if he tried to run while Shikamaru was sleeping, the fact of the matter was, Shikamaru was still a ninja and would have to be stupid if he couldn't come up with a way to stop that from happening. One thing Sasuke had realized since the start of their travels was that Shikamaru was not stupid. Lazy, but not stupid.

Shikamaru sighed again, looking up towards the stars. After a moment he opened his mouth. "You must know that you can't loose me easily at this point, right?"

Sasuke nodded darkly. "I know."

"They why don't you tell me where we're headed exactly? It's annoying not knowing where I'm going." The tone was laid back as typical of Shikamaru, but his countenance had changed slightly. He was sitting up straighter and his eyes held an interested gleam.

Sasuke sighed, looked towards the sky. The trees were swaying slightly with a breeze that didn't reach them at the forest floor; the stars were out in multitude. So were the predators, of course. It would be nice to have someone to split the night watch with, it would mean they could sleep on the forest floor near a fire rather than Sasuke's original plan of sleeping up in the trees with one eye open. "We're heading East, past the bay to the Great Sea-"

"The Great Sea?" Shikamaru repeated, eyes widening. That had gone beyond his expectations.

Sasuke nodded, "The Sea, a forest and then a desert. Naruto has to cross each to find his brothers, who he thinks will be able to help Mina. If we're lucky we can catch up with Naruto and the others before they find a ship that'll take them across the Sea. If not then we'll have to make our own preparations to cross the forest and the desert. I don't know how big they are or how populated the areas surrounding them are, so we may need to prepare months worth of supplies and maybe hire someone once we reach the new continent."

Shikamaru whistled between his teeth. "You're talking about a small fortune worth of cash to get you across the Sea alone, not to mention what it might take to hire a guide and gather supplies."

Sasuke shrugged, pulling a small bag from seemingly nowhere. He tossed it to Shikamaru. "I'm not totally without preparation."

"What?" Shikamaru replied. After a moment he pulled a string on the bag and it fell open. Cash, gold, gems and an assortment of other valuables spilled out and onto the ground. "Damn."

"My family's fortune can be put to some use this way. It's not like I was ever gonna use it."

After a moment of shuffling through the fortune and then stuffing it all gingerly back into the bag Shikamaru sighed. "We could hire an entire army to take us all the way across the continent and back again with that much money… Are you sure you want to spend this? I mean, one day you may want to have a family or-"

"I'm sure." Sasuke replied shortly, crossing his arms and glaring at his companion.

Shikamaru shook his head at Sasuke's obvious attempt at intimidating him, but decided to let the matter drop. Why the dark haired boy was so sensitive about the questions was beyond him. Unless- A sudden smirk found its way across Shikamaru's face as he noticed the slight blush around Sasuke's cheeks. "So, what you're saying is, the only family you have left is the one we're heading towards, right?"

Sasuke's countenance darkened. "I said nothing of the sort." He spat out, jumping to his feet.

Geeze, don't you know that you're reaction gives you away more than your words? Shikamaru thought, but wisely didn't voice those thoughts. Instead he scooted his body further away from Sasuke, holding his hands out in a placating gesture. "OK, OK, sorry. Forget I said anything."

After a moment Sasuke sat, continuing to glare at the world. There was a long silence. In the forest could be heard the sounds of an owl, various insects and small creatures scuttling around the ground. The breeze blew again and this time it reached downwards to the camp, causing the fire stir and sending a quick chill through Sasuke. He glared at the fire for a moment then looked to Shikamaru. "Why'd you follow me?"

"I told you." Shikamaru replied, stretching his arms into the air. "It'd be annoying to let you go alone. Anyway, if I hadn't followed you I would have ended up on a search party looking for you, I'm sure, and that would have been REALLY annoying. And then I'd haffta listen to Ino and Sakura whine about your disappearance…" He sighed, rolling his eyes.

"You think I'm buying that?" Sasuke replied, arching his eyebrows.

Shikamaru slumped his shoulders, glancing towards his companion. "Guess not."

"You're worried about them?"

Shikamaru looked towards the sky, watching the trees sway with the wind. "Yeah…"

:BREAK:

With a sigh Tenmar slipped off his father's transformed back and onto the ground. It was the first day of what was looking to be a three day journey around the bay on Naruto's back and it was a lot more work that Tenmar had anticipated. At first it had been kind of fun, in fact, it reminded Tenmar of his childhood when his father would transform and take himself and Uzu scouting around the forest. After an hour the excitement ran out and the cool breeze started to feel more like a cold blast of wind that was impossible to escape from. On top of that, keeping himself on his father's back was difficult, having to hold onto either Mina or Moab at all times made it even harder, especially when Mina went into one of her fits. Mina's fits were beyond hard to control on the moving surface of Naruto's back and more than once Mina had almost tumbled to the forest floor.

He watched with sympathy as his father turned back into his human form and lay on the ground, panting. It took enormous amounts of Naruto's energy to remain in his giant fox form for more than an hour or so at a time.

"Are you alright Daddy?" Uzu asked, leaning over the blonde while unthinkingly patting Moab's back. Tenmar suspected that, despite Uzu's best intentions, the red head was beginning to grow accustomed to the small baby, perhaps even fond of it.

Naruto nodded, sitting up suddenly. He reached a shaking hand out and grabbed hold of the nearest pack, digging through it until he found a packet of meat jerky of some sort. Apparently without chewing, the blonde choked down five large pieces of the meat before pulling out a blanket and curling into a ball underneath it. The group watched as within moments his breathing evened out and he was fast asleep.

After a moment Ganten spoke up, "He's probably gonna want something fresh when he wakes up."

"IF he wakes up…" Uzu replied, staring at his father in wonder. "I guess I could go do some hunting." He added, thrusting Moab into Tenmar's arms and stretching.

Rin rose shakily to his feet, "There's some roots and stuff over in that direction." He gestured vaguely. "I can hear the rabbits enjoying their dinner. It's not very far; I think I can make it on my own."

"Fine." Ganten replied, already in the midst of clearing an area to prepare a fire. Rin's going alone? Oh well. He should know his body and its limitations better than I…

Tenmar was also already immersed in juggling taking care of Moab and Mina and simply nodded at the brown haired boy. Ugh… This baby stinks. No wonder Uzu jumped on the chance to hunt, bastard.

With a grin Rin focused his mind on the rabbits, feeling a bit guilty that he was going to rob them of the rest of their meal. As he slowly made his way towards the area the creatures were at, he thought about how much his life had changed in the last week. He'd gone from working for an insane man that wanted to subjugate Naruto and kill his children to a barely able to walk on his own cripple that was dependant on those he had been previously attempting to kill… And according to the others he was romantically involved with one on them, too.

Rin knew that Ganten currently had no conscious intention of having a romantic relationship with him- that the white haired boy was only interested in him as a friend and, when healed, a sparing partner. Rin also knew that the other members of the Uzumaiki family were only half joking when they told him not to break Ganten's heart. Rin also knew that if he wasn't romantically involved with Ganten when he fully healed he lost all reason to travel with Naruto and his family. The thought of leaving them left him feeling empty and slightly panicked for more reasons than one. He'd grown fond of them, something he could say about only one other living person in the whole of the world.

The other reason, the reason that gnawed at him in the night and left him lonely and agitated whenever he thought about it was that when he left them he would be completely alone and, even worse, without purpose. Ever since his earliest memory, Rin had had a purpose. As a child it had been surviving, keeping his family's secret. When he worked for Kentaar it had been revenge, after he had achieved that it had been destruction. Now, traveling with Ganten and his family, it was like their purpose, their worries, their drive had seeped into him, and he felt like a part of something. If he left their side, for the first time in his life he would be completely without reason. Where would he go? What would he do?

With a sigh Rin looked up to the sky as a cloud wandered across the moon, blocking it from view. It was a beautiful night. Guiltily, Rin moved towards the rabbits, who were still enjoying their feast. They paused as they noticed him, terror over-taking their being as they wondered whether or not he was a predator. "Sorry, little guys… At least I'm not here to kill you and eat you, that guy's a little farther North. I just want your food…" No sooner had he spoken than the rabbits bolted, dashing towards their burrows in a frenzied panic.

Rin chuckled slightly. "Too bad you don't understand me." He said to the rabbits as they trembled in their burrows. He leaned down slowly, pulling at the carrots and roots as he talked. "If you could, you'd probably just be ignoring me right now, still enjoying your mea-"

The vegetables fell from Rin's hands as a new mind sprang into his mind reading radius. It was followed quickly by another. "Shit." He whispered, eyes widening. Forgetting completely about the carrots, Rin clenched his fists at his head. He couldn't read the first mind's thoughts, but the second mind was clear as a bell to him. They were searching for-

Falling to all fours Rin threw back his head, and screamed. He couldn't make it back to camp in time, but he prayed that his voice would reach them. "GANTEN!"

:BREAK:

Well, I think that went well… Of course, I'm bound to have annoyed some people about leaving off the chapter at such a bad place, but hopefully I'll have the next chapter out before too long, so I don't get you all REALLY annoyed with me. For those of you that were wondering, I based my description of the land around Konoha from a map that you see at the beginning of the Chuunin exams. I THINK I'm accurate; but then, if I'm not, please just pretend I am, as I have situated the whole plot around this idea… Also, something that's NOT in the anime or manga, I decided to make it so that the other continents on this world do not have any connection with the one that the major Naruto plot-line takes place on. Meaning, the area of the world that MOST ninja are aware of is actually only a small portion of the world. There's a whole lot of world out there beyond it that are not necessarily connected with Ninja or at the same technology level as the ninja are… Well, we'll see how that goes… (If I find that I'm ridiculously off in the world description I may have to yank the chapter for some re-write…)

On another note… Today's my BIRTHDAY! YAY! Yes, on March 11th, some undisclosed number of years ago I was born in the little village of Southfield, MI. It was a pleasant day, unseasonably warm and the sun managed to break away from the clouds to let a small ray of light into the hospital room as my head-

Sakura: That's QUITE enough of that. We get the picture, you were born. Big deal.

Psychic-King: You're just bitter that you don't have a part in this story :blows raspberry:

Iruka: Technically, I don't have a part in this story either… :Sniffs:

Psychic King: Oh, no! Iruka, Kakashi, I promise to give you a part in a while, so please, be happy! Here, have some cake. :Turning to readers: Well, it's my birthday, so everybody should have fun and skip school and work for the day. Psychic King-sama says so.

Naruto: Yeah, so… How old are you now, anyway? Old hag…

Psychic King:eyes turning red: NEVER ask a lady her age!

Uzu:sweat dropping: I guess that means pretty old, eh?

Psychic King: WHAT:drops cake and chases Uzu and Naruto around the room with a cleaver: Come HERE and say that! COWARDS!

Quote of the week: It is never too late to be what you might have been. –George Eliot

(I thought it was appropriate considering the sudden and completely uncalled for increase in my age)