After reading the scroll from his brother, Sasuke returned to his training. Now that he was free of the cursed seal, he wanted to know exactly how strong he was. The words of the Godaime echoed through his head.
Flashback
"Sasuke," Tsunade said to the surviving Uchiha, "I know that you've been training these past years to become stronger, and then Naruto and Lee both were able to push you to the second level of the cursed seal. I know that this doesn't make any sense, but I'm pretty sure, that you're on par with, if not slightly above Lee. When you were using the seal, it seemed like you had infinite amounts of chakra, but instead you were receiving the same amount that you were receiving when you first got it. The seal didn't grow in strength with you, and when you used it, you actually were limited to the power of the seal. So when you fought Naruto you were actually weaker than you probably should have been."
End Flashback
Sasuke did indeed find that piece of information interesting. So he poured himself into the training he was allowed to do in his suspended status. This mostly was limited to taijutsu and chakra control, but he found that Tsunade's words rung true. He was stronger without the seal, than with it. The only thing it gave him was a small boost in speed, which he was quickly able to replicate with a combination of weights and chakra. As he became more engrossed in his workout, he began to replay the conversations he had with his old friends.
Flashback
Sasuke hated the silence that permeated the room. For the first time that he could remember, (and he could remember quit a bit) Sakura wasn't talking to him. She wasn't pestering him for a date, or asking about his different preferences, or anything. She was just sitting in his kitchen, across the table from him, not saying anything. Once or twice she had opened her mouth, only to close it a second later without speaking. He thought it might be better if he spoke first.
"Sakura…I'm sorry. For that night, when I knocked you out. I don't really know what happened to me."
He was looking for something else to say to show his sorrow for his past atrocities, but Sakura interrupted his thought process.
"It's ok, Sasuke, I forgave you a long time ago. I heard that the seal was doing something to you, so I can't really hold that against you." She stated, before falling silent again.
Once again, an awkward silence filled the room as the two teenagers sat across from each other, not saying a word.
End Flashback
Eventually the conversation grew lighter, covering topics from the village to Sakura's training and her relationship with Lee. By the end of the conversation she had informed him that she would consider him a friend again. When he asked if she thought the others would react negatively she gave an answer much like Naruto's. She calmly explained that if Naruto had forgiven him, than Hinata would too. After a while Neji would probably forgive him, although it would take a while. This would in-turn lead to Lee and maybe TenTen forgiving him as well. The ones most likely to hold a grudge against him for his defection would probably be Kiba. Shikamaru, she joked, would find hatred 'far too troublesome' and Chouji would probably mimic his friend. Hearing about the Ino-Shika-Cho member's brought back more of Naruto's words.
"Hey, does Ino still have that crush on me?" he asked, hoping that she didn't. He just couldn't stand her.
"Ino? No, actually she moved on rather quickly after you left. We all suspected that she was seeing Shikamaru, but she wasn't. It was quit the mystery for a while, but then we found out she had been dating Kankuro, Gaara's brother, or should I say the Kazekage's brother." She stated.
"I'd heard that Gaara became the Kazekage when they returned back, but Ino and Kankuro, wasn't he the one that wore make-up and had a hood with cat ears on it?" Sasuke asked in a mocking manner.
"Hai, that's Kankuro. Actually, they didn't start seeing each other, until Temari started to date Shikamaru. Now that political relations are a little better between the two countries, Temari and Kankuro have become the Suna ambassadors to Konoha." She finished.
As he replayed the dialogue in his mind, Sasuke was overcome with a wave of happiness. He knew that hopefully in a little while, all the people he had hurt, either psychologically, or physically would forgive him. He just needed to work at it. He was also quit pleased with his reassessment of his skills. He figured he was probably an elite Chunnin, if not border-line Jounin.
'I may not be able to surpass you, Naruto,' Sasuke thought 'but there's no shame in being second best.'
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Now, an exploding note does not require a lot of chakra to activate it, thus making it perfect for sneak attacks. The best notes are said to require nothing more than the will of the maker to activate. As such none of the shinobi in the village were aware that Naruto had just been rendered unconscious by an exploding note of high quality. While the chakra signature might be low, the explosion itself would have been heard by anyone living in the apartment complex. However, since 'the demon' was living there, the only person who heard the explosion was the landlord. The old man held much against the Kyuubi, and it surprised many people when he agreed to the Sandaime's request to house the boy. What most people don't know was that he charged the third Hokage an exorbitant amount of money for the shabby room, enough to recuperate his losses. If the grey haired man had been anywhere else in the building, he wouldn't have caught up to the two Akatsuki members, leaving with the unconscious form of Uzumaki Naruto.
"Are you two going to kill that brat?" he asked to the backs of the figures.
The two cloaked forms turned to survey the aging man.
"The boy will die when we are through with him." One said.
"Hn. It's about time; damn demon has caused enough trouble around here. Just make sure you get the job done. I'll keep that bitch of a Hokage off your trail for a while." The decrepit landlord said as he turned around and walked off.
The two members just leapt away from the village quickly trying to make it back to the Akatsuki base.
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The next morning came to Konoha bright and sunny. There wasn't anything wrong in the village, and everyone was happy. Except for Hinata. You see, Naruto was twenty minutes late for their morning practice, and Hinata was growing impatient. She had even activated her byakugan attempting to catch an image of a blonde haired shinobi running towards her. After another twenty minutes, Hinata grew quit irate about her boyfriends tardiness.
'Since he isn't here, I'll go look for him. Maybe he got a mission.' She thought.
The first place she went to look was Ichiraku Ramen. She didn't see him, and moved on to her second choice of location. She took a leisurely walk through the village towards the training field were Team 7 first became rookie gennin. This was a very special place for Naruto, and she thought he might be there. But alas, he wasn't there either. She retraced her steps and headed towards the Hokage's office.
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While Hinata was searching for Naruto, two other figures were searching for the loud ninja as well. Well, one was looking; the other was peeking at women while they bathed. Hatake Kakashi was searching for Naruto on orders from the Hokage. The first place he looked was the training field where his former student and Hyuuga Hinata often practiced. Upon finding neither of teens present, he too went off in search of the blonde boy. Thinking along the same lines as Hinata he went to Ichiraku's. He didn't see the boy there, and continued towards the boy's apartment. When he got there, he noticed that the door was damaged, and that no one was in the apartment. He then proceeded to search out the land lord.
"Excuse me sir, but have you seen Uzumaki Naruto around recently, I'm to have him report to the Hokage immediately." He asked politely.
"No, Hatake-san, I haven't seen the boy since yesterday afternoon." Lied the old man.
Surprisingly, Kakashi couldn't get any kind of read on the old man. "Did you know that his door was burned or damaged recently?" Kakashi asked.
"No, although it doesn't surprise me, damn kid can't take care of his exploding notes, and damages my property." The man replied angrily, lying once again.
"Well, thank you for your time." Kakashi said as he left. 'Something just doesn't feel right. Naruto has never shown an interest in using explosive notes, come to think of it, I'm not even sure he could afford it, if he did want to use them.'
As he walked through town again, he passed Ichiraku again. This time, he went inside and asked the owner if he had seen Naruto.
"Actually, I haven't seen him today." Replied the owner. "That actually worries me. He's been coming here non-stop since he returned. This is the first time, he missed any sort of a meal here."
Now that was not good news. Kakashi knew that Naruto would have ramen if it killed him. So the only possible explanation was that either Naruto was changing his eating habits, which was highly unlikely, or something had happened to him. Kakashi made a mad dash towards the Hokage's office.
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Shizune looked up from her desk when she felt someone enter the waiting room for the Hokage.
"Ah, Hinata-san, what can I do for you?" She asked.
"A-ano, um I w-was wondering i-if Naruto-k-kun had a mission t-today?" Asked the stuttering girl.
"Well, not that I know of, but if you wait a minute, the Hokage will be done with a meeting, and you could ask her. But, why do you want to know?" Shizune replied.
W-well, he didn't s-sh-show up for pr-practice today and h-he wasn't at Ic-Ichiraku's, and I already checked h-his o-other training grounds. H-he's not anywhere." Hinata said quietly.
Just then Tsunade exited her office to speak with Shizune. Shizune whispered something in Tsunade's ear, and the Hokage stiffened slightly.
"I'm sorry Hinata, but I didn't assign Naruto to any mission today, I don't know where he could be." Tsunade replied.
As the shy heiress was about to reply a noticeably panting, grey-haired Jounin entered the room.
"Hokage-sama, we have…a problem. Naruto wasn't at his house or at Ichiraku. His apartment shows signs that something happened, but the landlord wouldn't say. Something needs to be done fast!" Kakashi reported, while gasping for air.
A look of confusion, panic and terror crossed the faces of all those present. Somehow, Uzumaki Naruto had gone missing.
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At the same time that the Hokage was discussing the disappearance of Naruto, the two members of Akatsuki that were sporting his body returned to the base. Placing his body in the middle of a complex sealing circle, they began to remove the soul of the Kyuubi from Naruto's body.
(A/N: Um thanks for the reviews, I'm sorry that this chapter was a little short, I wanted to write more, but I just couldn't think of anything to write. I promise the next chapter will be longer, and depending on the circumstances, may or may not be out earlier than next weekend. Unit then please keep reviewing, and if anyone knows how to separate paragraphs in a word document and have it transfer over to could you please tell me? Thanks to the reviews and for all the people that read my story.)