Naruto had gotten to travel to so many places with Pervy Sage. He was learning a ton under the guise of doing research for a book.
However, Naruto found it rather annoying that Pervy Sage oftentimes disappeared with one or two women for several hours at a time. He knew what they were doing. Again, he was learning a ton.
But most of what they did was actually useful. He had mastered The Rasengan and was working on his relationships with his summons. And gathering useful information was becoming second nature to him.
Lately he realized that he had gained a secondary chakra type that would make Shanan proud. He couldn't do the things that she could yet, but it was a useful type to have when working with toads.
He thought about Shanan and Sasuke often. He thought about Kakashi and Sakura. He thought about all of his friends. And the idea of protecting each and every one of them made him work so much harder. He definitely couldn't let Sasuke ever beat him again if he wanted to bring him back.
He knew Sasuke was working as hard as he was, if not harder.
Sasuke had been training with Orochimaru every day. He had much more control over his curse mark and the abilities he'd gotten from it.
However, he couldn't stand Kabuto. He thought it was laughable that the man ever tried to order him around. And he was always trying to keep secrets from Sasuke, but Sasuke had an innate ability to know when someone was lying one hundred percent of the time. Even Orochimaru, who he also couldn't truly stand. And they could never hide their emotions from him. Not that he ever let on to these facts.
He thought about Shanan constantly. She was his driving force in putting up with any of this. He was only ever happy when he was done training for the day and could see her face in the picture he secretly kept of the three of them. He found solace in knowing that she still had Naruto there to protect her. And he thought about their kiss everyday and couldn't wait to get home and kiss her like that again.
He thought about Naruto too. He hated that he had nearly killed him. But he knew Naruto wouldn't stop until Sasuke was beaten enough to be dragged home. He knew Naruto wouldn't understand. He knew the Akatsuki wanted Naruto, so he wanted to protect him too. One day they would all understand, but for now he would be the one to make the necessary sacrifices for all of their futures.
Kakashi was stationed out at The Land of Rice Paddies. It seemed like an inconspicuous little place. But it was actually teeming with knowledge about anyone and everyone ever having worked with, for or around the Akatsuki.
He worked in the back of a bar kitchen with a black wig and an eyepatch. It was a common stop for both quiet meetings and loudmouth drunks with too many stories that they shouldn't be telling.
Only once was he ever recognized and then he had a team of four shinobi surround him behind the bar as he took the trash out.
They never stood a chance against him, although one did catch him off guard enough to almost slash his arm. Until his arm turned into water and the knife went right through before it solidified again.
Kakashi had been as surprised as the shinobi was, but used the other guy's surprise to his advantage. In the end he claimed that they had drunkenly tried to rob him and that it didn't take much to fight them off before he contacted the Anbu to retrieve them.
And of course, he thought about both his team and Shanan a lot. Especially now that he could change himself the way that she could. He knew about her chakra absorption and cycling. He knew she'd absorbed her ability to use Chidori from him a long time ago. And now she had given him one of her more useful abilities in return.
So he trained it every night in the deepest part of the nearby woods for weeks until he, too, had perfected her Storm Cloud Jutsu.