Gravity

Standard Disclaimer still applies

Thank you everyone for your reviews as always, and special thanks for being patient! Exams are literally a week away, and I'm totally stressing out about them. However, come July there should be more frequent updates… then I go on vacation… hopefully.

flaming beauty – I don't think your crazy! ;

ArmorOfGeddon – You bring up a good point, however for the sake of my story, there is no solitary "Leader" so much as it's a… twisted form of democracy with an elected leader that is equally as powerful as the rest, hence why his death wouldn't be that 'notable'. Although, you are entirely true about the perceptions of the Akatsuki leader in the actual Manga/Anime, it just doesn't apply to this story…. Sorry ;

Edit: forgot to mention this chapter is slightly raw... I felt guilty for not putting it up sooner. I'm sorry.

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Yondaime sighed as he rubbed his temples. He stared down at the scroll open before him, tracing the intricate patterns for the highly advanced seal lying before him with his finger. Why did he have a bad feeling about this? That he would never see Naruto again? Not for awhile at least…

Flashback

"Arashi," Sandaime gently reprimanded. "Your team is the only team available for this mission; our recourses are tight right now. They've been on plenty of missions like this…"

-But they haven't….- Arashi wanted to say, but bit his lip and remained silent.

"It's a simple information gathering mission, A-rank, they should be able to handle it… Tsume, send for Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito, Naruto and Rin." That was that, Sandaime had made the decision without consenting Arashi, not like Yondaime could have said anything to object either, not without raising suspicions.

It hadn't taken long for them to arrive, surprisingly all on time. Yondaime eyed Tsume, and all he got in response was a smirk. He snorted; no doubt she threatened Kakashi and Obito with castration if they didn't come on time.

"Team 7, you have a mission to the boarders of Iwagakure no sato, this mission is an infiltration and espionage mission, ranked A class." Everyone noticeably stiffened, even the ever cool Kakashi. Arashi sighed, he really did not want to send them, but he relented, Naruto and his team would protect them…

"You are searching for any information on battle plans, amount of Ninjas, Ranks… essentially anything that could be used in war-"

"Ano… with all due respect, Hokage-sama… Doesn't this border on an S-rank mission?" Arashi sighed at Naruto's 'innocent' inquisition.

"Aa, demo, we don't have the man power needed to go on this mission, you are the only free team available. In the event a team becomes available that can provide adequate assistance, we will send them out immediately to a rendezvous point in this scroll. If you don't have anything else to ask, then you're dismissed." They nodded, bowed and left, all but Naruto.

"Ano…You wanted my mission reports from before I came here, I managed to do all of them, but some of them I couldn't remember all the details…. It's in this scroll.." Naruto explained, handing it out to Arashi who took it. When did he ask for- ooohhh… his mind made the connections and he nodded professionally, accepting the large scroll from Naruto. With that the blond kid vanished.

"Arashi?" Yondaime looked over at Sandaime, raising an eyebrow.

"Sarutobi?"

"You seem nervous…"

"I have every right to be… I just sent an unprepared team on an S-rank mission without backup…"

End

Arashi groaned, putting his hands through his hair and letting out a frustrated growl. The instructions on the scroll were painfully easy to follow. In fact, it wasn't the scroll that he was frustrated over, it was the fact that he wasn't with his team, preventing the bad things from happening.

Why did he want to become Hokage again?

"Naruto… please don't let them get hurt…"

"Arashi-kun?" Yondaime looked up into the eyes of his beautiful wife, her very presence reminding him that he should be enjoying his honeymoon, not fretting over his team. He smiled, pushing his worries aside; he had a son to make.

-God that sounded wrong, Ero-sennin would have a field day with that thought.- Arashi thought guiltily.

Flashback

The four of them stood at the gates, staring back at the worried sensei. Kakashi, Obito and Rin were fidgeting, worried. Obito was actually… well... calmer than the others, but still very pale. Rin and Kakashi would glance at him every once and awhile.

Yondaime sighed, for appearances sakes, he had to act like he didn't know if anything wrong was afoot.

"Well, I'll see you in a month, kay Guys?" he smiled broadly, not feeling it inside at all. He couldn't stand it, and gave them all hugs, just incase he would never see them again. The feeling that he wouldn't see at least one person got stronger and stronger.

"Naruto.." he whispered into the miniature blonds head as he hugged him goodbye.

"Please… take care…"

"I will… tou-san…"

He watched them leave, restraining every urge to go after them and drag them back to prevent them from leaving.

-What is this feeling? This feeling of… dread?-

End

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Naruto yawned and stretched, scratching the side of his head as he got up to take a leak. He hated having mid-watch. Kakashi, Obito and Rin were sleeping in the two tents set up, while Naruto was sitting by the fire, waiting. Or at least, he had been.

"Shouldn't have had so much water…" he grumbled as he unzipped his hands, and letting it rip with a pleasant sigh. He was, of course, acutely aware that the bush he was taken a leak in, was occupied.

Naruto mentally grinned. –If your planning an Ambush, make sure your opponent doesn't already know you are there…­-

'Not fair seeing as the opponent has super sensitive Demonic hearing….'

-Where have you been, Plushi-sama?- all he got in response was a growl and Naruto chuckled, humming a little tune as he finished emptying himself on the poor 'bush.'

Naruto went to sit back on his log, discreetly hiding the fact that he sent a senbon needle into the two tents with a black piece of paper on them. No doubly wakening the others up for the attempted Ambush ready to be made.

They were currently trekking through Grass country, who had recently signed a treaty with Earth becoming a profitably supply line into fire country. It had taken only Naruto's sneakiness to get them past most of the patrols without fighting, so far. However it now appeared that their luck had run out.

Naruto slowly eased a hidden Kunai into his hand, making sure to keep the projectile hidden beneath his black sleeve. To the far west he sensed two familiar chakra signatures and breathed a sigh of relief. So far, everything was going according to plan B.

Naruto unobtrusively stretched backwards again as a storm of Shuriken and Kunai sailed just over him, heading into the boy's tent. The blond was up and ready in a defensive position immediately as Kakashi and Obito came out of their tent, followed shortly by Rin from her tent.

"How many are there?"

"6." Came Naruto's short response. Instead of waiting for his attackers to come to them, he formed a familiar looking cross with his hands.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu…" he whispered, as 50 clones burst into existence in a circular pattern around them.

"Fan out." He ordered, and they leapt into action, jumping into trees and harassing their would be ambushers.

"Kori Shinchuu no jutsu…" If Naruto didn't have such advanced hearing, he would have never heard it. None the less, he didn't dwell on it for now, making them run in circles might be productive for them, but Naruto already could see through it.

"HyouTen no jutsu" he muttered, as he held out his palms and 6 tendrils of chakra floated around before snapping tightly in seemingly random directions. There were 3 people behind Naruto who weren't his team mates, and the other 3 were facing him.

"You guys take the ones behind me, Kakashi you take the one on the right of me as well, I'll take the other two." He commanded quickly, cracking out orders like he'd been doing it for years.

No sooner had the words left his mouth that everything got hectic. Seeing as they had failed to harm the people in the tents, their 'ambushers' came out and attacked them fully. Naruto felt they were sloppy, not just in plan, but in technique as well. Merely low chuunins, nothing to worry about.

"Kirigakure no jutsu!" Okay, so maybe it was something to worry about. How in hell did a grass ninja know a mist technique? However, he couldn't think on it any further as a sword just barely missed impaling his side as he swerved in the steadily increasing fog.

"Shit shit shit-… RASENGAN!" Naruto suddenly called out, as all the mist started to swirl into a tornado around him, effectively minimizing the area affected, giving the others some visibility once again. Naruto could have sworn he heard Rin thank him somewhere to his left, but he couldn't be sure. While that was happening, Naruto multi-tasked by exerting a certain amount of Chakra to create a kage bunshin without the hand seal, from there it did the rest, forming a series of hand seals before calling out softly the name of his next jutsu.

"Soushuuha.." almost all of Naruto's shuriken were now floating around him. Naruto smirked, sensing his two opponents, one behind, one in front of him. They wouldn't know what hit them… literally. Naruto took a deep breath and dispelled his clone and his rasengan, allowing the mist to settle once again. His two opponents launched their attack just as Naruto sent out his floating Shuriken at blinding speeds. A split second later, Naruto heard the tell-tale sign of two bodies hitting the ground with a sickening 'squilsh' and 'thump.'

Finally able to properly dispel the mist, Naruto ran his hands together before calling out an experimental jutsu, he ever so loved to test them in real battle.

"Gekido Shiki, Kaze Arashi!" he roared out, impressing himself with the results as his chakra poured out from his tenketsu's, initiating a massive current of wind and blasting outwards, effectively dispelling all the mist; Kind of like a stationary Kaiten.

He looked first at his two opponents, dead. He sighed, turning his gaze to Rin who was handling her opponent admirably. Obito, he noticed was fighting 3 people. He frowned. 3 people? He looked a little further and saw Kakashi on the ground, bleeding from his head. Naruto paled and cursed inwardly as he launched himself in their direction.

He'd have to make this count; the wind storm actually took a lot out of him. It was one of the drawbacks of doing experimental jutsus in a battle, minus the ever present and high probability of everything going terribly wrong.

"Doton, Daichi Kasui no jutsu" Naruto formed the seals once he was close enough, praying his aim was bang on. It seemed lady luck was with him, two long thing spikes of stone rose from the ground at a blinding speed, unknown to the two men who were impaled on them. One had lodged itself through one attackers lung, another through the young mans forehead.

He checked back on Rin, only to find her a foot behind him, her face pale. Naruto made a comical face as he jumped in shock, earning a half amused glance from the kunoichi, but she was focused on Kakashi. Once the last opponent was dealt with by Obito, she rushed over to take in the damage.

While Rin was tending to their fallen comrade, Naruto interrogated Obito.

"Obito? What happened?" he asked softly, seating himself down beside the boy, slightly winded.

"I turned when Kakashi shouted… after you got rid of the some of the mist…. He just fell… and I got so… angry… I was so scared that…. That-" Naruto understood perfectly, a flash image of Sasuke clouding his vision from their first C-rank turned A-rank.

"I don't mean that, I mean you took on 3 guys! On your own! And you were doing pretty good, but you were tireing…"

"I dunno what happened… one moment it seemed hopeless… the next it was as if…everything slowed down to an impossible level…." Naruto mentally snickered.

"Obito, look me in the eye." He commanded, and made no startled intake of breath when he was met with crimson instead of the smooth onyx. Actually Naruto started to smile softly, before it turned into a full maniacal grin. Obito looked frightened (and for very good reason.)

"Congratulations. I always held onto the belief that late bloomers were the strongest."

"wha-" Naruto snickered and shook his head.

"Oh... you'll get it… eventually." Obito merely looked confused.

"I will what now? Tell mmeeeeee" Naruto laughed at him.

"Sharingan Obito." Naruto winked and hopped pleasantly over to Rin to see Kakashi, leaving Obito sitting down on the ground in a hapless daze.

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HyouTen no jutsu – Literally means "Mark-Point"

GekidoShiki, Kaze Arashi – Literally means 'Rage(ing)' 'Style' : 'Wind' and 'Storm.'

DaichiKasui – Literally means 'Ground' and 'Spike'

I'm not particularly fond of this chapter… I think it sucks. ;;