Hey readers and welcome to the next chapter of my story. Now as much as I hate to say it yet again; life is busy for me. Anyways I have to apologize to any of you that read my other stories I have to apologize. For I want to work on my other stories and give something to them but I just don't have the time to focus on them….which annoys me. I will be trying to get some done as soon as I can but I just need to focus in on finding the time to do that…and to you know…have a normal life. Anyways all I am saying is that I am not abandoning any of them but just stuck in my normal life routine of being busy all the time. Like any other adult living in this world now.

Chapter 73

~Orochimaru's lab~

Sasuke calmly walks over to the tube staring at the body kept inside of it. Then without a moment of hesitation he slashes through the glass causing the fluid to drain out from the large gash.

*cough, cough* "So why am I being brought out of this damn place this time?" The man mutters before looking out the chamber at Sasuke and gained a wide smirk showing of his shark like teeth. "So, it's the snake's favorite toy." The man tells Sasuke who glares at him.

"Orochimaru is dead. I killed him myself…now Suigetsu I want you to join my team." Sasuke tells him calmly.

"Tsk, that bastard isn't any easy one to kill…you never know if he might rear his scaley head back up." Suigetsu says not truly caring. "Now why should I follow you? After all you are part of the group that have been experimenting on me for all this time." Suigetsu tells Sasuke not trusting him. Though all he got back was an uncaring look.

"I am collecting a strong team to help me achieve my own goals. If you wish to bring your goals into reality then you will support me….if not I will have one of the researchers here put you in one of the other tubes where you can stay trapped till death." Sasuke tells him without any expressions. "Choose."

"Tch this damn cocky bastard. I really want to tell him to take this offer and shove it up his ass…but with those damn eyes of his I doubt I will be able to escape. After all he is well aware of my abilities weakness." Suigetsu thinks annoyed.

"Tck, fine I will follow you…but on one condition. I want to collect the swords of the Seven swordsmen of the mist. If you get in my way; I'll kill you without hesitation." Suigetsu ends up telling Sasuke not wanting to save some face.

"…fine. Now follow me we have a few other members to collect." Sasuke tells him not caring. He then watched as Suigetsu slowly seemed to flow out of the gash he created. The man then formed back as his normal self after the last bit of fluid came out of the chamber.

"Ah, it feels good to be free…now I just need to find a proper sword to use." Suigetsu says with a smirk stretching out a bit. Sasuke said nothing as a reply and simply kept walking out of the base.

+half hour later+

"Oy why the hell are we in this backwater town?" Suigetsu asked looking around at the buildings.

"I need you to be useful to my cause. So, I am letting you have the Kubikiribocho." Sasuke tells him simply walking to where he knew it was being used as a grave marker.

"A grave marker! What kind of idiot would use such a legendary sword as a damn grave marker?" Suigetsu asked. Though Sasuke didn't reply and instead continued to walk to where he knew the graves were set up. Sadly, when they got to them instead of seeing the easily recognizable blade there only was two mounds.

"…so where's the blade?" Suigetsu asked a bit annoyed while Sasuke just looked at the spot with a neutral stare.

"Hey!" They both heard a voice call to them and saw a random villager walking up to them. "Is this your friend's grave? I am sorry to tell ya but some rich guy had the nerve to defile this grave about a month ago. From what I heard he had a group of armed men bring the blade to his house so that no one was able to stop him…I still feel bad for the poor souls that are buried here." The villager told them annoyed before finally walking away to do whatever he needed to do.

"Well, that explains what happened to it…I guess we'll have to just have to visit this guy huh?" Suigetsu said with a vicious smirk.

~Konoha~

"…what am I going to do now?" Mikki mutters completely devastated. After getting so far in the search to get her necklace back she had so much hope that it would happen. But just as they finally found where it went the finish line was taken right from her. Now all she felt like doing was cry as tears quickly formed.

Naruto simply stood there watching as the girls tried to comfort their friend even though he could clearly see the disappointment on their faces as well.

*sigh* "Well I didn't want to go on an unpaid task like this today…and still don't. But I can't be happy with myself if I just left these girls right now…besides I got so far into this I might as well finish it." Naruto thinks.

"Ok girls…stop being so down. I'll go get the necklace back so just wait here." Naruto tells them with a smirk.

"Wait!" Ayame told him before he could begin his run. "I want to go with you." She told him firmly.

"I do to." Sakari added determined.

"You are right I can't give up now!" Mikki said.

"…what?" Naruto asked surprised. "Umm girls you do realize that I will go much faster if I travel by myself." He tells them.

"Oh come on Naruto-kun you already showed us that you can travel just as fast with us. You just need to carry us." Ayame tells him simply.

"But I thought you girls didn't want me to carry you?" Naruto asked seeing as they made such a fuss earlier.

"Well we can make an exception for this time…besides I just didn't want to be tempted to steal you from Ayame-chan" Sakari tells him with a smirk while muttering the last bit.

"…why do I have a feeling I am gonna regret this later." "…ok girls…" Naruto tells them summoning three clones that crouched down in front of each girl. "Hope on the clones then and let's go." Naruto told them and the girls did just that with blushes on each of their faces.

"A-anyways let's go get my necklace back." Mikki ordered. And with that Naruto simply nodded his and began rushing towards the village entrance. He then followed the trail to what would be the closest town hoping that they would be heading there next. Though with his speed he wasn't too worried seeing as he could travel much faster than a large caravan of traders.

"Geez I never realized how fast you ninja actually travel!" Sakari says loudly over his should as all she could hear was wind flowing around them. Course this was due to her not being used to going anywhere near the speed a ninja could go.

"Heh, ya I guess to you civilians we are pretty fast." Naruto tells them with a smirk he then slows down as he finally reached the town. "Hey sir did a traveling trading group pass through?" Naruto asked a random man around them.

"No. Sorry we haven't had any traders come through for about a week now…are those girls ok?" the man tells Naruto then points at the girls on his clone's backs.

"Umm no it may look weird but trust me we have to find a certain group of traders as fast as possible and this is the fastest way for us to travel." Naruto told the guy who looked at Naruto for a minute before finally just shrugging it off and walking away from them.

"…I know that guy must be thinking we are the weirdest people around.." Naruto thinks embarrassed but still turned around and ran back to Konoha in order to follow the next road. Sadly, yet again they didn't have luck and finally had one village left to check.

"Come on go faster we might lose them seeing as we lost so much time!" Ayame ordered Naruto.

"I am trying Ayame-chan but if I go much faster I don't know if you girls will be able to handle it…but don't worry I am confident we have enough time to catch them. I mean how fast can they go when they have to carry all of their supplies and such." Naruto tells them. He then sniffed the air and frowned before finally coming to a stop.

"Hey, you tell me you are going fast and then you just stop on us. What gives Na-" Ayame began only for Naruto to place a hand on her mouth.

"Shh, I smell blood in the air…you girls stay here while I check it out." Naruto tells them seriously. He then jumps into the trees and follows his nose to the source while taking care to keep hidden. As he came closer, he heard the clashes of weapons and eventually found the source. "…well shit" Naruto muttered before quickly creating a clone and had it dispel to summon the ones carrying the girls.

"Well girls I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we finally found the traders. The bad thing is that they are currently under attack by bandits." Naruto explained to the girls.

"What! Then why the hell are we here? We need to go help them." Sakari tells Naruto then preps to rush out only for Naruto to grab her shoulder.

"Hold on there. I will help them…I just wanted to inform you girls so you didn't worry about being attacked. It is too dangerous for you girls to fight." Naruto tells them firmly before jumping out from the trees to join the battle. For it seemed that the traders didn't hire any actual ninja and were only relying on basic guards to protect them from a rather large group of bandits. "Why the hell are there even bandits relatively close to a hidden village anyways…these fools have a death wish." Naruto muttered as he pulled out two kunai and joined the fight. He then began to turn the odds back in the favor of the traders now that the bandits numbers quickly were killed off.

~Girls in forest~

Ayame was currently pouting unhappy the fact that Naruto didn't trust her ability enough to let her fight. In fact, she already has tried to sneak past the blonds clones only to be stopped yet again.

"Mouu stupid Naruto-kun. Part of the reason I wanted to do mission was that I wanted to show that I can take care of myself." Ayame thinks annoyed but then smirks as she thinks of a plan to do what she wants. She then smirks at Naruto and walks over to them as sexily as possible.

"Oh, Naru-kun…did I ever tell you how thankful I am that you are brave enough to fight all those scary men." Ayame told them circling her finger on one of their chests. "Come to think of it we never talked about what you will get for this mission…now what can I reward you with." She asked with a teasing smirk. She then reached to her hip and pulled her shirt up a bit making the Naruto clone blush more.

"So, Naruto…please forgive me." She told him with her smirk still on her face as she quickly threw a few needles at the clone in front of her and managed to nick him enough to pop said clone. Meanwhile the other two clones were shocked enough by her doing this that the other girls were able to quickly injure them as well.

"Good job girls. Now let's go show that we aren't helpless before Naruto is able to force us back." Ayame told them and her friends smiled and charged forward. They then quickly found opponents to face and showed how their practice ended up. For while the men were stronger than them; the bandits surely were far less skilled with their weapons leading to about an even playing field. Course Naruto saw this and couldn't help but growl.

"Damn it Ayame-chan why do you have to be so willing to put yourself into danger." Naruto thinks angrily quickly jumping out of the main fight to create a few clones to watch over the girls. "Now I need to make this fight end fast." Naruto thinks pushing chakra through his body to chop through the enemy even faster.

+ten minutes later+

Finally, after fighting for ten minutes Naruto finally finished the last opponent with a kunai to the heart. He then let the overused blade stay in the body it lodged seeing as it fulfilled its job more than enough. He then looked around and quickly located his team which were thankfully tired but seemingly unharmed. So, he quickly walked over to them with fury bubbling through his system.

"Damn it Ayame why did you do that? You know that it is way too dangerous for civilians like you to fight people like this." Naruto told the girl waving his hand at the bodies around them. "Do you girls have a death wish? Next time I do something with you. I will make sure I don't make the mistake of leaving you to your own choices if this is what you are gonna do out of the village" Naruto growled out at Ayame who quickly became angry as well.

"Listen you!" Ayame told Naruto poking a finger at his chest. "If you haven't noticed we are fine. Hell, we don't have a scratch on us thanks to our skill being better than those fools. I mean of course we can't fight like a ninja can but we can hold our own at least. So don't you DARE treat us like delicate flowers that just need to stay home. We can also protect ourselves." Ayame told him before turning around with her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Gah I have no idea why I spent so much time practicing to impress you If you are just going to be a dick." She told him shocking Naruto.

"Y-you did that for me?" Naruto muttered surprised. But before he could continue talking a few of the merchants came over to them.

"Excuse me kind ninja. You have our thanks for helping us. Normally we can handle the bandits that try and come after us but apparently this group was allowed to grow to a ridiculous number….now if you don't mind listening I would like to ask you for a favor." The man told him rubbing his hands together. "You see we lost several of our guards soo would you please guard us until we reach the next town…of course you will be rewarded." The man tells Naruto with the other merchants looking at him clearly pleading for help. Course Naruto just shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure" Naruto tells them simply seeing as he would have to wait for them to set up to go through the jewelry anyways. He then glances over to the girls and watched as Ayame pushed them along to one of the carts that had space.

"I guess I really ticked her off this time…but she still just doesn't understand how dangerous a ninja's life is" Naruto thinks sadly seeing as she clearly was trying to get away from him. "..I'll have to find a way to make it up for her later." Naruto thought already disliking the cold treatment pushing the matter of explaining the life of a ninja to a later date. But he had a job to do and currently had to focus on the caravan to make sure that they were kept safe. With that in mind he walked with them slowly towards the next town while making sure to keep his distance from the one Ayame was on to give her space. Though before they completely left, he finished off the men the girls beat seeing as they apparently didn't have the heart to finish them off completely. Something he was rather thankful for seeing as killing scars you for life.

"Ah we finally found them. Soon my precious heirloom will be back with me; and it's all thanks to you Ayame-chan." Mikki tells Ayame with a bright smile.

"..you're welcome." Ayame tells her halfheartedly, something that the other two picked up on right away.

"Hey what's wrong?" Sakari asked her friend who just sighed.

"I always wanted to show Naruto-kun that I was working hard to be someone he doesn't have to protect all the time. But come to think about it he is right…what we did was unnecessarily risky. I mean civilians that were trained to fight died during that fight simply by being overrun…that could have easily been us. Especially seeing as Naruto wasn't able to protect us if things went bad. He had every right to be mad at us for taking that risk but all I did was think about my goal…and now he isn't even coming anywhere near us." Ayame explained with a frown she then felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry Ayame-chan I am sure Naruto-san is just giving you space. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy to hold a grudge…especially to the girl that he loves." Mikki tells her with a kind smirk.

"Ya don't worry. If worse comes to worse I'll just beat some sense into him for ya." Sakari tells her holding up a fist making Ayame laugh a bit.

"Thanks you two." Ayame told them feeling a bit better.

"Fu Fu Fu young love at its finest." The women holding the reins said happily laughing a bit. "Don't worry miss there will always be fights in any relationship you have. You just got to make up with each other and learn from each mistake." The women tell them with a smile. And with that being said Ayame felt even better and was determine to make up with Naruto as soon as they reached the village.

~Village~

Thankfully after the initial battle the group really didn't run into too much trouble besides the occasional animal. So, due to this they were able to reach the village just when the sun was setting.

"Ah finally in our next location. Now come on you lot let's get our shops set up and get to bed. Time is money after all." The leader of the merchants told the group. With that all of the people around him began to fill the various empty stalls slowly with the cargo off various wagons. While they are doing this the leader walked over to Naruto with a smile on his face.

"Again thank you kind ninja for helping us out in our time of need. Please take this as a reward." The man tells Naruto handing him a pouch with some money.

"No problem. Just try to keep safe." Naruto told the man putting the pouch into his pocket without counting it. After all he helped them not only to help the girls but also simply because he felt like it was the right thing for him to do at the time. After the man left Naruto to handle his own business so Naruto left to finally meet with the girls who currently were looking around the village.

"Hey girls how are you doing?" Naruto asked the girls who smiled at him.

"Pretty good…just wish the jewelry salesman could put out his stock already. I want my necklace." Mikki tells him.

"Hey at least all we need to do is get a hotel room and wait till tomorrow morning." Sakari adds happily and of course seeing as it was late enough, they quickly found a hotel.

*yawn* "Welcome how may we help you?" the tired man at the counter asked them.

"Hey we need two rooms with two beds." Naruto told the man kindly.

"I'm sorry due to a traveling merchant coming to town we have a lot of travelers from smaller towns here. Due to this we currently only have one two bed room left." The man tells them.

"Well…ok we'll still take it for one night." Naruto tells the man giving him a bit of cash that the man quickly took and brought out change and a key.

"Thank you, sir. Your room is number 6." The man tells Naruto who nods and takes the key.

"Okay girls here you go…I am sorry but one of you will have to share a bed." Naruto tells the girls handing Sakari the key. He then turns around and begins walking back out of the building but was stopped by Ayame grabbing onto his arm.

"Where do you think you are going mister?" She asked Naruto as if daring him to leave without telling her.

"..um there is only one room so I was gonna go sleep in the forest…don't worry I have all my camping gear with me al-" Naruto explained.

"Nonsense!" Ayame told Naruto with a glare and began to drag him with her. "Come on you two let's get some rest." She told the other two not stopping at all. Meanwhile the two girls just looked at each other and shrugged before following Ayame to the room

*yawn* " That man is either the luckiest bastard I have ever meet or is just whipped by that gal." the man at the desk mutters before focusing back on trying to not sleep through his shift.

Meanwhile in the room Ayame finally stopped pulling Naruto and let him stand in front of her simply surprised. "Okay Naruto get ready for bed and then lay on this bed…you two use the other bed." Ayame ordered. An order that the girls quickly complied with and dropped their weapons before crawling into bed. Meanwhile Naruto just finished taking off his gear by removing his shirt and chainmail before being pushed onto the bed. Ayame then gets in next to him and pulls the sheet up covering them both before finally resting her head on his chest. "Good night everyone." Ayame then mutters before quickly falling asleep.

"So, does this mean that she forgives me or was just too tired to care…" Naruto thinks confused but eventually fell asleep himself. As for Sakari and Mikki they couldn't help but look over at Ayame in jealousy.

"I love being friends with Ayame but right now all I can feel is jealousy." Sakari muttered seeing as they both watched Naruto go shirtless and see the girl now looking very comfortable with her head on his muscular chest.

"…agreed" Mikki couldn't help but mutter seeing as like Sakari she currently isn't dating anyone. Still eventually they fell asleep

+Next morning+

When the group woke up, they quickly rushed over towards the market area seeing as they didn't have any clothes to change into anyway. Not that it mattered seeing as their main focus was to get Mikki's necklace before anyone else tried to buy it.

"Hello lovely ladies come to look at my fine wears?" A man called out happily to the girls surrounded by a variety of glittery jewelry.

"No we have come to talk to you actually." Mikki said seriously. "You see while you were in Konoha a criminal stole my necklace and sold it to you. So, I would like to buy it back please." Mikki explained to the man who frowned.

"Oh, I am terribly sorry miss. I always hate having to deal with stolen property but it is next to impossible for me to stop." The man tells her with a frown. He then grabs a box from underneath the counter. "This is all of the jewelry I bought while in Konoha from various people. Would you please pick out your piece?" The man asked her and Mikki happily did so until a few seconds later she happily looked down at her own chest as she immediately placed the piece around her neck.

"Oh my precious I missed you." She said happily rubbing it between her fingers before looking back at the man. "How much do I owe you?" She asked him.

"Hmm…well you did say it was stolen from you and…wait a minute weren't you guys the random people that helped our group on the way here?" the man asks after taking a closer look at all of them.

"Hehe ya, we worked hard to chase down my precious family memento." Mikki tells him with a smirk while the man gained a wide grin.

"Well perfect. I wanted to thank you guys for saving our asses already. So, how about you just give me the price I bought the piece for and we will call it good?" the man asked and watched as Naruto placed down a pouch of money.

"Sold." He told the man happily and watched as the man got surprised by the fact that they had the exact amount. Seeing this Naruto just smirked at the man. "Let's just say that we found the man that sold it to you and got him to tell us how much he sold it for."

"R-right" the man muttered deciding he didn't want to hear anything else about the matter and simply placed the money underneath the counter.

"We did it!" Sakari called out happily with her and Ayame looking down at the necklace that Mikki kept a protective hand on. "It took a lot of effort but we finally got it back to."

As they were doing this Naruto smirked and turned back to the jewelry seller and quickly made another purchase.

*cough* Naruto quickly fake coughed in order to get the girls attention. He then walked over to Ayame and handed her a small box. A box she quickly opened showing a rather plain necklace that held a pretty blue gem.

"Umm thank you Naruto-kun but why did you get me this" Ayame asked not expecting the gift.

"W-well Ero-sennin told me that the best way to have a girl forgive you is to give them a nice gift like jewelry." Naruto told her honestly while rubbing his head. "So, do you forgive me or getting so upset with you yesterday?" Naruto asked looking nervous. Course Ayame just blinked at this and laughed a bit.

"Oh, Naruto I was just upset at the moment…I realized it was my mistake soon after I thought about it a bit." She told him giving him a hug. "So of course, I forgive you my sweet and caring boyfriend…and thank you for this gift." She told him putting it on quickly. She then glanced at him for a second before gaining a mischievous smirk and leaned back close to him. "Come to think of it you did all this work and didn't get a payment like your normal missions…so how about we think about giving you that reward I was talking about when we get home huh?" She asks kissing him on the cheek causing Naruto to blush.

"A-anyways let's head home shall we." Naruto said still flustered.

"Damn lovebirds…" Sakari muttered wishing she found someone she liked enough to act like them soon. She then thought about things for a moment and quickly widened her eyes.

"Shit! We have been gone for more than a full day now our families must be worried sick!" Sakari tells them realizing she never told anyone what she was doing. Course Ayame and Mikki's eyes quickly do the same realizing the mistake leading to them all turning to Naruto.

"Come on lover boy you can play around with Ayame later but right now you gotta hull ass and get us home pronto." Sakari tells Naruto dragging the blushing boy towards the gate with Ayame and Mikki following.

"Haha, well I guess they had one interesting adventure." The jewelry salesman said with a wide smile as he watched them disappear from site.

And that is where I am going to end this chapter. Now I am a bit annoyed that I had to rush through this at some points but overall I am quite happy with this side story…to be honest I hope you are happy with it as well but we will see. Oh, and just to let you know I am most likely not going to show Suigetsu's attack on the mansion seeing as I had no plans to change any of it anyways. But for now Ja Ne.