A/N: Been a while. My computer finally gave up on me after ten years of loyal and exemplary service and it took me while to get a replacement. Anyway got a new chapter. Enjoy

Sasuke wasn't fond of hospitals. A sentiment he shared with most shinobi. The gray mundane walls, the smell of antiseptic and the general atmosphere of doom and gloom was too depressing... even for him. Then that of course begged the question what was he doing here?

Its not as if he was the one injured and neither were his fellow shinobi for that matter. No, it was their civilian escort who had gotten himself hurt and rather badly he had to admit. That being said, he felt they had fulfilled their obligation the moment they had gotten him here and made sure his life wasn't in any immediate danger. He thought they had better things to do than wait with folded hands resembling bereaved relatives waiting for news of a sick loved one. To make matters worse he was being subjected to uncharacteristically dark glares from the blonde genin who was standing with his back to the opposite wall. Sasuke wasn't sure what his problem was. He barely got singed and he had been warned.

Ignoring the annoying blonde wasn't helping matters because that brought his attention to his other teammate. She was seated, her face nestled between the palm of her hands, her elbows resting on her knees obviously lost in thought.

Trying to ignore her led his thoughts to Kakashi which he had to admit was a decidedly the worst direction his thoughts could take at the moment. At least the girl was easy on the eyes. The jounin hadn't been pleased when he found that both of them had left Sakura alone to defend the caravan. Matters hadn't improved when they found the cart destroyed, the civilian unconscious with a wooden splinter jutting out of his leg and the pink-haired chunin... missing. It was only due to Kakashi's nin dogs that they'd been able to track her down and rescue her.

Kakashi hadn't been happy. He hadn't said anything yet because there were more important matters that needed to be attented to, but Sasuke knew what was coming. Despite his usual, laid-back demeanor the man expected high-standards from his subordinates and he had to grudgingly admit, he had every right to.

It shouldn't have taken him that long to defeat the bandits, despite their... resilience. He underestimated them and made it a lot harder than it needed to be, so much so that the blonde idiot felt it necessary to provide his unwanted and unnecessary help.

"I've spoken to the doctors, he is out of danger." Kakashi said as he approached them, "I've also made arrangements for him to be sent back to Sumer."

"So now what?" Sakura said voicing his own question.

"This mission has been a complete fiasco, and would be marked as a failed one as soon as we get back to Konoha." Kakashi replied solemnly.

"So that's it?" Naruto demanded, "Mission failed, game over? We all get to go home now? What about the girl?"

Sasuke suppressed a groan at the blonde's outburst. He had done the one thing he really shouldn't have and that was bait Kakashi.

"Of course Naruto, tell me what about the girl?" Kakashi retorted, "We just lost the one way we could've gotten into Kusa legally and carry out an investigation. If you'd just followed orders and stay put to protect the goods like you were meant to, we wouldn't have been in this mess would we?"

"And you?" The jounin turned to him, "Uchiha Sasuke... The Uchiha Sasuke is of course too good and important to work with others. Nope its beneath him." Then he turned his attention to the last member of the team and saw the girl stiffen, "And finally we have you." He held her gaze, "Tell me Sakura, what's your rank?"

Sakura was so flummoxed by the unexpected question that she was caught completely off-balance and failed to answer his query immediately.

"I asked you a question."

"Ch... Chunin." she stammered.

"Care to repeat that?"

"Chunin." She said a little more firmly.

"Naruto is a genin." the jounin said, still holding her gaze, "Guess who holds seniority?"

"I do." She was quicker on the uptake this time.

"You seem like a smart woman, so can you tell me where I'm going with this?"

Sakura wanted the ground to swallow her whole and it took all her will-power not to quail under the jounin's hostile stare. But she swallowed and managed to reply, "I should've assumed command after you and Uchiha-san had been otherwise occupied."

"Did you do that?"

"No, sir."

This wasn't what Sakura had expected. She'd expected to be chewed out. But not for this. She was expecting it to be because she got herself captured by the enemy-nin and failing to protect their civilian escort. She wasn't sure how to feel about this.

"You were worse than genin out on their first C-rank. If I had my way I'd have all three of you booted out of the shinobi corps. " Kakashi's voice dripped with disdain, "As it is you just might be after that performance."

""Disgraceful."

With that last retort he turned on his heels and exited the hospital.

XxX

Sakura nursed the drink in her hand. She was on her second. It was mid-day, so the place was relatively empty. The low lighting of the place matched her mood. After Kakashi's tirade against the three of them, she found herself wanting to get away. A few enquiries with the locals led her to the only bar in town. It was nothing special but booze was booze and beggars couldn't be choosers.

She knew she wasn't ready for field duty. She was forced into this situation. A surge of anger rose in her towards Kakashi, towards the Hokage, towards Sasuke and even towards Naruto, even though she had a hard time justifying the last one.

Resolving to avoid thinking about her problems she drained her glass and realized she'd caught a man eyeing her from across the room. As someone who attracted her share of male attention, that wasn't surprising.

What was surprising though was the fact that he actually approached her. Civilians usually were too intimidated by ninjas to be that forward. Unless he was an enemy-nin masquerading as a civilian or maybe he was just that stupid. At this point she wasn't sure what would be worse.

She'd be worried if she could bring herself to care at the moment. The man began moving towards her smiling the whole time. She was spared the dilemma of how to proceed by another occupying the seat next to her. Her mood soured even more when she saw who it was.

"I hope you weren't hoping to hook-up with him." Sasuke said dryly.

"What if I was?"

"He didn't seem like your type if you ask me."

Any other day Sakura would've been a lot more confrontational, but after the dressing down Kakashi had given them she just wasn't in the mood for it and as it was the man had turned on his heels once he realized she had company. So instead she settled for asking, "What do you want Sasuke?"

"I need your help." His face twisted itself into an uncharacteristic grimace as if the very act of saying those words was causing him pain.

Sakura's first thought was if she should've checked her drink for any drugs before consuming it. Her second thought was if she was dreaming. It wouldn't be the first time but she stopped having them a while ago and the flush of pleasure she expected had yet to come. So that could mean only one thing.

And she knew exactly what she had to do.

"No."

"Wait, what?" Sasuke exclaimed, completely nonplussed.

Sakura took the moment to savour the look on Sasuke's face. After years of trying to evoke some emotion from him it felt really good. Even though she doubted this was what she had in mind.

"I said no." She repeated.

"Why?"

He was making this too easy, "Because you're always a dick to me and everyone else around you, you-you have this air of superiority as if you're god's gift to earth and everyone's just expected to fall on their knees to hail your greatness, I was drafted into a team I didn't want, a mission which has already gone to hell and if that wasn't bad enough I'm sure I just lost myjob because of it." She took a moment to catch her breath, "So Sasuke, give me one reason, one good reason why I should help you?"

She sat there expectantly waiting for him to speak. He didn't.

"That's what I thought." She drained the remains of her drink, left some money on the bar with every intention of walking away. But before she could take her fifth step, "Please."

She froze in her tracks. That word sounded foreign, as if the speaker had never used it, which in this case wasn't such a stretch and yet, Uchiha Sasuke had asked for her help and was apparently willing to plead for it. What could be so important that not only did he need her help for it but was also willing to swallow his pride? Something she had thought impossible before this moment.

"Please." He repeated.

She stood there motionless for a while debating what to do and eventually her curiosity won out, "Fine," she muttered, "what do you need?"

"You've got to be kidding me." she exclaimed.

In front of her lay a dead body, most probably male and burnt to the bone.

"I want you to tell me, why I couldn't kill this guy?" Sasuke said ignoring her words.

"I don't know Sasuke." She tried to inject as much sarcasm in her words as she could, "he looks very dead to me." At this point she was almost ready to dismiss this as a joke and walk away if she hadn't known for a fact that Sasuke had no sense of humour.

"I stabbed three of these guys, straight through the heart." he said, "It didn't even slow them down. Now I need to know why."

In all her time she had known him, never had she seen Sasuke so agitated. He was in control, but something about this burnt corpse definitely had him rattled even if he was hiding it fairly well.

So that begged the question,

"Why is this so important to you?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Good luck Sasuke." She turned around again.

"Wait." He seemed to be struggling with something, "What do you know of Orochimaru?"

Sasuke had dragged her to the hospital mortuary, after convincing her to help him and was now asking her to do a post-mortem on one of the bandits he had killed.

"A traitor who led an invasion against Konoha four years ago, now believed to be dead." Sakura said, "What's he got to do with this?"

"Before he turned traitor, Orochimaru was one of the most revered shinobi of his generation." Sasuke continued, "but few people remember him as a brilliant scientist without peer."

"Is there a point you'd like to get to sometime in the future?" Sakura said impatiently.

"I'm getting there." Sasuke said, impatience colouring his own voice, "Now what I'm about to tell you right now is classified information and if someone found out that you know about this, your very life might be in danger." He leveled his gaze at her, "Are you sure you just won't do as I ask?"

Sakura said nothing but held his gaze expectantly. He'd not wiggle out of this. To his credit it was a good try.

"Fine." He shrugged, "Don't say I didn't warn you. Orochimaru was obsessed with the limits to which a human's or to be more precise a shinobi's body and mind can be stretched.

For this purpose he experimented on live human subjects. The reason he was expelled from Konoha. Or so they say anyway." He began massaging his neck in an unusual gesture, "Even after all this time Konoha has gone through a lot of trouble to keep his transgressions a secret. To the world in general he remains a treacherous shinobi and not more."

"So you think these bandits were similarly experimented on." Sakura said connecting the dots for herself.

"Orochimaru may be dead, but I fear someone out there is still carrying on with his work."

Sakura could get why this was important. If someone was indeed experimenting on humans they definitely weren't doing it to rob merchants. There was a bigger game afoot.

However,

"That still doesn't explain your interest in this." Sakura folded her arms, "It seems more personal than professional to me."

Without a word Sasuke tugged his shirt off one side to reveal a tattoo at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. The part he had been massaging. On closer examination Sakura realized that it wasn't a tattoo.

"That's a..."

"A seal." Sasuke finished for her, "Orochimaru gave that to me just before the invasion."

"Why?" Sakura could barely choke out the words.

"Thought he was doing me a favour." He spat out, "Look I don't need your pity. Keep it to yourself. I gave you what you want, I'd rather, you just return the favour."

"Look Sasuke." She began patiently, she was beginning to understand the importance of this if he was willing to share something that personal with her "I don't know how to break this to you, but I haven't actually done a post-mortem before."

"A post-mortem is done to determine the cause of death."he said,"I already know that, I'm more interested in knowing what was keeping him alive."

"But still..."

"Are you telling me that you can't do it?"

Sakura knew a challenge when she heard one. So she wordlessly snapped on a pair of latex gloves from a pack lying on one of the tables.

Sakura had cut open plenty of bodies before. It was part of the course as a medic-nin. They usually were in a lot better condition than the one she was slicing up at the moment however. It was a miracle there was anything to slice open in the first place. Whatever jutsu Sasuke had used on the poor chap had burnt him to the bone.

"Not much I can glean from this mess." She said after fifteen minutes of examining the body, realizing she had gotten as much out of the body as she could, "It was a male, in his mid-twenties. The only other thing I can say for sure is that this guy was no shinobi."

"How can you tell?" Sasuke queried.

"Shinobi in general have denser bone structure and more efficient musculature not to mention the usage of chakra over a lifetime leaves an imprint on the body." Sakura explained, "This guy was no chakra-user. Now only if this body was in better shape."

"I'll keep that in mind next time I'm fighting for my life." he retorted.

Sakura frowned. She knew it wouldn't last. For the past hour or so Sasuke had almost been civil to her. She bit back a retort of her own. It wasn't worth it.

Their attention was diverted at this point by the sudden opening of the doors to the mortuary. Sakura's heart nearly leapt to her throat before she realized who it was.

"Next time knock Naruto." Sakura growled, trying to bring her heart down to manageable levels.

"Why?" He said puzzled, "This isn't a private place."

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke demanded.

"Not you that's for sure." Naruto muttered as he made his way in, "I was looking for Sakura-chan, looked all over the place before the security guard told me that pretty-boy over here had paid him a hundred ryo for uninterrupted access to the mortuary for a couple of hours without being disturbed. So, I just paid him twenty to allow me in."

"I knew I should have just placed a genjutsu on him." Sasuke muttered furiously.

"Why were you looking for me?" Sakura asked the genin, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"I need your help with something." he said.

That seems to be the theme today, she thought to herself but nodded.

"I'm out of here." Sasuke said walking away.

Naruto brought out a scroll and then proceeded to unseal... a body, with a decapitated head.

"I need to know why the hell was killing him so hard?"

Sasuke froze in his tracks. He turned around to see the other two looking at the corpse unloaded by the genin.

"What?" the genin exclaimed

"Where did you get that?" he demanded.

"Where do you think? I thought you were there." The genin mocked him, "Or did you burn away your brain-cells too when you went all pyromaniac."

"Maybe I should burn you up." Sasuke said, flaring his killing intent, "See how that works out?"

"Ohoho." The genin smirked, "Let go then."

"That's enough."

The outburst came from the last place Sasuke expected. Sakura was glaring at them both with her hands on her hips, and her eyes stern.

"Both of you. Out!"

"Don't presume to tell me what to do Haruno."

"That's where you're wrong, Sasuke." she said, "You need me to tell you why you had problems defeating these guys, for that I need to work, something I can't do if you keep bickering like a couple of first year academy kids."

Sasuke was beginning to regret his decision of taking her into confidence. Even though that time he felt he had little choice. Now she was going to hold this over him and what was even worse was the fact that there was nothing he could do about it.

"Fine." he said turning on his heels, "Call me when you're done."

Five minutes later Sasuke perched himself outside on one of the benches meant for the visitors. There was not much to do except wait for her to finish the post-mortem. She wouldn't have been his first choice for doing this. He had known her since his Academy days and she had not left a favourable impression on him. Not that he hated her. To him she was just another one of his countless admirers. A face in the crowd that deserved none of his attention.

Never in a million years had he imagined her to become something resembling a competent kunoichi and yet here she was, in a position where he needed her help. The 'why' of it was something he was doing very hard to ignore.

He had to know for sure.

"Stare any harder and you'd carve a hole on that floor Uchiha."

"Leave me alone." He grumbled, not wanting to get into a pointless argument again, "I really don't need this right now."

He was surprised to notice that his words were heeded for a change and the genin actually wasn't trying to bait him or engage him in a conversation otherwise.

"I'm not sure why Kakashi recruited you."

Apparently he gave him too much credit.

"Just what I need." he retorted, "A career genin judging me."

"You don't want to be here, you care nothing for the mission, you refuse to work as part of a team and you've been nothing but a problem ever since we started."

Sasuke felt a familiar surge of anger rising in his chest. He wanted to ignore him but not for the first time something about him just dragged a reaction out of him.

"You're right." He replied, "I don't care anything about this team or mission and the sooner we get back to Konoha the sooner I can get back to doing what I do best."

"And what is that exactly?" he said, "being an asshole to everyone around you?"

"Whatever." Sasuke shrugged not rising to the bait, "The mission's over and we're done, so it doesn't matter anyway."

That brought an end to their conversation,but something he said rankled in Sasuke's mind. He had vocalized his doubts about Sasuke's recruitment and with that had planted a question as to why was the genin recruited?

Sakura Haruno he could understand. She did seem a far-way off the fan-girl he had known and for all intents and purposes seemed like a competent kunoichi, and a medic at that. Kakashi wouldn't have chosen her if he didn't believe she was worth it and whatever the man's other faults he did have an eye for talent. He had recruited Shikamaru too. He didn't know much about him despite being in the same class, but he did recall him being the first and only one to don the chunin vest in those ill-fated exams even if he managed to get himself kicked off shortly afterwards.

In contrast Naruto Uzumaki made no sense. Granted he didn't get in the way despite his various quirks but he didn't bring anything to the table either. So the question remained.

What was so special about him? He was almost inclined to believe that Kakashi was just trying to mess with his head. Except it seemed too farfetched, even for him.

The doors of the mortuary suddenly opened and revealing the pink-headed chunin whose eyes seemed to be shining with an odd mixture of excitement and... horror?

"Guys," she said, "you need to come and see this."

Both of them followed her inside without another word.

"You would not believe what I just found." Sakura said literally trembling with excitement as she led them to the corpse. "I have never seen anything like this in my life."

"When I said that these guys weren't using chakra, I may have been wrong." She said.

"So these guys were shinobi." Sasuke deduced.

"No," Sakura said, "They were civilians alright." She took a scalpel and made an incision on the upper forearm of the corpse, before using her fingers to pry the skin away.

"What do you see?" She asked beckoning them to take a closer look.

Sasuke was no medic but it was obvious what Sakura wanted them to see. The muscles had a charred look to them and the fibres had seemingly torn themselves.

"Did he burn from the inside out?" Naruto queried.

"In laymen terms, yes." Sakura nodded agreeably.

"But how is that possible?" Sasuke muttered.

"Remember Lee from our first Chunin exams?" She addressed Sasuke and then continued without waiting for a response, "I had a chance to study his case later and his muscles had shown similar wear, only not so extreme. His injuries were due to..."

"Chakra gates." Sasuke remembered kind of power he had unleashed had to be seen to be believed, "And yet you say this guy is a civilian?"

"His body wasn't conditioned to withstand the strain that comes with opening the gates." she said, "I found it strange that with what was happening to his body he could withstand the pain at all, until I cracked open the head." She waved to another table where said 'head' lay.

"And?" Naruto prompted.

"Some areas of the cerebrum, like the Hippocampus had been rendered inactive."

"Let's pretend we don't understand medical lingo shall we?" Sasuke snapped a little annoyed earning a glare from the blonde which he promptly ignored

Sakura's face turned red with embarrassment, but she maintained her composure, "This guy was incapable of learning, making decisions, feeling pain or even emotions." She paused to take a deep breath and her voice quivered as she spoke her next words, "For all intents and purposes he was a walking corpse."

"Wait a minute, time out." Naruto interjected, waving his hands. "Are you saying that that this merchant route is being robbed by fucking zombies?"

Sakura looked like she was about to disagree but her shoulders dropped, "Yes Naruto, that's exactly what I'm saying. Except I don't think they're robbing anyone. Banditry is just and eyewash to stop people from looking too closely. I suspect its the civilians themselves that are the target."

"But that's not possible." Sasuke interjected, "You say they shouldn't have been able to make decisions, but they were in fact very well co-ordinated and even managed to keep me on my toes." He admitted rather sourly. He was ashamed at being caught off-guard, but he wasn't ready to believe his opponents were brainless morons...yet.

"I'm not sure about that."Sakura sighed, "But that's not all I found." She turned the corpse over so that the back was facing upwards now, she then proceeded to remove the dissected skin off the back to reveal the spine.

"What do you make of this?"

Sasuke didn't think of himselfas queasy. As a professional killer he couldn't afford to be. He had seen plenty of gruesome things in his life and yet he couldn't stop his stomach from giving an involuntary lurch when he saw Sakura pull the spine off the man's back.

At a first glance Sasuke thought that the spine was burnt, just like the muscles. But a closer inspection revealed that there was a pattern to them not expected from simple burn marks.

"Seals." Naruto said voicing Sasuke's thoughts.

"Some of them I'm sure were used to stimulate the gates." she said, ''but we'll need a seal-adept or a master to know for sure."

"They're transmitters." The genin declared.

"So now you're a seal-master?" Sasuke retorted.

"I dabble." he smirked, "Sakura-chan is right, the matrix has components to store foreign chakra which were used to stimulate the opening of the gates, but since it is a compound seal it has other elements, like these odd-numbered.."

"Fine it seems you know what you're talking about." Sakura interjected, "What does it all mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Naruto said, "They were being controlled, just like puppets. They were literally battery-operated puppets. The chakra-gates being the battery of-course."

"Kakashi did face a shinobi." Sakura said, "Could he have been the one controlling them?"

"I doubt it." Naruto scratched his jaw thoughtfully, "Its more likely that there was another shinobi out there."

Sasuke's mind was racing as the others talked. There had been rumours of Otogakure's revival, but this wasn't what he was expecting. Only Orochimaru was capable of something like this. But he was dead, he had to be. There was another possibility however. It wasn't a great one but considering the alternative he was hoping he was right.

XxX

For the first time in a long time Sakura felt... not empty. She felt like she was contributing in a way which was more suited towards her skills. Not that she was bad in the field. Far from it. But there were way too many variables that she couldn't account for. But a hospital or a lab was where she knew she thrived. She had been more academically inclined than her peers and her strength had been her brains. Unfortunately her intellect wasn't as sought-after as physical skills or the bloodlines Konoha was so famous for.

One of the reasons she chose a career as a medic was because all one needed to excel in it were flawless chakra control, a keen mind and the ability to persevere.

She decided she would be a healer. Her name wouldn't be clearing battlefields and she wouldn't be a juggernaut, but she would be valuable because she would help her team stay alive. So she did just that. She lost her confidence after her last mission however and she began to doubt her abilities. But standing in the morgue of a civilian hospital, she felt some of it return.

A little too late perhaps. Now that she was on the verge of losing her status as a shinobi she realized how much she actually wanted to keep it.

"So are we taking this to Kakashi?" She asked.

"I don't know where he is." Naruto said, "And I doubt broody over there does either." He pointed to Sasuke whose perpetual scowl deepened even more, but otherwise ignore the barb, "So I guess it's up to us."

"There's nothing more to do." Sasuke scoffed as he made his way out of the morgue, "We get back to Konoha and report this in."

"You think you're coming back here again aren't you?" Naruto said stopping Sasuke in his tracks, "Gonna pull a few strings to bag yourself a mission to Kusa eh?"

"So what if I am?" Came the reply, "This mission is over, and as much as I've loved to be a part of this." His voice was heavy with irony, "I'm afraid this is where we say goodbye."

"What makes you think you'll even be allowed to come back?" Naruto countered, "Kakashi wasn't happy with us and I doubt he'll just let you come dancing back here on your whim."

"Doesn't matter either way." Sasuke said nonchalantly, but Sakura was beginning to suspect it was an act and what Naruto said had actually gotten to him, "We're done. The only thing left to do is go back to Konoha."

"It isn't the only thing left." Naruto declared cryptically, "From what I can tell this is rather important to you even if you care nothing for this mission, so hear me out." He closed the distance between him and Sasuke till they were at an arm's length from each other, "Finish the mission with us and then we can go our separate ways if it comes to that."

"You haven't told me why I need you at all?"

"I can get us inside Kusa."

"Yeah right." Sasuke mocked him, "I'm out of here."

"Kakashi recruited me for a reason." Naruto said, "And it wasn't to balance out your prickly personality"

Sasuke kept his glare on Naruto but it wasn't his usual one of contempt but rather contemplative, "You saw that thing." Sasuke pointed to the body, "That is most likely the fate that girl suffered, there is no mission here. Not anymore."

"Don't know what you're complaining about." Naruto said, "seems like you're getting the better end of the bargain."

Sasuke stood there motionlessly and Naruto turned to her.

"What do you say Sakura-chan?" he asked her, "you in?"

"You want me to violate a direct order from a superior who declared the mission to be over?" Sakura said sceptically.

"Technically he said the mission's over the minute we step foot inside Konoha." His eyes flashed mischievously. "Also its better to ask for forgiveness than permission."

Sakura couldn't believe she was considering this. What Naruto was suggesting was insubordination at best and treason at worst and yet she felt she had little choice. She gave a slow nod, not trusting herself to speak.

It was enough for Naruto as his eyes flashed dangerously. In the future Sakura would associate that look as being the harbinger of recklessness and overall chaos, as much a source of apprehension for his allies as his enemies.

XxX

Kakashi kept an eye on his team from his perch on the hospital roof as they went about their way. It seemed like his gamble worked after all. Part of it anyway. The risks were high, but then so were the rewards. The game was long and tough and he needed to know if his players were capable of playing it.

Things were out of his hands now. It was just a matter of waiting. What should he do in the meantime?

He could always go and finish the mission.

Right after Ryu's orgy of course. He thought to himself as he leafed through his beloved Icha-Icha.

XxX

"So this is your plan?" Sasuke wanted to strangle the genin.

"Yup." Naruto said cheerfully, "Isn't it great? They'll never see us coming."

"That's probably 'cause we'll all be on our way to become fish-food." Sakura snapped.

Sasuke never thought he would see the day when he and one of his fangirls would ever be on the same side of an issue but this whole mission was turning up quite a few firsts.

"Look," Naruto said, "there is another way.."

"Great, let's take that one then." Sakura said.

"But it will take days if not weeks to get there." he explained, "not to mention it has its own dangers, not the least of which is the chance to run into Kusa shinobi. On the other hand, no one will be watching the rivers."

"Because no-one is crazy enough to use them." Sakura said, almost hysterically.

"Exactly."

The Taki river near whose banks they were currently standing was one of the largest rivers in elemental nations. It traversed half of the continent before meeting the sea going beginning its journey in the Land of Fire before traversing through Land of Rice, River, Honey and Stone. It was joined by over a dozen tributaries on its course and was considered completely non-navigable near its mouth even during dry season.

During the rainy season like it was now it was nothing less than a nightmare and that's what made the genin's plan even more crazy.

"Considering we can't use boats how do you propose we do this?" Sakura questioned.

"With these." he said handing both of them what looked like plugs and Sasuke recognized them as breathers. They were of a different design than he was used to. "And these."

While he had been pondering over the design of the breathers Naruto had unsealed three cylindrical wooden contraptions, each over six feet in length.

"River surfing is a very popular sport in the Land of Rivers." He explained seeing the baffled look on his face which was mirrored on Sakura's as well, "These things in the local language when translated are called river kites. They do this all the time."

"You're telling me that we're gonna take these... kites and use them to navigate this river?" Sakura sounded like she was having a hard time trying to keep her throat dry.

"Yup it's gonna be fun." Naruto said cheerfully, "You might wanna take off your head-bands though before we start. We are going inside a territory we have no business being in, so nothing we do can be tied back to Konoha." He then went on to remove his own head-band.

"You do realize we have never done this right?" Sasuke said.

"Its not hard." Naruto removed his jacket and sandals, "Keep yourself balanced and follow the flow of the river." He shot him a smirk, "Don't tell me you're scared Uchiha."

That was all the convincing Sasuke needed. Sakura went through the motions like she couldn't believe she was doing made a shallow hole on the ground courtesy an earth-jutsu and buried their belongings there. They will collect them on the way back.

"If I survive this and the mission." Sakura removed her own jacket and her headband, "I'm going to kill you Naruto."

The threat didn't seem to phase him out in the slightest as he carried the river kite over his shoulder and walked towards the river, before wading in. After he had gained some momentum courtesy of the rapidly flowing river he pulled himself up.

"C'mon guys." He shouted over the roar of the rapids, "Just do what I'm doing and you'll be fine." He then proceeded to put the breather into his mouth making further conversation impossible.

Sasuke exchanged a look with Sakura before following in his path. As he made his way to the river he heard Sakura mutter under her breath, "I can't believe I'm doing this."

For that matter, neither could he.

And done. Action packed next chapter and resolution after that. Stay tuned and don't forget to drop a line