AN: 1200+ views in such a short time? I feel so loved! I feel like you all have given me an award! Thanks so much. I've kept my promise! … Wow so many reviews to reply to… That's a good problem.

And to Me and Gaara 4ever, Here it is! I'm magical .

And to Thomas Drovin, Yes he is. And Sasuke needs to watch out for a lot of things… especially around an author who doesn't think much of him.

And to GrimSpeck18, Now he makes his grand entrance!!!

And to Repentless Wind, yet again, part two, you're going to be thrown for a loop!

And to dantes freezer, nice name by the way… it's a little bit of an oxymoron right? Glad you're reading it, and there wasn't much reason for the notes except to show that Rox, Ronni, Fred, and Lynne know what's going on in Suna. And the dragons don't live together. Since Cordi is in Suna, so is Aleera. Then everyone else is in Konoha.

And to Gaara's1Girl, Actually, in the comics and TV series, they state that Gaara wears eyeliner, which is probably why when we see Gaara several months after Shukaku has gone, he still has dark rings around his eyes. And two, I read somewhere a while ago that when pregnant women are stressed, they have a tendency to lactate. That was what I was going on.

Special Thanks to dantes freezer and Kalashnikov07 for adding my story to your faves or to your alerts!

ALSO!!! I forgot to mention, today is my character Roxanne's birthday, ... or at least the girl who I based off Roxanne. It's her birthday! So as my birthday present to her, I want to send some of my readers over to her, because she doesn't get as many as I do, but she's better at writing than I am. If you'd rather not, give her a little shout out in my reviews if you prefer. Her name is princessSiyaka. Now that that's over, let's continue, and please review!!! ^.^

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters etc. You know the drill.

Chapter Eighteen: Lynne's First Official Mission

After much persuasion, Sasuke did get on Saryu's back. He was also nervous by this, which made Saryu laugh (I'm referring back to Gaara, in chapter nine. I know, just think back. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember too). Saryu snaked through the skies, holding the silent couple on his back.

"Where are we heading again?" Lynne asked.

"The ocean below the Fire Country. Fisher men have been going missing for a couple weeks, and the local village would like to know why they are disappearing so they can fish more peacefully," Sasuke droned, gaining more confidence as he got used to Saryu's flying. "Since fish is their main crop down there, the economic issues were what caught our eye first."

"It wasn't the amount of fishermen turning up missing?" Lynne asked, completely nonplussed by his cold and uncaring demeanor. Sasuke didn't say anything back to her. "Who hired us?" Lynne asked.

"His name is Sulu Yamagato. He's the local Feudal Lord and Head Fisherman," Sasuke replied, still bored. Lynne pursed her lips and nodded, knowing she probably wasn't going to get much more information out of him.

Soon they landed and talked to the locals about what was happening. She thanked whoever was in power over her life that she no longer needed Saryu around to maintain the listening into people's thoughts, otherwise, she would have had a migraine.

"It's always around the early morning, you know, four to six o' clock," one of the local fisherman stated. Lynne was having a hard time imagining even getting up before ten, let alone before seven. She imagined herself waking up at three o'clock in the morning to go to work, all she could imagine herself as was a zombie. Her eyes would be half-lidded with drowsiness, drool would be coming out of her wide open mouth, and her legs would be dragging along the ground, barely able to keep her up and stable. She laughed a little at the image playing in her head of herself, then refocused at the task at hand.

"Well, if it's always in between those hours, why do you guys still fish during them?" Lynne asked, as if it were the smart and logical.

"Because that's the best time to fish," the fisherman stated, as if Lynne were stupid. "During the day, all the fish can see the nets, so we wouldn't catch as many."

Sasuke showed a flash of intrigue, then replaced it just as quickly with his usual unemotional mask. "Come, Lynne. We've got enough information for today," Sasuke stated. Lynne nodded and followed him as he led her to their hotel. As soon as they chose rooms and set up the bed rolls, Sasuke joined Lynne in her room and they both started formulating plans.

Rox soon received a reply from Cordi about the tabloids. She explained that it was a ruse to get Matsuri to leave the bar. She also stated that she and Gaara weren't dating. She reassured Rox several times in the letter that she and Gaara were just friends, nothing more. She also added the newest Matsuri deal. Rox couldn't believe Matsuri had gotten pregnant. It made Rox feel kind of sad for her, and then she remembered what she did to Gaara and Kankuro, then rethought her feelings.

"Hey, Rox open up," she heard Shikamaru call from the apartment hallway as he banged against the door. She jumped off her seat in the sitting area and opened the door quickly to see the lazy as always Shikamaru Nara.

"What's up?" Rox asked, smiling at her teacher/good friend.

He grimaced a little, making Rox confused. "I was just invited to a wedding, and I've been asked to bring a date. I was wondering if you would go with me," Shikamaru stated, still slightly bored.

Rox blinked. Shikamaru was asking her to be his date… to a wedding? "Whose wedding?" Rox asked.

"I believe the invitation said Kankuro and Matsuri," Shikamaru stated, looking up trying to remember exactly, "which I honestly don't get. Wasn't she cheating on him with Gaara?"

"Ah, yes she was," Rox smiled evilly. "Thankfully Cordi just gave me the inside scoop on that. Matsuri turned out to be pregnant. Kankuro is the father." Shikamaru's face dropped to surprised confusion. "It's a shot-gun wedding."

This made Shikamaru laugh a little, not the information but the excitement on her face. "So, you want to join me?" he asked again.

"Yeah," Rox replied. "It's been a while since I've seen Cordi," she added quietly, and definitely wishing to remedy that.

"No, we will not use that plan," Lynne stated, crossing her arms and pointing her nose in the air.

"Why not?" Sasuke growled.

"Because I will not wake up at three o'clock in the morning just to be kidnapped and God knows what else," Lynne replied snootily. His idea was beyond suicide. It was basically handing themselves over, if Lynne heard him correctly. Also, at three she would look like an extra from Dawn of the Dead. It wasn't really worth it. She could formulate a better plan if she was given another day.

Sasuke just glared at Lynne. She annoyed him almost as much as Naruto, except she was pickier than he was. Sometimes he really wanted the annoying blond with him on this mission. But always as soon as he thought that, he recanted it, thinking of all the stunts Naruto would pull. "Fine," he growled, getting up and leaving.

Lynne scowled at him, then threw her pillow at the door as he shut it. She then got up to grab her pillow, and sat back down on her bed roll, thinking of a new plan.

When Lynne woke the next morning, she had a new plan that was fool-proof. Then again, she didn't want to say that, because a fool always came and made it plan+fool=haywire, or in other words, a complete and utter failure. She waited at breakfast for Sasuke so she could tell him her new plan. She waited for almost an hour. Then she decided to go to his room and check on him. Lo and behold, Sasuke had to be the fool that made her fool-proof plan go haywire. He had left, using his own plan by himself. "What an idiot," Lynne mumbled to herself. Her plan was officially in the toilet.

She went back to breakfast and devised a new plan, and so far, she'd have to break her promise to Lady Tsunade and call Saryu back. She sighed, hating the fact that she was going to have to go against her word. She waited a little longer for him, but he didn't come back. After twelve hours of waiting, Lynn figured she'd have to stay up till the wee hours in the morning just to fix her little issue and find Sasuke, because he was obviously captured, or somewhere along those lines. She asked a local boating shop to lend her a dingy for the night. Around midnight, Saryu arrived, and she explained her new plan to him.

"Don't make yourself known until I give the signal, ok?" Lynne asked. Saryu nodded silently, then dove into the ocean, swimming underneath the surface to keep the water calm. She was alone again, and bored out of her mind within a minute. She quickly pulled out a small book she had packed for bed-side reading, but it was the only thing she had that would keep her awake in this instance.

This was the tenth time she was reading Abarat, so obviously, she liked it. Whenever she read it, she was always engrossed in the stuff that happened to the poor main character. She jumped a little when she heard her watch beeping, forgetting that she had set the timer for 3:30. She quickly shut her book, placing it back in her pouch, and then turned off her watch. It was now time to set sail into the dark watery night. She sighed as she pushed the boat out into the water, and then hopped in. She pulled out the oars and gently placed them into the water, starting her adventure into the great unknown – well the great unknown for her. She was pretty sure a lot people who had grown up in the ninja world had sailed these waters and they weren't really considered uncharted territory. She had gone out pretty far when she decided to stop. If she looked back at this point, the beach would be a thin line, illuminated by the small sliver of moon reflecting on the earth.

In her peripheral she saw some movement, and already spooked enough by being out in the middle of the ocean at such an hour, she became rather scared. She had known watching Jaws would someday come back to haunt her. When she turned that direction, she confirmed that she had most definitely seen a fin. Her eyes went wide, and her heart pounded in her chest. All she could think was This is the end of me. As soon as the fin reached her boat, she shut her eyes in terror. This was probably the reason why all the fishermen had been missing. A great white had eaten all of them. A jet of water brought her out of her reverie. Quickly she wiped her face. Since when do sharks spit? she asked herself. When she looked down, she saw the head of a bottle-nose dolphin smiling up at her, cackling a little. She sighed in relief. She put her hand out of the boat and placed it on its head. Just then two more popped up, cackling in delight. She smiled as more and more came, swimming and jumping around the dingy joyfully. Soon there were about twenty-five just chilling with her in the ocean. She was hoping that they'd stay, knowing the animal rule that if dolphins were around, sharks would steer clear. And she was really hoping she wasn't going to see a shark tonight.

Just as the thought came to her mind, the dolphins went back underwater and swam away. "No! Come back!" she called to them, but like they'd listen. She felt a sudden sense of foreboding as she sunk back into herself. Just then, a huge shadow cast itself over her dingy, surrounding her little boat in darkness. She looked back to see the shadow of a ship, a really large ship. She saw ropes being tossed down, and could only look back confused. Then, when they hit her boat, she noticed they had hooks in them. Her eyes became wide as her boat lost contact with the water beneath her. She had to think of a new plan now, and fast. She only had a minute or so to do so. Otherwise, she was going to be stuck in the same situation as Sasuke, and she did not want to be stuck.

She nearly squealed in excitement as she saw her boat coming close to a canon portal. She quickly and quietly made a shadow clone just before the boat came to the portal. She ordered her clone to dive in the water as she concealed herself in the shadow the ship cast on her dingy. Whoever was onboard the ship saw her clone jump off and dive into the water oh so gracefully yelled out, "STOP! SHE DOVE! CHECK THE WATER!" Waiting to celebrate her sly maneuver, she hoisted herself into the portal as quietly as possible, happy to see that everyone was on deck, probably because she had a small dingy that was about as worthless in warfare as its name sounded. She looked around, noticing the ship looked like a scene ripped out of Pirates of the Caribbean. She almost laughed, until she remembered that the people on deck didn't know she was onboard. She sneaked over to the stairs, hiding behind them as she searched through each of the crew member's minds. Some thoughts she had issues not to laugh at and other thoughts she thought were just plain wrong, which took a lot for her. Almost nothing was wrong to her, but some of their thoughts were unbelievable. She continued to search until she found what she was looking for. All the prisoners were being held in the brig at the bottom of the ship beyond the rum cellar.

As quietly as she could, she ran down the five flights of stairs, trying her hardest not to trip or make any noises. She was naturally clumsy, so it was hard. Soon enough, she reached the bottom floor which looked like a library of alcoholic beverages, most likely all rum. She sprinted down the aisle until she reached a small door. She tried to turn the knob, but it was locked. Nothing can ever be easy, can it? she asked herself. She whirled around, looking for keys, hoping that they were hanging on a nail or something on the wall. That was when she noticed the man in the corner. She froze, thinking she was busted. The she heard a snore come from his corner, and she narrowed her eyes at him. She then noticed in the man's hand lazily hung an empty rum bottle. She rolled her eyes, and walked over to him. She poked him, nothing. She sighed in relief that the drunk guard was passed out, probably for a while. Suddenly, something caught her eye. In the guard's other hand held the keys. Lynne grinned with delight at her small triumph. Now she just had to get them. She gently removed the keys from the guard's hand, making sure not to make his body move in any way that he would wake up.

She held the keys victoriously over her head, then she creeped back over to the door, unlocking it as silently as she could. The door creaked open, but it's rusty hinges were hidden by the loud shudder from the ship. She frowned as she saw more stairs, this time going up at least. She snuck up the stairs and smiled as she came into view of the jail cells. Sasuke had his own little cell, where he sat quietly in a bored stance. All of the fishermen though were in another cell, which looked rather crowded. They started to chatter about freedom when they saw her. "Sh!" she hissed, moving a finger to her lips. That was when Sasuke looked over at her, and she could see him inwardly groan. She grinned happy she had her small victory over the Uchiha. She walked over to his cell and tried keys. When she got the cell door unlocked, she swung it open slowly so it didn't make any noise. Sasuke walked out, holding his oh-so-bored poise. She turned to the fishermen, knowing Sasuke wouldn't even say a thank you. Come on, she knew Sasuke like the back of her hand. Nothing he could do would surprise her. "Sasuke, other than the obvious, is there any information I should know?" Lynne asked.

He frowned then said, "The captain was hired, I don't know by who though," without even turning to face her. She nodded, glad he even shared that much information with her. Then, she turned her attention to the other cell.

The fishermen sounded like a cacophonous choir of whispers, thanking her for helping them out. "Sh," she hissed again. "Now, when I unlock this door, get out in an orderly fashion. No pushing or shoving, otherwise you'll blow our cover, and we'll all get stuck here." The fishermen nodded their heads in understanding. She tried keys again, and finally opened the door to the fishermen's freedom. Surprisingly, they were really quiet about it. There were no fools trying to push ahead of the crowd like in movies. You know, the guys that make you mad that they screwed everything up for the main characters because they couldn't wait their turn? None of the men in the cell were like that. Once everyone was free, she directed them to follow her as quietly as possible. Then her OCD kicked in and she shut and locked the cell doors, still rather quietly. Sasuke rolled his eyes at this, but followed her out nonetheless.

Once they were all down the stairs, she shut and locked that door to. She then walked over to the drunk guard and placed the keys gingerly in his hands. She had them follow her quietly back up to the deck, telling the fishermen to stay on the floor beneath the deck, so it would be easier to protect them. She ushered Sasuke up on deck where the pirates hustled around, trying to search desperately for her. She couldn't help but smirk at their stupidity.

"They aren't incredibly smart, are they?" Lynne snickered.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, still bored.

"YOU!" they heard someone yell. Lynne and Sasuke turned to the loud-mouth to see a man pointing an accusing finger at them with eyes wide like a crazy person's. The rest of the pirate crew turned to the two ninjas, drawing swords out of their sheaths as the approached the shinobi. They were surrounded.

Now! she ordered Saryu. Within five seconds, the boat hit something, making it shudder and moan.

"What the Hell was that?" Lynne heard some pirates ask.

"I don't know. I was hoping you'd tell me," she heard the other pirates reply back.

"It's because there's a woman onboard," she heard one pirate mutter. She couldn't help but laugh at the remark. It was true, but they didn't know that. He had just said that because of the silly superstition.

"Where is your captain?" Sasuke asked in a demanding tone.

"Why should we tell you?" another pirate asked, somewhere in the middle of the crowd.

Suddenly Sasuke appeared right in front of him. Lynne couldn't even see him move, which honestly made her heartbeat thump with excitement, like any other fan-girl. "Because if you don't, I'll kill you," Sasuke warned, holding a shuriken up to the pirate's throat. The pirate's face became almost as white as a sheet.

The threat was unnecessary, because as soon as the question was asked, everyone had thought of exactly where the captain was holding up at the moment. The captain was currently resting in his quarters, to which the doors were right behind the staircase they stood in front of. But, Lynne very much appreciated Sasuke's – enthusiasm should she call it? – about the matter.

"I'm not telling you anything," the pirate spat, spittle flying onto Sasuke's face. Sasuke frowned, but slid the shuriken neatly across the pirates neck, slicing his jugular and wind pipe. Bright crimson arterial blood spurt out of his neck as he fell to the ground with a small thud, thoroughly grossing Lynne out.

"Sasuke, that was really unnecessary," Lynne stated, her disgust showing on her green face, struggling with keeping her dinner in its place. He gave her a confused look, as if to ask her why gaining the information they needed was unnecessary. "They all told me the answer when you asked the question. It's involuntary, but most people think about what actually happened right before coming up with a lie on the spot," Lynne explained, nodding her head a little. Sasuke pursed his lips, not liking being reminded about the fact that Lynne could read minds, and he just looked like a total loser for forgetting it.

Just then, Saryu's head popped up over the railing of the ship, brows raised. "What'd I miss?" he asked. Lynne laughed a little at him.

"I'll be right back," Lynne smiled, waving to her teammate and dragon. With that, she ran to the Captain's Quarters' door and walked in. The captain was looking over some paperwork at his dining table. She smiled and sat across from him, staring at him until he could feel her presence, which took longer than she expected.

When he finally looked up, he looked confused. She could hear himself mentally asking how come she wasn't stopped and put in the brig by the guards. "I'm too smart for them," Lynne smiled, receiving a more confused stare from the captain. "But enough about me. I have a question for you." With this, she stood slowly, leaning over the table to get her face close to his. "Who hired you?"

Sulu Yamagato she heard him think, but it was then replaced with his actual voice. "I wasn't hired."

She smiled at him. "Aw, there's no need to lie. You didn't have to say anything and I would have gotten my answer whether you wanted me to have it or not," she stated in a belittling tone. And she left the captain standing there, gawking at her completely dumbfounded, which made her grin even more.

When she opened the door wide, she saw that Sasuke had gotten all of the crew tied securely to the three masts, and Saryu was standing guard. That was when she realized that not a lot of prisoners would misbehave if a dragon was standing guard. The thought brought a small smile to her face.

She didn't notice the captain trudge his way past her to gawk at his crew. "How?" was all he could manage.

Just then, Sasuke threw a rope down to Lynne. She picked it up, eyeing the woven tweed with an eyebrow raised. "Tie him up," Sasuke ordered. Lynne nodded, and proceeded to tie up the captain with the rope, starting with the wrists, then around his arms and torso. There was a second thing of rope in the coil that Sasuke had tossed down to her, so she used the second piece to tie around his ankles, then knotting them together at his wrists. Now that the captain was immobile, she walked up to the steering area of the deck where Sasuke stood.

"Did you catch who hired him?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah," Lynne replied. "The name Sulu Yamagato ring any bells?"

"Damn it," Sasuke hissed. "We've been douped." Lynne pursed her lips and nodded. She realized she was doing that a lot lately, then she figured because she was around Sasuke.

"And now?" she asked him, figuring he probably wasn't going to give her an answer.

"And now we sail this ship back to shore," Sasuke growled. And arrest that arrogant asshole. she heard him think. She shifted her gaze to his face, intrigued that he actually answered her question, then turned back to face forward. It only took her less than a minute of quiet to yawn, showing that her lack of sleep had caught up to her. She excused herself, then walked down to the Captain's Quarters and borrowed the captain's bed for what remained of the night, which was about two or three hours. She was not going to be happy when she woke up the next morning.

Shikamaru knocked on Rox's door with his free hand while his other held a bag slung over his shoulder. They were supposed to be leaving that day for Suna for Kankuro's wedding. Tsunade had informed him that they weren't the only couple invited to go to Kankuro's wedding. There were actually two more joining them. But, Tsunade didn't really feel like telling him who was joining them on their weekend trip, so he figured they would find out once they got to the gates.

He was about to knock a second time when Rox opened the door. "I'm ready," she announced to no one in particular with a bag in one hand, and two others slung over her shoulder. Shikamaru couldn't suppress his eye roll. They were only going to be there for a day and a half, maybe two days, and she had to bring three bags. "What?" she asked innocently. He just walked away, letting her follow him. It was obvious she was having issues conjuring up a reason why he would roll his eyes at her.

"How troublesome," her mumbled to himself. Soon enough, they reached the front gates of Konoha, Gryffin waiting for them along with Nessie.

"So, Ronni's coming?" Rox asked, not really needing an answer. Gryffin and Nessie nodded anyway. "I'm guessing because Kiba and Kankuro are friends." Gryffin and Nessie nodded again.

"My question is, who's the last couple joining us?" Shikamaru asked.

"HEY!!!" they heard a familiar, yet obnoxious voice call out to them. Shikamaru and Rox turned to see Naruto himself with Hinata hand in hand. "Are you guys going to Kankuro's wedding, too?" Shikamaru and Rox nodded. "I don't think they gave us enough time to get over there," Naruto muttered. "It's three days travel isn't it?"

"Not on dragons," Rox replied. "It takes at most thirty minutes to an hour."

"But neither of us have dragons," Naruto replied, gesturing to Hinata and himself.

"Well, one of you could ride with us, and the other could ride with Kiba and Ronni," Rox offered.

"No, we don't want to impose," Hinata murmured.

"Look, we all have to get there by two o'clock today," Shikamaru stated. "We might as well let you ride along with us."

Just then, they heard the trees rustling, and they all turned to see Aleera skidding to a stop at the front gates. "Gaara and Cordi asked me to take Naruto and his date," she stated, offering a paw for the couple to climb up on. Naruto couldn't help but grin as he and Hinata climbed up onto Aleera's back.

Shikamaru and Rox did the same, climbing onto Gryffin's back. They didn't have to wait long as Kiba and Ronni came into view. Upon seeing everyone else waiting to take off, they quickly clambered up onto Nessie's back. After they got situated, Kiba and Ronni gave the thumbs up for take-off, and the dragons shot up into the sky, scaring Shikamaru, Kiba, Naruto, and Hinata a little bit.