I Do not own Naruto, If I did I wouldn't bother writing Fan Fiction.

A Price for Peace

Chapter: 8 Early Departure

Karin lay awake that night, for some reason she was unable to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes and managed to drift off, the scene of Sasuke's Chidori blade piercing her chest would almost instantly run though her mind shocking her back awake. A lone tear rolled down her cheek as this happened for the fifth time that night. 'What is wrong with me?' she sobbed quietly. Her arms wrapping around her knees, unable to take the feeling of pain and betrayal anymore. She should have been happy, for the first time in weeks she had a bed to sleep on, had her own free space and didn't have Naruto lightly snoring away at the other side of a small cramped caravan.

Karin fell back her head caught by the soft pillow supplied by the hotel and once more closed her eyes hoping sleep she knew however that her dream would always end as Sasuke's jutsu shot through her chest, the shock would always jolt her awake at that point.

A quick glance at the bedside clock told her it was still early in the morning three thirty to be precise. "Now what do I do?" she asked herself not wanting to fall back asleep as she knew Sasuke would be there waiting for her. "He's dead. He can't hurt me again." she told herself hoping to calm down enough to close her eyes and drift off into blissful unconsciousness. Her eyes were sore from waking up so often and her body was screaming in protest, begging for more rest. She rolled over to look out the small window in her room that looked over the underground village of Iwame.

Unable to let sleep take her, the young kunoichi allowed herself to scan what chakra signatures were in the area. Karin instantly felt the world around her come alive. Hundreds of small dim lights sprung up in her mind. To pass some time she found Asahi all the way over the other side of the village, he was alone in a small room she could tell that he was still awake despite the late hour. His was easily the second strongest chakra signature in the village. The first was of course far closer and she had been doing her best to ignore the chakra of Naruto in the other room. She found it quite distracting, how could she focus on anyone else when he was there shining like a small version of the sun.

After a short time Karin had explored most of the interesting chakra signatures in the village. It did not take as long as she had hoped, but a village full of civilians was never going to hold many interesting chakra signatures. She sighed and slowly turned her focus onto Naruto's chakra, she could instantly tell he was asleep, his chakra while still warm was calm and relaxing. So relaxing in fact that the kunoichi's eyes began to grow heavy, she forgot all about Sasuke and her nightmares as she was now lost in Naruto's chakra. For the first time in a long time Karin felt truly safe. 'He really is amazing.' Those were the last thoughts that ran through her mind as she faded off to sleep, not for the first time that night but certainly the last.

(The Next Morning)

Naruto awoke early, he had quite a lot of things he needed to do, not only did he need all the remaining mountaineering gear, he also needed to purchase as much long life food that he could seal into the few storage scrolls he had. He contemplated summoning one of the toads to bring him more sealing scrolls but decided against it. Even if he was the only shinobi present summoning toads is something that anyone would be able to recall should anyone come this far up looking for the blond, or Karin for that matter.

Naruto slowly got dressed into the new outfit Karin had picked out for him. Although they were all civilian clothes and offered no protection what so ever when it came to being struck with jutsu or weapons Naruto had to admit that the all black outift would be perfect for most Anbu. Once satisfied with his state of dress the jinchuuriki exited his room and into the living area of the hotel apartment he was sharing with Karin. 'Looks like she's not awake yet.' he thought as he quietly crossed the room and moved towards the exit. 'Better let her sleep, I doubt she will want me to wake her up anyway.'

Upon leaving the hotel Naruto briskly made his way towards the town square that housed the clothing store and the restaurant he and Karin visited the day before. He found a small cafe that sold breakfast, unfortunately he could not find a place that sold ramen so early in the morning. Once he had finished his meal the Kyuubi jinchuuriki set off to work, looking for all supplies he and Karin would need.

(Border of the Land of Fire)

Team eight and Neji arrived in a small town on the northern border of the land of fire, several ninja supply stores littered the streets making it clear that the village was a common rendezvous point for Konoha shinobi.

"Sai is supposed to meet us somewhere in the village." Neji informed the group.

Kiba scoffed in mild annoyance. "What good is that, he could be anywhere in here."

Shino nodded in agreement but was less worried. "That may be the point Kiba, how can we find our target who could be anywhere in the elemental nations if we cannot find our own companion in a small village such as this." he reasoned in his classic, stoic manner.

"It just sounds like a waste of time to me." Kiba replied. Despite having calmed down somewhat in the last few years since he graduated the ninja academy Kiba was still brash and impulsive at times, tending to rush into things in hopes of proving himself without a plan, something that ha often backfired on the young Inuzuka from time to time. "Well if we have to find him let's not waste any time!" he declared, racing off with Akamaru into the village.

"Foolish." Neji spoke quietly.

"I agree, Kiba is not overly familiar with Sai's scent so locating him will be easier for you or Hinata." Shino droned.

"Ano, then maybe we should go after him, make sure he doesn't get into any trouble." Hinata replied slightly embarrassed for her teammate.

"Hinata is right, Sai is probably watching that fool make and idiot out of himself as we speak." Neji said. On his orders the three remaining Konoha shinobi began walking further into the village while not as fast as Kiba they could tell that he hadn't gone far.

They caught up with Kiba in the center of the village randomly sniffing the air. "Any luck yet?" Neji asked already knowing the answer.

"No are you sure he is even here?" Kiba huffed.

Neji nodded, not at all surprised that Kiba was unsuccessful. "If this is indeed a test then he will likely have modified his scent with a genjutsu, you would either need to have a strong familiarity with Sai, or a item of his clothing to be able to locate him like that. Then I am sure he will have put on a henge up. Neither Hinata or myself know Sai well enough to identify him from his chakra alone, with that said I believe Shino's beetles will be the quickest way of locating Sai." he informed the group.

"That does seem the most logical solution. My beetles will be able to find Sai in only a few minutes." Shino agreed. Like most Aburame Shino was highly logical and would always think things through before acting. For this same reason Shino's beetles already knew what Sai's chakra tasted like, so the insect loving chunin had little doubt that he could find Sai in no time at all.

"Then you know what to do." Neji replied. Shino nodded and a small swarm of beetles spread out from the Aburame quickly moving through the village landing on every person for a split second, just long enough to taste their chakra.

As he predicted less than five minutes later a small beetle returned to land on Shino's outstretched index finger. "Sai is sitting atop a building one block to the south watching us." he informed the group.

"Lead the way." Neji said curtly.

Shino nodded and jumped up onto a nearby roof, for ninja it was only two jumps before they landed next to what looked like an elderly man painting part of the village. "You're late." Sai informed the group lowering his Henge. Sai was a very thin teenage boy with short black hair and eyes to match. He wore all black that seemed to accent just how pale his skin really was. On his back he carried a backpack containing ink and scrolls and a Tanto.

"Well you didn't meet us at the rendezvous point!" Kiba accused the pale dark haired shinobi.

"That is not true, this village was the rendezvous point and I was inside the village, you ran into the center of town brazenly searching for me as though I would simply step out and greet you. When in the field Anbu are supposed to remain hidden, even from their allies. A mission as a double agent or infiltration can be given away as easily as having a friendly shinobi smile at you." Sai informed with a fake smile that nobody found believable.

Kiba for his part was left speechless, he wanted to argue that this wasn't an undercover mission and he was wasting time. Unfortunately for the Inuzuka the only thing that escaped his mouth were incoherent nothings.

"I read a book that said that people who cannot form words properly, often have a speech disorder or suffer from low intelligence. In both cases the book said these people are often self conscious or their disability." Sai said while wondering if Kiba was one such person. Sai had been trained to suppress all emotions during his training in the now disbanded Root faction of Anbu. Since he met Naruto however he has been trying to reclaim that part of his humanity. Despite this fact, he still has difficulty understanding certain situations, often ending up with him insulting one of his would be friends.

Kiba was about to yell at Sai for his unknown insult but he was cut off by Neji. "In any case we have found you now. Our mission was to rendezvous with you and get the report on what leads you have on the location of one of Sasuke's former companions Karin."

Sai nodded and turned to Neji handing him a scroll. "There is not much to tell, I have been searching all of Orochimaru's former hideouts to the north in search of her. Several had been used and I suspect she had been there at one stage." he said.

"So she moved on, but to where?" Hinata said glad that they had at least one lead to go on.

"It seems she was heading north east. Towards the Land of Lightning. As to why she would be heading to where all the Alliance shinobi were upon leaving Konoha I could not say. If I had to guess, I would say she was looking for Sasuke." Sai replied.

"Ano, why would she be searching for Sasuke? Didn't he almost kill her? If it was me, I would be trying to help the person most likely to kill Sasuke." Hinata reasoned.

Sai didn't really follow, but in his defense the choice Hinata had outlined was one based on emotions rather than logic. Sai saw it as an escaped criminal trying to rejoin their group. Hinata saw it as a heart broken girl wanting revenge. Both were wrong but Hinata was far closer to the truth. "Both are possible scenarios, but neither matter to us. Her reasons are her own, our task is to locate the criminal and return her to Konoha to stand trial. Simple as that." Neji finally spoke.

"You would make a good member of Anbu Neji, you too Shino. I don't think Kiba and Hinata have the right mindset for the job though." Sai said getting to his feet.

Hinata didn't mind, being a member of Anbu was never something that she considered as a career path. If anything she wanted to become a sensei like Kurenai, but she knew that she was a long way from that level yet. In fact kurenai even told her once that compared to Kakashi and Asuma, her fellow sensei of the passing students she was by far the weakest when it came to combat. Kakashi's sharingan would see through her Genjutsu making it no contest, and Asuma was a member of the twelve guardians, a position that is not simply handed to anyone.

Kiba for his part was just muttering to himself about not wanting to be a black ops ninja anyway. He only stopped when Shino decided to speak. "Where do we start our search? Perhaps it would be best to return to the last place that you suspected Karin to be, we might find some trace of her there. A torn piece of clothing, if the place had been closed up long enough there may even be some feint traces of her chakra remaining for my beetles to analyze." the Aburame suggested.

"I would certainly agree. Sai how far do we need to travel to reach Karin's last suspected location?" Neji asked.

"Half a day north east, on foot that is. We need to go in that direction anyway." Sai replied. Without need for any orders sair took out a large scroll of paper and a bottle of ink. In a flash he painted four large birds that sprung to life off the page and landed infront of the shinobi. Neji and Hinata shared a bird while the others each took their own. It took quite a bit of convincing to tempt Akamaru to trust Sai's creation but eventually the four birds took off flying high over the country side heading in the required direction.

(Land of Earth)

Several hours had passed and Naruto had collected all of the essentials he and Karin would need for their trip he left the store with a large bag that contained a qick to set up wind proof tent for the coldest climates and several small portable flame heaters that the store owner explained ran on chakra. Even civilians could use chakra if there was an object that allowed it. Naruto grabbed a few, because the heaters were also used to cook on having a small stove top and canister to boil water from snow.

Naruto walked slowly back towards his hotel room, the large backpack close to overflowing behind him. 'Naruto, do you feel that?' Kurama asked seriously.'

'Yeah, we're being followed. I can't say what they want though.' Naruto replied. He didn't know what anyone would want with him, he just hoped it wasn't someone who knew who he was or why he was in Iwame.

Kurama grunted in agreement. Their stalker as of this moment had no intent to harm his container, but he knew all too well that that could change in an instant. 'You need to deal with them before we can move on. For what ever reason they know you're not a normal civilian.' the fox warned his jinchuuriki.

Naruto let out a sigh and nodded before turning around slowly. The streets looked deserted, the sun would still have been rather low in the sky so many of the surrounding villagers and tourists were still asleep. "You can come out, I know you're following me!" Naruto said firmly, his voice seemed to echo for a short while bouncing off the thick walls of the surrounding buildings.

For a few moments nothing happened. Naruto was about to call out again when a man in full body armor all in black contrasting a snow white mask that covered his entire face, landed atop one of the nearby building. "You have some talent as a sensor it would seem." the man said, his voice was augmented by his mask making it sound deep and distorted. The effect gave the man a mysterious feel and Naruto could tell the man was well above the level of most shinobi.

"What do you want!?" Naruto asked assertively. He was confident that he could deal with the masked man, after all he had defeated Madara Uchiha. Regardless of this fact he was also well aware that he only had one kunai and no shuriken. He also knew he had no time to collect Senjutsu and the sheer power of his Fox cloak would raise the attention of Iwa, something he had no desire to do.

The masked man didn't answer instead he drew two kunai and launched them both at the blond. Naruto scowled slightly and created two clones without seals that both caught a kunai moments before they hit Naruto in the chest. "So it would appear that you are not just a talented sensor, that is quite some mastery of shadow clones." the masked man said, his voice hiding any surprise that may have been in his voice.

"If you want to do this then can we at least take it somewhere else? Innocents could be hurt if we fight here." Naruto said removing the pack holding all his supplies and handing it to one of his clones. "Take that to the Hotel room." he ordered before taking the kunai from his clones and adding them to his own.

"If you wish, there is a shinobi training area a short way from here, follow me." the Man said. Naruto followed from a safe distance behind, he was not putting the chance of being attacked while traveling. It appeared that the masked man had a similar thought as he made sure to keep a kunai in his hand and one eye on his back as they jumped across the rooftops.

After running for about five minutes they came to a small opening in the cave that led out onto a snow covered field. Naruto instantly was glad that the sweater top that Karin had picked out was warm. The field, if it could be called that was on a steep slope, large rocks scattered the area and at the far end of the training area a cliff dropped down all the way to a small frozen river, Naruto didn't have to look down to know that he did not want to fall off. "Time to show me what you can really do young Namikaze." the masked man declared before peppering the blond with kunai.

'Did he just say Namikaze!?' Naruto wondered as he flipped away from the incoming projectiles. His mastery of Kurama's chakra had increased his speed even when he wasn't using the fox cloak, to control how fast he moved he needed to have almost perfect reflexes and muscle control.

'I believe that he did, chances are this man must know you are somehow related to the Yondaime. That could be troublesome if they are from Iwa and unaware of your contributions in the war.' Kurama replied. The fox already had a fairly good idea of who was behind the mask, but he couldn't be sure.

Naruto continued to dodge the incoming projectiles. Every so often Naruto would double back to collect some kunai to add to his pouch. 'Well that's just great!' Naruto thought sarcastically. 'I might be forced to kill this guy I can't have him returning to Iwa telling everybody about fighting against a relative of the Yondaime.' he added.

Kurama smiled his old sinister smile. He may have lightened up but the giant fox still had a sinister side. 'Then what are we waiting for let's show him what happens when he messes with us!'

Naruto nodded and created several clones that sped through the mans kunai expertly dodging the blades with ease. As they got close however the masked man withdrew two long chains before spinning to collect the clones as they came within range. The knowledge of the clones dispelling returned to Naruto and he cursed under his breath. The man was far too skilled with those chains to have any hope of defeating him easily.

"If you hope to defeat me you are going to need to start trying. I know that you are still suppressing a good deal of your chakra." the man declared.

"Fine if you are so eager for this fight to end then I'll play." Naruto answered the man. The top layer of snow around Naruto's feet visibly moved as he relented from suppressing his chakra.

Karin awoke with a jump as Naruto's chakra flared, she had been having such a wonderful dream but for the life of her she couldn't remember it. She was awoken again from her musings as she felt Naruto's chakra flare once more. She didn't even need to use her sensory technique to feel it at the moment. "What is he doing?" she asked herself as she got out of bed and pulled on a top and some pants. When she exited her room she made the discovery that Naruto was not in fact in their hotel room. She then became slightly worried. Quickly closing her eyes she decided to scan for his chakra signature. Instantly she found Naruto. 'He's fighting someone!' she gasped as she felt the second chakra signature and instantly ran out the door to their room almost falling over the large backpack Naruto had left behind with his clone.

Instantly Naruto's speed and strength increased, the masked man was forced to quickly back away before the blond was able to cross the distance. Only the two chains wrapped around his wrists kept Naruto at bay. Every so often a clone would sneak closer. 'He's tough, but he's still holding back I can feel it!' the man thought before running through a set of hand seals. Once he finished his seals the masked man slammed his right foot into the ground and two large chunks of earth rose from the ground before speeding towards Naruto.

Naruto knew he could avoid the jutsu with ease however he decided to meet it head on. Quickly he created two clones and held both hands up. The masked mans eyes widened slightly behind his mask as two perfectly formed rasengan sprung to life in the teens hand.

The Doton jutsu didn't stand a chance, Naruto's rasengan easily overpowered it and to make matters worse the dust it kicked up obstructed the mask mans vision. 'Where is he?' he asked looking around. At the last second he felt something coming from above and managed to roll out of the way of Naruto descending from the sky with another rasengan in hand. "Not bad Namikaze, for a kid. But you're still holding back, you're hiding something I can tell." the man declared.

"How can you be so sure?" Naruto asked. The truth was if you counted how much stronger Sage Mode and Bijuu Mode made him then he was still hiding a mighty large chunk of his strength, and he had no desire to bring either technique out to defeat this man.

"Simple, you're so confident despite failing to land a single hit yet." the man replied.

"Are you sure I can count one hit." Naruto replied his smirk growing.

The masked man puzzled over what Naruto had said for a moment before he felt the armor over his right arm crack and shatter. 'But a dodged his Rasengan! didn't I?' he gasped in shock. "How?"

"I made a second rasengan as I was coming down, I still have a little trouble making them without clones but I figured you would dodge so I didn't really have a choice. I wanted to see how durable that armor is. It must have been expensive." Naruto answered.

'What is this kid. I'm beginning to see why they gave his old man a flee on sight order.' the masked man thought at the same time as Karin burst into the field.

"What are you doing here, get back Karin this isn't safe." Naruto said seeing the kunoichi out of the side of his eye.

'I wonder, he seems rather determined to keep his true abilities hidden. I need to try something different to coax them out of him.' the masked man thought.

Karin shook her head in defiance "But why are you fighting? That's-" But what ever it was that Karin was going to say was lost in her throat as she saw the masked man move and several kunai shot towards her, his aim was amazing and she was frozen in shock.

Naruto's eyes widened and he acted instinctively the distance seemed insurmountable and Naruto didn't have enough kunai or the skill with the blades necessary to block them all. As such he was reduced to his only remaining option.

Karin had closed her eyes, ready for the pain that was sure to follow. The only problem was nothing happened. She slowly opened one eye to peak out as if unsure that she was still actually still alive. What she saw though floored her. She landed on her knees in awe as Naruto stood defensively over her, his body covered in glowing yellow chakra that licked around him like flames. His normally spiky hair seemed to stand up higher and several dark markings ran around his body. "Are you okay?" Naruto asked Karin calmly.

She looked dumbstruck but nodded slowly. 'This chakra, it's overwhelming, I feel like I am going to suffocate. But it's still so warm and comforting.' she thought barely able to make a coherent thought.

"Naruto that was foolish! Iwa will investigate a spike in chakra like this!" Kurama said using Naruto's mouth to speak out loud.

"I know Kurama, but I couldn't just do nothing, she would have died." Naruto replied defensively.

"That is exactly what you should have done! I told you keeping that girl around was dangerous and you didn't listen. If you get caught because of this it will be her fault." Kurama retorted.

Both Karin and the masked man watched the interchange with varying levels of curiosity and fear. "Maybe, but I didn't want to see her die. Shes... a friend, and I don't want to see any of my friends suffer because of me." Naruto answered sadly.

Karin felt her heart jump slightly but ignored it, she was far too preoccupied with the conversation Naruto was seemingly having with himself. "Fine, lets just finish this man off. When this is over you can't afford to stay in this village any longer." Kurama huffed. Naruto nodded in acceptance and turned to face the masked man before simply disappearing.

The mask mans eyes shot wide open as he felt a pain in his stomach. He looked down and found Naruto's arm enbedded in his stomach, his armor shattered in a single punch. He coughed out blood as he fell to his knees while his mask fell off as he landed face down in the snow.

Naruto ended his Bijuu cloak as he looked down upon the man with his head buried in the snow. He slowly rolled the man over with his foot before stopping. "Asahi! Why would you do this?" Naruto asked in stunned disappointment.

Asahi looked up at Naruto no malice or anger in his eyes. "Because I wanted to know the truth. Why you really left your home. There were so many inconsistencies, how could the son of Minato Namikaze, and a young man trained by both Copy Cat Kakashi and Jiraiya of the Sannin possibly still be a genin. Now I know you're a Jinchuuriki. Can you ever forgive me? I had to indulge my curiosity, forgive this old man." he said knowing that most ninja were not forgiving at all.

"I shouldn't you know. I could get caught because of this." Naruto replied.

"I'll take the fall, this was my fault, take the girl and run. It will take Iwa several days to send a team out this far to investigate. Go take Karin and make sure you are far from here by the time they come. I'll make sure they never get a sign of your trail, it's the least I can do." Asahi said sadly.

Naruto simply nodded and turned back to where Karin still sat in the snow a look of awe on her face. "We need to go, I'm sorry we can't wait around for another few days." Naruto said. Karin nodded but her body was being difficult. "Can you stand?" he asked.

"I don't know I think my body is in shock, it's not responding properly." She replied fearfully, she didn't want to be left behind. Her fears were unfounded however as Naruto lightly scooped her up from the ground and cradled her safely as he rushed off back in the direction of their room to collect the supplies they would need if they wanted to survive. Karin relaxed in his arms, she closed her eyes and felt his chakra surrounding her. 'This is nice. I could get used to this.' she thought before she suddenly went very tense. 'Oh no, please don't tell me...I'm starting to have feelings for Naruto.'

End Chapter!

Been awhile since there has been any action in this Fic so thought it needed a scene to kick things moving again. Anyway hope you liked the chapter. Until Next Time, Bye.