Something More

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 5

"This place really is in the middle of nowhere." Suigetsu whines, after they had been traveling for several hours.

"It wouldn't be a very good fortress, if our enemies had been able to reach it easily." Suki reasons as they head inside.

Suki suppresses as shiver, upon entering. The fortress was so cold and empty. It seemed more like crypt than anything until she heard a meow.

"Aren't you a pretty kitty? Yes, you are!" She hears Suigetsu ask the feline.

She shakes her head in amusement. Suigetsu had a soft spot for animals. That or at least he liked 'kitties.' Who knew? Oh well. She supposed she should warn him that he was likely about to get his arm chewed off.

"Suigetsu, that's a Ninja Cat. Don't touch them unless you want to be torn to ribbons." Suki states bluntly.

She couldn't quite cover her laugh as the violet eyed ninja jumps back several feet. Good. It looked like if nothing else, Suigetsu respected Ninja Cats. That meant that he wasn't suicidal.

Ninja Cats were in a different league than Ninja Dogs. Dogs were almost without question loyal. For a Ninja Cat to 'serve' anyone, that person had to prove themselves worthy first. Though only a complete fool would actually describe their relationship with a Ninja Cat as a master-servant relationship. The felines were a very proud group.

"Jeez! You should have warned me before I tried to pet it!" Her teammate grumbles.

Karin just laughs. She didn't even bother to stifle her laugh as Suki did. It was funny. Really, it was a bit of a shame that the other woman had warned him first. Karin would have liked to see Suigetsu get his ass handed to him by a cat.

"When would she have had time? You reached for the cat so quickly." Jugo points out.

"Hey! Who asked you?!" Suigetsu grumbles, feeling a little embarrassed.

Suki shakes her head and drops to her knee. After doing so, she takes out a small tube of something. It was catnip.

"Can you take us to the caretaker?" The raven haired woman asks softly.

"Ah it's good to see that manners haven't completely died out. I do love catnip!" Of course, we can. Follow us." The male ninja cat says.

With that being said, the two felines quickly dart off. Everyone on Taka was a formidable ninja in their own right, but it was a struggle not to lose sight of the Ninja Cats. They were that fast and that agile. Not to mention, it was fairly dark inside the fortress.

"Ah Suki. It's been years. My, how you've grown. You're a woman now." An elderly woman greets them, a few minutes later.

"Granny, we are in need of supplies." Suki says.

Suigetsu glances at the old woman and feels more than a little too freaked out. First of all, he had never thought that he'd hear Suki call anyone granny. Secondly, the woman actually was beginning to look like a cat herself. Maybe it was just an old people thing though.

"So it's true then. You're going after Itachi." " Suki's granny says.

That was the point when Suigetsu notices that the old woman wasn't alone. There was a girl about their age in the room with them and she was looking at Taka rather curiously. Suigetsu wasn't worried though.

If she was a threat, Suki would have already done or said something. He decides at that moment that she was probably 'Granny's' actual granddaughter or some relation. They were likely both in charge of keeping the fortress running.

"Yes, I am." Suki tells her as she flashes some money at the caretaker.

She had missed this place. It had been years since she had last visited it. After her family had died, Suki had been too young to make the journey on her own. As time passed, it just slipped her mind.

Now that she was finally going to make Itachi pay for what he had done though, it was the perfect place to get some supplies. Suki could only hope that Granny wouldn't ask too many questions. The same applied to her actual granddaughter as well.

"Such a shame. I remember the both of you when you were children. I can't believe that Itachi of all people would be capable of such despicable things. You were both such cute children. Take what you like though. It certainly looks like you have the means to pay for it." The cat lover replies.

"Thank you." Suki says with a smile as she looks around to see what might prove useful.

They would definitely need clothes. Food and medicine would also be important. Oh and water. Lots of water.

"Granny! I can't find anything to fit him!" The younger caretaker cries out.

"Go into the back. Try the largest size we have." Granny snaps at her.

"I already tried that. It doesn't fit him! Not even the XXXL!" She replies mournfully.

Suigetsu blinks. Yeah. Jugo was a big guy to put it mildly. He didn't miss the way that Suki and Karin were staring. Karin he didn't care about, but it unsettled him how much it bugged him that Suki was.

Of course, this was Suki. Just because she was looking, didn't necessarily mean the Uchiha woman was attracted to him. She just might be stunned at how big he was. Yeah. That must be it.

"Just give him the curtain then. It'll work." The elderly woman suggests.

"Granny! That's rude! They're paying us for clothes, not for curtains." She demands.

"It's alright. Look. It fits just fine." Jugo says with a smile as he wraps the purple curtain around himself.

Suki tilts her head to the side. Well whatever works. She shakes her head in amusement and continues taking an informal inventory of the supplies.

"Hey, Princess! I found something for you!" Suigetsu smirks.

The youngest Uchiha raises an eyebrow. She didn't know what the sword lover was planning, but she knew that she was probably going to end up smacking him for it. Suigetsu looked entirely too pleased with himself for any other outcome to be possible.

"What?" Suki inquires warily, not entirely certain that she even wanted to know what was going on in his head.

"This. I think that it'll look great on you." The violet eyed ninja tosses her a red silk lingerie set.

Suki catches it and looks down at what Suigetsu had thrown her. The female ninja feels herself twitch. Oh that was it. He was so dead.

"PERVERT!" She growls at him and with that, she proceeds to fire up a Chidori.

"Oh come on. Red is a very good color on you and silk is nice!" Suigetsu says as he slowly backs away from a now furious Uchiha.

"GET HIM, SUKI! HE DESERVES IT!" Karin cheers her on.

The grandmother shakes her head and sighs. Children. It didn't matter how many years had passed, some things would never change. One of them was that boys would tease the girl that they liked, it seemed.

Meanwhile the Suki Retrieval Team was preparing to head off. Naruto smiles as he realizes it was composed of most of the Rookie Nine. That and Lee's team.

"Don't worry, N-Naruto. We'll do out best to get her back." Hinata tells him.

"Thanks, Hinata. That means a lot. Be careful though guys. Suki is pretty strong now. This isn't going to be easy." The blonde warns them.

"Pft. I think that she's outnumbered. We can handle this!" Kiba says with a smile.

Naruto nods approvingly. He knew that they would save Suki somehow. The Leaf Ninja just wasn't sure how they were going to do that yet.

They would come up with something though. He knew it deep down in his heart. The Rookie Nine and Bushy Brow Sensei's team would find a way to do it! Believe it!

"Alright. Is everyone ready?" He calls out and there were affirmative answers.

Naruto takes a deep breath and they had off. They had to find Suki. He knew that she was going to go after Itachi. That meant that any Akatsuki sightings would prove enormously useful in tracking her down.

If they could find the Akatsuki, they could probably find Suki. It was just what they were going to do after they found her, that was the hard part. Naruto shakes his head as if to dispel those negative thoughts as he flits through the forest. He couldn't afford to think like that.

"Where are we going to start looking?" Sakura asks.

"I'm not sure really. Should we split up into teams or all stick together?" The blonde asks.

Shino sighs. He could see that this had been really well planned out. All their abilities complimented each other, but they had no idea where to begin searching.

"My insects can cover great distances. Hinata and Neji have the Byakugan. Their range is quite extensive. It would make sense to split into three, four person groups. Neji in the first. Hinata in the second. I can be in the third. The rest will divide up according to who they think that they can work best with." Shino reasons.

"YOU TALKED!" Naruto says and Shino twitches in response.

"You say that as though you thought I was mute." Shino grumbles.

Honestly, that was such a childish reaction. It annoyed him. Just because he wasn't babbling constantly, didn't mean he couldn't talk.

"Well I didn't think you were mute, but you are really quite. You're even more quiet than Hinata and Neji!" The blond exclaims.

This prompts Hinata to blush and Neji to shoot Naruto a rather vicious glare. Seeing the glare, made the young ninja gulp. Uh oh. Maybe, he shouldn't have said that. The Hyuga man had a bit of a temper sometimes.

"It's not the quantity of words that matter. It's the quality. Be that as it may, Shino has devised a suitable plan. Let's divide up into teams." Neji says.

"We should agree upon a meeting place and a specific time to get there. Separating is dangerous, but we will cover more ground that way." Shikamaru reasons.

The others murmur in agreement. It takes the better part of an hour, but eventually the teams are form and a meeting place is agreed upon. Naruto flits of with Sakura, Hinata, and Lee.

Now that he had his team, Naruto couldn't help but feel much more hopeful. They all had a plan now and a meeting place. With that in mind, the newly formed teams all took off in search of Suki Uchiha.

Elsewhere Itachi searches for his sister. Unfortunately, he wasn't having much luck. Where could she have gone?

It was fairly obvious that she wasn't in the Sound anymore. Why would she be? She had killed Orochimaru and he was the only reason why she had gone to that wretched village in the first place.

"It seems that my foolish little sister has gotten better at playing Hide and Seek over the years." He observes with a sigh.

Thanks to Mei's kindness, his illness had stabilized. He also had plenty of medication on hand. If need be, he was reasonably confident that he could survive for a year before he would need more treatments.

Itachi did hope that it wouldn't come to that though. If he had his way, he'd be dead long before then. Suki could kill him and then finally achieve the peace that she so desperately needed.

"It really isn't fair. None of this was her fault. Yet, she is the one who suffered the most." The elder Uchiha sibling says to himself.

Well at least he thought that he was speaking to himself. That's when another presence made himself known. An all too familiar one. Obito. Damn it.

"You know there is another way." The other Uchiha says as he approaches Itachi.

"I'm aware of your plans. I do not condone them. We once worked together to prevent a war. I will not see you destroy the world, just so you can craft an illusion of a better one." Itachi hisses at him.

"I don't see why you would be protective of this one. What has it ever done for you? All it has done is taken away your family and caused you pain. You're a hero. Without you, tens of thousands of people would have died. I doubt that it's much of a stretch to say hundreds of thousands really and what do you get in return for your sacrifices? Nothing, but hatred." Obito observes.

Itachi shakes his head. The rest of the world's opinion mattered little to him. What mattered was giving Suki a sense of closure and finally being able to achieve peace.

He wouldn't settle for the false peace that Obito was offering though. No. Itachi had long ago chosen his path and while it was an unpleasant one, it was also the right one. There were no shortcuts to redemption.

"I don't care about my reputation. Friends and adoration from strangers was never something that I required, nor wanted. That was your desire. It was never mine." The younger Uchiha seethes at him.

"Perhaps it wasn't your primary goal, but do not lie to me. It is human nature to want acceptance." Madara's imposter states plainly.

"That much is certain, but the only person's acceptance that I care about is hers. I will not allow you to interfere with my sister. I won't allow you to enslave everyone to their fantasies. The real world is a painful place, but it is only through suffering that we learn to appreciate happiness." The young man counters.

Obito raises an eyebrow. Itachi was going to be difficult. He could already see that. Well in the end, it wouldn't matter.

The man was clearly rush towards his own demise. It was such a waste of talent. Such a waste of a life, but it was Itachi's choice in the end.

"Very well. I suppose that we have nothing further to discuss here." Obito says and with that, he flickers off.

"Damn him." Itachi curses under his breath.

A few days later, Taka was on the move again. They were searching far and wide for any Akatsuki sightings. Most of the time Karin or Suki would ask the locals about the Akatsuki.

The female members of Taka were just better at that sort of thing. Jugo was fine most of the time, but he could fly into a murderous rage at any moment. So that ruled him out. As for Suigetsu, well manners had never been his strong suit. That meant that the task of gathering information largely fell to Suki and Karin.

"Another dead end." Suki says with a sigh.

"Don't worry, Princess. We'll find him. The man's partner looks like a freaking shark. They don't exactly blend in." Suigetsu says consolingly.

"Will you stop calling me Princess?! It's really annoying!" Suki snaps at him.

Oh boy. The Princess was about to lose it. He could see that coming from a mile away. He was likely going not have to resort to drastic measures soon. Suigetsu didn't want to have to fight dirty, but he would. If he had to, he would.

"I don't see why it would upset you. It's accurate. You're from a Noble Clan, after all." He taunts her.

"That just means that we had a bloodline! We weren't actually royalty!" She growls at him.

"Close enough, Princess. Deal with it!" The sword lover says with a smirk.

In some ways, Suki was completely stoic. In other ways though, the dark beauty was one of the easiest people in the world to rile up. She was truly a walking, talking contradiction.

"Guys! Stop it! We've got company heading our way." Karin warns them.

"Company? How many? How strong? How long before they get here?" Suki demands.

Karin pauses as she tries to focus on the chakra signatures. There were four of them. Powerful. They were also heading straight towards them. It wouldn't be long now.

"Four. All likely Jonin Level. They are heading towards us quickly. I don't think it's a coincidence. The Leaf must know that we are here somehow. We have to go or else we'll have to battle them in the middle of the street." The red head clarifies.

Suki nods and Taka soon takes off towards the empty fields on the outskirts of the small village that they had fond themselves in. This would be better. The youngest Uchiha felt a flash of pity for the farmers.

It wasn't there fault that they were about to face off against four Leaf Ninjas. Despite that, it would likely be their crops that suffered. That wasn't fair. Suki wasn't heartless.

She wanted Itachi dead more than anything, but that didn't mean that she enjoyed making innocent people suffer. Not that that was going to stop her from achieving her goal though. Itachi Uchiha would die by her hand, that much she was sure of.

"Suki!" She hears Naruto call out to her.

The Uchiha woman winces. Of all the Leaf's ninjas, it just had to be him. Obviously, someone up there really despised her. That was the only logical explanation to explain her absolutely abysmal luck.

"Naruto, go back to the Leaf. I don't have time to play with you right now." She hisses at him.

She hated being cruel to him. Suki knew that in his own naïve way, he was trying to help. She wasn't going home though. Not until Itachi was dead.

The young ninja just couldn't understand why that fact was so difficult for the blonde to understand. It was really that simple. Once Itachi was dead, she would be more than happy to return home. Not until then though.

"Well that's good. We aren't playing. Suki, come home. I know that you want to make Itachi pay, but we can help you. You killed Orochimaru. You clearly don't want to be a Criminal Ninja." The blonde says.

"Didn't you hear her? She says that she doesn't want to go with you. So how about you back off?" Suigetsu growls at the Leaf Ninja.

Suki was jealous of the farm girl, but the woman had meant nothing to him. Naruto was a different story though. He had been the Princess's teammate. Clearly, there was a bond there.

That annoyed him. It annoyed him a lot. The sooner that Naruto left the better. On some level, Suigetsu realized that he was being irrational. He did, but he just didn't care at the moment.

"Stay out of this! This is none of your business!" The blonde snarls at him.

"Well I'm making it my business. What the Hell is the matter with you? No means no. Sheesh!" Suigetsu says as he withdraws his sword.

Sakura watches anxiously. She didn't like it. Suki wasn't making any moves to attack, but her teammate was.

"Suki, please. Just come home with us. Don't make this any harder on yourself than it has to be. We can find a way to deal with Itachi." The pink haired woman pleads.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. I can't that. Take Naruto and the rest of your team back to the Leaf. I don't want to have to hurt you, but I will. I'll slaughter anyone who gets in my way." The raven haired ninja replies as she activates her Sharingan.

Karin quickly darts off. She wasn't really much of a combat ninja. She could heal her teammates and sense chakra, but in actual combat she was average at best. She was a liability in a situation like this.

"Byakugan!" Hinata calls out as she stares at Suki.

Suki smirks. That was new. Since when did the Hyuga Princess have a backbone. Hmm. The Sharingan vs. the Byakugan. This could be fun.

"Hinata, don't be stupid. This isn't a fight that you can win and I think you know that." The other woman informs her.

"I won't give up. We're taking you home!" The bluenette replies.

"OH YEAH! WE'VE GOT A BATTLE! DIE! DIE!" Jugo cackles madly and Suki's eyes widen as Jugo forms an axe and goes charging at Sakura.

Suigetsu glances at Jugo. That was all the opening that Naruto needed. He charges at the sword lover with his Rasengan fully charged.

Suki's eyes widen in horror. Damn it! No! She slams Suigetsu into the ground, covering him with her body and screams in pain when the Jutsu collided with her back.

"Suki! Oh God! I'm sorry! I didn't mean for that to happen! I was aiming for him! I wasn't trying to kill him! I was just trying to knock him out or scare him off!" Naruto apologizes in a rush.

It was too late though. Jugo might be insane at the moment, but obviously he still viewed Suki was important to him. The homicidal giant lunges at Naruto.

The blonde barley had time to dodge, Jugo's attack before Suigetsu launched one of his own. He was so angry, that he didn't even think about swinging his sword. His fist just slams into Naruto's face.

"J-Jugo! S-Suigetsu! It's fine!" Suki says through gritted teeth as she tries not to choke on her own blood.

The ninja manages to stand, if only just. Her back was in agony. Suki was also almost certain that at least one of her ribs, probably several were broken. She needed Karin.

"Suki!" Karin calls out to the other ninja and rushes over to her.

"If she dies, it's YOUR fault. You need to learn to take no for an answer. She doesn't want to go back with you!" Suigetsu snarls at Naruto.

"Don't pretend that you care about her! You don't know anything about Suki! I'm her teammate! I'm her friend!" The blonde snaps at him.

Suigetsu's and Naruto's words barely register for Suki. The pain from the Rasengan was too great. That's when she looks down and realizes that the Rasengan had partially torn through her. It was a damn good thing that it hadn't been struck at full impact. She would have been torn in half.

If she had been just a second slower, it would have torn her in half. The angle that Naruto struck her at, had blunted the force somewhat though. With that in mind, the young ninja realizes that it was nothing short of a miracle that she was still alive.

"Suki! You need to bite me!" The red head calls out in a panic.

Suki wasn't sure where she found the strength to do it, but she manages to sink her teeth into Karin's neck. She still didn't fully understand how Karin's healing abilities worked, but that didn't really matter. What mattered was that they did.

"Thank you." She whispers as she struggles to stay conscious.

"Jugo! Take care of them! Karin, Jugo you know where to find us." Suigetsu says as he darts over to the women and scoops Suki up in his arms.

Suigetsu knew that Suki was barely conscious, when she didn't protest the action. That meant that it was bad. She had almost gotten herself killed because Suki had decided to protect him.

The least he could do now was get her away from the battle. Upon deciding that, he uses the Body Flicker Technique to carry the Uchiha Princess off to safety. Jugo and Karin would follow. He knew that they would.

"Damn it!" Naruto hisses as his team clash with Jugo and Karin.

The only way that they were going to find out where Suigetsu and Suki went was by forcing one of them to talk. Obviously, Karin would be easier. Not that it mattered.

Either of them would work. There was no way that he was going to give up on his best friend that easily! Believe it!