Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were making their way towards Suna. The trip would only take two days for them to reach the destination, which was pretty good time. But considering that Temari left the day before, they wouldn't catch up to her at this pace. Hopefully nothing would happen on their way to Sunagakure. They began dashing through the forest tree's, using the treetops to increase their travel speed as having to maneuver around them would have proved to be time consuming. As they made their way towards the edge of the forest, they finally reached Sunagakure territory. As the forest began to give way into plains, and the plains soon began to give way to desert, they had decided that they had traveled far enough and decided to rest.
Naruto pulled out a scroll, unsealing some logs and began setting up a camp fire. It was a good time to rest and eat since they had made great timing on their way to Suna. Sasuke removed two shuriken and threw them at a lone set of rabbits that were about to burry into the sand for protection for the night. Having captured some food, Sasuke began the work of cleaning it and Sakura had set up the tents and was counting her medical supplies. She had a scroll that had water canteens and things inside of it, should any of them be thristy.
As they ate and drank in realitive silence, Sasuke and Sakura decided to use the time to pry into the new Naruto Uzumaki. They wanted to know a lot more about him. "So...Naruto, you've been gone for three years...What was training with Orochimaru like?" Sakura decided to ask. She wanted to be careful on how to phrase it, but decided to just be as simple as possible with her questions. Naruto looked at her as he sat there, poking the campfire with a stick.
"It was...difficult. Orochimaru didn't really expect me to put up that much of a fight with him, and was interested in my power. Unlike some people from the village, Orochimaru recognizes potential when he see's it... No matter how sick the bastard is." He finished as he threw the stick into the fire. Sasuke looked at Naruto a little curious. "He was particularly interested in you, Sasuke." he said looking at Sasuke.
"Me...why?" Sasuke asked. While the thought of training with Orochimaru sickened him, he wondered what the old snake would have to teach him. There wasn't much that Orochimaru could teach that Jiraiya could have taught him. Those three years with Jiraiya had gotten him plenty of experience and training. His mastery in his Sharingan almost rivaled Kakashi's and Itachi's, minus the Mangekyou. Sasuke realized he would never want that power. Killing someone he really cared for, hell even being responsible for their death would seem like a world altering experience for him.
"The sharingan." Naruto stated. "Orochimaru had the idea to learn every ninjutsu in the world ever created. Which in itself is a dumb idea, considering the fact that a lot of jutsu are restricted to clans, and that some members are extinct or are outside of his reach. But...I have this effect on people, where they have the desire to want to tell me their life stories...Orochimaru revealed a lot about his training with Hiruzen Sarutobi and the other two Sannin. It was slightly interesting listening to his past, and on some level, I gained a sense of respect for the guy. Sick and twisted he may be, the man was a genius shinobi. It was an excellent battle between me and him. One I won't soon forget." he finished explaining.
Sasuke shivered at the thought of Orochimaru taking his eyes, how he was going to go about that wasn't lost on him either. While with Jiraiya, he had mentioned Orochimaru to Sasuke. Sasuke had already knew what Orochimaru really wanted, he just wanted to know if Orochimaru was trying to play the field with Naruto and lie to him. Sasuke knew Orochimaru wanted his body so that he could copy techniques like no bodies business. Sakura listened to Naruto's story and was a bit confused but accepted the fact that Naruto was a slightly old school shinobi. For one so young to have such a philosophy towards those he battled wasn't something the new age shinobi like she and Sasuke would contemplate for too long.
Naruto looked back at Sakura a bit. "So...that strength you pulled off. Pretty impressive. Utilizing chakra to enhance one's strength, gathering maximum chakra and releasing it in an instant. A very interesting technique. When I first saw you use it, I thought you utilized a doton technique, the cutting of the earth slab was too perfect to be blasted out. But you utilized chakra to cut the stone's area out didn't you...That's the improvement you made on Tsunade's technique?" He asked. Sakura stared at him wide eyes wondering how he deduced her attack so easily.
"Yes...how did you figure it out?" She asked. She then thought back to what Naruto said at the spar against Kakashi. He could sense chakra in a very high range, he could also analyze jutsu like no one else could, borderline on par with a Byakugan user, minus the 360 degree vision. 'He must have sensed my chakra output, but the time it takes to do it doesn't take too long, his sensing ability is off the charts.' she thought. "Never mind...I figured it out." she concluded. Naruto smirked a bit. One thing was confusing to Naruto though, and that was Sasuke. He couldn't gauge Sasuke's power.
"Sasuke...What about you? What kind of training did you go through. I see you utilized a few new techniques you didn't have before." Naruto stated. He was particularly interested in the techniques that Jiraiya had taught him. Both knew the Chidori technique, and Sasuke mentioned Rasengan, which was the fourth Hokage's technique. Naruto realized that Jiraiya only taught that to his apprentices. The two had a lot of techniques in common. Both the Chidori and Rasengan were A ranked techniques in their own rights. How ever, Chidori was of a lesser caliber and wasn't made for assassination, it was made for straight up destroying your opponent with power. It was more a brute strength technique. It had potential to kill if the right area was targeted, but not like the killing potential of the Chidori. Both were powerful on their own right.
"When Lord Jiraiya took me as a student. It started out with him just training me in some shinobi arts that I didn't know. He started with some basic combat strategies and what not. Unlike you, I can't use Shadow Clones to their full potential which resulted in a lot of time being focused on my weaknesses and balancing me out. But once those grounds were covered...I grew pretty well. Learning techniques were easy and simple with the utilization of the Sharingan. All except Rasengan...I had to learn that one myself. Took me almost three months to get down. But halfway through the training, Lord Jiraiya made me his apprentice, allowing me to sign the toad contract, and passing on his mission to me." Sasuke said.
Naruto was puzzled. Jiraiya never mentioned a mission he was going through when he had taught him how to summon toads and trained him a bit. During the one month period of the chuunin exam, Naruto trained in summoning with Jiraiya. Well his shadow clone did. Naruto himself trained with Danzo Shimura, who was very skilled in wind technique. He wondered how that old man was doing these days. Naruto would have to pay him and Root a visit. Danzo would be happy to hear about the execution of Orochimaru. "The old sage never mentioned anything about a mission. And it's still on going?" Naruto asked. Sasuke smirked a bit. "What's so funny?"
"It's not that kind of Mission Naruto. Jiraiya left his will of fire to me. He wants me to find peace for him. To end the curse of hatred, breaking the cycle, and acquire true peace in the shinobi world." Sasuke stated. Naruto looked at him like he grew a second head. He began laughing. Sasuke narrowed his eyes a bit and scoffed. "What's so funny?" it was his turn to ask.
"That's not gonna happen any time soon. The shinobi world is built on hatred. To end that cycle of hate would mean the end of the Ninja world as we know it. Ninjutsu would become meaningless. Say you do achieve this peace...what then Sasuke?" Naruto asked. Sasuke thought for a moment and looked down. He didn't know what then.
"Maybe...I could settle down and work towards rebuilding my clan." Sasuke said. Sasuke wanted nothing more, at a time, than to end his brother and get revenge on the clan. But after swearing to Jiraiya that he would break that cycle of hatred, he had forgiven Itachi. He had let go of his hate towards his brother. He even talked it out with Jiraiya and Jiraiya had found him to be the one thing he was looking for in an apprentice. Naruto was still chuckling.
"There's no place for me in that kind of world. I enjoy fighting too much to just give it up and go peaceful. Besides...this world is the embodiment of hate. I don't mean to pull you off your path. But to get rid of hate, you have to deal with not only the tailed beast, which Akatsuki is pulling up like daisies, you have to end the fighting between villages, and you have to find a way to keep this peace going. The first few years will seem easy, but after that...it's in the air" Naruto stated. Sasuke thought about it. It did seem really difficult. But he had steeled himself on his path.
"Thanks for the heads up Naruto." Sasuke stated patting the blond on the back. Naruto laughed a bit and smiled at Sasuke with slightly elongated canine's.
"Don't touch me..." He said and Sasuke removed his hand.
"Drama Queen."
"And DAMN proud of it." Naruto stated as he stood up dusting himself off. "It's been nice, but let's get some rest. We have one more day before we reach Suna. We need to collect our information on Sasori and Deidara. Having fought them before coming here last time was a pain in the ass. We should have killed them, had they not escaped." Naruto stated as he went to lay down in a tent.
"We'll get them next time. There's no need to stress about it this time. Those guys are dead either way. Attacking a great shinobi village is not something that is taken lightly." Sasuke stated. Sakura was oddly quiet but no body tried to understand why. If she had doubts or worries, she would voice them. As Sasuke headed off to a tent, Sakura doused the flames and let the light die down. She had first watch any how. Sakura took guard and watched over her sleeping team mates.
"Just how much further...have you two come. I need more training and to get stronger If I'm going to catch up."