Remember the time,
When you here inside my dreams
I wish you'll be mine
You're understanding what I mean
Discover and see,
That you're the only one for me
Together we'll be free
That's how it's meant to be

"Na- Naruto-kun!" A small voice attempted to yell out.

The blond turned, his blue orbs of eyes staring at Hinata, who had just passed by with her teammates.

"Oh, uh, hey Hinata." Naruto said, gently scratching the back of his head. Hinata blushed, immediately staring down at her feet. Kiba paused, and took a few steps back to her.

"Naruto-kun, I was wond- wondering if you" Hinata began.

"Hinata, we have to go, remember? Tsunade-sama's orders." Kiba interrupted, urging the Hyuuga girl along. Naruto raised a brow. Tsunade-baachan? What would Tsunade be taking Kurenai's place for?

"Oh, uh, right. Sorry about this, Naruto-kun…" Hinata trailed off, bowing slightly.

"Eheh, it's okay Hinata, dattebayo." Naruto grinned slightly, adding a friendly "Dattebayo," to add to the mood of things. His voice sounded a little depressed, as if something was clawing in his mind. Hinata nodded, and bounded after Shino, who was much farther ahead than Kiba and herself. Kiba looked over his shoulder at the blond.

"What's his issue?"

Naruto stood there, watching, until he finally broke his own stare, and began walking in the opposite direction. He kept his head low, ignoring the random hateful glares the villagers sent him. Who cares about them anyway? Naruto wouldn't be here to deal with them

Tsunade's Office

"So, I assume that your team is ready to go, am I right?" Tsunade asked, her fingers interloped.

"Hai, Godaime-sama." Yamato nodded, "Sai's ready; Sakura's gathering her tools, and Naruto's… Well, he's ready as well." The Jounin said, keeping a safe stare on nothing.

"Good, you will head out the moment the team gathers in the Konoha square." Tsunade finished, giving a farewell nod to Yamato. He grunted, and walked away, as he was about to close the door, Tsunade quickly spoke, "Be careful." Yamato paused for a moment, then continued out.

Tsunade sighed once she was left alone in her office. "Be careful, Naruto." With the one last thought, she began going through her paperwork.

Outside of Hi no Kuni

"So, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki has finally decided to come out, eh?" A dark voice cackled.

"Hai, there's not going to be any other opportunity like this one. We must capture him now!" Another, slightly weaker sounding, voice exclaimed.

"Patience…" The darker voice replied, his body masked by the shadows, "We can't rush these things, it'll all fall into place soon enough." He sounded too casual. The other figure in the dark uniform nodded, and disappeared from sight.

"Akatsuki will be unstoppable with the Kyuubi in our hands." One last sentence echoed throughout the liar, which would send chills up the spine of the bravest Kage.

Somewhere Way Outside the Konoha Gates

"Sakura-chaaan…" Naruto whined, "Do you have to stop every five minutes?" He shoved his hands into his pockets.

Sakura stood up, and shot back, "I'm not stopping every five minutes! Got that? I just have to make sure that we're not being followed!" She clenched a fist.

Naruto sneered quietly, "If we are being followed, then they would have killed us all by now." Sakura, overhearing this, instantly introduced Naruto to her fist.

"GAH!" Naruto cried out as he quickly clutched his head. Sai stood off to the side, next to Yamato.

"Hmm…this is what friends do to each other?" Sai mused in his head. Yamato simply shook his,

"Guys, if you can't work together, then this mission will be a failure." Yamato scolded the two. Sakura sighed, and her eyes slightly narrowed, but showing softness in them instead of irritation. Naruto stood back up, still rubbing the sore spot on his blond head.

After an uncomfortable silence, Team 7 took off once more. This time, hopefully, the results of the mission wouldn't end up like the last. (AN: Trust me though, I wish it would.)

Various trees flew by, birds as well, before the forest began to slowly break away from the horizon. The area soon lost all vegetation, and became a rocky landscape. The trees grew less frequent, and some of them appeared to be dead. Small streams of dirtied water ran down the sides of steep mountain and hills, but soon faded away as it absorbed into the ground. The clouds scattered, and sunlight poured onto the earth. Beams of light shone against the metal of the shinobis' headbands, giving them a glowing appearance.

Sakura squinted, trying to get a better view of where she was leaping. Naruto peered over at the kunoichi, becoming quickly distracted by her body. That figure… Sai stared at Naruto for a moment, as if he was waiting for him to run into a tree. Wait, he was. Sakura, feeling eyes drilling into her, turned her head towards Naruto. The blonde's eyes widened and he quickly looked in front of himself, with an innocent expression spread across his face. Sakura's eyes narrowed, and Sai was disappointed. Yamato simply shook his head, like they were all crazy idiots.

"Look over there." Sakura told her teammates, motioning with her head.

Naruto looked to the side where Sakura had pointed out, and spotted strands of smaller pools of blood. They weren't too old, either. It appeared as if someone had been wounded there only a couple hours ago. Sai looked ahead, as if trying to track where the blood was heading to.

"We're almost there." Naruto said grimly.

A light purple blur flashed through the trees, making Sakura's head snap around. She narrowed her aqua eyes, before seeing two more blurs fly by her. She thought for a moment, before finally shouting, "Hinata! Kiba! Shino!"

Naruto's attention was quickly pulled from where he was going, again, and to the side. One of the blurs hesitated, and came up along side Sakura. Yeah, it was Hinata.

"Oh, Sakura-san." She said. Kiba and Akamaru soon came up behind Naruto, an arrogant grin spread across Kiba's face.

"Heh, I didn't know you were heading this way." He said, looking at the blond.

"Well, we were assigned to back up Shikamaru and the others…" Naruto began.

Kiba blinked, "Nani? We were assigned the same thing." Shino finally was seen, but he just kept a steady pace, not bothering to say anything to the group.

"Nani?! Why the hell were they given the same mission as us?!" Naruto growled in his head. He was a little angry that another squad was told to join them on the mission. The blond assumed that Team 7 was to go alone…

Kiba noticed the glare he was receiving, and looked back in front of him. "Sheesh, if you didn't like us being here then you should have said so."

Naruto winced slightly, feeling guilty about being cruel to Kiba. He didn't do anything wrong, it's just that… It was a blow on his pride.

"No, no, Kiba. You're fine, I just… Well… Yeah, dattebayo." Naruto stammered, trying to think of an excuse to redeem himself. Kiba smirked.

Yamato peered over his shoulder, and not surprisingly, there wasn't anything there. It was strange for Tsunade to allow a ninja squad to leave without their sensei…

"Hey, Hinata." The shinobi called the Hyuuga, she turned her head, "Yes, Yamato-sensei?" He blinked at her, obvious to how she knew who he was. And that "sensei" at the end… "Did anyone else come with you?" He asked.

Hinata dropped her head, and shook her head. "No, we came alone."

"Alone…" "Where's Kurenai?" Yamato added to his previous question.

Hinata didn't take very much time before responding, "Kurenai-sensei said she couldn't go on anymore missions for a while… She didn't say why." Yamato frowned.

Naruto frowned as well, but for another reason. He landed finally, in front of the whole group. He felt a brief queasiness rise up in him, but it settled. In front of him… Team 10, and his sensei, who looked like he was in pretty bad shape. His headband was gone, and so was his vest. Hell, part of his mask was ripped from his face. They were staring at the two Akatsuki members, both of them braced for combat. But something else caught his eye that he wasn't expecting… On a small ledge not to far from where they were standing… Was Uchiha Itachi. A whispered curse briefly slipped from Naruto's lips.

He had encounters with the Uchiha before, sure, but he wasn't nearly as prepared for battle as he once was. But even then, they were all severely outmatched by Itachi. He easily put Naruto into a horrible Genjutsu with the blink of an eye. Literally. But it's the fact that Team 10 didn't even notice Itachi standing there. That, or they didn't care. (AN: Ha! Rhymes.) That would be their downfall.

Naruto landed directly in front of Kakashi, while Sakura, Sai, and Team 8 were slightly spread around him. Yamato stood off to the side, as if waiting for the blond to immediately jump into action.

No, he wasn't planning on that this time. Not again.

Naruto's face remained straight as he spoke, "I hope were not too late."

Yes, I'm tormenting you with a cliffhanger. Bwahahah! (Cough) Anywho, yep, chapter two is finally done. Now I have to get started on the third chapter, which is when the real fun begins. Expect for violence, Kyuubi, and all those other awesome things, in the future.

Trust me, I won't leave any of the good stuff out of this fanfiction.

...Gobi