Naruto woke up that morning to find a warm arm draped around him. He sleepily move toward the heat. "Mmm…Sasuke…" Orochimaru pushed Naruto off him and climbed out of the bed. 'Perhaps he isn't ready just yet…it would probably be safer to wait a little longer.' He thought. Naruto made a groan of disappointment as he found his heat source had gone. The sannin quickly got dressed and met kabuto in the hallway. "Orochimaru-sama, when are you planning to-"
"Enough kabuto. I will decide when he is ready. For the time being, I have to support him; soon enough I will get what I want." He took the bowl kabuto was holding. He stared at the contents. "Are you sure this is what he likes?" the medic nin nodded.
"Very well." He said, taking the bowl back to the room Naruto was in. he found that Naruto had fallen back into a deep sleep. "Wake up, Naruto-kun." He said gently. The blonde blearily opened his eyes the smell of ramen filling the room. He grabbed the covers and pulled them over his head. "Please…not that…" he moaned. Orochimaru frowned; kabuto was going to get it later!
"Don't you like ramen?" he asked. The blonde pulled the covers from over his head. "I do…I mean I did…it reminds me too much of who I used to be." He muttered. Orochimaru turned his face away so Naruto couldn't see the smirk that was spreading across his face. Naruto glanced at his orange clothes that lay scattered across the floor and shuddered. "Do you have anything else I could wear?" he asked. Orochimaru controlled his smirk and turned back to Naruto. "Of course." He replied, picking up the bowl of ramen and taking it out of the room. He returned with a pile of clothes for Naruto to choose from. Everything on the pile looked very similar to what Orochimaru was wearing. He pulled a few things out from the pile and stopped when he came to something he recognised. He suppressed as gasp and quickly snatched it and placed it on the pile that he wanted. "Th-that's all I want." He said hurriedly. Orochimaru nodded and picked up the other clothes.
"The bathroom is through there, when your ready come and find me." Naruto nodded. When Orochimaru had gone, he picked up something he had taken from Orochimaru. He turned it over and ran his fingers over a small symbol on the back. Either Orochimaru had taken to wearing things with the Uchiha symbol on, or this was Sasuke's. He ignored the tears that threatened to fall as he held onto the clothing. "I have to let go…he hates me, I'm a monster. There's only one person who cares for me now." He whispered to himself. Naruto angrily threw it across the room as he remembered Sasuke kissing Neji. He then imagined Sasuke's face after telling him he was the container for the Kyuubi. Naruto shook his head violently to clear the thoughts from his head. He climbed out of the bed and walked to the bathroom.
Sasuke had been begging the hokage to let him go after Naruto. Each time he asked, she had declined. "Sasuke, its impossible I keep telling you this!" she shouted angrily. "Orochimaru will have changed his location by now and we have absolutely no idea where he could be now." She said. Sasuke looked at the floor.
"Just let me go! The sooner I start looking the sooner I can bring him home! Don't you want him back?" he snarled. The hokage stood up and slammed her fists on her desk angrily. "Of course I want him back, but what's the point in sending one of my best shinobi out on a wild goose chase?"
"I'll go with him." Sasuke and Tsunade looked around to see Shikamaru. The hokage sighed. "It will make no difference if you go with him or not; you still have no idea where Orochimaru will be." Shikamaru walked over and stood by Sasuke.
"We can investigate the place where he used to be when he had Sasuke, then any leads we get we can follow them through. The has to be someone who knows where Orochimaru is." The hokage sighed.
"You seriously expect me to let both of you go running around the sound village looking for Orochimaru?"
"Yes! We need to bring Naruto home and if you don't let me go, I'll leave Kohona. This isn't my home without Naruto." Sasuke said.
"Its troublesome but…I agree with Sasuke. Surely you can spare two shinobi to rescue Naruto?" he asked. The hokage sighed loudly.
"Fine. But don't you dare get yourselves killed! You just need to understand how dangerous Orochimaru is!" she said.
"I'm sure the both of us can take Orochimaru, or at least hold him off until we can rescue Naruto." Shikamaru said.
"You wont regret this when we walk through those gates with Naruto." Sasuke assured her.