I got two reviews, yay! (That I shall keep anonymous unless the authors of those reviews don't care.) But, in worse news, today is the start of the annual Canadian Seal hunt.

Oh well. Once again:

Key:

"Quotations: Speaking"

Italicized: Thinking/emphasized word

"Italicized with quotations: Kyuubi speaking/thinking"

Chapter I: The Beginning of a Long Journey

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Naruto blurted out. "I can't believe-"

"You will find him and convince him," Tsunade said angrily, "unless you want no help at all!"

Sakura thought it over carefully. After all, there would be Kabuto, Orochimaru himself...

And snakes, she added silently with a shiver of disgust. Lots of them.

"We will, Tsunade-sama," Sakura said loyally.

"B-But Sakura-chan!" Naruto stammered.

"Come on Naruto!" she said with her teeth gritted, grabbing his ear and dragging him out the door.

Those two, Tsunade thought to herself. The whole reason I sent them together was because they would become stronger... by fighting for each other.

"How are we supposed to even convince Itachi to go with us?" Sakura asked Naruto, realizing any plan of his would most likely involve ramen or fail humiliatingly.

Naruto, seeming to read her thoughts, almost fell off the branch of a tree he was aiming to land on in surprise that she actually asked him about his thoughts for a plan. He was so surprised that he forgot. "Uh..."

Sakura kept up her pace, jumping from tree to tree toward the Akatsuki hideout, trying to be aware of any traps that could be waiting for them, but she couldn't keep her focus. She wasn't being distracted the surrounding area, but, however, something - or someone - in that area. She couldn't concentrate because of Naruto; she kept glancing over at him, hoping he wouldn't notice. Of course not, he's not that aware of things.

He's grown a lot, Sakura said in her mind.

Around midday, they had made it to the hideout without encountering any problems... surprisingly. They both had devised a plan, and they tried to mumble it to each other in case of spies, but that failed, because Naruto would shout "WHAT?" loudly, and apparently didn't get the whole point of it. It wasn't much of a plan, either. They walked out onto the water side-by-side, and were stopped suddenly by two cloaked figures, which came out of nowhere and landed in front of them.

"Heh, looks like we got some shark bait," one said, looking up.

The other said nothing, but looked up with a handsign in place. A dangerous one, Naruto realized, from a former encounter.

"Wait!" Sakura yelled. The one on the right held the handsign, but stopped doing whatever was intentional from it.

Sakura stepped forward and held the scroll out to the one whom could have killed her already with his Mangekyou, but he stood without moving. She wanted to say that it wasn't a trap, but doing so might give him the wrong idea.

After no one moved for a full minute, "Drop your weapons," was Itachi's response. "All of them."

Naruto and Sakura took off their weapon pouches and handed them over to the blue-skinned Akatsuki member standing next to him. Two clones jumped unexpectedly out of the trees and grabbed their wrists, holding them behind their backs. Naruto almost tried to pull away, but Sakura glared daggers at him. Itachi broke the handsign he had been holding and took the scroll, opening it without emotion. Sakura showed no fear, even when Kisame took the opportunity to enjoy scaring them, grinning and showing them all his sharp teeth. He enjoyed it more when Naruto's lips curled back in anger.

Itachi said nothing. He dropped the scroll into the water.

A look of dismay spread over Sakura's face, while Naruto and Kisame were exchanging faces with each other. But there was something different in Itachi's eyes... there wasn't the usual emotionless hate there was before.

"Kisame," he said, "I'll be gone for a while."

"Wha-?" Kisame and Naruto said at the same time. Naruto gave a smirk of triumph, a "hmph" came from Kisame, and a sense of relief washed over Sakura. Kisame handed Sakura her weapon pouch, and shoved Naruto's into his chest after the clones disappeared.

Although it was Naruto and Sakura's mission, Itachi chose to be stubborn. He ran in front of them and set the pace. Sakura and Naruto kept up though, and although it looked like it was hard to run in such a robe, Itachi maneuvered quickly and nimbly in between the trees and obstacles that were set forth. Naruto knew that the first step of a long journey had begun.

To be continued…