I don't own Naruto.

I'm back! Sorry for leaving for a while, but I needed a long break from writing. Anyway, I'm back now, so pretend I never left.

A Hero Steps Forward

"…I said to find a boat, you idiot. What's this?" Sasuke said, staring angrily at Naruto.

They were standing before a small, worn down boat, with a partially ripped sail, and old rotten wood. It was big enough to hold all four of them, just barely. The sail was a dirty white that had been through who knows how many storms. It was washed up on a beach not far from town they had reached earlier that day.

"Well, I asked around town, but nobody there would give us a boat ride that we could afford, so I started wandering along the shore and found this." Naruto grinned with pride. "Now we have our own ship to take us wherever we want!"

Sasuke quietly began loading the supplies he had bought into the boat. As much as he hated Naruto's stupidity, he knew this was probably the best boat they were going to get without spending most of their money.

The boat ride seemed to take forever as they sat silent in the small boat. Sakura had attempted to start a conversation with Sasuke a few times, only to have him reply with a carefully thought up, short and to-the-point response that would prevent the conversation from being continued.

Naruto didn't seem as hyper as you would think. Instead he was very subdued as he stared out to sea. If the others didn't know him better, they'd say he was actually thinking. Hinata was just as quiet, even though she desperately wanted to talk to Naruto. But every time she thought of something to say, something they could talk about, she just couldn't say it. Maybe it didn't sound like a good subject to talk about, maybe it seemed weird to repeat it aloud after saying it in her mind, but whatever the reason, Hinata was quiet the entire trip.

They were headed north, toward Lightning country. It was a slow trip in such a small boat, and their supplies were dwindling. After what seemed to them an eternity, which was in reality only a few days, they arrived in Lightning Country. Naruto was off the boat before it even reached the dock, jumping as soon as he was sure he wouldn't fall short of his target and end up soaking wet. Hinata smiled for a moment, seeing him back to his old energetic self. She was the first to step off the boat after it had reached the dock. Sakura was next, followed by an irritated Sasuke who was carrying the remaining supplies. Spending several days on a boat with Naruto actually hadn't been as bad as he thought, and Sakura had left him alone after the first day, but he still didn't like being stuck on a small boat with them for so long.

Everyone seemed to shake off the quiet of the boat ride as soon as they were back on land, and Sakura was soon clinging to Sasuke's arm as they walked down the streets of the port city they had arrived in. They didn't know the name of the town, but they had a general idea of where they were in lightning country, having only gone due north on the way here.

The others stopped with confused expressions as Naruto suddenly turned into a poorly-lit alley. He turned around when he realized the others weren't following him, and decided he should probably explain what he was doing.

"Back in Konoha," he began, "I always wanted a hitai-ate, even before I was a genin." The others' looks told him he should continue. "Well, I was walking home one time, and I always took the empty alleys, so that…well anyway, I was in this alley, and this guy stepped out of the shadows. I was scared at first, but then he offered to sell me a hitai-ate of my choice, saying that he could make any of them. I would have bought a Konoha one, but he was charging me extra because…well, I didn't have enough money, so I asked him where I could find him later. That was when he told me that there were a lot of people like him, and that one could be found in the alleys of nearly any city! Then he said I come back when I have more money, and make sure not to tell anyone who was already a Konoha ninja."

As he finished his explanation, he realized the others were staring at him. After taking in all Naruto had just said, Sakura was the first to speak. "Well, I guess we could buy some. It would be nice to actually feel like real ninja, even if we did leave before we officially became genin." They had all left their headbands behind when they left, but it was too late to go back and get them now.

"You dobe!" Sasuke interrupted, "We can't just walk around lightning country wearing leaf village headbands. There's been a lot of tension between leaf and cloud lately, and it could cause us trouble."

"I know that!" Well, I do now. "That's why I thought up something different. Just wait and see." With that, he continued into the alley, the others following behind reluctantly. Sure enough, they soon came upon a man offering to sell them hitai-ate. "I'll take four!" he said immediately, after which he paid the man, the price of all four still being significantly less than the one he was offered back in Konoha. "And what village would you like to be from the man asked in shady voice. He was of average height, but it was too dark in the alley to see anything else about him. "Umm…could you leave them blank, please?"

This confused the man, most of his customers usually wanted to be from a certain village. "Wait, you want four blank hitai-ate?"

"Yep!" Naruto replied happily.

"Here you go." The man said as he handed them to Naruto, who then passed them around to the others. "I usually use those as templates, and add the symbol when someone asks for one, but I suppose I can make more later."

It was late as they walked into their one hotel room that night, which they could barely afford. None of them were wearing their new headbands yet, and were too exhausted to do anything thing other than sleep.

They had walked around town most of the day, looking for something to do. Tomorrow they would train, but for now, they wanted to relax. After finding a good place to eat, they had traversed the market, not buying anything due to the high prices. Sasuke seemed interested in a katana he'd found, Sakura was just looking at clothes, Naruto's attention span was too short to stay at a single stand for more than a minute, and Hinata was hurriedly chasing after Naruto, only glimpsing what was for sale before Naruto ran off to another shop.

Working out the sleeping arrangements had been difficult. Naruto wouldn't share a bed with Sasuke, and wanted to be with Sakura, but that would leave Sasuke with Hinata, which Naruto was also strongly against. Hinata wanted to be with Naruto, but said nothing. Sakura wanted to be with Sasuke, but didn't think it wise for Naruto and Hinata to share a bed. Sasuke didn't really care, as long as it wasn't Naruto. In the end, Sakura and Hinata shared a bed, while Naruto and Sasuke…slept on the floor on opposite sides of the room while the second bed remained empty. If the two girls hadn't already been asleep by the time the boys stopped arguing, they might have each gotten a bed to themselves.

There was a lot of tension in the group the next morning. They hadn't even started training when a fight broke out, just as they found a good clearing.

"Ramen is not just for idiots! Hinata, ramen is good isn't it?"

"Hai." she agreed quietly, relying on a nod of her head to convey her answer.

"She only thinks so because she's always following you around, agreeing blindly with every dumb decision you make!" Sasuke retorted, feeling control of his anger slipping away.

"You're one to talk!" The blonde replied, "Look what you've done to Sakura-chan!"

"What exactly has he done to me Naruto?! You're just jealous because Sasuke-kun is much better than you at everything!"

"That's it! I've had enough of your stuck-up attitude!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, "You can just stay here! We're leaving!" With that, he signaled for the other two to follow, not even bothering to look back. Hinata looked at Naruto's retreating back, then over at the others, then back at Naruto.

"Gomenasai" she said firmly with a slight bow before turning and taking off after Naruto. Sakura stared after her for a while, before turning towards Sasuke. She turned in the direction they had left and took a few steps.

Sasuke was thinking how better off things would be alone, when he noticed Sakura had stopped, and had her head drooped, as if about to cry. What she did next, as predictable as it is, truly surprised him. Her head lifted and her eyes were teary, but her voice showed almost no sign of sadness. "I'm staying with Sasuke-kun."

A menacing figure stood in a tree nearby, having seen the fight between the young ninja. Things were progressing nicely; it wouldn't be long before…

"Naruto-kun?" came a voice from behind him while he rested in another small, but sunny clearing, far away from him.

"Yes, Hinata?" he asked, recognizing her voice.

"W-Where are we going to g-go?"

"We'll find out when we get there." He answered casually, getting to his feet.

"Naruto-kun…"

"Huh?"

"N-Nothing, let's go."

Sasuke felt a bit strange, and somewhat confused. Why did she want to stay with him? Nobody ever cared about him, but only saw him as an Uchiha. Nobody cared that his whole family had been killed. People always saw him as a jerk, some snob who didn't care about anyone other than himself, when he really had no reason to. She wasn't acting like all the girls did back in Konoha. She didn't want to be with him because he's popular, he could tell by her body language, and the tears in her eyes. She just wanted to be with him.

Sakura fell to her knees, feeling oddly happy, but sad at the same time. The fight had really gotten to her, and her friends were now gone. But she stayed with Sasuke. That made things better. It wasn't exactly the fact that she was with him, she had been with him a long time. It was more the sense that she had chosen to be with him. She had chosen him over everything else, and she was sure it was the right choice.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked first at the hand, then followed the arm up to see Sasuke Standing over her. "Let's go." he said, his voice surprisingly having no hint of irritation or annoyance whatsoever. She was going to be with him now, and while he wasn't exactly excited about it, he seemed to be okay with it, or would she just be fooling herself to say he may even enjoy her staying with him?

This isn't good. A man thought to himself. He's changing for the worse. I need to do something about that girl.

"Kabuto."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama?"

"I need you to dispose of miss Haruno Sakura. She's a bad influence on Sasuke-kun."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto replied before sinking into the ground.

End of Chapter 4

Well, things finally seem to be picking up a bit. What will happen to our groups as they head their separate ways? Will they ever see each other again?

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