Okay my lovely readers, here you are. Another chapter to my slowly progressing story. I am quite fond of this chapter, and I hope you will be too. Anyways, read and review!!!! Here we go….

As Sasuke walked out of his house and towards the Hokage's tower, his cell phone rang. The bad thing was he had left it in his back pocket, so feeling the vibration startled him and caused him to jump and fall. He stood up and took out his phone. It was Naruto.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked into the receiver.

"Hey, how's it going Sasuke?" Naruto's voice asked.

"Naruto, I'm busy, I don't have time to converse, now what is it?" Sasuke asked impatiently.

"Jeez, chill out teme. Hokage just told me that you, me and Ino have to do a mission right now so whatever your doing has to wait" Naruto said.

"You me and Ino?" Sasuke asked. Well, he was just gonna tell Hokage about Ino and Itachi. They would arrest Itachi and interrogate him and make him admit that he was just using Ino for Sasuke's torment and that he was gonna kill her when he was finished with her and then she would thank Sasuke and love him forever and everything would have worked out, but this could work, too. He would use his other option as a last resort, just in case this failed.

"Yeah, I already called her but she didn't answer. Do you think you could go to her house and get her? We have to leave like now," Naruto asked. Sasuke thought about this.

"Probably not. She's kind of mad at me right now…" Sasuke said, remembering that Ino told him to never go to her house ever again.

"Why?"

"It's a long story that's none of your business. Just go get her and I'll meet you guys at the gates or something" Sasuke said, hanging up the phone and heading towards the gates in front of Konoha.

Ino walked back to her house to lie down for a little bit. She collapsed on her bed, but stood up when she remembered she had left her phone here when she went to confront Sasuke. She sighed and got up again and walked to the kitchen where her cell phone lay charging on the counter. She picked it up and checked for any missed calls from Itachi, slightly disappointed to see that she had only one missed call from Naruto. She was gonna call him back when she heard someone knock on her door. She rolled her eyes and put her phone in her bra before going to answer the door.

It was none other than…Naruto. She successfully hid her disappointment and forced a smile.

"Hey , Naruto. What's up?" Ino asked.

"Hey, Ino. Grandma-Tsunade just told me to get you because we have a mission that we need to leave for like five minutes ago," Naruto explained.

"Oh, I see. Me and you?" she asked.

"You, me and Sasuke," he answered.

You've got to be kidding me Inner Ino said.

"What about Sakura?" Ino asked immediately.

"She's on another mission with Tenten and Hinata, so Grandma-Tsunade told me to get you instead." He answered, giving her an apologetic smile.

"Okay. How long are we going to be gone?" Ino asked, defeated. She was just gonna have to deal with Sasuke in a mature and orderly fashion: ignore him.

"I'm not sure, but we're defiantly going to be gone for a while. Please hurry, though, cause we seriously have to leave like now," he asked her, looking at his watch nervously. She nodded and ran to her room to get her things together. She just threw all the necessities into her backpack and then ran to the kitchen to get her phone, even though she would just end up turning it off the whole time, it helped to have it around just in case. She and Naruto ran out when she finished and headed for the gates of Konoha. Sure enough there was Sasuke waiting for them.

"Took you long enough, Dobe" he told Naruto.

"What are you talking about? It couldn't have been more than five minutes," Ino answered for her blonde friend. Sasuke looked at her, deciding to ignore the comment, shooting her a friendly smile instead. Naruto raised an eyebrow at him, because he was completely oblivious to the fact that Sasuke was chasing after Ino, and Ino wanted to keep it that way. She didn't want anyone looking into why she was not jumping at the opportunity to go out with the ever-so-awesome-in-every-way Sasuke Uchiha.

Instead, she gave him a small smile to be polite and then ran out of the gates. Naruto and Sasuke followed, and Naruto explained the details of the mission as they were running. They were to find a ninja in the fire country and Ino was to interrogate him. Sakura and Ino were the best interrogation nins Konoha had, so that was the reason Tsunade was able to replace Sakura with Ino so easily. Sasuke and Naruto were only going because the ninja they were supposed to find was supposedly very dangerous so Ino might need help, though all three of them knew that she probably wouldn't. Sakura's and Ino's strategies were completely and totally different, though both were very effective: Sakura was more of the kind that captured the target, then interrogated them in private, while Ino found that using her sex appeal was much more effective in her opinion. She would flirt with the target, get them drunk, and then it was much easier to extract the truth when they were drunk, and then she would let them recover and interrogate them again, just to get the information straight so that she was completely and totally sure she had the truth. It was full proof, while Sakura's strategy had it's flaws. The target wouldn't always tell the entire truth with Sakura, and Ino had tried to explain to her time and time again that it was much easier the way Ino did it, but Sakura wasn't really comfortable when she tried it like that so just continued doing it her way. Anyways, back to the story.

They just continued running, deciding it would be best to travel by foot for the first day so that they would have time to decide their course of action. They were deep in the forest when it finally got too dark for them to see in front of them, so they set up camp there. Naruto had ironically fell asleep ten minutes after setting up camp, leaving Sasuke and Ino alone. Ino turned on her phone and began texting Itachi, something she did often. Sasuke noticed that she would laugh every once in a while, and was tired of the awkward silence so decided to try to make a conversation.

"who's that?" he asked. She looked at him, then went back to replying to Itachi's texts.

"Does it matter?" she asked.

"I guess not," he answered.

"Sasuke, can I ask you something?" she said, taking him by surprise. He nodded.

"If you could go back in time, before, you know, what happened, would you stop Itachi, or would you just go back to kill him before he…did what he did?" she asked, inwardly avoiding saying that Itachi had killed anyone. Saying Sasuke was caught off guard with this question was a major understatement. He wondered why she would ask that, but then thought about it.

"I don't know. I suppose I would at least try to stop him, and if he didn't listen I would kill him," he said after seriously thinking. She nodded. He heard her turn off her phone and then stuff it back in her backpack.

"He regrets it, you know," she said. He raised an eyebrow.

"He does?" he asked.

"Yeah, he tells me all the time he wishes he could go back in time and undo it all. He's really not as evil as you think, Sasuke. He has opinions, and hopes, and dreams. And he's really funny, believe it or not," she told him.

"Ino, do you really love him?" he asked her. He knew it was random, but he wanted to know.

"You have no idea Sasuke." She said, smirking. He looked at her. She had a far away look in her eyes and she was smiling, as if she was thinking about him right now.

"He told me the other day that he had a dream that you and he switched bodies. Said it was the weirdest dream he'd ever had and that his partner, Kisame, you know, the blue shark guy, told him he was talking in his sleep." She recalled.

"He's introduced you to the Akatsuki?" Sasuke asked, surprised.

"Oh yeah, loads of times." She answered, leaning on his shoulder.

"What are they like?" he asked, curiosity taking over him.

"They're really nice, and funny. Except for Pein, I don't really talk to him because I'm kind of scared of him. The funniest one is Tobi. He gives me a hug every time I go over and is always telling me that he missed his Ino-chan, and then Deidara likes to blow things up so every time I go over he and I blow up rocks and stuff. It's a lot of fun. And then Konan is really cool to be around. She is really smart and very funny. And Hidan is always trying to tell me about his religion, but Itachi always saves me, making up something about me and him going somewhere or something." She explained. He listened intently, taking in everything she was saying and trying to remember who the different people were from what he learned from Kakashi and also when he was with Orochimaru. They didn't seem like a criminal organization. He was surprised she was being this open with him, he thought she was mad at him.

"Do you go over a lot?" he asked her. She nodded, though it was hard to tell because she was still leaning on his shoulder.

"Yeah. It's fun, and I think Itachi likes taking me. Remember that time when I was gone for like two months and no one knew where I was? That was the first time I went with them, and it was awesome. I stayed with Itachi, but while he did missions I would play with Tobi, and try to keep him from driving everyone crazy. He's such a cute guy…" she trailed off, thinking about all the times she spent with the Akatsuki members.

"Wow. I didn't think they would be so cool to be around," he said. She laughed.

"yeah, the first time Itachi took me I was terrified because I thought they would all be evil and try to kill me or something. Heh. I remember Deidara gave me a clay flower and told me that if I ever got mad at Itachi, I could put it under his pillow and make it blow up. Itachi got so mad at him…it was hilarious." She laughed, and Sasuke laughed too, which surprised him.

"I wish things weren't how they are so you and he could get along. You would like they way he turned out, Sasuke. You two would be best friends…" she said, closing her eyes as if she was imagining the thought as a reality. He didn't answer.

She sat back up and looked at him.

"Oh well. Anyways, it's getting late, we should get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow," she said, yawning. He nodded. She got up to get her sleeping bag and he followed suit.

Okay, so I know this one is not extremely long, but it's longer than chapter two so there you go. Please read and review and tell me if you like it or not because I need to know if I'm driving this story down the right path, but if not I have another idea on where I'm going to take it. I decided to make Akatsuki Ino's friends because she really does love Itachi and Itachi really does love her, and Akatsuki is obviously something very important to him, so you know. And, yes, I absolutely positively love Tobi, but I'm not gonna make this a Tobi story, don't worry. And I want to tell you guys everything I plan for Sasuke and Ino and Itachi, but I don't want to give you any spoilers! Anyways, uhm, I know Ino's strategy of interrogation makes her seem like a bit of a whore, but it works, and I needed to get the point across that she is very confident in this story, you know? Ah yes, and I know Ino seemed angry at Sasuke, but she calmed down with all the running, so that's why she was so open. Oh man, I can't wait until chapter four, you guys are gonna love it, but I need feed back on this chapter first, so please hurry!!!!

Oh and this chapter is dedicated to my lovely reviewers:

Lalyy (anon.)

deathrosekitty (anon.)

Yoruichi 'Ino'

sugarmonkey778

Akemixhanako

-x-Sanctuary Wish-x-

You guys are awesome!!!

Anyways, thanks for reading, and please review and keep reading because I guarantee you your gonna like this story! Thank you! Oh yeah, and I like cookies.

TOBI IS A GOOD BOY!!!