chapter 2

The three of them had been traveling together for several months, they had been to interesting places and one of the amusing things that Sakura and Naruto found out about Sasuke was his borderline obsession with tomatoes and that when ever they went into a town he would buy at least half a dozen tomatoes. It was surprising how much money he had, both were curious if he came from a noble clan, but the refrained from asking, after all it was one of the rules not to ask about their pasts. Sakura was nervous they were going to Suna, that was where several of her cousins were. One of her family members had mated to the fearsome Tanuki demon Shukakku and one of her cousins, Gaara, while he could be cold cared for her and he probably already sensed her approach and had also probably been contacted about her disappearance. The last time she had seen he had, had three tails, he did not grow as quickly as some of her cousins because he was part Tanuki and they were a slow power growing race usually.

"Could we perhaps not go into the territory of the Tanuki race?" asked Sakura, "I have family in Suna and it may cause trouble if they sense me."

"Sand is hard to get out of fur and the sand storms are dangerous, " said Sasuke, "I am getting overheated very quickly with my dark fur in this accursed heat. Perhaps we should go some place cooler like Kiri or Wave."

"I have been to Suna before and it is not a very welcoming place," said Naruto Slowly, "Kiri or Wave sounds like a wonderful alternative. There are more villages and the people are usually more giving and the prey is easier to come by."

Both Sasuke and Naruto were curious as to why and how Sakura had family with in the sandy land of Wind, after all it was unusually for Tanuki to share territory with non-tanukis. Sasuke would prefer to go to Wave and Kiri was the place where his clan leader Madara-sama enjoyed visiting on occasion.

"I would suggest going to Wave as the people are less aggressive there," said Sasuke, "or that is what I have heard."

"That sounds fine with me." said Sakura, "Naruto what is your opinion?"

"That sounds fine," replied Naruto, "my paws are burning from the heat of the sand."

"Then come here and I will heal you," said Sakura.

She was a very adept healer both Sasuke and Naruto had found that out rather quickly, true Naruto could heal faster than both of them. It was still nice to receive attention from a highly trained medic. Sakura had grown one and a half tails in the time that they had been together with Sasuke had grown a partial tail. Naruto had not even formed a nub of a tenth tail, Sakura had said that ten tailed demons were exceedingly rare. The only known ones were apart of a group they liked to call themselves the Akatsuki. So far as they knew there were only about ten of them, the number was fairly amusing considering the tail number. One tailed demons were fairly common, but not as common as tailless demons and as the number of tails increases the number of beings in that category decreased, sometimes exponentially. Sasuke was in a bit of a funk, in three day's time it would be his older brother's birthday and it would be the first one that Sasuke had been alive that Sasuke had not given him something or been around him. It was unsettling for Sasuke not to be around his brother, the separation hurt, but it was not so bad. Wolf demons tailed as well as not tailed traveled in packs of no less than four and no more the a dozen or more. Sasuke was hiding the fact that the social isolation was getting to him, he could not feel the minds of any of his family members, as they were to far away for him to feel, something that he had never before had to deal with. He had heard of how bad it felt, how empty and cold and quiet it felt to be like he was now, it had driven wolves mad to be alone for too long. Sasuke was comforted with the fact that he was traveling with companions, he could ask them to do a mental bond with them, but he did not want to risk their fledgling friendship over a highly irritating need of his. Sasuke was sure he could handle it, true he was exceedingly young to be trying to handle the kind of isolation he was going through. Usually at his age he would travel with six or seven of his clan out to place and no fewer because of the potential harm it could cause. Sasuke did not believe that and thought it was because of the overprotectiveness that parents had over their children, or at least most of them. It was not as if Shisui actually died because of being isolated for too long on a mission, he had not really heard much and had seen his cousin from time to time. Usually he only talked with him just because Shisui wanted to know where it Itachi was or was waiting for Itachi. His brother, it was always about Itachi did anyone every talk to him about or of, otherwise people ignored him as the badly made copy of his beloved big brother. Sasuke closed his eyes tightly for a moment, he loved his older brother dearly and was never truly angry with him nor was he ever really jealous of him.

As the trio wandered around on Wave Island, Sasuke's clan was in a bit of a panic, they had no idea where Sasuke was or where he could have gone. Sasuke is or was one of the youngest of their clan, it was not a good thing that he was missing and had been missing for several months, Itachi was very upset and Madara-sama was very unhappy, if Sasuke was gone and without any one or with a group of Uchiha that means he had left on his own. Something that he should not do and most at his age did not had the will power to do, not with out a very good reason. Sasuke had always been a bit on the small side, not a runt, but a bit small and developed more slowly than Itachi and several of the others, but everyone grew at their own pace. They needed to find Sasuke before something bad happened to him or his mind snapped from the isolation of not being near others. Hashirama had heard of what was going on and went to his old friend and told him that he would help find the lost pup and help figure out the reasons why he had left, if he had any. Their fellow ten tails readily agreed to help find the young Uchiha, Kisame and Orochimaru had met to shy young pup before and had found him to be a sweet child. Although he had been rather spooked by Orochimaru's presence, Snake demons were rather rare and Orochmaru had a rare personality type.