sorry for the delay folks, but it turns out i'm a slacker...just kidding..sort of.
anyway, i do plan on finishing this story before the end of this year, so don't worry folks, and thanks for the reviews, and 4 more favorites i received it makes feel all fuzzy inside..
disclaimer: i don't own naruto. if i did i would never make the deadlines..seriously.
here's the chapter, hope it doesn't suck too much.
Chapter four
"Pervvy sage!!" a young golden haired, tanned skinned boy yelled out as he was running. The boy's whiskered face held a large smile, and his sky-blue eyes held a light. The boy's features changed to that of another blonde, but his hair a little lighter, and his eyes held the same light and sky blue. His whiskerless face held the same big smile.
Jiraiya awoke suddenly from the dream / nightmare. It was a dream because it was a memory of a boy he thought of as a grandson, while the other was like a son. It was a nightmare because he managed to lose the both of them. Jiraiya quickly brushed off the seeping depression, and got out of bed.
Jiraiya poofed into Tsunade's office. He looked around noticing he had interrupted something important. He walked to the back wall of the mission room, and leaned lazily against the wall. Jiraiya noticed the growing tick on the blonde leader's forehead. Her hazel eyes glared at the young boy on ebisu's genin team. Konohamaru sat defiantly on the floor with his arms crossed , and his face screwed up into a pout. Iruka stared down at the young boy angrily as well.
"konohamaru you are still a genin. So, being a genin means you must do d- missions," said Iruka through gritted teeth, "there are no exceptions, so stopping acting immature," he finished.
Jiraiya watched as the boy turned his attention to the brown haired chunnin, and began to complain about how doing all of these stupid d-missions were making him dumber and dumber by the minute. He then watched as ebisu tried to explain the situation, but the kid wouldn't budge. His teammates watched as their teammate began his rant anew. It must have been an everyday occurrence because his teammates didn't seem too surprised.
"besides I'm going to be the shichidaime," the boy uncrossed his arms and stuck his chest out proudly, "how can I draw out my true power on such lame missions." the dark haired genin finished.
Everyone in the room, Jiraiya included, was confused.
"seventh Hokage?" said Tsunade her hazel eyes staring down the 11 year old, " what about the sixth?" she finished.
"that's for naruto," the young boy shouted happily.
Tsunade's eyes widened as she grabbed onto the desk. She was desperately trying to swallow the lump in her throat. Iruka noticed the depressed look on her face and turned his brown eyes towards the smiling child before allowing a smile to grace his features before dismissing the team. Tsunade came back to herself when the door closed behind the genin team. She looked to the side of her and noticed the sad the smile that was on the chunnin's face.
"Iruka," she said..
"yes Hokage-sama," he said quickly.
"you may take the rest of the day off," she said kindly.
"I… It's alright, I'm fine," said Iruka with a forced smile.
"it's okay. None of us are really over it," she said looking to Jiraiya who was looking quite pale and upset.
Iruka looked to the sannin as well, and felt that the may need to talk alone.
"I think I will take you up on your offer, thank you." he said before bowing and leaving the room.
"nothing like a nice shock in the morning to wake you up," she said with a bitter smile. Jiraiya snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of his old teammate's voice. The sannin shook off the depressing thoughts, and walked towards the mission table.
"we need to talk in private," he said leaning on the table.
Tsunade stood up and they made their way to her office. He took a seat in front of her desk. Tsunade did a couple of hand signs making the room sound proof.
"I have news from one of my spies," said Jiraiya.
"yes," said Tsunade placing her hands in the desk in front of her mouth.
"Akatsuki is on the move again, but it seems they may have competition," said Jiraiya.
"what do you mean competition," said Tsunade.
"someone else has been searching for the tailed beast," said Jiraiya.
" do know why?" said Tsunade agitated with the long silence.
"that I'm still working on," he said quickly.
Tsunade looked down for a moment. Her head jerked up suddenly, her hazel eyes wide with realization.
"do you think they will go after naruto?" said Tsunade upset.
Jiraiya, a man who never liked to sugar coat things answered bluntly, " more than likely yes, but there is one thing we can count on is that Orochimaru will not hand him over. He doesn't want Akatsuki to get all of the tailed beast, and I'm sure he doesn't want someone to gain more power than him," said Jiraiya.
Tsunade let out the breathe she'd been holding.
"have you already notified suna's security of this situation?" She said in hokage mode.
"of course," said Jiraiya, "you just leave it to daddy," he said haughtily.
The tick on Tsunade's forehead was slowly re-growing, as her left eye began to twitch. Jiraiya laughed at the sight making the tick larger. He was cut off by the sight of one of his amphibians. Noticing the lack of laughter at her expense, she followed the sage's eye line to the window. Tsunade removed the seal placed on the room and walked over to the window letting the yellowish-green frog in. The frog hopped into the room and landed in front of the sage. Jiraiya took the scroll from the back of the frog, and began to read it. With each passing sentence, Tsunade saw his eyes become alarmed. He handed the scroll over to Tsunade who in turn become alarmed.
"but how were they able to?" she said still staring at the scroll..
"well from what I understand," said Jiraiya, "the Akatsuki attacked during the night 2 days ago," he paused for a moment, "I guess you should be receiving a.."
"hokage-sama it's urgent news from suna!!" said a dark haired woman entering the office frantically.
"guess it's here," said Jiraiya as he stood up to disappear in a whirl of leaves.
"does this have anything to do with suna?" she said as the young woman tried to catch her breath.
"yes hokage-sama," said the woman standing up straight.
"I am already aware of the situation. Send them a message telling them that a team will be arriving to help them," said Tsunade.
"yes hokage-sama ," said the woman before racing out of the office.
Sakura entered the office with her sensei, Kakashi, as well as their new member sai (a dark haired, pale -skinned boy who eerily resembled Sasuke) who stood silently beside sakura. Tsunade stood in front of team Kakashi, and began to give out orders.
"your main mission is to help suna with anything they need regarding the retrieval of the kazekage," said Tsunade.
"yes hokage-sama," they all said in unison.
"your mission begins as soon as you are done packing. You are dismissed," Tsunade finished.
The three departed quickly from the office.
Sakura took one final look at the old picture of team 7.
"I'm nearly strong enough to bring the both of you back," she said to the picture before she left the bedroom.
She met with her sensei and sai at the front gate. The 3 of them set off in silence until they came upon a blonde kunoichi with a large fan on her back. The 3 of them jumped down from the tree tops to tell the woman the distressing news. After the blonde regained control of her emotions, the 4 of them set off to suna.
The 4 of them made camp in a cave to ride out the sandstorm. 16 year old sakura waited patiently until her teammate and temari fell asleep. She walked over to Kakashi who sat just inside the cave's entrance watching the sandstorm, and took a seat by him. They set in silence before sakura finally spoke up.
"Kakashi-sensei," she began nervously, "I've been doing some reading," she paused to look at her sensei. She saw that he kept his blank expression, "I know about naruto . I mean I know that naruto is a jinchuuriki." she said quickly noticing her teacher flinch. Kakashi turned and looked at her.
"and what do you think of him?" said Kakashi.
"he's a lot stronger than I thought. To be able to hold the fox within him, as well as take the villager's criticism with a smile …that is why I will do whatever I can to make sure that gaara is brought back alive, and well it's what naruto would have wanted." she finished as the sandstorm began to slow down.
"well," began Kakashi, " it's good to see that you've finally grown up sakura," he said his smile hidden behind his mask.
"thank you sensei," she said happily.
After the sandstorm faded into nothingness, the team managed to arrive 2 days later in suna. The 4 were greeted by two suna guards who quickly led the team to the infirmary where kankuro lay dying. Upon seeing the young man without his usual war paint on, and sweating profusely, sakura went into medic mode giving out orders to the other medic nins that surrounded her. Kakashi watched sakura, and began to wonder, 'would they be proud of her?'
After hours of removing the poison from the young Jounin's body, he awoke to find his sister, and Konoha nins surrounding his hospital bed.
Kakashi motioned for Baki to follow him into the hall. The two made their way into the hallway.
"I would like to begin tracking the assailants, but unfortunately I don't have anything to track them with. So, we'll be starting from scratch," Kakashi said thoughtfully. Kankuro called for the two Jounin to come to him. He asked for his puppet and showed the men the piece of mask he'd retrieved form the Akatsuki puppeteer. Kakashi praised the young man as he took the piece of cloth. He then walked back out into the corridor and summoned his ninja dogs. Pakkun with the other hounds took a sniff of the cloth and set off after the scent.
"as soon as they find the scent, we will be on our way," said Kakashi.
"we have set up rooms for all of you for the night,' said Baki.
"thank you," said Kakashi bowing before he gathered the rest of his team.
"no.. we thank you," said baki to the retreating back of the Konoha nins.
It was the next day that sai awoke to find Kakashi talking with the small bulldog known to be Pakkun.
"something strange was going on there when I arrived kakashi, and there was also a scent .. It seemed familiar." said Pakkun.
"really," said Kakashi breaking from his thoughts, "I wonder," he thought before looking over to find sai awake.
"get dressed quickly sai," Kakashi said as he got up from his bed, " we are leaving immediately," he said leaving the young boy some what surprised.
"Pakkun," said Kakashi as he looked down at the dog.
"I'm on it Kakashi," said Pakkun before taking off.
The group stood in front of the kazekage tower watching the nin-dog take off at an incredible speed. The team was about to take off when they saw Temari approaching them and saying that she would be accompanying them. The 4 were about to take off until the council members stopped her from her leaving. As the blonde kunoichi shouted at the council about the new development, an elderly lady dressed in all black jumped down from the building and landed in front of the group.
"looks like I'll be going," she said with a cheeky smile.
The now four man cell, of course chiyo came along to see her cute grandson, made their way towards river country. The 4 traveled in silence until they arrived at the clearing. What met their eyes shocked all 4 of them. The kazekage sat propped up against a tree. His green eyes were some what opened, and his red hair was disheveled.
"sakura, chiyo-sama," said Kakashi snapping out of his shock, "please check on gaara-sama," he finished.
The two women walked over to him. Chiyo knelt down besides him, and began focusing her chakra into him. Her tired eyes widened in shock after a moment.
"but how is this possible," she said to the red-head, " you should be dead or dying," she finished.
"what is going on?" said sakura.
"he's gone," said gaara weakly.
"who's gone," said sai feeling a little felt out.
"shukaku," stated gaara, "the Akatsuki have him now," he said.
"is he going to be alright?" said Kakashi stepping forward.
"yes. He's just exhausted," chiyo said with a strange look.
"good. Kazekage-sama we need to know what happened," Kakashi said standing on the other side of elder chiyo.
"of course," began gaara, " but it will not make much sense seeing how I was unconscious for most of it," gaara said as he took the soldier pill from sakura. Gaara sat for awhile trying to gather his thoughts as well as allow the soldier pill to take it's affect, after a moment he turned his turquoise eyes towards Kakashi.
"after we left the village, we arrived here. I was still exhausted from our battle before so I couldn't fight back. It was then I found myself in that cave," he said pointing just over the river where the ruins lay. "after all of their members showed up, they began the ceremony," gaara paused as a pained look settled into his eyes, "it felt like they were trying to rip out my soul. It kept up until they were able to remove him. I then felt as if I were leaving this world. My heart felt like it was trying to shut down. As I began to slip, it was then I heard the noise of a battle going on, but before I slipped into unconsciousness,….I know I saw yellow flashes."
A/N: thanks for reading.
oh and this may seem random, but i always wondered what would happen if naruto did the sexy jutsu on orochimaru.
would it be a). he dies from massive bloodloss
b). nothing
c). he'd want naruto to teach him said jutsu