A/N: And here we are. Things seriously start deviating from canon from here on out, so be warned. Also, some deviations have been set to happen well in advance to the beginning of this story, chronologically, so some characters may be OOC. If they are, it will be explained why in a logical manner. If it is not explained, please let me know so I can correct it. Once again, pleeaaaaase review. It means more than you know, and is the fastest way to make me write the next chapter.
**********Chapter 5: The Time*************
As most of the ninja headed for Chouji's favorite BBQ restaurant, Kakashi, Jiraiya, and his longtime teammate stayed behind.
"So how did you do it?" asked the jounin.
"Training from hell." The Toad Sannin apparently didn't feel the need to elaborate further.
"...he's already done that," replied Kakashi.
The other silver-haired man sighed before continuing. "You remember how when a Kage Bunshin is dispelled, the original receives all of the clone's memories and experiences?"
The jounin nodded.
"Remember how many Kage Bunshin Naruto can make?"
The jounin's eye went wide.
"You get it, then. That's how he's so adept with fuuton jutsu. As for the Kage Bunshin stuff, well, let's just say that all he needed were a few tips and demonstrations and he did the rest himself."
The blond interjected, "What about everything else? What happened to the idiotic, brash, hyperactive kid I flicked into the dirt three years ago?"
"A little...foreceful persuasion, coupled by constant, forceful lessons. He got the message eventually. But honestly, it seems that most of his problems stemmed from the fact that no one taught him much of anything for the first eight years of his life, and even then, his instruction was hardly up to par. He learned some things on his own, but as you can probably guess, he didn't learn a great deal either. I had enough time to fix that."
The other two nodded, knowing enough about the boy's past to imagine what Jiraiya was talking about.
Temari prided herself in being one of the most level-headed ninja in Sunagakure.
That all went to hell when her brother was taken by those...whoever they were. 'Come to think of it,' she thought, 'who the heck WOULD be interested in attacking Sunagakure and capturing their Kage alive?'
Pushing those thoughts aside, Temari increased her speed until she was finally catching up to the pair of mysterious shinobi that had taken her baby brother. Tears threatened to spill out of her eyes as she saw the state her brother was in.
Had she not let her emotions get the better of her, she might have noticed the blond shinobi turn around with a smirk on his face as he lifted his hands to form a seal.
Had she not let her emotions get the better of her, she might have noticed the sinking sensation as her foot descended into the ground.
Had she not let her emotions get the better of her, she might have reacted in time to dodge the fiery explosion that erupted from the ground beneath her feet.
Naruto didn't use to be observant. He liked to go into situations head first and figure out everything else later. Winging it had done well enough in the past. But Ero-sennin had knocked that habit out of him over the years. He still was the ultimate genius of impromptu plans, but now he cared to look at a situation and his surroundings first.
Like, for instance, the fact that Hinata had not taken her eyes off of him since the dinner started, nor the fact that she was trying (and failing) to hide it. Thinking back, he began to recall the memories that had completely puzzled him before. Deep blushes at any close or physical contact, outright fainting on occasion, and the fact there she called him "Naruto-kun" well before anyone besides Jiji used an honorific with his name. Once the topic of the conversation had drifted away from his trip, he began to sort it all out. Recalling what Ero-sennin had lectured him about when it came to women and relationships (though Naruto always took everything he said with a grain of sand; he WAS a pervert without rival, after all), he arrived at a conclusion he realized he should have reached a very long time ago.
Looking back at that moment, Naruto would remind himself to never come to a huge epiphany again when drinking from a cup of water.
Though he supposed that of all people to be the unfortunate victim of such an accident, Shikamaru was the best option. After staring at the blond for a few seconds, he just looked down, smirked, and shook his head. "Troublesome."
After apologizing with his trademark sheepish-grin-and-hand-rubbing-back-of-head, it was Naruto's turn to cast furtive glances at Hinata. He was much better at it, of course, due to Jiraiya's helpful lessons as a spymaster. He never really thought about her like she thought about him, but then again, he never really thought about anybody like that before. He wasn't exactly experienced in the love department; he could could the number of people who didn't hate him before he graduated from the academy on two hands, and no one ever fit the definition of "love" that Jiraiya had explained to him. He supposed he could start to find out by being a closer friend than he had been before, now that he realized the ridiculously shy kunoichi was not inexplicably weird, but rather easily overcome by feelings from a strong crush.
He'd have to ask Sakura-chan about it later.
Kankuro had a bad feeling nagging at him in the back of his mind. As a puppeteer, he listened to these bad feelings very diligently, as they usually meant that the enemy had flanked you or found your hiding spot, and were very much about to kill you.
After seeing Temari rush after Gaara without any semblance of caution, Kankuro knew what to do. He was prepared for scenarios like this, and had actually done something similar on a mission before. He attached chakra strings to Temari, who was far too emotional to notice, and when he saw the blond shinobi turn around with a smirk and perform a seal, Kankuro was again very thankful for these bad feelings.
He yanked the chakra strings as hard and as fast as he could, watching Temari fly back towards him just as an explosion ripped out of the ground that she had been standing in a moment before. Not wanting to repeat the heart-stopping experience again, he held Temari down as he sternly warned her. "You know better than this. You're not going to save Gaara by charging after these guys without thinking, and I doubt he wants to feel at all responsible for your death, too."
A few moments later, she visibly calmed and returned to the collected kunoichi he knew so well. "Good. Now, we obviously can't take them head on; the blond one beat Gaara without loosing a drop of blood. And we don't even know what that other guy can do. I'm sure the higher-ups called for backup from Konoha as soon as Gaara was captured, but we won't do anyone any good dead. Let's leave a trail for a rescue team to follow."
Kankuro had a bad feeling nagging at him in the back of his mind. Not one of immanent danger, but of one he couldn't quite place. 'Why don't they care that we're following them? They don't even look like they're in much of hurry!"
As everyone started to leave the enjoyable dinner, Naruto pulled Sakura aside.
"What is it, Naruto?"
"Sakura-chan, what I'm about to ask you is completely hypothetical, okay?"
She looked at him, slightly confused. 'I guess Jiraiya-sama made him memorize a dictionary in the past three years, too.' Sakura also realized that, at the first mention of the word, "hypothetical," Naruto was in fact talking about something that was in no way hypothetical. She was a book-smart kunoichi, after all. "Okay."
"So...if someone were to like you, and I mean really like you, and you aren't sure whether or not you like them back the same way, what do you do?"
She was also a well trained, down-to-business kunoichi, who knew how to not let her inner emotions show when she didn't want them to. While her mind was reeling at the bomb Naruto had just dropped on her, she showed not one iota of that inner scheming."Well, yo-"
"Hold it, everyone!" Naruto's head, along with everyone's from Teams 1, 7, 8, and 10, turned around to look at the Toad Sannin. They ignored the fact that half of the people on the street were now looking at the silver-haired man too, wondering what the hollering was about. As they gathered around, Jiraiya delivered the bad news. "Get your gear for a five day combat-heavy mission and meet at the southern gates in 15 minutes. All of you."
Naruto wasn't about to leave it at that. "Ero-sennin, what's going on?"
Jiraiya's expression turned even more grim. "The Kazekage had been captured...by Akatsuki."
While only Naruto knew what that second part meant, he was still trying to connect the dots to the one piece of important information he didn't yet know. 'Kazekage? Why would Akatsuki be after the Kazek-' "Gaara!"
"Precisely. Now get your gear. You've got 14 minutes, now."No one needed any further spurning than that.
A lone shinobi, clad in white and dark purple, sped through the forest towards the River Country. In between the time when he overheard Orochimaru's comments about recent events in Suna and his assassination of Kabuto, he looked up the location of the most likely hideout for Akatsuki to use. But merely knowing the location of the hideout did Sasuke little good. On one hand, it was probable that Itachi would be there. On the other, if he was there, then so would the rest of Akatsuki. Even Sasuke knew that such a situation would make achieving his goal quite impossible.'Akatsuki is after jinchuuriki, and Naruto is one of them. Considering that Itachi himself went after Naruto last time, being near him might save me the trouble of looking for him, and at the same time, take that freaky partner of his out of the equation.' He already knew, from Orochimaru, that Suna and Konoha had become strong allies after the failed invasion of Konoha three years prior. He couldn't recall how, but he knew that Gaara, that same insane jinchuuriki that was the definition of bloodlust, became Kazekage recently. How that happened, Sasuke couldn't even begin to fathom. But recalling the bond Naruto and Gaara share, Sasuke began to formulate a plan.
One that wouldn't end with him in a Tsukuyomi-induced coma yet again.
Assembled at the southern gates precisely one minute early, the Konoha 11 and their Jounin sensei were awaiting the mission briefing.
Tsunade began, "The Kazekage, whom many of you know as Gaara, was captured by Akatsuki sometime earlier today. Akatsuki is a group of S-ranked missing-nin that are after the nine bijuu for unknown reasons. For those of you who don't know, bijuu are chakra beasts that have a specific number of tails, with more tails indicating more power. You already know of the most powerful one, the Kyuubi no Youko. I don't need to tell you of the possible consequences of such a group obtaining that kind of power. We don't know if Akatsuki has other associates, or their specific numbers, though we believe it to be relatively few. Do not underestimate them, however. Each member is capable of taking on several Jounin at once, and probably emerging victorious."
She let her words sink in for a few moments before continuing. "If Akatsuki successfully steals the bijuu from Gaara, he will die. There is no question about that. Even if it does not kill him, Akatsuki only stands to profit from such an assassination. We don't know how long it will take to extract the bijuu, nor where or how Akatsuki plans to do it. On top of finding out those things, your top priority is the rescue of the Kazekage. That is why all of you are going this mission; there is too little that we know and what we do know only scares us more. Team 8, you will be responsible for finding the Kazekage, while the rest of you are tasked with combat and retrieval.
"One more thing. We know that only two members of Akatsuki were present when the Kazekage was captured, and only one of them fought. That shinobi was capable of flight, and used strange, white creations as explosives. There may be more waiting for you. Take care, and good luck. Any questions?"
No one raised a hand. "Very well then, move out."
Naruto was still seething as the group sped towards Suna. 'Those bastards! Gaara has more problems to deal with than anyone should ever have to. His status as a jinchuuriki has already ruined his life. I'm not going to let it be the death of him, too!'
Elder Chiyo knew full well that she could do nothing as their Kazekage fought the mysterious shinobi in the sky. Senile she may have been, but a pragmatist she was just as much. Heading towards the entrance of the village to look for any other intruders, she spotted a sight she had not seen in many years.
'Hiruko...Sasori. I know that puppet far too well. What are you doing here, my grandson?"
Before she could attack, she felt a massive explosion behind her. Recovering, she noticed the strange white bird snatch the falling Kazekage out of the air, and start heading towards her direction.
'Perhaps a bit of discretion is in order.' Deciding to head out discretely, Chiyo could do nothing but wait as the two shinobi walked out of Sunagakure, acting as if they were on a morning stroll rather than fleeing the scene of an attack on the leader of Sunagakure.
A/N: And that's chapter five. You'll notice that this one is significantly longer than the previous ones; I'll probably gradually increase the length of each chapter as this story progresses and I get a better feel for writing FF's.
You'll also notice that I may have hinted at a bit of NaruHina shipping. Don't worry, this story will not become a romance story by any means. I also have not made any final decisions on the matter, so if you want to influence where that goes, review.
Speaking of which, PLEASE review. If you have this story on alert, I thank you so much. If you also review, though, I'll love you (you know what I mean). Seriously people, reviews motivate me to write this story more than anything. So please, R&R.
Next chapter: Soldiers of the Dawn