Previously-"Our main objective is to stop Orochimaru from gaining any advantages in the upcoming war, and one way to do that is to take away any source of the power that he can get his hands on. So your mission is…To retrieve Uchiha Sasuke!"
Chapter 2- Lets get ready!
-Orochmaru's hideout-
In the forest, about 56 kilometers to the South of the Wind country's border, was a huge establishment hidden within the leaves of the dense forest. In a radius of one and a half miles of the structure, laid traps, along with genjustus waiting for the next victim to cross its terrain. The hideout, which was under the forest's largest and oldest tree, hid the notorious S-class criminal Orochimaru.
"It seems Sasuke-kun, that your former companions are trying to get you back once more. What a shame they are too late. Isn't that right." Orochimaru declared, sitting in a dark room on a velvety red chair. The room was lit by mere candlelight. Through the dimmed lights, two other figures stood by Orochimaru.
"Do they truly believe they can bring me back?" A dark figure in the shadow whispered silently to himself. He was leaning against the rough wall of the room, with his eyes closed in annoyance. "What do you intend to do Orochimaru?"
"Now, now, Sasuke-kun address Orochimaru-sama respectfully." Kabuto warned, while adjusting his glasses with his index finger.
"Don't tell me what to do." Sasuke snapped back, glaring at Kabuto, making him shutter.
"That's enough of that." Orochimaru hissed. Looking at the two with displeasure.
"Gomen, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto apologized, and bowed.
"Kiss ass." Sasuke thought.
"Well, now; since Konoha wish to see you so badly Sasuke-kun, I suggest that their affair with you should be settled soon. Nothing, will stop our plans now that we are so close to achieving it." Orochimaru stated, while smiling to himself.
"Hn."
"Understood Orochimaru-sama. What are the plans?" Kauto asked, getting an empty scroll and a pen, ready for notes.
-Somewhere in the forests of the Fire Country-
On a high cliff, higher than the tallest tree, stood two figures. Each wearing a black cloak with red clouds that swayed in the wind. One of the cloaked figures was much taller than the other. Also, having a large sword to match. The other one did not seem like much, but the blood colored eyes of this S-class criminal faced into the distant North.
"It's seems that the kyuubi vessel will stay in Kohana for a while." A fish like man said while facing his partner on a ledge of a cliff they were standing on.
"No, our sources tell us that the kyuubi is being sent on a mission outside of Kohana." Itachi stated calmly while keeping his poker face. A light breeze past by and Itachi pushed some loose bangs back behind his ear.
"Do you know where, or what his mission is?"
"No, the source was killed by leaf anbu before he could distribute that information, but I have an idea of what it might be."
"So, what do we do?"
"For now we will track him, until I'm sure that my theory is confirmed." Itachi stated turning around to leave. Kisame followed right behind. '
-Kohana-
"So Sakura-chan, you want to go get ramen with me?" Naruto asked his teammate. Everyone was leaving the tower and heading home, the mission was to begin in two days.
"Gomen Naruto, I just want to go home now."
"Are you sure? You can crash at my place if you want."
"No, it's ok Naruto. I wanted to get ready and look over my medicine stock."
"Oh, ok….I'll see you tomorrow for training then." Naruto said. He knew this mission might take its toll on her and that she might need some company, but if it was space she needed he would give it to her. He waved good-bye and slowly departed in the direction of the ramen shack. Sakura waved back and set off for home. "Sasuke-kun" was what Sakura thought about for the rest of the night.
It was morning and Sakura woke up around nine o' clock. Upon waking herself up, she yawned while stretching and rubbed her left eye with her hand. "Naruto, Sai and Kakashi should be by the training hallow in twenty minutes." She thought, while getting ready for the last training session before the mission.
"Kakashi sensei is late, and so is Sakura-chan!" Naruto complained.
"Well, thank you for pointing out the obvious dobe." Sai retorted.
"What did you call me! I told you not to call me that! Only one person can call me that, and it's not you!" Naruto yelled pointing a finger at Sai.
"Well, it's hard to call you anything else other than dobe and dickless wonder. Anything other than that will be a complement.
"Why you gay bastard!"
"Gay! Why does everyone keep assuming that I'm gay!"
"Well for one, you're wearing a black tank top thing that only goes up to your belly button, and you wear matching tights!"
"They're not tights! They're regular ninja gear; that just so happens to be a little small on me. Plus the clothes I wear are comfortable and helps my stealth. Unlike you! You have a freaken orange jumpsuit! No shinobi in their right mind wouldn't recognize you!"
"At least I don't find pleasure in watching Lee train all day!" Naruto stated.
"Hey! I told you that I was just observing his skills in tai-justu!" Sai said, defending himself.
"Well you know what! You're just a-"
Before Naruto could finish his sentence, the two both heard their pink haired teammate calling out to them. Naruto saw Sakura running toward them and waving hi in her morning gesture.
"Ohayo you guys!" Sakura said while finally arriving.
"Hi Sakura-chan!" Naruto said, while attempting to hug Sakura, but only ended up having her fist making contact with his head.
"Hey." Was all Sai said.
"So, what were you two fighting about? I could here you guys all the way back at the bridge where we used to meet."
"Well, Sai just couldn't accept the fac-"
"Kakashi sensei is late." Sai said, cutting Naruto off.
"Hey! Don't cut me off like that you teme!" Naruto yelled.
"Ok, calm down Naru-" But before Sakura could finish her sentence a small cloud appeared on a brch of a tree that loomed over the three.
"Yo! Sorry I came late. I had to go get-" Kakashi started.
"YOU'RE LATE DAMMIT!" Both Naruto and Sakura yelled in unison.
"Yes, yes, I know, but for once I have a reason."
"You had to go buy another Icha Icha Paradise book?" Sai said.
"Well, that would have been a good one, but no. Since today is the last day we can train before the mission I decided to bring everyone along to train with us." Kakashi calmly stated.
"Well that's not a bad idea." Sakura commented.
"They should be here soon. So I guess we have to wait a little bit." Kakashi said while focusing on his book again.
"Can't we start now?" Naruto begged.
"No."
"Well can I start?"
"Nothing's stopping you."
"Yosh!"
"Maybe you should wait till everyone gets here." Sakura advised.
"You don't want to waste all you energy before everyone's here do you?" Sai said trying to convince him, so he could have a few minutes more to himself.
Naruto then turned to Sai; he opened his mouth to speak, but then decided to just wait for the others.
After about a couple of minutes of so, Sai decided to break the silence out of boredom.
"So anyways, Kakashi sensei, why do you always read that book?" Kakashi looked up from his book and turned his attention to Sai. Both Naruto and Sakura sweat dropped. Kakashi just looked at Sai, and began to smile.
"Well, Sai, that's because it's-" Before he could completely answer the question Sakura knocked him over the head with his book.
"Don't even think of answering that question you pervert!"
"Kakashi quickly shut his mouth, but not before whispering, I'll tell you later to Sai." Luckily Sakura missed it as she gave the perverted jounin his book back. He wasn't too happy to see that there was a noticeable dent on the cover.
As soon as that affair was settled Naruto yelled, "Hey, everyone's coming!" while putting one hand over his eyes to block out the sun He ran up to where Hinata and Neji were and asked why they were so late.
"Choji forgot to pack chips, so we had to go to the market and buy some." Shikamaru stated lazily while walking up to the front of the group.
Kakashi put his book away and looked at the crowd of ninjas.
"Ok, now that everyone's here. Lets train." Kakashi said, but continued as he raised his index finger up in the air. "But, we'll do it differently this time. Instead of training like we usually do, we'll have our matches set up. One-on-one. Like in the chunin exams, and of course with the same rules." After that, he got a small black pouch out of nowhere. "This has everyone's names on a piece of paper. Choose a slip of paper and we'll go from there."
Everyone got a slip with a name.
"So who wants to go first", Kiba said, cracking his knuckles.
"I will." It was Neji.
"And who is your opponent?" Kakashi asked.
"Sai" Neji simply stated.
Next Time: "That's not fair! I wanted to kick that teme's ass!"……. "The Byakugen isn't as great as you think."…… "Yeah, I'm fighting Sakura!"
AN: Yes, I know, I know….I'm working on it. The story won't suck as much later on…P But for the other match pair ups, I'm not sure who to pair up? Any suggestions?