-AN: I don't own Naruto.

Previously: "What the-Sasuke-kun!" She said shocked.

"You should of brought something warm to wear." Sasuke said.

"Ummm, uh-yeah…" She stuttered as the two just watched the refection of the moon move from the ripples created by the light wind. "Being here with Sasuke right now is almost heaven" she thought as she leaned against his shoulder. Sasuke flinched again, but gotten used to her as she dozed off. Even though Sakura never saw it, Sasuke smiled and felt a little happier, and he didn't really know why. All he knew was that, he was just happy. Too bad a pair of silver eyes were watching them, each one filled with a hint of sorrow and anger.

Chapter 11- Misunderstanding…

The team seemed to be nearing the end of the forest as they jumped from branch to branch. Neji seemed silent during the way.

"Naruto, is there something wrong with Neji?" Sakura whispered to her teammate, as she stared at the silent prodigy traveling in front of them. He merely shrugged. She looked over to Hinata and asked her.

"He's been acting strange since two nights ago. After he came back from a walk." Hinata explained. After an hour of running the five shinobi made it out of the forest.

"Finally! We're in Field Country!" Naruto exclaimed. He looked over the cliff's edge with his team as he placed both his hands behind his head.

"Only a couple of kilometers to sound country." Neji said.

"Right." Sakura agreed. Naruto grinned at her.

"Sakura-chan, remember the last time we were here with Ero-senin?" Naruto asked.

Sakura laughed lightly when she remembered how the legendary nin took pretty much all their cash to go check out the girls in the village.

"You guys were here before?" Neji asked. Sasuke wondered as well.

"Yup!" Both Naruto and Sakura said in unison.

"Hey! Remember Sesame-chan?" Sakura asked her teammate. Naruto nodded his head.

"Of course! She was a heck lot cuter than yo-" but Naruto was cut off when he was hit on the head.

"Shut it Naruto." Sakura said. Naruto just rubbed the back of his head.

"Sesame-chan?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, Sesame Fuuma, of the Fuuma clan." Sakura said.

"So since you have friends in this country do you think they can help us with our mission?" Sai asked.

"Sai, I'm not sure if you guys realize this, but Naruto, Sakura, on your last visit, wasn't this country in an economic depression?" Neji asked.

The two thought for a sec, and then remembered how their friend was forced to drug them and how the dying clan, along with the country itself , were desperate to survive.

"Oh yeah." They both muttered. "What if the clan died out? How are we suppose to find a way to sound, since me and Naruto destroyed the hideout?" Sakura thought.

"Well anyways, I think we should keep moving." Sasuke said.

While walking through the strangely peaceful pathway in the fields, the team encountered the first town in miles. Like Naruto and Sakura remembered, there were drunkards, and whore houses on every corner. Almost every minute, there would be someone being thrown out, or beaten up in raw public.

"What are we support to do here?" Hinata asked.

"This place didn't really change much, did it?" Sakura asked. Naruto shook his head.

"Well, last time Ero-senin was here, he said he was jumped by some guys in the Fuuma clan." Naruto explained.

"Seems like a respectable clan." Sai said.

"Hey-" Naruto began.

"Just tell us where to go dobe." Sasuke said. Naruto just 'hmphed' as the team entered the town.

"How did Jiraiya-sama find them in the first place?" Sakura asked.

"Sasuke, don't you know the way to Sound from here?" Neji asked.

Heshook his head. "I didn't come through here before." Neji just muttered some unnoticed comments as they thought of how to find some direction.

"Ummm." Naruto said as he crossed his arms and thought for a second. "Ha! I know!" He took out some cash as he made about thirty clones. Everyone was completely oblivious to the blond's plan. He just gave the confused looks of his teammates a foxy grin as his clones ran around town yelling "Hey I got a heck lot of cash for any girl to help me with some information on sound!" Everyone fell down anime style.

"Baka" Sakura thought. "Oh, Naruto kun." Hinata thought shaking her head. "Dobe." Sasuke thought. Sai and Neji just put a hand over their face and shook their heads.

"It's been a while Kakashi." Itachi said. He and Kisame finally met up with the team of jounins. "Shit" Kakashi thought. "I hoped that we would be at least near sound when fighting them so we could help Naruto's group, but I suppose nothing really goes our way when Itachi's involved."

Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai got ready for the incoming battle. The team was still an entire day away from the Field Country. It was decided within the team that Kakashi and Gai were to face Itachi while Kurenai and Asuma were to battle Kisame. "Crap, things never go according to plan. Please kami, I don't want to lose any comrades today." Kakashi thought, as he lifted his hitai-ate away from his covered left eye, and the Akatsuki members soon charged forward.

Naruto and the others just continued to walk around town.

"Naruto, don't you think we should of made our presence less conspicuous?" Neji asked.

"Hn. We're suppose to be undercover, dobe." Sasuke said.

"That's why I used the henge-justu to-" but Naruto was cut off when some guy was running down the street screaming his head off. "That's one of my clones!" Naruto yelled out. Naruto dismissed the other twenty-nine clones as the team hid behind a store. They watched as one of Naruto's disguised clones ran down the street toward the village entrance with about twenty guys chasing him. As soon as the clone distanced his pursuers far enough from the village, Naruto dismissed the clone. He and his team came up behind the group of rogue nins.

"Hey you guys!" Naruto yelled out to the other nins.

"You got a lot of nerve to lure us out here." One of the nins said aloud.

Assuming that he was the leader, Naruto asked, "You guys from the Fuuma clan?"

The guy snickered, along with his comrades.

"Why would a bunch of kids be looking for us?" He said a little threatening.

"We just need some help getting to Sound." Naruto replied.

"Why would we help strangers? For all we know, you can be subordinates of Sound." The guy said, as he unsheathed his katana. Naruto waved his hands in front of him as he said, "No, no, no! We're friends of some people in your clan, we just thought we could get some help." He explained quickly.

"Che, yeah right." The guy signaled his friends to pull out their weapons. Seeing this, Sai, Neji, and Sasuke immediately went into the defensive. Naruto and Hinata tried to calm the three down.

"Naruto, you're doing a crappy job in getting help." Sai said to the hyperactive blond.

"Shut up teme!" Naruto yelled back.

Sakura thought that this was enough and went up to the group of rogue nins.

"Sakura-chan?" Hinata said.

"I'm just going to try and fix some things." She said with a smile.

She continued on her way and stopped right in front of the group.

"Hi, I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot, but we're just looking for a way into Sound, and we figured maybe you could help us with finding our friend Sesame Fuuma?" She asked with a smile.

"You know Sasame-san?" He asked. The other seemed to converse among themselves.

"Hmmm, pink hair, green eyes….You must be Sakura? Am I correct?"

Sakura nodded in response. "And that's Naruto." Sakura said as she pointed to the blond arguing with Sai.

The guy just laughed out loud. "Why didn't you guys say so! How can we mug the people who got that damned bastard off our backs? Come on, I'm sure Sesame-san will be glad to see you." The Fuuma nins let the team through the town near the outskirts. The leader dismissed his comrades as he went on and led Naruto and the rest onward.

As they reached a small block, there was a small wooden gate guarded by two nins on each side of the door. The leader of the small band of Fuumas just nodded to one of the guards as he opened the gate. They continued to walk along the block until they reached a two story house on a corner of a street.

"Here we are." He said as he knocked on the door. The door open and revealed a girl with long orange hair accompanied by a black hat. She wore casual dark grey shirt along with semi-dark sweat pants.

"What is it-?" She stopped in mid sentence when she saw Naruto and Sakura smiling and waving to her. "Naruto-kun! Sakura-chan! I can't believe it!" She said happily as she gave the two bear hugs. "What are you guys doing here?" She asked.

"We just came by for a mission." Sakura answered.

"How's everything here?" Naruto asked.

"Just fine, much better than before. Our clan seems to be growing." Sesame answered. She looked behind the two to find four others. "Hi, you must be friends of these two. I'm Sesame." She said hand extended.

"Hello. I'm Sai." Sai greeted shaking her hand.

"Neji." Neji said following suit.

"Hinata Hyuuga." Hinata said.

"Sasuke." Sasuke said, without shaking her hand. She didn't mind though.

"So, is there anything I can help you guys with?" Sesame asked.

"We actually need to get directions to Sound." Sakura said.

"Sound?…" Sesame had a worried look on her face. "What's your mission? Why would you go there?"

"No, we're just investigating some things." Naruto lied.

"Oh, umm, sure. I can lead you there. It might take a day or so to get through the mountains though." She said uncertainly.

"That's fine with us." Sakura said. "When's the earliest we can leave?"

"Well, I guess right now."

"Yosh!" Naruto said aloud.

"Be careful." the guy who lead the team there said. They all nodded.

A clash with kunai against kunai was heard throughout out the afternoon as two powerful nins were going at it. Panting, Kakashi held his right arm in pain as blood seeped out of the gash made by the Uchiha.

"You think you can still go?" Gai asked his rival.

"Hn. What do you take me for." Kakashi responded. Gai just gave him a thumbs up as they readied themselves for another attack.

Kisame was laying on the ground motionless. From the critical damage he recived, Kakashi concluded that he would be dead soon if he didn't get help. Asuma and Kurenai were completely worn out from the battle with the shark nin, and lost consciousness. Unfortunately, the two were in critical condition, so there was no chance of them being able to aid Kakashi and Gai, even if they gained consciousness.

Itachi kept his sharing an in the second level as Kakashi seemed to be pushing himself to keep his activated.

"Don't push yourself. We can't have you black out in the middle of this battle." Gai said to the panting nin.

"I can last a little longer." Kakashi rasped out as he formed some hand seals. Soon enough, the sound of chirping birds was heard as lightning formed around Kakashi's hand. "Lets end this."

"Naruto! Watch out!" Neji called out as a barrage of kunais flew from a bush near the team. They stooped as they formed a circle, everyone back-to-back, all having kunais in hand, stood in a defensive stance ready for the next attack. Suddenly, three small, clay like birds flew in the middle of the circle.

"What are-" Sesame began, but was cut off by Naruto and Sakura.

"Move!" The two said in unison as they pushed their comrades out of the way before the small birds exploded.

Sakura pushed Neji, Sai, and Sesame to one side of the field, while Naruto got Sasuke and Hinata to the other side. Debris flew over their heads, as they tried to shield themselves. When the smoke cleared, Naruto and the rest gulped when the found a crater only mere inches away from their feet. The diameter of the hole created could be estimated about thirty meters wide.

"You guys alright?" Sakura called over.

"Yeah." Hinata called back. As soon as her reply was heard, Deidara appeared in front of Sakura's group.

A small gasp escaped Sakura's lips, as she backed away from him. Sesame did the same, but Sai and Neji stood in front of the two ready to attack. The Akatsuki member just smirked as they heard Naruto and the rest approaching them.

"I'm not here to fight, yeah." He said casually. They all stared at him in disbelief. "Just wanted to deliver a message to the younger Uchiha, yeah."

Sasuke stepped up immediately, sword extended, pointing to Deidara's heart.

"What is it?" Sasuke growled out.

Deidara smirked at the younger Uchiha. "Itachi told me to tell you that Orochimaru is going to attack Konoha in about a less than a weak." Everyone gasped.

"What!" Naruto yelled. His appearance was starting to change more beastly as he stared to growl. "How the fuck do you expect me to believe someone who killed my friend?"

"Killed who?…Oh, you mean Gaara, yeah? I heard he was still living, yeah. Not to worry right Kyuubi?" Deidara said with a half smile. "He doesn't even care!" Naruto thought. This only angered him more.

"Naruto-kun, p-please calm down." Hinata muttered, as she placed her hands on each of his shoulders. From her touch, Naruto seemed to relax, but he kept his same dark aura.

"Well anyways, I just came here for that, yeah." Daeidara said as he started to head off.

"Wait!" Sakura called out. All attention turned to her. Deidara turned around, then he tilted his head, as he tried to search through his memories.

"Hm, I've seen you before…Ah, you're the one to kill my partner, with that old hag, yeah." He said, without any sign of anger or treat in his voice.

"He doesn't care." Sakura thought. "The Akatsuki are truly heartless."

"Ummm, yeah…Why would Itachi tell you to warn us about Orochimaru?"

He merely smiled and tapped the side of his head. "Ah, thanks for reminding me, yeah. Forgot the second part." He turned back to Sasuke and said, "He told me to tell you so you could make a choice, yeah."

"A choice?" Sai asked.

"What kind of choice?" Neji followed.

"Orochimaru is heading to Konoha with an army, while Itachi, will be heading the other way, yeah." Deidara said as he pointed to his left. Sasuke's eyes widened.

"Wh-what!" Everyone blurted out.

"Well, that's it, yeah." Deidara said as he shrugged his shoulders. He continued to walk on, but before he could travel out of hearing distance he called out, "Oh, and Sakura." Sakura immediately gave him her full attention, along with everyone else. "Just warning you, since I never really liked my partner Sasori. Just saying to watch your back, yeah." Sakura's eyes widened, as she gave out a small gasp. "Just doing you a favor, yeah." He said before taking flight on a large clay bird.

"Sa-sakura-chan. What does he mean?" Both Hinata and Sesame asked softly.

The kunoichi just clenched her fists. "Nothing" she muttered.

"She took out an Akatsuki member!" Both Sasuke, Neji, and Hinata thought.

"Well, I see that this sucks." Sai said aloud. Everyone just looked at him with narrowed eyes, but he paid no attention to it. "So, Sasuke, are you going to abandon us again?" Sai said, straight to the point, as he crossed his arms, this time not even giving one of his fake smiles.

Sasuke just looked down, as his bangs covered his eyes. Everyone just looked upon the Uchiha. Sasuke could feel the tension around him.

"So what will it be Sasuke?" Neji said with a scowl.

Sasuke clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white. "Teme…Don't even think of-" But Naruto was cut off.

"Shut up, we're wasting time. Lets hurry and go back home." Sasuke said. At this, everyone smirked.

"Sasuke-kun." Sakura whispered.

"Thank kami." Hinata muttered to herself, as she took a deep breath in relief.

Kabuto and Orochimaru were traveling along the border of the Rice country when they came to a halt.

"Sesame-chan, thank you for getting us this far." Sai said to the blushing kunoichi.

"No problem, but you should go back to the clan district to stock on supplies and rest." She advised.

Neji shook his head. "We have no time." He said.

"Thank you though, Sesame-chan." Hinata said.

"Be careful." Sesame told the group. The all nodded.

"You too." Naruto and Sakura said to their friend. Afterwards the team quickly left for Konoha, hoping to kami that Orochimaru wasn't already taking away their loved ones back home.

"Tenten, do you see what I see?" Shikamaru asked the weapons master as the team hid in a tree. She nodded in reply as an army of rogue grass country nins marched pass them.

"There must me at least a hundred of them." Lee whispered to his teammates.

They looked upon the nins, each one having a slash against their country's symbol on their headbands.

"Damn rougue nins." Choji muttered.

"Lets hurry and warn the hokage." Shikamaru told the team. The all nodded as they vanished in the forest.

"Kiba, hide!" Shino said sternly as he, Ino and Akamaru, hid under the sand.

Kiba dug under the san just in time as a small band of nins crossed by. When the coast was clear, the leaf shinobi made their ways back onto the surface.

"What the fuck are rain shinobi doing all the way out here?" Kiba asked.

"Rain? How can you tell?" Ino asked.

Kiba pointed to his nose. "I'm sure it was them, but what are they doing here?"

Shino stayed quiet as some of his flying insects flew near the team. Shino extended out his right hand as the bugs landed on it.

"So what do they say?" Kiba asked.

"You mean he talks to them." Ino said, a little disgusted. Akamaru just barked, and Ino took it as a yes. Then the k9 licked her arm as he barcked out some things.

"I agree. Bugs aren't that gross Ino." Kiba said laughing a little.

"How can Hinata stand her team?" She thought as she wiped the drool off her arm.

"Alright. Lets head back home now." Shino said seriously.

"What's wrong?" Ino asked.

"Those rogue nin are heading to Konoha. We have to beat them home." Shino said as he sprinted off. Ino, Kiba, and Akamaru turned serious as well. Then they sprinted after their teammate, trying to get home and warn the hokage.

"You've grown weaker Kakashi." Itachi said. Kakashi was losing consciousness at the moment. Gai could almost stand, but still had some trouble. Itachi's arm was burnt and he had blood dripping onto the floor from a cut on his right leg, but it didn't seem to phase him one bit. "I'm not sure letting my brother be brought back to Konoha was a good idea."

"What?" Kakashi blurted out.

"Seeing how his teammates improved I suppose he would grow stronger there, since that he's still too weak. Do you believe that he was a threat to me, when he and his friends attacked me back in the forest, near the cabin?" Itachi asked.

"Why do you want him to fight you?" Kakashi asked, seeing that he was growing sleepy.

"No concern of yours…." He merely answered. Then he turned, and headed toward Kisame. " I suppose our fight is over."

"What do you mean?" Gai said to the Uchiha who grabbed his partner by the shoulder.

"Well, you four should be heading home." Gai and Kakashi just raised a brow in confusion. "I recommend you should go quickly, or Konoha might not be there anymore."

"What!" The two leaf jounins said in unison.

"Oh and tell my brother that if he can't kill that weak snake, there's no point in coming after me." After that, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, taking the shark nin along with him.

"Shit." Kakashi muttered before losing consciousness. Gai lifted his rival up as he headed toward the other two knocked out jounin.

"I suppose this mission was a faliure." Gai said sadly before disappearing in a cloud a smoke with his three comrades.

Night soon came and Naruto, along with the rest were exhausted. Unwillingly, the team decided to rest, planning to leave early the next morning.

The fire was set and dinner was eaten in silence. While sitting around the fire, they just stared at the wood burning, as the night grew cold and dark.

"I'm going to sleep." Hinata said after a while of more silence. She got up and reached in her pack for her sleeping gear.

"Me too." Naruto said after a while. But he knew that it was a lie. "How can I sleep when everything's going wrong?" he thought as he went to his pack.

Wordlessly Sai stood up and did the same. Three 'goodnights' were said before half of the team were submerged in their dreamless sleep. Neji, Sasuke and Sakura stayed awake, knowing that even if they tried, they wouldn't even be able to pretend to sleep.

"Sakura, you should sleep." Neji said as he placed some more wood in the dying fire.

"I can say the same thing for you." She said with a smile. Then she turned towards Sasuke, "Sasuke?".

"I'm not tired." Sasuke said a little coldly. Sakura was taken back, but just let it pass, seeing that this was the Uchiha attitude she grew up with.

"Oh, ok…" After a minute she stood up and said, "I'm going to walk around for a bit." She brushed herself off and left behind some trees.

"Orochimaru-sama, they're here." Kabuto informed his leader.

"Ah, so they are." The snake nin said as two Akatsuki members appeared in front of them. "Good to see you two again."

"Cut the crap, yeah?" Deidara said.

"Alright fine. Now for our deal. I allowed Sasuke to leave, and you provide me a body." Orochimaru said.

"It figures that your perfect candidate would have some kind of flaw, yeah." Deidara said.

"Did you believe that you could obtain the second level of the sharingan? Foolish." Itachi said.

"Where's the body?" Kabuto said, stopping the two powerful nins from insulting his leader any further.

Itachi noded to Deidara, giving him the 'ok'. Dedara called over his clay bird that held Kisame's body.

Kabuto did a quick check on Kisame as he healed some of the major wounds.

"This will be fine." He muttered before he brought the body to Orochimaru.

"We're done." Itachi said, before he and Deidara disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

While traveling along the Fire country, Deidara asked, "Do you think we should of gave him Kisame like that, yeah?"

"He will die anyways. He's useless now." Itachi answered. The two continued to travel in silence as they jumped from tree branch to branch.

While walking through the forest, Sakura looked up into the black sky that was illuminated by billions of stars. She let out a sigh, before muttering, "Sasuke-kun, how can we help you?" She just brushed her bangs back behind her ears before they fell back to their original place around her face. From behind her, someone stepped onto some dry leaves and twigs. Instantly, she turned around.

"Sasu-" But she stopped when she saw that it wasn't him. "Why would I think it would be him?" She thought sadly.

"Sorry if I wasn't Sasuke." Neji said, approaching the kunoichi.

"Oh, no, no, Neji. Sorry just a little…."

"Worried?"

"Umm, sure, I'll go with that." She said looking down. There was silence between them.

"So, you going to just stand here all night till someone comes and gets you?" Neji asked smirking.

She smiled as she said, "Depends on who shows up."

"Hn…Well I'm here." He said, as he extended his arms out. He look at himself and back at her, before putting his arms back down as he smiled.

Sakura couldn't help but keep her smile on her face. "Neji, thank you."

"For what?" He said as he crossed his arms.

"For…I don't know…" She said as she sat down, and laid on the grass.

Neji went and sat down beside her. She was looking up at the stars, and Neji did the same.

"It's beautiful…" Sakura said as she gazed upon the stars.

"Hn. It is." He said, not really talking about the stars.

"What's going to happen to Sasuke-kun." Sakura muttered to herself, but Neji caught it. "Uchiha again?" He thought.

Neji sighed, "Sakura. You have to understand that some people are different."

"But, Sasuke-kun, he-"

"He did make the choice in going home instead of going after his brother, but….Maybe it was because he think he's not strong enough." Neji said, cutting Sakura off.

"…."

"I think he wants to test his strength with Orochimaru."

"Maybe." Again, silence surrounded the two.

"Well." Neji said standing up. Sakura just looked up at him. "I didn't really intend to talk about the problems at hand, when I came here."

Sakura sat up. "Oh, sorry." Sakura said as she started to pick on the grass.

"Don't be sorry. It's sad that problems in our lives are unavoidable." He looked at her. "But we can try our best to enjoy what there is. And make our own destiny."

"That's what Naruto taught you right?" She said smiling.

"Hn."

She then stood up and gave Neji a warm hug. The surprised jounin was frozen in the spot.

"I like talking with you." She said as she released her embrace. Neji didn't know what to say, or even do in the matter. "Ummm, Neji?" Sakura asked as she waved a hand in front of his face. "Yoohoo, Neji." Neji caught her waving hand and said, "We should get some sleep."

"Sure." She said as they headed back to camp. The fire was out and everyone was sleeping by the time Sakura and Neji came.

"Night Neji." She whispered.

"Night." He said afterwards.

Sakura was the only one that was still awake now. Or so she thought until she heard someone calling her name.

"Sakura-chan, hey, you awake?" Naruto whispered.

"Yeah, but hey, you should be asleep Naruto."

"Can't, too much on my mind."

"I can understand that."

"Hey, what were you doing with Neji?" Naruto asked suddenly.

"Nothing, we just talked."

"Riiiggghhtt." Naruto said. She didn't need to see his face to tell that he was smiling mischievously.

"Shut up!" She said a little louder than she thought.

"You two go to sleep, we're leaving in four hours." Sasuke said. This surprised the two.

"G-gomen, Sasuke-kun." Sakura whispered before lying her head against her arm.

"Yes mom." Naruto said before sticking his tongue out childishly.

"What was she doing with Hyuuga?" Sasuke thought. "Ah, screw it." He thought before he fell asleep.

Next time: "We have four days."…"Where was Itachi spotted!"…"I don't care what happens! Just promise that…that…"

AN: So sry, (once again…), I'm getting a really bad writer's block….so bad that I was going to parents what I could do for the fanfic, (of course I would rather tie myself to a cow than do that.) LOL, well thx for reading! I really appreciate it!