A/N: Alright here comes the fourth chapter! Also, I'd like to clarify ages of the main characters that have been introduced so far: Naruto – 4; Anko – 16; Hinata – 3; Tsunade – 43; Shizune – 20; Sarutobi – 61. As characters are added I'll list their ages and also try to remember to mention when a character is a year older or whatever… Ok, anyway, let's get going to Wind Country!

Disclaimer: I know I said I wouldn't say this again but I don't own Naruto or any of its characters as they are property of Masashi Kishimoto. (Why can't I own it?!)

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Chapter 4: No Walk in the Desert

It's now early December and now for little more than a month, Tsunade has been training Naruto and Hinata in the basics of being shinobi when concerned with chakra control. Anko has been helping both kids practice with throwing shuriken and kunai, and both have become quite proficient for their age, with both of them usually hitting their target six out of ten times with shuriken and seven out of ten times with kunai. Tsunade has also within the past week started to show the young shinobi in training and the snake mistress the secret behind her inhuman strength.

Both children have also learned several basic jutsu including the Bunshin no Jutsu, the Henge no Jutsu, and the Kawarimi no Jutsu. Though with great difficulty, Naruto was able learn Tsunade's version of the Henge no Jutsu, which he now uses to hide his scars and the whisker marks on his face, and thanks to a constant output of chakra from Kyuubi, the fox-boy manages to keep it active almost constantly, except for when he himself is completely exhausted.

Right now, the group of five is about two miles east of the boarder dividing Fire Country from Wind Country. They are eating what will be their final meal together for at least a month according to the slug mistress and could be as long as three months, depending on how hard Jiraiya is to track down. The meal of grilled rabbit and some fresh fruit is eaten in an eerie silence, as visible frowns are on everyone's faces and Naruto and Hinata are seemingly on the verge of tears. The time that they've spent together over the past month or so, has caused the two young shinobi to look up to the blonde Sannin almost as a motherly figure; a sometimes harsh motherly figure, but still a motherly figure none the less.

Tsunade also is disheartened by the thought of leaving the young blonde and Hyuuga, but she knows full well that the purple haired kunoichi sitting across from her is more than capable of caring for them. Her assistant and pupil, Shizune has come to look at Anko almost as a younger sister as well as viewing Naruto and Hinata as younger siblings too.

Once they've all eaten their fill, they all move quickly in disposing of the used firewood and any scarce traces that they had ever been there. Now ready to split up, Naruto and Hinata stand beside Anko, and Tsunade and Shizune stand together, the two groups facing each other sadly. No longer being able to hold their feelings in, the dark blue haired Hyuuga and the blonde fox-boy run towards the blonde kunoichi across from them, who kneels down and embraces the two children in an unforgettable hug. As the two young shinobi sob into the slug mistress's shoulders, she lightly brushes their hair and says comfortingly, "It'll be alright you two; Shizune and I'll be back with Jiraiya and see you and Anko-chan before you know it."

After about ten minutes, the two children's sobs have ceased, but they are still being warmly embraced by Tsunade. Anko slowly walks over to the three and unties her headband and hands it to the slug Sannin, and says, "Hold on to this for me Tsunade-sama. It's probably best that I don't have a Konoha hitai-ate with me once we cross the border."

The blonde medic now stands up, with Naruto and Hinata each holding onto one of her legs each, and takes the hitai-ate and places it inside her favorite jacket. She looks the pale-eyed kunoichi in the eyes and says, "Promise me you won't let them come to harm Anko-chan. Though," she quickly glances down at the two children holding her legs and staring at her with large, puppy dog eyes, "With as good as they've gotten, I don't think that it will be much of a problem."

"You got nothin' to worry about, Tsunade-sama," Anko said letting a small smile grace her lips. The snake mistress then looks down and the two children and says in a slightly cheerful voice, "Come you two, we gotta get going so Tsunade-sama can find Jiraiya-sama." She quickly noticed that neither Naruto nor Hinata were moving an inch, so she then explained, "Come on, the sooner we get going, the sooner we'll be able to see Tsunade-sama again!" The children's small frowns now changed into faint smiles. They walked over towards Anko and with a small wave to the slug mistress; they speed off towards the boarder.

Tsunade smiled as she watched the three leave and said to her assistant, "I going to miss those three; now let's get going, Shizune, and try to track down that damn perverted teammate of mine!"

With a small bow, said black haired medic replied, "Hai, Tsunade-sama."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It has been two weeks, since the search for Hyuuga Hinata and Tsunade had been called off. The Sandaime, who was glad that his student and the Hyuuga heiress hadn't been caught, was rather pained to hear that the Hyuuga council had decided to remove the curse seal from a branch house member named Neji, and declared him as the new heir of the clan. This decision, ultimately had set into the minds of the council, that Hyuuga Hinata was either dead or to those of more extreme thought, pretended she had never existed.

This decision had been accepted throughout the entire clan, bar one person; Hinata's mother, who had fallen ill only a few months prior to the former heiress's disappearance. It seemed that though she wanted to believe that her only daughter was still alive, the young girl's banishment, disappearance, and ultimate sentence by the council proved too much for her already weakened body to bear. Yesterday, the day after Hyuuga Neji's induction into the Main Household, Hinata's mother, Hyuuga Hinako, died.

Though Sarutobi was pained upon receiving this news, he was glad to know that Hinako was to be given a proper burial in a few days. Now sitting in his office, the aging Hokage took a long drag on his pipe and thought, "Hopefully, Tsunade's search for Jiraiya won't take long; I'd hate to imagine what could possibly happen to Anko, Hinata, and Naruto, while they're out alone in the deserts of Wind Country." Sarutobi exhaled a long stream of smoke before looking out his office window and silently praying for the safety of the three youngsters.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The trio of Anko, Hinata, and Naruto are now less than a mile from the boarder and as they near, the snake mistress stops and turns to the two pint-sized shinobi. She then says, "I think now would be a good time to get into the clothes we bought the other day for traveling through the desert." She then reaches into one of the two packs on her back and pulls out three tan cloaks, two children sized ones and one made for a young adult. The purple haired kunoichi hands one cloak to the blonde haired boy and dark blue haired girl each, along with a fake passport for each of them.

"You two should really only change you're shirts, we don't have all day and from what I've heard, camping in Wind Country's desert in the winter isn't fun," Anko quickly explained. Naruto then reached into his small pack and pulled out a white shirt with a red fox's tail on the back, and a large, red, grinning fox head on the front. He then pulled off the long sleeve black shirt he'd been wearing and quickly slipped into the white shirt and pulled on his cloak and wrapped it around himself to keep from freezing.

By the time he had his cloak on properly, Hinata had put on a bright, teal t-shirt that had small, white flowers around the base, neck, and sleeves, and was being helped by Anko to get her cloak adjusted. After that, the teenage kunoichi took off her signature trench coat and quickly put on her own cloak. Over her usual fishnet mesh shirt, the purple haired girl had on a white tank top with what looked like two black snake fangs coming down from the collar to just around the base of her ribcage.

Once she saw that they were all ready, Anko said, "Alright you two let's get moving; I want to try to get to the town that's about a third of the way between the boarder and Suna."

Both Naruto and Hinata nodded and as they started rushing towards the boarder, the dark blue haired Hyuuga asked, "Anko-chan, how far is a third of the way?"

The snake mistress put a finger up to her chin pretending as if to really think about the question before replying, "Well, I think it's about thirty kilometers from the boarder." The fox-boy immediately tripped over his own feet then rolled a few meters before hitting a tree, face first.

Dazed, but still able to think straight, the blonde shouted out, "Th-thirty kilometers! That's too far to run in one day!"

"Don't worry, once we get tired, a little friend of mine will help us out," Anko said back playfully.

All the purple haired kunoichi got as a response from the two children was them tilting their heads slightly to the right in a confused manner as they said in unison, "A friend?"

The snake mistress smirked and simply said, "You'll see what I'm talking about when the time comes; now let's get moving!"

With a sharp, "Hai!" from the two children, the group of three Konoha runaways, once again began moving towards the boarder.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A few hours after crossing the border into Wind Country, Anko, Naruto, and Hinata had traveled about ten miles and were running across the endless sand dunes that made up most of the country. A few minutes later, the teenage kunoichi stopped and turned two the blonde fox-boy and dark blue haired Hyuuga and said, "We'll stop here and rest for fifteen minutes; though it would be better if there as a rock or cave or something to keep the sand out of our hair!" she finished with an annoyed bark.

The pale lavender eyed girl suddenly activated her Byakugan bloodline limit, much to the snake mistress's surprise. The blue eyed boy who noticed the expanded veins around his companion's eyes turned to the purple haired teenager and asked, "Anko-nee-chan, what's Hinata-chan doing?"

Anko wasn't surprised that Naruto had asked about the young Hyuuga's actions, given his great sibling-like affection for her. She calmly said, "That's the Hyuuga clan's bloodline limit, the Byakugan. I think Hinata-chan's using it to see if she can find someplace safe for us to rest."

The fox-boy calmly nodded in understanding as he watched his fellow shinobi in training's eyes move slightly from left to right back and forth for a few minutes. Soon, Hinata deactivated her Byakugan and smiled lightly before saying, "Th-there's a small c-cave over that way," she pointed to her right, "But I don't know how f-far away it is."

The purple haired kunoichi smiled and patted the little girl on the head and said, "Well it can't be too far; after all, you were able to see it even though you're only three."

"I'm going to be f-four on the tw-twenty-eighth," she said back shyly holding up for fingers.

"Anko-nee-chan," Naruto started to say before being interrupted by the snake mistress.

"Yes Naruto-kun, we'll have a party for Hinata-chan on her birthday," she told the fox-boy in a cheerful attitude. She then took off at a run quickly followed by both Naruto and Hinata. It took them only a few minutes to reach the cave, which once they were right at its entrance, seemed more like a cavern. "You sure found one hell of a cave, Hinata-chan!" Anko said in a very impressed tone and let out a cool, low whistle which echoed into the cavernous hole in the earth.

The three sat against the wall of the cavern near the entrance and talked lightly about how once Tsunade returned they'd all start to learn several new jutsu and how the blonde Sannin herself, was planning on teaching Hinata all she knew about medical ninjutsu as well as teach the basics to Naruto. She'd also mentioned something about determining their elemental type for which jutsu would suit them best. Anko already knew she was a fire type but unfortunately, she only had three katon jutsu, while the rest in her arsenal were all snake derived.

After the fifteen minutes of rest, the purple haired teenager noticed that both of the children were still slightly exhausted. She smirked widely and cracked her knuckles before saying, "I think it's time I brought out my little friend." Anko then went through a series of hand signs that was unfamiliar to the two young shinobi. After the last sign, she bit her thumb causing it to bleed lightly and slammed her hand to the ground crying out, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" There was an enormous puff of smoke that once cleared revealed Anko standing on the head of a thirty meter long, bluish-green snake.

Both Naruto and Hinata fell back on their rears and started shaking in fear. The purple haired teenager fought to restrain her laughter as she bit her lower lip and yelled down at the two terrified kids, "Don't be scared, he won't eat you; so get up her and let's get to that village!" Nervously, both the blonde boy and dark blue haired girl complied and landed on the snake's head next to Anko. She sat down and took a scrap of rabbit jerky and fed it to the snake. The snake then took off at breakneck speed and moved so fast that if the snake mistress hadn't held onto them; both Naruto and Hinata would've been blown away.

After about four hours, the group had reached the village. After the exhilarating ride, as Anko put it, she was look as good as ever. Naruto and Hinata on the other hand, were both a complete mess. Naruto's usually spiky hair had been blown back flat against his head, his eyes were puffy, red, and teary from all the sand that got in them, and he seemed to be on the verge of dropping his henge. Hinata's eyes were more or less the same, her hair was also blown back; her two bangs that hung around her eyes were flattened against the side of her head and the hair that covered her forehead was curled upwards, almost like a wave. The only reason Anko lacked the same puffy, red, teary eyes was because she knew beforehand to by a pair of sunglasses, whose lenses and frame were jet black.

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In a town on the northern end of Fire Country, rather than seeking out information on the toad Sannin, Jiraiya; a certain blonde Sannin sat at a slot machine, losing round after round after round.

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After a pleasant night's sleep, and the purchase of two pairs of jet black sunglasses, Naruto, Hinata, and Anko were traveling once again through the deserts of Wind Country on top of the back of Anko's giant snake. As they sped through the sand dunes, towards their destination of Sunagakure no Sato, only Naruto noticed a hunched figure in a black coat with red clouds on it dragging itself along the ground, with the distinct smell of blood emitting from beneath the cloak. The young boy passed it off as nothing as he and his two female companions continued on their way. Unknown to him, it was this said figure as to why Suna had been in an uproar for the past week, and had just elected its Yondaime Kazekage.

It was around ten at night when the group arrived at Suna, Naruto and Hinata had been asleep only somewhat comfortable for the past few hours. Anko woke the two and they walked to the village gates. After showing their fake passports and IDs, they made it into the village and proceeded directly towards a nearby in. For them, seeking out other temporary lodgings, as well as a private place to train within the village would have to wait till the next day.

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A/N: Another chapter complete as well as the first sighting of an Akatsuki! I actually only realized that this would be around the time a certain puppet master axed the Sandaime Kazekage while writing that part so I said what the hell let Akatsuki make an appearance. I hope you all enjoyed it and the funny moments in this chapter because I'm sure you all will be begging for the next chapter. Well till next time; please R&R and I'll have the next chapter out on Monday or Tuesday!

Translations:

Bunshin no Jutsu: Clone Technique

Henge no Jutsu: Transformation Technique

Kawarimi no Jutsu: Body Replacement Technique

Katon: Fire Release

Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Summoning Technique