"Naruto!" Yamato voice shouted with defeat, cutting through the dry air. The tension had been cut with a knife and it left blood to remain.
"Well, I'm off," Sai smiled unfeelingly at Yamato.
"No! Naruto!" Sakura screamed frantically, rushing forward to help him as he collapsed to the ground. The straps of his pack had been cut clean off, leaving his back exposed. One quick swipe with a long blade and Yamato's and Sakura's worst nightmares became a reality. Here Yamato was wearing a mask that he wasn't supposed to be wearing, several days from home, with a new team that he promised Kakashi that he would take care of before he left. Now, not only was he facing one of the most evil rogues in the world, but one of his team members was injured severely and another of his team members was turning on him to take the enemy's side.
'I told you that you should have wrapped your kunai before you left for the mission. Its bad luck not to…' said a little voice in his head.
'Oh, stuff it!' replied his ninja side.
"Go on, Sai. I'll catch up," Sasuke said smugly. With that, Sai jumped out of the canyon-like depression and started to run. Yamato hesitated for a moment, looking back at Naruto and Sakura, then at Sasuke, and finally back up at Sai. There was nothing for it. He had to go after Sai. If he got away, the entire mission would have been for nothing.
"Sakura! Take care of Naruto! I'll be back as soon as I can!" He called back, as he jumped out of the depression onto level ground.
Breaking into a run, he saw Sai in the distance and gave chase, "I knew putting him on this mission was a bad idea. He wasn't concerned with the group's well-being from the start. Tsunade is going to get an earful when I get back!"
Yamato ran a good ten minutes before he came upon a forest.
'What the heck? A forest in the middle of a desert. You've gotta be kidding me,' Yamato thought.
Sai disappeared inside the thick brush and Yamato had no choice but to follow.
'That's another ten points to Orochimaru for finding yet another insane location to hide people in. Talk about random…' he thought.
It was then that Sai ran on top of the water of a large lake. Heavy fog covered the surface, making it more difficult to keep track of Sai's movements. But it seemed that, that was the point.
"Wow…isn't this place just full of surprises," he thought aloud.
Speeding up, he copied every movement that he saw Sai make with great care. There could very well be someone on land in front of him, waiting to cut down anyone that didn't move right at a distance. He couldn't take the chance of getting injured. He was alone in enemy territory, and he had no clue where his nearest allies were, not to mention how far Konoha was from where he was right now. No, he could not allow himself to make the slightest error. Such carelessness would be no less than a beg for death.
Hearing noise from behind him, he quickly hid behind a piece of low-hanging brush. It appeared to be more like a bunch of vines that had overgrown into a large mass, creating a kind of leafy curtain. Praising the convenience of such a hiding place, he waited a few minutes before he saw Sasuke quietly pass by. He squinted to see Sasuke pull back a similar curtain of vines at what seemed to be the opposite shore of the lake. The opening to a kind of dark hallway was small, but he could definitely see it.
Cautiously, Yamato sneaked towards the spot that he had seen Sasuke disappear through. He knew it was an awful risk to go anywhere near the hideout, even if he had Naruto and Sakura to back him up, but it was also the opportunity of a lifetime. If he let it go, he may never find Sasuke or any of his companions again. No doubt, Sasuke may very well decide to change location after his encounter with Sakura, Naruto, and Yamato back at Sasuke's now abandoned hideout, earlier. But he had also had an agenda then. He stuck around to try to kill Naruto and to take Sai.
'He's holding all the cards that matter right now,' Yamato thought. 'Time to see if I can steal a few from his deck.'
With that, Yamato crept even closer to the entrance until he was just in front of the hanging vines.
"Rat summoning jutsu!" He whispered. He backed away until he was out of sight, then waited. A small rat ran under the vines and down the long hallway to a candle-lit room. It quietly listened as the two occupants spoke.
"I don't think that would be wise, Sai. Especially right after you left the Konoha village. I have no doubt that someone is looking for you right now. Are you sure you weren't followed here?"
"Fairly. You might send a patrol out later to make sure, but I didn't see anyone behind me."
"What about that masked one?"
"Yamato? I think he just went for help…"
"Huh…maybe. Well, in any case, it doesn't matter. The plan will proceed regardless."
"I thought it would…"
The rat continued down the hall until it reach another room.
"Really?"
"I mean…you know what he's up to these days?"
"Something about trying to get rid of his brother's source of happiness. Do you know what Itachi's up to these days?"
"I heard it had something to do with the nine-tailed fox, but that's just a rumor."
"Why would he want to mess with that thing?"
"You know the Akatsuki…they're always doing something insane."
There was a cold laugh, "Like you don't do stuff like that yourself?"
"It's not like you don't either…"
"I guess we're all insane together. That's just how I like it."
Having heard enough, the rat quickly ran back across the hallway. Scarcely missing a foot that stepped out into the corridor. The rat kept silent, running back to Yamato. As a silver-haired boy pulled back the vines to look out at the foggy lake, Yamato took a deep breath. Yamato remained very still in the shadow of the trees as his rat climbed up his clothes and perched itself on his shoulder. He took slow, shallow breathes, praying that he wouldn't be detected. But after a long moment, the boy went back inside, letting the vines fall back together. Nodding to the rat, it told him what it had heard.
"Thank you," Yamato whispered. "Until next time."
"Yes," the rat said. With that it disappeared and Yamato was alone again. He had taken too long. He had to get back to Sakura and Naruto. So, very quietly, he crept on the swampy water behind vines and through trees, hiding from any prying eyes.
When he finally reached shore again, he took a moment to remember which way he had come from, then took off at top speed. The forest was too dark for his taste. So dark, in fact, that it was most unnatural. The trekking, however, was fairly short. Within twenty minutes, he was facing a desert scene again. Even in the desert, though, the sun had long since gone down.
Taking another moment to regain his bearings, he took off in the general direction of the canyon-like depression. The darkness slowed him down slightly, making his senses adjust. Fifteen minutes later, he could see the outline of the depression. As he ran up on it and jumped down into it, he found that Sakura and Naruto were already gone. She must've taken Naruto and left. Scanning over the scene before him, a small pack caught his eye. Walking over to it, he surveyed it, frowning. The straps had been cut clean off. It must've been Naruto's.
Yamato pulled out a candle, lit it and reached inside the pack. He found non-essentials like soap, a picture of Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi together, another set of candles, an extra pair of Sakura's special gloves, a picture of Naruto that had been torn down the middle to hide some unwanted memory of someone else. But perhaps the most interesting thing was that, hidden in a small compartment at the bottom of the pack, was a picture of Sakura. Yamato frowned, looking away for a moment. Putting the picture of Naruto and Sakura next to each other, he looked between them. He had concluded earlier that it was Naruto's pack. So why would a picture of Sakura be hidden in it? And why had a picture of Naruto been tossed so carelessly inside? Unless…
Yamato held the candle over the two pictures again. Both of them were pictures of the two after they had turned fifteen.
"Are they…in love?"
He had to admit, if they were, it would explain a few things.
"Well…" he said slowly, "Its not as if its strictly forbidden or anything, but it is strongly discouraged. Distractions like that can cause people to get hurt. But just the same…they'll probably be wanting these back."
He emptied Naruto's pack into his own and jumped out of the depression, hoping to make a little progress before he rested for the night.
"Well then," he said, "this mission has certainly been very interesting. I'll give it that."
The moon and stars shown exceptionally bright that night leaving no evening glory of the sky untouched.
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Hey guys! Thought I'd take a detour before I got to the end. Hope you liked it… Back to Naruto and Sakura next chapter! Yay! Lol…anyway, bye all!