AN: This chapter is finally fixed too! Yay!

Chapter Five: The Mission

The skies were still dark when Naomi woke the next morning. Glancing out the window, the position of the stars told her that she had an hour before dawn. Slowly she slipped out of bed and crept down the hall to their bathroom. She took her time cleaning up and then returned to her room to get dressed.

Naomi was dressed in the regulation Anbu uniform of a tight fitting black shirt and pants with a white vest. She and Kiyoshi would be the only team members in that uniform. Meticulously she wrapped her wrists and ankles in white tape. A small weapons pouch hung at her hip and her feet were clad in black boots that covered to the middle of her calf. The Anbu symbol was embroidered on one shoulder while the Uchiha fan rested alone on the other shoulder. She stared at her reflection in her mirror as she tied her regular leaf headband loosely around her neck.

Shock went through her briefly at the sight of the person staring back at her. Her violet eyes were red-rimmed from tears she must have shed in her sleep the night before. Her lips were set in a grimace and her eyes looked blank. Framing her face was a curtain of limp, black hair. With a sigh, she ran a hand through her hair, the way Itachi had as he was preparing to leave. After blinking a few times, life began to seep back into her features. She couldn't let Itachi affect her like that. He may have been drug down into his dark depths, but, no matter what happens, she couldn't let her brother suck the life out of her.

In order to tame her hair, she ran a quick brush through it and then braided it up into a ponytail. Satisfied that she as ready, she turned for the door. Before leaving her room, she grabbed the equipment pack on the end table by the door and her white, cat-faced mask with the tiny leaf symbol on the forehead.

Silently, Naomi slipped into the hall and went first to Sasuke's room. He was sound asleep in his bed. His sheets were falling half off of him. His mouth was slightly open and his head lay at an odd angle. One arm was raised on his pillow above him while the other lay sloppily off the side of the bed. Naomi couldn't help but laugh silently. Sasuke was so innocent looking when he slept.

Without a sound, she crouched by the edge of his bed, and lightly brushed his bangs away, smiling at her younger brother. How she hated leaving on her missions and leaving him. But she knew that she was an important member of her teams and knew what was expected of her. Leaning down she brushed a kiss across his forehead and then rose to leave again.

"Love you, Naomi." It was a sleepy whisper that he only seemed to be awake long enough to say.

At the door she turned her head to glance over her shoulder. He had shifted to being curled up against the wall with his back to her. Another small smile touched her lips.

"Love you too, Sasuke. Be good," she whispered into the darkness. Then, she was gone in a silent puff of smoke.

The team gathered just outside the gates. Naomi and Kiyoshi were clad in their Anbu uniforms with their masks on top of their heads, not yet concealing their faces. The other four wore the leaf village Jonin uniform of leaf green pants and vest with a black, long sleeved undershirt. They each wore their forehead protectors either tied to their upper-arm or in place on their forehead.

Sunlight was just beginning to light the horizon when Asuma pulled a map out of his leg pouch. Pointing to a path he said, "We'll take this passage from our region into the Rain village's regions. From there, we'll take the route that the Hokage assigned to us. As he said, their village is surrounded by dense forest. Haru, Naomi, keep your sharingan activated and be on the lookout for traps."

Both Uchihas nodded in understanding. Naomi looked over at her cousin. He glanced back at her and, at the same time, both of their sets of eyes shifted to red.

"Any more questions?" Asuma asked with finality.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Alight then, let's move out."

Without another sound, the entire team raced off into the forest toward an enemy they knew next to nothing about. This was the reason at least two Anbu ninja were assigned to the squad.

As the village disappeared into the distance, Naomi looked back for just a second. Little did she know, if and when she returned, that her life would never be the same as when she stepped out of those huge gates for her mission.

The squad was camped out about five kilometers away from the Rain Village. For two days they detected nothing. They sent the mockingbird call out periodically every couple of hours, but no response was returned. They'd sent Yori and Estuko ahead, but they returned to inform the rest that there were dozens of traps between them and the village, but that they could detect for sure, but he could not detect anybody near there.

Asuma was getting antsy with just waiting, but they were under orders to be received by the underground security team that they were supposed to meet.

On the third night, the team was asleep, all except for Asuma and Naomi. They sat side-by-side at the base of a huge tree drawing possible plans in the dirt with sticks.

"I don't like this," Asuma muttered, "All this waiting around. Something isn't right. We should have had some contact by now. I'm surprised we haven't been ambushed yet." He shook his head in annoyance.

"You should let me scout the village. I can conceal myself in the shadows; they'll never know I'm there," Naomi said.

Asuma threw a sidelong look at his fried. He worried about her out on these missions. She was so determined, the same way her brother had been in the past. The difference was, she wasn't cocky about her outstanding abilities. She knew she was good and didn't feel like she had anything to prove. Naomi was strong, he had to admit-everyone did- but every time Asuma looked at his thirteen year old comrade, he still saw the eight year old little girl at the academy that he'd befriended.

Grudgingly, he sighed. Naomi wasn't that little girl anymore though, and he had to remember that.

"Fine. You're right. You are the only one capable of completely concealing yourself. At dawn tomorrow, you go scout the village."

Naomi grinned darkly, nodded and stood.

"Well I'd better get some rest. Wake me if you need relief from watch," she said.

"I will."

As she turned away from Asuma, her grin dropped. Something was wrong - not only in this village, but back home too. Everything inside of her ached. She hated that she didn't know what was happening at home. The aching had started the very night that they had left the leaf. Now, it was accompanied by sinking pit in her stomach. All of the waiting around was only making it worse. She needed this mission to get moving.

The next morning, Naomi's eyes opened just as the sun was coming over the horizon. She sat up and found Asuma still awake under the tree. Within minutes she was armed and ready to head out.

"Be careful," Asuma whispered with a hand on her shoulder. He handed her an ear piece and neck microphone with the other. "No matter what you see, do not leave the shadows; do you understand?" This was stern. There was no question that right then, Asuma was being the first in command and not just her friend.

Naomi nodded in compliance.

"And give us updates every few minutes."

"Yes sir," Naomi replied seriously.

When Asuma nodded that he was done, Naomi grinned.

"I'll be fine Asuma," she assured, "You worry about me too much."

Then, without another word, Naomi's hands rapidly formed the signs for her shadow concealing Jutsu. The movements were too quick for anyone to see without the sharingan or byakugan. Asuma was always amazed when he watched her fade into the shadows. It was uncanny how well the Jutsu worked. She was undetectable by everyone unless they knew how to counter it.

After only ten minutes of moving through the forests' shadows, Naomi had yet to see any guards or watch-out ninja. She had seen over three dozen traps though.

There was silence as well when she entered the village shadows. Not a single person was on the streets.

"What the hell?" Naomi whispered.

"Are you in the village?" Asuma's voice crackled in her ear.

Her eyes were scanning everything around her.

"Yes," she replied distractedly, "but Asuma, there's nobody here," she continued in confusion. The village looked as if it had been empty for months.

"What?!" Asuma exclaimed.

Naomi winced as his voice snapped in her ears, too loudly.

"The village is deserted. I don't feel any chakra anywhere. My sharingan isn't detecting any concealed persons. This place has been empty for months, if not years."

Over the earpiece she could hear Asuma muttering and cursing incoherently. Then his speech shifted to conversation with another- one of her comrades she assumed. Silence fell over Naomi as she waited for Asuma's orders.

Finally, Asuma said, "Naomi, get back here immediately." His voice was tight, as if he'd just received bad news- other than the fact that they'd been waiting for a rendezvous that was never going to take place.

Asuma's hands clenched the scroll of paper he's been handed just minutes ago. Naomi had just informed him that the village was deserted. Then, before he could think of anything to be done, Haru had given him a message that the Konoha messenger bird had just dropped in their camp.

Sweat beaded on his forehead. How was he going to tell Naomi? Shakily, he unrolled the paper again in hopes that he'd actually imagined the previous words.

Asuma Sarutobi-

Your team is ordered to return to Konoha Village IMMEDIATELY. The Uchiha clan has been completely massacred. Return the moment this is received.

-Lord Hokage the Third

There was no luck. The message was short but he had not imagined the words. How could it be? The whole clan- massacred? Asuma looked over his shoulder at Haru. Did he have, with him on this squad, the only two Uchihas left? Then, he thought of Naomi again. She was one of his best friends. He didn't know whether her brothers were alive or if she and Haru were alone.

"Asuma?"

His hand clamped down on the paper and crumpled it at the sound of her voice behind him. It took him a moment to compose himself, but once he did, he turned to face Naomi.

"Do you have all of your gear packed?"

She nodded, holding her pack up for him to see. The look in her eyes said that she was compressing the urge to ask what was wrong. Not much got past her.

"Everyone, we're moving out. We'll be in the same formation as our journey here," he said louder for the whole squad to hear. Everyone got to their feet and nodded.

The team was traveling quickly through the forest. They'd made it ten kilometers in silence. Naomi casted glances over to Asuma every few minutes. His features were stony and he wouldn't look back at her.

She was so caught up in that that she hadn't been paying as good of attention as she should have been. As she turned away from Asuma, a flash caught her eye. It was too late though; by the time she realized that it was a trip wire, Yori had gone right through it.

"Everybody get down!" She yelled.

Nobody asked questions, they all dropped from the branches and hit the ground. Naomi had just flattened herself to the ground when five tree tops exploded above them. She winced at the noise and threw her hands over her ears. Fiery leaves, bark, branches and dust rained down around her.

When the explosions finally subsided, Naomi looked up, red eyes searching the dusty air. The haze was against her though- She couldn't see anything with her sharingan.

There!- to her right, three shadows were standing. Naomi got to her feet just in time to dive away from her original spot as shuriken shot toward her. It was almost too late before she noticed the tags attached to them. Without really thinking, she dove away again as the tree behind her exploded from the shuriken.

"Aag!" she yelped as the explosion threw her painfully into the trunk of another tree.

The dust was still too bad for her to see who her attackers were, but a glance to the left made her find Haru sprawled in the bushes. An arm was twisted at a horrible angle, but that wasn't what froze her in place. The thing that got her was the tree limb protruding from his abdomen. His eyes were wide open, the sharingan fading from them. Blood was drying from where it had left his open mouth.

Involuntary tears threatened to escape.

"Haru…" she whispered sadly. Naomi only had time to close her fallen comrades' eyes before she had to dodge another onslaught of, normal his time, shuriken. One clipped her shoulder, leaving a small wound. A hiss escaped her lips. Finally, squatting in the dirt, Naomi got her hand signs up and disappeared into the shadows. Now that the ninja couldn't detect her, she made her way as close as the shadows allowed her.

All three were clad in black robes with red clouds stitched into them. Each had a different village's forehead protector on, but one trend followed each headband. A slash ran across each village's symbol. These had to be the Akatsuki rogues. She couldn't see their faces though.

They seemed to be scanning the forest for her, but she knew they would not find her.

Off, in the distance, Naomi could make out three mockingbird calls. Glancing back at the three rogues, she shot off toward the calls. Where the dust began to clear, Naomi could finally feel the familiar chakras of her other teammates. When they came into full view, she released her Jutsu and appeared in front of them. They jumped at her sudden appearance, but then quickly glanced behind her.

"Have you seen Haru?" Asuma asked urgently.

Fighting tears again, Naomi looked her friend and captain in the eyes.

"Haru is dead. She was impaled by a branch, I assume, from the explosion."

Asuma paled. Then he nodded, "Very well. We must get back to the village."

"Wait, there's more," Naomi said, stopping Asuma from turning away. "I was attacked by three ninja. They were in black and red robes. My guess is that they were members of this Akatsuki group."

His eyes widened. "They're still out there?"

"Yes. I escaped by the shadows."

"We must move then."

Without another word, Asuma turned and shot off toward Konoha. The remaining teammates fell into step behind him. As they went, Naomi healed her cuts and held back her sadness at the loss of Haru.