Meh, short chapter. Two days from now: Turkey day!! (aka: Thanksgiving)

disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but the other stuff is mine. Including my (now empty) bottle of rum...


The sun rose to brighten the morning fog in the forest. Naruto and Hinata had taken to camping deep in overgrown areas, as it provided relative protection from prying eyes as well as serving as a more docile reminder of their former home in the east. Hinata was the first to wake from the sun's dulled light; she had always been sensitive to light in terms of slumber.

The single tent the couple shared was somewhat cramped seeing as how it was never intended for two occupants. The Hyuuga could only wonder why Naruto never got in the habit of carrying his own portable shelter during the majority of his travels. When she pried open her sleepy eyes, she was surprised to find her compact pillow had hardened. And smelled differently…

A thought hit her and she jolted her eyes downward to find that she wasn't lying on her comforter at all, but rather a muscled chest slowly rising and falling with a steady breath. She instinctively panicked and tried to sit up, only to discover that her sleeping bag had transformed into a pair of familiar tattooed arms that held her down. She registered that she was trapped against the blonde red-eye, albeit pleasantly, and decided to settle for letting him wake on his own. After about ten minutes of somehow declining bliss (he had worked up a real sweat on the stage the previous night), she started stroking him on the head to rouse him.

He let out a grunt as he lifted his head. "Huh?" He said groggily as his red and blue eyes adjusted to the light of day. "Mornin'. Wait…" His recently awoken mind discovered their unordinary position. "What?" Was all he could manage to ask.

"Morning," she replied quietly. "Mind letting me go?"

He complied while taking a few deep whiffs of the air. "Do I really stink that bad?" He asked with humor lining his voice.

"You do!" She responded with sarcastic amusement as she rose to her feet. She felt a minor surge of blood rush to her head when she noticed that Naruto hadn't moved from his designated spot all night. "Well, breakfast?" She inquired simply.

"You bet," he pulled himself to his feet, bones throughout his body popping as he stretched out.

Hinata undid the zipper to the foldable shelter and stepped outside to be met by the seemingly bored yet curious faces of the four newcomers.

"Wow," Suigetsu started with mischief in his voice. "You two either sleep like rocks or you sure know how to keep it quiet." He was immediately bonded with a fist.

"Shut your filthy mouth!" Karin yelled as she pounced on her watery teammate. "Get your mind out of the gutter!"

"You were thinking the same damn thing you… ouch!" Suigetsu took his beatings rather well.

Hinata looked blankly at Sasuke. "Are they always like this?"

He nodded tiredly. "Every waking moment…"

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The group of easterners continued along the roadside, Naruto leading them towards their unknown destination. Sasuke and his squad had grown more comfortable with the disdain the blonde possessed towards them and began trailing not as far behind as a result. Karin broke the silence to inquire their intended location rather than begin another verbal battle with Suigetsu.

"Hey Uzumaki," she called to his back, "Where we headed?"

"South," he replied simply. He obviously wanted nothing to do with his followers.

"What kind of…!"

"Are you meeting up with more of your comrades?" Juugo interrupted his hotheaded team member.

"Yeah. In fact," Naruto seemed to respond better to the large man's dull sincerity. "We're headed to the country just south of this one."

"Why there?" Hinata became interested.

"Well, bit of a long story…"

"We've got lotsa time."

"If you insist…" He turned to face the Hyuuga by his side. "Not all red-eyes are situated in this country. Actually, they're located all over the continent, but the largest populations are located in this nation and the ones to the north, south, and east."

"Is there a reason for that?"

"Well, sorta." He scratched his head and grinned. "I'm not really too sure myself, but as far as I can tell, it's rooted in history."

The blue haired woman cocked her head. "How so?"

"Each country has a different history of its people, so the red-eyes in each one reflect that past. Each nation has different types of specialist red-eyes. Does that make any sense?"

"Sort of…"

"Okay. The north is well known for its ancient families of demon slayers, so the majority of my comrades there are demon slayers and swordsmen. The country in the east is where Master Sünden resides with the family of his apprentice."

"Which family?"

"The Zersvampirie family. They're vampires."

Everyone stopped for a split second. "What?!"

"Well, yeah… Vampires do exist. All the myths and legends you hear about them are really exaggerated, but they're still pretty powerful. Especially the 'True Bloods'…"

Hinata shook her head. "Alright, what about this country?"

"Ah, this one has the highest concentration of soldier specialists. Most of my comrades here were soldiers before becoming one of us or were trained similarly to the military."

"And what about the south?"

"The southern country is really large. It reaches all the way to the Solan Cape that leads to the ocean. That country has a ton of commerce and goods going through, so my comrades there have a huge mix of abilities they collected from all over the place."

A map flashed in Hinata's mind. If said country reached from this nation to the cape, then it was easily twice the size of Uzi's current 'homeland'. "We're not traveling all the way down, are we?"

"Nah, nah…" he laughed the idea away. "Sheila's coming close to our border to meet us."

"Who?!" Hinata didn't check her unexpected jealousy swiftly enough.

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A massive pitch black room sat in perfect silence. The air was stale and cold; sealed off from the outside world. The tranquility of the chamber was suddenly broken by the shuddering arrival of nine figures, or at least images of them.

The man with bizarre eyes containing multiple rings was the first to vocalize his thoughts. "Itachi, Kisame," he addressed the familiar outlines of the rogue ninja. "How is your hunt for Naruto Uzumaki progressing?"

"We've run into some trouble," the fish man explained, "But it shouldn't be a problem. We'll take care of it."

"Itachi," the authoritative phantom commanded, "This is your target. Why haven't you moved against him yet?"

"Uzumaki has proven himself a formidable opponent against any enemy to encounter him. His strength has grown beyond what we have expected and his techniques are… unusual."

"Explain."

Itachi gave a detailed description of his observation of Uzi's performance at Hive City. He also included every possible aspect he noticed that could pertain to the blonde's power as well. At the end of his extensive report, the towering ghost of a leader nodded.

"I see. His powers may have changed, but he is still vital to our plans. Capture him when you have a chance."

The older Uchiha nodded in acknowledgement. As soon as received his unchanged orders, his image blurred away, Kisame following closely behind.

The leader of the infamous Akatsuki organization turned towards the darkness of the room to face two figures that sat in utter silence, per his orders. "If they fail," he spoke without emotion, "You two can take their place. Do you want the positions should they offer themselves?"

One figure began jumping up and down. "Ooh, ooh! Yes, yes! I wanna be in!"

"Calm yourself, Tobi." The haloed eyes shifted their gaze towards the other massive shadow. "And you?"

The phantom made no remark; its form merely dipped slightly as its head nodded.


DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUN

Who could this shadowed figure be?!!! You'll find out in a long time from now.

I've officially decided: I'm going to sequelize (sp?) this story once I finish up the current plotline. So look forward to many awesome (an 'meh') chapters and another story in the future! (Note: I might be talking about the next story now, but make no mistake: this one is still far from over!!)

Uhh... updates, right. Might do one tomorrow, not sure though. Thursday, forget it; Thanksgiving at my uncle and aunt's house. Friday, toss up; staying the night at said house (drinks will be consumed... and I live farther away than I care to risk driving after said drinks). Saturday, might start picking up my normal pace again (which seems to be one a day. Damn...)

Catch ya'll later!