Yeah, here I am again. I hope none of your forgot about me. x''D It's been long, yes I know. But I watched and read D.Gray-Man, which I completely adore now, and I'm currently watching Shaman King. So I've been busy. But here is another chapter.

It's the usual... Sorry for any mistakes I might've missed, and I don't own any characters from Naruto (The OC's doesn't count in there, duh).

Chapter 8: "Help decided by faith"

Sakura and Sasuke walked in to a bar in the far east of the village, just by the wall. They sat down in front of the owner. He was cleaning a glass. The bar looked poor, the furnitures were bad and looked like they could fall apart at any moment. Sakura also noticed that the towel he used to clean the glass wasn't something you could call clean, althought it wasn't that dirty. The prices were surprisingly low and were evidence that no one in the village was really whealthy. Sasuke looked around, the bar was nearly empty.

Good, he thought and leaned over to talk to the owner.

"I don't like to take things slow," he said, "so I'm going to get straight to the point. Do you know someone named Hamero Hutaku?"

The man stopped in his cleaning and stared at Sasuke, who raised an eyebrow.

"It would be smart of you not to mention that name in this village," the man said so quiet that Sasuke barely heard him. "His name is forbidden to be mentioned. Why are you looking for him?"

Sasuke shrugged. "It's for a friend. Do you know where he is?"

The man shook his head. "As for as I know, not even the Mizukage do. You should give up. If you ask the wrong person, you could get tossed in jail."

Sasuke gave up a sigh. It looked like this mission was going to get harder then they thought. He closed his eyes deep in thoughts. Sakura ordered something to drink for them.

After a few minutes Sasuke opened his eyes again. He looked into the bar owners eyes and activated the Sharingan. He wanted to make sure that the man really didn't know where Hutaku was, and he found out he didn't lie about anything. He drank up the water Sakura ordered and stood up.

"We're leaving. I want to talk to the others."

He grabbed Sakura's hand and hurried out. "Why are we in such a hurry?" She asked him curiously.

"He said that if you ask the wrong person you can get tossed in jail," Sasuke answered. "We need to find Naruto."

Sakura nodded and they picked up the pace. Damn it, Sasuke thought. If only we had Akamaru.

Naruto and the others had been walking the streets for quite a while. None of them really had any interest in bars so they searched for something else. Naruto made small marks on some places in case Sasuke and Sakura had to find them. He just had this strange feeling that they would need to. Sai painted the village in his own impression of it, and if you looked at it you got really downcast, so Naruto and Kiba paid no attention to his painting. Then Naruto spotted a small stand were you could get some sweets. He stopped and pointed as he grinned. Kiba nodded and Sai put away his sketchpad. They were just about to go inside when they heard Sasuke.

"Hey, Na..." He didn't say the whole name. "Come over here."

That was close, he thought.

Naruto sighed. What does he want now? He asked himself, a little annoyed.

Kiba and Sai grabbed Naruto's arms and pulled him over to Sasuke. "What is it?" Kiba asked. Sasuke lowered his voice.

"I just asked someone that owned a bar if he knew Hutaku," he said. "He said we shouldn't ask around about him. If you ask the wrong person, you can get tossed in jail."

Kiba and Sai widened their eyes. "Why?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "He didn't say that, but we shouldn't take the risk. We have to rely on the Rookies." Naruto swore.

"However," Sasuke continued, "he also said that no one knew where you could find him. Maybe you just can't find him."

Naruto widened his eyes. No way, there has to be someone, he thought in frustration.

Back with the Rookies

"You want to tell me everything?" Shoraku said and raised an eyebrow. The Rookies nodded.

She looked at the dog. "Akamaru, huh? The dog of the feared tracker Inuzuka Kiba."

"Feared?" Akamaru said, a bit surprised "So he's feared here? Interesting."

Shoraku smiled a little. "If this is Akamaru, I'm guessing you are Konoha ninja, right?"

"Yes, we are," Shora said. "We're here on a mission to find a man named Hamero Hutaku. But since we're just Rookies, we didn't get much information."

"Hamero Hutaku? How do you know about him?"

"Hokage-sama just want him to come to our village for some reason," Shora said and shrugged. "If you want more information, we can always go to the others."

"Listen, I can help you. Just lead me to the others and we'll go out of this village. It's not safe here for Konoha shinobi, they might as well notice you soon. Hurry!"

Akamaru told the Rookies to jump on him. He searched for a familiar smell.

"This way," he said and ran towards his owner. Shoraku followed close behind.

Naruto and the others were discussing what to do when they heard a bark. Kiba glanced backwords and grinned. Akamaru slowed down and Kiba hugged him.

"It's amazing how much you can miss your best friend," he said, overjoyed.

Sasuke noticed Shoraku. "Who did you guys meet?" He asked and glared at her.

"This is a Mist Village Jounin who saved us before," Shora explained. "From a gang of thieves. We could've gotten out ourselves, but we're here in secret, right?"

Shoraku waved a little. "So you're Kiba? You're well known around here." Kiba stood up with a raised eyebrow.

Sasuke sighed. "I told you guys to just follow shinobi around, not talk to them."

Kino lost his temper, that he had been trying to keep in for a long time. What Sasuke said made it flow over the edge.
"At least ask before you say..." Naruto put his hand over Kino's mouth.

"No need to loose your temper, little guy," he said.

Onaru started to explain. "We didn't plan to, but Akamaru said that she might be someone to trust. Shora decided that since he's a highly skilled nin-dog, we can trust his judgement."

Sasuke glanced at Akamaru, who nodded. "Fine then," Sasuke said and shrugged.

"We should get out of here," Shoraku said. "You guys aren't really unknown."

Sakura nodded. "That's what we thought," she said. "Maybe it won't take long until somebody notice us."

Shoraku asked them to follow her out of the village, since she was supposed to go on a mission today anyway.

Shoraku and the others walked past the guards at the gate after they had eaten at noon. They stopped her.

"Why are you leading travellers out of the village?" He asked. "And I have a strange feeling I've seen them before."

Naruto grinned at Sasuke, who answered with a small smile.

"I'm going out on my mission right now," she answered. "I don't see any problems with them following me. They're done with their business here and are going back to their village. Do you mind that I help them?" She glared at the guard.

He backed off a little. "No, not at all." He scratched the back of his head. "You just go ahead."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Do they fear her? He asked himself, but he didn't say anything.

They followed her out of the village

She stopped when they were out of the guards sight.

"Ironically, my mission is to kill Inuzuka Kiba."

"What the hell?" Kiba yelled and put his guard up.

Akamaru growled and Sasuke drew his sword. Shoraku laughed

"Don't worry," she said. "I don't want to. I never planned to either. It's so unnecessery when we're at peace."

Kiba sighed in relief and Akamaru got quiet.

But Sasuke glare at her. "How can we trust that?" He asked with an accusing tone. "It's not like a Jounin is stupid enough to attack this many at the same time."

Shoraku just stood there and shook her head. "You're jumping to conclusions," she said calmly. "I know this man Hutaku. I can help you find him. I'm the only one who can help you."

Sasuke still didn't trust her. Naruto stepped in front of her.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, "move away."

Naruto shook his head. "Listen Sasuke," he said. "She is our only option right now. It's like faith brought her to us. I promised Gaara to help him, and you know I don't go back on my word. This might be our only chance to find the last person from the Hamero clan."

Sasuke looked like he was being pulled between logic and trust, but he realised that Naruto was right. He put back his sword on the back and gave up a sigh.

"Fine," he said. "But I'm watching you."

He pointed at Shoraku, who shrugged. "Why are you looking for him? You said that you promised to help Gaara. He's the Kazekage, right?"

Naruto nodded and faced the kunoichi.

"We need someone that can control snow, to get back the Ichibi that has belonged to the sand for centuries," Sakura explained. "Gaara-kun said in a letter he sent Master Tsunade that if another village get their hands on the Ichibi, the Sand is done for."

Shoraku nodded. "That is true. Unfortanatly you are a bit late."

"Late for what?" Naruto asked with worry.

"The Mizukage has already found out about the Shukaku. He's looking for this man too."

Naruto couldn't help that he swore. Sasuke noted she didn't end Mizukage with sama, which meant she had no respect for him. And that was a good sign

"I overheard a conversation between the Mizukage and the best Jounin in the village, Houkaku, a few weeks ago," she continued.

Flashback

Shoraku was on her way to knock on the Mizukage's office door when she heard him mention the Shukaku.

"I didn't find out until now," he said, "but a reliable source told me that a few weeks before Akatsuki was defeated they extracted the Shukaku out of the Hidden Sand's Kazekage. As you know the Kazekage is still alive, but that was thanks to the Sand's elder Chiyo. That source also told me the location where the Shukaku is sealed, but there is a problem. We need to find Hamero Hutaku in order to take control over the Shukaku ourselves."

"So you're giving me the mission to find this man?" Houkaku asked.

"That's right. It won't be easy though. He has stayed hidden for over twenty years. As for as I know, nobody knows where he is. But failure is not an option. If we find the Shukaku and make our own Jinchuuriki we can destroy the Sand Village with minimum effort."

Shoraku thought that was enough to hear, and she knocked on the door.

End of flashback

Naruto clenched his fists.

"I informed Hutaku about this, and he's been moving around a little since," she finished.

"How can you know him?" Kiba asked.

The Kazekage? Shora thought. They are doing all this for the Kazekage? Seriously, Konoha cares too much about others. Hokage-sama should worry more about our village.

"I don't have the same abilities as him," Shoraku answered Kiba, "but he's my father."

Everyone dropped their jaw. "I've hidden that fact by changing my clan name. But I've always been my father's source in this village. I would've left this village a long time ago if he didn't need me. I hate the Mist Village and anything that has to do with it."

Naruto glanced at Sasuke, who rolled his eyes like he was saying: "Fine. I guess we have to trust her." Naruto grinned.

"Why don't you come with us back to Konoha?" He asked Shoraku, who widened her eyes. "If your father comes with us, he won't need you in the Mist anymore."

When he said that she realised it was true, and she felt relieved. She had been in Konoha once, and she loved that village. The thought that she might be able to live there filled her with joy.

She smiled. "Can I really do that?" She asked without hiding her happiness. "Do Konoha just accept new shinobi like that?"

Naruto shrugged. "Tsunade-Obaa-chan hasn't had anything against that before. But we really need to find your father."

Oh, right, she thought. She had forgotten that for a moment. She nodded.

"Follow me." The Konoha ninjas took off their traveller clothes. The Rookies then sat up on Akamaru before they sped off into the forest.

Houtaku, who had managed to hide his smell even for Kiba, had been watching them. He grinned.

"I knew I had seen the faces of those "travellers" before," he said to himself. "And who thought that you, Shoraku, could be Hutaku's daughter. Looks like this is my lucky day. I get the chance to kill five of Konoha's most skilled young Jounins on one mission. And not only that, one of them is the last of Konoha's most feared clan, Uchiha Sasuke."

Near the Hidden Village of Rock

Kankurou and Temari stood on the road looking at the gate into the Rock Village. They had gotten there surprisingly fast. They didn't understand how they managed to do that. Temari had been in deep thoughts the whole jorney and Kankurou had a hard time to discuss what they would tell the leader of Deidara's clan, Kakumoto, named after the tailed beast, Kaku, that use clay. Kankurou started to walk towards the gate and dragged Temari back to reality. She shook her head and walked after him.

They entered the village. They didn't have to sneak in, since this village was different from the Mist. They didn't fear people with advanced bloodline limits the same way the Mist did. Kankurou looked around.

"A huge building with the sign for "clay" on the roof," he said to himself.

He then noticed it. It was the biggest building after the Tsuchikage building. He pointed at it. Temari nodded and they started to walk towards it.

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