Sasuke ushered his dark chess set through the door, which had been opened by his only servant, of the large mansion that he owned. "Thank you Iruka-san," he said as he moved by him.
"Wow!" Naruto gasped as he looked the room in awe. "This is so nostalgic."
"What?" asked Sasuke.
"I 'aven't ben anywhere dis big since my da' died," said Naruto. "It looks like my own home, but I'll neva see dat place again."
"Come on Naruto," Gaara held out his hand to him. "Let's go explore our new home." Naruto nodded and took Gaara's hand as, together, they walked through the huge house."
"I see you found a set," said Iruka from behind him as they both watched the 15 new people explore his house.
"Yea," said Sasuke. "They'll be the death of me." After a moment's pause and a crash in the living room he had a second thought. "Actually, they'll be the death of you. You should hire some people to help you."
"I'm sure I can manage," Iruka smiled.
There was another crashing sound in the living room and Sasuke looked at Iruka with a pitying look. "Are you sure?"
The only answer Iruka gave was to laugh before rushing into the living room to prevent any more damage. Sasuke followed at a slower pace. He didn't care much about any of the things in the living room as long as they go cleaned up afterwards. Nothing was precious to him. Everything that was was in storage.
He sat on his very comfortable couch and waited for someone to notice him. It didn't take long before Naruto had plopped next to him and said, "I'm hungry." Immediately there was a unanimous agreement from the rest of the group as they all sat down in various seats.
"Iruka?" Sasuke asked. Iruka wasn't the best cook, but he was all Sasuke had after his last cook was fired for trying to poison him. He had been lucky that one of his servants had been punished without dinner and had decided to steal some of his own. Otherwise, he would be dead right now.
"Chouji will do it," Naruto said. Chouji nodded and before either Sasuke or Iruka could protest he was heading towards the kitchen. "Chouji's de best cook I eva met," said Naruto. "'e can make anythin' ya ask fer and if 'e's neva made it before, 'e just has to try a bite and den 'e can know every ingredient and exactly 'ow ta make it."
"Naruto," said Kakashi with his normal eyes smile as he moved to sit as close to Iruka as he could. "We have to talk about Gatou. We have to go there soon before they starve to death."
"Dat's true," Naruto muttered thoughtfully. "I guess we shuld go soon."
"How are we gonna get there?" asked Kiba.
"We're going to walk," answered Kakashi. "That's why we have to leave so soon."
"We have to walk!?" whined Kiba.
"Yes," said Gaara in a way that told Kiba to shut up.
"Fine," Kiba slouched into his seat with the lost word said.
"I think we shuld leave tomorrow," Naruto said. "Dat way we 'ave some time ta rest and recover our strength."
"Recover my strength!" yelled Kiba jumping off the ground. "I don't need to recover my strength."
"Oh," said Sasuke with a smirk. "I guess you don't need dinner or a soft bed to sleep on." At that moment Kiba's stomach growled in protest and he sat down in silence. "I agree with Naruto," Sasuke said. "It's better to travel during the day and if we leave now it'll be dark within the hour."
It took them almost 3 day to reach the run down village. "This is worse than I thought," Naruto said sadly. "It's like a ghost town."
"They're all watching us," said Neji without looking around.
"Are dey afraid'a us?" asked Naruto.
"I wouldn't doubt it," said Sasuke. "By what I heard they've been treated really badly by underground chess sets even before Gatou came."
"Oh," said Naruto. "It's a good thing we came ta save 'em."
"We have to win the match first," muttered Gaara.
"You're not welcome here," yelled an old man as he stood a few feet in front of them, "We don't want you here. Leave."
"Don't ya wannna get rid'a Gatou?" asked Naruto.
"We don't want another underground chess set here. It'll only lead to more death and destruction."
"But if we leave dere'll be even more of it," said Neji. "You culd at least take de chance of us actually 'elping ya."
"We're fine," the old man said. "When the bridge is finished we'll be able to get to the mainland and we'll be well again."
"Until Gatou puts a tole on your bridge and posts guards to kill anyone who doesn't pay," said Sasuke.
"We've ben travellin' fer three days," Naruto stepped forward. "At least let us stay de night."
The man growled. He was just about to decline when a younger woman stepped out into the open and said, "I own an inn. Why don't you stay there for the night?"
"Tsuname!" the man gasped.
"I will not be uncivil," she glared at the man. "Just because Gatou has taken over this town does not make us monstrous creatures who won't even welcome guest." She turned back to them and said, "Please follow me."
They made their way quickly to the biggest building in the town.
"This is our humble abode," said Tsuname. "We only have ten rooms at the moment. I hope that's okay."
"They should just leave," growled the old man.
"Ten rooms will be fine," said Naruto. "We can just share. Right guys?"
There was a unanimous yes from the whole group and Naruto smiled at the woman. "Culd ya show us to our rooms?"
"Of course," Tsuname smiled. "If you'll just follow me."
Sasuke rolled his eyes knowing that Naruto probably hadn't thought anything about the price. Luckily he was rich and he would be able to afford anything. "How much are the rooms," he asked knowing that he would be the one paying for all of them.
"Oh don't worry about it," said Tsuname. "I'm just glad to have guests visiting." Sasuke could tell that she was actually happier about them saying that they wanted to get rid of Gatou. Not that he blamed her. Gatou was a sick man and this village needed to get rid of him fast.
Sakura and Ino took the first room. Then Kakashi took a room to himself. Kiba quickly ushered Hinata into the third room. Shino took the next one to himself because nobody wanted to share one with him. Shikamaru and Temari shared the fifth room. Chouji took the sixth room. Gaara and Neji took the seventh and Kankurou and Ten Ten took the eighth. Lee rushed into the next room, which left Naruto and Sasuke to share the last room.
here's the next chapter. i'll post the one after this one on saturday unless i get 5 comments before then