Gaara stalked down the streets and narrow alleyways ducking past the industrial workers as they changed shifts from day to night at the ringing of the bell. He was angry. He knew that much, anger was an emotion he easily recognised but he didn't know why, and there was something else. Why was he so angry at Sasuke? Because he didn't trust him?

Of course Sasuke didn't trust him they were taught never to trust anyone, to turn your partner in without batting an eye if you had to and yet, some small part of Gaara, screaming to be heard, was insisting that he had always expected more from Sasuke. After everything they had shared with each other, the odd comments, the talks about family, he had maybe dared to hope that Sasuke trusted him a bit more than that. That maybe they had the potential to be friends.

Gaara stomped down that thought as soon as it floated to the forefront of his mind. He was being ridiculous to even think such things. Ridiculous to even hope that things could be different than just endless missions. Facing anger, tears and depression wherever they went with whichever partner he was assigned to. That's all Sasuke was, an assigned partner, and Gaara had somehow managed to get himself – attached, and that was what was completely ridiculous. He had never done it before, he had even turned over his former partners to interrogation for the slightest comment and Sasuke, he had just let things slide after a while, even said some things that he, himself, could get imprisoned for.

And for what? For nothing. He should have known people always let you down, he had seen it countless times with so-called friend turning against so-called friend. Everyone talked after a few broken bones.

However, despite everything he didn't want that for Sasuke, the interrogation that would come, the questions Gaara would also face. It didn't seem worth it especially as Gaara had no feelings what so ever towards the cause they were supposed to be fighting for. Some of the ANBU officers seemed so passionate about protecting Danzo's regime to the point where it was fanatical, they were determined to root out any problem no matter the cost. Others revelled in the fear and power their position gave them. For Gaara it was just a means to an end and he wondered what Sasuke genuinely thought of what they were doing. All he really knew about the other man was that he took his job seriously and seemed to put some sort of value on people's lives, a strange combination in ANB that was for sure.

He was still angry, but for once he wanted the complete honest to God truth from Sasuke, so he turned on his heel and began stalking back through the streets towards Kurenai's home. He would track his partner from there if he needed to, if Sasuke had already left without him.

Gaara slipped silently through the fairly empty streets. He didn't hide, that brought more suspicions than it needed to and technically he and Sasuke would have a hard time coming up with a reason for being in the town that ANBU would actually accept. Instead he just walked past people as if he belonged in the place and for the most part people didn't question it, pretend you had a right to be there and people assumed you did for the most part, and if he was questioned, well the mood Gaara was in he would happily take the time to rip someone's head off, metaphorically or otherwise.

Gaara was surprised to find the lights still on in Kurenai's home, the few candles he could see through the thin curtains had burnt low but there were hushed voices inside. It looked like he was in luck and Sasuke hadn't left yet and for a moment he felt almost glad before the anger returned again in full force. So he responded the only way he knew how, the way he had been taught. By bursting through the front door, grabbing Sasuke and slamming him to the floor, a tried and frequently tested ANBU technique for getting the upper hand by surprising and disabling the most powerful figure there.

He was surprised once again when Sasuke didn't fight back. He would have known how to escape something like that if he wanted to.

"You're back," Sasuke said instead, wincing slightly at the force Gaara had used to throw him down.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Gaara snarled, ignoring Sasuke. "Why did you lie to me like that? Did you have any idea how I'd feel about that?" Sasuke raised one eyebrow as Kurenai hovered near them, she looked concerned.

"Frankly? No." Sasuke said calmly, "You always say you can't feel, that you don't know how to." That Sasuke used his own words back at his only served to annoy Gaara more. He drew back his fist and punched Sasuke instead of saying anything else and then he pulled away, taking a few steps back from Sasuke who sat up carefully, gingerly touching the part of his jaw Gaara had struck.

"Fine." Sasuke said, his own temper flaring "You're upset, I get that. I lied to you and you're upset but did you really expect me to tell you the truth?"

"I'm not upset." Gaara insisted.

"Oh really," Sasuke hissed, "then why did you leave?" Gaara faltered slightly and Kurenai took the time to cut in.

"We saved you some dinner if you want something," She said stepping between them and placing a hand on Gaara's shoulder, he shook her off.

"I want you to tell me something honestly for once," Gaara demanded and Sasuke just looked at him evenly. "What do you think we're doing here, with all this?" Sasuke sighed and looked away from Gaara.

"I don't know." He said.

"You don't know?"

"No! How am I supposed to know what we're doing anymore, following who ever owned this necklace just seemed right that's all I thought that maybe, I don't know-" He broke off awkwardly.

"Maybe what?" Gaara asked angrily, "Don't stop now just because you might actually tell me the truth for once."

"You're one to talk," Sasuke snapped and he scrambled to his feet and stepped forward, forcing Kurenai to take a few steps back herself to get out of their way. "You say I don't tell you anything, I know nothing about you, you pretend that you don't feel anything! I don't even know what you think but you enjoy what we do, or you did. I read your file when we were partnered up. You specialised in executions. You had a perfect record for finding people and killing them and it was months before I even saw a flicker of anything human in you." Gaara opened his mouth to cut Sasuke off but Sasuke kept going.

"You want honesty? Fine. I've watched my entire family die before me and everyone thought it was strange that I would want to preserve some people's lives, that at first I genuinely thought this would help us, that in the long run ANBU could help protect more people, and what a joke that turned out to be. We just destroy more families and I hate myself for it because we can't stop now, if we do anything else they'll kill us, you know they will" Sasuke snapped and Gaara swallowed thickly. Sasuke was breathing heavily and an almost oppressive silence fell over the room.

Kurenai stood quietly to the side, looking between the two of them, this was something she knew she couldn't get involved with now but she hoped that, somehow, these two strange ANBU operatives would be able to work something out. To be able to admit they were only human and needed other people. After all it was the small changes that mattered, at least according to Asuma, if you could make lots of small changes then they would eventually add up into something bigger, something good. And it was those words of his that was all she had left to hold on to now.

"You hate it." Gaara said flatly and Sasuke nodded jerkily.

"So what?" Sasuke said spreading his hands out in a helpless gesture. "You enjoy it." Gaara looked away a strange and uncomfortable feeling creeping over him. He looked at Kurenai who was watching them with actual concern in her eyes, to the table he could see through the doorway. It was set for three people. She was being completely stupid or naive, to have welcomed them into her home so easily when all they had brought her was bad news and brought all of her friends the threat of death or imprisonment, and yet some part of Gaara was sort of touched by her actions?

"Maybe because I never knew anything else, this is normal for me remember." Gaara said stonily still studying the table. Sasuke would have helped, that much he knew, his partner wouldn't be the type to let a pregnant woman do everything, especially if he felt some guilt for burying the father of her unborn child in some woods in the back end of nowhere.

"Maybe you could still learn?" Kurenai said softly, her voice was hoarse from keeping quiet for so long but in the sudden silence it was loud enough to make an impact. Gaara jerked slightly, involuntarily. "It's still not too late."

Naruto shivered slightly. There was a cold wind blowing through the streets and the alley he had ducked into was fairly open, letting the strong breeze rattle through it easily, momentarily picking up lose boards and planks, rocking them slightly. He was hungry, but he had been hungry the past few days. Recently, he had only really been able to eat odd bits of food and small meals in exchange for some small acts of labour and farm work.

It was difficult for Naruto, not the lack of food, he had gotten used to that. But to keep himself and others safe he found himself constantly lying to the people he met, he was moving, there was no work where he lived anymore, he had come from the other side of the country, yes where all those new factories were meant to be but he couldn't work there, and no he didn't know what it was they were producing, it was still all very hush hush.

He was now fairly far away from Konoha and, for lack of a better thing to do, he had headed in the same direction it looked like the dead man, like Asuma he corrected himself, had come from. So far though, he had come up with nothing. No signs of ANBU, no signs of the so-called Resistance, if they even existed, and so far no one willing to talk to him beyond the typical shallow pleasantries and exchanges and even those were getting few and far between.

Now he found himself in a small outpost somewhere between the edge of the country and the many industrial towns after doing a loop round the area Konoha was situated in. He had listened to people in every place he had been to. Never questioning anybody he just got used to lurking in places listening out for anything people said to one another but every place was just like Konoha, in the fact, everyone was too scared to talk to each other anywhere it seemed. So he had come up with nothing.

Still, Naruto was nothing but optimistic at heart so he at least felt that by being out somewhere looking for something or someone was better than being at home doing nothing. He felt strangely liberated by it all, by being able to do something he wanted to do for a change despite being stuck in the same routine in Konoha. As much as he felt loyal to his hometown, people were trapped in places forced into whatever role Danzo shaped for them at the time whether industrial, working on the farms or in those new factories far to the west that did whatever they did – nobody knew.

He leant back on the wall and sighed. He had to admit that after all this travelling around and finding nothing it was a little disheartening and he was now at a loss of where to try now, what course of action to take. And he began to wonder what he could do to really help people, to try and bring some sort of change for the better. He never thought things through, Naruto smiled almost bitterly, it was something Sakura had always told him, he never thought, he had always acted impulsively, emotionally and previously it had been Sakura who had kept him in check, made sure he didn't speak out of turn or act in a way that could lead to him being taken away.

And now without Sakura with him to curb his impulses he would have to be even more careful, he had always had a talent for getting into trouble but now he was older the tolerance that was given to the ignorance of youth had gone and he was more likely to be regarded with suspicion or reported if he acted out of the norm, if he was too interested, if he asked too many questions. He knew he had to guard his actions and words carefully but part of him wondered if he really cared. Would he be able to intervene if he saw something he thought was wrong, or would he stand to one side and watch it happen as they had all been forced into seeing as the right thing to do?

Naruto supposed he'd have to wait and see.

It turned out he didn't have to wait for long. After he had been standing there for a while, contemplating his next move, watching his breath turn to smoke in the air in front of him Naruto heard some sort of scuffle in the street nearby.

He frowned and listened carefully, there was definitely something going on, he wasn't sure what. After a few moments he thought he could at least make an educated guess as to where the noise was coming from so he pushed himself off the wall and went left. After a while he met a dead end and almost cursed out loud, he should have gone right, although he was now very close to the noises, it sounded almost like a fight, he had reached a dead end and would have to backtrack to work his way round.

There were a few thuds followed by a low groan of pain and Naruto turned to hurry back and find a new way round when something caught his eye. The brick on the surrounding buildings were old, crumbled in places and there were odd pieces missing, enough gaps to make a potential foothold. Without thinking of the consequences, as he had no Sakura to act as his conscience now either, Naruto managed to find a place to grab onto in the brickwork and pull himself up. It was probably hard going, but Naruto didn't notice, and nor would he remember when he came to retell this moment later, but the rush of adrenaline, the excitement he got for actually being able to do something, was enough to help propel him upwards quickly and, in what seemed like no time at all, Naruto hurled himself over the wall.

He landed, stumbling slightly in front of two men, there was a third hunched over wheezing on the floor. Naruto would have like to tell people, when he was retelling this in years to come, that the two men looked shocked or even awestruck by his arrival but their expressions never flickered.

"What do you think you're doing?" Naruto demanded, and his hands shook slightly in a mix of fear and was that eagerness as well. He couldn't say for sure.

"This is none of your business child." One of the men said.

"If you leave now we might forget all about this little incident." Said the other and Naruto bristled as the first man turned to his companion and they began talking over him.

"Will we?" He hissed, "Why don't we just kill him now, teach him a lesson?"

"He won't learn anything dead," The second man said, "if he doesn't go, just break some bones and leave him." Naruto felt a chill go down his spine, there was something really wrong with the way they could talk so matter-of-factly about this. Still, he tried to steal his nerves.

"You didn't answer me," Naruto said, and he was pleased that the anger kept his voice steady, "so I'll ask you again, what the hell do you think you're doing?" The two men smirked and the taller of the two stepped forward.

"We'll look what we have here," He said, "A cocky little brat who wants to play with the grown-ups."

Naruto glared at him and glanced back at the older man behind him, he was breathing awkwardly, clutching at his ribs and there were patches of blood visible on his clothes, and those were growing in size as he kept bleeding.

"How dare you?" Naruto shouted, and he lunged forward fist raised at the man who mocked him earlier. The man took a step back, raising his arm so Naruto's blow was deflected and he stumbled, overbalancing, and all it took was for the man to give him a shove from behind for Naruto to go sprawling on the floor. He and his companion just laughed as Naruto picked himself back up off the ground.

Naruto turned round, angrier than before. He could do this, he assured himself, straightening and then turning around to face the same man again. He had gotten into fights when he was younger, much younger, with boys older than him who had found some fun in either teasing him or Sakura. He had learnt persistence and endurance from those scraps in Konoha and often he had walked away, bloody, bruised but successful. And now this was one fight he knew he couldn't afford to lose.

So he took a few steps closer to him, remembering a distantly a comment Tsunade had made when she had been patching him up one time. He had ran too obviously at his opponent then, as he had just now, and she said anyone could see his punch coming a mile off. He edged closer to the man, who was still smirking at him, and drew back his arm widely to aim for his head again, the man caught his arm once again, easily, but missed the other fist that followed that Naruto aimed for his stomach, ramming it in hard and hearing some satisfaction from the way the man's breath faltered on impact and the faint look of surprise of his face.

"Oh, you are going to regret ever doing that." His partner said taking a step forward and Naruto hastily tried to put some distance between them.

"Wait," The other man gasped, "Leave it to me Zaku." Zaku snorted but still backed away from Naruto, then he spotted the older man who had gotten up without any of them noticing and way trying to stagger away.

"Hey," Zaku said and in what looked like a flash he was by the other man and had apparently struck him to the floor. Naruto shifted uncomfortably, he hadn't even seen the man move or go to hit the man. He suddenly wondered what he had gotten into, and realised why ANBU were so feared across Fire Country, these men, they didn't even seem human.

The unnamed man appeared in front of Naruto, moving a lot faster than he had before, and Naruto stumbled backwards a few steps, realising that earlier the man had been only toying with him. Naruto swallowed, he had done it again, his rashness had gotten him into trouble and this time Sakura wasn't there to pull him out of it. He had to deal with this himself.

Naruto studied the other man thoughtfully, now Naruto wasn't attacking he was standing casually waiting for Naruto's next move. Naruto dashed forward and feigned right before moving quickly to the left and brought his arm up to slam it into the man's head, catching him round the side of his face, making his ears ring and while he was unbalanced Naruto slammed his elbow into the back of the other man's head.

He could do this, Naruto thought grimly, but as Naruto brought his leg up to strike the man he caught it, stopping Naruto in his tracks and yanking his leg to pull him off balance. Naruto stumbled to the floor and the man took this advantage to kick him in the ribs. Naruto coughed slightly as he was struck again and again.

He could do this, Naruto thought again, if he could get up he could try again. Naruto shifted so he could block the next kick and lashed out with his feet to try and trip the man up. He almost succeeded and managed to stagger to his feet, ready to strike again when his partner stepped in.

"Let me do this Dozu," Zaku said and Naruto gulped. But he tried to hide it, and steeled himself for the next onslaught.

"No," Dozu said, his eyes glinting maliciously, "I can finish this little runt." Zaku ignored him and stood next to his partner and Naruto had the chilling realisation that even if he managed to evade one of them the other would probably get to him anyway.

Still, that didn't mean that he wouldn't go down without a fight and if he had taken some of their time to spare the other man then Naruto was at least content that he would at least have tried to do something good. Naruto paused for a moment before recklessly throwing himself at Dozu, reasoning that after the few hits Naruto had gotten in that that man was the marginally weaker of the two.

He reeled backwards, struck by- he didn't know who and was hit again. He fell and braced himself to get up again as Zaku raised his fist again and then froze. Next to him Dozu had vanished and Naruto saw that he had somehow been ripped away from his companion and had been thrown into a wall.

"Heh," Zaku said, now looking unperturbed that his partner had been cast aside so easily. "I knew this would happen, you start hunting around hard enough and one of you Resistance bastards always turns up."

"You mean because you always beat an innocent person into confessing to be one of us," Someone said stepping out of the shadows, and Naruto frowned, he recognised that voice. "Your methods of finding us are really good in that respect are they?" It was Kiba. Naruto felt a sudden wave of relief, he had found them, or rather they had found him.