Chapter 7 Decide
It was well past midnight in the village hidden in the Leaves most people where sound asleep or on patrol, however Naruto Uzumaki couldn't find any rest. He just sat outside a 24 hour connivance store looking at the duel popsicle in his hand. Tears filled his eyes as he remembered Jiriaya breaking one of them during their training mission and giving half it to him. Naruto had no idea what a having a father would be like but to him that wasn't Jiriaya. From the stories he had heard from his friends who had families Jiriaya seemed to be like the uncle who would let you do almost anything but always made sure you where safe in the end. He had learned so much from him, not all of it relating to being a ninja, this was the legendary pervert teaching a teenage boy. Suddenly a sound that wasn't the dripping of the melting popsicle told him someone was coming. He looked into the darkness to see a figure he knew well since it filled his dreams almost every night.
"Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto as his friend, teammate and long time crush appeared out of the darkness. "What are you still doing up?"
"Ah, I just got off duty at the hospital and I forgot to do some shopping." lied Sakura
"You big mouth liar you don't work Wednesday nights and you spent the last couple of hours just working up the courage to talk to your hot friend about his pain." snapped Inner Sakura "And we have all the food we could possibly need at home."
"You don't work on Wednesday nights Sakura-chan." said Naruto as Sakura eyes widened at the fact he knew her work schedule.
"Shizune needed me to help with some test so I came in today." lied Sakura as Naruto nodded his head before looking down at the ground he wasn't in the mood to look into Sakura's cover story any harder than that.
"Well I will not keep you." said Naruto as he expected Sakura to walk away but she didn't in fact she sat down beside him. His heart began to race like it normally did whenever Sakura was around him but this time it seam faster than normal. Maybe it was because Sakura was sitting a little closer than normal.
"You know it is all right to feel sadness and pain, you can't keep it all in." said Sakura "He was your sensie."
"He was more than a teacher, he was like family to me." answered Naruto "He was one of the few people who showed kindness to me right away. Most people who know I have this thing inside me tend to look at me either as a tool or more commonly with hate. Jiriaya didn't look at me like that, he saw me and not a demon."
"You are not a demon Naruto." said Sakura
"Thanks Sakura-chan but sometimes I wonder if my life would have been easier if I had become like Gaara and just closed myself off to all the looks and just became a cold heartless ninja." said Naruto as Sakura eyes widened at the idea of Naruto being like Gaara used to be. "If I had shut down and stopped trying to reach out for friends and just accepted that I would have no friends."
"Naruto, I know I never said this but I am sorry for making fun of you when we were kids." Said Sakura "It was just stupid and I know it isn't an excuse but I was a dumb kid."
"Sakura-chan I never held it against you or anyone our age." said Naruto "Your parents where telling you things."
"What but you just said…." said Sakura
"I know but you where just fallowing your parents lead." said Naruto "They just saw me as a demon, the living embodiment of the creature who took away their family and then there was the fact I was a screwball."
"I hate to admit it Naruto but you pulling all those pranks didn't really help your cause." said Sakura as Naruto nodded his head.
"I know looking back I was an idiot, but no one would pay any attention to me and the only looks I did get where full of hate." explained Naruto "When I pulled those pranks I got looks of frustration instead of hate. To a kid looks of frustration is better than looks of hate."
"Poor Naruto-kun." thought Sakura as she looked at Naruto "He pulled those pranks so that people would look at him with frustration and announce then hate."
"Jiriaya was one of the few people who didn't look at me with hate from the beginning and he also liked my pranks." added Naruto "And now he gone, gone forever."
"Why don't you tell me about him." said Sakura as Naruto looked at her slightly stunned "I don't know much about Jiriaya apart from the few stories from Lady Tsunade, it would be nice to hear about him from a different point of view."
"Don't you need to get your food?" asked Naruto
"It's an all night store…it can wait." said Sakura as she smiled at Naruto as he went on to talk about Jiriaya. Hiding in a nearby wall unseen by anyone was a member of the Akatsuki, the scout of the Akatsuki Zetsu.
"Interesting it looks like the pink haired girl and the Jinchuriki may be a couple." said the white side of Zetsu face
"They are just teammates besides it doesn't matter the Jinchuriki will die when we take the Kyuubi." said Zetsu
Inside the Earth Kingdom Sasuke Uchiha walked down the gangplank of the royal airship that only a few minutes ago had landed at a small fire nation outpost on the coast of the Earth Kingdom. Just in front of him was Princess Azula and behind him where her friends Mai and Ty Lee.
"Princess Azula it is an honor to have you at our humble base." said the commander of the base, his voice shaking in fear of the princess.
"We need your four fastest Mongoose Lizards and we need them now." ordered Azula
"Yes, at once." said the commander as he ran off to get the animals that their princess required.
"I do not need anything." said Sasuke
"You may not need the ride but we do." said Azula "And if you get ahead of us you may run across some trouble with fire nation soldier without us to explain what is going on. My father may like your power but if you harm his soldiers more then you have there may be nothing he can do."
"Besides Mongoose Lizards are the fastest things on four legs." said Ty Lee
"Last sighting of the Avatar came from an outpost only a few hours ride from here." Stated Azula
"Why not go by airship?" asked Mai
"Because they will watch the sky for airships more than they would for a ground attack." explained Azula as the base commander brought four large lizards around. Sasuke studied the strange creature it was maybe 17 feet long covered with black scales with yellow strips. It's yellow eyes looked back at Sasuke.
"Princess Azula do you require anything else?" asked the commander
"For you to get out of the way." ordered Azula as she jumped onto the mongoose Lizard, Sasuke jumped on his own to Azula amazement he seemed to get the handle of the animal with easy.
"Let's get going." stated Sasuke
"I will lead the way." said Azula as four mongooses lizards headed out of the base at high speeds.
It was still dark in the village hidden in the Leaves but the dark sky was already bighting with the coming of the dawn.
"I hate to push you Naruto but Tsunade will want your decision on the whole Avatar thing by sunrise." said Sakura
"What time is it?" asked Naruto
"A little pass five." answered Sakura as she looked at her watch they had been talking for over three hours and yet it didn't feel that long, they had laughed at Naruto's story about his fallen sensei and to Sakura it seemed that her blonde haired teammate was just a little bit happier.
"Wow, I kept you up all night." said Naruto as he shook his head "Sorry."
"Don't worry about it." answered Sakura as she stood up "Why don't we grab some breakfast before we go talk to the Hokage. My treat."
"You aren't going to ask me about what I decided to do?" asked Naruto
"No…" answered Sakura "Whatever you decided I will be fine with, do what you feel is right."
Naruto smiled as he stood up and pulled her into a firm bear hug.
"Thanks for helping me Sakura-chan." said Naruto
"Wow…he smells so great like a mix of wild flowers and fresh pine wood." thought Sakura as fought back some of the more basic ideas that were forming in her head.
"And can you feel those muscles, I am betting he is ripped like a God under that shirt." added Inner Sakura as she enjoyed torching her outer self with ideas that belonged in one of Jiriaya's perverted books.
"Your…welcome Naruto." said Sakura as she thanked God that Naruto couldn't see how much she was blushing.
On a small rocky cliff in the coast of Earth Kingdom it was just past lunch and it was time for Aang's Earth Bending training. It had been decided from sunrise to lunch Aang would focus on fire bending, after lunch he would work on improving his earth bending and he would finish the day with some light water bending training. This schedule meant that while Aang was earth bending with Toph, Zuko was in camp with Katara. Suki and Sokka where off watching for fire nation airships but both Zuko and Katara knew that likely they were making out more than they were watching out for fire nation. That meant Zuko and Katara where alone in camp; however they tended to stay far away from each other. Zuko by the cliff side mediating maybe 20 yards away from him was Katara doing some water bending in a small fresh water stream.
"So Zuko do you think the Fire Nation will find us here?" asked Katara suddenly as Zuko looked at her, it was almost unheard of her to say anything to him that wasn't in the form of a yell or a scream.
"Well, we are along the shipping lane for the Northern Forces but they tend to stay far away from this cliff." said Zuko as he saw the outline of a cargo ship in the distance, they were too far out to know for sure but there was little dough that it was a fire nation ship.
"Why?" asked Katara
"There are a lot of large rocks just below the surface here." answered Zuko "Any but a shallow draft ship would run aground and sink, that means they have to stay out at sea."
"So by sea we are safe." said Katara as she moved some water around her.
"Yes, we need to watch mostly by air and by land." said Zuko "Luckily this area had a major battle seven years ago and most people left for other parts of the Earth Kingdom."
"I see." said Katara
"This also means that it will be one of the first places Azula will look for us." said Zuko as Katara dropped her water and looked at Zuko.
"Then why are we here?" asked Katara
"Because it is the best place that Aang can be trained without being seen by anyone." said Zuko as he looked at Katara "We may not be safe from Azula but the rest of the fire nation army is likely not going to come here."
Before anything else could be said a bolt of lightning filled the darkening sky in the distance, the storm which had been brewing out at sea was coming closer toward the shore. The waves were now crashing loader against the cliff face and the wind started to kick up speed. A light rain had started to fall and it was clear it was raining harder out at sea which was coming ever closer.
"Looks like training will be over for today." stated Zuko as he got up from kneeling as he saw Toph and Aang running from the training ground and Sokka and Suki coming from their lookout spot. Toph quickly bent some earthen walls and a roof around their camp as a shield for them from the storm.
A couple of miles away from the Avatar's camp Azula, Sasuke, Mai and Ty Lee where making camp inside a small cave a strong storm rocked the area forcing them inside. Trees where falling left and right as lightning bolts filled the sky above their heads.
"We can't go any more today." said Azula as she stood beside Sasuke by the opening of the cave. Sasuke didn't say anything he just stood there looking at the pouring rain and the howling wind. He didn't want to admit it but she was right, even ninjas wouldn't go out in this weather. "We will get at it first thing in the morning."
"Very well." said Sasuke as he moved away from the opening and headed toward the fire. He sat down Indian style and just looked into the fire. Azula sat to his right as Mai and Ty Lee found their way across the fire from him. There mongoose lizards where asleep in the back of the cave.
"So…Sasuke do you have anyone waiting for you back home?" asked Ty Lee as the dark haired ninja looked at her from across the burning flames, his black eyes glowed from the light coming from the fire in a way that made her spin shiver in fear.
"No…I only need to kill two people before I can begin my last task of rebuilding my clan." stated Sasuke
"To rebuild your clan you need a wife don't you?" asked Ty Lee
"You are not the type I am looking for." stated Sasuke coldly.
"No…I am not thinking about that." said Ty Lee as she held her hands up defensively
"Why isn't she your type?" asked Azula as she moved some tea around in a small cup. "She isn't that bad looking?"
"It isn't that." answered Sasuke as he looked into Azula's golden eyes with his own. For some reason he didn't know why he liked looking into those golden orbs "She reminds me too much of a weak fan girl who followed me around when I was younger calling me Sasuke-kun. Drove me up the wall with her and the blonde haired one asking me questions, knowing that they were planning dates or weddings in their heads."
"Kun?" asked Mai
"In my world when a girl likes a boy she adds kun to his name, when a boy likes a girl he adds the word chan." explained Sasuke as he crossed his arms
"So Mai would call Zu...Zu, Zuko-kun and he would call you Mai-chan." added Azula as Sasuke nodded his head.
"Correct." answered Sasuke
"Seams kind of pointless and kiddy." added Sasuke
"That is because it is." added Sasuke "It is just something little kids do and most people drop it by the time they become ninjas."
Even though it after lunch in the Earth Kingdom the day was just starting in the Leaf village. Inside the Hokage office the everyone who had been there before gathered to hear Naruto's decision about going to the other world to go after Sasuke.
"So Jiriaya told you that the Pains we ran into was a copy." said Fukasaku slightly confused
"Yes." answered Roku "The real pain is someone named Nagato."
"That brings back memories." said Tsunade as everyone looked at her.
"Who is he?" asked Fukasaku
"He was an orphan that we ran into in Rain country during the last war, Jiriaya took him and two other kids in, I think other two were named was Konan and Yahiko." said Tsunade "To think that little boy turned out to be the leader of the Akatsuki."
"Naruto will need training to defeat him." said Fukasaku
"If we remove the Kyuubi from play would they still come after us?" asked Shizune
"They don't know the Kyuubi is gone so yes they would." answered Tsunade as she looked at the Toad Sage "That raises a question how will you train Naruto in another world?"
"I have a plan for that." said Fukasaku as he looked at the Avatar "I have written down instructions on how to enter sage form and I hope he will be able to summon me to that world so that I can help in person if not he will have to learn on his own."
"I hope you are right because Naruto needs all the help he can." said Tsunade as the door to her office opened as Naruto entered along with Sakura.
"Naruto have you made up your mind?" asked Roku as he looked at the young ninja.
"I am going." said Naruto "I am going to bring Sasuke home."
"If you are sure." said Tsunade
"I am." Stated Naruto
"So am I." added Sakura as Tsunade looked at Kakashi.
"I prepared these for you two, it's full of any supplies that you will need to carry out this mission." said Kakashi as he held out two large backpacks.
"Then we shall leave at once, we need to get you two into the fight at once." said Roku fearing that if Sasuke reached Aang before they did.
Well I hope you liked this chapter, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I ask that you keep on reading. Thanks Wilkins75