Hi again, a little shorter this time around. Perhaps you could call this a filler, but I wanted to slow down some of the pace again, and let the heroes recollect themselves and think on what's happening and what's to come. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Konohamaru awoke staring at a cracked ceiling sporting only a meagre light bulb. Groaning, he attempted to rise up and gain a better view of his surroundings. His body didn't want anything to do with that desire. Letting out a sharp gasp of pain, he dropped himself back onto the ground, and lifted his head to see his chest covered in bandages, along with his arm and leg.

Of course, the fight.

"Hanabi!" He cried. What had happened to her? Did Deidara get her? Did she manage to bring him here? Where was here?

Turning to the wall, he heard several sets of footsteps swiftly approach. Tensing for a moment, Konohamaru momentarily toyed with the idea that his foe may have captured him, and that whoever would enter the room now was going to be the guards.

Such worries were unfounded; however, as the first to enter the room was the girl he had called out for.

Eyes widened, mouth gaped open, sparkles glittering out of his adoring irises, the young Genin didn't care if it caused him pain; he leapt from his bed and towards the face that made everything feel so much better.

Hanabi bore witness to another side of Konohamaru – a side of intense love and adoration, the likes she never thought a man could ever harbour inside his heart. Completely taken aback, Hanabi couldn't believe that the young boy had felt this way all the way through their journey. The look of affection beaming from the boy's face seemed to fix itself inside her mind, she couldn't help but feel him quite cute. Konohamaru seemed to float through the air towards the one who could bring him comfort.

"…they get like this, sometimes…" Came a depressed voice from behind Hanabi.

"BOSS!" Screamed Konohamaru, with tears so fierce it was as if Konohamaru's eyes were floodgates, that had just been ripped apart.

Grasping onto his beloved hero, the two began to bellow with love, pride and admiration for one another.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE HERE!" Konohamaru sobbed.

"I KNOW, I KNOW, EVERYTHINGS OKAY NOW! I'M HERE FOR YOU!" Naruto Uzumaki's tears as intense as his friend's.

Hanabi took back everything she had just thought about Konohamaru looking quite cute. This was…demonically disturbing. She felt a reassuring hand fall on her shoulder, and turned to see a resigned Sakura look through the two loving young men.

"This should go on for a about another twenty seconds or so, let's go back to the dining room." She nodded to the door. Hanabi was all too eager to agree and leave the two lovers alone.

On her way back through the corridor, Hanabi could still hear the excruciating sobs from the two boys, and couldn't help but wonder if any nearby residents thought the ninja here were torturing someone, in the most obscene way.

Hanabi had to admit that she felt rather 'suffocated' and undermined by the appearance of these Leaf Shinobi. Off the four, only Naruto Uzumaki stood out in her mind; that being his constant pranks and antics spread across the village, his place in her sister's heart, and that 'fluke' in the Chunin exams against her cousin. As for Sakura Haruno, she'd heard the name a few times; as a student of Tsunade. As for the other two, she'd never even seen their faces before. The squad leader, Yamato, was 'plain' – a trait she actually admired for a man who would have frequently been employed for espionage. The boy, Sai, was rather off-putting – with every word he uttered during their conversations seemingly premeditated and analysed before he even spoke them. She tried to tell herself that she should be honoured to have been helped by a team usually lead by Kakashi Hatake, but it was hard to respect them, when they seemed to have shown her so little. Upon taking them into the town below the forest, Hanabi was interviewed by Yamato, whom made her describe every detail of her journey right up until he found them. Hanabi followed these instructions obediently, as if she would have if her father had given them, but felt rather cheated when she was told to leave the room and sleep. Yamato, Sai and Sakura seemed to immediately decide that it was better for Hanabi to sleep, and that she would reveal any information to them the following morning. Having so much buzz around in her head, she couldn't simply rest yet, and since the mission and all its details were hers and Konohamaru's responsibility, why should she have to allow these newcomers to take over all operations?

Barging back into the room, Hanabi laid her hands onto the table and demand to know what was going to be done about the Deidara imposter.

"Go to sleep, we'll formulate a plan on inform you of any assistance you may be to us." Sai responded.

"'Go to sleep'! I am a Konohagaukre Kunoichi whom received this mission directly from the Fifth Hokage herself; I have a right to be a part of this!" She yelled, over the still apparent sobbing down the hall.

"You did, but since your encounter with the assassin, I have to say that ninja of more experience should now be deployed, i.e. us. Now go to your bed." Yamato ordered, leaning against the wall, as a kettle begins to boil next to him.

Hanabi growled, who did this guy think he was?

"I am an honoured member of the Hyuuga clan, one of the most prestigious families our village has ever harboured, trained in the arts of the Gentle Fist and full mastery of the Kekkei Genkai the Byakugan, mind your manners in front of me!" Hanabi hissed. She wasn't having a commoner such as this talk down to her.

The kettle began to whistle louder.

"Hey, don't talk to Captain Yamato like that!" Sakura retorted, out of her seat at the table, but stopped when Yamato raised a hand gesturing her to settle herself down. Hanabi turned to the Kunoichi, and felt even more insulted.

Steam began to rise from the kettle.

"I'd have thought since you trained under someone so great as our Hokage, that you'd have a little more control over your emotions, I appear to be sadly mistaken," Hanabi spat, "Yeah, you sit down like a good girl."

"Yeah, because you're such a good example of controlling your emotions, Miss Hyuuga." Yamato laughed, lifting the tea and pouring a cup out. Hanabi glared back at the captain.

The glare immediately subsided, however, as the Captain – instead of crossing the room to give her a cup – placed it on the wooden cabinet, which produced a long branch of wood, carrying the cup over to her. Gasping as the wood continued to extend, Yamato cheerfully gestured for her to take the cup.

"You're not the only person in the world with a Kekkei Genkai, Milady, so I wouldn't use that as an excuse to outline superiority. As for the importance of your mission, let it be known each member of this squad receives missions directly from the Hokage," He then gestured to the brooding Sakura, "Miss Haruno here, your superior, is one of a handful of people on the planet the Hokage has total faith and trust in, whilst both I and Sai over there only go by the names you've learnt when not servicing for ANBU. Tell me, milady, why exactly should a Genin on her first mission have superiority over assassination attempts, when we are available?"

There was no answer. Hanabi knew why she wanted to make a big deal about this. Had she been sitting from the side-lines throughout this journey, she would have been laughing at the young girl holding the tea cup. She'd have yelled at the stupid Genin that she should know her place when greater ninja were around her. But therein lay her problem; these ninja were better than her. All through this trip, she couldn't compete with whatever was in front of her. She was a mere blip on the map next to the two Akatsuki, whilst she was reduced to a bystander for much of the fight against the doppelganger. Kakashi and Shikamaru demanded respect through their reputation, overshadowing them, whilst both she and Konohamaru were displaying more and more evidence that they were poor examples of their families' heritages. Now, as they struggled towards their victory, they were whisked into the arms of these elite ninja. Why was she constantly being surrounded by those far greater than her? She felt truly insignificant. Had any of these four fought that man, the fight would have been efficiently won. Yet, once again she had to stare into the fact she was a poor ninja. And that hurt her, deeply.

Sakura saw the girl stare down at the ground, lips pouted, breathing heavily. At a glance, Hanabi would be sulking, but Sakura knew the expression, she'd made it many times herself. Taking a deep breath, Sakura turned to Sai and Yamato, before nodding and suggesting she walk Hanabi back to her room.

Once inside the simple bedroom, Sakura pointed to the bed, Hanabi silently complied. Once seated, Sakura decided to break the silence.

"I know what you're thinking, believe it or not." She sighed. Hanabi looked up slightly, her face full of scepticism, what did she know about her?

"You're thinking that you've had to come across nothing but ninja far greater than you: Kakashi-Sensei, Itachi and Kisame of the Akatsuki, that Deidara lookalike, and now us," she risked a giggle of self-praise at ranking her with the aforementioned Jonin, "and you're thinking that you're inferior next to us, that there is no purpose for you on a mission like this."

Hanabi wanted to retort, but how could she? Sakura had hit the mark dead-on.

"Y'know, on our first C-Ranked mission, Naruto, I and Sasu…our friend…were with Kakashi-Sensei; we had to escort this bridge-builder back to the land of Waves. Along the way, we learn the guy's being targeted by enemy ninja, one was this huge guy, a Jonin from the Mist village – Zabuza – he was terrifying."

Hanabi was now looking at the girl in front of her, knowing Sakura was looking into the distance of her memories.

"I wasn't any older than you were now, and the three of us had never had to face someone so fierce and bloodthirsty. During the fight, Kakashi-Sensei got caught and trapped, I couldn't believe it, I mean I saw our Sensei as this great guy, but he was helpless. A-all I could do was stick to my orders 'Protect the Bridge-builder' even though I knew, I knew! We stood no chance against the enemy."

Hanabi was staring deep into Sakura's nostalgic eyes, she wanted to try and read where she was going with this.

"I felt so utterly helpless. But it was Naruto and him, th-they didn't give in. They fought tooth-and-nail against the guy, and managed to save Kakashi-Sensei. It was then this other ninja, a tracker from the Mist, took down Zabuza so easily, and took the body. I remember, Naruto beating the ground afterwards – he couldn't take it; that even after he, we all, worked so hard, there were still those greater than us."

Hanabi lowered her head; the moral was clear, once a failure, always a failure. However, Sakura continued.

"Kakashi-Sensei told him then, that there would always be someone greater than us, but our job as ninja wasn't to look at them, only at our opponent. He wanted us to know that no matter how great Zabuza was, and how weak the Tracker ninja made us feel, what was important was that we overcame Zabuza, and we'd only become stronger by doing the same against every opponent."

Hanabi stared on.

"What is important is that you beat your opponent Hanabi, rather than focus on all those faces staring down on you, focus on those in front," Hanabi felt as though the message mirrored Konohamaru's, "when you decide you're not going to be the one they all stare down on, when you become the one to decide how strong you are – and not somebody else, only then will you grow truly stronger."

As she turned to leave, Sakura told her to take some tea, and think on what she said.

"Oh, and by the way, the tracker who made Naruto feel so weak…he was the next guy to lose to him. Like I said, focus on those in front, and you'll become stronger."

Hanabi took one sip of the tea, placed it beside her bed, and drifted lightly to sleep.

"And then these guys were like 'Arrrgh' and I was all 'so' – I was totally cool, Hanabi thought so! She was all like 'Oh Konohamaru, you're awesome, you should be Hokage!' I'm telling you boss, It was awesome!" Konohamaru proudly declared.

Naruto sat, squint-eyed and nodding, taking in everything from his young apprentice.

"And then I -"

"And then you woke up. Stop exaggerating, you're just like him." Sakura teased, entering the room. Konohamaru sulked at her ruining his heroic tale, as Naruto laughed on.

"Oh, come on Sakura-Chan, let the guy have his fun! It's his first big mission! What happened next Konohamaru?" Naruto asked.

"Then I met the Akatsuki!" Konohamaru yelled, though now it was Naruto's turn to be sceptical.

"Hey, Fighting off those bandits single-handed was an acceptable lie, y'know, but to say you knocked down Akatsuki members, at least make them believable." He laughed.

"Actually, he's telling the truth." Sakura responded.

"What! AKATSUKI! DATTEBAYO!"

"Hinata's sister told me everything, accurately," She said, looking at Konohamaru, "Naruto, she mentioned Itachi Uchiha."

Naruto stood silent.

"…where'd you see him, Konohamaru? And don't lie, this is serious." Naruto spoke, barely louder than a whisper.

"Er, it was about two days ago, one town over, on a road leading from the Fire nation. Why?"

"We should leave Sakura. He may not have gotten too far."

Sakura grimaced before replying.

"Naruto, listen; I want this guy just as badly as you do, you know that! And if it was anything else, then I'd say let's ditch this place and find him. But we could be at war here. Our country needs us here, helping these two. We can't be chasing the Akatsuki, Hanabi's report is saying none of the ninja; Kakashi and Lady Hokage included think that they were behind this. If we choose to chase Itachi, then we'd be abandoning her and Konohamaru when they need our help. What if the lookalike comes back while he's healing -"

"Then Yamato and Sai can stick around here! You and me will take on Itachi!" Naruto snapped.

"And what! What if we lose! We now they want you, Naruto! What if…what if you tu-"

"Sakura!" Naruto hissed. They were in front of Konohamaru, after all, he didn't need to hear the end of that sentence.

"…you're worried he'll hear, but you're not worried about it happening, about it waking up." Sakura turned to leave before speaking once more to her friend.

"If you want to protect Konohamaru from hearing of things like that, then you'd do better to protect him, period." With that she marched out.

Naruto growled before throwing himself onto a chair near the bed. Konohamaru, nonplussed at what the two were so upset about, felt the need to press for an answer.

"Boss, I…er…If you want to go after that guy, I-"

"No, Konohamaru. She's right. I can't let you two kids get hurt." He began to breathe heavily.

"Why are you after that Itachi?"

"…You remember Sasuke?" Naruto finally asked. Konohamaru nodded weakly. He heard of Naruto's friend defecting from the village a few years ago.

"…Itachi's his brother. He took everything from Sasuke. Sasuke's wanted nothing but revenge ever since…he's obsessed with killing him…" Naruto explained.

"…I see, if you guys get to him first, you'll be able to find Sasuke…" Konohamaru speculated.

"…yeah. But I can't do that. You guys come first. Why should you guys suffer because of Sasuke and Itachi? No, until we get that doppelganger and find out who is really behind this, you two are stuck with us!" Naruto raised his head, and gave his friend a reassuring thumb up.

"Right! And the sooner we can do that, the sooner you can go chase that creep! He duked it out with that Kisame, y'know! I bet he couldn't have gotten too far."

Itachi sneezed upon awakening. He was never superstitious, who would be talking about him?

It was morning, the sun piercing over the horizon. Taking note of the room he was in; humble – one bed, a desk opposite with a window. On the desk were a clean shirt and pair of trousers, as well as a sandwich and a glass of water. Beside the glass was a small vase with two red roses.

Getting onto his feet, Itachi shuffled over to the food first, eagerly taking in the sandwich. It had been over a day and a half since the pickles and the fight. He fell unconscious several hours ago. He had no idea where he'd awoken. A cautious ninja would have left the food and drink, in fear of being drugged, an excellent ninja would note that should the person making the sandwich wish him harm, they'd have done it whilst he rested.

Exchanging his ruined garments for the clean ones, Itachi left the room to explore. The small house had two other rooms like his; one with a double bed, and several picture-frames of a young family of three. The wife, a beautiful woman with auburn hair and green eyes, the husband a frail man with glasses, and a child, not six, with a puppy. Indeed the next room seemed to be the child's considering the toys strewn across the floor.

At this moment, he heard the front door go, and dashed along the corridor to the living room, where the startled figure of the mother and child stood, each carrying laundry.

"Oh, s-sorry, I didn't think you'd be awake." The mother laughed, placing the clothes down.

The boy continued to stand behind his mother as the puppy, now fully grown, trotted in and immediately up to Itachi, playfully sniffing the man's legs.

"I'm surprised you're moving so soon, you seemed pretty comatose. You're eyes seem alright now too." The mother cheerfully noted, though Itachi had the distinct feeling she was a little nervous, since she mentioned his eyes; he had to imagine how horrifying it would have been for her to find his body like that.

Itachi merely nodded.

"Oh, I'm sorry, My name is Meiun, and this my son Taishou. Come on, sweetie, say hello." The boy gave a shy nod.

"…where am I?" Itachi asked, not breaking the mother's eyesight.

"This is our home; we're just off the border to the Fire nation. I found yesterday evening, when I was walking the dog." Meiun nervously explained.

Itachi made an attempt to walk to the door, but his body immediately told him he was nowhere near fit enough to hunt down Kisame. Groaning and collapsing, Itachi felt Meiun run around the sofa and grab him, helping him off the ground.

"Please, you're not well. Sit down." She pleaded, helping him to the sofa.

"You're still burning up, Taishou, fetch a wet towel. I want you to stay there." She told Itachi – who was feeling rather light-headed, the lack of chakra and the conditions he was walking in had severely weakened him. He felt close to falling unconscious again.

"What's your name?" Meiun asked, trying to keep him talking.

"I-itac…hi" he sighed.

"Do you have anyone we could get in touch with? Any family?" She pressed.

"I've…a…brother…"

But that was all he revealed, before fatigue took him back to sleep.

Well? I thought on bringing Itachi back into the plot and move the police force back a chapter, since it felt as though I had killed him off :P

As for the next instalment, Team Kakashi (minus Kakashi: as usual) help out our heroes prepare for combat as 'Deidara' tries to get rid of the only kids who know anything of his plans. Like what you read? Drop a review :)