AN:

Thank you to DreamingIn2Eternity, Deadzepplin, Anonymous Reviewer, and FireheartedNinja for the reviews and support!

I might not be able to update friday, just to let you all know.

Nothing more to say, now onto the story!

Kakashi dismounted off his warg and collapsed onto a rock. He hated being exhausted of all his chakra, but there was little that he could do about that. Obito was breathing heavily, but otherwise showed no signs of exhaustion. The chunin scanned the battlefield. They were fortunate that their casualties were light. The ground had become swampy, which did not favor the horses. But they managed to obtain victory with minimal losses.

Kakashi turned to look at Obito, who was still astride his warg.

"How is our team?" he asked. "Is everyone alive and unhurt?"

The Uchiha's eyes scanned the crowd, looking for their teammates.

"I don't see Hoshi," he said, baffled.

"That's because he fell off the cliff,"

Both shinobi jumped and turned to see Minato-sensei pick up a few of his Hiraishin Kunai. Their teacher was splattered with blood, and his eyes were sorrowful. Obito seemed to recognise the look the jonin was giving them.

"Oh no," he said, horrified. "We are NOT leaving this place without looking for Hoshi,"

Minato-sensei was silent as Anko and Rin approached him. Rin looked furious.

"How could you, Sensei?" she hissed. "You know that giving Hoshi food pills shortens his life span!"

The yellow-haired man gave her a look. "By six months. Considering his potential life span, that is the blink of an eye,"

"Minato,"

Team Minato plus Anko turned to see a worried Legolas.

"Have you seen Aragorn?" he asked. Minato looked rather worried.

"The last I have seen him was over there by the edge of the cliff,"

The elf seem to catch his meaning, but still walked over to the place Minato had pointed out. Obito made eye contact with Kakashi. With a nod, the Hatake once again mounted his warg to follow the elf. Gimli was with Legolas also. Both seemed to be interrogating a dying oni, who only confirmed what Minato-sensei insinuated. Neither wanted to believe that Aragorn might possibly be dead.

"Hey, Hoshi has that same necklace!" cried Obito, pointing to the silvery bunch in the orc's hand. Legolas took the jewelry from the now dead oni. He gave Obito an incredulous look.

"That is impossible," he said shortly.

"Not necessarily," pointed out Kakashi. "Hoshi is from a different timeline than Aragorn. It is quite possible for Hoshi to own a similar looking necklace. I am positive that he doesn't have the same exact one,"

Obito frowned at Kakashi but said nothing. The elf gave Kakashi a wary look and walked over to the edge of the cliff. Theoden was looking over the edge also. Just as both shinobi were about to return to Minato, they heard the King's command.

"Get the wounded on horses, and leave the dead,"

Anko approached the two boys on her overly friendly warg, with Rin perched behind her.

"You do know that that command means 'don't go looking for Hoshi', right?"

Obito grit his teeth in anger. Kakashi looked over at his goggles-wearing teammate.

"Are you crying?" he asked.

"No!" sniffed Obito. "I just have something in my eye,"

Kakashi raised a silver eyebrow. "You are wearing you goggles,"

"Shut up!" he growled.

A weary Minato walked over to his students. "Let's go," he said in monotone.

Kakashi sighed. Hoshi was not dead. Somehow the oddball will get himself out of the mess he put himself in (again). He just knew it.

Aragorn woke up to a horse nuzzling his face and whispering voices. Well, the voices were actually rather loud, and accented in a familiar pattern.

"I think he's waking up," whispered one voice,

"You would if a large horse kept nuzzling your face," snapped another.

Both belonged to boys who had yet to encounter adolescence. The first voice took on a positive tone, and had a refined sound to it. The second was rather whispery, yet gruff for a child. Aragorn breathed deeply through his nose. He could smell fish and the smoke from a fire, and oddly enough, alchohol. Aragorn opened his eyes.

He nearly yelped when they met a pair of jet-colored, slanted orbs just inches away from his face.

"Welcome back to the world of the living, my friend!" said the owner of the eyes, who was pulled back away from his face. The speaker had spiky dark hair that was held back by a headband.

"Konoha's headband," Aragorn thought.

The boy had gathered the longer locks of his hair and gathered it at the base of his head. Like his fellow shinobi, the stranger wore odd clothing, but something about surcoat he was wearing looked familiar.

"I apologize for my friend's manners," said the whispery voice. The ranger turned to face the other boy. This child had rather dark skin, but not as dark as some of the Haradim he had encountered in the past. His hair black was wiry and cut in a jagged manner. The boy's clothes seemed to echo Kakashi's, except for the fact his hands and fore-arms were completely covered in bandages and he was wearing a sort of steel blue robe.

"My name is Susano'o," continued the bandaged boy. "And this is Kuro,"

The personal space-invading boy waved cheerfully at him. Aragorn pulled himself upright, rubbing his head. Much to his surprise, he was wearing what appeared to be Minato's clothing. His cloths were drying near a fire that was cooking fish.

"We hope you don't mind us taking the liberty of giving you a pair of dry clothes," Kuro said while flashing a grin. Aragorn shook his head numbly. The clothes were comfortable, and they didn't touch his smallcloths, which was a relief.

Kuro turned his back to him, displaying an oddly familiar symbol.

"Do you happen to know Uchiha Obito by any chance?" he said while the horse nuzzled his head again.

Both boys looked at him, surprised. Then Kuro gave Susano'o a smirk.

"Told you this horse was good luck," he said.

The bandaged boy shrugged, then drank from what appeared to be a hollowed out gourd.

"What should we call you?" Susano'o asked, whiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Strider," Aragorn automatically answered. The boy nodded.

"Do you know where our comrades are?" he asked.

The ranger was sure that these two didn't mean the other shinobi harm, but he had to be careful.

"They were with my comrades and myself before I went off a cliff in a skirmish," Aragorn said carefully. " So yes, I know where they are,"

Kuro looked relieved. "Excellent. Will you lead the way there after we report back to our sensei?" he asked.

Aragorn nodded. Susano'o gave him back his clothes.

"You might want to change back into your own clothes, though,"

Aragorn nearly laughed, noticing the clothes were a bit too small. But when he looked through his belongings, he noticed something was missing, for he no longer felt it around his neck.

"Have you seen a silver necklace somewhere with my possesions?" he asked.

Susano'o gave him a confused look and turned to Kuro, who shook his head. "No. Why, is it important?" he asked.

"They clearly haven't seen it," Aragorn thought. The loss of the precious gift hurt Aragorn, but the shinobi didn't need to go out of their way to look of the Evenstar.

"Not to the overall wellfare of many," he said quitely. Susano'o gave him a sympathetic smile.

"We will keep our eyes peeled for it,"' he said kindly. Aragorn nodded his head in thanks, greatful for their offer of help.

"Once you are done, we will go," said Kuro as he put out the fire with a hiss.

When Eldarion came to he wished he had passed out again. His lungs still burned from the water he had swollowed and his head throbbed as if Gimli was hitting him on the head with his axe. He tried to open his eyes, but he didn't have the strenght. The tall boy tried to move, but he was tied to what felt like a tree.

"So the little price is awake,"

Eldarion froze in shock. Nobody in Konoha knew of his status back at home, simply because it didn't matter. But he found out...

"And he has a lot of explaining to do,"

That hissing voice made him shudder in a mixture of fear and disgust. Eldarion forced his eyes to open.

He had always considered Orochimaru to be Saruman incarnate. Both were very powerful and highly respected. Both were also had a lust for power and had a few loose screws in their heads. But Orochimaru was a lot more dangerous, mostly because his only fears were age and a couple other humans that Eldarion had no knowledge of.

"How did you find that tunnel?"

The genin flinched as the Sannin's golden eyes bore into him. He hated making eye contact, mostly because it revealed all sorts of secrets he didn't want to know or that he didn't want others to find out.

"We were on a mission to a letter from an advisor to the damiyo to his mistress who lives in the border mountians of the Land of Earth. We succeeded in delivering the letter, but it turns out that she has a husband. Her husband had hired shinobi from Iwa to attack his wife's lover or his unsuspecting messengers," started Eldarion. "Apparently he was an advisor to the Land of Earth's damiyo, so he got a discount on mission prices. So he hired a team of jonin. We ended up trying to hide in a cave, but they kept following us, so we went in deeper, and deeper and deeper to try and get away from them and avoid any bloodshed,"

Orochimaru had a mixture of surprise and relief on his face.

"It was a good thing that you did not engage with them," the Sannin said in an almost growl. "Diplomatic relations between the two of us are strained as it is,"

Eldarion became hopeful, seeing that the White Snake was in a good mood.

The Serpent's face then became stony again, with malice in his eyes.

"Why did you not return back home then?" he hissed. "You do know that accepting a mission without the Hokage's permission is against the law?"

"This is NOT good!"

Killer intent did not have an affect on the gondorian boy, but Orochimaru always succeeded in unnerving him.

"Do you have any idea on how idiotic it was to lead us to that elderly meglomaniac?" he snarled. "Never in all my life have I met someone as insufferable as him!"

Eldarion tried not to laugh as the Sannin began to pace around as he ranted.

"He is so proud in building a mindless fighting force in record time that he forgets to add intelligence to the stupid beasts! There is more potential in the wild hill people who serve him than the useless ogres! Then he has the nerve to ask me to serve him after throwing our comrade into his dungons! The only thing that kept me from cutting him open was his vast library and his lack suitablity as a guinea pig,"

The Sannin slowly turned to face Eldarion again, who was trying to ignore his fatgiue and his horrific headache.

"Once we find your other teammates we are going to return back home," he said evenly.

Eldarion's grey eyes widened.

"What, No!"

A kunai just missed his head, cutting his cheek. Orochimaru was giving him a glare of pure malice.

"The longer we stay in this backwater world, the longer it takes for us to get home," he snarled.

Eldarion felt fear grip him as he bristled at the insult. But he tried to explain.

"How will we be able to get backwithout being attacked by goblins?" the genin said almost desperately. The Sannin laughed. He seemed to find the idea very amusing.

"Have you any idea how easy it is to kill the rats?" he said, whiping away tears of laugher. "Do you have any idea how wonderful it would to get rid of you just now?"

Orochimaru's voice lowered to a whisper as he approached the tied up genin. "Tell me why we should help these people,"

"Maybe if you let Hoshi go, I might help you figure that out,"

Eldarion's grey eyes widen when he saw a curved hunting knife pressed against the Sannin's white throat.

"Ad-Aragorn!" he managed to sputter out. He looked past the two men to see other familiar faces.

"Kuro!" he cried, glad to see his 'cousin'. The Uchiha shook his head amusedly.

"Tied up again, I see," Eldarion's eyes narrowed to glare at a bandaged shinobi.

"You're permenantly tied up," he muttered.

Orochimaru allowed a faint smile to grace his pale lips. "I suppose I will hear you out just for being able to catch me off guard like that, Aragorn,"

The ranger's solemn expression didn't change. "Untie Hoshi and then we'll talk,"

Orochimaru chucked. "I have a feeling that I might just respect you," he said as he snapped his fingers. Eldarion gasped as the pressure of the encircling...snakes was released. His legs shook slightly as he slowly lowered himself on to the ground. Kuro walked over and sat next to Eldarion, and Susano'o reluctantly followed. Aragorn still had his hunting knife against Orochimaru's throat. The Sannin chuckled again.

"Relax, you interest me. I will not go back on my word,"

Cautiously, Aragorn removed the knife from the jonin's throat. With a small smirk, the Sannin sat cross-legged on the ground. The ranger did so as well, both eyes fixed on Orochimaru.

"Now," Orochimaru said while folding his hands. "Tell my why I should help the heir of Isildur reclaim his throne?"