I do now own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters. Sorry I was skipping around and screwing up the timeline in this one. I wrote this near midnight and I really just want to be done with the normal Naruto time frame.
Lost
Naruto crouched, staring out through the bushes and looked sideways at the others. Hinata, Shino, and Kiba were all crouching beside him and each had an interesting reaction to the situation, which was them searching for a type of beetle that could be used to track anything so long as they had something with the person's scent still on it. After Naruto had woken up after his fight with Gaara, he had been informed that Ryuu had defeated the ninja that had been planning to take him but had been kidnapped by someone he had thought a friend who had defeated the ANBU that had been assigned to train Ryuu. He hadn't taken losing a friend very well, neither had Sasuke. On top of that, he had found out that the Third Hokage, who had been a grandfather figure to him, had been killed by Orochimaru. All in all, the next few days had been bad. Very bad. Naruto doubted he had smiled more than twice the first three days. Sasuke had been more moody than usual, and the jonin had all pretty much ignored him, with Kakashi training with Sasuke again and the others not really knowing Naruto very well.
Pretty much the only reason Naruto had cheered up, even as much as he had, was that Hinata had skipped her own training to spend time with him, trying to cheer him up. Thinking back on it, it was the most he had ever heard her talk and he had learned a few things about her, like her father was considering making her younger sister the heir to the clan instead because her sister was the stronger of the two. In addition to that, he had realized that he he liked spending time with Hinata. She was kind and was the first person, except Ryuu, who didn't see him as an annoyance. And he found that the more time he had spent with her, the more he found himself enjoying her company. He also found himself noticing little things about her, like that she seemed to like cinnamon rolls more than almost anything else and the fact that she was actually quite attractive, something he wasn't sure how he had not noticed before.
At the moment, he was having to restrain himself from complaining about not having left the village yet, Shino was being as silent and impassive as usual, Hinata was watching the trees silently, and Kiba was staring at Hinata. He noticed Naruto had caught him and winked at Naruto before subtly pointing his finger back and forth between himself and Hinata. Naruto suddenly found himself gripping a rock at his side so hard he felt the rock digging into his skin. He rolled his eyes at Kiba then looked forward again as Shino stood.
"We should get going," Shino stated. "We've waited long enough."
"Why were we waiting anyway?" Naruto asked.
"I was testing your patience," Shino stated.
Naruto growled in frustration and they headed out, leaving the village and traveling quickly. The location where the bug was supposed to be was a day's journey away from the village and they only had two days to get there with one of Ryuu's dirty shirts and find the beetle. After that, its eggs would hatch and the larvae would be useless as they would only track something if it was the first thing they smelled. Finally they stopped just outside of the small forest for the night. The next day, they would head down into it and hopefully find the beetle.
Naruto groaned and left his tent to go to the bathroom, sometime around midnight, if he was correct. He made his way into the trees nearby, heading toward the stream he heard ahead. He relieved himself behind a large stone and turned to leave but stopped when he thought he heard something from the river. He climbed up the rock quietly, peeking over the top and freezing. There was a girl in the river, standing on the water and going through some form of dance or something while chakra pulses around her body pulled the water from around herself up into the air, forming a mist around her.
It was just bright enough for him to make out two details about her. First, was the hime-style haircut that he instantly recognized. Second, was that she wasn't wearing her sweatshirt, or Tee-shirt, or pants, or anything. It was too dark to make out anything beyond her silhouette, besides her hair somehow, but it was enough. He turned around and slid back down the rock, making his way as fast as he could back to camp, intending to never speak of this ever again.
Naruto caught the beetle as it began to fly away but before he could put it in the container with Ryuu's shirt, the larvae fell off its back, landing on his hand and Naruto sighed, releasing the adult. It wasn't exactly his fault. After all, they could have done it if they hadn't been delayed by a group of Hidden Stone ninja that had summoned hundreds of bees and one giant one, resulting in them all being saved by Hinata, using an incredibly strong jutsu that she had had Shino help her create.
"Shit," Naruto said flatly, turning around and allowing the others to see what had happened.
"We're too late," Shino sighed. "That's unfortunate."
"I'm sorry," Hinata apologized. "If I had been stronger-"
"No," Naruto interrupted. "You didn't do anything wrong Hinata. You saved all three of us. You were incredible. It's the Stone Ninjas' fault. I guess we'll have to figure something else out though. Come on. We should start heading back.
Naruto's horrible week was complete. Kakashi had just dropped a bombshell on him. Sasuke had left the village to join Orochimaru while Naruto was away looking for the Bikochu.
"Naruto?" Tsunade Senju spoke up.
Tsunade was the new Fifth Hokage. Jiraiya and Naruto had left to find Tsunade both because Jiraiya suspected Orochimaru might go looking for her in order to get his arms healed and also because she was a direct descendent, the granddaughter, of the First Hokage. During that time, naruto and Tsunade had fought, Tsunade sending him flying with a simple flick to the forehead protector, then she bet Naruto her grandfather's necklace that he couldn't master a jutsu Jiraiya had showed him called the Rasengan in one day. Naruto had tried for twelve hours then passed out for six. When he woke up, he found out Tsunade had gone to Orochimaru but to kill him instead of help him. He had arrived just in time to help her with fighting Kabuto Yakushi, mastering the Rasengan and using it on Kabuto in the process. Then, Orochimaru had tried to kill him. Tsunade had defended him by taking Orochimaru's blade several times before she and Jiraiya fought Orochimaru and eventually drove him and a heavily injured Kabuto away. Then, she had given Naruto his necklace and had agreed to be Hokage.
"I'm fine," Naruto stated, clearly lying. "What happened?"
"Four Sound ninja met him outside the village and sealed him into a crate, taking him," Kakashi stated. "A patrol team met them and was easily defeated. We sent a team consisting of Neji, Tenten, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, and Might Guy after them. The ninja separated taking on the team one at a time. The first fought Choji, nearly killing him, the second fought Neji also nearly killing him, the third fought Tenten and Ino, and the fourth fought Shikamaru. A fifth, seeming to be the leader, arrived and took Sasuke and Guy battled him. During the fight, however, Sasuke escaped the seal and ran off alone toward Orochimaru. Lee arrived at the same time and went after him-"
"Lee?" Naruto asked.
"Don't you remember?" Tsunade asked. "I performed a surgery on him to try to repair the damage done during his battle with Gaara and succeeded. He was cleared from the hospital and chose to go after Sasuke. Anyway, from what he tells me, he arrived in time to engage Sasuke, in an attempt to bring him back. In the end, Sasuke only narrowly defeated Lee since Lee was unable to use the Inner Gates. Sasuke left after the fight. The others, however, were not doing so well. Ino and Tenten were eventually saved by Kankuro, Gaara's brother, Shikamaru was saved by Temari, Gaara's sister, and Might Guy was replaced by Gaara himself who ended the fight against the final Sound Ninja, Kimimaro, I believe, as Guy went to help Lee, arriving in time to save his life."
"I see," Naruto nodded. "Then, are we going after Sasuke?"
"No," Jiraiya spoke up stepping into the room. "There's no time to. You will need to train for the next two years. We have until then before Orochimaru can try to possess Sasuke's body."
"Do what?" Naruto gaped.
"Orochimaru plans to possess Sasuke's body and take control of Sasuke's Sharingan," Jiraiya stated. "If he does, he'll be unstoppable. You have to train to be able to defeat him. So for the next two years, the Hidden Leaf will be searching for Sasuke while we train. After that, we'll return and you will be able to go after Sasuke again."
Naruto stared at him for a moment before his head fell and he nodded.
"Okay," Naruto sighed. "When do we leave?"
"Now," Jiraiya stated. "I already packed for you."
Naruto looked back up at him and nodded again then followed Jiraiya out of the Hokage's Office and to the Main Gate then stopped, looking back and seeing Hinata watching from a side alley. He raised his hand to wave and she did the same. Then, he turned and followed Jiraiya away from his home.
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A.N.: This story has a rewrite called the Bug and the Bird. please check it out. and refer others to it.
