Recap: Team 7 must head to Tenchi bridge in order to get info from Sasori's spy, however, with Itachi and Kakashi's absence, Naruto and Sakura are forced to work with two new members.

Chapter 23: Naruto and Sasuke part I

The giant fūma released from Sai's tight grip and came spiraling towards Yamato. While in mid-air, the shuriken morphed into Naruto. "HERE WE GO!" He screeched, rasengan in hand.

"Heh," Yamato instinctively ducked down and struck Naruto's forearm, he huffed, a good sign to Naruto he'd caught him off guard. "You made a mistake, Naruto, the clone should've acted as the weapon to confuse the enemy while you stayed by Sai's side."

"Who's to say I'm not actually a clone!" Naruto suddenly burst into thin air much to Yamato's surprise and Sai began forwarding onto Yamato.

Sai flung his arm out to his sides and the supposedly real Naruto ran behind him and started forming a small sphere of chakra.

'They must both be Naruto.' While in mid-rasengan-forming-motion, several wood clumps wormed out from the ground and wrapped tightly around Sai's body.

"Alright then, plan B." Naruto muttered, he leaped over Sai's head and lunged for Yamato. "Unnh!"

The actual Sai watched intently from behind one of the knotted trees. "..." He reached for his brush and scrawled a stout 'S' on his scroll. 'Super beast imitating drawing!"

'Oh my, looks like I made the brush stroke too thick...'

Naruto felt a weird sensation creeping up his leg while he was busy pinning down his captain. "Huh..." His eyes dropped down and peered at what looked like a black leech, slowly but surely, binding him and Yamato together. "-ah! Why me too?!"

It finally registered to Naruto that the Yamato twined with him was actually a dummy, dubbed with the name 'loser' where its face should've been. "H-hey Sai! GET THIS THING OFF ME!" Sai moved away from his station, not even bothering to take as much as a glance at the spiky blonde.

That boiled Naruto's blood like nothing else. 'How dare he just leave like that!' He struggled to break free out of his slimy chains.

"HEY! Get me out of this-" By Sai's command, the leeches melted off like hot butter and Naruto was freely able to beat the living crap out of him.

"Sai!" Naruto grumbled, stomping up to the pale colored boy. "Don't you know what the word comrade means?!"

"The term comrade is used to mean 'friend', 'mate', 'colleague', or 'ally' and derives from the Iberian Romance language term camarada, literally meaning 'chamber mate' from Latin camera 'chamber' or 'room'. A political use of the term was inspired by the Suna Revolution, after which it grew into a form of address between socialists and workers."

"Why you little smart ass," He stepped closer to grab Sai's shirt collar.

Sai inherently stepped back due to previous fiascos. "Seriously, Naruto, you shouldn't go blaming others for your own shortcomings. If you hadn't fallen for Yamato's rather blatant taunt you wouldn't of ended up the way you did. I'm not like the...previous member of your team who mothered you on every mistake you made, if you can't do your job as a shinobi right, then I'll simply do what's best for the team."

"..." Sai received only a light flick and back turn. "I'll still never consider you a comrade or—" Naruto paused and stared directly at Sai. "As a member of this team."

Yamato and Sakura sighed.

"That's fine," Replied Sai. "It's not my fault Itachi decided to baby you instead of treating you as a capable person, Itachi simply pitied your existence."

A long groan and the absences of breathing followed next.

"..."

Seeing no response from Naruto, Sai continued, "Itachi betrayed our village and attacked the fifth hokage, all for the sake of what, family issues? And yet you still consider him a beloved comrade for a couple of fake smiles and rehearsed acts."

"...I do. That fact will never change, I am willing to do anything for Itachi, even...team up with you."

"-your obsession with Itachi is absolutely insane." Sai argued.

Sakura shook her head. "No, it's not. Both Itachi and Naruto mutually think of each other as brothers."

"I know you have an older brother as well...you must relate to-"

"No."

Her lips pressed together as his mouth opened up again. "I don't have feelings." He stated nonchalantly.

"What're you talking about?! He's your brother...you have to feel...something. Can't you imagine, even a little, what it would feel like to lose him."

Sakura almost felt fear from Sai's presence when the words; 'he's dead' rolled out of his tongue so easily.

"Besides, what face would I make when in reaction to his death? You guys don't seem to understand...I really don't have any feelings." He added on.

"..."

"I'm not sure, really, how Itachi treated you while in Team 7, but when he was still loyal to the Anbu he was...hm, let's say, not worth fighting for."

"-and I still don't understand how someone apparently 'nice' could turn so..."

"Hey." Naruto harshly interrupted. "Let's just go already. It's still awhile's walk to Tenchi bridge and if we're not there by tomorrow noon, we can go back home."

OoO

Day and night passed by and soon became a distant memory, the team waited anxiously by the front post of Tenchi bridge for their 'visitor' to finally arrive.

Seconds passed and voices grew mute when the eerie scratch of shoes could be heard. "There's two of them...?" Yamato muttered, slowly standing up. 'Sakura didn't mention Sasori had two spies.'

Naruto, Sakura, and Sai all watched as Yamato approached the spies in Sasori's form, from what they could tell, one of them donned a crème colored cloak, the other, a pitch black one.

The crème cloaked spy toyed at their hood, then finally yanked it off. "It's been a...while." Kabuto muttered, he motioned to his colleague.

Following Kabuto's reveal, the black cloaked spy pulled their hood off as well.

'Sasuke Uchiha is ...' Yamato almost slipped up. He quickly pieced himself back together before any of them noticed. '...ALIVE?!' He opened his mouth to speak but got cut off.

"Sasori," Sasuke said. "Tell me, how is my br—" For some reason, he stopped himself and allowed for Sasori and Kabuto to take over.

Yamato suspiciously eyed the raven, talking sparingly to Kabuto. "How do you feel, Kabuto?"

"I had some disorientation from when your jutsu dissolved and I began remembering my true identity—it'll pass."

"I have many questions."

Sasuke stepped in. "I imagine you do, but before you ask, do you mind filling me in on your current objectives with Deidara."

'He's onto me like I suspected.'

"I'll give you an easier question-" *click* "-What is Kisame and his partner's current target?"

"..."

"I guess you don't know anything." Sasuke tightly gripped his katana.

*CLANK*

Before Sasuke could take a hit on Yamato, a large fūma shuriken clashed with Sasuke's katana. "Captain," Naruto said, retiring the fūma shuriken to his side. "I'll take on Sasuke for as long as I can, you go find Kabuto!"

"Alright," It was true. Kabuto managed to slip away right under their noses and Yamato was on his way to catching him.

Naruto turned back to Sasuke and took this chance to jab at him. "That's funny, you still look the same from when we first met back in the hotel-heh, except maybe you somehow grew uglier than you already were."

"When you become a corpse, I'm not sure how many jokes you'll make then." Sasuke said, stoic face, then added, "You're surprisingly more laid back than I thought you'd be."

"It's because...you're not the person who stole Itachi, you're just a distraction." As his fūma shuriken reappeared in front of him and Sasuke took off, preparing to slice the Uzumaki into pieces.

A/N: It's a little shorter than usual because I decided to divide it up into three chapters, this is the first part