Chapter 13

Naruto yawned as he looked over at over at Tsunade. He had been called into her new office at 5 in the morning. He hoped it was for a good reason and not some sort of punishment mission that he knew she was coming up with ever since that had made their way back to the village. But as she sighed looking as tired as he was he knew right away this was not that reason at all.

"Lady Hokage, might I ask why I am here," Naruto asked after a small yawn escaped his mouth.

"I will answer you in a few moments we are waiting for Shikamaru to show up," Tsunade said looking annoyed.

This at once tipped Naruto off something was very wrong. While yes she was annoyed it was not at him at the moment since Shikamaru was showing up. She let him know when the time for getting him back came it would just be the both of them facing off. Naruto sighed and nodded waiting till Shikamaru he barely had to wait a minute before Shikamaru was thrown into the room by a female telling him to do his job.

Shikamaru slowly stood up dusting himself off as the door slammed behind him to the office. He looked at them and shook his head at their looks, "Sorry about that my mom was woken up as well and decided I was not moving fast enough and well… yeah."

Tsunade just nodded, "No worries. Now as to the reason I called you here. It seems last night one of our ninja left the village, wither this was of his own free will or because he was taken we as of the moment do not know. Your mission is to find and return Sasuke Uchiha to the village with any and all force. Should he have left willingly you are to use deadly force if needed."

Shikamaru nodded in slight shock, "yes Hokage –sama."

Naruto remained quiet for a few moments before he nodded as well, "Yes I will do what is needed. But I am asks why are we doing this?"

"Currently all other higher level ninja are out on missions and I cannot spare any more from the Guards on duty," Tsunade said getting a nod from both of them, "Good now Shikamaru you have a half hour before you are to leave, use what time you have to find a group to help you. Meet at the front gate once you ready to leave as I need to talk to Naruto first."

Shikamaru nodded as did Naruto. Shikamaru then turned and left leaving both Naruto and Tsunade in the room. Naruto looked at Tsunade who looked closely at him for a few moments before speaking. "Naruto, I would not normally send you on a mission like this where you might have to kill your own teammate so I will ask just this once. Do you have it in you to kill Sasuke if need be?"

Naruto sighed to himself something that Tsunade noticed. It was a few moments before he spoke, "to be honest I am not fully sure I could take his life. If it came down to a battle..."

"Even if he was aiming to kill you?" Tsunade asked.

"What?"

"Remember if Sasuke left of his own free will, it is possible he would be willing to kill his old comrades." Tsunade said getting a slight look of disbelief from Naruto. She waited a few moments as Naruto thought about what she said.

"Okay I guess you have a point," Naruto said mostly to himself.

"Good. So if Sasuke came at you willing to kill you do you have what is needed to possibly end him?" Tsunade asked again.

"I am still not sure… But I will try my hardest to stop him should that happen, if he dies because of the battle it is because he forced me into it," Naruto said his eyes hardening a little bit with a look of being resigned.

"Okay I will mark this down incase that council tries something; I wish you the best of luck. Now you had best catch up with Shikamaru at the main gate," Tsunade said yawning a little bit in spite of the situation.

Naruto nodded, "Yes Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade smiled a little bit as Naruto left before turning toward the clock and sighing, "I wonder if I can punish someone for waking me up before I want to be."

Naruto hurried along the roof tops till he reached the gate where he would meet up with Shikamaru and his team. Seeing as none was there yet he sat down by the gate waiting as he heard Kyuubi speak up in his mind.

'Naruto are you sure you can fight on this mission?' Kyuubi asked lightly, 'you know any hesitation will likely end up with your death.'

'Yes I can handle it,' Naruto said pulling at the sealing scroll that contained his painting brush.

'Even if should you have to kill the Uchiha?' Kyuubi asked.

'Like I told Tsunade I will do what needs to be done,' Naruto said looking out over the houses.

'Good, now put that scroll away you are not good enough with that style yet to truly use it against anyone,' Kyuubi said causing Naruto to roll his eyes.

'Yes I know I was just thinking about keeping it at the ready as a surprise maneuver,' Naruto said smirking.

'Meaning all you would do is pull it out and use it as a club,' Kyuubi said, causing Naruto to nearly face plant even while standing still.

'No I would not, I would actually use it like I should,' Naruto yelled back.

'I will believe it when I see it," Kyuubi said with Naruto able to hear the smirk in his voice.

Thankfully Naruto was sparred answering as Shikamaru showed up with the team behind him. Naruto quickly looked them over Kiba, Neji, and Choij. He could not help but sigh inwardly at this since there were so few of them, but he was not about to question Shikamaru since they did not have a lot of time to find a good team. Turning toward Shikamaru he nodded before putting the scroll away.

"Is this everyone?" Naruto asked.

"Yes everyone that I could find on short noticed. I would have brought Shino as well but he is out of town with his dad at the moment," Shikamaru said.

"Okay and you have told them our mission," Naruto asked again getting a nod from Shikamaru.

"Yes, okay now the plan is simple till we reach the enemy. Kiba I want you to take point with Naruto. This will allow us to track them. Choij and I will take center spot as support. While Neji I want you to take the rear spot and keep an eye out for traps and anyone trying to close in on us. The distance between us should only be about 10 to 20 feet between spots," Shikamaru said explaining how the group was going to travel. "Understand?"

The group all nodded voicing they understood, though none of them said yes sir for different reason. Naruto then spoke up, "Good let's move out."

They did not speak only nodded as one they took off out of the gate. They moved as quickly as they dared, not wanting to use up to much energy to soon, and still feeling the slight sleepiness since it was still early on in the morning. As they moved they came across a small semi wounded team of Chuunin Ninja. Stopping quickly Shikamaru spoke to them, "Quickly could you tell us if group of Ninja has come through here? And if Sasuke Uchiha was with them?"

The female in the group spoke up, "Yes. We met and fought four ninja not too long ago belonging to the Sound Village. And no Sasuke was not with them, but they had with them a large barrel with seals all over it."

Naruto spoke next as he realized who was speaking, "Thanks Shizune-san."

"Welcome, now we must be going the team we faced while injured by our attacks hurt my own teammates as well, and I need to get them some better treatment soon," Shizune said before leaving helping her team along a little bit.

Shikamaru sighed at this, "Team move out and keep a close eye out for traps. If it was indeed the Sound Team that took Sasuke then they will be on the alert now."

"Understand," came the reply before they quickly moved out with Kiba leading following the scent that they had found earlier of Sasuke and some other people. They moved along for a while before both Neji who was watching the road held said they were getting close to the group. At once the Ninja halted as Neji described what he could see.

"There are three males and one female resting a little ways ahead. They are talking at the moment resting against the trees in a circle fashion. In the center of the group is a large barrel that is radiating Charka." Neji explained drawing the layout of thing in the dirt before drawing a semi circle around the group.

"Let me guess something is in our way of them," Kiba said looking at the semi circle.

"Yes though I am not sure what it is at this distance, but if I were to guess some sort of detection system," Neji said as he deactivated his eyes for a little bit.

Naruto looked over at Shikamaru before back down at the drawing. "I think there is a way to attack them but we cannot go head on we would be catch to easy. As for Sasuke right now I think we can rule him out in this fight. Stay clear of the barrel for now till we know more about it."

Shikamaru nodded before speaking himself, "No we want to trip the alert this time. The team and I will move in while Naruto I want you to attack from the other side. With your summons we could possibly over whelm this group before they can properly counter attack when I trigger their alarm."

Naruto nodded, "what do you need or want to hit them with?"

Shikamaru smirked, "Well tell me what you have and I will tell you what we need."

(I am sorry about taking so long.

But i have been dealing with a number of issues.

The first being lack of will to write.

the second work.

and the final being a virus that hit my computer.

i will try and pick up speed again but i cannot promise anything.)