Nel here, hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I am open to requests as well. Enjoy Chapter 2! =]
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Rays of light shining through the trees brought Naruto out of his restless sleep far sooner than he would've liked. Everyone else was already awake. Kakashi, reading as usual, Sai was finishing packing up the few things they had, and Sakura was finishing breakfast. Naruto tried to stretch out all of the knots he had in his back from sleeping on the ground.
"I gotta take a leak." Naruto announced.
"You don't have to tell us!" Sakura shouted. "You're so gross Naruto."
Naruto let out a small smile. He loved to tease her, she would get big creases in her brow, and the vane on the side of her neck would stick out whenever she got angry. It was cute. More often than not his jokes ended up with him in pain, but it was worth it. He walked off into the woods to complete the task he had announced to the group.
That asshole. Sakura thought to herself. He is always doing things to bother me. Well, it's not funny. She dished out four bowls of food as she ranted to herself about Naruto. The four of them hurriedly finished up breakfast and set out on the trail once more. It took about half the day for them to reach the boarder of the Sound and they stopped to take a break. Kakashi spoke up first.
"Alright, here's the plan. From here on out we will be in two groups. Sai and Naruto, you will be together and me and Sakura." Before he could continue, he was interrupted by a groan.
"But I wanted to be with Sakura!" Naruto crossed his arms and stuck out a pouty lip.
"Like I was saying..." Kakashi continued as if Naruto hadn't just interrupted. "We will be able to cover more ground this way. Remember team, the goal is recon. Do not engage the enemy. If the need should arise, contact the other group right away. Got it everyone?" Everyone gave a nod of agreement. "We will meet back here in three days' time. Good luck." At that, they dispersed.
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Naruto and Sai moved silently through the trees as they progressed towards one of the possible Akatsuki hide outs.
"You ready for this Sai?" His question was answered by a knowing smile. "I guess you are part of the Anbu, huh? You are probably always prepared for the worst, ya know?" Naruto laughed a little bit and ran his hand through his unruly hair at the back of his head.
"Well, we very well could die." Sai responded, holding a smile the whole time.
Naruto's eyes grew big and his mouth opened with shock. "Whhhaaaat?! Why would you say that! That doesn't make me feel any better!" His tone quickly changing from shock to annoyance. Sai couldn't help but laugh at Naruto's reaction.
"Don't worry, like you said, I am prepared for anything." Naruto let out a hardy laugh.
"I guess so! I'm glad you're on my team then."
The thick forest began to part into a clearing. It had turned out to be a beautiful day. The sun shone brightly, blocked only by the occasional wondering cloud that was blow around at the mercy of the breeze. The breeze was cool and ruffled the leaves on the trees blowing against the faces of the two young men standing at the edge of the clearing.
"Almost makes you forget what we came out here for." Naruto said casually.
"I wish I had time to draw this."
"Well, let's keep moving. Supposedly, the hideout is somewhere in those mountains." Naruto pointed to mountain range the rose up in the distance.
The two began making their way across the clearing.
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Eyes as dark as obsidian watched the pair slowly start to make their way across the open field. Sasuke sat expressionless on the edge of a cliff. He had always been good at hiding his emotions. No matter what was going on, he could always keep it inside. He sat with one leg hanging over the edge, one leg pulled up. His lean muscular arms behind him. To anyone passing by they would just think he was relaxing on a beautiful day, when in fact he was watching his enemy. Sasuke's "teammate" walked up behind him.
"So, should we take care of them?"
Sasuke answered without even turning around. "No. they're not alone. When they didn't report back it would raise unwanted suspicion. Plus, I don't think they know our exact location, if we killed them it would be like raising a huge flag saying look, here we are." Idiot. At that, the man he had been addressing headed back into the mountain. He's as bad as Naruto. Sasuke's white shirt blew in the wind, revealing more of his body, the wide plunging v of his shirt leaving little to the imagination. When he first saw his rival emerge from the tree line his chest had gotten tight, and his heart had started pounding so hard he thought it might come out of his chest. Far from the reaction he had been expecting. He had thought he would feel rage, or excitement at the opportunity to kill Naruto, but not nervous, and definitely not a weird mixture of happiness and relief. He had quickly squashed down any feeling that could interfere with his goal. And now the only thing left was rage. Sasuke got up and walked over to the cave entrance.
"Time to go. We will keep an eye on them from a distance." His companion reappeared and they set out.
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By the time they made it to the foot of the mountain range it was late afternoon.
"Wow, that took a lot longer than I thought. We are going to have to pick up the pace if we want to check out both of the possible locations for Akatsuki hideouts on this mountain and make it back in three days." Naruto took a deep breath and sighed. "How many were there again, two?"
"That's correct."
"Let me guess, they are on opposite sides of this mountain range?"
"Actually, yes."
"Damn. There's no way." Naruto stood with his hands on his hips. "Well, let's get up to the top and make camp. We can come up with a strategy then."
It was pitch dark when they reached the top of the mountain. They fumbled around to try and get their sleeping pads out.
"I'm going to scout for a good spot to keep watch, have a plan thought up by the time I get back, okay?" Sai turned at the sound of Naruto's voice. He gave a nod as he began pulling some snacks out of his pack. Naruto walked slowly through the darkness, careful to keep an eye on the ever growing drop off to his right. After having only walked a little way he found himself standing on a cliff that overlooked the way they had just come. This is the perfect place to keep watch, you could see someone coming for miles. There was a full moon out and it filled the night with silver light, the forest below looked so still and peaceful. I wish I was with Sakura...Kakashi, that bastard. I mean sure, him and Sai are the only ones that have jutsu or summoning's for sending messages, but still! Naruto was brought out of his thoughts when he saw something out of the corner of his eye glinting in the moon light. He turned toward the towering wall of rock behind him. Another plus to this spot, no one could sneak up behind you. He walked toward the shining object on the ground. When he got close enough to see what it was, he froze, his deep blue eyes growing large. As he bent to pick it up his hands shook. He picked up the object and stared at it. It took all his strength to maintain his composure.
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Sasuke watched intently from his perch far in the distance at the top of a tree. What is he doing, I thought that idiot said he had covered our tracks. He might be even worse than Naruto. It looks like he hasn't discovered the entrance yet, that's something. I guess at this point it doesn't matter, we will probably never go back there again anyways. Tch. He is just standing there, moron. Sasuke called his rage to the surface, no way he would lose to a moron like Naruto. Only one of them would walk away alive, and if he lost, he deserved to be dead. He clenched his teeth at the thought of fighting Naruto. He decided they weren't going to just keep an eye on them from a distance after all, even if it did raise a red flag. Naruto had no idea what was coming.
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Tears filled Naruto's eyes and dripped down onto the picture of team seven, clearly worn by travel and being held. "Sasuke..." Naruto said through his tears. "I'm coming for you I promise. You're not alone." He shoved the picture of team seven into his pocket and tried to regain his composure, taken back by the effects a simple picture had on him. He headed back down to their camp.
"So, did you come up with a foolproof plan yet Sai?" Sai lay on his mat already sound asleep. Naruto smiled. "I guess first watch is mine then." He chuckled. He grabbed some snacks out of his pack and headed back up the path to stand watch.