AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey guys! I've got another chapter for you! It's just been flowing easily lately, hopefully it keeps up!

Thank you to all of my readers who have been patient and have stayed with me even when there have been weeks and months between updates. You guys are amazing.

I'm not going to go on a long schpeel on everything, I've just been having a very long and hard few months and I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things.

DISCLAIMER:

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO *this is a sad fact for me*

Last time:

She felt more than saw Sasuke come up behind her and pace a hand on her shoulder before bending down to her ear. "You ok?"

"Yeah, it's just been a long day."

He chuckled softly, "Yeah it has."

Chapter 16: Mission for you

The next few days were difficult for Sasuke after the incident with Naruto in their room. Try as hard as he might he couldn't get the image of naked out of his head, he even tried sleeping on the couch. He thought maybe putting some space between them while they were sleeping would help, but he only managed to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, freaking out because she wan't there. He thought something had happened and that she was gone, taken away from him again. He raced to the bedroom to find her tangled up in the blankets from tossing and turning in her sleep. She had his pillow clutched tightly to her chest and curled around it as though needing something.

Sleeping together for so long had made it so that sleeping apart was no longer a favorable option for either of them. He crawled into the bed and gently untangled her from the blankets, rather than wake her trying to take his pillow back he just stole hers. It wasn't long after that he drifted off to sleep and she curled around him instead of his pillow.

The next morning he woke up to her curled up to him and a raging hard on he was sure was going to wake her up. She looked so peaceful with her head on his shoulder and her arm across his stomach he didn't want to move. He knew though he needed to get in the shower, preferably a cold one as soon as possible before she woke up. So as carefully as he could he extracted himself from her and made his way to the bathroom and started the first of many cold showers to come.

He also tried keeping his distance in general only for her to look hurt when he did, bringing to mid the kiss they shared the last time he ignored her, which did not help matters at all. They shared a few kisses here and there but since he didn't want to rush into anything she wasn't ready for he held back and made sure clothes stayed on at all times. All clothes. He also knew they needed to have a talk about the rogue ninja and what that would mean if they decided they did want to go further in their relationship beyond what it was since he wasn't sure either of them quite knew what that was. Especially what that meant if they, or she decided on a family some day whether they worked out or not. She needed to know, since no one had told her really why the rogue ninja wanted her.

Now he was standing outside the Hokage's office with Naruto because Tsunade had requested their presence but she wanted them to wait for Kakashi and Sakura to show up. All she would tell them was that she had a mission for them and she wanted to wait for everyone to be there so she only had to say things once.

So Sasuke was leaning against the wall just outside Tsunade's office and Naruto was pacing the hall as they waited. And waited. Both Kakashi and Sakura were late and it was making Naruto bored having to wait for them. She was anxious to get going. The fact that they were both late was surprising since Sakura was usually early for anything and everything, but for Kakashi, not so much. He was known for being tardy. Always.

Sasuke watched as Naruto made another trek down the hall pacing like a caged animal. Crossing his arms as she turned to make to go the other way he spoke. "Nervous?"

She looked at him and a faint blush colored her cheeks that he thought was cute and pretty at the same time. She'd been doing that a lot lately since the other day. Something Suigetsu had picked up on right away and teased her endlessly about.

"No, not really, I can't wait to get going and actually do something." she said breathlessly before resuming her pacing, stuffing her hands in her pockets as she went.

'My first mission since coming back, what do you think Kurama?'

'Don't screw it up. They may not let you go on another.' His voice rumbled through her sounding amused causing her to smile.

"Something funny?" Sasuke asked noticing the smile she wore as her steps slowed but she continued her on her path she was wearing into the floor.

"Just Kurama."

He could only guess what fox had said to make her smile. Then again maybe not.

"Just Kurama?" The fox mocked leading Nauto to giggle. "Maybe we should call you 'Just clumsy'."

'Hey! Not you too!" Her face went from amused to embarrassed faster than Sasuke thought possible, maybe he did want to know after all.

Before he could ask though Sakura came around the corner followed by an annoyed looking Kakashi, who looked rather damp if his drooping hair was anything to go by.

Not missing a beat Naruto perked up at his appearance. "Kakashi Sensei, why are you wet?"

Shooting an annoyed look towards the blonde Kakashi glared at the pink haired ninja ahead of him. "Sakura decided that I needed an ice bath to wake up."

Naruto couldn't help herself as she laughed and Sakura looked as smug as could be, adding a slight skip to her step at her mentor's words. "I didn't feel like being late." She stated as though it was the simplest thing in the world making her way over to Sasuke to stand beside him. Naruto quit laughing at how close Sakura was to Sasuke.

Too close in Naruto's opinion. Shooting Sakura a glare she moved to stand on his other side and took his hand in hers, holding on tight as he squeezed her hand in return. She almost missed the look of hatred Sakura shot her way as she caught sight of Sasuke smiling slightly at her possessive gesture.

Kakashi rolled his eyes at his former student's antics even though the development between Sasuke and Naruto was interesting, he shook his damp hair out of his face.

"You didn't want to be late, yet here we are. Later than you wold have been had you left me alone." Sounding exasperated he made his way to the office door and opened it, motioning for the others to enter.

Tsunade looked up from the stack of paper work before her on her desk. "Good, you're all here."

All four of them lined up before her desk and waited as she signed the document before her and capped her pen, setting it aside. "As I mentioned before I have a mission for you." They all looked at her expectantly to continue. Leaning back in her chair she folded her hands before her. "I want you to locate Sai and his team. They should have reported in by now and they haven't. Frankly I'm beginning to think that something has happened to them. I'm hoping that I am wrong." Leaning forward she placed her hands on her desk before looking at each of them. "This mission could take a while, anywhere from a few weeks to even a month to complete since I don't have a definite idea where they they are supposed to be. Only a couple general locations." Reaching down to one of the drawers of her desk she pulled one open and removed a scroll and handed it to Kakashi. "This scroll contains the last few towns they were in and a vague reference as to where they were headed next."

"When you find them, tell them they are needed back here at the village and you are to report back here as soon as possible. Do you understand?" she asked looking them each in the eye, not missing the annoyance that sparked to life in Sasuke's eyes at the mention of Sai.

"Yes Lady Hokage." Kakashi said before they took their leave of her office.

Sai was fitting in with the rogue ninjas better than he thought he was going to. They seemed to have more in common with him than his team and village. The best part was they were going to help him get Naruto. Sure Shigure said that they'd have to stay with the rogue ninjas, but it was worth it if he got to have her and get her away from that damn Uchiha.

Last night Shigure had requested his presence for dinner in his room and Sai complied. Shigure was as pleasant as always as they talked.

"I have a plan for how we can get Naruto soner than originally planned." He stabbed his chop stick into a chunk of meat on his plate and placed it in his mouth.

Sai watched hoping he'd elaborate, when he realized Shigure wanted a verbal response from him before doing so, "And how might that be?"

Waving his chop stick in the air in little circles he smiled as he swallowed. "Well by now your village is going to want to know where you are and what you've been up to let alone why you haven't contacted them in," He looked up as he thought. "It's been a few weeks now hasn't it?" Sai nodded and Shigure continued. "So, I'm sure they're going to send out a team to track you down. The way i figure it is if they 'find' you, they'll take you back to the village with them." He looked pointedly at the male across the table as he nodded again that he'd be right. "So if we found a way to hide the poison on your person, or even in your person where you'd be able to get it easily you could slip it to Naruto."

"What poison?" Sai was confused, why would they want to poison her? Wouldn't that harm her?

Waving his chopstick back and forth before stabbing another piece of meat he looked at Sai, "Not what you're thinking I'm sure." He popped the meat into his mouth and began to chew.

"Poisons are generally bad." Sai pointed out as Shigure swallowed and smiled.

"Well yes I suppose that's true, but this is a poison in the sense that it's not supposed to be in her body and the only way to get rid of it is with an antidote. I'm sure you saw the after affects of the poison when she came back."

"Yeah I heard about it and know that her chakra was pretty much reset. Won't it do that again?" He sounded worried.

"No, my ancestors could never figure out how to recreate the full effects of the poison or why it didn't affect them that way when dosed again. Now back to what I was saying, You would dose Naruto and the Uchiha at the same time. And after it took affect you'd be able to knock her out and come here with the Uchiha not far behind. Since the Uchiha isn't a Jinchuriki host the poison would work its way out of his system in a couple of days at the most. Though it would be easier to control both of them if it worked like it did the first time on both of them. But since the Uchiha is sure to follow where she goes, we'll be able to come up with something I'm sure."

Sai held up his hand for Shigure to hold on. "You mean it doesn't work the same on someone who isn't a Jinchuriki?"

"It still steals their chakara away but since there's no seal or however the beast is contained in side of a non-host there's really no way to ontain the effects of the poison. So it would just work it's way out like a cold," Shigure shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. But if Sasuke was going to get his abilities back Sai was a dead man. "It was made that as a fail safe so that is somehow the person administering the poison got it into their system there wouldn't be long term or permanent affects."

No one but the rogue ninjas knew that the poison worked the way it did, especially the second time with the Jinchurikis. And that was because only a few had been rescued and cured and hidden away. The ones who weren't hidden away died before they could be dosed and taken again. The ones they had experimented on to find out the affects died anyhow since they were no longer of any use and their beasts disappeared back to their villages with no host to contain them any longer, to be sucked into whatever holding container they had til their next host could be found.

Shigure pushed his empty plate away from him and leaned back in his chair resting his hands across his stomach. "Since they're never going to believe that you just allowed your team to be slaughtered and joined their enemy, at least we don't wan them to," he sighed and closed his eyes and leaned his head back. "So we're going to make it seem like you've been held captive here and managed to escape while we were changing locations or something." cracking an eye open he had a twinkle in his eye as he looked at Sai. "I'm sure Kyo or Suki would have issues with helping you look like a victim, and after Haru will figure out how to hide the poison."

Sai was sure they'd have no problems wanting to help, they'd probably even fight over who got the honors. But he was still confused about something. "What do you want Uchiha for? wouldn't it just be easier to get rid of him while the poison was still in affect?"

Shigure sat up and looked at Sai with a cold glint in his eye. "That's my business. That's all you need to know."

Now he was sitting in a room tied to a post in the middle of no where waiting foe Kyo and Suki to finish deciding who was going to go first.

Then it was time to wait.

Wait for her to come to his 'rescue'.

Wait for everything to fall into place and to get his Naruto.

Author's note again...

re-reading my work while thinking "I know i can spell when i put pen to paper so why is it so different on the keyboard?"

It's such a mess when i read it that i just shake my head.