The starlit sky shone brightly through the tinted skylight of Konoha's Main Hall, a sight so lovely that Naruto Uzimake found his attention wavering from what Kakashi Hatake, his sensei, was saying. With a sigh, Kakashi stopped talking, waiting for his young pupil to return to reality.

The stars, they look so beautiful. How have I not given them my attention before? Naruto thought to himself. There's so many, I wonder if anyone has ever tried to count them all? Suddenly, something flared in one of the corners of the skylight: a single, but pure white, burst of light. What was that...

Kakashi was not the only one who had noticed Naruto was distracted. To the young genin's left, his teammate Sasuke Uchiha, gave one of his characteristic glares at the yellow-headed child. Why can't you just stay focused like me and Sakura? he thought shrewdly. When will he just grow up like the rest of us? A glance around Naruto caused a small flicker of dissapointment to crawl across his face.Correction; why can't he stay focused like me ?

To the left of Naruto was the yellow-headed genin's third teammate, the pink-haired Sakura Hurano. She, like Sasuke and Kakashi, had noticed Naruto was not paying attention to their latest mission. She, unlike Sasuke and Kakashi, did not keep her thoughts to herself. "NARUTO, PAY ATTENTION!" she yelled at him. Her words were accompanied by a fist to his head, sending the boy crashing to the ground. Sakura stood over him, glaring mutinously down at his now curled up body.

"Sakura, what are you doing?!"

"Saving Kakashi sensei the trouble of beating some sense into you!"

Naruto gave a small whimper, then looked back up to the skylight. Any trace of the strange burst of light was long gone. Disappointed, he got himself back on his feet. "Well, I'm paying attention now. Let's hear it, Kakashi sensei."

The older ninja placed a hand over his one visible eye in exasperation. "I already explained the whole mission, Naruto. You didn't catch a word of anything I said?"

Naruto thought hard, until his head actually began to hurt. "Uh...no?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Alright, I'll give you the rundown one more time. But after this, you're going to have to ask either Sasuke or Sakura for details. And I know how badly they would want to tell you."

Naruto took a glance at the still furious Sakura, and then at the cool glare of Sasuke, and opted to devote his entire attention to Kakashi this time.

"Now, The Fifth Hokage recently received a message from the Land of Dunes, a small country on our eastern border, asking for assistance in taking care of some rogue ninja bandits that have been hounding their trade caravans. Because the Land of Dunes lacks an official ninja village, they've come to us for help."

"Wait, wait wait!" Naruto interrupted. "You said 'official.' You mean they still have a ninja village?"

"Not quite. Instead of training their own ninjas, the Land of Dunes has opted to take in rogue and missing-nin to try and form their own military. As you can imagine, that hasn't exactly worked out for them quite well."

"They've been taking in our traitors, as well as other nation's traitors?" Sakura asked, stunned. "They can do that?"

Kakashi gave his forehead protector a little tug, as if he to was uncomfortable with the notion. "Unfortunately, that is the case, yes. If ninja from our village are willing to give their loyalty to another, we have no right to therefore arrest a now other nation's ninja. However, most rogue ninja that join the Land of Dunes never really stay. They do it to temporarily clear their name, so that we're forced to drop it from our Bingo Books, and then they just go back to criminal activity. At that point, we can't track them again until they show themselves once more."

"Then they're worse than scum," Sasuke said. "If they're too cowardly to answer for their crimes, then they can't even be classified as ninja."

"You're quite right. But we are only going to the Land of Dunes to protect their trade convoys, not to change their whole structure. We will be there for two weeks so that we can send a message to any bandits that Konoha is protecting the traders."

With a leap forward, Naruto crowed, "Then let's show them what's what! Team 7 hasn't known defeat yet! Besides, I've been really itching to use my Rasengan on some new enemies!" With that, he made to jump right out the door-

"I make it sound simple, Naruto, but it really isn't," said Kakashi, and he moved so rapidly that one moment he was a blur, and the next he was right in front of the genin. "Rogue ninja come in all shape's and sizes. I know that when we went to the Land of Snow we faced off against some serious ninja, and I know that you faced off with Kabuto and Orochimaru during your quest to find Lady Tsunade. But this time, it's different. Lord Jiraiya isn't here to fight on your behalf, and the conditions we are going to is practically unknown. The only reason this mission has been assigned to Team 7, a still dominantly genin team, is because I have been to the Land of Dunes before, and am the only one who has been there."

"Then why aren't you off with some other jonin, Kakashi sensei?" Sakura asked, cocking her head in confusion. "Not that I'm worried about this mission, but this is sounding awfully close to a higher class mission!"

"I don't know all the details myself," Kakashi grumbled, beckoning for the team to follow him out the door. "But the only reason we are bothering with a country like the Land of Dunes is because they supply around 30% of all the gold in Konoha. If we were to send in a full jonin team to deal with the bandits, more than likely a force stronger than their entire military, it would seem like we were trying to directly control the gold trade. In other words, an occupation force."

Sasuke shook his head. "Don't tell me; then we'll have to break diplomatic ties or some stupid political scandal will arise?"

"Worse; the Land of Dunes in apart of an alliance called the Triad. The alliance is military based, meaning if the Land of Dunes felt thtreatened and initated conflict, we'd be dealing with two other nations."

Naruto furrowed his brow, perplexed. "But what's so worrying about that? Konoha has the best ninja in the world! There's no reason for us to be so worried about some silly little alliance."

"Its not the threat of military action, Naruto. You see, one of the members of the Triad is the Land of Sound."

Sasuke stopped walking. "Orochimaru's land."

"Yes. Now you might be able to piece it all together."

"I think I can do it, Kakashi sensei," Sakura said, her voice gushing with the desire to impress Sasuke. "If we send in a small, seemingly weak force to the Land of Dunes, they won't see it as an invasion force, they'll see it as a genial protection force. That means, when the mission is completed, the Land of Dunes will be favorable towards us, allowing for more cooperation to be done with them, to the point they might even offer us entry into the Triad Alliance."

Kakashi nodded his appreciation for Sakura's genius. "To which point we might be able to finally crack what the Land of Sound's purpose really is, and allow a possible capture of our slippery friend."

Sasuke placed a hand on his neck, and Sakura's eyes widened in concern. It was known to all four of them that during their Chunin Exams, Sasuke had been bit by Orochimaru himself, giving the young Uchiha some sort of curse mark. While they didn't really know what it's real function was, all Sakura knew is that it unleashed Sasuke's dark side; an evil as true as Orochimaru.

"Let's just get this mission done," Sasuke said abruptly, dropping his hand from the mark. "The quicker, the better." He started walking again, and within a few more minutes they were at the gates of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

There was a sizable group waiting for them there, and Naruto could immediately tell it was the caravan they were being assigned to guard. Wagon's being pulled by donkeys and horses filled up the entrance, and chatty merchants were bickering to each other on their successful deals. A brightly clothed merchant saw the four approach the caravan, and walked over to them. "You are Team 7, yes?"

"That we are," Kakashi answered. "Is your caravan ready to head out?"

"Yes, yes, we are all set. My name is Heyuut, the new diplomat between the Land of Fire and the Land of Dunes."

"A pleasure to meet you," Kakashi said brightly. "Where will my team and I be riding?"

"In our defensive wagon," Heyuut blustered, pointing to a heavily armored wagon with three other ninja already on it. One of them saw Heyuut pointing at them, and Naruto was given the sudden feeling that Team 7 would not be welcome on their wagon. "We are leaving in five minutes, so best get on board!"

"Wait, Diplomat Heyuut," Kakashi said, his persona still bright and lively. "What is the name of the rather menacing and, quite frankly, unwelcoming figure looking over at us?"

Heyuut's expression flickered from boisterous to unsettled for a moment, but when he answered Kakashi, he was all joy once again. "That is Juruko. He is in charge of our safety for this trip. He is one of our ninja, as are those other two. I suggest you get acquainted with him!"

"We'll try," Kakashi said, and even Naruto could detect that his sensei might be forcibly putting on this happy personality. "We are ready to leave when you are."

"Let's go, let's go!" Heyuut exclaimed happily, and jostled on down to the front of the caravan, calling to the other merchants to be sure they were all set as well.

"I wasn't informed we would be having to work with the rogue ninja from the Land of Dunes," said Kakashi coolly to Heyuut's back. "Thank you for leaving out such crucial information."

"Why is that important," Sasuke asked calmly, looking over at the rogue ninja. "It's not like that even they try to fight us, it'll be a problem."

"Because Juruko was a missing-nin from the Land of Lightning. Ach, I told Lady Tsunade to forget about diplomacy and just make this an A-rank mission, but she just didn't want to risk it."

"So he's a traitor and scum to the Land of Lighting," Sasuke argued. "How is that still a problem?"

Kakashi sighed, beckoning the team forward towards the armored wagon. "Juruko left the village for committing a heinous crime that would've gotten him executed had he stayed. I'm sure whoever his teammates are on that cart there know who he is, and are most likely terrified."

"But what did he dooooooo?" Naruto demanded.

They reached the cart, causing Kakashi to pause on giving an answer. Instead he offered his hand to the one called Juruko. "Hello, my name is Kakashi Hatake, and these are the members of my team: Naruto Uzimaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Hurano. I hope we can all accomplish this mission on good terms- together."

The man called Juruko looked at Kakashi eye-to-eye, and Naruto got a good look at the other's face. He was dark-skinned, and wore a simple outfit. His forehead protector, however, was blank.

Not a single scar or insult to the flesh was visible on the man's face.

"An honor to meet the Copy-Cat Ninja himself," Juruko said after a painful minute of silence. "Let's just stay on the assumption that I am in charge still, agreed?"

"No question about it," Kakashi said automatically. "My team and I are at your disposal."

Naruto opened his mouth to disagree, but Kakashi slapped a hand across his lips. Not dragging his eyes away from Juruko, who was now facing the other way to wait for the signal to begin moving, he helped all 3 of the genin onto the cart.

The other two ninja from the Land of Dunes gave nods of greeting as they all settled down, but did nothing more. They blankly stared at each other, their eyes exhibiting signs of paranoia and lack of sleep.

"Kakashi sensei, what was his crime?" Naruto whispered.

"Later, Naruto."

And the blond genin, in a rare occurrence, shut his mouth. One look at his sensei was all he needed to know now was not the time. Kakashi, who had except in the most dire of situations, was letting his Sharingan peep over the top of his forehead protector.

Looking upon Juruko.

Oh man, Naruto thought to himself. If this creep has got even Kakashi sensei all riled up, then he must be the real deal!

"Alright, everybody!" Heyuut's voice called out. "Let's head back home!"

Like a great, lumbering beast, the caravan began to shift forward like a single entity. Naruto looked behind the cart, at the great wooden gates that guarded the Village. He could still see the outlines of the buildings in the night. Then, as one, they swung towards eachother, as if grateful to come into communion once more. With a loud boom, they shut, shielding his gaze from the village.

It's only two weeks. Naruto felt as if he was trying to comfort himself. Only two weeks. I'm excited for this! An A-rank mission! To an almost unknown land! This is the adventure of a lifetime! Man, who needs Konoha when you're gonna be fighting all day.

But he could not fight the urge to gaze upon the village once more.