I return, finally! And I bring more awkward conversations. This story is going somewhere, I promise!

Chapter Forty-three:

Usually, my missions took a long time, and if they didn't, I would train until it was late. Ninja life. Thrilling. As a result, Sasuke and I would meet back at our apartment and go out to a restaurant for dinner, since it was faster and easier than cooking.

Today, I had stopped training a little early so that I could come home and make spaghetti with extra tomatoes. Sasuke loved tomatoes, but tomatoes alone were not a meal, whatever he seemed to think, so a proper meal with a lot of tomatoes it was.

Also, spaghetti was easy to make. I wasn't exactly great at cooking.

And now I was waiting for Sasuke. Impatiently. It wasn't so much that I wanted him to see my spaghetti, more that I was really hungry and I wanted to be able to eat the product of my work. Finally, Sasuke was almost here, and the reason I knew that was absolutely not because I'd been following his chakra signature for the past ten minutes.

I fought off the urge to wait for him in front of the door. That would make me seem overeager, especially to Sasuke, who didn't know about my chakra sensing.

Play it cool...

The door opened.

"Welcome home," I chirped, then cursed myself. Playing it cool, utter failure.

There was a pause. "...I'm back," Sasuke said. He sounded a little weirded out, which was fair given how quickly I'd spoken, but whatever. Sasuke could deal with a little weirdness.

...Even if I hadn't really been cool like I wanted to. I was a failure as an Uchiha.

Sasuke appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.

Breathe. Careful. "I made spaghetti," I said in a miraculously even tone.

"It smells good," Sasuke said. "Thanks."

I smiled.

Finally, thankfully, we could eat. I was so happy.

Even once I finally looked up from inhaling my food - I was really hungry - Sasuke was still just poking at his plate, slowly picking the tomato pieces out and dropping them at the side. I blinked. That was weird, since Sasuke liked the tomatoes. He usually ate them together with the rest of the spaghetti, probably because there was enough tomatoes in his to mostly only taste them, rather than the noodles.

"Sasuke? Is something wrong?" I asked, unwilling to leave this alone.

"Hm?" he looked up at me, almost startled, then back at the pile of tomato chunks. "Oh... I don't really want tomatoes right now, I guess." He continued looking at his plate contemplatively.

I stared. I had never known Sasuke to turn down tomatoes before. It wasn't an obsession or anything; Sasuke ate and presumably enjoyed plenty of other foods, but he really loved tomatoes.

Maybe I was just overreacting, though. Sometimes people just got tired of things, even their favorite food. And it wasn't like this was a sign of him running away like he had originally. It was such a stupid, minor thing, it probably didn't matter at all.

So why did I feel like it did?

Pulling my apartment key out of my pocket, I went to unlock the door. And paused. It was already unlocked. Sasuke and I always locked the door when we left, although it wasn't really necessary. This building, and many nearby apartment complexes, were popular with ninja, so it would be a very stupid thief who tried to steal from any of them, and anybody who didn't need to worry about ninja retribution wouldn't be stopped by a locked door anyway. Still, I didn't like the thought that somebody could just walk in, and it seemed Sasuke agreed.

In any case, the only reason the door would be unlocked was if Sasuke was home already. I wasn't home any later than usual, though, and I always got home before he did recently, given his fixation with training.

"I'm home," I called out as I entered.

No reply.

Sasuke was home, however, I discovered. He was sitting seiza at our coffee table in the living room, staring very intently at a scroll.

"Sasuke?" I said, amused. Apparently that scroll was fascinating.

He glanced up for a moment. "Welcome home," he said distractedly, already turning back to his scroll.

Well, I couldn't say I hadn't been in similar positions before. Sometimes scrolls really were just that engrossing. A closer look, which garnered no response from Sasuke, revealed that the scroll was one of the Uchiha clan's. From what I could tell, probably a fire jutsu, but it looked extremely complicated. Or maybe it was shurikenjutsu? It might have been both, even.

I shrugged and continued past him to my room. If he was distracted, I might as well shower. As I was entering the narrow hallway that led to our rooms and the bathroom, however, Sasuke snarled wordlessly. There was a soft thump, shortly followed by a series of noises that I could no longer associate with anything but the sound of kunai burying themselves in an object.

Alarmed, I spun back to face the room.

There was no discernible threat. The scroll was pinned open to the wall with three kunai, all vaguely center-mass, if a scroll had such a thing. The kunai weren't just sticking a little into the wall, either; they were all buried almost to the hilt. Given the placement of the kunai and the fact that kunai certainly weren't small, the damage had almost certainly made the scroll unreadable. That was... shocking. Not just weird, but outright unbelievable. Many of the scrolls in the Uchiha library were now one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable. They'd been made from memory by a now definitely dead person. And Sasuke was usually appropriately respectful of them. He would never destroy one like that, even out of frustration.

But yet... he clearly had.

"Sasuke?" I said.

He hadn't moved, staring at the skewered scroll and breathing heavily, which I figured was most likely not due to physical exertion. He looked furious. At my word, he flicked a glance at me, then stormed towards the door out of the apartment.

"Sasuke!" I said again. "Don't just ignore me!"

He ignored me.

With barely a pause to put on his shoes, he left the apartment. I huffed. Sasuke was always moody, but this was taking it to new levels. Like, seriously strange levels. I supposed it could have just been the beginning of his teenage rebellion, but I really hoped that a ninja would be a little more serious than that.

No, it wasn't just hope; the Sasuke I knew from even a year ago would definitely not have destroyed one of those scrolls no matter what. My Sasuke should have been in a better mental state than the original one from the anime, or at least I wanted to think I'd helped. But he still had the curse seal. Maybe that was the problem? It wasn't when the strange behavior had started, but it was before any noticeable oddities. And the anime had never really explained it very well.

I had to talk to Kakashi.

Unfortunately, I didn't actually know how to find Kakashi. I figured I'd wait until the evening to go looking, and hopefully he wasn't on a mission that lasted more than a day. But then, as I was waiting to meet with my teammates, Kakashi ruined my planning.

Of course, it was because he showed up on his own, so I wasn't sure I could complain.

"Good morning, Kakashi-sensei," I said, because it was only polite. "Aren't you busy?"

He'd said before that he wasn't as busy as before, but I still figured his visits weren't going to be a common thing. Certainly not within a week of each other.

"Ah, things are as busy as ever," he replied with an eye-smile. "But I seem to have found some time."

I trusted Kakashi, I did. I even usually considered him sane. But that was incredibly worrying."...I see."

"Why the suspicious look?" Kakashi said, chuckling. Without waiting for an answer, which I felt meant he already knew, he said cheerfully, "I may have found a C-Rank mission for our team."

"What kind of C-Rank?" I asked immediately.

It was important information. Would we be out of the village for several weeks as we had during the last one? I vaguely remembered some C-Rank missions from the end of the anime and the movies, so would it be any of those? I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be or not, since I didn't remember them well, but any memory was better than if it wasn't one and I knew nothing about it.

But Kakashi just smiled and patted me on the head. "Don't worry about it, Reika-chan, it'll be fun!"

And in that moment, I knew it wouldn't be fun at all. However, if it was really a serious mission, Kakashi would probably not be acting so silly about it.

I batted his hand away, which didn't deter him in his cheerfulness at all, and we lapsed into silence. Kakashi pulled out his Icha Icha. Focusing for a moment, I found that Sasuke and Naruto weren't nearby. Good.

"Kakashi-sensei," I said.

He didn't look up. "Hmm?"

"About Sasuke," I said, and this made him look up, although it was in a lazy manner. "He's been acting really weird lately. I'm getting worried."

"Weird? Weird how?" Kakashi said.

I couldn't help but make a face at that because I couldn't explain, not really - how was I supposed to tell him that Sasuke was refusing to eat tomatoes and using scrolls for impromptu target practice? I'd sound ridiculous.

"Just, not like himself. I really think that Sasuke wouldn't act like he has been lately, except obviously he has been-" I cut myself off before I could really start rambling. "He's been weird since - since the Forest of Death."

Kakashi stared at me for a moment. On anyone else, I'd say he looked contemplative. "How much do you know about the curse seal on Sasuke, Reika?" he asked.

Oh, crap.

I didn't know what to say. How much was I supposed to know? Definitely nothing about the chakra-stealing part or the weird forms it apparently had. I scrambled for something to say.

"Just that it was put on him by Orochimaru," I tried. Hopefully I was supposed to know about that.

"I see," Kakashi said, closing his eye and sighing. "You're very clever." He shook his head. "Well, don't worry about it; with the seal I put over it, Sasuke will be fine. Okay?"

It was very much not okay, but he was obviously waiting for an answer. "Okay," I said. Maybe Kakashi was even right - but I doubted it.

Kakashi stared at his book, but I got the feeling he wasn't reading it. After all, he wasn't flipping the pages anymore. Eventually, Sasuke and Naruto showed up. Somehow, they'd apparently run into each other on the way and were well into an argument, the subject of which was now indistinguishable underneath their childish insults.

In the face of this new appearance, Kakashi's disturbing cheer came back and he beamed at the two of them. They both faltered, Naruto even stopping mid-insult. Naruto recovered first, and returned Kakashi's cheerfulness two-fold.

"Kakashi-sensei!" he shouted, running forward excitedly.

Sasuke hung back and looked at Kakashi suspiciously.

Calming down enough to be confused, Naruto tilted his head to the side. Like a puppy. "Huh? Why are you here, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi smiled. Sasuke had a wary look, which I tried to return, but he didn't so much as glance over at me, while Naruto just continued to look confused.

"I've found a mission for us to take as a team," Kakashi explained brightly. Naruto made a face, likely assuming it was like the D-ranks we'd taken when we graduated, but Kakashi continued before he could interrupt. "A C-rank, naturally. I thought you guys might appreciate the chance to leave the village."

And that was fine, I supposed, but there was a look in Kakashi's eye like this was somehow going to be amusing for him. Since Kakashi was a jerk and thought causing us suffering was funny, that didn't bode well for us. Naruto, however, didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah! A C-rank!" He bounced in place, excited. "What is it, what is it? Do we get to fight missing-nin? Escort a princess?"

Naruto stopped there, and I could practically see the stars in his eyes as he fantasized about rescuing a princess from some dastardly foe. Even though neither of those things would be C-rank. It wasn't really a surprise that Naruto would have a strange idea of C-rank missions, though, considering that he tended to get the weird ones.

"Not quite, my cute little genin," Kakashi said, snapping his book closed and stowing it in his pouch.

Kakashi's visible eye closed, the peak of his smiling capabilities. That wasn't good.

It turned out that our mission was in a village close to Leaf, only a couple hours' run away. Of course, this was relatively far for civilians. The mission was, inexplicably, to cut down some of the village's bordering trees. Now, living in the Leaf village, I'd noticed that there seemed to be two types of tree, although if there was a logical explanation for it, it was the only well-kept secret in the village. The first type of tree was seemingly normal, which meant easy to destroy; however, within days of being destroyed, any of those trees would be right back in their place, indistinguishable from before. The second type of tree was incredibly, impossible durable and could withstand even the most determined of ninja destruction. It was quite possible those trees would live through the apocalypse.

In summary, I had the ominous feeling that I knew why Kakashi found it so very amusing. Sasuke and Naruto, meanwhile, apparently believed that the amusement factor was, as it had been with so many D-ranks, because of the boredom. I actually found myself hoping they were right, and it was not, in fact, because the trees were difficult to so much as shake, much less cut down.

We met briefly with the village chief upon our arrival at the village, and then Kakashi led the way to the trees we were apparently meant to cut down.

"The village hires Leaf to remove these trees every three or four years," Kakashi explained on the way. "They could do it more often, of course, but trees like these are prized for their wood, which is used in construction. By those who can afford it, that is, as it is quite costly. In this case, due to current circumstances, Leaf made a deal with the chief to do the mission free of charge in exchange for the trees' wood."

Naruto blinked. Processed that. "Wait, we're doing it for free?" he cried. "I thought we got paid for missions!"

Sasuke scoffed, but didn't strain himself to respond verbally.

"We are still getting paid," Kakashi said patiently. "The Leaf is fronting the cost for our payment without payment from the client. Anyway, the wood is worth enough that it's a good deal." He looked up. "Ah, here we are."

The trees in question weren't exactly encroaching on the village walls, but I supposed I could see the hazard in having them so close, if they were to ever fall. Not that such a thing was likely. They weren't especially tall or wide, but they definitely did not look like three or four year old trees. It was possible that meant they were the first kind of tree, the fast-growing, non-durable kind.

"Wow, these trees are big for only being a couple years old," I said.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, most trees in Fire Country tend to grow quickly," he said. "That's why we're the biggest source of wood despite other countries also being largely forest."

It was ironic that Fire Country had the best trees. I restrained myself from saying so out loud. I was distracted momentarily by four chakra signatures in the trees, well away from our area. That was kind of weird, but I figured it was as likely to be innocuous as it was for it to be, like, missing-nin or something. I ignored the ominous feeling that I'd just jinxed us.

We examined the trees we were meant to be cutting down. I noticed that the village we were working for had not given us any kind of tool to use. They had, at least, clearly marked the trees we were meant to be removing with a small fence of wooden stakes and rope. Apparently unbothered by the lack of proper equipment, Naruto pulled out a kunai and began slicing at the base of one of the trees.

A minute of increasingly fervent sawing later, he finally made it through the bark. He huffed, breathing hard more from emotion than physical exertion. So it was the durable kind of tree after all. To quote Shikamaru, how troublesome.

"What, I can't cut it," Naruto said, just shy of a whine.

Sasuke was also standing by, watching Naruto. "So how are we supposed to cut them down?" he demanded.

"Who knows?" said Kakashi unhelpfully with a shrug, pulling his book out of his pouch.

And so we were left to figure it out ourselves. Since we wanted the wood to be usable, fire ninjutsu was obviously out. Before I could make any suggestions, Sasuke and Naruto wandered off to experiment on their own. Well, fine. I could do it on my own. Those four chakra signatures, I noted, hadn't moved. I tried not to be paranoid.

Ninja wire was good at cutting, I figured. It wouldn't be the best method, but it might at least work. I looped a wire around the trunk of one of the trees, then wrapped the ends around my hands and pulled alternatively on each end, hopefully causing it to cut against the side of the tree. After about a minute of this, I checked the other side of the tree. It was cut deeper than Naruto had managed, and relatively evenly across the trunk unlike his smaller cut, but it was still not much damage at all.

I sighed, wrapping the ninja wire back up and stowing it. Clearly, this was not the way.

Meanwhile, Sasuke apparently tried the extremely clever method of embedding a kunai as far into the tree as he could and then doing a running kick to force it deeper. He did successfully get the kunai hilt-deep in the tree, admittedly.

Naruto, along with a veritable legion of clones, was still attempting his strategy of cutting the tree with kunai. Then, as I watched, all of the clones cleared the area near Naruto's tree of choice, mostly choosing to hide behind one Naruto in particular. Catching Sasuke's eye, I tilted my head towards it, and we both moved a safe distance away. It said a lot that even Sasuke was wary of what Naruto might do.

"Great Breakthrough!"

Oh no.

A shockingly well-contained wall of wind slammed into Naruto's tree. It didn't cut the tree (the variation of Great Breakthrough I'd taught Naruto was, after all, not a sharp one), but it did wrench it out of the ground with a spray of dirt. That tree, in turn, smashed into the neighboring tree and dragged it straight out of the ground as well. The momentum of the Great Breakthrough fading, the two trees fell into a third, which held steady, and slid to the ground with a crash.

Those chakra signatures hiding in the trees shifted anxiously. "Are you sure about this?" a voice hissed, only to be quickly shushed by several other voices.

I almost wanted to sweatdrop; if they were, in fact, missing-nin, they weren't very smart ones. As such, I decided to continue ignoring them until something happened. I wasn't the only one who'd noticed them now, anyway. Naruto and Sasuke both very clearly looked in the direction of the voice and, apparently, dismissed it.

So I just focused on Naruto's creative way of completing our mission. It was a good thing that he'd remembered not to do it facing the village, I thought. Otherwise that tree would have smashed right through their outer wall and whatever buildings happened to be in the way.

I remembered the jutsu Temari had done in the anime, where she summoned some kind of animal and it used a wind jutsu that cut a massive part of the forest in half, and wondered what Naruto could do with one of the numerous sharp wind ninjutsu. I almost wanted to find out. At the same time, I wasn't sure he really needed to be any scarier.

Kakashi's book closed with a snap, and he approached the fallen trees. "Well, it's not quite cutting them down, but I suppose that works," he said mildly.

I glanced at my own barely-cut tree, considered the amount of work I'd have to do to finish, and turned to Naruto expectantly. Sasuke looked quite grumpy, but, after prying his kunai out of the tree, he did the same.

Naruto grinned smugly.

"Naruto, you're a life-saver," I said honestly. This mission would have sucked without his ridiculousness.

Naruto just kind of giggled, rubbing at the back of his head.

We were waiting, now, for the trees to be processed into usable - and transportable - wood, because apparently part of our mission was also to escort the wood back to Leaf. This, of course, lengthened the mission considerably, and I wished we'd been told beforehand. Not for supplies reasons, as I, and I was pretty sure Naruto and Sasuke, generally packed for several days whenever I left the village, but just. Some warning would have been nice.

They actually expected the wood to be ready today, but since it would be a civilian caravan moving at civilian speed, we couldn't leave until the next morning for what would be a two-day trip back to Leaf. As such, we were staying in an inn (paid for by mission expenses, apparently?) for the night.

Those four chakra signatures never had done anything, just hanging out in their trees as we left. I was almost disappointed.

"You know, I hear this town has a nice hot spring," Kakashi said.

Sasuke looked about as interested in the idea as one might expect. Surprisingly, Naruto was also uninterested. To be honest, I'd never really understood the appeal either; sitting naked in hot water with a bunch of similarly naked strangers was just not my idea of a good time.

The three of us conveyed this to Kakashi.

"Well, suit yourselves," he said. "I'll just go on my own, then."

Huh. Kakashi had never struck me as the kind of person who did enjoy hot springs. I supposed I didn't really know all that much about him as a person, though.

Kakashi left, and a heartbeat later Naruto jumped to his feet with a gasp. I jerked in my seat, looking for danger. Nothing.

I slid the kunai back into its holster on my forearm sheepishly. "What's up, Naruto?"

Naruto turned to us with a look like he'd just had the epiphany of his life. "If Kakashi-sensei is going to the hot spring," he said almost reverently, "He'll have to take his mask off, won't he?"

This caught Sasuke's attention, who turned with a thoughtful sound.

"We can find out what Kakashi-sensei's face looks like under the mask!" Naruto said.

Apparently, this was enough for the boys to decide to go. I wasn't sure why I got dragged along, but I guess it was all-in, or something. Even if I was a girl, and therefore would be on the wrong side of the hot spring and unable to see Kakashi's unmasked face. I pointed this out, but was ignored.

When my teammates ditched me at the entrances to go into the men's side of the hot spring, I sighed and debated whether to go into the women's side or just go back to the inn. After a moment of considering the thought of being naked, and more importantly weaponless, among a bunch of strangers in a small village that was not the Leaf and well-guarded and full of ninja, I decided to go back to the inn.

Several hours later, the three of them returned to the inn. Kakashi looked the same as ever, but with water in his hair that did nothing to hold it down, and maybe a little more cheerful. Naruto and Sasuke, meanwhile, looked sulky and grumpy respectively.

"So, how'd it go?" I asked when they both came over to sit near me, obviously wanting to talk about it. "What does Kakashi-sensei look like?"

I figured he probably just looked normal. That mask didn't actually hide much of the shape of his face, so it wasn't like it could be horrifically ugly. Maybe he had, like, a mole or something.

But at my question, both Naruto and Sasuke hunched a little, until I could practically see the depression cloud over their heads.

"We don't know," Naruto said sulkily.

"He hid his face the entire time," Sasuke added with a scowl.

I blinked. He hid his face... in the bath? "I see." But I couldn't help myself. I really wanted to know. "How?"

"There was always something in the way! A washrag, a bucket, the water, even steam," Naruto huffed, crossing his arms. "It's not fair."

I tried valiantly not to laugh. Neither of them would appreciate that at all, I was sure. But with such ridiculous things, Kakashi must have been doing it on purpose. I vaguely remembered an episode where Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura tried to see under Kakashi's mask. But I had to wonder, had Kakashi goaded Naruto and Sasuke into this on purpose? He was the one to suggest going to the hot spring, after all.

If so, Kakashi had a weird sense of humor.

"He can't hide his face forever," I said, then held one arm up. "We just have to keep trying!"

I didn't really care to see Kakashi's face, but it could be fun to try. I wondered how long Kakashi would keep finding it funny.

We left bright and early the next morning with a couple of civilians who actually knew how to control the horses pulling the caravans of wood. It was early even by our standards, and it had been a late night.

Naruto was practically dead on his feet, shuffling along with his eyes mostly closed, only saved from tripping by years of training. Sasuke seemed to be much better off, as his eyes were fully open and he looked alert, but any attempt to communicate with him would only get him to turn slowly, blink, and apparently forget about it entirely to turn back. Kakashi, meanwhile, was wide awake and irritatingly chipper.

I stifled a yawn and blinked eyes that didn't want to stay open. Wait, when did we get past the cleared area around the town?

Those four chakra signatures were back, I noticed idly. That... was weird. If they were villagers, they had no business following us this far. Within a couple of minutes, the whispering started.

"What do we do now?"

There was a sharp, "Shh!" followed by whispering that was just quiet enough to be indistinct.

...Seriously?

Naruto was just as barely awake as before, and Sasuke was still failing to acknowledge the world, but Kakashi met my gaze when I turned to him. He didn't speak, but his eye closed in what passed for a smile for him.

I didn't know what that meant. For all I knew, he could just be mocking my and the others' tiredness. But I decided to assume that he did, in fact, know of our impossibly bad stalkers. I hoped he was skilled enough for that, anyway. Even if he couldn't sense their chakra, it wasn't like they were being subtle at all.

We kept walking. It was soon afterwards that the hurried whispering finally ended and four people jumped out of the trees, landing in front of our procession. They were ninja, I confirmed, wearing crossed-out Ishigakure forehead protectors and dull brown clothing with armor around the knees and elbows, probably a uniform. All four were men, and all looked eerily similar.

"We're taking this wood!" one of them declared, hands on his hips in a strong pose. It sounded like he was the one who'd been shushing the other one; probably the leader. "If you try to stop us, we will not hesitate to kill you!"

I opened my mouth, because that was just begging for a snarky response, and I was sure one would come to mind - and the yawn I'd been fighting for the better part of the hour finally escaped. Sasuke looked up from staring blankly at the ground, focusing his empty gaze on them instead. Naruto looked around blearily, finally noticing them.

"Huh?" he managed, confused.

As one, the four missing-nin wilted. Three of them shuffled backwards a little, but the leader was steadfast. And shaking in his armored boots.

Kakashi was shaking too, but more in the manner of someone trying not to laugh.

"D- Don't try to stop us!" the leader tried. "We- we're... taking this wood."

Kakashi took a step forward, and all four missing-nin, even the leader, took a step back, almost unconsciously. "Well, we can't really let you do that," he said easily. "Our mission is to escort this wood safely back to the Hidden Leaf, you see."

The leader swallowed audibly.

"You don't have a choice!" he stammered, drawing the sword on his back and holding it in a threatening way. He was shaking so hard now that the tip of the sword wobbled through the air as he held it in place.

I wondered what would happen if I threw a kunai at him. Did he even know how to use that sword at all? Maybe I could knock it out of his hand. I took a couple steps towards them, drawing a kunai. The missing-nin watched with trepidation. Kakashi chuckled behind me.

I threw the kunai.

"You ran into a group of missing-nin?" the desk worker asked helplessly after a glance at the mission report. "On this mission?"

"Yes," Kakashi said with a nod.

"They weren't very strong missing-nin," I added.

Sasuke scoffed. "I don't know how they became ninja at all," he said haughtily.

I thought about it for a minute, then nodded. That was true.

"I -" the desk worker stopped. He cradled his head in one hand. "Just. Go away."

After only a couple of seconds of us standing still, he waved his hand at us and said, rather calmly, "Get out."

With a shrug shared between us, we went. It wasn't our fault our missions were ridiculous.

"Reika!"

I turned at the call of my name. "Naruto?" I said, confused, as he rushed up to me.

He stopped in front of me and grinned, ever cheerful.

"The Pervy Sage is going looking for his old teammate who's, like, a really great medic-nin or something so she can heal Old Man Hokage," Naruto said quickly. "And he said if I go with him he'll teach me cool jutsu! So I'm going out of the village for a while."

I blinked. Processed that. If I hadn't had knowledge I shouldn't, I would have been super worried about Naruto going out of the village with a man I didn't know who he'd only ever referred to as, 'Pervy Sage', on the basis of being taught cool jutsu. But I did know, so it was fine.

"Okay," I said, since there wasn't much else for me to say. "Thanks for telling me," I added. I was actually surprised he had; Naruto seemed like the kind of person who would just wander off and leave his friends to figure out where he'd gone some other way.

Naruto nodded. "I gotta go pack," he said with a sort of dawning horror, then rushed off.

I just stared after him.

I hadn't expected this. I knew it was soon after the invasion that Naruto and Jiraiya went after Tsunade originally, but this time was different. The Third wasn't dead, for one. But I supposed, since he was still badly injured, it made sense to try to get the woman known as the best medic-nin in the world to help.

This mission meant something else, too, though. Something I really should have considered either way, since I hadn't done anything that would change it. Itachi (and Kisame) was going to come after Naruto.

And I had no idea what to do.

[A/N] So, regarding those missing-nin. I referred to them as from 'Ishigakure', even though I usually use the English names for the villages, for a reason.

Ishigakure no Sato: Literal translation, Village Hidden in Stones. Official English translation, Hidden Rock Village. A minor village.

Iwagakure no Sato: Literal translation, Village Hidden by Rocks. Official English translation, Hidden Stone Village. One of the great five villages.

So I will continue referring to all of the other villages by their English names, but for these two I'm going to use the Japanese just because I don't want to end up mixing up which English name I use for which and confusing everybody. Sorry for the inconvenience.