Sangai no jutsu

Naruto set down his ramen bowl as he slurped on the remains of the noodles. "Ah, that was great," he wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

Kakashi nodded in agreement, and Seiko just set down his chopsticks. He reached into his pack, setting down his share of the money as Naruto and Kakashi did the same.

"Come back again," the owner said as the got up to leave.

Naruto waved back at him as he walked backwards. "Ne, Kaka-sensei, when are we going to rest?" he asked, arms placed behind his head.

"You always have something to complain about, don't you Naruto?" he questioned, gazing down at his former pupil.

Naruto let out a yawn in response and turned to face the right direction.

The Copy Nin sighed. "Pretty soon, as soon as we can find a good place to rest," Kakashi answered, reading his book.

The blonde male let out a small pout before trudging along two paces in front of them.

Seiko glanced at the moon. 'If my calculations are correct…' he let his thoughts wonder, and then a face of displeasure formed upon him.

"Something wrong, Seiko?" Kakashi questioned, peering at the boy from over his book.

Seiko shook his head. "Just thinking was all." The thought itself was very disturbing.

"How about over there?" Naruto asked, pointing to a clearing. "Is that place good enough?"

Kakashi took a look for himself at the meadow, the river flowing near it. "Yes, Naruto, this place will do. Now we can set up camp and get a good night's rest in."

The three of them walked to the clearing, and Naruto fell plop down on his back, placing his backpack beneath his head. Kakashi took a spot on a branch in a nearby tree, still engrossed in his book.

Seiko took a seat near a rock. He wasn't all that tired yet. Sighing, he threw a couple of rocks into the water. 'Everything is going according to plan. If we keep this up, we'll succeed. But, will they all be willing to…? What if they figure us out?' Seiko contemplated. 'I guess we'll just have to wait and see how everything turns out.' He threw another rock, crushing one that was placed in his other hand. 'But damn, do we have enough time to wait? Since we've been gone, who knows what all could have happened.' Frustrated, the teen ran a hair through his raven locks with a groan. 'And with us being here, who knows what could have all changed? One slip and it's all over.' He looked up at the starry sky. 'We only have one chance to make this work, there is no room for error.'

Not all of them would be getting much sleep that night.


Shikamaru laid himself down on his roof, gazing at the stars. 'Mendo Kuse,' he thought to himself. 'A betrayal from an allied village is bad enough, but why do I feel it's just going to get worse?' He sighed. 'What a bother.'

"Shika-kun! Are you up here?" he heard a voice call and looked to see his girlfriend jump up, smiling softly at him. "Hey there."

Shikamaru grumpily asked, "What is it, Ino?"

Ino took a seat next to him, hugging her legs to her chest. "Just seeing how you were doing."

"You just saw me not all that long ago," Shikamaru reminded her.

"I know, but you seemed to be thinking pretty deeply, and that's something you rarely do," she placed her hand on top of his. "What's the matter?"

Feeling her fingers stroke his hand, the lazy Jounin answered, "I have a bad feeling."

"Uh huh. About what may I ask?" Ino pressed.

Shikamaru sat up. "I'm not too sure, but I know it has to do something with the Grass' betrayal. Those boy's words, they can't be good news."

"Don't let him get to you. He probably just wanted to get under your skin," Ino poked his nose, "And he succeeded."

Shikamaru removed his hand from hers, stuffing both of his hands into his pockets as he stood up. "I don't think that was it," he muttered.

Ino gazed up at him. "Then what do you think it could mean?" she asked.

Shikamaru shrugged. "I haven't figured it out yet. But what I do know is," he glanced down at her. "It very well could be life-threatening."

Ino wrapped her arms back around her legs as she shivered. "Oh."

"And what about that Shiniko boy? I don't trust him one bit," Shikamaru stated, his tone menacing.

Ino raised an eyebrow. "And why not?"

"Because there's something about those four boys that irk me to no end," Shikamaru replied.

The kunoichi rolled her blue eyes. "You're just being paranoid, Shikamaru. Sure, it's weird that Shiniko looks like you, but I think he's harmless. Tsunade-sama trusted them to be put on missions with us, so I think we should trust her intuition."

Shikamaru thought for a second. "I guess, but she's not always right you know."

Ino sighed. When her boyfriend even bothered to think, it always ended up being too much. She stood up and wrapped an arm around his shoulder from behind him. "Everything's going to be alright," she told him.

"I wish I could believe that," Shikamaru murmured.


A certain Hyuuga was thinking along the lines of the same thing. "I don't think we should take this lightly, TenTen," Neji said as he leaned against the post, his fiancée practicing her already 100 accuracy on targets that were placed outside their home. She doesn't land a single hit in one battle because of a girl with a huge fan and the weapon mistress has yet to let it down. Neji found it quite amusing.

"I hear what you're saying, Neji," TenTen spoke as she closed one eye to get the bulls-eye in view, "But I think we should let Tsunade-sama handle it. She isn't the Hokage for nothing, you know."

Neji narrowed his white eyes. "We should still give some thought into it, not dismiss it as if nothing is wrong," he argued darkly.

"You're right. We can't say that nothing is conspiring in the mists of everything, all I'm saying is that we should wait for Tsunade-sama's order. Let her tell us what to do about it. We shouldn't let ourselves assume the worst. Besides, we've been in tough binds before, and we made it out alright," the brunette woman countered, throwing a kunai that landed the same as the rest, right on the bulls-eye. She walked over to the Byakugan master, taking a swig of her water before closing the lid. Then she wiped the sweat from her brow.

"But…" TenTen placed a finger on Neji's lips before he could speak anymore.

"Stop worrying about it, you need to relax. All this stress will give you wrinkles," TenTen teased. "And I don't want you to shrivel up just quite yet." She gave him a wink for better measure and removed her finger from his lips.

Neji scoffed and rolled his eyes. "We wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?"

TenTen shook her head. "Nope," she flicked his nose, "And if it did, you'd have to borrow Tsunade-sama's youth scrolls. There's no way I'd marry a man who had wrinkles before he hit his middle-aged crisis." She poked him in the chest.

"Alright, alright, I get it. I will stop worrying about it," Neji said, raising his arms in defeat. TenTen raised a brow at him. "I promise."

TenTen patted his cheek with a smile on her face. "Good boy."


Shiniko stretched his arms and yawned as he stared at the ceiling from his bed. The Hokage had given him a room to stay at, a place to crash after the mission.

He was just about to close his eyes and snooze when he heard a knock on the door and a loud, "Are you in there, Shiniko?"

Shiniko sighed as he got up. "I'm coming, I'm coming." He opened the door to reveal Hino and Teji. He looked down the hall. "Is Seiko not back yet?"

Teji shook his head. "The Hokage said it'd be awhile until he got back."

"Can we come in?" Hino questioned with a grin.

"Don't you have your own places to go to?" Shiniko asked as he stood back to let the two in.

"Yeah, but I thought it'd be good to discuss all that's happening, even if Seiko isn't here yet," Teji replied as Hino nodded in agreement.

Shiniko took a seat on his bed as the others found a chair. "I see. So what did you two find out?"

"Not much. We just found this guy with the powers of the first Hokage, and he didn't help us at all. I don't think he has any major part," Hino started the explanations.

"We met up with a man, who told us that the other villages have turned their backs on Konoha," Teji stated, his arms crossed.

Shiniko glanced at him. "Same here. So it has begun," he sighed in exasperation.

"What should we do about it?" Hino questioned looking at his two friends.

Teji shrugged. "There isn't much we can do, not yet anyway," he answered.

"So, we just wait," Hino said scratching his head.

"That's all we really can do, for now," Teji stated.

Shiniko nodded. "Naruto-tachi's mission should reveal to us what we need to know to further the plan, until the, we'll just lay low," he suggested as the other two nodded.


Sasuke placed the key into the lock, opening the door to the room. Walking in, Sakura followed him in pursuit.

Her eyes wandered throughout the room. A crimson blush came to her face. 'There's only one bed,' she thought to herself, taking a glance at her companion, 'The receptionist must of thought we were,' Sakura gulped. 'a couple.' She could feel her insides burning thanks to the adrenaline running through her. "Sasuke-kun…"

"There's a pullout couch, I'll take it," Sasuke's stoic voice said as he set down his backpack on the side of the couch.

Sakura stammered. "B-But, the bed is more comfortable, and you paid for the room," she insisted, once again feeling like a burden to him.

"The couch will suffice," the avenger stated.

The kunoichi decided it was the end of that discussion, she didn't like arguing with Sasuke. Nodding, she planted her pack on the ground, and plopped down on the bed, stretching her arms across the mattress.

She heard the creak of the couch, signifying Sasuke had taken out the bed. The lights turned off soon after.

Sakura smiled and stifled a yawn. "Oyasuminasai," she muttered as her eyelids slid down.

"Aa."

Sakura turned to her side, trying to get comfortable.

"He has to be around here somewhere."

Sakura jumped at the sound of voices outside in the hall.

"Orochimaru-sama said that they should be around here." It was another voice.

Sakura sat up, pale in the face. She turned her gaze to see Sasuke standing up, his eyes narrowed.

"Sa-"

"Sh," Sasuke held his hand up for silence, walking toward her slowly. He took a seat at the side of the bed.

"What's going on?" Sakura questioned in a whisper, her eyes full of worry.

"Those two are looking for us," Sasuke replied, his eyes steadied on the door. "I've met them before. One of them has the power to sense exertions of chakra, the other can see through objects, such as walls." His eyes turned to her.

Sakura gulped, the voices were getting closer.

"Don't worry, we'll find them."

"How did they know we were heading to Sound?" the medic questioned.

Sasuke shrugged. "Orochimaru must have found out somehow. It doesn't really matter."

Sakura could feel her heart pounding. "Do you think they're checking every room?"

"Most likely," the Uchiha answered.

"They'll notice you for sure," Sakura whispered.

Sasuke nodded. "And if I used Henge, one of them would sense it, so that's not an option."

What were they going to do? 'Think of something, Sakura. If they catch you, everything will be ruined.'

"Have we checked this room?"

"I don't think so."

Sakura turned her gaze to the door, then to Sasuke. There was only on thing she could think of doing to save them. Taking a deep breath, Sakura stood up.

Sasuke looked up at her questionably. 'I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun. Please forgive me for this.' Before Sasuke could ask her what she was doing, Sakura placed her lips on his in a sweet kiss, pushing him down onto the bed. Sakura's hands entangled themselves in raven locks to hide his hair, as Sasuke wrapped his arms around the girl.

"Is he in there?"

"No, it's just a couple of lovebirds."

"Let's get out of here, he's obviously not here."

"Yeah."

Sakura's thoughts cheered in relief as she heard steps moving away from them. 'It worked!' She removed her lips from Sasuke's and was about to get up and apologize wholeheartedly to Sasuke. But before she had the chance, the Uchiha flipped them over so he was the one on top, crashing their lips together again.

Sakura's eyes widened. Sasuke, the only one she could ever love, was willingly kissing her! Her heart fluttered as her Inner self squealed in delight.

'What are you waiting for? Kiss him back, stupid!'

Passion and longing filling her, kiss him back she did. She didn't know what possessed him to do what he was doing, but she wasn't about to complain. His hands found their way up her shirt, drawing small designs as he headed up. Sakura shivered at his every touch, her whole body setting aflame.

She allowed his tongue entrance to her mouth, her tongue moving to meet his.

Throughout the night, she also gave him permission to take off her clothes, his following in pursuit.


(blushes) I'm sure you can guess what happened. I'm not all that great at the kissing scenes and everything, since I don't have experience at all in that area, so I hope they weren't all that bad. Anyway, hope you guys liked this chapter, please review! I was so happy that I had over 100! I've never gotten that many before! You guys are the best! Ugh, fanfiction was facing problems otherwise I would have had this up a day earlier. (pouts in a corner)

sasuke fanatic1