Konoha

Naruto sat behind the desk and stared at the papers in his hands. A women walked into the room and set another pile of papers on his desk. He pretended to be concentrating on the papers but the truth was, he couldn't get his mind off Sasuke.

The day before, Naruto had received a letter from Sasuke. It had said that Sasuke wanted to meet him. He said to go alone, but could Naruto really trust Sasuke after everything that had happened? He was to go to the place where they had fought. Nostalgic. Naruto wanted to go more than anything, but…

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Naruto called. Neji walked into the room and shut the door behind him.

"You wanted to see me, Hokage?" Neji asked. Naruto laughed. "Is something funny?"

"It's funny to hear you say that after everything you said when we fought. You remember, about me not being able to become Hokage because it wasn't my destiny? Remember?" Neji nodded when Naruto had finished. "Any way," he continued, "yeah, I did ask to see you. I need your help with something. We have to wait though, until Shikamaru and Sakura get here." Neji nodded again. After a few minutes there was another knock on the door. Shikamaru and Sakura entered without waiting for an answer. Sakura rushed towards Naruto.

"You said it was life or death important! Are you alright, Naruto-kun?" she asked quickly, ignoring the others in the room.

Naruto smiled, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Then what is this all about, Naruto?" Shikamaru asked with a sigh.

"I received a letter yesterday," he looked at Sakura as if trying to give her a message, then continued but kept his gave on Sakura, "from Sasuke."

The three were shocked.

"Sasuke?" Sakura whispered.

"Sent a letter?" Neji asked

"To Naruto?" Shikamaru asked. They heard a laugh and turned around. At the door, Kabuto stood laughing but he looked like he had just fought with some extremely strong opponent. He walked in, followed by Konkuro, Tamari, and Kazekage Gaara. Naruto stood up and when Gaara walked up to him, he hugged Gaara like a brother. Gaara was taken aback at first but then smiled.

"Long time no see, Naruto," he said companionably. Naruto's smile grew.

"Yup," he said, "I caught up with you, Gaara."

"Yeah." Tamari stepped forward and put a hand on Gaara's shoulder.

"You should tell him why we are here," she said.

"Oh yeah," Naruto stepped back behind his desk so that he could see the small group, "Why are you here? And why is Kabuto here?" Kabuto laughed again.

"Orochimaru is dead. I'm sure you all know that," they nodded, "I had nothing to do, so I paid a little visit to the sand village and what do you know, they arrest me and bring me all the way here."

"But that's not the only reason we are here," Konkuro said.

"Yes," Gaara walked to the front of the desk and looked straight into Naruto's intense blue eyes, "Just the other day, we received a letter. It said to meet at Tsunade's grave. The letter was from Sasuke."

"You to, huh? I think we should go together. The four of us." Naruto turned to the three he had called in, "Neji, Shikamaru, I want you two to come with us. No, I want you to follow us, as backup. Just in case there is an injury, I need you to come with us too Sakura. But Shikamaru, if Sakura tries to do anything that will mess this up, put her in your Shadow Posesion."

"Naruto, how could you! You know I won't do anything wrong!" Sakura screamed. She began to run at Naruto, her fists raised, but then she couldn't move. Her whole body was still and numb.

"That is what I mean. We aren't talking about a normal mission. We are talking about Sasuke. You trained under the last Hokage, Tsunade, and now I need her help but she is not here. So you have to come. If you think for one minute that I don't know your strength and self controll, your wrong. That is why Shikamaru is going to stop you. Because no matter how strong you are, you can't stop yourself when it comes to Sasuke. Am I clear?"

"Yes," Sakura siad weakly. Naruto turned to Konkuro and Tamari.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked. They nodded. Naruto turned to Gaara.

"Kazekage?" Gaara nodded.

"Yes," he said, "I just need one thing."

Sound Village

"Well, Sasuke, it looks like the Hokage and the Kazekage got your letters, but what are you planning? Are you going to kill them?" a young ninja girl asked. Sasuke laughed to himself.

"We'll see, Zakuro, we'll see."