Hey sorry for taking so long...
I don't think I've ever been so busy in my life and the fact that I have a massive case of writers block.
And not to mention that I've had to take those state CRT tests.
They aren't hard, it's just after a day of tests in complete silence, my brain get's a little fried. XD
I'm sorry to say that not much happens in this chapter... just some background info.
Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Belonging

Chapter 5

By: turtlechick

Tenten;

Sasuke had suggested that we train a little in our downtime. He said that the guy we had encountered the other day wasn't even that good of a fighter, but yet we almost let ourselves be beaten. Sasuke said that we had better get a lot better, if we even wanted to have a chance with Orochimaru. Sakura questioned him a lot on how he knew all of this stuff, actually I was wondering the same thing. All of us had our secrets, that was for sure. But with all the time we would be spending together on our journey, it was only a matter of time, before they all spilled out.

"Come on Naruto, can't you keep up!?" I yelled from a rather high tree branch. Even though some of us wouldn't admit it, Sasuke was probably right. We had let ourselves be beaten so easily, and it was one against five.

"Tenten, I'm starving, we've been at this for hours." He whined. I guess he was right. We met up with the others at out temporary campsite. Neji was 'meditating' against a nearby tree. He was probably just sleeping. Sasuke was actually sleeping, while Hinata was tending to the small fire we had made. Sakura was taking her aggression out on a poor defenseless tree. She still didn't like the idea of Sasuke traveling with us.

I knew she was hard headed, from living with her since we were children, but she was being ridiculous.

Naruto collapsed Indian style on the ground. "I'm beat."

"Come on Naruto we weren't even training that long." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Sakura how far is the next village, I'm starving." Naruto ignored me.

She stopped her one-sided fight with the tree. "Well Naruto if we leave now, we can make it there before sunrise." She said, slightly out of breath,

"Well then let's go!" Naruto said punching his fist into the air.

"Do we really have to go? Can't we take a break from traveling?" I said. I was so tired of walking to one village, defeating a new demon and then leaving. It seemed like we never stayed in one place for more than the time it takes to take down a demon. We had already made camp. Why not stay for the night?

Sakura looked shocked. "I can't believe what I'm hearing. Tenten doesn't want to go to the next town and sleep on a bed?" Naruto snickered.

"Ha ha very funny Sakura. It seems like all we've been doing lately is walking, let's just take a break."

"I guess we could… We have some food leftover. Is that all right with everyone else?" The others made some sort of nod to show that they approved to us staying the night.

OxO

After we had eaten, it got quiet again. There were a couple of burning questions in the back of my mind, and now was a perfect time to get them out in the open.

"Guys, I've been thinking." They all looked up. "We've traveling for almost a week now and I still don't even know Sasuke's last name." They looked at me like I was crazy. "What I mean is that we barely know anything about each other."

"Tenten is this why you didn't want to go to the next town?" Sakura asked.

"Well, sort of."

Sakura let out a sigh. "Fine, well let's just get this over with."

"Great! I volunteer… Naruto to go first!" Hinata let out a giggle and Naruto smiled at her.

"Ok well, I'm afraid there isn't much to tell." He awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "I don't really remember my childhood. I don't remember my parents at all. The first thing I can remember is when Iruka sensei found me in the forest. He's the one who taught me to become a demon hunter." Naruto had a huge grin on his face.

"Where is he now?" Sakura asked. "Your sensei."

Naruto balled up his fists. "Some demons got him." It was silent and that made it apparent that Naruto was done.

"I'll go next." I said and everyone put their attention on me. "I guess I'm sort of the same as Naruto. I don't remember my parents at all. Sakura's family found me when I was little, I was living with them for as long as I can remember."

The next part was hard for Sakura. That's why I thought it might be best if I told it for the both of us.

"We became demon hunters, the day our village was destroyed my demons. As far as we both know, we're the only survivors. After that we walked around, looking for anyone who could help us. We found a few old retired demon hunters willing to pass on their knowledge and I guess that's how we got here."

I got a quick glance of Sasuke staring at Sakura. She was sitting against a tree staring at her hands in her lap. I felt sorry for her most of the time. I never knew my parents, but she did. She had to watch as a demon take them away from her. I don't think she'll ever be the same as she was when we were children.

"Hinata would you like to go next?" I wasn't going to ask Neji.

She nodded. "I used to live with my father and younger sister, but like all of your stories, demons attacked and they were killed. My father told Neji that if anything happened to him that it was his job to take care of me. So Neji had to quit demon hunting and look after me." Her voice got quiet by the end of her speech. Demons were starting to take over every thing. We were only five people but yet, demons had affected out lives so much, to the point where we hunted them for revenge.

"Sasuke?" He was the only one left.

He sighed. "Fine, I might as well tell you all since I'm sure you're wondering how I know so much about Orochimaru's plans." Everyone's ears perked up, especially Sakura's. "I used to work with Orochimaru, I was supposed to be his apprentice." Sakura was silent, but she was angry. "I was with him for a long time and one day I realized that I didn't want to be a part of that any longer, so I left. You all don't know the half of what he has planned."

Well that was a lot to take in. If another demon had noticed how crazy this Orochimaru guy was then he must be bad.

I was glad we had that talk. I felt a little closer to everyone else. We needed to stick together if we wanted to succeed.

OxO

Sakura;

We all didn't say much after our little sharing session that Tenten had requested last night. Which was probably for the best, since I wanted to rip into the demon for not telling us the whole truth. All of us got ready to leave pretty early that morning, eager to see civilization, I think.

"Do you guys feel that?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah." Tenten answered.

"It doesn't feel like a demon." Neji said.

The ground beneath was shaking, like something big was coming. In the distance, on the same road we were on was a group of people. Most of them were on horseback, but some were just running. That's what was making the earth shake, it was a stampede.

We all made sure that we were far out of their way and watched as they ran past us. There wasn't a chance to ask them exactly why they were running, but the few faces I did see, had fear written all over them. They were all running from something.

Before another word was said, Tenten ran off in the direction that those people had just come from.

"Tenten where are you going!?" I yelled.

She stopped. "I'm going to go see what those people were running from!"

"Does she always do this?" Someone asked me.

"Yeah, pretty much." I turned around to see the demon. I glared at him and then ran after Tenten.

What had we gotten ourselves into this time...?

I couldn't resist ending with a little cliffhanger. :)
I hope you all liked it.
Thanks for reading!

Please review and even if you don't, check out some of my other stories. XD

turtlechick...out