Those Who Wander are Quite Lost Part II: The Two Teams.

AN:

Thank You Purple Pallbearer, FireheartNinja, and DreamingIn2Enternity for the awesome reviews

To DreamingIn2Eternity: For some reason unknown to me I put my response to your helpful comment on the last chapter of Part I. Thank you for your support.

To FireheartNinja: Thank you so much for compliment! I have BIG plans for Helms Deep. On David Bowie-sama-sempai-san-sama-kun's lighting blade, I am not sure if he created it yet. But since I have all but killed Naruto canon, it will find it's way in.

No update tomorrow, Sorry guys/gals

It did not take long for the Three Hunters and five shinobi to pick up the Oni's trail. Soon the forested landscape gave way to rocky plains, a view quite similar to the Land of Earth.

"The sunset is lovely," commented Rin. Rin was beginning to show signs of fatigue, which worried the jōnin. They had been running nonstop since they picked up the Uruk-hai's trail in the woods at late morning. Minato was incerdibly impressed with the stamina of the three non-shinobi. The elf was the least surprising of the three while Gimli was the most. Although he was the last runner, the dwarf was keeping up with the group.

"Indeed it is," replied Minato. He squinted off into the distance. Hoshi had volunteered to scout on the oni's position an hour earlier and still had not returned. That worried the yellow-haired man. Kakashi, who was in the rear with Gimli, moved forward, allowing a weary Rin to drop back.

"Something is strange with these plains," the masked boy said as he approached his teacher. "I feel as if we are being watched,"

Minato nodded in agreement. "Be on your guard. I feel that we are no longer the only shinobi here on Arda,"

There was a shout from further up the line. It was Obito, and he seemed to have spotted something.

"Hoshi! What the hell are you doing here? Why didn't you return?"

The tall boy's hands were subtly held in a tigar seal as he peered up at the indignant Uchiha.

"The Uruk-Hai have decided to rest not ten minutes from here as the crow flies," he said as the rest of the group. "I suggest that we use this time to replenish our strenght,"

Gimli promptly sat down on a flat rock, breathing heavily. Aragorn sat on the ground with his back against a smooth stone. All the shinobi sat near Hoshi, crosslegged. Only Legolas decided to remain standing. The injured ranger was doing his best to catch his breath, his dark head nodding forward in exaustion.

"How much-hah-time-hah-do you think-hah- we have?" he panted out. Minato offered the thirsty man his water bottle, with Aragorn gratefully took.

Hoshi's brow furrowed in concentration. "Anywhere between twenty minutes to an hour. Rest, do what you need to do. We will keep watch and wake you when it is time to go,"

As soon as the words left the boy's lips, Gimli tipped backwards and began snoring. Legolas shook his head.

"I will hold you to your promise, shinobi," he said, before walking off. Aragorn yawned and handed the water bottle back to Minato.

"Thank you," the man murmured before wrapping his elven cloak around him before dropping off to sleep.

The shinobi was also impressed by Aragorn and Gimli's ability to simply fall asleep. But he had to ask Hoshi a few questions...

Team 7 sat around a fire, boiling a kettle of water to purify it. Kakashi was glad that Rin was extra cautious with the water. He had gotten sick from drinking unclean water during his first out-of-village mission. Needless to say, the Hatake was not keen on repeating the experience.

"Are the Uruk-hai under a genjutsu?" asked Minato-sensei while taking a bite of lembas bread. Kakashi was slightly surprised that Sensei was actually eating the weird bread. It did fill one up, but it also caused the shinobi's chakra levels to spike in dangerously high levels. Kakashi turned to Hoshi. The boy's eyes were half-closed and glazed over.

"Oi, Hoshi," Obito poked the boy on his pale cheek. He snorted and turned his head away.

Kakashi sighed. The masked protigy walked over to his slumbering teammate. Putting a finger on Hoshi's shoulder, Kakashi shocked him.

Hoshi jumped, giving an oddly quiet yelp. He gave Kakashi a look, then turned to Minato-sensei.

"Yes, I put them under Nehan Shōja no Jutsu for a bit. I plan to release them in an hour," he said sleepily.

The yellow-haired man nodded. Obito then jumped into the conversation.

"So we can rescue Merry and Pippin tomorrow?" he asked.

Hoshi shook his head. "We must leave the hobbits in the possession of the Uruk-hai. They will then escape into Fangorn forest, meet the Ents, then persuade them to fight on our behalf. If we rescue them, none of that will happen," he said, digging through his backpack. The beaten and dirty boy pulled out a flute out of the pack. "Just relax and let things unfold. Things are going quite smoothly, so it seems that our arrival has not shifted things too much."

"And lets keep things that way," his grey eyes threatened. Kakashi managed to stifle a yawn.

"Go to sleep, Kakashi, Rin," said Minato. "Obito and I will take first watch,"

Rin and the silver-haired boy nodded. They wrapped the strange cloaks around themselves and lay down with their backs to the fire and their heads near one another. Hoshi began to play a soothing lullaby on the flute

"Kakashi?" whispered Rin.

"Hmm?" he hummed, listening.

"Why can't we help these people more? I know Hoshi wants to keep things as they are, but did Boromir really need to die? And what if Merry and Pippin die because we didn't help them?"

Kakashi was silent, then responded. "You are mad that Hoshi kept us out of that battle," he responded tonelessly.

"Am not!" she hissed indignantly. "Minato-sensei gave him on of his kunai! Sensei could've helped at least-"

She was cut off by a sharp note from Hoshi's flute. As soon as Rin went quiet, the gentle melody returned.

"That kunai was meant for Frodo," Kakashi said in a scolding manner. "Besides, Minato-sensei approved of Hoshi's idea. And we got to clean the laundry,"

Rin released a heavy sigh. "I just hope the halflings are okay," she whispered.

Kakashi smiled under his mask as he closed his eyes. "They will be Rin-san. Hoshi has met them before,"

A routine was more or less established for the following two days. Hoshi would scout ahead and put a form of time wasting genjutsu on the Uruk-hai for an hour, allowing the Three Hunters and shinobi to rest. After an hour was up, Hoshi would rouse anyone who was sleeping then release the Uruk-hai from the genjutsu when the group had shortened the gap between the the hobbit-napping band and the Eight Hunters. Food was consumed on the run, much to Hoshi's frustration. Obito did his best to keep up with his long-legged foster brother, who seemed to be born to run across land like this. But the grey-eyed boy just couldn't eat while moving.

"C'mon Hoshi," Obito said while taking a bite out of an Origiri. "You have to eat,"

His companion turned slightly green while watching him eat. "I prefer not to,"

Obito put another burst of chakra into his legs to keep at pace. "Why not?" he asked, panting slightly.

Hoshi shrugged his thin shoulders. "It makes me ill,"

The Uchiha shook his head. It amazed him that Aragorn, Legolas, and especially Gimli kept up with the shinobi. Granted, they were not going at full speed, but it was amazing never the less.

Another thing that impressed the shinobi was Aragorn's tracking skills. Relying only on day old footprints, vibrations, even the Oni's waste, they trailed the creatures day in and day out.

The third morning was a perticularly difficult one in Obito's eyes. Neither he, nor Minato-sensei could stop yawning. Gimli looked surprisingly refreshed and Aragorn appeared to be rather drained. Legolas looked just like himself, pristine and alert. Obito really envied the elf for that reason

"Hey, Rin-san," he asked. "Do you have any sort of caffine?" Once again, the goggle-wearing boy stifled a yawn behind his hand.

"What is caffine?" asked Legolas. The elf seemed to be distrustful of all the shinobi, Minato-sensei the least and Hoshi the most.

Rin dug through her backpack. "Caffine is a chemical found in tea, coffee, apple seeds and..."

she pulled out a thin scroll. "chocolates," she answered the curious blonde.

Unfurling the scroll, Rin released a seal, removing a chocolate bar. The brunette snapped the bar into bits, handing pieces to everybody.

Aragorn looked at the sweet strangely. " What is this?" he asked, sniffing it.

Minato-sensei looked at the ranger, stunned. "Why it is only one of the best things you could ever have to keep you moving! Have you never seen chocolate?"

Legolas choaked slightly on his piece. Kakashi patted the elf on the back.

"Shouldn't we get moving?" asked Hoshi. The boy was sitting on a rock dipping the chocolate into honey.

Aragorn nodded, and shoved the candy into his mouth. Scanning the ground with his eyes, the ranger found the direction to go.

"Let's go,"

The spot quickly cleared out so that only Gimli, Obito and Hoshi were left.

"They run fast, don't they, laddie?" he said to Obito. The Uchiha shrugged and turned to Hoshi.

"I guess. This is more of a walking pace for us, Master Gimli," answered Obito.

The shocked dwarf's jaw dropped. Hoshi stood up.

"Let's get going. We have quite the distance to cover,"

Nodding in agreement, Gimli, Obito and Hoshi took off after the other Hunters.