It was a long day. No one in team 7 could concentrate on the mission, which was only cleaning out an old warehouse full of scrolls. Despite the fact that it wasn't a "real" mission, because the task required knowledge in ninjutsu to be completed it was extremely hard to procede with two of the three members paying no attention. After about three hours Kakashi got fed up of them and excused them. Throughout the entire day Naruto and Sasuke were silent. They were silent as they left the warehouse and returned to the main road as well. It was already late in the afternoon, crows were crying to them in the background. Naruto suddenly broke the tension by saying, "Sasuke, what are you gonna do about it?"

Sasuke was just staring blankly ahead of him. It was strange, Sakura was always just another figure in the way of his revenge. He found it hard to concentrate on getting stronger with her worrying about him all the time, but with her gone, he felt so restless. "I don't know," he replied.

"I'm going to the Hidden Cloud Village," Naruto muttered.

"What?" Sasuke exclaimed turning to the blonde boy next to him. The blonde boy was just staring ahead of him with a determined look on his face.

"We're both Chunins Sasuke, it shouldn't be that hard getting her out."

"Wait a minute why am I involved in this? And why is this the conclusion you come to?"

"I still have feelings for Sakura chan dattebayo," Naruto said turning to his bestfriend. "And I'm trusting that you do too."

Both of them stopped walking and faced each other. Crows were still crying in the background as though they were calling to the two of them. Sasuke looked to his side and remained silent. He remembered Sakura's sad face as she told him that she was still in love with him, and felt a pain in his chest. What was she doing now, so far away? Was she thinking of him too?

"Even if you don't come, I'm going," Naruto declared. "I know plenty of people that would be willing to accompany me."

Sasuke immediately knew who Naruto spoke of. Lee would probably agree immediately to accompany Naruto, and so would Ino. But that was pretty much all he could think of. Going to get Sakura would mean turning agains the entire village, and not many people would agree to do that unless they were close to Sakura.

"So Sasuke, what is it? Are you with me or no?"

Without making eye contact with Naruto Sasuke said, "Sakura made her own choice. I have nothing to do with it."

"Really? But DID she have a choice?"

Sasuke hated it when Naruto was smart like this. It was obvious that Sakura didn't have a choice, and it was obvious that she didn't want to go, he didn't need his friend to point it out to him like this.

"She... she did make her own choice."

"Fine then Sasuke, you keep saying that to yourself."

Naruto quickly disappeared, and left Sasuke standing alone, just the way Sakura had. "Why is everyone like this," Sasuke thought to himself as he made his way home. But even at home he couldn't concentrate on anything. He tried to make dinner, but it obviously got burnt when he tried to make it. He made instant noodles and sat in front of the TV instead, but he still felt so restless. "Why am I so easily manipulated," Sasuke thought to himself.

***

Naruto said that he would easily find people to come along with him, but the two that he had in mind, Lee and Ino, were both away on a mission. It seemed like the crisis had come at the worst time possible.

"If no one's coming with me I'll go alone dattebayo," he said to himself as he packed his bag with ninja gear and food for the journey. It was at that moment that his doorbell rang. "Who could it be at this hour?" Naruto thought looking at his clock. It was 10 PM, usually people dropping by at this hour came to announce bad news.

But when he oppened the door he was shocked to see Sasuke, fully equipped and looking straight at Naruto. Naruto stood dumbfounded in front of his friend. Sasuke sneered and said, "so, are we leaving or what?"

-To Be Continued-

 

Chapter Stories