(Was also re-published)

"Holy shit! What was that?" Sakura yelled as she involuntarily shivered. Gaara subconsciously wrapped his arms around her frame as he waited for the Uchiha to speak up.

"A spying device. I'll speak with Hitomu-sama. You, stay here." He then grunted at Hiro, who Hn-ed and nodded in response as he watched his comrade exit the room.

A few minutes after Kenta left, Hiro started towards the door. "Wait!" Naruto said, making the Uchiha stop. However, he did not turn around, "Where are you going dattebayo?"

"To inform the others. Go make yourselves useful." Hiro replied. And before anyone could ask what "useful" meant, he was out the door.

"Damn, what did we ever do to them?" Kakashi thought out loud. Naruto shrugged, equally confused.

"Well, if the Uchiha are planning to attack soon, how about we find out what we're up against," Sakura suggested, making Naruto do a double take.

"I'm sorry, did you just suggest that we go into a ninja village swarming with S-rank missing nins dattebayo?" Naruto's face morphed into a grin, "Count me in! Let's go Teme, time to steal some tungsten!" Kakashi sent a worried glance to Sakura, but the pinkette only shook her head and followed her teammates out the door.

Kakashi looked at Gaara for confirmation. The Kage waved his hand, "Go, Kakashi. Find out what kind of people we'll be fighting against, and leave the tungsten matter to Shukaku and me."

"Yessir," Kakashi replied with a mock salute.

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Sasuke cast a genjutsu on all four of them as they walked outside. It was one that Itachi had taught him before, that even Uchiha would have trouble identifying and dispelling. It would slowly but surely drain his chakra, but Sasuke decided it would be worth it.

Kakashi subtly made a signal, directing the group to the side instead of towards the main entrance. Team 7 wordlessly followed. If what they had been told was true, then there would be no way to leave the Uchiha compound from the main entrance inconspicuously.

Soon, they were out on the streets. Naruto let his eyes wander from face to face as he passed civilians. They weren't looking at him with disgust or hatred. In fact, they didn't even spare him a second glance thanks to Sasuke's henge-genjutsu thing. Was this how ordinary people felt when they walked in public?

The Jinchuuriki's mouth twitched upwards as they walked down a familiar street. On the right was the clothing store where he and Sakura had met Kakashi. There were a few other shops that he didn't recognize, but other than that nothing had really changed.

The five of them turned a corner, and Naruto could barely contain his excitement. This street was basically where he was raised before he met Sakura. Teuchi and Ayame were here! He couldn't wait to see them. Maybe he could order another 30 bowls for old time's sake.

Sasuke noticed what was off first, and gently grasped Naruto's hand. It made the blonde glance down, but only for a second before turning his gaze back to what was in front of him. Sasuke looked sideways at Naruto as he took in the old Ichiraku ramen stand, which looked like it had been abandoned for years.

Naruto pursed his lips, but let no tears fall. It wouldn't be fair for Teuchi and Ayame. If he didn't stay in Konoha, why should they?

"You okay?" Sasuke whispered. Naruto gave a small nod in response, tearing his gaze away from the small stand.

"I smell them too, Akamaru. But they're not here." Sakura almost jumped out of her skin when she heard that voice. Sasuke's throat clenched, but he quickly recovered and proceeded to pull Naruto, who had frozen at the sound of Kiba's voice, along.

A few barks came from behind them, making Team 7 subtly pick up their pace. But their speed walk soon turned into a full-on sprint when Kiba said, "Hey! You there! Stop!"

"You know it's at times like these that I really wish I laid waste to this village all those years ago."

"Oh, me too," Naruto replied mentally,

"Split up and meet at training ground 44," Kakashi said quietly before him, and Sakura started running to the left, leaving Sasuke and Naruto, to go right.

Sakura turned her head to look behind as she and Kakashi sprinted from rooftop to rooftop. Three ANBU had replaced Their Inuzuka pursuer. Huh, only three.

"Kakashi we can take them," She said, making Kakashi glance behind them.

"Yeah okay," He replied nonchalantly as he spun on his heel.

One of the ANBU pulled out a kunai with a paper bomb attached and threw it at them. Sakura took a deep breath and directed it back at their three opponents, deciding that she was bound to use her kekkei Genkai at some point. The kunai landed by their feet, and all three of them were caught in the blast, clearly not expecting Sakura's counterattack.

"Sakura!" Kakashi yelled as he threw some senbon needles in the air. Sakura immediately reacted by directing them to the ANBU, not bothering to aim. She managed to knock one of the nins out cold with a lucky shot to a pressure point; however, the others managed to block the majority of the senbon.

Kakashi then pulled out a kunai of his own as he ran towards the two Konoha nins. "I'll wear them out. You just focus on knocking them out...Oh and please don't hit me."

Sakura rolled her eyes, but a smile forced its way onto her face nonetheless. It was kind of nice to be fighting; all her previous doubts seemed to have melted away. "I'll try,"

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"Huh, you guys are kinda terrible dattebayo. What are those Akatsuki teaching you? Cuz it's definitely not combat." Naruto said as he gracefully dodged another incoming roundhouse kick. He and Sasuke had stopped in some random forest to face Kiba and another nin that he had picked up off the street. How professional.

"Do not speak of Pein-sama that way!" The nin replied.

"Did you mean Royal Pain-sama? Because I think that's a better reflection of his character."

"You know nothing!" The Leaf-nin spat, making Naruto raise an eyebrow.

"Oh? Well then allow me to be enlightened 'ttebayo. Kurama!" The Kyuubi poofed into existence a few feet away from the two battling ninjas. The leaf-nin abruptly stopped fighting and let out a high-pitched scream at the sight of Kurama.

"I am painfully underinformed on this person named Pein...see what I did there?"

The leaf-nin screamed again and ran away.

"Aw man, Kurama! You always scare away my opponents with your bad puns dattebayo!"

"You'll thank me later. Sasuke has been waiting this entire time for you to finish." Kurama replied, jerking his head towards Sasuke, who was sitting patiently by a tree and an unconscious Kiba and Akamaru.

"Let's go," Sasuke said as he grabbed Naruto's hand and started towards training ground 44.

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"Oh, good, you're here. We were just debating whether to go after you or not." Kakashi said, his eyes not leaving his Icha Icha until Sakura elbowed him harshly in the gut.

"Anyway," She began, "We brought the nins that attacked us here. I thought you could erase their memories, so they don't alert anyone to our presence." Sakura gestured to the three unconscious bodies lying in the grass. "Where are the Konoha nins you fought?"

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged panicked looks, and Sakura soon caught on, "Don't tell me you left them there."

Naruto gave his teammate a sheepish smile, making her wave her hand. "Nevermind, we can get them later. You knocked out all of them right?" Naruto's smile faltered slightly, giving Sakura all the information she needed.

"Oh boy,"

Why couldn't anything go right?