Disclaimer: I'm not cool enough to own Naruto. For now, I only own Nao.

Warning: Fighting. Drama. Thievery. Innuendos.

Beta: Kalafina94

Beta: silverseed

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Interlude - Omniscient - 12

Hinata fidgeted nervously as she began to make her way through the streets of the Leaf.

"Oi! Hinata-chan!"

Hinata stopped, looking over to find Tenten rushing to her and grinning. "Hey, Hinata-chan."

"Tenten-chan," Hinata greeted, smiling shyly. "Are you already done?"

Tenten shook her head. "Nah. Having trouble with the last one. You?"

"S-Same."

"What do you need to get?" Tenten asked curiously.

"K-K-K-K-K-Kakashi-sensei's p-p-p—"

Tenten waved the hyperventilating girl off. "His porn, right? As it happens, I had the same thing and I got plenty. Help me with the last one and I'll give you some of the ones I collected."

Hinata looked relieved. "Oh? Thank goodness. what do you need?"

"Asuma's pack of cigarettes," Tenten said, beaming.

Hinata brightened. "As it happens, he left some at the training ground. Kurenai-sensei was going to leave them there and scold him when he went looking for them. We can use them."

"Now we're talkin'!"

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Ino kicked down the door to Lee's apartment. "Lee! Give me your jumpsuit, now!" Lee shot up right from bed, his eyes wide.

He did not question why Ino was breaking down his apartment.

Nor did he question why she wanted a jumpsuit.

All he knew was that someone wanted one of the most awesome jumpsuits and was up and about this early —late— with so much energy.

"Yosh!" Lee exclaimed, jumping out of his bed.

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Nao knocked lightly on the door.

A couple of minutes passed before it opened, revealing a groggy Yagura with a scarf thrown lazily around his shoulders to cover half of his face.

"This better be damn important."

Nao bowed lowly. "P-P-Please g-give me y-y-our boxers!"

"What?"

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Tenten grabbed the pack of cigarettes triumphantly. "Awesome! Let's go ahead and head back to Ino's place then now that we have everything."

Hinata smiled. "M-Mn. Okay."

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Temari chuckled as Tenten and Hinata entered Ino's room.

"Don't tell me you beat us," Tenten exclaimed, pouting. "You have no idea what I had to go through to get Kurenai's panties."

Temari laughed. "You actually got that one?! Ha! I thought it would be pretty funny."

"You pervert," Tenten said, smirking.

Temari winked at her. "I'm still the winner."

"Damn it!"

The trio looked over to find a paint-covered Ino, who reeked of something foul, glowering furiously. "After all the shit I had to go through, I still lost?! That's bullshit!"

"Why do you smell so bad?" Temari asked, wrinkling her nose.

Ino shot her a venomous look. "Don't. Ask."

Temari laughed, leaning back on Ino's bed and smirking at everyone. "Should we go ahead and show what we have? Here's what I have: Tsunade's sake, Chōji's chips, and an embarrassing picture of Shikamaru."

Temari presented each item as she spoke, laying them out on the bed.

Ino huffed. "I've got. Iruka's papers —while he was grading them— Naruto's premium ramen, and Lee's jumpsuit."

She dumped everything on the bed.

Tenten pulled out a pair of panties and carton of cigarettes, tossing each on the bed. "I've got Kurenai's panties and Asuma's cigarettes. Hinata-chan and I both had Kakashi's porn, so we worked together on that one."

Hinata went ahead and took her things out, too. "I-I also had Neji's hair care products and N-N-N-N-N-Naruto-kun's b-b-b-boxers."

She threw the aforementioned items on the bed quickly, studiously avoiding their gazes. Tenten triumphantly pulled out her bag and dumped the contents on the bed, believing it to be porn.

The girls peered at it.

"That's not Icha Icha," Ino said flatly.

Tenten blinked, then looked down and gave a frustrated cry. "I swear it was Icha Icha when I put it in here!"

"Knowing Kakashi-sensei, he probably has fake porn," Ino grumbled. "He's sneaky like his damn student. stupid Naruto."

"I'm guessing Naruto has something to do with your state," Temari said slyly.

"Shut up."

The window to Ino's room opened.

Yagura peered in, dressed out in his pajamas, but wearing his mask. Nao was slung over his shoulder. He stepped in the room and was about to put Nao in Ino's arms, but after smelling the girl, thought better of it and put her in Tenten's arms.

"Here," Yagura said flatly.

"What did you do to my little sister?" Ino demanded.

"She fainted when I handed her my boxers," Yagura said. "Good night, girls."

"Night, Kame-san," Ino huffed. Hinata offered a small wave goodbye and Temari, who didn't know the guy, didn't say anything.

Tenten snickered and adjusted Nao in her arms. "Regardless, though, it looks like Temari-chan wins. What do you want to do now?"

"Bath!" Ino exclaimed. "We're going to the public baths now. I'll grab Nao's pajamas —she'll wake up on the way there. probably. Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"

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I destroyed the last monster within my sights before the pain came. It wasn't the normal pain from the usage of my kekkei genkai, but a different kind —a kind that I had not had to deal with for many months now.

I clutched my neck, biting my tongue. The Curse Mark is acting up. the seal must be weak.

Giving myself a good shake, I let out an unsteady breath.

The pain receded and I was able to continue on.

I sprinted through the fog, completely focused on reaching Yagura. as I burst through the fog on the other side, I saw Yagura slam his staff into the ground and a field of coral erupted from underneath Kakuzu. Kakuzu gave a strangled cry and doubled over as the coral pierced through him.

He slumped over onto his knees, struggling to stand. "Heh. So this is it?"

Yagura pointed his staff towards the Akatsuki member, a smirk on his face. "Not quite. We were ordered to capture you if we could, and only kill if necessary."

Kakuzu shook his head. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"Will you surrender, then?" Yagura asked. "Or do I need to kill you now?"

Kakuzu stared at Yagura with undisguised annoyance. "It seems like I have little choice if I want to live."

"Indeed," Yagura said, then slammed the butt of his staff on Kakuzu's forehead. The —miser— Akatsuki member slumped over, unconscious. That's when Yagura looked over at me, and I walked towards him, my brow furrowed.

"K—I mean, Yagura-sensei," I began hesitantly, looking over at his scratches and tattered form, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Yagura dismissed. He reached out a hand and touched the base of my neck gently. "I see the marks. Is the Curse Mark acting up again?"

I touched at the formed marks beside his fingers. "Yes. I'll have to reseal it when we get back to Konoha."

"I'll assist you, then," Yagura said, retracting his hand. "Where's Jūgo?"

"Here."

We both looked over to see a wind-blown Jūgo, smiling sheepishly. "I might have destroyed some of the forest."

Yagura waved his hand dismissively. "That's fine. It'll regrow. Go ahead and grab this one; we'll carry him back to Konohagakure now."

"What about the others? Should we offer assistance?"

"They can handle Hidan. Besides, we've received no word of requiring reinforcements," Yagura said. "Let's go."

"Understood," I said, and Jūgo bent down and slung Kakuzu over his shoulder.

"Okay," Jūgo said.

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After we dropped off Kakuzu at the T&I center, Yagura and I bode Jūgo goodbye —as he was needed for further testing— and headed out.

"Let's seal your mark back up, then we'll grab some lunch," Yagura said, leading us through the streets.

"Ah. mn. Okay."

Yagura stopped short, causing me to stop as well and almost bump into him. He turned around to face me, his expression unreadable due to his mask. He placed a hand on top of my head and tilted my head back so I was forced to look at where his eyes would be. "Stop worrying. Your sister is fine. Have a little faith in her, Nao-chan."

I blushed brightly. "I-It's not that I don't have faith i-in her, I just."

"Mm-hmm," Yagura said, his tone disbelieving. I buried my face in my hands and shook my head.

"I do have faith in big sis."

"Then don't worry," Yagura said, abruptly taking back his hand and turning away. "Keep up, dove."

I peeked out of my fingers, watching Yagura deftly maneuver through the crowd, feeling my stomach churn pleasantly.

I then gave a small sigh, tucking my hands behind me and following after him.

It doesn't do me any good to dwell on the what ifs, I thought, watching Yagura head onwards.

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Yagura took off his mask and set it beside him. I wiped the towel across my brow, still panting heavily. I always disliked the re-sealing process required for the Curse Mark. Like Jiraiya had said, all those years ago, each re-sealing of the Mark required a more complex seal than the last. And all cases were long, tedious, and painful.

Not that I was unfamiliar with pain by this point.

Giving a sigh, I laid back on the wooden walkway, my legs dangling over the side. Yagura was on my right, and a plate of onigiri and tea sat in between us. Momma had made us some snacks to hold us over before dinner was ready. The sealing process had taken longer than we would have thought and we missed lunch.

Yagura looked over at me before his eyes trailed down to my half of onigiri.

"Go ahead," I sighed.

Yagura didn't hesitate to start eating my onigiri. "I had almost forgotten how out of it you get after the sealing."

Shrugging, I rolled over on my side to face him. "What do you think is going to happen next, Sensei? Do you think Tsunade-sama will send us to start tracking down Akatsuki members?"

Yagura shook his head. "I doubt it. We don't know where they are exactly, as they keep moving, but."

"Tobi, Kisame, Pein, Konan, and Zetsu," I said, counting off the remaining members on my fingers. "Five down. Five to go."

"Assuming none of them have faked their death," Yagura muttered darkly.

I smiled at him. "Yes. There's that. Though, that'd be a bit. troublesome, wouldn't it?"

Yagura glared at me. "Don't you start with that."

I giggled, sitting up and yawning.

Yagura's gaze softened. "You should go lay down. I know you aren't going to have an appetite for dinner, if the last sealing is anything to go by."

Wincing, I shook my head. "Sis would be worried if I didn't show up for dinner."

"At least take a nap, then. We still have some time before dinner —lay down on the couch or something."

"I'm fine," I insisted.

Yagura rolled his eyes and leaned over to me. He pulled off his scarf and folded it into a neat stack before setting it behind me. He then placed a hand on my forehead and pushed me down, so my head rested on his scarf. "Sleep. That's an order. You're good to no one if you're too exhausted to do anything."

Fidgeting nervously, I said, "But—"

"Your sister would agree with me," Yagura said firmly. "Now go to sleep."

"Yes."

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Laughter woke me up. I opened my eyes blearily, feeling more tired than I was when I originally went to sleep. I was on the couch in the living room, and my head was in someone's lap. Upon opening my eyes and staring up, I found Ino's face looking down on me. She beamed at me.

"Glad to see you're up now," Ino said brightly. I sat up sharply, my cheeks warmed with embarrassment.

"S-Sorry," I apologized, sitting up straight.

"Yo, Nao-chan," Naruto said brightly, beaming at me.

"H-Hi," I said, bowing my head. Looking back up, I saw the entire team was there, including Itachi, Papa, and Momma. "Sorry, everyone."

"No need to apologize," Naruto hummed, waving his hand. "Besides, you're the one that missed dinner."

I gave a small smile. "Oh? That's okay. I'll eat a big breakfast in the morning, then."

Ino swatted me on the shoulder. "You will not. Here, I saved you some dinner —it's in the fridge, so I'll go get it. Honestly, Nao-chan, you should know better."

Yagura reached over and rapped me on the head with his staff. "Listen to your sister, Nao-chan. A kunoichi needs her food. For every meal you skip is an extra hour of warm-ups during our training regime."

I paled. "Y-Yessir."

While Ino went to grab my food, Momma moved to sit on the couch with me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. Kakashi looked up from his book. "Now that everyone's awake, though, I should inform you that we have another mission tomorrow."

Shikamaru sighed. "Really? Troublesome."

"Tomorrow morning, Tsunade-sama wants the entire team, except Sasuke and Nao, to report to her office at nine, sharp."

Sasuke and I both frowned.

"Why not us?" Sasuke asked curiously. Kakashi gave a short shrug.

"Not sure. Maybe she's sending you two on a different mission."

Sasuke and I exchanged glances, neither of us certain what that meant for us.

"Here," Ino said, placing a plate of food in my lap. "I expect all of it eaten. Get to it, young lady."

"Yes, yes."

"Speaking of young. when are you and Sasuke planning on taking the Chūnin Exams?" Yagura asked slyly, looking over at Naruto. Naruto flushed and Sasuke scoffed. Due to the fact that both of them had been on a training leave, neither were able to attend the tournament. I, on the other hand, was able to attend it with Ino and Chōji and obtain the Chūnin rank with Yagura's help.

Papa smirked. "There's a tournament being held in Sand in a couple months. Maybe you should go there. It's not even team-required. You can solo it."

"That'd be interesting to see," Kakashi said, chuckling.

Naruto huffed. "Fine. We'll take it then —and I'll get that stupid rank easy-peezy. I'll be so good, they'll end up giving me the Jōnin rank in the same day!"

Sasuke hit Naruto over the head. "Don't be delusionally narcissistic."

"Oh, that's rich, coming from you," Naruto sneered.

"I said delusionally. I'm justifiably narcissistic," Sasuke said reasonably.

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Sasuke and I stood side by side, our backs straight, and dressed out in our uniforms. It was noon, and the two of us had already eaten lunch.

"Sasuke, Nao," Tsunade-sama said, leaning forward on her desk. Her hands were clasped together and she rested her chin on them. "There is a reason why I did not allow you two to go on this next mission. With Jūgo's information, along with our own gathered data, we were able to find some very interesting facts regarding Orochimaru. Roughly three years ago, he attempted to place the Curse Mark on you, Sasuke, and kidnapped you, Nao. This was because he desired to use either of you in his jutsu in his vain attempt towards immortality. However, at the end of each of those three years, Orochimaru becomes unbearably weak.

"To avoid his enemies, he hides out in his, at the moment, most secured location. Jūgo knew that location, as he has stayed there many times before. The team was sent to that location this morning in hopes of finally eliminating Orochimaru with Jiraiya-sama leading."

"J-Jiraiya-sama?" I echoed, my eyes widening.

"Yes," Tsunade said, her eyes closing. "We can't take any more chances with Orochimaru. It's time he was finished off. You two weren't allowed to go with them because we feared that if you were there, and in the worst case scenario, he was able to capture you."

"We would become a liability," Sasuke said flatly.

Tsunade nodded. "Besides, I have a different mission for the two of you. Something I am certain that you, Sasuke, would be particularly interested in."

Sasuke blinked at that. "What do you have in mind, Tsunade-sama?"

Tsunade took a deep breath. "Uchiha Itachi has been diagnosed with a very rare, and in most cases, fatal illness. I found this out yesterday during his medical examination."

Sasuke and I both sucked in a sharp breath. My heart constricted.

Poor Sasuke. I can't imagine. if Ino ever. I don't think.

"It is, however, curable," Tsunade said pointedly. "The downside is, though, that I don't have all the ingredients as some of them are even rarer than the illness. This is your mission —find these materials."

" us?" I asked hesitantly.

Tsunade nodded. "Nao, you will be leading this mission. I will need these ingredients by the end of this month, at the latest. But, the sooner, the better."

"We won't fail," Sasuke said quietly.

Tsunade smiled. "I'm sure you won't. You are dismissed."

As Sasuke and I both left Tsunade's office, we exchanged glances.

"Pack then leave?" I offered.

"Pack then leave," Sasuke said.

.

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. . .

Interlude - Nao's POV - 12

The following week, I returned to the grave and cleaned it off. Again, as I sat down, I had the oddest sensation of someone watching me, but dismissed it as quickly. It had to have been my imagination —no one came to the Uchiha graveyard anymore.

"Hello, again, Obito-ue," I said gently. I placed a bouquet of bluebells at his grave. "Not much has happened since the last time I came. Although."

I leaned forward and dropped my voice into a whisper, "Sis is trying to convince me to take the Chūnin Exams with her. They're being held in Mist this time, so. I dunno. I don't really want to because of Yagura."

I trailed off, my brow furrowing.

"Obito-ue, I haven't heard the voices in a while," I said softly. "But I know I'll need to re-seal my Curse Mark soon. I'll have to do it before the exams, while I'm still in a safe environment. A-Ah, and Yagura-sensei gave me a summoning contract —the butterflies. I'll be contacting them the first time tonight. Wish me luck, ne?"

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Weeeee~ I wrote all of this in one sitting because I was inspired by fan art. :) Thank you so much, Lammington!

Link is on profile, or you can check out my(charredblossom16) favorites on deviantART or their gallery.

Thanks again~ This one's for you as thanks for inspiring me. C:

Question: What's the most popular pairing you ship? And what's the most uncommon pairing you ship?

Reviews are love!