Sasuke trudged through the thick wilderness eyeing the passing travellers on the side road. The Uchiha preferred staying off the road, covered by trees and bushes, away from prying eyes. Although it did make him seem like a suspicious figure, the Uchiha could care less. He would seem like a suspicious figure if he walked alone on the road. A sixteen year old carrying weapons but not wearing a village headband. He would either be labeled as a young blacksmith, or a young ninja. He preferred to stay away from all the attention that would come with waling on the main road.

So he stuck to the shadows.

The Uchiha had no specific destination at first. Then he got a summon from Naruto saying that Sakura got herself into some trouble at Kiri.  He had started heading in that direction until Sakura sent a scorpion saying she was fine and it was all a misunderstanding.  That doesn't mean he wasn't going to worry.  He wrote back telling her to keep in touch. 

He was still waiting for her response.  As for now, he was planning on training alone.  He needed some time to himself.  Bee and A didn't quite understand when he tried to explain it, but they were fine with him going.  They made sure to remind him to keep in touch or else they would declare war on Konoha, assuming that the Leaf Village was holding him captive. 

Sasuke didn't want it to end up at that.   So he made sure to send them a letter once he got out of the Land to Lightning.  Now he was traveling through the Land of Hot Water.  From his past experiences and the letters from his teammates, Sasuke knew to be wary of Otogakure, which was bordering Yugakure on the west.  Also bordering Yugakure on the south was the Uchiha's home village of Konoha.  So Sasuke was left with little places to go, unless he wanted to try to cut through the northern border of the Land of Fire and arrive in Takigakure.  He decided to keep it simple for now and just stay in Yugakure

Sasuke wasn't expecting to run into any Oto-nin this far east in Yugakure, so when he saw a few on the traveler's road, he was happy he decided to stay off the road.  Though it only helped him stay out of sight for a little bit.

"Hey Suko, there's some ninja wannabe hiding in the trees." One of the Oto-nin claimed with a laugh.  The other nin, Suko, raised an eyebrow and examined the forest around them before he pinpointed his eyes on Sasuke's location. 

"Hm.  You're right.  He's all yours Furai." Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the familiar name but shrugged it off and prepared to defend himself.  The Uchiha analyzed Furai, noticing that the boy didn't seem to be much older than him.  Furai seemed to be confident that he would beat Sasuke, and so the Uchiha decided to let him make the first move.  Furai threw a couple of kunai at Sasuke, which the Uchiha easily deflected. 

"Who are you?" Furai asked curiously. 

"I was wondering the same thing about you." Sasuke claimed with a raised eyebrow. 

"Don't start talking Furai." Suko scowled.  "If you want to prove your loyalty to Kabuto, now's your chance." Sasuke's eyes widened at statement while Furai seemed to become more serious about the situation. 

"Hai Suko." Furai replied.  He started to approach Sasuke, who had finally decided to jump down from the tree. 

"You work for Kabuto?" Sasuke questioned pulling out one of his katanas.  Furai didn't answer as he began to start making handsigns. 

"Wind release," Furai muttered.  Sasuke planted his katana in the ground and held on to it to keep himself from being blown away.  Furai's jutsu wasn't that strong, and Sasuke noticed that his chakra levels weren't too high.  Sasuke knew he could end this quick.  Once the wind had died down, Sasuke jumped and pulled out his second katana, charging towards Furai.  Furai deflected Sasuke's hit with a kunai and tried to kick out at the Uchiha.  Sasuke caught Furai's leg and pushed him towards the ground.  Furai grunted and Sasuke couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. 

Sasuke refrained from shaking his head and he just hit a pressure point on Furai's neck, successfully knocking him out.  Suko, Furai's partner, shook his head at the result. Suko had dark brown hair and a scar running across the left side of his face. He had a sword strapped against his back and a pouch around his waist.

"Pathetic." He muttered glaring at Furai.  "I'll just have to deal with you then." Sasuke then felt Suko's chakra rise.  Suko's chakra levels were much higher than Furai's, and Sasuke's at that.  The Uchiha watched Suko's every move, making sure to activate the Sharingan for a split second to see if he could get a grasp on how strong the Oto-nin was.  Sasuke quickly realized that he was out of his league.  Sasuke begun planning his escape route, knowing he would have to flee or possilbly get involved with Kabuto.  He preferred the former. 

"Why does Kabuto have oto-nin all the way out here?" Sasuke asked with a raised eyebrow stalling for some time.  Suko scowled, but responded anyways. 

"Kid, Kabuto has eyes and ears everywhere. What do you know about him?" Suko asked.

"Enough to know to stay away from him." Sasuke retorted, pulling his katana from the ground and gripping both in his hands getting in a defensive stance, while eyeing the surrounding area.

"You must know too much." Suko claimed as he pulled out his own sword.

Sasuke gripped his katanas and jumped in the air just as Suko launched himself towards him. Suko was quick to follow and his sword clashed against Sasuke's. Sasuke hissed as he felt a shock. Suko seemed to be channeling lightning chakra through the sword. Pushing off of Suko's sword, Sasuke launched himself back and quickly sheathed his katanas before beginning to make some hand signs.

"Fire ball jutsu!" Sasuke exclaimed blowing a fire ball towards the charging Suko. The Oto-nin smirked before the fire ball consumed him, and Sasuke stared, confused when he didn't feel Suko's chakra disappear or deplete. Then Sasuke was knocked back by a kick to the gut. The Uchiha grunted as he flew back, activating his Sharingan, and trying to balance himself.

"You think a simple fire ball could end me? You're hilarious." He heard Suko laugh. Sasuke turned to glare at the man. Suko's eyes widened seeing Sasuke's Sharingan, before he smirked. "Kabuto wasn't wrong. There was an Uchiha around here." Sasuke scowled, waiting for Suko to look him in the eye.

The Oto-nin was quick to make the mistake of looking Sasuke in the eye and was quickly cast into a genjutsu. Sighing, Sasuke ran a hand through his hair and he glanced around the area. The road didn't look too different other than the few scattered kunai and a little bit of charring on the trees. Sasuke shook his head and turned to walk away when he heard a small rustle. Sasuke ducked just in time to avoid Suko's sword.

"You Uchiha's think too much of your genjutsus." Suko claimed before trying to slice at Sasuke again. Sasuke dodged again by jumping up. Suko continued to slice while Sasuke continued to try to dodge and separate himself from Suko.

"Yes, but Uchiha's don't just pride ourselves on genjutsu." Another deep voice claimed. Sasuke took Suko's distraction as an opportunity to jump back. Sasuke looked in the direction the voice had come from, but the figure was cloaked, and the face was hidden by the shadows of the trees. Suko smirked.

"I'll finish you easily. Just after I finish this kid." Suko claimed. The figure didn't seem to take kindly to that as he disappeared, only to reappear in front of Sasuke.

"I'm sorry, I can't let that happen." The figure spoke. Suko glared at him.

"How're you going to do that?" Suko challenged. The figure didn't move an inch, but Sasuke heard him say something before Suko stilled.

"Mangekyo." Suko stilled for a moment before collapsing, and the figure turned slightly to Sasuke. "You okay kid?"

"You're an Uchiha?" Sasuke said to the guy questioningly. The brown haired guy turned around and Sasuke finally had the opportunity to study his face. Half of it was normal, but the other half was rippled.  The man wore an eye patch over one eye, while the other held a spinning Sharingan.

"You're right." The guy admitted, his Sharingan deactivating. "I am. But I separated myself from that life a long time ago."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked furrowing his brow. The man sighed and shook his head.

"We all have our reasons right?" He said giving Sasuke a knowing look before walking off. He stopped when he noticed Sasuke wasn't following. "Kid, you coming? If you stay around these parts alone there's the chance you'll be found by more of Kabuto's men. You wouldn't stand a chance against them alone." Sasuke looked back towards the clearing where he encountered Suko and Furai, then looked back to the man. Sasuke could handle Furai easily, but Suko?  Sasuke jogged up to the man as the man began to walk again.

"What's your name?" Sasuke asked him as he kept the man's pace.

"You can call me Tobi." The man claimed. Sasuke narrowed his eyes as the name sounded familiar, yet he couldn't grasp it.

$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&

Hey.  So like, remember last chapter.  When I said seven months later.  Well when I was typing that, I didn't mean for the next update to take almost seven months. 

Sorry. 

I've had a lot of family stuff and drama going on and I just never got to updating.  When all that stuff happened it became so much easier to just read rather than write.  I went through an avengers phase, then a Harry Potter phase, then an avengers phase again. 

I'm not sure when I'll have the next update uploaded, but I'll try to get it within the month. 

Love you guys!