AN: Yes, this is the real Chapter 4. Sorry, sorry, sorry this took so long. My muse got kidnapped by the FFVII characters, but she is back now and healthy and ready for more chapters. I've done some minor editing on the previous chapters in light of new information presented in the manga, so you might want to go back and read the previous chapters. Also a big thanks to MrNeedsToRemoveAllFavs for putting up all that info on his profile. It corrected some plot issues and gave me more ideas (sealing!).

Thank you all who reviewed and kept me on you fav/alert list. This chapter is for you. Enjoy!

Chapter 4
The Gang Assembles

Naruto woke up the next morning and looked at the To-Do List he had made last night with Jiraiya. Today he had to stop by the weapon shop for extra kunai and shuriken as well as get more scrolls, but before that... Ramen! And now it won't take me fifteen minutes to get there. With a grin Naruto quickly got dressed and ran out the window and onto the roof. He shunshined to Ichiraku Ramen. Unfortunately, it was closed. Huh? This had never happened before. Naruto checked his watch. Oh. It was 6:47 AM and Ichiraku's didn't open until 7:00 AM. Without skipping a beat, Naruto shunshined to the roof of the nearest house and began thinking up pranks he could pull now that he knew about sealing and how to shunshin. He looked Sarutobi's head on the Hokage Monument and laughed. Jiji, you are so lucky I promised you I wouldn't pull any more pranks once I became a ninja, otherwise... Naruto sniffed. Ramen! Ichiraku's was open. Naruto quickly scrambled down to Ichiraku's and took a seat. "I want the usual!" he told Ichiraku. Ichiraku laughed and handed Naruto the first of several ramen bowls.

Just as Naruto was finishing up his third bowl, Sasuke walked up to Ichiraku's and sat down several places away from Naruto. "Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke completely ignored Naruto and studied the menu for a moment before telling Tuchi, " I'd like to have some miso ramen with extra tomatoes if that's possible." Tuchi nodded and handed Sasuke the bowl.

"Sauske?" Naruto asked again, this time a little louder.

Sasuke gave Naruto a look that told Naruto "don't talk to me" before wiping his mouth with a napkin. After he muttered, "Thank you," to Tuchi, he walked off down the street.

Naruto shrugged and gave his bowl back to Tuchi for fourths. As he did so, he noticed there was a piece of paper in the napkin holder that hadn't been there before. Curious, Naruto pulled the paper out and grinned when he saw it was a note from Sasuke.

Naruto,

Meet me at the entrance to the Uchiha District and 1800 hours and bring Sakura, but don't tell anyone else. I need to talk to you guys.

Naruto frowned and stuck the note in is pocket. Something odd was going on with Sasuke, but it sounded like he would be getting answers later. Right now though, he had to finish his ramen and stop by a weapon shop. After that, he would find Sakura.

As he was walking out of the weapons shop, Naruto saw Sakura come out of a book store with her arms full of books. "Sakura!" he called. Yes, now I don't have to find her.

Sakura turned to face him at his voice. "Naruto?..." she made out.

Naruto grinned and ran over to her. "Sakura, what are you doing here?"

Sakura bit her lip. "Buying books, but that's not important right now?" She looked around her. "I need to talk to you," she whispered, "but it can't be here."

Naruto stared at her. Okay?

Sakura sighed. "Kakashi told me about what happened. I need to talk to you, but it can't be here in the middle of the village." She dropped her books into Naruto's arms and began to walk away. "Come on!" she called over her shoulder.

Naruto ran after her. "Wait. Where are we going?"

"To my my house," Sakura said as if it was no big deal.

What? Naruto thought. She's never wanted to go anywhere with me. Oh well, at least I'll get to see her room!

Sakura's room was not what Naruto was expecting. There were shelves everywhere and they were filled with books, and not just any books, but books about the shinobi arts. The shelf next to him held titles like Advanced Strategies of the Basis Bushin and Advanced Theories of Chakra Flow. On the self below that were books like Practical Physics as Applied to Shuriken and Applied Cryptography. "Where did you get all these?" Naruto asked. They were not the type of books he ever saw in bookstores.

"Oh that," said Sakura from the other shelf where she was putting away her new books. She laughed. "Ninja bookstores usually hide themselves with a weak genjutsu to keep civilians from finding their shinobi books." Sakura turned around and sat on her bed. "Now talk. I know you're supposedly "banished," she air-quoted with her fingers, "but that's really not what's happening." Sakura shrugged. "Other then that, I don't know anything. So, what's going on?"

At least she already knows that; it'll make this easier. Naruto took a deep breath. "Long story short, some guy on the council wants to get rid of me and the opportunity finally came up. Then Jiraiya-"

"Wait," Sakura interrupted, "This guy... you wouldn't happen to know who he is? And when you say he 'want's to get rid of you', do you mean that he just wants you out of Konoha or that he wants you dead?"

"Um, the guy's name is Shimera Danzou and I don't think he wants me dead. Why?" he asked when he saw Sakura's shocked face.

"Because," said Sakura weakly, "it makes so much sense."

"What do you mean?"

Sakura sighed and pulled her hair behind her ears. "If you know that much about shinobi politics you wouldn't know about Danzou," she snorted. "All I really know for sure about him is that he's one of three retired shinobi called the council. Their job is to advise the Hokage, but they also have quite a bit of political power because they've been advising the Hokage since the Sandaime took the position." Sakura paused before saying slowly, "There are also unconfirmed rumors that Danzou didn't agree with the Sadaime's policies or the Sandaime's choice of Yondaime."

"How could that be?" Every ninja is loyal to the Hokage.

"I don't know, but it probably means nothing" explained Sakura. "It's a rumor after all and if it was true, Danzou would have been killed."

"Oh. Good." Naruto sighed in relief.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "What were you saying Jiraiya did?"

Naruto laughed. "Ero-sennin reminded Baa-chan that he wanted to take me on a two year training trip in three months. Since I was going to be leaving Konoha anyway, they decided that I would leave early to make it look like I was actually being banished and meet up with Ero-sennin later. While we're gone, Baa-chan'll be straitening out everything with the advisers."

"So you'll be leaving for a couple years to train while everything at this end is being taken care of and then you'll be coming back?" clarified Sakura.

"Yep!" Naruto grinned.

"Good." Sakura smiled. "We just got Sasuke back; it would be a pain if you left."

"Oh!" Naruto jumped to his feet. "Sasuke said he needed to talk to us and wanted to meet us at the entrance to the Uchiha District at 1800 hours."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Why?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know." Sasuke had never involved them in his private life and Naruto remembered that the Uchiha District had been abandoned after the Uchiha Massacre had taken place. "He just said he wanted to talk to us and he also wanted us not to tell anyone."

Sakura blinked. "That's really weird."

"Yeah, I know. Sasuke was acting weird when he told me about it too."

"Weird how?"

"Well, he came to talk to me at Ichiraku's and even ordered a bowl of ramen."

Sakura stared at him. "Are you sure it was Sasuke?"

"Yeah, it was his handwriting on the note."

"What note? And why didn't you tell me earlier about this, baka!"

"Heh heh," Naruto scratched the back of his head. "This one." He handed Sakura the note Sasuke had given him.

Sakura took the note and looked it over. "It's Sauske's all right." She gave the note back to Naruto. "I'll be there." Sakura got up off her bed and began piling books on it. "Now where did that book on the First Secret War go..." she mumbled to herself.

Naruto stared at her and shrugged; Sakura always ignored him. "Okay. See you later." He stepped out onto the window ledge. "Oh," he turned around. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could get sebon would you. Ero-senin said to get some and I can't find any where I usually go."

Sakura looked up from her book. "There's a weapon place over in the East District that has them." She went back to her book.

"Thanks Sakura," Naruto called. He climbed up the wall to the roof and grinned as he bounded into the village. At least Sakura wouldn't be upset when he left.

When his watch hit 5:45, Naruto made his way towards the Uchiha District via the rooftops. A few blocks away from it, he saw Sakura walking on the streets. He jumped down to her. She looked at him, nodded and then looked away. They walked down the street in silence until they came up to the entrance of the Uchiha District. A familiar looking konochi was leaning against a wall.

"What is Anko doing here?" Sakura whispered.

Naruto looked at where Sakura was pointing and gulped when he saw the crazy woman who had licked his blood at the Chuunin Exams. "I have no idea," he made out, "but I hope she has nothing to do with us."

"Too bad then,"said a voice behind them. Naruto and Sakura turned around to see Anko standing behind them. "Sasuke asked me to meet you here and he should be showing up any minute."

Naruto raised his eyebrows at Sakura and she shrugged back. Naruto looked back at Anko. "Why are you here?" he asked.

Anko grinned and began twirling a kunai through her fingers. "You'll find out later. Hey Sasuke!"

Naruto and Sakura turned around to see Sasuke coming out the gate. "Sasuke," Naruto said, "please tell me she isn't coming with us."

Sasuke looked between Naruto and Anko. "She is. Let's go," he said to Naruto and Sakura. "We should hurry."

Naruto and Sakura looked at each other and began to follow Sasuke. Anko climbed to the roof of a nearby building. "See you there!" She called before racing across the rooftops.

Sasuke led Naruto and Sakura through the gate and into the deserted Uchiha District. They walked past empty shops that ranged from weapon shops to bakeries. The most prominent building was the burnt-out skeleton of the Uchiha Military Police headquarters. Eventually, the commercial district gave way to houses and mansions. Sasuke turned down a street that passed between several houses and led to a bridge that spanned a river. On the other side of the river was a shrine. Sasuke took a deep breath and crossed the bridge with Naruto and Sakura right behind him. He led them into the shrine and pulled up a tatami mat on the right side of the room. Underneath it was a trapdoor. Sasuke opened it and looked up at Naruto and Sakura. "Go down and go to the hideout at the end of the hall. I'll join you." They nodded and went through the trapdoor.

Waiting for them in the hideout was Anko. "You guys didn't see anyone did you?" she asked. For once, she was serious. Sasuke shook his head. "Good, I didn't meet anyone either."

"What's going on?" Naruto demanded.

Anko looked at Sasuke. "You explain. It was your idea to get them involved." She leaned against a wall and began filing her nails with a kunai.

Sasuke sighed and looked at Naruto before looking away again. "I found something important that had to do with Itachi and the... Massacre." He paused. "It's big... big enough to cause a war if other people found out about it." Sasuke bit his lip. "I need to tell someone about it and... you're the only people I can trust; I can't tell anyone else." He looked Naruto and Sakura in the eyes.

Naruto blinked and sat down on the floor. "Okay." He looked up at Sasuke expectantly.

Sakura was more skeptical. "Why can't you tell anyone else?" she asked.

Anko answered in place of Sasuke. "Because if he did, he'd get killed for knowing what he knows as would you once you know what he knows."

Sakura started at that. "Should we know about it?"

"Someone has to," said Anko. "It's the only way to permanently fix the problem; you'll understand once you see what the information is."

Naruto's eyes darted back and forth before he looked at Sasuke. "Let's see it."

Anko nodded and took out a scroll. She put her hand to it and several files appeared out of thin air. Slowly, Naruto and Sakura walked over to Anko and Sasuke. Naruto reached for the first one, opened it and began to read.

AN: My characterization for Sakura mostly comes from several aspects about her I noticed in the Chuunin Exams. In the first test, we find she's smart enough to pass a test no genin should be able to pass. Oddly enough, Sasuke apparently knows she is that smart and doesn't even worry about how she'll do. As none of that info was taught in the academy, she had to learn it somewhere. She also scored the highest out of all the girls in the academy. As that would include Ino and Hanita, both of who are heirs to ninja clans, I think Sakura would have to be a nerd when it comes to shinobi. And in the preliminaries, Kakashi mentions that while she knows just the basic jutsu, she knows them perfectly. That sounds to me like Sakura has been doing something productive with her time.

When you have both civilians and ninja living side-by-side in a ninja village, rumors and mis-information have to exist if just to keep the civilians from not finding out about classified information. A rumor that Danzou is not loyal to the Hokage doesn't mean anything, especially when the Hokage acts as if he trusts Danzou.

Parings: My muse managed to fix my OC "problem" (Thank you for the idea, Vathara!) and in the process I found out who Anko will be paired with. I'm also 80% sure of who Sasuke is going to end up with, but Naruto and Sakura are still open to suggestions.

Jutsu Explanations
I don't like giving technical explanations of jutsu in the story as it wrecks the flow of action because the characters already know most of this stuff. I'll mostly do this for the common jutsu that have different ways of working depending on the author. If you don't have to read these if you don't want to.

Shunshin no Jutsu - - According to canon, this is simply speeding up your body with chakra to the point that the body can not be seen moving, hence "body flicker". Naturally, some people are faster then other people. It should be noticed that this limits the use of shunshin as there is certain terrain that is nearly impossible to move through silently at fast speeds. The interior of a building would be a good example.

Thanks for reading!