I don't own Naruto

Chapter 4

The next morning Naruto arrived to see the hokage and was a little awed at the sight of his team. Kakashi had remain completely unchanged with the exception of his now showing sharingan eye. Sakura on the other hand was very different from the girl he left behind. Sakura was currently wearing black pants, black sandals, a black long sleeved shirt and a flak jacket. Her forehead protector's cloth was red.

"Hey you guys." Naruto greeted.

"Its been a while Naruto. You're even taller than me now." Sakura replied with a grin

"Yo." kakashi said, but you could tell he was happy because his eyes were curled into his trademark eye smile.

"This is off the record for now, but team 7 reforms today. You will join up with Sasuke Uchiha and help him with his goal of killing Itachi, while fulfilling your goal of taking out the group Akatsuki as a whole." Tsunade said

"Where will we meet up with Sasuke?" Naruto asked

"For now we will wait for word from Sasuke himself, but if that time extends two weeks then you will track him down yourself. At which point you will treat him with caution until a reason is given for why the delay." Tsunade said to the trio, who all nodded

One week later

Team 7 had gotten used to being together again. They trained together and their teamwork was good. Each were frontline fighters in their own respect. Similar to the sannin, but Naruto had a feeling that they would be more like the sannin with a snake summoning Sasuke instead of Kakashi. Naruto had also moved in with Tenten. Some would say it was very early in their relationship, but they had gotten to know each other over the course of three years. Besides, it wasn't as if they were doing anything inappropriate. Being orphans as they were, they were starved for attention more than most. Living together filled the void of being alone and also gave them more time to get to know each other. The mornings were still slightly awkward, but they would adjust.

At the end of Naruto's first week back, Tsunade had summoned team 7. Apparently it was time to move.

"Lady hokage." Team 7 said in unison

"I received a private message from Sasuke that only a sharingan user could decipher." Tsunade said as she handed the coded letter to Kakashi who quickly studied it with his gifted eye.

"Sasuke wants to meet Naruto and Sakura at the place where their ninja career began." Kakashi said

"Wave?" Naruto put forth

"That is where we received our first mission outside of the village." Sakura said

"The famous C ranked turned A ranked mission." Tsunade said

"How do we proceed?" Kakashi asked

"The three of you will meet up with him and continue as necessary. Until the end of this mission Sasuke is allowed to enter Konoha without being immediately detained. After the mission, you will give a report and based off of your report and recommendations, Sasuke's fate will be decided." Tsunade said. Seeing as she was done, Kakashi took over.

"Team meet me at the gate in 20 minutes. Pack all you think we'll need. Who knows the next time we'll enter the village walls." Kakashi ordered as the two nodded left in their own ways. Naruto flashed home, while Sakura body flickered out the open window and use the rooftops to head home.

"Tenten-chan." Naruto said as he entered their shared home. While sending a shadow clone to pack, Naruto explained that he would be away for a while on a mission that he thought better to keep to himself. Being a ninja and living in a ninja village longer than Naruto, allowed her to understand and she nodded in agreement. They embraced again before Naruto flashed to the gate.

Sakura headed home and quickly packed her things while hollering to her parents that she would be gone on a long term mission with Naruto and Kakashi. After finishing her packing she left the house and body flickered to the gate.

"Alright, everybody ready. Let's go then." Kakashi said as they started running, heading in the direction of the land of Waves. The first time around it took them a long time to get their because of their client and the fact that they had to cross the massive body of water in a boat being manually rowed by a civilian. This time they were travelling at ninja speeds and could cross a bridge. A bridge that none of them had seen since they left it three years earlier.

Hours later the trio arrived at the bridge.

"Wow. I can't believe that they named the bridge after me." Naruto said in shock.

"Although we all did our part to help, you were the one to inspire Inari, who inspired the town. That would be my guess on their choice of name." Kakashi said

"Makes sense to me. I don't remember too much from that mission, but I do know that you, sensei and Sasuke were the only ones that fought. I found Sasuke unconscious, which means you continued the fight by yourself. Sasuke himself said that you guys were struggling, so…" Sakura said, hoping Naruto would fill in her blanks

"I let my focus on Haku drop. Sasuke noticed that the next barrage of senbon were aimed for me, but he knew I couldn't dodge it. He jumped in front of me and took the blow. Lucky for us Haku was only aiming to disarm and not kill, otherwise Sasuke would have been dead. After that, I got angry at Sasuke and Haku. Sasuke for saving me when I didn't ask to be and Haku for being the one that 'killed' Sasuke. I unconsciously drew on Kyuubi's chakra and destroyed Haku's mirrors before attacking him. My final strike on him caused his mask to fly off. I immediately lost all my anger and was instead filled with grief. I thought Haku was my friend, but he was really my enemy. He told me his life story and I told him that he wasn't a tool. He disagreed and told me to kill him since he was useless to Zabuza. I relented for a while, but then I resolved myself to kill him. When I made the attempt, in a split second, Haku caught my kunai and told me that he was still needed. After that he jumped in front of Kakashi sensei's lightning blade. You know the rest." Naruto said

"Was that the first time you drew upon his chakra?" Sakura asked

"It was." Naruto said

"Come on let's move on and find Sasuke." Kakashi said. The trio walked through town and headed to the most familiar spot to them, Tazuna's home. When they arrived they knocked on the door.

"Hello. We were expecting you." Tsunami greeted. This confirmed their suspicion that Sasuke may have come here to wait for them.

When the trio entered the home they saw Sasuke sitting on the couch. He looked different from what they all remembered. He had grown noticeably taller over the two and a half years and more muscular. He was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, similar in appearance to the lavender long-sleeved shirt worn by Kimimaro and which was open at the torso, with a smaller version of the Uchiha crest on his collar. He wore dark blue pants with a blue cloth hanging from halfway up his stomach to his knees along with black arm guards that covered his forearms and stretched up to reach his upper biceps. He also wore a purple rope belt around his waist, tied in a bow, in which he carries his sword.

"It's good to see you, although I didn't expect to see you Kakashi." Sasuke said

"I hope my presence isn't unwanted." Kakashi said lazily

"Not at all. My point for calling you all here is to help me track down Itachi. Afterwards I will willingly return to Konoha." Sasuke said. He knew what he did was wrong and would gladly pay for his actions after Itachi paid for his crimes.

"We also have a mission. Our goal is to help you find Itachi, but before during and after us three are also to work on taking out the Akatsuki. You are free to help us in this secondary goal, but know that we most likely won't return to Konoha until they are defeated." Kakashi said

"That is doable. You can even lead this mission with no complaints from me, but one rule first and foremost. Itachi is mine and mine alone. Self defense is allowed, but none of you are to actually fight him." Sasuke said

"Agreed." Kakashi said "We'll head out soon and start working on tracking Itachi as best as we can, starting from his most recent sighting. That would place us, not that far from the land of rivers." Kakashi finished

Later you could see the reformed team 7 running. The reunion was short lived for the most part. Naruto had told Sasuke of his residence, new relationship with Tenten and his recent promotion. Sakura spoke little, but was in awe of Sasuke killing Orochimaru before meeting up with them.

Undisclosed location

"It appears you left a trail." A hologram said to the two figures that were actually in the cave

"We got in and out without any confrontation other than the one tailed jinchuriki himself." The hunchback figure said

"Itachi, Kisame handle the two approaching groups." The hologram said as the smaller one nodded and the taller one grinned, showing off shark like teeth.

With Team 7

"This is … unexpected." Itachi said as he stared across the clearing to see Team 7.

"He's mine." Sasuke said

"You don't interest me now Sasuke. Naruto come with me" Itachi said, blowing off Sasuke as if he were an annoying child.

Sasuke scowled before charging at Itachi, who charged with him. They met in the middle where Sasuke had swung his blade in a horizontal arc. Itachi jumped over it, but raised an arm to block the foot that came after the blade.

"Chidori full body stream." Sasuke said as lightning surged all over Sasuke's body and hit Itachi. Sasuke didn't let his guard down, because a second later Itachi dispersed into crows.

"I may not have the same eyes as you, but mine are good enough." Sasuke said

"Foolish little brother. Didn't I tell you to come for me when your eyes are the same as mine. Besides you are not my priority right now." Itachi said as he glanced in Naruto's direction, who looked down. That was a mistake because his attention was caught by the ring on Itachi;s finger. With the eye contact in place, Itachi placed Naruto in a genjutsu.

Genjutsu world

"I hope you didn't think you could trap me in a genjutsu Itachi. It's quite impressive that you are able to cast it with eye contact with your ring, but it isn't enough." Naruto said as he formed a rasengan in his hand. The shocking thing to Itachi was that he was doing the same thing outside of the genjutsu.

"How are you fighting my genjutsu?" Itachi asked

"I'm not. I'm using it." Naruto said to the shock of Itachi. Before he could respond by cutting the flow of chakra, Naruto had launched a kunai towards Itachi's position. Thinking it a mere distraction, Itachi tilted his head an inch, but continued staring at Naruto.

That was a mistake. Before his eyes Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash and reappeared behind Itachi.

"Rasengan!" Naruto exclaimed as he angled the jutsu upward. This sent Itachi flying upward with the expanding ninjutsu. Naruto who caught the kunai launched it again, but his target was behind Itachi. Quickly forming another rasengan before flashing behind Itachi and slamming it into him. Normally the first rasengan would have overpowered the first, but Naruto had placed more chakra into the second. It expanded quicker than the first and sent Itachi and the first rasengan in the opposite direction.

When Naruto landed, Sasuke was in front of him.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke demanded

"That isn't Itachi. Look." Naruto said as he pointed to his downed opponent. He was clearly a different person than he was at first.

"What's going on. He fought just like Itachi and had the sharingan." Sasuke was confused

"When we jumped back, I started drawing natural energy to watch the fight better. Just before he placed me into a genjutsu, I activated sage mode. It allowed me to sense that while he did have some of Itachi's chakra and was specifically using that, he had a second source of chakra that was the majority. I came to the conclusion that this must be a type of clone jutsu that uses another's body and allows that body to use all of your abilities, but on a subdued level." Naruto said

"That was good deduction Naruto." Kakashi said

"Ah, my eternal rival." A voice said loudly as Kakashi and the others turned around

"What are you doing here Gai." Kakashi asked as he saw Gai and his team

"Our mission was to assist Suna. The Kazekage was taken by Akatsuki and we were on their trail before we were attacked by Kisame, the monster of the hidden mist, but he turned out to be someone else." Neji said

"We ran into the same problem, but our opponent was Itachi Uchiha." Kakashi said

"Are you our back up?" Gai asked

"No. We are on a separate mission, but we will help you because it could further our mission." Kakashi said. Team 7 all understood that tracking the akatsuki was the key.

"What is your mission?" Gai asked after noticing Sasuke

"To take out Itachi and the akatsuki." Kakashi said

"Let's move. Gaara might still be saveable." Naruto said as he and Sasuke took off. Using sage mode Naruto was able to sense Shukaku's massive chakra. Sasuke was just following after Naruto because he was getting impatient.

"They are the same as they were three years ago. Impatient." Neji said calmly. He trusted Naruto, so he wouldn't question Sasuke's presence.

"Naruto-kun is just not one to let a friend die if he can do something about it." Tenten said as she took off after the two at the same time as Sakura. They were soon followed by the others.

They traveled until they came to a cave entrance that was blocked off by a huge boulder with a seal on it.

"The seal appears to be one that has counterparts. They all have to be pulled at once for it to work." Kakashi said after examining the seal

"That would take too long and could possibly be a trap." Naruto said

"We could send your shadow clones, so whatever the trap is they could just dispel." Kakashi said

"Or I could just flash the boulder away and then put it back. This way whoever is in there will find it harder to escape with 8 ninja opponents and nowhere to go." Naruto said as he placed a hiraishin seal on the ground before approaching the boulder. He first flashed the boulder to the spot he placed the seal and then they all charged in, before flashing the boulder back to it's original spot. What they saw when they entered was Gaara in the air with a red aura coming from him and into a statue. The statue had two hands and on each finger was a member of the akatsuki. The problem, or blessing, was that 6 of the 8 members were holograms. Their true location was unknown.

Sensing that they were feeding chakra to the statue that was taking Gaara's chakra, Naruto immediately jumped into action. Naruto and a clone flashed behind the two real members and attacked with a kick. The members dodged of course, but that caused the chakra that they were contributing to be lost and placed more of a strain on the holograms.

Using his sharingan, Kakashi was memorizing the faces of each member he saw. Sasuke had locked eyes with Itachi, who showed no outward shock, but was still getting over the shock that Sasuke was working with the Konoha nin. The remaining Konoha nin were ready for action and prepared to back Naruto up.

The holographic akatsuki members continued working on extracting the one tails even with the additional strain.

"I've lived for so long just to kill you Itachi." Sasuke said as his sharingan flared up and he charged a chidori in his hand.

"Foolish little brother. I am not even there." Itachi said

Sasuke smirked and disappeared from view to the naked eye. He reappeared behind the blond akatsuki member and plunged the chidori into his chest. Deidara, as he was called, coughed up blood. Because of his specialization, his taijutsu lacked a little and he hadn't been able to trace Sasuke's movements.

Sakura, discreetly, built up chakra in her legs to move faster than her normal speed. She blurred to a space above the other akatsuki member and slammed her heel into him. The resulting action sent debris everywhere, but revealed a smaller body underneath. This was Sasori of the red sands true body. He was given no time to react because moments after Sakura's assault Neji followed up with a gentle fist strike to what Neji realized as Sasori's only human part.

Kakashi also quickly made his move. He revealed his mangekyou sharingan and used a special jutsu called kamui to teleport the statue away. This caused the jutsu to end. The holograms dispersed, the sealing completely reversed itself. The statue was going to take all or nothing. Since it couldn't get all the chakra it returned to Gaara.

"That was easy." Naruto said as he glanced at the two dead akatsuki members, while he was checking over Gaara who was breathing.

In Gaara's mindscape

"What is going on?" Gaara asked as he looked around

"I'm not sure, but it appears the process was stopped." A voice said

Taking a better look at his surroundings Gaara saw Shukaku inside what appeared to be a water prison jutsu.

"This is our first time coming face to face like this. What could you possibly want to talk about?" Gaara asked