Ojos Asi [[private -- nyrax]]

"Yeah! Let's head out in celebration of our training!" Naruto said probably a little too loudly despite the warning and physical pain that he had just received from Sakura. Naruto always tended to forget warnings like this after all. Naruto was of course already taking off in the direction away from the Uchiha estate, apparently intent on leading the group to where they were eating. Neji's suspicion was now felt by everyone.

Shikamaru let out the tiniest of yawns as he stood up. Despite the fact that he hadn't wanted to fight that much in the first place he hadn't planned on putting so much chakra in to some of his techniques. While they had usually panned out some of his opponents had been smart in how they avoided them. He had to adjust on the spot, and that always required using more extra chakra.

"Guess that we're gonna call it a draw than," Kiba said as he stood up now that his hearing had finally cleared up. Everyone seemed to have their moments, and it was clear that they had all improved since the last time that they had met. The strength of these future clan leaders were insane. Youki had no idea what kind of a village he was taking on.

"Good work back there," Shino said simply as he looked over towards Sasuke. Out of everyone on their team he had performed the best after all.

Sasuke smiled. "You did better work than I did. I'm just used to handling Naruto by now." It was the sad truth. The two of them fought so hard and so often that it was habitual for the two of them. There were times when they'd repeat fights they'd already had, changing the details just slightly, hoping for a new outcome. Of everyone here, Sasuke and Naruto had fought against one another the most, and their battles had less to do with training and more to do with proving which one had improved more.

Naruto had been trying to convince Sasuke to do the jounin exams with him ever since he got off house arrest. Sasuke thought it was a good idea, but he liked giving Naruto a hard time about it.

As they walked through the village, Sasuke realized where they were going and sighed. Ramen. Of course. They continued and Sasuke felt an ominous chakra approaching them. It was Akira's, he had no doubt. Sharingan activated and he glanced behind them, using reflections off of various objects to see Akira heading toward the Hokage mountain, no doubt toward the ANBU hideout that was up there. His eyes fading back to black as they arrived at the ramen stand.

Shino shrugged. "He overwhelmed me over time, you were able to stay on him the entire time," Shino insisted. It wasn't that he was trying to butter Sasuke up or kiss his ass, he was merely being honest. If there was anything that Shino was, it was humble. He could admit when he needed to improve his own skill while acknowledging the skill level of someone else. Sasuke was strong and a born shinobi, there was never going to be anyone denying that.

At the same time that Sasuke activated his sharingan, something pricked Kiba's nose and caused it to twitch. He took a few moments in order to fully incase himself with the scent before matching it from his memory. He moved his gaze in the direction and saw Sasuke staring off in the same direction. "I take it that you see him too than?" he asked as they arrived at the stand.

Sasuke watched Shino. "Naruto and I are both close range fighters. You have a harder time because it's not what you do. Facing someone like me or Naruto is kind of your worst nightmare. It's why I'm training you to use lightning close up and at a distance, in case someone get's in your face, you'll be able to dish all you've got at them." Sasuke held a great deal of respect for Shino, so he really had no problem with Shino's humility, or telling the Aburame how things were as he saw them. Of everyone here, Shino was the most like Sasuke in mind and demeanor. They were both calm, quiet, and watched. They learned and used what they learned against others, in battle, or otherwise. Sasuke was just more confident.

"Yeah. I wouldn't doubt that he was watching us." Sasuke replied. It disgusted him to know that some shinobi in the village could be spying on them for anyone. For Youki, for Akira. It pissed him off, because they didn't have an advantage like that. Sure, they had Karin, but she couldn't listen in on conversations. Akira had run of the village, convinced that the group he'd just walked by were just kids.

"You make an excellent point, it's why I've been trying to take your advice seriously," Shino commented as they kept walking to the ramen stand that Naruto was certainly leading them towards. "Your training already has helped me earlier, I was able to kill a few of those clones before they landed any hits on me. Youki knows I prefer long range combat from when he trained me at his compound, I just hope that my new abilities will be enough to catch him by surprise. We came SO close to killing him last time," Shino remarked as he thought back to the night where Youki attacked the village. Sasuke, Kiba, and himself had faced Youki and came so close to victory.

"God I hate that guy, we already have one pshyco breathing down our necks and yet he decides that now is his time to work for himself. Bastard," Kiba muttered to himself as he stared in the direction that Akira had gone. "I just wish we could take him down sooner rather than later," Kiba admitted. Of course part of this was because Akira was responsible for Kano's return to Konoha. That alone was enough to piss Kiba off.

"In a really abstract way, you should be glad Akira exists." Sasuke said, off the top of his head. "Akira is Aaliyah's father, right? So, despite the fact he's a son of a bitch and all, if it wasn't for what he did, you never would have met Akiko." He wondered if Aaliyah and Shino would have been together if she had never been placed with Youki. Although he considered Shino a good friend, Shino wasn't the sort of man that was usually noticed, and with Aaliyah's raw skill and power, she would have likely been in ANBU or been running missions far before they were. It was strange to think about, how the smallest thing changed the way things worked in the world.

He looked up at the sky before heading into the ramen stand, sitting between Shino and naruto. Kiba was sitting on the other side of Shino, and Shikamaru on Naruto's other side. Neji sat beside Shikamaru at the last remaining seat at their table.

"I think that Akira is playing a game." Neji added, glancing down the table. "If you ask me, he's testing those in the village, looking for weak points. He came to speak to Hinata's father yesterday. They talked for a few hours, so I assume they were friends at one point. But I know he's definitely up to something."

Kiba just shrugged at that. "Yeah well, it's not like I'm going to send him an invitation to the wedding or anything," Kiba remarked with a small chuckle. He could see Sasuke's point, but that didn't meant that Kiba was going to like the guy just because his bad decisions had put Kiba in a good circumstance. Akira was still a crazy bastard that needed to be stopped, the sooner the better.

"Of course he's playing a game, just a very dangerous one," Shikamaru remarked as he looked down at the counter and didn't speak to anyone specifically. "He's trying to assemble all of his pieces, waiting to come up with the perfect strategy to strike at the board that has already been set up for him. He won't take any decisive action until he is confident in his ability," the strategist said as he thought back to the games of Shogun that he would play with Asuma. "We just need to make sure that we're ready when he makes his move. Our best piece lies with your friend after all," he remarked as he glanced over towards Sasuke.

He was of course referring to Karin. An enemy's strategy could be completely destroyed once it was learned.

Sasuke nodded. He agreed with both Kiba and Shikamaru. But Akira wasn't stupid. They might be able to fool Kano, but Akira was on a whole other level. If the rumor was true and he let his wife die to keep a secret and sold his daughter to a man like Youki, then this man had no honor and would never reveal himself to anyone. "What we really need is to do what Akira and Kano are doing, and what Youki has been doing all along. When we went on a mission with Xerion, I heard him say that Youki has shinobi and non shinobi spies in and around Konoha. Maybe we need to mimic that and do the same thing." He glanced down the line around him. "We just need our own network of people that will watch them, outside what we already have."

Neji nodded. "well, watching them isn't really what we need, Sasuke."

"No, I mean we need to hear what they do, so we need someone to just listen. Youki may be a mad man, but he's still alive because he has people hidden in Konoha. We just need to assume that we can trust no one and then work our way to try to figure out who we can trust." It sounded crazy, and nonsensical, but, that's the position they were in. Anyone could be anyone.

Kiba listened curiously as Sasuke put forth his suggestion in order to beat Akira at his own game. Both men lived secret lives and were able to hide this from others by pretending to be good men. It was the classic plan that all evil men took, pretending that they were something that they weren't. Akira wanted power and control, it was why he needed to be stopped. If he tried a coup or any kind than Konoha would be too weak and scattered to stand up against Youki.

"Well, the plan sounds simple enough but how do we begin to figure out who we can trust?" Kiba asked curiously. "We can't spy on every citizen in Konoha until they do something terrible," he pointed out. "We'll need some way of better determining who is trustworthy and who isn't?"

Sasuke nodded. "I haven't figured out the trusting part yet." Truthfully, Sasuke trusted a very few number of people, so he wasn't the person to be making that choice. "To be honest, I think that Akiko and Naruto would be the best people to find out who we can trust." They both had the same affect on people. They warmed the hearts of those around them and it made them near impossible to resist. People listened to them, and rallied behind them.

But, they were both naive and stupid. Sasuke knew that much. They could be easily fooled. Their strength was an asset in and of itself, which made them also likely to be lied to. Sasuke rubbed his temple and ordered when it was his turn. They were given their ramen at the same time, and he couldn't help but wonder how they were going to progress. He broke his chopsticks apart, thinking. "I'll have to work on the how." he glanced toward Shikamaru. "Both of us will, I suppose."

"Here you are!" Ino exclaimed, ducking under the sheets that covered the stand. She was holding Deino in her arms, who was squirming, quite clearly trying to get down. "Sasuke, Shino, Kiba, Lady Tsunade has summoned you for a mission." She glared down at the squirming toddler in her arms and gave up, handing him to Sasuke. Since he was a father, sasuke was the only one beside Shikamaru who she trusted not to drop her son. And, considering she was standing infront of Sasuke, not Shikamaru, it made things easier.

Deino on the other hand, was instantly fascinated at the sight of food and reached over, pulling Naruto's bowl of ramen toward him. The blonde was too distracted by the fact he didn't get a mission. So, the smaller blonde was content to eat his ramen in the Uzumaki's place.

Shikamaru gave a small nod. "Give me some time and look in to it. I've never really put my mind in to figuring out who I can trust before. I guess up until now I've assumed that everyone can be trusted, that's obviously not true though," he admitted as he poked at his own ramen for a minute. "I'll put my mind to it and get back to you when I can, but don't feel the need to stop thinking yourself. I can't have all the brilliant ideas around here after all," he said in a small sort of joke.

As Ino showed up Shino and Kiba glanced towards each other curiously before looking over at Sasuke. All three of them were being summoned for a mission by Tsunade? What the hell was going on here? It must be something important, that or something terrible had happened. Shino was the first to stand up. "We'll be on our way shortly," Shino said before looking over towards Kiba and Sasuke and giving a simple nod.

Kiba cracked his knuckles and back as he stood up. He couldn't help but wonder if this had anything to do with Youki or Aaliyah, or perhaps Karin and Suigetsu were involved. They had no idea, and the only to find out was to get going. "Let's get going," Kiba said before making his way out of ramen stand and began to head towards Hokage tower.

Ino grabbed Kiba's shoulder. "Relax. You're not leaving until tomorrow. And Suigetsu is supposed to be going with you. I can't find him though. He's not in his apartment, and neither is Karin." Ino wasn't a tracker however, so she assumed that they were out together, doing something. She picked up her son when he leaned toward her and she laughed, seeing the empty bowl of ramen. Leave it to her son to eat an adult size bowl of ramen.

She smiled, kissing Deino's forehead. He beamedunder her attention, wrapping his arms around her neck, glancing toward Naruto and sticking out his tongue as the blonde noticed his empty bowl of ramen.

Sasuke finished his quickly and got up. "Let's go find Suigetsu then." The Uchiha said, standing beside Kiba and Shino. He wondered what sort of mission this was, but from the lineup, it was obvious that Tsunade didn't trust Suigetsu and himself alone. The two of them needed escorts.

"Oh, my bad," Kiba remarked as he only just now realized how strange he must have looked since he was in such a hurry to leave and get going. Still, it was interesting that now Suigetsu was going to be added to their line up. That was four fairly powerful shinobi that were all connected with one another, it made Kiba only grow more curious as to what the hell this mission really was.

"From what I've seen of Suigetsu he's not the kind of guy that just likes to go wandering about the city," Shino remarked as he looked towards Sasuke. Sasuke had the most history with Suigetsu and would probably know what he and Karin would most likely be doing at a time like this. "They might just be out getting some food or something like that, I'll begin to have my insects search for them in the meanwhile though."

"Have them search in the food area of the non shinobi district. Suigetsu usually eats ice creams and yogurts." Sasuke advised. Since they had spent most of their time in the non shinobi district, it wouldn't be strange for the two of them to be there rather than where the six of them were now. "It'll be somewhere that's completely enclosed too. Konoha is too hot for Suigetsu to be wandering around for long periods of time. His body won't sustain him for too long without water." Although Suigetsu couldn't be injured, Sasuke wasn't sure if the constant need for hydration was worth the trade off. In any case, he wasn't worried.

Ino shifted them. "We caught word of Akatsuki movement and Tsunade wants to know what's going on." She informed them quietly. "But she'll give you the full details of the mission when you go to the Hokage tower for orders. Shino, you're going to be leading this mission." Shino was the highest rank, and Tsunade put considerable trust in him, so he was the most obvious choice.

"What?" Sasuke asked in a quiet tone. It was meant to be rhetorical, given that with his ears he was the least likely to have missed what was said. Tsunade received word on movement about Akatsuki? Kiba had been so distracted by both the threats of Youki and Akira that he had completely forgotten that all of the members of Akatsuki were out there. If they were mobilizing, it was only going to be more trouble for all of them.

"I see, thank you for all of the information Ino," Shino remarked with the smallest of nods. Out of everyone that had been listed Shino was certain that he was the one that Tsunade held the most trust for. While she and Kiba had recently started to get along it was still nothing compared to the trust that they had for each other. Shino had hardly ever stepped out of line after all and his performance record was quite good along with his new found skill. Still, it would be odd to lead the team like this.

"They've found them," Shino said quietly as he received a notice from his insects. Thankfully Suigetsu had quite the unique chakra, it was fairly easy to find.

Sasuke got up and walked over to Shino. "Bye Naruto." he waved at the blonde and then to the others as they moved off to get Suigetsu. It was strange that Tsunade was sending them off to deal with Akatsuki. Tsunade had to be testing Sasuke's will, considering he'd be in the exact place in which he could exact his vengeance against Itachi. He thought she was just trying to see who she could trust, and who she couldn't, and, in a small way, Sasuke admired that. At least she was willing to give him a chance now, whereas she hadn't before.

The Uchiha walked off with the Aburame and the Inuzuka. Sasuke noticed that although he was unable to sense Shino's insects, he could see them with Sharingan. So, he activated it to follow their lead into the non-shinobi district. Once there, Sasuke felt as if someone was watching them. He stopped walking, falling behind Shino and Kiba. His eyes moved around them, as if trying to find someone that possessed chakra.

He wanted to ask Karin about this... she would be able to tell if there was anyone, shinobi or not, that was following the three of them.

As they walked Shino and Kiba failed to notice anything unlike Sasuke had. He tended to have a better sense of when someone was hiding and watching them. Shino could do it as well, but only when he was on a high alert sense of danger. His insects combined with Kiba's sense of smell and Hinata's eyes were a huge advantage in the chunin exams. It was how they got through the forest of death almost unharmed.

It was Kiba though who finally noticed something was off. Perhaps it was just his instincts that informed him that something was off about Sasuke's behavior. He hadn't spoken in some time which was always a strange sign after all. "Hey Sasuke....everything cool?" he finally asked.

Sasuke glanced forward toward Kiba. Sharingan was still active and he shook his head. "No. I suppose I'm just not used to being in the non shinobi district." Because Sasuke was considered an S-rank criminal and was under surveillance, he was forbidden from going into the non-shinobi district unless Sakura or Kakashi personally escorted him. it was a way to make sure that no innocent civilians would be harmed due to his presence. Even though they would take him, Sasuke had no reason to be here, so this was the first time in almost five years that he had been in this part of the village.

He caught up to the other two and kept walking beside Shino and Kiba. It didn't take them long to find Suigetsu. Thankfully, Suigetsu and Karin were walking out of a restaurant, so they wouldn't have to go inside and cause a scene.

"Oh great..." Karin mumbled, pushing her glasses up the brim of her nose. She made a face, as if she hadn't wanted the trio to find her and Suigetsu. "So you where looking for us." She sighed. "What do you want?"

"Alright than, glad it's nothing," Kiba said before turning his face back. Despite Sasuke's reassurances he felt strange, it wasn't like Sasuke to get easily nervous after all. Just hearing Sasuke sound strange was enough for Kiba to take a scent of the air. As far as he could tell no one familiar was around, but that didn't mean that they weren't being watched. He shrugged it off for the time being, knowing that worrying wouldn't do any good.

"You could tell that they were looking for us?" Suigetsu asked as he looked over towards Karin. They had just been eating dinner. He thought that Karin had looked distracted, but he didn't realize that this was on her mind. She must have sensed them getting closer, or perhaps sensed that someone had been back at their apartment or something. "Well, now I'm curious. What is it?" Suigetsu asked as he looked to the three shinobi.

"Tsunade has a mission for us Suigetsu, we came here to pick you up so that we could be briefed," Kiba said quickly so that they could get to the point and move on.

Karin looked over the three shinobi in front of her and then at Suigetsu. "Suigetsu has been assigned solo missions by Tsunade already, and so have I. All three of you on a mission seems like overkill."

Sasuke shrugged. "Lady Tsunade doesn't trust me enough to put me outside Akatsuki alone. I'd assume Suigetsu and I are the most qualified, but she doesn't want the two of us to kill Kisame and Itachi before completing our mission and returning to the village."

The red head's eyes widened. "Suigetsu wouldn't do something that stupid."

"Neither would I." Sasuke agreed. "In either case, Kiba and Shino are coming." He stated simply. Sasuke assumed that Karin was a better tracker than Kiba for this mission, but it was too dangerous to put the three of them on a mission so far outside of Konoha. Even the Uchiha knew that much. Even if Sasuke didn't attack Itachi, it was too easy for Suigetsu and Karin to flee.

Karin nodded. "Go with them, Suigetsu. I can find my way home on my own."

Shino just listened as Sasuke gave the quick and blunt explanation as to why the team composition had been picked out. Basically Tsunade was extending her leash to see if Sasuke and Suigetsu would run or not. The Aburame understood, though he just wished that Tsunade would trust Sasuke. If he wanted to leave than he would have done it already. Making him go against his own brother just seemed cruel almost. Shino couldn't even understand how Sasuke must feel right now.

Suigetsu just gave a nod towards Karin before stepping over with the other shinobi. "I'll probably stop by to get some supplies along with my sword later," Suigetsu said as he looked towards Karin. Despite the fact that Suigetsu didn't like to be parted with it, he acknowledged that taking that blade in to a public restaurant tended to raise too many questions. "I'll also need to refill my water bottles, so I'll make sure that I see you before we head out," Suigetsu encouraged.

Kiba gave a nod. "Yeah, I'd want to say goodbye to Akiko anyway. And considering the importance of this mission I'm sure we'll have a little time to make sure that everything is prepared for us to leave," the Inuzuka insisted. At least he really hoped this was the case. He always wanted to tell Akiko that he loved her before he had to leave the village for extended periods of time.

Sasuke nodded. He wanted to go home and see Shai as well. Sakura had gone on missions before, but Sasuke rarely ever had. There had been maybe three times where he left Shai, so he knew that his son wouldn't react well to being left without anyone. But, if Tsuande was pulling Sasuke to do a mission, he was sure that she would pull Sakura from shifts at the hospital, so Sakura could care for him.

They went to the Hokage tower and Shizune showed them inside Tsunade's office.

Tsunade wasn't sitting at her desk, but, rather, she was standing at the window, looking out over the village. "I'm surprised you got here so quickly." She smiled, then turned to face them. "How much did Ino tell you?"

Shino decided to speak since he had been assigned as team leader. "We were only given the basics I believe. Ino told us that I would be the team leader and that you've received some reports that Akatsuki is on the move to do something," he said before giving a small shrug. "Other than that we weren't given many details, not even given a real objective," Shino admitted as he looked towards Tsunade. "What is to be asked of us?"

Tsunade nodded. "As it stands, Akatsuki has started mobilizing. Some of our black-ops managed to report back to us that they drew a vast amount of people within the village, but they disappeared. The Akatsuki headquarters is no where to be found." She paused. "However, I don't want to make it seem as if that's what your looking for. Another ANBU team spotted Youki just outside of Ame. Akatsuki has dealt with Youki in the past." He said, glancing toward the four shinobi.

"I want to make sure that's not what's going on again. With Akiko in Konoha, as well as Youki's siblings coming in and out of this village, I... I am not sure what they're planning."

Sasuke was watching her closely. "Don't lie, Tsunade. We both know exactly what they're planning."

The Hokage glared at him. "Don't you dare, Sasuke."

The three shinobi continued to listen intently as Tsunade revealed more information that showed her concern for why Akatsuki might be mobilizing for something big. So the general concern was that their actions were strange enough to warrant action, but Konoha had no idea what was specifically going to take place. That could be bad, for all they knew Akatsuki might be preparing to assault the village. There's no telling what kind of army Akatsuki might be able to wind up if they meant to truly annihilate a village.

It was only than that Sasuke spoke up, causing everyone to look over towards him. It was of course Shino who spoke first though. "What are you talking about Sasuke? What do you think that they're planning?"