Overcoming the Odds.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Mission, Departure.

It was a cold January morning. Naruto was currently strolling through a lonely road near a rundown part of the village, thinking about anything that came to his mind; the looming threat of Akatsuki that threatened his safety, Sasuke's whereabouts, new techniques he forced Jiraiya to teach him. But one way or another his thoughts would lead back to the girl behind the metal bars.

Indeed they had both gotten closer as the days passed them by, and no matter how many times he tried convincing himself that they were only friends, deep down inside of him he yearned to be something more.

It bothered him how fast he managed to see her in a different light. He had taken a keen liking to her and would oftentimes daydream about her, much like he was doing right now, then he would shame himself afterward for doing so. By now he reasoned she probably didn't feel the same as he did since she never really said anything about liking him, but he could dream if he wanted to.

In the midst of his musings, a person landed in the area close to him. He looked up to see a chūnin.

"The Hokage wants to see you, it's urgent," the man informed.

Naruto nodded. "Alright."

The chūnin nodded in turn then jumped to a nearby rooftop and went on his way.

'Wonder what she could want this time,' the boy thought to himself before following the chūnin's trail to the Hokage tower.

He arrived at the building and jogged up the stairs to Tsunade's office. He would have taken the much easier route of the window to get into the Hokage's room, but after Tsunade would rudely send him tumbling to the streets whenever he tried, he opted to use the traditional way.

Once outside the office door, he spotted Shizune and greeted her. She smiled, "Hey Naruto, glad you're not late for this." Facing the door, she knocked gently, "Lady Tsunade, Naruto's here."

They heard a muffled positive response, so Shizune opened the doors and both her and Naruto walked into the office.

Stepping inside he saw Tsunade, Sakura, Sai, Jiraiya, and a couple members of the ANBU gathered in the room and standing near the Hokage's desk.

'Whoa,' he thought, surprised by the number of people who were there. He faced his mother figure, "Hey guys! What's all this about granny?"

Tsunade closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose, annoyed by the rude nickname he always called her.

"Naruto be respectful," Sakura told him while suppressing the urge to hurt him.

"Well since you're all here I guess it's appropriate to inform you of your duties," Tsunade said to everyone there. She looked at Jiraiya, hinting at him to start talking.

"Right. Tsunade called you all here in order to inform you of a very important task. This is an S-rank mission we're dealing with here."

The room became still with Sakura and Naruto tensing up at the declaration. They had only ever been on very few S-rank missions, them being hunting Akatsuki and Sasuke.

"What's the task?" Sakura asked.

Jiraiya faced her. "To capture Uchiha Sasuke and my old teammate... We found Orochimaru's hideout."

Sakura and Naruto went wide-eyed at this new piece of information. Last time they checked, Orochimaru's hideouts were notorious for being incredibly hard to get any leads on, let alone find.