A New Way of Ninja, (Naruto)

11: A New Assignment

Tsunade accepted the deal, glad to have the Sand take care of the problem of the strangers for her, and knowing they'd return as they said. They seemed to be people of their word.

But Shikamaru heard that they were leaving, and he told the other Leaf. Not just Neji and Kiba, but also Naruto, Sakura, and Rock Lee. 

Hinata mentioned them also when she stopped by the hospital, along with Tenten and Shino, to see their wounded teammates. Shino was salty about not being included.

"But why does it matter if these strangers left?" Tenten asked.

"Because," Shikamaru said, "one of them had this ability, some ninjutsu I've never seen, to find people. It was like the Byakugan but didn't look the same. How did she find Naruto and Sasuke so quickly? Even Neji couldn't have done that."

"Do you mean," Sakura said, "that you think she could find Sasuke again?"

"I didn't want to say it." Shikamaru had figured they'd get their hopes up. "But there might be a chance we could overtake him before he got to the Land of Rice, with as fast as she was...but I don't know. It's a slim chance."

"But if there's any chance, we have to take it!" Naruto cried.

"Naruto, you're not even recovered yet," Sakura said.

"I'm recovered enough!" Naruto declared. Though he was still pretty banged up, but he healed fast.

"The problem is, they'll all have left by now," Shikamaru said.

"Why didn't you go after them?" Ino, who was also there, said. "Dummy!"

"They're the Sand's responsibility," Shikamaru said. "I'm not sure they'd help us."

"We have to try." Naruto crawled out of bed, with difficulty. "Come on, let's go catch up to them, now."

"We could try," Neji said. "Kiba probably can't come."

"Ah..." Kiba said.

"Choji probably shouldn't either," Ino mused. "He's still resting...but the rest of us will go instead. We're not busy... It's just short walk ,right?"

"Without the Hokage's permission, we could get in trouble." Shikamaru rubbed his neck. "What a drag."

"I don't care. I'm going," Naruto said.

Everyone said they'd go...and since there was really no rule that said they couldn't leave the village and chase after someone who wasn't hostile, no one bothered to ask any of their senseis' permission.

The Leaf left the village in hurry.

* * *

The Sand had just taken the DJ team out and into the woods, and Temari was giving them a list of survival tips--ones that didn't sound normal.

"Be wary if anything starts to look too much the same. It could be a Genjutsu," she said. "And look out for traps in the ground, trip wires. And if you find anyone training or fighting, just give them a wide berth. Never know what jutsu they could whip out. And don't talk to anyone you don't recognize, especially if they don't have a Leaf headband. Watch out for snakes and other venomous animals. And for ninja disguised as plants..."

Dabi wasn't really afraid of any of this so much as he was just shocked at the sheer amount of things she could think of that could kill them.

"And don't eat anything you don't recognize either," Temari added. "I suppose none of you can use your chakra to stick to things so we can't travel in the trees, which means using the ground, which is more dangerous. Don't expect Gaara to carry you all the time either, and no more of that stupid ice trail. It's impossible to miss it. You're making us sitting ducks for anyone tailing us."