R E S I S T A N C E

C O N F R O N T A T I O N

"Sasuke!"

Ugh, again with the yelling.

I closed my eyes and focused on taking in nature energy, simultaneously distracting myself from Karin's piercing voice and Sasuke's inevitable glare in our direction.

"I told you not to make a move until you received my orders," he barked, turning towards us. I opened my eyes again at his expectedly angry tone and was surprised by the sight of several black feathers floating to the ground around him.

"We got worried," Suigetsu answered. "You were gone for a while."

Ignoring his statement, Sasuke began walking towards the exit, passing all of us in the process.

"Come with me," he stated in an emotionless tone. "I know where to find Itachi."

~~~~~

As we sprinted through the trees towards our new destination, a secret Uchiha Clan hideout, I felt a surge of chakra ripple through me.

"Hey Karin," I called from behind her. "Do you feel that, or is that just me?"

She looked over her shoulder at me with a shocked expression that she wasn't able to hide fast enough. I assumed that maybe she was surprised that I was actually speaking to her after earlier.

"Yeah, there's a bunch of people with the same chakra all around us," she answered.

"Should we take another route, Sasuke?" Suigetsu asked from my right.

"Just ignore it," he answered. He sounded as determined as ever, being so close to exacting his revenge. "We'll keep moving forward."

"Well, that's good," Suigetsu replied. "Detours always tire me out."

I rolled my eyes and shot him a glance.

"Detours tire you out?" I asked in a skeptical tone. "Are you sure you're not just lazy."

He laughed and smirked at me, showing me his teeth. "Not lazy, just impatient."

"Oh, I see."

My sarcastic words were cut short as my senses came to the forefront of my mind. We were closing in fast on one of the foreign chakra signatures ahead, and from this distance I could just make out a figure. On a high tree branch opposite our position stood a blonde Leaf Village shinobi who seemed to be around our age. As we approached, his eyes grew wide with recognition and his hands clenched into fists. Suddenly, he began charging towards us screaming Sasuke's name, but the Uchiha's only reply was a quick stab with his chidori. The boy's form quickly dissipated.

It was only a shadow clone.

"Oh, I get it now. We're surrounded by shadow clones," Karin voiced, stating the obvious. "All of this chakra belongs to him."

"Brilliant observation," I mumbled just loud enough for Suigetsu to hear. He snickered and gave me an approving grin.

~~~~~

After countless hours of running, I was beginning to grow tired of constantly taking in extra chakra to keep my stamina high. If I didn't have my kekkei genkai to keep me from barely breaking a sweat, then I'd assume that I'd probably look a lot like Karin or Suigetsu right about now. The latter of which seemed utterly exhausted. Jugo was farther up ahead by Sasuke, but it didn't appear that he was suffering from our constant high speed. Although come to think of it, Jugo never really appeared to be bothered by any physical exercise at all.

"Man, Sasuke can we take a quick break or what?" Suigetsu complained next to me. It was as if he was reading my mind.

"No, we have to keep moving."