1 hour passed before Ino showed up at the gates.
"INO!!" Asuma yelled getting her attention. "Over here!!"
Ino was running to the group yelling, "Sorry for the wait guys! My mom wanted me to clean and close the shop up before leaving!"
"It's okay just hurry up we should of already be gone an hour ago!" Asuma yelled looking back at Kakashi saying, "Sorry she does this all the time."
"It's okay at least this time it wasn't me" Kakashi said trying not to laugh in front of Sakura and Naruto who were staring at him with a not so amused at all look on their faces at what he said.
"Okay I'm ready to go now." Ino said out of breathe looking at the group.
"Finally Ino-Pig, took you long enough!" Sakura said playfully poking Ino in the ribs.
"Oww!" Ino said looking at Sakura smiling. "Sorry but you know what, I wasn't locking or cleaning the shop." Ino looked back at the group of guys making sure they wouldn't be able to hear the next part. "I saw this really cute guy and we started to talk and well you know I lost track of time."
Sakura just looked at Ino amazed that she could actually forget that there mission included the Akatsuki!
"Well at least you made it here so that we could get going to the sand village. I was just about ready to suggest that part of the group stays while the other half goes ahead." Sakura said getting ready to start jumping through the trees.
"What?!" Ino yelled after Sakura who was already jumping through the trees. "You wouldn't leave me? Would you big-forehead?" Ino asked trying to catch up to Sakura.
"Of course..." Sakura said jumping through the trees enjoying the wind blowing in her face and hair.
Ino waited for Sakura, expecting her to say 'of course not.' But instead Sakura said, "Of course.... This mission does include the Akatsuki."
Ino was a little surprised at Sakura's response but then understood right away because the Akatsuki is a really dangerous group of S-ranked criminals and for them to kill 10 ninjas and do nothing else is very mysterious.
"She's right Ino. Since the Akatsuki is involved we need to handle this mission with even more care than any others. We need to be focused on this and not get distracted by anything else. Cause if we do we can die."
----
"Sir, they are here."
"Alright let them in." The man stood up from his desk and walked to his window.
The door opened and he heard them walking in to his office slowly and quietly. He turned around and looked at the group that stood before him.
"Hello guys. Thanks for coming all the way here."
