A New Story

Sasuke Retrieval, a mission of needs and wants:

Finally with his arrival back at home Argies slugged his camping bag off his shoulder and looked around his house for any sign of intrusion. There was none. It was early morning and yet Argies contemplated jumping right into bed to sleep off the holiday he had spent with his squad. Training all day as it was with them, to return to a hot bath every night, the routine was a little tiring and now he merely wanted time to himself.

Though he was not one to sleep as much as he did on holiday, he still found time every night at the onsen to read whatever he had prepared in his back pocket. Whether it was to read of history and the battles that have come and gone, or if his passions pushed him to study ninjutsu and all its many arts and technics. Argies always found comfort in reading, he saw the knowledge it gained him as an advantage against the unseen enemy and the problems he had yet to face. Reading in many ways was also a distraction, taking him away from the reality of his difficulties while at the same time earning him the wisdom to overcome them when they needed to be confronted.

Taking out what he had read during his stay at the hot spring, he filled his empty back pocket with new notes and facts he had copied down from the Leaf's libraries. The Leaf knew that knowledge was dangerous and as such most books about ninja and ninja arts were forbidden or highly restricted. Which was why when Argies entered the sealed libraries he always knew to carry a few pages to copy down what he couldn't check out. At this point in time he was thinking of develop a write fast jutsu just for this express need, but he had yet to form the idea into practice.

Sitting down in admiration of all his notes spread out on his Aunts tea drinking table, Argies scribbled down a further few notes. "My hand writing is disgusting" He remarked to himself with a smile because though others found his hand writing unbearable, he didn't mind. He knew for certain that he was not going to be publishing his notes any times soon, especially not the Ages scroll notes he often quickly burned.

Being at home once again Argies was happy. He was glad that his team got to train together before any one was injured on a mission due to all the faults and weaknesses they could discover safely during practice. He welcomed the thought of future missions with his team as he learnt that little more about them over these last three days. His mind and his heart were at rest from all their pains and sorrows because now he knew he could rely on both Hakari and Amoroto. Most of all he was happy about one true fact, he and his team now had a sensei and that sensei gave them access to medical books and knowledge. Like his Sensei's herbal healing guild, a book he most enjoyed reading and studying in the nights that remained after their hot baths.

Suddenly like an alarm call he heard the rapid crack of knuckles against his front door. Reluctantly he got up onto his feet from his position behind the low raised table, and answered the door to what must be urgent news judging from the bombardment of fist on wood.

"Argies are you home!?"

"Shikamaru, what is it?!" The sound of worry in the shadow ninja's voice, raised the concern in Argies own.

Opening the door Argies could see the state of Shikamaru, the lazy ninja, who now had his eyes wide open as he explained. "Sasuke has defected from the Leaf, and I've been assigned to form a team out of every available Genin in order to bring him back... Listen I know it is a drag but I need your help."

"What? W-when did this happen... why aren't they sending his sensei after him?" Argies too widened his eyes, looking around as if searching for sense in the world as he turned his head in hunt for this Genin team Shikamaru was supposedly assembling.

Equally frazzled Shikamaru ran his hands through his hair, "Look I know this is tiresome but I have limited time to explain. Sasuke left the village last night after attacking Sakura. Tsunada says that all available Jounin have been assigned high ranking duties so it is left to us to do something about it. Now listen, I haven't told anyone else yet but I'm going to form a team and go after Sasuke. The thing is... I don't believe we are going to survive this mission." Pausing and letting that thought sink in he continued. "Sasuke is being escorted by ninja of the Sound Village, meaning Orochimaru. Tsunada's old team mate is stronger than all of us combined so I'm guessing that these Sound ninja are of Jounin level or higher. You saw the sound ninja during the Chunin games, you know what kind of freaks they are, besides those were just Genin. The ninja we are expected to face are apparently much stronger, which is why I need your help"