Naruto Senju Shippuden

Chapter 14

Naruto stood in the office of Tsunade again. "We will be leaving now..." Naruto says. "Very well. But did you have to drag along Team Eight to do it?" Tsunade asks. "We need trackers," Naruto says. "Very well," Tsunade sighs and waves him out of her office. "I'll leave my clones in here... Do take care of them. Ask them to contact me if you need anything," Naruto says as he forms four wood clones in the office corner. They sit down and start working with the notebooks Naruto got yesterday. Naruto walks out of the office with his hands in his pockets. He goes down the worn path of the Konoha main road. He opens the door to the Senju complex. He packs the necessary things for a drawn-out mission away from home. He seals the items inside a storage scroll and puts the scroll in one of his pouches behind his back.

Naruto decided to take a detour. He needed to switch some words with a particular captive. He walks into the I&T department and sees Inoichi. "Hello there, Naruto. It is rare for you to come here... Did something happen to Ino?!" He asks panically. "No you have nothing to worry about. I just came here to see Kabuto," Naruto says as he tries to calm the usually calm man down. "Oh.. okay...whew what a relief..." he says. "Can I?" Naruto asks again. "Yeah... right... sorry. Of course come this way," He says as he leads the young man towards a cell. He opens the door.

"You have 10 minutes," He says and closes the cell door behind him. "Hello there, Kabuto..." Naruto says as he sits down on the empty chair opposite Kabuto. He looked surprisingly well for someone in his position. "Hello there yourself, Naruto-kun," He says in his smug voice like it was his choice to sit here confined to a chair. "I take it Ibiki hasn't been able to break you yet..." Naruto says. "What he does is nothing compared to the training Orochimaru has given all his subordinates," Kabuto says proudly. "I see... Well give it some time. I'm sure he can get through you evantually," Naruto says. "Escpacially now that Orochimaru is dead..." He adds after a slight pause. "Like I would believe such an obvious ploy..." Kabuto says as he deepens his smug smile. "I don't lie Kabuto... " Naruto chides him. "The rumour mill has produced quite a story as well... Apparently Sasuke went ahead and killed him when Orochimaru was going to take over his body..." Naruto says as he stands up. Kabuto was looking more and more crushed the more Naruto talked. "Well it was fun talking to you again... Though I doubt this is the last time..." Naruto says as he leaves the room.

"Thank you for the time, Inoichi. It was nice seeing his face again. Hopefully, we can get some more information out of him now." Naruto says to his girlfriend's dad. "You knew exactly where to strike that blow... Maybe you have some future in this department after all..." Inoichi says, shocked as he looks into the cell of the broken Kabuto. "I am going for the hat. Doubt I'll have enough time to play interrogator when I am Hokage," Naruto says as he waves goodbye to the older man. The man just waves back with a small smile.

Naruto stood before Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, and Sai. "Basically... rumour has it that Sasuke killed Orochimaru," He says bluntly. "No way!" "What is his plan now?!" "What are we going to do?" Came the predictable response from the group. Naruto raises his hand to stop them. "That is why I assembled this team to find Itachi and capture him," Naruto says. "I have gotten the go-ahead from Tsunade... All I need to know is who is coming along," he adds. All of them raise their hands. "Good... we needed a couple of trackers anyway..." Kakashi's voice came from behind Naruto. "This is my operation... You think you can just barge in and take charge?" Naruto asks with a tick mark on his temple. "Who said anything about taking charge..." Yamato says as he pops up next to Kakashi. "He is a jonin. He automatically gets to be incharge..." Naruto says. "Well when you say it like that..." Yamato says quietly. "You get to be lieutenant though... Isn't that close enough..." Kakashi says. "Everyone go home and pack your things this will be a long mission," Kakashi says to the ninja assembled. Naruto sighs and begins to move towards the gate.