The Tales of Team Seven (Naruto Various x Reader)

40 - Rescue Squad Assemble!

When we got outside, I had managed to dry some of the tears that had made their way out during the explanation of the mission.

I was still very upset, however, both at myself and at Sasuke. I had been there, and I let him leave with no fight. At the time, I thought that was best, but now I was thinking otherwise.

I wasn't sure why I was upset at him. Maybe it was that his need for revenge was so strong, it drove him to leave. Maybe it was because he fell for the bribery of a literal snake. Or perhaps–I was hoping that he just might stay for me if I didn't go with him.

I knew I was making a face, because Shikamaru kept trying to talk and hesitating. I straightened myself out–I knew the mission was more important than my thoughts.

"Gomen." I muttered, suddenly finding the ground the most interesting thing there. I kept my gaze fixed on it.

"(Name)." He said. I heard a frown in his voice. "It's so troublesome to see you down like this–look, I know this is a lot for you..." He sighed, shaking his head. "We'll find him."

"Right." I said softly, sighing. I finally looked up from the ground, and looked up at him. "Do you have any specific people in mind for our team?"

"Yeah." He nodded with a small smile. "I'll need your help in choosing, though."

\(•ᴥ•)/

"Naruto! It's (Name)!" I yelled through the door, knocking loudly. I then took a step back and waited for him to answer, crossing my arms.

The door opened a minute later, revealing a half-asleep and obviously just woken up Naruto.

"Why so early?" He said loudly, interrupting the calmness of the morning.

"You are such a drag starting early in the morning..." Shikamaru said in complaint.

"Oh, yeah? Well..."

"Sasuke left." I stated, resulting in everything stopping altogether.

"That bastard..." Naruto muttered, clenching his fists. "You've gotta be kidding." He looked at me and seemed to have changed his mind, looking at my expression. "Hey, just wait here! I'll change my clothes immediately!"

He ran back inside. I sighed, leaning on the wall of his apartment while waiting for him.

\(•ᴥ•)/

Other than Naruto, we gathered Choji, Kiba, and Akamaru. We couldn't figure out who else, so we were heading out of the village, hoping we'd find someone else on the way.

Glancing around, I spotted two people standing at the top of the tall set of stairs and stopped, squinting at them. I called out for them and they made their way down. They were Neji and Lee.

We explained to them what was going on, then asked Neji to come with us. Lee had just gotten his procedure done, and wasn't fully healed, so he couldn't come with us.

The gates opened and we stood at them.

"Well, we've reached our time limit." I pointed out, checking the time.