The Real Me

58

"Already replaced me?"

Those words carried with them such a heavy air of disappointment that Sakura felt the immediate need to explain, "It's not how you think it is!!"

Naruto only tilted his head, and raised his brows as if asking her to explain then.

"It's actually..." she couldn't bring herself to say anything. After all what could she say?

Sai suddenly spoke up, "So this is Naruto." He smiled that fake smile of his. Finding this amusing Naruto returned a a smile, his big wide signature smile, that he used to wear so often back then.
But this smile of his was as fake as Sai's and it sent chills down Sakura's spine.

"Hello, yes this is Naruto." Naruto waved a hand from under his coat.

Sasuke just stared. He couldn't speak, he couldn't move. His heart was beating fast, as if he was scared. Scared that Naruto would hate him before he could explain. That if he spoke Naruto would vanish. He didn't want him to go. His sole objective right now was to bring him back. To help him get cleared of all those baseless accusations and false charges.
But, what should he say? How should he say? Should he say anything? What if Naruto already hated him so much to the point that he wouldn't even listen to him?

These thoughts ran around in a never ending circle in the Uchiha's mind, and he didn't notice Naruto glancing at him from the corner of his blue eyes.

As the former Team 7 stumbled over their words, Kakashi's mind was in alarm. Being a member of the ANBU and a trusted shinobi at the Hokage's side, he was of course well aware of what the robes meant.

The Akatsuki recruited him?

This was the first time in almost a year that Naruto had been spotted after the ANBUs sent to track him were found dead; and he was already a part of a terrorist organisation?
This information was extremely valuable and had to be reported to the Hokage immediately, but looking at the situation at hand it didn't seem that he would get any chance to do so, so all he could try was to make sure they leave here alive.

Finally Sasuke seemed to have made uo his mind to say something. Just when he looked up and locked eyes with Naruto, about to speak, Kakashi gave the order for them to jump back and maintain distance.
Sasuke jumped back rather unwillingly and sent a glare to his sensei.

Kakashi only signalled at them and they knew what to do.

As they scampered around in some kind of formation, Naruto mused at the interesting situation at hand.

Who was this new kid he had never seen before in Konoha? Where did he come from?
Was this some kind of strategy? Kakashi actually taught them? Wow. Unexpected development.
Growth.
Very nice very nice.

He was still crouching and so nudged at Tobi's leg, telling him to "check this out" because "it's gonna be interesting".

Tobi broke a small thin branch with a single leaf on it from a nearby tree and waved it around, bored, waiting for an attack.

"Now!" Kakashi said, and Sai held out a brush and scroll and with a few strokes created a long snake, that jumped out of the scroll and headed straight for the masked man next to the blond.

Both were quite surprised and Tobi held out his small branch in an attempt to defend himself, making Team 7 almost sure that they got him.
What they didn't expect was that the snake would pass right through him.

They were shocked. What kind of jutsu-?
But Sai wasn't done yet. He immediately whipped up a drawing of several huge dogs that leapt out and charged straight the the robed duo.
The masked man let out a scared yelp, as the dogs once again passed right through him.
Meanwhile, without even exerting much effort, Naruto had killed the snake and dogs with some wind infused shurikens. He held up his chin in his palm and looked down disdainfully.