Chapter 52: Sunagakure and The Desert Monster

In the vast desert of Sunagakure, a young boy was currently hiding within a small earth dome. His dark sharingan was briefly observing the small notes that were in his hands. With the evening sun about to disappear, the light in the desert was slowly getting reduced.

Kurama couldn't understand why his container had stayed in the same position since the past 4 hours.

And they were in a damn desert.

"Naruto, why are you not infiltrating the village?" asked Kurama in an irritated voice, making a tired sigh escaped from Naruto's lips.

His Biju friend was indeed an impatient entity,

"I can't just barge into a hidden village, despite being the weakest village among the 5 great villages...Suna does have security measures. The reason I have been waiting is because they have a barrier around the village. If a person with even a good amount of chakra crosses their border, the Suna ninja are alerted and they bring him/her into custody for interrogation." explained Naruto patiently,

"So we can't enter into Suna?" asked Kurama disappontedly with a small frown on his gigantic face.

"I didn't say that, there is a time period of 20 seconds when the barrier teams are changed. In that time frame, the barrier is down and we can infiltrate into the village, but every checkpoint will be well guarded so there is only one way to get in..." said Naruto seriously, as he quickly destroyed the notes in his hand.

He had memorized each and every route, district name, important locations of the sand village. And was now ready for his recon mission...

"How did you even get such vital information?" asked Kurama curiously, getting a small smirk on the boy's face.

"Hiruzen has the best spy master in the world, the information which Jiriaya supplied indeed proves his ability..." said Naruto in a respectful tone, but Kurama just gave a nod,

"If you say so"

"This is a recon mission, Kurama. Hiruzen has ordered me to avoid any kind of battles until necessary. We go in, scout the enemy's forces, their weapons and formations along with every other important information. Now let's get going..." said Naruto in an excited voice, and a small grin came on the Biju's face when Naruto performed a very familiar set of hand seals.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)"

(Few Minutes Later)

Naruto currently stood on top of his crow, his eyes were keenly observing the small watch on his hand as well as the Sand Village that was hundreds of feet beneath him. This maybe the first time when he would be making a aerial drop from such a height.

But it was the only way of getting into Suna, and he had just 20 seconds to make it happen...

As soon as the timer on his wrist watch changed to 0, he quickly jumped of his summon as the animal disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"19, 18, 17, 16..." counted Naruto, as he neared towards one of the rooftops.

He activated his sharingan and saw the barrier around Suna disappearing right on time. As he neared towards the rooftop he fired several kunai that hit various points in the alley between two rooftops. Instantly the ninja wires strapped to the kunai's got stretched due to the distance between the weapons effectively creating a tough webbing.

"7, 6, 5, 4..."

On the last second he crossed through the open barrier and quickly twisted himself while balancing his body on top of the ninja wire webbing which acted as his landing pad. And when he looked up, the barrier was back up once again...

"Damn, that was close..." said Naruto in a relieved voice,

Naruto didn't waste any more time, and removed all the kunai and ninja wires followed by sealing them into a small scroll. Performing a single hand seal, he created 4 shadow clones.

"All of you scout 1 district respectively. Try to find out the strength of enemy forces, their weapons, and battle plans if you can. Avoid any battles at all costs, this is strictly a recon mission only. If things get too hot, then evade the enemy troops and quickly disperse yourself. Are we clear?" asked Nartuto seriously,

"Hai" whispered all the clones in unison,

"SCATTER!"

Kurama watched as the shadow clones transformed themselves into normal civilians and went in different directions, while the original Naruto transformed himself into a middle aged man with spiky brown colored hair, he had dark black colored eyes and an oval shaped face. His clothes were ordinary too, with a simple blue colored shirt and dark black pants along with a pair of sandals covering his feet.

Without another word, Naruto hopped down into the corner of the street, and after a few moments started walking through the dirty road.

His veteran eyes were attentively observing the average looking buildings of the sand village. There were very less number on windows on the houses, and the shops& restaurants alongside the road looked to be quite old.

From what he had seen so far, Suna was definitely not having a great economy during these past few years. Maybe this reason combined with the decreasing missions from the Damiyo of their nation were harming the village and raising doubts over its survival in the longer run.

He spotted a bar on the right hand side of the road, and decided to visit it in order to gather some information before starting the next phase of his mission.

Naruto knew he could not afford a fight, he was barely carrying any weapons in order to prevent himself from looking suspicious. Apart from 3 kunai and a medkit, he was not carrying any other supplies. Everything was sealed in a small scroll which he had hidden inside a dark corner of the village, away from the prying eyes of shinobi or curious little children.

"Let's go and get some information..."

(Konoha)

Hinata smiled a little when she found Sasuke sitting idly on the banks of Naka River. These past few days had been some of the best days of their lives, contrary to popular beliefs Sasuke was not an arrogant person, he was just a boy who was lost like her.

Sasuke had no clan, no family left. And with Naruto gone he barely had any best friends left...

While she still had a clan, and family but still she felt all alone. Hinata knew the people of her clan considered her a failure, and since she got the caged bird seal all that was left for her was to become a proper member of the Branch family. Within a few months, her younger sister Hanabi was going to be announced the next heir of the clan.

In a way, she didn't have anything left...

"Are you just going to stand there, Hinata?" asked Sasuke in an annoyed voice, making her smile.

"Gomen..." said Hinata shyly, and came forward.

"You seem awfully quiet..." said Hinata curiously, as Sasuke rested his chin on his knees.

"Hinata, is there anything left for you to protect? A reason for your existence in this cursed shinobi world..." asked Sasuke seriously, and Hinata was instantly going to say a "Yes", but then the memories of the past few months came flooding back in her mind.

Her banishment from the main branch, Naruto's defection, Chouji's death, and so many more tragedies...

"I don't think so...Sasuke" said Hinata sadly,

"Me too. I'm tired of losing the people I love, tired of the constant problems of the ninja world. I'm fed up of being a shinobi..." said Sasuke bitterly, and clenched his fists tightly.

"But this is the world we live in, there is nothing we can do..." argued Hinata in a defeated voice, but was silenced when he gave her a defiant look.

"There is always a way, I hate this world. It doesn't matter if you are strong or weak, the only thing you feel every time is pain" said Sasuke angrily,

"Sasuke..."

"Despite being an Uchiha, I couldn't protect Naruto. Konoha made him suffer in ways I could have never imagined, and yet he always tried to make me happy. He was just a child and yet the villagers treated him like trash. I-" said Sasuke regretfully, and Hinata was surprised on seeing the affection the boy had for Naruto.

Looking at him now, convinced Hinata that even if Naruto was now an enemy of Konoha...Sasuke still considered him a brother and deeply cared for him.

But when he looked into her eyes, he was surprised when he saw some deep affections for Naruto.

"You love him, don't you?" asked Sasuke kindly, and smirked when her cheeks became bright red.

"I care about him, but now I just don't know what I feel..." said Hinata honestly,

"Hinata, I want to stop the hatred in this world. To stop this curse so that more Naruto's don't suffer, so that people like Chouji don't die in vain. This world is full of chaos and violence...I want to put an end to it, so that our friends and family can live peacefully" declared Sasuke passionately,

"But how can we do that? The shinobi world-" said Hinata but was cut off, when his sharingan came alive

"What if there are no more shinobi?"

(With Naruto)

The Young Anbu captain had just finished inspecting another district of the village. So far, everything looked ordinary except for the fact that there were a high number of genin roaming around the village.

One of his clones had also dispersed itself and passed on some information about a large weapons cache in the northern district, while his other 3 clones were still busy with their tasks.

From his little visit to the bar, he had discovered the people of Suna were definitely on edge. The Kazekage was increasing military supplies and combat drills, and such activities only increased before the start of a war.

Suna was desperate, that much was certain...

He turned around and started walking into a small alley, but his danger instincts kicked in when he didn't see a single person in the area. He used his sensory abilities and discovered a few faint chakra signatures hiding in the nearby houses.

"Civilians..." thought Naruto,

But he became very alert when wild gusts of sand started flowing in the entire street and a person could be seen walking towards him.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and saw a boy with fair skin and short, spiky, auburn hair and pale blue-green colored eyes. He was wearing a black full body suit with t-shirt-like sleeves, 3/4-length legs, and an open neck. With this, he also wore a white cloth over his right shoulder and the left side of his hips, and a wide leather band system over the left shoulder and right side of his hips. With this leather band, he carried around a large gourd around which sand was swirling magically.

His black colored forehead protector was wrapped around his band, and he had the kanji of "Love" embedded on his forehead.

"Naruto, he's the Ichibi's (One Tail) Jinchuuriki" warned Kurama, but alas it was too late.

A maniacal grin came on the young boy's face as he glared at Naruto...

"Mother wants your blood!"