Chapter 39 - Ambush

                                    

                                          
I don't own Naruto and I never have, probably never will. Can never tell for sure though.
                          
Nightfall!
                          
Chapter 39: Ambush
                          
Naruto and Akimi sat together overlooking Kiri her head rested on his shoulder enjoying the way his shoulders would ever so slightly rise and fall with his breaths. They didn't need to say anything, just being in each others presence was enough for them at that moment. Eventually Naruto spoke. "Just thinking back to that first mission, we were foolish, our in experience really cost us. Had I known what we would have faced I would have head north for the Land of Stars until the head died down. But no we wanted to get back to the land of fire so we tired to sneak past Kumo and get to the Land of Iron. It was so stupid" Naruto sighed.
                          
"Yes but in the end I'm glad we went that way. Because if it wasn't for what happened I might never have fallen for you" Akimi said not lifting her head off of his shoulder.
                          
(FLASHBACK)
                          
Four people stood at a crossroads, two shinobi and two civilians. "The way I see it we have two choices. The Land of Star's and the Land of Iron" Naruto said.
                          
"Well, the Land of Stars is closer, and Kumo stands between us and the Land of Iron, we should go north" Shana said.
                          
Naruto took out a map and sat down looking over the roads and terrains that they would have to cross to make it to either of their goals "Maybe, the problem is, the Land of Stars is isolated, if Kumo think that is where we will head then we will have to hide there for what could be months before they call off the search. The Land of Iron is a Samurai nation and they do not let Ninja operate openly within their borders. Also it is the perfect gateway to the rest of the elemental nations. From the Land of Iron we can reach the Land of Fire and you two will not have to worry about Kumo ninja finding you. In the Land of Stars although it may appear safer it is very possible that Kumo ninja will enter the country in search of us" he said.
                          
"So what to you suggest we do then?" Kirsuke asked.
                          
"Well there are a few different paths that we can take, however each one of them will have ninja watching it. So we are going to have to go cross country and stay off the roads. They wont expect that when we have civilians traveling with us. And not only that we are going to be taking this rout through the mountains, it is the quickest way that would be physically possible for civilians to pull off and should anything prove to difficult I will help you out" Naruto said.
                          
Kirsuke and Shana seemed apprehensive something that Akimi saw. "Don't worry about a thing, Naruto can manipulate gravity so he could in essence make you weightless allowing you to easily cope with anything we come across" she said with a smile.
                          
"Well couldn't you just make us weightless and carry us along one of the ninja trails?" Kirsuke asked.
                          
"I can't keep up my manipulation for that long and we are a days run from the border at top speed, if I were to to that and we were found by Kumo ninja I wouldn't have enough strength to fight" Naruto said.
                          
Kirsuke looked down in embarrassment. "Uh I'm sorry it was a foolish request" he said.
                          
"That's fine, I can understand why it seems like a good idea, but trust me if we do get discovered we will need to have both Akimi and myself at our best if we want to get out of this safely. Now we better get moving. The way I see it, we have about half a day before the letter that the jounin sent reaches Kumo. So we can stay on the road until dusk then we are going to leave the roads. It's also not safe for us to stay in any villages so we will need to camp out" Naruto said.