At the gates of konoha shikamaru arrived to see Naruto staring outside the village , "Tell me everything you know, Ill be the one responsible for creating a strategy". Naruto gave out all the information "That's about it, the others should arrive any time now, all my clones found their mark a while ago"
A moment later one by one five of the remaining genin arrived. "What's with the sudden mission, I had to drop all my training plans" kiba the first to arrive asked for an explanation.
"Allright now that everyone's here I'll give a debrief of the mission... Sasuke has deserted the village, possibly of his own free will... He's accompanied by five unknown individuals. We are to assume that they are both strong and capable of navigating around the defences put up by the leaf" The atmosphere grew tense Tenten's eyes grew as sharp as a blade.
"Our mission is to pursue and retrieve Sasuke before they cross the borders of the land of fire, for this I have devices a formation that takes into account our strengths and weaknesses." When shikamaru spoke no one else uttered a word as only a fool or a genious would disregard the wisdom of a Nara.
"Up front we have Kiba, Akamaru and Garm, the three of you are to operate as one unit, track our targets, report any suspicious elements and keep a look out for traps, kiba you travel throughout the land of fire all year round and you know our terrain verry well. Lead us to the enemy as fast as you can. Next will be me as one of the leaders I will need to be in a position in which I can see what lies ahead so I can issue commands without fail"
"Yeah, just leave it to me, I know this place like the back of my hand". Kiba had a cocky grin on his face. Garm looked at shikamaru in the eyes "Naruto thinks highly of you, I am at your command".
Turning to Naruto shikamaru continued "Naruto will be behind me at the center of the formation, as the most versatile Shinobi in our team he can not only change his position in the formation to assist wherever needed he can also use his clones more effectively, to the right and left Choji and Tenten will guard the flank, watch for anything suspicious and report it to Naruto and me. Tenten as a master of weapons an traps your expertise will be valuable let us know when something catches your eye, choji your our heavies hitter find an opening and land a heavy blow on our enemies".
Tenten shook her head in agreement and choji gave a verbal response as he ate a bag of chips "*crunch* you got *crunch* it Shika-*crunch*-maru".
Looking in Hinata's dirrection a thought flashed through shikamaru's mind 'Hinata might become a problem if she doesn't get a grip on her emotions'. "Hinata, you will be positioned behind Naruto you're duty lies in the rear, you are to assist with defending and to provide medical treatment to the injured, choji and ten ten will be further tasked with defending you, I will also need you to use you're Byakugan while you look over any serious injuries , we will also need them for scouting out anything suspicious"
Hinata looked at shikamaru with determined and unwavering eyes and nodded her head in confirmation "y-yes sir!". Naruto watched Hinata, proud of what she's become "That's what I'm talking about, I like your style Hinata!" Naruto gave her a reassuring pat on her shoulder turning her into a red blushing mess.
"Shino your position lies behind Hinata, use you're insects as you wish, you're the expert so I wount be advising your actions. Assist with the rear defense, Inform me if you find anything. Be prepared to substitute the main trackers at any given moment" shino stood in the back his presence nearly nonexistent. With a nod he faded back into nonexistence.
"Last up at the very end is you Neji, I'll have to leave the main defence of the rear to you, I can't take any risks so while we move I will need you to use your Byakugan the entire time as you watch out for any dangers from behind, I apologize for placing such a great burden on you". Neji remained unbothered, he gave a quick and plain reply "understood".
"Alright the time to leave is now get into formation, we have a lot of ground to cover!" Naruto took charge commanding everyone to fall into their positions.
"Hold on before we leave I have something to say... This is no longer something we can take lightly, Sasuke isn't important to me nor do I think he is worth my life's sacrifice..... however he is a fellow Shinobi of the hidden leaf, our comrade, And that is why we will risk our lives for him. This is the way of the leaf even someone like I can't goof off about something like this.... I'm responsible for all your lives" a newfound respect for shikamaru formed in everyone's heart.
"Heh, well one thing's fire sure, you're a better leader than Naruto" kiba still unwilling to view Naruto as a higher ranking Shinobi decided to ignore his promotion all together.
"You're lucky I don't have the time to go be mad at you punk!" Naruto felt that right where it hurt most, although he accepted the role of a leader he hasn't proved his worth as one once this entire time. he needs to prove it to himself more than anything. He cannot fail on his path to become the hokage
'shikamaru is really good at this' Naruto watched as shikamaru issued one order after the other. "We never doubted you once y'know, when thing get serious so do you, I wouldn't have made you my right hand man otherwise Shika". 'when did I agree to that? That's extremely troublesome'
Neji interjected as time was of the essence "we should check on our supplies before hand, it would be efficient is we redistribute some supplies according to our roles" choji agreed with the idea and took out some of his medical supplies "Here ya go Hinata, it'll be bad if you run out of these". An exchange and inspection of tools took place over the next few minutes. Naruto gave Hinata a sealing scroll he made as she couldnt Cary all the supplies in her already full ninja bag.
"That should be everything, let's get on the road" after all the preparations were complete Naruto tried to speed things along. "Wait.... Haah...haah, Naruto take me with you, I can't stand back and watch this happen!" Sakura ran as fast as she could in hopes of reaching them before they left
"Thats not possible, any more people and we wount be able to move fast enough, it's already hard enough as it is, we have to go now" Neji turned her request down decisively.
"Sorry Sakura... I know how much this is hurting you, it must be hard... You can count on me, I'll bring Sasuke back, that's a promise of a lifetime!" With his fist on his heart Naruto made a promise one that he intends to keep.
Turning around Naruto and his team ran towards their target at full speed as they fell into formation. Tears welled up in Sakura's eyes as she watched them run until she could no longer see them in the distance. A sense of helplessness washed over her, as all she could do was sit and wait.