"Gaara."

The apartment was wrecked, his neighbor was sprawled out, a kunai in her throat and his son was gone. He'd breifly glimpsed Frog but the ANBU poofed away. He followed right to the Hokage's office, snatched the note, ignored the ANBU's dead body and read it.



We have your boy Kyuubi. This time you won't be getting away from us. If you want the little squirt to see his next birthday, come to the first hide out.



"Naruto?"



"They have my son," he growled it out, teeth clenched and headed for the window. The hand against his shoulder made him growl again and shrug it off.



"You aren't going alone."



"If anyone goes with me they will die." A yelp made them turn towards the door. Sakura was standing there, hands covering her mouth looking between them and the body.



"Sakura?"



"Hai?"



"Go with him." Naruto growled and looked at Tsunade.



"Leave her here!"



"NO!" Sakura grabbed up her weapons pouch, strapped it to her leg and walked over to Naruto.



"What happened?" He just handed her the note, breathing in and out slowly. He heard her hiss and toss the note aside. "What are we waiting for?!"



"You're staying here."



"Oh no I'm not." She turned him around and slapped his face, hard. He looked at her, his eyes staying blue this time. "That's better." She looked to Tsunade. "Keep everyone here. If we aren't back in two days time, send in everyone we've got." Tsunade just stared at her. Sakura looked back to Naruto. "We'll get him back. Come on." She poofed away and Naruto followed. Tsunade sat down and looked at the dead shinobi in her office.



"SHIZUNE?!"



"Hai Hokage- OH MY WORD!"



"Get me every available shinobi chounin rank or higher. Send up the red alert and send our fastest bird to Suna with a scroll. Shozu has been kidnapped by Akatskui."





They moved in silently, two figures blending with the shadows around them. They didn't make a sound, and if there was any, Naruto sent it away from them on the wind. They couldn't sense any chakra signatures, not even ones that might be covered. It was safe. They stepped out a little farther and stopped. Naruto made a few hand signals and she nodded. They entered the cave and went low, using the setting sun as cover.



When they were sure they were alone, they came up and started searching. There was nothing. A sound caught there attention. They both turned at the same time and Naruto growled.



"That's right. Uncle Didera is fun hn?" Shozu was laughing, not aware of the danger he was in, as he chased a clay butterfly. The blond looked at them, his smile turning menacing. "Looks like you brought a friend this time. Tsk Tsk hn." From no where, Sakura yelped out but was held immobile. Riu appeared behind her.



"Oh, sorry it took so long Sparky. OOOOoooh, look at that pretty scar! Did I give that to you?" Naruto made a move towards her but a tsking made him turn back towards Didera.



"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The blond pointed at the butterfly which had stopped. Shozu had it in his mouth, gnawing on it. "If you want that little butterfly to make fireworks of your baby then be my guest but I don't recommend it. There won't be enough left to bury." Naruto stood still and watched as two people appeared and came at him. He didn't move as they bound him with chakra enforced rope. Sakura was let go and she turned to Shozu. Didera had picked him up and taken the clay butterfly away. "There we go. Don't want to hurt the merchandise."



"Please!" Sakura moved forward a little. "Let him go! He's an innocent baby!"



"Not so innocent! This little tyke nearly got me beheaded!" Didera looked at the green and blue eyes staring at him and poked his nose. "That's right, not so innocent are you?" Shozu just laughed.



"Let him go." Naruto's body shuttered once and he just stared at the ground. He knew when Sakura turned because her breath caught in her throat. Didera started to protest but stopped instantly. Black sandals walked passed him to stand right in front of Sakura.



"Itatchi..."



"You are Tsunade's apprentace?" Sakura swallowed and looked to Naruto. He wasn't even looking at them. She turned back, looking at his chest and nodded.



"I am." Itatchi's hand came out quicker than lightning and snatched her chin up. She closed her eyes tightly but didn't try to move. They were in a very tight spot at the moment.



"Open your eyes."



"No way." He slapped her. She opened her eyes then with a fiery gaze. Her face fell into question. She brought her hand up and waved it in front of Itatchi's face. He just grabbed her hand.



"Partially blind."



"What do you want me to do about it?" He turned back towards Shozu and then back to her. "Oh, so you're using my nephew as a bargaining tool?" She shook her head, put her hands on her hips and sighed. "Fine. I'll fix your eyes but you better have someone send him back in one piece and smiling, still breathing and not injured in any way. If you don't," her green gaze met his black one, "I pull those pretty little cords apart and make sure you don't live to tell about it." He didn't say a word but instead, sent a punch to her gut. She fell to her knees coughing.



"You heard her."



"That's not what Leader said!" Itatchi sent a spiraling red gaze at Didera. "Fine fine. You get to deal with Leader then." He actually tossed Shozu to Kisame who grabbed the baby by the scruff of his shirt.



"What do you want me to do with it?"



"Take it home." He tossed it to Riu.



"I'm not doing anything with that. You do it Riu."



"Why me?"



"Because you're still an apprentice." She sighed and looked to Itatchi. His eyes were black again.



"Fine." She was gone instantly.



Naruto stood there looking at Sakura who wouldn't look him in the eye. He knew she did it to save his son's life but it meant torture for him. He couldn't believe it but he knew she didn't want to. She muttered an apology his way and he just looked away. Something hit the back of his knees and he fell to the ground, feeling suddenly very weak.



"We move." Itatchi started towards the cave entrance, Sakura behind him followed by Didera, then Kisame holding Naruto.





"What in the world?" Kotetsu stared, head tilted as something came flying at the top of the Hokage tower. It was a giant butterfly. Everyone went up in instant arms. The butterfly just hovered over them and dropped something. Tsunade caught it. The butterfly dissiapted. Everyone looked to Tsunade. She was holding a very irate baby.



"SHIZUNE?!"



"Yes Hokage-sama. Change what that scroll says."



"Hai." She ran off, taking to the roof tops to get to the message center. Tsunade patted the baby's butt and he quieted.



"Now listen here. Sakura has told us two days but I don't trust Akatskui that long." She started handing out orders and shinobi started poofing. She looked to Kakashi, Sai, Neji and Rock Lee. " From now on, you are a team and your code name is Alpha." No one moved. "Trace that womans house and give me everything you can, after that, I want you heading to their first known location. The note said they would be there. Send word by any means necessary. Wait for my orders from there. Dismissed!" Lee grabbed Kakashi's arm and everyone poofed away.



She turned to Gai, Chouji, Ino and Ten-ten. "You are a team. You code name is Beta." No one moved. "Find out where they are headed send me the information A.S.A.P. Dismissed!" They poofed out. She turned to Shikamaru. "Figure out how far ahead they are and set up a battle plan. You have one hour." He nodded and just seemed to melt into the roof of the building.



Turning to Kotetsu, Izumo and Genma she said, "I want you on that gate. Unless it is a known friendly or one of our own, those gates do not open for anyone in or out." They nodded and poofed. She turned to Kurenai. "I want you at the apartment looking for traces of any genjutsu that might have been used. They didn't have much time to get in or out so someone used something." She nodded and poofed. Finally, she turned to Iruka and handed Shozu over. "You, stay in my office." He nodded and went down the stairs, followed closely behind by Tsunade.



When they arrived at her office, Jiraya was sitting there, pipe in his hands. He handed it to her and she looked at it. Cracked. Her face fell and she handed it back to him. Iruka looked between them.



"What?" Tsunade sat down and rubbed her temples. Jiraya stood and walked to the window, crossing an arm over his chest.



"It doesn't look good."





"Well if you'd hold still it wouldn't hurt as much," Sakura hissed as Itatchi, yet again, moved from her grasp. Kisame back handed her and she growled. "Watch it sharkman. I never said I'd be nice to you."



"Oh, spunky!" He grinned showing his mouth of shark-like teeth. "I like that." He turned to itatchi. "Can I play with her?" Itatchi glared and Kisame sighed. He sat down and looked off into the night sky. Sakura wiped her mouth and looked at Itatchi who just watched her.



"Well? If you want them fixed I need you here." She pointed. He didn't move. She sighed and looked away from him. "Please." He moved and put his head back in her lap, his eyes never leaving hers. She frowned, her tongue poking out in concentration. Her fingers started to glow and he felt the pain inside of his head almost instantly. He didn't move a muscle this time. "Can you go to your sharingan for me?" He quirked a brow. "I need to see why it's making you blind." He shifted just a little and did as she asked. He heard her gasp, her eyes completely zoned out. She scared him. Nothing scared him.



"What is she doing over there?" Didera poked Kisame who bit at his hand.



"Fixing his eyes."



"Hn."



"Alright, now go back to normal." He did. She looked up and straight at Kisame. "I need some paper and a pen." He looked at her. She looked down to Itatchi. "I need to keep track of what I find so I don't make mistakes. If I do it could cost you your sight." He turned his head slightly and looked at Kisame.



"Fine! Let the little girl boss you around. You know, you could just slit her thraot and steal that blond, you know, the one that she's always having it out with."



"Ino? Oh, hell, she's not nearly as good with this kind of thing as I am." Kisame looked at her. "What?"



"Nothing." He just laughed and started searching for something she could use. He came out with a small book. It was a sketch book. He tossed it to her along with a pen. She caught it, opened to a clean page and started writing. Itatchi paid attention but he didn't understand any of it. She wrote in code and lots of numbers. She doodled here and there when she needed and soon enough she was back to his eyes.



Night turned into day and when her hands weren't steady she had to pull away. "I can't work anymore. I need some sleep." Itatchi grabbed her hand, his eyes swirling red. "Look." She showed him how unsteady her hands were. "If you would like me to continue working I will but I wouldn't want me working on you." He just stood and pulled her to her feet. He just tossed her to Riu, who'd shown up sometime in the night.



"Cage her."



"With him?" Itatchi turned and walked away. "I'll take that as a no." She sighed and dragged Sakura to the holding cells and tossed her in one. When the door closed behind her, she fused her chakra with the bars and walked away. "Sleep tight."



Sighing, Sakura stripped off her gloves and wiped her eyes. She looked around and found Naruto sitting next to her, in another cage. He didn't look well. Crawling over, she tried to reach him. They were just far enough apart that she couldn't get there. Thinking for a moment, she used a little of her stored chakra and bumped the ground. Her cage jumped and landed right next to Naruto's. He didn't move.



"Naruto?" She reached out and touched him. He was cold. She started to panic. "Naruto!" He groaned and she sighed with relief.



"Sak-ra-csan?" She looked at his face. His jaw was starting to heal, but it was bruised badly. There were similar bruises all over him along with cuts and healing holes.



"What did they do to you?"



"What we needed to." She looked up to find a blue haired woman, that wasn't Riu, standing there.



"What do you mean, what you 'needed' to?" The woman looked to Naruto and sighed.



"If he would just remove the seal inside of him we wouldn't have so much trouble."



"What seal?" The woman looked at her and the look she was given made her blood freeze. A chill went down her spine. For some reason, this was not a woman Sakura wanted to piss off.



"When he's able to talk again, tell him it would be in his best interest to break the seal." And with that, she was gone. Sakura didn't see her leave. She was there one second and gone the next. She shivered. Oh hell, what had she gotten herself into?





Three days and no word. They had vanished. Neji and Hinata were stuck. That didn't happen very often. Sai found a trail but it ended on the border of the Fire country. Shikamaru had come to the conclusion they were still within the countries borders but like their first and second lairs, they were very well hidden. Gaara had sent Temari and Kankuro on their way to help in any way they could, but they wouldn't be there for another two days. No one was giving up hope, but it wasn't very high.



Turning, Tsunade looked at the shinobi gathered in her war room. They were dirty, some smelled worse than others, no one had eaten much and it was tellable by the stomach sounds coming from some of them, everyone was tired and everyone who wasn't jounin or ANBU was running on reserve energy.



"Hokage-sama?" She turned to Shikamaru who had a map and pen in his hands. "I think I might have something." Everyone looked at him and he stood, walking over to her. He started dotting places. "This is their first lair, this is their second. This is where Kakashi's team encountered Uchiha Itatchi, and where Gai said he encountered the sharkman." A pattern was starting to form. "This is where Kakashi's team fought the exploding member, and where Gai's team said they encountered the traps." He drew a few lines and looked at her.



"It's a giant shougi board." She looked at him and he smiled.



"And who is still undefeated?" Tsunade did something utterly not herself and hugged him, hard. She let him go and looked at everyone there.



"Let's move out people. Everyone is taking orders from Shikamaru from now on. You do as he says, when he says." Everyone stood and she looked down at the Nara. "Boy, make your father proud uh?"



"I wasn't thinking about my father actually." he smiled and she looked at Shikamaru's father who just stared, wide eyed, at his son. "What?" Shikamaru shrugged and sat down, starting to play out this giant shougi board.





She wrote down something and brought one of her fingers back to his temple. "One more time please." So lost in what she was doing, she didn't realize he was staring at her. He phased his eyes in and out while she concentrated on what happened. "I think I've got it." Her eyes narrowed and she leaned over, looking deep into his eyes. Itatchi could see something in her eyes. It looked like chakra. He quirked a brow. "Nani?"



"You're eyes."



"Oh. It's chakra so I can see what I'm doing. Don't exactly have machinery here." Even though he was a cold blooded killer, an evil bastard trying to kill her best friend and the one man whom Sasuke had left their team for, she was finding he wasn't as bad as everyone made him out to be. Sure, he was evil to the worst extreme but when it came to sharing knowledge, they did it easily enough. She recognized curiosity a mile away and he was very, very curious. "Alright, hold still and phase them for me." He did as she instructed and almost immediately he felt something loosen in his head. He wanted to blink but didn't.



"What did you do?"



"Because of the way you phase in and out constantly between two different sharingan forms, it's putting strain on the cord connecting your eyes to your brain. That strain caused a small growth behind your left eye and it was causing your blindness. Now, because you force chakra to your eyes to pahse them, what I've done it reduced the flow." He looked at her. She shivered. "Not in the way you're thinking. It's unnatural to have chakra flowing to your eyes like it is. What's I've done is put in like a...a..." she paused while still working, "like a stopper. When you start to use too much chakra and it's endangering your eyes, it will slow the flow down. No, it's not a permanent fix but it will work for a few years. With the way you use your eyes, I will be surprised if it lasts longer than five."



She sat back and let him up. Rubbing her eyes she moved and cracked her knuckles, hissing as the pain started working out of her hands. "Don't phase them for a few days. If you do it could undo the work I just did." She stood and dusted herself off, handing him the book and pen. "If someone is lucky enough to figure out my code, you could get any medical nin to fix your eyes when you needed." With that, she turned to Riu and started walking towards the blue haired woman.



"Wait." She stopped and turned. His eyes were still black and emotionless.



"Nani?"



"Tell him to remove the seal." She sighed and turned away without stopping again, even when he told her too. Riu waited for her to walk into her cage and she sat down, waiting for the blue haired woman to infused the bars with chakra.



"Sakura-san?" The pink haired kunoichi looked up to Riu. "It would make things so much easier..." Riu was looking at Naruto's prone form.



"Easier to kill him. I don't think so." Sakura looked away and watched Naruto breath in and out. She was amazed he was breathing at all.



"So you'll let him continue on like this?" She turned then, her glared freezing Riu. She stood and walked to the bars, not touching them. She knew better.



"Listen here you bitch, I will not, under any circumstances, tell my teammate to give up his life for the likes of you. I don't care about what motivates you to be here. I will not stand by and lose him without a fight. Beware, once you're found, we will get out of here I assure you and once Gaara get a hold of what you've done, no one, dead or alive will save your sorry ass. I pity you." She turned and walked back to where she slept. Riu gulped and left the cage area.



"Nice one." Sakura looked over to see Naruto's eyes looking at her. She smiled.



"Hey, I learned from the best." He just chuckled, then started coughing and she reached over, thrusting chakra into his body. He topped coughing and looked at her.



"Stop that."



"Never."



"You just do this to have them ruin it later."



"Maybe but it keeps you here."



"For what?"



"Shozu."



"Shozu..." he drifted off and she sighed, finally not able to keep her own eyes open. She laid down, her hand still forcing as much chakra as she could into Naruto's body before she passed out.



He just watch what happened, his interest suddenly gone. Walking away he was stopped by something. He turned to see her moving onto her side. Interest peaked once again, he walked over and stood there, listening to her sleep.



"Brain...tumor behind eye....fixed it..." she shifted and covered her eyes with her arm. " 'tatchi-san... bad eyes..." he frowned and walked away. What was she talking about? He opened the book and started puzzling together what she'd written.





"Rise and shine! Time to go Pinky!" Sakura was thrown out of the cage only to catch herself. She looked around. Surrounded. "Let's go."



"What? Where?"



"Don't ask questions just move." She was kicked. Turning around, she grabbed the foot and yanked. Kisame fell to his ass.



"The next time you hit or throw me sharkface, be prepared for an ass whooping." She stood and started walking away, rotating her shoulder until it popped. Looking off to the side she saw Naruto being dragged. "Here, let me carry him." Everyone stopped to look at her. "What?"



"No."



"I have a lot more chakra than the rest of you, even that big fish," she hiked a finger at Kisame, "and besides, it's not like any of you like touching him while he's bloody, do you?" They looked at each other, Itatchi looking dead at her. He motioned her over to Naruto. She picked him up and set his larger body over her shoulder. Phase one, complete.



"So, who had the bet they'd find us within the week?" Riu looked around. Didera raised his hand.



"I did." She tossed him some money. "Who's taking it they get to us again within the next week?" Kisame raised his hand.



"Make it two and I've got you."



"Hn." They ignored Sakura long enough that she started feeding a small line of chakra through her shoulder into Naruto's body. It wasn't enough to be noticed by anyone, unless they had a special kind of eye. She's made sure Itatchi couldn't use his for a few days without risking them permanently so, she would be good for a few days, if they lasted that long.





Shikamaru moved a few pieces and stretched. All according to plan. Now if only everything else went so smoothly. Looking to his left, he signaled two shinobi forward. They moved without a single sound. Folding up the paper, the lazy nin poofed out of the area. He landed in Tsunade's office.



"They're still alive and moving."



"Good work. Keep them that way." He nodded and poofed out.