Hello everyone,

this is my first Naruto-fanfiction. I couldn't get this idea out of my head so I'm writing it. I hope you like it. Oh, and I have to say: English isn't my own language so I hope you forgive me if I make any mistakes. I try to make them as minimal as possible.

Chapter 1

The war was over and the Shinobi Alliance of the Five Great Nations split and went home to their own countries. In the end peace returned to the world.

In the land of fire (also known as Hi no Kuni), surrounded by trees, was the village Konohagakure. The residents were still rebuilding their village from the destruction of Pain, the former leader of Akatsuki, when the remaining shinobi returned. Families hugged their beloved or mourned their losses. Many shinobi never returned or were severely injured.

At one end of the village, near the great stone-faces, stood a blonde woman in her office and watched the crowded streets of Konoha. Her pretty face showed a grim and thoughtful expression. She too mourned the fallen. But she knew that they were lucky. This war could have ended worse. She had expected a much longer list of dead shinobi. The woman sighed and turned to her desk. She didn't look forward to the paperwork in front of her. This was the part of her job she disliked the most. Maybe it was time for a change in command. Suddenly she heard the sound of footsteps outside of her office. The sound grew louder and ended with a bang as someone threw the door open.

"Tsunade-sama!" A dark-haired woman shouted. She was clearly the running person, as she was a little short on breath. "What is it, Shizune?", Tsunade asked and glared at her aide. "The ANBU found something strange outside the village", Shizune reported, still gasping for air. Tsunade raised her brow in question. She knew that Shizune went outside of Konoha today, looking for herbs. This must be something important, if she interrupted her search. "There are signs of a recent fight" Shizune reported once again. Tsunade continued to stare at her. This doesn't sounded that important. Sure, it wasn't good if there were still fights, but no reason to be that shocked. "I know it isn't that disturbing, giving the circumstances of a war. But it is the battle ground what concerned me. It looks...really strange" the medic-nin said, obviously out of words. With a sigh Tsunade stepped forward. "Fine. Show me" she said to her aide and rushed out of her office and the building.

It took the two kunoichi 15 minutes to reach the area Shizune spoke off. At the sight of the battle ground Tsunade could understand the problems Shizune had to describe it. There was a perfect circle with a diameter of six meters (give it or take it). The inside of the circle was burned black, just disturbed from fine white lines. It looked a bit like a Rin'negan in her opinion. The trees in the area were peppered with kunai and shuriken and burned as well. Between the trees were several bodies with slight burn marks. They each wore the same uniform: black trousers, black sandals, black shirts, black vests and black hitai-ate with the same symbol that they could see on the ground. She counted 10 but suspected that there were a much higher count in the fight. Tsunade couldn't see any Konoha-shinobi nearby, except the few ANBU, who remained in the shadows. "Who fought here?" She asked after a while. One of the ANBU appeared in front of her. "We don't know who the enemy was, but we think they encountered one of our jounins" the hawk-masked man reported. Tsunade frowned at those words. This jounin must be quite extraordinary to put up such a fight. And the careful chosen words of the ANBU made it quite clear that he knew, who this jounin was. She too had a clear suspicion. But she needed a confirmation of her guess. "Who?" She asked, staring in the holes of the mask. "We think it was Kakashi-senpai" Hawk confirmed her suspicion. "How's that?" "We found a few things that didn't belong to one of those" he waved at the corpses. "One was a hitai-ate with the symbol of Konoha" He showed it to her. But it was hard to guess to whom it belonged since it was the standard forehead-protector without any personalization. "The second was this bag" Hawk gave her one of the small bags that many shinobi wore at their hips. This item was standard-manufactured as well. Since the outside couldn't tell her anything of the owner she opened it. The content was more than proof of the owner. Along kunai, shuriken, scrolls and other ninja-items, there were some editions of the 'Icha Icha Paradise' Kakashi loved so much. The Hokage closed her eyes and lowered her head. She couldn't believe that one of her best shinobi survived this war just to end captured by some unknown shinboi. Since no one found his body it was the most possible scenario.

Tsunade spun around her heels and faced the worried-looking Shizune. "Shizune!" Tsunade barked at her aide. "I need a list of every available shinobi fit for a rescue party! Someone with tracking-ability would be best!" "Yes, Tsunade-sama!" Shizune quickly answered and rushed away.

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Half an hour later Shizune appeared with the list. Tsunade scanned it and searched for the best members. She was pleased, that Shizune picked just shinobi which had both, the necessary skill and motivation, to do this job.

"I want Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara, Maito Gai, Sai, Yamato and Sakura Haruno!" The blonde listed. It was necessary to have both, tracking and fighting skill and this group had both. And a medical ninja, just in case, was good as well. Since this shinboi known each other (mostly) for years, good teamwork was guaranteed too.

Shizune was almost outside of the office, when Tsunade spoke again. "And send for Naruto too" she ordered. The younger woman gave a slight nod and vanished. To not send Naruto was out of question. He would hear of it, sooner or later, and would running off to rescue his sensei.

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Oblivious of the trouble of his sensei Naruto sat in the Ichiraku Imbiss and ate his beloved ramen. Next to him were his teammates Sakura and Sai, eating as well (although in a much slower pace). "Don't eat that fast, Naruto!" The girl shouted. "You're spilling half of your soup at us!" The boy slurped his noodles down and looked apologetically at Sakura. "Sorry, Sakura-chan. It wasn't my intention. But the ramen is soooo good!" Sakura glared angrily at him but dropped the topic. It was useless to get in the way of the blondes favorite food. Just in that moment an ANBU popped out of nowhere behind the three friends. "What is it, ANBU-san?" Sai, the last of the three asked. He was used to this habit of ANBU-members since he was once one of them. "Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, Sai. You three report immediately to the Hokage" he said and puffed away. The three teenagers shared confused glances and went to the Hokage-office. The order of the ANBU was very vague. The only reason for that could only mean a serious matter.

Five minutes later they arrived in the office. To their surprise they weren't the only one Tsunade-sama summoned. Kiba, Hinata, Shikamaru, Gai and Yamato were already inside, waiting for them. "Close the door behind you, Sakura" Tsunade ordered. Sakura obeyed and was surprised to see the ANBU from before (based on the mask) put several private seals around the office. Her eyes switched to her shishou and was worried to see the concern in the older woman's face. "You wanted to see us, Tsunade-sama?" She asked, breaking the silence.

Sakura saw Tsunade closing her eyes for a brief moment before she took a deep breath. "A few hours before, there was a fight outside the village. We don't know who the enemy is, but they fought with at least on of our own. Since we found no Konoha-shinobi at the battle scene, we think they captured their opponent and took him with them" she explained to the silent ninjas.

"Who was this shinobi, Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked and feared to hear the name of someone dear to her. Looking into the eyes of her teacher she knew she was right. "Kakashi Hatake" Tsunade said finally. A great silence of shock settled in the room and soon was broken of a loud "WHAT?" Coming from Naruto. "I want you to form a rescue party. Find out where he is and, if possible, bring him back!" The Hokage ordered and looked then at Shikamaru. "Shikamaru, you will be the team leader." "Yes, Hokage-sama" came the answer and one after the other leaved the room. Sakura could see Naruto trembling and hurried after them.

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Outside the building Shikamaru ordered them to grab their tools and be at the main gates half an hour later.

Naruto rushed to his home just the moment Shikamaru finished his speech. He needed just a few minutes to grab his things and was twenty minutes too early. In front of the gates he walked circles into the ground, waiting for the others. His impatience grew bigger and bigger every minute. He couldn't stand to loose Kakashi-sensei. His anger against the unknown enemy reached his maximum the moment everyone else arrived. "Great! You're here! Finally!" He yelled at his friends. "Let's go and save Kakashi-sensei!" He was nearly gone when Yamato stopped him. "Stop, Naruto. Have I to remind you that you're not the team leader? Shikamaru is" Yamato said with a sigh. "But we have no time!" Naruto tried to argue but returned to the meeting point. "I know that, Naruto. But first we have to check the battleground" Shikamaru explained. "It is five minutes to the west. We decide our strategy after we were there. Let's go." With that said he left with the others in his wake.

A couple of minutes later they reached their first destination and Naruto looked around. He could see the ten dead bodies lying around a strange circle. Helplessly he waited for Shikamaru to finish his thoughts. The lazy boy stood in front of the circle and looked at everything, trying to make sense of it. The others stood at the edge of the scene and tried to not disturb the genius.

Minutes later Shikamaru stepped to them, finally coming to a conclusion. "First I think the enemy attacked with a large group since Kakashi-sensei is one of the best shinobi in the world and assuming that there are ten dead shinobi. But I don't think that that much entered our boundaries. I presume it was some sort of summoning jutsu. Secondly I think their strength was high chuunin to jounin level. And Last: I have to agree with the ANBU: they took Kakashi-sensei alive. To make such a big fuss just to kill someone isn't logically." No one was surprised to hear that Shikmararu learned so much in just a few minutes (well, except for Naruto but that isn't a surprise either). "Next thing is our battle formation: Kiba you will lead us. You and Akamaru have to find the track the enemy left behind. Or better yet, follow the scent of Kakashi-sensei since you're probably more accustomed to him" Shikamaru ordered and earned a nod and a bark of them. "Next are myself and Gai-sensei. Gai to counterattack every assault quickly and myself to give some extra orders to Kiba and Akamaru." Gai gave his trademark thump up just as expected. "The next in line are Naruto, Sakura and Sai. The mission of the two boys is to guard Sakura. Since she is our medic it is necessary that she stay alive and unscratched as long as possible in case Kakashi-sensei is severely injured." Narutos answer was a loud "Yosh!" Filled with determination. The other two just gave slight nods. "Hinata and Yamato will take the rear, guarding our back. Hinata's Byakugan will help with that." Another two nods later Shikamaru was satisfied and they started their hunt.

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Two hours later the group was still on its way. Every now and then they found new tracks, some real and some fake to confuse them in hope they loose the trail. But none of them worked. The nose of the two in front were also that good to found every trap on their way. But with every passing minute, the groups impatience grew larger. Especially that of Naruto. But he remained at his position instead of rushing forward. In the end he learned that lesson, even though it took years. He now knows that he could Kakashi-sensei endanger greatly if he just run in the enemies territory.

Another two hours later Kiba signaled them to stop. They landed on the ground and waited for an explanation. "I think we arrived at our final destination" he whispered. "There's a cave in front of us and Kakashi-sensei's scent leads into it." "Good. Our next step is to find out what is in there" Shikmaru answered. He turned to face the Hyuuga-girl. "Hinata, use your Byakugan to look into it." "Of course" she said, the voice firm. After the war she lost her uncertainty nearly completely. Activating her bloodline limit she stared towards the cave. "It's difficult to find out much. The cave is heavily jammed" she said a few minutes later. "I'm sorry." "No need for it. It still tell us something" Shikamaru shrugged her apology off. "And that is?" Sakura asked curiously. "That we are probably in the right place. There would be no reason to guard this place if it's just a simple storage" he explained. "But it isn't good if we just guess, we have to know for sure. It would be useless to storm in there and then found nothing." "And what should we do? Even Hinata's Byakugan is no help!" Naruto shouted angrily. "I know that, Naruto. That's the reason it is time for your tracking ability." And this words Narutos face lightened up. "Yosh! I'll need just a moment!" He yelled, switching into bijuu-mode. With his eyes closed he tried to feel his sensei. Right to his words a few seconds later he opened his eyes, showing an unfaltering expression. "He's in there."