Sanae
Chapter 3.
Sanae knew something was wrong. For one she was freezing. She could feel the heat of her breath hover over her cheeks, emphasising the small goose-bumps covering the rest of her body.
Another thing was that the hard surface underneath her felt very different from, really any, furniture that they had at home.
It wasn't a massive jump from there to realise that she'd been kidnapped.
Sanae had read enough shinobi novels to know not to open her eyes. She concentrated on controlling her breathing and her heart to give the impression that she was still asleep.
With the calming technique, Tsubaki-sensei (her pregnancy medic) had taught her, getting rid of most of the adrenaline coursing through her veins, Sanae winced internally at the sudden sharp pain that had just made itself known in her shoulders.
She shifted slightly, as quietly as she could to ease the tension created by having her arms bound above her head. It didn't work, she was only now more aware of how the ropes were roughly cutting into her wrists.
Despite her best efforts her heart rate began to speed again with panic, calming technique forgotten. Sanae was in way over her head.
She had never been in a situation like this. She didn't think she would ever be.
Who in their right mind would kidnap the wife of one of the most powerful shinobi in the realm? She knew now that it was naive to think this. But surely, they knew that Gaara would not be kind to them once he found her.
Thinking of Gaara calmed her down again somewhat. He was looking for her. She knew he was. All she needed to do was be strong until he came.
Sanae hated that she had to be the damsel in distress, but truthfully there was nothing else she could do. She couldn't fight, she hadn't even learnt how to mould her chakra yet. All she could do was wait.
Then again, Sanae had never been a very patient woman. It took her all of five minutes to give up on that plan. If she was going to be stuck here, she was going to help Gaara as much as she could and that included finding out everything she could about these kidnappers.
She took a deep breath to steady herself and opened her eyes.
xxx
Naruto located Gaara almost instantly after activating Sage mode. After the 4th Shinobi war, his sensory skills had become world famous. Even without the help of Kurama Naruto could, quite proudly, sense the whole of the Fire Nation and just beyond. With the nine tails chakra, the Hokage had enough power to sense all of the Elemental Nations.
He only needed to be familiar with the Chakra pattern of a particular person and he could pretty much locate them anywhere.
Naruto concentrated on Sanae's pattern, as him, Shikamaru and Sai raced through the forest. The Kazekage's wife's pattern had always interested Naruto and he and Gaara had spent many a night researching where it could have been from.
It was a swirl of blue that suggested a Kekkai Genkai, it was strong, pliable and oddly cold despite the warmth of the woman in question. When Naruto had first told Gaara of this, his friend has been so proud, almost boasting, in a weird Gaara way, of how strong his wife would have been had she been trained.
It was nowhere to be found now.
This worried Naruto more than he was comfortable admitting. She couldn't have been taken out his range in such a short amount of time, but that left no answers in where she could be.
Naruto made up his mind. He would get to Gaara first. His friend would be panicking and trying to hide it which was not good for anyone involved.
With that thought in mind, he put more force in his jumps and sped up to the familiar red/yellow chakra pattern.
Gaara sensed three high-speed oncoming shinobi and stopped instantly, his ANBU following suit, falling into a loose protective triangle around him.
"Show yourself." He called tensely.
"It's just me." The familiar voice answered. Gaara relaxed slightly as he watched his close friend, brother-in-law and former comrade walk out from the bushes. He waved a hand at his ANBU to fall at ease while exiting the triangle.
"You didn't need to come. I only asked you to pinpoint her location. Now you have left Konoha without its Hokage." His eyes flicked to Shikamaru, "or its first officer."
"But, thank you."
Naruto grinned widely hands moving to his hips "Dattebyo!"
"What do you have so far?"
Gaara turned to face his brother-in-law. "Not much." He admitted, "only that the kidnappers used a mizu buushin." He couldn't help the shame that bubbled inside of him at the lack of information, someone had been in his home, touched his wife and he knew nothing.
"We are headed to the Rain village, that is where there are the most water element users. Were you able to detect Sanae's chakra?"
Naruto frowned and shook his head. "No. Whoever has captured her is using a barrier, a strong one. I can't sense her anywhere."
Gaara's heart sank, this had suddenly got a lot harder.
"This is bothersome," Shikamaru muttered "Sai, do an aerial check, look for any inconsistencies in the forest, anything that might look odd to you. It hasn't been that long since she went missing. If they had the time to set up the kind of barrier that you're talking about, they shouldn't be too far away."
Sai nodded formally at the order and immediately began to draw a large bird on his scroll.
"Naruto, try using sage mode again. This time instead of looking for Sanae, look for any large unexplainable groups of shinobi. They might have some standing guard."
Gaara watched Naruto sit down to concentrate, happy that they were here and hopeful that whatever Shikamaru was searching for would lead them to his wife.
Chapter end
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