Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Oh my. It's been that long since I've updated. //bows in shame// I hope you all forgive me for putting this away for so long. With a combination of writing other stories and with dealing with some writer's block, I got sidetracked and distracted.

I have to give it to all those who put up with me and continued to wait faithfully for me to update. This chapter is for you guys. Thank you very much for sticking with me and not giving up on me. Hope you enjoy this!

Chapter 10 – Dance Of The Crying Beast

Finally, spitting out the remnants of mud from his mouth, Kakashi looked up at the half-blurry shape somewhere above him. " Gai?" he rasped out. " How -?"

" Konoha's beast does not need eyes to see nor does he need ears to hear," Gai pompously answered, barely glimpsing at his rival. He threw an astonishingly harsh glare, opposite to his usual cheerful attitude, in the direction of Ryou and his remaining group of Jounins and ANBU. " Were they the ones to kidnap our precious Naru-chan?"

Throat sore, Kakashi merely nodded his head, flecks of dirt showering from his hair. Gai glanced at the dark stain blossoming steadily at Kakashi's shoulder underneath his soaked clothes and other visible cuts and bruises littered over his body and face. " Can you bear with it for now?" he asked quietly.

Kakashi snorted, ripping the edge of his shirt. It was a bit of a shame. He did like this shirt. " I'm insulted," he said through his shirt, tying the ripped piece to his shoulder with his teeth. Pulling down his mask, he spat out blood from his mouth. He rubbed his bruised jaw, his tongue tenderly brushing against a cut at the side of his mouth. He was fortunate enough not to have lost any of his teeth.

Frowning thoughtfully, Gai watched him closely, almost in amazement. " I don't know why you cover your face. You almost look as good as me." With that, he flashed a dazzling smile, showing all his sparkling teeth.

" Shut up," Kakashi half-heartedly said, pulling his mask back on and standing up, brushing the dirt from his pants.

Ryou tensed, cursing to himself. They all heard of the power of Hatake Kakashi and Maito Gai separately. He could only imagine how frightening their strength would be if combined. Kakashi and Asuma were bad enough. But two angry Kakashi and Gai were enough to send shivers down his back. With their numbers already cut in half, no thanks to Kakashi and Asuma, it would only be a waste of time to stay and fight. And if Gai was able to find them, then the Hokage and the rest of his shinobi weren't far behind either.

" We'd love to stay," he called out, interrupting the conversation between the two. " But we have more important engagements to attend to."

A shot of smoke bombs and explosive tags suddenly surrounded Kakashi and Gai, firing smoke and explosions into the clearing. Rocks collided, mud splattering everywhere, figures flitting hazily through the blinding smoke, as both Kakashi and Gai were momentarily blinded and deafened. That brief distraction was all Ryou needed for him and remaining Jounin and ANBU to make their escape.

However, not even that was enough as Gai savagely tackled Ryou to the ground. " Not so fast!" he shouted, only to realize that "Ryou" was actually a log.

The smoke was fleetingly lifted by a gust of wind and Gai could see Kakashi not too far from him, coughing and rubbing his eyes. " They've escaped," Kakashi growled, kicking the grubby log that he had mistaken for one of his opponents.

Not willing to let that happen, Gai broke out into a run, following the distant but traceable sounds of escape. " Help Asuma! I'll get them!" he barked over his shoulder.

" But –!"

" Who currently holds a record of sixty-four wins?" a remote figure in the distance smugly shouted, already gone in a whirl of wind and dust.

Standing there stupidly, Kakashi was torn between allowing his immature part to angrily retort and chase after Gai or his reasonable part to help Asuma. " Bastard," he muttered as he headed back to the edge of the forest, his reasonable side winning the argument.

.

.

.

" Now where are they off to?" Gai murmured to himself, bounding over branches, leaves fluttering by, some scratching while others caressing his face. Straining his ears and eyes, he caught a brief glimpse of a few scattered figures leaping from tree to tree.

With a mighty leap, he picked up the pace, gritting his teeth at the thought of little Naruto in the hands of those thugs, crying tearfully, calling for Kakashi or one of his faithful guardians.

He blamed himself for not being there for Naruto. He should have been faster at his mission, been quicker and more efficient, to stop wasting time. If he had, none of this possibly wouldn't have happened.

Little Naruto wouldn't have been kidnapped. Iruka wouldn't have been carelessly involved. Asuma wouldn't have been buried enough the rocks. Hokage wouldn't have been getting more gray hairs. And Kakashi wouldn't have been injuried and worrying himself sick.

It was detestable, the way his heart jolted painfully when he first heard from the Hokage that Naruto was missing. The same feeling he got whenever he missed a step on the staircase and the bottom of his stomach dropped. Like when he first heard that his parents were dead.

Both of his parents were going on a mission that day. He was going to stay with an auntie for a few days and he was going to behave himself, as his parents told him to. He remembered waving frantically at their retreating figures until they were gone.

He told himself that he was going to be a proud shinobi, just like his parents. For long, tedious weeks after his parents went on the mission, that's what he told himself. When the teachers in his class whispered about "an ambush" or how somebody " got caught off guard", he firmly believed it. Even when his aunt wept through their funeral, he continued to tell himself that.

Everyone else probably thought he was just in denial. That he didn't want to believe his parents were dead, so he put on a cheerful, smiling mask and went on with his life, pretending that everything was all right. And they let him. Who were they to deny him a happy and rosy life, if not a fake and fictional life.

In a way, they were right. In his mind, his parents were still alive and they were still a happy family. It was an invisible concept to him. Death was, at times, a complicated thing for him to understand and to try to dissect the meaning behind it.

When he was younger, when the news of his parents' deaths were still fresh and new to his ears, he asked his aunt about it. What was death? What does it mean for his parents to be dead? His aunt merely bent down and hugged him tightly. " It means never coming back," she explained, wiping her tears away with her apron when she thought he wasn't looking.

" Not even to see me?" he asked, his voice quiet and solemn.

With a half-pitying, half-hesitant look on her face, she embraced him again, only more tighter, this time not replying. But it was the answer that he needed.

Now he knew why his heart hurt so much, until the point it felt like it was pounding like drums against his chest, whenever someone mentioned it, whether they whispered it or murmured a soft-spoken condolence to him. There was a demand to be ripped, to be wrenched out of his chest.

That was how painful, how agonizing it was to finally know what death was.

It would be the same feeling Kakashi would feel, should anything, anything at all, happen to Naruto.

And he swore, by every ounce of his soul, that he won't let that happened.

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Naruto came awake suddenly and uncomfortably, feeling the cold, wet slap of water against his face. Yawning and rubbing his eyes, he sat up, blearily gazing at his surroundings, still not completely awake. To his surprise, he realized that he was all alone.

The bad men were gone and it was just him.

With a squeal, he tried to sit up, his chubby fingers scratching at bark and leaves. Maybe Kashi came to get him! Then, Kashi would beat up all those bad people and bring him home back to his nice, warm cradle. Babbling a language only he could understand, Naruto excitedly gazed around, hoping to catch a familiar glimpse of silver hair and a mask.

But there was no one to greet him.

His bottom lip began to tremble. He was cold, hungry and tired. Where was Kashi? Surely he didn't let the bad men take him.

He tried to recall all the times Kashi held him gently, rocking him back and forth in his favourite rocking chair. He remembered how the friendly old man smiled at him and gave him plenty of kisses and hugs. The weird eyebrow man was often loud and had no hesitation in throwing him up in the air and always, always catching him securely. Even now, he could smell the faint, harsh scent of smoke wafting from that man who kept annoying Kashi and Kashi didn't like it when he "smoked". The tall, big lady, who acted grumpy and mean most of the time, was really nice and brought him a new toy from time to time (if she wasn't in "debt"). The taller, bushy-haired man read to him from his books, only for Kashi to smack him around the head.

They all told him the same thing before. That he was going to be safe and he was loved. Whatever that meant. Maybe being loved meant feeling warm and safe in Kashi's arms, falling asleep quick. Or being lifted up by the eyebrow man, knowing he was in safe hands. Or being tickled by the old man. Maybe it was gripping the finger of the smoke man to let him know that he didn't mind the smell. Perhaps, it meant giggling whenever the bushy-haired man winked at him. Or it was opening a new present from the lady.

Kashi always did say that he and the others would always protect him and they won't let anyone hurt him.

If that was the case, why was he here?

Big, fat tears made their way down chubby cheeks. He wanted to believe so hard that they were coming. That they would come leaping from nowhere to his defense and rescue him like the superheroes from his storybooks. But he had to realize the bitter truth.

No one was coming to get him. No Kashi. No funny eyebrow man. No friendly grandpa. No big grandma. No smoking man. No one at all.

It was just him by himself.

So lost in his misery and despair, Naruto didn't even notice a pair of huge, bulbous eyes watching him from the shadows.