"Karin, where'd they go?" Sasuke dropped his hold on Suigetsu.

The redhead shut her eyes tightly and pressed two fingers together in front of her lips. For a moment, no one breathed. "Damn," she muttered, scrunching her eyes tighter.

"Karin?" Juugo approached her.

"I'm fine Juugo. That stupid dark haired one is a tracking type too. The girl must have asked him to suppress their signals. I just need another minute," she hissed through clenched teeth. She made one more grunt of frustration, then reopened her eyes. "N-North-west . . . about twenty-two, sixty-seven."

"Thank you, Karin, because coordinates really help us, especially when everyone of us knows the teleportation jutsu, right?" Suigetsu snarled sarcastically.

"Shut your mouth before I literally shove your foot in there," she warned, but spared him little attention, looking to Sasuke for guidance.

"Hn. Let's move," he turned and waved over his shoulder for them to follow. They darted out of the thin woods and across the carnage. Northwest was across the length-wise span of the village. Sasuke never prayed, but he did ask whatever greater power existed to keep their presence as inconspicuous as possible. He then proceeded to that said greater power after reaching the other side of the ruins without once being noticed.

"There's no one following us?" Juugo asked Karin, once safely out of the radius of the destroyed town.

Karin shook her head. "No one."

"Hn," Sasuke was surprised to find that he could still navigate his way through the forest that completely surrounded Konoha, earning it the title of Hidden Leaf. The once-great village was a disgrace to its name. "Are we gaining any ground?" he asked.

Karin bit her lip as she focused. She shook her head. "They're moving fast," she noted.

"Damnit," Sasuke muttered. He was too shaky with trees. It'd been a while since he'd needed to tree hop, and as a result had forfeited speed to some extent. However, Sasuke would not allow something so meager as lack of practice to hold him back, so he put on an extra burst of speed and began to pursue at a faster rate.

God damn it! Sasuke clenched his fist. Such things were so pointless to think about! Why did he care about such meaningless things? It was all too confusing. It was all too hard to decipher. Why couldn't it all be as simple as destruction? Sasuke had become so used to destruction. It was easy, mindless. It required only a strong body and one emotion, anger. This, this required a stable mind, a strong soul, and so many emotions he hadn't felt in years. Sasuke wasn't sure he possessed any of those, let alone the capability to cope if they ever decided to bless him with their presence.

"Sasuke, stop!" The redhead jolted Sasuke from his thoughts. He immediately halted and whipped around to look at her.

"They're just through that clearing," Karin's voice was shaky. Beside her Suigetsu and Juugo both stood with stiff shoulders and wide eyes.

After silently reprimanding himself for dropping his guard, Sasuke re-alerted his senses. The energy levels were so far beyond any he'd ever imagined could exist. They were absolutely monstrous. Wait, monstrous . . . He let the tiniest gasp escape his lips.

"Is this power the ninetails?" Karin demanded, recomposing herself.

It was familiar, indeed. Sasuke had felt the Kyuubi's chakra twice. Even upon meeting the demon face to face it had not been this bloodthirsty.

"The other two . . . are they there too?" Sasuke asked, ignoring Karin's question. He couldn't sense anything else other than the ninetail's suffocating presence that fried all of his awareness.

"Yes," she replied. "The levels are raised, but they can't be fighting, there's no fluctuation."

"Watching," Juugo deduced, he too regaining his state of mind. "They must be watching. Pein's chakra is there too" Karin nodded to confirm this diagnosis.

Sasuke nodded to himself, still not over the initial shock of the Kyuubi chakra that had sent his mind reeling.

"Well now what?" Suigetsu, too, had over come his state of shell shock.

"We have to talk with Sakura," Sasuke recomposed himself as quickly as he could.

"They're about ten yards, that way," Karin pointed to the edge of the clearing left of them.

"I need two of you to take down the artist, and one to help me with Sakura," Sasuke began forming a plan in his head. "Karin, you and Juugo need to take him out as soon as possible. We have no business with him, but we can't hurt him too badly, or we'll have even more of a difficult time convincing Sakura to listen. Suigetsu and I will take Sakura. She doesn't use many jutsus, but she is undoubtedly threatening. Do not get hit with a punch," he shot the sometimes-careless swordsman a pointed look.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go," Suigetsu rolled his eyes.

Sasuke narrowed his own, but indeed shot off. It took all of a second to reach the pinkette and her companion.

"Sakura!" the creepy bastard shouted. Sasuke was relieved that he couldn't sense them until they were too close, due to the fact that the demonic chakra easily overtook that other ninjas. He'd been too late, and was just now receiving a nice blow to the jaw courtesy of Juugo.

The look Sakura gave him in the brief moments before the brawl began made him feel less like a falcon and more like a descending demon.