A/N.: Hello readers! I'm back from the dead!

I'm sorry for vanishing for so long, I was working on my English. It is not my first language, so I have to put some effort into it. I noticed that my other fics were all crap compared to many I've read, so I took some time off to read as many as I could and come up with a decent idea for a fanfic.

Well, I hope to have improved, and that you'll enjoy this new story of mine :)

The tree trunk made a loud cracking sound when he leaned on it. The pain in his right leg was becoming unbearable; he wasn't sure if he could cover much more ground. Naruto breathed slowly once, twice, three times. It didn't help his situation much, but at least it calmed him down.

The blonde opened his eyes, which he had closed under the heavy weight his eyelashes had seemed to acquire, and tried to regain his bearings. If his blurred vision wasn't playing tricks on him, and the salty smell of the sea wasn't a hallucination, the supposed loudmouth figured he was somewhere near the half point of his way back to Konoha – Wave Country. That place brought back good and bad memories.

Naruto focused his mind, trying to concentrate on his other senses - heightened because of the presence of a certain fox inside him - and closed his eyes again. After a few seconds of unnatural stillness, the blonde's handsome face contorted into an out-of-character scowl. It was very faint, but he could hear the soft, almost unnoticeable, but quick steps of his assaulters rushing toward him. They were three, two of which he had the pleasure of being acquainted with. He should have known the mission was a trap.

The third member of the gang was probably concealing his chakra, but he wasn't concerned about whoever that was, given that things couldn't get much worse than they already were for him.

Naruto sighed – break was over.

He tried to stand. Slowly, he rose to his feet, until the kunai embedded into his right leg made itself known; he felt as if there were a thousand needles striking his wounded limb. He groaned and leaned harder on the tree, causing another crack to come from the trunk. When Naruto thought about it, it was almost as if it was whining.

Ha.

Granted, he had way more to complain about than some tree. He doubted even all the woods surrounding Konoha could make enough complaining cracking sounds to equal everything that was wrong in his life.

That was when Naruto realized he'd just added insanity to the list.

Great.

The wind blew against his sweaty face; relief poured into his pores. A familiar warmth started to spread through his body, concentrating more in his injured leg – Oh, the wonders of being the Kyuubi's jailor, if the denomination Jinchuuriki was any indication.

Having a bunch of S-class assassins after him for being one was no problem if he could patch a few scratches up faster then usual, right?

Wrong.

And that's why he really needed to get a move on.

Naruto tried once again to stand up. The fox's chakra had already stopped the bleeding in his leg, and the pain was bearable now.

Perfect.

He looked around for a bit, trying to figure out which direction to take. He decided to continue on the track he was following before he'd been forced to stop. Yes, that would lead him back home if he was able to outrun the Uchiha-bastard, Sharkman, and Not-So-Hidden Dude.

Resuming his long trip back to the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Naruto let go of everything around him, leaving his body in autopilot, and concentrating once again on his enemies. They were close.

And suddenly, two of them were no more. There was no sign of the two Akatsuki members anymore.

The blonde's eyes widened. The two of them had vanished into thin air. He almost halted in his pace to look back, to check if his senses were in need of maintenance or something. But he didn't. He knew better.

Another chakra signature had popped up where his two rouge-nin assailants had been barely a second ago. Seemed like the third member of the gang was tired of hiding. This time, against better judgement, Naruto stopped.

Dropping down from the tree branches, he landed on a wide clearing in the middle of the forest, and looked back. He couldn't help it. He could have been as much an idiot as everyone claimed him to be, but he knew he could always trust his senses.

And his senses were telling him that Uchiha Sasuke was now a mere mile behind him, and approaching fast.

Finally.

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Sakura was fiddling with a shiny, sharp kunai; twirling it around her fingers. She'd been doing that for the last hour.

The pink-haired kunoichi was a patient girl. She knew when to keep quiet under normal circumstances; Learning from Tsunade would make anyone like that. However, sitting in the same position, on the same grassy clearing, immersed in the same maddening silence for a full sixty minutes in which her friends could be killed a thousand times over was hardly deemed a 'normal' situation.

She wanted to scream. Why has she agreed to be a part of this almost all-men team, anyway? Even thought hey only had to find a gang of troublemakers, they were still in Oto's territory, but these stones seemed mostly unfazed. Wait, now that se thought about it, that wasn't entirely true…

She looked around the secluded clearing they were in, and studied the faces of her companions.

Kakashi – it was strange thinking of the Copy-cat ninja as a "comrade". It wasn't until a few months ago that what was left of Team 7 had stopped calling him "sensei" – was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed across his chest. His exterior was unbelievably calm, but Sakura knew him better than that. The silver-haired Cyclops wasn't reading his dirty piece of porn.

Next to Kakashi stood Yamato, his expression almost as stoic as the white-haired man's. He had his arms hanging on both sides of his stiffened body. Also, just like Kakashi, Sakura could see that the ANBU wasn't as calm below the surface. There was an almost unnoticeable line of worry crossing Tenzo's forehead.

Out of all of them, however, the most surprising was Sai. The pale boy sat across from Sakura, his face contorted in a nervous scowl, while he played unconsciously with a fallen leaf on the ground. He resembled nothing of the emotionless Root shinobi she had first met.

He was another proof of Naruto's power to uncover the good in people.

Naruto.

The mere though of him out there, in enemy territory, trying to complete the mission with no guarantee of survival… it made her stomach flip.

Naruto.

There goes the small amount of control she had gathered. The need to scream came back to tickle her dry throat.

Sakura looked at Sai again.

It was clear that he wasn't fairing any better than her at keeping his emotions under control.

After a few seconds, he noticed her stare, and looked back at her.

He opened his mouth to say something. Finally, the silence would be broken. It was starting to suffocate her.

No sound had the chance to escape Sai, though.

The group of ninjas stiffened as one. To a normal civilian, it would seem that they were hearing things, for the silence in the clearing remained unbroken. However, the ninjas' senses were screaming the presence of a chakra signature approaching their resting spot fast. It wasn't until a few seconds later that a brown-haired leaf ninja burst through the bushes surrounding the clearing, his hair bound in a pineapple-style on the top of his head.

Shikamaru looked worse than usual. Not that he was bad-looking or anything, but the bored exterior that had struck to his face after so many years of cloud-watching was anything but inviting.

Now, though, no tiredness or boredom could be detected in the chuunin's expression. Despite its bad reputation, anyone would prefer his "troublesome" personality to the utter horror his face and body emanated.

"Shikamaru!" Sakura yelled, breaking the silence. The others abandoned their stiff poses immediately. Pocketing the kunai she had been playing with, the rosette automatically went into medic mode; her training enabling her to keep her head and a straight line of though through the whole ordeal.

The Nara sat on the ground, panting. His body was full of bruises and scratches; blood stains were all over his chuunin vest. All in all, he looked like he'd been through hell.

"Don't worry about me, we've got bigger problems. Akatsuki is here." He fired away as soon as he regained his breath. The group of ninja grew tense once again.

Akatsuki.

S-Class criminals.

Itachi Uchiha.

It was all tied together. It virtually spelled danger for the ninja.

Sakura's eyes widened. She should have known. What else would be the point to generate turmoil in a village right outside the borders of Otogakure if not to call upon Konoha's ninja? Who else would want to cause trouble in a village so small and poor that even the gold they could gather there wouldn't have value?

Akatsuki.

"Naruto's in trouble" Shikamaru hissed, as Sakura cautiously worked her chakra-covered hands across his scathed face, ignoring his previous complaint.

"Where is he?" Sakura asked, urgency muffling her voice. She extinguished the light surrounding her hands and stood up, ready to spring to action as soon as she knew where to go.

"I don't know."

To say that Sakura's expression was murderous would be an understatement. Her glare bore into Shikamaru's worried face with an intensity that could draw emotion from the Leaf's interrogation specialist Ibiki Morino.

Luckily for the Nara, Kakashi chose that moment to snap his orange piece of porn closed, tucking it into his pouch.

"What happened?" He demanded, his voice stern. The others leaned in intently, their attentions fully drawn, now.

"We went to the western gate of the village, where some people had reported a gang looking for trouble. We figured it might be the one we were looking for." He started. Sakura remembered that none of them had been too pleased with the lame, street gang mission Tsunade had assigned to them, but they all changed their minds as soon as she mentioned Otogakure's possible involvement. "I'm not completely sure how it happened; it was all too fast, but when we arrived on the spot, it turned out that the supposed gang were ninja from Akatsuki in disguise."

"How many were there?" Asked Kakashi.

"Two. There was Itachi and the one who looks like a fish."

"That's Kisame Hoshigaki, from the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." Explained the jounin. "Did you fight them?" He asked, even though the chuunin's condition should have been enough to answer his question.

Shikamaru sighed. "As soon as he saw Uchiha, Naruto went crazy and engaged him in battle. Neji and I tried to fight the Kisame guy off, but Naruto disappeared into the forest. At some point, Neji and I got separated." He looked away from the group, his eyes glazed over. "All I know is that the shark man knocked me out, and when I came to, I was lying in the middle of the forest with no sign of either of them." And, in the silence that followed, Shikamaru kept his reputation by muttering, "Tsk. Troublesome."

Sakura had heard enough. She stood up and started concentrating. In a second, she had spread barely noticeable particles of chakra around the forest, searching for Naruto's signature. Her chakra control had to be impeccable in this technique. She compressed atom-sized specks of energy, and started expanding their range, completely engrossed in her task.

"Sakura."

Her search was halted when someone grabbed her arm, pulling on it slightly as to get her attention. The compressed chakra all but evaporated. "Be patient. We need to make a plan before going to look for him. Do not forget that we are in enemy territory." Her ex-sensei's voice was serious, but also strained, as if there was a huge weight on his shoulders. Sakura opened her eyes and looked at the masked man. His concerned expression made him look older.

Sakura sighed. She knew he was right. "I'm sorry." She said. Kakashi let go of her arm and turned to the rest of the group.

"Our mission has changed." Yamato stated.

"Yes, I believe it has."

"We need to find Naruto, now." Said Sai. Though, it sounded more like a question; hope was clear in his voice, too.

Kakashi looked away from him, his expression betraying nothing below the surface. He let silence linger for a second more, almost hesitant to disrupt it. He paced a few times from one side to the other, while his comrades waited expectantly for an answer.

Sakura had learned to read the Copy-cat over the years Team 7 had spent together. As a result, she could tell when he was about to say what none of them wanted to hear, including himself. Right now was one of those times.

"It's not that simple." He started.

Sai disagreed, "What is so complicated in going to help a friend in need?"

"You forget that Naruto's not the only one missing. Neji is also out there somewhere."

"But Naruto's –"

"Also, we are dealing with Akatsuki here. It could take an immeasurable amount of time to find them. We cannot afford to just abandon a mission to do whatever we want to."

At this, Sakura's patience snapped. How hypocritical could this man get? "The mission? How heartless can you be? What happened to 'Those who abandon the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash'?" She all but yelled at him. Under normal circumstances she wouldn't have lost control like that. But then again, under normal circumstances, she would have been herself.

"Naruto was my student. He might not mean as much to me as he does to you, but I care about him too, Sakura. I can assure you I am as concerned about him as you are." He closed his only visible eye and sighed.

Sakura felt ashamed. She regretted having ever let those words escape her mouth. She wanted to strangle Naruto for making her forget reason and let her heart take control in a situation like this. The baka. Her baka.

"However," Kakashi continued, "I cannot let that concern blind me. Our duty is to the village alone. We've got to report to the Hokage before doing anything."

They started making plans. Sakura turned from the group and walked a short distance to a tree a few feet away from the guys. Everyone suggested a plan of action; most of them involving going back to the village for backup. The kunoichi in the group was not pleased in the least.

After a minute, her mind was elsewhere. The discussion going on in the clearing barely registered for her. She was pretty sure Sai had tried to throttle Kakashi at some point, probably because he had stuck his nose into "Icha Icha Paradise" while he was speaking, but she couldn't be sure. She was too busy wondering if her best friend was alive or not.

He was fighting Itachi.

The name alone sent shivers up her spine.

But he's strong; he can take on that stuck-up Uchiha, right?

Right?

Sakura could hear the faint sound of conversation filling the air around her. People were probably even talking to her by now. They could be worrying she'd become catatonic for all she knew.

But they all sounded so distant.

So distant…

But he always pulls through.

He's always back, always smiling…

This time will be no different…

Her mind created a thousand scenarios where Naruto was victorious and was just having trouble finding them. She pictured him scratching the back of his head with a sheepish smile plastered in his face while he explained to them how he had simply gotten lost in the woods. She didn't want to believe anything different from that.

At that moment, the image of Gaara's battered, pale, and cold body popped up in her mind. That was what the extraction of his Bijuu had done to him. Who knew how much pain he had endured before they'd arrived at the scene just to find him dead. Naruto won't go through that. I won't allow it.

I will not let them get him.

They already had him.

I will save him this time.

She didn't even know where he was.

Time…

I will get to him in time.

I will…

… right?

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A/N.: So what do you think? Should I continue? Pleeease tell me your opinion, I'm really looking forward to some feedback in this to find out if I'm any better than before.

Thank you for reading!!

.Mikly.