This chapter goes by a little fast, unfortunately.

Thanks again for all of your reviews, favs, and follows.

Stay shiny, folks. *jazz hands*

-JD

Disclaimer: Sorry for the absence.

"Naruto…when did the Akatsuki start targeting you?"

Somehow, that question felt almost humorous, considering their current situation. After Kakashi had suddenly stopped the group from proceeding, they found themselves facing one of the very ninja from the organization that targeted her. More specifically, the one Kurama loathed to see.

'Shit…why'd it have to be this one?' Kurama growled, 'Don't look at his eyes, brat! His chakra feels even stronger than before.'

Naruto didn't say anything, wordlessly looking to the ground.

"Itachi…ho, this is the child who killed his entire family?" Chiyo asked, squinting her eyes at the ninja.

"It has been a while, Kakashi-san…Naruto-san…"

"'Kun' is fine. Anyway," she scowled at the ground, "where is Gaara?"

Kakashi glanced back at Naruto, noticing what she was doing. His visible eye widened only a little before he gazed back toward Itachi.

'Is it instinctive? Does she know the power of the Sharingan? Or maybe…'

"Everyone, don't look directly into his eyes! It's dangerous!" he warned, watching as the others looked away.

"Well what should we do?!" Sakura asked.

"Judge his movements from his body and feet. His genjutsu is an eye jutsu, so if you avoid eye contact, you should be fine."

'I doubt it. I know I told you to look away, but be aware of your surroundings. If something feels fishy, I'll notice, too. And be careful…something's not right about this cretin.'

Naruto nodded, not caring if anyone else noticed. They seemed to not, their focus mostly on discussing how to overcome Itachi's abilities. She didn't care about overcoming him, though. That'd come later.

"I'll repeat myself only once, Itachi," Naruto growled over the others, her chakra beginning to flow faster, "Where is Gaara?"

"If you would come with me, I'll be able to show you where he is."

"Stop joking with me!" she barked back.

"Naruto, calm down!" Kakashi yelled, the jinchuuriki clicking her teeth shut, "Just focus and keep your eyes down. If you look up, you'll be caught in an instant without escape."

"That's Kakashi-san for you. That, after having been affected by my Tsukuyomi just once."

The jinchuuriki seethed, not caring about the banter between the two older ninja. She just wanted to get everything over with and keep heading to find Gaara. They were wasting time!

Itachi's eyebrows rose a little bit, noticing Naruto's eyes begin to turn orange. Then, his attention was yanked back by the white-haired ninja.

"How far has your eyesight deteriorated?" Kakashi asked, showing off his scarred eyelid, the eye opening to reveal a Sharingan.

"Kakashi-san... Impossible, you…"

Kakashi perked up, "Well! Last time I was unprepared, but I'm not like that this time. This won't go the same way it did last time. That being said, I cannot handle him on my own. Sakura, Naruto, I want you two to cover me. Though I'd like to say 'hurry ahead' brashly…"

Though Sakura nodded, Naruto did not. Instead, she watched carefully as Itachi pointed his finger at her.

"We'll kindly ask you to come with us now, Naruto-kun."

Her eyes narrowed as she felt something wash away from her mind, like a hazy film being quickly pulled off of a lens.

'Like I told you, brat! Stay aware!'

At that moment, though Itachi didn't show it on his face, he was earnestly shocked, and it wasn't because Kakashi came at him. He quickly summoned a shadow clone and sent it toward the rest of the group as he faced off against the copy ninja. He blocked him enough to get him to back away, then used his hand seals and breathed in as much as he could.

'Katon! Goukakyuu no jutsu!'

The area suddenly heated as a large fireball formed and shot forward toward the other ninja, who swiftly avoided it.

Naruto, on the other hand, ran out to the side of it, heading straight for Itachi. Once the heat dissipated from in front of him, she jumped at him, her nails having turned to claws, and grasped his arm without warning. Itachi punched at her, and she dodged as expected, but then he grasped the back of her head and pulled it up, looking her straight in the eye.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out, reaching for a shuriken just as Kakashi's clone came out of a hole in the ground, grasping the other's ankles.

But just like before, the genjutsu was disrupted before it could really begin.

The girl narrowed her orange eyes at him before they flicked toward the trees.

The trees of the forest next to them rustled before another Naruto burst through the branches. The Naruto clinging to him backed up a bit and held out a hand toward the other, and once the two were close to each other, in what seemed to be a split second, a large orb formed in between their hands, its dense center holding a load of air.

The Naruto holding Itachi escaped from his grasp and the Itachi clone slipped back into the ground just as the orb made contact with his head.

'Oodama Rasengan!'

Before it could really blow him away, Itachi managed a smile.

'…So this is what was wrong. I knew something was up.'

When the group went to find his body, it wasn't Itachi at all. Instead, they found the body of a Suna ninja, Yuura.

"…Could he have been an Akatsuki spy?" Sakura asked, just as confused as the rest of them.

"No way…he has been working hard as a leader for four years now," Chiyo replied, her eyes narrowed in concern.

"It doesn't seem like a henge either," Naruto huffed.

"Definitely not. The Uchiha clan worked out the Goukakyuu jutsu well. And that jutsu was the real thing…" Kakashi muttered.

"Either way, if they were trying to distract us, it worked," Naruto turned back toward the path they were taking, "I don't want to waste any more time. Let's get going."

"This must be a sign that they've begun to extract the Ichibi, Shukaku. Perhaps they want to make a new jinchuuriki."

Naruto halted, gritting her teeth.

"Jinchuuriki?" Sakura asked, looking at Kakashi and Chiyo.

"Well, as I said, the bijuu have inconceivable power. A—"

"A jinchuuriki is a human container for a bijuu to make sure whatever village the person belongs to can control it. We can use their power, so most jinchuuriki are treated like weapons for whatever village they were born in. Taking the bijuu out of us will kill us," Naruto growled, turning to the other ninja, her eyes orange and furious, but pleading all the same, "so if we're done with the classroom lesson, I'd like to get there before Gaara dies."

The other three ninja stared at her, shocked by her outburst. After a moment, Kakashi nodded.

"She's right. We should get moving."

He straightened his bag and headed in front of Naruto, leading the way for all of the rest of them. Naruto followed closely behind as Chiyo and Sakura picked up the pace, the old woman not complaining despite having been interrupted.

After a few minutes, they were travelling back through the trees, heading to their destination as planned. With each jump Naruto made, the branch shook lightly under her force, though the jump allowed her to go longer without making another landing for longer than the others. She stayed as close to Kakashi as she could to trail directly after him, ignoring the concern from anyone, her typically one-track mind already set.

Chiyo and Sakura followed in like fashion, but with less force, preserving their energy since they still had another day to go before they'd get to where they expected the Akatsuki to be hiding with Gaara.

Sakura's eyes followed Naruto's movements as they kept going until she couldn't quite hold it back anymore. She knew that Naruto was concerned for Gaara…but!

"…Naruto!"

The girl glanced back at her for a moment, just as acknowledgement, before she looked ahead again.

"I understand, you know! Maybe not to the extent you'd like, but…I understand that you're worried about Gaara. But, to be honest…more than anything, I'm worried about you."

Naruto didn't say anything.

"Please! Don't be reckless!"

When Naruto remained quiet, Sakura sighed heavily, looking down at the branches she jumped off of.

"…Thanks."

She looked back up, startled. Naruto's back was still to her, but the voice that trailed to her ears through the wind was still honest.

"Thanks for being honest and…for trying to understand," she glanced back at her, a genuine and slightly embarrassed smile on her face, "I appreciate it…" she looked upset as she turned back around, "I do. And I know I'm being kind of hard to be around, but…I just really don't want to lose him. I don't want him to lose."

Sakura sighed slightly before solidifying her resolve. She could understand, at least a little bit.

"Then…let's hurry."

Elsewhere, a shadowed figure sat among others before a hulking statue, two of its nine eyes open with pupils. He looked over to another shadowed figure, plant-like husks surrounding its body.

"Zetsu, dispose of the two used for the Shouten Jutsu."

"Understood," they replied, dissipating.

He then turned to Itachi's shadowed figure, "Itachi…how many are there and who are they?"

"From Konoha, Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno, and the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, Naruto Uzumaki. Also, with an adviser from the Sand, Chiyo, they make up a four-person party."

Sasori's eyes widened at the news, recognizing the name of his grandmother. He was almost certain that she'd gotten involved because of him.

Either way, it wouldn't matter. She'd die with the rest of them.

That night, as the group rested, Naruto paced in the space she shared with Kurama, the big fox laying on his side, his head propped up on his hand as he watched her. Her expression was clenched as she walked, the silvery blue outlines of four tails trailing behind her as they flicked agitatedly. He sighed, deciding to be somewhat the voice of reason.

"From what I remember, the whole point of resting is to relax and build your energy."

She didn't say anything in reply, but she did give him quite the hearty glare.

"You pacing isn't going to save Gaara."

She glared harder, crossing her arms as she looked away.

Kurama sighed, rolling his eyes, "Look, you can be the hardened warrior once you wake up, but at least rest for now, idiot kit."

Her glare turned into a scowl, but then it turned into a heavy pout as she turned to him. She stalked toward him without looking up and purposefully flopped onto his other hand. Kurama snorted at her behavior, but calmed a little when he heard her start to mumble.

"This shouldn't be happening to him."

"Yeah. It sucks, but we both know that's just how humans are. They take and do what they want, regardless of anyone else."

"…Why couldn't Shukaku try to be friends with Gaara?"

"Cause he's weak, both in mind and power," Kurama laughed wryly, "The wretched bastard wouldn't know a comrade if they smacked him in the face."

"Isn't that kind of your fault, mister 'Tails equals Power'?" she mumbled.

"…Heh, even if he didn't have only one tail, he'd still be weak-minded."

She sighed, sounding a little sleepier, "Wouldn't it have been a lot easier for Gaara if they had worked together?"

"Of course. We worked together and beat that fake Itachi," he replied haughtily.

"…Then, when we save them…I want to help Shukaku understand that…"

Kurama smiled a little, "Yeah, sure. Think about that once we get there first."

When Naruto hummed in reply rather than saying anything, he stopped talking, feeling her breath become slower. The tail outlines curled up a little as they laid over his hand and the backs of her legs. Kurama sighed, letting his head down as he curled up to take a nap himself.

In the early morning, Gaara stood in a blank white space, staring at his hand.

'…Whose hand is this? …Is it mine?'

He kept staring at it, stretching his fingers a little.

'…Have I ever become an existence needed by anyone?"

As he curled his hand up, he noticed a figure off in the distance, staring back at him.

'What…is that me?'

The other Gaara stared back at him, not saying anything.

'That is the me…who wanted to be needed by someone… Why…did I want that to come about? Why do I…want this?'

The other him gave no answer.

'Those eyes…that nose…that mouth… That Gaara…I was inside that. No…what was I originally?'

His eyesight started to flicker and fade. The figure seemed to be further and further away.

'It just….shared a consciousness with me...'

Further away.

'What…is it…originally?'

Further, hazy.

'A mere…small…'

A speck in the distance.

'…Sensation…'

And everything disappeared into whiteness.