(A/N): Alright, so here is my very first written fanfic- my apologies for not living up to my earlier claim of making a pure SasuSaku one, like I mentioned in my profile- but hey I changed my mind. I still probably will write it- only I want to take fresh inspiration first. So.. FYI -Orochimaru is dead- that's it... I don't want to give too much out, but since this is the intro... its sometime after Sakura 'killed' Sasori. Only he ain't so dead- but that comes, well, not in this intro! Hehe, I know, sorry, anywayyy. I'm starting things off pretty heavy, like with the plots and intros and such what.. etc.. Just thought I might give you a heads up :p

Enjoy all ~ please rate and comment, all thoughts appreciated. Suggestions are always welcome as well. Anyways- Rolling Chapter one!

Chapter one ~ The Search ~

His eyes were rippled with annoyance as he narrowed them down to the valued Akatsuki members body. Konan's attempts at restoring him were all but useless, the faint glow emanating from her hands merely sustaining him. "Damn," he thought. His arms moved from their usual crossed position to anxiously drag one hand through fiery, orange colored hair, the other now supporting his weight on the operating table. Konan knew only the basics of medical ninjutsu; learning what was required as a genin, but little more. Over all this time, there never seemed to be that great of a need for it, until now that is.

"How is he?" he asked uselessly. However emotionless he seemed, Konan saw through it like she would a pane of glass. She sighed, appearing equally depraved of emotion.

"Not good." She spoke in a dead tone. "He should be dead, realistically. However, it seems that the blows missed some sort of vital spot." Konan glanced over to the sealed flesh cylinder. It had taken quite the beating and too much blood had already been lost by the time they'd arrived... She'd been able to stop the bleeding, yes, but wasn't educated enough to know if she'd been in time. After all, the only things she new of medical ninjutsu were the basics most genin were taught. Though looking back at her friend told her the obvious. Which was sadly...unpleasant.

Pein followed her gaze, the lone organ pulsed inside its protective covering weakly. He rubed the bridge of his nose. What in Kami's name was he to do now?

"How long?" he asked impatiently.

Konan looked up to meet Pein's eyes steadily. "No more than three weeks."

"Damn," they both thought in unison. Pein nodded and straightened himself, preparing to leave the room. Konan had to stay there until he was reasonably stable. Even then, she'd only have no more than an hour to rest up her chakra before having to tend to him again-sometimes less-, else he would be lost. Without another word, Pein turned and walked out the door. The grim cavernous hallway greeted him mockingly and yet he went on un-bothered.

The next set of doors he walked through, he was met with anxious stares. Pein looked at them all. Conveying everything with only his eyes.

"Damn that bitch, yeah," the blonde muttered harshly, crossing his arms. His blue eyes smoldered, burning holes through the floor as he glared at the ground. Pein's eyes came to rest on him, thinking something along the lines of sympathy. It had been his partner and to top it off, he'd been there when it happened. Pein wasn't sure whether to either yell at him for being so careless, or leave him be. Pein could feel the oncomings of an argument, and he didn't feel like cooling it for once. He'd let them have it out, maybe enough to compensate what his reputation refused him to do himself. Afterall, he might have been the most frustrated one there.

"No fucking way, you're serious? Call up freaking Kabuto! Tell him to get his ass down here before I rip his guts out and use him for my next ritual! I'll be damned if-"

"You already are damned, idiot," his green eyed partener interrupted him. "Besides Hidan, even without this excuse, we all know you'd love to use Kabuto next anyway. With good reason, unfourtunately. We can't trust him; he'd betray us the moment he saw any chance to. Remember, aside from his allegiance to Orochimaru, he jacked eighteen hundred yen from my room last time."

"But, Orochimaru's dead, yeah? Does it really ma-"

"Yes," Kakuzu and both sides of a usually silent Zetsu interrupted Deidara as he spoke up.

"You moron, how naive can you be? Kabuto is as much a snake as Orochimaru was," Zetsu's dark half added in.

"Hahahaa, Deidara-sempai has been called childish and stupid! Tobi thinks this is funny!" Tobi laughed and pointed a finger at Deidara, oblivious to the tension that hung over them all.

Deidara twitched. He was so annoyed at this brat. "Speaking of childish and stupid..." Deidara was a little fed up having to deal with the child that was Tobi. He'd rather not waste the energy so instead he shot a dangerous, chilling glare in the orange masked idiot's way. Tobi froze in mid laughter, a nearly inaudible squeak was heard from him then no more. "Tch. Twit," Deidara muttered, satisfied he'd succeeded.

"Enough," Pein commanded. This wasn't going anywhere, and he had things to take care of before he could let them rant their hearts out. All focus turned to him. "Where are Itachi and Kisame?"

"How should I know, yeah?" Deidara spoke out of irritation, not for Pein's question, but for his own situation. Pein knew as much and only glared. Receiving said glare from Pein, Deidara "humphed" and looked away. He knew Pein was just as unhappy as he was about the situation, but still he couldn't help but find some way to vent. "I'll kill that chick. Even if he does live, she'll pay," he vowed silently to himself.

Receiving shrugs and mutters, Pein sighed heavily. "Fine, then. I'll find them myself. We have a bijuu to seal and without those two, it would be unsafe to drag out such a long process under-handed." He stopped, turning back and fixing his stare to Kakuzu and Hidan. "You did retrieve the bijuu, didn't you?" His voice dropped low, threatening.

"Will you have a little faith in us once in a while? Jashin! Stupid, ...unfaithful, ...fucking bastards..." Hidan crossed his arms. "Yes! For your information, we did get the damn thing. Fucking hard as hell, and do I get congradulated? Nooo! Talk about being under-appre -"

A kunai flew past Hidan's skull, and his breath caught in his throat. He could feel the few strands of hair that had been sliced off, fall from his head and his arms shot out from their crossed possition in surprise. About to chew out his offender, the glare that reached him halted any words that would have flown out. He shut up promptly, but crossed his arms to show his discontempt.

Pein's glare still settled on Hidan firmly. He wasn't in the mood to hear him complain. No sooner then he'd done so, Kakuzu elbowed him.

"Hidan. Will you shut up?" Kakuzu warned. "Pein-sama, the four tails is being held below." Pein nodded.

"Congradulations, Hidan-sempai!" Tobi beamed and was about ready to glomp him when Hidan's features twisted, showing a terror-striking Jashinist. In the same second, Hidan swiped out his three pronged scythe and held it at a distance, effectively separatng him and Tobi. His face burned with anger and bloodlust.

"Take one more fucking step and I swear I'll hack you to pieces and laugh the entire way through it," he barked quickly. Tobi "eeped" and ran for cover behind Deidara, who twitched slightly and in a mix of looking both annoyed and bored, effortlessly raised his fist from his side and brought it down atop Tobi's head, plowing him into the hard ground. Deidara resumed his silent brooding as if nothing had happened.

Tobi recovered a moment later rubbing his now very sore head whining, "Deidara-sempai is mean..."

Completely resigned, Pein put his face in his hand. "Well," he reasoned silently to himself. "There have been worse days." It wasn't his job to play babysitter, and he often just left them to it, sometimes enjoying their banter. Well, as much as anyone like him could enjoy it.

Konan sighed in utter exaustion, collapsing back into the chair beside the table. She had about ten minutes to rest. She blinked and almost grimaced. "Ughh. Gross," she muttered, referring to both the large organ of flesh situated just across from her and the reality of only having ten minutes to rest up before going at it again for who knows how long.

They needed help. Konan grudgingly admited she couldn't do this big of a job. She never took initiative to train any further in medical ninjutsu after her genin days. His life literally hung on what seemed like a very thin wire, suspended too high for Konan to reach and secure. "Dammit," was all she said. She could not do this. She knew it, Pein knew it. She needed help. Big time. If they wanted to save him they'd have to do some major enlisting. She allowed herself a small chuckle. Kakuzu would not be happy. Medic-nins were expensive, well in this case they would be. The patient was already inches from death.

"Sasori..."

"Pakkun! How close?" Naruto called up to the ninja hound. There was another soft thump as Naruto propelled himself forward once again from a convenient tree branch followed by several others.

"Naruto! How many times do you have to ask!" Sakura scolded Naruto as she came up beside him, fully prepared to smack him. He'd asked the same question about a thousand times already. The last time being ten minutes ago... Though she was anxious too, she would never voice it, however useless that action might be. Everyone knew she was. They were closing in on Sasuke after receiving a lead on his location. The four of them; Sakura, Naruto, Kakashi, and Sai were sent out to find him. Pakkun lead the way and after several hours of non stop running, it was becoming irritating. Sakura was just about to say more to Naruto when Pakkun's voice broke in.

"He's close." Pakkun pounced off another branch and caught a stronger scent. "Very close," he thought to himself.

Sakura and Naruto both stopped to gape at Pakkun for a moment, momentarily fazed, however still flying through the thick brush. It was all like second nature to them, simple and automatic. They had no worries of being distracted enough to falter or trip over something, ever. Well, maybe Naruto did. It wasn't a second later that Naruto did stumble, Sakura quickly steadied him absently, but none of their usual smart alick quips followed. They were high with the anticipation of finally seeing Sasuke again.

"Finally! That bastards coming back if I have to knock him out and drag him home!" Naruto growled out. "Just wait till I see him..."

Sakura could only glance worryingly at him. She knew he wanted to get Sasuke back and for the longest time she wanted the same, but now... she wasn't so sure. She felt horrible thinking back and remembering that most of this was because of Naruto's promise to her and the fact that she had long since given up on it made her feel a little bit guilty. Now, she chased Sasuke for Naruto. He missed him, probably more than she did. She cared of course, but she disliked Sasuke too much now to even want to see him. How could he have just left...? It wasn't like he cared about her -about either of them. So why in Kami's name should she? Then again...

She felt so conflicted and delving down into what she thought she might do when she saw him. She could only see herself assisting a great deal in the "knocking out" part of the retrieval. "Jerk," she thought angrily.

"You think he might have changed? Even just a little bit..?" Her inner's voice asked hopefully.

"Don't care. I've been saving up an awful lot of chakra for this. "Weak" my foot. He's gonna pay."

"I think you're overreacting..."

"And I think you're underreacting. It's a stalemate. Now, shut it." Sakura could feel her inner sigh heavily in frustration and defeat.

"Everyone, mask your chakras now," Kakashi ordered. "We'll need the surprise to gain an advantage of some kind." He'd been pretty quiet during the trip, but then again, all of them had been.

"This may just be easier than planned Kakashi. He's already distracted. He's fighting with someone." Another jumble of scents hit Pakkun after his statement. They'd run into a group of about four other ninja and it was too late to go around. "Shit. Sorry guys..." He left the apology open for them to figure out and they did only a few seconds later. They leaped through the edge of the forest, finally reaching the open air, only to have landed smack in the center of more enemy ninja.

"What the...?" Naruto murmured as they all came to a stop.

"Kakashi Hatake..." a deepish voice exclaimed slowly. He had bluish hair and a lighter hue of the same shade for skin. He was sporting a black cloak...with red clouds.

"Akatsuki!" Sakura growled out through her teeth. Her last encounter with one had been quite the stretch; she wasn't looking forward to another battle with them any time soon, but what could you do?

The moment Kisame had taken his eyes off Suigetsu, the younger ninja from the mist attacked him. And so their fight ensued. Suigetsu had taken the distraction eagerly and now was dead set on gaining the Samehade; Kisame's sword.

"Go!" Kakashi yelled to the rest of the squad. He'd make sure they could pass safely and as Sakura, Sai, and Naruto all nodded to continue towards Sasuke. Kakashi was bombarded with a raging ninja with orange hair. The curse mark quickly taking over the guys entire body. "Pakkun, go with them!"

Sakura lead them in front, speeding forward swiftly, Naruto and Sai close behind. The pinkette suddenly sensed a speck of chakra heading their way and glanced back to see a red haired girl coming up behind Sai and Pakkun. "Sai! Watch out!" The high pitched clang of kunai was then heard as the enemy kunoichi clashed against Sai.

"Keep going! Pakkun will stay with me!" Sai called to them. They were already speeding away, this time, Naruto in the lead, grinding his teeth. The two of them leaped past above the rocks in silence. Any second they would be upon them.

Itachi was in the middle of deflecting a barage of kunai. To his surprise they were a little more acurate than expected. "Not bad. Sasuke."

Sasuke only deepened his glare as he noticed that none of them were making contact. He had a clone hiding some place to use at just the right moment and another lying in wait because he knew that Itachi also probably had a few clones. Sasuke was confident in that he was about ten steps ahead of him and lashed out his Chidori along the thin, almost non-visible ninja wire he'd planted earlier. The lightning chakra zipped its way to it's opponent. Sadly, it only grazed the bottom of Itachi's Akatsuki cloak. He'd leaped above it.

"Perfect," Sasuke thought, and let out a massive fire ball into the air to engulf his brother. Not a seconds hesitation. He was out to kill.

Itachi let out an inaudible grunt of slight irritation and in a flash completed the handsigns to shoot back his own Fire Ball Justu to counter. Suddenly, he felt an irritating vibration leak into the fore-front of his mind, attempting to steal his concentration.

"Pein-sama. I'm a little preoccupied.'"

"Where are you, Itachi?"

Itachi sighed. He had say he was "preoccupied", hadn't he?

"I'm in the middle of evading my younger brother. This is not exactly the most convenient of times, Pein-sama."

"Come back to the base. There are much more improtant matters to discuss than sparring with your kid brother." Pein obviously did not realise that his request wouldn't be so easy to carry out. Even if it was an order, it changed nothing.

"Hai, Pein-sama. I will leave as soon as I am able." He left it at that. Itachi felt no need to explain further.

"Hurry up then. I'm in a bad mood..."

And then the presence left Itachi alone, just not in time for him to dodge a kunai that planted itself in his shoulder. The smell of sulpher and smoke reached his nose and he quickly removed it before throwing it back at Sasuke. The paper bomb attached to it exploded half way there. Itachi's expression retained it's constant appearance: emotionless and nonchalent, only, his eyes narrowed. Pein's interruption had nearly cost him dearly.

Speaking of distractions... Itachi sensed a couple of chakras just a yard or so away. He allowed himself a glance, his sharp crimson stare sliding to find a sight that made the corner of his mouth twich up unnoticeably into a sort of smirk. Well, well...how convenient. His eyes snapped back to face the large cloud of smoke the papper bomb had left behind. The smoke was being disturbed in a way that gave hints to his brother's movement. A second later, Sasuke lunged through and clashed his Kusanagi against Itachi's awaiting fore-arm. The high-pitched tang informed Sasuke that his brother was wearing an arm guard.

"Damn him!"

Itachi grabbed Sasuke's wrist to arrest any further movement with his sword and threw him down from the air. The older Uchiha took this moment to fade away. He wouldn't have a better chance to do so and testing Pein's patience wasn't exactly smart. "You're too slow, Sasuke. And you waste my time," he drawled, completely emotionless though there was a hint of mocking in it, which fueled Sasuke's anger to no end.

"Coward! Come back and face me!" Sasuke got up from the ground and stared up at the withering image that was his brother.

"Some other time, little brother." This time, Itachi nearly smirked and an almost inaudible chuckle sounded low in his throat. "You...have fun." And then he was gone, calling to Kisame to follow. He felt him answer and would meet up with him momentarily.

"Pein-sama. I'm on my way."

"I expected to be waiting longer than that Itachi. Did you finish him? What happened...?" The slow amused drawl that belonged to the Akatsuki leader was even decipherable over the mind link. Itachi considered his answer calculatingly.

"No. We were interrupted..."

"Oh? By whom?"

"His former teammates."

END OF CHAPTER ONE! XD Man I had way too much fun writting that, hehe. Oh god I can't wait to finish! So please tell me whatcha think, its good to lemme know how I'm doing, that way I can edit and stuff like that. Flame me it you want, they don't bother me. Remember, there are nice ways to flame people.. my brain turns off when someones bantering/ yelling, anyway, I'm sure most of you get it- Lastly requests are cool and welcome, too. Sayonara!

Oh and, Kusanagi is the name of Sasuke's sword. It's not a katana(the style), but rather a Chokuto- this is because the blade is absolutely straight, and does not curve like the Katana does. ~How's that for a Japanese weaponry lesson! And no I am not an expert.. lol

I hope to update by Monday... P.s. XD