Author's Note: I would like to apologize DEEPLY for extreme out-of-character-ness. I just have such a hard time keeping characters that are not mine IN CHARACTER. I don't know why. It's just weird. I would like some critiquing, though, (not criticizing.) as to how to make my story better. I already know how out of character everyone is. I do not own Naruto nor the universe of Naruto. Though the current Raikage, Hakka Hyuuga, the Hyuuga spawn, Uchiha brats, and Uzumaki whelps ARE mine. I do not own the title of Raikage, but the the current Raikage. You might recognize her from my other fic, The Shifting Balance. I do not see me continuing that one in the near future, my deepest apologies. It seemed like such a cool idea at the time but... I ran out of inspiration. There is no excuse for me dropping it and I am deeply sorry.

And about the pairings... I really, REALLY do not care that you do not like these pairings. I don't really like any pairings. I just kind of randomly chose from the most popular. -shrugs-

Please enjoy. -bow-

I hate the editing thing. I CAN'T GET MY SPACES WHERE I WANT THEM. -seethes-

Tenten sat bolt-upright, heart pounding and dripping cold sweat. She put a hand to her chest, sucking in deep breaths of the cool night air. The spring moon hung fat and golden outside of the window, peeping through the plum tree out in the courtyard.

She tried to still her pulse, counting down backwards from twenty. Why did she feel afraid? She glanced around quickly. The room wasn't totally dark, lit as it was by the full moon. It threw dramatic shadows and she was surprised that she could have slept at all with it so bright. Something had made her start awake, heart racing and mind in a whirl. Something wasn't right.

"Neji!" she hissed, poking the still form beside her. He didn't move. "Neji!" He muttered indistinctly. She hated to wake him up. All of the on-duty shinobi had been working nonstop after the forest-fires had swept through the area not two weeks ago.

Tenten shook her husband with one hand, grasping the kunai she kept under her pillow. Neji finally turned over, opening one bloodshot eye and croaking, "What?"

"Something's not right." Tenten whispered, easing the blankets off of her lap and sweeping the room with her eyes, adjusted to the strange lighting. With that, the clan head was immediately awake, albeit with a huge yawn. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, finally making a hand-sign and tensing in concentration. Byakugan!

Why did he always have to work with the stupid brats? He melted from shadow to shadow like black oil, avoiding the creaky floors in the centers of rooms and sticking to the walls. He mentally growled in disgust at an ornate wall-hanging. What right did the Hyuuga have to be such a wealthy and powerful clan? He could sense the sleeping forms of Hyuuga clan members throughout the house. He passed by the rooms of the two elder Hyuuga children. Naw. Stick to the littlest. He reminded himself.The littlest are the least trouble. Master only needs the Byakugan. One should do.

He crept around the final doorway and paused, looking down on the still form. The child's room was lined with toys from teddy-bears to children's shuriken. He noticed a half-open coloring book by the head of the mattress against the wall, a quilt patterned with waves flung over it. He leaned over the little form beneath the quilt.

Haruki Hyuuga slept peacefully, one thumb in his mouth while his other hand was clamped protectively over a puppy that had somehow managed to sneak into his room. The shinobi rolled his eyes and let out a soundless sigh. Children.

One second Haruki was in his bed, the next he was under the shinobi's arm, being carried swiftly out of the house.

Hinata was meditating in the main family room, hair in a loose braid so that it did not tangle when she should have been sleeping. She could feel Naruto-kun dead to the world and hear him snoring like a thunderstorm in the bedroom. Namiki was adding her own higher-pitched chorus on the other side of the house, though she fiercely stated that ladies did not snore. Megumi was quietly asleep, dreaming of the day when he would become part of the ANBU black ops.
Though she was supposed to be in bed, Suzume couldn't lie down for more than a moment before she felt the need to get up again. She sat in the patch of moonlight that came through the hall window, her pink quilt splashed with Uchiha fans wrapped about her. She kept alert. If mommy or daddy found her awake, they would send her straight back to bed and she wanted to stay up. But daddy wouldn't wake up easily. He'd said about two words before falling asleep on the couch three hours ago and hadn't stirred since. Mommy wasn't much better off. Running after two lively kids all day while pregnant could take it out of a woman.

The floorboards creaked and a big shadow loomed over her. Suzume squeaked and looked up. She sensed something was off about whoever cast the shadow. "Kaa-san?" she asked, head cocked. The shadow responded with a tap to a nerve in her neck and a blade.

Neji jumped to his feet and dashed out of the room and down the hall, so focused on what he saw with the Byakugan that he nearly ran into the wall. Tenten flung a shuriken out of the window and into a paper-seal on the plum tree outside. The effect was instantaneous. An unearthly screeching filled the air, waking all of the inhabitants of the Hyuuga estate.
He cursed as the sudden shrieking made his heart stop a moment. Stealth be damned, he was just going to get away. He didn't like the idea of encountering a full-grown Hyuuga. Those bastards could be scary. Haruki chose that exact moment to wake up and blink, looking around with wide eyes and finally settling on his captor, mouth forming a perfect 'O'.

The shinobi said a string of choice phrases, starting with using them on himself and then cursing every Hyuuga that had ever been born. What the hell? This kid has brown eyes!

"The Hyuuga boy doesn't have the Byakugan!" he hissed into his short-distance radio microphone. Haruki blinked, and then began to wail. The kidnapper knew his ass was toast. He could hear voices raised over the alarm. "Shut up!" he snarled, drawing a kunai to silence the crying child but a hand glowing with furious chakra put an end to his plans. Suddenly gone limp, he dropped Haruki but gentle arms caught him before he could hit the floor.

His mother hugged him tight, making shushing noises and trying not to cry herself. Neji stood over the fallen kidnapper, eyes radiating cold fury. "How dare you touch my family," he spat. "Hakka!" the chuunin in question stepped forward.

"Sir?" Hakka was hurriedly shrugging on her happi coat.

"Alert Hinata-sama and the Hokage." Neji turned over the would-be kidnapper with one foot, noting the Kumogakure headband. Otherwise, the shinobi was dressed all in black from nose to feet. "Their children are of Hyuuga blood as well." He looked up, meeting the pale eyes of every Hyuuga. "One of our own was nearly taken tonight!" he raised his voice so everyone could hear, but he didn't have to. Not one person made a single sound save for Haruki, whose tears had died down to sniffles. "There could be more scum trying to take children."

One moment the room had been full, but the next, every Hyuuga young and old was activating their Byakugan and sweeping for enemies.

Hinata tensed, hands flashing through a series of hand-signs. Byakugan, the all-seeing evil eye! "Uzumaki-sama!" She relaxed. She knew that voice. Someone pounded on the frame of the main door to the Hokage Residence. "Uzumaki-sama, please open up! It's Hakka Hyuuga!" Hinata undid the lock and slid the door open. Her cousin bowed and said, breath making faint white clouds, "Haruki-sama was nearly kidnapped just now." Her blood ran cold. Memories of her own attempted kidnappings chased each other around her mind.

"Is he all right?"

"He's fine," Hakka flapped her hand. "Scared, but just fine. Neji-sama caught the guy. He told me to tell Hokage-sama and you." Hinata nodded and stood aside.

"Please come in. I'll go wake him up."

"Naruto!"

He growled something about Sasuke-teme stealing his lunch. "Raaaaaamen, Naruto-kun! Can you smell the ramen? Mmm, miso ramen!" he made a noise that might have been, "Yeaaaaah, raaaaaaameeeeeeen." He sat up in a daze the noticed it was still dark.

"Hinata?" he blinked, trying to decide whether it was worth getting his brain to work. Hinata got straight to the point.

"Haruki-chan was nearly kidnapped tonight." He was awake immediately and looking for his headband. "Neji-sama sent Hakka-san to tell us. Neji-sama thinks the kidnapper might be after Megumi or Namiki as well." Naruto growled low and deep in his throat.

"I'd like to see him try. Did they kill the bastard?" Hinata trotted after him as he pulled on his shoes.

"I don't know. Hakka-san?" Hakka leapt to attention and bowed deeply before the Hokage.

"The kidnapper was alive when I left, Hokage-sama." She said respectfully. "I suppose you will want to question him?"

"Yes. What village?" A bemused look came over the young woman's face.

"Kumogakure, Hokage-sama."

Hinata and Naruto blinked with confusion in unison.

"Cloud? Really?" they exchanged looks. They knew the current Raikage. She was a fine woman and a stronger kunoichi there never was.

"Yes, sir. If you would come with me? We should hurry." Naruto shook his head.

"It's just the Hyuuga house, right?" Hakka nodded. "I can go by myself. Stay with Hinata. I don't want you-" his gaze lingered on his wife, her face beautifully lit by the moonlight. "-or anyone else to have to handle these bastards alone. It could have been just the one Kumonin, but I doubt it. If they got past the alarms the Hyuuga have set up, we can't underestimate them. Inform Sasuke. The Military Police should know. We don't want to cause a panic, so be discrete."

"I think the alarm Tenten-sama set off put an end to all efforts of being discrete, Hokage-sama." Hakka said frankly.

Naruto made a noise of agreement and disappeared in an instant with only a flash of bright hair.

A thump and a shriek startled Sasuke awake as he lashed out at an enemy that wasn't there. He sat upright on the couch for a moment, wandering if he had just dreamed the sound. A high-pitched giggle came from the hall outside the family room. He slammed the door back to find his youngest child going through the pockets of an unconscious kunoichi. A voice was coming from the shinobi's earpiece.

"Junko? Junko, answer! Do you have the Uchiha brat? Damn it, answer me!"

Coldly, Sasuke picked up the intercom. "Junko won't be talking to you anytime soon. She's sleeping." The radio crackled and went silent.

"Sasuke? What hap- SUZUME!" Suzume smiled brightly up at her mother.

"Kaa-san, shuriken!" she crowed, holding up one such lethal instrument. Sakura knocked it out of her hands and hugged her only pink-haired child close.

"Don't scare me like that ever again," she said, relief and fear making her cross. Sakura met Sasuke's eyes, cold steel in their green depths. "Cloud." She growled, jerking her head in the unconscious kunoichi's direction. A tarnished headband gleamed in the moonlight.

"But we know…" Sasuke began, and trailed off.

"They could be acting without her jurisdiction." Hakka slid open the window and perched on the sill. The Uchiha all jumped horribly, save for Suzume who was busy watching dust-motes in the light. "Uchiha-sama, Haruki Hyuuga-sama was nearly kidnapped tonight. I guess Suzume-sama was as well." She waved to the pink-haired girl and the four-year-old waved back

"A rash of kidnappings?" Sakura didn't like the sounds of that and she held Suzume so tight that Suzume squeaked. Hakka shrugged.

"Hokage-sama said that the Military Police should know, Uchiha-sama. He went to talk to Hyuuga-sama. I'm going back to Hinata's- erm, the Hokage Residence. The Hokage says not to confront these shinobi alone, if there are more of them." She made a wry face. "They got past the alarms at the Hyuuga house."

Sasuke massaged the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. "I'm going down to the station," he said at last. He looked at Sakura, eyes worried. "But I don't want to leave you and Suzume and Ichiro alone, let alone with another one on the way…." Sakura gave him a look and patted her swollen belly.

"I'm not some delicate little flower," she told him crossly. He recognized the tone and cringed inwardly. "I can take care of three people."

"But-"

"We can go to the Hokage Residence, Uchiha-sama!" Hakka burst out, trying to head Sakura off. She knew from Tenten to never ever argue with a hormonal woman. "It's safe and stuff and it's plenty big…" Sakura opened her mouth to argue. "But I'm sure Uzumaki-sama would be glad for the company." Hakka added quickly. She was treading on dangerously thin ice. "You know how she is. The kidnapper first went after a Hyuuga child and her children are Hyuuga blood as well and… I'm sure she'd be glad for your level head." She finished somewhat lamely. There was utter silence, broken after a few uncomfortable moments when Sakura sighed.

She got to her feet, balancing Suzume on one hip. "Shoo," she told her husband. "Go and look for more of those nasty shinobi."

"But I-" Sasuke quailed under the glare of three females, two of which had pink hair and green eyes, the third having the scary Hyuuga peepers. "Okay." And he left as quickly as possible, only just realizing that he had fallen asleep fully-dressed, shoes and all.

"You don't really think…Kurai-san sent them, do you?" Hinata poured tea while Namiki sleepily tried to teach Suzume how to play shogi and the four-year-old with candy-floss hair bounced up and down, wide-awake. Ichiro and Megumi had fallen right back to sleep on a bundle of quilts in the corner. Sakura sighed and took a grateful sip of tea.

"I don't think so," she said, frowning into the golden liquid. She looked tired for woman with a baby under her heart, but she refused to sleep until the all-clear was given. "They could be rogue ninja."

"Though she keeps a close eye on her people," Hinata pointed out.

"One woman can't baby-sit every ninja in Kumogakure-"

"Uzumaki-san? Uchiha-san?" a head poked around the open sliding door that lead into one of the main hallways. The shinobi was a young man with tousled dark brown hair that was just barely kept in check by his Konoha headband. He wore the vest of a chuunin. He nodded in respect. "Hokage-sama has given the all-clear. Uchiha-sama is giving his report to the assembled jounin and higher-ranked chuunin. The city is still under close watch, should another kidnapping be attempted."

"What about the Raikage?" The chuunin looked at the floor in embarrassment.

"Hokage-sama doesn't want it to look like we suspect Kumogakure," he said frankly. "But the Raikage will be contacted."

Sakura nodded and took another sip of tea.

"Good. I want to get this all cleared up. Who knows what could be next."

Kyakyakyakyah... will continue. X3 Hormonal women scare me.