Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Akatsuki or any of the OCs except Kyo.

Chapter One: Missing Links

Illia's pov

This overwhelming surge of helplessness has me quivering in the wake of my attacker. Yes, I as terribly foolish for falling into his trap, but I couldn't help myself.

I guess I had become too assured in my mysterious rescuer, believing he would be there to save me every time, and so far he had been…until now that is.

I pressed my back against the wall behind me and hung my head. I've decided to just accept the fate that my inane choices have brought upon me. I should have known better than to let the tantalizing thought of him finally seeing my putting myself in danger constantly was no more than feeble attempts to show the feelings that I have grown for him over time driven by the wild desire to see him. But instead of seeing that, it would appear as though I have tired him out.

My attacker's bone-chilling laugh brought my mind back to. I raised my head, facing him with a look of complete terror as well as receiving; I prepared myself for what was to come. And just as I was beginning to lose all hope, a tall, dark, slim figure filled the void between me and the offender before me.

The newcomer looked at me over his shoulder, capturing me with his pale-blue eyes, and said to me with the faintest smile-a smile that came from deep within his tormented, untrusting heart, "Sorry I'm so late miss, but no need to worry now. I'm here."

And just like that, I believed again.

Illia closed her eyes taking in a deep breath as she envisioned the scene within her mind, placing herself in the main character's shoes. Of course she would be in no harm's way; it would be quite the opposite. Instead of coming to rescue her from imminent danger, he hero would be saving her from the needless exhaustion of defeating such trash.

She let out her held breath slowly through her nose and reopened her eyes. Then it suddenly dawned on her: it as rather quiet around the base.

She leaned forward from her cross-legged seated position on the bed, and peered out into the hallway. She sensed no chakras. She was completely alone. She sat back with a slight tilt of her head, wondering where everyone had gone.

Normally her father would have let her know if there were any missions, and if not he then Shouta-con usually did.

She shrugged the thought off as she put the white place holder between the last read pages of her gold indeed book, and stood with a stretch. She headed out to the training grounds, feeling as though she'd let her mind wander in a fairy-tae land for far too long today.

Kyo's pov

The soft, cool, continuous movement of the water current underneath Kyo's backside as the breeze came and went, gracefully pushing the water to tussle back and forth was far more than relaxing.

She stared blankly at the large puffs of white clouds as they rounded by the bright blue sky gradually, without a care in the world. As the biggest she'd seen all day, a barking dog, came rolling by Kyo allowed herself to drift along the water surface, following it.

As the wind blew again, her ear twitched. She was being watched, she could feel it. She sat up slowly; keeping her eyes locked on the sky overhead and flicked her dampened hair over her right shoulder. The motion seemed so casual, though in all reality she had taken the hair-flick as a chance to glance through the corner of her eye, spotting the watcher in the bushes.

There…under that small tree.

Kyo slid slowly to a stance, and turned her back on the unwanted guest and walked over to the large rock on the lake side that held her folded clothes.

As she got dressed, she shivered. She felt eyes on her still and frowned. Village perv… she presumed.

Once she pulled her pants up around her hips, she swiftly pulled a kunai from her pocket with her right hand and threw it under her right arm into the bushes behind her without looking. She smirked in triumph when she heard a thump and was standing before the bushes, shirtless, within seconds.

Kyo peeled back the branches, the sight before her throwing her for a loop. A puppet…? She thought as she looked at the wooden figure lying on its side. It's pale tan panted face turned towards her, the latched mouth hanging open.

She sighed, feeling duped and bent over to retrieve her kunai from the object, when she suddenly felt a sharp sting in the back of her neck and was immediately taken over by a heavy sense of dizzy sleep.

Her legs gave out from underneath her and she was caught by a pair of firm, hard as wood, arms. Just before her mind was fully succumbed to the haze, she heard a soft murmur of, "One down…one to go."

Sora's pov

Sora hummed a soft happy tune to herself as she sculpted her third masterpiece of today. She stuck her tongue out in concentration as she shaped up the tail of the creature.

Feeling satisfied with what she'd done, she took a step back to admire the sculpture. It was an oversized squirrel seated upon his hind legs, with his front paws holding up an acorn to his mouth.

Sora's smile changed into that of a smirk as the limbs and body of the squirrel began to expand grotesquely in sections and eventually it exploded with a loud bang. Just as all art should.

She began to hum once again and reached into her pockets for more clay to make another work of art, but this time bigger than before, when the snapping of a twig caught her attention.

She looked over her right shoulder, only to be jabbed quick and hard in the left side of her neck by the hilt of a heavy and large sword.

Sora was out instantly.

Shouta's pov

Shouta leapt from tree branch to tree branch following behind his father. He was a bit curious when his dad came and got him first thing in the morning, and very seriously, despite how normally goofy he always is, told him that there was an important mission he had to do and wanted Shouta to come along. His dad never said what the mission was and it killed Shouta but he guessed he would just have to wait and find out.

He sighed. He hadn't even been able to tell Illia they were going out and he always told her that. He just hoped that Illia wouldn't be upset with him for not sharing that before just leaving without a word. She hoped she would understand. Knowing the kind of person Illia was she would understand perfectly. They were best friends since birth after all.

"Father, are we almost there yet?" Shouta asked getting a bit impatient. They'd been running and jumping for hours and still they weren't there yet. He wondered if this would be a two day mission.

He blinked, quickly reaching out an arm for the thick tree trunk on the side of him and swung his way around it, perching on the side, using his chakra in the soles of his feet to stay put. He looked to where his father had suddenly stopped and was looking down at the ground at something. Without a word, he motioned Shouta over.

Shouta came as he was told and looked with his father down at the girl with dark hair making her way through the woods looking around as though she were lost. They weren't going to kill her where they? She seemed pretty innocent enough to Shouta.

His father looked over at Shouta and told him simply, "Watch and take good notes son, this will become very handy for you in the near future."

Karin's pov

Karin yawned as she stretched out, walking through the woods to the watering hole. Her sister had announced some time earlier that she was taking a trip there and would be back by dinner time. Karin had nodded and said alright. She didn't think much of it. She knew her sister loved taking trips alone to the lake and always made it back by or before dinner time. Only problem is, it was well past that time and Kyo hadn't come back home yet.

Karin knew that Kyo could take care of herself, she was very well certain of that, but she couldn't help but get a little worried about her. Being this late, or late at all, wasn't like Kyo, and as the minutes passed the knot of worry and dread grew larger within Karin's stomach.

She stopped in her tracks and looked around scratching her head. Oh great…I'm lost.

If Kyo were here, she would scold Karin for sure. They never seemed to fully understand how it was that Karin was such an excellent tracking-nin, but lacked a sense of direction. Kyo excelled in that department, always being able to get them exactly to where they needed to go in a timely manner, but once there, couldn't find who or what they would be looking for.

They truly were Ying and Yang. And right about now, Ying was missing her Yang pretty badly.

Groaning and just about ready to give up, Karin leapt up into the trees, climbing for the top. She figured maybe she could spot the lake from a look up above, however the sound of objects whizzing through the air changed up her motive and had her swinging around each branch to dodge the senbon being aimed for her.

Karin smirked in victory then let her features fall as she began to scope out where the person was who dare to attack her. She blinked in confusion as she suddenly lost her balance and gripped on the tree only to find that her fingers wouldn't securely latch on. She was soon free falling towards the ground with no way of stopping or catching herself.

Poison needles. She thought begrudgingly as she realized that she'd left her blind side wide open for the assailant who attacked her.

She soon landed her long fall in the arms of a man; she knew by the way the muscles cut in his arms through the fabric of his jacket sleeves. She looked into his one eye of the man to glare momentarily before passing out due to the shock from her fall and the poison.

Scarlett's pov

The screams and yells of anger and horror coming from the people in the small town on the outskirts of a nearby village had Scarlett on her knees laughing. She had just played another one of her self-amusing pranks that usually winded up others getting her. She watched as the people scrambled out of the little tea shop as the smoke rose from the hole blasted through the ceiling.

Hilarious!

She certainly had a good amount of fun today.

Pulling herself together, she stood up and turned walking out of sight and into the woods. (A/n: amazing how they all get snatched in the woods, no?)

She was thinking of another prank she could pull next when a presence behind her made her stop in her tracks. She looked over her shoulder and grinned a grin that would make any normal person shiver with fear. "Hi there, wanna play? The game is pretty simple. All you have to do is…" she reached into her pockets "lose your life!" she threw out some kunai and shureken at the hidden person only to have them deflected by their own.

She smirked and reached for more, tossing those out as well, enjoying herself as they kept deflecting them. She was so engrossed by her wild throws at the tress that she didn't notice the person sneaking up behind her to hit a pressure point in her back, making her fall asleep quickly and peacefully.

Illia's pov

I panted softly as I landed in a fighting stance looking as all my shadow clones disappeared from around me. I heard the footsteps of everyone coming in and tilted my head in confusion seeing the men in the black and red clouded covered cloaks come into view carrying people on their backs. Kids to be exact, around the same age or younger than me.

I spotted Shouta-con standing beside his father and gave him a look that meant I wanted questions answered later. He nodded understanding and looked at his dad as he told him something.

My father walked out from God only knows where behind me and said to the men before me, "Well done men. Now to wait until the kids wake up. They will be pretty upset I suspect so be on your toes with them. Put them in their corresponding rooms. That is all." He then turned and left my mother right behind him.

A/N: Whoo! Alright, first chapter done and done! That was just giving you a little bit of background info on each character I have so far. Can you guess who belongs to which member? One I made pretty obvious, and no the fathers did not kidnap their own children as you should be able to clearly see. Please review and tell me what you think!

Characters and their respective owners:

Kyo-myself

Karin-miss89

Sora-Booberrry123

Illia sakurano-Rosebud130

Shouta-Charity

Scarlett-Rini