Captive Brethren

Burnt flesh splashes onto the soil like little rain drops. Sudden chuckles hit the boy's ears softly and he's pinned to the ground with a sword to his neck. Eccentric scarlet eyeball star at him expressionlessly and his face concealed in his Akatsuki coat. The other member held his wrapped sword on his shoulder laughed with a grin on his face. The boy lay there in the dirt coughing up blood severally and he struggled to pull the weapon off but the partner kicked him down. Damn…it! The boy thought in agony. He tired to pick up his kunai knife, but it was too throbbing to even move. I…feel like…my bodies…broken.

"Heh, the demon can't assist you. The demon's cloak can't shield you." The fish man hissed with a grin. The boy grunts.

"Kisame quit taunting him. The fox demon might still to come out even if you cut his charka apart." The other cautioned him glancing at his partner.

He glares at him with crimson eyes and growls but only it causes him to momentary suffocates on his own blood. His charka was depleted and he was consuming strength. God…where's the guys? He speculated vulnerably. The boy's headband lay away from his carcass and all he could do was gaze at it feebly. Kisame swung his sword towards him and the boy's eyes widened leaping away from the blade. He leaped onto a tree branch a couple yards away and conceals himself so he could seize his inhalation. His eyes were persuasive to shut, but he couldn't sleep now.

The cold wind blew through his blond hair. Silence was in the air, the boy's eyes darted around the area. As he tired to move towards the village his shoulder ached and he clutched it grunting in throbbing. My shoulder is hurting badly…but I gotta try anyway. Granny Tsunade should be able to heal me. He heeds movement and hurdled to another tree leisurely, but he gasped out in soreness. His unfathomable, blue eyes saw the village straight ahead. He grinned imperceptibly and attempted to move faster but that failed.

"Damn. Almost there…" He murmured under his breath. He curved to look behind him.

He saw the two Akatsuki members trailing him and he wheezes. The boy cursed loudly and moves faster, his eyes begin to get foggy. He wipes his eyes, but nothing helps. The bizarre boy couldn't keep his eyes open much longer and started to drift to the ground. He landed on his knees and hurled up more blood. The two men stopped and walked towards him. The man with red eyes halted glaring at him intensely.

"What is it, Itachi?" Kisame asks.

"Nice trick with the Shadow clone, Naruto-kun." Itachi calls out to the air wit his eyes closed.

Naruto leaped out of the shadows with his big ball Rasengan in his left hand. He smashed at Itachi, but he evaded in a blink of an eye and punched him in the face. The Naruto exploded into white smoke. The real Naruto was concealed behind a tree, holding his side wound, it was bleeding gravely, but he was putting pressure on it. He saw Itachi glance his way and he gulped lowly. Then Itachi was right in front him now and Naruto's body quivered, his body parts were petrified with terror. Itachi stared at him; Naruto glared and attempted to throw a shuriken at him.

"Why do you want the Kyuubi?" Naruto demanded dangerously.

"Heh, curious are you? You still angry at us for stealing the Shukaku from that sand nin and killing him eh?"

Naruto's eyes flared red. "Shut up!" Naruto screeching at him. He kicked him and he hit the ground. He saw a bruise on his left cheek. "Don't say anything about him like that! He's - He's…"

"Still alive? Hmp should've known the beasts like you would stick together. But I didn't realize that you'd care bout him that much." Itachi replied in a jaded voice.

Naruto growled and groaned holding his side again. Shit…Shit…Shit. God it hurts badly. Where's the damn ninja when ya need them? Naruto grabbed his last kunai knife and need a pen or something. Bloods the only thing I got now. He began writing 'Help me! Akatsuki took me. U.N.' The fox boy threw it onto a tree branch. He performed some hand seals and seven shadow clones appear. They nodded and jumped down to attack them. Kisame was about to throw his weapon when Itachi restrained him.

"I'll handle Naruto-kun because apparently he still was the will to fight. Maybe I'll defeat him easily unlike Sasuke tired." Itachi muttered to him.

He did some hand seals and shadow clones emerged out. They begin to attack the Naruto shadow clones, but the clones fought Itachi clones easily. He was silent and his Sharingan was active ready to fight. "Well, I'll admit, Jiraiya taught you wonders with those abilities of yours, but a pity you're life will end soon."

Naruto smirked widely and then his eyes were the Kyuubi's red eyes staring at him in amazement. His canines were larger now and his nails were a little longer now. His jumpsuit was ripped in several places especially in the arms and chest. Tsunade's necklace was shown now. Itachi sneers and his eyes now frowning at the fox demon.

"Not letting the fox demon does the job for you. I find that fascinating." He says blankly. "But that won't help you. But I know you have a weakness."

"What would that be?"

"The Fifth Kazekage, Gaara of the Sand." Naruto's eyes narrowed upon him and became detached from the conversation. His head slumped and clenched his fists tightly.

God, how'd he know that Gaara was alive anyway? Maybe…maybe he read me or something. My head hurts now. All of Naruto's thoughts raced to his head and he grasped his head in tenderness. His eyes began to well up and he sighed heavily. Itachi sheathed his sword and Naruto glared at him through tears.

"I won't let you kill me and take the Kyuubi like you did to Gaara. He didn't deserve that and neither do I." Naruto vowed intentionally. His eyes were on impassive and yet solemn.

"Hmm…you're self-assurance is intriguing." Itachi observed.

"Shut up." About a dozen shadow clones filled the clearing in the darkness of the night. Itachi glanced at everyone clone in the eye.

Naruto's body became stiff all of sudden. His eyes were flooded with rapid trepidation. Goosebumps appeared on his arms and legs visible to no one not even to himself. His eyes were turning cold and full of hatred for the Uchiha. His head began to throbbing dreadfully. What's…What's going on? Did the temperature decrease or something? God, help me now. Jeez… He thought in agony. The clones felt the rapid throbbing as well and they groaned in torture.

They then started aggressiveness and Itachi fought back. Naruto run towards the village now and didn't look back. But then Itachi appeared infront of him and his hair stood up. Then three clones rushed up to the blond and one leaped at Itachi with Shurikens. Itachi dodged them and killed the clone. The clone along with Naruto disappeared, but an unusual Rasengan ball. Instead of his normal blue charka swirling in the middle of his palm, a light purple color probably the charka of the Kyuubi. He runs at him, but the evil Uchiha is too late for him. Naruto slammed the charka ball right into him. He disappeared into thick smoke.

Naruto's eyes widened in astonishment and exhaled. Then blood spat out of his mouth and fell into his knees in fatigue. His fingernails shrunk and they dug into the soil searching for a way to stand up. But his legs couldn't respond with his mind and so his legs couldn't stand up. M-My charka…it's almost gone…my legs won't move…damn, damn. I'm doomed…Following those dreadful he hurled more blood now. Thoughts of being dead rushed to his head now.

"Heh, the power Jiraiya taught you… are pathetic. Who knew a Sannin could be so weak?" Itachi taunted him blankly.

Naruto growled and glared at him. "Shut up you…" He groans seizing his side again. Then Itachi kicks him in the stomach and Naruto cries out in twinge.

"But then there's the Kazekage," Naruto flinched. The Uchiha smirked. "Heh, how'd it feel when you saw Gaara of the Sand dead, Naruto-kun?"

His fist clenched and red eyes stared at eachother, one in fury. His canines revealed at the Uchiha. "Leave him out of this! Gaara's not involved here…"

"Oh, but he is. Too bad…" His face moved to his ear and whispered in a mocking voice. "…you'll never see him again."

He was right. Naruto could never see him again, for there was no medic that would probably perform Elder Chiyo's justu to reborn him anyway. He'd never see Konoha or any of his comrades again. But why would the village people even care about him anyway? They ignored him, and detested for him many years. They won't come. I know it, they'll forget me. Naruto stared into the moon and gulped trying to breathe, but failed. His eyes went blurry and began spacing out completely.

He'd never see Gaara's sea green eyes or even his smile again. His torso and head finally collapsed and his last thought was of his best friend, Gaara.

Kisame walked up beside Itachi and saw the fox demon boy down. His breathing was normal yet he seemed like he was prepared for death. Itachi was feeling weary and glanced at his partner with the same bored expression hiding it. Kisame smirked and Itachi sighed heavily.

"The boy was stronger than Madara estimated. Though Pain said if the teacher was strong enough than the student was better." Kisame mused.

"Yes, but the Kyuubi attempted to cut him off. I wonder why?" Itachi pondered with his sharingan on.

"Heh, maybe it knew the boy couldn't beat us and decided to leave it to him."

Itachi didn't reply and Kisame sighed. He picked up Naruto and threw him over his shoulder without a complaint. The boy groaned in smarting as he did, but the boy lingered cold. A light weight kid. Kisame thought in amusement. "If we linger too long than the village will catch us."

"Agreed. Pain probably wants us so we can extract the Kyuubi soon." Itachi agreed and they started away from the village.

Unknown to them, the kunai that Naruto left still carried the message written in blood. Apparently the Akatsuki aren't that intelligent as everyone thought. It was found by Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno, Neji Hyuga, and Shikamaru Nara while searching for Naruto Uzumaki.

Kakashi picked it up and gazed at the engravings. It was indeed Naruto's own blood and handwriting. His face turned grim as he read it and turned to the younger shinobi. His one dark eye glancing between them all.

"Akatsuki struck here and took Naruto." Kakashi said flatly. Then the group of young shinobi turned to pools of blood.

Shikamaru, with his usual bored expression gone replaced by sudden grave face, stepped towards the pools. He studied them for a moment and sighed gravely. His face was enough for Sakura to know the horrible truth; it was Naruto's blood.

"It was last night. The blood hasn't mixed in with the soil yet and those kunais and shurikens weren't there by themselves." Shikamaru explained gravely, but with hesitation also. "But there's also other people's blood splatter too. Two Akatsuki members attacked him."

"But why would the Akatsuki come after him?" Neji wondered, but then twisted to Kakashi. Sakura glanced at him worried. Shikamaru and Neji didn't know about the Kyuubi yet.

It been recent that Sakura heard this straight from Naruto's mouth. The way he talked about the Kyuubi…it was like poison in his mouth waiting to be spit out. This to Sakura finally learned why the adults in the village always jerked him around and warned their children to stay away from him. From then on Sakura had blinding pity for her comrade, making sure he was under control and resting a lot. But she knew Naruto would tell her to stop worrying and try to reassure her. By the time he'd normally say that, his face would be weary and his mind with many thoughts. It was that look that brought more apprehension to the two. Sakura looked at Kakashi nodded with self-assurance floods to her face.

"Neji, you remember the Akatsuki going after Gaara-kun? Well, their mission is now clear to me since Asuma's death. Their after the tailed demons which either inhabit human who serve as hosts to them or are wild. If they've decided to go after Naruto that means they've got every demon now including the Shukaku. The Kyuubi is the Nine-tailed fox that attacked the village nearly fifteen years ago. Naruto hadn't learned this until he was twelve the day of graduation." Kakashi explained grimly. His eye darting from shinobi to shinobi.

"So who put this creature in Naruto anyway?" Shikamaru asked with some significance in his voice.

"The Fourth Hokage did. He sealed the Kyuubi inside of his own son."

Everyone's eyes widen shocked. Wait, Naruto didn't mention that before. Sakura thought suddenly perplexed. Maybe…he didn't know that The Fourth was his father yet. She glanced at her friends; Shikamaru looked disturbed now and his eyes gazed to the ground in silence. Neji was also silent and also stared at the earth with an emotionless face on.

"You havta move quickly. Shikamaru and Neji; you'll havta start tracking for anything else Naruto left behind. Sakura: you'll head back to the village and tell Lady Hokage to send a message to the Sand village." Kakashi ordered. "I'll go after them."

"Yes!" They all responded. Sakura performed hand seals using the teleportation justu.

In a second she was a puff of smoke in that bloody clearing, next thing she knew she was in her sensei's office. Tsunade didn't notice her at first until she finally gazed up. Her eyes were hard now. "Status report Sakura."

"We've located where Naruto was taken. Kakashi-sensei found a kunai knife that was written in blood by Naruto himself." Sakura reported keeping her cool. Tsunade's expression became grave especially at the blood part.

"I'll send a message to the Sand village and hopefully get it by late afternoon." Tsunade told her pink haired student. Her eyes darted to the window in unseen fret except to her student.

"We failed to keep them away from Naruto. I feel it's my fault that they were able to take him from us like this." The Hokage expressed toward her student. Sakura acknowledge her with a nod.

-

Jumping silently through each tree wasn't difficult. Kakashi brought his hand to his mask and removed it. A red eye with a black pupil surrounded by little circles with curves on them was revealed. Anyone could feel the power from this man was incredible. His eye darted around the area in search for the Akatsuki members and his student, Naruto. He knew his student hadn't been himself for awhile. Naruto was now spaced out in conversations and he always looking down at the ground with regretful eyes. His mind was some where else lately and no one could figure out what was wrong.

Now, the sensei wished that his student would've told him what was wrong. Regret flooded into his eyes. Sasuke finally showing his face again had left the demon child become dejected and distant, but he later got over it resuming their old rivalry. But even if it seemed like that torment stopped it didn't though and Naruto just hid it. Weeks ago Kakashi had noticed the dark lines under his student's eyes which meant lack of slumber, he was becoming insomniac now. Kakashi had noticed on their over-night missions that the demon child would sneak off in the middle of the night and not come back before the sun rose.

The Sharingan sensei stopped and saw something behind him. A kunai knife came spinning behind and Kakashi blocked it away with his own blade. He glared at Itachi in wrath.

"Hello, Kakashi."