Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the tv shows and all the characters pertaining to the show belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not me. I am not doing this for profit, or any other type of gain other than the pleasure of writing with his awesome characters.

A pair of sharp eyes watched Naruto with a keen interest that had his partner chuckling.

"You like him," Kisame cooed as he resisted the urge to outright laugh at the risk of being aggravated by the ANBU that patrolled Konoha's boundaries. They weren't in the trees masking their chakra for shits-and-giggles after all.

Itachi sent him a glare, his Mangekyo swirling with his displeasure. He didn't 'like' the Kyuubi vessel; he simply wanted the boy for the demon he contained and nothing else. The fact that seeing Naruto running around the training area with his shirt carelessly thrown onto the ground while he sparred with a dark haired shinobi that Itachi had never seen before had him wanting to capture the jinchuuriki even more meant absolutely nothing. The dark haired man watched with calculating eyes as the two moved through motions that had been practiced for years, their muscles moving and reacting automatically to adjust to their enemies' moves. It was obvious that they hadn't had much sparring time with one another but they moved together in an almost flawless way, their bodies reacting and defending and twisting and bending in ways that only people with a close bond could. They were beautiful as they practically danced, sweat gleaming on tan and pale skin in the noon sun and Itachi found himself wanting to be part of that dance with a kind of childish desire he had thought he had squashed the day he entered the academy all those years ago.

The man looked away from the dance for a moment to collect his thoughts, to bottle away any emotion that had managed to leak through his careful façade. Kisame looked like he was about to comment further but stopped when he received a cold glare. Once Itachi was sure that his partner wasn't going to say anything else on the subject he looked back to find the two teens done dancing. The blonde was now lying on his back, chest heaving, a long gash bleeding slightly from a wound across his chest while the other was sitting next to him, breathing heavily and smiling a very soft smile.

And with that smile on his pale face the boy listened to Naruto, conversed with him quietly while the blonde was undoubtedly being loud and annoying. Itachi decided that this game of hide and seek had lasted long enough—he couldn't put off the inevitable any longer so now he and Kisame would actually try and would succeed in bringing Naruto back to the Akatsuki base.

Naruto looked over at Sai and chatted with him animatedly. He was so excited that he had finally gotten the better of the ANBU in a sparring match that he was practically shinning with joy.

"I beat you!" he cried with joy as he let his head fall into his hands while he turned his eyes to the sky. He had that funny feeling of being watched but ignored it like he always did; most of the time there was someone watching the training fields so they could witness a good match between ninja. The feeling didn't really bother the blonde shinobi. The fact that he didn't sense any chakra other than Sai's around them was a little disconcerting but he pushed the feeling aside and told himself that it was just another ninja. He gave a small smile at the thought of Sakura in her mostly pink ninja outfit crouching in a tree and watching him and Sai spar.

"That makes it one to twenty three." Sai looked thoughtfully up at the sky while Naruto scowled at him with annoyance.

"I can't help that you cheat," he snorted as he scratched his belly. The Kyuubi was healing the katana slash above there but it itched like crazy. He looked at his hand and sighed at the coating of blood on his fingers; there wasn't much but it would dry and be all sticky as it peeled off. "Who uses a katana when sparring? I didn't use any weapons since, you know, that's what we agreed on." Naruto felt his blood slide slowly down his sides and he didn't dare sit up unless he wanted to ruin another pair of pants. Money didn't grow on trees and Naruto earned so little that he had to watch every penny or risk going without ramen and milk along with other necessities like toothpaste and ramen…and yes I put ramen twice on purpose.

"I was wondering if you could survive against an opponent with a weapon when you had none. It seems you do even better when at a disadvantage." Sai leaned against a tree, the rough bark slightly bothering his lower back since it was exposed by his belly shirt; but he completely ignored it. He grabbed his bag and pulled out a sketch book with a pencil and began to draw Naruto, his body laying in that comfortable way, his eyes so serene as they looked back and forth between Sai and the sky—they showed every little emotion that flittered through his heart so clearly that Sai wouldn't stand a chance at replicating them in his painting: but that wouldn't stop him from trying. Sai wanted those emotions, Sai wanted to be able to feel like Naruto did, Sai wanted to capture his beauty and keep it with him forever.

Naruto stared at him with a baffled expression, "You were trying to kill me?" he squeaked as he sat up and scooted away from Sai quickly, unsure if he should trust his new companion so much now.

Sai paused for a moment, having already forgotten what they were talking about. "You survived didn't you?" Sai looked at him for a moment and Naruto knew that his statement was meant to solve everything as many of the dark haired shinobi's statements were supposed to do. Sai mentally sighed and flipped to a new page in his sketchbook, he would have to finish the other sketch by memory—and his memory got better with time for some reason—alone but he knew that it wouldn't be as beautiful as Naruto and it would be only even more unattractive since his memory wouldn't be able to recall all of the blonde's emotions perfectly: Naruto was much too complicated for Sai's photographic memory. There was just too much to memorize when it came to the Uzumaki, not to mention there wasn't much time between moments of calm and then an explosion of emotion and activity with Naruto.

"Well yeah, 'cause I kicked your ass." Naruto felt something thickly slide down his belly and pool into the crotch of his pants. He groaned, not wanting to look down at the clot of blood that was sure to be there.

"I would not have killed you in the end, Naruto, merely placing my katana to the place where I would have ended you would have sufficed." Sai watched the thin trails of blood on the blonde and decided the color the fit the tan skin. The rivers snaked along the curves of his toned body, slinking and twisting in odd directions that only made sense to them.

Naruto grumbled angrily to himself for a little while, "Like you could have!" It was his only defense or comeback to what Sai had said and it was much too late and lame to have done any good.

Sai gave Naruto a serene smile, one that was real and that was so rare when it came to Sai that Naruto almost forgot his anger, "I know; that's why you won." Naruto stared at him blankly for a long time with a feeling building within him that he didn't understand, not that he wanted to understand anyway. "Would you like me to look at that?" Sai gestured at Naruto's bleeding abdomen and Naruto wearily glanced down, not seeing Sai put his notebook on the soft grass. Konoha kept their training areas nice for some reason that the other hidden villages didn't understand—their hard work would be for nothing after all since any ninja above genin level would most definitely mess it up.

Blood oozed out of the long slice that stretched from his left upper rib to his third right rib with a little tear just after that from Naruto moving too quickly and getting too close after Sai's third attack. There were thin rivers of blood sliding down his frame, emphasizing his muscles and man curves in red ink before they slipped 'below the belt' and stained his pants defiantly. Naruto imagined his pants cackling at him with their ruined looks for a moment before he pushed the strange thought to the back of his mind. Must have been the blood-loss talking.

Sai inched forward and Naruto watched him carefully as the older teen pulled out a simple medical kit from the bag Sai had brought just in case he had gotten hurt. Turns out that Naruto would need it a lot more then him and that made Sai feel… nervous? Yeah, that's the word. It made him nervous because Naruto shouldn't even have that wound anymore, let alone have it seeping blood. The flow of blood was much slower than if just about anyone else had gotten that gash but it was still bleeding.

"I don't know why the Kyuubi hasn't healed me yet," the blonde said, trying to take his mind off of the cool fingers that gently prodded at his exposed ribs to see if they were broken or fractured. They weren't.

"I cut much more deeply then I first thought," there was a slight hint of worry on Sai's face and Naruto knew from the look and tone that he had meant it to be much more then just a 'little worried'. "You might need to go to the hospital for stitches."

"What?! No way," Naruto suddenly screeched, wincing when the effort brought a bit of pain to his attention—he hadn't noticed it before but he most definitely did now. The Kyuubi had been—and was still—numbing the pain but the ancient demon didn't seem to be healing him like he usually did. "I hate the hospital, they always keep me there for so much longer then they need to. Can't you just, I don't know, do something for it?"

"I am no medic-nin but I might be able to do something for you." Sai thought for a moment before he rummaged around in his bag once more.

Itachi felt a snarl ripple within his chest when Kisame continued to taunt him but he fought it down with success…somehow. Images of the blonde teen on his bed, begging him to fuck him while naked save for a black collar were being force fed to his mind by Kisame's foul words.

"If you do not stop I will kill you," he kept his voice emotionless, generations of Uchia breeding had forced that upon all of its descendents no matter how hard they might try to fight it: Itachi was not one the fight the teachings but he just couldn't stop the feelings from taking over his mind whenever it came to the damn blonde. Naruto was unaware of how much he had changed people and the S-class criminal was no exception, Itachi just wasn't that affected by him. He had been sent to watch Naruto since he had joined the Akatsuki to let him have the advantage of knowledge when in battle with the jinchuuriki and he hadn't been able to stop from noticing just how dedicated he was, how loyal, how noble, how…but he couldn't think like that. Not now, not ever.

"Aw, feeling a lil moody are we?" Kisame gave him a toothy grin, every last one of his teeth were sharpened to a thin point that was supposed to be like a sharks but he didn't have two rows of them and they didn't fall out and re-grow everyday—a shark has every single tooth in its mouth fall out by the end of the day but they are also replaced by that time too. "I was just about to start on bondage too." But Kisame was no fool, continuing to taunt Itachi after a death threat was suicide, even if Kisame took the young genius out with him it would still mean his death and then he wouldn't be able to kill people anymore which was completely unacceptable.

Itachi ignored the thoughts trying to invade his mind angrily and glared at Naruto as the blue eyes beauty…teen stared nervously at his companion. He didn't seem comfortable with the older teen touching him but obviously thought it to be a necessity since he didn't fight when the dark haired teen pulled out a dark thread and a sharp needle.

"That fucking hurt Sai!" screeched the blonde as he tried to jerk away but the ink snakes Sai had secretly wrapped him up in stopped all movements; the snakes slid around his waist and wrists every time he calmed down, as if to soothe him but Itachi could tell it was freaking the teen out even more. Naruto's face expressed every little emotion he had ever had and Itachi was perfect at reading emotions thanks to his Sharingan (like everything else in his life he practiced until he became perfect at it) so he didn't have to try to read the young jinchuuriki in the least.

Itachi watched as the one called Sai continued without pause, deftly stitching the gash closed so quickly that even Kakuzu would have been slightly impressed. Naruto asked the boy a question and he shrugged with nonchalance as he responded too low for Itachi to hear.

"I'm going back to get Sakura so that she can take a look at the gash. Is there anyway that you can figure out why the Kyuubi isn't doing anything?"

Naruto frowned, "He's doing something, the seal is showing which means he's using his chakra but the only thing he seems to be doing is numbing the pain to where I can barely feel it," he gave Sai a shrewd look, "That is unless someone pokes me." Naruto then pondered to himself for a little while before getting impatient and he tried to stand.

A firm hand grasped his shoulder and the snakes Sai had oh so stealthily used to restrain him wrapped their tales around various parts of his body before sinking their suddenly elongated teeth into the ground, for Naruto to stay seated. He had about as much chance of breaking the ink snakes as a sliver of ice stood a chance of not melting in a roaring fire caused by an accelerant called lacquer thinner.

"It would be unwise to move around. The thread I used was just for fixing my clothes and is only temporary. I'll be back soon so don't do anything stupid."

Sai stood and made it almost completely across the clearing before Naruto suddenly spoke in a hushed voice, "I'll be gone before you get back…"

"I'm leaving my snakes restraining you, Naruto. You won't be going anywhere." Sai smirked at the pissed look on the blonde's face before he disappeared into the trees.

Now was their chance!

Itachi waited with Kisame practically breathing down his neck. Kisame wanted to attack now, Itachi knew that Sai would come running if they did so he ignored his partner's wishes firmly.

"The less people that attack us the better, it will take them longer to realize that he is gone. We will get a better head start."

"That's assuming he doesn't fight back or scream," Kisame was observant when he wasn't distracted with his powerful lust for killing but it didn't happen too often.

"Don't be foolish," Itachi didn't take his eyes away from the pouting blonde who vainly struggled against his restraints. "If we can't take him quietly we will defeat him and take him anyway." Kisame stared at him for a moment, his small eyes blinking slowly. Itachi mentally huffed at the sight and refrained from just killing his partner. It would have been easy, the man trusted him almost completely and he didn't have his defenses up at the moment, a well placed katana strike would remove the blue skinned man's head and silence him forever but Itachi stopped himself.

"Huh?"

It got about five times harder to refrain from removing that stupid head from that stupid neck. Yet Itachi had seen that reaction coming. Why in the world did Kisame not understand his simple words? Kisame had random bouts of extreme brilliance that almost made Itachi respect the blue skinned man, yet these moments of utter idiocy just ruined it every time without fail. In short Kisame was a hard man to judge, maybe even impossible: like a certain blonde enigma that Itachi wanted to crack, to break, to find out why the hell he held his interest.

His eyes widened ever so slightly; that was it! All Itachi wanted from the blonde was to break him. Naruto was simply a challenge Itachi had never been faced with before—everyone had always given him whatever he wanted, whether it was money, sex, or to kill someone with no reason other then he felt like it. Naruto was something he could not have and he wanted him all the more for it.

But he wouldn't chase Naruto, couldn't really, the Akatsuki would be killing him very soon and he probably wouldn't have enough time to break him. Naruto was too strong and Itachi wanted to be able to take his time. It sucked that he wouldn't be able to master Naruto like Itachi mastered everything else, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

"Stay here and don't reveal yourself unless I tell you to." With that Itachi slid out of the tree they were in and smoothly made his way around the circle of open area in which the blonde shinobi was forced to sit.

The Sharingan wielder silently snuck up to the tree closest to the blonde and waited there, barely breathing. He watched as Naruto stiffened and saw azure eyes turn and land on the tree he was hiding behind from a very narrow vision. He didn't move as the blue eyes scanned over the trees nervously, emotions of fear and anger flitting across the tan face in such an uncaring way. Itachi glanced up at the tree Kisame was in the make sure the man hadn't moved before he looked directly into startled blue eyes.

Naruto had spotted him.