Chapter 1

Sasuke frowned as he walked through the market of Konaha, glaring at anyone he caught looking at him. He was in a bad mood that day, and it was annoying him that he had to contain his impulse to pulverise someone into the ground, not that the ANBU trailing him would have let him do that to any of the citizens of Konaha anyway, where was Naruto when you needed him?

He left the far end of the market, scowling at some kid that was looking at him, hard enough that they dropped their lollypop.

"Saaaaaasssuuukeeeeee!"

The whiney yell pierced through the sounds of the market like a siren, and people were stopping to look for the source of the noise. Sasuke took a second to decide which option was less of an effort; to ignore the call and keep walking or to turn and see what they had to say. Seeing as there was no guarantee whoever it was would leave him alone if he ignored them he turned round to watch a bratty kid running towards him, a long scarf flapping wildly behind him as he dodged through the throng. Sasuke recognised him as one of those loser kids Naruto sometimes played with, pathetic. He was called Konoru or something. He greeted the kid with his most irritated scowl, letting him know he did not appreciate being waylaid like this but strangely the kid didn't seem to notice as he gasped his breath back.

"Sasuke!" He panted, "It is you..."

"What do you want?"

"Naruto," he could hardly get his words out, "Naruto...gone to look for you...in the forest..." taking a deep breath he tried to steady his breathing, "Someone told him you were injured in the forest in a fight!"

"What?" The frown remained but he uncrossed his arms and straitened up, looking over the kids head towards where the nearest part of the forest would be.

"Yeah, some random guy came and told Naruto, he ran off to go help!"

Sasuke's mind worked quickly to come to a conclusion; he wasn't hurt, he'd never been in a fight in the forest so that was a complete lie, someone must have told Naruto on purpose. Why? To get him to go into the forest, alone. The stupid Dobe was in trouble. Like he'd ever need the Dobe's help in a fight, now he'd have to save Naruto.

He grabbed the front of the kids shirt, "Which gate?" he snapped.

"Th-the main gate!" he squeaked.

Without another word he dropped the kid and set off at a run, jumping on a nearby canvas covering one of the stalls to launch himself onto the rooftops where he could run without being hindered by the crowd, heading for the main gate. It wasn't far. Once he'd passed the hustle and bustle of the market he dropped from the roof back down the streets. He ignored the person who was just stepping out of a shop when he dropped down in front of them, causing them to jump back to avoid being squashed and dropping all their bags as they did. Instead he was off, flying down the street, zig-zagging around the few individuals in his way, or jumping over them.

Iruka watched in surprise as Sasuke shot off like the devil was after him, not even looking to see if he was okay. Iruka knew Sasuke was inconsiderate, but really, he'd have to teach that boy some manners. He was getting up and dusting off his trousers when the black and white figure of an ANBU agent landed silently in front of him and moved swiftly after Sasuke. Concern shot through Iruka, he knew that Sasuke was always followed by and ANBU agent, he had been a rogue ninja after all, but was this ANBU just following him, or was he chasing him? In which case he may as well be being chased by the devil. In concern for his ex-student he quickly stuck his head back in the shop.

"Hey, could you look after my shopping for a bit please?" He asked, indicating the bags he'd just dropped just inside the door.

The girl at the counter looked surprised but said, "Sure Iruka-san."

"Thanks," he smiled, then was off sprinting down the street after the two distant figures. He wasn't making any progress on them, they were going at full tilt and he lost them for a bit but by then it was obvious they were making a beeline for the main gate, which worried Iruka even more. Sasuke wasn't allowed to leave the village unless Tsunade permitted, which he couldn't see happening any time soon. Was he trying to escape? No, Sasuke was smart, but there was no way he'd get out of the village through the front gate with the guards, or with an ANBU on his tail, and definitely not in the full light of day, so what was he doing?

He rounded the corner to see a struggle at the gates, the two guards, plus the ANBU were restraining Sasuke who was trying to get past them out the gates. He saw flashes of chakra and the explosion of a suppressed paper bomb - things were serious. He slid to a stop a few meters away, not wanting to get in the way.

"Hey, what's going on? Sasu – " A flash of blinding white light cut him off as he had to shield his eyes. Blinking away the tears he looked worriedly at the group to see the ANBU kneeling next to an unconscious Sasuke while the gate guards rubbed their eyes, blinking. Iruka moved closer.

"What is going on?" he demanded.

One of the guards answered as he looked down at the unconscious Sasuke. "He was going for the gates, we hadn't heard anything about Tsunade letting him out, and with one of the ANBU chasing him it was pretty obvious he was making a run for it, we had to stop him. Though not sure we would have been able to do it on our own, he was pretty damned determined to get out."

Iruka turned without thinking to scowl at the ANBU, "What have you done to him?"

"I have merely incapacitated him, he has come to no harm and will be well on returning to consciousness, maybe a light headache," the ANBU informed him, standing up and stepping back as Iruka advanced. He crouched down next to Sasuke and looked him over; there were no visible markings on him, and he was breathing evenly, he did seem okay. Gently he patted Sasuke's face, unsure if anything he did would get the boy to come round or if the jutsu controlled that as well, but when the ANBU said nothing he kept trying, patting a little harder. It only took a minute before his eyes fluttered.

"Sasuke? Sasuke can you hear me?"

Sasuke groaned.

"Sasuke what were you doing? Why were you trying to escape?" Iruka asked, hoping he could get a truthful answer before Sasuke could fully collect himself.

"Naruto – someone took Naruto."

"What do you mean?"

"Someone took him – took him in the forest, I have to help him, stupid Dobe."

"What? Who? Who took him Sasuke? He's in trouble?"

"Some stranger," he tried to sit up but Iruka held him down, "They told him I was hurt in the forest and he went to look."

Iruka was frozen in shock for a moment but looked up when he heard murmuring from the guards, "What?" he demanded.

"We saw him, we saw Naruto running out the gates a while back, looking none too happy either."

Iruka felt the blood drain from his face; Naruto was in trouble, someone had lured him out there.

He stood up, "Which way did he go?"

"Uh, down the road and then east into the forest." Before the guard has finished speaking, before anyone could stop him Iruka was out the gates and moving faster down the dirt road then he'd ever thought he was capable of, searching for Naruto's distinctive trail. It wasn't too hard to find, that boy never tried to cover his tracks.

"Iruka!" The guard yelled after him, taking a step as if to go after him, but he was on gate duty. He hesitated and then looked to the ANBU agent. "What should we do?"

"Go back to your posts, I shall inform the Hokage." He crouched down, took a hold of Sasuke's wrist and they disappeared in a silent twist of smoke.

The guards looked at each other, then down the road where Iruka had disappeared. It wasn't that unknown by the ninja of the village that the Akatsuki were after the nine-tailed beast contained within Naruto, and if it was them that had lured him out there...well, no one liked the thought of an Akatski member being within a hundred miles of Konaha, let alone just outside the village.

Kakashi was sitting in one of his favourite spots; a tree near the city wall, in a quiet secluded area, but where some busy streets were still visible if he felt like people watching. He was presently deep into his Icha Icha Paradise book, he'd read it many times already but was currently getting to one of his favourite parts, where there innocent milk maid was currently pinned against the stall by the Lord of the house and his hands were – a poof and a jerk found Kakashi sitting on the floor of the Hokage's office, book still in hand. A raised eyebrow was the only sign of surprise at his sudden relocation. Leisurely he got up off the floor and tucked his book away in a deep pocket for later.

"You called?"

Tsunade stood up, resting her knuckles on her desk she leaned forward intently, the frown on her face, and radiating pent up agitation had Kakashi paying her his full attention, not that anyone could tell. If something had one of the infamous sanine up in arms, it was serious.

"Kakashi! We have a serious problem. ANBU have just informed me that Naruto has been tricked into leaving the village, we don't know what's going on yet but we've had to restrain Sasuke from leaving the village, and unfortunately Iruka has already gone after him. I don't need to tell you the consequences if this is the work of the Akatsuki and they get their hands on him. I need you to track them down, stop Iruka from doing anything reckless, and if you can, bring Naruto back. There's a chance it could be Itachi, if so, your sharingan is the best chance against him. I'll be sending a team after you as soon as I get one mobile."

"Right." He wasted no time in hanging around, disappearing in his customary puff and swirl of leaves. Re-appearing at the gate he summoned Pakkun.

"What's up Boss?" His nin-dogs could always sense his moods.

"Naruto is in trouble, we need to find him and Iruka who's gone after him as soon as possible."

"Sure thing Boss." The pug stuck his nose to the ground, sniffed around a little then was off at a surprising speed for his size, nose still fixed to the ground. Kakashi followed him a hundred or so meters down the road until they turned off the path into the forest, there were visible signs that Naruto had passed in this direction, but none of Iruka, which is how it should be, that boy just never learnt about covering his tracks.