Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Final Fantasy VII, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Square Enix respectively.

A/N: I just want to let everyone know that the next semester of classes are starting up soon, so that will lengthen the time between updates, but don't worry. I have several chapters already writen so don't panic. Also, I'm sure this chapter will raise more questions than answers, and that's fine. Put you're questions in a review and I shall answer them in an authors note in the next chapter. Enjoy.

The Lost

A crash sounded from within the Hokage's office, caused by a sake bottle meeting a violent end against the wall. Tsunade stared at the shattered remnants of the bottle with sullen eyes. He was gone… Naruto had vanished over night. She remembered the morning of his disappearance; she had been awoken by a frantic Shizune. At first she had disregarded whatever Shizune was trying to say, until she heard that Naruto was gone. She had bolted straight to the hospital and was met with an empty bed and Jiraiya's concerned gaze. Her initial fear was that he had been kidnapped, perhaps by the Akatsuki, but that was quickly dismissed when Jiraiya informed her that there was no forced entry. It seemed as if Naruto just got up and left. Over the course of the following week, the learned that where ever Naruto had run off to, it was within the village. He was still in Konoha, but the problem was that they couldn't pinpoint where. Jiraiya and a group of ANBU had been searching for the past few months, and have come up empty handed. It worried Tsunade greatly that they couldn't find him. She couldn't label him a missing Nin since he never left but that wouldn't stop the council from taking advantage of the situation and making him one irregardless. Faced with this problem, Jiraiya had proposed that they lie and say that Naruto was with him outside the village. That he had taken the genin with him to train him. She had been a bit hesitant to go along with it, but she saw no other choice. With that problem avoided, she turned her attention to locating him. Easier said than done, it was almost as if Naruto had ceased to exist. There wasn't a single trace of him anywhere in the village, but they knew he never left the city walls. The conundrum brought back Tsunades headache.

As she reached into the bottom drawer for a new bottle of sake, she realized there was still hope. Naruto had not left the village, it would take time but eventually he would resurface. It wasn't like he'd run off like Sasuke and Orochimaru had. Where ever he was in the village, he would eventually have to come out from hiding. Still, that could take years, and there was only so much time he could spend "training" with Jiraiya before the council got suspicious. When she had discussed this concern with the toad hermit, he simply shrugged and said they'd tackle that bridge if they came to it. If only she could be so nonchalant about it. Taking a swig straight from the bottle, Tsunade pondered if Naruto's behavior beforehand had something to do with his vanishing. The suspicion had been with her since it was revealed that he was in the village. Looking over the documents on her desk, Tsunade dug for Naruto's medical folder. She had pulled it out shortly before he vanished, but only recently had found the time needed to study it. What she found worried her. Not only where the records spotty and filled with biased reports, but there were no records of his development and health for the first three years of his life. It was as if Naruto had just materialized when he was almost four years old and even then the oldest report on him was strange.

It was taken when he was three and a half years old, the earliest she could find. She could tell that the doctor overseeing the checkup must have been hand chosen by Sensei for their lack of bias. According to the report, Naruto had been underweight and extremely pale. He had many scars that suggested multiple needle pricks, either for injection of blood taking, as well as a few intravenous lines that had been in his throat. There was also evidence that he had had a breathing tube in his throat for many, many months. His vocal chords suffering damage from it. He also seemed to have bruising spotted on his body, but the cause of it was unknown. There had been blood samples taken that showed abnormal cells, but they were overlooked as being a side effect of his treatment and the Kyuubi. It made no sense, none of it did. It worried Tsunade greatly but it also lead her to believe that perhaps something had been done to him during those missing years, something that perhaps had driven him to run away and hide. Sighing, Tsunade closed the file; she was in no mood to ponder it this night. Taking another drink of sake, she laid her head on her desk and tried to get some sleep.

The morning air was crisp and fresh as she walked home from her shift at the hospital. Sakura savored it, knowing that peace such as this was not meant to last. She knew this all too well if the events of the past five years were anything to go by. First her crush Sasuke abandons the village, and then Naruto runs off to train with Jiraiya. Three years after that the Kazekage, Gaara, was captured by the Akatsuki as was the two tailed and eight tailed hosts from the cloud village. Then they learn that Sasuke had killed Orochimaru and went off on his own. Shortly after that Itachi is found near death after his battle with Sasuke and was brought back to Konoha only to be pardoned on the pretense that what he had done had been under the Sandaimes order. After that things had gone very quiet. Sakura wondered if the Akatsuki knew Naruto wasn't in Konoha since they hadn't been spotted anywhere near the village in a couple years. From what she had learned from Itachi, they probably did. Of all the things that had happened in the past five years, her relationship with Itachi had to be the strangest.

She remembered it had started as a professional one shortly after he had been pardoned. Tsunade had placed her in charge of his treatment stating she trusted Sakura would not let personal bias conflict with her job. She had been right, Sakura had not let any personal feelings get in the way of treating her patient. At first their encounters were silent aside from the occasional question of his well being. She soon learned that he was completely blind, it had taken her by surprise seeing as he functioned fairly well considering his injuries. The only time he requested help was when she brought him his medication for his tuberculosis. He would ask her to hand him his water, since apparently he had grown tired of accidentally knocking it over onto himself. She was impressed by his perseverance, there was very little he couldn't do by himself despite his blindness. She supposed that was what had opened the gates for a personal relationship. She found Itachi intriguing, not just because of his prowess as a ninja or his adaptability, but him as a person. He was nothing like she had imagined, he was soft spoken and very gentle. He would often manage to bring a smile out of her when she would visit him. Not only that but he was easy to talk to, once you got past his cold façade. Sakura soon found herself looking forward to seeing him during her shifts, and even began to visit on her off time too. She supposed it was no surprise to anyone that when he was released, he stayed at her apartment. At first it had been a joke to offer him a bed in her home, but it turned serious when he mentioned that he feared returning to the Uchiha compound, the ghosts there would keep him up at night he said. It tore at her heart to imagine living in the same house you had to kill your family in. It hurt even more to realize just how ostracized Itachi was. When he had been released, she had taken him shopping to get him things for the apartment. She remembered he told her that he could feel the glares of the populous, that he supposed that was how Naruto must have felt when he walked down the street. By that time, Sakura had learned of Naruto's burden and silently agreed with Itachi. Things had gotten much better since then she supposed, she would even dare to think things were great. It was unofficial, but it felt as though she and Itachi had entered a relationship when she turned 18 a few months ago. She just felt as if something between them had changed, but she didn't mind it at all. Even if nothing had changed, she was glad to have someone to come home to.

Upon entering the apartment she shared with Itachi, she found him in the kitchen attempting to cook. It brought a smile to her face to see how well he'd adapted to his lack of sight; he even greeted her when she closed the door. After she set her bag down and taken off her shoes, she walked over and gave him a gentle hug. He was still wary of physical contact but she felt he deserved it. Once she released him, she went about helping him. While he cooked, she set the table, got the drinks and once the eggs and toast were done she walked them over to the table. They ate in a comfortable silence with the only conversation being Itachi asking how her shift went. When they were done, Sakura collected the dishes and began washing them while Itachi continued with his morning rituals before he started with the weekly chores. The rest of the day passed with tangible normalcy until she left to train with Kakashi. Ever since her promotion to chunin, she had made it a semi-common habit to find time to train with her former sensei. Occasionally Itachi would accompany her, but today he had declined.

Thinking on it, it saddened Sakura that Kakashi was all that was left of her old team, not that Kakashi was a bad person it was just… so lonely. She knew Sasuke's absence couldn't be helped, not that she really missed him anymore. After hearing the true story from Itachi, she came to realize just how narrow minded Sasuke was. While a part of her would always care for him on some level, she found herself missing him less and less each day. That being said, she wondered what Naruto would say to that when he came back from his training with Jiraiya. She knew Naruto would be the most open minded guy around, but she wondered if he'd listen like she had. She wondered if he'd realize just how hopeless it was to try to bring Sasuke home. She also wondered how strong Naruto would be upon his return, after all, he's spent the past five years training with the toad sannin… that has to amount to something right? Chuckling to herself, she wondered if he'd grown mentally too or if he was the same as he always had been. She hoped he'd matured some, but not lost those qualities of his that made her smile. No matter what though, Sakura hoped that Naruto would come home soon.