Bonds of Brotherhood: Part One:

Vanished

lllllll

Sai landed with a thump on the hard, wet ground. He gasped as all the breath was knocked out of him; pain shot through his body as it connected with the earth. Blackness threatened to creep into his vision, but stubbornly he fought it off and dazedly got to his feet. He tightened his grip on his right arm.

'Not good... I'll have to use my left arm to fight.'

That same figure from the skies appeared. Through the haze he saw it wore a black cloak with red, cloud-like swirls...Akatsuki!

He readied himself for battle, but when he reached back for his scroll he found nothing but his sword. Sai's eyes flickered to the side. There; off to his far right. Too far. He would never get there in time before the stranger rushed him.

"I see only one of you." His voice was toneless. "You Akatsuki members always travel in pairs."

"Not always. I'm a... special case." The stranger replied. "You're quite knowledgeable for a kid, aren't you?"

"It's common knowledge." Sai answered. "Who are you? You must be new to the Akatsuki."

"Fairly." The stranger conceded, and smiled. His long, pale blonde hair was wet and scraggly. His Akatsuki cloak was open slightly, revealing a bare chest covered with some strange tattoo. And around his neck hung a necklace with an upside down-triangle in a circle. But that wasn't what disturbed Sai. His opponent's eyes were entirely black, even where the whites should have been, and he couldn't read them at all. "It seems, Sai, that I'm being discourteous. My name is Raidan. You probably read through the files on my brother, Hidan."

"I have." Sai replied, and readied his sword. "You're going to kill me, aren't you?"

"That was my original assignment." Raidan seemed slightly amused. "But now I'm asking you to come with me."

Sai's eyes widened and his composure slipped slightly. "What?"

"I assume you're not coming by free will?" Raidan sighed. "If you think you can take me down, you're sadly mistaken. Look at you. Your wound is still bleeding. The loss of blood is making you feel dizzy and clouding your judgement. The fall injured you as well; your body is aching and you probably broke your arm, by the looks of it. You're in no state to fight me, much less defeat me. Poor little thing, all broken and beat..."

'He's right...'Sai thought grimly. 'The best I can do is stall him until the others find me. But it could take a while. One mile radius... they could be searching to the west, not east.'

"Stalling won't work, either." Raidan said casually. "I'm too stupid to fall for it." With that, he charged forwards, flicking out a long blade. "I'm not the best swordsman, but in in your condition, I can take you on easily."

Their swords clashed. Sai's odd cut-off Foundation-issued blade shook as it tried to hold off Raidan's. The Akatsuki member grinned, seeing the effort it took from his opponent. He relied more on strength than technique; in a fair fight Sai would have beaten him easily. But now...

They disengaged and Raidan flourished his sword as he spun away.

"Getting tired already?" He taunted, seeing Sai panting. "I must have had aimed little too accurately with that shuriken of mine. Did I hit something vital? Your pride, maybe?"

Sai didn't bother to answer. He didn't even get a chance to fully regain his breath- the enemy rushed him again, forcing him to counter. They hit harder, this time, and his blade flew out of his cold hands. Raidan swiftly sheathed his blade and grabbed Sai's injured arm, twisting it up behind his back.

"There's more than one way to gain the upper hand in a fight." He whispered into Sai's ear. The arm twisted higher, and then finally he let it go, pushing the boy away, letting him fall limply to the ground.

Sai's breathing was ragged. Black spots appeared in his vision again, and now he couldn't fight them off. A hand lifted him by his throat, constricting...

Raidan smiled as the kid went limp. He slung him over his shoulder and then leaped away.

llllll

Pakkun sniffed the air, then ran off. "This way!" He called in his hoarse doggy voice. The pug moved swiftly, keeping up in his place at the head of the now three strong shinobi team. He sniffed the air as he rain, the swerved to the right, weaving through the trees.

"Do you think Sai's all right?" Sakura asked Kakashi nervously.

"I don't know." The team leader answered. "It's likely that he has encountered and engaged in combat with the enemy."

"The Akatsuki-!" Sakura sounded disbelieving. "So the sightings were true!"

"We don't know what it is yet, Sakura!" Naruto cut her off. They jumped down into a clearing, where Pakkun stopped and looked at them.

"Something happened here. There's a new scent." He said, and sniffed the air. "As well as some other person's scent, there's something metallic and sharp."

"It's blood all right." Kakashi said grimly. He knelt down and held up Sai's backpack. "Look familiar? And see- beside this, there's an indent in the ground, like someone landed there, hard."

"Sai must have fallen from his bird." Sakura realized. "But where are they now?"

"I don't hear anything." Naruto answered, then cupped his hands around his mouth. "Sai!" He shouted. "Sai, where are you!"

There was no answer but for the falling rain and distant rumbles of thunder. "Sai!" Sakura shouted. "Are you there?"

"Pakkun." Kakashi knelt down by the dog. "Can you follow Sai's scent any further in this rain?"

"It'll be difficult." The pug answered. "But hey, that's my job. Ninja dogs are no ordinary mutts." He began sniffing around the clearing. "The scent of his blood will probably last out this rain longer than the scent of his clothes, but hopefully we won't have to follow that."

"I hope so, too." Kakashi answered, and straightened. "Naruto! Sakura! We're going to follow Sai's trail. It's very likely that he's been captured by the Akatsuki."

Naruto and Sakura gasped in unison. "But- why? I thought they were after Naruto!" Sakura was disbelieving.

"That's what I thought, too..." Naruto murmured, looking away. "Is this my fault?"

There was a puff of smoke. Another ninja dog appeared, lean, and agile- built for speed. It had orange fur and a long white muzzle, as well as a white tip to its orange tail.

"Send word to Lady Tsunade." The jonin commanded. "Also request backup from Team Gai or Team Kurenai, if they are available. I'm not going to underestimate our opponent, an unknown member of the Akatsuki. Run as fast as you can- it should be just a day's journey- but don't overexhaust yourself. You'll be needed to lead the reinforcements here."

"Got it." The foxlike dog ran off.

"All right, team, let's go after them. Pakkun, lead the way." Kakashi looked at Naruto. "It's a possiblity that this is a trap to capture you, Naruto, so stay on your guard."

"Right." Naruto said determidely, but inside he was reeling, guilt threatening to overtake him. 'If they hurt Sai so badly just to get to me... I'll kill them, no holding back!'

lllllllll

The cloaked figure moved swiftly through the trees. The rain poured down even harder; and inwardly he smiled. Once it stopped and things began to try, he had a new trick up his sleeve for losing those that were surely trailing him. That dog of Kakashi's wouldn't be able to catch any whiff of him.

He stopped for a minute on a wide hickory tree branch and carefully put his luggage down. The boy's face was as pale as always, but... Raidan put a cold hand on the bandage he had put around Sai's wound, then swiftly undid it, taking a clean bandage out of his backpack and washing the wound with rainwater. Sai twitched and moaned, but remained unconscious.

"To think I'd be stuck playing medical-nin..." Raidan muttered as he bandaged the wound. "Not that it'll slow me down if I end up taking possession of him in the end, but I still have to prevent him dying on me before that."

Finishing up, he slung Sai's body over his shoulder again and took off, scowling at the thought that Hidan was probably laughing at his predicament right then. It made him feel better to imagine cutting his head off and dangling it at his belt for all eternity. He sent a silent prayer down to his god.

'Jashin, forgive me, but this one boy you must spare for the time being. If I had it my way, I would sacrifice him to you without a second thought.'

llllll

Pakkun stopped and sniffed the ground, then the air, then turned around with a defeated look in his eyes. "I've lost the scent." He said gloomily. "It's been fading and fading and now it's gone completely."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed, and he looked around. His eyes seemed to alight on something, then he turned back to his dog and waved. "It's all right. Thanks a lot, Pakkun. We appreciate the help. You may go now."

"All right, if you're sure, boss." Pakkun replied and then poofed into smoke.

"Look here." Kakashi jumped onto a tree branch, the others following.

"The bark looks funny.. like it's been crushed slightly..." Sakura murmured.

"A footprint! All right!" Naruto exclaimed. "Man,this guy sure is stupid or what?"

"You're right, it isan unusual mistake for an Akatsuki member to make." Kakashi agreed. "We can't rule out that maybe it's a fake trail. But this footprint is lacking any of the little signs that fake footprint trails leave behind, namely a reversal in their pattern. So that means only two things: It could be an honest mistake. Or it could be a trap."

"What do we do if it's a trap?" Naruto asked.

"We keep on going." Kakashi replied, startling them. "Our target would be in too much hurry to get away from us and leave behind any lasting traps. If it would be some sort of trap, then it would be when we get close enough to him. Then, we'll split. There's only one thing that's troubling me..." His voice trailed off.

"Akatsuki travel in pairs, don't they?" Sakura said.

"Exactly. But there's only one set of footprints, and Pakkun confirmed earlier that there were only two people at the battle site. Where is the second one hiding?"

Kakashi was now faced with a difficult choice: Go on regardless of his worries, and possibly walk into a trap, leaving the mission undone?..

'But those who don't care about their friends are worse than scum.'Obito's voice rang through his head. Kakashi gave a start. It was almost as if the boy had been standing right next to him, right there, right then. He could still feel his presence close to him. After a second Kakashi relaxed.

"We're going after Sai." He announced. "Get into arrow formation again. We're going to follow these tracks. If we let even this trail slip from our grasp the reinforcements will arrive and we'll have nothing to show for it."

lllll

"So this newcomer is an artist, yeah?" The blonde Akatsuki asked Kisame. The two were sitting, relaxed, in the lair.

"Yeah." The sharklike man answered. "Apparently he's real good. Might give you some competition, Deidara."

"No way. Art is an explosion! I'd like to see his drawingsexplode, mm." Deidara shot back. "In fact, they probably will, when I test my creations against them."

"Not after Raidan's done with him." Kisame answered. "He's like that snake bastard. Give him a subject to play with and you won't recognize them afterwards."

Deidara frowned. He wouldn't put the man in the same league as Orochimaru, but they both had a penchant for sadism. He was sure Raidan, given Itachi's Sharingan, would be the happiest man in the world, using Tskuyomi left and right to torture his victims without killing them and spoiling the fun. Also, they did both do some interesting experiments. Raidan had demonstrated his chakra/soul fusion techniques for the Akatsuki on a test subject, and the results were interesting. In a way... they were art. A difficult art indeed, but too new-age for him. Combining different materials and types didn't result in real art. It was just a hybrid; a mutant. His art was pure, fleeting, and explosively fantastic.

"I take it if everything goes according to plan, then this Sai will become my partner, mm. My partner and our new brother, eh?"

"Ai, that's probably right." Kisame answered. "I can't say I envy you. Itachi's not too bad to get along with, so I'm glad I'll be sticking with him instead of some kid."

"I don't know." Deidara smiled, then. "I had a stunning rapport going on with my man Sasori. Fellow artists always should stick together. They share a special bond, mm."

"The loss of our puppeteering brother was great." Kisame agreed. "But let's not get all sticky over that."

"Akatsuki members have to be silent and cool, yeah." Deidara agreed.

llllllll

Raidan's eyes narrowed. His constants stops to tend to the boy were getting annoying. The wound was getting along fine, but now, on the second day of travel, he was getting a bit tired carrying him on his back so far. The sunshine filtered through the trees and he slowed down, coming to rest in another forest clearing. The ground was sandy and light, but hard-packed. Perfect for his purposes. Raidan leaned the boy against a tree, securing his hands with metal wires and giving a little start when Sai stirred and moaned. The sedative poison he had administered ought to have held longer. But then again, this kid was full of surprises.

Sai's eyes slowly blinked open, and he saw his captor staring at him, the large black orbs of eyes blinking once.

"Sai, wasn't it?" The man said pleasantly, but his voice was as creepy as his face. But Sai wasn't easily fazed.

"What are you planning to do with me?" Sai asked simply, not even flinching as a pale hand reached out and stroked his neck, coming to a rest on his shoulder.

"This and that, a few things. But what concerns me now most is information. Your master Danzo placed a seal on your throat, didn't he?"

Sai's eyes widened slightly. "How did you know?"

"Well, now, when we captured a shinobi from the Foundation some years ago, he wore the same little neck-band as you do, and resisted fiercely when we tried to take it off. Now, then, I wonder, if you have the same kind of seal on your pretty little neck?" The hand reached up, grasped the black band, and with a swift jerk tore it off. There exposed on Sai's throat, about two inches in diameter, was a rectangular curse seal. Raidan whistled. "Not too shabby work, this one."

Sai's voice was flat as ever. "It's useless attempting to get any information out of me. I cannot tell you even if I wanted to, which I assure you I don't."

"Did I mention what happened to that Foundation member?" Raidan asked innocently, moving his sitting position closer to Sai. "There's a reason why I'm interrogating you, now. Once we removed his seal..."

"You- You can't have." Sai murmured. "Lord Danzo performed these himself..."

"...He diedin the process." Raidan ran a hand through Sai's neat black hair and brought his face close to the boy's, at last seeing some fear in them. "Pretty as you are, I don't know if you'll stand a better chance. But orders are orders."

Pein's parting words form their last meeting rang in the Akatsuki's head. "Try to remove that seal of his and get him to talk, while you're at it." Pein said, and his eyes narrowed. "But don't injure him too badly. We need him."

"Well, Pein, it can't be helped." Raidan muttered, and placed two fingers on Sai's seal. "Here we go!" His fingertips glowed with white light where they touched the paper-white skin, and then the seal glowed pure white as well. Sai's teeth gritted and his eyes shut tight, but there was no escaping the pain. It was burning hot, getting hotter all the time... his mouth opened but no sound came out. The curse sheared through his body like lightning.

"Lord Jashin, release your sacrifice from his bonds so you may take hold of him... release him from his bonds... your loyal subject gives his power to you... all of his power, so that you may take this gift as well..." Raidan muttered in a continuous chant. Sai screamed, then, as the pain increased tenfold. One of the rectangular marks faded from his skin. His screams just grew as Raidan's chants grew louder and louder, more chakra than he could have ever imagined pouring into his body, peeling off those seals with such agonizing precision.

"Halfway done...'Raidan thought as he concentrated on the third rectangle. After several more minutes of intense concentration he sighed, cutting off the flow of chakra.

"Well, precious, you're done." He finally announced, then when there was no reply he looked down. Oh. right. The pale face unnerved him. Even after that, even unconscious, it radiated some sort of... defiance? It was almost a mask. He longed to tear that porcelain mask off and see pain on the brats face again, hear him screaming... Raidan took a shaky breath, trying to control himself. Orders, orders. He briefly considered the risks of moving his captive so soon after the stressing procedure, then decided that the risks of his team catching up to them were far greater. With a grunt he picked up Sai again and slung him over his back, taking off once more. But anyone who was watching closely could see that this time his feet never connected with the tree bark, seemingly just bouncing off of air. There was a while to go yet- and now that the desealing was completed, he could start using his chakra to cover his tracks much better. No one would be able to follow him now.

He bounded from branch to branch, making an almost comical sight with his shoulder-length bleached blonde hair flying out behind him. But his large, almond-shaped black eyes canceled out any humour in the sight, as well as the sharp teeth that he showed when he yawned once.

Another half day of travel passed slowly. The sun seemed to take its time across the blue sky.

Sai slowly stirred awake. He felt nauseous and sick to his stomach, which wasn't surprising considering that he was being carried flour-sack style as his captor bounded with ease through the trees.

"You're taking me somewhere specific?" He rasped. His throat was still raw from the treatment it had received earlier.

"You're pretty dim-witted for someone from the Foundation." Was the even reply. "Of course I am."

Sai was silent for a moment, judging the situation. The bandage around his body had been replaced, and his broken arm bound. He chose a polite tone. "Forgive me, but I had assumed that you would be using me as bait to capture Naruto."

"Unfortunately no. I take it back- you're bright after all- but no. My leader requests an audience of sorts with you." Raidan sighed. "My abilities don't extend to capturing Jinchuuriki."

"What are those abilities, may I ask?" Sai asked, sounding as if he were talking to Raidan face-to-face, and not being carried by him. He was a master at making things seem so normal.

Raidan grunted. "Obviously not medical ninjutsu. I apologize if my work's a little shabby."

He caught Sai off-guard with the apology. 'First he captures me... then he tortures me, taunts me... and now he's apologizing and being polite? I must keep my words civil and hopefully avoid changing his mood.' "Actually, it's quite good. Thank you." Sai replied.

Raidan scowled, knowing full well that his captive couldn't see the expression on his face. But he couldn't see the others expression, as well. This left him to imagine the little mocking smile that Sai could've been wearing. 'Freak... he won't be smiling when Pein has had his talk with him, and he gets a share of Kakuzu's "medical" jutsu.'But still, the thought of that smile made him take a longer, faster and jerkier step that usual in his anger. Sai winced as his wound was aggravated, but wisely chose to remain silent.

In some mannerisms, Raidan was very much like his brother. After a little while he couldn't take the silence any longer and the hereditary foul mouth surfaced.

"Damnit, say something." He said testily.

"Something." Sai said innocently. He couldn't resist the temptation to be a little annoying once more. He had tried his best to curb his tongue, but in some cases he just had to.

"Fuck that." Raidan snapped back. It felt good to argue again, actually. He searched through a list of things to say that would provoke Sai into answering him again.

lllllll

"His trail's vanished." Kakashi finally delivered the verdict. "He's gone."

"How can you say that, sensei?" Sakura shouted at him, startling both men. Well, man and boy. Naruto didn't classify as a man yet. "Are we just going to give up on our teammate?"

"Sakura, I understand how you feel." Kakashi said tiredly, turning to face her. There was real feeling in his voice, and Sakura shut up when she heard it. "But there's no way we can just head off blindly and follow a trail that isn't there. He must have gotten wise to us at last."

"So Sai... Sai's really gone?" Naruto asked, his throat dry. Kakashi glanced at him, unusually grim, and nodded. All this time he retained some shred of hope, but now that his sensei was confirming it... Naruto stood there for a second, then yelled and punched the nearest tree. "God- DAMNIT!" He sank to the ground. "Damnit..." He repeated, more softly. "It's all my fault, isn't it?"

"Don't be stupid, Naruto." Sakura knelt by him. "If it was a trap for you, then the trail wouldn't have vanished. Whoever took Sai would have wanted us to follow him. He wouldn't have tried to hide his tracks." She looked up. "Am I right, sensei?"

"You're right, Sakura. Don't blame yourself." Kakashi said in as soothing a tone as he could manage. He stuck his hands in his pockets and walked a few feet away, back to where they came. His voice was soft, too low for the others to hear. "If there's anyone to blame, it should be me... I thought that I hadn't sensed anybody while travelling, but now it's clear that whoever it was that did it had been watching us for a while." He raised his voice. "We have to backtrack and meet up with the backup team at the recon point. Get up, Naruto. Get up, Sakura. There's nothing else we can do here. The best thing we cando, though, is get back to the village and I'll start reviewing these reports of the Akatsuki seen in these woods."

"Right." Sakura sniffled, wiping away a tear, accepting Naruto's helping hand. The three took off, and traveled in silence. The exhaustion from travelling so far and attempting to catch up with their friend was taking its toll, but none of them wanted to show it.

Their lithe forms went from branch to branch, almost flying through the air. Kakashi occasionally glanced back at his diminished team to see how they were doing, and was met with determined faces. He almost smiled at that. What wonders a pep talk could create... now they had hope again. The funny thing was, he did too. And that hope increased when he saw who was to be working with them on Sai's retrieval.

The three-person team jumped down onto soft grass and strode torward the backup team: Team 8.

They were perfect for any tracking and locating that would need to be done in the future: Kiba and Akamaru, with their incredible sense of smell; Hinata Hyuga, with her Byakugan eyes that would be able to pierce through the walls of any secret lair; Shino Aburame, with his parasitic insects that could scout, locate, attach onto and thus track the movements of the enemy as well as attack them if needed; and Kurenai Yuhi, her calm leadership and coolness harnessing each different personality and trait to use them in teamwork to the fullest extent on a mission.

"Hinata!" Naruto yelled joyfully, and for a moment all his worries were dispelled as they embraced. "God, I haven't seen you for a while..." He said. Hinata blushed furiously. Despite them being together for a while now, she still could not rid herself of the gap in her self-confidence whenever she was with Naruto. When they at last disengaged Naruto made sure to greet Shino next, knowing of how self-conscious the chunin was. Last of all he high-fived Kiba, petting Akamaru. Sakura coaxed the latest village gossip out of Hinata as Kakashi and Kurenai looked at the scene with amusement.

"What a happy reunion." Kurenai joked.

Kakashi's smile disappeared. "I only wish we weren't one member short in this reunion."

She grasped his implications immediately and her eyes shadowed. "Fill us in on the way back to the village." Then she glanced up at the sky and changed her mind at seeing the telltale signs of sunset. "Actually, around the campfire. It seems there's a lot to discuss."

llllllllll

I know some things are still incorrect. But I swear those were on purpose. I remember reading in the manga that the seal Danzo placed on Root members was on their tongue, but it would have made writing that scene very awkward for me, so I switched things around a bit.

Now, let's see how they go about going after their precious teammate!