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Disclaimer: Why don't I own Naruto? Cries himself to sleep
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Naruto got down on one knee, still managing to keep his balance. Itachi still stood where he was. For the last five minutes, Naruto had tried to go through Itachi's defence but failed miserably. Itachi still watched impassively, his red gaze directly at Naruto.
"It's futile, Naruto-kun. It is better to give up than face pain," Itachi's voice was ice cold.
"Like I'm listening to you," yelled Naruto.
"Fine by me then, if you wish to resist," Itachi smirked, his three tomoe Sharingans spinning, "Tsukoyomi!!"
The next second Naruto's world turned red. The sky was red and so was the ground. It was all hazy at first, and as his eyes focused, he found himself tied to a cross. Itachi stood smirking before him. He noticed a katana in Itachi's right hand. He knew what exactly the man before him had planned. "You can never get me, Itachi," Naruto tried to keep up his façade. Itachi only smirked.
"For the next 72 hours I'm going to torture you," he said holding up his katana,"by stabbing through the heart."
"Huh? You believe you can break me like that? I know that it is a lie. This whole world is a lie……AAAAAGGGHHHHH," Naruto could not complete his words. Itachi had impaled him with the katana. He gave a slight twist to the blade while it was still inside and pulled it out.
"71 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds to go," Itachi's smirk had disappeared into his usual stony face.
In the real world those 72 hours lasted only a few seconds. Naruto's legs collapsed underneath him as Itachi held him up by the waist and put him on his shoulder. No sound came from Hinata's lips. It was too much of a shock. She was on her knees, staring blankly as Itachi turned away. She was powerless. Sakura lay beside her, bloodied and unconscious. Kisame was too strong, even for the super strength Sakura had. But it was not supposed to happen. It was a C-class mission, not an S-class. Hinata had to sign up with Team Kakashi after he had to go on a solo mission. It was a dream come true for her, to be close to her Naruto-kun, and it had turned into a nightmare. To face two S-class criminals was too much for two chunnin and a genin, especially when they were totally unprepared. These two were in a different league altogether compared to Deidara and Sasori. Not that Hinata had any experience of facing the Akatsuki.
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Tsunade's brow creased when she heard the news that her surrogate brother had been kidnapped by the Akatsuki.
"Get Kakashi," Tsunade said, keeping her frustration down.
The ANBU disappeared, leaving the Hokage with her sake bottle. She downed the bottle in a second and was about to grab the second that she felt a familiar chakra near her.
"I'm not going to say anything, do anything you can, anything at all….just…Naruto…save him Jiraiya.", she was practically to tears when she downed the second bottle. Jiraiya just nodded and was gone. She wiped her tears and tried to focus and then it struck her. She rang the bell on her table. Shizune came running in.
"Shizune, get this message to Sunagakure. As fast as possible….."
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Gaara looked down from the highest point of the ridge. It was a straight drop of 500 meters. No one could survive a fall from that high, unless of course you had wings. Itachi sure did not have any wings, but neither did Naruto. But still Gaara knew that the S-class missing nin had escaped. The chase was still on. And having Kakashi and Pakkun to help was a big plus. Add Kiba, Shino and Hinata, and they were the perfect trackers. Itachi could not escape them, but the problem was if he decided to fight back. The back-up was yet to arrive.
The message had reached Gaara two days back. He had started out himself, without Kankurou or Temari as soon as he read it. The teams had met on the borders of Wind country and Kakashi had taken up from there. They had made progress but they were losing time, and time was all they needed. Tsunade had mentioned about a backup team coming to reinforce them but they had not arrived. With every minute passing, the chances of getting Naruto back was were fading.
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