"It's not like him to leave ramen." Sasuke was kneeling next to the dried puddle. Shikamaru nodded and pointed to the table,

"We know there was a fight and he was taken away, but why?" he turned and stared into space, tracing his thoughts.

"Yah? How'd you figure that one out?" Kiba called looking through another room.

"Oh, nothing…just the splintered table, spilled ramen, and bloody kunai wedged in the doorframe." Kiba turned, 'Just like him to get all sarcastic on me…'

"Right!" Sakura piped in, "We all know that he doesn't go anywhere he doesn't want to without a fight!"

"This is Naruto's knife…Shikamaru," Kakashi was holding out the kunai in a bag, "take this up to Shizune and ask her to see if she can get a blood i.d." He nodded and took the bag with him out the door.

'It's quiet and still…did they kill me?' Naruto sat up slowly and sheets slipped off with the movement. 'I'm on a bed.'

"So you're the new guy the master's been waiting for. Huh, don't look like much to me." The girlish voice came from nowhere and foot steps followed. Getting closer.

"Where..?"

"Sorry, no lights. Master's orders." Naruto reached for his holsters. Gone. 'Crap! They must have taken them while I was out cold.' He got into a defensive position and faced the sound. "You honestly think that you could take me on?" the voice chuckled, "Well don't bother anyway. I was just supposed to report when you woke up." She muttered under her breath, "Talk about a boring job." Naruto stood, tense, until he heard her clone dispel. He relaxed and flopped down on the bed and covered his face with his arms.
"Where am I?"

"P.A.C.T." answered a familiar male voice. A big metal door slid open quietly letting in the blinding light and there stood the man in black.

"You!" Naruto recoiled instinctively. "What the crud do you want from me?"

"I told you I have an offer for you. So please look into it before you decide so rashly." Naruto sat, waiting, remaining tense. "P A C T is the Professional Assassin Center of Training. You should consider yourself very lucky."

"And why is that?"

"Because you were handpicked by me personally and I am the Master Assassin. Leader of this whole organization." Naruto relaxed a bit.

"What if I don't want this?"

"Why wouldn't you? Now lets' look at the rest of the facility."

"Well the blood is certainly not Naruto's but we haven't been able to match it with anyone in our archives. We've sent a sample to the Village Hidden in the Sand and the have no matches either." Shizune stood facing the others in the hokage's office, she hated to be the bringer of bad news.

"Well what kind of lead is that?" Sasuke had snapped. "We are all finally back together again, but NOOOOOO-OOOOO some other stupid thing has to happen and send everyone reeling all over again…" Every started to zone out from his rant while Sakura tried to calm him down and try to get some real information.

"We've been checking in with our spy watching the Akatsuki more often and the latest response was the same as the others. But! Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari are coming over with the latest news on some of our shared traitors….disappearing. They think they have a lead and Gaara has had a personal experience with someone who caused one of the "disappearances."