Don't worry Princess," came a voice out of the darkness of night. "I'll get you to safety. We'll find a village and save the kingdom. I promise."

"Ray… th…that's… what about-"

"Don't worry Your Highness. I'm sure he'll be alright."

"But your hurt too!"

"Flesh wound, I've had worse. Don't worry about me. Just rest."

The princess nodded and fell asleep over the teen's shoulder.

The teen looked up at a gate. It was a gate to the village, which one he didn't know. There was no moon that night, so he couldn't see the symbol.

"A village? How far… did…. I…"

The teen didn't finish his sentence, he fainted, right there in front of the gate with the princess on his back.

The Next Morning

"So how'd the mission go?" Sai asked Sakura as they all ate their ramen.

Sakura sighed just poking at the noodles in her bowl. "No leads… again."

Naruto stopped eating his noodles for once and just stared blankly into the brown broth. Tsunade and given them all permission to do no missions except for those involving the Akatsuki or finding anything in one of Orochimaru's hideouts if they could find any information on Sasuke. It had been four months since then. Four months filled with zero leads, their time had been running out and both Naruto and Sakura knew it.

Sai finished up the last of his soup and looked at both of them giving them that smile of his. "It was a small hideout though yes? There was no guarantee that there would be any clues to begin with."

They nodded. "We know," they both said in unison.

Sakura put her bowl down. "That doesn't mean we can give up though Sai."

Sai nodded. "I understand that. As the reason for myself helping both of you in this endeavor." He handed his bowl over and cleaned off his hands. "Anyway, did either of you hear what happened late last night?"

Sakura jumped up. "Yeah, those kids outside the village."

Naruto shot up like a dart waving his hands. "Whoa, whoa whoa! What happened!?"

"Naruto," Sakura sighed, "Don't tell me your that out of the loop?"

"What happened!?"

"Last night outside the village this boy with a child on his back were found unconscious outside the gate. He was a bloody mess and clearly exhausted. By the time they had gotten him into the hospital he was barely breathing."

"What about the kid?"

"She's fine. Just a few bruises and scratches. The fact that they got here though isn't the big story. It's who they are that's big."

"Who are they huh?"

Sakura opened her mouth, but she was interrupted by a hand from behind her flashing in front of her face.

"Sakura, Naruto, Sai." a male voice ordered. They turned around to see Yamato and stood up quickly.

"Captain Yamato!"

He nodded. "The Hokage would like to speak with us all. Immediately."

"Right!"

"Wait a minute," Naruto sighed. "We have to meet Grandma Tsunade here?"

After a few minutes the group arrived outside the doors of the hospital. Yamato had led them there to meet with Tsunade instead of at her office, which was pretty strange in Naruto's head. Yamato just nodded and led them inside to a room on the very top floor, a room separated from the rest.

Yamato stopped and held the doorknob. "Now listen, when you walk in here, watch your words. That goes double for you Naruto."

They nodded, as did the captain as he slowly opened the door. The room had a little bit of light coming into it, but most of it was shaded and gray. Toward the window was a lone bed, in it was a boy heavily bandaged from his neck down to his ankles. He was about Naruto's size in muscle, though they were more distinct. His black hair had been pulled back into a small pony-tail, his eyes shut. Standing on the opposite side of the bed was Tsunade, her arms crossed with her index finger tapping her elbow.

"You're all late." she told them. "We don't have time for this. Get in here."

They nodded and walked in shutting the door. The boy opened his eyes but didn't look over, his face as expressionless as Gaara's.

The boy spoke in a soft spoken voice. "Sasuke Uchiha," he said without looking. "Does that name mean anything to either of you people?"

Everyone in the room got stiff, their bodies bolted up right, eyes wide. The boy looked over at them, his eyes never wavering.

"I'll ask again. Sasuke Uchiha."

Sakura put a hand up and took a breath in. Calmly she answered, "Yes. It does mean something."

"Good. Then let me ask you this. The Kingdom of Ishia. Do you all know of it?"

Everyone but Naruto nodded.

"Ishia?" Naruto asked. "What's that?"

Everyone in the room face palmed except the boy. Sakura looked to Naruto and put a finger up.

"Ishia," she began to explain. "It's a kingdom hidden deep in the Land of Lightning. Around the southeastern side of the country really. It's on the coastline. The Kingdom is a completely neutral place. It's private ninja force is strongest in the world, on top of that it holds all of the worlds money. A direct result of that is that the village is prone to very, very few attacks. In known history the village has only been attacked once, and it was a terribly failed attempt."

Sai interrupted her. "On top of that, the country is also well known for it's art. In fact the prin-"

"Okay I get it!" Naruto shout it. "The countries real important! But what does this have to do with Sasuke!?"

The room got quiet again, and again everyone looked towards the boy. He nodded.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ray Urahara, and I am the interim bodyguard for Princess Iashia. As a result I am from the Kingdom of Ishia… which as of now has been attacked twice in history. The second time a success."

Sakura shot back. "How!? What about the guards!? The ninjas!?"

Ray shook his head. "More than half of the force had been killed before we even knew what was going on. As for the rest, I don't know. I was ordered by His Majesty to get the Princess out of the Kingdom as fast as possible. I grabbed her, a spare set of clothes and whatever necessities we needed and was out of the village within ten minutes of the direct order."

Naruto shook his head. "But what about Sasuke!?"

"This is where he comes in. I had read reports on the Uchiha boy. Crow like hair, Sharingan… and the Chidori. All of which I witnessed. I could only see his outline, but his eyes could not lie. I am sure that boy was there, standing on top of the castle watching the destruction he and his alley caused."

Naruto clenched his fists while trying to keep his calm.

Sasuke… why would you do this?

Sakura put a finger to her chin. "Do you know if they headed anywhere else."

"They won't."

"How would you know that?"

"They were after something."

"How would you know THAT?"

"Because they were only attacking one spot," came a small voice from behind. Everyone looked back at the door. Standing in the doorway was a little girl with a blue kimono, on both sides was a very distinguished decal of a beautiful white lotus flower. A flower so rare that most have only heard of it. It's vines stretched around her kimono gracefully. The girl had silver hair that even though it was tied up with a light blue bow it still reached the middle of her back. Her skin wasn't as white as Sai's, however it was more of a pure white, like snow or the lotus. Her large blue eyes gleamed like stars.

The girl bowed eloquently. "I am Princess Isou," she introduced. "It is very nice to meet you all."

"Princess!" Ray said jerking up, he winced and held is side. "Where were you Princess!?"

"Calm down," came a stern voice from the other side of the door. The owner of the voice stepped out and revealed to be Neji, standing next to him was Shikamaru.

"We found her eating dumplings with Anko." Shikamaru instructed.

Isou smiled sweetly. "They were very delicious. We don't have those in my kingdom."

Shikamaru nodded and continued where the Princess left off. "As Princess Isou was saying, they were after something. She told us on the way. Also I did research on the country about four years ago. Somewhere in the kingdom is something called the "Dark Core.' It's exactly what it sounds like. A core full of the power of darkness. It has the power to increase whoever has it's chakra by two hundred fold. It's only a legend though."

Sakura thought for a second. "Sasuke's never been the kind to chase legends though. So why would he attack?"

"It wasn't just him." Ray interrupted, gritting his teeth. "There was another man with a few other ninja with him. Long white hair… his name's Saito Aizen. A man to be feared."

Tsunade tapped her hand on the desk and sat on it crossing her legs. "How would you know about his man Ray?"

Ray paused instead of answering, looking down at his hands, his eyes began to flare up with anger, but it soon disappeared as quickly as it appeared. He looked around the room, several pairs of eyes staring at him. He looked to the princess who nodded and smiled sweetly at him. He nodded and sighed.

"I have only been Princess Isou's bodyguard for three days. Three days ago I was wandering around. I don't belong to any village or country. I do odd jobs to get by. I was running out of money when I showed up and there were signs that anybody could become the Princess' guardian with his blessing. However when I got there the guard had nearly attacked me. I told his majesty I wanted the job. The only thing I had to do according to him was ten of his strongest men. I took them all on at once and knocked them out in five minutes."

The princess nodded. "It's true."

"I was only planning on staying until the end of today since I got my money but… a promise is a promise."

The room was quiet once again. The princess walked up to Ray's bed setting her hands on his bedside. Tsunade stood up banging her hands on the table.

"All right!" she shouted. "That's where all of you will come in! Sakura, Neji, Naruto and Shikamaru will go. Shikamaru you'll lead the team. You need to sneak in and take back the kingdom. Understood? This is a sneaking mission. Only fight when necessary got it?"

Sai stepped forward. "What of me ma'am?"

"Sai, you are to stay here in the village. I have another assignment for you. Yamato I need you to prepare a backup team should something happen."

Yamato nodded and dashed out.

Tsunade looked at the remainder of the group. "Now Shikamaru here is your role as leader. Follow the orders of Ray unless under attack."

He nodded and scratched his head. "Right."

She looked towards the injured teen. "However you can't leave until your healed."

Ray looked at her with dark glaring eyes. "That'll be tomorrow."

Sakura gasped. "With those wounds!?"

Ray nodded and looked at her. "Trust me. It'll be tomorrow."

Tsuande sighed. "Geez… alright. All of you go get ready and get some rest. You leave first thing tomorrow!"

The ninja group stood at attention and shouted in unison. "Right!"