"Okay, which way are we supposed to be going?" Natsu asked.

"The Hidden Sand village is this way." Sakura told him as they kept walking through the forest.

"Tell me something, Natsu..." Kakashi said as Natsu turned his head. "Did you summon this cat when you came here?"

"What? What do you mean by 'summon'?" Natsu asked.

"He means that you form a contract with a summoning animal. Take Naruto for instance, he made a contract with a frog named Gamabunta." Sakura explained.

"Contract? Oh! You mean like Celestial Wizards like Lucy?" Happy asked.

Kakashi and Sakura blinked. "Celestial what?" They asked.

With Naruto, he was busy playing Ski Ball with Lucy at the resort while Gray was eating ice cream with Juvia since...she tagged along for whatever reason and Erza was in her room, looking at herself in the mirror. "You know, the way you tell me how strong Erza is makes me think of Sakura."

Lucy looked at him in surprise. "She's strong like Erza?!"

"Well, she was trained by Granny Tsunade who can destroy the ground with just one finger." Naruto explained.

Lucy shuddered. "Remind me to not piss off that old lady..." She said, sweatdropping.

Erza was looking at the mirror, just sighing to herself when all of a sudden, she heard an explosion. "What the heck?!" She exclaimed as she went off to investigate.

When she got there, she saw that Gray and Juvia was nowhere to be seen, Lucy down on the ground and for some reason, Naruto got his head stuck in the ski ball machine. "What happened?!"

"There you are." A voice said as she turned to see a kitty girl, a normal boy, a guy with a metal jaw and a literal block head. "We've been looking all over for you."

"Who are you and what have you done with my friends?!"

"We just simply knocked them out." The normal boy said as the guy with the metal jaw walked up to her, grabbed her as the kitty girl gave him rope as he then tied her up and then the four of them left.

"Erza..." Lucy said as she got up, seeing them leave.

"MMMMPH! MMMMPH!" A mumbled voice yelled as Lucy saw Naruto stuck in the Ski Ball machine.

"Naruto!" Lucy exclaimed as she ran up to him and tried to pull him out.

Back with Team Kakashi, they were just staring at Natsu in confusion. "So Happy just fell from the sky?" Kakashi asked.

"He was in an egg too." Natsu replied. "He landed right on my head and Lisanna and I took care of him until he hatched."

They both blinked. "Cats coming out of eggs?" They asked as they kept walking.

"Geez, you think they've never seen the miracle of life or something." Happy whispered.

"No kidding." Natsu nodded in agreement.

They kept walking until they saw a woman walking to the Hidden Sand. "Hey, Temari!" Sakura called out to her.

"Huh?" Temari turned to see the four walking up to them. "Oh hello, Kakashi, Sakura and...uh...who are you two?"

"I'm Natsu and this is my buddy, Happy." Natsu introduced.

"Hello!" Happy exclaimed.

"Uh, shouldn't Naruto be with you?" Temari asked.

"About that..." Kakashi said.

One explanation from Natsu later...

Temari just stared in confusion. "Wh-what?"

"Ha, that's what Kakashi and Sakura said too!" Happy exclaimed.

"I...uh...don't follow." Temari blinked.

Back at the Resort...

"I don't understand how one can his head stuck in a ski ball machine." Gray said.

"I felt like I was being eaten by that machine..." Naruto muttered.

"Can we just get back to the topic?! Erza's been kidnapped!" Lucy exclaimed. "We need to go save her!"

"We don't even know where they are! Chances are, they're probably not at the resort anymore!" Gray told her as they walked out of the resort and looked at the ocean in front of them.

"I wonder..." Naruto looked straight ahead. "Do you think they sailed away with Erza?"

"Probably, but we don't even have a boat." Lucy said.

"Um, guys?" Juvia piped up as they looked at her. "There's a small rowboat we can use." She said, pointing to it.

"Alright, that'll work." Lucy said as they walked to the rowboat and rowed away.

Exactly thirty seconds later...

"THIS IS TAKING TOO LONG!" Naruto complained.

"THIS ISN'T A SPEEDBOAT, YOU KNUCKLEHEAD!" Gray exclaimed.

With the others, they were walking in the desert. "Man...they don't call it the Hidden Sand for nothing." Natsu muttered. "I don't see anything!"

"We're close to the village. Just a bit farther." Temari told him.

Around a few minutes later, they got to the Hidden Sand village. "Whoa!" Happy exclaimed in amazement.

"Now this is cool!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Lady Temari!" A voice exclaimed as they looked to see a medic running up to them. "Your brother...he's been badly wounded. He chased after the Akatsuki and got poisoned."

"WHAT?!" Temari yelled as she ran off to the hospital as the others followed her.

Back in the ocean, Naruto had his arms folded, extremely annoyed that it's taking a long time. "Alright, you know what? I think it's time to abandon ship!" He exclaimed as he got up.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Getting off." Naruto smiled as he hopped off and when his feet touched the water, he ran off, surprising the three of them.

"How is he doing that?!" Gray exclaimed.

"That's...amazing." Juvia said in amazement, watching Naruto run off.

"Naruto..." Lucy looked at him. "You're...so awesome!"

In the hospital, Sakura saw Kankuro and immediately went right to work while Natsu, Happy and Kakashi sat by while Temari was giving Sakura anything she requested as the medics were doing the same thing. "Man, how in the heck did he get beat up so bad?" Natsu wondered.

"The Akatsuki are a group of people who are very dangerous." Kakashi explained. "We only know of two of them. Itachi and Kisame." He said and explained what they are capable of.

"Wow...I'd hate to meet them in a dark alley." Happy said.

"Ah, they seem like nothing." Natsu said. "If they ever come across me, I'll kick their butt so fast, they won't know what hit them."

Kakashi blinked and looked at Happy, his eye asking him "Is he always like this?". "Sometimes." Happy said.

"Sometimes what?" Natsu asked.

"Oh nothing." Happy replied.

"He's in here." A voice said as they looked to see Baki walking in with an old lady and man.

The old lady saw Kakashi and her eyes widened. It can't be! She thought and then growled under her breath. "WHITE FANG OF THE LEAF!" She yelled as Kakashi looked at her in surprise, seeing her running straight for him. "DIE!" She yelled.

Natsu got in the way and pushed her away a little. "What the heck is your problem, grandma? I don't know who this White Fang is, but this is Kakashi for crying out loud!"

"Excuse her." The old man said. "She's a bit...crazy in her old age but she's actually a sweetheart." He said.

"Sorry for that, I'm just a bit senile at times." She said and then laughed it off like it was nothing, causing all of them to sweatdrop and looked at her funny.

"Kakashi and whoever the heck you two are, this is Lady Chiyo and Ebizo." Baki introduced them as he walked over to Sakura. "Here's the antidote."

"Thank you." Sakura smiled.

One healed guy later...

Kankuro groaned in pain as he weakly got up. "Well...that went well..." He muttered.

"So what happened?" Temari asked.

"This guy by the name of Hiruko attacked me while that guy that loves explosions went off with Gaara. However, I did manage to get a piece of his cloth." He explained as he gave it to them.

"Hmm..." Natsu looked at it and smelled it randomly as his eyes widened. "I got his scent."

"Huh?" Everyone but Happy looked at him strange.

"Just follow me." He said. "I know where he might be."

"We'll just stay here, someone needs to keep an eye on Kankuro anyways." Temari said.

"Alright, see you later." Sakura said as they took off...with Chiyo following them.

"I hope my sister will be okay..." Ebizo muttered.

With the ninja, he stopped dead in his tracks as he looked at the Tower of Heaven. "Whoa...that's a big tower." He said as he looked behind to see the other three coming up to them. "How did you get here so fast?"

Lucy smiled. "I used Aquarius." She said. "It was a lot faster that way."

Naruto looked at Aquarius and almost did a double-take. "WHAT THE HECK?! A MERMAID?!" She yelled.

Aquarius rolled her eyes and then glared at Lucy. "Use me for that again and I will kill you." She threatened before disappearing.

"She really doesn't mean that." Lucy reassured him.

"So, Erza's in here, huh?" Gray asked. "And it's probably heavily guarded so we should find a secret entrance."

"Secret entrance? Nah...I was thinking of busting our way in." Naruto smirked as he did Shadow Clone Jutsu with about a hundred clones showed up and then they all stormed in.

"Naruto!" Gray sighed with annoyance. "Man, that idiot is going to get himself killed..."

"Well, we might as well follow him." Lucy said as the trio followed him.
===================================================================================================

Leave it to Naruto to storm in...haha!