Hey, guys! Just want to let you know that I will be posting new artworks of GaaSaku sometime in the future.

Anyways, please read & review! :)


Back in the hidden sand village, Baki bursts in through the doors of the Kazekage tower building to inform others. "Send out a pursuit team to follow Kankuro immediately! And send an urgent message to the hidden leaf about the situation! This is an emergency!"

"Roger!" The jounins exclaimed in unison.

"I have a bad feeling about this... Something. Something is beginning," Baki said nervously in mind while his face was covered in a bit of sweats.

Outside of the village near the main entrance was Deidara telling his other companion, Sasori, about how strong Gaara really is when he fought him. Although, they did not know that Kankuro was following them until he saw several jounins brutally murdered relentlessly by one of the traitors. He got infuriated by this after seeing their bloody, dead corpses on both sides of the area. He clenched his fists tightly and dashed forwardly towards the enemies who were walking away. He yelled at them. "WAIT!"

They stopped in a halt calmly and turned around to face him.

"Return Gaara to me!" Kankuro declared strongly.

"Deidara... Go on ahead," Sasori said briefly and turns over to look at an angry Kankuro, who pulls out the three heavy scrolls from his back.

He swooped them over the front, which summons three different puppets.

"A puppet jutsu?" Sasori questioned in surprise.

"Right. I'll head on, yeah..." Deidara agreed.

"Like I'll let you go!" Kankuro cried out as he moved the puppets with his fingertips and starts congregating them to attack his opponent.

However, one of his puppets was caught by Sasori's grasp of the tail and said in a deep tone of his animatronic voice. "Since I don't like waiting or making people wait, I'll end this quickly."

For the time being, Kakashi and his two students were gathered on the sidewalk, whereas other citizens are working diligently with their lives as usual.

"You're late!" Naruto said annoyingly at his sensei.

"Well, this time I was delayed by filing out the paperwork for the new team," Kakashi sighed tiredly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Today, we start our first mission as a new team! Be enthusiastic! Kakashi-sensei, you've been like that for ages!" The blonde-haired ninja

"Oh, let it go! There's nothing he can do about the fact that he has a face devoid of any enthusiasm!" Sakura retorted back defensively at her friend.

"I'm... losing my dignity, aren't I?" Kakashi cringed in a sweat-dropped in thought.

Sakura, on the other hand, was looking over at her wrist with a sand bracelet on and questioning, whether it will still continue to go on to bleed or not. She hope it would not. At least, that's what she had in mind.

Then, he noticed a messenger hawk flying across the sky and hovers over towards the Hokage tower building for further information.

One of the jounins pulled out a letter from the hawk and exclaimed in shock. "This... This is the sand's fastest one, Takamaru! Code team, hurry and come here!"

They rolled the scroll over to see what the message was and they knew that it was a terrible news.

"Something definitely has happened!"

"Understood, I'll decode it right away!"

Inside one of the mission rooms, Team Kakashi were in front of the tables where they were still trying to get assigned a new mission by Lady Tsunade.

"Ehh! That mission is boring... No thanks!" Naruto groaned in frustration.

"Heh?! What kind of response is that? Well?!" Tsunade's hand was placed on the side of her jawline on the left with her teeth clenched in irritation at the blonde-haired kid.

"Please don't talk so selfishly! She'll get angry at me!" Kakashi's eyes was gazed over at his student nervously at his tantrum.

"Geh... Naruto, you haven't mentally matured at all, have you?" Iruka grabbed the right side of his head, trying to relieve the stress.

"Sorry, sensei! I'll sort him out!" Sakura punched Naruto on the top of his head.

"Idiot! You have no idea how terrible the fifth can be when saying those kinds of things. Gaargh!" Her inner Sakura yelled out in rage.

"The third was more sensible..." Naruto muttered quietly.

"Huh?! What did you say?!" Tsunade asked him to repeat those words again. If looks could kill.

"Hey... Calm down!" Sakura tries to constrain him from throwing insults at the fifth hokage.

"It's bad! Lady Tsunade! We just received the message. The sand's Kazekage has been kidnapped by an organization called the Akatsuki!" One of the jounins informed out loud, much to the others' dismay.

Sakura's eyes widened in shock and felt a burning sensation from the sand bracelet she's wearing. The wound began to reopen again as the blood drips down from her hand. She winced a little in pain after seeing it happen. "Argh!"

"Ah! Sakura, you okay?! We can treat it later at the hospital," Naruto placed his hand upon her left shoulder to check to see if she's okay and thought worriedly. "Gaara... Those guys again...? They can't be..."

Tsunade closed her eyes for a moment and flutters them open sharply, announcing. "Right, Team Kakashi. I will tell you now your new mission. Before that, you are to go immediately to the sand, find out the situation and relay it to the hidden leaf. After that, follow the orders of the sand and back them up. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!" They said in unison.

"Let's go!" Naruto exclaimed.

Meanwhile outside the hidden sand village, Kankuro was still helplessly fighting against Sasori and is now lying down in exhaustion after running out of chakra that he had used to control his puppets.

"Your plan was good. It's just not good enough against me. Your puppet's whole poison preparation mechanism is worthy of praise," the Akatsuki member chuckled menacingly.

"Damn it... Why?! This is the first time my puppets preparation has been read into so deeply," Kankuro gritted his teeth in exasperation without having a lot of strength to stand back up.

"Haha, you have a strange look on your face. Why were your preparations known? It's because the one that created your puppet dolls; brow, black ant, and salamander, was none other than me!" Sasori revealed the truth, astonishing Kankuro to say the least. "A cute youngster like you being any opponent, it was the most fun battle I've ever had in a long time."

"So, wait. You're the one... they called the Puppet Army's Genius Model Creator? Sasori from the Red Sands, right?!" Kankuro stuttered in flabbergasted.

"For my name to be known all the way down to a kid like you is an honor," he quoted in gratitude.

"You left the sand over 20 years ago... Why?!" Kankuro asked in confusion.

"What good is it for a person about to die to ask that?!" Sasori raised up the puppet's tail in front of him, oozing with purple acidic liquid and swung right all over his body.

Kankuro grunted in pain as he struggles to control his puppets with his left hand, then attacks him with a last bit of his chakra left in him. He was starting to lose his consciousness when his eyes were beginning to blur in a sudden haze and hope for someone to save him.

"This poison is making it's rounds. To be suffering like you are... If you want to live so badly, I won't kill you off here. However, that poison will kill you in 3 days," explained Sasori.

"Gaara..." Kankuro thought sadly in mind.

"Shit... Here he is! Over there! He's down and his puppets are all in pieces!" The jounin discovered his unconscious body when the rest of the team ran to go and retrieve him back to the hospital to get an emergency treatment.

"Well, off we go! See you soon, guys!" Naruto said in a farewell to Iruka and Tsunade as they departed from the hidden leaf village.

"Do your best!" Iruka reminded him.

"Yeah!" Naruto chirped and glanced at the familiar white-haired man in front of him.

"Yo! Going on a mission eh, Naruto?"

"Yes, pervy sage!" The blonde-haired ninja saluted.

"More importantly... Tsunade, something terrible has happened. The sand's Kazekage-"

"Yes, I know... I'm about to send these guys off to there now," Tsunade folded her arms until Jiraiya mentioned what happened between Naruto and the Akatsuki in a hush whisper.

"Naruto, come here for a sec," the white-haired sanin gestured his arm.

"Hm?"

"Be careful when it comes to the Akatsuki," Jiraiya warned.

"They've got something against me, so this time I'm coming after them," Naruto stated with his eyes narrowed firmly.

"Yeah, you have gotten stronger and all. But when you feel as though you're about to lose control, get a grip on yourself or you'll mess up. Becoming hot-headed too fast is your bad habit. I know you know. However, don't use that jutsu," Jiraiya noted at hand.

"I know..." Naruto murmured softly.

"Kakashi, make sure Naruto doesn't do anything stupid. He's all yours," Jiraiya notified while looking at the blonde-haired ninja's expression of distress.

"Yeah..." Kakashi agreed with a smile beneath his mask.

"Come on, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, let's move on!" The blonde-haired ninja called out behind him.

"Wai-Wait a minute, Naruto!" Sakura was stepping up to catch up to him, so that they could have a conversation while they head onto their journey.

Tsunade and the others watch them leave and asked Iruka. "Are you worried?"

"Nah. He isn't the kind of weak shinobi that I would worry about and Sakura too. Maturity is a weird thing..." he said smilingly.

Tsunade and Jiraiya smiled at that and went back inside the village to take care of things.

After Team Kakashi were hopping onto different tree branches, Sakura's eyes widened in surprise to recognize a familiar kunoichi walking back to her hometown.

"Temari!"

She looked over her shoulder and stopped for a moment to meet up with them. "Hey... Where are you guys going?"

"Didn't you hear about the news? Gaara's been kidnapped by the Akatsuki..." Naruto said quickly.

"What?! Gaara...!" Temari was disturbed by this and looks back on what had happened when her cup of tea started to crack, which was a bad sign.

"It'll take 3 days to reach the sand from here. Let's hurry," Kakashi informed.

"Okay," she agreed to come along with them.

While they were heading off hastily to figure out some tactics on their heads in order to get through the Akatsuki, all they can do right now is to find different clues and answers from other people in the hidden sand village.

The blonde-haired ninja was stomping onto the tree branches so harshly that Kakashi and the other two kunoichis have been noticing lately.

"Naruto, Just because I said to hurry, you shouldn't split up the team. Don't get so heated. Didn't Jiraiya just tell you that?" Kakashi reminded him.

"I can't stand it...! Even I know why they're after me and Gaara... You know, right Sakura? Inside us are tailed-beasts. Gaara and I are the same... because we have monsters contained in our bodies, that is what the Akatsuki are after. That's what I cannot stand. Just seeing us as monster, I cannot help but feel so bad for people looking at us whatever way they feel like. He was fighting and he was more lonelier than I was..." Naruto clenched his teeth tightly in anger.

Sakura looks down without any words to say to him as she remembers most of the times that both of her best friends have gone through and the days she had with them. Her eyes started glistening in tears of sadness and sympathy towards them.

"He was targeted by them. Just like I was before. Even so, why is it always him alone that has to have such a hard role?! Always him alone?! That's why! That's why I won't just sit around asking why... This time, for definite, I want to save him..." The blonde-haired ninja expressed emotionally.

"You can't be the only one... You can't do it alone, Naruto. I also want to save him... He means everything to us... I, for one, would want to be capable and willing to reach out to those who need help. I wasn't just training these two and a half years. I was looking through Lady Tsunade's notes and researched outside as much as I could. You know, Itachi Uchiha, right? He is the older brother of Sasuke. That is what he wants to kill..." Sakura concluded as she began to think of finding a way to stop the chaos from happening to her friends. "And after that, our worst enemies who causes suffering for Gaara, Sasuke and targetting Naruto... This time, I will save them!"

During the afternoon back in the hidden leaf village, Tsunade was looking through the paperwork that was piled up on top of her desk. As she reaches for her drink, the sounds of a small crack running through the teacup made her become uneasy about sending Naruto's team into danger.


TO BE CONTINUED...