Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

CHAPTER 4

Tsunade was sitting at her desk looking at the many mission requests. 'There is so much that needs to be done.' she thought to herself. Turning around in her chair, she looked out of the big windows, "At lease for now, everything is peaceful." she said to herself happily.

"Hokage-sama!" a voice yelled interrupting her moment of peace. Slightly irritated, she spun around in her chair, glaring at her intruder. Her eyes soften when she noticed the urgent look in Sakura's eyes.

"What is it?" she asked her disciple sternly, folding her hands together on top of her desk.

Sakura took a moment to catch her breath before she answered the older woman. Placing her hands at her sides, she let her eyes meet with Tsunade's, "It's Naruto, Hokage-sama." her voice was under a lot of strain. She tightened her hands into fists at her sides.

Instantly, worry began to fill her mind at the mentioning of something happening to Naruto. Sure, he could be a pain and hard to deal with, but that didn't stop her from caring about him. "What happened to him? Is he alright?" her voice was thick with her concern for the loud mouthed blond.

Shaking her head slightly, "That's just it! I have no idea if he's fine or not!" Sakura exclaimed to her.

Tsunade was starting to get irritated with this whole situation, "What do you mean you don't know!" she yelled at the pink haired kunochi. Pulling her hands apart from each other, she slammed them down on the desk, "And, where the hell is Kakashi!" her voice was so loud, that it was clearly heard down the hallway that was on the outside of her office.

Sakura could clearly see how angry her sensei was. She had some clue that the woman cared for Naruto, but she didn't know that she cared for him this much. She didn't act like this when they told her that Sasuke left for Orochimaru's. Before she got her chance to answer Tsunade's question, the door opened and in came Kakashi.

"Sorry that I'm la…" Kakashi started his usual excuse, but was cut off by Tsunade's dark glare, which clearly said, 'you say it and I'll kill you'. He gave a nervous laugh and stopped to stand next to Sakura.

Tsunade looked over at Sakura, signaling for her to start what she was going to tell her. Nodding her head, she began, "As you know, me, Kakashi-sensei, and Naruto were sent out on a mission." Sakura told her.

Tsunade nodded her head, letting the younger girl know that she was listening. "Go on." she commanded her.

Right away she did what she was told, "We were taking turns on doing night watch. When, my turn was over, I told Naruto that it was his turn to stand watch. That was the last time that I saw him that night. In the morning, when I got up, I didn't see him. I thought, at first, maybe he went to go look around." Sakura said a little too fast. It wasn't fast enough for no one to understand what she was saying.

Kakashi took it upon himself to finish explaining the rest of the story to her. "By the time that I got up, I noticed that Sakura was sitting by the burnt out camp fire, and that there was no sign of Naruto. When I asked her about it, she told me that he wasn't here when she got up either. Thinking that this was just another of his usual things, I didn't think that much about it." he told her plainly, getting himself ready to tell her the second part, but Sakura beat him to it.

"Like Kakashi-sensei was saying, we didn't think anything strange about it. When it came to a whole hour of him not showing up, that's when we noticed that something wasn't right. We spilt up to go look for him. I looked around the area of our campsite and I looked in his tent, to see if he was in there. While, Kakashi-sensei, looked in the forest." Sakura told her a little more calmly.

Upon hearing this information, Tsunade nodded her head, closing her eyes in concentration. She was trying to form up in her mind, a reason for why Naruto went up missing. She decided that it would be better if she had more information to go off of. "Was there any sign of a struggle?" she asked them evenly, opening her eyes to look at the both of them.

Kakashi was the first to answer her question, "No, there wasn't any signs of it. I didn't sense any sort of threat either. If I did, it would have woken me up."

"Then, he got up and left on his own free will? Maybe, he found something of interest?" Tsunade asked. Deep down, in the far back of her mind, she had the feeling that she knew what it was, or more importantly, she knew who it was.

The two stood in front of her with shock. They knew that it wasn't like Naruto to just up and leave without letting them know about it. That wasn't like him! Sakura looked away from Tsunade and looked at the wooden floor boards. She shoot her head up when the realization hit her.

"He must have had a run in with Sasuke." Kakashi stated more than he questioned it.

Tsunade nodded her head, pushing herself away from her desk, giving herself some space for her to stand up. She walked away from her desk and she stood in front of them. "I believe so." she told them softly.

Sakura looked at her, "Then, if that's the case, what are we going to do? What are your orders, Tsunade-sama?" she asked her with her voice void of any emotions.

"In the morning, I'm going to call forth all of the man power that we're going to need for this. For now, go and get some rest. We'll deal with this later." Tsunade dismissed them.

Sakura and Kakashi both bowed to her before they turned to leave. When she was alone, she sat back down at her desk. Sighing as she started looking through her paper work again. "Please, let that brat be alright." she pleaded softly to herself.