Hey everyone! I hope you're loving the story so far!

As always,

Enjoy~!

~Kyvena

Chapter 4: TARGET! TAILED BEASTS pt. 1

For the past four years, Sakura had been honing her skills as a medical and massive damage with precise chakra control training. Currently taking a break, Sakura watched some children playing but couldn't help but notice that one of the children looked like Deidara as her pink hair, which had grown back out to her thighs blew gently in the wind. Watching this child made Sakura's eyes fall a bit, it had been four years since she had even seen Deidara, not to mention all of the nasty rumors that began circulating within the village soon after she returned home. Suddenly a scream was heard, shocking Sakura out of her daydream. The child that had fallen was the one that resembled Deidara so much... Standing, Sakura headed to the child and knelt beside him before he spoke, "Help Sakura! It hurts!" Sakura smiled and nodded before beginning to heal the child; who had apparently twisted his ankle, "How does that feel?" Sakura smiled as the green glow from her medical ninjutsu faded. Making a circle with his foot, he grinned, and stood up. Turning, he bowed and began thanking Sakura before turning and running off to play with his friends again, "Thanks Sakura!" Sakura chuckled and waved, "Now be more careful!"

Feeling a tap upon her shoulder, Sakura turned around to see Naruto, "Oh hey Naruto." Sakura stood and brushed herself off, no longer having that beautiful bronze glow she had obtained from her time spent in Iwagakure. Wrapping his arm around her shoulder, Naruto smiled and began to walk with Sakura. He had definitely grown profoundly more handsome and the years were definitely treating him well. Narrowing her eyes at him, she realized, he looked exactly like the fourth Hokage, his father, with the way he allowed to let his hair grow out. Naruto realized Sakura was now staring at him and chuckled, "Is there something on my face or something?" Sakura came back to reality and shook her head slightly, "Oh no, haha. I was just thinking about how much you looked like your dad now." Naruto grinned and chuckled, "You think so?" Merely nodding, Sakura smiled as she looked up at the sky... "The... sky..." She whispered softly, gaining Naruto's attention, "What was that?" It was then she noticed she had wrapped her arm around Naruto's waist and quickly dropped it as she blushed.

Naruto had become so sharp, too sharp, and was about to ask Sakura a question before they heard a "HEY WAIT FOR ME!" Naruto slightly scowled and swooped Sakura up bridal style before using Flying Raijin to enter his home, "I swear, Sasuke bother's you way too much, ya know?" Sakura blushed madly but turned to look at Naruto, in return he gave her a slightly puzzled look, "What's wrong Sakura?" This took a lot of guts for Sakura, but she took a deep and sharp breath before speaking, "Naruto... will you... um..." Naruto held up his hand and chuckled gently. He was always so cool, calm and composed, which was something Sakura had always liked about him. Naruto grinned, "Yeah I'll be your boyfriend, ya know!" Sakura turned bright red considering that's not even what she was going to ask him, but maybe this was an opportunity to forget all about Deidara. Nodding, Sakura smiled, "Well I guess it's settled then!"

Deidara tapped his foot impatiently and ran his fingers through his hair, "So what is the mission Sasori my man?" Sasori glanced towards Deidara before the leader of the Akatsuki decided to show his face, "Your target is the one tails Jinchuuriki, Gaara of the desert." Sighing heavily, Deidara shrugged, "Makes no difference to me, yeah." Once the leader vanished, Sasori turned his head towards Deidara, "You need to stop being in such a hurry Deidara." Rolling his eyes, Deidara turned away before beginning to walk towards the Village Hidden in the Sand. Once they reached the desert, Deidara groaned, "It's so damn hot, yeah." As always, Sasori kept to himself and pushed forward, "You know Sasori my man, you are lucky you are a puppet. You don't feel the heat, hm." Sasori was as gloomy as ever to be around, which made him think back to when Sakura was around him, there was never a single silent or dull moment.

Finally reaching the Sand Village, Deidara stuck his hands in his detonating clay bags as the hands began to much away at the clay. Retracting his hands, he waited a moment before one of the hands spit out a piece of chewed up clay, covered with saliva before pressing his hands together tightly, forming a tiny bird. Tossing the bird to the ground, he held up his pointer and middle finger, enlarging the bird, "I think I can handle this one on my own Sasori my man, hm!" Sasori looked away before sighing, "Don't mind me Deidara. Take as long as you need." Rolling his eyes, Deidara jumped on the back of the clay creation before it took flight into the skies. Looking around Deidara rose his hand to his scope to begin snapping pictures of all of the guards patrolling the skies, "One... Two... Three... They only have three guards watching the skies?" Deidara grinned and produced three spider looking bombs that could actually move before dropping them. Once they landed, the spiders began crawling and jumping at the guards before holding up his pointer and middle fingers and yelling "HA!" Igniting the bombs and instantly killing the guards.

Once that deed was done, Deidara jumped down and landed with one knee on the ground, "Infiltration complete... hm?" Deidara looked up only to see the man he was after, "So how did you know, hm?" Gaara looked at this blonde bronzed man in front of him with bland eyes, "There are no birds like that in the desert..." Deidara grinned, "Is that so..." Then the long battle between the Kazekage and the Akatsuki male's began. It was rigorous and Deidara even lost an arm in the process, which he retrieved in the process so Kakuzu could sew it back on. With that, Deidara and Sasori were off with the one tail; Shikaku. Little did he know, he'd be facing the past really soon...

Soon enough, and emergency hawk was sent to the Hidden Leaf Village with the panic that their Kazekage had been abducted by the Akatsuki. Lady Tsunade had no choice... she had to send in Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi to help rescue Gaara. Soon enough, Sakura and Naruto bolted towards Lady Hokage's office holding hands. 'This is bad, REALLY bad!' Bursting through Tsunade's office door, Sakura and Naruto entered; Sasuke and Kakashi still there. Sakura looked mortified, "MILADY! PLEASE TELL ME IT'S NOT TRUE! GAARA WASN'T REALLY TAKEN WAS HE!?" Sakura yelled and Sasuke partially flinched as Tsunade sighed, "Team Kakashi, by my orders you are to head to the Sand Village and aid in rescuing their Kazekage." The four swiftly nodded as Tsunade leaned back in her chair, "You are to leave the moment you are packed, am I understood?" The four nodded again before saying in sync, "Yes milady!" Sakura had moved into Naruto's apartment by then and the two rushed back to their home hand in hand.

Finally packed, Naruto and Sakura quickly headed towards the front gates only to see Sasuke and Kakashi already waiting for them. Kakashi looked at the three students he had and nodded, "All right, we are to save the Kazekage! Understood!?" The three nodded once again, "Yes sir!" Team Kakashi quickly departed from the leaf village in hopes to make it to Gaara in time. As they traveled, Sakura noticed someone familiar on the road, "TEMARI!" She yelled out, making the spikey blonde haired female stop and look Sakura's way. Stopping shortly, Kakashi explained everything as quickly as they could before all five took off together towards the Sand Village. Three days later, the five entered the Sand Village only to find Kankuro had been poisoned but he did obtain some of Sasori's clothing. Handing it to Kakashi, he quickly summoned his ninja hounds and they began to track the scent.

Finally coming upon a giant rock, Sakura gained an uneasy feeling before Kakashi began to speak, "All right Sakura, time to put that four years of training with Lady Tsunade to good use. We need you to smash this boulder. Nodding, Sakura ran back a good distance and got into a battle ready stance that Deidara had taught her, "Ready? GO! SAKURA NOW!" Sakura ran forward, infusing a decent size of chakra into her fist before slamming it into the boulder and shattering it. Once the boulder crumbled to dust her eyes widened at the sight of Deidara sitting on Gaara and Deidara's eyes widened just as much remembering what their leader had told them... 'The Nine Tails Jinchuuriki is coming as well, from Zetsu's intel, we know the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki is a female.' The only female he witnessed though... was Sakura...