WATCH OUT! Chapter 3 and 4 got posted at the same time, so if you haven't read the previous one, return to the previous one.
I've also updated the summary, to one that satisfied me more.
With his Multi Shadow clone Jutsu, Naruto was doing his best to quickly help everyone out of the ravage, in order to hastily go after Sasuke.
But even if he wanted to follow other, he couldn't concentrate very well. Not only because his concentration wasn't normally 'that' good, but rather because the young blonde couldn't find Sakura-chan amongst the crowd of people.
After realizing that he couldn't find her at all, Naruto desperately asked Hinata, Kiba, Ino and Shino to detect her.
But he almost totally flipped out when they said that they couldn't see, smell, detect or find her.
And then all the pieces fell together, with Naruto realizing that the thing the man was carrying wasn't an object but rather a person, and that person could only be - must be - her, notably given Sasuke's reaction.
With that exact thought settling in his head, the young Uzumaki ran off in order to find them.
The Destroyed Training Grounds
Just before he reached the (recently destroyed) training grounds, Naruto found Captain Yamato laying in the bushes with cuts through his shoulder and through his leg, along with a few burn marks on his face.
Worried for the other but still preoccupied with finding Sakura first, the young blonde male hurriedly send a shadow clone to bring him to the hospital.
With his heart beating faster every second, Naruto ran deeper into the grounds, barely taking notice of the sound of a thousand birds chirping.
The moment he reached a clearing, the blonde saw the Teme stuck in a tree with a cloaked man towering over him and, at their feet, Naruto caught sight of Sakura-chan, inert and bleeding.
Rage boiling up, the young Uzumaki charged with his Rasengan straight for the enemy, all while screaming his teammates' names.
Rather than turning to face the approaching blonde, the mysterious cloaked man just simply picked Sakura-chan up and knocked Sasuke out, before he broke into a run.
As he came into range, Naruto dove right into his cloak with his hand, never expecting his hand to not only miss its mark - his Rasengan fading into nothing - but also burn with a blazing pain, worse than a Lee-special-curry.
With a yell, the blonde quickly pulled his hand back, stunned and in pain, before noticing that the man's cloak was made out of Amaterasu...and detecting only now that the burning on his arm was caused by the black flames, alive and eating violently at his flesh.
Still in complete agony which he attempted to ignore, Naruto tried to hit the other with his unharmed hand, but the enemy merely dodged it at a tremendous speed, shifting to whisper calmly in the blonde's ear: "Don't even try it. It won't work."
As stubborn as Naruto was, he tried it again, but, just like before, the enemy dodged, but, this time, used a sort of replacement jutsu of black fire, reappearing a few meters away, out of reach.
"Didn't I just say it wouldn't work? Just forget about me already and go help that Uchiha," uttered the cloaked man, as if giving the blonde an order, all while spitting Sasuke's name with absolute disgust.
Staring at the other like he was crazy - which he probably was – Naruto then declared with utter determination, all while activating the Nine Tails' chakra: "Yes, I'll SAVE BOTH MY FRIENDS!"
"So, you're the Nine Tails' little sardine can, aren't you?" inquired the cloaked man, in a teasing tone.
Though bothered by the name the other used, Naruto confirmed it anyways: "Yes, I am. NOW release Sakura."
"How hilarious. Your friend said exactly the same to me," stated the cloaked man, tone derisive "But as you can see, I didn't do for it him. So, what makes you think I'll do it for you?"
Naruto closed his eyes as he remembered that day. "Because I once promised to get Sasuke back no matter what, and I did. And for Sakura, I will do the same."
"Sadly for you, I really don't want to fight you now. I'm kind of in a hurry. So, in compensation for your determination alone, I'll extinguish the flames on your arm, ok?"
And with that, the flames on Naruto's arm were gone, and as that happened, the cloaked man started to disappear, along with Sakura in a swirl of fire.
The young Uzumaki hastened after them but he was too late.
Naruto did manage however to catch a slight glimpse of what laid beneath the hood.
The mystery man had green eyes. A green colour that looked so familiar, and yet not really.
They were colder and darker than the green he normally knew.
Hogake's Office
"Alright then. I'm already aware about the explosion and the fact that Sakura is gone, so I want to know exactly what happened," demanded Kakashi seriously to the young ones of Konoha 12 generation, all of them (along with Sai) present. All of them with the exception of Team 7.
"We aren't sure. We weren't with them when they ran off," commented Sai casually, the only one amongst them who wasn't too shocked by the fact that Sakura was seemingly missing, inappropriately wearing a smile to his lips.
"...I see."
And like it was planned, the door suddenly opened, and Naruto, Sasuke and Tsunade came in.
But in contrast to Sasuke, who walked beside them in silence, Naruto was being forcefully dragged in by Tsunade, as he screamed at the top of his lungs: "But Baa-Chan! I need to go after them!"
"JUST STOP ALREADY, NARUTO! You don't have any lead or anything, so behave yourself and be patient," reprimanded Tsunade harshly in an extremely irritated voice.
Only a selected few within the one could pick up, that Tsunade was actually pretty much upset over the disappearance of her student/daughter.
"Please, calm down, the both of you. What are the stakes, Tsunade-sama?" asked Kakashi.
"Yamato is getting treated in the hospital as we speak. Sasuke was unconscious when I found him, so I attended to him with my medical ninjutsu. So, he should be fine (a feat the Uchiha confirmed with a nod). Naruto, on the other hand, was hitting the ground out of frustration, leading to multiple fractures in his hand - which was already badly burned, for reasons he won't tell me. The ever stubborn child."
"HEY!"
"She's right, dobe. Shut up. Now."
"Don't order me around, you-!"
Kakashi sighed as Naruto and Sasuke bickered heatedly like an old married couple, before he cleared his throat to draw their attention: "Hmmm, if you guys don't mind, I'd like to hear what happened."
Focusing on his very first mentor, the young Sharigan-user then began to tell his part of their story, until finally reached the point where the enemy used some kind of reversed sealing technique on him, which caused Tsunade to immediately cut him off and ask for more details.
Once the last Uchiha explained exactly what the enemy had done to him, Shikamaru asked Sasuke if he was still able to perform Amaterasu himself.
Giving it a try, he activated his eyes' abilities, with one of them starting to bleed as he attempted Amaterasu, but to everyone's surprise, though his eye only bled heavily, nothing else happened.
"It seems that your Amaterasu's been stolen, Sasuke," pointed out Kakashi calmly.
"But...How is that possible?" asked Lee, total in shock, whilst most of the others were either too horrified for words or just in utter disbelief that this had actually happened to their friend.
"Yes, how's that possible? I thought that stealing a kekkei genkai must be a physical action," pointed out Tenten with a baffled expression.
"You're right about that," confirmed Tsunade, before she elucidated the matter further "But it seems that the flame this mystery man was holding in his hand was in fact the very object he needed to steal. That also means that he's able to manipulate it without the use of a Sharingan."
"Does that mean Sasuke's now unable to perform Amaterasu? Permanently?" inquired Choji.
"We don't know. But, from what we just saw now, it sure seems like it. Sorry, Sasuke," voiced Shikamaru, his words causing the young Uchiha to freeze in place.
"...Wait. Doesn't that mean that we just lost a great part of the Sharingan's powers?" asked Kiba, accompanied by a bark from Akamaru.
"When a crab loses its shell, it's not so good for itself but it's great advantage for another crab. Why you ask? Because the other crab will use the other one's shell to live in," declared Shino, causing Kiba to stare at his teammate in complete confusion.
But before he could open his mouth and complain in order to get Shino to speak normally, the Hokage spoke: "He's right. Because someone's loss, might be a strength for somebody else."
"J-j-just like if somebody stole the Byakugan, it would be disastrous for the one it's been stolen from. But for the ones who s-s-steal it, it will become extremely handy," informed Hinata, eyes lowered.
A pause indicated that this part of the conversation was over, but, as our favourite Hatake glanced over towards Sasuke to ask him to continue, he noticed that he was still in shock.
Hence, Kakashi looked in the blonde's direction instead and nodded at him, the cue for Naruto to give his side of the story.
When the Uzumaki was finally finished with his narration, it was Ino who asked him curiously: "What do you mean 'the eyes looked familiar'?"
"Like...I've seen them before, but the ones I know are a lot brighter and friendlier."
"...I think I've got it," uttered Sasuke, appearing calm again "I believe the reason the eyes looked so familiar, was that they are the same as...Sakura's."
With that being said, everyone in the room went silent.
"What do you mean?" then asked Lee, with a puzzled frown as he broke the silence.
"It means that they're related, somehow," whispered Ino, shaking her head in disbelief "Think about it. Have you guys ever seen anyone with Sakura's eye colour? I know I haven't."
"So, the question now is, why would he kidnap her?" questioned Choji, managing to keep up but still fairly confused with this particular bit.
"It's not like she is from some kind of clan, is she?" inquired Tenten.
"According to the records, no, there isn't a Haruno 'clan'," stated Kakashi, before he tilted his head "At least, that I know of."
"Hm. But because the circle-like-symbol seems to run in her mother's side of the family, it could mean that they were once a lost clan," mentioned Tsunade, just like everyone, adding their own knowledge to the ongoing conversation.
"What do you mean a 'lost clan'?" asked Ino, eyes wide.
"A lost clan means that it was once a great clan, which now has lost his power or members," explained Shikamaru.
"But if that's the reason for the kidnapping, what would they gain from it? It's not like she has some kind of special jutsu or kekkei genkai," stated Kiba, before he pause, reconsidering his words "...Right?"
"At first, it sure seemed like it," said Tsunade as she began her story "But when I was training her, I noticed that she has extremely fine chakra control. Chakra control can't be that refined for a child raised by a civilian family without any shinobi ancestors. So later on, I took it a step further and asked her to put some chakra in chakra-scrolls. When she had done it, the paper turned into ashes, meaning she had an affinity towards fire. Due to that, I asked someone to teach her a little fire style jutsu. But at the end of the day, the same person came and asked me if I was sure of my judgement. He then said that the exercises she performed were quite 'disappointing' to put it lightly. Back then, I didn't look further into it and thought nothing of it. After all, it wasn't that big of a deal since I was still teaching her my own little tricks. But looking back at it, I should have investigated further. Because a blockage like that doesn't happen naturally. In fact, I'm thinking of a kekkei genkai."
"If that's the reason he kidnapped her, then what could that kekkei genkai be? And why would a relative do that at all? Shouldn't he already be able to perform it without her?" asked Choji.
"For your last query, I have an answer," said the only art ninja present "The reason's probably to experiment with the kekkei genkai. And what better way than to do it with a shinobi."
Silence followed this statement as each of them considered that possibility, until one of them broke the silence.
"If I may, I-I- I have some information I wish to share."
"Go ahead, Hinata," nodded Kakashi, while Naruto gave his girlfriend an encouraging smile.
"O…Alright then, you know when I looked up to him with my Byakugan I saw that he was wearing some kind of chakra cloak that was blocking my vision," stated Hinata.
"Now that you say that," began Sasuke with a frown "I had that same problem too. But when I looked closely, I managed to define that his red cloak was made out of some fire style jutsu. That man was also able to transform his body into red fire to dodge or to transport himself from one place to another…kind of like Obito's Kamui."
"Red? But when I saw him, the fire was black," pointed out Naruto, a little bit confused.
"That's because he'd already adsorbed my Amaterasu then," replied Sasuke, rather annoyed.
"I get it, thanks," muttered Naruto, slightly irritated by his friend's tone, before he added for the others' notice "Also, when I touched his cloak, my arm was set on fire."
"Then it may be of a defensive kind of jutsu, that cloak," considered Tsunade.
After a collective moment of silence and many emotions wearing over the room, Kakashi sighed and began to address the younger ninja: "Alright then. Hinata, Kiba and Shino. I'll be sending you three to look for some traces of them. I'd do it myself but Sakura's belongings were destroyed in the fire and explosion. So, I can't use my usual tracing methods. Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Lee and Tenten. You will check the library to find any kind of information about the Haruno Clan. As for Naruto and Sasuke, you will be going to the hospital, to see if there's anything we have missed. And you, Sai, will be the one to guard them so that they won't leave the hospital until they're discharged. Dismissed."
Everyone left on the spot, except for Naruto, Sasuke and Sai.
"Kakashi-sensei. We're completely fine. We don't have to go to the hospital," pleaded Naruto.
"For once, I agree with him," added Sasuke "We're totally fine.'
"You're the last person to say something like that! You're even unable to perform the Amaterasu," reminded Tsunade sharply, utterly frustrated at the two "And I will even take a look at you personally. And for the record, you should know that my apprentice is able handle herself. So, please, Sai, take them to the hospital."
"Yes, Tsunade-sama."
Finally, after the three young men vanished in a cloud of smoke, the room was empty, except for Tsunade and Kakashi.
"This really is a big problem, isn't it? To have an enemy with an unknown kekkei genkai," pointed out Kakashi.
"Yes, it is. On top of that losing a great medic on the same day must be some kind of record, isn't it, Kakashi?" said Tsunade distantly, her tone heavy with emotion.
"You don't have to hold back your emotions, we're here alone," uttered Kakashi quietly.
And then, a dam broke loose in the Hokage's office.
Tell me what you think :D