Chapter 9. After a good long while, finally chapter 9. I know it took too long. Procrastination! I swear! And…well…not enough inspiration. And the computer hates me. Sorry for those who were waiting...but wait no longer! For now...

Disclaimer: Naruto and I broke up. I don't own him anymore, nor did I ever own him.

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Itachi continued walking in the woods. He had the pink kunoichi in his hands, bridal-style, and she was unconscious. His mind was in the last few moments before he actually caught the girl.

The pink girl was actually pretty good, and fairly strong for a girl. He couldn't use his sharingan; she knew if his eyes turned red, it wasn't good. Of course, weapons would have been a good choice…if he'd brought any.

Only chance was to weaken her already-weakened self. His last hit was one to the stomach, and she had been thrown a little backwards. But she jumped back up, tried to do the same, but he dodged and she had hit him in the arm instead. Facing him once more, panting, she looked like she was going to hit him again, but instead fell to the floor.

After a few minutes, he knew she had actually fallen unconscious, and wasn't faking it. He picked her up and wasn't very surprised at how light she was. As he walked, he smirked at the thought that he had something now against the kyuubi.

Walking on, his eyes quickly glanced at a sound he heard.

"Show yourself, Kisame," Itachi muttered. "No one else is around." Kisame swiftly appeared next to him in a few moments.

"What about the girl?" he asked, pointing to the girl Itachi had in his hands. Itachi glanced down at her and then lifted his hands up to Kisame.

"You carry her," he said. He let go of the girl, causing her to fall and land on Kisame's hands, who had quickly shifted to catch her. Kisame slightly grumbled, annoyed that it was because of his mouth that he had to carry this girl. After a few moments of silence, Kisame spoke once more.

"What are we going to do with her?" he said, not bothering to look at Itachi.

"We'll just lay a simple trap for the kyuubi," Itachi said. They continued walking on until Kisame spotted a cave. That would be the perfect setting for their trap.

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"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"

"How troublesome," Shikamaru said after a moment, scratching his head. "Now I have to repeat it." They were all out of the forest and into Tsunade's office. Everyone who had been present, even the jounins, were in the presence of the Godaime.

Naruto wasn't even paying attention. He was running around in circles, repeating it into his mind. Shikamaru watched him for a moment, slightly leaning on the wall. He sighed.

"Sakura went after you because you got caught by the Akatsuki… or should I say your clone…?" Shikmaru was, not in the least, interested by this information. Ino was beside him, and she had a face of pure terror. Anyone could either guess she was remembering the genjutsu she had just witnessed, or was thinking about Sakura's fate.

"This is bad," Tsunade said. She was thinking thoroughly the whole situation. "In her state, Sakura most likely was caught by Akatsuki. We need to send a rescue team to bring her back." She sighed and looked down. "But the jounins are needed for another important, deadly, S-ranked mission. They have to attend that mission first, then get Sakura."

The jounins nodded and poofed off. Naruto was very annoyed at this reaction.

"Whaat?" he shouted again. Every rookie looked up from where they all had stood with their heads hung low. Naruto sure knew how to get people's attention.

"You're just going to forget about Sakura-chan?" Naruto shouted again in anger.

Tsunade slunk down to her desk. "Unfortunately," she said. "We can't ignore the other S-ranked mission. It's a chance to earn more trust from the Sand Village."

Naruto crossed his arms and muttered something. "Gaara already likes us," he said, loudly. "We've already earned his trust."

"Not just the Kazekage's trust, Naruto," Tsunade said, taking a cup and taking a sip of sake out of it. "We need to earn ALL of the Sand's shinobi's trusts. And we can only do that by helping them out when they need it." Naruto was still not happy with that answer. "Because I sent out all the jounins, they should be back in a few hours or so. For now, we need some volunteers to find a trace of Sakura."

"No need." The voice was faint, but just loud enough for everyone to turn to the speaker. It was Shino who had spoken up. "When I attacked Uchiha with my massive amount of bugs, some of them still remained on him, probably still with him right this moment. The females, by now, must have their scent all over him. As you can recall from the Chunnin Exams a long time ago, the female's scent is nearly nonexistent, and only the males of ths same species can trace the scent of the females. The rest of the males that I still have can lead us to his lair, and get us to where Sakura-san might be."

Naruto's face brightened with the information. Tsunade nodded. "Very well," she said. "Aburame, you will accompany Naruto, Hyuuga Neji, Sai and Nara to rescue Haruno. When the jounins come back, Inuzuka will lead them, following your scents, to you guys. So don't try and hide them unless necessary. Hyuuga Hinata, you go with him in case we lose their scent. This is an S-ranked mission for you all."

"Gotcha, Tsunade-obaachan!" Naruto shouted happily. Ignoring Tsunade's slight wince at the title, Naruto quickly turned to those she had assigned him to. "Come on, guys, let's go save Sakura-chan!"

"What about the rest of us, Hokage-sama?" Lee asked, walking closer to the desk. Tsunade closed her eyes and thought about it for a moment.

"Currently, the most important mission is to rescue Sakura," Tsunade started, opening her eyes and facing the whole crew. "We could use some of you as backup, but you'll be putting yourselves in danger---"

"I don't care, Hokage-sama," Lee said, full of passion. "I'll do anything to rescue my sweet cherry blossom!"

"Me too!" Ino shouted from the corner, standing up from where she was leaning, next to Shikamaru. Although her voice was full of determination, a hint of fear could be detected. Shikamaru glanced at her, a little surprised at her outburst, but then again, Sakura was Ino's best friend. And probably still is.

"If any enemies appear, I'm afraid Yamanaka won't be of much use," Tsunade said, looking up. Ino looked down in shame; she didn't have Sakura's strength. "But we do need medical ninjas, which means, Ino, you cannot put yourself in any danger whatsoever." Ino looked back up and smiled graciously. "TenTen, you go, too." TenTen looked up from where she was sulking. "We need your weapons expertise." TenTen nodded.

"Alright then!" Naruto shouted, waking everyone up in the room. "Let's go save Sakura-chan!" Nobody moved. "Now!"

The room looked at the Hokage, who smiled and nodded. Shino, Shikamaru, Neji and Sai followed Naruto, who had jumped out of the window already, walkie-talkies in hand. TenTen and Lee walked over and watched them run off.

"I guess all we can do is wait now," Ino said sadly, still in her corner. TenTen, Hinata and Lee nodded. Kiba didn't bother to respond; they all knew the answer to that question.

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Sasuke stood on a tree above the entrance to Konoha, his eyes piercing and cold. He had just reached the village and, although he didn't show it, was every exhausted. He sighed once more, getting ready to jump into the village and sneakily gather more information when a flash of blonde caught his eye. Of course, it could have been Ino, he had thought of that slight possibility, when he saw some orange under it. Naruto.

Sasuke made his way closer to where Naruto was running towards, being followed closely by Shino, Shikamaru, Neji, and a new kid. They immediately whizzed past him, and Sasuke ran to catch up, trying his best not to be caught by the Hyuuga's Byakugan.

"Shikamaru, do you already have a rescue plan?" Neji shouted to Shikamaru.

"If you mean a battle strategy, yes," Shikamaru said, jumping from his last tree to a new one. "Unfortunately, Akatsuki might have the upper hand when it comes to territory." Seeing Naruto's confused face, he added. "We have no idea where we're going to fight. They probably know, and might have traps ready for us."

"Doesn't matter," Naruto shouted to them, narrowly dodging a branch. "We'll rescue Sakura-chan no matter what!"

So Sakura got captured instead. Sasuke scoffed as he continued running behind them. Figures. That girl was always weak.

"Shino, are we getting closer?" Naruto shouted. He had slowed down so Shino was in front of him and he was between Shikamaru and Neji.

"Naruto, you dobe," Sai shouted to him. Sai was in the back. "Of course we're getting closer. We can't get any farther."

"Shut up, Sai!" Naruto shouted to him. Then turned towards Shino. "Shino, how far do we have to go?"

"It's still a good long way from here," Shino said, not bothering to look backwards.

"Neji, you might want to scan the area," Shikamaru said. "Just in case."

Neji nodded, and Sasuke quickly stopped in his tracks. Damn that Byakugan! He'd have to be careful all through this mission…well, at least until he got to the destination. He didn't want them to figure him out…they'd probably want to bring him back to Konoha, and he still hasn't finished training with Orichimaru. This would be the only favor he'd do them. It's not even a favor. I just don't want Itachi to win.

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They're all there….waiting…to save Sakura! Friendship is so great…and even Sasuke's following to help out. I just realized that this is a NaruSaku in disguise. Wow…I even fooled myself. R&R. I love responding. )