Tsunade frowns at the missive, brought by Suna's fastest messenger bird, before her. "Hawk! Get me Temari and Team Kakashi in here, ten minutes ago!" she snaps once she fully understands the message. Hawk's signal disappears and five minutes later Temari, Sasuke, and Sakura knock at her door.

"Get in here," Tsunade snaps. "Where's Kakashi?"

"He's coming," Sakura says, glancing behind her as though hoping her old sensei would appear.

"Yo," Kakashi says, appearing in a swirl of leaves and casually dodging the paperweight Tsunade chucks at him.

"You're late," Tsunade growls, before pinching the bridge of her nose.

"What's going on, Lady Tsunade?" Sakura asks her mentor.

"The Kazekage has been kidnapped," Tsunade says. She was never one for sugar coating things, after all.

Temari starts, moving forward a step as though that action alone would change what Tsunade had said. "Gaara was-"

"Kidnapped, yes, that's what I said," Tsunade snaps. "I called you because I'm sending you there as aid for Suna. Gai's team will follow when we get more information from Suna."

Tsunade glances up at the poleaxed looks she's receiving.

"Um, why us?" Sakura finally asks. Not that she has a problem assisting Suna.

"Because, according to my reports it was Naruto," she ignores the tense atmosphere that fills the room at the boy's name, "who assisted the Kazekage back during the chuunin exams and who is the reason behind the strong alliance we hold with Suna now. As you were his team before, I felt it was more appropriate you be the first ones dispatched. You are also available. Unless you have any problems with that?"

"Hn," Sasuke hums, frowning slightly at the reminder of his best friend.

Kakashi tilts his head slightly.

"No," Sakura says. She still doesn't understand that logic, after all, they may have been Naruto's teammates, but they didn't know much about the Kazekage, nor did they associate with him at all after Gaara had beaten Sasuke up during the invasion, but if there was one thing she had learned while being Tsunade's student, it was that you should never argue with her.

"And you?" Tsunade asks, turning to look at Temari.

"No problems from me, as long as we can leave now," Temari says. She doesn't understand the Hokage's decision either, but she knows that Sasuke and Kakashi are no pushovers and Sakura is shaping up to be one of the best medics of their generation so she has no problems with them assisting in the rescue of her brother.

"Done, you leave now. Good luck and take care."

~Naruto~

It doesn't take long for Naruto and Kurama to track down the man attempting to escape with Gaara even after the residual Sage chakra from Naruto's training had dispersed ten minutes into their chase.

The man, some creepy dude in a flowery red and black cloak traveling in the air using some kind of clay, is stupidly easy to take on. Naruto's unsure if this is because fighting monsters in hell and training with some of the most brilliant and deadly shinobi to have ever walked the earth gave him unrealistic expectations of what a dangerous shinobi should be or if the man was just so exhausted and depleted from fighting Gaara that he was unable to put up much of a fight. He's willing to bet it's most likely the second option, given that Gaara is a jinchuriki and no pushover, but if that were the case, then why didn't this man have back up? Surely they were expecting someone to give chase; after all, you didn't just kidnap a village's jinchuriki without repercussions.

Regardless, it only takes a well-aimed Rasenshuriken to blast through the man's defenses and straight into his gut before Gaara is dropping, unconscious, from the sky.

Naruto darts down, catching his friend, his brother by circumstance, before he hits the ground. A clone poofs into existence next to him, catching the unconscious idiot who had tried to kidnap Gaara. Naruto nods at his clone, maneuvers Gaara unto his back, and both take off, heading back towards Suna.

'There's a battle up ahead.'

Naruto slows his pace, making sure Gaara is secure against his back, as his and Kurama's combined senses pick up the battle and they make their way over. He's confused at what he is seeing at first, before it dawns on him that they are puppets.

'Huh, what do you know. Guess the idiot in the flowery cloak did have back up after all,' Naruto thinks.

'They're clouds, not flowers,' Kurama points out.

'Meh, same difference,' Naruto shrugs, a frown tugging at his lips as the would be kidnapper's accomplice (also wearing a flowery red and black cloak) laughs at his downed opponent.

'Are we fighting this one as well?'

'Yes. Otherwise he'll just be chasing us back to Suna. Besides, I think that might be what's his face, Gaara's brother. We should help him.'

'You and your bleeding heart,' Kurama yawns in his head. 'Well, as long as we get a good fight out of him. That last moron was a complete bore.'

Naruto grins, showing off too many teeth as he lowers Gaara gently to the ground and leaves him under the watchful eye of his clone, who grins at him and drops the kidnapper none to gently onto the ground.

"Kick some butt, boss," his clone says, mirroring his grin.

'It has been a while since we've gone all out.'

And with that thought Naruto flings one of the few kunai he has at the flowery-cloaked man, disappearing in a flash of golden light before reappearing where the kunai had landed behind the man.

"Yo," Naruto says, grinning and dodging out of the way of the attack that comes at his greeting. At least this man's reaction time is quicker than his partner's was. Naruto dodges another attack, grabs the thrown kunai from the sand (he has to hold on to the ones he has. After all, hell didn't exactly have a weapons store), and blocks a third attack.

"Who are you?" the puppet user asks as they trade a few more blows, blocking and dodging each other.

Naruto shrugs, grin widening. "Does it really matter?"

"No, I suppose not, since I'll just be killing you."

Naruto darts around the man, it's pathetically easy as he's so slow, and aims a strike that the man barely blocks.

"Confident, aren't we?" Naruto asks.

"Kid, you have no idea who you're dealing with," the man hisses. He makes a few hand signs and suddenly Naruto is surrounded by puppets on his right and left.

"Oh, come now. Three against one? How is that fair?" Naruto asks. He's not worried, but it's fun to complain.

"And now you'll die," the man says, his puppets attack from the sides as he attacks with weapons in quick succession.

As the smoke clears from the attacks the puppet master watches for the body of his adversary to fall.

"Wow, that was a lot of fire power," Naruto remarks, standing over the kunai he had dropped behind the puppet wielder during their brief spar. The puppet master spins around, his puppets moving between him and Naruto as he backs up. "And poisonous too," Naruto says, glancing at the small cut on his arm as it heals over. "Guess that means I should finish this quickly so I can get Gaara's brother home."

"You won't be finishing anything," the puppet master declares. "But you'll make a wonderful addition to my puppets."

The puppet master moves and Naruto finds himself fighting off the puppets once again. Summoning a rasengan he slams it into the first puppet, taking a blade to the arm but healing almost as quickly as the injury occurred. The poison throws him for a few precious seconds though, and he soon finds himself attacked by a cloud of sand.

"Whoa, what the?"

'Pay attention, Gaki.'

Naruto shunshins away from most of the attack, but his left leg takes a severe beating, coming out mangled and shredded. His eyes water slightly at the pain and he shifts all his weight to his good leg.

"How are you wielding sand?" Naruto demands as he glances down at his bloodied leg. Well, there goes the pants the toads had given him, shredded to mid thigh and stained. Oh well, it wasn't like Naruto wasn't used to wearing dirty rags at this point.

"Do you like it?" the puppet master asks, laughing. "The special technique of the third Kazekage, Iron Sand. And with the amount of poison I've infused in it, you're not long for this world now, even with your strange healing ability. That will teach you to mess with Sasori of the Red Sand!"

Naruto blinks at that, pushing away at the strange woozy feeling that Kurama kindly points out is poison and blood loss.

'Well, take care of it.'

'I am, but this is potent stuff. That meat bag is right. If you were anyone else, you'd be long dead.'

'Yeah, yeah, glad I have you.'

Kurama huffs in his head, grumbling about ungrateful brats, but Naruto turns his focus back to the battle where the puppet master, Sasori, is still talking.

"You're Sasori?!" Naruto exclaims, feigning shock.

"Yes!" Sasori declares. "It is I, the grand master of thousands of puppets!"

Naruto tilts his head to one side, squinting slightly. "Never heard of you."

"W what?" Sasori asks, faltering in his speech and sounding offended.

Naruto shrugs. "Nope, but thanks for talking while I got that poison worked out."

Naruto shakes out his left leg, testing it out and deciding it'll do. It's still tender and Kurama is still grumbling about the poison but he's sure he won't pass out now at any sudden movements. Relatively sure, at least.

"Well, if I'm fighting the puppet of a Kazekage I guess I can't hold back." Bringing his hands into a ram seal, Naruto releases one of the clones he had created upon arriving near Suna, taking in the Sage chakra it was collecting.

"I don't understand," Sasori says. "How are you still alive?"

"I'm quite hard to kill," Naruto says, feeling the nature chakra swirl within him before summoning up Kurama's chakra as well. The golden cloak forms around him and the combination banishes the rest of the dizziness from the poison. With a grin, Naruto forms another shadow clone and goes on the offensive.

The Kazekage puppet is no push over and it takes a tricky bit of dancing away from the sand, along with several more close scrapes, but Naruto finally manages to get a hit on the Kazekage puppet with a Rasenshuriken. The satisfying explosion that results from said puppet being torn apart is worth it the short hard battle that just took place.

"Well, you'll find I don't go down easy," Sasori declares, raising his arms and sending a slew of puppets towards Naruto.

Naruto dances around these new puppets, working together with his clones to take the puppets out, making sure to destroy them quite thoroughly.

"I'll admit you're rather tough to take down," Naruto says, dodging the attacks of three puppets before taking them out with Senjutsu powered hits to the chest area. "But that might be because you're also a puppet."

"I – What?" Sasori asks, spinning around to find himself face to face with another Naruto. "How?"

"You've been fighting my clones for the past five minutes," Naruto explains. "Needed the distraction while I made this!"

Naruto slams his bloody palm onto the Sasori puppet's chest, blasting through it and into the chest of the puppet hiding beneath, slapping his palm against Sasori's core, where Naruto had sensed the essence of the puppet master's chakra. A flash of golden light illuminates the area to blinding brightness before disappearing.

The eighty or so puppets left over from Sasori's attack collapse to the ground, chakra no longer controlling them.

"Where was he even keeping all those puppets?" Naruto asks, glancing down at the uncovered Sasori.

'Seriously? You're a seal master and the idea of a storage scroll never occurred to you?'

"Oh, right," Naruto chuckles, rubbing at the back of his head.

"What did you do to me?" Sasori asks from his spot curled on the sand.

"Sealed your chakra," Naruto says. "And don't bother trying to figure out how to unseal it, given it's a blood seal, only I can do that. Now, if you don't mind coming with me? I've got to get Gaara and his brother back to Suna. They probably need medical attention. Or, at least, Gaara's brother probably does. Your partner too, if Suna is so inclined."

Naruto is sure that if Sasori hadn't transformed himself into a puppet he would be gaping at him right about now.

'You know, that's just creepy. Who changes themselves into a puppet?'

'The moron in front of you, obviously. Although I agree that it is stupid and rather…creepy.'

"Ha! I knew you'd agree with me on something at some point!'

'Don't get used to it.'

"Why would I come with you?" Sasori demands.

"Um," Naruto glances around at all the fallen puppets, eyes catching on three of his clones as they approach with Gaara, Gaara's brother, and the other flowery cloaked dude slung over their shoulders. Well, Gaara was getting a piggyback ride. Gaara's brother and the kidnapper were slung over his clone's shoulders like sacks of potatoes. "Because I asked nicely?"

The Sasori puppet blinks up at him and Naruto has to suppress the urge to shudder. It really is creepy.

"No," Sasori says.

"Oh, come on," Naruto says. "What else are you going to do?"

"I am going to defeat you!" Sasori declares, managing to stand up and flinging his arms out.

Naruto blinks at him as nothing happens. "You done?"

"I don't understand," Sasori says.

"I told you I sealed your chakra."

"But I was feeling better."

"Yeah, weakness is a side effect of the seal. Sorry about that. It doesn't tend to last very long though. Your chakra is still sealed. I wasn't lying when I said I was the only one who could release it."

Sasori's eyes narrowed at him. "Then I'll just have to defeat you without my chakra!"

He rushes forwards and Naruto, still in Sage Beast Mode as Gamakichi came to call it, side steps his attack, bringing an arm around to smash into the puppet's head. He watches as Sasori crumples to the ground.

"It would have been easier if you'd've just come with me," Naruto grumbles, bending down to haul the downed Sasori onto his shoulder before nodding at his clones. "Let's go."