...Surprise! An update finally :-P. I know, most of you want to kill me for taking so long. But, I WILL finish the story. That I can promise you. I just have a ridiculous life. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story. I heart you. Enjoy!

Chapter 9: Fuel Injection

Gaara couldn't believe how stupid he'd been. He should have seen it coming. He should have been able to anticipate the move against him especially because of how smart his friends were always saying he was.

But he didn't see it coming and now he found himself terrified of what would happen to Sakura and the others.

At least I had enough sense to plan that far ahead, Gaara thought dejectedly as his vision continued to blur.

He reached weakly for the cell phone he always kept in his work bag as he stumbled in the darkness. On the fifth try, his hand finally closed around the phone, but he had to slow his progress of escape by leaning against the nearest wall to do so.

As he eyed his phone and took an agonizing breath filled with pain that only continued to mount, the next breath left his throat in a rasp that would have been a scream if he still had the strength.

He had no service on his phone!

Of all the times for technology to fail me . . .

He knew his only hope now was to keep walking. He stumbled a bit more and finally managed to find his way out of the darkened, maze-like structure.

His eyes teared, thanking the universe when he was out in a back alley and saw a street lamp. Never in his life had he been so happy to be in an alley and to smell stale garbage from the nearby dumpster.

But there is still no one around.

He kept moving, heading down the other end of the alley away from the building hoping to find a main street or at least get service on his phone.

His left hand felt wet and he reached his arm up to wipe what he figured must be sweat away; his brow furrowed when he noticed the liquid was a thick, deep, red.

His vision blurred again, more markedly this time, as his body lurched forward with his next step. He willed his eyes to open again.

I have to warn her. I have to keep going.

As he eyed his target-the other end of the alley-his heart sank when he realized how much further he had to walk. It couldn't be more than 200 feet, but when every step was taking more and more out of him, Gaara was no longer sure he could make it.

His eyesight tunneled and his hearing changed until he felt like he was swimming through liquid cement; he knew he was close to losing consciousness. He didn't feel it this time when he pitched forward-face first-into a pile of sand on the ground.

Somehow, the graininess of the sand on his skin managed to help stay his consciousness long enough for him to drag his arm up when his cell phone chirped that he was back in the service zone.

He willed his fingers to push the buttons. As his strength gave out, he thought he could hear the sound of footsteps following him into the alleyway. But, darkness overtook him and he knew no more.

. . .

Naruto grit his teeth. Seeing Sasuke again made his gut lurch in a way that he wasn't comfortable with. He was still pretty pissed at the guy for the way their friendship shredded apart, but damned if he wasn't looking at him now like he had a stork roosting on his head eating pistachios.

"Teme! What the hell are you talking about?!"

Naruto wasn't lying to Sasuke, at least that wasn't his intention. He was mostly just annoyed that of all the things he could say to him first, this was his choice.

"Tch." Sasuke put a hand into his pocket and narrowed his eyes at Naruto.

"Look, shithead, I know you've been talking to him." This was said in a much louder voice than Sasuke's normal emo-monotone.

"And if I have? Why does it matter!?" Naruto said back with just as much irritation.

"Did you know?" Sasuke said as his pupils dilated.

"Know what?!" Naruto said, exasperated, throwing his hands in the air in question.

"DID you know that my FATHER would DIE tonight!" Sasuke yelled at the top of his lungs.

Naruto's eyes popped out of his head. He certainly hadn't heard that, but based on what he discussed with Sakura and the Akatsuki early that evening, it didn't surprise him that there was something foul going on inside Uchiha industries. What, though, he'd have to ask Sakura and the guys about later.

But for Sasuke to seek me out. It must involve his brother somehow. . .

Naruto's eyes hardened, but he didn't answer as Sasuke only stepped closer to him.

In his peripherals, Naruto could see that the sole gas station attendant was peeking out of the window looking at them. Naruto waved him off, hoping he wouldn't do something stupid like call the cops.

"DID YOU HAVE A HAND IN IT! HUH!? DID YOU GIVE HIM THE IDEA?! DID YOU TELL HIM TO KILL MY OLD MAN AS REVENGE FOR YOURS!?"

Without warning, Sasuke's face exploded into rage as he rushed Naruto and cold cocked him right in the face.
Naruto was a lot of things, loud, a little slow on the uptake sometimes, cocky in certain situations; he might have a long fuse, but, he had a hell of a temper when pushed. But, one thing he certainly was not was a coward or a liar.

And he could take a punch to the face better than anyone.

So when Sasuke socked him one good, it made his head snap back in reflex, but Naruto barely stumbled-more like just shifted his footing.

Naruto just turned back to look at Sasuke as the blood trickled down his chin with a sarcastically-fox-like grin on his face, which only helped to further infuriate Sasuke-just as it always had when they were friends.

"Ok, asshole, I don't know who you've been talking to or what you're going on about. But, I would NEVER have a hand in hurting your old man, BELIEVE IT."

Naruto paused to look at Sasuke as his fox-like grin hardened into something akin to a snarl.

"BUT! If you had ANYTHING to do with my old man's death like your fucking family's company might, then you will wish you were never born."

Sasuke growled loudly-as though he were going to transform into some sort of beast.

"WHAT the fuck do you know, Naruto, HUH!?"

The boys launched at each other. Sasuke went for another blow to Naruto's face as Naruto threw his shoulder into Sasuke's stomach and knocked the wind out of him.

The force of Naruto charging forward with his shoulder lowered caused them both to stumble. In the scuffle as they wrestled to get at each other, Sasuke felt something crack in his nose as it made contact with Naruto's skull. Naruto was pretty sure his ribs were badly bruised from the elbows that Sasuke had thrown in the moment.

They broke apart, panting, bleeding and both a mess. They just stared at one another as silence fell.

Sasuke, apparently wasn't done yet, judging from the foul look on his face, Naruto realized as he eyed him.

Sasuke spit out blood and turned his glare to the gas station attendant who came outside as the scuffle escalated. Naruto looked over his shoulder at the hapless guy.

"Um. Excuse me. . .But what is going on here!? This is unacceptable!" Timidity was the attendant's strong suit apparently; but not intelligence, because anyone who had encountered an Uchiha before knew better than to address them that way-especially given the kind of expression Sasuke was wearing like a bad 3-piece-suit.

Instead of deeming the attendant important enough for an actual response, Sasuke just stared down his nose at the guy-a hard and cold stare of death. Naruto raised his eyebrows at Sasuke.

Does Teme think he can hypnotize someone with that look or something?!

Naruto's jaw dropped when, after a few moments of meeting the Uchiha's gaze, the attendant yelped, ran back inside the station and ran into the back room and locked the door.

Naruto turned back to Sasuke who had his eyes closed and his hands covering them in pain perhaps?

"Good job, Teme. Now we will probably have the cops joining this reunion."

Naruto was actually starting to feel sorry for Sasuke as they stood there and continued to catch their breath.

Sasuke still wanted to fight. Naruto was just about done, though.

But, as though Naruto's words had broken Sasuke from his inner contemplation, Sasuke turned his eyes on Naruto. Naruto couldn't stop himself before he chuckled, no one could ever say that Naruto didn't enjoy taunting his once closest friend.

When he tried to take another swing at Naruto, however, Naruto dodged and socked him one right back. Sasuke stumbled, like he was surprised how much it hurt.

"Now we're even." Naruto said out of the side of his mouth as he used the edge of his sleeve to dab at the blood on his own face. Sasuke had quite a lot of his own blood caking and drying on his face as he used the sleeve of his button-down to wipe at his nose bleed.

"TCH! Fine, Ursatonkachi." Sasuke seemed to be coming back to his senses.

"You didn't actually think I'd be involved in something like that, did you?!" Naruto said with gravel in his voice as Sasuke seemed to be trying to re-coiffe his hair.

"Did you?" Sasuke asked in counterpoint.

"Fair enough." Naruto said as he smirked at their situation. Some things never changed.

"We really are big headed idiots, just like Sakura-chan always used to say." Naruto said out of the side of his mouth.

In response, Sasuke just glared at him.

Naruto chuckled in his face again. Like usual, Sasuke was just looking for an outlet to his rage. Now that Naruto actually had a chance to really look at Sasuke, he did look more than a little disheveled.

"Look, D-bag, I'm sorry about your old man, alright. It's the first I'm hearing about it."

Sasuke blinked in acknowledgement and eyed Naruto as he continued to staunch his bleeding face.

"I heard it on the radio."

Naruto raised his eyebrows.

"What happened?!" Naruto asked, curious.

" . . . I don't know . . . I wasn't there." Sasuke answered slowly, seemingly embarrassed of his own response.

Clearly Sasuke was doing something instead that he doesn't want anyone to know about.

"Then how the fuck do you know Itac-" Naruto started to ask with annoyance before he was cut off.

"BECAUSE MY BROTHER IS IN JAIL NOW BECAUSE OF IT!" Sasuke was back to yelling in his face again.

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Look, Sasuke. I know you are and your brother have some serious bad blood between you, or whatever . . . but, I was talking to Itachi tonight and I really don't think he would do that."

"O YEA! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW ABOUT FAMILY NARUTO! HUH!?"

Naruto's face lost its expression as he tried to cover up the knife in his chest that Sasuke always somehow knew how to turn.

"Look, Teme, I don't have to stand here and be your punching bag anymore. If you ever really want to talk and know what I think, you know where to find me." Naruto said over his shoulder as he started to walk back to his car.

Just as he was about to hop into the seat of his WRX and drive off, Sasuke spoke up.

"How did he look?" Sasuke asked as he looked at something particularly interesting on the ground. Naruto sighed and leaned on his driver's side door.

"Stressed out and probably worried about his dipshit kid brother." Naruto responded.

Sasuke sighed and shifted his jaw like what he was about to say was taking a lot out of him. The effective, however, just made him look ridiculous because of the all the dried blood on his face.

"Can you put me in touch with his. . .friends?" Sasuke asked quietly.

"Maybe. How do I know you aren't just going to go punch the hell out of them too, Dumbass?" Naruto said with a smile on his face.

"Tch." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Naruto let the silence hang on purpose, forcing Sasuke to answer. A minute passed.

"Because. I want to try and help . . .figure out what really happened." Sasuke finally admitted.

Naruto's smile grew. Was he actually going to get one of his best friends back?

"Fine, Sasuke, follow me to the 24 hour diner down the road and we'll talk. But, if you are bullshitting me, I'm going to beat the shit out of you. And trash the fuck out of that dumb import you are driving."

"Hn."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto was about to finally hop into his car and try to bring this long night to a close, a blacked out mustang cobra with flashing blue lights pulled into the gas station lot.

Naruto face-palmed and Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"Why am I not surprised you two troublesome shitheads are the ones making all this racket."

Out of the mustang stepped a dark-haired guy with long hair tied tight on top of his head and an ever present no-bullshit, weary of the world, expression.

"Nice to see you too, Shikamaru." Naruto walked over to his old high school buddy and shook his hand. Shikamaru smirked and turned to Sasuke. He eyed their disheveled appearance.

"I guess things got a little rough between you two. But, remember, try to keep the bondage stuff between you behind closed doors." Shikamaru chuckled at his own joke as Sasuke's face exploded into color.

"Careful, I don't think Teme can handle blowing another gasket tonight." Naruto took the joke about his sexual preferences in stride. He had known Shikamaru for a long time and was used to the joking.

"Besides, don't you have some ass you should be chasin' or something? Or maybe doing some real detective work?" Naruto quipped as Shikamaru sighed. Despite Naruto's comeback, Shikamaru was the best detective on the force, which made his joke all the more poignant.

"I was coming back from the arson and explosion site at the data centers tonight and heard a call come over my radio. Something told me to be the one to answer it."

Sasuke shifted his weight as Shikamaru continued to eye him, as though trying to distill his intentions just from a stare. To date, only Shikamaru could outstare an Uchiha, though with an entirely different purpose from intimidation. No, Shikamaru's stare was always one of deep and meaningful calculation.

Naruto set his jaw at the pregnant pause in conversation.

"How's Sakura?" Shikamaru asked Naruto as he continued to eye Sasuke. Naruto looked between them trying to figure out what Shikamaru was speculating about.

"Fine . . .Is there something going on Shika?" Naruto had gotten a text from Sakura earlier in the night when he was still with Hinata about what happened at her office and that she was OK. But with the way Shikamaru was pinholing his gaze into Sasuke. . .

"Mm. I just need to speak with her about some loose ends. I've been trying to reach her cell all night, but my calls don't go through." Shikamaru turned to Naruto.

He pulled out his phone, worried, and tried to call her while Shikamaru and Sasuke looked on. He got the same result.

"She must be in a dead zone." Not wanting to risk pulling out the Akatsuki untraceable phone in front of both Sasuke and Shikamaru just yet, not to mention in such a public place, Naruto ended it at that.

Shikamaru's questioning-or lack there of-left him feeling nervous, however.

What is going on?

Shikamaru went back to staring at Sasuke; now, Sasuke was staring right back just as hard. Naruto scratched the back of his head.

Well this is getting downright awkward.

"I'll let Sakura-chan know you are looking for her, Shikamaru."

Suddenly broken from his contemplation, Shikamaru turned back to Naruto and nodded in acknowledgement. He walked back to his car then and offered over his shoulder:

"Try not to get yourselves killed. You know how to reach me."

Naruto flinched.

Ok, Something is definitely going on.

Naruto turned to Sasuke wanting to jump on him about what he seemed to know, but his stomach grumbled.

Sasuke smirked at the noise as he looked at Naruto.

"You always did get hungry when things got complicated." Sasuke chuckled at Naruto for the first time in years

. . .

Sakura woke up early the next morning thanks to Natsu's paw on her face and his surround-sound purring right in her ear.

"I know, kitty. Food time. I know, I know." Sakura mumbled into her pillow as she tried to turn away from Natsu. Considering that she was sleeping in a brand new place in a brand new bed a-la Akatsuki hideout, she had slept markedly well.

Probably slept so well because of all the shit that happened yesterday! Way more in a 24 hour period than what I'm used to!

Sakura sighed as Natsu sort of got the message and curled up against her stomach, but continued purring. He at least seemed content to be still for a few more minutes. Sakura's eyes drifted closed.

Just ten more minutes . . .especially because work doesn't matter anymore.

Sakura smiled as she envisioned-unrealistically-that her life sans work was filled with unicorns and butterflies.

She was just starting to dance with one particular unicorn that had blue eyes and an oddly blonde mane in her ridiculous dream world when her personal phone-still set at WTF volume-started ringing.

"HOLY SHIT!" Sakura yelled at her offending phone.

Natsu mrrawed at her outburst and hopped off the bed to meow at her from the safe haven of the floor as she scrambled to get to her phone and turn the bastard down.

Hitting the silence button, she nevertheless answered it.

"Hello?" Her voice was definitely a little worse for wear this morning.

"Sakura!? SAKURA!"

"Ino! Jesus! Calm down! Morning remember?" Sakura grumbled into her cellphone as she rubbed her eyes and sat up.

"O my god! Sakura! I'm such an idiot!" Ino was in full meltdown-mode. Sakura could tell.

"What happened? Are you ok? Did you make it home ok?!" Freaking out that something might actually be wrong, Sakura stood up and hastily started to get dressed.

"O! I'm Ok, mostly." Ino paused and Sakura stopped with her jeans half-way on one leg.

"What. did. you. do." Sakura knew this change in her friend's voice. It meant Ino made a stupid decision like moving to fast with a guy or ordering 100 pairs of shoes in one sitting. This was not the full meltdown voice anymore.

"I told him, Sakura!"

"Told who what?" Sakura asked as she continued to put her pants on, though more slowly. Natsu whirled and paced around her feet. She reached down to pet him as he bumped his head into her hand and meowed.

She felt bad for Natsu, his schedule got all messed up yesterday.

"Eep! I told h-" Just as Ino was about to explain, Sakura got a notification that she had an incoming text message.

Less invested in the idiocy of her blonde best friend, Sakura started to check her phone for the message, just then it chimed again to say she had another text message and a voicemail.

"Gah! Grand Central Station!" Sakura mumbled to herself in exasperation.

Looking at her phone she saw that one text was from Gaara. The voicemail and second text were both from Shikamaru.

"Sakura, are you listening?! This is really important!"

"Sorry , Ino, Sorry. Go ahead." She was really trying to pay attention. But it was a little too much for her right when she woke up.

Not to mention . . .why is Shikamaru texting me? And . . .Gaara . . .

"I said that I made the mistake of -ll -m that you -t."

"What Ino? You're breaking up." Sakura checked her reception and noticed that her signal strength was dropping. Damn phone.

Then, of course, the call was dropped. Sakura rolled her eyes and looked at her phone.

"Figures that when I'm really trying to sleep in this happens. . ."

Figuring that if the call was really important Ino would call her right back, Sakura finished getting dressed and stuffed her phone into her pocket.

She slapped on a plain black tank top to go with her jeans and padded out into the hallway with Natsu right on her heels.

She could hear a shower running down the hall in one of the other closed bedrooms as she headed to the kitchen. Natsu followed her, but did seem a bit confused as he was in a new place.

"It's ok, kitty, this way." She beckoned to him. Reaching the kitchen she grabbed one of his food cans from the place Deidara had put them away for her last night and grabbed Natsu's cleaned dish from the sink and dished out his portion for the morning.

She looked around sheepishly before she gave in and put the food dish on the small table in the kitchen and Natsu jumped up to eat on it.

My cat is clean anyway. Cleaner than some of these guys! Sakura chuckled at herself as she gave Natsu a good scratch while he ate.

Going back to the fridge, Sakura snatched a yogurt and some OJ as she sat back down near Natsu.

Leisurely eating her yogurt, Sakura remembered the text she got from Gaara and Shikamaru.

Taking her phone back out, she noticed that she still had no service-retrieving the voicemail would have to wait then. Rolling her eyes, she went to check her texts.

She checked the newest one, from Shikamaru, first. She noticed it was actually from a few hours ago.

"Stupid phone. Just getting these old texts."

Shikamaru's message read: Need to talk to you. It's about a case.

"Well, that's not ominous at all."

Having a detective looking for her in light of everything could in no way be good, even if Shikamaru was no fool and no Uchiha lapdog.

She checked the message from Gaara next.

She dropped her spoon as she read it, causing Natsu to momentarily pause with his breakfast.

The message from Gaara read: RUN! FD

Sakura immediately tried to call him-to no avail-thanks to her lack of service.

"Damnit!" What if something happened to him last night!? The text was cryptic as it was. But, given that they were all concerned about how he got home last night . . .

She eyed Natsu and saw that he was licking himself for his post-meal ritual. Picking him up, she walked back to her room and shut him in. Thankfully, he seemed perfectly at peace with this idea and went to curl up on the bed.

She jogged downstairs to the secure phone line in the garage.

Pulling the handle off the receiver, she dialed Gaara's cellphone number. It went straight to voicemail.

"Shit."

Trying the number one more time, she was even more concerned with the next red flag.

"The number you have dialed is no longer in service. Please Try Again." Sakura chewed her lip in thought as she hung up.

"You alright, hmm?" She turned her head at the sound of Deidara's voice at the plate glass wall behind her.

"Yea. . .well, no." She eyed him and worried her lip some more.

Her face flushed when she noticed he was only wearing a pair of cargo shorts that rode low on his hips, revealing his hip flexors, tight abs and a fuzzy blonde trail of hair. His forearms tightened and coiled as dried his hair. The bulging muscle there indicated use-no doubt from driving and sculpting. His hands we strong and veiny. She had no doubt how dexterous they must be. She felt her spine tighten at that thought as she continued her perusal of his body.

He wasn't unnaturally muscular. In fact there was a softness to his build that made him look almost like he still had baby-skin and baby-fat. It just made Sakura want to feel the dichotomy of his skin's surface softness while the tautness of his muscle coiled underneath.

His hair was down and clearly still damp from the shower even after he discarded his towel on the nearby wet-bar counter and walked toward her with a questioning expression. His forelock hung alluringly over his eye, but as he eyed her, he pushed it behind his ear and out of the way. His blue eyes sparkled as they met hers.

Unfortunately, she was caught red-handed staring as he smirked at her.

"Like what you see?" Deidara asked softly. Sakura gulped and cleared her throat, looking away from him, she worried her lip again as her mind de-fogged from staring at Deidara's impeccable body.

Deidara caught her change quickly and adjusted too.

"What is it? What happened?" Sakura sighed. She was still only half-awake and not thinking, maybe Deidara could help her figure it out. She stared at the text again.

"I got this. . .this. . .weird text from Gaara earlier this morning." She handed Deidara her phone.

"'RUN FD'? What the hell does he mean by that I wonder. . ." Deidara took a seat next to her on the couch.

"Well, I don't think the 'RUN' part can be a good thing. Maybe something happened to him last night." Deidara didn't say anything, but he dug into his pocket, extracting another piece of clay.

"I just tried to call his cell on the secure line and it didn't go through . . .It said it was out of service." Deidara's eyes widened.

"Whoever helped him last night might not have actually been a friend to him, yea. Or he could be baiting you somehow?" Deidara asked looking to Sakura.

"No. No way. Gaara wouldn't do that. He might not necessarily be your biggest fan, but he wouldn't do that to me." Deidara nodded.

"Then it must be some code you would understand." Deidara looked to making another little clay bird.

"That's just it! I can't figure out what he'd mean by 'RUN FD.' Maybe like, 'run fast and drive?' Or something?"

Deidara made a face.

"Sorry, I didn't get much sleep." Sakura sighed.

"I can try to run a trace on his phone, if it was still on; but if it's not. . ."

"It's pretty much impossible." Deidara nodded at her.

"What's impossible, Pinkie?" They both turned at the sound of Kisame's voice from the plate glass doorway.

"Trying to figure out what happened to Gaara." Sakura said dejectedly. Kisame looked down.

"Well, don't know how I can help ya there, but I think one of our other problems just solved itself." Kisame looked at Deidara.

"How so?" Deidara asked standing up.

"Naruto just rolled up outside with Itachi's kid brother."

...muhahaha! the plot thickens! And, Shikamaru makes an appearance. :3 I couldn't leave him out, he's one of my favorite Naruto characters. Also, blame the NaruSaku on the latest manga chapter '-_-. Please Review and don't stab me too much for taking so long to update! xoxox clumsypink