Temari was lying on her room's bed. Since she had finished taking care of the Chūnin Exams preparations early she was allowed to return to the sand early. She had departed from the leaf the previous day and had stopped in small town in the Land Of Rivers, near its borders with the sand. There she decided to rest in a small Inn for the night. The blonde had promised to herself she would leave to Suna after lunch...she didn't truly want to return to her home...being part of the Kazekage council was tiring, staying in the leaf with Shikamaru was her vacation...even though she still had to work it was less troublesome with the Nara boy to keep her company...did she just say (or think, whatever) "troublesome"? Maybe spending too much time with him wasn't such a good thing as she originally thought...

Her line of thought was interrupted when she heard a knock in her room's door. "I'm going..." Temari lazily said as she got up from her bed and walked towards the door. Once she opened it she saw a woman, not much older than her, standing in the door.

"Excuse me, are you Miss Temari?" The young woman asked.

"Yes, that is me. Why the question?"

"Well, a group of people said they were your friends and were looking for you."

That confused Temari. Who could want to see her? Why? She didn't really get it...but whoever they were the blonde could take care of yourself. "What is your name?" She asked the woman.

"My name...?" She pointed at herself. Temari nodded. "My name is Shigeku."

"Well then, Shigeku..." The Suna kunoichi said with a smile. "Tell them i will be going there soon."

"Yes." Shigeku told her before running off, probably to tell the others Temari's' message.

Ten Minutes later, there was Temari. As she walked out of the building, she drifted her hand to the fan on her back. If any enemies were to attack, the fan would be her weapon.

Luckily, once she walked out of the Inn she didn't meet any Missing Nin. Instead, standing next to the building's wall were Eight Shinobi, all wearing the same headband with a leaf shaped symbol engraved on it. One of them approached her and she instantly recognized him as the once sensei of the one who had saved Gaara from his own darkness. "Kakashi Hatake..." Temari greeted the silver haired Shinobi as she removed her hand from her fan.

"Yo." Kakashi greeted her as well in his usual weird way to say hello. "Good to see you, Temari."

Despite him saying that, Temari noted how grim the team's humor was, she tried to recognize them based on their previous Chūnin exams...

There were the two Hyuuga, the male one was the one Naruto had defeated while the female one was the one who he had sworn to win against her cousin to. There was the Rock Lee guy who had fought Gaara and his sensei. There was the other one Naruto had beaten and his pet dog, the one who she had fought (was it Tenten?) and the pink hair from the boy's team. She hadn't seen them in those two years since when she went to the leaf the Chūnin exams were her priority...for some reason they all seemed to be in a grim mood.

"Did...something happen?" Temari asked with a serious tone.

"Well..." Kakashi sighed as he proceeded to explain the situation until he got to a certain point...

"WHAT?! Gaara was kidnapped?! By who?!" She shouted, struggling to stay calm.

Kakashi looked at her for an instant before saying a word Temari feared to hear. It was loud enough for her to hear but the other teenagers never heard the word...that word... Jiraiya had warned the sand, however they had been too careless. Or had they? Sunagakure had prepared in case this happened...still, they let Gaara confront one of them alone! Why would they do that? Now he was gone...and it would be nearly impossible to find him ever again! He had been captured by the organization that hunted Jinchuuriki, by the red cloud of blood, by the worst of the worst...

Gaara was now in the hands of the Akatsuki.

Earlier that day...

Deidara stood in front of the gigantic rock that guarded the Akatsuki hideout before he jumped off his bird to land in the water below him. He then walked calmly to the rock and touched it with two of his fingers. On queue the rock rose high in the air, letting Deidara and his bird with the Kazekage in his mouth pass through it before descending again to block the way of the intruders that attempted to enter their hideout.

The room was shaped round with almost one hundred meters from one wall to another, the celling was also high. It was almost totally empty, if not for a big lake of deep water facing the entrance of the hideout. Deidara knelt in the middle of the room facing the lake before starting doing a series of one handed seals. "Saru, Tori, Saru, Inu, Mi, Ushi, I, Inu, Tori, Hare, Tora, Tatsu, Ushi, Tora!"

As the Akatsuki member finished his hand seals the teal colored ring Deidara wore in his right index finger started glowing. After that a gigantic statue with a blindfold on its eyes rose from the lake as Deidara's clay bird dropped the Kazekage in the ground and flew towards its owner. The blonde jumped on the C2's back and flew towards the statue's right index finger as its nails started glowing with symbols, mimicking the symbol each member had in its ring, for example: Deidara wore the ring with the kanji symbol for "blue"(青). The same symbol was now glowing in the nail of the finger he was standing in.

The seven other members of the organization soon appeared using their astral projection technique atop their respective fingers. The leader was the first to speak on the group. "Deidara...you are just on time...where is Sasori?" He said.

"My Leader. Sasori stayed back to capture another Jinchuuriki who unexpectedly appeared." Deidara said, excusing his companion's absence.

"So, I see...it wouldn't be smart to start the ritual without him. Zetsu, find and tell Sasori to meet us here." The leader said to one of the Akatsuki.

"Yes, leader." Zetsu said as he made a hand seal and dismissed his astral projection jutsu.

Minutes later, somewhere in the Desert of the Sand...

Zetsu emerged from the ground to find quite the scene. There was a crater in the middle of what appeared to be a battlefield with various destroyed puppets. In the middle of the crater was the dead corpse of Sasori in his puppet form.

"He's dead... and it appears that he fought quite the battle..." Zetsu said.

"It must have been interesting, it left quite the scar in the ground..." another voice coming from Zetsu commented.

"So he is dead...it means that the master plan can now begin..." A voice coming from behind the Akatsuki announced.

Zetsu then turned to see a man wearing an orange mask with spiked up black hair and clothes of the same color, he also wore a scarf around his neck despite the place's hot weather.

"Well, well...I did not expect to find you here...So this is your new mask?" The black part of Zetsu said to the mask man.

"It is unimportant. You should return to the Akatsuki and report Sasori's death." He said as he walked towards the puppeteer's dead wooden body and took the purple colored ring out of the man's left thumb. He observed the marking in the ring, the kanji for jewel on it (玉) that could also be refereed as the black king in shogi. Unknown to Zetsu, he smiled behind his mask since it was quite a fitting ring for the true leader of the Akatsuki.

"Be prepared, Zetsu...from here on out things will only get worse..." The masked man warned the creature as he walked away.

"As you prefer...Madara..." Black Zetsu said with a smirk as he watched Tobi use his space time technique to disappear completely, leaving both black and white creatures alone.

Minutes later, back in the Akatsuki Hideout...

Zetsu's image suddenly reappeared in the right little finger of the statue. "So, where is he?" Hidan asked him.

"I hate to say it...but somehow Sasori was defeated..." The news shocked the Akatsuki, mainly Deidara.

"Sasori is dead...? So that Jinchuuriki..." He said, not quite believing hid partner had died on the hands of the boy he had fought earlier.

"Well, this is a pity indeed...Sasori was quite an asset to this organization, finding a suitable replacement will not be an easy task..." The leader commented.

"Actually..." Zetsu said, calling the attention of the organization. "There is someone who I believe is a suitable replacement for Sasori..."

The leader understood the message and spoke up. "Whoever the person you have in mind is, we must proceed the ceremony. After the extraction of the Ichibi, we must talk in private, Zetsu." The "two in one" Akatsuki member nodded at this.

"Don't we get to know his name?" Kakuzu asked, curious.

"His name is Tobi." Zetsu answered.

"Tobi, huh?" Kisame said with a small laugh. "That name doesn't seem that menacing...don't you agree, Itachi?" The shark man looked at his companion.

"You shouldn't judge someone by their name, Kisame..." Said Itachi. He knew that better than anyone since he was a criminal with a 90 k ryo prize on his head on the bingo book but was named Itachi... (Itachi means weasel) "Anyhow, this is a matter that can be discussed later. Now we have to seal the Ichibi no Shukaku."

"Thank you Itachi. Now before we go on let me explain to you all; originally this jutsu was meant to take three days or 72 hours. However, without Sasori this jutsu will take more than normal, more precisely 80 hours." The leader told the members. No one liked the news but they were all obliged to go with the flow. With that out of the way, he raised his hands in a hand seal and all the members copied him simultaneously doing a series of six hand seals before the leader shouted. "Sealing Jutsu: Eight Phantom Dragons." On queue the statue opened its mouth and eight dragons of pure chakra came out of it, fusing into one giant dragon before dashing at the Jinchuuriki. Upon hitting Gaara, the ground around him broke and he was raised on the air as seals covered his body and his eyes went blank. The extraction had begun.

Later that day...

Nine people walked on the road to the Hidden Sand Village. Eight Konoha shinobi and one Suna kunoichi that joined the group later on after knowing what was happening headed to help as they possibility could in the dire situation.

As they arrived in the gates of the sand they were greeted by an older Shinobi that the suna kunoichi knew very well and two Suna ANBU. "Baki..." Temari said to her once sensei.

"Temari...and the Konoha Shinobi..." Baki said greeting the group led by Kakashi.

"Were is Kankuro?" Temari asked.

"Well...you see..."Baki then proceeded to explain to the group how Kankuro foolishly confronted one of the man who had captured Gaara.

"What?! Is he okay?!" The kunoichi shouted, dropping her bag as she walked hesitantly towards the Shinobi.

"Temari...I do not want to lie to you...if your brother is not treated by an experienced Medic Nin..." He didn't manage to finish the sentence.

"Is there anyone who can save him?!" Temari asked with tears in her eyes.

"No...The best medic Nin in the village, Lady Chiyo, could only manage to ease his suffering and to delay his death..." Baki said. "Only someone with the techniques of the legendary Slug Sannin Tsunade is able to save him..."

As if it was her queue, Sakura steeped forward. "Excuse me...my name is Sakura Haruno and I do believe I can help."

Baki recognized the pink haired girl from the Chūnin Exams, she had lost against another blond girl from Konoha after a pathetic fight..."I'm sorry, but I don't think so. As I previously said only someone with the Fifth Hokage's techniques is able to-"

"I am the fifth's apprentice!" Sakura said, interrupting and surprising the rather rude man.

"Well...this is a pleasant surprise." Baki said with his eyebrows raised.

"Sakura, please!" Temari said with tearful eyes as she grabbed Sakura's hand. "You've got to save my brother! Please, please! I'll do anything!" Temari said, louder than she expected. Truth was that her father never gave the three sand siblings; her mother had died giving birth to Gaara, who turned out to be a monster. Because of him, no child got near Temari or the middle sibling afraid of Gaara. Temari and Kankuro grew up with each other as their only companies. They had a love/hate relationship but when it came to it, she cared for him as much as she cared for Gaara...

Seeing the despair in Temari's eyes, Sakura only placed her hand atop the hand the Suna kunoichi was already holding and smiled. "Don't worry...I'll save him no matter what."

Temari suddenly opened her mouth to say something but stooped herself and smiled before thanking Sakura with a nod of her head.

"Now, where is the patient?" The pink haired medic nin asked as she turned to face Baki.

The Sand Nin only glanced at one of the ANBU who accompanied him before ordering her to scout Sakura to the hospital where the Kazekage's brother was being kept. The masked ninja then nodded before her and Sakura dashed off on the streets of the Hidden Sand Village.

"Alright then...Well, I guess we have to discuss what will be our role in the mission to rescue the Kazekage." Kakashi said, stepping up to talk to Baki.

"Yes, indeed. We will have to talk to the Kazekage council to decide that. "Baki said.

Kakashi then turned to his team. "I will be out for a while. You guys should go to the hotel, rest a bit, you deserve it." After saying that, the copy ninja turned towards Baki and both body flickered away.

"REST?! WE DO NOT NEED REST! LEE! LET US SHOW SUNA THE POWER OF OUR YOUTH!" Guy shouted to his team.

"YES, GUY SENSEI!" The younger version of Guy shouted as he and his sensei started doing push ups on the ground, apparently uncaring for the people who looked at him strangely.

"Tenten! Neji! Will you join us in your youthful exercise?" Guy asked the rest of his team.

"Hell No!" Neji shouted as he walked off.

"Brother, wait!" Hinata called as she ran after him followed by Kiba.

"Umm, well...sorry..." Tenten apologized to her sensei (who didn't seem one bit upset that Neji and Tenten had refused his invitation) before following the group.

Early the next day...

Neji woke up in the room because of the sound of his hotel room's door closing. His team had been granted five rooms in that hotel for a two night stay, Kakashi could stay in his room alone, Kiba and Akamaru stayed in one room, Guy and Lee in another, Tenten and Sakura also stayed together. Last but not least he had stayed with Hinata...it was probably better this way. He looked out of the window, the sky was still dark. He slowly got off his bed to see that Hinata was not lying in the bed next to him. "Oh, crap..."

Neji soon shot off the hotel and jumped on top of a nearby building before activating his Byakugan. From far away he felt Hinata's chakra atop one of the twin walls of Sunagakure. With that in his mind he shot off to meet his cousin.

Meanwhile atop the wall, Hinata was looking at the horizon lost in her thoughts as she watched the horizon awakening for the sunrise while lost in her own thoughts. "What are you doing here, Lady Hinata?" A familiar voice asked behind her.

"Neji!" The Hyuuga heiress said as she turned to face her cousin. "I...Well, I just..."

Neji laughed. "It's okay, Lady Hinata..." He reasured as he sat beside her at the tallest place in the entire sand village. "I think you can take care of yourself. However, it is still my duty to protect you nonetheless."

"Thank you...Brother…" She said with a smile on her face. After that both Hyuuga stayed in silence watching the horizon, it took some seconds for Hinata to make the question she had been taking courage to ask her cousin.

"Where do you think he is?" She asked. They both knew who Hinata was talking about.

Neji looked at her for some seconds before looking towards the sky. "I don't know...but i assure you Naruto is safe wherever he is."

"How can you say that if you don't even know of his location, nii-san?"

"Well..." The branch Hyuuga hesitated as if thinking on the answer. "There is no way to explain that properly, but...Naruto is much stronger than what meets the eye in more ways than one can imagine...I know that first hand..."

Hinata somewhat knew the answer to her question but she decided she wanted to hear it from Neji. "What is this strength you talk about?"

Neji looked at her surprised. "You should know that...you do don't you, you just want my opinion." Hinata smiled shyly and blushed while looking down but said nothing. "Well then I shall tell you..." Neji cleared his throat and began.

"One of the things that make Naruto so strong in my opinion is his beliefs and how he holds on to them... Naruto would put his life in risk if someone ever doubted his Nindo and while that may seem like a weakness...it is not. I know that first hand...you see, Lady Hinata...that day, in the Chūnin exams two and a half years ago me and Naruto did more than trade blows and blades...we clashed our beliefs one against each other..."

Flashback…

"Your 64 chakra points are now shut...How are you, who cannot use chakra planning to fight?"

That was the question Neji asked to his opponent after using his ultimate attack against his opponent, the Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms that blocked the user's chakra points followed by a direct Gentle Fist in Naruto Uzumaki's chest. That should have stopped the foolish boy from getting back up, that should have stopped him from fighting back...yet, there he was...clinging to his stupid belief to never give up. His breath was heavy and his body was trembling, but there he was...on his two feet...almost asking Neji to beat him down to a pulp...

"At the end of the day, you and Lady Hinata share the very same destiny..." He commented, mockingly making a reference to the cousin he had almost killed in battle as he activated his Byakugan.

"Shut up! You with your Byakugan, labeling people and talking like you understand!" Naruto shouted back.

"If that is the case...then show me whether you're belief is true or not."

"I will! I will defeat you no matter what and prove it to you!" Naruto then concentrated his two hands into a tiger hand seal as he tried to summon his chakra with no avail. He then seemed to realize something and closed his eyes, but Neji was already tired of this guy...

"Proctor...I am going to fight him with killing intent! If you are to stop me, be free to do so." The proctor only sighed as Neji turned back to face Naruto, the crowd around them was silent as the boy continued trying to call his chakra. "Didn't i tell you it is pointless?" Naruto simply ignored the Hyuuga's warning and continued the attempt to call forth Chakra. Neji simply smirked and nod his head in disapproval.

"Why do you try to go against your destiny so much?" He asked the blond boy.

"Because people called me a failure..."

It was then that it all happened, a strong wind came from Naruto as a red Chakra began surrounding him. That chakra...Neji had never seen anything like it...he wasn't even sure it was really chakra! The red energy gathered around Naruto, forming nine tails of chakra around the boy. Neji couldn't believe it...this boy...this failure...this chakra! It didn't match! He wasn't sure what was happening but it took one look on Naruto's blue eyes to see that this battle was far from over.

"...I will prove them wrong."

Back to the present...

"Naruto...it's true, he will never abandon what he believes in...ever...and despite that making him look like a fool, he does not seem to care...that is, Lady Hinata, one of the many reasons I think Naruto Uzumaki is so strong." As Neji finished, Hinata looked at him surprised, she had no idea Neji thought of Naruto so highly.

However...the truth was that he didn't. Not anymore...Naruto had changed into an arrogant prick...and he didn't like it. However he wouldn't say that in front of his lovestruck cousin of course.

"Its true..." Hinata said as she looked towards the now rising sun. "Wherever Naruto-kun is, I bet he's safe..." With that, both Hyuuga watched the sunrise that brought with it yet another day.

Meanwhile...

Naruto was running through a forest, jumping from tree to tree, he had slept too much and now Gaara might be in danger because of him oversleeping...at least his wound on his ankle had healed...however; his body was still not 100% since the fight with Sasori had tired him out. He soon jumped out of the forest to find himself facing a river...well, that was the land of rivers after all.

Naruto walked to the shore and washed his fa...that was going to be a long day.

Of course he didn't notice the various crows flying above him until they started gathering in the other shore to form a man, a black haired men with bred Sharingan eyes. "Naruto Uzumaki...come with me or face the consequences..."

Naruto stood up, surprised to see who they had sent after him...that man...the same man who had killed his clan in cold blood...the man who had driven Sasuke into going after Orochimaru in his search for power...

"Itachi...Uchiha!"

Author's Note: One more day, one more chapter, the longest one yet. i am about to reach my 5000th view and for that i thank you all, all the followers or favoriters (Is there such a word?) for pushing me further on. Please leave a review on the chapter, SkywardStrike out.