So here it is my friends. The next chapter is here because the cliffie I left you with was evil; even I have to admit it. So I hope you like this, let me know what you think about it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, unfortunately, but hey, not much I can do about that is there. Is there? Lol jk!

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Mada's POV

We were darting from tree to tree, using the leaves as cover. Everything was a blur around us. In a way, it resembled my mind at the moment. I was finding it difficult to concentrate on getting to Orochimaru's base. My thoughts centered more on what was happening to Alex, I knew Orochimaru's mind. It was sick; there was nothing good that came of that man, and just knowing that Alex was with him made me angry. Not to mention I felt extremely agitated as a picture of Orochimaru standing near Alex, slimy tongue and all, slithered into my mind. This was quickly followed by a sense-numbing thought of any of the girls being around that perverted subordinate of his, heavens knows that he has already attempted to try something against them. Just thinking about it tinted my vision red. The branch beneath my foot shattered as I launched forward.

"Tobi, slow down, you can't waste your energy. We need to keep our strength up if you want to save them," Konan said. Her voice of reason was conflicting with the image of Kabuto standing over Alex. "They are strong Tobi, they can hold out a little longer, I know it." My eye met hers, showing her strong determination and complete belief in her statement. Taking a deep breath, I nodded and fell back into formation. She gave me a reassuring smile before returning her focus to the mission at hand.

"Wait," Pein whispered. We halted, shifting into better hiding places. A shuffling could be heard below, along with a quiet murmuring. I strained my ears, just barely hearing their conversation.

"We have to get back to the base, then we can get help. You know as well as I that we can't handle those three without help," one of the voices whispered.

"Yeah, I know. If we don't bring back help, those three are gonna be big trouble. But Kabuto is there so, I'm not sure how much back up we will need," a second voice replied. My gaze turned to Pein for instruction. He turned to me, nodding. Returning the gesture, I along with the others dropped from our hiding places. Both of the ninja stopped, turning to look at us. Apparently the girls weren't going easy on their captors. These two were cut and bruised everywhere. Blood covered them, making any noticeable features difficult to detect.

"Where are the recently captured prisoners? Tell us if you want to live," Pein asked. All of us were still in the shadows, preventing the people from seeing us.

"Who's there?" One of them asked, their voice rasped, most likely from lack of water.

"Why does it matter, you have information on some friends of ours, where are they?" Konan said.

"We refuse to tell you anything until you tell us who you are," the other said in a menacing voice, also raspy.

"Well I guess you're just gonna have to die then!" Hidan launched at one, scythe out and swinging. Taking the initiative, we followed after, all of us landing in a circle around the two. Both had wide eyes. Using this as an advantage, Hidan swiped at the one closest to him, leaving a slice on their arm. "Ha, all I'm gonna need," he said as he drew out his pentagram. The one he cut cursed, diving towards Hidan, almost as if trying to knock him from the circle. "What the fuck do think you're doing," he yelled as he dragged his weapon across his leg, slicing an inch deep gash through his skin. A gasp emitted from the injured nin, who had sunk to one leg.

"Dammit, you asshole, would you give us a chance to speak," the other ninja screamed.

"You have no right to speak, you snake-loving scum," I yelled. Diving forward, I landed on top of the screaming ninja, knocking them to the ground and pulling a kunai against their neck. The ninja, I now could tell she was female, stared warily at my knife before slowly reaching her hand up and signaling for me to put my head closer. I growled. "What, you want to tell me where my friends are now?" She nodded. "Say it then!" The girl shook her head, once again signaling for me to come closer. Hesitantly, I leaned down.

"Do you still have our bracelet Mada? Show it to me and I will show you mine," the girl whispered. My eye widened. Lifting her hand, she gently pushed away the knife and pulled down the collar of her jacket. Nestled gently in the soft spot of the nin's neck was Alex's necklace. "If you recognize this then you would also know that I gave a bracelet to the man I loved with our names intertwined on it. Our real names." Her gaze met mine, eyes the exact same shade of Alex's. I slowly shook my head.

"Y-you are trying to trick me, you must be. There was no way Orochimaru would let you slip from his grasp," I whispered. She gave a weak smile.

"Ahhh!" Hidan had given a sudden yell. My gaze snapped up to him, seeing that the other ninja had driven him from the pentagram. His skin was no longer black and white, it had returned to its original light tan.

"I know your secret Hidan, you told it to me before my first mission," the ninja cried, standing over him. Leaning down, she quietly spoke in his ear. I noticed that the others were standing back, waiting for a chance to take their swing at the mysterious attackers. The widening of Hidan's eyes definitely clued me in. Turning back, I took the sleeve of my cloak and softly rubbed the grime away from the girl I had just intended to kill. It was Alex, I knew it. Sure enough, the woman I loved was looking at me with watery eyes. Gripping her shoulders, I pulled her into a tight hug.

"You're alright." The relief in my voice was obvious.

"Tobi, what's going on," Konan asked. She sounded extremely confused.

"It's her Konan, it's Alex," I said in a quiet tone. Standing, I lifted Alex to her feet. Konan was already at my side, peering at her with disbelieving eyes. Before she could react, Alex gripped her in a strong hug. My glance drifted to Hidan, who had hugged Chloe. It seemed like a lot of hugs were going around.

"Hold on a second." We all turned to Deidara. His voice sounded strained. "If all three of you were taken, why is it only two of you are here?" Alex's face fell, an expression of fright and sadness crossing her features. Gently, I turned her to look at me.

"Alex, where is Haley?" She started to tremble, tears sliding down her cheeks.

"She stayed behind so we could get away. We were told to go get help, we've been walking for a day now, trying to find our way to the base," Chloe said, looking just as upset as Alex. She turned to look at Deidara. He was shaking.

"Deidara," Konan said, taking a step towards him.

"You just left her there," he whispered.

"We had no choice. She made us leave," Alex said in a distressed voice.

"Don't forget, she was our friend longer then she was ever your girlfriend. You have no idea how hard it was for us to leave her," Chloe said, her voice taking on a darker edge, one sounding similar to a pissed off animal. Deidara's head shot up.

"How dare you-"

"Hey now," Konan interrupted. "Why don't we all just calm down. The longer we stand here bickering, the longer Haley is stuck with those creepy snake worshipers." Pein was now standing next to her, giving both Deidara and Chloe 'be-difficult-and-I-will-personally-make-your-life-a-living-hell' looks. Reluctantly, they nodded.

"Ok, here is what we're going to do. Konan, I want you to heal these two, then we shall all retrace the girls steps until we find the place where they fought. Once we have, I want us to find the closest base and split up. As soon as we find her, I want everyone to meet up at a designated area near the base, one that I shall decide when we get there. Then I want us to find Orochimaru. It is time for that snake to die," Pein said in a calm voice. Konan had already started to heal Alex and Chloe, but paused to nod in understanding. She took five minutes to fix the girls' injuries before we took off. Chloe and Alex were at the head of the group, leading us along their previous path. Even with their partially healed injuries, they were ahead of us by a few strides. It was obvious that they were not going to take it slow, much to Konan's dismay. We were still running when it got dark, the only reason we didn't stop was because the girls claimed that their trail was already hard to follow, even though we all knew they had no problem remembering where they had to go. Everyone decided it was better to avoid an argument and continue on. The girls were staring at the path ahead with focused gazes when suddenly they stopped.

"We're here," Alex said before stepping into a large open clearing. It was obvious that this was the right place. The ground was covered in gouges and a few of the surrounding trees were sliced and smashed through. A wall or rock was pulled up on the opposite side of the clearing, and a few feet from there, a pile of broken rocks. Whatever had gone on during the fight didn't matter however, when Chloe stepped up to the rock wall.

"Alex, come look at this," she said in a hopeful voice. We quickly walked over to see what she was pointing at. There was a line dragging from the wall to the forest. "She left a path, we can find her that much easier." Alex gave a determined nod. Everyone started to follow the scuff marks on the ground. The line went on for at least 5 miles. When we reached the end, the girls looked at Pein. He already had a map out, searching the page. Finally he pointed ahead.

"There is a base about 3 miles that way, it is the closest to where we are standing at the moment. Let's go," the group silently darted to the trees, hopping from branch to branch. Pein was in the lead this time, so when he held up his hand, everyone saw it and halted. Looking through the foliage, I could see the entrance to Orochimaru's base.

"Hey Chloe, isn't that the base that Naruto went into that one time, you know when he went to find Sasuke?" Chloe turned to her and gave a slight nod.

"I don't think so, I don't remember a river near it, do you?" Alex shook her head. Pein sighed.

"I guess we're just going to have to do this the hard way." Before any of us had the chance to speak, the entrance slid open, revealing the snake sanin. He looked directly at us and opened his arms, almost as if to welcome us to his home.

"Well, don't stay in the trees, come out, and let me see who we have here." Cautiously, we exited the tree cover. If it was even possible, his smirk got even creepier. "Ah, I see. You two returned, oh, you brought some friends this time did you? Are you hoping to retrieve your kidnapped comrade? How about we make a deal, I give you the girl, in exchange, you tell me just one thing about my future," Orochimaru said, raising one of his eyebrows. Alex's eyes narrowed to slits.

"What do you want to know," she spat in a tight voice. The sanin smiled, ignoring her tone.

"Tell me, for I am curious, when do I kill Jiraya and Tsunade?" Chloe returned Orochimaru's smirk with a smile that made my skin crawl.

"Jiraya dies by Pein's hand, and Tsunade, I never got that far into the future to figure out." Orochimaru's eyes started to burn.

"When?" His voice was lowered to a menacing whisper.

"Sometime after the chunin exams, that's honestly all I know," Chloe said and Alex nodded in agreement. Orochimaru looked troubled but nodded anyway.

"Alright, well, I am a man of my word, go ahead and take your friend." He stepped to the side, showing a figure in a dark cloak. I could see the blond hair which meant it was Haley, but something was off. Chloe took a step forward, but Hidan grabbed her shoulder.

"Wait," he said. "Something isn't right." The figure under the cloak jerked her eyes in Hidan's direction. The movement looked strange, unnatural.

"You do want your friend don't you, come and get her." The hood of the cloak was shielding Haley's face.

"Something's different, what did you do," Deidara said in a strained voice.

"Oh, she is still the same, I just made a few adjustments," Orochimaru said before pulling the hood off of Haley's head. Alex gave a cry of shock. Chloe was trembling. Deidara had wide eyes. The rest of us were stunned to silence. Haley's skin was now a deep gray color, her glazed over eyes yellow with black slits. A dark 'X' was sticking out boldly against her forehead. Her neck sported a tattoo, the same as the ninja that had attacked Alex, Hidan and I. By the looks of it, I would say that she really didn't know who we were at the moment. "You held up your part of the deal, now I'm holding up mine. Come and take her... if you can." Turning, he strutted back through the entrance, which closed after he passed. Movement brought my gaze back to the problem at hand, for Haley had sunk into a fighting stance.

"Haley, stop this! It's us, your friends. We're here to help you," Alex yelled. The only reaction received was a slight shifting, which put Alex in the key direction for attack. Grabbing her, I pulled her out of the way as a kunai logged in the tree behind her head.

"She doesn't recognize us, we can't just take her. We need to fight her to get her back," Deidara said in a quiet voice. His face was grim, but I could see the determined glint in his eyes.

"Just be careful, try not to do physical damage, genjutsu is best. At most, mild taijutsu and binding ninjutsu, that's all. Anymore and we risk killing her," Konan said in a quiet voice. I took a step forward, hoping to catch her in a genjutsu quickly so we could avoid further harm. We still needed to fight Orochimaru after all. However before I could go through the signs, Alex had started to run out from behind me. Chloe also took a leap forward, both going through some unfamiliar signs. Roots suddenly shot from the ground, encasing Haley in roots from the neck down.

"Tobi, see if you can catch her in a genjutsu," Pein said. Nodding, I jumped forward, my sharingan spinning. Unfortunately the roots were already lying in a useless pile on the ground.

"Dammit, Chloe make her face me," Alex yelled. Chloe was in hand to hand at the moment, holding her own but still getting pushed back.

"Well, a little help would be nice, I can't hurt her, it's difficult to fight her if I can't hurt her!" Taking a few steps back, she launched a foot into Haley's stomach, causing her to stagger. Using this to his advantage, Deidara pulled out a small bird. He threw it in front of her and set it off, causing her balance to fail and fall back onto her hands. Once again, Chloe trapped Haley in roots as Alex jumped in front of the fallen girl. They momentarily stared at each other before Haley drooped forward. Her skin color returned to normal and swirling lines retracted into the mark on her neck. Konan had a look on her face that told me someone had some explaining to do. Turning to me, she gave a slight glare.

"You taught her to use the sharingan? After I told them they could train?" I gave a chuckle and scratched the back of my head.

"Well, yeah, but she asked me to, what could I have said?" She looked flabbergasted.

"No, you could have told her no Tobi, I mean, if she asked you to jump off of a cliff, would you?" Thinking I answered truthfully.

"If that's what she wants me to do then yeah, I would." Konan threw up her hands, giving an exasperated sigh.

"Well, I guess there is no point in giving you guys restrictions if you're just going to break them," she said in a sarcastic voice.

"Really, that's great, now we can go on missions again," Chloe said in a cheerful voice.

"I was kidding," Konan said in a desperate tone, but the only one who heard it was Pein for the others were too busy trying to free Haley from the roots.

"Damn, that's the one thing Zetsu forgot to teach us about this jutsu, how to get the person out after you get them trapped," Alex said as she carefully cut through the thick roots. Once enough were cut, they pulled her out the rest of the way. Sighing, Alex turned to me. "I found some sort of seal, most likely repressing memories or something. We need to get rid of it before I she wakes up. Otherwise she will start to fight us again and return to that snake bastard."

"Speaking of snake bastard, are we going to go kill him or not?" Hidan stood with a look of malice in his eyes. I turned to look at Pein, who appeared to be thinking.

"It is dangerous for him to know anything about the future, I don't think we can let this slide, it could cause some big problems," Chloe said. Pein nodded.

"However, we need to take in consideration that he is expecting us to defeat her, he probably has a precautions set up if we hope to attack him. We need to catch him off guard, otherwise he has the upper hand." Giving it a minute more of thought, he sighed. "Our best choice is to leave and return when he isn't expecting it, but it would have to be soon. If he acts upon that information we just gave him, it could prove disastrous." It was silent as everyone contemplated just how big of a disaster Orochimaru could cause.

"We should go before he sends anyone out, we should avoid a fight right now if possible," Konan said. Everyone agreed and took to the trees.

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Deidara's POV

I watched as Tobi searched for the thing sealing Haley's memories.

"What's taking so long," I said. Alex shot me a glare.

"It is a long process Deidara, you need to take a chill pill," she said. I sighed, going back to watching Tobi. We had stopped in a small clearing to rest for the night. Tobi had started working on the seal, but that was half an hour ago. Everyone else was asleep, Alex and Tobi had to stay up to fix the seal and I was on guard duty. A hooting drew my attention to a small owl sitting up in a tree. It had caught sight of something on the ground, a little mouse perhaps, and swooped down to claim it's prize. However, the owl quickly veered off, almost as if frightened by what it saw. That was the first clue. Metal sliding against metal was the next, most likely someone removing a kunai from a pouch. My last clue was the sound of a snapping twig. Grabbing a glob of clay, I formed a clay centipede, which quickly slipped through the trees and found its target. Jumping up, I raced after it. Standing only ten feet from our camp was a leaf shinobi. The centipede had wrapped around the shinobi's body, preventing it from moving anywhere, but the captive still struggled.

"What are you doing here," I asked. The shinobi stilled. I noticed that the nin wasn't wearing their headband.

"I should be asking you that, you are in leaf territory." It was obvious that the nin was female, and now I could barely make out her hair color, a bubble gum pink. I knew who this was.

"You, you're that little brat who killed Sasori." The girl stiffened at the mention of my past comrade.

"Deidara, what is it," Alex called, cautiously walking to my current position. Seeing that I had captured someone, she pulled out a kunai.

"Wait, tell me, do you recognize this one?" Alex looked confused but stared at the girl anyway.

"Hold on, I know who she is," Alex said in a shocked voice.

"How do you know me, I have never met you before, the only one I recognize is your blond friend," the girls hissed. Stepping forward, Alex started to circle the ninja.

"How old are you," she suddenly asked. The pink haired girl stayed silent.

"Hey, she asked you a question, it would be in your best interest to answer," I said as the centipede tightened its grip.

"I'm 16, why does it matter?"

"She is Sakura Haruno, student to the Hokage, medic-nin, affiliated with the nine-tails, chunin, and is extremely strong. We can't take her right now, not with the condition we are in. I'm going to get the others and we are going to go." Nodding, I waited as she went to wake everyone. Once they were awake, everyone walked to where we stood. Pein gave the girl a look before turning to me.

"Have your trap hold her until we're far away, I don't want any leaf nin following us." The girl suddenly gasped. We turned to her and saw that she was staring at the mark on Haley's neck.

"Where did she get that," the nin asked, looking weary.

"Why does it matter," I growled.

"You know where Orochimaru is don't you, tell me please! I need to know," Sakura cried. Ignoring her, I set the trap to hold until we were gone then, with a glare, we transported ourselves to the outskirts of the town near our base.

"Why was she so eager on finding Orochimaru?" Alex turned to me, a tired look on her face.

"Most likely to find Sasuke, he is her ex-teammate who left the village. She and the Naruto have been searching for him for a while." She continued to tell us about this Sasuke kid as we made our way to the base. "All I really know about him is that he is a stupid little bastard who deserves to be pushed off a mountain," she said in a nonchalant voice, earning a few smirks and even a chuckle from Konan.

"Hey Tobi, did you have enough time to get rid of the seal before we had to leave?" He nodded.

"It was difficult but I removed it, that snake sanin has a twisted mind, using that kind of seal. He took her memories and dumped them into her subconscious then replaced them with images of him being her master or something. The main point was that it made her his servant," he said in a dark voice. Chloe grumbled, something sounding like 'slimy pedophile', causing Hidan to laugh.

"We're back," Pein said in a quiet tone. Entering the base, everyone slouched off to where ever it was they wanted to go. First I went to place Haley in her room, seeing as how she was still unconscious from her encounter with the sharingan. Then I went to my room to take a quick shower. Once that was done, I grabbed a quick bite to eat before returning to Haley's room. Pulling up a chair, I sat down to wait. My eyes drifted over her room, looking at the pictures she had covered the walls with. They were different, but still good. One caught my eye. Standing, I went over to get a better look. It was a picture of me sitting down at the desk in my room, making a clay sculpture of a dragon fly. Haley came in that day and just sat on the bed, watching me work. I never realized she had been drawing, but the picture was amazing. Shadows were shaded, light was shed where it needed to be. All in all, it was well drawn. Turning, I looked back over at her. She looked really peaceful when she slept, a lot different then I usually saw her. Sighing, I returned to my seat by her bed.

"She's gonna be ok, you know." I turned to find Chloe in the door. She had a glass of water in her hand.

"Huh?"

"I said she is going to be ok, you don't need to worry so much. We just need Pein to seal away that mark on her neck and she will be just fine." Coming in, she set the glass of water down on Haley's night stand. I turned my attention back to Haley. "Uh, by the way, I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier, about Alex and I being her friends before you. I realized that just because we have known her longer doesn't mean we care more than you do," She gave me a sympathetic look. I was shocked but nodded anyway.

"It's ok, don't worry about it, I shouldn't have reacted the way I did, I'm sure you had no choice about leaving," I said. It was silent, almost a little awkward until Chloe cleared her throat.

"Well, uh, I'm gonna go, night." With that said, she turned and left the room. I once again turned back to Haley. There was a small smile on her lips, almost as if she witnessed the whole awkward situation, but her breathing was that of a sleeping person.

'I might as well get some sleep to,' I thought before resting my arms and head on her bed. Just as I was about to fall asleep, I heard a quiet whisper. Opening my eyes slightly, I saw Haley giving me a small smile.

"Goodnight Deidara," she repeated before gently grabbing my hand and falling asleep.

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Hope you liked it, let me know if there is anything you might want me to add into the story, I am always open to suggestions. Thanks for reading!

Love

Nettie