A/N: Again, I apologize for the long wait. I had several important tests divided in three weeks, so it was really hard for me to focus on the fic when I knew I had (a lot of) unfinished reading to do. I hope this chapter will please you all and I thank you for your patience and loyalty ;)

Go ahead and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or all the other characters in it

Tenten

Tenten woke up to the hurting and throbbing of her sore head. She could hear faint sounds in the background and gradually her hearing improved. They were voices and footsteps. She tried looking around her but somehow she still felt too weak to move her head. So she opened her eyes. In the beginning, her sight was very blurry; she couldn't even make out the amount of toes she had. She closed her eyes again and gave herself a moment. When she reopened them, her vision was cleared. She could see her feet in sandals. She saw the brown color of the sand she was sitting on and she felt the hard and cold surface of the wall she was leaning against. She also noticed that her feet were tied with rope and that she couldn't move her hands. At first she couldn't understand why she was in this position or in this place but then she remembered the incident with those ninja's.

Quickly she snapped back into reality, knowing that she might be in danger. She gained enough energy to look around now and the first thing she did was try to free her hands. It was no use; they were tied well together. She looked around her; she was in some sort hut. But it was oddly cold in here. She couldn't see much because it was quite dark. Through the wooden door on her left, flickering light shone through the slits of the planks. There were people outside working; she could hear them talking, arguing, discussing, working with tools but she couldn't make out what they were saying.

Slowly, Tenten got the feeling that she smelled something nasty. After she let her eyes get adjusted to the poor light, she looked around and screamed. In the right corner of the hut was the body of a badly mutilated ninja. He had deep cuts all over his body. In fact he was so covered in blood, there was barely any bloodless skin left anywhere. His legs were twisted in all the wrong angles and she believed that his arms were cut off. And was it her imagination, or did she see exposed innards? She moved towards the door as best as she could but couldn't keep her eyes off the horrible scene in the corner.

Not long after, a ninja opened the door. It was a huge man with a strange blue skin, small round eyes and the pointiest teeth she had ever seen.

"Finally up, huh?" the man said with a hoarse voice, more to himself than to Tenten. He roughly picked Tenten up, put her on his shoulder and carried her out the hut. She was relieved she didn't have to be in the same room with that mutilated guy but being carried around by someone who looked more like a monster than a human, wasn't any better. She protested but with her hands and feet tied up, it didn't make any difference. She gave in and waited till the huge guy dropped her somewhere. She took the opportunity to take a look at her surroundings. They were definitely underground somewhere; there was no sky, no vegetation. Just plain darkness, enlightened by torches everywhere, surrounded by endless walls of rock. Then again, it couldn't be just any cave because she noticed ruins on the far side. There were many bad guys walking around, carrying in wheelbarrows full of weapons, material and rock. She got the idea they were excavating something. She felt the monster who was carrying her, walking up steps. They entered some kind of stone building. It smelled very old, musky. The big man turned in a hall and entered another room. There he dropped her on the floor, like one would a bag of sand. If here hands weren't tied, she would've rubbed her sore tush. This guy had no respect for people.

"She's up," the big blue man said to the others in the room. "Can I kill her now?"

Tenten held her breath; she was in no need of dying now. She started to get scared; killing her would be a piece of cake in her condition. She looked at the men blue boy was talking to. There were only two other people in the room. They were discussing something and had their backs turned to them. One of them had long yellow blond hair and the other one's hair was light purple tied in a low ponytail. All of them had on the dark brown robe of the person who kidnapped her. She couldn't point out her kidnapper though because all she remembered was that evil smile before she passed out.

Blondy and purple weren't paying any attention to blue boy and eventually blue boy got impatient.

"Guys!" he said out loud. "Ignore me one more time and I will kill her without your consent."

Finally the others turned around. Purple had on round glasses and blondy kinda looked cute but the look on their faces exposed their true nature. It was dark, sinister and evil. And the way blondy was eying her was creeping her out.

"Don't kill her, Kisame," purple said calmly. "We still need her. Put her in the cabin somewhere she won't be a nuisance to the workers."

"Hmmm… Quite a fine piece you got here, yeah," the blond said to purple. "Mind if I have some fun?"

"No," purple said sternly. Tenten sighed of relief. She wouldn't want that creep anywhere near her. She'd rather have blue boy around. She may die quicker around him but better that than to be violated by a crazy looking nut head.

"Oww, come on Kabuto," he protested. He walked over to Tenten and took her face in his hand. "Only just a nibble, yeah."

"If you fucking mess with her, I will have your hands amputated," Kabuto threatened. He seemed awfully calm about it but that only scared Tenten more.

Blondy raised his hands in defeat but smirked at Tenten.

"Fine, have it your way," he said. "But if we manage to kill the asshole Sasuke, I will have her as my artistic inspiration." Kabuto didn't react to that but from the looks of it, he didn't seem to mind.

Tenten swallowed. What were they planning on doing? It was obvious they were picking on the Uchiha's lead family but what exactly did they want?

"Deidara," Kabuto ordered. "Take her to interrogation. You know what to do."

The blond, whose name seems to be Deidara, gave her that sinister smile again. Tenten had a sudden moment of flashback. Of course! He was the one who kidnapped her. To think that he'd be the one interrogating her; she'd rather die.

Deidara swung her on his shoulders and carried her out of the room. They walked up several stairs again and ended up in a dark room, lit by a single candle on a wooden table in the middle of the room. Just like the blue monster Kisame, Deidara dropped her on the floor. He hunched down, so they'd meet eye to eye. Deidara stroked her face slowly. Out of disgust, Tenten turned away quickly.

"Don't you touch me!" she threatened.

"Or what?" he mocked. "You're the one all tied up, yeah."

He took her chin roughly in his hand and made her look at him. "Kabuto may have said that I shouldn't mess with you," he continued as he spoke softly. "But he never said I couldn't do it clean."

Whatever he planned, Tenten would never allow him to touch her. She was scared indeed because she was helpless. But she will fight back. She has been raised to be a confident and strong woman and on top of that, she married a man who was highly respected in his village. She didn't want to give herself that easily to anyone. The fire in her started to burn. It was like thinking of Sasuke made her even stronger, boosted her will power to keep her head high. If she died, she'd die fighting, defending her honor.

Deidara grabbed one of her breasts and squeezed it tightly. Tenten backed away instinctively but his grip was firm and definite; he didn't let go. Before she could push him off, he quickly slammed her mouth onto his. He pushed his tongue in her mouth, forcing himself in. Tenten was shocked at first but when she realized what was going on, she bit down hard on his tongue and only let go when she could taste the coppery flavor of crimson blood.

Deidara pushed her off him. He held his hand against his mouth, feeling the blood trickling out. He spit some out, the blood leaving several dark stains on the floor.

"You bitch!" he scolded. He came closer to her and slapped her hard on the face. Tenten felt her head flying to her left. The slap was so powerful; she felt it all the way in the vertebrae of her neck. Right afterwards, she felt Deidara grab her hair and turned her to face him.

"You're gonna pay for that, yeah," he said. He had a bewildered and insane look in his eyes that scared Tenten to death. But she didn't want to show fear, so she spit in his face.

"Ugh! That's it!" he exclaimed. "You're lucky I can't kill you, yeah. Because I swear I can blow your fucking head into pieces, you goddamn slut! Let's see how feisty you'll be after two days without food and water." That being said, he stood up, walked out the door and slammed it shut.

Tenten sighed out of relieve. For a moment there, she really thought he'd do horrific things to her. But if he meant what he said, that she'd go two days without food and water, she wouldn't have enough kick in her left for an escape. She looked around the bare room once again and fixed her eyes on the candle. As careful as she could, she stood up and sat on the table, being careful not to bump on to it. Luckily the table wasn't too high, so she was able to sit on it without jumping. She was planning on burning the ropes her hands were tied with, with the fire of the candle. But her hands were tied behind her back, so she wouldn't be able to see what she was doing. She decided to trust her senses because she had to get those ropes off (her wrists were killing her!).

So she sat on the table, facing the door, the candle behind her. Blindly, she looked for the candle. When she felt its wax, she slowly bent forward, so she could let her hands travel upwards, towards the flame. Being aware of the danger of fire, she clenched her teeth together and prepared for impact. She hissed loudly, when she burned her finger but she acted immediately by putting her wrists above the flame. When the ropes where loose, she grabbed her burned skin and immediately spit on it, hoping that the saliva would cool it down. Now that her hands were free, she loosened her legs. She stretched out, feeling like her limbs got numb from the stiff position she was in.

Tenten stood up, walked towards the door and tried to open it.

Damn.

Locked.

She turned around and sat in the corner. She started rethinking everything. All of a sudden all of her emotions rose to the surface, and there in the corner, all by herself, she started sobbing.

The hokage's office

"We have to go fucking save her!" Sasuke was furious. He was ranting and pacing inside Naruto's office. After he found out about Tenten's kidnapping he loyally reported to his father about the incident and wanted to put together his own team to go save Tenten. But his father told him to report to the hokage, because he feared there was something bigger behind the kidnapping. Sasuke had protested; Tenten was his wife. This was an Uchiha affair and in his opinion, the hokage didn't need to be involved. But Fugaku was determined about his decision and angrily he went to notify Naruto. He was muttering about how much time they were wasting but he did as he was told and now the hokage was telling him that they can't go after her.

"Calm down, Sasuke." Naruto was surprised that he was being calm himself. Having been hokage for some years now, he was experienced enough to know that orientation and planning were important at this stage rather than to go out waging war on an enemy no one knows anything about.

"We need to think about this carefully because if we don't we might get her killed." Naruto did his best to convince his old friend. He knew that when Sasuke gets emotionally involved, his brilliant mind starts to shroud and he won't be able to think clearly. Sasuke buried his hands in his hair and knocked a hole in the wall. It was driving him mad that they were just sitting there doing nothing.

Naruto had summoned his tacticians and his elders to help him solve the case. No one knew about the strange group who took Tenten and why they needed the Uchiha family relic. Especially Shikamaru didn't feel good about all of this. In the end the hokage decided to comply with the rules of the kidnapper. They didn't know who they were dealing with but they thought it was best to be prepared and bring them what they want.

Sasuke wasn't happy of course but maybe this was the best thing to do. He went home, like Naruto requested, and tried to rest. The Nemura coast was about 500 miles to the east of Konoha and it would take them about a day to get there IF they kept running without stopping. Before Sasuke stepped into the bed, he wrapped the Kusanagi in some fabric and put it in a special case that he would be able to wear on his back. As far as he knows his best men, including Itachi, would be joining him in the rescue mission.

"Whoever you guys are," Sasuke whispered before shutting his eyes. "I hope you are fucking ready because I will drag you to a place worse than hell itself."

Tenten

Life wasn't easy for the brunette. When Deidara threatened her with no food and water, he was serious. He had ordered for his men to bring her nothing until he said so. But luckily, she did have a caretaker: an old man who was to clean up her waste (because she had to do everything in the room, under no condition was she allowed to leave) and replace the candle once every day. And during his visits, he'd smuggle in a small bottle with water and two dry toasts. She was grateful for the old man but it wasn't enough to keep her strength up. After two days, the three major bad guys entered her room. She was sitting in a corner and would've stood up when she saw them but she was too weak to do so. Deidara grinned at his results. He walked up to her and grabbed her chin. He seemed to be fond of doing that.

"This is way better, yeah," he said devilishly. "Now I can make you do anything I want."

"Deidara!" Kabuto reprimanded him. Reluctantly, Deidara let go of Tenten and made way for their leader. Kabuto walked up to Tenten and bent down, looking her straight in the eyes, his hands behind his back.

"Today you're gonna prove your worth," he whispered. He smiled at her when he said it but he scared her to death. "Let's see how much you mean to that poor clan leader."

When he bent down, Tenten was able to see a necklace falling down his neck. She couldn't see it clearly but somehow the necklace seemed familiar. She had no time to fully examine it because right after Kabuto's whispers, he walked away from her, out the door. Kisame threw her on his shoulders again and walked out, following Kabuto. Soon after, her vision went black; because her lack of food and water, she passed out.

Nemura coast

Sasuke was pacing again. It didn't seem like he was able to stand still. Itachi has been observing his little brother ever since they left for the coast. He has never seen him this anxious before. And that expression on his face; Itachi suspected that the slightest irritation might cause him to erupt like a giant volcano. And he's on the verge of losing it. Naruto, his men and the Uchiha clan have just arrived at the coast and they were resting to regain their strength. To reach the coast on time, they have been running non-stop at full speed and it has taken its toll on the small army. Men were exhausted and hungry. Naruto was organizing their meals (or maybe he just wanted to be near the ramen before anyone else), while medics like Sakura and Ino were tending small, superficial injuries caused by the trip. They have about a day to rest, tomorrow would be the exchange. Sasuke couldn't wait; he wanted to barge in now, he wanted to look for her. But he didn't know where she was and that was eating him up alive.

"Sasuke!" Itachi called out to his brother. He had a bowl of tomato soup and some bread in his hands. He shoved them in Sasuke's arms.

"Eat," he demanded. "You won't do any of us any good when you're a weak."

Sasuke looked at his brother and then at the food. He sighed and sat down to eat.

"Listen," Itachi spoke. "I know how anxious you are now that we're finally here. But I need you to calm down. Don't let your anger shroud your judgment. What the hell happened to your rationality?!"

Sasuke looked at his big brother. He knew he was right. He had no idea what's gotten into him and it was only good for one thing: destruction. If he didn't get himself together, he might do more bad than good. And that might cause him Tenten's life. He didn't answer Itachi and neither did he look at him. He just sat there, quietly eating his meal, thinking.

"I'll calm down for now," he said while staring at the fire. "But once the war has started, I won't hold back."

Itachi looked at him. Sasuke was serious. And he was well aware of his capabilities and the truth of his words. He sighed and laid a hand on his kid brother's shoulders. Then he turned around and walked towards a different camp fire, where Sakura was restocking her medicine bag. She was planning on sharpening her weapons next, when she noticed Itachi walking up to her. The slender man was quiet and sat next to her. Sakura observed his expressionless face. She has been close enough to him to notice that he was worried and passed a glance at Sasuke.

"How's he taking this?" she asked him.

At first Itachi was quiet. He was staring at the fire, his folded hands in front of his mouth.

"I'm afraid he's up to no good," he answered her. "When the shit's going down tomorrow, there won't be any stopping him. I almost feel sorry for our opponents."

"Sasuke's up on one of his killing sprees again, isn't he," Sakura joked. "Having one of his tantrums. Better bring him his pacifier."

Itachi smiled at her and put an arm around her shoulder.

"I just hope he doesn't go too far," he said softly. "Because then he'd not only be a danger to the enemies but also to us and himself."

The exchange

When Tenten opened her eyes, she couldn't see anything. She heard waves crashing against rock. When her eyes adjusted to the limited amount of light, she could tell she wasn't in her previous holding cell anymore. It was dark, wet and she could hear her voice echoing. She was all alone. It didn't take her long to realize she was in a cave of some sort, very close to the sea. She could actually see the water and smelled its saltiness. Outside the cave some light of the day shone in and she figured it would get dark very soon. And alarmingly, she noticed the water coming closer. It was probably high tide. This would pose a problem because her hands and feet were tied together. If the water gets any higher, she might drown!

Naruto and his little army were waiting by the beach of the Nemura coast. Sasuke was standing beside him. Naruto noticed that Sasuke had a very bad vibe surrounding him but he didn't pay too much attention to it. He thought it was just the atmosphere of war that was doing that to him.

Across them was another army of people dressed in black, their three leaders standing in front of them. As if on cue both the leaders from the black army and Konoha walked towards each other. And of course, Sasuke was the first to speak.

"Where is she?!" he demanded.

"My, my," Kabuto mocked. "Someone seems to be irritated. Woke up from the wrong side of the bed?"

Sasuke wanted to lunge at him but Naruto held him back.

"Calm down, man!" Naruto scolded. "If you want Tenten back alive, then this is not the way to do it."

"Who are you?" Naruto asked Kabuto.

"Introductions?" Kabuto looked at him quizzically. "There's no need for that and frankly that is of no importance. Did you bring the object of trade?"

Naruto glanced at Sasuke who took the Kusanagi from the case of his back and unwrapped the family relic from its fabric. Kabuto's eyes started to widen, sparkle even, and he reached out for it. Sasuke pulled back the Kusanagi.

"Not until you tell me where she is," he hissed.

"Well then," Kabuto said and smiled at him. "Why don't you go find her yourself? But I must say: her time is running out."

Right at that moment, Kisame attacked Sasuke and Deidara Naruto. Because the two were taken by surprise, they were a little confused at first but quickly regained their senses. They tried fighting off their assailants but they couldn't. Every time they tried hitting them, their attacks were bounced off because they seem to be protected by some kind of force field surrounding them. Kisame was going at Sasuke like a dog with rabies, fighting him, punching him non-stop. Because of the force field, Sasuke couldn't do much to Kisame. He was thrown from one side to the other and at a certain point, he let go of the Kusanagi in his hands. Kisame noticed and grabbed it immediately. Right afterwards, he retreated. And so did Kabuto and Deidara. Sasuke couldn't follow them, because he was attacked by bad guy's black army. When they saw that their leaders were fighting, both armies lunged for attack and it seemed that the goal of the black army was to keep Naruto and Sasuke down.

In a matter of seconds, the pristine white sanded beach turned into a bloody and cold battlefield. There were so many enemies (and some strong ones between them) that it took Sasuke some time to defeat. When he finally fought off an annoying ninja and had some time alone, he looked around him: everybody was consumed with battle but Kabuto, Kisame and Deidara were nowhere to be seen. And what's worse: they got their hands on the Kusanagi and he still had no clue where Tenten was. Sasuke was so full of rage he did something he never did unless he was absolutely certain that only his enemies were on the battlefield: he activated his Amaterasu. Without consideration for his own people, he aimed the black flames at any enemy he could spot but also hurting some of his allies during the proces. Itachi saw the danger and ran towards him as fast as he could.

"What is this nonsense?!" he yelled angrily. "Stop this! You're killing everybody!"

"If you don't want to die, I suggest you just fucking back off!" Sasuke hissed through clenched teeth. Itachi was shocked by the impression on Sasuke's face. Never had his kid brother looked so merciless before. But that didn't scare him off and he hit him as hard as he could, sending Sasuke flying a few meters away. Itachi ran after him and before Sasuke was able to stand up, Itachi punched him several times regardless of the fact how the two were related. Right now, Sasuke posed a threat and therefore he was an enemy. He stopped punching and grabbed Sasuke's collar to look at his bruised face.

"Stop the Amaterasu, Sasuke," he threatened. "You're killing your own people! And if you don't stop this right now, I swear I'll kill you."

Somehow, that brought Sasuke back to his senses and he immediately undid his mistake. He had done some serious damage, to the enemy as well as his own people but luckily the burn wasn't too severe and everybody would survive. Without remorse, Sasuke picked up a follower of Kabuto and looked him in the eye; making sure he saw the insanity of the Mangekyou.

"If you don't tell me where my wife is," he said softly. "I will do worse things to you than I can do with the Amaterasu that you just saw."

The enemy was shaking heavily and was clearly afraid of him.

"She… she…," he stammered. "She's in the cave. Please don't kill me…"

The guy pointed towards a cliff not far from the beach. Apparently there was a cave at its bottom. Sasuke immediately saw the danger: if Tenten was in there, she had very little time left because the tide was coming in quickly and she might drown. And as fast as he could, he leaped towards the cliff, hoping furiously that he wasn't too late.

Tenten

She was getting very, very worried now. In fact; she was terrified! The water had reached her and was already up to her neck. She tried to stand up, but then she noticed that she had weights around her feet which prevented such an action. The waves weren't stopping either so she had constant splashes of water against her face. She had to cough out water several times. When the water got even higher and she had to take in a breath of air, she really thought she was going to die here. She felt hurt, scared and she wanted to cry. She felt her body suffocating, she had to breathe! Having no choice and out of pure instinct, she opened her mouth to breathe. Water came into her system instead and slowly her vision started to fade again.

"Is this how things will end?" was the last thing she thought of. "Am I drowning?"

Sasuke

As fast as he could, he swam towards the cave, desperation taking the better of him. He was scared; he didn't want to lose her! He swam in but saw nothing. There was very little sunlight left but he could tell that the tide was high enough to cover whatever dry sand there was in this cave. He started diving but under water things were even darker. He came back up for a breath of air and went down immediately. This time, he swam farther up the cave, squinting his eyes, trying to see as much as he could. The waves of the ocean weren't doing him any good because they were constantly pushing and pulling on him. But then he saw something white; Tenten's clothes. He immediately swam towards her. She was already unconscious and he knew he had to hurry. He untied her and swam to the surface, not stopping until he reached the shore.

When he reached the beach, he put her down carefully. He bent down, putting his ear to her mouth; she wasn't breathing.

"Come on, Tenten," he said. "Wake up. Don't you dare do this to me."

He started to perform CPR, but it didn't seem like she was responding. All of a sudden, he felt that hands were pulling him away from her and he stood there looking at how Ino and Sakura were working on the drenched young lady on the beach. Sasuke felt numb, like the life was being sucked out of him. He felt like all the sound around him faded into a deadly silence and slowly the thought crossed his mind that Tenten might not make it. He fell to his knees; weak from exhaustion and emotional unbalance. Tears started to fall from his eyes, when all of a sudden, Tenten coughed out the water in her lungs. Sasuke immediately responded by rushing towards her. But Tenten wasn't awake; her eyes were still closed and she was still unconscious but at least she was breathing.

"We have to bring her to the hospital," he heard Sakura say. "She's in critical condition, but I think she'll make it." Some men were putting Tenten on a stretcher and carried her off the beach. Sasuke wanted to follow, but a hand on his shoulder held him back. It was Naruto.

"I'm afraid you have to come with me, Sasuke," he said seriously. "What the hell happened?! Baka! You aimed a powerful jutsu at your own people! This is unforgivable. You won't be standing alongside Tenten during recovery because you will have to appear in court. I'm sorry, Sasuke. But u committed a serious crime and just because you're my friend, doesn't mean I'll go easy on you."

A/N: Wow, another chapter done. Hope you enjoyed it! Tell me what you guys think, pretty please…. *bats my eyelashes*