* It's been 5 months…shit. I'M SOOOOOO FUCKING SORRY!!! Thank LaZy LeO (there're some case changes, but I'm too lazy to look them up) for inspiring me. He/She (don't know and not making assumptions) always manages to help me with writer's block. Well, basically, it all started when I stopped liking anime. It was a rough two months, but I got through it. I just stopped being interested. How odd? Anyway, to help guide myself back into it, I gave myself I high dose of DBZ, which forced me to publish Kamehamehas, which was a lot of fun. DBZ guided me back to Naruto, then Naruto fanfiction. This renewed my passion for Neighborhood. Then, somehow, I got seriously distracted by Harry Potter. Finally, LaZy LeO showed me the light, and guided me back to Tennessee. It's good to be back. Anyway, I'd like to thank my wonderful reviewers (fan girl 666, twilightlove94, Jekr-Dementor2, Ignorant Iggy, Thura Huodae, xXKimochiWatariXx, Loveless Minji-chan, OrlandosLover2009, music-is-luv, BloodyRoseSharpThorn, and last but not least, NeoAddctee). You guys are the best thing since bread. Not sliced bread, just bread. Can you believe that I'm on chapter 10 (including the prologue)?! I'm in SHOCK!!! It's unbelievable!!

Disclaimer: "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint." –Mark Twain (P.S. I don't own anything that I happen to mention in my story, especially Naruto).

Chapter 9: Unleashed

Lee had no idea where to start. He had run out of Professor Haku's classroom without a game plan, and he was already feeling the effects of it. How on Earth was he supposed to find Suna? He could be anywhere in the city. Anywhere. He tried to think of anything that could point to a location. Anything at all, but his rational side had been replaced with pure instinct. All that was running through his mind were images of Suna being injured, tortured, killed. He did not want to think of such horrible things happening to his little redhead, but his mind would do nothing else.

He ran throughout the city, sprinted. He kept bumping into people, but he did not stop to apologize. He just kept running. He nearly crashed into a pretty blonde woman talking with one of her girlfriends, but he managed to dodge her at the last second. He absentmindedly thought that she looked very much like Ino.

Ino.

Ino.

Lee's eyes widened. He had been so caught up in the situation that he had completely forgotten why he was having so much trouble finding Suna in the first place. Ino had taken him shopping. Thrift shopping to be exact. He just had to run over to the thrift shopping area near campus. He knew of nowhere else that the two could go in the city. Lee dashed through the streets, now having some sort of plan. He would go into the stores and ask around until he found the two. Hopefully, nothing had happened to Suna, so Lee could keep him under close surveillance for a while, at least until this terrible feeling died down.

Lee began enacting this plan of his, but by the time that he dashed into the fifth store, the black-haired boy had grown tired of asking, "Hi, did a pretty blond woman and a cute redhead boy shop in here by any chance?" He had been pointed in several different directions, before finally ending up near the library. He sighed, looking up at the beautiful marble structure. He could not help but to think that Suna would be dazzled if he saw it. There were so many sites that he had yet to show the redhead, so many people that he had yet to meet. Lee could only hope that the redhead would be all right so that he could show him the wonderful things in Konoha. But first, he had to find the demon.

As Lee passed the alley near the next thrift store on the street, he did a double-take. There on the ground was a pretty blond woman sitting with her knees to her chest and her face buried in her arms. She was sobbing softly.

Lee nearly gasped, but instead knelt down beside the blonde. "Ino-san," he murmured, "w-wha-?" He was not able to even complete his sentence before Ino looked up, light blue eyes red-rimmed, and threw herself on him.

"Lee!" she cried. "Oh Lee! I-I-I'm so sorry! I didn't- I couldn't-I." Lee gently pried the hysterical woman away from himself, so that he could look her in the eye.

"Ino-san, calm down. Please, tell me what is going on." She nodded, sniffling and wiping her eyes.

"Lee, he's—Suna's…" she trailed off, unable to complete the thought. Instead, she thrust an object into Lee's hands. Lee blinked before realizing what exactly he was looking at. It was a shoe: Suna's shoe.

Lee's onyx eyes widened, as he collapsed to the ground, unable to hold himself steady. His shoe. Ino's tears. Suna was gone. Was he too late? Was Suna dead? Had he been kidnapped? What if some psycho had taken him? Had he been raped? Tortured? Murdered in cold blood? The thought made him want to vomit. It was at this moment that Lee noticed the huge crevices in the ground around him. A fight? Oh dear God, there was blood on the walls, on the gravel. What could have possible done all this? Unless. Did another demon take Suna? The possibilities were endless.

"I'm so sorry, Lee. O-one minute he was right next to me, and the next, he was gone and his shoe…what if he was kidnapped? Oh Lee! What do we do?! This is all my fault!" Lee bit his lip, before gently wrapping his arms around Ino.

"I-it is going to be okay, Ino-san. We will find him." He said those words of comfort, but whether he believed them or not was a different story. "It is not your fault. Whoever took him is the one at fault. What we need to worry about right now is how to find him." Ino nodded mutely.

Lee swallowed. What to do? He could not go to the police. It could be trouble if they found out what Suna was, how he came here. They could even take Suna away from Lee, and that almost seemed worse than Suna's death. Perhaps he could go back to Professor Haku, or Ms. Tsunade, or Gai-sensei. One of them was bound to know what to do.

"Ino-san, I have a few ideas. We should talk to Ms. Tsunade. She will have an idea of where to start." Again, the blonde nodded. "I think you are right. Someone must have kidnapped Suna, and that is why there are signs of a fight and how his shoe came off."

"Right," whispered Ino, getting some of the fire back in her eyes. "You're right, Lee. There's no use moping around here. We'll find the sick bastard who has our Suna and-"

Ino never did get to say what she was planning on doing to the person, for at that moment, a voice from behind them drawled out, "I take offense to that."

Eyes widening, the two college students, turned to find a man with long black hair tied back in a ponytail and scheming auburn eyes staring down at them. Lee nearly gasped as he saw the man's aura; he was looking right into the eyes of a demon.

Lee stood, pushing Ino behind him, but before the blonde could begin shouting words of protest, Lee growled out, "Who are you?!" The demon simply laughed.

"Oh, no one really," he mocked, advancing on the two. For every step forward that the demon made, Lee took a step back, keeping his blonde companion behind himself. The demon continued, "I suppose you could call me, 'the sick bastard who has your Suna'." Lee's eyes flared with rage.

"Where is he?" The black-haired boy snarled out.

"Wouldn't you like to know? You must be Lee then."

"How do you know his name?" asked Ino, trying to look threatening, but having trouble, as Lee was blocking her face from view.

"Well, that little redhead of yours won't shut up about you." Lee ran at the demon, hammering him against the brick wall of the alleyway.

"I'll ask again," Lee threatened, forgoing his polite language in his fury. "Where. Is. He." It was not a request. It was a demand. Still, as if he was not being pressed against a brink wall, the demon laughed.

"Safe, well, safer than you that is." Without much effort, the demon forced his way out of Lee's grasp. Before the college student could make another move, the shadows of the alleyway coalesced, wrapping themselves around Lee and smashing him against the wall. The demon smoothly approached the black-haired boy with a smirk. He mockingly patted the other's shoulder. Lee, unable to move, could do nothing to stop him.

"You see, I've taken a liking to your little Suna, and I don't intend to return him to you. But, you're in the way, so I'm going to have to just get rid of you." As the demon said those last few words, the shadows on surrounding Lee's chest constricted, making it damned near impossible to breathe.

"Leave him alone!" cried Ino, running at the demon. Without so much as a second glance, the latter, grabbed the blonde by the throat and threw her against the wall. Ino fell to the ground, clutching at her arm, gritting her teeth from the pain of the impact.

Meanwhile, the shadows around Lee grew ever tighter.

When Suna awoke, there was a distinct absence of warmth. He was lying on the ground, and Shikamaru was gone. Still, there was no Lee in sight.

However, the moment that Lee's name popped into Suna's mind, he got a bad feeling. Something was terribly wrong with Lee; he could just feel it. What if something was hurting Lee? What if he were to go away forever? What would Suna do without Lee? He needed Lee! He needed Lee like the Earth needs the Sun. Without Lee, all of the life within him would die. And now, his Lee was in danger. What could he do?

Suna needed to find Lee. Lee needed him! He needed to get to him. Struggling against his restraints with all of his might, he tried to break Shikamaru's seal to no avail. He could not move a muscle, and he could feel the danger encompassing Lee more and more with each passing second. Finally, Suna began to cry. He was trapped. There was nothing he could do. He cried and cried at the horror of the situation, at his own helplessness.

Then came the headache.

"Suna," came a soft yet still menacing voice, "you're pathetic."

Suna just continued to cry. He was not sure what pathetic meant, but he did not like the word nevertheless.

"It hurts doesn't it, Suna? Do you want to save him? Do you love him?" Suna nodded.

"Yes! Yes! Please, help Suna!" The voice cackled.

"Oh, Suna, Suna, Suna. I can help you, you know. Just give into me." As the voice cooed out those words, Suna found himself feeling dizzy. The room began to spin.

"Don't fight me Suna. I'm helping you. I'll make everything better. I'll save him for you. Just give into me." Suna let his eyes fall closed. Why was everything so fuzzy? So hazy? As if his mind was suddenly clouded in a thick mist. "That's a good boy. Almost there, Suna." Then, something within him snapped. Suna could feel himself fading. Everything was growing cold. So very cold. The last thing that he could here was high, manic laughing before his entire world melted into nothing, everything becoming black.

The lips that once belonged to Suna smirked. With barely any effort, the redhead broke the seal on his powers. "Well, Shikamaru, your boss is losing it if he thought a simple little seal like that could hold me." The demon hugged himself gently. "Thanks for the body, little Suna. Just for being so compliant, I'll save your Lee. I'll even make his death quick once I murder that Shikamaru for trying to capture us." He closed his eyes, chuckling as he heard Suna's soft whimpers. "I might even keep you around for a while. It's always nice to have company." The demon cracked his knuckles. Sand poured in from ever crevice of the warehouse, surrounding the redhead, ecstatic to see its master again. "Ah, it's good to be back." He left the warehouse without another word, gallons of sand trailing in his wake.

After weeks and weeks of dormancy, Sabaku no Gaara had returned.

*THE PLOT THICKENS!!! Legit, again I am SO sorry about how long this update took. And it's not even that long either. It's like 5 pages! Wtf? Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed. It seems a little rushed to me, but whatever, at least you guys actually get an update, right? Well, hopefully, the next one won't take 5 months. Well, at least you get another cliffhanger, right? A worse one at that. Btw, I can't believe I'm past the 50 mark for reviews and the 10 chapter mark! Wow! Anyway, thanks so much for keeping with me through this year. I love you guys. I'll update again real soon! Promise!