:: Author: Boriqua-chan ::

The sun was rising and beating dry rays of sunshine into Naruto's eyes. His wife, being pregnant with their second, slept deeply and soundly. He dressed himself and walked out the door, ready to do a little sparring to wake him. The door slammed behind him, dragging with it the ruffle of paper. Naruto swiveled around to see the note. It was written in Sakura's elegant handwriting. He pulled it from the tack that held it.

Holy—!

Okay. So. Sparring was out the question.

The blonde ran to the Hokage's office. He gave up slamming desperately on the door in favor of just storming in through an open window. It was early in the morning; it was the only time Tsuande wasn't drunk off her ass. "Tsuande!" He was too worried to add the either suffix. His niece was in danger, for the love of god! "Tsuande, I need Sasuke and Sakura's file, now!" he shouted, already in the old blonde's office.

"What? Why? What happened?" Tsunade wondered. Nothing could panic Naruto—unless something had happened to one of his—or Sasuke and Sakura's—kids. He was very serious when it came to one of them. "Who's hurt?"

"Kaede—she's been kidnapped!" the Uzumaki shouted. He looked ready to rip his hair out. "Don't ask by who because I have no idea who; all I know is that Sakura left me this note and Sasuke and she are gone—gone and she asked me to tell them! So give me the damned files, old lady!"

Tsuande was too infected by the horror and panic in her ninja's voice to be offended. She ran to a filing cabinet and thumbed through it, looking for the U's. She threw the thick-ass file at Naruto and he caught it deftly; she went straight to the H's and threw Sakura's file at him too. Then she turned to Naruto. "What the fuck are you still doing here? Go to the damn kids before they wake up!"

:: ::

The charka trail ended here. Sasuke glared; where the fuck could they have gone? He remembered those two idiots from a time he tried hard to forget. They'd been even younger than he was, and they sucked at anything that didn't have to do with brute strength. They couldn't have hidden themselves or their charka.

Sakura watched him. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"It just stops," Sasuke growled, searching desperately for some hint—any hint. No matter how hard he looked, there was no other trail.

Sakura growled too, a growl nursed by anger and worry that made the nearby animals run away. "If there's nothing back, nothing front, nothing up," she said, remembering what Tsunade had taught her as she lured charka into her fists, "then something's got to be down!" Her fist flew into the ground; the forest floor crumbled on impact.

It was hollow under the ground.

Sakura and Sasuke jumped inside the underground lair.