Haru looked over at Asuma about an hour after they had left Kakashi. His mouth was in a tight line and his eyes were filled with determination. Every minute or so he glanced down at Yuki worriedly. She looked down at where he glanced and then looked away. He was so pale. Instinctively, she sped up and Asuma matched her speed.

Haru stopped. "There it is!" she started running again.

They made their way through the gates and ran right into Shikamaru, who was patrolling at the time. "Haru? Where's Kakashi? I thought…" his voice trailed off when he saw Asuma and Yuki.

"Asuma…" a smile broke on the man's face. It quickly turned into a frown when he saw the look on his son's face. "What happened to you guys out there?"

"There's no time to talk right now. We need to see the Hokage and take Yuki to the hospital."

Shikamaru nodded. "I will take Yuki; you two go speak to the Hokage, I'm sure he will want to know what befell you."

Haru and Asuma nodded and ran off toward the Hokage's office. They reached it and burst through the doors, startling everyone in the room.

"Haru, Asuma what is the meaning of this? You don't need to break open my doors." Naruto yelled, standing up. He paused, looking at the two chunin. "Asuma! Is Yuki…"

"Dad took Yuki to the hospital right after we got here. He was in pretty bad shape." Asuma said, looking down.

"Sakura, go help the medical staff." Naruto said to his wife, who squeezed his hand and then nodded. "I'll join you once I talk to these two."

She ran off and Naruto turned to them. "Tell me everything." He looked around. "Haru, where is Kakashi?"

She told him everything, every little detail of their mission as Kakashi had told her to. His eyes grew wide at the mention of Sasuke and the three rouge ninja. At the end of her tale, he frowned and set his head on his hands. "Well, that didn't go like I planned. You were so close! He could have been back!" he closed his eyes and sat there for a moment. Then he lifted his head up and looked at the two ninja in front of him. "Once you three are healthy again I'm sending you and another team to go get Kakashi back. I know he will stay silent about Konoha, and eventually his captures will grow frustrated and end up killing him. I can't let Kakashi Hatake be killed. What do you know about the shinobi who took him?"

Asuma frowned, thinking. "There were three of them, two men and a woman. The first man had light blue hair that went to his shoulders and wielded and incredibly large sword. I believe his name was Suigetsu. The other man was tall and had brownish orange hair. His name was Juugo. The girl wore glasses and had red hair. Her name was Karin. They seemed to know Sasuke; they may even be on the same team as him."

"Thank you, Asuma. That will help greatly. Now, you two seriously need to get checked out by the medical ninja." He smiled and walked out of the office, with them following.

After Haru was checked out and seemed in good shape, she walked to the waiting room where Asuma, bandaged and bruised, was already sitting with his head in his hands. He looked up as she approached.

"Looks like you're not injured too badly." She commented.

"Only a few broken ribs. Anyway, Yuki did most of the hand to hand combat." He answered.

Haru sat next to him. "Was there any word from the ninjas operating on Yuki?"

He shook his head. "No, not a word. I saw some rush through that door about an hour ago, but there has been nothing since." He sighed, leaning back. "I sware, if we lose him; I will seriously-"his hands tightened into fists.

Haru looked at him, his eyes closed. "Well, he could be okay. We have very skilled medical ninja here and-

"Dammit Haru! You don't get it!" he slammed his fists on the table in front of him. "You weren't holding him that entire time. You didn't hear him trying to breathe. You don't even know what those people did to us!" Tears were rolling down his cheeks now.

Haru grabbed one of his hands, linking it with her own. "I may not know what you know but I do see how it's hurt you. Don't worry; Yuki is the strongest of all of us. He will survive, even if it's out of just pure will power. He will survive and us three WILL go and get Kakashi-sensei away from those people."

Asuma smiled, and wiped away his tears with his other hand. "All of this is just so troublesome, isn't it?"

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