A/N:
Thanks to I'mASanctimoniousA, my-threesome, hyuugahinata247, LibertyForFreedom455, miikodesu, filipinochick, LilithiaRW, XBloodMageRikaX, DarkinocensDLT and LittleNightmare92 for reviewing chapter 25; and ZapZapYotsuba for chapter 15.

Yay! 200 reviews! Wow. I can't possibly thank you guys enough! No words come to mind – I'm just so excited. So excuse my addled brain and enjoy! ^_^

'SHUKAKU'

Chapter 26 – Incentives.

'Acting friendly is easy: it doesn't make you a good person.'

Sakura Haruno had spent the first sixteen years of her life just trying to make others happy, thinking that was the key to her own happiness. The school yard bullies made her cry – it was apparently very entertaining for them. Her parents had wanted a boy, so she wore shorts and tried to hide her hair until she turned five because people were getting suspicious – they didn't like not knowing who she really was.

And that was how she'd learnt to pretend to care – to pretend she was just like everyone else. It had served her well then but, right now, it was killing her.

She hadn't sensed his approach. Sakura was tired, having once again overdone it with her enthusiasm to help out at the hospital. She wasn't weak: this fact had saved her life more often than not, and she would pulverise anyone who claimed otherwise. But there were ways of deceiving exhausted ninja, even when their guard was up because of some overachieving spy slinking through the streets of Suna. This person, whoever they were, was not afraid to create explosive diversions to accomplish his goals. His jutsus were unknown, his position in the village was impossible to determine and whether or not he was even a 'he'.

But all of that amounted to nothing when she was exhausted from a full day's work.

The strong arms holding tightly to her felt like they were crushing her body. Sakura Haruno couldn't move more than an inch; her arms pinned to her side, she couldn't reposition to hit her assailant. She felt like the life was being drained from her, and realised a moment later that it was chakra leaving her body. Her attacker was siphoning it off, while muffling her so that she couldn't cry out and attract attention to them. She felt compressed, and despite her inability to move enough to use her chakra fist, suddenly realised her legs were flailing freely.

Sakura tried to kick out, hitting his legs, to no avail. She was already feeling weaker than she had in years. It took a lot longer than a few minutes of being drained of chakra to make her feel like this in the heat of battle.

"Struggling will get you nowhere," the husky voice in her ear told her.

She couldn't place him, but felt like she should know who it was. A moment later, as he shifted her in his arms and grunted involuntarily, she heard a certain amount of familiarity in his sounds. But it couldn't be him.

Sakura tried to speak under the stifling pressure of his hand, to say his name. He was holding her too tightly, pressed against her like a second skin, and all that came out of her mouth was a muffled cry. But he seemed to understand what she'd mumbled despite it coming out so garbled and a heavy breath tickled the shell of her ear.

"I wondered if you could figure me out."

Sakura groaned, the sound of his name seeping through better this time and his suspicion "Honshu?"

Honshu Uzunara, the grandson of the head doctor of the Suna hospital… she heard him chuckle softly, but he didn't otherwise dignify her questioning with a response. She felt confused, scared, and angry. What the hell was he doing? Okay yeah, he was draining her chakra, the blue enveloping her reminding her of that man... Yoroi Akado? He was the one who had fought Sasuke years ago in the preliminaries of the second round during their Chunin exams eight years ago.

But why? The spy… no, it wasn't possible. He was never rude to her, never showed her anything other than reverence, while being absurdly clumsy… maybe too clumsy. Did Itsumo know his grandson was a lunatic? Sakura half sobbed under his hand and kicked out again.

"It's almost over Sakura," he said, sounding more like Honshu now, but with an underlying tone to his voice she couldn't place. It bordered on the tone one would use to soothe a lover. "Calm down now," he added, his lips brushing her neck.

'Kami, what the fuck?!'

Panic surging through her, she felt her body jerk as his moved with her; Sakura managed to twist an arm out of his grip and turn her shoulders to get a better aim at his side. Honshu's grip tightened, and he pushed her toward the wall in front of her. The alley was dark, quiet and stank of the residue of the destitute and drunken losers common in all villages.

Sakura lashed out with her arm, slamming her fist into his thigh. He grunted and she felt her medical scalpel graze his side as she pulled away from him. However, Honshu was at full strength, and growing stronger with every second as he drained what chakra she had left.

"Please," she whispered, realising his hand had slipped from her mouth.

Honshu quickly recovered his grip as she screamed out, muffling her before the bulk of the sound could travel.

"No," he whispered back. "The Ame rogues have business with our beloved Kazekage and you're going to facilitate their meeting."

The former Akatsuki subordinate they were all searching for went by the name Ouden Tashimaru, what did Honshu have to do with that?

Sakura pushed and twisted her body, but the effort itself was draining. She looked around for something to mark – something a tracker ninja or one of her friends would notice. There was pipe nearby: she contemplated kicking at it. It was, more than likely, attached to someone's plumbing, but this couldn't be helped. Summoning the last of her chakra, the way Tsunade taught her, Sakura pulled her assailant with her as she slammed into the rusted pipe. She couldn't hit Honshu or have him ram into the building to release his grip on her, so this would have to do.

The pipe burst and they were drenched: she sobbed again, feeling her legs give out underneath her and her body give in. She couldn't fight anymore, and closed her fatigued eyes as Honshu lifted her up bridal style and she felt the familiar sensation associated with a teleportation jutsu just before she blacked out completely.

X X X

The mornings in Suna were always the same – gritty but picturesque. Temari had never worried about the sand and wind so much as she'd worried about the heat. Even after twenty-four years, she still hated heatwaves more than anyone else she knew. Kankuro had joked once that it was the reason she'd adopted an iron fan as her signature weapon – so she could fan herself whenever she needed to cool down. Needless to say, he'd spent the rest of the day in the hospital and the rest of the week on "probation".

She loved the warmth of the mornings though, and would sunbathe naked if she wasn't worried about some random Shinobi finding her.

The troubled Kunoichi found herself shaking awake her lover instead, frustrated with how lazy Shikamaru Nara was in the mornings. He moaned and tried to push her away – he had to still be asleep: he wouldn't have bothered pushing her if he was awake.

"Temari…" He murmured, trying to roll over.

She stopped in the middle of half throttling him to smile at that. It was one of those moments she wished she had the abilities of the Yamanaka clan: she'd pay to know what he was dreaming about.

"Shikamaru," she said. "Wake up." He just groaned again and she shook her head. "You're in my bed Shikamaru, and any minute now, Gaara is going to come bursting through those doors and suffocate you in his sand."

The Nara twitched.

"Shikamaru…" She cooed, sounding a little like a disembodied voice. "Get your lazy bones out of my bed."

He shifted and she blew onto the shell of his ear, giggling when he started awake.

"Temari," he groaned, gazing at her through heavy lidded eyes. "What was that for?"

"No reason."

"Nice to know."

"Come on," she said, climbing out of bed and reaching for her clothes. "I want to see Sakura before Gaara sends you guys on your mission."

Shikamaru watched her dress for a moment before following suit. "He does have faith in you," he said sagely. "But your skills are–"

"Better suited for the outside fighting, not the inside – I know."

He wisely shut his trap, not wanting to be on the wrong end of her anger. She was looking annoyed enough as it was. The Kazekage had a plan to use himself as bait for the spy (a plan the council rejected but couldn't prevent him from instigating anyway) and Shikamaru, Naruto, Ino and Sakura were going to be on standby for when the time came. The Konoha ANBU were put in the same arrangement as Temari and Kankuro, along with a handful of Suna ANBU – Shikamaru had voiced his own concerns about the validity of this plan. He didn't think it was safe enough to use the real Gaara, but the Kazekage wouldn't let anyone pretend to be him long enough to get everyone else in position.

Of course, all this planning was for naught if they didn't get started before sundown today.

Shikamaru grudgingly followed Temari as they made their way to Gaara's mansion. They entered through the front door and he decided to wait downstairs for a few minutes first – he didn't want to walk into the Kazekage's bedroom with a half naked Sakura to burn out his corneas. She was attractive, but he had no illusions as to what she would do to him if he accidentally saw any part of her that he didn't normally see due to her normal brazen attire.

Temari climbed the stairs alone, but she was starting to get a strange feeling. She hadn't even thought of checking to see if she could detect the pinkette's chakra – where else would she have spent the night?

She was supposed to be here.

Temari looked around, frowning at the tidy bedroom. She had been planning to surprise Sakura, but the overworked medic was nowhere to be seen. The room she shared with Gaara was empty, the bed still made: the hired help had yet to come in because they couldn't enter the Kazekage mansion without permission, even if it was to clean up after the lazy man. Temari's frown deepened once Shikamaru finally followed her in.

'Speaking of lazy men.'

"What took you so long?" She asked. "Never mind: Sakura isn't here, and neither is Gaara."

"Gaara might still be with the council," Shikamaru said, looking around, confused by the clean state of the room. "I had no idea Sakura was such a neat freak."

"She's not – I already told you, she's not here."

"There could be any number of reasons for that, stop worrying."

"Well, even if Sakura spent the night at the hospital again, Gaara wouldn't waste that much time with the council."

"Maybe he's over at the hospital."

"Maybe…"

Temari moved toward the window and looked out. The sun was only just rising and she normally loved the warmth it radiated, but this morning, it felt cold. She'd spent her life in Suna, only leaving for missions and never taking a proper vacation. Perhaps, once this was all over, she might do just that – if Shikamaru was willing to go with her. Her thoughts lingered on the famous hot springs of the land of earth… there were so many places she had never wanted to go that now sounded like heaven.

If she could only get over her severe dislike of high temperatures.

"Something else is bothering you."

Temari glanced back at Shikamaru. "Yeah, none of this sits right."

He moved up next to her, placing a comforting hand on hers. "I know, but there's nothing we can do by just standing here."

She gave a noncommittal groan and he moved away from her.

"Did you not notice this?" Shikamaru asked, drawing his lover's attention away from her thoughts. He was holding up a sealed parchment. "It was on the bedside table."

"What does it say?"

Shikamaru studied it, his expression growing darker with every line. "The Amegakure rogues have taken Sakura and are demanding an 'audience' with the Kazekage."

Temari snatched the parchment from him and growled. "She's the bait?" She skimmed through the note. "Gaara is not going to like this."

X X X

He felt like all the air had just left his lungs and Gaara couldn't breathe. If that wasn't bad enough, his body was trembling and he felt like he was standing on the edge of a precipice – one where icy winds threatened to knock him over because he had no sense of balance or understanding of gravity. How could he have been so careless, so stupid? He had it all figured out, the plan, the players and the part where he never had to worry about anyone coming after him or someone he loved ever again. Naruto couldn't have been more confident about this plan than him.

Gaara swallowed heavily. Bile threatened to work its way up his throat and he had to concentrate not to throw up or black out. It was quite a sight – the Kazekage getting worked up and bordering on passing out. He had never loved anyone like this before and he felt like something was gripping his heart and trying to pull it out of his chest.

He registered that someone was trying to get his attention, but he ignored them, dwelling instead on the stupidity of his miscalculation.

He had not expected this. The original plan had been to use himself as bait to lure out the Ame rogues, not Sakura. What would they want with her? How could they possibly know he'd coming running blindly to save her? The spy wasn't that close to him, right?

Gaara groaned, pushing his sister away from him as she tried to stop him from swaying and possibly falling over.

Temari had just informed him of the letter Shikamaru had found, while her boyfriend looked for the rest of the leaf ninja. She could only imagine the horror struck look on their faces, the scolding from Ino and rage from Naruto… Sakura was gone, and her abductor had left no trace. And who knew what those ANBU would be thinking.

She watched the strange expressions on her brother's face: from rage to anguish, then guilt and fury – he had never shown such an impressive array of emotions like this before and it both intrigued and scared her. He had grown so much, accepting his feelings and letting himself be human, but he still didn't seem to understand restraint. His natural façade didn't count – he got that through years of controlling his bloodlust.

This was different.

Temari sighed, not sure what to say to him: nothing she came up with sounded right in her head so she just waited for the leaf ninja to appear. They could annoy or placate him – she didn't want to be on the wrong side of her brother right now. Surely Naruto at least, would draw his temperament…

And speaking of the devil – the blonde idiot's voice was loudest as Temari sensed the arrival of the Konoha ninja in the Kazekage's home. The ANBU weren't with them when they entered the office without knocking. Naruto took one look at the devastated look on Gaara's face and his features softened. He knew that look, that pain.

"Temari," he said, instead turning to the oldest sand sibling. "What are we going to do?"

He wanted to go get Sakura – to drag her back after personally kicking the arse of every rogue ninja from here to Iwagakure – but he had no idea where to start looking.

"Gaara can track in the desert without a trail," Kankuro said.

All eyes darted to the Kazekage, who was taking that moment to move toward the window rather than listening to the discussions going on around him.

"The ANBU are scouting the area," Ino said, answering Naruto's question instead. "They'll be here when they have something to report."

Silence rang through the room and Gaara found himself struggling to breathe again. He gripped the window frame tightly a few minutes later as the Konoha ANBU entered via Shunshin.

The one he knew was Yamato glanced at him and then sighed. "We've found a busted plumbing pipe with Sakura's chakra signature on it, but her kidnappers want to be found, so I'm assuming they let her do it. Their plan is to lure out the Kazekage, and they've done it perfectly."

"Where's the broken pipe?" Kankuro asked.

"The southernmost wall leading away from the hospital core."

"We can still do this," Yamato said. "They've given us all we need."

"But the note stipulated that Gaara go alone," Temari said. "We can't enact the same plan without bringing along reinforcements – they'll see that coming."

Silence… again.

Gaara heard murmuring, like they were deliberately keeping secrets from him, but he didn't react.

Finally, Yamato gave a last nod to the Kazekage, despite the fact that he was ignoring everyone in the room, and to his fellow leaf ninja before following his fellow retreating ANBU.

What was it with the silence? He wasn't going to start attacking people if they suggested he bring along a platoon, let alone go by himself after all. Gaara loosened his grip on the window sill and closed his eyes, trying to hear what Shukaku was thinking as they started talking around him again.

"Well, they certainly know what they're doing," Ino said, pushing Naruto away from him as he glared at her.

"There's a time and place for admiring the enemy," Kankuro said to her, his eyes drifting between the blonde and his brother.

Gaara still wasn't moving, but he wasn't fooled – there was a battle was raging inside of him. "Gaara?"

The Kazekage snapped his eyes open: he was rigid, staring out over Suna without really seeing it. No-one in the room had tried to approach him, fearing what he might do – even Naruto had the good sense not to go near him. He wasn't taking this very well. He wasn't acting like a Kazekage who needed to find and rescue a hostage; Gaara's thoughts were that of a lover… heck, Kankuro likened him and Sakura to soul mates. There was no denying the connection between those two.

Although no-one had realised it at the time, when Sakura had left Suna to look for Gaara after he left, she'd found him without really looking. She'd seen through the ridiculous ideas on where he might have gone and headed straight for him. He wanted to feel the same thing for her, but was afraid that Shukaku's voice in his head would attempt to lead him astray.

She had admitted to hearing his voice in her head – it sounded so crazy, but now that he thought about it, they'd left sanity behind a long time ago.

So Gaara closed his eyes again, hoping to get a similar epiphany. It wasn't easy, with the annoying voices in the room. He heard Naruto suggest Gaara comb the desert, while Kankuro reminded him that the council had forbidden the Kazekage from leaving Suna. This sparked anger in Ino about loyalty, friendship, and "screw the rules", as she put it. Temari's groan of disapproval and Shikamaru's sigh of frustration were drowned out of Gaara's head by Shukaku's voice.

'I'M FLATTERED MY LITTLE JINCHURIKI, BUT THERE'S NOTHING I CAN TELL YOU THAT YOU DON'T' ALREADY KNOW. SHE'S WAITING FOR YOU – YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO DO.'

The bijuu was supporting him?

'IF SHE DIES, I'LL NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT – I STILL HAVE TO LIVE IN YOUR HEAD YOU KNOW.'

But Shukaku wanted her dead.

Gaara waited, but the demon didn't respond to that. Instead, he tried to meditate, like he had been when Sakura and the rest of the leaf ninja had been on that mission to capture a rogue Ame ninja. She'd heard his voice mid-battle, and he remembered that mediation session had been intense…

He focused his breathing, but instead of reaching some sort of an epiphany, his head was suddenly besieged with whispers. He couldn't differentiate one from the other, and it was beginning to unhinge his calm.

'YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO DO JIDŌ.'

More whispering… Gaara couldn't take it, he shunshined out, ignoring the startled sounds of the people around him. And just like that, he knew where he was going… where the rogues had taken Sakura, and where she was waiting for him.

X X X

A/N: Yay! Honshu was actually a bad guy! Lol. :D
Next chapter is the explanation as to who he really is, etc. Looking forward to it? Me too! n_n Love it or not, please tell me! ^_^

R&R.

Shukaku called Gaara a Jidō – it literally means "child" or "juvenile"