Mendoukusei 28.

I was frozen into a terrified shock.

Konoha and her allies had been at war for the past three months against Iwa, Kumo and Oto. More often than not, it had been gruesome. Fields of dead shinobi littered the countryside, and the enemy, mostly Oto, did not hesitate to use under handed methods of intimidation to attempt to scare us into doing what they wanted.

I must admit, many at times, it worked.

This time, however, they had pushed it. Very, very hard.

We were crammed, yet again in the Hokage's office. Even Shisui was dead serious.

Shishou sighed. Jiraiya-sama was standing in a corner with Asuma-sensei.

"You have all heard the news, right?"

Kiba and Shino tensed. Hinata's chakra spiked for a split second before she brought it under control. Her fists were clenched.

"Kurenai has been kidnapped-"

Asuma-sensei growled. Shishou swallowed before deciding to blatantly ignore him and continue.

Quite honestly she had forgotten how intimidating her jounin were. We, as Konoha 12 knew well enough; they were our sensei. Their ruthlessness increased as we got higher in the ranks. We could tell from the training.

"-by Oto. As you are all quite aware, she is pregnant, two months gone. She has not really started showing, but she is at the point where if she does anything strenuous, she will lose the child and she cannot afford to lose that child." She was silent, shaking slightly.

I gulped. This was getting very dirty. If Orochimaru figured out she was pregnant, things would not be good at all. Who knows what sickening things he'd do. I mentally shook my head. I honestly did not want to think about it.

"Oto knows we'll probably go after her, so they are expecting that. We don't want another Yamamoto Kita situation, but we cannot leave her at their clutches. We know what those shinobi are like. We need to get her out of there without them suspecting anything. We need a distraction," She finished.

"We absolutely must get her back, Hokage-sama," Hinata finally said, her voice losing the trademark sweetness it held, replaced by the cold brutality of a seasoned kunoichi. "If not, I will see to it that Orochimaru is subjected to torture so horrible, he would never have thought of it himself."

Her killing intent started rolling off her. I saw Ino-pig sweat a little. I couldn't blame her. Hinata rarely lost her temper. It was no secret that she had a very bad temper, worse than even her father's, and that was saying a lot.

"Operative Haruno," Shihsou barked. "Tell me about the green substance you picked up from the forest outside Otogakure no Sato."

"It's a herbal based poison made of extremely dangerous toxins. It has very strong dehydration properties and only seems to work when consumed. It absorbs all bodily fluids and moisture from all cells making them collapse inwardly. It's obviously very painful and it takes a healthy adult human being about forty five minutes to an hour to die from it."

Jiraiya-sama narrowed his eyes. "Typical of Orochimaru and his minions. They find pleasure in watching others suffer. That is the kind of sadism that's only expected from them."

Shihsou sighed again. She took a huge swig of the sake in her sake bottle. "What the hell are we gonna do? I called you in here because you're my best shinobi and I need a plan to get Kurenai back. Perhaps I should remind you who she's engaged to and what destruction might befall our training grounds and one too many enemy shinobi? I'm quite honestly not in the mood of facing the Daimyo and explaining to him why my powerful shinobi are causing havoc again. The Kakashi saga was bad enough."

That brought a few half hearted laughs from the rest of us, including Asuma-sensei himself as we remembered what Kakashi-sensei did.

About a year after I became a jounin, Anko and I were sent on an S-Class mission to Iwa. On our way back, we were attacked by Oto shinobi. We were exhausted and were were not able to fight to our best ability. Luckily, scouts who were investigating the area around the forest found us, and only just managed to bring us back to Konoha, and we were a mess. After we came round and we were questioned, Kakashi-sensei took it upon himself and went to Oto and caused a good deal of destruction there. He destroyed all their infrastructure and killed quite a number of shinobi as well. The slimy bastards then had the audacity to report us and Shihsou was called to have a word with the Daimyou. She only got away with it because we had so many respected shinobi hailing from our village and said respected shinobi had protected the Daimyou and his family on quite a number of occasions.

Good times. I really wonder why such events were never recorded for futre reference.

"GAARA," Naruto suddenly yelled from out of nowhere.

"Gaara, Kankurou and Temari. They can go get her. Oro-bastard would never expect them to go for her. We can look like we're just gonna go fighting, then Itachi taichou and temee and Kakashi-sensei can think of something awesome on the spot to sneak them away from us, coz they are geniuses and shit, then while we pwn their sorry asses, the three of them can go and get her, then Sakura-chan can do an awesome break-the-ground-apart-to-totally-destroy-it thing as we escape, and then we'll bring her back safely, dattebayo!"

The room was silent, the kind of silence that accompanies the finishing speech of the village idiot after he has said something stupid, a.k.a after Naruto talks. Everyone in the room had raised their eyebrows.

It still baffles me how someone with such amazing and high intelligence such as the late Yondaime could produce someone quite as stupid as Naruto. Genes were unbelievable.

"Naruto, it's genii," I said dryly. I turned to Shihsou to ask her a question that's been burning at the back of my mind since I became a jounin. "How the hell did you accept him into ANBU?" I asked her.

"It's the kyuubi," she replied, just as dryly. "Plus, he is the Yondaime's son. At least something of his intelligence must have seeped through that thick skull."

Kakashi-sensei actually smorted. "I must beg to differ, Tsunade-sama. Minato-sensei was a genius. Even his mother wasn't this obtuse. A bit boisterous, yes, but not this dense," he went on, with Jiraiya-sama nodding his head in assent vigorously.

"Anosa," Naruto said again, eyes moon shaped, brow creased and his arms crossed on his chest, a sign that he was in deep concentration. "Who exactly are you guys talking about?"

I sighed. That kyuubi spirit must really have it hard. I really wonder how he has it living in Naruto's brain, probably forever. Though he had agreed to work with Naruto from now on with no diabolical thoughts of trying to kill him, i did feel quite a semblance of pity for it.

"As I was saying, before this conversation got sidetracked, we need to think of strategies to bring Kurenai back as soon as possible."

With this statement, the sombre mood returned.

"Perhaps we should just use Naruto-kun's strategy with some more thought put into it. The Sand Siblings and the Mizukage are one of our most trusted allies, and since most of Konoha's shinobi are fighting at the forefront with Oto Shinobi, it would not be shocking to send some of us there as well. We will keep Orochimaru, Kabuto and their elite busy as the Mizukage and the Sand Siblings infiltrate Otogakure and rescue Kurenai-san." Itachi stated.

"We, however, must make it look like we are taking our most powerful forces to an area where our forces are in need of help, because knowing Orochimaru, he is a show off and he will, no doubt, go there to gloat, and us sending three Uchiha, the Copy Nin, the Hokage's apprentice, the Yondaime's son and the most dangerous senbon user will draw him there to gloat all the more" Shikamaru added.

"Then because Mizukage-sama and the Sand Siblings would have the mental capacity to understand the importance of this mission being covert, unlike other shinobi we know too well, they will quickly but quietly sneak into Otogakure, or wherever it is that they are holding Kurenai-sensei, and retrieve her without either Orochimaru and Kabuto knowing what is going on. By the time they realise what is going on we should be, at the very least, next to Konoha's borders, and even though they decide to attack, it's only natural that they will be hesitant to do so because of the powerful shinobi involved in this operation." Neji finished.

Shishou smirked. It had been a very long time since I'd seen that reaction on her face, probably since this bloody war started.

"If only Mei was here. I'm surrounded by genius shinobi. And she's always questioning why Konoha is so powerful," she said, taking another huge swig of sake from her bottle, the smugness rolling off her in waves.

I rolled my eyes. Tsunade-sama was such a show off.

"You heard them. I'll get in touch with Mei, since I'm probably the only one she'll listen to. Naruto, you talk to Gaara, since you're probably the only one he'll listen to. The brat has absolutely no respect for his elders, the little shit. Shikamaru, go to that lazy ass father of yours and tell him to formulate a perfect plan to carry this out, and he should not even dare say how troublesome this is, because he has about five bloody days to do it. Kakashi, I need you to stay, since I need us to brainstorm what instructions we will give to the guys at the front to get Ororchimaru and Kabuto away from Kurenai for a bit. Now, get out of my office, all of you. I have quite a lot to do, and yes, that includes you too, Jiraiya. In fact, you can keep an eye on Asuma for me."

We all got out of there, and I decided to head to the hospital and see if there was something I could do to help.

I was just about to finish the rounds that Shizune nee-chan assigned me when I bumped into the bane of my existence. Or rather, the bane of my existence ran into me:

Uchiha Emi.

She was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen in my life. Long shoulder length raven hair and almond shaped onyx eyes. She was tall, graceful and accomplished, and no doubt one of the most talented medic-nins of her generation. Typical of any Uchiha, she was unbelievably smart, and male shinobi have been known to willingly go for S Class missions just to be in her presence.

The only reason I absolutely could not stand her is that she could not get over the fact that Itachi had not chosen her to be his bride, as per the clan council's wished. She had just been promoted to jounin, at least three weeks after I'd joined ANBU.

"Haruno-san," she said, looking me up and down.

"Yes, Emi? What is it?" I replied, not in the mood of dealing with her at the moment.

"You are late. Your shift began an hour and a half ago, I believe," she said, almost condescendingly.

I narrowed my eyes. This young, accomplished lady had seemed to forget who exactly was going to be her future clan matriarch and boss in the hospital. Perhaps I should remind her. It was part of my job after all.

"Let me remind you, Emi, that I am the head field medic of Konoha, and therefore in times of war or any other such crisis my abilities are required, first and foremost in the field, no? We greatly increase their chances of living after such gruelling battles, and when we send them here we make things very easy for you guys. So if you have nothing of substance to tell me, please excuse me. I have reports of injured shinobi to fill," I snapped back

Not waiting for her to reply, I passed by her and went to the office. It was then that I remembered I was probably on the team that would end up retrieving Kurenai-sensei, and sighed deeply again.

"What frustrates you, my queen?" I heard Itachi's smooth silky voice, in some corner somewhere in my office.

"So many things, Ita-kun. This war, Oto, Orochimaru, Iwa, Kumo, marriage, your clan, my team, your fangirls, the hospital...so many things,"I replied, holding my head in my hands on my desk.

He suddenly appeared in front of me, his hand on my chin and lifted my head up.

"Do not worry too much, particularly about marriage and my clan. Everything else will work out." He whispered, before gently placing his lips on my mouth and devouring my mouth.

Suddenly, an ANBU burst into my office, severly injured and bleeding all over the floor.

"Oto...Sandaime..." she blacked out, probably from blood loss.

With one look, Itachi disappeared from my office and I moved to see to the injured shinobi collapsed on the floor.

What was going on?

*hides behind wall to dodge rotten veggies and building blocks* Look guys, I'm so freaking sorry. There's been so much going on; applying and getting rejected for houses, moving out to stay with friends, being broke, school, assignments, exams, reading...all this, then I proceed to leave you guys with a cliffy, kinda.

*ducks behind wall again to dodge broken computer screen* I sincerely apologise. It's holidays now, and in between the LAN parties, ridiculous alcohol consumption, travel, and watching anime and reading manga, I promise to update, once every week, okay?

Hope you enjoy this. :D

*ducks to dodge broken office chair*