Fire: --;;; First post in the new year and―

Sasori: Someone wants to know about the poison.

Fire: I'll have to edit the report then. Expect it next chapter, EasilyAmusedReader-san. It's...um...complicated. A lot more complicated than that.

Sasori: Because I'm a genius.

Tsunade: And because animal poisons don't work that fast, or that...cruelly. (glares at Sasori)

Fire: As for the DB reference, I don't mind. There are a lot of similarities between the two series that I'm just not going to go into. But Masashi-sensei admires Toriyama-sensei, so I understand emulating him. --;;

Naruto: Ramen!

Fire: And don't forget that he's not quite himself. His disintegrating state is interfering with his brain.

Naruto: Ramen!

Fire: Although even I don't know to what extent it's affecting him.

Naruto: Ramen!

Deidara: I said I'd buy him ramen. (shouts at Naruto) I DIDN'T SAY I WAS ACTUALLY GOING TO DO IT, YEAH!

Fire: So Aurora-san, you're mistaken. Deidara won't be feeding Naruto.

Naruto: But―

Deidara: No.

Naruto: But―

Fire: That's what Itachi would have done.

Itachi: ...

Fire: And if I write a book to conclude this series, it won't be as long as this one, but it won't be as short as nine or ten chapters. --;; I'll be re-introducing another character into the cast so the storyline will be a little less complicated than this one, but still complicated. Um...hint: it's someone that a lot of people like, but who has vanished since the beginning of the series.

Itachi: That's too obvious.

Fire: As for the miscarriage thing, I already mentioned that she would have miscarried a long time ago, but there are several factors around that. Um, I won't say anything about stress. It is a factor so I'm agreeing with you, Aurora-san. It's just that there are a lot of people who are reducing stress around her. Tsunade locked her up for a month, and before that, she was encountering spread out stressful events so it wasn't straining her body too much. And don't forget that she's a medic-nin. She can handle small problems on her own. Um...that's SMALL problems. Anything really big and she would be in trouble. --;;

Sasuke: I screamed because of the pain.

Fire: That was the memory of pain, Sasuke.

Sasuke: It was still pain. If you don't remember, I was bleeding all over the place.

Naruto: Is EasilyAmusedReader-san saying I'll just come back to life?

Fire: Um...if Naruto dies again, he won't be coming back.

Naruto: No! Don't kill me!

Fire: If Naruto dies this time, the Kyuubi would have been taken away, so there is no way of restoring the Kyuubi to his body. If the Kyuubi is taken away, he would return to being the sum of the Edo Tensei parts, ash, dirt and a dead sacrifice. --;; And you can't re-seal the Kyuubi into something like that.

Tobi: This is getting long, Fire-sama.

Fire: Anyway, I've split the climax of the story into two or three parts to keep the chapters from getting too long. So this is part one. Tobi, the chapter!

Tobi: (crying) And you're still going to kill me. (pulls Chapter 28 onto the screen)

---------------------------

Chapter 28: Searching

'Why are you leaving when I have given you everything these hands could give? When I speak, I give you all the words. When I see, I give you all the visions. I hear only sounds for you. I feel only emotions for you. These fingers' movements are for you. I will do anything. So, tell me why you're still leaving. In your heart, what are you searching for? If it's love, I will love you more than anyone can. If it's warmth, I will hold you with more gentleness than anyone can. With open arms, I'm waiting, still waiting. So turn back to me. Quickly. The seasons will eventually dry these emotions. How can I wait forever when you're rendering my heart barren?'

Naruto stared at the back of the blond man's head as he walked after him. It has been irritating him since they left the cenotaph. He knew that he had seen him before, but he just couldn't remember when that was, or if his memory was right. But there was nothing wrong with eating ramen while he thought about it, so he continued walking, tempted by curiosity and ramen. "Ano-sa," Naruto said slowly, drawing Deidara's attention with a single word. "I think I've met you before." His memory was cloudy. Being dead had that effect. But he definitely knew this man

"So you really can't remember me, yeah?" Deidara tried his best to suppress his anger. If he allowed himself to hit the Konoha shinobi, the jinchuuriki's body would explode and all his effort would be wasted.

"I know!" Naruto grinned triumphantly as a name appeared in his mind. "I remember now!" He knew he would remember if he tried hard enough. "Ino! You're Ino!"

"WHO THE HELL IS INO?!" Deidara shouted. He knew that the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was an idiot. Itachi had told them that he was an idiot. But this was insane! They had fought each other before. At least, he should remember that he was an enemy!

"So, you're not Ino?" Naruto's face contorted into a confused knot. "I was certain you were Ino," he mused to himself. "Then who's Ino?" He had remembered only a short while ago. He couldn't have forgotten who it was already.

Deidara growled beneath his breath, trying to vent his frustration without destroying the jinchuuriki's body. If he returned without the jinchuuriki, Akatsuki would definitely kill him. They were missing enough members so that the leader could want to cleanse and reform the organization. That meant a lot of them could be fired, literally flamed, murdered so that he could gather stronger members, new members who could actually finish their missions.

"Innnnoooo? Iiiino? Ino? Iiiiiiiiinooooo?"

Not only was the amnesia insulting him, the jinchuuriki's stupidity was beginning to annoy him too.

"Are you sure I don't know you?"

Deidara wanted to hit him. Just a little. If he hit him in the arm, that would be okay, right?

"Yes." He had denied that the blond shinobi knew him, which wasn't a lie, but they didn't exactly not know each other either.

He just really wanted to hit him.

"By the way, where are you taking me?" The blond man had said that he would buy him ramen, but the village wasn't coming any closer, even though they had been walking for a while. They definitely weren't heading toward Ichiraku Ramen.

"A place..." Deidara tried to remember what he had said to the jinchuuriki to make him follow him, and after a moment, the anger clouding his memory subsided. "...that has the best ramen you can find."

"But Ichiraku Ramen isn't in this direction." Naruto stared confusedly at the nukenin. "If it's the best ramen, we should be—"

"You won't know until you eat it," Deidara mumbled irritatedly.

Naruto blinked. He was right. Besides, it was still ramen. As long as he wasn't paying for it, he was okay with walking in any direction.

Until he walked into a sudden swell in the ground.

It wasn't there before. This tiny hill had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Naruto kicked it as he rubbed his face. This mound had definitely surprised him. And now he looked so much like an idiot that his companion probably wouldn't want to buy him ramen anymore. 'Kuso!' But as he looked closer, the mound seemed to be growing. "Nani?" The blond summoning jumped back, his hands reaching for kunai. That black cloak and those red clouds were unmistakeable. It was Akatsuki!

"Are you trying to sabotage me?" Deidara said irritatedly. Zetsu had deliberately appeared to take his jinchuuriki away.

"No, I'm not trying to sabotage you," Naruto said confusedly.

"Of course not," Zetsu said as his arms snapped around the blond Konoha-nin, tightening softly so that he couldn't escape. "I haven't seen this technique in a long time. That's all." He grinned at the Iwa-nukenin, as if he was going to eat him. "Unless a weakling like you knows about Orochimaru's Edo Tensei, you need my help."

Deidara resisted the urge to grab the jinchuuriki back. He had caught the Kyuubi, and he wasn't going to allow Zetsu to take his glory, but the Kusa-nin was right. He couldn't possibly think of a way to keep the summoning from vanishing before they were ready to extract the bijuu. He needed Zetsu's help.

In fact...

"What did you do to him?"

...the jinchuuriki hadn't struggled once since Zetsu arrived.

Sasuke had turned to tell Naruto that he was running after Sakura, but as soon as he turned around, he couldn't see the jinchuuriki anywhere. He had complained to the empty space about playing when he was in a hurry. He had thought Naruto was hiding for fun. That idiot did stupid things like that often, for no logical reason other than to gain attention. In fact, he did it many times when they were still genin. So, Sasuke hadn't thought there was anything wrong with finding empty space behind him. Until he saw the discarded paper cup on the ground.

Naruto didn't finish the soup.

No one else would have thought it was unusual. Sakura and Kakashi would have looked at him like he was crazy. But he knew Naruto far better than anyone else. For someone like Naruto, the idea of leaving even one drop of soup in its container, even if it was only instant ramen soup, was ridiculous. Naruto always, always drank all the soup.

To leave his ramen unfinished, something must have happened to him.

And there were only two people in Konoha who would want to kidnap Naruto. One was on his way to his execution. The other was definitely the one who took him.

'When I find that Iwa-yarou, I'm tearing him apart!'

All thoughts of Sakura had vanished, replaced by a blond nukenin. Deidara wasn't going to escape. Not with Naruto!

The sky was brightening by the time Sakura's legs shivered and collapsed, sending the bulk of her body sliding to the ground. By then, she couldn't stop anymore. By then, she was already far from the village. 'Sasuke-kun...' She had really hoped he would feel something for her, but it was a useless dream. Those dark eyes hid everything but the emotions in his heart.

Sakura stood on shaking legs only to fall again as pain shot from her belly into her limbs. But this pain wasn't new. Under so much stress, any other woman would have miscarried by now. Any other child would have given up trying to come into this world.

It was stubborn, just like its father.

'Stubborn? Is Sasuke-kun stubborn?' Sakura couldn't remember. 'Shannaro!' Sasori wasn't the father of this child! 'Stop thinking that!'

"S-Sakura-san!"

A pair of bandaged arms caught Sakura before she hit the ground. If she didn't have to leave the village, she would have taken herself to the hospital by now, but she just didn't have time. She didn't have time for detours. If her parents knew where she was going, they would lock her in her room for the next two months.

"Sakura-san, daijoubu-des ka?" Lee's round eyes stared at her.

"I'm fine," Sakura said as she pushed herself shakily away from the firm support of his arms. She needed to leave, even if she had to crawl out of this village.

She had already forgotten why she wanted to bring Sasori back to Konoha. Perhaps it was because she didn't think he deserved to die. Perhaps she wanted to kill him with her own hands. There were many reasons within her mind. She couldn't remember which one was her true reason for choosing to leave the village, but she would remember when she got there. She would remember when she saw Sasori's face.

"I need to..." Around hurried breaths of air, Sakura placed her hands on her belly, sending the soothing green light of shosen jutsu to appease the child. "...leave."

Lee stared confusedly at Sakura. 'Leave?' She was standing so far from the village proper. At this time of day, it wouldn't be surprising if she was taking a light stroll around Konoha, just for some exercise, but they were so far from the village that the training grounds were within view. "Where are you going, Sakura-san?" Lee's innocent voice was tinged with concern and the possibility of stopping her if she was planning anything dangerous.

"N-nowhere dangerous, Lee-san," Sakura said as she strained a smile through the pain eroding her body. Even though she knew that it was definitely dangerous, she wasn't telling Lee. If he knew, he would definitely stop her, and she knew it. 'Lee-san, gomen.' She didn't like lying to him. He was always nice to her, and this was probably the last time she would see him. 'I can't tell you the truth.' If she left Konoha without Tsunade's permission, she would be labelled a nukenin. 'Gomen.' But even with this being the last time she would see Lee, she still couldn't tell him. She couldn't jeopardise her chances of leaving Konoha. "Shinpanai."

She stumbled forwards. Running away from Sasuke had drained more of her strength than she had thought. But she would regain her strength on her own. She refused to stop. If she waited too long, Sasori would be in Suna before she even left Konoha. And she couldn't allow that to happen. She had to... She had to...

Sakura blinked, her body freezing at the thought. 'Save him? Rescue him? Kill him?' She couldn't quite see what her goal was.

But she would know when she saw him.

"Sakura-san!" Lee's shout drew her mind back to reality. "You're lying, aren't you?" The green-clad shinobi knew that she was lying. That beautiful face was marred by the burden of falsehood. "You don't have to go." Even though no one had told him anything, he knew what all the other shinobi of this village knew. Sasori was being transported back to Suna, even at that moment. "You—" Even though Sakura was carrying Sasori's child... "You don't have to save him!" She didn't need that horrible nukenin. "I'll be that child's father! I'll help you!"

'So you don't have to love that horrible man!'

"Thanks for the offer, Lee-san," Sakura said softly. Lee just didn't understand what was happening. He didn't know the real truth. He thought she loved Sasori, but... "I have to go." She wasn't really thinking about love, not at that moment, not after what Sasuke had said to her. At this moment, her heart was only a dead lump in her chest.

"Sakura-san!" Lee's hand shot out with superhuman speed, wrapping around Sakura's arm before she could run away. "I won't let you go!" Of all things, Sakura shouldn't travel long distances in her condition.

He was only thinking of her. He certainly wasn't trying to keep her away from Sasori. He certainly wasn't trying to sabotage her love for another man.

Because Rock Lee wasn't capable of those things.

"It's too dangerous," Lee said, his grip tightening as her arm tensed. If she used her superhuman strength against him, he would have no way of defending himself. She would definitely defeat him. The only way to stop her was with his words. "You can't go, Sakura-san."

"Are you trying to stop me..." Slowly, her arm tugged against his fingers. "...Lee-san?"

The green-clad chuunin stared at Sakura for a moment, unsure of what to say. Would she be upset? Angry? Or would she be relieved? Happy that he cared? "Y-yes," he said shakily. No matter what she felt, he couldn't lie to her. He hadn't even considered lying to Sakura. There was only the concern that she would stress herself further. "Yes, I'm trying to stop you. Sakura-san, you can't—"

"Souka."

There were only the silent words before her fist flew up, slamming her arm out of Lee's grasp and into his torso, sending him flying into the air toward the Hokage monument.

She won't let anyone stop her.

Fear still coated Neji's body, even though he hadn't seen the Hokage for a few days. Protecting someone to that extent, even if it meant hurting that person... It made him shiver with fear. The Hokage was truly a terrifying woman. 'I should just try to forget it,' he thought to himself as he pushed the memory out of his head. Sakura had nothing to do with him. This entire business had nothing to do with him. He shouldn't concern himself with such stressful things.

Then, Lee fell from the sky, directly into his arms.

Neji frowned at his teammate as Lee tried to look innocent. "What are you doing, Lee?" He dropped the green-clad shinobi before he could grow comfortable. If he didn't let go of Lee, the chuunin would expect him to save him every time he fell out of the sky. And lately, it has been happening quite frequently.

"Neji-kun!" The Hyuuga genius cringed at his teammate's voice. "Neji-kun, you have to stop her!" Lee's frantic voice spoke as shaking hands grabbed the jounin's shoulders.

'Stop?' Neji whacked his teammate's hands away. He didn't want Lee to touch him. "Stop who?" Lee looked...as if he had lost all sense of himself.

"Sakura-san! Sakura-san has—" The green-clad chuunin's hands flew up, covering his mouth quickly. 'What am I doing?' Sakura didn't have the Hokage's permission to leave the village. If he told Neji that she had left, she would immediately become a nukenin. And Neji was merciless. He wouldn't let Sakura get away just because she was pregnant.

"She left the village." The jounin turned from Lee. He had suspected that she would do something like this. He needed to tell the Hokage immediately.

"No, Neji-kun!" Lee grabbed onto the jounin's shoulder before he could walk too far away. "You can't tell Hokage-sama!"

"She's a nukenin."

"She hasn't left the village yet! She's not a—"

"Lee!" Neji shouted, drawing the attention of several people around them. "She's gone!" Neji wrenched his body away and headed toward the Hokage tower. "If you care about her, you would try to bring her back, before something happens." Because Sakura's body wasn't strong enough... Because she shouldn't be travelling in that condition... Because he knew what the Hokage knew about Sakura's child...

Tsunade pulled two thin pieces of paper from the drawer. "I had permission from her parents. They knew about her imprisonment." Neji watched the Hokage's expression change from carefree to serious as she handed the papers to him. "Is that what you were worried about?"

Neji scanned over the papers. He didn't need to read everything. He already had an idea of what they were. So, what surprised him wasn't that Sakura's parents knew about everything. The fact that they knew eased the tension in his chest somewhat. No. What surprised him, what choked him with shock, was the other paper in his hand. "Are you going to tell her about this?" That medical report... He knew that she was much too round, too big for a woman who was only seven months pregnant. At seven months, Sakura's body should only be beginning to change shape.

She should know about it!

But the Hokage didn't want him going anywhere near her.

That medical report meant nothing to him, and after Tsunade's threat, he didn't want to tell Sakura about it. Telling the pink-haired medic-nin would mean angering the Hokage. And if he did that, he would be putting his life in danger. But he had changed his mind. At this point, with Lee's words still fresh in his head, he changed his mind. Which shinobi hadn't put his life in danger at some point in his career? Neji had done it more than a few times on his way to becoming a jounin. Besides, he wasn't just trying to bring Sakura back.

There were other lives on the line.

He couldn't just do nothing when he knew what would happen.

As Sasori looked at the sleeping ANBU again, he wondered if they were truly sleeping, or just pretending to be asleep. Any normal member of the ANBU—in fact, any regular shinobi—would have woken long ago. He was supposed to be a dangerous criminal! That was why they were taking him back to Suna! Sasori just didn't understand how they could sleep so soundly.

Especially with Kakashi's killer intent saturating the air. He wasn't imagining it. It wasn't the thought that Kakashi might kill him. Even in full sunlight, the area around them was dark. Killing him was a definite fact. Sasori couldn't wait until they were further away from the village. Even though it would be better to be farther away, if he waited any longer, Kakashi would kill him. There was no better time than this, when the ANBU were asleep.

The Suna-nukenin had taken many risks to reach this moment. He had prepared for this moment in Sakura's home when he knew they could discover what he had been doing at any moment. Gathering ingredients... Extracting, purifying and mixing his poisons when no one noticed... But it didn't matter. It was all so he could kill Kakashi.

So he could kill him without interference. So he could counter anything that came his way. Everything.

Including this one.

As he flexed the muscles on his back, he felt the barrier containing his chakra loosen. He only had to wait a little while longer. Those seals would soon become useless. He knew that Kakashi knew he knew they were useless. That was why Kakashi couldn't sleep. It could happen at any moment. He would regain the use of his chakra.

The Hokage had tried to supress his chakra when he first arrived in the village. One of the reasons she stopped watching him was because these seals neutralized on their own. They were ineffective for long periods of time. And he had been wearing these same seals for a month. Escaping wouldn't be difficult. Not with...

Sasori's fingers dug into the side of his leg, tearing pass the painfully thin fake skin.

The soft breathing from the other side of the room told him that Sakura was still asleep. But knowing this was even more of a reason to not scream in pain. He had run out of painkillers long ago, and Sakura didn't have many drugs in the house. They were too close to the hospital to carry large quantities of medical supplies. If they needed anything, they could just walk to the hospital. But Sasori couldn't go. This endeavour had to be kept a secret, otherwise there was no point in doing it at all.

'Kuso.' He stared at the bloody mess he had made of his leg. He had wanted to tear open a different place, somewhere that didn't have so much difficult muscle, but his human body had too many vital points. Anywhere else would have killed him.

As for his arms, they were too thin to hide anything. Besides, he had no desire to tear off an arm in the middle of the night, not to attach a new appendage. He was suffering enough just putting two small scrolls in his leg.

Sasori sealed his mouth with his teeth as he pulled the bandage tightly over the shallow wound. He just didn't possess the endurance to cut any deeper. It was enough for what he wanted to hide there, and that was enough for now. At least no one would notice the wound, not if he covered it thoroughly. Not if he hid it beneath his clothes.

It was only a precaution, in case something happened. In case something like this happened. As his hand pulled the tool out of his bleeding leg, he revelled in the thought of Kakashi's expression...

...when he killed him.

Tsunade looked worriedly at the morning gently covering the village. Usually, she would be at home, asleep at this time, or working frantically on something important for the latest S-ranked mission, or for the damiyo. But this morning, her thoughts kept wandering. She couldn't tear away the feeling that something was wrong, even though the village looked peaceful.

Lee falling out of the sky was a normal sight. He had been training too hard lately, probably because of Sakura. She didn't know what he did that threw him from the training grounds to the village, but at least, it was soothing his emotional pain, soothing the heartbreak Sakura had forced unknowingly on him.

"Hokage-sama!" Neji had shouted, expecting the kunoichi to be sleeping at her desk. Tsunade often slept at her desk. The workload of a Hokage only grew larger, never smaller. "Wake u—" But as the Hyuuga jounin walked into the office, he saw Godaime at the window, and almost dropped Lee.

"Neji?" Tsunade had turned to see who was shouting so early in the morning. If she was asleep, she would have woken and thrown something at him by now. "Why are you carrying Lee?" The jounin had the chuunin slung over one shoulder.

"..." Neji tried to suppress the irritation rising in his chest. 'Sakura punched him. If he could walk on his own, Lee has trained far too much.' But this wasn't about him or what he was doing with his teammate. "A shinobi has left Konoha without preauthorization."

The moment that hung silently after those blunt words weighed heavily in the room as the sudden realization of what Neji had said hit Tsunade in the chest, knocking the air from her lungs. "S-Sakura!" She knew immediately that it couldn't be anyone else. Sakura was the only one who would leave the village, who had a reason to leave the village. "If she left, then bring her back, Neji," Tsunade said sternly. "What are you doing here?" He should have brought her back, instead of coming to the Hokage tower. "Do you know what condition Sakura's in!"

Then, Orochimaru disappeared from the room.

End Chapter 28

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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

Following the tradition of English tidbits, I'm going to talk about relative pronouns. But what else am I going to talk about in this section? Anyway, relative pronouns introduce a subordinate clause (ie. a fragment) and are used as a subject or object of that clause. So words like "who", "that", and "which" are relative pronouns. The problem is knowing whether it's plural or singular. For example, "Naruto didn't know what to do with the empty ramen boxes that were in the kitchen." The instinct is to put "was" instead of "were" but the relative pronoun (that) refers to boxes, so the verb should be plural. Another example is, "Kisame is one of the seven swordsmen of Kirigakure who wield fearsome power." Wield is plural because the relative pronoun (who) is referring to swordsmen, a plural noun, and not Kisame. However, "Kisame is the only one of the seven swordsmen of Kirigakure who wields such fearsome power," where the verb "wields" is singular, would have a different meaning. In this sentence, the relative pronoun (who) is referring to Kisame, and not swordsmen, so the verb is singular. Kisame is the only one wielding fearsome power. Hope that was enlightening.

Fire's babbling:

Sasori: Next time, I kill Kakash―

Fire: He's not that easy to kill.

Sakura: You're not killing Kakashi-sensei!

Naruto: Um...what happened to me?

Lee: Neji-kun, why did you have to tell her?

Neji: I was only doing my job. She's trying to flee Konoha.

Lee: Don't worry, Sakura-san! I'll protect you!

Sakura: Uh...thanks, Lee-san. --;;

Sasuke: Don't worry. I'll rescue Naruto from that damned nukenin.

Deidara: I'm standing right here, yeah.

Sasuke: I'm still going to kill you.

Fire: Um...review?

Naruto: Itachi, will you really buy me ramen?

Itachi: (stares at Naruto) Maybe.

Naruto: Will you buy some for me now?

Itachi: ...

Sasuke: Don't touch my dobe! (grabs Naruto away)

Fire: Um...review and tell me what you think. I appreciate any and all kinds of feedback. And if any of you want me to write a last book, please tell me, otherwise it'll just sit in one of my hard drives for my own tweaking pleasure.

Sasuke: Fire's insane.

Fire: I'm not insane! It'll just be used as material for my other stories.

Sasuke: In other words, cannibalism.

Zetsu: We're eating?

Fire: The word you're searching for is salvaging.

Zetsu: (disappointed) We're not eating?

Fire: Um, no. We're ending this chapter. Ja! (waves furiously)