As always, I claim no ownership of Naruto or Hikari. Just this story :)

Constructive criticism is warmly welcomed and appreciated. Flames will be noted, but ignored!

So without first ado. Here's the new update. Please enjoy and please review! :D

KIDNAPPED!

"I walk around like everybody else but inside, I just feel different.
Like I'm a stranger in my own life."

It was almost dawn before Sakura was finally discovered by a patrolling ANBU scout. At first, the ANBU (whose codename was 'badger' due to the badger design on his porcelain mask) was surprised to see an unconscious Genin kunoichi asleep and alone on an isolated stone bench; when officially she should've been at home sleeping.

Yep, definitely merits an explanation...

'Badger' descended from the trees he had been using to patrol the village in, and landed silently next to Sakura's unmoving body. He examined her body for injuries, and upon finding no serious injuries reached into his weapons pack for smelling salts. This was a suspicious situation, made even more suspicious when Sakura, upon waking up displayed a variety of expressions varying from disoriented and confused to horrified and frantic.

"Where is he!?" Sakura demanded to the confused and very suspicious 'Badger'.

"To whom are you referring to, Haruno-san?" he asked calmly. Sakura clutched at his arm with an almost crushing grip that he had to stop himself from instinctively retaliating against.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shrieked shaking 'Badger' and looking around, as though expecting Sasuke to step out from behind a nearby bush and announce that the joke was all on them. 'Badger' frowned.

"Uchiha-sama?"

Now he was even more confused, but this time alarm bells were pealing madly in his head. He decided to venture one additional question to satisfy his curiosity and to hopefully make sense of the situation. "What exactly is going on, Haruno-san?" He tried to calm down the increasingly hysterical girl, but it seemed a futile task. Instead, 'Badger' pushed on a pressure point on Sakura's neck which gently and harmlessly returned her back to the fuzzy ol' land of Nod.

Hokage-sama will need to hear about this…

'Badger' scooped up Sakura's body into his arms, and held her bridal style as he studied her tear-streaked face. Clearly, something dreadful had occurred here and it involved the last Uchiha. He immediately took off with a brisk, chakra induced sprint towards the Hokage tower.

He wasn't expecting to see a whole lot of shinobi out-and-about, since it was only just daybreak and most off-duty shinobi slept in until at least 9:30 at the latest. However, the few that were out and about realised almost immediately that something was very wrong when they saw an ANBU scout carrying in a lifeless body to the Hokage's office. It wasn't something that was seen every day, as ANBU ninjas were trained to be inconspicuous, unless summoned by the Hokage. Normally the correct procedure when addressing Hokage was to knock and wait for a reply, but 'Badger' figured that his rude entrance would be excused the minute he went in with Haruno in his arms. Bursting open the heavy double doors, 'Badger' stumbled in, taking care not to jostle or knock Sakura out of his arms in the process.

"What the fuck?" exclaimed Tsunade who had been asleep yet again on her desk. From the state of it, it appeared that she had had yet another overnighter signing urgent documents, and must have passed out on top on them. Seeing 'Badger', Tsunade immediately stood up from her desk and moved to swear at him some more. 'Badger' swallowed hard.

Maybe I should've knocked… He thought. Tsunade looked as though she could breathe fire she was so angry.

"Are you insane? How dare you enter my office like that!" Tsunade snapped and was about to say something more when she finally noticed an unconscious Sakura lying bridal-style in his arms. "Explain!" She demanded 'Badger' as she relieved him of Sakura and laid her down on the plushy couch. 'Badger' thanked his lucky stars that he had been right and that he was off the hook before moving to answer.

"I believe we may have a serious situation, Hokage-sama," he began as Tsunade examined Sakura. "From what I've gleaned from Haruno-san, it may involve Uchiha-sama." Tsunade stopped what she was doing to look at 'Badger' seriously.

"And how exactly did you come to this conclusion?" Tsunade demanded, straightening up from her stoop and crossing her arms across her ample chest. 'Badger' avoided looking in that area as he complied.

"It was the first thing Haruno-san demanded of me when I revived her." Tsunade frowned.

"Where did you find her?"

"Unconscious on a stone bench near one of the paths leading to one of Konoha's north entrances." 'Badger' confirmed. Immediately Tsunade cursed.

"I can't believe it. That defiant little shit!" Tsunade walked over to her desk and sank down into her desk-chair.

"Ma'am?" inquired 'Badger' cautiously. Tsunade waved him away.

"Thank you for your report, you're dismissed." 'Badger' nodded before disappearing a swirl of leaves. "Shizune!" The aforementioned appeared, "Please summon Uzumaki, Yukimura and Hatake, immediately!"

"Of course!" Shizune bowed and left the office briskly.

Tsunade glanced over at the sleeping Sakura and hummed under her breath. She stood up and revived Sakura who sat up abruptly and realised that she was in the presence of the Hokage, upon which she immediately stood up and bowed in respect.

"Enough of that!" Tsunade said impatiently. Sakura straightened up and looked nervously at her leader. "Now, I want you to tell me exactly everything you did last night during your patrol of the Uchiha compound." She ordered Sakura. The poor girl wasn't sure if she was in trouble or not, but nevertheless started talking.

"Well, Hikari changed shifts with me and I started to go home because we had training with Kakashi-sensei the next day. Only, I sensed that Sasuke-kun had left his house and I got curious so I followed him." Tsunade's eyes narrowed.

"Did you notice anything off about him?" Sakura nodded.

"Yes, ma'am. He was carrying a backpack that he usually only uses when he's going on a very long mission. I trailed after him until we got to that path I was found at and that's when he finally realised I was following him." Then Sakura's eyes went all dreamy, which turned Tsunade's stomach. "He's so cool…"

"Focus, Sakura. What happened next?" Tsunade snapped. Sakura jumped like she had been shot. The situation must have been serious if Tsunade was this angry – she just wasn't sure if it was because she had failed to stop Sasuke from leaving the village.

"I confronted him, asking what he was doing and where he was going. He told me that he was leaving the village. I tried to stop him, but that's when he came up behind me and knocked me out. I don't remember anything after that."

Tsunade cursed. She hoped that Hikari would have more information to offer, since Sasuke had disappeared during her shift. Shizune reappeared about five minutes later dragging a groggy, cross looking Naruto inside. About two seconds later, Kakashi appeared – which was a first, considering that he was nearly always late for practically everything. But judging from the expression on his masked face, it appeared he had an inkling of what this meeting was going to be about.

"Where's Hikari?" demanded Tsunade. Shizune hesitated before answering.

"That was what I was about to tell you, Hokage-sama. It seems that she is missing. She cannot be found anywhere near the Uchiha compound or any part of the village." That woke Naruto up right away.

"What the heck does that mean?" He demanded rudely. Tsunade didn't even bother to correct him, even though Sakura was quick to the punch.

"Why are you always so rude, Naruto?!" she snarled, but Tsunade and Kakashi weren't in the mood for Sakura's bickering with Naruto, who looked strangely quiet for someone who had been clobbered by Sakura.

"I was afraid of that." Tsunade muttered. This silenced Sakura immediately, it was clear that she wasn't expecting that from her. Kakashi stepped forward.

"With all due respect, your ladyship. Would you care to elaborate?" He asked politely but knew something was very, very wrong. Tsunade massaged her temples.

"It appears that Uchiha has defected from Konoha … and taken Hikari hostage as well." Tsunade supplied.

"What? Why?" yelled Naruto. Tsunade almost smiled. It appeared that Naruto was extremely protective of his friends, and it almost broke her heart at the anguish that she saw on his young face.

"I'm glad you asked, brat. You're going to help find out." Naruto's angered face dropped into a completely dumbfounded one.

"Huh?"

"You heard me. Starting tomorrow, you've got a mission with six others to search for and bring back both Uchiha and Yukimura."

~HIKARI P.O.V~

I can't believe how far things have spiralled out of control! This was the absolute last situation I expected to be caught up in. But why did it have to be Sasuke of all people to be involved in this? It's like a nightmare that has a mind of its own. I woke up feeling dizzy and slightly nauseated. The feeling of the cold air on my face was both a blessing and a curse as it stun my eyes and kept whipping my hair into my mouth.

"What's going on? Where am I?" I groaned. A dark, but very amused chuckle answered my question.

"You're awake. Good. For a moment there I was afraid I laced that senbon with too much sleeping draught."

Sasuke?

I went to move my arms but realised that they'd been bound with chakra ropes. I threw an accusing look at the back of his head.

"What are you playing at?!" I struggled to free myself, but I was piggy-backing Sasuke and he had a good grip on my legs. I couldn't break free.

Shit…

"You've got ten seconds to let me go—"

"Or what?" Sasuke sneered, "You'll attack me?" I stiffened at his cold mocking voice. All wanted to do at this very moment was to beat the living crap out of him, then drag his sorry ass back to Konoha, and lock him up until he came back to his senses. Since that was impossible at the moment, I decided to do the next best thing.

"When I free myself I'll do more than freaking attack you!" I promised. Sasuke snorted, unimpressed.

"Oh yeah? Keep telling yourself that." Ooh he was SO dead!

I used this opportunity to get a good look at my surroundings. Whatever road we were on must have been out-of-bounds for Genin teams, as nothing looked familiar. All I knew is that we were making good time and Sasuke seemed determined about something. Fat chance of getting him to fess up though.

"Oi brat!" I looked over Sasuke's shoulder to see four rogue ninja dead ahead – each wearing the insignia of Sound. My eyes widened in shock. I remembered them from Kakashi-sensei's bingo book (which he had shown us after Orochimaru's attack during the Chunnin exams). It was the Sound Four - known as Orochimaru's elite bodyguards! There were three thuggish men and a plain looking redheaded female all wearing the same clothing: a grey tunic with a thick purple belt about their waists. It was one of the men who had spoken up.

"'Bout time you showed up." He drawled. This guy resembled Iruka-sensei, except that he was tanned and had lavender hair instead of Iruka-sensei's chocolate brown. I recognised him as Kidomaru. Sasuke appeared to have ignored him as his attention was directed towards a large wooden coffin with pole-bearers.

"Who's the chick?" One of the other men with long violet hair tied back in a pony-tail piped up looking directly at me. Sasuke unceremoniously dropped me like a sack of potatoes and moved to inspect the crate with mild interest.

"She's on a need to know basis." Sasuke eventually replied as the redhead roughly pulled me to my feet and retied my hands behind my back. The violet haired man, whom I vaguely understood to be Sakon, smirked before he sauntered over to me and made a casual eye sweep over my body. I recoiled in horror.

"She's cute." He oozed and grabbed my chin roughly, forcing me to look him in the eye as he leered lecherously. I glared at him and spat in his face, causing him to flinch with disgust then backhand me across the face. I fell to the ground just as Sasuke, in record time brandished a kunai at his throat.

"Do not harm her." He ordered coldly. Sakon smirked defiantly back at him. He was either thick, had a death wish or a combination of both.

"Why? She your girl?" He inquired. Sasuke pressed the kunai deeper to his throat and this time his cocky smirk faultered a little – he knew Sasuke wasn't bluffing.

"I need her alive," he pulled back the weapon, "know your place." Sasuke suggested as he wiped the small amount of blood off the blade and replaced it in his weapon's pouch.

"Geez, can we get this over with? We need to take you to Orochimaru!" whined the girl as Sasuke extended a hand towards me to help me up. I made no move to take his hand, which caused Sasuke to roll his lovely eyes and help me up anyway before shoving me into the arms of the third guy – a tanned obese man with an odd looking ginger haircut, called Jirobo – saying to him:

"Hold her!"

Jirobo grunted but looked like this was the last thing he wanted to do. I watched helplessly as the other three goons opened the lid of the coffin. Kidomaru (who appeared to be the ringleader of this gang) presented Sasuke with a small dark blue pill.

"Swallow this." He said as Sasuke took the pill, hesitating only for a second before gulping it down. Suddenly he collapsed, and my first thought was that he had been poisoned.

"Sasuke!" I shouted and went towards him, but Jirobo stopped me in my tracks. I fought savagely to get to Sasuke who wasn't moving. Calmly, Sakon and Kidomaru simply picked up Sasuke's very still body and placed him in the coffin, sealing it with the lid and four seals.

"Let's beat it before somebody shows up to 'rescue' them!" Sakon ordered.

"Let go of me!" I shrieked as my captor hoisted me up over his shoulder. I immediately started kicking at his chest and stomach.

"Shut her up!" Kidomaru called out and suddenly there was this haunting music playing. I looked over to see the girl, who I realised too late was Tayuya, was playing on some sort of flute. From what I remembered, Tayuya used her flute to place her victims in a sort of trance with the music, or paralyse them so they couldn't get away. But before I could block my ears, everything started to go foggy and I felt very calm. My body went limp as I fell to the expected trance, Tayuya stopped playing and scowled at me.

"Don't know why that Uchiha brat wanted this fucking chick. Maybe we should just kill her and be done with it." She suggested.

"Great idea. Then you'll be the one to explain to Uchiha-sama about why she's not with us." She backed down and rolled her eyes. Sakon and Kidomaru each grabbed a pole and then the four of them (with an unwilling hostage … namely me) took off at a steady sprint with the crate containing Sasuke between them, presumably to Sound Village.

Oh Kami ... Somebody help me…

A/N: Please review :)