What's up you guys! This is thesaiyanjedi here with the newest chapter of "Shinachiku's First Adventure!"

So, so sorry for keeping you guys hanging for so long, but the truth is that things have been a little bit hectic in my life lately and I've been having a bit of a writer's block when it comes to this story. I know that's probably no excuse, but I hope you all can understand and learn to forgive me.

Anyway, welcome to the first chapter of the new year! I'm not sure its the best chapter I've ever written (in fact I feel pretty certain of that), but I hope you guys can enjoy it anyway. And if you o, please let me know.

With all of that said, lets gets to reading!

Chapter 36: Under the Influence

"Where did you get that?"

Sarada could tell the voice in the boy's voice and rose her hands in defense. "Shina, listen to me—"

"Where did you get it?!"

The girl was taken aback. "Your mom trusted me to hold onto it. She was afraid of what might happen if you saw it again."

"So you lied to me."

"Weren't you listening?! I just said—"

"SHUT UP!"

The girl actually looked hurt, for a moment. After that, she narrowed her eyes in disgust. "See, this is why I hid it from you! Its affecting you! Its affecting both of us!"

"She's telling the truth Shinachiku," Kakashi spoke up. "I understand that you two have to keep the gem out of Taka's hands, but there has to be a way to do so without destroying yourselves."

Shinachiku could only listen and glare. He said nothing as his eyes drifted back to the glowing object in his old friend's hand. Its crimson radiance escaping through her fingers. The power. The power to destroy cities. The power of a god in the palm of your hand.

Sarada could clearly feel where the boy's eyes were drifting and she suddenly got very defensive. Her grip tightened on the gem as she coldly glared at her old friend.

Eyes reflected red, either with power or merely with the lust for power, as both Genin, consciously or unconsciously, reach for their weapon's pouches to pull out their kunai...

Konohamaru panicked. "Kids! Wait!"

Her sensei's words awoke something in the girl. The redness in her eyes disappeared and she managed to come back to her senses again, in spite of the gem still being held within her hands.

"Shinachiku! Wait!"

It was too late. The boys screamed as he threw a kunai straight at the her head. Sarada barely dodged the blade, loosing a lock of her hair in the process.

Dropping all pretense, Sarada was forced to tuck the gem back into her pocket as she got out her own kunai and charged her old friend. Both children and threw rapid punches and kicks at the other. Shinachiku tried to use his pressure point techniques to cut her off, but Sarada was ready for him this time and dodged the blows with ease. Sarada got out another kunai and tried to slash the boy right across the faces growling in fury while doing so, but Shinachiku grabbed the blade an tossed it away before anything further could be done with it.

Shinachiku then got out his own kunai, the one his uncle had giving him for his birthday, and started slashing at his friend like a madman. Sadada then caught his arm and punched him right in the face, square in the nose actually.

"AAAGGH!" Shinachiku recoiled from the clean shot as Sarada tried once again to the get him to focus.

"Shina! Listen to me! You're going crazy! This isn't you! Stop for a second and look at what you are doing! Please!"

The boy could feel something, something coming back into focus within his own mind. It was like he had woken up again from a familiar dream, one that he had once before back in the woodland that lay between the Land of Whirlpools and the Land of Sound.

It was a voice that got him to focus again. Her voice.

The red flash disappeared from his pupils and the boy was back to his normal self once again. "Wh-What? What happened?"

Kakashi folded his arms and scowled. "You found out where the Chakra Gem was and lost yourself again, that's what happened."

"Shina," Konohamaru added, "you attacked Sarada to get the gem back."

A wave of horrible guilt washed over the boy in that moment. He could only stare in horror at the girl, who looked back at him not in anger or resentment, but it pity. After all, she too had her taste of the Chakra Gem's power and she had aloud it to consumer her as well.

That is why she was not surprised when she saw Shinachiku Uzumaki, one of the brightest, most talented boy's she had ever known, suddenly break down and cry right in front of her. She could hear his sobbing as tears of his own self-guilt fell upon the grass.

No one did anything for several seconds, the two Jōnin not knowing shat to say to their young pupil in this the highly distressful moment.

And so they were not the ones to do anything. Instead, Sarada Uchiha came forward, fell to her knees, and wrapped the boy in a tight hug. He was not able to resist. He wrapped his own arms around her as he cried into her shoulder.

Over and over again he kept whispering into her ear "I'm sorry."

Her response was a simple, "Me too."

Kakashi and Konohamaru merely looked upon the scene in pity. They knew that they both needed this, they needed this release, this closeness, this outlet for understanding and forgiveness...But they also knew that unless something was done then, for all they knew, one of these children was going to end up killing the other one to get a hold of the gem. Or worse yet, neither of them would be able to overcome a Chakra Gem's power...

Kakashi looked down at their feet. Sarada had allowed to Chakra Gem to drop onto the grass, seemingly forgotten (or perhaps discarded in either fear or disgust). The gem was only barely glowing, and even Kakashi, level headed though he was, could sense the great power that laid within.

Looking to the young Sarutobi standing beside him, they both nodded in agreement. Something had to be done.

"Yes! I've got it!"

Mirai cheered to herself as she heard the click of the lock, letting her know that she had at last found the correct key to open the cell block.

"Great work Mirai," Naruto said as he put his mask back on, his wife and friends doing the same. "Now let go inside and get our friends out of there."

Mirai nodded as she opened the door, allowing the five of them (Randamu was ordered to wait outside and stand guard) into the block where four occupied prison cells were inside. Just as Sakura and Karin had seen on the monitor in the control room, Shikamaru, Temari and Kankurō were all sharing a cell together, while the cell across from them held Sai, Ino, Chōji and Kurai. Hinata, Kiba and Shino were in the third cell, and Lee and Tenten had the fourth cell.

The sudden presence of the young Chūnin and the four Anbu alerted the relaxed ninjas into a sense of trepidation.

"What do you want?" Kiba snorted.

"Hey!" one of the Anbu spoke back in a familiar voice. "Is that any way to talk back to your Hokage?"

The Inuzuka clammed up at the sound of his friend's voice, too surprised and, frankly, too confused to make a snappy comeback. Kiba's wife on the other hand...

"Naruto!" Hinata cried out as she leaped to the prison bars.

"Shh!" One of the other Anbu shushed to Hyūga princess and all of the others who were now standing up to see if what they all thought was going on was really true.

"Naruto? Sasuke?" Kankurō questioned. "How in the hell—?"

"It's a long story, we'll explain later," Sasuke cut the puppet master off a bit rudely. "Right now everybody stand back while Mirai unlocks the bars."

"Mirai?" Ino questioned in surprise. "What are you doing here dear?"

Mirai's father had been their former sensei, so ever since Asuma's death Ino, Shikamaru and Chōji had sort of become surrogate aunts and uncles to the young girl growing up, having the kindness to check in on her and Kurenai when they could (particularly during her infant and academy years) and even offer the girl a couple of lessons here and there.

"Hi Ino-san," Mirai greeted with respect. "Uragi stationed me here on guard duty with a group of Anbu that were just outside."

"What?" Chōji reacted in surprise. "But you're only a Chūnin and we're A-rank prisoners?"

Shikamaru, as usual two steps ahead of everyone else, quickly rationed out the situation. "Uragi probably wanted to see if a member of the Sarutobi clan could be molded into Taka's services or at least follow orders blindly without ever becoming the wiser."

"Yeah, I reasoned the same thing," Sasuke stated simply.

Mirai proceeded to open each of the bars as their friends filed out of their cells and gathered around their disguised leader and his friends.

"Sakura?" Ino questioned one of the two Anbu that clearly had the physique of a woman.

"Hey Ino," Sakura said as she let her best friend have a peak under her mask. Ino reacted by giving her best friend an affectionate hug.

"Naruto! Sakura!" Lee proclaimed a bit too loudy.

"SHH!" Sasuke shushed the green beast. "Shut up you idiot! Do you want the whole prison to hear us?!"

"Hey!" Tenten snapped, "don't talk to my husband like that!"

"It's okay," Karin stepped in between them. "Sasuke just shot his mouth off without thinking is all." She turned to her husband and lifted her mask, showing him her scowling face. "Isn't that right Sasuke?"

The Uchiha sighed and gave in. "Yes dear. I'm sorry Lee."

"So Naruto," Shino spoke up, "what's the plan for getting out of here?"

"You guys stick with us as we get you all out of here. As Hokage I know some of the passageways through this place that should get us through the doors unnoticed. If we're spotted just act natural and pretend that the four of us are Anbu escort transferring your to another wing under Uragi's orders."

"That's it?" Shikamaru questioned. "Naruto, they're going to report in to confirm that order and when they do—"

"Let us worry about that." The Seventh Hokage turned to the young girl who had already risked so much to help them. "Mirai, thank you so much for what you've done for us, but I think it's best that you get out of here. Report to the warden and tell him that you have a personal matter to deal with back home and let him know that you will be clocking out for the day."

"As you wish my lor—I mean Naruto. But what should I do then?"

He placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "For now, just play along with Taka's game. When the time comes, you'll know when to reveal yourself and stand up for what's right."

The girl nodded in understanding. "Yes sir. But what if security sees me walking out of this cell block so soon before all of you leave?"

"Don't you worry about that," Karin explained. "Sakura and I have already been to the control room and the guard on duty is knocked out thanks to our friend."

Temari raised a eyebrow. "Friend?"

Sakura did her best to brush it off. "Oh its a a long story, don't worry about it." She turned back to Mirai. "Now dear, you go on home and leave the rest to us, alright."

"Yes m'lady," she said as she bowed in respect to the Hokage's wife.

As the girl was leaving, Naruto called back out to her. "Mirai?"

The girl stopped and turned back to her true leader. "Yes?"

Naruto smiled. "You're mother and father would be proud of you."

Mirai smiled back, actually blushing a little bit, before she nodded again and headed out of the cell block to report to the warden. 'Good luck Naruto, Sakura, everyone. I'll be waiting for the signal when its time to take our village back.'

Back inside the cell block, the group of sixteen had waited a good three minutes before their leader decided it was time to make their getaway.

"Okay, everybody follow me outside," Naruto signaled as he started heading back out the door.

"Wait!" Temari shouted. "We can't escape yet. Some of us aren't accounted for."

The blonde stopped in his tracks and looked back at his company. Counting heads, he realized that, indeed, there were a couple of notable allies missing, one in particular that distressed him. "Where's Gaara?"

"We don't know," Kankurō answered. "My brother was locked up with Temari, Shikamaru and I before Anbu came in an took him out of our cell. They haven't brought him back since."

Naruto was surprised. "Why didn't he try to resist?"

"Use your brain you moron!" Sasuke snapped. "His chakra was blocked off just like the rest of ours had been. There wasn't much he could do without risk of being overpowered and besides, he probably didn't want to make things any worse for the rest of them."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. But we've still got to find him before the Summit starts."

As her husband and cousin were talking, Karin got another look at the group and realized something else. "Hey wait, where are Suigetsu and Jūgo?"

That got Sasuke turning back to the crowd as well, making him realize that, indeed, his other two teammates were missing. "What happened? Did Anbu take them away too?"

"We do not know," Sai explained. "Neither of them were even incarcerated with us, so we have no way of knowing what has become of them."

Sakura turned to her husband. "Naruto, we need to find the three of them before we make our escape."

Kiba spoke up defiantly, "And I'm not leaving this place until I find wherever they're keeping Akamaru!"

Naruto nodded once again. "Alright come on, we're going to need to cover some ground as fast as we can in this big place." He then stood before his friends and stepped back into Hokage mode as he began giving orders. "Split up into teams of three. Sakura, you take Kiba, Hinata, Ino and Shino with you to try to find Akamaru. Sasuke, you, Karin and Randamu take Lee and Tenten with you to go find your teammates—"

"RANDAMU?!" A number of voices all screamed incredulously all at once.

On cue, the missing nin with the mouth poked his head into the doorway leading into the cell block. "Did someone call my name?" He then saw all of the freed prisoners and waved enthusiastically. "Oh! Hey guys!"

"Naruto!" Kiba growled in anger. "What the hell is that bastard doing here?!"

Naruto sighed long and hard. "Relax Kiba, he's on our side."

Chōji was utterly confused, like everybody else. "But I thought back in Suna—?"

"Don't ask about it," Sasuke interrupted. "You really don't want to know the story."

"Why? Because it's long?"

Sakura answered that question. "No, because its completely stupid!"

All of the others could only trade looks to one another in confusion before they felt they needed to just go along with it (under protest).

"As I was saying," Naruto spoke again, "Sakura is leading the first team helping Kiba and Hinata find Akamaru. Ino and Shino, you two go with them. Sasuke, you, Karin and Randamu are going to go look for your two teammates, and you're taking Lee and Tenten with you. Sai, you, Shikamaru and Chōji are coming with me, Temari and Kankurō. We're going after Gaara. Sakura, Sasuke, Karin and I are wearing Anbu disguises, so if anyone spots you just pretend you are prisoners being transferred via armed escort. Any questions?"

There was a slight pause as everyone took in the orders they were given and split off into their respective teams.

"Alright then," the Orange Hokage proclaimed. "Let's move out!"

"Milady, how much longer do you need?"

"Just a little bit more Shizune. Just keep standing watch."

Tsunade and Shizune were going incognito at yet another nearby village's hospital. Sure they didn't exactly have the best equipment or facilities in the world, certainly not compared the Leaf Village, but it was going to have to do the job until they got back to the village in time for the Summit. It was imperative that they succeed in replicating the antidote to Taka's serums before they made it home. The sample they had with them wasn't going to be enough and there was no telling how of the stuff they were going to need.

"Lady Tsunade," Shizune said, "I think the doctors are coming!"

"Damn it!"

Acting quickly, the Slug Sannin grabbed her samples and the works she had managed to accomplish, and she and her old pupil were forced to used the ninja stealth (or rather what remained of it at their age) to sneak out the window before a group of doctors came in to perform their own work.

They had managed to make it out of the facility with none the wiser, and then proceeded to head back to the inn the company was staying in again. Hanami was waiting there and they needed to check back in with her anyway.

"What kind of progress would you say we've made milady?" Shizune asked. "Will we be able to produces enough antidote in time?"

"I honestly have no idea," Tsunade answered with a huge headache. "All I know is that if we have and couple dozen samples of the antidote with us and that's only going to do so much for us. If we loose that, then there's no telling what we'll do."

Shizune hung her head. "How do you think Hanami's doing?"

"I'm sure she's fine. We'll go back to the room and speak with her."

"She has been recovering nicely though."

"Yes, she has."

Shizune smiled. "It feels good to see her in high spirit again."

The old woman with the face of a twenty-something smiled back. "Yes, it is."

When the two women got back to their room, they opened the door to find Hanami sitting on the bed watching television, some sort of children's cartoon.

"Hi Hanami," Shizune said in the most affectionate, motherly way she could. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," she smiled.

"Can you still focus your chakra?" Tsunade questioned.

"Yep." Hanami got up off the bed and closed her eyes as he put her hands in a meditative pose. After a couple of seconds, the two older women could feel the girl's chakra spike, gradually growing higher and higher and at a smooth rate.

"Impressive," Tsunade said. "You seem to have a pretty could control over your own chakra."

"Like my mommy?"

The former kage chuckled, "Yeah, like your mommy."

The little girl put on a bright smiled that lit up the whole room. What was it about this girl that gave her the power the brighten up everyone's mood just by being herself.

But no sooner had their mood brightened up than is suddenly became awkward as the door opened once again. Into the room stepped their other roommate, a certain bifocaled girl with raven hair and who's aura gave off a dour essence.

"Hi Sarada," Hanami chimed up in glee, happy to see her friend...even if there was a clear tinge of jealousy since she has been spending so much time with her big brother.

"Hey," she said simply.

Shizune quickly picked up on the girl's attitude. "Sarada, is something wrong?"

"No."

Tsunade, on the other hand, was not nearly as reserved or subtle as her old apprentice. "Sarada Uchiha, what is the matter?"

"Nothing alright! Ugh!" The girl merely sat there on the bed with her head in her hands until at last she spoke up to confess. "Shinachiku found out I was keeping the chakra gem."

The Sannin's eyes widened, "What!"

"Did something happen to my oniichan?"

Sarada did not want to say anything more with the boy's sister in the room, she doubted the girl would be able to take it. And is seemed that the other two women could sense it.

"Shizune, do you think you two could give us a moment please?"

"Yes milady," Shizune turned back toe girl and held out her hand. "Hanami, how about you and I go outside for a little while and see if we can get some candy?"

The seven-year-old gave a curious, nervous glance at the other girl sitting beside her before she nervously said, "Okay." Getting off the bed and taking the older woman's hand, she got one more look of suspicion at the young Uchiha girl before the door closed on them.

Now alone in the room, Tsunade sat down next to the girl and got down to business. "Now, tell me what happened."

Sarada sighed aloud. "We were training as usual and I was holding onto the gem and I might have..." she shifted her eyes nervously, "...gotten a little carried away."

The old woman had a pretty good idea what that meant, but she played dumb so she could hear the rest of the story. "Go on."

"Kakashi-sensei got really angry with me and told me to come back here, but he ordered me to give him the Chakra Gem first."

"And did you?"

"Not at first. But...well, lets just say I hadn't realized how scary Kakashi-sensei can be when he gets angry." She paused as if expecting a chuckle from the woman, which never came, so she awkwardly carried on. "Anyway, he convinced me to give it to him, but then Shinachiku woke up and saw I had it."

"And what did he do?"

"He attacked me."

"He did WHAT?!"

"I know. He attacked me with the exact same fury I had a moment before. We fought, but I got him to come to his senses. And then..."

"And then what?"

"And then he felt so ashamed that he started crying."

Tsunade could tell the girl's tone change as she confessed that. Touching her face, she turned her head to face hr an got a clear look and Sarada's eyes. They were puffy and bloodshot, and there were the remnant of tears streaks that had stained her cheeks.

"It seems he wasn't the only on who needed to cry."

Sarada did not say anything in response, her silence and discomfort did all the talking for her.

"Sarada," Tsunade spoke seriously, "where is the Chakra Gem now?"

"Kakashi-sensei and Knonhamaru-sensei have it. They sealed it inside a scroll so that neither of us can remain exposed to it."

Tsunade nodded her head. "I think that's for the best. You two needed to get away from that thing or else it would have been a disaster."

"I suppose so..." Sarada appeared glum but then she suddenly got serious herself. "I'll promise you this though milady, neither Shinachiku nor myself will ever be taken in by that Chakra Gem ever again. If we are...I don't even want to think about what might happen..."

"Why did Naruto have to pair me up with you?"

Sasuke was groaning in annoyance at his current teammate, a certain bowl-haired Jōnin with big, bushy eyebrows and a garish green jumpsuit.

"Friend Sasuke, our brave leader Naruto knows what he is doing, and as your true Hokage, you are in no position to be questioning his orders."

The Uchiha merely huffed. "Whatever."

Karin leaned in to her husband and whispered to him. "You know what I think? I think Naruto's just trying to get back at you after hearing how you bad mouthed Lee earlier, and that time back in the Land of Whirlpools."

Sasuke whispered back. "Well can you blame me?! I mean, have you listened to the way this guy talks about youth every couple of seconds?! He's even more annoying then the dobe himself is!"

"We can hear you whispering Sasuke," Tenten said flatly.

Sasuke, wanting to just put the issue down quietly, swallowed his pride and apologized. "Gomen Lee."

"Apology accepted!" Lee said with, as usual, way too much enthusiasm.

"Oh I don't think its that bad," Randamu said, "I think this is kind of fun."

"Why do you say that?" Lee questioned.

"Because the writer couldn't think of anything better for me to say, that's why. Hell, I don't even think he had any real clue why he slit our teams up the way he did either."

Everybody stopped dead in their tracks as they tried to process whatever the heck their formally traitorous teammate had just said. Glancing at one another and not being able to come up with anything, they decided they were better off just letting it go and moving on.

"So how do we know we can trust you anyway?" Tenten asked with narrow eyebrows.

"Well, do you two have a 70,000,000,000 ryo bounty on your heads?"

"No."

"Then you know you can trust me."

"Shh!"

Karin quieted the others down as she thought she heard a noise coming from one of the corridors up ahead.

Lee strained his ears to focus in. "I hear something too."

"Come on then," Sasuke ordered. "Randamu, get your katana ready."

"YAY! Finally I get to the cut people up!"

While their masked friend unsheathed his weapons the they ran and quickly and quietly as they could with their ninja speed down the corridor where the heard the noise. They ran and ran as they heard the noise that began to sound ore and more clearly like a man whimpering in pain.

"That's Suigetsu's voice! I'd know it anywhere!" Karin exclaimed.

"Then we haven't much time!" Sasuke stated. "Hurry!"

The team of five ran down the stairwells of the prison until the finally came to a darkly lit corner of the prison where there was a leaking faucet that had already leaked so bad that a gigantic puddle was on the floor. In the middle of the water puddle was a familiar purple-clad ninja with straight white hair and sharp teeth that resembled a shark's.

"Suigetsu!" Karin went up to her seemingly injured teammate, removing her mask to let him see her face. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't panic over me four eyes."

"Hey!" the woman protested in an over-the-top manner, "don't you dare talk to me like that you jerk! Don't forget that we're your only hope f getting you out of here!"

"Suigetsu," Sasuke interrupted in a tone of seriousness and suspicion as he removed his mask. "What happened? What did Taka do to you?"

The Swordsman of the Mist looked up at his friend and leader and replied, "They gave me something."

"What?"

"Something that they'd taken away from me. And now they'd given it back."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "In exchange for what...?"

"How much further is it?"

Sakura did her best to put her current teammate's growing impatience out of mind as she kept walking. She couldn't blame him, Akamaru has been his partner since childhood after all.

"I promise you Kiba, there is a special wing of up ahead where Anbu locks up animal companions for dangerous shinobi criminals. We're almost there."

"Oh, I just hope Akamaru's okay," Hinata said in worry.

"I do too Hinata," Ino said trying to comfort her friend.

"The sooner we make it to the kennel wing, the sooner we will know for sure," Shino stated.

The five of them walked on and on for several more minutes, Sakura relying on her knowledge of the prison's layout to get them to the right location. They kept walking until they heard a faint sound.

"Hey!" Ino exclaimed. "Do you guys hear that?"

"Yes, it sounded like.." Hinata smiled, "...like a dog barking."

"Akamaru!"

Kiba ran ahead of the pack to the source of the barking. Nothing was going to stand in the way of him finding his partner.

"Kiba wait up!" Sakura called out. "Naruto gave up orders to stick together!"

Who was Sakura kidding? This was Kiba and Akamaru she was dealing with here. Nothing was going to stand in the way of those two coming back together again. And so the four to them ran after their dog-faced companion and he ran closer and closer to the source of the animal noises.

Eventually they did succeed in tracking down the source. It was a coming from a room labeled "kennel on the overhead plaque.

"Hang on boy! I'm coming!"

Kiba, with a mighty yell, used all of the strength he had to kick the door in. It wasn't quite enough so the other had to pitch in. Of course, if Sakura still ha access to her chakra network then she could have easily done this herself, but that was their sense of luck right now.

With their combined force, the door did burst in, an Kiba ran in to the room to see the old dog whimpering inside a cage. Even more degrading, the poor animal had a muzzle on him.

"Akamaru!" Kiba exclaimed as he ran up to the cage. "What did those bastard do to you boy?"

The dog merely whimpered in sadness.

"It okay Akamaru, we're here for you now," Hinata said as she came up to the cage herself.

"We need to find the key to open that lock," Shino stated.

The little reunion with the dog was enough of a distraction to keep the ninjas from noticing a large, intimidating figure stepping in from the shadows, his aura projecting an suppressed and terrifying anger...

"How are we going to find him anyway?"

Shikamaru turned to his brother-in-law and outlined his strategy. "Most likely they are keeping Gaara in the northwest wing of the prison. It the most high-security section of the prison besides where they were keeping us or Naruto, Sasuke and the their wives. If they wanted to segregate the Kazekage from the rest o the herd then it would make much sense to keep in a block so too close from the rest of us."

Temari listen to her husband's summary in earnest. She was often impressed with Shikamaru's legendary deductive reasoning, but right now she was more concerned with finding her brother and getting themselves out of here.

"Everybody stay close," Naruto ordered. "Like Shikamaru said, the detention block we're going to is probably under high security and without our chakra we are at a disadvantage."

"Indeed," Sai agreed. "No chakra or weapons does make this rescue seem like quite the suicide mission."

Chōji groans at the Anbu captain's grim analogy. "Way to sour the mood Sai."

Naruto shushed the others as he raised his hand. The atmosphere became stale and quiet as their orange-clad leader made hand signs that instructed them to duck into the shadows, which they promptly did. Even without their chakra, they still could make use of their shinobi training, and one of the first rules of being a ninja is that silence and shadow were two of your most essential allies.

The sound of footsteps could be heard coming down the corridor as they saw a small squadron of Anbu marching in single file to another sector of the prison. Their eyes were straight ahead and focused, although one Anbu did stop momentarily to look off to the side as if he may have heard something. But then the Anbu decided to pay no mind to it and continued marching with the others.

The company of six remained hidden for another thirty seconds at least, long enough to feel sure that the Anbu were far enough away that they would not hear them, before they continued on with their present course.

"I believe i might have known some of those men," Sai noted. "I think some of them have served on Anbu duty with me on missions for you Naruto."

"How could you tell?" Chōji questioned. "They were all wearing masks."

"I can tell by their posture and the way they marched. They were clearly among the semi-elite Anbu black ops and I have seen that kind of demeanor common in their like."

"You might be right Sai," Naruto said, "but for the moment I'm just glad that none of them spotted us."

"Even if they did, I'd tear through every last one of them to get my little brother back!" Kankurō proclaimed defiantly.

"Kankurō, don't be foolish!" Temari retorted. "You're at just as much of a disadvantage as the rest of us are."

"I don't care! This is Gaara we're talking about!"

"And you don't think I want to find him too?! Don't forget that it's my son that got left back in Suna to who now what kind of trouble!"

"You mean he's our son," Shikamaru corrected, to which Temari merely gave him a cold glare. "Never mind."

"Yeah," Kankurō said, "and he's also my nephew! And my niece is out there two Temari!"

"Sunako is our niece!"

"You guys shut up!" Naruto snapped. "Arguing like this isn't going to change anything. If we want to find Gaara and fix this mess in time then all of us are going to have to stick together. Got it?!"

The silence that followed was all the answer that he needed. So they kept walking until they heard a groaning sound up ahead. It was a voice the twin siblings could recognize from anywhere.

"GAARA!" Temari and Kankurō cried out as they ran ahead of the others. Naruto signals to Sai, Shikamaru and Chōji to run to catch up with them. When they did, they came to a dark corridor where Gaara lay there, apparently beaten up. e was resting directly under a single hanging light fixture.

"Gaara!" Temari didn't hesitate to go up to her brother, nor did Kankurō. "What did they do to you?"

"T-They attacked me," the former jinchūriki said. "I fought them off as best I could but without my chakra they over powered me." He pointed down the corridor. "They went that way over there."

"Well we're just glad to see you alive old friend," Naruto said with a smile.

Behind Naruto however, Shikamaru was not smiling. Gaara was pointing ahead of them where the Anbu attackers went, but something didn't make sense.

"Gaara?" Shikamaru spoke up. "Forgive me but I'm confused. We jsut saw the squad of Anbu you were talking about on our way towards you. So why are you saying that they went the other way?" He also got a good loook at his brother-in-law himself. "Furthermore, those cuts and bruises seem pretty minor and piss poor, no way severe enough to leave you a heaping mess on the floor? What's going on?"

There was a tense silence all of sudden, even the other two Sand Siblings turned to their brother in confusion. Naruto didn't like to admit it, but after hearing what his adviser had just said it did sound awfully weird, and yes, Gaara really didn't look that badly hurt.

The Kazekage's reaction to the sudden questioning was to narrow his eyEs an slowly reach for his waist. "I really wish you hadn't noticed that brother...SANDSTORM!"

A wave of sand suddenly spurted out of Gaara's gourd, engulfing all of them before they even had a chance to react. Heaps upon heaps of sand covered the six ninja's Gaara's own kin included, in a thick, heavy mass.

More and more and more sand drowned them. They six of them tried to fight it but it was too much. It was too heavy and was getting too hard to breath with all of the sand drenching them.

"SAND COFFIN!"

Gaara proceeded to harden his sand around his own friends and family, all of them passing out in the process. Temari and Kankurō. Tried to reach out to their brother in loving desperation.

"G-Ga-Gaara?! W-WHY?!"

The Kazekage turned to his elder sister coldly. It ws the same deadly coldness she used to remembr from him, back when he was a different man, before he and Naruto ever met. But this time there was something different, something foreign in those cold eyes. The two siblings could see it, and Naruto could as well.

Inside Gaara's eyes was a faint light, a blue light, a light that seemed to portend that their friend and brother's will was currently not his own.

And then there were the final words he said before they all blacked out. Two words that explained everything and filled them all with terror, particularly Naruto.

Gaara's words: "Hail Taka."

"Suigetsu!" Sasuke said again. "I asked you a question! You said that Taka took something from you and now they'd given it back. What was the price?"

The shark-fanged swordsman suddenly smirked evilly as a faint blue light appeared visible in his eyes for them all to see. "My loyalty."

Suigetsu's body suddenly turned into water, joining the puddle that lay at their feet.

"Look out!" Lee yelled as they tried to move. But dozens of arms made of water held them in place, unable to move. Randamu got his katana's out to try to stab them away but, again, they were water.

Suigetsu himself re-materialized on the other side of the room. He stood beside a large switch, one with a clear labeling on it that said "DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE!"

Looking back to his friends again, he made eye contact with his three friends, particularly Sasuke as he got to see the horror on the Uchiha's face when he saw Suigetsu's eyes flash blue once more and he said two words: "Hail Taka."

He flipped the switch. Many volts of electricity flowed through their bodies and they cried out in agony, for five horrible seconds that felt like an eternity. But no sooner had it begun then the switch was flipped again and the torture stopped, causing the five ninjas to fall face first into the water, the blackness overtaking them as they poor, corrupted ally looked down upon them.

"You shouldn't be here."

Sakura and the others turned to the source of the voice. They were in a battle stance but then relaxed with then saw who it was.

"Jūgo!" Sakura exclaimed in relief. "Thank goodness! Sasuke and Karin were looking for you."

"Jūgo, what happened? How did you get away from Taka?" Ino asked.

"It was a very interesting turn of events," he said coldly.

"You can tell us all about it later," Kiba said. "But right now, could you please help us out! We need to get Akamaru out of this cage."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

The atmosphere instantly got very cold an very nervous as the others stared at their ally. Even Akamaru was getting timid within his cage.

Shino narrowed his eyes behind his visor. "What do you mean by that?"

Hinata got into a defensive pose of her clan's. "Jūgo?"

The tall ninja's eyes flashed blue as his body started to change. His body shape-shifted into a piston fist right before their eyes. "I mean that none of you are leaving here."

Jūgo had said that so coldly...but it was only a momentary coldness as he suddenly attacked them all with the fury of a insane, wild animal. Laughing like a lunatic all the way, Jūgo was like a monster!

He pistoned his fist into Shino, throwing him from one wall into another furiously until the poor Aburame was slammed to the ground unconscious. Ino tried lunging at him, but he morphed his other fist in a massive axe-blade that she was forced to duct, giving him an opening to clobber with his piston fist. Hinata and Kiba both charged him together. Kiba's head -on approach and raw passion quickly leading to his getting taken out, while Hinata's speed and stealth aided her better, until Jūgo was able to grab her leg and knock her to the ground, hitter her in the head with a brutal piston blow that knocked her out!

"Guys!" Sakura yelled in horror. She got into a defensive position. "You take one more step and I swear to—!"

Poor Sakura wasn't even aloud to finish her sentence as Jūgo forms a set of boosters on his back to enhance his speed, making his piston fist impact the poor woman even worse. He laid into her over and over again, laughing manically the whole time. Until, at last, he allowed Sakura to fall to the ground in agony.

With enough strength left to look up before here vision went black, she called out to him, "Why...?"

The tall, orange haired ninja morphed back into his original form, his savage emotions suddenly back in check as that faint blue light appeared in his eyes once again. His response to her filled her with terror as Sakura passed out: "Hail Taka."

As Gaara of the Sand looked down upon his unconscious friends and family, he gathered his sand and willed it back into his gourd. No sooner had he finished then he could feel the presence of someone approaching him.

"You were correct my lord," Gaara said. "They did manage to escape from their cells after all."

An older man with black hair stepped out of the darkness and approached him. "I should have figured as much. Good thing you and your friends were here to catch them off guard before they ruined things for us."

Uragi turned to face the auburn-haired man. "Remember where your place is Lord Gaara. You and those two of Uchiha's friends are a part of Taka's revolution now." He pulled a familiar glowing blue gem out of his pocket to emphasize his point. "It was only because of your new loyalty to us that we agreed to give you our antidote to our serum so you three could regain access to your chakra networks. Know that we took your abilities from you and gave them back...and we can take them away again just as easily. That, or we can take away your lives. Do I make myself clear Lord Kazekage?"

The hypnotic blue light reflected in the young man's eyes before it vanished and any sense he had before of coming back to his senses vanished. In place of the great, strong, respected leader of Sunagakure was a mere drone, another puppet whose strings were being pulled by Taka.

"Yes my Lord Uragi, I understand."

Uragi nodded as he tucked the gem back into his pocket. "Good. Now lets put these traitors somewhere special. I'm sure our other two friends are already doing the same with the others. After that, I suggest you get yourself some rest Lord Kazekage. After all, I am going to need your enthusiastic support to help sway the others during the Kage Summit..."

Oh crap! I did it again! Right when you think our heroes are out of one big mess then instead fall into yet another big mess! Even worse, now of good friends Gaara, Suigetsu and Jūgo are currently slaves to Taka's will!

Okay about that ending, let me speak about it in case it wasn't clear. Taka has a serum that can cut off a shinobi's access to their chakra network, yes. But they would be pretty foolish to have not also developed their own antidote to that serum in the event that one of their own should be injected with it...The same kind of antidote that Tsunade and Shizune are working so hard on developing themselves. Food for thought...

On that note, Taka made sure to only gave them the antidote AFTER they used the blue chakra gem to control them.

Also, Sarada says to Tsunade that she hopes that neither of them are ever affected by the chakra gem ever again (i.e. the red one that they're carrying), or else she doesn't want to think about what might happen...Think about what else we saw in this particular chapter and try to guess the foreshadowing there.

Sadly, this chapter was written with no references this time, but I did instead focus on emotional moments, foreshadowing, and still more plot twists. I also took on the challenge of writing action for Suigetsu and Jūgo, two characters whose abilities I admit that I am not as familiar with as some of the other characters in the cast and I mainly determined through research (thank you Narutopedia!). If I got anything wrong, please let me know.

I think that's all I have for this time. Once again, thank you all for your patience, and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Until next time, see ya!