A/N: My apologies, everyone, for how long it's taken for this update. Real life has taken a turn for the busy recently, between work and college, which has meant that writing time has been incredibly hard to come by. Considering how pivotal these next few chapters are to the story, I didn't want to do them a disservice by rushing through without giving the developments the time they deserved. Consider this Sunday's chapter, and from here on in I should be back to the usual Sunday update schedule.

"Sasuke, you have to contact him. He deserves to know."

Sakura's hand shot out to seize her husband's wrist, stopping him in his tracks.

As soon as the initial shock of Neji's thunderous revelation had worn off, Sasuke had wasted no time. An urgent, hushed conversation with Kakashi, Inoichi, Fugaku and Shikamaru had immediately ensued, even as the rest of the bridge had erupted into a confused babble of voices.

"I'm going down there."

Kakashi immediately shook his head.

"Out of the question. It's not a coincidence that Hinata's DOT came back online less than ten minutes after you found whatever is out there. Nagato knows, somehow, which means he's getting information from the bridge itself. And he is most definitely using Hinata as bait."

Sasuke turned to his Commanding Officer.

"Of course it's a trap. But what do you suppose happens to Hinata if the trap isn't sprung? He knows where Sector 7 is, now-" Sasuke pointed at the main viewscreen, still glowing with a blue-tinted image of the seemingly empty view of the space along the aft axis of the Konoha. "At this point, she's probably outlived whatever usefulness she had in the first place, and I can assure that he is not the type of man to act charitably out of the kindness of his heart."

"Hypothetically," Shikamaru spoke up, "Say we do take the bait. There's still no reason for it to be you who personally goes down to the hangar. In case you've forgotten, Sir, you're currently in command of this ship."

"There's an excellent reason for me to go: Itachi."

Fugaku's face turned to stone at the mention of his eldest son, but he said nothing and let Sasuke continue.

"If Nagato is in Sector 3 with Hinata, Itachi is with them. Nagato has made it very clear that he trusts a very small circle of associates, and my brother is among them. If anyone else shows up to investigate, they'll be totally at the mercy of Nagato. If I'm there, there is at least a chance that things will play out peacefully."

Kakashi's eyes were doubtful, and Sasuke's annoyance at the group's lack of action was etched all over his face. Shikamaru's was looking uncertainly between his two superiors, while Fugaku had closed his eyes, a vein beginning to visibly pulse in his temple. Inoichi, however, had never taken his gaze from Sasuke, and there was thoughtfulness in his pale eyes.

"My command of the Konoha was nothing but a byproduct of a technicality, based on a grievance that has now been lifted. There's no reason for Admiral Hatake to not resume command at least until we make planetfall, but we do not have time to sit here and pontificate about the pros and cons of our next move when Hinata's life may be in danger!"

Sasuke's voice had risen steadily over the course of the last few sentences, and Sakura looked uneasily behind them at the crew pit. Several of the nearest bridge staff had turned to look in their direction, the buzz of conversation dying down. Sakura swallowed and returned her attention to the command team's conversation.

Kakashi reached up and rubbed the back of his head with his hand. "Captain Uchiha… I understand your concern, but I don't think I can-"

"Sir, I think he's right."

Kakashi turned to fix his eyes on Inoichi, a stunned expression on his face that even his mask couldn't hide. Inoichi returned his gaze without wavering.

"Every point Captain Uchiha has made is completely valid. I may not have as acute an understanding of this Nagato person's disposition, but you know that I pride myself on knowing my way around the psychology of the human mind. Everything that Sasuke has told us, and even this plan to use Hinata as bait, points to Nagato being mentally conflicted at best, dangerously unstable at worst. Action must be taken."

Sasuke bowed his head in Inoichi's direction. Kakashi looked at Inoichi for a handful of seconds more, then turned to look at Fugaku and Shikamaru. "What do the two of you have to say?"

Fukagu's eyes opened slowly, and Sakura was relieved to see the anger smouldering within them had dulled considerably since the mention of his firstborn. "Sir, you know that I preach caution and logic over all else. That being said, what Sasuke says about his brother is true: before he… left, Itachi would move the stars themselves for Sasuke. Sasuke may be the only person onboard who could get through to him, and through him, the rest of the group." Shikamaru said nothing, merely nodding his agreement with the older Commander.

Kakashi sighed, then turned back to Sasuke. "Very well, Captain… Sasuke… If you're set to do this, I won't stop you. But all I ask is that you take the utmost care, and don't take any unnecessary risks."

Sasuke nodded briefly, already turning toward the door. Sakura quickly took a few large steps and placed herself between him and the bridge entrance.

"I'm coming along."

Sasuke froze, and she could see the arguments forming on his lips. She didn't give him the opportunity to voice them.

"There's nothing that you can say that's going to change my mind. I agree with Commander Yamanaka about your reasoning, but there is absolutely no reason for you to go down there alone. I'm coming."

Sasuke's unsaid objections died in his throat. "Sakura... "

His wife simply shook her head, then turned toward the doors. "Come on, we're wasting time."

Then, only a few moments following their departure from the bridge, Sakura had brought up the point of Hinata's husband, and informing him of the developments, a course of action which Sasuke had immediately vetoed.

"Sasuke, he needs to know. It's not fair to him to try and hide this, not after everything he's been through."

Sasuke shook his head again, but Sakura could see the conflict in his face. "If we tell him, no force in this galaxy will keep him from coming along behind us."

"And is that such a bad thing? You and I both know that either of us would trust Naruto with our lives. And besides, he's got much more up-to-date combat training than you do, so I don't see how having him along would be a negative."

Sasuke shot her a look, and Sakura was relieved to see the slightest hint of a smile turn up the corner of his mouth. "I suppose we're getting the old band back together, then."

Sakura smiled back at him, then motioned down the hallway. As they resumed their frantic pace toward the ship's main hangar, Sasuke reached into his tunic pocket and retrieved his datapad, keying on live communication.

"Naruto? It's Sasuke. Meet me at the hangar entrance to Sector 3. We think we've found Hinata."

To the surprise of neither of them, Naruto was waiting for them when he arrived. The man was practically shuddering, his whole body visibility charged with energy. Rather than his usual wide grin, as they approached his face flashed a small troubled smile, tinted by the shadow of anxiety. His issued sidearm was still stored on his waist, but Sasuke's sharp eyes noticed his right hand twitching every now and then toward the leather of the holster, the muscles in his forearm flexing visibly.

Sasuke had filled him in on what they knew during their conversation, and it couldn't be more clear that Naruto was several orders of magnitude more worried about what Nagato might do than anyone else.

"Good to see you both."

Sasuke nodded to his best friend, clasping a comforting hand on his shoulder very briefly. Beside him, Sakura did her best to offer him a warm, reassuring smile.

"Naruto, when we get in there, I need you to follow my lead, to the letter. We are dealing with extremely dangerous people, and we have absolutely no way of knowing what they'll do. We can't act impulsively."

Naruto's eyes flashed, and for a brief moment Sasuke thought he was going to argue. Thankfully, the moment passed, and the blonde man simply swallowed thickly.

"Sasuke… I'll do my best. But they have my wife."

Sasuke's stomach wrenched at the sound of Naruto's voice. "I know. Just trust me, please."

Naruto took a deep breath. "I always trust you."

Drawing his sidearm, Sasuke motioned toward the hangar doors. Naruto and Sakura both did the same, their eyes following his gesture to fix themselves on the heavy grey steel. According to Hinata's DOT reading, she- and whoever else might be with her- was about 50 meters beyond the entrance, down on the main hangar floor. The door they stood outside led onto a raised perimeter around the hangar pit, which would offer a bit of a vantage point, but the hangar floor was always so filled with vehicles that they likely wouldn't be able to see anything until they were more or less directly on top of their destination.

The doors slid open without a sound. Naruto stuck his head through the opening, levelling his pistol out the doorway to the right, then switching to check the left. He nodded and made a slight chopping motion with his left hand, two fingers extended. Sasuke and Sakura both moved through the doorway, their own weapons drawn and readied. The husband and wife began making their way toward the staircase that led down into the main hangar area, with Naruto following behind them facing backward, trailing his gaze across the walls, scanning for any sort of movement.

Moving in this loose inverted triangle formation, the three figures reached the hangar floor and began carefully making their way through the grid of assorted spacecraft arranged in neat rows across the massive space.

As the trio wove between the resting hulks of the Konoha's spacecraft stores, they found themselves seamlessly easing back into their Academy routines, habitual relics of a time when the protocol of small-squad movement through potentially hostile environments had been so drilled into their memories that it'd practically been second nature. Even now, decades later, Naruto could practically see the procedure steps etched into the very air in front of his eyes in shining red letters. Approach. Point Check. Move to Cover. Repeat.

Old habits die hard. The thought drew the corners of Naruto's mouth up into a small smile. Despite the immense seriousness of the situation they found themselves in, there was a certain cold comfort to be found in the familiarity of the routine, slowly advancing through the steel maze with his two closest friends. It could have been any one of a hundred combat drills, with Lieutenant Umino waiting just around the corner to end the exercise and outline everything they'd done wrong.

Shaking himself slightly to loosen the grip of nostalgia on his faculties, Naruto refocused his mind on the here and now, maintaining his position at the rear of their formation, pointing his weapon from one opening between shuttles to another, his peripheral vision keyed to register Sasuke or Sakura's hand signals from in front of him. They'd been advancing this way for about six minutes, but it felt like it'd been much longer. The silence, broken only by the occasional distant roar of machinery somewhere else in the station, was stifling.

Two paces in front of him, Sakura and Sasuke approached the nearest craft, a small, deceptively delicate-looking tapered cylinder resting on squat landing legs, a collection of shining control fins jutting from its aft end. With her left fist clenched and held at head height in the standard "Hold position" signal, Sakura slowly peered around the corner of the ship's cockpit, bringing her sidearm along to match her gaze. There was a barely perceptible intake of breath from her direction, then a voice rang out, deafening in the silence of the hangar.

"Drop your weapons. All of you."

Naruto's eyes widened. Beside him, he felt Sasuke's muscles stiffen as he went rigid. The dark-haired man turned his head to face his friend and slashed a hand across his throat. The intent of the gesture was as clear as it would have been if he'd spoken aloud:

He's bluffing. Hold now, and let's see what his next move is.

The voice sounded again, but this time it was a bit softer, and had taken on the distinctly clipped tones of someone speaking over comms.

"Konan, Captain Uchiha and Petty Officer Uzumaki appear to require convincing."

Naruto barely had time to register the words before Sasuke's eyes flew downward to focus on a point on his chest. Looking down at himself, Naruto was greeted by the sight of a luminescent green dot, dancing directly across his sternum. Looking back up at Sasuke, the blonde man gritted his teeth and shook his head. Sasuke's lips tightened into a grimace, and he cursed under his breath before raising his voice and speaking toward the corner of the shuttle.

"Nagato, we're rounding the corner now. You can call off your sniper."

Holding his pistol in one hand by the haft, finger visibly placed far away from the trigger, Sasuke raised his either hand to head height, open palm facing forward, before stepping around the hulking metal shape into the open space beyond. Naruto and Sakura followed.

At the other side of the small clearing bordered by exo-station vehicles stood Nagato, his characteristic black cloak parted ever so slightly to reveal the black gleam of meteorite steel beneath it. Deidara and Kisame stood on either side of him, each aiming a long, ugly-looking rifle across the space at the trio of Konoha crew members. They were similarly kitted, black cloaks concealing plates of shining black body armor. Nagato himself had forgone heavy ordnance in favor of a more compact weapon that Naruto immediately recognized as an antique Karatec Spiker. One of the few mass-produced weapons of the last century that fired physical slugs rather than energy pulses, the Spiker was notorious for the lasting detrimental impact caused by the small slivers of metal it fired, which would splinter upon contact, scattering hundreds of tiny white-hot metal fragments throughout the target, each piece carving its own jagged path from the entry wound. The effect of the shots on human tissue was described as less of a standard projectile wound, and more like someone had taken a blender to the point of contact. The Spiker had been outlawed on Earth very quickly after it launched, and to Naruto's knowledge they had never been produced on board the Konoha, so either Nagato had connections to some very sinister arms manufacturers in Sector 6, or the pistol he calmly leveled at the group was very old indeed.

Sasuke held up his own sidearm, carefully displaying the softly glowing green light of the engaged safety catch, then slowly knelt down to slide the weapon across the floor to Nagato and his crewmates, motioning for Naruto and Sakura to do the same. Deidara stooped down to pick up the three pistols and immediately yanked out the power clips from each one, tossing them aside.

Straightening up, Sasuke fixed Nagato with an icy stare, black eyes boring into pale violet.

"You've made your point. Now where is she?"

Nagato studied the three figures before him, and for a moment he didn't seem inclined to answer. Sasuke felt Naruto shaking beside him, and hoped with every fiber of his being that his friend would be able to contain the anguished rage that had no doubt been building inside him.

Then, a new sound began to ring out in the hangar: the sound of two sets of footsteps, slowly increasing in volume. One set had a peculiar metallic ring to it, as though a steel plate was being rhythmically slammed against a wall. Nagato simply motioned to his right, toward the "lane" formed by the ships there.

Hinata Uzumaki rounded the corner of the ship, her lips closed in a hard line, her pale eyes staring straight ahead. For a split second, her eyes focused on Naruto, and the shocked relief that radiated from her face was enough to immediately quell Sasuke's last lingering suspicions of betrayal.

Then another figure stepped into view, placing a metal hand on Hinata's shoulder. The woman winced at the touch of the cold steel fingers.

Sasuke saw the man who had come with Hinata, and his blood ran cold. Beside him, he could almost hear the stunned disbelief of his companions.

"It can't be… It's not possible. You're dead."

Orochimaru Hebi fixed a withering smile on Sasuke's face. "In a sense, I am. But then, if my work has taught me nothing else, it's that death is sometimes simply a matter of perspective."

On the bridge, Kakashi was pacing back and forth frantically. Fugaku had moved into the crew bay and had roused the bridge crew back to work, continuing to monitor the Konoha's orbit path and make minute adjustments to ensure stability around Site III. Shikamaru was leaning over Neji's control console, eyes fixed on the camera view that contained the mysterious cloaked object.

"No activity that I can see, sir. Not that what I can see amounts for much, now that we know what we know."

Kakashi nodded distractedly. "Keep an eye on things. If that thing is a ship, and there's someone on board, they'll have seen our probe and they know we've found them. We can't disregard the possibility of hostility from whoever they are." Shikamaru nodded as Kakashi turned to Inoichi, standing at the top of the stairs beside him. "What about the hangar?"

"Looking at the DOT display, they've stopped moving, and they've reconvened with Hinata's DOT as well. So whatever trap has been planned down there, it's in the process of being sprung." Inoichi was studying his datapad screen. The light from the portable console bathed his face in a pale blue glow.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head. "Can we see them on any of the surveillance feeds? Or do the ships block the view?"

Inoichi shook his head. "I was trying to keep an eye on them as best I could, but it's no good where they are now. Nagato was very careful."

Taking a deep breath, Kakashi turned to look down into the bustle of activity in the crew pit.

Sasuke knows what he's doing. You have to trust him.

"Keep tabs on them as best you can. If anything changes, let me know immediately." The Commanding Officer of the Konoha stepped down into the crew pit.

"I suppose I owe you a word of gratitude, Captain Uchiha." Orochimaru's eyes glittered with delight, surveying the three figures in front of him. His waxy skin was pulled tight over his skull, giving him a gaunt, corpse-like appearance. His left arm and shoulder and most of his lower body below the hip were entirely cybernetic, the shiny meteorite steel forming a stark contrast against his pale body. "Decades of searching for Sector 7, and you found it for us in days. Wonderful initiative!"

Beside him, Hinata winced once again as his metallic hand tightened its grip on her shoulder. Naruto's eyes fixed on the hand, his bright blue eyes alight with enraged fire.

"You either pay attention to what you're doing with that hunk of steel, or I feed it to you." In all the years they'd known each other, Sasuke had never heard such malice in Naruto's vice. Venom dripped from every syllable, the words delivered like each one was a shot fired directly into the heart of the corpse-looking man that stood before them. Orichimaru's sunken yellow eyes flashed, the skin stretching over his skull as he bared his remaining teeth in a grin at Naruto's challenge. A chill ran down Sasuke's spine, and for a brief moment he saw the tenuous balance collapse, and all hell break loose.

Then Sakura hurriedly stepped in front of Naruto, grabbing hold of his hand and squeezing tightly. The spell broke, and Naruto's eyes dulled ever so slightly as he struggled to regain control over himself, but malicious intent continued to surround him like a cloak. Sakura fixed her gaze on Orochimaru..

"You've found what you were looking for. Hinata has nothing left to offer you. Sasuke found whatever this damn thing is for you, you let Hinata go, and we go our separate ways."

Orochimaru turned his attention to Sakura. He chuckled, and the sound of the laugh sent chills down Sasuke's spine; it sounded like a rusty airlock disengaging.

"My dear, our business is far from concluded. My purpose is absolute, and I must ensure that nothing bars me from the truth."

Sasuke took two steps forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Deidara and Kisame both snap their weapons up and train them on him, but he ignored them.

"Where is Itachi?"

Orochimaru sighed melodramatically, raising his right arm in an exaggerated gesture of dismay.

"Itachi elected not to come along for this particular adventure, and I saw no reason to contradict his desire. I assume he foresaw this exact confrontation happening, and sought to keep his hands clean of what would ensue." At his words, Sasuke felt a deep coldness in his gut, as though a small steel ball had dropped into the pit of his stomach.

I was so certain I could diffuse this, all because I knew I could talk Itachi down if push came to shove. I bet everything on him, and he's not even here.

Whatever happens now- every drop of blood that ends up spilled- is on my hands.

Orochimaru turned to his underlings. "Bah! We waste time. Gentlemen, prepare our guests for transport."

Without warning, the three maintenance dwellers moved forward. It took every ounce of Sasuke's conditioning to allow Nagato to step directly in front of him without his old self-defence instincts kicking in; he could hardly believe that Naruto had managed not to launch himself at Kisame's throat. Nagato held out a hand, and Sasuke saw that it contained a small device that he had never seen before. It was a small circle of metal with a tiny lattice of transistors patterned across its smooth surface, all leading to a tiny transmitter chip placed at the far side of the object. Looking around, he saw that Deidara and Kisame held similar pieces of metal.

Nagato slowly passed the metal disc along Sasuke's left arm, starting from the wrist, holding it about an inch away from his skin. Just before his elbow, the circuitry began to glow a faint red colour, and Nagato stopped moving the disc. A few seconds later, the light changed from red to blue, and the disc emitted a small click. Nodding, Nagato withdrew the device and turned around, placing it on the floor a few feet behind him.

"So what is this supposed to be?" Naruto pushed the words out through clenched teeth.

Orochimaru replied, "We have business to conduct off-ship, all of us, and I don't appreciate interruptions to my critical work. We're simply going to borrow your DOT signals for a little while- we wouldn't want Admiral Hatake to be unduly concerned, would we?"

A ringing clang from beside them made Sasuke jump slightly, as he swung his head around. A crew freighter's boarding ramp had dropped down, and Konan stood in the entryway.'

"This one should do nicely."

Nagato nodded shortly. Gesturing to the doorway, he shot a hard look at Sasuke.

Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura slowly walked up the boarding ramp, into the freighter, as Konan disappeared into the cockpit of the freighter. Nagato, Kisame and Deidara followed, weapons drawn. Finally, Orochimaru and Hinata came on board, and the skeletal scientist finally released his grasp on Hinata's arm. With a short gasp, she rushed across the passenger bay and threw her arms around Naruto's neck, who shuddered in reply. They immediately began whispering to each other, and despite everything else, Sasuke felt a slight flutter of relief.

Now I just have to get us all out of this alive.

As her parents and her (boy?)friend's parents were loaded onto a shuttle toward revelation, Sarada Uchiha's focus was glued to her workstation on the bridge. The discoveries of the last hour had stunned her to a state of bemused silence, and Sarada was not used to being at a loss for words. The buzzing chatter of the bridge had died down to a lesser hum, but it was still very clear that there was one thing, and one thing only, on the minds of everyone present.

What an absurd turn of events this was: They'd just entered orbit around another planet, and not only another planet, but the planet that would most likely be their home. Over eighty years of exploring the stars was about to culminate, and now no one was even looking at the images of Site III on their terminal screens.

This was already going to be the most interesting day of my life… Who could have predicted this would be the reason why?

The events of the evening spun wildly through her head. If Admiral Hatake's whirlwind entry to the bridge and her father's startling declaration that their path was being constantly traced by some unknown object, then Lieutenant Uzumaki had suddenly resurfaced apropos of nothing. Though she hadn't been near enough to overhear any of the conversations her parents had been party to with the command team, the significance of the timing of Hinata Uzumaki's return was not lost on Sarada; she was her father's daughter, and it didn't take prodigy-level intellect to realize that it was very unlikely that the situation was a coincidence.

"Sarada!" A familiar voice sounded from the direction of the bridge entrance, cutting through the haze of her thoughts and the low drone of the room surrounding her. Sarada leaped to her feet and turned to the exit, meeting Boruto just inside the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" She stared at him for a few moments before remembering the developments of their relationship in the last few weeks, then a pink tint crept across her face. "Um… I mean, it's really nice to see you!" She awkwardly reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Boruto's face was even more pink than hers, and he stood stone-still for a few seconds as neither of them spoke. Then he smiled, leaned forward, and kissed her lightly on the lips. Sarada immediately felt the tightness in her chest dissipate. Oh, thank goodness, that was a horrible few seconds… This "couple" thing is going to take some getting used to.

"I hear things have been going insane up here… what's going on?"

Sarada froze at the question. The implications of everything that had gone on all crashed over her like a wave, along with the icy realization that Boruto was unaware that his mother had resurfaced. Sarada was uncomfortably aware that a pivotal choice lay before her: tell him what had happened and suffer the consequences of what impulse might grip him with that knowledge, or do what she could to keep him safe.

It was a decision that she only grappled with for a few seconds. "Boruto… Your mother's DOT tracking is back online. My parents have headed out to go get her."

Every muscle in Boruto's body went stiff. Sarada watched his eyes go wide, could practically see the firing of his synapses as he processed the charge she'd dropped on him. She held her breath, steeling herself against whatever would come next, whether it be tears, confusion, or outright rage.

"How long ago?"

Sarada blinked at how calm he sounded, her face shifting from determined resolve to sheer bewilderment at his lack of response. "Um… it's been about forty minutes?"

Boruto nodded, and his lips drew together into a hard line. At that moment, Sarada realized that he wasn't underreacting at all- he was trying desperately to hold back the flood of sheer panic.

"She'll be fine! Mum and dad will bring her back safe, and whoever was responsible for her disappearing in the first place will see justice. Trust me."

Boruto inhaled deeply, letting his head flop down onto his chest. The young blonde abruptly sat down on the floor, falling as though his knees had simply disengaged out from under him. Sarada tentatively reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Then he looked up, and Sarada felt a pang of empathy grip her when she saw the tears brimming in his eyes. He smiled as best he could.

"I know, Captain Uchiha won't let anything happen to her." He hesitated for a few moments. "Has… has anyone told my father?"

Sarada shook her head. "I don't know. You know how close he is with my parents… I don't see how they could have kept it from him." She studied the pained expression subtly twisting his features. "Boruto… Have you talked to him since you found out?"

He shook his head. The tears had subsided, but now his face was a picture of utter misery."

"I can't. Not yet. I know he meant to protect me and Hiwamari by leaving us out of it, I really do. But that doesn't change the fact that he spent days lying to us about our mother, when he knew the whole time that she could be in danger. I'm not ready to push that aside just yet."

Sarada sank to the floor beside him and slung an arm around his shoulders. "Forgiveness can wait. Your mum is coming home, that's the important thing."

Boruto looked up at her, and Sarada was almost startled by the unbridled love that she felt radiating from him. At that moment, every tiny lingering doubt about what they had become vanished into the depths of space.

"I know. Anyway…" He took a shuddering gulp, cleared his throat, then stood, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand before smiling at her again- a warm, genuine, loving smile- as he offered her his hand.

"How about you show me Site III? Seems like it'd be pretty cool to get a look before basically everyone else onboard."

Sarada felt a rush of relief at the opportunity to focus on something else, something positive. Taking his hand, she allowed him to lift her to her feet, then led him back over to her workstation. Neither youth noticed Fugaku Uchiha's appraising eyes follow them across the bridge.

He smiled.

The stolen crew freighter exited the hangar, swung around and above the station in a wide arc, then began tracking a path directly toward the mysterious cloaked object. Nagato, Konan, and Kisame had all absconded to the bridge of the craft, while Orochimaru and Deidara remained in the passenger bay. Naruto still had his arms around Hinata, who was seated on his lap in the seat he had collapsed into.

"What do you know about Sector 7? What do you expect to find there?" Sasuke asked in spite of himself.

The former Prelate of Science turned his gaze to the younger man. "The last several years of my life have been spent in pursuit of a monumental discovery. The final proof I need to complete the work is onboard that craft." Orochimaru went silent after this, and would not elaborate further, no matter what questions Sasuke or Sakura asked throughout the remainder of the flight.

Several minutes passed. At one point, Sasuke felt a barely perceptible shudder in the craft, indicating that they'd passed through the cloaking field surrounding Sector 7. For a brief moment, a thrill of discovery cut through the dread of the situation, momentarily eclipsing the fact that he and his friends had technically been kidnapped from the Konoha. Whatever was up there, there was little doubt that Orochimaru's pride would lead to his sharing his "monumental discovery" with them, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of cautious excitement at finally finding out what Sector 7 truly was.

Finally, the rumbling of the freighter's engines slowed to a barely perceptible hum, and the ship shook with a slight thud as the landing gear engaged and contacted something solid.

"Sir, we've arrived." Konan's consummately professional voice issued from the cockpit.

Orochimaru's wide, inhuman smile returned to his face. "And now, do we approach the hour of our destiny. Come, my friends! The pursuit of knowledge awaits none of us."

The group disembarked from the shuttle, Deidara and Kisame leaving first, weapons free. The captured Konoha crewers followed with Orochimaru, who looked one step removed from wringing his hands with unabashed glee, before Nagato and Konan took positions at the rear.

They had emerged into a hangar, significantly smaller than the main hangar of the Konoha, but still a vast space. It was surprisingly empty, containing only a small handful of vehicles, scattered across the hangar space with much less organization or care than the stock of the Konoha.

"Ladies, gentlemen… Welcome to Sector 7." Orochimaru spread his arms wide, gesturing around them.

Predictably, Naruto was the first to break the silence following his grand announcement. "What exactly do we do now? Go sightseeing?"

Deidara turned to fix the other blonde man with a withering glare, and Sasuke's keen sight did not miss his grip tightening on the stock of his rifle. However, Orochimaru waved a hand dismissively at the outburst.

"For the moment, we go our separate ways. Deidara, Kisame, Konan, you know what your objective is… Once you find the bay, use your discretion in what you take, but remember what I told you. Nagato, you and I will take our guests and search the ship."

Deidara, Kisame and Konan all nodded briefly in assent, before breaking off from the group and heading off toward an exit to the hangar that lay to the port side of where their shuttle had been docked. For a brief moment, Sasuke couldn't help but do the math in his head; they now outnumbered their captors two-to-one. It was almost a guarantee that Naruto, and probably Sakura, were doing the exact same calculations, and judging the risks of making a move, weapons or no.

As if he could read their mind, Nagato clicked off the safety on his spiker in a way that looked utterly nonchalant. At the same time, Orochimaru stepped up next to Sasuke and reached out, placing his cybernetic arm across his shoulders, gesturing around with his remaining human limb.

"Captain Uchiha, you are about to bear witness to a true miracle of discovery, as my guest." As he spoke, his honeyed words did nothing to disguise the sudden pressure Sasuke felt across both shoulders from his metallic arm. The implication was clear.

Do NOT mistake me for a defenseless husk of a man.

Sasuke's gaze flicked around to meet Naruto's, then Sakura's, then finally Hinata's eyes. Once all three had seen them, he shook his head a miniscule amount.

Orochimaru clapped his hands and smiled. The sound of skin against metal made an uncomfortable smacking sound as his hands met.

"Excellent, we understand each other. Now, please follow me."

The tall, thin man abruptly began making his way toward a large bulkhead in the wall across the hangar from the exit barrier. Nagato hung back and looked pointedly at Sasuke until he and the rest of the crew members followed Orochimaru toward the doorway. The red-haired man followed behind, his weapon lowered, but conspicuously not holstered.

The bulkhead led to a tight corridor that twisted and turned several times. They passed through it in silence, the only sound being the tapping of their footsteps, punctuated by the clanking sounds of Orochimaru's prosthetics on the steel floor. Sasuke studied the walls and locked doors as they passed.

It's old- very old- but there's no mistaking that it's Earth technology. Very similar to the construction of the Konoha, actually.

His thoughts abruptly stopped when he nearly ran into Orochimaru's back. The true master of the criminal sect that Sasuke had found himself investigating only a few days prior had halted at a locked door that ended the corridor they were currently traversing. He motioned toward the door, and Nagato stepped forward. Sidearm gripped firmly in his right hand, he reached beneath his cloak with his left and withdrew a compact steel tool, resembling a sized-down welding rod. Pointing it at the lock panel for the door, Nagato triggered a burst of cold blue light, as a concentrated beam of energy emanated out of the device's end and sliced into the lock. A few seconds later, a click echoed in the silent corridor, and the door slid open without a sound.

The part stepped through the door. The room beyond looked to be about the size of the hangar, but it was difficult to tell; the space was filled with rows upon rows of strange cylindrical tanks, placed on racks that held them just off the floor. Each one had a simple-looking control panel affixed to one side, and appeared to be filled with a cloudy green steam, obscuring any effort to look through them. A catwalk ran around the exterior of the room, and looking up, Sasuke could see that it contained another set of tanks, ringing the entire room.

A few thousand, at least. What are these?

He turned to Orochimaru. "Are these tanks your monumental discoveries? What have you brought us to?"

As Sasuke surveyed the room, Sakura had moved away from the group slightly, wandering down one of the corridors formed by the tanks, gazing around with a mixture of awe and a strange feeling of impending dread. She couldn't place it, but something about this room made her extremely uneasy.

Her eyes tracked across the room to settle on one tank in particular. As if on impulse, she moved to stand directly in front of said tank, and once she was within a few feet of it, the green smoke had cleared enough to reveal the contents of the plasteel cylinder.

Shock coursed through every nerve of Sakura's body. Her heart skipped a beat, cold sweat immediately beginning to collect all across her skin. Gooseflesh began to crawl on the back of her neck and arms.

Inside the tube, floating serenely in some indeterminate fluid, was the unconscious form of Sakura herself.