Naruto was looking up at the sky with equally blue eyes, but this time the sky seemed like such a forlorn thing, not what he had once marveled at. He wasn't being treated badly or anything, it was just that he had willing left behind everything he loved and couldn't place his finger on why! He had left a message on his table at home before he had left the apartment the previous morning about what was to happen and he had been glad when Sasuke didn't notice it. He wondered if anyone had found it yet…

In Konoha:

Sakura stood knocking on Naruto's door; she had just come from Sasuke's. "Naruto open up! Sasuke is unconscious and he's not waking up!" She tried the handle surprised to find it unlocked. A little worried she walked into his house and looked around. She spotted nothing out of the ordinary, except the fact that it was clean until her eyes fell on a small piece of paper. It looked like it had been torn of the edge of a scroll and it had Naruto's chicken scratch all over it. The only weird thin was that it was only one sentence, Sakura frowned and picked it up. The red moon came; I have gone willingly with it, my regards to the Sakura tree and the flowers around her. It sounded like something from a poem and Sakura sighed. Since when was Naruto a literary type? Then it hit her; the red moon reference, the Sakura tree… Naruto had gone with the Akatsuki and he had known Sakura would figure out the note the fastest. The note started to slip from her numb fingers before she clenched her fist around it and set off towards Tsunade's office her face set.

"What is it girl?" asked Tsunade not looking up from her papers as Sakura burst in the room.

"Na-Na-Naruto's gone!" she stammered as she tried to catch her breath. "I think he left with the Akatsuki!"

Tsunade's head snapped up, "What!?" was the barked reply.

"He left a note, it clearly states so," she said holding out the piece of paper. Tsunade took it and read quickly her lips moving as if she was speaking the words without making a sound.

"Red dawn, how did a knuckle head like that know to use a translation for Akatsuki?" She asked.

"Naruto's a lot smarter then he lets on, one night I watched him identify every ANBU near the Ichiraku ramen stand. He is also gifted in simple codes and such as he has clearly shown here," said Tsunade's other apprentice coming up beside Sakura. Tsunade nodded slightly.

"Get every jounin and ANBU whose available here and any of the genin or chuunin Sakura approves into this room in less then half an hour."

"Yes ma'am." Sakura listed off several ninja she specifically requested before the girl set off. In a few minutes the room was packed with ninja attempting to not be pushed out of the room as they crammed themselves in.

"SHUT UP!" screamed Tsunade. Everyone quieted and turned to look at her. "Ok, we have a problem on our hands, Naruto was taken by the Akatsuki and we do not have any information on where they have gone. Therefore you are going to be split into teams of six and fan out over the area around the village looking for any sign of where they might be headed. Find one clue report it to the nearest messenger shinobi or anything that could get it to me as quickly as possible, and Shino, no really creepy bugs spelling a message out with my food. If you have to use bugs, use them to write on paper with ink…" Shino sighed, "Ok now that that is cleared up, GET TO IT!" Everyone was quickly paired up by Sakura who placed at least two ANBU to each group before they burst out of the room, only five remained. Sakura walked over to them and smiled slightly, or at least tried to.

Sasuke, Shikamaru, Kakashi, Ino, and Iruka all nodded at her and they set off easily moving through the woods without communication. Hmmm, so Sakura has some of his best friends in a group with no ANBU. Interesting move, maybe she's hoping that if they find him that he won't feel as threatened… Tsunade thought trying without success to concentrate of the papers in front of her. She itched to be out in the field with the rest of them, but she knew it would be a huge risk that she just couldn't take. Sighing she scribbled her name on a slip and leaned back to stare at the ceiling her brain swarming with thoughts.

oOo

Itachi looked at Naruto's back, for some reason it irked him that Naruto had been ignoring him and only talking to Kisame. He sighed as his eyes traveled down the younger boy's body to rest on his hips, mainly his butt. Itachi's eyes widened when he found he was enjoying the site and he snapped his eyes up only to find them wandering down again, he mentally kicked himself for acting like such a pervert before trying to smooth the threatened blush from his face. He attempted to focus on Naruto's hair or Kisame's back but found his eyes, yet again, wandering south. He slapped himself quietly and continued to stare straight ahead, down goes the eyes and Itachi actually blushed as an explicit image entered his head. He shook it violently out and began to watch the red swirl on Narutos back. Down went the eyes and then came the mental scolding. What the hell is wrong with you? That's the fifth (1) time you've done that! Now stop it now, don't go corrupting your mind with DEFFENTLY unwanted thoughts of the kitsune boy! Naruto looked over his shoulder at Itachi and smiled, Itachi gave the Uchiha glare.

Naruto looked out the side of his eyes at Itachi who was sitting at the camp fire next to him; it had been about a day since they had left Konoha. He stared hungrily at the fish over the fire and sighed in mourning for his dead ramen (it had accidentally fallen on the ground and gotten stepped on by Kisame. Poor Ramen.). He smiled at how pretty Itachi was before shaking his head as an explicit thought entered his mind, blushing he adverted his eyes. He glanced over again to find Itachi's eyes on him, "Why are you blushing like that?" Itachi asked with a blank face.

"No reason, I didn't even realize I was blushing," Naruto murmured so no one could hear him. Itachi turned his eyes back to the fire. More explicit thoughts entered Naruto's head and he blushed a bright red. Itachi stood up suddenly and walked over to a tree. He leaned against it his back to everyone else as he began thinking why Naruto had come so willingly with them. Kisame looked between the two and sighed, he had a feeling that things were gonna get interesting in a very disturbing way… really soon.

Suddenly Itachi had an idea, "Naruto, could you come here for a moment?" Naruto looked over at him.

"Sure Itachi-san," he said standing up. Kisame and Itachi were both shocked that he had used the respectful suffix for his name; he had only ever done that for Kakashi and Iruka (that they knew about). Naruto reached Itachi and smiled slightly.

"What would you do if your… friends from Konoha come looking for you?" he asked looking into the forest. Naruto thought hard.

"I'd fight them off," he answered as if it was apparent what he would have done.

"Why?" Itachi said with no emotion as he turned his sharingan eyes to the little kitsune.

"I dunno, I guess that I just really don't like being in the village. So many people there hate me and only a handful of them notice that I exist. Plus, it's more fun being with you and Kisame, even though you're anti-social and Sharky looks like he's about to eat me!" Itachi smirked his near invisible smirk as Kisame burst out in laughter.

"So I'm anti-social, huh?" Itachi said looking up at the sky.

"Well, you don't talk a lot and you're never showing emotion. I mean dude, lighten up!" Naruto said with a wide fox-like grin.

"I think they're burning," Itachi said walking over and pulling a fish out of the fire. Kisame swore violently and started to pick them out, handing two to Naruto who devoured them quickly.

"So, have you guys ever tried ramen?" Naruto asked, as comfortable as if they were on vacation instead of him being kidnapped. Little did they notice a small beetle crawling onto Naruto's shoulder as thy chatted (or rather Kisame and Naruto chatted and Itachi just said the occasional word or RARE sentence). Naruto even wanted to see how much of a reaction he could get from his sexy no jutsu, which had proceeded to give Kisame a violent nose bleed and Itachi… a blink. Shino narrowed his eyes as he watched from the beetle's eyes. Why were they acting so much like friends when even Sasuke had never seen this side of Naruto?

A/N: (1) I went back and counted. I'm such a dumb ass. That section is also about as far out of character I'm going to let Itachi get… hopefully.

I know, I know. This chapter is really short but it's setting you up for what is going to be happening in the next chapter! 'Squeal' Well… uh, so I guess to lengthen this slightly I shall include a slight… what should I call it?

Itachi: The thoughts of an idiot?

Sasuke: The memories of a moron?

Naruto: Different types of Ramen?

Everyone: 'smacks Naruto hard'

Sakura: The teaching of the second most beautiful young female?

Ino: More like the third most beautiful! I am the most beautiful girl around after all!

Sakura: Ino Pig!

Ino: Billboard brow!

Shikamaru: How bout the shut the fuck up chronicles? 'Glares at Ino and Sakura'

Choji: (sing songy) would you like some apple pie with that? Would like some apple pie with that?

Everyone including me: 'sweatdrop'

Choji: Uh… hi…

Now back to me: Well…! Let's just skip it for now, I promise I'll come up with something special for short chapters that will either lighten the mood or make you burst your spleen laughing too hard! Bye for now!