Kohana lay peacefully sleeping in the sand near the beach, completely unaware of the storm heading her way or the trouble she was in. The battle had been waged and won within her. No longer did she feel like someone else within her own skin. Now, it was time for her body to rest and heal. Besides, she didn't feel like she was in danger. Maybe it was the battle that was blocking her senses, but she didn't care, she was at peace for the moment.

Gaara raced in the direction that he felt her presence. He wouldn't admit it but fear that he would be too late clung to his heart, guilt that he had let her go dug deeper, and fear of the unknown made it hard to breathe. If something happened to Hana, he would never be able to forgive himself.

Hinata stared intently with her sight in the direction of the fading tails. Glancing towards Konoha she could barely sense Naruto. He was still a long way off from Kohana. While Hinata didn't fully understand everything that was going on, she understood the need for urgency. Hinata clutched the bird's feathers a little tighter as it took a dive on Sai's unspoken command. She couldn't feel his concern, or any emotion really, but Hinata knew that it was part of the training he had endured. He wouldn't search like this for just anybody, right?

Gaara glanced over as Sai dipped his bird low to the ground in search of clues. Unlike, Hinata and himself, Sai couldn't sense the chakra of the nine tailed fox. Had it really only been a year since Sai first brought Hana into his life?

Kakashi, Temari, and Neji made their own way towards Naruto. Neji had faced the yellow haired idiot before…and lost. He knew that they had both grown stronger since that match, and was not entirely sure how the three of them were going to be able to detain him long enough to explain why going after Kohana is wrong. Kakashi had deployed his dogs and they were all following their lead. He could only hope that whoever was chasing Naruto down, had a plan.

"Shikamaru!" Sakura called as they raced after her teammate. Shikamaru looked over towards her even as they raced onwards.

"What are we going to do about Naruto once we catch up to him? And what's the plan about the ones that are following us?"

"I haven't the faintest idea. I'm not even sure why we decided to follow after him in the first place instead of alerting the Hokage to what's going on. I have a feeling we're going to need help."

"What would be so bad about Naruto and Kohana reuniting? I mean, didn't they travel together to Suna in the first place?" Chouji asked.

"It's not about stopping Naruto from reuniting with Kohana at all. It's about preventing Naruto from giving away Kohana's location at this point. If you've noticed, he's not heading towards Suna. That means he's gotta have an idea as to where she is and he's unknowingly leading Danzo's men right for her."

"Yea, but Gaara will be with her. There's no way that he'd leave her by herself," Chouji reasoned.

"Besides, even if he did, Hinata, Neji, Kakashi, and Sai are all in Suna now. They would be with her."

"So, the question is…"

"Why is Danzo making a move now?"

"What is this?! Where'd she even come from?!" a very unhappy Kisame demanded as he stared down at the girl who had quite suddenly crashed down on his lunch.

Itachi had merely raised one eyebrow at the sudden intrusion as if he had expected her which made an already grumpy Kisame even grumpier.

"You planned this!" Kisame demanded and jumped to his feet.

Itachi merely glanced in his direction before rising to inspect their guest.

"If I were to have planned our meal around the random phenomenon of a girl falling from the sky I highly doubt it would have been the meal she would have hit," Itachi said as he placed a hand on her forehead.

Kisame was in no way comforted by the thought, but stood and brushed himself off anyhow. Looking in the girl's direction he had to wonder.

"Where'd she come from?"

Itachi couldn't sense anything from her other than a steady heartbeat, and so he shrugged.

"You're awfully helpful, Itachi," came Kisame's sarcastic remark before, "Well, what do we do with her, genius?"

Itachi thought about it and looked all around them to the nothing that was sand and water.

"Let's take her with us," Itachi said and lifted her into his arms.

"Do what?" Kisame asked astonished, "She's going to slow us down! What are we going to do with her? She's just going to take up our resources! Just leave her there."

Itachi looked over his other shoulder at his traveling companion, "People don't just randomly fall from the sky. The fact that she did makes me curious. If you're finished eating, then we should be moving on."

Kisame growled after him but followed anyway if for no other reason than to argue with Itachi. He had to admit to being a tad bit curious himself. He didn't even know why they had travelled out this way in the first place, but Itachi had chosen the direction so there had to be a reason. Besides, the girl could prove to be an interesting diversion while they waited on Nagato to return to base with the next phase of his plan.