Authors Note: Hey all! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I blame school and work mostly. Ah but anyway, you don't want to know why I haven't been here you want chapter 5! Hehe, well thanks to everyone as always for reviews and I hope you enjoy chapter 5.

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Naruto walked along staring down at the foot path not paying too much attention to where he was going and not really caring either. The sun was already starting to rise but there was still some mist lingering about. This was the earliest Naruto had been up on a Saturday. Usually if he didn't have to be up for practice he liked to sleep in, but he had woken up early that morning and found it impossible to go back to sleep. So rather than stay in bed thinking he decided to go for a stroll.

"Hey Naruto!" a voice called out to him brining him back from the depths of his thoughts. Looking up he saw Sakura waving her arm madly above her as if he might overlook her if she didn't; Sasuke followed in tow hands fisted in his pockets as usual. Naruto smiled and raised his hand high to show he'd noticed them. Sakura smiled and lowered her hand and grabbed Sasuke's wrist and ran over to Naruto.

"Good morning Naruto!" Sakura said happily stopping in front of him releasing Sasuke's wrist in the process.

"How funny to see you awake so early." Sasuke said grinning at Naruto crossing his arms over his chest.

"Good morning! What are you guys doing?" he asked grinning, to tell the truth he was happy to see them, even if Sasuke had accepted one of Sakura's date proposals and they were off to spend the day together… he didn't care, he was just happy to run into people he could consider friends. True he wished it was a bit more than that with Sakura and he might not openly admit right away that he was friends with Sasuke… but that was beside the point.

"Well…" Sakura said smiling linking her hands behind her back, leaned forward slightly towards Naruto "I thought it would be fun if the three of us went on a picnic, along with Tao too of course."

"Really!" Naruto asked, his face beaming like he had just won a lifetimes supply of ramen. Sasuke grinned and nodded.

"You got it; we were just going to go get you before going 'round to the ramen shop for supplies." Sasuke said still standing with his arms folded nonchalantly over his chest. It wasn't usually like Sasuke to be openly nice, but Naruto didn't care… he was on cloud ten and no one was brining him down!

The three of them went off and purchased a few bowls of ramen, Sakura had brought a flask with her which the shop owner filled with hot water. So we wont have to worry about the ramen getting cold, Sakura explained with a smile. Once that was done the three of them headed out towards the lake. Naruto was carrying the ramen still feeling on top of the world. Sakura was talking to him about lessons and trying to figure out with Naruto what Kakashi's mission could possibly be. Sasuke, however, was looking around them. It was almost noon and there were still traces of morning mist about them. It was thicker out here… away from the village. Sasuke didn't like this, not one bit. He was contemplating about telling his team mates about it, but wasn't too sure if he should. It couldn't be too serious, not this close to the village anyway. Any attack would never be made so close to the village without the Hokage knowing it and dispatching the necessary forces to take down the threat.

"Hey Sasuke, you still with us?" Sasuke looked up at Naruto who was smiling over at him. "You haven't said a word since you ordered your ramen, you doing alright?"

"I'm fine." He said coolly. Naruto just grinned and went back to talking to Sakura; he had long since gotten used to such responses from Sasuke and didn't take them quite as seriously as he once did.

"Hey what's that?" Naruto said stopping in his tracks.

"What's what?" Sakura asked looking around trying to see something that would grab the attention of her short attention spanned friend.

"Here" He said handing the bag of ramen to Sakura and running over to tall tree with its base mostly hidden by bushes. Lying on his stomach he reached under the bushes while the other two crouched next to him waiting to see what it was he had found. Pulling his arm back out he pushed himself up and back to sit down with Sasuke and Sakura on either side of him. The three of them stared at Naruto's find. Held tight in his hand Naruto held a Hitai-ate head band with fresh blood splashed over the leaf symbol. Sakura gasped and stood up looking around as if trying to see if she could find the one who owed the headband. Sasuke remained crouching, closing his eyes for a moment before reopening them, his Sharingan eyes glaring he looked around them.

"Something's wrong… something is very wrong." He whispered just loud enough for his team mates to hear. Naruto stood up trying to look casual, not dropping the headband and placed one hand on his hip, his fingertips reaching carefully for the Kunai in his side pouch.

"Sasuke…" Sakura whispered not moving an inch save for her eyes that darted from side to side as if trying to detect an illusion. "What's going on?"

"We're outside the village." He stated simply under his breath, his eyes searched their surroundings carefully.

"Wait a second… how could we be outside the village? We never left the main gates." Naruto whispered in disbelief as he shifted on his feet to a more ready stance.

"I don't know how… all I know is that on our way out we were somehow transported outside the village… far, outside the village." Sakura and Naruto would've liked to have asked Sasuke more, but the sudden rain of Kunai and Shuriken cut them short as they all dived aside in an effort to try and doge and deflect the attacks.

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Kakashi woke with his head pounding, keeping his eyes closed he did a mental check on his charka levels. They were dangerously low, which was strange because he was certain he hadn't used that much of it earlier. Trying to move Kakashi found that his legs and arms would not comply; he was bound standing his back pressed against a wall. Opening his eyes he blinked a few times to clear the blood from his vision then closed his left eye. He couldn't quite remember when he'd lost the headband; he had been too occupied to really notice. Now he wished he had paid a little more attention, his Sharingan eye would drain what small amount of charka he was left with if he wasn't careful.

"So your finally awake, how do you feel?" Kakashi looked up to see a tall figure walking towards him. He was covered from head to foot in folds of black and red cloth making it hard to tell whether or not the man was lean or muscular. He wore a pair of boots that seemed to be made entirely of metal that he walked in with ease without making the slightest sound. His headband was low over his eyes, Kakashi even wondered if the man could see him wearing it that low, the wavy lines of the water country were printed on the front. The mans hair was long down to his shoulders and was black and red like the rest of him. The lower part of his face was bandaged but did not seem to hinder either his breathing or his talking. After taking the man in Kakashi said nothing in reply to his question and simply stared at him. The man chuckled and walked over to Kakashi. "Not in the mood to talk I see… though I suppose you want to know where you are and why we captured you and brought you here…" The man's voice was deep and had a sound like steel being drawn over stone.

"I may not know who you are, but I know what you are." Kakashi said his voice cool and in control, almost as if he held a greater advantage than he truly did at that moment. "You are a shinobi of the Hidden Mist Village." The man simply chuckled.

"I'm sorry my friend but your assumption is incorrect." He said an evil glint in his eyes as he tilted his head back slightly and looked at Kakashi "Why don't you open your left eye and find out the truth?" Kakashi had no intentions of complying and simply looked at the man who simply shrugged when Kakashi didn't move.

"Though I will tell you this much for free… there is no use trying to escape, the crystal that binds you will keep your charka drained to the near last drop to ensure that you won't be of any trouble." He sneered "Oh and you can call me Hitojo… Kakashi." Kakashi didn't appear surprised in the least, and in truth he wasn't really, if they though he was someone else they may not have gone to such an effort to restrain him. Before Hitojo could say anything more a younger looking man ran through the wall, obviously an illusion there to mask any exits, and up to Hitojo who stood up to face the young man. He was dressed much like Hitojo except he wore his headband like a belt and his face was uncovered. Staring at the belt Kakashi realized that it didn't bear the same symbol as Hitojo's but instead bore the symbol of Hidden Sand Village. The man spoke softly and quickly then left the same way he had come in.

"Well Kakashi, it seems you might be having some company soon." He turned and left, leaving Kakashi to wonder.

After Hitojo had left Kakashi looked down. Sure enough there was a white diamond-like crystal attached from his knees down and seemingly into the stone floor; his hands were the same. He gave each limb a small tug knowing any effort above that would be just as useless. He gave a small sigh and cast his sight downward as he tried to take in everything that had happened since that morning. He had been taken completely by surprise while sitting atop a tree on the outskirts of the village and didn't even get the chance to remove his headband from over his Sharingan. Luckily he was saved the need when a Kunai sliced past him through flesh and fabric giving him a momentary advantage.

Kakashi stopped in mid-thought, the crystal had just grown. He had felt some of his charka replenishing itself, but as it did the crystal drew it out of him and expanded. Kakashi's mind began to swim as he tried to contemplate a way to get out along with possibly another person. Kakashi hoped that whoever it was was a capable shinobi who would not be bound the same way he was. On top of that his mind insisted on trying to figure out what it was that could possibly bring the mist and sand villages together…

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Sakura screamed as Naruto tackled her to aside to stop her from being hit from a large oncoming fireball. They were both bleeding fairly badly from several Kunai and Shuriken that they yet had time to remove. Sasuke had been relentlessly attacking any of the masked ninja's within reach and going after those that weren't. Pulling Sakura to her feet the ground suddenly lurched beneath them causing them to fall forward again.

"Sakura… Sakura! We've got to get up, come on!" He pleaded with her trying to help her to her feet but she seemed unable to comply, she was beginning to look pale from blood loss and overuse of charka. Spinning around Naruto saw a ninja take to the air as he reached behind his back and pulled forth a Fuuma Shuriken. Twisting back the man launched it at the two with such speed and strength Naruto knew he couldn't move Sakura out of the way in time, he had to do something! He thought furiously. Before he knew what he was doing he brought his hands up and quickly recited the words that went with the hand motions.

"Zenton Hotarubi!" He cried out flinging his arms out in front of him as if in hopes of turning the Evil Wind Throwing Star back to its owner. Time seemed to slow to a stop for a sheer brief moment as Naruto momentarily cursed himself for using a technique that only existed in his dream. Then, without warning, the star seemed to shimmer with a blue light and before either Naruto or the ninja could blink the star when whirling back to him. The star sliced through the ninja who seconds later turned into a log through the substitution technique.

It worked… Naruto didn't give himself time to contemplate this but simply began to repeat it over and over again sending any oncoming missile attack back to its source. Ok, Naruto thought to himself, as long as I can keep this up I just have to get Sasuke's attention and we can… Naruto swung his head around looking for Sasuke but couldn't see him anywhere.

"Sasuke! SASUKE!" Naruto cried out between incantations but he heard no reply.

"Naruto…? What's wrong, where's Sasuke?" Sakura had finally gotten to her feet and had rested a hand on his shoulder as she looked around for the raven haired boy. Naruto shook his head and didn't reply, the last he had seen Sasuke he had been plowing into the fight on his own and was holding himself up pretty well against them. As Sakura screamed Naruto turned around and shoved Sakura out of the way of an on coming flame thrower attack but was unable to get out of the way himself. Naruto's world blacked out around him before he had even hit the ground.

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"Naruto, Naruto wake up."

"Huh…?" Naruto blinked and rubbed his eyes. Looking up he saw Tao looking down at him. "NO! I can't be asleep; I have to wake up Sakura's in trouble!" Naruto cried standing up so fast he lost his balance and promptly fell back down again.

"Naruto calm down its going to be alright." Tao said resting a hand on his shoulder.

"No, no its not. I couldn't see Sasuke anywhere, Sakura's taken a lot of damage and I'm sleeping!" he said crossing his arms over his chest as he sat there pouting.

"First of all," She said raising a finger pointing it at him "you're unconscious; second… you will only be so for a few seconds longer." Naruto looked up at her slightly confused, with no onslaught of attack raining down on him at that exact second he finally registered the shock of the Zenton Hotarubi technique actually working.

"Hey hang on! That technique you taught me… it worked! I did it, I threw all the weapons back… but why did it work?" Naruto asked cutting himself off. Tao just smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Now's not the time to be asking that Naruto, now you need to wake up and don't worry… I will be there shortly to help you ok?" she said smiling at him. She then leaned over and kissed him on his forehead. A feeling of electricity flowed through him making him shiver. Closing his eyes for a moment he reopened them again to see sky above him. Turning over he saw Sakura screaming in the hold of one of the ninjas who was doing his best to carry Sakura off while she screamed in his ear. Two other ninja's were walking towards him hands moving as they chanted in unison. Naruto's anger at Sakura being captured made something inside him grow. He felt a tug at his navel as a growl escaped his lips. He readied himself on all fours as the two continued to walk towards him unaware of what was about to happen.

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Authors note: Hey, sorry it was a bit short… hope its still ok. Ah well please R&R and I shall return with chapter six ASAP. Oh, and I own Hitojo he's an original char. Not a Naruto char. Bye for now!