Authors note: Hey everyone! Back again! Thanks for all the reviews I love reading reviews; they're always motivation for me to keep writing. And thanks to yourbonesakin for pointing out an oppse or two ;; it was an oppse with the eye, though with Guy and Gai, I had to take the spell check off that before Word would leave it alone :-p ah but enough of my excuses and such… you don't want to read about all this do you? Naw you want the next chapter am I right? Well here you go and hope you enjoy Chapter 6!
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Sakura screamed as she kicked and fought against the ninja who was doing his best to hold onto her. Looking up at Naruto she tried to call out to him, telling him not to do anything foolish and to go get an adult's help. But ether Naruto didn't hear or he chose not to. He continued to stand stock still hands fisted at his sides, his face looking down almost as if he was unaware of the approaching ninja. Sakura was about to try yelling at Naruto again to convince him to run and get help but the ninja placed a cloth over her mouth smothering whatever she was about to say. Taken by surprise Sakura inhaled sharply and realized her mistake too late. The chloroform took effect almost immediately; as everything began to black out around her Sakura found it funny that instead of worrying about Sasuke, she was worrying about Naruto.
The two ninja continued to walk towards Naruto slowly, still chanting and performing hand sigils. They had only been requested to bring back three from the leaf village, which mean this boy was simply going to have to be a casualty. Naruto gritted his teeth as his anger flowed through him, looking up he glared at the ninja with eyes of a demon fox. As Naruto yelled out in anger the powers of the demon fox began to break free of its prison even more. The power surged up and around Naruto in a swirling mass of evil charka. Before the two ninja had time to register the big mistake they had made Naruto lunged at one of them striking him back, fist clenched, with all his might. The ninja crashed threw two solid trees before stopping with a crash on the third. The second ninja finished his technique and launched Katon at Naruto. Turning to the oncoming attack Naruto simply raised his hands and blocked each ball of flame with his bare hands. Without pause, Naruto launched himself at the ninja who was trying to run away after seeing a boy stop a fire attack with his bare hands. Naruto caught up to him in seconds and grabbed the man by the ankle and swung him high over his head and back around to slam him into the ground.
Looking around Naruto found that the ninja who was holding Sakura was gone. Growling he dropped to all fours and began to sniff around, searching for the mans scent. Within seconds he had found it and dashed off after him. In his current heightened state it didn't take Naruto long to catch up to the ninja and tackle him to the ground. Walking over to where Sakura had fallen, Naruto placed a gentle hand to her cheek. Her breathing was shallow, and she didn't wake up when Naruto called her name. Turning to look at the fallen ninja who had tried to kidnap her he snarled,
"What did you do to Sakura? You'll pay for hurting her!" he picked the man up and began to tighten his grip around his neck, his claws began to press into the mans skin drawing blood. You'll pay, he thought to himself as he felt his hatred and the strength the demon fox gave him flow to his arms. A hand reached into his vision to take a hold of one of his arms gently.
"No Naruto let him go." Without pausing to see who was trying to stop him Naruto simply clenched his fist and swung it round full force connecting with the person next to him sending them flying. Dropping the man Naruto dashed over to where the person had fallen, wanting to teach them a lesson for trying to stop him from avenging his friend Sakura. Naruto stopped short as he looked down at the still figure lying on the ground. Long yellow black tipped hair lay strewn across her face. Her eyes were closed and she had a peaceful look on her face. She wore a simple white tunic, a pair of blue jeans, and her feet were bare. Naruto swallowed hard as he felt his rage leave him as well as the borrowed strength from the Kyuubi drain away. It was Tao… there was just no mistaking it. Naruto slumped down to his knees not sure what to do. He was surprised to see her, while he was still awake anyway. But she said she was coming to help… and is it really that surprising after I used the technique she taught me countless times? This was seemingly too much for Naruto to compute right now. The moment he stopped trying to figure out how she could be here in the real world and in his dreams, he realized he had just slammed the living daylights out of her.
"T…Tao? Tao I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… please wake up." Naruto pleaded as he gently shook her shoulder. After a moment she opened her eyes and blinked a few times. Looking around then up at Naruto she smiled and tried to sit up.
"Are you alright Naruto?" she asked as the blonde helped her. Am I ok? What about her I just punched her lights out… why isn't she mad at me? Naruto wondered as he looked at her blankly not sure what to say.
"I take it the powers of the Kyuubi have left you then." She said with a smile. Naruto simply looked at her in shock. He wasn't sure what to be surprised about more; the fact that she knew about the fox, or the fact that she didn't seem to mind that it was there… or the fact that she was there.
"Wait… you know? But how…" Naruto managed to stammer.
"Naruto, look into my eyes and tell me what you see." Naruto leaned forward slightly and looked into her yellow eyes. As he looked, he could've sworn he saw a yellow fox lying asleep behind her eyes, almost as if it was expecting to be woken up any moment.
"I see the same thing in your eyes; I see the nine tailed fox asleep within you."
"But wait a minute… I mean… how did you get in my dreams… your really real aren't you? And and…" Tao laughed and held up her hand.
"One thing at a time please, one thing at a time. Do you remember not too long ago when you found a fox trapped under a tree?" Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, Kakashi helped me save it."
"Well that was me, except I was all covered in mud so you couldn't see my yellow pelt." She said with a smile. Naruto's eyes widened as everything fell into place in his mind. If he hadn't found her then, she may've been crushed under the tree. Since he had saved her life, well… she wanted to repay him he guessed. So she had visited him in his dreams and asked him what it was he wanted, he said to be Lord Hokage so she had begun to train him. But when he said he'd changed his mind… he looked up at Tao. While he understood, to some extent, what was going on, he still had thousands of questions that he wanted to ask her. However before one of them was able to make its way to his lips he flung his arms around her neck hugging her tight.
"I'm really glad you're here…" He whispered into her hair.
"Me too" She replied as she hugged him back. Releasing him she looked over to the still sleeping Sakura then back to Naruto.
"I'm afraid there's not enough time to explain things to Sakura right now… Naruto, do you have the headband you picked up from before?" Rather than ask how she knew Naruto handed her the blood spattered Hitai-ate headband.
"Can you tell whose it is?" Naruto asked as she took it. Looking at the headband Tao sniffed it slightly eyes slightly closed in thought as she tried to see if she knew whom this belonged to. Her eyes widened in recognition as she looked at Naruto.
"Kakashi… it belongs to your sensei Kakashi." Naruto tried to smile and shook his head.
"Naw… you've got to be wrong, there's no way Kakashi would ever…" His words trailed off as she shook her head.
"There's no mistaking it I'm afraid… though I do wish I was wrong." She said calmly as she pinched the tear together she blew on it gently.
"Can you mend the tear with charka?" Naruto asked curiously as he watched her.
"No, I'm using a small amount of electricity in hopes that it will act like static and keep the two pieces together." That's got to be strong static…Naruto thought to himself. Wiping the blood off Tao tied the headband around her head. She chuckled slightly at Naruto's confused look.
"I've got a plan to get our friends back, but for now let's wake up Sakura." Naruto nodded and walked back over to where the girl lay still sound asleep.
"Yeah? You know how we're going to find the enemy's secret base and everything?" Naruto asked excitedly as he placed a hand gently on Sakura's shoulder.
"You could say that… you might say the enemy's going to lead us right there." She said with a smile. Naruto gave her a blank look but went back to trying to wake up Sakura when he found out that she had no intention of telling him anything more just yet.
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Kakashi came back to the waking world with a heavy sigh. With his charka levels constantly low, it was hard for him to stay conscious, and thus keep track of how long he had been imprisoned for. He closed his eyes wishing partly that he was still asleep. In his dreams he was back in the village taking the beautiful girl he had met for a tour of the village. He was just about to ask her name when he had woken up, ah well not like it mattered anyway; any name he gave her in his dreams didn't dismiss the fact that he didn't know it in the waking world. Feeling like he was being watched Kakashi opened his right eye and looked around he saw Hitojo standing in front of a stone table looking over at Kakashi.
"It must be annoying not having enough charka to stay awake with." Hitojo said chuckling, a slight sneer in his voice.
"What is it that you're trying to accomplish here Hitojo, what is your goal?" Kakashi asked his voice calm and unwavering like before.
"Goal?" Hitojo asked smirking, a glint of madness in his eyes. "I'm afraid I have no goal Kakashi." He said with a chuckle that made Kakashi wonder further about the sanity of his captor. "Ahh but I have some good news for you Kakashi; you've now got a cellmate – although I'm afraid he won't be awake to talk to you." Smirking at Kakashi's questioning look he stepped aside so that Kakashi could see who lay on the stone table. No, it couldn't be…Kakashi thought to himself opening both eyes to make sure. But there was no mistaking it; it was Sasuke who lay unconscious on the stone table.
The raven haired boy looked pale and beaten with a streak of blood flowing from his mouth and head down his cheek. Hitojo grinned and turned to Kakashi who had to fight to keep his face blank. If Hitojo knew the boy meant something to him he would use that to his advantage.
"He may just be a boy, but he holds the Advanced Bloodline eye ability, Sharingan. And the boy has potential… he is brimming with possibilities."
"And I suppose you intend to guide him in the right direction." It wasn't a question; Kakashi was certain that was what he was getting at. Before he closed his Sharingan eye he looked at Hitojo's headband. The wavering lines that represented the ninja of the hidden mist village shimmered then faded showing a blank headband. Closing his left eye he saw the hour glass symbol of the hidden sand village ninja, however Kakashi now knew that Hitojo wasn't from the Wind country ether.
"You catch on quick Kakashi, you catch on quick." Hitojo said. Reaching into his pocket he drew out a handful of white dust and threw it over Sasuke.
"I'll drain this boy completely before I begin his training however." Before Kakashi could question what the man was talking about Hitojo left through the hidden door.
This is great… this is just fantastic! Kakashi thought angrily to himself. With Sasuke here, how long would it take for the squabbling duo known as Naruto and Sakura to end up here too. Kakashi strained to wrench himself free of the crystal, but the crystal on his arms had reached his shoulders and was beginning to creep over his chest, and the crystal on his legs had reached his waist. He had no idea what would happen when the crystal completely engulfed him, but he was sure he didn't want to find out. He also wanted to see if Sasuke was alright, he didn't like the dust that Hitojo had thrown on his student. Not only that but he had a good bet that powder was the beginning of the crystal prison. While he had no idea what he was going to do or how he was going to do it, he was going to get Sasuke out of this mess. He would never let his students down; it was his job to protect them until they were experienced enough to do it themselves, and he was damned if he was going to let some blasted charka draining crystal get in his way of doing so.
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Authors note: AHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm sorry it took me so long to finish this chapter! And I'm sorry it's not that long ether. TT but I hope you still enjoy the chapter Oh, and midterms are over so I'll probably have the next chapter up before finals swing 'round. Till then, please R&R. Oh, and if some of you could give me some suggestions on paring? I've already got a good idea of who I'm going to throw together but I'm not 100 decided on some of them so I thought I'd ask the readers who they think should go together. Thanks if you add this into your review
Till next time!
