Hello readers and welcome to the next chapter. Now I am happy to say that I this weekend I was pleasantly surprised by one of my favorite stories actually updating after I think two years plus of a hiatus…now needless to say I have to reread the story to get back to where I was at but that is part of the fun. Though it is distracting a bit for me but I will still get this chapter out to you readers before I get too distracted.

Oh, and just to let you know I still don't own anything about the Naruto series…if I did I would have probably not even started the new season...or at least changed it up a decent bit. Honestly they truly seem to be grasping at straws to make a storyline.

Chapter 61

After leaving the hospital Sakura quickly found her team and told them about the new lead they have. Thanks to this Kakashi ordered the team to get ready in a half hour for the search to begin after summoning one of his ninja dogs to smell the rag. Thankfully though all of them never really unpacked anything since they have been here so their rush was easily accomplished and soon enough, they all stood by one of the village gates waiting for Temari to show up.

"Hey guys sorry about the wait." Temari called out to them as she ran to the group actually only a minute or two later than when they showed up.

"Maamaa it's fine Temari-san" Kakashi tells her waving off her apology. They all then turned towards the gate.

"Oy, you little brats aren't planning to leave without me are you?" They heard a voice call out to them that made Temari's eyes widen.
"L-l-lady Chiyo! You want to come with us?" Temari asked stunned. For as long as she has known the elders never even attempted to join any missions for the village before. She didn't even know if the old woman's body was up for a journey or not.

"No not want. I AM going with you brats. Someone has to make sure that this goes well and I refuse to trust foreign ninja alone with this matter." She tells Temari looking over the Konoha ninja.

"Oy, we want to save Gaara just as much as you do!" Naruto began telling her only for Kakashi to grab his attention.

"Just let it go Naruto-san. She is from an era where even allay ninja villages couldn't fully trust each other." Kakashi explains truly not wanting to get into the details. Thankfully though Naruto accepted this and didn't go any further with his complaints.

"Ok then if you are coming with us, I trust you are already prepared?" Kakashi asks getting a nod from the old women. "Well then let's get started." Kakashi mutters summoning Pakkun. Though yet again just before they could leave; they were stopped though this time by a loud sound coming at them at a very fast pace.

"OOOOyyyyyy" the green blur called out to them and finally came to a stop just in front of them. Soon after yet another green blur showed up and did just the same. "Yosh well done my student we have succeeded!" Gai yells happily after they noticed he was the first blur.

"Yes sensei!" Lee answers happily making them realize he was the second blur that appeared.

"Bushy brows?...why are you guys here?" Naruto asks confused only to get both of their 'good guy' poses with their thumbs up.

"Tsunade-sama sent us as back up for you in the journey to help defeat the Akatsuki." Guy tells them happily. "Don't worry with the Mighty Team Guy on your side you can't lose!" he tells them proudly.

"…then where is the rest of the team?" Sakura asks them making both of the green beasts look behind themselves noticing the lack of their other two teammates.

"Guy sensei! We forgot our precious comrades!" Lee calls out shocked with tears forming in his eyes. "For this mistake I will run one thousand laps around Suna on my hands." He tells the group.

"Yosh! I will join you my student and do one thousand one handed push-ups" Gai added.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Shut up both of you!" Tenten called out slamming her fists into the back of both their heads. An action that made both their heads cause indents in the ground. The group then noticed that Neji was also now standing behind their teammates clearly a bit annoyed. "Anyways we are here to help." Tenten tells the group with a smile making them sweat drop at the fact that she simply stepped over her twitching teammates while acting like it never happened.

"…anyways let's just head out." Kakashi tells the group turning to his ninja dog. "Pakkun if you would please start us off." He adds getting a nod before the small dog began running through the desert. They all then quickly followed after the dog. Hopping that they weren't going to be too late.

~Meanwhile~

After walking for ages Sasori and Deidera stop in a large cave and quickly activate the barrier jutsu they previously set up.

"Finally, we can start." Deidera mutters having his clay creature drop Gaara onto the floor before making it go away. His teammate didn't say anything as a response and simply dragged Gaara into the center of the cave then walked a ways away from him.

"Yes, Now get to your place." Sasori orders the blond who does this but muttering curses at his partner the whole time. They then quickly went through a strange jutsu and saw black silhouettes of their group appear rather quickly.

"So, you have successfully captured him." One of the figures says with a distorted sounding voice. He then moved his hands in a way that couldn't be seen but caused a large statue to appear in the cave Sasori and Hidan were in. "Let us begin the process." The figure orders the group releasing a large amount of chakra that somehow became present in the cave. The rest of the figures soon followed after his lead and had the same affect forming a bubble around Gaara of pure chakra.

"Chh, could have at least thanked us." Deidera mutters but still followed the rest of the group. They all then watched for a few seconds as the chakra bubble was present in the room until the statue in the cave opened its mouth and for some reason began to somehow pull the chakra towards it. The blue bubble then stretched towards the statues mouth and quickly ended up looking as if the creature was eating the chakra construct. Next after a few more seconds some red bubbles were seen coming off of Gaara's body until it formed a red layer over the man. Said layer though didn't stay in place long as it slowly followed the same path the chakra had into the creature's mouth.

"This process will take a while. I trust that you two have set up the proper perimeter." The main figure asks the two actually present members.

"Chh, of course we fucking did." Deidera tells the figure rudely though he seemed to pay no mind.

"Good then we can just focus on the process rather than wasting chakra for our own barrier." The figure mutters and simply returns his focus to the extraction process.

~Back with the Konoha/Suna group~

The journey was beginning to be surprisingly long for the large team as they left the desert and ended up in some nearby woodlands.

"Just how far did these people go." Tenten mutters surprised that the team they were chasing went so far without even trying to make false trails or anything.

"Well Tenten-san they have a rather high profile ninja kidnapped..I don't think they would want to be anywhere near the sand village with their kage in hand." Kakashi tells the girl.

"Yea…" She mutters but Kakashi noticed something that made him frown. It was clear that the girl was showing some fatigue already starting in.

"Damn it Guy you just had to force your team to over exert themselves all the way to Suna" Kakashi mentally complains noting that both of the non-green members of team Guy seemed to be in the same state. "Pakkun hold up. We will all be taking a short rest here." Kakashi orders them. This made most members of the team quickly take out a canteen and drink some water to refresh themselves as they took the small amount of time to recover.

"But sensei we need to go!" Naruto complained only to get a glare from both him and Chiyo.

"Boy I agree with your stamen that we need to hurry but you are foolish to want your team to head into a kage level battle even slightly fatigued." Chiyo scolded Naruto with a glare.

"Thank you. Just give us a minute or two and we can continue." Neji tells Kakashi respectfully thankful the man noticed. For even with his pride he did not want to force himself to be exhausted before facing the strongest foe he has ever faced. The group then formed a small circle in a small clearing either leaning against a tree or sitting on the ground.

"Though I wonder why these Akatsuki people wanted Gaara-san to begin with." Sakura says not understanding what their goal truly was. After all there was no ransom note of any kind or any connection between Gaara and the men that she knew of. Course this just made Chiyo look at Sakura with a serious expression.

"Girl tell me do you know what a Jinchuriki is?" Chiyo asks making Sakura have flashbacks to what she saw in Konoha; though she was left no time to answer seeing as Chiyo quickly continued to talk. "As much as I dislike giving you foreigners this information it is vital that you are informed. As you all know in this world there is nine tailed beasts that cause destruction to all that comes in their way. These creature's power is next to unmatched and thousands of ninja have lost their lives to each one of these beasts. Sadly it has been found that these creatures of mass destruction are next to immortal. Any time they have been 'killed' they simply have reformed after a few years just as hell bent on destroying life. So, the only way we humans have found to keep them at bay is to seal them.

Though normal seals stand no chance against the massive amount of chakra these beasts are formed of. So, years ago several seals were made to be capable of holding the beasts at bay…thought they come with a catch. You see the only way these seals are capable of holding the chakra is to be placed on a young child." Chiyo explains shocking the group.

"What? Why do they have to use children!?" Lee asks shocked.

"I wish it wasn't this way either boy…but the chakra these demons use is not only toxic to humans but also beyond our wildest imagination. The only way a human has a chance to hold the beast for longer than a few months is if they are exposed to it while their chakra network is still being developed. This way they have a better chance of their body getting used to the demon's power flowing through them. Though this isn't all bad the child." Chiyo tells them deciding to say the 'good' before the bad.

"Thanks to having the beast in them they not only always end up having much larger amounts of chakra but also end up with their bodies somehow being stronger than most ninja as well. Not to mention if they truly need it, they are also able to access various amounts of their beast's chakra doing vastly different things. This is why each major village has at least one jinchuriki at any given time…even a gennin level ninja could quite possible face a large group of jonnin and maybe even a kage level on even ground." Chiyo tells them honestly surprising most of them. Course no one besides Kakashi truly noticed that Naruto seemed to shy away from their circle and had his hair covering his eyes.

"Woah" Tenten mutters remembering Gaara's transformation was so extreme. "But wait if who is Konoha's jailer?" She asks Chiyo who gives the girl a sad smile.

"Girl I have no idea. That is your village's secret not mine…and I suggest that even if you did know that you kept it a secret…as you can see their powers are truly are lusted after by many different people." Chiyo tells her before frowning.

"Though I will let you know that most jinchuriki end up being resented by many people that know simply because many can not separate the beast from the child." She adds clearly not all that happy that this is the case. Course at this point Sakura glances sadly over at Naruto who hadn't moved while Neji's eyes widens a bit as he too glances over at the blond.

"So these Akatsuki want to do something with this seal?" Tenten mutters not fully understanding why anyone would want to mess with these beasts…from what she has heard both in her childhood and from the older women she couldn't understand it. Why would anyone go through that much risk for power. Though she also felt that she kind of didn't want to know seeing as whatever it was had to be truly awful. Course they all were broke from their thoughts when they heard a clap coming from Kakashi.

"Well then, let's continue our hunt, shall we?" He asked clearly trying to pull the mood out of the depression aura created to focus the group on their mission.

"Hai" most of them mutter trying their hardest to refocus on what was important for them at the current moment. Though Chiyo couldn't help but notice that Naruto who seemed so bright and energetic was now clearly shelled off from the rest of the group.

"…could he be!?" She thought suddenly realizing that his reaction to their topic meant one of two things. Either he knew and cared for Konoha's jinchuriki or he was the jailer itself. "Hmm, if he is then we may truly have better chances than I thought we did if he has good control…but why would that bitch send such a high-risk target to help?" She thought confused for she knew her old enemy wouldn't be dumb enough to make such a mistake. Still, she chose to push her thoughts aside and instead hope that the blond truly would be a valuable weapon for them so that they could stand up to the S class threats. For while she was confident in her skills she was well aware that age has taken quite the toll on her just as it does for any human.

"As much as I love weapons….I wish this type was never created." Was Tenten's last thought as she followed the group. After all even though she wished to know every weapon she just couldn't stomach the idea of ruining someone's life simply to have a weapon of mass destruction.

"…Naruto-kun…what is going on in that head of yours?" Sakura thinks concerned for her friend as she looked at his back. She was well aware of what he was and how his childhood was…she just wished she knew sooner. Now though she couldn't help but feel sorry for the blond but was pulled from her thoughts when she felt a drop of water hit her face. "…Naruto-kun" She muttered in a voice barely even she heard. For she knew that if she was to pass the blond she would see tears on his face. Something that hasn't happened in years.

"Gaara we will save you. I refuse to let any of my siblings suffer anymore if I can help it!" Naruto thought determined as he tried his best to reseal his mental barriers over his childhood memories and to stop his tears. Though he failed to notice the tendrils of red energy slowly beginning to overpower his blue as his emotions made him draw some of the Kyuubi's chakra. Chakra that slowly was brining his thoughts closer to wanting nothing but to destroy those that dare stand in his way.

"Haha that's it boy. Let your emotions draw you back to me. You may have trained with that white haired bastard to try and control me but real life is a lot different than practice. I just need to wait till you crack and then your body will be mine to destroy." The Kyuubi thinks with a sinister smile on his face. His thoughts then were filled with ideas of how he would slaughter the damn nigen in the weird cloaks that dared to defy him.

The rest of the trip was made in silence as people tried their hardest to refocus. Course thanks to the new information many of them couldn't completely wave off the aura that was around their team…they only could hope that it didn't cause too many problems for their fights that were coming closer and closer.

The trail quickly lead back out of the forest onto a large stretch of what seemed to be mountains. For all around them were large hills and boulders covered the ground. Though what made them all focus was the massive stone towering in front of them that had a seal directly in the middle of it.

"A seal?" Tenten mutters not having any clue what the seal was.

"Yes…and a powerful one at that." Kakashi mutters. "Naruto what can you tell me?" Kakashi asked only to get no answer. "Naruto!" he called a bit louder breaking the blond from his thoughts.

"What?" Naruto asked confused only to see Kakashi point at the seal. He then simply nodded quickly figuring out what he wanted. Naruto then looked at the seal the best he could for about a minute before turning back to the group.

"This seems to be a powerful barrier seal with four points. So, there are four seals somewhat like this one somewhere within a few miles of here. What makes it hard is that for this one it is marked that each seal has to come of at the same time or it would cause serious damage to those around the seals. Not to mention that after they are removed there is only a few seconds someone would be able to destroy this seal…which would mean someone would need to destroy this whole stone." Naruto explained impressed. For while it was his enemy, he couldn't help but marvel at the amazing seal work.

"Hmm…Neji-kun can you see them?" Gai asked him who quickly activated his eyes and began to search the area all around them.

"There is a seal about two miles away from here in each of the major directions from here." Neji tells them.

"Yosh! Then let us each go after one of the seals my precious team!" Gai says happily with Kakashi nodding in agreement.

"That would be good. Each of you take a radio and synchronize pulling the seal but be cautious they surely have some sort of defense mechanize set up for them. Meanwhile Sakura will you be able to destroy this rock?" Kakashi asks the girl who nods while putting a pair of gloves on.

"Easily."

"Good. Now the rest of us be prepared for anything. We have no idea what they have prepared in there. Also we have no idea how long it will be before Gai's team will be able to back us up." Kakashi told them then looked to see that everyone understood and was focused. "Good. Then to your positions." Kakashi ordered and team Gai each took off after putting a radio piece into their ear. Meanwhile the rest of them double checked their weapons and prepared themselves physically and mentally for the battle that was to come.

They then only had to wait a few minutes until Kakashi heard each member of team Gai saying they found their seal.

"Good then on three pull each of them then Sakura hit the stone two seconds afterward." Kakashi ordered. "Ready. One…Two…Three!" Kakashi tells them and each person pulled their seal. Sakura then pulled back her fist and ran at the boulder with a battle cry and slammed her fist into the hard stone. Said stone quickly crumbled into thousands of pieces as they were affected by the pinkettes monstrous strength. This also caused a large cloud of dust to form but was quickly settling to show the two Akatsuki members…with Deidera sitting on Gaara.

"Hello." Deidera calls out to them with a smirk. "It seems like you all are a bit late to the party." He told them with his smirk staying on his face as he tapped Gaara's unmoving cheek. "demon boy here already bit the big one." He finished saying shocking the group.

Meanwhile by each of member of team Gai a figure quickly formed out of nothing and quickly began to resemble themselves. "Well, this is a problem." They all think as they prepare to fight the mimic as it does the same preparation.

Well I am sorry to say that this is where I am going to end this chapter. Now I hate that this is still a short chapter but I was very busy and no it wasn't just with the chapter I talked about in the beginning of this…in fact I probably won't even get around to reading that story until tomorrow. Anyways I am not going to explain it to you but just know that at least I am saving both you and me from having to deal with an awkward break in the battle scenes. Anyways I will let you readers burn me all you want in the comments but for now Ja Ne.