I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.

Kidnapped

Ryuu leaned against the tree, watching as Sumaru sang, staring at a purple crystal pendant. As he finished, Ryuu walked out of the trees, stopping beside him.

"You lost your parents to outsiders, didn't you?" Ryuu asked, Sumaru looking over at him, clutching the pendant protectively. "That's why you don't trust us."

Sumaru nodded. "What are you doing here?"

"My parents were murdered by someone I considered my brother," Ryuu said, Sumaru staring at him. "They had spent months after my older brother's death treating me like a failure, or like I didn't exist at all. But then, when Itachi began to slaughter our clan, he eventually ended up at our house. My father tried to fight him, pleading with me and my mother to run away, apologizing for everything he had done to me. But I was too afraid to run. I watched him die. Then my mother, who hadn't acknowledged the fact that she had even ever given birth to me in months, told me that she loved me, and that she was sorry. She told me to run, but I was too afraid. So instead, I stood there, watching as she died too. Itachi cut her head off and it landed in my lap. And I just sat there, holding my mother's severed head and crying as he tried to kill me. He failed, obviously, but I was in a coma for months after it."

"I...I'm sorry," Sumaru said. "I can't imagine."

"No, you can't," Ryuu said. "And I'm sure there are parts of your life that I can't even begin to grasp either. I grew up in a Great Hidden Village. I could never understand what it's like to belong to one as small as this, or to have something like your star to protect."

"You said you were a medical ninja, right?" Sumaru asked.

"Yes," Ryuu nodded.

"Could you...take a look at one of my friends?" Sumaru asked. "He's been getting sick recently. It starts to go away, but then it just comes back afterward, worse than before."

Ryuu nodded and Sumaru led him to the building beside the training building. As they walked inside, Ryuu saw one boy with dark gray hair lying in the bed at the far end, and a girl in a dark blue shirt with white sleeves and a white collar and dark blue shorts with brown hair in a ponytail sitting beside him, though she instantly turned to block Ryuu from seeing the boy.

"It's alright, Hokuto," Sumaru said. "He's a medic."

The girl, Hokuto, hesitated but stepped aside. Ryuu walked over to the bed, the boy looking up at him.

"Hello," the boy said. "I'm Mizura."

"Hello Mizura," Ryuu smiled. "I'm Ryuu. I'm going to check your injuries and see if I can help, okay?"

Mizura nodded and Ryuu began to examine him. What he found actually managed to scare him.

"It's poison," Ryuu said, gritting his teeth.

"Someone poisoned him!?" Sumaru seethed. "When I find them-"

"No," Ryuu said. "That's not what I meant. The star. It's power is poison. The star is what's killing Mizura."

"The...star?" Sumaru breathed. "You're sure?"

"The damage to his organs, the thing that's causing him to be sick, it's being caused by the star chakra flowing through him," Ryuu said, beginning to push some of his own chakra into Mizura's chakra pathways, not an easy task, but one that might help.

As he did, he also repaired the damaged organs. Finally, he had added enough chakra to offset Mizura's star chakra, making it less damaging to Mizura's body, though not enough to completely remove it from his body like he needed.

"There," Ryuu said, sitting back. "That should help. He needs rest, and he needs to stay away from the star. I'm willing to bet that if I check you two, I'd probably find the same damage, even if not as bad."

"Check me," Sumaru said, Ryuu examining him.

"Yeah, it's there," Ryuu said. "Your body seems to be more resistant to it than Mizura's, but you've got the same kind of damage starting."

"We need to warn Akahoshi," Sumaru said.

"No," Ryuu said. "Akahoshi already knows, I'd bet."

"What?" Sumaru asked.

"The person that stole the star, their star chakra far exceeded yours," Ryuu said. "Their body has to be reaching its limit, or at least, in danger of it. They said that I didn't understand what was at stake, and that they couldn't let Akahoshi have the star. If Akahoshi has been here long enough to be acting Hoshikage, then he has to already have seen what star chakra does to people."

"So, what, Akahoshi is trying to kill us?" Sumaru asked.

"No," Ryuu said. "But I don't think he actually cares about anything except gaining power."

"What would you know!?" Sumaru snapped, standing. "Akahoshi is a good man!"

"What was your last Hoshikage doing just before he died?" Ryuu asked. "He outlawed star training, didn't he?"

Sumaru stared at him, confused.

"What if he outlawed star training, but Akahoshi didn't like that," Ryuu said. "So Akahoshi murdered him so that he could be in charge and continue the training."

"That's...not possible," Sumaru said.

Just then, Ryuu sensed the same shinobi that had stolen the star. He turned in that direction, Sumaru lookin at him curiously.

"Is it them?" Sumaru asked.

"I think so," Ryuu nodded. "Hokuto, stay here with Mizura. Sumaru, let's go."

Sumaru nodded and they left the building, sprinting through the trees until they reached the canyon, following it to a spot that stuck out more than the others, slowing to a stop as they found the shinobi standing there. Ryuu stepped forward, hands raised to show he didn't want to fight.

"I need answers," Ryuu said. "Does Akahoshi know the star is toxic?"

The shinobi stiffened before nodding.

"So, you outsiders are smarter than you look," the ninja said, the voice distinctly male this time.

Ryuu's eyes widened a fraction of an inch and he crouched, readying himself, Sumaru doing the same. "Well, let's not waste any more time then, shall we?"

He shot forward, the ninja's star chakra erupting out of their back and stabbing at him as spikes. Ryuu dodged and rolled out of the way of the spikes. This definitely wasn't the same person. The last one, aside from being female, was much faster and stronger. Ryuu leapt at the ninja, shoving a palm strike at them, only for them to turn out of the way, allowing him to fall into the canyon. He flipped, hurling a kunai on a rope and holding his breath. As he began to climb, the shinobi flew off of the cliff, Sumaru under his arm. Then, he hurled a kunai, cutting Ryuu's rope before taking off into the fog. Ryuu squeezed his eyes shut, struggling to continue holding his breath. Then, several star chakra tendrils wrapped around his legs, yanking him back to the top and dropping him in front of Hokuto, who knelt, a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Hokuto asked.

"Yeah," Ryuu said, breathing feeling like his lungs were on fire. "Thanks to you."

He held a hand to his chest, using Medical Ninjutsu heal the damage the poison had done as well as using Wind Style chakra to force the poison gas out of his lungs, exhaling it back into the canyon. Finally, he finished and fell onto his side, panting.

"I hate...that canyon," Ryuu said.

"Ryuu!" Neji shouted, running over. "What happened?"

"A ninja...took Sumaru," Ryuu said. "I...fell in. Hokuto...caught me."

"You have my thanks," Neji said. "Why would the ninja take Sumaru though?"

"Different ninja," Ryuu said. "This one was male. The last one was female."

"Really?" Neji asked.

"Akahoshi," Ryuu said. "That's who took Sumaru."

"But why?" Neji asked.

"Because of who the other ninja is," Ryuu said.

"Who?" Neji asked.

"Sumaru's mother," Ryuu said.

"Natsuhi?" Hokuto asked. "But, she was killed by outsiders."

"According to who?" Ryuu asked.

"Akahoshi," Hokuto breathed.

"I think he tried to kill her," Ryuu said. "But she survived, and now she's taken the star. So he staged a kidnapping of Sumaru in order to draw her out."

"I see," Neji nodded. "It makes sense. We'll see what we can find. You rest."

Ryuu nodded, blacking out almost instantly.

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