Utakata had done everything in his power to keep the boy safe. At first he was exceptical the threat even existed until the apparently harmless mission turned out to be a kidnap mission. Fortunately his opponent was just one, on the bad side it turned out he was an Akatsuki, from a nasty organization that apparently chased after Jinchurikis. If it had not been that strange woman that kid summoned both might had been on real problems.

Separated from his team and tired Utakata took refuge as far as possible of the explosive bomber. Following the instructions of heading to Takumi, since it was not far from where the kid had been. The thing was the battle had took a great deal of chakra and scars that obliged them to rest in the woods at night. It amazed him how the kid calmed down once he showed the sun necklace. However he began questioning and Utakata didn't have all the answers. The message Sasuke had left appeased him more but still he was intrigued with him. Apparently amazed at his own skills with water jutsu and make a deal. If Utakata teached something really useful he will do what he could to heal his injuries until they returned to Konoha.

"I won't take you to Konoha" Utakata stated, Yue blinked and frowned. "Then, where are we going?"

"Sora-ku" he gazed outside the cavern in which they took refuge praying that crazy man had gone away.

"But… she will freak out if I"

"Just hold on" It was just a guess, but it was clear that they were talking about the same woman, Yue still clutched the photo he gave. Slightly curious about it and with no wish to explain further Utakata asked.

"Is that your mom?"

The young boy with orange hair stared long and hard at the woman in the photo before answering. "Not exactly… but she tries very hard" then Yue returned his curiosity with another question. Utakata diverted again his attention insisting he need sleep. Yet the rascal surprised him taking the last of medicine and doing his best to heal both with it. Once the bandages were done, Yue left him alone with the reminder that Utakata had to teach him tomorrow in exchange. They had little resources, it might take a day or two before Konoha noticed something happened. It was necessary they passed the border of the Fire country before that, until then Utakata had to concede to the kid pledge. It killed two birds at once, kept him occupied and he might recover by then.

The next day at the first ray of light, Utakata and Yue looked out in Takumi an old woman that the boy recognized. She give them food and medicine, later on they parted to Sora-ku. He felt much better, still his chakra was not on his fullest. They traveled a bit more before stopping and the kid reminded the favor. Slight curiosity of whom was the kid, Utakata began with simple exercises. Surprisingly the orange haired boy had already the basics by instinct but not the commands right before. Since he proved having an Ice Kekkei Genkai it was weird for Utakata that no one had teached him water jutsu. Apparently any water jutsu had been performed by the woman who appeared yesterday, but she could not appear now with him being low of energy.

"You are a great teacher" No, that was not it. Utakata refused being anything but that.

"I'm not fool enough to be called that"

Before the boy could rebut an eagle approached them, Utakata had no idea whom might had send it at first. But the note had assured whom was behind that handwriting. The Uchiha were formidable, admitting it was a great feat murdering a Sannin. Utakata think of what to do once he got safe the boy. Where would he go?

How long time was need to found the one track chat of a young boy pleasant? Utakata listened, as Yue continued filling the silence. At night he noticed it was turning personal, either he was too naive being so forward or just anxious.

"You really trust me…" It was not a question, but a confirmation as the boy blinked at him and nodded grinning.

"I might not know you but… her friend send you. She really cared for Sasuke, well… still does" And he end up listening up of a woman he didn't know and the Uchiha he ought.

This had been the longest mission ever, even for him something was suspicious as Hikaru deterred their return over and over at any place they found. A week and a half with no communication with anyone, it would had been tolerable if it weren't for Kaoru attitude. He heard them fight yesterday but didn't get what they were talking about. Sakura and Sai were just that anxious, they knew something was amiss but questioning the leader squad…

"You had never been like this to me. Hikaru, please… talk to me" they heard her pleading, but silence was all they got. Naruto watched as the door was opened abruptly and she ran away from the inn they had reserved that night.

"Naruto… go" Sai give him a gentle push, as him and Sakura entered the room where Hikaru was hitting himself with his hands.

He ran through the alley, trying to decipher where she had gone. After 10 minutes of no luck he decided asking around, but the people weren't helpful. Out of options he tried to think, if she was upset where did she looked comfort? Hugs. He liked them, feeling her breath close and that nose tickling… sometimes he suspected she sniffed. Oh right! The woods.

Now he remembered, the oak essence had been a favorite since she was little. Naruto send his clones covering more ground as he thought of them running freely. When they were little, when they were just the three of them. Sasuke being a pain in the ass at their competitions, her being the bridge of a long time friendship. Her running up after a tall young boy with short black hair. One of his clones had found Kaoru, he puffed out the rest and changed direction. Naruto had forgot how much his friend loved Shisui, it was the reason she adored the forest, of course she had run somewhere that smelled familiar.

Even if she was avoiding him, Naruto had enough of the silent treatment. Raven hair covered most of her face, hearing her take long breaths, silent. Touching her shoulder slowly, those green eyes refused any tear to fall. Even if she said nothing was wrong, Naruto embraced his little friend. Didn't cared if he was not smart with words like Shikamaru, but he was prepared to learn. It took time, but finally she revealed what happened.

Now his suspicion worsened, Hikaru had never closed off with Kaoru, he was like the big bro but being that harsh and rude. "I don't know how but… he knew what I was hiding and tried to coax me out but… I promised, I want to do it"

"Is that bad? Holding a promise?" Naruto didn't know of what she was talking, yet he avoided asking directly this time in fear to upset her more.

"For him, but now that he is hiding something… it's as if he is doing this on purpose but…" Then something changed on her eyes, dancing around as she covered her mouth surprised. Her expressions stirred more confusion until she returned to her initial position. Hugging her knees and sighing loudly, but he heard that last part.

"HEY! You're NOT a monster!" Shaking her off. "Don't say it again"

"You don't understand…"

"Then let me in!" Naruto took her hands and prayed this worked out. "If you can't now.. then I will wait but please, whatever is happening you don't have to do it alone."

It was not easy, he didn't have an idea if it will work out but she took his hand again. He didn't let go even when went back at the inn and packed right away, because no matter what happened they will return home.

Sasuke already had what he need from the old lady, but he waited for them. A hour later, he felt their presence and before anyone could do something stupid he commanded them to calm down.

"Heee, I thought the team was complete, nee Sasuke" Suigetsu interrupted but had been punched by Karin.

"You're late Utakata"

The newcomers stood under the light, a young tall man with blue kimono and a young boy with orange hair. The headband of Konoha still in place and big clear brown eyes amazed while surveilling the place.

"We got delayed, someone insisted on being annoying" The young boy frowned but stared back at him. Sasuke quickly found the sun pendant around his neck, a little bag on his back, his clothes dirty and slightly tattered as if they had been on a fight. However safe, and it was all that he cared. The young took the first step to him, forgetting about the others babbling nonsense as the boy returned his sun. Sasuke traced the old edges of the metal pendant, the slight polish left didn't hindered the comfort it gave.

"Thank you, Sasuke" And he was perplexed how the boy again grinned just like her. How trusting and clever he was to recognize him now, then turned around and forced Utakata to join them.

"Don't look at me like that! I had already thanked you enough. Am, do you have food? We are starving!" The young man had a slight frown and even if he felt awkward, Sasuke noticed the small grin.

"Who the hell is this little boy? I didn't volunteered to be a nanny" Suigetsu was the first to state his presence.

"Ugh, look at them. Their smell is confusing my nose." Karin covered her nose, Utakata twitch of annoyance didn't surprised him.

"I knew you had a bitch inside you" Suigetsu laughed as Karin chased after him with fury, until Sasuke cut the chase off.

"They will be joining us." Sasuke touched briefly the back of the boy, inside he felt certain excitement thinking things were going according to his plans. "This boy is Yue Higa, your job is to protect him while I'm gone. Utakata will make sure you don't kill yourselves, is that clear?"

"The nanny part was a joke! Seriously!" Suigetsu quickly disapproved.

"Can I go with you Sasuke-kun?" Karin butted in.

"But, if you go… who will calm down the monster inside me?" Jugo questioned seriously. But the loud noise of hunger silenced them all, Sasuke blinked at the two newcomers, the young man blushing gazing at the wall and the boy laughing shyly while scratching his hair, apologizing over and over. Well, he really wanted to go now but, the little one was endearing in a familiar oddly way so Sasuke turned around to buy more supplies for them.

The more he observed and listened, Sasuke could not deny he was Kaoru's son. If not by blood, he had picked up some particular traits. Like having the power to unfreeze any atmosphere with a grin, being oddly trusting and when he got shy touching his hair. So transparent, so honest, he had missed that, and even so the boy was different. He adapted easily, had a knack to be pushy and quite manipulative if he desired.

His new team had underestimated Yue, Suigetsu tried to slash him just to end up encased on ice. Karin quickly make him his favorite after that. Yue was fascinated with Jugo, since he confessed feeling something different on him. The strange part was that Yue asked permission before he told something, like he already knew him.

Therefore he questioned him once the two most annoying ones of the team were gone looking for somewhere where they could wash on this abandoned city.

"Hm… not that long, I just realized it when Utakata showed me the sun. It's just like mom-I mean Kaoru described on her diaries" Yue then showed him one of them, a tiny black notebook. Sasuke opened it and recognized the handwriting, even the bad drawings of a child.

"You know… I had wanted to meet you. Is it true you saved mom from Zabuza?" Sasuke nodded, and closed the notebook, feeling nostalgic of those times. Then Yue took another little notebook, a red one and took a photo hidden on the pages. It was a reflection of the past, him with old team 7. So, the boy had guessed his identity based on stories and old photos, someone clever surely will aid the team. Quite excited the boy said he had grown a lot, if he will change that much like him. "Then, you meet Gaara... how was he?"

Sasuke had to think about his encounters with that man. "Unstable, powerful and… lonely"

"Because he was a Jinchuriki?" He nodded, how much does the boy knew? Yue was really clever, he will be a great shinobi with proper training.

"Tsunade said Akatsuki were after them… I don't want them to find Utakata" Touched by his good heart, envy that he still had salvation. However, that gave him an idea, but had to confirm something.

"You noticed…"

Yue nodded, helping to pack the weapons Sasuke was preparing. "I can felt it, just like mo… am… her"

Wherever a Jinchuriki might be, surely Akatsuki will appear, then Sasuke could get the upper hand finding them first before Itachi could, and left a hook. It was a good idea, much better than just traveling around searching for news about them. Another thing he got curious was his avoidance at calling Kaoru mother, a matter of pride perhaps? He could rest that night with satisfaction.

Early in the morning he was ready to leave but the boy had chased after him with his little bag.

"You can't come"

"I-I know… but I spend the night thinking and…I have an idea!" He took a map and pointed out a line with a circle on the Wind country. "We can't got help from Konoha but we can go to Suna"

Sasuke frowned, exceptical but the bags under the eyes of the little boy had been evidence enough of how much effort was done thinking, so he listened as Yue wrote on the map and explained.

"We will be safe there! Listen, if I ask Gaara to hide us on the underground village he will do it." He marked their current location, something that amazed him since he didn't give any directions. Then traced a triangle between the path to Konoha, Suna and below Iwagakure. "The village is protected by a powerful barrier that hide us from everyone. No one knows about it out of Suna, no one will tell about our presence. We can wait for you there."

Again, he was surprised, not that he will let him know that. Yue hope painted on his clear brown eyes, as he waited. It had been long since someone had treated him so amiably, now he didn't regretted a second saving him. Sasuke respected the potential, the boy beckoned pleasant memories. Unsure at first, until his hand landed on his head, Yue blinked and Sasuke let himself grin. With the map ready and Yue smile the last thing he saw. Hearing the boy shouting one last time. "Don't be late!" Sasuke quickened the pace, feeling the wind guide his future. Thrilled that time had rewarded the sacrifices been made, sooner or later he will make justice.

Love make the world spin, if that was true hers had stopped as the news hit her. Protecting her family had been her salvation, her redemption, her purpose. When Kaoru though there was no reason on breathing, when nothing made sense and the air stuck on her lungs she met him. His Yue, his life rope… Guilt and sorrow had joined their paths but it was hope that gave her purpose once again. Where was her heart now? Why doesn't anyone understand? Why no one is looking for him? Why did she felt betrayed? She didn't have those answers, she felt a pit on her heart thinking of the worst. Her failure.

"Baa-chan, you CAN'T be serious!" Naruto was furious, she could feel the fox chakra bumping his way out, she might had cared but… not now.

"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELVES!" Tsunade shouted just with the same force, nothing, not even HER will appease this turmoil. "I can't send anyone now, we lack of forces, leaving the village unprotected will leave us vulnerable. Yamato is still recovering just like Team 8, Kakashi is not better."

"But Shishio, we can't just wait until things improve. If Akatsuki really took him…" Sakura tried to reason, yet Kaoru had been paralyzed with cold fire.

"We don't know that, the information had not been precise. For now we can't do anything, no one will leave until I say so."

"SEND US! I don't care but I won't sit here" Naruto shouted, scratching in the process Tsunade desk with his fingers.

"NO! No one will go out looking for Sasuke or Yue and it's final" This time it was Hikaru whom interjected, unable to hold his golden eyes up, trembling. She lost it, he was supposed to back her up. The slap pricked her hand, Hikaru stared back accepting his fault.

"Now… you had really done it"

He finally got what he wanted, she was mad. They had to separate them, Hikaru had a black eye, Shizune was checking out his face, Sakura hold her arms but Kaoru continued fighting.

"Lock her up!" Tsunade commanded, Kaoru hear Naruto complain as someone put a cloth on her mouth. She recognized the smell, it was too late as the effect of that narcotic blurred out Tsunade office.

The smell of wood and orange was the first conscious idea as Kaoru opened her eyes. This was not a cell, but a clean room, it had to be the hospital. However, the ANBU guarded silently, I could feel them through the door. I'm struggling to find myself here, unable to do anything.

Isamu...

I whispered leaving the bed, staring outside at the night mantle around the village. However even as I stared not really seen anything beyond the darkness. He didn't answered. It seems as if being lost, I wished Yue were right besides me. Smiling telling me this was a joke, or go back to his room and see him sleeping with a leg out of his bed.

Isamu… please

Someone tell me he is alright. Let me listen to his laughs, please.

Let… let me out of here!

I smashed the first thing I got my hands on, they jumped on me. But… But… I could not hold on. When they let me go home, I just waited. Kicking out Hikaru after he tried to explain himself. I didn't wanted to see anyone. The only thing I cared for was a chance to get out and find Yue.

As his feet guided at such familiar foliage, where darkness hides the beauty of trees all around, Sasuke for the first time in years stared back at the long threshold of his hometown. Konoha. Years of memory paved a way to the easier weak point of the entrance. The emotion drumming inside was not the usual thrill of adrenaline before a battle. He didn't noticed how well he blended with the night before, approaching step by step until the District welcomed him. Aware now of things as a child had been overlooked, like the trail of flowers to his house. The pulse of the invisible barrier, as it recognized his chakra. A part of him wondered if she might fear his presence.

His hand was already opening the door, so dark and quiet, but everything was where he remembered. Even the garden looked alive as the hurried footsteps echoed. His heart was beating faster than ever, as it called for her, his hand on the shealth where the sun hanged. The grip felt sweaty, and her voice cuts the rim between them.

In front of him, her viridian eyes fill his head, of all the things he had been preparing for… Sasuke was unguarded at those bright orbs.

"Sasuke…" A whisper that makes his legs move, the breeze lifting slightly the white dress Kaoru used, her hair blowing… bewitching his fingers to comb a piece away from her. His thumb caressing her cheek slowly, tenderly. The mystery of the pulse on his body, just like the old times when she used that bond and he felt exposed.

"It's really you…" And he relished on her scent and touch, as she embraced him with a warm force. Her tears upsetted the moment, yet Sasuke didn't pulled her off and slowly… put his hand at her lower back and pulled closer. Intrigued that he felt part of his old self back, with harmony to the changes that forged his personality now. Satisfied that time hasn't changed what he cherished of her. The thing that assured him the most was their bond, he could feel her joy and sadness overpalming each other.

"I'm sorry" He confessed with a whisper. "I could not tell you… he is with me"

Kaoru was as open like he remembered, she pushed back slightly to stare at him. Wonder, doubt and hope reflected back. "Your son is safe"

It took a moment, however he didn't let go. Kaoru blinked. "Oh, Sasuke" And he felt petrified as suddenly her lips kissed his cheek, she smiled beautifully and thanked over and over in his arms.

"but… how did you" He covered her mouth, and closed his eyes to breath and recover himself from her assault. Sasuke had to focus on the plan, even if he desired to prolong the moment, time was precious.

"Later… we have to go tonight"

He followed her back home, taking everything they will need. Meanwhile he explained what he could, where they will meet with the others and how Orochimaru tried to use her against him. In exchange Kaoru told him about the Akatsuki members they had seen and showed the hidden scrolls she had been preparing for this moment. Sasuke took the spare bag and the long brown cape she offered. Observing in silence as she stared at her band, and outside, leaving it in her bedroom with a gloomy face. It was harder for her than when he left, or that was what he suspected, compared to him she had the time to let others in. But she nodded to him and both left the village without looking back.