Another chapter is here!

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Fear and horror gripped Sakura's heart in a stranglehold. Her breathing hitched, lungs refusing to contract or expand as her eyes fixed themselves over her shoulder, staring at the demonic-looking head that was fixed onto her. No... into her, integrating into her body seamlessly through his bloodline ability. She could feel him there with every breath he took, as if he was a part of her.

Karin snapped out of her own shock first. The chains that had been frozen in the air rattled as they moved again, aiming for the second head. Sakura could only think that she meant to have them coil around his throat and yank him free, hopefully pulling the rest of him out too.

"You should think twice before you do that, unless you want this girl to die with me," Ukon warned. "We've merged into one now. Without my chakra acting as a medium to make it possible, you'll kill us both from the rejection. You don't want your little friend to die because of that, now do you?"

The chains stilled in the air, unmoving once more. Then they withdrew an arm's length to avoid making contact with either of them. Whether or not the threat was real, it didn't seem like Karin would risk using them.

An amused chuckle left his mouth, as if proud. "Good girl. You—"

Steel cut through the air as Karin threw a stolen kunai the moment that he opened his mouth to talk. Sakura fought against her reflex to dodge as it speared through the space between her face and shoulder, aiming for the demonic-head there. What followed wasn't the wet sound of flesh and bone being pierced, but instead the dull thud of the sharpened point burying into the ground just behind where Sakura was.

"Careful now," he said as his head emerged next to hers again, on the opposite side. The coarse strands of his hairs grated against her cheek as he slid his head next to hers, making them uncomfortably closer. "Our bodies are merged to the extent that I can form my limbs or hide my body entirely inside of hers. If you strike me carelessly, you'll hurt her too."

Karin tensed at that while cradling another kunai in her palm. Then her gaze shifted to the Vermillion Bird, which tossed the sedated prisoner down in front of its master. She grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head back, exposing his pale throat as she pressed the kunai against it. "Get out of her or I'll kill him."

His response to her taking his brother hostage was merely to chuckle. Then Sakura felt a burning pain, eating away at her from the inside starting at her stomach. She couldn't help but let out a cry, bringing her hands there as she fell over and curled up in pain.

"We're bonded at a protonic level, meaning that I can do all sorts of things to her with a thought," he explained as Karin glared at him. "For example, I can disassemble her entire cellular structure in such a way that the destruction of the cells invokes the immune system to respond by raising the body temperature and releasing chemicals that tell her brain that she's suffering from acute pain. And it will only grow more intense the longer it lasts, until it burns itself out trying to heal the damage or I snuff out every cell in her body."

"Get out of her now, or I'll slit your brother's throat and let you watch him bleed out!" Karin threatened as Sakura clenched her teeth and grasped the fabric with balled fingers. Sweat beaded her brow. It felt like she was burning up now, leaving her to believe it wasn't a lie.

"I wonder how your boyfriend will react, knowing that his teammate suffered and died because of you?" he mused in a mocking tone. "He'll never forgive you, will he?"

Karin's expression darkened before looking over to Suzaku. "...If I release your brother, you'll kill her anyway," she pointed out hesitantly, as if reasoning to herself on her next course of action. "I'll take him with me and explain everything, telling them that I did my best, but I couldn't save her. That's all I can do now."

Sakura could see the slight tremor in her hands as they held the kunai and hostage. Despite her best efforts to convince herself, Karin didn't want to leave or abandon her. And if Sakura could see that, then her capturer certainly could see it as well.

"Do you think he'll forgive you for abandoning a friend he's known longer than you just to save yourself?" he continued. "Of course not. You won't be able to face that little boyfriend of yours and will run away again, alone and miserable until we catch you. It would be much easier if you just surrendered now, otherwise her death won't be pleasant."

…His words were playing on her fears, striking at her heart to break her resolve. Sakura feared, the way things stood, Karin would cave in and that would be the end of it. She would die, Karin would be taken, Sasuke would remain missing, and Naruto would lose the three people that he cared about the most...

This won't be the Forest of Death again. Sakura decided as she forced her head off the ground and spotted the kunai that was thrown earlier. She bore with the pain burning her up on the inside to reach for it, taking it into her grasp as she swallowed the lump in her throat. Then she jabbed it towards the second head that was over her shoulder!

The point fell short as a limb emerged from her chest and grabbed her wrist. There was a disdainful look in his eyes as he tightened his grip. The pressure was intense, to the extent she felt the bones starting to crack, forcing her to drop it. "Hostages should know their place."

Sakura couldn't suppress a whine at the pain, but she didn't give up. They couldn't suffer a witness to whatever they had planned, so she was dead the moment they caught her. At the very least, she refused to be used as a bargaining tool against her friends. Pouring her chakra into the ground to use the Hiding in a Surface technique, she turned to Karin and shouted, "Surround us so he can't get away!"

Karin hesitated for a moment. Then her extended chains stretched out again and formed a circle that built on itself. Soon a cocoon was formed around them, no way out and leaving them trapped inside as they began slipping beneath the surface.

Not at all expecting the change in dynamics, Ukon looked down on Sakura and demanded, "What are you planning?"

"I'm going to cancel the technique underground," Sakura said as they reached the point where her abdomen was phasing into the ground. The pain, among other things, were slowing her down. But with the cage up it didn't matter as long as she managed to submerge them entirely. "You can guess what'll happen if you're sharing my body then, right?"

The Hiding in a Surface technique allowed one to phase through a surface by suffusing it with chakra, allowing the user to pass through or hide within it. Then the user would use their chakra control to squeeze themselves in and out of the space that was created by the technique. But if you canceled the technique while in a solid surface, it was instant death.

"You're bluffing!" he said with a snarl upon realizing that, since he was joined with her, he'd die as well. His only escape would put him into the cage surrounding them, which had already proven capable of neutralizing his Cursed Seal entirely if it connected.

"I'm going to die anyway at this rate," Sakura said unwaveringly, now up to her chest within the ground. "So, isn't it natural that I'd be willing to sacrifice myself to protect a friend?"

Her eyes, her voice, nothing betrayed that fact. She was going to sacrifice herself if it meant killing him so that Karin didn't have to bear the burden. And so that Sasuke could eventually be brought back to the village.

Realizing that he was now her hostage, all sense of superiority he had disappeared in an instant as the ground swallowed them up to her shoulders. He glared at her murderously before his cowardice won out. All at once, before her head sank beneath the surface, Ukon took the gamble between imprisonment or death and ejected himself from Sakura's body.

The chains immediately closed in, crushing him between the links as they covered him from head-to-toe. The Cursed Seal markings vanished before the full-body bind abruptly shot towards the nearest building and slammed his unempowered body against the wall out of spite. "Agh!"

"Bastard!" Karin called him before dropping his brother onto the ground unceremoniously and leaving Suzaku to watch over him. She then ran over as Sakura squeezed herself out of the ground, body continuing to burn on the inside with a feverish heat. Karin hovered over her with medical chakra lining her hands, running them over her body.

"Ngh… Don't think you've… done yourself any favors here by catching us," the conscious twin stated as he writhed in the hole he'd been thrown into. "It would have been better if you'd just come with—"

His words died as the rattle of a chain drowned it out. Emerging from Karin's backside, the length tore through the fabric of her clothes as it crossed the distance between them. Wrapping itself around his throat, it proceeded to strangle him mercilessly.

Karin's ruby-toned eyes were narrowed. Anger and hate stormed behind them in place of where there had been weakness and hesitation before when Sakura had been taken hostage. Murderous intent that rivaled the look in Sasuke's eyes back when he'd first awoken the Cursed Seal in the Forest of Death sent a chill up Sakura's spine.

She reached up to Karin's shoulders to grab her attention before she could drown in it. "He has information we need. Let's take him alive."

There was a tense moment before Karin exhaled. The murderous eyes softened and the chain choking him abruptly shattered into motes. "Fine."

He gasped for air, streamlets of drool slipping from the corner of his lips, before chuckling between breaths. "Heh…too soft... after all..."

"To get inside of the village someone had to have helped you," Sakura said, addressing him as she sat upright. "Who was it?"

The captive shrugged his shoulders as he continued panting. "Won't matter... soon..."

Sakura waited for him to give a more definite answer than that, but when it was clear he refused to say anything further Karin yanked the chain holding him down. He hit his forehead onto the ground hard enough to draw blood before she flipped him onto his back. Then she dragged him over and put him down like she'd done with his brother.

"…I'm sorry," Karin said, gingerly brushing Sakura's wrist afterwards. It went numb under her touch before she helped Sakura up and over to Suzaku. "Whatever they have planned, it'll take time to go through the normal channels to figure out, so we're going to have to change our plans to get you help as well."

[-oOo-]

"You should at least introduce yourself to him, Princess," Jiraiya said from his seat opposite of his teammate. "He'd appreciate knowing he has a bit more family around."

At the moment, the Toad Sage was trying to convince Tsunade to at least stop by to visit Naruto's party. She was keeping her word about not drinking, and the therapy sessions were helping. But she was acting like a recluse for the most part, rarely leaving her home unless prompted by the Old Man.

While Shizune was growing accustomed to her home again and making a place for herself, Tsunade was still distant enough that he suspected she would leave the first chance she got. She needed new ties to the village to make it more than just a place consisting of buildings and people, but somewhere she truly called home. And Naruto could use more adult figures in his life, so Jiraiya was hoping that it would be a good chance for them to get to know one another—for both of their sakes.

Tsunade, sitting with one leg crossed over the other as she looked at some report of Shizune's, peered up from it and gave him an annoyed glare. "I'm not going to waste my time playing with a bunch of brats, Jiraiya. Quit asking."

As Shizune entered from the kitchen, he turned to her and said, "Back me up on this, Shizune-chan. Princess could spend a little more time with the kids, right?"

The apprentice jostled slightly at being brought into the conversation and having her Lady's eyes turned on her, one brow raised as if daring her to go along with Jiraiya. It was telling that relief came across her face as she turned towards the door at the sound of rampant knocking. She excused herself to go answer, leaving Jiraiya alone with an irate Tsunade that looked as though she was deciding on how best to punt him through the wall.

"Miss Uzumaki!?" Shizune's shocked tone grabbed their attention. They both turned towards the door to see Karin, her clothing dirty and stained with sweat while strands of her red hair were clinging to her forehead. There was a visible bruise on her cheek as well.

Next to her was Naruto's teammate, looking ill and feverish. It didn't look like she could support herself from how she was starting to waver on her feet. "We need... your help..."

Jiraiya rose to his feet, the previous levity in his tone gone. "What happened to you two?"

"Sakura and I were attacked in the Uchiha District by a pair of Cursed Seal users," she explained, gesturing to door where Suzaku was. The bodies were hanging off its back, wrapped in chains. "We were looking for Sasuke Uchiha since he didn't come to the party when they attacked us, after we figured out that he was missing."

Tsunade swore under her breath, a sentiment that Jiraiya shared as Shizune helped Sakura into the home and sat her down before taking a look at her. While that was going on, they got the details from Karin on everything that had transpired. Sasuke Uchiha had been either taken or willingly left the village for a day or more, the captured pair were among those who'd been a part of the group chasing her during the breakout, and there was some plan to destroy the village.

"Someone had to have helped them get into the village, and there's only a handful of people I could be sure weren't involved when we were pressed for time with Sakura's condition. So we came here since I sensed all of you together," Karin finished. "Jiraiya-sama, if you can come with me then we can get the Priestess Mask and I can get the information from their heads right away."

After giving it some thought, Jiraiya agreed with her logic. It was safe to say that at this point someone had to have helped them get past the village's detection system for them to be able to get inside so easily, and for the last Uchiha to vanish without being spotted. And if that was circumvented, what else could they have gotten into? There were a number of things that Orochimaru could be after.

He turned towards Shizune and asked, "How's she look?"

"…His bloodline seems to trigger apoptosis in the body," Shizune said cautiously. "He tricked it into destroy the cells at an accelerated rate and then has his own replicate in their place the longer they were merged. But it could also be necrosis or something else consider her pain. Either way, her body is going into overdrive trying to get rid of the foreign cells and cope with the destruction of some essential ones. She can recover with some help, but I should get her into the hospital as soon as possible."

"Okay, then do that and make sure she's taken care of." The Toad Sage then turned to Tsunade. "Princess, go see the Old Man and tell him everything. Whatever they have planned, its likely to be happening soon. We'll get the information to you as soon as possible."

[-oOo-]

Kiba's ears twitched as a barely audible grumble reached his ears, leaving him to look over to his teammate, Shino. Aburame, in general, were rather calm and collected. That allowed for them to make for rational decisions during times of both war and peace, as well as leave their kikaichu unbothered by the fluctuations in chakra during times of heightened emotions.

So for him to be—for lack of a better term—bugged, meant that something was off. "What's eating at you?"

"The Kikaichu that I've scattered to deal with any mosquitos and other pest in the area are disappearing," he explained. "Something is preying on them."

"Isn't that natural though? They're pretty small, so other bugs could eat them, right?"

"Not in these numbers and within the village. It is... unnatural." His posture shifted as he took a step behind Kiba and turned around so their backs were facing one another. "I wish to investigate it, but I don't want to cause any undue concern."

Kiba didn't think that there was anything, but shrugged. If it set Shino's mind at ease, why not? "All right. I'll keep an ear out."

Shino crouched down and made the Ram Seal as he gathered his chakra into his hand, shaping into the Insect Gathering Technique, before setting his fingers down on the ground in a spread pattern. Strands of chakra shot out of the tenketsu and into the grass and dirt, lingering there to draw in any nearby bugs or subterranean ones that could inform him of his surroundings. It was a good thirty seconds before the ground shifted and worms emerged, drawn in by the technique. Shino listened to it for a moment before he released the technique and stood up again.

"You find something?" Kiba asked.

"There's something abnormal under the ground," he said. "I'll get Hinata to confirm it before notifying the others. But be on-guard."

A slight nod of the head was all the confirmation he gave before Shino started walking towards Hinata, who was nestled between with Tenten and Ino. Girl talk from the sound of it. It was still probably nothing, since this was a training field after all, but it wouldn't hurt to be a little cautious. So Kiba whistled in a low tone for his ninja hound.

Akamaru's head snapped up from his perch on Ayame's lap once it reached his ears and he climbed down, coming over to his partner. He crouched down and patted the puppy on the head, telling him to remain vigilant. However, before Hinata activated her eyes, the ground began to rumble violently.

"What's happening?" Ino asked, startled as she clung to the chair she was sitting in. "Is it an earthquake?"

Any answers she may have received were drowned out as the earth upturned, knocking aside the tables and kicking up dust as it rose. Bodies scrambled away as the shinobi among the group jumped away and landed on their feet, while Ayame was carried off by Naruto in both his arms as he stuck the landing and then darted away as far as he could to safety with her. As the dust veil obscuring their view slowly cleared they found that now looming over them was a giant of stone, with thick limbs composing its arms and legs.

… Okay, wasn't expecting that, the Inuzuka would admit to himself as the golem craned its head around as though it was searching for something. Either way, he was fairly sure that it wasn't supposed to be here.

"Boss! What is this thing?" asked the Hokage's grandson as Naruto deposited Ayame next to him, along with the toads. No sooner than he'd set them down did the golem's gaze fix on him, and it used its hands to scoop up a mound of dirt that compressed with a crumpling sound to form a boulder.

"Not friendly!" Naruto answered before making the cross-seal and conjuring two clones to grab the kid, toads, and Ayame, carrying them off in the opposite directions as the boulder was thrown in his direction. He dove out of the way as it crashed down on where he'd been, half-burying itself into the ground that buckled under the impact.

Then, before he could get back onto his feet, something that flashed golden slammed into him. Tumbling over and back, Naruto let out a short, pained cry before coming to a stop on the ground again. This time his entire abdomen and arms were covered in what looked to be golden webbing, clinging to him and pinning his arms into place no matter how hard he strained. "I can't get free!"

Now on high alert, Rock Lee rushed over to help. But before he could Neji shouted, "Lee, stop!"

He did so just in time as a golden blur whizzed past where his head would have been otherwise and then hit the ground with a thud, revealing it to be an arrow. Kiba whipped his head around to where it'd come from and spotted what looked to be an onrushing carpet of black and red. One of the girls screamed as spiders of various sizes poured from the woodlands surrounding them, crawling forward like an onrushing wave.

That explains what happened to Shino's bugs at least, Kiba thought as Akamaru snarled at the arachnids before turning back towards Naruto as his body was aglow from calling up enough chakra that it was visible. He clearly intended to reinforce his strength and break the bonds, but the attempt was cut short as a pair of arms burst from the ground beneath him and grabbed hold. Another one!

The chakra that Naruto had been getting ready to build up was siphoned from his body and into the arms. They tightened and pulled him down flat against the ground, forcing out his breath. Then the earth crumbled beneath him and he was pulled beneath the surface.

Just like that, Naruto had been taken right before their eyes.

The moment that sank in, Rock Lee turned towards his teammate. "Neji-kun!"

"There's a tunnel beneath the ground!" Neji shouted, his Byakugan active now. "The one who grabbed him is using it to escape while draining his chakra! It looks like its heading off towards the perimeter of the village!"

In other words, it was a kidnapping. Someone had attacked them with the intention of taking their friend—their comrade, and fleeing the village. Even with all the chakra Naruto had, it was useless if it was all drained before he could use it. And chances were they would never see him again by the time they could report it, especially between the spiders and the sniper in hiding.

…Hinata was the first to move, immediately running for the gaping hole as her own Byakugan flared to life, no doubt driven by her own past. "Naruto-kun, hold on!"

A low rumbled bubbled up in the golem's throat at that, as if offended at the attempt to slip through while another arrow flew through the air to meet her charge. Uncaring as the golem slammed its fingers into the ground to pull up more earth and unwilling to stop, she fell into a slide to allow the arrow to narrowly miss her head. Then down into hole she went to chase after Naruto, even as the golem proceeded to wrench free a massive mound of compressed earth in the form of a dumpling and tossed it to crush everything around the hole and plug it.

There was no more time to think. If that hole closed up then they'd lose track of both Naruto and Hinata. He'd lose a friend and a teammate. So, pouring chakra into his legs as he scooped up his ninja pup, Kiba lunged for the gaping hole as Rock Lee entered into it next.

His heart pounded in his chest as the shadow of death expanded beneath them before they managed to pass the mouth of the entrance. Barely. And then there was a deafening crash as the darkness became all-consuming and they fell into the unknown abyss to rescue Naruto before he could be taken away, entrusting the others to hold their own…