"Wait," Kakashi held his hand out. The silver haired jonin curiously watched Pakkun sniff around. "Do you smell anything?"

The dark brown pug sniffed some more. "Are we going to Suna or are we going to follow Naruto's trail. If we really move, we could catch up to him in a couple of hours."

Kakashi frowned with thought. After a few moments, he answered with, "Our mission is to rescue the Kazekage. I'm sure Naruto is already on top of that, so it would be best to follow his trail." The jonin turned toward Neji, Sakura, and Shikamaru. "Will the three of you be able to pick up the pace or do you want to rest for bit?"

The trio exchanged looks before Sakura spoke up. "We can rest after we catch up with Naruto."

"Kakashi nodded. "Then let's hurry."

...

Naruto sighed as he placed his hands on his hips. He had anticipated the Akatsuki on having some tricks up their sleeves but not like this. Itachi had used a psuedo-possession technique on an important Suna shinobi, causing him to stop and disable 'Itachi'. And now he and Chiyo were stopped by a giant boulder with what appeared to be sealed by a powerful network of seals.

"What do we do now?" She asked after a while.

Naruto frowned and rubbed his chin. "We could always disable the seals and break the boulder. But more importantly, I think we should devise a plan for when we bypass the boulder and seals."

Chiyo gave him a hard look. "What do you mean?"

"It hasn't exactly been three days, so they're still inside sealing Shukaku. Once we open the entrance, we're going to have to quickly take down Sasori and Diedara. Then we're going to have to get Gaara medical attention."

The elder nodded. "If we interrupt the extraction of Shukaku, where would we take the Kazekage to give him medical attention?"

"If it's alright with you, I was going to summon a shadpw clone and have it summon one of my wolves. Then the clone would have the wolf go back and have him and Gaara reverse summoned to where the wolf summons forest is. After that, the clone would summon Phoebe to heal Gaara." Naruto grimaced at Chiyo's skeptical expression. "I swear to you that the wolves will protect Gaara."

"Fine," Chiyo relctantly agreed . "How do you plan to rescue Kazekage-sama before we fight Sasori and Diedara?"

"I know I said it would be nest to destroy the seals and the boulder, but I just got a better idea."

The Elder arched her eyebrow. "What did you have in mind?"

Naruto smirked. "I was thinking..."

...

"How troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled as Kakashi's summon led them though yet another winding trail. 'I never thought I'd see this many thorns outside of Ino's family shop.'

Neji silently activated his byakugan. "It isn't much further. I can now see Naruto's chakra signature and someone else's chakra."

"Does it appeared to be someone we know?" Kakashi asked from in front of them.

Neji frowned. "I don't think so."

"Didn't Tsunade-sama say he stopped in Suna first? Maybe one of their shinobi is with him." Gai asked Kakashi.

"Naruto stopped in Sun a first?! How did he there so fast and still be ahead of us?!" Sakura asked in shock.

"You'll have to ask him, we're here." Kakashi said. The Konoha shinobi landed in a puddle of water near Naruto and an elderly woman. The two were standing around a massive, freshly dug hole.

Before anyone could say anything, an emotionless, female voice inturupted. "Master, a barrier is stopping me from continuing my tunnel further. What shall I do?"

"That's one hell of a barrier." Naruto muttered before shouting, "I know exactly what's happening Virgo, so hang on for a bit." He gave an annoued sigh as he ran his fingers through his messing bangs, that fell in his face. (His hair is like Shizou from 'Durarara!') He turned to Chiyo. "It looks like we'll have to disable the barrier after all."

Kakashi raised his hand. "Wait, can we stop and catch up before you disarm the barrier?"

Naruto took note of the shinobi before giving an apologetic smile. "Right, that would help a bit." He gestured toward Chiyo. "This is Lady Chiyo who is an Elder from Suna that insisted on coming with me. We tracked the two Akatsuki memebers that took Gaara to this cave here. It hasn't been three days yet so the extraction process is still going on. We need to disable the barrier and quickly get Gaara out of there so he can get medical attention."

"Do you have any idea how to take care of the seals?" Kakashi asked, examining the lowest seal on the boulder.

"Actually I do. With this type of seal, the barrier would only be disable d through the destuction of the conjoining seals. And considering it was Sasori that set this up, there's probably some trap guarding the conjoining seals."

Kakashi frowned. "So I guess you don't support the idea of disabling the seals and then destoying the boulder."

Naruto snorted. "Of course not. After talking with Chiyo, we eventually decided that would be a reckless plan. It would divide us, and we also have to consider the trap that Sasori set up for the linked seals." The blonde looked at everyone. "We need all of our stregnth when we go against Sasori and Diedara."

"Of course. So what did you have in mind, Naruto?"

"Um Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto turned in mild surprise to see Sakura. He hadn't even noticed the older girl since the Konoha shinobi arrived.

"What is it Sakura?"

"Why are you asking Naruto for a plan? Isn't that why we have Shikamaru here? And besides, Naruto's just a genin and you're our team leader?" She watched in confusion with Lee, Shikamaru, and Neji as Naruto gave Kakashi a wicked glare all whilst the jonin gave a nervous chuckle.

"You didn't tell them?" Don't you think that's an important piece of important information for this mission?" He hissed, intensifying his glare.

"I figured it was your place to tell them."

Naruto growled before averting his attention to Lee, Shikamaru, Neji, and Sakura. "Long story short, I'm a special jonin," He gave Sakura a slight smirk."And I am a joint leader off this mission. So yeah." He gave everyone a serious look. "The first thing we need to go over the plan. I'm going to disable the barrier seal with an alternate way. Virgo is going to finish tunneling under the ground and into the cave, so we can sneak in. Nyx will veil our pressence with her darkness so you guys can surprise Sasori and Diedara while I get Gaara. I'm going to have a shadow clone summon one of my wolves and have him reverse summon them, and he can get medical treatment. Then I can help defeat Sasori and Diedara. Sound like a plan?" Naruto took note of the calculating look at Shikamaru's face. "What's your question, Shika?"

"Who are Virgo and Nyx? If you're trying to be inconspicuous about this, why would you have such a massive hole dug?"

"It's too complicated to wholly explain, and it's the same explanation why the hole's so big. Just accept it and I'll explain later."

"If you say so, but what's the alternate way you were going to destroy the seals on the boulder?"

Naruto smirked. "You'll see." He took a strange amulet from around his neck. It looked like a fox-like head with an oval, pale purple-blue stone near the top. "Help us out, Springer*." A black, fox-like head icon appeared before a grey-brown fox-like creature materialized in front of Naruto. It's purple-blue eyes curiously looked at the gathered shinobi before it's eyes focused on Naruto wagged all four of it's tails before climbing up the blonde.

"What is that thing?" Sakura asked as she watched Naruto affectionately rub the odd creature's head.

Naruto looked offended. "Springer is not a thing. He is a titan."

"It's still creepy looking." Sakura grumbled, emerald eyes still trained on it. "Anyway, what can it do?"

"He can destroy any trap or puzzle. Can't you buddy?" He cooed with affection. He cleared his throat awkwardly after he took note of the odd looks he had gotten. "Anyway, Spinger, destroy the seal on the boulder." The titan jumped from the blonde's shoulder and scurried to the boulder. He examined the seal. Springer's claws became surrounded by pale purple engery and usd it to unraval the seal. The seal tag the titan had worked on burst into pale purple flames before the other three tags followed suit. Spring ran back to Naruto, who was crouching down, waiting for him.

"You did a good job buddy. I'll summon you once we get home." The titan nodded before turning into a a ball of pale purple energy and returning to his amulet. Naruto went over to the large hole. "Virgo, you can continue digging now!" He quickly backed away as dirt shot from the hole.

"Hey Naruto-kun," the blonde looked at Lee. "Why is that hole so big? Surely a smaller one would do."

"For us it would, but something else is going through."

"What else is going through it?"

Before Naruto could answer, Virgo yelled, "Master, I have finished the tunnel. I also applied the silencing seals in the tunnel and inside the cave."

"Are they still..." Naruto's voice softly trailed off.

"Yes. He is barely alive. I believe they are almost done." Naruto roughly swallowed. Sakura watched him with worry as a myraid of emotions crossed his face. 'He and Gaara must have really bonded while he was away.'

"Naruto, we're going to rescue him."

"Of course we are." Sakura softly smiled when a look of determination overtook his face. "Virgo, thank you for your help. You can go back now and tell Phoebe to be prepared."

"Yes, Master."

"I suppose you're going to ask if I am ready." A haughty, female voice stated.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Why even bother if you already know?" He mutter with a biting edge in his voice. "Are you though?"

"Of course, but are all of you?"

Naruto looked over his shoulder. "Are you guys ready?" The Konoha shinobi and Chiyo moved next to him.

"I think I can speak for us all and say yes, we're ready" Kakashi answered.

"Alright, then one last thing." The blonde gave everyone, save Chiyo, serious looks. "When we get in, don't take your eyes off of Sasori. He has tons of tricks up his sleeves. But more importantly, if you look behind me at the wrong moment, you'll the whole plan."

Shikamaru frowned. "Which you won't tell us because..."

"Because Sasori is highly observant and we refuse to take any risk that might ruin this trump card." Chiyo finished.

"If you insist." Shikamaru muttered.

"Then let's go."

*Springer's full description: A fox-like titan with low combat abilities; it is mostly suited fpr espionage, puzzle solving, and trap disabling. Is mostly grey-brown brown. It has beige, bushy tails tipped in grey-brown and three beige, short stripes on the top of its head. It has a humanoid body, like the Kyuubi and mostly stands on his long, hind feet. It has has bushy grey-brown fur covering the lower half of its arms that are near its claws. It has black scrella and pale, blue-purple irises. It has a short white stripe under each of its eyes. A tress of black fur is curled at the end of each ear, like a 'c'.

(A/N: I'm sorry for taking so long to post this chapter. I took me a while to figure out that I wanted to just seperate this arc in three part. Just to warn you, the battle between Sasori and Diedara vs. Naruto and everyone else is probably going to be a little lackluster than compared to canon. But anyway, I hope you you enjoyed this chapter and I will post the next one when I finish editing it. Please review.)