Naruto gaped at the three standing around him. Their Jinchuriki too, Naruto thought in amazement. But wait, how did the Akatsuki know? Nevermind, they're the Akatsuki, they know everything. There was one thing that was bugging the hell out of Naruto, no matter how much his mind raced, and that was what were they all doing here?
Naruto no longer had the Kyuubi and he was sure of it. He couldn't sense that demon's chakra anywhere in his body. He had assumed Akatsuki had taken it out of him, but Sasuke had come and interrupted the ceremony early, therefore saved Naruto from dying. Yet here were the Akatsuki, claiming they would take the Kyuubi from Naruto. Was it a lie? Was there some other purpose for coming here? Naruto looked at his saviors and wondered, maybe this was a trap to capture the rest of the Jinchuriki.
At the moment, there was no time to think about that. Naruto had to get away and back to the village before anyone had succeeded in capturing him. Seeing as no one was paying attention to him, Naruto found the perfect opportunity. Ignoring the blinding pain from his broken rib, he stood up quietly and slowly disappeared into the woods. The two groups were so focused on each other, no one noticed Naruto's absence.
"As exciting as it would be to beat all of you down, we have a time restraint," The girl said. Her companions nodded in agreement. They could feel a small force approaching their area. They had to grab the kyuubi container and go, but first they must incapacitate Akatsuki.
"There's no way we're letting an opportunity like this slide, " Itachi said, activating his sharingan. Most people would by now start freaking out but the girl simply smiled, making her look almost terrifying with the maniacal look in her eye.
"Silly boy with your silly little jutsu," The girl said. Her companions smirked at her. She always knew the right buttons to push to piss everyone off. "You should know that illusions don't work against an illusionary monster." There was an explosion and from the girl came a giant vicious looking dog. She stood behind him with the darkest look on her eyes controlling him. The akatsuki were dead, or as good as dead, and were easily dying by the murderous intent screaming off the Jinchuriki.
No, it wasn't really happening. Itachi couldn't see through the genjutsu but he knew it wasn't real. No Jinchuriki had come so far as to call out their bijuu and this was just a distraction. In reality, the girl turned to the two guys as the Akatsuki were frozen in the genjutsu.
"I don't know how long that will last," The girl said biting her lip. "I was only able to do it because I caught them off guard."
"Right so lets get the hell out of here," said the older of the two as he sheathed his sword on his back. They all nodded in agreement as they turned to the kyuubi container.
Who was not there.
And was nowhere to be found.
"Dammit!" The man yelled.
"What do we do?" The girl asked anxiously.
"We hurry," The younger of the two men said. "He couldn't have gotten far, he was pretty badly injured."
"Right." They quickly left, leaving the Akatsuki to fight the genjutsu.
Naruto was having diffuculities. He was already weak from his illness, and now exhausted from training, along with seriously injured. His broken rib was disturbing his breathing making him take shallow breaths. He wasn't getting enough oxygen and it was impairing his ability to see. It was irritating as he was getting so close to the village, and could even recognize Sasuke's signature chakra coming at him but he couldn't run to him. He stumbled through the trees, getting weaker with each step.
Finally, no longer able to walk, Naruto stumbled and slid down a tree, his vision getting blurry and dark. He felt regret, as he had come out here without telling anyone, when they had constantly worried about him. Now he felt like he betrayed them, betrayed their trust, their friendship, everything. As his vision deterred, he could see them all standing in the trees, looking at him. He looked at the one face that had helped him the most, and felt darkness take his heart.
"Sasuke, I'm sorry," Naruto whispered. Darkness took his vision and without much more fighting, Naruto fell unconscious.
--
It was against regulations, considering he had been suspended, but Sasuke be damned if he was going to sit around when Naruto was in trouble. He was the first one to sense it too and immediately ran after him. No sooner did he leave did Sakura, Lee, and Kiba join him and now they were all running to the training ground.
They were nearly there when suddenly, the extreme overload of chakra disappeared. Sasuke felt a sense of dread and sped up. His friends fought to keep up but Sasuke arrived on the training grounds first and saw something that terrorized him most of all – nothing.
No one was on the training grounds though it was quite obvious someone had. Sasuke looked around feeling the mix of chakra that remained there. It was faint but Sasuke could feel it; Akatsuki's different chakra.
"Where is he?" Sakura asked. She looked worriedly around and examined the demolished ground. Kiba had Akamaru sniff the ground as Lee helped Sakura look. Sasuke didn't say anything. He was busy thinking about why the Akatsuki would attack Naruto. He was so lost in his thoughts, he barely noticed the rest of the former rookie 9 show up along with Neji and Tenten.
"What happened here?" Neji asked.
"We don't know." Sakura said. "We were just in the village when we felt the disturbance."
Sasuke decided it would be best not to share his thoughts until Kiba finished his scanning. Sasuke felt a strange combination of chakra in the area, some he had never felt before and might be able to better come to a conclusion if he had more information.
"This is bad," Tenten said looking at the giant hole in the ground. She turned her eyes to everyone in the group and frowned. "Where's Naruto?"
"I don't know. I thought he was out here, but there's no sign of him." Sakura said. Sasuke turned to her.
"He was out here," He informed her. Everyone's eyes widened in unison.
"How do you know?"
"His chakra's faint but I can sense it."
"Then where is he Sasuke?" Sakura asked, a hint of hysteria in her voice. Sasuke turned away from her, unable to look her in the eye anymore.
"I don't know."
Suddenly Akamaru barked and growled. "What is it boy?" Kiba asked as he crouched down. Akamaru barked a few times until Kiba stood up and turned gravely to everyone else.
"Akatsuki were here and Akamaru thinks they might've taken Naruto." Kiba stated. Everyone gasped and Sasuke closed his eyes, feeling like someone had stabbed him in the heart.
Hurray chapter done! So I tried not to rush on this one but I might've. I don't know. Let me know ways to fix whatever I did that screwed it up! Anyways next chapter I go into explanation about the other Jinchuriki and what they can do and why Naruto is sick. Sorry for the short chapter. I'll try to make it longer next time! Seeya!