*peeks head from around corner*

Please don't kill me. I know I deserve it after abandoning you all for so long, but please, don't kill me. The only acceptable excuse would have been if I was in a coma, which I wasn't. My soul may have been in a coma (I didn't write, read or act anything for almost a year), but I probably could have woken it up for you guys. I should have, and I'm sorry. Please, forgive me.

Well, if you are still reading, a synopsis is in order. Last chapter: Karin and Juugo broke Sasuke out of ANBU HQ, where he was being punished for crimes against Konoha. Naruto's twin sister Tama had been kidnapped by Akatsuki. A group of Jounins, including her parents, were sent out to save her, but at the meeting place no one showed and Kiba revealed her trail away was several days old. Tama had been taken by Kabuto/Orochimaru, who had tried to artificially inseminate her. And that is the cliffie I left you dangling off of for so long.

I know a couple of people asked me if they could draw scenes from the story and that's fine. My e-mail went kaplooey so I can't look up who, but if you asked, go ahead, just mention it's from my story in writing. Thanks!

Again, SORRY.

I don't have work on the weekends, so I'll update this sucker on Monday.

Also, if anyone lives in the Cleveland/Columbus area and wants a free kitten (whose fixing and vaccinations would already be taken care of) my cousins need to get rid of three. So, message me! I'm desperate here people.

Chapter 3

Sasuke ran as fast as his legs could move, but without chakra, and with the sedatives that had been pumped into his system by the damned Konoha ANBU, that wasn't all too fast. The buildings of the cursed city weren't flying by nearly as quickly as he wanted them too.

And he wanted out. Besides having been held prisoner for crimes that were quite justified, considering he was an avenger, the streets were full of Narutos. Hundreds, possibly thousands of the blond idiots were running through Konoha, causing havoc. He had to keep his head down and make sure none of them spotted his signature hairstyle, or he'd be done for. Fighting off one demonic moron was bad enough, he didn't want a whole mob's "affection."

Just as Sasuke's tolerance was reaching a breaking point, where he would have grabbed the nearest kunai and started hacking through the shadow clones—chakra or no chakra—Juugo grabbed him around the middle and heaved him up. With that, Sasuke, Karin, and Sasuke's current mode of transport began flying over rooftops.

He let out a grunt of satisfaction as at last—and hopefully for the last time—he was beyond the city walls. If the guards on duty had noticed them slipping by with all of the commotion, due in part to Naruto and part to what was probably Suigetsu's diversion, they dismissed it. They would undoubtedly be punished for letting him escape. A smirk rose to his lips as he imagined them scrubbing out his empty cell as penalty.

The trio went a little ways north out of the city, enough to avoid the patrols. Eventually, Juugo set Sasuke down in a small clearing. Karin swooped in like a redheaded vulture before his feet hit the ground, fussing over the frustrated Uchiha.

"Oh, Sasuke!" she screeched.

He winced. His ears were sensitive to annoying pitches.

"What did they do to you? I could barely feel your chakra when we were in Konoha. What did they do? Did they steal it from you? Those bastards would do that, I bet. Do you still have your Sharingan?"

He silenced her with an exasperated glare. "They sealed my chakra as part of my punishment."

She ranted for a few minutes about them. Her invectives focused mostly on their birthright and intelligence and were mild compared to his. If he had bothered to voice his contempt. He didn't have to. Actions were louder than words and he would show his disdain for the whole of his former village when the time came.

As he briefly envisioned his revenge on the council, Karin finished with a huff, her face and hair having become a matching hue. She eventually spun back to face him. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Can you break seals?"

"Well, no, but—"

"Then there is nothing you can do."

"We know someone who can," Juugo said.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. The catalogue of seal masters was very small, and most of them were associated with villages. They wouldn't really agree to help a missing nin and damage their relations with the powerful Leaf.

"Oh yes!" Karin agreed enthusiastically. "He will be able to help us."

"What is his name?"

Juugo stepped in before Karin could launch into a convoluted explanation to a simple question. "Tobi. He is with Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki." A heartbeat of dead silence followed the word. "You associated with Akatsuki?"

"It was the best way to get you out," Karin explained, stepping close to him. She reeked of perfume, a scent utterly unbecoming a ninja. Though he was hard-pressed to qualify her as a ninja. "Besides, they approached us, not the other way around. We know how much you hate Akatsuki because of him."

"Why would Akatsuki bother with you?" He didn't bother to correct her assumption.

"Tobi wants you." Juugo's succinct answer once again thankfully cut off any of Karin's noise.

Sasuke's mind raced through the implications. It was certain that this Tobi person wanted him alive, probably for the Sharingan. It was therefore unlikely that he would be killed on sight. Once his chakra was unleashed, overcoming Akatsuki would be a minor inconvenience. Most of them had no defense against the Sharingan, much less the Mangekyo.

"We will go to Akatsuki and have my chakra unsealed."

"And then what?" Karin wondered as she matched his pace.

He ignored her. "Where were we supposed to meet Suigetsu?"

Her face fell, as if she had been hoping that he would forget about their fishy teammate. She gestured to the northwest. "Oh, that way. But it's not like we need him. All he does is complain and slow us down. He's not even any good in a fight."

"Juugo?"

"Two miles out of the northwest gate."

"Let's get him," Sasuke decided, disregarding Karin's indignation as always. "And then go meet Akatsuki."

Her eyes tracked the creature as he paced across the small cell. She couldn't really call him a "man." At the same time, she couldn't describe his movement as walking. Sometimes, he practically slithered as he paced, other times he moved with sharp, measured precision, and there were other moments when he seemed to freeze and jerk for a second. She assumed these were times when his two halves were fighting for control.

Tama pushed aside the shock value of his words for the moment. It was too staggering to fully comprehend. He was fretting over something now, having announced her pregnancy.

She leaned back on the wall and rested a hand over her stomach. She didn't feel pregnant. And that wasn't just her denial talking. A fetus' chakra was distinctly different from its mother's. It might've been too early to tell, but Tama could detect no deviation of her chakra flow.

A frown creased her face. What had he said? "You'll be having those problems for another eight or nine weeks." Morning sickness usually ended with the first trimester, twelve weeks in. If his timeline was correct, she should be just about four weeks along.

She'd met pregnant women before. Even when they hadn't known they were pregnant, she could tell by their chakra that something was off. Things started changing the instant the embryo implanted itself in the uterus wall, which was under four weeks.

If Tama was pregnant, she should feel something. Either the fetus had no chakra, or she wasn't pregnant.

Her green eyes again drifted to the thing that was occupying the cell with her. He was the only one who knew what was going on, but she wondered how stable was the information in the two halves of his brain—which apparently couldn't agree on some issues.

He wasn't paying any attention to her, still arguing with himself. The cell she was in was small, made of some sort of stone. That eliminated her simply charging through it. There was only one door, which could be sealed shut and locked from the outside. Tama chewed her lip. Even if she could get past him and out the door—which was questionable in her currently weak state—she had no idea the layout of the compound she was in, or how many guards would be there.

Panic rose with the thought that she would be trapped in here forever. Even if this embryo he'd implanted hadn't survived, once the creature realized it, he would try again. His form of madness was obsession-based. He wouldn't stop until it worked.

Her stomach rolled at the prospect and she only managed to settle it with a great effort. Though dread still tightened a knot in her stomach, Tama stiffened her resolve. She was Uzumaki Tama. There was no way that some half-and-half psycho was going to hold her hostage for long.

The thing's creepy laugh broke into her thoughts and brought her back to the present. "Oh, I recognize that look, oh yesss I do. How many times have I seen it?"

Tama's eyes narrowed. "Oh? I think I would remember seeing you. You've a distinct pair of faces."

"Oh, we've never met," he agreed. "And I must admit, that stubborn face was quite a surprise. You don't really resemble him."

She remained silent, though her mind was spinning. Who was he talking about? Her father? Twin brother? Both were dead, last she heard. There had been rumors about the two of them coming back to life somehow in the past few weeks, but Tama was loathe to believe them.

"Yes, the Jinchuuriki has quite the will when he puts his mind to it. No talent to be a ninja, which is a shame considering his considerable chakra. Many times he's foiled my plans, or thought he has."

The thing giggled.

"He was playing into my hands all along. Of course, then Sasuke had to go and kill me, the little Uchiha brat. What a combination. It was my plan the entire time, from the instant I learned that Kushina—your mother—had a very special form of energy. Green energy, that was more refined than chakra. More powerful, too."

Mismatched eyes found her on her cot. "I want that power. I also want the Sharingan. Can you imagine the Sharingan powered by your spirit energy?"

He was lost in thought for a time. Tama mulled over his words. Apparently, this thing was trying to mix Areah Broah with Sharingan and probably a few other random things as well. The embryo—she refused to think of it as a child—was a mash-up of genetics. Partly from her, partly from the Uchiha clan and probably from him as well.

Tama silently breathed a sigh of relief. This thing wanted a powerhouse of chakra. Even in the fetal stage, if he had succeeded, she would feel something.

"The original plan was for the Kyuubi." She tuned back in to what he was saying, hoping to glean some information from his rambling. "After Akatsuki had sucked the demon out of him, his genes would have been permanently altered by the presence of demonic chakra. The only thing he didn't have was the Sharingan, but the Yondaime's pupil proved that could be transferred with at least partially successful results." It laughed hysterically for a moment. "Pupil! Oh, the puns. Student and eye."

It no doubt would have continued talking to her, rather at her, but at that moment, someone banged on the door. Tama couldn't fathom who would possibly help this creature, but it apparently had assistants of some kind. It hurried to the door and leaned down, listening to a murmuring voice.

Two-Face turned and smiled at her, sending chills down the girl's spine. "I'll be back, my dear. Take good care of our baby. Oh, and don't attempt any abortions. Unless you manage to destroy your uterus, I'll simply try again. And if you do cease to be useful, you'll die."

With that, the thing left her alone in her cell. She almost sighed with relief, but the stench would have made her retch. Instead she just smirked and rested a hand over her stomach again. Nope, there was no chakra other than hers. The first try had failed.

How long would it be until he tried again? It sounded like he wanted a monster, some sort of super weapon. For what purposes, she didn't know, but she'd read enough books. Weapons of the magnitude he implied, with demonic chakra, spirit energy, Sharingan, and whatever he was, were never for benign or benevolent purposes. Generally speaking, obsessive, schizophrenic megalomaniacs with plans for powerful weapons wanted to take over the world. Occasionally destroy it, but she'd always had a hard time believing someone really wanted to destroy the world. It wasn't practical. They'd die as well.

So, the creature probably had designs of world domination and he wanted something that would be able to take on the five Kages and defeat them.

Tama blew out a breath and put a stop to her imaginative ramblings. There was no proof of anything, except that this thing was very patient. She knew a bit about the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. He was around her age, so this thing had been planning the creation of a weapon for at least seventeen years.

There was really only one way to prevent it. She had to escape him and blow this facility to high heaven. Preferably kill the creature, but its chakra though unstable was exceedingly powerful.

Still, she mused, there were ways around that. There were herbs that could mess with someone's chakra. Actually, they screwed with the chakra path in the body, but it ended up being the same thing. The problem was how to get the herbs into him?

Tama leaned back against the rough, hard wall. She had a lot of thinking and planning to do.

Everyone but Minato flinched as yet another tree exploded. He realized that Kushina was tearing the surrounding forest to bits in her rage, and that the area near the Heaven and Earth Bridge would probably never be the same when she was through with it.

"Shouldn't we advise her to save her anger for the Akatsuki and whoever they gave Tama to?" Genma asked.

Kakashi chuckled. "She'll still have plenty when we find them, don't worry."

The senbon bobbed as Genma thoughtfully gnawed on it. He watched as she punched her way through the trunk of another tree, sending it crashing to the ground. "Tsunade taught her, didn't she?"

Kushina let out a final bellow of rage and slammed her fist into a boulder. The chakra explosion turned it to dust. Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "How could you tell?"

A smirk flitted across the other Jounin's face, but it quickly vanished. "Why are we here instead of going after this guy that grabbed Tama?"

"Because we are being played," Minato replied. Everyone in the newly-formed clearing turned to look at him. He glanced up, ensuring he had their attention, and continued. "Akatsuki and this Kabuto person have been manipulating us. We have so far regularly walked right into the traps they have set. This pattern must stop. We need to take control of this situation and stop letting them dictate the rules."

Silence reigned until Kushina broke it. "Obviously this meeting was a ruse. But to what purpose? And why did you say 'traps,' as in more than one?" She planted her fists, red and raw from the pummeling they'd just delivered, on her hips.

He regarded her for a minute, then leaned back. "Just a theory I'm developing. The purpose of this meeting was simply to get us out of Konoha, for whatever reason."

"Do you think they're after Naruto?" Kiba asked, lifting his head. He had been lounging on his stomach watching Kushina's impressive destructive spree.

Minato frowned. "It could be, but that just doesn't feel right."

"Why are we just sitting here while they're in Konoha?" Kushina demanded, stomping back to the group.

"That's what they'd expect us to do," Minato said. "And they certainly would have made their move by now, so it's too late for us to prevent anything." A frown creased his brow and he sank back into thought for a moment. "If they have Naruto, it will take them time to transport him and to break the seal. That gives us time to save him. Kakashi, send one of your nin dogs to circle Konoha and find Naruto's trail, if he has left the city."

Kakashi nodded, but added, "I'll send two. One for Naruto and one for Sasuke."

"Uchiha?" Kiba sneered. He was still pissed at the guy. Kiba and Akamaru had almost died trying to bring the jerk back years ago and what did they get? Nothing. Not even a thank you. Talk about rude. "Why? There's no way he could escape. Not with all the ways the council tied him down."

"Akatsuki might want him," Kakashi said. With that he turned and pulled out a scroll to summon more dogs. Kiba shrugged, rolled over and started talking to Akamaru.

Kushina threw herself down next to Minato. "I should have known this wouldn't be easy. I always got in trouble around you. More dangerous missions, people you'd pissed off trying to kill you, other Jounins jealous of your ability. And you always knocked drinks over in restaurants."

A ghost of a smile flitted across his face. "I thought I'd never impress you. But as I recall, you were the magnet for trouble as well. Simple missions became difficult. A pleasant night out would turn into a brawl at a seedy bar."

She grunted and pulled out a kunai, spinning it around her fingers. "We survived it all somehow, and managed to pass on the tendency for trouble to our kids. 'Cept theirs is bigger and more likely to kill them."

Minato reached out and stilled her nervous kunai-twirling. It had been a dead giveaway years ago, and it still was. He smiled at her. "Like you said, we survived somehow. They will too."

"How?" Kushina demanded, digging her heel into the dirt. She shot him a look. "We never had to deal with Akatsuki."

"I don't know," he admitted. His eyes drifted up to the sky, the bright patterns of stars. They were still a wonder to him, even more so now that he'd been in the Shinigami for years. There was no sky there, no moon or stars or sun. Seeing the sparkling gems in the night sky reminded him that he'd come back from the dead. Anything was possible. "I don't know how, but they'll be fine. I have faith in them."

I'm a bit rusty. As I said I hadn't written anything for a while. When I did sit down to continue this, I'd plum forgotten where all of my plot lines were going. Had to remember/make up stuff.

So, ah, review, please?

Feel free to throw rotten vegetables, but preferably nothing sharp like knives or spears. Thanks!