Disclaimer: I wouldn't write this if I OWNED Naruto. It'd be a side-story that occurred if I DID own Naruto, which I don't. I DO own the idea behind this story and the Darkness village, Darkness ninja and the Yamikage.

Authoress' Note: Apologies for the lateness of this chapter. I was bogged down with english literature coursework, theatre studies practical exam...and the stress that is my rubbish life. So this chapter is longer than the others and hopefully I will make all chapters this length or longer in the future. The next chapter will be up by Monday evening, that's a promise. Please enjoy this chapter and leave a review after you read it. Also, quick note: I know vague bits of Japanese, so my Kage for the Darkness village is called 'Yamikage'. However, this is possibly incorrect, but I have no way of knowing for sure. Do ignore my rubbish-ness when it comes to Japanese terminology.

Chapter 4

Sakura gazed at the sweltering hot desert with distant eyes. She wasn't directly looking at the scenery, but she was in fact deep in thought. She knew that when Naruto returned, the both of them would be searching for Sasuke once more. She had not idea what they would do once they found him though; he made it clear that he didn't want to go back voluntarily. She didn't want to hurt Sasuke, but it wasn't because she still had a crush on him. Her crush was long gone and now she just wished to rescue her friend and team mate. The longer he stayed with Orochimaru, the less likely the chance that he would be still be alive when she and Naruto found him.

"Oh Sasuke…" she whispered quietly, sadly.

Automatically she lifted a heavy hand up to brush some droplets of sweat off of her forehead. Sakura knew that she could never love Sasuke anymore, but she would rather die than let Orochimaru steal Sasuke's body! The mere thought of the snake sannin using Sasuke's body for his own sickened her to the core.

Sakura curled her hands into fists and frowned, "I won't let it happen. Naruto and I…we'll save you Sasuke. You belong with us…" she hissed, still quietly, but with anger instead.

The pink-haired ninja blinked back any unwanted tears, glanced briefly at the sun to check its position, and then hollered to her other two team mates, "Let's go people! The Sand village is only 30 minutes away!"

Her companions groaned but complied and all three young women once again trudged through the sand to reach the Sand village, where they would be spending at least a day and night there.

In the puppet storehouse, Darkness village

Slowly, but surely, the red-haired puppet master was going insane – or at least more insane than he already was. Each time the door opened he watched a few ninja carry out puppets, and he was only counting down the minutes until he would be taken too. The number of puppets in the building was decreasing at a rapid rate and before long Sasori was the only 'puppet' left in the store house. One of the darkness ninja slid the screen door all the way open, walked in and looked in every corner for more puppets to take.

The bulky man grunted, "Looks like the only one left is this thing. Guess it'll do."

The large man approached Sasori and took a hold of one corner of the net still covering the puppet master. He tugged on the net and roughly began to pull the red-haired ninja out of the storehouse and into the village streets.

Sasori let his eyes remain still, but he took in everything he could and stored the information for a later use. From what he could assume, he was being taken to the Kage's building. He took note of the fact that the ninja here were few in number and he couldn't locate too many normal villagers. Ahead, he could see the rest of the darkness ninja hauling the other puppets towards the Kage building and entering it via a secluded entrance in the side. The Akatsuki member knew that they were plotting something huge because of their collection of puppets, but he had no idea what the plan was yet. Perhaps being taken inside would allow him to work out the motives of these ninja and possibly find a way to escape. He hoped so…

After a good ten minutes Sasori was pulled into the Kage's building and then dragged carelessly up a flight of stairs. With the amount of times his body had been bashed against rocks, roots and steps the puppet master didn't doubt he looked like hell. There were probably lots of scratches and cracks on his puppet body and his cloak was most likely in need of a sewing job. More work for Sasori once he returned back to the base. If he ever did that is.

His journey up the jagged stairs ended not long after it began and his captor pulled him into a large chamber where the other puppets were also held. He dumped him at random and then left the room, leaving Sasori squashed against some quite hideous looking old man puppet.

"The least they could have done was prop me up by the wall somewhere…" he grumbled quietly and closed his eyelids to block out the sight of the repulsive puppet.

That's when he heard voices from down the hallway he had just been dragged through and they sounded gleeful, "I heard they're sending for some Leaf ninja to investigate the disappearances. The Lord Yamikage has given the order to capture and change the ninja when they get within our borders. I can't wait!"

Another excited voice spoke up, "Apparently they're all girls, so they had better be pretty! Not like those ugly villagers we had to change."

Sasori could tell they were the voices of men, but he cared more about the little piece of information they had just handed to him by accident. If the ninja were from the Leaf village, then perhaps he had some chance of escape. They wouldn't know his identity, so he could easily persuade one of them to take the net off of his body and then he could escape without ever being noticed. The idea wasn't perfect, not by a long shot, but at least he had some hope for gaining freedom from these freaky ninja and their bizarre village.

At the Sand village

"Ah, we made it! Cool bath here I come!" Ino exclaimed while she darted for the nearest bathhouse in the village.

Hinata perked up at the mention of a bath and turned to her team leader, "Um…Sakura, would it be okay if I went too?"

Sakura smiled at her friend and nodded her head, "You go do what you need to. I have to inform Gaara…um I mean the Kazekage that we've arrived here."

The pink-haired ninja watched her friend take off after Ino, and then she sighed heavily and marched with barely any energy to the Kazekage's building. There were a couple of ninja guarding the entrance, but they didn't give Sakura any problems when she quickly showed them the mission documents Tsunade had given her. She walked through the corridors and up some stairs, all the while noticing that this building was identical to the one in the Leaf village.

"I guess they had the same architect…" she giggled softly at her own words, gaining odd looks from passers-by.

Her feet eventually carried her to the office of the Kazekage and she knocked once on the door. A gruff "enter" was the only response she received, so Sakura turned the door handle and pushed the stone door open. There sat at his desk, with all the Kazekage robes draped over his too small form, was Gaara. He appeared busy with some important looking documents, so Sakura chose to remain silent and wait for him to notice her instead.

Without even looking up he impatiently demanded, "What do you want? I'm busy at the moment so you'll have to come back later."

Sakura smiled slightly and then decided it was time to talk, "I guess you must be really busy if you don't even look up at the person who enters the room."

Gaara halted in his writing and looked up at Sakura, surprised to find it was her who had entered his office. She was smiling so he assumed her words were light-hearted and not meant for offence. He stood up and moved to the front of his desk, still shocked that the pink-haired girl was there.

"What are you doing here?" he finally blurted out.

Sakura withdrew her documents and held them out for Gaara to take. His blue eyes read over what each document had written on it, and then his face seemed to take on a darker expression. He gave them back to Sakura and then turned to his desk to find something – Sakura had no idea what though. When he faced her again he had a crudely written note in his pale hands.

"This arrived an hour ago from the western borders of our nation. It's from the leader of those who are responsible for the missing villagers. He calls himself the Yamikage. He's declared war on all the ninja nations, and Wind is first on his list."

Sakura was now confused, "Why are you telling me this though?"

"I'm telling you because the letter also has a small note at the bottom, which warns us that if the ninja from the Leaf village continue on their mission he will dispatch many of his ninja to wipe out this village. So I can't let you go there. It would be dangerous and it would only start more problems for my village."

Sakura was about to protest, but then she remembered that Gaara was the Kazekage and what he said had to be obeyed. So she nodded and then turned swiftly on her heels to leave the room and the whole building. She ran to find her team mates and told them that they had to end the mission early. Ino could be any happier and Hinata seemed relieved. Both girls went off to celebrate this good news while Sakura herself sat by the entrance to the Sand village.

"I should be happy that I'll be going home soon. I'll get to wait for Naruto and then see him when he gets back. Then we'll both search for Sasuke again. So then why don't I feel happy? I didn't really want to do this mission and it's dangerous to even consider continuing it. I just have this feeling that I should go to that village…like someone's waiting there…"

Sakura went back to the inn that Ino and Hinata had found earlier and then she packed up her things. She wrote a quick note informing her friends that she wanted to get back to the Leaf village straight away, and then she picked up her bag and quietly left the Sand village. The direction of her footsteps, if someone were to glance at them and follow them, was westward.