Chapter 12: What Next?

"Who were those guys?" Nazu asked after a strange appearance of two men who tried to kidnap him. "An elite team of S-Ranked criminals called the Akatsuki." Kakashi told him. "Great, just great, now I've got two groups of elite ninja after me!" Nazu shouted as he slumped on the ground in front of a tree. Nazu sighed, "Well, where do we go from here? I already can't be alone for more than an hour. What is it now five minutes?" Naruto couldn't help feel a bit guilty. "Nazu don't worry, me and Hinata will have to work harder to protect you." Nazu tried to smile but couldn't manage to.

Nazu walked with Naruto and Kakashi in silence. On occasions Nazu looked behind himself to be sure they weren't being followed. Nazu really wanted to jump on Naruto's back but held back because he thought it would be rude. "G-guys wait up." Hinata shouted from behind them. Nazu never thought he would be so glad to see her face. "Hinata, we've got a problem bigger than his village. We'll fill you in when we get to the village, for now cover our back." Naruto told her. She nodded and walked behind Nazu.

Nazu started to think about it and realized that it can't be Hinata, she said wasn't going to meet them today. Nazu turned around and kicked at the imposter. "Nazu, what are you doin?!" Naruto grabbed him to stop him from hitting Hinata. "That's not Hinata! She said she wasn't going to meet us today!" Nazu told Naruto. "Hm, you're smarter than we thought too." A puff of smoke appeared around Hinata and in her place was Itachi. "But it still won't save you." "Nazu get behind us!" Kakashi ordered. Nazu stood behind one of Kakashi's legs; Nazu was shaking because of his previous experience with him.

Suddenly, Kakashi fell to the ground. Nazu knew the man had used the move on Kakashi that he used on him. "Nazu, run away from here as fast as you can!" Naruto told him. Nazu did even nod just ran, in fact he didn't even know if Naruto could handle the man. Nazu kept running towards the Village Hidden in the Leaves. "Where do you think you're going?" The other man jumped in front of Nazu. "You can run pretty fast, maybe I should remove one of your legs." The man said as he slowly tried to pull out his sword. Nazu walked backwards and the man walked toward him.

Nazu tripped and landed flat on his butt. His eyes were full of terror; he could barely make out the words, "Please don't hurt me." The man laughed and brought his sword down on Nazu. He would have been in MORE leg pain if Naruto hadn't shown up with two clones. Nazu was still too terrified to move or talk, he only watched with the same horrific look on his face.

Two of the Narutos helped Nazu while the third defended them. In an instant Naruto flew backwards and his two clones vanished. Nazu was still unable to move. "Now with no other distractions, you're coming with me!" Kisame walked to Nazu grabbed his scruff and was about to walk away.

"Where do you think you're going?" Nazu turned his head to see a man with a large gourd on his back. Kisame dropped Nazu only because sand was crushing his arm. "What do you think you're doing to me?" Kisame tried to grab his sword only to find his arm stuck to his side by even more sand. "Gaara, what brings you here?" Naruto asked. Nazu turned to see Naruto was much closer then he originally thought. "Naruto, i-is he…good?" Nazu was practically terrified of everyone right there and then. Naruto nodded and calmed down a little bit. Nazu stood up only to see Itachi closing in the rear. "Sand Coffin: Sand Barial!" Gaara shouted as the sand crushed Kisame. Kisame fell to the ground unconscious.

Nazu was shaking for all he could remember at that moment was what happened the last time he saw that guy. His mind focused on one word, crow. He didn't want to go back there. Quickly he sat down, closed his eyes, and hugged his legs. Naruto turned towards Itachi, who jumped over to Kisame. Itachi picked Kisame up and carried him away. Naruto walked over to Nazu and tapped him on the shoulder. Nazu looked up at Naruto, Nazu was still shaking.

*Time Shift*

"Naruto, I need to ask you a favor," Gaara said, "deliver this message to the Hokage." Gaara handed Naruto an envelope and walked away. "Nazu let's go get Kakashi." Naruto said. Nazu nodded stood up and followed him.

*Scene Change*

Kakashi was in a hospital bed while Naruto and Nazu waited at the end of the bed for Tsunade to arrive. Nazu wouldn't stop shaking; he couldn't stop thinking about what would have happened if Gaara hadn't arrived. Would he have been dead? Might he be still alive?

Tsunade walked in and went to Kakashi. Quickly she healed him and turned to Naruto. "You said you have a package for me." Tsunade said. Naruto nodded and pulled the envelope out of his pocket. "Gaara gave me this after the fight. Guess he thought we owed him for saving our butts." Naruto said. "Also, can you help Nazu, he won't stop shaking." Tsunade turned to Nazu and kissed him on the forehead. Nazu was so surprised by it that he stopped shaking.

WOW! She is old and uuuuugly! Don't let that happen again, Hatchling. The two headed dragon told him. Seriously, you need to learn to keep your mouth shut, Nazu thought to him. Well excuse us for exploiting our freedom of speech! It replied.

"Hey, Nazu, ready to head back home?" Naruto asked. Nazu nodded stood up and followed him out the door.

That's it for this chapter! Stay tuned for Chapter 13: What Lies Beneath? Now that Nazu realizes that the Akatsuki's plan is to get all three dragons together he sees only one thing to do, warn the others. What will happen when he meets the lightning dragon's host? Will he be okay? Or will he die in the Village Hidden in the Hells? Find out next time, until then stay frosty.

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