Thanks for the reviews!! Really, I've never had so many reviews on one chapter!! Well, here is the new one, and I'm very glad to tell you all that I'm now actually allowed to work at this story for school – how cool's that?

Enjoy!


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter sixteen: The return

The sun was coming up from behind the horizon, making the entire world glow orange and yellow. One lonely man stood on top of a tree, which was waving in the gentle breeze, while he looked over the city that lay in the valley in front of him. His dark eyes flew over the buildings and streets, following people into their houses, simply enjoying the moment.

Then he looked up, at the sky, towards the sun, and he closed his eyes while the sunbeams warmed his cold skin. Damn… he thought. It's been way too long since I've been here. This last mission took me long…

His lips curled into a faint smile. Sakura… he looked back to the city. I'm back.

He dashed down the tree and started sprinting towards Konoha, his raven black hair spiky and his jonin outfit muddied from his last mission in the land of the Fields. His ninja sandals were also muddy and his Konoha headband was scratched heavily. In his head, Sasuke was already thinking about what he would do when he got back home. Most of his thoughts were about Sakura, the pink haired girl that he had slowly started to love.

He sighed. His mission had taken him too long to complete. He had thought that he would finish it in two weeks, but it had taken him a month, and he had a funny feeling in his stomach that warned him for something, but also pushed him to run even faster towards town. He frowned slightly. He kept thinking about Sakura, kept hoping that she would be still waiting for him – and he didn't know why.

Don't rush yourself, Sasuke, he said to himself, slowing his pace down slightly. She'll be waiting for you, without a doubt. She's waited five years for you, or even more. She'll be able to wait another month…

When the city gates got in sight he gasped and landed on the floor, eyes wide with shock. The gate was destroyed completely, like it had exploded. Several ninja were busy with cleaning the mess and as he examined the broken building he found out that they had probably been busy with repairing it. So that meant that the damage was old, but not from very long ago.

He ran towards the gate and then tapped one of the working ninja on his back, making the man look up to him. As he saw him his eyes, which had been shut for the sun, opened and he smiled at him.

"Ah! Sasuke-san! You're back home I see."

Sasuke smiled at the man, but it wasn't really how he felt. On the inside he felt nervous and jumpy about something, and he wanted nothing more than to run towards Sakura's apartment and hold her in his arms. "Yes, I'm back. What happened to the gate?"

The man looked to the devastated gate and then back to Sasuke. "You weren't there, were you, Sasuke-san?" when Sasuke shook his head the ninja continued. "Two, maybe three weeks ago, two Akatsuki members attacked the city."

Sasuke's eyes widened with shock. "Akatsuki?" he whispered, head racing towards his brother, which was still alive and still part of the gang.

The man nodded. "Yes indeed. One with blond hair, and another with a strange orange mask… they were here for Naruto-san, but he managed to surprise them and followed them out to the forests. Now I don't know exactly what happened there, but Sakura-san followed him a few minutes later, yelling to us that we should prepare for the worst."

Sasuke nodded, a frown etched in his face. If Naruto got emotional he could easily release too much Kyuubi chakra and lose a hold of himself. In that case he could eventually become a serious threat to the city. "What happened?" he asked, also noting that the man had said that Sakura had followed Naruto in the forest.

The man shrugged. "As I said before, I don't know what happened there. But I do know that, after Naruto came back to warn us, a day later, an ANBU squad came back, accompanying Sakura-san and one of the Akatsuki lads. I don't know his name very well… eh… something with Dei… Anyway, they came back, and we all suspected our Hokage-sama to interrogate him and kill him afterwards. Like we were ordered to."

Sasuke's heart beat faster with the second. "And didn't that happen then?" he asked, aware of the fact that his voice was trembling. When the man shook his head his heart skipped a beat.

What the hell happened?

"It seems that Sakura-san had used some weird handcuffs to chain herself to the Akatsuki lad… I don't know the details but those cuffs melted their bodies together."

Sasuke's entire body trembled and he had to hold onto a piece of the gateway to make sure that he didn't fell. "Melted together?" he whispered, face white as a sheet.

"Indeed. I also heard rumors. That the Akatsuki guy could read Sakura-san's thoughts, and that Sakura-san could feel what he was going to do – but I'm not sure about those. What I am sure about is that they were connected in such a way that the damage inflicted to one will also be inflicted to the other."

Sasuke nodded. "And where is Tsunade-sama?" he asked, suddenly getting to the point. "I need to speak with her about this."

The man nodded. "Eh, I guess she's in the conference building. I heard that she's been running through town this morning in her pajamas, hysterical screaming for some guy named Dotongu. So if I were you I'd be careful when you're around her. She might hit you without a reason."

Sasuke didn't even listen to the man anymore and was starting to run towards the conference room, putting his hand up towards the man. "Thanks! Success with the repairing!"

- in the Conference room -

"So if I get it right, your kunoichi left this city together with your captured Akatsuki hostage?"

"Isn't she a missing ninja then?"

"What rank does she have in the bingo book?"

"Are we allowed to kill if we find her?"

"SHUT UP!!"

There were a lot of people in the conference room, ANBU, kages, high ranked ninjas, and they were all talking through each other, all with their own questions which all desperately needed an answer. Tsunade, already a bit shaky because of the shock she had received that morning, couldn't stand the rumor at all and was nearly exploding of anger. The ANBU, already familiar with the Hokage's sudden mood swings, quickly all stopped talking and soon the others followed them.

Tsunade let out a sigh and then looked up, seeing all the eyes in the room fixed on her, awaiting her answers.

"It is true," she began, her voice loud so that everyone could hear. "That one of my top kunoichi has left town together with Deidara, member of the Akatsuki."

Again everyone started talking, arguing about what should happen and how they should punish the kunoichi in question.

"But," Tsunade yelled, silencing the crowd again. "We have reasons to believe that she didn't go with him on free will. In fact, all the evidence we have points out to the contrary." She glared at everyone and soon the silence became pressing on everyone's shoulders. "We believe that Haruno Sakura has been forced to leave the village. But because she's in a tight position, she wont be able to free herself from him nor will she be able to kill him. All we can hope on is that she'll be able to get them back here."

"But," Naruto said, who stood next to Tsunade. "Hoping alone will not help Sakura-chan. We know for sure that we can trace them down, and we will help her to come back to the city. But Konoha cannot do that on its own."

"That's right," Tsunade added, nodding towards Naruto to sign that he shouldn't say anything anymore. This was enough. "We need help, from other experienced ninja cities, if possible also from other countries. Everything is welcome. Even if it's just food for the search team."

It remained silent. No one said a word. Tsunade swallowed. She had expected people to get up and help them. Konoha had always had quite good relations with the other villages, so why didn't they help them out now?

But the problem was, that retrieving two ninjas in an such a large area was a mission impossible, and all the present chiefs or kages all knew that very well. Also did Mizura, who sat next to Dotongu and was staring at her hands, feeling quite bad. Her village was in debt with Konoha after they'd saved the bridge, but the risks…

Then she shook her head, swallowed, took a deep breath and then got up, forcing everyone to look at her.

"I hereby declare," She began, voice barely a whisper due to the nerves. "…that the hidden village of the Mist will help the hidden village of the Leaf to retrieve the kunoichi and the Akatsuki member, at all costs."

Tsunade stared at Mizura for a couple of seconds and then smiled weakly at her. Encouraged by Mizura's action, Dotongu got up as well, placing a hand on his chest and taking a deep breath. "The North will also help the search, un. We'll support Konoha with everything we've got."

Then Gaara got up as well, also promising his help to Konoha in his own dark voice. With every person that got up, Tsunade felt better and better, and the smile on her face got wider and wider. Then just when she was about to thank them all for their support, still with a delirious smile on her face, a loud yell made everyone look up.

It became dead silent, and Tsunade saw that several ANBU leaders reached for their kunai while the Kage protectors all did the same. She looked to the large oaken door that shut the conference room from the outer world. Her own hand took a kunai out of her pocket but she made sure that no one saw that. She didn't know who or what was coming in, but she wouldn't allow anyone to hurt themselves.

Then the doors flew open. The ANBU took fighting stances, the protectors all jumped forwards, kunai held high, while some others made handsigns and molded their chakra, ready to perform Ninjutsu or genjutsu on whoever dared to interrupt their meeting.

It was Sasuke. He looked unaffected by the hostile movements everyone had made towards him and walked straight up to Tsunade, frowning and his onyx eyes shooting fire. "Tsunade-sama," he said and he bowed for her, coming up rather fast to look at Naruto briefly.

"Gomen," he said after seeing the high status people, bowing to pay his respect to the present Kages and chiefs before looking up. "I'm sorry for knocking out the guard but he wouldn't let me in. I need to know what happened to her."

Several of the chiefs shared puzzled looks. Who was this lad to just bump into a meeting of kages, and what was the Hokage thinking, not kicking him out or yelling at him? Then someone recognized him and soon the entire hall buzzing from their voices, all whispering the same. "That's the Uchiha. You know, Sasuke Uchiha, the last one of his clan. They say he's the only one to be left alive after a large massacre – can you believe it?"

Tsunade looked at Sasuke, ignoring the increase of noise, while her heart beat faster than she could handle. She couldn't explain it to him. She knew that Sasuke and Sakura were having a relationship, and she couldn't bare tell him that because of a plan she made up, his girlfriend got taken away by an Akatsuki member. It was too harsh.

Dotongu noticed and patted Naruto on the shoulder. "Hey, you," he whispered, and Naruto looked at him, a blank expression on his face. "I guess you should tell him what happened, un."

Naruto tilted his head, looked at Tsunade who stared at Sasuke with a pale face, and then his slow brain finally registered what all the others already had. Including Sasuke, who felt very uneasy under the gaze of all the kages and chiefs, knowing that obviously something was terribly wrong.

He nodded at Tsunade and then walked towards Sasuke. In a few words he explained that they needed to go outside for a bit and Sasuke followed him. Naruto closed the doors and the conference room was shut out from their conversation, which was soon to start.

"I see you're back," he began, smiling at Sasuke, before sitting down on a bench, inviting Sasuke to do the same. The Uchiha smiled weakly and then sat down next to Naruto, sighing. "It sure took you long to complete that mission of yours, Sasuke," Naruto said, trying to guide the conversation towards Sakura, afraid that if he told it too fast, Sasuke would snap.

"Indeed," Sasuke answered, staring at the ceiling. He already knew that Naruto was trying to fake a nice and cozy conversation but decided to play the game with him. "I got caught up in some nasty fights with a lot of enemies and they slowed me down big time." He looked at Naruto. He could play along. Wait for his friend to tell him what he already suspected. Something bad had obviously happened to Sakura, or she would've been in her apartment or on the training fields. And next to that, everyone was acting weird towards him. So he decided to get to the point. "But I need to know, Naruto. What happened to her?"

Naruto swallowed. "…to whom…?"

Sasuke frowned. "Please, Naruto. Don't act like you don't know what's going on. I know something happened to her and I'm determined to find out what. Tell me, why wasn't she in her apartment? And why did her apartment look like there haven't been a living soul inside for weeks?"

Naruto sighed and looked at his feet. He had never thought he would get himself in a situation like this one, and it was terribly hard for him to tell Sasuke the truth. "Do you really want to know, Sasuke?" he asked, his voice merely a whisper, silently hoping that his friend would say no.

The dark haired boy nodded. "positive."

"Then… I'm afraid… there's no other way, than just to tell you…"

And then Naruto looked at Sasuke. "You heard about the chains?" he muttered, and Sasuke nodded. His stomach made flip and he needed to take some deep breaths before continuing. "…okay… but I'm sure you don't know about Tsunade-baachan's plan…"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Plan? What plan?" He didn't like the tone Naruto had used to tell him about it and he was starting to feel very uneasy. His best friend was definitely hiding something from him, something about Sakura.

"According to that plan, Sakura had to… to…" suddenly Naruto closed his eyes and bit his lip. "…she had to seduce him, to find out about the Akatsuki, to find out about their plans, because no other interrogation plan succeeded! It was Tsunade's last hope, and Sakura agreed…"

Sasuke fell back, against the wall, eyes wide in pure terror and his hands trembling. "She had to… seduce… an Akatsuki?" he asked, before looking at Naruto. Suddenly mental images of Sakura, seducing his older brother, flashed in front of his eyes and his face got even paler, with a slightly greenish shade. "Please tell me, it wasn't Itachi, right?" he asked, voice hoarse.

"It wasn't Itachi," Naruto said, and Sasuke let out a sigh. "It was worse."

Immediately Sasuke sat up, eyes wide open, eyebrows nearly touching each other of utmost concentration. "Who was it then?" he asked, flipping through the pictures of the Akatsuki members he knew of. "Do you know his name?"

Naruto nodded. "…I don't know if you've heard of him, but he's the same psycho freak that murdered Gaara to take the Shukaku out of him. His name is Deidara."

Sasuke groaned and fell back again, eyes closed of pure horror. He definitely knew that guy. He knew him way too well. "Yes, I've heard of him," he whispered. " 'art is a bang', isn't it?"

Naruto looked up at him, a surprised look on his face. "Nani? How do you…?"

"I fought him," Sasuke said, mind racing back towards the battle, which had taken quite a lot out of him. "And I killed him, or so I thought. No, better, he detonated himself, and nearly killed me by doing so. I really thought he was gone after that, but I guess not." He shook his head and stared at his feet. "Man… he's… I thought he was…"

Naruto smiled weakly in an attempt to lighten Sasuke's mood but his best friend seemed to be deeply depressed. "How do you mean, Sasuke?" he asked. "He's what?"

Sasuke looked up at him, a confused look in his eyes. "I thought he was gay," he whispered, frowning at the blonde in front of him. "I mean, that girlish top he wore, and that long hair, not even to speak of his 'ambitions' with art…"

Naruto burst out in laughter, and slapped Sasuke on his knee. "Gay?" he asked him, tears in his eyes, face nearly split apart by a wide smile, until he suddenly realized that Sasuke had been dead serious and he quickly muffled his face back into control, forcing his muscles to fake a serious look. "…well, it didn't seem so," he said, trying his best not to laugh again. "I mean, Sakura cut his hair, he started wearing shirts and different clothes and that was kind of it…"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "But still," he muttered. "How could Tsunade… how could she ask Sakura to do something like that? It's just… plain gross."

Naruto shrugged, happy that his friend was finally cheering up a little. "It is, but, well, I don't always understand what Tsunade-baachan does… but I think that she asked Sakura to do this, because she wouldn't be able to get his information."

Sasuke nodded. Then he suddenly remembered something. He turned towards Naruto, a puzzled look in his eyes. "Demo, Naruto, that still doesn't explain why she isn't here. Where is she? I need to talk with her. I don't care if he's around – I'll hold myself back and wait until we find the key to the chains."

"well, that'll be kind of a problem, actually," Naruto said, staring at his feet again. Sasuke froze.

"A problem?" he asked, throat nearly closed with nerves. "I don't see it. I already said I wouldn't kiss her or something, so I don't see…"

"She left."

The words where out before Naruto could really think them over, and Sasuke froze completely, staring at his friend, irises trembling with shock, mouth slightly open.

"She left together with him," Naruto continued, suddenly feeling the urge to say this quickly, before Sasuke defrost and probably attacked him for saying that. "yesterday evening. Frankly you couldn't have picked a better time to come back. I saw them leave but could do nothing to make them stay…" he wavered and swallowed to regain his voice. "He… he knocked me out, and when I woke up they were gone…"

Three seconds passed by. Then suddenly Sasuke flew up from the bench and stormed outside, leaving a shocked Naruto behind. "OY!" he yelled, suddenly realizing that Sasuke was gone. "Sasuke! Wait!"

- In the Konoha hospital -

Kisame had to slap his face to remain awake. He had stayed next to Tobi the entire night, forcing himself not to fall asleep, not knowing what the boy might do if he woke up in a strange room. Morning had already come and the sun was pleasantly warming his face, but he needed to stay awake.

I can't fall asleep, he thought, looking at Tobi's face. I cannot fall asleep. I must not fall asleep. And why not? Because if I do, he might cause an uproar, or he might run away and ruin the entire plan…

That was the only positive side of staying awake over night. He had had plenty of time to think of a good plan, a plan that would definitely succeed and that wouldn't be too hard to complete. And now, in the still early morning, he had finally gotten to one and he felt quite good about the accomplishment.

Then Tobi groaned and Kisame nearly jumped of his chair when he ran towards the bed, grasping the iron frame, leaning over Tobi to make sure that he was indeed finally waking up. The boy turned once, twice, and then suddenly opened his one eye, staring directly into Kisame's face.

The eye blinked several times until suddenly the iris shrank miraculously small and Tobi launched himself out of bed, hitting Kisame's head while jumping up, and smacking his partner down to the floor.

"Agh! Tobi – I mean Ayoku! What the hell are you doin?!"

Tobi had taken a fighting stance on top of the bed, body trembling, staring at Kisame, until he suddenly seemed to realize that the man on the floor was his partner, not his enemy.

"Oh, gomenasai, Kisame-san," he muttered, getting down from the bed and clumsily helping Kisame get up. "To- Ayoku thought that Kisame was someone else…"

"Shut up you baka," Kisame grunted, shaking Tobi's helping hand off. "Don't call me like that! Remember, I'm Tawu!" he got up and dusted off his clothing, staring at Tobi afterwards. "What reminds me," he said, "Why did you decide to pinch your stomach together? I only asked you to act like something was wrong, not to actually harm yourself."

Tobi looked to the floor. "Ayoku is very, very sorry, Tawu-san, but, well, Tawu-san asked Ayoku to make it look real, and so… well…"

Tawu sighed. "Well, lost time is lost time, ain't it? And I did find out something…" he grinned. "We do not have to search for your sempai anymore. Now how's that."

Tobi's one eye grew big and he suddenly leapt forwards, grabbing Kisame's collar, looking up at him with wide, hoping eyes. "Really?" he asked, unaware of the uneasiness he was causing to Kisame. The boy's face was way too close for his taste, way too near, his eyes way too begging.

"Yea, really," he said and he pushed him off. "But you should remain calm – or else the plan I made up is doomed from the start." Tobi's eyes sparkled but he did sit down on the edge of the bed, hands next to his knees and slightly bowed forwards. Kisame sat down on the chair he had been sitting on for the entire night and cleared his throat.

"Ahem. I found Deidara by accident, really. I was waiting for the medic to heal you to show up when he suddenly walked by." Tobi's eye grew wide again.

"walked by?"

"Yea. Strange, huh? Anyways, I found out pretty soon that the medic that healed you had actually chained herself to your sempai. With really weird chains. It's hard to explain, but you just need to know that you can't harm the girl, or you'll harm Deidara. Understood?"

Tobi tilted his head, eyes pointed above and seemed to think that over. Then he suddenly looked back at Kisame and nodded. "Understood!"

Kisame raised an eyebrow. Since when was Tobi so quick in the understanding? For a moment he wondered if the medic had maybe healed his dumbness as well, but he quickly threw that idea away. impossible, he thought. Too much damage done already, hehe…

"…okay, well then to the plan I made up. I'll ask someone in this hospital for the address of the medic that healed you. You know, saying that I want to thank her and stuff for saving you etcetera. The people in this town do not ask so much questions and it's a good reason. Then we go to the address given, open the door, ask if we can come inside, and once we're in…" he made a cutting movement with his hand through the air. "…we cut those chains and take Deidara with us. If necessary we kill the medic after that. And if you'd like to you can change back to your original form, if that makes things easier for you."

Tobi nodded again and then got up from the hospital bed. "But Ayoku hasn't got any clothes anymore," he muttered, looking left and right before looking to his own body, which was merely dressed in some hospital clothes. Kisame sighed.

"Look behind, baka."

A couple of minutes later, in which Kisame quickly left the room because Tobi actually undressed in front of his eyes – the boy obviously didn't know that, normally, people don't really like to see that and for a moment he wondered what exactly Deidara had thought him – and waited outside of him. When he came out he smirked.

"You ready for the plan, Ayoku?"

Tobi nodded. "Yessir!!"

"Then let's go." They turned and then walked towards the end of the corridor, which lead to the entrance hall. They hoped on seeing one of the medics to whom they had spoken earlier, but to their surprise the corridors were deserted and the only persons they met were the patients. "Where is everybody?" Kisame muttered to himself, looking around while frowning.

Then he saw the dark haired woman who had been a great help to them yesterday, when he had to fill in the forms and get himself a room. He leapt towards her and patted her shoulder lightly. "Ma'am," he said when she turned around and he bowed. "I would like to thank you for your help yesterday, ma'am."

Shizune – he remembered her name – smiled faintly. "That's alright. Don't worry about it. I see Ayoku-san is feeling better?" she didn't even wait for Tobi to answer and then quickly bowed in front of Kisame. "If you'd excuse me, I've got a hell lot to do and very little time."

"Eh, ma'am, I'm sorry, but do you perhaps know the address of the medic that healed my little brother? By chance?"

Shizune stopped walking and then turned around, staring at him. "..she's not in town," she said after a while, frowning. "She left yesterday evening."

Kisame's eyes grew wide. "She… left? But, eh, but I wanted to thank her…"

"Well, that won't be possible." Shizune sighed. "Your actually a stranger to the town, but since she helped you I do not see the harm in telling you. The man who she was chained to, a hostage of Konoha, escaped yesterday night by bird, taking her with him. So that's why you cant see her." She tilted her head. "Tawu-san? Are you allright? You look… pale."

Kisame nodded, not completely aware of what he had just heard. "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks… I guess… that we'll be going… then… bye, and, well, thanks… for everything…"

He grabbed Tobi's collar and dragged the boy outside, ignoring the strange look Shizune gave him and the yelling Tobi, who had no idea of what was going on.

"We're going back," he grunted, eyes shooting fire. "We've got no business here anymore."

Not so very much things I wanted to write in this chapter… To be honest, I wanted to write about Sakura and Deidara immediately, but this needed to be said too! I mean, Tobi and Kisame were still in town too, weren't they? Anyways, I hope to see you all at the next chapter and until then, see you!