Hey guys! I know, "Tony, you're always so LATE with these chapters!" YEAH, I AM. I'm sorry. I'm going to say this for the third time and no one is going to believe me, but I am going to be writing regularly, so hopefully uploading regularly.
So, I'm not getting a whole lot of reviews for the story, however I am getting several followers and favorites every day and that means a whole lot to me. I get about 1000 views a day on this story and it makes me SUPER happy! Anyways, enjoy and don't forget that leaving a review makes me write faster!
Really. It REALLY will make me write faster.
The world felt like it was collapsing in on him, the Hokage was missing, and the only thing that would get her back was the death of his best friend. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't kill Sasuke, maybe not because it wasn't possible, but because he refused to do it. Who would do this? Naruto growled angrily and jumped out of the hole in the ceiling. A few members of the ANBU appeared in front of him, looking at him with their masks.
"The Hokage is missing, we tried to give chase but they were far too quick for us." One said, kneeling to Naruto.
"Bull shit! You didn't try hard enough!" Naruto exclaimed angrily. He couldn't control his anger, and if he hadn't made friends with Kurama he was certain he would be in at least two tailed mode.
"Lighten up kid, they were just doing their jobs" Kurama said from inside of him. Naruto ignored him and jumped off of the building, moving quickly toward the Hyuuga compound. He wasn't sure what he was going to say to Sasuke when he got there, wasn't sure what to do about the situation. He landed outside of Hinata's house, knocking on the door angrily. He could hear Hinata say who it was from inside. Sasuke opened the door relatively quickly afterward, being able to sense the anger coming from Naruto.
"Someone took Baa-chan." Naruto said to Sasuke angrily. Sasuke stepped outside to meet him, nodding as though he understood why Naruto had come to him. "They got away from the ANBU easily, apparantly, and they left a note for me. I have to kill you to get her back." Naruto finished, looking at the ground.
"Do you intend to do it?" Sasuke asked, stepping away from him. Before Naruto had a chance to answer, Sasuke pulled his sword from it's sheath and moved it toward Naruto.
Hilt first.
Naruto saw the sword, and understood what he was saying. Hinata who had been standing in the doorway the entire time also understood and threw herself out of the house inbetween Naruto and Sasuke.
"I won't let you do that!" She exclaimed, putting her arms out to her sides as if to create a wall to stop Naruto. Naruto shook his head and growled angrily again.
"I'm not going to, but I don't know what to do! We have no leads! We have NOTHING that tells us where they went or who wants Sasuke dead! I'm useless!" Naruto yelled, putting his face in his hands. Hinata let her arms fall to her sides, and Sasuke flipped his sword back into it's sheath.
"Naruto.. You are aware that our generation of students turned out to be the most talented among the generations that have passed through this village, right?" Sasuke said to Naruto quietly. Naruto looked up at him, his anger subsiding a bit. Naruto nodded so Sasuke continued. "I'm sure whoever took Tsunade could not escape all of us looking, so why don't we gather your friends." Sasuke said, knowing that they were not particularly fond of him, though they often pretended to be. Naruto nodded again quickly, before disappearing in a flash of orange light, appearing in Sakura's home again.
His hand was resting on her clothes shelf in her room, where the kunai sat, but Sakura was nowhere to be found. After a minute of standing there, trying to figure out where she had gone, Sakura opened the door to her bedroom and shrieked in surprise when she saw the man standing there. "Naruto! You have to give me a bit of warning before you go flashing around! Where did you go anyways?"
"Baa-chan has been taken captive, with the only chance of her peaceful release being the death of Sasuke.." Naruto said quietly. Sakura's eyes went wide as she absorbed the information. Not only that her master had been taken, but that Naruto would have to kill his best friend in order to get her back.
"Are you going to? I understand that a lot of people weren't particularly happy with Sasuke-kun's returning to the village, however to do something like take the Hokage is outrageous!" Sakura exclaimed, suddenly angry that her master had been drawn into this ordeal. Naruto shook his head, running a hand through his hair.
"No, I'm not going to kill him, though I do need you to go collect our friends, as we're the only ones who can handle this. Unfortunately, I have to go to the desert, because Shikamaru is visiting, potentially for a long while, but we need him to help out. Everyone should meet up at the Hokage Manor." Naruto said, before taking off toward the gate without saying another word. Sakura watched him go, confused and worried that Naruto was going to end up pushing himself too far.
Who was she kidding though, it wasn't that she was worried that he might do it. She was worried for when he would do it...
Naruto was just getting to the gate when he noticed Shikamaru coming back through the gate. He didn't look like he had been travelling that long, however knowing that he had just come from Suna that couldn't be accurate. He probably just cleans up well. Shikamaru noticed Naruto, however did not seem fazed at all.
"Hey Naruto, how are you today?" Shikamaru asked, looking at Naruto with a mixture of confusion and expectance. Naruto noticed his interesting tone, but assumed he was just acting weird because of the time he'd spent with Temari. He always came back acting funny.
"Not very good, Baa-chan's been captured." Naruto said quickly. Shikamaru squinted in thought, looking toward the ground.
"The ANBU weren't able to stop the culprit." Shikamaru said, putting puzzle pieces together in his head. "We need to go to the manor, I'd be a bit more useful with the information of the type of attack." He said, looking back at Naruto. Naruto nodded before hopping toward the Hokage Manor.
Sakura had gathered all of the people who were willing to join in the hunt for the Hokage as she could. Choji was willing to help, as he understood that Sasuke had really changed. Ino was not willing to help, or rather, was for the idea that Sasuke should be killed, and as such would not allow for Sai to go either.
Shino was also willing to help, that's because they couldn't do it without him. Lee agreed to help as well, claiming that no youth should be extinguished so early. Tenten was going wherever Lee was going, to make sure he didn't proclaim anything dumb.
No one else wanted to help, either because they had other things that they had to attend to, or because they wanted Sasuke dead. Sakura nodded after receiving the final confirmations and hopped onto the rooftop of a nearby building.
"Okay everyone, time to go to the Hokage Manor, we need to act fast!" She said, hopping in that direction, her friends behind them.
They dropped all arrived in the office of the Hokage, Shikamaru looking around at all of the evidence he could find. The hole, the note, the type of entrance and exit made, how many ANBU were there. Shikamaru had spent the majority of the start of the investigation talking to all of the ANBU, who seemed to have all seen the same thing:
An unknown person came just about falling from the sky, smashing through the hole in the ceiling. Before the ANBU could even get to the hole they had jumped out and left with the Hokage. They gave chase, but unfortunately the assailant was far too quick for them all.
Shikamaru looked around the room, taking into consideration all of the information he had gathered thusfar. The rubble on the ground was scattered around the edge of the hole, but there wasn't a whole lot toward the middle of it. Jumping onto the ceiling he found quite a bit more rubble from the top.
Taking note of this he jumped back down, mumbling to himself about the direction of the blast. Everyone watched him, not sure if their input would be of any help, and just letting the genius do what he does.
Shikamaru picked up the note again, looking it over, before pulling several stacks of paperwork out of the nearby filing cabinet. "Don't mess the organization of those papers up Shikamaru, I just organized those the other night!" Naruto exclaimed.
Shikamaru raised his hand to Naruto lightly, "I'm not going to, I'm just perusing them.." He said reassuringly, before looking back at the papers. Going through the entire stack took a few minutes, but he eventually found what he was looking for.
"Hey guys, do you think you could go span the town looking around for a little while? I need to go over this information for a bit." He asked, apologetically looking at everyone who had shown up just a little while ago. They all grunted in affirmation, before taking off in different directions to search.
After they had all left Shikamaru sat down on the Hokage's desk and shook his head. "Lady Tsunade could at least have tried to make this look like an actual attack. Clearly this is not an actual kidnapping, seeing as no one was appointed to be Hokage in her absence, and the ANBU have the wrong story. Considering the rubble, the hole was burst from the inside, not the outside." He mumbled.
"The most interesting thing about the whole ordeal is that the handwriting is not Lady Tsunade's.. It will take a bit of time to determine who's handwriting it is, but I'm certain there's got to be an example of their handwriting in here somewhere." Shikamaru continued to himself, before going through another stack of paperwork.
"There's got to be a clue somewhere..."
I think that'll do it for this chapter. Unfortunately, I just don't know how to do the writing for this part. I may be re-working this chapter and re-releasing it because I know that this isn't my best writing... But HOPEFULLY it will appease you all!
Thank you so much to all of the people who have favorited and followed this story so far, and for reveiwing, it REALLY means a lot. See you next chapter!