Naruto lay on the roof of his apartment, soaking up the sun's rays. Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes to a perfectly clear blue sky.

"Uuuuunnn... Sakura-chan..." whined Naruto, frowning.

Since she had left, Naruto had doted on her absence every day. The first few days left him sad, but now it had turned to impatience. Rolling over to his side, Naruto deepened his frown.

As he lay there feeling like his heart was going to jump out of his chest, his attention was soon caught by two ANBU members rushing across the rooftops. Sitting up, Naruto watched as they made their way towards the Hokage's building.

Sakura-chan...

Somehow Naruto just knew. The bad feeling that he got the moment he spotted them told him that there was trouble. Jumping to his feet, Naruto chased after them.

"Hokage-sama!" yelled the first ANBU, as he and the other one appeared in her office.

"What is it?" she yelled.

"We've found Mamoru's body outside the village grounds. His body had electrical scorch marks and was stabbed through the heart with a sword."

"Mamoru!?" screamed Tsunade. Turning around, she bit her thumb to think.

Naruto suddenly came bursting through the door.

"Tsunade-sama," said Naruto. "Why do I have a feeling there's something wrong with Sakura-chan?"

Tsunade turned around to face him. "Because there is."

Naruto gasped. He couldn't breathe.

"They found the body of one of the ANBU who was to escort Sakura to the coast," she explained. Turning to the ANBU she asked, "How long was he dead?"

"About six days, no less," said the ANBU.

"Shit, that means he was there since the pick-up."

"What did his mask look like?" asked Naruto.

"It was a dog's," said the second ANBU.

Naruto thought back. Suddenly his eyes widened.

"SHIT!! I GAVE HER TO HIM!!" Naruto screamed.

Naruto turned to dash out the door, but just as he twitched the office door flew open.

"TSUNADE-SAMA!!" screamed Shizune. "A message came from the village Sakura was sent to! They were attacked!!"

Gasping for air, Shizune put her hands on her knees and went on.

"A messenger bird just arrived. Their ship was attacked by someone disguised as ANBU. The crew managed to escape before the ship exploded. All ANBU are dead, but Sakura managed to escape into the forest. She has not turned up at the village, and the person who killed the ANBU was last seen entering the forest after her."

"Tsunade-sama..." said Naruto, looking to her for an answer.

Tsunade turned around to face back out the window. After a few moments she spoke.

"...Find Jiraiya..."

"Search outside of every bath house in this village!" screamed Naruto to the two ANBU and Shizune as they left Tsunade's office. "Check the bushes and in every corner surrounding the them! I'll check the training grounds, he likes to watch the swimmers there!"

A little daunted by the prospect of finding a man in heat, the ANBU and Shizune spread out their search.

As Naruto ran through the streets he kept screaming, "Ero-sennin!?" People were quite shocked that he was running around looking for an erotic hermit.

Shizune went to search the hot springs on the edge of the village. As she rounded the corner, she noticed that there was a few bushes in the corner between the bath house walls and the hill nearby. As she got closer, she could see the branches of the bush move against the wind when it shook, followed by a gleefully perverted noise.

"Mmmhmmhmmhmmm!!" came the voice from behind the bushes.

Found him, she thought.

"Jiraiya-sama!" she yelled at the bush.

Suddenly a scream went up in the bath house. The sound of his name was famous there, and when the women bathing caught wind of it, they immediately knew.

An elderly man came bursting out of the bath house's entrance wielding a stick.

"JIRAIYA!!" the man screamed. "STAY AWAY FROM MY CUSTOMERS!!"

Jiraiya, caught, jumped out from behind the bushes and took of, giving Shizune a nasty look as he went. He didn't get far however, as he ran directly into Tsunade.

BUMP!!

Tsunade knocked him on the top of his head with her knuckles, but this time she didn't use chakra to enhance its strength. Stunned, Jiraiya stopped in his tracks because Tsunade never pulled a punch on him before.

Grabbing him by the ear, Tsunade whipped him around like a kid and forced him to apologize to the owner. The owner in turn, gave him a good scolding.

Walking back to the office, Jiraiya rolled his eyes at Tsunade as they went.

"Geez, Tsunade. What is it this time?" asked Jiraiya, walking ahead lazily.

"I need to ask you a favor," Tsunade said.

"Well that's new. What is it that you want me to do?

Tsunade stopped in her tracks, the act itself making Jiraiya stop and turn around to face her with curiousity. He could tell by the look on her face that she was serious.

"You are aware of the situation surrounding Sakura right now, yes?"

"Mmmm," answered Jiraiya, nodding.

"A half hour ago, the ANBU found one of the members of the team that escorted her, dead. I just checked with the guards at the northern gate. They have confirmed that a complete group of five ANBU left with Sakura. Then, a message came in from the village she was sent to. The ship she was on was attacked by a man disguised as ANBU. One guess as to who that was..."

Jiraiya became serious. "Does Naruto know?"

"Yes."

"So what is it that you want me to do?"

"Sasuke has proven to be a difficult adversary. He's killed the other four ANBU that were with her at the time. There is only one person I can think of right now, able to match his speed and surpass him in skill..."

"So, you want me to find Itachi, is that it?"

Tsunade nodded. "You are the only person who would know where he is currently located."

Jiraiya shook his head. "The last place that I had confirmed his location was in Water Country, two weeks ago. He could be long gone by now...However, I do know where Deidara is..."

Soon Naruto had joined the group. In one of those rare moments, he did not speak, but merely listened.

"Right, send Deidara the message then," said Tsunade. "Hopefully he will be willing to pass the message on. It's better than searching aimlessly."

Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Naruto then followed Shizune to the building that housed the messenger birds.

"Ero-sennin?" said Naruto.

"Mmm?"

"How long do you think it will take for the message to reach Itachi?"

"Well, Deidara is about half a day's journey from where we are. It all depends on Itachi though."

When they had finally sent the message, Naruto jumped onto the roof to watch the bird fly out of his sight. When it had disappeared. Naruto sat down, wrapped his arms around his legs, and stared in the bird's direction. Looking at him from below was Jiraiya.

"Nee, Tsunade," said Jiraiya, leaning against the window and crossing his arms. "What's your next step?"

Sighing a big sigh, Tsunade just shook her head.

"That difficult, huh?" he mused.

"It's hard to figure out where to start," began Tsunade. "It's not like I can just send a team to intercept her. By the time they reach the area, Sakura would be out of the penninsula, expanding our search area by atleast twofold. I am thinking of sending a team, but I will need to know where Itachi is first so that we can collaborate, as well as give me an idea of how to approach this. Once the team's out, I won't be able to coordinate the two as easily."

"Mmmm," said Jiraiya, nodding in agreement. "But...have you even considered that Itachi may not even come?"

"He'll come."

"Are you so sure?"

"One hundred percent sure...He is in love with Sakura, without a doubt. He will follow her to the ends of the earth, if need be."

Jiraiya looked at her with a bit of doubt.

"He'll come!" shouted Naruto from above. He had been listening the whole time.

Jiraiya could say nothing more. He could argue with Tsunade or Naruto, but not both.

"Tsunade-sama," said Shizune. "You need to be back at the office handling the reports."

"It's fine..." said Tsunade in a harsh tone.

When Shizune heard that tone, she knew there was no bargaining. Doing so could mean death.

Two hours had gone by and there was still no sign of the bird. By that time, word had gotten out that Tsunade was gathered with the other three at the messenger birdhouse, waiting. The combination of the four in one spot was definitely suspicious, and soon enough, people started showing up, asking what was going on.

First, Iruka-sensei came barging in. When he heard that Naruto was with Tsunade and Jiraiya, he knew it was something bad.

"Iruka-sensei, don't worry, it will be fine," reassured Naruto after pulling him aside. "Sakura will be fine."

Iruka-sensei could not fathom the loss of one of his former students. It was a bit much for him to take, seeing as Sakura was also Naruto's teammate.

Knowing that he could not do anything, Iruka-sensei nodded, and walked back down the steps and out the building. Just as he was leaving however, Kakashi was walking by. The look on Iruka-sensei's face immediately struck a chord. Kakashi knew that Iruka only got that way when it had to do with his former students. Being that he was already on his way to see Naruto with the rest, Kakashi became even more worried.

"Ano...Is there something I should know?" said Kakashi as he walked in.

"Ah, Kakashi!" said Tsunade. "Stay! I might have to send you out for this."

After listening to the story, Kakashi took a deep breath.

"So..." said Kakashi. "Here we go again..."

Kakashi did not wear his normal expression of reserved calculation. Instead, he had a completely serious look upon his face. He knew that Sakura was in desperate trouble if she was caught between the Uchiha brothers. Looking out the window, Kakashi went silent. He stayed there, unmoved, and tried to imagine what Sakura was doing at that moment.

Kakashi's heart wrenched as it reached out to Sakura.

Run... his thoughts shouted to her. Run...

As time passed, the now five of them watched the clock pass their third hour of waiting. People were still filtering in now and again to ask questions, and soon Tsunade took to shouting at any noise of footsteps coming from outside the door. Suddenly, Naruto yelled.

"It's back!!"

As the bird came in for a landing, Tsunade wasted no time in extracting the message attached to its leg.

"How did you get Deidara to accept Konoha's messenger bird?" asked Kakashi.

"We attached Shizune's bra to its leg," said Jiraiya. "We would have used Tsunade's, but she needed the support and the sheer size of the bra would have slowed the bird down."

Tsunade gave a nasty look, but not one as nasty as Shizune's. The indication that her breasts were small made her burn holes through Jiraiya with her eyes.

"Well, there's one effective way to do it," said Kakashi, trying his best not to laugh.

As Tsunade rolled out the message, she slammed her fist down on the table and grinned.

"What is it!?" shouted Naruto desperately.

The others shuffled around Tsunade to look over her shoulder. As they focused their eyes, they could see that the message read:

"Itachi is already approaching Sakura. I'll tell him where to narrow his search...

...Don't think you're the only one who's got spies...

- Deidara :) "