It was the week after Akane left that all hell broke loose. Reports were coming from all over the border about surprise attacks of the ninja from the Hidden Rock village. Because of that, Gaara had no choice but to send more and more of Suna ninja to defend the country.
Eventually, the number of attacks began to fall. By the end of the week there was only one place that was still under attack.
It was late in the afternoon and Gaara was nervously pacing in his office. They were supposed to receive a report from the north watch tower half an hour ago, and he was getting more worried by the minute. When he heard a knock on the door and his brother's voice on the other side, he called him to come in, impatiently waiting for the news.
"Calm down, little bro! I know that your girlfriend is on that tower, but there's no need to bite someone's head off! By someone's, I mean mine."
Gaara glared at him in return. "Do you have it or not?"
Instead of answering, Kankurou handed him a small sealed scroll. When Gaara opened it, Kankurou spoke again. "So what does it say?"
"They managed to fight off the last attack. The enemies who survived pulled back and there haven't been any movements since." Then he stopped reading and looked at the scroll with his eyes wide open.
Kankurou looked at him concerned. "What's wrong?"
Instead of answering, Gaara threw him the scroll and disappeared in a whirl of sand. Kankurou quickly read through the report until he reached the part where it said the status of all the ninja that were on that post. Akane Uchiha – missing.
Kankurou immediately knew what his brother was intending to do, so he went to get his puppets first. He ran into his previous sensei on his way to the gate and explained him what happened. Then he ran to the gate and outside the village, and eventually caught up to Gaara. The red head was wearing his battle outfit and carried his gourd on the back.
"You could've at least waited for me!"
"Longer we wait, less chance there is for us to find her."
"I met Baki before I left. He didn't like the idea of you running out on your own."
"I'll deal with the council when I get back."
"He said that he'll deal with them for you, and that he's going to send backup after us and a message to Konoha. He also said that you better come back alive."
Gaara smirked. "I'll do my best, but if Akane's brothers find out about this before we have a chance to return, I doubt that I'll have a choice between life and death."
A few hours later, Konoha. Tsunade's office.
"Will everyone shut up!" When Tsunade received a message from Suna and send Naruto to call Itachi and Sasuke, she didn't expect an additional 17 people to show up.
When everyone stopped talking, she spoke. "I understand that you all want to help, but the reason this even happened were numerous attacks on the Wind country's borders during the last couple of weeks. If I send all of you, the Hidden Rock village might get an impression that we're trying to attack, which will, without a doubt, start another war."
"But, Granny-Tsunade! We have to go!"
"Naruto, I told you not to call me that! Anyway, I can choose only four of you, and less you complain, more time those four will have to find Akane."
"But, Granny-"
"Enough Naruto! The team that will go on this mission will consist of Kakashi, Itachi, Sasuke and Sakura. You will go to the post that Akane was defending before she went missing. You are to meet with the Kazekage and his ninja there and head out to look for her. Any questions?"
"Yeah! What about me Gran-"
"Good! You're all dismissed!"
The team from Konoha got to their destination in a record time – only a day. When they got inside the tower, they met Kankurou. "You guys are fast! I didn't think that you'd make it here without getting lost."
"We had the instructions with us, so it was easy." Sasuke said while looking around.
Itachi, Kakashi and Sakura walked up to them. "Hey little brother who's your friend?"
"I told you not to call me that! Especially in public!"
Itachi chuckled at Sasuke's reaction while ruffling his hair.
"I'm Kankurou, Temari's brother." Kankurou then turned around to see Gaara coming down the stairs. "And that's Gaara, my younger brother." He finished while pointing at the red head.
Itachi nodded and went on with the introductions. "I'm Itachi, the gray haired jounin is Kakashi, and pinky over there is Sakura."
Kakashi simply nodded, while Sakura started screaming at Itachi for calling her pinky.
Kakashi approached Gaara before talking. "Have you found any leads that might tell us what happened to Akane?"
"No. We've looked everywhere around the border, but it's like she vanished into thin air."
"Alright. Then I'll just summon my dogs and start the search here."
"Do you need to rest or can we head out now?" Gaara asked in monotone voice.
"We can go now, if you're ready." Kakashi said while sending him a questioning look.
"We're ready."
After that Kakashi made some hand signs and summoned his ninja dogs. As soon as the dogs got the scent they went running with the ninja close behind them.
They all had only one thing on their mind – the safety of their friend.