Chapter 15

Sasori looked at the girl walking beside him out of the corner of his eye. She looked pensive, and annoyed. He decided that he might as well state the obvious.

"Your friends are probably already dead."

"No, I don't think so. Shihizuki isn't daft, he'll keep them from dying, somehow."

Sasori did not look convinced. "I doubt it, you underestimate Kisame's bloodthirstiness. I believe he's already maimed them beyond repair."

Raito shook her head. "For his sake, I hope not."

He looked mildly amused at that statement, the girl was no match for Kisame, let alone any of the other Akatsuki. Speaking of which, they were almost there.

The lair thingy was a mess, at least what he could see of it from here. Rocks had been moved and remolded, mud covered the floor, and black flames clung to the walls of the cave and the ground, leaving a swath of scorch marks.

"I'd say at least one of your friends is dead, if not more."

Raito wasn't listening. She was busy taking a deep, deep breath. "CLARE AND NARUTO! YOU HAD BETTER GET YOUR ASSES OUT HERE RIGHT THIS SECOND, OR SO HELP ME, I WILL BEAT BOTH OF YOU RED AND BLUE AND BLACK ALL OVER!"

Her voice reverberated through the forest, and echoed back. It was quite impressive, considering that she couldn't use chakra to augment her voice. All noises of fighting stopped for a second, and then there was the sound of something breaking. Raito's hands curled into fists, and she stormed into the lair angrily.

Shihizuki crossed his arms, but didn't take his eyes off of both Clare and Naruto, who were frozen beneath his gaze. Sakura was passed out, at least, to the side. "What's going on?"
"These three decided to be idiots. If I had known that if I left them alone, this would happen, I would have them child leashed. Actually... that's not a bad idea..."

"Do you want me to let them go yet?" Shihizuki asked.

"Yeah, I apologize for any trouble they caused. Sasori, would you still like us to take Gaara's body?"

As she said this, Clare and Naruto were both released from Shihizuki's gaze. Clare's hand was twisted at an unnatural angle. She glared at Shihizuki, and hissed, but Raito smacked her and Naruto over the head before they could attack.

"But Raito..."

"Remind me what your plan was, again?" she began, intent on rebuffing the two of them, when a familiar voice interupted.

"What's going on out here?" Kisame asked, and yawned. It had been a late night last night, and he had wanted to sleep. All the noise had woken him up, though, and he had tried to go back to sleep, but failed. A slightly more awake Itachi was standing next to him.

"Senpai!"

If Kisame hadn't been fully awake before, he was after that. His eyes narrowed. "Raito, give me one reason why I shouldn't lop off your head."

Itachi put two and two together and came up with this was the girl that threatened blackmail. He brushed his hair out of his eyes, and a hand rested on the top button of his coat.

"So you're Sasuke's friend. Give me your wrist."

One hand extended to her. Raito actually backed up, and clutched her hand to her chest.

"Raito, what did you do?" Clare asked in exasperation.

Raito's eyes met Itachi's for a split second, before they skittered away. "Kisame, help..."

"Itachi, for what it's worth, I promised that we wouldn't hurt her and her friends until after they had left the village," Sasori informed them.

Kisame sighed. "So fucking typical... is there anyone you don't have wrapped around your little finger?"

"There are a few people, actually," she replied, still not meeting Itachi's eyes, which had turned red and black.

"Kisame, she's a friend of yours?"

Itachi turned his head to ask his partner, who nodded. Naruto looked between the two of them, trying to find the connection. "How? And how come you never told us? It would have made this mission a lot easier, believe it!"

Clare looked at her friend, hurt that not even she knew that. "Raito-chan..."

"Oh no, that is not going to work on me. I'm still mad at the two of you. Naruto, if you would grab Sakura, and Clare, I want you to get Gaara out of here. I'll catch up with you two in a minute."

"What about Aniki?" Clare asked, not having realized that Sasuke wasn't actually there yet. She had begun to refer to him as her older brother once she had seen him in this village.

Sasori noticed that Raito put herself between Itachi and Clare ever so slightly. If he had to hedge a guess, he would have to say she thought Itachi might attack her friend, which was odd.

"If he has any brains, which is doubtful, he's as far away from me as possible by now," she answered in a tone that was almost a growl.

"Sasuke ran off with Orochimaru," Naruto answered more helpfully. "Rai-chan," he ignored the murderous glare, "is mad because he didn't even bother saying goodbye."

Kisame looked at Itachi. "Sounds like your little brother is a player."

If Itachi noticed the subtle threat, he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he reached up two fingers, ignoring Raito's glare, and poked Clare square in the center of the forehead. "Get your pink friend and Gaara out of here," he told her.

Clare pouted. "Do we have to take the pink thing with us?"

"Yes," Raito replied. "We have to take Sakura with us. Naruto, if you would."
XXXXXXXXXX

"What are we going to do with them?" Naruto asked, once they were a decent distance from the Akatsuki. This question was mostly directed at Raito, Clare had fallen silent in wake of Gaara's death.

Raito wished that Haku was there, while Raito knew medical jutsu, she couldn't use it. "We need to wake up Sakura, that's the first thing."

Raito rummaged in her pockets and found some smelling salts. Sakura sat up, and sneezed. She moaned, and put a hand over her eyes.

"Sakura, can you move?"

"No," the other girl answered in a dry whisper.

Raito turned to Clare and Naruto. "What exactly did she get hit with?"

"Itachi's Sharingan," they both answered.

"Is she going to be ok?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know, but I think she should get to a medical examiner in Konoha, they might know more about this. We can handle getting Gaara back by ourselves, she's first priority right now. Clare, let me see your wrist, it looks broken."

Clare handed over her wrist for Raito to examine, and then set. Naruto was still trying to figure out what Raito was trying to say, there was no way she was sending Sakura and he back to Konoha. By themselves. That would be too lucky. "You mean you want me to take Sakura-chan back to Konoha?"

"If you don't want to go, I guess..."

"No! Raito-chan, I promise that I will get Sakura-chan back to Konoha safely! You and Clare just worry about Gaara, ok?" Naruto chittered excitedly, and then was out the door before either of them could protest.

"Well, it's definitely broken, but it'll heal. Until then, you're not to do any fighting, got it?"

Clare pouted, but nodded. As much as she didn't like it, going into a fight with a broken wrist was just about suicidal. "We should get going, we have a long way to go before we reach Suna."

Raito's look sobered even more at Clare's tone, and she picked up Gaara, setting him against her shoulder. Clare stood up on her own, and they started walking into town. They would have to go there first, as there was protocol to go through.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Oh my," Lady Chiyo said when she saw them. She had been waiting to see the outcome of their run in with the Akatsuki, and was not surprised to see that two of them were missing and two more were damaged. "He's dead, isn't he?"

Raito nodded somberly. "Clare's wrist is broken, is there somewhere where we can get it fixed up properly?"

"No, there are no medical facilities that will be able to tend her right now, not a foreign ninja. Come with me back to the hotel I'm staying at, I might be able to do something for you two."

Raito and Clare looked at each other, and then followed. Protocol could wait, Raito could tell that Clare's pain was too fresh.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Gaara no sabuko, try that again, I dare you," Clare growled.

"Clare, I was just..."

"Sit down," she ordered.

"Yes ma'am," he sighed, and did as she said. Clare looked marginally appeased, and hugged him. Gaara looked at her. "Am I allowed to hug you, or is that too much?" he asked in a teasing tone.

"You're still healing, I'm going to get you some soup," she said, and got up. Gaara frowned slightly at the lack of Clare hugging him, but said nothing. She and Raito had been not exactly pleased with him since he had woken up, not that he blamed them. From what

Clare had told him, Deidara had kidnapped him and stolen Shukaku, as well as kidnapping Shihizuki, who had joined them. She, Ren, Yosuke, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke had been sent to retrieve the two of them, but Sasuke had abandoned them during the mission to join Orochimaru.

He was pretty sure there was more to the story than that, but Clare didn't know, Sakura and Naruto weren't there, and Raito refused to say a thing on the subject. Even though he was Kazekage, and should have access to such information. Apparently, that meant nothing to them, as Raito refused to even tell him why Haku wasn't with them, or why she was even there in the first place, and Clare was ordering him about like he was a genin.

The only reason he put up with it was because he owed them for saving his life, at least, that's what he told himself. It had absolutely nothing at all to do with the fact that if they really wanted to, they could make him do just about anything, by force if it came to that.

No, that had nothing to do with it at all. Stupid women.

Raito was who knows where, she just hadn't shown turned up in the morning. In fact, she hadn't been there for breakfast since he had woken up the first time. He knew it got on Clare's nerves, not even she knew where she disappeared to, but there wasn't much they could do about it.

Besides, he rather liked having no one in the house besides himself and Clare. There were so many more times to cuddle when it was just the two of them.