Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Orange lollipop? What is she thinking about? Nevertheless, Sakura decided to check on her as it seems that there was something that shouldn't be there. She hurried up the stairs when she heard a voice, a voice she hated so much.

"It's no use, I'm going to get you, and nothing can change that."

Tobi! She sped up. His annoying mask popped up in her mind. His mask with orange swirls, thought Sakura. Naoko must be referring to the mask. Why didn't I realize it earlier!

Hey, wait a minute, why would Tobi want Naoko? Unless…

"Rasenshuriken!" A bell-like screech was heard. Naruto! Sakura reached the floor.

Suddenly, silence.

Sakura found herself face-to-face with the so-called orange lollipop. Naoko, or rather, Naruto, wasn't in sight.

"Hi, " Tobi greeted her with a cherish voice. He still wore his traditional Akatsuki black high collared robes with red clouds.

"How did you know –" Sakura panted, "Naoko–"

"Just confirmed it yesterday," said Tobi, leaning on the wall casually, "When you started to suspect her."

Sakura was stunned at the news.

"Ever wonder why there were poisonings in the first place? Just dump some of Sasori's remaining puppet poisons into the well and that's all. Then I stole the antidote formula. So you'd be summoned to make the antidote, and I get what I want – I'd like to see if you recognize her, or rather -" He paused nastily, "him."

"Where. Is. Naruto." Sakura asked fiercely, finally regaining her stamina after all those running.

"Well, why should I tell you? (If you watched the manga series, you'd know that he sort of absorb his enemies and turn them into another dimension) I'd better get going, there's a lot of sealing stuff to do-" He turned away.

"You still can't revive that ten-tails or whatever-it-is, you didn't have the eight-tails." Sakura was trying to buy some time. She can't stop him alone and she needed backup. Why didn't anybody notice the yell? It can't be that he yelled so often that nobody bothered anymore?

"As the matter of fact, I do," Tobi revealed the shocking news. "It's just that they haven't realized that 'cause they think their hiding place was safe enough. Ta-ta~"

"Hey!" Sakura tried to stop him, but he just vanished into thin air.

******

"KAKASHI!" Sakura bellowed right at his face after a furious attempt to find him. "NAOKO, NO NARUTO WAS CAUGHT – TOBI – HE SHOWED UP –"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down," How can he calm down on a situation like this! Sakura's inner self screamed out in panic.

Sai looked at her curiously.

"Talk slowly, ok? Now tell me what happened,"

"Naruto was caught. I saw it. Tobi showed up right after I went to his apartment. And he claimed that he already got the hachibi," Sakura is unsure whether Kakashi will believe her. He was the one who tried to convince her that Naoko wasn't Naruto. But he's the only person she can trust.

"Naruto?" Sai wondered aloud.

Sakura saw Kakashi's face paled under his mask. He knew.

"We must inform Gaara to deactivate the jutsu immediately," commanded Kakahsi. "Come with me, both of you. I'll explain along the way."

******

Sai didn't quite understand what was going on and was struggling to keep up. Naoko was Naruto? He couldn't find a chance to ask questions himself as Sakura seemed to ask all the questions for him.

"How did Naruto escape his own jutsu?"

"Time/space no jutsu. Quite risky, but his father invented it after all." Sakura wondered who his father was. "Showed up right in front of me."

"Where?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

Sakura scowled. She knew there's no use arguing. So she pressed Kakashi for more answers.

"Why is Naruto a girl?"

"Security measures. He had to transform into somebody as different from him as possible. Younger, different hair colour, and probably different gender. I think that he forgot to change his eye colour." He sighed. "He went to the ninja academy all over again so he won't stand out among other sand ninjas. He also has a whole new set of water-based jutsus, Jiraiya taught him just in case he had to hide, like this time. But it's not much of a use, as deserts lack water and wind blends in just fine. I just sent him to Gaara and left everything to him."

"Is the jutsu used to protect Naruto?"

"No. The Brainwashing Investigation Technique was used on Naruto, not the enemy. Sasori used this jutsu to block memories of himself in the minds of his spies so they wouldn't raise suspicions. Gaara, on the other hand used this to block memories of his past, the people around him and what he had done so that those who knew Naruto, like us won't suspect anything."

"Why would he do that?"

"If you knew who he is then you'd be acting strangely around him, and Madara would find out the truth immediately. It worked very well until now. No one knew about Naruto except me and Gaara."

"So he'd been like that for five years?" Sakura asked incredibly.

"I think Naruto had requested that Gaara deactivates the jutsu every night so that he can train on his old jutsus." Kakashi seems out of breath since he had to explain and travel at the same time.

Sakura decided to give him a rest. For the moment.

******

Gaara is experiencing a little problem. Well, maybe it wasn't that little at all.

He had deactivated the jutsu and informed the Land of Lightning about the news (the messaging hawk haven't came back since, and he hoped that the Raikage did not kill it out of rage). The tricky part came when his subordinates wasn't very happy about the fact that their kazekage had hid a jinchuriki in their village without their knowledge. And they weren't cooperating.

Sakura was getting impatient and worried sick. And you know what happens when she gets impatient.

"Why can't we go now?" Sakura nearly yelled out of frustration.

"We can't just charge straight at Tobi, we'd lose the fight. We'll need strategy. Besides, with all the Akatsuki members present the sealing still needs 3 days. Tobi alone will need more than that." Said Kankurou.

Sakura glowered at him.

******

Sakura went to investigate Naruto's room. She couldn't bear to sit around and wait. As she approaches the room, she found the door left ajar and the room was messier than ever. Looks like they have been chasing around.

The pink-haired kunoichi slipped in through the door and looked around. Right in front of her is the little dining table where they just had lunch earlier that day. Both the chairs were knocked over harshly. Nearly the rest of the space was filled by, also obviously knocked over junks, like rusted weapons, torn clothes and stuff. She can't imagine why didn't Naruto bother to clean up.

There were three compartments to the left. The first one is the kitchen, the next one is the toilet, and this one must be his room, she thought as she explored around the tiny space. A bed was placed around the corner, while a wardrobe and a set of study desk was positioned right next to it. Still, she found nothing.

Sakura was about to close the door leading to his room when suddenly, scribbled words emerged from the depths of the wooden material. They seemed to be jolted down in a rush. Without a second to lose, Sakura read the message.

Akatsuki hideout cave turn left Amaterasu surround

The words faded into nothingness.

With the message as a lead, the kunoichi ran down the stairs, and headed towards the border of the Land of Wind instead of the Kazekage room.

Author Note: Happy 2010! Reviews please, they mean a lot to me. Anybody that wants me to keep writing please click the button with green words below!