Now Fujisaki has the Princess, and with Naruto, Sakura, Casana, along with their fairly-considered ally Jason now are on the evil man's trail to find his residing fortress and defeat him once and for all. With their clueless searching, will they find Fujisaki and truly take him down, or will they fail? And just what does he want with Teah? Find out in the upcoming chapters of this exciting story!

Liking it so far, y'all? XD I gotta say, a lot of things changed from some of my original ideas. I'll get into that later, but yeah, it was WAY different. :D I hope you all will like it.

Anyway, on with the show. Sorry about this being a bit of a filler chapter, but do bear with me, y'all. Next chapter should be much better. :D

--~~--

To take some moments to recollect themselves after traveling for a day, at a very slow pace, the group were taking shelter within the depths of a remote forest. It had been tiring since they were working to track down Fujisaki and where he'd taken Teah, with absolutely no leads at all.

On a good note, Jason was pretty much on their side, in a matter of speaking. He pretty much just followed along after them because Casana was, since he of course now thought that she was his mother. He didn't know what was going on, and found them pretty confusing a lot of the time. But they weren't committing any kind of immoral acts or anything of the sort, so he had pretty much no quarrel with them. If they had been at Camp Crystal Lake, it would have probably been a different story.

Because of his mistaking her for his mother, Casana used that to her advantage to keep Jason on a leash. She knew what he was capable of, and didn't want anything to go wrong, not right now. So with her around, he was in good hands. To keep it up, she treated him like a loving mother would treat her son. Although she held slight resentment, she had to admit that he'd grown on her. They were similar in some standards, and despite his ways of killing and Great White Shark way of thinking, he was deep down still that scared little 11-year-old boy, longing for his mother.

So now, things were going as smoothly as possible. It was just finding Fujisaki's hideout that was getting to them.

Naruto was wandering their little camp, looking for something to do while they were taking some downtime. Sakura was going to gather food in the forest, and Casana was sitting alone somewhere. He saw Jason sitting under a tree, looking over his machete in his hands, probably inspecting it. He then wiped some traces of blood off of it with his jacket and then lay it on his lap.

Jason glanced over at Naruto, studying him for a few seconds, and then looked away.

"Yeah, I'm pretty bored too." Naruto said to the slasher, who just looked back at him, tilting his head in confusion. He chuckled and then looked up to see Casana sitting on a branch in the tree. That was probably why he was sitting under that tree in the first place.

Leaping up, Naruto landed in the branch next to hers. Casana was making a flute out of a branch, using the blade of a Swiss Army knife.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked curiously, even though it was obvious.

"Killing time." Casana replied. "Pretty much."

"Yeah, no kidding." Naruto leaned against the trunk, and glanced at her. "....You feeling okay?"

"Sure." Casana said, sighing slightly. "I've been better."

"....Well, you know, for what's it worth..." Naruto couldn't believe he was saying this. "I know that Deidara guy did hurt and kidnap my friend and all, but hey, sorry about your loss. I guess he was a good friend to you, huh?"

Casana stopped carving, staring down at the ground. She sighed and nodded. "...Yeah. I wouldn't expect you to understand, but then again you didn't know him like I did. ...He was everything to me, Naruto." She then looked at him. "You remember what I said, about how Jason had no one to rely on, except for his mother because of the fact that the other kids of the camp were always making fun of him and hurting him just because he was different?"

Naruto nodded. "Oh, yeah. I know how that feels, it's no wonder I feel kind of bad for him."

"Yeah, well...Deidara was like that to me. After I lost my family and I made it to the village, I was alone, and all the children made fun of me, and all the adults feared me because of my bloodline. No one understood us, except maybe the Tsuchikage. He reached out to me, and befriended me." A light smile crossed her face. "He became my best friend, and I admired him so much, I just wanted to be near him...and seeing him happy was the best thing ever. All I wanted was to make him proud of me, to smile at me because I made him happy. He was my role model to change and become stronger."

Letting her story sink in, Naruto couldn't believe how interesting it was to hear of someone from a different perspective. You think you know someone, and then someone else speaks of them from a different perspective than yours, and you can hardly believe people actually think that, and yet they do. It was unbelievable.

He understood, though. It wasn't easy, but when you had one person you could count on, it was no wonder you felt as though they were the one who made the sun rise every morning.

"Never thought I'd hear that kind of story about him!" Naruto remarked, laughing.

Casana glanced at him and smiled sadly. "I suppose not."

Naruto shifted his position a little, looking at her. "...So, you really loved him, didn't you?"

A blush crept along the brunette's cheeks. "Yes, I loved him more than anything in the world." She looked up to the sky. "Maybe he didn't make it to Heaven...but maybe he did. It still pains me that he's gone, but, I know he would want me to be strong, and move on. I can feel him smiling down at me..." She then looked at him. "And I can see you have special feelings toward your Princess." Despite it all, she always referred to or addressed Teah as "Princess".

Blushing like mad, Naruto looked away. "S-Say what?! What do you mean!?"

Casana laughed. "Come on, Naruto. I saw it all over your faces when you looked at each other. It doesn't take a mind reader to know this kind of thing. I can tell she really loves you."

"...Well, yeah, she's told me that." He admitted, blushing at the memory.

"So, what's the problem?"

"Well...I think I love her, but I don't know." The blonde Konoha shinobi sighed. "I just feel so confused. I used to really love Sakura, and then I find out she's with Lee and now I think I have feelings for Teah-nee-chan. I'm not sure, but I might be."

"So then what's holding you back?" She cocked her head, her eyes gleaming. She was loving every moment of this.

"That's just it, I don't know." Naruto sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I-I guess I could make her happy, and I really like her as a person, and I do see myself with her, but I don't know why I'm confused."

"Is it possible that maybe someone else in the past is a part of it?" Casana guessed.

"Well...Sasuke did have feelings for her." Naruto said quietly as he mentioned the name of his best friend. "I know it's odd since they're cousins, but I never really cared about that. Still, I don't know if that's it or not. She felt the same way, and she did say she still does, but she's moving on from it all, since it's holding her back from moving on with her life."

Casana thought of that for a moment. "Sounds like those two have a lot of unfinished emotional business. They need to talk to each other."

"You're telling me!" Naruto said, clenching a fist. "I swear, I'll beat that bast-"

"Naruto." Casana warned, pointing her finger downward.

"Oh, right. I'll beat that stupid moron into submission for what he did to her." He continued. "I swear, he had it all right there, and didn't seem to care that he took her heart out and stomped on it! He doesn't deserve her, not after how he made her feel!"

He remembered that day, seeing her collapse into the worst fit of tears he'd ever seen in the middle of the dark streets of the village. How he held her in his arms and comforted her, letting her sob brokenheartedly. He never wanted to see her sad like that ever again.

"You're right about that." Casana agreed, leaning back against the tree trunk while occasionally blowing some notes through the makeshift flute she made. "Ah, yeah, he's Itachi's younger brother, and I'm guessing he's quite stubborn, yeah?"

"You got that right." Naruto said. "Stupid idiot. He's stubborn as an ax, always all up in your face about how he's soooo much better than you and how you could never understand him."

"Sounds like he doesn't quite comprehend the fact that there are people who have faced what he did, and hell, maybe even worse." She glanced at him, blowing through the flute.

"Yeah! He was pretty adamant on that. Stupid idiot...if that da-...er, well, stupid Itachi hadn't shown up that day to pretty much kidnap me, none of this would have happened. Heck, even if that bastard Orochimaru didn't bite him..." He sighed heavily.

Casana frowned lightly at the mention of the traitor's name. "Orochimaru...I should have known he was behind that. He was always looking for new recruits to take down Konoha."

Naruto glanced at her. "So you hate him too? Wow! I'm not surprised, but still, what's your beef with him?"

"It's not me personally, but I do find it despicable. ...He leaked information of the Akatsuki to the Kazekage, so he became a traitor to us." She replied.

"Say what?!" Naruto gasped. "He did that?! He was in the Akatsuki?!"

"Yep. I wasn't there while he was, Deidara just told me about it. Even I shouldn't be telling you this."

"Nah, don't worry about it." Naruto waved it off. "I won't tell anyone, and I hardly think Jason's going to even be able to use that information. But hey, all the more reason to get rid of that snake."

Casana just smiled a little. "Yeah, sure."

Naruto chuckled and lay back against the tree trunk, looking up at the stars in the sky above. "Say, were you and Deidara...well, ya know...."

"Yes, Naruto. We were."

"Wow. Never would've expected Deidara to be the romantic type."

"He wasn't. Nah, he just had his own little way of showing he cared. It didn't matter, though. I was just happy to be with him, and that he felt the same way about me as I did about him." She admitted.

"Sounds like him." Naruto glanced at her. "...I do give him credit for making you happy, though."

"He did." Casana smiled. "He really did. After all, I was the only one who could pretty much scold him for being so overconfident sometimes."

Naruto laughed. "Oh, snap."

"I know." She giggled.

--

"Comfortable, Princess?"

Teah looked up at the voice she grew to hate and glared at Fujisaki hatefully, but said nothing. She'd been trapped there for who-knows-how-long, and she was just hating it. They barely fed her, she'd given up trying to escape, and sometimes they even caused her pain for their own amusement.

"Thought so. Don't worry, your precious Nine-Tails will be here soon..."

"He has a name." Teah spat. "His name is Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki."

Fujisaki just laughed mockingly. "Like I even care, Princess. After all, he's not gonna be around for long. So you can give up on ever getting out of here, lovely. But hey, if you're good, maybe I'll even make you my Queen...heheh..."

"Keep on dreaming." She glared. "Not going to happen."

"Keep telling yourself that, beautiful." He winked at her and then left.

With a sigh, Teah looked among the large throne room blanketed in shadows. Hoping with all of her heart that Naruto and the others would make it here okay. She hated being the trapped damsel in distress, it was not who she was.

Naruto....be careful....and hurry...

--

Munching on a tomato that he had "borrowed" from a tomato garden that he had passed, Sasuke apprehensively watched the group from his safe distance, shielding his chakra to prevent detection. He heard Naruto and the female Akatsuki member, who he later heard was named Casana, to which he recognized as the last of the Kusabana clan, and caught a few words on what they were talking about.

Especially when he himself was brought up, with the subject of his cousin, also.

He would never admit that he still had feelings for her, he could never let his weak feelings bring him down lower. But, he could never deny them. So he buried them, kept them where they couldn't be found. It wasn't easy, though. He knew now, even if he didn't want to admit it, that he could never forget her.

Now upon hearing she was kidnapped, he couldn't believe what he was about to do. Go in there and save her, get her away from the evil monsters that dared even try to mess with the Uchihas. It was more to prove that point, no matter how much he denied part of his motives.

Even if he did want to forget her, and move on, he didn't want her to die, to succumb to the power of the corrupted occult. She was too young to die, and also essential in restoring the Uchiha clan. A part of why he wanted to be kept alive.

Now he finds out her feelings toward Naruto.

He didn't know what to think of that.

On one hand, he was furious, jealous even. The Uchihas, a proud and prestigious clan mixing with the Uzumakis? Not a good idea in his book. And Naruto of all people. He couldn't believe what she saw in him. The loser of all losers, loud, obnoxious, stupid, to name a few.

On the other hand, he wasn't surprised. Naruto was always there for her, and had done nothing but treat her wonderfully. Which was good, because he would never put up with him treating her badly. He knew fully well that he could make her happy, no matter how much he wanted to deny it.

That damn loser.... Sasuke thought. I'll take care of him later....

His attention shifted to Jason, whom he could see was just sitting under the same tree Naruto and Casana were sitting in, minding his own business and fiddling with his machete. From what he observed, Casana seemed to have some kind of a control over him, which was helpful, he could see. By now he wasn't sure what to think of the huge slasher, since apparently he had some kind of a strange immortality, so trying to kill him would be useless. And if he had been able to kill Karin like he had, then it was obvious that Sasuke had underestimated his power.

Jason...hmmm...I suppose since I can't kill him, I should do something to let him know that he should never mess with me. ...Then again, I doubt he would even know, he's actually dumber than Naruto. Surprisingly. Perhaps I'm just wasting my time. I can't kill him, and he certainly wouldn't understand me, or know of who I am....

Sasuke kept eating his tomato, thinking of his strategy.

--

"Everything is going according to our new plan, Himetsu..." Fujisaki said aloud, watching his prey through the crystalline ball.

"It would seem so, Boss." Himetsu agreed.

"It's a shame I did not just tell him our location...but then again, I do want to have some fun with them..." The evil mastermind chuckled. "They could never break through our barrier....so I'm not worried. Even if they do come, they'll never make it, one way or another."

Yakita grinned. "You've outsmarted them, Boss!"

"I did indeed...and if they do get in...won't they be surprised." Fujisaki chuckled evilly. "Won't they be surprised..."