Pairing: eventual Kakanaru; some SasuNaru, some KakaTenzou
Rating: PG-15
Disclaimer: All characters depicted in sexual situations in this post/fanfiction/fanart (including material in the comments) are fictional and are intended to be and considered to be by the author of said material of the legal age of consent in the United States state of California, regardless of what age these characters may be in the material they are derived from. Also, song is "DOA" by Foo Fighters.
Notes: I did make the Whirlpool Village have the Kansai dialect; but it won't play much of a part, but I thought I would mention that it is a true dialect. Un-betaed.
As he returned, although breathing heavily he was no worse for wear, he perched outside the Hokage's office and knocked a stone against the window in hopes of the old man realizing he was in need of an emergency meeting. He waited for Sarutobi to finish up quickly with ANBU members then appeared in the room before the door was even shut after the group departing. His solitary visible eye told the old man all he needed to know. Something had gone wrong.
"Hokage-sama, you remember my report on the awry business goings on in Earth Country, correct? I believe that one such business has taken all three of my students. Sir, Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto were taken in respective sequence as we transported supplies to Iwagakure. As I informed Uchiha Sasuke of our missing teammates, it was apparent that Naruto had enough time to create a bunshin of him: which indicates that he may have gone after Sakura as she was taken. Upon getting to the Earth border, we dispelled his clone and crossed. We succeeded in the mission, Hokage-sama, and on the way back we took it upon ourselves to stop in the village nearest to where they disappeared. As such we gathered some information; however we proceeded to split up without radio signal. I came here, and I believe that in my mistake of removing myself from the situation, Uchiha Sasuke might have also been taken. As the evidence is those businesses are usually taking three members of a team, especially if they are young." His report, although it sounded long-winded, was in fact a shortened and non-detailed explanation. Sarutobi, understanding the urgency of the situation, proceeded to nod once, standing and crossing to the doors. Opening them, he whispered a quick summons to one of the ANBU guards.
Kakashi prided himself with showing no emotion, but with how dire he seemed to think this set of circumstances as being, he nearly whimpered. However, he did not let a single sound escape the lump in his throat. It was his mistake; he would have to fix it, even if he required help. The Hokage once again sat himself down at his desk. Several displacements of air later and they were joined by an ANBU squad. Kakashi remained silent as they spoke about the situation. He answered questions as they were asked; finally the Hokage called the monkey forward, whispering something and handing her a scroll, presumably something medically inclined since she was the medic-nin on the team. As they turned and left Kakashi took the lead, as discussed, to lead the way.
The silver haired Jounin thought about the report he had done on the twisted businesses that held court on the northern border of Earth Country. The only reason he had been assigned to such a thing was that shinobi were disappearing like wildfire all throughout southern Earth Country and the other shinobi nations. However, it wasn't just shinobi, as he found out. They were unbiased and took civilians as well into their slave-trade. That's where his Genin Team was—he knew they must be. Why else would they have gone missing? As they sped through trees his solitary visible eye narrowed. He would fix this.
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I went down, I fell, I fell so fast
Dropping like the grains in an hourglass
Never say forever cause nothing last
Dancing with the bones of my buried past
Never mind there's nothing I can do
Bet your life there's something killing you
-----
Naruto immediately started ruling out possibilities: they weren't separated by gender, and apparently some knew others in this pen—Sakura could be here. Frowning in slight dismay he started by walking up to someone that looked decently friendly: a boy who was sitting by another's legs, leaning against them and watching Naruto with wide, curious brown eyes. Naruto approached slowly, even though his mind was racing. He squatted down in front of him, the boy whom he was leaning against looking at the Uzumaki in a menacing way.
"Hey, uhh, I was wondering if you've seen a girl with pink hair. She has green eyes?" The boy nodded at the description, pointing towards the opposite side of the enclosure. Smiling he stood up again, looking down at the brown eyed boy still.
"Thank you." He turned then, shuffling towards his destination. The chains clinked between his wrists and the ones between his feet were dragged along the ground, matching the part of 'prisoner' nicely. His thoughts vanished as sapphire eyes landed on a head of pink bent down. There were clinks made as a rock was raised between two hands and brought down sharply on the chain links by her ankle. She worked diligently, and for the first time Naruto realized just how clever she was. He shuffled forward.
"Sakura-chan?" The pink head of hair jerked upwards, green eyes flooding with tears widened as she saw the blond. Immediately she reacted: her hand squeezed tight around the stone, her knuckles turning white before she sprung up, throwing her arms around his neck, the chain striking his chin sharply, and dragging up, catching his lip and busting it open. He hardly noticed as he put his hands on her sides, attempting to console the upset girl.
"Naruto… I thought I was alone again! I thought they put you somewhere else! I was so worried!" Her eyes were clenched shut tightly, she hugged him close. This only went on for another minute before she regained her composure and pulled back. She looked down at her feet, then the rock still clenched in her hand. Finally she raised her pea green eyes to his face. She frowned.
"I'm sorry, did I cut you?" He raised one hand and wiped a drop of blood from his chin and shrugged slightly. She looked at him apologetically before fidgeting.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Naruto wracked his brain for answers. He took a deep breath of dusty air and turned to eye the gate. No chakra, due to the cuffs; delayed, he finally took a look at what he was wearing: still his fishnet shirt and a pair of green boxers. He sighed; his sandals had also been taken from him, so that left his file out of the question. He looked to Sakura; she was only wearing a short, rather revealing skirt and a brown, dirty t-shirt. She also had no sandals. This did not bode well. The other prisoners wouldn't necessarily listen to them, so it was Sakura and himself. He jerked his head towards the gate then moved off towards it in a shuffle.
Hurriedly he positioned himself on one side of the gate, motioning to the girl to stand ready on the other side. He pressed his ear to the wood of the high, solid fence around them. If anyone was coming to open the gate, he would be able to hear them slide the latch back. With his ear pressed to the fence, he listened, hand raised, two fingers pointed skyward. A muffled sound of metal scraping against rough wood and his two fingers pointed to the pink haired girl. Both eyes watched as the wooden gate started to open. It felt like millennia, wood scraping against wood before the gate opened into air.
Naruto had measured the wall with his eyes: six inches thick, rough cut outside, smooth studs for the inside that ran up the length, around ten feet high. As the gate slid wide open and two guards were visible with a small female between them, the blond and the pink haired girl leapt into the air, aimed for each. The girl between them looked up and gasped; a shinobi from Grass Country: a mere Genin. As Naruto went after the guard he was aimed at, he heard a fist connecting with flesh and a muffled cry of pain before a solid thump and Naruto knew that Sakura had been thrown off. He allowed the fist he saw coming towards him to connect, throwing him off as well. Unhurt, he sat up quickly and crawled on knees and forearms to Sakura, helping her up, then pushing her back into the crowd that formed. He shuffled back against the other bodies, watching the new girl be unclipped from the guards and the blindfold be taken off of her. She seemed good for a Genin: she had sensed their attack though she couldn't see, but that wasn't what caught his attention.
Once the guards left, he found Sakura again and sank down next to her, back against the wooden wall surrounding them. He looked her over quickly and took note of even the smallest dusting of dirt over the bridge of her nose. She hadn't been hurt by the punch: which was lucky.
"They're shinobi." Her voice broke through his thoughts. Yes, he had caught onto that fact when the gate opened. However, as the guard had punched him, his face had moved slightly into the light, instead of being hidden in the shadows of the hood he was wearing. With that, not only did he have an idea of what kind of people were behind this, but he knew where this particular shinobi was hailing from.
"Earth Country shinobi." This time it was his voice that came out. Both sat silently; one contemplating what all this could mean, the other wondering if they were going to get out or if they had been abandoned.
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Never mind there's nothing I can do
Bet your life there's something killing you
It's a shame we have to die my dear
No ones getting out of here, alive
This time
-----
The Lion kept its black hood up over plain brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. Danzou had remarked how quiet he had been, and so gave him a mission where there was more interaction. While he didn't support emotions, he supported interaction: otherwise one could go mad. Though that was according to Danzou, and he was a bit mad himself. Black eyes watched from behind his mask as the silver haired elite Jounin, Hatake Kakashi led the way. Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke had all been taken by a shady business. How Kakashi could have allowed this to occur was beyond him. However, that was not his business: his business was retrieving the three Genin and returning them to Konohagakure. They ground to a halt immediately to the inside of a copse of trees. Two shinobi were walking from one building to another, hoods drawn over their heads and shadows over their faces. Infiltration was the best way to go. As the two shinobi walked they had no chance as the ANBU squad overtook them. Kakashi and the Lion Henged themselves to appear as the two guards, then took the hoods from them.
Moving swiftly they were back on the trail, moving in the same position the two they were modeling had been going. Without talking, they entered the building before them, slipping in silently. There was a guard at the door who nodded to them.
"Two more, right?" The gruff voice broke through the tense silence. The Lion looked over, giving the guard a look before turning back into the quiet and proceeding down the hallway. The guard looked as if he didn't notice anything in the hallway. Kakashi, meanwhile, was looking through the cell doors that lined the sides of this hall with his Sharingan. He stopped when he found Uchiha Sasuke chained, gagged, and blindfolded. He noted the cell number then moved to sweep through the others. Naruto and Sakura were nowhere to be found. Kakashi stepped forward, The Lion in step with him as he opened the door to Sasuke's cell. They quickly worked to silently let the Uchiha down, giving him no indication that they were allies to him. They clipped the leads to him and got him stumbling along between them at arms length, out to the trail. Carefully they led him down the trail and to the next building, The Lion flashing looks towards both guards posted at the door. Both didn't notice as they entered the building, unclipped the Uchiha and dispelled the Henge technique.
Kakashi undid the gag and slipped the blindfold off of the raven. He nodded and pressed a finger to his lips. He didn't bother to hide his true looks as he slid the metal lock back and dragging the large wooden gate open. All of the slaves stood back from the gate, eyeing him with suspicion and unease. He feigned moving his hair to uncover his Sharingan again, scanning the area for his other two students. He caught a shock of blond out of the corner of his normal eye: Naruto was leaning up against the fence, regarding him with cool blue eyes that seemed to hold too much knowledge for the boy he knew as Naruto, when he went to analyze it closer it was gone though. He looked to the slumped form next to Naruto: Sakura, with her head in his lap as she rested. She would probably never admit to it after this, but she needed him. He walked towards them, the wide eyes of the crowd watching, the people giving him a wide berth.
When he reached the two he slipped out a lead and clipped one to each of them, tugging upward. Silently, and eerily they complied. He led them to the gate, where The Lion also clipped leads to each of them. After getting them past the gate, they closed it and slid back the lock. Scanning the area, The Lion flicked his wrist, indicating a back door. Kakashi nodded and moved the two forward, moving them at a fast clip. Once they shut the door behind them and were outside they unclipped the leads, then grabbed one Genin each, transporting them back to the squad.
Sakura was nearly panicking, but when she saw Sasuke she threw herself at him, trembling slightly and pea green eyes wide. Sasuke frowned and rubbing at his wrists: The Lion had transported him back to the squad's position immediately, and then returned to the building in order to help Kakashi retrieve the other two. The medic had looked him over, another working on getting the chains off of him. By the time two displacements of air alerted him; he was out of the shackles and could feel his energy returning. Naruto remained oddly calm in Kakashi's arms. He stood still, blue eyes slightly dull, but sparked with interest as he caught sight of the ANBU squad. Kakashi let him go and took the cloak off of himself, The Lion trading his for the one he had originally worn. As the medic spoke softly to Sakura and Naruto, Sasuke listening in, they checked them over. Instead of listening to the drivel of the medic attempting to calm them down, Naruto's sapphire eyes dwelled on The Lion.
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Only took a second to say goodbye
Been a pleasure but the pleasure's been mine, all mine
-----
After they got the shackles off the two remaining Genins, The Lion turned from moving the two shinobi they had taken advantage of. Silently he peered from behind his mask at the sapphire eyes that were eyeing him in return. They looked rather familiar; almost like they were the Hontokage's eyes: the only Kage in Konoha that Danzou actually didn't mind (as he and Sarutobi had disagreement after disagreement). But The Lion dismissed the thought: the Hontokage would never have allowed himself to be caught and not done anything about it, especially if mere Genins could possibly pay for that foul up with their lives. No, Uzumaki Naruto was not Namikaze Keiko.
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It's a shame we have to disappear
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The group of shinobi moved off, setting a grueling pace towards Earth Country's nearest border and eventually their way to Konohagakure.