Author Note:

Thank you for the correction of my spelling of sensei, very helpful. I'll have to go back and fix that in the old chapters. Anyway, keep up the reviews! Toss the story around! Nothing motivates me more then seeing people enjoying the story. Also, because I judge my worth as a human on story hits.

Hahaha, is he joking? Haha... well on to the story!

Oh, one final thing before we do! This is going to be a very Naruto/Hinata focused chapter, and another one of my time jumps. In this case, we're jumping all the way into Part 2! Some Sasuke and Sakura goodness at the end, and next chapter will be all about them, so don't worry! We'll jump back and forth in the story. This is also a battle-heavy chapter, so do tell me how I managed to write it out, been awhile since I've had to.

The flickering of torches cast dramatic shadows in the open expanse of the cave. It was a very beautiful picture, both of the artists in the room would say. They would disagree, however, as to how it was best to utilize it. It was a discussion they often fell into, a sign of their peculiar sort of partnership and friendship that made them work so well together, despite bickering like an old married couple more often then not.

Even now, when facing nearly triple their numbers, they were bickering.

Naruto watched them with anger in his eyes, anger that made Kakashi worry. The two Akatsuki members were just sitting there, almost ignoring them, using what appeared to be the corpse of Sabaku no Gaara, as a couch. It infuriated even Kakashi, though he would not let it show. Such flagrant disrespect. But he knew Naruto had an even greater reason to be angry, and he was worried about that rage overtaking the boy.

Naruto, on the other hand, welcomed it.

That was Gaara, dammit. The Godaime Kazekage, Jinchūriki of the One-Tailed Shukaku, and a friend of Naruto who had become something to the young genin in a way no other person ever had been; Gaara was a glimpse into his possible future, a perfect example of what he might have become. And then, he became an ideal to strive for. He'd become the kazekage, and Naruto was both unbelievable happy and extremely jealous of that.

Something told him that Gaara was still alive. He had to be. He was not dead, he wasn't! He wouldn't let that be, he couldn't! They'd pushed so hard to get here, worked so much. He had torn through the man he thought was Itachi with his wind-element Great Ball Rasengan, only to discover it was a fake. But he had used that anger to push on, even ahead of the reinforcements from Konoha. But there was no time to wait! There was no stopping his drive, and Kakashi hadn't even tried to convince him. It would have gotten nowhere

They'd arrived to find the mountain sealed off, protected by the Five Seals Barrier. This, however, had not stopped Naruto at all. Hinata had eagerly used her byakugan to discover the locations of the seals, and Kakashi had supplied Naruto with a radio transmitter and watched as he created four clones that had quickly rushed off to the other seals.

They'd timed it perfectly, dispelling themselves right after the barrier went down and Hinata utilized the training she'd gotten from Tsunande to cause a massive spike of chakra to shoot through the boulder and crumble into nothing. It was flawless, perfect really. They didn't even realize that the second trap that had been laid out for them had never been triggered. The Kyōmen Shūja no Jutsu, or Mirrored Sudden Attacker Technique, could not create a mirror based upon what was already a reflection of the original; clones were not enough.

And there they were. Just... sitting there, bickering and debating the nature of art and the lighting. And Naruto was beginning to be a little put off.

"Get off him, you bastards!" he shouted, teeth flashing as he did. He could feel the rage building up inside of him. But they didn't move. They didn't even respond! They just sat there, acting as though he wasn't even there!

"No, my man, this lighting is nice, but it would truly become art in the presence of a big bang, that moment between darkness and light, and the explosion afterward, yeah!" one of the two said, gesticulating with his arm as he did. His other sleeve was bloody and ragged; apparently Gaara had gotten to him in their fight.

"You fool, true art lasts. This lighting would need to be preserved and sealed. That would be true artwork." the hunched man said, looking somewhat irate. They'd been at this for some time now. His young associate just did not understand art.

"Get off him!" Naruto shouted, yanking a scroll from his belt and letting it unfurl. With a small blast of smoke an oversized shuriken appeared, and was quickly sent flying directly at the pair. He too was become rather irate. How dare these bastards do something like this? They just sat there acting all nonchalant while using Gaara's body as a stool?

The shuriken was deflected without any trouble, a metal tail snapping up to deflect it. Sasori spoke without turning. He spoke in an annoyed tone, "My associate and I are having a discussion."

And that was the final straw for Naruto. He launched himself at them, hands coming up to form the signature hand sign he was known for. He was just about to fill the room with clones when Kakashi shouted, "Naruto, stop!"

Much to the others surprised, he did. Still shaking in anger, he held himself back, heeding the wisdom of his old sensei. Deidara grinned, "The Jinchūriki is the one who screams and charges in first, yeah? Looks like Itachi wasn't just being funny, Sasori, my man."

"So it seems." his compatriot said, turning his head to stare at the boy. "Don't even think about it, Deidara."

"Stop what, my man?" Deidara said with a knowing grin, causing Sasori to glare.

"You've gotten yours, this one is mine." he replied. And then the tail was in motion, rushing straight for Naruto as it moved.

Hinata Hyuuga watched the display with concern. She had been worried, but supportive. She understood his drive quite well. He had lost too much that was precious to him to turn back, or be dissuaded from his mad rush. But there was more to it then that. She knew Naruto wanted something else from the pair, something they'd discussed while waiting for Kakashi's nin-dogs to return with news. Finding Gaara meant more then just rescuing someone precious to him. It also meant that they would have some members of Akatsuki within his grasp. Orochimaru had been a member, and he wanted answers for that more then anything.

She had once promised to help him do whatever it took to bring his former teammates home. This was an extension of that. That was their ninja way; they always kept their word. Always.

But she was worried now, seeing Naruto so angry. She had learned his great secret not long ago, and she hated her self for being scared of it. She truly knew that Naruto was not the creature, and in many ways it made her even more amazed by him. But she feared what would happen if his anger overcame him. But no, he could handle it. She knew he could. He was Naruto, and she began to curse herself for doubting him. He was keeping it at bay, and that was an amazing thing. She was caught between a subtle fear and great admiration; between terror and wonder.

"Get off him, you bastards!" he shouted, causing her to flinch slightly, and frown. She had never seen Naruto this angry. It worried her, but also, in a way, made her even more drawn to him. Another example of his spirit she so admired; how fiery he got when defending those precious to him.

When Naruto launched his attack she almost instinctively activated her byakugan. As the tail snaked out to deflect the shuriken she became very confused for a moment. She could read the blond-haired Akatsuki's chakra network with ease; it was standard, for the most part, except with a strange extra pulse through his one remaining arm, and a greater pulse then normal over his heart. But that was not what worried her. Instead, it was his partner's chakra network.

Or lack there of, actually. She couldn't see it at all, simply a blazing flame of chakra with some streams running through the body but in a manner totally unlike that of a normal chakra network. She became so confused that she nearly missed Naruto's attempt at a headlong charge. She jumped slightly as Kakashi shouted, bringing her back to the moment. Her eyes drifted to Naruto again, watching him closely, and noticing as small spikes of abnormal chakra began to spike through his body.

"Naruto." she whispered softly, watching as his eyes began to change. Her mind drifted back again, to a scant few hours ago, as an important revelation about the boy she was following came to light.

A few hours ago...

Hinata was watching Naruto closely. This was not particularly uncommon, though. She often found her eyes drawn to him. But this time there was more to it then that. She was watching him because she had found out something about him that terrified her. But it was a strange terror, not of him but of what he carried. Not that he might do something, but that the thing inside of the blond-haired genin might do something to him.

He was pushing on ahead now, and she knew it was not the time to try and talk about this revelation. But there were so many things to say to him, so many things that became clear to her now. So many apologies for her to make. So many things she had left undone that could have helped him. But there would be a time for that, if she could bring herself to do it. The thought of that honestly terrified her even more.

Even talking to him more freely had not made it easier for an subject of feelings to come up. Even after he had given her that bouquet of flowers when he and Jiraiya had returned, a wonderful mix of beautiful flowers she had planned to press into another piece of memorabilia. She would hang it right next to the first flowers she had gotten. But this meant more, even if she couldn't believe it. He had said nothing, simply that he was glad to see her again. And that he had kept her promise. She knew what he meant, and that only made the message from the flowers more daunting.

But she had said nothing. She had wanted to so badly, and had just thought she had the courage to when the news had come in about the attack on Sunagakure and, more specifically, the attack on their Kazekage and Jinchūriki, Gaara. Now, she found herself following Naruto into the unknown alongside an elder shinobi of Suna, Chiyo, said to be a rival of sorts to her own Tsunade-sensei. Naruto's jonin-sensei, Kakashi was also with them, and it was thanks to his nin-dogs that they had found Gaara at all. From what they'd heard her cousin and his team was also on the way, but Naruto's pace was nearly too fast for even the people with him to follow.

She would just have to push herself harder, though. She would not let him down, not now when he had just returned to her, and certainly not in this chance to help fulfill the promise she'd made. Damn whatever was inside of him, he was still Naruto-kun, and she would not let anything get in the way of keeping her word. That was their ninja way, and she was going to prove it!

A few hours later...

The fight was beginning to get brutal. Naruto had dodged the strike, razor sharp edges slicing through cloth but leaving him only just unharmed. Chiyo had shouted something about being careful, and that each and every inch of every one of his weapons would be drenched in poison. His face twisted into a feral grin as he moved, launching himself into the fray.

"Well, then I just can't let him hit me, now can I! Thanks, grandma!" he shouted back, causing her to scowl. Chiyo watched him dance, bleeding off clones like he was hemorrhaging them, using them to shift and dodge at odd angles, slipping under strikes and attempting desperately to get in close.

"Naruto, wait! He's-" Hinata shouted, trying to figure out how to word the strange thing she'd discovered with her clan's kekkei genkai.

"Not your concern right now, yeah!" came an interrupting voice. The one armed Akatsuki stood now, one hand digging through one of the pouches on his hips. He scowled slightly; he was getting dangerously low on clay. He would have to make due.

Kakashi wasted little time in raising his hitae-ite and revealing the sharingan hidden beneath. His eye focusing in on Deidara. Hinata frowned, veins near her eyes bulging. The twin doujutsu of Konoha focused in on the Iwa missing-nin, causing his grin to get even wider.

"You will not get between me and Naruto." Hinata said, tone infused with certainty of unknown origin. She did not know why a sudden feeling of confidence ran through her. But even still, she found herself concerned about Naruto; her byakugan gave her nearly three-hundred and sixty degree vision, allowing her to watch him and her opponent. But it would split her focus.

"Naruto can handle himself." Kakashi said, as if reading her mind. He did not add the 'I hope' he heard run through his head, knowing that would do no good. "Simply keep your focus. We can stop him. That's all that matters now."

Deidara watched as they activated their special eyes with an even greater grin, "Hey hey hey, both of you have those special eyes, yeah? My lucky day, good warm up for when I go after the one I really want, yeah!" he said, mind instantly returning to his defeat at Itachi's hands. He had trained hard after that, and what a perfect time to test it. Sure, he knew these two couldn't compare to Itachi, but they were something. Hard to find sharingan users to test it against, after all. And the girl? Well, it wasn't quite the same, but experience was experience, yeah?!

Meanwhile, Naruto was pressing himself even harder, but making little progress in his attempts to strike the puppet armored Akatsuki. Each time he got close he was forced to break off the strike, often having to sacrifice a handful of clones to escape from the strikes. Chiyo watched with fascination. The puppet that Sasori was using had been modified, but some of it's origianl tools seemed to be unused: he was not using his needles nor the strange weapon on the puppets arm at all. His attacks seemed less like killing blows and more like attempts at deflection, warding away the opponent. Even the aggressive strikes were still rarely filled with lethal intent.

She was confused, mind racing. She had dragged Gaara off somewhat, to as safe a place as she could get, but never took her eyes off her grandson. She watched and pondered, and then it struck her as to why he was seemingly on the defensive: Sasori was a poisoner, but those were useless against his current opponent. Or rather, he was unable to use them. He could not kill the Naruto because he was his prize. He had to be taken alive. His strikes were warding blows as he thought out a plan!

"Naruto!" she shouted, hands snapping up as she did, "Rush straight in, he won't strike you!"

Sasori stiffened for a moment as they figured it out, he would have to think fast if he was going figure out a plan to disable the jinchūriki. It was, however, not fast enough.

"Rasengan!"

The next thing he knew was a sudden cracking sound as the glowing blue sphere slammed into the heavy shell on his back, warping and twisting under the powerful attack. The structure of the puppet began to creak and crack as the swirling energy shook apart the puppet. Naruto had managed to sneak in above the puppet master and come in from the top, slamming his signature attack straight into his foe. Hiruko was done for.

But Sasori was not beat yet.

Hinata watched the one-armed Akatsuki closely, pondering the strange influx of chakra into his hands. She hadn't ever seen anything quite like the exchange, a fact which caused her to worry. However, she was not about to let him finish whatever it was he was doing and rushed at him, lashing out with one of the Gentle Fist opening strikes. A blue flash of chakra lit up around Deidara, and he juked to the left to avoid it, then began leaping backwards as she began an advancing series of strikes.

Kakashi stood back, watching as Hinata began her inexorable advance on the foe. He couldn't help but notice the greater confidence she was moving with. 'A reason to fight,' he thought, 'is a powerful tool.'

The opponent was clearly a long range fighter, given how he was constantly trying to put distance between himself and the Hyuuga. Failing at it, as well, he noted. It was not Hinata's speed that seemed impressive, but rather the foes ability to evade. Kakashi could tell the foe's grin was wavering, and began running through options. He needed to see his opponents move before he could react.

He did not have to wait long. Deidara managed to push off from a rock while evading one of Hinata's attacks, and caused her to stumble ever so slightly. His arm snapped out as he launched himself back, "Now I'll show you that real art-" he began, countless white dots scattering in front of him as he did. Moments later, they expanded, revealing their small spider-like forms.

Hinata looked up with shock in her eyes. Kakashi's sharigan widened as he watched, instantly comprehending what sort of attack it was.

"Hinata-" he began, only to be cut off by the one-armed Akatsuki.

Deidara brought his hand up in front of his face, eyes wide with excitement, and shouted, "IS A BANG!"

Explosions laced through the cave.

Meanwhile, a small distance away...

Neji pushed himself from another one of the branches, veins near his eyes bulging as he watched the fight from afar. They had fallen behind, it seemed, and Kakashi's team had already begun the fight. They seemed to be holding their own, and had the numerical advantage. But they would need help to finish it completely. He scowled at the thought of their delay due to that strange decoy that had fought even Guy-sensei to a standstill.

His eyes suddenly grew wide as he watched Hinata stumble and the Akatsuki she was fighting surround her with strange chakra-infused balls. And then-

"Lady Hinata!" he shouted, causing the other members of his team to stare at him with concern.

"Neji! What is it!" Guy shouted, but Neji did not reply. He simply watched as the explosions surrounded Hinata and detonated.

The cloud of dust and smoke was massive, causing Deidara to smile. That was a beautiful example of his art, if not one of his best. But all his work was beautiful, a true testament to his skill as an artist. He could not help a grin as Sasori's armor cracked and shattered. 'So much for true art lasting forever.' He'd finished off one of his opponents, it seemed. Now, just one left to-

"Rairyōken!"

The cloud swirled and dispersed as the glowing form of a hound leaped through it, crackling like lightning. It howled and rushed for Deidara, giving him not even a chance to dodge as it slammed straight into his chest, causing the blond-haired 'artist' to scream in pain. Electricity coursed through his body and sent him flying back. He slammed into a wall with a heavy crack and the air rushed from his lungs. The lightning dispersed and he fell, slamming into the ground with another crunch.

He looked up slowly. Apparently he had underestimated one of his opponents. But then his eyes filled with rage as the dust and smoke began to disperse. Standing in the same spot as before was a panting and slightly scorched girl. The girl he'd surrounded with explosives. She hadn't even moved!

"H- how could you survive my beautiful art, yeah?" he managed, still panting.

She shifted slightly, slightly shaky from the chakra she'd put into the defense, but assumed another of the stances.

"Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō." she said, panting a moment before continuing, "Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms! My own justu, which was made to target things even smaller then your little bombs."

His eyes began to scan the room. She'd sliced up many of the explosives, and sent others into the walls with small needle-like pulses of chakra. It hadn't defused them, but it had kept them away from her for the most part. It would seem he had underestimated both of his opponents.

Kakashi was still standing back, one arm bracing the other. He too was attempting to catch his breath, hand still crackling from the attack. Like the chidori or raikiri, it caused a constant drain of chakra while active, and that had been his first time using the ability in combat. He was, however, pleased with the effectiveness. He grinned beneath the mask. And then he collapsed.

Naruto had leaped back as the explosion filled the cave, filling it with dust and smoke. His eyes became frantic for a moment, worry filling him. He couldn't lose them too. He couldn't lose Hinata! He began to shout. "Hinata! Kakashi-sensei!"

But then he found himself in awe as his eyes found her. Hinata was moving faster then he could see, chakra streaming off her like water. It danced around her in lines and darts, slicing and piercing the explosive spiders as they closed in. It was beautiful, the way she danced and moved without even leaving her spot. She had improved since the last time, and she had become beautiful.

His mind froze for a moment as he realized what it was he was thinking. He'd been doing that far more often lately...

A two days before...

She moved with purpose and precision.

Naruto watched from a distance as Hinata ran her palms over Kankurō's chest, hands glowing ever so slightly with the blue-green chakra of the Mystical Palm. Her eyes were wide, byakugan active as she looked at the suna-nin and tried to track the poison. One hand pulled back, reaching into the bin next to the operating table and placing it against the treated water she had prepared for the extraction. With a swift motion she tagged a few points around his neck, causing him to go limp.

"It's only temporary." she said lightly, but with a confidence in her voice that made Naruto surprised, "It's to keep you from struggling. Please bear with the pain."

She retracted her hand from the tub, dragging along a bubble of the water, and began to extract the poison. Kankurō's face winced in pain, but it lucky he was not thrashing about. Hinata flowed from one point to the next, spheres filling up with a foul looking substance that was quickly sealed away. Naruto watched how she moved, graceful even in this. It was-

Beautiful.

"He's not human."

Naruto was shocked by those words. Why the hell woulds she say that? Hinata was staring off, focusing on something he couldn't see. It was the last thing he expected to ever hear from her.

"His chakra is abnormal, nothing like a humans at all." she continued, frowning, "I have no idea what he is."

It was Chiyo who spoke next, frown on her face as she processed the information. "He isn't human anymore. He's something more."

Naruto turned to where they were staring, finally seeing what it was they were talking about. A young man with a head of red hair stood there, cloaked in a white robe. Naruto stared into his bland eyes. The man seemed almost bored.

"Who the hell is that?"

"Sasori." Chiyo replied, various things suddenly clicking in her head. He hadn't aged one bit since he disappeared, still boyish in his looks. Given what the girl with the byakugan had said it became very clear to her what he'd done, and it made her truly appalled. "He's turned himself into a human puppet."

Naruto simply growled, "I don't care what he is, he's going down!" he said, launching himself into the air. His fingers crossed and a horde of clones appeared, only to find most of them suddenly impaled by a series of strange metal spikes. They disappeared into a puffs of smoke, and Naruto had barely enough to time to dodge. The spike tore into his clothing and into his shoulder, sending blood spraying into the air.

"Naurto!" Hinata shouted and rushed out to attack Sasori as Naruto was thrown back. Chiyo shouted for her to stay back but the elder suna-nin's words fell on deaf ears as the Hyuuga threw herself at Sasori with reckless abandon. It was then that she noticed the other figure floating behind Sasori, obscured by a strange chakra-filled haze. She tried to strike Sasori in the spot his chakra was strongest, right where his heart was supposed to be, only to have the blow intercepted by what felt like an iron wall.

Which was because it was an iron wall. Hinata suddenly found herself flying backwards, pressed against a massive block of metal. As she slammed into the wall of the she felt the wind fly from her. She hadn't even time to scream as a series of senbon impacted into her body, causing her eyes to go wide. Sasori simply stared.

"What a foolish mistake. The poison is fast acting. You'll be dead soon." he said in a simple monotone, eyes turning to focus on Chiyo. "What will you do now, Chiyo-baachan?"

And then something behind him exploded.

Sasori spun just in time to see a red-eyed Naruto lunge at him with a purple sphere in hand. His body was surrounded by a cloak of red chakra, twin tails waving behind him as he lunged. The iron sand haze seemed to spark and ignite as it came in contact with Naruto's cloak of chakra, burning bright blue-white as he leaped. For a split second the artist inside of Sasori wished he could preserve that image forever, so beautiful was it. He threw himself to the side in a mad attempt to evade. He failed, the large rasengan tearing into the right-side of the puppet-master's body.

The fox-tailed Naruto landed in a crouch and shot off like a rocket, racing along the walls. He was so full of rage he could only barely think straight. His mind narrowed down to a single line: he had hurt Hinata. Hinata was going to die. The man has poisoned Hinata. He was a bad man for doing this, he was going to die for this. Naruto was going to kill him. Naruto was going to destroy him. He would destroy both of them for trying to hurt Hinata. He was going to tear them apart!

Deidara couldn't even track Naruto's movement as he ran around the length of the cave, racing towards him. He threw up his arm, attempting to release a wad of clay as the twin-tailed beast approached him. The next thing he knew was searing pain as the creature ran by; it took a moment for his brain to register that his remaining arm had been torn from it's socket.

Sasori's body creaked as he pushed himself up with his remaining arm. The cable in his stomach had been snapped and frayed, along with one of the razor-blade wings. Worse yet, his chest had been torn to shreds; there was no way for him to trump card hundred puppet performance, his Red Secret Technique. He flopped over onto his side, eyes registering the horrible crimson glow racing towards him. His arm reflexively came up, massive stream of water shooting from the nozzle at insane pressures, sending Naruto flying backwards. He impacted the ceiling with a terrible crunch, water pushing all the way through and sending him flying up into the sky.

Chiyo had rushed to Hinata's side as she fell, frantically trying to dig her out of the pile of iron sand that had collapsed onto her when Sasori's puppet was destroyed. She dug with haste, eye wide when she finally found Hinata beneath it all. She was barely breathing, body bleeding in several places. One of her arms seemed broken, laying limply at her side. Her other hand clutched a strange injector, emptied of liquid

Hinata struggled a smile as she looked at Chiyo.

"I- I- managed- to make an- antidote." she said before drifting into unconsciousness. Chiyo's eyes hardened, palms pressed against the girls chest and glowing with green light. No, no, no. She was not going to die here. Chiyo would not let the girl do that. She had too much to do. The boy needed her. She would not let her die.

She did not notice the impending attack. Sasori's arm moved stiffly, focusing in on the injured Konoha-nin and her elderly medic. Sasori, however, did not see the attack either. He rather suddenly found himself buried in the ground, his neck the only thing above the ground, and a rather angry looking ninja crouched in front of him.

"Now now, it's bad form to attack someone while their down." Kakashi said with a trace of sarcasm.

Deidara took this as his chance to leave. He made a run for the mouth of the cave, only to find his path suddenly blocked off. A robed man with the same white eyes as the girl led them, alongside two ninja clad in the most offensive green spandex suits he had ever seen, and a girl toting a rather large summoning scroll. To his credit, Deidara knew when he was beat. No clay to eat, no arms to do jutsu, and he was no close range fighter like these seemed to be. He stopped in his tracks and grinned.

"I surrender, yeah. I'd raise my arms, but..."

Naruto still looked rather feral as he crouched next to Sasori's head. He had landed some distance away and rushed back on all fours. As he launched himself into the cave he was suddenly set upon by someone he had not expected. Kakashi had slapped a slip of paper onto his forehead that had made him feel very very weak all the sudden.

He had recovered soon after, the red chakra receding. He was still angry at first, until, of course, he Hinata came over to him. He had sat, dumbstruck for a moment, before throwing himself at her and grabbing her in a massive hug. To her credit she did not faint, though she did turn seven different shades of red as he held onto her and told her how he'd thought he had lost another person precious to him.

Kakashi had to break it up, motioning towards the mostly-buried Sasori and his arm-less partner. Team Gai had tied up the blond-haired man, despite his armless state, mostly to add insult to injury, and it did not go unnoticed. Deidara glared at Naruto.

"Ey, you tore my only arm off, hn? How the hell am I supposed to make art now?" he said angrily, causing Sasori to sigh.

"I do not think we are really in a position to argue here, Deidara. Now hurry up and get with the interrogation. I hate waiting."

A short time later...

Naruto watched with the scene with a smile on his face. They were surrounded by nearly a hundred Sunagakure shinobi, the air filled with cheering. Their kazekage was rescued, alive and unharmed. Naruto watched with amusement as a cute girl with her hitae-ite around her neck rushed and hugged Gaara, causing a strange moment of confusion to cross his face. Naruto laughed slightly as he watched his friend, slowly letting it drift off as he watched.

They had managed to extract some very useful information out of the captured Akatsuki, though they hadn't seemed to know much. Ibiki might be able to drag more out, but Kakashi had said he doubted it. But, at the very least, Sasori had seemed almost eager to supply them with information on his spy in Orochimaru's organization. But even that news had not made Naruto as happy to learn something that Deidara had just let slip out.

They'd interrupted whatever strange ceremony or extraction process a day early. This was something unexpected, and one they hadn't really known how to deal with. With a bit of prodding they had drug out that the Akatsuki had intended to simply kill the interlopers. They had not expected to be interrupted .

Gaara was dangerously low on chakra, but it seemed as though the Shukaku had not been extracted after all. Some healing for internal injuries and time had been all he needed. He had come around just in time for a rather large number of suna-nin to arrive.

"I'm a bit jealous." he said, causing Hinata to look over to him.

She smiled, and moved closer to him, swallowing hard for a moment as she did. Tentatively, she reached out, finally grabbing onto his hand. She looked down shyly, face flushed, and he turned to her with a surprised look on his face.

"Hinata?"

She managed to bring her face up to look at his, and smiled through the blush. "I'm sure you'll be there some day too, Naruto."

He found himself staring into her lavender eyes for a moment, lost. And a single word came to his mind.

Beautiful.

Elsewhere...

Sasuke was sitting in silence, soft flicker of candle light casting dancing shadows across the room. He was deep in thought, dressed in a loose-fitting robe. He had spent the day in personal training, Orochimaru and Kabuto both had left on some unknown job. He was not bothered by that. Sasuke was rapidly approaching a period in which there was little more for him to learn from the Whites Snake, and Sakura's training with her artificial kekkei genkai had taking precedence over Kabuto's instruction. Soon, Sasuke would not need them any more.

Orochimaru was getting worse, as well. His body was deteriorating faster and faster, reaching the limits of it's ability. Sasuke mused at how a genius could have invented such a flawed jutsu. It was foolish, really. It left him so weak as to be useless, and a new body every three years? What a fool he was. He was giving Sasuke all the time he needed to prepare, and Sakura's foolish request had turned into a great boon.

Speaking of which...

Her arms wrapped around his neck from behind, drapping down across his chest. She pressed herself closer to him, head resting against his shoulder as she whispered, "Sasuke-kun..."

Sasuke grinned, eyes closed, as she did. They had begun sharing quarters often, though he had rather purposefully not taking full advantage of that situation. He had told himself he was saving it for morale purposes, but a subtle nagging thought in the back of his mind reminded of him of three small words that he had never said, nor had been able to bring himself to say. He shook that thought from his mind and brought himself back to the present.

"Soon, Sakura, we'll make the move." he said, eyes flashing open. She pressed harder into his back and smiled, "Be ready."

Translation Notes:

As far as I gather Rairyōken should mean Lightning Hound. Not entirely certain on that translation, so if anyone has a better translation of Kakashi's attack, I'd appreciate it.

Shōton means Crystal Release, by the way.