Hours must have passed by now, or maybe it was just a few minutes. It seemed time eluded her, as she continued to sit quietly still in the damp dark area. With no clue as to where she was, she had no hope to try and escape. They left binds off of her. She was free to move around, though she did her best to stay still. Finally she could make out actual sounds, only she wished she couldn't.

Tobi had stopped by another two times. She couldn't stand it when he was there because of the mask, and the fact that he had been touching her arms, her legs, and her face. His hands were gloved, and he now wore a new robe. It was similar to the tall blonde man that she knew was the one to set off the bombs at the bank. The robe was black with a red cloud pattern all throughout. Tobi was the only one visiting her, but she knew that at least the blonde was working with him, who else, she didn't know.

Every time he left her, it threw her off because he would walk off in a different direction. This last time he left telling her that he was going to be back straight away. He talked constantly, always referring to himself in third person, almost like a child would.

Each time he reached out to smoothly trace her skin with his gloved hand it sent tremors down her spine. Though he was being gentle now with her, he was still the one to run the blade over her arm. She knew his insane behavior was all the more reason to be on guard.

Had they already demanded their ransom?

Did her father refuse? She doubted that, he was a tough man, but still she knew he would do anything he could to get her back. So once again, her life was in the hands of someone else.

"Oh hi pretty girl! Tobi missed you so much; he had to see you right away!"

She had yet to speak throughout this whole ordeal; the only time really she showed her voice was when they demanded her name and when she cried out from pain as the blade cut through her flesh. Maybe she could just go to sleep, but she didn't want to, she couldn't! She knew that it was important to remember everything.

"Tobi will give you a bath in a little while, pretty girl smells like smoke."

Visible shudders ran throughout her body, this can't be happening. Tears again welled up and spilled down her eyes.

The man Tobi jumped radically up and down, holding the sides of his head, "Oh don't cry beautiful!" He leaned forward, putting his orange-swirled masked face just inches from her own face and said in a calm deadly serious voice, "Or I'll hurt you."

The man laughed and stood back up and started pacing again. Hinata did her best to stop the tears, but the new voice that he just spoke in terrified her. It made her think that maybe he was just pretending to be crazy, but why would someone do that? Perhaps he had multiple personality disorder. Gah, she couldn't think straight!

More chuckles escaped the now happy again man, "Tobi doesn't want to hurt pretty girl. Tobi thinks…Tobi likes pretty girl."

Her mouth quivered, and she jumped slightly when she felt his hand suddenly cupping her chin. Her eyes peered up hesitantly, looking into the small hole leaving the man's right eye exposed. All she could see was red.

His face was close again, his voice went back to the calm serious tone, "Yes, I like you very much," he chuckled to himself softly just as his hand placed a long strand of hair behind her ear, "Very very much."

And then he was gone.

Sobs racked her chest; her head was buried in her arms. She just couldn't stop crying, trying desperately to be quiet and stop the onslaught of tears. It took several minutes for her to calm down, all the while her mind concentrating solely on dark eyes. Remembering that man's face was like a lifeline to her, she clung to the memory of him. He was coming for her. He was going to come.

-halo-

Sasori.

That was all they got out of the man before he suddenly died. But the name was all they needed to tie it together. The man must have known that was all they needed to make the connection. Ibiki Morino wasn't really surprised to find the man had, at some point, injected himself with poison to cause his own death. During the interrogation, Sasori basically stone-walled him the entire time.

The now dead robber didn't even flinch when he pressed harshly down on his destroyed knee caps. He only smiled eerily after giving him his most effective mental breakdown strategy. It was creepy.

But Shikamaru Nara was a genius, damn lazy, but so brilliant that his team just put up with his lazy ways. He had two names to go off of, and a brief description of the bomber.

Sasori. Tobi.

It took less than two minutes for Nara to realize they were dealing with a dangerous criminal organization. They were known as the Akatsuki, and the bomber's name was Deidara. They only had intelligence on five members, who knew how vast the organization truly was. The five known were Sasori, Tobi, Deidara, Hidan, and the now deceased former member Orochimaru.

They were identified by the strange cloaks they wore, always the same, black with large red billowing clouds. Their organization was suspected for grand theft auto, murder, several robberies, drug trafficking and now they can add kidnapping to their illustrious rap sheet.

Itachi was…familiar with this group, his team had run into them several times. The investigation his cousin Shisui was heading up and lost his life for, was on Akatsuki. His uncle Madara, lost his life too in one the early cases that Akatsuki was identified of being involved in.

It was personal.

And now the Hyuga heiress, how was she involved in all of this he wasn't sure yet. They had managed to make off with three million unmarked Konoha dollars, and an unconscious adult female and still seem to just vanish. He had Inuzuka and the rest of the K9 unit hunting down everything they could find relating to the girl and the criminal masterminds. They must have wounded her at some point, because it was her blood all over the lobby floor mixing with Sasori's, he remembered seeing it dripping from her arm. Maybe it was a mistake on their part, or maybe they were mocking them by purposely making her bleed and leaving it behind for them.

All he knew was that she was his seventh kidnapping in his career. He found and brought home all of the others to their families, he was not about to lose Hinata Hyuga to the Akatsuki. The look in her eyes, the way she completely focused on him. No, there was no room for error; it was a necessity that he find her.

On his way to discuss strategies with his team, Itachi was interrupted by Hiashi Hyuga. Good, Itachi had questions for him too.

"They tell me you are the one in charge, where have they taken my daughter?"

Itachi's eyes narrowed slightly; obviously if they knew then he wouldn't be here, so he asked questions of his own, "Has anyone called with a ransom demand? Have you been receiving any threats?"

The man stood straighter, he was taller than Itachi by just a few inches, "I always receive threats but nothing when it came to my daughter, do you know who has her?"

Itachi's face remained expressionless and calm, "What kind of threats?" It wasn't uncommon for wealthy men, especially in the cut-throat business that Hiashi was in. To receive threats frequently enough that they just don't mean anything anymore to the man receiving them. Even though they knew who had Hinata, and still Itachi wasn't sure if she was the main target or not, someone could have hired Akatsuki to get at Hiashi. Besides, he doubted there would even be a ransom demand considering they just made off with three million.

The proud Hyuga shrugged, "They have all been thoroughly researched, like I told you, none of them have anything to do with Hinata."

If he were Sasuke he would have rolled his eyes, instead Itachi didn't say anything just merely kept his dark eyes on the man.

Hiashi seemed to take the hint, "Some are from former employees, others from stock and property owners who have the misconception that I have wronged them."

"It's not clear that your daughter was the intended target, we are still questioning the other hostages. I'm assuming they at least knew who she was." Whether or not they knew that going in or found out while holding a gun to her head mattered little. They knew who she was now; otherwise they wouldn't have taken her with them. Itachi turned and caught eyes with his little brother who made his way towards them, "This is Lieutenant Uchiha, he will take all the details from threats you received, give him any names you remember. Anything that may help, give to my lieutenant. He'll go over what is needed after that."

Sasuke nodded, "We'll want to tap your phone lines and get you home as soon as possible in case they call your residence and make their demand. It's been thirty minutes since the last bomb; hopefully they will make contact..."

Hiashi looked especially angry, "…I refuse to have my phones tapped into, now, you Lieutenant will work with my nephew…"

"Sir, your daughter's life is at risk here…" Sasuke interrupted.

Hiashi smirked, "That is why I am sending you Neji."

Itachi walked away at that point, he had no time to spare, Sasuke could handle a Hyuga any day. His pink-haired officer Sakura, flanked by Sai and Naruto quickly approached him with a look that told him they had something vital.

Sakura rushed right into it, "One of the hostages told us that once they found out she was the Hyuga heiress, they started treating her better. We knew they had her at gun-point, but once they realized who she was, they changed tactics. The hostage said that it seemed they were protecting her from something, which I don't understand. If they were trying to protect her, why would they cut her? The man who called himself Tobi left a gash on the heiress's arm. That doesn't make any sense though…"

Itachi shook his head once, having heard enough of her prattling, "Anything else?"

Sai took over with a steady voice, "The press is here. The academy decided to pull the younger heiress away from her peers; they have her with their security personnel for the time being. Sakura and I are heading back if you don't need anything further, so that we can question her."

"Go," quickly the two left, leaving him alone with Naruto. "Take care of the press."

"What's the next move?" the usually vibrant blonde asked with all seriousness.

"We find her."