Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the associated characters, locations, jutsu, etc. The only thing I own is the plot of the story. If there is any plagiarism of any form it was completely unintentional.
Somewhere in the Frontier Between the Land of Air and the Land of Rivers, present day.
There is a large man sitting down on a wooden desk. On it lay a bunch of papers and old books that he is meticulously reading. Then three shinobi appear in front of him, and they bow down. The one in the middle starts to speak.
"Sorry for the intrusion my lord, but there seems to be a problem." He paid no attention to those words, he didn't even look up. "Hinomura has fallen." This time the other man did pay attention, he lowered his books and stared at the shinobi in front of him.
"Who is responsible?" His subordinate swallowed nervously.
"It seems that some Konoha nin have done it. He was captured and is currently being transported to the Land of Rivers. Furthermore, it seems that they have started to look for information about us, sir." The man got up from his desk and looked out a window that was behind his desk, the skies are dark and the only dim light came from the moon.
"You know what to do."
"But sir, what about the intruders from Konoha."
"For now, let them rummage through the town. I doubt they will find anything useful." He sat down again and resumed looking through his papers. The shinobi in front of him left as quickly as they came and the room was quiet once more. After a few minutes of complete silence a twisted smile appeared on his face.
"Finally, after years of planing, it will all come to be. The only thing that still won't work is THEM. . But no matter, I can wait a couple more days. After all, I have already waited for 50 years."
Bordering Town in the Land of Air, present day.
"Oh my god we have talked to EVERYONE in town and still no one will tell us anything about these thugs." Sakura complained while letting herself fall on a nearby bench.
"By now we can say for certain that they are scared of something. Remember that woman who ran into her house as soon as we mentioned the thug." Kakashi opened his Icha Icha book and started reading. "We need a different approach. Otherwise we'll get nowhere."
"Seriously Kakashi, you're reading NOW!" Sakura bickered but Kakashi kept calm.
"It helps me think." Sakura sighed and crossed her arms. Temari was about to speak when something caught her eye. She looked high above them and saw a small hawk flying in circles.
"Oh god, please no!" Everyone turned to look at her and found that her once indifference face was now filled with shock. She lifted up her arm and whistled an inaudible tune. But apparently it worked since the bird immediately flew back down. "This messenger hawk belonged to the division that was escorting our prisoner back to Suna." Sakura gasped.
"But that means." She said.
"It means they have been attacked," Kakashi answered, "most likely they are all dead. Temari!' The woman in question turned to look at him. "Send word to Sunagakure, tell them to start searching for the lost squad. And if possible tell them to gather any clues as to what happened." Temari seemed annoyed at him giving her orders but accepted none the less.
"I'll go myself." With that she sprinted off out of their sight. Leaving them to deal with the rogue shinobi threat on their own. Kakashi stood quiet for a little while reading his book. But something didn't seem right to Sakura.
"Kakashi, Why haven't you turned the page? You have been reading the same page for over 15 minutes now." Kakashi turned to look at her and put on a sheepish smile.
"It's just that this page is really interesting!" Sakura did not buy it but for now it had to do. There were more pressing matters at the time.
"Nevermind that and close the book, we have to keep looking." Kakashi nodded at her and started to walk towards the town market once more. On a distant tree two shinobi were looking down at their every move.
"We should make a move now, there are only two remaining." Based on the pitch of the voice the speaker was a woman.
"Make no mistake, So and Ka have identified the leader as Kakashi of the Sharingan. We should thread carefully." The woman nodded at her companion, whose voice identified him as a man. They both flickered away without leaving so much as a trace.
"Kakashi." Sakura whispered.
"I know." She nodded at his response and kept on walking, carefully observing their surroundings. Eventually the road lead them through the surrounding forest. No chakra signature could be felt so they kept on walking. But then a faint sound was heard.
"Did you hear that?" Sakura said. And again it came. A child's cry. Without thinking she ran towards the source of the cries. Kakashi kept yelling something behind her but she was rustling through so many leaves that she couldn't hear him. Eventually she reached a small clearing, the figure of a small boy was kneeling over a small pond. The soft weeps resonated through the air. Sakura walked up to the boy and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Are you lost?" Her expression turned into shock as she realized that the crying boy was only a puppet. Loud clicking noises were heard as the "boy" turned his head round completely. Instead of a tender face there was a devious and mechanical grin. The mouth clicked open and a vast cloud of poison smoke quickly covered the entire clearing. Unfortunately for them, they both had inhaled the fumes.
"Sakura, what do you think?" Kakashi asked as he fell to his knees. Sakura tried to stay standing but soon followed his fate.
"Sleeping agent. I think.. We are going to ..." After saying that she fell to the ground with a loud thud. Kakashi tried to fight it but the poison was too strong. So he did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed a kunai and cut his hand. He lowered it to the ground and tried to focus some chakra. But he quickly collapsed as well. When the smoke had dissipated three figures stood around them.
"This was the legendary Kakashi of the Sharingan? Hah! Legendary my ass." A really big man had spoken. He was wearing traditional sand shinobi attire, but he was wielding a giant mace. He spat on the ground and started laughing.
"The only reason they are out is thanks to my genius creations." A woman had spoken this time. She had vibrant green hair and her eyes had slits like a snake's. She approached the little trap doll and hugged it close to her body. She started whispering to it as if it was a living child.
"I don't care about your freaky toys. We have to report back to the boss." Who had spoken seemed like the leader of their small unit. He had brown hair that hung over his face and chocolate brown eyes that gave him a very careless appearance. Half his face was covered in bandages and he wielded a giant chain with a hook attached at the end.
"Fuck you, these are my children." Said the viperous woman. None the less the duo had stopped arguing and proceeded to lift the knocked out shinobi into their shoulders and then they ran off into the forest.
"It seems they have been outsmarted this time." The mysterious duo that had been tailing them had just witnessed how they had fallen victims to a simple trap, the woman seemed confident that they had been defeated, but her partner was not so sure.
"It was too easy. Something is not right." Just then he felt a hand grabbing his neck and lifting him from his feet. When he looked at their attackers, he was left speechless. "W-what? How..." Sakura was keeping the grip on his neck tight to prevent him from screaming. Kakashi was currently holding his companion in a headlock, he was holding a piece of cloth that most likely contained a very powerful drug, since she was out within seconds. He let go of her and walked up to him.
"Now you will tell us everything you know, or I'll make sure the next time you go to the bathroom you will have to shit through you mouth!" Normally anyone hearing that would have laughed, but his cold eyes showed he was dead serious. The mysterious man gulped nervously and shifted his gaze between Sakura and Kakashi.
"I- I..." Kakashi sighed and lifted his hands towards his covered eyes.
"Very well, we'll do it the hard way." When he uncovered his eye he stared straight at the man's eyes. His following screams could be heard for miles. When they were done the man fell to the ground unconscious and Kakashi covered his eye again. Sakura was speechless at the word she had just heard.
"Damn, this is worse than we thought." Sakura could only nod at his remark. "Well it seems we can't do this on our own."
"The hell you can't." That was the last thing either of them heard before their consciousness disappeared. Sakura tried to look at their assailant. Ebony unruly hair that swayed with the wind. Pale skin that seemed to reflect the sun's rays. And a pair of eyes that seemed to stare at your very soul.
"Sasuke..."