Author's note: Just a quick note before beginning (a reminder, or perhaps this is new information): Katon is Fire Style, Hyoton is Ice Style.

Enjoy!

"What's the progress?" An annoyingly familiar voice asked.

The woman let out an exasperated sigh as she continued to study the barrier in front of her, not bothering to face the two who had ever so impatiently come to bother her.

"This barrier has been well maintained and refined throughout various years of necessity. Even in peacetime, its maintenance hasn't been neglected. Barriers like this take time." She responded, keeping her voice cool and calm, but keeping its edge of displeasure at having to explain herself.

These things take time. What did they expect? If they want it done any faster, then they can do it themselves. They would undoubtedly fail, and would be forced to understand it's just not so simple. Perhaps they'd find themselves caught by the shinobi of Konoha, or perhaps they would be quick enough to escape?

Right now wasn't the time to be thinking of the satisfaction she'd get from watching her red and purple haired colleagues learning their lesson.

Yukina gazed at the barrier with her dark blue eyes, bringing her focus back to the problem in front of her.

Her left hand was lifted, just barely avoiding touching the barrier. She was cautious to not trigger it prematurely. If she was found out now, they might not get such a chance again.

Meanwhile, Akai and Mura continued to stand behind her, despite her clear intent of focusing on her job instead of them. But eventually, their presence aggravated her so much she couldn't concentrate.

She quickly spun around, completely abandoning the study of the barrier she had been doing, her long dark hair following the motion.

She glared at the red and purple brothers. "And it requires concentration." She nearly snapped.

"It should go without saying, you can't afford to fail this time." Mura ever so annoyingly reminded her, as if she didn't know that.

"It wouldn't hurt to bring us into the plan, y'know. Well, it won't hurt more than your ego, anyway." Akai infuriatingly added. Yukina was just about done listening to them.

She shot one last glare at them before violently spinning back to face the barrier. "I don't need either of you. If I dragged the two of you into this, the failure rate would only increase. Leave." She spat the last word with so much venom an ordinary person would have fled immediately, for fear of losing one or more of their limbs, if not their life.

But it's not like any one of them was simply an 'ordinary person'.

Akai looked at Mura and shrugged, seemingly unbothered and uncaring for the threat or the rejection.

"Fine, but don't come crying to us when you fail. In fact, your failure may result in us getting to have more fun." He taunted before they left.

Yukina didn't give them the satisfaction of seeing her reaction, as she remained appearing focused on her task, even while she was overflowing with pure anger.

Out of everyone she was forced to work with, those two were her least favourite. She had nothing to prove. Her abilities were already excellent, and she was the only one capable of many things within the group. But even still, those two always talked down to her.

When she returns successful, she will be sure to thoroughly enjoy the satisfaction of proving those idiots wrong.

She will be sure she returns with it.

When Kakashi noticed that Kumiko had been once again sleeping more than usual, he was even more relieved to have obtained the scrolls with information about her seal. He had taken the time to study them before, and now he was studying them while trying to figure out how to actually repair the seal.

It was complicated, but Kakashi was able to understand enough to manage. It didn't take him long to figure out what he was doing and fix the weakening layer of the seal. Kumiko had fallen unconscious after that, her body not yet able to handle the strain of having her seal altered in any way. She thankfully didn't take too long to wake up after, and when she did, she was back to being her energetic self.

It had only been about a week and half since Kakashi's return that they noticed it.

Kumiko had had her dream again. She was alone this time. Alone in the dark, isolating forest. She had felt loneliness before, she was sure, but there was something about that place that seemed to amplify that feeling.

The woman wasn't there this time. Or, more accurately, she didn't want to be seen. Kumiko could tell she was still there, but she stayed away from the girl, leaving her to sit by a tree on her own, waiting for the time where she would be allowed out again.

It was after experiencing this feeling of loneliness that she wanted to reach for her bunny the moment she was conscious enough to remember it. She reached out her arm, expecting the bunny to be not far from where she was. Her mind had still been foggy from sleep, but when her hand met only empty space, she forced herself fully awake.

She sat up and looked at the spot where her bunny should have been. The spot where her bunny always was. Except… it wasn't there.

She looked around a bit, hoping it had just been accidentally moved in her sleep, but she couldn't see it anywhere.

"Did you lose something?" Kakashi asked, having just walked into the room only to see her frantically looking around.

Kumiko looked at him, a hint of sadness in her eyes. Part of it was the lingering effects from her dream. Some of it was from the loss of her bunny.

"I can't find my bunny." She answered sadly. She prayed she'd be able to find it. She didn't want to lose it. It was the first gift like that she had been given, and it always helped to remind her that she wasn't alone. Not anymore.

Kakashi thought for a moment before he came to a realisation. Once again, he cursed himself for being so unobservant, despite being a shinobi.

"Kumiko-chan, have you seen the bunny in the past week?" He asked.

The girl thought about it for a moment, trying to remember if she had. After a bit of thinking, she realised she couldn't find one memory from the past week and a half where her bunny was there.

Kakashi noticed when she made that realisation. "Do you think you might have left it at the training grounds?"

When they returned to the training grounds after Asuma's funeral, Kumiko had brought her bunny with her. She was sleeping most of the time during the training anyway, and she wanted to keep the bunny close at the time.

When she had seen Naruto's struggle against his own 'demon' after Kakashi left, she had completely forgotten about her bunny. And so, when she was brought back into the village, she had simply left it there.

Her expression turned even sadder as she looked down, ashamed to have forgotten something so important in such a place.

Kakashi couldn't stand the sad look she held. He sighed. "Come on. It should still be there, right? We'll go get it." He told her.

The girl looked up and smiled at him, and despite the sudden change in the day's plans, Kakashi couldn't help but faintly smile too, though it was hidden by his mask. Seeing Kumiko smiling instead of sad would always be worth it.

Little did either of them know that this decision would be a terrible mistake.

They hadn't even made it to the clearing yet when it happened.

They had just been walking, with Kumiko holding onto the sleeve of Kakashi's shirt, as she usually does. They had made it a bit into the forest, just a couple minutes away from the clearing.

It was then that Kakashi's feet suddenly stopped moving. When he looked to see why, he found them covered in ice, reaching just past his ankles.

He barely had time to process this before he suddenly felt the lack of Kumiko's presence holding onto his shirt. When he looked, she was gone. He raised his head to look forward again.

A couple meters in front of him stood a dark haired woman who was now holding a wide-eyed Kumiko ever so rudely in one arm.

It all happened too fast for Kumiko to process what was happening. One moment, she was walking with Kakashi, the next, she was being carried by some stranger. Her eyes had widened from the pure shock of the sudden change.

When her mind finally caught up to the fact that she was being forcefully taken away from Kakashi, she let out a scream, desperately trying to reach her hand out to him. But he was too far away. And in the next moment, they were gone.

Kakashi watched in horror as Kumiko reached for him, letting out a terrified scream. He watched as they disappeared after the woman quickly unfolded a scroll, undoubtedly like the one that had allowed the enemies to get away before.

He couldn't do anything. For as skilled as he was, he couldn't do anything.

He was a jonin! He should have noticed the moment the woman got close enough to even use the jutsu! He should have reacted faster to free his feet, and reach for Kumiko… He should have been able to grab the hand she had reached for him. He should have…

This isn't the time. He quickly summoned Pakkun once again, freeing his feet with a Katon jutsu as he quickly spoke to the pug. "Pakkun, can you tell if Kumiko is still anywhere around here?"

Pakkun sniffed the air for a moment, trying to find any traces of the girl's scent that would indicate she was nearby, but he only managed to find the traces of her that were left behind.

Kakashi quietly cursed as he sent the pug back. He rushed back to the village. More than anything, he wanted to run off and start searching for Kumiko. But, he knew that would get him nowhere.

He doesn't know where she could have gone. If he takes too long searching in the wrong direction, he could completely miss his chance to get her back. And so, there's only one thing he can really do right now besides pray: speak to the Hokage.

He rushed into her office, not even bothering to knock as he swung the door open in a rush. "Kumiko got kidnapped." He said urgently, not even immediately realising there were others in the room.

Tsunade had been going through her daily routine of endless paperwork when they came knocking on her door, clearly in a rush.

When she allowed them inside, she was surprised to find it was the unit in charge of watching and managing the barrier.

"Tsunade-sama! There's been an interruption in the barrier!" And just like that, Tsunade knew she would be in for a rough day.

As it turns out, there had been a brief moment in which the barrier around the village was interrupted. It wasn't for long, and the location of the disturbance was unknown. It could have been a simple malfunction, an uncommon error was bound to occur occasionally after all.

But it wouldn't be so simple. Of course it wouldn't be.

The theory of it being such a simple issue was crushed the moment Kakashi came rushing through the door.

At his revelation, Tsunade stood up immediately, her hands slamming into her desk. She was equally shocked and worried. "What!?" She had exclaimed.

"Where did they go?" Tsunade asked, seeing the urgency in the situation. Whoever had taken Kumiko had done so intentionally, likely knowing about the demon she's carrying. After all, why else would someone suddenly decide to kidnap a child that is being watched by one of Konoha's more famously strong jonin?

"I don't know. They used some kind of teleportation jutsu to get away. There's no way of knowing which direction they went in, and Pakkun couldn't detect her anywhere nearby." Kakashi answered. Although his tone hid most of his worry, his panic was evident in the way he was speaking quickly. He was in a rush to go find her, and it was clear.

"I'm sending your team to search in the north direction. I will send another team to search a different area. Leave immediately. I will inform your team to catch up to you." With that, Kakashi left.

Tsunade called two teams, asking them to split into multiple groups so they could search the remaining directions. She was sure that Team 8, with their expert tracking abilities, as well as Team Guy, with combat abilities that could hopefully defeat the enemy should it come to that, would be able to find her if she was still there to be found.

When Kumiko reappeared, she felt nauseous. She wasn't sure if it was the teleportation, if it was the sudden complete change in scenery, or if it was the anxiety.

She wasn't in Konoha anymore. Even though she hasn't seen the whole village yet, even she could tell. After all, Konoha never had this much sand.

The woman was still carrying her, and Kumiko couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. It was clear this woman didn't care that she was a human being who doesn't appreciate being held so unpleasantly.

Kumiko tried to struggle out of her grip, but it didn't work. This woman was stronger than she looked. She didn't even look at the child or acknowledge the attempted escape at all!

Kumiko was wasting energy at that point, and she knew it. She stopped, deciding instead to conserve whatever energy she had left. After all, any bit of it could be the difference between captivity and freedom.

Or in this case, though she doesn't yet realise, life and death.

Yukina had succeeded. Once the barrier was down, she snuck into the village and found her target almost immediately. She is a sensor after all.

It was even better luck that it wasn't in a crowded area, but in a forest instead! With only one other person! Yukina couldn't have asked for better fortune!

Sure, the other person was a jonin, but that wouldn't be an issue. She was fast, she knew. She would only need to stall the shinobi's movements for a few seconds in order to succeed.

There had been a brief moment where she worried she might not be able to buy herself a few seconds with such a simple Hyoton jutsu, but she was pleasantly surprised.

The jonin had clearly been caught off guard, which meant that he didn't realise the situation right away. That moment of shock, of being caught off guard, would make all the difference.

She was able to grab the container, move far enough away to avoid a tug-of-war, then use the scroll to teleport away all before the jonin managed to free himself from her Hyoton jutsu.

When she landed in the middle of the Land of Wind, she cursed these damn teleportation scrolls because she knew she had a long way to go to get to their base.

She knows why it's so far away, out of caution in case there's someone capable of tracing the direction of the jutsu, but that doesn't mean she has to be happy about it.

Especially when she has to carry this annoying pest the whole time.

The Land of Wind has always annoyed her. She hates having to walk on the constant piles of sand, and she hates having to pay constant attention to the wind to be sure she doesn't get caught in one of their infamous sand storms.

After all, even she would lose all sense of direction in such a storm, and they always seem to dull her sensory abilities. She's not sure why, probably a personal weakness of hers, but that just makes it worse.

Sand, of all things, was her weakness. Well, in a storm anyway. The sand laying irritatingly on the ground, making her walking less than pleasant, is of no concern to her.

She was even further annoyed when the container started struggling in her arm. It was bad enough she had to carry the little pest, why must it make this so much more unpleasant?

She tried to ignore it though. It's not like it was actually doing anything other than making her want to throw the thing. She wouldn't, of course, since she has no intention of letting it get away, or accidentally killing it prematurely and freeing the demon ahead of time.

Ugh! She could have sworn there was a teleportation location much closer than this! Those damn idiot brothers… did they give her the wrong one on purpose, just to anger her!?

They know how much she hates this stupid desert, and she really wishes they didn't. They exist solely to annoy her, so of course they would use the things she hates against her like this!

She swears she will make them suffer tenfold after this. She would not let them get away with being this damn irritating!

And it was entirely their fault that she lost it.

Because after god knows how long of walking, she suddenly found herself being swallowed by a tornado.

Well, not actually.

She knew immediately that it was a Genjutsu. She wasn't a fool.

Or maybe she was?

Because she dropped the container to form the hand sign. "Kai."

She broke out of the Genjutsu only to find herself in the middle of a sand storm, with the container nowhere in sight.

She looked around, trying to see if it had wandered away when she dropped it, but it was useless.

She could barely see anything, but she could tell that it was no longer around her. She mentally cursed. Then she outwardly cursed.

Someone had taken advantage of the incoming storm to trap her in a Genjutsu and steal the container away from her.

She was sure she shouldn't have been found by Konoha shinobi, at least not yet, so who the hell could have done this!?

She swears she will find them and kill them as annoyingly, agonisingly slow and torturous as possible.

Author's Note:

I'm sorry that this chapter is so short! I didn't want to continue too much further yet, since there are things I want to save for next chapter!

I honestly felt like this would be the best place to end it. Am I cruel for leaving it on a bit of a cliffhanger?

...Probably.

Are you as annoyed as Yukina?

Anyway!

As a small note, I would like to apologise in advanced if the updates start slowing down! (I mean, even this one took over a week...) The University semester has started, and now I'm starting to get quite a bit of homework, not to mention there are days where I barely have any spare time at home to be able to write. And, of course, there's the declining motivation... But I'll still try my best to update when I can, with the best quality work I can make!

Thank you for reading the story so far! Bye!