I was reading another fanfiction that inspired this one; it contains rape (which most of mine do; don't judge) so you shouldn't read it if you are uncomfortable with that. I'm not going to say "don't read this if you are under 18" because that won't stop you anyways... I also want to mention that any characters that may seem original are not completely mine. I took names from characters that only appeared in one or two episodes/chapters. I only made up a few names for more predominant characters, though the original characters play minuscule parts... Enjoy!

Sasuke Uchiha was a complex kid to say the least. His past was not one that many could relate to, and it was most definitely not an enjoyable one… not at all… for this Uchiha's story caused him to become obsessed with revenge and disregard potential allies.

Fortunately for this lost soul, there were people who accepted him regardless of his negativity. Those people were his fellows from Squad Seven, and among them was Sasuke's best friend and rival: Naruto Uzumaki.

It was true that these two could not stand being around one another, yet they had managed to forge a bond that could not be broken… but the two young genin still drove each other mad despite that connection.

Take today, for example: the three twelve year old gennin from Kakashi's team were standing around at their usual meeting place: the small bridge that was located near the Third Training Ground.

"Uhhh! How long is Kakashi Sensei going to take?" Naruto whined as his patience drained; why did that man always take forever to meet up with his squad?

"Complaining about it won't do anything, loser." Sasuke shot an annoyed glance at the blond.

"Yeah, Naruto. Just shut up," Sakura agreed with the raven haired boy… even though she concurred with the blond's annoyance towards the absent jonin.

Naruto glared at Sasuke in response to his belittling staement. "I didn't ask you for your opinion."

"You asked how long Kakashi was going to take," Sasuke stated plainly while rolling his eyes, "so I gave you an answer."

"It was a rhetorical question!" Naruto shouted. "And you didn't even answer it! You just insulted me!"

"Hey guys," the masked jonin suddenly appeared, putting an end to the petty argument, "sorry I'm late; I got lost on-"

"The path of life?" An indignant Sakura growled. "You've used that one before!"

Kakashi's eye curved up to indicate that he had a sheepish smile underneath his mask. "It's an easy path to get lost on-" they all groaned at the foolish excuse "-anyways, we have a b-rank missions today."

"Yes!" Naruto cheered. "It's about time! All we ever do is walk dogs or find cats or babysit…"

Naruto continued listing the various d-rank assignments that introduced all of the amateur squads to the shinobi lifestyle.

After listening to the orange ninja ramble on for several moments, Kakashi decided to cut off his pupil's excessive chattering. "Can I explain the mission now, Naruto?"

"Oh, yeah! Sorry…"

"Okay, so basically, some of the Leaf's neighboring villages have been complaining of children disappearing. We're supposed to go to one of these towns to investigate. Then, if we find out anything, we are supposed to track the missing children down and return them to their homes."

"Investigating doesn't seem like a b-rank mission," Sasuke said, for that seemed too simple to be considered as such.

"Well," Kakashi replied, "I should say that it is a potential b-rank mission; finding the facts could lead to more dangerous situations," that information was a bit of a disappointment for both of the male genin, for they wanted to gain skills that would prove useful in battle, "we are going to be staying in a little town a few miles from here, so you need to be prepared to be out of the village for several days. Go pack your things and meet at the front gate in a half an hour."

With that, Team Seven's leader vanished in a puff of smoke.

"I wonder what's been happening to those kids..." Sakura thought aloud; if other villages were requesting the assistance of shinobi, the situation must be extreme.

"I'm sure we can figure it out!" Naruto smiled; he was always an optimist. "This will be easy!"

"Do you... Do you think something bad happened to them?" Sakura asked with concern written across her face.

"They were kidnapped, so something bad will probably happen if it hasn't already. Why would someone take them for no reason?" Sasuke answered morbidly.

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Naruto declared, trying to lighten the mood, "we don't know anything yet."

With nothing left to say on the topic, the trio dispersed in order to prepare for the trip.

••••••

"This looks like it," Kakashi remakred as his three subordinates followed him down a dusty path leading to a small community, "before we start our investigation, let's arrange a place to stay this evening."

There was but one small hotel in this town, and it appeared to be rather old and rundown, as did most of the facilities locate in this rural region.

"So we're staying here?" The disgruntled kunoichi asked upon seeing the shabby building.

"This is the only place that offers lodging," the team captain explained to his subordinates, "I know it's not great, but it beats sleeping in the woods…"

After speaking to the woman who was in charge of reservations, the squad went in search of room 211 on the second floor. The room was rather bland… and small, for there were only two beds. However, it was the biggest room available, and the Leaf Village would only pay for one room per team.

"Um, what are the sleeping arrangements going to be...?" Sakura asked. She was the only girl on the team, and there was no way she would share one of the beds with Naruto or Kakashi Sensei, and Sasuke would probably refuse to share one with her...

Kakashi sighed at the inconvenience. "One of us will have to sleep on the floor, I suppose," the man informed the male genin, "it wouldn't be appropriate for one of us to share a bed with Sakura..."

"I'd gladly share a bed with you, Sakura," Naruto shot a perverted smile at his female teammate, which resulted in a bruising punch to his cheek. "It was... just a joke..." He mumbled rubbing his face where the girl had slugged him.

"You should have figured out not to say stuff like that a long time ago!" Sakura defended her action.

"Naruto," Sasuke started, "I think that you should sleep on the floor." That way, he would at least get part of a bed, even though Kakashi would get the other half... It was still a better option than a filthy hotel floor, though...

"Why me?" Naruto protested. "I think Kakashi Sensei should sleep on the floor; he's always late, so he deserves it."

"That's not a bad idea..." Sakura agreed.

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "Then we would have to sleep in the same bed."

"If that's such a big deal, then you sleep on the floor!" The blond stammered.

"Don't tell Sasuke to sleep on the floor!" Sakura gritted her teeth and squinted at Naruto.

"Guys..." The jonin tried to stop their bickering, "hey..."

"You are so full of yourself!"

"At least I'm not a loser!"

"Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke!" Kakashi shouted over them, finally grasping their attention. "We can figure this out later; right now, we need to start our assignment. There's a woman named Otoha that we need to meet with before it gets dark; her brother went missing from this town last week according to Lady Hokage's report."

"Let's do it!" Naruto said, throwing his bag down onto one of the beds, as of to claim it for later. Sasuke snorted at his action and placed his pack on the dresser. Unfortunately, it seemed that the aspect of teamwork was not advancing too smoothly...

••••••

"You must be Kakashi Hatake?" A young brunette asked when the group of shinobi appeared at her front door.

"Yes, and you are Otoha?"

"I am; Lady Tsunade informed me that you would be coming," the young woman stated, "I used to work at the hospital in the Leaf before moving out here, so I am familiar with the village as well as the current Hokage. Please, come in."

"Thank you," the platinum haired man said kindly through his mask. He introduced his subordinates before getting down to business.

"You are here to investigate the situation with the missing children, correct?" Otoha questioned.

"Yes," Kakashi confirmed, "we were informed that your brother was one of the victims."

A look of despair came to the brunette's face. "He is... Though I'm not sure who took him or why..."

"When did this occur?" Kakashi inquired while his three students listened intently.

"Last Tuesday night... San, that's my brother's name, decided to stay out later than usual with a friend of his. According to his friend's mother, San left to return home around twelve, but... but he never came back..." She choked out; it was clear that speaking of this predicament was difficult for her, "normally I would just think he went to the hot springs or something, but there have been other cases of missing children... and that was well over a week ago."

"I'm terribly sorry," the eldest man offered his sympathy, "if you don't mind, could you perhaps give us a description of San? I would like to see if there are similarities in the missing victims."

"Sure," Otoha tried to calm herself, "he was fourteen years old, about average height for his age. He had dark hair and dark eyes... And he was rather pale, as well." Naruto and Sakura both side-glanced at Sasuke, who fit that description pretty well... apart from the age factor.

"Thank you," Kakashi sincerely said, "I believe that is all we need from you at the current time; we will be sure to inform you if we discover anything."

"Don't worry, Lady," Naruto assured the woman, "I'm sure your brother is fine." She smiled at the blonde's words and gave them all her highest regards.

Once they were out on the street again, Sakura turned to face Naruto. "Look, Naruto, I know you were trying to make her feel better, but you shouldn't give her false hope. We have no idea if San is okay... or even alive."

Her tone was not nasty but rather disappointed; not from Naruto's positive words, but due to the sad reality that most kidnappings resulted in.

"There is another person we should talk to today," the jonin broke the awkward silence, "his name is Nejiri; his son, similar to Otoha's brother, has been gone for a few days, and-"

"Excuse me," a voice came from behind their group, "are you discussing the missing children?"

Kakashi turned around to face a middle aged woman.

"I didn't mean to interrupt..." She said sheepishly. "You all must be the Leaf shinobi we've been hearing about."

"That would be correct." Kakashi responded, not entirely sure why this woman was bothering them at the moment.

The answer came quickly. "I have some information about that; you see, I am the leader of this town and have received quite a bit of information aboutt this issue."

"Oh, I'm sorry," the jonin replied, "I wasn't aware of your position."

"That's quite all right," the lady responded, "I only recently received that title due to my husband's passing… It's not shocking that you big city folk aren't aware of the politics in a little town like this. If you have some time to spare, I would be more than happy to tell you everything I know about the kidnappings."

"That would be great."

"Let us go to my office to speak; it would be inappropriate to talk in the middle of the street like this." The woman said as she began to lead the way to the town's hall.

"Allow me to properly introduce myself," she said taking a seat behinds small desk in a cramped office, "My name is Kei Yamada; I have been leading this village for about eight months, for I took over after my husband passed away. Shortly after his death, people began to notice children disappearing. It wasn't happening in just our town, though. Some of the other communities surrounding ours were experiencing the same problem, and no one knew why; we still don't.

"Collectively, however, we found that the only children that had mysteriously vanished were boys between the ages of ten and fifteen. Not a single female has been accounted for, nor has anyone outside of that age range. Another thing we noticed was that the boys all had similar features. It seems whoever is targeting these children tends to go for young males with a pale complexion along with dark hair and eyes. Much like this child." The woman ended her statement by gesturing to Sasuke, who received another look from his other young teammates.

"You should be cautious out there; with the situation as it is, you could be a target." The woman warned the Uchiha child.

"You don't have to worry about Sasuke," Kakashi informed her, "he is capable of taking care of himself."

Naruto snorted at that; everyone always praised Sasuke.

"Just be careful, Sasuke." Kei repeated. "This is a dangerous place for someone like you," the leader looked back at Kakashi, "that is all the information I have right now, but I will relay any updates I may receive."

"Thank you; you have been a tremendous help to us." The jonin's eye curved up to allude to a genuine smile. "Come on, guys, it will be dark soon, and we still need to speak with Nejiri."

Kakashi thanked her once more before taking his team to meet the other civilian of this tiny town. As the four shinobi walked through the door, Kei Yamada noticed a family crest on the back of Sasuke's shirt; it was the Uchiha family crest...

Once the shinobi had evacuated the premise, a shadowy figure appeared behind Kei. "Did you find another one?"

"I did..." The woman replied. "When I was about to approach them, I could tell that this boy would be very good for our business... but it wasn't until after they left that I realized his true potential. That one is an Uchiha, and I'm sure people would pay much more to play with someone as rare as him."

"I think this little plan is really going to start paying off..."

So I'm not sure if this is a good plot, but I wanted to try something a little different. Chapter two will be up soon; thanks for reading!