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Missing	By : phoenixsdark Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1451 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I make no money off this and do it only for fun. I am poor.

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Jiraiya raced through the night with his strange group. Here he was carrying the unconscious form of Konoha's most beloved teacher, Umino Iruka, leading a cursed young man who was basically a slave of a respected family in the same village, Hyuuga Neji, the heir to another family's duty, Uchiha Sasuke, and a young spy who carried a demon possessed blond, Nara Shikamaru and Uzumaki Naruto. When had life gotten this complicated? Used to be, all he had to worry about was someone catching him peeping. Yet he would not leave a single boy behind.

Neji wanted to be free; except he was cursed to serve or die. Freedom was nothing more than a dream. One that turned him bitter and cruel as he came to lose faith in ever attaining his goal. At least he had been drowning in despair until he met the blond, Naruto. Somehow, the noisy boy managed to change the destinies of those around him. Neji now had the strength to chase his dream once more.

Then there was Sasuke. Heir of the Uchiha family. Pawn. Avenger. And still, somehow, he remained a child; perhaps because no one other than Kakashi had ever shown him how to become a man. Tormented almost into insanity by Orochimaru's curse, the kid had lost his mind and tried to betray the village only to be brought back by said village's most hated member, Naruto. Again Naruto managed to save the day against all the odds.

Not that the people of Konoha cared. To them, he would always be the demon fox; a thing to fear and hate. Jiraiya despised them for it. How could anyone treat a child so poorly? The thought gave him pause.

When he first met Naruto, something about the young man had drawn him. There was a surprising mixture of sadness and defiance in his eyes. Such determination combined with absolutely no idea how to properly use it. Naruto seemed so anxious to prove himself. Show he wasn't a monster or a danger; make people see the real him.

Anger welled up in Jiraiya as he thought about how much the kid must have suffered and never guessed why, never understood the villagers treating him as they did. Why hadn’t the Hokage done something? It wasn’t like him to let needless pain continue. They were all lucky Naruto refused to give into despair. Or had that been the whole point? Had the villagers deliberately shunned Naruto in the hopes that the Third would lock him away forever, thus eliminating the danger? Could they really be so heartless?

“Sasuke?!” Neji’s startled voice caused him to stop. The others stopped as one, turning to find Neji holding an unconscious Uchiha.

"He just collapsed." Frantic white eyes looked to the old man for an explanation. Sasuke was one of the toughest fighters around. How could he just simply shutdown?

"It's the seal," Jiraiya said quietly. "Damn thing is locking up most of his power. I didn't think it would be this bad though." He quickly checked to see how much chakra was flowing in the kid's body, cursing silently when all the blocks and shunts became visible. "They've got him pretty well helpless."

Neji cursed silently to himself; he should have thought of checking chakra flow before calling for help. Yet, as the night sky grew increasingly lighter, worry ate at him more and more. He tried to clear his mind with a few deep breathes. Calm was the key to survival. There was no way his uncle could stand up to someone like Jiraiya. At last, he would be free. That was IF they could reach safety before sunrise.

"The sun will be up soon." Shikamaru put in, still busy catching his breath, but his mind was always working at least two steps ahead. "Neji's uncle will notice he's missing."

The threat hung in the air. Once the Hyuuga clan found their greatest fighter gone nothing would stop them from activating the curse; whether to kill or cause pain remained unknown.

"Can you carry him?" If not, Jiraiya was certain he could. The most important thing was to get these kids to safety and undo those curses and seals as soon as possible. Then they could worry about being chased and the young teacher whom they'd kidnapped.

"Yes."

With a nod, the old pervert set off again, watching Neji throw Sasuke over his shoulder and follow. Shikamaru paused to look around before joining them. Jiraiya fought back laughter; the kid made for a terrible spy. Oh he suspected from the second the Nara heir stepped into the light Tsunade sent him. It was just too convenient. And she never could trust him; always thought he was going to mess up.

As long as their little spy didn't do anything to endanger his new students, he could stay. Otherwise, Jiraiya would have to show the kid, Tsunade, and the Council what real seal work looked like. He could have the boy forgetting his name, skills, and anything else that came to mind. Only Kakashi knew obscure seals well enough to undo them. Not that he would. Having two of his students treated so poorly just might make his memory a bit shaky.

At the thought of his former pupil, Jiraiya winced; the ANBU were certain to question him first. Hopefully they would believe the truth. He'd been an ANBU captain once; that must count for something. Then again maybe not. Konoha had changed much in the time he'd been away. Not in a good way either. However, Jiraiya knew Ibiki and the man might be a torturer, but he was never needlessly cruel. The Council could scream all it liked, Ibiki would not really hurt an innocent.

At the edge of a dark forest, he called for the boys to halt. They'd traveled less than twenty miles yet all of them were looking thoroughly exhausted; stamina training would be the first thing they trained for; in his day, ninja could travel twice this distance and not even break a sweat.

He watched their expressions as they viewed the silent wood before them. Neji tried using his eyes to See but immediately closed them, shying away at what he found. Shikamaru noted this and didn't bother to try.

"What did you see, Neji?" Jiraiya asked quietly. There was little time, yet it was important for them to understand what this place was.

"It's empty." A bit of confusion and awe filled his voice.

"Empty?'

"No life. No chakra anywhere. How is that possible?"

Unconsciously, he had shifted into a fighting stance. This place grated on his nerves, felt like an enemy was waiting nearby, and made his skin crawl all at once. Yet how could this forest exist?

Jiraiya smiled at the boy's reaction. All things had some form of chakra. All living things at least. However, this part of the forest did not. Years ago, young and stupid, he'd blown a mission and been forced to run for his life. Wounded, alone, almost out of chakra, and exhausted, he had passed out in the trees above this place. Later, as the sun rose, he awoke to his pursuers leaping through the treetops searching for him. Fortunately, he'd fallen into some thick bushes which kept him well hidden. They would only work for a few moments, though. The foreign ninja were sure to sense his chakra soon; that had been what gave him away in their village and it was this information about their new technique he was sent to gather.

Minutes passed as they jumped from tree to tree over his head as if uneasy. Twice ninja looked right at him without seeing him. Finally, their leader called for them to search further on. For more than a full day, Jiraiya had simply stayed under the bushes, unmoving, waiting for his strength to return; once it did, he examined the forest carefully. Nothing moved. No birds were in the trees or air; no bugs could be seen or heard. Even the wind seemed still. There was a hole in the fabric of the world and he had managed to fall into it.

As the years progressed, the peeping tom found no one could track him once he entered the strangely silent area of the woods; his chakra got swallowed by the emptiness while still remaining a part of him. His best guess was that most simply could not stand looking at the dead spot long enough to find anyone concealed by it; most avoided the area entirely, traveling miles out of their way in order to miss this forest. Of course, Jiraiya admitted to not being the deepest of thinkers; there could be an unrelated reason for all those things. What did it matter as long he had a place to hide out and write?

He built a shelter there and a training grounds, eventually learning the trick to tracking chakra in the forest. As others could not find chakra without knowing how, he discovered no one could find him when he was there. Home away from home of a sort. This place was his sanctuary and now, hopefully, it would be the boys'. Though he really had no idea what he was going to do with Iruka.

"How?' Neji repeated, looking to him for answers. A kind of horror filled his face; nothing should be as dead as this piece of forest.

"From what I could find out, a great war was fought here more than a thousand years ago. Two leaders fought for a week before there was an explosion so powerful it leveled all the trees. When the clans came to see who won, they found both dead and the land like this: empty."

"But there are trees and bushes! A forest!." Shikamaru insisted. "How can there be a forest without chakra?"

The old pervert laughed. "That I do not know." He slapped Shikamaru on the back, staggering him so badly he almost dropped the unconscious blond. "Maybe you will figure it out. All I can say is that no one has ever been able to find me here. Even in plain view, their eyes shy away from this place. There’s a trick to tracking chakra in this place. I’ll teach you all about it once we get settled."

Quickly he led them into the darkness. They’d only gone about a mile when, without warning, the trees opened into a clearing. Neji and Shikamaru goggled. Both gently set their charges down, turning full circle to see the immense structure laid out before them. How could they have missed this? It was huge!

Before them was not a simple shelter, rather it was a complicated compound set into the trees and bushes. Three small houses sat almost indistinguishable from the trees though they were a bit overgrown. What looked like stumps in the middle of the clearing were actually training equipment if examined closely. On the whole, Jiraiya must have spent a great deal of time and thought creating his hideaway.

"I come here whenever I don't want others to bother me. In fact, I write my best novels here after doing my research."

He set Iruka down next to the slumbering pair; the older ninja shifted in his enforced sleep to curl protectively around them. The author chuckled softly. The young teacher really was cute. Too bad he wasn't a woman.

"It needs cleaning," Shikamaru moaned. "I guess that means more work."

"Azuma should have broken you of your bad habit, boy." A new voice filled the early morning air.

Kakashi stepped out of the shadows; dark half-moons, signs of no sleep and too many missions, made his eyes look sunken. Exhaustion was evident in every movement and yet he was still using his Sharingan to see their conditions.

"Better hurry, Sensei. Neji's chakra is already shifting. This place is protecting him from the curse at the moment, but it won't last long."

"What are you doing here?" Jiraiya growled, already forming the seals to free the Hyuuga boy.

Kakashi's response was silenced when, with a gasp, the young ninja in question clutched his head, bending over in agony. The pervert's eyes hardened as the last hand motion was completed; someone was going to pay dearly for this kid's pain.

"He knows," Neji groaned. "He's going to kill me."

"No he won't." With a growl, Jiraiya ripped away Neji's head protector and placed his hand on the cursed seal. Blue light exploded between the two as the youth screamed.

"Hold him!" The pervert ordered Kakashi.

The damn curse was actually fighting back, almost as if it had a life of its own. He could feel Hiashi's chakra trying to manipulate Neji's and injure the boy. At best, the amount of chakra being turned against the young Hyuuga would do serious damage and force him to remain in one place until Clan Hunters or ANBU could retrieve him. At worst, the bastard was trying to kill his own nephew.

"What is he thinking?" Kakashi growled while seizing Neji's arms from behind.

"Keep the clan secret," Neji groaned. "Make sure none defy him."

Further explanation was cut off as the pain tore a scream from his throat. Now he understood how badly his father had suffered all those years ago. Why would any family member do this to another? Who could be so cold? So inhuman? Those questions faded when it felt as if his body were being torn apart.

Cursing silently, Jiraiya slowly tore the seal away from his new student's head; the cursing grew vocal as threads of chakra followed the seal, still binding both human and curse together. The bastard was determined; it would have been better for him if he'd just given up.

"Kakashi!" The name was both a command and a worried query. Neji could not last much longer.

Shifting his grip, the silver haired ninja used one arm to pin the boy's arms and gathered chakra in his other hand. If Hiashi wanted to fight, they would teach him what real chakra manipulation was and the inherent dangers.

Jiraiya gathered chakra in his free hand, waiting for the other man to catch up; Kakashi didn't have much energy left, but he was still willing to give what he could to protect this boy. It made the author proud. Perhaps there were some in Leaf who still knew the meaning of honor.

Their signal wasn't anything vocal; instead, when Kakashi raised his free hand over the suffering ninja, Jiraiya knew it was time. Together, their hands flashed forward, Kakashi's skimming under Neji’s shirt from behind and Jiraiya's landing over his stomach, slamming the gathering chakra into Neji's body with frightening force. If he thought what Hiashi was doing hurt, he was mistaken; now Neji learned the true meaning of suffering. His body went rigid with it but his throat constricted preventing a scream.

"Hang in there," Jiraiya growled, forcing even more chakra into the young ninja's body.

Neji couldn't, however. Without warning he collapsed unconscious against Kakashi.

Neither man ceased pouring chakra into the boy though. Jiraiya knew Hiashi had to be powerful and skilled, yet how much could he handle? When chakra was forced into the body it had to go someplace. Most often the body itself used the extra energy to heal wounds; except Neji was not hurt. So where could the chakra go? Only one place: along the bond between uncle and nephew.

They were forcing chakra into him through the curse and though he tried to send it back, the two men were stronger than he could ever hope to become. More and more chakra ripped through the proud clan leader until he thought he might explode. Roaring curses to the sky, Hiashi broke his link to Neji, allowing him to escape; the first in generations to do so.

In the clearing, the glowing curse dissolved in Jiraiya's hand; the ninjas stopped the flow of chakra and looked at the youth. Neji was pale and breathing somewhat normally. A black mark traced where the curse once marred his skin. Kakashi suspected it would remain there his entire life.

"Close." Jiraiya was shaking with barely suppressed fury. "We won't know what harm was done until he awakens."

"Then let’s get them under shelter and start cleaning," Kakashi suggested as he carefully lifted Neji.

His former teacher ignored the way he was swaying under the small burden. It looked like he and Shikamaru would be doing most of the chores for awhile. Well he'd done worse things before. A little cleaning couldn't be all that bad.

"Come on boy," he growled to the spy while lifting Iruka and Naruto. The teacher's hair had come undone and the pervert absentmindedly noted how soft if felt against his bare skin. Maybe he could get Iruka-sensei to share his hair care secrets?

"This is going to be so troublesome." Shikamaru grumbled as he picked up Sasuke.

The Hokage hadn't said anything about Neji almost being killed by his Uncle or this place. Which meant she knew less than they thought; which, of course, changed everything. Already new possibilities crowded his mind. But how to let Shino know? Could he even find this place? With a sinking feeling, the Nara heir followed the older men toward the building. Nothing was going according to plan and that was very bad. Very bad.

At the outskirts of the clearing, eyes watched the retreating figures.
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