Zetsu sat on the ground with a plastic cup to his ear and a string leading from the cup to out the window above him. Across from him were Sasori and Kisame who watched him with matching smirks.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

"Wooden bastard."

The string was tugged on a few times before Sakura's voice filtered through.

"See Zetsu-san?! This is cool, isn't it?!"

"I... suppose... Is this really necessary?"

"Yes."

Zetsu sighed.

"Fine. What else do you see?" he asked. He heard her hum for a few second before her upbeat voice came back to him.

"I see birds chirping up in the sky! The sky's really cloudy too, oh! And I just saw a bunny run into a bush! And I see a... guy? I can't really see his face though..."

Zetsu rammed his arm through the wall as quick as he could after hearing those words with hopes to grab her in time. For him, the world was moving in slow motion. Kisame's hand made a grab for Samehada and Sasori's fingers twitched to get his puppets moving, but they were too late. Far too late.

They were outside in two seconds flat, weapons in hand and scanning the entire area for Sakura's small cluster of chakra. The three of them stood there, checking a twenty mile radius of their position. She wasn't there. She was nowhere.

"I think it's a logical conclusion that the shinobi who took her is an S-rank. A-rank at least." Sasori grimaced, "It's either she'll be used as leverage against us or it was a misunderstanding in her identity. I'm leaning towards the latter."

Kisame cursed loudly, "What's our plan? Have Zetsu locate him and for us to follow?"

"That's the only viable option."

Zetsu sunk into the ground silently and made it so his chakra faintly trailed above ground so the two could follow.

~

He was traveling as fast as he could through just under the earth as he checked every single chakra signature in his reach. Kami, how could he let this happen? Sakura was less than a foot away from him! He should've been able to save her in time. Damn it, he was a sensory type shinobi! He should've sensed that kidnapper from a mile away and-

Wait.

Zetsu faltered his pace before he regained his composure. He furrowed his eyebrows and let full confusion take over his entire expression. His heart was pounding in his chest that surged an anxiousness in his veins he had never felt before.

"We're worried about her...? Of course we're worried! Don't you remember how we reacted? We panicked! Isn't it natural to panic? We don't panic, moron! And there we were, breaking the wall to try and grab her in time."

An hour passed and they still had no leads, but they hadn't stopped for any breaks. They had to find Sakura, no questions asked. And they wouldn't stop until they knew she was alright. Zetsu thought that he was the only one extremely concerned over Sakura's well being, but the looks on Kisame's and Sasori's faces told him otherwise.

"How could we let ourselves grow so attached? We aren't even human. Tch, why are you asking me? I don't have the answers to all your questions."

Suddenly, he felt it. Zetsu made a quick turn right and headed towards a safe house filled with five large chakras and a familiar much smaller one. His head poked up above the ground.

"Kill them all once I've got her."

He sunk back into the ground. He reappeared in the safe house ceiling and saw Sakura passed out on the couch and the ones who arranged her kidnapping conversing quietly around a table.

"Luckily we found her to fill our quota." one of them said.

"And she'll sell pretty high with that pink hair of hers. What is she, four? Five? The young ones are real popular on the market these days. We can make a hundred thousand outta her, easy."

Anger surged through Zetsu's veins as he retreated from the ceiling and reappeared just underneath the floorboards. His arms reached up through the couch and quickly pulled Sakura's body down towards him. When Kisame and Sasori saw him emerge from the tree they were perched on, they launched with murderous intent.

Zetsu gazed down at the small girl in his arms. She was slightly bruised, but he didn't know if that was from the kidnapping or just the ones she had before. He checked over her and confirmed with relief that she had no broken bones or head trauma.

"Sorry for not watching you close enough, brat."