Tenzo ran towards Kakashi's apartment with Shin on his shoulders. However, he came to a sudden halt as he sensed the ANBU searching up Kakashi's apartment.

- "Shit I forgot they were also looking for Senpai" Tenzo sighed.

- "The ANBU is here too?!" Shin spoke suddenly. It seemed that she was actually awake for a while now.

Tenzo let down Shin from his shoulders and gave her a glare. He then asked her to keep quiet and wait till the ANBU left.

- "Will we be safe here?" Shin whispered.

- "Your apartment will be searched after ANBU realises that you ran away. My apartment in inside the campus so that's a no. After the ANBU leaves, I will scan the place. If its secure, we will take shelter there and I will seal the place" Tenzo explained the whole plan to Shin.

- "Whose apartment is that?"

- "Its Kakashi Hatake's apartment. He was Ino- I mean Aoyama's team leader at ANBU. I was her team mate. The ANBU is looking for us too"

- "Where did he go then?"

- "Maybe he escaped? Wait no, he wasn't at ANBU headquarters today so he wouldn't know. Maybe a mission?" Tenzo sighed. "Well whatever the reason, its good he is away"

Tenzo waited along with a very frightened Shin till the ANBU searched the place. After they left, Tenzo quickly went and scanned the area for any kind of tracker or seals placed by the ANBU. He found two, and quickly blinded them, thanks to his skills that were clearly above most ANBU shinobi.

Tenzo went out to fetch Shin and let her inside Kakashi's apartment. He locked the door and windows, and sealed the whole apartment from any outsiders.

- "Is it okay to seal it? What if Hatake san returns?" Shin asked while looking around the apartment.

- "It's okay. Three people know how to get through this seal, Kakashi senpai, Inochi and Itachi Uchiha. This was a special seal that I and Inochi created specifically for our group"

- "Oh is that so? Then good" Shin cautiously sat on Kakashi's bed. She and Tenzo sat in silence for quite a few minutes before speaking up. "So.. Yama chan's real name is Inochi"

Tenzo stiffened up. After trying so much, he still gave away Inochi's real name.

-" Yeah haha. Maybe I am not as good of a spy as I thought"

-"I could have found out her real name easily as she is the guardian of the jinchuriki. So don't beat yourself up" Shin said while chuckling. She did not want to make her saviour feel bad. "Do you know what happened with her?"

- "I don't have the slightest of idea" Tenzo sighed. "It has to do something with Kenta, I am sure"

- "Oh yes, he was just Inochi chan's clone. The ANBU guard told me"

-"Huh! WHat??" Tenzo shot up. Suddenly everything became clear to him. However, the only piece of the puzzle he did not get was Inochi's motive. "Danzo probably saw that Kenta's body had two different chakras and came to the conclusion that it was either me or Kakashi. You were Inochi's analyser for the mission so you are also one of the perpetuators. But what about Shisui?"

- "The guards did not tell me much about him either. They said that Shisui san started a fight against Danzo and that Kenta helped him escape"

- "Hmm" Tenzo thought for some time. "If she helped Shisui, then I guess she did not do anything wrong. There is a good possibility that Danzo is after yet another Sharingan. But.. why did Inochi put herself in that drama? What could she be after?"

- "Tenzo san, how long will we have to wait?"

- "Wait, I want to see something first" Tenzo stood up, and went near the study table. He put his hand on the wall and concentrated on his chakra flow.

- "What are you doing?" Shin asked in confusion.

- "Kakashi senpai and I once agreed to have a secret place, to hide messages and all. But we were pretty young back then, and only did it for fun" Tenzo did a few handsigns and said "OPEN!"

The part of the wall underneath his palm shifted and opened into a small box. Luckily, it did have a letter in it.

- "YES" Tenzo air fisted in excitement and took out the paper.

- "What does it say?" Shin scooted closer to Tenzo who proceeded to turn on the table lamp and read the message.

-- Tenzo, if you are reading this, it means you might be in trouble. If I am correct, then its possible other people who helped Inochi in her spy mission will be in trouble too. If possible save them. Don't come after me, I am safe and Shisui is with me. We are going to save Inochi from Suna.--

- "Whoa, Shisui san is with Hatake san. I guess its fine then" Shin turned back and lied down onto the bed, completely exhausted. However, Tenzo was still rereading the message." What happened Tenzo san?"

- "They left for Suna only some hours before. It takes almost two and a half day to reach Suna. If they are able to save Inochi quickly through the heavy security of Suna, it would still take them a week to return" Tenzo said as he turned off the table lamp.

- "Does it mean we have to stay here like this for a WEEK!?" Shin was again in panic.

- "Depends. I will spy on the ANBU to see if they are going to return here to spy or not. If they do, I will have to cast a genjutsu around the apartment, a powerful one. Plus.." Tenzo went over to the fridge and opened it "..we dont have enough resources for a week. I need to shop for a few things too" Tenzo took a notebook out of the shelf and noted down the things he would have to do in order.

Shin nodded as she understood the implications of the plan. If anything, the best she could do right now is to go with Tenzo's plan and try to stay away from creating any extra burden.

As the next morning arrived, Tenzo promptly carried out with his plan. As per his judgement, he tried to stay away from the headquarters and first tried to buy food items for their hideout. He transformed into an old lady and switched his voice to match his appearance.

As he was buying vegetables from a grocery store around mid day, he overheard a pretty interesting gossip.

- "Did you hear? Shisui Uchiha committed suicide last night" One of the ladies in the group said.

- "What!" The other four women seemed shocked at the news.

- "He was such a gentle child. Probably the only gentleman in the Uchiha clan" One of the woman said while placing her hand on her heart.

- "Yes yes, I agree. He helped me out so many times. I even heard that he was an Uchiha prodigy. I wonder what happened"

- "If anything, I am sure the Uchihas drove him to commit suicide. They are already sucking the life out of the villagers, and a kind hearted child like him probably got sick of his own clan" One of the ladies sneered.

- "You are actually right. I heard that his suicide note contained that he was sick of the clan. Can you believe it? His death would have created a massive shock among the Uchihas" The first lady said while leaning in.

Tenzo overheard the whole conversation before heading back to the apartment. The moment he set his foot in, he narrated the whole gossip to Shin.

- "This seems a completely useless escape tactic to me though" Shin said as she slurped the instant ramen noodles that Tenzo bought. "There is no way Danzo is going to leave the search after hearing about the suicide"

- "Yeah, I guess. But it may lead the ANBU members to slack"

- "ANBU members slack? Wow did not expect that"

- "Yeah I mean ANBU members are also humans. Pretty damaged humans but still" Tenzo slurped the last bit of soup in the ramen cup. "There was another news too, which was even more interesting"

- "What is it?"

- "People are suspecting that it wasn't a suicide at all, it was a murder"

- "What? who are they suspecting? If they are suspecting Danzo it would be pretty spot on" Shin snickered out of pure disgust towards her former boss.

- "No, but Danzo would have made sense I agree" Tenzo chuckled. He stood up and threw his ramen cup into the dustbin.

- "Then who is it?"

- "They are suspecting his student and confidant, Itachi Uchiha"

----------------------------------------------

Inochi flinched for the fifth time as she recollected the feeling of getting impaled by the Katana.

- " I should have returned before getting impaled" Inochi was tapping her foot uncontrollably as she remembered all the stuff her clone saw in the past five months.

- "I have two to three days till the ANBU reaches Suna, but its very much possible that Danzo would go for Naruto" Inochi thought while stirring the radish curry.

-"No, Naruto is under the protection of the Hokage. Danzo would not dare to go against him hopefully" Inochi's panic state was at its peak.

- "It leaves Kakashi neesan only. " Inochi tasted the curry. She burnt her tongue but did not even realise it. "But him along with Shisui san and Itachi will be enough to tackle the ANBU"

- "Kakashi neesan will help Shisui san surely. Itachi too is with him. So what am I missing" Inochi turned off the stove and went into her room.

-"Is there someone left?" Inochi thought hard till her head started to ache.

- "Anyways, I will have to leave Suna.. and Gaara sama. There is no other option." Inochi said as she took all the letters she received from Shin and Naruto and started burning them.

-"It would be better getting killed than to let the leaf's drama interfere with Gaara sama's life" Inochi solemnly accepted her fate.

Inochi spent the evening thinking over and over about how to escape. She made the dinner, cleaned the room and after Yashamaru returned, had dinner and went to sleep. She was herself in too much anxiety, that she failed to see the changed behaviour of Yahshamaru, who was also pretty distressed by something.

The next day, was the day Inochi planned to leave Suna, quietly at night. She spent the whole day with Gaara, playing with him and also accompanying him to the park.

- "Gaara sama, do you like your friends?" Inochi asked the same question to Gaara as she did to Naruto.

- "Hmm I do"

Gaara's answer was more constrained but also held more depth. Unlike Naruto, he did not get to roam around the village and thus his people skills were underdeveloped. His tailed beast too, was partially sealed unlike Naruto's, which made him more dangerous to the people and himself. So the fact that he was still able to make friends, albeit with a bit of help, was a big achievement. Unlike Naruto, who had the right to complain about the people not accepting him, Gaara had no excuse for that. He was thus not only happy, but grateful that inspite of him being a ticking bomb, people were starting to accept him as a part of the village.

-" I am glad to hear that" Inochi looked forward as she walked down the streets to the park, while holding hands with Gaara. She took in every bit of detail she learned about Suna in the past five months. She got habituated with the warm air and the dry surroundings. "It ended so quickly" Inochi looked upwards to the sky, and felt the scorching heat which was unknown to the leaf shinobi.

Inochi had all the things ready. She had burned most of the stuff she had and packed the essentials into a scroll. It was around 8 pm but Yashamaru was still not home.

- "Umi neechan, I am hungry.. Where is Yashamaru?" Gaara said while hugging Inochi who was waiting at the balcony.

- "I know Gaara sama" Inochi looked at the time. "Let's wait for 15 minutes more okay?" Inochi kissed Gaara on the head and went outside the house. It was windy and pretty cold, as winter was approaching.

- "I am waiting on the roof alright?" Gaara said to Inochi before dashing up to the roof.

Inochi was worried about the time, as she did not want to leave Suna while Gaara was unsupervised. She was waiting for Yashamaru and Gaara to eat the dinner, in which she had discreetly added sleeping pills so that her escape would go smoothly.

As Inochi was waiting out in the backyard, she sensed a number of shinobi rushing towards her direction.

- "Wait what!? IS the ANBU already here?" She hurried to the direction she sensed the chakras coming from and saw a ninja running through the roofs just above her , to the direction of the residence.

- "Oh no... Who are they?" Inochi thought it was the ANBU and tried to rush back to the residence to stop the ninja from hurting Gaara just when she felt a jute bag being thrown over her head.

-"What the hell?" Inochi turned back and kicked the person in the gut before they could completely get a hold of Inochi. As Inochi took off the bag from her head, she saw a shinobi crouched on the ground, groaning in pain from the kick that he received from Inochi.

-"Who are you?" Inochi tried to get a hold of the shinobi's face and realised that it was a sand shinobi. "What do you want?" Inochi ordered the shinobi to speak just when two other shinobi attacked her.

-"What the-" Inochi took them out in swift movements. "I cannot let them tell anyone that I am a shinobi though" Inochi thought as she carried the three unconscious shinobi to the residence.

Inochi entered the residence and laid down the three shinobi. She looked around for Gaara just when she remembered that he was on the roof.

-"I need backup. I need a shinobi to handle this" Inochi made a mud clone and ordered it to alter the memories of the three sand shinobi and to go and contact Yura or Sajin using the communication scrolls.

The real Inochi dashed up the roof to find Gaara's sand scattered all the way to the other corner.

-"GAARA!!!" Inochi just jumped to the connected roof as she followed the trail of sand. She looked around and found Gaara sitting on the edge, with a ninja hurling kunais and shurikens at him.

-"GET AWAY FROM HIM!!!" Inochi tackled the ninja and signalled Gaara to go back inside. However, she felt another presence.

"Shit, who is it?" Inochi looked around but found someone's chakra concentrated at a point. As her focus shifted, the ninja below her shoved her to the wall and tried to stab her with a Kunai. Inochi was still looking for the chakra point but was ready to grab the kunai from impaling her, just when Gaara's sand got hold of the perpetrator.

-"DON'T YOU DARE HURT HER" Gaara growled. Inochi knew this voice. This was not Gaara's, but of the form's he would take while conforming into the tailed beast.

-"NO GAARA SAMA, STOP" Inochi dived into to shield Gaara. She did not want Gaara to again transform into the beast and let go of all the things he achieved in the past five months.

As she ran across the roof to shield Gaara, she felt someone watching the whole debacle.

"This is the Kazekage's chakra. What is happening??"

From the corner of her eye Inochi saw a single eye, watching the fight. Hundreds of thoughts passed by Inochi's mind but none of them explained what was happening right now. She remembered reading about the special jutsu, that the Kazekage used, to keep an eye on something or someone, literally. But even after identifying the jutsu and the user, Inochi could not deduce why the ninja, who Inochi correctly concluded to be Yashamaru, was trying the harm Gaara.

Inochi shielded Gaara, and told him to calm down.

-"Gaara sama, listen to me!! Think about your friends and all the villagers who accepted you. Don't let this ninja ruin it all" Inochi hugged Gaara, but it did not seem to do much.

"This is not happening. I am not leaving you like this Gaara" Inochi held up Gaara's little head and made him look into her eyes which held the sharingan.

"Sorry Gaara sama" Inochi put Gaara in a genjutsu which led the sand around him fall into pieces suddenly. Because of this, the ninja who was charging at Gaara slipped onto the sand and stabbed Inochi.

-"No..." The shinobi, Yashamaru, let out a sigh. He did not want to kill Inochi, only slightly hurt her to keep her out of the way. But this time it straight away went through her back into her lungs. Yashamaru started backing off, just when Inochi picked up Gaara and ran downstairs.

Shocked by Inochi's actions, Yashamaru too followed her into the residence.

-"She seems very agile for a villager" The Kazekage,Rasa, exclaimed while standing far way, onto the roof of the Kazekage building. He made his eye follow Yashamaru but suddenly found his eye being slain. Rasa was shocked and disapointed as he couldn't see who destroyed his eye. However, he did not budge.

- "Was there anyone else?" Rasa thought as he quietly went inside the building. He believed that Gaara would soon let loose of the one tails and thus started preparing for a fight.

Back in the residence, as Inochi ran down the stairs, she stopped midway into the dining area and waited for Yashamaru. As Yashamaru came down, he stopped on his tracks, facing Inochi who was still on her feet with a kunai impaled in her.

-"Who are you?" Yashamaru asked, as he started doubting Inochi's identity.

-"Yashamaru san, why are you trying to kill Gaara" Inochi still had bloodshot eyes, not because of the sharingan but because of pure rage and hatred.

-"But why-"

-"Answer me!" Inochi ROARED. She came closer and held Yashamaru by his collar. "Tell me before I cut you down to pieces" Inochi looked straight to Yashamaru's eyes.

-"It was the Kazekage's orders. He and the council agreed that Gaara sama is a failed experiment and that terminating him would be the best option so as to not terrorise the people anymore" Yashamaru said with a straight face. He was not at all taken aback by the threat, as it assured him that whoever the person standing before him may be, she atleast loved Gaara just as Kumimono san did.

Inochi held a bewildered, confused and disgusted expression on her face. She let go of Yashamaru and sat on the couch.

-"I cannot leave Gaara here. But I cannot stay here either. If anything I NEED TO LEAVE NOW"

Inochi held her head between her hands. Both of her worlds, Suna and Konoha were at danger.

-"No.. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING" Inochi stood and and lifted Gaara onto her shoulders.

-"What are you doing!" Yashamaru was startled by the sudden action.

-"I am kidnapping Gaara sama. I will return him after teaching him how to control the beast. Till then-" Inochi looked back at Yashamaru who she knew was just following the Kazekage's orders and never would want to hurt Gaara

-"Till then I need you to persuade the Kazekage. I know the Kazekage was watching, but I leave it to you to convince him that I am just a commoner and that I was able to escape because of another shinobi who agreed to help me. Make him stop searching for Gaara. I assure you, I will return him when he is ready"

Yashamaru who was still late at processing all of this, stopped Inochi for one last time, and explained his part of the mission.

-"I am so useless" Yashamaru put his hands on his face, recollecting all his memories with Gaara and how he accepted to just follow the Kazekage's order instead of standing up against him.

-"I was not asked to kill Gaara sama, Kumimono san. I was supposed to be killed by his hands. I was supposed to scar Gaara sama. And in return the council would witness how Gaara sama would react. If he could suppress his beast even after seeing me try to kill him, and die in his hands, then they would stop hunting him down. That was the actual mission, Kumimono san"

Inochi just listened to his story, and answered in the most repulsive way possible

-"Pathetic" Inochi looked back at Yashamaru "You still disgust me, Yashamaru san"

Yashamaru smiled, although in pain and humiliation.

-"Take care of Gaara sama for me" He replied helplessly. He accepted that he held no power over the situation, as always.

-"I know" Inochi turned back and dashed out of the residence , with pure contempt towards Yashamaru and the Kazekage.