"What the hell's going on?!"

Tsunade looked up as a blonde slammed his hands on her desk angrily, glaring at her. "I leave the village for two days on a mission, and this is what I return to?! Where the hell is Hotaru-chan?!" the blonde jinchuuriki had gone to call round the redhead's home, only to find it blocked off with the occasional shinobi entering and exiting, none of which were who he was seeking.

Tsunade frowned at Naruto, "Hotaru has gone rogue. She was accused of joining the Akatsuki," Naruto froze, "And ended up fleeing the village with her brother."

"What?!" Naruto whispered; Hotaru had been in Akatsuki? The organisation that hunted jinchuuriki?

She had betrayed him?

No. He wouldn't believe it. There had to be some sort of explanation.

"No! There's no way she would do that!" Naruto yelled, "Hotaru-chan is kind, and loyal, and she cares about this village just as much as I do! She would never help an organisation like that!"

The Godaime sighed, warring within herself, "ANBU found a scrap of an Akatsuki cloak, threaded with Hotaru's chakra, locked in a box underneath her bed. What other explanation is there?"

Naruto stopped, drawing a blank.  Then, his anger and frustration flowed fiercer than before, along with stubbornness and determination. "There must be a good reason for Hotaru-chan to do something like that! She'd never betray the village like that intentionally! And you don't know her if you think she would!!" the jinchuuriki turned and started out, but was stopped.

"Naruto! Where are you going?!" Tsunade demanded, and Naruto turned his head and glared at her.

"I'm going to find Hotaru-chan and prove her innocence!" he pulled the door open, but Tsunade sprang from her desk, making a split second decision by grabbing his arm.

"I can't let you go after her, Naruto."

-  -  -

Hotaru sneezed, making Sasori look up at her. He grinned.

"They say that when you sneeze, somebody is talking about you." He said in a teasing tone, and the girl scowled.

"If that was true, I'd be sneezing constantly..." she said sourly, but hurt was threaded into her expression, "The villagers talk about me non-stop, all sorts of scandalous tales and stories of the evils I would commit, had I stayed in the village."

Sasori frowned at her, "You know that that's not true, they didn't-"

"Don't lie to me, Sasori. You're no good at it." Hotaru cut him off, and the older sighed.

Hotaru merely went back to ignoring everything, and Sasori frowned, thinking hard. This all led back ot the incident with the paper bomb. But he couldn't figure it out! He was certain that Hotaru would never do something like that; she was loyal to the Leaf village, and would never try to harm it or it's occupants. But if that was true, why was her chakra running through a paper bomb attached to the east wall? It wasn't like she would have been persuaded by someone to do it; Hotaru was way too stubborn for that. And she couldn't have been tricked either, because she never let her guard down around anyone, not even her closest friends!

Unless...

That day when she hadn't come home. She had seemed drunk when Sasori found her.

And she had been with that guy Ryo.

And that was the night before the paper bomb had been found. But Ryo had been drunk too, so it couldn't have been him. It just didn't add up!

-  -  -

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!! lol.

-  -  -

The ground shook in the Leaf village, and the sound of an explosion echoed overhead as the Sunagakure specialist team detonated the paper bomb in a secure environment. Gaara looked on with slight pride; proud that his shinobi were able to help in such a way. Of course, the wall would need to be repaired, but only from minimal damage.

It had just so happened that the Kazekage had needed to speak with the Hokage about top-secret matters, meaning that he would have to travel across to Konoha to meet with both the Hokage and the Leaf's council of elders. A few of Suna's council members also came across, upon their insistence that they needed more representatives than just the three sand siblings.

Once in the meeting, the discussion began, mostly of trivial things that were routine for the leaders of Hidden villages. But, it was when the suna council members breached a discussion of what to do about certain rogue shinobi that the Hokage started to get edgy.

"Is there something wrong, Tsunade-sama?" Gaara asked politely, noticing the uncomfortable look in the old woman's face. Tsunade sighed.

"We have one new and one renewed rogue nin." Tsunade sighed, ignoring the warning looks she was recieving from the Leaf's council members. "Akasuna no Sasori and his younger sister, Hotaru. They left a few days ago."

The Kazekage's eyes widened. Hotaru? She had gone rogue? But it was only a few months ago that he had last seen her... she had apologised to him for being a bratty child. She had seemed perfectly normal, though...

Could things have really changed that quickly for her?

"What happened?" He asked, and Tsunade met his gaze for a long while, a sad, and guilty look in her eyes that Gaara did not understand.

"I am afraid that I am not permitted to discuss that matter with you... but I can say that she had joined the Akatsuki in the time that she was supposedly in your village training." Tsunade said tiredly, and the three council elders nodded sternly. The Hokage glanced their way, then back at Gaara, noticing how his hands, that had been interlocked on the desk, were now clenched in fists, and his eyes were angled at the floor, a slight frown on his features. He obviously was unlike Naruto... not so brash and forthcoming with his emotions... but it was clear that he didn't like the thought of Hotaru being a part of the organisation that was hunting him down.

*That's right, the Kazekage rescue arc has been pushed back, even if I've mentioned it in previous chapters... I don't think I have, but if I have then ignore it. GAARA STILL HAS SHUKAKU AT THIS MOMENT!!!*

"I-" Tsunade's next words were cut off by yet another large explosion, that shook the entire room. They all glanced in the direction it had come from in alarm, "What's going on?! They already detonated the bomb!!"

But then Shizune rushed into the room, "Tsunade-sama! A bomb has just been let off at the West gate!!"

"What?!" Tsunade stood from her seat, her anger working it's way onto her features. The stack of papers in the corner fell from the cabinet that they had been on and scattered on the floor as yet another explosion caused the room to tremble. "The village must be under attack!"

The Hokage and her assistant rushed up to the roof of the building, with the Kazekage following. From there they could see the pillars of dark grey smoke rising from the explosion sights... various points on the great wall which surrounded and protected the village.

But from where they were, they could only see one person enter at each point.

Just what was going on?

-  -  -

Yeah... CRAP CHAPTER!! ARGH!!

Crappily written, and crap content...

But I dunno what the hell I'm writing anymore. Next chapter should be a bit more interesting. Hopefully....

Well, anyway, fan, vote, and comment... even if it's just to tell me how crappy this chapter was...