MY first fan fic, hope you all enjoy!! Please comment - both negative and positive are encouraged! I promise I won't be at all offended, and suggestions are also welceom! =]

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Naruto, not a single one.

Our Last Hope

It was an especially quiet night in the village. A soft breeze blew by the window, causing the chimes hanging next to the window to ring. I slowly opened my eyes, still a bit dazed from sleeping, even if it was only for a short time. There was a brief thud by my window, and I shot up in bed, kunai at the ready. "Sasuke…" I whispered to myself, thinking maybe this time he really would come back. But, like every other time I thought I heard someone behind me or a quiet whisper of my name carried on the wind, it was nothing.

I sighed and lay back down. Sleep was out of my reach now that I was awake and thinking of him, because every time I closed my eyes I saw my closest friend, standing by that horrible man. What was worse, though, was knowing as of this moment, I had no way to bring him home. I turned onto my side and found myself staring at the picture of our team back when we were little. Sakura looked happy, I was frustrated, and Sasuke just looked annoyed. The first rays of sunlight began shining through my window and gracefully fell on the frame. In my head I repeated the promise I had made so many times.

'I'll bring you home.'

With that I got out of bed and rubbed my eyes, hoping that somewhere around my apartment there was a bottle of milk that hadn't yet expired.

A few hours later I met up with Sakura and Sai, or more correctly they found me walking along trying to figure out how I was going to spend my day. "Oh, hey Sakura, Sai, what's up?"

Sai gave one of his creepy smiles, and I hoped even more that soon he would out grow this awkward no-people-skills phase. Sakura looked annoyed as ever. "Naruto you idiot, Tsunade told us to be at her office half an hour ago, don't you remember anything?!" I stared at her blankly. To be honest, I really had forgotten, but I chose the apologetic route in order to avoid getting beaten up this early in the day and followed her and Sai to Tsunade's office.

"I'm sorry Sensei, Naruto's an idiot, I'll have a talk with him after." She glared. I flinched. I knew there would more than talking involved.

"There's no time for that today, Sakura. We have received notice from a village not far from here that they possess a ninja that just might be able to aide in bringing back Sasuke." Sakura let out a sharp gasp next to me and it felt like my heart skipped a beat.

"W-what do you mean? What kind of ability would help us bring back Sasuke-kun?" Sakura stuttered out, clearly overwhelmed by the news of our past teammate.

Tsunade cleared her throat and motioned towards our village's hospital. "She was brought in last night in grave condition. Apparently, the Akatsuki members Kisame and Itachi attacked their village while looking for one of the Jinjuriki. While defending her village, the young girl in our hospital currently discovered that she was immune to the effects of Itachi's sharingan. The six eyes watching her all widened in surprise. Without thinking, I bolted from the room and down the hall towards the hospital. "Naruto- wait!" Sakura bolted from the room after me but I ignored her.

At the hospital desk I frantically asked for the room the girl was in, but the woman had no clue who I was talking about. Sakura finally caught up to me and through her heavy breathing she told me, "Room 218." Without waiting I ran up the stairs and down the halls before finally getting to the room. I opened the door without knocking, which I knew was rude, but I was frantic.

There was no one in the room besides the girl lying on the bed. She was fairly battered, with a bandage down the left side of her cheek and minor cuts elsewhere on her face. The main bandages were below her collarbones, and even with the extensive healing treatment used here, the bandages were still a faint red in certain areas.

The most shocking thing about her though was her shear beauty. She was tiny, though not fragile looking; like she could hold her own when she needed to. Her long, fair blond hair, almost the same color as mine, was spread out across the pillow and spilled over her shoulders. She had high cheekbones, and when she opened her eyes because my loud entrance had awoken her, I saw she had stunning bright gray eyes.

In a word, she was beautiful.

And this beautiful girl was our last hope.