Sakura felt the fist smash into her face and she clamped down with her teeth. Her victim snarled and renewed his assault, heedless of the kunai driving itself deeper into his arm with every moment, he never slowed, only renewing his attack upon her visage again and again and again, each blow flaring the world a different color for Sakura. Amidst the pain, she felt herself slipping, She squeezed eyes shut and tasted blood in her mouth and she refused to gag when she swallowed.

"Bitch! Leggo a' me!"

She shook her head against these strong arms, one that instantly drew down upon her skull for a renewed session of beating. A small hurricane roiled behind her skull, her body shaking and shivering from every knuckle that did connect, which was rather often. She wept, hot tears squeezing through her eyes as she squeezed them shut. She retaliated, levering her body up enough to drop a knee into his solar plexus, and she had the satisfaction of the air whooshing from his lungs as she drove the knife deeper.

Someone screamed.

Sakura screamed, and abruptly, she was fighting for her life, clinging to him with her teeth and arms, knowing that to do anything else was to die.

Within that eternity of blows and beatings, Sakura wondered at what she might see. Most likely Sasuke-kun. But no, these painful hallucinations did not include Sasuke Uchiha. Instead, a messy mop of platinum blond obscured her every scene. Tethered to a smiling face just as, if not more so, brighter than his hair. Sakura blinked, eyes opening and closing with an infinite and agonizing slowness. He was the one she was thinking of, now of all times, now, when she was so close to death?

A cold chill settled upon her shoulders.

"Naruto?"

Uzumaki Naruto.

That crazy, loud, goofy, stupid, handsome, wonderful, sexy-

Sakura slammed the lid down on that thought, but she could not silence the cry that had already escaped her lips. Thump. There was a dull and wet thud, as Zaku's fist smashed into her skull for the upteenth time and then she was done. Sakura pushed the kunai as deep as she dare, felt it strike bone and sinew and tissue, and then it was over. Cold fury burned the world white as the snarling burst of sound and pressure raked across her skin, spewing from his palm and dragging itself over her body.

'Huh. I'm about to die and I can't get him out of my head.'

Sakura flew with all the force of a hurricane. Literally. Her feet left the ground leaving her to tumble backward in an uncontrolled retreat, cratering the ground once, twice, three times before her body finally decided enough was enough and brought her to a skidding halt, resting on her elbows for support. Blood dribbled from her lips as the Otogakure shinobi stalked toward her, snarling at the other two when they began to follow his advance.

"Dosu! Kin! Stay the fuck put! I'll kill her myself!" Sakura stared into that blood flecked face, saw the kunai sticking through muscle and tissue, and she was afraid. Fear filled her every pore as he came toward her, malice in his eyes, hatred in his heart. She watched those lips twist into a barbed wire of a grin, sadistic, sardonic, and promising pain, pain, and more pain. She watched him lurch forward at her as she tried and failed to lean back on her haunches. No good. She'd torn something during the fall. She couldn't move, so she was forced to watch, watch as Zaku cleared the distance between them with nary a sound, reached down, seized her by the throat, and hoisted her into the air.

"Biiiiiiitch...

"I will not allow you to do such a thing!"

Sakura's world filled with an impossible shade of neon green as she saw Lee sweep himself off the floor. Incredibly, the spandex clad genin had been able to rise for a third time, and already even as the one known as "Dosu" came after him, the boy was too fast. Much, much too fast Sakur saw, emerald eyes flying wide as he bellowed forward at Zaku. The latter arched an eyebrow and raising his free hand within a sound of pure and wordless fury, opening it to reveal the stream of air gushing outward from the hole in his hand.

"Persistent little bug!"

Sakura watched those bushy brows lift in disbelief even as the strangled scream left her lips.

"LEE!"

Sakura watched and wailed as Rock Lee hurled himself forward and swung toward them, his heel bridging the gap that separated him from a successful strike. For a moment, just a moment, it seemed as though he might make it. This was not to be. Sakura watched the world fade into crystal clear focus as the geyser of pressure burst from Zaku's hand, twisting ankle and body alike at an awkward angle a millisecond before impact. Helpless to do anything other than look on and lament, she keened aloud, a sound of such woe that it would break the heart of any man, and still a supersonic wave of sound hurtled into the green genin, threw him off target and into the ground.

"Aw, look." Zaku snickered. "Kid's getting up again."

Sakura screamed and was muffled against his fingers as Rock Lee did just that, and tried to stand.

'Just stay down. Oh gods, Lee, PLEASE just stay down...

He lay there in a twisted gaggle of limbs, tried to rise, failed, and did not move again.

No!

Cold fury burned the world white and with it, came an inexplicable surge of strength.

"Eh?" Zaku blinked, eyes widening slightly as that emerald turquoise gaze leveled upon him with a startling level of ferocity.

Sakura shrieked, heel snapping outward with incredible force. Zaku bent double, as she found her mark, crushing hsi groin with incredible force. Zaku wheezed, grip slackening in the same instant that she felt something snap between her ankle and thigh. Sakura screamed alongside him, realizing all too late that he'd taken her kunai and rammed it through her thigh. She stared down, eyes large as the pool of blood began to spill from the wound.

If not for that, if not for the alarming shade the Oto-shinobi was flushing, a deep and violent purple, Sakura might've found her scenario altogether amusing, but for the renewed assault and the crushing forces upon her windpipe.

"You bitch!" Zaku was livid. "You almost neutered me, you you stupid piece of-

Sakura felt the oxygen leaching from her lungs, the color fading from her face as she struggled against the incredible vice. Dark. Everything was becoming dark. So dark. Her world was fading, changing to a mottled black, spotted as she struggled to free herself from Zaku's grip. Despair flowered inside Sakura, as she felt the first fractures an instant from forming. Even if he released her an instant to this moment, she'd have permanent damage.

And Sakura would have, had not she slapped an explosive tag to his chest. Zaku realized it in the instant that she closed her eyes and anticipated the explosion. The tag fizzled, and a bright white-hot flare exploded between them. Sakura braced herself for the pain and the pain came. The force of the explosion was such that she was violently dislodged. Dislodged, as the roiling fireball and shrieking gale smashed into Zaku's very much unprotected flank. Dislodged, and swept away, the air rushing from her lungs in a painful whoosh. She hit the ground, hard.

Sakura screamed, but hers was one of pain and Zaku's was a furious fellow as he leveled his good arm upon her.

"DIE!"

Zaku spun around quickly, slamming a supersonic burst of Air Cutter into Sakura's body. With a surprised grunt, the pale-skinned shinobi went flying through the clearing, a trail of dark blood following her body through the flickering light and shadows of the clearing. Her limp body slammed into the earth once gravity took hold of her, skidding across the grass and gravel as the momentum continued to drag her over the dirt. Her hands were suddenly free, and impossibly enough, they carried her over blood spattered ground as Sakura clapped both palms upon them and reached for a kunai, fully aware of what Zaku could do her projectile, should she hurl it toward him.

Again she pictured Naruto. Wrapping a strap of her dress around the sopping wound, Sakura hurriedly bandaged it, with what little she knew of medicine. She wouldn't bleed to death yet, but this, as with all wounds, required urgent attention. The one thing she could not give. Sakura's breath caught in her throat and she found that her legs refused to move suddenly, as Zaku loomed up before her and shoved his hand into her face, the beginnings of another pressure wave already building and roiling behind the latch of his hand.

'Why did you have to say that?' Sakura rose up on shaken legs, feeling as though she truly had perished alongside the blond. 'What the am I supposed to do now?' Gazing into the silent canopy that was the Forest of Death, she noticed the sudden and ominous presence of crimson swelling upward, toward the treetops. Peppered by familiar flashes of white violet bolts that were lightning, and the sharp and foreign rumble that she so rarely heard, that of the thunder and of the storm.

'What am I going to do, Naruto...what can I do? You can't, I can't...'

"You stupid bitch!"

With a violent explosion, the world burst like an overripe grape. Sakura tumbled down to the earth, groaning as her face cushioned the fall. Naturally the man laughed at her and this only served to irk the Haruno further as she cursed her powerlessness. Furious with both herself and her tormentor, she struggled to rise. The boot in her back crushed that brief flicker of defiance and ground it down in the soil alongside her face.

Is this it?

Sakura gasped and sobbed and struggled to breathe but nothing came. Is this all the backbone I have? She had just enough strength to turn an eye toward Naruto and Sasuke, to indulge herself with one final glimpse of the teammates she was about to fail. This is Pathetic.She felt the tears welling up but she refused to gratify the enemy with her misery. Pathetic!Impossibly, as she stared, Naruto seemed to move, twitch, blink, and open his eyes. Sakura blinked again, but the blond was still there, still unmoving, still silent, still sleeping and-

"Its sad." A hollow voice resounded throughout the clearing. "How you've managed to hurt her and anger me at the same time."

Another sound rose through the air.

It was a voice of the gentle sort, that she was more than familiar with. She froze, her skin crawling beneath the sound. Jaded green held no anger, no spite, no scorn, not even the faintest glimmer of disdain, as she turned and saw a glimmer of red in the gloom. of which broken hearts could only dream. All the money in the world could not buy such a sight. No, nothing could hope to place any sort of monetary value upon this matchless scene that lay before her. It truly was a sight for sore eyes, and hers stung and burned as though they might explode. Squeezing at her voice and throat in an entirely different manner that before, Sakura's heart slammed against her breast, threatening to burst out of her chest.

"Sakura...

She froze and heard the name repeat into of itself countless times.

"Who...

He was alive. Kami, he looked like crap. His hair matted down with blood and sweat, body covered in wounds and a foul odor emanating from his sweat soaked attire, but there could be no mistaking a steady rise-and-fall of his chest as he stood. Wait. How on earth was he standing? Sakura felt that little seedling of hope wither and turn to ash as they dragged their chin off the ground and forced his palms to bring their chest upright so that they would stand straight and tall.

"The...

Something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong with his chakra. With his body. With everything. Arching his body at an impossible angle, he managed to stand. A strange and sickening spiral of spiteful chakra coiled out of his body, forming a never ending whirlpool of power. It was everywhere, leaking from his arms his legs, his stomach his thighs, his shoulders, everywhere. Not a single scrap was left untouched by this twisted mass of spiritual and physical energy, and energy that brought Sakura to her knees with awe.

"Hell...

Momentarily cowed by the baleful glare swiveled upon them, the Sound shinobi froze. He said nothing to them, his gaze sweeping across the clearing, falling upon Rock Lee. He blinked, recognition well within his eyes as he creaked them open and shut four times in a series of slow blinks. Sakura shrieked in surprise as he reappeared with the battered boy an instant later, carefully laying Lee down at her feet as the afterimage she'd been staring at, faded into nothingness. Chakra constantly swirled out of his stomach, creating a strange vortex in which he was the nexus. He stood well within the crimsstood directly within the crimson spiral, the blond schlepped to his feet, took all of two steps forward and suddenly, impossibly, he stood before her, leaving only a rustling of the breeze.

"Did...

Something was terribly, terribly wrong with Naruto. That was her last thought before her vision filled with red chakra and she was thrown back against the tree trunk. Sakura winced and forced bleary eyes to blink away painful tears, head aching as she struggled to look upward at her saviour. An orange jacket crumpled onto her face. Startled she pulled it into her arms, but her gaze never once left the almighty figure looming over her with all the wrath of ten thousand shinobi.

"This...

And she was behind Naruto, the kunai slamming into his chest and stomach as he whirled, throwing himself before her as the gale subsided. Zaku lowered his arm and scoffed, his arrogance twisting what should have been a handsome face, into a sick and pervaded grin. Naruto turned halfway, trembling and shuddering, ragged blond hair falling into his eyes. Shading them from view. Sheltering a flash of silver as the back of his jacket burst outward with a clinking and snapping sound of something impossibly brutal.

...to you?" All that was forgotten as Naruto spoke in a voice that was not his own. The voice was hollow, not-quite-mocking, but with a feral undercurrent that made the hairs on her neck rise up one after the other. Naruto's free hand rose, and red chakra coalesced around it, forming claws of fire that grew longer even as she watched, forming an impenetrable wedge between the two of them and the Otogakure shinobi who had been stunned into silence.

"Na-ru-to...

Naruto had nearly a dozen shuriken in his chest, and he was still standing. Naruto had dozens upon dozens of chakra chains emerging from his back, seamlessly connected to his skin without so much as drop of blood adorning those blue links that were wrapped within a sheathe of red flame chakra. Sakura stared in wordless disbelief as they slipped from their wounds. Slithering across their host to repair what damage had been done, plucking the kunai from their master and summarily snatching up each and every knife for themselves.

Naruto lowered his arms and slumped for a moment, removing the final knife that had the unfortunate happenstance of lodging itself in his collarbone. It came away with little effort, and he caught it in hand, seemingly satisfied with its make and build.

"Sakura."The strange not-Naruto voice began again, "are you alright?"

Sakura managed a fretful bob of her head.

"Liar." Naruto straightened abruptly, the chains moving as one with him and wrapping around his arms, thighs and chest. "Someone hurt you." Naruto glanced toward his shoulder, and placed a hand to the bone. "I could hear you." He did the same with the opposite shoulder, in a strange parody of drawing ones sword from its sheathe. "I heard you fighting. I heard you crying." Sakura watched with something akin to dread and disbelief as the flesh of his shoulders as Naruto grunted, reached into his skin, and pulled.

"Yurusenai."Naruto exhaled viciously. "Zettai ni...yurusenai."

Rippling like the waters at their feet, his fists came away closed around a hilt. One to a hand, hefting each katana deprecatingly, Naruto gave the two swords a swift flick of the wrist. Sakura watched him flick away the moisture from his weapons, cleaning them of the damp dew that still gleamed upon the tapered tips. This was a kenjutsu stance. Naruto's shoulders rippled harmlessly as he pulled two full length katana from his body, and actually looked to be better for it.

'He pulled those katana straight out of his body...is that some kind of bloodline?'

For the entire conversation, the redhead hadn't turned to face the crowd gawping at him. Now he did. Chakra flared to life as he turned. Crimson tendrils crawled up his face, swarmed over his arms, through his legs and even out his stomach. Wrapping his body in a sheet of crimson so thick it was nearly tangible. He allowed his eyes to retain their usual shape for a moment, so that he appeared to be an unnatural splotch of darkness in the rising morning light.

Then he put an end to that. He wanted the enemy to see him. There wasn't an eye that wasn't huge. It wasn't solely the chakra or Naruto's inherent majesty that stunned them. It was the eyes. They were wide open, those frozen pools of violet and rimmed black, surveying the entire congregation with ill-concealed conceit and disdain. These eyes were death to all who dare offend him, knowing the truth of what had been unleashed in Wave Country had come to their doorstep.

For the most part, Naruto, remained perfectly still. He was awesome in his power and terrible in his majesty. He noted the looks of fear and terror, not reveling, not loathing. They'd wanted to know the truth of what he was for some time now. Everyone had. Now they did. He didn't care if it earned their ire. That was not his intention. They knew what he was, they knew the horrors he was capable of, and it gained him nothing to kill these peons even if every fiber of his being demanded their deaths.

He'd prove them wrong, all of them.

Everyone flinched away as the shadows unfurled, revealing Naruto to the world. At first glance, one might not notice any change, but as the tainted energies wreathed the boy in crimson, it could not be denied. It was all too obvious. He had closed his eyes against the light. Why, one could only wonder, would anyone close their eyes when so many enemies were right in front of them? In lieu of a reply to that silent inquiry, Naruto abruptly chose to open them and greet the world with a terrifying gaze.

"Impossible." Dosu slid back half a pace. "H-He couldn't possibly be...

Sakura could scarce believe her eyes.

Sapphire blue had given way to a fierce crimson and slit-like pattern around the pupils, complete with red iris and white sclera. Twin orbs of murderous scarlet swiveled upon the congregation, holding both friend and foe in their power. Unnatural and terrifying in their magnificence, Sakura uttered a small whimper of disbelief beneath this sight. Immediately, he rounded on the sound. Sakura froze in a beat, her entire body tensing as his gaze locked upon her face, beheld the bruises there, moved upward to her ragged hair, ruined attire, and the blood still dribbling from her fist.

as his gaze locked upon her and took his eyes and saw her. Entrancing to the naked eye, she found herself staring helplessly ahead as those eyes lazily drifted across the bridge.

They found her gaze in an instant and a host of dark emotions roiled up inside him.

"Sakura." Naruto snarled darkly, "Who did this to you?" Red chakra leaked from the seal in his stomach, visible now as his chakra kicked up a foul breeze and revealed the lean body beneath. Having discarded the outlandishly bright jacket, he was still spattered with blood from the previous battle, black undershirt flailing madly in the breeze as he glared down at the object of his affections. Sakura found herself touching one hand to her lips as though this action into itself might explain Naruto's sudden transformation into this...this...this...

"Sakura, say it!" Naruto barked, but his anger did not lie with the Haruno. "Who the hell hurt you!"Plucked from her thoughts by his voice, Sakura struggled to find words but nowhere and nothing would come to her. She couldn't even bring herself to turn toward the Oto nin rising in the background. Naruto stood over her for all of an eternity, glaring at her and glaring through her as he sought some semblance of an answer.

"I did!"

Naruto snapped around, eyes locking upon Zaku with a terrifying numbness. Not as they had with Sakura, with concern, dread and an overwhelming protectiveness. Whatever had been Naruto within this boy died in that flare of hatred as he brought the Oto shinobi within his sights. His gaze slid down to Sakura, then across to Sasuke, who still lay behind them, his body now visibly steaming violet and blackened chakra that had a distinctly evil feel towards them.

"You?" Naruto repeated dumbly."You did this...to Sakura-chan...?"

"Yup, sure did." Zaku sneered back at this potent child and showed no fear, heedless of his companions edging away from him. "What, you wanna entertain me now?" He beckoned, noticing the slight twinge of anger in that visage. "Come on then, kid. Once I beat the shit out of you, I can go back to fucking the crap out of that useless little bitch over there for what she did to my arm!" Naruto didn't know if the man had been serious about that or in jest, and suddenly, he was unaccountably angry. Something snapped in that instant. Something shattered into a thousand pieces and blew away on the wind, taking his shriveled-up heart with it.

"Sakura-chan isn't a bitch." Naruto snarled. "She's got more talent than you or anyone else in your whole godamned village!"

"Bastard." Zaku's left eye twitched. "Now you're just insulting Orochimaru-sama. No way in hell am I going to let you live!" Dosu and Kin edged another pace back from their foolish comrade, well aware of what was being provoked. Naruto slipped a pace forward. Zaku crooked a hand and made that shooing/gesturing motion all teenagers loathe. Without the slightest precursor to his actions, Naruto crisscrossed his blades, uncrossed them, and in the two beats it took to gather his chakra and perform the motion, poured the crimson flow into the blades and left them all but burning.

"You know, I have no idea what's happening to my body."Naruto gazed at the furious crimson afterglow of his swords. "But I'm loving it. I feel no pain from my wounds. In fact, I feel completely invincible. And, for some reason, I can pull weapons out of my body all of a sudden and turn my chakra into these chains."Too late, Zaku saw that murderous grin blooming behind those frazzled locks of blond and crimson and by then Naruto had already bellowed forward, his blade leaving a crimson trail of chakra in their wake as he bulleted forward in an explosion of speed and sound. "But I do know, that you don't stand a chance in hell against me right now!"

Blazing with Kyuubi chakra, he flung them in unison and battle was joined.

"Oh," Sakura whimpered as she fell to her knees, a bloodied hand grasping at the branches for support. "Oh,"she repeated, as though this would somehow wake her from this horrific nightmare; now a beautiful phantasm that played out before her like all of those romance novels she'd been reading. Whatever it was, dream or fantasy, the scene before her refused to relinquish her mind. She could feel her eyes growing impossibly hot, like they were going to boil out of their sockets and run down her face in place of the tears that already were. Sakura touched her clean hand to her lips, as if the small action could lessen the anguish that she was feeling in her chest.

That was answer enough for Naruto.

"Douton!"

Freed from holding either katana, Naruto's left hand flicked itself upright, and suddenly, a massive root heaved iself up from beneath the terrain. He took his other hand and placed it two inches short of his palm. Red chakra sheathed his arm, and swirled around seal he had formed, drinking it in as he uncrossed his hands from the Tiger seal and exhaled explosively. At first, neither of them moved, and Sakura had no way of telling what was about to happen. Then, before she realized it, Naruto's hand blurred upward, moving faster than Sakura could even see, his fingers jutting out and placing themselves against his forehead. Offering no explanation for the technique, Naruto disappeared and Zaku wheeled, just as hands clamped down upon his shoulder.

'Two jutsu...at once? No wait, the first was a douton the second a teleportation and the third...

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu.'

Naruto was behind him, and Naruto was before him.

"An arm for an arm." Naruto muttered. "And an eye for an eye."

The clones descended upon the Oto-shinobi in a swelling tide of fists and feet.

Zaku yowled as sharpened claws tore a bloody gash tore through his sternum, his hands flying down to cover the spurting wound. Naruto scoffed, revealing himself as he swept a heel outward, dislodging his hand from the pale flesh of the enemy who had so brutally tormented Sakura. His lips worked silently for a moment, speechless and dumbfounded as Naruto used the man's own velocity against him and slammed Zaku headfirst into the soil, planding one foot between his shoulder blades, dropping the katana; seizing either wrist from behind, all in the span of a single heartbeat. Naruto smirked and began to pull, a cold sneer twisting its way across his face as the gennin struggled against him.

"D-Don't!" Zaku sobbed as the red chakra roiled across his unprotected back, boiling the skin as its host continued to inexorably drag his arms outward. Sakura whimpered as the Shadow Clones went poof, leaving the original gripping Zaku malevolently. Those eyes. What were those eyes? She couldn't bear it. She couldn't bear to look at them. And yet she did. Sakura Haruno wanted nothing more than to look away, but she could not bring her body to obey this command.

"What's this now?"Naruto was surely grinning against the resistance he encountered. "You seem to be proud of your arms, very...attached to them!" Popping, ripping and tearing, Zaku glared back at him in horror as Naruto continued to relentlessly drag his arms backward. Heedless of the protestations bone and musculature gave. His eyes shot wide as the first lance of pain stabbed through his shoulder, soon followed by the next and the next and then ext , blotting out the moonlight as he gave one, final, visceral jerk of either arm.

"GYAAAAAAH!"

There was a thump, and Zaku came staggering back toward the edge of the clearing. Deep red arterial spray was jetting from the stump where his left arm had once been. His face had gone an even paler shade of grey, his mouth gawping open in amazement. Sakura stared as Zaku did a weird wandering pirouette back around and flung his arm in that direction, as if to tell her what was going on.

His lips had just enough time to part in a stunned declaration.

"H-Help..m-me!...

Then his voice stopped as Naruto's hand closed around his neck, Shifting, closing around his face. His protests muffled, Zaku could only shake his head and whimper as the first tingle of electricity came raching into his face, emanating from the demonic blond below him, impossibly hoisting him into the air despite the few inches in height that separated them. "Raiton." Naruto barked, sparks of red and white lancing up his arm with the incantation.

"Hiraishin!"

"!"

Sparks lanced up his arm and into Zaku's skull. Zaku writhed, but to say that he screamed would be to say that the ocean is wet. Zaku howled, his cries of pain and suffering scattering entire flocks for their trees and sending many a creature running from their burrows. And still, Naruto levered him up and continued to pump the raw voltage into his brain. Sakura stared out at her teammate, her relief fading to fear, basked as she was within the pallid afterglow of the continuous charge.

Finally, Naruto hurled him aside and into the soil, eliciting a violent seizure before finally ending his Zaku's stay in consciousness. With a small and gasping moan he descended into what would surely be a long and painful slumber. Naruto stared over him for an instant, before his boot snapped outward. Zaku flew, his body leaving the ground as it soared, and flying toward a stunned Dosu and Kin, both of whom hadn't been able to find their voices during the horrific catastrophe.

"That leaves the two of you," Naruto dusted his hands off, stopped, and retrieved his blades. "I hope you'll give me a better time than your friend did."The chakra chains sucked back into his spine and although this should have been heartening for the two Otogakure-nin, they felt no comfort as the boy strode in after them, twirling his blazing blades as if they were mere sticks of flame, weaving them round and around and around in an eerie display of flames and sizzling heat that tore at the surrounding atmosphere.

"Surely you can do better!" Naruto cocked his head when Kin's senbon reflected harmlessly off his whirring shield of steel. "Don't dissapoint me now, Otogakure!"

'This isn't...

Naruto started laughing, but his pace didn't hasten in the slightest. They slid back further as he began to carve deep, lasting furrows into the ground, advancing in a steady path that cautioned against any form of frontal attack. His eyes were intense, his lips curled into a sneer, and Sakura was absolutely terrified of him. Even as Naruto lazily loped toward the enemy, she could not bring herself to do anything more than lie there and wait, and watch, and become consumed with fear.

"This isn't...

It suddenly occurred to Sakura that she had seen this before. Rather, she had seen the intense spiral of crimson chakra boiling out of Naruto as it was now. But this time it felt different, three whisker marks that tripled his cheeks narrowing into deep furrows as the chakra billowed out behind the blond, forming what looked like a strange shroud complete with...was that a tail? She'd never, ever seen a Konoha shinobi so fierce; so unbelievably powerful that his very chakra forced the air to twist and distort the air around him; the little eddies of whirlpools blatantly visible even from the distance in which she'd been sitting.

"MORE!" Naruto bellowed. "Show me more of that power!"

"Stop." She whispered. Naruto paid no didn't care. She just didn't care anymore. With a keening cry of such woe that it would break the heart of any man, Sakura bolted from her place on her knees and printed across the clearing. Naruto seemed to deflate as she drew near, his shoulders sagging heavily and seeming to compress into himself with every step she took. Naruto had just sliced through Kind's flak jacekt, sweeping a deep and bloody furrow across her breasts, when Sakura realized her mistake.

Rounding on Dosu, not even pausing to accept any means of offerment, Naruto brought his bade down. Dosu's melody arm was all that saved him, cracking beneath the blade, but not shattering. No, it would be too easy if it just shattered. Sakura read the emotion in Naruto's eyes, one of glee, as he gleefully set to the task of breaking that arm, hammering it with an incessant percussion of his own, raining down blow after blow after blow, completely unaffected by the strange rythym he was making of with his even stranger instruments.

"Stop this...

She didn't know what to say as he stood before her, his eyes red and incredibly moist. Gone was that crooked grin she hated/loved so much. In its place hung the look of a broken boy, one that could not bring himself to speak the words his tearful visage was so desperately converying. He'd simply appeared she realized, as a small sound of surprise arose from deep within her chest. Shattered, the void that had been so deafeningly present only moments ago was torn asunder by a sound of a different sort.

"Stop...

Naruto planted a boot in Dosu's stomach, thrusting him away as though he weighed no more than a child.

"STOP IT!"

Sakura offered only a small sobbing gasp as she lurched forward. Naruto stumbled half a pace forward, eyes flying wide as everything soft and supple and womanly pressed itself into him and held tight. After what seemed like an eternity, he turned, regarding the obstruction over his shoulder, gazing into her boiling tears and finding some flicker of recognition there. He stared for what could've the embrace, pulling her head into his chest and looping an arm around her waist to keep Sakura there. It lasted for all of an instant. Then she was crying, hot and moist streaks of tears trailing down her cheeks and into his chest as she clung to him and begged at him to end his violent rampge.

"Please...Naruto, that's enough." Her fists began to tighten, straining, when he began to move forward. "No more. Please." Her fists incessantly drummed agains his bandages as she struggled to hold him, but Naruto would not be stopped and he continued toward Dosu with ill intent in his eyes. Still, Sakura clung to him, throwing her hands around his chest, tangling his legs, anything, in an effort to halt his desctructive desires, to extinguish his burning blades.

"Please...just stop...for me."

Naruto froze.

"Why on earth should I stop?" The guttural voice answered. "I'm going to take my revenge on them for what they've done to you." He glanced toward the quivering Dosu and smiled. "Now its his turn, and I intend to make him suffer." Sakura fervently shook her head and clung tight She felt a growl rumble through his chest and knew that he was losing patience. Empowered as he was by this chakra, Naruto could have cut her down in an instant, such was the fire bleeding from his katana.

He did no such thing.

"Not like this!" Sakura pressed her face into what remained of his black shirt. "Naruto! I'm begging you! Just...Just leave them alone!"

"HOW THE HELL CAN I LEAVE THEM ALONE AFTER WHAT THEY DID TO YOU, HUH!" Naruto rounded in her grip, glaring with those incredible eyes that were both violet and red and jade green all at once, and neither shade at all. This had to be a bloodline. It had to be. But this chakra...this chakra felt evil! Naruto was glaring down at her with disbelief, unable to understand why she'd want him to stop, to stop when these bastards deserved every bit of the beating that was coming to them.

"Stop it...please...I'm...I'm scared!"

Naruto turned to sone in her grip, such was his expression.

Within seconds she was wailing and poundng at him with her fists, the blows weak and ineffective. They stopped altogether as he gently looped an arm around hrt waist. Indulging in the rare moment of weakness, she flung her arms around his neck, refusing to care as he stiffened; pressed a cold hand against the small of her back. He'd probably done so out of concern, rather than reflex, but this meant nothing to Sakura as a shuddering shiver racing up and down her spine. She was cold, so very cold that she couldn't stand the thought of his sorrow for another single second. She inhaled deep and long and was surprised to still find the scent of ramen in his shirt despite the viscious battle he'd fought.

"You...You have to stop."

Naruto continued to glare down at her, but it was evident that her words had done something. With a wet slurping sound, the chakra left his body, leaving him maybe a few inches taller and his hair still scragled, but otherwise, aside from the aformentioned height, he hadn't changed much. Naruto gasped and he slumped forward. Sakura was there to catch him, to steady him and ease his rapid inhalation as the swords left his fingertips and he came back from the brink of wherever he'd been.

"What was I...

He stared at a trembling hand and shook himself, not seeming to mind that he was in her arms and she his.

"I can't believe I did that." Naruto repeated numbly. "I almost... He swallowed the gorge rising in his throat and shook his head. The red and violet tint was gone from his eyes, as was the jade. There was still no glimmer of sapphire to be seen amongst his white sclera. Then he crushed himself against her, trembling violently, small sobs wracking his frame. Sakura turned to ice for a moment, all she had known of the brash blond breaking and battering itself into oblivion in that instant.

'Naruto...

Sakura shivered, and gripped her charge tighter than before. The scent of damp skin did little to calm her fractured psyche, but she took what she could. Naruto's hand reached up to cup her cheek and that comfort turned to something else. Sakura froze, abrupty hesitant, painfully aware of the blood pounding in her ears and the sudden racing of her heart. She drew back, careful to keep head down turned and away from his bewitching gaze.

"Why do you always have to be so stupid." Sakura muttered, painfully aware of her cheeks heating and flushing with every word. "Baka. No good baka!" The blond took her insults without protest and Sakura tore her gaze upward out of sheer disbelief. That tore it. In an impossible burst of speed, she'd reached up, cupped Naruto by the face, free hand resting against back of his head and dragging him down as she buried her head in his chest and started to sob.

Once more did the long locks of hair tickle Sakura's nose, but to her dismay, these were not the bright blond to which she had become accustomed. Frowning, she twisted against Naruto, struggling to receive a better view of what was impossibly long and unbelievable raven black hair. She gawped up at him. There wasn't a single scrap of blond left. His hair was dark, just a shade moreso thean that of Sasuke-kun's. If she had to give a color, Sakura would've described these raven tresses as more of a midnight black, dangling just past his shoulders, cascading down his back. Funny how a sudden change in hairstyle could make someone look so...dark.

Naruto seemed to realize something then. Sakura watched those onyx eyes, those strange eyes that had yet to fade into sapphire, flicker to her face. They widened, those inverted pupils shooting too large, much too large than they should have been. He made a sound of disbelief, just now noticing her hair. Coming to the conclusion that Sakura had violently hacked it off, else his hair would've been the exact length of her own.

'Kami, what the hell happened while I was asleep?'

He saw the pain flashing in her eyes, knew that words would only make things worse. And so, for the first time in his life, Uzumaki Naruto kept his mouth shut. He forced himself to pull away, knowing a moment like this would never, ever happen again. It took all he had to keep the pain out of his face but Naruto thought he did a good job of it. Thought, but then again, Naruto really wasn't all that good when it came to masking his emotions.

"I look awful." He flinched aside as Sakura ventured the question. "Huh?" Sakura grimaced, touching a hand to her face, realizing what her teammate must be thinking. Sakura saw all the confusion and all the questions roiling behind those wraith-like eyes, and she could see how it pained him not to speak. Sasuke's dark raven blue tresses, Naruto's new hairystyle cascaded down his back, in a curtain of the same length as her own, well the same length as hers. Rather, it had been, before she'd been forced to hack half of it off during the battle. enough to fall at his knees, just a few inches from skimming at even longer still, cascading down his bare back, and halting only just above his knees.

Silence reigned surpreme as Naruto shoved his face into the crook of Sakura's neck and placed his head against hers. Sakura felt a wet dampness across her skin as he held her tight. Not for harm, but as though he would fade into the winds should he release her.

"I'm so sorry." He muttered, and it was with a cold flash of clarity that Mirajane understood why he was trembling.

Naruto was crying and she hadn't the time to comfort him as something round was lain at their feet.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

They turned as Dosu laid showed them an earth scroll.

He laid it down at his feet.

"In exchange for this, allow us to leave."

"Eh?"

Naruto tensed against Sakura , eyes shooting wide with many an emotion that she couldn't read. Thankfully, Sakura had enough foresight to maintain a mask of silence. Naruto wasn't quite fortunate, enough to think of that, violently taking two steps back -if anoyne could make such an act look violent it was him- his visage twisted in a grimace of annoyance and disbelief.

"You're just giving us your scroll." He deadpanned. "After I...After I...

His gaze flickered to the butchered bodies of Kin and Zaku, and he left the question unspoken.

"You know what I mean."

Dosu seemed to appreciate that.

"It is apparent we cannot defeat you, and our mission is a failure." He let his gaze fall upon the still sleeping Sasuke. "Your friend...when...if he ever wakes...I apologize." Without another word Dosu began to slump away, draggind his wounded comrades over his shoulders. "Whe next we meet, we shall not run and hide, from either of you. Use that with your Scroll of Heaven, and we shall see you at the tower, luck permitting."

"Y-Yeah." Naruto managed a stiff nod. "Sure thing...

"I wish you luck then, Blade User."

"Geh?" Naruto made a face, to which Dosu frowned, though his bandages hid the expression.

'It would seem he's unaware of his talent, then.'

Sakura was about to comment that they didn't have a heaven scroll when Naruto nodded. Either that was his best pouty face or he really didn't know that Orochimaru had burned their scroll once he'd been knocked flat into a tree. Interrogating Dosue proved futile as well, with the Oto-nin conveying only that they had been told to attack Sasuke. Likewise, Sakura feigned a relieved expression all her own as Dosu began to trudge away, though it could not be said that her emotion or relief was falseified. "Yokatta." She snifled, pulling her arms around tightly around Naruto's neck. "You were... but now you're not...Oooooh, I am so pissed at you dumbass, but at the same time, I'm... so happy."

The instant Dosu was out of sight and earshot, Sakura promptly glared at Naruto.

"Alright, spill it, Naruto!" she finally managed, "What did you do?"

Naruto grinned, reached into his pack and revealed the heaven scroll. Their heaven scroll. The one Orochimaru had burned. The one he still had in his hand. Sakura glanced up, down, down, up, and in every which way betwen up and down, as she struggled to come to terms with it. How on earth had Naruto gotten his hands on a Heaven scroll? Wait a second. Could this possibly be the same scroll, meaning that Naruto had someone slipped Orochimaru a fake?

'But that would mean...

Emerald green flew wide open at the realization.

"You didn't!"

"Sure did!" Naruto laughed, returning to his original persona, those terrible eyes finally reclaiming their sapphire coloration. "Ninja must always see underneath the underneath, Sakura-chan!" Alas, he was not at all prepared for the sudden glomm attack this earned him from his bedraggled teammate. Granted it was rather brilliant of him, considering that he'd unkowingly pulled-one-over of the most deadly shinobi in existence, but that wasn't exactly on his mind as Sakura quashed up against him.

"Omigoshnarutoifreakingloveyou!"

Was all he could make out as Sakura grabbed him in a flying tackle.

"Nani?" Naruto squinted upwards at his teammate, perplexed by this sudden squeeze. "Erm...uh, you're...welcome?"

Sakura seemed to realize her predicament, and released him with a blush.

'Eh?'

A blush?

"D-Don't mention it!"

Naruto rubbed at his eyes.

"Sure thing...Sakura-chan?"