Author's Note: Woo. New attempt. It's definitely canon, and the time frame is set between after the war against Pein/Nagato that turns Konoha into this huge crater and before the Uchiha brothers go at it.

Come on. I'm not the first person who thought this: what would happen if guns/firearms were introduced to the Narutoverse?

Oh. Also. At this moment, there are no official pairings. No. Official. Pairings. at this moment. Maybe something will happens, who knows. I don't.

Enjoy, lavelies.

Chapter 1
…:::You're Dead:::…

"Life can either be accepted or changed. If it is not accepted, it must be changed. If it cannot be changed, then it must be accepted." ~ Anon

Bang bang.

They were dead.

It was the first time such a sound had ever echoed in the Ninja World. It ripped through the silence of the forest one Tuesday evening before ripping through four forest-green vests. As the green gradually coupled with red to taint the fabric of the vests with a mud-colored stain, a flock of birds took flight from several branches and horded in the sky. They cawed and cried over their shattered silence.

Four people died in that one instant. A bang for every one. Bodies unblemished save for a single hole in the center of the mud-colored stains on their vests, their chakra fading, their eyes – green, brown, brown, and pure white – opened wide in sheer surprise.

The flock of birds was flying farther and farther. From afar, they merely looked like an ink stain. An ink stain in the dusk sky. Mud-colored stains on forest-green vests.

They were dead.

Raining.

It was always raining on the worst of days. An omen, Tsunade took it as. Some grave event had just occurred and she would be hearing about it soon. Even when just an hour ago the spring skies had been cleared of clouds, when the swallows had been crooning and the swallowtails fluttering about, in came the darkness and the rain and the thunder and her headaches and she knew, she knew, she knew something was wrong.

It hadn't rained for a while.

Even during the war against Pein (Nagato, she had to remind herself from time to time, and each time something pulled at her heartstrings), it had not rained. Granted, it had left her village in shambles (Their village). Their beautiful Village Hidden in the Leaves had been reduced to a crater of dirt and piles of rubble.

She was not sitting in her Hokage Tower. Her hands were not splayed in front of her on her usual wooden desk. She was in a large tent, sitting behind stacks and stacks of books with a large plank of wood over them acting as a makeshift desk. The giant fallen symbol of the Fire Country threatened to roll over and flatten her tent from where it creaked unsteadily against the wall of the mountain.

Outside, she could hear the villagers working. She silently commended them for their perseverance; even with the rain falling hard, the hammering of wood to wood was still prominent. The village had to be rebuilt, after all. Hail or sleet, rain or shine, man, woman, or child, they were out there with the Will of Fire blazing in their hearts as they attempted to restore Konoha to its former glory.

She wiped hastily at her eyes and returned her gaze to her so-called desk.

There was a lot of paperwork on her desk that needed to be done. By a lot, she meant that every square inch of the wooden board that was her "desk" was covered with paper, which was covered in more paper, which was, in turn, covered in more paper. She had once hopefully thought, what with the village having been totaled, there would be less paperwork.

She hated paperwork.

Granted, she hated quite a lot of things apart from rain and paperwork. She hated when her long-awaited coffee turned cold because she had waited long for it, hated when people ran late for their meetings (but ran late for her own), hated the schhhhk! noise the polyester tent flap made when it opened that sounded far too reminiscent of ripping a bandage off of some gruesome wound for her liking. She especially hated when she accidentally voiced, "I hate paperwork" and Shizune was right there telling her "Hate is a very strong word, Tsunade-sama."

"I know it is," she quipped. "That's why I used it."

Shizune continued in, the flap swinging shut behind her.

Schhhhk!

Ripping a bandage off a wound.

"We have an issue, Hokage-sama," she said as Tsunade cringed.

She had expected it, but she was never one to look on indifferently at bad news. Her head lifted slowly as a grimace twisted her lips. The lighting was always too bright. The news was always too bad. Maybe she was tired of hearing about death, and drinking cold coffee, and listening to that tent flap move. Maybe she didn't really want to do paperwork.

"Hokage-sama."

Right.

She was Hokage.

She accepted the manila folder brandished in her face and laid it flat on her desk. One by one, she flipped through the papers. There were five of them, each handwritten on thick paper. The first was a mission brief; she skipped over that one. The rest were what she did not want to see. Profiles of Her People.

Her People.

Okura Rei. She was beautiful, Tsunade remembered when her eyes skimmed over the young woman's profile. Green eyes and waist-length hair. An engaged Jounin.

Dead.

Sakurai Jun. A flamboyant man in both personality and appearance. Top-ranking Jounin despite his unceasing mouth.

Dead.

Matsumoto Sho. She frowned when she could not remember him. His typical features – brown hair, brown eyes – were not very memorable, but if he had been on a team with Okura and Sakurai, he must have been skilled. Have been. Past tense. Because he was

Dead.

Hyuuga Erika. Tsunade's heart pounded dully in her chest. She was young, a wunderkind almost as wonderful as Neji. Though she would never progress as far as Neji because she was

Dead.

"Their mission was an A-rank," she said when she had returned to skim over the first page. Her heart was sinking as she spoke, but her honeyed eyes remained firm. Losing people was never difficult. Losing Her People was. "And they weren't even supposed to encounter an enemy. Cause of deaths?"

". . . We're not sure."

A blonde eyebrow rose. "You're not . . . sure? Some hidden jutsu?"

". . . Not exactly."

Tsunade hated the words "not exactly". It left room for uncertainty.

She hated uncertainty.

"Spit it out, Shizune."

"The medics are still investigating but so far, they haven't found anything except a piece of metal in their bodies."

"A piece of metal?"

Shizune held out her hand. It was a scrap of metal no larger than the digit of her finger, molded smoothly into a conical shape. Tsunade reached for it carefully. It might explode in her face, she thought as she stared at the foreign metal. It might drill through her hand. It might cave in on itself and release enough toxic gas to stun a herd of oxen. She held it out at arm's length but it just sat there in her palm, relatively harmless and entirely pointless.

"Find out what it does," she said, still unconvinced that a piece of metal had killed four of her best Jounin. "Alert the ANBU to be on guard for anyone suspicious. Give me the names of the doctors leading this investigation." She was up. In charge again, taking the reins to protect Her People.

"And get me a cup of hot coffee."

She had a village to Protect.

A day later, Tsunade entered her tent to find another manila folder sitting on her desk, its presence seeming to take up the entirety of the room. She stood at the entrance of the tent, hand holding the flap aside, recent schhhhk! still fresh in her mind and feeling very much like she had been on the receiving end of that bandage being pulled. The Silence in the room was far too loud. Her heartbeat slowed. She stared the manila folder down. The manila folder stared back, very innocently.

For several minutes, she did not move. She did not want to see the faces inside that folder. She never liked seeing the faces in those folders. They frightened her. Sometimes she wondered if she would see sapphire eyes staring back at her, or pink hair flashing.

She finally decided she would walk over and investigate.

She stood a little to the side of the folder and kept it at arm's length. With its opening flap facing away from her, she lifted the flap ever-so-slightly and pushed the second paper inside of it up, up, so that the top of it began to peak from the folder. What color would the hair of the person be? Was it a male? Female? Her heart stopped.

Yellow.

Like some grisly roadside accident that she wanted to look away from but couldn't, she pushed the page up further, further, until Brown eyes were staring back at her. A female blonde. Her body released a shuddering sigh of relief she did not know she had held as she stared at the unfamiliar face staring back at her.

Three more people dead because of a piece of metal lodged in their bodies.

Two days later, one person dead.

Another day, two. The second person had been attempting to escape, as was evident when his body was found missing one sandal several meters from his partner. But one solid piece of metal in his throat had left him in a pool of his own blood (and Tsunade bit back the bile in her throat because what a horrible way to go).

The day after that was the Last Straw.

The Investigation Team on the case was still investigating with little outcome. Tsunade received another manila folder on her desk a little after the sun had gone down. By that time, she was Fed Up with manila folders. They had become as regular over the past few days as her headaches. She accepted the folder from Shizune and raised an eyebrow when the black-haired woman did not leave as she normally did.

"Shizune?"

Shizune looked to the floor. "I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade's heart suddenly beat rapidly. Blond hair and blue eyes? Pink hair and green eyes? Lavender hair and white eyes? Black hair and red eyes? Did she know the person personally? Her hands could barely grasp the folder as she opened it. The face of a young boy – oh God oh God ohGodohGodohGod he could not have been older than ten – stared back at her with a grin that covered most of his face.

A nine-year-old boy, found dead outside of Konoha.

A piece of metal embedded in the side of his skull where his brother's headband did not protect.

When Tsunade suddenly issued an order to close the gates of Konoha, no one bothered to question. Publicly, at least. Whispers spread throughout the village like a plague, ghosting the village in an incessant silent drone, ssshssshssshsssh they whispered, they whispered, they whispered.

Is Orochimaru attacking again but I thought he was dead that Uchiha boy killed him that traitor but the last time the gates were closed it was because of him what's going on danger danger there's danger afoot I can smell it can you hear that who is that what's going on are we going to die are we going to die to die to die?

A small crowd gathered to watch the gates close. It took a small troop of ANBU and a few minutes' worth of building chakra to swing the gates shut and seal it closed. Tsunade stood just behind the ANBU, alone in the crowd because everyone had parted in a sea of inferior faces as she stepped forward, her arms fisted against her hip bones as she watched in silence.

Schhhhk! the gates scratched against the earthen floor as they swung shut.

Like ripping a bandage off a wound.

When the gates had been sealed and the curious crowd had parted, Tsunade turned to the group of ANBU to speak to them. She used a lot of now's and immediately's as she commanded them. Her face flushed from the seriousness of the situation and the time she had spent with her voice raised. The last command she gave to Shizune, who stood slightly hunched behind her with TonTon subdued in her arms.

"I want you to contact every team, every ninja of ours outside of these gates and have them return."

"But Tsunade-sama –"

"What's more important, Shizune, at a time like this? When we need everyone most?" she asked before she turned around. "Their missions? Or their lives?"

She did not wait for the answer.

Team 7 (or at least, its remnants), miles away from Konoha, did not receive the memo until late.

It was too busy piecing itself back together.

"Naruto, this really isn't a good idea," Sakura tried to tell him, however much her beating heart said yes yes yes! "You're injured and I've only got so much chakra left."

She received but a Grin in return.

"Neji would call this fate, Sakura," he finally said as he moved forward, leaning far too heavily on the trees for Sakura's liking. "Sasuke just happens to have passed by the very same village we just left?" And he grinned his Grin. "It's just too good. I can smell the bastard. He's so close."

Kakashi, sauntering wearily behind, would have warned his student against it if he did not know the blond would fuss over the whole ordeal and end up running away from the team to search for the Uchiha himself. Once he had set his sight on his target – especially if the target's name was Uchiha Sasuke – he would not give up until he had reached it and battered it into the ground. He could have simply beat the already-injured boy into the ground himself, slung him over his shoulders, and returned him home, but Naruto would be angry at him. And Kakashi had enough energy for one Space-Time jutsu. If things turned ugly (which was what usually transpired if the so-called conversation was between two very determined boys), he could bat his eyelashes and poof. He would be unconscious, but Naruto, Sakura, and Sai would be safe.

Besides. After a four-day's escort of the rudest man imaginable, two battles against fairly large men who had not been in the job description, laughable meals, and one particularly nasty bruise that covered the right side of Naruto's body, Kakashi thought the boy deserved a reward. However short-lived that reward would be.

That, and Kakashi really doubted they would meet up with Sasuke.

His train of thought derailed when Sai turned his head to look up and back. "A message," the taciturn uttered seconds before a hawk decided to nestle itself in Kakashi's hair.

"Lovely."

Kakashi was not amused.

He groped for the bird atop his head and relished in the short-lived squawk it emitted when his fingers closed around its body. "Be nice, will you?" His fingers struggled for the piece of paper wrapped around the sharp talons. An equally sharp beak nipped at his hand and he clucked his tongue. The second the paper had unraveled, the hawk took flight and left him. He scoffed. "Fine, you cheeky rodent with wings."

"Hurry and read the message, Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke's close."

"I'll read it when I want to."

Despite wanting to take his time simply to relish in a muscle he knew would twitch in Naruto's jaw, for a hawk to make its trip so far out in the forest simply to find them meant the note was definitely of some importance. He unraveled it and read:

RTK

50.28 R

IM.

And he frowned.

And then, he frowned again. Deeper.

"What?" Naruto asked impatiently. "What is it?" He took the paper from Kakashi's hands and looked at it in utter confusion. A moment later and the code registered. "R-T-K? Return to Konoha?"

"Code Red," his mentor supplied. "We need to return immediately."

Naruto did not like that. He did not like that one bit. He wore his own frown, turned to look at Sakura, to Kakashi, to Sai. "But Sasuke, he's so –"

"Hokage's orders, Naruto." And he thought I know. I'm sorry. Please don't fight back, just obey. We'll find Sasuke again.

Naruto sent a long, wistful glance in the direction they had been walking. Sasuke's direction. His best friend's had been so close, so close, and he honestly thought every conversation they had together, he became closer and closer to breaking that stubborn Wall of his.

"Fine," he said after an eternity. At least, that was how long it felt to Kakashi. The numbers 50.28 kept resurfacing in his mind like a boat that would just. not. sink. "Come on."

They turned around. Sakura took to the trees first, Sai not too far behind, but Kakashi only frowned again. And just before he could think This was way too easy, why was it so easy?, Naruto ran.

In Sasuke's Direction.

"Naruto!" Kakashi called out with an arm outstretched, because Naruto, with a burst of speed, had almost literally teleported several meters away. The call caught Sakura and Sai's attentions and six eyes were suddenly focused on the blur of sun-spun yellow moving farther and farther.

The blur that was suddenly coupled with black.

Naruto had honestly not expected to run as far as he had. It had been an act of pure desperation, he had to admit, and he had taken it more as a game. The How-Far-Can-I-Get-Before-Kakashi-sensei-Catches-Me game. And when an arm that swung around his neck from behind had stopped him several meters away, he had been surprised at first and vaguely thought Wow. Farther than I thought, before he realized that Kakashi was gentle with him. Strict, but gentle, and would never have his arm around his neck like that, squeezing him, choking him, sucking his life away from him.

Kakashi's arm was not that pale. Kakashi's arm did not have bandages wrapped around it. And most of all, Kakashi's arm would not be plugging the only airway Naruto had that filled his lungs with life.

"Stop fucking following me," was hissed into his ear with a familiar bite to the tone.

Naruto was about to turn around and Grin. He managed to turn his neck ever-so-slightly, one hand rising to claw at the arm blocking his esophagus, and his lips had just started to twitch in greeting because he was pressed up against the chest of Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke's arm slid sideways against Naruto's neck until just his hand was against Naruto's throat, thumb digging deftly into the boy's windpipe, still pressing him to his chest. In front of the hand appeared the blade of a sword. Naruto saw Sasuke's (red, red, red) eyes in its reflection before he saw his own.

He was still Grinning.

And that was when Uchiha Sasuke was shot.

Bang bang.

Naruto heard the noise that resonated in the forest. He knew it had something to do with Sasuke. The boy's grip on his neck loosened, the pale arm falling, falling, brushing against Naruto's chest before it released him completely and Naruto did not have to turn around to know the dull thud was Sasuke's body falling against the earth. He vaguely felt something pinch his back.

Someone shrieked distantly.

"Sasuke!" he mimicked the shriek himself.

Naruto's immediate instinct was to turn around and fall to his knees beside his fallen comrade, but the a glint in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he stared straight at where Sasuke's back had once been facing.

A person.

A person with a weapon, pointed right at Naruto.

The blond stood up with a snarl, ears deaf against Kakashi's running footsteps or Sai's swooping bird. The only person in his vision (color bleeding out so that red could bleed in, nails sharpening, teeth pointing) was the man with the weapon.

"Who are you?" he demanded as he approached the man, making sure to keep within arm's distance from Sasuke.

His head cocked slightly to the side, anger diminishing a notch when he realized the man was a boy and his eyes were wide, hands shaking in distress, knees shaking in fear. The weapon he had fell from his hands and to the floor.

Bang!

Naruto jumped at the noise; it was the same noise that had gone off seconds before Sasuke had fallen to the floor. Deductive reasoning told him it had come from the weapon. The Whatever it Was.

"Who are you?" he asked again, but his voice was not as loud as it had been. Still angry, but not loud.

The boy opened his mouth to speak. Spoke a few words.

And Naruto did not understand a thing.

Was he too scared to speak properly? He was shaking his head from side to side. Step back, he took. Step back. Another step back, hands up in defense, mouth moving a mile a minute. He was speaking but Naruto could just not understand him. The speech was filled with twisted sh and tsu noises that Naruto had never heard in his life. It was not His Language. It was foreign to him.

He could not understand that the boy was merely attempting to tell Naruto, I was just trying to help! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I thought . . . I was just . . . he looked like he was going to kill you . . . They told me to shoot anyone who . . .!

But Naruto could. not. understand. him.

A hand suddenly pulled him sharply from behind and he staggered backwards, his nails shrinking and his teeth dulling. Color bled back into his vision as confusion clouded his sight. The boy turned around, stumbled once, twice, and ran.

Naruto made to run after him because he had just hurt Sasuke with that thing and ohGodohGod Sasuke could be dead – but Kakashi once again tugged at him, effectively stopping him.

"He hurt him! Naruto screamed in rage.

Kakashi only shook his head. Naruto knew in that one second that Kakashi knew Something. He wasn't telling him Something. Something that connected the boy and that thing to the reason they had to return immediately. Kakashi was not usually so silent. He always had an explanation to offer.

The silver-haired man pushed his fingertips against a spot on Naruto's back and pulled them away to show to Naruto. They were coated in blood. "That thing that boy was holding put something into you."

Rather than wrapping his head around the situation, Naruto was returned to his original thoughts with the mention of the name. "Sasuke, damn it, Sasuke!"

"Sai. Pick up the weapon," Kakashi ordered over Naruto's sudden rambling, although he could not tear his gaze from his former student. "Be careful. We don't know what it is."

Naruto fell to his knees beside the unresponsive boy (he was a Boy because even if he was nearing seventeen he refused to call himself a Man when Kakashi was in their presence), looking for the wound from whatever blow had been dealt. Perhaps the weapon had released an invisible toxin. Perhaps it was some sort of invisible jutsu, an accessory to a bloodline limit. What else could make Sasuke's body convulse like that?

But there was only blood.

Too much of it, pouring out fast from a clean hole in the space between Sasuke's collarbone and his right armpit. Naruto did not bother wondering what the hell was that because he was too busy thinking Sasuke's going to die, he's going to die, he's going to die.

"Sakura! Sakura, you've got to heal him! He's going to die, Sakura, please!"

His teammate did not move.

She stood a little ways away, eyes wide, hands stiff at her side. Naruto has only barely been reminded of her presence, she had been so silent. "Naruto . . ." she barely whispered. "He tried to kill you."

"Sakura, please, Sakura. He's dying. Sakura. You have to save him. We can save him." He thought they could Save him in more ways than one. "Sakura."

"He was going to kill you –"

"I've never seen this in my life," Sai said in the meantime, showing the weapon to Kakashi. It was longer than the length of his arm, colored a rust-brown with a stripe of chocolate, thin at its tip but widening as it reached its other end. Sai held the thin, hollow tube of the Weapon away from him.

It took Kakashi several moments to rip his eyes away from his dying former student and take the weapon from Sai's hands. "We'll have to return immediately," he said as he strained to keep his eyes locked on Sai's. "Have this investigated." Sasuke is right there. He's right there. There's a catch. Here's right there.

When he looked back, Sakura was on her knees, tears in her eyes, blood flowing over her fingers as she pressed down on Sasuke's wound with chakra. He had been turned on his side, his back facing Kakashi and the silver-haired sensei was surprised to find that the Weapon had made a clean hole all the way through Sasuke's body. Naruto's bleeding because of something that went all the way through Sasuke's body?

"There's something wrong," she said, and Kakashi recognized the tone of her voice. "That thing put something through him and into you. Naruto, I can't . . . Naruto, he's lost too much blood." Naruto, he's dying. Naruto, I'm sorry. Naruto, I can't save him.

It took a minute for Sakura to weave the tissues of Sasuke's chest into a superficial layer that closed the wound from one end. It took a few seconds for her to briefly turn her attention to Naruto and procure a smooth, conical scrap of metal from the shallow wound on his back. It took another five minutes for Sakura, one hand closed around the scrap of metal, to stem the blood flow from Sasuke's wound so that he only just budged away from his deathbed.

"I can't, Naruto, I can't," and she was breathing too heavily for Kakashi's liking. Kakashi put a hand around her shoulder, helped her stand, let her lean against his side when she could not find her legs. He stared down at Sasuke's inert figure.

"We're taking him back with us," Naruto said evenly. The shallow wound the metal had made had been taped loosely by Kakashi as Sakura had worked on Sasuke.

Sai looked at Naruto strangely. "I thought you said you wanted him to come back willingly? Forgive me if this is poor judgment, but I don't believe being unconscious is equivalent to informed consent."

"He'll be willing once he's back." Naruto was so sure of it. So Sure. "Besides, he'll help with the investigation of that thing Kakashi-sensei's holding. There's something going on."

Sakura still held the bloodied scrap of metal in her equally bloodied hands. It had bits of Sasuke's skin and Naruto's skin on it and she gagged but did not vomit. Kakashi wrapped one of her arms around his shoulders and steadied her with a hand at her waist that was not awkward in the least.

"Sai, do you think you can fly us back?"

"Roger."

With a quick wave of his brush and a flap of enormous wings, up, up, up they were lifted; Sakura, Kakashi, and Sai took the lead with a colossal bird of their own as Naruto and Sasuke followed up like racecars on a race track in the sky. Racing towards Konoha for the Grand Prix cup. (And Kakashi had wanted to join the boys but he had to make sure Sakura was all right even if he could not help glancing at Sasuke's body from time to time).

Except, Naruto thought as he looked down at where Sasuke's body had begun to jump up and down, up and down, he had already claimed his prize. And it had been so easy. Too easy. All it took was a strange boy and an even stranger weapon. A piece of conical metal. A pure coincidence.

It took Naruto a few moments to realize Sasuke's chest was no longer jumping up and down, up and down.

It took him another few moments to tear his eyes from Konoha's upcoming gates and realize Sasuke had stopped breathing.

"Sakura!" he cried to his teammate just up ahead, although a sinking part of him doubted she could hear him with the deafening whoooosh that whipped past their ears from the speed they were flying.

It's okay, Naruto tried to think. They were seconds away from a hospital. Someone would bring the breath back to the boy's body in no time. He just had to wait. Don't Panic. Don't Panic. Don't Panic, Naruto. Uchiha Sasuke is only dying at your hands, Naruto. His lips are only turning blue, Naruto.

He's only dying, Naruto.

"Sakura!" he called again in one last desperate attempt. He knew even if she heard him, she could do nothing. The birds were moving too fast, too fast; they could not simply stop and wait for Sakura (tired, tired Sakura) to hop onto his ink bird and pump her remaining chakra into Sasuke's lungs.

So Naruto looked down at his bestfriendbrothertraitor and did not hesitate in the least.

He wiped his fingers briefly on the fabric of his pants before shoving them into Sasuke's mouth clumsily. The fingers of his right hand pulled Sasuke's lips apart (the slimy feeling of his drying saliva so strange to his fingertips, the roughness of the chapped skin of Sasuke's lips) as the fingers of his left hand clawed deep into the Uchiha's throat in an attempt to clear his airways.

He brought his head down not seconds later.

It was not a kiss. It was terribly clumsy, his saliva-coated fingers grasping Sasuke's chin so hard the boy would have bruises, his other fingers still partly shoved into Sasuke's mouth as Naruto tried to fit his own over the opening. He breathed the breaths Sasuke could not breathe. He blew in the oxygen Sasuke could not inhale. Exhaled and inhaled. Exhaled and inhaled.

"Come on, Uchiha, don't do this to me," he said when he had pulled his head back, and in the distance he heard Sakura shout something at him (instructions? disbelief? disgust?). Familiar trees lined up like soldiers were appearing beneath him and he knew they were seconds away from flying over Konoha's gates.

He bent down for another clumsy attempt at mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Maybe, he vaguely thought as he blew down Sasuke's throat, he was doing it wrong. He could remember the basic procedure from his academy days. Clear airways – check. Tilt head back – check. Breathe out – check.

Oh.

The hand that had officially left his fingerprints on Sasuke's jaw moved up to pinch the boy's nose closed. He tightened his mouth over Sasuke's so no air would escape. Breathe out, breathe out, breathe out.

Sasuke drew in a long, sharp gasp just as they were beginning to descend.