Rewritten. Starting from chapter 482. Naruto is taken during his fight with Sasuke, leaving his friends and Madara unclear as to where he is. With little time on their hands, his friends try to uncover the truth as their world is plunged into darkness. With war on the horizon the alliance has made old enemies new friends but who can they really trust? Can Sasuke truly be saved? R&R

Chapter one: Failure.

Konoha.

The group remained motionless as they regarded the pair of Shinobi before them. Thunder rumbled distantly as the late summer heat bore down on the age-mates.

Sakura's hand clenched at her side as her head sank with sorrow, she stammered, "I – we…" She tried to continue but the words couldn't get passed the sharp feeling in her throat, she forced herself to keep her tears at bay.

The group watched her, a captive audience. No one made a move to comfort her, they were all too stunned as they regarded the pair stood before them, their clothes were in tatters and covered in grime from the recent battle and the hasty retreat.

Sakura swallowed and she managed to stop shaking long enough to say, "We couldn't stop them… It all happened… So fast."

Elsewhere in Konoha…

Kakashi was aware of the gathering but felt he couldn't attend. His student could tell the story just as well as he and would certainly provide a more detailed story and he was sure that Sai would fill in the gaps if needed. Besides, he had already submitted the mission file, there wasn't to be a debrief just yet. No one was sure who should hold them what with the Hokage out of commission. He couldn't exactly debrief himself, now could he? Some were certain that he should be the sixth Hokage, Kakashi had made it clear many times over the year that he didn't fit the bill however… others wanted Hyūga clan head as he once stood in after the Third's death and his stint hadn't been too catastrophic. Though, a small part of him said that he would never send a group of inexperienced Shinobi away on an arguably S-rank mission. He certainly wouldn't have allowed them to go alone. He would have at least gone with them if no one else was available. Another good reason why Kakashi felt he wouldn't make a good Hokage. Maybe he was just making excuses for himself, Kakashi was aware some also thought this but on the other hand what if it was true? Kakashi knew what he was and he knew he was far too much like his other student in that regard, too quick to act and reckless in his decisions.

No… Kakashi mentally shook his head at that. Those were the very reasons why his other student would have made a great Hokage one day. Yes he was hasty and he wasn't the sharpest around but he wanted to do the best for everyone, however difficult it may be. He had a determination to keep on going regardless of the odds. Kakashi knew he was nowhere close to that. Failure and the fear of failing had hounded him for much of his life. There was no way he would allow himself to be responsible for an entire Village's fate, it was hard enough for the Third to convince him to take on a team!

Kakashi sighed as he traced the names of his friends with his eye on the monument stone and absently wondered how many more names were too be added if the murmurings of another war were to be true.

The silver haired man lifted a hand to rest against the cool smooth surface of the memorial stone and felt a sudden shiver shoot through his lanky frame. He should have acted quicker; he should have known that things would go from bad to worse. He had cockily believed that his last two remaining students were talented enough to protect themselves and he had had failed them both for it. They were supposed to be team mates, friends, comrades and he had failed someone else again.

Rain began to fall from the sky. Light at first but a clap of thunder struck and rumbled across the sky and the rain began to fall heavier and heavier with every second. He dared to voice the question which had brought him to the memorial in the first place. He was about to speak when suddenly his voice was caught in his throat. Lightning flashed over the darkening Village, making Kakashi look up suddenly and stare at the stone. He froze.

A tall man stood on the opposite side of the memorial stone, his black spiky hair was flattening in the rain, lightning flashed from something on his forehead. "You-" Kakashi spluttered as he tried to rationalise the image before him. Half his face was hidden from view by the memorial stone but from what he could see, he looked just like what Kakashi imagined what Obito would look like if he had lived.

"Hey, I just wanted to check up on you, see how you were doing after… Your mission." The other man said as he scratched where his forehead protector knotted at the back of his head. Another flash of lightning broke the spell and Obito materialised into Hagane with a sheepish grin written on his face. Noting Kakashi's silence, he hastily said, "I'm not gonna force you to go to the bar or anything. I get if you want to be alone…"

Kakashi watched as Hagane suddenly looked troubled as he shifted his weight over to his other foot, "I think…" Kakashi said finally, "I'll remain here for a while longer but, thanks." He said in a genuine tone far away from his usual aloofness.

Wordlessly, Hagane vanished into the tree line and Kakashi let his hand drop to his side.

"Will your name be here soon too, Naruto?"

The Land of Iron

The ice cracked and groaned underfoot as the pair regarded each other with clashing emotion. One wore a mask of shock and anger, the other… Emotionless but a suffocating darkness permeated their aura.

"Look at yourself! You're pathetic!" Naruto spat at Sasuke, "You can't even protect your own comrades!" He gestured furiously at the still bleeding form of Karin on the ground behind.

Sasuke snorted, "You really think that I should care about these things, don't you?" He asked in a patronising tone, "All I care about is getting the revenge that my Clan deserves! Nothing more! My clan protected Konoha for generations and yet we remained shunned! You only wanted us gone! And so we were slaughtered. Well you'll get what you want." Sasuke nodded with conviction, "I'll stop once I've killed all of the elders. Danzo is just the start. Konoha will get what it deserves!"

Kakashi gasped, "He's dead?"

"I'll break every single one of the bonds my family had with the Village. I won't rest until my Clan's disgrace is washed away by the blood of the very people who shunned it!"

Naruto took a step back and asked with eyes filled with disbelief, "W-what's happened to you" There was a kind of darkness in Sasuke's eyes that he had never seen before. "Is this the same Sasuke?" Naruto turned to look at Kakashi, wondering if it too, didn't add up to him.

"My eyes have finally been opened. I now know what I must do to restore my Clan's honour. Comrades are nothing more than things that distract me away from my purpose. You, and everyone else I once knew, are nothing to me now!

"What would Itachi say? He died for you!" Naruto yelled at him.

Sasuke tilted his head to one side in response, "How could you ever understand? You have no family. You couldn't even begin to understand my pain."

Naruto looked away, "I do…" The silence that caused said he had gotten Sasuke's attention, "I lost the closest thing to a real family to Pain. He was like my…" Naruto shook his head, and then… it happened again… I thought I'd lost everyone I considered a family when Pain destroyed Konoha. I was too late to be there… I'm nothing without the people I have around me. I was wrong to say I understood your pain four years ago. But now I do." Naruto turned his eyes up to meet Sasuke's, "I can see it in you. But… What I can't understand… is your disregard of the people who wanted nothing more than to help you." Naruto tried to control his rage but he suddenly felt something break in him as he remembered the girl Sasuke had hurt who lay somewhere behind. "People aren't distractions; they make me stronger; I want to grow stronger each day so I can protect them. Something happened to you Sasuke, you never had this much… I don't even know what it is. I want to help."

Sasuke stepped back, as though he'd been burned, "I don't want your pity." He growled in a low voice, "I want your hate! I didn't kill you when I could back then because I wanted to use you to measure my own strength against."

"There is it again," Naruto thought as the intense feeling of darkness washed over him but was gone in a flash, it reminded him of what it was like when the Fox tried to take over, "How can I hate someone like you?" Naruto asked plainly, as he quickly thought of a plan, "I mean look at you! You're nothing but a pathetic little cry-baby!"

Sasuke had looked like he knew where it was going but his eyed flared with shock and anger, "What did you just-!"

Naruto nodded with a cocky smirk, "You heard me, idiot."

Kakashi could only watch as he tried to see where this was going, Naruto seemed to have a plan but he didn't like where it was going. Sasuke was literally dripping with murderous intent; it was literally suffocating to be near.

"I used to pity myself when I was a kid. People hated me and I didn't know why. But I grew up from that. I got sick of crying. I stopped playing the same old 'woe is me song' but you… You're stuck in it and its pathetic!"

Wordlessly, Sasuke launched forward and the blue sparks of the Chidori flickered into life, Naruto rushed to meet him in the middle with an ordinary Rasengan in hand. They clashed with equal force and were both knocked back and skidded against the water simultaneously. Naruto shook his right arm as the familiar painful sting of the Chidori shot through his nerves.

"You'll die for that, Naruto." Sasuke said sincerely with an eerie amount of calm in his tone.

Everything he had said and done… The people he had met… And the places he had been… All came to mind all at once in one fast flash. It was surprisingly short but it was difficult to remember at times of how young they all were.

"If…" Naruto stammered, "If I can't save you then, so be it." His eyes couldn't focus on anything but Sasuke now, "A person who…" He struggled with the weight of his own words, "Cannot even keep promises to their own friends… Let alone save them… Shouldn't deserve the name Hokage, let alone Shinobi. If I can't save you then…" He paused with a lowered head as he allowed his Chakra to build up in his right hand, wisps of wind gathered around him and soon a furiously spinning ball of wind appeared with a light blue glow. Naruto raised his head and regarded Sasuke who had remained unchanged despite his admission… 'Had things really gone this far?' Naruto wondered just as the final stage of his Rasengan was completed, the long blades of the Shuriken burst from his Rasengan and he crouched in readiness for his last attack.

"One of us will die today." Naruto said as the realisation hit him. "So give everything you have got into this because I'm not holding back!"

"No Naruto!" Kakashi yelled as he tried to catch Naruto's arm to stop him but was too late, a powerful wind knocked the silver-haired Junín backwards.

He showed no signs of hearing Kakashi as he charged towards Sasuke, arm raised and tensed just as the attack had begun to accelerate to a blurring speed -

"Wind release: Rasenshuriken!"

The blue flickering before him told Naruto that Sasuke had begun another Chidori but froze in surprise when he heard –

"Chidori: Sharp Spear!"

Konoha

Kiba glowered, his canines were bared as he growled, "Couldn't or wouldn't stop them?"

Sakura's eyes darted up from the floor with shock, "What –"

Sai raised his hand to cut her off, "I do believe that your statement bears an underlying tone of accusation. So if you have something to say. Say it." Sai's face betrayed nothing.

Kiba scowled, "I've been on missions with you guys before." Kiba said as he looked between Sakura and Sai, "I've seen how everyone else just stands and stare whenever Naruto fights. And against that dick head I bet it was no different!"

"Couldn't." Sai said evenly despite Kiba's yelling. "The ground literally shook from their power. We would have been less useful to them both dead if we tried to interfere and got caught in the fight."

"Less useful? Less useful? YOU FREAKING LET SASUKE GO. AGAIN! AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF, YA JUST WATCH AS NARUTO IS KIDNAPPED BY -"

"Kiba." Shino murmured. "Starting a fight over something in the past is pointless. Why? Because you only want to vent your emotions and this is not constructive to the situation."

Kiba muttered under his breath but held his tongue.

Neji shook his head with a heavy look on his face, "Shino is right. This fighting between ourselves will get us nowhere fast. We must regroup, clear our minds and look back at what we already know. We've potentially missed something which could prove vital to finding Naruto-Kun before it's too late." His pale eyes looked briefly towards Hinata, "We must do all this before the results of the interview with Sasuke's follower are revealed. So we may act instantly from what we have accumulated.

There were murmurs in the crowd of young Shinobi.

"Interview?" Sai asked, surprised, "But I thought it was Ibiki himself who was heading the investigation. I would not exactly call that an inter-"

"Exactly," Neji responded just as the thunder clapped ominously, "Which is why I'm certain there will be results."

Konoha's Torture and Interrogation HQ

She was going to be saved; she could feel it with every fibre of her being that he was going to save her. Hope throbbed through her despite the strong arm wrapped around her, crushing the air from her lungs and the cold blade pressed against her neck. Karin became very aware of her blood rushing through her neck but she wasn't afraid.

The kunai was suddenly pulled away by the man's hand suddenly seizing from pain, she was free! She knew she would be okay; that he would beat the stupid old man down that Sasuke would save her just in the nick of –

Karin's hand found its way to her chest as she felt a strange sensation spread from just beneath her fingertips and spread to the rest of her body. "What?" Was all she could ask as she watched as Sasuke retracted his Chidori blade from Danzo's and… Her body.

"You're nothing to me."

She fell to the ground and all hell broke loose soon after.

Karin's shook uncontrollably; her teeth clattered as her body fell into a dull numbness. She knew she had begun to go into severe shock as her body was shutting down bit by bit. Karin weakly attempted to clench her fists to distract herself; to anchor herself down and away from what was happening. But she could only manage to scrape her fingernails into the ground beneath which had been softened by her own blood. She couldn't even bring herself to try to heal herself. What was the point?

She could picture even now through all the pain, his expression as he cancelled the Chidori. Nothing. Nothing was on his face. No victorious look from killing Danzo, no horrified look from stabbing her in the process. She would have felt more content if he had looked amused by his own actions but nothing?

"I never was anything to him, was I? Stupid girl. How could I not have known?" Her lower lip trembled as she tried to convince herself that Sasuke's words hadn't hurt her just as much as the stab wound did. She shut her eyes in despair as she desperately tried not to replay them in her mind. "I'm pathetic, pathetic, pathe-" Her eyes snapped open as something suddenly dropped onto her cheek, was it a tear? Was it hers?

A curtain of light pink hair swept into Karin's vision and slowly but surely, it felt as though a weight was being eased from atop her chest and warmth begun to thaw the ice in her veins. There it was again, but Karin was sure she wasn't crying.

"What… just… leave." Karin stammered as she wavered in and out of a daze, the green-eyed girl seemed to ignore her so Karin tried again as she pushed the girl weakly in the arm, "Don't bother. Just leave me... I don't want your… help."

That got her attention; Sakura looked down with an unexpectedly cold gaze, "Shut up. You need to save your strength." Tears ran freely down Sakura's cheeks but the medical ninja simply ignored them as she concentrated on maintaining the healing technique on Karin.

Another tear fall on Karin's cheek and it almost gave her strength she asked through clattering bloodied teeth, "You love him… Don't you?" She began and blinked her eyes a few times to try and wake herself up, breathing was harder now and Karin could feel her body letting go. Sakura didn't even flinch but Karin knew she was right, "He changed. N-now… He was so nice but…" Karin struggled to say what she wanted, her mouth felt out of joint with her brain, "He's changed, he's not right… He…" Her voice had become gravelly as her throat seemed to have closed up, but she had to continue, people had to stop hoping he was the victim, "Seems s-so far away. Doesn't care about – about you or… Konoha he -" She couldn't finish as her throat constricted and she rolled to her side and painfully coughed up some clotted blood. She gasped for breath and sweat rolled down her cheek as Sakura gently rolled her onto her back once more.

Karin's eyes rolled to look at Sakura, the pink-haired girl looked speechless as she slowly bowed her head over Karin and bit her lip as silent sobs shook through her. Karin felt her own eyes fill up at the sight of it and his words rang in her ears, clear as day, "You're nothing to me." Her lip twitched as she tried to quell the urge to cry but cursed through her teeth, "Damn it… Not you too." And felt two streams of hot tears slide down her face.

Karin shot up from her place on the floor and hugged her knees and rocked herself as she waited for her breathing to calm down. She scrubbed her eyes and pretended it was just sweat trickling down her cheeks from the heat. She didn't have a window but she believed it was early evening now. She hadn't wanted to sleep through the day but they had kept her up for most of the night questioning her and she had more of the same to look forward to soon. Besides, sleep was the only thing close to a painkiller she was likely to have any time soon.

Karin rubbed the back of her head tiredly and tried to stretch herself awake, wary of the still healing wound in her chest. The pink-haired medic had done a decent job but she had only done the bare minimum to save her life, possibly with the intention of finishing the job later in Konoha. Possibly to just make Karin suffer. Karin had been given a cocktail of drugs and one of them was a very strong chakra suppressant and so all hopes of her healing herself properly with either Juitsu or simply allowing her body to naturally heal itself was out of the question.

Footsteps announced by a door being shoved suddenly open announced the presence of another person. A free person was outside. Karin was in the dark in every sense of the word; she was no longer privy to all the privileges her heightened senses gave and with only a small slit of light at the bottom of her cell door. Karin couldn't even guess at the size of her cell. She had been too tired to explore the cell and much too afraid of what she might find on the other side should she explore if the screams and shouting around her was anything to go by. The red head had simply remained where she had landed in a painful heap when she was shoved inside.

Keys jingled and suddenly Karin was blinded as her door swung open.

"Get up." The gruff voice of a woman ordered as she placed a hand on her hip.

Karin reached for the nearest wall and leaned heavily on it to push herself up but obviously she wasn't fast enough for the other woman who, promptly grabbed Karin's arm and pulled her to her feet. Searing pain shot through Karin's chest and the woman had to practically drag her out of the cell as Karin fought off the urge to fall back to the ground again.

A door opened and Karin was greeted with a room with only a pair of chairs and a table set between them. A push to Karin's shoulder told the red head to step inside and the door immediately shut and locked behind her. She sat down on the nearest chair with a groan and hunched over the table.

Elsewhere, the woman who had escorted Karin from her cell politely knocked on a door before opening it after a growl came from inside.

"Sir." Yuuki saluted her boss before she sat on the chair opposite his desk.

Her boss was the sort of man who could strike fear simply by looking your way; with a heavily scarred face, empty grey eyes and an imposing frame he wordlessly demanded an efficient and respectful audience from his underlings. Ibiki looked up from his papers and studied Yuuki before he asked, "What is our guest's condition?"

The very way he said guest, sent a shiver down Yuuki's spine, "Deteriorated but otherwise fine. We seem to be coming close to her becoming more… Forthcoming, sir."

Ibiki set his hands on the desk as he pushed himself to his feet, "Good, I expect not to be disturbed when I question her."

"S-" Yuuki said before she stopped herself as Ibiki shot her a look, challenging her to continue but Yuuki did not. She dared not. "Of course, sir."

Karin's eyes began to droop as she felt her body become enveloped in a warm yet numbing sensation as she felt her mind glide slowly away from her body. A sound from behind pulled her abruptly away from sleep and Karin swallowed hard as she tried to ignore the nausea in the pit of her stomach.

She couldn't look around even if she had the energy to do anything other than sit up straight in her chair, turning around might be just enough to reopen her wound and Karin did not fancy discovering whether or not she was important enough to keep alive.

After a moment, a bear-like man sat down opposite her and clasped his hands neatly on the wooden surface. Karin stared at his hands but something in her made her afraid of looking at him in the eye.

They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity; Karin stared down at her hands as she felt Ibiki's eyes bear down on her. She began to shift uncomfortably, breaking the spell cast on the room.

"What do you want from me?" Karin asked finally, the question had bothered her from the start. All night last night since she returned from the land of the Iron they had kept her in the same room and simply watched her in silence. She didn't want to talk about what had happened with Sasuke then; it was much too fresh on her mind so she tried talking about anything else instead but her words were met by a stony silence and gave her no form of acknowledgement. Karin knew the process; they were trying to psych her out, make her break bit by bit. Not feeding her, not letting her sleep properly, keeping her isolated in the darkness. Even so, knowing the process and experiencing it are two different things entirely and knowing about it did nothing to stop it from working on her.

"I want you to tell me a story."

Karin was floored. This was nothing like what she had expected. She expected yelling, an interrogation, anything but this. She frowned; it was a very whimsical thing for a man like this guy to say. Maybe it was a trick question, she was afraid to ask, "What about?"

"Anything you like." Ibiki replied, giving nothing away.