ScionOfKyuubi here with my first Naruto fic! Reviews give me life!

Summary: When Naruto returns to Konoha, will the people he swore to protect accept his sacrifice, or will he be rejected again? NaruIno, one-sided NaruSaku.

Warning: Rated T for (hopefully) mild violence, bad words.

Disclaimer: I ain't making money off of this. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-sama. So does my dignity.

Unseen Love

Earlier in the day:

Uzumaki Naruto had been certain this would not end well.

His best friend and rival, Sasuke, had just abandoned the Leaf Village, and Naruto was going after him.

In theory, this had been a good idea.

In practice, it sucked.

He had started out with a team of the rookie genin (and chunnin): Shikamaru, Neji, Kiba, Chouji, and Shino.

However, soon after leaving Konoha, they had been forced to split up. Shikamaru had been accosted by a strange kunoichi from Otogakure, the Village Hidden in Sound, and things had gone to hell from there.

Now, of the five nins from Konoha, Naruto had been the only one still on the trail of Sasuke.

Naruto heard the sound of rushing water, and sped up. He knew there was a waterfall close by, and Sasuke might have stopped for a bit.

He had stepped out, intent on talking to the raven-haired avenger.

Sasuke had not wanted to talk.

Everything else was a blur.

Present Time

Naruto staggered out of the woods, bleeding profusely from the massive wounds all over his body.

It was taking everything Naruto had in him, including Kyuubi's power to keep from dropping dead on the spot. He was thanking Kami for making Sasuke's aim being really crappy, or he probably would have been dead already from the Chidori Sasuke had plunged through his chest. He coughed, feeling blood come up his windpipe.

Through, blurred, half-blind blue eyes, he saw the massive gates of Konoha loom before him. He sighed. This mess was going to take a lot of explaining to baa-chan. Abruptly, his vision wavered, and he managed to slide to the ground against a tree before it went completely black. He could have sworn he saw platinum blonde as he fell unconscious.

Ino's POV

Yamanaka Ino was in the middle of yet another boring, dreary D-class mission: find a lost cat.

She'd been walking in the forest around Konoha for nearly an hour, and was about to just call it quits when she heard a faint groan from the dirction of the main gates. Intrigued, she hopped down for her tree-jumping search, and immediately saw a massive amount of blood all over the forest floor. She swallowed her revulsion, and followed the blood trails to their end. She was horrified to see the loud, hyper blonde teammate of her friend Sakura, lying against a tree in a pool of his own blood. She immediately sprinted to the main gates and yelled for an ANBU. Immediately, a wolf-masked ANBU poofed into existence, and gestured for her to slow down. "What's wrong, Yamanaka-san?" the jounin asked quietly. "Uzumaki Naruto is bleeding to death against a tree thirty feet behind you; that's what!" she yelled at the nin, who whirled and was at Naruto's side in less than a second.

Normal POV

Wow, that was fast, Ino thought. She hurried to the bleeding Naruto and realized that he desperately needed serious medical help, NOW. The ANBU had apparently come to the same conclusion, and was gingerly lifting the battered boy onto his back. "I need you to tell Tsunade-sama that Naruto has been mortally wounded, and that Kakashi is taking him to to the hospital. Go NOW." Ino nodded dumbly, seeing the ANBU rip off his wolf-mask to reveal the trademark mask of Naruto's sensei. She turned, and began sprinting along the village rooftops, heading for the Hokage tower. She wondered what Naruto had done to receive such a grave wound, and shuddered when she remembered that his last mission had been to retrieve Sasuke. Contrary to popular belief, Ino was not interested in the brooding Uchiha, thinking him snobbish and rude. She only acted like she did to get a rise out of Sakura, which was one of her favorite pastimes. She unconsiouly sped up, reaching the Hokage tower. In less than a minute she was at the massive doors, and instead of knocking or waiting for someone, she merely blew the doors open with a wind jutsu, sprinting up the stairs to the Hokage's office.

Tsunade was doing some of the massive amounts of paperwork on her desk, distractedly waiting for news of Naruto's mission to retrieve the Uchiha brat. She heard the massive doors downstairs slam into the walls, and heard a set of feet pounding up the stairs. She jumped out of her chair, seeing her door crash open. She vaguely recognized the Yamanaka girl from Team 10, and signalled for the girl to start talking. The girl, Ino, was obviously winded, but began spilling a slew of words that Tsunade couldn't understand. "Woah, whoa, slow down, girl, I can't understand a word you're saying," she told her. "Tsunade-sama, Naruto has been mortally wounded, and Kakashi-sensei is rushing him to the hospital." Tsunade processed this, then blew out of the room like a controlled cyclone, ignoring the door, and merely jumping through the window to reach the street below, leaving a stunned Yamanaka behind.

Chapter One END

What do you think? I'm not very good at dialogue, please e-mail if you have advice! Review PLZ!