Disclaimer: I own Naruto and all of the characters, That is why I'm writing fan fictions instead of my comic book series.

Hey peoples, this is my first fic here, and I really hope you like it. Actually it isn't really a whole fic at all. I wanted to go right into my other story, but I would have left a lot of questions out there, and I didn't want to go into a gigantic flashback (trust me it would have been a flashback that spanned 4 chapters). So this is like a little prequel to my full fledge story. I'm going to consider this a sort of practice run, so don't go easy on me when it comes to reviews, but don't flame either. All are valued. Well I know you are probably bored out of your mind so without further adieu: The Fan Returns.

P.S. This story takes place right at the end of manga chapter 360. If you don't know where that is in time, it is right in the middle of Sasuke and Deidara's fight.

The Fan Returns

Chapter One

The Deidara in front of Sasuke turned to clay the minute Sasuke's chidori plunged through his chest. "A clay bunshin!" just as he began to realize his predicament, a hand shot from the bird he was standing on to grasp his ankle.

"You see, I have trained my left eye to detect and dispel genjutsu. I've fallen for your clan's tricks once, but it will never happen again." His other hand shot from the bird "Now eat my C4!" At that instant a long centipede slithered from the hand in his mouth, wrapping itself around Sasuke's body. "This trick wasn't good enough to best Itachi, but then again, you are the weakest of the remaining Uchiha." he smirked as he saw Sasuke glower in his direction. Deidara pulled the rest of his body from his clay mount and smiled as he thought to himself, heh. One of the remaining Uchihas is about to die at my hands. It's a shame; he could have been a valuable addition to Akutski. "Oh well, now you die." At this he shoved the entangled Sasuke off the bird and watched him fall a few feet before forming his hand into his favorite seal. "Katsu!" A fireball encapsulated Sasuke, giving way to a misty purple haze. Deidara was just able to catch a glimpse of him as he fell fifty feet to smash against the ground. Thud.

Deidara willed his mount to the ground. He felt extreme joy in eliminating an Uchiha. It was a beautiful piece of Art. At that moment, Tobi joined him at the mangled body. "That a nice explosion Deidara-senpai." He looked down at the body, "I feel kind of bad though."

"Why, Tobi." He glanced over at his disciple "You are no longer one of them. You are Akutski through and through."

Suddenly, Sasuke turned his head and opened his eye slightly. I'm not dead, but I feel so weak. It feels like my life is slowly draining away. "It's alive, senpai!" Tobi screamed. He lept back several feet.

"I know. The explosion wasn't enough to kill him, but I left a little surprise in that centipede. He'll be dead in a few days." he looked down at the Uchiha, he smiled at him remorselessly. "How fitting for someone who suffered all there life to die in such an agonizing way." he breathed in sharply. "This is almost as perfect as my art." And without another thought the two walked off leaving Sasuke to fester.

Just as he saw the two leave, excruciating pain lanced from his legs and arms into his chest. He gasped as another wave of agony rolled over his body. Ungh…one of my arms is broken. "Aghh!" He could not even muster the strength to roll over. My legs are broken…egh…there is no freaking way I'm going to survive this. Suddenly a pain hit him square in the chest. Suspecting it was a broken rib, he poked and prodded his chest with his one good arm, but to his surprise he felt that everything was intact. What the hell was tha… "Ahh!" The pain coursed through his chest again, only stronger this time.

He tried to relax. He pushed the pain to the back of his mind. He rolled himself onto his back (wincing slightly), and looked up into the midday sky. The Orange hue of the pre-sunset sky danced playfully among the white clouds over head. He gazed at nothing in particular for sometime before one cloud in particular caught his attention. It was just a cloud with several spires jutting from the center, but to Sasuke it released a torrent of memories. I wonder what Naruto is doing right now. Probably training or out looking for me somewhere. I hope he finds me; I would really like to see one of my old friends before I die.

He leaned his head back against the moist earth; the scent of blood was already invading his nostrils. His vision was already blurry along the edges. And for the first time in a long while Sasuke thought about his life. Why the hell am I here? I trained for years to gain the skills to beat Itachi, but it was all in vein. I had just as much information then as I do now, bupkas. I should never have left Konoha. I should never have made people who genuinely cared about me miserable. For one of the first times in his life, Sasuke was sorry, truly sorry.

The pain was beginning to creep back into his thoughts. His limbs were still broken, and his chest was continuing to throb. What the hell is that? With each convulsion I grow weaker. The pangs grew more intense by the minute, and he could feel himself falling into unconsciousness. Sasuke turned his head to look at the thicket he was laying next to, and he managed to catch a hint of orange lurking in the trees. I…I must be hallucinating. His vision began to fade; he could feel the darkness take him. At that moment Sasuke glanced back to the thicket to see Naruto standing there. Just as he shut his eyes he mumbled under his breath "I knew you would find me…"

"Naruto, come in." Kakashi's voice played over the team's radios. He was glad he had him on his side, but now was not a time to be chatting it up over the radio. This would probably be his best chance to capture Sasuke. "Naruto, I repeat: do you copy?"

He growled under his breath, "Roger, I hear you loud and clear." He waited a second before he continued, "What do you want Kakashi?" He wasn't going to be stopped by protocol this time. He was far to close to his goal for that now.

"Your going toward the explosion aren't you."

"That's right, and I'm not stopping."

The radio went silent for a good while. He could not stand waiting to hear what Kakashi was going to say about this. Why does Kakashi order me to stand down every single time I'm close to finding Sasuke? "Naruto." And here it is. "You have permission to engage." What? "I'll start rounding up the rest of the teams; radio in once you reach the site." Well, that's a…refreshing change of pace.

"Who was that, Naruto?"

He looked over to Hinata, "It was Kakashi, he gave us the green light." She looked back to the front again. This is, I think, the first time we've ever been on a mission together. Despite her being skittish and shy and not ninja like sometimes, she is a really focused person. He was actually glad she was on his team. He thought it was great that the two of them were on the same team finally. He still loved Sakura, but he found it was refreshing spending time with Hinata. To his embarrassment, Naruto found himself caught staring at her. Hinata had watched him look at her that way through her byakugan, but he had not noticed until she turned to face him. She looked forward, blushing slightly; her byakugan was still activated. Abashed, Naruto hastily brought their focus back to the mission "What's the status of the site?"

She gazed straight ahead with her eyes roving over her field of vision. After a few seconds, she looked back to see Naruto staring at her, again. "There seems to be a body lying twenty meters from the blast site. Whoever it is is barely alive."

"Anything else?"

"I'm not sure but there seems to be another person holding position a kilometer from the site. I'm not sure if it is an enemy or not."

"Okay. Hinata, make sure that person doesn't make a move to intercept us."

"Hai"

"Yamato." Naruto looked over to the official leader of the team.

"What?"

"Create a bunshin to protect our left flank. I'll send one of mine to guard our right."

"Hai." Yamato was surprised. Even the veteran ANBU operative had never been so cautious. This was probably the most serious he had ever seen Naruto. He is dead set on getting this one right. He isn't allowing any of us to make a blockheaded move, and he is also keeping himself and Hinata on task. Naruto will definitely make a great leader some day. He formed the seals required to make one of his mokuton no bunshins, and after it appeared from his back he sent it to protect their left side. Naruto did the same with one of his kage bunshins, and sent it too their right. That is a great strategy too. He's not only developing into a persuasive leader, but also an effective one. I guess those shogi lessons paid off.

FLASHBACK

"Why do I have to do this?" Shikamaru was ready to help Naruto in any mission, but He did not want to be training him in a game that was his life. He did not mind the playing part, but the babysitting part of teaching him the rules and basics just seemed troublesome to him.

"Because a good leader also has to deal with the fact that one of his subordinates is incompetant. Think of this as training for yourself too." Kakashi had decided it was in Naruto's best interest if he picked up the hobby of playing shogi. He had decided that Naruto had charged in wildly into battles far to much to become any sort of shinobi other than a dead one. "The most important quality of a shinobi is the ability to strategize for certain situations. Shikamaru is probably the best shinobi of all time for doing that, and Naruto, well, your level is around zero. I'm hoping that he'll be able to help you with something. I'll be back in a few to check in on your progress." Without another word Kakashi disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto was hating every minute of this. He had thought this was going to be boring, but it had been two hours and they still hadn't started playing. Man this bites, why am I hear learning about retarded pieces of wood instead of learning new jutsu…

"Did you get all of that Naruto?" Shikamaru's question jolted Naruto from his inner complaining. "I think we should play a game now to see if you can grasp the concept." Finally, I get to show him and everyone else how bad I am at this piece of shit. "Okay Naruto set up the board."

"Oh…Okay" crap. he began to set up his pieces as Shikamaru set up his. He would set a piece on his board wherever Shikamaru would set his. After several agonizing minutes of fumbling through that process the board was ready.

"You didn't pay attention, did you?" Shikamaru sighed and frowned at his unimpressed opponent. Well I guess you're going to have to learn as we go then. Shikamaru moved a piece out first. Naruto, instead of countering with a defense he had been told about before the game, moved his same piece to the exact same place as Shikamaru. Shikamaru moved again, and Naruto copied. This went on for several moves until Naruto finally made a move of his own. I see what he did. He knew he didn't know what to do, so he copied my moves until he figured out what each piece does. I never thought Naruto's brain would be capable of functioning like that. Hell I didn't even think Naruto's brain was capable of basic math.

After a thirty minutes of play, and a few rounds of moves, Shikamaru had cornered Naruto. With no moves left Naruto was forced to surrender. At that same moment, Kakashi appeared next to the duo. "Well I see the training was a success. What did you think of the game Naruto?"

"Actually, it was pretty fun. I felt like I was really thinking about tactics for the first time." Naruto was right. With almost no training, he had set traps and even managed to take a few of Shikamaru's pieces without him planning it. He was also right that it had been the first time he had thought about a battle.

"Huh, thinking just might be within your realm of capabilities after all." Kakashi always loved to provoke him.

END FLASHBACK

They were within one hundred meters now, and Naruto could clearly see the evidence that an epic battle had taken place. The once great trees had been stripped of some of their branches. Scorch marks covered the ground. Hinata slowed the group down, and hid them behind a dense copse of trees. "There is a body over there, and it is still alive. I don't know, however, how alive or who it is." She looked back through the trees and said, "It could be an ambush."

"I know…but there is nothing we can do about it now." He pulled a kunai from his pack and waited a few seconds. This is it. If this isn't Sasuke, something horrible could happen. I don't want any of my other friends to die, but I can't just forget about Sasuke either. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. "Okay guys, after I charge out Yamato will cover me, and Hinata will follow, making sure no one gets a jump on us." The two of them nodded in agreement. He turned back to face the body, on the count of three one…two…three!

He barreled through the cluster of trees so quickly and stopped so abruptly that Yamato barley stopped in time to avoid running him over. He saw Sasuke mumble something in Naruto's direction, but he could not hear him. He brought the mic to his mouth and broadcast to both kakashi and the rest of the team. "Hey guys, We've got him."

Well there you have it, this is my first entry here, and I sure hope you like it. This is about how long my chapters will be from this point on (at least for this story anyway), but if any of you want longer chapters just say the word and it shall be done (or atleast it will be say the word and I will try). Remember this is just my prologue so the more you review, the better my actual work will be.

-ghost-