Inspired by the crazy idea that Sasuke should actually have been leaving for a different reason than is usually stated: revenge, power, blah blah blah.
I do not own Naruto but I wish I did. *sigh*
Naruto sped through the woods, looking sideways at the rest of his group. Sakura had called them in for an unknown reason and given Pakkun the coordinates so they could find the spot. He had no idea what she was up to, not having seen her for almost a year.
"Naruto, what do you think Sakura needed all of us for?" Hinata asked, looking straight at her boyfriend. She didn't like the worried way his forehead creased as it always did when he was stressed out over something.
"I'm just wondering what Sakura, a fully qualified Jonin and medic ninja needs us for. I mean, she called in Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Shino, Lee, Neji, Tenten, Gaara, Kankuro, Temari, you, and me. It probably isn't for some big reunion," he confided in her, thinking how cute she looked when she worried about him like that.
"Well, we're going to find out soon," Pakkun called back. "We're reaching the location she marked out."
It had been two years since the incident involving Gaara and the Akatsuki. Since then, they had all become Jonin at different intervals of time and had tracked down all the Akatsuki members except Itachi. For all the good news, there was bad. Jiraiya had died to get them the information on the main members of the Akatsuki and was mourned each year since then.
Sakura had disappeared a year ago to travel and discover new techniques and customs. Everyone knew there was another reason but no one mentioned it since no one wanted to anger her, especially since she was extremely powerful nowadays. She had returned occasionally but had stayed only long enough to talk with her girlfriends and Tsunade before leaving again.
She had looked exhausted but oddly exhilarated the last time he had seen here and it just fueled his burning curiosity. Even Shikamaru couldn't figure it out, and he was a freaking genius!
"Naruto," Shikamaru called, "Neji's found the clearing. It's about four miles away. We need to pick up the pace."
"Fine, you set the pace."
Shikamaru hopped ahead, closely matched by Temari. Neji took the back while Kiba and Akamaru joined the forerunners to keep watch. As the foliage flashed past, Ino and Hinata conversed quietly and quickly, joined by Tenten and then Temari who joined them. Neji tried to move next to them but was stopped by an evil glare from his girlfriend. Obviously they didn't want them to know what it was they were talking about.
As the green foliage whipped past, they lapsed into silence and spread into their formation out of habit. They still held a place for Sakura and in honor, a place for Sasuke, always hoping he would return.
The teams launched themselves clear of the canopy, landing at the edge of a deserted clearing. The brown soil had occasional tufts of grass near the center. Directly opposite them, a few miles through the forest, rose a chain of snow-peaked mountains, spreading on for miles in each direction.
On autopilot, Neji and Hinata scanned the area, covering everything in a twenty mile radius quickly and smoothly.
"Two shinobi, both going to intersect at the center of the clearing as long as they stay on course," Hinata informed Shikamaru, while Neji confirmed her report. "We have about five minutes, so get ready for anything."
"You heard Hinata! Get loosened up, go over anything, practice, just don't use up too much chakra," Shikamaru bellowed before turning towards the trees and sinking into his thinking pose. Temari came over and sat by him, greasing her fan while Choji and Ino sat together, sharing a bag of chips. Neji and Tenten tossed a kunai back and forth and Naruto and Hinata just stood, watching for any sign of movement.
"They're here." At the simple statement from Hinata, they sprang into motion, falling into a pattern that Shikamaru and Neji had developed for optimum battle formation.
Two puffs of dust appeared as the two anonymous shinobi landed in the field and kept running, straight at each other. With a resounding clash, two blades met in the center of a dust cloud that slowly cleared away, revealing two raven-haired men with their swords locked together.
Naruto started forward but Hinata held him back, signaling that this was not a fight they should get into. Loose clothes fluttered as the two combatants seemed to dance across the field before jumping away from another crossing of their blades.
Sasuke lowered his blade, sheathing it as he watched Orochimaru perform the handsigns necessary for a jutsu in an order he recognized from Kabuto's descriptions. He knew Orochimaru would try this and was prepared to do anything to get rid of Orochimaru.
Naruto watched, entranced as a dark cloud seemed to billow towards Sasuke, emanating from Orochimaru and being absorbed into Sasuke. As the last of the smoke disappeared, Sasuke reopened his eyes and looked at Naruto with the eyes of the snake himself.
"Damn it! What the hell did you do to Sasuke!?" Naruto yelled (AN: Why do we always make Naruto yell and curse?).
"Only what he really desired. I gave him power," Orochimaru answered, his voice sliding from Sasuke's lips like poison from a snake. His eyes grew darker as he anticipated the kill.
"Except, that isn't what I really wanted," Sasuke said, his eyes turning their usual black for one moment before reverting to the yellow eyes of Orochimaru. "Now die!"
Sasuke drew his sword and in one fluid motion, thrust it through his stomach.
"But why? You wanted power."
"That wasn't really what I wanted. Naruto, take care of her for me," Sasuke whispered before falling backwards.
But Hinata's attention was elsewhere, across the clearing where Sakura had just popped something in her mouth and begun running across the clearing to Sasuke's side.
"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, starting forward, unable to bear the thought of Sasuke dying.
"Naruto! Stay back! I'm warning you!" Sakura yelled, stopping Naruto in his tracks with a kunai at his feet. She completed her sprint with a final leap towards Sasuke's body, already forming hand signs as she landed, her heart in her mouth. "Stupid Sasuke! Always have to go and be the hero don't you!"
She pulled the sword out of his body and concentrated on knitting the skin back together and sewing up the internal organs. He'd certainly made a mess of himself. This was going to be bad. Then she noticed the last thing she wanted to see. Sakura braced herself to give this last medical technique all the effort she could.
Hinata's face whitened and she stared harder, relaxing when she saw what she needed to. She turned to Ino and nodded. "She used it but ate a military rations pellet before she even started forming hand signs."
"Forehead, get over here so we can carry you back to Konoha!"
"Ino! Don't starts counting me out!" Sakura called, draping Sasuke over her shoulders and bounding towards them. "I can go for a while yet."
Temari chuckled. "Sakura, just make sure not to overexert yourself."
"I'm not going to. I'm going to get him back to the village and then rest."
And off they went, speeding towards Konoha, home sweet home. Sakura twitched everyone once in a while, her muscles kinking up from constant exertion and overextending her amount of chakra. The military rations pellet had helped a bit but that jutsu had been over her limit. It wasn't like she had had a choice though.
Those were her last thoughts as the world grew fuzzy and grey as she fell towards the forest floor. She was only slightly aware of being scooped up by a pair of hard arms and being cradled against a warm chest while a deep voice spoke right next to her ear, resonating from the person's chest.
Ino started towards Sakura, watching her fall to the ground. She was just about to jump to catch her when a figure jumped to the branch in front of the. Sakura was there, carried bridal style in his arms.
"What in the world did she do to herself?" Sasuke asked, looking down at the young woman he carried.
"Yes, Hinata, what did she do?" Naruto asked, turning to his girlfriend for the answer. She bit her lip, wondering how to answer when Tenten answered for her.
"We are not discussing it until we get to Konoha. The information is dangerous and Tsunade-sama needs to examine both of you," Tenten flatly stated, her face set as hard as stone.
"If you insist, Tenten," Naruto sighed before barking out the command to move out.
"So, Dobe, what have you been doing while I was gone?" Sasuke asked interestedly, his eyes surveying the group but returning constantly to the girl in his arms. Naruto noticed this and smirked.
"Sakura's been out of the village for over a year now, training on her own. I think the girls know what she was working on but they won't tell us anything. She made it from Chunin to Jonin about a month after the mission with Gaara and the Akatsuki. The rest of us made it about a year ago. She's grown so much. She can beat pretty much everyone, including Kakashi-sensei. Jiraiya's dead though," Naruto said shortly, summarizing everything that had happened since Sasuke left.
Sasuke whistled softly, shifting Sakura's slight weight so she rested more comfortably in his arms. He sped up, setting an even faster pace than before, eager to get back to the village so he could find out if Sakura was OK.
Tsunade was waiting for them at the gate, her expression solemn. She accepted her student from Sasuke and ran back towards the hospital. She gestured Hinata with her.
"Why did she take Hinata?" Sasuke asked, jumping after them. His eyes grew darker as his thoughts drifted to whether Sakura had gotten a boyfriend in his absence.
"Hinata and Sakura are a great team with Hinata's Byakugan helping diagnose the problem that Sakura needs to treat. You need to calm down, teme," Naruto laughed, clapping Sasuke on the back.
They stood in Sakura's hospital room, watching Hinata examine her and all gave a relieved sigh when Tsunade pronounced her only suffering from overextending her chakra limit. Tsunade shooed them all out of the room, settling on a chair in the hallway and looking up at all the people leaning against the opposite wall.
"What do you want to know?" Tsunade inquired, her tone light but her eyes searching.
"What was she working on during her absence from the village, Granny?" Naruto asked. His normally bright blue eyes were dark with worry.
"I can answer that," Temari said, turning so she faced Naruto and Sasuke. "Sasuke, look at your neck."
"What the fuck!" Sasuke yelled, unnerved by the fact that he no longer had a curse mark.
"She was developing a jutsu to eradicate a curse mark and all traces of it," Tenten said, joining Temari on the opposite wall.
"Why!?" Sasuke asked, almost frantic with impatience.
"Your curse mark was sealed by the Sound Four and later that jutsu was tied to Orochimaru. Correct?" Ino asked, her light aquamarine eyes focused on Sasuke's face.
"Yes, so what's the point!?"
"Sakura figured that if Orochimaru was killed, either the curse mark was to be sealed away or eradicate. She chose to attempt the latter. She succeeded, being the most powerful kunoichi and medic ninja, even being able to outrank Tsunade-sama herself," Hinata finished, turning to look at the boys left on the opposite wall.
"Ah, stop flattering me Hinata," Sakura said, leaning against the doorjamb of her room. As they rushed towards her, she held up a hand. "I'm fine, I followed Tsunade-sama's example of storing chakra in an object or a chakra point. In my case, the palm making it easier to channel into the jutsu or seep back into my body when I overextended my chakra using the jutsu as I was likely to do."
"You are amazing, Sakura," Sasuke announced, shaking his head in amazement.
"Why thank you! However, you're still going to be on bed rest." When he tried to protest, Sakura shook her head, ignoring his pleas. "In the room and into the bed, now. And if you're wondering why I'm so beat up and had so little chakra when I first arrived, Hinata, I had just come from a mission and finding the scene of Sasuke's fight with Itachi."
And what do you think? Please, please, please review!