Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. It belong to this guy that loves to make us wait on the edge of out seat for YEARS for what promises to be one of the coolest fights in all of anime/manga history!
Chapter 1: Retrieval
Itachi's final taunt still rang in his ears as the fire consumed him. Although Sasuke had been able to see the Amatersau gathering, he hadn't been able to dodge the entirety of the attack. Most of his clothes had been torn off to keep the black fire from spreading to his skin, and the heat alone had blistered a good portion of his body. Still, combined with the other wounds he received during the fight, Sasuke considered himself lucky to be alive.
Although considering the damage he had taken in the battle, that wasn't going to last that much longer. It was hard to breath. The fight between two fire jutsu users had made the air unbearably hot. Darkness was starting to creep in.
""HEY I…HIM….quick…here!"
Sasuke moaned as heard someone else's voice, although with the shape he was in, he had no idea who it was.
"Ehhh! Is…-at Itachi? What…to him?"
Was it more Akatsuki? Sasuke tried to fight off the fog enshrouding his mind, but could only watch as the last dot of his sight faded away. As he slipped into unconsciousness, he wanted to scream at his fate. This wasn't fair! He couldn't die yet. There was still one more person he needed to kill.
--
Sakura panted with exhaustion as he looked down at Sasuke's body. She tried to be as fast as she could and ignore the flames that were starting to consume to building they were in. Out of the corner of her eye she saw patches of black fire starting to creep closer to her, and wondered what the hell kind of jutsu could have caused something like that.
"Sakura, we gotta get moving," Naruto shouted as he reached over to grab Sasuke's arm.
The blond boy's rescue attempt was quickly cut short when Sakura frantically slapped his arm away. "DON"T TOUCH HIM YOU IDIOT!" She looked up and saw Naruto rubbing his arm, a small bit of guilt made it through the waves of panic sweeping over her. "Sorry."
With the knucklehead taken care of, Sakura looked down at one of the most horrible sights she had seen in years. A part of her was wishing Kakashi would step out from behind one of the room's pillars and dispel the Genjutsu that she was seeing.
Sasuke was laying flat on his back with his eyes closed. Crusted blood stained his cheeks, and half a dozen other gashes ran up and down along his body, while there were signs even more had actually been cauterized by what had to have been fire jutsu. "I can't move him yet. We have no idea if there's internal injuries. We need…HINATA! HINATA GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"
Naruto looked up as he heard something above him start to become strained. "If we don't get out of here now I don't think that's gonna matter!"
With the flames closing in around them, and the roof about to come down, Sakura closed her eyes and tried to think. They needed a stretcher or something to carry Sasuke out so his injuries wouldn't be aggravated any further. Damnit Sakura stop being stupid, it's not like we can just make one out of thin…air.
The medical ninja looked up to her blond partner, and then wanted to smack herself for being such an idiot at a time like this. "Naruto, make a shadow clone!"
"What? Why do you-"
"JUST DO IT!" the frantic kunoichi ordered. "AND NO QUESTIONS!"
Naruto jumped at her tone, then quickly formed the hand sign and created a copy of himself. Once the identical ninjas were standing side by side, they both looked down at the teenage girl for further instruction.
"Now one of you transform into a stretcher, and the other help me get Sasuke back on it. "AND BE CAREFUL," Sakura stressed before she bent down to grab the teenage ninja's shoulders.
--
Several minutes later, Sakura knelt over the unconscious ninja and was checking his wounds. Her previous estimates about Sasuke having internal injuries and sealing other ones with fire were right on. Still, it didn't seem as bad as Sakura had originally thought.
"So, how's he doing Sakura?" Naruto asked as he looked over the girl's shoulder.
Ignoring the question for the moment, Sakura dug in her medical bag and pulled out a clean syringe. After filling it, she stuck the needle into Sasuke's arm and pushed the liquid into him.
Naruto popped his head over her other shoulder. "What was that?"
After taking the needle out, Sakura channeled some chakra into her hands and started working on Sasuke's burns.
"SAAAAAKURAAAAA!" Naruto wined, which finally seemed to get the medical ninja's attention.
"WHAT?"
Of course, that wasn't necessarily a good thing when the pink-haired ninja was in a bad mood and on her last nerve due to stress. Naruto quickly got out of swinging range before answering. "Uh…how's Sasuke?" he asked cautiously.
Sakura just sighed instead of obeying the part of her that said to kill the boy. "Not as bad as I had originally thought." Which was strange, even when surrounded by distractions, her original diagnosis had never been as far off as it was with Sasuke's. Maybe it has just been the heat and the lack of light, combined with all the other things that had been wearing her down both physically and mentally. "I got most of his injuries patched up as soon as we were out of the building. There's still a lot of blood loss though. I also gave Sasuke something to keep him asleep.
"I don't want him waking up until we get back to Konoha."
Ten meters away, most of the other squad that had also been sent out to search for Sasuke along with Team Kakashi was sitting under another tree. Hinata had almost all her attention on Naruto and his interaction with Sakura, while Shino simply looked off into the horizon, lost in his own thoughts. Kiba sat with his back against Akamaru, and chewed his thumbnail in aggravation.
"Something wrong Kiba?" Hinata asked as she watched her fellow kunoichi look over the unconscious boy and go though a verbal exchange with Naruto that made her wish for such a close bond with the loud ninja; or at least the ability to talk to him. Sure they had said a few words to each other while on a mission, but she had learned a long time ago how to focus herself in situations like that.
Taking his hands off Akamaru, Kiba looked over to where the traitor was being treated, while his wounds were still aching. "I don't like it."
Shino looked over to his comrade. "What do you mean?"
"Oh come on!" Kiba replied while waving his hands at the display. "This guy runs away from the village, joins up with the most dangerous rouge ninja that's ever come out of the Leaf, and he's just laying over there getting the royal treatment. We should be tying him up and breaking his legs to make sure he doesn't get away so we can haul him back for his hanging!"
The words coming from her comrade's mouth made Hinata flinch. "Isn't that a little…harsh?"
"It's the truth!" Kiba replied. "Do you know how close I came to dying when we tried to get Sasuke back the first time? Sakura should have just left the bastard to burn with his brother and save everyone the trouble!" He looked back at the sleeping Uchiha, and growled.
As at seemed his partner's rant had run out of steam, Shino looked over to him with a hidden expression. "That's one way of looking at it, I suppose."
Kiba raised his eyebrow at the stoic ninja's comment. "Oh yeah, what's that supposed to mean?"
Shino looked back to the sleeping ninja as he explained another view. "In the past month, Sasuke Uchiha has brought an end to two S-Class ninjas, one of which who had plagued Konoha for decades, and the other one a ninja who was left alone for years because even the ANBU didn't have a chance of stopping him. Then, there is the other menace he brought down a few days ago, the one Kakashi's talking dog identified as Deidara, another member of Akatsuki. Using that logic, we should patch him up and cut him loose so that he can keep up the good work."
"Oh come on!" Kida exclaimed. "You can't be serious. He's a rouge ninja, end of story. I joined this mission because I thought we'd finally be putting an end to this guy, not to coddle a traitor."
"That's a rather simple-minded way of looking at things," Shino replied. Which was something that described Kiba to a T. He was definitely the more…passionate kind of person that made decisions on emotions instead of logic. Not that it was a bad thing all the time, but…it was the exact opposite to how Shino tried to be.
His friend's reply drew Kiba's attention away from most of Team Kakashi, and back to Shino. The way the other ninja said it… "Are you calling me stupid?"
--
Kakashi took another deep breath as he popped another crick in his neck, and then sat down. Almost immediately after he relaxed, the effects of his new Sharingan came full force. It seemed he wouldn't be getting up for another two days if his body had anything to say about it. But that wasn't really the case…such was the life of a ninja.
They still needed to hike back to Konoha, and he didn't feel like being carried there again; especially after the scene Guy caused the first time. The memory still made him shudder.
Louder than needed footsteps announced the arrival of Kurenai's replacement. Kakashi looked up to the wood element user and raised his hand in greeting. "Yamato."
The other man nodded his head at hearing his replacement name. "Kakashi, I see you're still recovering." He stood silently over the ANBU veteran for a moment, studying him. "What's troubling you?"
Yamato's question made Kakashi looked away and frown at the dirt. "It's…it's nothing," he lied; well sort of. It probably was just that, nothing.
Kakashi replayed what had happened a few minutes before they ran into the second Akatsuki. Kisame and the other three ninja with him had obviously been fighting before the others had shown up, so they had all retreated rather than fight. Which was fine as far a Kakashi was concerned, to drive the first Akatsuki off, he had needed to use the Mangekyo Sharingan.
But when the world had started to twist and melt together, Kakashi had gotten a look past the single hole in the other man's mask. It had only been a peek, and everything had been distorted, but just for a second…I could have sworn I saw the Sharingan.
The fact that he was even seriously thinking about such a thing made Kakashi sigh at his own gullibility. It couldn't have been Itachi, or one of his shadow clones. The man smelled different than the oldest Uchiha, and no one else was left who held that bloodline trait. Even if Itachi had a child, the man in the mask was far too old for that possibility.
Kakashi mentally laughed at himself for such thoughts. The world had been blurred, he had only been seeing an illusion of his mind's own making.
"Kakashi-senpai, I think that my squad should go ahead and take Sasuke back to Konoha. You can rest with yours tonight, and make the trip back in the morning."
Kakashi frowned as he looked back up to his former subordinate. The real meaning of Yamato's words were not lost on him. "So, you think it will come to that, do you?"
Under the other man's stare, Yamato stood his ground. "If Naruto and Sakura accompanies Sasuke back to the village, it is going to end badly," the younger man explained. He frowned at the other man for a few moments, then continued. "You coddled them too much when they were Genin Kakashi. They still have a lot of growing up to do before they're ready to face the harsh realities of being shinobi."
So that's how it is, Kakashi thought to himself. Slowly, the masked ninja started to rise to get up. His legs felt like jelly, and he had to attach his hand to the tree he was leaning against in order to finally stand, but he couldn't just lay around for this. "Sasuke was my student, so the responsibility falls to me."
--
Voices cut through the darkness that had enveloped him. They were soft, distant at first, but became stronger as Sasuke slowly pulled himself out of the void of unconsciousness.
"I can't believe we finally did it," Naruto exclaimed as they walked through the woods. The familiar surroundings told him the village would be in sight after just a few minutes. "We're almost home!"
As his eyes adjusted to the light, Sasuke could make out he was in a dense forest…and surrounded by Leaf shinobi. The situation had suddenly gone from bad, to worse since he had passed out in the inferno.
What had happened to the rest of Snake? Were they dead? Was that why they hadn't shown up to drag him out of the fire after he killed Itachi?
Sasuke closed his eyes, to clear his thought. Speculation was pointless. If Karin was alive, she would track him down eventually, and probably bring the others. If not…well, he had other problems to worry about right now. If these idiots brought him back to Konoha… It didn't matter, that wasn't going to happen.
Keeping his eyes half-closed, Sasuke did his bet to observe his surroundings. There were eight enemy ninja, with two carrying the stretcher he was riding on; those two didn't matter. Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi were with them, along with that idiot who was supposed to be Sasuke's replacement. The smell of a dog and the basic shapes of the two carrying him told Sasuke who the others were.
Unless it's just Kakashi's tracking hounds, he reasoned.
Well, that didn't matter anyway, he would still need to get away. But if they had a ninja hound, it was going to be tricky. Especially since Sasuke's energy reserves were so low. He had enough for one attack, maybe two. After that, he would need to rely on Genjutsu to distract everyone long enough to find a hiding place and mask his scent.
"Sakura, I think something's wrong," a soft voice spoke up from above Sasuke's head. "His breathing has changed."
With the time for planning run out, Sasuke opened his eyes, and let loose a burst of lighting chakra from his entire body.
Naruto spun around as he heard Hinata scream and Shino curse before the sound of a breaking jar was followed by hundreds of swarming insects. In the back of the line, Hinata dropped to the ground and Shino jumped away as Sasuke hit the ground and quickly flipped back onto his feet. "What the hell?" the knucklehead mumbled.
"Oh crap he's awake!" Kiba shouted before taking a fighting stance atop Akamaru.
Missed one, Sasuke thought before activating his Sharingan while Shino collected his bugs around him in a defensive mass. However, his previous estimates about having eight opponents to deal with had been off. Kakashi was leaning heavily on his own knees, and it seemed to be all he could do just to stand. Also, Kurnai was absent from the rest of Squad Eight.
As it seemed everyone around her had suddenly gone crazy, Sakura stepped forward. More than once, she had seen injured people awaken to confusion. That had to Sasuke was doing…that was the only explanation. "Sasuke it's okay. We're here to bring you home."
When he looked over to her with his Sharingan, Sakura's theory was cut down. She couldn't see any confusion or panic in his eyes. "Exactly how stupid do you think I am?"
"PRETTY DUMB ACTUALLY!" Kiba shouted as he had his dog charge the missing-nin. If the idiot was actually challenging them in his condition, Kiba was going to make sure that this guy's ninja career was going to come to an abrupt end.
Shino sighed as he watched his partner charge their prisoner. From the look of things, he didn't even notice…
"GAH!"
…that he was heading strait for a low hanging branch.
As Kiba cursed and placed his hand over his nose where the tree hit him, Shino looked down to the ground around Sasuke's feet. It was obvious that the Sharingan user had used a Genjutsu on Kiba. In fact, we all looked into his eyes, the bug manipulator told himself. What they were seeing could very well be an illusion. Sasuke might have already left…and the best tracker of the group was now sporting a broken nose.
This had just gotten much more complicated than it needed to be.
"What are you doing Sasuke?" Naruto demanded with a shout as he stepped forward. "We're almost back in Konoha! Go back to sleep before you screw everything up again damnit!" He frowned as he studied the other ninja. There was no way Sasuke was at one hundred percent, or even fifty for that matter. Sasuke didn't have a chance of fighting them all off.
But…there as the matter of Hinata. The Hyuga had fallen into unconsciousness after Sasuke zapped her, but looked plenty alive from what Naruto could see.
If Sasuke moved on the unconscious kunoichi, none of them would be able to stop him in time, and the Leaf ninja would either have a body on their hands, or Sasuke would have a hostage in his. Naruto shook his head. What was he thinking? Sasuke wouldn't kill Hinata.
…Right?
As she looked at her teammate, Sakura could only stare in wonder. How in the hell was he even awake at all? With as much drugs as she had put in him, Sasuke wouldn't have awakened on his own until well into the night. By then, he would have been safely put away in Konoha's hospital. "Sasuke…just calm down. We're here to help you."
Sasuke stared at Sakura for a moment. "You're actually…serious," he mumbled in a voice that the others barely heard. Naruto, he could believe…but Sakura? She had always been the brightest of the team, the fact that she actually thought…
He tried to hold it down but…Sasuke's lips curved upwards. "hehehe…hahahaha, HAHAHAHAHAHA!" He threw his head back in laughter at the irony of it all. "You idiots…hehehe…you idiots actually think…" Sasuke cut himself when he looked back to see that one of the group was missing…and Sasuke had let down his guard.
There was a resounding crack as Yamato connected with the back of Sasuke's skull and drove the boy into the ground. "That's enough out of you." He looked back up to the pink-haired kunoichi and frowned. "I thought you said you sedated him!"
Sakura ran over to her friend and checked his pulse before pulling out another injector from her bag. "I-I did. He should have been asleep for the whole day." As she looked down at Sasuke's unconscious body, Sakura sighed and ran her fingers through his hair.
Not for the first time since this whole thing began, she was starting to have second thoughts about this. After tossing some smelling salts to Kiba, who shuddered at them bit before walking over to Hinata, Sakura hefted Sasuke's body up on her shoulders. "I'll carry him the rest of the way."
If Sasuke was going to put anyone else in danger, then it would be her. Not that Sakura considered herself in any danger. Sasuke had only knocked Hinata out after all.
Ten minutes later, after they started moving again, Naruto took up position behind Sakura. Ever since Sasuke had woke up and started acting…well, crazy, the pinked-haired kunoichi had a depressed look on her face. He looked over to his teammate, and then Sasuke, then back to Sakura. "What is it?"
Naruto's question made Sakura jerk her head up. She looked at him for a moment, and then considered what to ask him carefully. "Naruto…are we doing the right thing?"
The orange clad ninja was completely thrown off track. He stumbled mid-step, and barely stopped himself from crashing face first into the ground. "Huh? What the heck is that supposed to mean?"
"Well," Sakura started unsurely. "It's just…when Sasuke woke up and saw what was going on, he…he attacked us."
Naruto just rolled his eyes. "That's cause he was just doped up Sakura. Soon as he gets all that junk out of his system, you'll see. Sasuke will be jumping at the chance to rejoin our squad."
The shinobi's words offered her little in the way of cheering up. "Really?" Sakura asked. She wasn't wanting more encouragement, just poking a hole in Naruto's theory. "Then why didn't Sasuke come back after killing Orochimaru? Why didn't he just kill Orochimaru when we came to rescue him the first time? What if he doesn't want to come back at all? What right do we have to just drag him back to Konoha and…and what? Tell Sasuke to rejoin the team, or what? We'll lock him up? Kill him?"
"Sakura," Naruto mumbled, more to himself than to her.
She simply let out a tiny laugh. "I wanted to save Sasuke from Orochimaru, and from Itachi…but he ended up not needing me at all. So…why am I doing this?" As she pushed herself deeper into confusion, Sakura replayed what had just happened her in head. "Sasuke had to of known what was going on, at least partially, and he still didn't come with us. So we just knock him out and drag him back.
"What happens when he wakes up again and decides he wants to leave?" Sakura asked.
"Sasuke wouldn't-"
"Are we just going to knock him out again?" Sakura asked without even listen to Naruto. She looked up at Naruto, and flashed him a fake smile. "Maybe we could break his legs! That would stop him from running away!"
"Sakura-"
"Then we can throw him in a cell, and celebrate about having our friend back! That'll stop Sasuke from ever leaving again," she said with false cheer.
"WOULD YOU STOP IT ALREADY!" Naruto shouted. Sakura was wrong. Sasuke wanted to come back…Naruto just knew he needed some sense knocked into him first. Sasuke had always been a hardheaded idiot. That was just the way things were with him and most guys, girls just couldn't get it. "Everything will be fine, you'll see," he mumbled.
"Whether Sasuke wishes to return or not, it doesn't matter."
Both Naruto and Sakura jumped at the voice coming from behind them, then twisted their necks back to see Sai standing there with his usual stoic expression. Naruto was about to ask him what the hell that was supposed to mean, but Sai simply pointed at something in front of them them, and both of the younger members of Team Kakashi looked forward again.
The gates of Konogakure stood before them. "Oh…we're here," Naruto mumbled.
Shortly after walking through the gates, Kiba and the others made a quick farewell, leaving Team Kakashi and Sai alone. The leader of the remaining half of the group let out a sigh, and then sat down on the ground. It was good to be home. Filling in the mission report could wait until he got the feeling back in his legs.
Sakura looked over at him for instruction, and Kakashi held up his hand to wave her off. He needed some rest before the next headache came to be.
However, it seemed there moment of peace was not to be. After hearing something clattering across the stone walkway, Kakashi looked up to see Tsunade's current rival for the power of Konoha walking out of the nearby guard post. It didn't take a genius to realize Sai had probably informed him of Sasuke's capture, and he came here to meet them before Tsunade.
But…why? That was the question. One Kakashi didn't have an answer for.
Sakura turned her head to see what had caught Kakashi attention, and frowned. It was the old man that seemed to get his kicks out of giving her teacher grief. What the heck was he doing here?
"Kakashi, my congratulations on capturing the traitor," Danzou said as he got close enough to be heard clearly without needing to shout.
The way the old man referred to Sasuke made Naruto frown. He didn't know who the old mummy was, but Naruto could already tell that they were never going to get along. "Who's the old geezer?"
Sai stepped up behind Naruto to explain. "That is Danzou-sama. He is the head of ANBU Root division."
Sakura thought of giving a much more…colorful description of the man, but refrained from doing so. Danzou was Sai's superior after all, the newest addition to their group would probably take offense. Although Sai claimed not to have emotions, Sakura knew that he must have just been good at suppressing the things and the urges that came with them.
"What is it Danzou?" Kakashi asked, not bothering to hide his tiredness for the sake of respect for the man, or his lack of respect, because he was too worn out to do so.
With the conversation being cut right to the point of the matter, Danzou nodded his head at the former ANBU. Despite Kakashi's lack of proper etiquette, Danzou didn't bare the ninja any animosity. "My subordinate reported what happened. I thought it best if my men were to handle things from here. They will escort the prisoner to the detention facility," he explained with a no-nonsense attitude.
All of a sudden, a dozen guards appeared around the four ninjas. Each one wore the mask and uniform of an ANBU, but they might as well been wearing badges proclaiming their sub-division status as part of Root.
"Prison!" Sakura shouted as she gripped onto Sasuke's body with near bone-crushing force. "Sasuke's hurt! He needs medical attention, and I'll be taking him to the hospital." Even if he wasn't, there was no way that she would be letting anyone send him into a detention cell.
Danzou looked down on the stupid girl that Tsunade had taken under her wing. Looking at her right now, he could see everything that had become wrong with the world of the ninja since the Third Hokage had taken power. The fact that such an antithesis to the ninja could call herself a kunoichi was an insult to all the hidden villages.
"His condition is irrelevant. The old man raised his arm to single the thirteen ninja under his command. "Men take the Uchiha into custody," Danzou ordered.
As he watched his men move, a small part of the old man waited for the girl or the demon beside her to try something…anything. It would make his long-term plans so much easier.
But, it seemed that was not to be, and Tsunade's appetence handed the traitor over with little fuss.
As the ANBU holding Uchiha and two more leaped off in the direction of the prison, Danzou turned to their platoon leader. "Kakashi, seeing as how you're unable to fulfill your duties at the moment, you will carry out your student's public execution tomorrow," the man with his face covered in bandages said before turning away and heading back into the village.
Authors Notes: With the Itachi/Sasuke battle postponing work on my other fan fiction quite a bit. DAMN YOU AND YOUR TEASERS KISHIMOTO! Ahem…anyway, I've decided to start of a different one. After seeing Naruto and Sakura go on and on about getting Sasuke back for God only knows how many issues of Naruto, I started thinking, what the hell is actually going to happen when they do bring him home?