1. : Disappearance
Naruto tried to sit up, his battered body to weak to hold himself up, his face twisting in pain. "mmnot giv in up" he said through strained breath, and struggled to get to his feet. Panting harshly, he made it to his feet. Taking a staggering step after another. He looked ahead with unfocused eyes, all he could see was a shadowy form that he knew was Sasuke's, walking away.
"Sa..sas-KE! …I'm not…gonna…let …. you….go….to….Oro-chi-maru!" Naruto took a heavy breath and a few more shaky steps, his body wavering with each one, while his sight continued to get blurrier. " do…don't w…walk… away… I'm…. not…. done…. figh…ting… you." Wheezed the small blond, blood pouring out of the gaping wound on his chest.
Naruto staggered towards Sasuke's retreating shadow, his foot skid on loose dirt at the edge of the river, making him stumble. Naruto fell to the side, right into the rushing water, where he fell unconscious. He floated down the river with half his face in the water.
O.o
Pakkun sniffed around only to loose Naruto's scent at edge of the river. With a shake of his head he disappeared in a puff of smoke. He had to tell Kakashi the possibility that Naruto drowned.
"He's not going take it well" was the last thought pakkun had before he proofed away. He had to tell kakashi and show him the area.
O.o
Madara looked around. There was a large river running through the remnants of his and Hashirama's battle. He had just sent Obito to keep the mitsukage under his control, while he pretended to be tobi.
He had been reanimated into a new body years before the scheduled time. The akatsuki did not have any jinchuriki captured or any biju's extracted. They had resurrected him earlier so as to use his genius to capture the bijuu before the 3 year plan that was intended.
The Uchiha was drawn to something coming down the river. Jumping closer to the edge, he noticed it was a small blond. The blond's head was moved by the undulating water, to show a face round with baby fat and three whisker marks on a tan cheek. A dark eyebrow rose in surprise, upon recognition.
Obito did a fine job in using the sharingan to memorize all the jinjuriki's faces. He knew he would find obito's memories useful, when he put the other uchiha under his more powerful sharingan. The blond in the water looked like the kyubbi jinchuriki.
Jumping on top of the flowing water, and using his chakra to stand on top of it. Using his speed, he pulled the short pre teen out of the water. His eyes swirled with the sharingan as he focused on the young boy. The whisker marks on his cheeks, tan skin, and blond hair as bright as the sun, and garish orange and blue jumps suit. It matched the image he had of obito's memory. The older uchiha scanned the boy's chakra and internal system with his sharingan. He checked to see if the heart was still beating, it was. Lowering his eyes he saw what he was looking for, the extra chakra in his abdomen. A smirk appeared on his face.
"How fortuitous of me" said the uchiha with a cruel chuckle, vanishing in a whirlwind of fire, with the nine-tailed jinchuriki.
O.o
Kakashi looked over the site of where a battle had happened. There were signs of battle on the rock walls, and ground all around. Singe marks, human size dents in the rock wall, and blood. There were a few splattered areas, but what caught Kakashi's attention was that didn't get kakashi's attention. It was the small puddle of blood at the bottom of the waterfall and smaller puddles that led alongside the running river. The small puddles ended by a foot-hole in the ground on the rivers edge. Taking a closer look, he saw a small blood droplet on the edge.
"It smells as if the uchiha kid went east. Naruto's scent ends at the edge, those splotches of blood are the kids, and the big puddle is also his blood" said pakkun. " That's a lot of blood loss, there's a chance he did not survive." said the pug softly. Kakashi's eyes closed and let out a deep sigh. There was a slight chance naruto was alive, and he would hold on to that. Bringing his hands up, he made some hand signs. A cloud of smoke later his nin dogs awaited their mission.
"Except pakkun , I want all of you to trace this river, find any scent you can of Uzumaki Naruto." stated the jounin. The dogs left with a few barks of understanding
"Pakkun, track down the uchiha's scent."
"Right boss" piped up pakkun.
Kakashi saw the dog run off past him. He hoped naruto was alive when they found him.
O.o
Sakura was standing by the gate, anxious and hopeful. Naruto had promised her he would bring Sasuke back. She knew, that no matter what she would get her sasuke back. If he failed, she would not forgive him until the blond fulfilled his promise. The only excuse he had was if he was dead. In another time sakura would have thought differently when seeing naruto carried to the hospital nearly dead. She would have regretted her words upon seeing the blond looking lifeless and covered in blood.
She already saw a group of medical ninja carry in chouji, followed after by a medical ninja carrying Neji. A few minutes ago, she saw the painted sand ninja, from the genin exams, help an injured and bloody kiba stagger towards the village, while the sand user carried an exhausted injured lee. The sand kunoichi was walking next to a chakra exhausted shikamaru. Medical ninjas had rushed to each of them once they entered or neared the village and taken the injured to the hospital.
Sakura waited a little longer and still no sasuke or naruto. She felt like she was going to go crazy soon if she didn't find out what was going on. She stood in the rain until it stopped, still she waited. She couldn't take it, she needed answers.
"Tsunade, She'll know" thought sakura. As she neared the hokage tower, she saw kakashi land on the top. "Kakashi's back" thought sakura. "Did he find Sasuke and Naruto?" she thought as she raced up to the tower as fast as she could. She ran up to the hokage's door and burst in. "Did you find him!? Is sasuke back!?" she nearly yelled, interrupting Kakashi and Tsunade.
Tsunade narrowed her eyes. Two ambu appeared behind sakura in a flash, making the pinkette yelp in fear. "she's no threat" tsunade said dryly. "back to were you were" she dismissed the ambu while continuing to glare and the young genin.
"Sakura, I don't know what you were thinking, barging in here without knocking or being invited in." Sakura ignored Tsunade's question and ran to kakashi, her hands clapped together in front of her chest. "Kakashi sensei, did you find sasuke?" she asked in hopeful yet desperate voice.
Tsunade huffed in exasperation, and shook her head. The girls obsession with the last uchiha was concerning. She didn't even ask about her other team member which irritated the blond hokage all the more, considering he was missing.
"Not it's any of your business, but no. He crossed into sound. Probably at Orochimaru's by now" said tsunade and let out a loud sigh.
Sakura's eyes grew wide in fear of never seeing sasuke again. She shook her head frantically, not willing to believe sasuke was gone. "No! he is not gone yet! Send others to look for him please!." she pleaded.
Kakashi coughed to get everyone's attention, especially sakura's. He set his lone eye on sakura. "Sakura….. My nin dogs tracked his scent heading towards the border of sound village before they lost it. Like Tsunade said, he's probably already under Orochimaru's shadow. I doubt sending more ninja will make a difference except, potentially risk more lives. All for a ninja who chose to betray his village. Naruto hasn't been found and you haven't even asked about him even once"
Tsunade frowned. She rubbed her temples. Kakashi was just telling her about naruto when the pinkette burst through the door. She looked at Kakashi and inclined her head. "continue what you were saying before we were interrupted, Kakashi" she ordered
The copy nin nodded and faced the hokage seriously. He hoped she would not break his bones once he told tsunade about Naruto.
"Like I was saying… when I arrived at the site of a battle, all I found was destruction and a puddle of blood…right as it started to rain. Pakkun traced smaller blood puddles to the water's edge, where I found a foot hole. The splatters of blood suggest, Naruto either water walked across the raging river or….he fell in. The rain destroyed most of the scents and footprints." kakashi paused to let tsunade take it in.
"I suggest we send a tracking team to look for Naruto, if we send them now, there'll be a greater chance to finding him…"sakura interrupted Kakashi. "What about Sasuke?! You have to send a tracking team to rescue him before he gets to Orochimaru! you just have to!" cried out the pinkette
Sakura thought it was more important to look for sasuke. She thought that Naruto must have gotten beat and was off hiding like a coward and forgetting his promise to her. It was just like Naruto to get in the way between her and sasuke, never getting it through his head that she found him annoying and that she loved sasuke, she would never return Naruto's feelings.
O.o
Shikamaru had wondered what happened to Naruto. All his teammates had been taken to the hospital except the blond, he hadn't seen him get carried in by any medical staff. Even Lee who didn't go with them in the beginning was taken to the hospital. His whole team was injured. Neji and Chouji both were nearly killed. The medical team was doing their best to heal them…..and it was all his fault. He was to overconfident in thinking he was prepared for anything, and they would be able to bring back sasuke.
His thoughts were cut short as he neared the hokage's door and heard yelling. It sounded like it was Sakura. He wondered what made the girl sound more shrill and hysterical than usual. As he got closer he heard kakashi. "Calm down. You have to think about naruto right now. I know your feelings for sasuke might have clouded your mind…." Kakashi was cut off by shrill yelling.
"No! He's probably out hiding because he couldn't bring Sasuke back to me! You need to go find sasuke now before he gets to Orochimaru! If Naruto kept his promise, sasuke would be here right now! He promised! He promised me!" yelled sakura hysterically.
Shikamaru frowned. He remembered trying to stop Naruto from saying any promises he might not be able to keep. " Enough!" Tsunade's loud voice and a loud thump, probably her hitting her desk with her fist, brought him back to the present.
"Right now Naruto is our priority. He's missing and seems to have lost a lot of blood. Time is of the essence and we will send a tracking team to look for Naruto and hopefully find him alive. Sasuke has betrayed the village and left. I will not waste any ninja to risk their life on a suicide mission to rescue someone who probably critically injured his own teammate to pursue a former leaf nin and current s-class criminal ! Do You Understand?!" demanded the hokage.
"And if anything happens to that loudmouth hyperactive blond idiot…I will personally make certain the little traitorous Uchiha will pay…Now leave my office, which you so rudely barged into!" shikamaru heard a small angry sob and the door open seconds after Tsunade yelled at sakura to leave. Shikamaru hid slightly behind the tall potted plant right outside the door.
As soon the door closed, the pinkette lost her barely there composure. Sakura grabbed her hair and screeched, bent over and her eyes clenched and shaking side to side, looking all kinds of crazy and angry, tears ran down her cheeks.
"He promised!" she hissed, tears running down her eyes "He. Broke. His. Promise!" sakura slowly straightened he bent over body up. Her eyes seemed wild and angry.
"It's All Naruto's fault!" she spat as the tears lessened a bit. "Instead of looking for sasuke, there going to look for that…Loser. He's probably hiding because couldn't bring sasuke back. They're wasting time looking for someone who doesn't matter, instead of sasuke. It's not fair, it's not fair!….They should look for sasuke-kun, he's more important! It's all Naruto's fault. I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!." hissed sakura venomously to herself, as she hugged her torso tightly. She walked away with her head down, and her fingernails digging into her shoulders.
Shikamaru frowned. He'd seen the dramatic meltdown Haruno had. For Naruto's sake he would keep an eye on her. She looked unstable and volatile. Her anger may be directed more acutely and viciously on Naruto when he returns…