Sasuke stood at the gate to Konoha village, watching the medical ninja depart with extreme haste. Medical ninja? They haven't been sent out in days...wonder what's going on? As the thoughts and the questions ran through his mind, he noticed that two of the medical nins had stayed behind and were quickly proceeding to care for a figure that had long since collapsed on the ground. Wait...was that Neji?

Sasuke ran over to the collapsed and breathless Hyuuga, desperate to know what had happened. Neji had been on a mission with Naruto and Kakashi, but neither of the men were to been seen with him. Oh God, if something happened to Naruto...

"Neji! Neji what the hell happened to you?"

"Sasuke! Please move, Neji needs to be taken to Lady Tsunade at once!" Oh great. Sakura was here already.

"Damnit Sakura! Naruto and Kakashi were with him! Don't you give a shit as to why he is the only one who came back?"

"Well...yes but..."

"Oh back off for a minute! Asking him is the fastest was to find out what happened and if they're in trouble, and if they are they're going to need help fast! So why don't you shut up for a minute and let me finish talking to him?" He gave her his darkest glare and watched in satisfaction as the pink haired girl simply nodded and remained silent.

"Neji please, what happened? We need to know."

"Our team...was...ambushed...got...separated" Sasuke waited as patiently as his nerves would allow him while the Hyuuga began coughing and attempted to regain control of his breathing. "Don't know...what happened...to...Ka...kashi...and Nar...uto...you need to...hurry..." Neji began coughing again as his breath once more failed him, but Sasuke was already running in the opposite direction.

"Shit!" He ran towards the Uchiha compound to gather his gear and then depart before finding Naruto. I need to take a map to Neji and get him to show me exactly where they split up and went off course or else I might not have a snowball's chance in hell of finding them. Once he had gathered everything he needed he left the house and started back towards the village gates, hoping to leave without any problems. He couldn't afford the time to get Tsunade's permission to leave; he needed to find Naruto as soon as possible.

After heading to the hospital and showing a map to Neji, he ran off to the village gates and made it about ten feet outside the village before he heard the annoying pink haired girl's voice hollering at him to stop. Why did she always stop him every time he tried to leave the village without permission? Did she have some obsession with stopping people from getting to their plans? Man, he did not need this right now...

"Sasuke wait! You can't just go find them without Lady Tsunade's permission! You know that so what are you trying to do? We already have people out there searching and I'm sure they'll find them right? Leaving now without permission is only going to cause problems later"

Pissed off and in a hurry, he turned around to glare at the girl, and inwardly smiled when she took a step back from him. "Sakura, I really don't care about getting permission at the moment. Naruto is our friend and so is Kakashi, so either you can help me find them or stay the hell out of my way!"

Sighing to herself Sakura realized how stupid she was at that moment. This is Sasuke I'm talking to, he's the most stubborn man in all of Konoha and Naruto is his best friend. Why did I ever even let myself think that he cared about something like following the rules and getting permission? "Alright I'm coming with you; if they're hurt they'll need medical ninjutsu after all."

As much as she frustrated and annoyed him sometimes, Sakura had a point on that one. Medical ninjustu was something he couldn't do, so at least she was making herself useful. But damn the girl had a habit of stopping him and then insisting to go along, it was becoming rather irritating...

Somewhere in the forest...

The medical ninja had been searching for hours without any sign of the Hyuuga's remaining team members. The situation was looking bleak and they were running out of ideas. Lady Tsunade had given them the general area they should look in for the two ninja but nothing had turned up and the onset of nightfall wasn't helping. If the team was ambushed, Lord only knew where the two who were out there were...

Somewhere on the other side of the forest...

They had stopped to rest a while ago, but it turned out to be their last stop. The wound in Kakashi's leg and Naruto's draining energy prevented them from going any further. He no longer had the ability to walk while supporting Kakashi's weight and they found that the need to stop had come sooner than they had hoped.

"Kakashi-sensei how are you doing?" A worn out Naruto asked his teacher as he helped him to sit down against the trunk of a large tree. He hadn't seen the man looking this worn out since the last time he had over used his sharingan.

"I've certainly felt better, Naruto have we got any water left?"

"Sorry Sensei, but no, it's all been drunk."

Kakashi nodded his understanding sleepily. They were in a bad situation no matter how you looked at it. He was wounded, Naruto was exhausted from helping him, they were now out of water, and nightfall was quickly approaching. On top of all of that, just to take things from bad to worse, he was pretty sure the enemy wasn't too far behind them and that they were simply waiting for the right time to catch them off guard. God, if only I could see Iruka right now...I don't care how bad the situation is, being with him could make being stuck in hell feel like heaven. But where the hell are those two ninja? We couldn't have put that much distance between ourselves and them, not at the speed we were travelling. They're going to have to make a move and show themselves at some point.

As if the rogue ninja could read his mind and decided to oblige his request, a kunai flew millimetres from Naruto's face, neatly slicing the air and burying itself in a tree.

"Holy shit!" A surprised Naruto was startled into action by the carefully aimed kunai. Grabbing his own kunai, he stepped in front of Kakashi to protect his wounded sensei.

"Naruto are you nuts? Run while you can and go find some backup!"

"And leave you to defend yourself in that condition sensei? I don't think so! Bring it on!"

No sooner had the words left Naruto's mouth, there was a clashing of kunai in a flurry of taijutsu. Kakashi attempted to get up, knowing that Naruto was already tired and would need help, but the wounded leg only collapsed underneath his weight, The crisp smell of chakra hung in the air as ninjutsus went off at near ridiculous speeds. If it weren't for his sharingan, Kakashi would've missed nearly everything that was happening. Damn! Of all the times to be wounded!

Naruto's energy wasn't going to last much longer, even with help from the nine tails he could feel himself draining fast. But he had been matching his enemy blow for blow, and keeping up with the jutsu hadn't been terribly difficult. He knew that even though he was wearing down, so was the man in front of him. It had become a battle of endurance, and they were both waiting for an opening to strike. Wait...there were two of them when they attacked us earlier. There was this bastard who fought mostly with ninjutsu, but then there was that other one...the one with the katana...where the hell is he now? If there are two of them targeting two of us, then why only attack with one person? What is there target? Are they only attacking with one because Kakashi is injured so they don't feel the need to bother? It was then that Naruto realized the actual plan, and that the target wasn't a "what" it was a "who", and he knew exactly who the target was. Shit! Since Kakashi is wounded he can't fight back nearly as well, it makes him an easy target! This was never about fighting me, that was just to keep me out of the way for their attack!

"Shit! Kakashi!" He dove in front of the copy ninja as the second enemy flew down from the tree with his katana at the ready. He had just barely gotten in front of his sensei when he felt the burning of the blade pierce through his chest.

"NARUTO!" Kakashi stared in horror as Naruto threw himself in front of the lightening fast katana. In the blink of an eye, Naruto was standing in front of him with the long blade protruding from his body at a sickening angle.

~ TBC ~