Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and i probably never will. But i will become Hokage! Dattebayo!! Believe it!! kami i hate the english version...

This is something i wrote a while ago and only just started rewritting.

Please review... Enjoy!

Chapter 1: The search for hope

"Tsunade-Baa-chan"

"What Naruto" a certain extremely annoyed Hokage replied.

"Sasuke-teme's been spotted. Hasn't he." He wasn't grinning, in fact his face had no emotion and his body was still he normally bounces even when standing still but not now, he was being serious as only the news of Sasuke and Akatsuki could make him. But wait…

How the hell did Naruto know this? It's top-secret information that was supposed to have been kept away from those close to Sasuke and only a few Anbu and one or two of the Jounin knew about it. No one close to the apprentice of that damn Hebi was meant to know. ESPECIALLY Naruto.

Crash!

"Tsunade-sama is it true? Has he really been seen?" She stood there in the doorway; the shock was not as bad this time. Hang on…

Damn it!! Sakura had found out too. And had it really been necessary for her to break the door?

"Naruto, how did you find out?" Tsunade glared at the apprentice of the worlds worst Sukebei.

"uh well you see…" A grin hid the fact that he was terrified, an angry Tsunade was very, VERY scary.

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Now Tsunade was pissed. Naruto had been spying on her and she hadn't even noticed!

Naruto, after being flung through the window and having to walk back towards the wrath of a very pissed Tsunade, had decided to not ask to go and get back his team-mate and first friend who also happened to have tried to kill him the last what… three or four times they had met?

Instead he left the pleasure to Sakura.

"No!"

"Please Tsunade-sama."

"I cannot allow it Sakura."

"… Baa-chan… Please… Hokage-sama" the first word had been whispered but the last was heard by the other two Kunoichi who both stopped mid argument to stare at the normally energetic Ninja who was staring imploringly at the woman who was the closest thing he had to a mother.

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"… are you ready?"

With a nod the two Ninja left Konoha without a backward glance.

Behind them, hidden in the shadows of Konoha's gate, a slight figure watched them leave with pale violet eyes filled with tears. She dreaded the moment when the Hokage would find out. She hoped that the two would be safe. Poor Kakashi-san, Tsunade was going to skin him alive when she found out that the two were missing. Especially when the two Anbu she had trailing them turned up at the hospital with a concussion thanks to Naruto's prankster abilities.

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"Sakura-chan, when will we get there?"

The pink haired kunoichi thought about this for a minute and then replied "three days."

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Snake like eyes glared into his own. "Sasuke-kun, I thought I told you not to leave here without myself or Kabuto by your side."

"hn…"

The snake-like S-rank exiled Nin left the room.

"Sasuke-sama, Orochimaru-sama is only keeping you safe" glasses flashed in the candlelight and the medic left as he felt the killer-intent that was seeping off of the teen.

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"There it is"

Another nod was the reply

'We have to get in there, before we lose him again.' Naruto sped up, as did Sakura a second later.

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They were nearly there. So close to their lost team-mate.

It had been so long so many years had passed since he had left Konoha. Left her.

They must be careful this time with Orochimaru and Kabuto here and without Sai, Yamato or Kakashi they were in an extremely bad position they must somehow get Sasuke out of there without anyone noticing.

Plus Sasuke would then cause problems and they would end up fighting but this time Sasuke would come back. Or Naruto and she would be dead.

"Naruto stop we need to think of a plan."

" 'Kay, what about…

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"Ready"

"Hai"

"Henge"

Naruto and Sakura turned into two sound Nin's. They both had their faces almost entirely covered in bandages so that they would be less recognizable.

They ran towards the entrance and stopped just outside the door of Orochimaru's latest lair.

They looked once at each other and then opened the door and headed down towards their misguided friend.

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"How long have they been gone?" an extremely pissed Tsunade yelled at the unlucky sensei of the two missing Nin who just happened to be two of her precious people.

"…two days perhaps less." Being expressionless was difficult when an angry Hokage was leaning over you but with the aid of his mask Kakashi mabaged to look only slightly nervous.

They could not have gotten as far as Orochimaru yet, Tsunade sighed in relief it took at least three days to get there and then they would have to think of how to get Sasuke out without being killed by Sound-nin so she still had time to go and save her precious people.

"Kakashi get a team ready. You must leave as soon as possible they will go to Orochimaru he is located at…"

He was gone in under an hour along with Jiraiya, Neji, Lee, Shikamaru, Kiba, Akamaru and Hinata.

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"Be careful" he whispered before turning in the opposite direction. He understood the need to split up so that they could search faster but he still worried about her. That didn't mean he liked it. Anything could happen down here. He wanted her to stay safe.

He paused at another dead end, and was forced to retrace his steps. They had been down here for about an hour, he hoped Sakura was all right, so far there had been almost no traps and this worried him. Up ahead he saw someone going through a door. Before they were fully out of view Naruto finally saw the one person he was looking for.

Disguising his voice he called out "Sasuke-sama an important message has arrived for you from Orochimaru-sama."

"Hn," he got the same damn reply he had always gotten from Sasuke.

"You are to go and get rid of some guests who have been wandering around"

"Hn," again the same damn reply. But at least Sasuke had turned and seemed to be heading towards an exit. At least he thought it was an exit.

Now all Naruto had to do was contact Sakura and then…Sasuke's cold voice interrupted his thoughts, "She is being held in the lower dungeon. Kabuto is with her. You had better hurry up and get down to her. She's been they're for about twenty minutes already, Dobe."

Naruto's henge disappeared as he heard those cold words "Sasuke, how?"

"How did I find out? The instant that weakling saw me she called out. She didn't even disguise her voice." He spoke with no emotion in his usual cold and monotonous voice.

"Sakura-chan is not a weakling. After you left she trained every day waiting for her chance to bring you back home" Naruto snarled at Sasuke, who he had once thought of as a brother.

"No, she is still a weakling… and so are you" This said he turned and signalled for the Sound Nin to get Naruto. He was surrounded.

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"Sakura-san why don't you give up you cannot defeat me"

'Don't underestimate me you bastard I'm not the same as I was at the Chuunin exams. Shannaro!!' Sakura's rage was starting to show in her attacks she wanted this piece of trash dead and yet he still underestimated her after she had manage to numb his left arm and lung.

"Sakura-san it is pointless you are too weak." Another barrage of kunai all aimed at Kabuto one nicked his left arm the rest barely missing him. "See"

Another barrage of kunai this time three of them hit Kabuto. Caught by surprise he stumbled breaking his defence for a second. Sakura took her chance and was holding Kabuto up by the neck he was slowly going purple. Sakura pulled one of the poisoned kunai out of his thigh and looking into Kabuto's eyes plunged the kunai deep into Kabuto's heart.

Drenched in blood Sakura dropped the lifeless body onto the ground and set out in search of Naruto and Sasuke.

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'Damn it we still haven't caught up to them. How could they have moved so fast?' Kakashi was amazed at how his two pupils had grown. It had been nearly six years since Sasuke had left and they were both equal to him in speed and power. It was not possible for them to have gone faster than his dogs or Akamaru. So how far had they gone, were they already inside Orochimaru's lair? 'Where are you?' he wondered, worried for his two students.

"Kakashi-sensei"

"Hm" Kakashi was dragged away from his thoughts by the timid voice.

"We are nearing Orochimaru's base"

'I only hope we aren't late. Not this time.' The image of a young Naruto lying beside the water at the Valley of the end came unbidden to his mind. This time he knew if they were late Sasuke would have obtained the Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Neji, Hinata have a look around for them."

"Byakugan" veins grew around their pale eyes.

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At least ten Sound ninja had surrounded Naruto as soon as Sasuke signalled. Where had they all come from so quickly? Sasuke had left a while ago and three of the Sound Nin were lying on the ground they didn't appear to be breathing. Another four were seriously injured and unable to fight anymore. But they were soon replaced by more who appeared out of no-where.

He had sustained several injuries some of which were quite severe to normal ninja. A large gash on his side refused to stop bleeding even with the Kyuubi healing him as fast as possible. The Sound-Nin were strong even so Naruto was stronger. If only his damn arm wasn't so badly broken that he could not use Jutsu.

Another sound Nin fell and did not rise, the rest stepped past their fallen comrade and kept fighting.

Naruto was quickly becoming tired he was sustaining more and more injuries… another of the Nin fell. It was three on one now and they were starting to look apprehensive. How can one ninja defeat so many of Orochimaru's top ninja? There must have been about twenty bodies that weren't moving and then there were those who were injured and had left via a side door. The only other person capable of this was Sasuke-sama and he was nearly as strong as Orochimaru-Sama and just as scary. The final Nin fell blood pouring from his body onto the already stained floor.

Slowly Naruto moved away from the dead and dying ninja towards where Sasuke had left the corridor after a few metres he slumped against the wall using it to support himself. He had been unprepared for the fight and so he had sustained the huge gash on his side early on soon followed by his broken arm. He had to find Sakura. Using the wall to support himself he slowly moved downwards in the direction he believed the dungeons to be.

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"I cannot find them." Hinata sounded worried.

"Nor I." Neji's normally calm exterior showed just how grave the situation was by showing a slight amount of concern.

Both of the Byakugan users had been searching for a while in silence

"Then we must fear that they are already inside. Shikamaru, how can we get in there without being noticed?" Shikamaru replied by crouching and moving his hands into his thinking stance.

A million thoughts passed through Shikamaru's head most were useless but one stood out. This one may just work.

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"S-Sakura-chan, is that you?"

"No, it isn't. Who are you and what are you doing here?" A female stood above him glaring down at him, focusing his one working eye he saw his mistake.

"Of course, you don't look like Sakura-chan at all. She would never dress like a slut." Naruto slid down the wall a little, his left eye was killing him he couldn't see anything with it. The Kyuubi was not able to heal the gash at his side the snake that had caused it must have had poison in its fangs, the Fox hadn't even tried to fix his eye yet but it would be a while before as Kyuubi had mentioned how hard it was for him to mend such things.

"Who are you? What are you doing?" the woman asked more forcefully.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and as you can see I'm injured and bloody exhausted." Naruto's sad attempt at a joke did not seem to have an affect although he now realised that she had been surprised when she heard his name.

"How can you be alive I saw Sasuke-kun order them to kill you. Those were some of our strongest nin." She said this with a glance over at the twenty or more corpses that littered the hall a few metres away.

When he didn't reply she reached down and grabbed him by the collar of his all black Jumpsuit top. She leaked out a large amount of killer intent, compared to kyuubi's it was nothing and so Naruto was able to easily ignore it. She started to block off his oxygen supply and then punched him in the gut, compared to Sakura that was hardly painful even if it did hit a cracked rib and two bruised ones.

"Step away from Naruto-kun" Sakura's voice was filled with anger. How could somebody, let alone a person her age, look so slutty?

She backed away from Naruto and instead turned to glare at Sakura, hatred written on all of her features. "You must be Sakura, weren't you fighting Kabuto?"

"He's dead. Leave before you are as well." The woman backed away not believing that this pink haired kunoichi could have killed a bug let alone Kabuto.

Sakura walked forward and the woman fled. "Naruto what happened to you?" Sakura was shocked by how battered he looked.

Naruto coughed his cracked ribs flared with pain and slid down the rest of the way to the floor Sakura knelt down beside him and hastily started to heal him first his arm then his ribs lastly she started to work on the deep gash on his side. The gash would not close. She used every technique she knew but nothing worked. She had to get help. She had to get him to a hospital, to Konoha, to Tsunade. Before he bled to death.

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Kakashi was ready his team was waiting for the signal just as he was about to give it Hinata and Neji sensed something and hurriedly notified the others that they had seen Sakura's chakra and that another chakra was with her and though this other chakra was weak… they were both sure that it was Naruto.

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"Naruto hang on I'll get you to Tsunade soon" Sakura whispered to the ninja on her back. He had fainted when she had lifted him as the pain had swamped over him. His face was now a deathly pale green. She would have to hurry back to get help or Naruto would die.

She opened the doors in front of her that led, hopefully, to the outside world only to find that seven Sound Nin were staring at her in surprise. With a quick look at Naruto, Sakura realised that she could not fight her way past without causing Naruto more pain and wasting the little time he had left.

Before she could decide what to do the seven Nin in front of her all turned into ninja of Konoha including Kakashi and Jiraiya.

"S-Sakura-san what has happened to N-Naruto-kun" She had hardly noticed Hinata she had been so relieved to see the others that had come to help.

"We have to hurry he's seriously injured I don't know what happened to him but this gash on his side won't heal we have to get to Tsunade-sama only she can help" Sakura started to run as fast as she could the others followed as they leaped from branch to branch as fast as they could stopping only to check on Naruto to see that he was steadily becoming worse. He had lost a lot of blood.

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"Damn fox why can't you heal me?" For about the millionth time Naruto asked the Kitsune this question.

"…"

"Answer me damn you!!"

"I don't know why it isn't working, that snake must have been venomous."

"if I die you die as well"

"Thankyou for pointing that out, kit. Now get lost before your hindrance kills us both."

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The gates were up ahead Naruto had been in a fever for almost a whole day now. It had been two days since he had received his wounds and his condition was now critical.

"Sakura?" the ninja at the gates looked confused they had not seen her leave and Tsunade had not mentioned that she had left she guessed by the looks on their faces. "N-Naruto?!" It was Hinata who was carrying him at the moment she had hardly left his side. Both kunoichi ran straight to the hospital as the others ran to get Tsunade from her office.

"Hold on Naruto please we are so close." Hinata was whispering to her lifelong crush.

They were finally inside the hospital as they reached the doorway they heard a yell that seemed to have come from the Hokage's office they hoped Tsunade would come quickly.

Within a minute of that thought Tsunade came barging up to the door they had just passed through and had already grabbed Naruto from Hinata and carried him to an operating theatre.

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Four hours later Tsunade came out looking grim. Hinata nearly burst into tears when she saw her. Sakura stared intently at the Hokage's face. Kakashi's normally lazy expression was stiff and anxious. Jiraiya was staring out of the window as though he wished he were anywhere but in that room.

Tsunade's voice broke the silence "He's still in a critical condition but he should live."

Everyone in the room sighed in relief. Hinata really did burst into tears and Sakura went over to comfort her.

"Although he will not be able to move his left arm" although, she added silently, he may be able to with the help of the Kyuubi.

"Also we discovered that he will not be able to see out of his left eye. Permanently." Please let the Kyuubi be able to heal that.

"Sakura I will need to talk to you, be in my office in about an hour." Tsunade turned around and walked back into the room where her latest patient lay he was no longer feverish but he was still pale but thankfully he wasn't still that green colour that meant he was still poisoned.

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Slowly he opened his eyes. Well eye, one of his eyes seemed to be severely bandaged. He looked around the room and saw three people all asleep, looking out of the window he saw that it was either dawn or dusk after five minutes he concluded that it was dawn. Looking to his left he saw Sakura with her head beside his left arm he went to nudge her with his arm but nothing happened. He tried again. Still it did not move. He moved his right arm and it went straight up into the air he tried again with his left…

His movement seemed to have woken the girl on his right her pale violet eyes bleary with sleep looked into his own eye. "Naruto-kun?" His arm came down heavily by his side waking Sakura who in turn woke Kakashi who had fallen asleep on a chair by the window.

"Sakura what happened the last thing I remember was hearing you ask me if I could walk. How did we get back here and why are we back here what about Sasuke? And why are we in the hospital?"

"N-Naruto-kun you have been in hospital for nearly a week, you nearly died. We have to wait for Hokage-sama to tell you about the extent of your wounds. We were all really worried." Naruto stared in shock at the Hyuuga amazed that she had said so much to him and only stuttered once

"After you collapsed when you tried to walk I carried you out and when I got outside I found Kakashi, Jiraiya, Hinata, Neji, Lee, Kiba and Akamaru. After half a day of running you began to get feverish we got here as fast as we could which was in two day's we came straight here and Tsunade-sama treated you."

Kakashi stood up and said that he would go tell Tsunade that Naruto was awake and bring her here when he was sure she would not kill Naruto for leaving like that. The two girls sat watching Naruto carefully his one good eye was still a bit dull and he was still a bit pale but he had his usual happy look even if it was more tired than usual.

Naruto fell asleep again and so did Sakura but Hinata sat watching the man she loved.

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End of chapter one…

Chapter two may take a while to come out so sorry in advance

Please read and review, be nice this is my first non-oneshot.

Some translations:

Obaa Granny

Hebi Snake

Chikusyou damn

Shimatta Shit

Kuso shit/crap

Demo But

Kami God

Bakemono Demon