Chapter 2 : Faint Resemblance

I'm not listening to you now, I wasn't listening to you then.
I know that nothing will be the same again.
There's only so much I can handle, only so much I can take.
Have we been here before?
Will we be here again?
I don't know how much more of me you expect...


Naruto awoke to the sound of soft footsteps. Suddenly on alert, he snapped open his brilliantly blue eyes but didn't move right away. Blinking a few times to allow his eyes to do their quick adjust, he starred at the moss underneath him before slowly moving his head up to look outside. It was hard to see through the many, long trails of leaves from the willow, but when the wind blew he could catch glimpses of the outside.

He waited in anticipation for the wind to blow again so he could see the outside, and when it finally did he saw that it was only a lone adolescent buck he'd heard, and so he let a sigh of relief go through his lips.

/"What the FUCK Kyuubi?!"/ Naruto yelled inside of himself as he got up from his lain down position and into the morning sunlight, causing the deer to prick it's ears towards him before going back to eating it's grass, deeming him not an enemy. Naruto continued up the tall willow that was hiding the cave with it's roots, deciding to sit on one of the broad branches.

"What?" The fox replied lazily back, himself picking his teeth with a claw while starring at a dripping wall through the steel bars.

/"I told you to look out for enemies!"/ Naruto steamed in his mind, moving his head to look down into the small clearing where the deer still was nibbling. Maybe he should kill it for lunch, he hadn't eaten for a good week now when he thought about it.

"Last time I checked, deer aren't exactly our enemies." Kyuubi said with a breezy snort. Naruto was going to ask for the plural, but stopped as he saw a few more deer, no doubt does, come into the clearing to joint the male.

/"You could have at least told me that they weren't harmful so I could skip the whole heart attack."/ Naruto thought his reason right back as he watched a fowl practice bucking.

"Oh, then get ready for another one."

/"Why? Is a big tiger going to come and eat these herbavores any time soon?"/

"As much as I like watching survival of the fittest between animals, I like watching it even more when humans do it."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto actually groaned out as he rolled his head around a few times to stretch, it being a little stiff from not having a pillow last night.

"Kukuku...let me see. The REAL enemies, not these grass eating lumps of meat, are coming in about…hm…seven minutes?" Kyuubi crackled.

Naruto was speechless for a second before a roar escaped his lips, unable to hold it in, causing the peaceful deer to suddenly bolt to only god knows where.

/"How?"/ He asked inside himself as he jumped up higher on the willow so that he could see farther.

"You may have hidden your chakra…but I didn't hide mine last night while you were asleep. It's been accumulating in this one point for about ten hours now. Even if we were twice as far away from that underground mansion, they would have still found us." Kyuubi said with smirk of satisfaction in his words.

/"What the FUCK is your PROBLEM?!"/ Naruto ferally yelled, the words echoing in his head.

"I wanna fight you brat, what do you THINK?!" Kyuubi growled right back, starting to get annoyed at how this brat of a teenager was talking back to him.

Naruto was silent for a second before doing a few jutsus, his invisibility one from before, and then one that encased him in a (also invisible) bubble that didn't let anything in or anything out (for the most part). This would successfully hide both his and Kyuubi's chakra for the time being and his physical body from the naked eye.

Lastly, he slouched against the tree trunk and closed his eyes and assumed the position of meditating. Within a few seconds, he was in front of the huge cage that held the demon inside him in.

"Well, well. Came to give me a visit, did you? I feel SO honored..." Kyuubi purred in delight, obviously extremely amused on how everything was turning out in the demon's favor.

Naruto was silent as he glared up at the immense animal, seeing it's nine tails sway behind it and how it's giant red eyes gleamed in the dark light.

"You're going to be cut off for a week." Naruto sharply stated as he felt around in his black jacket.

Kyuubi starred at him blankly before all out laughing, the entire sewer like environment shaking with his loud roars of amusement.

"Ah, you crack me up sometimes Kit." Kyuubi said with a snarl as he bared his teeth; fangs hanging past his chin.

Naruto continued to stay silent as he revealed a small piece of paper from his jacket and bravely started walking forward to the cage.

"Just for amusement, I'm going to let you try so I can laugh at your failure." Kyuubi said with a smirk as he held down the urge to claw the ungrateful teenager.

Still with a straight face, the blond jumped up and slapped the small piece of paper right next to the one his father had done seventeen years ago. Immediately, an electrical barrier of gold was added to the cage bars, filling in the gaps and making it a glowing, transparent wall.

Kyuubi howled angrily, feeling cheated, behind the gold and rammed against it, but was electrocuted and shot back with, now, burnt fur and, subsequently, pride. The fox starred at the electrical-current barrier before pure, uncontained rage filled him.

"You little SHIT!" the fox yelled as he starred down at the ninja.

Naruto leaned forward and cupped his ear with his hand, a puzzling expression on his face.

"What fox? I can't hear you." Naruto darkly laughed as he crossed his arms.

"Oh, but you can hear ME perfectly well, can't you?" Naruto continued as he looked down at his nails before bringing out his small nail polish bottle, deciding that now was the time to paint his nails.

"How DARE you! I am the LORD of all tailed be-" But the Kyuubi was interrupted by Naruto who couldn't hear him and so had started talking again.

"This is one of the seals that the Akatsuki uses on containers like me that would subdue the demon until it's time to take that demon out." Naruto easily explained as he started on his right hand, already done with the left.

"You see, you won't be able to have ANY connection to me for the next seven days. Pity that it doesn't last longer, don't you think?" Naruto said with a pout as he blew on his now perfectly finished nails, his steady hands having no problem painting the smooth surfaces.

Kyuubi could do nothing but growl before ramming against the barrier again, and so getting blown back with even more burns as before.

"See you in a week then." Naruto said with a smirk as he turned around to leave and bring himself back to the world.

Snapping his eyes open for the second time that day, he scanned down from the trees to see that two figures were coming close, in now only a two mile radius. Jumping down from the tree and releasing both his jutsus, he started to run and look for an open field or something similar to fight on, knowing he wanted something open because he was best at close combat, plus he needed to finish this quickly. With a few hand signs in a second, he intentionally released all his cloaking jutsus so that it'd be extremely easy for them to follow and find him.

Within another two minutes, he found a nice grass opening, tall pine trees lining the almost perfectly round flat ground. He stood there for a minute anticipating his enemies' entrance as he flexed his clawed hands, finding it slightly odd to not have Kyuubi talking in his mind with him.

Finally, the two figures dropped in front of him silently, squashing the green grass with their black shinobi slippers.

"Ah…so it's only an Akatsuki member." Orochimaru hissed as he licked his lips with his long tongue, making Naruto already want to rip it out.

"Who are you?!" the second figure snapped, Naruto finding in amusement that it was Sasuke. Throughout the years, he was similar to how Naruto had grown. His hair was now fairly long and he had a tall and muscular body, more filled out then Naruto, who was lanky and didn't really seem to have much muscle at all.

"Answer me demon." Sasuke snapped as he took a step forward, a hand on his sword that was attached to his hip from a thick purple string, his outfit very similar to Orochimaru's, which made Naruto hold down a gag. One, in how creepy they looked matching and two, in how they had the worst fashion sense ever. Even, if possible, more faggish then the Akatsuki's nail polish.

"You know me too well Sasuke-teme." Naruto said as he took a step forward himself, using a surname he hadn't said in quiet a while. He could see Sasuke's eyes twitch in annoyance before widening in recollection.

"So you do remember me, oh dear teammate? I am TRULY honored." Naruto barked out sharply as he unbuttoned part of his jacket collar to reveal his all-too-familiar face to Sasuke.

"N-No way…" Sasuke muttered out, not being able to help but stutter. Naruto wanted to laugh at how Sasuke tried SO very hard to hold back the obvious emotion that filtered through his chocked out words.

"Ah yes…and I expect that you though I died like everyone else?" Naruto said as his eyes filtered to Orochimaru who was just standing there idly, making Naruto wonder if he was the real thing.

"How? You…" Sasuke continued to struggle to say, his hand now slightly shaking as it still gripped his samari-like sword.

"It don't matter." Naruto slurred out as one of his long canines brushed his bottom lip as he smirked, "For I'm here to take that head on your Sensei." Naruto snarled out, his smirk now so wide that Sasuke could see all of his maniacally sharp fang like teeth.

"I can't allow that." Sasuke said as he finally unsheathed his sword, the metal lightly glimmering in the midday sunlight.

"Oh well…I always DID want to fight you. Kick your little pretty-boy ass back to queer land." Naruto said with a sigh before standing up straight, waiting for Sasuke to attack him.

"Why don't you get ready to attack me?" Sasuke growled, his eyes blinking as Naruto's forehead protector's glare shone in his eyes for a second, the carved straight line still easily visible.

"I am ready. Two legs will be enough to defeat you." Naruto said lightly, deciding to have at least a little fun with his prey this time, unlike with Kabuto.

Sasuke was quiet for a second before he bound up, the crunch of grass under his feet accompanied with the distinctive sound of metal slicing the air.

Naruto easily back flipped to avoid the sword, intentionally being a little lagging as to allow the sword to barely brush against his long bangs, causing adrenaline start seeping into his body. Sasuke didn't wait another second before attacking again just as Naruto landed on his feet. Naruto easily sidestepping each jab or swing that Sauske sent his way, a passive expression on his face the entire time. In a desperate attempt, Sasuke lunged for Naruto's shins, making the blond jump in the air. While in mid-air, Naruto did a 360 spin and connected his fast moving foot with Sasuke's pale face with a crack.

The Uchiha skidded a good twenty feet before finally stopping, his white kimono now adorned with grass stains and mud. Sasuke spat out a little blood, a leering grin on his face.

"You've gotten much better." He said as he walked to grab his sword that he'd let go of in his short flight, jerking it out of the soft soil.

"It has been five years. And I have been training under the best, unlike some people." Naruto snidely replied right back, flexing his toes underneath his sandals out of habit when he was trying to keep alert.

"And who is this 'best'?" Sasuke scoffed as he got close to Naruto again, widening his legs in preparation to pounce.

Naruto closed his eyes for a second, getting ready to savor the next moment before saying, "Your brother. Itachi Uchiha." He opened his eyes just in time to see Sasuke's face fall the tiniest bit. Naruto held down a sigh of annoyance. He had been expecting so much more from the raven haired teen.

"He's MUCH better then you. Compared to him, you give your family SHAME while he gives it HONOR." Naruto bravely said as he himself took a few steps closer, hoping his mocks would pierce his old friend's stone heart, or pride. Naruto actually preferred the later.

"You have NO IDEA what you're saying." Sasuke snarled, his curse mark creating black flames across his body before turning his skin to turn a sickly grey, his hair elongating and changing to a frosty white. Naruto yawned in boredom as he starred into his black and red eyes, three deadly wheels spinning in each sharingan.

"Pa-thetic. Depending on someone else for power." Naruto said as he held down another yawn.

"And what about your Fox?" Sasuke snarled, the raw power that was coursing through him making him start to feel arrogant. No one had survived while fighting against him when he was in this form.

"Kyuubi has been sealed away for the time being. Only me baby." Naruto said with a foxy grin that would have made any girl swoon. But in this case, it only served to piss Sasuke off even more.

With a loud yell, Sasuke advanced on Naruto, attempting to lodge his sword into his stomach to kill him slowly and painfully. In a flash, he felt his metal pierce through Naruto's flesh and go out the other side, Sasuke looking up in amusement to find Naruto's face contorted in surprise and agony.

"Not so tough, now are you?" Sasuke darkly chucked as he retracted his sword and kicked Naruto in the chest, causing him to fall down on the ground, red starting to seep into the ground.

"Well, at least I know that jutsu works well in battle. Thanks so much Sasuke."

Sasuke swirled his head to look over his shoulder to find Naruto behind him, his blue eyes sparkling dangerously. Without a second to move, Naruto kicked Sasuke in the back, causing the older of the two to fall on the ground in pain, feeling at least three of his vertebras broken from the kick. Sasuke glanced from the ground to Naruto's seemingly dead body that started to disintegrate into the grass.

"H-How?" Sasuke struggled to say as he got up, his eyes drifting from the corpse body to an alive and breathing Naruto.

"Simply, I made myself a clone, and so a new body, and transferred everything of myself into that. Sadly, it takes up a good chunk of chakra and at the moment I need to complete a mission. Now…" Naruto drifted off as he looked across the plain to where Orochimaru still stood, his tongue now hanging out of his mouth in surprise.

"What a despicable child you have become. That was a forbidden jutsu, was it not? Too bad you did it so quickly that I couldn't see all of it..." Orochimaru hissed as his white skin tightened while he smiled, his gold eyes dancing with fire that was being fueled by this current 'entertainment'.

"And what a despicable freak of nature you're always been." Naruto said as he unbuttoned his jacket to throw down, knowing that he'd need his claws to at least cut open the old man's throat.

"You will not lay a hand on me without the help of your demon." Orochimaru said as he crossed his arms.

"Who says I need to use my hands?" Naruto stated as he held down a snort as his nails elongated into claws, before advancing. In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of Orochimaru, just barely brushing the sannin's chest with a lung of his claws as the snake master back flipped away.

Naruto knew that Sasuke had emitted a large burst of chakra and soon shinobi who might be in the area would come to check it out. Naruto really didn't mind fighting, it was just that he knew he'd already spent thirty percent of his chakra with everything from this morning. While it looked easy, the seal actually was supplied by his OWN chakra and so he needed to give it a constant supply, so that meant around twenty percent at all times for the next seven days. Plus his fight with Sasuke, a subtraction of another ten percent thanks to his Soul Switching jutsu, and knew that he needed at least fifty percent to travel the long distance to Pain if he wanted to make it in two or three days. That only left ten percent to fight Orochimaru against and with no margin for error and no time for petty fights with other rough shinobi. He knew that if he wanted to defeat the sanin in a short time, he would have to come on extremely hard from the very beginning and end it before it even really began.

Snorting in annoyance as Orochimaru shot a hundred snakes at him from his mouth, Naruto took a deep breath before roaring with all this might, not only causing the snakes to disintegrate, but for Orochimaru to be shot through three thick-trunk-pines, stopping halfway through a forth. In the blink of an eye, Naruto was in front of Orochimaru, lightly panting as to try and regain his breathing from the extensive yell in which he felt like he'd yelled up his lungs.

But not wasting any time, Naruto flexed his right hand before crouching and swiping Orochimaru's head straight off his shoulders with precise claws. He starred at the beheaded corpse with disgust as thoughts of how this was too easy to be the real Orochimaru swam through his silent head. But when he looked down at the body and how it smelled exactly like it should, he nodded his head in affirmation.

Yet this affirmation was cut short as a sudden pang of pain shot through his body.

Looking down, he found a sword poking out a few inches above his left hip bone, luckily hitting nothing of vital importance. In fury, he grabbed the sword and pushed it out, twisting around to look at an exhausted Sasuke.

"You're so pathetic that I'm not even going to kill you myself." Naruto snarled as he crouched down, grabbing Sasuke around his neck and cutting off much of his oxygen. As the onyx haired one gasped for air, the blond lightly smirked.

"Should I castrate you? I do remember you saying you wanted to revive your clan…how would it feel if you got one of your dreams taken away…?" Naruto said as his eyes flickered with blue fire.

"No." Naruto continued to say as he blinked, an even grimmer smirk coming onto his young face. "Instead, I'm going to let you suffer by your own sword. A long and painful death. Seems fitting, doesn't it?" Naruto snarled as he took the sword and plunged it through Sasuke's stomach, making his face pale as blood gushed out of the open wound. Naruto twisted the sword, making Sasuke manage to weakly gasp in utter agony even with a lack of air. What Sasuke had wanted to do to Naruto, Naruto was doing to him. Definitely a case of irony at it's worst.

"This is goodbye. Forever." Naruto said as he flung him down, Orochimaru's head coincidentally laying not six feet from Sasuke's.

"N-Naruto…" Naruto heard Sasuke whisper just as he was about to bound away.

"What have you done to yourself?" Sasuke muttered breathlessly, his eyes becoming to look the slightest bit glassy and glazed over.

"You're a fucking, bloody hypocrite." Naruto spat before going back to the clearing to pick up his coat. He looked down at his now not so trivial wound. It seemed to be bleeding quiet a lot, more then usual, and was soaking Naruto's clothes. But this was unimportant. What mattered now was reporting back directly to Pain, who he knew was deep into the land of stone, which was still quite a ways away since he was only on the border. He didn't have chakra to waste on healing a flesh wound that would heal on it's own.

He actually cursed himself for sealing Kyuubi away. If he was still present, his wound would have been healed the second he'd taken the sword out. And maybe the fight would have been even more fun. Kyuubi always did know how to draw out a fight and play with his opponents. On top of all that, he wouldn't have to limit his chakra limit to eighty percent since that stupid seal was taking up twenty all the time. Now recognizing the regret from his compulsive decision to imprison Kyuubi, Naruto snorted out of habit when something went astray. He had acted out of rash anger and annoyance at himself for not being clean enough, along with the for-longed feeling of paranoia, and on top of all that, how he'd felt betrayed. But Kyuubi WAS a demon, and he was only looking out to have a fun time.

Yet Naruto knew he couldn't take the seal off or he threatened to break his father's, too, since then were now intermingled until Naruto's one wore off, and the blond wasn't too queen to be fully possessed by Kyuubi anytime soon. Fuck. Why was everything so sticky?

Shaking his head of these thoughts, Naruto finally bounded out into the forest to continue. He almost missed a branch as he remembered he didn't have his hat with him. He must have left it at the cave. Stopping for a second, he thought it over. It was customary to throw away your hat when you were found out, but it would leave hard evidence in a place where there weren't any for miles. Any shinobi with half a brain would link that to the two murders. This would usually be alright, but for a murder at this magnitude and the criminal organization not wanting much attention, it was a problem. Especially since this was his first mission and he had to make sure everything went right.

Cursing, he turned back in the direction where he knew the small cave was. Arriving at the place he'd left not an hour before, he crawled in and found his hat. Sick of the cramped space already, Naruto leapt out, tipping the hat on his head before taking off into the dark forest for a second time, ignoring the odd pangs from his wound that he'd never really felt before.

X - X - X

Sasuke, for the second time in his life, had no idea at what he should do. He closed his eyes in pain from both his body and his head, yet refused to cry out.

He struggled to rise, but found that he couldn't. He already knew the reason why: it was because he'd been stabbed with his own sword. He smirked in satisfaction that at least Naruto had been stabbed as well, even if it was for a moment. Because unlike a normal sword, his samurai sword was covered with a very special poison that Kabuto had made for him. It was odorless and almost sightless (only giving the sword a more sheen like look). The interesting thing with this venom was that it took a while to accumulate in the body and when it finally had gone through the entire blood stream, it shut down the body completely. By putting the body in a coma, it allowed Sasuke to take them for future use if need be without unnecessary injury.

Right now, Sasuke wasn't really worried about the injury, it could heal on it's own. And he would no doubt survive the coma like state that would last a normal ninja a month, but for him, it would usually be only a week. What he was wary about was how he was totally defenseless in the open woods, to both humans and animals with the smell of blood all over him and his excessive chakra output not five minutes ago.

But his current thinking was cut short as he head a gasp. Eyes now wide open, he starred at Orochimaru's head. Within a few seconds the eyes started blinking.

"S…Sasuke…" He heard his sensei slither out as the eyes rolled back and starred at him.

"How?" Sasuke gasped out himself, already feeling the poison start it's tranquilizer powers on his toes.

"You may cut off a snake's head…but it will survive for at least a few days more." Orochimaru sneered, his eyes dull. Sasuke actually wondered if his sensei was going to die and wasn't surprised to find that he hoped for it.

"But I can live inside of you…" Orochimaru said as his eyebrows furrowed, the Uchiha noticing a glint in his eyes that made Sasuke finally see that he was far from dead. Damn.

"Why should I?" Sasuke snapped, trying his best to inch away from the decapitated head when he could still use his upper body.

"I have much power and knowledge Sasuke-kun. All that could be yours, and you wouldn't even know I was there. I'll just be in the back of your head…watching from the sidelines."

Sasuke looked up in the early afternoon sky, thinking it over. With Naruto obviously much more powerful then him…he needed to catch up and fast. Absorbing one of the legendary sanin…would defiantly be a great shortcut.

"Yes. But only if you agree that you don't interfere."

"Of course…I've already said that."

"Then do it already." Sasuke said in disgust at himself, closing his eyes again.

X - X - X

"Did you feel that? Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi stopped his running, skidding to a stop on a thick tree branch. The person who had asked the question landing silently next to him within a second of his own landing.

"I did." Kakashi replied quickly, not turning his head to look at his traveling partner.

"What should we do? That was huge blast of chakra."

"Well…what do YOU want to do Sakura?" Kakashi asked as he turned his head to his last student.

The pink haired kunoichi turned away at the question, contemplating about it as she stared at the moss under her heeled feet. Something about that blast had been eerily familiar.

"Lets go."

Throughout the years, Sakura had developed into a beautiful, seventeen and a half year old young lady. She had kept her silky hair short, the ends brushing her shoulders lightly as she ran. She had been training with Lady Tsunade since she was twelve…when Sasuke had finally ran away, not a month after Naruto had been supposedly killed by the Akatsuki. She closed her eyes to hold back her tears, remembering that god-awful, almost suicidal, part of her life. The only way she had brought herself out of it was training like crazy, trying to make her physical pain outweigh her mental pain. Along with learning extreme chakra control like her mentor, she had learned the best medical nin jutsu and was now only second to Tsunade herself. She had finally been redeployed as Kakashi's pupil to help search down criminals…and Orochimaru and Sasuke were close to the top of the list. Surprisingly, Sakura had volunteered to look for them, and Kakashi had agreed to come along for an equally strong second hand. They were on their way to their base from a new lead when this had suddenly happened.

Breaking herself out of her thoughts, she looked up from her slim, fast moving legs to the whizzing leaves of the forest. She was determined to bring Sasuke back…no matter what it took.

She had already lost Naruto and like HELL was she going to lose Sasuke.

X - X - X

Not far away that person, who Sakura had been thinking about, groaned in agony as his body tried to adjust to absorbing Orochimaru's chakra. He had known Orochimaru's power was warped in darkness, but it was hard for him to manage all this evil in his body while trying to keep his own sanity. He had already guessed that Orochimaru was trying to take over his body as he was weakened from his battle with Naruto, but he knew that he could still overcome the snake sanin. He had too much to live for already. Not only did he have to still kill Itachi, he now had to kill Naruto too.

To him, ever second felt like a year of agony as he tried to expel the darkness. He barely had enough strength to lean over to puke globs of black, himself not wanting to know what it was.

Finally, as the stinging started to fade, himself not knowing if it was really going away or if it was his sword's poison finally fully kicking in, he felt the first taste of freedom from Orochimaru. He had absorbed his raw power, but not his state of mind and desires. He closed his eyes in relief.

Right when he was about to drift off into his coma sleep, hoping his aura would scare away any animals that would come to eat him, he felt something land on either side of him.

Opening his eyes, he found that everything was one giant blur of blue from the sky and green from the trees. As he was about to close his eyes again from lack of energy, pink filled his blurred vision as well as two sparkling gems of green.

He could faintly hear two voices yelling at each other, but then everything went entirely black.

X - X - X

Naruto didn't know when it had started, but he suddenly felt like he was drifting in and out of his body. He'd be running through the forest and he'd get ready to land on a branch when he'd suddenly black out and he'd be falling through the air. Thankfully he'd be high enough so that when he came back to consciousness from the whizzing air in his face he was able to sloppily land on another, lower branch before he crashed to the ground.

After this had happened four times, Naruto had stopped and had jumped down to the forest floor, actually tripping as he landed and so had fallen on top of the knee high grass. He struggled to sit off, ripping his jacket and shirt off to take a closer look at his Sasuke inflicted wound. Groaning in partial annoyance and anger, he looked down to find that the wound was foaming. Blood was still gushing out, but around the edges there was a bluish-green like foam. Bending down, he sniffed the wound and cursed as he smelt a hint of poison, now knowing why his body was acting the way it was. He guessed that the foam around the edges was his advanced body trying to repel the poison.

Having no energy left, he finally laid down on his back, clasping his large hands over the wound sloppily to try and stop the bleeding. Feeling the warm liquid on his hands as it went through his fingers, he closed his eyes. Opening them a few seconds later, he looked up to the blue sky and tree canopy, finding a few birds flying overhead.

He watched in a daze as a feather from one start to float down, getting closer and closer to his down form. Finally, it landed on the tip of his nose, balancing on him for a second before a gust of wind took it to some other unknown place, Naruto not having enough energy to turn his head to watch it float away.

He sneered as he suddenly thought of how boring he was being right now. Laying in a random part in a random forest watching some random feather when he should have already been back to Pain's lair. He moved one of his blood-covered hands to rub against his pinkie finger, yearning for that ring to be there. If he'd been at the base then Pain would have already given him the permission to wear it…he would have been a full member already, no doubt given a cool assignment...

"Heh, I bet you're laughing at me right now, aren't you Kyuubi?" He muttered out darkly, "My first mission and I can't do anything right. Probably would have helped if I hadn't acted like a complete ass and sealed you away...you didn't deserve that." He closed his eyes for a second as the bright sunlight was getting to him. He was now slightly panted, feeling as if his lungs were starting to close up.

"Now not only am I going to be late, I don't even know what's up with this gnarly wound. Will it kill me...? I don't want to die..." He started to drift off as his eyelids started to fall over his eyes in a haphazard way.

"I'm to young...to die..." He finally closed his eyes and let the darkness fall over him.

X - X - X

Sakura was scarred out of her wits. Sasuke was fading fast and she had no idea what to do. She had guessed from his stomach wound that he had been stabbed with the sword that laid not far off, Kakashi having pulled it out when they'd first arrived, but she didn't know why it was affecting him so much. She remembered his glassy eyes that she'd been staring into not thirty seconds ago before he'd closed them, yet to open them again.

She knew the pain must be overwhelming, but that was really no reason for Sasuke's body to start shutting down to the extreme that it was. It just didn't make sense!

"I wonder who did this." Sakura heard her mentor mutter as he expected Orochimaru's corpse, knowing he couldn't do anymore for Sasuke as Sakura could.

"Anyway, he's long dead and I doubt that this sannin is going to come back to life." Kakashi further said as he finally turned his one visible eye back to the teenage pair on the ground.

"Kakashi-sensei, please help me." Sakura pleaded as tears started to blur her vision. All those years of training and she was still the spineless, weak kunoichi that no one would acknowledge.

"Ok, first off, you need to relax. Let me come and smell." Kakashi tried to comfort as he kneeled down on Sasuke's other side, making sure to not touch a black puddle of god-knows-what, and craned his head towards the wound, sniffing it a few times.

He stood up again, Sakura rising with him, as he put a hand to his chin in thought.

"Do you smell anything Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura choked out, failing to stop her tears from further gathering.

"There's no question that he's been poisoned with that sword. It's almost entirely odorless and I'm sure I can only smell it now because it's been activated and mixed with blood."

"Is there anything we can do? I can't identify the poison at all even though I've memorized every single one and their cures from Tsunade's medical books!" Sakura cried, not being able to hold in her tears as they overflowerd her green eyes and cascaded down her thin face.

"I'm sorry Sakura…but that's how it is. I'm very sorry." Kakashi said as he stepped towards here to put a hand on her shoulder.

Sakura, hiding her face in her healing hands, looked up at her kind faced teacher, feeling a new wave of utter defeat. Out of upure desperation, she launched herself to him, hugging the silver haired man tightly around the chest as if she was scared he was going to leave her too.

"Now, now Sakura. It's all right. Everything happens for a reason." Kakashi tried to consol as he cautiously wrapped his arms around her too, still a little flustered at the intimate gesture.

"You just cry it out." He whispered as he buried his nose in her hair, liking the smell of faint strawberries much better then poison and Sasuke's blood.

"Sensei…" Sakura wailed out for the entire forest to hear.

A few trees away, a small group of deer watched with blinking brown eyes and flicking ears before prancing off, knowing with their intuition not to stay.

Kakashi snapped his eye open just in time to catch a glimpse of the buck as it dove into the bushes. But the Jounin shook it off as he tightened his grip on his student.

Sometimes he truly wondered what the point of being a shinobi was.

X - X - X

"Ah…so that is what is happening. Then call all members and order them to report to here immediately. With this sudden alliance action of all those fucking countries, we need to regroup before any other actions." Pein thoughtfully said to Zetsu who stood in front of him.

"Should I go inform Naruto of this order too?" Zetsu said as he looked away from his leader's piercing eyes.

"No…let him do what he has to do. The meeting place is here anyway and that's where he's headed right now. Let him survive on his own."

"Aw…but what happens if he dies? Who will I get to check out?" Konan said with a straight face, making Pein furrow his eyebrows in annoyance.

"Konan…" Pein said through clenched teeth.

"Yes Pein?" She asked with a straight face again as she avoided eye contact, taking her paper hair ornament out of her shocking blue hair to tweak with thin fingers.

Pein was silent for a second, trying to make Konan look up into his glaring face, but finally settled to glare at Zetsu who was still awkwardly standing there, not having been dismissed yet.

"You may leave." Pein said with a wave of his hand, the two souled member fleeing the room immediately, the white glad at the escape while the black wished to stay and see how things evolved between the sour pair.

"What a shit load of problems this has become…damn nations. Why don't they just roll over and DIE! It's inevitable that we're going to rule them one day." Pein informed as he laid down on his bed, putting his calloused hands over his ringed eyes.

"You know…I have an idea that could cheer you up." Konan purred as she climbed over Pein's body, hovering over him as her warm breath tickled his neck to whisper the proposal.

"Sounds nice."

X - X - X

"Do any of you have any idea why I've called you all here?" Tsunade asked as she starred out from behind her desk to the three Jounins.

"Not exactly m'lady...and not to sound rude, but will you please make it quick as I was just about to go see Lee. He just got back from a mission ya know! I'm SO PROUD!" Gai exclaimed as he held in tears of ecstasy.

"Yeah...anyway, what's this all about?" Asuma drawlded out as his cigarette's smoke played on his lips before melting back into the air.

"Yes, I'm also very curious for this odd meeting." The genjutsu master Kurenai asked while waving her hand to try and rid herself of the smoke from Asuma's cigarette that always seemed to engulf her.

Tsunade was quiet for a moment as she rested her face behind her intertwined fingers before she opened her piercing hazel eyes, making the three in front of her slightly tense.

"I know that this is really unnecessary, but I would like to ask your permission to use your former teams for an S rank mission of the utmost importance." Tsunade said calmly, although inside she was jittery with the statement.

"Has something happened?" Kurenai exclaimed as she took a step forward.

"It is nothing to panic about Kurenai."

"If it's 'nothing to panic about' why are you calling our past teams to do such a dangerous mission?!"

"Kurenai!" Asuma snapped as he laid a hand on her small shoulder, bringing her a step back. She stayed still, yet her red eyes gleamed with irritation and confusion before finally settling on her shoes, clenched fists at her sides.

"I'm sure you don't know this information, as it's top secret...but I'm going to tell you this because you three are reliable shinobi who I know I can trust from personal past experiences." Tsunade said before she closed her eyes and leaned back, intertwining her fingers now in her lap as she tried to think of how to word this as best as possible.

"We have recently had an extremely productive treaty of alliance sighed with almost every hidden village around. It's not constricting in only that we all agreed to try our hardest to catch the Akatsuki before they become an even bigger threat then they already are. All the members of the Akatsuki have congregated into one hidden, top secret place since news of this treaty has leaked and we need to find where that hideout is. If we can find them right now, when they're all gathered together, we may have a chance of eradicating them once and for all."

The Hokage opened her eyes to look at the three stunned faces.

"This was given to me by a slightly shaky lead, but none the less, if this is the truth we can't afford to let this up. I want to have your teams because they are, by far, the star youths of this village as of now. Each has a unique trait that can be very helpful to fight against these top ranking villains. I ask your permission for the use of your past students because I know that each of you value all of these teenagers with a big heart and you must know that if they DO go on this mission, it's very possible that they might die. But also know that this is for not only the betterment of this village, but for the entire shinobi world."

There was silence for a few minutes before Asuma broke it with a loud sigh before throwing his cigarette butt down on the floor and putting it out with his foot.

"After a speech like that...how can I say no?" He said with a sigh.

"I am confident about my team's abilities...they will fight with the fire of youth!!" Gai explained as he pumped his fist in the air, smiling as to prevent himself from crying.

"I..." Kurenai dawdled off, not knowing what to say.

"They'll be ok. Especially with Hinata and her Byakugan and Kiba with his recklessness that he can always back up. Then Shino is always clear headed and can clean everything up." Asuma assured as grabbed her around her thin waist and drew her closer to him.

"Alright." She sighed, resisting the urge to smile like a schoolgirl at the way Asuma was holding her in public, even if it was only a two person audience.

"Well...now that that's taken care of, Gai and Asuma you are dissmissed. Kurenai, I'd like a quick word." Tsunade said with a gentle smile on her seemingly young face.

Gai strutted out while Asume held Kurenai for a second more before planting a soft kiss on the top of her head before disappearing too.

With the click of the grand doors, it was silent as the two kunoichi starred at each other, or more like Kurenai starred at her shoes while Tsunade inspected her. The beautiful genjutsu expert knew she had been a little rude...but she didn't deserve to be punished for it! But what Tsunade said next dissipated all those thoughts in a split second.

"You're pregnant." Tsunade said seriously, causing Kurenai to snap her head up with a deep blush.

"H-How did you know?" She asked as she place her hands on her still flat stomach, having just found out herself two days ago.

"I'm a medic nin, what do you expect? Well, know that this changes things. I was planning on having both you and Asuma go with your teams...but that's impossible now. Gai will go, but you other two will stay here."

"No! Asuma doesn't know...at least let him go. He WANTS to!" Kurenai pleaded, her arms moving to hug herself.

"It's already decided. You and him will be staying here, and no arguing or pleading will change that. You may go now." Tsunade said before she waved her hand to motion the last command and twisting in her chair to stare out the large open windows.

"Damn." Kurenai swore under her breath as she left out the doors, feeling as if this sudden gift of a baby had become a curse.

X - X - X

"Kakashi-sensei..."

"Don't say it. It's not your fault."

Sakura bit her tongue after Kakashi's command, surprised at how he knew she was going to say really before it solidified in her developed brain.

"But...I just have to say it. I'm sorry." She blurted out suddenly as she stopped on a tree branch. Yet this time tears didn't form. She'd used them all up in her tight embrace with Kakashi.

"Sakura..." Kakashi sighed, finding that when he looked into her eyes he found the same innocence he'd seen at their first meeting. Yet when he blinked, he finally noticed how much of a woman she had become. She had really grown up.

"No one is blaming you for anything."

"But...I was so useless...if I could have identified the poison, if I could have cured him..."

Kakashi wished he could put a hand on her shoulder in comfort like before, but knew that his hands were being used right now.

"And it doesn't really help that I have to carry him all the way BACK!" Sakura snarled, surprising Kakashi in how quickly her mood swung.

"It's custom for top criminals to be taken back to the village were they were wanted. Just to make precautions and do an autopsy to see if there's any secrets still left in the body. I wonder why the other person who did the killings didn't do it, but it doesn't matter anymore. I thought Tsunade would have taught you that." Kakashi said as he leaped off the branch, hoping Sakura would follow so they'd get to the Leaf Village as soon as possible. He'd MUCH rather carry Sasuke, in his opinion, then a decapitated snake sanin that had killed the Third and countless others.

Sakura chose not to answer as she looked down at Sasuke's pale hands that hung over her shoulders, thinking in despair of how she'd longed to hold his hand. As a couple.

"I knew that..." She whispered the lie as she took off too, focusing her brilliantly beautiful green eyes to the forest in front of her and not his hands.

Kakashi looked back at his student, knowing what was going through her head and heart all too well from his own deceased team and wishing that she could have been spared.

X - X - X

"So why have you called us all here?" Shikamaru drawled out as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Yes, I'd like to know as I was just in the middle of shopping and It'd just found this AMAZING dress and I was going to-" Ino's puffy ramble was cut of as one of Shikamaru's hands moved from his pocket to her mouth, making her cheeks turn the slightest bit pink at the innocent contact.

"I might as well get down to business since all of you are here." Tsunade said as she looked out at the three former team collected youths of Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Lee, Neji, TenTen, Kiba, Shino, and Hinata. They were each from the ages of sixteen and a half to nineteen, both Hyugas being both the youngest and oldest.

Tsunade sighed as she leaned back in her not-as-comfortable-chair-as-she'd-like before closing and opening her demanding hazel eyes to look at each of the youths dead in the eye, not getting much reaction except for when Hinata blushed lightly and side stepped a few inches closer to Kiba.

"What I am about to tell you is TOP SECRET. If this leaks out...I don't even want to know the dire consequences."

At this harsh statement, almost all the youths tensed, Shikamaru the only one who was still lax as he took a cigarette from behind his ear and easily lit it with his plain metal lighter, the soft click of ignition sounding loud in the drop dead silence of the room.

"Now...this is about the Akatsuki." Tsunade started her long speech about the overall history of the organization, it's known members (including their discription in both physical and shinobi ways), and, the most important part, in how they were supposedly all collected in the same area. She finished her long, but very educational lecture, before gazing up into the nine different faces.

"So you want us to go after them?" Neji said with a twitch of his lavender eyes outside as a few birds flew by.

"Precisely." Tsunade said with a curt nod of her head, her low pigtails swinging with the stiff motion.

"But why us? I mean...no offense guys, but we're not exactly the best shinobi or kunoichi of the village. Plus we're fairly young and we don't have much experience in something as huge as this." TenTen smartly added, grinning on the inside as Neji nodded his head once at her wise words.

"YOU may think that, but you are all outstanding shinobi and kunoichi that are the cream of the crop right now. I'm sending you for all of your good qualities that will intermingle and then hopefully be able to defeat the ten, or so, criminal members. Your diversity will be their downfall." Tsunade said with pride, hoping that at least a little of it would get through to the stubborn teenagers.

"You are almost all Jounin, and that's amazing as that. Now, no more arguments. Nara Shikamaru will be your leader as he has the most experience. You will despatch tomorrow at the gate, 0530 hours and don't be late!" Tsunade snapped, tardiness being one of her major pet peeves.

The three teams nodded their heads before leaving the office and then continuing down the hallway and out of the exquisite building.

"So...seems like the world was just put on our shoulders." Kiba sighed as they all gathered in a circle not far away from the building, knowing they still had other things to discuss before tomorrow rather then the meeting time. Akamaru whined as he nudged Hinata's arm, begging him to pet him. The young Hyuga couldn't hide her shy smile as she tentively started to stroke the large white dogs spikey, yet soft, fur.

"I agree, but this is a great time to show what we got." TenTen said with a smirk, absently twirling a kunai on her index finger, making Chouji a little nervous as he stood next to her.

"YOSH!" Lee added as he pumped a fist in the air while jumping in glee at this golden opportunity to show how he was just as ingenious as Neji and anyone else.

"Is there anything else we need to really talk about rather then bring the essentials, since I feel this is going to be a long term mission. But pack light since it's in the Land of Stone and that's a while away." Neji said as he crossed his arms, his hands disappearing into the sleeves of his white kimono like outfit.

The others nodded their heads, knowing that they had lots to do, and it being four in the afternoon already, they needed every minute left of the day.

Everyone went their own ways, leaving Ino and Shikamaru starring across at each other. Shikamaru simply shrugged his shoulders, turning around to start walking home, knowing his Mom would have a hissy fit if he didn't tell he what was going asap. Ino sighed as she followed, knowing that her house was very close to his and so they naturally had the same route home.

Ino looked down at her high heeled shinobi boots as she walked, Shikamaru's half opened eyes moving from the end of his burning cigarette to her pretty face before finally landing on the skies above him, finding that the late afternoon light was just starting to color the clouds with various colors.

"You'll do fine." He suddenly blurted, not only surprising himself but also Ino.

"What're you talking about?" Ino laughed nervously, playing with her short shirt that did nothing to hid her flat stomach. Shikamaru sighed, knowing that he had just entered into dangerous waters.

"You're worried about being up to par with everyone since you're the only Chūnin, even though you could be a Jonin if you wanted." He said as he stretched his thin arms above his spiky head, yawning as he did so but making sure that his prized roll of tobacco didn't drop from his wide open mouth.

Ino was silent as they walked, the only sound being the crunch of dirt beneith their sandals. It was silent all the way to Shikamaru's house, where he walked up the few steps before opening the door, intending to go in, before Ino stopped him.

"So what if I'm scarred?" Ino fumed up suddenly, her face graced pink again, yet this time from anger.

Shikamaru sighed, thinking of how troublesome women could be sometimes.

"What do you want me to say?" He stated bluntly as he puffed out a smoke ring, making Ino scrunch her nose in disgust. She never did like it when Asuma smoked, and now HE was doing it too.

With a huff, she walked up to him and yanked the cigarette from his mouth before using her high heel to ground it into the welcome mat of his house.

"Invite me to watch the clouds, like I know you do everyday at this time." She said with her head held high before strutting in.

Shikamaru sighed, but couldn't help but let a ghost of a smile come across his face as he followed her to his lanai outside his room where clouds of all colors waited to be seen.

"What a drag."

X - X - X

Naruto groaned as sunlight suddenly filtered into his breathtaking blue eyes, only to be blinded. He was about to cover his eyes to block out the inferring sunlight, but found that he couldn't move his arm.

In a second, it all came flooding back.

The battle. The sword. The Uchiha.

Growling weakly, he rapidly blinked as to try and adjust to the overwhelming sunlight. Not being able to move his body, he cursed as he also noted he couldn't feel any part from his neck down and he could barely open his mouth to breath, knowing he still couldn't talk as it'd take too much precious oxygen.

Closing his eyes, he thought of how a suppose to be smooth and perfectly thought out mission, this once-in-a-life time opportunity, had gone downhill because of his carelessness.

Cursing, he told himself that once he got full control over his body again he was going to set everything right no matter what it took because he was NOT a failure.


Glossary/Notes:

0530 - military time for 5:30 AM

Ages of everyone (just for clarification, and yes they're tweaked a -little- bit):

Kiba - 17½

Shino - 17

Hinata - 16½

Chouji - 17½

Ino - 17

Shikamaru - 17½

TenTen - 18

Neji - 19

Lee - 18½

Naruto - 17

Sasuke - 18

Sakura - 17½

Kakashi - 31

And NO Konan is NOT a slut...she's just likes to make Pein jealous with Naruto. Ye-eah...