This chapter is written in honor of chapter 413, in which Sasuke gets seriously hurt for the first time. Ever. Don't believe me? Look at this.

WARNING: This link takes you to one of the pages from the most recent Naruto chapter IN JAPAN as far as I know. If you don't want anything spoiled, then don't look. I warned you. Also, this might be a free manga site, but I do buy the books, so don't get all hissy at me for using it. Thank you.

/Naruto/413/14/

Let me know if the link doesn't work. I'll have a photobucket soon with only the injured Sasuke in it, but for now, this'll have to do.

Regardless, enjoy the story!!

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Chapter 2

Kaara and Akemi were sitting in the waiting room for the Hokage's office, twiddling their thumbs. They had run out of things to talk about a while ago, so they had dived into the realm of their own thoughts and not surfaced. Someone that neither of them recognized came out and told them it was their turn. Akemi's head jerked up and she stood, automatically making strides towards the office. Kaara wasn't far behind, and she caught up to Akemi's determined pace with a little difficulty.

"Somebody's a little anxious?" Kaara had one eyebrow raised.

"Shush" Akemi looked completely serious about what she was going to say next. "I'm focusing on not being on a team with Emopussy."

Kaara rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything else. They proceeded up the rest of the stairs in silence, and didn't say anything when they entered the office either. They were greeted with a skeptical look from the Hokage, who wasn't accustomed to this eerie silence.

"Hello." He said, not showing his emotion in his voice.

"Hey." Akemi took her usual informal tone when talking to anyone. Kaara gave her a look, but the Hokage didn't notice. He shuffled some papers and stuck them in a drawer, then addressed Kaara and Akemi again.

"I'm under the impression that neither of you have a team as of yet?"

"That would be right." A small edge of regret crept into Kaara's voice, and Akemi gave her a look. It was the small details that revealed the most about a person.

"Okay then." The Hokage folded his hands and addressed Akemi in particular. "I'll put you in the group with Hatake Kakashi."

Akemi groaned and leaned back in her chair. "My dad. You have got to be fucking kidding me."

On the other hand, Kaara was too elated to realize that Akemi had sworn in front of the Hokage. She was in this with Akemi, and from what she knew, Naruto. The Hokage dismissed them without much thought. This time, Kaara was the first one to stand up, and had to nearly drag Akemi out of the office and down the stairs.

Despite how long it took her to stand, Akemi was the first one to step outside. Her dad and Naruto were the only 2 people she saw, and she knew that Sakura was in her group as well, but she was nowhere to be seen. She seemed to remember one other guy being in the group though……

"Hey. You awake?" Naruto was up in her face, probably unaware that she was deep in thought. He was like a plant, not really picking up on waves until they're long gone. Or was it that he had the intelligence of a plant? Plants weren't so easily bribed by sugar though… Kaara walked by, smacking Naruto in the head and then going off in search of someone. Akemi followed her, wondering where she was going. All of a sudden, Shikamaru jumped on her, and they both tumbled to the ground.

"Hey" he whispered, "I'm trying to follow your friend here, so be shush."

Akemi stared for a little, confused, then came to her senses and asked him, "Uh…why are you following her anyway? Does she have something of yours?"

"I dunno really, just cause I can follow someone. You?"

"I'm trying to see if she'll lead me to Emopussy." Akemi stood up and brushed herself off.

"Wow, that's…almost creepy." Shikamaru had one eyebrow raised, but he disappeared again to follow Kaara without another word.

"She so has something of his." Akemi said to nobody in particular, as she made her way back to the congregation. Somebody's black hair stuck out (quite literally) from the crowd, and she altered her path a little to stalk it.

Sasuke came to rest upon someone's balcony, and Akemi took the opportunity to sneak up behind him and whisper something to herself. Her middle finger elongated and became strikingly steel like, and she stuck it through his arm.

"PERSON KABOB!!" The stab was made so cleanly that not much blood came out, but one dollop landed on Kaara's dark head, bobbing below as she looked for…something. Sasuke's arm was raised but frozen, and his expression borderlined scared and really, really mad. She looked up and noted Sasuke's expression and Akemi's wicked smile, and she knew how this had gone down.

"Akemi! Stop injuring people!" She yelled. Kaara had an obvious smile on her face, but her tone was slightly accusatory.

Akemi returned Kaara's smile with a wicked one of her own, speaking in an unnecessarily high voice, "But it's from my new book! You know, injuring people for fun and profit?!"

"Where's the profit?" Kaara was climbing up the stairs now, as was clear from the echo. Which is when Akemi realized that Kaara had the key to wherever they were. Also, it had some awful short stairs. Or maybe Kaara had gotten faster since they last raced. She was up here already.

"My mood, it improves." She couldn't think of something witty to say right off the bat, so she went for the psychopath route.

"But I thought that was the fun part." Kaara gave Akemi a skeptical look.

"No, the fun part is where I don't get interrupted and can push him off of the balcony." Akemi said, getting her thoughts together. Sasuke looked purely pissed now, and he grabbed the back of Akemi's dress and flipped her over his shoulder, holding her over the edge. Akemi just smiled and kicked her heel into the rotting wooden slates of the fence, then used the leverage to pull her other foot over the bar and behind Sasuke, kicking him to the ground. It wasn't until Akemi landed, once again on the balcony, that Kaara realized that Sasuke's arm was now bleeding profusely, although the sudden jerk hadn't seemed to hurt it any.

"Ohmigod!" Kaara's sudden alertness confused even herself, but she continued. "You're bleeding!! Like, badly!" Her tone actually was just about accurate. The blood was pulsing out of Sasuke's arm every time his heart beat, and it was pooling on the ground in a slightly macabre fashion.

"No shit." Sasuke stared at Kaara strangely, but clasped his hand over his arm. Kaara ran inside to get some bandages, and Akemi just plopped herself on the balcony, swing her booted feet beneath her.

That was a good one! An all-too familiar voice said in her head. The physical Akemi put her head in her hands. Oh, fine. You just ignore me or something. The voice continued into a mumble. Bitch holds a grudge…Akemi's head sprung up, and her eyes were livid. Oh would you just shut up?, the voice said, not taking much offence at Akemi's emotion.

Um, would you? Akemi said inside her own head, I don't need your shit now.

Hey, I left you alone all day!, Kainda almost sounded hurt. But then again, she was kind of a psychopath (okay, really a psychopath) so she didn't have emotions, right?

I can hear all your thoughts you know. Yup, no emotions what-so-ever.

"Akemi!" A voice outside her head captured Akemi's attention, and she leaned over the edge backwards. Shikamaru was below, and he threw up a pouch, which Akemi caught carefully with her teeth. She curled back up and brushed her hair off her face, then opened up the embroidered pouch. Kaara was bandaging Sasuke's arm, brow furrowed despite the fact that the wound wasn't bleeding much anymore. One fingernail is only so big. Staring into the bag, Akemi was greeted with two slips of paper, one addressed to Kaara and one addressed to Akemi.

"Hey Kaara." Akemi addressed her friend. "Lookie here." She let the letter sail through the air, and it flipped around a few times before hitting Kaara in the face. Kaara pulled the paper off her face and continued to rip the seal off, opening the sheet.

"Whoah. Didn't see that coming." Kaara said, and Akemi ripped hers open as well. She read the contents, and kind of smirked.

"Seems like we're just that awesome." Akemi said just as Shikamaru climbed the stairs, accompanied by Naruto, who was now finally almost chill.

"Eh?" Naruto said, looking very confused. "How'd you get up here? And why's Sasuke's arm all bloody?"

Shikamaru ignored Naruto, immediately heading for Akemi's letter, which he apparently hadn't read yet. Kaara supplemented a response.

"Akemi stabbed Sasuke's arm, so that's why that's all bandaged and nasty and stuff. But I have the key to your house."

"Actually." Sasuke said, interrupting her, "Your door was open."

"Oh. Well then." Naruto said, joining the congregation of people on the balcony, "Why'd you come up here?"

"Trying to get away from…people." Sasuke said, and everyone knew who he meant. "But it was kinda out of the frying pan into the fire."

"You got that right, Emopussy." Akemi interjected.

"So wait…" Shikamaru spoke for the first time. "What did the papers say?"

"Didn't you read it?" Akemi seemed confused that Shikamaru could be confused. By well…anything.

"I might have read it, but I don't believe it." Shikamaru paused for a second. "Okay, maybe I can believe you, but Kaara…"

"Oh!" Kaara whacked her chest and her mouth opened in an expression of mock hurt. "Am I just not cool enough for you or something? Your girlfriend's just that much more amazing than me?"

"Not what I meant…but seriously." Shikamaru was talking again. "You've only been involved in this for what…an hour? Tops? You haven't even done anything yet!"

Akemi smiled, and Naruto looked confused again. "Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait." He said, trying to clarify something. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Akemi didn't seem to stop smiling even when she spoke. "We're headed to the chunin exams tomorrow."

Naruto's expression was one of pure shock. His mouth fumbled attempting to create anything resembling a word, and everyone who didn't already know was stone silent. If it weren't for the bustle of the street below, time could have stopped and nobody would have known.

"Anyway." Kaara broke the silence. "I need to get out of here before Sakura realizes I'm gone. This'll be the first place she looks."

"Mmkay, you're coming to my house." Akemi stated it like a fact, and dropped down from the second floor to the ground, while Kaara opted for the stairs. They headed off to Akemi's house, kind of poking at each other.

"Uumm…Sasuke? You better run." Shikamaru was the next one to speak, and he pointed to the duo of pink and blonde hair that was obviously headed for the building.

"Aw crap." Sasuke took off, and Shikamaru leaped off the building, disappearing into a sea of hair, and Naruto was left alone, not quite aware of everything that just happened.