And here's the promised edit. The first one went pretty smoothly so I just moved onto this one almost immediately after. And considering have of this chapter was already in third it was pretty easy.

Again, hope the edit is better than the original. It was just too cheesy for my tastes (and some reviewers'), so I fixed it!

Now enjoy, read, review, love me and tell me how awesome I am.


Naruto met up with Kakashi a while after knocking Sasuke on his ass. The sensei offered to carry Sasuke, but Naruto wouldn't let him. He told himself it was because he wanted Sakura to see him fulfilling his promise and bringing the bastard back, without any help. But it was a very annoying journey, since Kakashi kept asking questions like, "You didn't kill him, did you?" and "Are you okay?"

The blonde was better than okay. He just beat his rival by using his weakest aspect; his brain. So of course he was feeling great, and maybe a bit cocky, but none of that matter. The mission was complete and Naruto looks damn good because of it.

The jounin also told him that medical nins were taking care of the others and that they were going to be okay. You could see the tension leave his body after he heard that sentence based of Kakashi's eyes-smile. Gaara and his siblings helped too and Naruto made a mental note to thank them later.

Going back seemed to take forever. Maybe it was because the blonde wasn't focused on a single objective anymore. But that wasn't what Naruto was complaining about. It was the fact that Sasuke owed Naruto ramen since he was so damn heavy. Carrying his heavy ass isn't as fun as it seems when you're almost out of chakra, especially since it was wasted in the fight and from running at top speed. Did you know did takes three days to get to The Valley of the End from Konoha? Yeah, that meant three more days to get back with baggage.

The blonde was sort of regretting slugging Sasuke. That is, until he thought it over. Nope, no regret whatsoever.

They could see the gates leading to Konoha. Pakkun had run on ahead to report back that they were coming soon, and so they weren't surprised to see medical nins. Slowing down, and jumping to the ground, Naruto and Kakashi walked the rest of the way and that unforgettable bubble-gum pink hair could easily be seen.

"Naruto!"

"Hey Sakura-chan!" Said girl ran straight towards him with tears in her eyes. Whether it was for him keeping his promise, or for the unconscious bastard, he couldn't tell.

Gently putting Sasuke on a stretcher, Sakura and the medic-nins were off to the hospital. Standing at the gate were Kakashi and Naruto. They started following the path that led to the hospital after some convincing from the silver-haired jounin.

"We should get you to the hospital too. You look pretty beat up," he said. "You did well, Naruto. I know it wasn't easy taking on that many enemies…"

The blonde heard nothing after that as his vision left him. Darkness took over, and he vaguely heard Kakashi call his name before he fell face first into the pavement. It didn't hurt and he was too tired to wonder if that should be good or bad, but he didn't care anymore. He deserved a rest.

He woke up in pain. Everything hurt. And it only got worse when he tried to move and open his eyes. Brightness assaulted retinas and the white walls only made it worse, so he just closed his eyes tight as he groaned.

Hearing movement to his left, Naruto tried to open his eyes, slowly this time. He succeeded and looked to where the noise came from. What- or for this matter who- he saw was Sakura with tears in her own eyes, and Kakashi leaning against the wall, nose deep in his perverted book.

Some else was in the corner; none other than the bastard himself. He looked pretty neutral but Naruto could see he was proud over the fact the blonde was covered in bandages, while he himself only had a few here or there.

Naruto looked like a blonde mummy with his bandages on his stomach and chest, as well as on his face, across his nose, and wrapping around his head. The only bandage they had in common was one on each of their right hands.

He grunted in pain when he tried to sit up, and he noticed the smallest smirk on Sasuke's face as he flopped back down on the bed. Glaring, he managed to sit up on the second attempt without making a noise. The roles switched as Sasuke began glaring and Naruto began smirking.

Kakashi closed his book and walked to the bed. "Looks like trying to fight each other to the death didn't change anything in your relationship." Sakura joined him and stood next to the bed as well. "Good to know things like literally trying to kill each other doesn't change suck a beautiful friendship. Isn't that right, Sakura?"

She nodded as she wiped her eyes. "Thank you Naruto. You kept your promise." She gave him a smile that almost made the bloodshed worth it. Almost. The blonde didn't react like he usually would. He would've undoubtedly blushed and flustered. He would've scratched the back of his head and brag about how it easy it was.

But he didn't. He just said, "No problem," and returned her smile with his own blinding one. Neither noticed the dark eyebrow that raised at the change of attitude.

"So Naruto," the pinkette started. "How did you manage to convince him? Did you and Sasuke-kun really fight?"

The smile on the blonde's lips became strained and he cast a glance at Sasuke. He barely shook his head 'no' but Naruto caught it. They silently agreed that they wouldn't tell anyone about their agreement. However, they both knew that Kakashi was suspicious and so they would have to stay on their toes. Naruto looked back at Sakura and did the most expected reaction the Number-One, Knuckleheaded Ninja would do.

Gloat.

"Of course!" he yelled. "I beat the hell out of the teme! Didn't you see him on my shoulder? I had to carry him aaaalllll the way back since he just crumbled like a little girl." Feeling the glare on the side of his head, Naruto turned to the owner and smirked. "And you're not light either, teme. You need to lose some weight."

"I'm not as fat as you dobe." He crossed his arms and kept his face blank. "It's all that ramen you eat. I'm pretty sure broth runs through your veins instead of blood." The other half of their team tried to hide their snickers. Poorly. It only proved to further annoy the blonde.

"Teme! At least I can use proper English. I mean, 'Hn' isn't even a word."

"But my brain isn't faulty like some dumbass I know."

"And who is that exactly?" Kakashi sighed disappointedly, Sakura slapped her hand to her face, and Sasuke gave a victorious smirk.

Confusion.

Processing.

Realizing.

"Oi!" Naruto shouted indignantly. "I am not a dumbass you bastard!"

And so the meeting at the hospital continued like that for a few hours. Arguments and insults would fly across the room and Kakashi and Sakura just relaxed, thinking everything was back to normal.

Eventually though, Sakura had to leave, and Sasuke had return to his room to be looked at. Kakashi told Naruto everyone who went on the retrieval mission was going to make a full recovery. The blonde promised himself that he would go and visit them once it felt like his leg wouldn't shatter if he tried to stand.

Soon, his sensei left too, leaving Naruto sitting on his bed alone. He smiled to himself. He did it; he brought the Uchiha Sasuke back to Konoha. If that wasn't impressive, then he didn't know what was. Ah, whatever, he thought. This village is full of pricks anyway. Deciding that sleep was a good idea, he slid down so that his head was on the pillow and waited for sleep to come.


Naruto woke up lying on his back and unable to see. He didn't move and surveyed his surroundings, noticing that he wasn't in the hospital anymore. Slowly getting to his feet, Naruto looked around once more, now that he could see a bit better.

He was in a forest, surrounded by mist. This forest was dense in trees and had an ominous glow to it, thanks to the shine of the moon. The blonde started walking towards the moon in an effort to reach the end of the forest, since he couldn't see anyway out through the mist. Hearing a sound, he stopped dead in his tracks, and crouched down.

His hand went straight to his right leg, where his kunai pouch should be, only to find his leg still in the hospital clothing. Mentally cursing, the teen crawled to a tree and hid behind it. Another noise was heard, and it sounded awfully like a twig snapping under a shoe.

Making his breath as silent as possible, Naruto waited until the noises were louder. When the person sounded close enough, the genin sprang from his hiding spot, landing on…

Nothing.

The person moved before Naruto could properly ambush them, and he cursed, out loud this time. He turned to jump to another hiding spot, only to feel something smack him in the back. He fell forward, and before the blonde could react he was pinned to ground. Trying to squirm to get this shithead off of him, said person sat with all his weight against Naruto and pinned his right arm behind his back., making all movement impossible.

Starting to panic, the genin tried to get a good look at the person on top of him. Nothing but a silhouette and glaring red eyes was what he found. Those eyes looked so familiar, and reminded him of Sasuke. His neck was starting to hurt from craning it, so he let his face relax against the ground and started talking, not able to keep calm without his mouth moving.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Naruto asked, hoping his voice sounded steady. He waited, but the stranger said nothing. So he asked once more. The response made his blood freeze in his veins.

"You, Uzumaki Naruto." The voice was like silk, so smooth that if he wasn't in this situation, Naruto wouldn't mind listening to this man talk more.

"W-what? How do you know who I am?" Feeling more panicked now, the blonde started thinking of was thinking of ways to get out of this. Fast.

"You didn't follow the rules, and now you've interfered with the plans I've set. That isn't tolerable."

Feeling his captor shift to retrieve something, Naruto took his chance. Bucking back, he managed to get the stranger off of him and bolted farther into the forest. He could hear the stranger following him and he looked around, finding a sharp turn he almost overlooked if wasn't trying to find it. Taking a chance he sped up and turned the corner, nearly falling flat on his ass, but managing to stay standing.

The blonde could hear his heartbeat in his ears and feel his lungs burning, but he couldn't hear anyone chasing after him anymore. Stopping to catch his breath, he didn't hear the sound of a kunai being retrieved from its sheath. The genin stood straight up and scanned the area to see a way out or find the stranger.

Before he could start to move again, he gasped as a sharp pain ripped through his body. He looked down to see blood falling to the ground and the blade of a kunai pierced through his chest. Straight through his heart. He opened his mouth to scream…

"AAAAAHHHHH!" His scream resounded through the halls, as he bolted up in his bed. He couldn't breathe, couldn't feel. His chest was rising and falling at a rapid pace but no air was coming in. Everything was numb except for the fear that was beginning to cloud his mind, barely noticing the nurses flooding into the room. Panicked and gasping for breath, his hands and eyes shot to his chest, checking for blood or the kunai.

Nothing was there.

Feeling the panic subside, the blonde released a relieved sigh. He surrendered to the nurses as they checked to see what was wrong. He didn't care; he was alive and didn't have a weapon lodged in his chest.

Feeling someone's gaze, he followed the feeling and found Sasuke in the doorway. Azure eyes widened when they saw hidden concern behind onyx orbs. He smiled a reassuring smile and the raven scowled, that concern disappearing (not completely) and becoming annoyance.

He could still see some curiosity, and the smiled slipped of his face. Now, Sasuke knew whatever this was, it was serious and should be treated as such. Whatever he dreamed could become very real, very quickly. Naruto mouthed 'later' and turned his attention to the nurses examining him.

"There's nothing wrong," one of them said. A nurse with muddy brown hair and pale blue eyes started. "We're going to give you some medicine that'll make you go to sleep, okay?" She explained everything like he was a child that couldn't put two and two together.

He nodded nonetheless and his eyes followed the retreating nurses. Not seeing Sasuke, he sighed and closed his eyes. The drug was quick at work and soon he was asleep, not caring that the last nurse left. The last thing he remembered before embracing the darkness, were those red eyes. A shiver tore through his body and scrunched his own eyes tight, hoping that would make those crimson orbs disappear.


Aaaaannnndddd done! Much better if I do say so myself, which I do. But that's just my awesomeness talking, so disregard that sentence. It didn't take as long as I thought, honestly. I figured it would take forever, for both revisions, but I spent like, an hour on each.

Same deal with the errors. Too lazy to do any other editing, so the mistakes are my own. If I messed up big time, tell me and I'll fix it. And the updates, it might be a while. I've got finals coming up so don't expect anything tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed and think this is better than the original, like I do.