Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Naruto

Okidoki... I'd just like to clear things up. Naruto is supposed to go to Iwagakure not Otogakure, since Iwa means stone and Oto means sound. That's all!

And oh yeah, I know that the updates are quite quick, but I'm just taking advantage of my free time before it comes right down to the long updates again... that's all.

And so, thank you dear readers and reviewers! Please read on n.n

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Start

"Make sure Naruto gets to Iwagakure for his first stop, I managed to get a glimpse of his future in the book of Fate, and I'm telling you it was a close call, who knew it was Kami behind the pen? Anyways, I managed to take a peek of his first phase of the journey; he must get to Iwagakure no matter what the situation may be, Sakura"

Shot back to the world, Sakura stretched, yawned and then paused. Absent-mindedly scratching her head, her drowsiness began to fade. Having Jiraiya's words stuck to her head from the conversion she had with his soul, fully stripped any hint of lethargy and immediately remembered where she was and what her purpose was.

Pulling away from the tree she merged her presence with, she activated the jutsu that allowed her move with utmost stealth and widened her eyes at the unbelievable realization that claimed the harsh honesty of Naruto's early rise, for he was no longer slumbering on the pile of grass in the middle of the grass clearing.

She wondered if he had sensed her and decided to move out quickly, and immediately breathed out a line of curses. Sunlight had found their way through the dense foliage of the forest's ceiling as it rained with bright morning light, the early morning birds had ended their daily orchestra and that was enough to tell Sakura that she had risen far too late.

Desperately tracking down Naruto's chakra seemed almost impossible, now that possible hours have past. Unless she was very sensitive to chakra, she can instantly track him down. But for now, she'd have to head towards Iwagakure, where she hoped to find Naruto later on.

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"We need to talk," spoke Karin, an explanation of what happened with them not too long ago, and how Sasuke hadn't returned to them yet, now that his brother was dead, worried them all and feared his abandonment, though she added that their team was made for Sasuke to plough his way to his goals in the sidelines.

Basically, Karin had done all the talking, and Naruto was now waiting for the bottom line of all this. The sedative had taken its toll on his mortal body as stood there like a statue, aching his muscles despite the fact that he wasn't supposed to feel a thing.

"... and now it comes down to this," sighed Karin, wearing her glasses, "we need your help"

An arched brow was Naruto's simple response

"We still don't know where he went, and..." the sentence had died down to mere whispers in Karin's mouth, "anyways, what do you say?"

Naruto smirked out his scoff, alarming Karin of an answer she feared he would say, and that would be the inevitable, "no"

"Why not? He's your long lost comrade that you've been searching for in years, isn't he?" whined Karin, before clearing her throat to salvage with what's left of her integrity.

"Why are you wasting your time looking for him? Obviously, he left you since he has no use for any of you anymore, that is the sad fact, Karin" explained Naruto, "all that Sasuke does is use people,"

"What did Sakura tell you?"

"Betray them,"

"I'm gonna break those bonds, Naruto"

"Hurt them,"

"You, my equal? What made you think that?"

"Squeeze the humanity out of them and in the end, he won't care, he won't be bothered" With a heavy sigh, he turned his eye to the unfathomable Karin, "so what made you think he'd wait for you or come back for you. To him, you're just another tool to get by"

"You ass" growled Karin, "Sasuke-kun is not heartless as you claim him to be! I know he'll be back for us--"

"Why?" interrupted Naruto, "he got his revenge, what more would he need out of you? You're just wasting your time, like I did when I was still searching for him, like what everyone did when they were searching for him. Move on, Karin, like what I'm doing now"

He watched Karin's eyes glimmer in sadness, tears accumulating on the corners of her eyes. He received an unwanted response, a slap across the cheek. But it didn't hurt him, he was given an anaesthetic to temporarily paralyze him.

"Asking for your help is a waste of time" muttered Karin with her wild hair masking her face, "so I'm just gonna kill you"

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Chewing a soldier pill to invigorate her speed, she managed to cover enough ground to reach past the border of Fire Country, and that would have been a thousand miles covered. Impossible, yes, but to a ninja fueled by a soldier pill with perfect chakra control? Possible.

Just like light had sliced through an unnerving darkness, she sensed Naruto's presence within the area and slowed down... like an arrow through her chest, she also sensed the presence of three more people. And from the looks of it, danger loomed in the atmosphere.

The moment the four were within her range of sight, she saw a female draw out her kunoichi and Naruto just standing still, as if allowing her to end his life. Further propelling two thirds of her chakra she charged manically towards her with a chakra pumped fist.

With only a millisecond to spare, Karin was given the time to catch a glimpse of her pinkette attacker before she was driven to the ground with a painful landing, scraping the earth as she went several feet away from her and Naruto.

"Sakura?" breathed Naruto, mixed emotions of shame, surprise and confusion settled within him

"What are you doing just standing there? Move!" she told him with a cheeky grin

"You bitch! What the hell do you think you're doing?" spoke Suigetsu, planting his hand on the hilt of a familiar large sword.

Sakura huffed with a smile, "letting you off with a warning"

"What do you think we are?" bellowed Karin, struggling to stand upright with a bloodied nose, "you ugly monster of a bitch, I'm gonna kill for what you did to my nose!"

The sound of leather stretching alarmed Naruto, this was the warning Sakura always made when her killing intent was on the verge of breaking loose. With Sakura's back facing Naruto, he really couldn't see much of her and wondered what made Karin slightly shudder on the spot, but he was somewhat aware that a taboo had been set loose indeed.

"G-Go get her Juugo" squeaked Karin at the sight of her once human comrade.

Sakura had to take a look at who she was speaking to and noticed the way one of her comrade's gradually changing feature. Exotic markings devoured his skin, and the tint in his eyes had changed to a bronze hue, baring his teeth with elongated canines. Sakura's smirk didn't die down, but inwardly she cowered, watching the monster rattle with anticipation triggered her pulse to run a marathon.

"Oh you're dead now bitch, you really are dead" snickered Suigetsu, slightly tilting his head to the right and back up again, he said, "go get her"

Like a rabid animal on the loose, Juugo raced to her with animalistic instincts. Aware that Naruto had been paralyzed on the spot, Sakura saw to it that she needed to fight this monster without hurting Naruto.

Channeling chakra to her palm, she drove it to his open chest just as he was in the process of pouncing on her, driving him far back in succession. Quickly, Sakura turned back to Naruto and yanked out the senbon she found stuck on his ankle and held the bloodied tip with two fingers before planting her palm in the ground to deliver a single-footed donkey kick to her charging opponent.

Juugo easily stood back on his feet and began to chuckle in an eerie way. She didn't reveal her astonishment, for that blow she gave him, he should be suffering from broken ribs that are puncturing his lungs by now.

"You're taking too long Juugo, I think I should end this match now" grinned Suigetsu removing his massive sword from his back and lowered it to his front, grabbing the hilt with both hands and slightly bending both knees, he was also ready to kill.

Deciding that she didn't need another addition to this fight, she delivered a chakra filled fist to her hand as she drove it down his skull just as he was landing right before her with his sword drawn up high. The decapitated body collapsed before her with a liquid goo surrounding with where his head should have been. She merely sniffed in contentment before charging towards Juugo, only to hear the sound of shuffling behind her.

"You think I'd die that easily?" spoke her supposedly dead enemy

She sighed, it was another one of those ninjas that comes back to life after a square hit. And it agitated her, it wasn't long before she was engaged in swift movements, dodging swinging blades and sharpened claws and ballistic kicks and flurries of punches, only to deliver her hard punches, aimed to the skull whenever the two paused for a split second.

She managed to hit Juugo square in the jaw before he was driven a good mile back, rotating in the air before harshly making his brutal landing. Sparing no time to marvel at her success, she dove right back in and focused now on Suigetsu.

It infuriated her that each clean punch he received to vital areas, be it his groin, he will always fluidly regenerate and then they'd be back to more wind slashing. To further add to Sakura's problem, Karin had stepped into the arena with fresh new punches and kicks that equalled Sakura's madness.

Everything was moving swiftly and the battle had been going on for the past twenty minutes, neither three showing signs of exhaustion before locking fists once more. Time seemed to have slowed its pace as she caught Suigetsu's blade with two flat palms on the flat side and swung him with it towards Karin.

Life seemed to have hated Sakura at that moment when Juugo finally rose from his landing and charged hysterically towards her along with an enraged Karin and a restless Suigetsu. Everthing began to move in a blur as Sakura danced away from three incoming blows, finding no time to plant one of her own now that they circled her in.

Driving her fist down hard on the ground caused a fissure, Suigetsu had fallen in but Karin, and Juugo managed to leap away. With this successfully buying her time, she was well aware that a fight of three to one didn't seem to go in her favor, she rushed towards Naruto to inject a regenerative chakra flow to snap him out of his paralysis to help her out.

Naruto forgot to breathe as the fight carried on before him, just as she cracked the soil open she darted back to him and slapped her palm on his chest, feeling her warmth seep to his arteries and eliminated the paralyzing effect the senbon had on him. But it was only just then, her face contorted to shock and a blot of a darkened stain gradually grew in the center of her chest, whimpering when a bloodied blade had poked through her apparel.

Naruto's eyes widened, for the thing he feared most finally came at hand. She limped and fell to his chest, revealing the sickening grin of Suigetsu. He yanked his sword out of her slowly as he heard her breath stagger to the pain. Naruto had to wait for Sakura's chakra to fully exterminate the remaining bits of paralysis set on him, and when it did, he called forth Kyuubi's chakra to help him carry out his task.

With a deadly snarl set on his fox-defined features, he growled, "you're dead now"

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It upset Naruto that he didn't manage to kill him and that they managed to escape, the wrath of his fury must be justified, he needed blood in turn for Sakura's losing one. As that thought struck him, he immediately turned back and found her unconscious in a growing pool of blood that the grass greedily devoured.

He grunted in restrained fury before withdrawing a clean tag, an ink jar, and his writing brush. He placed it on his hand and transferred his chakra as he wrote "suppress" in kanji. It hissed when the ink seeped it and bit its corner to use his free hands to... remove her shirt.

Naruto blinked at the sudden realization. Of course he couldn't do that, she would pummel him to the ground if she figured that out. But hell, he needed to do that if she wanted her to still live. His face had been growing redder by the minute as her blood continued to spill, and it was a large gash in the middle of her chest and her blood had been going despite the fact that she had been constantly healing herself while he battled out with Sasuke's recently formed team.

She only managed to heal the front of her chest anyway, so there wasn't much to be worried about. He began zipping the red apparely down, stopping when her medic apron interfered. He unbuckled it and moved swiftly to lay her front on his lap before sliding her clothing off her. Ignoring her chest pressing against his lap was harder than he thought and blushed furiously at that thought.

Quickly placing the tag on her back, he watched the blood seep to it as the ink glowed for a second. The purpose of the tag was to just keep the bleeding in bay, long enough until he sought proper medical attention; it was just good enough for one day and now knew the importance of heading for the nearest village.

Hastily dressing her up once more, made him drop her to the ground, back first. He winced at his clumsiness and sympathetically felt the pain on her back, but scorched his face red when he caught a glimpse of her pink lacy bra that hugged her bosom graciously. She lay exposed under the afternoon sun and her smooth skin radiated a captivating glow that made him want to just touch her.

His breathing hitched and forced himself to zip her shirt up, and when that was all over, he finally noticed how tight his pants had gotten.

"Oh fuck it all," hissed Naruto, channeling his chakra to his shaft, and letting it encircle him at a rapid pace. He slumped back, and broke in a sweat as he quickened the velocity to relieve himself sooner. Time was of the essence right now, and despised his need of needing release before anything else. Quickly pulling the hem of his pants down and letting his buddy poke through his boxers, he groaned at the sight of how his chakra concentrated deeply on his weak areas. Tilting his head back and jerking his hips forth, he released.

Now that that was over, he fixed himself up and gingerly slung Sakura over his shoulders before heading out.

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The first thing Sakura noticed was how warm and comfortable she felt beneath a blanket. The second was the serenity that enveloped her. And the last would be the feel of her skin against the blanket's silky sheets.

Her eyes snapped open and acknowledged the fact that a wooden ceiling hovered above her. A window on her right had curtains dancing to the wind that entered; the wall seemed to be made of concrete and was left to be seen bare. The room seemed fairly small, but that was besides the point. She lifted her blanket and saw herself in her underwear with bandages on her chest, designed like an X with two horizontal bindings above and below her breasts, as if it was intended to leave it unclothed.

A red hue flamed her cheeks, when Naruto stepped in after knocking the door three times. She hugged the blanket against her chest and lowered her head. Well, at least now, she caught up with him and found him safe. After all, it wasn't her first time she'd been stabbed by a sword in vital areas.

"How are you feeling?" his voice seemed as ungrateful as his facade

"Fine" she mumbled, hanging her head low as the hem of her blanket was fisted to her chin.

He sighed, closing the door behind him before approaching her. He sat on a stool next to the door and crossed his arms, "why did you follow me?"

"Well obviously, you can handle things yourself" said Sakura with a hint of sarcasm, her immature statement didn't cause Naruto to change his penetrating gaze. He was clearly holding back anger and the need to yell.

"Speak for yourself, I'm not the one in bandages" came his simple response

"Only because I came in time to save you," reasoned Sakura, "and besides," she sniffed, turning her head away, failing to keep an intense eye contact with him, "you didn't answer my questions, yet"

"Sakura," he breathed, roughly rubbing his face with both hands before slapping his palms on his lap, "This isn't a game. This is serious--"

"This? Isn't it natural to get hurt? We're ninjas after all, we're supposed to get hurt in one mission or another" said Sakura, pointing to her chest through the blanket

He glared at her, "When you get better just go back to Konoha." With that, he rose and left the room once more

"Where are you going?" called Sakura, but a door slammed shut was her response.

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At least he was now in Iwagakure, unlike Konoha, the village seemed duller, and everything was almost in shades of grey. A day had passed since he arrived here, mostly tending to Sakura's wounds, improving his basic medic skills and his self control in the most impossible of situations.

He already fetched her breakfast from some sushi bar and had to admit, it was delicious for a reasonable cost. He also commissioned for another of her clothes and expected it to be done by, at least, tomorrow or so, granting her the decency to walk around with something covering her up. Now that he had taken enough care of her, he needed to get back on track, to say the least.

Keeping in mind that the man he was supposed to be searching for would be wise and a drinker, he headed for the drinking district, finding it quite convenient that it was rather late at night after running some errands for a certain kunoichi. The area he was searching for wasn't at all difficult to find, seeing to it that it was the rowdiest place with sober men filing towards the same direction and drunken retards waddling out with a bottle in hand or a bruise in the eye.

Naruto, though sixteen, was very well aware that he hadn't reached drinking age yet, and haven't had his first drink even if he did hung out with a teacher that was usually found on a binge. Heading in without a drink would seem rather awkward, and resorted to shadow clones and some henge to do his work, while he headed back to the inn, wondering if it was a good idea at all.

Even if Konoha's bar district went into mayhem, they always managed to restore order and carry out having fun knocking their socks off with unbelievable amounts of alcohol, somehow Iwagakure showed anything but. It was all out chaotic and as minuted crept closer to midnight, it just got louder and rougher. Naruto did his best to walk in the middle of the road as each tavern faced each other and was prone to having fighting men fist their way out of the buildings, sometimes jumping out of windows to land in a tangle of limbs, our out the door followed by bottles to crash next to them.

The sight brought trauma to Naruto and understood why Jiraiya insisted him to always stay away from the district whenever they stopped by for training. But those days were over and now he walked into the fray. His henge'd clones had smoothly entered in the taverns, at least one for each building as he instructed them all, before, as he planned, heading back to the inn. Hopefully by then, Sakura had left and was on her way home.

That thought stuck in his head the further he walked down his hall. Drowning his alert mind for the sake of calculative thoughts to kick in, seemed to have erased any memory he had on the journey back home, for what stood before him now, was the door to his room. Apparently, the unwanted presence of his extra luggage was still in there.

He twisted the knob of his door and poked his head in. In the corner of the dark room where the only single bed was, slept Sakura. He sighed and slid in through the small crack of the door, before quietly shutting it close. The moment he turned around, he nearly jumped back.

To have Sakura standing before him draped in blankets would be the last thing he'd have in mind, her demeanor was quite groggy and naturally walked up to him without any chakra concealing. His breath hitched, sweat broke out from his temples as they trickled down his chin, beholding the sight of Sakura like so while the moonlight basked her with radiance wasn't also much help.

It seemed as if his self-control was being tested yet again.

"Naruto" spoke Sakura with her normal voice

"What?" he half-heartedly answered, his back unconsciously pressed flat on the door

"Where's the toilet?" she asked

"It's in the closet over there," babbled Naruto as his left hand fumbled for the switch

"Haha. Very funny. Now tell me the truth," said Sakura, planting her free hand on her hip, subconsciously allowing the draping mass curve to her figure. Naruto nearly lost it all, his hand shaking as they inched further away from the body while they snaked against the wall to, yet again, fumble around for the light switch.

"It, it really is" said Naruto, voice dying to a faint whisper. When he managed to flick the switch, light illuminated in the room within a flash, allowing him to waltz to the said closet and pull it open. "See?"

Sakura arched her brow and marched towards him, nodding in belief to learn that the toilet was, indeed, in the closet. "Creative" she remarked

"Yeah, Jiraiya and I have been in this inn once" came Naruto's slip, not like it was a secret or anything

"Oh," responded Sakura, "okay," with that she walked in and Naruto closed the door behind her.

He stumbled back in bed, sighing deeply that it was finally over. He lifted his head up to see the unforgiving tent forming in his pants, the sound of the shower didn't bother him at all, he was just worried that she might be quick enough to catch him in action.

He dropped his head back down on the bed, and sighed heavily. He needs to find someone he doesn't know, he needs to convince Sakura to scurry back home, he needs to bring an end to this all, and yet it all seemed harder than it sound. He wondered how long he can keep this up, he wondered how long it would take him to accomplish what he needed to do. But with Sakura around, he had much more to worry about.

To Be Continued...