Chapter Seven: The Hard Good Bye

Disclaimer: Don't own shit.

Sasuke found it odd that after everything that had happened in his life, fate could make one more twist and place him and Naruto in the same scenario at the same place, but switch places. Now Sasuke was trying to stop Naruto from leaving with the Akatsuki, instead of Naruto trying to stop Sasuke from leaving with the sound. The water pounded the rocks at the bottom of its steep hill and it began to rain, just like it did before, when he had left Naruto dazed in a puddle. Sasuke knew it would be him that puddle this time, but he had to try at least. Dragging out his sword, he attempted to make a cut at Naruto, but instead Naruto just used a kunai to knock the sword away and punched Sasuke in the face. The force sent Sasuke flying back into the cliff walls that surrounded their battle field. Thinking quickly, Sasuke fired a kanton no jutsu that cause Naruto to dodge to the right, where a bushin was waiting to attack, but Naruto used a kunai to cut the clone away.

"Do you think that was enough to stop me," asked Naruto smirking at how futile Sasuke's tactics were. "Please, the only reason you were a threat when we fought was because the Kyuubi wasn't able to get out of my cage fully. I'd love to see you try it now, but I don't think little, pathetic, weak Sasuke could do anything."

"You asked for , baka," snarled Sasuke as he activated his sharingan and entered Naruto's mindscape.

Even though the overall complex was the same, it had a new darker décor that disturbed Sasuke at how much his friend had changed in his mind. There were locked doors made out of a cold metal that chilled at the touch and had claw marks covering the front of them, marking where the Kyuubi had gone in Naruto's mind. Some of the rooms weren't hidden by a door, but covered by barbed wire that seemed to also wrap itself around the pipes that went along the walls. Something ominous was in the air, something that filled Sasuke with a sense of dread with each step he took. With each step, it became more increasingly apparent that Sasuke that he could not deny no longer. He was lost and lost in a place he had been before, but somehow it had changed. He laughed at himself for never asking for directions until he was forced to, and there was usually no one around when he decided to ask for directions. Taking a turn down the corridor with the most barbed wire, Sasuke came to what looked like to be an abyss.

"What is this," asked Sasuke, not really expecting an answer, but he got one.

"This is where all my childhood memories are," said a voice, Naruto's voice. "Among them are all my bad memories of my adulthood, caused by the years of chasing you and dealing with Sakura's shit."

"It's because I helped create this abyss that I am determined to bring you back to the village," declared Sasuke as he turned his back to the abyss that ate at Naruto's mind.

"So what are you going to do," asked Sanjruo pointing his at Maito Gai as he licked his lips in a style not unlike Orochimaru. "You can't beat me at hand to hand so let's see your weapon skills, shall we?"

Gai unsheathed his dao and pointed it directly at Sanjuro. "I will avenge Lee with my own sword," declared Gai, finally speaking in a low voice.

"Now doesn't that sound threatning," replied Sanjuro with a laugh.

Itachi stared at his comrade with fear hidden behind the cold mask of his face and the stare the sharingan caused. He looked at Sanjuro with fear because after all the years he'd spent analyzing him, he was still surprised by what he would do. At sometimes he was calm cool and composed in his fights, other times he would have someone else do it and spend his time analyzing his victim, and other times he was bloodthirsty, fighting with reckless abandon. At those times you didn't get in the way of him less you wanted to lose a body part or your life. The truth was, Sanjuro was intentionally like this so he wouldn't be predictable, like others, and he did it so that they'd fear him. The more fear he had, the more he got his way with things. Itachi was hard to read, but Sanjuro had the ablility to sense things, not that he tried anything on Itachi. He had too much respect for Itachi to do anything of that nature with him.

Gai made the first move as he cocked his body back like a shotgun and burst forward with great speed that would have left a normal ninja in the dust. Unfortunately for Gai, none of the parties present were normal ninja, and Sanjuro could keep up with the "Flames of Youth King," as he was called by all of his subordinates and half the jonin in ANBU. Sanjruo dodged the attack by moving to one side so that Gai passed by him with enough speed so that Sanjuro couldn't get a cut on him as he passed by. Spitting the tooth pick out that was in his mouth, a sign that always meant he was getting serious, Sanjuro flash stepped up to Gai and attacked with a spinning vortex cut. TO do this he had to first get into a sprint for momentum then perform a perfect spin so he could keep spinning a fast enough pace that Gai wouldn't be able to counterattack. He then ended the attack with a sword thrust that nearly impaled Gai. Instead it gave him a deep gash in his vest and arm, which caused blood to pour from the wound driving Sanjuro even crazier. Thought he was always crazy, Sanjuro managed to limit himself in some cases, but in other cases all bets were off.

Shikamaru was watching the fight with great impatience, wanting to help Gai avenge his fallen student, whose blood still stained his shirt. He looked at Kakashi questioningly.

"Shouldn't we be stopping this," asked Shikamaru furious at Kakashi's inactivity.

"This fight is between Gai and the murderer of his favorite student," replied Kakashi. "He should do this on his own."

Sasuke had finally found the Kyuubi's cage, but he couldn't find any trace of the Kyuubi itself, even with his eyes. The room was just empty except for the puddles that came from what appeared to be leaks in the ceiling, though Sasuke had no idea why there would be leaks in Naruto's mindscape. That's when he realized something, the tag was upside down, and so was everything else. Looking up, he saw that everything was right side up, but he was upside down on the ceiling, with the Kyuubi on the floor above him ready to pounce. Sasuyke smirked; it saved him the trouble of finding it.

'Don't think that just because you pushed me back once that you will be able to do it this time," laughed the Kyuubi. Even though Sasuke was sure he could do it, the laugh made him uneasy, but not as uneasy as Naruto's sudden appearance. Nor as uneasy as Naruto's hand on his eye or the way it felt as something crawled into his eyes as if spiders had hatched eggs in them. Sasuke felt a fear he had never felt before, not even when he feared death.

"What are you doing," asked Sasuke screaming in terror and the unpleasant sensation in his eyes.

"Making sure you won't follow me," replied Naruto as he removed his hands. Sasuke saw, to his horror, that Naruto's eyes now held the sharingan. "Thank you for the gift, now please, don't follow me or else you'll find death."

They were waiting for Naruto to come back, so Sanjuro, Tobi and Itachi hid themselves well, knowing that Kakashi was betting on Sasuke making an appeal to Naruto. It was a fifty chance in everyone's mind except Naruto's mind. He was already so far past the line of no return that he forgot what the line looked like. They saw his eyes and no one was going to ask any questions or at least they shouldn't have, but Itachi had to know.

"What happened to Sasuke," asked Itachi.

"I sent him out of my mindscape," replied Naruto. "I took his sharingan to make sure he wouldn't follow."

"How did you do that," asked Sanjuro now interested.

"Kyuubi," replied Naruto.

"Are you sure you want to send for him," asked Kankuro.

"I've already given Miroku the letter," replied Gaara looking at the window as he sensed his friend Naruto going into the darkness he had once resided in. Twin stars fell from the sky to mark the passing of a student and teacher.

The raven soared through the sky with the grace of an eagle as its eyes searched for its owner's calling card. Then out of the landscape of the small village surrounded by dry, crusty earth, it saw a pile of bodies stacked up to form a circle. It was done this way for a quick disposal of multiple bodies, a missing nin hunter's trick, and when there were that many, only one hunter could be there. It circled the area before diving down to where it saw a tall man with short blond hair dressed in leather pants and a black trench coat reading a book. The man was very absorbed with the book, turning each page and letting his eyes travel each word. It was only when the raven pecked his shoulder that the hunter turned to look. He took the letter tied to its legs and smiled as he read it.

"A dangerous tracking mission with the chance to fight S-rank criminals," said the man liking the sounds of those words. His eyes had a black dot surrounded by a yellow circle and then a red circle. He summoned flames in his hands and let the ashes fall to the ground. "Hell, and it's about damn time."

Author's note: sorry it's late, problem with my laptop. I got it fixed and I'm going to be sending these things out regularly. Who is this mysterious man? What part will he play? Who will get paired with Naruto in the Akatsuki? All of these questions and more will be answered when I feel like it.