Sasuke was running through the woods, calling out for Naruto. The storm was slowly subsiding, and he couldn't just sit around waiting. The desolation that had swept over him had faded, and anger had replaced it, anger at himself, anger at unknown forces tearing his world apart again. He cursed as again he lost Naruto's tracks. Turning back, and picking them up again, he tried to bury the deep anxiety and worry. What had happened to Naruto? What was going to happen? This was all so…messy.

He came out into a slight clearing, and his heart almost stopped. Naruto was curled up under a tree. There was blood streaked all across his face and torso.

'Naruto!' Sasuke skidded in the mud, sliding over to his side, and picking him up so that Naruto's head was on his lap. 'Naruto wake up.' Sasuke couldn't hide the panic in his voice, and checked over the wounds. They weren't normal wounds; something jagged had cut deep into Naruto's flesh. The wounds had already started healing, but there was something else wrong. Maybe it was how pale Naruto was, or how limp he felt, but Sasuke felt like something was missing. He couldn't place it. Just something.

'ss..a..' a quiet voice drew Sasuke's attention back to Naruto's face.

'Hey, hey dobe, c'mon, we need to get you out of here.' Two blue eyes opened, but when Sasuke looked into them, they looked half empty, like Naruto wasn't really there. 'No, no don't you do this to me again.' Sasuke growled, pulling the blonde into a hug, squeezing him.

'..ah…ow…' came quiet protests, but Sasuke didn't let go.

'God damn it Naruto, you are not leaving me.' He released Naruto slightly, just so that he could look into Naruto's eyes. 'I…I love you. Fuck it, I said it. There.' He waited for some response, anger, disgust, anything. But Naruto remained blank, barely there, as if he hadn't even heard it. 'NARUTO DON'T DO THIS, I LOVE YOU.' There was the briefest flicker of recognition, then it was gone, and Naruto was a limp puppet again. 'NARUTO!' Sasuke couldn't bear this, he hated whoever had done this, whatever had done this. They would pay, by the fucking gods they would pay.

'Sasuke.' He turned, and saw Ino and Sakura appear with Tsunade. 'Let me see.' The Hokage checked Naruto over, and looked into his eyes, a grim expression on her face. 'Sasuke, take Naruto to your house, treat his wounds as fast as you can, and be ready for that fever again. Sakura, go get Kakashi, and bring him here to meet me, then go back to Sasuke's house. Ino, go get your team and team 8, Hinata, Kiba and Shino.' She looked at the frozen teenagers. 'NOW.'

Sasuke didn't wait to see if the girls responded, he gathered up Naruto and sprinted through the forest back to the village, and to the safety of his house. When he arrived, he rushed past shocked looking staff, and virtually tried to kick his door down before the gardener came over and unlocked it for him. He choked out a 'thanks', then booted the door shut, and ran over to his sofa. Slowing down, he carefully placed Naruto onto it, propping him up with cushions everywhere he could think of. Naruto remained vacant, so Sasuke went to his cupboard, and dragged out his medical box, placing it beside Naruto, and starting the process of treating his wounds. Sakura turned up as he finished the last cut, and he let her in, before ignoring her again, and focussing on Naruto, who was covered in bandages and plasters. Sakura tried to ask what she could do to help, but either Sasuke didn't care what she was saying enough to pay it any attention, or he wasn't hearing her. She gave up, remembering what Tsunade had said about Naruto's fever, and began making up a bowl of water and finding a cloth.

Sasuke wasn't aware of time, there were only tasks, and once he began running out of tasks revolving around treating Naruto's wounds, he began checking on the ones he'd already treated, until he started to notice Naruto's temperature rise.

'Fever…' he muttered, standing up, and suddenly Sakura was there, with a bucket, a cloth, and a bowl of something.

'Fever.'

'How did…' Sasuke began, but Sakura shoved him at Naruto.

'I can deal with you not paying any attention to me because of Naruto, but don't be an idiot, he needs looking after right now.' She glared, hand on her hips at Sasuke, until he shuffled over to Naruto again.

It took about ten minutes after that before Ino showed up with the people she had been sent to fetch. They all stood awkwardly in the living room until Sasuke said 'just…make yourselves comfy. There's green tea in one of the cupboards.' The group was slow to warm up, but Kiba, his dog Akamaru, Hinata and Chouji came to sit with Naruto and Sasuke. They all had the same worried expressions as Sasuke.

'What…happened?' Kiba asked. When Sasuke didn't respond, Chouji tried to help.

'We were all training, and then a storm happened…'

'I let him go.' Sasuke hissed. 'I let him run off, I did something stupid, and now…now he's…'

'He'll be okay.' Hinata whispered. Sasuke stared at the three, Chouji; Naruto's newest friend, Kiba; a friend he'd actually seen Naruto hanging out with in the past, and Hinata; a girl who had had a crush on Naruto for as long as he could remember. These were Naruto's friends. Not him. Not the person who had let Naruto down. He watched as Hinata smoothed down Naruto's hair as he shifted in his feverish state, and a burning jealousy took over him, quelled by one thought. You don't deserve him. He had let Naruto down, and when he'd tried to bring him back by laying his feelings bare it had done no good.

'Here.' He passed Hinata the cloth and bowl. 'Maybe you can wake him up.' A normal girlfriend, that was what Naruto needed, not some damaged, idiot guy. He got up and walked towards the front door, only to be intercepted by Sakura.

'Hey,' she whispered, 'what are you doing?'

'I'm…going to get some more herbs for the drink.'

'Bullshit.'

Sasuke stared at her blankly.

'I'm not an idiot Sasuke, Naruto needs you right now, you have to stay.'

'No, he needs normality, not me. You don't understand-'

'Yes actually, I do, and I may be about to ruin my chances with you forever but I don't care. You. Are. An. Idiot.' Sasuke looked at her, really looked. She looked angry, defiant, a blazing girl of fire, determined to get through to him. 'You can sulk all you want when Naruto is better, only someone blind couldn't tell that Naruto, despite his own blindness issues, likes you back. He just doesn't understand it.' Sasuke turned back to look at Naruto, his heart lifting, hope blossoming in darkness. But a cold hand gripped that feeling, bringing his spirits back down.

'But I couldn't…he won't come back…'

They both stared at Naruto, whose eyes were now shut. Before either could say another word, a knock came at the door. Sasuke looked out, and saw Tsunade and Kakashi there, and quickly let them in.

'How is he?' Tsunade asked, nodding as Sakura filled her in. 'We need to take him to another room. Bedroom?' Sasuke nodded, and went to pick Naruto up, before leading the way upstairs. Hinata followed with the bowl and cloth, but was shooed out of the room by Kakashi, so that Tsunade, Sasuke and Naruto were alone. 'Firstly,' Tsunade said, checking Naruto's wounds, 'we need to have a code. A sign, or word to recognise one another with. This will work for now.' She squeezed Sasuke's shoulder, then used her special jutsu to summon a large slug, which had a green, blue, and red stripe running down it. 'Your turn. Something I can recognise you with? Something only you can do.' Sasuke's mind went blank. Staring around, he thought, then mentally slapped himself. He focussed, and called on his Sharingan, placing his hand out. She nodded, and performed a jutsu, which he managed to copy exactly, using his Sharingan.

'Listen to me Sasuke, things are getting worse, what's happening to Naruto…well…I'll explain in a minute, but it's time to be vigilant. I thought you could live normally whilst we worked in the background to try and handle things, but that time has passed. This is going to be hard but…trust no one. I know I can trust you because only you, and Kakashi, have that Sharingan in this village, and I think I know who we're up against, there's no way they could fake that. Likewise we can use that to identify Kakashi, and only I can summon, well, slugs like that slug. Do not trust anyone else alone with Naruto. I need you to be with him all the time. The only other person you can leave him alone with is me, and that's what I'm going to have to ask you to do in a moment. Only for a while. But then do not leave his side.'

'Why?' It was Naruto's voice that croaked the query. Sasuke's worry over the conversation taking place was immediately taken over with concern with Naruto.

'Naruto, how d'you feel?' He knelt down beside the bed, and felt Naruto's forehead, which was still burning up.

'I…' Naruto's eyes became distant again as his mind tried hard not to re-live what had happened.

'No, no Naruto don't…don't do that, please, I'm begging you, stay with me.' Sasuke pleaded, and Naruto's eyes fixed back on Sasuke, misreading the fear. He curled up, hiding himself from the world, cursing himself inside. 'Naruto please.' Sasuke's voice broke, causing the blonde to look back into his eyes, 'please stop shutting me out. I don't know what to do.' Naruto had never seen the raven so weak, so vulnerable. He dragged himself out of his shell just enough that he looked more like himself, and then in a whisper began to tell Sasuke and the silent Tsunade what had happened. He kept the details brief, covering the pain, the tails, Sasuke's fear, spitting out his words when he remembered hurting Sasuke, and then in a rush spilling out what had happened in the forest. Though missing the crucial part about one tail being taken by the ninja, as he was not even aware that that had happened.

Sasuke's eyes were on fire. He had never felt so angry. He wanted to destroy the people who had done this. Whilst Tsunade gently asked for descriptions of the men, Sasuke went around the bed, and sat behind Naruto, wrapping an arm around him protectively, both so that Naruto would feel safe, and so that he wouldn't see Sasuke's murderous eyes. I'm going to kill them. Slowly and painfuly. I will drag their insides out and make them eat them. I'll burn their eyes out, and snap their limbs one by one. And that raping bastard…I'll tie him down, and bit by bit chop his fucking cock off, and make him eat his balls.

Slowly Sasuke calmed down, but his intentions stayed the same. Tsunade must have seen something in his eyes, as when she took him into the hallway she muttered 'don't do anything stupid', before shutting the bedroom door. She had said something about a protection ritual, and how she needed to perform it alone, otherwise other people risked being pulled into it, which meant that if they were separated, the protection would fail. Sasuke was fighting the urge to say that there was no way he was going to leave Naruto's side for the next decade or so after all that had happened, but understood that he may not have a choice. It seemed to take hours, and Sasuke waited up on the landing, pacing back and forth, sitting and staring at the door, leaning against it hoping to catch any hint of how far they were, slowly bumping the back of his head against the wall, lying on the landing staring up at the ceiling, sitting by the stairs, eyes locked on the door but listening to the others downstairs, or staring out of the landing window. Finally Tsunade came out when Sasuke was in a sitting staring at the door stage. He scrambled up, and looked at Tsunade. She looked tired, but calm, and nodded to him. He rushed inside, and knelt down beside Naruto again.

'Dobe, you need to stop scaring me.' Naruto looked at Sasuke, and burst into tears. Sasuke had not been expecting that, and immediately backpedalled. 'Baka, don't be an idiot, I don't scare that easily, I just…meant…stop trying to scare me.' Great cover Teme. 'I don't care how scared I get, seriously, nothing scares me much, I just…I don't…why is me being scared such a big deal?'

'I didn't mean to' Naruto sobbed. 'I didn't want to scare you, I'm sorry, the tails, my eyes, they just…happen.'

'Baka.' Sasuke's tone was harsh. 'That's not what scared me. I couldn't care less what your eye colour is, or if you have a million burning tails. I don't particularly like being burnt, but it doesn't scare me.' Naruto sniffed, and stared into Sasuke's eyes. 'You running off, finding you…like that…that's what scares me the most.' Sasuke took a deep breath. This was going to be hard. 'You mean…everything to me. Naruto I…I like you more than you know. I…think I love you.' He internally winced, and waited for Naruto's reaction. The blonde stared, no longer crying, and completely dumbfounded.

'WHAT?'

'Fucking hell Naruto,' said Sasuke, wincing at the loudness, 'trying to deafen the whole house?'

'BUT BUT BUT BUT…' Naruto stared uncomprehendingly at Sasuke.

'But you're an idiot? Because I agree with THAT sentiment.'

'BUT I…BUT SAKURA…BUT YOU…AND…BOYS…AND…'

'Oh, sure, tell the whole neighbourhood.'

'BUT…I mean…but…but…'

Sasuke rolled his eyes, Naruto was not good at these things. 'Look, I would really appreciate a response other than 'but'.'

'Um…I...don't know what to say.' Sasuke turned away. 'No, no no not as in a bad way…I don't think…I mean…I mean if I liked you back that would explain a lot…' Sasuke's heart fluttered. Naruto stared at the wall, his mind a mess of panic, whilst an excited voice was whizzing around going 'yayayayayayayayayayay'.

'Look, you have plenty of time to think it over. I'm on Naruto guard duty, mkay?'

'Sure.' Naruto beamed at him, but then his smile faded, fear back in his eyes. Sasuke cursed himself, this was a really, really bad time to be doing this.

'Look, just, forget about it for now okay?'

'I…I don't want to…it's just…with…him out there…I don't know if I can ever…do stuff again…'

'Whoah, Naruto, you are seriously getting ahead of yourself.' Sasuke said, reassuring him. 'Look, lets just…I dunno, start with…ramen?'

Naruto grinned, and was about to respond when a knock came at the door.

'Guys?' Came Sakura's voice, 'I heard Naruto yell my name, is everything okay?'

'Yes' They both chorused.

'Okay, um, well Chouji, Ino, and Shikamaru are going home, but team 8 want to know if they can crash here, same for me, Tsunade said it was probably a good idea for more of us to stay here tonight.'

'Um…okay...' Sasuke said, thinking, 'um, go outside, find one of the gardeners, and ask for Thea, she's like…a sort of…housekeeper person. She can sort out beds downstairs for you guys. If there's no one outside, go to the main house.'

'Pfft,' Sakura responded, and they heard her mutter 'brings a bloodied body to his house, random strangers show up, Hokage shows up and he thinks no one will be around…'

Naruto smiled slightly at Sasuke, and the raven glared at him.

'Sleep baka, I'm not going to be responsible for you getting worse. Rest.'

Light streamed in through the window, and Naruto lay awake, staring at the sky drifting past. The Uchiha estate was large, and there was a huge outdoor space, so all he could see was sky, no rooftops, no buildings. He smiled, it was nice. He rolled over, wincing as some of his cuts reopened. That was odd, he thought, they should have healed more by now…but that thought vanished as he stared at Sasuke, asleep beside him. He smiled for a moment, but then it faded. This was what he wanted; he knew that, this perfect world, where he and Sasuke were the only ones, where they lived in blissful peace. But that couldn't happen. He was a monster, and someone out there, that ninja, the others, the village, someone, somewhere, was going to destroy his world, and possibly everyone else's.

'Dobe, don't look so serious.' Came a mutter from Sasuke, and blue eyes met onyx.

'But…but nothings going to be the same…'

'The same as what?'

'As before.'

Sasuke struggled up so that his chin rested on the heel of his hand. 'And what exactly were things like before?' he raised an eyebrow at Naruto. 'The way I see it, before, people acted in the same stupid way. The bad things happening, now that you have more people on your side, they're going to stop. This is just like…like a really long mission. We just need to complete it, get through it, get our reward, then continue to have…'

'Really normal lives?'

'I wouldn't go that far, that'd be boring.'

Naruto grinned, and Sasuke felt a smile tug on his own mouth. But just as he was about to reach out and ruffle Naruto's hair, something thudded on the bedroom door. Followed by scratching.

'The hell…' Sasuke rolled over, clambering up, and pulled his shorts and top on, stumbling over to open the door. 'Who-' he looked ahead, then down. Akamaru was on the floor, tongue lolling out, grinning up at him. That was fine in itself, but the thing that made him glare was Kiba, who was also lying on the floor, staring up at him, hand outstretched, giving away that it had been him, not Akamaru, who had scratched at the door. 'Can I help you?' Sasuke's voice had an icy edge to it, but Kiba seemed immune to it and the death glare.

'Huuunngrrryyyyy' He whined, rolling over, and clutching Sasuke's ankles. 'Your house has no good foooooood, you only have coriander, and celery, and salmon, and rice, and it suuucckkssss.'

Naruto appeared beside Sasuke, grinning. 'It's almost like he wants something.'

'Naruuutooooooo!' Kiba howled, as the blonde knelt down and petted Akamaru's head, giving him ear scritchies. 'I need meeeaaat!'

'Salmon is meat.' Sasuke said bluntly.

'No it's not.' Kiba pouted. 'I need beeeeeeeeef!'

'No.' Sasuke replied, scowling.

In a stage whisper, Naruto said to Kiba, 'Sasuke doesn't like beef.'

Kiba looked up at them from the ground, then tucked his knees into his chest, and flipped himself up, spinning back to face them, grinning, and yelled 'FOOD SHOPPING!'

'Did someone say food shopping?' came a muffled shout from downstairs.

'Oh yeah, Chouji, Ino and Shikamaru are back.'

Sasuke groaned, and shut the door on Kiba.

'NOOOOO' cried Kiba, battering the door as Sasuke rubbed his forehead with his fist.

'C'mon.' Naruto said, grinning beside him, and tilting his head to look cute. 'With nine of us out there, what could go wrong?'

'You're using my crush against me.' Sasuke grumbled, and Naruto smiled cheerfully.

'Then we can go?'

'Yes. We can go.' Sasuke grabbed Naruto as he made a dash for the door. 'NOT until I've checked those wounds.' He was about to sit Naruto down and leave the room when he remembered what Tsunade had said. 'Actually…lets do this downstairs. Sakura can help.' He lied, hoping not to worry Naruto. Kiba grinned, and hugged Naruto when they left the room, mumbling about how mean Sasuke was. Downstairs the others met them, and Sakura helped Sasuke check on Naruto's wounds, undoing the bandages, and cleaning the wounds, placing herbs on the unhappy looking ones.

The group was rather a large one for Sasuke's small house, so Ino, Sakura, Shino and Kiba volunteered to go food shopping, Chouji, Hinata and Sasuke would stay with Naruto, as would Akamaru, as Kiba said he would be a good guard dog, though Sasuke doubted that, looking at the soppy mutt. Shikamaru agreed to go to the main house to get more chairs, so that everyone had somewhere to sit, after being given instructions to find Thea again. The morning was pleasant, so Sasuke opened the front door, the windows, and the French windows. Fresh air flowed through the rooms, and the four of them began to relax. Sasuke ended up digging through his cupboards looking for something to play, and finding a deck of cards.

'Does anyone know any card games?' He called over the cupboard door.

'GO FISH!' Yelled Chouji.

'SPIT!' Yelled Naruto.

'Ring of fire…' Hinata whispered, and all three boys turned to her, and she blushed.

'Yeah, lets play that!' Naruto grinned.

'Dobe, you need alcohol to play that.' Sasuke grumbled.

'We could use sweet chilli sauce instead.' Chouji offered.

'Sure, why not. This can't possibly go wrong.' The others didn't miss his icy sarcasm. 'It's not like anyone has any sensible ideas anyway.' He grumbled, shutting the cupboard. They set the cards out, and tried to remember the rules, arguing over which numbers meant what.

'Well we can't do Ace as waterfall because I don't think we have enough sweet chilli sauce for that' said Chouji, grinning.

'You like sweet chilli sauce don't you.' Naruto said, poking Chouji in the side.

'Well yes…'

'King won't work very well if we're all drinking the same thing…' Hinata contributed.

'Okay, lets all drink something we don't like.' Naruto went over to a cupboard, and picked out the sweet chilli sauce for Hinata, the lemon juice for Chouji, Tabasco sauce for himself, then smirked, and began doing something with his back to Sasuke, who became suspicious. Naruto turned back, with a mug in his hand, and sauntered over to Sasuke, placing the brown liquid in front of Sasuke, grinning.

'What…' Sasuke began, and then stopped as the smell hit his nose. Damn, he'd had some beef cubes at the back of the cupboard hadn't he. 'No. No, no, no.'

'Yes yes yes!' cheered Naruto, 'Cold beef stock!'

'Just, as a point, do you have any idea how much salt there is in this?' Sasuke asked, glaring at Naruto.

Just then, Shikamaru came in, carrying an armchair, followed by a few of the household staff.

'Ah! Just in time!' Said Naruto, grinning and jumping up. 'Shikamaru, what do you hate drinking?'

'What?' The boy stared, dumbfounded at them all.

'We're playing ring of fire.' Hinata said.

'With hot sauce!' Chouji chuckled.

'Well, I'm not a big fan of fish sauce.' He let the other staff put down their chairs, then seemed to struggle slightly with his.

'Oh, let me help.' Naruto said, feeling guilty that he was the cause of all of this, and going over to help Shikamaru place the chair down. As he was doing it, he heard a strange sound, and looked over to see Akamaru growling, his hackles raised. 'What's wrong boy?' he said, about to move towards the dog, but Shikamaru caught his arm, staring at the dog.

'That's…wrong…' Chouji muttered, staring in confusion at Shikamaru, 'I've seen you eat things…with fish sauce…on top…'

Sasuke looked from Chouji back over to Shikamaru, and Naruto, and slowly stood up.

'Naruto, could you come over here a second?' He felt a chill go down his spine, and the hairs at the back of his neck rose, but not letting his fear show in his voice.

'What's wrong?' Naruto asked, looking puzzled.

'Yeah,' Shikamaru looked at him, pulling Naruto back a bit, 'What's wrong?' The two Genin stared at one another, silence falling as everyone felt the atmosphere freeze, so tense that you could cut it with a knife.

'I just need Naruto to come over so I can check one of his cuts, it looks like it's bleeding through the bandage.' He said, thinking fast. Shikamaru glanced over at Naruto's forehead, and that was all Sasuke needed, the brief moment the other ninja had looked away gave Sasuke a window to leap at him, pulling Naruto behind him, as Shikamaru pulled out his kunai and slashed Sasuke's arm. He quickly did a hand sign, and a gust swept Sasuke back as Shikamaru dived forwards, and grabbed Naruto, who quickly substituted his body with a cushion, but not before the skin around one of Shikamaru's eyes seemed to peel away, revealing a bloody bandage underneath. Naruto panicked, and hauled Sasuke back with him behind the sofa, just as Hinata leapt forwards and activated her Byakugan, dodging the attacks, and jabbing a kunai into the false Shikamaru's left shoulder, stopping the flow of chakra to that arm, but in seconds the ninja's face began to crack and crumble away, the true ninja's face appearing, and they yelled 'KAZE NO YAIBA' and swung something at Hinata, and blood gushed out of her chest, as she fell to the floor. Naruto cried out, and performed Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, summoning ten clones, who all attacked the ninja, blocking Hinata and Sasuke from view. The ninja slashed at the clones, blocking their attacks, but then a giant arm burst between the Naruto clones, and punched the ninja to the floor, as Chouji joined the attack. Just when they seemed to be managing, Naruto screamed, and froze, as the ninja blew up his clones, and grabbed Hinata from the floor.

'Stop. All of you.' He said, holding a blade to her neck, his other arm hanging limply. 'She can die quick, with no chance, or she can die slow, and you can try to save her. You, demon boy, do you really think you're worth more than her?'

The group stood in silence, dust settling, not even Akamaru making a sound, as they tried to catch their breath, and the severity of the situation caught up to them. Naruto cringed against the pain, and pushed Sasuke's arm away as he gripped his shoulder.

'I have to.' He whispered.

'No, no you don't, there has to be another way…' Sasuke whispered back.

'There isn't…' Naruto hissed, slowly standing up, and shoving Sasuke's hand away. 'Okay.' He stood shakily, and walked over to the ninja, who dropped Hinata's body, and gripped Naruto's upper arm with his other arm, which seemed to be regaining strength.

'Good boy. But, she's contaminated now, can't let that live on.' Before anyone had time to react, he threw the kunai into Hinata's chest, and she coughed and went still.

'NO!' Naruto screamed, but the ninja was dragging him out of the door. Sasuke cursed, and left Chouji crouching over Hinata, trying to stop the blood. She wasn't dead, not yet, just in shock. That's what Sasuke told himself, he hadn't just lost someone, how stupid he'd been, he ran after the ninja, and saw him disappear over the rooftops, Naruto struggling, and fighting, but then going rigid, and slumping. They'd done something, he was reacting the same way as he had before, when he had the fever. No, nonono, I have to get to him, he'll…if he gets a fever…if I'm not there…if he wakes up with…with them…if…if he wakes up at all…Sasuke felt angry tears spill over as he fell further and further behind, the ninja and Naruto disappearing into the village. He ran down a roof, and scanned the crowd, but there was no sign of either of them.

'NO!' he screamed, the image of Naruto's smile bursting into his mind, followed by his limp body held in the arm of the ninja, his curled up body, bloody and scared when Sasuke went into his apartment, Naruto under the tree, the eyes that wouldn't see, Naruto smiling at the top of the tree in the morning sun, his grin fading as he realised the seriousness of the situation.

No, no, I have to see him smile again…no, I won't let anyone do that ever again, I WON'T!

'I WON'T LET THEM, I PROMISED.' Sasuke screamed, people in the street looked up, shocked at the scream, but he barely noticed them, running across the rooftops, determined to find Naruto even if he had to search forever. He would find him. He had to. Ignoring the hopeless feeling welling up inside him, his desperation gave him energy. He ran, and ran, and ran, the sun getting higher and higher, the heat barely touching him as he felt cold sweat trickle down his back and chest. Running across a particularly sloped roof he slid, grasping at the slate he fell, gashing his leg, the blood bringing back images of Hinata. No, she's fine, Chouji is with her. I…I have to find Naruto… He scrambled up, and clambered onto the roof again, sprinting across to a particularly tall building, where he stared at the village, helplessness overflowing with his tears that he angrily rubbed away.

'So…you really need to find him hm?'

Sasuke rounded on a figure on the rooftop with him, they looked just like any other ninja, ordinary, nothing special about them, but something felt off. Something felt wrong.

'Who are you?'

'The boss is probably dealing with the fox at this very moment.'

'If he dares…' Sasuke grit his teeth, and prepared to lunge at the man, but the roof pulled out from underneath him, and he fell to the ground below, hitting it hard, and falling unconscious.