HEY THERE. It's kinda been a while... I needed to think of how to do this chapter. Anyways, I don't want to wait for reviews anymore, so I'm just gonna update whenever I feel like it. But out of the goodness of your hearts, (and there's a lot of good in there ;) ) Please review! I appreciate every single one of them, and I really enjoy reading them. Also, I'm gonna try and make the chapters longer from now on. So...

Disclaimer: Naruto's not mine. Never has been, never will be.

(By the way, if you were wondering, Saobi is three years older than Itachi...)

"Saobi, your hair is SO adorable."

They had a mission. The biggest one they had yet. They were to escort a daimyo's daughter to a neighboring city. It was fairly simple, but due to the price on her head, it was considered a B-rank mission. This time, the girl was not fawning over Itachi. No, she was drooling over Saobi.

"Thanks, princess," he said with a weary smile. Itachi smirked at the scene, and Saobi shot a glare at him. Ha. The fool finally knows what it feels like. The princess kept latching on to his teammate's arm, and Itachi was by no means jealous. If only Haruna could be a little more ladylike like the princess...

Itachi looked back to his female teammate. She was walking in a crude way, her legs seeming to pound the life out of the ground. She had gotten very tan over the years, her skin an unruly khaki. She had once told Itachi that she used to live in a place that always snowed so the pigment in her flesh was more sensitive to sun than that of others. In winter, she'd turn back to her "normal" color (Itachi secretly preferred the browned look).

Saobi was exhausted, but his ears were on alert. He had heard a rustle of bushes someway behind, but his sensei had told him to ignore it.

If only he knew...

"Saobi, you should stay with me at Pokatsu!" the princess Fuuja offered.

Saobi sighed. "Princess, I have a job, y'know." She beamed at him.

"Oh, that's no problem. Daddy can take care of that!" she squealed. "What do you say?"

While it was true that Saobi was three years older than his teammates, his maturity was at least three years younger. "No!" he shouted. "Girls are... Girls are..." He looked at Haruna. "Evil!" he screamed at last.

Haruna raised a brow at this, and Itachi swore he heard his sensei mutter, "smart boy..."

Suddenly a smoke bomb was thrown right in front of Hapinara and behind Saobi. The air around them was to foggy to see, and Itachi almost couldn't dodge the shuriken being thrown at him at lethal points. He stepped to the side, one grazing his shoulder. The smoke started to clear, and Itachi could hear the princess coughing and hacking. He himself felt like coughing due to his weak lungs, but he managed to hold it in. Saobi had resorted to waving his arms wildly, trying to blow the smoke away. Once it had cleared, Itachi looked around them in horror.

They had been separated from Hapinara and Haruna.

Unlike himself, Itachi started to panic, and quickly his lungs started to seize. If they were separated from Hapinara and were dealing with a jounin leveled ninja, there would be no hope. It would be a joke to even hope to win.

Kunai appeared from nowhere, glinting dangerously. Itachi jumped out of the way swiftly, not noticing that all the attacks had been aimed at him. He grunted in pain as his lungs were starting to give out. Saobi regained his ability to move and shouted "ITACHI! BEHIND YOU!"

Too late, Itachi looked behind him, knowing he would not be able to dodge the incoming kunai. Suddenly he felt a bruising force at his back, effectively shoving him out of the way. The realization hit him hard in the head. Saobi had saved him. The boy who always talked about hating him with all his heart had saved him. If Itachi wasn't in so much pain, he could laugh. What a hypocrite.

He had started to wheeze. It was painful, very painful.

"SAOBI!" Haruna screamed. She and her sensei were alone and could not get a good reading on the feel of their teammates' chakras. "ITACHI!" She felt a sense of dread lodging itself in her throat. "ITACHI!"

"Haruna." Hapinara said, his voice unnaturally calm. He started repeating his saying. "Do not panic. The worst thing you can do-"

"-is panic. I know," Haruna sighed shakily. "I know." She crouched down and grasped the back of her neck with her small hands. "I know. But Itachi... that smoke..." Haruna knew deep down that Itachi didn't have good lungs. He pretended to be strong, with much better endurance and strength, but he had to cover up the hacking coughs he had during the night. She knew.

Haruna started to cry. "Hapinara-sensei, what do we do?" she wailed. Mucus threatened to fall out of her nose, but she didn't care. "What if Saobi and Itachi die?"

Hapinara laid one firm hand on her shoulder now that it was the perfect height. "Haruna, Saobi and Itachi will live. We will find them," he assured her. Haruna sniffed and nodded, staggering to her feet. Out of the blue, she felt a very large chakra nearby and gasped.

"Sensei!" she cried out.

"Yes, Haruna. Very good," he praised, pride swelling in his chest while his anxiety tried to overwhelm it. He knew this chakra. It was not good, not good at all...

Princess Fuuja cried out, running to Itachi's side. "Itachi-san, are you okay?" she inquired, seeing his uneven breaths. His lips were starting to turn a fascinating azure, and he could barely stay on his knees anymore. He finally collapsed on the ground. "Itachi-san!" Fuuja bellowed. Saobi looked behind him.

What the fuck is this? Itachi? That arrogant prick is just laying on the ground! How could he be so weak? Saobi cursed mentally. Then something dawned on Saobi.

Itachi wasn't breathing.

However, he didn't have quite enough time for it to sink in completely for a plethora of senbon headed towards Itachi's head. The princess let out a blood curling scream before covering her head and Itachi's back.

To this, Saobi reacted uncharacteristically quickly. He winced as his arm took the blows before picking up his teammate and the princess and bringing them to safety. Setting his... teammate ("He's not my friend!" he seethed,) back on a tree, his lips quivered before opening Itachi's mouth and trying to give him CPR. When it seemed to have some sort of affect, Saobi broke away and wiped his lips in disgust.

"Totally gross," Saobi hissed. Princess Fuuja simply shook Itachi, trying to stir him from unconsciousness. "Stop it. Go hide," Saobi ordered. Princess Fuuja looked up at him with gleaming eyes, looking worried about him. "JUST GO!" he demanded. The Princess nodded and ran off into the forest, letting out breaths of sheer fear. Too slow for Saobi's tastes though.

He let out a frustrated breath. Women...