Disclaimer; Don't own Naruto, and I hate to say it, but I never will.

Those of you who jumped here because of my note on the first chapter, there is not romance in this one! Try the next one once I update...

This chapter was really painful to write... And I'm not sure how it turned out... But enjoy!

Chapter 10; To Kill a Friend

It was too late.

Sakura had already lunged.

Just in time, Naruto skidded to the side and Sakura's clumsy attack missed. He dug his feet into the ground and crouched, trying to grasp what had come over his friend. "Sakura… What?"

The pinkette came to a stop and just stared at Naruto, a deep anguish in her eyes. That had been a clumsy blow, and Sakura knew it. But how was she going to do this? To kill Naruto? She could feel the desperate tears threatening to rise up within her. Biting her tongue firmly, Sakura silently scolded herself. No. Now was not the time to cry.

Naruto grunted in frustration at Sakura's silence. He cast a dark look towards Sasuke, which the missing-nin returned icily. "What the heck is going on?! Why are you with him?! I… I'm so confused!" he basically howled in aggravation.

Neither of the two responded. Sakura just avoided lifting her emerald eyes, while Sasuke continued to glare at Naruto.

With another grunt of aggravation, Naruto turned back to Sakura. "I knew that they'd send some sort of prison guard if he let you out… But him? Sasuke?!" he was about to go on, but the kunoichi's horrified stare silenced him. He realized immediately that he just compromised her mission.

"Sakura," Sasuke hissed dangerously, his black eyes shooting daggers at the pinkette, "it sounds to me like you were captured on purpose… Are you… Spying?!"

She didn't say anything, but both men could tell from her eyes that it was true. Sasuke narrowed his eyes furiously, but Sakura knew he wasn't surprised. He had been suspicious of her the entire time. It was only a matter of time until he found out.

"I'm so sorry, Sakura… I just…" Naruto stammered, his blue eyes wide in alarm.

"Don't be. He would have found out sometime," Sakura murmured softly.

Sasuke's hard eyes focused on Naruto again. "You two really are idiots. You really thought that you could play Orochimaru? You have no idea what a huge mistake you made… Sakura, you know what you have to do."

"What? What does Sakura have to do…? What the heck is going on?!"

Shooting a glare of pure rage at Sasuke, Sakura pulled her kunai out of its pouch. She examined the curved blade in her hands for a moment, eyes flaring with pain. Softly, she murmured, "I'm… I'm sorry, Naruto. But… But I have to kill you."

Hinata fidgeted uneasily. What could be taking Naruto so long? This just didn't seem right…

She glanced at the gate of the village that Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru had gone into. The best thing to do was probably to wait for them to get back. Naruto probably had just gotten lost in the forest of something. Yes. That was all that was going on. Naruto was just being his good old self and stirring up trouble. He'd be fine.

Yet she couldn't shake the deep sense of urgency in the pit of her stomach. Something was wrong…

Naruto just stared at Sakura in shocked silence. He twitched as if he were going to try to say something, but whatever it was died on his lips. It happened a few more times, but not a word escaped his mouth.

At last, he gasped out, "…Wh… Wh… Why?"

The taste of blood continued to overwhelm Sakura's mouth. If she kept biting down on her tongue like this… "I…" she whimpered, then shrugged off the sudden weakness. "I have to. I just… I have to."

None of that made any more sense to Naruto. He was just all the more confused. "Sakura…?"

She clenched her eyes shut for a moment, then they snapped back open. Tensing, the pinkette lifted her kunai up and stared at Naruto with fiery eyes. Defend yourself, those eyes read.

Once again, she lunged. But this one wasn't half as clumsy as the last one.

Naruto leapt the side, but Sakura was expecting it. She suddenly changed courses with lightning quick speed and the kunai gorged a cut in Naruto's leg. She twisted around the moment her feet felt the ground and was lunged back at the blonde ninja. He jumped up above Sakura and landed on the branch of one of the nearby trees. Staring at her hollowly, he shook his head softly, then turned to run away.

Sasuke appeared right in front of him, those onyx eyes dark and refusing. "This isn't a fight you can run from," Sasuke hissed. He moved extremely quickly and elbowed Naruto in the ribs. Naruto instinctively crumbled down, his hands flying to the painful spot. This allowed Sasuke to deliver a harsh uppercut to the blonde ninja's chin.

Sakura watched in defeated horror as Naruto was tossed back into the clearing. Sasuke wasn't going to let him escape. These two had to fight… To the death.

Cringing, Naruto forced himself to his feet. He was tired from the battle he just fought, and Sasuke hadn't been even slightly gentle with him. Sakura knew that this all should have made her feel better, considering that her odds were improving. But all it did was make her want to throw up.

She could see in those cobalt eyes that he wouldn't hurt her. He couldn't bring himself to… But Sakura couldn't do this if he didn't at least try to fight back.

After a long moment, she surged towards him. Naruto dodged her swipes and rolled out of her way. She followed him and they both skidded around the clearing, moving almost too fast for the other to detect. Sasuke watched coolly from above in the trees.

At last, the two broke apart, panting and exhausted. Sakura flicked her wrist and sent her kunai flying towards her opponent. He dodged and slid to a halt, still breathing heavily.

"Sakura, why are you doing this?!" he asked desperately. "What the heck has happened to you?!"

She closed her eyes and exhaled sharply. "I…"

"Please, Sakura! Tell me!"

"I… I have to kill you, Naruto."

"But why?!"

"To save everyone else."

Before the blonde ninja had the chance to continue asking, Sakura punched the ground forcefully with a chakra strengthened fist. The ground splintered and cracked in the clearing before all of it shattered. Naruto stumbled and fell. A few sharp pieces of rock pierced his arms and legs and the ninja grunted in pain. While he was distracted, Sakura dashed around and appeared behind him. She lifted her fist and rammed it at him. At the last second, Naruto noticed and was scarcely able to dodge the blow. Instead, Sakura's power packed punch crashed into the already shattered ground, causing even more shards to fly in the air.

As the dust settled, Naruto and Sakura stared at each other. The pinkette could see in those pools of blue that the blonde ninja was clueless as to what she meant with what she said.

"Sakura… Why?" he murmured softly, shaking his head ever so slightly. "What do you mean?"

She looked away, rubbing some of the dust and small pieces of debris off her arms. "Because of Orochimaru."

"What do you mean?! Tell me!"

With a bone rattling sigh, Sakura wheezed, "Because if I don't kill you, then he'll kill everyone I care about!"

"What?! But I thought he didn't know about-"

"He doesn't." The kunoichi shook her head softly. "Think about who you're talking about. He doesn't care why I actually joined him… He doesn't care. He wants prove that I'm loyal. And I've seen too much for the answer to be 'no.'"

Naruto fell into shocked silence.

"Don't you get?!" she asked desperately. "Either I have to kill you now… Or he'll kill you later, along with anyone else I care about, anyone else I knew…"

Azure eyes filled with sadness and he murmured, "Yes. I understand." The tall ninja fixed his firm gaze on Sakura. "Go ahead. Do it. Kill me."

It was only getting harder to hold back the tears. "What?! NO! I… I can't!"

"But you said it yourself! You have to!"

"I can't… Not if you just lay down your life for me… Naruto… As strange as it may sound, I can only do this if you fight with all you have… Fight for your dream… To become Hokage."

He fixed his firm gaze on her and whispered, "No. It doesn't sound strange. I'd be the same way…" He stared off into space for a moment, a tearful smile on his lips. "To become Hokage… I suppose that won't be possible after this, huh?"

Sakura sank her teeth into her tongue one more time. No… She wouldn't cry… "I'm so-"

"Save it." Naruto shook his head, his messy blonde hair swinging. He shifted his feet into a battle pose and his arms tensed at his side. "This is something you have to do."

Thank you, Naruto… Sakura blinked slowly. When her eyes opened again, they were hard as steel. "Then let us do this."

OK. This was taking way too long…

Hinata took a few nervous steps. Naruto had been gone far longer than he should have been… Something was definitely wrong.

Byakugan! Hinata scanned the area and saw something that froze her blood.

It was Naruto… And he was clearly fighting someone. She focused a little more to see who exactly it was.

Sakura?!

Naruto and Sakura are battling?! The kunoichi watched through her kekkei genkai as the two ninjas attacked each other. She sucked in her breath. What could be going on?!

Without a second thought, Hinata raced towards the location on the battle.

Sakura and Naruto leapt towards each other and met in the center, their blades gleaming as they clashed. Sparks flew in both of their faces. They parted once again, eyes flashing like the flying sparks.

Both skidded back several feet, staring at each other with anguish. Each had a few cuts on their arms from poor blocking skills, but even the stinging pain didn't seem to be enough to wake Sakura from this nightmare. She fought the urge to glance at Sasuke, who was watching the entire battle with limited interest. He would much rather be training with Orochimaru to learn all sorts of new evil tricks for his already-tough-to-beat jutsu. Just thinking about that sent another pang of red-hot anger through Sakura's heart. That was probably a good thing… She needed anger to do this, or she wouldn't be able to bring herself to follow through…

Naruto glanced over at Sasuke too, the dark anger in his eyes mirroring what the kunoichi felt in her heart. "Why would you do this, Sasuke?" he called out, gripping his kunai tightly. "Why?"

The dark ninja said nothing, only gazing down at them, his blue-tinted hair cascading down into his onyx eyes. His refusal to say anything only angered Naruto. He was clearly frustrated.

Sakura narrowed her eyes coolly, shifting her grip on her kunai. "Don't try and talk to him, Naruto," she murmured. "That traitor couldn't care any less about this."

His blue eyes flicked to her for a moment as if to acknowledge her words, but he quickly returned his gaze to Sasuke.

Fighting back a sigh, Sakura suddenly hurled her kunai at Naruto. He caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and ducked, the blade barely soaring above him. While he was distracted, Sakura raced in and swung up at his jaw with her one of her powerful punches. The blonde ninja was barely able to move his head out of the way, and her fist grazed his hair rather than delivering a devastating blow. Using the momentum from his movement, Naruto swiped out with a leg to trip Sakura. She, however, was use to dodging attacks, so she was able to move well out of the way with ease.

They both separated, panting. About half of Sakura's chakra was gone; even less of Naruto's she was sure. This battle wouldn't go on forever… And it seemed doubtful that the pinkette could win.

Naruto looked at her for a moment, then pressed his hands together and formed a couple of signs. "Shadow clone jutsu!" he called, and in a burst of smoke, an exact replica of Naruto appeared. One of them, presumably the real one, put out his hand. The other started slapping the air in a circle around his hand. Blue swirls of chakra started whirling in the air around his open palm. It formed a glowing orb of pure chakra energy formed in his hand.

Rasengan! Naruto's shadow clone disappeared and he started running towards Sakura, holding his chakra orb behind him slightly. Sakura narrowed her eyes and watched him as he grew closer and closer. As he drew to within feet, the blonde shot his hand forward, the blue sphere pressed tightly to his palm. At the last moment, the kunoichi dove to the side and rolled across the demolished ground. The rasengan attack missed and instead of finding its target, it—along with Naruto—crashed into a tree.

By the time he had spun back around, Sakura was already lunging towards him. She drove her fist straight for his gut. The ninja barely had the chance to dodge. After exchanging a series of blows, the two broke apart once again.

This was taking far too long. If this kept up… Then someone would find them out her, battling it out in the woods. Sakura heaved deep, ragged breaths, losing hope quickly.

But it seemed Sasuke was a step ahead. He, up in the trees, made a flurry of hand signs and sucked in a breath. Fire Style; Fireball Jutsu! An arch of flame erupted from his mouth and surged down towards Naruto. While he was busy trying to avoid getting a burn, Sakura saw her chance. She leapt forward and punched him in the side once and the stomach the second time before falling away. The blonde ninja crashed painfully and forced himself to his feet, spitting up a mouthful of blood. Those two blows had clearly done a lot of damage.

As he was gasping to regain his breath, Sakura came in from behind. She let all of her building anger out in the next blow, sending her fist surging down towards Naruto's head. But at the last second, he slid to the side and instead of finding her target, Sakura ended up sending even more shards and debris up into the dust filled air.

After spitting up one last mouthful of blood, Naruto forced himself to his feet. One of his hands still gripped his stomach tenderly, but it was clear that Naruto was ready to keep on fighting. He formed the same signs as before and a group of shadow clones appeared once again; this time six appeared. Five out of the seven Narutos rushed towards Sasuke, but with little effort he was able to destroy all of them with his sword. The other two, however, started to make another rasengan.

When at last the attack was created, the clone Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke, while the real one started to run towards Sakura. She tensed and watched him silently, already planning her next move. When he was close enough that his arm shot out towards her, Sakura dove down to the ground and kicked her legs out towards him. A look of surprise crossed his face as he started to fall. But he wouldn't let his attack be wasted. The hand that held the rasengan surged toward her shoulder. Searing pain showed that it had successfully grazed her arm, but not too much damage had been done. Naruto crashed down on Sakura—after all, she had tripped him. But instead of just allowing herself to be squished, the pinkette drove her elbow up and it met with his sternum. He gasped painfully, giving Sakura a chance to push him off of her.

Naruto spat up some more blood as he stood on his hands and knees, trembling. When he lifted his head, those azure eyes dug into Sakura and she felt a painful twist in her gut. How can I be doing this to him?! She silently wailed.

Hinata fought the horrified gasp as she crouched in the bushes, watching the horrific battle in front of her. Sakura was just climbing to her feet, blood pouring down her arm and dripping off her fingers. Naruto, however, was still on his hands and knees, fighting to breath. Watching him like this… Hinata could hardly fight the urge to jump in and try and protect him.

Seeing Sasuke up in the trees reminded her why she mustn't interfere. Hinata stared up towards him, the leafy branches scratching at her arms and face and hindering her vision. What was going on? Why was Sakura doing this? How is Sasuke, a traitorous outlaw, involved? All of these questions swirled in the 17-year-old's mind.

Naruto pulled himself to his feet and pulled out another kunai. Sakura did the same and they both stared at each other, neither wanting to make the next move. This was all so strange for Hinata. If Sakura didn't want to do this, then why the heck was she? Is that why Sasuke's watching from the trees? Perhaps Sakura has to prove herself to Sasuke… But why would she actually do this?

A loud boom made the watching kunoichi flinch. She tucked a strand of her long midnight blue hair behind her ear and glanced up. The once clear blue sky was filled with dark, stormy clouds. They were in for a huge storm…

As Hinata leveled her gaze back on the two who had started battling once more, a few solitary drops of water started to fall from the sky. It may seem cliché, but it was starting to rain over this dark battle.

Sakura slashed with her kunai and Naruto did the same. Both leapt and weaved around across the shattered ground while still clashing against the other. This deadly dance continued on with each side quickly receiving cuts and gashes on arms, legs, faces, torsos… Scarlet blood dripped down and splattered on the crumbled rocks below.

At last, the two broke apart, gasping. Sakura had several deep cuts on her arms, one on her stomach, one on her right leg, and a nasty gash across her forehead. Naruto had similar cuts on his arms, a light graze on his chest, one over his left eye and one on his right cheek. Both felt almost dead tired, although Sakura had a feeling that Naruto wasn't near as exhausted as she was. He had to be holding back… Naruto wouldn't lose so easily. But he was fighting back enough to keep Sakura busy and to keep her from thinking to hardly about that.

A drop of gleaming water fell down and splashed on Sakura's nose. She jerked in surprise and scanned the sky. What had once been a gleaming light blue sky without a sign of cloud was now a deep rolling mass of black and dark grey clouds. Blinking slowly, the pinkette lowered her head as more drops of liquid streaked down around her. How ironic that the weather decided to match her mood…

Naruto lifted his hand and wiped a bit of blood away from his eye. Sakura watched silently. If I can wound him on one of his legs… she mused, then he'll be slowed down and I'll stand a greater chance. It sickened her to be thinking such thoughts about her friend, but there wasn't anything she could do right now. I have to do this.

They stared at each other for a moment. At last, Sakura feinted a lunge. Her opponent fell for it and dashed to the side, where Sakura was really aiming. A moment too late, he realized her plan and tried to move out of the way, but Sakura's blade moved to fast. The sharp kunai sand into Naruto's calf and created a deep gash that instantly started gushing blood. Pain flashed across his face and that leg crumbled, refusing to take on his full weight. But Naruto was a ninja; he was use to having injuries like this. It wasn't that difficult for him to roll away from Sakura, closing her window of attack.

But the wound did its purpose. Naruto speed had been cut in at least half. The pinkette knew this the moment he staggered again to his feet. With the blood dripping from his cuts and the rigid pain in which he was carrying himself, Naruto seemed so rugged and worn. Sakura's heart twisted at the sight of him like this. She may not love him, romantically, but they had been through a lot together in the last few years. Seeing a partner like this in pain was bad enough; knowing she caused it was even worse, but what really topped it was knowing that she could heal him and yet not doing it. This made her feel completely despicable. I really am turning into an outlaw, she sulked to herself in ashamed horror.

She almost started healing her own wounds with her medical ninjutsu, but stopped herself when she saw again the pain Naruto was in. I can't just heal my scratches and be done with it… Not like this… I need this pain. If I don't have it, I can't do this.

After a few more ragged pants, Naruto lunged forward at Sakura. She was able to easily sidestep and avoid his clumsy attack. That wound really had turned things for her. He could hardly move, it hurt so much.

This was the perfect chance.

Sakura quietly stepped forward towards him, holding her kunai firmly in her hand. She paused as he swiped half-heartedly at her with his own weapon, but it was a weak attempt. The kunoichi just continued on, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on her target.

When she was close enough, Naruto punched straight for her face. Snapping out her arm, the pinkette caught his blow in her hand and tightened her grip on his arm. Taking her kunai, she sent the blade straight for Naruto's chest. He yanked his arm out of her grasp and moved just enough that the blade, instead of hitting a vital point, dug deeply into his shoulder. Before Sakura had time to react, he slammed his side into her and sent her sprawling across the tattered ground. She felt the sharp rocks dig into her stomach and a pinprick of blood started to ooze out from several locations. Gritting her teeth, the pinkette lifted her head and saw Naruto making a sign despite the aggravating pain. With a puff of smoke, another shadow clone appeared. Naruto stuck out his hand, wincing at the pain it rigged. The shadow clone started making another rasengan. The moment it was done, the clone disappeared and Naruto raced toward where Sakura laid.

There was no chance to run… So Sakura did the only thing she could. She grabbed a rather large shard of rock and lifted it up to act as her shield. There was limited chance that this would stop the powerful attack… But it would weaken it enough so that Sakura could take the blow and still relent while Naruto was weakened.

With a deep grinding noise, the rasengan broke through the piece of rock. But the half a second it took to get through gave Sakura enough time to shift her weight just enough. The rasengan still met its target. It just didn't hit where Naruto was aiming. It hit her in her upper arm.

The searing pain was tremendous. Sakura cried aloud in agony for a moment, then clenched her teeth and, using her other hand, gripped her kunai. That blade in her hand went straight for Naruto's stomach.

A sickening thud echoed as the blade hit its target.

Naruto happened to spit up a mouthful of blood on Sakura before collapsing next to her. His wheezing breath was the only sound, other than the pinkette's beating heart. She just weakly sat up and looked over at Naruto in horror.

The blonde ninja forced his fingers over to a kunai from early, which conveniently had landed there sometime during the fight. He gripped the knife and whispered hoarsely, "Sakura… I won't go down so easily…" Slowly, he forced himself up enough so that he could use the kunai. Lifting his arm, he pointed the blade at Sakura.

She didn't move. She just stared at him, frozen with shock. Nothing could bring her to move. Naruto…

He pushed himself up to his knees weakly and looked at her, his azure eyes gleaming with pain. The kunai trembled in his hand, probably from heartache as much as from physical pain. "Sakura… Don't make me do this…"

Not a word escaped from her. She just watched, the rain streaking down her face, soaking her to the bone. Inside her, there was no will to keep fighting. This was just too much…

Naruto lifted his hand with the kunai. Sakura knew that he wouldn't kill her. He'd probably just knock her unconscious or something… But even if she wanted to, the pinkette couldn't have moved. Her body was just in too much shock. Sakura just closed her eyes.

Clang!

Her eyes snapped open to see Sasuke right in front of her, his long sword blocking Naruto's blade. By Naruto's pained gasp, she could tell he was surprised too. The dark ninja turned his head enough to look at her with onyx eyes and blink slowly before fixing his gaze on Naruto again. A flurry of lightning quick slashes and it was over.

"Naruto!" Sakura was instantly unfrozen. She couldn't hold it in… Not any longer. She couldn't just watch this happen. The kunoichi shoved Sasuke out of her way, although the rogue didn't fight. He landed smoothly on the ground next to her and watched coolly as she hovered over the blonde ninja's body. Her sopping wet hair hung down in her face in large, pink strands, blocking out some of her already limited vision.

Sakura's lip trembled as she gazed at the deep gashes across Naruto's body. She was a medical ninja. She knew that if Naruto didn't get care right now, he wouldn't make it. He would be dead.

Those gleaming azure eyes opened weakly. "Sa… Sa… Sakura," Naruto wheezed weakly. "I understand… I understand why you had to do this…" His ragged breathing slowed with each gasped word. "Whatever you do… Make sure that you are… Happy."

The tears that she had fought back all this time finally broke loose and ran rampant down her face. The rain continued to pour on the ragged two. Blood continued to ooze from the wounds. "I'm… I'm sorry," Sakura choked out through the sadness.

A slight smile stretched across Naruto's face. And those bright, gleaming cobalt eyes closed.

A/N; This chapter was really hard to write... Especially the last part... I hope it was good...

I really hope that the battle wasn't too long or anything like that... It feels to me like it just went on forever... But I don't want to change it... Please, share your thoughts on it! I really would love to hear them!

Got Questions?

If you're confused on anything at all in the story, feel free to ask! I don't want any confused people walking around. No matter how stupid you think the question is, ask away! After all, the only stupid question is a question not asked. (Don't forget that I have the right to not answer any questions… don't want to give away any surprises I have in the future!)

Review, if you please!

I'd really appreciate if you'd review. Tell me what you think I should change, any ideas you have, etc… I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Next chapter will have a bit of, well, romance! Have a great day!

-Cynder7777