Sakura was now the only one awake, as both Sasuke and Niina were either asleep or unconscious, she couldn't tell. She had managed to find shelter and she had placed numerous traps around, should anyone sneak up on them, as she knew that she wouldn't be able to fend off anyone by herself.

Two days had passed and neither if her teammates seemed to be getting better and something strange was happening to Sasuke, as purple steam was rising from where Sasuke was, and she couldn't figure out what Niina; how she had been able to fight like she did. She had many questions to ask, but now wasn't the time, besides, she hadn't slept in a couple days, and she needed to stay awake and alert.

She was also growing hungry and there food was running low, as well as the water, but she didn't want to leave, so she ignored the growls sent from her stomach.

She changed the wet cloth on Niina and Sasuke's forehead, she had lost track of how many times she had done so, but carried on nonetheless.

Sakura suddenly caught sight of something moving a couple meters away, she squinted her eyed to see what it was, but found out that it was only a squirrel, she threw a shurikan at it, succeeding in scarring it away, so that it wouldn't set off any of her traps.

Little did she know that she was being watched by a trio of sound genin who had been sent specifically to find them. There was a female and two males, all three of them were crouching behind a bush, studying the surroundings and watching in amusement, as the pink haired kunoichi became more and more tired as time went by.

They had all watched Sakura when she scared off the squirrel and thought it strange seeing as she was most probably hungry, so they came to one conclusion; there were traps set.

They waited a while longer until they decided to show themselves. The stood up and emerged from their hiding place behind the bush. Sakura immediately saw them and got on her guard, grabbing a kunai from her pouch.

"W-what do you want?!" She demanded.

Dosu, the leader of the group, smirked, before replying, "If you give us the girl, then we will leave you and the other in peace." Zaku and Kin then crossed their arms, as if to confirm that they wouldn't mind a little struggle.

"No way… I… can't do that… I WON'T do that!"

"Well… I guess that means that we'll have to take her by force… Zaku?" Dosu turned to look at said person, who then replied,

"Don't mind if I do…" He smiled before he began to run towards Sakura at a high speed. But before he could reach her, he was blocked by a boy clad in green spandex.

"Rock Lee… What are you doing here?"

Said person looked back, smiling, at Sakura. "I said that I would protect you… so that is what I'm doing…" He then gave her the nice guy pose, before returning back to his taijutsu stance.

"Is this freak your boyfriend?" Zaku asked mockingly.

"NO!"

Rock Lee's fell to the ground with a defeated expression present on his face, but quickly got up again.

"I shall protect you Sakura, even if it costs me my life!"

"Rock Lee… You don't have to do this."

"Aw… This is so touching, I'm almost gonna cry… NOT! Now, can we get back to our little fight or what?"

Immediately, in a blink of an eye, Lee was off, heading straight towards Zaku. He got four punches and a kick through before he back-flipped a couple meters, holding up his right hand in front of him when he landed. He waved his finger to-and-fro a couple of times, indicating that Zaku should approach him, which he did.

Lee began to undo the bandaging which he had round his hands and wrists as Zaku neared. As soon as Zaku was close enough, Rock Lee disappeared, only to reappear beneath Zaku, kicking him up in the air. He soon followed after, reappearing again beneath Zaku, wrapping his bandages around the whole of Zaku's body, preventing him from escaping Lee's move.

Once done with the wrapping, Lee grabbed Zaku and started spinning, heading towards the ground.

Dosu had been watching the whole thing and he knew that if he didn't do anything, then Zaku would most definitely be done for, so he used his gauntlet, and let sound waves travel through the ground, which would soften Zaku's landing, greatly decreasing the effect of Lee's combo.

Zaku landed, his head deep in the ground, whilst Lee had jumped off just before the crash. He stumbled a bit before he got his balance, but he was tired and exhausted, as he knew he would be after doing the lotus. But what he saw next shocked him; Zaku was getting up off the ground, hardly injured, just a bit shaken.

"H-how are you able… to get up… after my… attack?" Lee asked, the gaps in his speech made it clear that he couldn't carry on.

Dosu smiled, "I cushioned his fall…" Just then, Lee's knees buckled underneath him as he fell to the ground.

"Lee!" Sakura shouted. She felt so useless, she didn't do anything helpful when they were fighting against Orochimaru, and now, Rock Lee had fought to protect her, even when he was clearly out matched and they weren't even on the same team, let alone the same age group. But before she could get another thought to come into her head, she felt someone grab her hair from behind her. A few tears escaped from her eyes.

She heard a female speak. "Aw… Am I pulling a little bit too tight for the princess… there's no point in getting a kunai…" She said as she saw Sakura grab one. "… it won't help you."

But Sakura knew it would. She brought it up to the back of her head. She cut off her hair from just beneath the hands of Kin, releasing her from her grip.

"I… I won't be a nuisance anymore… From now on… I'll do my part… for my team!" She then made her way towards Zaku, as he had already been in battle, so he had already been weakened a bit. She decided that she had better chances of defeating him rather then any of the others, so that was what she aimed to do.

She ran straight towards him. He smirked and three a couple kunai straight at her, gut there was a poof and there was a log in her place, with several kunai embedded in it. A substitution… not bad, but she'll have to do much better if she wants to defeat me, or at least last a little longer… he then heard movement behind him, where hesaw Sakura running towards him, again, he threw a couple kunai at her and again she used a substitution jutsu. He knew that this would probable go on for a while, but carried on for the sake of it, to make her think that she was winning.

There was another one coming from his right, and there was another poof. Then he saw one coming from above and threw a couple kunai carelessly at her, looking around to see where the next one would be coming from, but he saw none. Then, he felt something wet drip down on his arm; he looked to see what it was and found that it was blood. He looked up and saw that she hadn't used a substitution jutsu, but that she had actually taken the blow and was on top of him in the blink of an eye, stabbing his right arm with a kunai, biting it hard at the same time. Blood was pouring fast from the wounds and Zaku gritted his teeth in pain. He used his free hand and started to bash her head hard, but everytime he did that, she just bit and pushed harder.

Finally, after one last bash to the head, Sakura let go and fell to the ground, coughing up blood.

"You know… You're a real pain in the neck. So I think it would be best to… dispose of you…" But before he could get any further, he felt the presence of something… something evil and powerful. He looked to where it felt strongest and saw that purple chakra was swirling around the Uchiha. Said person had now risen and black flame-like markings appeared on his skin and he had a menacing looked in his eyes, his sharingan activated.

"Sakura…" Said person looked up and stared at the person whom she loved, look so evil. "… Who did this to you?"

She didn't reply due to the shock she was in, so Sasuke looked around and saw that Zaku was smirking, and that he had a wounded arm. Immediately he knew that it was him who had harmed Sakura. He disappeared and reappeared so fast that you wouldn't believe it. He was behind Zaku, foot on his back whilst he was pulling his arms back, tighter with each passing second. Zaku cried out in pain as his arms were slowly being broken and stretched.

Meanwhile, Niina had felt the evil presence which disturbed, causing her to wake up. She looked around frantically until she set her eyes on Sasuke, but he wasn't the Sasuke that she remembered, he was corrupt, tainted. She leapt to her feat and dashed over to him, embracing him in a tight hug from behind, sobbing tears, soaking the back of shirt, darkening the red of the Uchiha crest.

"Sasuke… P-please stop… Y-you're not yourself…" She pleaded in between sobs.

Sasuke turned around to face her, glaring at her with his eyes for a split second until there was a blinding white flash when Niina looked back into his eyes. The light engulfed the two.

When it disappeared after a few seconds, Niina was down on the ground, sitting on her shins whilst Sasuke lay down, with his head on her lap, the black markings completely gone. Sasuke's expression was that of his usual, emotionless, but his eyelids drooped a bit down, whereas Niina's eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks tear stained.

The three sound nin were still there, they had watched the whole thing, with no idea as to what had just happened. Dosu saw the power of the Uchiha, and if Orochimaru had wanted the girl, then she must have been powerful too, so he came to the conclusion of them not being a match for the three Konoha nins. He decided that they had better get out of this place, away from them.

He picked up Zaku, putting Zaku's arm over his shoulder. He then reached into his pocket and pulled something.

"Here's our scroll. We'll give it to you if you let us leave." There was a moment of silence before Sakura realised what had just been said, nodding half mindedly. Dosu threw the scroll over to her before turning around, but stopped, with his back to them. "Sasuke… If we meet again, I will not back down." And the three sound nin were gone.