AN: Sorry for the delay in posting this. Exams were hectic for school and then classes ended a couple weeks ago and I got distracted with a lot of other things and was completely lacking in motivation to write. I finished this the other day and yeah. Enjoy!...I hope. Let me know what you think! and once again naruto and everyone else belong to Kishimoto...not me...sadly...yeah.

The two began to walk back to the creek. Naruto leaned in against Sasuke.

"I don't care if anyone finds out," the blonde said as he stroked Sasuke's dark hair.

"That's because you're a dobe," Sasuke said as he blushed slightly. He was still flustered from what they had been doing in the forest and was having trouble calming himself down. He was sure that Naruto was having a similar problem. He struggled with the thoughts that were running through his head. Part of him wanted to pull Naruto close to him and finish what they had started. Reason though, told him that they should head back to the river and get moving.

'What am I going to do if we both don't make it through this? What if Naruto…' Sasuke thought to himself. For once he was having doubts about going into a battle. Fighting had always seemed so straight forward, but this time he actually felt like there was something to lose and that feeling made him very uneasy.

Naruto was leaning close against Sasuke as they walked. Sasuke seemed deep in thought and Naruto hesitated to disturb him. What would have happened if Sai and Sakura hadn't disturbed them?

'Would I really have done that to Sasuke?' Naruto wondered. It didn't take him long to realize that yes, yes he would have. Sasuke had always seemed so distant from him, but just a few moments ago the Uchiha was opening himself to the blonde in a way that he never thought possible. The cool Uchiha composure had melted before his eyes and the best part was that he was the cause of it.

'Does that make us lovers?' Naruto blushed at the thought that had appeared in his head. He shook his head furiously in order to rid the thought from his mind, causing Sasuke to become aware of the outside world once again.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke questioned in a semi-irritated tone.

"Nothing," Naruto said, "just thinking…you know, about us."

Sasuke looked at the blonde. When had his illogical attraction to this idiot begun anyway? He couldn't remember a distinct moment and soon pushed the thought out of his mind. What mattered now was that they knew that they were important to each other. They had to get through this, together. But what about his resolve to never set foot in Konoha again. Sasuke's expression hardened at the thought of returning to that village. What would happen if he did return there? No doubt he would in the very least be shunned. Most likely he would be killed.

--

Kisame walked over to Suigetsu's dead body. The brat had been a tougher opponent than he had ever imagined. He hadn't wanted to fight in the first place but what else can you do when someone attacks you? Now he was injured. Injured and severely chakra depleted. He had to get away and get back to Itachi.

Kisame looked at Karin and Jugo and promptly took off at the fastest speed he could muster. Karin and Jugo rushed over to their downed teammate and attempted to wake him, but to no avail. Karin stood up. He was dead, not that she really cared but now they were one fewer in number. That idiot had done it to himself after all.

"Come on Jugo. Let's go teach him about what happens when you mess with Team Hebi," Karin said as she readied herself.

The two remaining members rushed off into the forest after the Akatsuki member, both intent upon killing him. It wouldn't be that hard considering what Suigetsu had done to him.

--

Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted as the two emerged from the foliage of the forest clearing by the river where everyone had gathered. They were met by the collective staring of the entire group. Sakura was blushing an advanced shade of red as she attempted to avoid making eye contact with them. Kakashi watched the two and smiled knowingly. Yeah, he had won the bet. They two were obviously trying to hide it but the looks that they both had on their faces gave them away immediately. Kiba looked at the two shinobi that had just entered the area. It was obvious to him that what Sakura had said was true.

"Way to go Naruto!" Kiba shouted at the blonde.

Naruto barely managed to control the red color that was attempting to fill his face. Kiba had never really learned that some things were best left unsaid in order to avoid awkward situations. Not that Naruto himself was great at that either, but this situation was definitely one in which idiots should keep their mouths shut.

"What are you shouting about mutt?" Sasuke said challengingly. He was going to protect his dignity in this no matter what. He was an Uchiha after all.

Kiba sniggered as he looked over Sasuke. "Oh nothing. I just never thought I'd see the day when the proud Uchiha Sasuke got topped. Let alone by Naruto of all people." Kiba said as he shrugged.

Dignity rejected. Sasuke glared at Kiba but then realization suddenly dawned on him. It wasn't Kiba that was the source of the problem. He turned suddenly to face the pink-haired girl who was still blushing madly and began to walk toward her.

"I'm sorry Sasuke-kun. I was just talking to Ino and then Kiba overheard and…" Sakura began trying to explain herself to the enraged boy.

Naruto rushed over and grabbed Sasuke by the shoulder quickly.

"Sasuke! You can't hurt her! She's a member of our team. And she's our friend!" Naruto complained.

'Dammit! Why is this idiot right?!' Sasuke thought.

If he injured her there was no way that he could stay with the group. He would never be able to regain their trust. He resisted the urge to pull out a kunai and jam it into her just to teach her a lesson, instead turning away only to be met by stares from the rest of the group. Everyone that had been staring at the two realized this and immediately began occupying themselves with other tasks and preparing for departure once again.

Hinata looked at Sasuke and Naruto. She kept telling herself that she was happy for Naruto, that since this is what he wanted that she should be happy but seeing that what Sakura had said was true caused her heart to ache so much. Hinata sighed audibly a turned away.

"Hey did they really, well you know?" Shikamaru whispered to Ino.

"Yeah I don't think Sakura was lying," she replied as she looked at the two boys standing closely to each other. God she hated it when Sakura was right.

"Man! Those two are so troublesome," Shikamaru said in an annoyed tone. Just what they needed, more complications.

Naruto and Sasuke were sticking close to each other as they got water. For some reason it just didn't seem to be safe if they were apart. Neither of them really felt like being cornered and questioned at this point..

Neji on the other hand didn't care if they were together or not. He had been bothered by Sasuke's sudden appearance and apparent change of heart from the very beginning and still did not trust him. His rational side told him not to make a scene but that side is not the one that won out. Neji walked over to Naruto at a determined pace and caught the blonde's attention with a well placed smack to the back of the head.

Naruto began turning around. "What the hell was that for…Neji? Why'd you do that?"

An expression of anger was clear on Neji's face.

"You're my problem! You and that damn attitude of yours," Neji said in an indignant voice.

"What do you mean by that? What did I do?" whined Naruto.

Neji grabbed onto Naruto's shoulder and proceeded to tell Naruto exactly what he had done to anger him.

"You're too trusting! That's your problem. Sasuke just shows up out of the blue and you automatically accept him without the least bit of wariness. And even more than that, so does the whole group just because you trust him! Sure some of them have their doubts but they're all ready to let him fight with us just because you trust him. You even went off into the woods and did who knows what with him! It makes me sick! What kind of hokage would you be when you just let a known enemy join our forces?!"

Naruto was lost for words. He looked down at the ground searching for a response. Neji was right. What kind of hokage would he be if he just trusted enemies so easily? But Sasuke wasn't an enemy. He trusted him. They were friends. Why couldn't Neji just trust in his decision?

Precipitately, Sasuke pushed Neji's hand off of Naruto and pulled the blonde toward him.

"A damn good one," Sasuke said in confident voice.

"Sasuke," Naruto said in a thankful yet still confused voice.

Sasuke looked at the blonde and showed a slight smile. Naruto looked at him and smiled back.

"You say you're Naruto's friend yet you doubt his decisions. How can he ever become hokage if he knows that even his friends doubt him?" Sasuke said as he glared at the Hyuuga.

"You can't even talk!" Neji exploded back at the raven-haired boy. "You abandoned our village to go off with Orochimaru. You tried to kill Naruto! How trustworthy can you be?"

Tension was rising in the air and could be felt by all the ninjas that had stopped to watch the clash of the two blood-line limit possessors. No one dared say anything for fear of escalating the argument.

"I trust him," Naruto said as he stepped out of Sasuke's hold. "I know that he abandoned us and deserted Konoha and even tried to kill me. People change though Neji. You're proof of that yourself. And, look at Gaara! He wanted to kill all of us and now he's the Kazekage. Sasuke wouldn't betray us, not again. I'd put my life on that. That means you should be able to trust him too."

Neji sighed. Naruto was right to some extent but that didn't mean that he wasn't going to watch Sasuke just in case of the likely event that Naruto was wrong. Neji turned around and left the two standing there without a word.

Lee looked at his teammate and then at Naruto and Sasuke. He was thoroughly confused. He hadn't noticed when Sai and Sakura had returned and missed the apparently critical news that Sakura had said.

Yamato, sensing that most of the tension had faded out of the air, proceeded to speak.

"Ok everyone, let's get moving. We'll all follow the trail that was found earlier. Keep your groups close but still spread out. We don't want to attract any unwanted attention."

The groups assembled began leaping up into the trees. Kakashi held Naruto back.

"What is it Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto questioned.

Kakashi smirked, though Naruto could not tell because of the mask the jounin was wearing. Kakashi put his hand on top of the blonde's head.

"If you ever have any questions about "techniques", I can tell you about a few good ones that I use with Iruka-sensei," Kakashi said in a cheerful voice.

Naruto stared at his sensei with a quizzical look, but then it dawned on him exactly what his sensei meant by that and his brain imploded upon itself.

"Wha..wh…what?? you mean y..y..you and Iruka-sensei…." The blonde stuttered comically.

"Yeah but don't be too loud about it Naruto. Not many people know about it besides us and the Godaime. You can't hide anything from that woman. Anyway let's get moving shall we?" the silver-haired jounin said as he jumped up into the treetops.

Naruto remained in his position, unable to move. That was way too much information. Naruto jumped up into the canopy to see Sasuke standing there waiting.

"What did Kakashi-sensei want?" Sasuke asked uncaringly.

"Nothing. He just wanted to uh…uh…we need to get going," Naruto said, hurrying along.

"Che. Whatever," Sasuke said as he followed the blonde through the trees.

--

A considerable amount of time had passed and Kisame was still being pursued by Karin and Jugo. What was he going to do? Kisame suddenly felt something that made him stop momentarily. He felt a large chakra presence moving nearby but it wasn't the large mass that caused him to stop, it was the familiar chakra that he sensed that did. Kisame grimaced. So Itachi had been killed. Sasuke was still alive. But why was he with this group?

'So Itachi's goal has been realized. His brother is safe and undoubtedly now possesses Itachi-san's sharingan, just like he wanted. I wonder if Itachi-san told Sasuke the truth in the end,' Kisame sighed as he thought to himself.

Kisame thought better than to push his luck and moved quickly to arc around the group.

'I'm far too injured at this point to deal with this,' Kisame thought.

He had just made it to the point where he could barely sense the group's chakra. His skills in chakra detection were far greater than most ninjas, so he was sure that they could not sense him. Kisame stopped moving when he felt Karin and Jugo's chakra continue to follow the large group instead of his.

"Hmmph. Easier than I thought," Kisame said aloud.

Kisame moved more slowly now, knowing that he was out of immediate danger. Besides, he wasn't quite sure where he was going. Kisame looked forward into the woods and what he saw was a hologram forming, a hologram of none other than Pein.

The hologram looked at him with Pein's usual deadpan look.

"Seems you've had some trouble," Pein said.

Kisame made no attempt to reply while avoiding making eye contact with the flickering image.

"Kisame-san, I need you to meet me in the canyons that lie to the west of our secondary base. We may need your assistance in the capture of the kyuubi jinchuuriki," the hologram said.

"Yes, Pein-sama," Kisame said as he bowed slightly.

The hologram flickered out of existence. Kisame hadn't bothered to question Pein as to the circumstances of Itachi's death. He knew that there would be time for that to be explained later.

"Is our organization falling apart or what? It's down to just the few of us,' Kisame thought.

The injured Akatsuki resumed heading in his original path. Kisame realized that it was rather convenient that he had initially been moving in this direction. It would have been an even greater strain on his already damaged body.

Several more hours had passed uneventfully as Kisame continued moving through the trees of the forest choosing to walk on the ground instead of moving through the canopy. He started as he heard the sound of snapping branches as he dodged the wind that was rushing toward him. Someone was there. How had he failed to notice them? Was he really that chakra depleted that he couldn't even sense its flow anymore? They already knew he was there. He had no other choice than to face them with the strength he had and hope that he made it out alive. Ha, that was wishful hoping.

'At least I'll take them down with me,' Kisame thought. Kisame looked to his left in the direction that voices were emanating from.

"Gaara, You were right! There's someone over there," Temari said to her brother.

"I saw him. He was wearing a cloak with red clouds. He's from Akatsuki no doubt," Kankuro stated.

Gaara failed to feel any anger toward that statement. Though he should be feeling nothing but hatred toward the group for attacking his village and killing him, they had in some way done him a favor. He no longer suffered under the influence of Shukaku. It had been hell though trying to regain even a small fraction of his former power, and here presented to him was a perfect opportunity to test that hard-earned power.

--

Karin stopped abruptly in front of Jugo causing him to stumble and stop as well.

"What is it Karin?" he asked, wondering why she had stopped the pursuit of their prey. She had a look of confusion on her face that perplexed him.

"I feel Sasuke's chakra," she said aloud, "and he's with others."

'But why is he with a group? And I sense the chakra of those ninjas that were pursuing us before Sasuke went off to fight Itachi. Did they capture him?' Karin thought to herself.

Jugo spoke aloud what Karin had been thinking, "Do you think he's been captured?"

"I don't know, but we're going to find out," Karin said as she ran ahead.

--

"Naruto!" Yamato yelled as the blonde dodged a kunai that flew by just a few millimeters from the boy's head and embedded itself in a nearby tree. The group of ninjas dropped down to the forest floor and stood waiting for whoever it was that had attempted to ambush them.

Sasuke activated his sharingan and looked into the forest. He could sense the movement of chakra. Not just any chakra though, it was that of his former team Hebi.

"Dammit," Sasuke swore.

Naruto looked at his comrade with a confused expression.

"Sasuke, what is it?" he asked.

"It's my old team, the ones that I was with when I was pursuing Itachi. Just stay back and let me deal with them," Sasuke said as he pushed Naruto behind him.

Karin and Jugo stepped into view of the group. Karin's scanned the entire group of ninjas quickly and then rested her gaze upon Sasuke who was standing coolly next an aggravated-looking blonde.

"Sasuke-kun? What the hell is going on here?! Who are all these people?" She questioned loudly in frustration.

Sasuke remained silent but walked toward the dumbfounded girl and her companion. He soon stood in front of her, his red eyes holding contact with hers.

She looked at him. There was something different in his eyes but she couldn't place it. Something had changed. She drew a kunai but too slowly. She saw the change in Sasuke's eyes immediately but reacted far too slowly. The eyes staring at her were those of someone who possessed the mangekyou sharingan, not Sasuke's normal sharingan.

AN: sorry about the double cliffhanger-ish ending. Yeah. I am more motivated to write though so hopefully this next chapter will come faster if my senpai keeps me motivated.