Taking care not to be spotted by anyone, Sasuke made his way back to Naruto's room. The door was still open, and he peered inside suspiciously. After being stabbed in the stomach by someone who was supposedly unconscious, this time he would make sure he was positive Naruto was asleep. But first, he needed to make sure the other ANBU member in his room was still down.

He entered his own room to see the man still slumped in the corner, where he had left him. Now that he had more time, and nobody else to stop him from killing Naruto, he decided to make a third rope from the man's pants. He finished it in ten minutes, tying the ANBU member up quickly and then standing up straight. He readied his weapons, placing a kunai in one hand and a shuriken in another. If he hadn't been so focused on his weapons, he might have heard a few hushed whispers coming from various places in his room.

Without another word, he moved to step through the doorway to Naruto's room...and found that he couldn't.

Sasuke tried again. It felt like he was hitting an invisible wall. Now that he really payed attention, there were little tiny obstructions in the doorway that prevented him from seeing certain areas of the room. He pressed a hand against the barrier. It felt soft, but rough at the same time. "Sand..." Sasuke said aloud.

"I heard about what you did to Naruto."

Sasuke spun around quickly, throwing his kunai. Gaara's sand shield instantly blocked it.

Sasuke's eyes widened. "G-Gaara? What are you doing here?"

Before Gaara could answer, two more figures entered into Sasuke's field of vision from either side of him. Kankuro and Temari stood next to Gaara, arms crossed. Temari gave Sasuke a sarcastic wave.

"Long time, no see," Kankuro said. "Came all the way from Suna just to say hello. Gaara even took off duty as Kazekage."

"You didn't really think those two ANBU were our only defense, did you?" Tsunade's voice came from Naruto's room. Sasuke didn't have to turn around to know she was there. "You trained under Orochimaru, first of all. If anyone knows how strong he is, it's me. Then, you killed him, along with your own brother. That takes an immense amount of power. I knew the ANBU members couldn't stop you. This is our real defense. And they're just the beginning."

Sasuke watched, wide-eyed, as Tenten stepped out of his own room, twirling a kunai on her finger absentmindedly. "Hey, Sasuke," she said without looking at him. Neji followed behind with a blank face, and Rock Lee brought up the rear, for once looking serious. From the left came Shino, Hinata, Kiba, and Akamaru. Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji came from the right. Last, and in Sasuke's mind least, came Karin in the very back.

"Gonna fight all of us, Sasuke?" she asked teasingly.

Sasuke swallowed roughly, looking at the small mob before him. Not to mention the Hokage herself was standing behind him. All possible outcomes of a fight ran through his mind. He could throw a kunai at any of the three Sand-nin, who were in front, to start the fight. Gaara's shield would block it, and Kankuro would need some time to get his puppets ready anyway, so the best choice would be Temari. But then Gaara could trap him with a Sand Coffin, or Tenten could throw a kunai at him, or Shino could use his bugs, any of the others could attack him directly. And he couldn't even begin to think about what Tsunade would do. Frankly, it wouldn't be about whether or not he died, it would be about how creative they could make his death. Or how much they could torture him.

Sasuke took a deep breath. "With your combined abilities...I could never defeat all of you."

"That's the idea, dumbass," came Kiba's voice.

Sasuke shot him a glare. "So, I would assume the plan is to arrest me." He smirked at them. "But I'm afraid I can't let that happen."

He made to jump straight through the ceiling, but for some reason he couldn't move. He looked down at his feet to see a shadow protruding from them.

"You think almost as much as me. Too bad that distracted you," Shikamaru said.

Sasuke growled and tried again in vain to move.

"So what should we do with him?" Gaara asked the Hokage.

Tsunade tapped a finger to her chin. "Well, we obviously have to keep him tied up somewhere, or subdued in some way. Otherwise he'll try to escape. Do you think you can trap him with your sand for the rest of the night?"

Gaara nodded. "I went years without sleep. I can take one night."

Tsunade clapped her hands together. "Excellent. Have that done immediately."

Sasuke activated his Sharingan as Gaara's sand headed towards him and Shikamaru's shadow drew away. There was less than a second between the two that Sasuke wasn't trapped, and he took advantage of it, gathering chakra at his feet and blasting through the ceiling before anyone knew what had happened.

"What the..." Shikamaru started to say.

"Hurry, we have to go catch him!" Ino cried. Everyone formed in a small group under the hole, and one by one they jumped through until only Gaara was left. Before he could leave, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I'd prefer to have him arrested, but if he's a danger to the rest of your group, and you have no other options, you have my permission to kill him," Tsunade told him. Gaara nodded and then was gone.

If this wasn't such a serious matter, everyone participating in the chase probably would have been laughing at the image of a large crowd of teenagers chasing one person.

Sasuke headed for the training grounds, and looking back he could see that he would have to fight at some point. The faster ones of the group were beginning to catch up to him, including Rock Lee, Kiba and Akamaru, and both Hyuugas.

Just as he was about to land in the center of a field, he felt two hands on his shoulders, and he plowed into the ground face first with Rock Lee on top of him. "Surrender now!" came the voice from above him. Sasuke kicked Rock Lee in the back and sent him rolling over the top of of him.

Sasuke quickly stood up and leaped into a nearby tree branch, surveying the scene in front of him. Eleven more ninja landed next to Rock Lee, and Tenten quickly helped him up. He remembered his earlier calculations. If there was a fight, he would most likely die. But if he could find some way to get them by themselves...

"Sasuke, are you going to come quietly or not? If you fight all of us, you'll die!"

Sasuke closed one eye slowly, keeping the other focused on the group. The closed one was spent picturing Naruto in his mind. He saw the hand signs...yes, that was it.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Sasuke called out, moving his hands quickly.

"What? He doesn't know that jutsu!" Chouij called out.

"But Naruto does. And with his Sharingan, Sasuke can copy any jutsu he's ever seen," Shikamaru replied.

"Damn it!" Kiba hissed as eleven clones popped up around Sasuke, quickly scrambling themselves around so they couldn't remember which was the real one.

"Each of us will take one. Meet back here if you defeat a shadow clone," Gaara said.

"Wait! I can use my Byakugan to see which one's the real one!" Hinata told them. Neji nodded next to her, and they both activated it.

"Oh...they seem to have the same chakra levels. That will make the shadow clones harder to defeat, but the real one will be easier. But as we destroy the clones, the real Sasuke will get more powerful because he won't have to split up as much chakra between clones. And we can't tell who the real one is right now anyway," Hinata said.

"That's correct," Neji put in.

"Alright, I guess we'll have to just split up and follow them," Gaara repeated.

"You guys done strategizing yet?" one of the Sasukes called. "Because we're ready to fight!"