A/N: The story's comin along great, and I'm glad my meanness brought out a couple more reviewers. It's my deepest wish that everyone who reads this could also give it a review. This is a very special Author's Note, as I am finally going to reveal the method to my madness. The story as it is currently written in my head follows a specific pattern, that being it goes action romance action romance…, grouped into varying length chapters, and fused together pretty well, furthermore, the current "ending" isn't as much as an ending as where I've stopped adding new content to, but I'm still thinking about possible twists that could be included to keep it going. Anyway so whenever this battle ends expect some romance to start up. Continuing from last chapter, I'm paying special honors to those who put my story on alert status. .6. JSai .7. Janto's Kitsune .8. Kazama Shin .9. KiLlJoY5004 .10. Matt-kun Thanks for showing your appreciation of the story guys.

Review: Ouch guys, sorry I was such a bad guy. I'll make it up to you this chapter, cuz the battle is winding down.

Jon: Thank you that's actually what I'm trying to accomplish, to stay very true to the characters in my kind of situations.

Disclaimer: I really don't own Naruto.

Chapter 10: Inner Strength

Sakura's chakra flow stopped, and she fell back, leaning against a tree for support. She stared at Sasuke with her eyes half open. She was exhausted and out of chakra, but she was alive. She waited, expecting her inner self to jibe at her that of course she was strong enough to succeed, but it didn't come. Instead Sakura could feel her eyelids getting heavier. 'I wonder, if this is how it felt for Chiyo-sama to die from this jutsu. But it's ok, if I did it right, Sasuke will live, and if I ruined it, at least I'll be with him, wherever we go…' Sakura's eyes closed, and her mind went blank.

"I choose…"

Naruto left his mind to see that no time had elapsed during his conversation with Kyuubi. This left him only a moment to move out of the way of Orochimaru's thrust. He could not move his body completely out of the way, and the glowing white blade stabbed cleanly through the flesh near Naruto's right shoulder. Naruto winced and gasped from the pain, but reached out his left hand to grab Orochimaru's neck. "I choose… MY OWN STRENGTH!!"

Orochimaru looked confused for a moment, but then he could see the chakra shell he had seen forming begin to dissipate, until it was completely gone. Orochimaru smiled at Naruto through his grip. "How foolish of you Naruto-kun. How will you defeat me without that amazing chakra?"

Naruto held up his right hand, battling the pain from the shoulder's movement. "Like this!" 3 years of training went into his hand, and he formed the Rasengan without a clone. He didn't hesitate with it, and ground the sphere into Orochimarus chest. The impact was great enough that Orochimaru released his blade, and went flying and spinning through the air, crashing back into the ground head first with a loud crack. In any other person Naruto would have known they would be dead from that kind of impact. But sure enough, Orochimaru simply stood up, realigned his twisted head, and puked out his own visage to regenerate. Naruto ripped the sword out of his body and threw it as far away as he could, remembering that Orochimaru could control it. 'I made my choice, time to go through with it.' Ignoring once more the pain, he lifted his right arm and made the seal. "Shadow clone Jutsu." Two clones appeared, both slightly to his right. He held up his hand weakly, and they reached out their left arms to ease the process.

He now held in his hand the instrument of doom, not only for Orochimaru but also himself. He held aloft the enormous chakra shuriken, and he and his clones began their charge. Of course Orochimaru retaliated, whipping out his limbs, but the clones deflected those, and paved the way for the real Naruto to approach with his ultimate weapon. When he got close, the Kusanagi suddenly reappeared in Orochimaru's hand, and he readied it to defend against the attack, always with a smile on his face half concealed by his long white hair. Naruto threw all his weight into his attack.

Orochimaru suddenly felt a sickening sensation he had been without for years. Fear. His blade met with this new attack, and didn't slice through. Now it seemed that Naruto was gaining ground on him. 'Impossible' The blade was beginning to slide, and then it slipped, leaving Orochimaru defenseless. Naruto's attack seemed to move in slow motion, but when it contacted he heard Naruto call out the name of the attack: "FUTON: RASENSHURIKEN!!!!!"

In the aftermath, Orochimaru was completely drained of chakra, it had taken all of it to keep his cells regenerating as the attack tried to rip him to shreds. He hobbled away from the battlefield, away from Konoha, ashamed and infuriated that he had lost. But is it really failure? He had not seen Naruto after he managed to crawl out of the crater. It was possible that Naruto to had been killed by the backlash of such a technique. But Orochimaru doubted it. He knew that he would have to return someday to retrieve Sasuke, and when he did he would learn the fate of Naruto.

Sakura could sense movement near her. She opened her heavy eyes a small way, and saw through them that Sasuke was lifting himself up onto his arms and knees. Sakura woke up more now, but still felt too tired to really move with any enthusiasm. She called out to him "Sasuke-kun are you ok?" Sasuke turned his head slightly to face her, and then he stood fully up right, and drew his sword. Sakura cowered before him as he slowly lowered the blade, until the tip was right in front of her.

Sasuke gazed at Sakura. In his mind he was asking many questions, and so he decided to voice one in the hopes of getting an answer. "What happened? Speak."

Sakura, still scared witless could only think to answer him. "You were too injured to fight, so I brought you here and…"

Sasuke smirked, "What an amateur move. Didn't you think it foolish to use up all your energy helping an injured enemy?" He said this with spite and mockery in his voice.

Sakura shed a tear, "You will never be our enemy Sasuke-kun. You may have abandoned us, but we will never abandon you."

"Fools." Sasuke stood absolutely still. 'Why can't I do it? I'm right here, all I have to do is push forward ever so slightly, and she will be dead. Why am I hesitating.' Sasuke's mind was flooded with images, images that he had managed to bury deep in his mind for years now. He tried to fight them off, but something was happening to his mind. The distress was beginning to show outside of him.

Sakura stared up at Sasuke, watching his face as he battled some inner turmoil. She felt the need to reach out, to touch him, to comfort him, but the sword was still right in front of her. She began shifting her position, slowly, as not to excite Sasuke, she slid slowly sideways, waiting for him to react. When he began to lift his free hand she feared the worst, but he only lifted it and placed it on his forehead, clearly showing he was distracted. She moved quickly then, getting completely out of the path of the blade.

He saw her move, but he was too frozen to do anything. Sasuke stood bewildered, clutching his head instinctively, despite the fact that it would not calm his mind at all. Every memory he had seemed to be playing through his mind in fast forward. By now he was also breathing heavily, and it took all his concentration to stop from collapsing to the ground. Whatever was affecting him seemed to be calming down, he was regaining more motor function. He turned once more to face Sakura who was crawling away slowly now. He walked slowly up behind her, and she knew he was coming. Perhaps that was why she chose to lean against the next tree, facing him once more. He approached and placed his sword once more right in front of her chest, ready to stab through and end her life. But as he took up this position again, his mind was clouded once more with old memories. This time it was worse, and he lowered the sword and stumbled backwards away from her, once again pressing his free hand into his forehead.

Sakura was terrified, 'why is he acting like this? Should I try to run away again? He reacts whenever he's near me. What is going on?'

Sakura didn't know how to respond to what happened next. Naruto, clutching his right arm which hung limp to his side, hobbled into their sight. The three stood in utter silence, Sakura looking back and forth between the two of hem, Naruto staring at Sasuke, and Sasuke staring blankly at the ground, as if he hadn't noticed Naruto at all. "Sasuke…" Naruto's voice was weak, but audible.

Sakura could easily tell that Naruto was in poor condition, but what scared her the most was the way he held his arm. The hand, which was visible, looked wrong to her. The flesh was grey. Her eyes were fixed on that hand until she heard him speak. Then she looked up at his face, glancing over the wound in his shoulder as her eyes traveled vertically. Then she turned to Sasuke, to see his response.

'Naruto…' Sasuke couldn't contain himself, he fell to his knees, but no longer held his head with the free hand, instead gripping over his left shoulder, as if searching for something. When Sakura and Naruto made some sound of shock he suddenly lunged out swinging the sword he held in wide arcs, but nowhere near his target, Sakura. Naruto moved and tried to grab Sasuke's arm with his left hand, but Sasuke pulled himself free and made another wild misguided slash that cut nothing. Naruto landed hard on the ground and balanced with his left arm, looking up at Sasuke again, who had gone back to slashing wildly in front of Sakura's face. Now Sasuke spoke though. "I DON'T NEED HIM!! I DON'T NEED HIS POWER!!!! I CAN GET MY REVENGE ON MY OWN!!!!! I HAVE MY STRENGTH, MY OWN STRENGTH, IT DIDN'T COME FROM HIM OR HIS MARK!!!!!!!" But his sword never touched Sakura's face.

Naruto listened to what he said. 'So it's the same old game. Sasuke. Itachi. GRRRRRRRR…' Naruto reached into his pack, he didn't know what this would do but he had to try. He threw it, and it landed right in front of Sasuke, slightly between him and Sakura.

Sasuke stopped his wild swinging motion to stare down at the object Nauto had thrown. It was a piece cloth with a piece of solid metal bound to it. On the metal plate there was an engraving that vaguely appeared to be a leaf, and through it was a scratch that carved a line horizontally across the plate. It was Sasuke's old abandoned forehead protector. The surface was still clean, and reflected a small amount of life off of itself. Sasuke stared into, and without actually seeing anything, he could see his own reflection. But there was something wrong with his face. It was sullen, even more so then he normally looked, and there were noticeable lines which extended down from either side of his nose. And his eyes, were not the sharingan as Sasuke possessed it, but different, the tomoe transformed into spikes which ran back to the pupil in a spiral pattern. It was the Mangekyo Sharingan. It was his face and yet it was not.

Sasuke's hand flew once more to his head, but he could not get the image out of his mind. He began to swing his sword again, but was paying more attention to his swipes, they were getting closer to Sakura. One slash finally connected, leaving a mild gash across her cheek. She cringed from the pain but didn't move an arm up to defend herself or caress the wound, she simply stared all the more intently at Sasuke. He had stopped, and was now staring at her, and not seeing her.

'Where am I? What is this?' Sasuke was standing over two people, huddled in fear. The door to this room opened, and someone entered, someone small. He couldn't control his body. There was a sword in his hands. It descended and killed the two people in front of him. Then light appeared from nowhere, he could see the face of the one who h entered the room. It was him.

Sasuke dropped his sword and hurled himself forward, landing on top of Sakura. She was shocked by this, but even more when she felt his arms reach around her and hold her. Sakura froze. Sasuke began to sob heavily onto her shoulder, and said in something even less then a whisper, "Mother…Father…I'm not…I'm Not…"

Sakura heard him, and some instinct told her what to do. She reached her arms around Sasuke and held him as well, and then she whispered into his ear. "You're not Itachi." She could feel him stiffen to this, so she continued, "You are Sasuke. For some time I may have doubted it, but you are Sauke, my Sasuke-kun." It seemed that Sasuke had come to his senses, he released Sakura from his hold and pulled away from her, beginning to stand. Sakura still had her arms around him though, so he stumbled and caught himself in such a way that his face was above Sakura's. Sakura looked up into his eyes so close, and said "Prove me right Sasuke. Stay. Don't kill us the way your brother murdered your family, don't abandon us as your brother abandoned you. Stay, with us, with me." She too was crying now. Sakura lifted herself up off the floor just enough so that their foreheads came into contact. Sasuke didn't move. So she pulled herself higher, simultaneously pulling him down. Their noses touched. Still he did not move. She gave the final shove, and Kissed Sasuke.

For one brief moment she held Sasuke's face to her own. And then he closed his eyes and fell limp beside her. Sakura felt so odd, but most of all tired. She knew that try as she might, she would be unable to crawl back to the village. I also came to her attention that Naruto had gone unconscious during these events. 'So, we all die together, here in the forests of our home.' She fell asleep, content with that belief.

A/N: NO PANICING!!!! THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE FIC!!!!! THEY ARE NOT DEAD!!!!! Whew, had to avoid the riots that would have broken out if I had let that ending stand by itself. Yes that's right, there is more to this story, and I promise you that all three of our favorite Konoha nin will survive this experience. I'll also tell you that the title of the next chapter is Sacrifices, and let you ponder why.