Disclaimer: Omg I am totally planning to steal it! (insert innocent smile here) Who's with me?


If he was being perfectly honest with himself, Sasuke didn't understand what Kabuto was trying to do.

Sakura had been trapped here long before he had even reached this building so why had he been allowed to reach her? If Kabuto's aim was to bring her to Orochimaru then he'd had plenty of chances to do it so why hadn't he?

Sasuke glanced at Sakura who was hovering protectively over the blonde girl even as she herself was trembling from her own fear. Onyx eyes narrowed dangerously.

That bastard had planned this from the very beginning.

He had wanted him to find them and trick him into breaking his barrier so that Sakura's friend would be mortally wounded. So that she would have no choice but to finally use her powers. Now that they were completely unsealed, Orochimaru would be able to use her to fulfill whatever twisted goal he desired and then she would be left to Kabuto's nonexistent mercy.

Just like-

"Now Sasuke-kun, I don't suppose you'd give her to me without a fight? Though I must say, I've been wondering if you've even improved at all since you left-"

Sasuke manifested his sword and lunged but Kabuto nimbly dodged the blade. His hold on the hilt tightened in frustration. If he had his powers Kabuto wouldn't even dare challenge him.

His anger gave way to cold calculation as Sasuke assessed his opponent. He had never seen Kabuto fight before and he hadn't the slightest clue as to what his abilities were, but he couldn't underestimate him.

There was a reason why he was Orochimaru's right hand man.


Chapter 11: The Power of Two


All I could do was watch as Sasuke rushed forward to engage Kabuto who skillfully parried and every strike with his bare hands. How he could have done that without sustaining the even the slightest injury was beyond me.

"If you can't do any better than this it looks like Sakura will be coming with me after all," Kabuto said conversationally. "We'll be sure to take good care of Sakura-chan but I can't say what will happen once she's outlived her usefulness."

"Shut up." I could hear the raw, barely suppressed fury in his voice.

Kabuto was unaffected by what was Sasuke's equivalent of an outburst. "Or perhaps Orochimaru-sama will be kind enough to let me have her as my next research subject. I'm sure she will be most fascinating, perhaps even more so than her dear mother."

I flinched when Kabuto's eyes flickered meaningfully in my direction for a brief second before he was forced to sidestep Sasuke's sword.

I was trying my best not to listen to Kabuto's veiled threats, to convince myself that he was just trying to distract Sasuke. Yet, I couldn't stop the fear that gripped me and although it scared me just as much to see Sasuke like this, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the fight.

The sight of Kabuto's glowing hands ignited an uncontrollable feeling of panic in me as I recalled exactly what he had done the first time I'd seen his hands glow like that.

"Sasuke!" I shrieked but I was cut short by Sasuke's gasp of shock and pain when Kabuto's palm slammed right into his chest.

Even though the pain must have been as excruciating, Sasuke didn't scream as I had. Instead, he fell to his knees, breathing heavily until the pain slowly began to subside. I wanted to go to him, to help him, but the look in Sasuke's eyes warned me not to do it.

Kabuto's face was impassive as he easily jerked the sword out of Sasuke's loose grip. The crimson glare he received in response to his underhanded move was as sharp and piercing as the tip of the blade he was holding millimeters away from the Sasuke's neck

Seeing Sasuke weaponless and defenseless left me on the verge of hysterical terror. My throat was so tight that I couldn't cry out and my entire body was numb with fright.

Sasuke simply closed his eyes as though he had resigned himself to his fate.

The oppressive silence was shattered by a loud bang and my eyes widened as what could only be described as a beam of pure energy hurtled straight towards Kabuto.


Caught completely off guard, the speeding projectile made contact with the hilt of the sword, knocking it out of his hand. Sasuke swiftly reached out to reclaim his sword, slicing at the space where Kabuto had been standing before he'd flipped out of the way.

"About time, idiot."

Sasuke's tone was scathing but there was no real bite to it and I nearly wilted in relief at the sound of Naruto's indignant retort.

"Hey, do you have any idea how long it took for us to find this place? And I'm not the one who decided to disappear on everyone without saying anything."

His words were directed at Sasuke but I winced inwardly at his second statement. The guilt doubled when I saw the worried look on Hinata's pretty face as she stopped beside me.

"I'm sorry, Hinata-chan."

Her pale gaze held no recriminations, only understanding and acceptance as she shook her head. "Is your friend alright, Sakura-chan?"

I nodded, my grip on Ino's hand tightening as I remembered how I'd almost lost her.

"How did you find us?" I asked.

"I called Naruto when I realized you were gone and he told me that Sasuke-san hadn't arrived at their meeting place either. We knew that something was wrong so I traced you using the residues of the spell I used on your necklace," Hinata explained.

I glanced at Kabuto who was visibly displeased by Naruto and Hinata's sudden appearance but I didn't give a damn about how he felt.

Sasuke crouched in a defensive stance. "Naruto, take Sakura and go. I'll handle Kabuto."

Naruto snorted derisively. "Like hell you will. You'd have been dead if I hadn't come to save your sorry ass."

"Naruto," Sasuke ground out but he went ignored.

"Hinata, take care of Sakura and her friend," the blonde said carefully, keeping his eyes locked on Kabuto.

"I see the great Uchiha Sasuke has fallen so far that he needs the aid of a lowly human," Kabuto sneered.

"I may be human but I can still beat a lowly demon like you." Naruto flashed him a cocky grin before he vanished.


One moment Naruto was standing a few meters away from Kabuto, the next he was right behind him. There was another loud bang and a ray of light that Kabuto barely managed to avoid. The speeding projectile succeeded in nicking the rim of his glasses, causing cracks to spider web outwards from the corner of the lens.

Kabuto whipped around but his glowing hand met empty air as Naruto flickered out of sight. Either he was moving too fast for my eyes to follow or…

"Is he-"

Hinata's smile confirmed my suspicions.

"Show off," Sasuke muttered as Naruto reappeared beside him.

As if to prove it, Naruto started spinning something in his hand that gleamed bright silver in the artificial lighting. "Jealous?"

"Hn."

Naruto wasn't bothered by Sasuke's response, or the lack of one, as he aimed a shining silver gun at Kabuto. I noticed strange symbols etched along the sides which probably explained why his bullets looked more like blasts of energy than proper bullets.

It also explained, or so I realized after watching Naruto fire continuously and rather indiscriminately at Kabuto who simply dodged everything, why his gun apparently didn't need reloading.

Hinata must have caught my disapproving look at Naruto's seemingly random shots.

"He's reading his opponent's movements," she said softly but before I could ask what she meant, Sasuke charged at Kabuto.

Sasuke's movements were faster and more decisive than they had been earlier and even I could tell that he hadn't been using his full strength before. His unrelenting assault put Kabuto on the defensive yet they were still rather evenly matched until Naruto joined the fray.

The sound of gunshots punctuated the air as Naruto teleported in and out of the fight so quickly that I couldn't predict where he would be next. But the way Sasuke's sword barely grazed the edge of Naruto's orange jacket when the blonde appeared abruptly in his sword's path after his initial strike was evaded by Kabuto let me know that Sasuke clearly didn't have the same problem.

In fact, both of them seemed to anticipate each other's moves, their near perfect coordination and timing gave Kabuto no opening to use what I figured was his only but no less debilitating attack.

It would have been a complete understatement to say that I was extremely surprised to find that despite their constant bickering even when they were facing a common enemy, their teamwork in battle was absolutely amazing and their combined efforts were slowly but surely driving Kabuto back.

Sasuke and Naruto attacked simultaneously. Kabuto was able to duck in time to avoid a bullet to the head that surely would have killed even a demon but Sasuke's sword which had been previously been level with his abdomen now stabbed into his shoulder.

Kabuto's lips briefly twisted into a silent snarl before his face returned to his usual blanked expression. But there was an almost maniacal gleam of fury in his eyes and I wondered if I was the only one who'd seen it.

Sasuke wrenched his sword free and removed the blood sliding down the blade with a flick of his wrist. The dark red droplets spattered onto the wooden floor with a sickeningly wet sound and I cringed at the sight. Now there was blood on the floor and the sofa. Ino would have a fit when she woke up. She was lucky her living room was relatively spacious or the rest of her furniture wouldn't have survived either.

Naruto teleported both himself and Sasuke over to us.

"I can't bring all of you at once so I'll send Hinata home with your friend first and then I'll come back and get you two," Naruto said, taking Ino's hand out of mine and wrapping an arm around Hinata's shoulders as he prepared to leave.

Or he would have if the walls hadn't started distorting and the floor beneath our feet hadn't started to literally disappear.

Naruto was the first to react.

"What the-"

Chillingly familiar laughter began to echo endlessly throughout the room until there wasn't even a room anymore.

I looked around at our new surroundings, trying to ease my apprehension and growing dread. Too bad it wasn't really working.

Because I knew that wherever we were, we definitely weren't in Ino's apartment anymore.


I know this is a little late but... MERRY CHRISTMAS LOVELIES! I hope everyone had a very enjoyable holiday. Gosh I can't believe this year is coming to an end in a couple of days time -sniff-

This chapter took a little longer than I would have liked (I wanted to post this on Christmas eve as a present to everyone but my muse failed to cooperate) because there was a lot to think about. I realized that while Sasuke's abilities and stuff are pretty straightforward since they're based on his canon skills, Naruto's were um a bit difficult to incorporate into this story so I had a long internal debate of to clone or not to clone, weapon or no weapon etc. In the end I gave him teleportation because it's handy as hell plus it's something like kage bunshin since he can kinda be anywhere instantly. As for his weapon of choice, well a melee weapon like Sasuke's would have been boring. Besides, guns are sexy in this badass way *wink* This is the first fight scene I've written so I hope I did it justice. It's so much easier to visualize one than to describe one. Sigh.

Okay this is a tad unrelated to fanfiction in general but my friends are just as useless as I am when it comes to guys in real life so I'd really, seriously appreciate it if someone could give me an opinion on this situation: 1) Guy and girl are texting on Christmas day about random stuff 2) Girl starts teasing guy about how lousy the guys in guy's school are (it's like a running gag of sorts) and compares them to guys from other schools she's met 3) Guy denies and argues until girl eventually admits that he'll probably be fine 4) Guy tells girl that there's actually lots of girls who're willing to date him.

So my main question is what does guy mean? I mean apart from him being a bit of a man-whore of sorts. And no, I'm not sure if I like this guy or not but I just might end up spawning a fic off all this which is a good thing in a way. Yup anyway, opinions will be greatly appreciated both on the chapter and the situation.

Hearts!