A/N: I don't own Naruto or X-men. Reviews appreciated.

Angel897: Thank you for your continued reviews, I am getting chapters out as quickly as possible.

DemonKittyAngel: Thanks for the long review, those are always fun to read. March 5th starts during chapter nine and continues on for some time, my apologies for the confusion. And thank you for the eloquent and flattering review in it's entirety, nothing powers updates so well.

Chapter Twelve

9:43 AM. Location Uncertain, New York, March 05.

Sakura had told Naruto to get some sleep on the way there, but he found it was easier said than done. He sat back in his chair, eyes closed, trying to trick himself into falling asleep. Rather unsuccessfully. He couldn't. He was worried about Sasuke. As much as that cold bastard infuriated him, and he did, he couldn't help but feel an ache in his chest, swelling with a feeling he couldn't place. He turned over in the seat more than a couple of times, trying to find a position that wouldn't hurt his heart so much. It wasn't an easy task, but eventually sleep was able to consume him. But as he fell into unconsciousness, Sakura remained very much awake. She'd set the craft to autopilot, one hand still resting on the main gear. She looked over to Naruto and sighed. She had spent so long longing after Sasuke...wanting him. He was so appealing, gorgeous to look out and shrouded in mystery. Dark, sexy mysterious. Even now she couldn't both honestly and completely say she didn't still think so, but the flame she once held for him had long been extinguished. She had shown great maturity by letting him go.

Her yearning for him, wanting their relationship to be something more than he was willing to let it be was actually what was keeping them apart. Once she'd stopped pursuing him, they were both able to take a step back and really look at each other, restart as equals. And both discovered the other to be a person they hadn't expected. Sasuke found Sakura not to be the weak, lolly-headed girl she seemed when obsessing over him, but an intelligent young woman with a creative flair and a true, genuine love for people; something that one was hard-pressed to find in recent days. Sakura's image of Sasuke was changed too. Before she'd seen him as this god-like creature, flawless, enchanting, and completely beyond her realm of understanding. Now she knew he was a person just like everyone else, not only that, but he was passionate for what he believed in and cared for the people precious to him above anything else, and though it usually didn't show, when the stakes were really high, it was never more clear. Sakura mused that it was around the time she'd gotten her relationship with Sasuke straightened out that Naruto stopped pursuing her the way she did Sasuke. Everything was falling into a balance.

At first the thought that she had lost Sasuke in a sense depressed her, but she quickly learned she hadn't lost anything. Actually, it was just the opposite. She had gained two brothers. And now as she looked onto the sleeping form of the unruly blonde, she swore to herself that she'd do whatever it took to keep that bond, that family, alive.

10:03 AM. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, New York, March 05.

The faceless body wasn't a riddle. It was a message. And a very clear one. Orochimaru was about, and they were on his radar. Xavier feared this very thing would happen. It had been bad enough that the late Tomair had been aware of them, but Orochimaru was a different story entirely. Tomair at least was somewhat sane: all he did had meaning, purpose, reasoning. The latter, however, just liked to kill. Orochimaru's killing sprees were erratic, brutal, and almost impossible to predict. The murders were vicious, lustful, and seemingly random. The fact that he generally targeted mutants didn't help narrow the search down. There was no visible pattern, and next to nothing was discovered about him.

It was logical to assume that since Tomair was dead but nothing had been heard about either of his captures, they were now likely being held and probably used by Orochimaru himself. Since the two friends of the boy that was taken hadn't returned the Professor could draw one of two conclusions: either they were unaware of the snake-man's track record, or they did know about him, and were off to where they thought he was. Where they thought he was...Xavier had been able to draw a thought to where he could be hiding, completely unable to pick up any sort of mental presence. But if Naruto and Sakura already knew where he was, perhaps he could put a mental tag on them and have his X-men follow. After all, they had a stake in this as well. Xavier knew he'd never be able to forgive himself if he lost Logan. That man had so much potential.

11:16 AM. Location Uncertain, New York, March 05.

It was in the forest-strewn outskirts of New York that Orochimaru had built his hiding place. Though the location was completely obscure, Sakura remembered the coordinates exactly, and got them there as quickly as she was able. They settled the jet in a small clearing, the grass of which was trampled in two particular lines about two inches thick each and running exactly parallel from one another. After the landing strip lowered and the two hurried down, Sakura looked wildly around. She caught a faint glimmer and went over to find it was exactly what she thought it was: a chain. The small links traced back into the ground. Sakura's eyes narrowed. About four feet in front of her the grass had been heavily trampled, as if several people had paced back and forth over it. The strange thing was while it continued a good meter or so towards her, there was a perfect square of grass that still stood erect as if it had never been touched by human foot. She reached down and took the chain in her hand. Standing back until the chain became taut and had reached it's full, she gave it a jerk. Nothing but a groan of metal rewarded her for her effort. She stepped forwards again, eyes probing the grass until they caught a brief shimmer in reflection of the still morning sun. Her fingers caught the object and examined it. A padlock. By this time Naruto was hurrying down the jet ramp. He'd had to locate and find his shoes before leaving.

"Sakura!" he called. "Hey! Did you find something?"

"Yeah, I-" Before she could finish her statement, a person appeared before her and a single boot came down, stomping on her hand. Bent and caught between the boot and the lock, she heard several loud cracks in swift succession. A scream left her lips. The redheaded female from their first encounter with Tomair stood there, a dazed expression on her face.

"Sakura-chan!" shouted Naruto, racing forward. But before he could reach her Sakura leaped up, throwing herself into the other and knocking her backwards. She clenched her fist, a glowing blue hue surrounding it.

"Get down there, Naruto, and find Sasuke. I'll hold her off. Hurry!" At first Naruto found himself hesitating, not wanting to leave her side when she needed him. But knowing she knew best, he gave a quick nod. Grabbing a large stone that lay in the grass nearby, he struck the lock with all his might several times over until it broke, allowing him to give the chain a heave, pulling the panel of grass backed by metal from the ground, revealing the hidden staircase beneath it. With a shriek, the redhead lunged in an attempt to stop him, but Sakura, recovering herself, jumped into a tackle, knocking her to the ground.

"Go now!" she shouted and Naruto made his way down, the door slamming shut behind him. The stairwell lead down into a winding hallway. The walls were orange. That's the first thing Naruto noticed. But not the bright, happy orange he liked to wear, but a grungy, dark orange with blade swirls engraved on them. He brought his hand to the wall for a moment, fingertips feeling the texture and frowned. This didn't seem at all typical for a murderers secret hideout. Drawing his hand away he continued down the hallway. He walked for some time down the twisted corridor without running into any kind of guards or security, and figured Orochimaru must not have known anyone was on to his little slumber party and hadn't felt the need to take much precaution other than the girl outside. Though the conclusion made sense, Naruto continued to feel uneasy. What worried him more was the amount of doors and hallways were beginning to branch off. This place was quite expansive and though he'd been there once before, he couldn't remember where anything was. It probably would have been a better idea to have Sakura come down, since she apparently remembered everything. He rounded a corner. Just as these thoughts were processed a hand was placed on his shoulder. With a jump he turned to see the pinkette herself coming from around the turn.

"Relax, it's just me." She had grass stains on her cheeks and elbows and bits of hair had fallen out of her ponytail from the tumbling.

"Sakura! What happened with that girl?"

"Don't worry about it," she assured. "I'm fine. Let's hurry up and find Sasuke." She started to walk ahead of him.

"Sakura..." he said, trailing behind a few feet before coming to a stop. "...Did you have your hair tied back before?" She paused for a moment and without a word sprung into the quick action of both turning and bringing the back of her arm against his head with enough force to knock him over, hitting the floor and remaining there, unconscious. She brought her arm down to her side, patches of her skin taking on a deep blue color and rapidly spreading, hair bleeding into red and becoming shorter. It was now Mystique who stood there instead of the bubbly young woman, looking down at the fallen male. As she did so Magneto rounded the corner, glancing down at him as well.

"Very good my dear," he said. Storm, Scott, and Jean turned the corner after them. Storms eyes widened at the sight, hands brought to her mouth.

"Naruto!" she exclaimed softly, hurrying to his side. She couldn't deny the motherly tendencies that were released over such things, especially involving children.

"He'll be fine, stop wasting time," snapped Magneto, Mystique having already began to continue down the hallway, pausing to look back at them.

"Well we can't just leave him here," she said. Scott knelt down next to her.

"Here, I'll take him."

"Thanks, Scott."

He pulled the young man's arm across his shoulders and stood him up before the three followed Magneto and Mystique. They hadn't been walking long when Jean stopped, hand coming to her head.

"Jean?" asked Scott, worry beginning to crease on the edges of his features. Her eyes suddenly opened and her hands lowered again.

"They're in a room not far from here...hooked up to some kind of equipment. Hurry." With that she raced ahead, the others following behind her. They reached the prescribed room only a few minutes later, the doors sliding open. The entire room was drenched in blue light, illuminating from inside a glass tank lying horizontal in the middle of the room.

"Oh, my god..." said Storm, hurrying forward when she saw that Logan was lying on his back inside the tank, submerged in the liquid with dozens of wires hooked up to his arms, chest, and head. Jean ran after her as Scott set Naruto down before following. Jean first ran to the tank to find a clear lid had been placed over the top, one that would not be removed no matter how much she pushed. Storm went to the control panel near by. She wanted desperately to go about pressing as many buttons as she could to find one that worked, but the fear of somehow worsening his condition by doing so gave her the strength to wait and read the labels first. She saw nothing that looked to be right for raising him from the tank, or taking off the lid. Scott appeared behind her, raising a hand to his visor.

"Here, I'll-"

"Wait," said Storm. She tilted her head upwards, eyes glazing over, a sign of her using her power. She stretched a hand out, electricity sparking from her palm before striking the panel. In the first horrifying moment all the lights on said tablet darkened. But before they could react it hummed back to life. There was a click and the sigh of released air as the lid slid from the top of the tank. The three hurried over. Not bothering to check on how the man was doing or if there was anything they could do to help, Mystique and Magneto busied themselves with looking at the papers strewn about the metal desk located a few mere feet from the control panel, knowing there was likely information there worth having.

At first all was fuzzy when the blonde opened his eyes with a groan and sat up, hand coming to his head.

"Ughhh...Sakura-chan, what...?" It didn't take him much longer to realize he was no longer in the hallway where he'd been rather ungracefully KO'd. In even less time did he spot the table to the side of the main attraction where another form lay, hooked up to a steadily beating heart monitor.

"Sasuke!" he shouted, jumping to his feet. Immediately he began to feel dizzy from such a sudden action but, after stumbling a moment, managed to conquer the feeling and run to the raven's side. "Sasuke! Sasuke! Teme! You're okay, you're okay!" he exclaimed repeatedly. "You're okay...you're okay...Sasuke..."

Beep..Beep..Beep..

A groan was issued from who that heartbeat belonged to as he opened his eyes, dark orbs slightly dazed. With an exclamation of joy from Naruto, Sasuke sat up, tearing the small plastic cups from his chest and head, tossing them aside. The heart monitor flailed to a flat line.

"Naruto?"

"C'mon, sleeping bastard, Sakura's outside, we gotta get outta here!"