What honor is there, when you are the first to be exiled at such a young age in such a long time? Definitely none.

Gaara x Naruto…

Slight Itachi x Naruto…

Replying to…

The-13th-To-Fall – Yeah…to me…chounin is just my way of calling chuunin except a higher rank. Better than chuunin but not good enough to be Jounin yet…so yeah! Sorry if I didn't make it clear before…Ehehe…

'I can't leave him behind, not after what he's done for me, not now.' Naruto thought to himself as he ran towards him. Finally reaching him, Naruto dropped down beside him to help him get up. "Are you ok?" he spoke while holding him, and then he turned and glared at the attacker. "Back off!"

"How could you just switch sides, after all that we've been through to get you back?" the assailant asked.

"I've chosen! I'm doing what's right! I don't feel so confused anymore!" Naruto shouted while holding up the one he chose to stay with.

"You're betraying us again!"

"I'm sorry, but if you hurt him again then there's gonna be hell to pay!" Naruto shouted out, his grip on Gaara's sleeve tightening.

'Naruto…'

"Che, this is a waste of time. If you won't come willingly, we'll have to take you by force." Sasori spoke as he raised his tail, Deidara appearing just beside him, petting his clay bird. 'We should've done the extraction of the Kyuubi when we had the chance, it would've been easier.'

"Ho? Not done yet?" Deidara asked.

"…Shut up and be on with it, this is getting very time consuming."

"I can deal with both of them." Deidara offered.

"No, we will handle the Shukaku, Itachi and Kisame can take care of the Kyuubi."

"But Itachi is busy with his brother, and Kisame…well, he's busy with the others yeah?"

"It's one demon vessel per two people, or have you forgotten what I've told you."

"Why only one when there's two right in front of you, yeah?"

"Deidara, you're wasting my time by talking about this."

"Then let me get on with it yeah?" Deidara smirked as he charged towards the two demons, leaving Sasori to vent in his frustration and his bird. Naruto got up from beside Gaara and tried to intercept him but Deidara dodged and ran in the direction of Gaara instead. The red head saw the Akatsuki member heading for him so he jumped away before Deidara could reach him.

'The only way to get the Kyuubi is to get the Shukaku first.' He thought to himself as he continued to run towards Gaara while the sand-nin carried on jumping away to a safe distance.

'Shit.' Naruto thought to himself as he prepared to execute his favourite technique. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he shouted out and a clone appeared beside him. His clone took his hand and they began to spin, the real one using the clone as an extra boost to catch up to the missing-nin of Hidden Stone.

Deidara saw the blonde coming from the corner of his eye and molded a small bird in his hand, letting it fly towards him while still running towards the sand-nin.

Naruto dug his heels to the ground in an attempt to stop before hitting the bird, knowing what it's capable of, running off to a different direction but the bird followed. 'Don't tell me it's got some shitting homing device on me!' the blonde shouted to himself as he continued on running away to a safe distance. 'Fuck, this is like a game of cat and mouse!'

Gaara finally chose to stop and go with offence instead of defense, his sand hovering around him waiting for the next command. He raised his hand, and the sand followed taking the shape of the Shukaku's hand, claws and all. Clenching his fist, he punched the air in front of him, but the hand of the Shukaku was much larger in size so it was thrown towards Deidara in its place.

Deidara saw this and jumped away before he was hit, 'Ho? Tapping into the demon's power eh? Let's see some more of my art.' He performed some hand seals and a copy of himself appeared beside him. "Let's make some more art, shall we?" he gave his copy a small pat on the back as his bird landed close by and they ran off towards Gaara once again.

As Gaara tried to land a blow on the two Deidara's, they dodged and crossed paths with each other as they came closer to the demon vessel. One of them jumped, hand poised ready to punch the hand of sand while the other made a move towards Gaara.

One of the two Deidara's punched the hand and jumped away as the sand exploded into different directions, leaving Gaara exposed, 'Now.' The other jumped and latched himself onto the sand-nin. "What the fuck!" Gaara shouted out as Deidara suddenly exploded, sending him crashing into a tree, his amour of shield failing and cracking, the sand falling onto his clothes.

'How the hell do you get rid of this thing!' Naruto shouted to himself and finally smacked himself on the head for not thinking faster. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" his copy ran towards the bird and the both of them exploded.

Smiling at his belated brilliance, he turned back to Gaara just in time to see him crashing into a tree. "GAARA!"

Deidara leisurely walked towards the sand-demon, smirking along the way. "Do you like my art? How I used my clone as a new masterpiece. 'Bang!' It was beautiful, the way you flew into that tree, the path of destruction I've created."

Deidara smirked at the fallen demon vessel. The head hung low and a trail of sand falling from the face, a small circle of sand just surrounding him. "I bet you didn't know I planted a bomb into the clone when I patted him yeah?" he crouched in front of the sand-nin, just a couple of feet away. Gaara twitched, 'I should've guessed…'

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Deidara turned and dodged what would've been a painful blow if it hit, jumping onto his bird. Deidara looked down and saw eyes burning red and baring fangs. "Ho?"

Naruto was too occupied glaring at Deidara to notice something coming at him, not until it was too late. Naruto suddenly felt a twinge of pain on his hand and looked down at it. A fairly large gash on his arm, trails of blood from the top, down to the bottom, dripping off his fingers.

"Sasori-san, didn't I say that they were mine?" Deidara frowned at his partner.

"You were taking too long, if you want to do something, do it quick."

Naruto let out a growl as he held onto his bleeding hand, rapidly feeling weaker and growing more tired. His eyes turning back to its natural blue and his fangs changing back to normal.

"My tail is filled with poison, which is why you are feeling drowsy, are you not?" Sasori spoke.

Naruto fell down to his knees, watching them through half-lidded eyes. 'I feel numb…' he thought to himself before he collapsed onto the grass, panting heavily. He closed his eyes, too exhausted to keep them open, listening to them speak, voices fading in and out, not knowing who was talking and who wasn't.

"We've got…came here for, it's…go back."

"What about…others?"

"Leave…behind."

Blood splattered on Sasuke's face as his hand was held by a vice-like grip. "Dear brother, that was hardly good enough, in fact, it tickled."

Sasuke winced as the grip on his wrist tightened. "You can never defeat me, not without the Mangekyou Sharingan. You also have the ability to unleash it, why do you refuse to go along with it?"

Blood trickled down Itachi's mouth, his Akatsuki coat partly ripped from the power of the Chidori and half covered in his own blood.

Sasuke tried to take back his hand, not realizing that he released his Sharingan, his fear clouding up all anger as his sweat dripped off his chin. "Let go you bastard!" he shouted out, his fear showing in his voice, his anger dissipating.

"You're afraid of me, you will never be good enough to kill me, let alone harm me in any way." His grip tightened as Sasuke panicked. "You're pathetic, unworthy of being alive. Unworthy of my effort or attention."

Sasuke looked up and stared into the eyes of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Sasuke looked around, forgetting what he was doing earlier. "What was I doing just before?" he asked himself as he looked up, staring into the sky, the familiar red moon. Sensing a presence behind him, he reached for a kunai but his pouch wasn't there. 'Damn it!'

"Sasuke-kun…"

It was a familiar voice, he turned around to see Sakura hanging on a cross, bounded by metallic lines. "Sakura!"

"Sasuke…"

There was two this time. He turned to see Naruto and Kakashi in the same state as Sakura. "How?" he whispered, losing his voice.

'Who did this? Who did this to them!' Clenching his fists, he shouted out, "WHO DID THIS!"

"I did, dear brother." He spun around to face the wrong-doer, who happened to be Itachi. "But that's not all I can do." Itachi raised his hand and pointed to the three behind Sasuke. "Watch…as I kill your friends."

Eyes widening in fear, he turned back to see three Itachi's standing on the hands of the cross, wielding a katana.

"No!" he moved forward, but couldn't. Looking down to see that he was too tied to a cross. "No!" he tried to break free of the metallic wires, but they began to cut into his arms. He winced in pain as he watched his brother raise his sword, bringing it down to stab the chest of Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sasuke shouted out, trying to get the wires loose. Watching as another penetrated through Naruto's chest. "Naruto!" a pool of his own blood gather at the base of the cross, arms still bleeding.

"No! Don't hurt her! Sakura!"

"Friends…are nothing but an obstacle to your true path, get rid of them, and you get rid of your obstacles. And you…will get rid of me." Itachi smirked as another katana appeared in his free hand. "Watch…as I take the life of your most precious person." Itachi raised both swords and pierced Sakura's heart.

"NO! SAKURA!"

"SAKURA!" Sasuke shouted out as he fell onto his knees, his hands, despite the pain they were in, holding onto his head. "SAKURA!" he shouted once more before collapsing onto the grass, gasping for breath as tears gathered in his eyes.

"…" Itachi looked down at his brother, "Friends will not help you in life…they are nothing but distractions to your goal."

Sasuke shifted his eyes to stare back at his brother, unable to say anything in defense.

"Farewell brother, I hope this encounter will clear your mind and better your judgments." Itachi walked away leisurely before meeting up with a smirking Kisame. "I suppose you've had fun."

"Very much, it was great to swing around my Samehada again." He demonstrated by swinging around roughly before putting it on his shoulder.

"Ah…let's go. We've got what we came here for…Besides, Deidara and Sasori have already left with them." Itachi spoke as he jumped away, mindful of what is to come in the nearby future.

Mah! Another chapter finished! Sorry it took me ages to take this down but school was being such a drag and I had no ideas because nothing was going into my head other than crappy homework and more school! Ah! Enjoy!