The Cycle of Pain

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

AN: Enjoy and see you at the bottom!

Naruto walked through the streets of Konoha with his Chunin vest and a smile. Last night had been rough for many different reasons and he was simply glad that it was over. He decided that it would be a nice day to go meet Anko at the Dango stand for some midday lunch.

When he got there however, Anko seemed to be talking to another ANBU type. He listened in closely to see if he could hear her being insulted. Luckily, he heard no such things. In fact it was more along the lines of someone leaving Konoha.

He decided to make his presence known and walk over towards Anko. "Hey Sensei!" The purple haired woman turned to face her student with a grim expression. One she rarely ever used with him or anyone that she care about. One of strict seriousness.

"What's wrong?" He asked her. It was a rare sight to see Anko in such distress. The only other time she had seen her like this was when there was a Dango shortage in Konoha. He nearly died four times that day from stray kunai that flew about.

"Naruto, there you are. You have an emergency meeting with the Hokage. You were supposed to be there five minutes ago. I suggest you hurry." Anko's voice was cold and harsh. Naruto nodded and sped off towards the tower without a word.

While running he couldn't help but to wonder what he was late for. Could it have anything to do with someone leaving Konoha like he overheard? Perhaps someone betrayed the village and left with something of great importance?

His face warped in to a scowl as he ran. Sour thoughts of betrayal running through his head. His vision turned towards the villagers he flew past while sprinting. He idly wondered what life might be like for them if the leaf nin were not so benevolent.

With his current speed and pace it didn't take him all that long to arrive at the tower. He quickly ascended the steps and pushed the door to the office open. Much to his surprise there was not a single Jonin in the room and he was the only Chunin there.

The room looked up at him as he walked through the door. The room consisted of Neji, Lee, Mino, Chouji, Shikamaru, Kiba and Akamaru. Kiba gave Naruto a rather nasty glare but didn't dare say anything to the boy's face.

"Sorry I'm late Lord Hokage. What's happened?" Minato looked at him with a frown. Not the hateful kind that Minato normal used. Just one that conveyed that he was upset with something. The blonde Hokage sighed loudly.

"Uchiha Sasuke has left the village to join the Snake Sannin Orochimaru." He spoke calmly but coldly. Naruto began to seethe silently at that fact. The Uchiha thought that he was special enough to receive training from a Sannin? He couldn't even beat Naruto in a fight yet.

"Yeah, damn Raven boy flew the coup." Kiba spoke and Naruto's eyes widened when he remembered his father's words about a raven. This must have been the secret message that he was trying to pass along to him that night. He had planned on taking Sasuke.

"I always knew Sasuke was a loner but leaving seems a bit much. (munch, munch)" Chouji spoke with a frown, burning through the bag of potato chips all the while. Most of the group inside the room nodded, including Naruto.

The pale boy's vision traveled over to the red haired child of the Yondaime. Mino had been oddly silent this entire time and hadn't even shown any facial expressions. Which if anyone knew the energetic boy, which Naruto did, this was very odd.

"So what are we all doing here?" Naruto asked, turning his eyes back to the Yondaime.

"This will be a retrieval mission. The objective is simple: Bring Uchiha Sasuke back. He didn't leave that long ago so this will be the perfect chance to get him. You all are the best group we could assemble so quickly thanks to your known connection with the Uchiha. Naruto will be team leader for this mission. I suggest you hurry and good luck."

Mino was the first person out of the tower. Followed swiftly by Naruto and Kiba and lee. Neji, Shikamaru, and Chouji were hot on their tails as they followed. Each ninja blazed a trail across the village and out of the gate before most knew they were gone.

The group flew through their home forest with speed, grace, and most importantly focus. Naruto and Mino brought up the front of the group, their faces sour for different reasons. Neji, Lee, and Kiba brought up the middle. And Shikamaru and Chouji brought up the back for support.

Each member of the group wanted to complete the mission for a different sake. Neji wanted to be successful in this mission because of his new personal goal. Gone was the fate servant Neji. The new Hyuuga had the goal of becoming the strongest to help Naruto. He hadn't said anything to Neji but the boy's eyes had.

They showed a child who had endured a fate worse than death itself. They showed a loneliness that came from a lifetime of seclusion. And yet, when he sent him that look during the Exams Neji felt fear in his own heart. Naruto had mastered his pain and used it for a strength. Neji wanted to master his strength and become strong in that way as well.

Lee had gone along to support his new friend in Neji. No longer did Neji feel that Lee was worthless for training so hard and had come to respect him because of it. The two had become training partners and had improved greatly in the month after the Exams.

Chouji had gone along because Shikamaru had and he knew Sasuke. He would much rather stay at home and eat but not when a friend was being kidnapped. Sure him and the Uchiha were never the best of friends but Sasuke had never insulted him so that was ground for a friend to Chouji.

Suddenly, a massive chunk of earth came flying out towards the group. Everyone managed to dodge the boulder at the last second. The group landed and scanned the area while they waited for the assailant to arrive. It wasn't long until a hefty size Shinobi jumped out of the trees and landed in front of the group.

"Heh, Sakon said that some leaf Genin would be coming this way. I didn't believe him but hey I don't argue with him. Sorry to say it kids but your journey ends here. Not as long as Jirobo is here." The plump ninja Jirobo spoke with a cocky smirk to his face.

The group all looked among themselves, all thinking the same thing. This man had to be one of Orochimaru's personal guard. The same ones that helped bring down the Sandaime during the invasion of Konoha.

"I got him." Everyone turned to see Chouji step forward to the front of the group.

"But Chouji-" Shikamaru was about to ask but was cut off by his friends stern but soft voice.

"Relax Shikamaru. If we all stay here to fight him Sasuke only gets further away. You guys go." Chouji spoke with a pure and strong determination to his voice. The others took the hint and darted off further in to the forest, hopefully to catch up.

Shikamaru spared one glance back to his childhood friend. 'Catch up soon buddy.'

"So the fat boy thinks he can take me on alone huh?" Chouji narrowed his eyes at the mocking form of Jirobo.

"You're one to talk. You're heavier than I am!" Jirobo sneered at the cocky Genin. He decided to get this fight going since the other members of the Sound Four would be waiting for him. The plump orange haired male dashed forward to smash his fist in to Chouji's head.

The green clad boy just barely managed to dodge the fist. His eyes widened in horror as the ground cracked underneath of Jirobo's fist. Chouji threw his hands in to a seal and jumped in to the air, spinning his body slightly.

"Nikudan Sensha!" He called out quickly. The next moment and his body expanded at the chest and began rotation forward at an extreme pace, little more than a green blur at the moment. Jirobo lifted a brow as Chouji landed and raced towards him.

Little black triangle tread marks spread across his skin when Chouji drew near. He pulled his fist back and with a mighty heave and shout, slammed it in to Chouji's spinning form. The spinning boulder resisted for a few moments before being flung backwards and in to several trees.

"What the hell was that? Seemed awfully weak to me." The foul chakra spread around his body and made his presence all the more dark for Chouji. The plump green Genin rose out of the pile of broken wood with a stern set to his jaw.

The next moment, that very same jaw was crunched inwards by a fist with black markings. This sent Chouji even further in to the forest till his back met a rather firm tree. He bounced off the tree and landed harshly on the ground, his face in the dirt.

A sharp pain shot through his body when he felt a foot slam in to the base of his spine. He opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. The pain was just far too much for his body to cope with at the moment. Another kick landed in to his stomach and sent him back against the tree.

"Is that all you leaf Nin have? Disgusting if you ask me. I hope the rest aren't this weak." Jirobo smirked before turning on his heel and slowly walking back in to the clearing. What he didn't expect to feel was a huge fist slam in to his back and force him in to the clearing.

He lifted his head and looked behind himself to see Chouji, with his hand shrinking back to its normal size. In his other, non shrinking hand, was a glass container that held two pills. One was yellow and one red one. There was an empty spot in front of the yellow pill.

"Don't make fun of the leaf or my friends!" Chouji practically yelled at the heavier set ninja. Jirobo just looked at the timid boy who had suddenly grew a spine. Other than his sudden change in demeanor there was something else. His chakra had shot up considerably in the last few moments.

But how? Just a moment ago Jirobo had stomped this little runt out and called it a day. And now all of the sudden he had enough energy and power to attack Jirobo hard enough to leave him in a slight daze? Just what had happened exactly?

That's when it hit him. The empty space in front of the yellow pill must have been another type of pill that Chouji must have taken. This must have raised his chakra and gave him a fighting chance again the Sound Four member who had the curse seal active.

"Or what? You'll hurt me? I'm shaking like a leaf." He smirked at the double meaning he had pulled off on his own. Feeling proud of himself, Jirobo took up a defensive stance as Chouji charged him yet again. Chouji reared his fist back and drove it forward.

The Sound Four member caught it deftly. Only this time it was no where near as weak as before and pushed him back several yards. Another wrapped up fist came sailing towards his face, which he also caught, yet again forcing him back.

Jirobo almost smirked in victory but a sharp headbutt to his chin made him rethink that idea. Slightly dazed, the older ninja was sent back by another extremely large fist like the one that crushed in to his back from before.

This was going to be a much tougher fight than he thought it was going to be. He was actually hoping to save a good deal of his chakra and use it to catch up with the others. Sadly, it looked like he was going to have to enter the second stage of his Cursed Seal to trounce this little bug.

Chouji saw the other ninja's skin begin to light up in a fiery orange color and his chakra seemed to explode with a brand new boost to its power. A boost that pushed his power far above Chouji's new power. It would seem that he would have to take the second pill in order to win this fight.

'Hopefully this ends soon' Chouji thought as he took the second, yellow pill.

Shikamaru felt a slight shudder to his body. Almost as if he could feel the distress and stress that Chouji himself was under. The lazy Nara could only hope that his best friend would be alright and that he would catch up soon.

But at the moment he had other problems to worry about. Mainly a foul mouthed girl with the power to summon songs through her flute. Songs that could very well spell the end of his days if he didn't figure a way out of them.

Of course, Shikamaru wasn't a genius for nothing. He had more than a few tricks up his sleeves for this woman. And he had used up most of his plans just to stay alive and ensure that she didn't get the chance to kill him.

But now, now it was down to the wire. Her with a kunai poised to drive straight in to his body. Him with a shadow hand moving slowly up her body to strangle the life out of her if she let her guard down for a second. Now it simply cam down to who could last longer in the battle of wills.

"Just...give up!" The pink haired girl yelled out angrily. Shikamaru just grunted in response and pushed on his jutsu all the harder. He had to end her here so that she couldn't report back to Orochimaru and reveal his skills or any of the others.

"Its far too...troublesome to give up now." He admitted through clenched teeth. The female growled in response to his admission and pushed her arm forward. It was mere inches away from stabbing in to his body and ending this accursed jutsu.

Well, she was close to ending his life. That was before something snuck up slowly behind the girl. Something roughly human shaped and seemed to be moving in a weird manner, all of its joints bending and moving as if they weren't there.

In an instant, the weird thing sprung up and wrapped itself around the body of the girl. Shikamaru's eyes widened as he remembered catching a fleeting glance at that thing before back at the Exams. He remembered exactly who this puppet belonged to.

"You know, for Orochimaru's body guard, you sure left your defenses down." A snickering Kankuro came out of the shadows, his finger in a position that looked ready to break her body in an instant if her wanted to.

"What?! Like hell am I going to be judged by some asshole wearing make up!" She hollered out and wiggled in the puppet's grasp. Kankuro frowned deeply and squeezed his fingers together slightly, forcing the puppet to squeeze slightly in return.

Shikamaru let out a huge sigh of relief and let his jutsu go. With the puppet latched on to the woman he wouldn't need to bind her with any jutsu of his. Kankuro could easily just hold her there and stop her from doing anything harmful.

"How many times do I have to explain it to people!? Its war paint. War! Paint!" Kankuro hollered each and every word. Tayuya's face simply turned sour in response to his yelling and she only squirmed harder in the tight grasp of the puppet.

"Let me go make up wearing freak!" Kankuro frowned heavily at her again. A stern and firm lock set in to his jaw as he spoke again.

"I told you. Its-" He was cut off by the angry Tayuya once again.

"Yeah, yeah I frigging get it! Its silly war paint! And this puppet is actually a doll and you dress up in a cat outfit!" Kankuro sighed to himself. He had just about enough of the disrespect of this red haired girl. No one insulted his puppets and got away with it.

"Yeah well try this on for size!" He hollered back, flexing his finger muscles once again. This time his fingers made a ball and tightened. The puppet responded to the commands of its master and squeezed all of its joints at once.

A loud crunch rang throughout all of the forest in which they were located. Shikamaru cringed at the sickening noise Tayuya's body made as it was crunched and dropped. Kankuro looked on disinterested as he pulled his puppet back to him.

"Did you have to kill her?" He asked in his normal lazy and strenuous free tone of voice. Kankuro smirked and nodded slowly to him, his eyes were narrowed.

"Yup, it was either you or her." Shikamaru raised a brow at that and stuffed his left hand in his pocket, his right hand laid to the side of his body.

"We could have captured her. She might have known something." Kankuro merely shrugged at the boy.

"Not my mission."

"What is your mission exactly?" Shikamaru asked curiously, his voice a tad uneasy. What if his mission was to end Shikamaru's life? What if killing Tayuya was simply a chance to get close to Shikamaru so his guard would drop?

"Relax, just to save ya and bring you back to your village. Suna wants to make up for its attack." He shrugged slightly. "This must be an attempt at that." Shikamaru nodded and turned to face towards Konoha, a painful expression on his face.

"Something wrong?" Kankuro asked passively upon seeing Shikamaru in pain.

"I...broke my finger."

"Your serious?"

Inuzuka Kiba clutched his small white dog Akamaru close to his body. The dog whimpered slightly in pain from being moved, even if it was so slight. Kiba whispered words of kindness to his dog in hopes it would calm down and relax.

"Its alright buddy, we'll get through this. We always do." Kiba assured Akamaru. The dog quivered slightly in response. Suddenly a red humanoid came crashing through the tree that Kiba hid behind with serious force and speed.

Kiba luckily dashed away from the speeding mass of human and landed safely in the clearing a few feet away. Two people caught up with him the moment he landed. They were half covered in an almost armor like appearance with a red horn on both of their hands, each on different sides.

"Damn these guys are fast." Kiba grumbled under his breath. Both Sakon and Ukon smirked in delight.

"You can thank Lord Orochimaru for that." Sakon smile and ran his hand through his hair with a delighted chuckle to his voice. His brother beside him chuckled in much the same manner. One might wonder if these two were brothers or the same person altogether.

"We are truly blessed with his mark." Kiba scoffed loudly at that.

"That's disgraceful. Letting another predator mark you and keep you as a mere pet." Kiba smirked as both the brothers frowned and sneered viciously. For a hunter, being marked and kept on a leash was a fate worse than death. At least in an Inuzuka's mind.

"Shut up!" They roared in unison and came dashing towards Kiba and the dog in his arms. They moved in a zigzag like pattern, crossing over Kiba several times over and clawed him each time they passed. However, Kiba noticed than one of them seemed to stop attacking to take a breather.

"What's wrong?" Kiba asked haggardly the multitude of attacks wearing on his body. Ukon frowned and panted heavily at the dog ninja. Being outside of Sakon for too long made him weak in terms of stamina. "Too weak to finish me off?"

"Shut your mouth filthy dog!" Kiba smirked and gave Akamaru a soldier pill. The little dog yapped quietly to his master. In the next moment both Kiba and Akamaru dashed forward and began spinning quickly.

"Gatsuuga!" They both yelled proudly as the neared towards their target. Both Sakon and Ukon joined back up in one body to defend against the attack. The Oni looking ninja performed a few hand seals and slammed his hand on the ground.

"Kuchiyose: Rashomon!" A giant wall with a demonic looking face. The two smashed in to the gate with all of their combined might. Eventually they broke through the gate but the other two had moved well out of the way by then.

"Scared of me yet?" Kiba asked with a slight grin, holding his shoulder in pain from their combined assault. Akamaru growled lowly in response as the two brother separated from their body once more. Both of them sneering at the other duo.

A moment later a huge gust of wind came roaring out of the trees and smacked directly in to Sakon and Ukon. The two landed harshly against the wall of trees and broken pieces of wood. Sakon looked to Ukon and nodded. A moment later the two of them joined bodies once more.

Kiba and Akamaru jumped up in defense. The looked in the trees to see a giant fan and a girl with four pigtails on her head. Temari emerged from the woods and landed next to the Inuzuka with a sly grin of her own.

"You're welcome by the way." Kiba snarled at her.

"I don't need your help!" He barked at her, amusingly enough, with a fierce glare of his own. Temari scoffed loudly and looked back to the two brothers that were sharing a joined body. They were slowly rushing back to their feet with a frown of their own.

"That was a cheap shot woman." Sakon spoke with malice in his voice at being attacked like that. Temari made no other move other than lifting her fan and getting it ready to swing at a moment's notice.

The two brothers in one body made a mad dash towards Temari. They poured chakra in to their bodies in a hope to reach her before she could swing that deadly fan of hers. Sadly, they were mistaken as the fan was swung far before they could do anything about it.

Once again they were harshly blasted backwards but she wasn't ready to let them rest even for a second. While they were in her wind she would lift up her fan and cause the wind to rise with them in it. A split second later and the fan, with the wind and brothers, were broke smashing straight in to the ground.

Kiba watched with awe as this was going on. Luckily his sense of smell picked up on Ukon leaving his brothers body so that he may escape. He never got far as he was cut off but a Gatsuuga straight to his chest, shredding him apart with ease.

"See how easy that was? I'm surprised it took you this long to get them this weak." Temari spoke while folding up her fan and strapping it to her back. Kiba picked up Akamaru and frowned.

"Sorry that I don't have a huge fan to use." Kiba grumbled under his breath. "What are you even doing here? Last I saw you were attack Konoha nin. Not helping them." Temari sighed to herself and hunched her back slightly before resuming perfect posture.

"Long story but basically Orochimaru killed my father and this is payback." Her voice sounded simple enough but Kiba could tell their was venom behind it. Ready to lash out and hurt anyone who dared to tamper with her.

"That's hardcore." Temari nodded softly.

"Yeah it is. Now let's get you back to Konoha."

"Wait what about the others? They need me." Temari smirked at him and hopped to a nearby tree.

"Don't worry about them. Gaara is helping out too."

"G-Gaara?!"

Neji leaned up against the tree with a frown on his face. He was easily taking the biggest beating of his life and for some reason he couldn't shake this guy. This Kidomaru was hot on his trail and vicious in his precise attacks. It took all Neji had to fend him off each time.

And yet here he was, leaning up against a tree with several gaping wounds in his back. A crazy spider archer was laying in wait somewhere shooting deadly arrows at his blind spot. Not to mention with the best accuracy Neji had ever seen.

Their battle had been hard fought on Neji's end. First there was figuring out how to beat Kidomaru's web silk. That proved to be an easy trick to learn as with the Gentle Fist, there was no web that could stand up to it.

Next was surviving the brutal onslaught of spiders from Kidomaru's personal summon. The black spiders rained endless from the skies but he was able to best even that, despite their numbers advantage over him.

Sadly, it was also during this time that Kidomaru learned of his blind spot in his vision. And he had exploited it ruthlessly, hitting him with several web like kunai that were created in his mouth. Neji had taken his fair share of these knives before fleeing the scene.

And that is how his current predicament came about. Bleeding and hiding from the very person that had been hunting him from the start of the fight. With the end in sight Neji wobbled forward and picked up his headband, which was shot off in the last attack.

Closing his eyes he had planned to accept his fate, giving in to his ideology once more. That was until he remembered seeing Naruto's rage empowered face. The face that refused to give in or give up to any fate or odds.

That was the source of Naruto's true power. Using the rage and anger in side of him to calm and stem the tide of battle with a pure focus to which even Neji's eyes could not beat. That was the kind of focus and skill Neji would need if he was to change the Hyuuga Clan and his destiny.

His eyes snapped open just in time for him to bend and dodge the arrow at the last second, earning a rather nasty slash through his shoulder instead of his heart. Neji smirked and grabbed the thread with his good arm. He began to flood the thread with chakra.

Kidomaru could feel the chakra enter his system and cripple his body from the inside. Most of his other organs were already destroyed before he could break the thread. However his heart had managed to beat on albeit rather slowly as he crashed on to the forest floor.

'He must have flooded the thread with his chakra to get to me. Heh, this game was the most fun I have ever had. Too bad its the last.' Kidomaru thought before his heart slowly gave out on him.

'Thank you Naruto. Thank you for showing me the true path to changing my fate.' Neji thought just before falling over and losing his vision.

"Suna Tsunami!" Gaara yelled as a large wave of sand rose from the ground in a tidal wave of pain and earth. Kimimaro's face remained passive as he dodged backwards to evade the numerous amount of tendrils. Even he wasn't good enough to dodge them all and ended up getting buried underneath the sand.

"He's got to be finished now right?" Mino asked Gaara somewhat curiously. Gaara's face turned to one of worry and displeasure at the question. See Mino had elected to stay behind once he noticed that Lee couldn't handle this on his own and sent Lee home with a Kage Bushin. Moments later Gaara had shown up to assist Mino.

[Five Minutes Before]

"Get him back to Konoha as fast as you can." Mino told one of his clone, who had Lee upon his back.

"Right away Boss." The clone darted off back to home with full steam. The original turned back to Kimimaro with an angry expression on his face. He stood to his full height proudly and stuck a pointer finger at the other ninja.

"You're gunna get a beat down for hurting Lee and taking Sasuke!" Just moments before Sasuke had woken up and darted away towards Orochimaru's Otogakure village. He had an extremely foul chakra surrounding him, even more so than before.

"It was his choice to join Lord Orochimaru. He desires power and that is the place he will receive it." The moment Kimimaro finished his sentence he was surrounded by a virtual mob of Mino and his clones.

"Adding more weaklings to this fight won't change a thing." All the Mino's snarled at the lonely Sound nin, sounding very much like an animal like roar in unison.

"Charge!" He yelled as the army of himself ran forward. Kimimaro wasted no movement as he took out every single clone with an almost practiced ease. Mino growled and summoned another army thus demonstrating his enormous chakra capacity.

"Mino!" Naruto cried out to him. Mino stopped his second wave and turned to him.

"Naruto you're here! What took you so long?"

"Had to summon a snake to take Neji home. He was very close to death." Mino nodded and turned back to his target.

"Could you help me here? I can't seem to touch him!" Mino let out a very frustrated sigh as he turned to Naruto. The pale ninja turned his attention to Kimimaro in the center. He caught the bones of the ninja slowly seeping back in to his skin.

"How did he beat all of your clone?" Naruto asked with his eyes zoomed in on Kimimaro.

"He literally just beat them with his hands and feet and those bone things that come out of his skin." Naruto nodded and took in a deep breath. The world around him seemed to slow as he applied all of his focus on to the other ninja.

'So, he uses the bones to enhance the reach of his Taijutsu ablities. Add on to that he must be a wonderful Taijutsu specialist to be able to handle so many clones at once. The key to beating him must lay in either a force he can't beat with his hands or a better Taijutsu specialist and if Lee lost. That means only option one remains.'

He opened his eyes and smiled. 'Right on time too.' He turned his vision upwards to see Gaara riding in on a cloud of sand, a blank expression on his face till he saw Naruto. This was the first time they had crossed paths since that day.

"Naruto..." He paused for a moment. Naruto could have swore he was going to attack him again. "A pleasure seeing you again. I take it you are part of the Uchiha's retrieval mission?"

"Yes, Hokage put me in charge of the mission. And he is getting away. Gaara I need your help." Mino and Gaara looked at him with slightly shocked looks on their faces. Gaara seemed to grasp what needed to be done rather quickly.

"You need me to handle this guy so you can capture the Uchiha." Naruto nodded swiftly and sternly.

"And Mino here will help you out." Gaara frowned at that but nodded anyway. Maybe some type of help could be a good idea. Though he didn't really care for or respect Mino. Gaara had nearly killed him before this.

"Trust me Gaara. I have a feeling Kimimaro will test your limits like never before. And you'll be that much stronger because of it."

"I want to thank you Naruto. Thanks to you I now understand the true path to power and strength. I must become strong myself then become one with other strong people so that we all become stronger and can fight stronger people." Naruto thought about it. That wasn't exactly what he had said but it had calmed Gaara down and maybe made me more faithful to his village.

"Right, and thank you for helping." Naruto hoped away the moment after that, rushing towards Sasuke.

"So what do we do now?" Mino asked curiously.

"We begin." He ran through some hand seals and began the biggest wave of sand Mino had ever seen.

[Present]

"Sabaku Taiso!" Gaara slammed both of his hands down on the ground. The next moment a huge wave of pressure shot out and forced the lake of sand to compress itself. Gaara stood up and frowned again.

"This is proving tiresome." Instantly, thousands of huge bone pillars rose out of the ground toward the duo. Gaara reacted quickly by rising the two of the up on a Sand cloud. This battle had raged on for a rather long time and Gaara was nearly out of chakra.

And he dared not to call upn Shukaku. He was just now learning how to control the beast instead of the other way around. Thanks to Naruto, he realized the greatest enemy lay within himself. And if he were to get stronger then he would need to conquer the Shukaku.

Out of one of the spikes came Kimimaro. His hand had morphed into something of a bone like drill. He reared his hand back and went to launch it forward. Gaara attempted to raise a defense but his chakra was nearly out and could barely keep him afloat.

The drill stopped just mere inches away from Gaara's face, blood dripping from Kimimaro's mouth like a waterfall. All at once the bones sunk back in to the ground as the sand cloud was forced to land on the sand below them.

"That was...close."

Naruto dashed through the forest with an unbridled speed and grace. He bounded from tree to tree without wasting a single moment. He would need to master ever single movement if he was going to catch up to Sasuke.

'And when I catch up to you, I'm going to make you pay for your arrogent ways. Even if you are an Uchiha, what makes you think you can simply leave the village? And leaving for my father no less!' Naruto mentally seethed.

To think that this Uchiha's head was so filled with pride and revenge that he couldn't even plan ahead and leave in a sneaky manner. Or at least he could disguise it as something else. Some people were just not as smart as they believed themselves to be.

This brought him to the previous night he had, the one where he had encounter his father. His words were clear to him now but what was the purpose behind them? Maybe he wanted to prove Sasuke's strength against Naruto?

Or maybe he wanted to show Sasuke that he needed the curse seal to win his fights for him. This would make him all the more reliant on Orochimaru and thus a more potent slave for him. Naruto nodded to himself. That must have been the answer.

Naruto eventually broke the treeline and came to a rather beautiful clearing. A large river ran through the center, two statues on either side of the river. One of Uchiha Madara and one of Senju Hashirama. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he landed atop the head of the Shodai Hokage.

"Sasuke!"

AN: Bam! Another chapter done for your viewing pleasure. I do hope it was worth the wait. Sorry about another cliffy (Read: Totally not sorry). Next Chapter should be up soon! I'll see you all then!