Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Team 7's Ascension

Chapter XXI - Fallen Leaves III

A pounding headache lanced through Naruto's skull, driving away the darkness clouding his mind, replacing it with painful clarity. He sat up with a groan, massaging his throbbing temples. If nothing else, the hurt was a sign that he hadn't died. And if he was alive, Sakura and Sasuke might be, too. Pulling himself in an upright position, his callused hands dug deep into the bark of the tree beside him. His breaths were shallow, rasping, as he panned his head around to look for them.

Sakura sat nestled between large roots, regaining consciousness, casting glances at her surroundings. With unsure steps, Naruto shambled over to her, his pants clinging to his frame. The wet forest floor had soaked them through and they stuck to his legs like old, fetid skin.

"Sakura, you okay?"

She nodded tiredly, wiping grime off her face. "I wouldn't call it okay, but I'm not hurt. That's a start."

"Where's Sasuke?" Naruto asked, searching their vicinity for a sign of their teammate. If Sakura had also been affected by the illusions, then Sasuke was the only one who could have won against Nikujī. Resisting the Genjutsu had been impossible for Naruto, but he'd wager that Sasuke had used his eyes to win.

He helped Sakura up, heaving her onto her feet. "Can you sense him anywhere?"

"I can try." Sakura put her hands in the ram seal. "He's over there," she said, emeralds snapping to a location not far away. "And he has almost no chakra left."

Liquid fire shot through Naruto's veins and he stumbled toward the place Sakura had indicated, his feet barely obeying his will. His heart stopped for a second as he arrived at the scene, before it resumed pulsing, hammering painfully against his ribcage. Sasuke's face was directed at the sky, his eyes closed. He lay on the ground as still as a corpse, his black shirt rendered to tatters, and with crimson glistening under the moonlight as it pooled around his stomach. Nikujī's head leaned on Sasuke's legs, the sadist's eyes vacant.

Naruto struggled with himself, forced his legs to move. He neared Sasuke and sank on his knees beside him. The corners of his eyes got wet as he stared at the unmoving body.

"Sasuke…"

Sakura joined him, her face devastated. She lifted Sasuke's head slightly, but as she was about to put it in her lap, it moved. Naruto wiped his eyes, blinking at what he saw. Then Sasuke's fingers twitched.

"He's alive," Naruto said, relief coloring every syllable.

Sakura looked up, but her features held no joy. "I know," she whispered. "I know…but for how long?"

Naruto's gaze drifted back to Sasuke's stomach wound. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, shook his head in denial. Hadn't he vowed to himself that none of his teammates would ever receive a wound like this? Damn it. He could endure having his insides ripped open. Not them. They shouldn't have to. Not with him there.

The moist ground beneath his feet squelched as he dug his toes into the earth. Above them, the heavens broke open, and Naruto swallowed the despair that welled up in his throat. He was supposed to be the one lying there, not Sasuke.

Anger set in, and with it, his thoughts swiveled to Nikujī, the bastard who was responsible for this. The man who had ripped his already small family further apart. He stared at the corpse of Komon's enforcer, fury rippling through every pore of his body.

Anger soon turned to hate. It started out as a slow trickle, slithering up his veins, mixing in his blood. And when the dam broke, the trickle grew in size, soon equaling a raging river rushing over a precipice, widening into a waterfall eager to meet the bottomless ocean.

He cried, he snarled, he roared. He jumped to his feet, seized Nikujī's corpse with his hands, and hurtled it away from Sasuke. The body crashed against a tree—a sickening crunch reverberated through the air—and thousand leaves rustled as the tree splintered and fell over.

Naruto panted harshly, staring at the outcome of his impotent rage; yet his fury didn't abate, only strengthened. His self-control had slipped for a moment, but he didn't care to reign this madness in and directed his stare toward Tanyu. There, Komon hid from this tempest of emotions—smiling, indulging, uncaring. Naruto's feet moved on their own. He'd make them pay, all of them.

"Naruto." Sakura stood behind him, her hand on his shoulder. "…don't, please." She sounded miserable, but even that wouldn't stop him anymore.

"I'll kill every one of them."

Sakura's breath came in bursts as she flung both arms around Naruto, rooting him to the spot. "You will die," she said, her head buried in his back. "I can't—You can't. Damn, I…" she trailed off into stutters, making him pause.

One glance at Sasuke though rekindled the anger. "They won't stay alive. I won't allow them to." Naruto inhaled deeply, then turned around and pried Sakura off him. "I will come back." A token assurance, nothing more. He wanted to promise, but couldn't.

Sakura looked up, red-rimmed eyes glistening with disbelief. "Against the Twelve Guardians? I can't lose you too…please don't. You will die if you go…"

"I am a Jinchūriki. They won't…" his speech tapered out.

Could it work? Was it even possible? He stepped back to Sasuke's body, knelt down beside him, and put both palms on the wound. "I don't want you anywhere near this, Sakura."

"What—"

"Back, please."

When he heard the snapping of twigs as she moved out of range, he shot Sasuke's unmoving face a last look, branding it into his mind. This had to work. The power of the Kyuubi gave him nigh impossible regenerative abilities, and while he didn't know what would happen if the Bijū's chakra entered the system of a normal person, he would forever hate himself if he didn't even try.

How to conjure the Kyuubi's chakra though, the red energy that healed him on a regular basis? Naruto focused, but no matter how hard he searched, it remained elusive. And even as he found it through sheer stubbornness and will, like an eel it dashed away the moment he tried to channel it. Why? It was frustrating, vexing, maddening.

He opened his eyes. Sakura still stood a few trees away, her expression chipping at his heart one shard a second. Naruto looked away, unable to bear the sight. Concentrating on Sasuke once more, he noticed the bloody kunai lying next to him.

Perhaps…

Naruto took the kunai and swiped the blade across his arm; a long, red gash opened up.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted behind him.

"Back." He heard her pause, but the feeling he had waited for, the sensation of red pouring through his body didn't come. He gnashed his teeth, narrowed his eyes.

More?

Enough that even the Kyuubi couldn't ignore it?

Naruto gripped the handle of the kunai with both hands, his knuckles whitening, and plunged it into his chest. Blood fountained out, smattering everything around him. "Back," he rasped again, hoping Sakura would listen to him.

And then it came; not like the hate before, growing slowly in size, but as a rush of power racing onward to meet the wound he had inflicted on himself. He bowed over the body, making sure his palms still connected to Sasuke's stomach. The energy didn't shoot out though, didn't transfer to Sasuke. Naruto snarled, pouring all his will into forcing the power through his fingertips. It would listen. It would obey. It would save Sasuke.

A primordial roar swelled up in his throat and burst forth, ripping the grass under his feet away. His veins bulged, sprawling along his arms like cords of thick rope. A red shroud enveloped him, bubbling to the surface, peeling skin apart.

The scenery changed, and with it, Naruto's perception of time and space. He was in a basement, endless pipes stretching across the walls, dirty water reaching up to his ankles. Naruto glanced around. At his feet lay Sasuke, still as a corpse, and as the hairs on his neck rose, a foreboding feeling settled in his stomach.

Low rumbling caused Naruto to turn around and his mouth slackened as he was witness to an image that would haunt him till his dying breath. Behind a gate reaching up into the endless darkness, he found the one being he hated the most, the Bijū that had ruined his life. Its eyes—each as large as a house—observed him with cruel intelligence bleeding into crimson irises. The saliva dripping from its teeth sent ripples akin to small waves through the water.

"Kyuubi."

Every aspect of his burden was crushing, even the Bijū's silence.

"Kyuubi," Naruto said again, with more vehemence.

Its head moved by the fraction of an inch. "Jailor. It brings me pleasure to see you."

The Kyuubi propped itself up on its paws, and with a start Naruto realized that the size from before had only been an illusion. For a second he stared straight forward, his gaze on the same height as a single sharp claw digging into the ground.

"Why?" he asked, seeking the Bijū's eyes.

"You have no idea how I longed for this meeting…weeks, months, years…a decade and more. Now, finally you are here and every fiber of my being crawls with joy."

The fox had ruined enough of his life already. He wouldn't let it mess with him anymore. Swallowing his fear, Naruto stepped up to the gate. "Your mockings mean nothing to me."

"Mockings? Oh no, this is nothing of the sort. It is pure, magnificent bliss. To see you, my jailor, here in front of me…to take in your existence in minute detail…it will make all this worth it in the end."

"Worth it? What the fuck are you talking about?"

The Kyuubi's face split into a grin. "Oh yes. How could I appreciate the skin I rip from your bones if I haven't seen the original beforehand? How could I love your screams when I haven't heard you speak? There is so much to learn before I rend you limb from limb, and—"

"You talk too much," Naruto said, glaring up at the beast. "I'm not here to listen to your sick fantasies."

"They won't stay fantasies much longer," the Kyuubi answered. "You have my gratitude though, jailor. The seal that old ape and his pet frog put upon the Shinigami's prison kept me in check, hindered me to contact you in any way. But you sought me out this time. Everything is different now."

"I didn't seek you—"

"But you did." An undercurrent of satisfaction accompanied each word. The Bijū oozed smugness. "You inflicted grievous wounds just to reach me, is that not the truth?"

The words rang through Naruto's mind, and he glanced at Sasuke, the reason he had summoned the red chakra in the first place. He had no time to banter with the beast in front of him.

"I don't care for you Kyuubi. I never have and never will. Your chakra is mine, and the rest of you can go to hell."

"Ah, how true. If you summon it, my chakra is yours to command. But do you know how to use it?" Booming laughter echoed, and it felt as though Naruto's eardrums were bursting. "You can have all the chakra you want, jailor. Take it. Take it, but know that you will never learn how to heal your friend in time. He will perish, and with him, so will your inner peace."

"Is this the moment where you offer me a deal?"

"Indeed it is."

Naruto snarled at the Bijū. "I'll never set you free."

"Not even to lay waste to the big city you just fled?" The Kyuubi lowered its head, until Naruto stared directly into its slitted pupils. "But I do not seek freedom for now. In truth, feeling your anguish elates me more than eating you ever could. Let me heal your friend…as a favor for granting me the chance to meet you, you could say."

"You expect me to believe that drivel?"

"Do you have a choice?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "You could kill him. No, you probably will kill him."

The Kyuubi chuckled. "Does it matter? In here, time is irrelevant. The moment you go back though, his heart will give out. He will die either way. But if my words are true, his life isn't forsaken just yet."

"What do you get out of it?"

"I said everything there is to say, jailor. The decision is yours now."

Naruto stared at the ground, his thoughts flying out of control. He would never be able to save Sasuke on his own, and as much as he despised it, the Kyuubi made sense. Only the Bijū had the ability to heal him in time.

Though could he risk unleashing hell on earth should the Kyuubi's words turn out to be lies? A sick feeling rose inside him.

There was no real question, was there? Sasuke had told him that his loyalty lay with him, not with the village. And in turn, Naruto's loyalty lay with Sasuke, not with the world. Kami may cast his soul into the deepest pits for it, but there could only be one choice.

His voice was dead as he spoke, "Heal him."

The Kyuubi's face nearly split in two, showing rows of sharp teeth. "So have you spoken...and so your will shall be done. Farewell, jailor. We will see each other again, I am sure."

A scalding sensation burned Sakura's arm as she touched Naruto's chakra enshrouded shoulder. That, however, was nothing compared to the fear that gripped her as Naruto slumped over Sasuke's body. The red energy burned steadily though, neither growing in size, nor diminishing.

Had Naruto left her, too, now, just as Sasuke surely would? The thought sickened her, and her insides rose in violent anger as she envisioned a life without either of them. She lost the fight shortly after, emptying the contents of her stomach on the grass beneath. Had everything been for nothing? The blood, the tears…all of it just to feel the same loneliness that had gripped her when her mother had died?

Heat pressed against her back and she glanced up. Wearily wiping the puke from her lips, Sakura saw something that inflicted happiness and terror in equal measure. Naruto's body was upright, floating a few inches above the ground, surrounded by wind and malice, glowing in a light that sent shivers down her spine. More chakra than she had ever felt poured out of him, blanketing the whole area. It meant he was alive, but was it still him or the Kyuubi, or something completely different instead?

The energy merged and plunged into Sasuke's stomach. Sakura flinched as she heard sizzling. It drew her attention to the gaping wound which closed as the flesh around it mended. A flutter of hope flickered inside her at the sight. Was this Naruto's plan? Sasuke's chakra level rose, soon reaching normality, but still his eyes stayed closed. The energy around Naruto vanished, tapering out into the air, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Sakura panicked, shaking his shoulder, calling his name, but nothing worked. She ripped his shirt apart and put her ear to his chest. Her shoulders sacked together as she heard a steady heartbeat, drumming away inside of him. The same was true for Sasuke, and a sensation of elation flooded her. They were alive, both of them.

With new determination, Sakura assessed the situation. Sasuke had killed Nikujī and Naruto had saved Sasuke. Now it was time for her to do something for them, to show them that they could rely on her just as well as they relied on each other. Sakura grunted with effort as she heaved both of them on her shoulders, intent on carrying them to a safer place near the ocean. Komon had screwed them over, but giving up didn't exist in the vocabulary of Team Seven. She would find a way, and if both of her teammates remained unconscious, she would make sure they woke up on a ship sailing for Bōeki Toshi.

Sakura grimaced as, four days later, she looked at the sleeping faces of her teammates. For hours on end, only a few minutes of rest in-between the journey to find some food and regain some energy, she had carried them onwards to the south, nearing the coastal town, Kaigan, from where the only ships in the Land of Fire left in times of war. The fear that the high amount of chakra Naruto had released would ring alarm bells in the whole country wasn't unfounded and drove her to persevere through rain and glaring sun, bringing them closer to their goal.

In that time, her thoughts had been a jumbled mess. She loved Sasuke as much for saving them as she despised him for acquainting her with the despair of seeing him hurt, bleeding to death. Irrational, she knew, but she couldn't help it.

And she loved Naruto just as much for keeping her family intact, rescuing Sasuke from the brink of endless oblivion, as she hated him for making her think she had lost the second teammate in just as many minutes.

Sakura shook her head, trying get rid of those thoughts. They would help neither her, nor them. She wrung out the wet strip of cloth she had ripped from her pants, and watched as the water dripped inside of the wooden bucket she had stolen from a farm on the way, along with a few loaves of bread and some apples. Then she tied the cold towel around Sasuke's head.

Sakura had never believed she'd ever say this, but in those last days, Naruto had been far calmer than Sasuke, and definitely less stressful. He still hadn't woken up after the Kyuubi had flooded him with enough chakra to level a small village. But his expression was peaceful, a small smile etched onto his features even as rain pattered against his brow.

Sasuke was a wreck in comparison. He squirmed, his breath leaving his mouth in unhealthy wheezes as though his lungs had collapsed. His temperature changed as quickly as the weather did, and often she worried that he would bite his tongue when his teeth chattered like the tail of a rattlesnake. Sometimes, the heat rose to such heights that she feared he would blaze up in flames. Always though, he muttered strings of incomplete sentences as he writhed around on her back, or lay in the shade of a tree like he did now.

So many names featured in his feverish dreams…Itachi's, his parents', Kakashi-sensei's, Naruto's and her own. Each time the topic wasn't his team though, Sasuke's face contorted into sorrow or unbridled hate, or both at the same time mixed with many more emotions Sakura couldn't even hope to understand.

And the only thing she could do was renew the cold cloth from time to time. Nothing else she knew would help, and even the illusion that normally induced happy dreams, slid off Sasuke as if it was water and he was oil. But although the symptoms of chakra poisoning wracked his body, she couldn't complain. He was alive.

Resolutely, she rose to her feet and covered her sleeping teammates with large shrubbery she had ripped out on the way. The solution was far from optimal, as wild animals, bandits, and even the damn weather could hurt them. But they had to leave the Land of Fire, and soon at that, because the longer they stayed, the higher the chance that Konoha's Oi-nin would come crashing down on them like a heat wave in summer, oppressive and unwelcomed.

Half an hour to the south, a wall stretched across the horizon, dividing the countryside from Kaigan and its port. The towers that rose in irregular intervals would have scared Sakura a year ago, but after being to Tanyu twice, she almost laughed at them. Intimidation-wise they had nothing on the capital. Still, she had to be very careful. Tanyu had ended in a disaster, and they only got inside the city due to a stroke of luck and the carelessness of the only shinobi in attendance when they scaled the wall.

Kaigan was different. A wartime regulation requiring permits made no sense if the higher-ups lacked the power to enforce it. There could be anything inside of the town, from a small contingent of Chūnin, up to and including a veritable army crowding the whole area. But she had no choice other than trying to get in to secure a ship, a ride, or something else that would get them to Bōeki Toshi.

Sakura observed the gate for hours, hoping that a weakness would present itself soon, because each time her gaze swung to the walls fencing off the town, she flinched, remembering what had transpired in Tanyu. It occurred to her during her watch that she must have had extraordinary luck. No Chūnin surged out of the gate, searching for her, which was the least she would expect if they had a sensor inside Kaigan.

As the night lowered over the town, the result of her observations pressed against her mind, weighing her down even more than carrying Naruto and Sasuke had. She would never make it through the gate, which left only the walls. Sakura grimaced, then tried to call up the determination that had gripped her after the battle with Nikujī. Sasuke and Naruto counted on her…she couldn't let a silly fear like this beat her, not when their lives were at stake.

Sakura made her path around the city proper until she reached a middle point between two towers, then scaled the wall, controlling her chakra as precisely as she could. That close to them, the shinobi inside didn't need a sensor to notice her if she messed up— their normally trained senses would suffice. She imagined Naruto would stand out like a beacon in the dark, even to the most untrained recruit.

Vaulting over the wall, Sakura touched down in the adjacent street, casting anxious glances over her back, before vanishing into a dark, narrow alley between two houses. Sweat trailed down her brow as she cursed her black clothes. In normal infiltration missions the black would've been perfect; here though, it did more harm than good.

Kaigan was made up of white-washed brick buildings most of them two storeys tall, a few selected and more expensive looking ones even reaching as high as three. The tallest point of the town—a tower scraping against the sky's ceiling—overlooked the wall's defensive structures and loomed over her, the large bronze gong beneath its open roof reflecting the torchlight of the guard.

Sakura pressed herself flat against the wall, moving further toward the port with careful steps. She had to find a boat. The particulars of the plan didn't go beyond that point, as Sakura had no idea what would await her inside.

When she arrived at the harbor, looking at it from behind an upturned barrel, her breath hitched in her throat. Six large vessels lay anchored to metal poles stuck into the ground. Around and between them were dozens of smaller ships, ranging from those that had to be operated by a small crew to the ones a single person could use without problems. Behind the armada of boats, the vast ocean sprawled up to the horizon, its darkness interrupted by fractured moonlight on the ever flowing waves.

For a moment, Sakura forgot where she was and a gasp left her parted lips. She had only heard stories about the sea before, for the most part tales so poetic that she had discarded them after indulging in a bit of daydreaming.

"Hey—"

A voice startled her. Sakura wheeled around, chiding herself for her lapse of concentration as Nikujī's butcher knife slid into her hand. She prayed to Kami for forgiveness should she murder someone from her own village, but there was no other way, not anymore, not with Konoha's Oi-nin, Komon, Sasuke's fever, and everything else.

She had chosen this path and she wouldn't stray from it.

Sakura lunged forward, hurling at her opponent in a flurry of motion. The guard to which the voice belonged hid in the shadow. It was better this way, she thought as she didn't think she could bear the guilt if she actually saw his face.

Her movement came to an abrupt halt. The knife stopped inches away from whoever stood between her and her goal. Black tendrils had wrapped themselves around her limbs. A Nara? She cursed her bad luck, raging against the shackles that bound her.

"Calm down, Sakura," the voice said, and she listened up when she heard her name, detecting a familiar quality in the lazy drawl.

"Shikamaru?"

"Aye," he answered, slouching out of the shadows, and Sakura, still bound in his Jutsu, stepped backward until she hit the wall behind her.

"Aye?"

"Trust me, it only takes a day or two until you adopt the speech patterns here." He shook his head and narrowed his eyes. "Why are you here?"

"I—"

"Actually, don't answer that. You've no headband and sneaked into a fortified place under the jurisdiction of your own village instead of using the gate. That tells a tale all of its own, I think." He sighed. "Troublesome. Are Naruto and Sasuke with you?"

She hesitated to tell him. In theory, everyone from Konoha was their enemy at the moment. The indecision must have shown on her face, because Shikamaru let loose another sigh that expressed his thoughts better than words ever could.

After a pregnant pause, he said, "Are you working in Konoha's name?"

Sakura didn't respond.

"I thought as much." He regarded her sternly, a hint of steel creeping into his voice. "Let me rephrase then…and I want an answer to the next one. Do you have any intention of harming Konoha?"

That she could answer. "No."

"You're so troublesome, woman," he said. "I can't believe you brought me into this position." His technique died out and Sakura stared at her freed hands.

"You're letting me go?"

"Not just yet, and put away that knife, will you?"

She did as told, and after a short conversation of clipped one-liners, Shikamaru led her into a small shed at the dock, careful not attract attention. Inside, nets and empty crates crowded them into a tight corner.

"Why are you here?" Sakura asked, now that the adrenalin lessened. "I thought you were in Konoha with Ino and Chōji."

A cross expression soured his face. "I've been promoted to Chūnin and they transferred me to this place three days ago, along with Shino. Ino's still hurt and Chōji…well, he's getting better, but they want to keep Genin near the village for as long as possible."

"That's—"

"Unimportant," he interrupted her. "I'm more interested in your team…damn, Sakura, does the word treason mean anything to you?"

She looked at the ground, unable to hold eye-contact longer than a few fleeting seconds. "I—We have our reasons. Please, you have to believe me. This isn't what we wanted."

Shikamaru grinned humorlessly. "My beliefs about your character are the only reason you're still here and not in a cell."

She meant it when she said, "Thank you."

"That's not the issue though. If Naruto and Sasuke aren't with you on such a suicidal infiltration, then they're hurt. What happened?"

"We fought against someone. It was dumb, and we shouldn't have attracted his attention in the first place, but it happened. I—I need a small boat for us and some supplies."

Shikamaru hummed in the darkness, leaning against the wooden wall of the shed. "Supplies won't be the problem, but getting a ship will. There are regular patrols on the docks."

"You're helping me?"

"Let's call it repaying a debt." He lowered his voice into a deep, threatening rumble. "But make no mistake, Sakura. My family lives in Konoha, as do my friends, and should I learn that you're acting against the village—against them—I will hunt you down to the end of the earth."

"You won't have to," she assured him.

He nodded. "Then we'll have no problems. Wait here while I get the stuff you need. We'll take care of the boat once you've got the equipment."

She furrowed her brow in confusion. "You can get supplies this easily?"

"Trust me," he said as he left the shed, and really, she had to concede that it was the only thing she could do. He deserved that and much more for not turning her in, when he was obligated by his oaths to do so.

Despite his words, the minutes of waiting passed by in what seemed to be slow crawl. Scenarios of being captured ran roughshod in her mind, toying with images where T&I would torture the location of her teammates out of her. Sakura despised herself for it, but several times, she thought about the consequences should Shikamaru have lied to her. Each second amped the anxiety up another notch, and when the door opened with a click, her heart threatened to jump out of her chest.

When Shikamaru returned with a second person behind him, a sensation of betrayal surged through her. Sakura felt marooned, unable believe he had sold her out…but she had to. She wouldn't leave Sasuke and Naruto helpless. Her hand glided toward the knife.

"Peace," Shikamaru lifted up his arms. "It's Shino."

"You've said you'd tell no one."

"I said that I'd help you, nothing else."

"And you do that by telling others?"

Shino stepped forward, his brow creased. "Your pernicious distrust is detrimental to the situation, Haruno-san. My help is needed as I am assigned to the supply storage." He shoved a large duffle bag into her hands. "Take this," he said, frost cooling his voice. "I hope Naruto will get well."

He left without another comment and Shikamaru looked at her first with incredulity, then with genuine anger creeping into his features. "This is how you treat someone who's helping you? I really don't want to see what you've been doing with your enemies then. No wonder you piled up the most bodies during the invasion. Unbelievable."

His words stung. "I'm sorry," she whispered, fiddling with the leather latch of the bag. "I didn't know…" The apology died in her throat as she saw Shikamaru's expression.

"It doesn't matter now." He shook his head. "You said that you need a boat?"

"Yes," she murmured, not trusting herself to cause even more trouble. This whole rescue plan stumbled from one catastrophe to the next, and it wore her out more than Kakashi-sensei's training ever had.

"Have you thought of how to get it out of the port?"

"I'd try to slip into the water and push it out while swimming."

Shikamaru gaped for a moment, before gathering himself. "You've enough strength for that? Not bad. Okay, listen. You'll never make it without a distraction, which I'll provide…Kami knows why."

Sakura wanted to ask him to reconsider as this could cost him not only his career, but also his life. Her lips stayed shut though, glued together by the fear that he'd really change his mind. Shame thrummed inside of her, but she smothered it, thinking of her teammates who still lay in the forest, hidden by shrubbery.

"Thank you," she said for the second time that day, and tears welled up in her eyes.

"Don't thank me yet. There's no telling what'll happen." He cast a look outside and waited for the patrol to pass them. As their backs were turned, he whispered fiercely, "Now! Go."

Sakura sneaked out of the shed and ran across the dock, silencing her feet with tightly controlled chakra, the duffle bag slung over her shoulder. When she reached the pole where a small ship was anchored, she hurled the bag onto it and cut the rope with the knife, looking over her shoulder at Shikamaru as she lowered herself into the freezing water.

He had his hands in a hand seal and shadows shot away from him, binding the group of Chūnin which had nearly reached the other side of the dock and were about to turn around. They stopped, fettered by his Jutsu, their faces still directed away from her.

Sakura knew she couldn't stay and watch any longer. With a last prayer for Shikamaru she pushed against the backside of the boat, moving it out of the bay. Only a few feet away from the dock, Shikamaru's suddenly high-pitched voice echoed through the whole area.

"Ah, I can't control it!" he screamed. "The shadows. Someone put a Genjutsu on me. They're in the city somewhere. Help!"

And as a drumstick lined with cotton hammered against the bronze gong on the tower, mixing in with Shikamaru's screams while Sakura got farther away from Kaigan's port, a smile lit up her face. He was truly one of a kind.

Three hours later, as the Chūnin in charge let him out of the room, finished with asking inane questions, Shikamaru yawned, stretched, and ambled over to the place where he had found Sakura. Shino sat on the barrel, his feet crossed at the ankles, his arms folded over his chest.

"I see you are alright," Shino said.

"They called in a Yamanaka…just a Chūnin though."

The eyebrows above the dark spectacles rose. "That is dangerous enough."

Shikamaru shrugged. "If the scan isn't deep, you only need to know how to circumvent it. They asked if I recognized the attacker—I said the attacker wore very dark clothes. Their minds supplied the answer they wanted to hear."

"Any questions as to the purpose of the theft?"

Now, Shikamaru grinned. "Sakura never told me where she was going, but I might have made a guess that the village two days east makes a good target for a raid."

"And it is certain that she's not going there?"

"No idea, but that'd be extremely bad luck, even for them. Anyway, you managed your part?"

"I did. The beetle hides in the bag and will attach itself to her. It's not of a telepathic species like my father's, but that way we should have a direction at least if we get word that they have been captured."

"Good. Man, this is so troublesome…"

"Indeed.

The high-pitched screeches of seagulls rang in Naruto's ears as he regained consciousness, followed by the smooth noise of moving water, and a gentle breeze whooshing past his ears, caressing his hair. He rolled his tongue over his lips, wetting them, and to his surprise tasted salt of all things. The rocking movement were powerful enough to almost lull him back to sleep, but once he remembered what had happened, he blinked. The sun stabbed at his eyes, forcing him to close them quickly. More careful this time, he tried again, letting himself adjust to the light, soon facing a view that took his breath away.

Blue, a shade darker than the color of his eyes, sprawled toward infinity, mirroring the sun on its placid waves as they gently swashed by. Above him, a white sail swayed in the wind that came from east. He sat upright, directing his gaze over the wooden ridge of the boat and at the other side where he knew the continent must lay. There, the ocean found its end, washing up against a slim stretch of sand and stone that transitioned into a mangrove-fringed shoreline. Their boat must be nothing more than a small, white dot on the horizon.

A spotted sea trout arced over the rail and landed on board, flopping around in a small puddle. Naruto estimated it to be twenty-three inches in size. He made to lift it, wanting to try his hand at guessing its weight, when a second trout followed, landing next to the first. Then a shadow fell over him and water dripped on his face.

"Hullo, Sakura," he said, his lips stretching into a grin.

It took a second, maybe less, before she crashed into him, her arms thrown around him in an embrace, squeezing hard. "Naruto," she said, her voice a cadence of comfort. "You made it. Kami, you made it."

"Was there any doubt?" he replied. "There's nothing that brings Uzumaki Naruto down."

Sakura pushed herself a bit away from him and her eyes glittered with emotions. She didn't need to tell him that it was a load of crock, he knew that himself. But right now, he thought it better to leave morbid words well alone. There would be enough time for that later, when reality caught up to them.

"Maybe you want to put on some clothes?" he said, hoping she hadn't seen his grin falter a bit, inviting nervousness onto his face. He was used to seeing her naked, they were teammates after all, but this sensation of her body pressed against his was new.

"Right," she murmured, a hue of red spreading on her cheeks. He laughed as she left him with longer than usual strides, toweled herself off, and slipped into her clothes. Now that the white towel, which had hung on a rope reaching from the pole to an iron protrusion at the side, wasn't in the way anymore though, Naruto saw what lay across their small vessel.

The illusion shattered; something hard lodged in his throat. He had forgotten. But not really. He had wanted to forget, and for a moment, the soothing balm that was normalcy and good weather and humor had cast a spell on him, showing him the peace he ached for, the life he wished would be his, if only for a day.

Sasuke's body trembled on the other side, his raven hair matted with sweat, clinging to his skull like a second skin. His eyes were shut, closing him off from the rest of the world. His lips had parted in a silent moan.

"What…" he trailed off, at a loss for words.

"He's been like that since you brought him back," Sakura said, joining him on the floor. "It's chakra poisoning, I think. He has the symptoms—his temperature is completely out of whack and he's got fever dreams."

Poison—the word whirled through his mind and a growl rose in his throat, barely escaping through his clenched teeth. The Kyuubi had made good on its promise, keeping Sasuke alive, but the suspicion that it had also induced this sickness to exert a twisted toll for its help clawed itself into Naruto's thoughts. He berated himself. What had he even expected, when dealing with a Bijū?

—But I do not seek freedom for now. In truth, feeling your anguish elates me more than eating you ever could—

The deep rumble echoing in his head was nothing more than his imagination, conjured by not too unreasonable fear and distaste, but he flinched nonetheless. Yet, as he looked at Sasuke, shivering and calling for his dead parents, he regretted none of his choices. A horrible fate, a responsibility no one should have to bear, but to see Sasuke alive, breathing…he would do it all over again, because the alternative was too painful to even consider.

"What happened?" Sakura asked after a while.

And he told her of nine monstrous tails weaving through darkness like crimson trees in an autumn storm, of truthful lies in spoken contracts, of favors and hate and sadism and everything that had stood between him and the beast in the deepest, dirtiest plane of his existence. Saying he wasn't afraid would be dishonest, so he didn't.

And she listened, taking it in with acceptance and grace as though the grand tale of a demon and a boy was nothing new to her, a daily occurrence rather than the oddity of a screwed up life.

When night broke several hours later, Naruto climbed up the pole, striking the sails, fastening them with rope. The wind had picked up, and the danger of drifting away from their course rose. This way, nothing would happen, and Naruto scurried down, taking place next to Sakura who rifled through the brown bag. Beside her, on a small plane, lay the two disemboweled sprouts.

"I meant to ask," he said. "Where's the bag from?"

"I met Shikamaru and Shino in Kaigan. They helped me out and got us some supplies."

Naruto's eyebrows rose. "That's pretty far from Konoha."

"They've been made Chūnin like us." She grimaced. "I was a bit cross with them though…the situation got to me, I guess. I'll apologize once we're back in the village."

He was sure she didn't notice the melancholy on his face, but the tone of her voice told him all he needed to know about how much she believed them to return to Konoha. The chances that they'd get a warm welcome, or any welcome at all, were slim—too slim to hope for anything but incarceration or a swift execution, the usual treatment awaiting traitors.

"Found it," Sakura said, pulling a scroll out of the bag, spreading it over the surface of the boat. Naruto made out some seals on it, then tossed her a questioning glance she probably didn't see. With exactness, Sakura placed the trout on the large squiggly circle in the middle, and pressed each of her palms against a triangle to the left and right. A surge of chakra later, steam rose up from the scroll and the smell of roasted fish filtered through his nose.

"Handy," he said, staring at their dinner.

Sakura prepared the second trout the same way. "Created by Akimichi Oki and in use since the end of the second shinobi war," she told him.

Naruto's mouth opened, then closed. "How do you know this?" he asked.

"Iruka-sensei," she answered. "He mentioned it in wilderness survival class. Our second year, I think."

Now that was a name he hadn't heard in quite some time, and he wondered how the genial academy teacher would react should he learn that the one he regarded as a troublesome little brother had defected. Naruto shoved those thoughts aside. A boggy mire lay that way and he had no desire to navigate such muddy waters. They ate, and soon, after some more conversation where no heavy topics were touched upon, both lay down, staring at the sky filled with glowing lights, wishing themselves into a better world before drifting off to sleep.

It weren't seagulls or the breeze that woke Naruto the second time, but Sakura's shout of warning. He felt the boat rocking—not gently like before, but violently instead—and sensed wind that didn't caress but threatened.

Adrenalin rushed through his veins and he jumped up, just in time to avoid being cleaved in half by a giant sword. He whirled away from his assailant, his eyes searching out Sakura. She stood in front of Sasuke, holding off two men with obvious traces of shinobi training.

But questions of why and who and how could come later. The cleaver soared and he ducked, weaving away from the attacks that came quicker and quicker now as his opponent adjusted to having a moving target. He got his first look; a woman, her brown hair pulled together in a ponytail that reached her waist.

She snarled at him, freeing her cleaver from the pole she had sunk it into and setting after him again. He dodged her attacks, then slipped into her guard and hammered his palm against her chin, sending her flying into the water. He was about to help Sakura, when he heard a deep rumbling in the sea.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu." Her words echoed and his eyes widened in response as a humongous water dragon rose out of the ocean. With the weak Taijutsu abilities of his opponent, he had never expected something like this.

He clapped his hands together. He could deal with this. For once the terrain even favored him. "Suiton: Suijinheki."

Water rose in front of the ship, shielding them against the descending dragon. Sweat trailed down his brow as he felt the enormous force that was exacted against his technique. The fight was still between an A-ranked Jutsu and a B-ranked one, he reminded himself, pumping more chakra through his body.

In a last effort, the dragon smashed its head against the wall, before both Jutsu collapsed in each other, sending savage waves out from the epicenter of the clash. Naruto had only the fraction of a second to realize what was happening. He sped over to Sakura, who had lost her balance through the sudden tremors, grabbed her and threw her high into the air. Then he slung Sasuke over his shoulder and followed Sakura onto the open water just as their boat and the camouflaged pirate catamaran yielded to the pressure, bursting in an explosion of wood.

Amidst a rain of splinters, they raced over the water, neither of them looking back to the scene of destruction behind.

AN: Thanks to DLP.