I want to warn you once again that my battle skills ain't the best and I rather suck at it. Something I need to improve on, I know. But that's just your heads up. And also, any time Naruto gets hurt, it's to show that he's not totally invincible. My Naruto is strong, yes, but he's not the strongest ninja of all time. … So yeah. On with the story now and enough of my pointless blabber.

One more thing, there's an important note at the very end of the chapter. Please read it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any thing from it. I just own my own characters.

Holding Out

Naruto's POV

The kunai Naruto had dodged was just a decoy and the real one was aimed right for his face. Luckily for the blonde, he was paying attention but only managed to move his face to where the kunai grazed his cheek instead of puncturing his skin. A line of blood surfaced on his face and flowed downward. Wasting no time over the wound, Naruto crossed his hands together and shouted out his signature jutsu, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The room filled with a dozen new people, all looking exactly like Naruto. Without waiting for an order, they all launched themselves into battle with the enemy ninja.

Kili, who had launched himself into battle a minute before the clones did, was viciously biting a man's leg. Blood gushed out and into the foxes mouth, but he didn't care. He sank his fangs in deeper and started to twist his head to the sides, almost taking the man's leg off if it hadn't been for his boss whistling for him. He let the man go, ignoring his screams of agony as he sank to the ground, clutching his leg.

When it looked as though all of the enemy ninja were all launched in battle, Naruto took his chance to escape. He spun on his heel and headed back to the opening he created not even twenty minutes earlier and ran through. Kili was already on his heel and together they ran right, the way they had come.

"Which way?" Naruto asked as he threw several kunai at a ninja who was walking the other way. The ninja, thoroughly confused, sank to the floor, wondering what was going on.

The small fox glanced at his surroundings before saying, "In a hundred feet, take a right and then a immediate left. Keep running until you reach the first right and take it."

With the directions being given, Naruto nodded his head in understanding and followed the foxes instructions. One reason why he chose Kili to stay with him was because the little fox had one of the sharpest memories in all of the Fox Clan. If you had this fox with you, there was no way you could get lost. That's why Naruto kept him, so he could lead him out of this god forsaken maze and back to the forest. There was no way that he, Naruto, would make it out by himself.

No matter how fast the two ran, they kept encountering the enemy. They all kept appearing out of nowhere and waiting for the two. Naruto couldn't decide if they were the ones from the meeting room or if they just happened to hear that there was an intruder in the building that needed capturing. Either way, all it did for him was cause a delay of escaping.

"Just a few more turns, Taichou," Kili informed after wounding a woman in the leg to where she would never be able to walk normal again. He had blood dripping down his muzzle as he ran. A dangerous gleam was placed in his eyes and he shook his head to try to get some of the warm substance off of his fur.

Naruto only nodded his head, not feeling like he should speak. In the back of his mind, he felt the twelve clones he created not very long ago all being defeated. The last clone remaining before it was slaughtered, Naruto saw through his eyes that the rest of the enemy ninja left in the room were pursuing after him. All except for one who remained unmoving as he sat down in his chair. Orochimaru. The snake summoner hadn't moved one inch of anything on his whole body. He didn't twitch, his facial expressions remained the same and he just seemed like a statue. The man wasn't surprised about anything Naruto had said or did.

Just before the clone vanished, Naruto caught sight of Orochimaru changing his expression last minute. He was smiling. That caused the blonde to shiver from the creeps but he tried his best to place it out of his mind and to just concentrate on retreating out of this hellhole.

"Lord Orochimaru doesn't want you to leave." One guy that suddenly blocked Naruto's path barked. He tried aiming a punch towards Naruto's stomach but the blonde was much smarter than him and had already foresaw that. Naruto was able to jump upwards to safety just as the fist was swung. When the enemy realized he had missed, he never had anytime to prepare himself for the next blow when the blonde came crashing down on the man's shoulders, knocking him out.

The Jinjuriki didn't linger any longer than necessary to see if the guy was okay (and if he wasn't dead) as he poured on sped and zigzagged through the maze.

"Almost to the exit." Kili informed a minute later.

Just as the two were turning a corner, Naruto felt a sharp pain embed itself into his right arm. He hissed out in pain and turned to find a kunai with an exploding tag tied to it there. Quickly, he pulled it out with a grunt and threw it behind him, not waiting to watch the explosion bring down a portion of the roof.

"I'm going to murder whoever did that." He growled and felt the pain grow a little. He didn't have Kyuubi with him to heal his wound and he had to suffer through the pain.

Kili grinned as they continued on, "Maybe next time, Taichou," He purred.

With the entrance only a few yards in front of them when they turned, Naruto was about to reach into his pouch on his hip to pull out some paper bombs when something caught his eye, forcing him to put on the breaks and stop his run. Because his inertia was so great from the run, he ended up falling and rolled a good ways until gravity caused him to step.

He barely moved and he felt a dull pain in his back and sides. He held back a groan when a chilling voice sounded about all of the noise.

"Come come, Naruto; you didn't think I'd make it that easy for you to escape, do you?" Orochimaru asked, standing calmly, blocking the entrance out of here. Standing behind him was at least fifty or so ninja, all smiling at him and looking eager to start the battle. All of them looked full of energy and uninjured.

'Shit.' Was all Naruto thought.

XxxxX

Tsunade's POV

The Godaime Hokage leaned back in her chair with a loud sigh. The day had gone from bad to worse with each passing minute. Every since Naruto had left, she had been worrying about him but had to keep it all a secret. No one except for a few people knew that he still lived and it was hard to keep that image alive. It was definitely hard with all of the reports she was receiving from her ANBU scouts and some ordinary people in her village. Somehow, word had gotten out that the Leaf village was going to execute Naruto and many villages like the Wave and the Land of the Snow had sent angry reports saying they couldn't do that. Sadly though, they didn't know that the 'execution' had already taken place. Boy was she going to be earning more hate mail from the villages. But it wasn't only other villages that was causing her trouble. The reports she had from her own villagers were complaints. Apparently a few groups of villagers were celebrating too much about the 'death of the nine-tails' that they were disrupting others. And being the Hokage, she had to take care of all of this before it got out of hand.

"It's all their fault..." She rubbed her aching temples as she muttered that to no one but herself. Because of the elder's she had not only her normal hokage duties (like the lovely paper work) but now she had to take care of other annoying tasks.

She groaned again before yelling, "SHIZUNA!"

The door to the room opened not a minute later and a petite young woman with short brown hair poked her head through. "Yes?" She asked in a polite tone. She knew her sensi was in a fowl mood with the loss of Naruto once again so she knew she had to be careful on how she used her tone. Next to her at her feet, a young pink pig wearing a black kimono looked around.

"Get me something to drink." Tsunade said without even glancing up. "Preferably something strong." She knew she was going to half to respond back to the angry villages reports sooner rather than later. "And get me something for this headache while-," Cutting her off was a a strange noise, a noise that sounded like fire with the crackling and everything. Ignoring her aching head, Tsunade jumped to her feet with her eyes wide opened.

Standing in the middle of the room with her back turned to the hokage, was a young girl. Or, what Tsunade could tell she looked young. All she could see was the waist long brown hair and many, many cuts and blood all over her. She was trembling and Tsunade doubted it was from the cold.

No one in the room moved but there was a small flicker from the girls hair like something was moving it.

"Who are you?" Tsunade barked, tired of people entering her office unannounced. Only a few people were allowed to do that and one of them were 'dead'. From the corner of her eye, she saw her student reaching for a kunai from her kimono.

Slowly, the trembling girl turned around, keeping her face glued to the ground. But that was enough for Tsunade to recognize her, even though she had only seen the girl once, several days ago.

"Shizuna, go get the Kazekage. Now." She ordered and wasted no time to see if her student left as she rushed from around her desk over to the young girl.

Said name stopped reaching for her weapon and without questioning, hurried out of the room, closing the door right behind her. She could tell from her old mentor's voice that she was to hurry without asking questions.

Tsunade made it to the girl and crouched down in front of her so they could be eye level with each other. She spoke softly, all violent emotions long gone. "My name is Tsunade of the Leaf. Do you remember me?"

"K-kind of..." Sana whispered and looked up with her tired eyes. She felt a little drained from teleporting since she hadn't used her chakra for so long. And before Naruto had come to save her, she had to do another one of those tests to try and get her to use her power.

"I'm the one who healed you," Tsunade told her. She examined the girl and noticed how exhausted she looked. But not only that, she noticed all of the wounds that needed to be healed and then the scars. The girl was streaked with dirty like she hadn't taken a shower in days and she looked like she was about to fall over. One thing that interested the elderly woman was a strange collar looking thing around the girl's neck. Had that always been there?

Shaking that thought out of her head, she gently told the girl, "C'mon, you need to sit down and regain some strength." She stood up straight, ready to lead the girl over to the wall closest to her desk.

"B-but, Naruto." Sana tried to object but she let the hokage lead her.

When they reached their destination, Tsunade helped the girl sit down against the wall when she frowned, just catching onto the protest. "What's wrong with him?" She felt her heart skip a beat as she remember just where Naruto went to to save his sister.

Before the exhausted girl could answer, the door flew opened and hit the wall with a loud bang. Temari rushed inside the room (unannounced) followed by Kankuro and Gaara. A pace behind them was Shizuna but she only stayed long enough to close the door so she wouldn't be interrupting no matter how much she wanted to know what was going on.

Seeing her adopted kin, Temari cried out, "Sana!" Said name looked up but didn't have time to say anything as Temari was at her side and had her arms wrapped around the still trembling girl. She petted her hair as she hugged her tight.

"A-aunt T-emari..." Sana managed to say as she hugged the older woman back.

"What happened?" Gaara looked directly to the hokage for answers. His expression was too hard to read after catching a glimpse of the condition Sana was in. He walked over until he was standing right behind Temari, Kankuro bending down with his sister trying to help sooth the girl.

Tsunade stayed crouching besides Temari but out of the way of the siblings. She poured chakra into her hands until they glowed blue and she hovered them over Sana to heal the worst of wounds. "No idea," she said to Gaara without bothering to look at him. "She just appeared in my office a couple of minutes ago. I sent Shizuna as soon as I recognized her."

"N-Naruto..." Sana repeated softly.

Temari pulled away but remained close to the broken girl. She brushed some hair out of the teen's face and gently asked, "What was that?"

But once again, she never got to explain when someone interrupted her.

"Hokage, any word yet?"

Everyone in the room turned their heads to the door and found Sasuke Uchiha standing there. He had his mask on but was facing towards the side to where you could see his face. He was looking around the room with his eyes until they located Sana. When his eyes caught sight of her, his expression became unreadable and without receiving an answer, he turned and left the room.

With a confused expression, Kankuro shook his head and looked back to his adopted sister. "As you were saying?"

Only loud enough for Sana to hear, a voice purred right next to her voice, 'Let me answer.' Sana barely nodded and there was a small flicker of her hair.

Before anyone could react, a chakra signature made itself known but only to those in the room. They immediately knew who it was even before she spoke. But her deep, powerful voice confirmed their thoughts when she said, 'My kit had stayed behind at Orochimaru's lair to ensure no one would follow.' Kyuubi said and appeared on the younger's shoulder, full view. She smirked when she saw Tsunade quietly gasp.

"He's not still there, is he?" Kankuro asked. He was a bit surprised to see the fox out without Naruto being around, but he knew it could be done. The bond between vessel and monster was strong, a lot stronger than most (besides Bee).

Kyuubi shook her head. 'I have no idea. Once he released me, I am no longer in possession of his thoughts, whereabouts, or condition. If he gets hurt, I can't even heal him.' She hopped down from Sana's shoulder and sat down right in front of her where she had view of everyone and they could all see her. She wrapped her tails around her small frame and stated in a calm voice, 'I know that he is on his way though. That much I am sure of.'

"H-he said he wo-would be r-right b-behind me." Sana whispered and cast her eyes downward.

"And he will." Temari soothed her. She shifted and sat right next to her against the wall before pulling her in for a hug. Sana rested her head on her aunt's shoulder.

Tsunade was almost done healing the worst of the wounds when she noticed that some of the smaller ones were being healed. She wasn't even doing those ones yet. But, she didn't question it. As she healed, she would every so often glance at the fox. Never had she ever seen the fox this small before and she never would have thought it would be possible either!

Kyuubi smirked inwardly when she felt eyes upon her. She looked over to the hokage and gave a friendly glare, 'You have nothing to fear, Hokage; I won't attack your village if that is what you're thinking. No matter how much it deserves it, I don't think Kit would appreciate it, not would I ever hear the end of it from him.' Casually, she turned away and began to bathe her paw.

Tsunade blinked her eyes and paused for a minute, not sure how she was supposed to respond to that. Was it like a threat? Because that's what it kind of sounded like. She was still trying to get over the fact that the nine-tailed fox was sitting in front of her, back in the Leaf.

"Sana," Gaara said as softly as he could. Sensing what her brother was about to do, Temari released Sana easily and got out of the way. Gaara knelt down in front of the teen and looked her straight in the eyes, "If he said he'll be right behind you, then he will." He told her, knowing that the girl was doubting the blonde. His voice was soft like no one have thought possible but he still had a reassuring tone to it.

"B-but," she tried to say but he cut her off.

"He keeps his promises."

Tsunade finished healing the worst of the wounds (since the others were being healed on their own) and stood up. She backed away, back to her desk, feeling like she was intruding in their space. When she sat down at her desk, she turned her chair so she could look out the window, becoming lost in thought.

Sana only nodded her head. She pulled her legs up to her chest, feeling better but at the same time she was still exhausted. Resting her head on her knees, she wrapped her arms around her legs and let out a sigh. She knew Gaara was right, but on the inside, she was scared for her brother. Having been with Orochimaru, she knew what he was capable of. She didn't want any of that happening to Naruto. Even if he could take care of himself, it was still possible.

Gaara stood up, knowing the girl needed some alone time. He looked over to his two blood siblings who met his eyes without him needing to say anything. A message seemed to pass between the three. Temari opened her mouth as if to argue but from the look her younger brother was giving her, she knew better and closed her mouth.

The Kazekage turned around to face the hokage, "Tsunade of the Leaf," being addressed, said name turned back around in her chair and gave him her full attention. "Thank you for coming to get us. We'll be going back to our room now." He didn't want to bother her anymore than necessary and he knew Sana was going to need some place to rest that was more comfortable.

Tsunade nodded her head. "Right." She glanced over to the girl she just healed and noticed she wasn't stirring. "If you want, you can stay here until he arrives. Knowing him, he'll expect you to stay in here." She didn't want to use his name anymore just in case if someone was listening.

'The old hag is right; you should stay here.' Kyuubi said and looked up. She laid her now clean paw down on the floor and ignored the glare she was receiving from Tsunade about the nickname. It wasn't her fault Naruto's way of naming people rubbed off on her. 'Kit will be coming straight here and will want to leave immediately.' She traded her eyes from looking at Gaara to Sana. 'Besides, I doubt she'll want to move anywhere.'

Gaara took a minute to consider what the fox said. He could see the blonde doing just that. So he nodded his head and said, "We'll wait here until Naruto arrives."

XxxxX

Naruto's POV

He slowly rose to his feet and ignored the pain emitting from his backside. He kept his eyes faced forward and kept his emotions in check. He knew things had been too easy as he was retreating so this wasn't anything new or surprising. Just a little painful. Besides him, Kili was slightly panting but he had his back arched as he was ready for the signal to attack again.

"Knowing you," Naruto said, "I knew you were going to be planning a last minute trick." Without bringing any attention to his right hand, he moved it to hide his hand from view behind his back. Slowly, he gathered chakra into the palm of his hand.

Orochimaru smiled in a creepy way. "And what kind of person would I be if I didn't?" He crossed his arms loosely across his chest and his men behind him shifted restlessly.

From behind him, Naruto could hear approaching footsteps and judging from how loud the echo was, he could tell a lot of people were coming his way. He was now trapped in the hallway.

"So, Naruto," Orochimaru calmly said, bringing the blonde's attention back to him. "How about you just give up and surrender. It'd be a waste if you didn't and you end up dying."

The blonde rolled his blue eyes and snorted, "Yeah, like I'd so do that."

The snake simply shrugged his shoulders and challenged him, "It'll be easier for you. Just think, if you were to try to fight your way out of here, you'd become chakra exhausted since you don't have your tailed beast in you. You would be so exhausted that if you were able to escape from my hideout, I would just send my ninja after you. And they might even kill you since you wouldn't be able to escape from them. If you die here, what will become of your sister? Do you realize how lonely she'd be?"

Naruto ignored how Orochimaru sounded like he knew anything about Kyuubi leaving him. He thought about his sister and if he did somehow miraculously died, how alone she would be. "She'd have Gaara." He said, letting himself be played, all the while trying to keep everyone distracted. The people behind him were finally in their place but they were so oblivious, they never noticed the chakra building up in his palm. Stupid people.

"True, but she'll miss you." He continued, knowing that he was also being played. But he had to keep his own image up. "After all, you were the one who took her under your wing and made her family. You were the one who taught her everything she now knows. You were the one she's always with, the one who she wants to be with. If you would to die here, she would come back for revenge and then we'll end up capturing her. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

But Naruto wasn't going to give in one bit. He was finally ready for his attack so he was ending this conversation, "I'll tell you this, Orochimaru; I won't be dying anytime in the near future nor will I die by the hands of a creep. I'll never be yours to control and Sana never will either. So just get that out of your mind." He looked past the leader and yelled, "Tili, now!"

A loud explosion took place in the back of the enemies line. Following close behind the noise was the sound of claws scrapping against rock and the yell and screams of men as they were being injured.

Naruto didn't have time to give Kili the signal he was waiting for -as the fox had already launched himself into battle as soon as he heard the explosion- as he brought his hiding hand into view. In the palm of his hand was a small sphere of chakra glowing blue.

"Rasangan!" He yelled to the ninja now lunging towards him to tear him apart. He threw his chakra sphere to a group of ninja to his right and before anyone could dodge it, let alone yell in fear, it exploded, taking many ninja with it. No one, not enemy nor hero stopped to watch the injured or dead people as they continued on attacking.

Dust and dirt filled the air from the explosion. It was almost like a sandstorm and nobody could see where they were or who was around them. They stopped all battle. With everyone distracted, Naruto made his escape. Being blinded like everyone else, he concentrated on his hearing sense he had developed from his time with Kyuubi. Easily, he started to navigate where to go and where to step without bumping into people.

Using his normal voice, he said, "Kili, Tili, come." If he spoke any louder, someone was bound to hear him and pinpoint where he was. And since the foxes had sharp hearing, they would hear him and follow. He didn't stop running, even when he heard the howls of pain people were receiving from the foxes stop. He could hear some ninja start recovering from their shock from being blind and hear them trying to clear the air.

Before getting to far, Naruto felt a sharp pain enter his side as someone had thrown their weapon and managed to hit him. "Gah!" He yelped but didn't pause. "How are they hitting me when they can't see?" He angrily spat and reached behind him, pulling the kunai out of his side and tossing it to the ground.

He sensed the two foxes at his side after a minute of calling out to them. He couldn't see it (yet) but both of their muzzles were dripping scarlet.

'How long do you think they'll follow us for?' Tili casually asked.

Feeling a strip of fresh air and seeing a little bit of light, Naruto could tell they were about to reach the exit. But now wasn't they time to relax. Behind him, he saw the dirt was settling down and the air becoming clear. The enemies were regaining their sight back and were already pursuing after him.

He dodged a few weapons thrown at him and turned back to look forward. He shrugged his shoulders and responded, "Probably for a while. They'll think we'll tire or pass out from any wounds we have. I can already tell we'll be ambushed many times." They finally exited the place and ran out to the unfamiliar woods. Taking the path they had when they first enter the lair, they poured on speed to distance themselves a little.

Looking back once more, Naruto noticed the enemy ninja a couple of paces behind him. "I hope you two are up for more fighting. It doesn't seem like they'll be giving up anytime soon." He said and looked back ahead of himself.

One thing the blonde totally forgot about was one man. He was standing at the entrance of his lair watching the blonde retreat. Standing beside him was his trusted friend (?). "Kabuto," Orochimaru calmly said, "get the men and woman ready. I see it's time we paid a visit to my old village." He smiled and turned around and started back inside.

XxxxX Until next time!

The plot is really picking up! I hope everything makes sense and is okay.

IMPORTANT: I'm pretty sure every or most of you heard about how FanFiction is going to get rid of a lot of stories that involved yoai, yuri, sex, rape, violence, song-fics, lemon and many, many more without even giving us any warning. There's a petition to stop this madness and I know a lot of people have signed it (I included). I don't want mine nor anyone's stories being taken down and forever lost. People have spent way to much time and effort for this to happen.

That's why a few of great authors and myself have decided to help take action to show that we're not going to accept to tear down our stories. We're going to do something about it instead of just sit on the sidelines and let this happen. So, we decided to have a BlackOut. On June 23rd, we decided to not get on FanFiction at all. No updating stories, no reading them, no betaing them, no nothing. On that day, we stay away from this site.

Why we decided to have a BlackOut is because if we can get enough people involved, then FF,net will notice and they'll lose money because of it. ((Personally, I didn't know they got money for people coming to this site... o.o'')) This will show them that we're not playing and we mean business. We'll protect our stories whatever means necessary. Why should we be punished because of a few kids reading p0rn here?

So how bout it? A whole BlackOut day where you just stay away from this site. I know most of you will think this is dumb, but I'm not going to tolerate having mine or anyone else story be taken down. I really don't want that to happen and I'm pretty sure you don't either. Please consider this. It's only for one day, so what's it gonna hurt for you to not read or write?

Spread this around that on June 23rd, we're having a BlackOut day. Just remember not to come on to this site if you're serious and do not want your story or anyone else be taken down. Let's make a change and show we won't stand for this!

Yours Truly,

Kairi

P.S. I totally wrote this all and if you wanna help by spreading this around, go ahead and copy and paste. I won't mind.