PLEASE READ FIRST

GOD I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG. I had the worst writers block I've ever had holy fuck and quite honestly I absolutely despise what I've ended up writing. But basically if I didn't publish this then the story would have never progressed so this is literally just me trying to get past this chapter with the full intention of rewriting it as soon as I can. Also it was kinda stressing me out how I hadn't updated this fic in months and with my a-levels coming up in like a week I don't really have the capability to deal with extra stress so yeah. I feel really bad giving you guys something I think is pretty subpar so know that I'm really sorry about this and that the next chapter is going to be a million times better than this mess

And I'm so sorry people I didn't get around to replying to last chapter (I'm very sleep deprived right now so it is kinda a miracle at this point that I'm writing even semi-coherent sentences)

Anyway, a guest also requested that each chapter start with a recap of what happened in the last chapter (which is no trouble at all, don't worry!) so we'll be having that from now on. Sorry if they're a bit long - I'm not used to it yet haha

Recap: After some attempted bargaining from Sakura's side with the sand siblings, Orochimaru shows up and proceeds to outclass Gaara entirely. Showing some signs of interest in team 7, Orochimaru then disappears, leaving a furious Gaara in his wake. With Naruto concussed and Sasuke emancipated by Gaara's sand, Sakura threatens Kankurō's life for Sasuke then bargains again, this time successfully with Gaara, who also declares team 7 will stay with his team much to everyone's shock. Team 10 happen across the now empty clearing where the previous events took place, Shikamaru finding strands of pink hair he knows can only belong to one person.

Katte kabuto no o o shimeyo

"After victory, tighten your helmet strap."

Keep your guard up until the very end

Tenten stretched languidly after having finished tying up the unconscious Kusa-nin to the tree. It had been a pleasantly easy task to find the three genin - much to Lee's upset since the boy always did love a good challenge. All they'd had to do was move closer to the tower where all the teams were bound to have concentrated and bam.

You could run but you couldn't hide from the ocular powers of the byakugan.

They'd been even luckier to come across this team from Kusakagure. The two boys had hardly put up much of a good fight and, whilst Tenten would give the girl the fact she'd managed to ruin their surprise attack by sensing their presence, she was also convinced that the redhead had been trained solely as support, thus helpless once Neji had disabled her teammates.

(The bite marks on the girl were cause for minor alarm, alas, she was from a different village. So there wasn't really anything Tenten could do even if she wanted other than feel mild confusion and pity for her.)

The team had given up their information easily enough too following a couple of empty threats, although Tenten hadn't really been expecting much else. The fact that there was next to no penalty for giving out what you knew was bound to make people much more loosely lipped in tough situations. Then again, there were always going to be people who prioritised their own pride above their safety. Her teammates for starters fitted the bill exactly - not that Tenten could say much herself considering she was well aware of her own stubbornness too.

But there's no way we're going to get into a situation where we might be forced to show our hand, Tenten thought with a streak of confidence earned from being set increasingly impossible missions and goals by Gai. Turning with her hands on her hips, she then huffed a little upon seeing Lee's furrowed eyebrows. "You aren't going to complain about this being too easy again, are you?"

Lee blinked before flashing a smile and waving his hand dismissively. "Oh, no, no." Tenten relaxed. "Thought, it still was rather unchallenging…" She shot him a warning glare. "A-anyway, I was actually wondering how Sakura-san and her team were faring."

Neji, who was currently standing on a branch and scouting out the immediate area with his byakugan, made a scoffing noise that Tenten distinctly ignored.

"She seemed rather nervous before the second stage started," Lee continued, genuine concern tinging his words.

"Oh and you'd notice something like that, wouldn't you?" Tenten raised an eyebrow, biting down a smile when Lee reddened very slightly. "Seriously though, quit worrying about her. Sakura will be absolutely fine. She's more than savvy enough," she then added with a slight grumble, remembering what had happened during the first exam.

Tenten wasn't really angry at the girl (especially now she owed her one), but, considering the effort it took to set up that elaborate system in order to cheat, of course she was going to be a little miffed Sakura had just mooched off her own efforts. What was more annoying was that it had been a smart move on the girl's behalf and Tenten couldn't really fault her for doing it. Although she was never going to hear the end of it if Gai found out about what had happened.

Lee smiled warmly at his teammate. "I suppose you are right. Sakura-san is a competent kunoichi - I know that better than anyone having faced her myself! I should not doubt her abilities like this." He nodded resolutely, raising his clenched fist. "Sakura-san will definitely be fine!"

The air was suffocatingly tense.

I twisted my kunai over and over in my left hand, heavily aware of everyone around me. To my side was Sasuke, increasingly struggling to cope with Naruto's unconscious body. Behind Temari and Kankurō, the latter continually shooting bitter, hostile glares into the back of my skull. But I focused almost entirely on Gaara ahead of me instead and the weight of my weapon in my palm, breathing out slowly, shakily.

Around fifteen minutes had passed since we'd left the clearing and the smothering blanket of silence that had been thrown over us hadn't lifted once save for the muted grunts of effort from my teammate. The thick tension kept words that could potentially topple the whole perilous balance of the situation stuck in throats - that is, aside from Gaara, although I noted somewhat hysterically in the back of my mind that he didn't strike me as much of a talker, in a tense state of affairs or not.

More than once the instinctive thought to run had blared across my mind. To get as far away from Gaara as I could because I was painfully aware of what he was capable of and that the tightrope he walked between sanity and fucking homicide would snap at the smallest of actions. Because if he wanted us dead then he was fully capable of ignoring all logic, including the deal we'd made, and we were dead, simple as.

But we can't run.

I exhaled shakily again, grip tightening on my kunai. Calm. I needed to stay calm. Acting irrationally now was the worst thing I could possibly do in this situation.

It was just so difficult to stay calm when my mind was a mess of exhausted anger at the hell we'd been thrown into and familiar fear that was slowly returning now the immediate threat to our lives was gone. The remnants of the adrenaline rush weren't exactly helping either, keeping my nerves stretched to the point of almost breaking.

Another quiet wince made my gaze snap to the side to see Sasuke readjusting Naruto's body on his back. At some point he'd deactivated his sharingan, red eyes bleeding back to the dark colour I was accustomed to. His breathing was somewhat haggard, audible even from across the short distance between us, and I hoped desperately it wasn't because he'd been seriously injured by Gaara's sand.

It was bad enough that Naruto was unconscious (although, I thought with savageness due to anger knowingly misplaced, perhaps it is a good thing after all considering how he excels at solidly crashing through sensitive matters without realizing). But the idea of both my teammates being out for the count and dealing with the situation entirely alone made me want to put my head in my hands and scream-

Gaara abruptly came to a halt. Everyone immediately tensed, my own grip painfully tight around the kunai. "We stop here," he then rasped after an excruciating pause, stepping a couple of paces forwards before jumping directly upwards into the trees. Fifteen metres or so up, he sat down on a branch, one leg hanging off the side and assuming a deceptively casual pose.

We'd stopped in a small clearing, not unlike the one I remembered the canon Sakura had stayed after Orochimaru's attack. All my training shrieked that we needed to keep moving, that we hadn't moved far enough from where the fighting had last taken place and that anyone with basic combat training would catch us easily. But I supposed when you were with someone as powerful as Gaara, you hardly needed to concern yourself with normal protocols.

"Right, now you brats best start talking and fast." Kankurō suddenly walked out from behind Sasuke and me, shooting another burning glare at my way that I ignored. It was so difficult to be intimidated by him when I knew of so many people more powerful. "Who the hell was that?

"Kankurō, calm down," Temari told her brother, voice strained and filled with this nervous energy.

The boy twisted his body angrily towards her. "This whole damn thing is their fault!" he hissed, gesturing violently towards us. "So the least they can bloody do is tell us what the hell that...that thing was chasing them!" Kankurō snapped his head around again, furious glower demanding we told him what we knew immediately.

"We don't know who they were," Sasuke forced out through gritted teeth, frustration clear as day in his tone. "They just suddenly went for us."

Kankurō scoffed loudly, bitterly. "What, and you just expect me to believe that this random guy you'd never met before would chase you down like that?"

"Maybe because the whole purpose of this exam is for people to get information off other teams?" My teammate shot back, although I don't think even he actually believed what he was suggesting. Kankurō certainly didn't.

"That," the puppeteer began, finger pointing accusingly in the Uchiha's direction. "That was not someone just after your fucking information-"

"Kankurō!" Temari cut off her brother before he could raise his voice any further, wide eyes darting between him and Gaara perched above us all. Kankurō glanced up at the redhead too, face twisting with emotions as he breathed heavily. He then threw his hand back down to his side, gaze snapping to my teammates and me again with fury still dancing in his eyes.

"Fine. Fine," he spat, though I could hear this hysterical edge to his words. "So we're all just going to be stuck here for the next few days with some unknown psychopath running around and him."

I stared at him, something foul slowly rising up my throat. "What do you mean 'a few days'?"

Realization shot across Kankurō's face alongside the hate of which he harbored for me, although Temari stopped him from speaking by firing a look of tired anger at her brother. She then turned her gaze to me, biting her lip as she hesitated. "...The exit only opens after eighty hours have passed and for just a few hours each day," Temari eventually conceded, Kankurō averting his eyes almost guiltily as she did so. "That's what they told us at the start of the exam."

It took a moment for it to sink in.

Eighty hours. Over three days. Over three days stuck with Gaara.

I breathed in and then out, deeply, loudly, fist so tightly gripping onto my kunai that it was shaking.

Of course.

Of fucking course.

You should've realized this by now, Sakura Haruno, that things don't just get to go right for you. Not even when they've already gone so wrong. Not even when you've survived Gaara, not even when you've survived Orochi-fucking-maru-

Temari cleared her throat, forcing me to focus my burning eyes back on her and shove the growing thoughts of fury down violently. "Look, we're making good on our side of the deal so you make good on yours now," she ordered in a voice of fake bravado that cracked in poorly concealed desperation. "Give us all the information you have."

Never had I wanted to be so bitter and petty more than in that moment. To refuse with scathing words, to throw all my rage at someone like I had back on the Wave mission just so I could get everything out of my head where my own thoughts had become painfully loud.

It was the sound of Sasuke's labored breathing that ultimately stopped me, forcing my grip on my kunai to gradually loosen.

You're one teammate down, almost two. You can't afford to be stupid here. Make the right choices.

No one is going to save you if you don't.

For a split second, I scrunched my eyes up tight. Then, slowly, I drew the hand drawn map of the forest from my pouch, ignoring the looks of mild surprise from the two siblings as I began to trace over it with my finger. "The exit is within the area where the triangles overlap." My voice came out slightly scratchy, but I pretended it hadn't, raising my chin to look Temari in the eyes. "Will that be all?"

The way she flinched ever so slightly made it almost worth it.

Kankurō's mouth opened to presumably snarl at me, however, Temari yet again shut him up with a pointed look, regaining her composure as she glanced back at me. "...Yeah, that will be all." Motioning with a smooth jerk of the head to her brother, she then spun on her heel and began to move towards the other side of the clearing. Kankurō hesitated before following after her, casting death glares over his shoulder as he went.

I waited a moment before pocketing the map, shoving it unnecessarily hard into the bottom of my pouch.

Deal. With. It.

"Sakura-" Sasuke began in a tone far too panicked for someone like him (although over the course of the last hour I'd been getting increasingly acquainted with it).

"Let's just deal with Naruto's injuries first." Focus on something. Act calm and logical until you really are.

Sasuke hesitated before lowering Naruto's body fully onto the ground, laying him down gently. I pulled a small canister of water from my pouch, kneeling on the opposite of the blonde to the Uchiha.

Naruto's injuries weren't too severe at all now I could look at them properly. The concussion was almost certainly caused by the gash to his temple but, whilst still looking fairly awful, the Kyuubi had to be doing something seeing as it was perceptibly better than earlier. No, it was just the concussion I was worried about, although there really wasn't much I could do to help with my Academy-level first aid training.

Carefully, I started to clean the blood off that covered one side of Naruto's face. "We need to get out of here," Sasuke spoke up again after a few moments of quiet.

"I know," I muttered somewhat savagely back, rubbing a little harder at Naruto's face in my frustration. A few hours with Gaara was one thing but three days was something entirely different altogether. There was a reason he was keeping us alive that I couldn't quite grasp, however, he could flip horrifyingly easily to an irrational bloodthirsty murderer. And three days was more than enough for one of us to accidentally trigger that switch.

So we needed to run. But running was a ridiculously impossible idea too. Even if you ignored how strong Gaara was, Naruto was going to be a deadweight until he woke up, and perhaps even beyond then if the concussion had been severe. And then there was Orochimaru (who I so wanted desperately not to think about). Gaara was the only thing dissuading him from attacking us again. The minute we left the 'safety' of the sand user, the snake sannin could catch us with ease.

"...We're too far away from the fence," I eventually said quietly, deciding I probably wasn't going to be able to clean much more of the blood off Naruto's face without aggravating his wound. Leaning back, I finally looked up at Sasuke. "If we were closer then there's a slim chance we could get away but they're going to know this."

Sasuke frowned, staring down at Naruto's body thoughtfully. "...I could try putting a genjutsu on him," he suggested.

"No, I don't think that'll work-"

"It worked before."

I stared at him. "What?"

"The sharingan allows its user to cast genjutsu," he explained quickly in a hushed tone as my eyes grew wider in disbelief. "I used one to suggest to him that he should let us live. It might be why he's keeping us with him."

"Wait- what? When did you even-"

"When he had me trapped in his sand." Sasuke glanced away again. "I...I didn't do it on purpose."

That is far from the issue here.

My instinct was to say it was impossible. It wasn't often I looked at Sasuke and thought something along the lines of 'he isn't good enough' but he simply wasn't good enough to do that.

A genjutsu that suggested he should let us live.

What he was describing to have done sounded like Shisui's Kotoamatsukami: a technique that suggested ideas to its victim and made them perfectly believe it to be a thought of their own through the fabrication of memories. It was a mangekyō sharingan level technique and insanely difficult to use, even for its original user.

Sasuke had just awakened his sharingan again.

Besides, Gaara was strong. He'd been trained incredibly well and so whatever genjutsu Sasuke managed to cast, he should have noticed and dispelled it immediately before straight up killing the Uchiha for trying it-

Wait.

Wait, no, Gaara shouldn't be that good at noticing and dispelling genjutsu. Specifically, Gaara shouldn't have been good enough at the time Sasuke said he'd cast the genjutsu. He was heavily sleep deprived and had been in an emotionally unstable state after his fight with Orochimaru. He'd been bested and Gaara wasn't supposed to be able to be bested. Beyond that, I'd been yelling at him, threatening his position in the chūnin exams, threatening the failure of the mission given to him by his village, by his father.

A genjutsu's perfect target was someone who was distracted. And I was willing to bet that, even on a good day, Gaara was distracted enough to have genjutsu be his biggest weakness.

So, all Sasuke had to have done was put the idea in Gaara's head to let us live. Nothing as complicated as Shisui's jutsu as false memories or reasoning as to why it was his own thought weren't necessary. And, if Sasuke simply made Gaara hear the words 'let them live', well, Gaara was already used to hearing the words of Shukaku in his head wasn't he? He wouldn't question it too much, would he?

But if he'd just let us go then we would've bested him too alongside Orochimaru and I couldn't see Gaara accepting that, especially with how I'd threatened him. Thus came in the flimsy excuse of using us as bait for Orochimaru and the idea that I'd lie to him about the information we had if he let us go.

Most likely, we were alive because of Sasuke's genjutsu. However, it was for the same reason that we were stuck to him.

I pinched the bridge of my nose hard, eyes scrunching up tightly. This was a mess. A lethal tangle of wires that Sasuke had tried to undo only to make potentially ten times worse. God, more than ever I wanted Kakashi to appear with that crinkly-eyed smile and sincere reassurance tossed out in amongst teasing words as he unknotted the wires in a flash.

"...It's too risky right now," I told Sasuke after breathing in deeply (because Kakashi wasn't here and you just have to deal with it Sakura Haruno, do or die). "You should only do it if we make a run for it."

A wave of exhaustion suddenly hit me and I rubbed one of my eyes, attention returning to Naruto's face. Only a few hours ago I'd been walking up to my two teammates waiting by the swing outside the Academy, Naruto grinning and Sasuke the image of confidence. And there I'd been, teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown just because Orochimaru and Gaara had been nearby.

Now look at us.

Naruto concussed and unconscious. Sasuke a shadow of his former self, unnervingly compliant and constantly looking over his shoulder in fear the snake would return. And me, a pent up wreck of emotions that couldn't be let out because it could very well get us all killed.

Ughhhhh.

Naruto slid open his eyes groggily, the pain in his head making him wince aloud. What the hell happened to me? Why do I feel like I got thrown through twenty walls head first then thrown off a cliff?

The blonde then blinked, sitting up rapidly and staring at his surroundings. He was sat in some kind of liquid that he hoped dearly was water (though the yellow-green light that was shining made him think of a horrifying alternative) and a room with wiring and pipes running around the walls. "Where in hell?" He mumbled under his breath, squinting.

The last thing he remembered was...well, actually, Naruto didn't remember much at all. Something about a forest and chūnins and for some reason a lot of sand? Or was it snakes? Gah, he didn't remember!

"You're finally up."

Naruto shot to his feet in a flash, almost falling when his legs dragged in the water. "Who's there?!" He yelled as he turned, reaching round for his weapons pouch only to freeze midway, eyes widening.

There, before him, stood a series of tall metal bars, stretching all the way up to the high ceiling. And beyond what seemed to be the door to a cage, two humongous eyes, shrouded in darkness, peered down at him.

"It's pathetic." The loud rumbling voice made Naruto's hairs stand on end and suddenly he saw a set of gigantic claws poking out through the railings, tapping almost in this impatient manner. "A ninja, almost dying from a measly whack of the head and forcing me to have to save them."

The fear that had been creeping up through Naruto's skin halted.

Whack of the head?

The memories hit him hard.

(Someone is chasing them, Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura is yanking Sasuke behind her as they run and they're both terrified, no, that's not right, why is Sasuke terrified? And he's terrified too but not them, that thing can't have them, he won't let it happen. Running, shadow clones, get away from them, all his shadow clones are gone, they're my precious teammates so get the hell away from them, he's flying through the air, the tree coming up too fast, blood, vision swimming, running, I've got to find them again.)

Naruto blinked furiously. Oh. Oh so that was what had happened-

"Hey, shut up, I'm not pathetic!" The insult having finally registered, Naruto pointed accusingly at the set of eyes, embarrassment beginning to set into his face. "And what do you mean saved me?! Gah, it doesn't matter, just tell me where I am!"

"Do you seriously not know?" They sounded severely unimpressed.

Naruto bristled. "Why the hell should I know? Besides, who the heck are you?!"

"Who am I- really, you are a completely stupid brat." Before Naruto could retort back, the set of eyes suddenly got closer and the darkness shrouding them was slowly illuminated by the dim light, revealing orange-red fur and ears and teeth and-

"Oh? Looks like you've finally got it through your thick skull."

Naruto swallowed thickly, lowering his raised finger. The Kyuubi… Then he shook his head violently. "No, I haven't got time to be distracted by you! I've got to go save Sasuke and Sakura-chan!"

The Kyuubi snorted. "A ninja who almost dies from a hit on the head is hardly in a position to be worrying about others."

"I already told you to shut up about that!"

Naruto was blatantly ignored. "That Orochimaru and Ichibi jinchuuriki are on a level far higher than your own. Your 'precious teammates' will certainly lose against them and die."

He blinked. "Orochimaru? Ichibi? Jinchuuriki? What are you on about?" Naruto demanded to know, fists clenching by his sides. "And my teammates won't die!"

"The man that was chasing you is Orochimaru. A powerful, despicable ninja." There was almost a tone of disgust in his voice. "And that sand brat definitely has that irritating tanuki sealed inside of him. Your teammates wouldn't even stand a chance against one of them. But," the fox grinned, "I am more powerful than both of them combined."

"So what?" Naruto stepped forwards, frowning.

"If you use my power, Naruto, you can beat them." Their voice had taken on a more 'purring' quality. "Your teammates need you. You remember how scared they were? Running for their lives?" Naruto flinched at the memory. "If you don't help them then they will die and you'll be left all alone."

Naruto flinched harder, eyes growing wide."S-shut up! You don't have any idea what you're talking about!"

Deep, rumbling laughter. "It is you who doesn't know what you're talking about. Only the strong will survive in this world and you know you aren't strong enough. Or at least you aren't by yourself. A ninja taken out of battle by a hit on the head. Do you think you can possibly save them when you're like that?"

Naruto's nails dug into his palms, teeth grinding together.

"Use my power, Naruto. All you have to do is remove that piece of paper and I'll give you all the power you need."

"And what will happen if I remove that piece of paper?" Naruto scowled, nails beginning to draw blood. "Don't treat me like an idiot you stupid fox! I can read just fine!" He gestured angrily to the piece of paper that read quite plainly 'seal'.

The Kyuubi's eyes narrowed. "So you would rather let your teammates die then? You humans are always so selfish."

He glared at the fox, fists shaking by his sides. "I'm not going to let them die! And I'm not going to let you out either! So why don't you get that through your thick skull!" Naruto then yelped as the claws that had stopped impatiently tapping suddenly lunged towards him, the blonde falling back into the water with a loud splash.

"Stupid brat," the Kyuubi snarled, withdrawing his claws back behind the railings as the prepubescent boy stared up at him, quivering slightly. "You're going to regret this."

Naruto swallowed thickly but refused break eye-contact with the beast all the same. "Like hell I will."

I awoke to half my face pressed into the dirt and the light of the rising sun blinding me.

Poorly stiflingly a groan of discomfort, I pushed myself slowly up into a sitting position, biting back a wince at how my muscles protested. Not for the first time I was deeply envious of Naruto's quick regenerative capabilities. My wounds weren't quite as bad as they had been in the Land of Waves but I'd at least been able to rest somewhat there in between battles. Here we were forced to keep on going and constantly reopen wounds because the only alternative was to curl up and die.

Which, unsurprisingly, I wasn't exactly keen on doing.

Pushing my hair out of my face, my eyes almost immediately found Sasuke sitting cross-legged on the ground nearby, palming a kunai in his hand and gazing up at Gaara on his perch above us with narrowed eyes. His stare flicked momentarily to me in acknowledgment that I'd woken up before returning to the redhead point of focus. "He doesn't sleep at all," he muttered through gritted teeth.

I tilted my head back to see the redhead as well, left hand twitching towards my kunai holster reflexively. Really, it was no wonder that Gaara was so mentally unstable. Sleep was important. Chakra could stave off exhaustion to an extent but even then you needed deep rest at some point to recuperate. Sleep deprivation was a form of torture and Gaara hadn't gotten a good night sleep in, well, his entire life.

"Anything happen?" I asked quietly, gears of my mind slowly beginning to turn faster and faster as I woke up more. We'd taken turns being lookouts the previous night. Logically, I was painfully aware that it wouldn't matter much whether one of us was conscious or not if Gaara suddenly turned on us, but it made it that tiny bit easier to fall asleep in the presence of the psychotic boy. And I'd take anything I could get at this point.

Sasuke shook his head. I'd pretty much expected as much. Most teams weren't stupid enough to run around in a foreign area in the middle of the night. Unless you could see in the dark, it was just asking to stumble into a man-made or natural trap. And, even if a team had done so, we were a big group. Granted, a big group that was incredibly hostile and ripping apart at the seams that had been sewn so horrifically together, but a big group all the same.

Taking on six people at once was just tempting fate in the most idiotic way possible.

No, it was later in the exam people would get desperate enough to move during nighttime, I decided, rummaging through my pouch for food pills and water.

Keep thinking. Stay aware. Follow standard mission protocol even if it hardly means anything here.

Even though I'd just slept for around four hours, I felt unbelievably tired down to my bones.

"...Are you alright?" Sasuke asked after a moment of silence, words tumbling awkwardly out of his mouth in his concern.

"Oh, just peachy," I muttered, popping a food pill into my mouth before offering him one. He took my sarcasm favorably, giving the barest nod of the head as he took the pill. "...You?"

There was the smallest glimmer of surprise at my question before he twisted the pill around in his fingers, corners of his lips twitching by the barest amount. "Never been better."

I almost choked on my food pill.

A loud gasping intake of breath distracted me from the hysterical thought that of course it was in this horrendous situation where we'd almost all died and still were on course for an imminent demise that Sasuke would decide to joke with me. Snapping my gaze to the side, I saw Naruto sitting up sharpish, breathing laboured and hands clutching at his stomach. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the way Sasuke's shoulders sagged in relief, though his voice held a lot less obvious concern. "Finally up, idiot?"

Naruto turned to face the Uchiha and there was a moment of shared alarm between Sasuke and I when what seemed to be tears began to well up in our teammate's eyes. "You're-" He twisted his head the other way to see me and his whole expression contorted into this quivering, tearful smile, hands coming up to rub furiously at his face. "You're okay. You're both okay," Naruto whispered in between loud, shaking breaths.

Sasuke had reached a hand forward that hung in mid-air, clearly having no idea how to react to the blonde being on the verge of tears because he and I were okay.

"I thought- I thought I'd made a mistake and you guys were- I didn't know-" He then suddenly cut off, the wide-eyed panic returning to his features and scrambling to his feet. "Where is he?!" Naruto demanded in a voice more shrill than usual. As Sasuke opened his mouth to presumably tell the blonde to shut up and calm down, I saw Temari turn at the shouting. "Where's Orochimaru?!"

I snapped my head back around to stare at Naruto in complete and utter disbelief. What the fuck?

"Naruto, what are you even on about?" The Uchiha asked, bewildered by our teammate's outburst.

"Orochimaru?" Temari's voice trembled by the exact amount one's voice should when speaking of the monster who walked around in a skin that had barely been human to begin with. We all turned to see her, the girl moving towards us with eyes wide as the realization slowly dawned on her. "You mean the guy chasing you was him?"

Head twisting around again, I shot Naruto a look that all but screamed for him to explain what was happening immediately. Because there was just no way he could've figured it out on his own! For god's sake, he hadn't even known who Kakashi was and I was practically certain he'd had no idea any of the sannin had existed in the canon before they'd been all but shoved in his face!

So how the hell did he know that it had been Orochimaru?!

Naruto caught my practically accusatory stare and he took in a sharp breath, expression of panic intensifying across his features as his eyes quickly flickered downwards. I followed his line of sight reflexively to see that his hand had knotted itself into the fabric of his jacket, right over his stomach. I stared at it for few seconds, pieces slowly falling into place.

Stomach.

Seal.

Kyuubi.

Oh.

My head snapped back up, meeting Naruto's gaze almost immediately. And the realization I'd come to had to have been as clear as day because it took only a moment for the alarm in his face to twist sharply into absolute terror.

Ugh I know bad cut off but I'm legitimately so tired and done with this chapter that I gotta just shove this your way and apologize...I know Gaara had barely any time in the fic and ya boy Shikamaru is nowhere to be seen but the next chapter is going to be so much better. It is all planned out and I'll probably have a lot less of a stressful time writing it

SO NOTE ABOUT GAARA AND GENJUTSU: According to his stats, Gaara is meant to be not too bad pertaining to genjutsu HOWEVER, like Sakura stated, I definitely think his state of mind should affect these stats (specifically concerning the genjutsu Sasuke used cuz he should be especially weak to something like that). I think going with this reasoning also offers some kinda interesting argument for the sleep genjutsu Kabuto used NOT HELPING during the Konoha crush and speeding up the transformation? Which is fun.

(I also have zero faith in the stats of characters after having gone through them and discovered that Iruka has the same intelligence rating as Kakuzu and Jiriaya which is. No. I love ya Iruka but. No.)

ALSO: I've made a tumblr account at discoabc dot tumblr dot com specifically for deleted scenes, extras and updates on the progression of the next chapters! Quite a few people were asking me about whether I'd make a fic of scenes I ended up not using so if people would also like me to dump stuff in a fic as well just let me know!

But yeah, for any guests on this site who have ever wanted to ask something (cuz it is a little difficult to respond to you guys here) I would recommend asking stuff there! I can also go into more detail there too and not feel I'm clogging up the fic with A/Ns (like I am here lmao)

Reviewer Question (Suggested by Maeahru ): Favorite characters not really met? Ex. Sakumo; Dan; Kushina etc

Sakumo Hatake I think is very high up on my list of faves that are minor characters. Despite how little we've seen of him, it is easy to see how complex a character he is (which is kinda impressive now I think about it?). He's a brilliant ninja who tries to do what Naruto does and save his comrades and it literally leads up to him committing suicide, which I personally think is one of the most tragic and powerful things that happens in the entire series.

I also really like Mikoto Uchiha and am kinda annoyed we didn't get scenes of her being an utter badass (like Itachi says she is).

(Keep sending questions in! I'm making a list of them all so unless your question is answered in fic/very similar to something already asked then I'll get to it at some point :) )