The two other teams returned to the big tree to find that Sakura was the only one still awake.
"Sakura?" asked Ino gaining her attention, "Where do you want these."
"Oh," said Sakura when she noticed that they had each done as they were told, "Bring them over here please." They all came closer and Kiba and Shino dropped the wood on the floor. "Could you two make a fire please?" she asked them then she turned to the other four, "Hand the herbs to me and I'll wrap them up. It turns out that we don't need them like we had originally thought that we would have. And could you put the water into this bucket," she pointed to the bucket that sat next to her, "I need it for these two."
Ino nodded and all of them did as they were asked though Kiba did do a little grumbling about being told what to do by a girl. "What happened?" asked Ino, "Naruto looked fine when we left."
"He's exhausted," said Sakura, "He did a really difficult jutsu and it took a lot of his energy."
"Wh-what d-did he d-do?" asked Hinata.
"He probably just did the shadow clone jutsu," said Kiba with a smug smile.
"Why do you keep doing that?" asked Ino.
"Doing what?" asked Kiba.
"You keep putting him down. Saying he can't do anything," said Ino.
"Even if Naruto did a thousand clones it wouldn't exhaust him," said Sakura as she tended to the two sleeping boys who now had wet rags placed on top of their heads.
"Yea right Sakura," laughed Kiba, "we all know that he can't do the clone jutsu."
"He can't do the illusion," said Sakura nodding her head, "but that's because it's much to easy. Naruto has this weird thing where he can't do easy jutsus but he can easily do the harder jutsus."
"Oh yea right," said Kiba, "I have never seen him successfully do one jutsu."
"Troublesome," said Shikamaru wanting for the argument to stop because Kiba was beginning to talk louder and louder and he thought it might attract attention to them. He did not want to have to deal with an enemy right now, "You haven't even seen him train have you?"
"Well no," answered Kiba.
He opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off when Sakura said, "Then you have no right to say anything about Naruto. He's much stronger than any of you. I'd even be willing to bet that he's stronger than all of you combined at the moment."
"Sakura," came Sasuke's voice as he began to sit up, "What are you talking about?" He rubbed his shoulder to feel that their was herbs placed their to stop the wound from getting infected.
"Stop rubbing at it," said Sakura grabbing his hands to move them away from his shoulder, "You'll rub off all the herbs that I so painstakingly put on you. And we were talking about Naruto. Kiba is stupid enough to believe that he's stronger than Naruto."
With this Sasuke laughed. It was more of a short chuckle, but it told all of them that he thought that topic was amusing. "I am stronger than idiotic loser," Kiba cried indignantly.
"You will never be stronger than Naruto," answered Sasuke turning to glare at Kiba, "so I suggest you shut your mouth or get your tongue cut off." Kiba was smart enough not to say anything after that threat.
"Sasuke," gasped Sakura, "You shouldn't threaten people like that."
Sasuke sighed. "I know," he said reaching up to touch his shoulder only to have his hand snatched away again.
"I said stop rubbing at it," said Sakura.
"Why do I need the herbs anyway?" asked Sasuke, "I didn't think Orochimaru's bite left any wounds last time."
"It did," answered Sakura, "but it wasn't bad enough to require herbs."
Sasuke looked at her with a quizzical look then he just shrugged remembering that everyone else was still their and thinking that Sakura was just trying to hide the curse mark from them. "I shouldn't have let him bite me," he growled remembering that he had been sidetracked.
"Oh don't you dare go blaming yourself on this one," Sakura said with the scolding tone of a sister, "Naruto is already blaming himself and it's going to take me long enough to convince him otherwise. I don't need to have to convince you too."
"Why is Naruto blaming himself?" growled Sasuke, "He wasn't even their, and it was my decision to go by ourselves."
"It doesn't matter anymore Sasuke," sighed Sakura, "What's done is done."
"What happened to you guys anyway?" asked Ino.
"Nothing," Sasuke answered.
"It had to have been something if your both wounded and Naruto is out cold," said Ino with her hands on her hips.
"What?" Sasuke almost yelled as he turned to see, for the first time, that Naruto was sleeping next to him. "What happened to him?"
"He took away the seal," sighed Sakura.
"My seal?" asked Sasuke beginning to reach up to touch his shoulder, but he stopped himself so that Sakura wouldn't yell at him for it.
"Yea," answered Sakura, "just like he did last time."
"He did it last time?" asked Sasuke.
"Well of course," said Sakura, "Wait. You mean he didn't tell you that he was the one who did it?" Sasuke shook his head. "Well that's just great. I wish Naruto had told me that so that I wouldn't bring it up."
"How did he do it?" asked Sasuke.
"I don't think you want to know Sasuke," Sakura shook her head.
"Tell me," growled Sasuke, "Why is Naruto unconscious?"
Sakura sighed and moved to sit next to Sasuke. She could feel the curious eyes of everyone else on her back so she made sure that Naruto's neck was completely hidden from their view before turning his head just slightly to show off the new seal on his shoulder. She could feel Sasuke's anger so she said, "It's not permanent."
"How is that not permanent?" growled Sasuke, "I had that fucking seal for at least 5 years before Naruto took it on himself, and last time I looked their wasn't a cure until at least 5 years from now."
"The cure is Naruto," Sakura spoke in a quiet voice so that none of the others could hear her, "He told me that just before Kyuubi died that he said that your seal was made from a demon curse. Only demons can destroy anything created by the demons."
"What does this have to do with Naruto?"
"He's the ruler over all demons now," sighed Sakura. She hated it when Sasuke was angry because, even though it seemed that he always thought things through, he didn't like to think before he acted when he was angry. She was also like this. That's one of the many reasons Naruto was important to their group. He always made them laugh, or at least calm down, so that they could control their anger and think before they acted. "So he can destroy things created by demons, but even demons have a hard time destroying demon things so it takes time."
"How much time?" asked Sasuke. She didn't miss the worry hidden behind his anger. From this close it was obvious that Naruto was in pain.
"At least a week," answered Sakura, "but Naruto will only stay unconscious for a day and than he'll only feel the pain every now and again…"
Sasuke looked at her suspiciously. He knew that she cut herself off before she was able to say 'I hope', but he didn't want to hear the words either because it would make it seem more likely.
"I-Is th-there something wr-wrong?" asked Hinata from behind them.
Sakura turned to her and smiled slightly. "It'll be fine. I think we should make something to eat. Don't you think Sasuke."
"Sure," Sasuke said in a monotone voice.
"How are we supposed to do that?" asked Kiba, "Last time I looked we didn't get any food."
Sakura didn't get a chance to answer as another group joined them in the clearing. Both Sasuke and Sakura glared at the new coming sound ninjas. The first ninja, who they knew to be the leader of the group, said, "Well looky here. Weaklings all banding together."
"We arent' weaklings!" growled Kiba.
"Not the time Kiba," hissed Sakura.
"It doesn't matter," said the leader of the sound ninjas, "we just want Sasuke."
"Well I think you might want to rethink that," said Sakura before Sasuke could answer them, "Sasuke's in a really bad mood right now, and you never know what he'll do when he's upset."
"Don't worry he'll be dead within minutes," said the ninja who had been in the room with Naruto when they were separated.
"Alright," sighed Sakura, "but don't say I didn't warn you." Sasuke got up and began to walk towards the ninja as the sharingan bled into his eyes. "I suggest that you guys come back here so that you aren't in Sasuke's way," Sakura said to their comrades. When they had all made it under the big tree Sakura made a chakra shield that would protect them in case any stray attacks went their way.
"This'll be easy," said the cocky sound ninja who had dark brown hair. Before any one could blink he had his hands facing towards Sasuke with a large amount of strong wind powerful enough to crush a person. "See," he said as the cloud of dust that had formed began to settle down, "He didn't even last through one attack."
"I don't see that at all," said Sasuke from behind them. All three of them turned around to find Sasuke's mangekyo sharingan seeming to glare straight into each of their eyes. The girl was the first of their group to scream in terror as her mind was invaded with torturous thoughts that held her captive within an unknown world inside her head. Sasuke held her captive until she fainted as the two men before him moved into defensive positions.
When Sasuke was finished with the girl he turned to the other two. The leader of the group, who only allowed one of his eyes to be shown through his many layers of grey clothing and bandages, had already thrust himself forward intending to attack Sasuke, but Sasuke made some hand seals and blew many small fireballs towards him that made him change direction to dodge them only to be faced with more fireballs heading towards him. This became a dance between him and the fireballs that always seemed to be one or two steps ahead of him. After a few moments the leader became aware that his teammate was in the same condition he was in, but his teammate was being attacked with fireballs that had kunai and ninja stars inside them so that even his wind could not stop there attack. Only then did he become aware that Sasuke was playing with them.
Sasuke remained in the same place that he had stood from the beginning of his attacks with his mangekyo sharingan predicting the moves and allowing him to attack before they even got to their destination. He was having fun torturing these people while each of his attacks slowly injured them. This was a trait that he hated most about himself. He liked to see people suffer when he was angry. His mind would go through all the methodical ways he could torture his enemy when he was angry, and he was using one of those thoughts now by giving them a small injury at first and then slowly making the injuries worse and worse until the only thing they felt was excruciating pain.
As his two enemies collapsed onto their knees being to tired to move any longer Sasuke grinned wickedly at them as he continued to allow his attacks to slowly injure them, but then he felt himself getting knocked over and he heard Sakura scream. This new attacker struggled to hold him down, but the person was weak and exhausted so he expertly flipped their positions, pinned down his attacker, and stabbed him in the chest near his heart. His attacker just reached up and pulled him closer to his body and that's when he realized who it was. It was Naruto trying to stop him from doing something he knew he would regret later. Naruto had done this many times before whenever Sasuke would torture people, but this was the first time that Naruto had done it when he knew he was incapable of fighting Sasuke.
Sasuke pushed himself upwards so that he could see Naruto's face only to find him smiling kindly. He grimaced. This was the third time he had almost killed Naruto and still Naruto always smiled at him.
"Are you okay now Sasuke?" he asked his voice sounding dry and drowned at the same time.
Sasuke stared at the kunai he had so cruelly thrust inside his beloved for a moment before yanking it out, making Naruto gasp, and putting as much pressure on the wound as he could. "Sakura?" he called out desperately.
Sakura had been frozen as she watched Sasuke put those men through torture and she didn't much care about them. They were her enemies and she didn't care if Sasuke should kill them. Then she saw a flash of white and yellow rush past her and she knew that it was Naruto even though she hadn't even heard him move, and by the gasps of the other people within the barrier she knew that they hadn't either. "Naruto, stop!" she screamed as he tackled Sasuke to the ground and tried to force him to stay there. But Naruto was weakened by the seal's powers so she watched as Naruto was pinned to the ground and a kunai was thrust into his chest. She was frozen in that spot until she heard Sasuke's desperate cry for her to help Naruto.
Sakura ran past the two motionless bodies of their enemies. She knew they were still awake and to weak to move, but at that moment she didn't care. As soon as she reached her teammates' sides Sasuke moved to allow her to get a full view of the injury. Luckily, she noted, Naruto had been able to surround his heart with chakra so that it started healing before Sasuke got the kunai in his chest. She immediately went to work healing his wounds as Sasuke sat next to her cursing Naruto for getting in his way, but she knew that he was actually cursing himself for being unable to control himself. "It's fine Sasuke," she said feeling the need to comfort her brother, "He was already healing his wound before you attacked. He's going to be okay."
Sasuke looked at her gratefully, but she could still see the anger at himself in his eyes. Naruto coughed violently below them and then pushed Sakura's hands off of his chest which she hadn't finished healing. "What are you doing?" she protested as she tried to go back to her healing, but Naruto just swatted her hand away.
"You need to save your energy," he said quietly, "Don't worry about me I heal really fast," then he turned to Sasuke and asked, "Are you okay Sasuke?" Sasuke nodded his head though he refused to look up. "Don't worry Sasuke," he said with a kind smile, "It wasn't your fault. I was careless," he paused for a moment, "Now could you help me up please."
Sasuke helped Naruto to his feet and slung his arm around his neck to help him walk over to the others. As they passed by the two sound ninjas who were still awake Naruto said with a kind smile, "I suggest the three of you leave here immediately and go bandage your wounds so that they don't get infected." The two of them left walking slowly with their unconscious comrade.
As soon as they arrived back at the tree the six people who had been sitting their in shock began to ask if the two of them were okay. They all nodded as Sasuke helped Naruto sit back down. "Why did you tackle Sasuke Naruto?" asked Ino as Sakura was putting herbs on his wound and bandaging it up and Sasuke mended and cleaned his shirt using chakra.
Naruto looked over to Sasuke who's eyes had hardened at the question not wanting everyone to know that Naruto stopped him so that he wouldn't do something he would regret and then Naruto said, "Those people didn't deserve to die. They were just following orders. I just thought that we should give them a second chance."
"Then why did you tackle Sasuke?" asked Shikamaru, "you must have known that his ninja training would have kicked in when you attacked him."
Naruto laughed, "I guess that I should have thought it through a bit more, but what's done is done."
"A-are y-you sure y-you're alright N-naruto-kun?" asked Hinata with a blush on her cheeks.
Just as Naruto was about to say he was fine a shot of white hot pain shot through him and he could not help, but allow a small yelp to pass his lips as he brought his hand up to grab the seal. Before he could touch the seal Sakura had both his hands in hers and he held onto them with the same amount of force as before.
"What's going on?" asked Kiba.
"Nothing," gasped Naruto as his pain subsided, "It was nothing."
"That was not nothing," said Ino indignently.
"It was nothing," Naruto said with a reassuring smile.
Everyone looked at him suspiciously, but they decided to let it go for different reasons. The four that didn't know him that well probably thought that he looked fine so it didn't matter anymore, and his two teammates let it go because they already knew exactly what he was going to say if they tried to push him on the subject.
"I think," Naruto said to change the subject so that they would stop worrying about him, "that we should have dinner, rest, and then leave tomorrow morning so that we can go to the tower with our scrolls."
"In case you haven't noticed," growled Kiba, "We don't have any food."
"We have some packed," said Naruto with a smile as Sakura got out the food.
"Okay we'll do that," said Sakura, "but I'm cooking this time around."
Naruto laughed, but nodded anyway as she got out all the necessary equipment to cook the meal.
i am a horrible person for not updating for a whole 54 days... or something like that. i am so sorry, but my computer's broken and i had an idea for something else that i had to get out so that i could get rid of my horrible writing block for this one... so yea... here's the next chapter. hope you like it.