What's going on everyone, first off, my apologies on the silence. The holidays were hectic and I had no time to sit and just exist. That being said, hello. Welcome back to the story, that I do not own any of the characters too because Kishimoto-Sensei did not gift them to me this holiday season. We last saw Sakura feeling hopeless as both her teammates were down for the count and she was left alone in the forest of death in the midst of part two of the chunin exams. Come along and find out what happens in...

Chapter 11: I want to watch you die

It was already midday by the time Hinata had reached the tower with her team. It took them the whole day to get the scroll they needed and make their way there and she was desperately hoping that Naruto had beaten her here. When she learned that another team was already there, she was hopeful that it was him. However, the moment she saw that it was the sand village trio, she shuddered. Remembering how not more than a few hours ago, her own team had witnessed the red headed boy kill three rain village ninjas after they had given up their scroll. He had no reason too, but it looked as though he thoroughly enjoyed doing so. As if the thought of not killing them would be a worse crime than what he actually did. When he looked in team eight's direction, Hinata looked away. She didn't want to give him a reason to try and attack them as well.

"That guy…he's dangerous" Kiba whispered, as team eight watched the sand trio exit the room. "Whatever he is, he's definitely not someone to take lightly" he added, letting out a deep sigh.

"I'm certain that the other two are just as dangerous" Shino commented—adjusting his shades.

"Yeah, if they're on his team, I wouldn't doubt it" Kiba agreed. He rubbed Akamaru's head, who was also still shaken up from what they witnessed earlier. Though it seemed to be worse for the pup, considering that he more than likely heard every bone being crushed by the sand that the red-haired boy used.

"Let's stay away from them for now, and try to recover. Who knows what'll be next?" Kiba suggested. His two teammates agreed that the best thing they could do was to rest and hopefully find food.

Hinata gave one last look around the room, her eyes lingering on the spiral pattern on the wall. 'I hope you're okay, Naruto-Kun' she scurried after her teammates who disappeared through a door on the other side. There was no way she could know that at this particular moment, that same thought was shared with a pink-haired girl—frantically worrying over both her teammates.

The sound of water splashing about as Sakura squeezed a cloth over a bowl was enough to make the sounds of the forest disappear for just a bit, but the moment she placed the cloth onto Sasuke's forehead, the forest came alive again. She sighed as she removed the cloth from Naruto's forehead and did the same before replacing it on his head as well. She rubbed her eyes, she had yet to rest or take a break from taking care of the two and it was only when her stomach violently protested being ignored, did she eat some of the berries that she found in the area. It wasn't much, but it was at least enough to keep her from passing out. Naruto groaned, causing Sakura to perk up, but when he didn't sit up, she felt more hopeless than before.

She managed to splint Naruto's arm and bandaged his head as best as she could with what she had, but even then, she wasn't sure it would be enough. Sasuke on the other hand, was constantly groaning in his unconscious state, as if he was in massive amounts of pain. Sakura couldn't make heads or tails of what was wrong with him, and was losing her mind over the idea that this would be fatal. The sounds of birds chirping startled her awake from what she could only describe as the worst sleep she had ever accidently had, followed by the worst nightmare to go with it.

"It's…daybreak?" she asked no one in particular. She turned her attention back to the boys, both of which were still unconscious. Something about Naruto caught her eye though, and as she examined him, she realized that his arm was no longer broken. "I…what?" she was utterly baffled. She hurriedly removed the bandage from his head and check for any sign of his previous wound only to find it too was gone.

"What the hell is going on here?" she mumbled. She was unable to wrap her head around it and even if she had all the time in the world, she would never figure it out on her own.

"A no-sleep look out?" Sakura turned to see who'd spoken.

"Wake Sasuke up. We want to battle with him" the obvious leader of the three said. His face was covered in bandages leaving only his eyes visible, but even without seeing his face, Sakura could see the musical note on his headband.

"What do you want? What are you after?" Sakura demanded, she stood to her feet and slowly reached for a kunai. "I know the one named Orochimaru is calling the shots" she added, which had the desired effect. The three newcomers looked surprised and were unable to hide it.

"What's that strange bruise on Sasuke's neck?" she interrogated, not even allowing them to answer her original question. "You did this to Sasuke, how can you say you want to fight him?" she persisted, firmly taking a stance between the three of them and her own teammates.

"You're really annoying, you know that? Hey, I'm gonna kill this girl. And that Sasuke too" the other boy in the group announced. He stood from his perch atop a boulder and jumped down.

"Hold on, Zaku"

"What? What now?" the second boy, Zaku, asked. The leader of the three took a few steps forward before chuckling.

"It's so childish. This grass, it doesn't grow in a place like this, does it? It's almost as if the dirt here has been dug up. You know with a trap, there's no point if you can't make it so it isn't discovered" the leader pulled back on the fresh grass that didn't belong, earning a chuckle from Zaku and the girl on their team.

"Are you serious? Are you even a proper shinobi, idiot girl?" Zaku scoffed, his mocking smirk matched only by the tone of his voice.

"We kill her now" the leader ordered, and the three of them jumped forward. Sakura smirked before reaching to her right and cutting a wire. She was fairly impressed with how well her second trapped worked, but was taken aback when the massive trunk attached to the wire, she cut exploded and splintered. The three attackers unharmed as they continued their descent.

"You clearly have no talent. Someone like you needs to make more of an effort or else!" the leader said. They were closing in fast and Sakura was out of ideas. There was nothing left for her to try. These three managed to get by her ace in the hole and now she, as well as her teammates were done for.

"Leaf Hurricane!" the three attackers were pushed back as Sakura watched a boy clad in green land in front of her. "Then you should also make an effort" Rock Lee said. His grin only outshined by the glint in his eye.

"Who are you?" the leader demanded, annoyed at being attacked by someone in all green.

"I'm the beautiful blue beast of the leaf village, Rock Lee!" Lee answered. Gone was the grin, now replaced with a serious expression.

"Why are you here?" Sakura asked, looking up to Lee, who was standing at his full height.

"I will always appear whenever you're in trouble!" Lee declared, his smile returning.

"But right now, I'm also your enemy" Sakura couldn't help but point out.

"I told you before, didn't I? I vow to protect you until the day I die" Lee reminded her, the coolness in his voice made Sakura completely forget her own ideology that they too were enemies.

"T-Thanks" she said, glad to have at least one ally in this.

"It can't be helped. Zaku, I'll give you Sasuke. I will kill the others" the leader tossed a scroll towards Zaku, who caught it and put it in his pouch. "It seems that bushy-brow guy is pretty proficient with Taijutsu…which means I can have some fun" he dashed towards Lee and Sakura, pulling back his sleeve to reveal a gauntlet of some kind with holes in it.

Lee dug his hand into the ground and pulled up a massive tree root to block the attack; "There's a trick to your attack, isn't there? I won't just simply avoid it" he deduced. He turned his face away just a bit to avoid the splintering wood getting into his eyes. "You showed me your jutsu before…even still the odds aren't good since it is three against one. I'm gonna have to take a chance and take you down one by one" Lee declared, looking from the leader to Zaku to the female in their group.

Lee began to unwrap the bandages on his hands, before he could unwrap all of it, the leader charged towards them again. Sakura heard Lee muttering to himself and the moment the leader was close enough to them, Lee's head shot up, an intense look in his eyes. "When protecting a precious person!" he suddenly exclaimed. Sakura was bewildered by his words but had no time to think on them as Lee vanished from sight. The leader too was surprised by this, and before he could react, Lee appeared below him. Lee's foot went straight up connecting with the underside of the leader's chin—sending him flying into the air.

"It's just the beginning" Lee said, his bandages began to wrap around his opponent as if they were alive. They coiled all the way around until the leader was covered head to toe. Lee grabbed hold of his cocooned opponent before the both of them flipped in mid-air. Now they were feet up, their heads pointing straight towards the ground. They began to spin, gaining speed as they came rocketing towards the ground.

"Take this—Primary Lotus!" Lee shouted. There was a huge crash as a dust cloud kicked up. Lee could be seen backflipping away from the crash before landing in front of Sakura.

"Well, well…just in time" Zaku sighed in relief. Lee was so busy in his preparation of the primary lotus, he hadn't realized Zaku performing hand seals and using his own jutsu. One that seemed to have broken the fall of his team leader and nullifying any damage that Lee's technique would have caused. The leader pulled himself free from the raised ground of Zaku's jutsu—slowly shaking his head to rid it of soil.

"That is a frightening jutsu…it took a lot out of me even though I fell on the spongy dirt" the leader examined himself, no doubt checking to make sure nothing was broken. He pulled his sleeve back revealing the gauntlet again; "It's my turn now" he said. Lee looked as if he was the one who was attacked with the primary lotus as he stood huffing. The leader closed the distance between him and Lee before throwing a right hook. Lee managed to step back out of the way of it but still fell to one knee.

"Your jutsu is fast, I'll give you that. But our jutsu exceeds that and is the speed of sound" the leader looked down on Lee, a superior look in his eyes; "I'll show you that there are walls that effort alone can't break through."

Sakura watched in horror, what were they to do now? Lee was no match for this opponent and she was sure she wouldn't fair any better if she tried. "Lee!" she called out, as she watched Lee clutch his ear.

"There's a little gimmick I have…evading won't work against my attacks. It's sound after all. Even though you evaded my fist, sound assaulted you" the leader said, getting both Lee and Sakura's attention.

"Sound?" Lee asked, still clutching his bleeding ear.

"Do you know what sound is all about in the first place?" he asked, rubbing his gauntlet as he eyed Lee.

"Vibration" Sakura answered, not liking how this was sounding.

"Correct. In other words, hearing sounds means that the eardrum is catching vibrating air. The human eardrum breaks with sounds over one hundred fifty megahertz. Also, by assaulting the semicircular canal which is located even deeper, I can make you totally lose balance." The leader explained. Lee tried to stand but fell back to his knees, earning a chuckle from the leader.

"You won't be able to move your body freely for some time" he shrugged.

"Boring old Taijutsu won't work against us. Well, you were doing good up to a certain point, but my jutsu is superior to your Taijutsu, it's just not gonna work anymore. I freely manipulate ultrasonic waves and air pressure and have the power to obliterate even boulders, I can even send air into the ground and change the dirt into a cushion as I please. It's on a completely different level than your silly jutsu" Zaku explained. He opened his palms to reveal to metal holes in the center of them, air gushed out as he chuckled. "You can't win."

"Okay then, next is you" the leader announced running passed Lee towards Sakura. The latter drew a kunai to defend herself, but even she knew it was pointless. "What the…impossible" the leader was shocked to see Lee running towards them. He would cut him off before he could get to Sakura.

"Leaf…hurricane" Lee grunted out, but the leader managed to block the kick this time around.

"It looks like my earlier attack is still messing with you. I'm a little surprised but there's not even a trace of that flashy combo you used earlier" he threw a right hook, similar to earlier, but this time Lee blocked the punch instead. The moment he did though a whistling sound could be heard escaping the holes in the gauntlet.

"This arm amplifies sounds from within to it maximum, sort of like a speaker I can carry around. Plus, the assault sound isn't limited by the direction of my arm, by using my chakra, the sound will converge on my prey for a direct assault" the leader continued to explain, by the time he was done, Lee fell in a heap at his feet. Sakura was at a loss for words. Lee had managed to best Sasuke and now here he was being outmatched by someone who threw two punches.

"Now then…the final blow" the leader's voice was low, like he was savoring the idea.

"I won't let you!" Sakura shouted. She drew a handful of shuriken in each hand and launched them at the leader. He raised his gauntlet to swat away the blades as easily as he would have a spider's web.

After the second volley Sakura launched was deflected by Zaku with his air pressure blast, Sakura was knocked off balance. Before she could fall to the ground however, Zaku's female teammate grabbed ahold of Sakura's hair, forcing her to kneel.

"You're hair's shinier than mine. You know, if you have time to worry about your hair, you should practice being a better kunoichi, instead of giving us serious shinobi a bad name. Why don't you go ahead and kill that Sasuke guy right in front of this wannabe sexy bug, Zaku?" the girl yanked on Sakura's hair. "Don't move, worm" she commanded as Zaku took a step towards the unconscious team seven.

"That sounds like a great idea" Zaku agreed, a fanatical smile on his face. Sakura couldn't help but feel powerless kneeling in front of this girl who couldn't be much older than her. Powerless at the idea that she always needed to be saved. Powerless as always. 'No. I refuse to be helpless' she thought.

"That's pointless. That won't work on me" the girl yanking on Sakura's hair commented, watching as Sakura pulled a kunai from her pouch.

"What are you on about?" Sakura turned to face her with a defiant grin on her face before reaching up and cutting her hair below the girl's grip, freeing her from her captive.

"Kin, kill her!" Zaku ordered. His female teammate, Kin, nodded before plunging a kunai into Sakura's side. She was shocked when Sakura turned into a log. "Kin, get out of the way" Zaku yelled, as he turned his palms towards her. Kin jumped out of the way when she realized that Sakura was running towards Zaku and that she, Kin, was in the direct line of fire.

"Useless" Zaku gloated as Sakura threw a bunch of kunai at him. "Slicing sound wave!" he shouted, blasting the kunai away. The blades of wind hit Sakura but she again turned into a log, Zaku looked up to see Sakura falling towards him.

"How many times do I have to say that it's useless?" he asked. Zaku threw kunai at Sakura expecting her to turn into a log. When they connected, he immediately looked around for the real one before realizing that Sakura had played him, she was the real one and she was falling faster still. When she landed on him, she stabbed him in the arm and bit down on the other, effectively immobilizing him.

"Get her the fuck off me" Zaku screamed at his teammates. He managed to wrest one of his arms free and was frantically punching Sakura in the head, but no matter how many times he hit her, she just bit down harder, refusing to let go. She was starting to bleed but still, she refused to let go. She had to do everything in her power to save her teammates. Even if it meant her own life, she would pay them back for all the times they saved her. She wouldn't let them down. She had to hold on.

One particular punch caught Sakura right on the temple, forcing her to loosen her grip. It was enough for Zaku to kick her off and push away from her. "It's over now. Give it up" he commanded. He clutched at the arm Sakura had bit into, no doubt it stung more than he would admit.

Sakura managed to push herself up to her knees. She was bleeding from her forehead and cheek, but the determination in her eyes annoyed Zaku. "You punk!" he hollered, aiming his open palms at her. I'll show you what happens when you piss me off." Before he could launch an attack though, an orange blur went speeding past Kin, before landing a kick to Zaku that sent him rolling towards his teammates.

"N-Naruto?!" Sakura was stunned to see her blond teammate standing in front of her. She was relieved he was up, but something about him seemed menacing. Almost as if he himself wasn't even aware that he was standing. "Is it…really you…Naruto?" she asked, tears of happiness began to form in her eyes but they quickly turned to tears of terror when she realized that Naruto was growling like a wild animal.

"Naruto, a-are you o-okay?" she asked, but she received no answer. Instead, Naruto let out a roar that forced her to cover her ears and watch as Naruto charged towards Zaku, Kin and the leader.

"Kill him" the leader ordered, and with that, Zaku pushed his palms forward and let out another slicing air wave.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried out as blood sprayed the ground, but to her and the other three's shock, Naruto kept running forward. He kicked Kin away with such force that when she collided with a tree, it toppled over with the girl crashing into the one behind it.

"T-this…can't be happening" Sakura watched as Naruto disregarded his own well-being to attack. He savagely went after the remaining two, chasing after them like a wild animal trying to protect its home.

"Why won't you stay down?" Zaku complained as another wave of air pressure collided with Naruto and sent him flying back. The orange clad ninja landed hard on the ground, rolled to his feet and charged forward again.

"What's going on here?" Sakura looked to her left to see a boy with long brown hair and a girl with two buns.

"You're Lee's teammates" she said, to which the other girl nodded.

"Lee…you fool. You went and got yourself hurt" the boy looked down at Lee, who had yet to regain consciousness.

"And who are you supposed to be?" the leader asked, Sakura turned to see that Naruto was busy being ripped into by another air pressure assault from Zaku. This time however it seemed to be just holding Naruto in place.

Lee's teammate made a hand seal. Whatever he did caused the veins around his eyes to bulge as he glared at the leader. "If you want to fight, I won't hold back" he warned.

"If you don't want to die, I suggest you leave" the leader shot back. Lee's teammate looked ready to charge forward, but didn't. Naruto broke free from his wind prison.

"That boy…his chakra is…" whatever it was that Lee's teammate was about to say was cut off by a roar from Naruto. He was running towards his opponents again at full speed. Lee's teammate looked towards Sasuke too, and turned his back on the scene. He lifted Lee on his back.

"Let's go Ten-Ten, there's nothing we can do here" he said. Sakura was about to ask them not to but stopped when she heard Zaku yell. Naruto threw his whole body into Zaku, which sent him flying into the leader. He growled like a beast before charging at them once more but suddenly he stopped in his tracks. With his eyes closed tightly, he sniffed the air in the direction Sasuke was in. Zaku and the leader both looked towards Sasuke and were shocked to see a purple chakra rising off him.

"What…is that?" the leader asked, but no one could answer. Lee and his teammates were gone now, and Sakura could only watch as this foul chakra rose off Sasuke. Naruto's growls were beginning to fade as this purple chakra seeped more and more out of Sasuke, and only when it enveloped his whole body did Naruto fall to his knees and collapse on his side.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, but the boy was unconscious yet again. Before Sakura could worry about Naruto, she watched as Sasuke stood up, the purple chakra surrounding him like a flame. She watched as black markings spread across his body and a sadistic grin spread across his face.

"Sakura…who did this to you?" he asked. His voice was chilling to hear as there was no emotion behind his words. "Who is it?" he demanded when she didn't answer. Even though it was more forceful, the demand held no more emotion behind it than it did the first time he asked.

"Sasuke-Kun…that body…" Sakura was about to ask if Sasuke should even be standing after what happened between them and Orochimaru, but Sasuke clenched his fist.

"Don't worry. On the contrary, my strength is rising rapidly…right now, I feel good. This is what he meant. I finally understand. I am an avenger, on my road, I must put power into my hands even if it means abandoning myself to the devil himself" Sasuke said, cutting her off. He was glaring at the leader and Zaku, his Sharingan active, but he couldn't see the fear in Sakura's eyes. To her, she just watched one teammate become a feral animal, and now her other teammate was talking about abandoning himself to the devil.

"Now, Sakura, tell me, who harmed you?" Sasuke repeated, and this time there was anger in his voice. A malicious intent hid behind each of those words, and though Sakura could feel the animosity, she still couldn't bring herself to speak.

"I did, what of it?" Zaku stated, a cocky grin on his face. Sasuke turned to face him, a coldness in his red eyes. The black markings slowly began to creep further along Sasuke's face, further down his arms and legs, and with each new elongated mark, Sasuke seemed to grow angrier.

"Dosu, this half-dead bastard is nothing to be scared of!" Zaku said to the leader, Dosu. The latter seemed to be shaken by the amount of chakra Sasuke was emitting, something that the former was quick to pick up on.

"Stop, Zaku! Don't you understand the situation we're in?" Dosu pleaded. Whatever it was that he knew was enough to change his whole perception of this situation, but it was something that Zaku clearly didn't know.

"I'll take them all out in one fell swoop!" Zaku boasted. He pointed his open palms towards team seven, Sakura had dragged Naruto back towards his original resting place, with Sasuke standing between them and the enemy. "Take this, Super sonic slicing wave!" he shouted. The air pressure that he released was enough to shred trees to pieces and leave a crater heading straight for team seven.

"Heh, he must have been blown to pieces" Zaku sounded proud of himself as he admired his work.

"Who did?" Sasuke asked. Zaku turned to see not only Sasuke standing next to him, but Sakura kneeling beside him and Naruto lying on the ground next to her. Sasuke backhanded Zaku, sending him flying towards Dosu.

"He took in those two in the blink of an eye" Dosu said in awe. They didn't have any time to speak as Sasuke performed a set of hand seals before raising his fingers to his mouth.

"Fire style: Phoenix flower jutsu" he called out, sending numerous mini fire balls hurtling towards the two.

"Don't push your luck, I'll just blow them away" Zaku arrogantly said, launching another gust of wind at the fire balls. "What the hell?" he said in shock when the fire balls disappeared and instead, hidden inside them were a bunch of shuriken.

"Zaku, below you" Dosu tried to warn as his teammate was busy being ripped through by the shuriken. Zaku looked down to see Sasuke's shadow jet passed him. Before he could react, he was on his knees, his arms being stretched back behind him, while Sasuke kept him in his place with a foot in the middle of his back.

"You seem to be pretty proud of these pathetic arms" Sasuke said, the sadistic smile back on his face.

"S-stop" Zaku begged, fear in his words and eyes.

"Why? I want to watch you die" Sasuke replied, lifting Zaku's arms further up still until the sound of bones breaking echoed through the forest. After that, all that anyone could hear was Zaku's screams as Sasuke started to laugh.

He turned his attention to Dosu, who was frozen in place by fear. "You're the only one left. Make it a little more fun for me, won't you?" Sasuke demanded of him. He started to walk towards Dosu, and as the sounds of Zaku's cries faded away, Sakura realized why this Sasuke scared her. He had the same air about him as Orochimaru—a hunter stalking its prey.

"Stop it" Sakura cried out as she wrapped her arms around Sasuke from behind. "Stop, Sasuke" she repeated. He turned his gaze on her, those malevolent Sharingan gazed into her tear-filled ones. "Please, just stop now" Sakura pleaded. Slowly, the markings on his body began to recede, and once they were completely gone, Sasuke fell to his behind, panting in exhaustion.

"You're strong Sasuke, we can't defeat you as you are now" Dosu placed his scroll at his feet. "Please let us withdraw with this as payment to settle this" he backed away from the scroll slowly before hurriedly making his way towards Zaku. He lifted his teammate on his shoulder; "It's selfish, I know, but we now have something we need to confirm, too. With that being said, if there's another opportunity to battle in this test, we won't run or hide" Dosu finished speaking. He lifted Kin under his free arm and made his way out of the clearing.

"Wait a minute" Sakura called out, getting Dosu to stop. "Who in the world is Orochimaru? What did he do to Sasuke? Why Sasuke?" she demanded, but Dosu shook his head.

"I don't know. We were just given the orders to kill Sasuke. We weren't told why" he answered. Without giving them a chance to ask anymore questions, he started to walk away again. He must have hoped that team seven wouldn't attack him as he fled because he didn't look back once.

"Sakura…" Sasuke turned to look at his teammate; "You cut your hair" he noted, making Sakura smile slightly.

"Uh…yeah, I'm changing my image is all" she replied. She watched as Sasuke turned to look at Naruto.

"Is he okay?" he asked, turning again to face her.

"I-I don't know…" she lied. She didn't want to tell Sasuke about Naruto's outburst of animalistic rage, and she still couldn't explain how Naruto's broken arm healed so quickly, so it wasn't exactly a lie. Just an omission of the truth.

"We should move from this area as soon as we are able. We're too out in the open" Sasuke observed the clearing, clearly wondering why anyone would come to this area to hide. Sakura would pretend that she hadn't picked this as their hideout if it meant Sasuke wouldn't call her an idiot for it. What he didn't know, wouldn't hurt him.

"At least we have this now" Sasuke reached for the scroll in front of him. "Too bad we don't have our original one" he sighed, but Sakura let out a small giggle. "What is it?" he asked.

"Well, Naruto may be an idiot, but this was probably the smartest thing he's ever done" Sakura reached into her pouch and pulled out their heaven scroll.

"W-what? How? I thought Orochimaru took it from Naruto?" Sasuke asked in bewilderment.

"When Naruto intercepted it, he used some seal on it that teleported it from his pouch to mine. He replaced it with a fake that that snake took instead of ours. Whatever seal Naruto used…it's on a whole other level. I've never heard of such a technique" Sakura admired her blond teammate. Something that Sasuke was reluctantly doing too.

"Just who are you, Naruto Uzumaki?" Sasuke mumbled, looking down at his unconscious teammate. Sakura too, couldn't help but wonder. And it was something that they would surely like to get to the bottom of, but for the moment, they would settle on just getting out of the open. With both scrolls in their possession now, all they needed to do was make their way to the tower. Hopefully, they would make it there without having to fight anyone else. Especially since Naruto was heavier than he looked and didn't seem to be any closer to waking up.

Sakura was worried that Naruto would wake up, not as the Naruto they knew but as the wild, careless, animal Naruto she saw earlier. She didn't know which one scared her more; the Naruto that killed a giant snake and went on a rampage, the Naruto that disregarded his own safety to try and rip his opponents apart, or the cruel and cold Sasuke who took pleasure in hurting his enemies. She was so terrified that any one of these would manifest again that she found herself constantly looking at the two of them, worried that if she didn't do so that the red slitted eyes of Naruto would be peering at her hungrily or that the red eyes of Sasuke would be ready to kill her.

By the time they reached the tower, the sun had long since set, Naruto had yet to awaken and Sasuke looked to be on his last legs. Sakura too couldn't deny that she was on the tail end of her second wind, so when they finally pushed through the doors and collapsed, she couldn't find it in her to care that they were lying right in the middle of an empty chamber. There they stood, finally able to rest without having to look over their shoulders. Sakura found herself slowly falling asleep, but still she couldn't help but keep her drooping eyes fixed on her teammates.

Surely, they were safe…right?

AN: This was a fun chapter to write, I had to go back and rewrite a bit, but I finally was able to actually get around to finishing it. It's not a long chapter but I hope you guys will forgive me for the delay. I can't promise the next one will be out quickly, given that my job is a little demanding right now, but I will do my best. I swear it as a writer and fellow lover of the series I will give you guys a proper story with a proper ending when we get there.

I know you're probably wondering what's up with Naruto being all feral, well you'll get your answers in the coming chapters. Don't worry, no stone will be left unturned in my story.

Until next time.