Yay, today's update comes to you from me with amazing joy, mainly because of a certain review I received, well…2 actually lol. It seems that a certain person who likes a certain show doesn't like the fact that I bashed it and told her to stop being hypocritical for other reasons. And then she comes on and yells at me for making fun of her writing, even though I never called into question her writing skills at all, although I definitely could have…all dialogue lol. (note: you may not be able to see the second review, she made the mistake of making it anonymous. In other words…deleted!) LoL, this person cracks me up. By the way, sorry for the delay in updating. I was caught up with trying to finish off Xenogears and watching the New York Mets get stomped several times *frowns*…not to mention the fact that since I didn't end the last chapter with a cliff, I couldn't think of how to start…hehe. Anyway, for those of you intelligent beings, this update is for you.
Sakura awoke once again, yet this time into a dank, cold, and crowded area surrounded by bars. As she looked around, she saw the faces of her friends.
"Sakura your finally awake," said a worried Ino. Even though they were rivals, after the Chuunin exam they had started to get a little closer to what their friendship had once been.
Sakura gazed around the room slowly, while bringing her hand up to a large bump on her head. She saw Hinata sitting in one of the corners holding onto her knees, Kiba standing near Hinata with Akamaru in his shirt, Shino standing perfectly still and glancing through his sunglasses and outside of the bars, Chouji sitting down mumbling to himself about hunger, and Ino standing right above her. Then she remembered what she had heard right before she was knocked out by Orochimaru…
"So, what do you think about my plan? Think it will attract your 'friend' Sasuke?"
"Oh no!" Sakura shouted, breaking the silence of the captives. She knew that they were all being held captive for the sole person of getting to Sasuke, and they were also probably going to be killed if Sasuke came anyway. She had to think of a way out…or at least find a way to keep Sasuke away and get some jounins to come help. However, in her current situation, she could think of nothing.
"Oh no what Sakura?" Ino blatently asked. She knew they were in a bad situation, but she wasn't about to freak out over it. She also didn't expect Sakura to react the way she had to being captured. She was her rival after all, and rivals have to be around the same strength. For Sakura to get so upset…"there must be something I'm not seeing here," Ino thought.
Sakura subsequently told the whole story to Ino and the others; about what she had inferred from listening to Orochimaru's conversation with Kabuto earlier. As they hadn't been informed that Orochimaru was after Sasuke in the first place, they were completely shocked.
"B-but why does he want Sasuke?" uttered Hinata in typical fashion. Shino just looked in her direction for a moment before facing back forward and answering her question.
"It is obvious that Sasuke is a talented ninja, and with his Sharingan he could be quite useful to someone such as Orochimaru," he stated. Everyone just sat there, pondering the events and reasons behind them for a few minutes when Kiba broke the silence.
"Ahh I've had it! No one is even guarding us, I'll just bust these bars down!" he screamed in defiance of their captors as he lunged at the metal bars with all his chakra focused in his arms for extra strength. As he hit the bars however, he was flung backwards violently and hit the opposite wall with enough force to slightly bend the bar. As he did that, the genjutsu around the bars was unraveled and revealed 4 guards, one on each side of the container. It also revealed a translucent barrier surrounding the whole cell.
"You didn't think we would put you bait ninjas in such an easy escapable cell did you?" One of the guards scoffed at the young ninjas. "You can try all you like to break free, but any extra Chakra you use in there will set off this barrier jutsu and you will feel the effects," he laughed as he prepared for his final statement.
"There is no escape."
"Gay!?" Shikamaru retorted loudly back at Naruto's question. "I've already seen you use that jutsu before in the academy idiot, I won't fall for it now." That was Shikamaru's reasoning, and though they were viable excuses, they were far from the truth. The fact of the matter was that Shikamaru hadn't even paid attention to Naruto's technique, and was concentrating on far more important things…or people. He had let his friends down; and while once he would have scoffed at friends as being a hassle, he realized how much he had grown to like his teammates. Chouji would always be a loyal friend, and Shikamaru knew that. Ino…well Shikamaru was unsure about her. She sometimes showed him great affection, but that was only when Sasuke wasn't nearby. Once Sasuke waltzed into sight, it was as if he was never there. "Girls are annoying, I can never tell what they are thinking…but I still have to get her back," he thought to himself as he glanced back at Naruto.
Shikamaru also was wondering just what to do, as they probably couldn't go up against the odds themselves. They would have to go ahead of course, and hope for Jounin support later on. He assumed the Jounins would figure something was wrong very soon, as it had probably been around a day since the last contact had been made with them. They would come, and they would help get his friends back.
Naruto meanwhile, had accepted Shikamaru's answer. He was only joking, but his jokes could only keep him occupied from the truth for a few moments before he remembered the reality again. The reality was his friends were taken, and he was going to get them back no matter what he had to do. It was obvious he wanted Sakura back most of all, but he also cared about his other fellow ninjas. Even if he wasn't particularly close to any of them, he had found comfort during the chuunin exam as being one of the group; something he hadn't had a chance to experience early on in life.
He had gotten at least a little closer to all of them, especially Hinata. She had fought as hard as she possible could, and he cheered her on. She gave him medicine even though he had just beaten her teammate. She took him out of his uncharacteristic depression before his fight with Neji. She had told him how his determination and guts had instilled within herself a sense of confidence that was never there before. With all these things happening, Naruto felt himself start to like a lot more. He even fought against Neji not only for himself but for her as well. He sure as hell wasn't going to let a great person like Hinata fall victim to anyone.
Sasuke was also thinking after the fight had ended. He knew that Orochimaru was after him, but he had never expected him to go after his friends. If Orochimaru really wanted Sasuke, he probably could have just come and taken him with no problems. It just didn't add up…but frankly, Sasuke didn't care. He could be walking right into the lion's den so to speak, but he wasn't going to let those dear to him die again. In the worst-case scenario he would just have to…but then a wave of shock crossed his face as he realized a blatant fact that he should have picked up on earlier. "How did Orochimaru even know I was down here in the caverns; I thought he left the village!"
"Naruto, Shikamaru; we have a much larger problem than we thought," Sasuke informed the two ninjas standing next to him. With a look of puzzlement both of them stared at Sasuke and gave an obligatory "what do you mean?" before listening more intently on Sasuke's following words.
"If Orochimaru wanted me he could have just done it instead of taking our friends first, which leads me to believe he has hidden intentions. But that isn't even the worst part; for him to know we were going to be down here…there is only one reasonable explanation. There is another spy in Leaf village!" Sasuke boldly phrased before waiting to see the reactions on Naruto and Shikamaru's faces.
"But, but, I don't get it. Who could be a spy? After finding out Kabuto was a spy they checked everyone, even me!" Naruto countered. "And even with a spy, how does that make our situation any worse down here! We'll tell someone later, we have more important things to do" he hollered at Sasuke. Shikamaru, taking in all of Sasuke's information, had a somewhat frightened gaze come across his face. He had realized what Naruto hadn't.
"Naruto, don't you see what that means? If there is a spy working in the village, that means to keep their plan working down here…he will most likely stir up a ruckus in the village." Shikamaru stated. Naruto was characteristically still confused, so Shikamaru added more to his explanation. "If there plan is to get Sasuke, then they probably know the Jounin teachers will be trying to get into contact with us. Either they will prevent that, or stir up commotion so that the Jounins will be forced to stay in the village. Don't you get it? We are going to be alone from now on!"
Sasuke just kept staring into the darkness, as he had been doing the entire time Shikamaru was explaining the situation. Sasuke was the one who had thought of it first, so he obviously didn't need to listen intently, as Naruto did. He was thinking about what they would have to do. Of course they needed to rescue Sakura and the others, but he had seen Orochimaru's power first hand. He wasn't even able to move just when Orochimaru looked at him, let alone fight against him, even with the seal on Orochimaru's arms. Plus, there would probably be a few subordinates of Orochimaru about, and they only had 3 young ninjas. It was turning out to be a far worse situation then he had previously thought. Naruto, however, didn't seem to think there was a problem at all.
"So, who cares! We need to go rescue our friends anyway, not wait around for help!" Naruto hollered at both of them.
"Idiot, there could be many chuunin or jounin level ninjas around, we can't just go running in!" Sasuke countered loudly. He wanted to save them just as much as Naruto did, but he wasn't stupid enough to just go rush in. "He hasn't seen Orochimaru's true power! This moron doesn't know what he's talking about," he said to himself.
"I've already defeated Orochimaru's right-hand man Kabuto once, and I can do it again! Plus Orochimaru can't even use his arms, let alone fight well! We need to get them back!" Naruto said with a slight whimper as he finished as a small amount of tears welled up in his eyes. He was overtaken by grief when he thought Sasuke had died, and he wasn't about to let his whole world collapse before him. They saved him from his own hell, and now it was his turn to save them.
Sasuke for the time being was thinking about what Naruto had said. "When did Naruto even fight against them…there is no way he could defeat someone like Kabuto. Kakashi told me he was almost as strong as he was…could Naruto really be getting this strong?" he thought.
"Now that I think of our situation more, I don't think we will have to fight too many other ninjas." Shikamaru started, getting the attention of the two rivals. "Well, if Orochimaru only wants you and knows that only us young ninjas are down in the cavern he probably wouldn't put too many men in the caverns, because then his group would be too large, and may run the risk of giving themselves away, even in a secluded area like this. Plus, he probably wouldn't be worried about the ninjas in the caverns, and more worried about…"
"…the ninjas in the village." Sasuke finished Shikamaru's sentence with a twinge. One spy would be hard enough to handle, but having another invasion shortly after the first one could be devastating. "Damn."
"Hey, hey, Kakashi and them will be able to take care of them, but we need to do our part too!" Naruto declared. Usually Sasuke would find something wrong with what Naruto said, but this time he had to agree. Even if the odds were against them, they set out to get their friends back alive and well.
Uhh basically I actually took two days to write this chapter, so it might not flow well. (like an hour a day) Anyway, I had to get all that stuff out of the way, so I'll probably have some more upbeat chapters in the near future. I'll try my best to update the story soon, I know I took a while with this one.