Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. Naruto is not mine. Naruto is not mine. ::sighs:: I'm not good at hypnosis...I might as well quit...
Chapter 8: Deeper and Deeper
"Sakura! Are you ok? What happened?"
"Sasuke…Sasuke-kun! You're here! How'd you find me?"
"Oh well, uh, I was just running through the trees and all and I heard you scream…"
"Oh my gosh. I'm such a loser. I can't believe you're seeing me like this."
"Sakura, we need to get you to a safe place right now and find Sasuke!"
"But you are Sasuke!"
"Sorry, I meant Naruto. I'm just a little nervous seeing you like this…so early in the bet…I didn't mean for you to get hurt."
"You're nervous?"
"Yeah…"
But he had barely finished that word when another hidden ninja attacked him head on.
"Sasuke?"
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Sakura was ? Before her eyes, she saw...
"Two Sasukes?!?!?"
The ninja that had attacked the Sasuke that had been helping her get up...was Sasuke. But this meant that one of them must not have been Sasuke, and the other must have been using the Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique). But which one was the real one.
"Sakura...are you hurt badly?" asked the Sasuke that had attacked.
"No...Wait, which one is really Sasuke??"
"I am. I don't know who you are, but you are not me." continued the same Sasuke.
That made sense. The real Sasuke had heard Sakura's screams and came to the rescue after his imposter had. He seemed to be helping her, but he knew that he wasn't really Sasuke, since HE HIMSELF was Sasuke. So, he attacked.
"You're right..." murmured the imposter. "I'm not..."
"Then show yourself!" shouted Sasuke, kunai still at his neck.
There was a puff of smoke, and a tint of orange, with a bit of yellow...
"NARUTO!?!?!" screamed Sakura to the heavens. With a unbearable pain in her leg, she still managed to kneel, screaming in confusion "Why would you transform into Sasuke?!?!?"
"..." Naruto looked ashamed.
"Whatever." spoke up Sasuke. "Now that we're together, we should start looking for the others. There is a good chance that now that Tenten knows that there are at least two of us together, that she won't come after us. She'll probably try and find someone else on her team."
"You're right. And we should get out of this clearing. She might still be around spying on us. But, Naruto?!? Why did you do that?"
The truth was he had transformed for the same reason he had transformed into Sasuke the last time. He liked Sakura, and he knew she liked Sasuke. As soon as he had heard her screaming in pain, he recognized her voice. He wanted to come to the rescue as himself, but he had known that Sakura would probably have wanted it in her heart for Sasuke to come. And so, he wanted to see what it was like to be appreciated like that. He felt that if he had come as Naruto, Sakura would not have seen it as anything special. And that saddened him.
As soon as Sasuke had attacked him, he had felt like an idiot. Now how would he tell them...
"I just felt like it..." WOW, Naruto thought, I've never felt this...sad and low...If I don't act like myself, they're probably only going to suspect it more...
So he put on a grin, and put his hands behind his head and just said "Heehee. I was just messing around! It was fun! And it scared off Tenten, so I guess that was good too!! Now come on! Let's go kick some freaking Hyuuga ass!!"
Sasuke grinned. And Sakura just smiled. "Hehe". Inner Sakura said "ALL RIGHT!!!"
The three had walked out of the clearing, and decided to start heading towards the center of the forest. As they walked, they kept extreme caution. Well, as much as they could with such a loud Naruto...
"And then, after taking off almost every piece of clothing I had on, I realized, whoa! NOW I REMEMBER! I had hidden the ramen coupon behind my forehead protector! It's sooo funny how you try to help yourself out, but in the end, only end up causing more trouble for yourself...Hehe..."
"Quiet Naruto." started Sasuke. "These guys could be anywhere. Just imagine how much ground Lee could be covering with his speed. And Neji could just look through this whole forest, as far as his vision would let him. Let's try to keep as silent as possible."
"Alright!" shouted Naruto. Sakura squeamished under his loudness. And Naruto realized his mistake. And so he whispered, "I mean, alright!"
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Tenten realized she had to find either Lee or Neji. If she was found by Sasuke and Sakura together, they could really beat her up...So, thought Tenten, my strategy right now is to keep a low cover, and cover as much ground as I can in finding my other teammates. If I find an enemy, run. Don't be stupid...Don't be stupid...
She jumped through the trees, in search of them,
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The sun started to set. With so many trees surrounding them, it was obvious that they weren't going to get much sunlight. They were not in any immediate danger, regarding their number, but although he had bandaged up Sakura's wound, he was afraid if they did not rest, she would only become worse in the morning.
"You guys, let's camp here for tonight. We could take turns staying up, just in case someone finds us."
"I agree." ...agreed Sakura. --;;
"Okay!" whispered Naruto.
They laid down their things near a huge, sheltering tree. The only one that had brought a blanket was Sakura. They all knew that this was most likely gonna last more than a day, but both Naruto and Sasuke didn't think about needing one...Sakura even brought a pillow!
Once Sakura had realized that neither of them brought anything to lay their heads on, and to cover themselves with, she became sympathetic.
"I only have a pillow and a blanket. You guys will have to share...One of you can use the pillow, and one of you can use the blanket. Is that ok?"
"No! No! Hehe..." both Sasuke and Naruto said simultaneously.
"Seriously Sakura, you need to rest, so that you'll feel better tomorrow! Just use them!! We'll be ok!!" said Naruto, scratching the back of his head, and giving her a nice, big smile.
"Yeah. We're fine." continued Sasuke. "Besides, I'm gonna be keeping first watch, so I don't need anything, since I won't be sleeping."
"No! I want to keep watch!" argued Naruto.
"Stop shouting, idiot."
"Only if you let me keep watch!!"
"Only if you stay awake, and don't get us killed."
"I will! Hey! Who saved Sakura here?!?!"
"Whatever..."
And with that, Naruto crossed his arms in both satisfaction and dis-satisfaction, and turned his back to them.
"I think it would be better if you opened your eyes...That way you can see if anyone's coming...?" Sasuke had noticed Naruto had closed his eyes, probably out of spite.
"Right...I knew that!"
"Sasuke-kun?"
Sakura had spoken up and surprised Sasuke. He thought that she had probably fallen asleep by now. But how could she though, he thought, with that big loud mouth?
Sasuke just faced Sakura, giving her the signal that he had heard her, but did not say anything.
"Do you want the blanket or the pillow?"