Disclaimer: Naruto co. don't belong to me. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

AN: My plans got all jumbled up so it turns out that I'll be sending the computer in tomorrow, but you guys get to have the chapter today! XD

Chapter: Injuries

"We have to run through them," Kakashi said in a too-serious tone. With him were the two elders, Tsunade and Jiraiya.

"Can't we just... walk?" Jiraiya said, groaning.

"This is no time for jokes, Jiraiya!" Tsunade reprimanded him irritably as she knocked him one over the head.

"Who's joking!" he protested. "I was being serious."

"How is the situation at the centre anyway?" Tsunade asked, ignoring Jiraiya and then turning her attention to Kakashi.

"Yuki ordered a regroup. I also thought that it was the best thing to do at that time."

"Yuki is back? Where is she?" Tsunade asked, almost as if she were in a panic. Both Jiraiya andKakashi looked at her weirdly. She looked away and hid her face immediately, refusing to explain.

"She's told me that we have to head east to meet up with reinforcements from the Sand."

"But Yuki. Where is she, Kakashi?" Tsunade insisted.

"Beyond my influence," he answered hesitantly. "Now, we'll just have to go around them to get to-"

"Oh my god, they're back!" Sakura shrieked happily. "Kakashi-sensei, Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama and the Sound-nins too!" They had relocated to inside the Tower, choosing to be with the rest of the ninja population instead of hanging up on the rooftop alone. Sakura had been put on the watch, and presently she was running down the stairs on the side to greet the long-awaited Hokage.

"What... about... Yuki-ch-..chan?" Naruto said with difficulty, trying to raise his head, but with no success. Sasuke put a hand near his collar bone and gently pushed him down and held him there to make sure that he wouldn't attempt it again.

"Shut up moron," he said nonchalantly. "Keep still and let that temperature ride out." Naruto glared at him but then grudgingly decided to do as he said. From where they were at they could hear the relieved talks and cheers from the ninja all around as the Hokage made her way up.

"Where are the rest?" he heard Tsunade ask. Shikamaru, who was nearby, went up to her to answer for them

"I sent them into defensive positions. We are all awaiting your orders."

"Leave it be for now," Tsunade said after a bit of thought. "The situation has gotten quieter for the time being."

"Actually Tsunade-sama," Shikamaru began hesitantly. But he could hardly find the words to continue so Tsunade turned her attention elsewhere.

"Where are the rest of our medical specialists? I don't see the anbu much either," she said disapprovingly.

"About that," Shikamaru said. "The Captain ordered for an emergency plan to be carried out by the anbu. And I... I sent the medical specialists after the Captain. I thought it was necessary to do that, Tsunade-sama, but if you say other wise I will of course, accept any punishment you have in mind."

"Nonsense, Shikamaru," she said with an easy smile that put him at ease. Sasuke saw the young Nara relax his shoulders, and felt a slight twinge of pity for him. Must be tough being a replacement leader. "But... where is that stubborn girl?" Tsunade's expression turned solemn and a bead of sweat appeared on her temple. "And I heard that that brat isn't looking too good either." Sasuke nearly broke into a smile when Naruto whipped his head up, glared at her and then stuck his tongue out. Tsunade noticed the gesture and rolled her eyes upward. "I take back what I said."

"Naruto, if you make any more sudden movements, your fever might shoot up again," Gaara said. "Sasuke, make sure he doesn't do any thing stupid again."

"You're asking the impossible," Sasuke replied as he pushed the blond boy down once more. Naruto grumbled hotly at them but lied down on the stretcher obediently once more.

"The fever hasn't broken yet, huh?" Tsunade commented as she squatted down next to the Kazekage.

"I'm missing something," Gaara said under his breath. Tsunade glanced sideways at him and then cross-examined Naruto herself. She breathed out a huge sigh of exasperation.

"We should use the time that's been bought for us wisely."

Sasuke saw that everyone's attention was now focused on Tsunade, and then, thinking that no one would miss him, saw that it was the perfect chance to slip away. However, Sakura caught him before he could even make a single step.

"Don't you trust her enough to come back to us?" Sakura confronted him. Sasuke didn't turn back to face her.

"She never said that she would."

"But she did say that she trusted you to stay here and guard the Kazekage, didn't she?" she challenged further.

"I know, damn it!" he growled, clenching his fist and then stomped back to Gaara's side.

Then- all of a sudden cold air blasted in through all the windows. The ones that had been on watch by the said windows were pushed down to the ground. Most were blown off their footing and had fallen to the floor. Sasuke, crouching down carefully, slowly crept up by the windows to try and peek at what was happening from the outside. The icy wind was helping some random voices to float to where he was.

"Captain! Please let us treat you!" Sasuke was already out and running when he heard the word 'Captain'. That meant that Yuki was around -alive! if not injured.

"I'm fine!" He heard the angry reply. The cold wind was still blasting around them in full force so it was difficult for him to keep a straight face, or a safe position.

"Yuki-chan!" Sakura was yelling from the roof top. He could see from where he was that the wind was blowing mercilessly up there too. But that wasn't what he was looking for. He looked all around him twice over and finally found Yuki staggering towards them just in front of him. She was clinging on to the walls of the buildings for support - and one of her hands, he could see, was massaging her neck.

"Yuki!" he called out. Her head snapped up and their eyes met. He noticed immediately that her eyes were blood-shot. Where the white should have been in her eyes were now red. The rest of her appearance did not indicate any further damage, except for some bruises on her arms, and dirt here and there. She'd definitely been in a fight. And probably only barely escaped. He tried to make a dash forward but was met with another angry blast of wind that brought his back to a crunch with the wall of the Tower. The back of his mind registered a shriek coming from above him, but he ignored it.

"Don't come anywhere near me!" Yuki shouted as she fell to her knees.

"Damn it, Yuki!"

"Back off Sasuke! I mean it!" Another angry burst of wind threatened to blow him off his feet and carry him to the top of the tower. But Sasuke chose to persevere and crouched even closer to the ground, using his chakra to give him a solid grip on the dirt floor.

He brought his arms before him to block the wind from cutting through to his face and then slowly moved forward. It was then when he realised that the blasted wind was actually coming from Yuki. Now, there was definitely something wrong happening.

"Don't," he heard her choke out, but he plunged forward anyway, inch by inch till he reached her side. The wind was completely calm where she was - just like the eye of a storm. The air was completely motionless. "Sasuke you idiot!"

"I'm not the idiot!" he argued back. "Stop moving and let me carry you inside." He moved to grab her arm and discovered the icy feel of her skin. It clicked. He'd seen this before. Oh, he'd definitely seen these symptoms before. "What happened to you?" This was exactly what happened to Naruto after their encounter with Itachi. Only instead of the cold winds... it was waves of heat. It was impossible! What did Itachi do to her!

In Naruto's case, the cloth above his seal had been ripped off and the seal had started glowing bright red. Yuki didn't have a seal on her for Itachi to use the same jutsu... did she? Sasuke gave her another once-over and found it. It was sitting right above her waist on the left side - glowing bright blue.

"It's... s-so cold," Yuki said as she started to fall forward. Sasuke caught her before she could fall to the ground and found that her entire body was like ice. Even her lips had already turned deathly blue. "Best not hold me for too long, Sasuke. You could get frost bite," she said weakly as she tried to pull herself off him. But Sasuke ignored that and then swiftly picked her up. If his guess was right, the cold wind would cease soon and then it would be safe for him to bring her inside the Tower. ... And then her temperature would drop even more. ...But just what the heck was that seal on her for! "Wh-where are you taking- m-me?"

"Tsunade-sama should be able to help you," he said shortly as he tried to run as fast as he could up the stairs.

"Oh... g-good. S-she's back-k."

"Stop talking," he cut in, and she silenced immediately.

"Yuki!" came a few voices as Sasuke re-entered the room. A stretcher was already prepared so he put her down on it and tried to explain swiftly what he thought had happened.

"The same?" As Naruto? Gaara was the one that asked him. Sasuke merely nodded in confirmation. He watched silently as the Kazekage and the Hokage moved to a corner... whilst in a heated discussion.

"S-Sasuk-ke?" Yuki gasped, trying to lift her head. Similar to what he did to Naruto earlier, he put a palm just on her collarbone and slowly pushed her back down. "Tsu-Tsun..."

"Yes, I know. Don't try to talk," he said. The girl was shivering so badly - the blankets that they were starting to pile on her didn't seem to be of any help at all. "Tsunade-sama!" he called her. The older woman whipped her head around and then frowned worriedly as she followed his beckoning.

"S-seal..." Yuki gasped. Sasuke frowned at her for talking, but it couldn't be helped. If they didn't know more about what had happened there probably would've been no way to help her. Tsunade sat on the floor next to her and then attempted to assist her by sitting her up. "I-ta-ch-chi. N-need count-ter balanc-ss-ing chak-kra."

"A counter balance? Yes, I know, but how? It'll take us too long to find one that could perfectly-"

"R-remember K-kyuu-b-bi?" she said, trying to lift the corner of her lips into a smile.

"She's right." came the commanding voice of the Kazekage. He stood next to Tsunade and crossed his arms in front of him. "You told me that she'd done the same thing for Naruto once before."

"When?" the older woman demanded in her confusion.

"When she was a child," came another voice into the mix. It was Kakashi. He was with the group on the other side of the room hanging over Naruto. "He's right. I'd seen it been done before. Their chakra could counteract against each other perfectly."

"That's impossible now- What about the Seishin-"

"The Seishin and Yuki... are of the same type originally," Gaara said calmly. "It will work." Tsunade bit her lip, but did not give any further resistance.

"N-Narut-to-kun to-o m-me and t-then me to Naruto-k-kun," Yuki gasped out as her back gave away. Luckily Tsunade was already behind her to catch her, but she couldn't hold on to the younger girl too long - she was too cold! "Need Ne-Ne-ji's h-help-p."

"Somebody get Neji in here!" Tsunade called. She ordered Kakashi to bring Naruto over alongside Yuki to prepare them. Sasuke found that he could do nothing but watch beside them as they continued to suffer. He stared down to Yuki's eyes as she tried to maintain her focus of her surroundings. She tried to lift the corners of her lips again, to smile as she dully watched Sasuke's eyes fade in and out of her currently blur state.

"Anything I can do?" Sasuke whispered lowly as he brought his head down and ear closer as he waited for an answer.

"No," she said hoarsely. All the trembles were gone from her voice... but was now replaced with the sudden hoarseness. "But... thanks."

All heads looked up as Neji entered the room. Tsunade beckoned him to come closer so he squatted down next to her on Naruto's side, opposite where Sasuke was on Yuki's side.

"I... n-need your eyes," Yuki said before he could ask anything. Sasuke took the cue and then lifted her to a sitting position slightly facing Naruto, Tsunade and Neji. The Uchiha made firm his place by promptly sitting behind her whilst letting her cold back lean on his chest. His arms went under the blanket and around her waist just in case she started to slip. It was a rather compromising position, but nobody was minding that at the moment.

"My eyes?" he asked gently in response.

"The chakra points... I can't see them-" her voice cut off as veins slowly started popping up near her eyes. Sasuke saw it from the side and witnessed the colour of her pupils start to fade out.

"But I thought-"

"Only barely. Just... barely," that was all she could say. She looked down to Naruto and gave him a tiny reassuring smile. Neji followed her cure and activated his own byakugan. Tsunade watched him closely as he tried to guide Yuki's fingers to the exact points, while also trying to explain to their audience of what was going to happen.

"Yuki has to transfer her chakra to Naruto through exact points over his seal," she said. "The points of impact have to be precise, and the amount of chakra has to be exact. On the other hand, Naruto does no need guiding points to discharge his chakra on her seal... for one it's because Yuki's seal is smaller. Secondly... unlike Kyuubi that's trapped in a particular cell in his boy, the Fuyu Seishin's domain is unrestricted. So Naruto has to plug in as much chakra as he can into her to reach it." It sounded a little complicated. But not impossible.

"I can't do it!" Yuki exclaimed irritably, grabbing all their attention once more. "It's no use. I can't see it properly. I'll just have to-..." Sasuke kept watching on silently as the nerve traces brought up by the byakugan faded away... and the sharingan spots suddenly emerge. "I can only copy your movement." Neji gave her a nod and then held up a hand in front of her. He stretched and bent his fingers to form 5 points like on a star.

"Wait," Gaara commanded softly as he moved forward. Sand started to collect around Naruto. It appeared that he was using them to help lift the blonde boy up a little. "This should be more convenient."

"Ready?" Neji asked Yuki. She nodded and focused her entire mind's sight on to the movements of his hand. He brought it sharply down and stopped just as he touched the skin just over the important chakra points - so he wouldn't end up hurting the already injured blonde unnecessarily.

"Okay," Yuki said as she then lifted her own hand.

"Naruto," Tsunade said. The blonde shifted his eyes to her. "All you need to do is collect chakra to your palm. Just like the rasengan, but don't make them swirl. Leave to it to collect in a large amount okay?" He blinked. "No swirling, Naruto, or you could hurt her." It seemed that he was almost too far gone in his fever to muster up any energy to even speak, but he still managed to give them a slight nod in confirmation.

"Sasuke," Yuki said under her breath. "You best let me go now."

"Yes. You should get out of the way," Gaara said too.

"No," was the stubborn reply.

"Don't say we didn't warn you," she said. Tsunade caught the ready look in her eyes and then stood up. She ordered all of them to give them some space. Well... a lot of space.

"You must hit each other over the seal at the same time, understand?" said Tsunade sternly. "If one of you is cancelled out before the other then there's a low chance for us to help the one that hasn't been cured yet."

"On one. Three," Gaara said. Both Yuki and Naruto brought up their hands and started collecting their chakra. The crowd silently witnessed the red flames from Naruto, and icy blue for Yuki, grow and dance around their palm and fingers. "Two." They went to a ready position. Sasuke unconsciously tightened his grip over Yuki.

At the call of, "One," there was a tense half-second where everybody started holding in their breath and then the moment of impact which was equally silent. Then when everyone started to let go of the tension Naruto and Yuki were somehow forcefully thrown back to opposite sides of the room. They were practically flying at high speed.

Naruto was lucky, the sand - though the force of the impact made it so he had burst through several walls of it, finally caught him in mid air before he could collide into the room's walls. Yuki, on the other hand... well, she was lucky too, but only because Sasuke had softened the impact for her and as a result he was then lying on a heap under her near the corner of the room.

"It worked!" Sakura cried out. She was the first to move - and had immediately tested out Naruto's temperature, which had significantly dropped. Gaara had manipulated his sand to carry him back to the centre of the room on a half-lying, half-sitting up position. Naruto kept blinking his eyes and then shifting from one side to another, as if trying to get his body to work properly again.

"That..." he said hoarsely. They all looked at him expectantly. He then burst out in a smile and then slowly pulled himself up. "That was awesome!" They all were near cheering when they looked over to the other side of the room - but then they found the other two that had been blown off... in an unmoving pile.

"Sasuke! Yuki-chan!" Naruto hollered as he slowly moved his still-shaky legs in their direction. His sudden panic was eased slightly as he saw that the Sasuke was, at least, moving.

Indeed, at least he was, but he had all the wind knocked out of him, so he was feeling very unbalanced. That and coupled with the weight on top of him. Carefully he moved from under the body and slowly pulled himself out.

"Yuki?" He received no answer. He quickly twisted around to face her. -She didn't seem to be breathing at all! "Oi..." Tsunade was suddenly beside her, checking her pulse, and somebody was pulling him up. He ignored whoever it was and focused his attention on Yuki. Only Yuki.

"Not good. Her pulse... it's still slowing," she said. Despair. It was written all over her face, and it was causing a pangs of discomfort that unsettled his heart.

"The effect might have been delayed-" Gaara began, but was interrupted by a random ninja that just entered the room.

"It's Itachi!" he cried out. "He's heading this way!" Of all the bad luck...

"Sasuke! Take her to a safe place! Go now!"