Hewwo people! Thanks for being so patient, I have had so much to do recently so I am glad none of you have given up on me… unless you already have. Well, anyway, here's chapter six for ya!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto… never will.

Chapter 6: Desperation

It was the morning of the next day and Sakura stood alone above the bridge waiting patiently for her teammates to arrive. A long, long while went by and suddenly Kakashi showed up and greeted Sakura.

"Good morning, Sakura." He waved. "Where are the others?"

Sakura shrugged slightly. She looked a little irritated as well. "I don't have a clue…" she had a hint of annoyance in her tone.

"That's odd. They haven't shown up yet?" Kakashi asked, somewhat confused. They were always there before he was.

Sakura shrugged and shook her head.

"Well I guess that means that we have to find them now, huh?" Kakashi asked rhetorically.

Sakura sighed. She did not want to have to search around the village for them, but at the same time she felt worried for the two. She nodded and started off into the village.

"I'll find Sasuke. You can go look for Naruto. Got it?" Kakashi cleared with her. "If you find him, just come back to the bridge. I'll meet you here."

She nodded again and took off in the direction of Naruto's apartment. Kakashi went the opposite direction and searched near Sasuke's house.

The silver-haired Jounin quickly searched the streets of Konoha on his way to Sasuke's house. No sign of him was anywhere so he only assumed he was inside. He must have slept in, Kakashi thought to himself, only hoping his assumption was correct. Finally he approached the front door of his student's house. He stopped running and walked casually up to the door and knocked.

No answer. He knocked again.

Still there was no answer. Maybe he wasn't home, but Kakashi had an odd feeling he was. He opened the door and took a step inside when he saw Sasuke, laying unconscious on the floor on the other side of the room. He lay, back against the wall, eyes shut, with his head hanging to the side.

Kakashi ran in, wondering what happened. Every step he took he smelled a rather familiar scent and questioned who could have been in the room with Sasuke before then. When he approached his comrade, he knelt down to his level and checked his pulse. It was gone, but he wasn't dead. Kakashi waved a hand in front of Sasuke's face but he didn't wake up.

Suddenly the scent became even more familiar and he instantly knew who had been there. He glared with his one visible eye and picked up his student and held him over his left shoulder. Kakashi sighed and left the room.

Now what does he want here? Kakashi thought. He knew it would only be a matter of time before Sasuke would awake so he carried him back to the bridge.

Meanwhile, Sakura ran through the village in search of the blonde-haired Kyuubi. She was a lot slower than Kakashi, so it took her longer to get to Naruto's apartment, but she eventually made it. She hadn't seen him anywhere on the way to his apartment, and everybody she asked said they hadn't seen him since the previous day.

She slowly walked up to Naruto's door and knocked on it. Just like at Sasuke's house, nobody answered the door. She knocked again and still no answer. She sighed and turned back around, almost about to walk away when she stopped in her tracks and turned back around, facing the door. She paused, unsure of whether or not she should just walk in. She had never seen Naruto's apartment before. She closed her eyes and sighed, opening the door carefully.

Sakura took a step into his apartment and looked around for a moment. To her right was a simple and small kitchen, only enough room for only one person to move around in it. To her left was a living room that had nothing but an old couch facing a broken window with dusty blinds and cheap carpeting. She didn't really expect much of his apartment so none of this was much of a shock to her.

That is, until she saw something scratched into the ceiling. Her curiosity took over her and she walked into the living room. She looked straight up and read the words. It isn't my fault everyone sees me as something I am not. But why do they all hate me for it? She squinted for a moment and then frowned. Does Naruto really think that? Sakura sighed. She felt bad for him and wished she could change how he thought. She realized that her entire life she had made it seem as though she hated him. She used to, sure, but after they became teammates she stopped hating him. If she had known before, maybe she could have changed his opinion. She looked at her feet and felt guilt flowing throughout her veins.

Suddenly, she saw a splurge of orange in the corner of her eye and shifted her eyes toward the hallway. Then, remembering why she was there in the first place, she ran over to Naruto and crouched down to his level. He was lying in a heap on the floor next to the wall, unconscious. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him gently.

"Naruto…" she spoke, seeing if she could wake him up. It didn't work, so she tried a little bit louder. "Naruto!" She shook him a couple more times when she finally heard a grunt. She stopped shaking him as he slowly began to open his eyes. Right about the time that they were half open, he came back to consciousness and acted startled as he realized, or, tried to realize what was going on.

"Sakura-chan! What are you doing here?" he asked her.

Sakura faintly smiled and held out a hand to help him up. "Well, you weren't at the bridge when Kakashi-sensei showed up and I," she began. She remembered the words that were inscribed into the ceiling and continued, trying not to pause. "I was worried so I came to look for you."

Naruto stared at her blankly. He then frowned. "Don't you mean Kakashi-sensei told you to find me?"

"No, not at all! I was worried that you might have been hurt or something so I came to find you." She half-lied. Kakashi did tell her to find him, but at the same time, she did care about what might have happened. She smiled at him.

Naruto suddenly remembered what had happened before, with Itachi, but he didn't say anything. He didn't think it would matter either way, but he didn't want the slight chance of worrying anybody. Also, if it hadn't been a dream, then Itachi probably would get angry at him for telling anybody and then probably kill him. He kept his mouth shut.

"Come on, Naruto. Let's go back." Sakura said while Naruto grabbed her hand and stood up. Naruto was sort of confused at why Sakura seemed so nice all of a sudden. He thought, maybe, she might have realized that he was suffering so much and decided to finally give a damn about it. But he realized that the possibilities of that were slim to none and just followed her out his front door.

When Kakashi finally reached the bridge, he set Sasuke down on the ground at the exact moment he started to open his eyes. When Sasuke finally came back to consciousness, he shot his eyes open and stood up as fast as he could. He turned toward Kakashi and asked, "Where is he?" His voice was cold and murderous. He wanted nothing more than to take his only chance to kill Itachi. So many things had happened so quickly and they were all for the better and now Itachi was going to try to take it all away again.

"Sasuke, calm down. I know who went to see you last night, but please, try to calm down." Kakashi urged him. He walked over and put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"How can I calm down? He will take everything away from me again! How can I calm down when he always seems to show up just when everything is going fine!" Sasuke was furious. For so long he had yearned to get revenge on Itachi but whenever the time was just ripe, something had to get in the way so that he couldn't. It was like a never ending cycle that he felt he could never overcome.

Kakashi frowned. "Sasuke I want to talk to you about something."

Sasuke clenched his fists and tried to look up as calmly as he could. Kakashi could see the hate and desperation in his eyes. "What is it?"

Kakashi stepped in front of Sasuke and looked him in the eyes. "You don't need to worry, I already know."

Sasuke was puzzled and annoyed. "What are you talking about?"

"I already know about you and your feelings for Naruto." He replied quietly.

Sasuke's eyes widened for a second and then he closed his eyes and tilted his head down, unclenching his fists. "Naruto…" he spoke to himself quietly. "I… I don't want my brother to take him…"

Kakashi sighed and rested his hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"So now you understand why I can't just calm down. He wants to take him away from me, just as things start to get better. He took my family… and now he wants to take him. You cannot expect me to just sit here and watch him steal my life from me…"

Kakashi frowned. "Well I suppose now you realize what it means to fight and to risk your life for someone you love." Kakashi mentioned.

Sasuke was silent. From there on he didn't have a clue as to what to say. Sasuke removed Kakashi's hand from his shoulder and walked away. He sat on the edge of the bridge and stared down at the water below them, looking at his reflection. Whenever he saw himself in a mirror, a photograph, or a reflection such as this, he would always imagine his mother and father standing beside him, smiling. He closed his eyes.

Damn you, brother. I will not let you take him away from me like you did with everything else.

Sasuke opened his eyes and picked up a rock from beside him, tossing it down into the water. He watched as the ripples slowly erased the image from his mind and then turned his back to the reflection. He leaned over and rested his elbows on top of his knees, clasping his fingers. He stared at the ground and Kakashi took a few steps away staring up at the sky as he waited for the other two genin to arrive at the bridge.

There's chapter six for you. I hope you liked it! Though it is kind of sad I still hope you did. I decided not to leave a cliffhanger this time but hopefully you will still be into the story and will want to continue reading. Also, PLEASE review. Thank you so much for sticking with me!