Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for the late update! I had a HUGE speech that was due last Monday so I had to get that done. But now I'm back in business! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: If you have read up to this point, you should know that I do not own Naruto. Woo. Nuff said.

Chapter Ten: Genjutsu

The rest of the day seemed unnaturally long. For some odd reason, Sakura still hadn't woken up the entire time, while Naruto probably fell asleep somewhere along the way. Well, that's what Sasuke thought, anyway.

Many hours had passed and Sasuke could not, no matter how hard he tried, get to sleep. He tossed and turned countless times in order to find a more comfortable position on his cot. Then again, how comfortable could one really get on one of those things? The width of each mattress was about three inches, and they were always cold, even after one had been laying on it for a while. The surface each cot lay on was that of many rusty, easily-breakable-looking springs with rusty aluminum legs on either end.

Sasuke lie on top of his cot for a few more minutes, staring up at the pitched-black roof. It was especially dark, save the small crack of light underneath the door, because the light was off, and frankly, being underground, there were no windows. Sooner or later, Sasuke became overwhelmingly bored with tossing and turning. He rolled his body over to the side of the bed and stood up.

With the unclear idea of exactly where he was planning to go, he stumbled to the door and opened it, ignoring the loud squeak the hinges emitted, and walked into the corridor. He subconsciously licked his dry lips and started down the corridor toward the door they all entered through.

Naruto, who had not actually fallen asleep, stood up and walked over to the door Sasuke had opened. He poked his head out and watched the older boy step up the ladder and open the door to leave. When Naruto could no longer see him, he stepped out of the room and closed the door. He followed Sasuke's tracks to the door, knowing it would be unsafe if Sasuke was to leave. He stepped up the ladder and opened the door.

Meanwhile, Sakura was lying in her bed, awake. She heard Sasuke get up and leave, and just soon after, Naruto followed him. Where were they going? Sakura stood up and cautiously ran through the dark room to the door. She opened it and looked left- no one. She looked right- still no one was there. She stepped out and decided her best guess was the door. She was still tired, so her footsteps were sluggish. She wasn't worried that her teammates would get into trouble, so she walked slowly through the corridor.

Sasuke walked through the desert area of Konoha, looking up at the clear night sky. He never told anybody, but stars were the one thing he could look at and completely forget about everything for just that one moment. He walked slowly through the dark, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

Suddenly, he felt something or someone hit him straight in the center of his back. He coughed and turned around to see what are who it was. When he didn't see anybody, he turned back around and immediately felt something slam him hard in the stomach. He doubled over and coughed up a few drops of blood, falling to the ground. Is this Genjutsu? He wondered as he held his stomach in pain. No… this is something else.

Just then he remembered the invisible enemies on the bridge the other day. His eyes widened and he knew he was probably done for. There was absolutely no way he could defeat them if he couldn't see them. He allowed his eyes to bleed from his original ebony black into the recognizable Sharingan red with three commas. Still he could not see anything. Suddenly he felt multiple kunai stab him in the back. He winced and rolled onto his stomach, breathing heavily. Another blow to the body and he would probably die.

Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the exact same recognizable people from the bridge crowding around Sasuke who was lying on the ground. He sprinted over as fast as he could. When he was about five feet away from the closest one, he shouted to get their attention, "Hey you! Your opponent is me!"

They all turned around to see the same boy who… killed them before. Only this time, he looked even angrier than before. His eyes were red with two elongated black slits in the center. His whiskers deepened and his hair looked a bit more ruffled. When he clenched his teeth, they could see that his canines were longer and sharper as well as his nails, or, claws. Surrounding himself with a different, and more frightening red chakra, he growled.

"Don't you… lay a finger on him!" he shouted angrily at the six people who now looked a little bit more frightened.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he yelled. Suddenly, thousands of Narutos appeared. "What? Are you scared?" he asked them.

"Tch…" one of them snorted.

"This is taking too long." Naruto and all of his fellow Narutos ran at the six people whose stances immediately changed. They each took out a kunai of their own and sliced through as many of them as they could.

"We already know that all we have to do is kill the real one…" another one shouted. Each of them had killed at least a hundred of them and now there were only two left. "Hn. It's a fifty-fifty chance. You're out of luck." Two of the invisible (but not so invisible to Naruto) people chose a Naruto to stand in front of. Neither of the Kyuubi Narutos budged as the enemies took out another kunai, holding it up to their necks. The two whose lives were being threatened, smirked.

"I'll take that filthy smirk right off your face, baka!" they shouted, stabbing the kunai straight into the Narutos' necks. Both of them disappeared in a poof of white smoke, leaving the six enemies confused.

"Up here!" the real Naruto shouted as he jumped down from the top of a deserted building. He held three kunai in one hand and three in the other, throwing one each at the enemies. Each of them successfully stabbed an enemy through the heart, causing them to fall dead, and visible, to the ground. Naruto successfully avoided Sasuke's body when he tossed the kunai. He landed just next to Sasuke's head and checked his pulse. Thankfully, it was still there, but slow.

"Sasuke… are you alright?" he asked softly to the bloodied boy next to him. Sasuke didn't answer him, but Naruto already knew he would live. That is, only if he took him to Tsunade. Otherwise, he knew, Sasuke definitely would not survive. But he did not dwell on the fact. "I'm going to take these kunai out now." He told his friend to prepare him for the pain. He grabbed two of them and pulled them out quickly; then two more; finally the last one. Naruto picked up his friend and carried him carefully to the Hokage's office.

Meanwhile, Sakura was watching in fear from afar. When she saw Naruto pick up Sasuke and walk off, she could not contain herself anymore. Please be alright, Sasuke-kun! She thought. She ran over towards the village but accidentally tripped on a huge rock she hadn't seen, falling straight on her face. When she hesitantly stood up and brushed the dirt off of her clothes, she noticed that peculiarly, the invisible people who had just turned visible, vanished again. She paused in fear. What was going on? She brought her hands up close to her face and panicked. Suddenly, she heard footsteps coming slowly closer to her but when she turned around, she didn't see anybody.

"No!" she screamed. The footsteps stopped when they got very close to her. "Please! Don't hurt me!" she screamed almost uncontrollably. Then she heard the enemy chuckle evilly, and felt one of them touching her shoulder.

"Why not, though? When you look so ready to die…" on of them whispered into her ear seductively.

"Because! I have to get back to my friends! They need me!" she shouted back.

"That's too bad. We already killed them. Why don't you join them?" another said.

"No! They aren't dead! I saw them leave!"

"Oh, you did?" she heard.

"Y… yeah…"

"Look again."

Sakura turned around and looked in the direction of the village when she saw Sasuke and Naruto lying unconscious on the ground. When she realized it was them, tears formed in the corners of both of her eyes. She closed her eyes tightly and shook her head violently. "No! I don't believe it!" she screamed. She fell to her knees and cried.

"When you thought you saw your friends leave, that was actually a Genjutsu. You fell for it." One of the invisible freaks told her.

"See? Now don't you think it would be better if you died along with them?" another one suggested.

Sakura didn't reply. She sat there, unknowing if she was supposed to believe them or not.

"Should we take that as a yes?"

"Yes. She has no purpose in this world anymore. Let's kill her."

"Too bad… and all she got to do was watch her friends die. Oh well. No sympathy."

Sakura screamed and clenched her teeth. I'm helpless again! If my teammates were here, I would just be in the way like usual… maybe I should just let them kill me. It would certainly get me out of the way, even if the bad guys are lying to me about them all being dead. She thought. Maybe this is what is best…

A/N: If any of you were wondering, Sakura cannot dispel Genjutsu in this fanfic. Just so you know.