"NARUTO, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE RIGHT NOW, BEFORE I KILL YOU!" A furious Sakura stalked through the training forest, searching for Naruto. Obviously she had picked up his swearing habit over the years they had spent around eachother. A curious Naruto, only moments before, had noticed his pink haired friend looking at something. Upon closer inspection, he had found her holding a newly made dagger, engraved with many strange markings that he didn't understand. It had been a gift for her birthday, from Kakashi. Unfortunately, the said ninja hadn't been paying much attention to the hyper blondie who had slowly been creeping up on Sakura, who was so engrossed in disbelief that she had recieved such a present, that she hadn't detected Naruto's chakra.

The copy ninja groaned when Naruto's curiosity overcame his sensible thinking, and he snatched the dagger from Sakura's hands. She immediately flew into a rage and the blonde had bolted in fear of his life. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to drop the present and had made off with it. Kakashi rubbed his only visible eye and sighed. Perhaps if he tried to calm the girl down, everything would be fine, and Naruto wouldn't need to stay in hospital for three weeks again. Like last time. Kakashi shuddered and without realising, had covered his manly parts. He definately sympathised with the blonde that day...

He approached the girl who used to be his student and placed a careful hand on her shoulder. The look she gave him was enough to make him immediately back away, and he scratched the back of his head with his eye crinkled in nervousness.

Sakura wordlessly nodded and continued her hunt.

Kakashi glanced behind him, noticing a fearful Naruto, waving to get his attention. He shook his head, straight away, not wanting to incure the girl's wrath on himself, by being seen with her current enemy. He faced away from the blonde, hoping that he'd give up, but instead he tossed the dagger and the copy ninja couldn't help but catch it. It was times like these that Kakashi really hated his reflexes.

Sakura seemed to have caught the sound of the swoosh that the dagger made when it flew in the air. She was at Kakashi's side in an instant, somehow managing to tower over him, even though he was more than a head taller than her. He laughed, more nervous than ever and hesitantly handed her back her gift, which she snatched away from the hands of what she felt to be an enemy, and tucked it into her belt. She looked up at him expectantly, more calm now that she had her dagger, but still annoyed.

Kakashi pointed to the bush where Naruto was hiding and she cracked a scary smile, pulling him down for a hug of thanks for the present, and for pointing out where the blonde was. He tried not to shake from fear. Both men had faced many deadly and frightening monsters in their life times...but Sakura...Sakura was scary.

The copy ninja sighed to himself and thought, We are so whipped.

Before Naruto had even realised what was happening, Sakura had forced all the chakra she could manage into her right hand and had slammed her closed fist into the ground as hard as she could. All the blonde saw was a large ripple running along the ground, before the earth split before his eyes and shattered. He let out a highpitched scream when he felt the earth below him shatter and give way. He dragged a tree down with him, as he fell into the dark hole. He hoped desperately that she hadn't made too deep a hole. That would be bad.

A loud THUMP! echoed throughout the forest after a solid two minutes of falling on Naruto's part, and Sakura walked past Kakashi, clapping her hands together in satisfaction, ridding her skin of any dirt.

Definately going to have to take him to the hospital again, The older man thought to himself grimly, not daring to look into the hole himself.

Orochimaru sat on his "throne" with Kabuto standing beside him. They were gazing at the blood stained wall oposite them, that had flea ridden corpses hanging from hooks. They seemed to be in deep thought.

It had been two weeks since Sasuke had left, promising them victory and his loyalty. He hadn't even winced when he was told what his mission was. He actually seemed...glad...Or so, that's what they thought, judging from his walk out of the throne room, after Snake-Man had talked to him.

"He definately had a bounce in his step," gossiped Orochimaru, excitedly.

"So you've told me..." about a thousand times since he left. You're never like this when I have a bounce in my step. Oh no. It's always Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke!

"What is the matter with you?"

"Nothing...nothing at all."

"Hm..."

A loud, long squeak-gas-like sound filled the room as Orochimaru shifted to get more comfortable. Kabuto glanced at him from the corner of his eye and muttered, "You really need to get that fixed."

"Indeed."

Sasuke leapt from tree to tree, the ground below a blur to his onyx eyes and the wind blowing his equally black hair back. As much as he had tried to deny to himself that this was just like any other mission, the young man couldn't help but notice the hammering of his heart as he neared Konoha. His old home...and his old teammates. He had formulated somewhat of a messy plan, that by far needed to be perfected before he carried out his mission. He had to ensure that Kakashi wouldn't discover he had returned with intentions to kidnap Naruto and the Kyuubi. He sort of hoped that he could have a little fight with the blonde, too. But he wouldn't tell Orochimaru that. Sasuke figured that Sakura would pose no threat, even if she caught him. She would be easy to take care of. He felt he was being realistic, assuming that she still cared more for her looks and romance than her fighting skills. It was definately Kakashi and Naruto himself that he would have to look out for.

He felt that a disguise would be neccessary to find where Naruto was currently staying, to get his plan working correctly.

Sasuke looked up from his musings to find himself heading towards Konoha's gates, and his form flickered from view, before vanishing altogether. He reappeared on the other side, shorter, stubbier and with sandy brown hair and dull grey eyes. His clothes looked grotty and he looked down at them with distaste. He was a very clean and neat person, and liked everything perfect. He glanced behind him at the gates and saw two men, sleeping side by side who were supposed to be guarding the village. He snorted, So this is what Konoha has become after only a few years of peace? pathetic.

He shook his head and headed towards the place where he knew either Naruto would be, or the shop keeper could tell him where Naruto was.

On his way, Sasuke found that nothing had changed since he had left, except that now a woman's face was carved into the large rock over-looking the village, next to the other Hokages. He assumed it to be the Tsunade that Orochimaru had mentioned a few times. Before he had even realised it, his feet had carried him straight to Naruto's favourite ramen stall. The man behind the table beamed down at him and swept his hand out to motion to the many available chairs. Sasuke nodded and smiled awkwardly back, sitting down in an old chair closest to a way out. It creaked when he put his full weight on it, and he wondered if it would break.

"What would you like, son?" Sasuke snapped his gaze to the old man and shook his head.

"Nothing," He paused, then looked around briefly before asking, "Have you seen Naruto around?"

The man behind the counter sighed heavily and stared off into nothingness, "None of us have seen Naruto since the...accident..."

The accident? what accident? is Naruto... Sasuke was surprised to feel a jolt at the thought. Naruto couldn't possibly be...dead!

"Is he...de--"

"Dead! No, of course not!"

Sasuke let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and mentally berrated himself for it.

"Haven't you heard? you mustn't be from around here," The old man pulled out a soaked, old rag and began wiping the counter, "No, Naruto was foolish enough to inflict a woman's wrath upon himself. Poor fella. Didn't see the earthquake heading for him until it was too late...Even Kakashi couldn't save him."

He stopped cleaning and leaned forward, motioning for Sasuke to move closer so he could tell him something in private, "I heard...that Kakashi was actually frozen to the spot...in fear."

The young man's eyes went wide and he stared in disbelief, earthquake? Kakashi frozen to the spot in fear! a woman's wrath! what the hell was going on!

He snapped out of the shock with a shake of his head and asked, "So...where's Naruto...?"

"Oh, he's in Konoha hospital, under the Hokage's assisstant's care." He winked at him, then turned away and wiped down the bench again, though it seemed he was spreading the grime, rather than cleaning it, "She's a toughie, that one. It's rumoured that she's the one who put him there."

"Why'd you want to kno--?" He looked up only to find that the mysterious boy had left. He shook his head and smiled, "Kids these days."

So, now he not only had to watch out for Kakashi and Naruto, Sasuke had to watch out for the mystery assisstant of the Hokage, too. He knew she would have to be extremely powerful for the woman to take her on as a student. He walked with his hands in his pockets towards the hospital, thinking. Perhaps rather than being sneaky, as everyone would expect that from an attack, he wondered if he should be upfront and just walk straight in and take Naruto. He decided that would be the best course of action, and if that backfired, he was confident he would be able to think on his toes.

He reached the massive building of Konoha hospital and idly wondered why every major place in the Narutoverse seemed to be so close together. He frowned and pushed the doors open, walking up to the main desk.

"Naruto's room?"

The nurse behind the desk blinked at him and the bluntness of his question and answered almost straight away, "Room B two"

He nodded and strode past her. Once he was out of anyone's sight he bolted up the stairs three at a time, until he reached the second level. Room B was only two doors to his left and he pushed the door open and walked right in without knocking. He didn't think there was any point, since he was kidnapping and all, and it was best to take Naruto by surprise. It was he, however, who was left surprised. He stood in the middle of the room, unsure of what he was seeing.

Naruto was in bed, bloody and bruised with grains of what seemed to be...dirt? smudged on his face. He was hooked up to many wires and machines that went beep! every now and then...He had a frozen look of terror on his face, too...

Sasuke made to reach out to his old friend to see if he was real, he was obviously distracted, because the next moment someone had ran into his back and he fell forward onto Naruto's bed.

"Oops! so sorry about that!" The someone was a young woman. She seemed...sweet...and then her voice switched, "Who the hell are you?"

He spun around to look at her, his mouth open as though he was going to say something. His words died on his lips.

Sakura stood in front of him, the clipboards she had dropped when she ran into Sasuke, lay forgotten at her feet. She looked shocked. Her pink hair was a mess and her medic coat was crumpled and creased at her sides where she was now clenching it.

"Sasuke?"

He looked down at himself and saw that he was, indeed, Sasuke. Damnit!