Hahaha I'm such a jerk for not updating out of sheer laziness. Well, there's the whole school orientation thing (it's WAY different here in Indonesia- the seniors give you all these difficult tasks in high school orientation time that'll strain you both physically and mentally, meant to make you tougher and more prepared. Ouch- I'm still not over it)

Umm... more Akatsuki involvement?

Where are you?

My friend, my comrade...

Sakura continued running- Naruto's chakra was getting closer, and she didn't think he was captured by Akatsuki yet.

She looked through the bushes, and found a splatter of blood on one of the leaves.

'Naruto!'

'Oi!' she yelled. 'Naruto! Are you okay?'

She pushed her way through the thick shrubs.

But it wasn't Naruto there. She didn't know how he had Naruto's chakra on him- Naruto would never go on a pointless fight, to the point of almost killing the opponent, unless necessary.

It was a young man, left unconscious and with fatal injuries.

Looking at the gory scene, it was clear that the man was a shinobi.

She examined him, found no evidence that he belonged to an enemy organisation, and deduced that he was a rogue one.

He looked like he was about her age- but he could always be younger- the life of a rogue shinobi could take toll on a person's looks.

Even though he was covered with dirt, and traces of dried blood, she couldn't deny that the man was very good-looking.

She blushed, and shook her head.

'Not the time to be thinking about that, Sakura!' she thought.

'Come on, let's get you treated,' she exclaimed, and dragged him to a cleaner, and hopefully safer place.

The Quest

By Infinite Inficio

Chapter Four

'Damn,' Shikamaru muttered. 'Damn.'

'What?' Neji questioned, as they continued searching for clues of where Naruto might've went.

'It's so much harder without putting some tracking device on Naruto… now we have to troublesomely use our outdoorsman skills… We don't even know whether he's already captured or not.'

'Oh,' Neji spoke, 'I thought you were talking about Sakura.'

'What about Sakura?'

'We should've let her joined, even without Captain's consent- it'd be dangerous for her to travel by herself.'

Shikamaru sighed. 'It's too troublesome to find her now. Do you really think it was a wise decision not to tell Captain?'

'Yeah,' Neji answered. 'But he probably knows about it by now, anyway.'

'…'

Neji stopped.

Shikamaru abruptly stopped as well, and bumped Neji.

He groaned, and separated himself from the other Squad Captain.

Neji rubbed his back. 'Watch it.'

'Sorry…'

'Look at this,' Neji pointed.

Shikamaru's eyes widened.

'Blood.'

'Some of Naruto's, and someone else's chakra seeped out- there are a few traces of it here. So it's probably his blood.'

'If his chakra along with someone else's seeped out…' Shikamaru started. 'That means he was involved in some sort of a battle.'

'Shikamaru,' Neji called, as he looked through the bushes. 'Look at this.'

Blood was all over the grass, splattered all over bushes, and some trees were even cut down.

'Ouch,' Shikamaru exclaimed. 'Must be some fight they had back then.'

'…' Neji searched the more likely scene for clues.

'How come there are no corpses?' Shikamaru asked lazily

'…' Neji stayed silent. 'That I do not know.'

'Am I… dead?'

Sasuke was surrounded by darkness.

He felt like the air has dried up, and his body had frozen, but he felt a warm radiance around his chest.

'I can't die yet…' he thought. 'I have to kill Itachi…'

Then a white glow appeared in the distance.

Sasuke found that he couldn't move- or if he did, he couldn't tell.

Another white glow appeared- then two green glows, then another white one- and another, and another and-

Sasuke jerked his eyes open, and found a chakra glow hovering around his chest.

He took his kunai out, still pretending to be out cold, and without looking, attempted to lunge it inside whoever was inputting chakra into him.

He heard a shriek- it wasn't his previous opponent.

It was a girl- it seemed that she narrowly avoided his kunai, but checked her right hand just in case.

'You,' he started sharply. 'What are you doing?'

He held the kunai in front of her threateningly.

'I… I was just healing-'

'Don't lie to me! What were you really doing, putting chakra into my blood system?'

Sasuke had to stop himself from activating the Sharingan out of panic.

'I was stopping your excess blood loss.'

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. The girl was convincing, but she could always be sent from an organisation.

'Which one?'

'What?'

'Which organisation did you come from?'

'A-ANBU.'

'Hunter-nin, were you sent to capture rogue shinobis, or to kill them? Because I assure you, if you value your life-'

'No! No! I… That's not my mission! I'm not a hunter-nin! I just ran away from ANBU!'

'Why would you run away?'

She backed away, hating the interrogation.

'Because… I… I…'

'Answer me!' Sasuke lashed out.

'I need to find the Akatsuki headquarters!' she answered, growing impatient.

After registering the little bit of information, Sasuke slowly put his kunai down, and approached her.

'How are you supposed to do that?'

'Well… you see… My friend… he has a bijuu inside him… so we… he decided to use the bijuu as bait, and I can follow him and find Akatsuki's location.'

'How will you be able to follow him?'

Sakura swallowed the lump in her throat. 'His chakra is distinctive, and I can track it from a safe distance.'

'Do you think you are able to do such a difficult job?'

'Not exactly…'

'Then why are you doing it?'

'Because… I want, need to save him.'

'…'

'…'

Sasuke pondered- while having the girl around can be irritating, added with the difficulty of keeping the Sharingan secret from her, she could make his task easier.

'Well, kunoichi,' Sasuke started. 'I also have the same quest- to destroy Akatsuki.'

'Uh...'

'Now, with your tracking skill, and my power, we can save your… friend. How about it?'

The girl would be another step closer to Itachi.

'Umm… well… Can I ask you something first?'

'What?'

'Have you seen him? He has blonde hair, blue eyes… and he's about this tall.' Sakura put her hand in the air, up to Naruto's height.

'…'

'So… Have you?'

'… No… I haven't…'

Naruto winced from the pain, and sat down, leaning on a tree.

His arm had a slight burn from the battle with the legendary Uchiha, and his leg was bleeding non-stop.

He tightened the bandage on his leg.

That Uchiha Sasuke was a formidable opponent. He didn't know what would've become of him if he didn't have the ability to borrow Kyuubi's power.

He thought about running his drinking water on the burn, but that'd waste his water supply, so he decided not to, and took a drink instead.

He wiped his mouth, and stared at his injured leg again.

Naruto panicked slightly- it would be a bad- no, terrible situation for Akatsuki to find him in this situation.

He needed to find Sakura.

The girl continued to stare at him as if he grew another head, and it was disturbing him greatly.

'If you have a question, all you have to do is ask.'

The girl flushed- showing that it was indeed what she was thinking of.

'Umm... since we're going to be travelling together... I thought we should know each other's name first...'

'I'm Sakura.'

'Well...?'

'It's reasonable if you don't have one, I suppose, being a rogue-'

Sasuke shifted slightly- the fact that he was a rogue shinobi was a touchy subject.

'I have a name,' he replied abruptly.

The girl mumbled a soft "sorry" before she exchanged her gaze to her bag, lacking anything else to focus on.

'... Sasuke...'

'Huh?'

'My name is Sasuke.'

'Zetsu.'

The man walked in- even though he travelled for days back to the Akatsuki lair, he showed no sign of tiredness whatsoever.

The leader looked inquisitively at him, expecting the man to know what he wanted to know about.

And he did.

'The jinchuuriki is currently heading towards the direction he came from.'

'How is his condition?'

'He is badly injured- it is probable that he was in a fight earlier, and is now seeking for assistance.'

'I presume he's trying to find his pursuer?'

Zetsu nodded.

'Is the pursuer alone?'

'I was unable to get close, but I believe he was traveling alone.'

'... Send Deidara after him. Get rid of the pursuer as soon as possible.'

'Yes, Leader.'

'I think that's all for today, un.'

'Deidara-senpai... shouldn't we finish the job-'

'We finished the goddamn job, un!'

'Well, we did destroyed all evidences of us being here... by destroying the whole village... but wasn't the main objective to find the scrolls-'

'Did you think I forgot about that, eh? I was going to discuss about it until you interrupted me!'

Tobi did great at pissing him off.

'Aa... Sorry, Deidara-senpai...'

'Have you completed your task?'

Deidara turned his head. 'Zetsu... you should stop doing that, un. Just because you keep getting direct orders from Leader...'

He stopped, not completing the sentence.

'Leader would like you to assist Itachi in retrieving his assigned jinchuuriki.'

'Isn't that Kisame's job? Look- I've just- okay, Tobi and I have just taken care of the Sanbi-'

'I am sure that Leader is aware of that.'

'Hmph.'

'He specifically requested for you to do the job.'

'Do I get to go with Deidara-senpai?'

'Of course you don't!' Deidara scoffed.

'... The jinchuuriki has a shinobi following him. Leader would like you to get rid of the pursuer immediately. The pursuer is currently unaware that we have discovered his presence.'

'Eh? That's it?'

'He might prove as a bit of a challenge- to be able to track down the jinchuuriki's chakra from that distance could make him quite powerful.'

'Would this take a long while?'

'I believe not. The pursuer had reached the north-west border of Fire Country, and judging by the direction the jinchuuriki and him are travelling in, they are nearing the shinobi community in Waterfall Country.'

'I'll start tomorrow, un.'

'Leader thought you might say that, and he recommended that you start the journey now to use your time more effectively.'

'... But I'm deprived of chakra, un.'

'The Leader might want to hear about this-'

'Fine! I'll go! But I'm getting a rest first...'