A/N: -guilty grin- Ooops. I kinda forgot about this…-smiles convincingly- You'll forgive me, ne? Gomennasai, gomennasai! In any event, I shan't make excuses, just give you the chapter. Once again, I apologize, and, once again, I say that this could not have been done without my co-authoress and friend, Shoujo Queen. Her PC is dead, so she can't help me on this chapter…-bites nails- so I hope it's still good.

Disclaimer: You know, what's with the baka disclaimers? As one author puts it, it's FANfiction. None of us own anything. Except me. I own Kakashi.

Chapter 13: Leaving, part II

"Bitch."

Ayumi's eyes crinkled in a snide grin at Nariesha's words.

"Well, everyone always says that having dog's blood WOULD be good for shinobi…you know, increased sense of smell and all that. I've just never had the pleasure…"

She narrowly avoided a rain of fire-tipped senbo speeding at her from Nariesha's direction.

"You know, you over use those," the green-eyed kunoichi continued.

Nariesha bared her teeth and lunged.

Ayumi brought her arm up in front of her throat just in time to catch the kunai in her already bleeding and broken wrist.

She let out an involuntary hiss of pain, and a single drop of sweat beaded off her forehead and dropped to the floor.

Nariesha smiled, and twisted the knife.

Ayumi gasped and gulped back the cry that rose in her throat.

"You baka-ketsu…"

Nariesha laughed.

"Oh, you poor little kunoichi…so pitiful, so weak. Too long off the field, ne?"

Ayumi let out a strangled scream as Nariesha slipped one of her special senbo in the space between the two kunai in her wrist and uttered,

"Bite me."

Nariesha smirked and wiggled the senbo.

"And don't think your lover will try to rescue you. He could really care less. He doesn't love you anymore, you know. It's simply been to long."

Ayumi's eyes narrowed and she gritted through teeth clenched tight against the pain, "It has NOT!"

With that, she threw Nariesha off of her and cracked the other shinobi's ankle bone.

She ignored Nariesha's cry, and used a Taijutsu to pin her to the floor and began pounding her face with a chakra-enhanced fist.

"It…has…not…been…too…long…he…still…loves…me…I…hate…you!"

She sat back on her heels and let a single tear fall onto Nariesha's twisted leg.

The pink-clad kunoichi lay motionless, her chest rising and falling slowly and shallowly. Her long gold-streaked hair lay bloody and messed on the shattered pieces of the floor, and her kohled eyelids were shut, fluttering loosely with every breath. Her tight kimono was ripped at the waist, and blood dripped off the jagged sdge of the fabric onto the already stained green belt. Her leggings were intact, and blood trickled down from the senbo incisions in her left calf. Her sandaled feet lay stretched at awkward angles, and the flush on her cheeks was slowly fading into bruises. Her nose was streaming blood, and the same liquid fell to her neck in a thin stream from her cracked lips.

Ayumi felt sick.

And she placed her gloved hands on the barely moving chest, and infused the girl with her chakra, sobbing the whole time.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Itachi leapt through the air, flying effortlessly with Kakashi right behind him.

He could sense the disturbances in front of him, where the copy-nin's team was battling his own trained Akatsuki shinobi, as well as the disturbances behind him, where Nariesha and Ayumi seemed to be having a pitched battle with little chakra loss.

Hardly surprising, he thought, considering that Higurashi could effectively turn all of Nariesha's jutsus against her.

He forced himself to concentrate on the problem at hand.

How in deepest hell do I do anything in this battle? He wondered, do I side with the genin, who surely do not deserve to die – except that blonde kid, Naruto, I can't stand him – or with my own Akatsuki, who are simply following my orders?

He sighed in frustration, getting a surprised look from his silver-haired companion in the process.

"Do you have a problem?" he snarled, tossing a red and black glare over his shoulder to the masked figure bounding along behind him.

Kakashi shrugged and kept leaping, the leaves barely moving as he passed them.

Itachi re-imposed his mental control and decided to leave well enough alone and focus on the mission.

His mission.

The one where he was going to get rid of the threat he had seen.

The one where Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, and their possible allies were at such odds they couldn't possibly harm him.

He trusted the Sharingan's occasional prophetic power, and had seen his demise, and that of the Akatsuki, written in the faces of the seventh training squad from the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Yes, it had been a dream.

But, when he woke, his Sharingan had been replaced by his own black eyes for the first time in years, and he knew that the dream was one influenced by his clan's Kakai Genkai.

By his most prized possession.

Now, it looked like he was going to have to kill Kakashi, for whom he had respect; Sasuke, in whom he saw amazing potential – not without a touch of pride, the boy WAS his brother, after all; Sakura, for whom he felt the teensiest attraction – and also respect, for daring to perform life-threatening jutsus to save her team; and Naruto.

Well, the last one he wouldn't mind.

The kitsune genuinely annoyed him, something no one had been able to do in a long time.

He shook his dark head.

Why did everyone always make it so hard for him?

Of course, it wasn't like he didn't know how to kill.

Or even that his emotions got in the way.

For god's sake, he had already killed both his parents!

No, it wasn't a reason he could define that made him reluctant to pick sides in this one.

Even though he was, by rights, leader of the Akatsuki.

And Kakashi's team knew too much about him.

He snarled in frustration, prompting another look from Kakashi.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Sasuke nearly cried out as the taller ninja bent his arm into shapes a contortionist would have been proud of.

The limb was already broken in several places, but that didn't deter the chuunin from having a little fun with the dark-haired genin.

Sasuke still felt powerful, thanks to the constant flow of chakra between Naruto and himself, but he needed two hands to be able to do anything…

Except Taijutsu, he suddenly remembered through the blinding pain.

He slammed back his opponent and, all out of kunai, used a piece of the bone protruding from his arm to slit the fabric-covered throat.

Blue eyes went wide as the shinobi fell, blood gargling in his throat and bubbling out of the jagged incision in his neck.

Sasuke felt sick.

Naruto was doing just as well, his clones attacking one shinobi while he handled a very adept kunoichi.

Her fingers helf fans of senbo with fire on their tips, and she launched them at the kitsune, prompting him to yell, "What's with you people and firey needles!"

Sasuke had to alugh – he couldn't help himself, and then he turned to the two enemy nin launching themselves at him.

One began forming an ice crystal spear, and Sasuke effortlessly copied the hand signs, arming himself with a spear just after his opponent did.

The other shinobi disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and reappeared seconds later to slide a kunai down Sasuke's bare arm.

He felt an unfamiliar tingle with the blade, and realized, with a strangled gasp, that it was poisoned.

Naruto came bowling past him, then got up with effort and knocked the knife-weilder unconscious with a Taijutsu before speeding off in the direction of the kunoichi, avoiding various types of senbo all the while.

His chest was already full of them, and he dragged a broken leg behind him as he made top speed through chakra jumps on his good leg.

The clones had been defeated, and their target was heading toward Naruto, seeing that his companions already had the Uchiha boy in good hands.

Naruto dove beneath a fresh onslaught of shuriken, and cried out in pain as his leg became more twisted, and the second bone cracked.

Sasuke threw off his opponents and ran to help his blonde companion up.

The boys stood back-to-back, supporting each other and still sharing the chakra link.

Sasuke murmured, "Shut your eyes, and don't use the Ikaesu."

Naruto nodded, and Sasuke proceeded to make hand signs through the thinning rain.

With a summing of all Naruto's transferred chakra, Sasuke proceeded to yell out the name of his finest Uchiha jutsu.

The massive flower of fire engulfed the woods, and Naruto chakra-stomped a deep hole, which he dragged his dark-haired team mate into.

The smoke cleared, and a blonde head popped out of the hole, only to dodge a fresh shower of shuriken from the ninjas who were dispersing their water shields.

"Damn!" Naruto swore, and Sasuke used a more vehement term.

The kunoichi grinned and licked her lips.

"I'd love a taste of that Uchiha blood, little shinobi."

The other three smirked and took up positions around the hole.

A few feet away, Sakura lay in a steadily spreading pool of red, her body becoming weaker as blood poured from the gash in her temple.

Neither of her teammates were in any position to help.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Kakashi."

The silver haired jounin nearly plowed into the stationary figure he had been following.

"Erm…Itachi. Wonderful time for a conversation, ne? Should I get out the tea and cakes?"

A fist swung back, knocking the masked figure to the ground as it's irate (well, slightly preterbed) owner spun to look at Kakashi.

"I have made a descision."

The fallen shinobi's visible eye widened in mock surprise, but Itachi cut him off before he could make a sarcastic comment.

"I'm going to call off the Akatsuki. Ah, don't interrupt. This time. On our next meeting, I shall not refrain from killing you and your team. For some reason, though, I feel a debt to you. Maybe it is as simple as that sense of companionship from sharing food. Maybe it is the fact that, despite our enmity for each other, you have treated me well. Perhaps, I feel some shame for manipulating you against your will. No matter which it is, I am unable to order your desctruction as of now. Next time, it will be very different. I want you to return to the house and stop whatever is happening between the women. If you don't, I swear I shall kill you where you stand, debts and worries aside. Go now."

With a wave of dismissal, Itachi leaped to the treetops and disappeared from view.

Gumbling, Kakashi rose and made off in the direction of the house.

Damn that kid, he thought. Giving me orders. Never mind the fact that he 'didn't want to kill us'. Give me a break. The two kunoichi are probably done their silly little fight, anyway. That Hamasaki girl didn't look particularly strong…just kinda seductive. Damn Itachi and his beady red eyes. Damn the rain too…

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Green eyes blinked into green eyes as Nariesha awoke.

Ayumi gave a tired smile and whispered, "Gomen," before falling to the side.

Surveying herself, Nariesha couldn't believe what she saw.
All her wounds were healed. The bones were mended, the cuts sealed, the numbness in her leg from the senbo gone, every bit of blood had been cleansed from her body…

She turned to survey the broken, bloody body of the kunoichi next to her and wondered.

A shinobi lives to kill, ne? But, if I was already more than half dead, why did she not leave me? Why did she heal me, at an expense to herself? I was, and probably still am, her enemy! But she healed me! This doesn't make any sense at all!

Her thoughts were interrupted by a flash of green and silver as a trim figure streamed past her to kneel at Ayumi's side and take one pale hand in his.

He turned to her, his eye a mask of confusion.

"What happened?"

The genuine emotion and anxiety in the voice of the lazy nin caught Nariesha by surprise, and she couldn't answer.

The man looked over her, and his eyes surveyed Ayumi before he tentatively guessed, "She healed you, didn't she?"

The gold-streaked head nodded slowly as green eyes went to the ground and stayed there.

Kakashi sighed dramatically.

"When I used to help her train, whenever she hit me, she'd apologize, and she always healed me after the fight. She did that with everyone she sparred with, from Anko and Tsunade to Kurenai and Iruka. It didn't matter, friend, teacher, even enemies, she could never fight without apologizing, and her teammates often had to drag her away from the scence of a fight to prevent her healing the enemy combatants. From what I understand, it was a Higurashi trait – linked to their large amounts of chakra, their Kakai Genkai, and the reson they built this house."

He shook his head and shrugged.

"She'll be better in a few hours."

Nariesha found her voice and murmured, "But, shouldn't we get her cleaned up?"

Kakashi nodded and began methodically removing the weapons from Ayumi's body. And, incidentally, her jumpsuit, too.

All without a flicker of anything.

Nariesha shook her head. She'd never understand men.

She moved over to assist Kakashi in trickling chakra-gathered water from the rain onto the kunoichi's bloody body, and then they heard it.

"KAKASHI! NARIESHA! HIGURASHI! GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE NOW!"

With a start, the two conscious shiobi leaped to their feet and looked at each other.

Looking at Ayumi's slumbering, and now clean, form, they decided that she'd be all right, and left in the direction of the voice.

Itachi's, no doubt.

Although it was surprising to both of them, they didn't stop to wonder.

Stranger things had happened in the last few days, so they weren't going to even beginm to question the supreme god of unemotion's new voice reaising technique.

No sir.

Simply wasn't going to happen.

They reached the clearing without surpassing the record (after all, he had sworn at them. Had to teach him a tad of a lesson), and stopped short.

"Dammit," Itachi glared, "I really needed Higurashi right now."

"Needed Higurashi!"

"Aren't you two, well, um…mortal enemies?"

"Shut up, both of you. Look at the genin, you fools. None of us have enough knowledge of healing jutsus to repair this damage. Higurashi's the only one who does. Idiots!"

Kakashi and Nariesha did as ordered and ended up staring.

Sakura. She lay in a pool of her own blood, her pink hair streaming beneath her; her dark pink dress torn and bloody; one arm twisted on her stomach, the other bent near her head; her legs tangled with each other and one at least broken. The pulsing at her forehead and the rise and fall of her breast were slow and uneven, and the blood that burst forth with each breath looked slower and stickier.

Sasuke. His right arm broken, with shards of bone protruding andblood drippig off of everything; his left arm scratched and bruised, with one long gash that was already starting to turn black with the tell-tale signs of poison; shuriken studding his legs and his hands gripping a kunai sheathed in the hollow of his stomach. Chakra rolled of of him in waves as he continued recieiving fom Naruto's body.

Naruto himself. Chest and arms studded with senbo; one leg broken and splayed awkwardly; the other badly burnt and bleeding from numerous shuriken; a deep gash in the middle of his forehead, where his hiate should have beem. It lay on the round, beside him, covered in blood and broken into pieces. Blood was escaping his lips and the red liquid seeped from under one closed eyelid as well.

Itachi stood rigid, his eyes on his brother.

"Right now, if he were whole, he'd be stronger than I am."

Kakashi spun.

"What?"

Itachi's black head turned and he looked the copy-nin straight in the eye.

"That chakra, from Naruto. It's filling him. He's stronger than you or I will ever be. Sat this moment, he is invincible. If he knew more justsus, it's very possible that I wouldn't have had to stop the Akatsuki. Sasuke would have finished them off."

Naruto grumbled.

"Why is it always about Sasuke? That's my chakra, my power. And I don't feel weak, at all, and we've been sharing it for a while. Dammit, how can you look at him and say he's invincible, when if I knew more jutsus, I could easily have won. We're talking about my chakra here!"

Kakashi knelt beside his blonde stundent, and fondly rumpled the hjair.

"Naruto. Gomen. You are correct. However," Itachi continued, "Neither of you are in any shape tobe fighting anything. Nit today, ot for a while."

He scooped up the younger Uchiha in one fluid motion and headed off in the direction of the house.

Nariesha and Kakashi looked at each other and shrugged, and the kunoichi picked up Sakura, being careful to support her head, while Kakashi hefted a protesting Naruto.

"I can walk! Really, I can! Kaaaaakaaaashiiiii-seeenseeeiii! Let me walk, baka! I can do it! I can…mmmphfff…"

Kakashi smiled through the mask as he firmly placed his gloved hand over Naruto's mouth, and the shinobi with their burdens sprinted off.

A/N: Okeiedokie! The characters might be a tad OOC in this…haven't seen any Naruto in over a week. ;.; Pity me. The next chapter shold be up terribly soon. . Love you all!