A/N: Hey! waves

I'm back and still alive and I hope you won't kill me after this chapter but wait for the next chapter instead… sweatdrop

I'll try to update as fast as possible – I posted this chapter faster then I had planned so I guess I'll post the next well we'll see…

Chapter six

Hearing Naruto's outcry Sakura rushed into the room where he was with Sasuke at her heels. She stopped unable to move at the scene in front of her: Naruto was sitting in a pool of blood with a motionless Hinata in his arms. "What happened?" She whispered. Naruto didn't answer, he didn't even look at her, he just shook his head. Sasuke went past her to Naruto but then suddenly stopped and looked up to the ceiling. Sakura saw a few drops of blood falling on his face which made it look like as if he was crying blood but then she looked up, too. Sakura gasped reading what was written there with blood, most likely Hinata's blood, 'That was for killing our comrade and the rest of you will die soon, too! Just you wait!' Without even noticing she held her arms in front of her as if this could protect her from what was coming. Sasuke knelt down next to Hinata and felt her pulse but he couldn't find any. He closed his onyx eyes and shook his head. She was undoubtedly dead. Now Sakura knelt down next to him too and told him to spread those horrible news but before letting him go she brushed away these blood-tears with her hand slightly shaking. Only a few minutes later, although they seemed like an eternity, Kiba rushed into the room followed by Shino, Neji and Shikamaru. Kiba slumped down next to his teammate crying and Shino stopped next to him though his emotions were hidden by his sunglasses and his collar. Now Neji knelt down next to Naruto and tried to take Hinata but Naruto clutched her only harder. "Naruto please, let her go." Sakura begged quietly. Reluctantly he handed her over to Neji. Outside hey did the same with her what they did with the jounins the day before.

After a small wooden cross joined the other five crosses Shikamaru told them that it would be too dangerous to stay there so they had four minutes to pack. Sakura ran into her room grabbing her bag and throwing everything what she could find into it. Seeing Sasuke doing the same she wondered whether all would be packing this way. After this she jumped out of the window since this was faster than using the door and ran back with Naruto and Sasuke not far behind her. They all arrived almost at the same time except for Lee who came slowly staggering towards them. His lips were moving but no words came out and then he broke down. Immediately Sakura and his teammates as well as the others rushed to his side. Sakura felt his pulse but there was none. She turned him on his back and seeing his lips becoming blue she knew he had been gravely poisoned – a poisoned that killed him within four minutes. Suddenly there were kunais flying towards them from nearly all directions so that they had no choice left then to leave Lee and take cover in the woods. Not waiting for the enemies to attack again they ran away quickly.

They went up a little mountain path and followed it for quite a while when Tenten stumbled. She tried to get up again but winced and sat back. (A/N: The path is small so that they have to go one after the other) Neji who was behind her knelt down and saw what was wrong. Her ankle was red and swollen and it looked definitely painful. Feeling his stare Tenten quickly covered it with her hand. "Can you walk?" Neji asked worried. She nodded though she didn't look at him "I'll be okay in a minute or two…" Neji looked first at Tenten and then at the others in front of them saying "You guys can go ahead and we'll follow you soon, okay?" Shikamaru shook his head. "This isn't an open area so you could easily lose our track and then you won't be able to find us anymore." Now Kiba, who was just like Neji and Tenten at the end of the group, suggested "I can wit here with them and so Akamaru and I can lead them by following your scent." Shikamaru nodded although hesitantly and with that they left Kiba, Neji, Tenten and Akamaru on the path while they started to climb down into lower areas with more trees around where the path was broader.

Sakura, who was now at the end of the group, stopped when something caught her attention. It was a tree. Normally Sakura wouldn't just stare at a tree but this one had black leaves and one after the other fell to the ground. As soon as one leaf hit the ground it went up in flames and burnt to ashes. To Sakura it seemed like a bad omen. Suddenly she heard a scream or at least she thought so. "Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" Naruto asked somewhat worried. "Didn't you hear it?" Naruto scratched his head asking "What?" The pink-haired girl shook her head "Ah, it's nothing…" She looked at the tree again just to find it gone and only ashes were left and the ashes were soon blown away by the wind.

The seven leaf-nins had set up a camp to rest for the night and to give Neji, Kiba and Tenten the time to catch up although no one really expected that they would come anymore. Shikamaru was sitting under a tree in his thinking-position (A/N: just like he did during the fight against Temari at the end of the chunin-exam) seeking for the best way to continue. However he found none: It was likely that Kiba, Neji, Tenten and Akamaru had been killed because they hadn't returned yet but if their comrades were still alive they couldn't just abandon them and leave without even trying to find them. But then again they had to get back to Konoha as quickly as possible since they couldn't deal with this situation alone – they needed help from their village. So they would have to hurry before they all got killed just like Hinata and most likely their teachers. But to travel in night was out of question – they could leave the path just too easily without even noticing. On the other hand they were easily to detect if they stayed on one place for too long, so what should they do?… Shikamaru was to occupied with his thoughts that he only noticed a strange smell when it was too late: Shino started coughing blood and bugs and the bugs came out of his body starting to eat Shino's chakra. Chouji who had been next to Shino tried o help him but was attacked by the bugs as well and even more chakra-eating bugs came out of the forest attacking Chouji and Shino.

Ino ran towards the two but Shikamaru grabbed her by the waist pulling her down to the ground and holding her down while he was lying beside her as several kunais, at least twenty, flew just inches over their heads hitting the defenseless Chouji and Shino fatally. Just then several, at least twenty, shadow-ninjas appeared around them. One big guy – apparently their leader – stood there in front of them smirking. "Now you'll die just like your friends." Shikamaru heard Ino gasping and Naruto shouting "Why did you kill them!" The shadow-ninja shrugged "Because we were able to kill them and because it was fun. Honestly we're searching for a real challenge, just like those jounins. So if you're strong we'll kill you and if you're weak we'll kill you faster." With that he tried to attack but found himself unable to move. Now it was Shikamarus turn to smirk, with all those shadows of the trees around it was just a bit too easy to catch all of the shadow-ninjas with his kagemane-no-jutsu. 'How amusing – shadows captured by a shadow.' He thought before his expression became serious again. "Okay." He said turning his head slightly to see his comrades. "I'll stop them as long as I can while you use the time to escape." Ino stood suddenly before him glaring at him. "Do you really think we will leave you alone that easily?" He sighed putting on a fake-smile saying "Hey, as soon as I know you're save I'll use my jutsu to escape, too." With that he hugged Ino but then pushed her away signaling all of them to run. "And you promise you will come after us?" Ino whispered. Shikamaru nodded before she eventually left. He sighed. He knew he was such a liar.

How long they had been running Ino didn't know. The only thing she knew was that she glanced by now for about 400 times over her shoulder to see if Shikamaru was coming when she suddenly felt a stabbing pain in her heart. She stopped turning around understanding the message clearly. "Shikamaru you liar, you promised to come…" Sakura walked up to her side asking "Ino what happened, why are you crying?" The blonde touched her cheek and feeling the wet streaks she realized she was indeed crying. But she didn't answer so Sakura asked instead "It's Shikamaru, isn't it? He's dead." Ino slowly nodded. Hearing something coming from behind Sakura took Ino's hand and started dragging her away. "Ino, I know how you feel but if they find us now, Shikamaru would've died for nothing!" With that the both started running again.

Sasuke saw Sakura dragging Ino, who was still crying, while he noticed shadow-ninjas catching up with them. They were just too slow to run away any longer. Sure Shikamaru had bought them some time but somehow it wasn't enough to escape those enemies. They would have caught up with them in only a few minutes. He looked at Naruto and made a vague gesture to the shadows behind. Naruto nodded since he also had realized that they would be encircled with enemies soon. The fox-boy also made a gesture and understanding what he meant the Uchiha prodigy briefly nodded before slowing down a little so that the girls ran in front of them. Sasuke activated his Sharingan-eyes, took out a kunai and an explosive tag and slowly counted… five… a branch snapped when one of their pursuers stroke it… four… he could hear their footsteps… three… he could also hear their breathings… two… Naruto, too, took out a kunai… one… Sasuke spun around and… zero… threw the explosive tag. The kunai hit the shadow-ninja directly in his chest and sent his insides flying through the air. But nevertheless it couldn't stop his comrades from attacking. Sasuke and Naruto stopped them. "You're not going anywhere!" The dark-haired prodigy threatened. Now the girls stopped, too. Sakura turned around "Sasuke-kun, Naruto! What are you doing?" The fox-boy tilted his head slightly saying "We're going to take care of those bastards wile you just keep running." Sakura shook her head stubbornly shouting "No we won't run away, we can fight, too!" Now Sasuke turned around shouting back his tone urgent "This was no request, run away quickly! Now leave!" Hesitantly Sakura turned and started running once more with Ino at her heels.

After the two girls had left Sasuke smirked saying "This should be fun." His blonde teammate grinned in agreement "Definitely." Naruto executed his kagebunshin-no-jutsu while Sasuke scanned the whole area for all enemies. 'This looks bad' he thought realizing that there were just too many of them although he hadn't expected anything different. He threw one of his kunai at shadow-ninja who was standing closest to him. Then, while the other blocked his first attack, he jumped into the air forming seals and creating a giant fireball sending it at the same enemy. The shadow avoided the fireball but was hidden by the hidden shuriken Sasuke had thrown along with the fireball. Now all of the other shadow-ninjas came out of the forest encircling Naruto and Sasuke and destroying all of Narutos kagebunshins. Then all of them started throwing kunais with the leaf-nins trapped in the middle. Even with his Sharingans Sasuke had a hard time dodging the kunais and Naruto barely managed to avoid fatal damage. That this guys were just playing around with them made Sasuke angry but then eventually the shadow-ninjas were tired of just playing around and aimed at Naruto so that he wouldn't be able to avoid being hit mortally. Seeing it with his Sharingan-eyes Sasuke jumped between Naruto and the kunais without even thinking and being hit instead of his friend he broke down. Naruto turned around horrified "What! …Why?" Sasuke smiled. "The stupid thing with Sharingan-eyes is that – cough – you usually don't have the time to think before reacting. So – cough – you better make sure – cough – that you get out of this – cough – alive." With that he coughed blood one last time his chest sunk and didn't rise again. Naruto turned around facing the shadow-ninjas shouting "You'll pay for killing my best friend!" But they only laughed mockingly.

TBC

A/N: As I've already said: please don't kill me before I'll be able to post the next chapter although I would prefer if you first let me finish the whole ff (right now it looks like I'm going to write ten chapters…) so please put your kunais and shuriken away and wait a bit…

Thanks to kImYuRI, fire.elve, C.AM.E.O.1 and Only, sasuke-latias, Suzerain, iM a AweOmE gUrL and sehellys for reviewing.

disappears in a poof of smoke