Recovery Arc: Sasuke Recovery Mission

Sakura woke up staring at the sterile white ceiling of the hospital, and a voice to her left spoke, "Ah, you're finally awake." she looked over and saw the Hokage looking over a clipboard. Tsunade looked at her "tell me what happened."

Sakura recounted her interaction with Sasuke. Tsunade looked annoyed more than anything else "hm, it's only been a couple of hours. You rest up I'll get a team together to take of this."

"Wait, Hokage-sama, please let me assist."

Tsunade turned and looked at her. "Why should I? You already tried to stop him and failed."

Sakura gripped the sheets and looked up to her, "Because I'm his teammate. I'm going to try again to stop him... even if I don't have your permission Hokage-sama."

Tsunade eyed her. "Hm, you would just announce your intent like that. Fine, come with me, we're heading to my office."

Sakura stumbled out of her bed and followed the Hokage. Once they arrived at her office, it only took a few moments for Shikamaru to come in; he looked between them and sighed, "You summoned me Hokage-sama."

"I have a mission I need you to lead. Time-sensitive and Sakura Haruno is to be part of the team. You have thirty minutes to assemble whatever genin you can find and go after Sasuke Uchiha, who has abandoned the village and bring him back."

Shikamaru looked surprised, "what? Sasuke abandoned the village? When?"

"Sometime last night. Sakura tried to stop him, but she failed. Now go you two and get your team."

They left the Hokage tower quickly, and Shikamaru said, "Let's split up and find whoever we can then meet back at the front gate."

Sakura nodded and ran off to find who she could. Around the thirty-minute mark, both of them arrived with their parties in tow. Shikamaru had found Choji, Neji, and Tenten while Sakura found Ino, Naruto, and Kiba. "No, Shino or Hinata?" Sakura asked.

Shikamaru shook his head, "Seems he's off with his father for some clan training."

"And Lady Hinata still isn't well enough to be taking on a mission such as this," Neji said.

Neji ignored the look Naruto gave him, and the comment about it being his fault she's not well enough. Shikamaru looked over the team and nodded, "alright, Ino, Choji, and Kiba with me, we're team one. Sakura, Naruto, Tenten, and Neji, you're team two. We'll move in an arrow formation Kiba at the lead following the scent, I'll be right behind him and on my left Sakura, and Ino on my right. Choji on Ino's right and Tenten on Sakura's left, Naruto behind me then Neji in the rear."

Shikamaru paced as he spoke about why they would move like that. "With Neji in the rear using his byakugan, we'll have an advanced warning about attacks from behind. Meanwhile, both the wings will be scanning their sides. Naruto, you keep your head on a swivel. We don't know what we'll be dealing with, so be ready and be careful."

He scratched his chin. "Now, since we don't know what will happen, our two teams may have to split from each other. You'll need a leader to make calls when we're split."

They looked at Naruto, who looked at his feet before groaning loudly, "I think Sakura should do it. She's better at the whole strategy thing."

Shikamaru looked at Sakura, who was suddenly feeling antsy "um, I'm not that great, but... ok, I can lead team two if you think it's a good idea, Shikamaru."

He nodded, "do it. Now let's go, people, we need to get Sasuke back to the village."

The group formed up and headed out of the village following the scent Sasuke left behind. It didn't take long before Shkimaru called them to a halt and pointed out the paper bomb on the tree directly in front of them. Neji activated his byakugan and scanned the area "there's at least five more it looks like a perimeter barrier."

Shikamaru looked to Tenten. "Can you disable it?"

She smiled "fuinjutsu is pretty important to my kit. It'll take a moment, but I'll get it down." She pulled out a brush and ink well and made a few strokes before slowly pulling the paper free. They moved slowly, letting Neji point out the tags he saw and letting Tenten render them useless.

After some time, they were clear of the tags, and Neji could see the enemy. "Four of them are sitting in a circle, and it looks like there's some sort of barrel with them. It's covered in seals, and I can't see Sasuke anywhere." Neji said.

The group landed on the ground, and Shikamaru spoke, "there's a chance Sasuke is inside the barrel. Team two, you go around for a long flank from the left. Choji, Ino stay a few paces behind Kiba and I. We'll see if we can't get closer and scope them out better."

The teams split, and team one moved forward while two went far left, being sure to look out for more traps. As Shikamaru and Kiba got closer, a kunai flew past with an explosive tag throwing them into the clearing. They quickly got up as Choji and Ino were pulled into the clearing by spider threads. The six-armed Oto shinobi laughed "you lot were so noisy I knew you were coming. What do you want? Here to fight us like those other two idiots we beat down?"

Shikamaru raised his hands and said, "we just want Sasuke Uchiha back. I presume he's in that barrel."

"What if he is? We aren't going to give him back. He came with us willingly, so best to just leave before you get hurt, brats." The Kunoichi in the back said."

"Sorry, but we can't do that, it'd be a real drag to come back home empty-handed."

"Then we'll just have to kill you. Jirōbō, take care of these brats then catch up with us." Kidōmaru said as he picked up the barrel.

Inos hand shot up 'Shintenshin no Jutsu.' she went limp, and Kidōmaru stumbled, almost dropping the barrel. Ino immediately came back, screaming into her own body before passing out. Choji held her unconscious body, and before the team could move out of the way, Jirōbō slammed his hands into the ground, and a large earth dome surrounded them.

Three of the Sound Four continued on their path, leaving Jirōbō to take care of Shikamaru's team. Sakura waited for the three Oto shinobi to start running again before her team descended on Jirōbō. Naruto and Neji went on the attack pulling Jirōbō off the earth dome, and Sakura landed next to it. She knocked on, "Shikamaru, you guys ok in there?"

"Ino got knocked out somehow, and the inside of this place feels weird. We're going to try and break it from the inside. Keep the big guy busy."

"Will do." she turned to see Tenten unleashing a volley of kunai with one of her scrolls as Naruto and Neji fell back.

Naruto was panting "this guy drains chakra when he touches you."

There was drilling noise from inside the dome and the sound of Kiba cursing. Sakura refocused on Jirōbō as he charged at Naruto and her. They dodged and attacked in tandem, but he was tough and strong enough to throw them around like rag dolls.

Shikamaru banged on the walls of the dome. "Sakura, get someone to hit right here while when I say when!"

Sakura looked back at her team, who were dancing around Jirōbō, keeping him busy. "Alright, we're ready on this end, Shikamaru!"

"One...two...three!" Sakura cocked back and infused her chakra before punching the earth dome as hard as she could. At the same time, on the inside, Kiba and Akamaru did their fang over fang attack. The wall cracked, and Sakura punched it again as Choji hit it from his side, breaking through the wall. They scurried out of the collapsing structure as Sakura tried to ignore the pain in her arm, and Shikamaru took charge. "Choji, can you take this guy on?"

Choji finished off a bag of chips he had just opened. "Sure thing Shikamaru."

Shikamaru patted his shoulder, "Good." He turned to the fight and said, "everyone fall back."

Choji engaged Jirōbō as the rest of the team took off Sakura putting Ino on her back. "Is Choji going to be ok?" she asked.

Shikamaru smiled. "I've been friends with Choji for most of my life. If he says he can handle it, then I trust him." he dropped down and left an indicator for Choji before moving out again.

"Ino isn't waking up. We might need to hide her somewhere. What happened to her anyway?" Sakura said as she adjusted her grip on her friend.

Shikamaru grunted and started looking around for somewhere to put her as they moved. "I'm not sure she tired her mind transfer and came back screaming before passing out." He dropped down to the ground level, and the others followed, "here we can tuck her into the base of this tree and put something over her."

Sakura deposited Ino into a divet between the roots of a tree and covered her with some foliage. Once Ino was sufficiently hidden, they continued on, and it didn't take long for them to catch up to the Sound Four. Kidōmaru tossed the barrel, and Tayuya caught it, telling him not to mess around too much. Kidōmaru shot spiderwebs at the approaching group, surprising them all as they were pinned to the trees except Naruto, who had managed to slip under the webs shot at him.

"So Jirōbō couldn't stop you all. Doesn't matter fatso wasn't even the strongest of us. If he couldn't deal with you lot, then he had no business being part of us."

Sakura saw Tenten use a seal on her wrist to summon a kunai to start trying to cut herself free. Meanwhile, Neji had his byakugan activated and was looking at the webs. Sakura kept her eye on Kidōmaru, who was having to deal with a Naruto clone surprise attack. She channeled chakra into her hair and used it to start trying to slice through the webbing.

Neji applied his Jūken and burst from his webbing. He rushed Kidōmaru as Sakura and Tenten cut themselves free and moved to help the others. "Tenten back me up!"

Tenten finished freeing Shikamaru. "On my way." she looked at Shikamaru "you guys go on ahead, Neji, and I will take care of him."

Shikamaru nodded, "be careful and catch up when you get done."

The group split yet again, leaving Neji and Tenten behind. Tenten let loose a barrage of shuriken shredding the webs Kidōmaru shot. Neji rushed in, trying to close the distance while Tenten kept Kidōmaru from falling back. Kidōmaru cursed and jumped up into the trees, quickly summoning a giant spider before trying to fall back. "Neji!"

He nodded, "I'll leave the summons to you. Catch up when you can."

Kidōmaru's curse mark spread as Neji sliced through the webbing and dogged his hardened webs.

"I can't believe you just left your girl back there to deal with my spiders. Do you actually think she stands a chance, or are you just sacrificing her in the hopes you can beat me before it comes for you?"

Neji gritted his teeth. "I would never sacrifice a teammate. She's going to defeat your summons, and then she'll back me up, and we'll put you in the ground." Neji lunged and managed to block the chakra points in one of Kidōmaru's arms before he got out of Neji's range.

Tenten jumped off a tree branch and twisted with her scrolls summoning weapons and throwing them. Each weapon hit a spider, and she landed with a handful of kunai and threw them, each hitting one of the central spider's eyes. It hissed and screeched as it fell to the ground. Tenten lept on it, driving two swords into its head, making it screech one last time before it disappeared.

Kidōmaru cursed, feeling his summons disappear. He had managed to get out of Neji's byakugan's range and was keeping his eye on the Hyuga as his curse mark spread farther "let's play a game, Hyuga brat."

Kidōmaru started molding webs and hardened weapons. Neji saw the weapons enter his field of range and quickly rotated to deflect them. They played this game of running around and firing from different angles until Kidōmaru smiled, "oh, you have a blind spot."

Tenten stopped within Neji's range and hid, looking around for any sign of the enemy. Neji smiled, seeing his teammate rejoin him and deflected more of those hardened web kunai, but yet another came through his blind spot and hit him in the back. Tenten clenched her teeth, seeing Neji get riddled with kunai, but she still couldn't tell where Kidōmaru was. "Damn it, he's moving too much; where is he?"

Neji was panting, and his chakra was running low. He needed Tenten to spot the enemy so they could take him out. He saw it for just a second, a brief moment, the arrowhead appeared out of his blind spot. 'Shit no time to dodge it completely.'

Tenten saw Neji move slightly as an arrow pierced straight through his shoulder and hit the ground leaving a crater. Tenten clamped a hand over her mouth and held back her gasp. Neji locked eyes with her, and she nodded. Tenten followed the wire before it was cut, but she knew the direction to go.

Neji watched as Tenten moved in the direction the arrow came from before sprinting in the opposite direction. Kidōmaru made another arrow and took aim then fired. Tenten saw another arrow go flying by and adjusted her course. She spotted him above, making another arrow. She shivered, 'oh, that's gross.'

Kidōmaru took aim with his spiral arrow and shot it. As the arrow flew, Neji turned and let it pierce his gut pinning him to a tree. Neji grabbed the thread attached to it and sent a shot of chakra down, stunning Kidōmaru. At the same time, Tenten jumped up, unfurling two scrolls and unleashing their content onto Kidōmaru, who screamed as he was barraged with kunai and other various weapons.

Neji stumbled over to them and collapsed. Tenten pulled out a tanto and threw it as Kidōmaru tried to stand up as his web armor cracked and fell away. It sank into his chest, and the Sound Four member fell over as the light left his eyes. "Neji! Are you ok?!"

Tenten grabbed Neji as he fell to his knees. "Oh shit, come on, stay with me."

Sakura grunted as she hit the trunk of the tree. Kimimaro landed by Tayuya and leaned over. "Kill them, Tayuya, and I won't kill you. Lord Orochimaru has waited long enough for Sasuke. I will deliver him, and you will do this and pray he doesn't kill you afterward despite your team's massive blunder."

Tayuya grabbed her arm to try and stop herself, shaking, "y-yes sir, I will take care of them."

"Good." Kimimaro hefted Sasuke's barrel over his shoulder and took off.

Shikamaru cursed. "Naruto, Sakura, go after him! I'll take care of her."

They nodded and went after Kimimaro leaving the last of their teammates behind to fight. Sakura looked back. "I hope the others can finish their fights and catch up. This last guy seems different from the others."

Naruto nodded, "yeah, but we're working together, so we can definitely take him."

Kimimaro stopped in a field and set down The barrel. He turned and sighed, "Tayuya can't even follow simple orders."

Naruto and Sakura landed a few paces from him, and Sakura tensed, seeing Naruto's red eyes out of the corner of her eye. "Naruto, are you good?" she whispered while keeping her focus on Kimimaro as he stared at Naruto.

Naruto bit back a growl "yeah, I'm just pissed that these people keep getting in the way!"

He crossed his fingers, and Sakura stepped back as at least fifty clones appeared and surrounded Kimimaro. Sakura watched and circled slowly around the crowd of clones seeing Kimimaro produce bones and slice through Naruto clones with no effort even when they rushed him all at once. She spotted the barrel Sasuke was starting to smoke 'looks like I'm running out of time.'

Kimimaro seemed distracted by all the Narutos and had moved away from Sasuke. Sakura moved in as quietly as she could but jumped back as a bone nicked her arm. Her eyes shot up to see Kimiarou rushing her. "Doton: Dosekiryū!"

Sakura cursed as he effortlessly avoided the mudslide and closed the distance between them. Sakura was on the defensive and was backpedaling fast as Naruto clones tried to help but were ultimately unable to do anything.

It was only a second that her attention was pulled. She didn't mean to get distracted, but the barrel all but exploded apart, and she saw Sasuke standing there as his curse mark retreated across his body. Then she saw red and felt Kimimaros bones shredding through her right arm and the side of her neck.

Kimimaro stepped back to speak to Sasuke, who was looking at Sakura as she scrambled to put pressure on her neck. "Sakura!" she looked over and saw Naruto with murder in his eyes as he turned on Kimimaro.

"Naruto! Take Sakura and run."

Sakura was quickly losing blood, so she wasn't sure if she heard Sasuke right or not, but Naruto seemed to realize what was going to happen and was hefting Sakura up bridal style before turning to Sasuke, "If you don't come back to the village I will come after you."

Sasuke nodded, and his teammate took off quicker than he'd ever seen Naruto move before. Sasuke turned to Kimimaro. "You weren't with those four earlier who are you?"

"I'm Kimimaro Lord Orochimaru sent me to collect you."

Sasuke smiled. "You won't be doing anything. I'll go to Orochimaru but first-" His Sharingan activated. "I'm gonna kill you or what you did to Sakura."

Kimimaro tilted his head, "Sakura? Do you mean that woman who was here earlier? Why do you care about what happened to her? You're leaving the village to serve Lord Orochimaru."

"I'm leaving to get stronger so I can kill my brother. My friends weren't supposed to get hurt, since she did, I'm going to kill the bastard responsible for it."

Naruto was vaguely aware of his rapidly draining chakra, but most of his attention was on his bleeding teammate. The dark, angry voice of the Kyubi rumbled deep in the back of his head, "Leave her. Kill them. Kill them all!"

He shook the thoughts infecting his mind and refocused on getting Sakura back to the village. Naruto shot past Shikamaru, who was struggling to deal with Tayuya. He barely noticed the blonde girl passing him and unfurling a giant fan.

Naruto nearly collided with Lee. "Ah- shit, Bushy Brows! I can't stop."

Lee looked shocked. "Sakura-chan?! What happened to her?"

"No time I need to get her back to the village."

"Allow me, Naruto-kun, I am much faster. I will get her there sooner."

Naruto looked down at his bleeding teammate. She was pale and barely breathing, "y-yeah, take her. I'll go back and make sure Sasuke comes home."

Lee removed his weights and grabbed Sakura before turning on a dime and opening the first gate. Naruto stared at him in a daze as Lee tore through the wood.

Naruto nearly fell over feeling exhausted from the sprint and sat down hard on the branch. He stared at the blood on his jacket and felt his mind going blank. The sound of water dripping made Naruto flinch, and he looked up to see he wasn't in the woods anymore. He was sitting in a large, dimly lit room full of standing water. Naruto flinched as huge claws smashed against the bars of a giant gate. He looked up and saw the red eyes of the Kyubi.

Sasuke was on the offensive with his taijutsu making Kimimaro use his bones more defensively. Sasuke felt great; his curse mark wasn't causing him pain anymore; if anything, it was making him feel even more powerful than before as it spread across his body.

Kimimaro's curse mark spread as well as he started to push back against Sasuke's assault, making the Uchiha relent his assault and put up a defense. Sasuke could tell Kimimaro wasn't trying to kill him like he was Sakura and Naruto, and Sasuke was going to make Kimimaro regret those choices.

Naruto stared up at the eyes of the giant fox and flinched as it smashed its claws against the bars again. "What do you want, brat? Shouldn't you be out there worrying about your poor dead pink girl."

"Wha- no, she isn't dead! Sakura will be fine. We've got Tsunade in the village so she can fix her up..."

The Kyubi laughed, "You failed to keep them safe. The Uchiha brat is going to abandon you, the pink one is going to die, and who knows what happened to the others while you ran away."

Naruto gritted his teeth and stood up. "No! You're wrong, you damn fox! I believe in my friends, and I know they'll make it out of this fine! What would you know, anyway? You're just a damn demon fox."

Kurama snarled and smashed against the seal, making Naruto stumble back and fall out of his inner world. He came to with a jolt and looked around, "ah shit, I need to get back to Sasuke."

Sasuke's Sharingan traced Kimimaro's movements and was struggling to keep up with him. Kimimaro swung a faint that Sasuke fell for and planted a solid kick sending Sasuke flying. The impact was softened by sand that lowered Sasuke to the ground. "The hell are you doing here?" Sasuke said as he stood up.

Gaara stood next to him with his arms crossed. "Your Hokage sent my siblings and me to aid in bringing you back to the village."

"Heh, you can try to make me go back after I kill this guy."

"I will help you."

Sasuke stepped forward. "No, you won't. Sakura might have let you three go, but that doesn't mean I trust you. Stay out of my way, or you're next."

Gaara stepped back, but his sand shifts and twists around him, ready to attack or defend at a moment's notice. Kimimaro sighed as Sasuke cast a fireball jutsu and tried to flank him with a kunai. "Sasuke-san, you need to stop and just come with me to Lord Orochimaru. I do not wish to kill you."

"Oh, but I want to kill you, so I'm going to." Sasuke said as he ran through the hands signs, "Chidori!" Sasuke poured on the speed to try and get within Kimimaro's defense and thrust his hand forward. He had to abort the attack as rib bones shot out from Kimimaro's chest and felt sand pull him back.

Sasuke turned back, "I told you to stay out of this!"

Gaara shook his head. "I can't, I was told to help Naruto get you back to the village, so that's what I'm going to do."

Kimimaro turned his attention to Gaara. "If you're insistent on that, then I suppose I'll have to get rid of you before I can get Sasuke-san back to Lord Orochimaru."

Gaara's sand shot up and stopped several bone projectiles that Kimimaro shot. Sasuke pushed Kimimaro with taijutsu and a Chidori while Gaara tried to slow him down and pulled Sasuke away from danger. Sasuke would curse and try to get away from Gaara's sand.

Kimimaro coughed up blood as his sickness caught up to him. 'I'm running out of time. I need to get rid of this Suna pest and get Sasuke-san under control.'

Kimimaro advanced to the second stage of his curse mark and made a bone spiral around his arm. "I'll have to kill you before I can get Sasuke-san."

Gaara erected a sand shield shaped like Shukaku as Kimimaro rushed him. As the spiral of bones bore into the sand. Sasuke appeared behind him and charged with a Chidori.

Naruto stumbled to a halt as he saw that a sizable clearing of trees had been cut in half. He looked over and saw Shikamaru. "Oi Shikamaru, are you ok?"

Shikamaru looked up, and shock crossed his face. "Naruto, are you ok? Who's blood is that?"

As Naruto landed near him, he pointed at Tameri, "ah, what is she doing here?"

"That's not important; why are you covered in blood?" Shikamaru snapped.

Naruto gritted his teeth. "Sakura got hurt. I ran into Bushy Brows, and he took her back to the village."

Shikamaru grunted, "how bad?"

"... real bad. I need to go back though Sasuke is fighting that guy who took him earlier."

Temari finished tying up Tayuya and walked over, "Do you want back up?"

Naruto shook his head "it'll be ok I can bring him back." They looked at each other but let Naruto go off on his own.

Naruto landed by the opening and was surprised again by the scene before him. There was sand everywhere and bones like trees protruding from the ground. Gaara was floating on the sand as Kimiamro hung halfway out of a bone tree dead.

'G-Gaara, what are you doing here? What happened to that guy?"

Gaara lowered himself down, and Naruto saw some minor injuries. "He seems to have died from some illness during the fight. Sasuke was... upset, to say the least, that he couldn't kill him as revenge for your teammate. He ran before I could stop him."

Naruto gritted his teeth but smiled at Gaara. "It's ok, Gaara. Rest up, I'll get Sasuke back."

Naruto took off again, headed the direction Gaara said Sasuke had run off in. He saw Sasuke up ahead and was closing the distance quickly, "Sasuke! Stop running."

Sasuke stopped running as the two stood at the valley of End without turning to look at his friend. Sasuke asked, "Is Sakura ok?"

Naruto clenched his fist. "I hope so. Lee ran into me, and he's taking her to the village now come home so we can both make sure she is ok."

Sasuke turned, and Naruto stepped back, seeing the curse mark creeping over his skin. "No, I won't be going back, Naruto. I'm going to Orochimaru, and I'm going to gain even more power, and I'm going to kill Itachi."

Lee tore past the main gate and practically kicked the hospital's front doors off the hinges. "Please, we need Lady Tsunade quickly!"

The Nurses were quick to act, and someone went to inform the Hokage that there was a critical case. They left Lee standing in the lobby with blood on his jumpsuit as Sakura was rushed into the emergency room. As the first gate powered down, the pain and stress on his injuries caught up to him, and he nearly collapsed. Lee managed to stay upright long enough to lay on the benches and pass out.

Shikamaru and Temari were headed back to the Village when Gaara arrived. He handed Shikamaru a body storage scroll. "The fifth Oto Shinobi died fighting Sasuke and me."

Shikamaru took the scroll and tucked it away. "Thank you. We have to go check on the rest of my team."

They saw the results of Neji and Tentens fight, and Shikamaru stored the body of their enemy. The trio found Ino still unconscious, and Gaara used his sand to transport her. After some more travel, they found Choji and double-timed it back to the village.

The Nurses looked frazzled by all the genin coming rushing in with life-threatening injuries. The Hokage was already in the emergency room, and T&I was present to collect the bodies in Shikamaru's possession.

The Sand Siblings were reunited, and Kankuro informed Shikamaru about Kiba's condition. Shikamaru thanked them for their help and let them run off to talk to the Hokages aid while Shikamaru got checked over by a nurse and sat next to Tenten, who was looking tense.

"How's it, Neji?"

Tenten smiled and fiddled with her hands. "He took too many hits. I took too long to find where the enemy was. I should have been better. I'm a weapons expert. I should have been able to tell where he was firing from sooner."

Shikamaru looked at the broken fingers on his hand and sighed, "this mission didn't go very well. Choji took all three of his food pills, so who knows if he'll make it out, and Ino... I don't know what happened to her. Her dad was sent for hopefully he can do something."

Tenten nodded, "I found Lee passed out with blood on himself; he said Sakura was in the emergency room."

Shikamaru nodded. "Saw Naruto, his vest was covered. We ran into a fifth Sound shinobi, and he apparently did a lot of damage to her. I don't know the extent yet, but I'm sure we'll learn about it at some point."

"Is Naruto back yet? Did he get Sasuke-chan?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "Don't know. Gaara said he ran off to chase Sasuke; hopefully, he comes back successful."

Tenant stared at her feet. "Yeah, hopefully. Think it'll make this all worth it?"

Shikamaru scratched his head, "honestly, I don't know."

Sasuke's eyes darted left, and Naruto's clone came in from the right and punched him in the face. Sasuke skidded across the water and rolled back to his feet.

Naruto grinned as his clones came to stand by him. They rushed and flanked Sasuke from both sides. Sasuke's Sharingan tracked the Naruto's and said, "Why won't you just fuck off Naruto?! Why are you so insistent on coming after me!"

Naruto gritted his teeth and landed a solid punch on Sasuke's chest "because you idiot, you're my friend!"

Sasuke stumbled back and narrowly avoided a barrage of attacks. Sasuke smiled and felt the change happen in his eyes as the third tomoe appeared in his eyes. "Then fight me! We never got to during the Exams, so let's do it now. If you win, take me back, and when I beat you, I'll go down my own path!"

"We'll see about that, Sasuke. I'll bring you back, and you can apologize to Sakura for what you caused!"