Forgotten

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Naruto (Shippuden). This is a story inspired by the original made up for entertainment purposes only. - Krystal

Chapter 47: Worthiness

Working with Team 8 was less of a hassle than Yuki thought it was going to be. They went on a few recognition missions together within the few days that followed their encounter in the forest. Kiba was surprisingly less stubborn than Yuki had initially thought he would be. He listened well and knew that his impulsive nature was his weakness. They finally earned some well-deserved resting time. Yuki wished them a good rest and decided to head to Tsunade's office to hand in her report on the last mission. She also wanted to ask about Naruto's mission. They should have be meeting the spy right around the next day. Along the way, she saw Shizune carrying boxes filled of paperwork for Tsunade up the stairs. She quickly rushed over to give her a hand.

"So, how is it working as a team captain?"

"Exhausting." Yuki replied as she chuckled. "But it's been good."

"How's the training with Kakashi?"

"I think we overdid it. He's back in the hospital. He was trying to show off." Yuki said jokingly.

Training for the Sharingan was harder than managing a team of talented chunins. However, Yuki was doing quite well according to Kakashi. She was a natural as the Sharingan belonged to her unlike Kakashi's whose was implanted. She didn't have to exert as much energy as Kakashi to maintain it for a long time. She became at ease with its usage as well. She didn't regard it as a curse as much as before. She wasn't truly happy about her newly gained power, but she wasn't hating it as much as previously. Kakashi wasn't wrong about the possibility it could give her. She just didn't want to rely on it too much. She still blamed it for Itachi's suffering, but she was now convinced she could it for a greater good.

As they finally made it all the way to the Hokage's office, Shizune entered the room followed by Yuki. The two of them dropped off the boxes on the ground, making a ruckus and causing a sleepy Tsunade to wake up. As she stretched and yawned, she listened to Yuki's quick report on her mission with Team 8.

"Good. I'm glad that's all figured out. You can take your leave now if there's nothing else to report."

"Um... I just have one more question."

"Go on." Tsunade told her.

"About the Tenchi Bridge..."

"The last report from Yamato said that they have reached the bridge and are ready to meet up with the spy."

"I see..."

Tsunade smiled and walked over to Yuki. She gave her a pat on the shoulder and whispered:

"If you are that curious, maybe you should head over there as well..."

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune called her out. "We are already short-staffed. You can't send her away as well!"

"I mean, her team has to rest regardless. They've been working hard. This could be like a break to Yuki." Tsunade replied nonchalantly.

"If I have your permission to leave the village then..." Yuki started.

"I thought you had given up on Sasuke." Tsunade then said much more seriously.

"But I want to make sure Naruto is going to be okay." Yuki replied. "Even though I've lost faith in Sasuke, Naruto still believes in him. I believe in Naruto. I've grown to believe in him. He has the ability to make the impossible possible. I kinda want to witness that."

"As long as your disappointment in Sasuke doesn't grow deeper." Tsunade said.

"I also want to make sure Sai doesn't try something funny." Yuki replied. "If Danzo was after my sharingan, it is possible that he sent Sai with them in order to get Sasuke's sharingan. I don't know why he wants it, but I think that we have to stop that no matter what."

"Yamato was made aware of it. I think, more than all of us, he knows Danzo best." Tsunade said. "But it wouldn't hurt to have one more person watching him."

"I can't win, can I?" Shizune asked, exasperated as neither of them were listening to her.

"I'll meet up with them after they've encountered the spy. I'm pretty sure whatever plan they have doesn't take me into account." Yuki said as she jumped out the opened window under Shizune's scolding voice, telling her to use the door instead.

Yuki decided to leave the village at dawn. She didn't rush to the bridge as she did not want to disrupt any plans that Yamato might have had put in place. She wasn't moving slowly either. She wanted her timing to be right when Yamato's team would have to face Sasori's spy, perhaps in a fight. She wanted to be an observer and nothing more as she believed she wouldn't really be of any help. She was mostly curious about how Naruto would react when he would see Sasuke again. That is, if, they do meet again on this mission. She also truly wanted to ensure the safety of everyone as she knew Sai better than most. He definitely had a secret mission and she knew that for the sake of that mission, he would do anything, even kill one of his teammates.

She had been by bridge many times now as she often had to travel to Kusogakure for diplomatic reasons as an ANBU. She knew some of her seals were still in the surrounding area. Seeing as the time was going by quickly, she decided to flash herself to the village's entrance before heading towards the bridge from there. As soon as she got close enough, she heard fighting sound already. By the sound of it, it wasn't just team Kakashi against the one spy. There were two unfamiliar chakra sources present. As she closed her eyes to get a better sense of the chakras that were present, she realized that Naruto had, once again, slipped into his Nine-tailed mode. She rushed over to the bridge quickly, ready to enter the fight as soon as needed. Something had gone wrong.

As she arrived on the bridge, it was completely destroyed. An unconcious Sakura was lying there slowly slipping from the bridge's structure. Yamato was seemingly injured, but still tried to hold the bridge together with his wood release. Meanwhile, further away, in the forest, Yuki spotted the three tails of Naruto that was fighting someone who looked to be Orochimaru. On the other side of the bridge was Kabuto who was also injured and was healing himself while watching the fight between Naruto and his master. Sai drew out a large bird and jumped on it. As soon as he did, the bridge no longer held together and Sakura fell into the ravine. Yamato yelled out to tell him to catch her, but he ignored the order and his fallen teammate, as Yuki had expected. Instead, Yuki threw one of her kunai's in Sakura's direction, flashed herself there, grabbed onto her arm and flashed the both of them back onto stable ground.

"Yuki!" Yamato called out as he rushed over to check on Sakura. "When... How did you know?"

"I just came here out of curiosity. I wasn't expecting all of this." Yuki replied as she began to heal Sakura.

"If I were you, I would go over to Naruto, instead." A stranger's voice told them. "I owe her a thank you for killing Sasori. I'll take care of the healing."

"Stand back!" Yuki warned him.

"You should be friendlier to the one who helped you advance through the Chunin exams." He then said as he stopped moving closer. "I mean it though. I will help heal her. I'm also a better medical ninja than you are from what I remember."

Yuki bit her lip as her palms slowly lifted away from Sakura's wound. He wasn't wrong. He was the superior medical ninja. She simply didn't know if she could trust him.

"You could stick around and make sure that I am indeed helping her since you know a little about medical ninjutsu." He said, slightly mocking her. "You've grown a lot, Yuki-san. I saw what you did there at the bridge. I didn't know you had such great skills."

"Kabuto, don't act like we know each other. We fought that once only."

From where he was standing, he managed to heal Sakura's wound with better precision than Yuki. The frown on Sakura's face slowly released itself and she seemed much more at ease. He then stopped.

"That should be enough."Kabuto said. "See you all some other time."

He vanished. He probably joined up with Orochimaru. As Yuki turned her head in direction of the fight, she saw Naruto flying back towards the bridge, crashing into the trees and ground by it. A large gush of wind nearly knocked the rest of the trees off. Yamato quickly headed over and suppressed the Nine-tail chakra with his wood release leaving a badly injured Naruto on the ground. Whenever he entered that state for too long, his skin would peel off from the burning and he would be unconscious for a bit before waking up with no recollection of what had happened.

"He will mostly heal by himself." Yuki told Yamato. "I'll head off after Orochimaru."

"One of my clones is already on their tail. Sai joined them. I've placed a tracking seed on these three. It won't be too hard to follow."

"I should still go. I think I need to stop Sai before he runs into Sasuke."

Yamato sighed as he realized she had already made up her mind.

"Fine. Just don't take any dangerous action by yourself. You might be team 8's captain, but for this mission, I'm the captain. So, please, don't take any unnecessary risks. I don't want to have to deal with the consequences."

"Understood, Yamato-taicho." Yuki replied as she headed into the forest in which Orochimaru, Kabuto and Sai had disappeared into.

She only caught up to them once they reached their hideout. She sent out a note via her summoning bunny to Yamato to indicate the location. Yuki was uncertain as to whether she should infiltrate the hideout as well. She knew it was one of the risks that Yamato had warned her not to take, but she also didn't want to delay action. She feared that Sai would have the upper hand on his mission since he was already in. If there was one thing she was certain about, it was that Danzo would never order Sai to betray Konoha. However, she knew that he would resort to any means to obtain what he wanted, even if that included collaborating with an enemy or harming anyone in the village for the sake of the village. He didn't care about feelings or bonds. All he cared about was his goal. She thought about it for a little longer and then decided to head into the hideout.

Yuki was used to infiltration mission. As a former ANBU, a lot of her missions were infiltration and reconnaissance missions. She was used to disarming trap and finding her way through mazes. This was no different. However, to her surprise, there were no traps. She wandered for a bit in the dark tunnels. She tried to locate people within the tunnels, but there wasn't much around. Suddenly, she sensed a presence right behind her. Before she could turn around, she felt a cold blade resting on her shoulder, close to her neck. She closed her eyes for a second. She knew she wasn't mistaken.

"I didn't know I was getting a visitor today." The owner of the sword then said.

She could no longer recognize the voice, but the chakra was definitely his.

"I didn't think I was going to run into you so soon, Sasuke."

"You really like to put your nose into other people's business."

"It's part of my job, you know."

"You are still talkative as ever."

"Our last talk didn't go through so well."

"Hn. I should thank you for that, actually. It allowed me to realize how weak I was, staying in Konohagakure."

"And instead of putting in the effort and time, you decided to seek out power elsewhere, through illicit ways."

She could hear him snicker behind her. It was her chance to move away from the vulnerable position she was in. She quickly grabbed her katana, pushed it against his sword and moved away from Sasuke and towards the wall.

"Our last fight seemed a little unfair."

Yuki bit her lip. She could tell that he had improved a lot since they last saw each other. As much as she also made a lot of progression, she feared that he had advanced far more than what a normal shinobi could have done. She could also tell that there was growing murderous intent behind his eyes and that would only make his fighting even more ferocious. She wanted to see the Sasuke who held onto his brother so dearly. However, she was unable to see past those dark and cold eyes. As those thoughts crossed her mind, Sasuke's sword glistened with the lightning that now was coating it. He charged at her and she dodged it skillfully, knowing that any hit would most likely kill her. His sword's skills improved greatly. Every movement was preceded and followed smoothly by another. He didn't seem to have to put much effort into it. He became faster and faster with every move. Eventually, he was able to cut a few strands of Yuki's hair. As they both saw the white thin strands slowly falling onto the ground, they also struck each other weapons and were pushing their own against it.

"What do you think? Am I good enough to fight Itachi now?"

"What do you think, Sasuke? Can you defeat me first?"

He smirked. Yuki looked down and saw that his other hand was now coated in a lightning nature chakra and aiming for her heart. She quickly moved back and used her ice jutsu to stop Sasuke from moving closer. She created an ice wall in which his hand was now trapped. He widened the chakra surrounding his hand and shattered the ice as its fragments now were glistening from the ceiling down to the ground. They were standing a few meters from each other, staring into each other's eyes as the rest of their bodies were concealed in the darkness of the halls. Sasuke's eyes closed for a second and as he opened them, his eyes had turn blood red, the color of his Sharingan.

"If you were smart, you would look away." He told her as he walked towards her with his sword dragging on the ground.

"Never lose sight of the enemy. It's one of the first rule in the Shinobi Book." Yuki replied as tied her hair into a high ponytail.

She rarely ever tied her hair. She only did so when she knew the battle was going to be intense. She had a feeling they wouldn't stop until there was a clear winner or until someone died. She didn't want to dirty her hand. She wanted to believe that Naruto would be able to convince Sasuke to come back to the village. It was seemingly too late. Sasuke was consumed by revenge and the desire for power. He did not care for what was right or wrong. Yuki blinked for a second as she also revealed her Sharingan to Sasuke. He seemed slightly taken aback. She wasn't surprised. After all, nobody knew she also gifted by the dojutsu.

"I think we've dragged this on for long enough." Yuki told him as she put her katana away and prepared herself to form some seals.

"We finally agreed on something." He replied as he also readied himself to use a large scale ninjutsu.

As both of them glanced at each other one last time, their lightning jutsus were released. They were comparable in size and, as they collided, they created a large explosion, collapsing all the surrounding walls and caving in the ceiling. They both jumped away from each other as to avoid getting hit by the falling stones and concrete. As Yuki jumped back, she threw a few ice needles towards him. He quickly blocked them away despite the dust that was rising from the ground. Yuki stayed down. He jumped up.

"You remind me of Haku. He was a kid I once fought who also used ice jutsus and needles. You also remind me of that ANBU who was present during that time."

Yuki didn't respond to that. Before she knew it, Naruto Sakura, Sai and Yamato had joined up with her. She glanced over at Sai as he raised his weapon at Sasuke. Naruto called out Sasuke's name.

"I didn't think there would be a reunion today." Sasuke said coldly. "If this could even be called a reunion, that is."

"Sasuke! Stop being an idiot and let's head back to the village together." Naruto yelled out to him. "All our friends are still waiting for you."

"Friends?" Sasuke said. "I don't remember such things."

"Sasuke, you are right. Not many would want you back in the village." Sai then started. "However, Naruto still considers you a friend, so does Sakura. For that, I've decided to change my mission. I'll bring you back to the village for their sake."

Yuki thought she had misheard at first. It wasn't like Sai to decide to go against Danzo's orders.

"I heard you worked for Danzo. You are not a very good ANBU, now are you." Sasuke told him.

"I always was too good at my job." Sai replied with a smile. "Unfortunately, I was never a good friend. I've learned from my mistakes. I've also realized the importance of bonds as I've talked to Naruto. Your bond with Naruto is still there. You should cherish it while it remains. If not, you might regret it once it's broken. I know that first hand."

He looked over at Yuki who was still stoic. She didn't know whether she believed him or not. She looked away. She looked at Sasuke's reaction. He was smirking. He found it amusing. Sasuke then said:

"I think you misunderstood what kind of bond we have. It's a bond of hatred, not of friendship."

As he said those words, he jumped down from the elevation he was on and headed for Naruto. He was stopped by Yamato, however, his sword managed to stab their captain in the chest. Meanwhile, he had released his lightning, paralyzing the remaining three as Yuki dodged his attack thanks to the foresight of her Sharingan. Yamato then pushed Sasuke back with his Wood Release to which Sasuke reacted by sending an even larger lightning ninjutsu towards them. Yuki jumped in and redirected the lightning towards the sky using herself as a conductor. Yamato used his Wood release to stop the lightning. As Sasuke came back towards Naruto with his sword, Sai managed to free himself from the paralysis and blocked the attack for Naruto. Sasuke covered himself in a lightning chakra coat, electrocuting Sai and making him fall to his knees. Sakura, freed from the paralysis by a wounded Yamato, rushed over to protect Naruto. Sasuke did not stop himself. Yuki threw her katana towards them to divert his sword from its direct line to hurt Sakura and Naruto. Finally moving, Naruto's chakra began to change once again to the Nine-tails. However, before it could emerge, it somehow stopped itself. From sheer willpower, Naruto managed to suppress his own rage. He won against the Nine-tails. As Yamato saw that Naruto would be okay, he went for Sasuke again, trapping him in a wooden cage. However, Sasuke easily escaped and jumped back onto the elevated ground he was previously on.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled. "You... You've gotten strong enough now. If you stay with Orochimaru, he'll just use you as his next container."

"Naruto, you are still so naive. I couldn't care less about what he does. As long as I gain the power to kill Itachi, I can become whatever." Sasuke replied.

With those words, Orochimaru appeared and whispered into Sasuke's ear. He seemed unhappy at what Orochimaru had just told him. Without a goodbye, he simply vanished alongside Orochimaru and Kabuto who had now joined them. Naruto yelled out his name one more time as he crumbled down onto his knees. Yuki undid her ponytail allowing her hair to go loose in the wind. She walked over to Naruto and placed her hand on his shoulder as an act to comfort him.

"He..." Naruto started. "I know he'll come around some day. He simply just needs more time."

Yuki sighed. She didn't know if Naruto was simply to dumb to see the changes that Sasuke had gone through or if Naruto was simply so hopeful that he decided to ignore the fact that Sasuke had change.

"I'll come back to the village, I'll train even harder and, then, I'll find Sasuke again. I will definitely bring him back then." Naruto said as he got back on his feet.

He walked over to Sai who was still on the ground, recovering from the blow he took for Naruto. Yuki walked over as well and gave him basic first aid. He looked at her, hoping she would say something, but she kept quiet.

"At least, I found a new friend on this trip." Naruto said as he showed his fist to Sai.

Sai looked at him in a daze. He wasn't too sure what to do.

"He wants a fist bump." Yuki explained coldly. "It's his way of saying that he accepts you now as a teammate and a friend."

Naruto grinned widely as Sai responded to his fist bump. Yuki was still uncertain about Sai. She wasn't as big of a believer in heart changes as Naruto was. She didn't believe Sai was as trustworthy as they made it sound. Nonetheless, she remained quiet on the matter. His worthiness as a friend or even as teammate, to Yuki, had to be proven over time. She could accept him as a fellow villager, but to call someone like him a friend, she was still very much unwilling. He could tell despite his lack of understanding emotions. She was cold towards him. She was warm towards the others. The difference was so clear that even the most insensible human being could tell. He knew he had to prove himself to her. He knew that his previous actions were unforgivable. He never regretted anything more than that day he raised his weapon against her.

End of Chapter 47

A bit of a longer chapter.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Let me know what you think in the reviews.

xox

Krystal