Note: I have a new idea for a story that I'll be posting today so every should try and check it out as soon as they can. The only character I really will be using will be Gaara and it's placed in the real world. You'll just have to read it for more because it's very complicated and hard to describe.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto storyline.

Chapter Twenty-Five:

New But Never Dying Flames

"Its over, we both know that," I warned him, the grip he had on my throat tightening with every word I spoke, "The end to this nightmare is near."

"And what makes you think that the ending is going to be a good one?" he asked me darkly his anger evident in the tone of his voice.

"And what makes you think that it's going to be a bad one?" I rebutted.

While the two of us had been talking I had already started on a plan to get his hand away from my windpipe. It was evident that I wasn't able to make him let go by force; I had to shrewd, cunning to win this battle. In my hand I began to form my charka and once I had collected all that I needed, I struck.

He hadn't seen that coming.

And that's what I counted on.

"What did you do?" he growled at me all the while clutching his stomach where my palm had made a connection.

I tried to kick him away, but as I had expected from him, he was to fast for me. I glared at him, not wanting to answer but then finally I said, "I forced you ab muscles to start separating away from in each other."

"You what?" I could tell he knew exactly what that meant for him if he didn't find someone to heal him, and heal him soon.

"Don't act so surprised," I mocked a face that resembled someone who had just been insulted, "After all I did learn from the best. And I know that we are both aware that in about an hour your muscle will be finished tearing themselves apart and as for you, well, it might not kill you, but it'll hurt like hell and you wont be able to move for a very, very long time."

Before I knew what was happening I felt someone's fist connect with my lower right check, turning any clear vision I had into a giant blur of blackness. I allowed my reflexes to control my body as I collected my thoughts. It was as if I was fighting from a distance. I could feel myself block an attack, while at the same time, rebutting another, or trying to make an advancement only to be stopped by a blow to my stomach. I knew what he was trying to do, and I was trying my best to counter him.

The logic was simple enough so that anyone could understand; he was trying to end the battle as quickly as possible so that he could go find someone to heal him before it was to late. My strategy was someone less forceful, but I considered it just as brutal.

Just as long as I could make the battle last longer than an hour he would be defeated, it was just lasting through it that was the trick.

I found myself falling through the thick branches from one of his hits to my head. Everything hurt, and my body was screaming for some relief. As I was tumbling I felt myself slip into the darkness of sleep, or perhaps it was death.

I could see my childhood flashing before my eyes.

The first day I ever meet Sasuke and Naruto to the day we were officially Team 7. The vision of our first mission together flashed before my eyes and the first night we slept on the hard forest floor as a team, as friends. The next image was the one of the night he left us for Orochimaru and how I laid awake crying for nights on end.

I closed my eyes as if to shut out the images of my past, even then they still burned a hole into my soul.

But they didn't stop as I crashed on a rather think branch and continued to fall to the earth.

I saw the day Naruto laid in the hospital bed, wrapped in bandages and yet still promising to bring him home. I saw the night that Gaara saved me from Orochimaru and the day that Naruto returned home from his year of training. I saw the days we spent eating together in the ramen shop with Kakashi Sensei and Lady Tsunade.

I just kept falling.

Falling down toward nothing, nothing at all.

The last image I remember was the face of my sand prince. His red locks that laid messy on his head, those teal eyes that were filled with curiosity but no longer pain, embellished by the black of his father's sin.

That when I felt it.

Inside of hitting the ground I felt someone wrap their arms arounf my body, so that I was safe and not serevely harmed.

"Gaara?" I whispered softly before I realized what I had said.

I felt someone place their forehead on mine and chuckle softly, "Not quite," Naruto replied.

I cracked a small smile up at him as his spiky blonde hairs gleamed in the bright sunlight, "I heard noises so I came to check out what was going on. I knew that we'd need help with this mission and sent word to the village. You're pretty beat up Sakura," he paused then asked, "Where's Gaara?"

"I-I don't know," I responed closing my eyes again from the pain of smashing into the branches.

"Well, he'll be along," he informed me with a wide smile.

"You were always there for me," I told him in a low voice as tears slide down my cheeks, "And-"

He cut me off with a laugh, "And I always will be, you're my friend."

"Yeah, best friend," I corrected him genlty.

"Best friend," he repeated as if tasting the sound of the word in his mouth before adding, "You did well against him, by why don't you let me take it from here?"

I nodded my head, "An hour."

"What?" he questioned as he helped me sit on the ground.

"He has an hour, after that his stomach muscles will tear away from each other and he can be stopped."

"I didn't think that it would come to this," he mumbled.

"Niether did I," I agreed as I made to stand up only for him to push me back down on the forest floor.

"Stay here, he's mine," his eyes began to change from their sapphire blue to crimson.

"Naruto," I called out to him before he could leave.

"What?" he asked his fangs baring as he talked and his hands turning into deadly claws of the demon.

"Don't loose yourself this time," I said, then laughed nervously, "I'll want my best friend by my side when we go home to Konoha."

"We?" he asked slightly confused.

"You, me, and Gaara."

"Right!" he nodded before jumping up toward the many branches of the trees.