Dear Cherry Blossom a.k.a Sweet Serenity
To answer the mostly asked question... Hablo español.
I got a few Shout Outs for my reviewers. I should have given them out sooner, but until recently, I didn't know what a Shout Out was. (Thanks, Donny!) In this case, a Shout Out is a very special thank you. Instead of using names, I'll use numbers starting from the bottom (1st review) to the top (Last review)
#3, #4, #7, #8, #9 and #10 : You guys are great!4 Shout Outs for all of you!
#1, #2, #5 and #6:6 Shout Outs for you! (See, Donny? My English doesn't suck!)
Donny: You're nothing without me, Skykat!
And the grand prizewinners are #1, #6, #8, and #10 with an additional3 more Shout Outs for leaving me the coolest reviews!
What can you do with these Shout Outs? I don't know. Perhaps I'll think of something. Thanks again everyone!
Summary: Sasuke and Ino's marriage is falling apart. Sakura is a successful advice columnist. Naruto still loves Sakura, Sakura still loves Sasuke, and someone is ALWAYS putting Sasuke's manhood on the line.
Recap: Sasuke and Ino argued but settled everything by engaging in make up sex, (too bad this was only temporary), Naruto visited a depressed Sakura only to have his ass kicked, and finally, Itachi "weaseled" his way into the story. (Get it? It's a pun! Ha! Ha! Ha!)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But I do own some of the new characters that will be popping up. But will I get paid? NOOOOOOO!
Warning: A little OCCness going on…but hey, that's what makes it interesting, right?
Chapter 3: Let the story begin!
Back at the village everyone was getting ready for the "special mission" by the time Sasuke had arrived. They were all there just as early as he was and were waiting for Kakashi to show up with the description of how they were going to carry out this special mission. Sasuke took a little time out to observe whose teams were chosen to participate. Chouji was sitting on the ground grumbling something about how hungry he was despite the fact that he ate not twenty minutes ago, Tenten and Neji were standing a few feet away from him, knee deep in conversation with their genin, and Rock Lee was standing with his back against a wall lost in thought. It was an odd sight to see his three genin leaning up against the same wall, all wearing the same green jumpsuits with the same soup bowl haircuts. (They also had thick eyebrows…nuff said.)
Before Sasuke could talk to his adult comrades, his three genins ran up to him and greeted him excitedly. Wide eyed and energetic, they seemed very happy to be going on a real mission that didn't have to do with picking potatoes or walking dogs.
"Sasuke sensei?" One member of his squad named Michio said innocently, tugging on Sasuke's shirt. "When do we start?" Sasuke looked down into the small child's large brown eyes. At the tender age of seven, Michio was extremely advanced and well on his way to becoming chunin. He was also disgustingly adorable and Sasuke was all too proud to have the opportunity to train him.
"Just a minute, Michio." Sasuke went over to where Tenten and Neji were standing. "What's with Lee?" he asked noticing that Lee hadn't picked his head up since he got there.
"He hasn't been the same since Sakura's rejection." Tenten replied. "He wrote to Cherry Blossom about what had happened and she answered his letter by telling him to move on. Now he's so distraught that he barely even talks to his own squad." Sasuke looked over at the freaky looking taijustu master. He felt sorry for him but for some reason he was glad that Sakura had rejected him. He briskly shook his head and shifted his focus onto something more important. He scanned the vicinity of where they were standing. Something was missing.
"Sasuke sensei? I want to get started now!" Michio tugged even harder on Sasuke's shirt.
"Gracious, he's more irritating and impatient than Naruto was at that age… That's it". "Where's Naruto?" Sasuke asked even though he really didn't care about the blond shinobi's present location.
"We saw him walk into the village but then he vanished into thin air." Neji answered. "I think you should go look for him. Kakashi sensei will be here any minute."
"That's what you think." Sasuke thought remembering the past experiences with his former trainer's constant tardiness. "I'll go get him." Sasuke left the group and searched through all of Naruto's favorite hang out spots. After searching every restaurant in the village that served ramen, he searched through the woods, blazing at a blinding speed from tree to tree. He paused for a few seconds only try and pick up the faintest trace of chakra that indicated his comrade was nearby. Once he finished scouting one area he moved onto the next. Within a few minutes of searching he heard a small rustle in some bushes a few feet away from where he was standing. He followed the sound and reached a small clearing in the woods. "He's behind me." Sasuke stood still, waiting for Naruto to make his next move, but almost as soon as he sensed Naruto's presence, the chakra was gone.
Kicking all of his ninja senses into high gear, he circled the area trying to pick up on Naruto's trail again. Nothing. Sasuke leaned his back again a tree and took time out to figure out what he should do next. Looking up at the morning sky, he could see that he didn't have much time to continue his search before the rest of his team would begin the "special mission" without him. His lack of patience got the better of him and he elected to head back to the village with or without Naruto. That's when he heard the rustle in the bushes again. "There's no way he'd be making all this noise unless he wanted me to know where he was. He must be playing a game." Sasuke stood in the middle of the clearing and got into his battle stance.
Just he suspected, Naruto shot out of the bushes towards Sasuke's direction but Sasuke jumped out of the way before Naruto could land on him. Naruto tried to jump at him from another angle but missed again and ran off. Before could he make sense of what Naruto was trying to do, Sasuke was alone again. He didn't know what kind of game Naruto was playing, but he was growing increasingly tired of wasting his time dodging Naruto's attacks. "Abort 'finding Naruto' mission." He left the clearing and proceeded back to the village, still keeping his eyes and ears open in case Naruto attempted another attack. He hadn't made it five feet out of the clearing when Naruto jumped out from nowhere and tackled Sasuke to the ground.
"What the-!" Sasuke shouted trying to get the kyuubi-boy off of his back.
"Give me the camera!" Naruto wrestled with Sasuke in an effort to grab at one of his hands. They wrestled on the ground for a few seconds until Naruto stopped and allowed his rival to get to his feet.
"You're crazy!" Sasuke growled. "What do you think you're doing?" He stared deep into Naruto's eyes waiting to hear what he had to say even though he was pretty sure Naruto had no real explanation for ambushing him and attempting to grab an invisible camera.
"I was trailing somebody but thanks to you, I lost him along the way. I was going to retreat back to the village…and I saw you…so…I…wanted to practice on you. But…you…didn't co…op…per…ate…so I just uh… decided to practice on you anyway." Naruto looked confidently at his rival completely unaware that his explanation made absolutely no sense. Sasuke would have loved more than anything to severely hurt this knuckleheaded ninja but concluded that it just wasn't worth the time and the energy at the moment.
"Come on, dumbass." Sasuke said, walking toward the village. "We're running late."
After a seven-hour slumber Sakura woke up feeling miserable. In her mind she wanted to get up and start the day but her body had other plans. Although she wasn't lacking in energy, she had an undeniable sense of queasiness in her stomach. She couldn't see very well because her eyes were almost swollen shut and she couldn't breathe through her nose because her sinuses were clogged; undoubtedly the result of spending the night crying herself to sleep. She figured it would be best to stay in bed until she could get her thoughts together but she had to get up in order to turn in her next articles to the editor. Reluctantly, she rolled out of bed, splashed cold water on her face, and got dressed. She didn't have much of an appetite so she skipped breakfast and headed straight out the door.
Mother nature always had a way with making things better. The sun was shinning brightly and the warmth of its rays touched her face as soon as she stepped outside. A cool gentle breeze blew through her hair much like her own mother used to do with her fingers when she was younger. She threw her head back and took a large amount of the fresh air into her lungs. "This day couldn't be any more perfect!" She immediately felt her spirit lift and found herself almost skipping to the editor's office.
It didn't take long to get there because the building was only a few minutes away from were she lived. Inside was almost empty because a lot of the staff was out on some sort of mission. Moegi was one of the few staff members that didn't have a mission that day. "I got some more articles here or you." Sakura said handing her folder to the teenager sitting at her cubicle. Moegi grabbed the folder out of Sakura's hand and flipped through the pages.
"Is this for Jiraiya?" She asked while still going through the pages, with the unmistakable look of cluelessness.
"He is the editor isn't he?" Sakura answered back in a voice that basically said "DUH!"
"He's not here." She mumbled, scoffing at the fact that Sasukra had just spoken to her as if she lacked common sense. "He's out looking for some more inspiration for his next book."
"Oh no. That means he's over by the ladies bathhouse." Sakura said, rolling her eyes.
"You know our editor. I'll see that he gets this." Moegi leaned her body against her desk as if she were hiding something. This strange behavior sparked Sakura's curiosity.
"What's that you're working on?" She asked when she observed a rather thick folder sticking out from under Moegi's body regardless of her desperate attempts to hide it.
"It's just some things for the next issue. Konohamaru took a few pictures of the training grounds and stuff." She hastily gathered the folder up and threw it into her desk drawer. "I'll make sure Jiraiya gets this as soon as he gets back." The girl was acting a little too out of the ordinary but Sakura didn't have much time to question her. After saying a quick "thank you", Sakura left the office and proceeded for the village. On the way she stopped for a few seconds.
"What's Ino doing I wonder? Maybe I should help her psych herself up for this new client before she leaves." She changed her course of direction and walked as fast as she could towards Ino's house. Sure she was supposed to be going to the medic's office, but what kind of person would she be if she didn't make a little time for her best friend?
"Naruto" Neji addressed in a curious voice, "What are you doing here? This is a special mission for jounin and their genin."
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Naruto asked viciously. "I AM a jounin now!"
"Yeah, but weren't you placed in the suicide squad? Or as the rest of us call it, 'The squad that sucks at everything else?'" Neji smirked at Naruto.
"Ha, ha, ha. You and Sasuke are SOOO funny!" Naruto glared at Neji and crossed his arms. "Besides, they need a replacement for Shikamaru until he recovers."
"Not that again." Neji nodded his head in disbelief. "Pathetic."
Some time later Kakashi came up to the group. He was holding a book in one hand and fiercely scratching his face through his mask with the other. "Why are you late this time?" Naruto asked turning his attention from Neji. "And what's with the scratching?" Kakashi approached the group without giving Naruto a second look.
"Now listen up, guys. I'm only going to explain this once." Kakashi said getting the attention of the jounin and genin chosen for the mission. They all had annoyed expressions on their faces after waiting two hours for Kakashi to arrive. Sasuke's face remained expressionless. "Cheer up, everyone! Why is Sasuke the only one here that doesn't look bored out of his mind?"
"That's because he got laid last night!" Naruto responded cheerfully. The added sounds of snickering from his fellow shinobi made Sasuke blush a little and glare at the bigmouthed ninja.
"What does that mean?" Michio asked.
"It means he got some." An older member of Sasuke's team boldly answered. He was about to laugh but one sharp look from Sasuke's shariganed eyes immediately shut the boy up.
"I hope you're not too worn out then, Sasuke." Kakashi said in a deliberate attempt to embarrass Sasuke even further.
"Got some what, Sasuke sensei?" Michio asked, focusing his large eyes into Sasuke's. Sasuke and the others pretended not to hear him. Boy was this wrong time for a seven-year-old's curiosity to show.
"Can we just get on with it?" Sasuke asked angrily.
"Is that what Ino said last night?" Naruto joked. This made everyone except Sasuke and Rock Lee burst into laughter. A hard fist came down on Naruto's head.
"Will you watch what you're saying, Naruto?" Tenten half snickered and half scolded, "There are kids here!"
"Okay that's enough." Kakashi said raising his hand in order to regain their attention. "This is a relatively exclusive mission that really should not even be classified as a mission. For all of the genin, it will be more like a training session." Kakashi pulled out a diagram and made a few hand signs. A three dimensional image of a large one-story building appeared in front of them. "Here's the scenario." Kakashi began. "This is the location of a chest were a scared scroll is kept on the far end of the smallest village in the Fire Country. There had been sightings of a mysterious person trying to break in, possibly to steal the scroll. Your mission is to infiltrate this building and gather the scroll before this mysterious person does."
"You've got to be kidding." Chouji spoke up. "That's chunin work!"
"If they're going to participate in the in the upcoming chunin exams they need to gain as much experience as possible." Kakashi explained.
"Who came up with that idea?" Neji asked, evidently jealous of the fact that he was denied this kind of special training before he took the chunin exam.
"Probably the same person who said it's okay to screw your cousin on a daily basis!" Naruto mused. This earned another hard fist coming down on his head.
"Can we focus, Naruto?" Kakashi asked impatiently.
"All right!" Naruto rubbed the large knot that formed on the top of his head. "What about this mysterious person?"
"Not much is known about him." Kakashi explained. " There have been reports of mysterious deaths of a lot of top ninja from other villages. There is also a report of one instance were a group of about ten jounin had him surrounded. After a brief battle all ten were found dead and the person vanished. What you are to do is work together and formulate a plan on how to break into the building and grab this scroll. Remember that there are traps and the possibility of this mysterious person showing up. The first team to retrieve this scroll will be among the first selected to take the chunin exam. All right. Let's begin."
The jounins eagerly watched as their genin huddled into their groups and talked among themselves. Sasuke was exceptionally proud of his team who was the first to come up with a reason able plan. Neji's team came in next, followed by Lee's, Chouji's and Tenten's. Shikamaru's team, who had Naruto for a substitute, was still having trouble. Not because they couldn't think of a plan, but mostly because Naruto and the squad couldn't agree on anything.
"Naruto sensei," one of the team members called to him adjusting his glasses, "I think we should find a way to cover the four cardinal directions."
"Car-din-nul…" Naruto had a look of confusion in his eyes.
"North, South, East, and West, Dumbass!" Sasuke sighed.
"Man, what a squad of GEEKS!" Naruto thought before answering. "Ah yeah…you mean cover the parymiter." Shikamaru's team looked at Naruto with puzzled expressions on their faces.
"I think he means perimeter." Tenten clarified.
"Then," continued the quad member " We should all walk forty-five degrees and then walk fifty paces diagonally-"
"BOR-RING!" Naruto interrupted. "Shikamaru's got you too focused on the technical mathematical stuff. I got a better idea."
"Perhaps you should let them do it they're own way, Naruto." Kakashi said in between his facial scratches.
"All right." Naruto retorted angrily. "But who's going to take the blame when they all get killed because they were too busy trying to figure out the square root of their next move during a fight! I mean... what are they going to do, say 'could you please refrain from hitting me for the next few minutes while I calculate the force and the distance of your punches so I can figure out how much time I have to duck?' "
"Naruto as our sensei…how troublesome." One of the members of his team sighed.
Once the teams had all of their plans devised, they all set out for the testing grounds were the building was located. The seven jounin waited outside while their teams went inside to look for the scroll. Kakashi seated himself against a tree and opened his book. Lee sat about fifty feet away from the others and spent his time staring aimlessly into the sky repeating Sakura's name over and over again.
"Will someone PLEASE give me a stick so I can shut this guy up?" Everyone gave Naruto a look."I mean put him out of his misery?" Naruto exclaimed between Lee's choruses of "Oh Sakura, my Sakura". No doubt Naruto was the only person in the village with almost no compassion for Lee. (Surprise, surprise) He turned away and watched as Shikamaru's team stood outside the building, measuring the area with their steps. In order for them to hear each other as they walked further apart, they yelled the instructions so loud that all of the jounin could hear them.
"Okay. North, East, and West covered. The wind is blowing north about fifteen miles per hour. Move fifty paces to the left, move at a ninety degree angle, take the square root of two hundred and eighty-six and walk that number of steps…"
"Why are they wasting time calculating their steps!" Naruto's eyes went blank and he put his hands on either side of his face. "They're supposed to be breaking in the building!"
"Just watch." Kakashi said looking up from his book, still scratching his face. Naruto looked into Kakashi's exposed eye, which was red and looked irritated.
"You know you should really get that looked at."
"Ready!" The jounin heard a member of Shikamaru's team shout. " Teammate's position…detected. Teammate's chakra…detected. One…two…three!" All three of the genin darted toward the house so fast that all that could be seen were comet like streaks trailing behind them before all three of them completely disappeared. Everyone looked in amazement when they saw all three of them inside the building and waving to them from a window.
"Wow! There're good." Naruto couldn't believe what he had just seen.
"Shikamaru devised that tactic." Chouji said. "We haven't quite figured out how he came up with that."
"I'll tell you how," Naruto said. "What we were looking at where shadow clones. We were so busy watching them map out their steps that we didn't notice them breaking in on the other side of the building." Everyone stared at Naruto blankly. "What, you didn't see it?" More blank stares. "Two hundred and eighty-six doesn't even HAVE a square root. I can't BELIEVE you didn't notice that!"
"Technically it does." One member of Shikamaru's team appeared from out of nowhere. "It's 16. 9115-"
"Will you get out of here!" Naruto shouted and pointed to the building. The young squad member was gone in the blink of an eye. "I hate shadow clones!" Naruto sighed.
"Secret's out." Kakashi said, still scratching his face.
"Kakashi sensei," Naruto addressed, "you really should get that looked at."
Chouji looked away from the crowd- unquestionably hiding his shame in the fact that he didn't figure such a simple jutsu trick before Naruto had. Sasuke remained in the same position but his eyes alone said that he was also feeling kind of stupid. The others hid their faces in shame as well.
"The mysterious person is just a jutsu created illusion." Kakashi explained. "It won't do any harm though it might scare them a little."
"This mission is dumb." Sasuke said as he sat on the ground with his elbows on his knees and his hands in front of his mouth. "There has to be something more to this than looking for a scroll."
"You're right, Sasuke." Kakashi answered. "Just wait for a few minutes. You'll see what happens." Sasuke didn't answer so Kakashi changed the subject. "So Tenten, I hear congratulations are in order." Everyone turned their attention to a beet- red Tenten. "I've heard about your engagement to the Kazekage Gaara."
"Wait a minute!" Naruto said loudly with bulging eyes. "Tenten's engaged to Gaara? You mean Gaara of the Sand? Gaara of the Mole People? Gaara 'I'm as dry as the desert I'm from' Gaara? Gaara 'What I lack in eyebrows I can't even make up for in height' Gaara? Gaara-"
"We get it, Naruto." Neji interrupted.
"Wait I have another one…"
"Will you stop being an idiot?" Sasuke said hitting Naruto hard on the back of the head. "As always, you're late. Tenten got engaged to Gaara the day before yesterday."
"I had no idea you two were dating." Naruto said to Tenten.
"We weren't." Tenten answered back. "It's kind of a last minute arrangement." Naruto was shocked beyond reason. So, Tenten is engaged to Gaara. Gaara of the Sand…Gaara "why must I look like a raccoon on crack?" Gaara. So odd, so odd.
Just then Chouji noticed someone dressed in all black wandering around the building then vanish into thin air. "Wow. I just saw something scary."
"What, an empty potato chip bag?" Naruto responded, earning a glower from Chouji.
"Hey Chouji, Neji, Sasuke." Tenten called pulling out a newspaper from under her vest. "Did you see this issue of the Kohona news? Take a look at the cover story." They all gathered around Tenten and looked at the front page featuring a picture of Iruka getting caught peeking in on Kakashi who was bathing in a nearby hot spring.
"What the hell?" Kakashi snatched up the paper. "So he wasn't out completing a spying mission in the Land of Water that day."
"Yes he was!" Neji laughed hysterically. "This is better than Naruto got caught fondling himself in female form! I think the article was called 'Local Leaf Nin caught doing 'Sexy-no-jutsu no-no!'"
"Lousy little gossip pervert." Naruto growled under his breath.
Kakashi turned the page. " I wouldn't laugh if I were you, Neji." Kakashi opened up a section of the paper with a feature story of he and a dark haired female lip locking on the ground underneath a park bench. Her face couldn't be seen, but Kakashi and the others had a pretty good idea as to who it was.
"That's not funny!" Neji snatched the paper out of Kakashi's hands. He quickly turned the page and found the latest Cherry Blossom articles. "I see my submission's not here yet. Did you all read the latest addition of Dear Cherry Blossom? This person's a genius. I'm always writing whenever I'm having a few…issues with Hinata."
"Oh yeah, the famous 'Dear Cherry Blossom'. Bringing two cousins together…just not in a good way." Naruto mused. "You actually trust some stranger with your personal life?"
"This person's helped a lot of people in the village." Tenten said.
"Is that why Lee's over there banging his head against a tree?"
"Just listen to this article." Tenten began reading the article aloud…
Dear Cherry blossom,
A number of years ago I've taken in a small child who has been my sole companion until adulthood. Ever since I found him, he's promised to be my personal tool for the rest of his life. He even went as far as saying that he'd give his life for me. I trained and took care of him throughout his teenage years, but I all I saw in him was a tool to do my bidding. Eventually, I developed feelings for him and we developed a father/son kind of relationship. The problem is, everywhere we went people have been looking at us strangely since he was a teenager. They somehow learned that he was not my son and I fear they may be thinking a few other things about us even though I haven't laid a hand on the boy. Another problem is, he's become excessively clingy. Am I wrong to use him as my personal tool? And more importantly, how do I stop people from talking about us with out having to kill them?
"That's just stupid!" Naruto interrupted. "The person practically tells this guy 'I'll gladly be your lifelong bitch' and he's complaining! What could he possibly have to complain about!"
"Let her finish, Naruto!" Neji said. "Skip down to the part where Cherry Blossom answers, Tenten."
"She basically says not to worry about what others think but they should consider a trial separation."
"Forget trial separation! This 'boy' is WAY too obsessive and needs to get his own life!" Naruto snatched the paper and looked through some more pages.
"Hey, Sasuke." Chouji called out despite the fact that his mouth was full of some kind of unidentifiable substance. (Potato chips, a sandwich, a squirrel…whatever) "Did you ever think about writing to this person? Maybe that'll help you and Ino." Sasuke didn't answer.
"He doesn't have to," Naruto responded loud enough for everyone to hear. "If this jerk would just get his act together, then everything will be alright! Ino's not the one to blame for this. Tell him, Neji. You used to date her, right?"
"For like a week." Neji answered. (It was actually a little longer than that. Eh, details)
"Shut the hell up, Naruto!" Sasuke could feel the tension boiling inside of him.
"You know it's all your fault!" Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other so hard that lighting bolts shout out of their eyes and crashed against each other.
Naruto took a break from his accusations and turned his attention to the newspaper. "Who's writing this stuff anyway? I'm going to find out who's spying on us and catching us in our most inopportune moments. Then I'm going to kill him!" Everyone just sat still and stared vacantly. "Uh, well maybe just hurt him a little."
"Naruto, we're in no mood to hear your declaration of incompetence!" Sasuke stood up and faced Naruto with his muscles tensed and fire in his eyes. Naruto clenched his fists knowing that a fight would not be far off. They both got ready to charge at each other but were distracted by bloodcurdling screams and six of the genin running as fast as they could out of the building.
"What's going on, guys?" Naruto asked as the jounin gathered around the frightened children.
"Look!" One of them pointed in the direction of the building. Everyone was startled to see about three ninja surrounding the building and coming closer towards them. "T-t-there's s-s-something in there, and it's g-g-got Michio!" One of them said with a voice so shaky that let could barely understand. "I think he's dead!"
"So why didn't all of you stay inside and fight? These genin are no more fit to be chunin than Naruto is anywhere in the civilized world." Sasuke sighed. "He's on my squad so I'll go in after him."
"It's started!" Kakashi yelled "Don't get too mad at them because this was all a part of a mission…OUR mission. We were tipped off of a possible invasion and we needed a trap to lure some of them over here. These are believed to be new S-class ninja so your squads are almost powerless against them without our help."
Neji used his Byakugan jutsu to find were the team of enemy ninja was coming from. "Over there!" Neji pointed to a section of the woods.
"Some other jounin are on the way from the village. We're going to have to move out quickly!" Kakashi ordered. "Sasuke, you go in and get Michio. Tenten, you go find the others and bring them here. Neji, Chouji, Lee, come with me!" Kakashi ran in the direction of the invading ninja with everyone but Sasuke and Naruto following him.
"Hey, what about me?" Naruto asked.
"Do what you do best, Naruto. Stay here and collect dust." Sasuke ran into the building.
Sasuke entered and searched through and endless amount of rooms calling his young student's name. "Oh great" Sasuke thought to himself. "Bad enough I'm in the world's most dangerous fun house looking for some cowardly team members and trying to avoid certain death with an endless barrage of traps, but HE just HAD to come in here with me."
"Don't think I don't know what you meant by that smart ass remark, you…smart ass!" Naruto exclaimed from behind him.
"Let's just split up. You take that side, and I'll take this side. And for goodness sakes be careful, there're traps everywhere."
"Fine with me." Naruto said beforegoing arounda corner.
"Thank goodness." Sasuke continued searching through the rooms until he found the boy curled up in the fetal position and shivering in a corner. "And you call yourself a shinobi." Sasuke said displeasingly. He bent down in an effort to help the boy stand up, but as soon as he touched him he felt a warm liquid that soaked through Michio's clothing. When Sasuke pulled his hand away, he discovered that it was covered with blood. "So you've been injured. Don't move. I'm going to get you out of here."
"He's over there." The genin said, feebly pointing to a dark figure dressed in black standing across from them. Sasuke narrowly avoided a bombardment of shurikan thatthe darkfigure aimed at his head. He pulled out his own arsenal of weapons and was about to start fighting when Naruto came running in yelling, " The others have found their way out, but I can't find Michio!"
Before Sasuke could say anything Naruto ran into him, causing him to step on a block that sank into the floor. A low rumble could be heard from where they were standing. "Ah shit…GET DOWN!" Sasuke was fast to push the clumsy ninja down before a number of arrows came shooting from a wall in their direction. Unfortunately, Naruto had to be difficult and not go down fast enough. The extreme pain of the arrow going through Sasuke's shoulder was enough to make The Great Uchiha Heir's eyes water.
"That looked like it hurt!" Naruto said observing the arrow sticking out of his comrade's back.
"You think?" Sasuke said as he got to his feet and pulled the arrow out. "He's not a jutsu created ninja. You get Michio out of here. I'll take care of this guy."
"Oh shit, there he is!" Naruto prepared himself to attack the figure standing in the corner trying to avoid the few remaining arrows that shot out of the walls. "You can't fight with your shoulder like that. I'm staying here!" Abruptly, the dark figure ran of the room and Sasuke left to follow after him.
"Naruto, stay with Michio until one of the others finds you!" Sasuke commanded. Naruto wanted to be the one to go after the mysterious ninja, but Sasuke left before he could say anything.
"Sasuke sensei?" Michio said weakly. "I tried to fight him."
"Don't worry, little guy. Someone will be here soon." Naruto said cradling the boy in his arms. "I won't leave you here alone." Just then Kakashi came charging into he room.
"Naruto,have you seen the ninja?" Kakashi had his headband lifted exposing his sharinganed eye.
"Sasuke went after him. I have to go help him but I can't leave the genin here."
"The others have arrived and I'm going back outside. Whatever you do, do not leave the boy alone. And if you see the ninja, try not to kill him unless you have to!" Kakashi darted out of the room so fast that it almost looked like he just disappeared.
Sasuke activated his sharingan and followed the ninja into another empty room. This room had no windows with only one door and Sasuke was blocking the only exit. Sasuke had the ninja trapped, making a fight impossible to avoid. Channeling some chakra into him palm, a chidori energy sphere that shot out lighting bolts surrounded Sasuke's hand and shot out towards his opponent. A brilliant white light filled the entire room once the target was hit and slowly began to recede. Once all of the light cleared away, the ninja had disappeared completely, leaving Sasuke alone and sinking to his knees from the loss of so much chakra at once.
"That was too easy." Sasuke said breathing heavily. "Something's not right here." He stood up and scanned the area of the room but could find no trace of the ninja. Suddenly, a breeze of wind flashed by and Sasuke ducked, barely dodging a flying kick to the head. Sasuke got up faced his opponent head on. He threw a few punches before doing some hand signs to create his fire jutsu. Strangely, the other ninja was able to dodge every strike Sasuke threw at him. He instantly came to the realization that this was an unusually strong opponent and the basic attacks that he had been using would not be enough. He was about to reach into his bag of advanced attacks when he heard a familiar voice coming from outside the door.
"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, running into the room with Michio in his arms "Let me help you!"
"Naruto, get him out of here!" Seeing that Sasuke had let his guard down the ninja made a few hand signs and sent a wave of chakra that knocked Sasuke off his feet and sent him full force into a wall. The last thing Sasuke saw before he blacked out completely was a faint red glow from the ninja's eyes as he made fire jutsu hand signs and set the ground around Sasuke's body on fire.
"Sasuke!" Naruto put he boy down as gently as he could and faced this mysterious person. The bottom half of his face was covered with a mask similar to Kakashi's, so Naruto couldn't identify who it was. Naruto looked straight at the person's eyes, which where strangely tinted an odd shade of red, and prepared to fight. That's when he noticed that the fire around Sasuke's body was burning quickly, forcing Naruto to make the difficult decision of either fighting, getting Michio out of the building, or getting Sasuke out of the fire. These were the moments that Naruto feared most.
Confronted with an almost impossible decision, Naruto felt trapped and out of control. This was all Kyuubi needed to start pouring out red chakra in order to protect his container. Naruto fought hard to keep the red charka forming around him under control and he succeeded by focusing the chakra into the palm of his hand in the form of a Rasengan sphere. He was about to hurl it into the dark strangers direction, but instead allowed it to dissipate so that he could get to Sasuke. Seizing the opportunity to escape the dark figure ran out the room, but not before leaving behind a small object with a scroll attached to it.
Still somewhat under Kyuubi's influence, Naruto ran through the flames and pulled Sasuke out of danger. Before he could reach Michio's body the object blew up with a huge explosion that caused the ceiling and the walls to trembling and caving in. Large bricks and boards of wood slammed against Naruto's body as he Naruto picked up Michio's body with one hand and helped a now half conscious Sasuke pull himself up with the other. He managed to get the both of them out of the room just before the entrance became completely blocked with the falling debris.
Naruto's ordeal wasn't over yet. Now he to find his way out of the endless maze of hallways while the building collapsed around him. No matter which hall he ran through, they all seemed to come to a dead end. The dust spreading rapidly through the air didn't make things any easier for him either. Naruto could feel his energy rapidly draining from his body, but he pushed on. It was getting increasingly harder to breathe and the blood pouring from Michio's body made it hard to hold on to him.
At that moment he saw another dark figure materializing through the thick wall of dust. Feeling that the enemy ninja had returned for a second round, Naruto began to get that out of control feeling again. He was able to keep Kyuubi from possessing him when he realized it was Lee. "Is everyone still alive?" Lee asked as soon as he saw the three. Before Naruto could explain is dilemma, Lee snatched Michio's body, uttered a swift "Follow me", and led Naruto through the maze dodging the falling bricks along the way.
They made it out to where the others were standing after finishing the battle outside. Almost everyone was worn out and sustained a few injuries. One of the worst was Tenten. She was being led to the group by Neji with her hand clutching the front of her head as blood oozed out from beneath her fingers. The poor girl had been hit in the head.
"Hey, Sasuke! Are you alright?" Naruto asked as he laid Sasuke's body on the ground.
Sasuke opened his eyes and waited a few seconds for the blurry figure above him to take shape. "Why didn't you get him when you had the chance, Naruto?"
"Um…well…what, was I supposed to just let you burn to death?"
Sasuke tried to stand up but as he put is weight on one of his legs, he cringed and fell back on the ground. Everyone observed Sasuke's leg and noticed that it was swollen and turning bluish in color.
"It might be broken." Kakashi speculated. "We need to get him and the boy to the medic's right now." Everyone gathered together and headed towards the village. Naruto helped Sasuke stand up and supported him as he walked.
"Why did you risk your life like that, Naruto? Sasuke said while trying not to put too much weight on his bad foot.
"You have a wife and…" Naruto's face turned bright red. "You know that I've seen you, uh that is I almost see you as a brother. I couldn't just let you die like that." Naruto answered. Sasuke was stunned to see how much Naruto valued their friendship, but then he shook off the mild feeling of awkwardness.
"So what? Am I your best friend or something?" Sasuke noticed that Naruto face was turning even brighter in color.
"I didn't say that!" Naruto was trying his hardest to hide his embarrassment.
"Naruto," Sasuke smirked, "you really are an idiot."
A/N: Hmmm…so we got a little adventure going on. What's up with this mysterious person? What happened to Shikamaru that apparently happened before? And what's with the scratching, Kakashi? Makes you think, huh?
Skykat: Hey Donny, I think Neji's got something with that cousin on cousin action. What do you think?
Donny: I think you've been a teenage virgin for too long.
Skykat: Does that mean you agree?
Donny: It means if you ever say something like that to me again, I'll hurt you severely.
Skykat: Geek! It was just a joke! Sheesh! Can I kiss you, though?Donny: That's It! I'm outta here! (Runs away screaming)
Chica can't take a joke. Okay. It's been taking a little while longer for me to get these updates out because I've been sick again. It's no biggie, just something I've had problems with since I was little. But reading your reviews motivates me to keep on writing. I split this chap in half. Cousin Donny got 1 half and I got the other. (Can you tell who wrote what? I hope not!) Please forgive her; she's fairly new to Naruto. Chaps 4 and 5 are almost done and will come out soon.
Remember everyone…Gimme motivation! Gimme suggestions! Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Until chapter 4 everyone!