Good news. I think I know how the rest of the story is going to go and how it's going to end. I might also do two chapters tonight, but I highly doubt that. Maybe... just maybe.

Key:

"Quotaions: Speaking"

Italicized: Thinking/Emphasized word

Chapter VII: Betrayal

Naruto crawled down the air vent with Sasuke following. Madara soon returned to the cell, only to find that they were gone. He climbed up to the edge of the vent, did a few hand signs, and blew a large jet of fire - straight down the vent toward Naruto and Sasuke.

Sasuke and Naruto were already far away, but had no idea how far the vent could possibly go. Sasuke, who was following Naruto, wished he would go faster, but knew he was injured. He felt a strange heat coming from behind them.

"Naruto, do you feel that?"

"What the hell!" Naruto yelled, already turned around, staring at the flames that were fast approaching them. It didn't take him long, but Naruto said, "Sasuke, quick. Get behind me."

Sasuke slid past Naruto and looked over his shoulder. Naruto's hands began to looks like they were running over an invisble sphere several times, until chakra formed in them. Sasuke realized it was the Rasengan, also realizing that Naruto needed no clone to form such a jutsu anymore. Naruto held the hand with the Rasengan back until the last possible moment, when Sasuke could see the orange, yellow, red and blue flames of the fire, until he could decipher flame from flame. Naruto brought the Rasengan toward the fire jet, and there was a blinding explosion that sent Naruto flying back into Sasuke and the two of them flying down the air vent. They hit the end and broke through the vent, and went down into the ocean water with waves crashing over them.

Damn, Naruto thought as he tried to keep his head above the water. He saw Sasuke's head as well, but Naruto lost sight as he got pulled under the water. He took in some water to his lungs, but a wave tossed him weightlessly onto the beach near Sasuke. He almost wished he were back in the water; his hand had been badly burnt and the water felt good on it. He coughed and sat up.

"Are you alright?" he asked Sasuke.

Sasuke said nothing as he stood up, but he was thankful for Naruto's quick-thinking that saved their lives. Naruto got up and caught a strong chakra that belonged to Orochimaru. He's nearby.

"He's here because I can use fire," Sasuke said darkly.

They walked side-by-side on the beach toward the chakra when Naruto, who had been looking at Sasuke's strange new outfit, turned to him and said, "That shirt of yours... I think Orochimaru like to see you quarter-naked."

"Yes, well with that on you look like a rotten pumpkin," Sasuke said with a small smirk and a hint of laughter under his breath.

"Baka!" Naruto said.

"Dobe."

They turned to look at each other. Naruto smiled and kept walking.

(INGNORE ME.)

After a few minutes of walking, the drying salt began to sting in Naruto's wounds. Once in a while his burn would start aching again, and he would pause to put in the water, but didn't do so again after setting his hand on a sea urchin, all to which Sasuke rolled his eyes and kept walking. It wasn't long before they could make out Orochimaru's shape in the horizon ona cliff over the beach, and at the first sight of him they disappeared and reappeared on top of the cliff. Naruto, who didn't stop to think, punched the figure's head, but to his dismay it was a clone, which exploded into smoke.

"Sasuke, look out!"

Sasuke turned around, and a large snake that had come up from the sand formed into Orochimaru's new body form and knocked Sasuke down. He grabbed Sasuke's hair and smothered his face into the sand.

"You're a traitor," Orchimaru hissed in Sasuke's ear, "to Konoha... and I as well."

He turned toward Naruto, who was yelling at him to let Sasuke go. Orochimaru ran his long tongue around his lips with a smirk in order to gross Naruto out, which it did. But it didn't throw his concentration off for long. A clone, which Naruto had ready from before, was coming at Orochimaru from behind. Orochimaru turned around and finished the clone off quickly with just a punch. In the meantime, Naruto ran at Orochimaru, but was stopped when one of his snakes came from under Orochimaru's sleeves and wrapped around his neck, tossing him aside.

(IGNORE ME, INFEDELS!)

You're the only one who can save him from the darkness, Neji remembered himself saying as he ran through the trees. "Shikamaru, you doing alright back there?"

"Hai," a tired voice answered from behind. "What about you, Sai?"

"Hm."

The three had been assigned a rescue mission for a rescue mission, in other words, to rescue Naruto and Sakura, who were supposed to have returned by now. They had left Konoha two days ago, and had already picked up a fresh chakra-scent. They were gaining on them.

(Blaaaaaack socks, they never get dirty, the more that you wear them the blacker they get!)

"Do you understand," Sasuke whispered to Naruto. They were hiding behind a simple rock, but it would have to do. They were badly injured from the fight, but so was Orochimaru. Sasuke handed Naruto a pair of black gloves, made of strange material, and set them on fire. "Just focus chakra through your hands and it won't go out."

Naruto nodded. They ran out together and faced Orochimaru. They set one foot forward in unison. Naruto sent a large burst of chakra from the fire-coated gloves toward Orochimaru, creating a fireball, the same time Sasuke did. They both hit Orochimaru critically, but that didn't slow him down. Orochimaru aimed what was to be a fatal blow at Naruto's chest with the blade that came from his hand, but never made where he aimed. Sasuke jumped in front of Naruto to protect him, kicking the blade from the side to knock it out of the way. Instead, the blade went straight through his leg - and straight through the bone. Sasuke yelled in pain and fell to the ground.

"Sasuke!"

Orochimaru turned, grabbed them both with his own hand, picked them up, and walked to the edge of the cliff. He held them over the edge. Naruto looked back just in time to see Neji running toward Orochimaru, but never got to see what happened next. Orochimaru hurled them straight down toward the sand below.

"Die!" he yelled.

Naruto never knew that he yelled.

He never knew that death could be so frightening when the Kyuubi wasn't inside him.

He landed on the sand below with a sickening thud, hearing bones shatter before his mind went blank.

To be continued...

Well, I had to make up something for that divider, hm?