I am so frustrated right now. I had this chapter written absolutely perfectly on Tuesday. I even think I did well with the battle scene, but then I was unable to find it when I went to upload it yesterday. Luckily, I had about half of it hand written. I do remember the basic things that I wrote after that, but it was really really hard to rewrite everything.

I had planned to release one chapter early today (Friday) and another tomorrow (Saturday), but because I lost so much, that probably won't happen. I have had to spend the time I was going to use to write the next chapter to rewrite this chapter.

Hopefully, I was not so frustrated that I ruined the effect I wanted to make for this chapter.

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

White dominates all the day

Yet despite its warming glow

Many souls fervently pray

For its heat to cease its show

She is too intense. Always burning everyone with the fire in her eyes. I wonder what could have caused her to be so angry and untrusting.

Naruto looked up carefully from the page he was writing on to see what Sasuke was doing, only to find her looking at him over her own sheet of paper. Stunned, both quickly looked back to their laps. Just seconds later, Naruto hear her scribbling something furiously.

"I'm done for today," she exclaimed and quickly left their cabin before Naruto could react.

Unfortunately, she had forgotten to put her paper away securely, but had left it lying on the floor in front of Naruto. Though he knew he shouldn't, Naruto could not suppress his curiosity and after checking to make sure Sasuke was far enough away from the door, he crawled across the floor and picked up Sasuke's paper.

He is too bright. He is always smiling like an idiot and trying to create a great show out of everything he does, but sometimes I think there is something darker in his eyes. Maybe there is something more to him.

Here the writing changed. It was messier and had obviously been written quickly. This must have been what she wrote after they had looked at each other.

No. He is just a stupid cat wanting to look down on everyone else.

Without thinking, he ripped up the paper and stormed after Sasuke angrily. He was not a cat! If anything, she was a cat always grooming herself and not liking anyone to show her affection.

After a few minutes of searching, he found her practicing her moves on the field in front of their classroom.

"I am not a cat," he shouted, which earned him strange looks from the various other students also training on the field.

"You read my paper?" she asked with a glare. "You had no right to read my report."

"You don't know anything about me," he continued, ignoring her question. "We have only known each other for a week and for the last few days you have been avoiding me as much as possible. In class, you don't talk. When we have to spar, you don't talk. After class, you just run off to train without talking and then you go to bed only after I am asleep."

"Our assignment was to observe each other," she responded as calmly as she could. "I don't believe that includes becoming friends."

"I don't want to be your friend either," he said, "but we have to be partners and that requires even more responsibilities than friends. Though I am not happy about this, but we can't get out of this now that the Commander has made up his mind. Believe it!"

"What do you propose we do then?!" she yelled back impatiently.

"Talk!"

The two continued to stand opposite each other in silence for several more minutes. By now, every student within a mile had come to see the latest developments iin the now infamous Naruto-Sasuke drama. Unfortunately, Iruke had also heard the yelling and was now walking towards them with an angry look on his face.

"No more," Iruka said sternly, "Kakashi asked me to leave you alone to try and sort it out yourselves, but obviously you are not capable of doing that. I have been thinking of a solution all week and here it is.

"For the next week, I want you two to hike into the woods to the wilderness training post and stay there. Each of you will only be allowed to bring half of the necessary supplies, so you must share. You will be alone and must rely on each other to survive.

"Go pack. Come back within an hour for me to check your bags."

Shocked, neither one of them could move or speak.

"Now!" Iruka yelled. "I have had enough of you two fighting and disrupting my class. If you can not learn to get along, neither of you will make it into the Royal Soldiers.

Finally, Naruto and Sasuke headed towards their cabin, using every ounce of discipline they had in order to not argue. Though the prospect of staying alone together in the woods seemed horrible to both of them, neither would risk their goals by questioning this sudden order.

"This is all your fault," Naruto grumbled as they entered their cabin, the only place they could be certain no one would hear them and report to Iruka.

"Don't start," Sasuke said firmly. "There's a list of things to take on a mission in our class handbook. You take the first half of the list and I will pack the last half."

"You don't seem very surprised by this," he said with annoyance. He could not be the only frustrated by this.

"I am just following orders," she said with a sigh. "I have already been punished enough because we've been arguing. I worked hard too get here to ruin it because of you."

"Of course," he countered getting angry again. "Everything is all my fault. Nevermind that you took away my partner, my cabin, and my bed."

"Just pack. We have to be back to Iruka soon. We can fight all you want when we are away from here."

"Believe it!"

The only thing that kept Naruto quiet as they finished packing was the idea of being able to fight and yell as much as he wanted once they reached the woods. He remained calm as they went to Iruka and checked in with him. He remained calm as he watched the buildings of the Academy fade into the distance. He remained clam as they reached the wilderness training post and set up camp.

Finally, he set down the last of his supplies in their camp and rounded on Sasuke. "So," he began calmly, "Why are you here?" After only receiving a glare, he continued more sarcastically, "Did you just want to see what it was like? Did you get kicked out of the Institute?"

"No," she answered getting agitated. "Why are you here? Too dumb for anything else, looser?"

"Shut up! I am not dumb or a looser or a cat. I am a great fighter and I'll prove it to you if you doubt me."

"The only thing I doubt is your sanity if you think you really are great."

"What about your sanity? You're the one who went so crazy you ended up in the hospital."

"That was your fault. I was just trying to stop you from ruining my things."

"But, you had no problem moving all my things."

They probably would have continued fighting all day if not for what happened next. Without warning, a chain with a sharp claw on its end ripped through their tent.

The tent was pulled aside to reveal two large, muscled men covered in black clothing, including their heads. The only place not covered with cloth was their eyes, but even that area was covered by large goggles.

Without warning, the two strangers charged towards Sasuke and Naruto.

They are big. Too big. They are too strong. They are going to kill me. I am going to die. Death.

Fearfully, Sasuke stood unmoving and closed her eyes tightly. She hit the ground hard a moment later and curled into herself waiting to feel pain.

Above her, she could hear the sound of metal hitting metal; however, she could not contemplate what the sound meant. Suddenly, she heard a very different sound floating around her.

What is that sound? A voice? Voice? Whose voice? Naruto? Naruto!

"Sasuke!" Naruto's voice finally registered in her mind.

She was not dead. She was not hurt.

"Get up!" Naruto yelled once more. At that shout, Sasuke's mind finally snapped into focus.

Quickly, she jumped up to examine the situation. Looking towards Naruto's voice, she noticed him being backed into a tree by the two attackers. The sounds of metal came from Naruto's sword hitting the strange weapons of his opponents. They looked like large metal gloves with fingers like knife blades.

After pulling out the dagger she always kept hidden in the sash around her waist, Sasuke rushed to help Naruto. The attacker closest to her turned and lunged at her. For a moment, Sasuke was intimidated by the man's large metal weapon, but soon realized that its fierce look had a disadvantage. Because they were so large and therefore slow, Sasuke was easily able to dodge them. Unfortunately, her opponent soon realized his disadvantage and switched tactics.

The man ripped the gloves off his hands and threw them aside. In their stead, he grabbed the chain weapon that had been used to rip through the tent. With a great swing of his body, he threw the large blade at the end of the chain hurling towards Sasuke.

However, this time, Sasuke was focused on the fight and not at all frightened by the odd weapon. Easily, she jumped out of the way and rushed towards her opponent. Without wasting the opening, she sent a kick towards his shoulder and knocked him backwards towards the tree line.

After a moment, the man steadied himself and went to throw his weapon again, but when he pulled the chain backwards, Sasuke threw her dagger through one of the links on the chain and into a nearby tree, effectively trapping the chain on the tree. Thus, when he went to swing the chain forward, her attacker was forced backwards into the tree. Before he could recover, Sasuke raced forward and knocked him unconscious with a powerful blow to the head.

After taking a moment to catch her breath, Sasuke turned to see how Naruto was fairing, only to find that he had already defeated his opponent and now stood staring at her. His look was strange and Sasuke feared the curiosity lurking under that expression.

"We should tie them up," Sasuke said in order to stop him from voicing any of the questions he obviously wanted to ask.

"Are you okay?" he asked cautiously.

"Fine," she responded curtly. "We can use their chain to tie them up to this tree." She quickly walked over the form now lying at Naruto's feet and began to drag him away. Naruto contemplated whether or not he should ask what he wanted, but after seeing her struggling with the larger man, he decided to help her.

"What should we do now?" Naruto asked, staring warily at the strangers.

Sasuke just stared.

"Should we take them back to the Academy?" he tried again.

Sasuke just stared.

"Yeah. Yeah, we should take them back."

"That won't be necessary," a hapy voice said behind them.

Naruto turned around quickly towards the voice and raised his sword in defense. Sasuke just groaned, recognizing the voice as that of her quirky and overly cheerful guardian.

"Hmm … you're a spunky one, aren't you?" Kakashi chuckled.

Slowly, Naruto lowered his sword and relaxed his stance.

"I'll take these two to the Academy," Kakashi said. "You two continue with your cozy little camp out."

"How can we stay here now?" Naruto asked, still on edge because of the attack. "What if we are attacked again?

"Oh, you won't be," Kakashi replied much too cheerfully for the situation, "Those are the only two."

"How can you know that?"

"Because we let them in," Kakashi said as if it was obvious.

"WHAT?!" Naruto yelled.

"Our guards noticed them near the border of the Academy this morning," Kakashi explained more serious now. "We decided it would be best to let them think they had snuck in unnoticed and see what their objective was. Thankfully, it looks like we were able to figure that out without any damage."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked carefully. "What did they want?"

"You," Kakashi responded bluntly. "This outpost is farther away from where they entered than the rest of the Academy, which means they wanted something here. We could not be sure that they knew you would be here, but they attacked you after observing you for a while. Also, when Sasuke was knocked down, they ignored her and focused on attacking you.

"But, you don't have anything else to worry about. The guards have been tripled and given specific instructions not to let anyone else through. I can assure you, it is safe here. You two need this. You need to get along now more than ever."

"If you were here the whole time, why didn't you help us?" Sasuke asked annoyed, cutting off anything else Kakashi had to say.

"Hmm … I figured you could handle it," he said cheerfully, then more seriously added, "but if you needed me, I was here. I want you to grow stronger and fight your own battles, but if you are ever in serious danger, I will do all I can to help you. I will always protect you.

Sasuke stared at him with a blank face, but Kakashi knew she was comforted by his words.

"Your mother left you in my care when she died," Kakashi continued.

"Kakashi!" she yelled, not wanting Naruto to know about that, least of all from Kakashi in a situation like this.

"Well, then, I'm off," Kakashi said, grinning, and threw the strangers over his shoulders. With a quick nod of the head, he left for the Academy, leaving two very flustered people behind him.

"That was weird," Naruto breathed after several minutes of stunned silence.

"That was Kakashi," Sasuke corrected.

"By the way," Kakashi called from far off, "Naruto, you should probably let Sasuke have a look at that hand. Wouldn't want you to fight off two fierce warriors just to die from bloodloss."

"Huh?" Naruto mumbled stupidly.

Yes. That was blood. Naruto could now feel the sting of the cut and the blood dripping down his fingertips.

He did not screech.

After Naruto ( DID NOT!! ) scream, he began panicking. "Oh, that's a lot of blood. No! I don't want to die!"

"Naruto," Sasuke said firmly.

"What if there is poison? What if it hit an artery? There are big arteries near your hand right?"

"NARUTO!"

Naruto was silenced for a moment, then in a very slow and quiet voice, he asked, "Am I really going to die?"

If his voice had not sounded so sincerely frightened, Sasuke would have mocked him for such a stupid question. "No," she assured softly, "Kakashi was just trying to mess with your head. Ignore him. You will be fine, but I should still bandage it up."

Gently, Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand, examining the extent of the injury. She slowly dropped his hand and moved away towards her bag. Naruto watched, transfixed, as she pulled out some bandages and a small glass bottle.

Returning to his side, Sasuke began to wipe away some of the blood with her fingers. Without warning, she poured some sort of purple liquid from the bottle onto Naruto's hand. Naruto hissed as the strange concoction washed over his broken skin.

Next, Naruto heard Sasuke begin softly chanting some sort of spell. Her voice lingered like a sweet melody in his ears. Absently, he wondered if all healers' spells sounded like that. Probably not, he mused because during the few times he had been sent to the infirmary, he could not remember seeing any healers as beautiful as Sasuke.

Before he could contemplate the implications of what he had just thought, his mind was wiped clear. Sasuke had leaned her face close to his hand. As the last sounds of her spell vanished, she began to blow on his wound releasing a soft blue mist from between her lips that floated over and stuck to Naruto's flesh.

Both were blushing by the time the spell had finished working its coarse. Silently, Sasuke began to wrap bandages around Naruto's now smaller cut.

"So … " Naruto started awkwardly.

"Tomorrow," Sasuke said quickly.

Naruto wanted to continue, but the tiredness in Sasuke's voice stopped him. Reluctantly, he began to fix up the camp, careful of his bandaged hand. Sasuke looked at him relieved for a moment before helping him clean. It was a slow process as both of them were so distracted by all the events of the day.

Though their tent was ruined, the weather was nice enough that they did not bother to make a covering. Besides, both of them felt more comfortable being able to see all around them after the surprise attack from only a few hours ago.

Reluctantly, they both crawled into their makeshift beds set up a few feet apart on the forest floor. The night dragged on slowly as they lay awake in their beds, each feigning sleep in order to fool the other.

Near midnight, Sasuke's tiredness won over her pride. Carefully, she stood up and moved until she was lying alongside Naruto. Though Naruto was facing away from her, he could hear her approach; however, he continued to pretend to sleep despite the fact that both knew he was awake.

He held his breath as she lay down.

For a few minutes, they both remained stiff in their beds. Then, as naturally as he could manage, Naruto turned over to face Sasuke, though his eyes remained firmly shut in mock sleep.

Without thinking, Sasuke reached out and placed her hand softly over Naruto's bandaged one. A sigh softly worked its way out of Naruto's partly open mouth, which Sasuke was doing her best not to acknowledge. She did not want to risk him moving away because of embarrassment.

Despite all that had happened that day, Sasuke was finally able to relax because of Naruto's presence. The warmth radiating from his body and the gentle caress of his breath soothed Sasuke's restless mind. These subtle signs of life lulled her into the deepest sleep she had ever had. For the first time in years, she felt that she was not alone.

Black conquers the entire night

Yet despite its empty bleakness

The harmony of scattered light

Sooths all our thoughts of loneliness

~*A*N*G*E*L*~