Authoress's Note: Okay! I've gotten to post up another chapter! Sorry for the delay... This chapter, like the other, is a little more serious. The humor will begin to pick up again soon, though. :) So, anyway, here's Chapter Nine: No Way!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor the characters in it. I only own the plot, the rope, Legs, and the children.

No Way!

It took a few moments for the meaning of the young girl's words to sink in, and when they did, Sasuke panicked.

There was a spider on his back!? His eyes searched frantically around him, as he tried to see it. Perhaps, if he could see it, he'd be able to get it off! Yeah, that would work!

Unfortunately, the spider was not in his line of vision.

This caused Sasuke's panic to shoot sky-high, and he had difficulty maintaining his grip on the rope with the nervous sweat on his hands. Oh, dear Lord, this was not a good situation.

Here he was the greatest and most powerful (not to mention last) Uchiha alive, holding a little boy, with a huge spider on his back. He bit his lower lip in concentration, until he felt little tingling sensation going along his back.

It was, of course, nothing but paranoia – but when there was a real spider on his back mixed in with the tingling sensation, it wasn't a good thing. His panic reached maximum.

He lost all of his concentration, and he slipped down on the rope a little. Just as he thought he was safe, the spider crawled right onto the top of his blue-haired head. His eyes widened in shock as he saw one of it's feet dangling in front of his face.

With a startled cry, he lost it. Both of his clones (the only things grabbing the rope) vanished, and he was sent plummeting back into the rather-deep hole. He shut his eyes tightly, gripping Tai hard, but he soon realized that his death had been stalled.

He looked up, only to see the little kids grabbing onto the rope.

"Sasuke-sensei, hold on!" Makoto yelled down, having been the first to grab the rope. Sasuke stared up, watching in horror as some of the children's feet began to slip.

The young girl who had told him about the spider seemed frantic. "I-I'm going to go get Sensei!" she announced, before running out of Sasuke's line of vision.

Sasuke shuddered as he felt the spider shift on his head. The quicker the girl was, the better he would feel. He stared up at the kids, who were slowly beginning to slide towards the hole. He froze, trying to think of a way to get them to stop. An idea dawned on him.

"Quick! Focus your chakra into your feet – all of you!" he shouted up.

"What?" Makoto called back, staring in confusion as his feet creeped closer and closer to the hole.

Sasuke paused for a moment. "Your chakra – the blue stuff you can feel charging through your veins! Focus all of your energy into your feet!" he shouted hurriedly. These children, even though he hated to admit it, were his only chance at surviving this. The pit he and Tai were in was extremely deep.

He nearly cried in relief when he saw the blue aura around the kids' feet. He knew immediately that they had done it. "Good – now just keep focused on that, okay?" he asked. He knew he couldn't move around too much, or the children would lose their grips. This situation was extremely dangerous.

And then, the worse happened. The ground underneath Makoto cracked and broke loose, causing the young boy to plummet towards the floor. Sasuke was sent swinging towards the wall at the lessened length of the rope. He saw Makoto, and with a burst of chakra in his foot, he caught the boy by his shoe. Makoto, his eyes widened in fear, grabbed Sasuke's leg with a tight death grip.

Sasuke couldn't help it. He was really worried about how well those kids up above him were holding up – enough to have almost forgotten about the spider.

Almost, that is.

He recalled its presence as soon as it crawled right onto his face, and he emitted a shrill shout. He was really beginning to hate this thing!

He shut his eyes immediately, trying to focus on holding the unconscious Tai and the paralyzed-in-fear Makoto. He was shocked to suddenly feel a shift.

What is this? Sasuke wondered as he felt himself being pulled up. There was no way that those kids were strong enough to pull him up!

"Don't worry, Sasuke-kun! I'll have you up in a second!" An annoyingly familiar voice called. Sasuke couldn't have cared less about how annoying the voice was, though.

He was finally secured with a safe getaway! Even with the unnerving thought that it was Sakura of all people who was saving him, he couldn't really complain about it.

He was never happier to see real land. Sakura grabbed his shirt collar, and Naruto (who had come with her) grabbed Tai. Makoto got off of Sasuke's leg with his own free will.

As soon as Sasuke was given his freedom, his hands shot up to his poor, pale face. He ran his hands over his it, brushing the spider off with tremendous, paranoid shudders. He tingled all over, but he didn't care. The sight of the spider crawling away on the ground instead of him was good enough for the Uchiha.

He was shocked when the little kids ran up and hugged his legs. All he could do was stare.

"Sasuke-sensei, thank you!" The little girl who had gone for help said happily. The other children mimicked the thanks, and it took Sasuke a moment to realize the trouble with this situation.

"Save your thanks for later," he stated firmly. "We've got to get out of this building," he added, as he carefully pried the little kids off of his legs.

"Come on," he stated, walking towards the large blockage. He was mildly surprised when the kids followed with out a problem, each looking happy to just get out of there.

It wasn't like he could blame them, though.

"Aww, it's okay," he heard Sakura say from behind him. He turned to see Sakura cooing at the Makoto, who still looked shaken from his near-death experience.

Sasuke motioned for everyone to follow Naruto towards the entrance, and walked towards Sakura. She was holding Tai.

"I'll carry him," Sasuke stated. Sakura looked confused, and stared for a moment.

"What?"

"I'll carry Tai," Sasuke sighed, being more direct this time. He gestured to the limp body in Sakura's arms. "Give him to me, and you can take care of Makoto."

Sakura was about to refuse giving up her patient, when it hit her. Sasuke actually remembered the names of some of the students! He must have been growing bonds with them! She carefully held out the boy, to which Sasuke took graciously, and turned back to comfort Makoto.

Sasuke motioned for them both to follow, before carrying Tai towards the hole he had entered in – not completely dismayed when he realized that some of the Jounin and Chuunin had been clearing away the stones.

----------

"Foolish little brother, did you honestly believe that you could defeat me so easily?" Itachi asked monotonously, watching Sasuke with very little interest as he lied there in a bloody heap upon the ground.

Sasuke stared up at his brother with pure hatred burnt deep into his eyes and soul. He coughed up a little blood, before nodding. "Y-yes," he said, finally acknowledging the fact that he had kept hidden. "I've always believed . . . That I could defeat you easily."

"And tell me, Sasuke, did your belief help you win?" Itachi drawled, toying with his younger brother now.

"Yes," Sasuke coughed, before turning into a log. The real Sasuke was behind Itachi, his sword held against the older Uchiha's back. A brief look of shock appeared in Itachi's red eyes, but it soon faded.

"Very good, Sasuke," Itachi stated. "But have you gotten over your fear?"

"Fear? I have no fear," Sasuke retorted angrily, pressing the kunai harder against Itachi's back. Itachi smirked. "We shall see."

And with that, Itachi turned into a cloud of smoke, the real one standing in front of a huge horde of spiders, each about as big as Itachi himself.

Sasuke froze in terror. What was this?! Why – how were there so many spiders, and how were they so huge!? He backed up, as each of the spiders crept forward with a hand signal from Itachi.

Sasuke backed up to each step the spiders took, but it didn't help him. Eventually, the spiders caught up, and Sasuke was engulfed in a black swarm of tarantulas.

"AHHH!" Sasuke screamed, shooting up in his bed abruptly. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm his nerves. His Sharingan was spinning wheels in his head, and he closed his eyes to deactivate it.

When he finally opened his eyes and looked down, he stiffened. There was a huge tarantula resting on his hand.

He screamed again, before falling straight out of his bed. He jumped up off of the floor, only to feel a sharp pain in his ankle. He looked at the bed.

He'd only seen a shadow in the blanket.

He sighed in relief, before rubbing his head painfully. Maybe he was just paranoid. Yeah, that's it. He was only paranoid.

He stalked towards the door sleepily, leaning against it as he threw a shoe at the alarm clock – a habit that usually helped him when he had bad dreams about Itachi.

Or just when he felt like it.

As he shook off the last remembrance of his nightmare, he couldn't help but smirk at Itachi's behavior. The man had acted strangely . . . Different. It made Sasuke smirk at the thought of Itachi being that way.

He was only able to smirk because his brother was dead, and there was no possible way that he could ever behave in such a way.

And there wasn't a huge tarantula sitting in front of him, right?

Wrong.

He jumped back immediately, grabbing his smashed alarm clock. One could never tell what a spider was going to next! They acted so innocent, but Sasuke knew that they were just planning their evil plans!

He took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He was just about to chunk the clock at the spider. He took his aim carefully, cocked his arm back, and––

"Sasuke-sensei, are you okay?" Tai asked, staring at the man with mild curiosity. He had been carrying Legs around in a cage after he'd found out what had happened to Sasuke. He had been planning on giving the spider to Sasuke as a thank-you, but in seeing Sasuke's reaction (and the alarm clock), he was beginning to think otherwise. He was now planning on giving the spider to Sasuke as a way of 'having fun'.

Sasuke gathered his nerves, pride, and concentration up before nodding. "I'm fine. I just wasn't expecting you . . . Or Legs," he added, keeping a wary eye on the spider.

"Is something wrong?" Tai repeated, noticing Sasuke's odd looks. He was curious, and he enjoyed trying to get Sasuke to admit whatever was on his mind.

"No," Sasuke replied with a little bite in his tone. "I'm fine," he added. "Are you supposed to be out of the hospital?"

"Yeah," Tai muttered, looking down at his ankle. It was wrapped in a tight cast, and his head was bandaged up pretty tightly as well. "Sakura-san said that I could leave . . . Er . . . Thanks, Sasuke-sensei, for saving me and the others."

"Whatever," Sasuke shrugged. He turned to Legs again. "Why did you bring him?"

"I wanted to give him to you," Tai replied, limping over and holding out the spider's cage. "For a thank you."

Sasuke knew that he wasn't going to be able to refuse this thing. He suppressed a shudder, but accepted the cage. "Your welcome," he said, setting the spider on the stand by his bed. "I've got to go help fix the Academy. You'd better be going too," he said, before walking out the door.

Tai nodded, waving before he was sure Sasuke was out of the room. He smirked.

Why did the smart ones always leave him alone so stupidly? Didn't they know that he was smart too?

----------

Sakura, who had been thinking about how much Sasuke had refused to let go of Tai, met up with Sasuke as he left the house. She'd just 'happened' to be outside of it. "Sasuke-kun, how are you today?"

"I'm fine."

"Great," Sakura smiled. "So, what are you doing today with the kids?"

"I'm going to fix the Academy," he replied stoically. Why can't she just leave me alone?

"Really? That sounds fun," Sakura smiled. "So, have you figured out who set you up for this job?"

"No," Sasuke stated. And when I do, they die.

"Well, I know who it was."

This actually caught Sasuke's attention. He turned and looked straight at Sakura. "Who was it?"

Oh! He's so happy, he can't wait to find out who did it! Sakura thought wrongly. She smiled brightly at him.

"It was me!"

I hope you enjoyed it! I hope I didn't leave out too much comedy, and I'm sorry if Itachi seemed OOC. It was a dream/nightmare, so, he wasn't exactly supposed to be in character. Anyway, please review!

Shebby