Master of the Arts

Arc 3: First Sasuke Retrieval Arc Part 1

Chapter 8: Open Your Eyes

Summary: After Naruto and Sakura lose their best friend, they go to extreme measures to get him back. Shikamaru tries too hard to reach into Neji's past and ends up uncovering secrets about himself along the way. Remember kids, everything is connected and it all leads back to the man who started it all. This is a journey for everyone to bring back the people they love.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. :(

"Naruto!"

What?

"Can…. hear…!"

With sweat glistening on his forehead, Naruto slowly opened his eyes only to quickly shut them right after at the burning sensation in his head.

"He's…. Sakura… calm down."

Where am I?

"Sasuke…. where… happened…"

Naruto tried to listen to the voices around him by turning his head but his lack of control

caused it to loll back.

"He'll… fine… Kakashi…here…"

When Naruto opened his mouth to speak, he started to cough and felt someone tip his head forward urging him to drink the glass of water placed at his lips.

He slowly drank the water and soon found himself fading to sleep.

Naruto woke up once more and slowly opened his eyes, the brightness of the hospital lights making it painful. He blinked the blurriness away and tried to sit up.

"Careful."

Someone placed their hand on his back and helped him properly sit up in the bed.

"S-Sakura-chan?"

"Don't talk. Here, drink more water." She handed the glass of water to Naruto but instead brought it to his lips when he made no move to hold it himself. Naruto took a small sip and asked, "What happened?"

Sakura frowned, her brow furrowing, and looked straight into Naruto's eyes. "You almost died. If it wasn't for that one student who was walking in the woods yesterday, who knows what could…"

Sakura took a deep, long breath before continuing. "Besides that, I know nothing. Naruto… you almost died from the loss of blood. What the hell hap-"

"Wait," Naruto interrupted her. "Yesterday? You mean… I've been asleep for a whole day?"

"No. It's 2 a.m., Naruto. So… maybe like 14 hours?"

"14 ho… 14 hours… 14… hours…" Naruto's breath hitched and he started to panic.

"...Naruto?"

"I need to get out of here." Naruto tried to get off of the bed but was stopped by his friend. "Don't move, Naruto! You were in critical condition less than 12 hours ago."

"No. No no no no no," Naruto repeated as he continuously shook his head. "Shit. Holy fucking shit. I'm- I- I need to get... leave, go."

"Naruto!" Sakura snapped. "Get a hold of yourself and tell me… Wait. I've been meaning to ask you… Where's Sasuke?"

Naruto slowly turned to Sakura, his eyes glistening with tears. "They took him," he mouthed to her. Sakura's eyes widened a fraction as she slowly understood what he meant.

"You don't mean.."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at her and put a finger over his lips.

"I do mean. It was that guy that creepy guy with the glasses he-he… he stabbed me and took Sasuke away. It was Orochimaru," Naruto whispered.

Tears began to pool at the corner of her eyes as Sakura stood up and paced around the room trying to get a hold of the current situation.

Orochimaru was one of this school's alumni until he stole official documents from the school and ran off. It was predicted that he was planning on conquering all of the great lands but he has been in hiding for the past 15 years. After a mission it was revealed that he had a genius right hand man with huge glasses and Orochimaru made no attempt to hide this fact.. Even before the Uchiha clan massacre, he always had an obsession with them. Kidnapped Sasuke was not as much of a surprise now that Naruto thought it through.

"I-We need to get him back… We… We," Naruto looked up in the corner of the room at the security cameras and scowled. "You cannot let Tsunade know about this… You know what will happen."

Sakura stopped pacing and looked at Naruto with disbelief clearly written on her face. "What the hell do you mean we can't tell Tsunade about this? She needs to know- she has the RIGHT to know."

"She won't let us join the competition if she finds out."

"Join the competition? What crap are you spewing right now?! Sasuke has been kidnapped, Naruto," Sakura gestured violently, "We need Tsunade to get him back."

"You don't think I know that? But when we rescue Sasuke she won't let us go to the competition if Orochimaru is still out there!"

"Then we have people find him and kill him! The competition should be the last thing on your mind right now!"

Naruto looked up at the ceiling and shook his head. "You don't get it, Sakura. What's the point of rescuing Sasuke if he can't join the competition?! And kill Orochimaru? If it were that simple he'd be dead years ago."

"What's the point? The point is getting Sasuke back before he's dead! Who cares about the competition?"

"Sasuke! Sasuke cares about the competition that he's worked his entire life for! Waiting another year- Sasuke can't do that. He's- you know who he is. He'll do anything to get Itachi back. We have to do this ourselves."

"Ourselves?! We'll get killed! Sasuke could be dead, rotting in one of Orochimaru's holding cells right now!"

"So that's the problem, hm?"

Naruto and Sakura's flushed faces quickly turned to the intruding voice.

Shizune. Crap.

"I'm telling Tsunade-sama about this and we are sending our best fighters effective immediately." She turned to leave before turning back and saying, "By the way, you guys sounded like an old married couple."

"You can't tell obaa-chan! She'll-"

Sakura slapped her hand over Naruto's mouth and continued his sentence, "handle it very well, right, Naruto?" She glared at him and he backed off.

Shizune walked out and the two let out a breath they didn't know they were holding.

While Sakura regained her breath Naruto slowly edged toward the other end of the bed and slid off. Looking at Sakura one final time to make sure she her guard was down, he ran before Sakura could hold him down.

"No." Tsunade neatly folded her hands atop one another.

"But Tsunade-obaa-chan!" Naruto whined.

"I said no, Naruto! I am not letting you rescue Sasuke. You are injured and don't even stand a chance against Orochimaru. I am not letting you leave this campus and that's final. Don't worry, I'll have the best, and only the best, find him. But you do realize that if Orochimaru is still alive after we retrieve Sasuke… he won't be able to join the competition, understood?"

"But-"

"No buts. Understood?" Tsunade stared him down.

"Understood," Naruto muttered through clenched teeth and made his way out of the office.

Once confirming that Naruto was gone, Tsunade turned her head over to Shizune and said, "Have 8 fighters patrolling campus. Notify all teachers and staff that if they even think Naruto is attempting to escape they have my permission to hold him in his room."

Shizune bowed and said, "Will do, Tsunade-sama."

Once Naruto reached his dorm room he quickly grabbed a small backpack. He packed food bars and pills, a new pack of kunai and shuriken, a few scrolls Jiraiya left him with, some basic first aid materials, and some fresh clothes.

He put his kohacad forehead protector on and stared at himself in the mirror. "I'll find you, Sasuke," he told his reflection.

Naruto slipped on his fighting shoes and looked out the window. He narrowed his eyes when he saw more guards than usual walking around, looking for something.

"They're looking for me," he whispered.

Naruto decided that the best course of action was to wait until evening. It would be easier to sneak around then.

After waiting a few hours for the sun to set, Naruto finally grabbed his stuff and braced himself for what awaited him.

Naruto stuffed a tranquilizer gun into his pocket and then opened the window. He climbed out and pulled himself onto the room. Squatting, he scanned the area for any… enemies.

Yes, enemies. Anyone who would dare try and stop him from finding his friend would be declared his enemy.

Confirming that there was no one around, Naruto jumped down to the ground and quietly ran across the long field of grass. There were few trees around to conceal his presence so he had to make this trip quick. There was also only one way to exit campus without running into the wall. The front gates.

Naruto pulled himself up a tall tree and looked around. There were no guards at the gate.

Are they waiting for me?

Naruto smirked. He wasn't going to give that angry blonde woman the satisfaction of capturing him.

Before Naruto could jump off, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Naruto reacted fast and pulled a kunai out of his pouch to lodge into the enemy's neck but another hand held his in place.

He slowly turned his head and was met with green eyes. He frowned. "Don't try to stop me, Sakura-chan," he muttered.

Sakura just stood there for a moment before grinning. "Who said I was going to stop you, dummy?"

Naruto's eyes widened and he truly felt relieved for the first time that day. Smirking, he said, "Tsunade-obaa-chan had guards looking out for me earlier today but they backed off. Now there's no guards at the main gates. There's always guards at the main gates."

"It's a trap."

"No shit, sherlock."

"Don't play smart with me, Naruto. You know I can leave whenever I want to."

"And I know you can't. You won't. You want Sasuke back just as much as I do and you're willing to do anything just. like. I. am."

Sakura rolled her eyes and ignored him. "So what do we do?"

"We just go."

"What?!" She silently screamed.

"If this is how Tsunade-obaa-chan wants to play, this is how we play."

Without waiting for a response, Naruto dashed toward the gates with a kunai in hand to ward off any attackers.

Sakura mentally yelled at her best friend for being so stupid and went after him.

Just as Naruto expected, four shuriken were aimed at his head and he knocked them off their path with his kunai.

"Mokuton: four pillar prison!" Before Naruto knew what was happening, he was trapped in a wooden cage. He was about to launch a rasengan when he heard Sakura scream. Panicking, he turned around and saw Sakura sitting down with her wrists and ankles tied by black snakes.

"That is foul play! Everyone knows I hate snakes!" She shouted.

Naruto gave her a lopsided grin as he realized the situation they were in. They were trapped.

"Nice try, you two," he heard a surprisingly relaxing voice say. "But you're not going anywhere yet."

"Yet?" Naruto asked. He turned to face the speaker and was met with a man with short, brown hair and huge black eyes.

"So this is the jinchuriki?" asked another colder voice that reminded him a bit of Sasuke.

The brown haired man made a few hand signs and the wooden cage crumbled down into shambles. "Sai," he said, "uncuff her please."

The man whose name was apparently 'Sai' nodded and the snakes disappeared. Sakura sighed and stopped freaking out.

Someone cleared their throat and then Naruto heard a third voice he recognized too well.

"You two didn't think I was going to let you leave without reinforcements, did you?" Tsunade asked.

"Reinforcements?" Sakura asked.

"Wait… You were going to let us leave?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"No, not at first," Tsunade sighed, "But Naruto has incredible healing capabilities. I was mostly worried about his health but… he looks fine to me now. That and I found this and was reminded that you were capable enough to rescue that Uchiha brat. " She held up the necklace that she gave Naruto years ago and tied it around his neck. "I had to take it off during the surgery and I forgot to give it to you."

"Thanks Tsunade-obaa-chan!" Naruto gave her a huge blinding grin and her eyes softened.

"These two are going to help you on your mission." She gestured to Sai and the other man. "Their names are Sai and Yamato-taichou. I give you three days to find Sasuke if you want to join the competition. After that, you cannot join the competition until next year."

Sakura walked next to Naruto and asked, "Why three days?"

"Because everyone else in Konoha is leaving in three days. And if you manage to find Sasuke within three days it will be clear that you two are more than capable enough to join the competition. Plus the MOA staff would never let Orochimaru enter the exam grounds."

"So even if we can't kill Orochimaru…," Naruto started.

"You can still join the competition if you make it back here in three days," Tsunade finished. "Tell my old friend I said hello."

Tsunade gave Naruto and Sakura the once over and smiled before walking away. "I have duties to attend to," she said. "And whatever you do," she stopped walking, "don't you dare die." With that, she was gone second later.

"Well I guess I'm your team captain, guys," Yamato said. Sai smiled… or at least he tried. It was kinda creepy.

"Your smile is creepy," Naruto blatantly said.

"Naruto!" Sakura smacked the back of his head.

"Ouch! That's mean! I was just telling the truth."

"Well maybe you should think before you talk!" she said through clenched teeth.

"I do think before I talk! And you look creepy, too," Naruto pointed at Yamato.

"My point exactly!" Sakura slapped her forehead at her idiot teammate.

The two began to argue while Sai watched with his creepy smile still in place and Yamato growing increasingly impatient.

"You two!" Yamato yelled with a flashlight in his hand shining at his face. "Stop arguing or else I will show you something that is creepier than Orochimaru can ever hope to be," he said deeply.

Naruto and Sakura stopped arguing and audibly gulped. "S-Sorry Yamato-taicho!" They said instantaneously and Yamato chuckled at his scare tactics.

Naruto sighed.

The trip to find Orochimaru was going to be worse than the actual rescuing part.