Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto
AN: I'm happy that the people who actually reviewed seem to find this story interesting. Although I only got 9 reviews out of over 200 hits. I wish I could write well enough that people are staying interested AND want to review.
Suna,
Academy
Naruto yawned, stretching his arms up and out to relieve the tension in his shoulders, upper back and neck. A sleepless night was the reward for the 'talk' with Sakura on the roof. He tried not to let it show as he was introduced to various instructors for the exams. Normally he would be thrilled to meet these chuunins. They were young and in awe in his presence. In their eyes he was near legendary and much of the introductions had to do with his past exploits. 'Did you really fight an ancient demon? Did you really beat the akatsuki leader with one arm behind your back? Is it true that you and Sakura-dono saved a village by yourselves?
Yet, Naruto's internal conflict kept him from relishing the admiration from the Suna nins. Gaara cocked an eyebrow at this unusual behavior.
When the last of the examiners left the academy projection room Gaara folded his hands and stared at the Jinchuuriki. "Did you not sleep or was it just a rough night? I know Suna has some beautiful women but I don't think Sakura would like that much," joked the Kazekage.
Naruto couldn't help but chuckle bitterly. "She really wouldn't care, Gaara," he said while smirking not too happily at his friend. Gaara just looked at him with a blank face. Naruto turned his head to the ground leaving the room. "You're an idiot."
Naruto's mouth almost reached the ground. "You call me an idiot when I was sharing a heartfelt moment of despair with you?" he said pointing, before turning away, closing his eyes, folding his arms and pouting his lip out.
"Because you are," replied Gaara. Naruto did a double take and you could practically see the steam coming from Naruto's ears. "Temeeee…." He dragged out while rolling up his sleeves. "Just because you're the Kazekage doesn't mean I can't kick your ass!"
"Do you still love her?"
Whatever Naruto was thinking stopped dead in its tracks. This was not a question he expected. After a while of seeing Gaara tap his foot against the floor, seriousness overcame his shock. "Hai….unfortunately….. I do."
Gaara just shook his head. "Don't say unfortunately Uzumaki. The Naruto I know would never say those things. The Naruto I know would never give up. And the Naruto I know would never give up on his precious person…..even if it meant 'fighting a demon'."
Naruto looked into Gaara's eyes and softened his features a little bit. He was thankful for the last part of Gaara's semi speech. Reminding him of their fight and how he went to the ends of the earth to save his Sakura-chan. But taking a deep breath and sighing. He looked at his friend with the broken smile that everyone knew. "The Naruto you know is still here. But he's grown up. And he realizes that he can't go his whole life loving someone who doesn't love him back in hope that she will someday."
Naruto looked away from the Kazekage and walked to the exit. "I would go to the ends of the earth for any of my precious people. And she will always be one of those…. But not like it is now."
He looked back to the Kazekage with a stern and determined look. A determined look, that made Gaara very worried.
"When this mission is over, I'm going to request that she not be on my squads anymore. She'll always be dear to me like a best friend. But It's time to move on. And to do that I need to stop being around her for a while." He then turned, and walked out, leaving a shocked Kazekage.
Hi no kuni,
Forested Border
Heavy pants and ragged breaths coasted along the air mixing with the damp mist of the forest floor.
"….Kuso…."
To say Shikamaru was worn out would be an understatement. He and the rest of his squad were covered in bruises, gashes and dirt. Said dirt, getting into the gashes in their flesh through their now ripped clothes causing a nasty burning sensation. They all kept breathing deeply to fill their lungs with as much air as possible and yet, even being in that state Shikamaru couldn't help but smirk….because in front of him was an equally worn out Sasuke. The genius may be humbled after all.
Although to be fair to Sasuke, he was never fighting one person at a time. Shikamaru made sure that the extra person who was not engaged in a fight, helped to double team Sasuke to keep him from getting too far and using any ninjutsu. The rest of team Hawk were also worn out. The battle had been raging for forty-five minutes and it was fast paced. Shikamaru, however, did not care for their current positioning. During the battle the Anbu squad had managed to switch positions with Sasuke's team altogether and now the Konoha Nin were now surrounded. Their backs were touching one another forming a ring of defense.
"… Give it up …Uchiha…"
said Shikamaru in between his sharp breaths.
"... You can't win…...…"
Sasuke's shoulders heaved up and down. "I can say the same for you…... You're all worn out …...….just as much as we are," said the former prodigy to the strategist.
Their pants got less as they were now able to breathe through their noses albeit being pretty loud. No one made a move. Everyone stood there…breathing in….and out.
Deep breath in…..and out…in…..and out….
Then, with one final, calm, deep inhale, Sasuke straightened. Suigetsu thrust Kubikiri out to hit Kiba. The dog Nin parried with his sword and swung around two hundred seventy degrees to his right to block
Karin's kunai from splitting Ino. Suigetsu swung the giant sword back in the air to thrust down at Kiba for foolishly turning his back to him. As the blade came down Ino turned from kicking Sasuke's Kusanagi blade from its course of trajectory straight into Shikamaru's heart, and blocked the giant Zanbatou. Suigetsu was furious at the teamwork of these Konoha Nin. They kept rotating left and forgetting about the attacker that was about to kill them because they knew their teammate would stop them.
Sasuke ducked Shikamaru's sword and swept Shikamaru's feet from beneath him. The shadow Nin did not look like he was in trouble as Hinata, who was blocking Jugo's fist from hitting Neji with her hilt, raised her knee for Shikamaru's back to land on. She then shot it up higher while twisting to slide the big fist of Jugo off her hilt and the Captain, who was literally off his feet, never actually fell as he landing back on solid footing.
Neji, seeing Sasuke still crouched sent two kunai in the direction of the nuke Nin. Karin who was now swiping at Ino sent two kunai of her own by throwing it behind her back without looking, and thus, stopped Neji's kunai in its tracks. Shikamaru turned and thrust at Jugo only for the big man to catch the sword between the palms of his hands. Shikamaru turned to kick Sasuke, who was about to stab Neji, while Kiba gave Jugo's hands a roundhouse kick to free Shikamaru's sword. Neji thrust forward at Sasuke, he dodged. Shikamaru swung for his knee, Sasuke flipped back. Neji tried a horizontal swipe before Sasuke could land but the Uchiha brought the sheath up to parry the blow and upon landing, he ducked and spun inside Shikamaru's sword, landing him in the middle of Neji and Shikamaru.
Shikamaru and Neji's eyes lit up. This was the opening. They brought their swords to Sasuke's neck, illustrating the fight was over…..but Sasuke smiled, and whispered, "Chidori Nagashi."
Shikamaru's eyes widened "Shimatta!" They then both had electrical currents course violently through their bodies while they screamed out in pain. Hearing her cousin's scream, Hinata spun around and she gasped at seeing two people close to her in agonizing pain. She didn't have much time to dwell on it as she heard a grunt behind her like someone lifting something heavy. She quickly sent a kunai at Sasuke, causing him to dodge and drop the technique, and snapped back around and planted a gentle fist to Suigetsu's face. But the former mist Nin had been ready. His body turned to liquid, and as Hinata's hand went through his face his body reformed and where her hand went through was now his two hands clutching onto her right forearm. He looked to grab her with one of his hand but she punched him with her left. His head jerked back, but he parried the second one with his forearm and spun her around and held her tight with a kunai around her neck.
"Finally!" he screamed into her ear, causing her to wince.
"Hinata-sama!" Neji exclaimed while on one knee, barely able to move.
Ino who was just about to land an incapacitating blow on Karin stopped when he saw Hinata taken captive.
"It's about time," said the familiar, smooth voice.
Sasuke looked as calm as ever. As though they weren't fighting for their very lives.
"Well done Suigetsu."
With that, Shikamaru shook in realization. He looked at Sasuke and uttered the Uchiha's words from earlier that night. "A fight would mean all of us being killed."
Sasuke just looked at him, but that was all the answer Shikamaru needed. "You knew that even though it's evenly matched now, eventually the one person extra on our squad would have been the deciding factor. Four on five, you would have lost at some point, so you decided to stop the fight before our extra person made a difference….. This was your plan from the beginning of the fight."
Sasuke just walked past him. Sasuke's hand went to Hinata's trapezium muscle. She glared at the man before her eyes rolled back and he caught her and took her from Suigetsu's grasp. He lifted her bridal style, and with his back to Shikamaru he finally replied. "It is just as I heard. You truly have no rival in you analyzing skills. Your powers of deduction are even better than mine. It actually makes me a little envious."
He then turned slowly with the Hyuuga heir in his hold, looking at her face. "But it's too late. I have my captive so this fight is over whether you like it or not."
The other four Konoha Anbu ground their teeth. This was a bad situation. Shikamaru desperately started thinking about a plan. How would they do it? How would they get Hinata back?
"Naruto."
The strategist's eyes popped open and stared into the endless black of Orochimaru's former subordinate. Shikamaru steeled himself and clenched his teeth. "No," he gritted out to his former comrade. He expected a threat, something to remind him that Sasuke had Hinata and it was more of a bargaining chip in his favor than in Shikamaru's. So even the great strategist was completely stunned at Sasuke's next words as the raven head turned to team Taka. "Go back to base and tell nothing of this to Tobi."
Everybody was visibly shocked. Even team hawk. They looked at each other with uncertainty. Sasuke closed his eyes, and muttered, "Don't make me say it again," and before another word could be said there were three puffs of smoke. Team hawk had disappeared, except the leader.
Ino looked at Shikamaru with an open mouth, stunned. She wanted to know what was going on. "It's simple Ino-chan."
No longer was she stunned as she growled at the pet name from Sasuke who was now facing Shikamaru again. "Tell Naruto to meet me here. I've heard reports that he's in Suna. It's about a day and a half away counting the time you'll take to find the other anbu team you had with you earlier and telling them to report the news back to Konoha."
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed and was about to deny the request again but Sasuke beat him to it. "You don't have time for anything else. Any more than a day and a half with that wound and Kiba would die." Shikamaru cocked his head to the side and looked behind Sasuke. Sure enough, Kiba had a large gash across his chest and what looked like a puncture wound in his abdomen. If it wasn't for the blood clotting pills Kiba would have been bleeding to death already.
"Also," Sasuke spoke, making Shikamaru turn his attention to him yet again. "Ino will lose her leg without treatment. Karin likes poisons as well."
Ino stared at the gash on her leg that had been a 'gift' from Karin. Hey eyes turned sad. She did not want to leave Hinata behind on account of her own weakness.
Her thoughts were broken when Sasuke started to walk away. "Sasuke!" she shouted.
He looked over his shoulder, and this time his tone had finality in it. "Shikamaru, I expect Naruto here in three days and alone by the time he enters the edge of the forest. Either take this gamble….or Hinata dies. Ask Naruto which one he prefers." and he walked off.
'There's the bargaining chip,' thought the strategist as he watched the enemy walk away with a dear friend of his. But he could do nothing as Sasuke's form started blending into the dark forest for the Uchiha was right. Kiba was going to die without immediate attention. They needed to make haste for Suna, and only then could they return and rescue their captured teammate.
Shikamaru stood up slowly, his clothes slightly charred. Kiba, Neji and Ino were all looking at him, hoping he would give the order to go after Sasuke. He clenched every part of his body as it took all his willpower to slowly shake his head no. He noticed their faces suddenly looked downcast, and he couldn't help but utter his curse aloud. "Kuso!"
AN: AAAAAAAANNNDDD cut! :P