The fear hit him like a shock wave.

Often in these situations, Sasuke would never panic, he could remain calm, composed, and maybe, maybe, unsettled. But never scared, Uchihas were never scared. But at this moment, Sasuke was wondering if he had been adopted. He felt the heat from Naruto turning Kybuui brush against him, and he bet that Itachi's eyes were flooding red. His own eyes had their own crimson flowing through them, and he gazed at the forms that were currently surrounding the trio. He focused in on one and tried to sum up what they were currently up against. His fear lessen slightly as he realized that the forms were human, not Oni. At least they stood a slight chance now….

He turned his face towards his brother to tell him the "good" news, but it seems, as per usual, Itachi was 10 steps ahead.

"Ï know Sasuke, but something isn't right, stay on guard." he murmured

Sasuke nodded and readied his rifle, as did Naruto. He swallowed and clenched his weapon, trying to stem the fear that he felt.

The teammates slowly made their way forward, cautiously watching the hidden forms that were scattered throughout the surrounding destroyed buildings and streets. An eerie sense of foreboding made its way up Sasuke's spine as they continued forward.

Why weren't they attacking…?

As if they could read his mind, Sasuke watched as one of the men sauntered out of a nearby building and sat himself down on a misplaced divider, waiting for them to make their way closer. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the seemingly arrogant man waiting calmly half a block away. He had strange silver hair that was pulled into a short ponytail at the base of his neck, and ugly, round glasses at the bridge of his nose.

What a tool

Itachi signalled to stop and the two boys halted in apprehension. The silver-haired idiot smiled and pushed himself off the divider.

"It's not often that we meet fellow humans in the outskirts, and hostile ones at that. Why don't you put your weapons away so we can have a nice little chat."

Sasuke watched a smirk flit across Itachi's face and waited for him to give an order.

"And you should show a common courtesy and order your men to out their weapons away as well, since you are a fellow human, correct?"

Sasuke watched as a smile formed on the stranger lips and a small chuckle slipped through his lips. The man made his way closer towards them, and Sasuke watched as Itachi's eyes flooded with a darker red. Something was happening and he and Naruto seemed to be excluded from it.

"Speaking of common courtesy, I believe I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Kabuto, and the men you seem to sense are my associates. We are hired for special missions that require a more, for a lack of a better way of putting it, professional touch."

Sasuke glared at Kabuto and glanced at Itachi for a signal, anything, to tell him and Naruto what to do. He did nothing.

"Our names are of no concern of yours. Much like you we are on a mission as well, and it is best if we went our separate ways so that we both can complete our missions. Standing around and talking is not going to get either of them done. Since we have nothing further to discuss, my team will make its way forward and we bid you good luck with your mission."

Itachi held up his hand and gestured them to move forward, but as he signalled, Sasuke heard Kabuto speak again.

"Oh, you aren't going anywhere you sillies, you see, you are the mission."

Sasuke's eyes widened, and suddenly the men, whose presence had gone relatively gone unnoticed before, appeared out of the cracks and crevasses in which they had been hiding. Itachi roared at them to run, which was unnecessary since both he and Naruto's legs were already in motion. Sasuke heard Kabuto yell something and he heard Itachi shout out in pain. He turned and saw his brother stumble and fall to his knees in agony.

"Nii-san!!" he yelled out and turned to run back to his brother, who was struggling to stand up.

"No Sasuke, get out of here, run!" Sasuke heard him choke out. He didn't't care, he wasn't about to lose his only family.

"Fuck you, I'm not leaving you behind!"

He slid beside his brother and wrapped his arm around Itachi's waste and pulled him up. He heard Itachi whisper to him that he was an idiot and to run as his body went limp and he slumped over Sasuke. Sasuke's eyes widened and he felt his rage begin to bubble up inside him. He laid his brother's limp form on the ground and his Sharingan flared crimson as his anger built up. He was about to spray the motherfuckers that had done this to Itachi with bullets, when he felt Naruto's hand clamp down on his arm and spin him around. Sasuke's eyes met Naruto's now blue eyes and Sasuke tried to shove him off of him. Naruto clamped his hand on Sasuke's arm even harder and pulled him behind a deteriorating wall. Sasuke began to scream at him, demanding that he let go and to let him go kill every single one of those shitheads. He thrashed around, trying to hit Naruto hard enough to force him to let go, but instead ended up with a slap across his face.

"Uchiha Sasuke, shut your fucking mouth or I swear to what ever sentient being out there, I will do it myself!!" Sasuke, still in shock from getting a slap, could only glare at the blond. Naruto stood, still with a death grip on Sasuke's arm and turned to look at Sasuke again.

"We are going to make a run for it. Itachi would have wanted us to have escaped, especially your pansy ass. So rearrange your face into a smile or it will fucking freeze."

Sasuke could only stare at Naruto, who had never reacted like this before. Sasuke stood up next to Naruto, still shell-shocked from loosing his brother and from getting a slap in the face, and stared at his teammate dumbly.

"You ready?"

Sasuke nodded and the two boys sprinted out of their cover, hoping that Kabuto's "associates" hadn't noticed them. A spray of bullets greeted them. They dropped onto the ground, the bullets missing them by inches. Kabuto yelled something at them and the firing ceased momentarily. Sasuke and Naruto picked themselves up and began their mad dash back up the street they had just come down, but as fate would have it, Sasuke took a glance backward.

And the slap that Naruto had just administered on him wore off.

His rage bubbled up as he saw his brother's body getting roughly dragged into a building. He quickly pivoted and grasped his rifle and took aim with crimson eyes. Bullets ripped into the men that had just glanced up and Sasuke smirked as we made his way back up the street. His rage flared into cold-blooded hatred and he felt the thrill of the kill flooding into him. He saw movement from he corner of his eye and he turned to obliterate it when he felt a burning sensation explode into his fevered mind. Stumbling to his knees , he suddenly felt incredibly weak. He looked down and saw that he had been hit with a strange looking bullet. He heard Naruto yell something from somewhere back up the street and the world slowed down. Sasuke's senses slowed until it seemed like the men up the street were moving in slow motion and their voices were sluggish. He knew he had to stand up, he knew he had to avenge his brother, but he couldn't't, his body wasn't listening to his brain. Then he knew he was screwed.

Suddenly there was a presence beside him and he turned to identify it. A small human figure was crouched beside him with a rocket launcher propped on its shoulder. The person placed a hand on his back to keep him upright and tilted the weapon at Kabuto's position. He heard a feminine voice with a sharp softness filter through the haze.

"Boom, bitch."

A bang emitted from the stranger's rocket launcher and an explosion ripped into the street. Screams could be heard from the men further up the street while the smell of charred flesh assaulted his nostrils. Sasuke tried to focus on the mystery person's features, but the world started to slow down even more, almost grinding to a near stand-still. He blinked in reply as the person yelled something at him and started pulling him to his feet.

What a funny voice…

And everything went black.

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"Nii-san!! I'm scared, where are you?!!" Sasuke yelled out into the darkness. He was lost and incredibly frightened by the sudden change of the surroundings. He stumbled down the streets, tears streaming down his small face.

"ITACHII!!" he screamed out again, when he tripped over his feet and slammed into the ground, hitting his chin on the pavement. He was about to pull himself up when he looked down his nose to see a flower in front of his face. His curiosity peeked and he scooped up the small pink blossom in his hands. What was something so pretty doing here? A small gust of wind brushed past him and lifted the flower off of his hands, sending it down the crimson streets.

"Follow and you shall find."

His head whipped up, trying to locate the source of the voice. He called out again, but received no answer. He focused on the little blossom floating on the wind and ran after it. Perhaps the voice was right…

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"He'll be fine now, he just needs rest."

"You sure?"

"Positive, I just need to go get cleaned up, stay with him, if anything happens, don't be afraid to shout, ok?"

"Got it."

Sasuke tried to focus on the voices that were filtering through his head, they were giving him one hell of a headache. He definitely knew the annoying one was a particular blond he knew.

I'm going to destroy him

He ordered his eyes to open, but they seemed quite resilient to the threats he was throwing at them. All he wanted to do was open is eyes and tell Naruto, who was currently singing off-tune, to shut up and let him sleep in silence. But yet again, his eyes refused to open. He suddenly sensed silence as the dobe stopped singing.

Finally

"You know teme-" spoke too soon "-we're lucky she found us when she did, otherwise we would have been in some deep shit. Not to mention, she's hot too. Wake your lazy ass up already and you'll see what I mean. I mean, she is just- OW, WHAT THE HELL!!"

Sasuke glared at Naruto as his fist left the top of Naruto's head.

"Shut The Fuck Up."

Naruto's eyes narrowed at Sasuke and he stuck his tongue out.

"What, was I disrupting your beauty sleep, Sasuke-hime?"

Sasuke was about to unleash a verbal slaughter-fest on Naruto when he was interrupted by a feminine giggle. He whipped his head around, not only to almost lose consciousness again, but to gaze into emerald eyes.

Holy crap, Naruto was right

Leaning against a cracked doorframe was a petite girl with short pink hair and the most stunning eyes Sasuke had ever seen. She was wearing a dirty white tank top that was stretched over her small form, as well as an unusual uniform that hung off of her. He opened his mouth to speak, but found that all of a sudden, his tongue was too big for his mouth.

So instead, he ended up gaping like an idiot.

He quickly regained his composure and formed his eyes into a glare. She let another giggle slip through her lips as she pushed herself off the doorframe.

"You know, you're going to get wrinkles if you keep doing that." she snickered at him. She knelt down beside him and gazed into his face. He felt a blush creeping onto his face and immediately tried to stifle it.

"You look a lot better than when we first brought you in. You've regained a little bit of you colour I can see."

"We…?"

"Your friend, Naruto, and myself. That was one brutal poison that was in your system, but you're lucky I arrived when I did, you'll be fine now, just rest. By the way, the name's Sakura"

She held out her hand and he gazed at it, wondering what he wanted her to do with it.

She giggled again. "Oh right sorry, I guess no one really shakes hands anymore. I assume you are Sasuke?"

He gave her a curt nod and she smiled. She stood and turned to Naruto. He noticed that a slight blush crept across her face as she addressed him. He glared at Naruto, which kind of shocked him to a certain extent. He never got jealous, especially when it involved a girl. He also noticed the slight curve of her slender waist that wound its way down to her slightly rounded hips that were hidden by the baggy pants she was currently wearing.

Currently…

Sasuke almost slapped himself. That was the last thing he needed, was his normally dormant hormones acting up in this kind of situation. He switched his thoughts onto something less exciting to try and eliminate the current fire that was reeking havoc.

Guns, Oni, Naruto…Itachi

Remembering his fallen brother, he was suddenly hit with a fresh rush of adrenaline and he leaped out of the make-shift bed to get his weapons. He still wanted to massacre Kabuto and his men for what they did to Itachi. Suddenly the world warped inwards and he slumped against the wall, trying to regain to balance and focus. He felt a small arm wind its way around his waist as he tipped towards the floor.

"Take it slow Sasuke, slow down, take a deep breath in. You still need to recover from that nasty stuff that was running through your system."

He wanted to scream at the Sakura to let him go, let him run after his brother's killers, but he felt all the fight flood out of him at the strange girls soft touch. He collapsed to the floor, finding himself shaking from exertion. Sakura was at his side, checking his pulse and gazing into his eyes, checking for any abnormalities. He looked at his hands, which were trembling uncontrollably.

How fucking pathetic

"Take it easy, you're not going to help Itachi by passing out."

Sasuke turned his head towards Sakura, a full-blown snarl making its way from his lips.

"and what the fuck would you know about Itachi?"

Her calm demeanour vanished and her face twisted into one of anger. Her cheeks flushed red and her wide eyes narrowed into slits.

"Sorry, what was that?" she said in a acidic tone.

Sasuke smirked at the look the small girl was giving him.

Amateur

"Are you deaf as well as stupid? What the hell would you know about my brother?" he sneered out at the fuming girl in front of him.

Then he kind of regretted it.

Her hand moved faster then he could track and it slammed into the wall beside his head, leaving a large crack and dent. Her face was suddenly only inches from his own and she stared daggers into his eyes. He noticed her eyes had changed from their emerald colour into a much darker shade that seemed quite a bit more menacing than before. Her voice had also lost its softness, turning into one with a sharp edge to it.

"How dare you! How dare you disrespect me after everything I did for you. I may not be your idea of a savoir, but if you continue on in that tone, get out, I don't deserve it or need it. As for your brother, Naruto informed me about his situation. He's not dead, he was hit by the same toxin you were. I assure you, he is alive and breathing, although probably not in as good condition. And next time you speak to me in that bitchy little tone of yours, you'll wish you never woke up. Understood?"

Sasuke's eyes widened at her sudden change of character. He nodded slowly and her face flitted back into the peaceful one it was when he first saw her. Her lips parted into a smile and she patted him on the head.

"You'll find it's a lot better to agree with me Sasuke, remember that." she said in a cheery tone that had a certain edge to it. She stood and walked down the small hallway, disappearing into another room. He tilted his head to see Naruto stroll out of the make-shift bedroom with an innocent smile on his face.

"One word my friend, and only one. Whipp-ed."

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A/N-Hello! long time no update, sorry about that…. Hope the this chapter is up to par, I'm trying to get the plot rolling so that it's not one of those ridiculously long sagas of 60+ chapters, (kudos to those of you who can write those). I'll hopefully have the next chapter up very soon, but no promises. If there were any mistakes and whatnot, I'm using my dad's tiny little laptop that I have never used before. I think most of your questions will be answered in the next chapter, so stay tuned. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and thanks for all the people that reviewed last time, it really helps!

And for those of you who haven't yet, you know you want to…