They say if you love something let it go, and if it doesn't some back to you, hunt it down and kill it.

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Genesis
08.

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More concrete rained down on him. He cursed his luck, how in the name of all things holy had they spotted him? He let more colourful language pour out of his lips as a bullet skimmed past and bit into his shoulder. Fucking hell, we don't they just leave me alone!!! Sasuke's anger began to rise once again as the onslaught of bullets began again.

He had been minding his own business, strolling through the destruction of what seemed like 'Main street', internally commenting on the architectural genius that surrounded him (ok, maybe not quite like that, but the buildings weren't bad to look at), when he had heard an Oni roar an order to attack. Then he kind of knew he was a wee bit doomed. So now here he was, yet again crouched against rapidly disappearing cover, watching parts of it fly over his head, wishing he had been a little bit more attentive to his surroundings. The gears in his mind began turning, trying to figure out a way out of this, hoping that the enemy forces would screw up somehow. More bullets ripped into his cover, spraying him with dust. Or perhaps they'd run out of bullets first.

Think, think, think, think...

Suddenly, he heard an Oni cry out, followed by the confused grunts of its teammates. Then another wail. What was going on? He risked a peek from behind his shelter, tilting his head out slightly; only to catch sight of two Oni slumped over a concrete divider, the rest of them looking around in confusion and panic. Someone else was attacking them. His eyes widened as a short burst of gun fire cracked through the air, silencing an Oni in mid grunt. It looked at its chest, a look of surprise splattered across its face before it crumpled to the ground, dead before impact.

"Psst!"

Sasuke's heart nearly leapt out of his chest and he whirled around, pistol drawn, to come face to face with a blushing, dark-haired girl. She smiled softly at him

"Hello…my team and I are here to save you..." she spoke softly, barely audible above the gunfire. She kept the soft smile on her face, cheeks flaming. She was quite short, from what Sasuke could tell, and her long black haired was pulled back into a hair tie. What unsettled him the most was her eyes. They weren't like Naruto's bright blue eyes, nor were they like Sakura's clear emerald ones. They were white. Sasuke blinked once at the girl.

"Hn. I don't need to be saved."

Normally, Sasuke would have accepted help under these circumstances, but looking at the girl in front of him, it would be safe to assume it would be more trouble than it was worth to let himself be "saved". But at his refusal, Sasuke had never seen such a transformation come over someone in such a short span of time. The girl's blushing cheeks drained of all their colour, her strangely coloured eyes narrowed and he could have sworn he saw veins beginning to protrude around her eyes. Her shy smile vanished, only to be replaced by a tight-lipped scowl.

"Excuse me?" she squeaked. The boy could hardly contain a snicker; her attempt at intimidation only solidified his decision that he did not need to be "saved". Rather than intimidate him, she actually reminded him of the younger girls at Elysium, trying hard to be tough, but only coming off as trying too hard.

The girl in front of him arched her eyebrows, a small smile forming on her already upturned lips. Sasuke didn't like that look. Suddenly veins began to form around the timid looking girl's eyes and her oddly white pupils flashed. Ok, this was getting creepy and weird.

"There are more forces on the way. Please come with us." She quietly said. Sasuke could have sworn that she was looking through him. He gulped. This is getting really weird…

"Got him, I'm making my way back" She whispered into the mike around her neck.

Sasuke's eyes widened. "Hey, there is no 'getting him'-"

"I think it is a little late for that" the girl quietly murmured as she started to turn her body. She grasped his hand tightly and looked back to him.

"Here we go"

Before the flustered boy could reply she tugged on his hand and sent him lurching forward. She quickly gained momentum, ducking from cover to cover and dodging bullets as they flew past them, all the while dragging a protesting Sasuke with her. Sasuke was starting to get annoyed. This would only impede his search for Itachi, since they were going in the wrong direction and the little girl had no intention of letting him go. The hand she was clenching so hard to was also, much to his discomfort, attached to his injured shoulder. He could feel the tearing of skin as she jerked on his arm to run to their next piece of cover. As their backs hit an abandoned car and more bullets ripped into their cover, Sasuke decided enough was enough.

"Ok, enough, let me the fuck go." He snarled out to the girl next to him.

Her eyes widened perceptibly and colour rushed to her cheeks. Sasuke groaned, he could feel the spluttering and crying coming on. Girls were such wimps. He knew that every time he rose his voice around them, they would whine and snivel-

Sakura being the exception.

Sasuke sighed. But he was not expecting what happened next.

"Hey you fucker, don't you dare talk to Hinata like that!!" and with that, a rock struck the raven-haired boy square in the face. He heard the girl, presumably Hinata, gasp and Sasuke quickly brought his hand up to the bump that was rapidly developing on his forehead.

Fuck that Hurt!!

His eyes ripped open with crimson irises and he scanned the area for the culprit. His eyes formed a glare as his eyes fell upon the offender. A ways off was a brown-haired boy with messy, spiky hair, currently waving at the crimson-eyed boy with one finger.

"That's right you dip-shit, do it again and I'll kill you!"

Sasuke was about to reply, when he felt a hand cover his mouth. Fury blazed in his eyes at the girl's behaviour.

"Please…just come with us. When he gets riled up, it's really hard to calm him down…" she said, eyes falling to her feet.

"I promise that once we are out of this mess, you can go your own way"

Sasuke felt his fury lessen slightly at the girl's words and he made a curt nod with his head. Hinata removed her hand from his mouth as Sasuke replied.

"Fine by me."

Hinata turned her face towards him and let a small smile cross her features.

"Good. There's an outpost further along. That's where we're headed. Kiba and Shino, my teammates, will keep the Oni busy."

Sasuke replied with another sharp nod. Under any other circumstance, he would have disagreed and stayed to fight, but his shoulder was bleeding profusely, and he knew that if he left it unattended any longer, he would probably pass out from blood loss. He risked a look at said limb and breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't as bad as he thought it was; the bullet had only grazed his arm, but had still left a deep gash running from the front of his shoulder to the back.

"Are you ready…?"

The raven-haired boy nodded, and with that, the white-eyed girl next to him grabbed his hand again and in an instant, they were off, running down the street.

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"SO, dipshit, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Sasuke didn't lift his gaze to make eye-contact with his aggressor; he was too busy trying not to squirm from the stinging sensation pulsating through his arm and torso.

"Kiba, can you berate him afterwards? I'm trying to clean his wound."

The brown-haired boy huffed.

"I don't see why you're defending the loser Hinata; he was the one that insulted you!"

The girl sitting next to Sasuke let out a small sigh and waved her hand at the fuming boy.

"Go help Shino with something, please…"

The boy let out an angry growl. "And leave you alone with this dude, no way! We don't know what he would do to a girl like you Hinata, he could-"

Hinata began to flush a dark shade of crimson at the boy's insinuations and tried to splutter out a reply, anything to shut him up.

"Kiba! - I- He- Just be quiet!!"

The boy only continued to rant at the rapidly darkening girl. "I'm only looking out for you, Hinata-chan! I don't want you getting hurt."

At that, Hinata's eyes softened and she glanced up at the indignant boy.

"I know Kiba…" she said softly, smiling at the boy and effectively calming the raving boy down.

"Then you know why-"

Sasuke groaned internally and tried to tune out the fluff that was threatening to smother him. It was obvious something was going on between these two, whether it was sibling love or some other type of infatuation, Sasuke really did not care. All he really wanted was to be somewhere else right now. He could practically see the hearts, rainbows and butterflies swirling around the room. Uchihas did not do hearts rainbows and butterflies.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I have to get going."

The two others in the room turned to face him as the Uchiha stood, gathering pieces of gauze from the first-aid kit and transferring them to his bag. The girl nodded slowly, while the spiky-haired boy, presumably Kiba, let out a yowl of protest.

"After all we did for you, you're just going to leave?!"

Sasuke stared blankly at the irritated boy.

"Yes."

Sasuke wondered if it was healthy that someone's face could turn that red.

"God, at least show some gratitude, you ungrateful bastard!"

Sasuke sighed. Here he was thinking that no one could be any more annoying than Naruto.

"I have more important matters to attend to. Thank you for everything."

At that, Sasuke made a shallow bow towards a blushing Hinata and watched out of the corner of his eye the flabbergasted face of an enraged Kiba.

This is too easy

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"WHERE THE HELL IS TEME?!!"

"I'm sure he's just stepped out for a moment; he probably needs some alone time after losing his brother."

"Ya, stepped out with all his supplies!"

"Oh…"

"I knew it, the moment he agreed to go back to Elysium, I knew he was lying, I KNEW IT!!!"

"There's no way we could have known, Baka!"

"No, whenever he lies, his lips twitch!"

"Seriously…?"

"Seriously!!"

"…So what are we going to do about it?"

"We are going to hunt his ass down and beat the shit out of him for abandoning us!"

"This, I like."

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Sasuke let out a small sneeze

"Bless you, Sasuke-san"

"Thanks…"

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A/N: I locked myself in my room so I could get this done, but it is still crap… Sorry for the long wait, freaking exams galore in the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Comments and criticism are all welcome and thanks to all the lovely reviewers that have reviewed so far. Cookies to all of you!!!