For once, Sasuke didn't dream about his brother, or the Uchiha, or anything Orochimaru-related. He dreamed about Naruto.

He and Naruto were back there at the Valley of the End, sitting on the first hokage's statue. Naruto turned to him, that same stupid grin on his face as always. "Hey, bastard," he smirked.

Sasuke sighed. "I'm dreaming again, right? Why is it always you who shows up, moron?"

"Your subconscious knows," Naruto shrugged. "Obviously you're craving to see me again. Not surprised, what with my sweet, handsome looks—OW!" That last part was when Sasuke punched him in the face. But as soon as Naruto got over the pain, he started laughing. "You do realize you're hurting yourself? Emo bastard!"

"There is no way this could be any part of me," Sasuke groaned.

"I speculate—ooh, speculate, nice word, where'd I pick that up?— that you're jealous of my being so carefree. Which is bullshit," Naruto snorted. "I care about you, and you care about me, you know it. And as far as I know, you stole Sakura-chan. I don't know that she came of her own accord and that you'd do anything to make her go away. You know, it boggles me why you're being so polite to her anyway."

"Hn. Sakura has not yet infringed upon my lessons with Orochimaru, and in some situations she can cover for my lack of stamina with her own. Plus that fist of hers can do the damage I would do with a chidori."

"But you're pissed at the emotional aspects, aren't you?" Naruto prodded. "You were able to ignore Konoha until she came along with all her memories. And you don't like change, so her being dark and dreary upset your world."

"Lately she's childish again," Sasuke denied. "It was just a ruse to impress Orochimaru. What do you, oh holy subconscious, think motivated her to join him, anyway?"

Naruto—Sasuke's subconscious—thought for a while. Snapped his fingers and brought up a memory of Sakura turning in her sleep, murmuring, "No… don't hurt her, please… hurt me instead…"

Sasuke caught on and grunted. "How pathetic. She failed to save someone and got all prissy about it? She has to deal with the fact that she can't save everybody. She's too weak, and she'll stay that way."

Naruto glared. "Do you realize what you're saying? How did you react when that dude at the Land of Tea said you were the weakest of the Uchiha? Told you couldn't get strong? Sakura feels the same way!"

"Nobody understands how I feel!" Sasuke bit back.

"Oh, hasn't Sakura already gone over this with you?" Naruto practically yelled, rolling his eyes. "You're not the only lonely one here. What happened to your—our—clan is terrible, and we're going to kill Itachi for it. But if you insist anybody who doesn't understand your fucked-up emotions isn't worth your attention… that's despicable. You'll never revive the clan that way. Or have you forgotten the second part of our plan? Reviving the Uchiha, clearing their name, making them great again?"

"Not with Sakura."

"Why the hell not?"

"She's too weak. And annoying."

"Really? That's it? Otherwise you'd take her? So help her get stronger!"

Sasuke rounded on Naruto. "Why the hell do you care? I have to kill Itachi first. That's all. After that, I have a life ahead of me. Hell knows what I'm going to do!"

"You're avoiding the question." Naruto studied him. "You don't know the answer."

"At this point, my relationship with most people is neutral. I have only one enemy: Itachi. And I will hunt him down. I'm so close to the Akatsuki…"

"Heiiji. Heiiji!" Sasuke felt himself being shaken awake. It was still dark out. Sakura was leaning over him, and hissed, "Damnit, Sasuke. You can't mutter in your sleep like usual, you're giving stuff away. Maintain your disguise!"

Sasuke glared at the girl. Because of the lack of light, her hair appeared as blue as everything else in the desert. Endless, endless dunes of sand.

"Sasuke, we've got to fool Gaara," Sakura pleaded quietly "Say something. He's awake."

"Sorry," Sasuke said loudly enough for Sakura to leap back and Gaara to stir. "Bad dream."

But now Gaara was sitting up. "It is best that we travel the desert during the night. During the day, it is warmer and more exhausting. If you are both up to it, we should start going now."

As Sasuke and Sakura got up, Gaara said, "I will use my sand to better transport us. It's quicker, and requires very little chakra." Not hearing any objections, Gaara made a few motions with his hand and the sand rose to his whim, forming a carriage and then eerie sand-horses.

Shrugging, Sakura and Sasuke cautiously walked towards the sand. Gaara and Sasuke sat in the front, while there was a back row for Sakura. Normally Sakura would have complained about being in the back, but she was too tongue-tied. "Your chakra control really is amazing, Gaara-san," she commented.

"Thank you," Gaara responded emotionlessly. "I hear yours is some of the best in your village."

Sakura blushed, like she knew she should. Like she would have.

"Aren't you worried your village is going to get attacked?" Sasuke asked. Sakura glared at the back of his head. Shouldn't he just be thankful that Gaara was agreeing to this in the first place?

"I trust my brother Kankuro and sister Temari to warn me if anything happens. We have…methods…of communication." With that, Gaara snapped the reigns, mostly for effect, and the sand horses shot forward.

They almost made it to sunrise.

TenTen burst through the double-doors to Neji's hospital room and collapsed at the bedside, no tears falling, just shock, mouth open in a silent gasp.

"This is my fault," she said numbly. "I should have convinced him... I...I messed up again, and I couldn't even catch Sasuke and Sakura..."

Completely forgetting the moment, Ino asked sharply, "You saw Sasuke and Sakura?"

TenTen looked up, face pale. "Yes. They were the ones who knocked me out, and I guess Sakura must have sent the note with my location...they...Ino, they're way too strong... Sasuke tortured him!"

"How? With genjutsu?" Ino ignored the depair in the tone, and continued gathering information- maybe Sasuke's genjutsu was what was causing Neji's coma... but it was so complex, and Ino had felt Sasuke's genjutsu marks before, this didn't have the same feel.

"Yeah. Physical pain for me, and I'm not sure what he showed him but Neji was screaming something along the lines of 'No! Me instead'." His cries still rung in TenTen's ears, and it took a moment for her to collect herself. "They...it looked like they were heading to the Sand."

"We've already sent a messenger bird to the Sand explaining the situation. They know about the traitor. But just in case, we should warn them who's heading their way. TenTen, do you know who could have done this?"

"It doesn't look like Sasuke or Sakura's handiwork. It can't have been, anyway, as he was heading back to the village after we had an...argument. It's my fault..." Ino knew it was no use trying to ask more; TenTen had gone into numb unresponsive mode. It was then that Gai burst into the room, and, bless him, rather than weeping over Neji immediately, wrapped TenTen in strong arms like a father and said absolutely nothing.

That, for Gai, was definitely a first.

Ino had offered to take her team out to lunch to discuss what they think could have happened- which, with Chouji's appetite, was almost suicide- but none of them had been able except for Shikamaru. That was okay. Shikamaru was the smartest one who could help the most, and it was better for him than laying on his back watching clouds anyway.

So over some sushi they discussed... well, a lot. Shikamaru had come to much the same conclusions as her, but had something new to bring up. "Why are Sakura and Sasuke out and about anyway? Shouldn't they be training with Orochimaru? Either they quit, or they have a mission. If their mission is taking them to the Sand, where Gaara is...well, many have had the suspicion that Orochimaru, like Akatsuki, is after tailed-beasts. Maybe they're going after the one-tails, in which case we're in trouble."

"You could be right," Ino said, tapping her chin with a chopstick. "If Naruto finds out, he'll do something rash without a doubt. I mean... you know right?"

"Know what?" Shikamaru frowned.

"Where Naruto gets his power from... you were told, right?"

"Uh, no. But now that I think about it. At the chuunin exams, there was that red chakra spiraling from him... and right when he should have been a baby, the attack of the..." Shikamaru's eyes widened. "No way! The nine-tailed fox? Naruto's a Jinchuuriki? That would explain so much! Lack of parents, him being left out..." Shikamaru was in one of his thinking-trances, information just spewing out of his mouth. "Only the Fourth could have sealed the fox, though... makes me wonder why he chose Naruto-maybe his parents were killed. Or maybe...nah, no way, it's not possible."

"What?" Ino asked, curious though they'd strayed from the topic.

"No. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I'd better ask Lady Hokage a few things... do you, by any chance, know who the Fourth's wife was?"

Ino shook her head. "No. What does that have to do with anything? Anyway, I'm due to check on Neji and report to Tsunade, so if you want to talk to her you may as well come with."

Ino and Shikamaru were surprised to find two others already at the Hokage's office: Kiba Inuzuka (with Akamaru) and Kakashi. Tsunade folded her hands in the way she only did when there was serious trouble, and Ino forgot all about her report. "TenTen told me Haruno and Uchiha were going to the sand, and the Sand's kazekage has mysteriously disappeared with two individuals. We have been called on to do a retrieval mission, because the Sand's forces were all but wiped out by strange bombs. I also anticipate the involvement of a third party; Haruno and Uchiha don't have bombs. I'm sending this because a medical nin and a tracker are needed, along with Shikamaru's intelligence and Kakashi's experience. Ino, I will keep Neji alive while you're gone. I'm sorry. But only this group can do it. This is an S class mission. You start in ten minutes; there's no time to lose. Go to the Sand and track Sakura's scent, Kiba, and you will probably found Gaara."

Ino opened her mouth to object. Kiba beat her to it.

"But Hokage-sama, I don't have something to reference her scent from," Kiba said. Tsunade wilted.

Ino's eyes fell. "I do." All eyes on her, she reached into her pack and pulled out Sakura's red ribbon which had originally been hers. She was hard-pressed to let go of it and drop it into Kiba's hands. Kiba and Akamaru both sniffed at it. Kiba nodded.

"This is Sakura's scent all right… I'm up to it."

"Good. Oh and… Naruto is not to know about this, is that understood?"

"Right," the team chorused.

And so Gaara's rescue mission commenced.

Sasori narrowed his eyes. Deidara was returning, and it was awfully quickly. He couldn't possibly have finished off the Jinchuuriki in that time.

"Well?" he growled.

"Sorry, Master Sasori. But the Kazekage isn't there, nope. He's left. My, ah, sources tell me that he's traveling toward Kumo. Left only an hour or two ago; we should be able to catch up to him, hm... But apparently he went with some people. We may end up facing more than one shinobi. So, what about it, boss? Do we tell Leader-sama we failed or go after them?"

"We're going to go. And let's hurry. I don't like to keep Leader waiting."

They flew on Deidara's birds until they saw a sand chariot, far ahead in the distance. They glanced at each other.

"That'll be them. They're so slow, un. I count three."

"This will be too easy."

Then Deidara spotted something alarming. "Uh, Master?"

"What is it, brat?"

"That girl from Orochimaru's, the one with pink hair? She's with them."

Sasori snarled. "So, Orochimaru's after the one-tails as well? More complications… this could take longer than we expected."

In unison, all three ninja riding through the desert became alert. The sand-chariot collapsed and Gaara, Sakura, and Sasuke leaped out. They'd all felt the chakra-spike, and the chakra was getting ever closer. But it wasn't from in front, behind, left, right…

"Above!" Sakura whispered, before she was hit by a falling white object. She scrambled away from it, and just in time too, because it exploded. It wasn't a large explosion, but certainly would have blown her eyes out if it had landed anywhere near them. Gaara was already sweeping her onto a block of sand, Sasuke following in her wake, and flying them up to be eye-level with the huge clay bird. As soon as they got a clear view of the silhouettes, Sasuke tensed.

"Akatsuki," he hissed in his normal voice, causing Gaara to look at him sharply. But Sasuke was beyond caring. He was glancing meaningfully at Sakura, his countenance screaming Now's our chance. You take care of Gaara and I'll take the Akatsuki. Sakura responded with a desperate look, begging him, No, Sasuke, don't lose your head yet. We still need Gaara as an ally. Let him help us. Our mission isn't to kill the Akatsuki, it's to get the rings and the eight-tails! Sasuke gave her a withering glare: To hell with the mission.

It was funny how much one look could convey.

"Heiiji has had a few…bad run-ins with Akatsuki," Sakura tried to explain lamely. But of course her cover was blown when the blond Akatsuki, who she hadn't seen before, called,

"So, you're out on a mission for Orochimaru, yeah? Where's your dark-haired buddy, is that other one him?"

Sakura watched as Gaara's expression actually changed. First there was surprise, then disbelief, then, slowly, he turned his head toward Sakura. "Sakura…what is the meaning of this…?"

Sakura lowered her head. She really regretted having to do this. "I'm sorry, Gaara-san. But I… I'm a nuke-nin."

Gaara caught on quickly. He slowly turned around. "Uchiha Sasuke. Good to see you again…or not."

Naruto scratched his head nervously as he opened the door to his flat. "Uh, this is my place, Hinata-chan… I know it's not much, but, heh, you know I spend all my money on ramen!"

Hinata gave a small smile and stepped inside after Naruto, catching the door which almost slammed on her back. Naruto had about as much manners as a dung beetle, but she wasn't complaining. It was extremely kind of him to offer her a place to stay. She didn't deserve it, and she was nervous as heck. She was in Naruto's house! Naruto's!

He gave her a quick tour, clearly feeling absolutely no shame at the fact that the place looked like it had been ransacked. Undergarments strewn on the floor, styrofoam ramen cups on the torn and damaged sofa, scrolls unrolled and hanging off the shelves, the window open so that the shutters banged against the wall with every gust of wind. The odor from the bathroom was so rancid that Hinata literally gagged, concealing it from Naruto at the last moment. It was…certainly a change from the clean, neat Hyuuga household.

"Uh, so, where d'you wanna sleep?" Naruto asked, scratching his neck again. "You can sleep on the sofa, or my bed, or the floor."

Hinata remembered the smell of old sandals and morning breath and other things in the sad excuse for a room Naruto slept in (it was about as big as her walk-in closet at home).

"T-the c-couch is fine," she replied.

"Alright!" Naruto said enthusiastically. "So it's about the time I go to sleep, so do ya wanna have some ramen then crash?"

Hinata gave a small nod of assent. Naruto stuck two instant ramen packs in the microwave, which, of course, burned because he had entirely forgotten to add water. Naruto spent a moment frantically trying to put out the fire until Hinata finally put it out with a water jutsu.

"Huh? Hinata?" Naruto looked at her, surprised. "You know water-style jutsu? I thought the Hyuuga only knew the Byakugan moves!"

Hinata had been avoiding thinking of her clan for the past hour, and now that it had been mentioned the dam burst. Tears started to flow down her face.

"Eh? Hinata? Why're you crying?"

"I-I'm fine," Hinata gasped out. "I just want to sleep…"

"Oh…okay then. I'm not that hungry anyway… I guess I'll see you in the mor—"

And then all the candles that had been lighting the room flickered out simultaneously. It was complete darkness but for the fading, blueish light outside.

Naruto laughed uneasily. "Heh, I can't find my bed in this light, I guess I'll just take the couch then…good night Hinata!" and with that he was bounding off, flopping down on the couch, and snoring before Hinata could get out "Wait!". Clearly, he didn't find this weird at all.

Hinata stumbled over a few scrolls, which gave her an idea. She lay down and put her head on it, grabbing a random jacket Naruto had left around and using it as a cover. With that she curled up and let all the tears out, let sobs rack her body.

When she was done, she felt safe, and warm, Naruto's snores reassuring, and even the putrid stench from the bathroom felt welcoming and familiar. She realized she didn't miss the Hyuuga household, with its perfection and coldness and slaves. She could stay right here on Naruto's stained carpet forever.

Gaara swung a fist. Sasuke, who had released the transforming jutsu, blocked and pushed Gaara. They grappled—and fell off the sand block.

Sakura landed hard, though they hadn't been too high in the air. She got up, warily keeping an eye on the sky and the Akatsuki members.

Gaara made hand signs and sand fashioned into a bird. Sasuke thought it was going to attack him, but instead, it flew away at a velocity that he couldn't even see it after two seconds. Of course—Gaara was sending a cry of help to his siblings. Pathetic.

Sasuke recalled his first fight against Gaara. The strategy was to move as quickly as possible, then launch two attacks: a physical one to distract the sand, then ram in a chidori to finish him off…but before Sasuke could put action to his thoughts, Gaara said,

"Uchiha…as the kazekage, I'm prone to certain information from the Leaf. The way I see it, we have a common enemy. Obviously you asked me to come with you because you wanted me to finish off the eight-tails—who, now that I consider it, you were lying about—and you wanted something from me. But I'm not your target. No matter what Orochimaru's mission was, you want to get the Akatsuki. Let's make a truce and take care of these enemies."

Sasuke closed his eyes. Irritating, but he had a point.

"Right," he said brusquely.

"So what is it you wanted from me?" Gaara asked.

"The ring on your finger," Sasuke said. Gaara glanced down at his hand and pulled off the jewelry.

"It has no particular meaning to me, and I expect you have more need of it than I. I'll say it fell off my hand. You can have it." He tossed it at Sasuke.

Surprised at how easy that had been though still angry at his plans being fucked up, Sasuke turned back to the Akatsuki.

He turned his head right back when the sand bird from earlier arrived back, and Kankuro, Temari, and Matsuri leaped down next to Gaara. That was quite a fast bird. They immediately saw Sasuke and attacked, but Gaara, foreseeing this, had already blocked them with sand. His siblings and pupil looked at him questioningly.

"He's on our side for now, and so is she," Gaara told them. "The enemy here are the Akatsuki on that bird."

Said Akatsuki were growing tired of watching the exchange. Sasori growled, "There are quite a few of you, aren't there? I'll just handle you with my puppets—a lot of them. I usually don't resort to this, but I want to finish this up as quickly as possible." He pulled out a scroll, Deidara watching him in surprise that he was already pulling out his second-to-last defense, and placed his palm on it. Hundreds of puppets poured out, and Sakura's only thought was Oh shi… before she was violently thrown into battle. Everything was just moving too quickly—one moment she's speeding around in a chariot, the next she's fighting for her life—and she was taking a whole lot more injuries than usual.

"Looks we arrived just in the nick of time," Shikamaru commented as his team neared the scene of the battle.

Gaara turned his head—in time to get hit in the back of the leg by Deidara's bomb. He crumpled. Deidara rode in on the bird and swept Gaara up, Sasori leaping on as well. Before anybody could move a muscle, Gaara and Deidara were several kilometers away and fading into the distance.

Kankuro, Temari and Matsuri were already running after them, but they could never catch up in time…

And Sasori's hundreds of puppets remained, launching the attack on the first targets spotted: Sakura and Sasuke.

"Got that right," Kakashi said grimly.

"We follow them, right? It's our job to save Gaara."

Ino glared at Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru's right, I can still smell Gaara and I'm the only chance anyone has. And we need you to heal Gaara." Kiba was acting surprisingly intelligent.

"They're going to get killed." Ino looked pleadingly at Kakashi and gesturing to the ongoing fight, Sasuke and Sakura driven into a metaphoric corner.

"I know, Ino, I know," he said heavily. "But it was their choice to leave. It's not our concern whether they live or die."

"It is too—!"

"Ino, just shut up," Shikamaru interrupted uncharacteristically harshly. "Let's go."

And that's the story of how Sakura and Sasuke were left to fight for their lives against 100 top-class puppets armed with every weapon imaginable.

AN: Okay, so that second half of the chapter was a bit bleh. But I really wanted to get this up.

I actually have some free time now, so expect more frequent updates.

Didn't proofread this. Might edit later.

I love you guys! : )