Author's Note: This isn't as long as the last few chapters, but I have good reason. I love it when you guys review, and I've been getting mostly positive reviews by everyone. Without further ado, I give you chapter five. I warn you, it picks up in the middle of the battle from the last chapter, so you might want to reread it if it isn't fresh in your mind.

Chapter Five:
The moment was so surreal. One minute, I was down and out, and the next, I was up and ready to protect my teammate. It was as if the senbon he threw were in slow motion as I rushed to protect him.

I couldn't just let him kill Sasuke. I jumped in front of the senbon, taking the blow for him, just as I did when Itachi was attacking him. I didn't have much time to think of a plan. I had to act, so I did the most logical thing, and preformed a substitution jutsu. A log with the senbon still in it replaced my body, while I came from behind the ninja and made another shadow clone.

As my shadow clone began a rasengan, I (the real me) slipped away without being noticed.

"Another short range attack?" he asked. "You leaf ninja must be stupid."

My clone ran towards the ninja, who used his sword again. I took my chance. I ran behind the ninja, and did a few hand signs.

"Wind style: Shuriken Tornado!" I yelled. I jumped in the air and began twisting the air around me. I took out three shuriken and threw them into the storm that was forming around me. The only downside about this technique was that because of the storm, it took a lot of chakra to make the shuriken hit the mark. But if they did, the speed that the wind gave them made them almost impossible to survive.

The first shuriken hit its mark - the ninja. The second one accidentally hit my clone, but it didn't matter. All of a sudden, the ninja exploded in a flash that emitted a loud sound. It must have been some sort of sound clone, because I fell to the ground, clutching my ears. I threw up before falling to the ground and fainting.

"Naruto!" was the next thing I heard when I woke up. I found Ino standing over me. "Naruto, thank god."

"Where's Sasuke? Where's the sound ninja? Where's Mishikajiki?"

Sasuke is out cold. He is stable - for now. The sound ninja made some sort of sound clone, and he went back to his village. Mishikajiki is over there." She pointed to the corner, where a boy was.

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"He's fine. Now that you're awake, you can take care of Sasuke. I don't know what to do."

I got up and saw Sasuke. I knew how to take care of this issue - Jiraya taught me a few months ago after the Sand Village/Sound Village invasion. He wanted to prepare me for any future Sound attacks.

I walked over to Sasuke and bent over him. I took a kunai and cut Sasuke's hands.

"Naruto!" Ino yelled. "What are you doing!"

"I'm helping Sasuke!"

"Helping Sasuke! How -"

Before she could finish her sentence, Sasuke's eyes opened and he took in a huge gasp of air.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Ino, find me something to wrap his hands with."

"Got it!" she said. She left me and Sasuke to get our stuff.

"The sound ninja retreated, and we have Mishikajiki.

"You save me, again," he said.

"You'd do the same for me," I said.

"It doesn't matter. You've saved me twice, and I just keep getting in trouble. I will not let you save me again."

"Sasuke," I said. "I'm your teammate! I'm supposed to help you."

"And I'm supposed to not be so useless," he said.

"You're not useless, Sasuke. You know that," I said. He turned away. "This isn't the time to feel sorry for yourself. Tomorrow we'll be in the Land of Sound. And I'm sure with our luck, we'll end up in a battle. We need to be at our best."

Just then, Ino returned with bandages. She wrapped up Sasuke's hand. We decided that the four of us would return to the village and eat.

"So Mishikajiki," I said. "Are you okay? Did the sound ninja hurt you?"

"Not really," he said. "I'm fine. I just want to go back home."

"Don't worry, Mishi," she said. "We'll get you home soon, okay?"

He smiled a little bit, but I could tell that he was sad. We ate in silence, and we went back to the hotel, and rested up.

The next day, we left the village, and reached the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Sound. We crossed it, and decided to take the long way, as to stay away from the Hidden Sound Village.

OoOoOoO

We continued through a forest, which quickly turned into a plain. We were making good time, and we might even get through the Land of Sound with relative ease.

"I have a bad feeling," Sasuke said when the grass stopped and we reached a desolate wasteland. "Sharingan!" He activated his sharingan again, and looked around. "Be prepared for a fight."

We continued to walk, when I saw a senbon out of the corner of my eye flying right towards me. I dodged it, and Ino and Sasuke stopped.

"Ino," Sasuke said. "Take Mishikajiki and run." I did a shadow clone jutsu to give her two Narutos to help. That's when they revealed themselves. We were face to face with Orochimaru, Kabuto, the sound ninja who had Mishikajiki to begin with, and the Sound Four. We were outnumbered and outmatched. "Naruto," Sasuke continued, "we just need to hold out until Kakashi gets here." I nodded, and we turned to our enemies.

"Jirobo, Kidomaru, Tayuya, Sakon," Orochimaru began to order. "Stop the girl." The Sound Four left, leaving us facing a powerful sound shinobi, a leaf ninja spy, and a sannin. They pulled out all the stops.

"Ah, Sasuke," Orochimaru said. "I was hoping to see you again. It's been a while since I've battled someone with as much potential as you. This should be interesting."

Kabuto charged at me, while the sound shinobi who's name I still didn't know went at Sasuke. I couldn't really pay much attention to their battle, because I was focused on mine.

"Naruto," Kabuto said. "It's going to be nice defeating you." His hand glowed blue, and he came at me. He hit me right in my gut, so I used the substitution jutsu. I came from behind, and he dodged me. I used my multi-shadow clone jutsu before he could get me. I decided on using the Uzumaki barrage. I was able to overwhelm him with my numbers, but as I was kicking him into the air, he turned the tables.

"Body Flame Jutsu." His body slowly disappeared as fire engulfed him. He reappeared on the ground with a smile. He pushed his glasses up on his nose. He ran into my mob of clones with his blue glowing hand, and he defeated them all! This was coming from a guy who was never able to make it through the chunin exam!

"Your turn, Naruto Uzumaki!" he yelled. He ran to me, and aimed at my heart. I turned at the last second, and he got my shoulder. I fell to the ground.

"Naruto!" I heard Sasuke yell. Then he screamed in pain. I looked and saw the curse mark take over his body. Shit! We were done for. But instead of trying to calm down his curse mark, he stood back up.

"Fire Style: Fire Tornado!" Sasuke yelled. I saw him do my wind tornado jutsu, but the tornado was made of fire! And it must have been at least ten times as powerful. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flame Jutsu!" he yelled. Fire balls began to be emitted from his tornado in all directions, one striking the other sound ninja, while Kabuto escaped the wrath. "Fire Style: Flaming Kunai Jutsu!" he yelled. Just as I had done with shuriken, he released flaming kunai from his vortex of fire. A flaming kunai was on track to hit Kabuto, but he disappeared before being hit, reappearing at Orochimaru's side.

Sasuke's fire vortex began to lower, and he was still in his curse mark form. I got up and activated the fox's chakra. I began my rasengan, while Sasuke in the curse mark began his chidori. He ran at Orochimaru, while I ran at Kabuto. We were going to hit them – and kill them, but before we could get to them, Tayuya and Sakon had appeared in between us and our targets, taking the blow for them. I could tell that both of our power was too much, and they fell immediately. I guess that's why they were Orochimaru's body guards – to protect him at all costs.

Sasuke and I jumped back to regroup. "Sasuke, use your new jutsu. I know what I'm going to do." I bit my thumb and put it to the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!" I yelled. I brought Gama this time, wearing some armor and weilding a small sword.

He looked around at our surroundings, and understood why he was summoned without needing any information. Meanwhile, Sasuke told me to move away to give him room. Gama and I decided to give him as much room as he needed.

"Fire Style: Roaring Flame Sphere!" he yelled. If the orb that he released with me and Kakashi was the size of my rasengan, this one was the size of a meteor. It flew straight into Orochimaru and Kabuto. The entire area was shrouded in smoke, and there was fire everywhere. I couldn't see if it hit, and neither could Gama.

The smoke and debris covered the whole area, and I knew one thing – the only way Orochimaru and Kabuto survived that was if they had disappeared before it hit. There was no surviving this jutsu. What I was more concerned with, though, was that through the smoke, I couldn't see Sasuke.

"Sasuke!" I yelled. "Wind Style: Tornado of death!" I used my wind jutsu to clear the smoke and put out the flames. I saw Sasuke on the ground, the mark covering his body as he writhed in pain. I saw Ino and Mishikajiki headed towards us with Kakashi, bushy brow, Neji and Kiba and Akamaru. Those must be the genin he brought along. I couldn't see Orochimaru, Kabuto, Kidomaru, or Sakon on the field. They must have fled.

I ran over to Sasuke, who was writhing in pain. I ripped open his shirt like I've seen Tsunade do, and I dived into my seal. I went to the prison inside me where the Nine-Tailed Fox was held.

"I need you to help me heal my friend," I said.

"Why should I help you?" the Demon Fox asked with malice.

"Because I'm your master. You live within me. I control you."

"If you control me, then why don't you make me?" he said.

"If he dies, I'll kill myself and you," I said. I really hoped that the fox would take the bluff.

"You're bluffing," the Fox said. Damn. I guess he knew me as well as I knew myself.

"Do you want to take the chance?" Maybe covering my bluff with a second bluff would help me.

The Fox took a while to think before giving in, and I used his chakra to heal Sasuke. In a matter of minutes he was back to full power.

"Naruto," he said. "Did you...again?" He was pissed. He obviously knew I saved him. Again. A Sasuke with a bruised ego was a Sasuke that I didn't want to face.

"No," I said. "You drove them away. You saved my life. Thank you." I hugged him. I felt him tense up, but it was okay, because he was alive. The curse mark had receded, and he would be alright.

"Okay, Naruto," Kakashi said. "We are going to escort you to the border between the Land of Sound and the Land of Beasts, but after that, you are four are on your own."

We decided to camp out when we got to a forest. Sasuke and Kakashi went off to talk - presumably about the curse mark. Ino and Lee were talking. Neji was off training, and Kiba was playing with Akamaru. I needed to ask Kakashi sensei a question that had been bothering me for a while. I found Sasuke and Kakashi, but I didn't interrupt. I hid behind a tree because I heard them arguing.

"This is exactly why I didn't want to be part of this team!" Sasuke said. "It's too hard. Look at what happened today. I lost control because of what they did!"

"Sasuke," Kakashi said. "I think that if you just tell Naruto -"

"He's with Sakura. She had to leave the team because you were afraid feelings would get in the way. The exact thing happened today. How can you be encouraging this?"

I had no idea what was going on, but I knew it involved me, so I guess I was justified in listening in, right?

"I don't think Sakura and Naruto will be together for long," Kakashi said. That made me mad. I was about to reveal my presence, but then Kakashi continued. "I think the likes the idea of dating Sakura, but he doesn't really like doing it. I saw them on a date, and he kept her at arms length. They barely kissed. I doubt anything has gone further, and I don't think it will."

I wanted to yell at Kakashi for what he was saying, for him to butt out of my business, but I knew it was true, deep down inside. Sakura was more like a sister to me than a girlfriend. But what did our relationship have to do with Sasuke and Kakashi?

"It doesn't matter. You might be wrong, but even if you're not, there's no guarantee that he'd –."

"There's never a guarantee in life, Sasuke," Kakashi interrupted. "You have to take chances. Especially in love."

"What do you know about love, Kakashi?" Sasuke demanded. "How can you even talk to me about love? You don't understand. It's a moot point. Even if you were completely right about Naruto and I, we wouldn't be able to be on the same team if we..." He trailed off. This part was the most confusing part of the conversation. There was obviously something that the two of them knew that would fill in the blanks for me.

"That's not true."

"It was true with him and Sakura," Sasuke said. "What's the difference?"

"Sakura isn't apt at battle," Kakashi said. "Before we left, I approached her and told her she might want to talk to Tsunade about being a medical ninja. Her chakra control would be good for it, but she's never been good at battling. You and Naruto complement each other in battle. You saw that today. Sakura knows chakra control and basic jutsu, but she doesn't know any advanced techniques or specialized ninjutsu."

"He keeps saving me," Sasuke said with contempt in his voice, effectively changing the subject.

"There are worse things in life than being saved," Kakashi said.

"He's always there," he said. "I will never grow strong enough to defeat Itachi if Naruto always has to end up saving me!"

"Why can't you defeat Itachi together?" Kakashi asked.

"I have to do it. I have to avenge my clan. By myself."

"I think you should tell Naruto, anyhow," Kakashi said.

"How could I tell him? He's with Sakura. We're on a mission. We wouldn't be able to work together if he knew that I loved him."

Author's Note: Hehehehe cliff hanger. This chapter was shorter because I like to keep you waiting with baited breath for the next chapter. We had some action, some angst, and it'll only be a matter of time before the romance. Remember to review, pretty please. I'll buy everyone who reviews a virtual ice cream. With sprinkles.