Hey hey hey, can n e body tell me what a C2 is? or something like that. But n e wayz! Kinda a slow chapter, u gatta add fluffies! and um...yea, i do make up my own jutsu's because i can't really remember any of the real ones except for like...well three of them. FORGIVE ME! lol.

I don't own Naruto :(

Shall we?

Paranoid: Part Two

(Living in the Shadows)

Oh my God…he's going to die…

Sakura hadn't even realized what she was doing until she had Sasuke in her arms. She felt a sharp sting as the pointed rock grazed past her shoulder. They landed, a cloud of dust rising up around them.

"Sasuke! Sasuke!" Sakura said getting off of him and shaking his shoulders. He moaned but didn't open his eyes. "What am I going to do?"

"Sweet, a daring rescue in the knick of time by the Uchiha's delicate pink haired lover. A minor inconvenience that you suddenly have courage." Blaze said watching them from on top of his floating platform. Sakura stood up and took out a kunai blocking Sasuke.

"I won't let you touch him!" she shouted through she was sure her voice didn't sound very convincing. She was scared senseless but she couldn't stand by anymore, she would protect Sasuke, or die trying.

"I suggest you drop your heroism and move girl." Blaze sneered, staring down at her as if she was some pesky fly that had gotten in the way. "I might let you live, perhaps I'll save you as my little toy. I just want the boy."

Memories flashed through her head. She suddenly pictured herself standing in front of Itatchi, his elegance slightly wavered by his anger. She remember boldly refusing to give up Sasuke, she remembered being knocked down like she was worthless. She braced herself even more determined.

"You leave him alone." she hissed, her emerald eyes growing dark, "Your opponent is me."

He scoffed. "Hardly girl, he wasn't even a challenge. Why would you be?"

Sakura are you trying to get yourself killed?

No, I'm trying not to get Sasuke killed. You wanted me to do something.

Jeez, you take everything so literally. Sasuke got banged up, what makes you think you can do any better?

Sasuke walked in blind, he didn't know about his techniques and he had worked a lot before this whole fight. He spent most of the time saving me.

And…

Sasuke was tired. And I have an advantage, I know his techniques now, this can't be Garra's. It's something different. I just have to find out what--

Sakura was snapped out of her thinking when the ground began to tremble. She remembered Sasuke almost getting caught in the collapsing ground. She ran away from Sasuke so that he wouldn't get caught in the jutsu. She could feel the floor shaking beneath her feet. JUMP! She launched herself in the air just as the floor gave way.

"Good." Blaze whispered in her ear from behind. He jammed his kunai into her stomach but the figure of Sakura suddenly let out a blow of smoke and revealed itself to be a clump of earth.

"Transformation?" Blaze muttered. He spun around quickly sensing someone from behind. He vanished just before Sakura's shuriken flew at him.

He didn't use that wall to protect him, he simply moved. Garra's shields responded immediately to an attack so he didn't even have to budge. That proves it, this is an imitation.

Sakura landed back on her feet and looked around straining her senses to pick up something.

"Earth Shattering Jutsu, target!"

Sakura turned around facing the piece of earth that came rocketing at her. She could faintly see an outline embedded into the earth wall. She jumped out of the way and ran at the outline. Propelling herself up she launched herself at the figure. Blaze appeared out of the wall and dodged her fist that broke into the rock wall.

"That strength…" Blaze said watching her fist dent into the earth wall.

Sakura ran at Blaze again. "No use girl! You can't even touch me!" Blaze laughed. A wall popped up to block her way but she ran around it. Another wall came up but she quickly evaded each one, running straight towards Blaze. Another wall came up and she ran left, disappearing. Suddenly she reappeared behind Blaze sending a swift kick into his back. He grunted and fell forward. He rolled a couple of times before skidding to a stop. Wiping the blood from his chin he stared at the girl before him. She stood there, her chest heaving up and down trying to catch air, her eyes glistening with raw determination.

"You're a fake," she spat out. "Some one told you about the a Sand Village shinobi and you imitated him. But it's nothing, you have to force the walls up while his come up as a natural defense. You're using a jutsu."

Blaze got up and dusted himself off. He clapped his hands and grinned. "Very smart. He told me if I moved fast enough I could beat the Uchiha heir because his sharingan isn't as developed. So he told me of some little brats jutsu that worked pretty well against that boy. Originally I'm a fire user. But you have to adapt to win now don't you?"

CHA! You got him Sakura! I always knew you could do it! CHA CHA CHA!!!

Thanks for the support after I won…but who's he?

"Don't get cocky and start celebrating yet girl." Blaze said almost as if her had heard inner Sakura. "Since my imitation isn't working on you," he smirked and held up a hand sign that looked too familiar for comfort, "how about I heat things up?"

"Katon! Fire ball jutsu!"

AH! RUN DAMN IT RUN! I KNEW YOU'D LOSE, I KNEW IT!!!

Sakura spun on her heel and ran, she flipped out of the way as the fire went flying past her. She felt the heat as the fire sphere's raced past her.

"Those stupid earth jutsu's were using up quite a bit of chakra since I didn't master them 100 but this is much easier. It won't take be long before you get cooked. It's too bad, we could have made an interesting pair."

Sakura rolled out of the way as more fire sped past her, this time scalding her arm. She let out a little cry of pain and grabbed her shoulder. Her sleeve had burned off and she could see her skin burnt. "Damn…" she muttered getting up to dodge another round of fire. She wasn't moving fast enough. The fire burnt her again on her shoulder. She squealed but refused to be any louder. She had to be brave. But she couldn't help but wonder at how quickly she had been put on the defensive again.

Sasuke's eyes slowly fluttered open. It took a while for the blurs to be put into focus but when they were he instantly sat up. Pain stung at his body and he instinctively grabbed his side. He could feel blood slowly leaking out from his wound but it wasn't pouring out anymore. Luckily he hadn't been hurt too bad, but if that last hit would have got to him…

He closed his eyes and shook his head. Thank God Sakura's here. he thought. He stood up slowly testing his balance. He pressed his hand on his wound harder to suppress the pain. He could only wonder how his stomach still worked. It kept getting torn up. He still faintly felt the pain in the center of his stomach every now and then from where his older brother had attacked him. That insane power that had ripped into his stomach had left it's permanent mark even though the doctors had been able to prevent any scars.

He saw Blaze smiling as he continued to release fire balls, his attention was fully focused on his amusement with Sakura. Sasuke was positive he didn't even notice that he had woken up. Sakura was just barely avoiding the attacks, he could see parts of skin where the cloth had been burned off, he shuddered at seeing the blackened skin underneath.

Enough of this, he thought, if he want's to play with fire, then he'll get his chance.

"Katon, Fury's flame!" He blew out and a wave of fire went flying towards Blaze. He heard Blaze scream in surprise and pain as the flames engulfed. Moments later he jumped out of the flame patting away the fire on him.

"What the hell!" he shouted glaring at Sasuke.

"Sasuke! You ok?" Sakura asked. She was on her knee's gripping a new burn on her lower neck. Sasuke shook his head. And to think she was still worried about him.

He stood up straighter and nodded, then he focused his attention on Blaze. His eyes shifted blood red. "I figured your little rock tricks were a fake. It's a shame you picked fire though…"

Blaze smirked and tilted his head. "Is that so? They say its better to fight fire with fire."

Sasuke smirked back. Blaze had gotten him once, but this was now his battle field. No way would he lose. "Well then, lets see if it's true."

"Na…Naruto, I don't think you should do that…" Hinata suggested twiddling her fingers.

"Naruto! I agree! That would be unwise! Please refrain from such reckless acts!" Lee said watching Naruto with wide eyes.

"C'mon you guys! Stop being such pus--" Naruto took a step forward and suddenly went flying upward. "Ah!"

"Naruto!" Lee and Hinata shouted in unison. They ran to their team mates aid as he dangled from a tree by a rope. Lee took out a kunai and began cutting through the rope.

"You should be more careful…"Hinata warned quickly.

"Ah, you worry too much Hinata. I'm fine, luckily these are all simple little traps!" Naruto said laughing. Lee finished cutting through the rope and Naruto fell from the tree landing on his head. Hinata blushed and went back to playing with her fingers.

"But Naruto is indeed right, every single one of these traps are simple and childish. They are no challenge for the Green Beast of Konoha though I deeply respect their attempts!" Lee threw one of his hands on his hip and put up his "nice guy" pose before breaking down in dramatic tears. "They try so hard!"

"Ok, ok, lets not cry any rivers."

The three young ninja turned around to see Shikamaru and Ino standing behind them.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you guys doing here!" Naruto questioned a bit annoyed that they were there.

"We were sent here to help speed along your mission Naruto. We're needed else where. I don't know the specifics yet but we have to get back to the village a.s.a.p. I'm sure it's going to be troublesome…" The Shadow ninja sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"So lets get going!" Ino said enthusiastically.

"We have been trying to go until you showed up." Naruto mumbled.

"It just looked like you were acting stupid to me." Ino countered.

"Oh did it?!"

"Naruto…please." Hinata whispered.

"Troublesome."

"Yea, you dork!"

"Let us get along! We are friends and teammates and must act as such!"

"Say it to my face!"

"I am!"

"HOLD IT!"

The argument came to a sudden stop at Shikamaru's command. They all stared at the boy who stood lazily his eyes hinting at annoyance. "We're never going to get this mission done if we keep arguing and we need to get going. So lets get this run away kid back and leave."

"Run away kid?" Hinata asked.

"Yea, you guys are retrieving some little runt who ditched because he didn't want to train. Didn't you listen to your mission brief?" Ino asked.

"But…but we were told it was a very important ninja on the loose who needed retrieval. Not a child." Lee said.

"The kid is a ninja in training and he is on the loose and he does need retrieval. They must have spiced it up to make it sound interesting. " Shikamaru reasoned. "Now lets hurry, we're needed else where." Ino and Shikamaru took off into the woods.

Naruto and Lee stood for a moment their heads down in disappointment. "I thought we were doing something important…" Naruto sulked. Lee nodded in agreement.

"We are in a way." Hinata offered. They looked at her then back down at the floor.

"Well, maybe whatever they need me back in the village for is more important." Naruto said and vanished into the trees.

"Lee, what do you think they need Naruto for?" Hinata asked.

Lee shrugged and took off behind Naruto. Hinata thought for a moment curious as to why they'd send more ninja to speed up a mission. For whatever reason they need him, Hinata thought, it must be pretty important.

Sakura helped out but c'mon...like Sasuke was ganna stay down that easily. And I have to put Naruto in, after all...the shows name is NARUTO lol. u guys like it/ hate it, let me know!