I know. I suck.

This chapter is dedicated to:

sasusaku-EienAi (Masses of cookies for you, my dear)

SilenceIsTheKey (You can have cookies too.)

Universal Fighter

LluNarEcLiPsE (Who made me start writing this again)

For reviewing. It means a lot :)

I know it's been over a year now … and I'm sorry, and I probably won't get many people reading this anymore because I'm such a sucky person, but it's here anyway. Better late than never, right?

Anyway, enough babble, lets get down to business.

Disclaimer: Naruto, I do not own. Masashi Kishimoto, it belongs to. (Nice bit of Yoda there for ya :D)

Enjoy!

Previously on 'The Wrong One' …

"Konan …"

She smiled triumphantly, bringing out more kunai, holding a few in each hand.

"I want the Kyuubi."

Chapter 12: It's Not Right.

Kakashi's visible eye widened at Konan's bluntness, as he quickly dodged a mass of kunai coming towards him. He lifted his hand to his face, pulling up the headband that concealed his Sharingan. He quickly grabbed his right wrist, watching the ball of electricity circulate around his palm, and charged towards the blue-haired woman.

Kakashi's arm reached out before him, and the millisecond before his chidori touched the hem of Konan's Akatsuki cloak, she disappeared into little pieces of paper.

"Shit!" Kakashi muttered, turning around to prevent a kick to the head. He grabbed Konan's ankle, twisting and throwing the woman into a tree.

Konan laughed at Kakashi's attempts. "Silly man, Kakashi. I expected better of the White Fang's son."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed, his hands throwing multiple shuriken in Konan's direction. She skilfully evaded all but one which grazed her finger slightly as she grabbed it and threw it back at Kakashi. The white-haired man caught it, but not after it scratched his arm. He suppressed a hiss as Konan continued talking.

"It's simple. Give me the Kyuubi and no one gets hurt. Well, badly, anyway."

Kakashi glared, "Like you said, we're split up. What makes you think I know where he is?"

Konan laughed once more, the sound loud enough to echo through the forest. "You are Kakashi Hatake, right? You'd be able to track him easily. Besides, I don't want to fight him just yet. This is our time."

"Screw the chit chat Konan. I'm not going to lead you to Naruto, and to be honest, he'll probably be killed by me before you ever get your hands on him."

Konan sighed and looked at her nails. "What happened to formalities? Chivalry is so dead nowadays." She looked back up at Kakashi, a smirk forming beneath the collar of her cloak. "I've gotta admit though, planting that necklace in your tent and making them suspicious was so much fun!" Konan watched in satisfaction as Kakashi's face changed dramatically as the realisation sunk in. "Well, I'll be off now. All this chit chat is, quite frankly, sending me to sleep. I can't fight with my eyes closed. It wouldn't be fair … for you. Soon, chivalry won't be the only thing that's dead. Ciao!"

And with that, the blue-haired woman disappeared, leaving Kakashi alone in the forest. He thought back to what she said; "Planting that necklace … making them suspicious …" Kakashi growled, concentrating on Naruto and Kiba's chakra.

"Idiots!"

Since her revelation about her 'hidden' powers, Sakura had stayed in her room for what she assumed was a few days. She refused to go out and train, and she refused to see anyone. Especially Sasuke. She would have refused to eat, too, but being a medic nin, she knew what she would face if she starved herself, and needed all the strength she could muster.

It seemed Orochimaru knew this would happen, as he hadn't told Kabuto to make any sort of acknowledgement she was there, other than passing her food through the steel door.

Curled up on the corner of her cot, Sakura thought about the past – how long had she been there? - week or two. Seeing Sasuke again definitely brought something back to her. The memories she had tried so hard to suppress were now overflowing, and the strength and confidence she had built during his absence was slowly slipping. Sasuke had changed, she mused, comparing the boy she used to know and the man she was in the same place with now. He was still cold, but when he trained with her, it almost seemed like he enjoyed himself. His range of vocabulary hadn't changed much, she noticed, when he was around Orochimaru and Kabuto, but when he had no choice, he spoke to her in almost full sentences.

The tiny spark that ignited when she first saw his face again was longing for the reasons behind his actions to be that he missed her, and that he was happy to see her again. However, that spark was soon trampled on when she thought about the reason she was here in the first place, and that he knew about what was inside her. He had always been clever, had he known since childhood that she was different? Did he recognise something special inside her and – she dared to think – was jealous by it? Was that why he constantly undermined her whenever she tried to talk to him?

Too many questions filled her head, and she tightly shut her eyes in an attempt to rid them from her head. Staying in this room was no good. She couldn't complain about all of the questions giving her a headache when she was the one refusing to get the answers.

She stood up, wobbling slightly from the lack of use of her legs, and headed for her door. She turned the handle, not surprised by it being unlocked, and wandered into the corridor.

She headed towards Sasuke's room. He was the one she needed to get the answers from first. Even if she trusted Orochimaru, chances are he'd probably lie to her anyway. But for some reason, she just knew that the Uchiha would provide her with the truth.

He owed her that much.

"Are we there yet?"

Kiba sighed for the umpteenth time that day. Part of him wished that he and Naruto were still on bad terms, at least then the blonde wouldn't be so annoying.

"I said, are we there-"

"No, Naruto. We don't even know where 'there' is. Now stop talking, I'm trying to concentrate."

Naruto pouted and turned his head forward. The part of the forest they were running in looked exactly the same as every other part of the forest they'd been to, but this time Naruto felt … different. He wasn't sure how, but he just had a feeling that Sakura was nearby. That thought urged him to pump his feet harder, using more chakra than necessary to speed up. He heard Kiba's protests as he tried to keep up with him, but Naruto wasn't bothered. He just wanted to find Sakura.

Akamaru barked unhappily behind him. He sighed and slowed down a fraction, realising that he would still need some chakra left for when they found Sakura and potentially Sasuke, and he was running low as it was.

"Naruto, I get that you wanna find her, and you will. But you gotta think rationally, man. Don't waste your chakra. You're gonna need it later."

Kiba watched Naruto nod slightly and the two carried on in silence. He couldn't blame Naruto for being overly eager; he was just as anxious to make sure Sakura was alright.

As his thoughts drifted to the pink-haired girl, he couldn't help but smile. He knew he'd had feelings for the kunoichi for a while, and over time he accidentally let it become love. He wasn't sure how, or why, since their relationship was a lot like hers and Naruto's, more of a sibling kind, but he wasn't about to deny that the feelings he had were real.

Nor was he about to deny that he knew it wouldn't happen.

Kiba was often called stupid in many things, but he wasn't stupid when it came to Sakura. He knew that she would never reciprocate what he felt, and he knew that she could never give him her heart, because a certain Uchiha had stolen it when he left the village.

Kiba ran a hand through his messy locks. He was sure that Sakura would never love him back, and he was content with that. He would still be there for her, and look after her no matter what. The only thing that changed would be that she now knew how he felt. He didn't want her to feel sorry for him, he didn't need the pity, he just wanted everything to go back to normal.

The brunette's thoughts were interrupted when the two ninja heard a feminine scream a few feet ahead. The boys looked at each other before instantly running towards the person in danger.

Sakura stood at the empty room, blinking rapidly.

She returned to the room she had gone to when she found Sasuke (it wasn't that hard to find now) and opened it to reveal a whole lot of nothingness.

Except for the gaping hole in the wall.

Did she really do that?

Sakura walked inside the room and stood at the hole. It led right into another room, and some of the debris had even hit the wall on the opposite side. She ran her hand along the crooked ridge she created. She had no idea about the power inside her, and something told her even Tsunade wasn't aware. But whatever it was, however she got it, Orochimaru knew.

And he wanted it for himself.

Sakura's fist clenched at the idea of becoming Orochimaru's vessel. He couldn't do it without her permission, right? Since she'd never give him her permission, he couldn't just take her body, could he? Why was she giving herself more questions to think about?

"You shouldn't be here."

Sakura scoffed, half expecting to see Kabuto, and turned around, to be partially shocked as Sasuke stood at the door, leaning against the frame, face as impassive as always.

"What's it to you? It's not your room any more, is it?"

Sasuke chuckled slightly and pushed himself off of the door frame. He walked towards her, before stopping inches away from her face. Although she had grown taller since he left, she was still a head below him, and he looked at her wide, green eyes as his breath fanned her face.

They stood like that for who knows how long, and Sakura's mind was going like crazy. Though she acted like she didn't care much any more, she knew deep down that she still loved the man before her, and having such a close proximity between the two of them was something she only dreamed of when she was a genin. Still, her heartbeat accelerated as he slowly bent down.

"I forgot this."

As Sasuke bent down, he opened a draw by Sakura's side and plucked out a book that he had forgotten to take when he switched rooms. He could see a slight tint of pink on Sakura's cheeks, but chose to ignore it, since he felt the blood rush to his face for the same reasons as her.

He wasn't sure what possessed him to get so close to her in the first place, and that moment of just staring made Sasuke see Sakura a whole lot better.

Maybe it was just his hormones.

Yeah, that was it.

He only felt (a tiny, little bit) attracted to her because she was the only female presence around for miles. Not including the redhead that guarded the prison cells, because she scared him with her fangirl-ness. Sakura was new, and refreshing, and, he couldn't deny, very nice to look at. His hormones got the better of him and he nearly did something he would (a tiny, little bit) regret.

He quickly stood straight again, holding the book by his face in order to conceal the oncoming blush, and turned around.

"Do you wanna do some training? Take you out of the base for a while?"

Sakura blinked, still unsure about what had just happened. She was certain she saw a small blush adorn his face, but it must've just been the candlelight making her see things. Maybe she should get out for a bit, "Yeah. Okay."

Sasuke nodded, and motioned for her to follow him to his room, and then head out. Orochimaru would murder him if he let Sakura walk outside by herself, or, he imagined he would, if he wasn't so obsessed with his need for a vessel.

As Sasuke threw the book onto his new bed, he showed Sakura where his new room was should she need (or want, as he hoped) to see him for anything, and they headed out of the base to a small clearing where he was often sent to train by himself.

His onyx eyes narrowed. He never particularly liked Orochimaru's form of training, and he was glad that the snake never seemed to intrude on his training when he was with Sakura. Having her to spar with was interesting, since she was a lot more versatile than her genin days, even without the chakra she should've had. Part of him wanted to be able to give her the amount of chakra she would usually have, but another part of him was glad, as, when she didn't have it, she still made him work hard to beat her.

"Why do you always take me out to train? I'm sure the base has plenty of sparring rooms to go to."

Sasuke stopped in his tracks. Without turning to face her, he simply replied, "Like I said. You shouldn't be here." before continuing to walk, leaving a wide-eyed Sakura frozen in her position.

She shook her head before jogging to catch up with him, a small smile gracing her lips.

'He cares.'

"Akio-kun!"

Kiba watched the girl before him sitting on the ground, staring at Naruto as if nothing else existed. He folded his arms across his chest and leant against Akamaru, observing as Naruto smiled and helped the girl up. She hugged him tightly and pulled back to look at him properly.

"I was so scared! I was taking a walk in the woods, like I always do at this time, and someone started chasing me! I was really scared, so I starting running and then the person started throwing knives and stuff at me! I managed to lose him but I tripped over this tree stump, and he found me, so I screamed, and then he disappeared just before you turned up!"

Naruto's eyebrows raised at the story, and Kiba scoffed at the thought that Naruto believed it. There was something off with this Takara girl, and whatever it was, Kiba didn't like it one bit.

"'Him'?"

It was only then that Takara looked at the brunette, and nodded, not once taking her hands off of Naruto's shoulders, "Yes, that's right. I could tell it was a guy because of his hair. It was spiky, and silver … actually, he looked a lot like that man you were with, Akio."

Naruto gasped, "No way! Kakashi wouldn't attack you! But … his clone might …"

Kiba rolled his eyes, "Na- Akio, don't be an idiot. Clone or not, Kakashi wouldn't go after a helpless girl. Not to injure her, anyway. She's fine, but come on, we need to keep going."

Kiba leaped onto Akamaru, who barked at Naruto. Naruto frowned and looked at Takara. She was pouting slightly, and was still holding onto him. "Akio-kun, I don't suppose you could help me find my way out of the forest, could you? I've never been this far in before, and I'm not sure whereabouts I came from … The guy hurt my finger, and if I'm alone, he might try to attack me again. Please?"

Akamaru growled at the girl, causing her to jump. Kiba smirked, "Sorry, he's not great with new people. I'm sorry … - Takara, was it? - but Akio and I really need to be off. It's important, and -"

"Don't be silly, Kiba, go on without me! I'll catch up to you. I gotta make sure Takara's safe. See you in a bit?"

Kiba scowled, "I don't think that's a good idea …"

"It won't take long, Kiba, I promise. He'll be back to you before you know it." Takara flashed the boy a dazzling smile, and watched as he sighed and nodded.

"Fine. But you better come back soon."

Naruto grinned and held Takara's wrist as he started leading her away.

Takara couldn't keep the smirk off her face as she heard Kiba take off behind them.

'Perfect.'

Okay, I've already said I suck, so I hope this kinda makes up for it. Not as long as the last chapter, but I think it went okay. Got a bit of SasuSaku in there, too, so that's pretty cool. I'd like to once again thank LluNarEcLiPsE for getting me to write this again, it may have been a simple review, but it helped nonetheless. So thank you :) I'll definitely try to be more frequent with this now.

Also. NARUTO'S GOING OFF WITH TAKARA! Stupid, stupid boy!

Anyhoo, I hope you guys enjoyed this :) REVIEW! I promise it won't take over a year for the next chapter!

OH! Also, this story has officially broken my curse. I have a curse, where none of the stories I've written have gone past chapter 11, just because I could never think of storylines and I tended to give up. So YAY!

I'll shut up now.

Over and out!

-x-Emma-x-