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Naruto

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Chapter 16

Naruto let out a very loud groan. "Kakashi!"

Kakashi grit his teeth as he tried to ignore Naruto. "Just keep moving, Kakashi... Just keep moving..." Kakashi repeated in his head like a mantra.

"Why can't we stop for ramen?" Naruto asked for the third time in ten minutes. "Maybe someone can actually tell us where we should be going!"

Kakashi hated to admit that Naruto had a point. They had been traveling for a half a day without any idea of where they should be going. Kakashi's pace slowed and Naruto's heart soared.

"Fine," Kakashi sighed.

"YEAH!" Naruto shouted while fist pumping the air.

The sound of his feet crunching the leaves below him had been Sasuke's only companion for two weeks straight. Madara had sent him pointlessly to some secluded forest to find a very rare herb. When he got back to the base he was immediately sent on another mission.

He didn't mind the solitude; solitude gave him a chance to think about everything that had happened recently. Sakura had given him a lot to digest, and he honestly couldn't say where his heart lied anymore. In his frustration, he kicked a rock in front of him. Why was it so hard for him to decide where he wanted to go from here?

The sound of a stick breaking behind him alerted Sasuke of someone's presence.

Sasuke was too late in noticing the person and dodging as a kunai imbedded itself in his abdomen. He pulled it out quickly and threw it to the side. The distinct sting in his abdomen told Sasuke the kunai had been laced in poison. He let out a "hn," when he deduced it wasn't a strong poison.

Orochimaru had made sure he was immune to almost every type of poison. He would get rid of his enemy quickly and be on his way.

Sakura couldn't sleep. It was four-thiry in the morning and she couldn't fall asleep. Her brain kept nagging at her that something about this mission was off. She had been stuck at this base for two weeks and couldn't leave until she found evidence of the groups betrayal of Madara. As far as she could tell these people would never think about betraying Madara. If anything they were his most faithful followers. The leader, Mazui, practically idolized Madara.

"Lady Sakura, we need your help!" one of the maidservants called as she burst into Sakura's quarters.

In only seconds Sakura was on full alert mode.

"What's the issue?" Sakura asked pulling a jacket over her tank top.

"It's the man Uchiha-sama sent to check in on us, he's fallen very ill," the maid responded. The girl sounded terrified.

Sakura nodded and rushed on ahead. Wasn't she supposed to have been the only one Madara was sending? Sakura took a left at the end of the hall and quickly went to the third door on the right as the maid had indicated.

She knocked once and the door flew open. A flustered looking maid met her at the door, and Sakura heard a vicious coughing in the background. The flustered maid's expression became relieved when she realized who Sakura was.

Sakura ignored the maids and immediately looked for the coughing man.

"Sasuke?" Sakura gasped quietly, completely shocked. Sasuke was the last person she would expect to have fallen ill. Not just ill, Sakura realized taking in the situation, seriously ill!

Any idea that may have entered her head about him faking it left her mind at once.

"I'll take it from here," Sakura said dismissing the other maids. She couldn't let them know she knew him personally. Once they left the room and closed the door, Sakura flew to his side to assess his symptoms and diagnose the issue. The pillows and blankets had been thrown to the ground and the bottom sheet was tangled around Sasuke's legs. His shirt lie on the floor slightly torn, and, upon examining the sweat dripping from his body, it was most likely because he was burning up, but his whole body was shivering from some unknown draft. He was leaning over the side of the bed coughing and looking towards the ground, Sakura saw a mixture of vomit and blood. A string of drool mixed with blood was hanging from his lips. A trail of unemotionally involved tears were flowing from his drooping left eye while blood flowed from his right. He was breathing heavily and - after testing him with a pinch or two - appeared to be numb.

All the symptoms of a poisoning. She didn't have time to question when it happened. Sakura pulled him onto the cool hardwood floor and laid him on his side while she searched for some sort of entry point of the poison.

His stomach began to convulse as it tried to reject nonexistent food. He began to cough instead and his body settled for vomiting blood onto Sakura's arm instead. His stomach continued to convulse even after he was done vomiting the blood.

"Bring me some water and a large amount of liquidized fruit stat, or else you'll have Madara Uchiha to face when he dies!" Sakura shouted to the person she knew was on the other side of the door.

Sakura began feeling the back of his head while he clutched at her jacket feebly. She felt down his side and located a sweeling. Her hands followed the swelling to just below his abdomen where and infected and relatively deep gash was. Had he been stabbed? Sakura quickly felt his back and found whatever had stabbed him didn't go all the way through.

The fruit and water were brought in and Sakura quickly gave him some of each.

"You're going to just throw this up, but you need to give your body something to throw up besides blood," Sakura instructed. Sasuke nodded weakly to show he understood. "Keep drinking and stay on your side."

Sakura began healing the poisoned gash. A liquid began to pool around her legs. It was most likely Sasuke's sick, but she easily ignored it; worse had happened to her.

The cut was completely gone, but the poison was still in his blood stream. She moved her hands to his chest and began cleaning the poison from his blood.

"Not a very good poison," Sakura commented. "It would have been easier to get rid of if you had told me about it when you got here."

Sasuke gave Sakura a half-hearted glare before closing his eyes and passing out.

"Nothing says cool like almost dying because of an academy level poison," Sakura laughed. She made a move to stand, but Sasuke still had a hold of her jacket.

The action reminded her of the Forest of Death, before he had started his decline to darkness. Back when he was still her teammate, and she thought that she could keep him from Orochimaru. Sakura couldn't stop the sigh of relief that left her lips.

She had saved him.

He felt like he had when Orochimaru placed the curse mark on him. He was weak and feverish. With great difficulty Sasuke peeled his eyes open and saw Sakura sitting at the foot of the bed with her legs crossed and her head leaning over a book.

Sasuke lay silently for a few minutes and watched as she raised a hand and tucked her curtain of hair behind her ear. He hadn't seen it down since she first came to the base. He realized what he was doing and quickly looked away before a fit of coughing took him. Sakura's head turned to him and her eyes lit up in relief.

"Good, you're awake," Sakura sighed. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I'm dying," Sasuke said bluntly. "What kind of poison was it, anyway?" He tried to sit up and scrunched his face up from the pain in his stomach.

Sakura gently pushed him back down. She could feel heat trying to rise up her face at the feeling of his warm shoulder under her hand.

"What's going on?" Sakura thought to herself while shaking the feeling off.

"It was an extremely basic poison. If you had told me about it when you got here, this wouldn't have happened."

Sasuke shook his head while ignoring her pushing and finally sat up. "I passed out at the gates of this place as soon as I arrived. I couldn't have told you if I wanted to. I knew the blade was poisoned, but I also knew it was one of the poisons that Orochimaru made me immune to. I don't understand how it could have affected me."

Sakura hadn't thought about that. The whole situation was very strange... It was just like she had been thinking earlier. Something was definitely up.

Sasuke began coughing and broke her train of thought.

"I'll go make you some more medicine, be back in fifteen minutes."

Sasuke nodded and faced the window as Sakura closed the door.

The same thought kept nagging at him: Why had he been so affected?

Sakura whistled quietly as she made her way to the supply room to make Sasuke some medicine. Something about Sasuke's symptoms had been bothering her. They seemed familiar somehow, and not just because they were from a well-known poison.

A man spotted her in the hall and began walking towards her.

"Lady Sakura, Mazui-sama would like to see you," the male servant informed her.

"What for?" Sakura asked.

The man simply shrugged and indicated that she should follow him. She followed him up a winding staircase and through a long corridor. They finally stopped in front of a large door. The servant knocked on the door, and a quiet "Come in," was uttered before the servant opened the door, bowed, and left.

"You wanted to see me, Mazui-sama?" Sakura asked bowing.

"Yes," Mazui answered. "I want to ask you about this man Uchiha-sama sent."

"You may ask me, but I assure you I have no knowledge about him," Sakura lied easily.

"You seemed very quick in ordering everyone to leave that room for someone that doesn't know him," Mazui pointed out. "That tells me you didn't want anyone to witness how well you actually know the boy."

"I prefer to work without any distractions," Sakura lied again.

"I assure you I am not fooled by your lies," Mazui laughed with a twinkle in his eye.

"Since you can gain nothing from the knowledge, I'll tell you. Sasuke is my colleague, nothing more. Upon seeing it was him in the room, I didn't want anyone to know I knew him; it would have blown my cover. However, you should be more concerned by what Madara will do to you when he finds out you poisoned his pawn. It's just the sort of evidence I needed to prove you as traitors."

"What nonsense are you speaking, wench?"

"Madara suspected your group's betrayal and sent me to find proof. You poisoned Sasuke with an Academy student level poison so we wouldn't suspect you, after all, you are a top-notch poison maker. But, I know it was you and that is proof enough. The only thing I want to know is, how did you make such a basic poison that could affect Sasuke?"

Mazui looked at Sakura aghast, "I'm good at keeping a secret, Sakura," he smirked.

"You're not good at covering your tracks though," Sakura mocked.

"You should have paid more attention to your friends illness, and you would have discovered it wasn't poison that's affecting him. I would have thought that you of all people would have recognized it immediately. However, you should be more concerned about yourself now."

Sakura didn't have time to dwell on what he had just said when he spoke again.

"Kill her," Mazui commanded.

A swarm of ninja instantly surrounded her.

"Go ahead and try..." Sakura said under her breath as her eyes bled red.

Ohmigoodness, I can't even tell you how long I have had half of this chapter written. It's been a very long time...

I can't say exactly how many chapters I have left, but I know it's getting close to the end :(

Well, not everyone that follows this story has reviewed so, I'm going to send a shout out to them! (Even though I'm sad I couldn't thank you with your name...)

THANK YU TO ALL YOU PEOPLE THAT REVIEWED AND FAVORITED AND FOLLOWED THIS CHAPTER: aalc95, neeme88, Nocturne Huntress, Hollow SoulxxxxxxBroken, Kiari Ferrari, summergrey, CJ122, SaNcTuArYXXXXbLoSsOm, LadyMartel4000, rainfurr26, Inori, MoonlightMidnight, Sukutai Chiko, Jasmine-.-Momo-chan, Twisten Musalih, AkaruiMirai, and Alierana! Yu guys seriously make me feel great! :)

I don't usually do this, but... You guys should check out my SSM stories. I know, I'm advertising my own stories, so sue me! (Not really, I don't want to be sued...)

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