Here's a new chapter! I have been a little busy lately so I took a long time to update this story. Anyway thank you again for the favs and follows and reviews and comments are welcomed anytime

Enjoy the story ^^

Chapter 5: Under the rain

"Hinata, this doesn't look very good" The two ninja had been fighting the immortal guy for a long time and exhaustion was starting to take a toll on their bodies. The enemy didn't even bother to avoid their attacks because even if he got pulverized, as long as a piece of flesh survived, his cells would start regenerating his body all over again. Besides, the night was closing in and the rain would start pouring down from the sky any minute now and that would considerably lessen their chances to strike down the enemy.

Even at night time, Kiba was able to locate the position of his targets by detecting their scent, but the rain would wash out almost all of the enemy smell and that would work against him. Hinata was able to see through the rain but she was a close combat ninja and the wound inflicted by the enemy made her movements slower. In any case, if the battle dragged on for too long they would be in trouble.

Kiba's mind was working at hundred per cent, his blood boiling through his veins. We need to do something about this guy or we'll be in deep shit. Hinata is wounded and her stamina is running out quite quickly. I need to get her out of here. Think Kiba, think! Finally he decided that the best course of action was to bind the target. If they managed to restrict the enemy's movements even for a little while, that would buy them enough time to escape.

"Hinata, I'll create an opening and you will strike him" The girl looked at Kiba with a nervous expression "His body regenerates too quickly…" "Well, you have to keep insisting. Hit as many vital points as you can. That will keep him still as he regenerates and that will be our only chance to tie him up. I know you can do it". Hinata nodded shyly and Kiba grinned back at her. It was now or never.

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"An immortal army?" Naruto's expression after he pronounced those words was hard to read. On one hand he should be concerned about the news but on the other hand he felt completely calm. The fact that Sasuke seemed unaltered by this revelation helped him feel less stressed about it as well. Naruto looked back at Sasuke as he cleared his throat "So, it is like a reanimation jutsu right? We just have to seal them. It won't be that much of a problem". The Uchiha could not believe how naïve his friend could be. That's Naruto I guess. "It is a problem Naruto. How many sealing ninja do you think we've got? During the fourth shinobi war, the reanimated ninja paled in comparison to what we will be facing. Besides it is no jutsu, there's no way to stop it. It is a mutation, just like the cursed seal".

The blond seemed to start to comprehend the situation and so he moved past that topic, he hadn't asked the question he really wanted to ask yet. His heart was steadily increasing its pace as he took one deep breath, preparing himself for whatever the answer may be "So…Why did you have to kill them? They were mere pawns". Sasuke was somehow expecting that question and yet, he wasn't prepared to give an explanation for his actions since that would mean he had to tell about his feelings. He hated to expose his weaknesses, he was an Uchiha damn it! But he also was aware that if he refused to answer, Naruto would keep on asking and that would be very irritating. He had no choice, so he finally gave in.

"Those ninjas were protecting the experiment. They were protecting an infamous creature created from Orochimaru's previous experiments. There must've been hundreds of tests before one was carried out successfully. They deserve nothing but death".

What Sasuke was trying to say is that he was once a test subject and he had hated every second under Orochimaru's control. He had hated the cursed mark. It was wrong and it made him feel as if he was some kind of monster. Even if all he ever wanted was power, that mutilation to his body…he; he didn't want anything like that to happen again. Not only because he knew the power that it would grant but because it felt as if Orochimaru was appearing again in his life and he didn't want anything to do with him. He didn't linger in the past anymore. He wanted to move forward, he wanted to be part of Naruto's light just like the others. He didn't belong to the shadows anymore. He didn't want to go back there.

"Sasuke, you do know you don't need to do everything yourself" Naruto was able to understand the truth behind his friend's actions. He knew that Sasuke hated when someone brought up his past and he was aware that those feelings sometimes, overwhelmed him, even if he didn't want to admit it. But Naruto was there for him, he was there to share the burden with him and he was there to bear all of his hatred anytime. He wanted to make this point clear because he cared for him like if he was his own family, he didn't want him to suffer. "Whatever the odds we are forced to deal with, we have friends to rely on. There's no need for you to carry the responsibility of saving everyone. Your brother taught me that". Sasuke seemed slightly amused by that last sentence "His actions never proved his philosophy" Naruto moved a little closer to his friend before speaking again "He was wrong, although he realized that after his death. He didn't want you to be like his old self". "I know"

They were both listening to the falling rain which they felt it was kind of soothing. None of them said another word but then, Naruto felt a gentle pull on his hair and he realized it was Sasuke's hand. "I'll be okay, no need to worry about me". "Who wants to worry about you?!" And that's when their eyes met and suddenly, the rain hitting hard on the ground, the cold numbing their bodies, the crackling noises of the firewood, everything around them went silent.

A second later Sasuke's face was so close to Naruto's that they could both feel their agitated breaths. But it stopped there. Naruto's eyes were wide open and his heartbeats were very irregular. He felt very uncomfortable, he always felt nervous when someone approached him like that. He felt that his privacy was invaded and he would always go away as fast as possible from that situation but right now he couldn't even breathe properly. There was something on Sasuke's eyes that drew him closer. Sasuke, who was painfully holding himself back, had to stop completely when Naruto looked at him with the most confused expression he's ever seen the blond make.

Gradually they both started hearing the pouring rain again although to Naruto, his throbbing heart was definitely louder. He somehow managed to look away from the Uchiha and steadily gather the courage to speak again, his face becoming red as Sasuke released his hold on Naruto's hair. "I-I think I'll go check on Sai" Sasuke didn't say anything he just disappeared under the rain. As for Naruto, he went back inside wondering why was his heart still beating so hard.

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"64 palms!"

Hinata breathed heavily, her sweat mixed with the falling rain ran down her face. Her body was tense, ready for another round and her eyes were fixed on the enemy that was now convulsing. It amazed her how fast it was regenerating its damaged cells; it was even more effective than Tsunade's hyakugou seal, but as predicted, the man was standing still as it regenerated.

"Now Kiba-kun!"

Akamaru lunged at the enemy's throat to immobilize the enemy while Kiba unfolded a scroll and with one hand seal he rapidly unleashed the binding technique written on it. Various thick and heavy metal arrows attached to chains emerged from the scroll and pierced the target. Each arrow reached a different part of his body and when all of them hit the enemy, the chains started to twine around the rest of the body, interspersing with each other until the enemy cold not move.

The former members of team 8 relaxed a little "Seems it's finally over". Hinata nodded in response to Kiba's words. She was standing next to the enemy, her body slightly trembling.

The rain was still heavy and they needed to recover from the battle. Akamaru's sense of smell was null under that weather, so they had to rely on Hinata's byakugan to find a refuge. Kiba was about to ask her for help when she grabbed her injured arm and fell on her knees. The boy ran next to her and realized that the wound hadn't healed at all. The blood kept coming out and Kiba wondered if the sword the enemy was using had some kind of poison on it that stopped the red blood cells from coagulating. Did you fight all this time with your arm bleeding like that, Hinata…? If I had gotten here earlier… Shit!

"There's a house one kilometre north-east from here" He didn't pay much attention to her words as he was trying to come up with a way to stop her bleeding. They also had to carry the enemy with them so that the village would be able to extract information about him.

His eyes moved towards the immortal guy who was still convulsing, it was probably trying to heal the wounds inflicted by the arrows but unable to do so the body kept repeating the same process over and over again. It wasn't a pretty sight. Then his gaze returned to his friend getting weaker by the minute.

"Don't worry about my arm Kiba-kun, Sakura-san gave me these bandages which have been injected with healing chakra. They will most likely stop the bleeding". With a harsh movement, Kiba took the bandages off her hand and tore the fabric covering her wound and carefully, he rolled one of the bandages around her arm. He kept the rest in his pouch in case they needed to replace it later.

Hinata felt a sting of pain as the bandage started closing the wound. The process was slow since it had to fight the poison as well, but at least she wouldn't be losing more blood. "Thank you Kiba-kun" He smiled back at her "No problem".

The Inuzuka picked Hinata up and carried her on his arms since she was unable to carry her own body weight all the way to the refuge. He then ordered Akamaru to carry the enemy and even though the dog gave him a funny look he did it anyway. She felt a little embarrassed about being carried like that but they needed to find a place to stay safe until the morning and she would only slow them down. She cleared her mind and using her byakugan she got them moving.

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Naruto woke up when a beam of sunlight struck his eyes. He opened them slowly to give his pupils enough time to adjust to the morning light entering through the windows and the cracks on the wooden walls. "Morning, dickless". Naruto raised from his improvised bed made of hay at the same time he stretched his arms. Did I hear something? The blond looked around and saw Sai looking at him with one of his best attempts at smiling. Oh, it's Sai. He rolled on the bed to go back to sleep but he suddenly realized it was Sai, he wasn't unconscious anymore! "Sai! When did you wake up!? Are you alright!?" The Pale boy nodded "I woke up a few hours ago because your snoring wouldn't let me sleep" "I do not snore!" Naruto galred at Sai as he stood up and walked towards his bag where he kept a few energetic bars. It wasn't the best breakfast ever but at least it would keep him moving. He sat opposite to Sai to show his discontent with the other's statement and munched his energy bars.

"Is the Uchiha still here?" Naruto who was staring what remained of the fire place was struck by the memories from last night and his heart started pounding quite hard. He had forgotten all about it when he woke up but now that Sai mentioned Sasuke the memories came back to haunt him. What the hell was that? He thought. I mean we have been close to each other before but this time was different, his eyes…they were trying to tell me something. Naruto figured that the process of unravelling the truth behind his eyes is what created that situation. He never stared at someone like that before and that was the only explanation, because there was no other reason they would get THAT close. Still, inside his heart there was something troubling him and he didn't know the cause of it.

Sai who had been observing Naruto's conflicted expression wondered if something happened between them. The blond only made that kind of face when it came to Sasuke "Naruto…?" The blond snapped out of his contemplations and looked at the boy across from him "He left last night. I don't know if he plans on coming back." "Well, in that case we should get moving. One of the ink hawks I gave to kiba came back last night. They were trailing the enemy towards the lightning country so I reckon we should catch up with them. Have you found out anything?" "Yeah –he paused- In the base they were conducting experiments to achieve immortality and it seems they finally succeeded. We will be soon facing an entire army of immortals. That's what Sasuke said anyway". Sai asked Naruto to explain everything that happened in detail so he would be able to record it on a scroll.

Several kilometres away from Naruto and Sai, their other team mates rested inside the refuge. The rain had stopped falling not too long ago and it seemed the sky was clearing. Kiba had just finished changing Hinata's bandage, the wound was slowly healing and she probably would have to go to the hospital when they arrived at the village but for now that was the best they could do. The girl was packing their stuff to leave as soon as possible.

Last night when they arrived at the refuge, Kiba unfolded the scroll where Sai had sealed his ink hawks and released another one of them. He wrote about their encounter with the immortal, the outcome of the battle and their plans to head back to the village with the corpse.

During the night the regenerating process of the enemy collapsed and instead of healing the body cells it started making new ones, causing mutations on the body and turning his appearance of that of a monster. In the end it stopped creating new tissue and the body died eventually.

It was still dark outside, but the sun would come out soon enough. Kiba looked at Hinata and with a nod she made him know that she was ready. Akamaru barked at the same time he picked up what remained of the enemy. They were ready to set off.

Back in the fire country Naruto and Sai were packing up to leave as well. Their plan was to join Kiba and Hinata and locate the enemy's new base. As they stepped outside, Sasuke came to join them. Cerulean eyes met with Sasuke's onyx ones and he couldn't help but to look away. Why am I so embarrassed? The Uchiha kept looking at the blond as he updated them with new info "One of my anbu was killed and the other kept trailing the enemy after your team mates engaged combat with the man that killed the first anbu". Nauto's expression changed and he was forced to look back at Sasuke "Are they alright?! What happened!?" "Do you expect me to know that? None of my anbu were there so witness the battle" Naruto clenched his fists. What if they got hurt? He wouldn't be able to forgive himself since his rush to get to the base caused the team to split up. "We have to find them" Those were the blond's last words.

"We don't know where they are and besides they are not our priority. We need to report back to the village" Naruto sent and angry look at Sasuke. How can he say that about his team mates? Naruto believed on Kakashi's words that all of those that left their comrades behind were nothing but scum. Sasuke, when did you forget about that…? "I am going" Naruto finally said. Sai had to agree with Sasuke but he hadn't received any other hawk from Kiba and that concerned him a little. On the other hand Sasuke was fuming. He didn't give a damn about the others. He owed them nothing. They all tried to kill him at some point, but they were important to Naruto and he hated to see the blond troubled.

Sai spoke before the Uchiha "I'll go with you Naruto, let Sasuke do whatever he wants, he wasn't part of our team originally, he has no reason to stay". "I'll go" Naruto felt somehow relieved that Sasuke decided to go help their companions although he ignored that it was only because of him that he decided to go with them.

"Hold on" Sai stopped their advance through the woods. "News from Kiba and Hinata" He unfolded a scroll to let the ink hawk land on the paper surface. "They are safe and heading to the village with valuable information about the immortal experiment" Sasuke glared at them both. He was right; there was no need for worrying. Naruto gave an apologizing look to both of his companions and they changed course towards the village.