Chapter Seven

"Now come! Let's lead the way"

Knuckles cracked and a visible cringe came from all other party members. A fist clenched and pulled back as if winding a crane. The most terrifying thing though was the battle cry that came from the kunoichi's mouth as she slammed her fist through solid rock and breaking into tiny itty bitty pieces. Jaws dropped in response to this brute strength however shut back into place as the top medical ninja of Konaha glanced back to her teammates. "Let's do this." She said.

"Yeah!" Naruto said and stepped forward. He concentrated his chakra for a moment before entering Kyuubi Chakra Mode. He smirked and took off being only an orange flash. The force that had gathered from his speed he was able to smash open the doors on the other side of the poisonous corridor. Naruto landed in crouched position. He rolled his shoulders and got to his feet, when he looked up his expression was one of shock and unexpectedness at the place he found himself in. The rest of the team came running through, the same poison was triggered and however they were prepared. They held their breaths and continued running until they found themselves in the same vast room as Naruto. They joined his location before examining their location.

"We're still in the cave right?" Sai asked, not believing that this huge place could be in the cave they saw before.

"This might be a different dimension…" Hinata whispered and she activated her byakugan to analyze the room. She gasped at what she saw, bringing her hand to her chest and look scared.

"What is it, Hinata?" Sakura asked.

"Everywhere… there is over a hundred people here, all of them surrounding us." She whispered. Sasuke reached back and let his hand settle on the handle of his katana. As his palm rested on the wooden handle his fingers curled and uncurled, his black turned red and black tomeo spun from his pupil and examined the area, he could see the chakra of all the people, Hinata was right. There were a little over a hundred men and women in the walls and all of them anticipating the group below.

"Very perceptive of you, Hyuga Hinata…" A new voice said. They all jumped and heads turned to look at the source of the voice as a man descended down the only flight of stairs within the large hall. A man with black hair watched the team of five with his hard black eyes. A small smirk was on his face. "Well, this is more than I could have ever hoped for… Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Hyuga Hinata and Sai all in my grasp and surrounded!" He sighed dramatically and a uniform laugh from many different people echoed in the walls.

"You…" Naruto began in a threatening tone. "Who are you?!" He shouted. "Who the hell do you think you are just coming into the village and causing all this damage and taking one of the civilians?!"

"Who I am really isn't important. But, what I've done is. Or else the heroes of Konaha would not be here right now would they?" He chuckled, coldly. "However it really is a shame…" The man reached behind him and took out a pair of black leather gloves and put them on slowly. "You came here… just a moment too late."

"What do you mean?" Sakura shouted. Everyone held their position however Sasuke didn't. His body began to shift feeling like he had lost control of it, the color was already draining from Sasuke's face and his hands were beginning to tremble, he knew what that meant. His head began swimming, everything felt like it was fading, it was becoming dark and cold. He knew he had felt this before, he was standing on the rocks last time, the ocean waves hitting the rocks he was standing on the mist that the ocean created could be felt on from his pants. This was the same feeling but no ocean before him, no sun setting, nothing but the target of his revenge. Sasuke closed his eyes and then opened them again to looked at the man.

The man before them chuckled once again. "I think you know exactly what I am talking about. You know, she struggled and she tried to fight. However, it would have all ended up in the same result." Naruto's chakra was flaring at this point. "She kept screaming your name, Sasuke…" The man looked at Sasuke right in the eyes and Sasuke's hands started losing feeling again. "She kept begging for you and begging me not to hurt her." Sasuke desperately tried not to get the mental images that his man was trying to place into his head because he knew the second he did he would lose his tempter and everything would blow up. "Pity, she was such a good girl, she even sat and had tea with me."

"You evil little…!" Naruto said through his teeth.

"Evil?" The man laughed a bit. "I am not truly evil until I have done this…" He reached behind him and took out a bloody kunai. It was still warm and still dripping with blood. "Burned her body right afterwards." He tossed the kunai to Sasuke's feet. "Even if you win this charade you won't even get to hold her corpse."

Self-control was out of the question. Mangekyo, Susanoo and then a bloody scream of hate and rage poured out of Sasuke's mouth. The man before him laughed uncontrollably as the chorus of laughter began again. Naruto and the team all took a step back away from Sasuke, Sasuke however took a step forward towards their enemy, Sasuke's deep purple chakra radiating off of him. "I'll kill you…" his tone was grave and his gaze was could cut through anything.

"Sasuke?!" A small voice called out. Sasuke's whole body froze and his eyes widened before he looked up, his hair moving along with him and as his chin tilted up his hair cleared from his face allowing full view of his shocked face that slowly transitioned to relief. He saw the glass wall and then he saw Akina standing on the other side of it. Her hands were pressed against it, she was wearing her dark green dress that she wore for tea harvesting and her hair was straight. The tiniest sigh of relief slipped from his lips and the tiniest smile edged onto the corners of his lips as a wave of relief washed over him, taking away all the hate and violence he wanted to just commit. His body relaxed momentarily and just stared at her so glad that she was okay.

The laughter began again, Sasuke's gazed was taken away from Akina and back to the man in red. "Oh, it was just so easy to rile you up wasn't it?" The man cloaked in red asked.

"What kind of sick joke was that?!" Naruto shouted as he took his attention from the waitress to the enemy.

Naruto didn't even have time to register Sasuke's incredible speed as he dashed up into the air past Naruto and towards the man, unsheathing his katana. The man in front of him smirked and snapped his fingers. Blue chakra appeared in front of him and as Sasuke tried to pierce it the chakra shield exploded it deemed Sasuke momentarily unconscious from the close impact. Sasuke fell to the ground with a thud

Hinata and Sakura gasped. "Sasuke!" Naruto shouted. Even Akina got on her toes as if the action would help her see what was going on even better.

"Good bye." The man said with bright smirk. He snapped his fingers again and the chakra piled underneath Sasuke. Sasuke was just started to regain himself shaking his head and trying to push himself up. The explosion seemed to have taken a toll on him. With another snap however everything changed, a spike shot up through the ground, it had formed from the chakra and pierced Sasuke right through his heart. Blood was everywhere… on the spike, pooling underneath him, his body slightly elevated so his neck was arched back and the smallest amount of blood began came from the corner of his mouth and dripped down.

"Sasuke!" Akina's voice shouted, the same pain that was in Sasuke's voice just moments ago.

"Stand shoulder to shoulder"

"Don't worry, Akina," everyone looked towards the voice, "he's not the only one with the cruel joke." Sasuke's voice sounded from the entrance of the room. Sasuke strolled back into the room and stopped once he was standing next to Naruto. "Who do you think I am? I do not die that easily…" Glared at his man with his red eyes.

The man actually managed to laugh, as if his failed attempt meant nothing to him. "Oh this is a great game isn't it? Shall we continue then? The fun has just begun." The man pointed up. The teamed looked up towards the ceiling and all of them were shocked at the sight. Indeed nearly a hundred men were standing above them on the tall ceiling chuckling and looking down at them. All of them pulled out various weapons. "Now that we are through with the appetizer… let's begin with the main course." With that the ninja above them all came down to the ground. They surrounded the team so they all had their backs pressed against each other.

"This is like the war all over again." Hinata whispered.

"Don't think about it like that, Hinata." Sakura said, strength in her tone.

"What should we do, Naruto?" Sai asked, getting his tanto into his hand.

Naruto sighed before he smirked. "We fight, but kill no one." Sasuke nodded approvingly. Naruto and Sakura let out their designated shouts as they all at once jumped into the fray. It seemed like such a long time passed as they found themselves on the last few enemies. All of them were scratched, bruised and injured. Sasuke found himself in front of the man with red armor until three more enemy ninjas appeared in front of him. He scowled at them and began fighting these men in front of him.

The little waitress sank to the floor as she watched the fighting and being unable to do anything about it. She watched and saw them fight and listening to the metal hitting metal. Swords, kunai and shuriken in the air, watching this scene only made her think of the stories Sasuke told her. "War, fighting, things like that… are not glamorous as some books make it out to be. All of these things are terrible and cause nothing but pain and suffering." Oh, he was right. She hated this scene. She wanted to scream and cry out, to tell them to stop this violence; nothing was worth the lives of others.

But even if Akina did say something in the midst of fighting, it would fall on deaf ears. These people came here to die and to kill her voice wouldn't change that. That's what fighting was... "Fighting is endless." Sasuke once said, preaching Naruto's words. She covered her face, unable to watch anymore.

"Or just sing out!"

Sasuke and the man exchanged blows before Sasuke's eyes turned into the black and red patterning instead of red with black. The man made a handsign and instead of Sasuke's internal red world they were both sent to another type of world. Sasuke looked around and he recognized this place as the grey world of the outskirts of the Rain Village. So this is were the faction comes form. They are followers of the old Akatsuki… he thought. His eyes turned to the man in front of him in the red armor. "What do you want?" He asked. "What was the point in all of this?" Sasuke demanded.

He found this world interesting, the fact that they were not in his own internal world of his Mangekyou meant that this man must have learned to counter genjutsu such as the Tsukiyumi. This was a powerful foe and Sasuke was interested to see where this fight of minds would lead. Whose world and whose sight would overcome and dominate the other. Who would emerge from the minds unharmed and who would perish within the caverns of their own mind. Sasuke glared at the man demanding his answer with his eyes.

"To hurt you all." The man answered simply to the young man. "To hurt you and cripple the power of Konaha… This power that village has is unfair. Again, our nation suffered form the wars of the great villages and we are ignored when it is time for peace and healing. We will no longer be ignored." He said.

Sasuke momentarily stared at this man in shock. Did his ear deceive him? Was that truly the answer that this pathetic low life had answered him? "And you kidnapped her for that?" He asked. "You took my Akina for that?!" He asked, ready to scream again.

The man smirked. "And my wife and children. Half those people there have no family because of your countries. You must feel the same pain as we do for you to understand, if we have to start with her… so be it." He laughed. Sasuke cringed. He saw his young self in front of him instead of a man. "I will sacrifice anything in order to have our vengeance."

Sasuke cringed, was this what Naruto saw all those years ago at the Valley of the End? The man was dripping in darkness and hatred.

Sasuke shook his head. "If that is your resolve then you will fail." He got his katana again and got ready to attack. He saw the red rushing in from behind him and started to overtake the grey world around them. It was starting to become a mix of red and grey. Half of it was his world of the red sky and red water below and the rest was the crying sky and the grey waters. "And I will win."

The man in red raised his arms as if welcoming the challenge. "Come then, Uchiha Sasuke." He said and smirked bright. They both took off simutatiously. The man tried to block his katana with a kunai.

"That's…" Sasuke whispered, he landed where the man began and put his katana away. "That's the incorrect way to block." He said looking behind him and the man crippled down to the ground. "Do more homework next time." He whispered and the grey world was over taken by red. The genjutsu broke but Sasuke dropped to his knees. His hands were trembling. Looking back, he noticed that not all of the people there had ended the fight and he knew that he needed to keep on fighting.

He turned around and started helping fighting down all these people until they were the last ones standing. Sasuke fell down and Naruto ran up the stairs. "I'll get Akina!" He shouted back. Sakura went to Sasuke.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

Sasuke nodded and tried to get up only to fall back down. "Nevermind." He muttered. Sakura sighed and got onto her knees and started healing his worn body. His eyes were locked at the staircase waiting for Naruto to descend down the stairs with Akina.

"Whichever is fine,"

A moment later, Sasuke stood, get out of Sakura's healing touch when Naruto brought Akina down the stairs. Small tears formed in her eyes and she dashed forward, towards Sasuke. He opened his arms and let her run into him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He wrapped one arm around her waist and his other hand cradled the back of her head. Naruto smiled. Even if Sasuke was covered in blood, torn and bruised, she didn't care and Sasuke was able to accept that and let her embrace him and it made Naruto smile. He was glad his friend found another piece of his own happiness and another piece of his own personal peace. Sasuke pressed his face firmly into her hair. "I gotcha." He whispered.

"As long as you're here to share it with me."

A/N: thank you for staying with this to those of you who put up with my crazy long intervals between updates. I hope you all enjoyed reading this relatively short story as much as I enjoyed writing it.