Hiya, everyone! As promised, I worked on the update as soon as I received 5 reviews. Thanks to the reviewers! I actually had two very interesting ones: one saying I was evil and the other saying I had Itachi too in character. That's the first time I heard about someone being too in character. Anyways, if this chapter doesn't seem as good to you, I won't be surprised. I think I kind of dissappointed myself with this update. Oh, well. I still hope you enjoy this chappie!

Disclaimer: Yeah, I wish . . . . . . . . . . .

". . . where is the bloodcurdling scream?!"

"GYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"

Kisame flinched a little bit from the sudden scream, but other than that, he wasn't fazed. When the scream ended, he sighed happily and said, "Ah, that's more like it."

Everybody else just froze with fear. Their blood ran cold, and they all became filled with worry as they recognized that voice. One name came across their minds.

Yugi.

Racing Against the Clock: The Great Escape

Kakashi and Pakkun had been following the strange chakra signature for a while now

Kakashi and Pakkun had been following the strange chakra signature for a while now. Surprisingly, it led them to the edge of town. As he saw the gates of the village, Kakashi thought, "Why would this trail lead us out of the leaf village?"

Suddenly, Pakkun came to an abrupt halt. The brown pug turned to his master and said, "Kakashi, we have a problem. The chakra I've been following suddenly disappeared."

Kakashi sighed, thinking, "Someone must've decided to hide this person's chakra just now."

After some thought, the grey-haired man said, "All right, let's turn back and find another trail. With any luck, we'll -"

"GYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"

Kakashi stopped in his speech. Both man and dog's ears perked at the sound of the piercing scream. The pug asked, "Kakashi, did you hear that?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I think we may have found our new trail. Let's see where that scream came from!"

And with that, the two left to find the source of the sound as Kakashi wondered if Itachi had something to do with this.

MeanwhileMeanwhileMeanwhileMeanwhileMeanwhile

Naruto and his friends stood paralyzed from the scream. After a few seconds, Sakura finally whispered, ". . . Oh my god."

". . . No," the blond shinobi said quietly with disbelief and a clear expression of shock on his face.

Tristan wondered what made his friend scream like that while Joey clenched his teeth and thought, "What did that bastard do now?!"

By this point, tears were flowing freely from Tea's sparkling blue eyes. As everyone else took a moment of silence, she thought, "Oh, no! He's hurt! We've got to do something! Yugi needs us!!"

"Yugi!" she cried out as she ran for the exit.

Her friends saw that Kisame was getting ready to slice her, and Naruto shouted, "Tea, stop!"

Tea didn't listen to him, only thinking about helping her friend by any means necessary. Kisame said, "Foolish move, girl. Now, prepare to die."

"Not so fast!" Sakura yelled as she threw her last several shuriken at the blue man's back.

Kisame saw this move out of the corner of his eye. In order to protect himself, he used his massive sword to deflect the shuriken, allowing Tea to escape. After making this move, he told them, "Nice try, but your attacks have been wasted. Now, instead of having a quick death, that girl will be at the mercy of Itachi."

Out in the hallway, Sasuke had just gotten to a standing position when he saw Tea run past him to his brother. He thought to himself, "What does that girl think she's doing? She's needs to stay out of my way!"

While the raven-haired boy stabilized himself, he searched his pockets for a certain weapon. . .

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Meanwhile, Yugi was being put into a state of surprise and agony. Itachi had just plunged his kunai into the small boy's left arm, and the blood was flowing rapidly. Currently, the small boy was gasping for breath and making short, abrupt screams as he felt waves of pain wash over him.

"What's the matter, Yugi?" Itachi asked with a smirk. "Haven't you ever been stabbed with a kunai before?"

In response, Yugi shut his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth together, hoping to control his screams. After seeing this, the smirk came off of the raven-haired man's face and he said, "I'll take that as a no. Now then. . ."

He pulled out the kunai, causing the small boy to scream once more. Then, Itachi finished, ". . . You've suffered enough. It's time for you to come with us."

"NO! Get away from him!"

The red-eyed man was pushed out of the way by the brunette girl that ran towards them. While he stared emotionlessly at her, Tea quickly grasped Yugi's hand and said, "Yugi, what did he do to you?"

At this moment, she took time to look at her friend's arm. Tea paled at the sight of the crimson blood. As the tri-colored haired boy squeezed her hand tightly, she realized just how much pain he was in right now.

Tea turned to the man who caused her friend to hurt like this and shouted, "You monster! What did you do to Yugi?"

"I did what was necessary," Itachi replied casually.

The brunette girl didn't understand what he meant by that, so she just settled for glaring at him with tears running down her face. Then, the red-eyed man told her, "Why did you come? You really should have stayed with your other comrades. Now, I have no choice but to get rid of you."

Tea gasped in shock as she saw him pull out the bloody kunai. Despite her fear, however, she put herself between him and Yugi; she wouldn't let her friend get hurt by this man. Before anything else could be done. . .

"Itachi!"

Tea and Itachi turned their heads towards the voice, and they saw Sasuke standing and holding a weapon that looked different from the other that Tea and her friends had seen.

"Why do you make yourself suffer like this?" Itachi asked in a monotone voice. "You should quit now while you have the chance."

In response to his older brother's words, the young boy said with hate lacing each word, "I won't stop until I see you dead!"

Itachi only smirked, infuriating Sasuke even more. Before preparing his weapon, Sasuke shouted, "Tea! Get out of the way!"

For a moment, the young brunette sat confused at what was going on. Then, as she saw the raven-haired boy's weapon unfold into a massive shuriken, Tea pressed herself close to Yugi and the wall.

After seeing that his path was as clear as it could get, Sasuke threw his Demon Wind Shuriken down the hall with perfect precision towards Itachi. As the shuriken sped down the hallway, it split into two.

As the shuriken made their way down the hall, Itachi thought to himself, "Well, at least Sasuke's improving. He's thrown the shuriken in a way so the walls don't get in the shuriken's path, impressive for most. However. . ."

The shuriken were now a few feet away from their target. Before they could hit Itachi, the red-eyed man was able to save himself at the last moment once again. With the bloody kunai, he deflected one massive shuriken, forcing it to become imbedded in the wall just above Tea and Yugi. Then, Itachi caught the other shuriken with his free hand and finished thinking, ". . . it will take more than that to come close to beating me."

When the young brunette opened her eyes, she saw with surprise the shuriken above her head. She looked at Itachi and thought, "How was he able to stop Sasuke's attack?"

Sasuke could only steam quietly at his failed attack. Since the younger Uchiha didn't make a statement, the elder Uchiha said calmly, "That was a foolish move, Sasuke. You should know by now my skills involving shuriken."

Sasuke only growled angrily in response. Then, Itachi put away the bloody kunai and brought up Sasuke's Demon Wind Shuriken while saying, "Now, it's my turn."

In the blink of an eye, the raven-haired man threw the shuriken with incredible speed. Sasuke prepared himself to get out of the way of the weapon, but suddenly. . .

"Ha! I made it out! Take that, you oversized blueberry!"

Sasuke looked towards the voice a little bit shocked; Joey had apparently managed to get past Kisame while Naruto was distracting him with his clones. Instead of welcoming the blond teen, the raven-haired boy yelled angrily, "Joey, get back in there!"

Joey yelled back, "Why would I do tha . . . HOLY SHIT!!"

The blond teen quickly retreated back into the room when he caught sight of the oversized weapon heading straight towards them. Sasuke barely had time to dodge the Demon Wind Shuriken. Although he was able to avoid a fatal injury, the young boy still managed to receive a cut on his shoulder.

"Damn!" Sasuke thought angrily. "If I didn't have the Sharingan activated right now, that move could have killed me! I need to use a different approach."

So, he took out two kunai, one in each hand, and got ready for his next attack.

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"What happened, Joey?" Naruto asked when he saw the blond teen run straight back into the room as quickly as he got out.

First, Joey panted heavily for a few seconds, eyes wide with surprise. Then, after catching his breath, he yelled dramatically, "Why the hell are you allowed to use weapons bigger than your bodies?!"

Hearing this caused Sakura to realize what had happened in the hallway. She told him, "Sasuke must have used a Demon Wind Shuriken."

"A what?" Tristan and Joey both asked in unison.

"I'll explain later!" the pink-haired kunouchi told them. "First, let's get out of here and help Sasuke and the others!"

"I'm way ahead of you, Sakura!" Naruto told her as he made more shadow clones to distract their blue opponent.

SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch

Itachi stared as his younger brother, hiding his amusement. He smirked at Sasuke and said, "You're still not ready to quit, I see. There's no way you'll win at the level you're at, but I guess there's no way for me to stop you other than to deal with you myself."

Sasuke's knuckles whitened as his grip on the two kunais tightened, being angered by his older brother. After a few seconds, Itachi got two of his own kunai ready and said, "Come."

He didn't need to say it twice; that one word caused Sasuke to run straight towards him. Immediately, the sound of clanging metal filled the air. No matter how hard the young boy tried, though, the red-eyed man could parry or dodge his attacks with ease.

As they fought, Tea watched in awe and fear. She thought, "Sasuke could be in trouble. There's no way he could beat Itachi right now. I have to do something!"

The young brunette was about to get up, but she felt a tightened grip on her hand. She turned her head to see Yugi looking up at her. The small boy's amethyst eyes were filled with pain, but they also had a look that pleaded her not to get involved.

Tea squeezed his hand back and thought, "That's right. Even if I wanted to help him, I don't know how to stand up to a man like Itachi. Plus, Yugi needs my help too, and I can't let him down."

Eventually, Sasuke and Itachi came to a standstill. The young boy was now on the exact opposite side that he started on, and their kunais pressed against each other. The older of the two said, "As I expected, you still don't have what it takes to face me. Now, you're finished."

With that statement being said, Itachi used his force to knock Sasuke's kunai out of his hands. As soon as this happened, the younger Uchiha had frozen, surprised at the sudden move.

Big mistake.

Using this moment as a perfect opportunity, Itachi gripped his younger brother roughly by the throat and thrust him against the wall.

"Oh, no!" Tea thought. "This is definitely not good!"

SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch

"Take this!" Joey yelled as he tried once again to land a hit on their blue opponent.

However, just like before, Kisame just stepped out of the way of the blond teen's blow. As soon as he saw his opponent's back, the blue rogue mist ninja attempted to slice him across the back, but this only resulted in another one of Naruto's clones jumping in and taking the hit.

"You sure are pathetic, brat," Kisame said with cockiness in his voice. "Are shadow clones the only thing you can do?"

As he finished his question, a kunai was thrown at him by Sakura. The blue man deflected this easily and turned to see three Narutos running straight for the exit. Kisame thought with annoyance, "More clones? Predictable."

The first two clones came at him with brought up fists. All the cloaked man did to stop them was slash them with Samehada quickly, and they were gone with twin puffs of smoke. Then, out of the smoke, the third Naruto went into a forward slide towards the exit. Kisame was about to cut him in half as well, but then, he saw the smirk and realized the slight difference in power levels with this one.

"Shit!" he thought angrily. "This brat is the real one!"

As the blond shinobi slid across the floor, he shouted, "Guys, now!"

In the brief pause that Kisame spent cursing himself, Joey and Tristan immediately jumped on him and tried their best to restrain him. Automatically, the blue man became infuriated, and he began to shake them off.

As Kisame did this, Naruto's head made contact with the wall of the hallway, giving him a small headache. While he sat up and massaged the top of his head, he looked back into the training room to see what was going on.

Tristan had already been shaken off, and he had backed off a safe distance away. Joey, on the other hand, was keeping up his persistence and gripping tightly onto Kisame. While the blue man was trying to shake him off, the blond teen looked over to Naruto and shouted, "Naruto, why are you waiting here? Hurry up and help the others!"

Naruto only looked back, dumbfounded and amazed. Suddenly, Kisame was finally able to knock him off. Joey ended up landing flat on his butt, and the rogue mist ninja took this as an opportunity to slice him with Samehada. Sakura saw this, and as she moved to protect him, the pink-haired kunouchi shouted, "Joey, watch out!"

She reached the blond teen, back facing Kisame. As the sword made a long cut from her left shoulder to her mid back, the young girl gasped out in pain.

"Sakura!" Naruto cried out, worried for his crush.

Meanwhile, Joey just sat there, staring bewildered at the scene before him. After she fell to her knees and began caressing her injured shoulder, Tristan said with amazement, "Joey, she just saved your life."

"I know! You don't need to tell me!" Joey yelled at him in an irate tone. He moved over to Sakura and asked, "Sakura, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Sakura replied weakly. "You just make sure not to get in range of his sword."

He nodded to her in understanding. Joey then looked over at Naruto and said, "Don't worry, Naruto. We can keep old Blueberry over here busy. You just go help Tea, mini-Kaiba, and Yugi. Okay?"

Naruto processed what he said. After some thought, he nodded quietly to his blond friend. Before running down the hallway, he said, "Joey, please take care of her."

After seeing his friend get up, Joey grabbed Sakura and answered, "Sure thing, pal."

"Aw, how touching," Kisame said sarcastically, catching the blond teen's attention. "It's so sweet that it makes me want to puke! Now, time to end this. Die!"

He swung his sword downward at that moment towards the two of them. Joey barely had the time to push Sakura out of the way and roll away from the weapon. After they got out of the way, Joey quickly picked up the pink-haired girl and ran to his other friend and safety. He dropped Sakura off with Tristan and said, "Tristan, watch over Sakura. I'll distract the blueberry until we're ready to strike back."

While Tristan set Sakura down, Joey turned to Kisame and asked teasingly, "So, Blueberry, are you ready to face the wrath of Joey Wheeler?"

The blue man only smirked and replied, "I'd like to see you try, blondie."

SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch

Naruto had only taken a few steps before he realized what Itachi was doing. The raven-haired man was holding his younger brother against the wall while Tea looked on in horror from the floor.

In fact, he was holding Sasuke the same way that he had when he used that jutsu . . .

The blond shinobi's anger was building up with every blow that was being dealt to his rival. Naruto just couldn't stand the fact that Sasuke wouldn't allow him to help fight Itachi. The man did come for him, after all. At the moment, the older man was holding his younger brother up against the wall, and silence reigned in the building. Suddenly, in less than a second, the area was filled with a horror filled scream emitting from his rival's mouth.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"

". . . . . No," Naruto thought in fear as he remembered that moment. "Not again . . . I won't let this happen again!"

For a moment, Itachi stared at Sasuke, who was weakly struggling against his older brother's grip. Then, the older man closed his eyes and uttered, "You're a disappointment, Sasuke. You still lack the one thing necessary to defeat me: the key to true power."

Sasuke knew what his brother was talking about, but he said nothing. The raven-haired boy only glared with intense hatred with his Sharingan eyes.

Quietly, Itachi whispered to him, "Perhaps I need to use that jutsu again."

The look in the young boy's eyes quickly changed to fear, realizing what his brother was planning.

"Mangekyou Sharin -"

"NO!!"

Itachi and Tea turned their heads to see Naruto running swiftly towards them. The blond shinobi's voice and face held a hint of anger and fear in them. As the young brunette wondered how he managed to get past Kisame, Sasuke just thought to himself, "Naruto? Why are you . . . ?"

"Stay the hell away from him!" The blond boy yelled as he continued to run.

Itachi only smirked, confident that things were finally going well for him. Suddenly, he wiped the smirk off his face as he felt another presence approaching the building. The red-eyed man thought, "I don't have time to stick around, not with all of these distractions."

Quickly, he tossed his younger brother towards the boy running towards him. Naruto's eyes widened, and he tried his best to slow down and stop. Unfortunately, he wasn't quick enough. The blond shinobi clumsily crashed into his rival and fell on top of him.

"I'm sorry," Itachi said as he moved past the two of them. "but it would seem that we have to go now."

Then, without another uttered word, he moved to get his partner.

SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch

Joey and Kisame were now at a standstill with each other. As the blond teen panted heavily, the blue man said, "Well, I amazed at the energy you had, but it seems you're out of steam now."

He didn't bother to respond, but instead shouted to his friend in an exhausted voice, "Hey, Tristan! Is Sakura feeling better yet?"

"I don't know. Let me check," the brunette boy answered. He brought the pink-haired kunouchi to her feet. After seeing that she could steady herself, he told his blond friend, "Yeah! She's all right!"

Then, Sakura added, "Yeah, my wound isn't that deep. I just needed some time to regain my chakra."

"Still have no clue what that is," Joey told her. "but it's good to know that you're okay. Now, let's kick some blue butt!"

"Heh, don't make me laugh," Kisame replied. As he prepared another attack, however, Itachi entered the room to stop their match.

His raven-haired partner said in a calm tone, "Kisame, we've wasted too much time. It's time for us to go."

"But I -"

Itachi gave the blue man a stern look, and Kisame automatically backed off. After a moment's silence, he replied in an almost disappointed tone, ". . . I see."

Then, he turned away from the young kids and ran towards the wall. The rogue mist ninja then used his sword to blast a large hole into the wall. Before anyone could do anything else, Itachi stepped through and disappeared. Kisame moved after his partner, but before leaving, said, "I wish we could finish our fight here, but it seems that we have to rethink our plan. You brats may have gotten lucky this time, but just remember we will come back for Naruto. And when we do, I'll cut down all of you brats, starting with you, blondie!"

With that being said, he left an infuriated Joey behind with Sakura and Tristan. As the blue man ran out through the hole, the blond teen yelled back, "Oh yeah? Well, when you come back, I'll take that sword of yours and shove it right up you're a-"

"Joey!" Sakura yelled before he could finish that crude statement. "You really shouldn't say things like that."

Joey just shrugged and replied, "What? He has it coming."

"Look, as much as you want to insult that guy, he's a lot tougher than we are," Tristan reminded him. "Anyways, we should make sure the others are okay."

Sakura gasped in realization, and she began her way out of the room while saying, "That's right! Sasuke could be hurt badly, not to mention . . ."

The three of them went into silence as they remembered Yugi's scream from before. When that moment got brought back into their memories, they quickly hurried out of the room.

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For a moment, Naruto stayed in his position on the floor, trying to figure out what had just happened. He knew that Itachi had just left in the last few seconds, but he couldn't figure out why. He just settled for taking some calming breaths first. Suddenly, he heard something from under him.

"Get . . . off . . . of me . . . you IDIOT!!"

The blond was immediately knocked off of Sasuke in one swift movement. Naruto looked up at his rival as the raven-haired boy continued, "Seriously, what's your problem?"

This enraged the blond shinobi, and he immediately sat up and yelled, "What? Are you kidding me?! I just saved your butt, and that's the thanks I get?! Well, if that's how you're gonna act, then don't expect me to do it again!"

"I never asked for your help, Naruto!" Sasuke told him harshly.

Naruto was going to make a comment, but he decided against it. The blond shinobi only got a relieved look on his face and thought, "Oh well. At least Itachi didn't use that weird technique on him again."

"Sasuke! Naruto!"

Both boys turned their heads to see Sakura running towards them, a look of concern on her face. She was shortly followed by Joey and Tristan. As the pink-haired girl approached them, the raven-haired boy deactivated his kekkei genkai, and his eyes turned back to their regular onyx color.

As Sakura kneeled down in front of them, Tristan came up and asked, "Are you guys okay? Itachi didn't do anything too bad, did . . ." the brunette boy did a double take as he looked at Sasuke's face. Then, he finished, "Your eyes are back to normal?"

The young Uchiha heir scowled at him and responded, "Why would I leave them activated?"

Before another comment could be made on that, Naruto answered their earlier question by saying, "Don't worry, guys. We're both okay. What about you, Sakura?"

As Sasuke looked over at her and spotted the cut on her shoulder, she replied, "I'm fine. The cut wasn't deep at all. It should heal in no time. More importantly, what on earth happened to -"

"YUGI!!"

Joey quickly pushed Naruto out of the way, causing the blond shinobi to land sprawled on the floor. Shortly after, Tristan stepped over Naruto and joined his blond friend. When the hyperactive blond processed where they were going, he jolted up and ran after them, yelling, "Hey, guys! Wait up!"

After seeing their friends run off, Sakura turned to her crush and asked, "So, Sasuke, what happened to him?"

For a second, the young Uchiha heir looked over towards where Yugi and his friends were huddled. Then, he answered, "Itachi drove a kunai into his arm."

The pink-haired kunouchi gasped in shock and asked, "Oh my god. Are you sure?"

"Sakura," Sasuke said with a serious tone in his voice. "I watched it happen myself; of course I'm sure."

Quickly, the young girl stood up and said, "That's terrible! We need to get over there and help him however we can! Come on!"

Sakura ran down the hall to their friends. Sasuke soon stood up to follow, but before moving, he thought, "There's one thing I'm not sure about. I saw what happened. Itachi was about to kill Yugi; I could tell, but what made my brother change his mind?"

"Tea, what happened to Yug?" Joey asked as he came up to her. His female friend only ignored him as she gazed with worry at her small friend. The blond teen looked in her direction and saw the crimson coating on his friend's arm. He paled and went silent at the sight.

Tristan came up to him and was about to ask why his friend was looking so grave, but he stopped as he saw the condition Yugi was in. Both of the teenage boys were surprised to see the blood; it was the first physically bad looking injury any of them had received in a long time.

"Guys, what's wrong?" Naruto asked as he went to stand beside them. Soon, however, he followed their stares, and he saw his new friend sporting a blood-soaked arm. It struck him speechless until he finally decided to ask Tea, "Tea, what did Itachi do?"

"I'm not sure myself," the brunette girl said weakly while holding back several tears. "but I'm scared. Yugi's in pain right now and we can't do anything to help him. I don't know what to do!"

Without warning, Tea broke down in front of them and began to weep freely. While Tristan kneeled down to comfort the brunette as best as he could, the two blonds just stood in dumbfounded silence.

Shortly, Sakura came up to them, and when she saw the injury on the tri-colored haired boy and her new female friend sobbing, the pink-haired kunouchi crouched down and said, "Tea, let me take a look at him real quick."

Tea looked at her with a questioning look in her blue eyes and asked, "Sakura, can you . . . ?"

"I can't guarantee anything, Tea," she calmly told her while she pushed past Tristan to get to Yugi. "I'm not a medic, but I can at least tell whether an injury is fatal or not."

"It's probably nothing, though," Sasuke stated as he joined them.

"What makes you say that?" Tristan asked as he stood up. "I'm not sure whether you're aware of this, but his arm is a bloody mess right now."

"Look, you," the raven-haired boy said. "Just because it looks serious, doesn't mean it's fatal. If it was, then Yugi would probably be dead by now."

Tea gasped, and a fearful expression showed on her face. When they saw this, Joey yelled, "Now look what you did, mini-Kaiba! Would you not say things that will freak us out?"

Quickly, Sakura turned to her female friend. The pink-haired kunouchi gave her friend a reassuring smile and said, "Don't worry, Tea. I promise you, he'll be just fine."

The blue-eyed brunette sniveled a little and gave back a weak smile, showing that she was calm now. A few more seconds passed, and after inspecting their small friend, Sakura turned to everyone and said, "It doesn't look too bad. If we take Yugi to a hospital, I think he'll be okay."

The older teens and Naruto all let out relieved breaths at hearing the news. The blond shinobi thought, "That's good. I would've been furious if those jerks killed any of my new friends."

"There's just one thing I want to know," Tristan suddenly said, getting their attention. "Why did Kisame and Itachi just leave without saying anything?"

Joey stated proudly, "It was probably because we tired them out with our skills!"

"If I remember correctly, we didn't land any hits, Joey. Besides, I had to protect you at one point," Sakura said matter-of-factly, making the blond teen depressed at hearing the reality of the issue.

After a brief moment, Sasuke mentioned, "They must have felt someone else coming: someone with more skills than any of us."

"Well, yeah, but who?" Naruto asked.

"Well, here you guys are. I was wondering where you were hiding."

Immediately, Naruto, Joey, and Tristan jumped with surprise. They quickly turned to see a strange man standing there. With some shock and demanding in his voice, the blond teen asked, "Who the heck are you?"

Before they could get an answer, Sakura asked, "Kakashi-sensei! What are you doing here?"

"Wait," Tristan said. "This is the Kakashi-sensei you guys were talking about?"

The older teens took a closer look at this older man. He had grey-haired that was strangely styled, and only his right eye showed that they were an onyx color. He wore a headband just like their ninja friends, but it was worn so that his left eye was covered. The man wore a navy blue ninja outfit with a green vest over it. Lastly, the rest of his face was covered with a navy blue mask.

"Well, they were right about one thing," Tristan thought. "This guy is the weirdest person I've ever seen."

Kakashi answered, "I was sent by the Hokage to find you three. Finding you guys was a lot more difficult than I thought. I even had to summon Pakkun just to know where I could begin to search."

Suddenly, the grey-haired man's single eye spotted the new faces, and after noticing their strange clothing, he said, "I see you have some guests. What have you been up to?"

"We can explain later!" Sakura responded a little too quickly. "Let's just leave! We have to get to the hospital right away!"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this, but before he could ask about what had happened, Joey asked, "Wait a second. Who on earth is Pakkun?"

"That would be me," a rough voice said from behind Kakashi. Everyone looked to see a brown pug approach from behind the man. The small dog wore a blue vest and a ninja headband.

The blond teen laughed a little nervously and said, "Heh, that's funny. For a second there, I thought that dog was talking just now."

The dog known as Pakkun walked over to Joey, looked him in the eyes, and said, "I was."

"WHOA!!" Joey yelled in surprise. "You guys have talking dogs?!"

Naruto laughed hard at this and said, "Man, are you trying to tell me that you don't have summon dogs in your universe?"

"Summon dogs?" Tristan asked, wondering what the blond ninja meant.

Kakashi looked at his student strangely and asked, "Universe?"

The hyperactive blond automatically gasped, realizing his slip-up, and Sasuke said, "Way to go. You just blew it, loser."

Naruto growled furiously at his rival, but before he could throw back an insult of some kind, Pakkun began sniffing. Everyone paused and looked at the small pug. He followed the scent, stopping right in front of Tea. Then, Pakkun said, "So, I guess you were the one I was tracking this whole time."

"Um, excuse me?" the brunette girl asked with confusion.

Kakashi explained, "Pakkun, you see, is a ninja hound. He helps track paths left by other ninja. I had to summon him to find you. Pakkun couldn't find the scent of my students, but he was able to pick up on yours after recognizing the scent of Sakura's shampoo."

The younger boys gave her skeptical looks, and Tea replied, "What? After I reached her house last night, I took a shower. Just because we're in a strange place, doesn't mean that I should avoid washing up."

Kakashi sweatdropped and continued, "Well, anyway, we followed her scent for a while, but when we reached the gates leading out of the village, it disappeared. I was about to turn back, but then we had a new source to track. So, now we're here."

"Wait, what was your new source?" Sasuke asked, a little curious.

Their grey-haired sensei gave all of the occupants a serious look and replied, "We had heard . . . a scream."

Everyone got a shocked look on their faces, remembering back to their friend's shriek of pure fear and agony. Seeing this, Kakashi asked, "I assume one of you was the source of the scream?"

"Yeah," Joey answered in a serious tone. "He's the one on the floor with Tea."

Kakashi looked over to the young girl, and his eyes landed on the injured teen. His eye widened slightly as he thought, "This boy . . . he's . . ."

The grey-haired man walked over to Tea, crouched down and asked, "So, what happened here?"

"Please, sir," Tea pleaded the man. "We have to help Yugi! He's in so much pain right now!"

"Take it easy," Kakashi responded calmly. "I'm sure his injury isn't too serious. Otherwise, he wouldn't be alive right now. Am I right?"

The teens went quiet as the comment sank in. Sasuke sported a triumphant smirk to infuriate Joey, and the blond teen muttered, "I get it, I get it. You were right. Stop looking so smug about it, jerk."

"Right," the grey-haired man continued. Then, after looking over Yugi, he said, "Although, he does appear to be in pain. His body needs to be more relaxed in order for us to get him there. Leave this to me, everyone."

Everyone watched Kakashi as he placed a hand on the small boy's shoulder and said, "All right, you can rest easy now, kid. Those rogue ninja are gone now. You have nothing to worry about."

Weakly, Yugi half-opened his amethyst eyes to see the grey-haired man smiling reassuringly (it was kind of hard to tell with his mask on, though). He also saw all of his friends and no sign of Itachi or Kisame anywhere. As his consciousness slipped away, the tri-colored haired boy replied quietly and weakly, ". . . That's . . . a relief . . ."

With that, his eyes closed from exhaustion. Tea had felt her friend's grip on her own hand weaken, and she looked at her friend. After confirming what happened, she said, "He passed out. Why did he pass out?"

"He'll be fine," Kakashi said calmly. "He just lost a lot of blood, that's all. It's not enough blood to be fatal, but it's enough to knock him out for quite a while. The only thing I'm wondering is how he was able to cling on to his consciousness for as long as he did."

As he gathered the small boy into his arms, Naruto asked, "Hey, sensei, how did you know how to get him to relax?"

"I know his type," Kakashi responded. This left everyone a little confused. The grey-haired man stood without saying anything else to the question. Then, he turned to Pakkun and said, "All right, Pakkun. It looks like I'll be able to handle the rest."

The brown pug gave a short nod, and he was gone in a puff of smoke, causing the older teens to go wide-eyed.

"Um, mister Kakashi?" Tea asked.

The masked ninja turned to her and said, "Yes?"

The brunette girl looked down and asked, ". . . . . Thank you so much."

". . . Sure," Kakashi responded. "Sakura, why don't you join me in going to the hospital? I'm sure that Lady Tsunade will want to hear all about this. Also, I can see you have an injury for her to treat."

The pink-haired girl looked at the ground sheepishly and replied, "Mm, right."

"The rest of you can meet up with us later. Then, we can arrange plans on what will happen with our new guests. Come on, Sakura," Kakashi said as he began to head towards the exit with Yugi in tow. The pink-haired kunouchi quickly followed him. Before turning the corner, however, the grey-haired man paused and said, "Oh, and Sasuke?"

The raven-haired boy looked towards his sensei. When he had his attention, Kakashi said, "I'm sure you got into another match with your brother, so I suggest you meet up with us soon."

Sasuke didn't respond. Instead, he glared angrily at the floor, ashamed at his failure at beating Itachi. Shortly after, Kakashi and Sakura both left them to their own thoughts.

While everyone slowly regained their composure, Naruto stood absolutely still, staring at the last place where his sensei had stood. He thought to himself, "Man, it's a good thing Kakashi-sensei found us. If he had even been a minute too late, who knows what could have happened! Maybe, Itachi would have had the time to torture him with -"

"Hey, Naruto."

The blond shinobi looked over at Sasuke and asked, "Yeah, what is it?"

The young Uchiha heir looked at him coldly and said, "The next time that Itachi and I are fighting, stay out of it!"

Naruto could only look at him in surprise. Sasuke's statement also grabbed the older teens' attention. As they all looked at him, the raven-haired boy continued, "Dealing with Itachi is my problem only, so just mind your own business. You'd only get in my way, Naruto."

"What?!" Naruto shouted back angrily. "Are you saying that I should've just done nothing and let Itachi hit you with that jutsu again?"

Sasuke's eyes widened from hearing his blond rival's statement. Meanwhile, the three teens all thought along the lines of "What's that jutsu?"

When Naruto received no response, he continued, "I'm not sure what exactly happened when he used that jutsu on you, but do you really think I wanted your brother to do that again? After all, it's me he wants, and despite what you and I want to believe, we're comrades. I wouldn't want something terrible to happen to you or Sakura because of me. Plus, do you have any idea how she would've felt if she had heard you screaming like that? She'd probably be devastated!"

The older teens looked between the two shinobi, trying to understand what was being said. Finally, after a long, unnerving silence, the raven-haired boy turned away from them and began to exit the area.

"Hey, where are you going?" Tristan asked.

As he walked out of sight, Sasuke replied in a cold tone, "I'm going to the hospital."

And with that, he was gone. For a while, everyone stayed in silence with thoughtful expressions on their faces. Then, Tea stood, faced Naruto, and asked, "Naruto, what jutsu were you and Sasuke talking about?"

Naruto slowly turned to her and said solemnly, "Tea, its better if none of you know."

Joey scowled in disapproval and thought, "Why is it such a big deal? If this technique was strong enough to cause a guy like Sasuke to scream, then I want to know about it!"

After a few calming breaths were taken, the hyperactive blond said in a happier mood, "Let's get out of here, guys."

"Where are we going?" Tristan asked.

Naruto replied, "I don't know. I guess we could have lunch at Ichiraku's first, and then we'll head to the hospital to check on Yugi."

Before the older teens could argue and say that they wanted to go to the hospital right away, all of their stomachs began to growl. Hearing this, the blond shinobi chuckled and said, "Well, I guess that's that, then. We head out for lunch first!"

As they all began to leave, Tea thought to herself, "It looks like things are turning out for the better, but for some reason, I have the feeling that we're forgetting something."

So, the four of them left the battlefield now that their morning crisis was over. Little did they realize that something had been forgotten. Lying on the ground by a small puddle of blood was a powerful object known as the Millennium Puzzle.

SwitchSwitchSwitchSwitchSwitch

Naruto: Man, what do we do now? Those guys are gone now, but what's going to happen? The entire village is going to know that Yugi and his friends are here now, and when they do, they'll be swarmed! Not to mention, it's all going to happen because of me. What's going to be in store for everyone.

Next time-Strange Faces and New Friends!

See? Didn't I say it was a let down? I have to make sure things are more lively next chappie. And before I get complaints about description, twist info, and in or out of character-ness, I already know this isn't my best. I REALLY don't want to hear it! Oh, and here's a spoiler about next chappie; the one character that inspired me to make this thing shows up. The one and only Hinata! Anyhoo, if any of you have a DA account, visit mine and comment my journal. I'm wondering if I should make a NarutoxYugioh crossover club, so I need comments saying whether I should or not. Well, this is AnimeSnowflake, bidding you adieu.

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What? Were you guys expecting me to say "Review please?" Well, not this time! I won't bug you guys about it this time around. So, have a nice morning/afternoon/evening!