Insanity's Slip

Chapter Nineteen

By Boejangles

Anko grinned at the various reactions, "Yes it is very likely you will die. Nature is against you. Man is against you. Considering what you will endure it is likely you will go mad, and then you will be against you. So basically everything is against you. Now that we've got that cleared up get ready for the exam, you have a short break."

Naruto looked over at Sasuke. Five days, could Sasuke make it? He was about to ask his brother if he was okay when a voice broke through his thoughts.

"Naruto!" The blonde looked over and noticed Konohamaru coming towards him.

"Oh boss!" Naruto ran over to meet him.

Sasuke watched the blonde run over to meet some kids and anger sparked into his eyes.

Sakura laughed and set her head and Sasuke's shoulder, "It looks like Naruto has some new friends."

The Uchiha shrugged off his female teammate and turned away from looking at his brother.

Naruto grinned at his friends forgetting about the trouble of the test, "Hey, what are you guys doing here?"

"Well we were waiting outside the academy to see if you passed or not and when you didn't show up we knew you passed and wanted to come wish you luck," Moegi explained with a smile.

"I knew you could do it, one of my men would never lose," Konohamaru said as if it was his brilliance that allowed Naruto to pass.

"And girl." Moegi protested to the 'men' statement.

"It's really cool that you're taking this exam." Udon said looking at Naruto with admiration.

Naruto gave a small laugh and rubbed the back of his head slightly embarrassed. "Wow, thanks. It really means a lot." He had never had friends to do this sort of thing for him.

"What are friends for," Konohamaru said matching the blonde's grin.

Moegi hugged the older boy tightly, "Be safe okay?"

Naruto nodded feeling a bit odd with someone worrying about him, "I will."

"Alright! Once you beat this thing we'll go have dinner at my uncle's again." The leader of the group proclaimed.

"I'd really like that." Naruto felt like part of something and it made him feel good, "Well I better go do this thing, bye."

After saying all the final goodbyes Naruto returned to his group only to have Sasuke's hand grab tightly onto his shoulder.

He whispered harshly into the younger boy's ear, "Are those the kids I told you not to hang around?"

Naruto's eyes went wide and he swallowed. Was Sasuke going to get like that in front of all these people? "Yes Aniki, I am sorry." He knew this wasn't his brother, but knew he didn't like it when he didn't call him brother. And part of him hoped he could call his brother out.

"We'll talk about this later," Sasuke gave the blonde a small shove and then turned away.

Sakura frowned, she hadn't heard what was said, but she didn't like that her teammates seemed to be fighting.

There was another pair of eyes watching the scene that went unnoticed. The red head continued looking on until it was time for everyone to take their places.

Naruto kept shooting glances at Sasuke as they made their way through the forest. He didn't know which Sasuke this was or what he could or couldn't say. Right now his brother was a bomb that could go off at any moment.

Sakura took in her younger teammate's state and frowned, he seemed almost panicky, "Maybe we should stop and make camp; you know throw a plan together?"

Sasuke thought about it then decided it was reasonable. Naruto just gave a nod and followed his teammates.

It had only taken an hour to set up camp and come up with a plan of action. Naruto was sure of the plan, but he sure as heck wasn't going to argue it.

"Sakura, you take first watch. Then I'll take over and then Naruto. We've set up traps so it shouldn't be that hard."

"Yes Sasuke." Sakura responded before finding a spot to keep watch.

Naruto's eyes followed his brother to his tent and then let out a sigh of relief. However it was then that something covered his mouth and he was yanked away suddenly. He knew he was moving fast, because everything was zipping by him. No human should be able to move this fast, right? His head came in contact with something hard and everything went black.

"Augggh," His head was throbbing and he hadn't even opened his eyes. It was right on the side of his head near the back that hurt the most. He forced his eyes opened to try and figure out what happened, "Ahhh!"

As soon as Naruto opened his eyes he saw jade eyes staring at him. He took a few deep breaths to recover from the shock and screaming, however the other boy didn't react at all. Once he slowed down to take a closer look at the boy he noticed the red hair and recognized him as the one that was standing on the fence. It wasn't making sense.

"Gaara are you just going to look at that brat all day?" Came the voice of someone near by.

Naruto watched as the red head, Gaara, turn to look where the voice came with no emotion and then look back at him. At least with Sasuke he could tell his emotions, it was scary having no clue what someone was thinking. He realized he wasn't bound or anything, but from the other voice he was already out numbered.

"Why?" The blonde was slightly startled by the other's question and took him a second to process he was the one spoken to.

"Why what?" It was the smartest thing he could come up with.

"Why do you follow someone weaker then you?" The red head said staring at the blonde impassively.

Blue eyes widened in realization, "You've been watching me?"

Gaara just continued staring at him waiting for his question to be answered, "Tell me or I'll kill you."

Naruto didn't know what he was supposed to do. "He's my older brother, it's just right that I would follow him."

"You're stronger." The red head spoke as if it means a lot more then just two words.

"I just do, I love him; he's my only family." Naruto felt slightly weird telling a complete stranger, but no one seemed to notice before and if they did they didn't care.

Gaara didn't understand, "The weak follow the strong or they die."

"I have to take care of him. If I didn't no one would. The weak need the strong to protect them." Naruto spoke quietly forgetting that he was speaking with someone else, let alone an enemy.

"Protect them?" Gaara looked really confused, which for him was a very small change in his eyes. "That's not what mother says." The blond was wrong.

Naruto blinked out of his slight stupor, "Mother?"

Gaara turned away from the boy now that his question was answered, "Temari, return him." With that he disappeared into sand.

Naruto felt a funny feeling in his mouth and scraped his tongue against his teeth before wiping it on his hand and looking at it to see sand. Was that what pulled him away? Sand?

Temari huffed and turned to the smaller boy, "Come on, let's go." She started walking fully expecting him to follow before muttering under her breath, "It's amazing your still alive. But nothing that interests Gaara stays alive long."

Sasuke woke up from his preset timer to let him know when his shift started. He crawled out of the tent and scrunched up his eyebrows when he noticed Naruto's tent flap was open. Poking his head inside he realized his brother wasn't inside.

He turned and approached Sakura, "Where's Naruto?"

The pink haired girl turned to look at her male teammate, "Isn't he in his tent?" She jumped down out of the tree.

"No." Sasuke nearly growled, "He wasn't. Weren't you supposed to keep a watch out?"

"I'm sure he's nearby, don't worry." Sakura said with a smile trying to keep everything calm.

Sasuke slapped her and watched her fall to the ground, "Pathetic. Because of you Naruto's gone." He turned and ran off trying to find any trace of his brother.

Sakura laid still on the ground her hand on her cheek. Sasuke had hit her; he had really hit her. How could he do that?

Temari turned at looked at the boy following her. "Alright, you are going to keep going straight for about a mile and then you should be at your camp. See ya kid." She turned and started walking back the way they came.

Naruto stared at her, "Thanks." He wasn't really sure if you're supposed to thank someone that kidnaps you. He shrugged and started walking the way she pointed.

"There you are!" Naruto cocked his head to the side to see where the voice came from.

"Sasuke!" The blonde ran and hugged his brother happy that he was still safe.

Sasuke awkwardly hugged his brother back, before holding him tighter. "You really scared me, where did you go?"

"I'm not really sure, this guy just wanted to talk to me. I kind of hit my head and don't really remember what happened after that until I was being questioned."

"How'd you escape?" The older boy asked letting go of his brother to give him a look over and make sure he was okay.

"They just let me go and showed me how to get back." Naruto said with a small smile glad that this was his brother.

"Let's just get back to camp." Sasuke said before throwing his arm around Naruto's shoulder and leading him back to the camp.

Sakura looked up when she heard someone coming, "Oh you found him." Her voice was a bit smaller.

Naruto ran over to Sakura with concerned eyes, "Sakura, what happened to your face? It's all bruised. Did you get attacked?"

The pink haired girl shot a look at Sasuke before shaking her head, "No I just had a little fall." She didn't want the younger boy thinking badly of his brother. What he didn't know couldn't hurt him.

Naruto gave the girl a hug, "Be more careful. I don't like seeing you hurt."

Sakura smiled and rocked back and fourth holding him close, "I will and you don't run off on me." She played with his hair and looked over the blonde's shoulder at Sasuke. Everything was getting complicated.

"You two get some sleep. I'll keep watch." Sasuke said as he jumped into a tree before shooting a look back at is brother, he was really glad he was safe.

A/N: All right I see I may have gotten off track of the real story the chapter before this. However I was so concerned with updating I didn't realize what I was doing. Karekao smacked some sense into me though. I will admit I was selfish in the reason I changed Hinata's character. You see this is how she would have acted in Crimson Tears and I had something planned in that story that I want to post in this one, but to do so I need her character like this. And it kind of makes sense that she would be different sense she found her strength in Naruto and in this story Naruto isn't the same as the original.

I was asked about the villagers, Naruto and the Kyuubi and how that all works out; don't worry I will explain all that later on.

I stopped here for two reasons; one I am tired, and two I am not sure what I want to do. Remember I had you guys vote on the plot awhile back? Well this is where I can go two ways with the story and since you guys already voted, I just need to figure out how I am going to give you what you guys have chosen.

Hopefully this chapter was better then the last one and you guys like it. Remember you can tell me if I am doing something you don't like or if you would like to see me do something in the story. I will listen to all of it and if I can do it while still being me and keeping my story how I envisioned it then I will be sure to do it.

Okay sorry for the long speech. I hope you liked the chapter. Please review. .