Insanity's Slip

Chapter Twenty One

By Boejangles

Ino paused looking back at Shikamaru and Choji irritated that they were being slow, "come on guys hurry up already." She shook her head impatiently and looked back in front of her. She tilted her head in confusion, 'pink? Sakura?'

Jumping down out of the tree she rushed over to the fallen figure of Sakura, "Shikamaru get over here now." she noted the blood that trailed down the girl's forehead and colored the front part of her hair.

"Geez what's the rush…" Shikamaru stopped at seeing the fallen Sakura he looked around searching for her male teammates.

Ino used the cloth of her arm brace the clean up the blood and locate the wound. It wasn't as bad as it looked seeing deeper wounds bleed less. Ino assumed Sakura had hit her head on the tree. It looked as if the girl would be fine besides a major headache when she woke up.

Shikamaru shook his head when he found the unconscious body of Uchiha Sasuke. He was beat up a bit, but no wound looked incredibly worse than the others as his entire back was painted red from where he slammed into a tree and tore the skin open.

"I found Naruto," Choji called out looking down at the boy with a sad frown.

"My baby!" Ino came rushing over and quickly examined the blood for injuries. There were a few bruises and a strange mark on his neck, but otherwise he was untouched. The blonde haired girl looked from one of her teammates to the other, 'We have to look after them till they can fend for themselves."

Shikamaru sighed looking back to the older Uchiha, "What a bother, but you are right." He picked up Sasuke and tossed him over his shoulder, "well let's get a move on we can't get far with this much baggage when need to find a place to camp."

Choji nodded and picked up Naruto then went over and picked up Sakura, "lead the way."

Sasuke bolted up into a sitting position and grabbed the wrist of the person that was getting ready to touch him. Turning his head to look at the person he realized it was the girl from the academy Ino.

Ino had startled at Sasuke's sudden movements and her eyes had grown wide, "g..good morning Sasuke."

Sasuke kept a hold on the girl's wrist, "what where you doing?"

Ino stumbled on her words trying to get an answer out fast, "I…I was j...just checking on your wounds. We found you unconscious."

The Uchiha gave a nod and let go of the blonde's wrist, "where is my brother?"

Ino motioned to the other side of the cave that they had taken team seven to recover.

Sasuke pushed himself up even though it still hurt a bit and walked over to where his brother was laying. He leaned down and shook his shoulder.

"I wouldn't do that, he just stopped convulsing." came a voice from the entrance of the cave.

Sasuke looked over to see Shikamaru entering the cave with his arms full of fire wood, "what are you talking about?"

Shikamaru set the wood down before setting up the pieces for a fire, "what a bother, I already said it, he has been convulsing every now and then and it takes a bit to get him to stop, so if you would not shake him."

Sasuke glared, but removed his hand from his brother. Somewhere in the back of his mind he remembered his other teammate, "what about Sakura, where is she?"

Ino decided it was a good time to jump back in the conversation as it looked as though Shikamaru was done talking for awhile. "She woke up earlier today; she is out with Choji getting food."

Sasuke gave a nod before staring at the dirt in front of him, "why are you doing this?"

Shikamaru shook his head, "you really don't get it." He looked at the Uchiha before shaking his head again, "we are all Konoha ninja, and we take care of each other."

Sasuke frowned slightly at this answer and decided to turn his attention to his brother.

A/N: So it's like three am and basic mind functions are starting to fail, but I wanted to get this out to you guys so that you know I am a live and can have a small preview of what's going to happen. I've written down all my ideas for the next chapter and will get on it when my brain is functioning better and after my friend is finished visiting. Under a month I promise or you can throw rotten vegetables at me and spam up my e-mail with hate letters. I'd even say t expect it in a week.

Please leave a review they make me happy it was actually a review that got me to write this. So you guys can thank the person that pointed out I hadn't updated for five months. o.0 I plan on catching my muse in a jar so it can't get away this time.

So tell me what you think. Take care, be well, safe travels, and blessed be.