AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey guys!

Sorry it took so long to update. I love that you guys are still reading my stories with as bad as I am at updating lately. *cries in corner*

This chapter also took me longer to write since i wanted it to go a certain way and couldn't quite figure out how to get there.

Thank you to everyone who read and or left a review on the last chapter.

I hope you enjoy and remember to review!

DISCLAIMER:

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.

Last time:

It would probably be better for everyone involved if they left while Naruto wasn't awake to fight them on it.

He'd deal with her later on his own terms.

Chapter 5: Revelations

Naruto woke to the gentle feeling of being carried, each time the person's foot would lightly touch the ground and leap off again, the motion would cause her to sway a little. If she hadn't just woken it up it would probably lull her to sleep. Her arms were hanging over someone's neck and her legs were held tightly, with their arms wrapped around her thighs.

'Why am I being carried? Why is the day almost over, that doesn't seem right.' Her thoughts were sluggish and refused to provide answers she sought causing her brow to furrow in confusion. 'I remember leaving the village a while ago and following a lead on Teme, but why...' Her eyes caught sight of the ninja traveling beside who ever was carrying her a few feet away. Her appearance struck a chord as familiar, her red hair standing out against the green of the leaves behind her. The deep red of her hair seemed almost blood red in the light of the setting sun.

When she looked over at Naruto she seemed to roll her eyes before dropping back a few feet. "She's awake Sasuke."

Memories of the past few days began to filter through her mind as the person under her 'hnn'ed in response. She remembered Sasuke being angry at her for not asking to stop sooner and all the blood, and the pain. Oh boy the pain, though she was sure it was the blood loss that caused her to pass out.

'Sasuke.' She snuggled into his back, wrapping her arms more securely around his shoulders, facing off to the side, knowing he wasn't going to let her down anytime soon. Not with the way he yelled at her before.

"How are you feeling?" His voice rumbled in her ears full of warmth and something she couldn't name. 'Maybe concern?'

"Tired." she whispered causing her breath to tickle his ear since she had to turn towards him so he could hear her. 'Maybe I over did it' The thought of being unable to wake up even sooner than before made her heart ache. She didn't tell him that she was cold too because she knew he would stop and they needed to get her back to the village as soon as they could. They had already stopped long enough because of her, it was bad enough that he was going to have to pay this. The thought of him getting thrown in jail for any reason caused tears to form in her eyes.

Feeling her warm breath on his ear sent an electric shock down his spine and he had to close his eyes and bite back a groan that threatened to escape. His mind raced to thoughts of feeling her breath tickle other parts of him. With effort he slammed the door on those thoughts and brought his focus back to the present where Naruto was sick. Those type of feelings or thoughts wouldn't help anyone right now. They still had two more days to go before they reached the village, and only a matter of time before Naruto wouldn't be able to wake up he wasn't sure she was going to this time since it had been over twelve hours since their last stop.

"We'll be stopping soon for the night Dobe, don't worry." Sasuke lightly touched his head to hers in a show of comfort, she lightly pushed back and hummed her agreement.

Noticing that her eyes were closed again Naruto opened them to look around. Suigetsu came into view before dropping out again before Karin popped up in his place. They moved well together, almost as well as her and Sasuke, before he left that is. Mentally shrugging to herself. 'We probably still work well together.' She smiled slightly at the thought, holding onto him a little tighter. 'I can't believe I found him. I missed him so much. I'm sorry about how much I complained about him Kur-' Remembering that she couldn't talk to Kurama caused any happiness she was feeling slip away. 'I miss you too.'

Sasuke stopped not long after deciding that they needed a break, they'd been going nonstop for over twelve hours thanks to some Military Ration Pills that Karin learned to make a while back. She can't make a lot of them at a time since the ingedients are hard to come by as a rouge ninja, so they each had three a piece with them. Minus the ones they took after Naruto passed out. They had thought about giving one to her to see if it would help her any but Sasuke vetoed that idea because of her blood loss. He explained to them that if they were to give her any she would just keep going until she passed out and dropped, or bled to death.

He made his way ove to the base of a near by tree and set Naruto on her feet, reaching out a steadying hand as she swayed, before sitting down slumped against the tree. He noticed that she was begining to shake every few seconds or so, which made him angry with himself. 'Of course she's cold!' Making his way over to where Jugo was standing drinking from his canteen, Sasuke motioned for him to hand over Naruto's pack. 'And of course she wouldn't say anything about it. Then again I should have known better.'

He dug in it for her blanket finding it at the bottom, before dropping the bag and it's contents on the ground and stomping back to the frustrating blonde ninja shivering her ass off. Tucking the blanket around her small form he called out for Suigetsu to come over.

"Hey go gather some firewood and set up a perimiter around camp."

"Yeah, whatever." he scoffed, before taking off to do as he said.

Karin watched Sasuke interact with the blonde girl, jealousy rearing it's ugly head again. What was so great about such a weak girl? 'She couldn't even prevent herself from being pisoned, granted it was a poison that only this ninja they were going to see might be able to cure, but still.' She really didn't like to see Sasuke paying any girl attention, he was hers. He never showed anyone anything more than a look of distain, but this girl he smiles at and talks to as though she was the most precious thing in the world. It made her angry about that.

"Karin." Sasuke's voice called out to her.

"What?" She placed her hands on her hips. 'Bet he asks me to check the girl out to make sure she's ok. I don't care if she's his best friend, I don't like this arrangement.' When he tilted his head to motion for her to come closer she did, her arms falling to her sides as she let out a heavy sigh.

"You might want to be nicer."

Rolling her eyes she pulled the blanket away and lifted up the blonde's shirt to examine her bandages. They were a little blood stained but nothing too serious so she pulled the shirt back down, feeling her thigh, she noted that it was dry so that wound at least hadn't begun bleeding again. Karin took note of how her breathing was shallow and that her complextion was quite pale compared to when they started over twenty hours ago. Her skin was also cool to the touch, most likely from the blood loss and the exertion, if they were lucky she wouldn't develop a fever in the next few hours.

"She needs rest and to be kept warm so she doesn't go into shock, she's also going to need to eat and get some fluids into her."

"I'm right here you know," Piercing blue eyes eyed Karin as she removed her hands from Naruto. Sasuke smirked as Naruto held her side and tried to make herself more comfortable and Karin mumbled under her breath as she got up to leave. "Thank you for checking my wounds."

"Sasuke asked me to." Was all she said before going over to where Jugo and Suigetsu were making a fire and laying out their bedrolls. Karin plopped herself down at the base of a tree slightly away from the guys but close enough to still feel the heat of the flames once they got it started.

"She's nice." Naruto grumbled as she moved to stand up, knowing that it would probably be better to stay on the ground. But she wanted to be warm and the fire was over there. So gripping the blanket that hung on her shoulders like a cape she took her first steps.

Sasuke went to give her a hand that she shrugged off, she wanted to do something on her own damnit. Hobbling, she slowly made her way over to the fire they finally managed to light, why Sasuke didn't offer to use his fire jutsu to get it going she didn't know, but whatever.

"She's nice enough when you get to know her." he said, causing her to scoff, as he kept a slow pace beside her incase she needed help. He knew she didn't want it but he was going to offer anyway, just incase.

Reaching the edge of the fire's warmth Naruto lowered herself to the ground with as much grace as a dropped stone. But she made it on her own so she felt good about herself, well as good as one can feel having their energy slowly drained by poison.

Shruging at her internal monolouge, Naruto pulled her blanket tighter around herself, her teeth begining to chatter together violently and her muscles begining to spaz. She could feel her eyelids begining to droop even though she just woke up not too long ago. "Won't be long now, I suppose." she sighed to herself and felt Sasuke's nearness as he sat down next to her.

Before she could think better of it she scooted her ass closer to him so she could rest her head on his shoulder. Boney for sure, but still more comfortable than lying on the ground.

Slightly shocked at her actions Sasuke sat still as she made herself comfortable while shivering and wrapping the blanket tighter around herself. He could hear her teeth as they clattered from not being able to stay warm, which made him feel feel bad, not being able to do anything more for her. Knowing it was only going to get worse the next few days. He wrapped his arm around her back and held her closer.

"I'm sorry."

Sasuke looked down at her blonde head confused. "Why?"

"Because," she paused as though to gather her thoughts together, "because if I wasn't in this predicament we could be spending time together catching up instead of heading back to where everyone hates you and wants to kill you. " Naruto smiled softly. She felt him chuckle behind her as her eye lids began to grow heavier. "We could go on an adventure and not come back for a long time." she laughed quietly to herself at the thought. She pictured her and Sasuke camping out in some remote town buying ramen.

Sasuke's eyebrows rose at her words and couldn't help the smile that graced his face.

Seeing Sasuke acting so chummy with the blonde girl caused Karin's blood to heat, especially since he was smiling at her. They had been sitting there by the fire for a while now, cuddling close, and chatting. Even though the blonde lloked like shit Karin didn't care, he was her Sasuke.

"Where would we go on this adventure?" He asked quietly resting his head lightly on hers.

"Oh, to the desert. We could visit Garra along the way. We would find an oasis and stay there for a short time before naturally a bunch of rouge ninja found us." She giggled softly. "And you know we'd have to kick their asses for interupting our peace and quiet." shrugging her shoulders she continued. "And then we would travel on to find a new place to hide out away from everybody."

"That sounds like fun, but could we not do the rouge ninja? I think you have had your fill of those to last a lifetime." Sasuke murmered, he could think of other things he'd rather do than beat up ninja at a peaceful oasis with her. Thing he had wanted to do while she was still a boy, that wouldn't be looked down on quite so much now. Granted he knew that anything to do with Naruto would be frowned apon since he was technically a rouge ninja himself and wanted for crimes commited, but he didn't care.

Smiling to herself Naruto had to agree with him. "I wouldn't mind giving a few of them a piece of my mind for doing this."

Humming in agreement Sasuke didn't say anything, instead he was thinking of the ways he'd like to give them 'a piece of his mind' too.

Sasuke looked at the sky through the canopy of leaves above, the sun had set a couple hours ago while they sat there talking. Naruto seemed to be getting more and more tired as the time went on and he wondered how much longer she would be able to stay awake. He knew she was strong but he also knew that even she had her limits. Unconciously holding her colser to himself as though it would fix everything and keep her there with him he burried his face in her hair.

"Sasuke?"

"Hmmnn?"

"I'm scared." she sounded so small as her hands grabbed ahold of his shirt as tightly as they could like it was a lifeline, which for her right now it might as well be.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I will get you to Tsunade in time. I swear it." Swallowing the hard lump that had formed he continued. "You are going to wake up again." he wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her or himself this time.

"I ... trust you." she whispered as her eyes closed and her grip let go. He adjusted her so that she was mostly curled up in his lap as he rocked her back and forth trying to comfort her even though she couldn't feel it where she was.

Her breathing was slow and shallow and he knew even though she looked like she was resting peacefully, that she was anything but. She was effectively trapped in her own mind and the stakes were dangerously high as to whether he'd see her again open her eyes. He really hoped he wasn't lying to her when he told her she'd wake again.

"Finally." came the snide comment from behind him.

Keeping his temper in check was always harder to do when it involved Naruto on a good day, today wasn't a good day but he managed to reel most of it in. "She deserves your respect. She deserves your respect more than anyone else alive."

"Respect my ass!" Karin said getting angry, that girl didn't deserve anything from her, least of all that. "She is the reason you're going to be imprisoned and may die! I say we just leave her here!" She swept her arm angrly through the air motioning to the unconcious blonde in his lap. "She is nothing but a hindrance and we would be better off leaving her behind!" Glaring at Sasuke she waited for his response.

He needed her he kept saying over and over in his head event though he wanted to show her how wrong she was. Naruto was everything to him and if he was honest with himself he was never planning on staying away from Naruto forever. Sasuke eventually was going to return to him which was far easier to do now. He couldn't understand though why she hated Naruto so much.

He waited a few moments before responding to Karin. "She is the last member of your clan besides yourself, Karin. Do you really want to leave her to die knowing that she is your cousin, your family, that she is your blood?" He looked up at the red headed female that now loked as though she had been punched in the gut. "Naruto doesn't know that any Uzumaki besides herself are alive just as you didn't until now. Whether or not you choose to share that information with her is up to you, but she is your cousin."

"H-how?" Looking down at the blonde in Sasuke's lap she tried to looke for and family resemblance and found little. "She's Kushina's daughter?! But that makes no sense why was I never told?" Glaring at the now slightly more calmed dow Uchiha she pointed her finger at him, "How long have you known?" she mentally smacked herself, 'Of couse he's known since he found out my name, stupid.' "Why didn't you tell me about her?"

Rolling his eyes he adjusted Naruto in his arms before standing. "Jugo, make her a resting place by the fire so she stays warm" The larger man got up from where he was sitting and began the task he was asked of.

Looking back towards Karin he finally answered her. "At the time it wasn't important. But you wouldn't let it go. So the only way for me to make sure you wouldn't dare harm Naruto was to tell you. Besides she was a boy before, I didn't want you trying to revibe the Uzukami clan with something that was mine."

Karin blushed at the thought of reviving her clan with the boy Naruto, their relation to eachother was distant enough that it wouldn't have been frowned upon and their children wouldn't have been made fun of.

Shaking her head to clear it she frowned. "It still wasn't your choice to make."

"But it was." Sasuke growled, "Naruto is mine."

Karin's eyes widened at his tone and the meaning of his words. His manner told her that he meant every word. "But you just found out that she was a girl! She was a boy before! doesn't that bother you?!"

From the look on his face and the way possessiveness litterally poured from him she got the impression that his feelings weren't new. He didn't love the body, he didn't care if Naruto was a boy or a girl, he wanted,.. no, he loved Naruto.

"...Oh." silently slipped from her lips as she watched him set the blonde down on the bed that Jugo had just made for her. Watched silently as he gently tucked the blanket wround her and placed the pillow under her head. Looked away as he tenderly brushed some stray hair behind her ear.

She knew now that she never even had a chance. Sasuke belonged fully to Naruto Uzumaki whether the blonde knew it or not.

But, that didn't mean she had to be nice or let her know that.

Author's note...again:

I really hope you liked the chapter. Again sorry it took so long.

I try to update my profile to let everyone know when to expect the next chapter or to know what's going on. I have toned it down to working on one story at a time to try and make things go faster. So we'll see how that goes.

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