Author's Note:

Hey guys its time for another chapter! I hope you enjoy it! Please review?

Disclaimer:

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

Last time:

Finding her key she stared after Shino as he went on his way. "Uh, ok then." Since she hadn't bought anything that needed to be put up right away she opened her door and set her bags down inside the doorway before locking the door again.

Chapter 9: Water

Sasuke had quite literally been thrown into a holding cell days ago. If he had to guess, he'd say it was about a week ago that it happened.

The Anbu ninja who escorted him to the cell took great pleasure informing Sasuke of how escape-proof the cells were in the area they were putting him in. Apparently before the Uchiha extermination, the Anbu had designed special cells just for holding either Uchihas or Hyugas. The cells were lined in the same alloy that the chakra blocking cuffs were made out of, along with shackles on the walls for "if a prisoner gets out of hand". The only way to get around not being able to use chakra in these cells was either being one of the hosts to a tailed beast, Hokage, or a healer who has special training to work around the properties of the alloy.

One of the Anbu when he found out that Sasuke was being held in one of the cells decided to pay him a visit the first night he was there. He wanted to let Sasuke know just how glad he was that he was back, the fact that he brought Naruto with him didn't matter.

A healer arrived the next morning at Tsunade's orders to make sure Sasuke was alright, only to find him lying in a pool of his own blood unconscious, and bruises on his face and ribs. It took her a few hours of work to get him back to some semblance of order before she left to give Tsunade her report. He had no visitors since so he assumed Tsunade made it known he wasn't to be harmed.

Turns out the Anbu stabbed him three times with a kunai in the side, narrowly missing any vital organs, and fractured two of his ribs on his left side, opposite the stab wounds. Sasuke had passed out due to blood loss and exhaustion.

As the days passed the more agitated Sasuke became with the lack of news regarding Naruto, he began to think the worst. Naruto would have been hunting him down or demanding to see him within the first few hours of awaking up, the fact she hadn't was driving him nuts. It meant there was something wrong.

He was sitting on the floor of his cell, leaning against the wall when he heard sound of footsteps stopping outside his cell put him on edge as he listened to a key being placed in the lock. The door swung open to reveal Tsunade standing there looking guarded, and he sat up straighter.

She walked over to him and stopped at his feet looking helpless and lost. "Naruto needs your help." she barely whispered.

Fear filled him as he looked at Tsunade, something was really wrong. Quickly Sasuke got to his feet and held his shackled wrists out to her. "What's going on?"

Taking the cuffs between her own hands Tsunade made a few hand gestures that were too fast for him to read without his sharingan, "Physically she's fine, we purged the poison from her system and put her on an IV. But that was days ago and she still hasn't woken up." the cuffs made a sharp snapping sound before clattering to the floor at their feet, Sasuke rubbed his wrists to get the feeling of them off. "Kakashi tried to go into her mind yesterday to see what was going on but he hit an extremely powerful barrier and couldn't get in."

Looking at the older woman before him Sasuke grew annoyed. "Why wouldn't you come to me first? Kakashi doesn't have even half the power Naruto does, she could have killed him without even knowing it. Hell Kurama could have killed him and how do you think she would have felt then?"

Too angry to wait for an answer he ran out of the cell and back the way they brought him days ago with Tsunade close behind. The few Ninja who tired to stop him quickly backed off once they saw he wasn't restrained and that the Hokage was behind him.

He made it to the Hospital in less than five minutes, before running through the doors and asking someone where Naruto was. The healer he had cornered just stood there figeting and looked as though she was going to pass out. Sasuke caught sight of Saskura coming out of a room nearby and made his way over to her.

When she saw him her face lost all of its color not making his thoughts any better. "S-sasuke."

"Where is she?" he demanded roughly as she took a step back.

"S-she's right in here, b-behind m-me." She had never seen the dark haired man so upset before. She was upset too that this had happened to Naruto but apparently not as much as he was. He reached for the door knob when she grabbed his wrist. "You can't just go in t-there you know." she stated sternly when he turned his glare on her.

"It's alright Sakura, he can go in."

"B-but Lady Tsunade, she's.."

"It's fine Sakura, I believe he's the only one who can help her now. If we want her to wake up we need to let him in there." Sasuke took his chance and dashed into the room before they changed their minds and when Sakura went to follow him Tsunade placed a hand on her shoulder shaking her head. "No, she'll be fine."

Sasuke's eyes zeroed in on Naurto as soon as he stepped through the door, she lay there on the bed, white hospital blanket tucked in up to her armpits with her arms laying at her sides. A single IV ran from the clear bag into her right hand, without it she would look just like she were sleeping. Her color was back to normal and she no longer had a sheen of sweat covering her.

Slowly he made his way over to one of the chairs on the left side the bed and sat down. Carefully he picked up her hand and held it between his own against his lips. Closing his eyes he concentrated on the girl in front of him, he needed her to wake up. He needed to hear her voice and see her brilliant blue eyes again.

When he felt as though he were no longer in the hospital room he opened his eyes to see a massively huge red dome of chakra in what seemed to be a barren desert. There was no stifling 'heat to go with the sight and the only sound was sand moving with the non existent wind.

The edge of the dome was only a few feet in front of him so he didn't have to go very far in order to touch it. Placing both of his hands on the surface he felt the warmth that was missing from the desert and almost flinched, but held his hands in place. Summoning up all the chakra he could he knocked it against the surface beneath his hands.

Almost immediately the chakra of the dome lashed out against him, swallowing him whole, drowning him in a fiery inferno of red heat.

'KURAMA!' Sasuke thought hoping the fox would hear him before he was forced to protect himself, he didn't want to hurt either one of them. Whether by accident or not.

The chakra spun him about and whipped him around as he continued to try and get the fox's attention. After a couple of minutes he knew he needed to do something or he was going to be worse for wear. Especially since he had no reserves after being in that cell for days on end.

As soon as he gathered enough chakra to himself for an attempt to save himself the inferno disappeared into nothingness and something snatched him out of the air, pinning him to the ground under a large reddish orange foot that had very sharp claws.

Teeth snapped inches from his face and a low menacing growl rumbled around him.

"It's about time you showed up." Sasuke gasped as Kurama lift his paw into the air and peered under it at him. "Why the hell hasn't Naruto woken up yet? Tsunade says she got all the poison out of her system."

"What do you mean?"

"She's been asleep for days now and they haven't been able to get her to wake up." Sitting up he looked around Kurama to see the figure of said girl laying in the grass of what seemed to be a desert oasis. Figures she'd lock herself away in something beautiful, where no one would be able to get to her. "They had Kakashi try to get through to you guys to figure out what was going on, but that was apparently a bust."

"Pfft, like he would be able to breach the girl's defenses or mine. He'd die in the attempt, he's getting on in years."

"That's pretty much what I told them." Standing up he dusted the sand off his ass before making his way over to Naruto.

Kurama shrunk in size and followed close to his side and sat beside her. "Seems like the poison had some unforeseen side affects, either that or to protect herself she did this. I didn't make the barrier that you knocked on, ruining my nap. But if it has been as long as you claim, then I am glad you did. You humans tend to need food and water."

"Maybe, locking herself away doesn't really seem her style though, she's more of a charge them head on type of person. But she may not have had any other choice." Sasuke sat down next to her in the grass and brushed some stray hair out of her face. "I really need her to wake up though."

"By all means do so then, she was most likely asleep for so long because I was and her body may have been trying to recover on it's own since my chakra wouldn't have been able to leak through that dome." Yawning Kurama lay down and placed his head on his paws.

"That makes sense I guess."

Sasuke's impatience won out and he shook the girl to wake her. Kurama seemed to be laughing to himself if the rasping noise coming from his direction was any indication.

Naruto's eyes snapped open as she came up swinging at the moron shaking her. "What the fucking hell is wro-" Her words were cut off as she caught sight of a smirking Sasuke leaning away from her.
Suddenly the desert faded away and the hospital room came into view, her body flooded with the feel of her own chakra and Kurama's. Tears welled in her eyes as she realized she wasn't in danger of dying anymore and that she could now reach Kurama. Sasuke's eyes went wide when he saw her about to cry thinking the worst, Naruto never cried, for anything.

"Oh, how I missed you!"

"And I you, though I must say next time you should decide to get poisoned, can it be the non-lethal kind?"

"Most definitely." she thought as her eyes settled on Sasuke once more. He looked tired, as though he hadn't slept well in days, but he also looked worried. But then again who could blame him, he had brought her all the way back to Konoha where he was hated, after traveling for days.

"I'll let you be for now, there will be plenty of time later for catching up."

"Ok, I love you Kurama."

"You too little one."

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes." Sasuke said as she continued to stare at him.

"Thank you for saving me. I know you must not have gotten the warmest of welcomes when we got here." her voice came out as barely more than a hoarse whisper, her tongue and throat felt as dry as sand, and she would kill for a glass of water.

"It went about as well as expected, tossed in a cell, having my chakra cut off, the usual for criminals."

Hearing him be so calm about it caused her to flinch, the movement causing her to notice that her hand was being held by something warm. Looking down she saw her hand inside his, where he tightened his grip hoping she wouldn't pull away. Instead she squeezed back and simply smiled at him.

"I hope you didn't get comfortable in that cell, cause you aren't going anywhere." she demanded with a mock glare in his direction. He was staying where she could see him, afraid he was going to up and leave her again.

"Ha! I'd like to see them try to remove me from your side, YOU aren't leaving my sight. I have come to realize how much I missed you and I would rather not do it again. You scared me half to death Naruto, I thought I was going to lose you there." He watched the fear in her eyes slowly melt away only to be replaced with guilt which only made him feel bad.

"I'm sorry." She looked down into her lap only to look up again when she felt the bed dip beside her, Sasuke sitting right there.

"When I get my hands on the guys who did this they're going to pay with their lives." His eyes hardened at the thought of seeing them again. They were going to pay very slowly for what they did and planned on doing to her. Their plans he would keep to himself for now, she had enough to worry about. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad saying what I did. I just worry about you."

Looking away from him Naruto looked out the window, into the sky, the sun was beginning to set casting everything in a reddish pink hue. "I know that you must have been treated worse than you're telling me, and it's all my fault, if I hadn't gone looking for you then I-" her whispers were silenced as he gently pulled her into his arms.

"Naruto, the only people who should be blamed for anything are those damn ninja that attacked you. From what I had gathered they were going to come after you regardless of what you were doing. They were only looking for a time when you were alone." With his face buried in her blonde hair he held her tight, not wanting to let go, thinking of the horrors that could have happened to her had his people not been nearby. "Can you imagine what could have happened had you not been looking for me? Had Karin, Jugo, and Suigetsu not been there?

Her mind drew a blank at his words, the idea of them having gotten to her with no one to help never entered her mind. "Oh..." escaped her lips breathlessly. Naruto didn't miss how he didn't say anything about his treatment when he arrived in the village. She would ask him again later. Oh boy she really wanted some nice cold water now, she tried wetting her lips only to scrunch her face up and wiggle her nose.

Pushing out of his hold gently she looked up at him. "Hey, Sasuke?"

"Hmn?"

"Can you get me a glass of water?"

Smiling at his dobe he only nodded his head before getting up and walking over to the sink.

Author's note... again:

Hope you enjoyed! Please review and let me know. All reviews are loved and greatly appreciated!