Sasuke looked up at the face of his best friend as the pillar of light above them slowly faded away as the dark chakra induced storm clouds slid over the light, which brought with them a sense of renewal as the rain slowly started pouring down.

Sasuke then turned his gaze towars the cobalt blue eyes of the former loser of Konoha. In them he could see traces of pride; pride for finally beating his rival. Anger; anger for him trying to leave. And then finally sadness; sadness that comes with the knowledge that one of his only trusted friends had tried to kill him for the sake of power.

Power that was now unobtainable.

He watched as Naruto clutched his hand over the woulnd to his lung as he applied pressure to stop the bleeding from that last attack he had hit him with. Before his eyes, Sasuke could see that the blood gushing out out of his lung was already healing. It would probably be closed within a couple of hours if he didn't move to much strain or aggravating it.

Sasuke's wounds were superficial in comparrison to his friend's. All he was suffering from was the blow that Naruto had purposely diverted his attack to his right shoulder which which was now bleeding profusely. But Sasuke knew it. Naruto could have easily ended his life right there and then if he wanted to.

He knew it.

Turning his gaze towards his best frineds eyes, Sasuke let out a cough of blood. "What makes you so strong?" Sasuke barely breathed out in a voice that was barely audible. Those few words coming out of Sasuke's mouth were enough to admit defeat to his team mate. But Sasuke needed to know. He needed to know how the former loser of Konoha that couldn't do anything right ended up defeating him. The last Uchiha who had spent almost all of his waking hours to becoming strong.

Naruto was silent for a moment as he stood still gazing down at him with a contemplative look on his face. Eventually, the orange clad boy shook his head as he sighed at how pityful the Uchiha looked lying on the ground at his feet.

"Killing him means everything to you, doesn't it Sasuke?" Naruto said sadly as he turned his gaze towards the storm clouds brewing over head as the pouring rain whipped across his face. Sasuke could just make out the tears across his friend's rain splattered face as we watched him try and figure out what to do. However, he said nothing. Naruto then turned his sights back down to the ground where Sasuke lay broken and beaten before him. "Why does your revenge consume you so? Why do you let that man take control of your life even though he left it all those years ago?"

Sasuke let a contemplative silence fall over the two of them before speaking up. "He took everything I knew and tore it up in front of my eyes," He croaked as he tried unsuccessfully to force the memories away. "I'm suffering now because I had those bonds to begin with." He turned his eyes away as he looked to the waterfall near them. "You don't understand what is like to have everything you ever loved only to have it destroyed in front of your very eyes." His own set of tears started leaking out of his eyes. "I want to kill him so their souls can rest peacefully."

Naruto looked down at his friend for a few seconds before sighing softly, He closed his eyes and then reopened them after half a minute of contemplative silence. Slowly, a small smile started forming on his face.

"It's because I have people who I care about and would do anything to protect them, even if it cost me my life. I learned long ago that without someone that is truly precious to you, you can never be strong. That is why I beat you Sasuke. You are my best friend Sasuke. That is why I would risk my life to prevent you from giving your life to Orochimaru. To protect you from yourself."


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"Kakashi! It's started to rain!" Pakkun the ninja hound exclaimed to his summoner as he lead Kakakshi to where he Sasuke had been intercepted.

"Do you still have Sasuke's scent?" Kakashi asked urgently as he raced after the hound at sonic speeds. "The rain won't wash away the scent will it?"

"No, their scent has generally clumped together into one mass up ahead a couple of kilometers from here which is where they fought. Right now they aren't moving and even through the rain the stench of blood is still potent."

Kakashi processed this information as he looked up at the heavily Demon induced Chakra saturated clouds. Considering the general area, Kakashi came down to one conclusion of where the two boys actually had their confrontation. By now, a foolproof plan had already formulated in his head.

"Pakkun, you better go back to your realm." The hound in question turned his gaze towards his summoner. "Judging by that thick stench of blood you smelt, that means that the both of them are hostile. The hound nodded as he got the meaning behind what Kakashi was getting at as he puffed away in a cloud of smoke, best not get involved in a fight between either of Kakashi's two students.

"I can only hope I'm not too late, Obito." He muttered to himself as the Valley of the End came into view.


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Sasuke stared to the heavens as he contemplated the words Naruto had spoken about his source of strength.

If what he said was true; that having someone you would gladly protect with your own life and soul was the source behind true strength.

Then what was hate?

Throughout his life, Sasuke had lived life with the sole purpose of killing his brother. And where had that left him? He had everything he ever wanted handed to him on a silver platter, everyone wanted to be his friend. Naruto on the other hand...

Naruto had started life with nothing. He had to struggle to get every scrap of substances that weren't worthy enough to feed to a orphanage full of starving children. And when Naruto was growing up, he was always insulted and beaten up for practically no reason at all; no children would go near him in fear of reprimandation and eventually started picking up mannerisms of the adults of the village.

Sasuke seriously doubted Naruto had at least one person that considered him anymore than an acquaintance at best.

Naruto had lived a life where it was expected of him to hate everything around him, yet he still held onto his beliefs about precious people. And he was a better man for it.

Sasuke was the only person in the world that considered Naruto as a friend. His best friend.

And then what did he try to do? He tried to send his fist through Naruto's heart with the intention of killing him.

Hate was the path to self destruction.

"Naruto," He croaked out as his voice was getting dry as he looked up at the face of his best friend. "I'm sorry."

Sasuke watched as the light came back into his friend's eyes as the first true smile formed on his face. "Come on Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed, exuberance sounding in his voice as he hoisted his best friend to his feet, ignoring the pain filled grunts that Sasuke unwillingly let out from his shoulder wound as the rain slowly stopped and the clouds started dissipating.

"Lets go back to Konoha so we can tell everyone how I totally kicked your ass!" Naruto cheered as he let go of Sasuke as he pumped his fists into the air. By now, the wound to his lung had formed a light scar over his lung.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow as Naruto started walking away. Not at his team mate's antics, but because he felt something around that he had felt before that shouldn't be there. As the rain slowly drew to slight trickle, he finally realized what it was. But why?

"Whats the matter Sasuke?" Naruto asked as he turned back around to face his team mate. Before Sasuke could even even say anything however, their was a flash of movement, the sound of chirping birds, and a bloodied hand sticking out of Naruto's chest.

"Wha-" He choked on his own blood which spluttered out of his mouth which splattered over the ground along with the blood now pooling around his feet as he reached his hands towards the one which had just pierced it's way through his torso. Slowly, he turned his head to stare at the impassive eyes of who he called his sensei. "Wh-Why?" He choked out as Kakashi ripped his hand back out of Naruto's re injured lung which caused Naruto to fall to his knees.

"What are you doing!?" Sasuke shouted. Ignoring the wound in his shoulder, he ran toward Kakashi who, not even taking his eyes off the boy kneeling before him, was kicked and was sent bouncing along the ground and rolled to a stop. Sasuke struggled to get up but could barely lift his body more than a few centimeters above the ground before unconsciousness over took him.

"Why are y-you do-ing this?" Naruto spluttered out as he continued to cough up blood. He no longer had the strength to hold himself up and dropped his arms to stabilize himself. He looked up at his Sensei's eyes with confusion and was met with emotionless and apathy.

"You are detrimental to my goals and Sasuke's progress." He told Naruto without a care in the world. "It would be best for all of us if you do not come back to Konoha." Kakashi said simply as he turned away and walked over to Sasuke's fallen body. "Don't make me have to kill you, it would be a shame to have to kill a student." He muttered without really meaning anything. "No one cares for you Naruto." Then without another word, he picked up the body of his favored student and leaped away, leaving Naruto to whatever fate had install for him.


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"I have done as you said, Obito,"Kakashi said to no one as he leaped over the branches on his way back to Konoha. "Sasuke no longer is on his wat to Orochimaru and Naruto is no longer a part of the village." All was silent as he leaped over more branches as the scenery blurred past.

Kakashi smiled to himself as he leaped over the never ending number of branches of the Konoha Forest's trees. No one could refute his story about having to attack the Jinchuuriki if the fool ever tried to get back into the village, not that he would get the chance anyway. No one could deny that he had let the Kyuubi out because he felt it like a tidal wave when he first left the village in search of Sasuke. He would just tell Tsunade that the seal had become unstable and he had to do something about the boy before the Kyuubi gained control again. And besides, even if Tsunade didn't believe him, the council would easily override her, her oppinion didn't matter anyway.

Kakashi turned his to look at his young charge on his back as he thought about what to do for the rest of his team. Hopefully he could ditch the girl so he could focus primarily on making it up to Obito by restoring his clan's former prestige to what it was, perhaps even something more. Naruto and Sakura were both detrimental to this goal. 'It's what Obito would have wanted.' He thought to himself.

You see, Kakashi didn't care for any of his subordinates. Not Naruto, not Sakura. Nor even Sasuke. The only reason he favored the Uchiha was to fulfill his promise he made to Obito's name to bring honor back to his clan.

Kakashi was cut out of his musings when he felt a medic nin of four rapidly approaching his position. He turned his head towards the leader and nodded.

"How is the Uchiha, sir?" The leader of the team asked, the concern in his voice was heard with little strain to the ears.

"It appeared that when I had arrived, his shoulder had been almost torn to pieces from an attack from Naruto." He began his tale to criminalise Naruto. "It appeared that the fox had taken over and Naruto was lost to it." The medics were shocked to say the least. "I did what I could to minimize colateral damage."

One of the medics tried to hide his hope but failed miserably. "Is the Jinchuuriki dead?" He asked.

Kakashi shook his head solemnly. "I did what I could but the host escaped. I didn't take off after him because I had to get Sasuke back." Was all Kakashi said, giving off the impression he no longer wanted to talk about 'failing' his student.

"So how are the others doing? Are they alright?" He asked. Not because he cared, but it gave the impression he did.


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"Why?" Hicoughed the broken Naruto as he struggled to comprehend why his world and everything he trusted had ripped itself to pieces right before his eyes. "Why?" He said with a little more conviction as he got to his feet, the Kyuubi's chakra already healling the wound to his lung. Why would Sasuke throw away their friendship for the sake of attaining power? Why would Kakashi try to kill him for no reason at all. "Why!?" He screamed to the heavens as he let loose a wave of chakra which blew all the trees that were nearby to their sides.

"True power is to protect my precious people? That is not power." His wound to his lung had already healed from the massive influx of Kyuubi chakra. "I have no one precious to me." He spoke with the conviction of a mass murderer. "With that goal I would have been dead many times over if it weren't for the damn Kyuubi."

"Is that why Sasuke was powerful? Because he let hate consume him? Because he only focused on making himself stronger?" He had to admit it, without the fox, Sasuke would have anihilated him.

"Protecting others is useless." He grinned madly, the Kyuubi's power circulating all around his body. "If I protect others, I will be needlessly be placing my life at risk. From now on, I will fight only for myself and my life however I want not give a damn about the consequences." He giggled as he turned his gaze down towards his stomach. The charkra illuminating the seal on his naval that kept the fox inside of him.'May as well milk the damn thing for all it's worth.' He grinned as he drew the most amount of charkra from the fox that he ever had before.

Not too far away, a humanoid plant like organism watched on as the Jinchuuriki let the demon inside of him take over. "He is now right for the taking." Zetsu grinned to himself as he started walking towards the boy.

Chapter 2

Jiraiya surveyed the former battlefield as he arrived at the scene of where he felt the Kyuubi's chakra at it most potent. Looking around, he could see the damage that the statues of the Uchiha founder and the First Hokage had taken and the general mayhem around them. Rubble had been thrown across the valley, several boulders were charcoal black and the waters of the river were still turbulent.

The chakra from the Kyuubi still lingered at this point, even though it had been hours since it had first been registered in Konoha.

The only part of Naruto that remained at the Valley of the End were fragments of his clothes and his dried up blood.

"Damn..." He muttered to himself as he tried to sense the path that the Kyuubi's chakra had taken, whether it was going back towards Konoha or away from the village.

There was no direction; it had simply vanished.

However, there was a peculiar presence that he had never felt before that seemed like two different chakra systems wrapped into one. The only other thing that he could tell was that it was damn powerful. If he had to guess...

"Akatsuki..." He grit his teeth as he glared around the valley, daring the culprit to show themselves.

Jiraiya then lost it. In a complete break from his natural, easy going, persona he screamed many profanities out to the world as he started to decimate the surrounding scenery with his vast repertoire of jutsu and sheer power of his attacks.

"Damn it Naruto..." And with that, he leaped away, travelling towards he was scheduled to meet his Akatsuki informant.


“Sasuke!” Sakura shouted as her sensei arrived back at the village with her team mate draped across his back. Kakashi took one look at the Kunoichi and rolled his eyes. “What happened to Sasuke, sensei!?” She yelled out in hysteria when she noticed the rather large hole in his shoulder. “Is he okay? And wher-“

“I have to get Sasuke to the hospital.” Kakashi muttered as he walked past the girl and then shunshined away, leaving a bewildered Sakura in his wake.

“And where is Naruto…” She finished the interrupted question as she turned back to the outskirts of the village. All that could be seen were everyday random villagers going to and from their various activities and happily talking to each other without a care in the world.

There was not one sign of orange anywhere.

Her mind quickly came to the single conclusion based on everything she knew and had observed about her team mates.

“Naruto…” She said sadly as she turned her gaze towards the hospital building. “No…” She pleaded. “No Sasuke, you couldn’t have…” But all the evidence based on her team mates pointed towards it.

“No!” She shook her head, pushing those thoughts away. Naruto must have come back to the village when she was having lunch… Or maybe he was just being slow as usual! That’s it!

But deep down she knew, Naruto would come back with Sasuke out cold, slung over his shoulder or die trying.

Naruto wouldn’t even dream of leaving the village so that option could be crossed out.

Her hands trembled and her body shook violently as she came to the final conclusion. There were no ifs or buts about it. Naruto was dead, killed by his only friend.

“Naruto…” She sniffled out, tears forming in her eyes.


“It appears that the team you sent out to collect the Sharingan was unsuccessful my lord.” Kabuto informed the snake sannin the bad news as he knelt before him. “And I regret to inform you that out of the team you sent to collect the Uchiha, none of them returned. All were killed in action.”

Orochimaru was livid at this news.

His breathing was ragged and his glare as cold as ice as he watched the quivering form of his subordinate. “Please tell me Kabuto,” Orochimaru hissed out. “Who was responsible for the deaths of my five best subordinates?”

“Well sir, each of them were killed by separate shinobi.” Kabuto told him nervously as the sweat fell down his panic stricken face. He gulped before continuing. “Jirobou was killed by a single strike to his stomach, effectively turning his vital organs and all of his other innards to paste. Kidomaru was killed by heart failure as it seems all of the veins were closed off. Tayaya--“ Orochimaru stopped listening as his mind landed on the clan who was most likely responsible for the death of that subordinate.

“And although Kimimaro was killed by his disease, the place where we found his body ended up being a desert rather than the field of grass that we were expecting. This leads us to believe that the late Kazekage's children were involved in the deaths of the sound five.”

Orochimaru was quiet before speaking up again. “As of now, the Uchiha is irrelevant to the situation. So far, Sunagakure is still in a state of civil unrest from the death of the Yondaime and the Ichibi jinchuuriki is the individual most likely to ascend to the position of the Godaime. If we act fast enough, we could place someone in a well placed position so they could destroy the village from the inside.” Orochimaru looked expectantly at the bespectacled youth.

“What do you require of me my lord?” He had a feeling he knew what was coming up next.

“Kill the jinchuuriki and burn Suna to the ground before they even realise what's happening.”


“Tsunade, may we have a word?” The Hokage heard as she traversed towards the hospital room where she was scheduled to perform an operation for a shinobi who had been recently returned from a mission in a critical condition.

“What do you two want?” She snapped at the elderly council members. Koharu and Homura withstood the killing intent the same way they would a slight breeze.

“We would like to speak to you about the squad you sent on a recent mission to intercept the Uchiha on the boy's quest to deport himself to Orochimaru's grasp. Said the male of the duo as Koharu watched on solemnly. “More specifically, one individual member of this squadron in particular.”

Tsunade immediately realised what the two of the council members were onto. “Listen you two,” She glared at the two. “I do not have time to deal with your complaints about me sending Naruto out of Konoha to retrieve the Uchiha.” The look she gave the two had as much venom in it as one of Orochimaru's snake summons bites. “I did not sign up to be Hokage to listen to you two moan about my judgement.” She said turning away and walking down the hospital hallway.

“Tsunade-sama,” The suffix was said with mock sweetness as Koharu turned and smiled her former Genin partner. “Need we remind you who in this establishment is above whom?”

Tsunade stopped in her tracks as she turned her head and glared at the two, which failed to mask the confused expression evident in her face.

Homura continued where his female counterpart left off. “You see Tsunade, I don't think you realise this or anyone has told you, but you are not in charge here.” Tsunade's eyebrow raised as she fully turned her body around to give the two elders her full attention.

“You see, the position of Hokage is only that of a figurehead. You have no authority over the council.” Tsunade could feel the chakra amassing in her right fist.

“You see Tsunade, you didn't sign up to merely just listen to our advice, you signed up to follow out the advice we give you, whether you like it or not.”

The two turned away and laughed. “And by the way Tsunade, you do have the time to listen to us 'moan', as you put it. If you want to see the jinchuuriki again, we suggest you come with us.” And with that, the two rounded the corner and leaving a stunned Hokage in their wake.

Regaining her composure, Tsunade turned and bowed her head towards the poor Akimichi boy who she was basically leaving on his death bed.

Just as she started walking back to the tower, she looked towards the leader of the squad from the partially successful mission who had heard the entire exchange and dipped her head gravely in an apology.

“I am truly sorry,” Tsunade whispered out before walking away.


“It appears we have a traitor in our midst.” Madara told Konan and Pain as he observed the city of Amegakure below him, his back turned towards the two of them. Pain raised his eyebrow at this. “Maybe two if my hunch is correct.”

Lightning struck a nearby construction as the sound roared through the building that served as their main hub of operations.

“What makes you think we have a traitor in our organisation?” Pain asked as he tilted his head to the right. The confusion was so tangible, the question mark above his head was easily visible. “Let alone two?”

Madara turned his head and observed the Rin’negan master through the single eye hole in his mask. “I was observing your former sensei, Nagato.” He said simply, not elaborating anymore than that.

“Jiraiya?” Konan spoke up. “What does Jiraiya have to do with a spy in the Akatsuki?”

“How deep do you believe Jiraiya’s spy network goes?” The Uchiha founder let his rhetorical question hang in the air as he turned to face the two of them. “Jiraiya has accomplices everywhere, including the Akatsuki.” He let the two absorb this new information while he turned back around.

“Itachi.” Pain finally spoke up as he went through all the possibilities of who it could be in his head. Madara didn't deny so he assumed he had come to the right conclusion. “But why would Itachi betray us like this?”

Madara was silent before finally answering. “When he left Konoha, it appears that he had been told to do so by the Hokage.” He let a musing silence fall over the room, which was only broken by the sounds of rain splattering on the roof and the ground below.

“Then it seems that Itachi was not even behind the Uchiha attack four years ago... Was he?” Pain said as he turned his gaze towards the Uchiha.”Was he Madara?”

Madara let the rhetorical question stew in the air as the silence deafened them.

"Master, it appears that we have a problem!" Madara turned his head and regarded the figure of the spiky haired, one eyed man with disinterest as he waved his hand lazily to tell the man to continue. "The council have made a decision about what will happen to the Uchiha boy. Rather than imprison him; they are going to have the boy extradited officially, but they have decided to treat him as a rogue shinobi." The servant left the rest of the synopsis of the situation out as Madara raised an eye brow inquisitively behind his mask as he contemplated on the events that would occur for each scenario for the actions he could chose.

After three seconds of careful consideration and planning, Madara came up with the ideal plan. "Let the events follow as the old coots have planned, if we try to stop anything from happening, the effects will be detrimental to our plan but if we kill or capture the boy, Orochimaru will seek retribution as he is against the Kazekage's children. Let the Uchiha leave, but we can not let him reach Otogakure. We can not afford to let Orochimaru acquire the Uchiha, too many things can be ruined by him gaining the Sharingan.

"Yes, I understand Obito." And with that, the image of Madara's subordinate de-materialised as he went back to his buisness.

Madara rolled his eyes behind his mask at the man as he turned back to the two Akatsuki co founders. “Now back to the matter at hand,” He said with absolute authority. “As for the second spy; who was it that Itachi recommended for a replacement for Orochimaru when he left us?”

It took less than a second for Nagato to come to a conclusion. “I will inform the partners of these traitors.” And with that, Obito disappeared with a swirl of his mask as the two watched on as the blue haired one tried to contemplate the new situation.


In a secluded, undisclosed location, Jiraiya looked on at the Uchiha as he listened to the boy give his synopsis on the current situation within the Akatsuki that they were to deal with. However, his thoughts still lingered on back at the valley where his student's legacy had disappeared.

“The Akatsuki has moved their plans forward. As of this moment, we are now searching for the locations of the nine jinchuuriki and once we have found these locations, we shall be keeping tabs on them.” Jiraiya shook off the bad feeling he was getting about his god son and turned his full attention back to the Uchiha. “However, the Akatsuki won't be making their move on acquiring them until we have enough money to follow it up with their plan for afterwards.”

“And how long will that take?”

Itachi's face transformed into that of a thinking man as he added up the average annual income that the Akatsuki had been receiving “I've estimated it at about two years, give or take half. It all depends on whether there are any set backs and the availability of missions really.”

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't help but voice his feeling on the matter. "You wouldn't happen to have any information on Naruto would you?"

Itachi looked towards Jiraiya as his hardened face softened slightly. "I'm sorry Jiraiya, but Naruto was recently collected by one of our agents." Jiraiya's head drooped heavily as he listened to Itachi explain the fate of his students son. "Not even I know where he has been taken, but I assume that any attempt to rescue the boy will end up in your death.” He said solemnly as he turned his face towards where Jiraiya had also sensed the presence emerge.

“Yes, I believe I shall be going now too.” And with a flash of movement, Jiraiya was gone.

After three minutes of waiting the presence made itself known to the Uchiha. “So what did Jiraiya want?” Itachi stared impassively as Kisame strolled towards him, his sharpened teeth flashed with a grin as he hefted the Samahada off of his shoulder.

“I'll be frank and just come out and say it, the leader wants you dead.”

What is True Power?

Full Summary: Naruto had finally defeated Sasuke and was about to bring him back to Konoha. Too bad Kakashi had other ideas. This is the story of Sasuke and Sakura as they leave Konoha to try and find their missing team mate and rescue him from the clutches of the Akatsuki, without knowing that their mission would be a failure from the start. This is a story about Friendship, Betrayal, Death, The Quest for Power. And the brutal truth that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, there are things we have no control over.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, only the plot.

Chapter 3


“I thought you said you could keep going for days at a time,” The younger berated his peer as the two of them entered the cave where the larger, more stiff, of them had said they were going to stop for a while. “So that was just a bluff, hmm?” He was greeted with the empty stare of the man's beady eyes.

The two were sealed by the boulder sliding back down in front of the entrance as cave was engulfed in darkness.

Deidara looked over at his hunched over partner as his sight readjusted to the lack of sunlight. To tell the truth, Sasori actually unnerved him.

Was it the fact that he had never seen the man's face besides those unnatural, glassy looking eyes? Was it that the fact that he had his arm ripped off and converted the stump into a deadly weapon of piercing and poisoning and god knows what else? Or was it that the guy had a twenty meter or so iron blade rapped around... some where underneath his Akatsuki cloak?

Maybe it was that he killed the Sandaime Kazekage and still had the unusually preserved corpse to prove it?

Whatever the case, the guy was intimidating as hell.

'Damn he's morbid.' Deidara thought as he grimaced at the man who had his back to him sealed his latest kill, which he had just recently skinned, back in a storage scroll. 'Why can't he just dispose of the damn things like a regular human being?'

Deidara just closed his eyes as he turned away and left Sasori to himself.

'Why the hell did I get strung along in this damn organisation anyway?' He thought to himself as he rested his back against the least jagged rock he could find. 'How did they even find me in the first place?' He didn't even do anything that could be considered notorious before they came, he only just discreetly left Iwagakure with the ideology of not being tied down to any group. And then what happens? Two days into his new found freedom and they show up. Deidara glared at the man who was over by the entrance boulder examining it.

'Itachi,' He averted his gaze away from the man, who was examining the boulder that was blocking the entrance for whatever reason he was doing it for, and looked down at his feet as his lip turned upward in a sneer at the memory. 'I will kill him!' His lip turned upwards in a sneer as his eyes hardened in a hateful glare. 'I will blast that bastards limbs to pieces and--'

Deidara's musings were cut short as he instinctively leapt out of the way of a twenty meter bladed tail that was drenched in poison.

“What the hell are you doing!?” He cried out in shock as the blade twisted around and shot up towards the statue's finger in which he had just landed on. “I'm sorry I insulted you!” Deidara's shouted apology wasn't heard or was ignored as he jumped away from the now destroyed stone finger. He looked down pleadingly at Sasori's uncaring beady eyes as he fell, weaving away from the blade that kept trying to puncture his stomach or his various flailing limbs.

Thinking quickly, the sixteen year old reached into his clay pouch as he had his hand mouth infuse the glob which he pulled out with his chakra. In his haste, he misjudged the amount and ended up putting too much chakra into the clay.

Just as he was about to start moulding, the tail shot for his face. His eyes opened wide in horror as all of his limbs clenched as a reaction. This included Deidara's fingers.

The explosion that followed had been caused by the release of an exponential amount of chakra energy being forced into a small amount of mass that would regularly never be able to hold that much and was unstable enough as it was.

Both Akatsuki members were engulfed by the flames of the explosion.

Before Deidara knew what was going on, he was sent sailing through the cave and his body slammed against the rock face making a large dent which caused the wall to crack and then crumble away in some places.

As he slumped he slumped to the ground, his vision blurred slightly. When it came back into focus, Deidara noticed the boy who looked no older than himself standing in front of him staring down at him with a contemplative look on his face.

The boy then kneeled down to the level that Deidara had slumped to. The two stared eye to eye as Deidara was still was struggling to come to grips with what the hell was going on.

“Insufficient,” The red haired boy said simply in a serene voice as he got back to his feet and stood up straight. “From what you have shown me from when we were first acquainted until this point in time, your prowess has been insufficient, so you are not worthy of being the two hundred and fiftieth member to join my collection.”

“Wha?” Deidara slurred as he struggled to raise to his feet. He then looked at the youth, then at the hollowed out body of his charred partner with the ruined tail blade attached to a rather large mask on the man's back. He then turned back to the red head and inhaled a sharp breath of air as realisation spread across his face.

“Why the hell are you doing this?” He panted out as he cradled his injured arm, taking advantage of the lull in the fight to calm down and try to figure out why exactly Sasori, who should NOT have been around his age, if not younger, was trying to kill him.

“Orders.” He said simply as Deidara quickly ducked underneath the rather large sword that was aimed for his skull. He then instinctively thrusted his foot out to sweep underneath Sasori to knock the legs out from underneath him. The red headed teen anticipated this as he leapt up high in the air as he aimed his palm towards his junior.

Deidara's eyebrow's raised in confusion before his eyes widened in horror as he raced away from the torrent of water that streamed down at him from a piston on the boy's hand. The rock face behind him was obliterated. Deidara watched out of the corner of his eyes as Sasori's hand twisted several times in one direction as the white rapids blasting out of the piston attached to his hand changed into a highly pressurised jet of water that sliced through the rocks as though they were nothing.

Thinking quickly, Deidara reached into his pouch, dodged around the flow of water which alternated between blasts and streams as he hid behind every nook and cranny available, all the while putting enough chakra into the clay to create the bird he used to fly around on. The more of the stone wall destroyed, the more room he acquired to fly around.

Sasori had caught on.

Deidara watched took his chance to create his bird which he quickly hopped onto as it enlarged. He then flew to the far top corner of the cavern as far away from Sasori as he was allowed.

“You want to tell me why you are trying to kill me?” He called out as he discreetly started making bombs for when he was sure Sasori would attack again.

'What the hell?' He thought to himself as his bird hovered in place. 'This is Sasori? I don't know anything of what he is capable of now.' He stared wide eyed at the boy far below him who was looking up with the same serene look portrayed all over his face. From what he had seen of Sasori, he had only used that tail of his and that surprise arm blaster. Now here he was as a fourteen year old kid who had a hose implanted in his arm.

From his perch, Deidara watched as Sasori pulled a familiar scroll off of his back which then released its contents in a flash of smoke.

Suddenly the corpse of the Kazekage seemed a lot more dangerous.

This proved true could barely get his birds to manoeuvre around the mass of arms that suddenly shot up at him and nearly killed him with the poisoned blades that shot out of each one.

'If I don't strike back, he'll kill me!' Deidara thought grimly to himself as he had his bird dodge around several arms which barely missed him. He then quickly dipped his hand into his clay pouch and chewed as fast as he was able to.

Just as Deidara was about to throw the bird, he was greeted with the sight of the Kazekage shooting out of the smoke, in it's hand a giant circular blade. Deidara did his best to dodge the blade but the wing of his bird ended up being sliced in half.

The bird then rapidly lost altitude and control as Deidara was thrown off and landed hard on the ground below. He didn't even get time to breathe before the massive amount of arms cascaded down towards him. As he jumped out of the way, Deidara saw the corpse shoot the circular blade off of it's hinge, aiming the trajectory towards where he would land.

Deidara released the bird he had in his hand and threw it forward towards the blade. The explosion that followed sent it straight back where it came from. However, the Kazekage easily dodged out of the way after releasing the massive amount of hands. It then raised it's hand as it flew towards Deidara.

The boy only just managed to dodge the oily fire, which had to be at least five hundred degrees, that was sent his way as he bolted out of the way.

What he wasn't ready for was the iron spike that pierced through his stomach from behind him.

Deidara's eyes opened wide in horror as he fell to his knees while the spear crumbled away and the iron filings slowly floated back towards the Kazekage and disappeared into it's mouth. 'No!' Deidara screamed in his mind as he could already feel his strength ebbing away from that single strike.

As the Kazekage disappeared back into the scroll in Sasori's hand, Deidara fell to his stomach as his knees collapsed underneath him. “Well that second act was an interesting concept.” Sasori said in same damn voice as he knelt down in front again. “I'm having second thoughts about you not being my two hundred and fiftieth creation.”

“Go die bastard,” Deidara wheezed out as he felt the paralysis of the poison circulating through his body. He tried to get back up to defend himself but his body wouldn't respond to his will.

Sasori then reached down and took hold of Deidara's hand and prized the ring of his numb, unmoving finger and then pocketed the ring in one of the many folds of his cloak.

Sasori reached down and roughly pulled the Akatsuki ring off Deidara's struggling hand.

“With that poison running through your system, judging by your height to weight ratio, you will live for about three days before it eventually kills you.” And with that, Sasori got to his feet and started walking away towards the raised stone door. “Seeing as you have succumbed to the paralysis already, you are not worthy of joining the collection.” The last thing Deidara saw before the light from the outside world left him was the same serene look that never left the boy's face.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Naruto!” He shouted as he shot out of the hospital bed, but then immediately cried out in pain as the wound to his shoulder opened back up. The hand gripped the bandages became as blood stained as them.

As he panted heavily, Sasuke looked around wildly as he tried to come to grips with where he was and what had just happened.

As soon as Sasuke felt as though the pain was enough to handle, he slowly got out off of the bed and to his feet. Careful not to aggravate the injury and further, he reached towards the discarded shirt and slowly placed it over his torso, wincing slightly when he felt the shirt brush upon the bandage above it.

Just as Sasuke was about to walk out the door, he had to jump back as he narrowly avoided the door which wound of slammed into his head if he hadn't have.

The man that stepped into the room had short black hair, a black cloak, and he had the right side of his face covered in bandages. “Well Uchiha, I can't say that I am honoured to meet you.” He said in a gruff voice as he walked forward and slammed the door behind him.

“We of the council of Konoha have decided that you will be banished” The man said right off the bat, in a grim voice that was laced with boredom, before Sasuke could even come to grips with what was happening. “Because of the seal you received from Orochimaru, we have decided to class you as unstable.”

“What are you talking about!?” Sasuke yelled out as the pain in his shoulder flared up.

Danzou droned on as though thee outburst hadn't happened. “In other circumstances, we would normally have you executed. But quite frankly, dealing with Orochimaru is something we can't be bothered dealing with at the moment.” And with that Danzou turned, opened the door and started walking away. “You have twenty four hours to get your affairs in order.”

Sasuke could only stare dumbstruck as the man rounded the corner and as the form of his pink haired team mate walked in with tears streaming down her eyes.

“How could you, Sasuke?” She sniffled out as she stared down at her feet.

“Well, Itachi got the best of me,” The shark like man's silhouette told the remaining Akatsuki members as all their forms were projected to one of the origination's hide outs in an undisclosed location, his voice was bitter and angry.. “I can confirm the bastard was a traitor, as I found him conversing with Jiraiya, who he had told of our recent acquisition.”

His silhouette was missing it's left arm.
“I tried to take him out but he got me with his Tsukuyomi and lobbed off my arm before I knew what was happening. Quite embarrassing really. I guess he figured he would leave me alive to relay the message” He took a long drawn out sigh before continuing. “He probably thought I would be useless now, but it will take a while before the Samahada can absorb enough chakra for me to regrow a new arm. About a year, give or take a few months.”

The other members were silent as a grin started to form on Kisame's face. “Unless I can take it from-”
“No.” Was all Pain said, essentially cutting off all discussion about that subject.

All was silent for a moment before the image of a teen aged boy flickered into the cave and said nothing.

“So the little bastard destroyed that walking corpse you always travelled around in then, hey Sasori?” The loud, boisterous, uncivilised voice of the immortal Jashinist sounded out through the cavern. “Damn, you fucking suck.”

Sasori only stared impassively in Hidan's direction, generally ignoring anything else that came out of the man's mouth.

“So I trust that Deidara has been taken care off,” Pain said simply, ignoring the proceedings, as his Rin'negan eyes flickered in the puppet master's direction.

“That is correct.” Sasori said as he held up Deidara's ring for all of them to see. At this point in time, he is dying from an experimental poison; the only thing I have confirmed about it at this stage is that after three days, the target will die.

“Can you confirm of his treachery?”

“Didn't bother waiting to find out. If I had tried to figure out, he would have probably become suspicious and flee at the first sign of hostility. I decided to kill first, and then don't bother finding out useless
information that will be irrelevant anyway.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

“Sakura?” The hospitalised boy asked with uncertainly as the pink haired girl slammed the door behind her as she stormed in, tears running freely. “Sakura? What's the matt-”

“Shut up!” She screamed, cutting Sasuke off, as she shoved him to the ground where he writhed in agony clutching his shoulder.

“What the hell are you doing?” The boy cried out as he struggled to his feet. He was helped in that matter by Sakura grabbing hold of his collar and shoving him against the wall.

“Why did you do it!?” She screamed as the punch she sent to his face connected and Sasuke's face flew to the side, blood splattering on the floor.

“Why!?” She cried out again as she sent another fist into the side of his face. Sasuke took the punch because he knew he deserved it. “Why?” She sobbed out as the strength in her arms failed and she settled for crying into Sasuke's shirt. “Why would you kill Naruto?”

At the mention of Naruto, Sasuke stared down to the ground, snarl forming on his features, as the memories of the events that had unfolded at the valley came back to him. He grasped the girl by her shoulders and forced her to look into his eyes.

“I did not kill Naruto.” He said firmly, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

Sakura looked up at him confused through her teary gaze. “Bu-but why di-didn't he c-come back?” She choked out.

“I didn't kill him.” He said firmly as he stared intently into the girls eyes. “Kakashi betrayed him!”

Sakura's gaze lowered as she tried to contemplate what her team mate was saying. “But-but why would Kakashi sensei do that?” She muttered to herself as thought of everything that they as a team had been through.

“D-don't lie.” She manage to splutter out.
“Sakura?” Sasuke looked down at the pink haired girl whom he had his hands clasped on her shoulders. Her arms were limp by her side and and her hair draped over her forehead covering her eyes.

“I said,” She said bitterly as she shook shoulders to release herself from her team mate's grasp. “Don't lie to me.”

Sasuke's eyes opened wide. “Sakura, Listen to me. I am not lying!” He exclaimed as Sakura started backing away. “I swear! Kakashi ran his hand straight through Naruto's chest with his Lightning Blade!”
Sakura turned towards the door.

“Please Sakura!” He cried out in vain as the girl started walking away. “I didn't kill Naruto!”

As the girl reached the door, she turned her head so she could stare at Sasuke out of the corner of her eye. “You can't even admit that you killed him.” She muttered darkly as she shook her head as started walking away.

“I hate you.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

Shikamaru glared darkly up at the night sky above him as he thought on the memories of his best friend. The stars didn't seem to hold the same wonder as they did before he had heard the news.

Besides him, he could hear his female team mate sniffle once as she struggled to rise to an upright position. The girl had been crying for hours after she first heard the news of the ill-fated mission.

“Are you coming?” She asked uncertainly as her tearful face hovered over his own.

Shikamaru just stared through her as his gaze hadn't shifted from the star he was watching. He see the hurt forming in her blue eyes which were radiating with concern.

“Didn't your mom expect you home hours ago?” She asked biting her lip.

The Chuunin didn't react or move a muscle as he continued to stare through her.

“Listen Shikamaru; I know it's hard but we've gotta pull through this.” She croaked as she failed to keep the emotions from escaping.. “You two may have been best friends but it's not right to just sit around and do nothing. It's not what Chouji would have wanted!” She cried out at the end as a new set of tears erupted from her eyes.

And with that, Ino fell to her knees and threw her hands around Shikamaru's neck.

Shikamaru stopped staring at the stars and then turned his gaze down to his team mate. Silently, he placed his hand on her back as she started to speak again.“It's just not fair!” She sobbed into his Chuunin vest. “He was our team mate! Our friend!” And then, she was silent again except for the occasional sob or hiccough.

'I am a shinobi, I should not dwell on past mistakes. I should not grieve over my fallen comrades. I should not let my emotions overcome my thoughts.' Shikamaru repeated the code of the shinobi over and over in his head as he pushed his thoughts away from his late best friend and then proceeded think of the reason Chouji had lost his life.

'What made Sasuke wish to leave?' He thought to himself as his brain went through all of the plausible scenarios that could be combined with his current knowledge.

He already knew the Uchiha had an undesirable childhood with the murder of his entire clan and all and he had spent all of his life after that dedicated to becoming strong enough to kill his brother.

'But there had to have been something of recent to have set the guy off, otherwise he would have left years ago,' His thoughts floated towards how different Sasuke had been acting as of late.

'Ever since the Chuunin exams, he has been more obsessed with attaining his power than ever before,' It had started before the mission to retrieve Sasuke from chasing after that sand Genin. 'I don't know what happened with him during the one month intermision...'

His inner dialogue stopped there as his mind replayed the event that had happened in the Forest of Death where Sasuke had acted way out of line when those black markings had spread over the left side of his body.

'Those markings...' He thought as he replayed the scene over and over in his head. Those markings were definitely the cause for Sasuke losing control like that; he was unstable enough.

'Add that to the fact that his brother almost killed him again...'

He had come down to the reason Sasuke had wanted to leave; those markings had most likely been caused by a seal applied to him which made him considerably unstable and that seal gave him the power to do things that otherwise he wouldn't be able to do. Then, after meeting his brother again, he would obviously want to attain more power so he would go to the person who implanted the seal on him...

'So who would have a reason to want Sasuke to come to them?'

Then he remembered the dialogue that played at the end of the scene in his head and then he had his answer.

Sakura had asked those Sound Genin why they were after Sasuke and who a certain man that sprang to his mind was.

“Thank you Shikamaru.” Was all Ino said as she got to her feat. Shikamaru looked unlikely to follow. “I'll just let your parents know where you are then?” She said sadly as she left his sight and started walking away, turning her head hopefully.

Her team mate didn't respond.

“Ok then,” She muttered with a hiccough as she turned her saddened gaze to where she was going before she trudged away.

Orochimaru.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

“So what do you think?” Pain asked as Madara appeared behind him after all of the members of the organisation left to deal with their own buisness. “Do you still believe that the Akatsuki harbours traitors?” He said bitterly; it was hard letting go of such fine members.

“I assume so, Nagato.” Madara said blandly as he walked over to one of the chairs and sat himself. “Although, Itachi might prove a thread to us; he has the Mangekyo Sharingan and is capable of great things.” Madara sighed as he placed his hand over the hole in his mask. “This could be quite bad should Itachi choose to come plot against us, although I believe his main priority for now will be to find his brother and make sure he doesn't die or have himself captured.”

As the current conversation was drawn to a close, Konan decided to speak up on something which she had perceived as inconsistent and out of character for Itachi. Given the current situation, it was just plain wrong.

“Why is Kisame still alive?” Pain raised his eye inquisitively at his childhood friend's question, the same thing going through his mind, where as Madara just continued to stare out at the city below him. “Do you really believe Itachi would let Kisame just survive with a missing limb? There is no merit in allowing Kisame to live as he would just come back to try and assassinate Itachi later on.” Madara turned to face the two friends, the mask covering up his impassive expression.

“I believe that Kisame is-”

“What you believe has no relevance on the current situation” Madara cut her off. “You do not have a sufficient grasp on the situation in order to make an appropriate hypothesis. The difference between what you think and what reality is incomprehensible.” Madara turned around as Konan sneered at the man and shook her head.

“Do you really believe that you should just dismiss what she is saying?” Pain asked stepping in for her. “Couldn't Itachi have implanted any ideas into Kisame's mind when he was hit by the Tsukiyomi?”

“No, I checked his mind for signs of any signs of seals or genjutsu. He was clean.” Madara turned to walk away before turning his head and looking through Pain's Rin'negan eyes. “I believe that the Akatsuki is in the possession of a single vacant node ring. And I believe that I can help you with that.” And with a swirl of black, Madara had disappeared.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

“Such philistines,” Sasori muttered, rolling his eyes, as he ended the transmission and walked past many blades, past jars of organs, past several incomprehensible, mutilated bodies which were deemed failures, towards the operating table with skinned human corpse with all of the innards but one dumped on the floor besides it.

The entire hideout was reeking with decades worth of dried blood and organs and nothing living had entered it in years.

When Sasori sliced the stomach open, a lone eyebrow on his face raised curiously. “Well that's interesting.” He muttered as he peeled the flaps back and observed the insides.

“Well looks like that poison needs to be re-evaluated.” He pulled a test tube out of the rack and scooped it into the liquid situated in the organ. The liquid; which should have been a sickly purple colour, was crystal clear. It took three seconds to figure out that it was plain water.”

“Ah, my mistake; forgot to add the venom from a black widow. Without it, the poison just broke down into water and harmless hydrocarbons...”

Deidara was long gone by the time Sasori returned to finish him off.

Sasuke ignored the pain in his shoulder as he began the slow walk back to his apartment, his mind completely off doing it's own thing, generally not paying attention to anything. An apathetic scowl was presented to whoever tried to meet his gaze.

His mind was in utter turmoil as his thoughts went through everything that had happened in the past week. No more than a few days ago he had plans of leaving this village and killing his only friend. Sasuke's eyes turned towards the right as he spied the lake and the wooden docks where he had originally made his oath after that day.

Before Sasuke knew what he was doing, he found himself walking down the grass slope and and then along the wooden bridge.

Staring down at his reflection; he shook his head in disgust. The cold piercing eyes, the ever present sneer of contempt. The whole aura of loathing and destruction.

As he looked down at the reflection in the water, he could practically see his image morph into that of his brother. "On this path, I am no worse than he is," Sasuke muttered to himself as he could just imagine what his younger self would say if the two met today.

"You're a disgrace, you practically made me his clone. I can't believe you are doing the exact same thing he did." His younger reflection said in contempt.

Sasuke made no attempt to argue because he knew that deep down, he may as well have killed everyone himself.

'I probably will if I keep this up.'

Sighing, Sasuke allowed himself to lower his body to sit down and have his feet hover inches above the surface. For a few minutes, he was content to sit there and stare at the reflection; while in his mind he was re-evaluating his entire view on his life and what he had been striving for.

'I'm sorry.' He thought as his mind presented him with the image of all the people he had betrayed; Sakura, Konoha as a whole.

And Naruto. Oh how he had betrayed the blond haired boy. Sasuke was ashamed to have once called himself Naruto's friend.

Thinking back on the final conversation and the topic he had spoken to Naruto about, he couldn't help the image of his sensei ramming his hand through the blonde's body.

Kakashi.

He just couldn't get over how the man had basically done a complete back flip on his camaraderie complex and had attacked his own student for no reason at all. Why would Kakashi attack Naruto? Naruto was only trying to bring him back by any means necessary; a mission in which the Hokage had probably assigned Naruto herself. Kakashi must have had a reason.

'Maybe it was because of that strange red chakra?' Sasuke thought back to the fight where the chakra was visable as an aura around his team-mate that practically made his attacks useless against him.

But then why try to take out something so useful?

The only hope Sasuke could grasp from the situation was that Kakashi didn't go for a killing blow straight away so he still could grasp on the hope that Kakashi had left him alive.

Maybe Naruto had done something wrong or had betrayed Konoha? He quickly dismissed that idea; Naruto would sooner die than become a traitor.

Sasuke slowly shook his head in disgust as he turned his head North towards the direction of where he had last spoken to Naruto at the Valley of the End. "I'm so sorry Naruto." He muttered as he got to his feet and shook his head. "I will find you Naruto." He said to himself emphasising the will to see his only friend again.

And with that, Sasuke started walking away from the lake and left to retrieve the few sentimental possessions that he still considered worthwhile.

--------------------------------------

Tsunade walked back to her office; fists clenched in seething rage and her anger boiling over. How dare those elders insinuate that they had complete control over anything and everything she did. She was Tsunade; one third of the legendary Sannin. She was the world's greatest medical nin. She could go toe to toe with Hanzou; one of the greatest shinobi this world had ever produced. She was the fifth Hokage of Konohagakure.

And most of all; she was only a figurehead with no control at all.

Upon entering that meeting with the two former team-mates of the third Hokage, she was ready to rip them a new one with her arguments that they would probably have had a stroke.

But upon hearing Danzo speak; all of that aggresion had left her submissive and relieving her of the will to argue against the three of them. She was as helpless as a child as she listened to the three and they're berating of her sending the Jinchuuriki to apprehend a genin they would have been better off without. It was like all of the will had been sucked out of her and had thoughts that were not her own telling her to stand down.

But that was impossible.

When Tsunade arrived back at her home, she could instantly tell something was amiss. There was nothing missing, nor out of place. But the subtle, yet familiar Chakra siignal that was itatched to her via shadow was enough to give it away.

"Shikamaru," Tsunade muttered with a scowl on her face as tried to sense where the boy was hiding. "Tell me Shikamaru, what do you believe you are trying to accomplish by using your shadow possession technique on me?" It was goint to be a harder then anticipated to find the boy because he had had split his shadow into eight tendrills which had spread through the darkness to capture from all around her from seperate points.

Upon hearing no response from the shadow manipulator, she continued. "Listen brat; the second you try anthing, I will stop playing around, break out of this jutsu, and break your neck." She said simply as she pinpointed where the boy's chakra was originating from. "We wouldn't want to waste such good talent like that, would we Shikamaru?" She said as she stared in the direction that the boy was hiding.

Shikamaru took the hint and walked out of the trees to the right of the Hokage. His face was a look of impassiveness and Tsunade could feel no hint of emotion leaking from the boy.

Tsunade was now starting to get irritated and promptly sent out a surge of chakra totally destroying Shikamaru's hold on her. "Listen, about the Akimichi boy, I'm sorry. I would say accidents happen but it wasn't. Chouji gave his life to kill one fourth of a team that a team of our Special Jounin couldn't." Shikamaru remained silent as he continued to stare through the Hokage.

Tsunade was about to yell at Shikamaru to talk but he swiftly cut her off with one question that left her stumped.

"How much information do you have on Orochimaru?"

Tsunade's eyebrows raised in confusion as she stared on at the boy infront of her. "Would I be correct in assuming that you have information on the general areas of where you have predicted the Sound Village's, who Orochimaru presides as Otokage over, main bases of operations are being conducted?" Shikamaru continued to stare at her with an impassive look on her face.

"Why do you want that kind of classified information?" Tsunade snarled at the boy. "Why the sudden interest in Orochimaru? Do you plan on leaving the village to join Sound?" She sneered down at him. "I thought you were smarter than that Shikamaru."

Shikamaru continued to stare at her with same impassive look as Tsunade continued. "You knew what you and your squad were getting into when you accepted the mission. And your friend knew what he had little to no chance at all after taking that pill, it's really his own fault he lost his life."

"I see," Was all Shikamaru said as his lip turned upwards in contempt as he turned away from the Hokage and left.

"Well in that case." Tsunade put up her guard when she saw the boy reach into his kunai pouch but raised her eyebrow when he instead pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper and threw it behind him in her direction as he started walking away.

"That's a notice of resignation by the way," Shikamaru said stopping and turning his gaze back to meet the her own. "Either you let me walk out those gates with whatever I need and within six months you won't have to worry about Orochimaru and Otogakure and I come back without an loses on you're part. Or you can just accept that little resignation there and I walkout those gates with whatever I need and within six months you won't have to worry about Orochimaru and Otogakure, or me as well for that matter."

Tsunade was stricken with what Shikamaru had just told her and her lips quivered and eyes flashed in anger.

"Don't even think about sending hunter-nin because one; that's abuse of citizens rights because with that resignation, I forfeit all my rights and responsibilities as a shinobi, which means that as long as I am not directly causing any harm or am directly responsible for the endangerment for lives or property, you have no right to send anyone, shinobi or no, after me."

Shikamaru was silent before speaking up again. "I will also kill anyone without hesitation if you do send them my way with the intention of killing me.

Tsunade glared at the boy once more before sighing and shaking her head angrily, a smile appearing on her face. "Fine boy, I expect you back with Orochiaru's head within six months or I myself will go after you." She could tell that Shikamaru was capable of doing what he was saying. The conviction showing in his eyes did not tell of any chance of failure.

"Before that," Tsunade called out to the retreating Nara. "Why Orochimaru?" She had to know how Shikamaru had come up with the idea.

"Orochimaru planted a seal on Sasuke which interfered with his logical reasoning skills leaving a desire to go to Orochimaru for power. That combined with mental trauma caused by the death of his clan early in life and the fact that his brother once again rendered him useless in combat. That mental deteriation would cause Sasuke to come to the conclusion that the only way of achieving his ambition would be to go to the man who had given him a taste of the power he perceived as able to achieve his ambition of killing his clans killer. That and I believe that the guys we faced caught Sasuke at a time when h wasn't thinking straight, they manipulated him"

The fact that he had already broken into her home, cracked the safe, stolen the information on the general areas of the Otogakure bases, and had made it out in time to intercept her, all the while staying out of sight of security cameras and covering his tracks at the same time kind of swayed her opinion to Shikamaru being able to do it.

Still, all of that didn't stop her from wanting to strangle the boy.

----------------------------------------

Only one word could describe how Sakura was feeling towards the world at this point in time.

Numb.

It was as though her entire world had been ripped out from underneath her and her feelings had frozen in the icy cold sea of guilt she had fallen into.

It was strange though, she had always considered Naruto to be a nuisance who she considered being anywhere within a two kilometer radius too close to the proximity of the orange knuckle head.

And now? Naruto was dead, killed by the person she had thought she loved.

The world was a cold and brutal place to be a part of.

As Sakura stared up at the night sky from the roof of her home, she could only think of how that if she hadn't selfishly pleaded for Naruto to bring Sasuke home no matter what, he probably wouldn't have went all out and gotten killed.

"It's all my fault," She trembled as she willed the tears not back and not to flow out to the world. "If I hadn't been so weak or stupid, none of this would have happened."

Sakura stared up at the stars wishing that things could go back to the way they were before the chuunin exams, and before Orochimaru had ever interfered where the three of them had been just a simple, yet dysfunctional, squad of regular genin doing everyday missions with the only hiccoughs being Naruto's everyday challenges to fight Sasuke or his stubbornness to ignore her rejections and incessantly try to ask her out for ramen every other day.

But that was the world they lived in. No one could afford to keep on to their naivety the loss of one's innocence to the world was inevitable. All Sakura could do to keep up would be to do everything within her power to get stronger.

And that would start with getting Kakashi to help her.

But however, something bothered her; that little revelation Sasuke had made about Kakashi hitting Naruto with his lightning blade attack. For what honest reason would Kakashi have for attacking his student, there was no point and was just plain stupid to try and reason.

But now looking back on it, she had never seen Sasuke so adamant over something before that she was beginning to question the logic, or lack there of, of Kakashi attacking Naruto.

------------------------------------------

Gaara felt uneasy as he and his siblings arrived back in Sunagakure; it was as though during his absence, something had entered the city gates that shouldn't have. He didn't know exactly what it was, but whatever it was; it's general intent had seeped into the sand and Gaara was receiving that this new presence wasn't well meaning.

The sand was also telling him that this presence had only recently infiltrated the village.

Gaara stopped and turned towards the Chuunin guards who were sitting in the checkpoint booth, one of whom was sleeping on the job, as his brother and sister continued walking towards to Kazekage's tower without realizing.

"You two," Gaara said as he walked calmly over towards the two.

"G-Gaara!" The first one stammered as he stared down at his unmoving partner before looking back up again.

Now Gaara may have not been terrorizing Sunagakure's inhabitants anymore but that did not mean he was accepted as a regular human being who wasn't to be feared.

"How many people have passed through these gates since three this afternoon?" He asked both of them calmly.

The chuunin's eyes widened before he steeled himself and stared at Gaara impassively. "Sorry, but that is classified information that you have no right to access as that is a matter of civilians rights." He said in a matter of fact kind of condescending tone.

Gaara stared at him with a scrutinizing gaze before commenting. "Bullshit." He said simply, breaking the chuunin's confidence which crumbled away to nothingness underneath his gaze. "I merely asked for a number, which is indeed accessible by general public. I was not asking for the personal files, which in fact, as a shinobi of Sunagakure, I am legally able to view as I feel that the livelihood of Sunagakure's residents may be at risk with one of these new arrivals."

"Yes of course, my apologies Gaara." The chuunin said flustered as he looked to his partner for help. "I had overlooked that exception because I have seen a Genin ask for that information before. I will just get you the papers now."

As Gaara received the scroll, he looked on at the second chuunin who hadn't wakened through the proceedings. He stared on curiously for a few seconds before turning back to the first chuunin. "What's your name."

The chuunin's eyes widened behind his glasses before answering. "Natou Tokaku, Gaara sir." The man said in fear.

-----------------------------------------

Kabuto watched on in amusement as Gaara took the scroll away as he walked towards his siblings who had come back to see what had happened to him.

"I did it, now please; just don't kill me!"

As the three turned the corner, Kabuto turned to the chuunin in the booth who he had threatened into giving Gaara the scroll in amusement. "Well done Natou, I didn't think that you were capable of humouring me as you did just then." Kabuto grinned as he stored the corpse besides Natou back in his scroll. "You did well to shift the blame and offer me some inconsequential amusement." Kabuto laughed slightly as he turned away.

"However," He said darkly as he turned to face the cowering man. "I noticed you tried to send a warning which by the way, you still failed miserably." Kabuto said simply before suddenly sending a chakra scalpel into the man's chest where it pierced his heart and he simply fell to the ground dead.