Hi, so new chapter finally up. I'm sorta sorry that you guys had to wait an entire month, that really wasn't my intention. School has been sapping the little energy I have though, and when I finally had a small break a cold hit me hard. Hopefully next chapter won't take as long, but well before my summer holidays I'm still going to have to priorities school first.
Before you guys go on to the chapter I just want to thank my awesome beta Osavia. Without her this chapter would be far messier and the spelling would probably be horrible, so thanks!
"Stop, please stop", Sakura screamed. "Naruto, Sasuke, please stop." They didn't hear her. It was as if she wasn't even there. She didn't know what to do, seeing her two teammates going at each other like they wanted to kill left her standing frozen. How had it ended up like this?
Sasuke had woken up just a few hours ago after being asleep for the last three days and Sakura had been so relived. After coming back from saving Naruto in the forest both Sasuke and Naruto had spent the next day being unconscious and she had been so worried. She kept going over what had happened in her head, kept wondering what she could have done better and kept realizing how useless she was. Then Naruto had woken up and while one weight had been taken off her heart the other had just become heavier and heavier as Sasuke just wouldn't wake up.
Then when he had finally opened his eyes she'd been so happy and once again felt ready to tackle the world and whatever it wanted to throw at them. Naruto and Sasuke had of course been at each other's throats as usual, but not even that had been able to make her good mood go away. Instead of hitting Naruto for being childish or trying to get him to go away, so that she could spend some time alone with Sasuke, she'd asked if Sasuke wanted them to show him around Konoha's temporary camp.
It had felt so right walking beside the two of them. Even though they weren't in Konoha and Kakashi was who knows where gathering information it had still felt like finally coming home. That was when she for the first time realized that while she would always love her family and Konoha her team had become her home. She couldn't help but wonder if she was the only one of them who felt like that.
Naruto and Sasuke paused a few steps away from each other and Sakura couldn't help but hope that they'd come to their senses. She was wrong, of course. The two of them weren't stopping, they were stepping up their game. Naruto was forming a jutsu with the help of a clone that Sakura had never seen before. It was a small ball of whirling chakra and it felt very dangerous to her senses. From the concentration on Naruto's and his clone's face he still found it hard to make. Where had he learned a jutsu like that?
In response Sasuke was forming a chidori in his hand and Sakura quickly realized that they were both becoming serious now. Both of them were pulling out their best techniques and both of them were abandoning their last shreds of common sense. She had to stop them.
Without thinking she sprinted at them as quickly as she could, throwing away her last bit of common sense just as she threw herself in between them.
They couldn't stop. The same thought flew through both Sasuke and Naruto's head as they were called back to reality. They were going too quickly and they couldn't stop. The two of them twisted away as much as they could, trying to get their jutsus away from Sakura, but weren't fast enough. A quarter of Naruto's Rasengan hit Sakura's shoulder tearing flesh open and cracking bones, while Sasuke's chidori just missed going through her stomach. Instead it brushed against her stomach's edge leaving first degree burns, sent electrical bursts through her body, and fried parts of her nervous system.
Sakura screamed in pain as she fell down to her knees. This hurt more than any hit she had taken in the chunin exams or its aftermath. She couldn't breath and her awareness of the world around her diminished until there was only pain.
Time passed, but Sakura refused to get lost inside of the sea of pain. Even though she was weak she was a ninja and she needed to learn how to tolerate pain. She was going to take worse hits in the future. Forcing her body to breathe through the pain she pulled herself together until she could finally see again.
Naruto and Sasuke were staring at her with horrified faces. Sasuke's poker face was completely gone and they were both frozen in place from what she would guess was guilt, fear and horror. She should probably have felt bad for them, they didn't mean to hurt her after all, but she couldn't help but feel that they deserved it at the same time as she felt vaguely satisfied for stopping them.
Then she felt an agitated chakra signature moving towards them frightening fast and it was like she was back in the chunin exams. It didn't matter that they were on an unknown island and the fact that she knew that everyone here was from Konoha. Her instincts were screaming at her that it could be an enemy coming and that she was vulnerable. Apparently the boys' instincts were saying pretty much the same, because instead of asking if she was okay they moved before her and readied themselves for battle.
Sakura could feel a malevolent chakra slowly gathering around Naruto, she needed to ask him why that kept happening, and she could see how Sasuke's cursed seal slowly started to spread. She wanted to scream, to fight, to do something, but her body wouldn't let her move.
Then the chakra signature was there and she recognized Jiraya of the Sanin, the man who had trained Naruto a bit and asked him to come with him to find Tsunade. Both Sasuke and Naruto relaxed faintly, the battle readiness disappeared from their stances, but she didn't feel any better. Even though Jiraya tried to look collected she still saw the fury rising within him and she knew that compared to him they were nothing.
"What happened here", the man asked, clearly trying to keep himself collected. Both Naruto and Sasuke froze once more before they glanced at each other and then rushed towards her. They were all over her, asking her how she felt, why she did that and she felt the world slipping out of her grasp.
When she could focus again Naruto was telling Jiraya what had happened, making both him and Sasuke look more ashamed than she had ever seen them. Jiraya himself looked furious and she had to force her brain to think. It was trying to tell her that he was a threat to her team, but she knew that that was wrong. Her brain refused to work properly though, and she hated how weak her tolerance was. If she wasn't even able to think properly than what use was she to her team?
"Tsunade", she heard Jiraya say. "Discuss repercussions later." She knew that he said more but she couldn't make it all out. He turned towards her, bent down and she could see that he was going to carry her.
Sakura hissed like an angry cat, surprising both herself and the people around her. Normally she would never have done something like that but she still couldn't think clearly and was mostly reacting on instincts. Logically she knew that Jiraya was one of Konoha's strongest and most loyal ninja, but she also knew that he was a huge pervert and currently her brain was still insisting that he was a threat towards her team. All in all she just didn't feel safe with him in her current state.
Jiraya looked surprised but she couldn't focus enough to read the rest of the emotions on his face even though she knew that it was important to know what he thought. Jiraya started to say something and then Naruto moved towards her and she let him lift her. Even though it was embarrassing that he was carrying her, bridal style, it still felt safe, though she couldn't help but wish that Sasuke would be the one carrying her instead of Naruto.
They started walking, Jiraya in the front while Naruto walked a bit behind with Sasuke behind him. The malevolent chakra around Naruto was gone and Sasuke's cursed seal had retreated. What happened was still worrying but all she could focus on was that she had them beside her and how both of their chakra felt protective and warm around her. Without the fear and panic she couldn't motivate herself enough to stay awake and as Naruto carried her she slipped under.
At first when she woke she was just aware of Naruto and Sasuke's warm presences' beside her. She couldn't remember where she was or what had happened, and she most definitely couldn't think properly, but it didn't matter. Even though she probably should have been panicking, she was a ninja after all, she wasn't because she knew she was safe. With Sasuke and Naruto besides her and them not being on the warpath how could she not have been?
She drifted in and out of consciousness, and at first no one seemed to notice that she was slowly returning to consciousness. It wasn't until her eyes opened that Sasuke noticed and his changing expression alerted Naruto as well.
"Sakura-chan", Naruto called out in a tone he probably meant to be quite. "How are you feeling? I'm really, really sorry... We didn't mean to hurt you. Why did you jump in like that? Sasuke and I would have been fine. I'm still really sorry and I hope it doesn't hurt too bad. Tsunade baa-chan said you'll be fine so you'll be fine..." Naruto was talking even more rapidly than he usually does, and it made even less sense than it ever had before.
She was currently laying on the ground, it was rather soft but it was still the ground, with Sasuke sitting beside her on her right side and Naruto crowding over her from her left side. They limited her sight radius pretty much, but she was pretty sure that there were other wounded people laying on the ground around her. That together with the fact that there were a coarse wooden roof above her, made her come to the conclusion that she was probably in the temporary hospital shelter.
Her surroundings made her memories of the last week and Konoha's new predicament return. The dimness in her brain was retreating, and while it was nice to be able to think again it also meant that she was starting to feel her body again. It hurt. It was also rather easy to come to the conclusion that she had not been given any painkillers, she hurt too much and because of their current situation the supply was probably very low. To make it all even worse she could feel a headache forming, and Naruto's babbling wasn't helping.
"Naruto", Sasuke interrupted. "Stop smothering her with your idiotic babbling." That was probably the closest Sasuke would ever admit to being worried about her, but it still felt good to have a confirmation that he cared about her.
"Sorry Sakura-chan", Naruto said. Then he leaned back to sit down beside her instead of hovering over her. It was calming her. She saw the guilty expression on his face and even though he deserved it she still didn't like it. Naruto had never looked right in anything but his dumb smile.
"I'll be fine", she said. "My shoulder still hurts a bit and the burns itch a lot, but I'll be fine." Maybe she toned it down a bit, but it was worth it to see the smile Naruto gave her. "What happened after I passed out?"
"Eh, Jiraya wasn't all too happy", Naruto said and Sakura was pretty sure that was the understatement of the week. "And Tsunade baa-chan screamed really loud when Jiraya told her. She can be kinda scary." Naruto had a chagrined grin on his face and combined with the faint twitch on Sasuke's face it made Sakura pretty sure that the Hokage had been more than a little scary.
"Then they said that we weren't allowed to do any fighting for an entire month." Naruto sounded outraged. "No serious training either, and we are stuck having to meditate an hour a day, at least, and doing the most boring sort of D-ranks and if we don't we will never be allowed to fight at all." Sakura couldn't help but laugh softly. Naruto's face expressed a hilarious mix of outrage and horror and even though Sasuke was trying to keep his face smooth he looked more disgruntled than usual, which said a lot.
"Is it the same for you Sasuke-kun?", she asked wanting to hear his side of what had happened.
"Hn", he answered and nodded.
"So what have you been doing now that you aren't allowed to train", Sakura asked and looked at Sasuke, clearly directing the question at him. If he wasn't going to talk voluntarily, which he never did, she'd just have to keep asking him questions until she got the answers she wanted.
"Jiraya made us meditate the entire afternoon yesterday and then we've been doing chores all morning." It was all spoken in a deadpan voice, but Sakura could still hear the bitterness and frustration seep from the words.
"Mmhm", Naruto continued. "Then we were allowed a break to check on you, and then you woke up which was really nice." He beamed. "Tsunade baa-chan said she was gonna check on you again, even though she said you were fine, so we decided to wait with you until then."
Then she had been out for almost twenty four hours. A bit long, but probably to be expected considering the damage she took and how unused she was at taking damage. She needed to get better. As quickly as she was allowed to leave this bed she would take the chance and make herself stronger. Naruto and Sasuke weren't allowed to do any serious training for a month and while she wasn't a fool enough to think she could catch up to them in that a short time maybe she could even the playground a bit. Knowing Naruto and Sasuke they would probably go mad from the no-sparring rule, but maybe Tsunade would allow them to help her with her taijutsu if she asked nicely enough. That was worth thinking about.
"Brats", a voice called out that Sakura recognized as Tsunade's.
"Tsunade baa-chan", Naruto said and as he jumped up to his feet like a spring. "Are you going to check how Sakura-chan is now? When will she be allowed to get up and when do you think she can join as during missions? It's not the same without her!" Sakura felt warmed by Naruto's word.
"Silence brat", Tsunade said just as loudly as Naruto had been speaking and hit him in the head. Sakura saw how one of the medics moving around the shelter rolled his eyes. "I will be checking her over, but if you stand in the way I won't be able to."
"Sit down dead last", Sasuke muttered. One of his hands grabbed Naruto's arm and Sasuke dragged him down to sit beside him instead of on the other side of Sakura. Naruto hissed back at him, but cooperated and let himself be guided down to the ground.
"So how do you feel Sakura", Tsunade asked as she moved and sat down at Sakuras empty side. Her hands became covered in familiar green healing chakra and she moved them over Sakura's body.
"My wounds still hurt but it's tolerable, Hokage-sama", Sakura answered. "Otherwise I mostly feel a bit weak and very thirsty."
"Yes", Tsunade confirmed. "That seems to be right." The green chakra disappeared. "You'll need to stay here and rest a while more, but you should be able to leave late this afternoon." Then she turned towards Naruto and Sasuke. "Your teammate will be fine, no thanks to you, but the two of you need to return to work. Tell someone who doesn't look busy to bring food and water to Sakura on your way out."
"Of course", Sasuke replied. Naruto and he rose up simultaneously and started to walk away.
"We'll see you later Sakura-chan", Naruto called, moving out of her hearing range.
"Could you try to sit up", Tsunade asked.
"Of course, Hokage-sama", Sakura answered. Tsunade stretched out her hand and Sakura grabbed it. By steadying herself against the woman Sakura slowly drew herself up into a sitting position. At first she felt dizzy, but it quickly passed, and then she felt better. It felt nice to sit up and to move her muscles a bit even though her body was still painfully weak.
"How do you feel", Tsunade asked and they continued to go through all the necessary medical questions. After a while Tsunade asked Sakura to take her shirt off, to let Tsunade get a better look at her wound.
"Who's shirt is this, Hokage-sama", Sakura asked as she took the shirt off. It wasn't her shirt, the only shirt she had had with her when they were sent her was the one she had been wearing, and that one had been ruined by her teammate's jutsus. The pants she currently wore was not hers either, and the realization that she currently did not own a single garment was very uncomfortable.
"Some people had extra clothes on them when the quake hit", Tsunade answered. "I guess you are wearing a set of such that fit you decently." Then the woman started to examine Sakura's wounds and Sakura tried to get a look at them herself. The burns on the left side of her torso were still very red, but thankfully all the blisters seemed to be gone, and it looked more like an bad burn instead of the damage from a lethal jutsu. The shoulder she couldn't see herself, but even though it hurt she could still move it at least.
"You'll be fine", Tsunade declared. "It would have been better if I had access to proper medical equipment, but I don't. One of the other medics will come around with food and heal your wounds a bit more. After that you'll need to be extra careful to keep them clean since we don't have any bandages, but as long as you actually are careful you'll be fine."
"Thank you Hokage-sama", Sakura said, putting her shirt back on again. Tsunade rose up and before the woman had time to walk away Sakura forced herself to get herself together. "Hokage-sama, um, I was wondering if there was anything I could help the medics with when I get better." Tsunade turned back towards Sakura, but from her expression Sakura could see that she didn't make her point clear enough. The woman looked thankful, but in the way you do when you politely turn down someone's offer to help you.
"I know Kakashi-sensei always said I had very good chakra control, I learned tree walking the first time I tried it. I know I don't have very much chakra, but I have a good memory and with my chakra control I might be able to help with some easier tasks. I mean, there must be a lot of pressure on the hospital, not that there is one now I guess, since there aren't any proper medical equipment and I... I just want to help." For every word she said Sakura felt her confidence leave her and she didn't know what she was thinking. She didn't know anything about medical nin-jutsu...
"Maybe", Tsunade answered thoughtfully, interrupting Sakura's thoughts. "I'll talk with Kakashi, and if your control is as good as you say your help could be useful. Now you need to rest more though." Then the woman turned back and walked away leaving Sakura with a sense of accomplishment. Everything she had told the Hokage had been true, which probably meant that she would be allowed to help the medics and that would give her a chance to learn medical nin-jutsus.
This was her chance to change. She had always felt that Naruto needed to change, that he needed to become more mature and serious, and that Sasuke, even though he was perfect, should work a little bit more on his teamwork. Those thoughts had just increased as she saw them fight, but there was nothing she could do to make the two of them change. Instead she would have to be the one to change. The horror she had felt when Naruto and Sasuke fought against each other with all their might was something she never ever wanted to feel again and she would make sure she wouldn't have to. After the Chunin exams she had realized that she needed to become a lot stronger and this fight had only made that fact clearer. This was the start of a path were she would be more than dead weight to her team.
Naruto bounced forward, humming slightly under his breath. He was filled to the brim with unused energy, meditating always left him like that, and he still wasn't allowed to get it out by sparring or training properly. Soon he'd join his team to do stupid chores instead, and while it did leave him drained it wasn't even close to being as satisfying as training was. If they didn't lift the ban on training soon he thought he was going to end up exploding.
Increasing his pace, Naruto decided that some soft running might leave him feeling a little bit less like jumping out of his skin. As long as he didn't run at full sprint it should be fine, and it wasn't as if he was doing it to train either. He had a time to pass.
He ran across the grassland heading towards the forest where Konoha's temporary camp laid. A week had passed since they had found themselves here and the entire island had been thoroughly explored. It was small, uninhabited and housed a surprisingly high variety of dangerous animals. Thankfully the animals weren't attacking indiscriminately anymore, they seemed to have learned to be wary of the ninjas. Civilians still weren't recommended to leave the camp, and ninjas mostly left for missions, but Naruto always had to leave for his regular meditating sessions with Jiraya.
At first Naruto had asked why they couldn't just meditate in the camp, not like he had anything against getting to run across the island but it just didn't make sense to him. Jiraya had looked at him like he was an idiot, and then carefully explained that since the point of Naruto's meditating was to get a better understanding of the Kyuubi and that people weren't really comfortable with him doing it in the camp. In Naruto's mind that sounded sort of stupid. If the fox now did manage to get out wasn't it better to put it down directly instead of allowing it to gather its full strength before attacking.?
Naruto wasn't going to protest though. Sure, meditating was boring as fuck, and the few times that he had actually talked to the fox hadn't been all that fun either, but since he wasn't allowed to train this was one of the best way to work on actually getting stronger. If he was able to learn how to use the Kyuubi's energy better, without it tainting him, he would most definitely become stronger. Plus it ended up with him spending at least an hour a day outside of the camp hanging with both Jiraya and Gaara, and without glares or hateful comments following him.
Gaara was there since apparently his team and his jonin teacher had been in Konoha acting as ambassadors from Suna, to discuss the consequences of Sunas invasion of Konoha or something like that, when the quake had hit. Therefore they had ended up here with all the other people from Konoha and since Gaara still didn't have the Ichibi under the best control it had been decided that he would work on it together with Jiraya and Naruto. At the beginning of the lessons Jiraya had examined Gaara's seal and after only a few days he had been able to make a few changes to it so that Gaara was now able to sleep without fearing that the Ichibi would possess him while he did, which just showed how awesome Jiraya was.
Therefore Naruto, in his boredom, had decided to pester Jiraya into teaching him how to make seals. They might have been taught a bit about it in the academy, not that Naruto remembered, but they hadn't been taught about how totally awesome they were if you were good enough. Learning it was kind of dull, a bunch of reading and memorizing, but it was better than both chores and meditating which were then only things he did nowadays.
Deep in his thoughts Naruto forgot one of the ninja's most important rules; always be aware of your surroundings. He just had time to notice the creeping feeling at the back of his neck which told him that somebody was watching him before the world turned black.
Strange colors dawned upon him and Naruto couldn't tell where he was. He felt warm and cozy, therefore he didn't care when he was drawn under to the safe blackness. The next time he became aware of something, it was of voices murmuring in a distance. He couldn't hear what they were saying and he didn't really care. Instead he just laid there, he thought he was laying down anyway, enjoying how good he felt and the fact that he didn't have a single worry in the world.
The voices stopped talking, and Naruto couldn't say how much time passed before they started again, but this time he decided to try and hear what they were saying. He still didn't really care, but there wasn't much else to do and maybe they would say something funny. That would be nice, he decided.
"When … needed him here … don't care … get here now."
"Of course sir … small problem … the Hokage … he can't get away … cast suspicion."
Naruto couldn't hear more than half of the words they were saying, and he had no clue about what they were talking about but something told him it was important. It was hard for him to bring up the energy to care, but the way the first voice spoke about Tsunade baa-chan felt wrong, very, very wrong.
Against the wishes of his body he tried to forc his eyes to open. He didn't know why he bothered, falling into the warm blackness would feel so much better but that thought only made him try to open his eyes more. No matter what he would open them, and that would show everyone that he could right?!
"Sir, the container ... eyes." Naruto just had time to see the sky before a panicked voice started to talk. The bad feeling that had made him open his eyes in the first place grew exponentially, and he knew that he had to try and make sense of the situation.
"Then fix it." Naruto knew that time was running out. With monstrous effort he managed to slightly lift his head from the ground and for the first time he saw the people he had been listening to.
One of the two he recognized, the man was old, scarred and leaned on a cane, but he couldn't say from where. The other wore an ANBU mask with a hawk on it, and that beyond all else confirmed how wrong something was.
Before he had time to blink, the ANBU operative had disappeared from his vision and then he felt how a syringe pierced his neck. His instincts screamed at him that he needed to move, but apparently he had used up his small reserve of energy when he had moved his head and he was unable to even lift his finger. Before long he stopped struggling as he was dragged back down into the warm and comfortable darkness.
The next time Naruto opened his eyes he finds himself in a very familiar sewer, looking straight at a huge cage and it's inhabitant. The Kyuubi's piercing eyes stared right at him, and even though he knew that there was no way it could escape from the cage he still shivered as those eyes narrowed.
He forced himself to focus not on the monster before him, but on himself instead because he was sure he wasn't supposed to be here. He distinctly remembered leaving Jiraya and Gaara after meditating today to go back to the village and do missions, but then his memories turned fuzzy and unclear.
"What do you want this time brat", the Kyuubi growled. "Have you come begging for help again?" Memories of falling unconscious and waking in a drugged state flowed back, and a sense of urgency filled Naruto. He still had no clue of what was going on around him, but whatever it was it wasn't good.
He had no idea of why he had ended up in his mind instead of simply falling unconscious, but right now he was probably lucky that the Kyuubi had been closer to his mind's surface since he landed on this island. Convincing the Kyuubi to lend his power was never easy, but the Kyuubi's chakra always accelerated his healing which in turn should help him break through his drugged state and then he might be able to call up enough chakra so that someone would be able to sense that something was wrong. Even he wasn't quite foolish enough to think that he could win against several ANBU, he might just have seen one but he would bet anything on the fact that there were more, but he sure as hell wouldn't go down without a fight.
"I never beg", Naruto proclaimed. "And since I didn't mean to end up here how can I be sure you didn't just drag me here?" To that the Kyuubi simply narrowed his eyes again and roared something that sounded like; "And why the hell would I want you here brat." Naruto didn't bother getting insulted though, since starting to meditate he had figured out that the Kyuubi was always angry and that it didn't take much to set him off.
"But I do need your help." It stung to admit that, but he couldn't afford to let pride get in his way. Whatever was happening outside ofhim was bad, like majorly bad, and not just for him. He hadn't forgotten the way they had spoken about his baa-chan.
"And why would I agree to that brat?" the Kyuubi scoffed. At least it wasn't roaring anymore, and it wasn't like Naruto had expected a better answer.
"Because I doubt whatever is happening around us is good for any one of us", Naruto said and before the Kyuubi had time to say anything else he hurried on. "I know you've been watching through my eyes since I pulled on your powers when I fought the boars, and I haven't pushed you back even though I'm pretty sure I could. Since you've been watching I know you saw the old man and the ANBU, and you now that spells trouble for both of us.
"Now that I can think clearly I remember from where I've seen him before. I've seen him a couple of times in the Hokage's tower and he's always been one of those who've looked at me even nastier than most people which has to be because he know that you're inside me and doesn't like it. Whatever he wants isn't going to be good for either you nor me."
The Kyuubi's expression changed from anger, hate and irritation into curiosity and consideration, though a tinge of anger and hate stayed as always. Those two emotions were never entirely gone from the Kyuubi's face.
"Let's say your right brat", he growled. "What do you want me to do? Your body is unconscious like the weak thing it is."
"Hey I'm not weak!" Naruto screamed. The Kyuubi just scoffed condescendingly as an answer and Naruto was rather proud that he managed to hold himself back from screaming again. There were after all more important things to focus on right now, but the Kyuubi would hear what Naruto thought about being called weak after this, damn it!
"I thought that you could just give me as much of your chakra as possible", Naruto said petulantly. "It should help my body get rid of the drugs and if I use enough of your chakra Jiraya should be able to sense it right? Sensing me using your chakra should tell him that something is wrong and make him come here, I think."
"Are you asking me or telling me brat", the Kyuubi growled. Despite it's tone it looked sort of amused. "Well it might work, and even if it doesn't it might give my chakra a bit of a work out." The huge and nasty grin on the Kyuubi's face told Naruto that this probably wasn't a good idea, anything the Kyuubi liked generally wasn't good, but he didn't have any other idea and planning really wasn't his forte.
"Let's do it then", Naruto exclaimed. He jumped, and pumped his fist showing that he was damn ready to tackle that stupid old man. This might be the dumbest idea he had had since he ran off to distract those damn beast from the civilians, but like hell that he would just lay down and admit defeat.
He felt himself leave the inside of his mind at the same time as a huge amount of the Kyuubi's chakra flowed from it into his body. It was an extremely strange feeling, because he was sure that he was still unconscious and that his body was still under the effects of the drugs but he could still think clearly and he was aware of every part of his body but at the same time it felt like he wasn't quite in it.
The red chakra rushed past him, the aware part of him, and into his body, and he felt how it burned away the drugs that floated around inside his body. As more and more of the drugs burned away he felt himself get closer and closer to his body, and then all of the drugs had been burned away and it felt like he was inside of his body like normally again.
His body was moving before he had time to think. It threw itself to the side in an instinctive movement to get away from whatever the men around him would do now, and when it got to its feet Naruto's mind caught up to his body. For the first time he saw where he was properly:in a small clearing and the trees around him were some of the largest he had seen on the island so far, but he felt like he was looking through a red haze. If the unnatural strength in his body wouldn't have been enough for him to figure out that he had entered the same state as he had during the mission in wave the red haze confirmed it. He didn't need to look down on his hands to know that he had claws, and he could also feel that he was surrounded by an aura of feral and bubbling chakra that moved up into a single tail behind him.
Only a few seconds had passed since the Kyuubi had started to give Naruto his chakra like there were no tomorrow, but he could feel how the chakra signatures around the clearing were moving towards him with hostile intent. They were ANBU, of course their reaction time was quick.
A feral grin formed on Naruto's face and he threw himself into battle with a feeling of joy spreading thoughout his body. He dodged the first man coming towards him and clawed the ANBU in his chest. The only reason he hit was because the man was underestimating him, but even then the wound was only deep enough to just draw blood. Naruto heard a growl leave his mouth.
Then he didn't really have time to do more than avoid the attacks coming towards him, as there were four ANBU after him. Even with the enhanced speed the Kyuubi's chakra gave him he took plenty hits, but they all healed with insane speed. Frustration at being unable to hit back built up inside of him and the more annoyed he became the faster the Kyuubi's chakra flowed into him.
Soon he had enough energy steaming through his body to make a second tail form behind him. The only reason he had managed to stay fighting so long was because the ANBU weren't aiming to kill him, they were only trying to incapacitate him. Now though he was pretty sure they weren't playing anymore because he could feel their alarm heighten and mix with a tiny glimpse of fear, and all in all it turned their killing intent up quite a few notches.
The old man was screaming orders, but Naruto was too high on adrenaline to bother listening. Instead he channeled out as much of the Kyuubi's chakra through him as he could, briefly pushing the men surrounding him back. Surely this should be enough chakra to make Jiraya sense him no matter where on the island they had taken him, but even though that had been his plan he wasn't satisfied. He wanted to tear the men attacking him apart himself, wanted to see blood flow from where his claws had torn into the flesh of feeble humans.
The four ANBU moved more warily and with improved teamwork now. They were clearly done playing around, and would handle him as the serious threat he was. One part of him felt satisfied that they were no longer looking down on him, while another realized that this would make the fight pretty impossible as he still wasn't strong enough to take four ANBU and a third part cursed how his human body was holding him back.
Not caring about the four strong obstacles in his way he threw himself with all his speed towards the old man. The ANBU were surprised, but that was not enough to throw them off balance. Damn fucking ANBU, how he wanted to tear them apart piece after piece. Instead they threw themselves at him with full killing intent. Three kunai pierced his body together with ten senbon and n overcharged fire jutsu hit him scorching his skin. It hurt like a bitch, but he just continued forward towards his prey. He could already feel his skin stitching itself together and how it pushed the weapons out as it healed the wounds they had caused.
Then he was in front of the old man and with an unprecedented glee he readied himself to tear through the man with his claws. Just as his overhead charge started the man moved just enough so that the bandages covering his left eye fell off and made him stand fact to face with his worst enemy: the fucking sharingan. He tried to pull away, to look away from that cursed eye, but momentum carried him forward. The eye started to spin, he felt it stealing away his free will, and in desperation he fell back to his old plan. He sent out bursts of chakra through his skin making them as big and fast as he damn could, and then just as his claws moved down and hit the elders shoulder he felt his last piece of will being stolen away from him.
His body froze, and he couldn't dodge the ANBU coming towards him with a unhinged fury from behind. The hits to his head would have been strong enough to send him unconscious even without the influence of the Sharingan and deep inside of him he screamed. Just before he hit the ground and fell unconscious Naruto felt two familiar chakras moving towards him with insane speed. One of them echoed his own as it carried the same feral fury as his did, and the other spoke of safety and protection.
Gaara and Jiraya had felt his chakra after all. Even though a huge part of him wanted to growl that he didn't need any damn help from petty humans or his own damn brother a smile still formed on his face as he was dragged down into the darkness against his will.
This time when Naruto opened his eyes, and damn this was the third time in a short while that he opened his eyes in a new place after being forced unconscious, he realized that he lay inside the temporary hospital. This was one of the few places that had a proper roof and walls and considering the fact that he spent way too much time there it made it easily recognizable.
His brain felt as if it was covered in layer of clouds, but he was quite sure he wasn't drugged, he had no clue as to why that was such a relief since even the supply of painkillers was pretty much nonexistent, and that it was just a bit more severe than normal morning fuzziness.
"Thank god, kid", a rough voice said in a relived tone. Naruto turned his head to the left and was greeted with the sight of a rather wounded Jiraya sitting cross-legged on the ground looking at him with worried eyes. His teacher had his left arm in a sling, his chest was covered in bandages and Naruto could spot plenty small cuts and bruises that had been left alone.
"Ero-Sennin", Naruto said and sat up in a panicked motion. The dizziness that hit him told the bonde that sitting up had probably been a bad idea, but damn if he cared. "What happened Ero-Sennin? Are you okay? What's going on?"
"Naruto", Jiraiya said, completely serious for once. "Don't you remember what happened?"
"What", Naruto said feeling confused. "What happened?" He knew that something serious had happened and he could feel the memories lurking on the edge of his mind but his brain refused to let him remember.
"You were attacked when you were returning to the shelter after meditating with Gaara and me", Jiraya said. "Does that ring a bell?" Memories of waking up being completely drugged, falling unconscious again and then fighting through a red haze of fury flowed back. He clearly remembered making the deal with the Kyuubi, but the memories after were unclear at best.
"Yeah", he said trying to take in what had happened. "Ero-sennin did that man really have a Sharingan or is it just my memories that are fucked up?" It should be impossible, because the man clearly wasn't an Uchiha and he had never heard about anyone but Kakashi having an implanted Sharingan. He knew that he wasn't the most observant, but with Sasuke, the last Uchiha, Sakura, who was a damn encyclopedia, and Kakashi, who was known as Sharingan Kakashi, as teammates he really should have heard if there was another ninja who had the Sharingan in Konoha.
"He did", Jiraiya said with a serious expression.
"How is that even possible", Naruto exclaimed, not giving Jiraiya a chance to continue. "That really shouldn't be possible right?"
"We don't know yet, but the man has been taken to be questioned. Everything that has happened though is classified so far, and you can't tell people anything, okay? The only information released to the public says that some of our ninjas turned traitor, attacked you and planned to stage a coup, and that they are now spending some time in T&I so that we can find out everything that there is to know about the situation. Everything else is classified, especially the fact that the man had a Sharingan. Okay, Naruto?"
"So I can't even tell Sasuke", Naruto asked. It really didn't feel right to keep a secret like that from his teammate.
"No, you can't tell anyone", Jiraiya answered. He looked deep into Naruto's eyes with a serious expression and didn't say anything else until Naruto reluctantly nodded and promised that he wouldn't tell anyone.
"Good. Now I want you to tell me everything you remember about what happened."
Naruto began to explain what he remembered, turning red from embarrassment as he was forced to admit that when he was first attacked he hadn't even noticed that people were sneaking up on him since he hadn't been paying attention. Jiraiya's expression didn't change until he came to the part where he talked to the Kyuubi, but then he sighed deeply and his expression looked like he wanted to say; 'what am I supposed to do with this idiot', and it was an expression Naruto recognized as it used to appear on people's face after he pulled a really awesome prank or did something that others thought was even stupider than his usual antics.
"Naruto, haven't I told you to be careful with the Kyuubi's power", Jiraya asked him after Naruto finished his retelling.
"Well, yeah", Naruto answered. "But I didn't have any other idea. It wasn't like I could fight off a bunch of ANBU and it wasn't in a situation where I would have a chance to run away either, but I know that if I started to use enough of the Kyuubi's chakra that would alarm everyone and tell them that something was wrong. And I mean it obviously worked to, and I don't feel much worse for wear now except that I'm sorta tired."
"Still", Jiraya said with a sigh. "You have to be more careful." The two of them fell into a familiar argument and Naruto felt relived in how Jiraiya's presence and the familiarity of the situation slowly made him feel safe again. For a moment all the questions Naruto had about the situation fled, and he just breathed.
It wasn't until a few days later that Naruto actually found out more about why he had been kidnapped and who had been behind it. When he had asked baa-chan or Ero-sennin they had just answered that it was classified and that he still was a freakin genin, plus he wasn't allowed to answer Sasuke and Sakura's questions as to why someone would want to kidnap him of all people. So when they were informed that the Hokage was announcing something important to the village, he wondered if it might be about the traitors that had kidnapped him.
"For almost two weeks we have been residing on this foreign island", Tsunade began her speech. The Hokage stood on a temporarily created wooden platform looking down on the people gathered before her with a serious face. Expectations and hope lay thick among the civilians and lower level ninjas, while the ninjas with higher clearance who knew that no way home had yet been found readied themselves for more bad news.
"From the intelligence we have so far gathered we've come to the conclusion that wherever we are it's not anywhere in the Elemental Countries anymore. In fact it's so far away that people here have never heard about the Elemental Countries, or the existence of any continent. Theories of where we are or how we ended up here are still being put together, but no matter the answers to those questions we still have to face the fact that there is no easy or immediate way back.
"There are other hard facts that we have been forced to face since landing here as well. A highly respected elder has shown his true colors and proven that his loyalties does not lay with his village nor Hokage, instead he has shown that he is only loyal to himself and his own power. It is with deep condolences that I have to inform you that the elder and war hero Danzo has been discovered of betrayal to his village, both by training to take the seat of Hokage for himself and for having a secret order of ninjas that answered only to him.
"Due to these two facts the council and clan heads have agreed with me that Konoha is to be put in a temporary state of complete marshal law. We are not in war, but we are residing in unknown territory with no little knowledge of the dangers that lay around us. Therefore we have to act with all the speed and adaptability that we have become known for. We might face a situation that we have never faced before but we will do so with our heads held high and our spirits bright. We are the people of Konoha and we can't be put down by something as meager as this."
After the speech Naruto had had a bunch of questions for Sakura; like what did marshal law mean? With a sigh and a roll of her eyes she had explained that it means that during the time that the village is in a complete state of marshal law the Hokage is the single authority and can not be held to answer ether the council or clan heads. To be honest Naruto didn't really get it, so he just nodded and smiled.
He ignored Sasuke's mocking words at his ignorance, fighting with Sasuke was really not what he needed to do if he wanted to be allowed to train again, and team 7 returned to their boring D-rank missions. Time passed and they fell into a routine. Their days were filled with boring chores, meditation and learning as long as it was simply in theory. Only Sakura was allowed to train, and she spent a lot of time in the hospital helping out and learning medical nin-jutsu.
After another week passed Sasuke and Naruto were finally allowed to train again, and when they sparred with Sakura they noticed just how much she had improved during the time they hadn't been allowed to. Her chakra control had become even greater, and she was beginning to learn how to put it into her hits to increase their strength. She still didn't land very many hits on either of them, but now the few she did land hurt, like really hurt.
When their training ban was lifted Naruto finally found himself on more interesting missions than the simple chores that D-ranks were. Sasuke and he would often be put as perimeter guards, or made to run on the islands edge to have sight over the sea, as they were quick and had a lot of stamina for being just genins. Sometimes they would get together with Sakura and search some of the more dangerous parts of the island for precious medicine herbs, and Naruto really wasn't looking forward to the next time he had to distract poisonous snakes away from their nests so Sakura could get some freaking plants.
He was still stuck with meditating though, and the only upside with that was that so was Sasuke, to learn and see which of his emotions were influenced by the cursed seal, and the fact that he was fast becoming friends with Gaara. Kakashi was away from the island more than he was there, but whenever he came back from an intelligence gathering mission he always made time to seek them out and berate them on something, lecture on teamwork and teach them something.
Time flew on, and though Naruto missed Konoha, as it used to be, he was getting used to life as it was now. Rumors said that they had landed in another world, not just been thrown far away, but since neither Ero-sennin nor baa-chan would answer he didn't know if it was correct or not. Soon a month had passed and Naruto found himself running side by side with Sasuke looking at the roaring sea.
They were running in the shadows of the forest, so that if a ship was to approach they wouldn't be spotted, since on the part of the coast they were currently patrolling the forest only stopped a few hundred meters before the shoreline. The scent of the sea hung heavy in the air, a scent Naruto had never smelled before landing on this island, but one he had grown both to like and used to by now. It smelled of salt and the unknown things that were hiding in the depths, it combined with the warmth made Naruto want to throw his clothes of and run into the water.
The two of them ran in silence, but it wasn't the sort of awkward silence Naruto would've guessed it would be before they started to do these missions. Instead it was a sort of watchful and trusting silence, a silence that said that they both knew that the other would have their back if all turned to hell. Much could be said about Sasuke's assholish behavior, but he was a good person to have watching your back.
For a second the view of the sea was hidden behind a rise in the ground and they turned sharply. Soon they could once again see the ocean, but now they saw parts of it that had before been hidden by the rise they had just passed, and now it wasn't simply the ocean they were seeing. A huge ship was sailing on it, straight towards the island. It was still far away but had no problem with making out the symbol on the flag.
The symbol was a symbol even he recognized, and as he registered the grinning skull with a huge white mustache he remembered the debriefing they had had when they had been informed of the four emperors.
"Shit", he said and quickly looked Sasuke in the eyes. Sasuke's sharingan was activated and spinning, but Naruto barely noticed as he saw what he knew confirmed in Sasuke's eyes. Quickly he formed the hand seals for a shadow clone and sent it running to inform the Hokage of what they had spotted. Then the two of them moved simultaneously to a place among the trees where they were both well hidden and had a good sight of the approaching ship.
Hope you liked this chapter. I had some problems with writing Sakura, but I hope it worked. This is when we start seeing her resolve to become a real ninja take of for real, and see sets herself on the path to become the Sakura we see in Shippuden. I also struggled a bit with writing Kuruma, but if he isn't as hateful as you feel he should be there are reasons for that I promise ;)
So please leave me a review and tell me what you think. Reviews feed my inspiration like hell and increases my motivation by tenfolds ;)