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I have no excuse for not updating. But in any free time I have, I try my hardest to write new chapters of any ongoing story I have.

Sorry for the wait.

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Chapter Synopsis : With Naruto finally falling asleep, Sasha can't help but remember what happened last year, when her blond lover, went berserk. While the two dispatched teams, finally track down the two shinobi they must bring back to Konoha.

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Pairing : Naruto x Sasha , Ino x Shikamaru, Sakura x Lee, Kiba x Hinata, Neji x Tenten

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Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto. Period.

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Claimer : I do own both the following characters. Mibu Sasha and Aka Ookami.

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"Speech" When characters are speaking

'Thoughts' When characters are thinking AND for FLASHBACKS. It's easier to make a difference with the present time and the past time this way.

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Chapter 7 : Old Wounds

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Tonight's event had affected them both.

They spent hours talking, before finally agreeing upon going to sleep, preparing themselves mentally and physically for the war that would soon come home.

A home that Naruto really wanted to protect. Well, he mostly wanted to protect his true friends and most of all, his previous teacher, Umino Iruka.

As for Sasha, she couldn't care less about the people that lived within the Village, she just didn't want another massacre happening, but most of all, she was there to support him. Naruto.

Sitting in bed, she looked beside her, happy that Naruto had finally fallen asleep. She couldn't help but smile, seeing how he looked so relaxed, at peace with all that happened.

She carefully slipped out of their bed, making sure she wouldn't wake him from a much needed sleep.

'It's been a while since he slept this well.' Ookami commented, aware of every thought that crossed his partner's mind.

"Here I thought I was the only one awake." She whispered softly, making her way to the window.

Gently, she sat down on the ledge, pulling the curtain out of the way, to get a glimpse at the moon.

It shone so brightly, illuminating the room with a gently light blue colour.

'You're still worried about him.' It wasn't a question he asked, it was just to point it out.

"The time to fight Shiraku is getting much closer. He's starting to hide behind his mask again." She replied, resting her forehead against the window glass.

'He's hiding behind his mask, because his too afraid to hurt you again.' Ookami finally admitted. 'He fears that in this war, he'll loose you.'

"I know…" She let out sadly, remembering exactly what happened, a year ago.

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After the rain of kunai, the gentle, sweet, innocent Naruto that Sasha knew, changed completely upon that little girl dying in his very arms. She wanted nothing more than to stay by his side, and hunt down the shinobi who dared to do this unspeakable act, but when she took a step forward, that's when he spoke.

"They're mine." A voice so full of anger, one she really didn't want to disobey to.

Standing still, Sasha observed how Naruto carefully laid down the body of the little girl, making sure no more harm would come to her.

Never taking her eyes off Naruto, Sasha stood there, as the second massacre of the day began.

The Sound-Nins gathered around, approaching with caution their intended target, Naruto.

'Shouldn't you help him?' Aka screamed in her mind, worried, since the emotions of the host could very well influence those of the demon they hosted.

"It's better to let him vent out." She let out, noticing how strands of orange swirled all around Naruto's body.

The nine tails fox was finally showing itself more.

"You're going to pay for what you did to her…" He growled, feeling the power of Kyubi, coming to his aid. The fox always liked a bloodbath, and for once, his host was finally offering him one.

Before any shinobi could react, Naruto vanished before their very eyes.

"What the hell?" Their eyes widened, realizing their lost track of their target.

"Where the fuck is he?" They started to panic.

"Stay calm, he can't be far off." The leader ordered, carefully scanning their surrounding.

"Besides, he's just a kid, we'll kill him just as fast as we killed the other idiots of this Village." The enemy bragged.

"Gurr…" A strangling voice let out.

All attention turned towards their leader, seeing something was definitely wrong.

"What the hell is wrong with …" He could barely finish his sentence when something ripped right through their leader's ribcage, blood pouring all over the ground.

"None of you… Are getting out of here alive…" A growl emerged from behind their leader.

Removing his clawed hand from his enemy, the body fell quickly to the ground like the lifeless corpse it was.

"Who's next?" Red eyes glowed, matching perfectly the dark clouds of smoked that covered the entire Village.

"Attack him!"

Instead of thinking things through, they foolishly charged into battle.

One they wouldn't win.

After all, who can win against a demon?

The bodies continued to pile up, until there wasn't any more Sound shinobi alive in the Village.

A massacre, that reminded Shila, of her own clan.

"Aka? What's wrong?" She could sense that her own demon was stirring within her.

'He's not done yet. Kyubi hasn't had enough blood.' Aka Ookami half growled, sensing the desire, the need to kill, that both Kyubi and Naruto emitted from their aura.

"Naruto!" She yelled out his name, hoping to snap him out of his daze.

But the boy simply ignored her cry, ripping through the last shinobi, tearing him, limb from limb. What scared her the most, was the fact that the blond was actually enjoying, ripping and tearing the enemy apart, even if they were already dead.

"Naruto. Kyubi. That's enough." She raised hr voice, hoping once more to have his attention.

She knew better than anyone, Naruto didn't mind to kill when necessary, but seventy five percent the time, Kyubi did the killing for him, sparing him from doing what he didn't like.

"I'm only getting started." He prowled, searching around for the next victim. "I'll hunt down every last on of them. They'll pay for what they did to her."

He regained his posture, standing on his two feet, but his eyes never left those of Sasha.

"And then what?" She asked, trying to get through to him. She really had no desire to get into a fight with him, knowing too well that whatever happened, they'd both get hurt physically.

He cocked his head, unsure how to respond to such a question.

"Even if you hunt them all down you can't beat and kill Shiraku by yourself. Deep down you know that or else we would have dealt with him already." She reminded the blond, hoping her words alone, were all he needed to snap out of it.

"That doesn't matter. We have more power than years ago." The demon argued, his eyes glowing more red than usual.

This wasn't getting either of them anywhere.

"Then you leave me with no other choice." She told him, closing her eyes, relaxing her own body for what she was about to do next.

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

What could she possible do to him anyway?

Something came to his face. Fast. His mind barely had time to register what the hell was going on, but at least he managed to grab whatever wanted to make its way to his face.

"You would fight your own friend? Your lover?" He asked, wrapping his fingers around her closed fist.

"I only fight because I know he wouldn't want this." She replied with a sad voice.

She threw him the last punch she had left, well aware that he would intercept it. But that move alone left her an opening for her to exploit. With his hands wrapped around her fists, she pulled him towards her, using her bodyweight in order to flip his body over her own.

By natural instinct and with the fox's darker side coming to surface, he landed properly on his feet, ready to attack.

'There's no reasoning with him anymore.' Ookami warned his companion, sensing the lust for blood from the fox.

Unfortunately, a fox was known to be faster than a wolf.

Landing on his feet, he lost no time to strike back, while Sasha was barely getting back on her own two feet.

"Look out!" The wolf warned her, but t was already too late.

She was pushed back hard to the ground, and before she knew it, Naruto was above her, preventing her from attacking or even defending herself.

Clawed hands wrapped themselves around her neck.

"Naruto! You have to snap out of it…" Sasha tried again, powerless to protect herself.

His hands tightened around her neck, and no matter how hard she tried to push him back, the Kyubi proved more powerful in his angered state than the normal one.

Blood began to slip between Naruto's fingers, as he glared at the female form beneath him.

"You shouldn't have gotten in my way." The demon led on, carefully examining the body under him, making sure there was no way that this one, could surprise him with any type of attack.

"Please…" She begged, her own hands, digging into the skin of her attacker.

The lack of air was getting to her. Her eyes began to close, while water gathered in them.

A single tear escaped, and that's when she gave up.

Btu suddenly, the pressure stopped.

The hands around her neck slowly removed themselves, giving her finally the air she needed to breath. She coughed, trying to get the air back in her lungs as fast as she could.

"I-I'm …" Naruto mumbled, staring at his bloodied hands.

Whatever took over the blond earlier, it was totally gone now. Catching her breath, she finally looked into those blue eyes.

"Naruto?" She barely could speak, but she tried despite the pain it brought to her throat.

Blue eyes locked with hers.

"I.." He was too shocked to even speak.

"Shh. It's ok…" She whispered, she reached out, wrapping her arms around him.

As much as he resisted, he finally gave in. She rested her head against his shoulder, as he did the same. But when he wrapped his arms around her body, he held onto her tightly as if his life depended on it.

"Everything will be ok." She reassured him as she could.

And it's then, that Naruto finally broke down into tears.

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Upon remembering that moment, she couldn't help but wrap her own hand around her neck, knowing that she could have really died by the hands of the one person she loved.

"Sasha?" Naruto mumbled from the bed.

Snapping out of her thoughts, she slowly walked back to the bed, sitting on the edge.

"You need your rest Naruto. Go back to sleep." She told him, gently caressing his cheek.

"Mmmm." He agreed, closing his eyes once more.

It wasn't long after that that he fell right back to sleep.

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According to the latest information she was able to gather in a small Village, one of the person she was searching for. She finally arrived to the building her informants described to her.

She raised her eyebrow.

Of all the places in the world, the shinobi she was suppose to get back to Konoha fast, was in a place where sometimes illegal activities took place.

But then again, each Village had their own set of rules.

Entering the building, she quickly spotted the person that was in charge in the building.

"Excuse me? Could you tell me if you know this person?" Kurenai asked, showing the only photo the Third Hokage could find that would help them find the two shinobi.

"Ha! Down the hall, right to your left." He laughed, continuing to dry off his empty beer glasses.

Kurenai wasn't too sure why the man laughed upon seeing the picture.

"Don't take it personally lass, it's just, she comes often, but loses all the time." He explained, seeing how she frowned earlier.

"Thank you." She lost no time, searching for the room, but as she got closer to it, she could hear the voice within it more clearly.

"It seems you lost again." A male voice spoke from within the room.

"Maybe we should leave while you still have a little money…" A female plead, to what seemed to be the player that was loosing the game.

"I'll be fine. I'm sure I'll win the next round. Just watch me!" Another female spoke.

Kurenai eyed the door.

There was no doubt that the shinobi was in that room. Being the polite type she was, she knocked twice before finally entering the room.

Upon entering the room, all eyes turned on the Jounin.

"Is she one of yours?" An old man pointed to her, asking the females that stood on the others side of the carpet.

A blond pig tailed woman eyed her carefully.

"If you're here, something must have happen." She pointed out, her face changing from funny to serious.

"Hokage requests your presence back to Konoha. Tsunade-sama." Kurenai informed the blond woman.

"Tsunade-sama?" Her friend understood nothing, just like their opponents in the poker game.

"I guess today is the day I finally listen to you Shizune." She picked up the little money that was left on the table. "Gentlemen, we'll continue this another day." She bowed slightly, before standing up.

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Asuma followed his own trail. Compared to his partner Kurenai, he had a pretty good idea already where the shinobi was. After all, he was known to be a writer for a book. So now all that was left, was to find the perfect place where this shinobi would do his research.

"Well this seems like the perfect place." He told himself, scanning the area nearby.

Even though the bathing house was a bit outside of town, it's surroundings was ideal for any one who wanted to hide their presence or in other cases, spy on women and men that usually bathed inside the spa.

"Just as I thought." Asuma smiled. Out of all the green grass out there, there was tuff of white hair, that stood out among all the rest.

He wasted no time in heading out to that spot, but made sure to make no sound. It wasn't everyday that he had the opportunity to surprise such a highly known shinobi like that man.

Silently approaching his target, he decided this was the best moment to have a little chit chat.

"I see you haven't given up on researching for your next book." Asuma let out, lighting up a cigarette.

The shinobi fell back on his butt, surprised that someone had snuck up behind him, but mostly that he didn't detect the lad.

"Don't sneak up on people like that!" The white haired shinobi let out, forgetting the fact that any sound could be easily heard within the bathing house.

"What was that sound?" Someone within the bathhouse asked.

"I don't know." Another young woman added.

"Do you think there's someone out there?"

"Something's moving out there!" Someone alerted the rest of the group.

"Let's get out of here!" One screamed.

"Oh no!" By the time the shinobi realized his mistake, the girls were running back inside the bathhouse, where he could no longer observe them as he wished.

"You can gather information as much as you want later. But for now, you're needed. Jiraiya." Asuma informed the white haired man, taking a few more puffs out of his cigarette.

Getting back on his feet, he stared at the Jounin, wondering why he was there in the first place.

"So what does the old man want?" Jiraiya grinned, putting his notes in a safe place.

"You and Tsunade will be briefed once we're all back in Konoha." Asuma informed the Sennin, throwing away the cigarette to the ground.

"Tsunade? Ha! Seeing that old woman will be fun." He laughed, gathering his belonging to prepare for their return home.

And so, they headed back to Konoha.

TBC

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Short chapter it might be, at least I finally updated it. Again I apologize for the long wait and hope some people still read this.

Let me know by reviewing please.

Ookima