I'M BACK!!! With a restored will to write and a newfound appreciation of the semicolon! I've decided to write a serious story for once. Unlike my other two stories, this one will have some sort of a plot. Not only that, but it's a cross over! This is revolutionary! ...at least, for me. Anywho, this is my first attempt at anything serious so feedback is always appreciated!

This story is set between the magical time where Sasuke's killed his Itachi, and Pein attacks Konoha. So Tsunade's still Hokage, m'kay? Onward!!

It had been raining heavily for some time now; long enough to soak through the jacket of a young ninja as he ran through the tree tops. His breath was coming in gasps as he fumbled among the branches, yet his determination drove him forward. Ahead smoke was rising up amonst the tree tops, and crashes were echoing throughout the forest. Uzumaki Naruto ran towards the noise for all that he was worth, praying he wouldn't arrive too late.

This mission had started out like all the other ones had. News had come in about Uchiha Sasuke's where-abouts, and Team 7 went off to try and capture the traitor. Their search led them to a small town that seemed to have been abandoned some years ago. Buildings were decaying, stone foundations crumbling, and not a trace of human life anywhere. Disheartened, Team 7 began their trip back home. That's when things changed. While traveling through the forest, Kakashi sensed the presence of ninjas not far from the teams location. They didn't think much of it, but the four put up their guards. That's when the attack came.

The Konoha ninjas were ambused by their former teammate, and his three companions. Sai quickly took out the girl of the team, Karin, while Kakashi struggled against Suigetsu. Sakura hesitated a bit, but then decided on attacking Jugo, who seemed a bit unwilling to fight at first. Naruto headed straight at his former best friend, and the two began what they were sure was their final showdown. The fighting continued, with Sai assisting Kakashi it taking down Suigetsu. The two then headed towards where Naruto and Sasuke fought, when suddenly Jugo's curse seal became active, and he began to attack Sakura with renewed vigor. Seeing how neither Sasuke nor Naruto seemed to be gaining the upperhand, the two shinobi ran to assist their pink-haired teammate. Killing Jugo proved to be more difficult than they thought, as before Kakashi could land the final blow, Jugo struck out at him; horribly wounding the masked man. Sai and Sakura quickly dispatched their distracted foe, and Sakura set to healing her former sensei. Once it was clear Kakashi was in no danger of dying, Sakura rushed off to help Naruto, while Sai stayed behind to call for reenforcements.

Sakura arrived just as Naruto was thrown back by Sasuke's Chidori Nagashi. Sasuke attempted to retreat from the battle, but Sakura quickly chased after her former crush. Once Naruto was able to move once more, he ran after the two. This brings us to the present, where Naruto is quickly making his way toward the sound of his best friends battling.

Suddenly, all noise stopped.

The sound of rocks breaking from Sakura's super punches ceased. There were no explosions from Sasuke's fire balls, no crash of falling trees, no shouts of anger. Naruto paused, waiting to see if the battle resumed elsewhere, or maybe to see if a victorious Sakura would run towards him, carrying an unconsious Sasuke with her. He waited, but the sounds did not resume.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called, once again rushing for the battle field. He was hoping with all his might that he would find the battle over, and Sakura okay; but a feeling of dread crept forth from the back of his mind. The blonde ninja sprinted through the trees and arrived at an unnatural clearing formed by fallen trees and destroyed ground.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called again, searching frantically for his teammate. There on the other side of the clearing, he could see a figure lying on the ground. The bottom fell out of Naruto's stomach as he recongnized Sakura's pink hair. He quickly ran towards his fallen teammate.

'Please don't be dead,' He thought as he rushed forward, 'Sakura-chan can't be dead, she can't die!'

A lump formed in Naruto's throat when he saw the blood soaking through his teammate's shirt. There was a large gash accross Sakura's chest, going from her left shoulder to the middle of her torso. Slowly, fearfully, Naruto reached down and touched his friend's arm.

"Sa-Sakura-chan?" he said, hoping beyond hope that she would open her eyes. His teammate did not respond. Tears began forming in Naruto's eyes.

"Sasuke!" He shouted, rising to his feet, "Sasuke, you bastard, where are you!?" There was no sign of his former teammate anywhere.

"How could you Sasuke!" Naruto continued to shout, "She was in love with you! This was supposed to be between you and me!"

Suddenly, a figure emerged from the tree line. Uchiha Sasuke, tired and dirty but remaining as stoic as ever, walked forward to face his former friend. Naruto glared at him, tears continuing to fall for his defeated teammate.

"Why Sasuke?" he shouted, "Why'd you kill her you bastard!?"

The dark haired shinobi gazed unemotionatly into the blonde's eyes, "She was an obstical in my way of getting my revenge."

"Bullshit!" Naruto shouted, "You're brother's dead! You already got your revenge!"

"Hardly!" Sasuke shouted in return, "My brother was forced to kill my entire family by the Konoha council so they could protect their worthless ambitions! My family was taken from me by the people I served for my wasted childhood. I will not rest until Konoha is destroyed."

Naruto's gaze hardened, and menacing red chakra began to manafest around his body, "I won't let you!" he shouted, his voice taking a visious tone. More chakra began to appear, as slowly, tails of demonic energy began to form. Naruto howled in rage as he began to take a more animalistic appearance, "I'll kill you!"

The enraged nin lunged at his foe, who was swiftly going through handsigns. Just as Naruto was about to rip his clawed hands through him, Sasuke vanished in a puff of smoke. Naruto roared again, furious over his enemy's escape. The torrent of red chakra began to increase, as Naruto slowly lost himself to his anger.

Suddenly, Naruto was struck from behind. He quickly swirled around before he felt his chakra fading. He saw Kakashi standing before him as Naruto was overcome by a sudden exhaustion.

"Ka...kashi...sensei?" Naruto whispered. Kakashi was quick to catch him before he fell.

"I was able to put a seal on you before you got out of hand," Kakashi explained, "Don't worry help is comming soon."

"Sak...ura-chan..."

"She's got a pulse!" Sai shouted from where he stood near the kunoichi's unconsious form, "She's still alive, but barley. She'll make it if we hurry back to the village."

Relief flooded Naruto's brain, before he was embraced in blackness, and knew no more.

Haggard and dirty, Sai and Kakashi arrived in Konoha with their two unconsious teammates in tow. Not even bothering to aknowledge the chunin at the gate, the ninjas high-tailed it towards Konoha General Hosipital. Sakura's survival depended on their speed.

Bursting through the hosiptal doors, they immediatly attracted the attention of several nurses. Sai, who was carrying Sakura, rushed forward and placed her prone form on an empty gurney.

"What happened to her?" a nurse asked as others attatched life-support machines and prepared blood transfusions. Sai began to calmly explain Sakura's perdicament, while another nurse relieved Kakashi of his unconsious burden.

"He doesn't seem to be injured," the nurse stated, examining Naruto's body, "What happened?"

"He suffered some mental strain during the mission," Kakashi said vaugely. Even though the citizens of Konoha had accepted Naruto, there was no need to give them any reason to reopen old wounds. The nurse begrudgingly accepted his explanation, and moved Naruto onto another gurney. Sakura had been rushed off to surgery, and there was nothing for the two members of Team 7 to do but wait.

Wait, and pray their friends would be alright.

The light above the operation room finally was turned off, and Kakashi and Sai rose from their chairs to learn the fait of their pink-haired teammate. A nurse came through the double doors and approched the two.

"Haruno-san is going to be alright," She said, smiling happily. Relief hit the two ninjas. The nurse continued on, "She'll need to remain here for care for a few days, but she should be up and about in a week or two."

"Thank you so much," Kakashi said.

"How is Uzumaki Naruto?" asked Sai. The two had let the doctors take Naruto off to care while they waited to see if Sakura would survive. They were sure he'd want to hear the good news.

"Uzumaki-san is still unconsious," the nurse explained, "I'll take you to his room." She led them through the hallways to a different ward of the hospital. She opened a door to reveal an imaculate room, with Naruto's prone form lying in the bed.

"Why hasn't he woken up?" Kakashi asked as he walked over to the bed. No matter how powerful Naruto or Sakura had become, he still saw them as his students; he fretted over them like a worried father.

"Uzumaki-san seems to have suffered from an overload of chakra," the nurse explained, "His chakra pathways have been strained, and several organs have shown signs of backlash from expelling chakra too quickly. It may be days before he wakes up."

Kakashi frowned, and even Sai showed some concern for the blonde ninja, "Will he be alright?" the cycloptic jonin asked. The nurse nodded. She then excused herself to go tend to other patients. Kakashi and Sai lingered a bit longer, before leaving to give their mission report.

Unknown to both ninja; they didn't leave the hospital room as empty as they thought. Another ninja, concealed within the room, kept a constant vigil on the unconsious Naruto. As soon as the boy woke up, the ninja's master would be alearted.

Everything hurt. Such extreme pain was rare to Naruto, who was used to healing from most of his pains quickly. This feeling had only happened a few times before, when he had lost control of Kyuubi's chakra. His head hurt the most, Naruto noted as he slowly regained consiousness. Hell, even thinking hurt right now. He really must have screwed up big time this time. Slowly, the blonde fought through his agony to rise into a sitting position, instantly regreating the movement as it sent spikes of white-hot pain through his back. Eyes screwed shut, Naruto groped around for the nurse call button. After finding and activating the device, he resigned himself to wait for someone to show up.

Tentatively, Naruto tried to open his eyes. After ajusting to the light, he looked around his hospital room; hoping for a glass of water or something to sooth his burning throat. Finding the room unhelpfully devoid of water, the boy groaned. Man, was he thirsty.

Luckily, the pain in his body seemed to slowly be going away. The ache in his head had yet to recede though. Naruto breifly wondered what was taking the nurse so long to show up, before deciding to see if he could walk yet. He swung his legs over to the side of his hospital bed, and attempted to put his weight. He quickly realized this was a bad idea, as his legs collapsed after shooting an aching pain up his spine. Falling back onto his bed, Naruto groaned again. At this rate, he wouldn't be released until tomorrow. If there's one thing that Uzumaki Naruto hated, it was being forced to stay in bed for too long. He liked sleep just as much as the next guy, but two days of it was a bit much...except perhaps for Shikamaru.

Thinking of Shikamaru led Naruto's thoughts to start drifting to his other friends. Wait...his friends. Like Sakura-chan. SAKURA-CHAN!

Naruto bolting upright once more (and ignoring the slight pain this caused) and scrambled for the nurse call button. Frantically the ninja pressed the button, trying to aleart a nurse by any means possible. He needed to know what had happened to his teammate. It was his fault she was hurt in the first place, he was sure of it. He should have been faster, or stronger, or brought that bastard Sasuke home the first time around.

Naruto was snapped from his thoughts as the door to his room opened; revealing someone Naruto was absolutely sure wasn't a nurse. Hell, this guy looked more like a patient with the way he was bandaged up. The older man closed the door behind him and leveled Naruto with a cold stare.

"Who are you?" the blonde asked.

"My name is Danzo. I am the leader of the special ranks your current teammate, Sai, was a part of," the man, Danzo, replied. He noticed how confused Naruto seemed, noting how plainly the boy displayed his emotions. It was hard to believe that this bumbling boy had the potential to be the ultimate weapon he had been looking for. All he needed was a little molding...

"Do you know what happened to Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, pleading with his eyes for Danzo to tell him that his teammate, no, his sister was alright. Inwardly Danzo smirked.

"Haruno-san, unfortunatly, died from her injuries soon after arriving in Konoha."

Outwardly, Naruto showed no sign of having heard what Danzo had said. His posture remained the same, and his face still looked pleading. The only difference was in his eyes; the hopeful look had disapeared, only to be replaced with a sort of souless, self-loathing glaze. Slowly, the boy's hands balled up into fists, and tears started to run down his face. Naruto's features fell; outwardly expressing the hopeless feeling that was currently eating him up inside. He whispered, so soft it was barely audiable, "No."

Danzo observed the boy's sudden change in demeanor frome desperate to hopeless. The shinobi looked so vulnerable it was pathetic. All the boy needed now was a push in the right direction.

"Yes," Danzo said, his tone emotionless, "the wounds the Uchiha inflicted on her were quite serious. Even if the girl hadn't died, there was no guarentee she would have survived much longer once in hospital care. The traitor must have been merciless."

The older man's words served their purpose. Naruto reacted again, this time violently.

"SASUKE!" Naruto shouted, pounding his fists against the matress of his bed so hard, the metal frame creaked, "THAT BASTARD! I'LL KILL HIM!!" Once again the blonde attempted to rise to his feet, only to have his legs give out from beneath from him again. Naruto fell to the floor, screaming in frustration, "I'll kill him for what he did to her!! I'll-" he choked back another wave of sobs.

Danzo could not hold in the smirk that was rising to the surface. So far, everything was going perfectly. All that was left to do was make the blonde an offer he couldn't refuse.

"As you are, you have no hope of beating him." Naruto's fists clenched until his knuckles were white. He knew the old man was right, "But..." Naruto's head snapped up; his tearing eyes staring straight into the one visible eye of Danzo's, "I can help you. I can give you the power to bring the Uchiha to justice. I can make you unstoppable."

The blonde ninja didn't think about how he was quickly walking down the path of vengance. He didn't think about how an eerily similar series of circumstances led his ex-best friend to abandon him. He didn't even think about Ero-sennin's lesson that revenge leads a person to ruin. All that Uzumaki Naruto could think of was how he had been betrayed, and had lost one of his oldest, closest friends. He couldn't beat Sasuke before, he hadn't been strong enough. He was too weak, and Sakura had died because of it.

"I'll do it."

This is my first cliffhanger!! So, how am I doing so far? I promise the X-men bits will start showing up soon; some of you may have already noticed some parallels, yes? Write your epiphanies in a review by clicking that lovely button below.