Chapter 1

"We gotta get out of this storm!" Kiba yelled

Kiba, Naruto, Shikamaru, Shino, and Neji had been travelling in one of the worst thunderstorms they had seen all year. They had been in this storm for almost an hour now and it was getting worse. At first they thought they would be able to get out of it the further they travelled but the storm moved fast.

"Kiba is right we need to find cover he can't be out in this!" Shikamaru yelled.

The storm was so loud they had to yell at each other just to be heard even though they were just inches apart from each other. They were travelling back to Konoha and got hit by a storm just minutes after completing their mission. They were running through the forest and it was becoming difficult to find a place to take cover from the storm.

"He can't take much more of this we need to find a place to hide now!" Naruto yelled

The "He" they were referring to was an unconscious and badly beaten Sasuke. His body was servely injured and he was being carried by Naruto and Neji. He had been taken by the Sound and they were given the mission of retrieving him. Only the mission got more and more complicated when Sasuke was already locked in the Sound before they could reach him. They were hoping they hadn't made it all the way back that they could fight his kidnappers on the journey to the Sound. If they were able to fight them in the forest they stood a better chance and Sasuke would be able to fight. Now here they are looking for any form of shelter they can use to get out of the storm with a dying Sasuke.

"Over there! There's a cave!" Shino yelled

They looked to where Shino was pointing and made their way down towards the cave. They would need to check it out first and make sure it was empty and danger free from any animals or a cave in. Neji and Naruto stood back with Sasuke as the others checked out the cave.

"It's Safe!" Shikamaru yelled

Neji and Naruto went over and they gentle laid Sasuke down on the ground. They all went to work thinking of what they needed to do. A fire was key in order to keep them warm and to get dry. Shino went to work on building a fire for Naruto he just sat there placing Sasuke's head on his lap. It was weird for him to watch Shino start a fire in their group they really used Sasuke to start it, with his fire techniques it was just quick and easy. The other groups didn't have that they had to use matches and flint to start it. Once the fire was started the others began to remove their jackets and ring them out. Then they used rocks that were hanging out of the wall of the cave and placed their jackets on them to dry.

Once that was done they turned to Sasuke. His clothes were soaking wet from the storm and his blood. They needed to come off or he would get sick. Neji was the only one with a bag he looked through it to find the blanket he brought. He always has one just in case and in this situation it would come in handy to wrap it around Sasuke.

"We need to get those clothes off from him. I brought a blanket we can use to wrap around him." Neji said

From being in the cave they didn't have to yell just to hear each other anymore. The storm was getting worse but at least they were finally inside and on their way to getting dry. Shikamaru moved closer and bent down in front of Sasuke so he could start to remove his shirt. He was about to start to remove Sasuke's shirt when Naruto spoke.

"Don't I don't think we should be doing this."

"Naruto we need to remove his clothes if we leave him in wet clothes he'll get sick, In his condition he can't be getting sick." Neji explained

"I know but after what just happened we shouldn't be touching him. He wouldn't want us touching him."

"Naruto we need to take the clothes off at least his shirt and we can wrap the blanket around him. He can't get sick Sasuke would understand that. We also need to try and stop some of this bleeding we don't know how bad his injuries really are. I'll be gentle I promise." Shikamaru said

Naruto nodded his head and started to stroke Sasuke's hair. Shikamaru began to remove Sasuke's shirt he slowly lifted it over Sasuke's head to make sure that he didn't hurt him anymore then he already was. Shikamaru wasn't worried about Sasuke waking up he knew that he wouldn't no matter what at this point. After taking off his shirt Shikamaru handed it to Kiba and Kiba rang it out. Everyone took notice of Sasuke's injuries when they heard Shikamaru sigh. Sasuke was covered in bruises, cuts, broken broken and blood. Every time Sasuke took a breath blood would come out from his ribs. Shikamaru knew it would be from his lung being punctured. They needed to try and stop it some how. The problem was no one in the cave was a medic.

"Ok we need to try and stop this bleeding from his lung somehow. He's got a punctured lung he's bleeding out."

"How can we possibly stop something like that? We're not medics we don't know how to do that or have anything to even use." Naruto said

"Naruto I need you to stop freaking out we can figure this out we just need to stop him from bleeding out. Does anyone have anything that we can use to clamp down on his lung?" Shikamaru asked

Everyone started to go through their pockets Neji went through his bag to try and find anything that could work. Neji found a hair elastic and tweezers in his bag from Tenten on the last mission. He had forgotten she put them in his bag.

"I got something that can work."

Neji took the elastic and wrapped it around the open end of the tweezers to make it so they can shut tight. He then handed them over to Shikamaru so he can use it to clamp down on the bleed. Shikamaru carefully inserted a finger inside Sasuke's side carefully he moved it around till he found the spot that was causing the bleed. He then used his other hand with the tweezers and clamped them down on the puncture as tight as he could. Once he made sure that it was secure enough to let go he removed his finger and left the tweezers in it's place. Shikamaru looked down at his hands they we covered in Sasuke's blood. He was bleeding really bad he didn't know how much longer they really had.

"There's blood running down his thighs." Kiba said

Everyone turned and looked at the blood that kept pouring out of Sasuke. They all knew in that moment that Sasuke was dying.