Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and various affiliates. I own nothing. This is a non-profit work by a fan for fans – that's all.

Warning: Bad language folks; don't let your kids read this unless you want to widen their vocabulary. Homosexual relationships, or at least hints at said relationships. And of course, violence. There ninjas, what do you expect?

Authors Notes: I know, I know, I'm supposed to be working on Overload, but then Nine-Tails showed up and held his pointy little claws to my throat until I gave in. If you think plot bunnies are bad, try a plot fox. I wasn't going to start another multi-chaptered fic either. So much for my good intentions. . .

This is kind of a TWT, (time line? What time line?). I've seen the anime and read a lot of the manga, so all you need to know here is that there older and it's some time in the future. All the kids are around 16.

Sanctuary

Prologue

The dancing flames of the campfire popped and crackled mockingly, a willing ally to Naruto's particular brand of mischief. The blond ninja cast a covert glance over the miniature inferno at the still, Sasuke-shaped figure hiding half in shadow. The flickering firelight made his expression frustratingly indeterminable. Was he annoyed? Pissed off? Uncaring? Glowingly happy?

Okay, so maybe the last one wasn't too likely.

Naruto stuck a twig into the flames, and, once he got it amongst the searing coals, twitched his wrist deftly. He watched avidly as a tiny spark arced up, and up, and up . . . to land within an inch of Sasuke's sandaled foot. Naruto cheered silently to himself. This was the closest one yet. The other boy had to be getting at least mildly irritated, or at least starting to fear for the safety of his as-of-yet un-burnt foot. His gaze flickered back deviously to check Sasuke's face. The dark-haired boy was stubbornly staring out into the forest, firmly ignoring his teammate, as he had been for the past ten minutes.

Just as stubbornly, Naruto twisted his wrist, yet again sending a flaming ash to litter the area around Sasuke's feet. Quickly, the blond glanced up again. It looked like Sasuke's eye was twitching, but it was hard to be sure in the low light.

Naruto chortled to himself quietly. Served the bastard right for ignoring him. Maybe he'd get lucky and Sasuke would pop a blood vessel.

He went several minutes without sending out another coal, waiting for Sasuke to let his guard down, waiting for him to decide that Naruto had given up.

Then he did it again.

Suddenly, he had to roll hastily to the right in order to dodge a swiftly thrown kunai. Naruto grinned evilly. Finally, the stoic jerk had snapped.

Took him long enough.

Dark eyes glared at the laughing blond. And Sasuke seethed. Then his eyes narrowed, a slight smirk graced his thin lips, and he, very deliberately, turned back around and returned to ignoring Naruto.

Naruto was good at being irritating. It was a skill, hard learned after much practice. But Sasuke wasn't actually a slouch in that department either. He took being an arrogant prick to a whole new level, and he certainly knew the blond enough now to know what would infuriate him the most.

Naruto's laugh cut off abruptly, and he took a step towards his rival, suddenly fuming. "Why you bastard . . ."

"Oi! What is this? I leave for two minutes and you pick a fight with Sasuke? Cha, how troublesome." The voice belonged to Nara Shikamaru, genius and all-around lazy guy, the third in their hastily slapped together unit. He walked over to their campfire and let the bundle of wood he had gathered drop carelessly into the flames, resulting in a shower of sparks. Naruto yelped loudly and cursed him, beating frantically at his sleeve as an ember set it on fire.

Shikamaru yawned, completely unconcerned, (as usual) and stretched out onto his bedroll. From his place across the fire, Sasuke watched the blond out of the corner of his eye, and smirked. Somehow, the Uchiha managed to remain untouched by the flying sparks.

Naruto managed to stop the spread of flame. He held up his arm to look at the perfectly round burn hole in his orange jumpsuit. Then he straightened the arm to point an accusing finger at Shikamaru. "Damn it, you did that on purpose!"

Shikamaru just yawned. Sasuke's lips twitched again. "Idiot."

Naruto rounded on him. "You shut up! This is your fault too!"

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow.

"It is! My own teammates are trying to kill me! I don't even need to wait and get eaten by the monsters in this forest!"

From the ground, Shikamaru snorted at the idea, letting him know exactly how ridiculous he thought that suggestion was. Privately, Naruto agreed. This really was one of the most ridiculous missions he had ever been sent on. (Barring, of course, the Genin-level missions he had been forced to do. Finding some rich old woman's poodle wasn't exactly a useful application of ninja skills). And requiring three Chuunin was a waste of Konoha's resources.

The Hokage had received a complaint from a small village on the edge of the Moonshadow hills. There had been reports of strange sounds and monstrous creatures (none of which, it has to be noted, had been seen directly), and the villagers had sent for a ninja team to rid them of the danger. For some reason, Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Naruto had been sent, and they had so far spent a worthless three days combing the forested hills and finding nothing more dangerous than a couple of easily-spooked rabbits.

Their reception at the village itself hadn't exactly been friendly either. In fact, Naruto thought that the villagers themselves were a rather spineless bunch. Most had stayed locked securely in their houses, and only an elderly gentleman with beady eyes and stringy hair had ventured out to point them in the direction of the noises. Duty done, he had quickly scurried back inside, muttering to himself about "evil spirits" and "worthless looking ninja."

It hadn't exactly been encouraging, and frankly, the boys were beginning to think that the superstitious villagers were jumping at shadows.

With one last mournful look at his burnt sleeve, Naruto decided to drop it. It was too late – and he was too damned tired – to continue the fight with his teammates. Still grumbling, he dropped down into his sleeping bag, sparing one last glare for Sasuke (who had first watch) before he got comfortable.

The blond was just drifting off to sleep when a howl echoed through the woods. Battle adrenaline flooded his veins and he leapt to his feet, a kunai automatically appearing in each hand. Vaguely, he noticed that Shikamaru and Sasuke were in similar ready positions.

"What the hell is that?"

There was a tense moment as they all listened to the howl fade off into the distance, and then Shikamaru cocked his head to the side and suddenly relaxed. "So that's what it is."

"Huh?" Naruto asked, still tense and ready to fight, but Sasuke was nodding like he knew what was going on, and he was also returning to a more relaxed pose. Another howl answered the first, and the blond lowered his weapons uncertainly.

Shikamaru turned and gave him an amused look. "That noise belongs to mountain wolves. They're probably responsible for the spooky sounds the villagers heard."

"So shouldn't we go after them?"

The lazy ninja shook his head. "Ha, that would be troublesome, and also a complete waste of energy. Wolves don't bother humans. They're more frightened of us than we are of them. The villagers aren't in any danger."

"Oh," Naruto said with an understanding nod. Then he glanced at Sasuke, only to see the other boy frowning thoughtfully out into the trees.

"It's strange."

Shikamaru turned to look at him as well. "What's strange?"

"These villagers have lived outside these hills for generations. They should know what wolves sound like."

Shikamaru shrugged. "It's not the first time mass hysteria has made people act stupid and blow things out of proportion. All it takes is one person saying they saw a monster and suddenly everyone's seeing it behind every tree. Humans freak out easily. Still, it wouldn't hurt us to stay out here for another day. I wouldn't want those villagers to accuse us of not being thorough."

Sasuke shrugged, looking bored. But Naruto nodded enthusiastically. He certainly didn't want to give those villagers an excuse to accuse them of anything. They did seem like an awfully paranoid bunch.

The boys settled down for the night, the howls fading off into the distance lulling them to sleep.

Sasuke went from deep sleep to complete wakefulness in a matter of seconds. They weren't alone, and he knew it instantly. Where was Shikamaru? It was his turn at watch. . .

His eyes swiftly sought out the other boy, a shadowy figure just barely seen with the light of the dying embers. He saw another shadow suddenly detach itself from the tree above their look out, but before he could shout a warning, Shikamaru voiced his own. "We're under attack!"

Indistinct figures swarmed from the surrounding forest, and in the dim light of the dying campfire, Sasuke was suddenly battling for his life. Something slashed at his midsection, and he dodged to the side, employing his fantastic speed to avoid getting disemboweled. He could hear Naruto yelling curses at their unseen attackers somewhere to his left, but Shikamaru was disturbingly quiet. Sasuke's night vision was good, but not good enough to make out more than indistinguishable shadows, and he certainly couldn't tell which, if any, was his dark-haired teammate.

Sasuke narrowly avoided another slash, than grunted in pain as the next hit got his shoulder. He could feel blood start to ooze sluggishly out of the wound, but he quickly put the injury to the back of his mind. Now was not the time to be thinking about pain, whatever he was fighting was nearly as fast as he was.

Naruto suddenly let out a cry that was cut off ominously in the middle. Sasuke risked a quick glance over to his left, but then flipped back swiftly as the enemy used his distraction to try and rip him down the middle. This was bad. Sasuke pushed his sudden worry for his teammate down with the pain of his injuries. If he let himself get distracted now none of them would survive. If the others were still alive . . .

Sasuke spun and kicked his unknown assailant hard in the stomach, sending the figure flying backwards and buying him a few precious seconds. The first thing he needed to do in order to have a chance was to get some light. Rolling along the ground at high speed he picked up a dry branch and then plunged it into the dying embers of their campfire.

Light flared from the burning torch in his hand.

Sasuke had a confused moment of sight. A woman, or what looked like one, materialized in front of him. On her face instead of skin, there appeared to be rough, ash-gray bark. Two black holes appeared were eyes should be, like someone had drilled a hole through the wood. Tangled green vines framed her face, and Sasuke had the sudden mystified impression that someone had grown a human being from the soil.

She lifted a hand to her mouth, there were thorns in place of fingernails, and blew something into Sasuke's face.

He choked, coughing violently as he accidentally inhaled. His vision grayed slightly around the edges, and he fell to the ground as all the tension involuntarily drained out of his limbs. The makeshift torch slipped from his grasp and landed a couple of feet away. By it's dying light he could see Naruto lying limply on the ground a couple of yards away. Sasuke couldn't tell whether or not he was still breathing, and then he couldn't see him at all as figures appeared from the shadows and surrounded his teammate.

If he hadn't been paralyzed, Sasuke's eyes would have widened. The creatures encircling Naruto, they weren't human. Monsters, all of them, as strange and terrifying as the tree lady had been. They seemed to be holding some kind of conversation, but the dark-haired ninja's hearing kept fizzing out, so he couldn't really tell what was going on.

Suddenly he heard a voice, it sounded far away and distorted, as if he was hearing it through water, but he could clearly understand what was said. "The blond child, bring him."

Sasuke watched as the monsters lifted Naruto, and then he lost consciousness.