Skinless

 Skinless

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Grieve with me.

Stuff you need to know to read this story: All the Naruto-tachi are 16. Also, this is extremely AU. This fik was written for the idea, not to fit into the Naruto world.

This version of my fik I have uploaded from my personal version as opposed to the Fanfiction.net version. The difference being that my personal version is one, long, continuous story with no chapters in between. This fik, I felt, deserved to be read as it was meant; as a non-stop ride that you didn't even need to pause to click for the next chapter. It reads amazingly with no pauses--enjoy.

Warnings: Shounen-ai, Copious amounts of blood, death, fighting and other displays of ‘kill-or-be-killed’ violence.

The mission had been long, boring and, as far as Sasuke was concerned, completely pointless.

The mission, to deliver a message scroll to the headman of a village two days walk from Konoha village, had probably been given to team seven because they were the only ones that, for a change, didn’t have anything more important to do. Sasuke was convinced that the ‘vital document’ was probably nothing more than a letter that no one else had been free to deliver. Truly, if this had been the A-Class mission the Fifth had hyped it up to be; then, at least, there would have been a small amount of trouble with it. But there hadn’t been. There hadn’t been a single ambush; no cleaver ploy’s to steal it, not even someone walking up to them and demanding they hand it over. Everything, from the moment they had left Konoha, had run smooth and simple. Ultimately it had been a waste of time--time that would have been better spent training.

“Mmm…I’m hungry. Can we stop yet?”

The annoying voice came from a few meters ahead, issuing from the obstinate mouth of one Uzumaki Naruto.

“Oi, Sasuke! I thought you said we’d get to the village today!” Naruto had stopped walking and was pointing an accusing finger in Sasuke’s direction. Immediately Sakura stepped in front and glared at their blonde companion.

“Stop bothering Sasuke-kun, Naruto! We would have been back by now, if you hadn’t have kept making us stop!”

“Awww…Sakura-chaaan.”

/Smack!/ Sakura’s fist connected with the side of Naruto’s head, “Be quiet, Naruto and stop whining.”

Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched slightly as he watched the familiar scene play out before him. Annoying!

“If we camp now we won’t get back to the village until just after lunchtime tomorrow,” Sasuke said, glowering at the two and hoping they’d get the message to settle down, “We can be back by midnight if we keep going.”

“Midnight?!” Naruto exclaimed and crossed his arms over his chest, “I’m hungry and tired. I’m not walking till midnight!”

“You’ll walk if Sasuke-kun says we walk!” Sakura countered.

“Why? Who died and made him Emperor of the world!?”

“Just do it, Naruto!”

Sasuke closed his eyes, he didn’t really care which option they chose, he just wished that for once the two other members of his team would shut up.

“…Not going to do what he says!”

“Naruto!”
”I refuse!”

“Sasuke-kuuuun!” Sakura about-faced to where Sasuke was now leaning against a nearby tree in determination, then her expression turned to one of fright.

“Sasuke! Behind you!”

Immediately, Sasuke launched himself away from the tree, his eyes snapping back open coloured blood red as he instinctively used his Sharingan and, even as he dimly registered that the shout that had saved him hadn’t come from Sakura, he ducked out of the way of the sword that had almost beheaded him in his distraction.

Spinning on his heel, Sasuke glared at the slim sword embedded in the tree. Standing next to the tree, one hand still on the hilt on his weapon and a smirk on his face was a short, slim man dressed in plain, uninteresting clothes.

With a further smirk, the man tensed his arm muscles and with a heave, pulled the blade from the tree’s sap sticky wood.

Sasuke didn’t even lift an eyebrow. Did the man seek to scare him with a show of strength? The idea was laughable. Sasuke may have appeared to be a kid, barely 16-years old, but he had seen and fought men, and demons, that could do much worse then remove a simple sword from a tree trunk.

Behind him, Sasuke heard a startled exclamation from Sakura and the clash of Kunai.

Turning his head slightly, he tried to get an idea of how many more ambusher’s had attacked them but his own attacker leapt forward, forcing Sasuke to dodge the blade that, once again, came flying at his head.

“Your fight is with me, brat!” The words were spat at him, “You and your little friends have caused us a lot of trouble, you know.”

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and smirked, “We cause a lot of people trouble, care to specify?”

The man yelled at him wordlessly and made another attempt to slice Sasuke, which the boy dodged easily.

“That damned document.” The man growled; his eyes narrowing as he stared at Sasuke’s easy stance.

“The one we just delivered safely.” The boy prompted.

The man gave another wordless growl before answering, “We were supposed to intercept it.”

“Bit late for that.” Sasuke anticipated the swing of the sword that came at him this time and, bringing a Kunai up to deflect it out wide, he rearranged their positions so that he could finally see his two companions.

The two had been driven apart further up the road. Naruto was fine; already he had one of the two men that had attacked him on the ground, unconscious, and he was finishing off the second as Sasuke watched. He hadn’t even had to resort to his Kage buushin no jutsu.

Sakura, on the other hand, was slowly being beaten back by her opponent. Step-by-step she was being cornered against one of the larger trees on the roadside.

Casting a quick glance back at Naruto revealed that the loudmouth had successfully disposed of his second opponent, so Sasuke turned back to his own fight; Naruto could deal with Sakura.

Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke studied the man’s stance and then tensed to move. The man had been keeping a safe distance between them, only coming in close when he intended to use his sword and then moving back out of Sasuke’s reach. He probably didn’t have much experience in pure hand-to-hand combat, so Sasuke had the advantage if it came to that.

The boy resisted the urge to smirk; he hadn’t even really needed his Sharingan to fight this guy.

The man’s next swing was quick in coming. Stepping forward he tried, foolishly, to best Sasuke in speed and only succeeded in getting a Kunai through his hand. With a startled cry, the man dropped his weapon and snatched his hand back, off of the Kunai. Sasuke didn’t stop. Taking out his frustration from earlier, he crouched low and put his hands against the ground for balance and then planted his foot firmly in the swordsman’s jaw, sending him flying backwards to slam into a tree and crumple to the ground unconscious.

And Sakura screamed.

Over the years since he had been placed on team seven, Sasuke had gotten somewhat familiar with the types of screams that issued from his female team-mate and this one had him immediately spinning on his heel, eyes frantically searching out the reason for the sound.

He didn’t even stop to think as he registered the scene before him. Sprinting as fast as he could go, Sasuke made it too his team-mates in mere seconds and bringing up the Kunai he still held in his hand, he plunged it into the final mans back, quickly seeking out his heart with the tip.

Not even a minute after Sakura had screamed the fight was over and the last man crumpled to the ground; dead.

And Naruto crumpled with him.

Naruto was laying still, his skin pale against the stark white sheets around him and it was only the slow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed that proved he wasn’t dead as he lay in his hospital bed.

The coma that he had inexplicably fallen into two weeks before hand had everyone, even the Hokage, completely stumped. Sasuke had carried Naruto back to the village, he and Sakura travelling at top speeds to get there and arriving barely an hour after dusk, and had taken him straight to the woman that governed the Konoha village. From there she had proceeded to have absolutely no idea what was wrong with him, other than a hazarded guess that his spirit or consciousness had been somehow sealed within him; the problem was that she couldn’t find the seal, and that there were no traces of whatever Jutsu the dead man had used on Naruto for her to follow. After a week of focusing almost her complete attention on the unconscious boy, the Hokage had finally declared that, unless they could find out something about the Jutsu that had been used, they would have to simply wait to see if Naruto would wake up on his own.

After that, team seven had been put on temporary stand down, and Sasuke had all but disappeared. For the first week, Sakura had visited the hospital every two days. For the second week she had come every three days. Now she had arrived because Kakashi-sensei had ‘suggested’ she put down her studies and come in with he and Shikamaru.

Pushing open the half open door, Kakashi, Sakura, then a bored looking Shikamaru stepped into the small room, blinking as the light brightened slightly in contrast to the dimmer hallway.

The only sounds in the room were the faint ‘beep’ of the heart monitor that kept track of Naruto’s heart rate, and the light, occasional rustle of paper.

The source of the rustling paper was the first thing that Kakashi focused on as he entered the room, and his eyes narrowed.

“Iruka…” He said the name softly, so as to not startle the man who looked far too engrossed in his schoolwork to have noticed their arrival. Iruka didn’t even twitch, simply carried on marking the sheets before him. After a moment though, he spoke.

“There’s been no change; good or bad. He hasn’t even twitched. The Hokage was here earlier to check on…him.”

Kakashi didn’t miss the slight hesitance before the last word and he flinched inwardly. What the other man was really saying was that the Hokage had been here checking on the Kyuubi, not on Naruto. With the boy’s consciousness no longer in control of his body it was a very real possibility that the Nine-tails would take the opportunity to work away at the undefended seal and attempt to possess the body. The Hokage had no choice but to show up every few days and check on it.

“Just because there’s been no change, doesn’t mean we can’t come visit.” He responded lightly and gestured at Sakura who had been hanging back slightly, staring at Iruka’s back with concern.

Hesitating, not really wanting to break into Iruka’s concentration, the girl stepped forward and moved around the bed to replace the almost dead flower she had last brought into the hospital with the new one she had brought today. An Iris, for sorrow, hope and as a guide for his soul, wherever it was.

Iruka’s pen stopped for a moment and he smiled up at the girl, for a moment the lines of worry and sleeplessness disappearing from his face.

“Thank you.” He said softly then looked back down, seeming to retreat back into his own silent world of schoolwork.

There was silence then, filled in only by the continued beep of the heart monitor, the shuffling of Iruka’s papers and the new uncomfortable sounds of fidgeting from Sakura’s direction.

“You don’t have to stay.” Iruka said after a few minutes, his pen pausing in its work. “Thank you for visiting.”

Sakura and Shikamaru both looked at Kakashi and he nodded slightly. Almost as if the floor was greased, Sakura slipped out the doorway and Shikamaru followed at a slower pace, looking back at Naruto for a moment before stepping out the door.

Turning, Kakashi moved to close the door and froze as Sakura’s fading voice floated back into the room.

“…It’s like a tomb in there, how can Iruka-sensei stand i…”

“Stupid…” Kakashi muttered under his breath and shut the door quietly, the soft click almost echoing off the sudden tenseness charging the air.

Iruka’s back was stiff, his pen held in a white knuckled grip when Kakashi turned back and he decided it would be better to wait, then to try and offer any kind of speech.

“He’s…he’s going to wake up.” Iruka said firmly, after a while, the tenseness in his muscles the only thing belying the words. “He’s not the kind to give up over something as small as this, he’ll be fighting with everything he has to wake up.”

“Of course he is.” Kakashi murmured, and moved forward a little and rested his hand lightly on Iruka’s shoulder, “He’s strong; he won’t die so easily.”

Iruka’s grip on his pen loosened a little and he bowed his head slightly. “I just wish we knew what was wrong with him so we could do something.”

“The Hokage is still searching for any information on what kind of Jutsu was used on him. If anyone can find it, she can…”

Iruka nodded slightly.

“When did you sleep last?” Kakashi asked suddenly, “Or eat?”

Iruka blushed at the suddenly changed topic, “I…I slept some last night, and I…uhmm… I’m sure I ate something this morning.”

“Not good enough. Come downstairs and I’ll buy you something to eat, then you can go home and get some sleep.”

“No, I can’t. What…what if Naruto wakes up and I’m not here? And it’s getting late; I have to stay with him for the night so he’s not alone. I…”

Kakashi tightened his grip on Iruka’s shoulder; “You’re not going to be any use to him if you fall down from exhaustion. He’ll understand if he wakes up, so just do as I say. A nights sleep and a meal will do you good.”

“But…”

“No ‘buts’. Get your things.”

Iruka held out his resistance for a few moments more, then relented; his own common sense told him that what Kakashi was saying was right. A few moments later he’d gathered up his things and let Kakashi lead him out of the room and downstairs to the hospital cafeteria.

Behind them the door swung itself half shut and five minutes later a nurse on her rounds poked her nose around the door and, seeing the room empty of awake occupants, switched the light off leaving the room lit by nothing more than the light of the dieing sun.

The room stayed silent for a long while after that. Outside the sun set, staining the sky with deep reds and purples before disappearing completely and leaving the half moon to cast its soft glow into the quiet room. After a while an automatic heater clicked on, keeping the room at a comfortable temperature for it’s oblivious occupant, and after an even shorter while, it clicked off again.

It wasn’t until the moon was finally getting into a comfortable position high in the sky that there was any movement in the room.

Slowly a window inched itself open and a small flutter of breeze sent the thin curtains that covered it to moving, and then a shadow slipped into the room and the window clicked shut again.

The shadow hovered for a moment near the window before moving across the room to check the door and then, finding it closed to thier satisfaction, the shadow moved over to the bed and looked down at the figure lying there.

The beep of the heart monitor seemed incredibly loud in the still room and the shadow glared at it in irritation for a moment before sighing and dropping down into the chair close beside the bed that Iruka had vacated earlier.

Everything went quiet again as the shadow sat there; blending into the shadows around the chair and watching the slow rise and fall of Naruto’s chest as he breathed.

The shadow suddenly let out a breath and let their head drop down on their arms that were crossed in front of them on the bed.

“Sorry,” Sasuke said, his voice muffled by the bed, “that I didn’t come till now.” He paused for a moment, “I was…trying to remember the Jutsu that man used. I was using my Sharingan; I should be able to remember the Justu… But I didn’t see enough of it, any of it really. Not enough to do anything… Damnit! I shouldn’t have killed him, I should have just knocked him out or…or something!”

He thumped his hand down on the bed in anger, “Those guys were small fry! We should have been able to take them out without a scratch. If I hadn’t have taken so long getting some information out of the one that attacked me I could have been there faster. Damnit!”

“Oh sure. Like having mister hotshot there would have helped any.”

Sasuke jerked his head up in shock, staring at where Naruto lay, with his eyes wide.

“N…Naruto?”

The body didn’t so much as twitch…but a voice, one suspiciously like Naruto’s, continued.

“Sakura must have told you what happened, that guy was ready to suicide so long as he took one of us with him. I have no idea what he did to me, but it sure as hell hurt and all he did was grab my arms.”

Sasuke’s eyes were still wide, but he’d managed to figure out that the voice was coming from behind him and he slowly turned around, his eyes searching the darkness near the doorway for anybody that could possibly be talking.

“…And you shouldn’t beat yourself up over it.” The words were begrudgingly said, “Not even that old hag Hokage knows about this Jutsu so it’d probably just be you laying there instead of me if you’d gotten to us faster. …And if you hadn’t have killed him, I’d probably be dead right now.” Silence again from the voice and Sasuke activated his Sharingan trying to find any kinds of hidden Jutsu that might be in the room. Immediately Sasuke spotted a distortion in the air near the doorway and he focused on it.

“But so you know, when I wake up I’m so gonna kick your arse!”

Barely even registering he was doing it, Sasuke responded to the taunt he’d heard a million times. “As if you could, dobe. But you’re welcome to try it if you don’t mind being humiliated…again.”

Sudden, dead silence filled only by the screaming beep of the heart monitor fell on the room, and then it was broken as the automatic heater clicked on again, adding a faint whirr to the background.

“S…Sasuke?”

Sasuke kept his eyes pinned to the distortion in the air and glared, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

The distortion suddenly leapt forward and Sasuke stared as it suddenly took a faint shape that solidified by the second.

“You can see me? You can hear me?!” The shape, now very obviously a see-through Naruto, was almost nose-to-nose with Sasuke, who had pushed himself out of the chair and had backed up against the bed. A quick glace revealed that yes, Naruto was still laying on the bed, still very much in his coma and not moving a muscle.

“How come you can see me, and the others can’t!?” Sasuke moved his wide-eyed glance back to the see-through Naruto shape in front of him, “I’ve been talking to everyone that came to see me, I even tried poking a few of them and nothing happened! How come you can see me?”

“N…Naruto?”

The Naruto-shaped talker screwed up his face into a look of annoyance, “Of course it’s me, jerk. Who else would I be? You’re using the Sharingan, is that why you can see and hear me?”

It certainly sounded like Naruto.

“I could hear you without the Sharingan.” Sasuke muttered and ‘Naruto’ moved back from him slightly, his legs going straight through the chair as he moved away.

“So you could only see me when you used your Sharingan. Cool. So you can tell everyone I’m still here, right?” Naruto turned back to Sasuke, his expression earnest. “You can tell Iruka-sensei that I’m okay and that he can stop worrying so much. He’s been here the entire time you know, since you brought me back, he’s barely left, except for classes. I kept telling him to go away and sleep and stuff, but he couldn’t hear me. You’ll tell him, right?”

“Su…sure.” Sasuke glance back down at the Naruto on the bed and then at the Naruto in front of him. “How come you’re…there? Shouldn’t you be…” he made a vague gesture at the body, “in there?”

Naruto made an annoyed face, “I tried that! There’s some sort of thingy preventing me from going back. I can’t even touch my body, I’m just repelled.”

“A seal?” That would explain a lot.

Naruto nodded, “So you’ll tell that old hag Hokage that I’m here too, right? So she’ll stop looking for me in there.” He pointed over Sasuke’s shoulder at his body.

At this point, Sasuke suddenly stood up straight. “No. This is impossible.”

“What?!”

“It’s impossible!” Sasuke insisted to the flabbergasted looking Naruto. “I’ve barely slept these last two weeks and so I’m seeing things, in fact I’ve probably fallen asleep and just think I’m awake.”

“Sasuke, you jerk!”

“I’m leaving!”

“What?! You jerk! You can’t leave! You have to tell everyone I’m still here!”

Naruto’s angry shout fell on deaf ears as Sasuke firmly stopped using his Sharingan and all but hurled himself from Naruto’s window and headed home. There was no way what he’d thought had just happened had happened. He needed to go home and get some sleep. And anyway, he’d managed to convince the Hokage earlier that day to take he and Sakura off of their temporary stand down, and they had a mission in the morning. After the mission he’d go back and see Naruto during daylight hours, when he’d had enough rest and until then whatever hallucination he’d just had would be ignored.

Firmly, using a tactic he’d perfected over many years, Sasuke put the incident out of his mind and by the time he got home he was quite ready to drop into an exhausted sleep, only pausing to set his alarm for the morning before he collapsed onto his bed, not even bothering to change.

When Sasuke came to the next morning it was to new morning sunlight streaming through his window and directly into his eyes, and to the sound of his alarm beeping incessantly on the other side of the bed. Groaning, he threw his arm over his eyes and faced away from the annoying sound, trying to block it out so that he could go back to his blessed sleeping oblivion.

The sound didn’t stop however and after a while Sasuke finally gave in and rolled over to turn it off.

…And came face-to-face with Naruto.

“Aaahhhh!!” Sasuke fell back with a startled yell and tumbled over the side of the bed, landing on the floor with a bump. Naruto’s, or rather a see-through, fuzzy, Naruto-shaped, face appeared over the side of the bed and peered down at Sasuke, grinning wickedly.

“Good Morning! It’s about time you woke up, your alarm’s been going off forever!”

“N-N-N-N…”

“Naaaaruuutooo.” Naruto said his name slowly, as if speaking to a child, “It’s not a hard name to remember, you know.” He tilted his head to the side, “Hey, you’re looking at me without your Sharingan. You can hear me, right? Too cool. Now get up and let’s go see the old hag Hokage!”

Sasuke blinked, then rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands and then looked again. Then he closed his eyes, counted to ten and opened them again. He frowned.

Naruto was now lying full across the bed, his chin propped on his hand as he watched Sasuke curiously – and he wasn’t disappearing.

“Am I still here?” Naruto’s voice was amused and Sasuke glared at him.

“No, you’re not. You’re exactly what you were last night, a hallucination.” And he got up.

“Really?” Naruto’s voice was laced with heavy sarcasm as he sat up and watched Sasuke walk around his bed and head over to the dresser for a fresh change of clothes. “I don’t feel like a hallucination.”

Sasuke ignored him, stomped out of his room and headed down the hall to the bathroom to wash up and get changed. The Naruto-shaped hallucination followed him, walking straight through the door that Sasuke slammed in his face.

“Oi, hurry up. We have to go see the old hag.”

Sasuke continued to ignore him and filled the sink with water before splashing his face with it and looking into the mirror.

“Hey! Now’s no time to be admiring yourself in the mirror, pretty-boy! Hurry up and change so we can go!”

Sasuke’s expression changed to a scowl and he turned around and glared at Naruto, then back over his shoulder at the mirror.

“Oh man! Come on, Sasuke! I understand that it could possibly take you as long as a girl to get ready in the morning but we have to go see the old hag now.”

“Shut up!” Finally Sasuke dropped his silence and Naruto’s hackles went up along with his hand, which he used to point at the other boy.

“No way! Do you know how boring it was with nothing to do all night except watch you sleep!? That’s five-hours of my life that I’ll never get back so you have to hurry up and pretty yourself up so we can go tell the old hag that I’m still here!”

Sasuke glared, “I didn’t ask you to follow me home!”

“I only did because you were being a jerk! If you’d believed me I wouldn’t have had to follow you! Now come on!”

Sasuke turned away and began to change his clothes, “No. I can’t go see the Hokage. I have a mission.”

“What?! Who cares! You have to go see the old hag!”

Sasuke finished fixing the tie on his pants, checked that his weapon pouch was secure on his belt and then pulled his t-shirt on. “No. If I went to her and told her I was seeing you following me around, she’d think I was nuts and put team seven on stand down again.” Sasuke stated as he pulled the t-shirt straight and then walked straight through ‘Naruto’, opened the bathroom door and down the hall, “Now go away.”

“Sasuke, you jerk! What about me!?”

Sasuke paused and glared at the Naruto-shape coldly, noticing that he seemed to be fading in and out of visibility and making his eyes water. “If by ‘you’ you mean Naruto, then he is at the hospital, and will remain at the hospital until the Hokage finds out how to fix him, or until he wakes up. I am going on my mission, and you are going to go away and stop making me hallucinate.”

“Damnit, Sasuke! Get it through your head that it is me!” Naruto yelled chasing after the other boy as he grabbed the travel pack from beside his front door then walked out, slamming it behind him. “I’m Naruto, you’re not hallucinating. Sasuke!”

“I said shut up!” Sasuke snapped and preceded to start ignoring ‘Naruto’ again as he moved quickly down the street. He’d overslept but he’d made up the time by not stopping to eat and he managed to make it to the assigned meeting spot at the same time as Kakashi-sensei was arriving, trailed by the man team seven was being assigned to escort.

Kakashi lifted an eyebrow slightly as Sasuke arrived scowling, but didn’t say anything about it, instead quickly launching into a brief explanation of the mission.

“This,” he gestured at the man, “is Okukou Tsukai, and he’s the one you’ll be escorting. There’s probably going to be trouble on the road, so keep an eye out. The trip should only take two weeks, there and back, but allowing for trouble you’ll have three weeks before we’ll start worrying.”

“You’re not coming with us for this one, Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura asked from where she was seated on the ground, her back propped against her travel pack.

“No, I have a different mission to go on. This mission was selected for you since your team is one man down, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Just remember to pay attention.”

“Hai!” She, Sasuke and ‘Naruto’ said together.

Sasuke glared at the faint shape of his ‘Naruto hallucination’, which unmistakably glared back. Why wouldn’t it just go away? He had enough trouble as it was, without his guilt over Naruto’s condition haunting him in an almost solid form.

“Okay, have fun, guys.” Kakashi said in farewell and then sauntered back up the street and out of sight.

Sakura instantly got to her feet and pulled her pack onto her back, then grinned at their ‘mission’.

“Hi! I’m Haruno Sakura and that’s Uchiha Sasuke. Pleased to meet you!”

The man, middle aged, balding and dressed in rough, sensible brown clothes smiled back. “Okukou Tsukai. You may call me Tsukai-san, since we’ll be travelling together.

“Then let’s go.” Sasuke said shortly and pulled his pack more comfortably onto his back then walked towards the gates of the village, Tsukai and Sakura followed quickly.

They managed an entire hour of travel before the hallucination calling himself Naruto spoke again. Sasuke had hoped it had disappeared since almost as soon as they’d left the village it had disappeared. But it seemed that while he couldn’t see it, he could hear it just fine.

“This is boring.” The now apparently disembodied voice floating along smack behind Sasuke complained.

Sasuke ignored it.

“I mean really boring… really, really, really boring! Can’t you do something while we walk, like talk? Sakura didn’t come to see me much, ask her how she is. Sasuke! Ask her. Grrr… Kami! You’re useless. Fine, talk to the old guy! What’s his name? Tsukani…Tsutaki… whatever. Talk to him!”

Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched slightly but he refused to acknowledge the voice.

“Who is he? Where’s he from? What’s with his funny clothing? Go on Sasuke; ask him… Argh! You’re so boring! This is so boring! Though I suppose it’s better than hanging around my unconscious body all day trying to get Iruka-sensei to go home and rest.” There was a sudden short, contemplative silence; then, “Sasuke, you jerk! We have to go back to the village! Iruka-sensei is probably sitting there worrying and now I’m not even there to be worried with him!”

Sasuke jumped slightly as ‘Naruto’ shouted in his ear and he unconsciously spun around, glaring, “I didn’t ask you to follow me!” he snapped.

His eyes landed suddenly on the very startled Tsukai who had been quietly walking a few feet behind him.

“Oh…” he stuttered, “I’m sorry, I’ll walk somewhere else then…”

Sasuke blinked as the man walked, very quickly, back along the road to walk with Sakura, then his glare returned full force and he spun quickly on his heel and marched quickly down the road. Stupid Naruto hallucination!

“Damnit, Sasuke! The village is the other way!”

“I’m not going back to the village, dobe!” Sasuke snapped, quieter this time, “I have a mission to complete. If you’re so worried, you go back and leave me alone!”

“Argh!” the Naruto voice yelled wordlessly, “You’re so damned stubborn, you bastard! Why are you always so selfish?! All you’re thinking is that I’m here to bother you and that I’m a figment of your imagination! Hasn’t it occurred to you that I might be exactly who I say I am and that you have to go back and tell that old hag Hokage and Iruka-sensei that I’m here?!”

Sasuke wordlessly stomped onwards down the tree-lined road.

“Damnit, if I could touch things I’d so kick your arse right now! Well damnit, Sasuke. Until you go back to the village and tell the old hag I’m here, I’m not leaving! I’ll be with you every second of every day and I’ll never leave you alone! Not even to shower! That’s right! I’m going to be here all the time and you can’t get away from me!”

“I don’t care! Just shut up!” Sasuke snapped and Naruto obliged, though Sasuke was sure he could feel a pair of angry eyes digging into the back of his neck as he continued to walk.

At various times throughout the day the Naruto-shape faded in and out of his vision; most of the time it was barely visible, other times it was like it had been that morning and almost completely solid looking. ‘Naruto’ had dogged his steps all day. While he had stayed quiet, he was still there, and made sure Sasuke knew it; walking so close that, if he had been real, he’d be breathing down Sasuke’s neck and, as it was, it made the hair of the nape of his neck stand on end; and at other times he would walk in front of Sasuke, pulling occasional faces at him, or just generally trying to annoy him.

It wasn’t till nearly sunset that ‘Naruto’ spoke again and it surprised Sasuke into looking up, searching for someone that at the moment he couldn’t see.

“Oi, Sakura and the old guy look ready to pass out.”

“Hn?” Sasuke looked around and behind him till he finally caught the sight of Sakura and Tsukai as they struggled to keep up with the pace Sasuke had been keeping in his irritation. Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched slightly and he looked around, noticing that ‘Naruto’ had unconsciously picked a perfect place to interrupt their journey for the night.

Sasuke waited silently for the other two to catch up with him, then he glared at Sakura, “If the pace was to much, you should have said so. We’ll camp now and go slower tomorrow.”

Sakura’s already flushed face heated slightly, “We…we were alright. Well… I was alright. Maybe going slower tomorrow would be better for Tsukai-san though…”

“Hn.” Sasuke turned away and then dropped his pack down by a convenient tree. “I’ll get firewood for a fire. Tsukai-san, get some rest; Sakura, try and prepare something to eat before we lose our light.”

“Stop being so bossy.” ‘Naruto’ snapped at him as he walked deeper into the trees and began to gather up enough wood to last the night. “I don’t know why Sakura-chan hangs off you so much, you’re so selfish and bossy; you don’t even know when your companions are about to fall over from exhaustion.”

Sasuke stood a longish length of wood up against a tree and stamped on it hard, snapping it into two more manageable lengths, “I didn’t notice because normally I have you making us stop all the time.” He muttered.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw ‘Naruto’ fade back into his vision, shrugging.

“That’s true. It’s funny though; I’m not tired after all that walking. Or hungry. I haven’t been hungry since that Jutsu was used on me.”

“Baka! That’s because you don’t have a body!”

‘Naruto’ glared. “I do too! It’s just back in Konoha…”

“Baka!”

“S…Sasuke-kun?”

What was moving along nicely into becoming an almost comfortable argument, stopped abruptly with the intrusion of Sakura as she slipped out from behind a tree.

“Sasuke-kun, do you need any help?”

Sasuke glared at the girl then nodded shortly and dumped his entire load of wood into her arms.

“Take that back to camp, make a fire; a small fire, dig it deep so it can’t be seen. I’ll get more wood.”

Sakura paused, looking like she wanted to say something, then simply nodded and headed back to camp.

Sasuke glared at the girls retreating back then began to break up some of the larger bits of deadfall into more manageable pieces.

Everything was silent except for the natural sounds of the forest as Sasuke collected a second armload and the Naruto shape settled for following along behind him; fading in and out of vision as they walked and seeming to be thinking about something. Or anyone else would have seemed that way; since it was supposed to be Naruto, Sasuke decided he wasn’t really sure.

“Ne, Sasuke.” ‘Naruto’ had faded out of vision again and Sasuke nearly dropped his armload as he navigated his way back to camp. “Why do you think you can see me?”

“I can’t.” Sasuke replied, focusing on his footing on the unstable ground.

‘Naruto’ growled. “I don’t mean right now. I mean in general. How come you can see and hear me when no one else, not even the old hag, can?”

“Because I’m the one hallucinating you.” Sasuke replied, “Not them. Now shut up.”

As he snapped the last, Sasuke found the camp and dumped his load of wood, dropping down next to it as the sun finally began to drop below the horizon and stained the sky a myriad of vying colours.

“Here, Sasuke-kun…” Sakura handed him a pack of travel rations and Sasuke nodded slightly in acknowledgment then turned to peer over the smallish fire Sakura had made, at Tsukai.

“We’ll travel slower tomorrow. If I start pushing to much, tell me.” He paused then added quietly, “I was irritated today so I was going to fast. We don’t want to be out of energy if we’re attacked, especially not in these trees.”

As Sasuke began to eat the small meal the Naruto shape flashed back into sight at his side, staring with longing at the food.

“So unfaaaair. I know I’m not hungry, but I’d kill for a bowl of Ramen right now…”

--

The next morning the three travellers, and Sasuke’s unwanted hallucination, were back on the road barely even before the sun had properly risen.

Both Tsukai and Sakura were hanging back, letting Sasuke take the lead when it became immediately apparent to them that the boy had obviously had a hard time sleeping the night before and from the looks he was shooting around, they didn’t want to get in his way if he decided to take it out on someone.

Sasuke had discovered that the lack of tiredness ‘Naruto’ had mentioned the day before had also meant he didn’t need to sleep, which meant that the damned thing had been bored enough to keep Sasuke up with incessant, annoying, maddening chatter. All night.

He’d barely managed to catch more than an hours sleep before ‘Naruto’ was half shouting into his ear to ‘see if he’d wake up’ and then talking his ears off about nothing. And so Sasuke had greeted the coming of the sun with blurry eyes and a desire to go back to Konoha, not as ‘Naruto’ wanted, to tell the Hokage that Naruto was still around, but rather to strangle the living daylights out of the coma-ridden boy in an attempt to make him go away. By the Naruto hallucination’s reckoning it would work, unfortunately according to his own it wouldn’t. So instead he’d settled for grouching at anyone that came near him, and unconsciously setting another gruelling pace down the forested road they were travelling.

Luckily for his companions, he slowed up within barely half an hour as ‘Naruto’ pointed out that they were nearly running along the road and that even Sakura couldn’t keep up that kind of pace. Then maddeningly, he went quiet, leaving Sasuke to fume to himself and plot how many ways he really, really wanted to do his hallucination a great deal of damage very, very quickly.

Hours later, ‘Naruto’ did finally talk though. It was the happy chirp of ‘Lunch time!’ that brought Sasuke to a sudden stop to glare at the see-through figure that had popped up in front of him.

“What?”

“Lunch time! Sakura’s stomach is growling; they’re to afraid to ask you to stop though, since you’re in such a bad mood.”

Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched slightly, “So that’s what you’ve been doing all morning.”

“Awww… Did Sasuke-chan miss his Naruto?”

Sasuke snarled and ignored the comment, “If you were going to spend all morning bugging someone who can’t hear you, then couldn’t you have done it last night and let me get some sleep!?”

‘Naruto’ smirked, “Why would I do that?”

“Because this is a mission on which we might be attacked any minute and I need to rest.” Sasuke snapped and ‘Naruto’ abruptly snapped out of sight.

Sasuke growled again then turned when he heard footsteps behind him. “We’ll stop for lunch.” He snapped at the other two and moved to the side of the road, to find a place back into the trees and away from immediate sight.

Lunch was a silent affair and Tsukai and Sakura barely had time to rest their feet and scoff down their small amount of food before Sasuke’s irritated pacing had them back on the road again, miserably trying to keep up with his ground eating strides.

Naruto didn’t show himself again and after a few hours, Sasuke’s tiredness began to catch up with him, making him finally slacken his pace, more out of lack of energy than in consideration of his companions. By the time they finally stopped for the night, Sasuke was ready to drop from exhaustion. It took nearly the last of his energy to gather up enough firewood to last the night and after assigning Sakura the first watch, he curled himself up in his blanket and finally let himself get some rest.

He felt as if his head had barely touched the ground when a familiar, annoying voice in his ear, awaked him.

“Come on, asshole, wake up! Sasuke! Damnit, you lazy bastard, wake up!”

Sasuke pulled his blanket over his head with a groan, “Leave me the hell alone, Naruto!”

“S…Sasuke-kun. It’s your turn for watch.”

Sasuke yanked the blanket off his head and blinked at Sakura who was kneeling beside him, then his eyes picked out the slight distortion in the air beside her that was ‘Naruto’.

“I’m up.” He said flatly and Sakura nodded, giving him an odd look before she went to her own blanket to sleep.

“Good morning.” ‘Naruto’s’ irritating voice stayed with Sasuke as the black haired boy extracted himself from his blanket and put it away, “Did you get enough beauty rest tonight?”

“Go away, dobe.”

“I’m bored.”

Sasuke ignored the complaint and pulled himself up into the nearest tree, beginning to scout around the camp.

“There’s nothing around.” ‘Naruto’ said. “I looked around a few minutes ago, lots of birds, a few rabbits, there’s a small stream about two minutes north-west of here so you can refill your water bottles; but that’s about it. It’s so boring.”

Sasuke ignored that too and continued his scouting and, to his chagrin found everything ‘Naruto’ had said to be completely correct. Even the stream.

“Told you so, asshole.” ‘Naruto’ said smugly, “Maybe now you’ll accept I’m not a hallucination. Hallucinations can’t scout around while the person having them is sleeping.”

“Shut up.” Sasuke snapped and turned from the stream, making his way back to the camp. It didn’t help that he had a point. If ‘Naruto’ really was a hallucination, then how did he know about the stream? His brow farrowed as he tried to figure it out and he ended up spending the rest of the night trying to figure out the puzzle as he ignored ‘Naruto’s’ pointless chattering. By the time the sun was coming up and he was waking Sakura and Tsukai, Sasuke still hadn’t come to a feasible conclusion, but he refused to accept that the spectre following him around could actually be the dobe; that was completely impossible.

“So, are we walking at a decent pace today?” ‘Naruto’ was invisible again, but Sasuke could tell from the direction of his voice that he was behind him.

“Hn. Let’s go.” Sasuke directed the command at Sakura and she nodded, pulling her backpack on and falling back to walk with Tsukai again.

“This is one of the most boring missions we’ve been on.” ‘Naruto’ whined after they’d walked for a while.

“I already told you that you didn’t need to come.”

‘Naruto’ snorted, “And I already told you that it’s your own fault that I did. And you still think I’m a hallucination, don’t you? Even after the scouting last night, and you call me stupid.”

“Shut up!”

“Geeez, Sasuke. Is that all you know how to say?”

Sasuke went silent again. It was too weird, too strange to be plausible; but on the other hand, this was Naruto. With that dobe even the most outrageous things could become plausible. But could a Jutsu really do something like what ‘Naruto’ was claiming it had? From the description he’d given Sasuke, Sasuke could only assume that he’d been sealed outside his body, instead of within it, but how would that be possible? Could you oust someone’s spirit from their body?

Sasuke blinked suddenly and stopped walking. Wasn’t that a little how Ino’s main Jutsu worked? She removed her own spirit from her body and placed it into someone else’s, taking it over and suppressing the original spirit for a limited amount of time.

He started walking again. If that Justu could be reversed so that instead of removing your own spirit, you removed the others…

“Oi, dobe.”

“Don’t call me that.” ‘Naruto’ appeared beside Sasuke suddenly, and Sasuke had to stop himself from jumping slightly. He ignored Naruto’s comment.

“The Jutsu that was used against you. What happened?”

“You know what happened.”

Sasuke glared, “I only know what Sakura saw, and she didn’t see much. I want to know what you saw.”

“Hmmm…” ‘Naruto’ scratched the back of his head in thought, “Well, Sakura-chan was being backed up against that tree so I ran over to help her. The guy had just knocked Sakura-chan’s Kunai out of her hand and so I just threw myself in between them and smacked the guy one in the nose. He was really mad then, I guess he realised that I’d dealt with his two buddies.” The comment was accompanied by a smirk; “Hmmm… then he made a few signs I haven’t seen before and he leapt forward and grabbed my arms. Next thing I know I’m following behind you and Sakura-chan as you lug my body back to Konoha.”

“What signs?”

“Eh?”

“What signs did he make, before he did the Jutsu?” Sasuke replied in annoyance.

“Oh. Something like…” Naruto did a complicated series of gestures that Sasuke studied hard. “That’s not completely correct. But I didn’t see them properly.”

Sasuke frowned slightly then sighed. He couldn’t expect Naruto to remember them perfectly; he was just going to have to count himself lucky that the dobe remembered them at all.

“So, does this mean you believe me now?” Naruto smirked.

“Hn.” Sasuke decided the enigmatic grunt was the safest response as he tried to fit the gestures Naruto had just shown him in with the way he’d seen the dead man use his Chakra and turn them into a coherent Jutsu in his mind. They didn’t fit, but now Sasuke had a little more to work with he knew that it was only a matter of time before he figured out how it was done, what exactly was done, and most importantly, how he was going to reverse it.

“Oi… Sasuke.” Naruto had stopped walking alongside Sasuke and was now staring out at the trees.

“What?” Sasuke asked shortly, not stopping.

“There’s something…odd in the forest.”

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and looked back at Naruto, automatically checking the positions of Sakura and Tsukai as well, “What?”

“Something…” Naruto’s eyes were raking the forest, puzzled, “I think there’s someone watching us, but he’s masking his Chakra oddly. It makes him feel…weird.”

Sasuke leaned up against a tree, pretending to be waiting for his companions to catch up, and let his senses move around the area, silently touching everything carefully with his own Chakra and testing it for anything out of the ordinary.

“…I don’t feel anything, dobe.”

Naruto looked visibly startled, “It’s over there.” He pointed slightly upwards and to the right, into the forest.

Sasuke narrowed down his search to the area, but still felt nothing more threatening than a few squirrels and some birds.

“There’s nothing there, baka.”

Naruto glared at him, “Don’t call me that! Just because you’re to brain dead to be able to sense it! It’s clear as damned day, I don’t know what your problem is!”

“I don’t have a problem!” Sasuke turned, his eyes narrowing, “There’s just nothing ther…”

“Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke snapped his mouth shut abruptly and turned to Sakura and Tsukai. Frowning slightly in annoyance, Sasuke flicked his eyes to where Naruto was glaring daggers at him and then back to Sakura again.

“Stay close from now on. Kakashi-sensei said to expect trouble so we should keep an eye on the forest from here on.”

“Hai.” Sakura agreed with a nod and then they started out again, now keeping Tsukai between them, Sasuke leading and Sakura behind.

Naruto was staying surprisingly visible now as they walked, and he was constantly pacing around the group of three, occasionally pausing to stare into the forest, first on one side of them, then the other.

Sasuke had an almost permanent frown on his face. Whatever it was that Naruto could sense, Sasuke most assuredly could not sense it. He was keeping a constant vigil, but all he could sense for miles around them was wildlife.

“Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke twitched slightly and looked back over his shoulder at Sakura, “What?”

“Is there something out there? I can’t sense anything so I’m not sure…”

“Hn.” Sasuke grunted, “I can’t sense anything…” Naruto had stopped suddenly and was looking up into the forest again, his expression serious, “…but be ready anyway.”

“Don’t stop for lunch.” Naruto suddenly said and moved back over to Sasuke’s side.

Sasuke looked back at where Sakura and Tsukai were walking within hearing distance and settled for looking at Naruto questioningly. The boy was looking jitterier than Sasuke had ever seen him, his eyes flicking backwards and forwards around them as if he were attempting to keep an eye on every single tree they passed at once.

“I just think it’d be a bad idea. It’d create a weakness and I don’t think you want to do that around the guy that’s watching us.”

“How very un-Naruto.” Sasuke murmured and Naruto glared at him.

“Shut up. I can be serious, you know. You’d be worried too, if you could feel the aura I can. I can’t tell if this guy’s weird, insane, or just plain evil. It’s like he’s surrounded in darkness or something, I’ve never felt anything like it. I…”

Naruto’s eyes suddenly went wide and he dropped into a fighting stance and stared into the trees, “Sasuke! He’s coming!”

Sasuke’s reaction was almost instinctive. The amount of times he’d heard the note of warning in Naruto’s voice, more than any belief that what he said was true, had Sasuke activating his Sharingan and pushing Tsukai back into a startled Sakura’s arms; all in one motion.

As soon as his Sharingan came into effect Naruto’s half see-through form snapped into complete solidity. Sasuke blinked at him, then looked up at the trees, filing away the information for later. He hadn’t looked up a moment to soon either, as the first thing he saw was the fiery, Chakra wreathed form of a man hurling himself down out of the trees.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Sasuke saw Naruto hurl himself up into the air to punch the man and pass straight through him. Baka.

The man hit the ground a moment later, and Sasuke was on him, first throwing a few Shrukin that were easily dodged and then following them up with a firm punch that, unsurprisingly, connected.

From there it was a fistfight in purest form. The man was fast, to fast to allow Sasuke any time to prepare a Jutsu, and he simply had his hands full attempting to predict where the man would attack next. He was finding his Sharingan a perfect blessing as he swung and ducked, kicked and dodged because he still, even though he could see the man before him, plain as day, couldn’t sense him.

Taking a blow to the jaw that sent him staggering to the side briefly, Sasuke quickly rolled and stared around himself wildly, hunting out his opponent who had suddenly disappeared.

“Above you, you idiot!”

Sasuke threw an arm up to protect himself as the man dropped from the trees above and managed to catch him by surprise, grabbing the mans wrist and yanking down hard, forcing him to slam abruptly into the ground and then delivering him a sharp blow to the head, knocking him out instantly.

“S…Sasuke-kun!? Are you alright?!” Sakura was instantly at his side and Sasuke looked up; suddenly realising he could feel a trickle of blood making it’s way down his cheek. He wiped at his face absently, “Tsukai-san?”

“He’s alright.” Sakura said, staring at the blood Sasuke had just smeared down his face, “There was only one guy.”

“There isn’t!” Naruto appeared beside Sakura, his eyes darting around the forest and his hands twitching as if itching for a fight. “Sasuke, there’s more of them; more of these guys with the weird Chakra. This guy was a distraction, they’re surrounding us!”

Sasuke momentarily forgot that Naruto wasn’t really there. He forgot that Sakura and Tsukai couldn’t see him and that it was only his Sharingan that made the boy look completely solid.

“What?!” He launched himself up from his crouched position and glared at Naruto, “You said you could only sense one guy, where the hell did the others come from?!”

“I don’t know! I want to know why you can’t sense them at all! Whatever Jutsu they’re using probably hides them until they’re a certain distance away.”

Sasuke glared and pushed a lock of stray hair back from where it had gotten loose from his head protector, “Fine. How many?”

“Too many! I can’t count them Sasuke, we have to move, they’ve almost got us surrounded,” he suddenly pointed to the forest on their left, “I think that’s the only clear path, I can sense them everywhere else.”

“Kuso! Sakura!” Sasuke turned to the girl and ignored the look she was directing at him, “Get Tsukai-san and run, that way!” he pointed in the same direction Naruto had pointed and focused on watching Naruto to tell where the enemy was coming from. When Sakura didn’t move he glared at her, “Now! We’re being surrounded.”

That spurred the girl into movement and grabbing Tsukai by the arm she dragged him into the forest, with Sasuke bringing up the rear, a Kunai now in each hand as he half watched Naruto, and half scanned the area around them.

They were only a few metres into the forest when Sasuke noticed the stillness around them. All the wildlife that had been around, were now gone, wisely seeking out small hiding places until the ninja’s and their pursuers had passed by.

“Sasuke! Make her go right!” Naruto suddenly yelled from where he had taken up a position ahead of them.

Sasuke nodded slightly, “Sakura. Go right!”

The girl cast an odd look back at him, which he ignored, then she obeyed, dragging Tsukai still by the arm.

He was seeing flashes of movement in the trees now, now and again he saw the Chakra wreathed figures pacing along behind them as they ran and he cursed. They were almost playing with them, he realised. They were probably planning on running Sasuke’s group to exhaustion and then they would probably attack when they could barely defend themselves. But even Sasuke could tell now that it was pointless to stop and fight. With only the two of them able to fight it would be a hands-down loss. Naruto’s odd ability to sense them wouldn’t help in a situation like that.

“Left, Sasuke! Away from the road!”

Sasuke cursed softly and sped up till he managed to get close enough to tell Sakura the direction without giving it away to the people that followed them.

They changed direction again, and Sasuke again fell back, this time in time to dodge a Kunai that flew out of nowhere and nearly pinned his arm to a tree.

“Kuso!” Sasuke paused for a second to yank the weapon out of the tree trunk and then, not bothering to try and spot his enemy, returned it to where it had came, then ran onwards, guarding Sakura and Tsuakai’s back.

They spent almost an hour running randomly through the forest, led by Naruto’s yelled directions and spurred onwards by the now almost constant attacks at their back.

Naruto had finally managed to figure out the number of people following them and Sasuke wasn’t impressed by it. There were nearly twenty men after them and somehow, Sasuke would have to defend against them on his own.

He could hear Tsukai’s breath coming in harsh, laboured pants as they continued to run and Sasuke cursed. They’d have no choice but to stop soon, both he and Sakura would be able to keep going, but Tsukai was almost spent.

“Sasuke.” Sasuke narrowly stopped himself from throwing a Kunai through the image of Naruto that suddenly appeared beside him, back from wherever he had gone when he’d yelled at Sasuke that he was going to scout around the area. “Sasuke there’s a place that we can hide up ahead. If we can hold those idiots following us back then maybe Sakura and Tsukai can get there and hide without anyone knowing where they went.”

“How far ahead? Where?”

“If they keep running at the same speed then it’ll take them a few minutes to get there. There’s a stream up ahead. If they follow it downwards they’ll see a huge dead tree half in the water, they should be able to duck under it to get out of the water without being noticed, then if they head a little back towards the road there’s the cave. It’s in the side of a small hill, with a tree growing over it. Damned if I know what made it, but they’ll have to crawl down a bit, then it widens out into an underground room.”

Sasuke hit the ground suddenly, narrowly avoiding a Kunai that had been thrown at him.

“Bastard!” Naruto glared up into the trees, “Who the hell threw that! It went right through me!”

Sasuke didn’t even bother to return fire this time, instead he used the ground as leverage and was running towards Sakura before he’d even managed to get upright.

“Sakura! Go on ahead.”

“Sasuke-kun?!”

Quickly Sasuke told the pink haired girl the directions Naruto had given him and he glared at her, “Go, now. I’ll hold them off for a while, then catch up.”

“But how…”

“No time!” Sasuke snapped and pulled his pack from his back and shoved it into Sakura’s arms and then abruptly stopped running, pulling his Kunai in front of him in a defensive stance.

“Naruto?”

The blond boy instantly appeared at his side, “Tell me if any of them try to get passed, it’s pointless if some of them keep following her.”

“Right.” Sasuke was surrounded in an instant. He didn’t need Naruto to tell him, he could feel it, regardless of not being able to sense the Chakra.

“They all stopped.” Naruto said after a moment, and Sasuke looked at him in surprise. “All of the Chakra’s I’ve been feeling have stopped here, none of them followed Sakura.”

“What the hell would they do that for?” Sasuke muttered and Naruto shrugged.

“Maybe they think you won’t be an easy fight.”

“I won’t be an easy fight.” Sasuke snapped.

“Heh.” Naruto smirked, but didn’t respond, instead he pointed over Sasuke’s shoulder and the black haired boy spun around to see a figure dressed head to toe in black and with no visible village symbol flip down from a tree and onto the ground.

Sasuke tensed as the man walked forward a couple of paces, then stopped.

“Our fight isn’t with you.” The person, a man, said after a few moments, “If you stop running and hand over the man, then we’ll leave you and the girl alone.”

Sasuke smirked, “Sorry, no deal.”

The man snorted, “I don’t make deals. I’ll give you another chance, stop protecting the man now, and live. If you don’t, we’ll kill you now and then do the same to the girl.”

Sasuke was barely paying attention to the man now. Instead his attention was mostly on the words Naruto was half whispering to him.

“…Mostly up in the trees. The guy in black has three guys behind him, two on the left, one on the right. There are six guys directly behind you; they’re all in pairs. One pair on the ground, one right above them and the other is slightly to the left. There are two guys on your left and four on your right. Do these guys have a travelling in pairs rule or something? Shesh. Anyway, their Chakra all feels kinda average, except for that main guy there. He might be a little hard.”

Sasuke nodded slightly in response to Naruto’s words, then smirked at the man before him again.

“You can try, we won’t go down so easily.”

“Really? What a pity.” The man stepped backwards and gestured at Sasuke, “Kill him.”

Sasuke was ready for the attacks and launched himself into the air as a half dozen Kunai suddenly lodged themselves into the dirt where he had just been standing.

Flipping in mid-air, Sasuke launched the two Kunai he’d been holding into the foliage and immediately Naruto yelled that the Chakra’s of the pair to Sasuke’s left had gone; direct hits, both of them.

Flipping in mid-air again, Sasuke planted his feet firmly against the trunk of a tree and, focusing his Chakra to his legs, he pushed himself off of it, flying through the air again at an unbelievable speed and disappearing into the foliage where Naruto had reported the set of four guys had been hiding to his right.

The first two were easy to find. Surprised at Sasuke having come straight at them when their Chakra was supposed to be hidden from him, they didn’t have enough time to move before Sasuke had pulled two more Kunai from the pouch at his belt and they fell to the ground, one with his throat slit and the other with a Kunai lodged through his eye.

The second pair was harder to find. They were above Sasuke and had recovered from their shock by the time Sasuke had gotten himself up into the treetops and he had to duck quickly as they sent a second flurry of Kunai flying at him.

Unfortunately for them, the attack had revealed to Sasuke where in the tree they were hiding and within seconds the bodies of both men fell limply from their perches, the dull thuds of the bodies hitting the ground echoing through the sudden silence of the forest like a gunshot.

Sasuke didn’t linger where he was, like lightning he leaped through the trees again, casting around for any kinds of movement. He’d lost the element of surprise now, and the remaining men would be assuming that Sasuke could somehow feel their hidden Chakra.

Where was Naruto?

Coming to a halt, Sasuke went completely motionless, and blocked out his Chakra to remain hidden as he looked around for the blond haired dobe. It took him a moment to see the other boy and when he did his eyebrow twitched. Naruto was still in the small clearing Sasuke had stopped in, standing next to the man who had spoken to Sasuke, who hadn’t bothered to hide himself even after six of his men had been killed before his eyes, and ineffectively trying to punch him, growling as every hit and kick passed through the man with no effect.

It took a while, but Naruto finally stopped and made a rude gesture at the man before turning around, his eyes searching the trees around him, looking for either Sasuke or their enemies, Sasuke wasn’t sure.

The man in black, obviously the leader of this group, was either extremely cocky, or extremely powerful, Sasuke decided after a moment, or else he wouldn’t still be standing in plain sight. Sasuke thought for a moment, then his eyes narrowed. Or he was acting as a beacon. By standing in plain sight he was trying to present Sasuke with an ‘irresistible mark’ so that they could try and figure out his location.

Sasuke smirked. How stupid did they think he was? Maybe the dobe didn’t have enough sense to see the trap for what it was, but there was no chance Sasuke would walk into it. Or at least, he wouldn’t walk into it unless he had all the aces. The problem was getting Naruto’s attention so he could find out where the rest of the enemy had hidden themselves.

As if he’d heard himself summoned, Naruto looked directly at the tree where Sasuke was secreted and grinned.

“Oi, Sasuke.” He yelled, “You are aware that there are two guys hidden on the branch underneath you, right?”

Sasuke’s eyes went wide and if possible he went even more still and then carefully looked downwards, searching with all the power of his Sharingan for the men.

“I wouldn’t panic,” Naruto had walked over and was peering up the tree, “They haven’t figured out you’re above them either. One’s laying flat on the branch directly beneath you, he’s hard to see cause his clothing is the same colour as the branch, the other has moved to the branch under that, he’s out towards the edge of it.”

Moving carefully, Sasuke leaned outwards from his branch slightly and finally his eyes caught the small flares of the two men’s Chakra. He moved back again and then pulled two Shrukin from his leg holster and sent them spiralling downwards in one easy flick of his wrist. Both of them hit their marks and the two alert men both silently went limp, luckily this time not sliding to the ground, or making any sound to give away Sasuke’s position.

Naruto’s expression passed over the two dead men, his eyes dull in a way that had always somehow made Sasuke feel like some kind of bloodthirsty monster every time a mission had required them to kill, then the blond looked up at Sasuke again, “All of the others are staying around that asshole over there.” He gestured at the man who was still in plain sight.

Sasuke slowly lowered himself down the tree, till he was near enough to Naruto that they could talk without giving away his position, “Have they moved at all since those two died?”

Naruto shook his head.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes in thought, “So whatever Jutsu they’re using that keeps them hidden from me, is probably keeping them hidden from each other as well.”

“Why don’t you attack the main asshole?”

Sasuke glared at Naruto in annoyance, “Because that’s a trap, baka. He’s probably trying to get me to attack him so that the others can see where I am to attack me. I won’t attack him until all the others are gone. And if he can’t sense their Chakra, the same as me, then he won’t even know they’re all dead until he calls for them and they don’t come.”

Naruto nodded. “How do you plan to get at them though, they’re all staying together over there now. You won’t be able to get rid of them one at a time, they’ll all know when you attack and you’ll end up with them all attacking you anyway.”

Sasuke scowled, “I’m working on that.”

Sasuke sat still, thinking hard for a plan of attack that hopefully wouldn’t result in him getting killed. Things would have been a lot easier if Naruto had have been able to fight with him. After a moment, Naruto suddenly stood upright and stared into the forest.

“Sasuke, if you have a plan, you better do something about it now, I think… I think there are more coming.”

Sasuke cursed. And then suddenly stared upwards as the sound startled a bird from above him into flight.

“Sasuke!”

Sasuke didn’t have to hear anything else. Immediately he dropped from his branch onto the ground and met a man dressed in mud brown coloured clothes as he was about to climb up. They both brought up their Kunai at the same time and the clang of the two weapons meeting echoed in the silence, sending a few more birds into the air.

“Behind you!”

Sasuke ducked quickly and the man from in front of him stumbled backwards, a Shrukin buried in his throat. Reaching forward, Sasuke grabbed a hold of the weapon as the man fell and pulled it out of his throat, hurling it behind him, even as he spun and threw himself backwards, his eyes darting around as he tried to identify all his targets.

“Two on your right, three on your left, you grazed the arm of the one that was behind you, there’s one above you, and the main guy is still where you left him.” Naruto called quickly and Sasuke reacted, leaping forward to finish off the guy that had been behind him. A movement out of the corner of his eye sent him to staggering backwards quickly though, before he could do anything, as a Kunai flew passed him, through the air where he almost was.

“Damnit, still to many.” He muttered and dodged right, towards where Naruto had said there were only two guys. Instantly he disappeared into the foliage and he moved his hands quickly, performing the signs for the Buushin no Justu. A shadow clone popped into being beside him and they both leapt upwards into the trees, he going left, the clone going right. It required some fancy footwork, but he managed to avoid crashing straight into the man that appeared before him, and a swift push knocked the man from his tree branch and Sasuke sent the bloodied Kunai that was still in his hand hurtling downwards after him, hitting the man as he hit the ground. Another one down.

Further along the line of trees, Sasuke’s clone encountered the second man and launched itself at him, Kunai clashed between them and Sasuke watched carefully for the other men left to go in that direction. He wasn’t disappointed and soon he had thrown himself from his tree branch and landed on the back of a man slightly bigger than he was. The man grasped at Sasuke’s arms, but the black-haired boy growled and kneed him in the back then quickly, while the man briefly released his arms in surprise, grabbed the mans chin firmly and wrenched it to the side, snapping his neck with a painfully loud cracking sound.

His clone finally brought down the man it had attacked, but just as Sasuke snapped the neck of the man he had encountered, a Kunai pierced through the clone’s neck and it disappeared with a puff a smoke.

Sasuke felt the return of Chakra and instantly took to the trees again.

“Sasuke! Below you!” Sasuke moved quickly at Naruto’s cry but couldn’t avoid the weapon hurled at him quickly enough, the blade lodging itself in his upper left arm. He grit his teeth against the pain and pulled the thing out and hurled it back the way it had come, dearly hoping it hadn’t been dipped in poison, then swung down from his tree with his good arm and moved along the ground for a moment.

He almost yelled when Naruto suddenly appeared before him, peering at his bloodied arm with concern. Sasuke just glared at him and Naruto pointed ahead of them.

“There are two. The other two are behind, the Kunai hit the guy who threw it in the chest so he’s down, but not dead.”

“Where ahead?”

“One up, one left.”

Sasuke immediately dodged left and pulled another Kunai from his pouch, meeting the guy Naruto had said was there almost immediately. He didn’t need the attention the clashing sound their weapons would create this time so instead of bringing his weapon up, Sasuke ducked and drove his blade into the mans knee, making him buckle. The man groaned in pain and Sasuke scowled, and slashed his Kunai across the man’s throat so that the groan died out into a half silent gurgle.

“Behind you!” Naruto warned sharply and Sasuke dodged, ending up with his back against a tree as a man’s fist, glinting with a set of metal knuckles, flashed passed where his head had just been.

The man punched at him again and Sasuke ducked, the knuckles biting into the tree behind him. Lashing out, Sasuke kicked the man in the shin then kneed him in the stomach and took a hold of the wrist that was still extended towards the tree and yanked the man forward onto the Kunai Sasuke held against the man’s chest.

The man fell with a groan and Sasuke pulled the bloodied weapon back from his chest and carried on moving.

“Naruto, how many?”

“Only one left. Well…two, if you count that bastard who’s just been standing over there watching.”

“Where’s the one left?” Sasuke demanded and gasped slightly as a branch slapped across the wound in his arm.

“Right in fro…”

“Kuso!” Sasuke swore as he slammed into the man, knocking them both to the ground in a scrambling heap. Sasuke rolled away quickly and regained his feet at the same time the other man did. The two stared at each other for a moment and Sasuke could sense anger in the man’s gaze. Well it couldn’t be helped; Sasuke had just killed his teammates.

Sasuke dodged as the man threw himself at him and spun around to keep him in front. The man didn’t stop, simply spun around, brought his Kunai back up in front of him and threw himself at Sasuke again.

This time Sasuke purposefully fell backwards, grabbing a hold of the man’s shirt as he fell and, pushing his feet into the mans stomach, he kicked him straight over him and onto his back. Sasuke was on him in an instant and a sharp rap to the head with a butt end of his Kunai left the man unconscious instead of dead.

“Naruto, is he still where he was?” Sasuke demanded and Naruto shook his head.

“He just left. He’s heading towards where I can feel the others coming from. Sasuke we have to hurry up and go.”

Sasuke nodded, staggered to his feet and, transferring his Kunai to his free hand, he clutched at his wounded arm. Immediately pain shot through the limb and Sasuke grit his teeth against it. He didn’t have a choice, he’d have to pause at the stream and wash it out if he could and bind it.

“Lead the way to the cave.” Sasuke demanded and Naruto nodded quickly, running off through the trees with Sasuke close behind him.

It took barely a minute for the two to reach the stream and without hesitation Sasuke splashed into it and followed Naruto downstream. When they reached the dead tree that was laying half in the water though, Sasuke stopped him and crouched down into the water, quickly ripping off his ruined sleeve and used it to clean out the cut. Luckily it didn’t look deep or poisoned, but it would probably need stitches.

“Is it okay?” Naruto asked quickly and Sasuke nodded slightly and wrapped the wet sleeve around it to help stop the blood flow.

“It didn’t hit anything important, it’ll probably need stitches though.” He reported then turned to examine the tree.

“This way.” Naruto said and ducked under a few branches.

Sasuke followed and soon found the way up the bank. As soon as he was up, Naruto took off at a run again, leading Sasuke back towards the road.

It didn’t take long to get to the small hill Naruto had mentioned and soon Sasuke was scrambling head first down a tight tunnel that went almost straight down.

“Sakura-chan! You’re alright!”

The cry came from up ahead and Sasuke felt himself relax slightly. Quickly he crawled down the last of the passage and then dropped out at the end, flipping in mid-air to land on his feet on the dirt floor. He was surprised when he looked around the hole to find that Sakura had lit a lamp of some sort.

“S…Sasuke-kun?!”

Sasuke’s gaze turned to where Sakura was standing in front of Tsukai, the Kunai she’d just been holding up protectively hanging forgotten in her hand.

“Hn.” Sasuke replied and looked around the hiding place Naruto had found. It wasn’t a big room, but it was one that had obviously been dug by human hands. The floor, walls and roof were packed down, so the dirt didn’t collapse. Judging from the angle the tunnel went on it was quite deep down. Sasuke looked back at the entrance of the tunnel and nodded slightly to himself when his glance revealed that no sunlight was filtering down, which meant that the entrance really was well hidden, even after three people had used it.

For the moment they were safe.

Sasuke let himself collapse to the floor in a tired heap as the words filtered through his brain, and Sakura was at his side in an instant.

“Sasuke-kun, are you alright?”

“Hn. My arm needs to be properly bandaged till we get to a healer so it can be stitched.”

Sakura nodded slightly, “I saw some medicinal herbs on the way here, I can use them to keep the wound clean.”

Sasuke frowned, “You can go get them later. I got rid of the group that were chasing us, but there were more coming. We’ll stay down here until it’s safe to move.”

As Sasuke spoke, Sakura had pulled a small medical kit out of her pack and, leaving the arm until she could get hold of the herbs she’d seen on the way to the cave, she began cleaning up the cut on Sasuke’s cheek. Sasuke glared at her then turned his gaze to Tsukai.

“Were you injured?”

Tsukai’s own gaze had been pinned to Sasuke the entire time and now he shook his head.

“Good.” His attention turned back to Sakura suddenly and frowned at her, “Don’t bother bandaging it, it’s only a scratch and we’ll probably need the bandages later.”

“But…”

Sasuke glared and then turned back to Tsukai, “How come there are so many after you? This was supposed be an easy mission.”

Tsukai’s expression turned worried, “I’m not sure. I don’t know why so many would be after me; I assure you that if I had known I would have mentioned it. I wouldn’t gamble with my life like that. Perhaps something happened within the group that I’m not aware of yet. I’m sure we’ll find out once you get me home.”

Sasuke stared at the man for a moment, then nodded.

“Get some rest. We don’t know when we’ll have to leave here and it’d be better if we had all our strength when we do. We’ll probably spend from here on running.”

The other two nodded and settled down to rest, and Sasuke got up and grabbed his pack from where Sakura had left it by the wall then settled himself directly below the entrance to their hiding place.

Naruto settled himself next to him, his eyes closed.

“Their Chakra’s are sorta fading in and out of my senses.” He reported, “I never was any good at this.” He muttered and screwed his eyes shut harder.

“Just try to tell when they come close. It doesn’t matter where they are at the moment, so long as they aren’t right above us. Wake me if they are.”

“Sure.” Naruto replied absently, his eyes still closed as he worked on focusing enough to sense the Chakra’s that were still quite a ways from them.

Sasuke closed his eyes, finally deactivating his Shanringan as he did so. He wasn’t really planning on sleeping, but he knew he was tired enough after that fight to do so if he relaxed. Now that he had a moment to think he was going to try unravelling some of the many mysteries that surrounded his attackers. The main one being the fact that Sasuke couldn’t sense their Chakra, whereas Naruto could. The fact that Naruto could probably had something to do with him being in a plain spirit form, instead of in a body; which meant that the Jutsu that was being used blocked the bodies ability to sense things more than the spirits ability to do so.

Sasuke shifted slightly, bringing his legs up in front of him and crossing his arms over his knees.

Did that mean that he was sensing their attackers Chakra, but that the Jutsu they used was interfering with his ability to tell that he was? That might explain why he hadn’t been able to learn the Jutsu with his Sharingan. It wasn’t that he couldn’t sense the Chakra, or the Jutsu, it was just that the Jutsu itself was blocking his minds ability to interpret it.

And that was why Naruto wasn’t having any trouble with it, and probably why he could only say that their Chakra felt ‘weird’.

So now he knew why he couldn’t sense it he had to find a way so that he could sense it.

Somewhere amongst is half jumbled ideas and half formed thoughts his exhausted body shut down on him and he fell asleep only to be woken a few hours later by Naruto’s insistent whispering in his ear.

“Oh come on! You sleep like the dead; I swear it. How do you get up so early every morning? If I slept like you slept I’d probably never wake up!”

“I’m awake, Naruto.” He said quietly and heard the other boys sigh of exasperation.

“It’s about time! I’ve been trying to wake you for ten minutes at least.”

“Hn.” Sasuke sat back against the wall, stretched his legs out before him and looked over at the sleeping figures of Sakura and Tsukai across the room. “Why are you whispering?”

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, “Why are you?”

Sasuke rolled his eyes, “Because they,” he gestured across the room, “can hear me.”

“Oh, yeah. Anyway,” Naruto shrugged the conversation off as if it hadn’t happened, “there are guys above us. They sorta feel mad, but I don’t think they found the cave yet. I’m gonna go up and watch them.”

Sasuke nodded, but he may as well have not have as Naruto disappeared, simply popping out of Sasuke’s vision as if he’d never been there as soon as the words were out of his mouth.

Sasuke still couldn’t sense the Chakra of the people that were supposedly above them and, eyes narrowing, Sasuke went back to the job of trying to figure out a way around the Jutsu.

The only time that the Jutsu really had a weakness was when the ones using it were already dead as being dead they couldn’t use the Jutsu, so trying to force them to drop it wouldn’t work.

If what he’d established before he had gone to sleep was correct though, then what he needed to focus on was figuring out what exactly it was that stopped his physical body from acknowledging what his senses were trying to tell him and then he had to bypass it. Sasuke scowled. He could have used Naruto right now, so he could question him about how he felt the enemy’s Chakra, Naruto could sense it since he was a ‘spirit’ and the Physical block wasn’t there for him.

That was the key, Sasuke was sure of it. If pure spirit wasn’t affected then…

“Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts and his eyes fell on Sakura at the overly loud sound. He quickly put his finger over his lips, “They’re up there.” He whispered and Sakura looked puzzled, but nodded and moved from her blanket to sit next to him.

“Sasuke-kun?” she said more quietly.

“Hn.”

“How…how come you know they’re there? I can’t sense their Chakra at all, and I couldn’t sense it when they were chasing us either.”

“They’re blocking it, somehow.” Sasuke paused then decided to explain, after all, Sakura was the best of team seven at understanding and manipulating Chakra so maybe she would have an idea of some sort. “I think they’re not really blocking their Chakra from us, but instead blocking our ability to understand what our senses are telling us in regards to them.”

“Blocking our ability to tell that we’re sensing them?” Sakura bit her bottom lip and pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them in thought. “Like a blanket.”

Sasuke blinked, “What?”

“Well…” Sakura tilted her head slightly; “If you know someone is there, but they throw a blanket over your head you can’t see them. But you still know they’re there, and if you reach out you can touch them, but because of the blanket you can’t see them. That sounds like what they’re doing.”

“A blanket…” Sasuke murmured the words, thinking it over. It was oversimplified, but correct. “The problem is getting rid of it though.”

Sakura chewed on her lip some more as she thought, “It’s really weird not being able to sense them. How did you manage to sense them, Sasuke-kun?”

Still deep in thought, Sasuke replied absently, “I can’t.”

Sakura paused, “Then…how come you know they’re up there? And how did you know they were in the forest earlier?”

Sasuke jerked his head up and stared at her, thinking quickly. “…My Sharingan.”

Sakura frowned a little but nodded, accepting the explanation.

“Sasuke-kun?” Sakura paused and gnawed a bit more on her lip. “Who…who were you talking to earlier, before we started running? And…how did you know this place was here? We’ve never had a mission in this area before but you knew the way…”

“Yeah asshole, how did you know?”

Sasuke started slightly and glared at where Naruto had appeared in front of him. His mind was racing. He couldn’t say that he knew because Naruto’s spirit was running around scouting, Sakura would think he’d gone nuts.

“Tell her.” Naruto demanded and glared at him, “Tell her I’m still here.”

Sasuke met Naruto’s glare. He wasn’t going to tell her; on a mission like this he didn’t need her doubting his decisions and she would if she thought he was going deranged.

The uncomfortable silence was suddenly broken as Tsukai sat up and cleared his throat.

Immediately Sakura leapt across the room with her finger over her lips. Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief and tried to ignore Naruto’s glare.

“Is there any particular reason you’re being such a bastard about telling people I’m still here?” Naruto demanded, “I thought that by now you would have figured out I’m real. And if I’m real then you don’t have to worry about them calling you insane!”

Sasuke glared across the room then muttered, so quietly he could barely hear himself, “And how exactly do you expect to prove you’re real to them?”

“I same way I did to you, I’ll keep scouting and she’ll see that you’re getting information you couldn’t get on your own.”

Sasuke leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. When he thought about it he could see where Naruto was coming from; Sasuke wasn’t unfamiliar with the way Naruto’s life had been before he’d been assigned to team seven and being stuck like he was must be almost like going back to the way things used to be.

“Naruto, you know my skills, and you know Sakura. She would probably just assume that I’ve flipped my lid and that I’m using my skills to prove my insanity to myself. Even insane she would probably decide I was one of the most skilled ninja’s in existence.” Though the last was said in barely a murmur the annoyance still rang through clearly.

Naruto glared, “But…”

“Just wait, Naruto. Maybe by the time we get back the Hokage would have found something.”

Naruto went silent; the scowl on his face showing exactly how much he didn’t want to wait. Sasuke ignored it.

“What’s going on up there?”

“They left.” Naruto said shortly. “They’ll be back though, they’re trying to lure us out.”

Sasuke nodded.

“Aren’t you going to say ‘thank you’?” Naruto demanded.

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and Naruto almost exploded.

“You’re only alive right now because of me! And even if you somehow managed to get through all that fighting without my help, you’d still be running, dragging that Tsutai guy behind you!”

“Tsukai.” Sasuke corrected mildly and Naruto swung at him, his hand going straight through Sasuke’s head.

“Damnit! You’re such a bastard!”

Sasuke had worked hard not to flinch as Naruto’s fist flew at him, but he’d managed it and now he plastered a smirk on his face as he tried to shake off the eerie chilled feeling he’d felt as the hand had passed through him.

“Stop smirking! As soon as I get my body back I’m going to kick your arse!”

Sasuke snorted derisively and closed his eyes, “Wake me again if those guys come back.”

“Bastard!”

“Shut up, dobe.”

--

They spent two days hiding underground. Every time it looked like the cost would be clear, Naruto reported that he could feel the Chakra’s coming closer again. It seemed their pursuers were determined to do a repeated sweep of the area before they were convinced that Saskue’s party had somehow gotten passed them.

And so, two days later, Naruto finally reported that the area was clear and that they could move at any time. Sakura insisted on gathering the herbs to put on Sasuke’s nearly forgotten wound before they left though, so Sasuke was left alone with Tsukai as Naruto went silently with Sakura in case of trouble.

Their small dirt haven was silent as Sasuke tied the last of his things into his pack and sat back to wait for Sakura to get back. Silent at least until Tsukai cleared his throat slightly and pinned Sasuke was a piercing look.

“Young man.” He began and Sasuke lifted an eyebrow wishing he had an excuse to leave. “I think that you are hiding something from myself and the young lady.” He held up a hand as Sasuke’s eyes narrowed, “I’m not going to demand you tell me what it is but I will say that it’s making Sakura-san very worried about you. I understand from what she tells me that you are normally a three-man team and that you might be feeling guilty over the sickness of your teammate. The young lady thinks it might be the reason for your… odd behaviour.”

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and asked, despite himself, “Odd behaviour?”

Tsukai’s gaze grew, if possible, more intense, “Yes. The most obvious one I can think of would be that you’ve been talking to yourself almost constantly since we left your village. Child, I suggest that when you get back to your village you take a rest perhaps. Maybe see someone…”

Sasuke couldn’t help himself. He laughed. It was quiet and barely rated as an amused chuckle, but it didn’t change the fact that he was laughing. It was ironic really; he hadn’t mentioned Naruto, yet they still thought he had a screw loose. And Sakura thought it was because Naruto was in a coma.

Glossing over the fact that Sakura seemed to think that Naruto being in a coma would affect him so badly, Sasuke gave Tsukai an amused look and proceeded to spin a story that would hopefully be passed onto Sakura, since the two seemed to enjoy talking about him, and would stop her from asking him any more awkward questions.

“I’ve gotten into a bad habit lately. I probably picked it up from the third member of our team; he does it a lot.” He offered Tsukai a half-smirk, “I spend a lot of time thinking out loud now. It gives me a way of thinking ideas through completely and coming up with plausible arguments. I’m sorry if it’s been disturbing you.”

Tsukai kept his piercing gaze on Sasuke for a moment longer, then he nodded and looked away, accepting Sasuke’s explanation at face-value.

“Sasuke!” Naruto seemed to come flying straight out of the solid dirt wall and Sasuke almost yelled. “Sakura’s coming back now. If you two go now, you can meet her at the entrance, she can fuss over your cut and then we can get a move on.”

Sasuke nodded slightly and stood up.

“Get your things.” He said to Tsukai, “We’ll climb up and meet Sakura at the entrance.”

Tsukai nodded and followed Sasuke as he began to shimmy back up the dirt tunnel. The trip wasn’t hard, though it was dirty, and in moments they were up, blinking at the morning sunlight as they emerged carefully from the tunnel.

“Sasuke-kun!”

Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched at the yell and he shot a warning glance at the girl who had just spotted them.

“Sorry.” Sakura smiled and held up the plants she held in one hand and the cup of water she had in the other, “I’ll clean out and bandage your arm now…”

Sasuke nodded and sat down, untying the improvised bandage from the wound and shoving it under a loose flap in his pack.

Naruto glared at him the entire time Sakura fixed up the wound and Sasuke almost growled at him. Instead he settled for gritting his teeth and waiting for the girl to finish.

“Does it hurt, Sasuke-kun?” Sakura asked in concern and Sasuke looked at her flatly.

“No.”

“...Oh. Good.”

“Are you done?” he demanded and she nodded and quickly tied a clean bandage around the herb compound she’d made and tied it off.

“Good. Let’s get a move on then. Stay alert.”

They managed to move quite a long way before the sun reached it’s zenith and they paused to rest. They would probably have trouble moving through the forest as they went further, but for the now the forest, away from the road, was easy to move through. When they stopped, Naruto reappeared from wherever he’d disappeared too to scout and reported that they were still in the clear.

“They’re hanging around on the edge of my senses, further towards the road. I guess they’re guessing that we’ll have to go back to the road after a while if we want to keep moving. The forest will probably get pretty thick soon.”

Sasuke nodded and moved away from his group slightly, so he could talk to Naruto without winning any new odd looks.

“How many, do you think?”

Naruto put his hand behind his head as he thought, “Not many, they’re in small groups, scattered around. So long as they don’t take it into their heads to band together, we should be able to take care of them.”

“Good, we’ll get moving again then.” Sasuke turned and walked back to the others and nodded at them, “Let’s go.”

They stayed moving through the forest for the rest of the day and made a silent camp as the sun began to set. This time they avoided making a fire and simply set a watch before curling into their blankets and sleeping.

Sasuke had the second watch of the night and when Sakura tiredly woke him his eyes immediately took on the red of his Sharingan as he searched around their camp for Naruto.

The blond was waiting for him as he got up and moved across the camp, slightly away from Sakura and Tsukai. Naruto looked up from where he was biting his thumb and staring out into the forest.

“There’s a group coming close to us, we might need to get moving soon.” He said.

Sasuke looked at him sharply, “How close?”

Naruto closed his eyes and tilted his head to the side in concentration, “Not to close, yet. They might not notice us and go right passed, but they might change direction…”

Sasuke frowned slightly in thought and then settled himself down with his back against a tree. “Tell me if they look like they’re getting too close. I want to make sure we’re all properly rested before we move.”

Naruto nodded.

“You’re thinking about something.” Naruto said after a while, breaking the almost comfortable silence.

Sasuke glared up at Naruto in annoyance, “I tend towards thinking, unlike certain others.”

Naruto shrugged, ignoring, or not getting, the implication, “What about?”

“Something you wouldn’t understand.” Sasuke snapped, “Shut up, dobe.”

Naruto’s back went up and he glared at Sasuke, “Tell me what it is and I’ll see if I can understand it.”

Sasuke sighed in annoyance. “Fine. I can’t sense our attackers, but you can.” Sasuke glared at Naruto when the blond looked like he was going to comment, “You can sense them because you’re out of your body at the moment, that means that whatever is stopping me from sensing them is purely physical.”

Sasuke paused to see if Naruto was still following him, and Naruto nodded, his face screwed up in concentration.

“When I discussed it with Sakura she described it like a blanket.” Sasuke said trying to explain in ‘Naruto’ terms, “Like if two people were standing there and one had a blanket over their head. The person with the blanket over their head would still know that the second person was there, but he couldn’t see him.

“I’m trying to figure out how to get rid of that blanket so that I can sense our attackers without your help.”

Naruto now had his eyes closed. His arms were crossed over his chest as he thought and he was humming slightly, an annoying habit that made Sasuke almost want to strangle him.

After a few minutes of Naruto doing nothing except humming to himself and keeping his eyes closed, Sasuke figured the other probably hadn’t understood a word of it, but was trying to act like he did, and went back to thinking; but not getting far.

There was a trick to it, there had to be. It probably had something to do with his Sharingan, since even the users of the Jutsu didn’t seem to be able to sense each other and somehow he had to figure it out.

There was dead silence in the forest now, except for the sounds of the wind echoing through the trees, and so Naruto’s voice, when it came, made Sasuke’s skin prickle in fright.

“Ne, Sasuke. Can you sense me?”

Sasuke blinked, “What?”

“Can you sense me? I’m a…spirit now, right? Can you feel my Charka?”

Sasuke hadn’t thought about it. Tilting his head slightly, he closed his eyes and then opened them again. “Yes. It feels a bit different, but I can feel it.”

Naruto was looking at him intently, “But I’m not really here. How can you sense me, then?”

Now Sasuke was just confused. “Of course you’re here; or have you changed your mind about that?”

Naruto frowned and leaned closer, “You said it was like a man with a blanket over his head, right? Even though he can’t see the other man with him, he can feel him. Well, what if the second man isn’t in the same room? He’s still there, right? Except he’s not.”

Sasuke tried to follow the logic; Naruto’s logic. “You’re saying, that instead of trying to get rid of the blanket, I should just change rooms?”

Naruto made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat. “I don’t know, I don’t really understand why you can’t sense those asshole’s Charka; but you can sense me and I’m not really here, and you can’t sense them and they are there. You said that when you sense me it feels different, so why don’t you just sense them like you sense me and ignore the fact that normally you can’t sense them?”

Sasuke frowned and counted it as a point against himself that he could almost grasp what Naruto was getting at. The dobe wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but he’d managed to simplify what Sasuke had to told him enough that he’d almost come up with a solution. The way he was sensing Naruto was something he hadn’t even been aware of, a kind of buzz at the back of his mind that told him there was energy nearby that wasn’t quite the same as the energy everywhere else. It was only because of close association that Sasuke could identify that energy as ‘Naruto’ though. It wasn’t the complete solution, but it was a start. Sasuke had a direction to think in.

“Damnit!”

Sasuke’s head snapped up suddenly at Naruto’s exclamation and he stared at the other boy. “What?”

“While I was thinking on your stupid problem I forgot to keep an eye on those assholes that are looking for us! They changed direction and are headed straight at us!”

“What?! Idiot! How far away?” Sasuke was on his feet in an instant, rushing towards where Sakura and Tsukai were sleeping.

“We have a minute or two! They probably found us.”

Sasuke cursed under his breath as he shook Sakura completely out of her blankets and then did the same to Tsukai.

“Get your things, now! If they’re not important, leave them. Move!”

Tsukai sleepily followed orders, while Sakura quickly gathered her things, slinging her pack onto her back in seconds. Sasuke had left them for a second to get his own pack and then, Kunai in hand he pointed into the trees, “Start going that way.” He ordered.

“Sasuke! There’s no time!” Naruto bit out the warning before Sakura had taken more than a few steps, “They’re here, now!”

“Watch out!” Sasuke bit out the warning to Sakura and leapt forward, pushing Tsukai back against a tree.

Instantly Sakura jumped back and took up a defensive position in front of the man, her eyes everywhere. “Where are they? I can’t sense anything.”

“Quiet!” Sasuke snapped at her, “Use your eyes and your ears, we learnt more than just to sense Charka at the academy!”

Sasuke then ignored the girl, her cheeks flaming red in embarrassment for the reprimand, and moved away from her slightly, his eyes trying to pierce the darkness beneath the trees.

“They’re surrounding us, Sasuke.” Naruto said and his hazy outline flicked into solidity at Sasuke’s side, “They’re not going to attack until they’ve got us completely pinned in; they don’t want us to escape again.”

Sasuke nodded, he’d already expected that.

“How many? And where?”

“Not as many as before.” Naruto frowned, “There are some missing.”

“How many?” Sasuke snapped.

“There were ten, but now there’s only eight.”

“Going for reinforcements, probably.”

Naruto nodded shortly, his head moving from left to right as he positioned their opponents. “They’re in pairs again. Front, back and each side; but they’re spread out enough that we can’t get passed them.”

“We’ll have to make this quick.” Sasuke said, half to himself, “I don’t want any more to arrive.” He turned his head back slightly to check on Sakura, “There are eight.” He said to her quickly, “Equally spaced around us, keep your eyes open and don’t forget to look up.”

Sakura nodded firmly and tightened her grip on her Kunai.

“They’re attacking!”

“Now!” Sasuke yelled to Sakura as Naruto warned him of the impending attack, and he leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding the mix of Shruken and Kunai that landed where he had been standing.

“Left!”

Sasuke moved his Kunai to his left hand and brought it up, stopping the stab that had been made at him and pushed his attacker backwards. Quickly, he spun backwards and, grabbing another Kunai from his leg holster as he moved, stabbed the masked man in the side, ripping the Kunai upwards to inflict as much damage as possible.

Hot, sticky liquid splashed over his hand, making his grip on his Kunai tentative at best, but he simply tightened his hold and continued his spin and slashed quickly across the back of the man’s neck. He dropped to the ground instantly.

There was a clash of sound behind Sasuke but he couldn’t turn to see how Sakura was fairing as, before the first man had even dropped completely, the second was taking up Sasuke’s attention.