I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

I suddenly felt like writing something where Naruto is not completely kickass and flawless. He's still gonna make some stumbles and mistakes.

Anyway, happy new year, everyone! Welcome to 2009!

Weakness

His opponent has long hair, a lithe figure and striking green eyes. She dances around him, laughing. In the darkness, she is all he can see. She is hurting him, drawing thick crimson gashes on his arms and legs – everywhere. He's bleeding, and as the scarlet flows the darkness gradually bleeds to an angry, bloody red.

He snarls at her, grips his kunai tightly, because in this dimension of genjutsu physical offence is all that remains in his arsenal. She responds with another flick of her wrist and Naruto's kunai is flung from his fingers as he staggers back, ultimately falling to the black, unseeable ground. He raises his hand to his cheek and the fresh wound smears his fingers with blood.

She stands over him, hands on her hips, taunting him. She looks just like her when she is scolding him, and it almost makes him smile. Almost. "Done, are you?" she smirks. And he shudders because her voice is pitched and nasal and hurts his ears. It's different and it's not the same.

"Shut up," he breathes heavily on her, levering himself up. His hands slip on his own blood and he falls back, panting. How long has this been going on for? No idea. He'd long since lost track of time.

A finger is pressed to his lips and her face looms close to his. "Shh," she whispers. "No need to be rude."

Naruto is on the verge of swiping his remaining kunai across her face when he hears it. A scream. It's her scream. It reverberates back at him from every angle. His opponent pulls away, chuckling. It's just genjutsu, he tries to convince himself. She's fine… she's not even here…

But the scream comes again and something inside him snaps. He lunges forward. His fury blazes and he is fully intending to separate her head from her shoulders, and finds that he is bound to the ground by thick strands of coiling black substance. He struggles and tears at the binds, but his injured limbs are failing and time does not stop for him. The enemy is striking at him, merging into the inky blackness. He doesn't know where the blows are coming from, doesn't know when they land.

All he knows is that he is alone.

"Sakura," he mumbles. It's hopeless. He was caught off guard, chakra depleting and the damn fox was not being helpful. He knows he needs to break the genjutsu. He knows he has to defeat his opponent. He knows that Sakura's not here, that he is on this mission alone. He knows he has to get back to her and know that she's okay.

But what he knows is not what he can do. One eye swells shut as something big and hard hits him alongside the head. He tries to reach his weapons pouch, tries to pull out his last kunai and break whatever was holding him back, but his fingers are numb and his makeshift chains do their bit to hold him back.

She appears in front of him, kneeling by his head. "Poor little ANBU," she coos. "When you see the Death God, tell him-" He never finds out what to tell the guy. He stares hazily at her wide eyes, her mouth opening and closing, and finally focuses on the figure who is standing behind her when she crumples and lies motionless.

The blackness fades away into ravaged woodland.

She's got her arms around him and her face buried in his hair and she's calling him an idiot over and over again. She's not supposed to be here, he realises faintly. He hopes the blood on her uniform is not hers.

"I got the rest of them," she says quietly. Her hands are cool and soothing as they flutter along his ruined back. "You're an idiot." There it is again. "You could've gotten yourself killed!"

He remembers a little now. He remembers their argument, their fight. What was it over again? Can't remember. He's ANBU and he knows he's not supposed to take missions to distract him from emotional conflicts. He can't remember going up to Granny Tsunade and pestering her for an S-rank at all. All he knows is that Sakura is here now and that she came for him.

"Sorry." His voice is a mere croak and he winces as his cracked lips split and blood trickles down his chin.

She's looking at him with a slight hint of amusement. "Don't ever do that again, got it?"

She leans in and heals his lips and Naruto thinks to himself that they need to do this more often.