Full Summary: will be added soon

Pairings: Mostly undecided… probably NaruTema

Velley of the Wind
Chapter 1: Valley of the End
By: Zashire

"C'mon, Temari-san, we need to go find the others," a dark haired Chuunin said urgently as he turned to jump off the tree he was standing on.

The woman known as Temari put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Hang on, pineapple-head," she said in an impassive tone. "My brothers are already on it. Kankuro went after your friend with the dog and Gaara went to help the blonde kid."

Shikamaru's eyes flicked back to the Suna kunoichi. "You don't understand! By now, Naruto is probably fighting Sasuke… on his own."

"What do you mean 'on his own?' Gaara was a pretty capable ninja last time I checked," she retorted, clearly annoyed.

The pineapple haired ninja groaned. "Come on! I'll explain as we go!" he said loudly before jumping from the limb he stood on to the next, not caring if the kunoichi caught up or not.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Temari called as she put her fan away and ran to catch up.

It took her a few minutes, but she finally managed to fall in step with the Konoha Chuunin. "Damn, what the hell was that for?"

Shikamaru ignored her comment and began to talk about the situation. "Naruto's probably fighting Sasuke by himself right now because there were at least five Oto ninja in the group and Lee came as back up – I still can't believe he managed to get out of the village without getting caught," he mumbled the last part to himself.

Temari's eyes widened. "You mean the info Hokage-sama gave us was false?!"

Shikamaru briefly shook his head. "What she told you was what she knew. After spying on our enemy while trying to make a surprise attack plan, I felt another chakra signature in the area that seemed pretty strong. I didn't mention it because the group was already paranoid enough… there goes my good judgment."

Temari would have bonked the kid on the head for his stupidity had they not been trying to help another comrade. "You really are a complete idiot." Shikamaru sighed. "I can't believe I lost to someone like you in the Chuunin exams…Wait! How'd you know Lee was coming?"

"Sensed him in the middle of the battle with that red head."

Temari gave a quick nod in recognition.

"Let's speed up. I don't know how Chouji and Neji are faring, but we have to be closer to Naruto than we are to them. And besides, if need be, the medics can get to them a lot easier than they can get to Naruto if he gets hurt."

Temari nodded and pumped some chakra into her legs to speed up even more. Wait a second, why did this Naruto kid sound so familiar? "Hey, pineapple," she called over to Shikamaru. He turned his head slightly with a grunt at the nickname. "Who's this Naruto? He sounds familiar… all I know is that Gaara seemed to jump at the opportunity to pay him bac– Oh… shit, did he mean that?" Her eyes widened in realization. Naruto was the one that had beat Gaara to the ground during the invasion at the Chuunin exams! How in the hell had she forgotten him? He was the one who had brought her little brother back to the line of humanity! No wonder he wanted to help him so badly…

Shikamaru smirked at her understanding. Maybe she would be a little more cooperating now.

"Yeah, that's the one. And if we don't hurry, he might not be there for Gaara to pay back at all."

Temari stared at him. "Wait, if he's fighting Sasuke by himself, shouldn't he be able to beat him? The Uchiha didn't last more than five minutes against Gaara."

Shikamaru grunted. "Can't be too sure. I have a feeling they went all out this time. If you pay attention, you can feel waves of chakra coming from that area up ahead. Get ready because this could get very dangerous in a few seconds."

The Suna kunoichi nodded and looked forward again. It seemed as if there was a canyon or something similar that would come up pretty soon, and judging by the energy waves that were coming toward them, there was a really big fight taking place.

She turned to Shikamaru once more. "What do you plan on doing when we get there? Whatever it is, remember my mission is to drag you back to Konoha, preferably alive."

He continued looking forward, but responded, "I don't really know. We just need to do whatever it takes to get Naruto out of there safely, and try our best to get Sasuke back as well. Naruto is priority, though."

Temari nodded slowly. She honestly had no idea how the two of them would be able to stop a battle at the level it was on. Hopefully there would be a victor by the time they got there… and hopefully it was Naruto.

xxx

Naruto stared furiously at Sasuke from across the gorge through blood red eyes. He had no real train of thought going anymore – all he felt was the need to beat down the person in front of him until he submitted into returning to the village with him. That desire was only increased with each bit of chakra that came from the Kyuubi as he grew angrier at the Uchiha bastard.

Sasuke was coming back to Konoha.

And that was final.

He kept his eyes locked onto the missing nin as he unconsciously began formed a sphere made of chakra in his only working hand. The stupid duck butt had broken his left arm, and for some reason it still wasn't healing. Not that he really cared. As long as he could continue to fight, he didn't care which bones in his body were broken.

The blonde let a rough growl escape his throat as he flexed his claw-like fingers and felt that his attack was ready. The same seemed to be going on with the Uchiha and his ball of electricity.

The two seemed to mentally know that the other was ready, so they both jumped off of their respective ledges and toward one another at the same time. As they grew closer to each other, they both pulled back their arms and glared at each other one last time.

Naruto felt his fangs grow longer slightly because they punctured his skin a bit. Damn that bastard!

This was it.

"CHIDORI!"

"RASENGAN!"

xxx

Temari's eyes widened considerably as she heard the name of the attacks that were called out. She recognized the 'Chidori' one because of the information on Hatake Kakashi she had received prior to the invasion, but didn't recognize the 'Rasengan.' Whatever it was, it couldn't be good. She felt the intensity of the chakra exertion increase to dangerous levels and shoved Shikamaru out of the air and to the ground.

He was about to yell in complaint, but stopped when he saw branches of all sorts getting blown away from overhead and silently thanked the blonde kunoichi. He felt that she had saved him once again…

…Up until the point where his backed slammed against the ground and he had the air knocked out of him.

He tried to move around to regain his breath, but found that she was holding him firmly against the ground so he couldn't budge. Troublesome…

As soon as the winds died down, Temari released him from her grasp and quickly stood up. He found it odd that she was starting to panic over someone that wasn't even from her own village. Well, given what Naruto had done for her brother… it was understandable.

Once she was up, he had to jump off the ground immediately to start running so she wouldn't leave him in the dust. He would have bugged her about her panicking if he weren't feeling the same way. He had a good feeling that Chouji and Neji were okay, but he wasn't so sure about Naruto.

The duo soon came upon the valley that they had seen earlier and sent chakra to their feet and began descending the wall to reach the bottom where they saw what looked like someone lying on the ground. It was hard to tell by how far up they were.

xxx

In the darkness of Naruto's mindscape, a beastly roar sounded. So… dark… Moments later, a large wave of blood colored chakra was sent through the bars that separated the beast from the human, which soon encircled said human slowly.

The problem was… the body was clearly not accepting any of the chakra that was being offered to it.

Take… it… the beast mumbled as it sent even more through its bars, only to have the same thing happen again. It roared even more as the place grew even darker. It could feel its container's heart begin to slow down with every passing minute.

Time was running out.

Very quickly.

It growled in frustration as it ran through its options. Dying was definitely not one of them.

So then, what was?

xxx

Temari's jaw dropped when she reached the bottom of the valley only seconds before Shikamaru did. She left him behind and went over to the bloody heap that lied in the middle just before the waterfall met the land. Her eyes widened in horror when she stopped and realized it was the blonde that they had come to rescue.

And had apparently failed at doing so.

She shook her head and dropped to her knees to examine him. Even though she didn't have much knowledge in the medical field, she still knew how to see if someone was alive or not. By the looks of it, the blonde was long gone. Both of his arms looked to be broken, but that wasn't what scared her. What did scare the blonde kunoichi was that in the area where his heart was, all she could see was a big mess of blood. If any attack had punctured his heart, there was next to no chance of getting him back to the village alive.

She checked the possible locations of finding a pulse, and was overjoyed to feel something. It wasn't big, but it was something. She slipped her arms under the blonde to lift him up. He wasn't that heavy, but it did require some effort. She quickly turned around to go back over to Shikamaru, even though she was still a bit panicked about getting the blonde back to his village on time.

That is, until she collapsed to the ground while holding the blonde, and her world went black.

xxx

Temari grumbled as she slowly opened her eyes, and then closed them again right away. Stupid blaring sun… Wait! She jerked into a sitting position and stared up at the sky.

And sure enough, the sun was out and shining away.

Wasn't it raining just a minute ago? She looked around and spotted Naruto no more than a foot away from her. Right! I need to get him back to the village! She scooted over to him and slipped her arms under him like she had earlier before lifting him off the ground.

As she stood up, she almost dropped him again by the sight before her. Holy shit! Where the hell are the statues?! Sure enough, where there used to stand the statues of Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama, now stood nothing but thin air. Her eyes widened. What the hell is going on?

"Shikamaru?" she called out, but received no response. "Shikamaru, where are you?" Still, she received no response. Where'd he go? She turned around to look in all directions for him.

I can't worry about him now. If I don't get this brat to the hospital in Konoha soon, Gaara's going to murder me. She took off sprinting at that and raced up the wall with the blonde Uzumaki in her arms.

Once she reached the top, she was about to take to the trees when she heard a voice call out from behind her.

"Where are you going, young girl?"

She was about to ignore it, but her curiosity got the better of her, so she turned around to see who it was…

…Only to have her eyes widen to the size of dinner plates.

Before her stood what looked to be a fur trader. He was pushing a cart full of animal skins across a bridge that crossed over the Valley of the End. Since when had that been there? She shook her head. That didn't matter right now because she needed to hurry.

He looked harmless enough.

"Um, Konoha," she replied weakly.

He stared at her in confusion. "Where's that?"

xxx

A/N: Just a new story idea I came up with. I've been have a writer's block lately with 'The Samurai Ninja,' so I decided to take a break from that and start something new. I have no idea where this will be going, so don't expect another update too soon. I just want to see what people think of it.

Later,

Zashire