"Sakura."

It's Hinata, I can ignore her for a second while I finish this set. "Three hundred and ninety eight! Three hundred and ninety nine! Four hundred!" I gasp for breath as I finish the last push up, rolling over on my back. I raise a hand to wipe the sweat from my brow, the aching muscles of my arms protest. I turn my head and can see Hinata sitting on a bench near me. After a second I sit up and turn to face her. "Hinata?"

She stands and offers me a hand, which I gladly take; I get off the ground and begin putting on my boots. "Hokage –sama has a mission for us." I look around but don't see Kiba or Shino. After those bastards Naruto and Sasuke left I've been getting mission experience by going with team Kurenai. "It's not with team eight, Tsunade sama has assembled a special team for this mission."

A special team? "Who else is going?"

"Kakashi sensei, and Jiraya sama."

My eyes go wide, all the pain in my muscles dissapears as my mind focuses. I can only think of one thing that would require this team. "Did we-?"

I'm afraid to ask, afraid to get my hopes up. Hinata nods, "Kiba, Shino, and I found one of O-orochimaru's bases during routine reconnaissance on an escort mission to the land of waves. Shino sent bugs to investigate, and it's them." I finish tying my laces and almost run to Tsunade's office, I can hear Hinata behind me as I ascend the stairs. Finally it's time!

[Hokage's Office]

Jiraya, Hinata, Kakashi, and I all stand in Tsunade's office awaiting the briefing. I can barely contain my excitement.

Tsunade motions and Shizune hands each of us a folder with mission info, everyone except for Jiraya opens thiers and begins flipping through as Tsunade begins talking. "Yesterday at sixteen hundred hours team eight encountered a facility believed to be operated by Orochimaru. It is suspected that the missing ninja Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto are within this compound. Both of them carry secrets of the hidden leaf and are the priorities of the mission. I would like to emphasize that the mission objective is to retrieve the two of them and bring them back to the village. Alive." She looks right at me when she says the last part. I guess I'm easier to read than I thought. "We need to figure out if any of our hidden techniques are in danger so we'll need to interrogate them." Interrogate? I try my best not to smile. Maybe I shouldn't kill them? Torture seems a much more fitting punishment. "However they are both A rank targets and you should not take them lightly. If it seems that capture is not an option the use of deadly force is approved."

Hinata looks up in shock, "B-But Hokage-sama!"

"Hinata!" Tsunade turns her glare to Hinata and she attempts to hide behind her folder. "They are traitors to the leaf village. And will be treated as such. You are a ninja, a solider of the leaf, if you have any doubts about your ability to perform during this mission tell me now.

Hinata takes a second before she lifts her head and meets Tsunade's gaze. "I-i. I understand Hokage- sama, please allow me to participate in this mission."

Tsunade looks at Hinata for another second before sighing and leaning back in her chair, "Alright. You leave immediately, Jiraya will fill you in on the way." Shizune moves to open the door for us; while her back is turned I see Tsunade take a bottle from her desk take a gulp and put it back all before Shizune could turn around. Despite her words I can tell that she's worried about Naruto. She shouldn't have sent me then.

[Near land of fire border 5 hours later]

Jiraya had us stop and set up camp about three miles from the actual base, no fire as it would draw attention in the night so by camp I really mean four sleeping bags.

It's dawn and when we get ready to move out. I'm loading shuriken into my weapon pouch as Jiraya reviews the plan.

"I'm gonna go over it one more time to make sure we get it right." He pulls out a hand drawn map of the facility. "Hinata here has used the Byakugan to draw us a diagram of the building, She's also scouted and has confirmed almost a hundred enemy ninja inside. We don't know exactly where Naruto and Sasuke are but we believe that they are still inside. We'll be splitting into two teams, Hinata and I will engage from the front entrance and draw their attention. Mean while Sakura and Kakashi will collapse the main hallway trapping the enemy between us with no way to escape. I've already sent a summon to sabotage the second exit so the only exit for the underground part of the facility will be right between us. If Naruto and Sasuke are down there they will have to go through us to escape. No matter how many enemies there are we should be able to handle them as the underground exit will bottleneck them allowing us to fight them one at a time. Afterwards we cuff Naruto and Sasuke in the chakra restraints we all have and we walk home injury free. Any questions?"

A quick survey around the camp and no questions. "Alright then, let's begin."

Kakashi and I make it to our infiltration point with out seeing a single enemy. Kakashi notices this and speaks as we land on the roof of the main hall. "The enemy is probably already engaging Jiraya- sama's team. Let's hurry."

I nod, Kakashi steps to the side as I jump as high into the air as I can. I can see the building beneath me and imagine Naruto's face etched on the roof. I pull my fist back as I start falling back to earth, the green of my chakra is visible around my fist as I hurtle towards my target at top speed. At the last second before I would face plant I strike out with my fist and the building folds to my might. The ceiling and walls of this armored fortress bend and break beneath my strength. I flip around in the air to land on my feet immediately in a battle stance. I reach to the side and grab a large piece of rubble ready to throw it at the first sound ninja I see. But I'm alone? I toss the boulder to the side as Kakashi lands next to me. With no enemies around we begin walking to the rendezvous point.

When we get to the entrance to the underground chambers Hinata and Jiraya are already there, from their clothes it's obvious that they haven't seen any battle either but I still feel the need to ask. "No body in the front either?" Jiraya shakes his head. "Did they see us coming? Can we catch them before they get too far away?" The thought of Naruto and Sasuke running away from me again makes my blood boil.

Hinata speaks up, "That's not possible. Just minutes before we began I saw almost a hundred chakra signatures. They were all too weak to be Naruto or Sasuke but they were definitely here."

Now I'm annoyed, "Your telling me that almost a hundred people got by us?"

She shakes her head, "They didn't get past us, they just disappeared."

I get a dark feeling. "Like they were shadow clones?"

Hinata looks shocked for a second. Jiraya and Kakashi seemed to figure it out at the same time as I did and are already in a defensive formation. Hinata and I fall into place beside them. Jiraya let's out a short laugh. "It would seem that we're the ones trapped. Hinata can you see anything?"

Veins spread on either side of her face. "I-I" Her eyes revert to normal.

Kakashi turns his head slightly, "What's wrong?"

If possible Hinata looks even more nervous. "It's the air. There's so much chakra in the air, it's clouding my vision like a mist. I-I think it might be from all the shadow clones."

Jiraya laughs again, louder this time. "I can see that they thought this through, Naruto's the only one who could make that many clones easily but he's not bright enough to come up with this plan. You ready Kakashi? You're about to be reunited with two of your students."

Kakashi lifts his headband up to reveal his sharingan eye. "I guess I still have some things to teach them if they think they can take me on."

"Is that right sensei." The voice is dark and seems to come from every direction at once.

Sasuke! My head turns left and right but he's nowhere in sight. "Show yourself Sasuke!"

"Sakura." I still can't tell where the voice is coming from, glancing at Kakashi I can see his sharingan eye quickly moving around the room. "Why did you even bother coming? Your weak, too weak to even think about challenging me." I can feel my nails digging into my palms, even through my leather gloves. "Did you know that's why we left you? Naruto and I don't need someone like you dragging us down."

Frustrated I yell out at the nothing, "If I'm so weak then come out and face me! I'll make sure the Uchiha end with you!"

"Hn. While I wouldn't mind showing you your place. Naruto's been looking forward to this."

No sooner does he say that than the floor underneath me bursts and I'm thrown upwards through the ceiling. I land outside the building on my back, I quickly jump up to face my opponent and a smile comes to my face. He's taller and a bit more built, but it's Naruto. He's wearing baggy purple pants with some sort of purple robe hanging around his waist secured with a rope. On his chest he wears a black sleeveless shirt with no markings. I look at his eyes and notice that they're both a dull red with no pupils. I can sense power from him. I crack my knuckles in anticipation. "You're not the only one whose been looking forward to this, Naruto!"

There's a smile on his face but he says nothing, the chakra of the ninetails is thick, covering us in a putrid red fog. Suddenly he's right in front of me! I manage to dodge his first punch and throw my own fist as a counter. Before it can land though he disappears again now and attacks me from back. 'How is he so fast!' I turn and catch his fist in mine, I use my other hand to grab his wrist and swing him around smashing him into the ground. His voice dark as he talks from the ground, it sounds distorted as if two people are talking at once. "Your stronger than before." He slowly stands to his feet and brushes him self off. I'm watching him carefully ready to counter attack at a moments notice. "Good, I'm going to enjoy this all the more." It's so subtle that I almost miss it, but just as he flexes to move, the stagnant chakra in the air around him rushes towards him, and then he's gone. 'This chakra!' I try to block but I take a hard hit to the stomach. I turn to block his next attack but by the time I see him I've already been hit. 'He's using the chakra round him to boost his movement speed!' I slide to a stop and focus on my surroundings. Instead of looking for where Naruto will appear next I'm instead focusing on the chakra round me, waiting for it to shift. 'To my left!' I turn and grab Naruto's fist before it can reach me. The look on his face is priceless. While he's shocked I use my other hand to grab is shirt, I brace my self against the ground and throw him as high into the air as I can. Out of the fog.

I leap after him, fist cocked back ready to strike, He's ready too. In his hand is a violet blue sphere of energy with the power to destroy anything in its path. "This is for all the shit you gave me back in the Leaf Sakura!" He thrusts his fist towards me, my own momentum will carry me straight to him, there's nothing for me to jump off of to dodge either. Fine by me. I open my hand and focus my chakra, its only about three seconds before I'm in rasengan range. The helix center forms in my hand, Naruto thrusts his fist right at my face, two seconds. The cylinder of chakra forms around the center and I raise my hand to meet Naruto's, one second. My center of my teishgan penetrates Naruto's rasengan as the cylinder surrounds it from the outside. In less than a second my technique does what it was meant to do, the rasengan's rotation slows to where it can no longer maintain it's shape and both mine and Naruto's chakra dissipates. Against a rasengan user this technique is only really used to even the playing field, unfortunately for Naruto, he wasn't prepared for it, I was. My other fist rockets into his stomach with my full strength behind it and Naruto doubles over in pain, he spits some blood onto my back. I grab his shirt again and spin mid air, throwing him back to the ground as hard as I can. He lands on his back, cracking the roof top with the force of the impact. I'm not done yet though. I pull my right fist back and overload it with chakra as I rocket back to the ground. Naruto isn't moving but I'm not going to take any chances. My fist is leaking green energy as I come down with the strongest punch of my life. A second before I would land I strike out as hard as I can and hit Naruto square in the face. The roof crumbles and when the dust clears I can see Hinata, Jiraya, and Kakashi standing around me.

Sasuke is nowhere to be found. "Where's Sasuke?"

Kakashi wipes some blood off of his kunai, "Right before you came down he just disappeared."

Godamn it! I punch Naruto in the stomach in frustration. He doesn't even react. I can tell that he's not dead though, in fact I can already see the Kyuubi's chakra healing some of his wounds. I reach into my bag and put the extra strength chakra cuffs on his wrists, another pair around his ankle. I throw him over my shoulder as I brush myself off and look to our team leader. "What's the plan master Jiraya?"

He sighs, he walks over to me and lifts Naruto's shirt to inspect the seal. Satisfied he begins walking back to camp as the rest of us follow him, "Ideally we would have caught both of them however catching Naruto is still an accomplishment. Sasuke escaped, however we did manage to injure his arm. I doubt he could try and attempt a rescue." By now we're at the camp and Jiraya immediately begins packing up, the rest of us wordlessly follow as he continues to talk. "The real problem is Orochimaru, beside Naruto and Sasuke that facility was abandoned. I would be surprised if Orochimaru didn't see us coming. I don't know what he stands to gain with this but we're going to hurry back to the village as fast as we can; no stops we are not taking any chances. Let's get Naruto into the anbu's hands as fast as possible."

[Naruto 10 hours later]

When I become conscious I can tell that I'm in the leaf village, the putrid city air is a dead giveaway. Without opening my eyes I test my restraints a little. The feeling of extra weight in my limbs makes me think of chakra restraints. Hands and feet. They must be scared. I can hear the movement of air. Subtle and rhythmic, maybe three feet in front of me? I'm not alone.

"How long are you going to pretend to be asleep?" Guess I'm not as good of an actor as I thought. When I open my eyes there's a man tall man standing in front of me wearing a black trench coat and black bandana. I recognize him from the Chuunin exams as Morino Ibiki, head of the interrogation cell. We're in a small room, maybe five by five. I'm sitting in an uncomfortable metal chair, my hands and feet are bound to the chair, while Ibiki stands towering over me. "Uzumaki Naruto, a lot of people expected great things from you. Myself included, but I guess we were wrong."

Is this supposed to be an interrogation? I've got time to kill so I might as well indulge him. "What do you mean by that? I've still got plenty of greatness in store."

He shakes his head and takes a step closer to me. "No you don't. I suppose you're still a child so this may be hard for you to comprehend, but this is the end of the line. You don't get second chances in this world. You picked the wrong team, and now you've lost. The end."

I almost laugh, "Wrong team? I suppose you mean Orochimaru but like hell I'm on his team." Seriously why would anyone follow that freak?

Intrigued he asks, "Then what team do you play for?" I just grin. He looks annoyed and kicks me in the chest. It doesn't hurt much but the chair falls over backwards so I'm now looking at the ceiling. Ibiki enters my field of vision again. "I'm not here to play games Naruto. If you comply and give us all the information we need you may find yourself, at best, with a lifetime of solitary confinement, if not I can personally guarantee your death."

He looks serious; maybe I should move this along. "Fine then mister interrogator. Let me help you figure some things out. I'm assuming you read the mission report from my capture right?" He nods, "How did it say that I was captured?"

"Sakura Haruno defeated you in battle."

Ugh, the words make me gag a little. "Like I could ever be defeated by a useless waste of space like that! Use your head."

He puts his hand on his chin thinking. "What are you implying? That you were captured on purpose? What could that possibly achieve?"

I smile, "It got me here." He stares at me skeptically. "The hidden leaf has many secrets, the most dangerous only known to the Hokage. I'm looking for something that she has hidden."

For a second there's silence before Ibiki starts laughing, "So what's your plan? You want to what? Kill me, break out of the most secure building in the village, and then fight through the anbu and interrogate the Hokage? Ha, you're a riot kid!"

I chuckle with him, "In the entire history of ninja the only one that would even stand a chance at doing that is probably Madara Uchiha. No, come on Ibiki san, I have to have a better plan than that. The Hokage doesn't go out and get this information her self, someone gives it to her."

He pauses to wipe his eyes for a second. "Oh I get it now. You're after me?"

"Bingo."

He takes a breath and is finally able to stop laughing, his face still has some of it's mirth though. "So now what master mind? Those chakra cuffs have been specially crafted to handle large amounts of chakra, even with the ninetails there's no way you can break them."

I just smile up at him for a second. "You forget what the ninetails is. It isn't just chakra or a monster, she is a force of nature with chakra so savage and vile that only hatered can congeal her into a solid shape. You may be able to build cuffs to contain the sheer volume of chakra, but you could never account for its corrosiveness." As I'm saying this the red chakra has eroded through most of the important parts of the cuffs, Ibiki bends over to inspect the cuffs. I can tell from his eyes the moment he realizes that he's made a mistake.

In a second I've broken through the cuffs and grabbed Ibiki by his throat. I flip us over and slam him into the ground. He raises his arm to grab me but before he can, I charge a rasengan in my hand and tunnel it into his shoulder, thoroughly separating his arm from his torso. I move my hand from his throat to his mouth to muffle his scream. Wouldn't want someone to interrupt. The world is covered in a dark red film as my eyes turn red, I can feel Kyuubi's presence and when we speak it's as one. "You wanted to know what team I'm on? The ninetails and I are on our own team. Now you will tell us everything about the fourth Hokage."