Annnd here we have the next chapter, but it's extra long as an apology for the delay. ...so it's really like two chapters.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor any of its characters. Said characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

It was almost… odd- the three of them, really. Sakura couldn't help lingering on the fact that she was in the oddest combination of three people possible.

As Tsunade instructed, Sakura and Naruto had left the village early in the morning, complete with the awkward atmosphere. The pair had walked rather forcefully out of the village, in an uncomfortable fashion- Sakura had grumbled and scowled with her arms crossed as Naruto placed his hands behind his head.

And refused to look in her direction. That had hurt.

Sakura was tired of these shenanigans. She was sick of being at odds and ends with her teammate and practically brother. She had pretended to be pissed at him while exiting the gates to the Leaf Village, however, she didn't think the blonde was faking as well. Seriously, just how long was this going to keep up?

And so, they marched on in uncomfortable silence until they were well out of Konoha's perimeter. Upon reaching a safe distance, Sakura had dropped the charade of acting mad at her teammate. She had sighed softly and returned to her casual self; Naruto had continued not speaking to her, though she did notice his eyes were downcast.

She had attributed it to him thinking. Maybe he was simply taking his time and still getting all his thoughts together? Whatever the case, the pinkette decided to remain quiet. She hoped everything would work out in the end…

Thus, they had soon reached their agreed rendezvous point with the elder Uchiha. After nodding to them, he simply said the words, "follow me," and led the way to the eventual battle ground. The silence continued. After all, the elder male was a quiet person by default and Naruto was refraining from speaking up until this point. So Sakura decided to just keep her mouth shut, too.

The trio was now standing on some sort of ruins- there were stone structures littering the landscape, along with multiple sets of stone steps and temples. Sakura grimaced. Stone was going to hurt if she landed on it... Shaking her head to keep from focusing on the hard battleground around her, the pinkette steered her attention to the dark-haired male who was walking towards a short wall.

The Uchiha… well, he was just that. An Uchiha. She gave a slight smile as she looked at him, standing without a cloak of black and red clouds dancing on it. Instead, he had tied his new hitae-ite around his forehead- the one recently issued without a strike-through on the leaf symbol. He wore his black trousers and black shirt. The shirt, Sakura didn't fail to notice, had the familiar Red and White fan proudly imprinted on the back.

The medic was fixated on the fact that the elder brother would wear such a shirt. Didn't he hate his clan or at least some of it? They had wanted to revolt against the village that he proudly served… yet here he was, wearing the very symbol which he struck a kunai through in his old compound.

Or maybe, the pinkette mused, he figured it was time to start anew. The Hokage had reinstated him in the village and with a new headband. He was wearing that across his brow, so maybe he decided it was time for second chances? Perhaps he wanted to believe in his clan and show faith. Fate worked things out like that sometimes- he was a prime example.

Whatever the case, the Sharingan-user had his reasons.

When she initially saw the shirt, Sakura had immediately glanced toward her blonde teammate, curious to see his reaction. In their days of Team 7, Sasuke had worn his Red and White fan religiously across his back. How would Naruto take Itachi to wearing it? The medic had expected some sort of snide remark or grimace to grace his mouth. Instead, she saw his eyes were still lowered, though his mouth was now pressed into a hard line.

She knew that face. That was the face the fox-container used when he was truly thinking about something. Something that was tearing him apart emotionally. These were thoughts that were making his heart cry.

Realizing Naruto was finally coming to their side, Sakura suppressed any motion that would give away her peeking at him. He needed quiet and to be alone with his musings. She would give him that courtesy.

So, here they were, standing in a stone courtyard, while the sun shone down on them. For such a beautiful day outside, it was sad to think that such horrible events were about to transpire.

And thus, the three of them waited.

Itachi had sat himself down on the short stone wall and closed his eyes. Sakura suspected he was meditating. Naruto had seated himself down on some stair steps connecting to the courtyard, facing away from her. Sakura herself had planted her body down in the middle of the courtyard, legs outstretched.

It was during this waiting time that she had mused why the three of them were so… what was the word? Awkward? No. Odd? Maybe. Downright confusing? That seemed a bit closer…

On the wall, was an ex-Akatsuki member. A man who had killed his own clan, joined an illegal organization for hunting tailed-beasts and killing the individuals who housed them. To top it off, the one beast he specifically was assigned to collect was sitting less than twenty yards away from him and in one piece and good health. The Uchiha had also mentally destroyed his younger brother, who was on the same genin team as said tailed-beast container and her…

And then there was Naruto. The blonde fighter who had the kyuubi sealed inside of him by his own father, the fourth Hokage. The whiskered man was in otherwise perfect health, tailed-beast still harbored inside of him and held massive amounts of chakra control. He was sought after by an elite organization that killed (essentially) his friend Gaara. And don't forget to mention that the man who was solely responsible for his own capture and the terror inflicted on his former best friend was sitting mere feet from him, completely uninterested.

And then there was her. No kekkai genkai. No legendary beast sealed inside of her for a ridiculous power-up… But she admitted she was strong where the others failed. Sakura smirked at her ability to use her chakra perfectly, both medically and in combat. Though, it should be mentioned that she did kill a fellow operant of said illegal organization that the Uchiha was working with.

An ex-villian, a jinchuuriki, and a pink-haired medic. They were an odd and unlikely combination considering their backgrounds.

Sakura belatedly reminisced back to the days of Team 7… Hatake Kakashi led the way, Uzumaki Naruto constantly at ends with Uchiha Sasuke while she, Haruno Sakura, shook her head at them. The four of them would never be together again. And soon, they would meet their ex-teammate… It was going to be a hard fight for them all.

The pinkette mused on the fact that there was some semblance to Team 7 here today… Kakashi wasn't here, but herself, Naruto and an Uchiha were present. Not that Itachi was a replacement for Sasuke, but seeing the familiar fan on his back certainly brought up feelings and memories from the past.

Just what were they going to do when they saw Orochimaru stroll down the stone walkway under the face and body of Sasuke? Sakura thanked the gods that she wouldn't have to fight that fight.

No, there was a silent agreement- one that didn't need to even be brought up. Orochimaru would no doubt come with Kabuto in tow. Kabuto was her battle opponent; the two men with her had no chance fighting medical techniques and she had no business fighting a Sharingan and Giant Snake.

The sun had started dipping down through the trees, turning the sky deep shades of red and orange. Night was coming and no rogue ninja were in sight. Naruto said he would take first shift of watch. Saying thanks for his volunteering, the kunoichi glanced over to the older man in the group. He was still meditating on the wall. With a last look at Naruto, who remained facing away from her, she grabbed a blanket from her pack and pulled it over her.

All they could do at this point was wait.

There were no chakra signatures that appeared in the night. It was the next morning and the three of them were sitting in their respective places from yesterday. Only this time, Sakura had her medical kit splayed out in front her, checking and double checking the contents. She knew Kabuto was an accomplished medical ninja, but to be honest, she wasn't completely sure what level he was at. It had been so long since Konoha had heard news of him, therefore his status was a question mark. Just how strong had the glasses-wearing nin gotten over the years?

Satisfied with the supplies in front of her, Sakura began stuffing everything back into her pack. The question she had just asked herself… well, she'd be finding out the answer fairly shortly. Once the space before her was clear of medical supplies, the pinkette glanced around the courtyard; the dark-haired male was still sitting quietly upon the wall and the normally hyper-active blonde was oddly quiet on the steps. It was almost as if neither of them had moved in hours. In fact, she wasn't even sure that they had lain down to sleep.

Sighing, Sakura turned her head upward to the skies. It was a warm day and sunny, with no clouds filling the blue heavens. The three of them had been in these ruins for almost twenty four hours, with hardly any speaking. The only sounds that had taken place were the rocks settling or the rustling of food items.

The quiet was unnerving. The anticipation was leveling up the medic's anxiety level. She was able to keep herself clam, but she wasn't the most patient person. Hell, at this moment, even Naruto was appearing more in control than she was- which was ridiculous.

The truth was that she was tired of waiting. It had been years since the last reunion of Team 7… It was inevitable that Naruto, Sasuke and her would meet again. But damn it, the waiting game needed to end. She knew that this day would come and now that it was practically here, Sakura was hoping it would happen sooner than later.

Let's just get this over with.

The kunoichi mentally berated herself for literally asking for trouble.

Tired of sitting on the harsh stone floor, the pinkette lifted herself up to a standing position. Moving slightly at angles to stretch out, she let out a few grunts as her back flexed. A few more movements and twists, she had successfully worked out all the kinks in her body from sitting and leaning for so long. Sakura then decided to bend down and readjust her boots, which she had loosened in order to sit more comfortably. Fingers snapped the various buckles on the sides of the black material and lips curled into a small smirk at the satisfying sounds the latches made.

She stopped smiling.

Sakura swore she had never wrenched her head upward as fast as she had in that instant. Two chakra signatures that were eerily similar were moving closer to their position. Glancing around, she saw Naruto had stood up and was looking in the same direction she had sensed. Usually she would question how he noticed; her sensing abilities were far above his own, but his nose was much more sensitive she had come to learn.

The medic didn't even bother to turn around and look at Itachi. He was probably the first of the group to realize two foes were closing in on them.

Quickly picking up her pack of supplies and wrapping it around her hips like usual, Sakura faced the direction of incoming power. The two signatures were slowly moving- it appeared they were walking at a leisurely pace. Sakura was surprised at herself for not getting agitated. The pair was deliberately moseying along at a snail's pace. If the duo was purposely trying to make a statement, it seemed like: "We'll get there at our convenience, not yours."

Yet, the pinkette was still calm. Usually, she would bar her teeth at someone intentionally trying to piss her off. This time, she didn't care. And judging by their pace and distance, it would be another several minutes before they arrived.

And those minutes crawled by. But finally, two figures appeared in the clearing several tens of yards away. The two were quite some distance away, but the black hair was unmistakable, as was the shimmer of glass on the other's face.

Sasuke and Kabuto had finally surfaced after years of hiding.

It had finally hit her how difficult this was going to be. Sakura was trying hard to keep her face hardened when suddenly a warm hand placed itself on her right shoulder. She quickly turned her head to see who the owner of the hand was and it was not who she was expecting.

It was Naruto. He wasn't looking directly at her, but rather towards the two figures approaching them. His hand gave a tight squeeze on her shoulder and that meant the world to her. True, he wasn't looking at her face but the small gesture he had just performed… it was more than she could have asked for. Naruto was finally acknowledging her and the situation they were in. Sakura gently lifted her left hand and placed it on top of his. She gave it a tight squeeze of her own.

Closing her eyes, the medic released a small sigh and collected her thoughts. Her fox brother's hand on her shoulder gave her the confidence that she needed to win this fight- She was going to kick Kabuto's ass so hard, that her boot print was going to be permanently imprinted on him. Emerald flashed open boldly with determination.

It was at this point that the two rogue nin were just a few yards short of the courtyard. Sakura felt Itachi move to her left and Naruto take his hand off her shoulder. The pinkette crossed her arms as the figures made their first steps upon the harsh stone flooring of area.

Sakura could feel the difference in Naruto's behavior. Normally, he would have started screaming and yelling obscenities at the opposition, but instead he was calm and focused. The fact that he wasn't rip-roaring and ready to strike put her even more at ease at the task ahead.

Finally, the two stopped about ten feet in front of them and harsh reality came crashing down.

Kabuto was standing directly in front of her. His stupid-ass smug grin was practically laughing at her. It seemed he knew who his battle opponent was going to be, as well. He pressed his index and middle finger against his glasses to slide them up the bridge of his nose, while the glass glinted sharply in the sunlight. He hadn't changed his wardrobe either since their last meeting, but then again, neither had she. He stood in his usual deep purple and grey outfit while she stood in her standard red vest and medic skirt.

And then her attention turned to the figure next to him. It was Sasuke… but it wasn't Sasuke.

The white robe and mauve obi remained tied around his waist as before. The sun was picking up the raven highlights in his hair that his brother didn't have. His skin was paler than before, almost a corpse-like white. Though, she noticed that he had certainly grown a bit taller. However, the blonde next to her had matured to about six feet in height while the man before her was just an inch or two shy of that. However, it was his eyes that had changed dramatically.

Sakura remembered Sasuke having irises of a deep coal color. Itachi's were an even richer grey, bordering on almost black. But now, the younger Uchiha had eyes which had been replaced with a sickening golden yellow. These were Orochimaru's eyes.

Uchiha Itachi had been spot on concerning his younger brother's fate.

There was a silence for several moments, while Orochimaru and Kabuto grinned wickedly at them. She got the overwhelming urge to punt them across the rock floor, but she kept herself calm. A voice in the back of her head told her that they were purposely trying to rile them up. She wouldn't lose to the challenge.

When Itachi had initially told her what he suspected his brother had turned into, it took a bit a time for it to set in. However, the thought of what would actually happen when she saw him again was disconcerting. Would she break down in tears? Give a silent cry? Laugh? Sigh? Dredge up old feelings of their childhood or maybe even bring up her long-lost feelings of love?

Truth be told, she felt nothing.

This wasn't Sasuke. She felt bad for his fate, really, she did… but honestly, he was gone. Orochimaru was standing before her, not the cocky, brooding genius from her genin team. Seriously, she was wondering why she wasn't feeling any emotion at all. Not even pity? But she supposed the considerable telling in advance from Itachi had warned her enough to keep her emotions in check. And from what she could tell, Naruto was doing just the same.

It appeared that the lack of emotion on their faces caused Orochimaru and Kabuto to change tactics. Realizing that they were not going to achieve the satisfaction of displaying Sasuke's circumstances they had wanted, Kabuto finally spoke the first words since their arrival.

"Three on two isn't fair," he drawled out as he pushed his glasses up again.

Sakura twitched her mouth. Why did he keep pushing them up? What kind of dumbass gets glasses that keep sliding down their nose? And what kind of dumbass ninja gets glasses in the first place? Glass near your eyes? That's a stupid idea.

"Tch." She spat.

Rounding his bespectacled eyes upon her, he smirked. "Ah, Sakura-chan. My, have you physically grown. But, I wonder how your abilities have fared over the years?"

"And I wonder how far down your throat I can force my foot."

Following her statement, Kabuto disappeared. She knew he was leading her away from the others for their own fight, so she glanced quickly at the two males beside her. Both of them were still staring intently at smirking mouth Sasuke always wore.

With a quick nod toward them, she disappeared as well, and dashed towards Kabuto's chakra signature.

Naruto felt Sakura leave the area. He knew she was going after Kabuto and hoped that she would make it out of that fight alive. The blonde had been informed on several occasions how dirty medic-nin fights could get by the pink-haired kunoichi. He didn't question it at all; medical ninja knew where to hit and make those hits count. They aimed for perfection with no wasted movements and precision of contact points.

Naruto didn't do precision.

His style was more flamboyant, though it had certainly tamed quite a bit since his earlier years. He was able to think more intelligently and not make stupid mistakes.

…as much.

However, the jinchuuriki was still an idiot, but hell, that was how he rolled. Somehow, shit just always worked out.

Regardless, he was more intent on focusing on the man before him. It was unnerving and gut-wrenching to see your best friend's body before you, yet it wasn't. Naruto didn't dare look into his eyes anymore. He had seen that they had become a nasty, golden color, but immediately settled his stare on his chest. Naruto didn't have a Sharingan and he wasn't going to take that chance. And it seemed the male beside was wondering about that, as well.

"Naruto," his calm voice sounded. "Are you capable to fight against the Sharingan?" The blonde grunted in approval.

The sentence had caused old memories to surface- those from Chiyo baa-chan. She had given her own opinion on fighting Sharingan-users and the opponent from then was the very man standing next to him now! She had said that in a one-on-one fight, run away. Two-on-one was worth a shot. Naruto kept a smile hidden. True, he was against a Sharingan, but his partner held the same advantange. And said partner had the Mangekyou, whereas Orochimaru didn't. Things were looking up.

However, Naruto didn't know what sort of tricks were up Orochimaru's sleeve… which wasn't good. But the blonde had faith in his ability to think on his feet. And something inside his gut was telling him to move. He quickly moved back several tens of feet, stationing himself behind the older Uchiha. Naruto glanced at the older male's hands and instantly recognized what was happening.

Things got hot real fast. Orochimaru had learned the Uchiha's Fireball technique, it had seemed. The Snake-Sannin had motioned the required hand signs to summon forth a mass of fire and blew it from his mouth. Itachi had also made the necessary hand seals and blew an equally large force of flame across the stone courtyard.

Itachi's flames were being pushed back. Blue eyes widened in horror. It appeared that Orochimaru had more chakra than Itachi, or at least was willing to use more on this attack. Naruto however, had the feeling that it was more so the former thought. But a whiskered face turned into a smirk.

Naruto had more chakra than either of them, courtesy of a demon fox hiding behind his navel.

The blonde raised his right hand so as to point it directly at Itachi's flames. With a yell, he created a shuriken of wind, spiraling quickly about his palm. The shuriken had collected and was blowing wind about furiously, but it was facing the Uchiha's flames. The gusts were being pushed into the fire, causing the flames to become a raging conflagration. With a cocky grin, Naruto noted how much fires thrived on air and thus, the duo's fire and wind combination overtook Orochimaru's fireball quickly.

"Well, that was neat," came a whiskered chuckle. "I didn't actually think that would work." The shuriken quickly dissipated. Naruto brought his hand down and steadied himself for the next attack.

"Aa," Itachi smooth tenor bellowed. "It certainly was a pleasant surprise. But focus; he's planning something."

Naruto wasn't sure when it had happened, but he had accepted Uchiha Itachi as a good guy. It had been a bitter pill to swallow, yes, but he had to admit- he had been wrong about the guy. Which, of course, wasn't his fault. The damn Uchiha was an actor of the utmost highest skill, so no shit was it hard to believe. Especially when you thought he wanted you dead.

But when he saw Sasuke's body begin walking toward the clearing yet he sensed Orochimaru's chakra signature emanating from it… that was the nail on the head. Itachi had been telling the truth. So maybe that had been the turning point?

Anyway, that had officially put Uchiha Itachi on his list of allies. He trusted the guy.

A strange sound was coming from the snake man… Naruto saw that he was hunched over slightly, almost like he was trying to vomit…

Oh, shit.

"Itachi, he's about to summon that sword thing out of his mouth…" the blonde gulped.

"The Sword of Kusanagi," Itachi murmured. "Be careful. He can manipulate its length at will and is deadly sharp."

Orochimaru had cocked his head back and opened his mouth wide, allowing for a sword to emerge, hilt first, which he grabbed with his right hand. He quickly pulled the sword from his throat and held it in front of him.

Great, just great. Now I have to play around with a stupid sword that can cut anything? The blonde grumbled inside his head.

Orochimaru hadn't wasted a moment to attack. He immediately swung the weapon in a wide, sweeping motion, changing its length to reach the two men. Naruto had barely dodged the attack, while Itachi had leapt gracefully away.

The sword kept swinging about madly. It was an excellent long range weapon and also perfect for close combat. It moved around rapidly, trying to catch the two Konoha nin off guard. His ability to move such a huge hunk of metal with such dexterity was more than impressive. Naruto would have admired it, but he was constantly in a rain of slashing metal.

And to make matters worse, it turned out that the snake could also manipulate the width, too.

Ahhh, goddamnit.

Naruto had barely avoided a sword strike when the bastard had decided to make his weapon several feet wider. Itachi had been right; the edges were extremely sharp. And now the fox jinchuuriki was sporting a nice slash mark across his left arm and part of his shoulder. It hurt like a bitch.

He had half wondered why Itachi hadn't hit the snake man yet… After all, while Orochimaru was attacking him, Itachi should have had an opening to make a move. Except, the speed at which the sword was moving was much too quick and the Sannin was alternating blows between the two of them. It made getting close more than difficult. And it didn't help that they were several tens of meters away from him.

Naruto shook his head and tried to steal a glance at the Uchiha. He hoped one of them was going to come up with a plan… soon.

He was smiling at her. And not in one of those "I'm so happy to see you!" smiles. It was one of those predatory, "I'm going to enjoy this" smiles that perverts and sickos usually have plastered on their faces. She didn't appreciate his leering at her, especially.

Instead, she reached into her skirt's back pocket and pulled out her black combat gloves. Sakura slowly pulled them over the fingers of one hand and then the other. Clenching her fists, she relished how the material felt on her hands. She was going to pummel his face with these fists, damn it.

However, his eyes widened in anticipation as she focused back on his face. He was seriously enjoying how this was going? Sakura noted that Kabuto had probably escaped into the realm of crazy, but then again, he was always like this... Though, his attention had never been solely on her. In fact, she had never fought Kabuto, to tell the truth. She didn't know what sort of tricks he had developed in the past few years, either.

So she snorted at him.

He had led her out of the stone courtyard and into a large clearing with only a few remnants of stone walls spattered here and there. For the most part, the ground was dirt and grass. She swung her left foot in front of her and crouched down slightly, bringing her hands up at chest level. The pinkette glared heavily at him while she clenched her fists.

He only smiled leisurely at her and casually moved one of his own feet forward.

"Ladies first, Sakura-chan," Kabuto slid out with a grin that held too much teeth. Sakura mentally noted she'd have to knock out a few of them today.

He thought he was such hot shit, didn't he? Yeah, clearly he did, since he was cocking an eyebrow up at her. Mhmm, the glasses-wearing freak probably thought he was so much better than her and he was using his height to look down upon her. She'd have to teach him a thing or two, it seemed.

Without a second thought, Sakura punched the ground with a super-charged fist of chakra, propelling the energy toward him. The ground ruptured apart and rubble cascaded down. Kabuto simply jumped backward out of harm's way. She didn't care; it wasn't too hard to dodge, really. It was really a test to see how well he reacted.

The silver-haired man gently landed upon the ground untouched by her chakra. He grinned wickedly at her again with a simple phrase to accompany it: "My turn."

Kabuto sped forward, slicing his hands outward, his fingertips turning blue. Sakura immediately recognized the chakra scalpels Tsunade had warned her about. He churned towards her, making large sweeping motions with his arms as he tried to slice her. The female medic however, had somersaulted backward and kept flipping, as he narrowly missed her. Sakura made sure to watch her timing; getting hit by one of those scalpels would hurt.

Kabuto feverishly made slicing motions at the pinkette as she twisted in midair. Just how long was she going to keep flipping? But Sakura timed herself correctly once her hands touched the ground. Instead of pushing off the ground to continue the back flip, she swung her legs widely to the side in an effort to knock him off balance. Unfortunately, the grey-haired villain jumped back to avoid chakra-laden legs to the gut.

The pinkette took the opportunity to right herself upward and immediately leapt toward her opponent. She swung at his face, which he dodged barely while jumping back. However, he was still swinging madly with his blue-tinted fingers, trying to catch her flesh.

Sakura felt herself growing frustrated. She should have known better; a medic's first training relies on their ability to dodge attacks. Kabuto clearly exceled in this field of study, as did she. This fight was proving obnoxious.

But, as her opponent made a jabbing motion at her head, the kunoichi immediately switched from the defensive to offensive. He thrust his right hand forward, while she jerked to the left of the incoming hand. Sakura brought her right hand up and immediately clenched down upon his wrist, bracing it down on her right shoulder- all this, while her left hand gathered chakra. Sakura instantly used her left hand to punch his elbow, which caused it to bend in the wrong direction. She smirked as she heard the satisfying crack of bones and tendons snapping. Following her hit, she got out of harm's way of his left hand's scalpel.

She grinned defiantly at him, while he clutched his now useless arm. Not wasting his moment off guard, she sped to him again, in hopes of another attack. However, his maniacal laughter echoed through the clearing, causing her to stop her pursuit.

He looked up at her and returned a grin. Sakura stood confused for a moment until she looked down at his right elbow.

It had healed. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

It would take a lot longer than a few seconds to repair a disintegrated elbow… even for a skilled medic. Yet, he was bending it like nothing had happened! There wasn't even any evidence of her attack!

The female fought hard to keep her face impassive.

"You almost had me there, Sakura-chan," he smoothed out. Almost. Almost. She swore she made contact. She heard his bones crack and move. What had happened?

She thought hard for a moment. Oh. Right. Tsunade had warned her of that, too. Kabuto sensed where his enemies would attack him and immediately sent his chakra there to start the recovery process before there was any damage. This kept pain and recovery time to a minimum, hence why he was standing before her with such a goddamned cocky grin stuck on his face.

Emerald hardened. So, he was going to heal every single wound he received from her? That was about as chicken-shit as you could get.

Kabuto could immediately recover from whatever injury she caused. Sakura thought hard… how was she going to beat him?

Naruto and Itachi had been dodging aimlessly from that damn sword for quite some time. Naruto had gained a few rips in his clothes, but he still had nothing life threatening. He had no idea what injuries his partner was sporting; he didn't have time to look over before the sword was moving again.

The blonde quickly felt a change in the air; something was happening. Orochimaru took the opportunity to stall his movements and the young blonde quickly looked over at the Uchiha. He recognized the surge in chakra as the one when Sasuke powered up- to the Sharingan.

Wait a moment.

Cerulean eyes blinked. Had Itachi been fighting… this whole time… with regular eyes? Whaaat? He had just assumed the male had red irises the whole battle thus far. Then Naruto realized he hadn't confirmed that up until now. Officially looking over, it was true. Uchiha Itachi just now had switched from onyx to the standard level Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan.

No wonder they were getting their asses beaten.

But why?

"Oi!" he yelled at the man some twenty yards away. "Why are you just now using those? We've been doing nothing but going on the defense!"

Itachi only gave a small smile. "I hope Sakura will not be too upset when she discovers her hard work needs to be repeated." His red eyes now focused on the Sannin in front of them. Naruto took a few moments to process the statement. Sakura's hard work? What hard work? What did she do? But it clicked. She was a medic. His eyes were busted and needed fixing. So, he was purposely not using his Sharingan because he didn't want her efforts to be wasted?

Whoa. That was deep.

But whatever, it wasn't his business. Naruto stabled his stance and looked at the pale man before him. He fought down a grin; Itachi had his Sharingan out. This would be a cake walk. They were going to take Orochimaru down and-

A pale hand raised the Sword of Kusanagi to the Heavens. A crackling noise was echoing off the stone floor and Naruto cringed.

Orochimaru could use Sasuke's Lightning Techniques.

There were no expletives that could dignify this situation. None.

Golden Lightning enveloped the sword erratically, snapping wildly about the length.

Orochimaru charged forward the two men. The blonde noticed that the Lightning form didn't allow for Orochimaru to manipulate the length and width. That was somewhat hopeful…

Until the damn sword nicked his left arm. And bitter realization came to his mind when Naruto remembered that the Lightning-clad sword numbs where it hits. Quickly retreating farther back, the blonde clutched his limp arm, while Orochimaru focused his attention on the Uchiha.

Well, now what was he going to do? Shouldn't Itachi be pulling some ultra mindfuck on Orochimaru by now? He stared at the two men moving so gracefully it was sickening. Itachi effortlessly dodged the sword's slashes while the snake man frantically thrust it about.

Naruto didn't know much about the Sharingan or how it worked. In fact, he wasn't even sure what happened when two Sharingans faced off against each other. Did they simply void out each other's attacks? Or did the stronger user triumph? He supposed Itachi knew what he was doing… It wasn't like he was a novice or something, but it was still irritating how it seemed like he was taking his time with this whole situation.

Lightning continued to crackle as it danced about the sword and the air changed again. Something told Naruto what had caused it… Orochimaru had quickly jumped back several paces when suddenly the sword erupted in dark, black flames. The Snake immediately dropped his sword as it became engulfed with the flames of Amaterasu and began darting about madly. It seemed he knew that everything the stoic Uchiha looked at was in danger of becoming ashes.

Unforuntately, Itachi wasn't able to ignite said Snake Sannin. Instead, the landscape took a turn for the worse; stones became blackened and grass charred. It wasn't long before the flames dissipated and Naruto took that for his cue.

While Itachi took a moment to recuperate, the young blonde charged forward, Rasengan rotating madly in his right hand. He took aim at Orochimaru, who barely dodged the attack as Naruto thrust his hand toward him. The young Konoha nin immediately took on the offensive, taking advantage of Orochimaru's now defenseless state. There was no sword or Lightning at the moment and he was going to use that while he could.

He managed to land several melee hits to his corpse-like face and robed torso, earning a small grunt in response. Orochimaru however, held yet another trump card.

He didn't need a sword to go on the offensive. His right arm turned scaly and the snake made a bee-line to Naruto's torso. Thankfully, the blonde retreated backwards unscathed and looked over at his partner.

He looked fine; Naruto didn't see any injuries on his person, but he had the sneaking suspicion that the Amaterasu and Mangekyou caused a different kind of damage. Kakashi had been proof of that. Besides, Itachi seemed like the type to go down in a fight due to exhaustion and not by injury. Though, from the looks of it, he still had a long way to go before he reached the point of falling over.

But then he jumped backward and Naruto belatedly noted that they had been doing a lot of that in this fight… But for Uchiha Itachi to do so, something bad must be about to go down. Naruto quickly moved over to him, while Orochimaru remained still. Just what was he planning?

The Sannin raised his arms and hundreds of snakes erupted from his sleeves. And as if that wasn't scary enough, each snake had its jaws opened wide; a Chidori was situated nicely between each of their jaws. Hundreds of Chidori, aimed at the two of them. Oh shit, just one was bad enough, but now this? There was no way to dodge this onslaught. There were just too many.

One word ran through Naruto's mind: Fuck.

She had racked her brains and finally come up with a plan. The two of them had continued trading blows back and forth, but most were misses. Sakura had landed another hard hit on his knee with her foot, which should have dislocated his knee cap, but he had quickly recovered from that, too. The bastard moved just as swiftly as before.

That was when it hit her. It took lots of chakra to heal those wounds… and he even used more than necessary because he started the healing process before it was even needed. She was going to make sure she hit him enough to use up more and more of his chakra…

This of course, was dangerous. Little cuts and scrapes weren't going to do. She needed to land serious blows and damage upon his person in order for him to heal himself. While he wasted chakra to recover, she was going to use her own to land the hits.

Sakura quickly ducked low and swung her foot out and in attempt to sweep his feet out from under him. Kabuto quickly jumped up, but so did she, sending her fist toward him as gravity forced him back down. Her fist made contact with his stomach as she pushed her energy out of her hand. He grunted slightly as his diaphragm dislodged from its usual housing. Sakura knew he was healing himself once more, but only just. This injury wasn't serious to begin with.

However, Kabuto had immediately crouched down and swiped at her while she attempted to jump back. His scalpels caught across her thighs and blood heavily started pouring down.

Well, shit.

Sakura grimaced as she realized he nicked the arteries in her legs. She couldn't help it; green chakra flowed through her hands, as she pressed them to her legs. He stood some distance away from her, watching her heal the wound he caused.

She couldn't do anything about it. If she didn't stop the blood flow, she'd bleed out. But that was all Sakura did- stop the bleeding. She didn't need to perfectly hide the slash mark or angry, red discoloration around the wound. The kunoichi needed to retain as much chakra as possible for this fight. Besides, she didn't give a shit if the cut showed or not.

Sakura leapt through the air, careening in the direction of her foe. Her booted right foot made contact with the ground instead of his person, so she immediately pivoted while twisting her other foot towards his hip.

She was aiming for major joints- Places on the body that when damaged, severely impeded one's ability to fight. Unfortunately, he reacted to her movement and instead of a hip, she made contact with his shin.

Damn.

The shin bone was just that- one bone. It was fairly easy to fix, whereas the hip region was incredibly complex and took much more chakra. However, a broken bone still required a decent amount of chakra to heal so Sakura took what she could.

A hip would have been better though.

"Sakura-chan," Kabuto purred out. "You have gotten a great deal stronger, I can see that. But surely you know the difference in our abilities… It appears your mentor has supplied you with only short-term battle strategies, yes? 'Hit what you can and when you do, hit it hard.' However, it seems your brute strength isn't working on me." He slid his glasses up the bridge of his nose once again. Sakura couldn't figure out why that motion irked her so much.

But what she didn't appreciate was how he insulted her and her Shishou. She'd strangle him with his intestines if he kept agitating her like this.

She had a plan, she did. Unfortunately, it wasn't going as smoothly as she wanted. But then, she would prove him wrong. Sakura was regarded as clever and intelligent. He was sorely misguided if he thought she couldn't' work out a battle strategy. However, creating a strategy and implementing it were two different things. But the main idea of her plan was all she had at the moment.

This was going to be a trial of medical techniques- a battle of who had more chakra and who could use it more efficiently.

The sky was twittering hysterically from the Chidori raining down upon them. This was not good. They couldn't outrun it. Naruto honestly had no clue what to do.

The blue lights were coming closer and closer and Naruto braced himself for the explosions and pain that was inevitably on its way.

The earth rattled and dust filled the air. Stone slabs were thrown about hundreds of feet away from their original housing grounds. But there was no pain…

Naruto looked around confused. The air around him had turned yellow, which struck him as odd. There was a radius of several yards where the ground remained intact, yet there was a clear and definite line where craters started. Was there some sort of shield that had been invoked?

Glancing quickly at the only person who could have possible done something like that, he saw Itachi hunched over, panting wildly. Looking up, Naruto saw that there was some large figure enveloping the two of them. It was yellow and almost human in appearance. He looked questioningly at the Uchiha.

"What… is this?" he asked.

"It is Susanoo," the male answered. "It is the Mangekyou's final attack and defense. It creates both a warrior and shield simultaneously. We are both safely inside it. Unfortunately, it relies on my abilities to determine its strength of attack and defense. The barrage of chidori was incredibly strong. Summoning Susanoo to protect us from that last attack has practically wiped out my chakra reserves."

Naruto stilled at the last comment. He couldn't believe it. Itachi was already down for the count after only a handful of attacks? He took another look up at the seventy-foot figure that had saved them from becoming lightning rods. Shit, it was probably like summoning Gamabunta.

Naruto kept forgetting how special he was to have the Nine-Tail's chakra; for someone to summon up that big of a force and give it enough power to defend against hundreds of Chidori, no wonder the guy was almost exhausted.

Naruto silently hoped that the pair of dark-haired men had some sort of genjutsu battle that he couldn't see. He knew from Kakashi that a lot of damage could happen in just a second or two. That would also explain the sudden fatigue. Regardless, the Uchiha was out of commission; he crouched down to the ground. Onyx eyes told him to keep fighting before they closed out of consciousness.

The blonde didn't move for a bit as the yellow haze disappeared. But he quickly remembered Orochimaru was still standing and that was nothing short of unacceptable. It was time to pull out all the stops…

Naruto raised his arm up and the air pulsated, revolving slowly about his palm. The shuriken formed once more and he hurled it at the man inhibiting Sasuke's body while his left arm dangled at his side. The shuriken hit the dirt, creating a cloud about the dark-haired male.

When the air cleared, Naruto saw that the shuriken had indeed inflicted some damage on the Sannin, that is, it made contact with his left leg. Orochimaru's left calf was slashed open and blood was weeping down from the wound. It was certainly an improvement from the battle before. Hopefully, the bastard wouldn't be moving as agile as before.

Whatever was happening, it was time to get this show on the road. Using his own energy, Naruto's eyes turned golden as well, while the pupils stiffened horizontally. The jinchuuriki of the demon fox had now entered Sage Mode.

He sped in the direction of the Sannin, preparing to attack, when several snakes erupted from the sleeves of Snake man's robe. The snakes sliced through the air, attempting to catch the blonde, who dodged the attacks easily. Naruto realized that the Chidori barrage and fight with Itachi must have severely weakened the Sannin. Perhaps the Uchiha had engaged in a Sharingan battle…

He'd never know until later.

Back at the task at hand, the blonde continued to evade those damn snakes constantly swarming around him. They weren't posing any threat, but they certainly weren't allowing him to get close. But maybe he'd get to use the same trick twice…

Naruto reached into his back pouch and pulled out an explosive tag. He threw the tag down before him, while summoning wind to swirl around his right hand. His left one was still useless from the hit from the Lightning wrapped sword, but he wasn't going to give up. When the explosion rang out, the rotating wind was leached upon by the fire, leading to a small conflagration.

A yell rang out as the whiskered blonde saw the snakes charred beyond well-done. Taking the opportunity, he ran forward. He jumped into the air, pushing his right hand in front. Orochimaru was almost right in front of him.

Gold looked hard at gold.

Whiskered cheeks adjusted to bare teeth. Snake-like teeth glistened and grinned wildly. Naruto saw the mood change on his face and tried to move, but he was falling downward and there was no way to alter his landing position…

Too late to think any different, Naruto focused intently. He was surprised Orochimaru wasn't moving, which was unnerving; he was up to something. As his right hand neared Orochimaru's chest, he started summoning chakra. The air started to twist once more, as the Rasenshuriken formed in his hand.

The shuriken came to life mere inches from Orochimaru's chest. Naruto reveled in the fact that it continued forward and made contact with the white fabric of the Snake's robe. The material twisted in the rotation of the wind and warped away from his body. The shining azure weapon made contact with human flesh and Naruto watched as the chest cavity of his once best friend ripped wide open. The shuriken blasted through Sasuke's body and Orochimaru's eyes contorted in pain.

A triumphant smile broke out across a whiskered face until a stabbing pain rang throughout his right shoulder. Orochimaru made a final stand and Naruto saw why the bastard had been smiling in his last moments. His jaws were open wide, with a snake protruding from the mouth. A smaller sword had erupted from the snake's throat. The sword had pierced Naruto's shoulder clean through… but had not hit anything life-threatening.

Not that it mattered, because the battle was now over. The torso of Sasuke's body had been completely obliterated. The dangerous combination of wind and chakra had caused the body to tear apart and left nothing behind. The blonde knew Orochimaru could piece himself back together if he was split in half… but half of him had disappeared. There was nothing to piece back together. Just legs, a head and neck.

Naruto leaned backward to disengage himself from the sword. He winced as the weapon slowly released itself from his shoulder and grunted at the unpleasant feeling. Blue eyes stared hard at what was left of Sasuke. It was nothing short of gut-wrenching. It hurt to see this. It felt like his heart had gotten wedged in his throat… but it simply needed to be done. To be honest, he couldn't look anymore at the mangled remains of the once Konoha shinobi. The once member of Team Seven. The first person who was really his friend…

Naruto managed to locate the Uchiha and began to hobble his way over to him. He wasn't too far away, which was fantastic because he was tired, miserable and neither of his arms were working properly.

He finally collapsed onto the ground nearby Itachi and sighed. He looked off in the distance and hoped to the heavens that the only other member of his Genin team would make it back ok.

She hoped he was tired, she really did. They had been trading blows for quite some time now, with both of them taking hits. This was the problem when two medic nins duked it out- they both know where to hit to make the most damage. Kabuto was aiming for her to bleed out, it seemed. In addition to his swipe across her thighs from before, Sakura was now sporting fresh new marks on her skin.

The glasses-wearing twat had achieved clean hits on her arms and her midriff. The slash across her core had earned a deep rip in her red vest, from her navel to the hem line; the crimson material was flapping madly with her quick movements. It was to her disadvantage that he was scoring damage on her- the precious chakra she should be using to pummel his stupid ass into the ground was instead being utilized to heal herself from the deep wounds. Goddamnit.

There was not much doubt in her mind that Kabuto had more chakra stored than she did. Sakura was banking on the fact that she was using her reserves more sparingly and conservatively. However, if the male kept landing deep slashes on her, this wasn't going to turn out good.

In fact, she was nearing the end of her rope. The pinkette was thankful that she had gotten some good hits on her opponent- another broken shin and shoulder. However, what she was most pleased with was the incredibly lethal hit to his sternum, which should have killed him, but the bastard still remained breathing and standing.

A normal person would have immediately collapsed when the sternum was broken and the heart would have been decimated, hence death. But no. Kabuto kept pulling off his premeditated healing techniques.

It was good and bad, really. Bad that he was still functioning relatively perfectly, but good in the fact that the healing process required massive amounts of chakra to pull it off. Sakura took the latter thought and ran with it.

Regardless, she was running out of chakra. Kabuto was still coming at her full force, so the female kept up appearances to dodge his attacks. He was feverishly attacking her with those damn scalpels. Not too long ago, he started throwing the damn things at her, which was how she got her vest torn. His smug grin at the contact only fueled her anger further. So she retaliated with her own kunai. Except, he wasn't having any trouble dodging them so she scrapped that idea.

As Sakura ducked down to avoid another sweep of flying scalpels, she was seriously hoping his energy was nearing its end like hers. They'd been going at it for quite some time now, so perhaps he-

"Sakura-chan," he smiled at her from a few meters away. "I can feel your chakra dwindling. Coming up short, aren't you?"

Well, fuck.

The pinkette had been hoping he wouldn't notice and that she had concealed her lack of energy from him. Apparently, he found out. She had been trying to see if he was in the same boat, but the jerk was concealing it fairly well.

Gnashing her teeth, Sakura kicked herself mentally as she noted just one more thing he was better at than her.

She didn't dignify his statement with a comment of her own… verbally.

Her bigger problem, she realized as she twisted her body to avoid more slashing motions from his arms, was that she calculated there was just enough chakra for one more hit on his person.

One.

That was it.

Deciding to make her final stand, Sakura immediately switched from defensive to offensive mode. Kabuto charged forward, bending his left arm backward, with his fingertips blue. Smirking inwardly, she had already discerned the movement that told he was going to make another stabbing attack. This was how she landed her first hit upon him…

The male quickly jabbed his left arm forward and Sakura used her footwork to position herself out of harm's way. In the same instant, she pulsed green chakra through her own left hand as his came forward. She was aiming for his shoulder- another critical joint.

Her powerful left hand was moving towards his left shoulder… Emerald eyes watched critically for the hit…

A foot away.

Half a foot.

This was going to hurt him a lot...

Inches…

A hair's width… she was going to make contact! She would probably destroy his collarbone, as an added bonus.

She felt her gloved hand touch the fabric coating his shoulder.

And that was it.

She blinked in confusion at the lack of fleshy undertones of her punch when suddenly she doubled over as he jabbed her from behind.

It took a moment to register what had happened and then the bitter facts came raining down. He had dodged her attack and came at her from the back. A well-placed scalpel had connected with her mid-back and ruptured one of her kidneys.

Panic started setting in.

There was no choice, really. The energy she was going to use for her last hit was now being converted into healing energy to keep herself stable. Her kidney had imploded and she needed to fix it now.

And he was still smirking at her as he pushed up his stupid round glasses. Sakura belatedly appreciated Itachi's smirks more so than this jackass's… And she was still annoyed at the way he kept fixing his dumb glasses.

But the bottom line was that she had now completely run out of chakra. Sakura officially gave herself the title of "Underdog" in this fight. There wasn't much hope left, not when she had no chakra left. If he gave her another injury like that- breaking an internal organ- she was done for. She wouldn't be able to heal herself.

It was then he took advantage of the situation. He knew she was depleted of fighting power. All she had left was literally brute strength, not the enhancement technique the Hokage bestowed upon her. The man had knocked her down onto the ground and landed with her beneath him.

Emerald looked around wildly at what he was doing. He had pinned her efficiently down to the earth floor and she could feel small stones breaking into her back. He had his lower body positioned between her legs and was holding her upper arms down flat. He watched amusedly as his prey flailed about madly, trying to escape.

"Things aren't going to end well here, Kunoichi," he drawled out sadistically. "I'm sure you realize the situation you're in right now…"

Well, of course she did! She knew how obviously an intimate position they were in and she didn't care for it at all. He kept talking about how superior he was and she didn't really listen. Sakura's mind was racing trying to figure out what to do.

He was still blathering on and on when she finally noticed the flaw. He was indeed holding her down, but it was solely with his weight and strength. Her inner persona let out a wicked laugh as she realized the last kidney hit had depleted his chakra, as well. His poker face was just a hell of a lot better.

The battle had changed from efficiency to brute strength and intelligence.

While he had been yammering away at her, she had feigned struggling, which as only added to his chagrin. He was still pleased with his control over her, so she took advantage and made her move. It was time to end this fight.

Several things happened simultaneously.

She mustered enough strength to reach her right hand across her body to grab ahold of his right wrist which was holding down her left arm. Her left hand twisted up to seize his right forearm. Together, both her hands pulled violently to swing his right forearm across her chest and lay it flat over her own right shoulder.

She took advantage of the fact that he had left her legs completely free. She kneed his side and used that as a distraction to sneak her right leg through and between his arms. Her leg wrapped around the back his neck, and her foot nestled behind the knee of her left leg.

This had caused his head to become trapped in a triangle choke. Sakura used her left hand to pull down on her right foot to strengthen the hold… Kabuto began fighting madly trying to escape, but he was fairly easy for her to keep him in that position. Sakura kept pressing down as hard as she could to keep him from breathing.

And finally, he stopped flailing. But she kept hold, just for good measure.

When she finally deemed it impossible for him to be alive, she let go. The body of Kabuto fell dead upon her chest. His weight suddenly landing on her caused her to cough slightly and she quickly pushed him off her.

Of all things, this was how he died? Not by some medical technique. Not by her inflicting damage upon his body. He also didn't die because she used her enhanced strength. No. She strangled him with her two legs and his own arm.

Whatever.

He was dead and she was satisfied. Besides, there wasn't much choice in the matter; they had both been wiped out of chakra and she had no doubt in her mind that he was stronger than her physically. It was just how testosterone worked. The only way for someone of her frame to take down a larger male was to move quickly and strategically and that choke hold was just the thing needed. It didn't matter how small she was compared to him. The hold was near impossible to break out of if you didn't know how.

And just to make her feel even more elated about his defeat, she stood up, and stomped those ridiculous glasses of his into his face.

What a sight to behold.

Sakura had managed to hobble back to the site of where the three men had been fighting. It appeared as if the battles had ended roughly around the same time, since the ruckus has ceased. Emerald quickly looked around trying to find her teammates. Stones were blackened and thrown about all over the landscape. She had thought there was grass on the ground when she had left them, but there wasn't any evidence of that now. Only a mess of dirt was left behind. Sakura frantically scanned the area for the winners of the battle.

Her eyes had landed upon the mass of dark hair lying face down in the stone. Her heart beat erratically for a moment, before she registered the body as Orochimaru's; Itachi didn't wear white.

He, however, was lying unconscious several yards away, with a fox jinchuuriki laying down on his back nearby. Naruto was breathing heavily and the pinkette quickly made her way over to them.

The blonde offered a smile to her that she hadn't seen in what seemed like ages.

"Glad you kicked his ass, Sakura-chan!" he grinned.

She gave a wide smile back, as well, "It wasn't easy, let me tell you." Her tone suddenly became serious as she continued. "Unfortunately, I've completely ran out of chakra. Please tell me neither of you are critically injured?"

Blonde hair shook violently side to side as she fell unceremoniously to the ground. "Nah, he's just tired, just like me and you. My arms have seen better days, though."

Sakura let out a sigh of relief. Glancing toward the body of her old teammate, she realized that it was finally over. Orochimaru was actually dead. Kabuto was dead by her hands. Sasuke had been brought to peace at last. And the same went for his brother.

It was all over.

Thank the heavens, because the three of them were nothing short of exhausted. Glancing toward her teammate, the medic softened her face.

"Hey, Naruto. Let's go home."

He impishly smiled and opened his mouth to response enthusiastically.

"Yes, let's go home. The village has been curious as to where you've both been."

Sakura and Naruto frowned. That wasn't the blonde's voice.

Both of them turned towards the direction of where the voice materialized from and their hearts fell through their stomachs. Sakura would rather face both Kabuto and Sasori again than admit how frightened she was at this moment.

They were looking into the cold, white masks of Anbu Root.

Oh, snap. Cliffhanger.

Anyway, I'll admit this is my first go at a "battle scene" and let me tell you- it was bloody hard. However, for a math major, I don't think it's too bad... Also, you know how in Chapter ten, I said our Christmas tree is still up? Yup, it still is. I find is hilarious how the tree has been up as long as this story has been in progress (oh my gosh, has it really been two years?). I guess we just gave up.

Anyway, let me know what you think!

-Kiwi