I've reposted this chapter to change information, such as the pairings, so sorry for any confusion.

Author's Notes: Sasuke and Naruto are both missing-nin and Sakura is a tracking ninja with no strong memories of either Naruto or Sasuke. The pairings are NejiSaku and SasuSaku, but I won't tell you how it ends… Honestly, it could go either way.
Some of the canon characters have slightly different back grounds, such as there was no attack on Hinata by ninja from Kumogakure, so Hizashi Hyuuga is still alive. And Neji does not have the cage bird seal, due to amendments years ago. You'll discover more as the chapters go by.

Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, and the rest of the rookie 9 are 17 years old. And Neji, Tenten, and Lee are all 18 years.

WARNING: Dark Sasuke and twisted Naruto. Turn away now if you don't like it. Otherwise, read, love, and review! :)

Chapter One. Tracking The Enemy.

The masked ninja jumped down from their hiding place. The enemy was nowhere to be seen. They stopped for a moment, to regain their bearings and were off again. They were near Otogakure, the infamous and now abandoned sound village (if a collection of compounds could really be called a village), looking for hints to the whereabouts of Orochimaru and had caught a whiff of another scent they recognised. It had been a long time since they'd smelt this one. No, there were two of them. Two scents they knew as rogue ninja who had abandoned their village in search of power… and other things.

These three leaf trained ninja were a part of the special elite tracking unit and it was their job to hunt down rogue ninja. And they were very good at it. They had a perfect kill or capture record, therefore their success rate was higher than any other tracking squads or solo hunter currently active in Konoha. And with that said, they were also amongst the youngest of the trackers still operating. The days of a good, clean, and efficient hunt were fast becoming infrequent in this changing world.

Rumours of a war on their doorstep had reached the Hokage, and resources were being diverted to bolster Konohagakure's defences. But the hunt went on, and tracking missing-nin might have started to become an unused skill, but some rogue ninja were worth going to the edge of the map to stop.

The three tracker ninja stopped again. There was a genjutsu in work nearby, but who was it for? They couldn't detect anything else out of the ordinary and silently communicated with each other through hand signals before darting away again. The genjutsu was avoided, and they passed it off as a trap designed to fool low level Shinobi and normal people.

They picked up the scent again and continued to follow it, wary all the while for further traps, but none came. It started to feel like this path was never ending, but they kept with it, as there were no other avenues to explore. Finally, the scent died off and they knew this chase was at its end. They had missed them again! But the missing-nin they had caught a whiff of a few hours ago had gotten away.

"Damn!" The one called Takaru growled. "Not again!"

"Calm down," the red head said. He was referred to as Okanu. "We can pick up the trail again."

The third masked ninja was a woman. She scanned the area with her eyes for a moment, and then made up her mind. "I'll send my ninja hounds out. If there's even a remote trace of them, they'll find it."

Takaru nodded. "Do it."

She made the hand sign and several hounds appeared. She had a scrap of material from the ninja they had sensed and let the dogs sniff it, before ordering them to search for it. "They will not fail."

This jutsu was not known by many people in Konoha, and few were even aware of it, let alone could do it; she had learnt it from Kakashi Hatake. He had been her teacher for years after all.

They waited patiently and the sound of a ninja hound's howl told them the direction in which to go now. The last ninja to leave this small clearing was the Kunoichi. She disappeared using Shunshin in a flurry of pink, just like the colour of her hair.

X X X

Sasuke Uchiha held the red haired woman by the throat. He enjoyed watching her eyes bulge out of her sockets and hear her whimpering as she begged him to spare her. But the truth was that he had tired of this girl. He could fuck her every way that was possible, dump her unconscious for a while, leave and then come back and take her again, but the appeal of her body was losing its charm.

Killing her was starting to look far more pleasurable.

"Sasuke-kun," she managed to whisper. "P-please let me g-go. I'll d-do anything…"

"You really should make up your mind what you're going to do with her, teme."

The voice belonged to Sasuke's best friend. He stood in the doorway to the cell this Karin girl had been forced to live in for the last few weeks, expressionless. He was normally a bundle of emotions, when not on the battlefield. His darkness came out when fighting ninja and he had no sympathy for any of them.

'Just like me,' Sasuke thought.

It was the reason they got along so well. Even when they argued, they were still friends.

"Hn." Sasuke squeezed harder until she lost consciousness and then dropped her on the floor. "Tell Orochimaru he has another body to experiment on."

"Nuh huh, you tell him teme. That snake freaks me out."

Sasuke stared at Naruto Uzumaki. The blonde was sneering at him, not remotely happy. They were both seventeen, Naruto having had his birthday only a week ago. It had also been the anniversary of him leaving the leaf village behind him, barely four years ago. Sasuke had left a year and a half later. He had heard that Orochimaru wanted him to be his host, for some kind of weird jutsu.

Sasuke shivered. Creepy.

But Naruto wouldn't allow it, so they steered clear of the snake as much as possible. Still, the Sannin was occasionally useful, in the fact that he had a lot of spies out there that helped the best friends in their desire for revenge. The villagers of Konohagakure had to pay, for what they had done to both of them.

"If you don't have the balls to kill her," Naruto said, coming into the cell now, "I'll do it for you."

The blood lust was normally Sasuke's area of expertise, but when it came to killing ninja, the blonde got very excited at the prospect of tearing them apart. It had to be the demon inside of him. Sasuke had never understood why his friend didn't just head to Konoha and let the demon out on those wretched people.

"Because, teme," Naruto had said when he'd asked, much like a child would, "I want to be me."

That made no sense to the raven haired boy.

Naruto stepped further into the room and Sasuke moved toward the door. The blonde haired boy's eyes turned red and his features became more like the fox within. Sasuke's Sharingan made his eyes look red as well, but at least his was natural. Sasuke did not turn away as Naruto throttled Karin awake just so she could watch the blood lust on his face as he dug his chakra claws into her body. The power of the Kyuubi sliced through her feeble, shuddering body.

Sasuke's favourite part was always the screaming. Naruto did not feed like an animal would, but he certainly looked the part, hovering over her as she writhed in agony. The blood splatter was focused on the cell wall, but Naruto did not go unscathed by the mess made by the death of this woman. If Sasuke had never kidnapped her for his sexual pleasure, she would have ended up this way anyway. Naruto never let a prey escape him after all.

The blonde boy dropped the body once the last cry had escaped her lips and looked up at Sasuke. "That was too easy."

"Well, she was weakened from captivity," Sasuke reminded him and his friend smiled appreciatively.

Orochimaru slithered in, making Sasuke move away from the door in disgust. "I see you didn't think to spare her body for my research."

Naruto grunted, looking murderous. "Shut the fuck up, you can use the parts, freak."

The snake smiled, his voice laced with sarcasm. "Yes, that would be delightful. Thank you for the suggestion."

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to tell you that my spy has informed me that the forbidden scroll you were searching for is going to be leaving the leaf soon," Orochimaru said lazily, his tongue flicking out of his mouth as he spoke. "So if I were you, I'd head out now and intercept whatever squad they intend on sending to take it to its destination, before it's too late."

Naruto flipped the finger at him as he left the cell and Sasuke spoke softly to the Sannin as he too left, without pausing. "You will never be me, Orochimaru."

X X X

The trail was dead. Sakura Haruno knew that when these ninja hounds couldn't find something, there was nothing to find. It appeared their quarry was toying with them. Had they really been spotted? She looked around as Takaru and Okanu finally caught up with her. Even for a tracker ninja, she was incredibly quick on her feet.

"What's the verdict?" Takaru asked her. He believed he already knew the answer though.

"Their scent is gone," she said, confirming his suspicions. "It just dead ends."

"It would seem we've been played for fools," Okanu added listlessly.

"Not necessarily," she said. "If that were true, we have just walked into a trap."

"And there's no-one here," Takaru understood now. He had the Byakugan, and employed it now. It hadn't picked up anything during this entire wild goose chase, but there was no reason not to try again. "Nothing," he said, not surprised.

"Well," Okanu said annoyed, but too tired to complain too much. "There goes our record. Let's report back to the Hokage."

"Giving up already?" Sakura asked cheekily and he shrugged his shoulders.

"You said it yourself that this was a waste of time."

"When did I say that?"

"Before we even came on this hunt."

"I don't remember." She checked the position of the sun. "We should be heading back anyway. The Hokage-sama said if we couldn't find anything within a week to head back."

"But we did find something," Takaru countered. "We found the scent and we know now that Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha had been by this area less than two days ago."

"Well, they're long gone now," Sakura waved this information away, not particularly caring who the missing-nin were, just that they were long gone.

They must have picked up the residual chakra from a pretty powerful jutsu for the scent of it to still be lingering in the air. Regardless of the end of this mission, she could at least say with pride that they had tracked something that no other squad would have even noticed.

So they started back toward Konoha, knowing full well that upon their return, they would probably just be sent back out again. Lady Tsunade was a slave driver, and had been increasing the productivity of their missions, due to these fucking war rumours. It was ridiculous. In less than a day, they had returned to the main gates and Kotetsu, the dark haired guard that had a crush on the pink haired Kunoichi grinned at her arrival.

She waved at him, rolling her eyes behind her mask and followed her squad to the mission room to relay their progress to the Hokage. She was understandably concerned by their failure, but had something more important on her mind.

"Takura and Okanu, you will redeploy with the Anbu squad currently being briefed in room three. Go, now."

They were surprised, but bowed respectfully and left. Sakura stood still, waiting for her shishou to give her a new mission. The older woman just sighed and sat back in her chair.

"So you picked up an old trail left behind by Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha?"

Sakura nodded her head. "Yes milady."

"Any chance they were still in the area?"

"No milady. Even the Byakugan couldn't detect anything once the scent dead ended."

Tsunade sighed, leaning forward on her hands. "That is unfortunate, but it can't be helped right now. I have a new mission for you. You won't be needing your tracker mask for this one."

"What's the mission, Lady Hokage?" Sakura asked, removing her mask as instructed.

The legendary Sannin smiled slightly. "You are to gather two squads together and take a forbidden scroll out of the land of fire and give it to an old friend, for safe keeping."

X X X

Naruto was excited. He had been itching to leave the hideout and go for a kill for hours now. He really needed this. Every time they took on ninja, he saw it as a chance to take his revenge. Even the most insignificant kill was one step closer to invading and destroying those who had ridiculed and tormented him during his formative years. His only concern was revenge. Well, he supposed he also wanted teme to come out of it unscathed as well.

'And fuck,' he thought ravenously, 'and once this wild goose chase is over, maybe I'll find myself a tavern and some big tit woman with a sweet smile.'

He was weird that way, he would admit. Unlike Sasuke, Naruto had long tired of taking to bed with woman who screamed "rape" every few seconds. It was incredibly distracting. He preferred them willing and open. This was why Sasuke didn't want Karin anymore – he no longer needed to force himself on her. Naruto supposed his friend's preference for this type of sex was a result of some twisted event in his childhood he had yet to share with him.

Naruto had told the fucking chicken ass everything the villagers had done to him, so it was only natural to expect the same trust in return, right? He made a distinctly unimpressed sound when Sasuke pointed out that they had to pick up the pace. The scroll was probably still in the village, so why hurry?

They travelled for half a day before Sasuke brought them to a halt. He had activated his Sharingan and knew that there were ninja nearby. It wasn't the same thing as using the Byakugan, but it still did the trick. Naruto had proven himself adept at tracking, channelling chakra into his nostrils or simply homing into the fox's natural abilities, but he was currently doing neither, seemingly not thinking they were going to encounter these ninja before sighting the village.

Well, he was wrong.

"Why do you look so fucking happy?" Naruto asked, suspicious.

"They're coming this way," Sasuke said, grinning from ear to ear, causing his friend to also smile. "I can't see them properly from this distance, but there's an enormous amount of chakra between them."

His genjutsu protected them as the group passed them by. There were nine of them, only one Kunoichi to eight Shinobi. Despite his indifference toward the opposite sex, even during sex, Sasuke did occasionally found himself bothered by the fact that male ninja outnumbered the female populous. Perhaps because there was then less for him to take as a result. He refused to fuck a civilian anyway. He hadn't even told Naruto why.

"Eight Shinobi one girl ninja," Naruto said, as the friends sped off again, following these leaf ninja.

"They're called Kunoichi," Sasuke said, both irritated and bored by his friend's thick skull.

"Whatever, teme," Naruto rolled his eyes. He was itching to get to the nearest town and let off some steam. "Let's just grab their scroll and kill the lot of them, alright? I need a fuck so bad."

X X X

A/N: This story is stronger in my head than it was when I first posted it and I now know almost EVERYTHING that's going to happen. It's NejiSaku with SasuSaku and will have lemons as well as aggressive lemons.
Please love and review. It really does inspire me to write faster. ^_^