Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, so don't sue.
Warnings: Shounen-ai, yaoi, ooc-ness, minor spoilers, future mpreg, and more ooc-ness.

This starts off a little after the Chuunin Exams. So there might be a few spoilers, if you never seen it that far, but I doubt it.

"Talking"
Thinking

"Are you sure about this Kakashi?" a man with a scar on the bridge of his nose asked. After giving some thought to the plan, he really wasn't so sure it will work.

A man in his mid-thirties smiled behind his mask. "Yes Iruka, I know that this will be an important decision for him and will most likely change everything, but I've been thinking… what if Sasuke knew what he was missing before-hand? What if he found out about everything he could have? If only he would have made a better choice," the older man mused.

His tentative lover gave a worried sigh but allowed him to pack his stuff in a small bag, only consisting of a few weapons and a thick scroll that he got especially from the Hokage. It wasn't easy getting that scroll. Iruka had to ask the Hokage directly and say that he needed it for research, which was a complete lie. The Hokage gave him a strange look, but complied anyway.

Kakashi set his small bag over his shoulder. "Alright then, I'll be going now. I'll perform the jutsu near the old meeting place. It's close to a forest and it'll help by giving me a quick escape."

Iruka hugged him. "Be careful alright? Don't stay there too long or the current Hokage will detect you, or worse you'll detect yourself."

Kakashi hugged the brunet back and after a quick kiss, the silver-haired man disappeared in a fluid motion.

--

Uchiha Sasuke should have seen from the very beginning that today wouldn't be like any other day, from the time he woke up to when he arrived to Team Seven's usual meeting place on the bridge. Unsurprisingly, he was the first one to arrive. Just like any other day, he leaned back against the rail of the bridge. He didn't need to wait very long. After a few minutes Sakura arrived, cheerfully greeting him.

"Good morning Sasuke-kun! How's everything? Did you have a good night's sleep?"

Sasuke only nodded at her without really looking at her direction.

She tried to engage him in a couple of amiable conversations, but they were mostly one-sided. Half an hour passed, and the stillness of the morning was stopped by Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan!!"

Sakura groaned. Sure, she was more accepting towards the blonde's hyper attitude, but that didn't mean she liked getting temporary deaf by the boy's loud attitude. All she wanted was a few moments with the silent boy next to her. Next thing she knew, her eyes were nearly blinded by the sudden orange-ness.

"Naruto! Do you have to be so loud?!"

The whiskered boy pouted. "But Sakura-chan! I'm just happy to see you. You must have been bored to death with only him being here," he pointed at the stoic brunet.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Dobe."

"Don't call me that, bastard!"

"Hn. Usuratonkachi."

"Asshole!"

Sakura laughed nervously at the glaring boys.

Ever since the Chuunin exams were interrupted by Orochimaru, the two boys have been less friendly towards each other. The disruption ruined their chances of fighting together, and everyone knew how much they wanted to impress the other. But now, they constantly had childish verbal and physical fights. It obviously had something to do with who was the best but it also had something to do with favoritism. Naruto did not like the fact that Kakashi-sensei had trained Sasuke personally, while he was stuck with the Ero-Sennin. Sasuke on the other hand, could not stand the fact that Naruto was starting to catch up to him.

By now the silence was awkward and tense. Sakura just hoped that Kakashi-sensei wouldn't take too long today, but that was only wishful thinking.

To their complete surprise, their teacher appeared with a puff of smoke right on top of the bridge's rail.

"Good morning!" the copy nin ignored his students' shocked looks.

Nobody said a word. For the first time ever, their teacher was actually early!

Sasuke had to blink twice while Naruto rubbed his blue eyes with his fists to clear his sight.

This guy must be an imposter.

What the hell? This can't be happening! The world is gonna end! Naruto inwardly freaked out.

Am I dreaming? I must be still sleeping or something. Sakura pitched herself to see if she was dreaming, but quickly released that she was wide awake.

"Ano sa Kakashi, you're early. And you kinda look different; did you get a haircut or something?" the orange-clad boy gave him a suspicious look.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, there was definitely something different about the masked man, but nothing seemed out of place. His appearance was a little off. The usual wild, messy, spiky, white hair was a little shorter and a little bit tamer than usual. His body figure was bulkier and looked heavier as well. His face, although it was still covered by his mask, looked more mature, not as goofy as it usually looks. But even after inspecting him with the Sharingan, he couldn't find any traces of him being an impostor.

Kakashi disregarded their suspiciousness with a wave of his hand.

"You guys are just saying that because you never seen me arrive early before." His visible eye closed in a happy arc. "I came early today because I want to show you a new jutsu."

Immediately, three pairs of eyes brightened at those words. It's been a while since they've been taught something new.

The masked nin took out a thick, long scroll from his weapon's pouch. "This jutsu that I'm about to teach you requires a great deal of chakra control. It is also only for emergencies. It transports you and your teammates to a… different place where is safe and away from danger."

The three overwhelmed students inwardly cheered. First Kakashi was early and now they would be learning a new technique, maybe that saying 'patience is a virtue' is plausibly true.

Naruto couldn't hold his excitement any longer. After suffering with those dull, lame D-rank missions, this time he could actually impress his pink-haired crush! He'll show her how much he has improved lately by learning this new jutsu faster than Sasuke!

Meanwhile, Sakura was giggling silently. She knew she had great chakra control, so this jutsu shouldn't really be difficult. Of course, she shouldn't count her chickens before they hatch.

Sasuke was secretly glad that they were learning more instead of doing useless D-rank missions. Those things only wasted his time. Perhaps this new technique might help him with his ambition to get strong enough to kill his older sibling.

Kakashi untied the scroll and without showing anything to the eager students, he read the instructions and showed them the seals.

The genin concentrated and mirrored their teacher. Kakashi watched them carefully to make sure nothing was amiss with their stance or chakra levels.

"Keep in mind that only one person is needed to perform the jutsu, but all of you need to learn it since you never know who's going to have their hands free. Also, you must remember to not speak about this jutsu and in return I expect you to also be trusted with it."

"Hell yeah!"

"We understand sensei."

"Hn."

The jounin smiled behind his mask. "Good, good." His face suddenly turned serious as he gazed at Naruto and Sasuke. "I hope this jutsu will help you choose a much better path." Especially you, Sasuke.

He smiled at them again. "I'll come back and check on you in a few minutes," he said before swiftly disappearing with a poof of smoke.

--

Alright let's see… first comes tiger, than the ox… or is it the… Aw man! Let's start over! Naruto gave an exasperated sigh. He could get it! He just needed time that's all.

After a total of seventeen minutes, Naruto managed to remember and perform all the hand seals in the correct order. But now he seemed to have trouble with summoning the right amounts of chakra.

Sasuke was having a hard time as well, but it wasn't like he was going to let the others know. He was usually great at learning new techniques thanks to his photographic memory. Even so, he couldn't help but feel irritated when the justu wouldn't work.

The raven-haired boy turned to look at the frustrated face of Naruto, only to glare at each other when deep blue eyes made eye contact with his own.

Sakura sweat dropped when she saw her teammates glaring at each other with looks-that-could-kill. She hopped that someday, the tension between those two would disappear.

I mean seriously! They practically have contests on who has won the most contests! Who cares if one is stronger than the other? All it matters is that they are all recognized and talented shinobi, ready to defend and fight for their village and people.

Anyways, Sakura, by far, was doing better with the new jutsu. It was all thanks to her amazing chakra control, or it could also be that her teammates would rather burn holes at each other's heads with their eyes than to practice. The hand seals were kind of hard to memorize not to mention summoning the right amounts of chakra. But so far so good; with a little bit more practice, she might be able to fully perform this jutsu in about a week!

The students' training was interrupted when Kakashi reappeared.

"Good morning! Sorry I'm late. I was helping a dolphin get back home."

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, you look different again. Did you mess up you hair or something- Ow! Sakura-chan, that hurt!" he rubbed the sore spot on his head.

The pink-haired cracked her knuckles. "You're being annoying again."

Kakashi gave them a confused stare. "You're very lively today. Anyways, I'll train with Sakura while Naruto and Sasuke spar."

"Hey wait! What? We're not going to continue practicing the-"

"Let's go dobe."

"Jackass!"

--

The jounin regarded his out of breath students. "That's it for today. Go home and rest, tomorrow we have more D-rank missions."

Naruto frowned, and then grinned. "Ne, Kakashi-sensei, as soon as I get home, I'll start practicing… wait may be not as soon as I get home. After I shower and eat some ramen I can- Ow! Sasuke-teme! What was that for?!" The poor boy rubbed the sore spot on his head for the second time. He let out a soft whine; the bastard hit him right in the same spot that he was hit the first time. If this keeps going, the bruise on his head would become fatal, regardless of his fast healing.

Sasuke glowered. "It's supposed to be a secret, you dumbass."

"Oh!" Naruto chuckled nervously.

The blonde's nervous chuckles brought out a suspicious look from the masked jounin.

"What exactly are you boys talking about?" Kakashi narrowed his single visible eye.

"Geez Kakashi-sensei, don't tell us you forgot already? You have short memory or something! You should eat more ramen; it has plenty of vitamins like ginko which improves memo- Ow! Damn it! Stop hitting me bastard!"

"You idiot, it's called ginkgo! And ramen does not contain it. It mostly has sodium and starches," Sasuke glared at the infuriating boy.

Kakashi relaxed and looked at his students with a bored expression and said his good-byes before disappearing for the second time.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, can I walk you home?"

--

In the end, the three genins resulted in walking home together since their homes were on the same path, mostly. Of course, there were plenty of discussions from the three of them. Naruto wanted to walk with Sakura, but she preferred the company of a certain raven-haired, who really didn't care as long as he was left alone in his self-thoughts; it took nearly twenty-five minutes to reach a conclusion. They all would walk together to the first house which was Sakura's, and then from there, split up.

The streets were already darkening, and shadows took over the town. Shops and markets closed from the day, one by one. People headed to their homes in a hurry to finally spend the calm night with their families and friends.

Unknowingly to the three genin, four pair of eyes watched them from the top of the trees, more specifically, at the brunet with his hands on his pockets. The only female stared at the temporary leader.

"What do we do now? The Uchiha is with those annoying brats!" the female sneered. "Do we wait until he's alone or can we ambush them and beat the other two's faces on the dirt?"

"We'll wait," the leader answered, still watching the Sharingan user.

"Why don't we just drag him with us to Sound?" she suggested, which enunciated a growl from the leader.

"He's supposed to come to us willingly!" he barked, making the kunoichi shrink back and huff. "We'll wait," he said again, this time more quietly. "If the other two are still with him by nightfall, we'll attack."

The four nin dispersed, careful to keep Sasuke in sight.

--

Sasuke sneezed. He could not shake the feeling that someone was looking at him, but whenever he would turn to look back to see if he was been spied, all he would see were trees and the confused stares of a few people passing by or his teammates.

"Is something wrong Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked after noticing her friend's tense aura.

It was then that Sasuke felt a powerful presence following them.

No… there are four of them.

He quickly caught Sakura's attention, and gave her a sign that Team Seven always used during missions to let each other know about potential attackers.

Sakura obviously got the hint. She was nervously looking at their surroundings, trying to find the stalkers while looking as inconspicuously as possible.

"And he was like, 'who are you?' and I was like 'I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm here to save the day!' and he was like 'No! Not the great Uzumaki Naruto, the Sixth Hokage!' and then I fought with the ugly dude and kicked his ass!"

Sasuke was glaring at the poor blonde to shut up. "Be quiet you idiot!"

"Bastard! Just because you don't want to hear about my dreams doesn't mean that Sakura-chan doesn't, even if they are weird, right Sakura-chan? Talking about weird, Kakashi-sensei was acting strange today and he kept giving us these looks during training. May be those D-rank missions finally screwed with his head."

Naruto was too busy babbling about how Kakashi-sensei bizarre attitude that he didn't notice his teammates' serious faces. At least not until shadows nimbly jumped from the trees above them and surrounded them.

Automatically, all three genin got into fighting positions without letting their assailants out of sight. The sun had already set; leaving the quiet village in darkness, their only source of light was the full moon that seemed to glow an enticing, ethereal blue light.

Their attention was caught above them in the trees. The larger shadow jumped down in front of them. Three more followed and encircled them.

Tch, they been watching us for a while, Sasuke thought.

Naruto growled. "Who are you and what the hell do you want?"

That dobe, he's too rash. He's going to get himself killed one of these days with that attitude of his. Sasuke mentally shook his head. He should be concentrating on nothing else except the strange shinobi. Why was he getting himself worried about the dobe anyway? He could take care of himself. He activated the Sharingan, ready to attack.

The team composed of foreign ninja stared at them silently. The shinobi standing in the middle, a tall guy with pale skin and blue-grey hair scoffed and stared at the Sharingan user. Orochimaru-sama wants this guy as his next vessel? He looks like a scrawny, puny cat who probably doesn't even know how to control the precious seal that Orochimaru-sama gave him. It doesn't matter though, orders are orders.

"It doesn't matter who we are, and what we want has nothing to do with you bitches," the female of the group with long red hair, pointed at Sakura and Naruto.

"Tayuya, watch your language!"

"Damn it! Shut the hell up you fat ass! You just gave my name away!" the girl, now known as Tayuya, glared at the biggest male of the group. He in turn, stared at the ground in embarrassment.

"That's enough!" the leader with the blue-gray hair shouted at his teammates. "Sasuke, leave this weaklings and come with us to Sound. Konoha is doing nothing but holding you back and impeding your revenge."

Sakura gasped as she realized what the guy just said. They came to take him away!

Sasuke seemed shocked that these foreign ninja knew his name, and even worse know about his goal of searching for power.

After a few seconds, Naruto finally pieced together the puzzle. He grabbed a kunai from his pouch. "You're his servants aren't you? You work for that Orochimaru guy, the one that killed the Third Hokage! What do you want with Sasuke?!"

Tayuya sneered. "Like we're going to tell our plans to Konoha trash like you!"

That did it. Naruto sprung forward quickly making the seals for the shadow clone jutsu. Sasuke jumped and threw a few kunai at the pale blue-haired boy, who moved out of the way, completely unharmed.

Sakura stood paralyzed, her teammates fighting two against four.

Are these guys here to convince Sasuke to join them? Do they have a curse seal that makes them more powerful? Her eyes widened. Should I tell Naruto about Sasuke's seal?

Sasuke had asked her to not tell Naruto, but no matter how strong Sasuke and Naruto are, they could never take four ninja with curse seals. She had to do something, anything. If she doesn't do something, she and her teammates would die.

"Naruto! Behind you!" Sasuke warned while dodging a boulder that was thrown by the large ninja that scolded the girl. Who knew such a big guy would worry about obscene language when he's strong enough to practically throw a mountain.

Alright, calm yourself down and see through their jutsu. The big guy only specializes with earth jutsu while the other guy with the six arms spits spider webs. I'll have to get past their defenses if I want to hit them with a Chidori.

"Bastard! I can take care of myself, you know?!"

The leader smirked, "Oh, really? You haven't even laid a scratch on me. Tayuya was right; you are nothing but Konoha trash."

Naruto growled, his eyes turning red for a second. "Oh yeah? Well at least we don't wear bows on our asses, and what the hell is that on your lips? Are you wearing lipstick?" he taunted.

The boy with the pale blue hair twitched and made a few hand seals.

"Sakon! Don't let them get to you, you're using the seal!" Tayuya shouted from her place as she watched the seal spread across her teammate's face. She will let Sakon deal with the blond kid. She'll take care of the ugly pink-haired girl behind her.

"What the hell are you doing standing around there? Aren't you going to help your little bitches?" she mocked. This one is gonna be easy!

Sakura glared and retrieved a few shuriken from her pouch. She was now starting to get pissed.

"Don't ever call them that again or you'll regret it!" she threatened. So may be she wasn't as skilled as Sasuke-kun or didn't have huge amounts of stamina like Naruto, but no one insults her teammates and got away with it.

"Shut up! I'm not going to let you live long enough for you to follow up with that threat!" the Sound kunoichi shouted at Sakura.

Before making another move, she went back to thinking without taking her eyes from the other kunoichi.

Why hasn't anyone come to help us yet? Surely, someone might have noticed or heard the commotion by now.

Tayuya smirked. "No one will come to your aid, we made sure of that," she said, almost reading her thoughts. She took out a beautiful silver colored flute from her pouch.

I have to do something to give us more time!

Back in the Academy, their teacher, Iruka, told them a lot about what to do incase of an ambush, but she could hardly remember anything! One thing she did remember though was that the have two choices: they can spread out, run away and hope one of them survives to call for help, or they could stay and try to defeat them. She wished Kakashi-sensei was here. Wait... speaking of Kakashi-sensei, he just recently taught them a teleportation jutsu this morning! This could actually work and save their lives!

But he said it was for emergencies only. I don't think I can even make it work!

"Naruto! Get up you dunce!" she heard Sasuke shout somewhere to her left narrowly missing another attack.

Naruto coughed some blood. "I know dammit! I'm not going to let you have all the fun." He staggered to stand up ignoring the pain rushing through his body like deadly poison.

The leader, known by Tayuya as Sakon, chuckled. "You look like a simple breeze can knock you out, but I'll do more than that… No Ukon, you don't need to join in, he'll be dead soon…"

Naruto managed to laugh despite the blood dribbling down his chin. "Who's Ukon? Is that your imaginary friend?"

Sakon hissed. "Shut up! Prepare to die, Tarenken!"

Before Naruto could react, he was punched repeatedly in the stomach and chest. The sheer force threw him straight to the wall, which crumpled with the impact in a cloud of dust.

"Naruto!"

Tayuya smirked. "It looks like he's not so tough now." She turned back to a paralyzed Sakura, "you're definitely next. Chains of Fantasia!"

The soft tune of the flute began to play and quickly shattered the peaceful tranquility of the night. Sakura could see everything in slow motion. Everything was just too surreal. She saw Sasuke running to an unconscious Naruto and picking him up, while deflecting and dodging the attack of the six-armed guy.

She felt her body numbing thanks to the melody ringing in her ears, and the rapid pounding of her heart increased. She closed her eyes in frustration.

We're going to die! And Sasuke will be forced to join Orochimaru and do who knows what to him!

There's no way she would let that happen. This was an emergency! She forced herself to come back from the swirling state that the tune of the song placed her in. And just before her entire body went numb, she made the seals that Kakashi-sensei made them learn just a few hours prior.

The last thing she saw before succumbing to the jutsu was Sasuke struggling to avoid the attacks while maneuvering Naruto's weight on his arms and Tayuya's surprised gaze at the blinding white light that surrounded all seven of them.

There! Sakura is not as useless as she seems. Sometimes people make her a bitch, but she can be quite useful every once in a while, like she can be a yaoi matchmaker!

Sorry if the chapter sounded rushed, there will be more SasuNaru hints next chapter; actually there will be a lot. Please be patient, read the warnings, and review!