Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or it's characters. It is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Weekly Shōnen Jump. No money is being made off this piece. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

Title: Holding On

Author: Shanny

Rating: M

Warnings: Bad language, violence, blood, adult situations, angst, and character death.

Summary: As the Konoha shinobi race to save their future Hokage, Sakura is forced to confront her growing feelings for Naruto. When the Leaf clashes with the Sound, it's a battle for Naruto's survival.

Set 2 years after the war with Madara. Eventual NaruSaku.

Author's note: I should be working on my A-Team story, I know, but this begged to be typed up first! What can you do when the muse hits?

This is my first Naruto story, so be gentle! Suggestions or comments for improvement in the fandom or writing in general are always welcome. This will probably be a shorter story, well short for me anyway as most of my stories are very long. This story takes place after a 2 year time skip from the current manga. So spoilers from the manga up to chapter 541 may be possible, though I think you could probably read it if you aren't caught up anyway, nothing major. The war with Madara is over and I've taken creative liberty here for story purposes for how things have turned out afterward.

Oh yeah, I chose to keep some things like, honorifics, jutsu names, and such in Japanese because I think they translate poorly to English or in the case of terms like chakra, we're probably all more familiar with those names anyway. You'll probably also notice the change in thinking of Kakashi as 'senpai' instead of 'sensei.' This is because of the change in their relationship that we'll get to later.

Part 1: Descent

The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

- William James

Night had just fallen on the Land of Fire and as the moon had yet to rise, that left the forest floor covered in darkness. The chill of the early spring air was crisp, moist, and cold with the setting of the sun. The black clad figure didn't have the time to worry about any of that though as he jumped from tree to tree. His yellow, horizontally slit eyes pierced the gloom well enough, and even the darkest of nights would do nothing to block out the feeling of the many, many chakra signatures he felt behind him and desperately trying to close in on him from the sides.

"Damn Sound-nin never get a clue," the lone shinobi mumbled.

Keep going, just keep going, he thought to himself. He was already within the Land of Fire's border and just passed the Valley of the End. He wasn't even going to think about those memories right now. Not that he expected the shinobi frantically trying to pin him in would stop when they reached the border, but it was a relief to still be home. They were making a last frantic move to try to cut him off before he could get too close to Konoha.

The shinobi winced as he landed particularly hard on a tree branch and stopped a moment to catch his breath. He felt like ripping the mask off to get fresh air at the moment, but knew that wasn't allowed in the middle of a mission like this. The black bandana he used to completely cover his too bright and recognizable blonde hair was drenched in sweat. The ANBU armor dug relentlessly into his side where a lucky bastard had gotten close enough to get a good strike in with a kunai. He'd been lucky enough to be in Sage mode at the time so the kunai itself did little damage, but it dented and tore the armor, which mercilessly dug into him in return. The Sound-nin would never have gotten that close normally, but overwhelming numbers could do that. He was covered in slashes, scrapes, and bruises as it was and this frantic race through the trees wasn't helping for the pain, or blood loss, for that matter. There wasn't much else to do about it though, but grit his teeth and bear it. There wasn't enough time to treat any wounds right now and besides, the Kyuubi and the increased healing rate of the Sage mode were already working on his wounds anyway.

Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto clutched the katana in his right hand tighter and unconsciously felt the strap holding the scroll case on his back, with his left. The blade was made from a special metal so that it could be infused with his wind chakra. While blades made to infuse with chakra weren't that rare, this one in particular had to be made more durable than most to withstand use during Sage enhanced strength. The Kanji for Hi no Ishi, the Will of Fire, was inscribed onto the blade. To him it stood for everything he was. A protector of the village and an inheritor of the dream of peace passed down from previous generations, most especially his late Master and father, and everything he'd inherited from them. Mainly, his name and the guts to never give up and after his fight with Nagato, pain.

It really is a beautiful sword, he thought with a sentimental glance at the blade. A gift to the Hero of Konoha, as people started calling him two years ago after Pain's attack on the village. He'd earned quite a few titles since then, good and bad, but that was always his favorite. It was the first time the village as a whole looked at him with respect and that feeling could never be replaced.

Had it really been two years ago? After the war with Madara and Sasuke and the struggle for all the shinobi nations to rebuild themselves after that devastation, it seemed like yesterday. Now, when he wasn't hidden in an ANBU uniform like this, shinobi from nations not aligned with Konoha had standing orders to flee at the sight of him on the battlefield. Like father, like son, he thought with some cynicism. Hell, two years ago he probably would have been happy and excited to think of himself in ANBU, especially with the rest of Team Kakashi beside him, but now… well now it wasn't so exhilarating anymore, even with the others by his side a lot of the time.

With a small grunt Naruto took to the trees again. The Sound-nin from the west were getting very close. Even with his speed he was going to have to engage them. Naruto knew he was slowing down. His immense stamina was waning. He had over used his Sage mode and Nine-tails shroud big time to get to Otogakure, fight his way out of that base, and get this far towards Konoha. The jinchūriki had paused a few moments ago to re-enter Sage mode for the burst of speed and far-reaching sensor perception, but he was barely holding onto the natural energy now. It was fading, and he knew it.

Get there and back with the scroll in three days and prevent a war.

Yeah sure, no problem. Sounds simple. Riiiiight.

Except that it took more than three days for most shinobi to even get there and back. Then there was the fact that the Sound-nin knew someone was going to come to reclaim the damn thing they stole. It was an obvious ploy of Kabuto's to shake up the fragile alliance Konoha shared with Amegakure and start the two countries fighting again. He had to believe no one could get to Oto and back again in that amount of time, and if they did, well the Sound-nin would get to kill some Leaf-nin walking right into an obvious ambush. It was a suicide mission and a win-win situation either way for the bastard.

So for the sake of the village and the fragile peace they lived in, Naruto had given his word, his word; to Tsunade he would have that scroll back to her before the emissary from Amegakure arrived in Konoha… in three days. 'Cause well, he wasn't most shinobi was he? And he was pretty sure he could make the trip there and back in time and lets face it, it took someone of Kage level to enter an enemy base loaded with shinobi on high alert, take what he wanted, and forcibly leave.

He'd done just that too.

Too bad for them it was Konoha's jinchūriki that came knocking on their door. The Demon of Konoha, some of the smaller countries called him, a name he wasn't so fond of. He'd made it there in a day and a half, kicked the crap out of a lot of Sound-nin, gotten what he wanted, injuries aside, and was now on his way back to Konoha. The act of using that much power to simply overpower anyone, enemy or not, and take what he wanted wasn't exactly an act that he was proud of, or something he wanted be remembered for, but it was literally push comes to shove here. And since it was Konoha's fuck-up, they needed that sacred scroll back or a lot of Konoha and Ame-nin could die.

Naruto had a feeling he now knew what Itachi had felt like somewhat. He just did something he was against, with every fiber of his being, to keep the peace and his precious people safe. When did I become that type of weapon? He had to wonder.

Now he just had to make it back before the morning with a crap load of hostile shinobi on his tail. Well really, he just had to make it close enough to Konoha and the pursuers would retreat rather venture too close to a large enemy village on high alert, waiting for its jinchūriki to return, expecting he might be being chased.

Which was Naruto's current problem. His body was exhausted from overuse of Sage mode the last two and a half days and using the Nine-tails chakra back at the base, he was suffering from blood loss and chakra exhaustion, even after downing two of Sakura's nasty tasting chakra pills along the way, and there just wasn't enough time to stop.

Gods I'm so tired, the jinchūriki thought with a sigh as he pushed off a tree.

Images of ramen, a nice shower, and curling up in bed invaded his thoughts. Or better yet a waiting Sakura with ramen in bed. Now we're talking! Okay, maybe being the student of the two biggest pervs to ever become shinobi had rubbed off on him. Like she'd ever go for that anyway. They were just teammates.

Focus! Get there first!

The Sound-nin were almost to him now and they definitely had some hostile intentions going on there. Could be something to do with destroying their hideout, he guessed. Naruto thought through his options, he could fight through them like he had been doing, but if his fading Sage mode wore off in the middle of the fight, his exhausted body might just collapse on him. He could try to out run them, but he again ran into the same problem. He could always draw up the Kyuubi's chakra, but the price the fox demanded, even after these last years and the fact that they were on somewhat speaking terms now, was still too high and he was quickly running out of chakra to begin with. It just might kill him this time. One of these days, I'm really going to have to work out a better chakra exchange with that furball, whether he likes it on not!

He hated to admit it, but the safest bet was to send the scroll away to make sure that it got to Tsunade. That way it wouldn't matter what happened to him out here. Not in the big picture anyway.

Oh, he would still fight to his last breath to get back to Konoha… to Tsunade, Kakashi-senpai, Sakura, Iruka-sensei, and everyone, it just wasn't in his nature to give up after all, but he knew the main priority here. Gods damned Kabuto! He cursed. If it came right down to it, as ANBU, he was expected to destroy himself rather than be caught or killed by enemy shinobi, where he could be studied for information. But Naruto was Naruto, and he would fight to the bitter end to survive in battle, and Tsunade had known that before she instated him.

Naruto landed heavily on the forest floor and drove his sword into the ground. His blood was mixed with that of other shinobi on his armor and there was no way to get a clean smear of his own , so he bit his thumb instead.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

A small magenta toad, about the size of Pakkun, appeared when the smoke cleared and looked up to Naruto.

"I need you to take this scroll to Tsunade-baa-chan, and her only, got that! No one else! And you need to get to her now! It has to be there before morning! Got it?"

"Yes boss!" the toad confirmed and opened its mouth.

He couldn't remember when most of the toads had started to call him boss, but he didn't mind it. Naruto took the scroll out of the case and placed it on the toad's tongue. The scroll disappeared as the toad swallowed it. The jinchuriki then secured the empty case on his back once again.

"Go! And hurry!" the jinchuriki ordered.

The toad gave a small nod and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto was confident the toad would reach Tsunade before the morning, now all he had to do was survive long enough to get close to Konoha. The hostile shinobi were coming up on him now. Naruto pushed down the creeping chill that exhaustion and blood loss caused, even while sweating, and looked around with determination.

"Come on you bastards!" the jinchūriki called out taking his sword in hand.

Naruto felt and vaguely saw several shapes appear out of the darkness above him.

"Found you!" someone called.

Naruto crouched, tenses his muscles, and focused his chakra into the katana. The sword glowed with a faint blue light. With a mighty push he shot up in the air and brought the katana up at the nearest opponent. The chakra infused blade cut right through the unlucky shinobi's middle effectively slicing him in half. The jinchūriki really hated to resort to moves that resulted in instant death, but when it came down to survival, he was determined to get back home. He had people waiting. He also couldn't become Hokage if he were dead. If ANBU had taught him anything this last year, it was that sometimes… sometimes you did whatever had to be done to complete a mission and survive.

The jinchuriki gathered chakra to his feet and landed on the side of a tree during the confusion his sudden attack had caused. The dozen or so shinobi scattered away from him, but Naruto was able to feel the chakra of each attacker. Two had jumped out of the way and landed together on a tree branch. The jinchuriki spiked the amount of chakra infusing the blade and with a deft movement swung the sword in their direction. Blue wind infused chakra held the shape of the blade as it peeled off and went spinning toward the Sound-nin. Naruto heard the two shinobi cry out as the missile chakra blade sliced cleanly through the two nin and the tree they were perched on.

Naruto looked to the left as a burst of sound, that would deafen and slice him to ribbons, was about to hit and swung himself behind the tree with every bit of speed he had left. The sound waves hit the tree splintering most of it and Naruto instinctively brought his arm up to shield his head against the debris. Even with the tree as a shield and the mask protecting his face from splinters, the sound waves penetrated his ears indirectly, leaving him feeling dizzy. The blond shinobi staggered a step before he gritted his teeth and regained his balance. Falling out of a tree would so not be cool.

Naruto parried and dodged a hail of shuriken that came flying down at him. The jinchuriki landed on the ground and flipped back out of the way of a Sound-nin attempting to impale him on a sword and staggered again. His head was still fuzzy from that sound blast, but Naruto knew that wasn't the problem. He was dropping out of Sage mode and his muscles were exhausted. There were at least a couple of Sound-nin in the group with enough chakra to cause him trouble too. Like the bastard that just launched that sound attack his way. He really did not have the energy or the time left to take these guys out one by one. Not if he expected to stay ahead of the main force behind him. He needed something quicker and more efficient.

The blond shinobi kicked his attacker with every bit of strength he had left. The enhanced kick snapped the Sound-nin's sword and he heard the sickening crunch of shattering bone before the shinobi went flying back into the night.

Naruto used that opportunity to put some distance between himself and his attackers so that he could get that jutsu off. With his heightened senses, the jinchuriki could hear the bubbling of a river up ahead. He stopped his sprint before he got too close to the riverbank. He knew exactly where he was. This particular river was wide, fast moving, and during this time of year would be freezing cold. Formations of rock jutted up out of the water here and there. The blond shinobi went through the seals, bit his finger again, and slammed his hand on the ground.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" He called for the second time that night.

When the smoke cleared an orange toad with blue patterns appeared. He sat about as tall as Naruto stood and could easily carry a person on his back. The toad wore samurai armor composed of a plate cuirass, arm-guards, and traditional pauldrons. A white bead necklace finished off the outfit with the kanji for loyalty on the largest bead.

"Busy night," the toad remarked.

Naruto ignored him and quickly dug into his pack. He pulled out a plain case and shook out what looked like a roll of long individual pieces of parchment connected by a wire. He threw the roll at the toad who easily caught it.

"Do me a favor Gama, and set that up there while I distract them, would ya?" Naruto asked pointing to a location near the river.

"Right. You want me to take a few? It's been a while since we fought side-by-side," the toad asked already moving to the spot Naruto had pointed out.

"We'll see. For now just back out of the area, I don't want you getting caught in anything."

Without saying anything else Naruto leapt back up into the trees towards the gathering Sound-nin. It only took a few seconds for the group to start chasing him again, but this time he wanted them to follow. The jinchuriki led them back away from the river for a few minutes then back toward where he had summoned Gama. He concentrated on not moving too fast so that he was always just right ahead of them, and trying not to make it look like he was purposely leading them. He only hoped that since they hadn't seen the river beforehand and with their prey right in front of their noses, they wouldn't notice the turn around he just led them through.

Naruto leapt to the ground, covered up a wince, and ran up to the edge of the bank. He pulled a rolled up wire from his pocket, slipped one end around the sword guard and the other around his wrist and waited. It only took a few seconds for the Sound-nin to reach the area. He could tell they were confused by his sudden halt. He could also tell they were too nervous to approach him directly. The larger group still heading their way from the north, the ones who had chased him all the way from Oto, had to know who he was from his fighting style, but this group right here, the ones sent to stall him, didn't. Still, most shinobi didn't just approach an ANBU, any hidden village's ANBU, on a whim. Especially not one who, just minutes ago, killed three of their group in the span of a few seconds.

The jinchuriki could sense when the change happened. He could see the moment the group started to draw confidence from each other. He could almost feel their thought process. They had the superior numbers right? ANBU or not, he was only one person and they were ten. The group started to edge towards him finally, though they still seemed cautious.

"You do know you're never gonna get this scroll from me right?" Naruto asked.

The jinchuriki continued on with the calmest voice he could muster at the moment.

"I mean come on, the rest of your buddies couldn't stop me so far. Hell, they couldn't even stop me from taking it from them. Right out of your hideout, in your own country, by the way."

Naruto couldn't help but throw that last bit in there. If there was one thing that motivated a person to push past their fear, it was pride. He'd succumb to that temptation himself in the past. The comment caused a few clenched fists and a snarl or two.

"I'll tell you what. Turn around and leave now and I'll let everyone walk away. I give you my word. I don't want to hurt you. Go back to snake-face and tell him you lost me or something. Otherwise I'm going to make you stop following me. It's your choice."

That provoked a few snickers from the shinobi. Naruto didn't expect them to actually leave, but at least he'd offered them the chance to live. It was more than most shinobi would have done. But still… still he didn't like maiming, or killing other people, no matter what they had done. I don't think I can take ANBU anymore, he thought. When he got back he was seriously considering telling Tsunade that he was done, but that thought would have to wait.

"I heard about you goodie-goodie Leaf-nin, think your better than everybody else. Always have to stick your nose in where it doesn't belong and sprout on about peace and friendship. Well guess what, this is a shinobi world! There is no such thing!"

The rest of the Sound-nin drew strength from the outspoken one and finally gathered their nerve.

"Then come and take it, if you think you can!" Naruto yelled back and readied himself.

The group of shinobi started to charge the jinchuriki. They couldn't surround him from behind because of the river, but he had to act before any of them took to the air.

That's it suckers, step right up!

As soon as the first Sound-nin got within range Naruto gathered the last of his chakra and went through a set of hand seals.

"Doton: Yomi Numa!"

The ground underneath the Sound-nin grew heavy and wet beneath their feet. Chakra infused mud formed in the area and clung to feet, hands, weapons, anything it came into contact with. Angry shouts could be heard from the group as they struggled to free themselves and not sink.

"I'm going to have to thank the geezer sage for showing me how to do that!" Naruto cheered.

Earth style jutsu wasn't an element he was comfortable with, hell; the only earth jutsu he could do was the Swamp of the Underworld. He wasn't skilled enough at it to completely sink them, and he didn't have enough chakra left to expand the swamp, but it was his first time using it in battle and under these circumstances, Naruto was pretty pleased it worked period. It held the group of enemy shinobi down long enough to go to plan B.

"Wait until I get out of this, you bastard!" someone called from the muddy ground.

Some of the Sound-nin were already breaking a foot or a weapon free here or there. It was now or never.

Naruto threw his sword towards the swamp and it hit the trunk of a tree just on the edge of the jutsu with a loud thunk. A couple of the shinobi looked up at the sword wondering what the hell the Leaf-nin was aiming for. The jinchuriki focused his chakra into the wire around his wrist. The blue glow shot along the wire and into the sword. The sword lit up with an eerie blue light and the nearest Sound-nin's eyes went wide at what the sword was embedded in. The shinobi looked up in fear as the glow spread from that one tag along a network of wires and tags surrounding the swamp.

The other Sound-nin looked up to their death as the ghostly light spread all above them.

"I'm sorry, I warned you," Naruto said with obvious sadness coloring his voice.

Naruto jerked the sword back from the tree, propelling it towards him, and jumped as far away from the area as he could as the first explosive tag went off. The other tags followed suit and the resulting explosions shook the ground. The shockwave still picked Naruto up mid-air and propelled him painfully into a tree where he heard and felt bone snap. The jinchuriki dropped to the ground covering his head. Pieces of branches, splinters, leaves, and earth were sent flying by the blast.

The jinchuriki coughed as the dust cloud spread over him and lay there a moment trying to gather his wits. His Sage mode was definitely gone now and his body felt like it weighed a ton from the fatigue the jutsu caused. His muscles were exhausted, and he was hungry, in pain, and still oh so tired. His ears still rung from that sound blast and damn it, he really wanted some nice relaxing ramen about now. Sakura was going to kill him when she saw the state he was in! Maybe, just maybe, Kakashi and Tenzo were right and he was too reckless at times.

It was a struggle to get his heavy eyelids to follow his command and open, but he had to get up. Had to. He could lay around in Konoha when he got there, but for now he had to keep moving.

The blond shinobi groaned as he pushed himself into a sitting position with his good arm and grimaced. Yes, his left arm was definitely broken, damn it. The most he could do for it now was put it in a sling to stay out of the way; Tsunade or Sakura could deal with it later. He groaned again as he used the tree for support as he stood. The jinchuriki had to pause and wait for the wave of light-headedness to pass. When his head stopped spinning quite so much he used his good arm to pull his sword over to him by the wire still attached to the hilt. He was about to sigh and make an attempt at bending over to pick it up when a sudden feeling of killing intent washed over him.

Naruto looked up just in time to see a very pissed off Sound-nin bear down on him. He made a clumsy dodge and just barely missed being flattened. The missed punch kicked up dust and dirt as it made a small crater in the ground. The jinchuriki stumbled back and regained his balance. The Sound-nin had bulky gauntlets that looked like massive bracers on his arms. Naruto had seem these before though, the device was capable of firing shocks of dense air that the shinobi could mix with chakra to create a sound wave attack that could be disorienting or deadly, depending on how much chakra the shinobi pumped into the jutsu. There was no way he was going to be able to win a long drawn out fight with this guy in the crappy state he was in.

Naruto jerked the sword toward him. The movement was enough to distract his opponent and he took the opening to jump back and take up a fighting stance. The jinchuriki grabbed the sword with his good arm and charged. Ending this quickly was a must.

The jinchuriki sidestepped another punch aimed at him and swung the sword up in an arch attempting to slash the man up the chest. The Sound shinobi parried the sword, however, with his huge gauntlet, and punched Naruto square in the chest. The blond shinobi felt the slight chakra infusion of the gauntlets and the force sent him skidding backward. He barely kept his feet under him as he slowed to a halt.

Before he could get his sluggish muscles to react the Sound-nin fired another blast of air that struck Naruto sending him flying backwards. The ANBU mask he wore cracked and shattered under the pressure of the attack and the pieces went flying as well. He hit the forest floor hard and skidded across the rough ground before coming to a stop. He coughed on instinct and could feel the blood trickle out the side of his mouth.

"Shit," was about all he could gasp through the pain.

Naruto tried to take a deeper breath, but it hitched in his chest and made him cough again. The coppery taste in his mouth grew stronger and made him gasp. Dark spots began to dance at the corners of his vision as he tried to draw in air. No! I refuse to die here! The jinchuriki coughed and gasped again as he tried to push himself up. All he needed was a moment to draw on some of the Kyuubi's chakra and he could force himself to get up, injuries and all.

While he was still struggling to get his body to respond a dark shaped loomed over him and he looked up to lock eyes with the Sound-nin. Pain and fatigue clouded blue eyes met angry brown ones. Naruto was struck by the amount of hate those brown eyes held toward him.

"My squad! My whole fucking squad!" the enraged Sound-nin shouted.

The Sound-nin brought his arm up to aim the gauntlet directly at Naruto. He knew he was done for if he took another of those direct blasts, but at this range, there was no chance of dodging. He couldn't even catch his breath enough to get up let alone counter-attack this guy.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" the Sound-nin still ranted.

Naruto saw the chakra gather in the gauntlet and prepared himself for whatever was going to happen. He refused to close his eyes if this was really his end. Obstinate to the last, eh Naruto, he could hear Kakashi's voice saying in his head.

Chakra gathered in the gauntlet, the Sound-nin pulled back his fist and then thrust it forward towards the enemy shinobi with the intent to obliterate him. As the chakra charged blast was about to kill him, Naruto saw something large and orange land in front of him. The Sound-nin's arm was forced to the side at the last second and the blast of air hammered into the ground beside him, causing a crater in the dirt, instead of his head.

The sudden interference made the Sound-nin pause and Gama took that opening to smash a shoulder, pauldron and all, into the shinobi. The armor broke the Sound-nin's nose causing it to splatter blood as he was picked up and thrown back. The shinobi recovered quickly and shot a sound blast at the toad. The large orange toad was much quicker than he looked and used his powerful back legs to propel himself straight into the air. The blast missed the toad and passed over a still prone Naruto.

Naruto hadn't passed up the distraction Gama was causing either. He reached inside himself and pulled on the Kyuubi's chakra. Not enough chakra to use his whole jinchuriki form, but just enough to get the hell moving again. He could feel the slight physical change that came over him as his nails grew and his sight and hearing sharpened in the night. He was sure if he could see himself the whisker marks on his face would be darker and his eyes would be red with vertical pupils. Even though his body was still fatigued, his limbs felt lighter and the pain dulled some, which was exactly what he was counting on. He could still feel the sickening heaviness in his chest, but he pushed past it.

He could also feel a burning sensation just under his skin and inside himself. He had a hunch that might have something to do with using way too much chakra and that probably wasn't good. Sakura had warned him against pushing his body so hard. You might be able to enter Sage mode and shrug off attacks or control the Nine Tail's chakra to enhance your speed and do that crazy heavy Rasengan, but that doesn't mean your body isn't paying for all that later! Sage or not, jinchuriki or not, you're still human! You aren't invincible! You got that moron! He could still hear her lecturing him after a particularly brutal mission that didn't go so well.

"I'm sorry Sakura, but I need to make it back alive for you to lecture me again," Naruto thought out loud as he stood up.

Naruto stood and the Sound-nin focused on him again and fired. This time the jinchuriki was able to roll away from the sound blast. While the blond shinobi rolled clear of danger, Gama reacted and jumped into the enemy shinobi's line of sight. The orange toad aimed a punch at the Sound-nin. The shinobi managed to dodge some of the attack and the punch clipped the man in the left shoulder instead of the head. It was only a glancing blow, but the toad was much stronger than he appeared. Gama could tell it dislocated his should by the strangled cry the shinobi gave off and the unnatural way the arm hung afterwards.

The Sound-nin, almost beyond reason now, gave another enraged shout and brought the gauntlet on his remaining good arm up to point at the toad. Gama once again shot straight into the air and the shinobi tried to follow the toad's movement by raising his arm. He never saw Naruto move in behind the toad while he was distracted. The jinchuriki had a glowing blue-white ball formed in his good hand. Naruto brought his arm up and slammed the swirling ball right into the other shinobi's middle.

"Rasengan!" he shouted as the enemy shinobi flew backwards.

Gama landed several feet away and Naruto stood there panting trying to catch his breath. Forcing enough chakra out to form the Rasengan made the burning feeling under his skin and deep inside him feel worse. It felt like his insides were on fire. So not good, he thought. But there was nothing he could do about it now. He let the Kyuubi's chakra drop off and the effects faded. Sharp red eyes faded back to ocean blue.

The enemy shinobi didn't get up and Naruto debated whether to go check on him or not. He had been using the chakra sensory that the Sage mode and Nine-tails chakra afforded him long enough, that even while not in either form, he could still sense people's chakra on his own. He couldn't feel anything from the enemy shinobi, but that didn't necessarily mean anything when his body was so fatigued and it felt like he was on fire inside. He might just be too burnt out to feel anything, but still, how many normal people actually got up from a direct Rasengan? And he'd definitely hit that guy dead on. The man should be dead, or at least unconscious.

With a tired sigh Naruto sheathed his sword in the scabbard on his back and slowly approached the shinobi. The Sound-nin was laying face down where the Rasengan had spun him in the air. The jinchuriki had to wince at the sight of the dislocated shoulder lying at a painful angle because of the useless arm being trapped underneath the man's body.

Naruto's blue eyes went wide when he noticed the man was still conscious. He was glaring at him him with that same hateful expression from before. Blood was dripping from the shinobi's mouth, but those hateful brown eyes looked straight into his blue ones for the second time that night. The man gave a triumphant sneer that made the jinchuriki's blood run cold with unease.

"You think you won?" the Sound-nin asked.

The act of talking made the shinobi cough and splatter the ground with blood. It was then that Naruto finally felt the large amount of chakra building up and he could see the vibration of the man's chest. The shinobi was gathering every last bit of chakra in his body to the gauntlet lying hidden beneath him and suddenly Naruto knew that he had fucked up. Understood that he was simply too burnt out to feel something he should have, would have, normally.

"You lose," the man managed with a bloody smile.

The bastard actually smiled at him.

The Sound-nin's body convulsed and was immersed in a silent, bright white light. Naruto jumped back with everything he had, as time seemed to slow down.

He saw Gama spring forward to try and reach him. He saw the bright light expand to follow him and he instinctively brought his arms up to shield himself mid-jump, for all the good it would do.

He knew, he knew, he wasn't going to clear the area in time. Just like he knew Gama wasn't going to get to him in time either. He just hoped the toad would be all right somehow.

Baa-chan, Sakura-chan, everyone, I'm sorry.

As the silent light enveloped him, Naruto couldn't help but find it ironic that damn it, he still had a habit of walking right into traps even as a jonin. Some things never did change.

Time seemed to catch up all at once and the roar of the explosion overwhelmed Naruto's senses. The last thing he felt was slamming into something hard and immovable with bone shattering force, then the shock of cold water before he lost consciousness.

TBC

Comments and reviews are always yummie and appreciated, but never required. Hope you enjoyed part 1.