Naruto's

The Kinjutsu

Little Japanime Girl

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and it's characters.

A/N: This chapter is edited and updated with image links! 11/15/08

Ok here is another attempt on fiction. This story is going to follow some of the manga and will take place on a sort of alternate timeline. Disregard anything after chapter 355 to make things simple. So basically, it's the same Naruto world but I will be taking the liberty on twisting some facts. Nothing major at all actually. I am still undecided whether its GaaraxSakura, SasukexSakura, or just both. Eh, we'll see.

I finally found you, but not the way I wanted.

"Alright team, stay light on your feet. We're almost there," Shikamaru lazily drawled out despite the overbearing feeling of impatience to get home.

"He's right. We don't know for sure who's trailing us back home," Sakura uneasily spoke to the others behind her.

Shikamaru was on the lead traveling from tree branch to tree branch. Right next to him was Sakura, helping an injured Sai with his arm draped around her shoulders and her arm around his back. Behind her were Neji and Naruto; both injured and exhausted as well.

Neji calmly said, "Sakura, we took care of our enemies. And if there are any survivors trailing us now I would pick it up on my Byakugan if you-least of all-could not sense any other chakra around."

Sakura bit her cheek and turned red for the implied insult. What he said was rude but truthful as well so she chose not to reply. Ever faithful, Naruto interjected and defended his best friend, "Come on, Neji, give her a break! She's probably tired from healing us the whole way on the trip," the blond could not help but add the unecessary detail, "And not to mention she landed a few good hits on the last fight too! Sakura-chan's just being as precautionary as Shikamaru here."

Sai smirked as he could not help but jab, "Isn't 'precautionary' too big a word for you?"

Just as Naruto was about to reply, Sakura suddenly stopped and looked alarmed; "Guys, stop."

Shikamaru obeyed and eyed her carefully, "What is it, Sakura?"

Neji and Naruto halted on different branches of the same tree and the blond spoke up, "Is something wrong?"

Sai looked at Sakura to share a look of surprise and then turned to Naruto; he was surprised to see that Naruto didn't catch what he and Sakura just did, "Are you serious, dickless?"

Naruto immediately reacted with anger and hotly replied, "What did you just call me?"

"Naruto, relax. Let Sakura explain herself," Neji suggested with folded arms.

Sakura merely motioned for them to follow her down to the ground with Sai. She walked around the giant oak tree she was previously perched on and the men slowly paced behind her to be me met with the shock of their lives. Seeming tiny against the giant tree trunk was a man no one ever thought to find on the ground.

Neji took a step forward and whispered disbelievingly, "Uchiha?"

Sakura gingerly relinquished her hold of Sai and stepped toward the body, keeping her eyes on it while saying, "Neji... step back, I... have to..."

No one bothered to ask her to finish because they knew what she intended and all were too busy trying to get over of whom they had stumbled upon. Naruto instantly stood next to Sakura as she knelt and checked the raven-haired man's vital signs. Her eyes watered as she stared into the black pools of his still-open eyes.

She hissed out without sparing a look anywhere else, "Did your Byakugan see this?"

Neji clenched his jaw and looked away, too proud to vocally admit his fault.

"Sakura, be careful he's dangerous-"

Sakura barely let another breath escape her best friend as she whipped around and snapped, "Naruto, Itachi's dead!"

When she saw the shock in his eyes, her eyes softened and she quietly added, "He's no longer a threat to us... or anyone for that matter," she turned back to Itachi and closed his eyes with shaky fingers.

"Ano, Sakura... do you think..." Naruto could not finish his sentence because he had yet to get over the fact that Uchiha Itachi was actually dead.

Shikamaru knelt next to Sakura and decided it was time to exercise his role as leader in this situation, "Sakura."

She looked over at him, "Yes?"

"As a medic nin I need you to make a report on your findings here and make sure Konoha's ANBU take him."

Sakura looked back at Itachi's corpse and nodded once. Shikamaru stood back up and faced the others speaking neutrally, "Sai, you're too injured so I need you to stay with Sakura. I will go straight to Konoha and have Tsunade bring hunter ANBU out seeing that none have stumbled here yet. If Itachi's dead then there should be others in the area that are in ANBU's jurisdiction. Naruto, you will need Neji to assist you search the forest for an injured Sasuke."

Naruto puffed up and frowned, "I don't need Neji to get my teammate!"

Shikamaru sighed, "Yes you do."

Neji faced Naruto and explained, "You need my Byakugan to find Sasuke seeing that he could be just about anywhere right now. It will save us time and energy so that we can capture him."

Sakura gasped out in slight surprise, "Capture?" It still cost team 7 a little to accept the fact that he might be a real threat to them-even though he was very much part of their lives.

Neji ignored her and advised, "Naruto, we mustn't waste time."

Of course, the blond was unhappy with the idea of capturing his best friend but, this also was the rare opportunity to bring him back home like he had promised Sakura eight years ago. With a nod they turned to leave and Shikamaru ground out, "Wait, you two, I'm not done."

When they partially turned to look at him, the aloof genius muttered something along the lines of "morons" from under his breath but no one had the leisure to retort since it could waste precious time. He seem annoyed when he continued, "I need to you to locate him. That's it. No one needs to engage in physical combat unless I say so or your lives are at risk. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto impatiently replied as he was already running on his way.

Neji rolled his eyes and ran after him saying, "Naruto, you need my eyes before you know what direction to run off to..."

Anything else couldn't be heard because the duo disappeared into the shadows of the woods. Shikamaru pulled out a cigarette, placed it in his mouth, and lit it before facing the remaining two, "I'm sure I don't need to stress how careful you two need to be. ANBU's recovery nin should be here soon to take Itachi's body, but don't forget that others might come before then. I can't imagine who's not willing to get their hands on Itachi's corpse right now."

Sai looked bored but Shikamaru knew him enough to know that he was listening. Sakura sighed and then nodded. He eyed her wearily as he took a long drag of his cigarette.

Sakura knew that weary look; "What?"

He let the smoke trail out as he spoke while holding the cigarette by the corner of his mouth, "Sakura, don't do what you want to right now. Your role is important."

Sakura frowned and defensively replied, "I'm not like that anymore."

Nara took another drag before he calmly repled, "Ok. When ANBU arrives, it's straight to Tsunade's. Got it?"

The duo nodded and that was all Shikamaru needed to disappear leaving falling leaves in his place.

After a moment, Sakura released a shaky sigh and looked at Itachi's body, "So he finally avenged his clan..."

"Hey, Ugly," Sai called out; not knowing that he just knocked her off a chain of thoughts.

Sakura blinked and faced Sai, "Hm?"

He glanced behind her for a millisecond and then looked straight at her, "It's time."

"Mm?"

Ever confused, she turned around to see what he had glanced to and there were three ANBU standing there. They didn't speak but Sakura knew they were waiting for her to move. She stood up and they did not hesitate to grab his body and disappear in a puff of smoke.

"That was fast..."

Sai stood up, ignoring her comment and leaned against the tree, supporting his weight. He knew her long enough to understand her inner turmoil on not being in the team to find Sasuke. Yet Again.

"There's not much time, Hag. We have to hurry."

He pushed himself off the tree and stared her in the eye again. It was kinda unnerving to Sakura how incredibly direct his body language was sometimes. She just stood there and waited for him to elaborate.

"Not only ugly, but slow too?" he drwaled out followed by a soft sigh.

Just as she pulled her arm back to punch him he sweat-dropped and quickly clarified with a fake smile, "We're finding Sasuke!"

Sakura froze in place, "Sai..." she honestly did not know what else to say.

"Shut up and let's go, Ugly."

Now she had a list of things to say, Why you-" Sai grabbed her elbow and dragged her as he ran off in a different direction from Naruto's. Her frustration lasted a couple of seconds before she was left at another loss, "Sai... Thanks."

He didn't look back at her stunned face and just kept his cool face. It took her but two seconds to notice his perfectly good running legs, "Wait a minute! You weren't hurt that much then! Why'd you let me help you?"

He turned to look at her with his famous fake smile and admitted, "I lied," before looking ahead once again.

She scoffed, "Apparently."

He shrugged and added offhandedly, "Besides... shouldn't medic nin know when their patient is bluffing?"

Sakura frowned and said, "What did you say?"

As an afterthought he quietly said, "I guess you didn't mind us clinging on to each other."

With an embarrassed blush for his implication she yanked her elbow free and loudly demanded, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Sai slowed his pace and looked back at her confused; "Was it supposed to mean something?"

The medic looked at his confused expression long enough to find that it wasn't a fake one. With a heavy sigh she mentally reminded herself on some things of social interactions Sai had yet to fully understand, "It's alright, Sai. I was just worried about my friend. That's why I didn't think much about your bluff at the time."

Sai immediately stopped and Sakura stopped as well, confused as to why he halted. He looked at her with no expression on his face and Sakura wondered if following him at all was a good idea. After a couple seconds he gave her a true soft smile, "Thank you," And with that he ran off again.

Sakura, still confused, started following him again and quickly realized that it was the first time she directly called him her friend and one that she cared about at that. She softly smiled and allowed her mind to drift off to wonder about fights Sasuke and Sai might have once Sasuke is back in Konoha with them.

Or maybe they wont fight at all? Both are pretty closed with emotions.

Sakura suddenly collided with Sai's back and fell on her bottom; "What the hell, Sai?"

She looked up at his stiff back and wondered what made him stop. His body blocked her view so she leaned over to the side to look passed him and her eyes widened, "...Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke was lying on his stomach by the river. Blood flowed into the river and the kunoichi couldn't help but wonder how he wasn't found yet with such an obvious trail. Sai reacted before she did and he knelt by Sasuke, checking his pulse, "He's barely alive."

Sai turned him over onto his back and was able to see the fatal wound he had received, "It's a puncture straight through his left lung..."

Sakura quickly and wordlessly scrambled over to the two. Sasuke's brows narrowed indicating pain but he wasn't making any noise. She opened his top further to see the wound better and started to flow chakra from her hands into the area. Sai felt something tug at his insides seeing her try something that will only produce false hope. By his white pasty skin and bluish lips it was evident to anyone that he had lost too much blood.

"...Don't bother."

"Shut up!"

Her tears were already blurring her vision and her sobs started to grow in volume as she already knew the outcome.

"Sa...?" came the very quiet and surprised voice below her.

"Shh not now, Sasuke. I'm trying to save your life. Sai, hold his head up more."

Sai propped his head up a little in his arms and held him over his lap as Sakura performed emergency surgery. Sasuke's far away eyes were coming in and out of focus as he stared at his old friend.

Sai looked into Sasuke's face and softly reminded Sakura, "Even if you heal him quickly... I don't think your plan will be successful."

"I know that already, dammit! But this just can't end like this. Not for him. He had... plans."

She stopped the chakra flow and wiped her eyes before looking into Sasuke's hazy ones. With a deep sigh, Sakura came to a decision, "...There's only one thing I can do for him right now."

She placed her hands over his abdomen and let some more chakra flow as she controlled her cries as best as she could. Sai watched her and understood her completely as he too lost someone he loved a long time ago. Sakura finished her work and looked at Sasuke's relaxed face, "At least there is no more pain for him to feel. I numbed his pain."

Sai nodded once and looked back to the famous Uchiha of whom he often was compared to; Will they be like this when I die?

Sasuke didn't move his body or head, just his eyes as he finally focused on Sakura, "Sa..." he coughed up some blood and Sai propped him up a little bit more. Sasuke tried again in a breath, "Sakura..."

She leaned in closer to hear his weak voice over the river's sound. Sai leaned in a little as well, curious as to what this dying man had to say.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner. Maybe if I didn't waste time–"

"Sakura."

Said woman looked up at Sai's understanding yet uncomfortable face. He rarely called her by her name and this time it sure caught her attention; "He's trying to talk. Just listen."

She nodded and caressed Sasuke's cheek as soon as her eyes found his again, "Go ahead, Sasuke."

Sakura wiped the blood from his blue lips with her thumb before he tried again, "I..." his expression changed to a pained one even though he wasn't feeling when he forced out the next word, "f... failed..."

Sakura furrowed her brows, Failed what?

"No, Sasuke, you got what you wanted, " she lowered her voice and whispered the last part, "You killed your brother."

Sai shifted a little from hearing such words and Sasuke turned his eyes to him as if noticing him there for the first time. It was as if they were looking into one's mirror and it felt strange for the both of them. Sai showed some discomfort and Sasuke looked regretful before he suddenly turned panicked upon seeing Sai's face; as if the look-a-like's face was a reminder of his failure.

Sakura tried to have Sasuke's attention directed to her in hopes that maybe he would calm down, "Sasuke-kun, look at me. Look at me!"

His black orbs started to mist over as he kept staring at Sai and they slowly softened into a sorrowful look. Sai's eyes widened a fraction but the rest of his face remained calm.

"My...my..."

Sakura started crying as she realized his death was upon them.

A tear slid down his cheek as he whispered his last word, "...clan."

His eyes remained open with the few gathered tears rolling down his cheeks and there was no more breath. Sakura understood his regret and she sobbed on Sasuke's shoulder for his loss. Sai felt a knot in his throat and decided to focus on the river's rushing water, blocking out his companion's sobs.

Rained poured hard on the lone pair standing in front of the KIA monument. It had been three days since Sasuke's death.

Naruto had stumbled onto the emotional Sakura and solemn Sai by following Sasuke's trail in the river. No words were spoken as Neji watched Naruto drop to his knees next to Sakura, draping his arms around her as he tried comforting her while silently crying himself. Sai had sat looking at the dead man in his arms with his heart heavy for his friends' and Sasuke's regret. Neji had to turn away because watching–much less listening–was far too much to bear.

There was no large ceremony for the last Uchiha's death earlier that day. Just a private group consisting of the Godaime, Sakura, Naruto, Sai, Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Hinata (for Naruto's sake). They all held a moment of silence as the survivors of the original team 7 placed his coffin in the Uchiha family crypt and then proceeded to follow Sasuke's 'family' out of the Uchiha's grounds. Tsunade locked the gates to the Uchiha estate as soon as everyone exited out of respect to the dead clan.

Though both Sakura and Naruto knew that what they did was something Sasuke would have approved of–since he did not want fame, just revenge for the massacre; his name missing on the KIA rock would not have mattered–they couldn't help but feel cheated.

Night befell the duo and so did the icy rain. Everyone else had long been gone and the two just stood there the whole time in heavy silence with occasional tears mixing with the rain.

"I hate this... I hate all of it."

The first words Naruto spoke in the entire day struck Sakura harder than she thought it would. She couldn't somehow shake the feeling of responsibility off her. Naruto's fists clenched tightly and his knuckles turned white as he bared his teeth. Sakura looked at him to her left and bit her trembling bottom lip.

With a low growl, he suddenly ground out, "Goddamn that revenge of his and his fucking brother's sick, twisted, vile ways."

Sakura felt her throat tighten and suppressed a sob in seeing what Naruto's grievance pushed him to behave as. He was crude at times but never this acute about his wording. His words were so full of hatred and pain that Sakura wanted to disappear for one second and pretend none of this had happened. The best she could do to satisfy that need was to shut her eyes and lower her head.

Naruto squeezed his fists tight enough that some knuckles popped and he screamed out, "That bastard would be alive today if he knew...!"

He choked and couldn't finish his statement. Sakura knew more or less what he was trying to say and gently placed her left hand on his back. Naruto sniffled and whispered both miserably and angry, "...If he truly knew how much.. We loved him and... would do anything to help him."

Sakura finally looked at his tear-struck and reddened face; he couldn't bare to look at her.

"Naruto..."

He suddenly turned to her and embraced her so tightly her body hurt but she didn't complain because she returned his embrace just as fervently. He squeezed his eyes shut and forced out words he was tired of repeating after so many years, "We were his family... dammit."

Sakura stroke his hair and whispered soothing words to dilute his pain even just a little.

Even though her exterior seemed collected enough, her interior self was in shambles, Sasuke did not have to end like this. If only I was strong enough sooner... If only I could've killed Itachi myself. Or at least stalled Sasuke enough so that Naruto and I could've helped. If only I didn't let him leave for Orochimaru that night... If only I had the chance... to make things better.

In the shadows were three figures who quietly observed unnoticed.

"Why are they so angry when they should be sad?"

Yamato turned away from the pair and faced the inquisitor with his voice soft, "Grievance comes in many forms, Sai. You should know that."

"Not just that..." came a voice from above.

Both men looked at the solemn Kakashi perched on a tree, watching the remaining members of his first genin team.

Sai glanced at his teammates and asked Kakashi, "What else?"

"They might have some regrets and grudges," Kakashi then hopped off the tree and started walking away quietly adding, "I just hope that they don't let it get to their heads..."

"I think I...pity him..."

Yamato turned to a suddenly sad Sai, "Who?"

Said man placed his hand on the trunk of the tree Kakashi had been perched on earlier and muttered, "He tried to be a worthy son. Just that. All it got... was disgrace as a missing nin of Konoha and a dishonorable death with out even... a simple... mention on that KIA stone."

Yamato suddenly felt pity as well, "..."

"In years to come, the only people to remember his name and cause are... his only living family who are standing before us tonight."

Image links to chapter one:

"Sasuke's End" Sakura and Sai with Sasuke dead in his arms: h t t p / w w w . d e v i a n t a r t . c o m / d e v i a t i o n / 5 8 4 4 2 1 1 4 /

"Cheated" Sakura and Naruto at the KIA stone: h t t p / w w w . d e v i a n t a r t . c o m / d e v i a t i o n / 6 0 0 4 1 6 9 0 /

"I think I pity him..." Sai at closing scene: h t t p : / / v e n t a n i l l a s d e l p i n t o r . d e v i a n t a r t . c o m / a r t / I - t h i n k - I - p i t y - h i m - 1 0 3 6 5 7 6 7 6

LJG