Desert Flower - [Rewrite]

Chapter 1

Konohagakure no Sato

Uzumaki Naruto, the hyperactive knucklehead ninja, was walking towards the lofty village walls of the Hidden Leaf village, an unconscious Sasuke slung atop his shoulders. He was the last one of the retrieval squad sent to retrieve said Uchiha to return, and even though he was bleeding profusely while barely hanging on to his consciousness, he was grinning like an idiot.

He had accomplished his mission thereby fulfilling his promise, after all, Uzumaki Naruto never went back on his word - this time being no exception.

As the gates to the village became visible to his glittering azure orbs, his injuries were finally cloaking their veils over him to the limits of his bodily endurance, prompting him to ultimately fall down on the ground with a thump, completely unconscious.

Meanwhile, Temari was walking on the path leading to the Leaf village, her ever present battle fan was slung on her back like usual, and the white battle kimono she donned was draped to her curvaceous figure, held on to it firmly with a red belt tied to her waist in a knot. Her were hair trussed into her usual four ponytails, most found it unbecoming of a young female such as herself, mainly since it downplayed heavily on her looks. But to a kunoichi as serious as she was, it was a necessity. Looks didn't help you in battle, and they sure as hell never came in handy during shinobi affairs, she was taught that the hard way many times in the past.

Her teal eyes caught two silhouettes lying there on the ground, unconscious, and she immediately rushed to them.

Shikamaru had been taken by the medics ahead of her. In fact, the lazy genius had been adamant to get back to the village ahead of her, as soon as he possibly could, and she could relate to his worries on that subject. Seeing her baby brother, who she hadn't ever even suffer so much as a scratch through almost all his younger life, lying half dead on the ground after his battle with Naruto, she had never felt so troubled as she had right then.

So, in short, she could relate to the pineapple haired genin wanting to get close to his fallen squad mates as soon as humanly possible. Crouching down, she flipped over the Uchiha to make him face up. Her trained eyes instantly traveling and focusing over the spiral shaped wound scarring his chest, even though the high degree burns were clearly evident on his chest, she could discern with a mere glance that his wounds were in no way life threatening.

So, putting that thought to the side, she gently placed him aside and turned all her attention to the second victim lying by his side. She didn't even need to turn him to realize that he was on the verge of death, the blood pooling underneath him in a puddle was proof enough, staining the ground crimson. Instantly rushing to his side, she flipped him over and tore off her kimono near her thighs right before pressing the bundled cloth over the gaping wound on his chest. She almost missed the shuffling footsteps coming nearer and nearer in her dazed state, but looking up to see the medic team now on site, relief washed over her entire being.

Seeing them put Sasuke on a stretcher, she bristled. "Hey! Get over here, he needs immediate attention. His wounds are fatal…!" she shouted, quite frantically.

Their eyes looked at her in mild surprise before traveling down to the boy on her lap. Instantly, much to her added anger and confusion, those eyes turned cold. "Uchiha-sama is injured, can't you see? Plus, he is much more valuable to the Leaf than he will ever be." she glowered over him, but the men didn't budge so much as an inch in their stances. "We have our orders and we must follow them to point." they answered her curtly. Before she could so much as raise a word of protest, they were off to the village with an unconscious Sasuke now in tow.

"Those idiots!" she hissed. Looking down, her anger was replaced with worry, the blonde boy's condition seemed to be worsening each passing second. Her white clothes were drenching themselves in his blood, but she could care less about such trivial things right now. Cradling him up and placing him delicately over her back, she started jumping back to the Leaf, intent on getting him there herself now.