Hot 'N' Dangerous

Chapter 44: Teammates and Friends

A third Lightning Edge glowed in Sasuke's hand, trilling wildly. A fierce expression coloured his face and his Sharingan eyes shone with renewed intensity.

Another one?! His chakra should be depleted by now!, I thought anxiously.

"Shut up! Don't talk to my teammates that way!" he snarled and shot out of his branch, his hand thrust forward at the also advancing Gaara.

The jutsu in Sasuke's hand flickered and almost died as he was about to clash with Gaara. A sudden, foreboding feeling took residence in my stomach. Liz tried to suppress a loud intake of breath.

"It's the seal! It's out!" she cried, pointing at Sasuke's figure.

His Lightning Edge had sliced through Gaara's monster limb. It was nearly completely severed... but at the cost of releasing his curse mark. They landed on opposite starting points. Sasuke's curse mark pattern roiled across his pale skin, bringing a sinister feeling into his face.

Gaara cringed as he felt the pain of his wound, "Grr..." he spun around to face Sasuke, who had collapsed due to his curse mark.

He launched another attack on Sasuke but he wasn't able to stand up to face it, "Damn," I leaped in front of Sasuke, ready to block the attack... somehow.

"Get out of the way! Uchiha is mine!" he snarled.

I steeled myself, a determined expression dominated my face, "Over my dead body," I hissed, raising my hands up in front of myself.

"Suit yourself," he curled his lip and his arm swung out.

I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself for impact, "Uragh!" someone grunted and I felt the breeze of someone landing in front of me.

"You okay, Elvira?" came a familiar voice.

I opened my eyes to see spiky blond hair, "Naruto? H-how? What?" I shook my head, confused.

He turned around and flashed me a bright smile, "We're here now."

I nodded and returned to Sasuke's side, inspecting his mark. Sakura landed on our branch and approached us.

"Sasuke-kun! What happened?" she fussed, touching his forehead.

I retreated, letting Sakura take over. Gaara had been kicked back by Naruto and was just getting up from another branch he had landed on. A dog suddenly appeared at my side, looking sadly over at Sasuke.

"Looks like we were a bit late, sorry," the dog murmured.

I wasn't surprised that the dog could speak, "You guys came just in the nick of time, actually. How soon did you guys realize that we were gone?" I panted lightly.

"Just a little while, we also had to get rid of a platoon of enemy ninja, but it didn't slow us down. We had to sacrifice a member of our team though," he sighed.

Liz joined us, "Who was it?" she asked, concerned.

The dog looked at her, a tragic look in his big eyes, "Nara Shikamaru," he answered, looking at Liz.

Her eyes widened, "W-what?" her voice was barely a whisper.

I put my arms around her and patted her gently as tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.

"Don't lose hope," I said, "He'll be fine, he's smart," I comforted her.

She sniffed and composed herself, "He's alive, I know it," she said quietly.

I smiled, "That's for sure," I agreed though I wasn't a hundred percent sure.

"But Kakashi-Sensei said that the curse mark was already taken care of," Sakura fretted, remembering whatever Kakashi had told her.