A/N: I do not Naruto, Bleach or any other canonical characters

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Ever since the attack of the Kyubi, Naruto was shunned as 'Konoha's Demon' when he was born with the Kyubi sealed in him. His life was miserable beyond grief. Time passed by and he has slowly proven himself as its jailer instead of its incarnate. But despite this, love never truly touched the young jinchuriki's heart until death came over him.

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A/N: I do not own Naruto, Bleach or any other canonical characters. If I did, I wouldn't be here in FF now would I?

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews. It's been really bugging me what was wrong with my chapters. Anyhow, this is the revised version of all my chapters. Hope you love it.

Talking
'thinking/flashback'
Kyubi Talking/Jutsu
'Kyubi Thinking'

Chapter 1

Old Friends

Where it begins…

The trees stood in favorable attention ever reaching for the sky towards the sun that was now at its peak over the azure plane.

For hundreds of years, this forest has stood unchanged. But the serenity and tranquility that was in this zone of vast vegetation has been imbalanced by several alien interlopers.
Four of which warped through the cool afternoon breeze. Their features from the eyes of the forest were nothing more than black blurs hurrying towards an unseen destination. With graceful agility, they jumped from tree branch to tree branch linearly while gliding steadily.

Each step that they made couldn't be heard. They were as silent as the shadows themselves. While in their steady pace, dogged to keep moving, one of them seemed troubled. As a result, the blur in the back of the group spoke of the matter…

"There's a bunch of people with identical charka all around us! What the hell is this!?"

The troubled blur, had long red hair and the same color of eyes that were overshadowed by glasses over them. This same blur wore a black coat that ran all the way down its knees. It was mostly open except for the neckline of the coat.

The relayed knowledge from his partner in crime sharpened the consciousness of another one of the blurs in this group. He wasn't agitated, but predicting this possibility, he felt he needed to voice out just for amusement.

"Do we need to take another route Sasuke?"

The cynical one said to the blur leading the way. His stride was heavier than the rest because, underneath his coat, he seems to be carrying a heavy burden that equaled him in height. Though he did not look like he could carry such a thing, his agile leaps from the tree branches said the contrary.

As it stands, he seemed capable of leading this group however; this question that he proposed showed that the person named as Sasuke was in charge of the groups actions. Being the leader of the group, Sasuke made a quick choice seeing as the time had not permitted them leisure to think.

"Ignore it we'll charge straight through."

Sasuke had the same black coat over his white Gi, which was left open to reveal his chest and stomach. It was tied at the end with a large purple rope that was tied in a bow at the back. He also wore pants of the same color as the rope and black shinobi sandals with uncovered ends for the toes to be seen and a guard-less katana, positioned slightly diagonal on his back for his right arm to reach with ease. He had deep brown eyes that borderlines toward black, and black hair that rose at the back with bangs parted at the front to cover his cheeks. From his emotionless reply to the question, the cynical blur sighed in relief and said,

"Thank Kami, detours always wipe me out."

With that, they dashed away into the foliage.

While they dashed further along, more blurs trailed them like wolves on the hunt, in the same direction except the blurs hot on their tail were white. It was a hunt that had exceeded the normal stamina of an average human being as they brushed past the forest with feats of agility never seen by normal human eyes. Then again, only the eyes of the forest could glimpse at the elegant game of tag that they pursued.

Unknowingly to the two factions playing cat and mouse, a lone blur, several meters away from the chasing groups, stopped momentarily.

Keeping his blond locks of hair up was a black headband with the symbol of a spiral that looked like a leaf engraved on a metal plate. He wore a coat opposite in color to the ones in black except for the double black lines that line the end of the coat. Underneath the coat, he wore a zipped up jacket with black coloring the top half, and orange at the other half and a red spiral at the back. He also wore orange pants and the same shinobi shoes as Sasuke. Tied to his right leg was a kunai pouch and several more tied to the belt at the back.

Not knowing where to go, but determined, he pushed on to look for the group of Sasuke. During his pause, he stiffened in shock as if nostalgia took over from the sight in front of him.

As his cerulean eyes glares at what was in front of him, he screamed the name of someone he thought he'd never see again as if it was a mist in his mind.

"SASUKE!"

Before he could say anymore, Sasuke shoved his electrically charged left hand, into the blonde's chest. Then taking the full brunt of the attack, the blonde was thrown backwards and disappeared into smoke.

"What the f-"

Said the troubled blur from shock as the blonde disappeared from sight.

"A shadow clone."

The cynical one quickly responded severing the profane word to one ambiguous letter.

This however did not please the blur leading the way. His cold and unemotional face didn't at the slightest bit change in expression as he sighed and spoke,

"Naruto…he never gives up…"

-o)0(o-

Several miles away…still in the midst of countless grass and trees, a group of white blurs
Just meters away from Sasuke's group, aimlessly searches for them not knowing how far they could be or where they might have gone to.

Within that group the blond telepathically received the last image of his Kage Bunshin who confronted Sasuke. Instantaneously, he relayed the message to the rest of the team with him…

"I found him!"

The rest of the team of seven with him in white coats simultaneously turned their heads towards the blonde. Everyone's heart now beating in hopeful reassurance that this time, they have found what they're looking for.

"Way to go Naruto! Which way?"

The dog-rider ahead of him asked excitedly. His dog was colored white while its ears were colored red. The rider wore the same headband as Naruto, had brown hair in a similar fashion, and red markings that ran from his cheeks towards his chin in a blade shape. Underneath his coat, he wore a black jacket covering his fishnet undershirt, and black pants and shinobi shoes of the same color. He has the same battle gear as Naruto.

Upon hearing this question, he turned his head forward with determined eyes, made
this brief reply.

"Follow me!"

With that, the rest of the group followed in acknowledgement, speeding off, from branch to branch.

As Naruto moved along, he began clearing the maelstrom in his mind as he concentrated on finding the current location of Sasuke and his group.

'You're not getting away this time Sasuke'

He thought to himself with absolute staunchness. While he allowed himself to get caught in his thoughts, one of the team members too had been caught in the same nostalgic trance. But because of her liberal personality, she openly spoke her thoughts.

"It's been too long, then again rather short since we saw him last time."

"It sure has Sakura. But at least this time we have a positive lead."

He replied to the pink haired youth. Sakura had green eyes, and a red version of the headband on top of her head. Her hair was short. More suited for combat than for style. Underneath her coat, she sported a red sleeveless vest that was zipped up starting from her left waist all the way up to the center of her neckline. She wore pink shoulder-pads and skirt which was slit in the front and sides except for the pink straps which held it in place. She also wore black gloves and tight shorts of the same color which rose an inch above her knees, and the same colored boot-like version of the shinobi shoes. And lastly but not least, the same battle gear as her comrades. However, she was not the only one who motioned to speak her mind.

Another one of the team members motioned in her heart to speak. Shy and reserved, her mind wished to speak though her timid heart could not. As she struggled in her soul and opened her lips to spread out what has been relentlessly waving through her mind, she just shut her lips in utter defeat to her heart. Those at the front didn't see her actions, but they were by those closest to her.

The person beside her, who noticed her odd actions, questioned as to what she was to say.

"You were saying something Hinata?"

The perceptive man asked away, curious of the shy one's actions.

The man had his headband raised enough so the other end could cover his left eye and made his hair sway more to the left. He wore a blue mask that covered most of his lower face and nose. He wore a blue undershirt with sleeves, pants and shinobi shoes of the same color. He also wore a green sleeveless cargo vest with many pouches at either side of the front of his vest and a red spiral on its back.

"N-no! It's nothing r-really."

The shy one said as she blushed, and closed her lavender eyes to avoid another expected question. This of course, raised an eyebrow on the perceptive man. Quenching his suspicions he then replied.

"Are you sure? We're still a way off from Sasuke and his group. It might be important."

"No really! I-its nothing at all, Kakashi-sensei… It's not that important."

She said as she looked towards the ground below and touched the tips of her index finger.

Hinata had long bluish black hair flowing in her back which reached just at the middle of her spine. Her hair was shorter in the front except for the bangs in the side that hung until neckline for her eyes and white-skinned face to show. She wore a blackish blue version of the ninja headband on her neck and a jacket, which was mostly purple except for the sleeves and hood at the back that were white except the ends of the sleeves, were purple. She wore blue pants which became tighter around the ends and raised about four and a half inches above her ankles to reveal her black shinobi shoes which were mostly open and strapped to cuff just above her ankles. She also had the same battle gear as the rest of her comrades.

'It can wait after we retrieve Sasuke. After all, we still have a mission.'

Flashback

The entire team of eight, nine if you count the canine of the dog rider, assembled at the rooftop of a shrine somewhere out in fire country. As soon as all members of the search party were present and at attention, Kakashi spoke his orders to them.

"We'll start by searching everywhere in a five kilometer radius, using this roof as our center. If we don't come up with anything, we'll relocate and search another five kilometer area and repeat until we find a clue."

"Five kilometers? But our wireless equipment won't work if we split up that far! And we'll be in danger if we're alone and something happens!"

The panicked pink-haired girl said as she carefully took into account her sensei's words. While still having their attention, she motioned her own opinion.

"We should go in teams of two, at the very least. That way if we encounter any enem-"

"Relax, Sakura."

One of the older ones in the team said, reassuring her that the problem would be settled.

Kakashi crouched down and slammed his right palm flat upon the red tiled roof and a summoning seal revealed itself. In an instant, a puff of smoke appeared. When it finally cleared, eight dogs in several shapes and sizes appeared. The pink-haired kunoichi just stood awestruck by the sudden appearances of the canines. More so was she surprised, when the smallest dog, who sat on the head of the biggest dog, started to speak.

"The echoes of your voices will reach our ears just as fast as wireless gear. And our noses will detect danger well enough in advance to back the closest person up."

"Pakkun!"

The young blonde shouted as he instantly recognized the brown pit bull with a forehead protector on to of his head and a blue vest with a strange insignia on its back.

With the blonde and Kakashi's faithful summon reunited, Kakashi wasted not time to inform the team of their reconnaissance tactic.

"Here's how our patrols will work. Each person on patrol will have two of my ninja hounds as bodyguards. Be nice to them ok?"

" Two? Wait, but then-"

"Hiya Sakura-chan!

One of the dogs said as it approached her.

"You always go for the noisy girls, man."

The other said as it followed his companion.

As they formed their teams, Naruto mentally counted the number of dogs. Aside from the dog rider who already has one, he noticed that he had no canine companion with him as well.

"What about me?"

The young blonde questioned.

"Since you're a jinchuuriki, they'll be targeting you. Since Akatsuki may attack you first, you'll be going with Yamato, for backup and Hinata for her scouting abilities."

Kakashi replied.

"And Bull since he's loud."

Pakkun added from Kakashi's right shoulder were he was perched. The largest of the summoned dogs barked in reply as his spiked collar shook slightly and his dumpy gray mane flowed with the wind.

Naruto turned his head around to see the large dog that replied, just in time to see Hinata approach him.

"L-let's do our best, Naruto-kun!"

"Right!"

The enthusiastic blonde curtly replied.

'I'll give it my all so we can find Sasuke, Naruto-kun'

The shy Hinata thought to herself with fierce, but quiet determination.

With that, the other dogs began to form in pairs as each formed their specific tracking group and commenced the operation to find Sasuke or Itachi. After each member found their canine companions, Kakashi made his final order before they set off.

"All right guys, remember that trailing Sasuke's scent takes priority, and Akatsuki comes second. And regardless of which target you find, your mission is only to determine their location and report back here."

Everyone in the team looked poised and ready to depart. All they needed was the signal from Kakashi. When the one-eyed jounin saw they were ready, he raised his right hand and gave the signal.

" Scramble!"

The entire team then blurred out of existence when the leapt off in different directions.

End of Flashback

As they leaped for hours from branch to branch, in exhaustion, another question from a teammate in that group was darted at the blonde leading the way.

"How much further Naruto?"

Spoke the exhausted one of the team. He had brown hair and wore the same clothing as Kakashi except for his headband, which was shaped to curve his cheeks and chin, and he wore no mask which allowed everyone to see his face.

His face showed concern to the rest of the team knowing that Sasuke could be long gone before they know it.

Sensing this and equipped with the knowledge necessary to locate said person, Naruto replied.

"Not much further Yamato-taicho. If we hurry, we might be able to catch them before they make it to the border by sunset."

With his mind rest assured that it's not much further, Yamato then commanded away.

"Good…Let's keep moving! Everyone, don't fall behind!"

With that firm command, the entire team jumped further and faster towards the direction that Naruto was leading.

"Sasuke knows were on to him before we get there. By the way he moves before we do, he must have one heck of a team member who can feel our presence from several meters away. It would be wise if we can find a way to know the general direction of where he is headed."

The hooded one said in a monotone voice. He wears the hood of his coat to cover his head-full of black hair and face from the sun. He wore a forehead protector and black shades. He also wore a black shirt with a straightened up collar that covers his entire neck and lower face, shoes and rolled up pants of the same color. His feet were bandaged all the way up to his lower legs so none of his skin could be seen. He also wore the same battle gear as the rest.

Everyone nodded at his statement knowing full well how far his or her target was running and how fast. Another one of the eight members motioned to reply to his statement.

"You're right there Shino. It's not exactly a walk in the park like last time in Orochimaru's hideout. Even the slightest amount of charka might trigger suspicion from them. That means Hinata's Byakugan would be useless if we can't think of a distraction."

The objective one in the group said. He wore the same battle gear and forehead protector like the rest. His shirt was colored black and hung just above his stomach. His gloves, pants, shoes and hair were of the same color as the shirt. He had the same color of eyes as Sasuke. In fact, he could very well be Sasuke's twin as he looked just like him if it were not for his shorter, tamer hair that flowed down to his cheek.

With his calculated statement, all were thinking of a way to counter this weakness. Until, like a spark of a fuse, Naruto's brain lit up with an idea.

"I've got an idea for that problem Sai and Shino."

He said to the black clad objective one and the hooded one with the monotone voice. All eyes now turned to Naruto with open minds and ears, waiting on his brilliant plan. The pink haired youth asked away in impatience.

"What is it then?"

Undeterred, Naruto began to give the necessary commands to his team in order to commence the imminent operation.

"Kiba, could you spray Akamaru's scent on us? And Kakashi-sensei, can we have the other dogs spray their scent on us as well?"

He said to the dog-rider and the perceptive man. A fox grin formed on his face. This startled everyone and put all in fear of what his 'unconventional' plan was. The entire team then just sweat-dropped and had a bluish pale expression on them. These questionable orders from Naruto's lips inspired a heightened emotion from a certain pink haired youth.

"BAKA! LIKE HELL I'D GET PISSED ON BY A MUTT SHANNARO!"

She screamed while vomiting the words 'pissed on' and a vein started throbbing on her head. Of course, the rest of the team reluctantly agreed but still stumped by how it will break off their chakra trail from the enemy's line of sight. The dog-rider then took the liberty of speaking his mind concerning the matter.

"Sure no problem…I think I get what you're doing. But our chakra—"

Before Kiba could continue his sentence, Naruto raised his hands and used his two fingers; both the middle and index, from both hands two form a cross pattern and shouted,

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Soon, all eight of them saw eight more Naruto clones appear before them. With a quick shout of 'Henge' from the original Naruto, all the clones became identical copies of the team of eight. Seeing his plan in motion, the perceptive man was no longer baffled.

"I get it now. By spraying the dogs' scent on us, we would smell like the summoned dogs and we would chase them in two directions. They would notice the clones but not the dogs and probably confuse us for the summoned dogs."

The one-eyed jounin said as he paced faster.

Understanding this, the hooded one with a monotone voice continued his dialogue.

"The charka signatures won't be noticed because we would smell like the summoned dogs and they would think we summoned more dogs to the battlefield."

With a smirk on his face Naruto nodded. With this done, the clones followed the trail with some of Kakashi's summoned dogs while the rest split in another direction hoping to reach them on the other side through the cliffs near the edge of the forest. When they reached the end of the cliff, Hinata, from a reserved state, was now confident enough to use her skills to detect the enemy. Clasping her hands in a strange fashion with some of her fingers tucked in, she shouted,

"Byakugan...I can see them. It seems their running away faster now into the cliff up ahead. The plan is working." 'Naruto's plan is leading them into a dead end. It actually worked.'

The rest of the team except Naruto just smiled as they heard her reconnaissance of the area. Now poised and ready to ambush them from their vantage point, they readied themselves for battle. Sakura, though worried, put on her bravest face as she tightened her grip on her gloves. Sai prepared his scroll and brush and checked how much ink he has left. Shino sent his bugs out into the grounds were they would commence the strategy at his whim. Kiba and Akamaru, his dog, just sat at the foothill to hide their presence as planned. Yamato clung close to the walls of the cliff keeping an eye out ahead while Hinata and Naruto hid among the trees closest to the cliff to prepare for the capture of Sasuke's group.

There was silence.

Not even the chirping of birds was heard.

The wind died down in the barrier of silence.

This was it.

It is their one and only one chance to regain an old friend.

Whew! Its short, but I finally have my first fanfic up! Anyway, for those who aren't familiar with the setting of this chapter, half of it was from the manga where they're chasing Sasuke. The last half was my own.

This fanfic is still in progress so I need reviews.

Ok, let's clear up some things:

1st of all, there will be NO harem, Yaoi and Yuri. I already chose the pairings, and frankly I'm satisfied with it thank you…

2nd, I'm fine with criticism. BRING ON THE FLAMES! I THRIVE IN FIRE!

And lastly, please tell me if some things are confusing and if I have typos. I'm an aspiring writer and I need to know especially since I don't have a beta. Not that I need one at the moment.

Anyhow, the next chapter will be more exciting. Expect Hinata to kick ass in the next one. Whoever said she is weak is dead wrong. The quite ones are usually the scariest to encounter. Hope you enjoyed reading my fanfic.