"Well that was weird." Sasuke commented. He eyed a stray kunai left during the battle and picked it up. "I guess I better kill him before he does that or that weird red thing either."
All of a sudden, three figures came out of hiding and landed not that far from the traitorous Uchiha. He immediately recognized two of them, but the third was someone he never bothered to notice.
"Drop the kunai Sasuke. You're coming home with us." Kakashi, both eyes visible, told his once favored student. He then briefly glanced at the two others without losing his focus on Sasuke. "Girls, what are you two doing here?"
"Hokage-sama told me and Hinata to follow you, in case you decided to ignore your mission and follow these two." Sakura answered and Hinata nodded, her angry byakugan-enhanced glare focused on Sasuke who had yet to lose his weapon. "She was apparently right to worry you would act this way."
"If you interfere I'm going to kill you all too." Sasuke warned.
Sakura glared at him. "Give it up Sasuke. You're outnumbered and worn out from fighting Naruto. Even you must realize the odds are against you."
Sasuke was mad they were calling his bluff. He figured he could easily get rid of Sakura, maybe struggle to beat the Hyuuga but still beat her, but there was no way he could defeat Kakashi in this state. No matter how he looked at it, he had lost.
Angry at such a circumstance, the young sharingan user tightened his grip on his kunai. 'At least I can kill the dobe and prove I'm still stronger than him.' Moving at quick as he can, which wasn't as fast as he would have preferred, Sasuke tried to drive the kunai into Naruto's neck for his token victory.
Before he could get close, he saw out of the corner of his eyes Kakashi create a raikiri, no doubt to use on him. Thinking quickly and using some of the last bits of chakra he had, Sasuke waited until the moment Kakashi lunged at him and did a kawarimi.
Kakashi, Sakura, and Hinata were horrified to see Sasuke made Naruto take his place for the attack, resulting in Naruto getting another life-threatening wound. Maybe one too many for even the kyuubi to help heal.
By substituting with Naruto, Sasuke ended up putting himself on the ground and tried to get back up. However, he was stopped by a very unexpected obstacle: Sakura's fist to his head, followed by Hinata's juuken.
Kakashi ignored the two angry girls in favor of trying to keep Naruto alive. The way he saw it, nothing short of a miracle could save Naruto right now, but he had to try. As he tried using what little medical jutsu he had copied in his life, Kakashi ntoiced two things at work on Naruto's injuries. The first was red chakra, obviously from the kyuubi, trying to stop Naruto from bleeding to death and repair the cellular damage, and a strange orange chakra working on the wounds too, as if reinforcing the red chakra. 'I don't understand this, but if it increases Naruto's odds of living by even one percent I won't stop it.' The cycloptic jounin thought as he continued to help in his own way.
Meanwhile, Sakura and Hinata looked like they were trying to bring Sasuke closer to death instead. They stopped after he stopped resisting, allowing them to see he was unconscious. Both girls panted heavily, their adrenaline rush wearing off. Sakura smiled at Hinata. "Not bad Hinata. I just hope Naruto being in danger is the only thing that can get you this driven in a fight."
"Thank you Sakura-san." The shy girl replied. "Umm... if you don't mind my asking, why exactly were you attacking Sasuke-san too? I thought you were so fond of him."
The pinkette looked upset and lost eye contact with the Hyuuga heiress. "I'll tell you later. It's a long story and we need to get Naruto and Sasuke back." She then came up to her sensei with Hinata following. "Kakashi-sensei, is Naruto ok?"
"I'm not sure, but he's healing. Someone up there must like him."
Hinata leaned down and gently kissed Naruto, much to the surprise of the others. "He's still warm and returned it, so he's going to be fine." She said happily with tears in her eyes.
"Looks like I'm not the only one with a long story to tell, huh Hinata?" Sakura commented with a friendly tone, causing Hinata to blush.
"Not now girls. We need to take these two home before Naruto gets worse." Kakashi said as he created a clone to pick up Sasuke while he picked up Naruto. The girls nodded, and soon everyone headed back to Konoha.
Far away from the Valley of the End, there was a gigantic tree surrounded by many big ones but they looked puny by comparison. There was something unusual about this tree, but it was something no one could put their finger on. It was almost unworldly, something monks would call divine and ninja would call a chakra anomaly. This tree felt like it had it's own chakra system, a biological impossibility since chakra was only created by animals and people. And if that wasn't odd enough, the chakra from the tree did not feel like ordinary chakra. It was an unclassified type. For this reason, everyone agreed to leave this strange tree alone.
No one was anywhere near the tree right now, which was a good thing. Because right then some of the bark began to move like some sort of sheet. Soon a hole was revealed, a black gap so dark nothing could be seen inside it. But a moment later, there were a few small lights like stars glowing, and a hand came out, followed by a head then the rest of a body.
"I'm back." Kushina said as the hole behind her closed. "How long has it been? Naruto was only supposed to be six years old. Not old enough to be a genin. What happened? Damn that woman for making me take so long to get back to this realm. And damn her for taking me from it in the first place."
She sighed and shook her head. "That's not important. I need to see my baby now, even if he's not a baby anymore. He needs to know who and what he is, and will be. Before not knowing kills him."
Without saying another word, Kushina was immediately on the move.