Orange, Spirals and Everything Nice

Three: Missions Together

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters or the setting of the story. They all exclusively belong to Mr. Masashi Kishimoto in all its rights.

Konoha was left in disarray.

The village lost the excelled Third Hokage to Orochimaru during the invasion of the said legendary sannin and his compatriots, including the hidden villages of Sound and Sand, during the heat of the chuunin exams.

The village mourned for the Sandaime and his unrivaled sacrifice, along with all the lives they lost during the aforementioned tragedy. And, slowly, they endured.

There was nothing more they could do with all the nightmares and the scars that would haunt them as they refuel their undying will of fire. So, they step forward together like they always do.

And once again, the village gets back up on its feet by welcoming the world renowned medical ninja, one of the legendary sannins, as well as the first granddaughter of the First Hokage -- Tsunade Senju -- as the Fifth Hokage.

Tsunade was brought back to the village by Naruto and the last of the legendary sannin -- Jiraiya -- who eventually became the blonde ninja's master, some time during the chuunin exams.

Bringing home the Fifth was yet another of his incredibly surprising victories following the momentous battle he won against Gaara of the Sand -- the redhead with the large gourd who was actually the jinjuriiki of the one-tailed beast -- during the destruction of Konoha.

Naruto just kept on conquering monstrous opponents as he steadily improves his strength and skills as a shinobi. And the village was finally starting to see him in a different light.

However, the growing ninja had yet to face the most strenuous mission in his life when his teammate and closest friend -- or so he says -- deserts the village and everyone else, and decides to follow Orochimaru. Sasuke's departure left his previous classmates in utter disbelief. No one was willing to answer the question Why? and most of them just bluntly branded him as a traitor.

Except Naruto.

The blue-eyed blonde, stubbornly believes that Sasuke has his unspoken reasons for his vague actions, and he blindly believes in the good in him.

And so, the 'Sasuke recovery mission team' was created in a rush to bring back the defector.

Unfortunately, the mission was a complete failure, leaving most of the members barely hanging on to life. The damage was so great that it left the genins doubting themselves and their abilities at one point.

Thankfully, everyone recovered with the endless help of Tsunade-sama and her unrivaled medical experts. The mission team was saved, but Uchiha Sasuke was long gone, and Naruto was broken. He felt broken much more than everything he had lost and experienced in his young life.

He lost Sasuke and he couldn't keep his promise to Sakura.

But he won't let it end there. Never.

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Hinata had lost count of the prayers she had been sending up to the heavens from the moment she heard the news about the recovery team.

Neji was literally clinging on to life when he was first brought to the hospital after almost dying in battle. Now, he was lying inside a surgery room of some sort, a large healing seal surrounding him as medical professionals sat around him in a circle, to close the fatal wound that went through his right chest, right above his heart.