</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Winged Dancer @ Dec 10 2003, 12:16 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> [QUOTE=Gabriel Angelfire,Dec 7 2003, 02:51 AM]
Regarding the other, lets remember that Shizune (Tsunade&#39;s lieutenant or second in charge) is close, along with other three jounins. I&#39;m sure that they were following the Sound Nins to a distance just to see what did they want to do - it&#39;ll be a matter of time before they find dead?Chouji, Severlywounded&#33;Neji and so forth.

SO my theory is;
Shikamaru leaves, fights, kills and almost dies,
Kiba leaves, fights, kills almost dies,
Naruto and Sasuke fight,
Orochimaru and/or Kabuto appear and take Sasuke away,
Naruto goes back, finds Kiba, drags Kiba back, finds Shikamaru, drags Shikamaru back,
Jouning team finds Naruto and the other two, they already have Neji and Chouji with them.
Shizune says that mostly everyone&#39;s condition is critical, they hurry back to Konoha, everybody ends up in the hospital except Naruto, who only spends one night there.
Lee gets his operation,
Naruto finds Sakura. He apologizes for not bringing Sasuke back, but promises he will do so one day - soon, of course.
Sakura cries, hugs Naruto.
End of Story Arc&#33; Introduce new storyline&#33; </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
That&#39;s the way I see it too. Everybody *almost* dies, but someone saves them. Hey, can you see into the future?