Prologue:

The rains was coming down in torrents, drenching everything and destroying any chance of visibility. It had come out unexpectedly and out of nowhere, and it seemed that this storm had absolutely no intentions of leaving any time soon.

As the rain continued its relentless fall from the skies the cobbled streets became flooded and soon began to overflow off the rich and grassy hill in which the city was located. This created a great number of small waterfalls rushing off the hill and reflecting moonlight which created deformed shapes and shadows on the stone buildings. A distinct bird cry rang throughout the city signaling the great and fearsome hawk as it soared towards the roof of a house gracefully landing on the wooden gutter.

The bird seemed to be waiting, but for exactly what was unclear. Soon steps began to vibrate of the worn stone roads and a figure cloaked in rich silk robes of purple approached the home in which the bird was currently taking residence on. As the figure neared it drew from its cloak a thin sword with a sapphire hilt engraved with various runes all glowing as the sword was brought further towards the house.

"Finally I have found you, and to think that I almost passed over this village, well no need to think about that now, there are much more important things now aren't there Thorn."

The hawk took flight for only a brief instant before landing on the shoulder of the cloaked figure. The figure approached the warped door of the house before muttering beneath their breath. A red pentacle appeared on the door and began to smolder before it burst into a cloud of ashes leaving the door frame barren. The hawk flew off the figure's shoulder again taking a post on the house across the cobbled road. The cloaked figure laughed and pulled of the hood to the cloak revealing long blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail "Come now Sakura now is not the time to hide."

Chapter One: Presence of a Stranger.

Sakura had been having a relatively peaceful slumber until she had been awakened by the sound of wood imploding and the strong presence of another's magical energy. She quickly jumped up grabbing a small black bag filled with powder and also grabbed an amulet inscribed with runes for protection and healing. She quickly slipped it over her neck and quietly opened the door to her room. Sakura crept down the hallway which was very richly furnished with graceful and lavish pieces and also had an array of fancy decorations that Sakura had managed to salvage from her mentor's old manor.

.As she neared the grand staircase at the end of the hallway she was suddenly overcome with the intruder's magical energy, it was like a thick fog incasing and compressing around her, smothering her every move and making it difficult to continue making her way down the hall. "Great whoever this is has to be powerful if just the energy pulse they give off does this." She thought to herself as she neared the thick banisters.

The shadow of a figure holding a knife was overcast on the wall before Sakura due to the light the small fireplace was giving off in the corner. Just then the figure moved forward and Sakura ducked behind a cabinet filled with china and crystal dishes and glass wear.

"Why does this energy pulse seem so familiar? Why does it seem like I have felt it before? Why am I talking to myself?" Sakura asked herself as the figure began walking towards the yellow wall opposite of the stairs. Suddenly the figure turned around and Sakura gasped "Great Gods its Ino." She thought wildly, quickly clamping one of her petite hands over her mouth.

But it was too late and Ino responded by sending a bolt of white hot energy towards the cabinet Sakura was hiding behind. It hit the cabinet shattering everything inside sending chunks and pieces of china and crystal flying through the air before clattering nosily to the ground sending the shards scattering across the wooden floors.

Sakura took this chance to stand up and rush towards Ino, hand raised and screaming "How dare you come into my home unannounced in the middle of the night and have the gall to attack me, in my own home, and destroy all of my teacher's china." She said releasing a glowing black powder from the bag that fell in clumps over the banister and landed on Ino causing her to drop her blade and the glowing runes light to be extinguished.

As the powder shimmered, causing Ino to shake, she quickly jumped up blasting waves of pure magical energy at Sakura in razor sharp blades before she was fully immobilized by the powder. The blades sliced the walls and anything in their path leaving the rooms in tatters and causing the stairwell to collapse.

"What's a matter S-A-K-U-R-A?" she asked tauntingly raising her fist as the rubble and dust cleared. "You aren't afraid of me now are you?" she asked launching another barrage of the deadly energy blades throughout the house causing the inner walls to crumble and now leaving the house in complete ruin.

Ino climbed on a mound of rubble and was shocked when vines sprouted from the rubble, wrapping around her arms and legs first, before slowly incasing her entire body in the strange white wooded vines sporting pale pink Sakura blossoms which began to drain her energy. "Well it looks like you aren't the pathetic excuse for a mage you use to be, I've heard of your great accomplishments as a healer and your natural talent with nature magic, but I never expected you to become as good as the rest of the Leaf Coven."

Sakura appeared in a flash of flower petals grinning in triumphant glory. "Now is that a hint of jealousy I just heard?" she asked bluntly pointing the tip of her finer against the soft flesh of Ino's neck.

Ino gulped before focusing all her energy into her last resort attack. Purple and white markings appeared on her forehead and the room was instantly filled with intense gusts of psychic energy. All the broken pieces of the once marvelous furniture and decorations began to levitate off the ground, slowly glowing as they began swirling with the intense psychic energy.

"Now Sakura allow and behold this, my greatest ability, using my gift with psychic energy, and my mental abilities I can create a monstrous and deadly storm of energy with just my mind." Ino said beginning to laugh with an almost insane glee.

The vines were ripped from Ino by the psychic winds and turned to dust within second of entering the storm. "And to think that back at the village you and I use to live in together, what those wrinkled idiots thought of us, before the Vampires came and destroyed it of course. The other villagers and Arch Mages use to say that I would only be a petty magician capable of merely transferring my mind using my psychic abilities into others rendering my own body useless, of course that village was a bunch of babbling fools that only cared about power directly from birth which neither of us were gifted with. So we became third class citizens and disregarded as incompetent practiconers of magic." At that she snorted before smiling again.

"Well of course if any of those fools were still alive they sure would be shocked senseless if they saw the powers both of us have now, wouldn't they Sakura?"

Sakura couldn't answer as the mighty psychic storm picked her up and began to slice her as she was lifted into the vortex of energy. All Sakura knew was that she was now bleeding badly and at the rate she was being cut she would surly die if the assault continued for much longer.

Consciousness began to fade as the world around her turned to black and her eyes closed heavily "Maybe now I can be at peace." Sakura thought sadly as she saw a blur of orange before completely blacking out into unconsciousness.

But then the vortex stopped and she was jolted back into consciousness as she began to fall. Opening her eyes weakly, Sakura could only watch in horror as the ground came rushing towards her. She tried to make her body go limp, bracing for the impact and already starting to heal her injuries even as she fell. A faint green energy surrounded her various deep wounds, closing them with a faint hissing sound. She waited for the impact, calling the healing energy to cover her whole body so it could act as a shield, yet it never came. Instead Sakura felt two strong arms incase her own body and catch her as she was mere seconds from meeting with the floor.

She opened her eyes to see a boy around her age who was much taller then herself with a wild array of blonde spikes and sapphire eyes gleaming with emotion. He had broad shoulders and a muscled fame, and had caught Sakura with little strain, even as she had been tumbling towards the ground.

He was dressed in orange and black robes and had various weapons attached to his form including a large whistle roughly the size of a watermelon and shaped like a frog painted orange and red.

He grinned at her before setting her down on an overturned and tattered sofa. "Uzumaki Naruto at your service."

He said staring at her intensely for a moment before turning towards Ino screaming at her.

"What did I say; bring her to us unharmed, but no I guess that was too much since you nearly almost killed her."

He screamed as Ino stared blankly at him trembling

"Bu—But I don't know what happened, she said clutching a small purple crystal on a chain around her neck and beginning to cry

Naruto looked back at her and sighed, anger still prominent on his sharpened features

"Ino this is why I said I should have come, because you have personal ties with her and grievances with her from your past, and I knew they would get in the way."

He said softening his tone, as Ino continued to tremble and a silent trail of tears ran down her face.

"How could I, we had been best friends before the raid, and look at me I almost killed her."

She cried miserably breaking down into a pile on the floor

Naruto sighed and looked around before his head snapped in the direction he had left Sakura

"Shit!, she's gone!" he screamed looking around wildly

Ino looked up, frantically wiping her face, and then cursed as she probed the surrounding buildings with her psychic senses, couldn't even sense her energy force any more.

: WITH SAKURA:

As Naruto stormed over towards Ino Sakura quickly took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed. It was easy enough because this Naruto character and Ino were in a heated discussion and she was pretty good at going unnoticed and making herself disappear. Even if that Naruto guy had saved her, he worked with Ino, and Ino had just lost control and almost killed her, so Sakura wasn't to trusting of him.

Now she was a couple of miles away from the village and pretty proud of her progress, after all she had managed to avoid being detected by those two and was now a good distance away that she didn't think they could easily track her, even with magic. She let a faint smile decorate her features as she continued walking through the mighty oak trees of the untamed woodlands. She soon jumped up on a branch and began jumping forward using magic to propel herself even further by jumping from branch to branch.

"Well it never hurt being a little careful." She said to herself as a large vibration caused her to stop in her tracks.

Sakura looked towards the village and saw a massive orange frog speeding towards her and gaining on her location.

"Damn" she cursed to herself as she turned back around and once again began running aimlessly through the tree branches trying to desperately outrun the enormous toad.

: Back with Naruto and Ino:

As Ino stood up and began probing the area around the village for Sakura's energy source Naruto withdrew the frog whistle and loudly blew into it once creating a large cloud of orange smoke.

As the smoke began to spread out it started to take the form of a massive frog and slowly began materializing into a real giant toad.

Naruto jumped onto its head and signaled for Ino to follow which she quickly complied to, and jumped up on the massive toad's skull next to him as the summoned creature took off running towards the woods.

"Ino now try and find her using your psychic senses." Naruto replied as they soon reached the edge of the woods and the frog stopped suddenly, causing the ground to shake and give off loud vibrations.

Ino did as told and began focusing her energy and soon a third eye appeared on her forehead composed of purple and white energy. The eye was closed but continued to build up energy until it was glaringly prominent on the center of her forehead and the eye opened releasing a beam of energy outwards in a concentrated force.

This force began picking up thoughts, life forms, and energy signatures and soon had pinpointed Sakura's location.

"She's about two miles north, but it looks like she had started to head west, probably because she could sense the energy vibrations that the frog gave off. That what was always so weird back in our old village, she use to be able to sense and know things others didn't, almost like a sixth sense. That's why when we were younger I thought she was psychic like me, but it's really more of an empathic connection with the forces of nature. She could just feel things and sense them because of it, and she was so strange back then. Well to everyone but me. We were the losers, the outcasts, the ones that nobody wanted, and because of that we were closer then sisters."

She said in a blurry of rushed words as Naruto nodded and the frog turned a little and sped off towards Sakura's location.

Soon Sakura's form could be seen passing through the trees, just a pink blur with her magic-enhanced speed.

Naruto looked at Ino again before drawing two orange gauntlets from his cloak and attaching them to his fists.

They began glowing with an orange and red energy and Naruto lifted one of his hands and pointed towards Sakura

The energy in the gauntlet began to condense and build up until it shot out in a concentrated beam towards Sakura's retreating figure.

: Back with Sakura Again:

As the frog quickly gained on Sakura she cursed as she sensed Naruto and Ino's energy signatures

"Great, why can't they just leave me alone?" She thought listlessly as she felt the trees around her and they began whispering to her.

At first when Sakura had been little and still back at the old village with Ino, she thought she was going mad, until she decided to listen to the things she could sense from her bond with nature. Then she learned what a magnificent gift she truly had.

Of course she hadn't begun comprehending or understanding these powers fully until Tsunade had taken her as her apprentice and taught her much more about it.

But thankfully now she did listen, and just in time as she dodged a huge beam of orange energy from Naruto.

She quickly back flipped into the thicker branches of the tree, and focusing her energy caused the trees and their branches to grow into a round shield filled with magical energy which deflected the array of orange beams of energy Naruto hurled at her from his glowing orange gauntlets.

Naruto continued the barrage of energy beams until finally the tightly woven branches of the shield began to crack before splintering and exploding into thousands of tiny slivers that flew in every direction.

Sakura stared at him dumbfounded

"What kind of power did he have to be able to shatter one of her strongest shields and not even break a sweat?"

She thought as she dodged a fist made completely of psychic energy sent to attack her by Ino. Sakura quickly caused the psychic attack to deteriorate with a dissection technique that quickly tore the attack apart. The pink-haired girl continued with her usage of medical spells and techniques by sending a concentrated blast of purple energy at Ino which knocked the blonde off the giant toad leaving her sprawling in the leaves on the forest floor as her nerves were jolted by the pinkette's spell. A subtle, lingering pain erupted throughout Ino's body as the spell took its full effects.

"Damn you Sakura, we just want to offer you a place in the leaf Coven."

She said seething as she stood up and shot more of her sharpened energy blades at Sakura, easily demolishing the surrounding trees and foliage.

Sakura smiled with no humor her brilliant viridian eyes cold and distant.

"If this is how you extend an invitation to join your little coven then I can hardly be driven to join. I want nothing but to be left alone, what don't you understand about that?" She asked her once upon a time, best friend in a cruel voice

The blades of energy decimated the surrounding plants in sickening flashes of silver and purple, turning Sakura's main weapon into nothing but heaps of shredded leaves and branches.

Sakura paused. She wasn't the most skilled in battle. Her main talents lay in healing and support, and though under Tsunade's training she had learned to harness her natural bond with the forces of nature into attacks, they were primarily defenses and most of the pink haired magic-users training had gone into medical and healing magics and evasion.

Sakura knew she was fairly capable with creating barriers and shields, but with Ino's surprising battle prowess and the alarming strength of Naruto's spells, she knew she was merely wasting her energy creating barriers that the two could easily shatter.

Not to mention that Tsunade had also taught her all of her magical secrets, not merely the medical ones. The world renowned healer had been quite astounded at Sakura's natural connection and affinity with nature and its energies. Tsunade herself was considered to have an almost god-like connection and bond with nature, and that connection was how she was able to create her monstrous strengths in attacks as well as how she had such amazing healing and regeneration powers.

After a year of being her apprentice, Tsunade had finally taught her that secret, and both she and Sakura had been astounded at how quickly Sakura picked the technique up.

But since Sakura had faded into the background of things, trying to avoid detection by the vampires after they raided Tsunade's manor, and also trying to figure out her next move of how to go about aiding the lands, she had learned to block portions of her power so she could avoid detection.

One of the things she had gone through various attempts to suppress to a point and keep hidden was her bond with nature so instead of constantly pervading her, it was more a dull sense instead of the heightened one it had been after her training under Tsunade.

She could open herself completely, and that way also have access to her monstrous strength, but the risk of doing such a thing was that energy had been building up in her, almost akin to the steam in a teapot. It had been building up, festering, seething and growing, and Sakura wasn't sure what would happen now if she released all the blocks she had placed on herself to remain hidden.

Especially due to her intricate bond with nature, after all the damage Ino had inflicted on the plants, Sakura was leery of what might result from her lowering the blocks she'd placed on herself for fear that with the sudden opening of her natural connection, that the energies of the plants might latch on to the opening so to speak and use her as an unwilling channel.

It was a price she knew would occur when she had placed the blocks on herself, but she had been doing so well at going unnoticed and remaining hidden that she figured she would have time to sort out these blocks before she was forced into a major fight.

Heaving a heavy sigh as these thoughts all flashed through her mind in a few seconds, Sakura closed her eyes and disintegrated all the blocks she had placed and set upon herself.

Almost instantly she was overwhelmed. The energies of everything around her were smothering her, and surrounding her in all their powers and energies. For a few years now Sakura hadn't had to deal with this onslaught, and its force caught her so off guard, that she couldn't even block the torn apart plants as they began to shrilly scream.

Sakura held her head as their screams of pain only grew louder. Now her whole body was shaking and the voices raised higher still into an otherworldly chorus of agony and pain that wracked Sakura's body as all her once blocked senses and connections flared to life in a brutalizing explosion.

Suddenly the energy of the trees and plants surrounded her, filling her with unimaginable power as her senses pulled more and more the energy from all around into her.

As the staggering amounts of energy entered her body, she screamed releasing a great storm of wind and rain that came crashing on Naruto and Ino.

The frog jumped trying to avoid the onslaught, but the first wave of the storm hit its leg and sent it sprawling on the ground with a sickening thud before it disappeared with a puff of orange smoke.

Naruto and Ino stared at Sakura's form which was now being surrounded by a strange green energy that was overpowering her.

Ino activated her third eye again and gasped, shocked as she saw the destroyed tatters of trees and plants pouring their energy into Sakura, and saw Sakura's own body instinctively pulling more and more energy into itself.

"This is bad; the plants seem to be forcing their energy into her, and her own body is subconsciously drawing all the energy from around her into itself"

Ino said desperately looking at the green energies of the cut plants and trees that they were now sending it into Sakura's own form as well as the literal sea of energy Sakura was drawing into herself from her surroundings.

Naruto looked at her "What do you mean the plants are forcing their energy into her and that she is also drawing energy into herself?"

He screamed at her looking furious as Sakura screamed again causing the ground to crack and shatter into a massive crater below her.

Leaves and the remnants of the trees and plants Ino destroyed went flying through the air and the rain picked up as did the already ferocious wind.

Ino's hair flew wildly in the wind behind her as she struggled to find an answer to Naruto's question.

After another minute of thinking and another cry from Sakura generating even more power into the storm, Ino finally spoke.

"the only thing that I can think of is that her bond with nature that makes her nature magic so good also gives her a connection to it's energies and powers, which would explain a lot, but it also allows Nature to somewhat take control of her on rare occasions, like when she get's upset of angered or like in a rare case like this that must have been cause by me destroying the trees. But I don't think that's all there is to it either. It seems she must have put blocks on herself to weaken her connection to nature she she'd remain undetected, and that allowed energies and forces to build up, and now that she's released these blocks this is happening"

Naruto thought for a minute looking intently at Sakura's glowing green form that was levitating up into the air and taking on an eerie appearance/

"So you mean to say that because of her bond with nature the plants in a panic crazed moment chose to force their energy into her?"

He asked looking at her surprised until the storm increased in intensity yet again by another scream from Sakura, and sent them both flying back and slamming into the murky depths of a small pool.

Ino sputtered as she stood staring at Sakura's form

"She can't take much more of their energy, or she'll die."

She said sadly as she readied another telekinetic blast that went spiraling through the storm and imploded into a massive wall of telekinetic energy, blocking the majority of the storm.

Ino turned to Naruto

"There's not much time, the wall won't hold off this storm for too long, and Sakura's body won't be able to contain much more energy form the plants."

She said just as cuts began opening all over Sakura's body and the green energy of the plants began seeping out of the wounds they created and spiraling around her.

Sakura gave one final scream, but no more energy went to power the storm. Instead the green energy healed all the wounds it had opened up, still surrounding her in its faint glow, and the pinkette collapsed on the ground in a small heap. In seconds the storm died down to a dull rain shower.

Ino cursed as she saw Naruto's face contort in anger before he became surrounded by an orange energy.

"Naruto, calm down!" she screamed desperately sending a psychic orb to try and contain him.

The orb of purple energy surrounded Naruto and encased the monstrous orange energy swirling around and on him.

Ino grimaced as he roared and the energy shot out at the shield cracking it and sending Ino slamming back into the cloudy pool of water.

She quickly resurfaced and trudged to the pool's edge, getting out and focusing her energy and preparing to send her mind into Naruto's.

As she focused desperately willing her energy into this last spell the orange energy began gathering on his body and forming the rough silhouette of a massive fox.

As the energy condensed more on his body, Naruto screamed as it forced blood out mixing with the orange energy to make sinister blood orange energy.

Naruto was about to scream again but was suddenly silenced as the energy took over his mind.

Ino could only watch in horror as Naruto's eyes turned from cerulean blue to blood orange and he began to mutter incoherently to himself.

The voice however wasn't Naruto's, for it was wild and ancient

"Damn it!" Ino screamed

"You idiot, why did you lose control? Now you've released the demon fox again!"

She yelled now furious at Naruto for losing control of the Demon fox.

He turned to her and in that ancient, animalistic voice began talking

"Foolish girl, did you really think those mind seals would stop me?"

He asked laughing as he disappeared in a flash and was by Sakura's side licking a large gash across her forehead

"Don't you even think of laying a finger on her you demon." She yelled furiously sending a small energy blade out that the Demon Fox-possessed Naruto quickly destroyed with a swipe of a tail that was now growing.

Soon it reached well over ten feet and another tail sprouted, and in no time three of the legendary nine tails of the fox demon had sprouted and were now moving back in fourth behind the demon fox.

"Shut up woman, I haven't time for you're foolish shouting and yakking; the kit himself knew he couldn't stop this girl from receiving so much of nature's energy, so he called on my powers to aid him. Quite an interesting woman this one."

He replied smirking as the three tails stretched towards Sakura and grabbed her, wrapping her in the blood orange tails created by the demonic energy.

They began to constrict around her and then release and withdraw, bringing with it some of the green energy from the plants.

In a few moments Sakura began stirring and after a couple more applications of the demon fox withdrawing energy she awoke and gasped.

Sakura began struggling before the Fox Demon unrolled his tails dropping Sakura.

She fell, and landed ungracefully on the forest floor.

Ino rushed over to her and glared at the Fox Demon who was now laughing

"Well kit, I did as you asked, and you did the blood pact, which now means that that stupid woman can't block your mind from me and our energy shall now be suffused forever."

He said before the energy receded and the glowing red eyes returned to their natural cerulean color.

Naruto fell to his knees from the force the demon fox had inflected on him by suffusing their energy together.

He struggled to his feet before walking towards Sakura who herself was trying to get up, and failing quite miserably.

"Can't you both just leave me alone?' She said furiously before she stopped her struggle and relaxed for a moment before her hand started to glow a soothing light green color.

Sakura raised her hand to her forehead before Naruto grabbed her hand stopping her.

He glared at her as she tried to break free of his grip, but he was much stronger then her and she soon realized this giving up and glaring back at him.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked glaring at her as he let her hand go.

Sakura rolled her eyes

"What does it look like; I'm healing myself, that energy from the plants and such might have healed my external injuries, but there's still internal damage left from all of that energy."

She said, once again lifting her hand to her forehead in an attempt to heal herself.

But yet again Naruto grabbed her hand

"But you shouldn't even be using any of your energy, never mind be healing yourself."

He replied looking at her sternly

"The energy the plants gave you and the other forces you were drawing in instinctively damaged the energy paths in your body. I know that because I can see your body is swelling, especially where the energy creating organs are."

He said as Sakura tried to stand but yet again failed miserably, falling to the ground.

Ino quickly caught her and withdrew a small emergency medical kit from the pouch attached to her waist beneath her robes, and began getting out gauze and medicines.

"Why are you helping me now Ino? Before you tried to kill me, and now you're trying to treat my injuries."

She asked as she pulled slightly away from Ino. The blonde frowned and her lipped quiver before she spoke in a raspy voice

"I'm sorry about that Sakura, really I didn't mean to do that, but I lost control, I got lost in the past and my bitterness towards you never trying to locate me and how we got separated and everything else that's happened since our village was raided, and thanks to that I almost killed you."

She said sadly as tears began to form in her eyes.

Sakura looked up and smiled at her softly.

"It's alright Ino, I mean there's a lot I don't understand about why you're so angry or bitter at me, but I just lost control of myself today as well." She said patting her on the back before she embraced her long lost friend.

"You know Sakura; I really missed you after those werewolves separated us. At first I thought you were dead. I went back and looked for you and searched and searched for days. But I couldn't find you, not even a trace. And then years later there were rumors of Lady Tsunade taking on a pink haired apprentice so I figured you had moved on and forgotten about me, and then there were reports about you having become a healer and nature mage."

She said returning the embrace

Sakura smiled and laughed patting the blonde's back

"I had been worried too, and I searched as well. But the werewolves wounded me, and I would have died if Lady Tsunade's attendant Shizune hadn't stumbled across me on an search for medicinal herbs. I heard rumors of a blonde psychic be apprenticed by the Lady Bog Eye, but I was never sure if it was you. I had a feeling, but by then I was training to become strong enough to search for you, and then the vampire's raided Lady Tsunade's manor."

Then getting a mischievous look in her remote eyes, the pinkette, placed a small hand on Ino's cheek

"But I never heard any rumors about you Ino-pig." She said lovingly, embracing the old insult that had eventually turned into affectionate pet names for the friends.

Ino burst into laughter too; scaring away a few owls that had been observing the scene unfold.

"Well forehead-girl I'm sure it's just because you were too addled to understand the rumors that were going around then."

She said as Naruto picked Sakura up who smiled up at him and laughed

"I can walk you know."

She said laughing again as Naruto grinned at her

"Maybe for the moment, but when your brain finally gets out of the shock stage of what happened, you're body is going to kind of break down for a few days."

Sakura looked at him funnily for a moment as they began walking through the woods.

"And how would you know that, are you some sort of healer too?" she asked

Naruto laughed at this

"No, I don't think I have the skill to heal, but when the demon fox takes over and forces his energy into me, the side affects always leave me crippled for a day or too, and you had nearly a whole acre of plants feeding their energy to you."

He said as they stopped at the top of the hill and Naruto withdrew the frog whistle and blew into again.

The orange mist reappeared and soon formed into the giant frog, however this time it had a large leather saddle built in a circle that had a few sleeping sacks rolled out on it.

"So it might even be a week or two before you get better." He said as he set her down on in the massive saddle, which turned out to be a leather platform, and sat next to her while Ino sat on Sakura's other side.

Sakura laughed at this and settled down into the large saddle.

"Perhaps for a normal person, but my body heals remarkably fast, not to mention I can still heal myself."

She lifted a pale hand infused with pale green healing energy, and the energy spiraling around her in an instant before Naruto could stop her.

She let out a deep sigh, slumping against Ino's shoulder as her body quickly mended itself.

Naruto let out a curse, but Sakura simply stared at the blonde man, too tired to do much else. The man who had been trying to protect her all day, and who had saved her today when she had lost control after she's taken the blocks she had upon herself down.

He had rescued her, and Sakura realized that this was not some average man or magic-user. Even though she had been overwhelmed she had sensed what he held inside of him. He held the Nine-tailed Fox, the most powerful of the tailed beasts, extremely powerful and dangerous demons that had been sealed inside babies years ago to contain their power. The Nine Tails was known as the king of the tailed beasts, and the fact that Naruto had the Nine-Tails sealed inside him and had survived the process and was able to not only function but tap into the demon's powers was a pure monument of how powerful a person Naruto was.

Sakura's eyes tightened as her body finished mending herself and exhaustion set deep into her bones.

Naruto frowned at her opening his mouth, but Sakura tiredly lifted a hand silencing him

"Your concern is kind, although it's a bit unfounded. As you stated you're not a healer and therefore do not know advanced and complex medical magics which can restore the body, but not waste a heady amount of energy. Also you do not know me, you might have heard rumors of my, and if so then you know I was apprenticed by Lady Tsunade and you can safely assume that I'm capable of healing myself even in this state."

Naruto grumbled, and then raised a tanned arm behind his head to almost absently scratch the back of his skull and ruffle his layer of blonde spikes. He grinned then, eyes twinkling and shrugged his broad shoulders so his muscles rippled.

"I guess you do know more about what you're talking about," he replied cheerily "But the main question now is if you'll join us in the Coven of Leaves?"