A/N: English is my second language, so if you come across anything where you go: that doesn't mean what you think it means, please tell me.
Enjoy!
With Naruto's weird status of Genin-Chuunin, it wasn't unexpected that sooner or later the council formed such a strange team. He was the leading Jounin, Sakura was the Chuunin and Naruto and Konohamaru were the Genin. In terms of power, however, Naruto reigned above Sakura. As to the gap between him and Naruto, he wasn't sure. Konohamaru acted like a typical Genin, enthusiastic but inexperienced.
Contrary to popular belief among the civilians, not every mission went by the Hokage first. There were lots of D-rank and C-rank missions the council approved. Or rather, they looked at the files and ranks of the shinobi and drew their conclusions from it. Apparently, there was a new council member in town. The seated council members knew Naruto and what the guy was capable of, but the new member looked at his file, marked it as 'Genin' and fitted him into this team. Not that strange, because at his age, there were still a lot of Genin around.
Nevertheless, it was annoying getting placed in a team only because their ranks matched. But he was used to having someone else dictate his life.
Neji sighed and regarded Naruto and Konohamaru messed about. Then again, maybe the council member was on to something. Moegi, Udo and Ebisu had gotten injured in a recent C-rank mission gone wrong, leaving Konohamaru to be herded around. At least the kid had a bond with Naruto, and Naruto led Konohamaru around and kept him from whining.
The childish acts annoyed him though, but Neji suspected that Naruto'd never grow up in that regard.
And Konohamaru needed some downtime after the recent battle. Naruto too, since he got trapped in that water prison-jutsu. Letting them mess around in mock-fights would convince Konohamaru that his surrogate big brother was alright, something the kid needed to ascertain. Signs of trauma crept in thanks to that C-rank mission, where he had seen his fellow Genin and sensei get injured, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. He had seen enough Genin snap after such an event , and Neji knew Naruto would hold him responsible somehow if that happened on a mission led by Neji.
"Oi, Konohamaru! Give that back, little brat!"
Neji knew all that, but that didn't make Naruto's shrill cries any less headache-inducing. He honestly didn't get how Naruto walked around, let alone chased after Konohamaru after that beating he took two hours ago.
It was a C-rank mission, usually a mission best left to Genin, not to Chuunin and especially not a Jounin. But forces were stretched thin, resulting in a lot of shuffling teams around. Nerves got tickled, irritation abound, but at least Neji got a good dose of teamwork-training under his belt this way. Even if it meant putting up with two brats. Lee and Gai were at least as annoying, to put it bluntly.
Neji led the way across the meadow, trying to block the sound of Konohamaru and Naruto bickering back and forth from his ears. He should invent some kind of jutsu for that. At the very least Tenten would be grateful for that jutsu, along with anyone else who didn't want to hear about Natural Youth and the Power of Determination. Or, as Gai-sensei called it, the NYPD.
The birds sang, the squirrels gathered nuts, and the missing-nin charged in, frothing at the mouth. They were from the Sand-village, but that was all Neji saw before he switched over to Byakugan and the men became masses of chakra and pressure points. While they traded blows the missing-nin seemed to think they were someone else, because they shouted things like "I'll get you, Yuuken Nahaba" and "this is the last time we'll meet, Ayame".
They seemed mad, but their fighting skills were unaffected by the madness. They were at least high Chuunin-level, because their jutsu were intricate and fast. One of them jumped back and blurred through the seals, and the dewdrops from the grass and the small pond rose up, formed a wave, which hurried towards Naruto.
"Watch out!" yelled Neji, but he was too late. The wave bowled Naruto over and with a yelp he went down. The water rose up in a sphere form, taking a struggling Naruto with it. Neji recognized it as a water prison. How a Sand-nin ever learnt a water-based jutsu was beyond him, but he didn't worry about that at the moment.
The other missing-nin went after Sakura. Too bad for them she was less than amused with his antics and she knocked his head clean. The other missing-nin uttered a roar of rage, since that was the only way he communicated. He left a water clone to keep the water prison intact, and tore towards Konohamaru. Neji intervened just in time to avoid a dead Genin and tried to land a hit with his Gentle Fist technique.
The missing-nin, however, was highly trained in taijutsu. He swerved left and right and somehow avoided all but two strikes from Neji. Neji saw with his Byakugan that it took too long. Naruto didn't have air in that water prison, and his struggling slowed down a lot.
Before his former classmate drowned he tried to land a hit to at least disrupt the nin's chakra flow, but the guy was fast. Luckily, he hadn't counted on Konohamaru. The kid knew how to take advantage of a situation, Neji admitted later on. Wasting no time to gloat Konohamaru plunged a kunai deep into the nin's back. He'd snuck up behind him while Neji fought with missing-nin.
Sakura rushed in from the left and closed the deal when she broke the guy's entire ribcage with her trademark precise chakra-powered punch. Neji saw the nin's chakra flow slow down as he bled to death internally.
"What a bunch of idiots," she muttered as she dusted her hands off. Neji saw Naruto fall down from the water prison into the small pond below, but it took too long for him to resurface. When he was about to rush to the pond and manually extract the blond Genin, Naruto came up for air. But he immediately went under again, so this time Neji did rush towards him and dove in.
He wasted no time in grabbing an unresponsive limb and pulling the Genin above water, making sure that Naruto breathed properly. Sakura and Konohamaru waded in as well, so within seconds Naruto laid on the bank and Sakura checked him for any injuries.
"He'll be fine," she said after a quick examination. "He didn't get water in his lungs, and he's conscious, just unresponsive. He might be confused and disoriented though, and we need to get him warmed up."
Neji blew out a breath he didn't know he held and directed Konohamaru to start gathering firewood. He kept his Byakugan activated for a while though, to make sure there weren't any more missing-nin around.
Behind him he spotted Naruto uttering a weak "Sakura-chan?", to which Sakura replied in a soft tone: "I'm here, Naruto. You'll be fine." Konohamaru, determined to take good care of his 'older brother', gathered firewood faster than any Genin in the history of Konoha and proceeded to build a bonfire.
Neji decided they might as well set up camp here, he didn't fancy traveling with Naruto in this state. And if they hurried tomorrow, they'd still arrive back at Konoha with time to spare.
So here they were, two hours later, and Naruto had recovered like the bouncing ball he was. There wasn't much which kept the Genin down, and what did, the guy had nightmares over.
"Catch me if you can!" yelled Konohamaru as he sprinted off, something clutched in his fist. Naruto complied all too happily and Neji noticed that he didn't go all-out, leaving Konohamaru enough time to gain a lead and yell some more taunts. Neji found it hard to play, even back when he was a child. It didn't sit right with him that he was expected to run around, tagging other kids who were way too slow because they were mere civilian kids, or playing hide-and-seek in the sprawling streets. When he mastered the Byakugan, that game flew out the window anyhow.
He liked spending time with his father, training and becoming stronger. Until that fateful day…
Neji shook himself to get rid of the sudden flood of memories and activated his Byakugan one more time to check the surroundings for signs of other missing-nin. Next to the campfire sat Sakura, making one of her special soldier pills to pass the time. Konohamaru and Naruto still ran around, chasing after each other. Neji let his keen eyes slide further, but something he saw bothered him.
'There's something wrong with Naruto,' his subconscious whispered.
Neji focused on the blonde Genin and soon found what was wrong. He deactivated his Byakugan and walked towards Sakura, who tended to the fire as she roasted one of the herbs. Neji made a mental note to never accept one of Sakura's soldier pills.
"How much chakra do you have left?" he asked bluntly. Like a true kunoichi, Sakura answered the question without first asking why. More efficient that way, and that was a crucial skill on the battlefield. Neji wished all women would learn at least that lesson, but alas.
"Enough to go a few more rounds with missing-nin."
"Do you have enough chakra to heal two, maybe three broken ribs?"
Her voice took on an alarmed tone as she looked up to Neji.
"Yes. Are you hurt?"
"No, but Naruto will be."
"Neji, what are you saying? Naruto's fine."
"No, he isn't." At Sakura's narrowed eyes he hastily added: It's not something you could've detected." Sakura took pride in her medical skills, and suggesting that she wasn't up to par was a quick way to a headache, courtesy of her fist. Though usually she reserved her punches for Naruto, Neji felt pretty confident she'd deck him too if he insulted her enough.
"I spotted it with my Byakugan. Naruto's got a blockage in the chakra coil next to his heart. If we don't repair it now, he'll be less able to mold chakra in his left hand."
"I see. It's because he nearly drowned. His lungs were in distress and caused a blockage in his chakra coil. I've read about it."
Neji nodded at Sakura's assessment. Now they only had to find a way to repair it. They were too far from Konoha to wait and go to the hospital in the village. But Neji took another hard look at Naruto with his Byakugan and decided not to bother with hospitals. They had all the skills they needed here.
Problem was, they needed to break a few of Naruto's ribs. Neji knew he had to rely on the Gentle Fist-technique, but instead of disabling the chakra coils, he would enable them. But in order to reach the deeper-lying chakra coil next to his heart, he had to poke really hard. Hard enough to break ribs.
Luckily they had Sakura to deal with that, if that happened. If luck was on their side, Naruto would only suffer from a cracked rib, but he'd be able to function.
But then there was Konohamaru. The kid didn't need to see his 'big brother' held down and hurt, not if he wanted to sleep any time soon and not be plagued by nightmares. They needed to send the kid on an errand. And Neji had just the thing.
"Konohamaru, Naruto, come here," Neji called out, but the two temporary teammates summarily ignored him. They played some sort of hop-scotch game with a rusty shuriken as the grand prize. He resorted to driving two kunai into the ground mere inches from their feet before they paid attention to him.
"Konohamaru, go gather more firewood. Naruto, come here," ordered Neji, and with much grumbling Konohamaru set off. Naruto sprinted closer, a grin and curious and wary expressions fighting for dominance on his face. When Naruto opened his mouth to ask questions, Neji cut him off in his patented blunt fashion. He was never good at sugarcoating anyway.
"One of your chakra coils got damaged in the fight. I need to repair it now with my Gentle Fist to prevent further damage, but it might break your ribs. Sakura will stand by to heal you if that happens."
Even a … less-informed being such as Naruto knew about the importance of healthy chakra coils. The happy grin slid off his face and a more grim, serious look replaced it. Somehow it didn't suit Naruto's face. It was like Lee getting depressed and dressing in black, a sign at which Neji started running for the caves in the Hokage mountain.
"What d'you need me to do?" asked Naruto, and Neji gestured towards the ground.
"Lie down. We have to do it before Konohamaru gets back." The 'and gets even further traumatized' was left unspoken, but Naruto complied surprisingly fast.
"I don't think I need to tell you this is going to hurt," Neji couldn't help but remark.
"Just do it," Naruto ground out and Neji crouched next to him, activating his Byakugan at the same time. Sakura sat on her haunches next to them, her hands ready to heal. Neji closed his eyes (not that it mattered much with the Byakugan activated), breathed in and out and gathered the necessary chakra at the tips of his fingers. He took one last look at Naruto's damaged coils, and as an afterthought placed his free hand over Naruto's mouth.
It made no sense having him scream, calling Konohamaru back early, he reasoned. Before Naruto mumbled a protest he struck. One, two, three times, pressing hard on the Genin's ribcage and he thought he heard something crack and Naruto howled. But the chakra coil started to fill up and flow with Naruto's chakra again. The damage to the coil wasn't necessarily immediately repaired, but it should heal up without problem in a few days.
Neji let his Byakugan fade and withdrew his hand from Naruto's mouth. He was lucky the Genin hadn't bit down. Naruto panted as if he ran through the Forest of Death though, and Sakura shouldered Neji out of the way to begin the healing process.
Neji crouched next to her and couldn't help but admire the professional way Sakura zipped open Naruto's jacket and lifted his t-shirt, without a blush marring her face. She truly was a medic-nin now. Naruto, on the other hand, was not, and he visibly enjoyed the attention lavished onto him by the girl of his dreams. So he wasn't too badly hurt, though Neji suspected the Genin would ogle Sakura even on his death bed.
"He's got two cracked ribs, but he'll heal up within a week," she announced after she had flitted her skilled hands over Naruto's ribcage, something which earned her a definite blush on Naruto's face. His breathing slowed down and he tried to sit up, but Sakura held him down.
"Wanna do some more … examinations, Sakura-chan?" he asked innocently, while at the same time grinning like Jiraiya-sama. She twitched her eye at that remark, but both her hands were busy healing him, so she couldn't bop him on the head like she usually did. She settled for verbally abusing him.
"Like there's anything I haven't seen before."
Even Neji saw where this was heading and he hurried to intervene before Naruto would make such a lewd remark that she'd knock him unconscious. He didn't want to wait around until the Genin had the decency to wake up.
"Konohamaru is coming back," he announced and that shut at least Naruto up, who tried to sit up again. Sakura let him this time, slipping her hands free from his shirt.
"That's about as much as I can do right now. Be careful though, else you'll break them or pierce your lungs, knowing you."
Naruto blinked innocently at Sakura but even a blind civilian would see through that expression.
"Oi, think this is enough?" Konohamaru called out as he arrived at the clearing with his arms full of dry wood, exactly like they taught at the academy. Neji nodded at him.
"Yeah, that'll do."
The kid grumbled something about ungrateful stuck-up clans but Neji no longer paid attention to him. Instead Naruto grabbed his attention, who for once wore a sincere smile instead of his foxy fake-grin.
"Thanks, Neji," he said softly as he maintained eye-contact with the Hyuuga. Neji shrugged and stood up, along with Sakura. He didn't bother replying. It was something anybody would've done, no use for excessive gratitude or even acknowledging it at all.
Instead he turned towards Konohamaru, who was busy botching up the fire with his wood and ruining Sakura's carefully built teepee of wood. Stupid kid.
Behind him he heard Naruto get up and for one second he allowed the Genin to see his softened features before he let his usual mask drop and marched towards Konohamaru.
It was something anybody would've done, he tried to convince himself, but his conscience told him otherwise. This was something that friends did for each other.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed it. If you've read this far, you must not be horrified by my writing style. But if you think I can improve (which I'm pretty sure of), perhaps you can help me beta an epic project of mine. It's a Naruto / Harry Potter crossover which grew over the 100k words. It's 95 percent finished, but now I'm looking someone to guide me from the rough draft to the complete version. If you're interested, please PM me.