Disclaimer: NARUTO is property of Kishimoto Masashi.

PROLOGUE

If Orochimaru had been there, he would have been in stitches. The faces of the Rookie Nine (actually it's eight, considering that Sasuke was missing) and Sand Trio were comical. Even Neji and Gaara were showing some form of emotion. Jaws were dropping and eyeballs were threatening to fall out of their sockets.

Never in the time that they had known each other, had any of them seriously complained about Naruto's endless energy. Never. Nobody had wanted to break this record simply because the walking ball of energy was the one who had helped them. Besides, they didn't mind it as much as they always said it did. But now. This… this teammate of his, in a fit of irritation, had said it.

"You idiot! Can't you stop acting so immature for a moment?! Will it kill you to act more mature?! Stop acting so childish!"

Even the person who had said it was shocked and filled with regret as she took in Naruto's now indescribable face. "I-I didn't mean it like that," she tried to explain, "I was just kidding!" Giving a fake laugh to show that she was just joking, she stopped when she realized that the boy in question wasn't responding. Getting up, he whispered, "thanks for the food" and walked away.

Sakura whimpered at the cold shoulder and her own stupidity. Gaara, looking particularly murderous all of a sudden, shot her a death glare. Words weren't needed. What he wanted to say was obvious to her. 'Get him back to normal, or I'll kill you.' Sakura whimpered again, this time at the intensity of the glare. Kankurou and Temari gave each other a look.

Just as they were going to say something, Gaara stood up. Knowing not to disturb their brother when he was in this kind of mood, the visiting trio walked away with a quick "thanks for the food".

The silence didn't leave with them, unfortunately, and Sakura was left to deal with the uncomfortable silence and her disapproving inner self.

"BAKAYAROU! WHY THE HELL DID YOU SAY THAT FOR?!" Inner Sakura was definitely not happy.

"I'm sorry… I just… It just slipped…"

"BAKA!" Then Inner Sakura proceeded to swear at her. Nope, Inner Sakura was not happy at all.

With Gaara and Inner Sakura on her case, she knew that she had messed up this time. She gave an inner whimper.

As she returned to reality from her 'conversation' with a fuming Inner Sakura, she noticed all eyes on her. The intensity of the looks they were giving her was enough to make her bow her head in shame. Even the normally polite Hinata was shooting glares at her.

The group parted, with people coming up to her and warning her of the consequences should she fail to return Naruto to normal.

Yup. She had messed up, big time.

End of Prologue

Authoress' Notes: I know that it's ridiculously short, even for a prologue. I will try to increase the length, but I'm not promising anything. There are a lot of unexplained things in this prologue, but some of it will definitely be explained in chapter one.