Authors Note: I decided to change the name and the summary. Tell me what you think.

He lay in bed, his face half-hidden by his shoddily put on mask. His scarred eye was closed, his normal eye holding the same half lidded gaze that it always did. He checked his surroundings wearily. The bleak white walls all around him, the plain white sheets of his bed.

He let out a sigh.

Boring, it was all boring. He knew his comrades were going on a mission, his…'watcher' had told him. He wished he could go with them, he had even tried to get out of his bed, but his watcher had made sure he stayed in the hospital room…forcefully.

Slowly, he pushed himself up in his bed, taking a better look at his room. He had been given a private room, but it was nothing special. Plain bed, undecorated walls, window with an outlook on Konoha's sunny streets, a bedside table with a vase of flowers, and a dresser for his clothes and other belongings in the corner.

His one open eye widened as he glanced over at the dresser. Atop of it was one of his prized possessions: a small book. A lecherous smile lit up his unseen face. Well, might as well finish up that book while I'm stuck in this place. He thought to himself.

There was a problem, though. The dresser with his book was across the room, and while it was a rather small room, his last attempts to walk hadn't been very successful.

He glanced over to the door. Of course, he had help, but he would be damned if he was going to risk doing that. He would rather die of boredom first.

Determined, he pushed off his blankets and twisted around, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He tentatively pushed himself off, testing his legs to make sure they wouldn't give out underneath him. When he was satisfied that he could stand, he slowly made his way over to the dresser, keeping an eye on the door to make sure he didn't alert his watcher.

He made it to the dresser without incident. He picked up the book and that lecherous smile was once again on his face, his one open eye thinning in mirth. He flipped the book open to his last marked page and made his way back to his bed with nose buried in it.

His return journey to his bed was as simple as his first. Unfortunately, with his nose buried in his book, he struck his toe on the side of his bed. Normally, to a ninja of his caliber, such an injury wouldn't be a bother. But he was already sore and chakra depleted, and his stubbed toe was quite a pain. He dropped his book with a dull thud, and hopped around on one foot as silently as possible. He accidentally hopped into the bedside table, knocking it over and sending his vase of flowers to the floor with a loud crash. The water on the ground caused him to slip, making him fall to the floor and land on the pieces of broken glass. He let out a small cry as the little pieces of glass got imbedded into his back.

He lay on the floor, expecting his watcher to come in at any moment to check on him. Seconds ticked by and no one came. Hmm, maybe he's not-

"UUUWWWWAHHHHHH! KAKASHI-KUN! DO NOT WORRY, AS THE GREAT AND BEAUTIFUL GAI IS HERE TO PROTECT YOU IN YOUR MOST VULNERABLE STATE!"

Kakashi sighed from his position on the floor, "I'm fine Gai, no reason to worry."

His 'rival' spotted him on the ground, "Oh, Kakashi, I knew I should have taken up a bedside vigil." The dark-haired jounin blurred over to his comrade quickly and picked him up and placed him in bed, ignoring his comrades protest as he drove the shards of glass deeper into his back.

"Gai, really, I'm fine." Kakashi tried to reason with the excitable jounin.

Gai shook his head, "Nonsense, Kakashi. From this point on I will never leave your side until I am sure you are 110 better." The man said, giving Kakashi a sparkly smile and a thumbs up.

Kakashi sighed, his open eye momentarily glancing at the floor to his lost book.

Unfortunately, Gai followed his look. "OHHH!" The speedy jounin said, scooping the book off the ground, "Is this what you want, Kakashi? I, your ever watchful protector, shall read this book to you."

Kakashi's eye went wide, "No Gai, that won't be necessary." His plea went unnoticed, as Gai had already begun to read in his loud, booming voice.

"Shakaki stared lustfully into her partners eyes, 'is that a kunai in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?'"

Kakashi let out a groan. It was going to be a long road to recovery.

!-!-!-!-!-!

Naruto leaned against the exiting gate of Konoha, the sad look still on his face as he toyed with his empty wallet. He had sat at the ramen stand with the same look on his face for ten minutes before the old man had pushed him out. With no where else to go, Naruto had gone to the gate where he was supposed to meet Sakura.

Man, I can't believe I ruined my date with Sakura-chan…, He groaned internally. He looked down at his ramen filled stomach with a hateful glare, Damn you stomach, if you hadn't made me eat so much ramen, I could've had a date with Sakura-chan.

"Oi, you're not still pissed are you?"

Naruto looked up from his self hating glare to see his perverted master striding towards him. "…What do you want, Ero-sennin?"

The older man shrugged, "What? A master can't come see his student off on a mission? What's bugging you?"

Naruto sighed, "Well, I was going to go out on a date with Sakura-chan-"

The perverted man leered lecherously, "A date, eh? I guess you're planning on using those other lessons I gave you." The man said, suggestively waggling his eyebrows.

"N-No," Naruto said with a slight blush, scratching the back of his head, "I told you I wasn't interested in any of your perverted crap."

Jiraiya chuckled, "You say that now, kid, but one day you're going to thank me for those lessons…"

"NOT LIKELY!" Naruto snapped loudly.

A few passerby's stopped at the sudden outburst of the blonde ninja. Naruto hadn't been in the village very long, so many of Konohas citizens hadn't gotten used to having the loud Ninja around again. With a quick smile and a few strange glances, the random people went back to their lives.

"Naruto," Came Sakura's complaining voice, "Do you always have to cause so much noise?" His female comrade walked over to him, an annoyed look on her face.

"Oh, hey Sakura-chan," Naruto began, trying to forget about the discussion he had just had with his sensei, "Eh heh, sorry 'bout that."

"Whatever," she waved off his apology, "Come over here, I need to go over the mission plan with you."

Naruto followed her lead to a nearby bench with a curious look on his face. "Mission plan? I thought all we had to do was kill some wolves or protect some cows or something." Jiraiya followed his student, a vaguely interested look on his face.

Sakura took out a scroll and spread it out over the bench to reveal a map. Naruto peered at it interestedly as Sakura began to talk. "Our destination is here, the village of Kyanon," she said, pointing out a red circled dot on the map, "It's a twelve hour run north-west of here."

Naruto nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "Yes, North-west, that explains why we are meeting at the North Gate." Sakura gave him an annoyed glare. Jiraiya sighed and slapped him upside the head.

"Stop trying to sound smart, idiot."

Naruto gave Jiraiya an annoyed glare as Sakura went on explaining, "It's twelve hours, so well probably need to stop for the night and rest." Sakura pointed to a green circled dot, "If I've timed it right, we should be able to arrive at this village by nightfall, and we can spend the night in a hotel there and continue to Kyanon in the morning."

Jiraiya nodded appreciatively, "A good plan, Sakura." Sakura blushed at the experienced ninjas words. "Now, if you don't mind, I have to have a quick little chat with my student here." He gestured over to the still annoyed Naruto with his thumb.

Sakura nodded and Jiraiya dragged his student off a few feet, out of earshot of the pink haired kunoichi.

"What is it, Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked, "If it's about not using that jutsu, then you don't have to warn me, I know already."

Jiraiya shook his head and took a quick look around them to check their surroundings. A few feet away Sakura was still looking over her map, ignoring the two males. Various ninja and average citizens of Konoha passed them without a second glance. Naruto grew concerned about the hermits actions. "Listen kid, you know that one guy I told you about?"

"Danzou?" The blonde questioned.

"Yeah, that's the one." Jiraiya confirmed, "Well, he paid Tsunade a visit earlier and…well, I think he might be up to something."

Naruto cocked his head to the side, "Like what?"

"I'm not sure, but it probably involves you and your…" He took the time to once again to check his surroundings, "…condition."

Naruto stared blankly for a second, trying to piece together the veiled information. "OH, you mean the Kyuubi?"

Jiraiya started, once again smacking the boy upside the head. "Idiot, you're not supposed to mention that out loud!"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "I'm not? I thought the law only forbids other people from talking about it, not me."

Jiraiya stared for a moment, "Yeah…well…just don't talk about it, you know? It's a sensitive subject for a lot of people around here."

Naruto waved him off, "Yeah, yeah. Anyways, what does this guy want with me and my," he made sure to add emphasis on the next word, "condition."

Jiraiya sighed, "I'm not sure, it's just something he said to me."

"What did he say?"

!-!-!-!-!-!-!

Jiraiya watched with sick fascination as the vein in Tsunade's temple throbbed so hard he thought it would burst.

This guy really knows how to push Tsunade's buttons, He thought to himself. He looked at the elderly man sitting next to him, as he conversed with the Hokage, Then again, there just seems to be something about him that makes everyone hate him.

The conversation between the head of the Council and Tsunade ended as the man got up and excused himself.

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama, but I must depart." Danzou spoke, standing up with the help of his walking stick.

"Farewell, then, Danzou-san." Tsunade grounded out, doing a poor job of hiding her frustration with the man.

The old man made a slow shuffle to the door. Jiraiya turned to look at the frustrated Tsunade, she caught his eyes and nodded at him, he nodded back. "Well, I guess I'll get going to," He said loudly, trying to sound casual.

He stood up from his chair and made it to the door, easily catching up with the older ninja. In a gesture of fake respect, he decided to hold the door open for the old man.

"Thank you, Jiraiya-kun." The older man said, a smile as fake as Jiraiya's respect on his face. The man made to walk past the white haired ninja, but stopped. "Oh I just remembered," He leaned in on Jiraiya, the fake smile melting off his face. "Keep that fox of yours in check, it wouldn't look good for the village if he went berserk… again."

Jiraiya stared at the man in shock. Danzou's fake smile came back and he limped out of the door and into the hallway, quickly being flanked by two ANBU. As the old man limped away without a second glance, Jiraiya looked back at Tsunade. She gave him a questioning quirk of the eyebrow.

!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!

Naruto sighed in frustration, "The more I hear about this guy, the more I want to kick his ass."

Jiraiya nodded, "I agree, but that's not the point. See, the only people Kakashi told about you losing control in your last mission was Tsunade and I."

"So how did that old guy find out?"

"I don't know, and that's why I'm worried. He's obviously keeping tabs on you. I don't know how, but it warrants some caution. Be more careful from know on, you never know who could be watching or who can get their hands on supposedly concealed information."

Naruto nodded, it was rare for Jiraiya to be completely serious, even in desperate times, so he knew to listen to him.

"Okay, Ero-sennin."

The toad hermit winced at his nickname, but decided not to say anything about it. "I'll be going now, got some data to research, after all. Good luck on you mission, kid." He waved over to Sakura, "He's all yours now," He shouted to her, "Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Sh-Shut up, Ero-Sennin," Naruto groused, as Sakura giggled. The old hermit walked away, giving the younger ninjas a lazy wave.

Naruto crossed his arms, Dammit Ero-sennin, stop trying to embarrass me in front of Sakura-chan.

"Hey, Naruto!" Jiraiya called to his student. Naruto looked up and caught the pouch the pervert had thrown at him. Naruto looked at the pouch and then up to his sensei. Jiraiya just winked and continued to walk away. Naruto opened the pouch to find some money. He smiled, Damn, it's about time he started paying me back!

"Come on ,Naruto," Sakura called after him, "It's time we go."

Naruto followed after his female comrade. As they crossed the gate into outside of the village and took to the tress, Naruto found himself smiling. I may have ruined my date with Sakura-chan, He thought, But now I get to spend at least a whole day alone with her.

!-!-!-!-!-!-!