Naruto burst through the front door of his apartment. "Well I guess this whole building is my house seeing how no one else lives in it, never understood why no one wants to live near m- more important stuff to do!"

He rushed over to the bed and as gently as he could, put fox down…he didn't look like he was doing that well at all. He ran over to the sink and let the water run and then ran to the fridge. "Good thing I was able to get ah… some chicken yesterday" he tore the cooked chicken in to tiny pieces and put them in a bowl and brought them to the fox.

He ran back to the sink, grabbed a clean cloth and three glasses, one with warm water to clean the wounds, one with cold water for the fox to drink and an empty one to empty out the dirty water from the first one and brought them all to the bed.

"Thank kami I actually listened to Iruka sensei's lesion on emergency first aid last week" and then, Naruto got go work.

At first the fox was tense as Naruto cleaned his wounds, expecting Naruto to start hurting him. But after a while he relaxed and let Naruto help him. The longer Naruto worked, no matter what he did, the fox just seemed to get sicker.

"What happened to you? I can barely find a part of you that isn't hurt and you're skin and bones! At least you're eating and drinking when you can…but your fever isn't going down!"

The sun was already long gone by the time he was done cleaning the wounds, there just so many. Some were new, fresh winds that where still bleeding and some were far older. As Naruto tried to bring his (found out that he was a guy, the awkward way!) temperature down.

"he's still burning up! I've been changing the cloth forever, and it's not getting better! Think Naruto! There's got to be some way to help…a vet won't help him, they won't work on a fox and I don't have the money anyway. If the Old Man was hear he would help, but he won't be back for at least a week! I don't think he can make it a full week…"

Naruto started pacing back and forth before he froze. For a second nothing happened, then he grew a huge grin on his face and jumped up, cheering.

"I got it! The library, they have books on everything in there!"

He cleaned the cloth, put two layers on the fox's chest, one small cloth on his head. He then filled him up on food and water ran out the door only now realising that the sun had long since set.

"They've already closed for the night! and that's if they would even let me in the front door. I… "

He looked back at the small fox in his bed, and he knew if he didn't find some way to help him, the fox wouldn't see the next sun rise. He straightened his shoulders and looked out over Konoha; he knew the library was only two blocks away and was this fox's only chance. "Well I guess it's time to break into a ninja library, guarded by ninjas, to treat the most hated types of animal in Konoha…another fun day"

Naruto was having a pretty easy time avoiding the police on the way there, and was even able to set a distraction in motion to get the guards away.

"It kind of makes me sound bad…but I have gotten a lot of practise escaping and avoiding the Konoha Military Police Force. But it's not my fault they can't take a few good natured pranks! Haaa that reminds me of one of my crowning achievements! It turns out that the base of operations for the Military Police has the water storage for their Water Drinking Fountains on the roof…with no one watching it! Add a little something that causes constipation in there water…no one in the Military Police pooed for 3 days…then add a laxative into the mix annnd…good times!"

His face again gained the foxy grin that everyone in the Military Police fears. He was set up beside the side door of the library. Now all he was waiting for now was his distraction to start and the Military Police officer that was put hear to go and help. Any second now…

Then he herd it…the barking and screaming of a certain Fire Daimyō's wife.

"You think they would put better security on the Fire Daimyō's house, the back servant door is almost always unlocked! And even if it is locked, be key is under a brick. The dogs weren't that hard either, the Inuzuka Clan dogs are very well trained ya, but they have one weakness which will drive them crazy until they get there paws on it…rotting fish. I don't get it either but they go crazy for the stuff! All I had to do was drag it to the Fire Daimyō's house and put it in the middle of the house! The doges get out of their cages…I have no idea how, but they do! And Mother Nature takes care of the rest. Now all that has to happen is the call for backup and…"

He saw the flicker of movement above his head, then the side door opened and a guard bolted towards the chaos.

"It's not like they will wake up an Inuzuka before they want to…unless you have a suicide wish! There are some dangerus clans in Konoha, but nothing as bad as an Inuzuka that was woken up early. "

Before the door closed and locked, Naruto managed to slip his foot into the door, holding it open. But before running in, he balanced a small bell on the handle.

"Better safe than sorry."

As Naruto turned around, he saw to hallways, to the left was the man area of the library, with all of the basic ninja books...and to the left was the restricted section.

"that's why I set up this plan in the beginning… so I could get some bad ass new jutsu!"Naruto paused for a fraction of a second until he turned left.

"I said I would help you and Naruto Uzumaki keeps his word!" He said to himself as he hurried into the main section of the Library. As Naruto pulled his backpack off, all he thought was "I'll just grab the important ones, there can't be that many books…"

His eyes went wide when he realized how many books were actually in the main section of the library.

"got to narrow it down, at least they have sections. Not Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, infiltration, medical, history- there's the medical section...This section is huge! Larger than my apartment! I only have a couple of minutes left before they come back! There's no way I can narrow it down enough… there has to be something…"

Panicking, he turned toward the main door and saw a small section right next to the wall with 'intro' written above it. He instantly gained a huge smile.

"Ok…M for Medicine" Naruto quickly found the only book in M, wss Medical Ninjutsu.

"not it! I haven't even stated any Ninjutsu's at school! Must be the wrong word…what would Gramps say…"

Naruto racked his brain…if he didn't hurry the guards would get back, he knew he had minutes at best, it would have been even worse but most of them were getting a training update.

"Shame more of them weren't on the field op that most of them left on…THAT'S IT!"

He turned and found the F section. Then, he heard the worst sound ever…a bell.

"DAMN, out of time!"

He could hear two people running toward the restricted section in the distance, but this would be there next stop. Naruto franticly turned around, there were only two books that started with F, so he grabbed both of them and shoved them in his backpack and made a break for the front door.

"Hey you, FREEZE!"

To put it simply, Naruto did not. Fortunately, he could only hear one set of feet making chase. In fact he pulled out two different pellets and a bag of marbles. One he tossed slightly behind him, the other he threw at his feet. Then he emptied the bag of marbles as he ran out the door. He was almost at the alley across the street when he heard it.

"Smoke boom won't stop me ki-Ah! What is th-, WAAA!" THUD.

Naruto couldn't help but grin, the first pellet was just a smoke screen to stop line of sight, but the second one was tear gas…and with marbles underneath. You can probably guess what happened.

For the first time Naruto tried not to get tailed, he always had fun with the chase, but if they found out it was him of followed him to his house and found the hurt fox…an infection would be the least of his issues. So he took his time, moving from shadow to shadow, using every hiding spot he knew as he moved towards his house. Naruto knew they were looking for him now, he could overhear them as they moved by their hiding spots, it took longer than he thought it would, but he made it home and slipped in the front door.

The fox didn't look to good, he quickly changed the damp cloths out with new ones.

"they're so hot! That can't be good!"

Naruto emptied his backpack on the ground, pulling out the two books he 'borrowed'.

"let's see what I have, 'Fūinjutsu Basics' no 'Field Medicine', that's it!"

He flipped through it quickly and found the section on infections and treating them.

"Let's see, a mild infection can be treated by…"

He took one look at the fox, shook his head and scroll down.

"very few things can treat a serious infection…great, but the leaves of the Silverleaf ground into a paste and mixed with water and drunken can treat even the worst infections! Yes! Silverleaf is a rare flowering plant found in temperate forests and must be fresh for it to work..."

Naruto stopped reading out loud and looked at the fox. He lived in the middle of a village, and the only flower store that would sell to him was on the other side of the village.

"there's no way I can get to the store in time… and that's if they even have it!"

He couldn't believe it. He just met him and he was already letting his friend down. Tears started running down his face as he threw the book across the room.

"THIS BOOK IS USELESS! After everything I did to get this book! It can't even help me! Kami must be tormenting me! Look, there's even a picture to taunt me with! It even looks exactly like one of my plants…what" Naruto ran over to his windowsill and just sitting there amongst his plants, was a Silverleaf.

"At this point I don't know if Kami loves or hates me"

Was all Naruto was thinking as he ground a few of the leaves in a ramen bowl with a spoon, adding just a bit of water when it became a paste, just enough to drink. After he got the consistency right he turned to the fox. He took one sniff of the medicine and turned away with a look of utter disgust on his face.

"I know buddy. I hate medicine too, but this will help" Naruto looked the fox in the eye and held it out for him again. "You have to drink it".

The fox looked Naruto in the eye, almost like he was looking for some reason not to trust him or for some sign he was misleading him. He then looked at the green drink, with another look of disgust on his face, he started to drink.

Naruto had no idea how much time passed, but he kept feeding the fox silverleaf. From time to time he would give him bits of chicken. It just seemed like the fever would never stop, but at the same time, neither would Naruto.

The fox would never sleep for more than an hour, and when he was sleeping it would never be well. Even when he did wake up, all he did was eat, drink or take some more Silverleaf before he passed out again. Then, all of a sudden, his fever broke.

All of a siden, the fox's eyes were clear and for what seemed like the first time he looked at Naruto with completely clear eyes and what Naruto saw brought him to tears…love, not the love of a mom and dad or the love of a child for his parents, but the love of someone you can trust no matter what, brothers in everything but blood.

The fox then closed his eyes and went into a peaceful sleep for the 1st time that night. Naruto, suddenly realizing how long of a night it has been for him, lay down next to the fox, gently petting him. "Never thought my first friend would be a fox, but I guess it makes sense, us loners got to stick together" he said with a soft smile. "You do have a beautiful coat, pure white" he said as he closed his eyes. "Then I'll call you…Mashiro, friend" unknown to Naruto, two foxes herd what he said, and both smiled.