Leech (A challenge by KyuubiWindscar)

Disclaimer: I own not the works of Naruto or any of its characters/plot segments. If I did, I wouldn't be doing fanfiction, and Sasuke would not be the main character for a majority of Shippuden.

Dialogue

"Bwahahaha!" – normal speech

'Bwahahaha!' – thoughts/thought speech

"Bwahahaha!" – demon/big summon speech

"Bwahahaha!" – demon/big summon/Inner Sakura thoughts/ thought speech

Chapter 3: Suspicions

After Team 7 entered Konoha, Kakashi dismissed his three subordinates after telling them to take a week off before they met at the bridge again. Sasuke was the first of the genin to depart, as usual. As he walked away, Sakura followed briefly, hoping for a date, only to be turned down by the raven-haired prodigy. When Sakura turned in disappointment, however, she realized something was missing. Used to hearing a comment from Naruto about wanting a date, she looked around in confusion. Naruto was nowhere to be seen. The fact that he had disappeared her left an emptiness in her chest that she didn't know she had. As much as she proclaimed to hate the blonde ball of sunshine's antics, she liked the attention he gave her and a major source of her confidence in her looks came from it. In a slight state of shock, she headed toward her home, in turmoil over her orange-covered teammate.

-=oOO0OOo=-

Kakashi immediately shunshined toward the Hokage tower after dismissing his team. Although it was common practice for the entire team to attend a debriefing, Kakashi wished some of his speculation to remain confidential, among other things. As he arrived at the tower, he briefly fingered two scrolls, sealed shut and keyed with blood. Inside the scrolls were two bodies, specifically the bodies of Zabuza and Haku. While he had indeed buried them, they were far too valuable to leave. Doing so would only invite missing-nin or oinin to take it for a profit or their village. Also, the bounty for Zabuza would cover the missing money for the mission. Thus, under the cover of night, he had removed the bodies with a variation of his Shinju Zanshuu technique. Of course, he had to hide the fact from Naruto, who would feel betrayed by the desecration of his supposed "friend's" grave. Thus he had sent his genin on a break, suitably long so as not to arouse suspicion from them.

Once inside, Kakashi immediately reported to the Hokage in his office. Sarutobi, who had not seen Kakashi be prompt in a long time, grew serious. Once Kakashi was positioned in front of his desk, the Hokage signaled his guard to leave, and activated the privacy seals located under his desk. The walls glowed briefly with barely seen lines, the only sign that the seals were activated. "Report." Kakashi immediately launched into the conditions of the mission.

"During the mission, Team 7 encountered A-rank missing nin Zabuza and his apprentice Haku. Gato of the shipping corporation hired both. This increased the level of the mission from C to A, as noted in the missive sent. A week after the first interaction with Zabuza occurred, Haruno Sakura, Uchicha Sasuke, and I encountered Zabuza and his apprentice on the incomplete bridge. Naruto arrived part way through the second encounter, after neutralizing two mercenaries Gato sent to acquire the client's family." Kakashi paused, taking a breath. "Uzumaki Naruto then attempted to aid Sasuke in the defeat of the apprentice, as I engaged Zabuza. At some point, Sasuke was incapacitated and from there, the details of the genin fight becomes vague.

"At one point, Kyuubi's chakra was released, though contained again almost immediately. The apprentice was defeated, and died in the arms, and lips, apparently, of Naruto. Zabuza was killed by a Raikiri through his chest at approximately the same time. Gato was killed by Haku, after approaching to closely to her and my subordinate, through pure ice manipulation. Here are the bodies of the two missing-nin for examination." Kakashi stopped, even though he wished to continue with his misgivings. However, it was dangerous to speak ill of Naruto in front of the Hokage for any reason, lest a wrong word be spoken, given the amount of prejudice the jinchuuriki was already facing.

Sarutobi noted his misgivings, and motioned for him to continue. "What is the issue then, Hatake-san? This hardly seems enough for a meeting without the rest of your team."

Kakashi swallowed, "Permission to speak freely?"

"Granted."

"I have worries about the death of the one known as Haku. Naruto claims no knowledge of what happened, however precursory examinations of the body show signs of severe hemorrhaging, though the amount of blood on the bridge was nowhere near the amount lost. Because of this, it was not until my second examination that I noticed that there was much more blood missing than what it originally seemed, given that Haku had pale skin to begin with and most of her body was covered. Not only is the death unusual, but Naruto has become extremely evasive on the subject. I am afraid something is going on with him, whether it be the damned fox influencing him or something else entirely." The Sandaime frowned.

"Are you absolutely positive with this assessment, Hatake? Because if you are wrong, it will be more than your paycheck that suffers." Kakashi paled slightly, before replying.

"Yes sir."

"Very well, Team 7 will report for psychological evaluation at 0900 tomorrow. Make sure they get the message." With that, the Hokage deactivated the privacy seal, causing the ANBU to return to their original positions in the room. After Kakashi left, Sarutobi motioned for an ANBU to come forward. "Find Naruto and observe him until his evaluation tomorrow and 0900, and report back to me." The elite ninja nodded and vanished out of the window.

-=oOO0OOo=-

Naruto was currently in his room, unwilling to risk another incident like at the bridge. Something was going on with his body, and he needed to stop it. Moving to his cupboard, he pulled out the one food he could easily afford on his budget: ramen. While he genuinely enjoyed the meals he had at Ichiraku's, instant ramen was rather bland, in all honesty. Unfortunately, he could not afford the fresh fruits and vegetables, as the villagers tended to inflate their prices on such items whenever he was shopping. Ergo, instant ramen was as healthy as he could get, given that they could not inflate the set prices of packaged goods.

After setting the water to boil, Naruto sat down and looked at the ramen that he held in his hands. While normally any food looked really appealing to him, the ramen looked more tasteless than usual. He sat staring at the cup for a few more minutes before he heard knocking on the door. Setting down the ramen, he moved to the entrance and opened the door. He was slightly surprised to see Kakashi-sensei, whom he expected to disappear for the week off. Kakashi gave an eye-smile and said, "Yo."

"Is there something you need Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto questioned. Kakashi eye became more serious as he replied.

"Team 7 is to report to the Hokage tower tomorrow at 0900 for a post-mission psychological evaluation, and do not be late." Then his expression became light again. "Well, I'm off to tell the rest of the team. Ja ne!" And with that he shunshined away in a puff of smoke. Naruto blinked.

'That's not good.' Belatedly, Naruto noticed that he was hungrier now than he was before. His eyes widened. "Aah! I left the water boiling in the kitchen!" he raced to the kitchen to save his ramen.

After saving his dinner, Naruto sat down and prepared to eat. "Itadikimasu!" However, as the first bite entered his mouth, Naruto's eyes bulged and he threw up back into the bowl, dry heaving for a few minutes before he could breathe properly again. 'Maybe it was just a bad bowl.' It had happened once before, but it had not tasted nearly as bad as that. Hurrying, Naruto made another cup, this time of miso ramen, his favorite. He also checked the expiration date, just to make sure. Satisfied that the ramen would not be bad for another six months, he took a bite of the food. While not quite as bad as the first time, Naruto threw up again, the taste being repulsive to his tongue. The worst part was the hunger. Even as he sat there the pounding beat in his head reappeared, along with an aching for food which was driving him mad. He tried to drink water, but it did not do anything to fill him and relieve the hunger. Naruto knocked the cup over. He tried to scream for help, but had no energy to do so. Thus, starving next to cupboard of food, Naruto collapsed.

-=oOO0OOo=-

The ANBU arrived at his target's house, wondering what Kakashi had said that convinced the Hokage to place observation on the Kyuubi child. After the incident of finding his ANBU armor pink with flowers, he was not particularly fond of Naruto. However, he was nothing if not a loyal servant to the Hokage, and moved into position to properly observe. When he looked in, however, he found Naruto throwing up and staggering over to the sink for water. He grew more worried as the brat collapsed, knowing if the brat died on his watch, the Hokage would have his head on a pike and body fed to pigs (and not necessarily in that order).

He moved to check on the boy, putting his hand on his neck to check his pulse. It was extremely erratic. However, when he attempted to remove his hand to shunshin the boy to the hospital, it was stuck. Furthermore, the boy's body began to flay his arms and feet. He attempted to yell or escape, but a hand grabbed his throat, starting to choke him. His body began to feel the effects of blood loss, which momentarily confused him, and then he realized that Naruto was drawing blood from his body via his neck and hand. The boy looked up, and his eyes, usually a deep, clear blue, were glassy and dull. As his vision began to swim, he silently cursed the demon brat for finally showing its true colors.

-=oOO0OOo=-

Naruto came to a few hours after the event. Getting off of the floor, he held his head, wondering what had made him want to sleep on the floor. He stumbled into the kitchen and rinsed his faced. As he turned back to the living room to check the time, he noticed the body was on the floor. Naruto stiffened, his hands clenching on nothing. There was only one thing he could think of at that moment,

'What the FUCK did I do now?'

-=oOO0OOo=-

AN: I apologize for the long delay in writing. My muse is not very developed, due to my brain not being wired for writing as much as science and math. As such, this chapter has been sitting mostly done for the last few months, with certain plot aspects needing to be worked out so the realism wouldn't go all to hell. Big thanks to Narilyte for pointing out plot holes and flaws to try help keep my story from turning to pathetic drivel. Also, one of his correct comments inspired the following omake.

OMAKE: Where Sakura learned to curse

Team 7 was meeting, as usual, on the bridge to wait two hours for Kakashi to show up. Two members of said team had actual shown, with the third running late. Naruto was sitting on the railing, while Sasuke was standing across from him. This was slightly confusing given that Sakura was normally the punctual one and Naruto was almost always the last to arrive.

However, Sakura was on her way, and was jogging toward the bridge to be on time. Today had had a rather annoying start, with one of her favorite skirts ripping on her way out the door. It was not a large rip, a tiny hole if anything, but it was enough to make her grumble. As she approached her destination, she failed to notice a small root barely jutting out of the round. It managed to catch the tip of her sandal, causing Sakura to stumble into a branch as she sought to regain balance. Naturally this branch snagged the tiny tear in her skirt, and as she moved away, turned the small tear into a much larger one. And, also just as naturally, this happened in plain view of Sasuke-kun and Naruto-baka. She could think of only one thing to do.

"$%$##!#!"

Both Naruto and Sasuke stared at Sakura, ignoring the fact that she had ripped her dress. Naruto spoke up first.

"Sakura, did you just try to cuss?" Sakura blushed slightly while getting worked up.

"What? Am I not allowed to use profanity?" Naruto backtracked holding his hands in warding signs.

"Nononono! That's not what I meant at all! I was just wondering why the hell you just censored yourself, rather than saying damn or fuck or something like that." Sakura blinked.

"What do you mean, 'Censor myself'? I was cursing!" Sasuke snorted.

"You mean you actually curse using dollar signs, exclamation marks and pounds signs?"

"Yeah! Doesn't everybody?" came the terse reply. The two boys looked at each other, and then busted a gut laughing. Or at least, Naruto did. Sasuke simply sneered. As such Sakura decided to vent her frustrations on the more obvious of the two targets, who had currently incapacitated himself. Needless to say, he wasn't able help in the D-rank mission.

"$%$##!#!"

-=oOO0OOo=-

Shinju Zanshuu no Jutsu – Double Suicide Decapitation Technique: a Ninjutsu technique utilizing the Earth Element. The ninja will travel through the ground to appear below their target. They will then surprise their target by then pulling them into the ground. Once in the ground their target is thus immobilized. (leafninja . com)

Shunshin no Jutsu - Body Flicker Technique - Shunshin no Jutsu is a basic Ninjutsu technique. The ninja will appear and disappear in an instant, allowing them to retreat or attack suddenly. To facilitate the movement the ninja will often use nearby elements such as mist, sand or leaves to mask their appearance or disappearance.