Well, Here's Chapter 7! A big thank you to all of those who Review or follow my story, there's been a ton! So much obliged, I really appreciate it. This chapter marks the countdown to Tayuya at one more chapter! So If your a huge NarutoxTayuya fan, the groundwork is in and we can let the fun begin! This story is becoming more serious than I had originally intended, It was gonna be strictly humor and Romance with some adventure thrown in, but I've decided to make a really in depth fic!
I'm glad you guys liked the last chapter, always wanted to use that in a Naruto fic! XD
If you'd like, here's a great song to listen to while you read, Wonder Sleeps Here by: Twin Atlantic
Well, the only place left to go is Forward!
Italics are thoughts, bold and capitalized words are for emphasis!
I don't own Naruto! (disclaimer)
Chapter 7
How It Starts
A shadowy figure slipped quietly across a field, hidden well by the cover of the night, it made its way up to a building that had several floors. After checking to make sure it was alone, it waved a hand in the direction it had come from. At the signal, three more figures shuffled slowly to join the first. Once all four where together, one quickly scaled a wall of the building, all the way up to the third floor. It opened a window from the outside and climbed in. The three still on the ground watched and waited until a hand waved out the window, obviously a sign that the coast was clear. Two of the shadows outside grabbed hold of the third, and then all at once, they jumped from the ground into the open window, and once in, they separated.
"Hospital Infiltration Successful!"
"Damn it Naruto, shut up or we'll get busted, how many times do I have to tell you that!?"
"Sorry Shikamaru…"
The chunin shook his head, "Forget it, just stop yelling, you're giving me a headache….*Yawn*…hey Kiba," Shikamaru looked towards the brown haired genin, "could you hit the lights?"
"Sure," the reply was followed by a click, and the overhead light in the room turned on, illuminating the room and revealing the identity of the four men. Shikamaru stood next to an empty hospital bed, Kiba by the room's door, and Lee had Naruto on his shoulder. Shikamaru helped Naruto pull the huge black jacket he had been wearing off and threw it on the bed, and then Lee helped the blond lay down.
The blond genin hated hospital beds, it wasn't so much the bed itself, but the restricted feeling he had when he lay in one, no training, no good food, and now no moving in general, "This bites, I just want to go home and sleep."
Lee had finished lying him down and threw the blanket over the top of him, "I know how that feels, I only got out of the hospital last week, but it's something that you have to deal with I guess."
The blond rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah….it still sucks though."
Shikamaru gave a sigh as he leaned against a wall next to the bed, "*sigh*, It doesn't help to complain ya know, you DID get to spend the last few hours out of here."
Kiba walked over to join the group, "AAAANNNDD you got to see what may have been the funniest thing I've EVER seen."
Three of the four laughed at the comment, one wasn't quite as amused, he spoke with annoyance, "Yeah…at my expense…ANYWAYS…"
The group stopped laughing and focused their attention back on Shikamaru as he continued talking, "…being here is definantly better for you right now…I mean…you can't even use your legs, and you live by yourself, so you would be stuck with no one to help you eat or go to the bathroom…"
Lee and Kiba nodded in agreement, and Naruto had a look of disappointed realization, "I guess that's a good point…still…I'd rather be somewhere I can get Ramen whenever I want."
The chunin spoke in his usual laid back manner, "It won't be long till you can go…just be happy we didn't get busted today, we'd all be in pain."
As he finished, Shikamaru looked up at the clock, "Well I'm Dead meat."
The three genin gave him a questioning look, and Lee's tone matched his face, "Why's that?"
"It's almost midnight, my mom's gonna scream my ear off for being gone so long."
Kiba remembered the angry woman's words from earlier that day, "I stopped by looking for you earlier, and she WAS pissed you weren't around for dinner."
"Sheesh! I told her I was gonna be go-…."
Before he could finish, someone flung the door to the room open, and all the ninja's in the room that could move scattered to hide as quickly as possible, apt to keep from being discovered.
…
Sakura and Ino had been in a waiting room for around two hours, patiently waiting for Naruto to return. At some point they're idle chatter had switched to a hostile argument, as it often did, and now the two sat on opposite sides of the room with their arms crossed, sour looks on both of their faces.
"What happened to you two?"
Both girls jumped with shock and looked to the source of the unexpected voice, they shouted in unison, "Shizune!?"
The Jonin mocked, "Keep yelling like that and you'll both have a heart attack," she finished with a smile.
Both genin mirrored each other's actions as they hung their heads and sighed, then stood and approached Shizune, the pink haired one speaking first, "So did you guys find Naruto? We've been waiting here since you left and he hasn't shown up."
Shizune started pacing back and forth, arms flailing around wildly as she spoke all flustered, "No we didn't, we checked the ramen shop, his house, the training ground…I mean, what is that boy thinking!" She was irrational, getting comically worked up, and her speech grew faster and faster, "He can't move, what if he gets stuck somewhere, and then it rains….then he'll just get a cold on top of not being able to move, and then that can lead to pneumonia! Then he won't be able to eat whole foods, or leave his house! GAAAAGGHH!"
The two younger Kunoichi's watched in amusement as the woman got overly worked up, she was still rambling on when Ino leaned in towards Sakura, "Now who's the one giving themselves a heart attack."
Sakura lifted a fist to cover her mouth as she giggled, and then refocused her attention on Shizune. The Jonin had finished her rant and was now breathing heavily, an attempt to catch the oxygen she'd just lost. Ino put a hand on Shizune's shoulder, "You alright?"
The black haired Jonin had regained her calm and stood up straight, taking a deep breath as she did so, "I'm fine," just then a thought occurred in her head, "If you'll excuse me."
She left the room without another word, leaving dumbfounded looks on Sakura and Ino's faces. Shizune was now on a direct path towards Naruto's hospital room; her mind was moving a mile a minute, "Why is that boy so reckless? I just don't get it! He'll end up with a far worse injury if he doesn't rest properly!"
She only had to travel about halfway down the hall from the waiting room to reach the blonde's room, so she reached it in practically no time at all, but as she approached it, she heard something that was quite irritating…voices, and it pissed her off, "That brat!"
She flung the door open to see Naruto lying in bed with his eyes shut, she stormed in, "I know you're awake, there's no use hiding it!"
The blond boy didn't move, and that didn't sit well with Shizune, her eye started to twitch, and she motioned to tower over the bed, "Where did you run off to today, I spent the last two hours looking for you?!"
Naruto opened his right eye and used it to look up at her, the look on her face gave him a jolt, he glanced around the room and noticed his friends had all hid when she entered the room, "*Gulp*, I'm dead, and they all bailed, so I'm the only one that's gonna get it! Not fair!"
The woman wanted an answer, "Out with it!"
He laughed nervously, and his voice was shaky, he pulled his head up as high as he could get it to answer, "Ahaha, what are you talking about…I've been here all day…"
Naruto could swear that the look she gave him was one that should've only been on a demon's face.
"Okay, fine, I went and got ramen! There, happy?!"
She placed her hands on her hips, "And who helped you?"
"No one, no one at all!"
She gave him a look of disbelief, "You expect me to believe that?"
Naruto started coughing, the coughs were obviously fake, almost painfully obvious, "*cough*, There's something in my throat, *cough*…can't talk anymore."
"Oh I'm sure," Shizune smacked his head and knocked him back down into a lying position, "be still so I can make sure you didn't bust anything else."
She gave him a quick onceover, and then a warm smile grew on her face, much to Naruto's relief, "You seem to be okay, so I'll let it slide…but listen, you have to promise you'll stay in bed till you can move on your own with no pain, okay?"
He wanted to argue, but Shizune didn't give him the chance, she kept explaining in a sincere voice, "Listen, this is the kind of thing that should heal within a week, so why not stay in bed? If you force your body to move when it's like this, you could create an injury that would last a lifetime, and you'd never be able to move properly again…so promise you'll stay in bed."
The blond knew he was defeated; he seemed to have a hard time arguing when a pretty girl was talking to him with a smile, especially when what she said made sense…and arguing usually just lead to him getting pummeled in the face! "I promise I won't leave this bed until I can move right again!"
"Good…I hope all of you heard that as well!"
It was easy to see she was talking to the three others that were hiding in the room, and all three had the same thought, "How'd she know?"
Shizune spoke a good night to Naruto and left the room, and as soon as she was gone, the three hidden ninja's came out from their hiding spots. Kiba was the first to speak, "Scary lady, I couldn't decide if she was angry or happy."
Naruto laughed, "Haha, nah, Shizune's nice."
Lee thought the same thing, "I have to agree, it sounded like she was just worried about you Naruto."
"Mmmhmm"
"Hey guys," Shikamaru called for attention, "It's like twenty minutes till midnight, I've got to get home."
Kiba looked at the chunin, "And I've got something to talk to you about, can I walk with ya?"
"Sure…let's go," He turned to leave out the window, and Kiba moved to join him.
As Shikamaru was almost out, Naruto hollered at him, "Hey, Shikamaru."
The chunin looked over his shoulder, "Yeah?"
"Thanks for today."
"Sure thing…and don't forget, you're buying next time…," he finished, waving a goodbye to Lee and Naruto as he leapt out the window. Kiba's exit was similar, he shouted a, "Later," as he disappeared out the window, leaving Naruto and Lee as the only occupants of the dimly lit room.
Lee turned to face the blond, "Hey Naruto?"
"What's up?"
"Mind if I ask you a question before I leave?"
"Shoot."
…
On a far side of the leaf village, three Shinobi unfamiliar to the region occupied a small apartment room. Two of them were fast asleep, and one sat restlessly looking out into the night, completely lost in thought. An outsider would have said he had a faraway look in his eyes, it was obvious he was thinking hard about something, "So we leave in the morning…I was hoping to stay here a bit longer…I wonder…"
He was pulled from his thoughts as he heard some footsteps approaching him, a voice came with them, "Still awake Gaara?"
The red headed sand nin didn't turn to answer, instead looking out the window as he spoke, "…Kankuro…do you think we'll have time to go speak with Naruto Uzumaki before we leave in the morning?"
Kankuro moved to stand at his younger brother's side, joining him in looking outside, "Probably not…we have to be at the gate at sun up, so as soon as we get Temari up we'll head right over to meet up with that jonin."
Gaara's tone wavered a bit, "…I see…that's too bad."
A smile grew on Kankuro's face as he smacked his brother on the shoulder, "Well, come on, let's go."
The redhead broke his gaze at the sky to look at his brother, "Go where?"
The puppet master turned to go grab his shoes, "To wake up Naruto."
…
Shizune had left Naruto's room and was about to head out when she remembered that she had left Sakura and Ino in a waiting room. The jonin hustled over to the waiting room, and when she entered she found the exact opposite of what was in there the last time. Sakura and Ino weren't irritable with each other, they were lost in gossip instead, the sight made Shizune laugh, "Haha, I see you ladies made up!"
Ino looked up at the Jonin, "Hello again Shizune."
Sakura gave the same greeting, but followed it with a question, "Hello Shizune, so what's up?"
The black haired Kunoichi glanced at a clock that hung on the wall, "Aaaaiiiiieeee, I didn't realize it was midnight! I came to tell you guys that Naruto's in his room…but whatever you have to do, do it fast and head home, I'm sure your parents are wondering what happened to you guys! And I was supposed to report to Lady Tsunade! So I have to go, Bye!"
Shizune made a hasty exit, muttering to herself about how she better hurry up as she did so. After the Jonin had left, Sakura started dragging Ino towards Naruto's room, and she had her there in a matter of seconds.
"Time to apologize."
The blond girl glared at her, "I know, I know."
Sakura was just about to knock on the door, but she hesitated when she heard two people talking inside. Ino seemed to have heard it as well, "Sounds like Lee."
Sakura agreed, "It does…what's he doing here so late?"
"I don't know…"
Both girls put their ears to the door, choosing to eavesdrop before making an entrance.
Inside the room, Naruto looked up at Lee from his lying down position, "So what's your question?"
Lee seemed a bit hesitant, he was trying to fabricate the question into the right words, "Well…it's just that….hmmm…I don't want to pry, but when you fought Sasuke, what exactly did he say…he just seemed so different, his whole aura felt kind of evil?"
A sinking feeling suddenly consumed Naruto, thinking about the fight hurt, but he pushed through so he could answer the question, "One of the things he said was that his days of playing ninja with us KIDS in the Leaf Village were over, pissed me off."
"Well," Lee put a hand to his chin, "It really surprised me…He always seemed standoffish, but I never imagined he'd do something like this…and I'm really shocked he fought against YOU the way he did…you guys seemed like really good comrades, even if you were always at each other's throats…Guy sensei always says rivalry is healthy…"
The heavy feeling that had consumed the blond just grew stronger with his next few words, "I know what you mean…Sasuke said it himself, we weren't just comrades in battle…"
Lee raised an eyebrow and the two ears outside the door listened closely as well.
"Neither of us had admitted it up till then, but Sasuke said it…"
Lee looked at Naruto more intently, "He said what?"
"That we were best friends."
Both girls outside the door went wide eyed, Sasuke never showed anyone any attention, he hardly spoke to anyone, and he never conveyed feelings. The magnitude of Sasuke saying something like that was enormous.
Lee crossed his arms, "I see, never thought he'd say something like that."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Naruto's look shifted from depression to anger, "but after he said it…he said he was gonna break our bond, and he seriously tried to kill me."
"That is psycho Naruto."
"Tell me about it…"
Lee's noticed how upset Naruto looked now, "Well, let's not get you all worked up after such a good day Naruto! You can tell me the rest of it later, when the wounds not as fresh."
"Sure."
Lee gave the classic nice guy pose, "Just remember the result of your bet!"
Naruto's whole demeanor changed, a few stifled laughs escaped him, but they grew to be louder, and after Lee joined in, the whole room exploded with laughter.
"Well, I'm going to head out now Naruto, I'm actually supposed to be staying in bed myself."
"Alright then, go get some rest Lee, thanks for lugging me around."
"Anytime!" Within seconds Lee was out the window and headed home, and Naruto was content to fall asleep.
…
Outside the door, Sakura and Ino were baffled, the words that Naruto had just spoken were hard to fathom. Not only did Sasuke tell Naruto that they were best friends, he had tried to kill him as well. Sakura was on the verge of tears, and Ino could only get out one sad and shock fueled phrase, "Oh my god…"
They stood in the empty hallway for another few minutes, both thinking hard, Ino especially; her actions earlier that day were really eating at her. She reached a hand up and knocked on the door, her resolve to apologize to Naruto had grown. Sakura had regained her composure as well when Naruto's voice called out, "Come in!"
Naruto watched Sakura walk into the room, she was the last person he expected to see at that time of night, it was usually someone like Kakashi or that stupid pervy sage that came to see him in the middle of the night…always interrupted his sleep!
Naruto lifted his head as high as he could from his lying position, "Sakura? What are you doing here?"
"Actually, I brought someone to see you…"
Ino made her way into the room and stepped around Sakura, she poke hesitantly, "Hi Naruto."
He hadn't forgotten what she'd said earlier that day at Ichiraku, and his whole aura suddenly breathed malice, "What do YOU want…?
The blond girl winced as an after effect from the look, it had been a long time since she had felt this guilty about something, and she quickly looked to Sakura for help. Unfortunately said girl was already leaving, she closed the door as she left the room, "Good Luck!"
Ino wanted to scream at her, but instead, she thought what she wanted to say, "Sakura, you bitch!"
Ino slowly looked back towards Naruto, but he wasn't looking at her anymore, he had allowed his head to fall back onto his pillow and was staring up at the roof. The action ate at Ino, enough to make her decide to just get it over and done with, so she blurted out what she had come to say, "I'm sorry about what I said!"
"Yeah right," he questioned her motives in his head, "…Sakura make you say that?"
"No she didn't!" She began walking towards his bed, practically pleading to him, "What I said, I was wrong, I've just been really upset about Sasuke leaving! I just blamed you because I didn't want to blame him, I still don't want to blame him! I know it's stupid, and I feel awful about what I said about you. I'm so sorry!"
She was standing right next to his bed at this point, yelling down at him, and Naruto could see the pained look in her face. His angered expression changed, he had a really soft look now, it seemed as
though he was concerned, "I see…so you feel the same way about Sasuke as Sakura does….I'm sorry he did that to you guys…"
Ino gasped at his words.
Ino watched painfully and winced as Naruto started to pull himself into a sitting position, using his functional arm to do so, "OOOOWWWWWWCCH…*pant* *pant*"
His brain was busy calling him and idiot for moving that much, but he ignored it and continued on after he sat up, looking straight into Ino's eyes, "You don't have to worry, I'm dragging him back whether he likes it or not, and about earlier, don't worry about it, I forgive you! I say stupid stuff all the time!"
The goofy grin Sakura had told her about was now shining on his face, and she felt like crying. Not only had he forgiven her for what she'd said about him without a moments hesitation, he'd also said sorry for what Sasuke had done to her and Sakura, when what Sasuke had done to him was far worse! Here he sat, completely wrapped in bandages, and he was grinning despite it all. The emotions were taking hold of her.
Naruto noticed the change, and his face took on its trademark look with his eyes narrowing to the point of fox like slits, "What's with the sad look Ino?"
Tears began to well in her eyes.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Don't cry!" He threw his operable arm out wide and pleaded, "Seriously, don't cry, it'll be fine! I swear it!"
Ino took the extended position of his arm as an invitation for a hug, and she latched herself around him, tears pouring from her eyes.
Naruto had to keep himself from crying out in pain; she had hit him so fast and wrapped him up so tight that his tattered body was screaming in agony. He took a deep breath and fought through the surges of the pain as he looked down at the girl, she had her face buried in his shoulder. He held onto his soft tone as he pleaded for her to stop, he DID NOT like to see people cry, "Come on now Ino…please stop crying, If I say it's gonna be fine, then it's gonna be fine! Besides…you're getting my shirt all wet."
She realized what she was doing, so she unlatched herself from him and sat up straight on the edge of the bed, "…Sorry about that."
The grin returned to Naruto's face, whether it was cause he was trying to be super nice to Ino, or because she had let him go and the pain had stopped was uncertain, "Ah, don't worry about It, I would have got this shirt dirty one way or another, it's just a few tears!"
She grinned, "Ha…thanks." She closed her eyes and laughed to herself, "Haha, since when was he so nice?"
Naruto tilted his head and watched as the girl sat there with her eyes closed, about a minute passed before anyone said anything, and it was Naruto who broke the silence, "You all right now?"
She opened her eyes and her speech was bubbly, "I'm all right, you're the one that's all bandaged up after a-"
Ino froze before she could finish and had a strange look on her face; something seemed to have spooked her, "What's the matter Ino?"
The blond girl held onto the surprised look as she pointed towards the window behind Naruto, "Ummm…Naruto…Who the hell is that?"
"Huh…," Naruto turned to look at where her hand was pointing, and much to his surprise, hovering in the air outside the window was a man he didn't recognize. The stranger had spiky brown hair and a dumbfounded look on his face. All Naruto could do was stare and blink.
The strange man noticed the idiotic look that Naruto and Ino shared, he spoke in a tone that suggested he wasn't the stranger in the situation, "What!?"
The room remained still for a few more seconds…but Naruto had enough of the silence!
"Who the hell are you!? And what the hell are you doing floating outside my window!?"
Ino had to agree, "Yeah, what he said!"
The stranger laughed, "What, you don't recognize me…that's depressing!?"
As he finished, the man hopped into the room, and as he did, Naruto saw that he hadn't been hovering, he'd actually been standing on something. The sight made the knucklehead's thoughts run, "Wait a second…he was standing on…Sand? Does that mean!?"
Naruto looked intently at the window, and sure enough, his suspicion was confirmed. Another person appeared riding on a block of sand; he had short red hair and wore a gourd on his back, and Naruto shouted as soon as he saw him, "Gaara!"
The red haired sand nin climbed in through the window, he called back to Naruto as the sand that surrounded him returned to its rightful place inside the gourd, "Hello again Naruto Uzumaki…"
Instead of starting a conversation with Gaara, Naruto gave a pensive stare to the other new visitor, "Who the heck is this guy…and what's he doing with Gaara?"
The man noticed the questioning look on Naruto's face, "What, you STILL don't recognize me? That's messed up."
Gaara looked over at the man and his normal deep deadpan tone seeped into his speech, "Quit messing with him Kankuro."
Naruto was shocked, "Kankuro!? You mean the puppet guy!?"
The man now revealed to be Kankuro rubbed the back of his head and laughed, "Hahahaha! Yeah, guess I look different without the ninja get up and the paint!"
"Heck ya you do, I didn't recognize you all, I always kind of expected you to be funny looking though! Thought that was why you wore all that make up!"
Kankuro glared at him, "I'm not really sure if I should take that as an insult or a compliment…"
The room was awkwardly silent for a few moments, but then Kankuro looked over to Gaara, "So, what's the holdup bro?"
Gaara stood silently with his arms crossed, "I was just wondering…what that girls doing hiding behind Naruto."
Kankuro laughed, "Ha! It's probably because we interrupted their lovey-dovey time."
Naruto had forgotten about the blond girl until they brought her up, he turned to look at her, and sure enough she had moved to put Naruto between Gaara and herself, it looked as though she WAS hiding behind him. Naruto was about to ask her what she was doing when Kankuro made the lovey-dovey comment, he snapped back at the puppet handler, "What! Lovey-dovey! It's not like that at all! She just came here to talk, that's it!"
Kankuro gave him a teasing look, and his smart-elecky tone matched it, "Yeah…that's why I saw her hugging ya when I first got here, isn't it?"
Up to this point, Ino hadn't said a word since the two had come in the room, but her thoughts had looked something like this, "Why's that guy floating…wait, did Naruto call that one Gaara? That's the crazy one who tried to destroy the village," at that point, she'd unconsciously moved to put Naruto between the two of them, but her thoughts kept flying, "but they helped on the mission to get Sasuke back…so they can't be all that bad…can they?"
Her last thought was enough to get her out of her head and focused on the current conversation the guys were having, but the first words she heard were Kankuro's lovey-dovey comment, then Naruto's retort. Unfortunately Kankuro had been quick with a comeback, "Yeah…that's why I saw her hugging ya when I first got here, Isn't it?"
Ino's cheeks flushed with a mix of embarrassment and anger, she leapt out of the bed in Kankuro's direction, "Shut up! He said it was nothing and he was right!"
Kankuro grinned wildly at her actions; he shook his head, "Ha, if it was nothing…then what's with the blush?"
Ino's eye's nearly popped out of her head, she was like a tea kettle whistling to let you know it was done, "I'm not blushing! Shut up!"
She was right in Kankuro's face, growling while she gave him the meanest look she could muster. Kankuro on the other hand, was thoroughly amused, he was about to push it further when Gaara stepped in between them, "That's enough Kankuro…"
Naruto took the chance to speak, "He's just messing with you Ino, he's that kind of guy…he likes to get on people's nerves."
Kankuro frowned at the comment, "Maaaaan, you two ruined all the fun…besides, it's not like I meant anything bad by it," he smiled down at Ino as he finished.
Ino answered the smile with a glare, "Whatever, I'm out of here," she turned and stomped her way to the door, opening and closing quite forcefully, the sound made Naruto wince, "Thanks, she had just stopped being mad too…"
...
Twenty minutes had passes since Shikamaru and Kiba had left Naruto's hospital room, and now the two were just outside of the Nara family's house. The two had talked about the fight that Kiba had against the sound ninja known as Sakon. Kiba had just about finished explaining when they approached the front gate of Shikamaru's place.
"So in the end, it was Kankuro that killed him?"
Kiba gave a sigh before he answered, "*sigh*, yeah, he really saved my ass too."
The Nara boy yawned as he looked up at the sky, "All five of those sound Ninja's were crazy…the one I fought had a real nasty personality, not to mention the horns..."
The mention of the girl triggered a thought in Kiba's head, "Aha! That reminds me," He fished into his jacket and pulled out some papers that were rolled up and bound by a rubber band, "Here, Master Jiraiya asked me to give these to you, it's the whole reason I wanted to walk with you."
Shikamaru took the documents and unraveled them, the first thing he noticed was the picture of a girl, it only showed the side of her face, but he knew who it was, "What the? This is the girl I fought, why on earth would he want you to give these to me?"
The Inuzuka boy scratched his chin, "I don't know why, all he told me was to give them to you. He also said he wanted you to make a copy of em', and then to give the copy to Naruto…and he also said someone has to sneak the original back into The Hokage's office."
Shikamaru was puzzled, "Really?"
"Yeah…he said not to tell anyone, none of our friends, not our parents, not even the Hokage, but I don't understand what would be so important about it that it had to be a big secret, any ideas?"
The chunin was looking hard at the photo before glancing back up at Kiba, "I honestly don't know, but I'll find out."
"Well, let me know when you do figure something out."
"Sure."
Kiba took that as his sign to head home, "Well, I'm out."
Shikamaru had nodded as a goodbye, and as Kiba disappeared from his view, he looked backed down at the paperwork, his thoughts running ramped, "This makes no sense…I watched Temari destroy that girl, she literally buried her under an entire grove of the forest…what could be so important about a dead girl…and why keep it a secret…Unless she's not dead after all…by why tell Naruto if that's the case?"
One troubling thought entered his head, "Looks like I've got some work to do…"
An even more troubling thought hit him, "Looks like I'm not gonna get any sleep any time soon either…Juuust great…"
The chunin hung his head, and much to his displeasure, set out back towards the center of the Village.
…
Naruto and Gaara now sat alone in a small hospital room; Kankuro had left, setting off after Ino while saying something about how a guy should never let a pretty girl walk home alone in the middle of the night. Though Naruto had a hunch that the real reason he'd left was so that he and Gaara could talk in private, but the room had been silent for a full five minutes. Awkward was a generous description of the setting, and Naruto had enough of it, "So…why exactly did you come here Gaara?"
The sand ninja had been standing silently with his arms crossed when Naruto posed the question, he'd lifted his head to answer, "Well…we're headed home tomorrow…I had hoped to stay here for a while…I was hoping for the chance to sit down and talk with you."
Naruto scratched the back of his head, "I see…well, we can talk now."
"It's just," the read head's tone dropped, "…I'm not good at this type of thing, so I'm not sure what to say…I was hoping I'd have more time to think about it before I had to leave…"
"Ah, I see…well, that's too bad."
Gaara agreed, "…Indeed."
The room fell back into an awkward silence.
Gaara had spent a few seconds thinking, then he let his thoughts drift to words, "I guess for now…"
Naruto gave him his attention as he spoke.
"I just want to say…if you're ever in another fix…just send us word…we owe you a lot."
Naruto smiled, "Alright! Same to you, just holler if you need help!"
"Very well…..It's time I leave and let you rest now."
"Later then Gaara!"
The sand ninja disappeared out the window, and now that he was finally alone again, Naruto let himself lye back down, his body in pain as he did so, "Yeowch! Finally…I can sleep."
He used his good arm to pull his blanket over his head, and thanks to his exhaustion, within a matter of seconds he was asleep. The night passed by without any further hindrance.
…
The first few streaks of sunlight had begun to illuminate a dense forest in the Land Of Fire, yet it didn't grow quite as bright as the previous day, a storm had moved into the area during the night, bringing a biting cold wind, and an even more bitter cold rain. Yet the sun wasn't the only thing to rise in the forest, a group of three ANBU Black Ops had risen right along with it.
"Holy hell! It got cold last night, do we really have to keep looking, I think that girl is long gone boss!"
The man he had questioned looked toward him and spoke through a mask, "No complaints Nobu, I doubt were gonna find anything, but we've GOT to be sure."
"But…I hate the rain…and the cold…How about you Sen?"
The shortest man of the bunch turned to him, "Not really, I've always liked the cold and the rain…at least more than the heat, you can always put another coat on, but you can only take so much clothing off…"
The ANBU known as Nobu sighed under his mask, "But we didn't bring any coats…"
Smack! The group's leader smacked Nobu on the back of his head, "I Said no complaints! Let's get to work, the sooner we finish, the sooner we head home!"
The two other ANBU spoke in unison, "Yes Boss/Sir!"
The three ANBU headed out in search of the missing girl, determined as ever to get the current mission over and done with!
…
Thanks to all his late night visitors, Naruto had only gotten about five hours of sleep when someone started knocking on his hospital room's door. The sound woke him up and he looked around the room groggily as he tried to identify the source of the sound, once he realized it was the door, he called out, "Come in."
A very busty blond woman made her way into the room, "*Yawn*, Morning Naruto."
"Grandma Tsunade! What the heck are you doing waking me up so early!?"
"Pipe down kid!"
"Then tell me what you want Grandma!"
The Hokage looked down at him, "Well…"
Well, how was it? Shikamaru's got the papers and things are about to make a leap forward in the plot!
I named this chapter after a song called: How It Starts by: The Features (Perfect title considering that the events in this chapter are how the first arc starts! they really set things in motion)
As always, I'd appreciate the reviews and your song suggestions, any band, any song, throw em' at me!
Take It Easy...
