An Old House: Part II

Moments later, Sasuke and Sai were back with a bucket of water on each of their hands.

"Okay, ready Sai?" Sasuke asked and Sai nodded. "Go!" Sasuke ordered as the two of them spilled the chilling water onto their sleeping teammates.

Naruto and Sakura yelled immediately as they reached for something to wipe the cold water out of their clothes and faces.

"WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU GUYS!?" Naruto yelled standing up to Sai.

"Yeah! We were sleeping!!" Sakura taunted walking away from the wet area.

"Uh, Sakura, but it was for your own good. You and Naruto won't wake up. You two stayed up late last night, didn't you?" Sai corrected as the two's faces blushed bright red.

"Y-yeah, we did stay up….but…you guys didn't have to do this to us! You could've simply waked us up nicely…hmph!" Naruto turned his head away.

"Uh…we did." Sai objected.

Naruto slightly turned to face Sai with an embarrassing look on his face. "Oh…uh… y-you did? Well…who cares!? We're all awake now, aren't we? LET'S GET ON WITH OUR JOURNEY, SHALL WE!" Everyone suddenly got Naruto's attention as he clumsily picked up the blankets, even though they were all wet. Everybody also gave him a curious look.

Not long after Naruto's episode, the group continued traveling home to Konoha. The journey took quite a long time. Naruto occasionally got frustrated while they jumped onto the large, canopy trees. Sakura calms him down by giving him her usual smack-on-the-head routine. But most of the time, she accompanies him, along with Sai and their new comrade, Sasuke Uchiha.

It's been two days, Konoha was very near. Everyone was very worried…of Captain Yamato. He never did show up to Orochimaru's lair. And he never followed the squad.

"Naruto, do you think Captain Yamato is all right?" Sakura unexpectedly brought up the subject. "Do you think he's still…" she gulped at the thought of her next saying, "…alive?"

The boy widened his eyes, a surprised expression. Naruto reminisced the image of his Captain and Kimimaro when the squad was about to leave the battleground. It took Naruto a few seconds to answer Sakura's concern.

"Um, we'll be coming across the area where Captain Yamato fought; we'll get some information there." He said, ignoring Sakura's question.

"Everyone, be on full alert when we get there." Sai said with a commanding tone in his voice.

Very deep down, Sai and Naruto was very worried, their facial expressions were quite obvious. The quiet atmosphere that surrounded the team became tense and awkward. After about a hundred more yards of jumping on top of trees, they finally halted into a full stop. Sakura stepped into the edge of the pool of light through the huge ferns in front of her. She couldn't help it but to gaze blankly at the image of the broken down trees, giant boulders scattered around the quiet battlefield and kunais sticking out of the ground covered in dried blood.

Naruto breathed in and out slowly just before he ordered everyone to look for Captain Yamato. It took them about a whole ten minutes before Sakura suddenly noticed a trail of dried blood leading towards an unfamiliar path of the forest.

"Naruto! Come…take a look." With her right arm pointing at the trail of blood, everyone gathered to see what she was talking about.

Naruto felt his jaw drop and Sai's eyes widened a bit.

"You think that's who I think it is?" Sakura chirped, emphasizing the question.

"I think we should follow it." Naruto, again, ignoring Sakura's concern. But she doesn't appear to notice this.

The bloodstains were pretty noticeable, so it was easy to follow the trail. Unexpectedly, the group found themselves in an unknown area. Tall, huge ferns and bushes covered everything in sight; it's as if the place had never been walked on before. But amazingly, the blood trail led them to an unusual abandoned house.

The house was small; perfect for one person to live in. It was made of mere wood planks and tree barks, kind of like what an average human strength can build. Sakura and Sasuke investigated the outside perimeter while Naruto and Sai knock on the door if anyone was inside the old house.

Sai raised an arm and made a light knock on the front door.

No response.

He knocks again, a little harder this time.

Still, not a word for a reply. As soon as they were about to barge in, Sakura and Sasuke appeared together around the corner of Naruto's eye.

"What's the status?" Naruto chirped, sounding like a captain himself.

Sakura stepped forward. "Well, it looks like nothing's dangerous about this house, so…"

Sasuke interrupts, "So, it's fine. But, we noticed that there were some well-planted vegetables at the back of the house."

"I-I was getting to that part." Sakura scowled while she crossed her arms across her chest and faced away from Sasuke with a pout.

The Uchiha glanced at her with a look and proceeded with his speech. "Anyways, this is evidence that there is someone living here or at least, nearby. Did you two get a chance to go inside already?"

"Uh…we were getting to that part." Naruto muttered as he reached for the doorknob. He twisted the handle and pushed open the door. The interior was much different than they thought it would, but there was a bed in a cozy corner that immediately caught their eyes.

Sakura, Naruto, Sai and Sasuke all walked slowly inside, and towards the bed. It appeared to be that there was someone in it. That person had short brown hair, wide eyes and his body was covered with huge bruises and injuries. He was as still as a rock.

Sakura noticed the resemblance, and a tear immediately rolled down her cheeks. "C-captain?" she stuttered, her eyes getting watery. The others didn't realize the injured person in the bed, until Sakura did.

It was none other than, Captain Yamato.

"So, this is the 'Yamato' you guys are talking about earlier?" Sasuke remembered, "What happened to him?" he observed the bandages that covered the body in front of him. "Is he even alive." He said in a hushed tone, not knowing it was meant to be heard or not.

Sakura dashed beside her Captain and laid two fingers up his neck. She pressed slightly at his cold skin, being careful not to make any sudden mistakes, and felt a 'thump,' the slow beating of his heart. The beat continued at a very slow pace. She sighed and gave her sensei an oh-so-very light hug. She stood up and faced her comrades. "He's fine, he's in a good condition, but we better get him to Konoha; fast, to treat those really bad injuries." Sakura protested, glancing at the huge bruises at the body's chest and stomach.

Naruto glanced back and forth at Sakura and Captain Yamato. "It's amazing how Captain Yamato can take care of himself in a condition like that. I wonder how he did it." Naruto puzzled.

"I don't think he's the one who did all this to himself though, Naruto." Sai objected.

"Hmm? You think someone else did it?" Naruto replied, giving him a questionable look.

"Well, yeah…you think at a condition like that, he could wrap himself up into bandages? And the fact that there's a well-planted vegetable at the back of this house, do you also think he did those, when right now, I think he could barely move a finger… I think there's someone else that helped Captain Yamato, someone who lives here perhaps…"

"Hey, y-you're right, young man!" A husky voice came out of nowhere. Every head turned to the door to see who it was.

An old lady was carrying a bag of herbs stood at the front door, smiling. "A-are you all f-friends with this in-injured, young m-man?" Her voice was so low; the four ninjas barely heard her.

"Um…yes. Yes we are." Sakura said respectfully and the old lady's eyes turned to her attention, "We have been looking for our Captain in this forest for the past hour now and we've been very worried about him, until we saw this old house…and our captain, in here." She bowed her head and said, "Thank you, very much for taking care of him."


NEXT TIME: chapter 8: Welcome To Konoha!