Well, longer than usual for the update, and this chapter is much shorter than the norm, but I got in what I wanted.

A huge thank you to those of you who follow/review/favorite this story, your one hell of inspiration to trudge onwards! Hopefully I keep you guys satisfied and interested!

Anyways, I'm sleepy, so I'll keep this short!

Want a song to listen to as you read, try Twelve Thousand Drops by Campfires in Winter...or Lost River by Murder by Death.

Italics are thoughts, bold and capitals are used for emphasis.

I don't own Naruto, (Disclaimer)

Chapter 10

It's Thunder And It's Lightning

Naruto and Shikamaru's hunt for the elusive red head had finally reached an end, after crashing into the ground; they'd discovered her sickly form.

Naruto looked to Shikamaru, "Is She Alive!?"

The chunin approached the girl and knelt down next to her, he held his hand in front of her mouth, it was faint, but he could feel the heat of her breath, the exhales were rapid and short, but she was still breathing, "No freaking Way! She's in bad shape, but she's still alive! We need to get her out of this water, grab her legs and help me move her!"

Naruto Executed the order immediately, using his good arm to wrap one of her legs up, they quickly pulled her on the bank of the river and the first thing Naruto noticed was how severely she was shaking, still shouting over the elements, "She's Shaking bad!"

Shikamaru hollered back, "It's the chills; she's running one hell of a fever! Come on! We need to get her dry now!"

Naruto looked down at the girl, her grayish brown tunic like outfit was heavily soaked, as were the black shorts and armguards she was wearing "How are we supposed to do that!? Everything we have is wet!"

Shikamaru was still holding the girls shoulders up, he laid her head down gently on his knee as he thought aloud, "Hmmm, well, Let's see," he looked around for something dry, eventually landing on Naruto's orange jacket, an idea struck him, "Hey Naruto, Do you have a shirt on under that jacket? Its waterproof isn't it?"

A light bulb went off in the genin's head, "I do! Normally I just wear a chain vest under it, but today I put a shirt on as well!"

Shikamaru shouted at him, "Then let's use it!"

"Right!" Naruto lay the Kunoichi's legs down and pulled the backpack he was wearing off of his back, and then unzipped his jacket, he used his teeth and his right arm to slip out from the first sleeve, then he used his newly free arm to slip the jacket off entirely. It revealed a black long sleeved t-shirt which he grasped with his good hand, he pulled it up and over his head then eased it over his injured arm, now wearing nothing but his chain vest, and the metal got cold…fast, "Damn that's cold!"

"No complaints! She's got it way worse than both of us!" Shikamaru pulled a small knife from a hidden holster on his body, he grabbed the purplish rope wrapped around her that all the followers of Orochimaru seemed to wear, "This has to go," he used the knife and cut the rope with one swift swipe. Naruto watched as the chunin threw it to his side, "What next Shikamaru?!"

"We have to get these clothes off her!"

Naruto's face blushed as he went wide eyed, "Say what!? We can't do that pervy stuff!"

Shikamaru snapped at him, "It's either that or she dies Naruto! Just try not to look if it bothers you that much…Its too damn dark in here to see anything anyways!"

"Whatever…let's do it then!"

Shikamaru grabbed the collar of her tunic and started slicing it from the top down, much like how a fish would be gutted, Naruto was about to ask a question but Shikamaru answered it before he could, "I'm cutting the clothes instead of pulling them off cause I don't want to move her around too much…not good to shift a sick person around too much and we'd have to if we were to pull all this off!"

Naruto just nodded in understanding and grabbed the underside of the tunic. After Shikamaru had finished slicing down the front and cut slits along the sleeves, the genin pulled it out from under her, making sure not to look at her now naked form, he glanced to his side and focused on his back pack instead, and he remembered something, "Hey Shikamaru! I've got a large cloth in my bag!" He fished into the bag and removed it, "I usually use it for polishing my Kunai!"

Shikamaru grabbed it from him, "That's alright, it's the best we've got!"

The chunin kept the girl hoisted on his knee and used the cloth to dry her upper half as much as he could, proving difficult in the darkness, then he extended the cloth towards Naruto, "Get her legs….and let me see your shirt."

Naruto traded the shirt for the cloth, he ran it over her legs while Shikamaru clothed the girl with Naruto's black t-shirt. After both were done, Shikamaru barked out one more command, "Now your jacket!"

Naruto was one step ahead of him, already motioning to put the it on the girl, "I know, It may be wet on the outside, but It'll keep her warm on the inside!"

They worked together to put it on her, and Naruto finished by zipping it up over her chest, and now that the rush and the work was over, Shikamaru wiped his brow and sighed, "*Sigh*, Well…that should help her for the time being."

Naruto glanced down at the girl, "What do we do now?"

…

Tsunade was sleeping soundly when someone started wailing on her bedroom door, the noise echoed through the large room, waking up the blond with ease, she looked toward the door and railed angrily, "Who the hell is it!?"

A male voice came through the door, "Its Tenzo mam!"

"Tenzo…," Tsunade couldn't figure out what he would want, "what the heck would he be doing here so early?"

She made her way groggily out of bed and approached the door, she spoke with spite as she opened it, "Do you realize that the sun's not even up yet?"

Now that the man could see her, he answered from behind his Cat like ANBU mask, "I'm sorry mam, but there's an urgent message for you," he finished by extending a small paper out toward her.

She gave him a death glare, "You woke me up for a…message?"

Fortunately, his mask hid the flash of nervousness on his face, "Yeah…it's from Kakashi."

She snatched it out of his hands, "Why didn't you say so sooner!?"

Tenzo looked on as Tsunade read the short message, the reaction her face gave evidence that even though Kakashi's message was short, it was Important. She looked up at the ANBU, "Can you do me a favor?"

"You are my boss ya know."

She thought for a moment, "Who should I send…" she settled on someone, "Could you go tell Guy's student, Rock Lee to report to my office immediately?"

Tenzo gave a simple nod, "Consider it done mam!"

After the ANBU disappeared down the hallway, Tsunade motioned to get dressed, an ugly thought occupying her mind as she did so, "I'm surprised Kakashi got information like that after just two days…perhaps I need to send someone to join him on his mission, this could be bad."

…

The newly formed crater that held three rain soaked ninja's was just starting to illuminate, the sun's slow rise was seeing to that, the new day however, did nothing to stop the heavy downpour of rain over the area. It was still wet and cold, and Naruto of course, had to vocalize his frustrations.

"This is the longest storm EVER!"

Shikamaru ignored his complaint, instead looking down at the mysterious red headed girl. They had laid her head on Naruto's back pack, using it as a temporary pillow, and now that the cave was lighting up, the chunin could see just how messed up the girl was, "Who cares about the storm, this girl's in REALLY bad shape!"

Naruto looked down at her as well, "Is it really that bad Shikamaru?"

The chunin nodded, "Yeah," he vocalized what he was thinking as he looked down at the girl, "Just look, she's completely unconscious, she's also barely breathing…I didn't notice before thanks to the lack of light, but she's covered in gashes," he lifted the base of Naruto's orange Jacket enough to see the girls belly, revealing a large gash that stretched across her stomach, "This one in particular is bad…it's closed up on its own, but it's all infected, that alone could kill her…let alone the fact that she's probably got pneumonia now."

Naruto didn't know that word, "pneumonia?"

Shikamaru stood up, "It's like the world's worst cold…..the fact that she's still alive is unbelievable…but without a doctor she'll die."

Naruto yelled in his face, "Really?! We can't let her die, I won't be able to find Sasuke if that happens, she can't die! We have to save her!"

Shikamaru back down at her, he was at a loss, "I know that Naruto…but what are we supposed to do? Neither of us are doctors…ideally the best thing we could do is have one of us go fetch a doctor and some supplies to hoist her out of here while one of stayed behind to watch her…there's even a village not too far from here that I visited with Asuma once, they had several doctors…but we've got no way out of this damn hole, so that's no use at all!"

The area grew silent, with the exception of the rain and rushing water, not a peep could be heard. It stayed this way for about a minute, then Naruto broke the silence, "I guess it can't be helped then! This is gonna hurt!"

Shikamaru looked confused, "What are you talking about?!"

Naruto didn't give an answer, instead he put his right hand in front of his face and extend his pointer and middle fingers towards the sky.

Shikamaru tilted his head, "What the hell are you doing!?"

Naruto snapped at him, "I'm gonna make some shadow clones damn it!"

The blond tried his best, but he couldn't get his left arm to move than a few inches, he screamed at Shikamaru, "Are you just gonna stand there, or are you gonna help me!?"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, "What do you want me to do?!"

"Come force my left arm up into the hand sign!"

The Chunin didn't argue vocally, but he didn't think it was a good idea…however he did as Naruto asked, he grabbed the genin's left arm, using one hand to move the arm up and the other to extend Naruto's finger's the rest of the way into the clone seal…Naruto growled painfully as he moved them, drawing a question out of Shikamaru, "Ummm, do you think this is a good idea?"

Naruto just smirked, "Ha, probably not, Shadow Cone Jutsu!" Naruto grimaced from the pain that shot through his arm as it fell back down to his side when about fifty clones of Naruto appeared around the trio, and they immediately started complaining, "What the heck, it's pouring down rain!" Another whined about the temperature, "Why's it so damn cold, where's my jacket! This chain vest is freezing!"

Shikamaru looked on in disbelief as Naruto screamed at his copies, "Hey, shut up you guys! You know what we need to do! So get to work!"

They all yelled back in unison, "Right!"

One by one they all ran to stand right under the opening in the ground above them, then they commenced with creating a clone ladder. One hopped and stood on the shoulders of the first one, then another leapt onto him, and as the ladder got too high to jump alone, the clones started throwing each other up higher and higher until the very last ones reached the top of the whole and to the upper ground, fully completing and stabilizing the ladder. The sight made Naruto boast, he looked at Shikamaru, "How's that?! Ninja Art Clone Ladder!"

"Ha," Shikamaru smirked, "Awesome!"

Just then, the clones started shouting, "Let's get the show on the road, this ain't easy you know!"

Naruto looked at Shikamaru, "You best get going, I'll stay with the girl, get to that village fast!"

"Right," the chunin glanced at the girl that lay below them, "Keep her as warm and dry as possible, I'll be back as soon as I can!"

The chunin ran over and started climbing up the clone ladder, each clone making a sarcastic statement about how handsy Shikamaru was being, and before long he had reached the top, one clone that stood on the above ground offered him a hand and pulled him up. As soon as Shikamaru was up top, all the clones dispelled. Shikamaru shouted down to Naruto, "It shouldn't take me more than two or three hours to get to that village and back!"

Naruto shouted back up at him, "See you then!"

Shikamaru shot off like a cannon, leaving Naruto alone in the water drenched pit. A shiver shot up his spine as the blond took a seat next to the sick girl, placing a hand on her forehead as he did so, "She's still got a fever…funny, she doesn't look so scary now…"

His eyes began to drift shut, he was thoroughly exhausted and his arm was killing him, the sandman was trying to grab him…

All that was left was to wait

…

The sun had been up for about thirty minutes over the Leaf Village, rousing ninja's and citizens alike, each headed off to their prospective jobs. Everyone had wrapped up more tightly than normal to ward off the cold, and all were happy to see that the rain had let up somewhat. Once such person had just made his way into the Hokage's office, following closely behind a man he didn't recognize. The man called out to Tsunade, "Reporting in mam."

The busty blond had been looking outside at the storm when he called out, she turned and answered him, "Ah, Tenzo, that didn't take long," she looked at the ninja standing behind him, "I see you brought Lee as well."

The green bearing genin stepped forward and spoke in his typical over enthusiastic tone, "Yes mam!"

The Hokage got straight down to business, "There's no time to waste, I have a mission for both of you."

They both stood at attention.

She walked up to both of them, handing each a small envelope, "Lee, you are to take this envelope and deliver it to Guy, catch up to him and the Sand Ninja's as quickly as you can! It is imperative that he gets this with the utmost haste!"

Lee looked defeated, he mumbled lowly, "Just a delivery mission….and I thought this would be some special assignment…"

Tsunade snapped at him, "What was that!?"

"Nothing mam!"

Tsunade grinned, "Then get going immediately, and Lee…move like lightning."

Lee blew out the door, shouting all the way, "I will use the full power of my youth!"

Tsunade giggled at Lee's antics, "I swear, he's the carbon copy of his Sensei."

Tenzo commented from behind his mask, "They are a lot alike…..so m'lady, what's my mission?"

"Your specialty is tracking right…I need you to locate and join Kakashi on his current mission, he's currently in the Sound Village."

Tenzo nodded, "Then he must be looking for Orochimaru's hideout…I'll get going now then, been a long time since I've seen Kakashi."

Tsunade took a seat in her chair, "You guys go way back don't you?"

"That we do mam, well, I'm off," he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Tsunade leaned back in her chair, "I hope this'll all be enough…"

She'd closed her eyes for just a second when Shizune came blasting through the door, "Lady Tsunade, we've got a problem!"

"What is it!?"

Shizune took a deep breath, "Naruto's gone missing from his room!"

Tsunade stood, slamming her hands onto her desk, "Say what, that little…find him!"

…

Jiraiya had left the Leaf Village immediately after his late night chat with Shikaku Nara. He'd spent the whole of the night traveling, moving through the rain with great speed. He'd just made his way into a decent sized town when he spotted something that got his blood boiling.

Three young ladies were walking into a hot springs.

"Hehehehehe, so early in the morning and there's already so many lovely research specimens!"

He skipped like a happy school kid, wasting no time getting after his life's blood.

…

On a far side of the Leaf Village, two pissed off Kunoichi's where currently making their way down the hallway of a large apartment building.

"Hey Sakura, why the heck do WE have to get up and look for Naruto."

The pink haired girl let out a huge Yawn, "Well Ino...Cause that idiot doesn't listen to any order, we'll just have to murder him when we find him!"

They'd approached their intended target, it was the door to an apartment that Ino didn't recognize, "Where are we anyways Sakura?"

"This is Naruto's place."

The blond girl just nodded and watched as Sakura banged on the door, "Hey Naruto, Open up!"

There was no answer, and Sakura moved quickly to anger, likely on account of the early morning hour and the lack of sleep, she lifted a foot and kicked the door open, leaving Ino standing there with her jaw dropped.

"Sheesh Sakura, why'd you do that!?"

Sakura hummed happily to herself and walked into the apartment, completely ignoring Ino's question. The blond hustled in after her and the two realized almost immediately that Naruto's presence was vacant.

Ino was the first to speak, "Looks like you kicked the door down for no reason, he isn't even here."

Sakura whistled innocently before replying, "Oh well, guess that's my bad, looks like we'll have to search somewhere else."

Ino followed as Sakura left the apartment, "Any guesses where he's at?"

"Next place to check is Ichiraku."

With that the two headed off towards Naruto's personal heaven.

…

A fireplace was roaring in a small house that sat peacefully secluded in the woods. A family of five was sleeping soundly when a scream rang out through the house, immediately waking two concerned parents. A thunderclap sounded outside as they both rushed to the room where they're three kids normally slept.

All three of their children were gone.

Well, how was it? Let me know.

And keep sending those song suggestions my way.

This Chapter is named after a song called It's Thunder and It's Lightning by: We Were Promised Jetpacks

Take it easy ladies and gents.