Hrey! sorry guys! I've just been so busy with school! The only reason I've gotten time to write another fanfic chapter for this story is because of that ginormous snow storm! I've been snowed in almost the whole week! we havent had school so I've been able to write this! enjoy!

DON'T FORGET TO R&R! ^(^0^)^

Naruto burst into the hospital lobby making a spectical of himself. He was frantically talking to the front desk clerk asking about a small boy being treated. The hospital was in shambles from the unexpected attack, so all the patients were in one large treatment room in the basement shelter. The nurse tending the front desk led him there. When Naruto saw all the hundreds of people laying on strechers his heart sank. He never liked seeing the after math of fighting because it was never pretty. After running up and down the aisles of people he came to the clip-board that had the name "Takashi" written on it, but no one was in the bed. It just had ruffled sheets from where someone was. Naruto scratched the back of his head then wondered to himself where he would've gone after leaving the hospital. He thought for a few moments before he ran over the rooftops towards the training fields. He was certain that that's where he would go after leaving from the restraints of the hospital (besides Ichiraku Ramen of course). As he arrived at the training fields he was used to, he saw nothing. It was almost dead silent, except for a smacking sound in the distance with yelling in the background. Naruto wasn't sure if it was Takashi, but he wouldn't leave until he found out. When he went into the forest behind the training grounds he almost winced at what he saw. Tears were streaming down Takashi's face as his badly-bloodied fists kept pounding into the bark of a tree. The blood was tickling down in the trails of the bark. Naruto almost felt compelled to turn around and leave the boy be, but he knew that his newly found wounds needed to be treated immediately, and the boy was sure to do nothing about them if he were left alone.

"Enough already!" Naruto growled.

Takashi leapt in shock and turned towards Naruto stuttering, "W-wha-what are you d-doing here?"

"Making sure you don't kill yourself" Naruto growled while gritting his teeth, "But it seems I was almost a little too late..."

Takashi continued to sport a dumbfounded expression as he stood stalk still in front of Naruto.

"We need to talk, squirt" Naruto said softly as he ruffled the boy's hair, it was almost as spikey as his own.

"Takashi nodded as his wiped his tears away and followed Naruto back towards the hospital. It was almost dinner time and Naruto planned on breaking the news to him while he treated him to ramen at Ichiraku.

The two walked into the hospital as a nurse rushed up to them and examined Takashi's hand wounds.

"Back again huh?" she chided as she ushered him to a treatment booth that had medications and bandages.

After a few moments of waiting the nurse finished treating his hands she repremanded him on rashly acting out and abusing his body to a bloody pulp. She advised him to find a punching bag next time to avoid further injury. Naruto led the boy down the sidewalk towards Ichiraku Ramen. He was counting down the seconds until this boy had a nasty reality check. Naruto was already sweating so badly that he wiped his brow to keep the salty liquid from falling into his eyes. When they arrived at the stand they took a seat next to each other and ordered their food. Naruto decided to break the ice betweeen them so he could more easily tell the boy about his misfortunes.

"So why were you so frustrated that you decided to start pounding a tree?" Naruto asked curiously as he nodded at the old man running the stand which meant 'the usual'.

"Because no one will look at me" the boy growled while clenching the countertop, "They don't speak to me, they don't respect me... hell they treat me like I don't exist!"

Naruto felt his heart wrench as his own painful past memories came floating back to the surface. All the times the villagers drove himout of their stores, kicked him, made fun of him, ifnored him, tricked him, spat in his direction and all other cruel things humans were capeable of.

"I haven't even seen any of my friends or family yet, but I'm sure they'll act the same as everyone else."

Naruto huffed sadly before he said, "I don't know about your friends, but I was informed that your family is, in fact, dead..."

the boy's eyes widenned in shock, but before he could ask any questions Naruto continued, "That's not all... the beast that attacked this village and killed your family and many others... is sealed inside you..."

The boy got up and turned to run away and leave the stand but Naruto grabbed his arm and barked at him, "Don't run away... do you honestly think that will change anything?"

Takashi turned to Naruto with blurry eyes and yelled, "I can't change what people think of me!"

"Not with that attitude!"

"How would you know?"

"Because we're the same!"

The boy's eyes widdened in shock as Naruto explained, "I have a beast sealed inside of me as well, the Kyuubi. It did far more damage than the two-tails did last night! But I still managed to gain everyone's respect and make a hero of myself!"

The boy stared in shock at what Naruto said, he knew Naruto was well respected, but he didn't know that Naruto had a bijuu just like him.

"So don't tell me that I don't understand" Naruto finished.

The boy went limp and Naruto let go of him trusting that he wouldn't run away.

Naruto decided to leave the boy with one last piece of advice, "If you run away from your problems, they'll never end. They'll always find you."

Sakura quietly slipped out of bed and avoided Sasuke's sleeping form next to her. She untangled herself from him and quickly slipped out of her pajamas and into her daily attire. She briskly brushed her lushous pink hair, then put her shoes on by the door and left. She had no intention of coming back to the Uchiha compound anytime soon, at least not for today and possiby that night.

After Sakura had closed the door behind her Sasuke sat up in bed. He was awake since the moment she squirmed, but he didn't let her know that since it was obvious she wanted to get out of the house and away from him. Sometimes he wished that he could just keep her chained and on a leash so that he could always have her near by, but for the time being that obviously wasn't an option. He slowly dragged himself out of bed and twisted his body so his feet slid onto the floor. Since no one was hom he just stripped down to nothing and went to go take a shower. He put his hands on the front wall of the shower as the hot water seared his skin turning it red. Not knowing what to do was one of the worst feelings, and Sasuke had been getting alot of it lately. He wasn't sure what would come next. All he knew right now was that he was going to need Naruto's help, no matter what tactic he used to deal with his new Jinchuriki student.

Eventually Sasuke turned the water off and grabbed a towel off a rack in the bathroom and dried himself off then wrapped it around his waist. He walked intot he kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. It was too hot to drink, so he set it on the counter so it would cool-off while he went into his room to get dressed. After he'd clothed himself in a black t-shirt and pants with his green jounin vest, he found his file folder on the island in the kitchen. He took and and brought it over to the kitchen table to examine its contents. It was the file from his most recent mission that he had to organize, it was for his new team of genins.

Not even knowing where to start, he grumbled and ran a frustrated hand through his raven hair mumbling, "Now I know why Kakashi sensei put this off..."

The team dossie (dah-see-ae is how you say it caz i don't think i spelled it right) took alot of thought and organization. It was going to be on permanent record. He filed the picture they'd taken, filled in all the blank boxes on each sheet of paper for the genins that had personal information and all sorts of records attached. Sasuke of course, already had a dossie for team 7 in the hokage office, so he didn't need to make another one for himself, he just had to fill in a few other things for an instructor form and accountability agreements.

Sakura went to a local brunch resturaunt that had tables on a small balcony overlooking one of the many busy streets of Konoha. She was supposed to meet Ino there for breakfast. On her way out this morning she'd recieved a message on her home phone asking for her to meet Ino. The fact that it was so short notice was no surprise. The blond did everything on impulse. Sakura was much obliged to meet her though, she felt like being alone was the last thing she wanted right now. When Sakura said that she needed a table for two, it just so happened that her friend was already there and waiting for her, a first that almost had Sakura questioning if it was in fact, Ino. She slowly strided over to the table with the distant looking blond and sat down across from her at the little two person table next to the street. Ino knew her friend was sitting across from her, but couldn't find it in herself to look at Sakura.

"Ino look at me" Sakura pleaded softly.

Ino was finally able to look at Sakura and could see the concerned expression on the pinkette's face. She didn't know quite how to explain the past events that led her to be so desperate as to arrange a meeting formally with Sakura and show up on time. She was so lost and confrused.l All she needed at the moment was a little support and encouragement, but she wasn't even sure what for.

"Sakura?" Ino asked quietly then took a sip of her water in front of her.

"Yes?" Sakura responded in hopes of Ino finally speaking to her.

But then a waiter came over and greeted them, "Good morning ladies what can I get for you today?" Sakura waved her hand and said "I had breakfast already so I'll just have a glass of orange juice."

Ino skimmed over the menu then told him, "I'll have the french toast combo and I'd like my eggs over medium."

The waiter nodded, took the menus then walked away. Ino sighed, taking yet another sip of water, and looked out over the street.

Sakura was starting to become impatient as she asked Ino again, "What's wrong?"

Ino shook her head then said, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me" Sakura said defiantly crossing her arms and scowling.

Ino shrugged then said, "Shikamaru asked me to marry him."

Sakura coughed for a second and the water shot out of her mouth and onto the place setting, "What?" she yelled.

Ino scowled at Sakura's outburst then chided her, "I warned you..."

Sakrua just sighed then wiped the water off her plate and cloths as well as the table cloth and hoped that no one noticed, but they did. She looked up at Ino who wasn't even making an obscene comment about Sakura's reaction and spewing of water all over the place. Sakura knew for sure that Ino wanted this, but the the fact that she'd have to have someone tell her... it was very unlike her. Ino always disregarded what everyone else had to say about anything, so the fact that she wanted Sakura to tell her what to do had Sakura's mind running in circles.

"W-well..." Sakura stuttered from shock, "What did you tell him."

Ino sighed and looked out at the street and rested her chin on the back of her hand as she said, "At first I didn't believe him, but then when I tried to walk away the second I turned my back he told me he was serious."

"And?" Sakura urged her friend to continue.

"And... I told him I'd think about it."

Sakura facepalmed herself then asked, "Why on earth did you do that?"

Ino shrugged and replied, "I just didn't know what to answer. Instead of rejecting him and then later on realizing I was wrong, I want to decide for myself on my own time."

"So you're going to start gazing at clouds and do nothing but think like that lazy genious?" Sakura asked sarcastically.

Sakura was surprised at Ino's rather serious response, "Maybe."

Sakura just rolled her eyes then said, "Do what you want.. but don't leave him hanging. He's lazy, not patient, don't confuse the two."

Right after Sakura had finished telling Ino her wise piece of advice, she saw Sasuke walking down the street by the outdoor sitting area of the brunch place. She quietly slid lower in her seat and patly covered herself with the table cloth.

Ino noticed the raven haired man walk by and wasn't stupid so she asked Sakura, "Care to share?"

Sakura just shook her head and told her friend, "It's another story for another day" then got up and left a tip for the waitor and a some money for her drink and left.

Sasuke was busy organizing all the papers for the team documents. Once he'd put them all together he put on his sandals then headed out to the door to the Hokage's office. He had to turn the team papers in, file the report for his last mission, and then go to the field to meet his genins for training. He put one foot after the other as his thoughts drifted to whereever sakura could be. She was gone early this morning. He could've stopped her, but he didn't. Why? Deciding it was the best thing to do, he didn't stop her because it would've just stirred up more drama, that he deemed 'unneccesary' for the time being. As he walked down the street he caught a glimps of pink. He looked out of the corner of his eye to see Sakura sitting at a table with her friend, Ino. He wanted to say something, but when he noticed her starting to slouch in he chair and partly hide under the table cloth, he knew she still didn't want to talk to him, so he just kept walking. When he got to the Hokage's office he set the files in a tray ont he Hokage's desk that was currently vacant. He didn't really care if Tsunade was there. It was just one less person to slow him down in getting everything he needed done. Undoubtidly she would have something to say to him or ask him about the genin squad he was asigned.

"In a hurry?" Someone asked as he was walking away down the hall.

Sasuke turned around slightly surprised that she might've very well been in there.

"I was in a meeting" she informed him, "Do you have time to talk?" she asked.

Sasuke shook his head and told her, "No, unless it's urgent. I have a squad of genins waiting for me that i'm already half and hour late for."

Tsunaded nodded then said, "Wheny you have a minute, come back."

"Aa" was Sasuke's only reponse as he continued walking down the hall and out of the Hokage tower.

Once Sasuke was outside of the building he headed down towards the training fields knowing that his squad was going to give it to him. But to Sasuke's surprsie, they were all already training... with Naruto? Sasuke watched them as they all took tried as trying to hit Naruto sepereately and at the same time, all sparing and trying to get him. Of course, Naruto didn't even give them one opening to attack him. He would normally leave a few tight openings, but he was having to much fun watching them try.

Sasuke just shook his head then asked, "Are you helping today? Or are you just going to get in my way?"

Naruto scrated the back of his head with a sheepish smile then turned around to the genins and whispered, "Remember not to piss him off. It's his time of the month right now."

The genins all burst out in laughter as Naruto walked past Sasuke and said, "He's not himself, watch out" and then walked away towards the village.

Sasuke knew that Naruto had been with Takashi, but he didn't expect Naruto to watch over all three genins for him while he was running late. Sasuke imediately ended their childish games and set Takashi and Akio against each other to spar then took Megumi to the side to talk to her.

"You don't seem like the violent type" he teased her in a flat tone of voice with a smirk.

Megumi half smiled then said, "I don't like hurting people."

Sasuke slightly frowned then told her, "Sometimes you're goint to have to hurt people, it's a cruel reality when you think about. You have to hurt someone else's loved ones to protect your own loved ones."

"So what am I supposed to do?" she asked quitely looking at her feet, alot like Hinata's own habbit.

"Does becoming a medic-nin interest you?" he asked curiously.

The girl's head shot up and she asked "I can really do that as a genin?" with a volume Sasuke didn't know she had in her.

"Yes" he told her, "You can."

"How?"

"You still have to learn how to attack people, because the chunin exam won't pass you for healing, but it's a useful skill to have to your comrades."

"How?" she repeated vibrating in place.

"Go to the hospital and ask for Sakura. Tell her that your Sasuke's student and want to learn how to heal. I'm sure she'll teach you."

The girl was already running before she could say her thanks. Sasuke had never seen her so hyper before. Right when he could sense the smile on her face as she ran off, he knew he'd done the right thing.

To Be Continued...