Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto! If I did, it wouldn't be as popular as it is! I mean Cereally. Where does Masashi Kishi(Trolli)moto come up with this stuff?

A/N: Alright so. Hey guys. ;w; I read over that monstrosity of a chapter I wrote last night, and I found sooo many spelling errors. I felt really bad for turning in that. SO. Here's another chapter. :'D Less than.. 24 hours after the last. Gawd, you guise better Love Santa for this. LOL. Anyway. Have fun reading.

CHAPTER 11

The sound of squeaky floorboards under heavily stepping feet drew Kiyowa to her senses. Gradually, she remembered what had occured prior to her falling asleep, for she knew that she had just awakened recently.

'That's right..'

There was some boy they had met. He was the one that took Zabuza down with those needles. What was it he was... 'A Tracker Ninja...' Everything returned to her, and soon it came to her recall what had put her out like it had.

Upon reaching Tazuna's house, his daughter, Tsunami, had volunteered to take a look at their wounds. Sasuke's were pretty minor, and Naruto's, despite all the abuse he'd seemed to have taken during the course of battle, were nonexistent. It was as if everything had healed up just that quick. Sakura was fine too. Kakashi on the other hand, he had collapsed from overusing the Sharingan, and had also had quite a few cuts, scrapes, bruises, and broken bones. If she remembered correctly, it was the right side of his body? Of course, she could have been wrong.

Furrowing a brow, though her eyes remained closed while feigning sleep, Kiyowa focused in on what had happened to her next. 'Oh yeah..'

The blue haired woman looked at Kiyowa as she assessed any physical damage. From what she could see, the blonde haired girl was much smaller than her male counterparts, and also had a lot less of a 'thick skin', meaning whatever Zabuza had done to her did a lot more than it did to them. Carefully scanning over her small frame, a few large, disgusting looking dark purple spots covered the left side of her abdomen, and ran clear up her side from her obleques to just under her arm.

"You poor thing.." Tsunami trailed as she started to apply some kind of ointment to the wound. The pain wasn't as bad as when it had first occured, but with every application of pressure, it made her move in pain from the soreness. The ointment was actually somewhat cool, and that cooling sensation made her feel a little relaxed once the actual applying of it was completed.

"Sorry for this, but the wrapping may hurt a little," The woman urged, seemingly regretful as she unwound bandages from a spool then began to weave it expertly around her frame. The pressure required to tie the bandages securely around her hurt, but she bit into her lip to bite back any brave little wails fitting to weasel their way from her mouth. Finally, it was done with a snip of the excess bandage tape, but the way it tightened around her caused the pangs to go on endlessly. One would spark from the pushing of the bruise, followed by another and another, and it hurt incredibly so.

'And After that..' Kiyowa thought, as if the pangs had not been enough, the water had caused her some damage as well.

The Genin were assembled at the table after arriving to the small house, talking over what had occured as well as other things regarding the village. Normally, Kiyowa would be distracted, but in this case, she thought she could trouble herself with focusing, since her lack of attention early on caused her so much confusion later. She figured paying attention would work for the best. Unfortunately, despite her attempts, it seemed like her hearing was distorted. Things were coming and going in her sound and the lighting of the room seemed to grow dim.

"You okay, Kiyowa? You.. don't look so good," Naruto trailed, watching as her head would droop down then lift back up quickly after, almost as if she were falling asleep.

"She's sweating," Sakura pointed out, "But it's not hot in here.."

"A Cold Sweat? That's bad." Sasuke trailed as he stood up, "I'll get the woman," He said turning to leave the room.

Their words were even exaggerated to her, and only some came to be clear. Soon, her head moved down to slam into her arms, and everything just flashed dark.

'That was the first time I'd ever passed out..'

She wanted to keep her eyes shut for a little longer, being unaware of how she would feel if the lights in the room were strong or something, or maybe if her eyesight, as messy as it had been earlier, would affect her. She probably wouldn't respond all that well. She already felt sort of nausea just being conscience again, and therefore knew it would be best to just be content with having a sense of feeling again. At the feeling of a sharp pang shooting through her side and into her spine, Kiyowa cringed, moving forward in a rush that would only aggrivate her ailment more. Maybe she wasn't too thrilled to have a sense of feeling again after all..

"It's about time you woke up."

The tone of the voice left her with confusion. It wasn't a mocking tone, or harsh in any way, but it did seem there was a little bit of scoffing in there. She could feel heat rising in her cheeks, but she couldn't tell if it was her or whatever sickness she had been inflicted with. She figured it was her, since her mind had registered that voice to belong to Sasuke, but at the same time, she couldn't believe her own mind, since the passed few hours -or however long it had been since she'd fallen into slumber- it had been playing tricks on her. It was a whole new level of insanity, really, not knowing whether to trust your own five senses. Hearing had betrayed her before, and so had her own eyes, but nevertheless, she peeled her eyes open to a squint, to let her dim green orbs shift to the corner of her eyes.

Her throat became dried, and her air supply limited. It really was Sasuke there at her side, and it made her lose what little sense she had. 'Why would he be worried about me..? Isn't Kakashi-sensei down.? Or maybe he recovered already.. Should I ask? Or maybe I.' Cutting off the conflicting thoughts before they destroyed her mind, she parted her lips just slightly to speak, but she was surprised to feel the words running against the inside of her throat to cause a rasped soreness, "How i-.." That surprised made her stop mid sentence. Her eyes widened notably, and it was clear to the Uchiha that she was not aware of her current state.

Shaking his head, he raised a brow whilst looking back at her, "You caught a nasty cold from the water."

That made sense, but she was also curious about her physical state. What had caused the pain in her side, "My side?"

"Bruised two ribs," He replied, making her shut her eyes back. She really wished it wasn't something that bad, but if it couldn't be help, there was nothing to do about it, and she would therefore just have to deal.

"Yeah... You really need to toughen up," He scoffed.

'Toughen up, he says..' She trailed off mentally. After the skill he and Naruto both showed off against Zabuza, it was definitely easy for him to say that. All she had managed to do was give them some helpful info. Even when she was there to physically lend a hand, it was clear to see they didn't need her. Man, she hated being fragile. Lightly, she sighed, although it barely even came out through her tightened throat.

"I've been meaning to ask you," Sasuke began, his voice becoming slightly more serious than it had previously.

Her eyes reopened slightly again as she turned in his direction, just to let him know she heard him. Inside, she was hoping she would be able to keep herself together enough to answer. This was the first time he'd actually wanted to really know something from her, and it caused her to feel a little nervous, especially since she found it so hard to talk to him usually.

"You told us back in the fight with Zabuza. You said you could feel his chakra. What did you mean by that?"

Of course, it just had to be a question she couldn't really answer. Her eyes moved away from him as she tried to piece together a response. What did she mean by that? "I'm.. not really sure myself."

To this, the Uchiha seemed to wrinkle his nose up in mild irritation, "So you just made it up as you went along?"

'No! That's not what I meant to say!' She cringed as she filed through her vocabulary to piece together what she actually meant, "No. I-I mean, I really could feel it but, I don't know how..."

"Hm," He figured as much. It would be far unlike her to simply make up something on the battlefield.

Kiyowa, however, was not willing to continue on and tell him about how she felt the presence of the tracker ninja either. That, she was just not willing to do, because she knew it would spark more questions that she wouldn't be able to directly answer.

Standing up, Sasuke turned away, "I'll let the others know you're awake," He said, walking from the room.

The blonde kunoichi would sigh ever so slightly, not being able to think that she really messed up that one. Moving her hands to rest very lightly on her abdomen atop the blanket, she couldn't help but feel the warm air on her bare arms. Where was her sweater? Feeling mildly uncomfortable, she moved to yank herself upright in a sitting position, but this left her seriously regreting her actions when she slinked off to the opposite side of her injury.

Her eye looked down to the large T-shirt that she was adorned in -as her other eye was involuntarily locked shut-. It was a faded pink color, and while it seemed to be in pretty poor condition, it did the job of keeping her warm. Despite that fact, she couldn't help but feel...well, exposed without her sweater.

The members of Team Seven, as well as Tsunami and Tazuna had entered the room just as Kiyowa had taken notice of Kakashi who was lying down across the room on a mat similar to hers. She couldn't tell whether he was sleeping or still out, but judging by the orange light filtering in through the broken blinds of the room's window, she could only assume it was evening, and probably around five or six. That was a pretty odd time to be sleeping already, and so she could only guess he was still unconscious.

"KIYOWA! YOU'RE AWAKE!" Naruto shouted, moving as if to hug her.

"You might not want to do that!" Tsunami quickly advised, stopping him in his tracks, "She's probably still hurting."

"STILL? But it's been like.. Four days!"

Her eyes shot open, and everything seemed to stop. Four days. He really did just say four days. 'I've been out for four days..?' It didn't seem possible, and yet all she could really think about was what a scare she'd put them through.

"Broken ribs don't heal overnight, Naruto," Sakura said as she lightly placed her hand along his shoulder.

"It hasn't been OVERNIGHT! It's been OVER FOUR NIGHTS!" The blonde male shot back, causing his pinkette friend to shake her head and utter an exasperated sigh. She should have known better than to try getting him to see from her point of view. Naruto was just.. Naruto.

Faintly, the corners of Kiyowa's lips twitched up into a small smile. She wasn't happy or anything that she had scared them this much, but she did find it warming that they worried so much about her.

"Hey, Hey, one of my saviors is all up and at 'em again!" Tazuna snorted.

Knowing he was joking, Kiyowa still couldn't help but feel her cheeks reddening from the praise. This immediately drew back into paling skin upon the smell of wafting Sake drawing into her nose. Of course, he held a bottle in his hand, and to this, she could only shake her head. 'Back home, back to old ways' , she could only figure that much held true for the bridge builder.

He handed her a cup filled with a dark liquid, but she wouldn't have seen this unless she peered inside, being it wasn't a see through container, "This. This.. This. This is the best way to get rid of your cold. Been usin' it for years!" He laughed, practically spraying her in the face with his nausea inducing scent of alchohol. He was far from sober it seemed, and by far, it was clear to see he was passed the level he was at when he left Konoha with the team.

"Dad!" Tsunami objected, "Don't do that!"

"Oh, quiet down a bit, Tsunami! I did it all the time when you were little! Why don't you think you ever gone and got sick?"

To this she lightly withdrew, but she couldn't help but look over to Kiyowa.

She was confused about the cup that she held, and so the green eyed girl looked into the cup. It was a dark color, and seemed to stain the inside of the cup. When she tried to get a whiff of it, all she could smell was the alchohol from Tazuna's breath as he continued talking. It was simply overpowering to the point where she couldn't distinguish what this liquid was by smell. 'If it will get rid of this sore throat..' She thought, shrugging her shoulders lightly as she attempted to gulp down her nerves. Hesitating only slightly, she tilted the cup up and took a long sip.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn't too hard to get down, but that was mainly because it felt like it was coroding her throat as it went. As it hit her chest, then stomach, she couldn't help but feel it sending an incredible warmth through her body.

It was... Pretty good!

She lifted the cup again, ignoring the fact that everyone was staring at her with wide eyes, and drank down more, this time in a large gulp.

"AHAHA! That's it!" Tazuna laughed, moving his large hand to pat Kiyowa on the back.

She cringed slightly, but it was all in expecting the pain from her sides. In reality, she didn't feel anything more than a... Tingle. The laugh that Tazuna uttered this time, well the scent of it didn't even cause her much bother this time around, in fact, she went ahead and laughed along!

"Aheeh..heehee.." She laughed lightly. It gave her a weird, churning feeling in her stomach that moved up to her chest, then soon came out as a jolting

*Hic*

"H-Hey, Old man.. What was in that cup?" Naruto questioned. It seemed he was the only one that didn't really get what it was. He and Kiyowa that is, and it was safe to assume that right now, she wasn't the least bit worried about what it was.

"It was alchohol.." Sakura trailed, somewhat disappointment in both Tazuna and Kiyowa's judgement on this one.

"He's lucky Kakashi isn't awake," Sasuke grumbled, knowing that the silver haired jonin would have been highly against this.

"Oh calm down! You Kids don't know old home remedies like someone with experience, like me!" Tazuna scolded before placing his hands on his hips and throwing his head back, "Gahahaha!"

Attention suddenly sprang away from Tazuna and locked onto Kiyowa, who had uttered a high pitched shriek,

"KIYOWA?" Naruto shouted in question.

"What happened?!" Sakura quickly asked.

"How.. How.. How..." The blonde haired girl stammered, slowly raising her hand. Whence it was at her eye level, she bent her thumb a few times, moving it back and forward, "How.. Long have I HAD THIS?"

"My God," Sasuke began, eyes narrowing as he drew his own hand up to press against his face, "She's drunk."

"You're Drunk!" She corrected, "I.. I don't drink. *Hic* ..Goo.. Go home.. Go Home, guys, you're all drunk." After saying that, she rose her hands up, as if she had said something simply amazing, then burst into a fit of the giggles.

"She's going to wind up hurting herself," Tsunami trailed whilst directing her glare towards her father, who was fairly amused.

"Nooohh," Tazuna assured, shaking his head a few times, "She's got 'er team here to look after her!"

Tsunami was at wits end, but merely shook her head, knowing there was no real way she had to punish Tazuna for his actions. After all, it would be counterintuitive to put a drunk in charge of watching a drunk.

"So what are we supposed to do with her when she's like this?" Questioned the Uzumaki, looking back and forward between his sane teammates.

"Well.. We just have to keep an eye on her until it wears off, right?" Offered Sakura.

The Uchiha nodded his head, sighing, "We don't have much of a choice. Just make sure she doesn't get into any trouble, or put herself into any unnecessary danger."

Sakura and Naruto expressed their understanding by nodding,

"Gotcha!"

"Rodger!"

"You can do whatever you need to, Ms. Tsunami!" Naruto assured, smashing his fist into his palm whilst Tazuna beat a hasty retreat into the kitchen, "We'll keep an eye on Kiyowa! She's our teammate after all!"

"Please be careful. I'll start making some food to get into her stomach," Tsunami coaxed prior to also walking into the kitchen.

"Alright.. First, we should have everyone keep an eye on the room's exits a-"

"Not to interrupt you, Sasuke," Naruto cut in, drawing his rival's attention.

"What is it, dobe?"

"Where'd Kiyowa go?"

All of their eyes moved to the mat where Kiyowa had been stationed, and the fact she was gone was practically drawn out with a blue dotted line.

"I DIDN'T EVEN SEE HER MOVE!" Sakura gawked.

"Everyone split up and find her," Sasuke demanded.

"WHO DIED AT MADE YOU QUEEN?" Naruto opposed, growling almost.

"Not the time," The Uchiha hastily replied before disappearing out of the room.

Sakura began checking in the room in which they had began. She checked behind the bookcase, and under everything, even the small pillows on the floor. There wasn't many places to look in there, but she figured that with Naruto and Sasuke running about in the other rooms, she could only do so much without getting run over. Tiptoeing toward the doorway that led to the kitchen, however, she poked her head around. No Naruto or Sasuke around. They must have been checking elsewhere. Regardless of those two being somewhere else, Tsunami was standing firmly in front of the stove.

'We can't let her know we lost Kiyowa,' The pinkette thought. Slowly, she bent down, firmly placing herself on the floor. Moving on her hands and knees, Sakura made her way under the table. The chair behind which she hid was suddenly pulled backwards, and the cushion was filled by the frame of a man she could only assume was Tazuna. Gulping, Sakura realized at that point that there would be no getting out from under the table without being seen.

She couldn't help but notice that their client's bare feet were dangerously close to her, though, and it made her shiver and cringe. "Grossss," She said in a light, inaudible whisper, whilst backing up.

Only after she backed up, though, did she notice a snippet of blonde. Sakura angled her head to look around Tazuna, and her face grew pale when she noticed Kiyowa was crawling as well, and crawled clear out of the kitchen to the hallway. That's somewhere Sakura couldn't hope to follow right now, so she could only hope that Sasuke and Naruto could get a lock on her. For now? Well, she was stuck under the Kitchen table with Tazuna's feet. Oh the depression...

Naruto was dashing around the hallway, running across from one room to the other, and not paying much attention about the contents of each room. In this dashing back and forward, it seemed he hadn't notice the blonde haired girl that had left into the room he'd already omitted.

He hadn't even known she was anywhere near until he heard the sound of an offtuned piano playing. Jolting at the sound, Naruto ran down the hallway, "I've got you now!" He shouted, just about to turn the corner into the room when he was greeted with Sasuke coming out of another small room.

"Do you hear that?" Sasuke questioned Naruto, receiving a nod in reply.

"Let's get her!" Naruto shouted.

The two of them turned to run into the room, when heavy footsteps sounded from the door to the hallway.

Tazuna stood at the edge of the hallway, carrying a cloth and towel, "What are the two of you doing sneaking around?" He questioned skeptically. Seemed like he'd sobered up, and while most would assume that it would mean Kiyowa was probably hitting normal again, most people knew that it wasn't that simple. Kiyowa hadn't drank before, from what they could tell, and was likely going to get alot more out of her first cup than Tazuna would off of the same amount. Unfortunately for them, Tazuna was back in his right mind, and more alert about alot more than he usually would be, "Shouldn't you be keeping check on that friend of yers?"

Sasuke and Naruto passed each other hesitant side glances before the former spoke up in their defense, "Sakura has that covered."

"Uh.. Yeah!" Naruto added, nodding his head, "We're taking shifts!"

"Huhhmm.. Makes sense. Tsunami's almost done with the food, so maybe you should get in there to get it hm?" After the helpful advise, the old man walked passed Sasuke and Naruto, heading to the end of the hallway then up the stairs.

Sakura came stumbling into the hallway, lucky for them it was after Tazuna had make his exit, "Kiyowa came this way!"

"Shh. keep your voice down," Sasuke scolded in hush.

The Uzumaki placed his hand on the door to the room where the piano music had come from, and he peeked his head in. Nothing was there from what he could see. Slowly, he pushed the door open, only flinching lightly as it creaked audibly. Sakura and Sasuke both poked their heads in as well, then proceeded to scan the room.

Abruptly, their missing blonde haired teammate popped up from behind the Piano, making an odd face and sticking her tongue out, "I CAN SEE THE FUTUREEE!" She shouted, then took of running out of the room, "YOU CAN'T CATCH MEEEE!"

"Damn it!" Sasuke growled, hooking out of the room after her. He caught sight of her running up the stares, and all three of their faces began to pale.

"Didn't.. Tazuna just go up there?" Sakura gulped.

"Well we can't just let her go!" Naruto shout-whispered. He pulled ahead of the group and made a dash for the stairs. The other two followed him and upon them making it to the top of the stairs, they gazed around at the three rooms they were greeted with.

Sasuke snorted slightly, having to admit he somewhat enjoyed having the opportunity to make Naruto look like he had no idea what he was doing, "So then, which door did she go in, wise guy?"

"Uhh... Uhhh.." The blonde pointed straight ahead, "It was this one! I know for sure it was this one, Believe it!"

They slowly opened the door, peeking in to see that it was so far empty. That was encouraging enough. They spilled into the room and began looking around, only to hear the faint sound of running water hitting a flat surface.

"What's that?" Naruto questioned, finding it eerie to have such a faint sound playing in an empty room; almost like it were haunted.

"Tazuna said he was going to take a shower before he left the table," Sakura replied in the midst of cringing in recollection.

"Well then let's find her and get out of here," Sasuke huffed.

It seemed they were wrong.

Kiyowa wasn't in Tazuna's room.

She was in the room to the right! Torturing some poor little boy.

"Stop acting like an idiot!" The little boy, by the name of Inari, spat.

While normally those words would completely pain Kiyowa to her core, right now she could just barely make out what he even said. She sat on the floor, completely raging about how she was missing a toe, and Inari was getting pretty sick of it.

"But...My toe-"

"It's THERE!" He shouted frustratedly, "It's ALWAYS been THERE!"

This led to a moment of staring between the two parties. Just when one thought there was going to be an increased level of seriousness taking place, Kiyowa slowly reached her hand up to the boy.

She gripped his nose between her fingers and squeezed, "Honk honk.."

"Oh my God," Inari growled, snatching his face away, "And you guys are supposed to be heroes? You act like kids!"

"I... I.. I . " She drew her hand back and placed it on her chest, "I. Never said I was a herrro. I'm a... I'm a *Hic* I'm a fan of the ressst of the heroes."

"..." Staring intently at Kiyowa, Inari finally spoke, "...What did you even say?"

Scooting up closer, Kiyowa crossed her arms, although it wasn't as baggy as she remembered since her sweater was absent, "I'm not a hero, silly kiddie. I'm here for the hero!"

"...Here for the hero? What do you mean by that? There are no such things as heroes!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Inari jumped, pulling back on his bed as he looked around, "What was that?!"

It was the sound of the combined screaming of Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, and Tazuna. One could only guess what horrors they had seen.

Kiyowa seemed nonchalant about it, and when asked about what it was, she merely replied dreamily, "My cueee! Bye kiddie!" She shouted, scrambling from the room and dashing down the stairs.

"THAT WAS HORRIBLE!" Sakura shouted as she and the two guys of Team Seven began catching their breath from their run in with a nightmare.

"I saw way more of our client that I needed to.." Gagged Naruto.

"And no sign of Kiyowa," Sasuke growled, shooting a glare at Naruto who sheepishly turned his line of sight away.

Sakura sighed as the two began to bicker. They were right back at square one. Suddenly, something triggered in her mind, "I heard Tsunami say she was nearly done with the food a few minutes ago when I was in the kitchen."

"GAH! Tazuna said that too!" Naruto gasped, and suddenly they were off and running again. They'd need a plan to hold off on getting caught. Naruto had one, but that required someone transforming into Kiyowa for a while...

After slipping passed the kitchen, they came to a stop upon seeing Kiyowa with a plate on her lap, sitting on her mat and eating.

"..."

Kiyowa turned up to look at her teammates, still a little bit of crazy in her eye, but the food seeming to do its job quite nicely, "Hi."

"..."

A bit of stirring from the other side of the room, and a voice that had been long missed over the passed few days began to speak, "What did I miss..?"

"..."

"So much.." Naruto said dryly, "So much.."

A/N: As you can see, I've been writing alot more than usual. xD Kinda like it, actually. This is what happens when It's a dreary weekend without much to do! Anywhozals! This idea of Kiyowa getting some alchohol in her system came from Himeno Kazehito! THANKS, HIMENOOO! Anyway. ScoobyCandy Loves Santa. ;w; Santa loves you too Scoobs! And ChainedFighter couldn't say she loves Santa. x3x So Santa can't say she loves yuu, Chained fighter. Just kiddin'. Santa loves all.

ANYWHO! AGAIN! I love you guyssss! Hope you enjoy this SUPER DOUBLE UPDATE! YEAHH! Read and Review! For your reviews, are mondo inspiring! *Gives love*