両刃の剣

Double Edged Sword

Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto exchanged grins. "Hey, Haku-Chan?" Naruto asked the effeminate boy. "Have you had the chance to meet the Fox's Saints yet?"

--

As soon as Haku and Zabuza left, Sakura rounded on Naruto, tears welling in her eyes. She threw herself at the blond and Sasuke stood beside the pair. Kakashi, Kyou, Tsunami, Inari, and Tazuna watched in confusion. Sakura sobbed into the blond's shoulder.

Naruto, his arms around Sakura, whispered, "What in the world…?"

Kakashi suddenly understood and answered. Naruto's eyes narrowed at him but the blond interrupted not. "… When your Bunshin announced what he was, we had no idea where you were, Naruto! For all we knew, you were dead. And it didn't help that when we arrived to the bridge a lot of people were dead," the man with gravity defying hair explained. Naruto blinked at him and laughed dryly. He sneered and pried Sakura off him, stepping back.

His answer was as cold as his laugh. He stared at the people before him, gauging their reactions for what he was going to say. He mentally shrugged; here goes nothing. "So what if I'd died?" Oh god, the reactions were better than he imagined. Sakura covered her mouth, Sasuke's eyes narrowed, Kakashi's lips, visible through the thin fabric of his face, pursed into a thick line, Tsunami dropped to her knees and held her son, Tazuna blinked in shock, and Kyou remained impassive. The blond sighed and took pity on the pinkette, ruffling her hair. "Well, now that Gatou's dead, do we need to hang – OI! Don't kiss me you imbecile!" Naruto leapt back and hid behind Sasuke in fear of Sakura's lips. "I'm not straight, moron!" He smirked mentally. Being short was a good thing right then.

Tazuna smiled then. It was a soft, caring smile. "Yes, of course. You may go." Naruto sighed as Sasuke flicked Sakura's forehead and told her to 'let the Dobe get some rest, woman'. Kyou nodded and pulled his mask from his back pocket. Naruto twitched; that was Naruto's favorite move: scare the shit out people by pulling something large from a small place.

Winking, the green eyed-green haired man said, "Sempai, I'm going back now. Ja!" and he ran out the door. Naruto dragged a hand down his face and stumbled to the nearest spot to sit and collapsed on it.

"Naruto?!" Sakura and Sasuke exclaimed. Naruto shook his head.

"Nah, I'm fine, guys." He shook his head and steadily met Tazuna's gaze. "We have to stay until Tazuna-Kun finishes his bridge…" At this, he, Sakura, and Sasuke started looking elsewhere, doing 'innocent' things.

Tazuna's eyes narrowed. This behavior couldn't be good. He stared at them each before looking at Kakashi who was reading his book. Sighing in defeat, Tazuna said, "What did you do, brats?"

Naruto turned his baby blues on Tazuna. "What? What makes you think we've done something?"

Tazuna narrowed his eyes. "Not gonna work on me, kiddo."

Naruto exhaled. "The Great Bridge of Bridge-ness has had part of it destroyed," he said. He arranged his features blankly as he held Tazuna's gaze. Tazuna stared at him, his jaw dropping.

"WHAAAAAAAAAT?!"

Naruto glanced at his wrist. He smiled sweetly. "Well, would ya look at the time? Hm. Guess I better go pack then, if we want to make it to Konoha by nightfall. Ciao." Naruto stood and darted around the annoyed Tazuna and up the stairs. Sakura laughed and followed and Sasuke shot his team a glare and darted to Kakashi, using him as a shield. Tazuna pushed Kakashi aside and took Sasuke's hand.

"KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKASHI!!!!!!"

--

The trip to Konoha didn't take too long. If they hadn't forced themselves away from Tazuna's house, it would've taken twelve hours. However, the Fox's Saints were utterly terrified and fled as soon as they could, arriving within the safe walls of Konohagakure in half that time. Izumo and Kotetsu greeted them with open arms and ushered them inside. Kakashi was bullied by his students into going to file the mission report and then Team Fox was free to walk around. They had no particular destination, just Konoha in general until Sasuke decided he wanted to go train his body to handle the strain of Reiki Boushi, Sharingan, and the two combined, leaving Sakura and Naruto to walk around together.

Sakura glanced at her teammate. He didn't seem to notice the square rock trailing after them. He seemed perfectly at ease, his arms folded behind his neck as he walked, watching the sky. Nervously, she glanced at it again as they turned a corner. It still followed them. She was getting really weirded out as they continued with their new 'pet' rock. Finally, she snapped in anger.

"Naruto! There is a square rock following us!" she snarled under her breath. Naruto blinked at her and glanced over his shoulder. The rock was shaking. He exhaled deeply and went back to staring at the sky. He looked at the pinkette out of the corner of his eye.

"Yes, so there is, Sakura-San." He shook his head and spoke to the rock though he was watching the sky. "Mo-Chan, Konohamaru-Kun, Uu-Kun, it's not funny. Please come out." Sakura hid her face as the rock exploded in three colors of smoke. Even Naruto hadn't been expecting that much smoke. He covered his mouth and eyes, coughing as tears welled in his now itchy eyes. Once the smoke cleared, Naruto steered Sakura forward and the other three kids followed.

Cerulean eyes widened at the flaring chakra. He didn't know that chakra. He knew the Chakra of everybody in Konoha and this most certainly did not belong to anyone of them. He paled and held out his arm to stop Sakura. Two of the three kids crashed into her but the young brunette boy with a scarf scampered passed. He crashed into a young man. He wore a black one-piece suit that was a little too short at his ankles; there was a circle in the center of his shirt which was half yellow half purple. He wore a hat with cat ears on it with a metallic plate in the forehead with an hour glass on it; the Suna symbol, Naruto realized with a jolt. This wasn't going to end well, he just felt it. Behind him was a dirty blond girl. She wore a mid-thigh length light pink dress with a slightly dipping down neck. She wore her Suna hitai-ate around her neck. A red sash was tied around her middle and she wore fishnets over her neck. On her legs were fishnets as well; the one on her right leg started under her skirt and ended at her knee and the one on her left leg started at her knee and ended at the top of her sandals. Her sandals were blue as were the other boy's but his split at the top. Naruto frowned.

"Please put Konohamaru-Kun down," the blond whispered. The Suna boy smirked at him.

"No."

Kyuubi roared in annoyance in Naruto's mind. "Please," stressed the blond. Sakura shot him a look and he jerked his head in a barely noticeable shake. He pulled on a scared look for added affect.

"You frickin' wimp! You're too nice and wimpy to be a ninja," the Suna boy snapped.

The girl cut in. "Kankuro, put the kid down and let them continue whatever their loser selves were doing," she snapped. Naruto bristled and Sakura shot him another look. "KANKURO!"

The Suna boy, Kankuro, shot her an annoyed look. "Chill, Temari, he's not here yet. Lemme have my fun."

The girl, Temari, shrugged and backed up. "You face the repercussions, bro."

Naruto snapped. "Put Konohamaru-Kun DOWN!" he snarled.

"Boss, help!" whined the boy.

"Konohamaru-Chan," whispered Moegi. Naruto froze in his crouch and he stepped back, straightening out. The pain he'd experienced disappeared. In his confusion, he took an experimental step forward. Pain in the bite mark flamed. He fell to his knees, holding his neck.

"BOSS?!" screamed Konohamaru.

Sakura paled. Temari and Kankuro exchanged confused looks. "Udon-Kun, go find a healer Nin. Moegi-Chan, GO GET KAKASHI-SENSEI AND SASUKE-KUN!" Her voice went hysterical as Naruto hunched over, his forehead pressed to the ground. Moegi and Udon ran off.

"Boss?" Konohamaru whined. "What-"

He was cut off by a blood curdling scream that erupted from Naruto as he held his neck with both hands, digging his nails into it. Sakura looked around in fear as she settled Naruto on his back. To stay or not to stay? Where the shit was Kakashi-Sensei?!

--

Udon groaned and sniffled as he fell again. He pushed himself up; his face was covered in dirt, snot, and tears as he ran again. That was the fifteenth time he fell. He let out a sob as he tripped again. Oh, why did he have to be such a klutz? Naruto was hurting because of him…

"Udon…?" he knew that voice… Shikamaru! Yes, Naruto's adoptive cousin. "Troublesome…" He blinked and found himself staring at the ceiling. "Where were you going in such a hurry?"

"Naruto is hurt!" wailed Udon to Shikamaru. The brunette tensed and followed the kid's instructions. He dropped the boy next to Sakura and pushed the pinkette away. He wore a long sleeved black shirt that rode up to above his belly button. Fishnets adorned his revealed belly and back. His shorts were dark green and made up of mostly pockets reaching to right below his knees. He wore fishnets on his legs: on his left leg the fish nets started at his knees and ended mid-calf and on his right leg, the fish nets started mid-calf and ended at his ankle. He rolled up his sleeves and began pushing gently at the blond's neck, murmuring to him.

"Naru? Naru, can you hear me?" he whispered as green chakra went from his fingers to between Naruto's fingers, landing on the bite mark from Itachi. Naruto groaned.

"Shika… K-Kun…" the blond managed out, his head thrashing.

"Shh, Naru, don't talk, love… We'll get you to Sai-Kun in no time…" With that in Naruto's mind, Shikamaru pried the blond's hands from his neck. He winced at the bite mark; it wasn't healing over. In fact, the area around it was varying between red and blue, but not bruise blue or raw-red. No, it was more like the blond's neck was hemorrhaging, and that thought scared the Nara more than anyone could ever know. "Sakura, where the fuck is your sensei? I swear to god, that ass should be here taking my poor baby to the hospital!"

Sakura shook her head. "I sent Moegi-Chan for him…" Temari, who unbeknownst the Konoha Nin was an experienced healer, took a step forward to offer her services but leapt back, narrowly missing a rock to the head. Everyone in the alley except for Naruto and Shikamaru looked up.

"Sasuke-"

Sasuke cut her off as he jumped down. He landed and narrowed his eyes at the other two. "Sakura," he snapped, "what happened to Sempai?" Sakura shrugged hopelessly and Sasuke caught her before she collapsed, the stress of the mission and now catching up to her. "Oh, Sakura," he whispered, gently laying her down beside Naruto. He brushed her hair away and took her hand in his. He jerked his head up. "By the way, ask your friend to come out. He's getting on my nerves."

Temari blinked as sand whirled in front of the Suna duo and a red head appeared.

--

Kakashi sighed as he, Kurenai, and Asuma left the Hokage's office. All three of them had forms for the Chuunin exams.

"Urgh…" He looked down. Where had he seen her before…? "Kakashi-Sensei!" she cried in something akin to relief.

"M-Moegi-Chan?!" exclaimed the scarecrow sensei. Kurenai gave him an exasperated sigh and picked up the girl. "What's wrong?"

"Naruto… Bruise… Hurt…" she stuttered out. Kakashi had left at the word 'bruise'. When he arrived to where Team Fox's chakra was coming from, Shikamaru seemed to be doing fine. Kakashi blinked his visible eye at the Suna trio who looked lost and out of place.

"Late, Hatake," Shikamaru remarked dryly. "I think you're rubbing off on my baby. He never used to be so troublesome. Be lucky I don't tell Sai. He'd have a hay day."

Naruto grumbled, "…Sai-Kun… aah… will… hah… already hate –ngh- me… because… tch… Kyuu… fuuhhh… won't let me out of the…hah.. Chuunin Exams…"

Kankuro took that moment to step forward and voice his annoyance. "'The hell is going on?"He and his two teammates looked murderous. Sakura, who had woken up and was being supported in a standing position by Sasuke, answered.

"Ask Naruto. We kind of know, but Sempai knows the whole situation," she murmured. Kakashi took that moment to leave.

"Ask… ngh… Dobe what?" complained the blond as Shikamaru helped him stand. Naruto went slack against the Nara who groaned and jabbed the blond's side and Naruto jerked up on his own.

"You, blond, what the hell's going on?" demanded Kankuro.

Naruto shook his head to clear it. "Tsuki," he, Shikamaru, and the other two of Team Fox flinched, "has apparently deemed you too dangerous for his precious wittle Nawu-Chan… Oh, shut up you fucking fox. Sorry… As I was saying, I think Tsuki has decided you're too dangerous for me to be with right now."

"Uh… Yeah," Temari murmured. Clearly, she was creeped out.

Sakura cleared her throat and pushed away from Sasuke. "I'm going to have to ask your names and reason/s for being in Konoha," she stated.

"I'm Sabaku no Kankuro."

"Sabaku no Gaara." The read head's voice was husky and dark.

"Sabaku no Temari and we're here for the Chuunin Exams."

Naruto's eyes widened and he felt a pang of horror while Kyuubi cackled evilly in the back of his mind. "Why do we match, Naru?" Shikamaru asked.

"Pure chance."

"Say what?"

"Haven't you heard? Moron."

"We-"

"I guess we should report to Hokage-Sama about the Chuunin Exams," commented the brunette.

"-should-"

"I am NOT!" snarled Sakura.

"-keep-"

"Er…"

"-on-"

"Yeah… I think so~!" taunted Temari. Gaara glared at her. Fuck him, she was having too much fun.

Kankuro interrupted. "WE SHOULD KEEP ON ONE TRAIN OF THOUGHT! I'M CONFUSED!" he thundered. This earned him many looks.

--

Elsewhere

Itachi sneezed again. He glared at his current assignment partner, Deidara, who was giving him an odd look. "What?" the weasel snarled.

Deidara looked away, "Nothing, yeah."

Itachi grabbed Deidara by his collar and slammed him into the wall of the alley they were currently lurking in. "You have something to say, say it," snarled the irritated lover of Naruto Uzumaki.

"Hey, no need to be such an ass, un," breathed Deidara. It was hard to concentrate because damn did Itachi smell good. He flinched at Itachi's glare. "I was just wondering if you had allergies, un!" confessed the blond. Itachi stared at him. He just stared, an odd look in his eye. It was, needless to say, confusing to the blond when Itachi merely let him go. "Itachi-San, un?"

Itachi sighed and rubbed his nose after he sneezed again. "I have the sudden feeling of impending doom," he replied and sneezed again.

"Hey, un, you sure you don't have allergies yeah?"

Itachi pinned him with the Uchiha Glare that Successfully Scared the Kyuubi into Submission©, but Deidara wasn't deterred. "No," sighed the Uchiha, "I do have allergies. I took my meds about five minutes ago when we stopped at the ramen restaurant." Deidara smiled.

He nodded to Itachi. "See, un? It's not so hard, yeah." He grinned and added hastily, "Opening up to your friends, yeah!"

--

YOSH! Don'tcha love Dei? I does. I hearts him~!

Yosh, tell me wotcha think. Do I suck or what?

The Lotus of the Leaf blooms twice!

Ja,

Mickey