DISCLAIMER!: I DON'T OWN NARUTO! Thought you'd know by now...

(A/N): Hehehe, time for chapter 36 guys. So, who's ready for round two?

I am so, TO THE CHAPTER!

. . . .

Chapter 36: Battle on the Bridge

. . . .

About two hours later, Naruto slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a sleeping Hinata laying on his chest. He smiled weakly. "I'm back~." He playfully whispered in her ear.

. . . .

Instead of getting the startled reaction Naruto was hoping for, Hinata woke up calmly with a hint of confusion. She slowly opened her eyes and tried to blink the sleep from her eyes. She turned to face him and smiled sleepily. "Hey you're awake~" She said in a half awake drawl. Naruto snickered, "Yeah and you're not." He couldn't help but get a huge smile at the slight scowl he got form his friend. She tiredly huffed at him and let her head fall back onto his chest.

Naruto took a sharp breath in as he felt the effects of having a few cracked ribs. "You know my bones haven't healed yet!" he whispered loudly. She rolled her head to look at him in the eyes. His smirk instantly faded when he saw tears welling in her eyes. "You know I hate seeing you get hurt like that." She said with a slight sniffle.

Naruto shook his head and smiled sadly at her. "I'm sorry for worrying you like that, hime."

After hearing him call her by a pet name Hinata's eyes flew open as a harsh blush covered her face. She quickly got up and walked mechanically to the door. "I-I-I'm going t-to tell everyone you're up." She said as she opened the door and closed it behind herself.

Naruto almost openly laughed, but the pain made it die down to a hearty chuckle. A few minutes later a relieved looking Sakura and smiling kurenai walked in. "Good to see you up Naruto-kun. I swear if anything too bad happened to you while I was leading your team your mother would give me personal treatment at the I&T devision." Kurenai joked. Her being Anko's best friend gave her some insight on how sadistic Anko could be. Both Naruto and Kurenai shivered at the thought.

Sakura looked a little confused, but just shrugged it off. They both looked down at Naruto as he struggled to prop himself up into a sitting position. "You shouldn't try to move yet! You need your rest," Sakura chided trying to get her teammate to sit still. Naruto quirked an eyebrow at that.

Usually the pinkette wouldn't care one way or the other if he was hurting himself. She would normally just scoff at him and fawn over her 'Sasuke-kun'. What changed?

Naruto just shrugged and finished propping himself into a sitting position, with a little help from Kurenai. "Yeah, whatever." He said to the girl. "So, how long was I out?" He asked as he turned to Kurenai. Sakura scowled at him for blowing her off and was about to scold him when Kurenai answered. "About a day and a half. You still have some damage to your ribs and your collar bone is still fractured." She reported in a no nonsense tone. Naruto sighed and looked off into the distance. His eyes glazed over sightly and Kurenai and Sakura both eyed him cautiously. Both for different reasons.

Sakura was looking for signs of a concussion. Kurenai was worried about his seal. The Uzumaki caln hadn't made it public knowledge that he could converse with the demon, or use his powers without any issues. So at this point Kurenai thought his seal might be weakening. When he snapped back to attention he looked them in the eye. "I also have a few strained tendons and still am low on chakra. My bodily injuries should be healed in about three days, but I need to concentrate on recovering my chakra."

Kurenai and Sakura just blinked a few times. Sakura opened her mouth to say something, but closed it just to blink again. This happened about three times before she could find the right words. "But, no one heals from these kinds of injuries in just five days!" She said, almost like she was trying to convince herself.

Naruto shrugged. "I do," he responded coolly. Sakura stammered a few more times but stopped when Naruto started to try and stand. This time Kurenai tried to stop him. "You really should't be trying to stand." She said with a hint of worry in her voice. Naruto just gave her a lazy wave as he stood shakily on his feet. "Good thing I brought one of these..." he mumbled as he summoned a crutch from a seal on his arm.

Sakura actually noticed for the first time that Naruto had nothing covering his forearms and noticed an assortment of elaborate seals and a thin line connecting them all. Another line, about half and inch thick, went up his entire arm connecting to a seal on his shoulder.

Naruto noticed her staring and explained. "Most of them are resistance seals. These five along my wrists are storage seals." He said as he pointed to the five small seals on each of his wrists.

"They look more like tattoos." Sakura mumbled. Naruto shrugged and began to hovel out of the room.

. . . .

In the living room Hinata and Shino were waiting on the couch for Kurenai to give them orders, and Tazuna was waiting by the door for Kurenai. Tsunami was in the dinning room cleaning up after the breakfast they had. The first one to notice Naruto was up was surprisingly Inari. "Oh, looks like the weakest one is up." He mumbled next to his mother. Tsunami nearly jumped when she heard him talk. She scowled at her son and turned to see Naruto standing behind the table.

He scratched the back of his head and smiled shakily. "You wouldn't have anything to eat would you?" He sheepishly chuckled. Tsunami hurried and made him some food. He thanked her and wolfed it down.

Inari's glare at Naruto didn't go unnoticed. "So kid, what's your story? You seem to have some sort of problem." He said as he wiped his face after finishing his food. Inari sneered at him and turned to walk away. "I don't know why you are even here...Gato is just going to kill you." The boy mumbled as he left the room.

Tsunami sighed and shook her head. "I'm really sorry about Inari. He's had it a little rougher than the rest of us." She apologized. Her tone was normal, but Naruto could see her sadness in her eyes. Naruto shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I guess it's hard to lose someone at this young of an age. Well, at least harder for most." He said in a reassuring tone.

Tsunami wanted to ask how he found out, but decided against it. Something in his voice just seemed to explain it for himself. "I'm Tsunami by the way, Inari's mother." She said with a small smile. Naruto nodded and returned the smile. "Uzumaki Naruto." He replied. He then slowly stood up and limped his way into the living room.

Hinata was standing by the door to the living room waiting for him to finish his food. She still had a slight blush but she smiled and helped him onto the couch. Shino made room for him to sit down. He then proceeded to plop himself onto the cushioned seat and let out a sigh. "I hate getting injured!" He complained in a childish fashion. Tazuna looked at him and laughed. "W-Where's the badass ninja that kicked that guys ass the other day. All I see is some brat!" He said as he laughed. It wasn't a mean or sarcastic laugh. It was a hearty laugh, one that comes from the gut.

Truth be told, he hadn't laughed like that in years. It felt good. Tsunami walked in to see what was so funny and quirked an eyebrow at the scene she was seeing. All she was a annoyed blonde flicking off he father while he was one 'yo mama' joke from rolling on the floor laughing. After Kurenai walked in with Sakura Tazuna began to sober up. After a minute he wiped away a stray tear and looked to Kurenai. "Well, should we be going." He said with a little mirth left in his voice. Kurenai nodded. "Shino and Sakura will join us today. Kiba is watching over Sasuke as he finishes his training on tree walking."

Tazuna and Tsunami both looked at her blankly. "Tree WALKING?" they both asked at the same time. Naruto made a quick hand sign a another Naruto appeared. The clone limped to the wall and stuck to it. The real Naruto turned his head to Tsunami. "She means like that."

Tsunami only nodded. Shocked by both the clone, and the fact it could defy gravity. After that...quick...explanation, Tazuna his three escorts left the building. Naruto looked to Hinata. "So, what are you up to?" He asked curiously. Hinata blushed a little. "I'm to guard the house and Tsunami-san if she leaves the building." She responded a little quickly...or defensively. Naruto just nodded in response to that.

They sat there for a few minutes in awkward silence. Naruto was the first to break the silence. "So...wanna play cards?" He asked. Hinata shrugged. "We have nothing better to do."

. . . .

Two more boring days went by like this. Finally on Naruto's fourth day of recuperation he was able to walk without a limp or the help of a crutch. He asked Kurama and he sad he'd be back in fighting shape in another day in a half. He walked out onto the front porch and stretched his stiff muscles. It had been...well...he couldn't remember the last time he'd gone this long without training. It felt...wrong.

He walked down the porch stairs and went over to a tree stump in front of the house. He sat on it and crossed his legs. He put his hands on his knees and closed his eyes. He let his chakra roam and find a downed leaf on the ground about a foot away from him. He concentrated on the leaf and forced his chakra to cover it. Slowly he brought his chakra back, but still clung onto the leaf. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead when his concentration was broken.

"The hell is that face for Dobe?" A particularly worse for wear Sasuke asked as he walked up to where Naruto was sitting. Naruto sighed and his right eye twitched a bit. "The hell Teme? Couldn't you see I was concentrating!?" He asked a little annoyed. Sasuke let out a amused breath. "Really? Cuz it looked like you were about to shit yourself." He said with a slight smirk.

At this point Naruto was confused. Was Sasuke...being playful? Banter was normal between the two, but this didn't have the 'Holier than thou' attitude behind it like normal. "Ok Teme, you're starting to freak me out here. Since when did you do witty banter, and not 'Oh I'm an Uchiha, look at my brilliance, you can see me sparkle with glory' kind of speech." He asked in a confused tone.

Sasuke growled at that. "Yeah fuck you too Dobe." He marched back into the house, but not before Naruto gave him a come back. "You wish Teme!" He called laughing at Sasuke's louder snarl. Once he calmed back down he resumed his chakra exercise.

. . . .

The next day Naruto did a stress test on how good he felt. In the early morning before anyone woke up he went out to the forest and had a little sparring match with five of his more...stable...clones. After thoroughly kicking their asses he started to walk back when he noticed someone in a clearing. He stopped and watched 'her' from behind a tree. 'She' seemed to be gathering herbs. But Naruto had a bad feeling about 'her'. With the heightened senses he obtained from constant work with Kurama, his sense of smell pick up on something. 'She' smelt just like the Hunter nin that grabbed Zabuza...and surprisingly male. Naruto shuddered at the fact that the 'she' was actually a 'he'. "That's just wrong..." He mumbled to himself. He decided to turn and leave.

Let the fighting be saved for tomorrow.

. . . .

The next day Naruto was back to one hundred percent. And they all figured that Zabuza was as well. That day they all accompanied Tazuna to the bridge. Naruto left a legion of clones back at the house to protect Inari and Tsunami. He figured with the trash they were facing, they wouldn't be against pulling a cheap shot like taking them.

Once they got to the bridge the noticed that it was encased in a dense fog. "Naruto can you clear this?" Kurenai asked. Naruto shook his head. "Too dense, there is a lot of chakra going into this one." He responded.

"H-Help!" A raspy voice said. Tazuna looked down to his left and gasped. "Jiro! What the hell happened!" He asked his beaten and bloodied worker. "I-It was a-a demon!" He said and then proceeded to pass out.

They then heard a startling laugh. The mist cleared just enough to reveal Zabuza and his masked help. "Well kid, ya ready for round two?" He asked as he glared sadistically at Naruto. Naruto smirked. "Ya I guess I could kick your ass again." He boasted.

Zabuza snarled and charged him sword in hand.

. . . .

(A/N): To be continued...

Remember to REVIEW! And as always, I'll see ya next time!