AN:

I'm really sorry for not uploading for so long. Thing is I keep forgetting to upload it on FFN too -.-'' Shame on me I know. Anyway I'm gonna try posting 2 chapters in a day until I caught up with what I uploaded on deviantart. So please enjoy =)

Chapter 54: Attack of the anti-fox-group

Minoru and Kojirou dropped down in the grass, both exhausted, while Amaya only seemed to be out of breath. Naruto grinned, "Tired already? Come on kids, work on your condition." "Condition my ass!" Kojirou shouted annoyed to his teacher who laughed and sat down. "Well you kids are getting better so it's okay to rest now. Minoru I heard you already know the basics of medical jutsu."

The blue haired boy sat up and nodded, "Sakura-san says I'm an even faster learner than her, which I doubt," he muttered somewhat flattered, "I can heal basic wounds now, such as scratches and cuts, and I can locate poison in the body. Right now I'm learning how to get the poison out of the body." "That's so cool," Amaya said amazed as she looked at her team-mate who started to blush because of the complement.

"Sai-san told me he cannot teach me more until my chakra level is increased," Kojirou told. "Chakra level?" Minoru asked confused and turned his attention to the red haired who was still laying in the grass. "Yes, every person has a chakra level, but this differs per person. It's combined with your stamina level. The higher both levels are the higher jutsu you can perform. Take Amaya for example, her stamina level is quite high, equal to mine when I was at the age of fifteen. You produce chakra out of your stamina in order to perform a jutsu. However you also have a small amount of chakra always in your body which you use without yourself noticing. This is mostly wasted chakra and it will go away after a while."

Kojirou sat up and looked confused.

"I still don't understand. How can my chakra level increase?" "By increasing your stamina and that you can increase by training and adapting your body to using jutsu of higher levels. Remember when I taught you kids about making a stick not drop but not holding it and the tree walking?" The three nodded.

"Tree walking in it self is very useful during battles, but it also makes your use of your chakra better. In the beginning it is hard to manage your chakra right and you fall all the time. But the more you practice the more your body get used to the situation and the better your chakra use will be. On top of that you will find the right amount of chakra you need, making you waste less chakra."

"So… what's so good about it? Having a higher chakra level?" Minoru wanted to know. Naruto let out a sigh. "First of all you can perform higher levelled jutsu, second you can fight longer in battles." "How about you sensei, is your chakra level high?" the girl asked.

Naruto stared at her for a second before answering with a slight nod. "It has to be Amaya, otherwise he wouldn't be able to perform Kage Bunshin no jutsu," Kojirou commented. "Well I was just wondering," Amaya brought in shooting her red haired team-mate a glare, "Besides I can do that jutsu too."

"What?" came out of the mouth of the two boys. Amaya smirked and stood up. She performed the required hand seals and the next moment there were three Amaya's standing there. Minoru could only gape at her while Kojirou completely freaked. "Your chakra level is high enough for such a jutsu?" Naruto laughed, "No it's her stamina. Like I said you produce your chakra out of stamina and use that for jutsu. Amaya's stamina is very high making her able to do this. However you still have a lot of wasted chakra there Amaya, so don't overuse the jutsu." "Yes sensei."

Kojirou grabbed his brush, ink and a paper. He quickly drew a set of giant tigers. "Let's see how long you can manage fighting against them, Amaya," he smirked. But just when he wanted to bring the drawings to life the entire group noticed the presence of other ninja. "Sensei," Minoru said softly. "I know, do what I say," Naruto whispered back.

'Don't tell me they're trying to kill in daylight with the kids around…'

"Come out whoever you are!" the blonde shouted. A group of five suddenly appeared and surrounded him and his students. 'Darn, they are. Are they insane?' "We'll take care of you once and for all," one said as he charged over with a fist ready to attack. Naruto simple caught it and used this disguised man as armour by swirling him around knocking the other down. Amaya, Minoru and Kojirou had ducked and as soon the group was floored they got out of there. Naruto turned his attention to the three. "Get away of here quick!" he ordered them but it was too late for a team of three more appeared each catching one of the twelve year old ones. Kojirou struggled in an attempt to get free but failed. However he then noticed he was still holding the paper with the drawing of the group of tigers and got a plan.

Naruto jumped to the side but not in time and the kunai scratched his arm open when it passed. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" "Just three in total. Ha you cannot win fox and if you try to kill any of us we will kill your precious students." 'What?' Quickly he looked to the side, a big mistake for he was off guard and punched but not before seeing Amaya, Minoru and Kojirou being held by three ninja and holding a kunai near their throat.

The blonde landed in the river and came back coughing. His two Kage Bunshin he created were knocked out in the time he was underwater and therefore gone. Letting out a growl he tried to think of what he should do but then noticed the determined smirk on Kojirou's face and the picture he was holding. Naruto climbed out of the river avoiding the following blows, waiting for Kojirou to make his move.

Which the red haired did soon after seeing his teacher seemed to be alright. "Hey idiots," he grinned as he dropped the paper. The attention of the three were now focused on Kojirou and the one holding him tightened his grip on the boy. "Watch this, Ninpo; Choju Giga!" The five drawings on the paper that had been laying in the grass after Kojirou let it fall, suddenly emerged from the drawing and became enormous tigers of ink. That alone shocked the three ninja that had been holding the three ge-nin enough to let them go. "Nice move," Minoru smiled to his team-mate. "Thanks," Kojirou smiled as he sent the tigers after the three enemy ninja.

Naruto had spotted the tigers and his three students who were now free. "Enough playing!" he shouted and punched the one who was coming after him with full force sending him flying into a tree. But the next thing he knew was a set of different kind of jutsu thrown at him. But when all of them stopped, Naruto was no-where. However he suddenly appeared out of the ground knocking out one of his enemies. Panting he looked at the others.

'Darn, some of their jutsu hit, I wasn't in time with my escape.' One suddenly came from behind and with rapid speed the blonde turned around and prepared a Rasengan which he pushed into the man's stomach. When he dropped on the ground he could only make an 'urgh' sound. But three others now went over on a hand to hand combat with Naruto and one managed to punch him into the river. This was followed by high speed kunai thrown in the water. Several hit Naruto making him grunt and loose the breath he had left.

"Stay under, they will leave!"

'BUT…!'

"If it is the kids you worry about, they only used them, they won't kill them! You notice the Konoha headbands didn't you, they won't kill fellow citizens."

On the land they all saw blood appear at the surface of the water followed by bubbles but then nothing. "I think we finally killed him." "If he doesn't come up within five minutes yes. The blood will give away his place in the water so he cannot swim to somewhere without us knowing."

Amaya wanted to run over to the place but Minoru stopped her. "Don't," he whispered, "They won't hurt us if we stay out of this." "But sensei is…" the girl tried. "Amaya, Minoru is right. Believe in Naruto-sensei, after all he's a jo-nin and unpredictable," Kojirou whispered with a stern look. Amaya nodded.

Five minutes passed by and there hadn't been any movement in the water. And the bubbles had disappeared three minutes ago. "I guess he's dead, no-one can survive that long underwater without any breath." "Yes, let's leave." And as soon as they appeared as soon they left. When Kojirou, Amaya and Minoru were sure they were gone, the three kids rushed over to the river. "Someone should go see if sensei is alright," Amaya said and at that moment Minoru jumped in the water and swam down. As soon Naruto saw the boy he decided to go up and when he hit the surface he gasped for air.

'That almost killed me.'

"Good thing you have me then."

'Yeah… thanks.'

"Sensei are you alright?" Amaya asked as she kneeled down and pulled him out of the water together with Kojirou. "More or less," Naruto said coughing up some water. "That you were able to hold your breath that long," Kojirou said impressed. "Not completely, if I had been under a couple of seconds longer I would have drowned." Now that he was out of the water, his wounds were clearly visible and with the blood mixed with water he seemed in an awful state. The blonde looked over to his arm that was bleeding badly and then turned his attention to Minoru. "I could use some help from you right now, Minoru." "B-b-but… I'm not that great yet." "You'll do just fine." The blue haired boy nodded and focussed on healing the wound on Naruto's arm, which he did quite well.

"Wow, you're awesome Minoru," Amaya said as she hugged the boy out of happiness, which made him gain a few shades of red on his cheeks. "Thanks Minoru," Naruto said, still trying to get back to breath. "Sensei you should go home," Amaya said looking over to her teacher yet still holding Minoru in her firm hug. "Yeah, you kids better go home." "Why did they attack you?" Kojirou wanted to know. Naruto stood up looking at the boy. "Your father doesn't like me for nothing, Kojirou. The villagers have hated me since the day I was born and tried to kill ever since. However it became worse lately. I'm surprised they attacked my while having you around."

'Unless they did that to give me a weakness.'

"They surely did, kiddo."

'Would you stop calling me that?'

"Whatever."

Naruto let out a sigh as he stood up and started shivering. "Sensei, go home before you catch a bad cold. Get a warm bath and then go to bed." Naruto sweat dropped, "don't worry, I don't get ill that easily." "Still you should go home. You're completely drenched." "And that happened to me more often before during battles and such, don't worry Amaya. I'll be okay." Amaya glared at her teacher which made Kojirou snort. "Sensei what would Hinata say if she found you completely drenched," Minoru brought in, backing up his team-mate. "She would rip him of his wet clothes and push him into bed," Kojirou joked. Naruto blushed as he turned his head away with a sigh.

"Fine, I'll go home and get changed. I'll see you kids tomorrow again at nine. Usual place." The three nodded and then they all went back to the village where they went separated ways. Once home Naruto got rid of his shirt which he dumped on the laundry pile in the bathroom (which was surprisingly enough quite small). After that he got a quick warm shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. Half naked he went to the kitchen to find himself some food. He passed the rest of the day with reading all his notes of the sealing jutsu he did and rereading the letter he got from Jiraiya.

Waking up next morning, Naruto walked over to the kitchen to get a breakfast. While making one he had to cough… quite a lot for that matter. 'Crap I think I do have a cold…' The Kyubi laughed at him. 'Not funny!' "….," Naruto said and stopped walking to the bathroom when he realized he had said nothing. He tried again. "….?" 'What the hell?'

"You lost your voice, baka."

'Oh great, just great.'

Naruto got thermometer in the bathroom to check his temperature. 'At least I don't have a fever,' he thought sighing as he looked at the old thing he actually never really used before.

"You mean YET."

'But I don't understand normally I don't get ill… especially not THIS easily. I mean I fell in the water several times, fought after it and now… unless…'

"You're thinking about that seal you did, aren't you."

'Well it could explain it.'

The blonde went back to the living room to check his notes however he didn't find what he was looking for. Sitting beaten in his chair because he didn't know the reason for him suddenly being ill he stared at the table covered with papers. After some minutes he sighed and made himself something to eat. When he finished that he got dressed and looked over at his alarm clock which said it was eight thirty-two. He grabbed some small note paper and a pencil and left his apartment.

Not ten minutes later he was at the Hyuga maison, coughing a little until the door was opened by none other than his girlfriend.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata smiled when she saw him standing in the doorway. He smiled and kissed her on her cheek. "Don't you need to be with your team?" This time the blonde sighed nodding. "What is it?" Hinata asked having the feeling he acted really strange. Naruto opened his mouth a moment, then closed it and got something out of his pocket. It was the paper and pencil he took with him. He quickly wrote something down and gave the note paper to Hinata as he coughed once again.

'I have a cold and lost my voice. Fell in the water during training yesterday.'

After reading it Hinata laid one hand on Naruto's forehead. "At least you don't have a fever," she smiled and kissed him on his cheek. Naruto smiled back and they walked to the living room. "Sit down, I'll be back in a moment," Hinata said, while she ran away.

Naruto sat down on a couch, while sighing. "Why the sigh, Naruto?" Naruto looked up and saw Hiashi entering the living room. "…." Hiashi raised one eyebrow, while Naruto grumbled and started to move his hands and arms in the hope Hiashi would understand him. Hiashi only gave him a confused look, what made Naruto drop his head. At that moment Hinata entered the living room again. "Oh, good morning father," Hinata greeted the clan leader. "Good morning… I think there is something wrong with your boyfriend," Hiashi said as he gave Naruto an I'm-not-coming-near-you-you're-acting-strange-look.

"He lost his voice, father," Hinata explained. Hiashi look at her for a moment or two before he started laughing. "It will be rather calm the next couple of days." This made the blonde sweatdrop as Hinata placed two items in his hands, a bottle and a spoon.

"Naruto-kun, take a spoon of this," she told him. Naruto stared at the bottle for a second before opening it, putting some on the spoon and taking it. He made a face of disgust afterwards which made Hiashi have even more fun before he walked away. Hinata placed a hand on his forehead. "I really wonder… maybe you should go back to bed, to prevent you getting a fever. You feel a little warm now."

"Naruto-nii-san, there are some visitors here for you," Hanabi said with a more or less uninterested face. Naruto looked at the three behind Hanabi and was surprised. He looked over to the clock on the wall and found out it ten past nine already while he had to meet up with his team at nine. He opened his mouth but not a word came out and he dropped his head as result.

The three kids looked confused at him. "We thought that you would be here when you weren't coming at nine sharp," Kojirou said. "Are you alright, sensei?" Minoru asked. "Naruto-kun lost his voice," Hinata explained. "Oh… that must be because he fell in the water yesterday," Amaya said. Naruto nodded with a sigh as reply.

Naruto grabbed the paper and pencil again and scribbled something. He handed over the paper to Amaya who read it together with her two team-mates.

'I won't be training with you guys today.'

"Well, that much we could have guessed…" Minoru muttered. "I don't want to go home again. Dad's gonna whine about drawing stupid paintings again." Amaya snickered, "But you're great." "Might be but being pushed to do it is no fun." "He's got a point, Amaya." The girl nodded.

"Why don't you all come along with me? I was invited by Sakura." "Really? We can come along?" Kojirou asked, seeming to like the idea very much. "Of course, you're coming too Naruto-kun I want to be sure you will be alright." The blonde nodded like an obeying pet.

Not much later the group was standing in front of Sakura's house. The door was opened by Sakura's mother.

"Oh hello, Naruto-san, Hinata-san and…" "We're Naruto-sensei's team," the three kids smiled to the pink haired woman. "Oh I see," she smiled back, "Come on in, I will let Sakura know you're here." The woman let everyone in, closed the door and went upstairs while the couple and the three young ge-nin went to the living room where they were greeted by Takashi.

"Naluto-nii-san!" the boy yelled and jumped on the blonde. Naruto coughed but couldn't help to smile. Naruto said something, or at least he tried, Takashi gave him a confused look. "What is it nii-san?" Naruto sighed and placed the boy on the ground. "Naruto-sensei lost his voice." This shocked the three year old. "Really?" he asked very worried, while Sakura entered the living room. "Konnichi wa," the pink haired said. "Hello," Hinata and the three kids said, while Naruto only smiled at his team-mate.

Takashi rushed over to his mother. "O-kaa-san, o-kaa-san! Naluto-nii-san lost his voice!" Sakura looked over to Naruto, who nodded. "We should help searching or else he can never talk again!" Naruto started to laugh, a bad idea, he started coughing because of it. Sakura couldn't help laughing at this as well. "Takashi, it doesn't mean his voice is laying somewhere on the ground." Her son looked at her not understanding. "Naruto just cannot talk because of his cold, Takashi-kun," Hinata explained. "Oh… so he will get his voice back?" Naruto nodded, still laughing and coughing.

"Naruto you look rather warm," the pink haired said. The blonde looked up with a sheepish expression. "He didn't have a fever yet when I checked this morning," Hinata said and placed her hand on the blonde's forehead. The blonde shook his head so she would get her hand of him. She gave him a stern look which made Sakura grin in her hand.

"Naruto you should go back to bed, before it gets worse." "…," he said and sighed, because he forgot he had lost his voice. However Hinata had understood what he was saying. "No you're not fine," she told him. "Sensei, listen to them," Minoru said. "Yeah, you'll be better in no time if you do. If you go walk around it will only get worse," Amaya said. Stubbornly the blonde looked away.

Hinata giggled, "Thank you kids, but I think you better go home now." "Hm," Minoru sighed. "Well we could go train," Kojirou said, standing up. "Ah of course!" the blue haired exclaimed somewhat more happy. "Count me in too," Amaya smiled and jumped of her chair.

"Good bye sensei, get well soon," the three said and left.

Hinata placed her hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "Come, Naruto-kun, please don't be stubborn." The blonde gave in and followed her to the front door after waving off. "Get well, Naruto," Sakura smiled as she and her son let them out. He merely nodded.

In his apartment Hinata pushed him on the bed and checked his temperature again. Naruto had to admit he was starting to feel horrible. "Get some sleep, I'll stay with you tonight," she whispered and kissed him on his cheek. His eyes widened, though he smiled with a blush. He got rid of his clothes and got into his pyjama.

Shivering from the cold he crawled under the sheets and tried to get some warmth. Hinata got a chair and sat down, watching the blonde over who had quickly fallen asleep.

In the evening Kojirou, Minoru and Amaya had decided to check on their teacher and knocked on his apartment door. Hinata opened it. "Konban wa," Amaya said. "How's sensei, doing?" the blue haired asked

Hinata looked over to the sleeping blonde. "He's asleep right now, though his fever hasn't gone down at all." "Is he going to be okay?" Kojirou wanted to know as Hinata let the three in. "I hope so, but Kakashi came to tell me what happened yesterday. Did they really attack you all?" The three nodded which made Hinata sigh and look over to Naruto with a worried look. "Kakashi also told he heard about an attack tonight. They found out he's still alive." "You cannot kill sensei that easily," Minoru said.

"True, but when's he's ill he won't be able to fight back," Amaya said worried as well. Hinata nodded. "I'm going to take him with me to my house. We have guards so he'll be safe there."

The three looked at the blonde in his bed. "Why are people attacking Naruto-sensei? Dad says he's a great shinobi," Minoru muttered. "They see him for something he's not," Hinata explained with a sad face, "Something from their past they cannot seem to forget." "What exactly is it?" Kojirou asked looking over his shoulder to the young woman.

Hinata got a backpack in silence. "Hinata-san?" Kojirou said questioning. "He will tell you himself one day, when you kids are ready to know and when Naruto feels ready to tell. Not even all his friends know." Amaya looked somewhat sad. "O-kaa-san says Naruto-sensei is a monster, but I don't believe he is. If he really was a monster then he wouldn't be so nice and helping." Hinata smiled as she packed some of Naruto's clothes. After packing some she stared at the clothes inside the bag.

"Now what did I forget?...ah!" The girl suddenly started to blush and walked over to the bathroom to find what she was looking. Amaya let out a giggle when Hinata came back with a couple of boxers. Minoru snorted as Kojirou raised an eyebrow. "How can you still blush while you're with sensei for more than three years now?" This caused Hinata to blush more. "Ano…" she muttered. "Don't tell me you never have seen him naked? I mean, didn't you guys already do… well things? You're old enough for that," he went on. "Kojirou!" Amaya exclaimed blushing by just the thought of what the boy was saying.

"What? They're nineteen. I bet I already did things by that age, probably more than once," the red haired muttered with a somewhat perverted blush. Hinata stared at him. "He reads the 'Come Come Paradise' series," Minoru explained. "A-aren't you un-underage for that?" Hinata stuttered blushing heavily. Kojirou shrugged his shoulders. "Dad bought it, I started reading it out of boredom." "Does-does he know?" "Yes."

Amaya stared at her team-mate who started to describe some of his favourite scenes and suggested a few things to Hinata who had a hard time not to faint. Minoru started snorting at one point, though blushing badly.

"Kojirou if you continue like that Hinata-chan's gonna faint," the blonde said hoarsely and started to cough. "Sensei, you're awake! And you have your voice back," Amaya shouted, glad something stopped Kojirou from phrasing sentences out of the third book. "Hard to sleep with all the noise," Naruto replied. Amaya sweat dropped as Minoru tried to stop his laughter.

"Sensei, have you two seriously not done anything." Naruto blushed. "Does it matter to you?" "Well maybe Sai-san is right. You have a small dick and are afraid to show it to her." Amaya's eyes widened, Minoru stopped laughing because of mere shock, Naruto stared at his student and Hinata… well at this point she fainted.

Naruto quickly jumped out of bed and caught the girl. He fell on his bottom with Hinata in his arms and started coughing. "Kojirou cough, enough about those talks cough I don't want hear them again cough until you're at least cough cough fifteen."

Kojirou nodded as he looked worried at the blonde who was still coughing. "Is Hinata-san going to be okay?" Amaya asked. Naruto could only nod.

Soon the Hyuga opened her eyes and found herself in the arms of her boyfriend. "You okay?" he coughed. She quickly sat up. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine. You should go back to bed."

At that moment the door slammed open and overwhelmed the five looked to the door. "Oh, too bad he has company," one of the five men said grinning. Another appeared. "Meh, just a bunch of mere ge-nin and an average chu-nin, nothing to worry about." Three of the group grabbed Minoru, Kojirou and Amaya and tied them up. "See, too easy." Meanwhile Hinata started to fight the other two in order to prevent them from getting closer to Naruto. However when the other three joined it became too much.

The blonde came to his feet.

"Rasengan!" he shouted as he planted a blue spiralling ball into the stomach of one. Hinata floored another one with her Juken.

"Minoru, grab my brush," Kojirou hissed to his team-mate, "I cannot reach it." "Uh… hai." Minoru managed to reach Kojirou's brush and with some difficulty he gave it to his team-mate, while Amaya had reached a kunai. Quickly the red haired drew two tigers on the floor, which was rather difficult.

"Ninpo: Chōjū Giga!" he said. The others looked over to them. And while the two ink tigers attacked the three conscious masked ninja, Amaya cut the rope. With a slash of a kunai the tigers were gone but Minoru threw a handful of shuriken to them. "Miss brat," one laughed. "Pay attention," Naruto coughed and knocked him out. This was a sign for the other two to make their leave. One of them threw a smoke bomb and when the smoke cleared, all the attackers were gone even the ones that were knocked out. Naruto dropped on the floor, coughing badly. "Thanks for the diversion kids," he managed to say.

Hinata kneeled down beside her boyfriend and checked his temperature again. The blonde was shivering from cold yet he was glowing. "Minoru, go get Sakura-san and tell her to come over to the Hyuga residence. Amaya report to the Hokage," she commanded. "Hai," the two replied and left in a rush. "Kojirou, you're going with us. Your jutsu can be a great diversion if we're attacked on the way to my home." "Why are we cough going there?" Naruto asked. "It's safer there. Do you think you can walk on your own?" The blonde nodded. He got some clothes on over his pyjama. After that they left.

"Come in." Nervously Amaya opened the door that let to the Hokage office. "Tsunade-sama?" The Hokage looked up from her paperwork. 'That's Naruto's student…'

"Amaya, what are you doing here?" questioned the Hokage. "Hinata-san sent me. She told me I had to report Naruto-sensei was attacked in his own house." "WHAT?" Amaya jumped back in fear.

"Amaya please tell me what happened." "H-hai. It started yesterday. Sensei was attacked during our training, he fell in the river. Now he has a bad cold and fever because of that so Sakura-san and Hinata-san told him to go to bed, which he did. Hinata-san was watching over him and we decided to go pay sensei a visit after training. When we were there for a while a group of five masked men barged in and got Minoru-kun, Kojirou-kun and me. We were tied up while Hinata-san was fighting the other two. Then sensei used some jutsu called Rasengan and floored one of them while Kojirou-kun used his ink jutsu and I cut the ropes. As diversion Minoru-kun threw shuriken at the attackers and sensei floored a third one. Then the last two used a smoke bomb and fled with the unconscious men."

Tsunade rubbed her forehead. "This is getting out of hand… Where is Naruto now?" "The Hyuga household." Tsunade nodded and left her work for what it was as she and Amaya went to pay Naruto a visit.

"Urgh, that tastes bad," Naruto said in a hoarse voice. "I know but it will reduce your coughing." Naruto nodded to the pink haired. "At least I have my voice back." "Don't talk too much yet though," Sakura said and closed the bottle she was holding.

"I'll try, but I need to talk to Mitsuki." "What about?" Hinata asked. The blonde didn't answer but merely looked at his right hand, making the others confused.