Chapter 2: Unexpected arrival

"Kit?" The voice of the fox spoke in an exhaustive tone as he laid within the mindscape of his host. The technique she had used was far too much for the Bijuu to handle all at once, and if this is what happened to him, he assumed that his host was in worse conditions. Feeling his strength fade as well as his consciousness, Kurama sighed once more as he shut his eyes to rest.

"You better be okay when I wake up again, Narumi."

[Where we left off]

The mission went much smoother than they had anticipated. A simple escort mission with only a chance of bandits attacking was surprisingly refreshing for Team 7. The merchants they were escorting back to Spring were genuinely understanding and level headed enough not to cause a fuss to the team. They only ran into one group of wannabe bandits that didn't know their asses from their elbows. They were taken care of with minimal effort on the teams part. The rest of the walk was fairly smooth all the way to Spring where they were greeted by its Princess and Daimyo, Koyuki, in all her glory. She was happy to see the team that had saved her home from her uncle and the ones who gave her hope once again. They stayed in Spring for a day for some needed R & R and to enjoy a festival going on at the moment before saying their goodbyes. The four went at a leisurely pace since there was no real reason to be in a hurry.

The sensei and leader of the team hung back and read his little orange book during their travel back home. He was a fairly tall man with easily recognizable silver hair that seemed to defy gravity somehow. He wore a standard jounin outfit including the vest and had his headband over his left eye. He giggled pervertedly as he read the book, glad that he wasn't in the village right now so people wouldn't try to beat him for being a pervert in public.

The next person walking a little ways ahead was a teen with short pink hair and emerald eyes. He wore a tight, form-fitting red top with no sleeves and black biker style shorts for easy movement. His head band tied around his neck for comfort since there was no immediate danger. His kunai pouch was strapped to his left leg and was only a few inches from the top of his black, knee high ninja boots. The teen also wore black, fingerless gloves and held a cheerful expression now that an easy mission was finished. He was far too excited after the mission since he had bought so many things from the festival.

Right next to him was another teen with dark hair and onyx eyes. He wore a long sleeved black coat that went to his thighs with the Uchiha crest on the back. Under the coat was a dark blue shirt with the same crest this time over his heart. He wore long, black cargo pants with his kunai pouch attached to his right thigh and black ninja sandals. His headband was around his right bicep. He held an impassive look with his hands in his coat pockets as he listened to the pink haired boy express his excitement after the mission. The Uchiha could only roll his eyes at the boys unnecessary excitement, but he couldn't stop the smirk on his face either.

The last person of the team stood next to the Uchiha with a big toothed grin on his face as he held clasped his hands behind the back of his head in a relaxed manner. He wore a dark orange and black jumpsuit with black sandals and his headband tied around his forehead. His blond hair and clear blue eyes were very predominant within the group as everyone knew exactly who his father was by association. He was smiling as even he was excited to get back home and show everyone just what he bought from said festival.

"So what are you guys gonna do once we get back home?" The blond asked his teammates as they continued walking along.

"Easy," the Uchiha started as he placed his hands in his coat pockets. "I'm gonna start training with my brother again since he's back now."

The pink haired teen smiled and grabbed onto the Uchiha's arm, much to his annoyance. "Aw, look at you reconciling with your older brother. It's almost kinda cute Sasuke."

The now named Sasuke groaned and yanked his arm away from the pink teen. "Shut up Sakura!" He blushed a bit and proceeded to walk on a little faster, causing his two teammates to laugh at his retreating form.

"What about you Naruto?" The now named Sakura asked the blond. "I'm sure your dads would be all too happy to see what you bought them."

Naruto's grin became wider as he struck a smug thinker's pose. "Well, I know for a fact that they'll enjoy this gift when we get back. Who knows, I may even get a promotion just for bringing them this gift in general."

Both he and Sakura laughed at this statement as they both knew that's not how promotions work in Konoha. They may be chuunin now and had more leeway than before, but they still had to take the next Jounin exam in order to be promoted. Naruto knew that his father, the Hokage, wouldn't give him any freebies just because he was his son.

The two decided to catch up to their teammate after a good laugh and Sakura latched onto his arm while Naruto hooked his own arm around Sasuke's neck. The Uchiha sighed at how overly excited his teammates were, but he couldn't argue that not only was the mission easy, it was also fun. The term 'fun' was never really something that the Uchiha was all that good at understanding whatsoever.

"Alright, let's go and report back to the Hokage." Sakura started in a cheery tone, still excited for what's to come next.

Sasuke groaned a bit as he shook himself free of the two and walked on a little faster. "I heard you the first time. Jeez, it's not like the mission was all that important any-" All of a sudden, something caught Sasuke's attention. He turned to his right and saw someone laying on the ground. It was a girl with red hair and a tattered orange and black jumpsuit, a little similar to what Naruto wears. He widened his eyes at the girl's condition though as she looked as if she had been through hell itself. She was covered in bruises, cuts and even had horrible burn marks on her forearms.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked as he saw Sasuke stop and look to something. Both he and Naruto went to their friend and looked to what he saw. Both were stunned by the injured girl laying on the ground, giving off shallow breaths. Sakura, seeing that someone needed immediate medical attention from a hospital rather than the field, yelled back to their slow moving sensei. "Sensei! We need your help right now!"

Kakashi, who was far off reading his smut as usual, heard Sakura's voice and it sounded serious. Usually, his team could handle any threat that they faced, be it bandits or ninjas, using their impeccable teamwork, but the way Sakura sounded in his tone of voice felt uneasy to the one eyed Jounin. Kakashi rushed over to his team, placing the book back in its pouch in the process, and hoped this wasn't something dangerous. When he arrived however, he was met with the sight of Sakura using his Mystic Palm on a horribly injured girl. Naruto and Sasuke had formed a perimeter around her as they weren't sure if this was an enemy attack or a trap.

"What happened here?" Kakashi asked in a serious tone as he approached them.

"No clue." Naruto answered. "We were walking along and Sasuke saw this girl on the ground."

"Sasuke." Kakashi looked to the Uchiha to see him scanning the area with his three tomoe Sharingan activated and searching for traps of any kind. Once he was finished and gave an all clear, Kakashi turned towards Sakura. "How bad is she?"

Sakura stopped using his Mystic Palm on her and breathed out a bit in concern. "Her wounds aren't critical, but she's loosing a lot of blood. She also is malnourished a bit and the bruising is serious around her lungs spine. What I'm really concerned about are these burns on her forearms." Sakura took her right hand and began analyzing the burns.

"Looks like whoever did this to her must have been pretty twisted to hurt a defenseless girl like that." Naruto spoke up, angered that someone had the gall to hurt someone and then just dump their body somewhere like trash.

"Wait a minute." Sakura started with a narrowed eye.

"What's wrong Sakura?" Kakashi asked as he knelt down to the girl.

"These are chakra burns."

"So whoever did this must've used some sort of technique to render her arms useless so she wouldn't fight back." Kakashi deduced with a sigh.

"No." Sakura spoke in a grim tone.

The other three looked to the pink haired teen for an explanation.

"These are self inflicted chakra burns." Sakura looked up to her confused teammates. "She did this to herself."

Feels good to be back. So sorry for lack of updates in general, school has really been getting on my F-ing nerves with it's BS. Fortunately this is my last semester and I'm graduating so there's that.

The next chapter will have our hero in Konoha along with someone explaining to her how this world works.

Stay awesome, stay safe, and as always...

PEACE!