Now, I had two ideas for where 'Blue Eyes' could go. The first involved a lot of drama, exploration of the themes of existence, the afterlife, and eternity, and would span several chapters.

The one I'm going with is more comedy. Maybe one day I'll go back and do the more serious version, but for now I think I just want to have fun. (And beat on Kakashi.) XP

"Where's Naruto?"

Kakashi looked up wearily at Sakura, swaying a bit on his feet before his mismatched eyes could focus on his female student. "Oh, him?" he slurred, his voice sounding a little punch-drunk.

If she hadn't been so consumed with fear for her missing blond teammate, Sakura would have bristled in indignation. How could that stupid pervert say it so casually, so off-handedly? 'Oh him?' Just like that? He'd tossed the words off like they didn't matter, like her entire world wasn't about to spin based on what he was about to say…when he could very well be…

"He's right behind me," Kakashi continued, dropping the rags that had once been Naruto's clothes at his feet. His hands now free, he reached up to tug his hitai-ate back into its usual rakish tilt over his Sharingan eye. The motion seemed to adjust something back to normalcy inside him, as he let out a heavy breath and he was suddenly more like the lazy, imperturbable man she had always known.

Sakura's mind, racing at hyperspeed circles for so long, took every word and every action Kakashi had just said and done and analyzed it frantically, wringing every possible explanation from them.

'He's so casual…even he couldn't possibly be that blasé if something had gone…wrong…'

'But all that blood…and he's so hurt…Kakashi never gets hurt…'

'Why was he holding Naruto's clothes? Whose blood is that?'

'Where is Naruto?'

Behind her, Neji's headshaking had become a puzzled cock of his head to one side. Was the silver-haired man lying to Sakura to spare her? His still-activated Byakugan could see the perimeter of the clearing for several yards, and there was no human-shaped chakra system behind the jounin – nothing but the usual forest wildlife…

And then something moved from the deepening shadows of the trees, and Lee was leaping to his feet – toppling over as he put weight on his half-healed leg – and Neji was staring and Tenten was reaching for kunai.

Only Sakura, her eyes widening in quick comprehension as her adrenaline-soaked brain fed her conclusions, took a step forward towards the giant golden fox that had emerged into the clearing.

"N…Naruto?"

TBC

Right, humor added to the genre listing. Short and pointless – quite so – but I just wanted to get this part out of the way. I can begin having some fun next part. Whee! XD

Randomly: Episode 149? WTF? I have never seen an episode so rife for riffing. So much OOC! So much forced humor! Not to say I didn't enjoy it. I like how they drew Naruto here, even if the others occasionally look like bug-eyed PPG rejects. And wo0t! Shino!

As I write this, my ickle youngest brother is playing Narultimate Hero2 all on his own. (sniffles) I'm so proud of him! He's even playing as Naruto, instead of playing as Sasuke or Neji as our other brother (and unfortunate family champion at all games) always does!