Authors Notes 1) I don't own Naruto or its characters.

2) Thank you to my friend Alex for his help.

3) Constructive criticism is welcomed, as are compliments.

4) The characters are 16 in the first chapter of the story. I have not seen if Sasuke's defection to Sound was successful or not. For the purposes of this story, I am assuming that it was.

O-O-O

Sakura and Lee sat in the restaurant talking, both glad to be with one another. It was rare that they found any time together. Sakura was a medic-nin of great renown, and was rumored to possess strength to rival that of her private sensei, Tsunade. And Lee, of course, was one of the village's most powerful jounin. Their combined schedules left the lovers little time for one another.

The ANBU had requested, several times, for Lee to join their ranks, but he had turned them down every time. He was one of the first to be asked to help on a mission when they were stretched too thin, and he was proud to serve beside them, but he would not actually join. Sakura thought back to when she had asked him about this a few months back. She had been curious as to why he would not join, when Neji, still his rival, was a member. The answer Lee had given her had not been what she had expected.

Should he join ANBU, he had told her, he would not have any time to see her at all. It was no secret that Konoha's elite division was undermanned. As such, their mission load was quite high, and they were not allowed to decline a mission for any reason whatsoever. And furthermore, he had said, not only would he have no time to spend with her, he would be out of the village far too often to protect her. The first part of his answer had touched her, but the second had left her rather annoyed. She had responded somewhat testily that she was able to look after herself nowadays. Lee had merely shrugged and told her that, regardless, he had promised to protect her with his life, and he intended to honour that promise. Besides which, he had asked, who would have suspected Naruto would ever find an opponent he couldn't walk away from. That had ended that conversation, with both the ninja sadly thinking of their fallen comrade. Sakura shook her head, focusing on the present. Now was not the time for such memories, not when Lee was finally here, and they were spending time together.

"So, why did your team stop in the Sand village?" Lee had just returned home in the early morning from a mission that had taken close to two weeks. He, alongside Kiba and Shikamaru, had delivered an ultimatum to the Hidden Village of Stone. There had been reports that the Stone had been entertaining emissaries from the Hidden Village of Sound, and the Hokage had felt it would be prudent to remind the Stone village that while the Leaf did not consider the Sound village an active enemy at the moment, they were certainly not considered friends. The Sound was still led by Orochimaru, a man who had betrayed the Leaf, murdered their Third Hokage, as well as the Kazekage of their allies, the Sand village, and commenced a war with the Leaf. And as if that were not enough, he had convinced several ninja to defect, Sasuke being the most powerful of them. Tsunade had pointed out in her letter that any treaty with the Sound village would be viewed with some alarm in Konoha.

"Well, we delivered the message without any incident." Lee paused to think of his response. He had spent most of the day waiting to give his mission summary, and did not feel a desire to spend another hour and a half going back into the minutiae of what had happened. "The problem came on the way back. Akamaru picked up a scent that was only a few hours old, and he and Kiba recognized it as Zharen's. You remember, he was part of those missing-nin from last month?" Sakura nodded. Five weeks ago, two genin teams, along with their sensei, had stumbled into three missing-nin who had begun acting as a team. One genin had survived, along with his sensei, who had saved him. ANBU had tracked the three criminals, and had dispatched two of them. Zharen however had escaped. Lee continued his brief retelling of events. "We decided to follow him. We were near Sand country's border, and it looked like he was heading into it. Even if we didn't go after him, we would have had to pass on a warning to them. So since the trail was warm, we just did it ourselves."

"Did you catch him?"

Lee looked away from Sakura before answering. "Yeah, we caught up to him after a day. We took care of him." He shifted his gaze downward to examine his food. All ninja saw themselves in different ways. Some were killers, others tools. Sasuke had called himself an avenger. Lee considered himself a protector. While he had no problems killing an opponent, it was not a part of his duties he took pride in. Deciding that he needed to finish his story, and not just stare at his meal, he went on. "Akamaru got pretty banged up in the fight, and none of us have any healing techniques, so since we were closer to the Sand village, we just headed to it and spent a couple days resting."

"Did you see the trio?" Sakura's was referring to the team of Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. Since the three siblings from the Sand village had been dispatched to bail out the Leaf genin when they had attempted to stop Sasuke's flight, they had become a common sight in Konoha. It seemed that almost every time the Sand dispatched ninja to aid its ally, the three siblings were the ones being sent.

Lee decided it was time to look back up, his smile having managed to once more make its way onto his face. "Of course. Gaara and Temari both came to find me. Kankuro didn't visit with any of us." Noticing his girlfriend's change in disposition at the mention of Gaara, he did his best to reassure her. "He's a lot different than he used to be, Sakura-chan. I think it was Naruto's death that changed him."

Sakura nodded at this. Kankuro and Temari had both said that Gaara had begun to change shortly after Naruto had prevented him from killing both her and Sasuke. The memorial stone that had been set up for Naruto now bore the names of the Sand ninja, all three having been carved into it in seconds by Gaara and his sand. "So why did they want to see you?"

"Well, Gaara wanted me to have a quick spar with him, so we did that, and-"

"What?" Lee winced at the volume of Sakura's voice. Perhaps Shikamaru had been correct when he had advised him not to mention that detail to her. "Are you insane? Who cares if he's changed! If he had lost control for one second he could have killed you!"

"He's not like that anymore Sakura-chan, honest." Lee spoke quickly, hoping to calm Sakura down before she became any more upset. "You should have seen. A lot of the little children aren't even afraid of him. They would smile or wave, one of them told me that Gaara taught him to walk up cliffs. And there was even a kunoichi our age, who came and watched us fight. I kind of think she's attracted to him."

That drew Sakura's attention. "Really?"

"Really. I asked him why she was there, and he just shrugged and said she was probably worried about him. He said he had mentioned to her that I was the first person to land a blow on him. Anyways, he won the fight pretty quick." Sidestepping how Gaara won the fight quickly, he expertly drew his girlfriend's attention to a new source. "But wait until I tell you about Temari."

Lee's grin became mischievous as he finished his sentence, drawing out the gossiping instinct in Sakura. She leaned in towards him, not wanting to miss a word. Lee waited for several moments, allowing her curiosity to build. Finally, when the first signs of impatience began to appear on her face, he launched into his next tale.

"She caught me when I was eating dinner on the first night. I had gone to spar with Gaara just before most people have dinner, so by the time I came back and showered, the other two had already eaten. I left to find a restaurant, and she just appeared while I was walking along the street. She asked what I was up to, and said she would eat with me."

"Why?"

"Probably because she spent the entire time asking me about Shikamaru. It looks like she's still very interested in him."

Sakura shook her head. "She should just look for someone else already. Ever since the whole breakup with Ino, all he ever says about girls are that they're 'too troublesome' or 'not worth the effort'."

It was true; since his relationship with Ino had ended, Shikamaru had become very hostile towards the notion of romantic entanglements. No one was too sure what exactly had happened. Ino had never been willing to discuss it, and getting Shikamaru to hold a conversation about anything was difficult enough that it could have been a portion of a chuunin exam. All that was clear was that the process had left the Nara clan's youngest ever jounin extremely bitter. Still, Lee suspected that perhaps the Sand kunoichi who had shown an interest in him for so long had finally come up with a good plan.

"Well, on the second day, she challenged him to a game of shougi. Shikamaru looked like he was really concentrating to win."

"He always looks like that, even when he was just playing against Asuma, and he never had any trouble with him."

"They played the one game for over an hour."

Sakura's eyes widened. "An hour? There's no way someone can last that long against him without practice."

Lee nodded, "That's what Kiba said, too." He tilted his head and arched his eyebrows. "Of course, it also helps to spend the night before asking one of his friends everything they can remember about the few matches they have had against each other."

Sakura stared at her boyfriend with a look of incredulity. "She asked you about how he liked to play?"

Lee shook his head. "Actually, it was more like an interrogation." He ended his statement with a chuckle. "It would have been annoying if she hadn't paid for dinner. I think it was a thank you for answering her questions."

"So you think her plan worked?" Sakura leaned forwards after asking the question, curiosity written across her face. When Lee answered, she sat back, blinking in surprise.

"Shikamaru told her to come play against him the next time she's in the village."

She spent close to a minute filtering through the information, deciding if this was something she needed to tell Ino. Finally, she decided it was a subject to be examined later. Making a conscious effort, she steered the conversation into a different direction. "So is Akamaru alright, then?"

"No. We had to take turns carrying him on the way back. It looks like he sprained a couple of his legs pretty badly. He'll be fine soon enough though. Kiba said it won't be more than another week, at the most. How was your time?"

Sakura shrugged; compared to Lee's tales, her stories of studying scrolls, or practicing medical jutsu were all pretty tame. Even her spars against Jiraiya or Tsunade didn't seem all that interesting. Still, she knew from past experience that, no matter how boring her story was, Lee would sit there asking questions about everything she had to say. She had asked him once, why he cared about some minor detail. What it was, she could no longer remember. He had shrugged before answering. "I like listening to your voice."

"There really isn't all that much to tell. I set a few broken bones, I trained when I had the time. I suppose I went out for coffee with Ino once, but aside from that it's been pretty uneventful."

"Were any of the bones you set from anything serious?"

"Not really." Sakura shook her head as she answered. "One was just a villager who broke an ankle; he slipped while he was helping to move a mattress up a flight of stairs. The other was a genin who fell out of a tree. He was practicing chakra control and he lost his concentration for a second. That one could have been bad if he had hit his head, but he landed on his arm. All in all it was a pretty boring week."

The meal did not last much longer. Both Sakura and Lee focused more on finishing their dinner than on further small talk. There was a brief argument when the check came. Sakura wanted to pay, saying it should be a treat for Lee, as he had returned home safely from his mission. Lee, for his part, argued that as he had just received payment for his mission, as well as a bonus for the defeat of Zharen, he should be the one paying. He won the debate after a few seconds, Sakura not minding all that much if he wanted to spend money in her.

The couple exited the restaurant, making their way hand in hand down the street. At the door to Sakura's apartment complex, she gave her boyfriend a lingering kiss before breaking away.

Lee smiled, or rather continued to smile. It seemed he was always smiling when Sakura was around. Moving quickly, he gave her one last peck on the lips before speaking. "Goodnight, Sakura-chan."

"You know, Lee-kun, I don't need to report to the hospital tomorrow until the afternoon. Do you want to come inside?"

"Ah, now this is incentive to return home safely."

He was rewarded with a cuff to the side of his head. Sakura turned to unlock the complex entrance. "Not if you continue to make me angry, it won't be." Lee thought about pointing out that if she was truly angry, her punch would have sent him at least half a block through the air, but wisely decided against it. The much safer road, he decided, was to remain silent.

Entering the apartment, Sakura flipped on the lights and gestured towards her living room couch. "Sit down for a minute." Her green eyes shone mischievously. "I'm going to go get changed." Turning, she made her way towards her bedroom.

Lee made his way towards the couch he had been directed to, but chose to go towards the window instead. It was a sliding door, leading onto a tiny patio, the curtains open. Perhaps he should close them. The apartment was on the fifth floor, but still, there were other buildings of this height. Lee paused, trying to look outside. The light from the apartment, and the darkness outside combined to make the glass a much better mirror than a window. It was almost impossible to make anything out, but he was sure he had seen something. Almost like someone had thrown something at-

His shout of surprise and alarm came - at most - half a second before the window shattered as a person came soaring through it.

Sakura was in her room, the door closed. She had put her earrings away, and had just opened her closet door when Lee cried out, alongside the sound of shattering glass.

All of her thoughts flew from her mind as instinct took over. She spun towards her dresser, a simple seal opening the top drawer. As she passed by it, she reached inside and pulled out her kunai pouch. Shoulder down, she went through the door, not caring that it would have taken only several seconds longer to open it. Her battle instincts were running now, and at the moment, they were more concerned with speed than subtlety. She appeared in the living room, kunai in hand. All in all, it had taken four seconds since Lee's cry.

Lee was near the wall opposite the window, his legendary speed and reflexes having carried him out of harms way. Glass shards littered the floor near her window, where a body laid motionless, blood pooling on the floor around it. What the hell was this, some sort of trick? Quickly running through the seals, Sakura attempted to dispel any genjutsu that she may have wandered into, but nothing changed; whatever this was, it was real. Immediately, she shifted into her 'ninja mode'. This person needed treatment now, and she intended to give it.

"Lee, cover the window, keep on guard for any attacks." As she moved towards the body, she snapped out her orders. This was a crisis situation; there was no time for politeness. Hauling the body to the side, she brought it, and herself, out of a direct line of attack. Her hands began to glow blue as she rolled the person over. His back hadn't shown any obvious wounds, so she was moving on to his front.

"Shit!"

Lee's head snapped around for a moment, concerned at his girlfriend's cry. She seemed surprised but not threatened, so he instantly returned his gaze to the shattered window, trying to anticipate where an attack might come from. A second later, he did a double take, eyes wide with surprise. "Sakura-chan, is that who I think it is?"

"Lee-kun." Sakura's voice was calm, although unnaturally quiet. It seemed like she was struggling to stay in control. You need to go and get Tsunade-sama and Shizune-sama right away. Tell them to bring an ANBU team as well."

"But-" Lee hesitated, not sure of what to do.

"Lee!" Sakura was unused to being contradicted in such situations. This was her patient, and she expected her orders to be followed. "Now!" Her command spurred him into action. Leaping out the window, he took off towards the Hokage tower, hoping to find at least one of Sakura's two sensei there.

Sakura, meanwhile, set to work on her patient. She had already been able to determine the general extent of his injuries, and she was now addressing what she could. Her hands flew over his face, attempting to repair the slashes that ran across it. Kunai, or some sort of weapon, had torn deeply into the shinobi's face. It seemed most of the wounds had clotted, and the recent trip through her window had served to reopen them. The facial lacerations concerned her, as they were so wide. She was carefully extracting glass from them, not wanting to miss anything. If she did, it would be hell to fix later. She was just moving on to the left arm when Lee returned, along with the group she had sent him to gather.

Tsunade and Shizune were both at her side in seconds, ready to assist in the treatment.

"What's your assessment?" The Hokage refused to let her surprise distract her from the task at hand

"Severe facial lacerations, which I have patched up for the moment. Two cracked ribs, and three broken ones, one of which has pierced the left lung. A compound fracture near the left shoulder, which has been dislocated. The right arm has superficial cuts and bruises, but nothing more. The right kneecap is split into three main chunks, along with several smaller ones, and the left ankle has a hairline fracture running through it, as well as the femur being snapped higher up. It's a miracle he's still alive."

Tsunade glanced at her apprentice, noticing her hands beginning to shake. Now that others were here, the shock of the situation was beginning to get to her. "Sakura, you're done here. Shizune and I will take over."

"But… Sasuke-"

"Lee, get her out of here. She's getting upset, and we can't risk moving him. Take her to my office, or your apartment, or something. Make sure she's alright."

Nodding, Lee gently pulled Sakura away, leading her back out into the hall. Half dragging, half carrying her, he led her across town to his own apartment; sitting her down on his couch. He sat beside her, arm on her shoulder, trying to see if she was alright.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Lee. Lee-kun, who did that to him? Why did he come back?"

"I don't know Sakura-chan. But I suspect that at some point, we'll all find out."

O-O-O

Hinata and Neji stood facing one another across the training field, staring each other down. Their eyes held a deep intensity, both challenging the other to be the first to look away.

The grass waved in the wind, still damp from the morning dew. The breeze had put a chill into the air. It was unusually cold; one could see their breath suspended in the air for a moment, before it would fade from sight. Still, the two ninja took no notice. They were both wearing coats, and besides; the task ahead of them drew all of their attention, sparing nothing for such trivialities.

Neji held his right hand into the air, a kunai clenched between his fingers. "Ready?" His only answer was Hinata's simple nod of her head, her eyes never leaving his gaze. In a flash, he tossed the kunai to the side of the field. It landed harmlessly in the grass. Both ninja waited, muscles tensing as they prepared to strike.

The kunai detonated, the explosive tag placed upon it having burned to the end of its fuse; the Hyuga ninja sprang at one another.

The distance between the combatants shrunk rapidly as they charged, byakugan activating as they ran. Hinata pulled a kunai out of her pouch, throwing it at her cousin's head.

A sharp clang ran through the air as Neji tossed a kunai of his own to deflect the incoming missile. His arm flashed out, aiming at the tenketsu at the center of his cousin's forehead.

Hinata blocked the attack, trying to counter with a strike of her own. Neji, however, rather than blocking, attacked with his other arm. Hinata was forced to abandon her own attack simply so she could turn the new blow away. Neji continued to strike at her, refusing to allow her the time she needed to prepare a blow of her own.

Dodging two more strikes, Hinata felt her confidence slipping. It was the same as always. Neji was using his superior height to his advantage. She was able to keep up to him now, but he could use his longer reach to prevent her from taking the offensive. His attack faltered for a moment however - not even a second - but it was all Hinata needed to counter with an attack of her own. She stepped forward, aiming to take the initiative from her older cousin.

A small ghost of a smile found its way onto Neji's face. It appeared that his feint had worked. He slapped Hinata's arm away, and slammed his palm into her chest. Hinata gasped in pain, and, slipping on the wet grass, began to fall. Neji's triumph was short lived, however, for as she plummeted, she swept the foot that had not lost its grip out, sweeping Neji's feet out from under him. They both hit the ground, Hinata pushing herself off, so that she was falling onto her enemy. A kunai appeared in her right hand, aiming at Neji's chest. His own came out to block it, and for a few moment, the two Hyuga locking gazes once more, putting all their strength into their kunai. Neji was forced to use both his hands, as his cousin was forcing all her weight down, making him struggle to hold her above him. He glared at her. "That was stupid. I could have killed you if I had taken the hit and attacked."

"But if you had taken the hit Neji-nisan; you would be dead as well." Her free hand flashed towards Neji's face.

With a burst of strength, he brought his legs up, kicking out to propel Hinata away. Her fingers grazed his temple as she was sent back. Neji's vision blurred as he scrambled to his feet. He shook his head, trying to clear the pain away. As his vision cleared, he realized it was almost too late; she was almost on top of him.

"Kaiten!"

A he began his spin, Hinata forced chakra into her feet, and leapt, soaring over her cousin's attack. Twisting in the air, she threw two kunai towards him as the spin ended. They sunk into the ground a few feet from Neji.

At first, he thought she had simply missed, but a sizzling sound reached his ear. Flipping away, he dodged out of the range of the explosive tags. He was surprised. This was just supposed to be a spar. Neither of the combatants had used something so dangerous in what was supposed to be friendly training before.

As he moved through the air, Hinata was moving towards his position. Touching down, he let out a small grunt of pain as Hinata drove her palm heavily into his ribs, over his heart. He fell to the ground, noticing as he did so that while the tags no longer hissed, there had been no explosions. Decoy tags. Also, there was no significant pain in his chest; his cousin had chosen not to put any chakra behind the blow. She offered a hand to help him up, while staring wide-eyed at his fallen form. The match was over; they both knew that in a real battle, a blow like that could easily decide the fight.

Neji accepted Hinata's hand, allowing her to help him up. It never even occurred to either of them how unlikely such a thing would have been when they were first genin. Neji swallowed his pride, not wanting to ruin the moment for his cousin. "Well, that is the first time you have won Hinata-san. You are obviously improving."

Bowing her head, the Hyuga heiress began to make her way off the field, Neji walking alongside her. "I wouldn't have won in a real battle Neji-nisan. You wouldn't be wearing all of your weights."

"Neither would you, I should think."

Hinata shook her head. "But still, you use twice as much as I do. If I were to try to fight you on equal terms, I would still be outmatched."

Neji nodded at this. "That is true, but I have always had the greater handicap, and you have never defeated me. You are closing the divide between our skills. I shall have to train harder from now on." While his expression changed not even the slightest, those familiar with the prodigy of the Hyuga clan knew his last sentence was not meant to be derogatory. "And you," he continued, "should be signing up for the next jounin exam."

At his suggestion, Hinata's countenance faltered. She shook her head strongly. "No."

Neji turned his head to look directly at her, surprised at both her answer, and the force with which it was delivered. "May I ask why not?"

Hinata nodded. "I do not yet believe I have the support I would need to challenge my father for leadership of the clan; nor do I feel prepared to fight him. Should I become jounin, I am sure he has all sorts of plans for me. Plans which I suspect I will want no part in. As long as I remain a chuunin, it is likely he shall not bother to take notice of me. If he thinks I am weak, as I always was, he shall, hopefully, not prepare to defend his position as clan head."

"You do not think he will step down when you announce your intention to lead the clan?"

At this, Hinata shrugged. "He may, he may not. Kurenai-sensei once said that while it is fine for a ninja to hope for the best, they must also plan for the worst."

"You should still be a jounin Hinata-san."

The pale-eyed woman shook her head. "Many people should be many things, Neji-nisan."

O-O-O

Hisashi Hisoka stood in front of a weapons case, looking at the various wares held behind the glass. He had all the supplies he and Naruto would need for the next while, but he had plenty of cash. They never really spent what they earned on anything but the necessities they were unable to field strip off their opponents, and he missed the weapons he had owned before he had fled his ruined village.

The owner of the store came over to him. "Is there something I can help you with, young man?" His tone clearly suggested that he did not believe there was; and that he did not want the youth loitering in his shop.

Hisashi pointed towards the case, and answered. He took care to speak slowly, making sure he chose the proper words. "The arm guards. How much?"

The merchant's eyes shot up in surprise momentarily. Maybe there was more to this punk than met the eye. Unlocking the case, he withdrew the item, allowing Hisashi to examine them. "You have a good eye my son. These are of the highest quality. Try them on and you'll see. They're a bargain, even at twenty thousand yen."

"Done." The weapon smith nearly coughed at that. Did this kid really not know how to haggle? "But give the shuko too."

"Those are another twelve thousand yen."

"No." Hisashi shook his head. "I mean, if I pay twenty thousand, they are included."

The merchant did some quick calculations in his head. Even if he threw in the shuko for free, it was still a better deal than he usually got. "Done."

O-O-O

Hisashi moved quickly down the trail. Had he realized how long he had been, he would not have stopped to purchase his new weapons. Naruto would be deciding whether or not to tear the village apart looking for him by now. Rounding a corner, he found four men standing across the trail.

"We were starting to wonder if you were going to show up." The man in the center left spoke, trying his best to look intimidating as he did so.

"Can I help you?" Hisashi tried his best to keep his tone casual, although his body was beginning to grow tense. He did not want a conflict.

"Give us your money, and all of your purchases, and we'll let you go." The leader pulled out his katana, the other three men following suit.

"Ah, bandits." The boy's tone seemed happy as he came to this realization. "I thought you were ninja. Go away."

"Why should we you little punk?"

Hisashi's eyes narrowed. "Because I said so." He dropped his packages, forming seals. Before the bandits could react, he flung his right hand forwards. Lightning shot out of his fingers; a small strike hitting each of his opponents. All four of them were flung backwards, dazed.

Stooping, Hisashi gathered up his packages before addressing the fallen criminals. "Be happy I'm tired." In a flash, he was gone, moving at top speed down the trail.

O-O-O

AUTHORS NOTES- PLEASE READ THESE

1) Well, only one more chapter to go, and then Naruto comes home to deliver a warning. But for what? Stay tuned.

2) I would like to sincerely apologize to everyone for taking so very long to update. I would like to offer some excuses, that, while I don't think are enough, do explain it somewhat.

First, I had exams for university. Immediately afterwards, I began working forty hours a week (and I still do). I play in a competitive Frisbee league, which takes up three nights a week. Finally, as an active member of a Canadian political party, I had a hell of a lot to do, as it looked like we were headed to the polls. Oh yeah, I have also had to adjust to my work load at home getting a lot bigger as one member of the family has moved out.

I have everything organized now, and I can only hope that I will be able to update sooner. I believe that I will.

3) I apologize for not answering questions sent to me. If you have a question for me, put your e-mail address in your review, and I promise I will answer within a couple of days. Otherwise, as I am very scatterbrained I will probably forget.