Yo, I'm back with chapter 11. This one kicked my butt, so I hope y'all enjoy.

REVIEWS FEED THE MUSE!

The sun was just reaching the center of the sky, when the tired foursome arrived at the gates of The Leaf Village.

Kakashi strode ahead of the group to meet Izumo and Kotetsu at the gate shack.

"Kakashi, great to have you back man!" Izumo called out excitedly. The two gate guards had always considered the cycloptic jounin as a sort of idol throughout their careers, so they were always happy to get to speak with him.

Kakashi waved back before speaking in a friendly, if slightly tense, tone. "Hey guys, good to see you as well." He pulled out his ID card to complete the formal check in before adding "Coming with me are Jiraiya and Tsunade of the Sannin and Shizune Kato. Both Tsunade and Shizune have been gone for quite some time so they don't have up to date IDs, I'm vouching for their identity under orders of Lord Third. As far as getting Jiraiya to check in,"-

He looked back at the toad sannin just in time to catch Tsunade slamming a fist to his head bringing the older man to the ground before he jumped back up laughing in delight. The Hatake Patriarch sighed, embarrassed of his travel mates, before continuing. "-you're unfortunately on your own with that one."

Kotetsu whistled before exclaiming "Wow Senpai, you sure are lucky to travel with legends like the Sannin." Before he could say more Izumo bumped his shoulder and spoke slyly while pointing at Shizune. As the jounin followed the chunin's finger he was greeted to the sight of the medical specialist with a hand over her mouth as she giggled at the sannin's antics.

"Come on Kotetsu, I think we both know the real reason Senpai is lucky," he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively before finishing. "It's that cutie with the pig, Shizune right?" He finished glancing at where Kakashi had written her name.

Not wanting to waste anymore time and only half listening, Kakashi simply nodded in response with his signature eye smile, in place before bidding them farewell and hurrying back to the others. "Ok, we are good to go, let's head to the hospital." He turned expecting them to follow when Jiraiya called out to him.

"Wait Kakashi,-" The jounin stopped and turned around, confusion visible on his face. "We should head to Sarutobi Sensei and debrief about the Kumo team, he needs to know."

"But Naruto-" the jounin was cut off by the sannin.

"Naruto can wait a few hours," Jiraiya's firm tone cut through

When he saw the desperation in the younger man's visible eye his face softened and in a gentler tone he continued "I understand how you feel Kakashi it's not fair, but his condition won't change in a few hours any more than it did for the almost month we've been gone. Having kumo shinobi this close to the village undetected is more urgent especially with one of them escaping."

He wanted to argue, Kakashi wanted to rant and rave but he knew, he knew, that the older man was right. He was letting his emotions cloud his judgment. It wasn't fair, but the sage was right, the debrief was more time sensitive.

Just before the jounin could concede, all parties were surprised by the arrival of an ANBU operative. Long purple hair and her signature cat mask marked the new arrival as Kakashi's former subordinate Yugao.

"Senpai,-" she began addressing the former captain. "Lord Third requests that you and your companions meet him in Naruto's hospital room immediately for your mission debrief."

Kakashi couldn't help the warm smile that came over his face.

The third must have been using that crystal ball of his to help him out. A sudden burst of affection for the old Professor erupted in the jounin's heart. He could always count on Hiruzen Sarutobi.

When he looked back at Jiraiya he noticed that the sage had a small smile on his face as well before he looked at Kakashi and spoke.

"Well, I guess you were right kid, lead the way."

Kakashi nodded and the group plus an anbu dashed to the rooftops towards the hospital. The trip was a short one and after confirming with Yugao that Naruto hadn't been moved, Kakashi easily lead the group through the front doors of the maze-like hospital via the path he knew by heart, after a few minutes of walking they turned the last corner to reach his son's room he was greeted to the sight of the Hokage speaking with his pink haired, sometimes student, Sakura Haruno.

He saw the old man smiling kindly down at the eight year old and saying "I really am sorry to have cut today's visit short dear, but I'm sure you'll be thrilled with the reason." When she started to question he lifted a hand and continued "Now we don't have time to get into details right now, but if you turn round you may be able to just see for yourself, my dear." He finished with a warm smile at the end causing Sakura to look puzzled. When she eventually did turn and saw Kakashi and the small group behind him her emerald eyes widened almost comically before she suddenly ran forward and slammed into his midsection, surprising the jounin with a tight hug.

The sudden force pushed the air out of the silver haired man's lungs. He stared at the top of her pink hair for only a moment before he realized she was speaking.

"You found her, he's gonna be ok!" She looked up at him with a bright smile and watery eyes, before a relieved sob broke loose from her throat and the child once again buried her face into Kakashi's vest, occasionally shaking as she cried with relief.

The small voice nearly brought the Jounin to his knees. He had been so focused on his own worry and fear he had never considered Sakura's or anyone else's pain at Naruto's absence. People he cared about were hurting, just like he was and he had ignored them.

"I'm such an idiot." The thought came unbidden as he embraced the young girl in return, rubbing her back until she calmed down. It was then that he understood Hiruzen's comment earlier. He had said that "today's" visit had to be cut short. The girl must have been coming here everyday since he'd left. One look at Lord Third as much as confirmed his suspicions by the warm knowing smile on the older man's face, before he . "Miss Haruno, along with several other of Naruto's academy classmates have been keeping him company everyday since you left. Sakura and the young Nara and Akimichi heirs in particular have been hard at work making a schedule so that he was never alone whilst you were searching for Tsunade."

Once Sakura had calmed down she looked up at the jounin cheeks red with embarrassment, and made to stammer an apology for tackling him before Kakashi stopped her. He gave her a warm smile and kindly said "Thank you for looking after Naruto while I was gone."

As Tsunade stared at the strangely emotional interaction before her she couldn't help but wonder about the small girl crying into the midsection of Copy Ninja Kakashi. She was obviously a friend of the son, and she could wield chakra to some degree even if her reserves were miniscule. The Slug Princess couldn't remember any shinobi clans known for pink hair, and it wasn't exactly a common color. "Must be a civilian girl." The thought carried no disdain, just acknowledgement of the most likely truth. Tsunade had fought alongside many non-clan shinobi, hell Jiraiya's old student had no clan and he became the Fourth Hokage.

"So what miserable luck caused her to be caught up with Kakashi Hatake?" The unspoken question would have to go unanswered for now, as the girl suddenly stepped aside furiously rubbing her eyes, and trying not to look too pleased at the masked jounin's praise; allowing their small party to pass and enter the room.

As Kakashi walked into the small sick room he immediately noticed the changes that had taken place in his absence. While he had been keeping up his vigil the room had looked as bare and lifeless as the jounin had felt while there, but now the previously empty bedside table was covered in children's drawings and cards, all of which depicted different cartoon versions of his son most of the time surrounded by other cartoon children. He could recognize Shikamaru and Choji's handiwork almost immediately. Several of the highly sought after handmade baskets the Nara clan were known for sat throughout the room. Some empty and some still containing the few pieces of fruit that a certain young Akimichi hadn't yet eaten while he visited Naruto. There were massive bouquets on the windowsill showing tags from the Yamanaka flower shop, and if the jounin was correct the various good luck charms, and Evil Cleansing Tags around the room were sold in Mebuki Haruno's small shop.

The warmth in his heart grew even stronger. So many people loved his son, so many people loved his jinchuriki son. Granted the kids didn't know but the parents did, and that spoke volumes. People in his son's position very rarely had a favorable position in their villages. The only reason Kushina had such a relatively easy life was that her status as a bijuu container was a closely guarded secret.

Naruto wasn't universally accepted by the adults by any means; there were still many a day when Kakashi would alert half the anbu in the city with a sudden spike of chakra because someone had slighted his son. But this room, this pure expression of affection and love was something that most jinchuriki would never know in their lifetime. This room meant that they were one step closer to fulfilling Minato Sensei's dying wish, that his son would be accepted as a hero.

This room also meant that he had been a self absorbed ass-hat for the several weeks he had moped around this place turning away most visitors.

Surprisingly the first to actually speak aloud once they followed The Third Hokage into the room was Shizune.

"Awww, Kakashi he's adorable." she sighed quietly as if she were afraid she was going to wake him up. Tsunade chuckled to herself as she thought it ironic that her student was whispering when the whole point of them being here was to wake the boy up.

Sarutobi Sensei chuckled as well across the room and she could see the look of pride on Kakashi's face before he could hide it.

The Third then addressed the two women.

"Tsunade and Shizune dear, I have missed you both terribly, but I hope you'll forgive me if we suspend pleasantries and catching up for now and focus on the tasks at hand." He coughed into his hand as Tsunade nodded once and Shizune let out a slightly too loud "Of course Hokage-Sama!"

He smiled "Excellent, Tsunade all of Naruto's information is in that folder over there if you would like to familiarize yourself with this case, and Shizune if you would be so kind as to assist Jiraiya and Kakashi with the mission debrief.

This time both women nodded before Tsunade split off to review the boys charts.

Her delicate brow furrowed just a bit as she reviewed the folder. One word stood out from the rest: jinchuriki. "Kakashi and Jiraiya left that small detail out." She shook her head to clear it, before redoubling her focus on the boy's charts. Vowing to question their motives after she had reunited father and son. According to the paperwork the boy was perfectly healthy. They had run every test known to medical shinobi but nothing so far had yielded any results.

Well they had run every test known to most medical shinobi.

She placed a single hand on the crown of his head and closed her eyes. Immediately the other occupants in the room, including a certain pink haired eight year old who was hiding behind the door, felt the last Senju molding and then pouring chakra out of her hand into the blond boy on the bed.

Unbeknownst to all but herself and Shizune, the slug sannin was controlling every single molecule of energy that she sent into naruto, sending strands down every vein through his arteries and across each nerve ending and finally tracing the paths of his chakra coils, getting an entire mental diagnostic form every part of his body at the same time.

Even though she was now expecting it, she couldn't stop the sharp intake of breath when she felt It.

An all consuming torrent of fierce chakra sat at the center of his being. It burned bright and hot and she felt the corrosive heat devour any chakra she sent near it. She suddenly took a closer look at the boy she was working on. Bright blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and whisker marks on the cheeks. Whisker marks that only come from being the offspring of the Nine Tails host. She thought of the faint lines her father used to cover with genjutsu when he left the house, a gift his mother, Mito Uzumaki, had given him at birth.

There was no doubt that this was Kushina's son, and if he was that woman's child then he could only have one father. Those eyes and that hair were the spitting image of Minato.

She turned her eyes to Sakumo's brat where he watched with his sharingan exposed, no doubt attempting to follow what she was doing. "So Kakashi adopted his dead Sensei's son. I had assumed he had just bedded a Yamanaka at a young age and been unlucky.." Her opinion of the younger man rose once again despite herself.

As she turned her attention back to the issue at hand, she found the problem with only a few minutes of searching.

"Damn I'm good."

In his chakra coils just around the base of his neck there was a nearly invisible film of concentrated poisonous bijuu chakra coating the pathway. Though faint, it was tainting every bit of chakra that passed through his neck to and from the brain. The chakra film was being maintained by the steady stream of the fox's chakra that The Fourth Hokage's seal allowed to seep through.

The problem was that the fox's chakra was supposed to safely be absorbed into the boy's system, not congregate all in one spot. Her assumption was that due to the severity of the boy's initial injuries along with the reported large outburst of Bijuu chakra felt the night he was attacked, the Nine Tails managed to control some of that excess chakra to set a trap of sorts.

Based on the location of the concentration and the surrounding tenketsu, her best guess is that the tainted chakra entering his brain is causing him to be under something almost like a genjutsu. Her best guess as to why the doctor's couldn't detect it was because unlike most genjutsu it wasn't caused by a foreign chakra entering the system. The chakra causing it wasn't foreign at all, it had been with him since birth.

She explained her theory to the others unaware of a hidden eavesdropper.

Kurama snorted as he listened to the human's theory. While he was mildly impressed that she was half right he couldn't help but be insulted that she had accused HIM, THE MIGHTY NINE TAILED DEMON FOX, of needing to set a mere genjutsu trap on a worthless human. While the chakra was his he hadn't put it there, that bastard had.

-FLASHBACK TO UCHIHA MASSACRE-

Naruto scowled furiously and felt that foreign warmth begin to sear through his veins again, before it was stopped courtesy of the masked man palming his face and slamming his head into the tree three times in quick succession.

"Ah ah ah, none of that now, the fox has already had enough play time tonight."

He then grabbed the boy's bloodied chin, tilted his head so that their eyes met, and just like that night eight years ago he looked into the red irises of the nine tailed fox and forced it into submission.

-END FLASHBACK-

When he had suppressed the foxes power he had also subtly manipulated it to create the dream world the woman detected. Honestly, the fox had doubted that anyone would ever be able to catch it, but this woman seemed to be more perceptive than the other clueless monkeys. The illusion that the boy was trapped in was far stronger than any of the normal jutsu that wretched sharingan could produce thanks to the potency of his chakra. The genjutsu had been a clever plan, for a human, but Kurama would have never lowered himself to that level. When he took over this host and broke the seal it would be by his pure overwhelming might so he could see the hopelessness in the boy's eyes, and not from some cheap trick.

Back in the real world Tsunade was fielding questions.

Kakashi had moved to stand beside his son and was stroking his hair while the blonde woman spoke. After she finished he had only one question.

"Can you fix him?"

She nodded in response, "I can definitely displace the chakra which should allow him to wake up naturally, but there is something you need to know before I do." She was now looking directly at Kakashi.

"If my theory is right then your boy has been trapped in a genjutsu designed by the nine tailed fox for almost two months. Who knows what he will have seen when he wakes up. Physically he should be perfectly fine, but mentally,-" she paused, unsure of how to phrase the next part.

"There could be some damage." Kakashi supplied the answer for her in a hollow voice, his hand never slowing in its soft stroking. She only nodded in response.

Standing silently in the hallway with her ear against the door, Sakura was beginning to think she maybe shouldn't have stuck around. She was surprised she hadn't been caught yet, even though she was doing her best to suppress her chakra like Kakashi Sensei had taught her and Naruto all those months ago.

All she had wanted to do was be there to see her best friend when he woke up, but now they were talking about the blonde being hurt by the monster who fought the fourth Hokage. Iruka Sensei had taught them all about the Nine Tails last year at the academy, so she knew that if that beast had hurt Naruto then he was lucky to be alive.

"But wait, Sensei said that the Ninetails was killed by the Fourth Hokage before he died eight years ago, so how did it attack Naruto?"

Her train of thought was derailed by a sudden voice from behind her.

"Excuse me young lady, but I believe Sarutobi Sensei told you it was time to go"

She nearly jumped out of her skin as she turned and found herself needing to look up to see the serious face of the old white haired man that had been with Kakashi Sensei and the blonde doctor.

He glared down at her disapprovingly before continuing in a harsh voice. "You have no idea what you've done girl. Disobeying an order from the Hokage is considered treason and punishable by death." The already fair skinned girl went even paler at the man's words.

Satisfied at her reaction he continued, "At your age they probably won't kill you, but they'll definitely ban you from being a shinobi, the village has no use for a ninja that can't even follow a simple order. Shinobi who don't follow orders are trash."

Internally Jiraiya frowned, He hated to be so harsh but this girl mightve just uncovered an S class secret that could put both Naruto and herself in danger. He needed to scare her enough that she'd never speak of what she heard, and he was just about to do just that she stared up at him with sharp eyes so hard that they seemed to be etched from the emeralds with which they shared their color.

"Shinobi who break the rules are trash, but shinobi who abandon their friends are worse than trash!"

Jiraiya was speechless at the ferocity in the girl's voice as she continued."Naruto is my friend and any time I've been hurt, or was feeling sad he would be there trying to make me feel better." At this point her voice broke and began to shake. "And now he's the one who's hurt so it's my turn to be there for him. I just wanna make sure he's gonna be ok, I don't wanna be trash." By the end of her tirade her voice was small but resolute. Sakura Haruno was standing her ground.

The white haired sannin just stared at the small girl who had just made him feel like an absolute jack-ass in shock before a small smile crept onto his face.

"Wow, this kid is eight and already has stronger friendships than I do."

His smile seemed to confuse the pink haired girl as she watched the man pull a complete personality turn. "So am I in trouble or not?"

"That little saying you had there, where'd you hear it?" The abrupt question brought the child back to reality, and she answered immediately."Kakashi Sensei taught it to me during our first training session. He said it was the motto of the Hatake Clan."

The man's smile grew wider and he let out a small chuckle before reaching out and ruffling the girl's pink locs. "Ha! You're alright kid." At this point Sakura wasn't sure what was going on, but she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be executed so she just rolled with it. When the toad sage finally withdrew his massive hand her hair was a mess, but he seemed to be in a much better mood.

"Look kid, I won't turn you in but you need to understand something. If you heard anything that was said in that room since that door shut, it would be in the best interest of both you and your buddy in there if you forgot it. If you were to repeat the wrong thing to the wrong person it could mean the loss of a lot of lives, including your own." He paused for a moment to allow his words to sink in before being interrupted..

"I would never put Naruto in danger!"

The girl's sharp outburst was waved away as Jiraiya continued "Yeah yeah, I know you wouldn't, but you still can't stay here." Before she could protest again the old man held up a hand to silence her.

"You aren't the only one who missed the kid right?" A single nod was all he received in response, so he continued. "Then don't you think they also deserve to know that he's gonna be ok?" This statement seemed to quell the girl's rebellion completely as she nodded again this time embarrassedly.

Jiraiya nodded with a smile. "That's why I need you to go and tell them the good news. Gather a group so he has some friendly faces to see after he wakes up. I'm sure by the time you finish he should be awake enough for visitors. You may not be able to stay long, but y'all should be able to at least peek in and say hello."

Now the girl sported a determined smile and nodded once before turning to take off down the hall. Her pace ground to a halt as the sannin called out after her one last time.

"Don't expect a free pass next time kid, everybody gets one. The rest you gotta pay for." While his tone was friendly the message itself caused the young academy student to stumble slightly as she started walking at a much more sedate pace until she was out of sight.

Jiraiya chuckled once more after the pink haired girl left before disappearing in a puff of smoke, revealing himself to be a shadow clone.

Back in Naruto's room Tsunade was getting ready to remove the chakra while the others waited anxiously. A slight smile was the toad sannin's only outward reaction to his clone's dismissal and the info that came with it. He exchanged a brief glance with Hiruzen to let him know the matter had been handled before both men turned their attention to the buxom blonde who was placing both of her hands on either side of the unconscious child's neck.

Slowly Tsunade began to feed her chakra into Naruto, and using the same perfect control she demonstrated earlier she began to surround the harmful chakra with her own. Initially the poisonous energy held strong underneath her attack, but then Tsunade decided to show the fox exactly what it meant to be one of the Sannin. With a single twitch she sent an unyielding wave of chakra over the toxic layer, coating the foxes life force with her own and breaking it down bit by bit, almost like a medicine tablet dissolving in water. Several times her assault was stalled as the corrosive chakra resisted but each time she managed to rally and push forward once again. When all of the fox's chakra had been broken down, she carefully pulled the remainder of her own chakra back out of the boy. The whole process took only seven minutes but the last Senju was still left feeling as if she'd been sparring with Sarutobi Sensei for a few hours.

As she caught her breath she realized that they were lucky that only such a small amount of the foxes chakra had been used, any more and she may not have been able to break it down by herself. "Bijuu chakra is on a whole other level." She couldn't help but marvel at the fact that such a small boy was the only thing keeping such tremendous power in check.

She was brought from her musing by Kakashi's nervous voice. "Was that it? Is it over?"

She gave the man a small tired smile and nodded "Yes the procedure was a success he should wake up any minute."

The relief in the room was palpable as The anxious father let out the breath he hadn';t realized he was holding. "Thank you Tsunade-Sama, I can never repay you for this!" The return of the honorific did not go unnoticed by the slug sannin, but she just waved off the praise and sat in the small chair next to the bed to catch her breath. Three minutes passed, with not a sound being made until finally, for the first time in two months Naruto Hatake began to stir. Kakashi was by his side so quickly the other occupants thought he'd teleported.

The first thing Naruto saw when he opened his eyes was the teary visage of his father beaming down at him through his mask.

With his voice rusty from disuse the small blonde managed to croak out a single word.

"D-dad?"

In an instant Kakashi had lifted the eight year old from the bed and was holding him close to his chest, crying tears of joy for the return of his son. "It's me buddy, I've got you. Everything is gonna be ok now, I promise."

Naruto relished the brief contact, hoping to remember the sensation while he waited for the voice to fade and the darkness to return. He waited for the Uchiha girl's inevitable death and the accusing lifeless stare that followed. He waited for the booming laughter to surround him and drag him back into the murky depths of his own fear. He waited, but those things never came. Instead all he felt was the warmth of his dad's chest and the slight wetness of the older man's tears as they dripped onto his head. He inhaled and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity the blonde didn't smell fresh blood.

A hushed conversation behind him brought the young boy out of his thoughts. He whipped his head around and found that he had to push his bangs out of his eyes to see. Choosing to ignore the growth momentarily he focused his attention on the two men conversing with a blonde woman. He easily recognized Sarutobi Jiji, but the other two took him a moment before he could recall where he had seen them. Suddenly it clicked, they were in the Bingo book that his dad had made him memorize. Jiraiya and Tsunade of the Sannin, pages 254, and 255 respectively.

"What are two of the Legendary Trio doing here?"

The confused question stopped the conversation in its tracks as the three speakers turned their attention to the now conscious Naruto. The first to speak was the huge white haired guy that the boy now recognized as the famous Toad Sage. "That's a bit of a long story, but I'm sure your dad will be more than happy to fill you in later."

Tsunade didn't speak at all at first, instead Naruto felt as if she were weighing him with her eyes as her honey colored orbs bore into his own blue. Eventually she broke her silence. "How are you feeling? Are you experiencing any tiredness, strange sounds, or smells that don't belong in a hospital?"

Naruto slowly shook his head in the negative "Tsunade Senju, world renowned Medical Expert, and granddaughter of the First Hokage. She must have been the one who fixed whatever that masked man did to me."

"MASKED MAN!"

As if his thought had flipped a switch all the memories from right before he passed out came roaring back. Hateful red eyes seemed to scorch his own with their intensity. He could feel every broken bone, and taste the metallic wetness of blood in his mouth. He fought the murderous hands that held him down, and tried to scream but was unsure if he even made a sound. Then as quickly as it began he felt a slight pressure at the base of his neck and was unconscious once again.

Kakashi felt his heart stop as Naruto all of a sudden started thrashing around in his arms after answering Tsunade's question. There was no warning, one moment the boy was perfectly fine and then he was twisting and screaming as if he were on fire. If Shizune hadn't rushed over and used her chakra to sedate him he wouldn't have known what to do.

As it was, he gently placed his now peaceful son back onto his hospital bed and slowly sank to the floor next to where the boy lay. His legs had failed him, there was nothing in this world that could make both as weak or as strong as Naruto did. Even though he was out of his coma his son was still trapped. He felt helpless, worth less than nothing in the face of yet another problem that he didn't know how to fix. He felt a firm hand come to rest on his shoulder and he looked up to see the Lord Third standing next to him with a sad smile on his face.

"Come now Kakashi, Tsunade said that he did far better than she thought he would have. This sort of thing is going to take time to deal with, but we will deal with it." He turned to the Slug Princess and addressed her. "Do you think one of the Yamanaka Mind Walkers would be able to help him?"

The buxom blonde crossed her arms beneath her chest and considered for a moment before nodding. "An experienced Yamanaka would definitely be his best bet, but whoever it is will run the rather serious risk of running into his tenant."

Sarutobi smiled despite her warning "I think I know just the expert, I'll have him get in contact with both you and Kakashi to set up a treatment schedule." When he turned his attention back to the agonized father at his feet, he was surprised to find that young Shizune was already standing in front of the seated man with her hand outstretched. The masked jounin just stared at the appendage for a moment before reaching out and grasping it and allowing the smaller woman to pull him to his feet. Once he straightened Kakashi looked down and saw the brunette opening her mouth to speak.

"You've come too far to give up yet, and the hard part is over. He's out of the coma, and now all you've gotta do is be there to support him as he recovers." A warm smile came to rest on her lips as she finished "Something so simple should be nothing for Copy Ninja Kakashi, right?"

Kakashi nodded once, unable to speak yet due to the torrent of emotions swirling inside him. She was right, Naruto needed him so he can't fall apart yet. What kind of father would he be if he gave up now. He looked into the shorter woman's kind eyes, and felt that hope from earlier reignite in his chest. He wiped his lone visible eye to clear any tears and gave the poison user a grateful look before turning to Tsunade.

"Tell me what I need to do."

AUTHOR'S NOTE!

Before anyone starts freaking out I will reiterate. No pairings have been decided at this point. Kakashi will have his pairing long before Naruto does and just because characters are friends as kids does not man they will date when older. I'm not ruling anything out, but I am saying don't read too much into anything when it comes to children's interactions, because even though they are significantly more mature than children from the real world due to in-universe circumstances does not mean that any of them are worried about loooooove.

I really struggled with this one, but now that I've finally got Naruto conscious again the plot can progress. So for everyone who has been dragging thru the last few chapters, you can look forward to the action ramping back up. Y'all are awesome, see ya next time.