Kise felt herself snap awake just as quickly as she fell asleep. She didn't know how long she had been sleeping for, but it couldn't have been very long since she could still hear the loud pitter patter of rain outside the cave as the pitch blackness of the night obscured her vision completely. The 10 year olds girl's golden eyes shined with confusion as she let go of Naruto's hand, taking control of the limp Kazekage puppet and smothering what was left of the barely burning fire, making the cavern fall into a shell of black nothingness. Kise felt her nose crunch up as she caught whiff of a familiar sensation, metal. The girl could practically feel an abundant amount of metal as she felt the sensation slowly make it's way closer to her, as she commanded her puppet and took a protective stance in front of Naruto.

Her heartbeat was pounding hard against her ribcage, threatening to snap her ribs in half as she tried to smell out what was coming after her. The room fell silent, and much to her surprise the heavy rainfall also seemed to start to slow down and fade away into the night sky like it had never even happened. Kise narrowed her eyes suspiciously at hearing the rain dissipate, turning her body slightly making sure not to make any noise. Looking out just past the cave entrance, and just like she thought, her suspicions were correct.

"I can still see the rain." she thought to herself.

Kise let the Kazekage hover behind her as she raised her arm upwards, rolling up one of her long sleeves revealing a small seal that she had put on her wrist, the kanji for 'protector' becoming visible to the naked eye as she got ready to channel her chakra in case anything happened. She silently thanked Sasori-sensei for teaching her the basics of fuinjutsu since it had been a major help in her travels for these last five months. She wasn't close to a master at the art, even calling her competent in fuinjutsu was a compliment for her. She only really knew how to make simple storage scrolls and preservation scrolls. But since she didn't have Sasori with her anymore she had to resort to learning from several complex fuinjutsu scrolls that she had stolen from various towns and villages just to get with her teachings. Thinking about it she now knew why most shinobi didn't even bother to learn fuinjutsu, it was damn difficult, it had taken her over four months just to get down the basics to implant a sealing array onto her body, and even then it had taken her longer to just get her penmanship good enough to not make the seal blow itself up accidentally.

Kise kept her defensive stance up as she scooted back deeper into the darkness. The smell of steel was starting to make itself more known and before Kise could even see what was happening, she felt her arms get grabbed as her body forcefully got pulled to the ground. Kise hit the ground with a loud thud and she winced from the unexpected pain as she felt something grip tightly around her wrists and push her deeper into the cold stone floor.

"Target captured, good work."

Kise heard the feminie mature voice and tried to tilt her head to see who was talking but as soon as she did, she felt her head get pushed deeper into the stone. Kise growled as she peaked over to see a set of almost familiar blue eyes stare back at her, she could barely make out the flowing red hair of her captor as she felt someone then grab her by her hair and lift her head upwards. Kise adjusted her eyesight to see a young man staring back at her, his emotionless black eyes made her slightly uncomfortable as she watched him raise one of his delicate eyebrows.

"She's just a kid."

The tone of voice matched how his eyes looked, her words were just as empty as he dropped her head back onto the floor. Kise growled louder as she hit the stone again, this time she tried to resist the grip that was constriting her. Kise felt the girl's grip tightened around her and she was glad her face was pressed into the floor, because if it wasn't they would be able to see her smirk widening by the second.

"Sai search this cave, Narumi make sure you-"

"You guys really shouldn't underestimate me."

Kise said smugly, her grin widening as she glanced over to see the tall woman, who Kise assumed was their leader, looking down at her with an unamused expression. Kise fought back a wince as she felt her arms bend a way they weren't supposed too but she kept her confident grin on her face. Kise watched as the tall woman got closer to her, blood red eyes looking back at Kise darkly.

"I wouldn't be too cocky kid, we can kill you at any moment."

"I'd like to see you try."

Just then a loud scream echoed through the dark cave, Kurenai and Narumi snapped their heads over to see Sai clutching his leg painfully. Blood gushed out of his wound as several kunai tore through the pouch on his leg and punctured through his pale skin. Thanks to their surprise Kise felt the girl's grip on her hands loosen, it had given her just enough time to force her way out of the grip with a spin kick catching Narumi off guard as the foot impacted her face and sent her tumbling towards Sai. Kurenai felt her eyes widened as she brought her forearm up to block the same kick that had just sent Narumi flying away. The red-eyed beauty didn't even have time to comprehend her surprise at the young girl slammed her palm against the floor, spinning again as a loud poof echoed in the cave, and once again, Kurenai was caught completely by surprise.

She had to bend herself backwards as a small puppet materialized from Kise's wrist aiming a blade to Kurenai's jugular. Kurenai narrowly dodged the attack but reacted quickly and with a swift swipe of her leg she attacked the girl's ankles. Kise jumped over the kick and felt her eyes widen as the red headed girl from earlier bounced at her, slamming her fists across Kise's face and sending flying back as her body smashed against the back of the wall. Kise grimaced in pain as she felt her body peel itself away from the stone and fall to the floor, she landed on her feet and she quickly masked her fear into a look of hard steel and glared over at Kurenai.

Narumi, after the successful hit on Kise, called out to Sai and ran over to him. Sai flinched as he Narumi got to him, wincing as he pulled out the last kunai in his leg with a groan. His leg felt like it was on fire as he pushed his palm onto his wound trying to stop the excessive bleeding. It seemed the young girl knew what she was doing when she attacked him, he still wasn't even sure how she did it, but she managed to slice an artery on his leg with his own kunai and the blood refused to stop spilling from his leg. Kurenai watched with half concern as Narumi was torn between fighting the young girl, or helping Sai. Kurenai clicked her tongue in her mouth in annoyance, Sai was indeed losing a lot of blood but he shouldn't be in any danger, if worse came to worst then she would buy the two of them enough time to escape. The raven haired lady matched Kise's glare as they stared at one another, Kurenai was masking her surprise at how nimble the young girl seemed to be. She was strong, much stronger than she had anticipated and couldn't figure out how she managed to attack Sai while held captive.

Kise felt her glare falter as she caught sight of the glowing Konoha headband proudly across Kurenai's forehead. Kurenai watched as Kise's eyes glazed over for a split second, but it was just enough time for Kurenai. The genjutsu mistress leaped forward as she formed a singular hand seal. Kise was caught off guard by Kurenai's sheer speed and barely had time to roll out of harm's way from a large fireball that sizzled it's way past Kise. Kise, after dodging, pulled her arm back making Kurenai's body freeze slightly, her ears perked up as she stopped her trek towards Kise and jumped high into the air. Jumping over the puppet from earlier as it's mouth was unhinged and a large sized blade became visible and tried to slice her in half. Kise groaned at seeing Kurenai dodge, and with a small finger flick the blade shot out of the puppets mouth making Kurenai widened her eyes.

Kise grinned as Kurenai's scream rang through the cave as the sharp blade pierced through the raven's skin. Kureani's eyes went lifeless as she fell to the ground with a thud as blood leaked from the new hole in her chest. The grin vanished off of Kise's face as the body she had thought she killed poofed away in a cloud of black smoke. Kise coughed loudly as the smoke glided over her body and fell into her lungs.

"Fire Style: Burning Ash."

Kise felt her eyes go wide as a small spark ignited within the cave as the smoke swamped itself around her and exploded in a large ball of fire. Kurenai landed back onto the floor and had to shield her eyes from the large gust of wind that had picked up from her combined jutsu's making her bandage dress flutter from the wind. The intense glow from the flames engulfed the cave forcing all three team Kurenai members to squint their eyes as a bright orange light radiated off her jutsu and glimmered off the perfectly smooth stone walls and reflected back at them.

After a moment the smoke begane to clear as her jutsu finally died down. Kurenai let out a sigh of relief as she started to walk back over to her two teammates, there was absolutely no way someone could have been able to survive that jutsu. There was enough gunpowder and chakra in that jutsu that even if she managed to kawarimi away, she couldn't have been to get very far and would have been stuck within the blast radius regardless. Walking up to Sai she was about to ask if he was okay when she saw that he was already unconscious, no doubt from blood loss as his body looked even paler than usual. His palms were stained red with the sanguine liquid as Narumi had wrapped her coat tightly around his leg in an attempt to stop the blood flow. It seemed to work as he was still alive if the soft breathing of his chest was anything to go by. Kureani sighed again, making a mental note to apologize to the boy for such a horrible day. Looking back over Narumi she opened her mouth to speak.

"Kurenai look-"

Kurenai closed her mouth as another small explosion rocked the cave. Kurenai held her balance as she snapped her head back over to where the deceased girl should be, her eyebrows lifted in pure disbelief as she watched the smoke finally clear completely. Revealing a large sphere of an unknown black substance right in the center of the room. Kurenai and Narumi both watched in wonder as the sphere then started to break, several small cracks began to spiderweb its way upwards until finally meeting at a singular point, until it finally shattered. Breaking off into small chunks as they fell to the ground, the black material looked like it had begane to lose its shape as it fell and materialized into a fine gain the second it touched the floor.

Kurenai felt her eyes go wide as yet another pierce broke off revealing the enclosed body of Kise within the plack sphere. Kise was breathing heavily as her golden eyes seemed to turn copper for a moment from anger. She winced as she peaked over at the particular bad burn she now had on her shoulder, she could still see the smoke rising from the wound and was lucky that she managed to gather enough if the iron sand around her, if she was a second to late she would have no doubt been burnt to a crisp. Kise glowerd darkly as the rest of her iron sand fell to the ground and floated behind her, Kurenai looked astonished for multiple reasons. She wasn't expecting the girl to actually live through that attack, and second, she had never seen such an odd type of jutsu before.

Narumi had similar thoughts as she stood confidently next to Kurenai as they stared off at the young girl, her chakra seemed to be going wild and was having a hard time controlling it as the sand around her started to pick up even more.

"Get in close, i've been working on a new jutsu and it should be enough to get past whatever that black stuff is." Narumi whispered over to Kurenai, cracking her knuckles slightly as she wiped her face of any emotion. Kurenai just nodded as they split apart from one another, rushing at Kise from both directions.

Kise's scowl deeped, she had enough of this. Without even a hand movement both Konoha shinobi's had to stop their attack as a loud clicking sound bounced off the walls. Neither were prepared as a tall silhouette hovered over Kise threateningly. Deadly golden eyes that matched Kise's perfectly looked over at them as the same black substance floated freely from its mouth. Without a word or warning, Kise snapped her fingers at her side as the puppet raised its arms forward. His brown wood turning into a deep shade of black as a sudden flash of light engulfed the cave once again. Narumi and Kurenai were forced to jump back to dodge whatever Kise had done. After a few seconds the ground beneath them began to rumble, making all three girls in the room struggle to keep their balance.

Looking ahead of them a large they saw that their way was now blocked by a small wall of Kise's iron sand that embedded itself deep into the stone floor unmoving. The Kazekage puppet didn't stop there however as it swiped the sand across the room making the rumble grow even more restless. Both Konoha shinobi had to shield their eyes and jump away as large rocks started to fall from the ceiling in a feeble attempt to crush them. Each rock that hit the floor sent a tremor through the ground as the earth shook under their feet as they all witnessed the cave start to collapse in on itself. Kurenai acted quickly, grabbing the injured body of Sai as she shunshined out of a rocks way as it hit the ground with a loud bang, causing a puff of wind to blow itself into her face. Narumi did the same as she appeared next to Kurenai, taking Sai into her arms as she felt something wet drop onto her face. Snapping her head upwards she took a hesitant step back in shock, her eyes grew wider than they ever have before as she felt her face become gradually more soaked.

"S-she...she cut the cave in half."

Kurenai barely made out what Narumi had said as she too looked absolutely baffled at what had just happened. The cave, like Narumi had said, was now cleanly cut in half separating them from Kise as the rain poured harder than ever from the dark evening sky. Kurenai was at a loss for words as another large boulder this time fell behind the imposing figure of the young girl. Feeling the cold rain fall onto her body helped ease her growing distress as at the outrageous turn of events. Kise just looked at Kurenai as her heart thundered in her chest, she had used up most her chakra doing the little stunt and she could feel exhaustion poking at every cell in her body. Kise struggled to stay conscious but she felt herself waver as another large rock landed next to her as another large flurry of air rushed past her making her fall to her knees as a loud flapping sound carried itself into the wind and over to Kurenai.

Kurenai felt her whole body freeze as the sound reached her ears as her eyes were directed to the sound of the noise, and she felt her whole body turn cold. She felt her eyes moisten up and she wasn't sure if it was because of her or the rain. She took a hesitant step forward, her body moving all on its own as her hand found itself tightly gripped around her mouth, Narumi looked perplexed at Kurenai as she furiously wiped at her face to stagithen her vision out from the rain as she called out to her friend.

Kurenai didn't hear Narumi as she took another small step forward, but she was afraid if she got any closer then everything would just disappear into a dream. Her heart felt like it was starting to stitch itself back together the longer her eyes lingered past Kise. It started to beat faster, pumping more blood into her body as her legs became wobbly as she struggled to keep herself from just giving in and collapsing into the floor.

"N-naruto-kun."

The words played across her mouth in a serene careless whisper, floating into the air and letting the wind do as it pleases. As the name danced on her lips she felt the empty void that had formed into her heart start to stitch itself up, and she gasped at the feeling. The familiar sense of longing she had felt ever since she had woken up from her dream all the way back in Yukigakure had reawakened in her. He was there, he was right in front of her. She could see his hair getting slick with the rain as he had his eyes closed, ignorant to the world around him. Kurenai's hand clutched itself around her heart, her nails digging into her bandage trying desperately to grab hold of her aching heart.

"Naruto-kun!"

This time Kurenai yelled his name out making both Kise and Narumi widen their eyes in shock. Kureani felt a pang of electricity shoot down her spine as she spoke his name again, a large smile formed on her face as she took off running towards the boy. Kise seemed to have broken out of her stupor the quickest as her head snapped over into Naruto's direction. Her heart dropped in her chest as a dreadful expression flashed through her golden eyes as she saw the rain pelt down on his brother's unconscious body. Kise rushed over to his side in speeds that would make the Yondaime Hokage jealous and wrapped his head back up in the driest blanket she could find, she cursed herself for being so stupid at loosingf control of her power, she had put his life even more at risk and she wanted to scream at herself for it.

Kise heard the jounin call her brother's name again and she turned and glared eveily at her, making Kurenai stop dead in her tracks. Kurenai looked surprised for a moment and she attempted to get closer as a spiral or iron sand shot out from Kise's hip and launched itself at Kurenai, the pointed edge stopping mere centimeters from the jounins skull. Wordlessly, Kise scowled as the Kazekage used it's large body to shield Naruto from the rain and wrapped its long wooden arms around him, his color receding back to the normal worsen brown color.

Kurenai didn't look phased in the slightest as the attack almost killed her as she looked pleadingly over towards Kise, making the young girl's glare falter momentarily.

"Naruto-kun, Naruto-kun it's me Kurenai are you okay?!"

Kise felt her heart stop beating for a fraction of a second as the familiar name reached her ears. Time seemed to slow down as Kise felt the gears start to turn in her head as Kurenai yelled again, trying to grab Naruto's attention over the loud rainfall.

This was Kurenai, the woman who Naruto always talked about, the woman who's name he would sometimes mutter as he fell asleep. The woman who was the sole reason why he abandoned Konoha, in order to protect her. Kise lowered her hand as the iron sand fell to the ground mixing in the with the rain, Kurenai didn't waste any time and the second the jutsu was dropped she resumed her run towards Naruto. Kurenai yelped as she slipped on a piece of stone that was uneven and stumbled her way to the boy who she so desperately wanted to see as she felt herself skid across the ground, ignoring the pain she felt in her knees as she did so. Once she finally got face to face with Naruto her smile grew so wide Kise was almost thrown for a loop, Kurenai instantly reached out as she touched his golden hair with the tip of her fingers, it was just as soft as she remembered it being.

Kurenai called his name again, but her face slowly started to fall as the corner of her lips turned into a frown. Ignoring the rain falling down her cheeks she reached out and cupped his cheek like she had done so many times before, he didn't react to her touch, he didn't even look like he was aware of what was happening around him.

Kise looked at the scene and wasn't sure what to think about it, deep down she was feeling a bitter sense of anxiousness as she watched the older woman act so familiar with her brother. Kise wasn't even sure why she had even decided to let Kurenai come and see Naruto, the more logical option was to just pick him up and flee as fast as possible, and they probably would have escaped. She cursed herself again, this was all thanks to her losing control of that damned puppet.

"What happened to him?"

Kise looked tiredly over to Kurenai as the older woman rubbed his scarred cheek. The girl frowned as she rubbed her shoulder, sucking on her teeth as she forgot all about the stinging burn that she had gotten courtesy of Kurenai. Golden eyes watched as Kurenai's eyes traced over his fragile body in fear of breaking it. She couldn't see how banged up he was under the thick layer of blankets, but Kurenai could tell there was something wrong with him. His breathing was uneven, almost nonexistent as her pinky draped over his cheek and could faintly feel his pulse over his unusually pale complexion. Kise stayed silent for a few minutes as she tried to muster up the courage to explain what had happened on that fateful day. Should she even tell the truth? It would have been easier to lie about what happened since she didn't even understand what had happened to him in the first place. But this was Kurenai, and that made the decision much harder for Kise.

"Maybe, we should talk about this back at the hotel. So we can get out of the rain."

Kise looked over at the unknown voice to see the girl who had kicked her earlier in their fight. Her red hair was matted to her forehead and her pony tail barely looked like it was holding on, her blue eyes glanced over to Naruto with a mixture of relief and unease. That confused Kise for a moment but she threw the information away for a later time. Kurenai didn't seem to hear Narumi as she kept her eyes locked onto Naruto's unmoving form, but Kise slowly nodded her head in agreement.

"Yeah good idea." Kise said awkwardly.

Narumi gave a curt nod as she pursed her lips as she adjusted the limp body of Sai over her shoulders. After a few minutes of persuasion they managed to grab Kurenai away from his body as Kise's puppet picked up the unconscious blonde. Kurenai had offered to hold Naruto but Kise swiftly declined, and instead just wrapped him up deeper in the blankets letting the Kazekage shield him even further from the rain. Kurenai stood close to the puppet, her eyes still trained on the boy in apparent worry while Narumi looked at the exhausted kid in front of her with a mixture of emotions. Kise noticed the way Narumi was looking at her and she felt a small pang of unease push itself into her veins. Narumi, put on a reassuring smile and quietly apologized to the young girl.

"Sorry, but you must be Kise right?"

Kise looked at her in surprise and was ready to enter a fighting stance again until Narumi shook her head, her eyes flashing apologetic again, "I didn't mean to scare you, in fact you're the one who scared us today." Narumi said trying to break the tension as she pointed her thumb to the cave that was cleanly in half. Kise blushed slightly as she felt her body start to relax again as Narumi continued, her smile going sad as she glanced between Kise and Naruto. Looking at her ex-brother again after a long year and a half was nothing short of strange for her. She didn't know what she should be feeling, she felt happy, but the happiness was tainted with an underlying amount of guilt.

"Thank you, for looking after him."

It was the only thing Narumi could think of to say at the moment. Everything else that she wanted to say just wouldn't come out, and she was afraid that it never would again. It was like she was experiencing what it was like for Naruto to view his family. A mixture of joy and sadness? Was there any joy to begin with?

Kise grew confused at the sad smile that appeared over the redheads face as her words moved Kise slightly as her blush seemed to just deepen in the night. Looking up again into her eyes Kise froze, finally piercing together why those cerulean eyes looked so familiar to her as they shined with an unshed emotion that she had seen over her year with her brother.

"You're Narumi aren't you? His sister?"

Narumi blinked in surprise at that, she hadn't expected the young girl to actually know who she was. She wasn't even expecting Naruto to even talk about them outside of the village, masking her shock she dumbly nodded her head at Kise. Kise of course knew all about the treatment Nareuto had to go through regarding his family, he had shared almost everything with Kise, as she did the same with him. Her first instinct was to halt the girl from getting any closer to Naruto, but the neutral and sad look in her eyes had stopped Kise's train of thought instantly. Her eyes looked almost identical to Naruto's, both being windows into their souls as it portrayed exactly what they were feeling. So Kise said the only thing that she could think of.

"...Happy birthday."

"Okay he should be okay now, the bleeding finally stopped so he should be waking up soon."

Kise said as she wiped a heavy amount of sweat from her brow and let out a tired sigh. They had decided to take Kise back to their rented hotel room for the night to escape from the rain and to talk in peace. Once they had gotten to the room the Kazekage puppet gently placed Naruto's body on one of the twin beds and before Kise could even do anything, Kurenai was already getting to work in drying his body off and had ordered for the softest and warmest blankets that the hotel had to offer to be delivered to their room. Kise was kinda annoyed at this, but she let it slide this one time. Once Naruto was fully wrapped up again Kise had offered to heal up Sai as best as she could as an apology for hurting him and they were happy to agree.

The Konoha shinobi were shocked to see Kise then reveal another puppet from a soaked scroll on her back as the wooden nurse got to work patching up Sai's wounded leg. As she was doing this the girls had all changed into their dryest clothes they had on them. Narumi was now wearing a spare pair of black shinobi pants with a black shirt to match. She took her hair of the destroyed ponytail and let it hang freely as she took a seat next to Sai, watching curiously as the puppet seemingly acted on it's own free will. She made a mental note of this for later.

Kurenai had also changed out of her drenched bandage battle dress, deciding to rid the garb altogether for a comfortable pair of plain black biker shorts and a plain long crimson shirt that matched her eyes perfectly. She decided to take off her headband and left it to dry in the bathroom as a few strands of her long black hair started to fall into her eyes thanks to their dampness. After she had picked up all the warm blankets she wrapped Naruto up until she felt his body start to become warm. Nodding to herself in satisfaction at her work she took a seat directly next to the sleeping blonde boy, raising his head slightly to rest it in the center of her lap as her hands absentmindedly ran through his still drying spiky hair.

Kise groaned as her shoulders slumped tiredly. She was starting to heavily feel the exhaustion set in as she commanded the nurse puppet to fix her burned shoulder. Kurenai had apologized for the injury but Kise just waved it off. It didn't matter since she had tried to kill them with just as much ruthlessness., if not more. After she could move her shoulder again she wrapped a bandage over the now peeling portion of skin and frowned as she saw Kurenai cradling Naruto. Pushing back her annoyance she decided to just take a seat on the floor as she rested her back against the wall. The three girls stayed in a relative quiet silence as they sat apart from one another. Neither really knowing how to start a conversation with each other, or how to even begin. Kise was sure they had a lot of questions and frankly, she was still debating on how much she was willing to share with them.

The silence was beginning to grow a bit awkward and they all breathed out a sigh of relief as a groan echoed in the room and all eyes turned to see Sai raise himself from the bed. He was rubbing his head as he reached up to the sleep away from his eyes with a yawn. Narumi and Kurenai watched with amusement as Sai blinked a few times to adjust his eyesight as his black orbs focused on the little girl kneeling on the floor looking at him with disinterest, the large and intimidating puppet sitting next to her looking at him with the same expression.

It took Sai a few seconds to come to terms with what he was seeing, rubbing his eyes again to see if his mind was playing tricks on him. Blinking a few more times he noticed that the girl and puppet were still there and was not in fact in a dream. Keeping his face stoic he looked back over to his team, growing more confused as he noticed a bundle huddled up in Kurenai's lap. Narumi had a tough time stifling her laughter, she was biting her knuckles trying to keep her laughter hidden. She ultimately failed and bursted out laughing the second Sai looked over at her, his face muddled with ignorance and confusion and it was just too much for the lone Namikaze daughter to handle.

"Y-you should have seen the look on your face! It was priceless, I think I'm finally starting to see what Shizuka sees in you." she said in between her laughter as she wiped a tear that fell from one of her blue eyes as she teased her friend. Her face almost exploded again as Sai's pale cheeks turned a light shade of pink as he frowned.

"What do you mean sees in me…?"

Narumi fell into another roar of laughter making Sai turn even redder. He scowled as he tried to hide the embarrassment that leaked its way into his expression. He found it hard however as she saw Kurenai's shoulders trembling slightly as she tried to fight back her own giggles.

Kise watched with strange amusement as the scene played out, her attention mainly focused on the red-head who was currently laughing so hard that multiple tears were falling from her eyes. She acted nothing like Kise would have imagined her too, Naruto had never really told her how his family had acted and she only knew about Narumi since he had fought her the day he abandoned Konoha. And that was all she knew about his family and she never wanted to pry into his family life since she knew it was a sore subject for him and there wasn't any need to anymore. The two of them were the only family they needed.

"A-anyway Bandage-san w-who is that? A-and why is she here?" Sai said, cursing himself for stuttering as he pointed his thumb at the kneeling girl effectively gaining her attention. As Sai looked to the person Kurenai was holding he just realized that he didn't feel any pain in his leg. It was a little sore, but other than that it felt good as new. He raised an eyebrow as he bent it back and forth. He felt Narumi throw her arm around his shoulder as she motioned her head to Kise, who just waved awkwardly as Sai turned to her.

"You can thank her for that. Both for injuring you, and healing you." Narumi said. She was in an unusually good mood and was quite amused at the situation as she giggled again.

"I see, then thank you?" Sai said, unsure if he should thank the girl who was responsible for his injury in the first place. His ego was also a little stained since he still didn't even know how he got hurt anyway.

"Anyway not that he's awake I would like to get to the matter at hand, revolving him." Kurenai said as all eyes turned towards her. Kurenai moved her hand slightly and Sai almost jumped out of the little bed in shock as he saw the familiar head of blonde hair he had missed for almost two years. Sai reached out and pointed shakily, his eyes snapping up to see Kurenai's eyes shining with joy.

"B-blondie-kun?" H-how?"

"Kise-san here had been traveling with him since he had defected. We just happened to have our missions get crossed by a random twist of fate." Narumi said as she removed her arm from Sai and kicked her feet onto the bed to get more comfortable. Sai moved her feet away from him as he scooted away from the red head, still a little upset at how embarrassed she made him as he leaned forward to get a closer look at his friend. The shock soon faded as he noticed the lack of response coming from his old teammate. Kurenai pushed his blonde hair out of his eyes and Sai was a little confused at how comfortable Kurenai seemed to be holding Naruto.

"Is something wrong with Blondie-kun?"

This time all sets of eyes turned towards Kise who was fidgeting with the ugly green carpet beneath her as she wanted to now disappear away from the conversation. Kise had expected Sai to be a little more shocked about seeing Naruto but even he could sense that something was up with the boy. Kise wrapped her arms around her legs as she brought them closer to her chest as she hid behind them. Wanting to hide her frown as her mind flashed back to the day she wished she could forget.

"W-well you see, Naru-nii has been in a coma for the past five months."

Kise said making the room go deathly silent as the words left her mouth. Narumi and Sai both felt their mouths fall open in pure disbelief as their body froze. Kurenai was faring much worse as it had felt like the wind had just been knocked out of her. Her red eyes snapped down to Naruto in pure worry as her hand grabbed his own pale one and squeezed tightly.

"How?"

"I...I really don't know." Kise responded honestly making the assortment of eyes narrow themselves at her in suspicion. "We were hiding out in Lightning Country when we were attacked by some missing nin and when I found Naru-nii, he was already unconscious. He's been like this ever since." Kise said, wiping a stray tear that escaped her eye as she got to her feet and made her way over to Naruto. All the eyes in the room tracked her every movement as she asked politely for Kurenai to place Naruto onto the bed fully.

Kurenai was hesitant at first, not wanting to let go of him after so long but eventually complied, removing him from her lap. Kise thanked her quietly as she undid the blankets around him revealing his plain black shirt. Lifting it up Kise heard several gasps of shock echo in the room as they all looked at the once again blood soaked bandages wrapped around the right side of his chest. Kurenai furiously asked what had happened to him but Kise just stayed silent as she carefully took the soaked bandages off his body and cleaned his wound like she had done every day and night for months. Once the wound was fully clean she presented it to the group of Konoha shinobi,

"This is how I found him, this scar was all that I had to go off of."

Kurenai was the first to react as she gasped again, her mouth finding it gripped by one of her hands as she felt her eyes start to glisten for Naruto. She reached out and gently traced over his new scar with the very tip of her fingers. It had looked like someone had ripped the flash clean off his body and it had tore at Kurenai's heart to even look at the damage on his skin. Naruto had been through so much and continues to do so, she blamed herself for this. If only he hadn't got close to her then he wouldn't have fled the village. He wouldn't have gone through with it for her sake.

Sai had to look away from the damage on his skin, after so long of not seeing his friend it had hurt to see him in such a vulnerable and weak state. He couldn't help but feel saddened as his fists clenched around himself tightly. He just wished he would have done more for the blonde, whatever he could have to stop life from picking on Naruto.

Narumi herself fought back gasping in shock as her eyes traced the damage, it was the worst scar she had ever seen. Even her rasengan didn't do this much damage to the human body and she could only wonder what Naruto had to go through to walk away with such a battle wound. Her heart went out for Naruto, it pained her greatly as Narumi cursed at herself. Wishing in another life that she and her family could have a redo and treat Naruto with the amount of love and respect that he deserved.

Kise nodded solemnly as she watched the differing emotions flash across the audience's face as they all ended up at the same place, sadness. She looked down at her brother again and frowned. "I managed to escape with Naru-nii and we have been traveling like this for five months. I was hoping he would be awake by now but that hasn't been the case. I tried healing him the best I could and I couldn't see a doctor or medical nin since well, the bounty and all." Kise explained, her voice growing much more tense towards the end of the sentence and was surprised to see the nods of acknowledgement she received from Narumi and Sai. Kurenai didn't respond as her hand reached up and found her fingers once again wrapped up in Naruto's hair.

"Why not come back to Konoha with us? We can have our own medical team look after him and finally see what's wrong with him." Kurenai said, her eyes looking at the young girl with a surplus amount of hope that Kise actually had to take a step back. Kise was ready to straight out decline but before words could form Narumi had cut her off, nodding her head along with Kurenai.

"Yeah, I can even convince tou-san to have Tsunade-baachan be his personal medic. We can get him back to health in no time." Narumi said, while she didn't like the idea of bringing Naruto back to the village because of their family issues, his life was clearly in danger and the last thing she had wanted was for him to die because of her guilt, he had been through enough.

Kise took another step back as she looked between the hopeful eyes of Kurenai and the confident eyes of Narumi. Sai seemed to agree as he hummed in agreement with both girls making Kise curse her luck, but the longer she looked between the two sets of eyes the more time she had to think about her decision.

They were planning to head to Konoha anyway for their mission. If she accepted their offer then they didn't need to worry about drawing suspicion to themselves or even sneaking into the protected village and they would basically be granted access to Konoha freely. No doubt that because Naruto was in fact injured and as Narumi said herself, that she could most likely convince their father to heal him under village protection. Since why wouldn't the Hokage want to offer assistance in any way possible to the son he had abandoned and then had come back mortally injured? He would kill at the opportunity and use this as a way to get back on his son's good side after the years of mistreatment.

Also coupled with the fact that she knew how much Naruto must have missed Kurenai and his old team. He talked about them just as much as he talked about Shisui and that was saying something. And what would stop them from just leaving again? Kise was confident once Naruto woke up and he wanted to leave, then they could leave with no problems.

But it also wasn't just the thought of meeting old friends that solidified it for Kise.

No, it was the idea of getting closer to the man they were going to Konoha for, Danzo Shimura. The very man they were off to kill to take revenge on Shisui himself. It was almost too good to be true and Kise had to take several deep breaths to try and calm down her erratic heart beats at her idea. It was the perfect plan, a near flawless entry to Konoha in order to find out any information she could about the village elder Danzo for Naruto. So he would have everything he needed once he finally woke up from his coma. Kise had to pinch herself to stop her from giving the biggest cheshire grin known to mankind. Kise put up a pensive expression on her face as she hesitantly nodded her head. Kise watched as Kurenai physically beamed at Kise as the young girl bowed gratefully, making sure her hair blocked out her golden eyes which glinted with excitement as her voice remained calm.

"Okay, we'll go back to Konoha with you."