"Normal speech"

'Normal thoughts'

"Demon/Summon speech"

'Demon/Inner Sakura/Summon thoughts'

Jutsu name

(author comment)

flashback/memory

~locations and transitions~

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 41: Fixing up the fallen

Sakura was making her way to the training field as she and Haku had a training session planned and she didn't want to be late. She thought about the progress she made ever since Haku had joined the village. She had improved in leaps and bounds thanks to him, but the one she was most thankful to was Naruto. During the Chunin exams, she had thought about where she was before Naruto had thrown the truth into her face. "I used to be so useless to everyone back then. Why did I become a shinobi in the first place?".

'Cha, we wasted so much time chasing Sasuke-san! What were we thinking!?'

Sakura had to sigh as she knew that she had no one to blame but herself for how she had acted to everyone but Sasuke. This had brought up another thought 'why would Naruto even care about what I did? He could have just let me stay the way I am and just leave me to die on a mission. From the way I acted, he should hate me and just leave me behind. But then again, I was on his team so maybe it was more on obligation than any real care.' she was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't even hear when someone was calling her until it was right next to her.

"Hey Forehead!"

Sakura jumped at the shout and turned her head to see that Ino was next to her. "what is it Pig?"

Ino put her hands on her hips as she sighed in exasperation "I was calling you for the last five minutes. You were so lost in thought that I was almost expecting you to run into that electric pole." she said as she pointed at the one that was a few feet behind them.

Sakura shook her head as she began to walk again "I was just thinking about some things."

Ino was now walking with Sakura on the pinkette's left "oh like what?"

"Just ….I was thinking how I did in the Chunin exams."

Ino thought about the Chunin exams as well and grimaced because of several things that happened during that time. She hated saying this but she spoke anyway "at least you were able to get a tie from your match. I couldn't even put up a fight in mine." she slumped a bit from thinking back to how terrible she did in her match against Shino.

Sakura patted Ino on the shoulder "you were just matched poorly. It's not your fault."

Ino felt a bit better, but than she remembered the other more impactful events that happened during the exams. She thought back to when she entered Naruto's mind, seeing what it was like inside and what Naruto looked like and the invasion, how during what she thought to be her last moments alive, how she and Hinata had told Naruto how they felt about him. She felt both scared about it and felt a bit of elation at seeing how important the boy was to her and Hinata. She came back to reality to continue speaking to Sakura "thanks Forehead. By the way, where are you going?"

Sakura smiled as she looked ahead "I am meeting with Haku for another training session. We agreed that we would always meet on Friday afternoon to train together."

Ino's eyes grew wide when she heard this but then gained a devilish knowing smirk. "So you and Haku-san will be all alone in a training field huh?"

Sakura looked at ino with a small bit of confusion in the way Ino was saying it

Ino continued on as she tapped her chin with her finger "just the two of you with no supervision and far away from anyone else. Sounds to me that you are planning something other than training."

Sakura blushed hard at what Ino was insinuating before she shouted in embarrassment "I-It's not like that! W-w-we are just going to practice my senbon throwing! there 's nothing going on between me and Haku!"

Ino looked at Sakura from the corner of her eye as she smiled "oh, only 'Haku' huh."

Sakura blushed as she realized that she said Haku's name without any honorific. She scrambled to think of something to counter and it came to her. She spoke out in a panicked rush to divert the embarrassment "you do the same thing with Naruto-san!"

Ino was slightly stunned and blushed a bit from this but she couldn't help but smile regardless. "That's true."

Sakura was expecting some sort of argument to show up but Ino just accepted what was said. She narrowed her eyes and got a closer look at Ino and she was able to notice something. Ino's cheeks….were dusted pink. 'Ino is blushing! Wait does she…!' She shook her head and looked sternly at Ino "Ino do you like Naruto-san?" she was expecting a rebuttal or a shout of "no way in hell!" but what she got was nothing like that.

Ino didn't even have to think about her answer and she saw no point in hiding this as she had accepted it along with Hinata "yes….I do." Ino kept walking as the news had stunned Sakura still

Sakura was looking at Ino, who was still walking, and was running her mind through what she had just heard. 'Ino...Ino Yamanaka…...likes…..Naruto-san!' She shook her head and began to run after Ino "hey, hold on!"

Ino stopped and looked back at Sakura as the pink-haired girl caught up

Sakura was looking Ino dead in the eyes "what do you mean you like him? When did you start to like him?"

Ino shrugged her shoulders as she was unsure of when "I'm not really sure when I really started to like him but I realized it during the exams." she began to walk again as she looked up at the sky with a smile "I realized that he was always there for me when I needed him. He made me feel better when I felt like crying, he always made me feel safe when I was around him, and every time I think about what my future could look like…..I can't even see it without Naruto there with me." '...and now I know that Hinata feels the same'

Sakura was now staring dumbly at Ino and was at the moment not paying attention to where she was going and as if the world was trying to make things funny, she walked into an electrical pole. "Ow."

Ino looked at Sakura and couldn't help but laugh.

Sakura glared at Ino while she rubbed her nose. 'I can't believe that Ino likes Naruto...but than again, I guess Naruto isn't such a bad guy to like.'

Ino finished laughing and looked down an alley in time to see something that caused her some concern. She ran down the alley, leaving Sakura.

Sakura chased after Ino as she didn't know what could cause Ino to look worried.

Ino made it to the end and ran after what she saw. What she saw was Naruto, but he was being dragged from the back of his jacket by a tall, white-haired man who was followed by two women "hey what did you do to Naruto!?"

Jiraiya looked at Ino and smirked as he recognized her as one of the girls that were after Naruto. He smirked at the girl before he looked forward again and continued to drag the unconscious Naruto "I didn't do a thing the gaki. He is like this because of the woman here." he said as he used his free hand to point his thumb behind him at Tsunade and Shizune

Ino glared at Tsunade but paused as she recognized the woman "you're Tsunade Senju! You are one of the three legendary Sanin!" she stood there in shock as Sakura had also walked up and ha heard who this was and was in the same shock as Ino

Tsunade smirked at the recognition. She would have said something but Shuizune had spoken to her

"My lady, we should catch up with Jiraiya-san and Naruto-kun. We still need to help the three that are in the hospital."

Tsunade sighed as she nodded "alright Shizune. Once we get that done we can go meet the old man."

Ino and Sakura began to walk with them as Sakura asked the question "who are you going to help in the hospital?"

Tsunade sighed as she hated it when she was asked questions like this "some people that the unconscious gaki in front of us wants me to help."

Ino remembered that Naruto was unconscious and moved to walk next to him.

Sakura looked to where Ino went and finally realized that Naruto was being dragged. She ran to catch up and looked down at Naruto "what happened to him?"

Jiraiya smirked as he answered "he asked for some help in his training but he bit off more than he could chew. Right now he is just sleeping it off. I would wake him up but it takes forever to do that so, here we are."

Ino thought about something for a bit before smiling "I can wake him up."

Jiraiya looked down at Ino with a quirked eyebrow "oh? You got a bowl of ramen that can get him out of this."

Ino shook her head "nope." she looked down at Naruto before cupping her hands next to her mouth and shouted "FREE RAMEN AT ICHIRAKU!"

Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya, and Sakura face faulted at this as they didn't believe that this would wake the boy up.

Naruto's ear twitched a bit before his eyes shot open, jumped onto his feet and brought his fist in the air "Six bowls of chicken Ramen and four bowls of Miso!"

Everyone but Ino, face faulted again as they couldn't believe that it worked

Ino smiled at how easy it was to wake Naruto up. All you had to do is mention free ramen and he would be at his feet and ready for anything "sorry Naruto, but there is no free ramen." she giggled at how Naruto was acting

Naruto looked to Ino and gave a deadpan glare "damn it Ino. why do you have to do that."

Ino just put her hands behind her back and began walking ahead "because it's the best way to wake you up."

Naruto moved to walk next to her, leaving the rest behind "that's mean. You using the food of the gods against me!"

Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Shizune just shook their heads as they followed behind

Sakura's jaw was on the ground as she could not believe that Ino was acting like this. Not once had she seen Ino act like this EVER. she rubbed her eyes to make sure that it was Ino and there she was. The same platinum blonde walking with the sunkissed blonde. "How did this happen?"

~Hospital, Kakashi's room~

Tsunade had her hand on Kakashi's forehead while she used medical jutsu to help his mind come from the coma-like state he was in.

Shizune was standing at the side with Tonton in her arms just watching.

Jiraya was standing next to Shizune with his arms crossed.

Naruto was on the opposite side of the bed from Tsunade but he was crouched down so only his hair and eyes were visible from the side of the bed. He was staring intently at Kakashi's face

Ino was standing next to him and was looking down at Naruto with her hands on her hips "what are you doing Naruto?"

Naruto didn't stop his gaze "I wanna know what's under the mask but I don't know if I should use this opportunity to remove it and see what's underneath."

Ino looked to Kakashi and she soon got curious about it as well. She may not have talked to Kakashi much but she wouldn't deny feeling a bit of curiosity in what was under the mask.

Naruto slowly brought his hand up and moving it closer to Kakashi's face. He was only an inch away from it when Tsunade removed her hand

"Done."

Kakashi opened his eyes, which caused Naruto to panic and jump back until he hit his head on the wall. "Ow"

Ino shook her head "that's what you get for doing something like that."

Kakashi looked around until his eyes landed on Tsunade "huh. Didn't think to see you back here."

Tsunade smirked "you can thank the gaki for that. But I can't believe that you would end up in such a state. What happened to the skill you had all those years ago."

"Sorry."

Jiraiya stepped forward as he looked at Kakashi "well now that you are conscious. We need to talk."

Kakashi nodded as he knew that they would need to discuss a few things.

~Hospital, Lee's room~

The group sans Jiraiya made their way to Lee's room.

Naruto was the one to open the door and was a little stunned to see who was in the room, he knew that Guy was there since Guy was Lee's teacher but the other person was a bit surprising "Karin-chan? What are you doing here?"

Karin was sitting in a chair as she was glaring at Lee until she heard Naruto. She turned her head to look at the group and smiled a bit "hey everyone. I'm just making sure that this idiot doesn't do anything that could make his injuries worse."

Lee was crying in his hospital bed as he was forced to stay there since the last time he tried to do pushups in his room, Karin had used some sort of chain jutsu to force him back into the bed. "Oh Karin-chan, how could I just let my flames of youth diminish when I should make them burn brighter!"

Guy was crying as well as he could not handle it as well "oh she doesn't know that value of our flames of youth my youthful student."

"You moron, if you do any kind of training when your body is like that then you could end up being a cripple and won't be able to make your 'flames of youth' burn at all!"

Naruto shivered as this was the first time that he head someone else say their catchphrase.

Tsunade didn't know what to make of this but from how the boy looked and the whole youth thing, she could see that Guy had made a mini clone of himself. She moved to stand next to the boy and channeled her chakra to her palm and began to examine his injuries, she grimaced at the extent of them. If she had to guess, whatever caused them was in the intention to either kill him or purposefully cripple him. "I'm not going to lie, your injuries are severe. It's amazing that you are still alive."

Everyone in the room grew grim. The way that the woman had said it makes it sound like she would not be able to do much for him.

Naruto could feel, fear, anxiety, and panic from Lee, Guy, and Karin. He spoke up "so can you heal him?"

Tsunade continued to examine the injuries before speaking "Honestly, the only way to fix him is through surgery. And it is a very risky procedure."

Everyone was now feeling dread as now they all thought that there was no hope for Lee

"However…" this caught everyone's attention "it would seem that some healing was done to the injuries and although it didn completely heal him, it did make it so they didn't get any worse. By this, I can give the percentage of success in the surgery: 73%."

Karin spoke up form here "that might be because of what I did."

Tsunade quirked an eyebrow at the girl "what did you do?"

"I can heal people by letting them bite me. When he was first injured I forced him to bite me while he was unconscious. And during my visits, I have been getting him to bite me again to see if we could improve his condition."

Lee blushed as he remembered the times that he bit down on her arm and the…..sounds...she made when he did.

Tsunade was interested in this type of healing and was very interested in what it could do. But right now she had a patient that needed tending "well thanks to that he has a very good chance at the surgery. I will still hold off on the surgery as I need to prepare for it but there is a good chance that you will be able to continue your shinobi career when you are fully healed."

Everyone was happy to hear that Lee would still be able to be a shinobi

Guy leapt to Lee ready to hug his student but he was stopped by a set of chains that were coming out of Karin's back

"No hugs!"

~Hospital, Sasuke's room~

Tsunade was using the same method that she used for Kakashi on Sasuke

Naruto was standing next to the door with ino and Shizune as they watched Tsunade heal Sasuke.

After a minute Sasuke opened his eyes and slowly got up into a sitting position as Tsunade stepped back.

Tsunade sighed as she spoke "next time don't go facing off with someone that is out of your league."

Naruto expected Sasuke to get angry at what she said but surprisingly he didn't feel any negative emotion form Sasuke. He thought that this was odd but he shrugged his shoulders as what Sasuke did was his own business.

The group chose now to head out, and they left Sasuke to be in his own room

As they were walking through the hall Tsunade looked to the kids "well, I did what was asked so I'm off to go meet the old goat."

Naruto smiled "thanks again Baa-chan!"

Tsunade grew a tick mark and hit Naruto in the head "don't call me that!"

Shizune sweatdropped at this and chuckled dryly. She then left with Tsunade and Tonton, heading to the Hokage tower.

Naruto was rubbing his head as he got up and was about to start walking but Ino had put a hand on his shoulder

"Naruto. We need to talk."

Naruto looked to her with some confusion in his eyes "about what?"

Ino took a deep breath and spoke "not just you and me, Hinata too. We need to talk about….us."

Naruto slumped a bit as he now understood what she was implying. They needed to talk about what they were going to do about how they felt about each other. They didn't really have the opportunity to all sit together and talk about it. He understood his own feelings for both of the girls and he knew that he would do whatever he could to keep them safe and make them happy but he was unsure about them and how they saw this whole situation. He nodded his head as he looked into her eyes "ok."

Ino nodded as well and they both left in order to find Hinata so the three of them can talk

End of chapter

Ok readers, before I bring up the usual things that I try and clear up, I have some news. A few days ago I, unfortunately, busted my dominant hand and won't be able to use it for a while. As you can guess this means that I won't be able to type up any of my stories. The only reason that this chapter is up is that I already had most of it done and it is short. Please note that I will still try to update my stories but with the use of only one hand, it will be a very slow process. Something that I will be doing constantly though will be going through early chapters and fix up some grammar errors since I don't need both hands for that. They will be marked in the end comments with a bold "Edit notice". Anyway, that's the news. If you haven't already, check out my other stories to read other stuff from me.

Another short chapter. But the story continues.

One thing popped into my mind when I was writing the interaction between Ino and Tsunade. They both have hair color that is almost the same. With this thought, I was thinking: what if Ino was Tsunade's daughter. It's a weird thought and one that I won't go into but it might be a good way or someone to write a story about it. I mean there are stories about Naruto being her kid so why not someone else. Ino works since she also has blonde hair. No real logic to it but then again it's fanfic. We can throw logic out the window

Naruto does not know the conversation that Ino and Hinata had so he doesn't know what they decided

The reason Sakura is not with them at the hospital is because she went off to train with Haku. also, her reaction to Ino liking Naruto is because no one ever really noticed this since there were no real signs of it. Hinata is fairly obvious but Ino was not

I am thinking of making the chakra chains an Uzumaki kekkei genkai. I haven't found anything about them saying that they were or weren't so I am making it as such since Kushina and Karin can use them.

Voting results:

Naruto 1rst: fox - 31 votes

Ino 1rst: Cats - 22 votes

Hinata 1rst: lion -16 votes

Naruto 2nd: wolf - 16 votes

Ino 2nd: butterfly - 8 votes

Hinata 2nd: Tiger - 10 votes

I think it's safe to say that Naruto's second summon will be foxes. Ino's cats seems a solid but it could still change and Hinata's "lions" is in the same boat. A new animal was added for Hinata, Otters. I think it's cool but since no one has voted for it I might give it to someone else. Maybe Hanabi. If you haven't voted yet I implore you to do so. Your vote matters :P. Link to the poll is on the top of my profile page

Please read favorite follow and review