Another chapter is here!

Enjoy!

Rock Lee slept silently as Sakura replaced the flowers in the vase on the cabinet next to him. The sedative the nurses gave him for the pain in his arm and leg had done its work. He had tried to put on a brave face through it, but she could tell it was bothering him and was glad he looked peaceful now.

"See you again, Lee," Sakura whispered before rising from her seat beneath the window that filled the room with warm sunlight. She left the room, closing the door behind her. It clicked shut softly and left her on the other side, out in the corridor of the hospital and under the artificial lights.

She sighed as she meandered towards the exit. Sakura hated seeing Lee like that, unable to do more for him after he risked his life to save her in the forest. Naruto and Sasuke had at least gotten through it without any permanent injuries, but considering how long Lee had been here….

Her head perked up when she noticed the door to Hinata's room was being opened. Out stepped Shino, who gave her a short nod. "Hinata wishes to see you."

She opened her mouth to ask how she knew that she was there, but then remembered Hinata's bloodline. It would be able to peer past most of the walls easily. "Okay."

Sakura entered the room when Shino stepped aside and found that Kiba was also there, with Akamaru perched on his head. The small puppy barked happily at her. As for Hinata, she was sitting up in her bed with a sheet covering her lower body. There was an apologetic smile on her face. "I'm sorry for calling for you when you were about to leave, Haruno-san."

"You can call me by my first name, Hinata." Sakura came to a stop on front of her bed. "How are you feeling? Did Naruto come by?"

"I feel much better now, and Naruto-kun brought this delicious stew to share with me," she said, blushing. Sakura got the feeling that there was more to it. Knowing him, he probably ended up doing something a couple would without realizing it—like spoon-feeding her. Hinata extended her hand with a card in it. "He left this behind when he came for his lunch-break. If you don't mind, could you return it to him?"

Sakura picked up the card and turned it around to see the name 'Kushina Uzumaki' on it. Considering the number and issue date, it was over a decade old. "This must be his mother's card."

Hinata nodded. "He showed it to me while telling me about his clan."

"She looks a lot like that Karin-girl he's been hanging around with." She noticed Hinata shift a bit at that. "Did he tell you about her?"

"He did… it's good that he has someone who will spend time with him while everyone is busy," Hinata claimed, looking down. Her fingers clenched her bed sheet. "Naruto-kun sounds like he's having fun with her. And he's happy to have someone he can call family. I'm glad for him."

Sakura couldn't help but wonder if she was truly happy about it. She obviously had a crush on the brave doofus, and back when she and Ino were fighting over Sasuke this sort of thing would have drove her up the wall. Then again, Hinata was always quiet and reserved when they were anything but that.

"I'll get it back to him," Sakura said. "You focus on getting better before his match. He'll want you there to cheer him on as well."

Hinata's expression became a bit more crestfallen at that. "I… really don't want them to fight, or hurt each other. Neji-nii-san is… he's not a bad person—"

"Like Hell he isn't!" Kiba abruptly yelled, causing her to flinch. "Don't defend what he did, Hinata!"

Hinata curled up, trembling as she brought her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "He's just… when I was younger, things happened and his father died because of me. He has every reason to be angry at me."

Kiba's answer to that was about the same as before. "Bullshit! That doesn't make it right. If Naruto doesn't kick his ass, I'll jump him in the street outside after the matches are over if I have to."

"Indeed," Shino agreed in a placid tone of voice, slightly adjusting his shades. "Regardless of his past, you did not warrant such hostility. He must be made to answer. Should Naruto not prevail then I will see to it myself, to ensure that he does not get away with it."

They were both protective of her in their own way, just like Naruto and Sasuke had been for Sakura at times. Because of that, Sakura could understand what she was feeling now by watching her gaze fall down to her lap. That feeling of self-loathing from needing them to defend you because you weren't able to help yourself was something that she knew all too well.

"Don't worry," Sakura told her gently, setting a hand on her shoulder. "Things will work out."

They were just words. But they seemed to put her at ease. Sakura left out hoping that she wouldn't be made a liar as she went back to Naruto's place. It was the most likely place to find him since she didn't know where he was training at, and she could just slip the card under his door if he wasn't there.

[0-0-0]

Karin wasn't exactly thrilled to see Naruto's pink-haired teammate standing at the bottom of the stairs leading to his apartment when she arrived. In her hands were two very large and heavy bags with fresh ingredients for her to cook with. Maybe she had gotten too much considering she was half-serious about calling the Anbu officer still watching her down to help.

"Is there something you want?" she asked, adjusting her grasp on the bags.

"I came to return something Naruto had left behind at the hospital." Sakura stepped forward and reached out for a bag. "Let me help you."

Far be it for Karin to argue. She handed the heaviest one over and started climbing the stairs. Sakura followed after her.

"This is a lot of food," she noted.

"Naruto doesn't have a lot of variety in his refrigerator," Karin said. And she wasn't exactly using most of the money she had left since the Inn room was paid up through the Exams. When they reached the door she pulled out Naruto's key. He had loaned it to her, leaving her somewhat worried about how easily he trusted her after only a week.

They filed into his home and Sakura seemed taken aback by how the number of books had multiplied since their successful foray in finding the masks. Naruto pretty much picked up anything that he felt would lead to another success, so most of her day was spent going through them. Karin stepped over them carefully and then made it into the kitchen to set her bag down.

When Sakura did so as well, Karin crossed her arms and asked, "What did he leave behind?"

Sakura reached for her pouch and pulled out a card. It was the one with Naruto's mother on it. "He left that visiting a friend in the hospital."

Karin placed it in her pocket and set her hands on her hips. "If that's all, you can leave now."

Sakura scowled at the dismissal. "Are you really that angry with me? You're not even trying to mask it."

"Yes." Karin stated bluntly. "The way Naruto just brushed that hit off tells me that you do that sort of thing often enough he's been conditioned into accepting it. That tells me all I need to know about you."

"I'm trying to be a better friend and teammate to him," Sakura claimed. "And you don't have the right to judge me when you just came into his life. You're making assumptions based on one thing when I've been his teammate for months now."

"You still need to leave," Karin said.

Sakura refused. "I'm staying until Naruto gets back. I have to talk to him about something else from his hospital visit. Besides, you might be part of his clan but he just met you and you're from a foreign village. Letting you stay in his home alone could cause problems."

Karin glared at Sakura through her glasses for a moment. Then she huffed. It wasn't like she could force her out while she was a guest of the village. And there was nothing to be gained by forcing Naruto to decide between the two of them when he returned. He was already busy enough training as is.

It'd be petty and now wasn't the time for that. "If you're going to stay then make yourself useful. Help make dinner by cutting vegetables."

[0-0-0]

Naruto was a bit tired, his clothes still weighed down by the water he had been made to soak in as he fell into the lake he had trained on. So he welcomed the scent of freshly-cooked food coming from his home, secretly happy that Karin had obviously decided to cook again. He was, however, understandably confused when he found Sakura there as well.

"Naruto, you're back?" she asked, wiping her eyes with her forearms. There was a knife in her hand as she peeled what looked to be an onion. "Why do you look drenched?"

"I was supposed to practice Water-Walking for the next stage of my training." Naruto scratched the back of his head. "What are you doing here, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura brushed her hands clean with a towel and then walked over to speak to him. "You left your mother's card with Hinata. She told me to bring it back and I just so happened to run into your clanswoman on the way in. Now I'm helping with making dinner since I didn't have anything better to do while you were training."

He fished through his pockets in search of the card, surprised at his own carelessness. "I really did leave it."

Karin pulled out the card from her pocket. "You should be more careful with the things you care about, Naruto. Don't let them out of your sight."

"Yeah, I got it." He took the card back and turned to Sakura with a bright smile on his face. "Thanks for bringing it back to me."

"It wasn't a problem," Sakura said.

"Didn't you have something else you wanted to talk to him about?" Karin asked in a barbed tone, keeping her eyes on the boiling pot. "That is why you stayed, isn't it?"

Sakura looked over her shoulder at Karin and scowled before turning back to Naruto. "It's about your match with Neji. Hinata doesn't want you to hurt him too badly, or for you to get hurt."

"I can't let what he did slide," Naruto said. "Even if I could, I still want to become a Chuunin in order to become Hokage. That means I have to beat him, and I don't think he's going to go down without a fight."

Despite his anger when he made the vow on her blood, he was fully aware of how dangerous Neji was. He wasn't underestimating him, but he was intent on beating him. Short of one of them giving up, someone was going to get hurt. And Naruto never gave up.

"Naruto, beating him in Chuunin Exams doesn't guarantee that you'll become one," Sakura pointed out. "Besides, he's a Hyuuga. If you get close to him, he can shut you down. You saw what he did to Hinata and they practice the same style."

"I just need to learn some new techniques and I'll cream him," Naruto stated. "Once I get past this exercise, I'll ask Gama-sensei for some cool ones I can use."

"You're thinking the wrong way," Karin said as she turned off the stove, getting their attention. "Chuunin don't just have higher levels of chakra or more techniques at their disposal. They have to use sound tactics to ensure their mission is complete with as few sacrifices as possible, and that's what the examiners will be looking for. Don't focus on how to beat him into submission through sheer force, but instead how to beat him in a way that allows you to walk away without being harmed. If you can do that with the basics at your disposal alone, you're almost assured a promotion even if you lose your other matches."

"…She has a good point," Sakura agreed, somewhat hesitantly. "Your basics are called that for a reason, and you probably waste a lot of chakra in performing them because you have so much that you don't bother regulating it. Remember, you still have to get through the other matches too and you can't do that if you waste all of your chakra fighting him."

"You might have a point there," he admitted.

"You said you were doing the Water-Walking exercise, right?" Karin waited until he nodded before continuing. "That exercise is good for control, so it's probably why he gave it to you to do. If you can show me a place with a large enough body of water, I'll show you how it's done after we've finished eating. Once that's mastered, we can take time to work on a strategy."

"The sounds awesome, but weren't you still searching for stuff on our clan in those books?" he asked. "Can you handle all of that?"

"I can probably help with that," Sakura offered. "I'm good at research, and it sounds interesting enough."

"That'd be great," Naruto said. "Thanks."

"For now, change your clothes and wash-up for dinner." Karin turned to Sakura. "And you're welcomed to stay too. This time I made more than enough."

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed in suspicion. "Why the change of heart?"

"Mostly pragmatic reasons," she confessed. "You have the same level of access to the library that Naruto does, but from what he's told me during some of our talks you're better suited to finding books that have more substance than simple history books. Plus, even I have to admit that trying to organize a plan for Naruto's match on top of everything else would be too much for me to do on my own."

"At least you're honest." Sakura said. "I think I will join you. Hinata did mention what you made before was decent."

Naruto watched the exchange between the girls with some confusion, feeling as though there was some underlying meaning in their words he didn't have the context for. He decided that, since it seemed stable enough, to just do as Karin said and went to the bathroom. There he changed his clothes and washed up before enjoying dinner with the pair.

Night had fallen by the time the food had settled and Sakura left for home. Naruto brought Karin to one of the training grounds with a small lake that wasn't in use. "I was practicing here before. Is this okay?"

"It'll do fine." She crouched down and slipped out of her sandals and socks before dipping a toe in the water. It made her shiver a bit. "Now watch me, Naruto."

Karin stood on the water barefooted with no problem at, not like him. Whereas his attempt had left the water unstable with bubbles frothing beneath him, hers was stable enough that there weren't even any obvious ripples. She extended her hand for him to take just over the edge of the water.

"Grab my hand and place one foot into the water," she told him. When he did, Karin slipped her foot beneath where his was so that it sank just beneath the surface by a few centimeters with his weight. There was no discomfort on her part as she leveled it with more chakra. "Okay, go ahead and start releasing your chakra like you would the Tree-Climbing exercise, but keep letting it out."

Naruto did, releasing the chakra through the tenketsu under his foot. It began to offset the water beneath him and pushed off against her foot until it breached the surface.

"A little lower, Naruto," she told him. "You shouldn't disturb the water so much when doing this. That's a sign you're using too much chakra."

"Okay." He tapered the flow a bit more and felt the layer between him and the water thinning.

"There." She slipped her foot back to the surface in front of his. "Remember that feeling and do the same for your other foot."

Naruto stepped forward as she took a step back and went slightly off-balance until he adjusted. "I got it."

"Don't get too excited," Karin warned. "Standing and walking at a lot more difficult than you think." As if to prove the point, she kicked gently off the water with her front foot and slid back several feet before coming to a stop, as though she skated across the surface. "Try to reach me."

He stepped forward and found it becoming harder to adjust with each step as the surface tension changed with his weight shifting of the water. When he was partway there, he almost stumbled back into the water and risked getting his clothes wet again. Soft fingers caught him before he could fall.

"Not so easy, is it?" She skated around him, almost as though she was gliding across the surface. "The water's surface is fluid, constantly moving around. It's a windless night and the surface is still, but you're still struggling. Now imagine trying to cross a river or the ocean."

Naruto imagined that the river alone would sweep him up easily. The ocean would be merciless, even if he had the chakra to cross it. Still, it probably would have been useful in Wave. "How are you skating on it?"

"Lots of practice," she told him. "Like you, I don't know a lot of techniques or have much combat experience, but I do have my basics down to near-perfection." She pointed to the end of the lake. "Do you think you'll be able to make it to the other side of the lake while we're here?"

He shook his head. "Nmm… this is going to take some getting used to."

"That's fine." Karin skated forward and slipped her fingers between his so they were interwoven. Then she pulled him close. He noticed that she had a nice scent and her body was warm. "I'll help you get it. Just stay close to me until you're almost out of chakra and follow my lead."

Naruto did and she led him along every step, almost as if they were dancing under the moon that was reflected beneath their feet.