Title: Night raid on Konoha

Rating: G

Pairing / Characters: Kurenai, Asuma, Iruka, the genin, Kakashi and Pakkun, Naruto

Word Count: 803 words

Warnings: Nothing

Summary: The jounin and genin try to find Naruto

A/N: holds head headache… headache…

Kurenai heard the eagle's cry in the silence, and she blinked. 'Naruto injured? It seems quite serious…'

Asuma ran a hand through his hair. 'This whole night has been quite serious, Kurenai. As Shikamaru would say, the whole thing's become troublesome.'

Kurenai smiled. 'And he'd be right. We're done here, why don't we try and find him?'

Asuma nodded. 'All right. Split up?'

He heard the faint laughter in Kurenai's tone. 'I'll find you, Asuma.'

A grin quirked his lips. 'I'm sure you will.'

Iruka leaned against the wall, trying to steady himself, his face losing its colour.

'Iruka-sensei, what's wrong?'

Iruka lifted his head to see Shikamaru standing before him.

'Shikamaru – Naruto has been seriously injured, and Kakashi can't find him anywhere,' Iruka revealed, his voice shaking slightly. 'ANBU members and the jounins have been asked to look for him, but I'm not sure they'll know where to start…'

Shikamaru swallowed. 'How serious is serious?'

'I don't know,' Iruka admitted.

Shikamaru didn't say anything more, but turned back to the caves. Iruka blinked at his retreating figure.

'Shikamaru, where are you going?'

Shikamaru glanced back over his shoulder. 'To find him, where else? I don't abandon my friends.'

'You have orders – '

'Iruka-sensei – there are more than enough chuunin and jounin here, and most of our enemies have been killed already. Besides, finding a wounded leaf shinobi takes precedence in my mind.'

Iruka shook his head, but was inwardly thankful that Naruto's friends were the type to disobey a Hokage's direct order.

'Ino, wake Sakura up,' Shikamaru ordered.

Ino and Hinata exchanged puzzled looks, the former glancing up at him. 'She needs her rest, Shikamaru.'

'Her team mate needs her more,' Shikamaru told her. 'Naruto's been wounded – Iruka-sensei just told me. Tsunade-sama has ANBU members and jounin looking for him, we're going to help them.'

Ino was already shaking Sakura's shoulder. 'What makes you think we'll find him if they can't?'

'Because we're friends, and we're a team, that's why. Get her up, I'll find Neji and the others.'

'Ok.'

Shikamaru went back the way he'd come, not looking back to make sure that Ino was following his directions.

Kiba yawned, idly stroking Akamaru, who lay asleep in his arms. 'That was fun,' he muttered sarcastically.

'At least it's over,' Shino remarked.

'Yeah.'

A figure loomed out of the darkness, and both boys reached for weapons, until Shino recognized the odd shape.

'Gai-sensei?'

'Ah, Shino, Kiba, I see you're both all right. Good, start heading back to Hokage Mountain – everyone is gathering there.'

Gai withheld the information on Naruto, not wanting to alarm the two of them.

Kiba yawned again, wider than before.

'Are you coming back with us, Gai-sensei?' he asked.

Gai shook his head before he realized that they couldn't see him do it. 'No, I have something to take care of. You two go ahead.'

Gai watched them go before he resumed his search for Naruto among the bodies that lined the streets.

Kiba didn't expect to see his fellow genin leaving the mountain instead of staying there.

'Did we miss something?' he asked curiously. 'I thought we were supposed to be staying here.'

Shikamaru slapped a hand to his forehead. 'You don't know – Naruto's been injured, and he's somewhere out there. We're going to find him.'

Kiba's voice was incredulous. 'How the hell does that idiot manage to get himself into these situations? Honestly, you turn your back on him for a minute and he goes and gets himself injured, the total moron, the stupid fool – where are we going to start?'

Shikamaru scowled. 'I really don't know,' he muttered.

Kakashi bit down on his thumb, drawing blood before he performed the seals necessary to summon Pakkun. His nin dog looked up at him, a quizzical expression on his face.

'What do you want, Kakashi?'

'I want you to try again, Pakkun. I have a feeling we'll be able to find him this time.'

Pakkun heaved a sigh. 'All right,' he muttered, and began to sniff at the ground before saying 'this way,' and disappearing. Kakashi followed at a run, hoping that this time, they would find him.

'Kakashi – I've picked up his scent – it's all over here.'

Kakashi glanced around cautiously. 'If you can still smell him, I guess he's not using kyuubi's chakra anymore.'

'Naruto!'

Kakashi hastened to Pakkun's side, his eyes widening. In the faint, pre dawn light, Kakashi could just make out Naruto's crumpled, bloodied figure, and as he turned him gently, went white at the sight of the kunai handle protruding from his stomach.

Jiraiya's words filtered into his mind. '…disrupting kyuubi's chakra… haven't tried it yet…'

'Naruto… you must have been desperate…'

Cradling the genin as carefully as possible, Kakashi and Pakkun ran toward Hokage Mountain.