Beforehand: Wow guys thanks for the reviews! I enjoyed reading each one of them. And now I'll answer a couple of questions.

Airstep asks: What did Naruto mean by "I should rethink my way of the ninja"

Grave responds: It's a joke. His way of the ninja is sort of like: Never leave a downed person behind no matter who it is. (That's in the story) But when Tayuya starts complaining, he thinks, "Maybe I should rethink that part"

TrapedSoul asks: Shouldn't Tayuya be more wounded?

Grave responds: Probably. Wasn't thinking that much, but since she is pretty strong she may not have that sort of injury. I do agree that maybe she should have been more hurt but then I'd have to think how I'd heal her for later on. And yes, she did slide out from under it.

And now, our feature presentation.

Chapter 2

Hatake Kakashi waited for Naruto to return to the village. He had said he was going out to train, but judging by the way he had said it and the look on his face, Kakashi knew he needed a bit of time to clear his head. It was pretty hard on the demon boy. He had considered Sasuke a brother, and then this happened.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto's faint voice reached the Jounin's ears. He smiled behind his mask. He saw all of the dirt covering his student and guessed from the huge grin across his face he had spent the time training a bit after all.

"So how'd it go?" he asked as Naruto came up to him.

"Pretty good for a day's work!" Naruto said. The grin on his face faded a bit. He seemed to be looking for the right words to say what he wanted to say.

"Something wrong?" Kakashi asked.

"Umm…no," was the response he got. "Sensei, could you meet me at my house a bit later on? I've got something very important to show you."

Kakashi eyed Naruto carefully. He realized that it was something that was troubling the boy. "Sure Naruto. Are you headed home right now?"

"Yeah, but come in about an hour. Don't be late Sensei!" Naruto said that directly looking into Kakashi's uncovered eye to further say it was important.

With that, the kitsune vessel sped off towards his home. It had been an odd conversation. Something about it hadn't been right. Maybe it was the serious tone it had. Maybe it was how he had avoided his eye until the very end. Maybe it was how one of his whiskers was tad off.

Kakashi sighed and looked into the setting sun. The light reflected off of his forehead protector. After he found out what was really going on, he was going to have to tell Naruto his kage bushin no jutsu needed a tad of work.

"Well at least Kakashi sensei won't be looking for me," Naruto said to nobody in particular. On his back, a very mildly impressed Tayuya opened her mouth to speak to the boy for the first time since they had left the forest.

"Well, for a shit, you sure do have a good kage bushin. Of course, it seems that your body hasn't quite recovered from fighting Sasuke-sama. The clone had a whisker a tad off."

Naruto had told Tayuya about what had happened with Sasuke ultimately leading up to him discovering her in the forest. What annoyed him was when she praised Sasuke's new power.

"Well, he'll do for now," Naruto said. And once I'm back to my normal standards, you'll never know the difference."

"Yeah once you get back to your normal crappy Genin standards," Tayuya smirked. "Your team got lucky those Sand ninja showed up or we would have eaten you alive! You were very close to getting hunted down by the Sound Five."

"You say that to the guy who is going to become the next Hokage of Konoha Village once old lady Tsunade either kicks the bucket or resigns."

Tayuya's small smile widened. "For such a little shit, you have big ambitions."

Naruto scowled. "Well I'm sure as hell going to be better than whatever the hell you're going to do with yourself!" Naruto looked back and saw that his comment had shut up the redhead for some reason. Her eyes averted his gaze and a small frown had replaced her smile. But before he had a chance to question why this had happened, he had reached his home.

From the tree he was in, he made sure nobody was looking, then jumped down and quickly unlocked the door and rushed in, closed, and locked it. He set Tayuya down on his couch carefully before asking her what she wanted to eat.

"Whatever's good," the girl said. "I'm not really a picky eater."

"Me neither," Naruto said. "How's ramen sound? I'll go warm it up."

Naruto left the room, leaving Tayuya alone in her thoughts. Never before had anyone been so nice to her. Her team, the Sound Five, had a motto. "The weak don't deserve to live." "The weak" included those of them unlucky enough to lose a battle. If one of her teammates had found her, he may have killed her for losing the battle. But this ninja, who had been her enemy, had shown her mercy.

She remembered what he had said a few minutes ago. About how he was going to be better than what she was going to do with herself. She actually now had no clue. If she returned to the Sound Village, she had a 50/50 chance of exile or death for the failure to defeat a Konoha Chunin. She had no idea what to do next.

Naruto entered the room again. He had a smile on his face. "Ramen's ready! Eat up!" he said cheerfully. He handed Tayuya her ramen and sat down beside her and greedily slurped his portion.

"Um…. Naruto?" Tayuya said shyly. The demon vessel stopped mid slurp. He looked at the redheaded girl. She looked downwards and twiddled her fingers. "I just wanted to say thanks for taking me in. You're not so bad for a shit if you'd actually care."

Naruto grinned. He slurped up the last of his food and said, "As long as you need a place to stay, you can stay here. I think you'll need at least two weeks."

Tayuya scowled. "I'll be better in one. I need to get back to my work after this. And I'm a fast healer."

Naruto smiled again. "Well like I said, as long as you need a place to stay, you're welcome here."

"Well, at least that's Naruto's thinking," a voice at the front door said. The two looked at the front door. Kakashi stood there with the door relocked and Naruto's shadow clone in his hand. The clone struggled until Kakashi whacked it and it poofed away. He looked from Naruto to Tayuya and frowned behind his mask.

"So this is what you wanted to see me about," he said.

Well that's it for chapter 2 guys. Review for me and make suggestions! I may use them. And now, your review questions may be answered at the beginning of each chapter! See ya next time. I promise Chapter 3 will be up before the weekend is over.