Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, his Kistune self belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, along with the adorable Sasuke.

"Speech"

'Thought'

"Kyuubi thoughts"

Chapter 6: Mortal Heroes

Over the next few hours (A/N: Estimating, tell me if I'm wrong and I'll change it) both Sakura and Kakashi began to get curious about the large amount of stops that occurred frequently along the way, watching the blonde with an interest as he stopped to set Sasuke aside and re-wrap his bandaged shoulder before picking up his comrade and setting off once more. The shinobi trailing in his wake put these periodic rests down to having to carry around the added weight of the newest arrival into the group, however when they offered to carry him, even if only for a little while to allow him to rest but were what they received in turn for their concerns was a resounding 'no' before a secondary gift of a burst of speed leaving them struggling to keep up.

It wasn't long until the looming gates of Konoha came into view of the group of returning shinobi, with luckily the welcoming party that had to stand guard by the entrance of the village happened to be members of the Rookie Nine from years back, the dog-lover Inuzaka Kiba and his towering furred friend Akamaru and the soft-spoken Hyuga Hinata. The two voices belonging to the Chuunin on guard were in conversation as the group led temporarily by Naruto appeared back at the hidden village, only glancing up at the new arrivals once Kakashi had tapped lightly upon the window to the office.

"Mind letting us through?"

The two Chuunin looked up surprised at the group, even more so at the particular individuals that were staring at them all looking rather confused. However before Hinata could even get her fingers pressed together at the sight of Naruto he took off at an amazing speed to what the others believed would be the hospital, leaving the reunion cut extremely short with Kakashi quickly on his heels leaving Sakura to the pleasantries.

"Sorry Hinata-chan, Kiba-kun, but I better go after them."

The purple-haired kunoichi gave a nod to Sakura as she heard her need to go after her team mates, but couldn't stop the sad smile forming upon her lips as she realised she didn't even get to say hello to Naruto before he left again.

"Tell Naruto-kun I said hello."

Sakura quickly replied with a 'Hai' before streaking off after the other two, leaving Kiba and Hinata once again to their rather boring guard duties. This was possible the most interesting thing to happen in a long time and both were equally downhearted that the meeting had ended so quickly, the male shinobi soon realising that his partner seemed to have become unmistakeably quiet. He placed his arm around her shoulder and gave her a light shake as if to try and 'shake' her out of the depressed state she had embraced, a large grin spreading on his face as she finally glanced up at him.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan, you can see Naruto later. It's not like we could leave now anyway, Shikamaru would kill us if we just left our guard duty."

Putting the small smile down to a victory in the 'cheer-up Hinata' game he released his grip and resumed his usual position lounging lazily upon the chair, feeding Akamaru various treats from behind the desk oblivious to the fact his female partner had left her post and was now standing in between the two gates gazing after Naruto, her hand resting lightly on her chest as she realised he was finally home to stay, no longer having to chase after Sasuke.

"Welcome home, Naruto-kun."

Naruto was only able to be caught by the clearly exhausted Kakashi and Sakura once he had grinded to a halt in the foyer of the hospital, trailing after him as he was directed into an empty hospital room to lay the Uchiha down before backing off into a corner to give the staff the necessary space to begin analysing the new patient. The pair that had finally caught up were given no time to speak to their concerns towards the blonde as Tsunade suddenly burst in the room with a meek Shizune following quickly in her footsteps, barking orders to everyone that wasn't either Shizune, Sakura or herself to get out of the room while she worked. Kakashi was surprised that his student didn't kick up an argument to stay, instead following him outside to the corridor where he placed a hand upon the shoulder which he assumed should have healed already by now to get the man to stop momentarily.

"Naruto you should be proud of yourself- you managed to bring Sasuke back to the village. Don't beat yourself up because of what you had to do."

If he hadn't of placed his hand while Naruto's back was turned he would have seen the grimace of pain expressed upon his face, knowing the true reason that his hand was quickly shrugged off the shoulder instead of believing it was yet again a question of space.

"I brought him home like I promised; now you and the entire village can be happy again."

'Because I wasn't good enough to do it.'

As Kakashi allowed his student to walk down the corridor of the hospital and out the doors he realised as he peered into the room containing the missing-nin that Tsunade was finished and was now calling him over. The feeling of the healing chakra mending what couldn't be done by her apprentice relieved him of any pain from the injuries he had incurred during his brief encounter with Sasuke, leaving nothing more but a premonition of how sore he was going to feel the morning after.

"Eh, Kakashi-san, where's Naruto-niisan?"

When the question was asked he instinctively looked down to the hand that had reached out in an attempt to comfort the requested male, only to find himself surprised at the scarlet stain painted across his fingertips and the material of his gloves. It wasn't even old blood from what he could tell, this blood was warm, fresh- meaning that the wound he thought would have been healed by the Kyuubi no Kitsune's chakra clearly hadn't been.

"He's gone…"

"WHAT!?"

Kakashi cringed at the sudden outburst, his eye glancing back at the current Hokage who had treated everyone in the hospital to the deafening cry, suddenly finding his feet no longer touching the floor and a hand clenched around his vest holding him in the air. The killing intent Tsunade was radiating into the room was almost suffocating her former and present apprentices but she was too consumed in her rage to care, once again barking orders at the jounin in her grasp but not in an authoritative manner- no, this was far from that.

"Where did he go? You better find him and bring him to me or I'll do a lot worse than just break your bones."

From the menacing tone Tsunade used to Kakashi not wanting to hear the details of his punishment if a failure occurred he quickly disappeared leaving behind a cloud of smoke, the Godaime's open grip soon clenching into a tight fist. Shizune knew from past experience that it wouldn't be a gift of a chocolate cake that Tsunade would give if the Jounin came back empty-handed- leading both herself and Sakura to exchange worried glances and pray that the copy-cat could locate the absent Naruto.

As time went on and still no sign of the blonde Kakashi began to get worried- not only for Naruto but also for his own safety, knowing that having a vengeful Hokage hot on his heels would not be a very good thing to have. Luckily enough however on his second scour of the village his uncovered sharingan eye (believing this was as good a time as any to use it considering the possible wrath of Tsunade) it directed his gaze to the vast Hokage monument overlooking Konoha and an out-of-place shadow upon the rock face of his former sensei, the Yondaime Hokage.

Upon arriving at the top he found Naruto resting upon the length of a spike of hair belonging to the fourth Hokage tribute, his face turned away to the other direction. He had concealed his presence up to this point so to not alert the him; wanting to avoid a chase if that was a given option.

"Naruto? Tsunade-sama is rather anxious to see you."

After receiving no reply the concerned teacher stepped closer to the silent body of the blonde, once again placing his hand upon the male's shoulder and giving it a light shake. However he wasn't prepared for his student to then slide off the rock carving and being to fall at an alarming speed with no sign to show he was stopping, nor that he was conscious at the time. As a reaction Kakashi quickly gathered chakra to the soles of his feet and began to run parallel down the cliff face in an attempt to reach the falling shinobi, managing to catch him with a timed jump from the mountain only a few mere seconds before what would have been a nasty impact- that is if he was lucky it didn't kill him first.

After he had both his feet settled firmly upon the ground at the bottom of Hokage Mountain Kakashi laid the unconscious male upon the grass, grasping onto both of his shoulders and shaking them lightly, speaking his name repeatedly in an attempt to wake him up.

"Naruto! Naruto, answer me!"

As his efforts subsided and he took his hands away he found the same scarlet liquid dripping from his hand where he had rested it upon the body of Naruto, causing him to tear the worn orange material that the jinchuriki was famous for at the shoulder to find blood seeping through the bandages concealed behind the fabric and effectively onto his hand where he had rested it earlier. None of the wounds that the blonde had endured in order to return Sasuke to Konoha hadn't healed in the slightest- meaning that Kakashi's usual assumption that the Kyuubi would be going its usual regeneration trick was in fact wrong. It seemed that this time, Naruto really did need the help he usually didn't, not needing just space. He gave no more time to waste as he gathered the unconscious shinobi onto his back and returned to the hospital at the fastest pace he could muster, streaking through the halls of the hospital much to the staff's surprise as he re-entered the room containing a rather unhappy Tsunade who began to advance upon him almost immediately, her fists cracking as murderous glare began to form.

"So Kakashi… I see you have failed to bring Naruto ba-"

"Tsunade-sama!"

She was cut off by her former apprentice rushing to Kakashi's side and latching onto a wrist that seemed to appear from no where until the jounin turned on revealing Naruto to be resting upon his back, her rage instantly morphing into concern as Shizune reported her findings back to her, only to step back in shock as she clutched at her chest from the words spoken to her.

"Naruto-niisan's pulse is very weak! We have to help him or he'll die!"

'He'll die…'

Those were the two words that snapped Tsunade out of her trance and back into the present, instantly beginning to work on Naruto after he had been placed in the bed adjacent to Sasuke, her hands enveloped in a dense emerald haze as she pressed it against wound after wound in hopes of healing but soon finding it to be of little success. She then barked an order at Shizune who disappeared momentarily out of the room to bring back armfuls of bandages, cleansing products and even a stitching set that must have been imported from a village without shinobi. Luckily this was exactly what she needed at this time, especially with the odd circumstances she was in. As she first put in the needle into the blonde's shoulder Tsunade almost broke down in tears as Naruto suddenly awoke and screamed out in the pain, having to be restrained by both Kakashi and Shizune pushing down on his wrist and ankles as the medic-nin continued her work, the Hokage's face streaming with tears after her work had finished on his shoulder and had to begin stitching another wound upon his torso, this time the pain merely making the jinchuriki pass out once more as she kept up her routine of cleansing, stitching and bandaging until she was done, a pale Naruto looking like only a mere shadow of what he had once been.

With one final check to ensure his condition had stabilized the three medic-nins and Kakashi left to allow both Naruto and Sasuke to rest, the grim expression displayed upon Tsunade's face all the Jounin needed to send Sakura away, with Shizune receiving the same treatment soon after. Kakashi leant against the opposite wall of the corridor looking at the Godaime with a concerned expression on his face, his words entwined with a similar worry.

"The Kyuubi didn't heal him like it usually did, not even after a length of time which is unusual."

All he received as a reply was a downhearted sigh, noticing the Tsunade seemed to be avoiding his gaze before suddenly staring directly into his eyes, something that startled the man.

"My healing chakra didn't have any effect either- it was almost as if his body was repelling it. I...I don't understand it Kakashi. It was just lucky that one of the countries that lacked a shinobi village still practised in the old arts of medicine and sent over some supplies in gratitude to one of the missions, otherwise I don't think Naruto would have made it. Any longer and he would have been dead anyway."

Another silence followed as a sombre mood descended on the pair, both looking away unable to face the grim events that had unfolded only a few moments before. If they didn't have that stitching set nearby… Kakashi couldn't bear thinking about it.

"Thank you Kakashi. I didn't have the time to say it before but I don't know what I would do if he died-"

"I don't think many people would know what to do, Naruto has more people caring for him than he thought."

A/N: Finally came to the end of the flashback in a flashback! Sorry I dragged it out for like four chapters but I found it interesting to write about so I couldn't really stop myself. Plus i'm rather morbid/sadistic- poor Naruto has gotten hurt again by my influentual hand. (hangs head)

By the way i'm pretty aware that for Naruto to start 'crying out in pain' because of his wounds being stitched is quite lame considering ninjas get stabbed by kunai and thrown into trees all the time- i'm just going to give he is in a more sensitive state now than before when Sasuke had his hand in his shoulder, since it must have been quite numbing to find the team mate you had always thought as your brother this time round not even show slightest hesitation in wiping you across the floor with the bottom of his shoe.

Reviews are welcomed with a hug, a cookie and a glass of warm milk, so don't hesitate in leaving your comments.

If anyone knows the actual honourfic that Shizune uses to Naruto I would love to know since I don't think -niichan is the right one, I just remember seeing/hearing it somewhere and put that in. Anyway I already apologised for me being bad at the honourfic game so this is just a follow up to that :)