Naruto opened his sore eyes to see rain falling through the darkened branches of the tree above him. His head was pounding.
"Naruto, you're awake! Are you ok?" Sakura asked from beside him.
"Sakura-chan!" He replied, carefully sitting up and grinning at her. They were sitting in the clearing in front of the outlaws' base. "Yeah, I'll be alright. What the heck happened? The last thing I remember was a big flash…"
Sakura looked towards the house, dawn was fast approaching. "The old man set off his booby-traps and used them to escape. Sasuke-kun and I didn't get hurt, but you and Kakashi-sensi were trapped in that room where the blast was centered. Kakashi-sensi wasn't badly hit, but most of the room had collapsed and he had to put the fires out first, so it took us a while to find you." Sakura paused, still staring at the house. "You're lucky you weren't more seriously injured, Naruto." Naruto thought that there were undercurrents of worry in Sakura's slightly exasperated explanation, but he couldn't see her eyes.
Sakura pointed to a pile of tied-up thugs. "Sasuke's been helping Kakashi to round them all up. Oh look, here they come." Kakashi and Sasuke had emerged from the house. Sasuke was looking more sour than usual because the rain was dripping down the back of his neck, not to mention him having to help lug all the (filthy) bandits outside. Kakashi dumped a thug next to the pile and left Sasuke to tie the smelly things up.
"Ah, Naruto. I'm glad to see you're awake." Kakashi greeted him, walking over. You wouldn't think that he'd just survived an explosion to look at him, thought Naruto. Well, maybe his hair was standing up more than usual. And he did have a bandage on his hand.
"Sakura-chan, how is our other patient doing?" Kakashi asked.
"Other patient?" Queried Naruto. He turned around slightly and was surprised to see a black-clad figure lying down near him. They looked familiar. "Is that…?" Sakura had finished her brief report and so Naruto had caught Kakashi's attention.
"Hn? Oh, that's the old man's 'subject'. She's alive."