Pearl: Okay! I've finally got the time to work on this and update it! (celebrates)

Sasuke: Spare me the excuses. You took too long this time.

Pearl: …You're not in this one either that is, if you still remember from the previous chapters.

Sasuke: (glares at me)

Pearl: No owner of Naruto. (Maybe some stickers)

Chapter Six: Herbs

Naomi awoke the next day to the cry of a rooster and rolled over, but winced at the pain from her cheek. Then she slowly rolled on her back and stared up at the ceiling as yesterday's happening drifted back into her. Her fingers touched the band-aid on the sore cheek as she finally dragged herself out of bed.

Surprised to find herself out in the streets, fully dressed and functional, Naomi decided to browse the village once more. She came across her favorite shop that sold the freshest green and red apples she ever encountered. Today, she purchased her usual single green apple and ate it along the way.

"Thanks, Naomi! Come back anytime!" The store owner called after her. Naomi's right hand raising into the air giving a slight wave was his reply.

The problem of Sakura and Naruto never left Naomi's mind that it finally became bothersome to her. It was especially the moment with Naruto that bugged her the most. She decided to return to the training field to think. To Naomi's surprise, as she walked towards her destination, there was no sign of her three teammates: There was just no sign of Naruto.

When she reached the training grounds, she figured the answer. Today was yet another day of training, and it escaped Naomi's mind. At least luck was on her side since Kakashi, who was always late, had not arrived yet.

She walked to an area in the field and began stretching, but not before long, she spotted Naruto who was far away across from her frowning. Soon Sasuke and Sakura arrived: Sakura running off to a spot to stretch and Sasuke a spot to sit and wait.

It didn't take long for Sasuke and Sakura to notice Naomi and Naruto cutting off their communication lines.

"I wonder if this is about yesterday." Sakura thought with a guilty conscience. "If Naruto really gave me that crystal then…" She trailed off in her thoughts just as Kakashi walked onto the field his orange book in hand.

"Hey, guys! I got lost." Kakashi said happily with his usual greeting and replacing his Icha Icha Paradise back in its pouch. To his surprise, Sakura was in too much thought that she never gave her usual smart and angry remark about him being late.

Naomi gave a small sigh and thought, "I have a feeling today's training is going to be longer than usual."

The training was tough on all of them, but mainly on Naomi, Naruto, and even Sakura. All three had their minds focused on their related matters and each were not completely focused on training. This disappointed Kakashi, but he couldn't help but notice the non-talkative and glum Naomi and Naruto. Both were pretty melancholy about something and often Naruto would pass a glare towards Naomi, which really startled Kakashi. Although, during the moments Naruto passed his glares, Naomi never noticed a single one.

The period of training, which felt like centuries to the three thought-swallowed teammates, finally came to an end, and everyone separated back onto the streets of Konoha heading toward home. The feeling inside Naomi's stomach refused to be in the comfort confides of her house so without anything else or anything better to do, Naomi did her usual thing; wandering through the village aimlessly and occasionally greeting some familiar faces that once were her sick patients. This time when she meandered through the village, she carried a bag of different assorted herbs with her that she picked up when she shuffled by her house.

Naomi walked for a long time passing the same streets again, and during so, the villagers had business for Naomi. Their sons, daughters, uncles, aunts, the rest of their other relatives, or even themselves were ill in some kind of manner. Still, Naomi knew their cure by being the walking thermometer that she is and feeling their foreheads. Then she would reach into her bag of herbs and pull out a small sum of the correct herb for that illness and the villager would be off on their way usually with a smile.

She passed by a street sign that she had seen three times already and looked past it thinking, "Maybe I should just go back to the training field." With that in mind, her body began to move toward the familiar path she had been on earlier that day.

"Hold it right there!" A voice called from behind Naomi.

She stopped in her tracks and turned around glancing from side to side. No one was there. After shrugging, she started on her way again.

"Hey!" The voice shouted again louder than the first.

Again, Naomi turned around seeing no one as she glanced around for the second time.

"Down here!" The voice demanded.

Doing so, Naomi found the owner of the voice.

"Oh, hello, Konohamaru!" she greeted.

The small boy looked at her nervously with his blue scarf flapping softly in the air and falling down to touch the earth again.

"I need to ask you a favor, Healer!" Konohamaru boomed.

With a chuckle Naomi replied, "Lower your voice, Konohamaru, but I'm sure whatever it is, it must be pretty important since you asked me in such a way."

Blushing, the little black-haired boy apologized, which to Naomi, she said that it wasn't required.

"Well, I was wondering if you have some kind of…poisonous herb." Konohamaru said slowly.

Puzzled, Naomi asked back curiously, "And…why would you need poisonous herbs?"

"I'm going to poison the Hokage!" Konohamaru burst, "And then everyone would see me as Konohamaru, and not just the Hokage's son!"

As a silence drifted over them, Naomi stared at Konohamaru in a funny way.

Finally, Naomi broke the silence and said, "Konohamaru, you know there's more to just poison herbs to being the Hokage. I'm sure…Naruto's told you the same."

Disappointed, the little boy frowned, but knew his plan wasn't as clever as he had realized.

"Yeah…I'm sorry I bothered you. I'll just go now," he said sadly.

"Oh, Konohamaru." Naomi said quietly as she touched his shoulder to stop him before he walked off. "Want to eat some Ramen? My treat!" she offered cheerfully. A smile stretched across the little boy's face and then a nod of approval followed after.

As the two slurped the Ramen together, Konohamaru couldn't hold his curiosity and asked, "Healer, why do you have that band-aid on your face?"

After slurping a chopstick full of shrimp flavored noodles, Naomi swallowed, and said, "Well, first of all, there's no need for the formality, Konohamaru, just call me Naomi." She smiled as the little boy nodded understandingly. "And this?" She said pointing to her cheek with her chopsticks thinking of Naruto. "It was just an accident I had yesterday from training because remember, I'm a real ninja." Again, the small boy who soaked in anything elder kids said, nodded his head. After finishing and paying for the Ramen, Naomi gave Konohamaru some lasting advice to becoming Hokage before they walked off on their ways waving goodbye.

It was getting late, but Naomi still returned to the training grounds. This time, she walked further and deeper into the forest nearby. The sun set with its red-orange rays beaming through the forest and dabbing more life onto anything it touched. In the end, Naomi stopped herself in a forest clearing where a patch of dirt in the middle of the ground disturbed the pattern of the grass. A small bird fluttered out of a nearby tree and disappeared into another.

Watching the rays of light and life pass above and around her, Naomi spotted a tree that sprouted herbs in its branches. She walked over towards it and reached out to pluck the green leaves hoping to add them to her collection in the bag. Apparently, the tree was too tall and the herbs it held seemed to just toy with Naomi as its branches bobbed up and down just as Naomi barely swiped at them.

Finally, Naomi decided to send the right amount of chakra to the soles of her feet and climb the tree. She left her beige bag of herbs on the grass when she began her ascent, and when she had reached the point of the tree where its arms branched out, Naomi sat on a branch to pluck the herbal leaves and to drop them down to the base of the tree. After a while, Naomi stopped and rested her hands in her lap to think. She noticed that she had not given any serious thoughts of Naruto since the Ramen with Konohamaru until now. Regrettably, she sat wondering how to solve the conflict.

Suddenly, there was a rustle from behind the bushes waking Naomi from her thoughts. As she flipped her head towards the sound, she asked aloud alarmingly, "Who's there?" Shifting her body over to see from under the leaves of the tree, Naomi started to lean over slowly and carefully.

There was a loud crack that snapped under Naomi who realized just then that she had shifted too much of her body weight over to the end of the branch. "Oh no…" She thought with panic. The bough of where it had cracked, swung down and broke off from the tree bringing Naomi down with it. A high-pitched scream came from Naomi, but it cut off abruptly when she hit the ground.

As Naomi regained conscience, she found her back against the grass with her bag of herbs right next to her head, and the broken branch that Naomi sat on only a couple of seconds ago, lay a couple of inches away from Naomi's feet. Slowly, she pulled herself from the ground and checked her body for any injuries. There were no major injuries, but she did bruise her knee and her back was sore from the fall. "Ouch." she groaned rubbing her back.

Surprisingly, out from under the bushes Kakashi popped his head out.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naomi blurted. "What are you doing here?"

Quickly, Kakashi walked over to Naomi asking with concern, "I heard a scream just a moment back. Are you hurt?"

"Oh, no. Eh, I just fell out of that tree, but other than that, there were no major injuries. I'm fine." Naomi said giving him a weak smile.

"You fell out of that…tree?" Kakashi asked slowly in disbelief as Naomi limped over to the tree to retain the pile of herbs that clustered together at the base. After spotting the herbs, the realization of why Naomi had fallen out from the herbal tree came to his senses. There was a moment of pause between them as Naomi gathered the herbal leaves and Kakashi stood watching her.

"Do you do this all the time?" Kakashi asked breaking the silence.

After adding the last leaf into her collection, Naomi replied to Kakashi's question with some of her own, "You mean picking herbs? Or falling out of trees?"

"Well, in a way, I mean both." Kakashi said. Confused, Naomi looked at her snow-haired teacher for an explanation. "I meant, do you pick herbs and often injure or hurt yourself doing so?"

"Ah, I see." Naomi said nodding her head. "Well, this is actually, the second time I've fallen out of a tree, but it was much smaller than this one. Other times, I get scratches or scrapes, but its on a rare occasion now a days."

"Well, you seem to go through a lot of trouble just for some herbs." He said.

Blinking twice before answering, Naomi said, "I guess it shows how much I care about people…on the other hand, it does give me something to do."

Hearing that as his reply, Kakashi pulled out his book from behind him and walked over to the tree's trunk.

"Is that what you came here to do?" Naomi asked as she watched him.

For some time, Kakashi finally looked up from his book and said, "If I ever have the time to then, yes."

"Well, you know, in my opinion, that's not such a bad book after all. In fact, I think it's pretty good." Naomi's opinion caught Kakashi off guard and he stumbled to find the words to say. "You've…read this book?"

"Well, of course!" Naomi answered casually, shocking Kakashi. "You were there, remember? My first day of training, I snatched that book from your hands and flipped through it. I did manage to read some of it you know." Naomi swung her bag onto her shoulder and held it with one hand looking as comfortable as ever as she continued to talk about the adult rated book. "It's just the love story that keeps me going. I'd like to find out what happens to that couple, but besides that, it's mostly the details that I find are a bit disturbing."

Kakashi stared at Naomi when she finished her comment, and couldn't believe his ears. Especially the part of where she told of the "disturbing details." A very long silence swept over them as Kakashi's eye was glued to Naomi, who smiled in return.

Finally, Kakashi cleared his throat and said, "Well, speaking of training, today's training was a bit…off from the others."

Naomi's smile flipped into a frown, and she sadly heaved a sigh from within herself as Naruto entered her mind all over again.

"I guess you need an explanation then." Naomi said.

Over the next few minutes, Naomi told of the pass, which Kakashi remembered seeing, and how she gave it to Naruto to give to Sakura.

"Hmm…I see." Kakashi thought.

"Yeah…I just think…well, I just know that it's…my fault entirely." Naomi sadly added.

"Well, you've got to talk with Sakura first and explain everything to her." Kakashi advised glancing into his book occasionally.

"Ah, I know. Since it's been on my mind, that was my first assumption to jump to." Naomi said. "I just don't know how to approach her with it."

Kakashi finished a paragraph in his book, and when he answered Naomi, he didn't lift his head from the book. "Just bring it up casually."

"Casually? Hmm…casually." Naomi pondered her teacher's advice. "Okay! Casually!" She exclaimed happily picking up that beige bag of herbs, turning into the forest, and running back to the training field. Not a moment later, she came back where Kakashi knew she would.

"He's at the Academy on the swing set." He replied calmly reading his book.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei!" Naomi called out with a bright smile as she returned towards the forest once again with her bag of herbs bouncing behind her.

To Naomi's convenience, she found Sakura in the training field sitting in the grass. "Well, there's going to be a change of plans then," Naomi thought, and as she approached Sakura, she also saw her pass in Sakura's hands. (Well, now it's actually Sakura's pass.)

"Hey, Sakura!" Naomi greeted cheerfully. "Casual, casual, casual...come on! It was just five minutes ago! Don't forget already!" Naomi, who had her back turned to Sakura, muttered to herself. Sakura looked at Naomi and wondered what she was doing.

"Naomi?" She asked.

"Uh, HAI! Heh, heh...s-sorry." Naomi stuttered.

Chuckling, Sakura asked, "Well, what are you doing here?"

"Heh, I could ask the same to you, you know," Naomi said sitting down next to the pink-haired girl.

Sakura returned her gaze into the forest, and her smile faded away.

Naomi saw how unhappy she really was, and immediately pointed out, "Say! Isn't that the pass I gave Naruto?" (Oh, that's real casual.)

Turning to face Naomi, Sakura asked hesitantly, "You…really gave this to Naruto?"

Naomi gave her a nod and a smile. "He asked for it because he wanted to give this to you. I kind of carved that name in there just for fun."

Her voice breaking and guilt overwhelming her, Sakura's turquoise eyes became wet as she said , "Aw…now I feel worse than ever."

"Sakura…" Naomi consoled, "It's not your fault. I understand why you thought Naruto would steal this from me, but he really didn't." By this time, Sakura began to sob softly. "Aw, Sakura, please don't cry. You know, Naruto won't listen to me now, but…" Naomi trailed off in a sing-song voice. At this, Sakura slowly stopped crying and looked at Naomi.

"But what?" She asked almost desperately.

"But he'll definitely listen to you, Sakura. It's why you need to go talk to him first." Naomi finished. Nodding an approval, Sakura stood up and ran off, but shortly, she came back to Naomi embarrassed.

"He's at the Academy on the swing set." Naomi said with a smile thinking of Kakashi.

"Thank you, Naomi!" Sakura called out with a big smile as she ran off the field.

It was a day where the team had to meet for information from Kakashi for their rank D mission, and Naomi walked to where the meeting was held as confident as ever. She was the last to arrive when she realized Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto's presence before hers. When she spotted Naruto, she gave him a smile and a wave. Hesitantly, Naruto gave a weak smile back and lifted his arm only half way, but he still managed to give a wave.

He quickly walked over to Naomi and said nervously, "Um, hey, Naomi? About the other day…I'm really sorry."

Naomi smiled brightly and said, "Ah, forget about it, Naruto. All that really matters to me is that you're talking to me again. Friends?"

Naomi's smile beamed at Naruto who returned it with a bright smile of his own.

"Friends."

Soon, Kakashi arrived, and they carried out Naomi's first D mission of finding a lost dog. Then the four of them and Kakashi returned to the field for a little more training before they headed home, and as normal as training went, somehow this one seemed better than ever.

Pearl: Ah, one of my longer chapters.

Sasuke: Just when do I get some say in this?!

Naruto: (smiles smugly)

Kakashi: Wow, I actually got a part!

Sakura: Me, too!

Inner Sakura: Cha! Now that's what I'm talking about!

Sasuke: …You guys aren't exactly helping.

Pearl: (whistles)