Chapter Two: A Cry for Help

"I TOLD YOU GUYS! IF YOU HAD LET ME I'DVE KICKED THOSE GUY'S BUTTS!!!!" Team Kakashi and team Gai were walking back though the gates of the hidden leaf village, early in the morning while enduring another of Naruto's rants.

"Yeah, I'm sure you could've" said a thoroughly worn out Neji. He brushed the sweat off his forehead. "You just looked pretty occupied with getting that steel jaw trap off your foot, so we handled them."

The teams had just returned from a high C rank mission were many armed poachers were harassing a small wildlife preserve. Defeating the poachers was easy enough however finding and destroying all the traps they had set was not. Most of the members of the teams were now extremely tired and would be sitting the next few missions out. But Naruto's seemingly unending supply of energy continued to astound everyone. And there was also Lee who always pushes himself to the limit.

"Say Naruto! Why don't you and I have a push up contest?" said Lee.

Naruto looked at Lee and tried not to vomit at the idea of push ups for fun. "Nah Lee, I think I'll pass on that."

Lee looked slightly dismayed "You can never train too much. And the more you train the more fun it becomes, RIGHT GAI SENSEI?!"

Gai put one hand one his hip, held out the other in a thumbs up gesture and flashed a huge smile. "Right you are Lee, you can never do too many push ups."

Kakashi rolled his one exposed eye and mumbled "how is it those two can even think of training after a mission like that. He then pulled out the book he'd been reading and quickly thumbed through it looking for the page he had last read.

At the same time Ryo Higawa was just clearing the top of a hill when he looked up and saw the five faces of the hokage on a cliff. Ryo grit his teeth in pain filled smile. "We're almost there… cough." Ryo tasted blood in his mouth and knew he wasn't going to last much longer. The bandages he had made out of his cloak were soaked through with his blood. His horse, Black Moon had also seen better days. Her right foreleg was injured in their escape over the waterfall and she was now noticeably limping.

"I'd better ditch this gear," heaved Ryo as he loosened the sheath of his sword from his belt. He looked around for a good place to hide it and settled on a group of bushes. As he tossed his sword into the leaves he lost his balance and fell from his saddle. However, his leg remained tangled in the stirrup. The horse slowed to a stop and looked back at him. Ryo tossed the shield into the brush with the rest of his bandit gear and looked back at the horse. "Just keep going," He sputtered. "If we stop, I'll die here and I don't have the strength to get up… Just keep going."

The horse the glanced back toward the village and with a groan, pushed on. "Good girl," whispered Ryo as he slipped out of consciousness.

"Well I'm hitting the ramen shop up for breakfast. Anyone want to come with me before the morning rush starts?" said Naruto after finally giving up his attempt to redeem himself of his latest blunder. He looked over at Sakura hoping that she would be hungry enough to join him. But she just looked at him as if acting crazy again.

"How could you possibly have ramen for every meal of every day?"

Naruto was just about to respond when he looked up the road at a strange dark figure coming down the hill towards them. "HEY!! What's that?!" He said pointing at the figure as it loomed closer and began to take form.

Tenten smiled and said, "It's a wild horse I think."

"Not quite, BYAKUGAN!" said Neji as the veins surrounding his eyes grew. "There's someone being dragged behind that animal, he appears wounded."

Sakura started to run towards the approaching horse and fallen rider when she shouted back sarcastically, "If you're being dragged by an animal, odds are you're wounded." As she neared the rider the horse reared in the defense of its master. Lee dashed forward and grasped the reins in one hand. "I, the green beast of the leaf village will calm this savage creature with my-" He was cut off by a hoof that lashed out so quickly he had to drop the reins entirely to jump out of the way.

At this moment Tenten slowly moved forward, extended her hand in the form of a fist and made soft cooing noises with her mouth. This calmed the horse enough for her to take hold of the reins.

Naruto moved in to untie the rider's leg as Sakura quickly assessed the situation. "He has several, half treated kunai wounds in his back and lots cuts and scrapes on his face, probably from being dragged for quite some distance." She Looked back at the three Jounin. "One of you, go tell Lady Tsunade that we have a visitor that needs a little help."

Neji immediately made a dash for the Hokage's home at the far end of town, closely followed by Gai. Sakura then turned to Lee. "Lee, go inform the hospital that we're coming."

"Right!" said Lee and disappeared in a blur of green spandex. Sakura then returned to Naruto and Tenten, who had let go of the horse and knelt beside the body. "You two can help me get him there, but be careful. We don't want to damage those wounds any more than we have to. The three of them lined up and lifted the body of the rider together and started to rush him to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible.

Kakashi, however, stayed behind and watched after the group disappeared around a corner. His exposed eye narrowed and he looked back to the horse, but the beast had vanished without a trace. Kakashi pulled out his book and thought, who is this guy, as he started down the path by which the rider had come from.

A.N. If no one tells me what they think of this chapter, I might just kill everyone in the next. Just kidding… but not really.