Chapter2: The Return

Disclaimer: I can't think of a witty way to say that I don't own Naruto right now!

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Alright team. All we have for tonight is patrol." It was the night after their "meeting" and they were back to work. "The girls will take the training fields, yes all of them Ino and don't complain. Sasuke, Neji, and Shino take the North. Chouji, Shikamaru, and Kiba take the south. Lee, Gai, and I will take the east and the west. Meet back here at dawn." With that they all went to their assigned area.

"Why the heck do we always have to patrol the training fields?"

"Shut up Ino."

"You took the words right out of my mouth Tenten."

"But there so many of them."

"Ino-"

"Hey who's that." Hinata cut Sakura off pointing to a figure in the middle of the field.

"Not sure Hinata he doesn't look familiar," Sakura said thinking of everyone she knows. "He looks like a kid though."

"Well whoever he is he sure doesn't have any fashion sense. I mean no one wears Orange."

"Shut up Ino," both Sakura and Tenten yelled.

"Hey I think he's hurt," said Hinata slowly going towards the boy pulling out a kunai just in case.

The others followed her example and slowly walked up to the stranger. Sakura, being the best medic nin out of the four, knelt down next to the boy. 'There's bloods everywhere,' she thought looking at his hair. In the night sky his hair had looked black but as she got closer she discovered that his hair was actually a light blond covered in blood.

Sakura gulped. This was hitting a little to close to home for her comfort. The last blond who wore orange that she knew was Naruto. She turned the boy over to get a better look at his wounds.

The girls all took in the familiar features and the three whisker-like scars on each cheek and did the only thing that they could do in their panicked state. They all screamed.

"Sasuke that sounded like the girls," Neji spoke softly.

"Let's check it out."

"How troublesome the girls got themselves into trouble. Come on lets go check it out."

"Why, we know that someone else will," Kiba said.

"I know but if I don't go Ino's gonna be mad at me."

"Good point. Lead on pineapple head."

"Don't call me that dog breath."

"That sounded like Sakura. Don't worry I'll save you Sakura."

"Lee wait for me."

"Why did I pair myself with these idiots again?"

The boy's eyes instantly sprang open as soon as the girls started screaming. He pushed Sakura away from him and ran towards the forest on the edge of the training field. He just barley made it to the first tree before his legs gave out. He started crawling frantically trying to get away but he just hit a tree. He sat up and hugged his knees to his chest burying his face in his knees.

"Hey are you alright," Kiba asked being the first one to arrive.

The girls looked behind them to see the rest of their squad behind them. They couldn't say anything so they just nodded. "Whose that," asked Neji pointing to the boy.

"Well, we don't know, but we think that it might be…" Hinata trailed off.

Sakura wasn't listening to the conversation at all. She was focused on the boy before her. She cautiously crouched down and started making her way slowly towards the boy once more. She made sure not to make any sudden movements so she wouldn't startle the boy. As she moved closer she noticed that his cloths were in rags and a pool of blood had begun to form around him. 'He looks like a skeleton,' she thought as she got closer. She reached up to put a hand on his shoulder but quickly withdrew when he flinched violently.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she said quietly. Scared blue eyes met hers. The boy did not say anything so she simply went to work. 'He looks so much like-' she couldn't finish her thought it was just too painful to think about. 'It can't be can it?'

She finished healing what she could, she stood up and offered her hand to help the boy up only to find him quickly cover his head as if he were going to be hit.

"What is going on here?"

Sakura turned to find the Hokage, Jiraiya and the rest of her team looking at her expectantly. Ino, Tenten, and Hinata all just shrugged apologetically.

"We found this boy, and he was hurt so I decided to help him," she said quietly.

"Then what was all the screaming about," Kakashi asked slightly annoyed that nothing seemed to be wrong.

"W-well h-he looks like N-Naruto." Sakura blushed when she realized that she sounded like Hinata before Naruto had disappeared. The young girl had worked hard to get rid of the stutter and become more confident.

Before anyone else could move a hand covered Sakura's mouth and a knife was put across her throat. "Don't say that name," a horse voice whispered harshly into her ear.

Well that was fun… tune in next time to see what happens… hopefully it won't be to long…