I do not own Naruto. Wish I did, but I don't.

"Talking"

Thinking

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 3:

Yamato was at a standstill. More than half of the Demon Fox's Cloak still covered Naruto, and it refused to go back anymore. He needed the Shodai's necklace on Naruto for the jutsu to work. A drip of sweat found its way down the side of his face, and he could feel the strain his chakra use was causing. His aching arms and loss of energy were only two problems he was noticing. Over the sound of blood pounding in his ears he could hear what he could recognize as footsteps. He turned his head slightly to see who it could be.

"Yamato-taichou!" the familiar voice of a pink haired kunoichi yelled. "I found the necklace," she reported holding it out by the broken string. "What should I do now?"

"Go and… put it on Naruto's neck," Yamato said while having trouble talking and focusing on his chakra control.

Sakura quickly tied a knot to keep the necklace together. "B-but, taichou… you told me not to get near Naruto right now," she said, looking at him with fear in her eyes.

Yamato didn't have the energy for a long explanation. "Just do it! He shouldn't hurt you with this chakra fighting against mine like this and Naruto being so hurt."

Sakura nodded and jumped up behind Naruto. After a few moments of struggling, she had managed to get the necklace on his neck, with only a few scratches herself. She knew what the chakra would do to her, so she quickly healed the few wounds she had gotten to prevent as much damage as she could.

"Sakura, go and heal Sasuke. I'd rather not have to bring him back to the village dead," he said, looking over at her while relaxing a bit since it wouldn't be as hard to suppress the demonic chakra.

Sakura smiled and nodded. "Hai," she said, running over to Sasuke. Once she got to him she knelt down next to her former teammate and stared at his wounds. They were worse than she thought they were. She took a deep, calming breath and placed her hands on his wounds although she quickly took them off when he winced. "Don't worry, Sasuke-kun. I'll heal you and Naruto and then we'll all go back home together," she said, smiling and placing her hands back onto his wounds, this time more gentle than before.

Yamato picked Naruto up and mumbled to himself. "I'll be feeling that strain for a while," he admitted, walking over to where Sakura was. "Oi, Sakura, make sure to heal him well. The wounds from just the Kyuubi's chakra cloak are more than enough to get him near death. The wounds inflicted by Sasuke have him nearly dead." Sakura nodded and Yamato put Naruto down.

Sakura had just finished healing Sasuke enough that she knew he would live. She still had to heal Naruto, which she knew would turn out to be a much harder task than healing Sasuke had been. The pink-haired medical Nin checked Sasuke's vitals again and once she confirmed he was stable she went over to Naruto.

She sat down next to the blonde and took a glance at the wounds he had received. When she saw his wounds, she gasped; they were worse than she could have imagined. She could see straight through where Sasuke had used Chidori through his chest. She winced for him and placed her hands on his chest. Naruto had a much more violent reaction than Sasuke had. He winced and yelped in pain. Sakura quickly took her hands off the injury.

"Sakura-chan…" he managed to say before coughing.

"Naruto! You'll be okay. Please, don't talk. You're not going to help your injuries," she said, placing her hands back onto her patient. She closed her eyes and focused on healing him, trying to ignore how he tensed whenever she moved her hands.

"That… hurts…" he mumbled, sending pain throughout his body from talking.

"Naruto, I already told you not to talk. Don't make me knock you out just so I can heal you," she threatened, healing the sword wounds near his heart first. He's lost a lot of blood. Right now, he's lucky to even be alive.

"Where's Sasuke?" Naruto asked, trying to get his mind off of the pain that was filling every fiber of his being.

"Naruto, don't talk. Just try to relax, please," Sakura said, wondering how he didn't know that Sasuke was only a few feet to his left.

Naruto forced a smile, cracking open an eye to see a blob of pink in his extremely blurry vision. "We can finally bring him back home."

Sakura nodded. She was nearly finished healing the wound near his heart. Next she would concentrate on the wound that had impaled his right lung, which was why she didn't want Naruto to talk.

"I didn't kill him or hurt you, did I?" he asked, refusing to shut up.

Sakura couldn't help but get mad at him. "Naruto. Shut up. Ask him yourself when you're healed. But while I'm healing you, I don't want you to talk," she said sternly.

"Fine," Naruto mumbled, letting exhaustion take a hold of him. He closed his open eye and quickly fell asleep.

Sakura was exhausted; she had run out of chakra halfway through healing Naruto. She checked his vitals and decided that he would live through the night, and then she slowly got to her feet.

Yamato checked up on Sakura and could see from her struggles to just stand up that she was more exhausted than he was. "Sakura, go ahead and get some sleep. I'll take the first watch," he said in sympathy. He paused and noticed her looking at Sasuke. "Don't worry," he added, "I'll keep an eye on him." Sakura nodded and rummaged through her pack for a minute and gave him a container of pills. Yamato raised an eyebrow in question. "What're these for?"

"Have him swallow one of these every few hours. It'll keep him asleep so he shouldn't be any trouble," she said, handing over the container. "I've already gave him one approximately an hour ago. Try to give it to him between an hour and two hours from now." Yamato nodded. He thought Sakura was done, so he turned away to go check on something, but she had yet to finish talking. "Now, how to give him the pills," she said before going into a detailed explanation of how to make an unconscious person swallow a pill.

After she made sure Yamato understood how to give Sasuke the medicine, she walked over to the small fire Sai had made once he woke up. She chatted with him for a while, along with telling him how to give Sasuke the medicine, but then it was Sai's turn to take watch. Sakura sighed, realizing just how tired she was. She looked up and saw how late it had gotten; the healing sessions seemed to be getting longer and longer with her teammates. They can't help but get themselves into too much trouble, she thought, setting up a makeshift bed close enough to feel the warmth from the campfire.

Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.

Naruto blinked his eyes open, surprised by how much pain he felt just by breathing. He winced and realized he was breathing pretty hard and in short gasps. What happened? The blonde asked himself, wanting to sit up and look around. As soon as he tried, though, he was forced back down by a severe wave of pain. He pouted. He hated not being able to do anything.

He turned his head when he heard familiar footsteps. I can't believe I know her enough to recognize her by her footsteps, he thought, seeing only a pink blur walking toward him. My vision still sucks, he thought, blinking quite a few more times.

"Naruto? You're awake?" Sakura asked, kneeling down next to him.

Naruto nodded and winced. "Yeah, Sakura-chan. I'm awake. But, where's Sasuke?" he asked, not caring that talking caused him an immense amount of pain.

Sakura sighed. "Naruto, I'll finish his treatment right after you. I mean, you are in much worse shape. It looks like your Inner Kyuubi chakra still isn't responding well," she added.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Nani? What are you talking about?"

Sakura looked at him. "You would probably be healed by now if that chakra was working like usual," she said, placing her hands on his stomach, "but it's not, so I have to heal you. Really, did you have to go that far? Look at your injuries! It'll take longer than usual to heal you, baka," she added.

Naruto smiled. "But I had to. I mean, we have Sasuke now and we can go to Konoha with him!"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, we can. Now stop talking so much. You're still very injured and you're just tearing up whatever I did to heal those holes in your chest."

Naruto completely ignored her and continued to ramble on and on about something. "Naruto, please," she begged him again, "stop talking. I'm telling you, you're just making your injuries worse; it's pointless for me to heal you."

Naruto laughed again. "Geez, I already said 'I'm sorry' so many times, Sak-" he was cut off by a cough.

Sakura shook her head. "I told you to stop," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. Naruto nodded and then coughed again. Sakura sighed and focused on his lungs. What happened to him? Just overnight his body has gotten into a worse condition than after I healed him!

Sakura wiped the sweat from her brow and sighed. It had taken longer than she thought it would have to heal the annoying orange bundle of energy.

The blonde blinked a few times, his vision still much more blurry than he would have liked it, and pain still coursing through his body. "Sakura-chan, you're sure I'm healed?" he asked, wondering why it didn't feel like it.

Sakura nodded, a little annoyed. "I've already checked over all of your vitals and everything at least a dozen times. Why do you keep asking me?"

Naruto, acting as his usual self, didn't want her to worry about him too much. "I just wanted to make sure so I'm in peak physical condition!" he said, laughing a little.

Sakura gave him an unsure look. Then she looked over him to see a wooden cage. "Well, I need to go finish Sasuke's treatment," she told him, standing up.

Naruto nodded and watched her walk away. He flashed his stupid grin. We're finally gonna bring him home! He thought, excited.

Sakura walked up to the wooden cage, surprised to see several wooden bunshin surrounding it. She walked up to one of the 'Yamatos'. She couldn't tell if it was the real one, but it wouldn't hurt to ask it a few questions. "Did you make sure to give Sasuke that medicine?"

The Yamato looked at her and nodded. "One every two or three hours, just like you said. He took them and has yet to be a problem," the Yamato reported.

After Sakura had gotten enough information from the Yamato, she was let into the cage to finish his treatment. He had been drugged to sleep, or unconsciousness, whichever you prefer, for at least another day. Sakura put his hands on his chest and concentrated.

Yamato continually checked up on Sakura to make sure nothing was going wrong with the treatment or Sasuke's containment, which it never did. Sasuke stayed asleep and the cursed seal didn't activate, so not much else could go wrong, he believed.

Naruto sighed and rolled over to his side, trying to get up. He was tired of lying there on the ground; it just wasn't fun. He remembered that Sakura had already told him not to get up and to just rest, but he was a bundle of energy, so the blonde genin couldn't just lie around.

He slowly worked his way into a sitting position, and he looked around. His fight with Sasuke hadn't been nearly as destructive as his fight with Orochimaru, so the damage wasn't as bad to the landscape. However, Orochimaru never even got a hit in, but Sasuke had managed to hit Naruto in nearly vital spots two times, so the damage done to his body was worse. Naruto's stomach felt a little hot, so he lifted his shirt up and put a hand on it, but he wasn't surprised when it felt hot to the touch. He looked around for a moment and decided he wanted to find Sai. He tried to stand up again, but he landed on his butt. "Ow," he muttered, trying again.

He still tried to stand up several more times and each time he managed to stay up a little while longer before falling, usually in some awkward position.

Eventually he managed to stay standing up. He took a few breaths and looked around again. He didn't really know where to go, so he just started walking. After a few minutes of struggling to walk, he ended up finding Sai sketching near the remains of the campfire from the night before. Sai looked up at him. "Shouldn't you be resting?" he asked, returning his attention to the sketch.

Naruto shrugged and grinned. "Probably, but what Sakura-chan doesn't know won't hurt her," he said, laughing a little.

Sai shook his head. "No, but it'll probably hurt you."

"Huh?" Naruto asked, a dumb look plastered onto his face.

"Nothing," Sai replied, smiling a tad bit. Naruto wasn't sure if it was fake or real.

Naruto shrugged and sat down in as much as a normal manner as he could, but his muscles were screaming in pain, so he ended up falling flat onto his butt again. "Ow…" he mumbled, positioning himself into a better sitting position. Now his butt was probably bruised and he was already in enough pain to last a lifetime.

Sakura sighed and forced Sasuke to swallow another pill. He was healed now, so she decided to go and check up on Naruto; he didn't seem like he was feeling great when she left him to treat Sasuke.

She got up and quickly walked back to where Naruto had been lying only an hour or two hours ago, surprised and angry when she saw he wasn't there. She clenched her fists and walked off to find Sai; he might know where Naruto had disappeared to. I told him to rest! I don't even know what exactly is wrong with him! Geez, if he gets hurt, I'm not healing him. Maybe that'll teach him a lesson, she rambled in her head. By the time she reached where she had slept, she was about to burst with anger.

"-all it ever was was Sasuke-kun this, Sasuke-kun that, out of every girl," she heard an all too familiar voice complain.

Sakura couldn't take it anymore. She was angry and annoyed at this point, so she acted exactly like her teacher would have and took her anger out on the thing nearest to her, which just happened to be a blonde-haired boy wearing an orange and black jumpsuit.

WHAM! Naruto was surprised—and pained—to find himself face down in the ground. "Ow… Sakura-chan… that hurt…" he said, getting up and rubbing the back of his injured head. He turned around and looked at her. "What was that for?" he asked in a childish tone.

At least he's back to normal, Sakura thought. But she wasn't that nice to Naruto. "You need to rest! You can't just keep running off or your injuries will just reappear, like always! You may look all nice and better and you may even feel all healed, but Uzumaki Naruto, you are anything BUT healed!" she ranted, scaring both Sai and Naruto.

Naruto quickly said what needed to be said so he wouldn't be hit again. "I-I'm really, really, sorry, Sakura-chan. I promise I'll rest until you say I can get up," he begged while Sai sat there and chuckled.

'Someone that you can express your feelings openly with is a friend,' the palest boy remembered the excerpt from one of the latest friendship books he had read to be prepared for this mission. So these two must be really good friends. They express every feeling so openly, especially Naruto-kun.

Sakura ranted for a few more minutes while Naruto apologized over and over again and Sai continued to sketch.

Suddenly, Sai stopped sketching and looked up to see two green blurs come jumping over. He blinked a few times and resumed sketching.

The two green 'blobs' had distinct bowl cuts and one looked like a miniature version of the other. They gave each other thumbs-ups for a few moments before a girl with two balls of hair on her head and a huge scroll on her back, along with a boy with long, dark hair and white eyes, appeared. "Lee, Gai, you were supposed to wait for us before we got here," the girl said to the two green men. They stopped giving each other thumbs-ups long enough to reply. Sakura stopped ranting long enough to shake her head at the team that had arrived. Naruto looked up and smiled, but the smile disappeared when Sakura started ranting again.

The shorter one talked first. "But Tenten! Gai and I were feeling youthful! We had to go on ahead!" The taller one stood in the background nodding his head dramatically.

The boy with long hair shook his head. "When will you two give up on this 'youthful' stuff?" he asked.

Tenten sighed. "I don't think they ever will, Neji-san," she admitted, watching the two go back to their own dramatic 'youthful' moment.

Sakura continued to rant, Naruto continued apologizing, and Sai blinked. Sai turned to look at Naruto. "What's their problem?" he asked, pointing to the team.

Sakura stopped ranting, but scolded Naruto once more and told him not to do anything like that again. Naruto turned his attention to Sai and shook his head. "I don't know. That's just how they are." Sai gave Naruto what he assumed was a confused look. "Just don't bother with it," Naruto said. Sai shrugged and continued to sketch. Only Naruto was really noticed by the team.

"Naruto-kun! We were sent by the Godaime Hokage to come and help you. She said you've been gone too long for the mission she assigned you," the smaller green blob said.

Naruto looked at him. "Well that's because we followed Orochimaru and Kabuto here to capture Sasuke!" he said excitedly.

Lee was now more excited than he had been before. "You guys really caught Sasuke?!" he asked, unable to believe what luck they had. "But you don't look injured," he said, looking at the large rips and holes in Naruto's jumpsuit.

Naruto shook his head. "Not anymore, Sakura-chan healed me! I'm all better!" he lied, feeling pain whenever he moved or talked, so he was really just making it worse for himself.

Lee quickly gave Sakura a thumbs-up. "Good job, Sakura-chan!" he said, flashing a grin. Before he knew it, he had received a punch in the gut from Sakura.

"Don't talk to me like it was my job. I did it so he wouldn't die," she explained, her teeth clenched.

"Sorry… Sakura-chan…" Lee said, forcing the words out.

I know, I know. Not that great of a chapter, but it is the longest.

Hope you got a chuckle from that last part. This story is now has a beta! It's amazing I know. So I hope this chapter has satisfied those of you that wanted a longer chapter or a better written one. If not, I'll try harder. Thanks to everyone that's read the story, especially those that have reviewed, favorited, and/or added this to your story alerts. It makes me happy to know my story is quite successful for my first one. Also, if you do review, feel free to call me anything you want. I don't really mind. Thankies!

Elizabet639