I do not own Naruto or anything related. Although I truly wish I did.

I decided to write more of a laid back chapter, with little violence and a few funny scenes. Don't worry, I predict another fight soon.

"Talking"

Thinking

Read and Review please!

Sorry in advance for any grammar mistakes that I (hopefully didn't) make.

Chapter 4: Relaxed Planning

Sai sat and watched unmoving as the two teams in front of him conversed even more. Naruto and Lee were talking enthusiastically about something related to 'youthfulness' and Sasuke. Neji and Tenten were off to the side talking in whispers so Sai couldn't tell what they were really saying until Sakura showed up and immediately dove into their conversation. Finally, looking over a small piece of paper were Yamato and Gai, who were busy talking about their next plan of action.

Yamato nodded. "Of course Orochimaru and Kabuto will come to retrieve Sasuke. I doubt that man would ever leave his 'container' in someone else's hands," he said while Gai nodded enthusiastically. "We'll also need someone to go back to Konoha to let Tsunade know the situation is under control so she won't need to send any more backup teams after us," Yamato continued while Gai also continued enthusiastically doing just about everything. Yamato sighed loudly. How Kakashi-sama puts up with this man I'll never know, he thought. "I suggest someone fast—most likely from your team—go ahead and scout to Konoha. However, we need as many strong people here as we can keep. Orochimaru and Kabuto are not to be taken lightly. Who do you suggest?" he asked, looking over at Gai. Gai responded immediately.

"Why Lee or myself of course! Nobody can run faster or further than myself or Lee! If anyone should run to Konoha, it should be Le—" Sai tuned out the rest of Gai's noble speech about himself and his student and instead turned his attention back to the sketchbook that was sitting in his lap. He couldn't talk himself into continuing the sketch, so he returned the book to his pack and turned his attention to Neji, Tenten, and Sakura. He could barely hear what they were talking about, but he could make out a few words.

"R-really…. I don't…." Tenten stuttered. Since her back was turned to Sai, he couldn't tell if there was more to her sentence or if that was all she had said.

"Co... ent... ha... ve... ast... me!" Sakura protested, even though Sai knew that wasn't all of her sentence. Neji stood there and encouraged Sakura while Tenten waved her hands in front of her to try and dismiss what they were saying. Sai deemed it a boring conversation and turned his attention to Naruto and Lee.

"…so youthful!" Lee exclaimed, striking a 'nice-guy' pose. Naruto smiled and laughed lightly.

"Imagine everyone's faces," Naruto roused, stroking his chin, "it'll be amazing!" Lee shot another thumbs-up and Sai decided he wouldn't be able to stand the conversation for much longer, but he continued to eavesdrop all the same.

"Naruto-kun, it is a most youthful idea!" Lee exclaimed. "But what about Godaime-sama?"

Naruto waved his hand to dismiss the thought. "Don't worry about baa-chan, I'll take care of her," he said with a certain glean in his eye. Sai concluded that Naruto wanted to pull a prank that would get him in trouble, and he wanted to include Lee in the process. Sai turned his attention back to Yamato and Gai, since he noticed that Gai had finally finished his rant.

"Right," Yamato said, pretending he had been listening the entire time, "so either Lee or yourself will go ahead to Konoha while we stay here and prepare to leave. We'll arrive approximately half a day after the scout reports at Konoha," he explained. Sai kept mental notes just in case he would need the information. "Meanwhile, while our teams are getting ready to leave, we'll rotate between guarding the cage Sasuke's in and getting prepared to leave. I imagine it'll take a few hours at least to get Sasuke and everyone else ready to leave, and then we'll have to travel slowly because of Sasuke and Naruto. I doubt Sakura will let him go very far without a medical treatment," he said, getting a very odd reaction from Gai.

"Hm…" Gai mused before yet again exploding into a 'youthful rant', even if this one was by far a lot less lengthy. "That's right! Naruto's youthfulness must be protected!" Meanwhile, Sai was busy in his own thoughts. What in the world does he mean by 'Sakura won't let him go very far without a medical treatment'? he wondered. He can't be in that bad of a condition, he thought, looking over at the orange clad ninja. He's acting normally, so what in the world could be wrong with him? Sai's thoughts wandered until his attention was brought back to Yamato and Gai's conversation at the mention of his name. "—Sai could use some of that wonderful youthfulness!" Gai yelled triumphantly while pointing directly at him. This, of course, brought everyone's attention to the trio sitting down near the remains of the campfire from the night before. Sai blinked and looked at Gai a little confused. Lee had flames burning in his eyes and yelled something that resembled, "Gai-sensei! You're so youthful!" but Sai couldn't really make it out, so he just left it alone. After a few more moments of silence, Sai decided to say something.

"What does that statement mean?" he asked plainly, getting a very fast and emotional reaction from both Lee and Gai. A sudden sunset on the beach appeared behind them and tears flowed from both of their eyes. To say the least, Sai was surprised. Are they using genjutsu? He asked himself while the duo went on a rant about youthfulness.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

The exchange lasted for several more minutes before Yamato cleared his throat loudly. "Lee, Gai," he said drawing their attention, "can we maybe return to making plans for later?" he asked. Gai nodded his head and looked toward his student.

"Lee, I'm afraid we were too youthful! We must learn to be less youthful when it is needed and more youthful when it is needed!" He said while striking a pose. Lee followed suit with a quick emotional "Gai-sensei!" thrown in for effect. After another moment Lee and Gai separated and everyone—mostly—returned to normal. Sai still wondered what the whole 'youthfulness' thing was about, but he was now a bit afraid to ask.

Sai continued to eavesdrop into everyone's conversation, but nothing exciting happened, although he had begun to wonder what it was that Sakura and Neji were bugging Tenten about and what the prank was Naruto was scheming, so he just sketched until Yamato and Gai had finally come up with a plan. Sai saw no problem with the plan, except for the fact that the group would have to stop every few hours, since he didn't understand why that would be. "Yamato-taichou," he interrupted, "why would we have to stop every few hours? Everyone is in good condition and wouldn't it be better to hurry to get Sasuke back to Konoha?"

Yamato looked up at Sai. "Unfortunately, yes, we do need to hurry to get Sasuke back to Konoha. However, not everyone is in a good condition. We'll need to stop every so often so Sakura can quickly heal the only two injured people, Naruto and Sasuke," he explained. At that, everyone looked over at Naruto who just shrugged. "I feel fine, really!" he lied in defense several times before they left him alone.

The plan was simple: Gai would travel to Konoha to inform the Godaime Hokage that Team Kakashi and Team Gai were on their way back. Meanwhile, both of the teams would quickly prepare for travel and the leave, arriving approximately half a day after Gai. If they were lucky and moved fast enough, it could be much sooner. Also, while preparing to leave, they would have to rotate who would prepare to leave and who would guard Sasuke. Yamato concluded that at least four people and a few of his wooden bunshin would have to guard Sasuke at one time. He knew that the snake pedophile wouldn't want to leave his precious container with the Konoha ninja.

Every ninja nodded and reported that they understood. Gai quickly gathered his things, had an emotional moment with Lee and then left for Konoha. Sai blinked again. What was it with those two and emotional moments? He doubted he would ever know. He looked around and saw that Neji, Tenten, and Lee were already headed towards Sasuke's cage while Naruto and Sakura walked off to a random location behind some rocks. Sai raised a quick eyebrow, but lost his interest when Yamato called his name. "Sai, I need you to go and protect the cage with those three. Naruto and Sakura will join you after they're prepared to leave," he added while Sai walked away. Sai followed his instructions but let his mind wander while doing so.

"Sakura-chaaaaaan," Naruto whined, "how much longer do I have to lay here?" he asked fidgeting a bit. Sakura sighed while trying to keep her hands steady.

"I already told you that you'd have to wait until I was done healing you," she said, about ready to knock him out just to heal him. Naruto had not stopped fidgeting since she had started his treatment, still surprised how he was able to stand up and act normal with the injuries that were building up internally. She decided she would have to ask Yamato about it. While examining him before treating him, Sakura had noticed that most of the injuries were located around his abdomen and, being a professional doctor, she had asked to take a look before just barging into his privacy. Naruto simply said an uncharacteristic no and left it at that. However, now Sakura was curious. What could it be that's making these injuries so horrible? she wondered to herself. She would have to knock him out just to look. She sighed and decided to get some help from Yamato. "Yamato-taichou!" she yelled loudly. Naruto gripped his ears tightly.

"Geez, Sakura-chan, you're right next to me! Couldn't you warn me before you yell like that?" he asked innocently. He let go of his ears since it really had just been an act. Truthfully, his ears had already been ringing for quite a while, but the yelling really didn't help. Naruto did, however, manage to hear footsteps and he turned his head to see Yamato standing over him.

"What is it, Sakura?" he asked looking down at Naruto before kneeling down to the ground on the other side of Naruto.

Sakura quickly relayed the information she had gathered to Yamato. It mostly consisted of what his internal injuries were and how most of them were centered on and around his abdomen. Yamato nodded and made mental notes. Sakura knew that the Kyuubi no Kitsune was sealed inside of Naruto, but she didn't know that the seal was on his abdomen. Still, Yamato wasn't sure if he should tell Sakura. It was Naruto's decision, so he left it alone. "I guess you'll just have to keep healing him until we get to Konoha," he admitted. "Maybe Godaime-sama will know what's happening," he informed her. Sakura nodded and pulled her hands reluctantly away from Naruto. When she did, he sat up quickly, ignoring the pain in his abdomen.

"Naruto, you really shouldn't push yourself," she said. He flashed his normal idiotic grin to reassure her.

"I'll be fine, Sakura-chan," he said while getting up. He felt like he might fall over, but he managed to keep his balance so that Sakura or Yamato would have no reason to worry about his health. He looked around quickly and concluded he had nothing else to get. "I guess I'll let one of Gai's team know they can get prepared to leave," he said before walking away at a somewhat slow rate. Sakura gave him an odd look as Yamato stood up. He turned and walked away too, except he didn't bother to explain why.

Sakura watched as Naruto walked up to Neji, who was guarding one side of the cage alone. She tried to read their lips as they talked, but to no avail. Instead, she started to gather her medical supplies so she could be prepared to leave whenever it was needed.

"Neji!" the prodigy turned his head at the sound of his name. He knew who it was of course. He was sure nobody could ever mistake that voice. He prepared himself to be annoyed. He just stared as the hyperactive ninja walked up to him. "Can I ask you something?" he asked. Neji gave him an odd look and nodded. He wasn't in the mood to talk. "Well, I think there's something wrong with my chakra," he explained, "so I wanted you to check it out!"

"Naruto, that's not exactly a question," Neji pointed out. Naruto shrugged it off quickly and waited for an answer. Neji sighed loudly and gave him a quick sure before activating the kekkei genkai that he was partly known for. Neji wasn't too surprised at the color of the chakra, an orange-red color, since he had seen it during the Chuunin exams three years prior. Neji could remember that the chakra had also pushed itself through Naruto's chakra system, but it seemed more violent than he could remember.

"Nee, Neji?" Naruto asked trying to get Neji's attention. Neji just ignored him and continued his observation. The chakra was pushing through his chakra system so that it was literally tearing it apart. Not only that, but it was also effectively destroying everything connected to the chakra system. Neji noted that the worst damage was located near or on his abdomen, which seemed to be the source of the red chakra. The process wasn't very fast, but Neji could tell that if it was left alone it could destroy Naruto's vital organs. "Hm," Neji was deep in thought and didn't notice Naruto was yelling at him until he noticed Naruto's arms flailing. "What is it Naruto?" he asked deactivating his Byakugan.

"You kinda just stared into space for a while. So," he added quickly, "anything wrong with my chakra?" Neji nodded while Naruto just grinned like an idiot. "I thought so. Hm. Guess I will have to talk to baa-chan about it," he admitted looking a little down. Neji nodded.

"That would be best. Godaime-sama probably knows more about what's happening than I do. But tell her that she'll want to work quickly," he added knowing that Naruto would probably either forget or not want to go. "Your chakra is tearing your body apart from the inside out. Go at most a day without some form of medical treatment and you'd probably die from internal injuries," he added to try to scare Naruto into having the Godaime Hokage check up on him. Naruto nodded and flashed another idiotic grin.

"By the way, you should probably go get prepared to leave. I think you stared into space for too long,"Naruto added, pointing up at the sky. At least fifteen minutes had passed while Neji was deep in thought. Neji nodded and walked away from his post to get prepared to leave. Meanwhile, Sakura had already sent Tenten to get prepared and she had given another dose of pills to Sasuke. Yamato had created several wooden clones to help if danger arrived and had told Lee to go get ready, but he refused while droning on about how someone youthful would never do such a thing. Sai had barely moved except to look around every few minutes to make sure neither Orochimaru nor Kabuto were anywhere to be found.

Soon enough, every one of the ninja were prepared to leave. However, Yamato wasn't entirely sure what to do with the cage. He thought for a few moments. Making a smaller cage to keep him in would be a good idea. However, it would be slightly odd to carry so he threw out that idea. He could move the cage that Sasuke was in now by using wood, but it would take too much chakra and he needed to conserve it in case of a fight. He thought through several more ideas, but none of them appealed to him. Finally he thought of one and quickly put it to action.

Meanwhile, Sakura was talking to Naruto sternly. "I don't want you to push it, Naruto," she said. "You really shouldn't be traveling because of those injuries," she added before getting a quick reply from Naruto.

"I'm gonna be the Hokage some day! I can't let little injuries pull me back like this!" he stated triumphantly. He thrust an arm into the air but quickly pulled it back down when he felt a wave of pain travel down from his arm into his spine and then across his body. Sakura gave him a stern look.

"What were you saying about that? I am your doctor. You will do as I say," she demanded.

"Awwwwww, but Sakura-chaaaan," he whined. To that, Sakura gave Naruto, what she thought, a light punch to his head. Unfortunately, what was a light punch to Sakura was not a light punch to Naruto.

"Ow," he whined putting his hands on the back of his head.

Apair ofsnake-like eyes slit and a hiss could be heard coming from the owner of the eyes. "Kabuto," he calmly said to the gray-haired young adult next to him, "I believe we need to get him back." The teen nodded his head with respect.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama." He responded. He then took off quickly to follow his master through the foliage.

Naruto looked over at Yamato, or more precisely, two Yamatos. One of them had a normal sized person tied to his back with wooden planks. The wooden planks were sticking out of the Yamato's back so that even if they were to be broken, it would easy to repair them. Yamato gathered what was left of Gai's team and his own team together to explain what the mission's new breakdown was. "Alright, this escort should be fairly dangerous. Knowing that snake lover, he'll be after Sasuke soon. It's been over a day now since we have captured him," Yamato explained, pointing behind him, "so Orochimaru may very well be close to our current location. Every few hours we'll stop to check for anything that needs medical attention and we'll also switch off who will be carrying Sasuke," Yamato explained. "If anyone does attack, our first priority is to get Sasuke away, so whoever has him needs to run. Understand?" he asked and when everyone had nodded he continued. "As far as we know, Orochimaru could have an entire army after us just to retrieve Sasuke," he explained. "Basically, we'll move in a line and be on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. There may be traps waiting for us," he explained.

All of the ninja that had surrounded Yamato listened for the next few minutes to learn their positions in the line. The order had been decided by Yamato, so Sai was first because he was observant and would be able to find traps that could be set waiting for them. Yamato was second so he would be able to easily order the rest of the teams. Lee and Naruto were both after Yamato because of their quick reflexes. Tenten was next so that while those in front of her were acting as a distraction she could stun the enemy with her weapons and then Sakura, who was behind her, could hit them hard with a punch while the enemy was distracted. Finally, Neji was last since he could scout ahead, to the sides, and behind them with his Byakugan.

After hearing the strategy, Naruto was vaguely surprised by how much this formation resembled theone Shikamaru came up with during the mission to retrieve Sasuke. Naruto giggled slightly at the irony of it. He snapped out of it once Team Yamato, as itwill be known for now,had arranged into the line that had beendiscussed except for himself. He quickly filed into line and they all took off.

Back at Konoha, Tsunade paced the width of the office she was forced to work in. She would have much rather preferred a bigger room, but to her dislike this was one of the biggest in the entire building. She had yet to hear from Team Kakashi or Team Gai. She had only sent Team Gai out a half a day ago, but she was still worrying. She knew Kabuto was working for Orochimaru, but she doubted that it had turned into a conflict. However, if it had, that would very easily explain why she hadn't heard from either team.

She quit pacing and walked to her desk. She sighed and sat down, placing her elbows onto the desk and her hands over her mouth. She decided that a bit of sake would help to reduce her stress and worrying. She reached down and unlocked the drawer located in the bottom left of her desk. On the top it looked like she had several files scattered around, which she did. But she moved a small pile of paperwork to the side and revealed her stash of sake. She took a bottle out and reminded herself to buy more soon. Her stash now only had three more bottles before it ran out.

She opened the bottle and downed the contents in only a few gulps. She then stared at the bottle as if that action would somehowcreate more sake. She sighed and set it down on her desk before a knock was heard at the door. She put the bottle back into the drawer, moved the files back onto the top, and shut the drawer. After locking the drawer securely and returning the key to its proper hiding place she finally yelled, "Come in," and made herself look busy. She was fairly surprised to see a certain ninja walk through her door. "And what are you doing here?" she asked him.

Note: Nice cliffie, eh? I feel kind of evil leaving it like that, but oh well. You'll figure out who it is next chapter!

Yeah, I decided to keep this chapter a little laid-back. But at least I threw in some foreshadowing and suspense and etc. I also tried to write this in a better style and I tried to write it well, just better. Comparing this to the first chapter, I think I see quite a difference and I hope you guys do too.

I'm going to try to start updating every week around the same time. I think I'll make it around Tuesday or Wednesday. If you're lucky and I'm in a good mood and the next chapter's done, it could be earlier.

I had this week off and went nowhere, so I had WAY too much time on my hands. I feel like my brain has fried. Doing pretty much nothing but sitting at the computer for a week can do that to you. Hehe... Anyways...

Thank you everyone! For reviewing this, favoriting it, adding it to your alerts, for even just reading it. Thanks again.

Elizabet639