Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does. I'll let you know when I do.

"Talking"

Thinking

As always, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 6: An Unexpected Savior

"Gai," the masked man mumbled through his mask. However, the man wearing green spandex didn't reply. "Oi," he tried a little louder. However, his voice was canceled out by the other's rant. "Oi," he tried even louder, but after year upon year of dealing with the youthful ranting, he knew that his self-proclaimed rival would not hear him. "Gai, I have a new challenge!" he said loud enough, which caught the other's attention.

"Ohh? Is it a youthful competition?! Like a battle?!" he asked enthusiastically, striking a pose. The white-haired jounin sighed lightly, the only reason to even suspect it was that his visible eye closed and the mask moved a tad bit outward.

"No, Gai. More like a hip competition," he said, which caused a very enthusiastic reaction from his rival. "The competition is," he paused since he knew how much it would bother his rival, "well, it's…" Kakashi was thinking on his toes now. It wasn't hard, but he had several ideas. Have a race to the Hokage tower? No, Gai would definitely win. Have Gai carry the box? It would work, but then Tsunade would know he hadn't done his 'mission'. Play a silence game? Well, Kakashi could win and it would shut Gai up. Still, there were more options. However, his mind was on his team and how they were doing, so he didn't know what to pick. Gai had a deep fire burning in his eyes and he was clearly excited to see what Kakashi's new challenge was. Kakashi looked over at the man and sighed. "Maaa, I forgot," he said.

"YOUR HIPNE—"

"I remembered!" Kakashi exclaimed. He couldn't stand another rant from his 'rival'. "Let's see who can stay silent the longest," Kakashi muttered just loud enough for him to hear. When Gai took a deep breath Kakashi continued. "Starting now!" Gai closed his mouth and Kakashi sighed mentally. Thank goodness. Now it's only a matter of time before we get to Tsunade-sama's office.

Blonde eyes stared coldly at the calm snake-like pair. Neither of the two shinobi had moved for a while, but of course not one of the other shinobi had jumped in to help. Lee was lying on the ground unconscious from exhaustion and being beaten up by the rogue Sannin. Tenten was out of chakra, Sai was nowhere to be found, Sakura was just staring with fear in her eyes, and Neji was using his remaining chakra to search the area for Sai, Yamato, and Sasuke.

Naruto gritted his teeth and readied himself for a fight, being careful with his right arm. Orochimaru smirked and waited for the Jinchuuriki to make the first move. Of course the hyperactive knucklehead ninja would attack first; it was almost a certain fact. The blonde's hand formed into fists and since Orochimaru was right in front of him, he couldn't help but lash out in anger. The fist that Orochimaru had predicted was easily avoided by leaning to the left only about an inch. The snake smirked and kicked hard. The kick connected with Naruto stomach and forced the air out of his lungs. The blonde bent over and tried to catch his breath. The gasping from his stopped only a second before he was down on the ground with a foot on top of his chest. Then a thought struck him, which was a pretty rare thing. The thought was that he was injured enough that his body wasn't responding exactly how it should, which was why he didn't even see Orochimaru before he was on the ground.

The snake looked down at the Jinchuuriki, unsure of whether to kill him. He had no feelings for the Kyuubi brat, he was almost sure. However, would it truly benefit him? Of course it would, then Akatsuki would never complete their goal. He put more pressure onto the boy's chest, which caused him to wince. "Guh," Naruto half coughed. The man smirked and raised his sword.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, making a move toward him. However, she stopped in her tracks when a pale hand grabbed Orochimaru's wrist mid-swing. Naruto's eyes widened and Orochimaru stared calmly behind him at the young man who had grabbed his wrist.

Yamato stood up and rubbed his sore back. He trusted Sakura, but he was still glad that he had reinforced his back with strong wood. Otherwise it would be a lot more than sore. "Yamato-taichou?" Yamato turned his head to look over at the boy that had spoken. "What happened exactly?" Yamato thought for a minute before answering.

"I'm not exactly sure. I felt my back go numb and that's about all I remember," he replied stretching his back. Of course, he did remember more, but the details were fuzzy and he wasn't sure if they were real or not. Sai just thought back to what happened. Of course, he couldn't make much sense of it either.

"So he really got away?" he asked for about the fifth time since he had woken up. Yamato nodded and stretched even more. However, his back refused to cooperate and instead of feeling better, it felt like he had pulled a muscle. He sighed and stopped stretching while Sai looked around. "Where'd he go?" he asked. Yamato shrugged.

"Probably went off to that master of his. Can't stay away from him for too long. It has been about a day and a half by now," he added for effect. Sai didn't respond and looked away in an odd direction. Yamato raised an eyebrow but didn't ask what he was looking at. Instead, he closed his eyes and focused. The seeds he had Naruto and Sakura swallow might still be working, so he could technically be able to sense where they were, as long as they were using chakra. Almost immediately Yamato's eyes snapped open and he looked in the same direction as Sai.

"You noticed too?" the pale boy asked. Yamato nodded and gave a silent order. Then they both jumped off through the foliage in the direction they had been looking only a few moments before.

The azure eyes closed in pain as he felt more weight on his chest. The cough that was trying to force its way through his airway was kept back painfully. Still, the boy forced his eyes open and tried to breathe normally. He could hear people talking and he could barely pick the words out, but it was hard.

"S-Sasuke-kun…" a pink-haired girl forced the words out loud enough, even through her shocked state.

"Hm? Sasuke-kun, why aren't you letting me kill this boy?" the man asked while putting more pressure on Naruto's chest. He had completely forgotten that he was even there. Naruto grunted in pain but he was ignored completely.

"Why do you need to? I didn't think a Sannin would need to kill such a waste of the shinobi name," he said and Orochimaru's smirk turned into a straight face. "Besides," he added, but the rest of his sentence was a whisper. Orochimaru's smirked appeared, although there was a brighter glow to his snake eyes than usual.

"Fine," he said before putting his sword away in his normal disgusting manner. Then he stepped off of Naruto and turned away. "But you're getting Kabuto," he murmured loud enough for the group to hear. The two missing nin disappeared in a puff of smoke. Not a single ninja moved for a few moments that felt like an eternity. Naruto tried to sit up but fell back down before he could.

"Itai!" he yelled out which caused nearly every person to jump back to reality. Sakura ran up to her teammate's side and crouched down. While she looked him over with her eyes, they stopped dead at his right shoulder. Her eyes traveled to his face to see a pained look, but he was still smiling. "I'll be fine, Sakura. I just need to rest," he concluded. The look that was planted on Sakura's told him that even if he thought that, she didn't believe it for a minute. Naruto's features changed from pained to scared as he tried to come up with something to say so that she wouldn't give him that look. He told his muscles to move so that he could prove that he would be fine, but he found himself paralyzed. Panic crossed his face and Sakura smirked. He looked down to see her hand on his shoulder near his neck.

"There. Try and get away now," she taunted him before she placed her hands onto his abdomen. When she felt him wince, she could also feel the heat radiating from his body. After taking her hands off of his abdomen, she took off his headband and felt his forehead. A fever, she thought while thinking about anyway to get cool water. "Neji!" the prodigy turned his head at the sound of his name. He and Tenten were checking up on Lee, and it seemed like he didn't have too many injuries, but rather he was just exhausted. "Can you find a stream and bring me back some cool water?" she asked before Lee jumped up full of energy again.

"I will, Sakura-chan!" he yelled while giving a thumbs-up.

"Lee, do you even know where the nearest source of water is?" Neji asked, stopping Lee in his tracks. After a moment of thinking, Lee shook his head. "Lee and I will fetch the water," he offered before turning and walking towards the nearest site of water. Sakura nodded and turned her attention back to Naruto. He smiled up at her through tired eyes and she focused again on healing him.

"You sure you don't know what's wrong?" she asked him again after she was done with his shoulder wound. Naruto nodded tiredly, but he managed to stay awake. A sigh escaped from her lips and Naruto gave her a quizzical look. Her quick reply was a smile. "You can sleep, you know. I'm not going to keep you up while I'm healing you," she added and Naruto nodded. A concerned look appeared on her face again; she had noticed his breathing was becoming labored and she didn't know exactly why, but at least he was going to sleep.

On the other side of Naruto, Lee appeared with a canteen of water that he pulled out of his pack. "Anything else, Sakura-chan?"

"Do you have any clean rags?" she asked and Lee produced a rag from his pack. It was a little dirty, but Sakura decided it was better than nothing. After nearly drenching the cloth in water she rung it out so it was damp and cool. She then placed it on Naruto's exposed forehead; she was hoping it would keep his fever down until she had healed him. By now, Lee, Tenten, and Neji had found a way to be near the blonde genin.

"Why do we have to guard this stupid guy? I mean, he's out of chakra, isn't he?" the pineapple asked the other two that surrounded a man tied up.

"That's what Neji told us," the blonde girl offered. The final member chimed in, but it was incomprehensible since his mouth was full of food. "Chouji! That's disgusting! You really should be on a diet," she responded to her teammate's behavior. The largest of the three shrugged and continued to eat from a bag of chips. The pineapple reached over and grabbed a chip from the bag, making sure it wasn't the last. He looked it over before popping it into his mouth. He sat down and stared up at the sky.

"Damn trees, I can't see anything through them," he mumbled to the treetops. The blonde girl sighed loudly.

"I swear, you two wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for me. Do I have to mother you two forever?" Chouji completely ignored her and Shikamaru continued to stare at the clouds wordlessly. "Oh come on!" she yelled while stamping her boot into the ground.

Shikamaru turned his head and saw a kunai flying at him soundlessly. "Jump!" he yelled and Chouji and Ino immediately went into action. A figure appeared behind Shikamaru while he was jumping and Shikamaru turned around, but not soon enough. He felt a blow to his neck and he fell down to the earth unconscious. The blur moved to in front of Chouji and kicked him in the gut down to the ground. A small crater appeared in the ground where Chouji had landed before Ino was smacked into a tree in nearly the same way, except she fell to the ground.

Kabuto looked up at the ruckus and wished that it was his master, but it turned out to be a person he almost despised, even though his master liked him more than Kabuto. The ropes around the medic were cut loose and he stood up. After that he just jumped away, a thank you of any kind would just be shrugged off by his 'savior' anyway. He wanted to be by Orochimaru's side, not this punk's.

Yamato and Sai landed on the ground only a few feet away from the rest of their squad. "Oi, is Naruto okay?" Yamato asked. He knew that Tsunade-sama was connected to this child somehow, so he didn't want him to die on one of the missions he was in charge of. The pink-haired kunoichi nodded and other than that, she didn't reply. Instead, Tenten provided a reason why she didn't reply.

"She's been healing Naruto on the better part of about a half hour, and she was already nearly out of chakra," the weapon mistress tilted her head over to Neji, which was supposed to tell Yamato that she had gotten the information from the Hyuuga prodigy. Yamato nodded and scanned his team. He could tell they were exhausted, but there was unfortunately not much he could do about it. As he scanned Tenten, he noticed that she was smiling at either Neji or Lee, it was hard to tell. Maybe it was even both of them. He also noticed that each member of his team was injured in some way, but he wasn't exactly sure of the severity of their injuries. Obviously, Naruto's were the worse considering his condition, but he realized that the team needed to get on the move as soon as possible.

"As soon as Naruto is well enough to travel, we'll have to leave," he informed them. A stern look was thrown his way by Sakura.

"Even after he's healed that much, I am not going to let him just walk around on his own," she said sternly.

"I can understand that, Sakura. I'll carry him like I carried Sasuke so he won't fall and he shouldn't be injured," he informed her. Sakura sighed and realized it was one of the only ways to get Naruto to Konoha without completely depleting her chakra reserves. Yamato and Sakura talked over the details for several minutes before finally coming up with a reasonable agreement. Meanwhile, Tenten was tending to her teammates' wounds since they weren't severe. She bandaged a few cuts on Neji, but Lee had several bruises and a few deep cuts, but it wasn't anything too serious. After she had cleaned and dressed his wounds, Lee was back to being as enthusiastic as ever. It was fairly entertaining to watch his run around while punching and kicking in the air, demonstrating how he 'defeated' Orochimaru. It continued for quite a few minutes until Neji had finally had enough from his teammate.

"Lee," he said but it failed to get his attention. Lee continued with his odd act and Neji tried again to get his attention. "Oi, Lee," he tried louder. This time, Lee heard him.

"Neji-kun! Do you want to help me in my great youthful training?" Neji sighed and shook his head. "Oh!" Lee punched a fist into his open palm. "You finally want that piggyback ride!" Neji's eyes widened a bit but they quickly returned to normal.

"No." Lee's facial figures sunk for a moment. After a quick pat on the back by Tenten though, he was quickly back to his old self.

"Alright, everyone ready to go?" Yamato asked after he finished talking to Sakura. The team nodded and gathered the few belongings they had scattered about. After the team leader deducted that everyone was present, he asked Sakura how much longer she would need.

"Give me about fifteen minutes and he should be well enough to travel on your back for a few hours," she reported before a shocked look crossed her face. "Neji!" the prodigy turned his head away from Lee to acknowledge that he had heard her. "How are Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji holding up?" She knew that she had been forgetting something but she never realized that the esteemed trio might have also been attacked after Neji and Sakura had left them alone with Kabuto. The veins around Neji's eyes became very visible, one of the only ways to know his kekkei genkai had been activated. After a moment of silence except for Lee's exuberant ranting, Neji closed his eyes and the veins disappeared back into his skull.

"Not a single member is moving, but there is no opposing threat near them at the moment," he reported and Yamato pinched the bridge of his nose to fend off an upcoming headache. Sakura looked over at Yamato as he started to mumble.

"Alright," he announced, "we'll go back and help the Ino-Shika-Cho trio before returning to Konoha. If it's needed we'll send three ninja as a team to retrieve medical help from Konoha." The team nodded and stood up. "Tenten, Neji, Lee," he called each of their names to grab their attention, "please hurry to the Ino-Shika-Cho group before us and we'll follow behind." Each member nodded at nearly the same time and took off, Neji in the lead. Yamato breathed out loudly after they had left.

"What's wrong, Yamato-taichou?" Sakura asked while she had taken a break to tend to Naruto's less serious injuries with just bandages and ointments. Even though she was being careful Naruto winced several times from his body's reflexes. She checked his forehead again for a fever. It's a fever, but it's not as bad as before. Still, she removed the current cloth from his forehead and replaced it with another.

"This whole mission," he finally admitted. "It should have been a fairly simple mission to gather information on both Sasuke and Orochimaru," he sighed out. "I can't believe Kakashi-sama and Jiraiya-sama have been able to put up with that knucklehead for so long," he mumbled. A small chuckle escaped from Sakura's lips at the statement. Yamato looked at her quizzically before she explained herself.

"I guess some people just get used to him after a while. He can get really serious when he needs to be," she said smiling. Yamato didn't reply and instead stretched his back again. Before Sakura could say anything else, Sai finally said something.

"It's been fifteen minutes," he said in a monotone voice. Before he knew it, he felt something connect with the back of his head and he flew forward. He blinked a few times and sat back up to see a fuming Sakura standing over his last position. He also noticed that her hand was clenched into a fist, so it was easy to assume that Sakura had punched him. Yamato sighed and realized that Sakura would be harder to get used to than Naruto.

"The next person that walks through that door is going to wish they hadn't…." an angered blonde muttered from behind her desk. It had been a very stressful last day for her, and she had yet to get more sake. Her fingers tapped methodically on the desk as she stared at the empty sake bottles in front of her. This, of course, just brought her anger to a higher climax. Finally, the door swung open and she stood up before cracking her knuckles. The chair behind her had been bolted down to the floor, but in her anger it was fairly easy for the Godaime to pick up the chair, even though she ripped off part of the floor with it. She flung the chair at the open door, not even bothering to look at the person standing in the doorway.

"I-i-i-itai!" a familiar yelled out.

"Maaa, looks like I win, Gai," Kakashi muttered through his mask before stepping around both the man clutching his injured head and the chair that had injured him.

"KAKASHI!! WHAT THE HELL TOOK YOU SO LONG TO GET MY SAKE?!" Tsunade demanded, looking for another object to throw.

"Oi, oi! Calm down, Tsunade-sama. I had a few problems finding the right store and then I ran into Gai over there," he sighed. "But I got the sake," he informed her setting the crate down. Tsunade blinked a few times and finally noticed that it was Gai she had thrown her chair at.

"Gai! Where's the rest of your team?" she asked quickly, completely forgetting about the sake.

"Well, Tsunade-sama, I ran here as fast as my youthfulness would let me, although my youthfulness, sadly, is not as fre—"

"SHUT UP AND GET TO THE POINT! Are. They. Okay?" she demanded. Gai stood upright and tried not to go off on another rant.

"Tsunade-sama, I cannot be sure! The last time I saw them, they were all doing fine and they had captured Sasuke! However, if they do not get here within another few hours, they told me to inform you that it was probably because of either Naruto's or Sasuke's condition, but if they didn't appear in Konoha up to a day after I arrived, then it would be wise to send at least one team after them," he briefly said, grateful that Tsunade had not tried to hit him again. Kakashi stared at his rival with a surprised look, even though it was hard to tell.

"Gai," Kakashi started, "do you know what Naruto's condition is?" he asked but he was disappointed when his rival just shook his head. The room was silent for a long moment before Tsunade sighed deeply.

"I'll have to take your word for it, Gai. If they do not show up in this office by this time tomorrow, I will send an available team after them. No," she said sternly when Kakashi started to talk, "you will not be a part of that team, Kakashi. You still need to rest! I might send an ANBU squad after them since they might still have Sasuke, but I don't think that I will need to resort to that," she informed Kakashi before moving behind her desk. Then she remembered that she had thrown her chair which led to the remembrance of why she had thrown her chair. "Gai, you're dismissed," she informed him. "However, Kakashi, you still need to explain to me why it took you so long to bring me my sake," she threatened after Gai had left. Kakashi gulped and sweatdropped.

Oh no…

Note: Sorry guys. This chapter was pretty short and all, and I know it's not the best. Good news, though! My birthday's on Sunday, so yay! I'll probably update around then since I'll hopefully be getting a laptop this year.

Anyway, thanks again to all of the reviwers/readers/favoriters/etc! It surprises me everytime I get a review, favorite, or anything else. I'm very surprised at the positive feedback, but at the same time it makes me happy to know that quite a few people enjoy this story. Thanks a lot guys.

Sorry if this isn't written to the best of my ability. We're reading Romeo and Juliet in my english class and my brain is dripping out of my skull. Just trying to talk in a normal way is becoming a tad bit more difficult, so to negate the effects of it showing up in my writing, I have started to narrate my entire life. Odd, I know, but it helps. Not only that, but my beta, AnimeOtaku31821, is out of town so she couldn't check it over for me. I read over it several times, but I still can't find any errors left. If you do, inform me and I'll fix it.

Hope you enjoyed and please review! Don't worry, I'm not going to hold the story hostage and demand reviews. That's just mean. See you all next time!

Elizabet639