OH man guys! I am sososososososososososooooooo sorry this chapter is late. I'll come up with an explination below. xD

"Talking"

Thinking

Inner Being such as the Kyuubi or Sakura/Ino Inner Selves.

Chapter 7: Odd Predicaments

What hit me? The thought crossed his mind, but he couldn't remember the exact details. He sighed under his breath and stared at the sky. He figured he didn't really need to get up just yet since the danger had probably passed. However, if it was still around, moving would no doubt attract its attention. Therefore, the lazy ninja decided to pretend he was still knocked out.

After around a quarter of an hour, he was starting to feel a little stiff and hungry, not to mention slightly bored. The foliage above blocked his view of the clouds so there wasn't much else for him to do except twitch his fingers every few seconds. The finger that was currently being stretched out was lightly let back down to the ground but another finger did not rise in the pattern that had been established. The man's body went rigid, but then he quickly relaxed it and closed his eyes to somewhat resemble being knocked out. Hopefully this new source of energy approaching would not look too far into his position or he would more than likely be in trouble. Gears in his mind were already turning, formulating a plan based on several different factors.

"Neji-san! I think I found Shikamaru!" The familiar voice called out while a small stick was jabbed into the ninja's side several times.

"Alright, alright! Stop that, will you?" Shikamaru lazily said while pushing the stick away from his side. Lee immediately jumped back in astonishment. He stared at the stick in his hand and then at Shikamaru. He repeated the action several times before Shikamaru grumpily asked him what he was doing.

"This stick…" he mumbled, "it must be very youthful!" He yelled while pointing at it. Shikamaru looked at him with a surprised look. Can he seriously be that stupid? No, I don't think that's possible, even for Naruto or Lee. However, as Lee continued to rant about the stick's youthfulness with a sparkle in his eye Shikamaru realized that yes, Lee really could be that stupid.

Shikamaru let out a sigh as Neji and Tenten appeared to check his wounds and ask him about the current situation. The lazy ninja filled them in on everything he knew, but he honestly couldn't say what had happened to Kabuto or his teammates for that matter. "I was knocked out before everyone else, which is probably why I came to my senses sooner than Ino or Chouji," he mumbled before yawning. Neji and Tenten let him plop himself onto the ground while they went to find Ino and Chouji, who were both gathered next to each other by Lee. Of course, he was using the newfound youthful stick to try to wake both of them up.

"Lee-san, it's not going to work," Tenten muttered and sighed before getting into a bit of an argument based on why and how the stick was not youthful. Amusing enough as the conversation was, Neji eventually separated the two and had them help with Chouji's, Ino's, and Shikamaru's first aid. Luckily, they had few injuries, and even those were minor. After just a few moments both teams were prepared to leave for Konoha. Nobody bothered to create a formation and instead Neji took the lead and they all jumped away.

"What do you mean, 'you don't know?!" the girl demanded

"Gomen, Sakura-chan! I really don't remember! I swear. Why? What happ—ow! What was that for?!" a teen asked as he rubbed the newly acquired bump on his head.

"Why? WHY?! You are such an idiot!" she yelled again, nearly hitting the poor boy yet another time.

"Oi, oi Sakura! Don't hurt him so much!" another man tried to calm the rampaging girl down.

"I don't think Naruto can handle too many more hits like that…" a pale boy commented more to himself.

"He can suck it up!" Sakura yelled back at the pale boy. To prove her point, she hit the blonde on the head again.

"Itai! Sakura-chan! What was that for?!" the blonde hunched over and tried to protect his head from further injury. The form quickly sat back up though. "Neji?" He turned his head to stare at the Hyuuga prodigy. Both Team Gai and the Ino-Shika-Cho team appeared around the same time. Immediately the two main rivals got into a loud, obnoxious fight.

"Forehead! How could you let Sasuke-kun get away?!" Ino yelled, obviously not over her crush on Sasuke. Shikamaru sighed and turned his attention to the other blonde in the vicinity. He was currently clutching the top of his head tightly while trying to cover his ears. Shikamaru didn't really mind the yelling equivalent to a banshee's, but he remembered that Naruto had been gone for three years. His ears must have become adapt to hear a wide range of frequencies, but even Sakura's and Ino's yelling had to strain his ears.

"Ino-pig!! What do you mean how could I let him get away?! What did you do to stop him? Eh?!" she yelled back in an even louder, higher pitch. Naruto, at this point, had both of his ears covered and was singing an odd song to himself. It wasn't really a song, just a chant of "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" in a slightly musical tone. Shikamaru walked over to him and looked down in pity at the blonde.

"Oi! Just ignore them, makes everything easier," he advised Naruto.

"Easy for you to say, you don't have enhanced hearing. All I can hear is a ringing unless someone with a lower voice talks!" he threw at the pineapple shinobi. After a moment he returned to his small chanting. Shikamaru stood back up, but he was too lazy to intervene so he didn't. Instead, someone else did which caused the two to stop immediately.

"Your fighting is so youthful!" Lee interjected with flames in his eyes.

No… No way he just said that… both of the girls' inner beings thought at the same time. They turned and looked at each other. With that glance, a message was passed between the two as only could happen between two former best friends with a similar hatred toward a certain green-clad shinobi. Lee was soon staring at two evil glares sent in his direction. His spirit died down a little but the glares just added fuel to the flames. "How youthful to gain up on my one spirit!"

"Lee," Neji warned his teammate, "I don't believe that's a very good idea…" he tried to stop Lee, but yet again he had gone on a youthful rant. This, of course, just contributed more and more to the girls' anger.

"It's like the stick! Your youthful powers are absolutely astonish—" Lee landed several feet away after both girls had finally had enough. With a quick punch from both of Tsunade's students, for however short a time, would easily make someone fly that far. Naruto laughed lightly and took his hands off of his head. As long as the two 'women' weren't fighting anymore his ears probably wouldn't suffer much more damage. Sakura's face lit up with an idea after another moment or two of fuming.

"Oi, Ino-pig," Ino protested at the name but Sakura continued regardless. "Can you help me take a look at Naruto? I don't know what's wrong with him, but he needs more healing and I'm out of energy," she confessed while Inner Sakura was yelling at Ino and congratulating herself for something odd.

"Naruto, eh? Hm. I don't want to, but I suppose I owe it to him for giving Sasuke enough damage to stall him…" she muttered to herself for a few moments before finally agreeing. Naruto cringed and a slightly scared look crossed his face. Sakura at least knew about the Kyuubi, but Ino had no idea. Not only that had managed to scare Naruto. According to Shikamaru and Chouji, Ino had developed a temper and even although she was now a medical ninja she could and more than likely would take her anger out on her patients. He gulped and wished for the best. "So what's wrong with him? Symptom-wise of course," she added since Sakura had already explained she didn't know the main reason for his illness.

"Well, to sum it up he's experiencing fatigue, aching, a fever, slow-healing wounds, and extreme after-effects of being stupid," she joked with the last 'symptom'. Naruto stuck his tongue out and turned to look at Ino who was busy staring at him and checking his body's normal functions.

After a few minutes, Ino was being a smartass again. "Well, Forehead, you left out a few symptoms. His heart rate is higher than it should be, but it's not yet high enough to be extremely dangerous. His blood pressure is also a tad high, but I'll say that's due to his diet of ramen. His immune system isn't even attacking whatever virus or disease he has either. Hm. He could just have a parasite of some sort, really. Nothing a few shots won't take care of. I'm sure he's been bitten by something out in these woods."

"Ino-pig, what parasites exactly do you think would cause that? I don't believe there are any in this area that would cause those symptoms in such a short time." Of course, now Naruto was freaking out. He never did like shots, even though he could stand being stabbed with a kunai. The anticipation of a shot being stuck into his arm was worse than a kunai. He would know when the shot was coming, so he would tense and expect worse than he would actually get. With a kunai he wouldn't normally know it was coming, but his mind would normally block out most of the pain regardless.

Ino's eyes slit while she thought for several long minutes. "There are none in this region that have been studied, but there always new species being reported, so how would you know?" Naruto sighed loudly and both girls snapped their heads in his direction. He smiled sheepishly and tried to look innocent but it didn't work. "Maybe we should do some exploratory surgery," Ino suggested. Naruto gulped and looked at Sakura for help. She just shrugged and decided it wasn't a good idea out in the wilderness. He would probably get an infection.

After yet another long talk they decided to go to Konoha and ask Tsunade to see what his problem really could be. She was, after all, a medical genius. Unfortunately for Naruto, they had deemed it a health risk for him to walk so he was stuck hitching a ride on Sai's back. Yamato's back was still sore so Ino, who now had a crush on the odd male that resembled Sasuke, had vouched that Sai should carry the blonde. Sai had no reaction to this so it was decided.

Tsunade paced her office and stared at the new dent in her wall. Maybe such strict punishment for Kakashi taking too long was a tad but of an overreaction, but the stress she had built up said otherwise. "I need a vacation from this Hokage crap," she muttered under her breath. A few more bottles of sake had found their way to become empty, even though she wasn't the only one drinking them.

"That's silly, Hokage-sama!" Kakashi joked. He normally held his sake well but since he was currently on pain medicine it just added to his drunkenness. Tsunade raised an eyebrow and laughed.

She laughed for a few more minutes before a knock was heard on the door. "Come in!" she yelled, oblivious to the fact that both the crate of sake and sake bottles were residing on her desk. The door creaked open slowly and a woman peeked her head in.

"Tsunade-sama, have you been drinking? Kakashi-san? What are you doing here?" A confused Shizune asked. Tonton walked in behind her, making his normal pig noises. Kakashi made an inaudible noise followed by a slight hiccup, which caused him to laugh for a few moments uncontrollably.

"Tsunade-sama is he?"

"Yeah, I gave him some painkillers and then he drank some sake. He ended up like that," she added shrugging. After she finished her current bottle she reached for another. Shizune's hand slapped hers away from the crate.

"I don't think either of you need any more sake. I heard that something was troubling you and that Kakashi had been sent to get your sake, so I was worried. Turns out I was right about that feeling," she muttered the last part. Tsunade just shrugged her off.

"It's true. Kakashi did go and get my sake since you were on a mission. He took too long so I punched him into the wall," she added pointing to the new dent in the wall. Shizune winced for Kakashi but remembered he had been given painkillers so she wasn't worried about that. Tsunade laughed out of the blue which scared Shizune a little. "It was easy to get him to drink some sake once he was drugged. He couldn't tell what it was so I told him that it was some water to drink and he drank it fast. After a little while he said that it tasted funny, but it affected him pretty quickly," she added with a laugh. "And just look at him now!" she commented while her cheeks were turning a slight rose color. Kakashi hadn't heard a word she said—he was too busy being entertained by flipping a spike of his hair. To him, it was one of the most amusing things he had ever done in his life. He giggled whenever it flipped and then popped right back into place.

"Are you sure he'll be okay? He is still recovering from his last mission…" Shizune mumbled before Tsunade interjected.

Tsunade laughed a little before finally talking. "Oh please. Everyone needs to have a little fun every once in a while. Anyway, why did you come here? You normally rest after a mission."

"Well I thought I should inform you that I could feel Naruto's chakra and Orochimaru's nearby each other." Kakashi looked up and mumbled a 'what' before his hair became even more amusing. Tsunade stared at Shizune in shock for a moment.

"WHAT?!" she yelled. A few guards ran into the office to see what had gone wrong and left immediately when they saw that she was angry… and a little drunk.

"Oi, oi! Don't be so loud!" Kakashi giggled lightly. Tsunade threw a glare his way before addressing Shizune.

"It has yet to reach the amount of time Gai told me, so I can't send out a squad. Do you have any idea what was going on?" Shizune just shook her head instead of talk. "Dammit!" Tsunade yelled before slamming her fist onto the desk again. She sighed and finally sat down. "For now there is nothing I can do but wait," she muttered.

"Tsunade-sama, it was probably nothing," Shizune tried to calm both herself and Tsunade down. Kakashi didn't need help since he was drunk and sprawled out in a chair.

"Sakura-chaaan, my legs hurt!" "Sakura-chaaaaaan, I'm hungrrrry!" "Sakura-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, I'm bored!" Several more sentences resembling these came out of the blonde's mouth until Sakura finally hit him on the head and glared at him.

"Shut up!" When she said it, even Sai stiffened from the tone of her voice. Naruto quickly shut his mouth before he would get pummeled even more.

"Let's rest for a few minutes," Yamato announced from the front of the group. As he looked around at the group, he realized that a few hours without rest was probably a little too harsh on the group of teenagers since they were all gasping for breath. He sweatdropped before pulling out a few tools to check their location. "Hm. I guess we're just a few hours away from Konoha at the least," he muttered to himself before placing the tools back into his pouch. After a few more minutes Yamato called all of the shinobi to attention. Of course, Lee immediately jumped up as 'youthfully' as he possibly could. "I've decided to send Lee ahead as both a scout and a messenger," he said handing Lee a radio. "Just contact us with this if you run into any danger and if you reach Konoha also tell us. Then I'll give you instructions on what to do after that," he added while placing his own radio on. "Go on," he urged Lee after he stood there for a few moments.

Lee nodded and yelled "Hai!" before disappearing into the deep foliage.

Yamato turned to face the rest of his squad. All of them had managed to stand up shakily except for Naruto who couldn't stand up. Neji had managed to heave Naruto up onto Sai's back even though Naruto really had detested loudly. "Well, we'll get going soon, but I figure Lee can move at a faster pace than any of us right now," he explained his action. The team nodded while Naruto made a strange face at his predicament. "Right, let's go as soon as everyone's ready." After a moment of grumpy mutters from the team they headed off towards Konoha.

Somewhere else in the large Konoha woods, a team of three was moving briskly through the foliage. The master led while two of his favored students followed. One was there for his master, the other there just to learn to seek out his own revenge. Soon… Soon that body will be mine!

Note: Okay, so basically what happened was that I got grounded, then I experienced writer's block. That happened a lot. Got grounded some more, had to do homework, worked and then got writer's block. Lame excuse, but I'm not gonna lie to you guys. I was a little lazy and didn't really work on it for a few days. Anyways, next chapter should be out Wednesday but expect it as late as a week away. Again, sorry it's late. Please don't attack me?

As always, I hope you enjoy this very LATE chapter ((SORRY)) even more than usual.

Elizabet639

P.S. I almost forgot, I set up a poll to see if you guys may want a pairing. If you do, go ahead and put it in a review or whatnot. If you don't want one, I'm fine with not having one. Just seeing what you guys thought about it. NO sasuxnaru or anything like that. Depending on the feedback for certain pairings, they may or may not be shown. It might just be some fluffy stuff between two characters, probably nothing serious.