I apologize in advance for the short chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. For if I did, a certain person would not have died. Ever.

"Talking"

Thinking

"Kyuubi's mind-talk"

Chapter 8: Communications

"Kakashi, you are POSITIVE that you saw him in town?" Tsunade asked the now drunk man while shaking him back and forth. She tried to force him out of his stupor in many ways. She had punched him, slapped him a few times, even read him a passage from his book in a seductive tone. Still, Kakashi didn't snap out of it. She yelled out in frustration before slapping him again. Kakashi just giggled a little bit more which angered Tsunade even more. She quickly threw him back down into a chair before pacing the room.

"You're funny, Tsuande-baachan," Kakashi giggled as he copied Naruto's disrespectful nickname for Tsunade. This, in turn, caused Tsunade's anger to rise even higher. The only thing that stopped her from knocking Kakashi out of a window was that fact that if she killed him then she would never get her information.

She lowered her raised fist slowly and instead glared at Kakashi, who just mimicked the glare and laughed even more. Tsunade grinned and put her hand on Kakashi's chest, which made him blush visibly through his eye. She winked at him and then backed up to watch her work. Changing Kakashi's breathing rhythm from normal wasn't too hard, especially not for Tsunade. She considered it a drunk's punishment as Kakashi starting hiccupping uncontrollably. His body was trying to force him into getting his normal breathing rhythm back into place. However, each time he hiccupped, he laughed. In turn, Tsunade laughed since she knew it could be a while before this show was over…

Sakura, like Tsunade, was having a male anger her. However, instead of a drunken Kakashi, she had a wounded Naruto. Naruto could not, for even just one minute, find a reason to shut up. With every sentence that came out of Naruto's mouth, another vein could be seen popping out of Sakura's head in anger. This would normally scare any person that knew she had trained under Tsunade, but Naruto wasn't looking at her so he didn't notice. Sai, however, did. He didn't exactly want to get his head smashed in because Naruto was being an idiot. "Quit talking," Sai advised with a fake smile. Naruto glared at him and started talking even louder and more obnoxiously. It never got through his dense skull that Sakura was about ready to bust said skull in. He didn't notice until an icy glare was shot his way.

The owner of the glare talked in a very monotone voice to try and keep her anger from bursting out. "Naruto… You should stop talking here and now." She put emphasis on the last word and Naruto finally got it.

He shut his mouth and muttered a small apology before looking around. Unfortunately, the ADD ninja couldn't stand more than a few minutes without doing something. "Sit still brat!" Naruto eyes widened and he looked around for the source of the threatening voice. However, it didn't even seem like any else in his team had heard it. The knucklehead could have sworn he had heard that voice before, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "You aren't going to see anyone you know." Naruto's ears rang from the deep voice. "Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked quietly. However, when he received a cold glare that obviously stated to shut up or die, Naruto shut his mouth. "Why in the hell did the Yodaime put me in such a stupid container!? Does your brain even work?"

Naruto couldn't stand it anymore. "Sai, do you hear that?" When Sai shook his head in response Naruto sighed. It must be the pain. It must be affecting my head somehow, the knucklehead concluded.

Naruto swore he heard a sigh from inside of his head, but he figured that he had just sighed without realizing it. "Really, do you not recognize my voice? You've come begging for my help, little kit, anytime it got rough. Well, now you don't have to come begging. The seal has released enough that my chakra is running freely through you, which also gives me a way to… communicate," the voice hesitated on the word almost like it stung to say it, "with you." The blonde thought for a moment while the voice got exceedingly impatient. Once he finally figured it out, he stifled a gasp and yell.

"K-Kyuubi?" he asked in a scared tone.

"Shut up, kit! People will hear you and think you're insane. Just think and I'll be able to hear you fine." Naruto's eyes widened in shock after hearing that statement.

So… you can hear everything I'm thinking? Naruto asked, trying out the new way of communication to the demon within him.

Naruto could hear a musing sound come from within his mind. "That's the gist of it. However, I have to speak to talk to you. You aren't able to hear my thoughts," the fox explained.

What?! So you get to dig into my mind but I can't into yours? Naruto demanded narrowing his eyes. I don't think that's exactly fair! he whined.

"Oh shut up!" The Kyuubi yelled. "Don't complain about fair and unfair with me, brat! I was forcibly stuck into your body from that damned Yodaime. I swear, if he ever comes near me again I'll rip his worthless blonde head into scraps."

He was blonde? Naruto wondered to himself although the Kyuubi of course heard it.

"Listen for once, will you brat? Look, the real reason I even started a conversation, of all things, with you, is because it seems like your body can't handle nearly a full tail of my chakra running rampage through your chakra system. Tell these stupid ninja to hurry it up so you won't die."

Why do you care? Naruto asked slightly annoyed before he remembered why. Oh yeah… Naruto thought before hearing a low growl emit from the back of his mind.

"If I had been placed in any better of a host, they wouldn't have to try and remember that if you die, I die!" the angry fox yelled loudly. Naruto heard it echo back a few times and realized that part of his mind must have been standing there with Kyuubi. However, the initial yell had been loud enough to give Naruto a painful headache. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and complained that they were traveling too slowly to his comrades. They reacted quickly. Sakura punched him in the head and Sai sped up to avoid the pink-haired devil. Yamato sighed and informed the squad to move at a faster pace. Lee had just radioed to say that he had reached Konoha. They were less than an hour away. "Perfect," the fox muttered low enough that Naruto had barely even heard it. Huh? Naruto asked the fox. "It was just the wind flowing through your ears. There isn't anything to stop them, now is there?" the fox poked at Naruto. He even bothered to think that his container may not be that bad, with several years of intense training of course. However, as quickly as the thought had come it left.

Tsunade watched the knocked-out Kakashi for any signs of failing vitals. She knew he hadn't drunk too much, but it could be enough to overload his liver. After a few days without sleep, Tsunade found herself drifting off to sleep. However, as soon as her eyes closed and she finally felt relaxed the door slammed open. Tsunade jerked away and Kakashi mumbled a few incoherent words in his sleep. Shizune stood in the doorway while a gasping Lee stood behind her.

"Tsu…nade….sam…a," Lee panted for breath between each word as if he had just run a marathon not half a minute ago. Essentially, he had. Tsunade was already pissed off, and she just wanted to know why the hell Lee came into her office alone.

"What is it, Lee?!"

"Naruto… team… coming… here… few… youthful!" Lee panted. Obviously, he had left out a few words but the meaning still came through.

"Shizune!" Tsunade barked and her apprentice nodded to acknowledge she had heard. "Gather any medic nins available and assess the health of every member in that team as soon as they arrive! Wait at the gates if you have to!" Shizune nodded and looked at her mistress.

"What about you, Tsunade-sama?" she asked, sure that she would want to tag along since it was Naruto's health they were talking about. He was seen as nearly a grandchild to Tsunade after what she had done for him, not to mention what he called her.

Tsunade threw a devious smile Shizune's way. "I'll be there, of course. I wouldn't miss out on this team returning for the life of me," she stated. Shizune nodded and ran out the door leaving a tired Lee and sleeping Kakashi behind with her mistress.

Yamato told the team to stop at the gates as soon as they arrived since Lee had radioed in once he had regained his breath thanks to Tsunade who gave him a drink from a sake bottle. The bottle had been washed out and replaced with water so Lee couldn't go berserk. She just hoped there wasn't a single drop of alcohol still in that bottle since Lee had gulped it down in about a minute. The team nodded all except for Naruto. After another hour of the pain inflicting chakra circulating through his body it had refused to work any longer so he had passed out. Of course, nobody had noticed since the blonde boy had become silent regardless. The Kyuubi would respond to any thoughts he had, so Naruto had tried his best to not think or speak, which of course had not worked for too long. The Kyuubi has unfortunately turned out to be a not-so-silent guest.

As the forest ended, a trail appeared that the group landed on roughly. After regaining their balance they ran full speed towards Konoha. Sakura and Ino were now both concerned with Naruto's medical condition, not to mention the hunger that was rumbling their own stomachs so they had managed to 'talk' the group into moving faster. That, of course meant they had threatened them with very unwanted consequences if they didn't hurry.

The gate was only about five minutes away at the speed they were traveling. Most of the team looked at the gate heartily; it would finally mean some rest and food. Chouji was focusing more on the latter than the former. "Why did Asuma-sensei have to stay in Konoha, anyway?" Chouji asked breaking the odd silence, except for the noises of panting from the few ninja that needed a break to catch their breath. The group stopped abruptly once the medical ninja Shizune has gathered approached the team. Tsunade, who was dragging Kakashi behind her at the back of the group, approached Yamato before even glancing at anyone else in the group. A few shouts could be heard from a medical nin or two while they were looking over the large group. Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Neji, Sai, and Chouji were told that they had minor injuries that should heal in at most a week or two. Tenten was told her injuries were not life-threatening, but deeper than the others while Naruto was the biggest fuss. Although since he was currently passed out the medical nins could not truly assess what had happened to put him in such a ruined state.

"Hm, so that's the basis of what happened," Tsunade mused after Yamato had filled her in on all the basic information. She looked over the group he had assembled and sighed. "Go turn in a detailed report and see me in my office later. I'll send some ANBU to find you," she added so he wouldn't show up randomly in her office. Yamato looked behind her to the swooning Kakashi and raised a quick eyebrow.

"What happened to him?" he asked looking over various rips and stains on his normally unscathed jounin outfit.

"He got drunk," Tsunade simply replied before walking over to her new patient, dragging Kakashi after her. Once she arrived she stared at Shizune who was busy telling the other medical nins not to worry. "What's wrong with him, Shizune?" she asked as usual, seeing as anything could be wrong with the knucklehead. Shizune lifted off symptom after symptom as she found them, but no illness or jutsu that Tsunade had ever heard of would cause all of the symptoms Shizune had listed off thus far. Tsunade, acting as the genius medical ninja she was, quickly ordered the others in everything to do. Naruto would be escorted to the hospital where he would immediately be placed in the ICU and be seen by the finest medical nin Tsunade had available. More than likely it would be herself and Shizune, but there were a few other well trained medics in the village that were more than capable enough of helping out in this case.

Tsunade turned to watch the two medics with a stretcher run off with Naruto and saw Sakura standing there both surprise and worry plastered plainly on her face. She walked up to her apprentice and placed her free hand on her shoulder. She was of course still dragging a drunken Kakashi behind her. "Don't worry," she said with sympathy. "This guy has survived heart failure with help from me and his own will to live. I doubt whatever's wrong with him will do worse than that," she added smiling. Sakura stared for a moment before returning the smile and nodding. Tsunade then took her leave and hoped that her words would ring true.

Unfortunately, as Tsunade walked through the doors to the ICU, she realized that even this could prove to be too much for the blonde. While all the monitors he had currently been hooked up to were being checked for any faults, Tsunade was checking Naruto's own body in correspondence to the machines. To all of their dismays, the machines were not lying. Most of Naruto vitals were unstable and jumpy. Tsunade wasn't sure where to start first, so she didn't decide. All of the medics in the ICU were called into the room and each was working on a separate part of Naruto to keep him alive. Tsunade was busy healing both Naruto's lungs and his heart, seeing as those would be some of the hardest to save. After a moment, most of his vitals were back to normal and several medics had left the room. Another moment passed and finally Tsunade heard the respiration and heart monitors return to normal. She breathed out heavily in a sigh of relief. She put a hand on the blondes head and shook her own. "How many times are you going to escape death before you turn twenty?" The now sleeping form didn't respond in any way, but Tsunade realized that was for the best.

Kakashi stumbled into the room, unaware that he was still slightly drunk. His mind seemed to work a bit faster though, seeing as he managed to construct a full sentence without tripping over the words. "What's wrong with Naruto?" he asked. Tsunade sighed and pulled up a chair near Naruto's bed and mentioned for Kakashi to follow suit.

"All I have to say is that something is wrong, but we don't know what it is yet. He probably knows and was too stubborn to tell anyone so I'll have to wait until after he wakes up to find out," she informed the drunk. He sat and thought for a few moments before talking again.

"It's easy to wake him up," he mumbled before standing up. Tsunade's arm grabbed his wrist and pulled him forcefully back down into his seat.

"He needs to rest!" she told him sternly.

"Well, this guy can sleep after we figure out what's wrong with him," the lazy jounin mumbled before standing up again. He leaned down close to Naruto's ear and whispered something that Tsunade couldn't pick up and before she knew it, Naruto sat bolt upright in the bed and looked around. After a moment his face sunk.

"I just had the best dream…" he said laughing. Kakashi joined in and Tsunade just glared at them.

"Fine, well, since you finally woke up, I have a few very important questions for you," the Hokage said menacingly. Naruto gulped as he realized his current location.

"H-hi, Tsunade-baachan?" he asked more than said with a lopsided and scared smile and a nervous laugh.

Note: Sorry that this was so short guys. I had everything in there I wanted, and I don't want to give too much away for the next chapter, which should be pretty good. As always, I wish for some reviwers or maybe a voter or two for the poll I have on my profile. Again, feel free to answer as anonymous or anything as a review. Anything works for me! Really though, I do wish for a bit more critique if any should be given. Now then, on to another subject. I have decided to go ahead and not update every Wednesday or Thursday ((as you may have noticed)). I've decided now to update on the weekend, regardless of which day. It should normally be Friday or Saturday. As always, hope you enjoyed! Please R&R.

Elizabet639