Yes, Yes...I am still here. I'm sorry for leaving you guys hanging for so long with the next chapter.

After i finished the previous one, i was not so happy about how i ended it, as it seemed a little weak of Naruto, but it will be somewhat explained in this chapter.

Again, I'm sorry for the long wait, but i lost some of my motivation for writing. Along with the lines of starting studies and working out. All of a sudden the days started passing so fast.

Anyways...Here is the next chapter, hope you enjoy.

Konoha Hospital – 2 days later

"Will he be alright, Tsunade-sama?" one Ino Yamanaka questioned. She had been the a part of the squad that found Naruto in the forest looking pretty worse for wear.

"Hai. It seems he should be up soon if my diagnostics are correct." The hokage answered while having a troubled look on her face. She had been running all kinds of tests on the boy to find out what exactly had happened, and she did not like the results one bit.

They were both interrupted from their talk, when the person in the hospital bed started stirring.

"Ugh, my head...Wha...What happened?" Naruto questioned, although to no one in particular. He held his head in both hands to try and stop some of the pounding in it. He tried to wrack his brain to what had happened, but all he could remember was seeing Sakura and Sasuke together before it all became a blur.

"You are in deep shit mister, that's what happened." he heard a stern voice call out. He turned to his left to see that he was right in his guess that the voice belonged to Ino. "Ino? Why am I in the hospital?" the boy asked.

Ino was standing there gaping at the blonde in the hospital bed. Did he really have no clue about the condition that she found him in? Her face changed from shock to anger, and she was about to reply to the question, when another voice shot in.

"You were found in the middle of the forest unconscious." Tsunade replied with a stern voice. "Not only that, but a mile radius around you everything was scorched. Including you."

Naruto started to get a bad feeling about all of this, and looked down to his lap, refusing to meet the gaze of the two other blonds in the room. He was starting to wrack his brain for why things had happened, but was cut short when Tsunade once again started explaining.

"Not only those two things, but you also had a kunai embedded in your stomach, and your entire body was swirling in purple chakra".

To say he was surprised was an understatement. He had no idea how all of this had happened, but there was something in the back of his mind that told him what this all could be about.

"How long have I been out?" he asked, his voice barely high enough for them to hear.

The hokage looked down on him, and could tell he felt bad about worrying people like he had done, but she needed to explain everything to him so that they hopefully could avoid this in the future.

"You were out for two days." She said. "I have been running tests on you since you were brought in here, and my reports told me that your entire body was working in overdrive when you arrived".

The blonde boy looked up with a questioning look on his face, and Ino was the one who decided to answer him. "When we checked your heart, it was beating almost 3 times as fast as it should. Which would in a normal case be enough to kill a person".

"What...How...I don't understand..." Naruto was now officially lost on the matter. He looked over to Tsunade to find the answer to all of this. After all, she was considered the best medic in the world.

"What this means Naruto, is that the tests show that your 'new' chakra that you got from merging with the Kyyubi was the reason what happened. But what i'm most interested in, is what is the last thing you can remember?"

The blonde told them both about everything he could remember from before he blacked out, and you could see on both the females in the room that they had some sort of understanding to what could have happened.

"One final question Naruto." Tsunade said. "Have you been using a lot of your 'new' chakra lately?"

The boy looked puzzled at this, before realization washed over him like a ton of bricks.

"So, you are telling me that the Kyyubi chakra is the reason behind this?"

The Hokage nodded to this, and explained about her theory that to much use of the chakra would unbalance his psyche, and make him more susceptible to overreacting to things. She also ordered him to start using suppression seals to not use the chakra too much.

This, of course, was something Naruto was not happy with, but reluctantly agreed when Tsuande wouldn't budge. He was told that it was only allowed to be released when either he, or someone close to him was in danger.

After finishing with her speech, she left the two young blondes alone in the room, as she could feel Ino had some questions on her mind. When she left, Naruto looked up to see Ino staring at him with a worried look.

"Naruto..." She began. "How are you dealing with the fact that Sakura is engaged?"

The boy had a far-away look on his eyes as he replied. "I don't know really. I mean...I did everything for her, and yet she still chose the man that betrayed us on several occasions. He even tried to kill her".

Ino could understand where he was coming from, as she and the rest of the 'rookie 9' where not really happy about the fact that Sasuke was walking freely inside Konoha (well except for Sakura of course). When she heard that Sasuke had gone to Madara after killing Orochimaru and Itachi, and even tried to kill both his teammates, she had given up the guy. She had realized what a stupid crush it was, and that her image of him was false. She was interrupted from her thoughts when Naruto started talking again.

"What I do know though, is that whatever I held for both of them, as either friend or crush is now gone. I they want to live their lives together, then so be it. But I will not sit around moping about that." He said, as he smiled up at the blonde female in front of him.

Ino couldn't help but smile back at him. He always seemed to bounce back from everything, no matter what happened. Maybe that was the source of how strong he had become. That he took whatever came his way, and just rose above it.

"Say, Ino." Naruto said, as his foxy grin came back and his stomach started to growl. "Would you like to get something to eat? I'm starving".

She giggled slightly at his antics. Of course he would want food as soon as he woke up. He was almost as bad as her teammate. She accepted his offer, and after he got dressed, they left to get something to eat.

They both enjoyed their lunch while talking about everything that came to mind. Ino had to admit that he was actually quite enjoyable to hang around. He had really matured from what he was when they were younger, but then again so had she.

She was so embarrassed at thinking about how she was in the past. More focused on looking good for Sasuke than caring about being a shinobi. And even though she hated to admit it, she was just as loud as Naruto was back then.

After they finished their lunch, and Naruto apologizing once again for worrying her with the condition she had found him in, she decided to shut him up.

"For the last time Naruto, stop apologizing for that." She sighed. "If you really want to make it up to me, how about you take me out to dinner tomorrow". She was now sporting a sly smile waiting for the reaction of the boy.

Naruto wasn't one to be outdone by stuff like that anymore, and without missing a beat, walked up behind her and whispered huskily in her ear. "It's a date then. I'll pick you up at 8".

Ino fought back a blush and turned around to give him a piece of her mind, when she realized that he had disappeared.

She huffed in annoyance and started walking back towards her apartment. 'Just you wait Uzumaki, I'll get you for that one' She thought as she started thinking of what to wear to make his jaws drop to the floor when he arrived to pick her up.

Hope you liked the chapter, even though it wasn't so long.

I just needed to get this out there, so i could get started again. The next chapter will contain the "Date" with Ino, and also his first meeting with his Genin squad.

I've been thinking quite alot on how his genin team should be, and i got a review asking for an all female "slightly perverted" team.

Do you guys have any ideas for Team Naruto? Leave a comment below, and perhaps your idea will inspire me on how they should be ^^

Until next time...Zhilay :)