'Thinking'

'Kyuubi talking'

"Talking"

/Naruto talking to Kyuubi/

"Jutsu's"

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, only my own characters.

Chapter Eleven

'How do you plan on getting in?' Kyuubi's voice echoed in his head after hours of silence.

One day of running later, the blond was hiding in a tree in front of the gates of the Leaf Village, wondering how they could make it in without being spotted. They hadn't been there long, but he was starting to get antsy, feeling his sister's short pants on the back of his neck.

/Don't know.../ He admitted.

For a few minutes, they watched the deserted entrance. It was at least six o'clock in the morning and no one was going in or out. Before, Naruto had thought of just blending in the the usual morning crowd that happened every once and a while, this being the exact day the crowd usually came. But, for some reason, there was no crowd. Now, he was pondering upon ways to get in as the sun was slowly starting to rise.

Naruto let out a frustrated sigh and shifted his weight. /I would just jump over the gate, but they'll for sure spot me. And I can't just parade in there, I'd be killed on spot./ He paused in his train of thought when he heard a soft whimper.

His stomach twisted in a painful knot. "We're almost there, Sana," he whispered in a soft voice, knowing if he had spoken any louder, someone would have heard. Being a ninja had their advantages and disadvantages.

The whimpering quieted some.

'Someone's coming in the seven o'clock direction,' Kyuubi's voice warned, telling him to hide better than how he already was.

Naruto, still covered in his cloak, blended in with the tree leaves and glanced away from the gate. He watched as three Leaf shinobi were walking towards the gate with ease, but still had a tense look to them. They were coming back from a mission.

He had to bit his tongue when he recognized the shinobi. The ninja walking past his tree was none other than Team Gai; Gai, Neji, and Tenten.

'Huh, I wonder where Bushy-Brow is,' He thought to himself, using the old nick name he gave to Rock Lee.

He watched silently as the ninja, slowly making their ways to the gate, all of them quiet. Once they made it to the gate, someone appeared to greet them. He was a man that took turns with a couple of others, guarding the gate. His name is Shiranui Genma and he still looked the same since the last Naruto saw him. Still wore a bandana on his head while chewing on a stick.

"Welcome back," he said, trying not to show how tired he was. "Good mission I suppose?"

"What do you expect?" Gai stated in that over-confident voice that only he and Lee could pull off. "Team Gai always comes back with good mission reports!"

Neji and Tenten just rolled their eyes as they stayed quiet. It was just too early in the morning to say anything and they were to tired from their run here to speak. All they wanted was to get home and go to sleep.

Genma just nodded before notice their missing comrade, "Where's Lee?"

"He's coming," Tenten answered. "He' just had to stop and look at something."

The four exchanged a few more words before the team walked into the village and out of sight.

"Bingo," Naruto whispered with a sly smile, having been listening to their conversation with his sharp hearing.

XxxxX

"Welcome back, Lee." Genma said as he nodded his head in welcome.

"Thanks," Naruto cheerfully responded back, trying to mimic his old friend, Rock Lee. He had used the Transformation Jutsu to look like his friend so he would be able to enter the Village with ease. As he stood near the Leaf shinobi, he asked to make it seem like he was indeed Lee, "Did Team Gai already make it home?"

"Yup, they reported in about ten minutes ago and already made it to the Hokage. You should get home and get some rest." He said.

Naruto nodded and smiled, "Hehe, thanks. But I first must see Gai to tell him that I made it back. See you later!" He started to walk past him, trying to walk with a confident stance. Right when he thought he had made it threw safely, he was stopped.

"Hey, wait a minute," Genma said as Naruto froze and felt his shoulders start tensing. Without realizing it, his left hand started to twitch for a kunai in his pouch. "Gai told me to tell you to meet him at that restaurant when you get back."

The imposter nodded his head and let out a silent sigh of relief as his hand went back to his side. "Alright, thanks!" He tried to make sure he walked away instead of running. He didn't need to be stopped again.

The whole village was quiet, not a stir of movement anywhere. Once Naruto was well out of sight of the gates, he pushed off the ground to be on the roof tops where he paused for a second. He transformed back to his original self and pulled his hood back for just a second. He looked around his old village with a sad look.

"Nothing's changed..." He whispered to himself as memories tried to push to the surface. He pushed them back, not wanting to be reminded of them. As he looked around, he noticed that all of the buildings looked exactly the same. Nothing had changed. From a distance, he could even make out his apartment and wondered if anyone ever took his stuff out of there or if it was still the same. He then moved his eyes until they fixed on the monument, Mount Hokage. All five hokages were there with Tsunade being the latest. His eyes remained on his fathers face, remembering how he had died saving the one village that had casted his son out.

Naruto removed his eyes from the sight and pulled his hood back up to conceal his head.

'You need to get going now,' Kyuubi reminded him, feeling his depression.

He nodded before he went roof jumping at a high speed that no one would have noticed him.

'You hid your chakra signature, right?' The blond nodded his head. 'What about telling Gaara?'

/Yeah. Right after Sana got hurt, I used the bracelet he gave me. About twenty minutes later, I got an image that he and the other two were leaving the Sand in a hurry. They're on their way here./

The fox nodded. 'They'll still have two days to get here.'

The blond didn't say anything as he concentrated on the hokages building that was coming at him quickly.

XxxxX

Even when Naruto touched down in front of his destination, he still wasn't spotted. /This is weird.../ He thought as he ran towards the door. Once he was in, he raced down the hallways and flew up the stairs.

'You're right. We haven't even seen one ANBU yet,' As always, she spoke to soon.

They were on the floor they needed and stopped. At least three ANBU were stationed at the door, guarding the Hokage's room. They each had the standard masks, all of them different animals; a rabbit, dog, and a bird mask. By the time they noticed the newcomer, he was already with in talking distance.

"Who're you?" The man with the rabbit mask demanded, his shoulders tensing and his hands moving towards his kunai pouch.

Naruto stopped a few feet from them. Masking his voice by sounding deeper and with a heavy-set voice, said, "I need to speak with the hokage."

"Do you have an appointment?" Dog asked, his stance giving off the impression that he was growing suspicious. "Only if you have an appointment, may you see the hokage."

Naruto let out a growl, not in the mood for this. He didn't even know why he didn't just knock these men out when he had the chance.

In a split second, he attacked the three ANBU ninja, using his only free hand to first punch the one with the rabbit mask in the gut. When the ANBU bend over, Naruto quickly brought his elbow in contact with the back of this neck, knowing that he had just knocked the man unconscious instead of killing him.

The other two went into offense by bringing weapons out. But, before they could try and attack, Naruto was there, faster than light and punched one in the side, sending him flying into the wall. That one, the Dog, hit his head on the solid surface and passed out. The third one was punched in the mask, causing a big crack in the middle.

Bird had recovered from the punch and back flipped to get out of Naruto's reach. But, it didn't help him to much because when he landed and started to reach for his sword, Naruto had disappeared and reappeared right behind him, knocking him unconscious with a quick hit to the head.

"To easy," Naruto growled, feeling the adrenaline pump through his veins.

"Nn..." Sana cried out softly.

He immediately felt alarm as he remembered why he was here. "Almost there, sweetie." He said and walked over the man's unconscious forms. Without even pausing or knocking, he walking into the room with ease, just like he use to do.

XxxxX

'Be careful, kit, there's others in the office.' Kyuubi warned, already sensing the others chakra signature.

The fox was right. Besides the hokage, sitting at her desk, there were three other familiar people there. But, without even having to have looked at them, he already guessed who they were. And just seeing them, he was right.

Once in the room, the three Leaf ninja turned around while Tsunade raised an eyebrow. They weren't expecting anyone else.

"Who the hell are you?" The raven hair man growled. Unlike all of the other people in the room, he was the only one wearing the ANBU uniform. His mask, one shaped as a fox that was orange and black, hung on his belt loop.

Naruto ignored the question and waltz right into the room with a caution look to him. He never took his eyes off the elder woman in the room. When he came within a few feet from the ninja and desk, he stopped and said, "Hokage, I need you to do me a favor." He tried to keep his voice masked so no one would know who he was.

Before the hokage could respond, the pinknette's curiosity got the better of her. "What kind of favor?" She asked, but also a bit guarded. She sort of frowned as she tried to figure out who this man covered from head to toe in a cloak was.

Naruto didn't reply, nor did he even look at her. He looked straight ahead of him and waited for the leader of the village to accept his favor or not.

When it seemed obvious the stranger wasn't going to respond, Tsunade gave the impression of annoyance. She had her elbows on her desk with her chin resting on her intertwined fingers. "Answer the question." She said in a grave voice. She wasn't really in the mood to deal with strangers, especially at this hour.

Finally, the blond turned his gaze to the three others in the room. Even though they couldn't see it, they could hear the tightness in his voice. "In private, I will explain." Even though he would rather just explain now and get Sana cured, he couldn't have many ears listening. Even if they were his most closest friends.

Apparently, the raven ANBU nin didn't like the answer. Like the hokage, he wasn't in the mood. In a flash, he had moved from where he stood, next to his team mates, to being behind the stranger, a sword already at his throat. If the cloth wasn't in the way, the blade would be cutting his skin.

"You will have an audience whether you want one or not." He hissed in a dangerous tone.

Naruto smirked. "Really... Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but," With his free hand, he grabbed the man's wrist and using part of his strength, swung him away, throwing his towards the closed door.

Surprised by the sudden display of strength, the ANBU nin caught his balance before he could collide with anything and moved so that he landed on his feet. He straightened up to attack like he was trained to do, but was interrupted by the hokage standing up.

"Enough, Uchiha." She ordered in a commanding tone. Without waiting to see if he was going to stop or not, she turned to the stranger in the room and said in a low, dangerous tone, "I do not appreciate you coming into my office and causing a fight with my ninja. What is this favor you were asking of and more importantly, who the hell are you and how did you get into the village unscratched?"

Naruto opened his mouth to reply to her but didn't get a chance to when a cloud of smoke near Tsunade appeared. When the smoke cleared away, everyone's eyes was on the newcomer. He had long, silver hair tied behind his back and had his signature red tears under his eyes.

"Tsunade," the man said, unaware of his surroundings, "there's an intruder among the village."

Tsunade didn't take her eyes off of the cloak figure as she said, "I know. And that intruder decided to visit me first."

The man frowned and did a take around the room. His eyes landed on the intruder and he narrowed his eyes slightly. "Okay, so, who is he?"

"That's what we were just trying to find out before you showed up," the third man from before said. He had short silver hair spiked up on his head with his head band covering one eye. He had a book in his hand and was reading it.

Naruto shook his head in impatience; he could feel the heat rising from his sister. He looked straight to the hokage and said in a pleading voice, "Please, Baa-chan, she doesn't have much time left. I can't waste another second talking about this non-sense. I need your help."

Tsunade's face suddenly dropped from being guarded. The color in her cheeks was drained as she looked at him with sad, blue eyes, "What're you doing here?" She asked, knowing exactly who this intruder was. No one ever called her that except for one person. She hadn't heard it in years.

The pinkenette frowned, confused. "You know him?" She turned to her sensi, not catching on with the nickname.

Naruto then turned to Jirayah and using the same voice added, "Pervy-sage. You both said that if I were ever in trouble, you would help regardless. Well now, I need your help. More than anything. Please..."

Time seemed to slow down as the blond was attacked from behind. He was expecting it because when the Uchiha started to throw punches at him, he was able to deflect them all with ease. Even the kicks, he was able to dodge.

No getting a single blow on him, Naruto kept dodging them all, predicting every move thrown at him. He knew the other was trying to hit him, but he was blinded too much by his rage and sorrow and other emotions to really land an injury.

"Uchiha!" Tsunade shouted but said name didn't stop. His eyes were a bloody red, not from his sharigan.

'I guess he knows who you are,' Kyuubi mused, slightly amused by the fight.

Since Sasuke was still putting up a good fight, not once slowing down, Naruto was forced to kept deflecting them. He couldn't help it from how fast they were going when his hood fell off from his head, revealing his blond-red hair, blue eyes, and his whiskered face.

Upon seeing the face, Sasuke's eyes narrowed more, making him look like a cat.

At that moment, he managed to pin the blond up against the wall, but not for as long as he wanted it. Naruto did a quick, unpredictable knee kick to his capture's stomach and jumped over him. Faster than what the human eye could see, Naruto managed to do a full three-sixty in the air and landed on his feet with his arm up against the Uchiha's throat when he had turned around.

"One false move, and I'll kill you," Naruto threatened, his eyes turning a bloody red. It had been a while since he play-fought anyone. All he had been able to fight with was people he intended to kill so he couldn't help let the threat escape his mouth.

"ENOUGH!" Tsunade shouted so loud that the whole village most likely heard her. This time, her command succeeded and the two male's snapped out of their daze. Naruto lowered his arm at the same time his eyes returning back to normal. He took a step back to let the other man breathe. "Uchiha, put your sword away, now!"

Slowly, Sasuke did as he was told, panting a bit. He kept his eyes fixed on the blond as he growled out, "Where the hell have you been? We haven't heard from you years and you one day decided to just waltz in here?" Everyone in the room could tell he wanted to say more but they kept quiet.

"I've been busy," Naruto showed no emotion towards his old comrade as he turned around and spoke directly to the hokage, "I need your help, Baa-chan."

Sakura took a step forward, her eyes sparkling with excitement and joy. "Naruto... Is that really you?" She asked, barely above a whisper.

Said name looked over to her and gave her a small, goofy grin, "The one and only."

She smiled. But her moment was ruined when Tsunade asked, "Who is this 'she' you were talking about?"

Kakashi closed his book and slipped it back into his pouch, to curious on the new scene to pay any attention to his book. Jirayah and Tsunade's expressions were to hard to make out and Sasuke was just giving Naruto the glare. But, Naruto knew what that look meant, only he would because he was the only one who received it. That look expressed both anger, annoyance and happiness, all in one.

Naruto sighed in relief, finally getting on the topic he needed. He unclasped his cloak from around his neck and let it slid down to the ground. As the cloth was falling, he ever so gently swung the teenage girl around from his back so that he cradled her in his arms.

Sana was panting and was deathly pale. No color appeared any where on her visible skin. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her chest barely rose from the pain.

"She was poisoned," He explained and looked to the hokage. "You were the only one I thought of who could cure any poison at any minute."

"She must be pretty special to you to risk your life coming here." Jirayah softly said.

"She is, more than you know. Tsunade, can you help her?" He asked, not trying to hide the desperation in his voice.

The hokage was already walking towards the two when she barked to her apprentice, "Sakura, go get the table."

Sakura straightened up at her name and nodded, "Yes, my lady," and she disappeared in a hurry, used to these types of circumstances.

"N-Naruto..." Sana suddenly whimpered and opened her eyes slowly.

The blond immediately looked down and softly said, "What is it, sweetie?"

The room got very quiet, especially hearing their blond friend use such a loving voice.

"S-so this... is y-you village?" She managed to say, starting to slightly shake from the pain. Despite the pain, she moved her eyes a bit and found a lot of different faces watching her and her brother.

Tsunade came to a stop in front of them and gently started to check the young girl for any other wounds or a fever. Barely touching her, she checked for her heart rate.

Naruto watched her closely, knowing that he could trust Tsunade, but something in him felt like he couldn't. He didn't know why. "Yup. Pretty boring, huh?" He asked, trying to keep his mind preoccupied.

Jirayah raised an eyebrow, "Heh, everything's been boring for the past four years, kid."

"How long has she been like this?" Tsunade asked and looked up to meet the blond's eyes.

"Since yesterday morning," Naruto said. "We were on a mission and someone cut her with a posioned knife."

Sakura then entered the room, carrying a folding table. She quickly set it up before exiting the room to get a cart right outside of the room filled with a bowl and different looking liquids. When she was ready, she said, "Alright."

The hokage nodded and told the blond, "Lay her on the table, Naruto, and I'll see what I can do."

Naruto did as he was told all the while whispering to his sister, "Tsunade will be taking care of you, so you don't have to worry. You are in great hands." Sana barely nodded.

Once he stepped away from the table to give the ladies some room to work, Tsunade was there, sliding the teen's shirt up just a bit to get to work on the wound. Upon seeing the wound, all greenish and pussing with blood, nearly caused Naruto to pass out on the spot.

"Easy there," Kakashi said as he and Jiraiya were both on either side of their former student, holding him up so that he wouldn't fall.

"I'm alright..." Naruto tried to say but it came out slurred. He was just to exhausted to form words right now.

The two elderly men gently led the blond over to where he could lean against the wall, but still be close to Sana.

As they sat down, Kakashi was watching him and noticed the bags under his eyes. "Knowing you," he said, "You ran from where ever you were without stopping for anything."

Naruto nodded. "A day away," he leaned his head back and slowly shut his eyes, "I can't afford to lose her."

Jiraiya glanced at his old apprentice and noticed how much he had changed from their last meeting, about three years ago. His hair was a lot darker red and if possible, more muscular. Instead of pointing that out, he asked, "So, who is she to you?"

"Well... She's my –," Naruto started to say but was cut off by a pain-filled scream that seemed to echo around in the room.

Tsunade must have seen or delt with this kind fo posion before because on the cart next to the table, a cure was already made and she was entering it inside the teen. As the liquid was absored inside Sana, the more she screamed.

"Sana!" Naruto leaped to his feet, all exhaustion represented earlier was gone. In a few long strides, he was at her side, taking her hand in his. His mind started to panic as how helpless she looked.

Tsunade kept working, not breaking her concentration for anything. "Whoever had done the posion didn't do it right." She said and took a second to look up to Naruto. She then looked back down as a bead of sweat trickled from her forehead. "The posion was supposed to kill her, especially when you were running, that was supposed to help spread the posion throughout her body. But, whoever made it, didn't do it right. So, the posion is useless."

"Then why is she in pain?" Naruto demanded.

"Just because it's useless, doesn't mean it still can't do anything. Whatever was used to form the posion had some kind of reaction that would at least cause the victim pain. That's what is happening now. And since it's in her blood stream, the more pain it is."

As she started to extract the posion, Sana tried to curl up into fetal position.

"Hold her tighter!" Tsunade yelled at Sakura who was already holding on. Sakura nodded her head and didn't allow the younger girl to do anything more.

"Agh!" Sana screamed as tears leaked from her eyes.

Naruto squeezed her hand and had to use everything in his power now to punch the medic ninja. He had to bit his tongue until he tasted blood inside his mouth.

"Shh, it's alright," he whispered to his step sister. "Almost done, just hold on a little longer." But, whatever he said didn't help, she kept on.

/Damn it! What can I do to help?/ He growled in his head, forgetting he had opened the link up that was connected to the fox.

Kyuubi growled back, just as much useless as he, 'How the hell am I supposed to know?'

After a couple of minutes, the blond lost what little patience he had and growled, "How much longer?"

Without looking up, Tsunade said in a clenched voice, "Almost there."

Naruto squeezed Sana's hand once more. 'Just a few more minutes.' He kept repeating in his mind to help.

Sana let out one more cry before she became limp.

Naruto's eyes widen in alarm but Sakura noticed and quickly explained, "The pain was to much for her to handle and she had exhausted herself out. She is just unconscious."

"How much longer then?" He asked, but this time, his voice was softer, quieter.

Sakura looked at her old comrade with sympathy, "I estimate about... five minutes at most." She watched him brush a strand of brown hair away from her sweatstreaked face.

"Maybe it's time for you to sit down again," Kakashi appeared beside the blond once again and gently lead him back over to the wall without needing to use any force.

Jirayah had never moved from his spot. He waited until his ex-student sat down before saying in a good-manner voice, "So, you never answered my question. How is she?"

Naruto closed his blue eyes and rubbed them. When he opened them, a few moments later, he stared down at his hands before speaking in a soft voice, "She's my sister. About two years ago, I saved her from a man who people would call him her father. But, he was no father to her; he was a pathetic excuse for a man." He tried to keep the anger out of his voice, but failed miserably. He took a calming breath before explaining better, "I saved her from her father because he was being abusive to her. He treated her like a slave." He launched into the story about how she became his kin.

During the middle of his story, Tsunade had finished and was patching the lucky teen up. Naruto took no notice as he was lost in his memories.

"She follows me everywhere, does whatever I do. Just like a younger sibling would do." He said with a sad smile. After that, he didn't say anything else.

There was a moment of silence in the room. Sasuke had been staring out of the window the whole entire time without saying anything. His hands were crossed as he listened to the story. He was still trying to calm down from earlier. Sakura was watching her old commrade with a curious look. She was trying to figure out what kind of pain the usual loud-mouth boy was in and if there was any thing she could do to help. The three older people were just quiet as they absorbed everything.

Finally, Tsunade nodded her head and reported, "Sana is fine now." Naruto's head perked up. "But she might be out cold for a few days, just really dephending on how she recovers. The posion exhausted her and made her weak, but she should be fine now."

'I can feel my chakra healing everything else,' Kyuubi said but Naruto barely heard her as he stood up and was about to make it over to his sisters side when Sakura noticed something.

"Naruto, what's wrong with your arm?"

The blond looked down at his left arm. It looked the same.

"The other arm, dobe." Sasuke said without even bothering to look away from the window.

Naruto ignored the comment and switched his gaze from his left arm to the other. He never took notice before, since it wasn't bothering him, but, his right arm sleeve was a dark shade of red. Curious, he shrugged out of his white coat and rolled his right jacket sleeve up.

A deep gash was on his his forearm and was dripping blood still, even after a day. The gash's sides were a sickly greenish color as puss was clearly in the wound.

Tsunade sighed and grabbed the cure she had just put up, "It seems you've been posioned by the looks of it.

/I guess that's why you couldn't heal me before./ Naruto thought, having completely forgot about being hurt from the fight. /I can't believe I forgot.../

"I'm alright," Naruto mumbled as he tried to roll his sleeve back down. "It doesn't even – gah!" He hissed when Tsunade had walked over ot him and barely even touched his arm.

"Right, it doesn't even hurt." The female blond rolled her eyes and stopped him from rolling his sleeve further. She started to expect the wound carefully and frowned, noticing a difference from Sana's. "Well, by the looks of it, the posion stayed at the entraence of the wound and didn't go any further. Though, I'm not sure on why."

"Kyuubi..." Naruto whispered, forgetting he wasn't the only one in the room. When Tsunade looked up, slightly confused, he explained, "Earlier, she couldn't heal my wound and she was getting fustrated. But, I guess she managed to just keep the posion at bay and wouldn't let it go any further."

'You're welcome.' Kyuubi said, slightly annoyed.

"Tsunade, we still have more ingrediants to make more cure if we need some more." Sakura said.

The hokage nodded, "Alright." She turned to the younger boy, "C'mon, brat, you're next."

XxxxX

Till next time!

I was going to make this longer, but realized how long it was already... (to me it looks a bit long.) So, I'm cutting it in half. ^^

Please tell me how you like it!