Chapter 15: Heroes of Ledged

"Time for bed guys!" Kyo said as he lifted up a yawning Hinata. "You can play again tomorrow before we leave."

"Aah," Naruto whined. "But I wanna stay up some more Kyo-nii-chan."

Kyo chuckled as he watched the blond rub his weary eyes. "Gomen Naruto-chan, but I'm afraid that you need to go to sleep now. Look," he said as he showed Naruto his watch. "It's already past your bed time."

Naruto grumbled but said nothing more.

"Come on Tenten," Yotaro said with a grin. "I'll take you to our tent."

"Nii-chan," Tenten called and Yotaro turned.

"Hai?" He asked but instead of giving a verbal answer Tenten just raised her arms expectantly. Yotaro chuckled but complied and lifted the exhausted six-year-old into his arms.

"Let's get you ready for bed imouto-chan."

"Hai, nii-chan," The younger girl whispered back as she rested her head on his shoulder. Yotaro smiled. Sleep had already begun to claim her.

The others watched in mild fascination as the ten-year-old boy played the part of both father and brother at once.

Finally Kyo spoke up, addressing his other two students. "Itachi, you make sure the boys get to bed. I'll take Hinata and Hikari can take Sakura, alright?"

"Hai, sensei……"

XXXXXXXXXX

When Kyo opened his eyes nothing but darkness greeted him. Though unlike most people he never wondered where he was when he woke up; not even from a nightmare. He sighed as his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness around him. He had been dreaming about his team a lot more often now that they were all gone. He missed them terribly so when he had dreams like this they were much more like nightmares; making him remember abruptly that those happy days would never return.

His eyes narrowed. Orochimaru would pay for taking away the happiness of so many people. A slight sting was felt in the blue haired man's chest and he rubbed it absently. This happened quite often. At first he thought it meant that his team was alive but he quickly learned that it was just the painful emptiness of having three of the closest people to him so abruptly ripped away.

Kyo was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice when his wife, Kairi propped herself up on one elbow so she could look at him.

"Did you have that dream again?" She asked as she layed a gentle hand on his elbow.

Despite having been startled he didn't jump when she spoke, instead he simply placed his on hand over hers. "No, koi," he said. "A different one, but the same in essence."

"I'm sorry, Kyo," Kairi said as she rested her head on his forearm, not quite high enough to reach his shoulder. "I know how much you love them," she whispered. "I do to, and if it is this painful for me to admit that they are gone it must be horrible for you." She sighed. "I wish I could take it away."

"Thank-you Kairi," Kyo said as he looked down into her soft brown eyes.

"Of course," she smiled.

"Have I told you today how much I love you?" He asked with a grin.

Kairi giggled. "Seeing as how today has only just begun; I would have to say no."

"Well I do." Kyo told her as he leaned down for a kiss.

"I love you too, Kyo," Kairi whispered back.

They were an inch away when a sudden cry split through the air; as well as the moment. Kyo groaned and flopped back into the bed, twisting around so that his face was firmly pressed into his white cased pillow. "That son of yours couldn't have worse timing."

Kairi giggled and placed a kiss on the back of her husbands head before she slipped out of bed and crossed the room to the crib where her ten month old son, Akira, stood with his arms outstretched towards his mother, waiting to be picked up.

"Now, why is it that he is only my son when he does something you don't like but every other time he is your son?" She asked with a grin.

Kyo responded back but whatever he was saying was muffled against his pillow.

"Look Akira-chan," Kairi said as she pointed at Kyo. "Isn't daddy being silly?"

Akira gurgled something in baby talk and Kairi laughed as she ruffled his soft red hair.

Kyo, who had pulled his face from his pillow, looked at his family and smiled softly. It was nice to know that even in terrible times such as this, joyful moments were still possible.

XXXXXXXXXX

There has never been one person in this world that has never gone through some stage of confusion in their life. Even if it was only a slight case and it was remedied quickly, confusion is still confusion. There are, however, some people that go through life being constantly confused by almost everything around them. Sadly enough, the Yondaime's son, Naruto, is one of those people.

The poor boy can rarely go half an hour without being confused by something. Unless he is asleep, but even then he is sometimes plagued with confusing dreams. Everybody that knows him hopes fervently that this is just a stage that he will, preferably, quickly outgrow. Unfortunately, for the moment, he is still a perpetually confused young boy, so the fact that he was confused to see three dead people and a famed genjutsu master standing in front of him wasn't all that surprising. Fortunately, this was one thing any person would be confused about.

"Uh, Kakashi-sempai?" Naruto asked slowly. "Are you a ghost?"

Kakashi turned to the short blond and chuckled. "No, Naruto," he said. "I'm not a ghost."

"But, but, but, you're dead!" He shouted as he bounced on the balls of his feet waving his extended arm madly as he pointed at the group before him. "You died doing shinobi stuff! My dad told me so!"

"Well as you can see," Rin said as she grinned at him. "We aren't really dead."

"But why? I thought otou-san said that they found you, man-ged-led?" Naruto's factual statement turned into an awkward question as he stumbled over the rather large word. Well, large for a seven-year-old with a slightly smaller then average vocabulary.

"You know what mangled means?" Obito asked suddenly.

"What's a mangled?" Naruto asked causing some slight facefaults.

"It means…" Rin began before she shook her head. "Never mind. Don't worry Naruto-chan. It was just a trick."

"Oh…Ok!" Naruto acquiesced.

"Uh, guys?" Kurenai spoke up for the first time. "Are we going to fight or are we going to let those cowards sneak away with the other three corner kids?"

"Huh? Ahhh!" Naruto shouted as he looked down to find his friends missing. "Sasuke-baka, Sakura-chan!" Whipping around he turned to his left where he had last seen Hinata. "Ahhhhhh! Hina-chan!"

Naruto didn't know what to do so he did what he always did in situations like this, and seeing as a situation like this had never happened, he just had to wing it. "What are we gonna dooo!" he shouted as he ran around in circles like a lunatic.

"Uh, we catch them and bring the kids back?" Obito suggested with a sweatdrop.

"Oh, yeah," Naruto said as he stopped running. "We could do that…"

"We don't need to," Rin said.

"Eh? Why's that Rin?" Obito inquired.

"Because Kakashi already did," Kurenai stated as she pointed behind him at the pile of bodies Kakashi was using as a seat while he sat giggling over his perverted book.

"Dagum it Kakashi!" Obito yelled. "You didn't save any for me!"

"I highly doubt you would have found them worth your time anyway Obito," Kakashi told him as he stood up. "I didn't even have to use my sharingan."

"Darn," Obito said. "Ah, well, can't be helped. So?" he asked as he reached down and lifted an unconscious Sasuke into his arms. "Shall we move on?"

"I believe that would be best." Rin said as she held Sakura close.

"Wait!" Naruto shouted. "I can't just let you take us. Just because you look like who you say you are doesn't mean you are who you say you are, or for who you say you're for. If you wanna take us back to Konoha, you'll have to take off my ring."

Kakashi chuckled and patted Naruto on his spiky blond hair. "I can tell you already that I won't take it off. Itachi and Hikari didn't send us. Also, we're not taking you back to Konoha, we didn't even know that you four were here until about a half an hour ago, but since you are we'll take you back to our place and train you I suppose."

"I still can't believe you," Naruto said as he sent the older man a suspicious glare.

Obito sighed. "How can we convince you then?"

Naruto shrugged.

"Well then," Kurenai said as she reached into the soft leather bag on her hip. "Will this help?"

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at the little red fox kit Kurenai was holding. His eyes were a soft orange and his little paws were white up to his ankles where the reddish brown fur began. His face was adorably pulled back into what one could only assume was an animal's scowl.

(Do you know how long I have been looking for you, kit?) It asked the Uzumaki boy in a series of short yips.

"Kyuubi-chan!" Naruto squealed in happiness as he rushed forward to take the baby fox from the woman's loose grip.

(I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME KYUUBI-CHAN!) He shouted as he bit down on the boy's arm.

Naruto just giggled. "You know your teeth are too short to do any damage. Besides, I can call you whatever I want! You're my pet!"

(GAURDIAN!) Kyuubi shouted. (And if I was able to get out of this ridiculous body I would crush you for it!)

"Yeah, but you can't," Naruto taunted. "Sandaime-jii-san was to smart to let your body grow up! You're stuck like this forever!"

(Thanks for reminding me…) the kit grumbled.

"Anytime, Kyuubi-chan!" Naruto said as he gave the fox a tight squeeze.

(I hate this…)

XXXXXXXXXX

"How's everybody doing?" Kairi asked with a grin as she finished placing lunch on the large table in the training room.

"Pretty good," Kyo said as he swiftly snagged a roll, just barely escaping a swat on the wrist. "The sand kids have fit right in and now that they're here we have a better rounded fighting force."

Kairi nodded before she leaned over to place a kiss on her husband's cheek. "I'm glad."

Suddenly she punched him in the shoulder.

"Oi!" Kyo shouted as he rubbed the tender spot. "What was that for?"

"Stealing food."

Kyo rolled his eyes as his humming wife turned to face the battling groups. "Time to eat!" she called.

XXXXXXXXXX

The three teams had split off into pairs and groups to spar and advise each other as they did their best to reach their peek. At the moment the groups were:

KibaShino: practicing synchronizing their dog and bugs

LeeKan: using Kankuro's puppets as 'living' targets that Lee had to fight off

NejiTen: using Tenten's weapons to try and figure out how to over come the byakugan's weakness

ShikaInoChouTem: using Shikamaru's and Ino's bloodline limits to try and strengthen Chouji and Temari's team work

"That was great Chouji!" Temari complemented as she sent a gust of wind at the shadow user. Shikamaru dodged to the left and sent out his kagemane jutsu. Temari jumped up into the air while Chouji slammed his fists into the ground; making it tremble just enough so Shikamaru and Ino lost their footing.

Temari landed slight footed with a wide grin only to have it wiped away as Ino's shintoshin no jutsu collided with her replacing her mind with Ino's for a short time.

"Temari!" Chouji called loosing concentration on Shikamaru just long enough for his kagemane to connect with the larger boy's shadow.

"That's it Ino," Shikamaru said as he lazily released his jutsu. "We win again."

"Hmph," Chouji scowled good naturedly. "That's only because you're a genius!"

"Kai," Ino said as she laced her fingers together so she could return to her own body. "That was really fun!"

Temari smiled slightly as she nodded. "Yeah it was."

"Time to eat!" Kairi sensei called to the young ninjas.

"Yay!" Chouji shouted. "Food!"

Temari giggled. She found her friends love of food rather amusing to say the least.

"Oi, Temari!" Chouji said as he grabbed her hand. "Let's go eat!"

"Aa," Temari responded as she tried to force down a light blush.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Have you found the rebelss yet?" Orochimaru demanded as Kimimaro entered the throne room.

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama," He responded. "It seems as though they have taken refuge in Konokigakure."

"Really?" Orochimaru asked rhetorically as he leaned back with an evil chuckle. "Interesting, that they have run to the very place where I acquired my marvelouss powerss."

"What would you have me do, Orochimaru-sama?" Kimimaro asked with a bow.

A vicious gleam appeared in the snake-man's eye. "Burn it," he hissed and Kimimaro bowed in obedience.

Kaliea: Here you all are! (giggles) I hope you like it! It was sooo hard to write! I think I must have started over at least five times! Tomorrow is my birthday (July 31) so please, please, please review! As a present! Yay! Thankies!

Review Answers:

Itachi349: Yeah, I saw you. I thought I invited you to be my friend but like I said, I really don't know what I'm doing.

Susakuru: (giggles) I love that word! Coolness. I use it all the time! I dunno if they'll make it back to Konoha in this fic, that could make it waaayyy to long, but if they don't there will be a sequel. I promise!

NaruHinalover: Well I'm glad I could help! Keep reading and I'll keep writing! Luv ya!

Danny-171984: No, it wasn't on purpose. It seems as if Narutofan messed up (sniff, I feel so mislead) and posted the same skill under a different name. I've fixed it though, so it's all good. Thanks for telling me! I'd have just let it stay there and looked like an idiot for all eternity. Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating, but only a little bit! ;P

Dragon Man 180: I'm gonna do all of the clones in one scroll later.

Jays Arravan: Yeah, I saw, thanks to you and Danny-171984 anyway. Like I told him, I got this off of Narutofan and they messed up and placed the same technique under a different name so, yeah…I'm stupid but oh well. Thanks for telling me!

Kaliea: Thanks for your reviews guys! I love you all! Happy b-day to me! Yay!