"Important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other."

- Paulo Coelho

<>

Naruto looked up, when he heard the door open. Sakura walked in, and bee-lined for him. Naruto stood up quickly, and met her halfway. She sighed into his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his neck. Naruto's arms gripped her waist, and he buried his face into her shoulder. She somehow still smelled nice even after all the hell they'd been through today.

The giant snakes had been wrangled by Lord Rasa, and Gaara (although sadly, Rasa was lost to the attack. It was Kabuto, apparently. Their Suna friends had retreated back to their country to mourn with the thanks of the Konoha shinobi, and it appeared that Gaara would be taking up the mantle of Kazekage now) and the arena had remained mostly intact, a lot of people surviving. Sadly, the snakes had been pushed a little into the civilian district, and a few innocent people were lost, but there was no time for Team Seven to look through the other casualties right then, because there was a meeting to be had.

After all, the Hokage was in a coma.

Kushina was summoned away to be in the meeting, along with Kakashi, so Naruto had been alone until Sakura had come. She had been helping out around the hospital since the end of the battle.

The clan heads and a couple other trusted friends of the Hokage were the council, now, including Fugaku Uchiha, Kushina Uzumaki, Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, Choza Akimichi, Shibi Aburame, Hizashi and Hiashi Hyuga, Tsume Inuzuka, and Kakashi Hatake. They made decisions for the village, now.

Naruto couldn't say he wasn't worried about the outcome, but he trusted Kakashi to present the idea of retrieving Granny Tsunade, and hopefully orchestrating the return of Pervy Sage, as well.

He hadn't seen Pervy Sage since he was a baby, and was really excited to see and hang out with his teacher again. He had been absent from Naruto's life because he had been investigating the ever illusive Akatsuki for practically all of Naruto's life. In fact all the intel anyone knew about the Akatsuki had come from him. Jiraiya's infiltration skills were legendary. Naruto would hopefully relearn Sage Mode from Pervy Sage, and hopefully develop even more jutsu. This time, Naruto was determined that Jiraiya would get a fair chance at life, too. Tsunade hadn't even had time to grieve him. She'd been Hokage, and couldn't take a few days off to mull over her grief, like Naruto could, and she'd been closer to him than Naruto could ever know. He loved Granny and Pervy Sage, and Naruto wasn't going to let that happen again.

Perhaps they could even convert Orochimaru this time around.

Nah.

After all, Orochimaru had escaped with Kabuto. After the boy killed Rasa, he'd come back for Orochimaru right before the ANBU were about to lock him up. Naruto had punched a hole through the wall.

Sakura sat in the chair beside him, holding Naruto's hand. Naruto knew seeing Minato like this was tearing her up inside, so he squeezed her hand. She squeezed back, looking at Naruto with worried jade colored eyes. She had a backpack over her shoulder that Naruto recognized as her getaway bag, and she removed it, allowing it to slump against a leg of her chair.

Naruto's own bag was packed, and on the floor at his feet. They were just waiting for confirmation from Kakashi, and the four of them would move out. Sasuke was packing now.

Naruto exhaled a shaky breath, trying to avoid looking at his bedridden dad. "Have you seen your parents yet?"

Sakura looked at Naruto and shook her head. "I just sent them a note saying I would be leaving immediately because it was an emergency, and that I love them and not to worry."

"Are you sure you don't even want to check on them?" Naruto asked, brows furrowing.

Sakura shook her head again, a small, sad smile coming onto her face. "They weren't hurt in our last life, and I don't think the snakes got far enough in to get to my house this time around either. Right now, I think I'm right where I need to be." She finished, laying her head on Naruto's shoulder and fixing her eyes on Minato's motionless body.

Naruto tried not to think about how terrified he was of losing his dad. Minato was incredible, and awesome dad, and Naruto loved him to death. More than Naruto could ever ask for. He'd always suspected that given the opportunity, he would've loved his parents more than anything aside from his teammates, and he had been right.

Minato was busy a lot, of course, but he always made time for Naruto and Kushina. They were very close. Seeing him so still was driving Naruto crazy, but he understood why it was necessary. He wasn't convinced that Sakura felt the same. He didn't know what he'd do if he had the right powers to help someone that was important to someone close to him, but couldn't help. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan," he murmured to her. He knew how much she hated feeling useless.

Sakura turned to her blonde friend. "Naruto, stop it. I'm sorry. This is your dad we're talking about. I can't imagine how hard this must be for you." She wrapped her arm around Naruto's neck and kissed him on his whiskered cheek. "It's going to be okay." She told him, squeezing his neck before letting go. She again trained her eyes on Naruto's dad, looking like she hated herself and everything in the universe.

Sasuke opened the door abruptly, peeking his chicken ass shaped head around the corner, before walking in and shutting the door behind him. He, too, had a backpack on his shoulders, and he put it down as he sat down on Naruto's other side, sighing loudly and sinking into the chair.

All three of them sat in silence, staring at Minato.

"We have to wipe his memory of that fight." Sasuke said quietly, sounding like he regretted saying it aloud at all.

Naruto's brows furrowed, uncomfortable with the idea of editing his dad's memories. "Now?" He asked, gesturing to the sleeping Hokage. Minato didn't look like he was going to be telling anyone anything.

Sasuke nodded the affirmative. "Itachi told me that the official story is, Minato fought them all off by himself, until Hashirama got himself out of Orochimaru's control to help him. Minato was injured, and Hashirama protected him as much as possible. The barriers fell, and you and I stepped in to see if we could help, and Sakura saved his life. Shisui forced Orochimaru to undo the Edo Tensei. We'll have to rewrite his memories to match exactly that, or there will be questions asked." Sasuke appeared thoughtful. "Although it should be fairly easy, since this is practically the truth with just a few things left out of it. And it isn't like Minato couldn't have handled the situation alone. In fact, Naruto," Sasuke murmured, sounding guilty, "- I think he probably would've been better off if we weren't there. He was worried about us the whole time and that was what distracted him in the long run."

Naruto knew he was right, and nodded, nearly surprised that Sasuke spoke that much in one go. He never did that. And Naruto was also aware that himself and Sakura (the loudest members of their team) were being uncharacteristically quiet. Sakura sighed, her breath coming out shakily.

Sasuke looked over at the two of his teammates. "But there's good news," he said halfheartedly.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, her eyes never moving to the black haired boy.

"Itachi told me that the three of us, Shikamaru, Haku, Deidara, Gaara, Temari and Kankuro are being promoted to Chūnin." Sasuke said, enunciating each name slowly.

Sakura and Naruto both turned to him, shocked. "That's a lot of people!" Naruto muttered, remembering the last time they took the exams. "Last time, it was just Shikamaru."

"Kakashi gave us all important missions in the field for a reason." Sasuke shrugged, leaning back in his chair and staring intently at the ceiling. "I think we'll be getting promoted when we get back from getting Tsunade, though."

"How do you know we're even going?" Sakura asked, keeping her eyes on their friend.

"Because Dad told me to pack my things when he got home. It's just a matter of Kakashi getting here on time." Sasuke told her, gesturing towards his backpack.

Naruto laughed a little bit, some of that old sparkle back in his blue eyes. "Which we all know isn't going to happen."

Sakura laughed melodically, while Sasuke closed his eyes and chuckled. Eventually, the morbid sound of Minato's heart monitor broke their laughter down. Sasuke sighed, sitting up straight. "I have something to tell you guys."

Sakura and Naruto turned in their seats towards their teammate, a questioning look in their faces.

"While I was fighting with Hashirama, I was talking to him," Sasuke said slowly. "And about who killed Hashirama... we have no leads, no witnesses, and even Hashirama can't remember what happened." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and crossing them, grasping at his forearms. He sighed loudly, before looking up at the ceiling. "I'm not sure there's anything we can do about that, so maybe we can cross it off the list."

Naruto looked at Sakura, and found her already looking at him, giving him a knowing look. She smiled, before reaching across Naruto to run her fingers through Sasuke's hair comfortingly. Naruto leaned back in his chair to give Sakura easier access, before scowling. He didn't like the idea of Hashirama's killer going free any more than Sasuke did. "The hell, teme? You're giving up already?!"

Sasuke turned his face to Naruto, an irritated look on his face. Sakura retracted her hand, and Sasuke's eyes paused briefly on her face, before they went back to the obnoxious blonde. "Look, ursuratonkachi, there's nothing else we can do. There are no leads or witnesses, the victim wasn't able to tell us anything. Any evidence left behind will be gone by now. What do you plan on doing about it, if we continue to pursue it?"

"Someone has to know something about this." Naruto insisted, stomping his foot on the ground. "Hashirama can't just die out of nowhere and everyone just accept it. Lucky for you, teme, I've been paying attention, and I asked the Second about it while we were fighting. Tobirama said it appeared he'd died of natural causes, but he started an investigation anyway because there were signs of a struggle. He said it seemed that Hashirama wasn't lucid when he died, because there were signs of fighting, but they were sloppy. There weren't any physical wounds on his body, so they checked him for poison, but their medical abilities were limited back then, so he also said there might've been something they missed."

Sasuke leaned back in his chair, turning in it so he was facing Naruto. Sakura leaned forward attentively. Poisons were her thing, after all, being a student of the Godaime Hokage.

"Interesting," Sakura murmured. "Did Tobirama say anything about puncture wounds on Hashirama? Tiny ones?"

Naruto scanned his memories, then shook his head. "I don't think he would've known to check for needle marks."

Because usually poisons were slipped through foods and drink, back then. All three of them were thinking it, exchanging glances.

"This is really interesting." Sakura said, standing up and laying on the floor. She stared at the ceiling, working things out in her head. "A normal poison wouldn't have been able to kill Lord Hashirama, because of his natural regenerative abilities and incredible immune system. I wonder... how strong that poison would've had to be to kill him." She went silent, thinking seriously. Her medic brain was working a million miles a minute, and her teammates couldn't do anything but watch.

Sasuke and Naruto didn't know why she was laying on the floor, but it had become a habit for her. Whenever she started thinking, she picked a spot on the floor. The hospital floors were always meticulously cleaned, so she wasn't bothered by it. Sasuke stood up and joined her on the floor, as did Naruto on Sakura's other side, the three of them staring at the ceiling and thinking.

"Let's consider-" Sakura said, lifting her hands. Naruto and Sasuke followed her hand movements with their eyes, watching as she made expressive motions with them, as if visually describing what she was thinking of. "If it was a jutsu, there would be some kind of physical mark on him, I think. Even assassination jutsu leave some kind of mark. Like DNA at a crime scene. A medic is trained to notice everything- there's always a mark left. It might be tiny- almost imperceptible- but there's always a mark. For genjutsu, you look at the eyes.

"For ninjutsu, you scan the body everywhere. Taijutsu leaves more obvious marks because of bruises and other things. Sword fighting is also easy to spot. Whoever the person was, they were trying to make it look natural. If they'd used a normal poison, -it wouldn't have killed Hashirama, first of all- and second, most poisons are just made to get the job done. Usually, the body has a physical reaction to the poison- whether it's coughing up blood, or their face swelling, etc..." She put her hands parallel to her face and then pulled them further away to demonstrate a swelling face. "... but Lord Tobirama said that the death looked natural. That means the person put in extra effort- they went out of their way to make sure it looked like Hashirama had died naturally."

She sat up, sitting criss cross and scooting forward to face Naruto and Sasuke both. They were still laying down, so their eyes both came up to her green ones. Her hands came up, and she waved them. She wasn't excited, per se, but she was shaking with energy. "So this poison was made to make it seem like an accident. They customized so it would kill a ninja of his caliber. Seeing as he is the only one, and was the only one at the time, it had to have been made specifically for him." She said clapping her hands together. "Whoever made it, must have been a poison master of their time. That's a feat only accomplished poison users know how to do."

"Like Sasori?" Naruto asked, thinking about the only poison's master he'd met.

"Like Sasori." Sakura nodded. "Now. True poison masters are rare, but once they've killed someone important, everyone hears about it either from them, or from the people they've told. Psychologically, they believe they're untouchable, and therefore immune from not only poison, but human laws. They want to be recognized as the greatest. However, since no one heard that Hashirama had been killed by a poison master, this poison master didn't want the attention. Meaning..."

"It has to be a personal vendetta." Sasuke finished. Sakura nodded again, falling silent.

"Who the hell hates Hashirama?!" Naruto asked, jumping up and pacing around his father's hospital room. "He's, like, the coolest guy ever. Even Madara secretly loved him."

"Madara didn't secretly love anyone, ursuratonkachi." Sasuke hit Naruto over the head.

Sakura's eyes widened briefly. "Oh my God, can you imagine if Lord First and Madara were lovers?!"

Naruto and Sasuke both looked at her like she'd grown a second head, matching disgusted looks on their faces. Naruto suddenly looked very ill, and stood up and ran to the bathroom. The sounds of his retching were heard from all the way across the room.

"What? It would be cute." Sakura protested, frowning and crossing her arms.

Sasuke looked like he was about to join Naruto leaning over the toilet, hurling. He shook his head at Sakura. "That would be like me and Naruto." Naruto groaned and made more hurling sounds, sounding like he was dying in there. Sakura didn't even go check on him.

Sakura blinked, clearly not seeing the point he was trying to make. "So?" This time, Sasuke looked actually ill. He ran over to the nearest garbage can and lost his lunch. He suddenly didn't even want to look at Naruto. Sakura rubbed his back soothingly. "Sorry, Sasuke, didn't mean to make you throw up."

"Eh!? What about me, Sakura-chan!?" Naruto called from the bathroom.

"I love you too, Naruto!" She hollered back, before suddenly looking confused, and then something dawned on her. "Speaking of poison, I have to go stock up on herbs for our trip, I'll be right back." She opened the door, smirking at Sasuke, and leaving the room. Sasuke sat there on the floor close to Minato's bed, looking completely dazed, light pink dusting his cheeks. He ducked his head, a small smile growing on his lips, even though he knew she probably would've done the same for Naruto, if he wasn't making a mess. There's more than one reason why Naruto and I would never work.

"Did she really just leave?" Naruto stumbled out of the bathroom, clutching his stomach.

"Yeah." Sasuke said, looking down. He was slumped on the floor.

"Why are you blushing?" Naruto asked curiously, crossing his arms over his chest and raising an eyebrow.

"My body temp runs high, and it's really, really hot in this room." Sasuke shrugged, playing it off. He leaned hard against the wall and tried to slow his beating heart. If he wasn't careful, Naruto's enhanced hearing from the Fox might pick up on it, and then he'd never be able to live it down.

"Dude," Naruto grinned. "You totally like her. She might still love you! Win, win!"

"She's grown out of it. She loves all three of us the same way now." Sasuke shook his head. "Besides, I'm no good for her."

Naruto grinned, sitting back on his chair. "Aww, doesn't unrequited love suck, teme!?" He mocked, sticking his tongue out at his friend.

Naruto proceeded to fall over after being hit in the face really hard by Sasuke's shoe.

<>

Sakura had gotten so used to showing the boys affection that she'd completely forgotten she still loved him. Now that Sasuke had loosened up a bit, sometimes Sakura got to see his cheeks redden a little bit before he shoved his blank faced mask on. Her own cheeks burned as she walked down the hallway with eyes lowered to the floor. She was a million times less awkward around him in this life, and sometimes she almost completely forgot about the fact that she still loved him. Then he did something completely endearing and she was getting punched in the stomach by the force of her love again. Every time.

It hadn't gone away, so she mostly tried to suppress it, and she thought she was doing a damn good job of it.

She was so lost in her thoughts she didn't see when she ran right into someone, who was looking behind her. Sakura stumbled back the same time as the girl did, and groaned. She stood up and helped the girl up, tucking her four packages of medicine under her arm as she did so. The girl Sakura had run into was a flaming redhead with glasses and a tunic over leggings, almost like what Sakura was wearing, but a different style. Sakura's tunic gripped her stomach thanks to her belt, accenting her muscles. It had short sleeves. This girl's tunic was sleeveless, and with just a little red sash holding it to her own stomach. She had her ninja tools strapped to her thigh.

"Oh! I'm sorry," She stuttered, blushing, and that was when Sakura recognized who she ran into.

"Karin!" She exclaimed, almost yelped, when she looked closely. Karin Uzumaki was standing in front of her, her hair flaming hair shorter than Sakura had ever seen it.

The pink eyes widened. "You know my name?" She asked, sounding awed.

Sakura was still holding Karin's hand, and she shook it, giving the girl a friendly smile. I think it's time I do something different in this lifetime. "Of course! You're an Uzumaki. That's only the coolest clan ever. I saw you a couple times in the exams, and the way you knocked out that Takigakure ninja was awesome." She smiled wider. "I'm Sakura Haruno, it's an honor to meet you."

"It's an honor to meet you too, Sakura-san!" Karin blushed, bowing a little bit. She was respectful and nice, and nothing like the bitchy girl she was in Sakura's past life, and Sakura knew the two of them could be good friends. Sakura supposed it had been unfair of her to judge Karin, after all, she was kidnapped by Orochimaru as well.

Sakura slung her arms around the girl's shoulders. "Oh, none of that. I'm just Sakura to you." She said. "You and I should get Ichiraku's together. I assume you're from out of the village?"

"Kusa," Karin replied, blushing as Sakura's arms landed on her shoulders, but not shrugging them off. Sakura set her backpack down on a bench, along with the four packs of travel medicine. She figured the nurses would keep track of it for her, or Kakashi would, since the bench was close to Minato's room.

"So, do you like your home?" Sakura asked, steering the two girls to the location she was headed. She didn't know if Karin had someplace to be, but she assumed that the girl would tell her if she needed to go.

Karin frowned briefly, her own arm coming up to wrap around Sakura's shoulders. She opened her mouth, then shut it, then opened it again. "Well..."

"It's okay, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Sakura said, leading them towards the courtyard in the middle of the hospital, opening the doors that lead to the pretty nature part of the hospital. "How were your exams?"

"Well," Karin said hesitantly, like she was waiting for judgement from Sakura. "My team didn't pass the second exam because we couldn't find a Heaven scroll."

"Ah," Sakura nodded, worrying at her bottom lip. "Yeah, I know what you mean. It was really tough, because you didn't know who to attack. And even if you did make it, and beat that team, if they didn't have the scroll you needed, it was all for nothing."

"Right!" Karin agreed, sighing loudly. "Yeah. I heard your team was the fastest team to get done, though! And all three of you are Chunin now! That must feel pretty good." She seemed genuinely excited for Sakura, and Sakura had a feeling that Karin didn't really care too much about passing the exams- she probably just jumped on this train to get out of her village. Sakura narrowed her eyes in suspicion- why did Karin want to leave her village so badly?

"It's pretty nice," Sakura admitted, nodding her head. "But now Kakashi-sensei's not really our sensei anymore, and that's pretty weird. And we were the fastest, but only because we knew the terrain really well. The three of us used to play in the Forest of Death a lot as kids."

Karin's eyes widened- she stopped in place and turned to Sakura, shocked. "But there's a bunch of nasty stuff in there! I was attacked by a bear!" She exclaimed, rubbing her neck, wincing. Apparently she'd had an interesting experience.

Sakura laughed, linking her arm through her new friend's and leading them both into the sunlight, the pink haired girl and the red haired girl walking together. "We tried to avoid those," She admitted. "And it was really creepy. This one time, we got stuck in there at night, and had to overnight there, the three of us. By ourselves. We were ten."

The garden in the courtyard was pretty, full of flowers supplied by the Yamanaka family, so the patients inside the building could get a glimpse of the outside world. The stone pathways took them through the maze, and there were a couple of strategically places benches in the area. Sakura always used to come here to meditate in her old life, to save chakra for her Byakugou seal that she thought she couldn't get until she was thirty. Walking there with Karin was like a fresh start with the girl, something Sakura could tell they both desperately needed. Karin needed friends, and Sakura needed closure. She'd almost considered killing the girl when Sasuke told her to, in their past life, and she needed to fix it, so the guilt went away. Besides, Karin deserved happiness.

Karin gasped, her hands flying to her face, her red eyes widening in horror. "No!" She hissed, horrified.

"Yes!" Sakura countered, letting go of Karin to wave her hands animatedly. "Naruto decided it would be funny to tell us spooky stories he'd heard from our teacher about kids that died there when we finally made a fire, and I thought Sasuke was going to kill him! And it started raining in the middle of the night, which put out our fire, so Sasuke was forced to use-" she paused, thinking that saying Susanoo where any ANBU might be listening was too much of a stretch, "one of his techniques to keep us dry. We eventually got another fire started, but by then we had fought until we were physically incapable of doing anything else. We were tired and ready to sleep." She put her hands on her hips. "That was the last time we all went camping together willingly, I promise you that."

"That's crazy!" Karin told her, laughing. Sakura threaded her arm into Karin's again, and the two of them walked around, Karin telling her about her village and how her mother and her were coveted for their healing prowess. Sakura's heart broke for the girl, whose mother died because of her powers. The village was extremely controlling, and Karin had only been allowed out of the village for the Chunin exams.

"Stay here in Konoha." Sakura told her, turning to the girl with a giant smile on her face. Karin's eyes widened, and her grip on Sakura's arm tightened. Sakura was happy. She'd finally come up with a good idea, after feeling so useless all day. "You'll be safe here- none of us would use you for your healing again. We have experienced medical ninja here."

"I don't know," Karin said hesitantly, rubbing her arm sheepishly and looking down. "Would that even be allowed?"

Sakura shrugged. "I don't know, we could talk to the Hokage about it. But I'm sure after hearing your story, Lord Fourth could file for a transfer..."

The two girls came to a stop, matching hopeful expressions on their faces. Sakura wanted to finally make things right between them, to be friends in this lifetime. She'd known back even in the original timeline that in a different universe, her and Karin would've gotten along good. This gave her hope.

Then she winced. She'd forgotten that Minato was currently in a coma, and probably wouldn't be petitioning for any transfers for a while.

"Sakura," Sakura and Karin turned around confusedly, their eyes meeting those of Sasuke, Kakashi and Naruto. Sasuke had spoken. They'd come downstairs, into the courtyard, apparently, holding her backpack. Sasuke extended the pack to her, being the closest to Sakura's person, and nodded his head back at Kakashi and Naruto. "We're all ready to go."

Sakura smiled at them, and turned to Karin. She clasped the girl's hands, her green eyes sparkling excitedly. "I'll be back in a week or so. You and I have to get tea later. I can introduce you to my friends Ino, Hinata and Tenten. I have a feeling you'll like them."

Karin nodded, waving when Sakura stepped back closer to her teammates. "I'll hopefully see you then." She gave her a tentative smile.

"Alright, bye Karin!" Sakura waved back, before jogging up to her team. Karin gave them all a friendly nod, before turning around and walking back into the hospital.

"That was Karin?" Naruto's eyes bulged, and he grinned. "Yanno, she's a cousin of mine!"

Sakura nudged him with her elbow, a small smile on her face. She was pleased that they were getting along so well. "She's a really sweet girl, you two would totally hit it off if you ever decided to become friends. Aunt Kushina would love her to death."

She frowned when she finished, mentioning Kushina automatically reminded everyone of Minato. With a renewed sense of urgency, the four of them sped up, heading for the village gates. They crossed through the hospital, almost running into a girl with short brown hair. They apologized hastily, before exiting the doors and jogging down the wooden stairs that lead into the main part of the village. 

"I forgot Karin was in the exams this year," Sasuke murmured, sounding mildly disappointed that he'd forgotten this detail. He was her former teammate after all, in the past life. She was expendable for him back then, but now that he was in the rethinking stage, he decided he owed it to her to at least be nicer this time around. That didn't mean he would tolerate any of her... advances... were they to persist. He hated that about her with a burning passion. "I saved her from a bear last time, but since she got out okay, I'll assume she either didn't run into the bear, or held her own against it."

"No, she mentioned the bear," Sakura nodded her head, recalling the conversation. "She must've gotten away from it on her own somehow."

Kakashi spoke up, finally. "She's pretty strong for a genin."

Sakura looked at her sensei, and saw the familiar worry lines on his forehead. She hadn't realized how stressed Kakashi could get in their past life, but now that she knew her sensei so well, all three of them could tell when Kakashi wasn't doing good. He was worrying about Minato, which was honestly perfectly understandable. If Kakashi had gotten mortally injured, Sakura would be fretting nonstop. Minato was like the father Kakashi hadn't had since his own died.

Speaking of Hatake Sakumo, Kakashi still carried around the baggage of not being able to be the thing that anchored his father to the world. He'd tried his hardest to be the son Sakumo wanted, and spent more time with him than he had in his past life to keep an eye on him, but Sakumo... well, he was still unhappy. He'd passed away, leaving behind his young son to find his body. Again. Kakashi had made peace with it with help from Minato, for the most part, and soon Minato almost subconsciously became his father.

Naruto watched Kakashi, and knew that his former sensei was at least as worried about Minato as he was. The blonde's eyes landed on the floor, and his own face twisted into a frown of concern. Sasuke just watched, a tired expression on his face. None of them had any time to rest, so both Naruto and Sasuke were pretty drained from fighting the Hokage, not that they cared.

"Guys, we can stop right here and turn around, and I can go heal him right now." Sakura told them, utterly seriously. "We can find Lady Tsunade some other way."

"No way, Sakura-chan, 'ttebayo." Naruto scowled. "We gotta find baa-chan anyhow, might as well do it now. We can get there and back pretty fast."

"But-"

Kakashi though vaguely distressed, shook his head. When he was determined, nothing, really, could stop their lazy sensei. Like teacher, like student, Sakura supposed, eyeing Naruto and Sasuke. "Sakura, this is the easiest way. You stabilized him, he's in a coma. We need Lady Fifth-" he interrupted himself, biting down on his tongue and wincing, "- Lady Tsunade to wake him up. Just use Lady Katsuyu to keep him stable while we're gone, and everything will turn out okay."

Sakura turned her face to the floor, frowning. "Fine." She murmured, securing her hands around the straps on her backpack.

<>

Naruto was tired of walking. He both loved and hated traveling. For one, he was out of the village, which was good, but sadly, Konoha was surrounded by trees, so that was  all he'd see for hours... He hadn't ever thought he'd hate green so much.

He preferred trees to sand, of course, but that wasn't really saying much since everyone hates sand.

"Are we there yet?" Naruto whined, tagging behind his teammates. They'd all been traveling in silence, each one lost in thought. Tsunade was in a small town not too far from the Land of Fire's border, according to Jiraiya in their last life. In their previous life, it had been Jiraiya and Naruto to retrieve her. But since Jiraiya was so deep under cover, he probably wouldn't make an appearance this time, much to Naruto's chagrin. They were traveling in a diamond shape, Kakashi leading the way, Sasuke and Sakura flanking the sides, and Naruto watching their backs. Sadly, the blonde's voice was generally loud enough for it to carry to the front of the formation.

"Not yet, Naruto," Kakashi said patiently, while Sakura looked back at Naruto with an angry look. They had been traveling for hours, and Naruto's endless yapping was starting to drive even the nicest of them crazy. Naruto stuck his tongue out at her, before turning his face back to his feet, watching the branches and grass go by below them.

"Maybe if you weren't dragging your feet, we would be there already." Sasuke hissed from in front of him, next to Sakura.

"I'm not dragging my damn feet, bastard! I can only go as fast as you're going!" Naruto complained. "God, Sasuke, you're always holding me back."

"Say that again, ursuratonkachi, I dare you!"

"I will-"

"If you both don't shut up, I'll dismember you and bury you in the lake!" Sakura announced, sounding blank, no emotion in the threat. That was how Sasuke and Naruto new she was most likely serious. They both promptly shut their mouths.

"Thank you, Sakura," Kakashi called back, rubbing his aching temples. "I hate traveling with both of you." He informed Sasuke and Naruto.

"I'll have you know, sensei, you're every bit as annoying as he is!" Naruto gestured at Sasuke with a thumb.

"All three of you are annoying." Sakura told them seriously, shutting all three boys up. She wasn't in the mood to play around- she wanted to find her shishou, go home, heal Minato and get some sleep.

They traveled in silence for fifteen minutes before Kakashi spoke again. "We're almost there, guys, we'll stop at an inn for the night." An audible sigh of relief came from Sakura, and Naruto whooped loudly, punching the air. Sasuke shook his head at Naruto.

"Thanks for announcing our position to whatever bandits or bad guys are lurking in these woods," Sasuke told Naruto over his shoulder, a disapproving look on his face.

"I can't do it anymore! I literally cannot stand you!" Naruto sped up, and Sasuke had to duck a punch from the blonde.

Kakashi let out a tired sigh, looking back at the boys, who'd stopped, and were currently on the floor, rolling and punching the daylights out of each other. He looked at Sakura, who seemed every bit as irritated as he felt. The two of them stopped, and stared at the dusty fighting, letting them get the energy out of their system before stepping in. Honestly, Naruto and Sasuke couldn't be in the same room as each other without fighting for more than two hours. It was like this in their past life, it was the same now. Kakashi could've expected this sooner, and was honestly surprised Naruto hadn't broken earlier in their trip.

Before Kakashi could step in and block a vicious kick from Sasuke, Sakura was already there. She grabbed Sasuke's heel, and Naruto's ear, and pulled them both up. Sasuke was halfway on the floor, only his arms stopping his head from touching the ground, eyes wide and looking pained. Sakura wasn't twisting his ankle, but she was holding his leg in a very uncomfortable position. Naruto was howling.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, owowowow, Sakura-chan, that HURTS!"

"Shut up, dobe, or she'll kill us both!"

"That's easy for you to say! You're basically laying down!"

Sakura twisted Sasuke's ankle, and Naruto's ear. Sasuke yelped, eyes widening at the sudden pain, and Naruto yelled, the appendage growing red.

"Listen here, you two," Sakura's voice was quiet, dangerous. "I'm tired of your bickering. When I let you go," here, two boys let out a collective sigh of relief, "you're going to get along, or I'll force you both into one of Kakashi's shirts and make you stuck together like that one time."

Sasuke and Naruto immediately stopped writhing in pain, looking up at her, completely horrified. "Sakura-chan, you wouldn't!" Naruto pleaded, wincing at the painful reminder of what had happened during that time in their first life, where they'd gotten stuck together. Sakura had heard the story during one of their truth or dare sleep overs, and laughed until she cried, so if she decided to be particularly mean, she would definitely do it just for her own entertainment.

Sakura's narrowed green eyes squinted more, as she raised an eyebrow. "Try me."

"We'll behave, Sakura," Sasuke grunted, his ankle smarting painfully. "Just let us go!"

She let him down from the uncomfortable position she'd pulled it up into, and returned his ankle to its proper positioning, and did the same with Naruto's ear, but didn't stop holding the foot and ear. They weren't super uncomfortable anymore, but she hadn't let them go. She gave the two of them a hard look. Naruto and Sasuke didn't dare move, or she'd break their necks. After a few moments of staring, Sakura's hands glowed green and soothed away the pain that was leftover from her manhandling. Finally, she dropped Sasuke's foot carelessly, and unclenched her hand from Naruto's ear, making him yelp from ghost pains, and moved to start walking to stand next to her teacher.

Sasuke stood up and dusted the dirt off his clothes, glaring at Naruto because dammit this was all his fault. Naruto glared back, but dusted himself off in silence. Sakura walked to the front to speak to Kakashi.

Kakashi was standing in front of them looking smug in his stupid mask, reading his stupid book. He looked up. "Done?" He asked, raising a questioning eyebrow. He wasn't asking the boys.

Sakura smiled sweetly. "Sure thing, sensei, the boys are right as rain now."

"Good job, Sakura-chan."

Naruto scowled and rolled his eyes, but there was no real irritation behind it. No matter what Sasuke did, Sakura would always be Kakashi's favorite student, and that was really funny for Naruto to watch. Naruto couldn't blame Kakashi- Sakura was his favorite, too, and it was the same with Sasuke whether he admitted it or not.

They traveled on to the village, Naruto babbling excitedly about how he couldn't wait to see Tsunade-no-baa-chan again. Naruto thought the village looked pretty much the same. The people were friendly, directing them to the hotel easily.

Kakashi checked them in, looking down at his students. "Two separate rooms, or one large?"

Naruto and Sasuke turned to Sakura, who shrugged. "I don't care," she told them.

"Well, you can't be in a room alone, Sakura," Kakashi said. He and Sasuke had seen some shady looking men eyeing their pink haired teammate in a way that was utterly inappropriate. Sasuke growled under his breath and scooted a little closer to Sakura. Not that the pinkette had noticed any of that. She'd been talking with Naruto about what he and Jiraiya had done for fun in this town. Kakashi knew that even if they split up into two rooms, Sasuke would be the one to stay with Sakura. The young Uchiha wouldn't be letting her out of his sight any time soon.

Kakashi saw Sakura's injured expression and hastily corrected himself. "We all know you can take care of yourself, Sakura, but you know how the boys would be if you weren't here. You keep them in line. Plus, we all need to watch each other's backs. Orochimaru came to Lady Tsunade to get his arms healed too." He reminded them. Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke sobered up instantly. Orochimaru had been injured when he escaped with Kabuto, so yes, he probably still would be coming. The only one who could heal the side effects of an Uchiha's genjutsu (specifically, Shisui's Kotoamatsukami), was Tsunade. (And Sakura, but it wasn't like anybody knew that)

"One large room." Sakura said seriously, eyes finding her teammates. Now she wouldn't be letting Naruto or Sasuke out of her sight, either. She was still terrified that Orochimaru could come and take one of them. 

Naruto nodded solemnly, looking at Sakura and Sasuke. Kakashi felt a familiar touch of pride as he saw how close his students had become. He nodded, and walked up to the lady, telling her the requirements for the room. The four of them headed up, and locked the room behind them.

Four beds, they'd said. They ended up with two. That was normal, but still irritating. Kakashi shrugged and rolled his eyes, dropping his backpack on the couch. "I have dibs here." He pointed at the couch, earning three identical glares.

"Well," Sakura announced, eyes wandering the room until they found the bathroom. "I have dibs taking a shower first. You boys figure something out, and I'll go with whatever you come up with." She said flippantly. She obviously didn't care what happened. She turned around and walked into the bathroom, and a few seconds later, water could be heard running.

Now there was a dilemma. Kakashi turned to face his male students, raising an eyebrow.

"No way in hell am I sharing a bed with him." Sasuke said harshly, glaring at the blonde.

"Ditto!" Naruto scowled at the dark haired boy, crossing his arms. "I'll sleep with Sakura-chan. Moody, over here, can have his own bed." He addressed Kakashi, shoving a thumb in Sasuke's direction.

Kakashi's eyebrows raised higher, as he turned to Sasuke. Sure enough, the boy was scowling. "Like hell! I've seen how you are when you sleep with Sakura. She gets knocked off the bed." He pointed an accusing index finger at the blonde. "I don't move as much, and I won't take up as much space."

Kakashi turned to the Hokage's son, waiting for a retort. Naruto frowned. He was clearly weighing his options. He got a guilty look on his face. "That's true." He conceded. Kakashi knew he was wildly bitter about admitting defeat, so Sakura must mean a lot to him. "Fine, bastard, but any funny business and I'll kill you."

"No," Kakashi said, drawing their attention. "Any funny business and I'll kill you."

Sasuke blinked, before he nodded. "There wasn't going to be any funny business, but okay." He replied, before looking around the room and dropping his backpack by the bed closest to the bathroom. "Alright. Now, can we please see if there's anything good on TV?"