"We can't stay here much longer," Sasuke sighed once they had made it back to the house the two of them were staying in.

"It wouldn't be wise to move him long distances for another week at least," Kakashi responded in a bored tone, never taking his eyes off the book that he was reading. "Unless you want his fever to return." Sasuke had no clue why the man was still here and right now he wasn't sure if he was grateful or annoyed. On one hand, he wouldn't be able to get Naruto out of the city now because of Kakashi's advice, but on the other, he really didn't want Naruto to be more hurt because they left prematurely.

"Of course I don't," Sasuke hissed, "but there are police all over this place. And now we also have some rich jerk mad at us."

"He was hurting that kid!" Naruto protested.

"What rich guy?" Sakura cut in.

"Gatou, I think," Sasuke scowled.

"You got on Gatou's bad side?" Sakura gasped. "Nobody does that and gets away with it."

"If he comes anywhere near hurting Naruto, I will kill him," Sasuke promised immediately and no one else in the room doubted it at all. Not after witnessing the way Sasuke always treated Naruto.

"He couldn't hurt me even if he tried," Naruto responded almost immediately. "That guy didn't look strong at all."

"No," Ino shook her head, "but he's got a lot of money and the police under his thumb. He's got so many illegal samurai on his pay roll that they could be considered an army."

"Those weaklings?" Sasuke scoffed. "They hadn't been a challenge at all."

"I agree," Sakura nodded, "but he does have some pretty strong guys in his group too. I heard that he even hired the legendary Zabuza."

"I've never heard of him," Naruto said with interest shining in his eyes. "Is he any good?"

"He's ruthless," Iruka replied. "You shouldn't go anywhere near him if you can at all avoid him."

"Which means that you aren't allowed to go anywhere near him," Sasuke demanded the moment he sees the look in Naruto's eyes. "You've already challenged enough people in this village and we don't need you getting hurt when you're already sick."

"You ruin all my fun," Naruto pouted, but it was something that he said often so Sasuke didn't take it too literally. At one time, in the very beginning, he did, but then Naruto would always say that he was just joking with the guiltiest look that Sasuke had ever seen. Naruto of all people was one to know how words like that could affect people if they didn't understand him. He had to deal with a lot of fighting between his parents once they found out just how sick he was. He had always blamed himself for putting that wedge between his parents and there was no way that Sasuke would let him do the same if they were to have some sort of fight. His goal was just to make Naruto happy, even through all his somewhat ill thought out words.

"I try," Sasuke shrugged as was his current usual answer to comments such as these. Naruto pouted, but the happy light in his eyes ruined the affect.

"He's so cruel," Naruto cried out dramatically, throwing his arms around Sakura. "You would let me have fun wouldn't you?"

"You're still sick," Sakura's eyes hardened with the determination that she had been using to bully Naruto into making sure that he didn't push himself over the past couple weeks while they made sure that the last traces of his fever left his body. "If you want to be well enough to move in a week, and maybe find something fun to do outside of this town, then you should make sure to get all the rest you can while you recover your strength."

"I don't need to recover my strength," Naruto's pout was a little more serious now than it was earlier. He knew that Sakura really was only talking about the fever that he had just gotten over, but he hated when people assumed that he was weak just because he's sick. Whenever they did, they would always coddle him and really make sure that he couldn't do anything even remotely interesting. At least here they were letting him walk around the town, but they were still keeping much too close of an eye on him and it was starting to remind him of his childhood when he first found out that he was sick.

It was almost two days later, when Naruto finally got tired of everyone always hovering over him, that he snuck out to explore the town a bit. He felt a little guilty knowing that Sasuke would most certainly worry about him, but he just needed some time for himself without anyone asking him if he was still feeling alright or if he needed to take a short rest for a bit. He didn't plan to go far anyways. There was a nice little river running through the town that Naruto had seen some of the people fishing in and he just wanted to spend some time sitting by the water and enjoying the beautiful day.

"Oh. Hello," he said when he noticed a woman collecting flowers by the water.

"Hello," the woman nodded politely.

"These flowers are pretty. Are you collecting them for someone?"

"They're herbs that are used to help with injuries. I'm collecting some for a friend of mine who was hurt recently."

"I see," Naruto nodded. "Do you mind if I help you?"

"Please do," the girl responded. They worked in silence for a short while before the girl continued. "What brings you to this town?"

"My friend and I have been travelling the world before I die," Naruto shrugged. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to just come out and say something like that, but he still hadn't been able to come up with another excuse that he didn't think was a lie. It wasn't that he was a bad liar, he had actually become very good at it over the years when he was trying to convince people that he was feeling well enough in a day for them to allow him outside, but he just preferred not to lie without good reason.

"You're sick?" she asked.

"Yea," Naruto grinned despite their dread topic and stood to splash around in the water, "but I'm going to see the world before I go."

"I'm sorry," the girl said, "but you won't be leaving this town alive."

Naruto just barely dodged out of the way as a massive sword came towards him, but he slipped, losing his footing and any chance he might've had to escape before the attacker came after him again. Instead he was forced to pull out one of his swords, the dull one, and block the blade from coming down on him. The man on the other side of it had dark eyes and dark skin with bandages wrapped around the lower half of his face. He was also very strong and Naruto's arms shook just trying to keep the sword away from his body.

"You lost him!" Sasuke growled, knowing full well that it wasn't really anyone's fault but unable to keep his anger at bay. He knew that Naruto was going to try sneak out soon and had been keeping a better eye on him, but he was forced to go out and get supplies so that they could move on as soon as Naruto was well enough to do so. It was actually rather common and Sasuke could never really be angry at his love since the poor boy had been practically confined to home ever since they found out he was sick and therefore hated it when that happened. It wasn't the fact that he could get himself sick again that worried Sasuke, though. It was the fact that they probably had a very rich man who seemed to be above the law in this town against them. There was no knowing what he would do if they found Naruto just wandering around.

"I don't know how it happened," Sakura frowned. "I only left for a few moments to get him a drink, but he looked like he could barely move."

"He was probably faking it," Sasuke sighed. He should never have left Naruto in these girl's hands. Not that he didn't trust that they had good intentions. It was just that he was much better at knowing when Naruto was faking something like that. Mostly because his love couldn't fake illness as well around Sasuke because he felt guilty when he made the other worry for him. "I'll go look for him now. You stay here in case he shows back up."

Naruto was by no means strong. In fact, after he got ill, he was confined to the house and not really allowed to do anything that would strain and therefore strengthen his muscles. So he wasn't strong, but he had learned to fight without needing that strength some time ago. He only held the large sword back long enough to get his bearings and his balance before quickly dodging out of the way and allowing the force of the attack propel the stranger forward. The man, however, was well used to his own sword and barely stumbled before he turned back around, dragging his sword to slice at Naruto as he did so.

It was almost like a game of cat and mouse after that. The large sword would swing at Naruto and he would dodge off to another direction being very careful not to accidentally head towards the woman who had lead him into a false sense of security earlier. He didn't know what she was capable of, but he didn't really want to test it either when he was already in a difficult battle. As much as he hated to admit it, he really was still recovering from the fever and he wasn't sure that he would be able to handle more than one enemy at the caliber he was currently facing without making things much much worse.

Suddenly a cough forced its way through Naruto's body and then another and another until he collapsed from the force of them. His attacker didn't stop, however, and it was all Naruto could do to lift his blunt sword and hold it along his arm to protect himself. It didn't do much as Naruto was still thrown to the side, but at least it stopped him from being cut by the sharp edge of his enemy's sword.

"This is boring," the attacker scowled. "It's not even a challenge."