Welcome to new reviewer M, though I'm not sure if this is an anonymous reviewer or just Masu Trout not logged in. This is the final chapter; hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

The food in the mess tent was a little better than normal. Naruto would later learn that Yamato-taicho had picked up some spices at the town and brought them back to give to the cook.

Naruto frowned down into his bowl. The food may have tasted better than usual, but he still had absolutely no idea what it was. The food tasted faintly meaty; it may have been some sort of broth or stew. He sighed mentally and resolved not to contemplate too closely on what it was he was eating, lifting the bowl to his lips.

"So kid," one of the other soldiers addressed him, a wicked grin splitting his grizzled face. "You've been spending a lot of time with the medic lately."

Naruto felt the beginnings of redness creep into his face. "We're friends. I like to talk to her."

"Oh, come on!" another ribbed him good naturedly. "If you've got yourself a girl, we'll all know about it before long! You might as well come clean now."

Naruto stared down at his bowl, knowing his face was absolutely crimson.

"Leave the kid alone," Mitarashi Anko reprimanded them mildly; Yamato-taicho, who was sitting beside Naruto, was frowning slightly. Anko, who along with Naruto was in Yamato-taicho's unit, was Uzuki-taicho's older sister, and why they had different surnames Naruto had no idea; neither of them were married.

Yamato-taicho turned his eyes on Naruto; he was a serious man who preferred to run a tight ship. "Uzumaki, you and I will be running an assignment tonight. Be outside the tent and ready to go at 1900. I hope your aim's sharp."

Naruto grinned. "Yes, sir."

Yamato-taicho then pulled an envelope out of his Kevlar vest. "You got a letter this morning. The postal service apologizes for the delay." As he leaned over to hand Naruto the letter, he muttered, "Don't lose your head over a woman." The solemn captain's poker face broke into a small, sympathetic smile.

At just that moment, before Naruto could react, the tent flap rustled, and Uzuki-taicho stuck her head in the mess tent. "Ah, Yamato, just the man I was looking for," she declared crisply. "The higher ups have finally gotten some new supplies in and I'm going to need help distributing them. Will you come find me after you've finished eating?"

"Of course," Yamato acquiesced, a little too quickly.

The moment Yugao disappeared, Anko started screaming, she was laughing so hard. She tipped her head back, nearly falling off of the bench. "My baby sister?!" she choked out, tears streaming out of her hazel eyes as she stared down Yamato in a mixture of mirth and mockery. The look on Yamato's face indicated that he was far from amused.

"Now who's losing his head over a woman?" Naruto queried mischievously, grinning his typical kitsune grin.

"Uzumaki," Yamato said casually, "shut up."

"Is that an order, taicho?"

"Yes, yes it is."

.x.X.x.

Dear Naruto,

Well, I'm glad you're not spending your days being shot at. That wouldn't do anything for my morning sickness, I can tell you that.

We celebrated Temari's birthday about a week ago. You know she doesn't really like parties, but she does it because she loves us. Okay, I'm sure the sarcasm has practically saturated the paper by now; honestly, the only reason Temari even showed up is because Shikamaru promised to be here this year. You know how she gets about that lazy bum.

Oh, and guess who decided to overshadow the birthday party? Gaara. While it was all going on, he dragged Hinata into the next room and finally popped the question! We weren't entirely sure what was going on until we heard her screaming and we went and saw him holding the ring. Gaara had probably the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face. We've all been waiting for this for weeks; Temari didn't mind, thankfully. They haven't quite figured out the date yet, though.

Hardy har har, Naruto. Sasuke got a real kick out of the hair line. He actually laughed a little. But Sasuke would appreciate it if you would try to figure out anything you can about his brother. Kiba says the same for his sister. And yes, I'm still in medical school. There's no way I'm giving that up.

I got your picture, and yeah, I do remember Karin now! She worked with us one year, getting photos for the yearbook. Wow, she looks different with her hair pulled up.

I wish you many more quiet, boring days, and I'll see you when I see you.

Love,

Sakura

P.S. What do you mean by "You have no idea what I do for you?"

Naruto smiled as he folded the letter and placed it in the letter box. Then he snapped on his helmet, slung his rifle over his shoulder and brushed out of the tent. Where he was going, he didn't know.

.x.X.x.

The only things Naruto had ever really liked about the semi-arid God-forsaken wasteland he had been deployed to were the magnificent sunrises and sunsets and the clarity of the night sky. There was considerably less air pollution in Kaze no Kuni than in Hi no Kuni. As he and Yamato-taicho trekked over the uneven terrain, picking their way carefully so as to avoid tripping over rocks and possibly alerting enemy soldiers to their presence, Naruto stared up at the sky. The brilliant stars twinkled back down at him, remote and uncaring, and yet knowing as well.

"Uzumaki." Yamato-taicho's voice was lowered but still resounding, and Naruto turned his head to face the captain's dark-eyed, piercing stare. "Let's stop for a bit. I need to tell you what this assignment entails."

Standing under the sheltering shade of a rock outcropping, Yamato-taicho began to fill Naruto in on the assignment. "The photos the pilots took have revealed the presence of a weapons cache two miles south of base, roughly a quarter of a mile up ahead. The photo shows that four enemy soldiers are hiding weapons in an old shack at the base of an impact crater from the last war. We are to eliminate the enemy there and seize as many of the weapons hidden there as we can. I'll give you further instructions when we reach our destination. Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes, sir."

As they kept on walking, Naruto wondered how stiff the resistance would be. He hoped it wouldn't be too stiff. If they got in trouble out there, no one was coming for them.

Finally, they reached the impact crater Yamato-taicho had talked about. It was five hundred feet in diameter and roughly fifty feet deep. The shack was a ramshackle one-story house whose wood planks seemed to be in the process of warping and rotting. A strong, sweet smell, sickening in its aura of something rotting, wafted up to the edge of the crater, to the point that Naruto nearly had to raise a hand over his nose to block out the smell.

"Alright," Yamato-taicho muttered. "There are two exit points. You and I will take up positions at the different doors, at the basin of the crater but a distance away from the house, behind pieces of rubble to give us cover."

"And after that?"

Yamato-taicho swept the area with his eyes; he picked up a large, heavy rock about the size of a large orange. "When I give the signal, take a large rock like this and throw it at the door. If we're lucky, it'll draw the enemy right out."

After they had descended the hill, Naruto and Yamato-taicho took their positions, Yamato-taicho covering the front door and Naruto the side door. Naruto found a suitable rock and checked to make sure he could see his captain clearly, pulling down his night-vision goggles.

He waited for the signal, heart thudding suddenly in anticipation. Yamato-taicho nodded to him. At the same time, they stood up and hurled heavy rocks at the doors, before quickly huddling back down and readying their rifles. Naruto heard a loud thud from where the rock his the side door.

For a moment, there was utter silence so resounding that it threatened to deafen him. Then…

"Who's out there?!" A bullet whizzed past Naruto's ear as a man's voice rang out in the night, and after that, he was only aware of firing and reloading, firing and reloading…

"Uzumaki!" It was Yamato-taicho's voice that brought him back to reason; Naruto shook his head, and wondered how long he had been shooting. His captain came and stood by him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "They're done. Let's go up and see what we've got."

Naruto peeled off his goggles and nodded, still shaken by the way he had lost control of his rifle and of himself.

It was dark enough that from a distance, it couldn't be seen where the bodies laid. But when they got close enough…

"Oh, God," Naruto whispered, eyes round with shock…

The four corpses were that of a man, a woman and of two boys, one adolescent and the other not even thirteen. None of them wore uniforms, and only the man was armed.

"What…why…" Naruto gaped at his companion.

Yamato sighed wearily, removing his helmet to reveal hair flattened by sweat and running a hand through it, making it stick up at odd angles. "In times of crisis, Sunagakure will ask civilians to house weapons supplies in their homes." He cast a dark glance at Naruto. "And don't ever assume that we wouldn't do that same thing, if we were desperate enough. Because we would."

Naruto momentarily felt as though he was going to be sick.

"Come on." Yamato's voice shattered the tense quiet, tired and dull. "Let's go find where they were hiding them."

As Yamato bent his head to cross the threshold, he stopped, and knelt by the younger of the two boys. Almost gently, he closed the boy's eyes, all the while murmuring, "If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, my friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie; dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."

Naruto had seen that poem many times before. When the two had still lived together, it had hung on the wall of the Uchiha brother's apartment; Itachi had put it up on the wall himself. Naruto swallowed, something heavy lodging in his throat.

.x.X.x.

Over the next few days, Naruto managed to put his last assignment somewhat from his mind. He still thought about it in the odd hours, remembering the open, glazed eyes of the older boy. Strangely, or maybe not strangely, the only time he was able to put it completely out of his mind was when he was with Karin.

Karin herself was riding high, thanks to the shipment of medical equipment and medications that had come with the recent weapons shipment.

While Naruto relaxed on a coat, Karin continued to chatter. They both liked to talk, but Naruto had no intention of interrupting her; it was pleasant to listen to her talk.

When Naruto thought about it, the soldier was right. He had been spending a lot of time with Karin lately.

Naruto propped his head up on his knobby elbows. He liked her. So what if I like her?

…Okay, so what if I like her a lot? Naruto felt his face go red…again. Okay, so I've put my finger on the problem. How do I go around resolving it?

At that point, Karin interrupted his train of thoughts. "Oi, Naruto, are you even listening to me?"

"Yes, I'm listening to you," Naruto assured her, smiling in a way that was meant to be reassuring but probably came off as goofy.

She nodded firmly. "Good. So I looked at the idiot and I said, "Well how are you sure it's tuberculosis?" I was trying to be calm, 'cause you know if this guy starts spreading it around to the camp that he has tuberculosis, it's gonna raise ten kinds of hell.

"Well, he didn't have a good answer; guess he was just a bit of a hypochondriac. This guy remains convinced that he has tuberculosis, even though he was wounded recently and that that was a perfectly reasonable explanation for why he would be coughing up blood.

"And you know what I told him next? I said, "You do not have tuberculosis. What you probably have is internal bleeding, which means if you don't get proper treatment you'll probably die anyway. Happy now?"

A low-pitched laugh bubbled up from Naruto's throat. "And how did he take it?"

Karin sighed. "Not well. Inuzuka-san thought it was pretty funny, Uchiha-taicho…Not so much. The moment he found about it, he told me he was transferring me to a camp with no hypochondriacs."

The names Inuzuka and Uchiha rang bells in Naruto's head. "Inuzuka and Uchiha? As in, Inuzuka Hana and Uchiha Itachi?"

Karin frowned and looked at him, smoothing down a stray strand of hair as she did so. "Yeah. Why?"

"Nothing. They're older siblings of two friends mine, and they haven't bothered writing home. Go on."

She smiled and sat down on the cot beside his. "There's nothing more to say. Story's over."

Just as Naruto was about to reply, the customs officer came in to the hospital tent. His face was unusually somber. "Letter for you, Uzumaki." As he handed Naruto the letter, he muttered, "Sorry." Then he left, seemingly thankful to be relieved of the letter.

Naruto frowned, feeling a strong sense of foreboding come over him. He met Karin's bright red eyes, just as confused and bewildered as his.

She shrugged. "Might as well read it."

Still frowning, Naruto opened the envelope, and unfolded the letter. And felt his heart stop after reading the first sentence.

"Wh-what…" he gasped, feeling himself begin to shake. He shook his head. "Can't be serious…" Oh God, this is wrong, it has to be…

"What is it?" Karin demanded. "Tell me!"

He handed her the letter.

Adjusting her glasses, Karin read the letter out loud, brow furrowing as she did so, noting the smudges on the paper.

Naruto,

I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but Jiraiya has had a heart attack. It happened on September 1; thankfully he was with us when it happened. He's still in the hospital; his condition is stable but fragile.

Again, I'm sorry I had to tell you this, but it's better that you know now instead of finding out secondhand once you got home.

Wishing you well,

Sakura

Karin finished reading the letter, and looked down at Naruto feeling a sharp stab of sympathy. Whoever the man who had had a heart attack was to Naruto, they were obviously close. Naruto was breathing hard, his eyes glazed over and wide with panic.

"What am I gonna do?" He asked helplessly, staring down at his shaking hands.

"Okay, okay. Don't hyperventilate." Karin dropped the letter and grabbed his hands. "Calm down and think," she told him in a voice that brooked no opposition. "Go to Yamato-taicho, explain your situation and ask to be allowed to take leave to go home. Soldiers are allowed to go home to visit relatives if there's been a death in the family or if a family member is ill or has been seriously injured."

He didn't smile, but he did seem to calm down, the glossy glaze disappearing from his eyes. "Okay."

.x.X.x.

"That can't be right."

Yamato's lip twitched as he shot Naruto an admittedly sympathetic look. "I'm sorry. The roads are blocked; you can't go back to Konoha. It's estimated that it will take several weeks at least to secure them."

Naruto gritted his teeth, and Karin folded her arms across her chest in concern, saying nothing; Naruto and Yamato were just going to have to sort it out themselves.

Yamato tilted his head, peering intently at Naruto. "Uzumaki…take a break."

Naruto started, tilting his head back incredulously. "Sir?"

"You're a mess. I don't want to take you on assignment, the state you're in." Yamato clapped a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Look, there's a town a quarter of a mile northeast of here. It's not much of a tourist destination, but it will distract you. Go there for the day, and try to clear your head. All I ask is that you be back by tomorrow at noon." Yamato gestured towards Karin. "Take Karin with you. You both have leave coming up anyway."

Karin started, taken aback, and Yamato shot a look at her that said, 'Please don't say anything.' Her mouth clamped shut.

Naruto looked at her uncertainly, his eyelids resting heavy over his eyes. Karin wanted to blurt out 'What are you looking at me for?' but didn't. Instead she raised her hands, gratified that he was trying to get her opinion but firm in that it was his decision to begin with. "If you think it will help…"

He smiled gloomily, his shoulders slumping. "Alright then."

"Make sure to wear plain clothes, both of you, so anyone in the town who might be unfriendly will have a harder time identifying you as being from Konoha."

As Naruto started to walk away, Yamato called after him, "Uzumaki? About Jiraiya." Naruto stiffened. "Don't worry about him. Jiraiya was my literature professor in college, and from what I recall of him, it would probably take nothing short of being broadsided by a train to do him in."

Oh, way to comfort him Mr. Social Reject, Karin thought unappreciatively, rolling her eyes.

Naruto stopped, and though Yamato (thankfully) couldn't see Naruto's face, Karin noticed how pale and sickened he looked all of a sudden. "Yamato-taicho," he said in a tight, strained voice, "please." Naruto paused and gulped air like a drowning man. "I'm gonna have a hard enough time sleeping tonight."

Yamato sighed once Naruto disappeared. "It was worth a shot. Karin, a word?"

She stopped and stood in front of Yamato. His face was particularly grim. "Make sure he doesn't get into trouble, or get so falling down drunk that he can't walk back here tomorrow."

"Because you being abstinent makes you unable to deal with someone else's hangover?" Her eyebrows quirked sardonically.

The captain folded his arms. "Actually, I am abstinent."

Karin winced. "Anything else, sir?" she asked gingerly.

"Yes." Yamato smirked humorlessly. "The bartenders are exorbitant."

"I thought you just said you didn't drink."

"Anything for the sake of information."

.x.X.x.

Karin joined Naruto at the edge of camp about ten minutes after Naruto got there. He noticed that her pale lavender shirt had a high collar and long sleeves uncomfortable in the stifling heat, but didn't ask. He also noticed that her hair (loosed from its severe ponytail) was perfectly neat and straight on one side and unkempt on the other but after years of dealing with Sakura and Ino's less than stellar hair days, Naruto knew far better than to ask.

"You look nice," Naruto remarked, lamely but honestly. "Nicer than me." He gestured down at his worn t-shirt and jeans.

"Thanks."

On the way to the town, Naruto was silent, brooding.

It had been very quiet out there lately. Naruto had experienced these breaks in the heaviest fighting before and he had long since ceased to treat it as anything but a calm in the storm. It was something to be dreaded, not embraced, and the whole camp had been tense for days, except for maybe him and Karin.

The wind whistled insistently; Naruto tried not to sigh. He had missed so much. He only knew about Sasuke and Sakura's wedding through photographs, and when their first child was born he'd probably only know about the baby through pictures too. Two more of his closest friends were getting married, and knowing his luck he'd probably miss their wedding too. And now with Jiraiya.

The old man had better get well, Naruto thought bleakly. I want him to be alive when I get home. If I ever get home.

.x.X.x.

"Yamato-taicho was right," Karin muttered. "This place is deadly dull."

The town looked like most Kaze no Kuni towns Naruto had ever been through, not that he had laid eyes on many. The town, possessing neither a strategic location nor any real military value, was not walled. It had wide streets and narrow alleyways, and tall, dull brown buildings with flat roofs and wood shuttered instead of glass windowpanes. The people milled around in the streets, mostly walking or on bicycles (a car was a rare commodity in Kaze no Kuni, where most people walked or hitched a ride on a caravan to get where they wanted to go), but there were a few cars parked on the side of the road.

Naruto smiled wryly. Karin's hair is probably the brightest thing here.

"It probably gets livelier at night, after the heat's cooled off," Naruto asserted, looking around. It was getting late in the afternoon; deep shadows put stripes across the dusty dirt street.

"You want to get something to eat before hitting a bar?" Karin suggested, following the inviting smells emanating from a nearby building with eager eyes.

"I'm not really all that hungry, but sure."

The restaurant served mainly beef ramen and beef over white rice, doused in onions, yellow peppers and lentils, and to drink all they had was cow's milk, sweet and cool, but it was definitely several steps up from what Naruto had been eating at the camp.

"For someone who said he wasn't hungry, you sure are cleaning out your bowl." Karin watched in amusement as Naruto downed a bit of boiled egg; she snatched a bit of rice from her bowl, chewing considerably more slowly than Naruto.

"I don't believe in wasting food; besides, ramen is my favorite." He managed a wink, to which Karin scoffed a little. "They called me, 'The Living Stomach'. The lunch ladies would weep in fear when I came through the cafeteria."

She rolled her eyes. "Sure."

AS Karin lifted her chopsticks to her mouth, her sleeve fell away from her arm. Naruto frowned. At intermittent distances, there were on her arm crescent-shaped scars, ranging from white to livid. "Karin…are those bite marks on your arm?" His look of incredulity summed up entirely what he was feeling.

Karin frowned and wrenched down her sleeve, frown deepening. "This is why I left my boyfriend," she informed him coolly. "These hurt. A lot."

"Ahh."

They continued to eat on in silence. When Naruto finished his ramen, Karin looked up at him and asked, "The man named Jiraiya…Is he your uncle or your grandfather or something?"

Naruto shook his head. "He's my godfather. He's taken care of me ever since my dad died."

She adjusted her glasses; it seemed to be something of a nervous twitch. "So you two are close, then?"

"Yeah, we are." Naruto fidgeted with the chopsticks, and took a large swig of the milk.

Karin's eyes narrowed, the crimson of her irises becoming the only thing visible between skin and eyelashes. Naruto started when fingers touched the top of his hand. "I'm sure he'll be alright. Besides," she pulled an absolutely evil grin, "is he the sort of guy who'd want a crazy man like you obsessing over his health?"

The look on her face was so ridiculous that Naruto couldn't help but laugh. "No, he's not."

.x.X.x.

The sun was starting to go down in earnest when they left the restaurant; the buildings looked red instead of brown.

Karin frowned as she looked around. "Now we just have to find the nearest bar; Lord, I hope your checkbook's deep, Naruto, because from what Yamato-taicho told me the drinks will not becoming cheap tonight."

Naruto shrugged. "Pain for pleasure."

Finally, they found one, near the center of the town and two blocks over from the hospital.

The bar was nicer than a lot of the bars Naruto had been in in his life; Jiraiya had dragged him to some seedy bars in his time. It was dimly lit, had many tables and an open bar in the back, and music was playing at a loud but not unbearable volume.

"It looks decent," Karin commented dubiously. "I've seen better, though."

"And I've seen far, far worse. Come on, let's go get seats up at the bar."

The bartender was nowhere to be found—probably in the back, getting more liquor for the patrons—and Karin showed herself to unamused by the bartender's absence. "What kind of bartender leaves the bar unattended?" she muttered aloud, clearly not wanting to be answered.

Meanwhile, Naruto's neck was prickling. He looked around to see who was staring at him.

The bar was configured in a rectangular fashion; there was one long side, two much shorter sides, and an open end that allowed the bartender to work. Naruto and Karin were sitting on the long end, and when Naruto looked to the short end on his right, he met the gaze of two men, one so tall that he literally had to bow his head to keep from hitting the low-hanging light fixtures.

"Suigetsu," Naruto heard the taller man say quietly, "can we please just go sit at one of the tables? This isn't comfortable for me."

"Hold that thought," the smaller man replied. "I see someone we know. Karin? Karin?!"

She started, squinting at the two men as they came over and sat, one on either side of Naruto and Karin. "Suigetsu? Juugo? What are you two doing here?"

The smaller man, Suigetsu, smirked. "Uchiha-taicho's commandeered one of the hotels due to "sanitary concerns". You know how that guy is about cleanliness."

Karin introduced her two friends to Naruto, who assumed that these were the two friends from the other unit she had talked about. Suigetsu grinned a full-length Cheshire Cat's gin as he and Naruto leaned forward, extending hands across the table to shake hands, exposing a long row of very sharp teeth as he did so.

"Don't let his size fool you," Karin said about Juugo. "This guy's nothing but a big softie."

"Just don't make him mad," Suigetsu advised him. "There's a reason he's in the berserker unit."

Naruto looked up at Juugo, who silently smiled back down.

Suigetsu, with his slightly nasal, penetrating voice, soon broke the silence. "So what, Karin? Is this guy your boyfriend?" The wicked gleam in his purple eyes indicated that they had had this conversation before, and Suigetsu's smirk widened.

Karin smiled predatorily. "What's the matter, Fish-boy? Jealous?" Her voice was far too sweet.

As the two argued, Naruto looked on, confused. "Is this normal?" he asked Juugo, bewildered.

Juugo nodded, the suspicion of a conspiratorial smile on his face. "Suigetsu prefers women, but Karin has been casting aspersions on his sexuality since they were old enough to know what sex was. I'm not sure why, really. They've had this sort of relationship for the best part of thirteen years now."

They eventually quieted down, and the bartender, a young woman with brown hair, came out of the back, put up a few bottles, and approached the four. "What'll you have?"

Suigetsu grinned. "Whiskey."

Karin groaned "You're not starting with that again, are you?"

"What?! I like whiskey!"

The bartender turned to Juugo. "What about you, sir?"

Juugo shook his head. "None, thanks."

"And for you two?" she asked Karin and Naruto.

"Sake, please."

"The same."

As they were waiting for their drinks, Karin turned to Naruto. "Don't drink too much. I may be strong physically—" she smirked "—ask Suigetsu about the incident with the hotel room door—" Suigetsu noticeably winced "—but I don't think I could carry you home."

"What said I was going to get that drunk?" Naruto protested.

The shadows of the dim lights made her eyes seem more deep-set than usual. "Considering how stressed out you were earlier, I wouldn't be surprised."

"I never get drunk. I've watched what happens to people who do way too many times. I don't even drink all that much to begin with."

Karin raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "I'm gonna hold you to it."

The drinks came. Suigetsu immediately began to swallow his down with great gusto.

"Cleaning out the house again?"

"Screw you. This is my first taste of whiskey in six months, and I intend to enjoy it."

Overall, Naruto decided he liked Karin's two friends. Suigetsu could be obnoxious at moments, and Naruto was most comfortable around people who talked a little more than Juugo, but they were alright.

Suigetsu would make a remark, and Karin would either scoff or laugh, and Naruto could tell a fake laugh from a real laugh by the way her eyes would or wouldn't crinkle mid-laugh. During some of his more outrageous stories, Juugo would insert his own points of view and mildly point out when Suigetsu was lying, much to Suigetsu's chagrin.

Not to be outdone, Naruto made a few jokes of his own, none of them very good; they were meant to entertain the audience rather than provoking laughter. For the most part, Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo assumed identically blank looks whenever he started to tell a joke. His stories of his and his friends' high school antics achieved a little more success.

"Do you remember the senior pranks the year we were seniors at that school?"

"I do," Juugo piped up unexpectedly; it was the first time he had spoken in about fifteen minutes. "It had three parts. First, some students got together before school and moved every desk in every classroom into the center of the room, stacking them in a pyramid and then wrapping them with plastic wrap so they couldn't be broken apart.

"Second, someone put huge banners across Professor Orochimaru and Professor Hatake's doors, reading, "The Deepest Pit of Hell; Enter at Your Own Risk," and "A Pervert Lives Here," respectively. The one across Professor Orochimaru's door was covered in ketchup to make it look like blood."

Suigetsu guffawed. "I can still remember the look on Orochimaru's face!"

"Yes, he was livid, especially after the ketchup started to go bad. Finally, at the last period of the day, someone let all the live toads in the science labs—upwards of a hundred, as I understand—loose into the halls. The female students were not appreciative."

"I orchestrated it!" Naruto declared proudly.

Karin frowned at Juugo. "Juugo, you were already in college when this happened. How did you know about it?"

"You and Suigetsu told me. You showed me pictures too."

Karin laughed ruefully, rubbing the back of her head. "I guess I'd forgotten." She addressed Juugo, but her eyes were on Naruto.

.x.X.x.

"Do you think we should head back to camp tonight?"

"And be shot at for showing up in the dark? No thanks. Besides, I'm looking forward to taking a shower, because frankly, after several months of no bathing, we both stink. The only reason you don't notice it at the camp is because you're so used to the smell that you start experiencing nasal fatigue."

It was black night. Suigetsu and Juugo walked a few yards in front of Naruto and Karin. The latter for some reason latched her arm around Naruto's; Naruto didn't know why, but he wasn't complaining.

"How long have you known those two?" Naruto asked suddenly, nodding towards the two young men.

"Ever since I moved to Konoha, so since I was ten."

He looked at her, slightly confused. "You weren't born in Konoha?"

"No, in Kusa."

"Huh. You sound just like a native, though."

They fell into silence, Naruto listening to the soft sounds of other people talking and laughing, to the sound of a television set just inside of a home they passed, to the blustery wind blowing outside the town and sweeping through the streets.

"It's…quiet tonight," Naruto whispered.

"Yeah, it really—"

A shattering boom broke Naruto's illusion of silence. Immediately, all four dropped to the ground, looking for the source of the explosion. The sound of shattering stone echoed nearby, along with a bright yellow light flickering over the rooftops.

"What was that?!" Suigetsu shouted over the noise, looking around wildly.

"Bombing raids!" Naruto shouted back. "Suna forces must have found out about the Konoha unit stationed in the hotel!" A plane screamed overhead.

Naruto looked to his right. Karin was huddled with her hands over her head in a protective fashion.

He shook her arm. "You alright?" Naruto asked quietly.

She looked up, her eyes slightly wild. "Yeah, I'm fine. When I was little, I—"

The ground shook again, and another bomb blast sent rubble flying down from a building several hundred yards down the street.

"We need to get somewhere safe!"

The moment that was said, a violent boom broke just overhead. Naruto watched in horror as the building beside him collapsed. Rubble, huge shards of rock, came flying towards him, and, unable to dodge in time, he sank into darkness.

.x.X.x.

Karin had flung herself away from the shrapnel almost as soon as the building started to collapse. She had had enough experience with bombing raids to know what to do when one happened.

Her heart was beating fast, her mind racing. It was just like those days in Kusagakure, so much that she could even smell the same odor of smoke and fire in the air.

Karin cleared her mind, pushing herself to her feet. "Oh, shoot," she muttered.

Naruto laid motionless on the ground, blood seeping from his head. He looked almost the same as the day they had met nearly a month ago.

Karin knelt beside him, medic instincts taking over. She put two fingers to his neck. A pulse was there, fluctuating but strong. Okay. She sighed in relief. He's not dead.

Then, reality came back to her. They were in the middle of an open street with a bombing raid going on. Sharp, shrill screams of explosives and the widespread panic of the populace returned to her. People were dodging around her and Naruto as they ran, screaming, trying to find a safe place.

"Fine time to pass out!" she shrieked. Predictably, Naruto didn't answer. Karin shook his shoulders. "Come on, wake up!"

A hand touched her shoulder. Juugo, for all his instability when it came to chaos was oddly unaffected by the panic. He remained calm and mild.

"The hospital is two blocks away," he said, straining to be heard over the noise. "In bombing raids here, the hospitals are always left alone."

Karin nodded. Suigetsu came and stood beside Juugo, shooting a wary glance at the much-larger man; he knew full well what chaos usually did to him. "Can you handle him?" Juugo was easily the biggest man Karin had ever met, as well as the strongest physically.

Juugo leaned down and hefted Naruto up. "He hardly weighs anything," Juugo remarked.

"Okay, let's go."

Navigating the streets, Karin listened for sounds of bomb blasts while she and Suigetsu worked to move aside stone slabs and other rubble so Juugo could move through with less difficulty.

"Wild night, huh?" Suigetsu laughed as he stared up at the burning sky with an almost manic expression on his face.

Karin stared at him, genuinely shocked. "This is your idea of fun?"

"Why not? If the world seems to be ending, why not enjoy it?"

"You're crazy!"

Suigetsu was as much a lover of chaos as Juugo was not.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity of scraping, ducking, diving and dodging, the hospital came into view.

Karin sighed in relief, and couldn't even hear her own voice as the planes continued to scream bloody murder into the night.

.x.X.x.

He was dreaming again. Darkness hovered all around him, like storm clouds or a dense blanket. Distant sounds, like sirens or flares, echoed in the distance, the way an ambulance would if he was sitting in the fifth floor of an apartment building and the ambulance was letting off noise five blocks over.

Naruto wondered where all the light had gone.

When he opened his eyes, his head ached horribly, and it was light. Brilliant white light coming from a window, to be exact.

Naruto's eyes adjusted, and he saw his surroundings. He was in what seemed to be a hospital room; he was lying down on a bed, an IV in his arm. The walls were made of light brown stone like everything else in the town, and the floors were rough brown stone as well. The walls were unfurnished, and the room was silent.

"You're awake!" A loud voice shocked his ears from nearby.

Karin leaned over him, eyes showing her relief clearly on her face. "You idiot, don't do that."

Naruto managed a slight twist of a smile, and pain shot through his head. "So tell me, Doc," he muttered. "How bad is it?"

She rolled her eyes, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Well, I think I'm going to say what I've been meaning to say for a long time. You are, without a doubt, the luckiest bastard I have ever met. You get hit directly with a half-ton slab of rock, and all that happens to you is a concussion and a broken leg. How are you so lucky?"

Naruto fell back on his pillow. "I dunno. Everyone I know has asked me the same thing, at some point."

She smiled warmly, her face glowing. "I'm glad you're alright, Naruto."

Naruto smiled back. "Thanks, Karin." He hesitated for a moment, heart racing, then blurted out, "Hey, Karin. When we get home…" He hesitated again. "When we get home, will you go out with me?"

Karin looked taken aback for a moment. Then, she broke into an even wider smile than before. "Sure." She reached over and squeezed his hand.

Suddenly, a high, loud stream of laughter echoed behind the door. "HAHAHAHA!! I knew it!"

Karin's smile melted off of her face, instead resembling a highly dangerous look of annoyance. "I'll be right back."

The door slammed behind her. "WHAT DID YOU SAY, FISH-BOY??!!"

Naruto grinned weakly.

.x.X.x.

A couple of days later, Naruto was feeling well enough to write a letter home.

September 12

Sakura,

I'm writing from the hospital. Don't worry; I'm not too bad off, just a concussion and a broken leg. I'll spare you the details.

Please let me know as soon as you can about Ero-Sennin's condition; I hope he's alright.

Not much more to say.

Oh, just one more thing.

Sakura, I think I may have a girlfriend.

Naruto

The quotation Yamato makes is from Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen.

Okay, finished. Please, R&R.