9 - The Green Butterfly

The behemoth swung at Naruto's face, but Naruto ducked away easily, leaving his opponent snarling with rage. His skin was turning purple, his face was covered in jagged black lines, and his eyes were bulging and yellow.

Naruto smiled to himself as he easily sidestepped another massive blow. These guys are getting uglier all the time.

He wondered where Kabuto found them all, but there wasn't much time to dwell on it. He had an objective in this spar, and a time to beat.

This opponent was more than twice Naruto's size. Pinned to the back of his collar was a red flag, and in Naruto's pocket was a green one. Training for stealth, Naruto's object was to snatch the red flag and swap it for the green, without the massive guy noticing. It was a good shinobi skill for plucking weapons off opponents, setting paper bombs, or even lifting keys off an unsuspecting shopkeeper should the need arise.

It was a bit of a dance, distracting the huge man and trying to swing around behind him. But his stealth skills were improving. After all, he was able to sneak up on Sakura….

Pink hair and green eyes filled up his vision, even as the man in front of him swung again. Without thinking about his movements, Naruto's body reacted on its own. He dodged where the man swung and pivoted where the man stepped. His mind was more happily occupied.

He couldn't stop thinking about Sakura. He wondered about her, his mind drifting back to their short conversation, replaying it over and over, no matter what he was doing. He was always thinking of things he wished he'd asked her about. Like how were all the other rookies. And what had changed in Konoha. And if the little ramen stand he liked was still there. But mostly, he wanted to know about her….

Naruto saw his opening and pushed off the side wall, pitching himself up and over his opponent's ugly hunched back. His fingers caught the red flag and swapped it with the green with ease. He let the force of the arc pull his body back to the ground on the other side.

Objective met, his mind drifted back to Sakura. But like an ever-present shadow, the uncomfortable idea of just her and Kakashi as part of a broken Team 7 was never far behind. That's never how he thought it would be.

He hit the ground in a perfect crouch, estimating his landing perfectly. Congratulating himself as he stood, his mind automatically slipped back to something Sakura had said….

Of course, he wanted to leave with Sasuke, but that didn't mean he'd abandoned her. She was just mistaken. That's not what happened at all—

Pain exploded across the top of Naruto's arm and the hot breath of his opponent scalded his neck. He'd landed closer to the behemoth than he thought. He caught a glimpse of a raised hand over his back, the grotesquely sharp nails coming in for another slash, and Naruto dove for the door.

He slid through just in time, nearly colliding with Sasuke, Kabuto and a handful of attendants, one of whom slammed behind him before the snarling monster could get another swipe. He stood, staunching the blood with the red flag, and ignored Sasuke's hard look.

"What were you doing out there? Daydreaming? You never leave your back open like that!"

Naruto ignored him. He peeled back the wet fabric to see three long gashes across his arm, bleeding profusely. He cursed under his breath.

Kabuto pulled his hand away to inspect it. "We'll have to watch this," he said quietly. "This is deep enough you've probably been infected by the curse mark."

Naruto looked back at him. "The wha—? A curse mark? Is that what's wrong with all these guys? Are they sick or something?"

Kabuto smiled silkily as he bandaged it. "No, not quite. They're stronger. I've created something that lets them draw on their natural abilities. Heightens it. You really should try it out, Naruto-kun—"

Naruto shied away from him. "You don't mean I'm gonna get it?!"

Kabuto pressed his fingers along the torn edges of the wound. "Do you feel any pain? Numbness?"

Naruto shook his head. "Feels warm around it, but that's it. Doesn't hurt any more."

Kabuto shined a pen light into Naruto's eyes, but they were normal and blue. Naruto tried to pull away, but Kabuto gripped his chin tightly. He dug his thumb into a pressure point on Naruto's jaw, and when he opened his mouth to say "Ow!" Kabuto shined his light inside. He ran his finger over his teeth where fangs sometimes pointed out. But they were smooth.

"Huh," Kabuto said, for the first time looking surprised. Naruto wrenched his head backwards out of Kabuto's grasp.

"Huh, what?" he snapped, jerking his torn shirt over the bandage.

Kabuto shook his head once, as if clearing himself from a daze. "No it's just…. Well, I haven't ever…. It seems that you're not infected."

He swiveled back around to Naruto's arm to inspect the cut. Naruto tried to clamp his hand down and keep Kabuto from looking again, but Kabuto batted his hand away. He pulled the bandage back and Naruto winced in pain. But Kabuto didn't care. He poked and prodded it, inspecting the torn skin and swabbing out some of the dried blood. He smoothed his fingers over Naruto's skin around the wound, but it was all pink. No sign of angry purple flesh or the black marks that covered most of his opponents.

Satisfied, Kabuto reapplied the bandage and stepped back, pleasantly surprised.

Naruto jerked up the sleeve again. "Well," he grumbled, "can I go?"

Kabuto nodded, as if not really hearing him. He bent to his clipboard and began writing feverishly. Naruto scowled at Sasuke, who just shrugged, and they moved to leave. At the turn of the hallway however, Naruto heard Kabuto's voice.

"Naruto-kun, I want to check that wound again. In a few days. Just to make sure it hasn't spread."

Naruto grunted, but he kept going.

"What the hell has been going on with you lately," Sasuke said as they walked. Naruto wouldn't tell him the truth, of course. He cut his eyes to the side, casting around for something else to blame it, when a cell door swung open in front of them.

Two men came out, pushing a stretcher with a white sheet mounded up in the middle like a pile of snow. Only it was covering a huge disfigured body. Naruto and Sasuke stopped and watched. The men never looked up, just quietly pushed the gurney down the corridor to another one of Kabuto's labs.

The previous conversation between them was forgotten.

"What the hell do you think that was," Naruto said, feeling suddenly sick. He nervously picked at the bandage on his shoulder. "The curse mark?"

Sasuke angled his gaze away and stayed quiet.

A week later, Kabuto heard a knock at his lab door and put down his pen. "Enter."

Sasuke walked proudly through the door, followed by a skeptical Naruto. Kabuto resisted the urge to smirk.

Sasuke gave him a cool look. "You summoned us?"

Kabuto had never commanded the respect Sasuke gave to Orochimaru. But Kabuto ignored the slight. He knew how to get what he needed. And for that reason he was indispensable to Orochimaru. No matter how his master doted on Sasuke, the boy would only ever be a vessel, a tool to be used. Just like Naruto….

"Today I am going to teach you to detect someone's chakra from a distance." Kabuto waved his hand at the table and stools and they took a seat.

Naruto, suspicious as ever, twisted his face up at him. "What would we need to learn that for?

"Touching someone imprints your chakra," Kabuto continued, "if you know how to do it. There are opportunities to pick up someone's 'information,' be it a jutsu or physical documents or someone's chakra code. The secret is knowing when to take them."

Kabuto pulled his ringed notebook out of his pocket and tapped it against his hand. It was his most prized possession. "This contains information on every shinobi I've ever encountered. All through touch and stealth."

He pushed his glasses back up his nose and stared down at Naruto. "Don't ever let someone slip out of your grasp without getting the information you need." He dropped the book safely back into his pocket.

"Now turn to face one another."

Kabuto taught them a series of jutsus, then told them to close their eyes and concentrate on the person in front of them, the one they see in their mind. Then he paced around them, observing their progress.

"Orochimaru-sama and I put traces on you both within minutes of their arrival," he said with a whiff of pride. "And now, your chakra is so familiar, it's nearly effortless to detect."

Naruto's head raised and he cracked an eye open to peek at Sasuke. Kabuto whacked him on the back of the head and kept walking.

"But like a fragrance it fades over time," he continued. "And you cannot maintain a whole army full of subjects. Only a few…. Only the most important people," Kabuto said, looking directly at Sasuke, who had opened his eyes to watch him with that penetrating gaze that Orochimaru prized so.

"Can you use it to teleport," Sasuke asked, mind jumping ahead just as Kabuto would expect of him.

Crossing behind him, Kabuto hitched his shoulder. "If you are close enough, maybe. But you would have to be exceptionally powerful—"

"Oy, like a flash-step." Naruto said, opening his eyes again, unable to resist joining in.

Kabuto smirked. "Don't get your hopes up, Naruto-kun," he said patronizingly.

Naruto frowned and folded his arms over his chest. "Yeah, well I still don't get the whole 'seeing somebody else' part. All I see are the back of my eyelids." Sasuke was silent, but he didn't disagree.

"Hmmm…. Strange," Kabuto said, hiding a smile. He circled back around to Naruto. "Perhaps it would work better if you try it from a distance." He dropped his hand onto Naruto's shoulder before he had a chance to stand. "Sasuke, why don't you go to your quarters and see if you can find him. Naruto, you stay right here."

Naruto cut his eyes back but Kabuto said innocently, "I want to measure your heart rate while he searches."

Sasuke nodded and left, so Naruto slumped back onto the seat.

Kabuto raised a stethoscope to Naruto's back. "Now, close your eyes, breath deeply and focus on locating Sasuke's chakra in the compound."

Naruto did as he was told.

Kabuto slid the stethoscope up to his collar, then pressed it down on the side of his neck. Naruto was still talking, searching. "Oh, I think I found him…. No, that's not him…."

"Keep looking Naruto-kun. You can find him. Concentrate harder."

Kabuto pushed the stethoscope down on a blue vein on his neck, but he jerked the headpiece away from his ears and let it hang around his neck. Still holding the disc on the vein, Kabuto reached with his other hand over to a tray beside him and retrieved a prepared syringe. He quietly flipped off the cap.

"You're doing great Naruto-kun. Keep going. Search for a color maybe. Blue like his chidori. Or red for the sharingan."

"Oh yeah, that's good," Naruto said emphatically. "I'll find him for sure."

Kabuto nodded. "Hang on— I just want to find your pulse."

Kabuto removed the stethoscope and pushed the tips of his fingers down onto the now plump vein.

It wasn't elegant but it would have to do.

Kabuto smirked down at Naruto, who was so consumed with finding Sasuke that he never even noticed the pulses of numbing chakra that Kabuto sent into his skin.

"Great job Naruto-kun. Keep it up…."

Kabuto replaced the stethoscope at his neck. With his other hand, he brought up the needle and stabbed the vein, hiding it behind the stethoscope. He drew back, pulling out a line of precious red blood from Naruto's neck.

Kabuto's glasses flashed. He congratulated himself on this bit of trickery. Naruto would never have submitted had he known. And it was imperative he get a sample. This might be his only chance—

"Hey— HEY! What the hell are you doing?"

Naruto clamped a hand down on his neck and Kabuto whipped away, stethoscope swinging wildly. In one smooth move, Kabuto plunged the contents of the syringe in a vial and dropped it into his pocket, then flicked the used syringe into the trash.

Naruto wheeled around. "What were you doing!?"

Kabuto turned back to Naruto with a cool expression. He realized the numbing chakra had worn off too soon. But now Naruto was pissed. "Now, now, Naruto-kun—"

Naruto lunged off the chair at Kabuto, catching him up by the throat with one hand and shoving him against the wall. He rubbed the sore spot on his neck with his other hand.

"What were you doing to me," he roared into Kabuto's face. "I felt something at my neck! You weren't listening to my heart— What were you doing?!"

At that moment, Sasuke threw open the door looking pleasantly surprised. "Wow, Naruto, whatever you did, it worked! Suddenly your chakra just lit up like a torch—"

Naruto didn't turn. Instead he shook Kabuto against the wall, but Kabuto only flashed his sphinx-like smile. "I don't know what you're talking about a Naruto-kun. I was just checking your heart rate."

Naruto let go and scanned the table and the room. Off to the side there was a tray full of vials and test-tubes. Beside it there was an empty white napkin and a lone cap without its syringe.

"You were doing something. I felt it," he said, still rubbing his neck.

Kabuto straightened his shirt and pushed up his glasses. "You know, Naruto-kun, you should really learn to control your temper."

Naruto growled and shoved the table, knocking its contents to the ground in an explosion of shattering glass and clattering trays, then he stormed out.

Sasuke followed him and Kabuto was left to stand alone in the lab, the wreckage of a day's work at his feet.

But a slow smile was curving up his face.

An attendant crept in and began gingerly picking up the pieces. But Kabuto only laughed.

He opened his hand to reveal a syringe full of ruby red liquid.

"Leave it," he said to the attendant. Then he tipped the vial, swirling the blood to admire it in the light. "None of that matters to me now."

Sasuke followed Naruto into their bed chamber.

"What the hell was that all about?"

Naruto was peering at his reflection in his kunai, looking for a wound he could feel but not see.

"He did something— Poked me with something while I was trying to find your chakra!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Is that all?" Naruto rubbed his neck hard. Sasuke sank back on his pallet in frustration. "If he did anything it will probably enhance your skills. I've been telling you if you'd just let him give you some of the meds you'd be as strong as—"

"You," Naruto growled viciously. "Just go ahead and say it."

Sasuke stood, mouth pinched in anger. "No. I was going to say as strong as some of the new opponents they've brought in for us. They're huge. Bigger than I've ever seen. You can't just take them down on your own—"

"I can and I will! I don't need this stuff to make me stronger. Only training and hard work!"

Sasuke laughed scornfully. "Yeah well guys like Itachi aren't going to wait for you to get stronger—"

Naruto shoved past him, knocking his shoulder, and went out the door.

"Stop being so childish and get on the meds," Sasuke shouted down the corridor after him. But Naruto didn't stop.

He went through the tunnels, not even sure where he was going. Anger churned up within him…at Kabuto, for pushing this on him, at Orochimaru for orchestrating all of it, and even at Sasuke for going along with them.

He ran his hands through his hair. He just wanted to get out, somewhere he could think and get some fresh air….

He ran down a few more tunnels till he came to it, the crack of light that he knew was the opening. He clambered up the steep, wet steps, and in a few short minutes he emerged form the vine-covered portal. Alone. He breathed deeply, feeling sweet relief at just being outside.

He launched to the canopy and leapt away, putting some distance between himself and the hideout before he stopped and looked around. He breathed in the clean air and soaked up the dappled sun on his skin.

Even though it felt good, he was still pissed. Sasuke's pressuring and Kabuto's conniving. He rubbed his neck again. And he didn't want to think about what that sick jerk had infected him with.

He turned back, expecting to see Sasuke's figure darting up behind him. But no one came. Good, he thought petulantly. He really didn't want to see any of them right now.

Instead he turned and looked ahead. The green lights and golden shadows of the tree canopy spread out ahead of him. It was so simple, so easy, as if being surrounded by all that green he could feel it pulling him…away from the forest…. The leaves grew soft in his focus and he saw her green eyes dancing in front of him. The sun warmed his face and he heard her laughter in his ears.

He drew in a breath, closed his eyes, and let the emotion pull him….

Memories surfaced and time fell away…and out of the darkness a green light slowly flickered to life. It danced just beyond his reach, like a butterfly. This was her chakra, alive and vibrant, moving just beyond his reach. It stopped, hovered, then moved again.

Naruto watched it through the darkness, focused on it as if looking through binoculars. She was moving, walking, he could tell that. The butterfly light was flitting in a direction, stopping and going in a pattern.

A smile broke across his face and he pulled back, the green chakra fading into the distance as the birdsong in his ear increased and the sun suddenly beat on his skin again. But the light didn't fade away. Not completely. It was out there, shining like starlight in the darkness.

He slowly opened his eyes and blinked at the green canopy. He'd done it. He'd found her. She must be important to him—

Well, he knew she was. But finding her so quickly, when he couldn't even locate Sasuke a few rooms over…. She must be more important that he realized. Or maybe it was a different kind of connection….

He breathed the fresh air, feeling like he'd just been with her. But it wasn't enough. He wanted more….

He glanced back. Still no one came.

Naruto smirked. They probably weren't even looking for him. And Kabuto made it clear his chakra wasn't as valuable to track as Sasuke's.

He was suddenly energized. Sakura's chakra hung like a fixed point in front of him. He was so certain of it, he knew he could flash-step there. He didn't know how he knew, but he did. He felt it in his bones.

There was nothing stopping him. He could go, see her and come back. No one would never know. No Sasuke clucking over him like a mother hen.

He'd just see her again, just one more time. Maybe he'd even speak to her. Maybe not.

He grinned. A devilish glint lit his eyes at the idea of thumbing his nose at authority and breaking some rules like he used to back in Konoha. The prospect of a challenge, trying something completely new and utterly his own was thrilling. And if it worked, he'd see Sakura again….

Naruto straightened, closed his eyes and focused on the green butterfly. Hands clasped, he drew his fingers up in front of his face and murmured the flash-step jutsu. Then he disappeared in a swirl of green leaves.

In the middle of a rain-soaked forest, the empty ground between a stand of trees suddenly exploded upward with motion. Wet leaves whirled into the air. In the center, the jagged lines spun together to form a silhouette, then showered back to the ground. In their wake a figure was revealed.

Naruto collapsed forward onto his hands and knees on the forest floor. He shut his eyes and dug his fingers into the dirt, trying not to vomit from the dizziness.

Traveling without a trajectory had left him him perilously disoriented. He'd just closed his eyes, taken a breath, focused on the green butterfly and concentrated all his thoughts on Sakura. Next thing he knew he was zooming through an unending darkness until his feet found the ground again.

He stood slowly, head still spinning. But it was lessening. He was in a mist-shrouded forest. Beyond the line of trees in a broad valley was a grey smudge of a town, surrounded by farms and shacks. He had no idea where he was. But it must have been far because there was a steady drizzle falling beyond the sheltering branches, and the forest he had left was sunny and clear.

He decided he must be at least one country away from their Sound territory hideout. It looked different, felt different—

He flared his nostrils, breathing in. Smelled different.

Naruto took a wobbly step, then another, feeling better with each one. He wiped a hand down his face, deciding it was like the flash-step jutsu, but double the power. Or maybe even triple. And he didn't even know he could do it.

His face broke into a satisfied smile, deeply pleased that there were still some secrets Kabuto didn't have scribbled in his little book.

Somehow he knew he didn't get as far as the butterfly in his mind, but he was close. He closed his eyes and saw it hovering nearby, beyond the trees. He bet she was somewhere in that little ramshackle town.

He left the forest and walked into the drizzle, following a dirt road that led down to the cluster of buildings.

After scoping out the town — poor and dismal, with little to offer but the bare necessities — Naruto leaned into the dark shadow under an awning and waited. He closed his eyes to seek the butterfly again, but it was no help now. It just floated in the space in front of him, flitting here and there, but nothing to guide him.

So he waited and he watched.

It felt like he hadn't been there very long when a shop door swung open across from him. A wall of drawers and hanging herbs and red tassels was framed in warm yellow light, and the shopkeeper held open the door, wishing well their esteemed patron.

Sakura herself stepped into the doorway. Naruto straightened. She pulled up her hood, turned back to speak a few smiling words to the owner, then tucked her bag under her tan, standard issue Konoha cloak and left.

He didn't have time to check, but he bet that little green butterfly was on the move again, fluttering in a straight line away from him.

Naruto was giddy at this new skill. He couldn't believe it worked. He'd actually found her.

But now he had to decide what to do. Call to her, wave at her…. Was she alone? Would she be mad?

He realized he hadn't thought this through. So he just peeled himself off the wall and followed her, sticking to the shadows, hiding behind crates and the edge of buildings.

He followed her through several streets, watched her sidestep rain-filled potholes in the rutted road and nod to passersby. Then suddenly she turned. Up one lane and then the next, turning again and again onto narrower and dirtier lanes until finally she reached a dark alley. Crates were cluttered outside doors and the shabby awnings nearly touched in the middle so that the only path was through the muddy center gutter, under the steady stream of run-off.

She had splashed halfway down the dark road when Naruto skirted the corner and threw himself behind a stack of soaked boxes that reeked of over-ripe fruit. He couldn't imagine what she would be doing all the way down here, alone—

Suddenly the flat edge of a kunai bit into his throat and a fist shoved him backwards into the wall, pitching his face into deeper shadow.

"Who are you and what do you…want…."

He slid down the wall into the light, revealing a widening grin. Still gripping him tightly, Sakura's mouth formed a soundless 'O.' Her eyes went painfully wide. She jumped back is if he were on fire.

"Wha-What are you doing here?"

Naruto straightened, tugged down his fatigues and rubbed his hand sheepishly over the back of his neck.

"I just saw you and—"

"You saw me?" Her voice bounced off the walls, sending creatures rustling to hide behind the abandoned crates and she dropped her voice. "I'm in the middle of nowhere!"

Run-off from the awning streamed down onto her hood, splattering onto the kunai she still had pointed out him, but she didn't move.

Her fierceness only made him grin brighter. He shoved his hands into his pockets, completely comfortable in her presence, even with a weapon pointing at him. "So are you alone out here?"

Sakura watched him, gauging him. She must have found him safe. She reholstered the kunai and stepped back a pace. "No! Of course not."

"Good," Naruto said quietly as he eased forward.

They stood mere feet apart, a curtain of drizzle separating them.

All the questions Naruto had been thinking about left him. At length Sakura broke the silence.

"Why are you here," she asked. There was still suspicion in her voice but her tone had softened.

"I just wanted to see how you are, what you were doing now. Are you on a mission?"

She looked as if she couldn't believe he had the nerve to ask her. But he waited for an answer.

She glanced sideways, debating internally, then slowly revealed the bag from inside her cloak. The one she'd left the shop with.

"I'm here as a medic. There has been a plague outbreak here. Just a few families on the outskirts of town. They needed an experienced healer, not just the town herbalist."

Naruto's face lit up. "C-Cool Sakura-chan! So you're a medic now too, as well as a shinobi! Amazing!"

She shrugged lightly, trying not to look flustered at the unexpected compliment.

"So are you here with other medics?"

"No, a shinobi team. We've quarantined the families for the last week. We think we've stopped the outbreak." She shook the bag. "These are herbs for them to continue treatment."

Naruto nodded. "So who are you out here with? Anyone I'd know? Kiba, Shino." He laughed to himself. "Lee…I wonder how he's doing—"

"Naruto?"

He looked at her wide green eyes, peering at him from under the cloak. "What exactly are you doing here?"

Naruto blinked and angled his head at her. He didn't have a good answer.

"Are you here with your—" The word 'team' was on her lips, but stopped herself. Instead she spat the word, "him? Are you on some kind of mission? I don't even know where you live! Maybe you've defected to another village—"

Naruto smiled gently. No matter what Sasuke said, there was no reason not to at least tell her just a little bit. Set the record straight. "No, no other village. Sasuke and I are with Orochimaru now. So that's kind of like still being with the Leaf, right? Anyway, it's not forever. Sasuke has a goal and I'm helping him reach it—"

"Really," she snapped, anger rising. "So you're doing all of this for Sasuke." She glared at him. "And what are you getting out of it?"

Naruto shrugged. It wasn't something he'd thought too much about. Sasuke needed him, and he went. It was pretty simple. But he could understand why she was angry. They didn't leave the way he would have liked—

"Why are you here Naruto?"

He looked at her for one long moment, considering her question, then edged forward. Splashes of rain water bounced off the front of his black fatigues.

He angled his head to get a better look at her. "Sakura," he said softly. "Pull back your hood."

She stared at him, incredulous. But he waited there for her, getting soaked, until she slowly lifted one hand and slid the hood back.

The corners of his mouth curled up.

Even though they were in a dim alley, he could see so much more of her than last time. When he wasn't so overcome by surprise.

Pink hair brushed her shoulders. It had grown longer since the last time he'd seen her. Her cheeks were slowly staining the same shade of pink. Her face was longer and more angled than the heart-shaped child's face he remembered. But her eyes….her eyes were still the same. As green as the trees, as green as that chakra butterfly that he knew was hovering directly in front of him.

Sakura fidgeted with the front of her cloak. She looked in turns suspicious, then uncertain, then suspicious again.

Naruto smiled warmly. "I just wanted to see you again. That's all."

She bit her lip. The tops of her cheeks went bright red. But she exploded "Well, fine then! Now you've seen me, so you can just…uh—"

Naruto laughed at her, so many memories suddenly resurfacing. She had always been like that when they were kids. Acting angry when really she flustered about something. Maybe she hadn't changed that much, after all….

He jumped across the gutter, through the sheet of rain and almost directly into her. She stepped back, narrowly missing crashing into the stack of crates behind her. But having no where else to go, she stopped. And so did he.

The sheltered space was just barely big enough for two. Sakura leaned back against the crates while water spattered down Naruto's back. But he didn't move. There were nearly toe to toe, but he didn't move.

Instead he smiled down at her. He was half-a-head taller now. That was a surprise.

She bit her lip and tilted her eyes up at him and he could tell she was thinking the same thing.

"I didn't mean to startle you," he said softly.

"You didn't," she said too quickly, looking like she didn't trust him.

"Before, in the alley."

Sakura dared a glance up into his eyes. The ghost of a smirk lit her face. "Oh, you mean when you were sneaking around every corner, hiding behind every box?"

He chuckled, teasing pink back into her cheeks. Good…this was good. He finally felt like he was gaining some ground with her. He didn't question why he needed to. He just wanted to be back in her good graces. And he knew, without a doubt, that one visit wouldn't be nearly enough.

Down the alley a door clapped shut. A man in an apron stepped out, lit a cigarette, then turned to see them standing there.

"Oy! What are you doing! You can't be back here!"

Sakura made a 'tch' noise at getting caught, but Naruto touched her shoulder and said over her. "It's okay old man, we were just leaving."

Sakura whipped her head back at him, just in time to see him raise two fingers to his lips. They were so close he could see himself reflected in her eyes. Leaves peeled up from the dark alley floor where there were none before and circled around him.

"No— Wait—"

As the leaves streaked over his chest he flashed her his most charming smile. "I'll see you again, okay Sakura-chan?"

Her green eyes sparked with an anger that only fueled more warm memories for him. Over her shoulder the old man's mouth hung open, his cigarette dangling precariously from his bottom lip.

And then he was gone, whizzing through the darkness toward the forest just outside the hideout. He thought hard about his destination, exactly the spot he wanted his feet to touch down, and was able to land confidently this time.

He felt the branch under his feet, the limb sinking slightly with his weight. The earthy tang of the forest filled his nostrils. Naruto opened his eyes. There wasn't a trace of rain in sight. And judging from the dipping sun, he'd only been gone about an hour. Not long enough for anyone to notice.

Completely proud of himself, Naruto hopped down from the limb and strode to the stone covered entrance. This had worked. And worked well. He knew, without a doubt, he would be seeing Sakura again. Soon.

Author's note:

Thanks everyone for the reviews and faves. And thanks for hanging in there with NS! In this chapter we see Naruto intuitively learning the skills of his father. I think it would have been cool to have him tap into that legacy, instead of just the kyuubi. And yes, Kabuto's up to something. Sasuke's still the prize, but there's something very special about Naruto too. More NS goodness to come! Please read and review!