Which Way to Konoha?

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"And I didn't! I didn't get lost this time! But there was the run in with these guys…"

Naruto cursed as another branch jumped out and hit him in the face. He was in a rush to get back to Konoha, he needed to get back to Konoha, that Medic Village was going to need their help to rebuild and not just because Doc and Kurosaki were saying it was all his fault—it was not his fault or rather not entirely his fault—was he running as fast as he could in the direction that Kurosaki had reassured him multiple times was the right way. Those good-for-nothings hadn't been helping around the Village for the past few months, surely they could take some blame here too! In fact, Naruto thought it a little unfair that he was given any portion of the liability, after all it should be those good-for-nothings shouldering all of the blame for the situation that the Medic Village found itself in. If the good-for-nothings hadn't been there then Naruto wouldn't have gotten caught in their trap and then he would not have been hired by Doc and Kurosaki and his band of Misfits to, well, to blow up the wall in the end. So, yes, it was entirely those good-for-nothings that were to blame!

Naruto had already spent as much time as he could to help the Village find as many survivors of the "Great Naruto Gate Incident" (as the villagers had taken to calling it) or as many moments as he could spare, there was only so much a single Ninja could do when they have a limited amount of Chakra. Naruto wouldn't have admitted it to Doc or Kurosaki, but there had been a very real possibility that he had over juiced that last attack in a desperate attempt to just get out of that stupid village and their stupid walls. Naruto was not claustrophobic in any way; he just really disliked feeling trapped, without any means of escape, being imprisoned for nearly two months back in Lightning had not been one of Naruto's favorite times.

Naruto swore as his foot slipped from the bark of the tree he was jumping across. He hadn't had time to recharge his reserves, even with the added boost of Kyuubi's power he was usually provided, and he was having a difficult time navigating through the canopies. Naruto was still trying to regain his balance and contemplating leaving the safety of the trees canopy to make the rest of the trip on the ground when a flash of silver jumped out in front of him, hitting the trunk of the tree where his head had been seconds before. Naruto scoffed.

"Lame! Road bandits attacking the Great Leaf Ninja Uzumaki! They must have a death wish!" crowed Naruto as he finally regained his footing enough to turn around and grasp the Shuriken from the bark and pull it loose. No sooner did he have it in front of him when the shadow of a cloud of shurikens rained down on him. "Not fair! I'm not armed!"

The only response that the bandits gave him was to shink! a kunai off of the shuriken in his hand. Naruto raised an eyebrow, did these bandits actually want a fight? That was odd, most bandits would never in a million years intentionally engage in a fight, especially the ones in Fire Country, they were more concerned about making bank then exchanging steel.

"You guys are weird bandits!" shouted Naruto into the shadows, his eyes fixed on the shadows as he effortlessly dodged and reflected the incoming barrage of weapons. This bandit had nothing on Tenten! Now that was a weapons mistress to be worried about.

Naruto's eyes locked in on a shadow, it was stationary in the forest, even as the wind swept through the canopy of the trees. This was one of the reasons that Konoha ninja wore loose clothing, the immovable objects in the forest were usually the ones that needed to be avoided especially if they did not fit into the scenery of a forest that was always flowing and moving. Naruto had known this lesson longer than most, and he had applied it in many situations, usually when he was pranking someone, but his experience could not be scoffed at.

Without a second thought Naruto kicked himself off of the branch he was perched on and directed his path towards the shadow. Naruto watched the shadow take on a fighting posture. So they had seen him coming huh? That didn't mean they knew what the number one most unpredictable ninja was going to do! Naruto's jump would have landed shorter than the shadow was situated and so Naruto naturally let his body arch through the air onto the branch below and diagonal from the immovable shadow. Naruto had already determined to defeat these bad guys without any chakra, they were just lame bandits they didn't deserve for Naruto to go all out with them (never mind that Naruto didn't have enough chakra for a battle, at least not that the full out chakra wars he specialized in, anyway).

Green was all Naruto knew for a second when the once shadow charged at him, and Naruto's eyes crossed. He had to remember that these bandits were nothing like the ones he usually faced. The bandits he usually faced did not jump wholeheartedly into a confrontation like these guys seemed to be doing. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the orange fist make its way to his face, he was pinned underneath this monstrosity and his adrenaline began to course through his veins, blurring out the finer details of the forest and his attacker, all he knew was that he needed to get out of there before that punch landed.

With some fancy footwork Naruto managed to wrap his legs around the green bandit's waist, and before the punch could connect Naruto applied enough force to reverse their situations, sending the bandit on his back and leaving Naruto to pin him down. Instincts allowed for Naruto to effortlessly take advantage of his position, his fist drew back and Naruto allowed a infinitesimal spark of chakra to add force to his punch, just like he had seen Sakura do once and Tsunade do many times, he reasoned just a little wouldn't be breaking his self imposed limitations. Naruto stared down at his opponent, looking for any obvious signs of weakness that he could exploit but his eyes widened and he managed to slowdown his punch enough that when it grazed the bandit underneath him it would do nothing more than leave a black eye.

"Bushy brows! Is that you?" cheered Naruto as he sat up a little straighter, forgetting that he had the boy pinned.

"Naruto," growled Lee and Naruto tilted his head, boy did Bushy Brows sound upset.

"Is that how you greet an old friend?" lectured Naruto accidentally applying more pressure to the downed teens elbows and knees.

"You're spring time of youth has become most rotten," answered the teen, Naruto could only guess what that could mean when he felt a burst of pressure shock its way through his shoulders and before the final burst could be applied Naruto ducked out of the way, rolling off of Lee, his pulled his borrowed Shuriken up just in time to reflect the set of kunai sent his way. Naruto effortlessly plucked one of the kunai that had missed its mark in mid air and lazily swung it around his index finger.

"What's the big deal calling my youth rotten!" declared Naruto angrily, "it's as sun shinny as it's ever been! Maybe even more sun shiny than ever!"

"Only you would have gotten offended at Lee's nonsense," drawled the cool edge of Neji's monotonous timbre. Naruto gulped, Neji did not sound happy, Naruto wondered if they had had a bad mission, but he couldn't think as to why they would take it out on him. Shouldn't there be more rejoicing like there had been when he had gotten back from his three year hiatus with Ero-sensei?

"Woah Neji, what crawled up your butt?" called back Naruto and when another barrage of weapons showered him which Naruto easily dodged out of the way positioning himself further away from his friends. For some reason they were angry at him, and Naruto was not well equipped to butt heads with them right now.

"Naruto you are under arrest for the abandonment of Konoha, you are to be brought in alive," informed a feminine voice from the trees. Naruto turned his eyes to look at where the voice had issued and was easily able to spot the dark outline of Tenten's unique buns.

"Have you been taking too many Soldier pills, Tenten?" asked Naruto truly worried. Naruto had asked once to use Soldier pills after seeing Akamaru and Kiba use them in battle when he was younger, Sakura and Kakashi-sensei, had sat him down for four hours telling him all of the terrible things that Soldier pills could do to him, especially with his unique Chakra reserves, with them being, you know, humongous. Naruto supposed that they did not take his concern as something serious because Neji and Lee fell into battle stances that Naruto had never seen and Tenten sent a volley of weapons towards him.

Naruto cursed, he had thought he had been out of her range, but apparently Sakura hadn't been the only one to have gotten stronger when Naruto had left three years ago. Naruto could easily twist himself out of the way of the weapons, it was one of the few things that Naruto was sure he would never get rusty at, it had been so ingrained in everything he had done from the time he was a little kid, around the same time he had begun pranking, consequentially. But the moment that the volley had stopped Neji and Lee came at him from both sides. One on One Naruto was sure that he could have at least put up a fight, but two on one with no chakra to speak of in his reservoir, now that would be tough.

Naruto hopped over the low kick Lee had sent his way, but quickly he had to dodge out of the way of Neji's touch of death, not that there was any Chakra left in his body to block off. But Naruto supposed that was what made Neji's gentle fist attack that much deadlier to Naruto, all the Chakra left in him was what was left to make his body run smoothly. With that sort of knowledge Naruto was easily able to sacrifice dodging most of Lee's attacks to avoid Neji at all costs.

Lee was getting frustrated, Naruto could see it, boiling underneath his bushy brows, and Naruto wondered if he could use that to his advantage. Rivalry, that was something Naruto understood on a level below instinctual. He remembered how it felt to always be overlooked when in comparison to Sasuke, and while honestly Naruto thought that Bushy brows was a better ninja when in comparison to Neji (granted Naruto's scale of awesome ninja's was based entirely on their obvious enthusiasm) Naruto thought he could use this preprogrammed idea of rivalry for his benefit. Maybe if he could get Lee and Neji to self-destruct he could finally ask Tenten what the heck was going on.

"That was nothing Bushy Brows!" called Naruto as he dodged Neji's attack but let Lee's punch graze his side. Secretly Naruto wondered how many more of Lee's super powered punches and kicks he could take. Neji spared his rival a glance, one that Naruto was sure was meant to console his partner and calm him down. But Naruto had once heard that Neji had joined ANBU and from experience Naruto knew that when you've been away from your team there is often a slight disconnect until they remember just what it meant to be on a team with the other, Naruto was counting on this disconnect to be in place.

"Gosh Neji, that one almost got me, that attack you used on me earlier, I don't ever want to experience that again!" stated Naruto and he sent a significant look at Lee as he allowed a body shattering kick directly connect with his stomach. Naruto just hoped that Kyuubi would be willing to heal the damage he was receiving from Lee's body breaking hits.

Tenten rolled her eyes, it was so obvious what Naruto was trying to do, the boy was barely standing of course he would use a last ditch plan to get the two against each other.

"Wow Bushy Brows! I thought for sure you'd have been stronger than this by now! Have you been slacking?" Tenten heard Naruto crow. Now he was just being cruel, Tenten decided with a smirk. Lee knew better than anyone just how strong he had gotten, he was level with Gai-sensei now when it came to strength.

Tenten straightened up as she saw Naruto slip out of the way of both Neji and Lee's attack. Neji's attack missed, but Lee's had connected with Neji's legs, and it had sent Neji craning to the side. Neji had not had a stance wide enough to completely block Lee's more than overpowered kick. Lee had been getting so frustrated that Naruto could take every one of his attacks he had been steadily increasing the power of each hit exponentially.

'That little…' thought Tenten as she straightened her crouch, her eyes scanning for the elusive blond. She had to buy time for Neji to recover and for Lee to calm down. She spared a glance over towards her boys. Neji looked to be nursing either a broken ankle or a sprained one. Lee looked to be both distraught and furious, he was apologizing to Neji repeatedly, but Tenten could tell by the stiff stance of Lee's bow just how wound up he was.

"Hey Tenten, so what did you mean when you said that I was under arrest?" the voice came from directly behind her, and she hadn't sensed a thing, Naruto had learned a few tricks since his departure because usually he light up like a burning Mansion.

"Naruto," she growled, slightly embarrassed at the hammering of her heart.

"You're mad at me too!" Naruto sighed exasperatedly as he ran a hand through his messy blond hair, "Tsunade must be really mad too, gosh, I'm going to have to hear this looonnngg lecture before I'll even be able to get a word in edgewise and then old Doc well be furious at me for not sending them any help sooner."

"Old Doc?" Tenten questioned, she wondered if she would be able to keep the boy distracted long enough so that she could reach the summoning scroll that she had dropped at his sudden arrival.

"Yeah, the old man back at the Village of Medics," answered Naruto as he dropped down into a relaxed pose, using her precious summoning scroll to prop his elbow on, "they gave me some money to give to Konoha and a note that gave me legal right to request the mission in their honor."

"What does the Village of Medics have to do with anything, is that where you abandoned Konoha to go to?" asked Tenten, her eyebrows drawn together. Their original mission had been to check out the disturbance in the forest that connected Konoha to the famous Village of Medics. Team 10 had also been sent directly to the Village of Medics when they had not immediately answered the Hokage's or the Fire Daimyo's summons the past several weeks to answer for the lack of Medicine throughout all of Fire Country.

"Naw, I never abandoned Konoha, just got a little lost on the road of life, heh who would have thought that one of Kakashi's lame excuses could have been true," joked Naruto with a lighthearted air. Tenten took the opportunity to check where her teammates had gone, both where not in the place she had left them.

"Road of life, where's that?" Tenten questioned as she desperately searched the tree tops for her teammates.

"Oh that's the Road that goes from Thunder to Konoha, or that's what old man Tazuna called the road, he could have been lying, for some reason he likes to pull my leg like that," shrugged Naruto, but he froze mid gesture, before he stood up. His stance was lazy and relaxed, but Tenten tensed up and dropped into a taijutsu stance, Lee hadn't been the only one to be taught by a world renowned taijutsu specialist.

"Honestly Tenten, you should know better than to fraternize with the enemy," yawned the lazy voice of Konoha's least ambitious ninja, Nara Shikamaru. Tenten strained her eyes towards the shadows, she could barely make out Team 10 all standing side by side, Shikamaru with his hands in his pocket, Ino with her fingers crossed and ready for a fight, while Choji sat on the branch beside his teammates, if Shikamaru wasn't worried, neither was Choji.

"Hey, hey is that Shikamaru!" cheered Naruto, he did not appear the slightest bit upset about his current position and that worried Tenten more than realizing that Naruto had managed to hold off both Neji and Lee without the use of any Chakra, what kind of beast had this cheerful blond turned into.

"Yes," Shikamaru sighed, "it's me."

"How've you been Shikamaru! You wouldn't believe what's happened to me!"

"For some reason I think I might," disagreed Shikamaru.

"Hey, is Neji alright?" asked Naruto, and Tenten saw the way that Ino froze, she must have seen the damage and mistakenly thought that it had been Naruto that caused it, "Lee can pack quite the punch, I'm sure he broke just about all of my ribs and the bones in my right arm!"

Tenten would not doubt that.

"Tenten, if you would," ordered Shikamaru, and Tenten was not under any illusion that it was anything other than an order. She simply nodded and reached into her weapons pouch for her ninja wire and a seal. It was quick business to wrap Naruto up when the most he could do was shout his confusion at her. But Shikamaru kept the boy under his shadow technique tightly, but if the sweat that beaded the ponytailed boy's head was anything to go by it was no easy feat. When she was finished wrapping the boy up tightly, each of his fingers affixed to each other so tightly that they couldn't bend to perform any jutsu's she quickly slapped the Chakra blocking seal to the boy's forehead.

"Woah, what is that thing?" asked Naruto as he went cross eyed trying to identify the seal, "it feels all tingly."

"That's not how it's supposed to feel," said Ino, her eyes showing her worry as she glanced at Choji his face very much the same way. Tenten watched the exchange but she couldn't identify where their worry stemmed from.

"Alright Tenten, I'm going to undo the jutsu, after that I want you to take him to the ground, you'll have to go slowly since he won't be able to use any chakra to help him down. If you go straight down to the trunk of this tree you'll see Ino healing Neji up, we'll meet you down there," informed Shikamaru, and for some reason Tenten got the impression that the order wasn't just for her benefit if the significant look Shikamaru sent Naruto's back was anything to go by.

"Would you believe me if I said that that was the most confused I had ever been?"

To be continued...