Konoha : Naruto's playground

It all started when TenTen decided to 'illuminate' Naruto with regards to birthday parties. Three weeks had passed in ablur of laughter and fun for the 2 pre-teens, since the academy fiasco. They had become nigh inseparable as a bond of mischief and camaraderie had formed between them. So when Naruto had mentioned in passing that he had never experienced a birthday party, TenTen decided to educate him, by using her own birthday as an excuse.

It had started out like normal. They had awoken that morning to a beautiful summer's day, birds chirping and a slight breeze wafting in through the windows of Naruto's apartment. TenTen had been a ball of excitement and energy from the moment her eyes had opened, she would never reveal to her blond-haired companion that this was her first birthday party too; she wanted both of them to enjoy it as much as possible and so didn't want to ruin the airy atmosphere that had been built up in the days leading up to the occasion.

Naruto had woken up slightly earlier than the bun-haired girl and proceeded to pour out 2 bowls of cereal and 2 glasses of orange juice, ready for both as soon as TenTen made her way down. TenTen was surprised by this action, but was happy that he had thought to do this for her, it made her feel special and for one such as them, it was an extraordinary feeling. After breakfast and clearing the small kitchen table situated in the middle of the living room, Naruto brought out a hastily wrapped package, decorated with orange and green wrapping paper. TenTen squealed when she saw it and ripped the present apart to reveal a pair of ceremonial daggers decorated with a twisting emerald dragon that made its way from where the handle met the blade, to the very tip of the dagger. It was beautiful, yet simple, and the young girl's breath caught in her throat as she studied the sparkling design.

"You like pointy things right? I thought you would like them 'cause it's pointy see?" Naruto scratched the back of his neck as he confessed his intention.

After a heartfelt 'thank you' they huddled together to plan what they would be going for the rest of the day.

"Well I'm definitely skipping school today! Let's do something fun!" TenTen was literally skipping at this point. Naruto was an incredibly unique person and so whatever he came up with was bound to be exhilarating and dangerous.

"I've already set something up so let's go! Oh and we need to make a stop at the Higurashi's before we get there OK?"

TenTen nodded enthusiastically. There was no doubt in her mind that the daggers had come from the Higurashi Weapon store, and she was always excited about what new weapons came in every day. For Naruto, however, he needed something for his newest idea that he couldn't possibly find anywhere else. There wasn't likely to be a place that would have what he was looking, let alone one that wouldn't throw him out!

So with that, the two youngsters readied themselves to move out. If only TenTen knew what Naruto had in store for the day...

XXXXXXX

Entering the Higurashi Weapon store, the two began to look around the aisles, Naruto for the last component of his plan and TenTen out of interest. The owner of the store regarded them for a moment before hailing them.

"Yo Naruto! And is that the TenTen you keep telling me about?" Higurashi Naoto was a large muscular man. He was heavy set, with a square jaw and bulging biceps accentuated by his sleeveless white tank top. You could see the jet black tattoos that had been grafted onto his skin and the image gave him a very resilient look.

"Hiya Higurashi-san! Yeah this is TenTen! She loves all your swords and stuff!"

At Naruto's enthusiastic reply, the middle-aged weapon smith regarded the petit bun-haired girl with a critical eye. There were so few ninja these days who really valued weaponry, but according to Naruto, this girl had a thirst and excitement that one could only expect from a true weapons user. The feeling was usually regarded as something a Samurai shared with his sword; it was definitely a rare thing to see in this modern day.

"Well, what did you come here for gaki? You bought those daggers yesterday didn't you? Why didn't you just get what you needed yesterday instead of wasting another trip?" At that proclamation, TenTen stared wide eyed at the shopkeeper before directing her unnerving gaze to her companion.

Ahh! So the daggers had been for the girl. The smith grinned to himself. Young Naruto had found a friend, or so it seemed. Again, he regarded the surprised girl. If her enthusiasm was anything to go by coupled with this new piece of information he had gleaned from her reaction, she probably felt the same way as he did with regards to weaponry. However, Naoto wanted to be sure before doing something he would later regret, and so he decided to question her intentions a bit.

"TenTen was it? How did you like those daggers?"

Said aspiring Kunoichi's head whipped round to stare at the shopkeeper once again. It was almost comical that her expression had not changed in the least since she had found out where Naruto had bought her birthday present from. Shaking herself from her reverie she replied excitedly.

"They were really pretty! The light shines off the dragon making it sparkle in a really mysterious way! Look!" To drive home her point, she pulled one of the daggers from her right pant's pocket with a flourish, and waved it back and forth slowly under the large man's nose.

"Wow, wow, slow down there miss! If you wave them around you might hurt somebody! I can see what you mean, the reflection of the light causes the green pattern to distort and it looks like the dragon is writhing on the blade." TenTen nodded boisterously. She didn't notice Naoto studying her again as she was too preoccupied with the blade in her hands.

Naoto caught the shine in her chocolate coloured eyes as the light reflected off the blade and onto her iris. It gave the young girl's eyes an ethereal glow as the emerald mixed with the brown of her orb, glowing with the luminosity of the sun's light streaming through the windows. She had a thirst for weaponry, that much the elder weapon maker was sure about, and his resolve was further strengthened when he caught the expression of awe and admiration that the girl held as she ran her finger down the dragon pattern and across the edge of the blade. So great was her concentration, that she didn't even notice that the dagger had cut into her finger as she had done so, and Naoto knew that the apprentice he wanted, no, NEEDED was right in front of him.

For many years since his Shinobi career had ended, he wondered how he would pass on his skills in weapon making to the next generation. He knew that his expertise was too valuable for Konoha to lose, and yet he had no family nor was he married. He had kept an eye out for a suitable apprentice and went young Naruto had first burst into his small store; he had thought a new prospective student had appeared. Of course, after spending some time with the boy, his hopes had been dashed when he found that the Jinchuuriki had no interest in weapons, other than throwing them at things.

Naoto was loath to treat the boy like the other villagers though. He, the Sandaime and Hatake Sakumo had been there when they had selected Namikaze Minato as the Yondaime and the three friends knew that when the golden-haired Hokage did something, he did it to perfection. His evidence for this was during the last great Shinobi war when all thought Konoha had lost. Morale was low amongst the troops and Iwa's force dominated the battlefield due to their overwhelming presence.

Yet, Minato had promised that he was working on a technique to end the war. Everyone was pestering him to use it, but he had vehemently shot all of them down, stating that he would not use it until he was sure it would work. And then on that fateful day, Sakumo had resigned himself to death and had declared that the Konoha forces under his command would make a final push in an attempt to break Iwa's frontline.

As the brave warriors in the contingent had slammed like a battering ram into the Iwa platoon, hope blossomed in the minds of their men; the tide of battle seemed to change in that instant as the ferocity of the counteroffensive speared through vanguard of Iwa's frontline. But that too had changed, and the Rock's techniques on practically their home terrain shifted the battle favour once again in their direction.

Naoto remembered the utter despair that had gripped his heart in its iron clutches, as he realised that the fight was lost.

Konoha was lost.

But then it had happened. A single scroll had been thrown high into the air from the Konoha camp and Naoto distantly recognised it as a sealing scroll. It soared across the battlefield and every Shinobi, enemy and ally alike, had gazed up at the object, the fighting temporarily forgotten. In a dramatic fashion, the scroll had unrolled itself as it was buffeted by the wind, blocking out the sun temporarily, and in a puff of smoke, Naoto spied a hail of weaponry falling to the ground around all of the combatants.

Minato didn't even wait for his tri-pronged Kunai to hit the ground. As soon as they were at head height, he initiated two of his techniques that in conjunction, made his legacy feared throughout the entire Shinobi world and hailed him as the most devastating ninja in the history of man.

Naoto could hardly comprehend, that within a 30 second lull, the entire Iwa force lay decimated, bodies strewn about the battlefield. What shocked him to his core was that there was hardly any blood, yet the Iwa Shinobi were most definitely dead.

And then he had turned to see a sight that would be etched into his memory until the day he would die. Among the fallen bodies of Konoha's enemy, a golden flash signified the arrival of a single Shinobi . His Hitai-ate ends and his cloak tail flapping in the wind, accentuating the flame pattern sewn into the bottom of his coat. Sunlight glinted off his golden-blond hair as it swayed to the breeze. Both his arms were pointed downward at his sides with his right arm slightly further away from his body than his left, Naoto regarded the young man in shock as the last ocean blue spirals of his legendary Rasengan faded away and he turned his head slightly to the side. And in that brief moment, the weapons specialist witnessed the sapphire sparkle of the ninja's eye as he stared at the devastation around him.

After seeing Naruto, the son of the greatest ninja period, he had thought that maybe that same glint would carry over to his son, but as he looked at the weapons in Naoto's store, the ex-Shinobi instinctively knew that it wouldn't be in weaponry.

And so, with a heavy heart, he had given up ever passing on his skills, even at the Sandaime's insistence that the Village could not afford to lose such a thing. But now, he had found exactly what he had been looking for all these years, and he didn't intend to let it escape.

"TenTen, how would you like to learn all about these weapons?" The question came out hesitantly, but Naoto knew deep down, that it was because he was afraid of rejection. He was afraid that the only link that had appeared would disappear as fast as it came. His fears, however, were unfounded, and if it was possible, TenTen's eyes would have widened even further than the already were.

She let out a small gasp, that sounded like a "What?" but Naoto couldn't be sure. After a small gap in which the young girl had gone incredibly still, the shop suddenly burst into motion.

Naruto, who had been searching the displays for what he was looking for, was startled at the gasp and his head snapped around so fast that the ex-Shinobi almost winced and the whip-like crack that was given off. TenTen began jumping up and down screaming "YES!" over and over again. The weapons maker's mouth twitched upwards in a small smile as he committed the scene to memory. His first apprentice was definitely one to remember.

Attempting to hide his relief, Naoto briskly straightened and spoke calmly and clearly.

"Excellent! If you wish to learn about all things pointy, be here after the academy every day and we will continue from there. Now Uzumaki, what are you looking for?" Naruto stared at the muscular man like he had said something weird. Since when did Higurashi-san call him 'Uzumaki'?

Shrugging it off as another weird quirk of the crazy 'knife-man', Naruto told him what he had come for.

"I'm looking for a 1 metre length of 'A-grade' rubber, in the form of a rope." It was Naoto's turn to look at the other with a strange expression. 'A-grade' rubber? The boy must know that 'A-grade' rubber stretches up to ten times its original length, so why would he want it?

"I don't currently have that high grade rubber, but I have got 'A half'. Maybe you would like a slightly longer piece of 'A half' instead? It should do the same job though, whatever it is you want to do with it." Naoto continued to stare at the blond-haired boy with an unreadable expression.

Naruto took a minute to consider the proposal. Could it work? With 'A-grade', the strength of the rubber was definitely enough to withstand the kind of force he was looking to put on it. 'A half' would be slightly less resilient, and a longer piece meant less resilience.

'Ah well, won't know till I try!' And with that thought, Konoha's pariah purchased his last component of the day and both kids left the shop with a smile on their faces. One smiled due to a prospective future, but the other smiled for an entirely different reason.

And when Naruto smiles, something cries.

XXXXXXXX

TenTen gaped at the impossibility of what Naruto's birthday event actually was. He wanted to slingshot into the sky and then get TenTen to catch him. The process would then be repeated by herself and Naruto would catch her.

"Well, unless you're scared and you don't wanna do it. Then we can cancel and go do somethin' else! Whatever you want!"

TenTen was in a quandary. It looked like it had taken a while to set up the huge contraption, and if she said no, it would be a total waste of effort on his part. No, she would do this, and GOD it looked like it would be crazy-fun!

Naruto had tied a huge trampoline horizontally to two trees at the edge of a clearing with ninja-wire. The whole thing looked quite secure, but if TenTen hadn't found that absurd then what he did next was downright nuts!

The rubber he had recently purchased had been tied to the centre of the trampoline and the other end hooked to Naruto's waist.

"See, what we gotta do is stretch the rubber as far away from the trampoline as possible and then let go. We will be pulled back into the trampoline and it will bounce us back out again. When the rubber gets stretched fully again, we unhook it and pitch these two rubber hooks at those trees" he raised his finger and pointed at two trees that stood parallel at the other end of the clearing.

TenTen gaped even harder. That was almost 300 meters from their current position. If that was to happen, the rubber would curl around the trees and fling them into the air...

"EXACTLY!" Naruto had been watching her face to see if she had figured it out. "And that's why I need you to catch me. Now 'cause this is 'A half' and not 'A-grade' rubber, I dunno if it will hold up, so I'm gonna try it first, and if it's safe then you can have a go too!"

TenTen tapped the side of her head thoughtfully. If she was truthful with herself, the idea was downright lunacy, yet there was a small thrill of excitement that went up her spine as she thought about how it would feel to experience the 'ride'. She had wanted a memorable first birthday after all!

"Alright, let's do this 'Ruto!" Naruto stared bug-eyed at the new nickname, but ignored it as he began to stretch himself out. When the rubber was taught and he could go no further, he crouched down to stabilise himself lest he get pulled back when he wasn't ready. The tensile force was so strong that his body was shaking with the exertion of trying to stay where he was. Giving a thumbs up to the birthday girl. He released his hold on the ground and the rubber sprang back, pulling the 7 year old along with it.

As Naruto's back hit the trampoline, time slowed down for him as the plasticky surface mushroomed inwards from the impact. With a sharp 'TWANG' he was thrown back out, and he released the hook from his waist as he shot off down the clearing towards his target. TenTen watched with bated breath as her friend zoomed past her position, a look of pure joy etched on his features.

Just as he reached the opposite tree line, he threw the two rubber hooks at the parallel trees. They twirled 3 times around the branches before hooking securely to the bark. Naruto's speed immediately slowed as his direction changed drastically within a second. He had a brief feeling of vertigo as he ballooned up towards the canopy, releasing the ends to the hooks that were in his hands.

With a whoop, he was fired into the air like a stone being released from a slingshot, directly up into the sky at impossible speeds. The feeling must have been incredible, as TenTen could hear her friend screaming in joy to the heavens as he flew. Snapping out of her thoughts, she got ready to act.

Throwing two kunai, she ripped the trampoline from the tree and quickly dragged it towards the centre of the clearing, where she though the blond was going to land. Squinting at the midday sun, she could barely make out a falling blob of black. Quickly positioning the trampoline directly under the falling maniac, she hurriedly moved back to stay clear of the human-projectile.

"...aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Once again, the blond hit the trampoline, and for a second TenTen thought he would punch right through the fabric at the speed he was falling. The trampoline sprung him back out again, and this was repeated until he came to a stop. TenTen was in peals of laughter at the way Naruto was bouncing on the trampoline, sometimes on his head with a stupidly delirious smile on his face. It was like he had taken one of the Nidaime's notorious 'Happy Pills'...

Naruto wobbled to the side of the trampoline and toppled over the edge and onto the grass of the clearing. That was beyond crazy. Tears were streaming from his eyes due to the speed of his fall, his blood pounding through his body in an adrenaline induced rush and his mouth felt like it would never be able to close again.

"AHAHAHA...heh...OH GOD! That was PRICELESS! MY TURN MY TURN!"

Naruto slowly raised his head from eating dirt. As his eyes made it up to her face, he grinned like a loon.

"You're gonna love this!" And with that he sprang up to set it up again.

XXXXXXXX

They went at it for another few tries, and each time, none of them realised that the 'A half' rubber was slowly weakening. Just as Naruto decided to have his last ride, the rubber hooks reached their limit.

Naruto's first inkling that something was wrong was the slightly tearing sound he heard as the hooks pulled him up towards the sky. There was no time for him to even think as with a loud 'SNAP!' the hooks disconnected prematurely, and he was flung into the sky at an angle and not straight up like what was meant to happen.

TenTen's shout of his name was lost to the wind as he blew through the sky towards the hot springs of the village. Hopefully he would land in one of the larger rivers in that direction, as that should relieve some of the monstrous force of his fall and he wouldn't be injured too badly.

That was of course, if he didn't die.

As he began his descent, he screwed his eyes shut and manoeuvred his body to land forwards so he could roll immediately. His descent would take him into a bush right by the side of one of the hot springs and Naruto braced for impact...

XXXXXX

The Gama-Sennin, Jiraiya, was having a good day. He had been in Konoha, spying on the hot springs without anyone knowing. He could be out of here without anyone knowing too, and then Sarutobi-sensei wouldn't be able to pull him into anything Konoha related so he could continue his naughty ways.

He absently reached up with his right sleeve to wipe the blood trailing from his nose as he gazed leacherously through his telescope at the women's side of the hot spring. No-one would catch him when they couldn't see him. He was using the Control/Henge hybrid he had created back in his youth to hide his person and so no-one could see him. Oh, they could sense his Chakra, but in this village there were too many people for them to realise it was him, especially since he had reduced his Chakra levels to that of a civilian.

He giggled. It was useful having the skills that he had, that was for sure.

Nothing could have prepared him for what happened at that instant. Jiraiya froze when he heard a slight whistling in the air, his right arm still raised in front of his nose. Quickly checking through his telescope as the whistling got louder, there had been no change in the women's side although some were staring and pointing at the sky, seemingly following something as it fell towards the ground.

Turning to look at the sky, something hit Jiraiya with the force of a freight train. He was slammed heavily into the ground and the pavement cratered under him, as stones were thrown into the air. Jiraiya's body was literally bounced off the stone floor and thrown into the wall of the hot spring, his Invisibility Jutsu disengaging at the shock and pain of his predicament. He literally blew through the side of the wall and landed with an unceremonious splash in the middle of a group of women.

A hush descended on the entire hot spring as the women glanced down at what had broken down the wall.

"Isn't that...Jiraiya-sama?" Catching on to the question voiced, the women began to boil in anger, putting the falling object and the arrival of the super-pervert together.

Jiraiya groggily raised his head from the steaming water. If he wasn't in mortal peril he would have been enjoying the sight that met his eyes. Alas, he had to move straight away. Jumping up, he ran as fast as he could out of the hole, stopping to grab the thing that had hit him, realising that it was an unconscious boy. The kid would pay for what he did, whatever the reason was. And with that he hightailed in down the street, with the screams of the females in the hot spring ringing in his ears.

XXXXXX

TenTen fell over laughing for the umpteenth time that day. Naruto's story was ludicrous, only made more comical by the bandages tied around his torso and head, attempting to hide the humongous bump on his right cheekbone.

He was such a character! Not only had he hit someone, but he had hit one of the Densetsu no Sannin! The world was definitely a much brighter place with Naruto around.

As TenTen took a moment to wipe the tears of mirth streaming from her eyes, she glanced at the legendary shinobi, who sat quietly staring at the blond-haired patient with a stony expression.

'What's his problem?' TenTen frowned at the way Jiraiya was looking at her friend. It was almost as if he knew Naruto...

"Your name is Uzumaki Naruto?" The question came out gruff like a pencil scratching on paper. The sombre expression made it seem like the powerful man was afraid of the answer he would get.

"Yeah, I am. How did you know?"

The Sennin did not reply to Naruto's question, instead he slumped forward on the stool next to Naruto's hospital bed, placing his head in his hands. For Naruto and TenTen, they didn't know what to make of the ninja's reaction. Naruto thought that maybe this was another person that hated him for who he was, and yet he didn't even know the reason why people hated him.

For Jiraiya it was an entirely different story. He was faced with a reminder of his past, of his failings, and of his broken promises. The legacy of his student who had been mistreated and shunned by all those around him sat injured on a bed in front of him. Jiraiya couldn't bring himself to admit his failings from years ago, but raising his head he stared dully at the boy that was his godson.

"I'm so sorry.." Naruto almost missed the whisper that escaped the old man's lips, and from her perplexed expression, TenTen hadn't heard it at all.

"For what, mister? Have we met somewhere or something?" The man in red simply continued to stare at the boy. Naruto shrugged at the strange behaviour displayed by his unlucky victim. He seemed to be hitting people a lot these days. First Shisui and now this guy.

TenTen didn't have a clue what was going on between the two, but she didn't want to lose this chance to speak to such a legendary ninja! Her idol was Senju Tsunade after all, and that would make this guy her teammate!

"You're Jiraiya-sama, right? I've heard all about you!" TenTen was obviously excited, and her proclamation did much to lighten the suffocating mood that had permeated the air. Jiraiya didn't even glance at her, his attention fully on Naruto, and TenTen felt a twinge of jealousy run through her. What was so special about Naruto? Why wouldn't her idol's teammate talk to her?

Silence once again settled upon the three, and for a while it remained that way.

"Kid, how's the academy going?" Naruto looked up from the floor to regard the man once again.

Cocking his head to the side, he responded bluntly.

"I ain't in the academy. Didn't wanna go." A look of shock flitted across the Sennin's face before he schooled his expression once again.

"How did you use your Chakra in mid-air to slow yourself down if you didn't learn that at the academy?" Naruto looked startled at the question. How had the guy known he had done that when he hadn't been looking in his direction or paying attention to anything other than his telescope?

"How do you know I can even do that? It isn't taught at the academy." Naruto's look was like steel now and Jiraiya was distinctly reminded of his deceased student as he was stared down by such eyes. True, they didn't teach 'Air Pads' to anyone below Chuunin, and that had definitely been a practical use of the skill.

Sighing, the middle aged Shinobi responded like a teacher speaking to his student after a particularly foolish question was asked.

"Kid, I felt your Chakra flare as you used the 'Air Pads'. I'm not one of the Sannin for nothing you know."

Naruto looked scared for a moment. If this guy hated him, then it would get out that he knew such things. The villagers would definitely respond negatively to such a revelation and he didn't want him and TenTen to spend their lives expecting a threat at every turn.

He then remembered the large man's words from a few moments before.

"I'm so sorry.."

"Sandaime-Jiji taught me a lot of stuff when I was younger. That's how I knew the 'Air Pads'."

This time the shock remained on the legendary Shinobi's face for a few seconds, before he hastily responded.

"Sarutobi taught you some techniques?" Jiraiya was evidently surprised at this development.

"Well, he didn't really teach me, just gave me a bunch of scrolls to learn how to protect myself."

Jiraiya sat back on his stool. No way. Just NO WAY.

The kid learned the 'Air Pads' from a SCROLL? The last stage of Control exercises before Elemental manipulation, and he had learned it without going to the academy, and from a scroll?

Jiraiya's mind reeled in shock as he thought about the implications of such a thing. That would make him better than his father by almost half a year, but Minato had grown up in wartime! How was it possible for someone to learn it faster without a teacher and in a time of peace no less?

The kid had to be a genius. There was no the explanation. Jiraiya knew that he had to act now. He couldn't leave the boy now that he was confronted with what he had attempted to leave behind. He should never have come back to Konoha, he could have hidden from his obligations till the end of his days, but once again his stupidity led him to trouble. What would Tsunade and Orochimaru say if they could see him now?

He snorted at that thought. They couldn't say anything. They were worse than he was; Tsunade with her drinking and gambling problems and Orochimaru with his twisted beliefs. He wouldn't run away from his problems anymore, unlike his wayward teammates. He would help his godson just like Sarutobi-sensei was helping him.

He really didn't understand how very wrong he was about the boy in front of him.

The door to the hospital room opened and a flustered nurse entered.

"Ahem. Jiraiya-sama there's a group of people outside demanding that you...ah...'Come down to die' would be the correct wording..." The woman looked slightly angry herself as Jiraiya realised that the retribution for his hot spring stunt was about to bite him in the back.

Glancing around, he looked for the closest avenue to escape, but with a start, he looked sideways to find the nurse's hand clamped on his shoulder preventing him from moving.

"I must say I agree with them on this."

Jiraiya blanched. Turning his head, he capitalised on the fact that Naruto was in the room, using the tried and tested Namikaze bait.

"Naruto you want some Ramen? My treat." And with that, the blond bolted upright, grabbed TenTen's arm and sprinted out the door towards Ichiraku's. In the moment of chaos, the nurse had relaxed her hold and Jiraiya used the opportunity to jump out the window.

"!"

As Naruto and TenTen ran towards the Ramen stand, they glanced at each other briefly. Why would a whole load of women want to hurt Jiraiya.

Slowly, TenTen began to catch on.

"You said you landed next to the hot springs right? The women's side, right?" Naruto bobbed his head in the affirmative, still confused.

TenTen cracked her knuckles. There was a pervert to kill.

ZZZZZZZ

Chapter 9 complete!

Wow, I typed this out in one sitting! I was having a break from revision and this chapter practically wrote itself!

I hope I kept TenTen in character here, it was extremely hard to write her responses in this chapter, but I hope it came out convincingly! This was my longest chapter yet, as the review count went up quite a bit from last chapter and I received over 20 reviews! It was so cool!

Please review! I want your thoughts on this chapter. Next time we see a return to serious Naruto with the Uchiha Massacre. So buckle up and enjoy the ride!

PS: REVIEW!

OMAKE: NIDAIME'S HAPPY PILLS

Senju Shinsui, the Nidaime Hokage, strolled into Konoha central hospital with a brown paper bag of pills he had just finished making. It had taken a long time and concrete concentration to get the percentages of substances correct, but the final product of his experimentation was now held in his hands.

Opening a door in the A&E department he strolled in to see a patrol that had just returned after losing a member out on the field.

"Hey guys cheer up! I can't have grumpy ninja in my village!" Turning to a nurse on duty he nodded his head and moved to the nearest Shinobi lying with a vacant expression on his face.

"Have no fear, because Nidaime is here! And I brought an instant heal for you guys! I have just finished concocting my 'cure all' for any ailments and injuries. You my friend, will be the first to recover!"

Reading the plaque next to the Shinobi's bed, he saw the name 'Nara Shikaku'. A Chuunin from the 'Ino-Shika-Cho' team eh? Forcing a bright blue pill into the incapacitated ninja's mouth, he reached out and made chewing motions with the Nara's upper and lower jaws. The other patients stared at him like he was crazy, but the Nidaime continued until the ninja was forced to swallow.

Almost immediately, a look of goofy happiness spread across the genius Shinobi's face and his eyes shot open, although to those close by, they could see his eyes were completely out of focus.

"Ahtth Hokageth-thama, the cloudth are very bloo thoday..." The Nara's tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth, as he spouted whatever was on his mind.

Suffice to say, the Nara clan was never the same again.

"Who wants one?" The Nidaime asked cheerfully.

The Hospital was vacated as if a bomb had gone off. Shinsui pouted. He HAD recovered hadn't he?

ZZZZZZZZ