Becoming

Part 9

 "Hey Naruto," Tenten said smiling. "Sai's still on his way, but he should be here soon. It's been a while since the three of us have seen you. How have you been?"

"Well enough. Wanna come take over for me?" Naruto asked hopefully. Tenten smiled a little and shook her head.

"We can't take over for you, you know that," Naruto's heart dropped at her answer. "But we can join you."

"Sweet!" Naruto jumped, throwing his fist up. "Ah, its gonna be so nice with you all here! Oh, but Sai could stay away if he wanted to."

"That's not very nice, Naru," Sai said. He walked over to the group of four. He'd always been unusual, but as of late, he'd been extremely weird. They thought maybe he'd had something that didn't agree with him. Maybe he was just being Sai; though he did seem awfully weird, even for Sai. Naruto didn't like it. Sai was always going from being clinging with him, or teasing and bothering him. Tenten loved it though. She thought it was so amusing.

"Naruto," Lee said, speaking for the first time. His voice was hushed, very surprising for him, but that meant he didn't want anyone from Konoha hearing. "When Tenten asked if you were okay, we really meant 'are you okay?'. Has anything-you know..."

"Started? Gotten worse? No, thankfully, but I'm afraid I don't know how much longer that will last. I've got to finish this job quickly before anything happens," Naruto answered.

"I heard we've gotten ourselves an unpleasant one tonight," Shino whispered. He stepped closer, hands stuffed in his pockets, and glanced at the Konoha group, making sure they weren't hearing what they said.

"Mm, yeah, considering we were told to 'make him disappear'. Hey," Tenten said, continuing. "Did any of you ever try to not kill the person when told to make him 'disappear'? To just hide him away or something?"

"I did once," Naruto said, grumbling. "Someone wasn't happy. I learned the hard way disappear meant kill."

Sai laughed, but knew exactly how Naruto must have felt and what happened to him. He'd tried it too once. Of course, it was just an experiment, but it still wasn't a great idea. He could still feel the scars on his back sometimes, and the pricks in his arms.

"Naruto, what in the world are you saying and who are you talking to? How are they even here?" Tsunade asked, approaching. The newer formed group quieted and glanced over at her. She looked sceptically at Shino, Tenten, Lee and Sai.

"Tsunade," Naruto began. "These are some of my friends-Tenten, Lee, Sai and Shino. I asked them to come so they could help with my investigation. I need you to allow them around the village freely as well."

"No. I only said yes to you and Jiraiya because I know you. I don't know them. And apparently I don't actually know that much about you. So I'm afraid for now, they're all going to have to leave." Tsunade turned. "Send in a request though, and I'll let you in."

"Tsunade," Jiraiya said, and held out some documents. "I figured this would happen, so I already prepared some. Sign these?"

"Fine," Tsunade said with a sigh. "Only because I trust the two of you, okay? Naruto, you will come to my office later so we can talk. Now, I've got to get back; I still have a murder to investigate."

Tsunade left, leaving an awkward silence. Sasuke, Sakura and Shikamaru seemed to not know what to say, since Naruto's outburst. They couldn't say anything yet to make the blond believe them, so they decided it would be best to leave. But as they left, Sasuke's gaze stayed on the newcomers. He didn't trust them.

"Naruto," Jiraiya said. "I know there's something more up with you, but that you can't tell me. I also know you have to leave Konoha soon, so I'll try to get Tsunade to give them more freedom." The older man put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "You better answer my questions someday though, okay?"

Naruto smiled weakly. "I'll try."

Was that part a little abrupt? Too quick? I don't know...I've been reading and rereading this part so much that I can no longer tell if it's bad or not.  Anyway, thank you sooo much for all the comments. You guys are awesome!