After all I did...

Late

"What do you mean? He is your sensei, surely he has told you something."

"Well, its more about his past. We know as much about his past as we know what he looks like behind that mask."

"Have you guys ever asked him? I bet if you asked he would do it, you're a team after all." Tenten reasons.

"I'm sure it would go as good as the time we asked him what was under the mask." Sakura chuckled remembering that whole campaign to see his face.

"What did he do?"

"He pulled down his make to show us another mask." Sakura smiled over at her friend.

"Alright, you've convinced me, he is weird too." The ninja tool expert sighs in defeat.

The two girls walked in silence for a while. Tenten really enjoyed having people there other than her team. She loved her team, but sometimes they just got too rowdy and she wanted to have civilized conversations sometimes.

Having Sakura was a breath of fresh air for her. She also knew it was borderline therapeutic for them all to leave the village, it was getting bad when they left. This mission was almost a vacation for them.

"Hey, Tenten." Sakura's voice was so light, Tenten almost missed it.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"What are we going to do about Naruto?" Sakura's face was covered by her down cast head.

"What do you mean?"

"I visited him right before I left for the mission. He isn't doing well, he is trying his hardest to be good, but he can't handle not knowing what is going on. He can't be in that hospital much longer."

"Well, we've only been gone a week, I'm sure he is fine. Besides, if something was up, Kakashi would have told us when he came to back us up." Tenten reassured her friend.

"But he can't stay in there much longer, he already is getting suspicious about why Neji is going on missions before him."

"I told you guys we should tell him from the beginning, but you were all so insistent on him not knowing." Neji's soft voice floated back to their ears.

That's when Sakura and Tenten noticed everyone was listening to their conversation. All with slight shadows on their faces, Kakashi had a heavy shadow on his face as he kept walking forward, facing away from everyone else.

"Come on Neji, don't be like that. Imagine how crushed he would be if he found out how the village views him. Would you want to see that?" Tenten questions her teammate.

Neji was quiet for a moment, "It would hurt, but it would be better than him finding out from someone else."

"And what about his....condition. If we told him, the Fox might get to him. There are just too many things that could go wrong if we tell him. Even Tsunade agrees he shouldn't know."

"I've known Naruto for too long, there is no way the fox would get to him. We've been through a lot and he has never lost control." Sakura defends her teammate.

Lee's head snaps up from a thinking position, "I have an idea."

"No, you won't soar with him to show the village he is still youthful." Neji shoots him down instantly.

"No, it's nothing like that. We should visit Naruto when we get back." Lee puts his hands up in defense.

"You know, that's not too bad of an idea. I haven't visited him in a long time. I just couldn't face him once the village turned on him." Tenten looks down thinking about how she neglected him.