Naruto sat atop Baku's back as the giant summons blew steam out of its trunk. It towered over everyone as it billowed, "Why have you summoned me?" Baku asked, looking up, trying to see Naruto

"G-Gotta g-get outta h-here," Naruto managed to say as he raised an arm in the direction of Garou and Shizune, "g-gotta get t-to them."

Baku turned its head in the direction of the group. He spotted two small figures on top of the trees, looking back at him. Turning his head to the rest of them, he raised his trunk into the air and closed his mouth. Baku leaped into the air, sucking in massive amounts of air through his trunk to the point that his cheeks puffed up. As Baku threw his head back, Tsume quickly grabbed Shibi and shouted: "EVERYONE! HOLD YOUR BREATH!"

Opening his mouth, Baku blew out a yellowish cloud, saying: "Ninja art: Dreaming Smokescreen!" and almost the entire forest was covered by it.

Tsume took in a deep breath before she was blown away by the attack. Flying through the air, Tsume did back flips as she tried to position herself in a way that wouldn't hurt her too badly. Shibi, meanwhile, took a sniff of the cloud and muttered: "It smells like... cotton candy," before he slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Holding onto Shibi's sleeping form, Tsume tried her best to hold her breath as she looked around to see nothing. The cloud was so dense and thick that she could literally move it with her hands, but her hands still passed through almost like a mist. Looking every which way she could, she still couldn't see outside of the cloud.

Continuing to hold her breath. Tsume just picked a random direction and started running. But pretty soon, Shibi started to get heavy and she needed to breathe. Her face started to go red, getting more and more tired as she moved. Yet Tsume still moved. Moving forward until... she couldn't take it anymore and took a breath. Blinking a few times, she almost started to drool, saying: "Huh... smells like jerky." before she fell over sleeping.

Standing on the treetops, Baku looked down with a snort and turned in the direction of Garou. He then leapt toward him in a single bound, flying over the trees like a giant flying elephant. Landing next to them, Baku looked down at him, "Hello, Baku," Garou greeted, waving at him while holding Shizune, who was trying to run away..

"Garou." Baku replied, sneering as he saw the burlap sacks. Using his trunk to point at the sacks, he asked: "What are you doing?"

"Something good, I can assure... but, mind giving us a ride?" Garou asked, making Baku blow a cloud of steam into his face

"You are running from Konoha, by principle, I cannot help in the aid of escaping konoha nin," Baku explained

"Who are you referring to? Cause I see no shinobi that are running away." Garou stated

"Shizune: student of Tsunade. Rank: Tokubetsu Chunin. Specialty: Medical Ninjutsu. While not actively in the field, are you working in the Shinobi Ward of Konoha Hospital. By extension, you are active... in doing so, you are marking yourself in the BINGO Book as a traitor." Baku stated, explaining that if he were to help, it would go against everything he stood for.

"And what about what you did back there? Putting them all to sleep?!" Naruto screamed from atop Baku's head, peeking over to look at the group, "And you! You son of a bitch! Throwing me like a ball?! I outta kick your ass!"

"And I'm about to bop you in the mouth! You look like shit!" Garou shouted back at his student

"E-Excuse me? C-Can I say something?" Shizune spoke up, stopping the two from arguing further, "I-It's true while I am a Chunin, that was several years ago, a-as Lady Tsunade kinda forced me to stop being a 'shinobi' in a sense to focus more on my medical techniques. T-Technically speaking, I-I'm not a shinobi on active duty. Honorable discharge o-or early ,very early, retirement, in the sense."

"Also, Naruto never graduated!" Garou added, "So you can't use him as an excuse!"

Closing his eyes, Baku huffed with a grimace as he used his trunk to pick them up. Placing them on his back, he opened his eyes and started looking around.

"Where to?"

"That way, toward the hot-springs." Garou pointed forward. Baku nodded and started jumping across the trees again, this time trying to make for a good pace.

Meanwhile, on Baku's back, Shizune, Garou, and Naruto sat together in a circle with the sacks in the middle. Shizune was inspecting Naruto's wounds while Garou was watching them.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow..."

"So much for a rescue team. Look at what they did to you!" Shizune had her hands covered in green chakra as she held them over Naruto's bruises and cuts

"Well, I kinda did start it, so~"

"Kami, they really got you good," Shizune continued, until she raised an eye-brow, "hold on, are you under a genjutsu?"

"A what?" Naruto asked

"Urgh, just hold still," Shizune placed a hand on the back of Naruto's neck. She then used her other hand and made a tiger-sign, "KAI!" she said as Naruto's vision went back to being blurry.

"That hurts," Naruto said as he started to see spots of light

"Naruto? Hey, Naruto!" Shizune started shouting. But her voice was soon drowned out by a loud ringing as he fainted, falling onto his back and into darkness.

"Naruto!!" Shizune screamed as she quickly caught him. Opening his eye, she grabbed a small flash-light from her sleeve and shined it into his eye. "He's got a concussion."

"Hold up, what's wrong?" Garou hopped up and went over to Shizune to see if he could help

"A-Alright, let's see here. Ummm, lay him down, keep him away from bright things, and try to soothe the headache," Shizune instructed, laying Naruto down flat on Baku's back and placed her hands on his head.

Naruto was currently laying down in the middle of an arena with an old man looking down at him.

"Hello, Naruto. Nice of you to come back." Kojiro said, chewing on a piece of wheat, "how was the fight?"

"It was painful," Naruto said, sitting up as he rubbed his head

"Yeah, I saw. But you made the right decision. You couldn't have beaten them so you just decided to run. Won't blame ya, would've made the same decision." Kojro explained, sitting down next to him

"Are you gonna talk about how I could've been better?"

"No, I'm just gonna sit here with ya and look at the sky," Kojiro replied, looking up with a smile on his face, "but yeah, you could've dodged a bit better."

"Tch, stupid old man." Naruto mumbled, turning his head to the sky to look at the clouds.