Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Demon's Rein ❯ Trying to live a Normal Life ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Alright guys,are you ready for chapter two.Also,I want you to meet a special guest of mine.KYUUBI!
Alright,save your applause.
Uh,No one was clapping.
I knew that.
Anyway,take a seat and tell us what you think of the story so far.We would like to here your intrest.
Eh,it's okay.
That's all you have to say?
Yep.
Alright,you heard.Three words from him.Anyway,get ready for this one.It get's intense.Ladies and Gentlemen,Trying to live a Normal Life.
You make this sound like a introduction to a movie.
I do?
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It wasn’t long before the group reached the Hokage’s office. They made a brief stop in the hospital to treat Tsunade’s hand and let Naruto change into a set of clothes Shizune had retrieved from his apartment earlier. Afterward they continued on their way. To Naruto it seemed like only a few steps; mainly because he was dreading the conversation they were going to have. “I wonder if she is going to hold me responsible for what happened?... No, Baa-chan wouldn’t do that… would she?” he wondered as he entered her office. Sakura was still by his side, and a moment later Kakashi and Tsunade followed in behind them. The Hokage found her way behind her desk, and Kakashi sat in one of the chairs in front of it. Tsunade motioned for Naruto to sit in the other one, which he did. After he was seated, she spoke.

“Ok Naruto, what happened?” she asked. “I know about everything after I got there, but what happened before then?” Naruto had a look on his face very similar to a patient who had just been told they had a terrible disease; he was obviously upset. As soon as she noticed, she tried to put him at ease. “It’s ok Naruto. Just take your time,” she finished with a grin. This made Naruto visibly relax a bit, but he was still rather tense.

“I don’t really remember much Baa-chan,” given the circumstances, she decided she would let him get away with this for a while, “I remember someone coming into my room, then picking me up and…”

“How did they get you past hospital security?” Tsunade interrupted. She thought she might have to deal with some nurses who had chosen to ‘look the other way’ as Naruto was kidnapped. “Didn’t anyone say anything when they carried you out?”

“They didn’t carry me out. They threw me out the window,” he said. They all grimaced a bit at the idea. They knew Naruto was on the fourth floor, so it must have been at least a forty foot drop to the ground. Normally that wouldn’t be problem at all for a healthy ninja; the key being healthy. They were all sure that Naruto probably couldn’t have done much other than watch the ground approach; even if he had managed to maneuver himself to land on his feet, it wouldn’t have helped much in his condition anyway. After the group with the blonde had thought this information over, Tsunade spoke again.

“So what happened then?”

“Well, that group of people you saw were there waiting on me. I managed to get to my knees, then they started throwing stuff and yelling at me. A little bit after that is when it started. I could feel Kyuubi trying to get out. I asked them, begged them to stop. I told them I couldn’t control him right then… but they kept going. Every time something hit me, it made me weaker and gave him a better chance to escape. When that ANBU guy stabbed me, Kyuubi made his move. He waited until just before I died and attacked the seal. I was too weak to stop him then. You showed up right before he broke free.”

“I see,” Tsunade said with rage obvious on her face. She had made up her mind what was going to happen to the crowd she had imprisoned now. Attempting to kill a loyal Konoha nin was treason. “Ok, so what happened between you two? Kyuubi said he sealed you away.”

“He did. I thought I was finished for good when I saw that seal. I was terrified. But when I saw him going after Sakura-chan I didn’t think anymore. That’s when I took over part of him. I was really confused for a minute, but then I remembered him saying the seal was powered by my will. It’s also when I noticed most of his chakra was sealed with me. I remembered back in Wave Country how he kind of took me over, so I figured the same thing would work against him.”

“But how did you know you would be able to expel all his demonic energy?” Kakashi asked.

“I didn’t. My plan was to take over for a little while and burn all of our chakra.”

“So you were going to kill your body through chakra depletion, and hope to take Kyuubi with you?”

“Yes. And even if that didn’t work I thought if I could drain his chakra enough it would give you guys a better chance.”

“Well, if that was your plan, why did you want me to attack again?” Kakashi asked.

“Because. I wanted to be sure I could completely take control before I tried anything, so I wanted him as weak as possible. Every time he regenerated, it used more of his chakra. But, since most of it was sealed with me, what he had didn’t last long with as much as he had to regenerate.”

“So you were really going to sacrifice yourself for the village huh? Trying to be a hero?” Tsunade asked with a hint of pride.

“Honestly?” Naruto asked. Tsunade nodded for him to continue. “No. I wasn’t thinking about that,” he said as he glanced at Sakura. Luckily she hadn’t noticed.

“Then what were you…” Before she finished Tsunade noticed the glance Naruto was giving his pink-haired teammate and understood. “Never mind kid. I’m just glad you’re ok.
”
“What’s going to happen now Baa-chan?”

“What do you mean Naruto?”

“I-I killed all those people…” Naruto said as he started to shake slightly. He calmed himself a bit before he continued, “I’ll accept any punishment you see fit Hokage-sama.”

“First of all Naruto, the Kyuubi killed those people, not you. Second, even if you did kill them, it was self defense. That isn’t a crime. I know you couldn’t control what you were doing. You aren’t going to be punished or anything… besides, it was you that beat the Kyuubi you know. If I do anything I’ll give you an award for heroism,” Tsunade said.

“But still, someone has to be held responsible for what happened.”

“You’re right Naruto. And someone will… namely, the people in that mob. Now don’t worry about it. Just put this behind you and move on Naruto,” she finished with a reassuring smile.

“That will be hard Baa-chan. People are going to be more afraid of me now than they ever have before. I’m sure everyone knows what happened by now.”

Tsunade sighed at the boy’s comment. No matter how much she wished he was wrong, she knew he wasn’t. People were going to use this as another reason they should execute him. Even though she was Hokage, she couldn’t watch over him all the time, and obviously people were willing to break the laws to get their so-called vengeance on Naruto.

“I hate to admit it Naruto, but you’re right. There are too many fools in this village for there to be no repercussions over today. For now, you two go home. Kakashi and I will talk things over and figure out what will be the best thing to do. Be back here at eight thirty in the morning ok?” After the two teammates had bowed to their leader, and nodded to their sensei, they turned to leave the office.

“So Naruto, will you walk me home?” Sakura asked. This was a first for her, she had never asked him to do something like this. However, considering that she just found out how truly important he is to her, she wasn’t ready to be separated from him just yet. Aside from that, he was still obviously broken up about what had happened today. She hoped that maybe she would be able to cheer him up. He had never been able to be around her for long without goofing off or trying to flirt with her. She would even settle for him pissing her off at the moment, anything to erase the frown that was on his face… she wanted – needed – to see his smile. He nodded and walked beside her.

Her plan never did work. It was a little after eight o’clock when they arrived at her door. It was a fifteen minute walk from the Hokage tower to Sakura’s house, but Naruto had barely even looked up the whole time; much less said anything. The only change in him she noticed was when he would seem to get more depressed. It didn’t take her long to figure out why. As they walked she could see the glares and looks of disgust he was getting from so many of the villagers. She couldn’t help but wonder if he had always been looked at like this. She decided he had, since he almost seemed used to it. How could he stand it? Why didn’t she notice it before? Why didn’t someone make them stop?

She wanted to cry for her friend, but she knew that wasn’t what he needed now. He needed someone to lift his spirits, not join him in depression. “You’re going straight home right?” she asked. The boy never looked up but did nod slightly. “Ok. Call me later so I’ll know you’re all right ok? Please?” she nearly begged. He let a brief smile come to his face. Sakura was elated for a moment, but then she noticed the pain of that smile. It wasn’t his usual dumb smile, nor was it a sincere smile. It was the type of smile a person has on at a funeral. That type of smile someone gets when a visitor says how sorry they are that your loved one is dead, but ‘now they’re in a better place.’ Those types of smiles are made so you can thank someone without having to speak, because if you tried you would only run out of the room in tears. That is the smile that greeted Sakura. She was stunned.

Naruto turned to walk away as Sakura was trying to recover. When he was twenty feet away she called out to him. “Hey! Naruto!” the boy stopped but didn’t turn to face her. “Don’t you need my phone number?” she asked with a hopeful grin. He looked over his shoulder at her, and his pained smile only seemed to deepen.

“I don’t have a phone, Sakura-chan,” he said. After another second of looking at her, he turned and resumed his walk toward his apartment. Sakura stood in front of her door dumbfounded, trying to figure out why Naruto didn’t have a phone.

“Well, maybe his phone is just out right now. He has gone out on a couple of long missions lately…” she thought. She dismissed this for three reasons. One was that she knew he had several days between the time they got back from Tea Country and he went to get Sasuke; he could have taken care of the bill then. If this had been her only problem with this excuse, she probably would have accepted that as a reason. However, she realized if his phone was just out for a while he would have taken her phone number to call some other time… which he didn’t. What really convinced her that something else was wrong was when she remembered that by law a shinobi has two weeks after they return from a mission to pay any outstanding bills.

Her next two theories were more likely. He heart broke again when she realized that one of these two were the true explanation, and it made her feel awful for him. One was that he never got a phone because he had no one to talk to. The second was that he simply couldn’t afford a phone. She realized the latter was probably more accurate. As she remembered her pay for their missions, she had thought of it as nice ‘fun money.’ She didn’t think she could even feed herself if that was the only money she had to rely on… much less afford an apartment, clothes, and equipment. Was that why Naruto always wanted to eat ramen? Was that all he could afford? Come to think of it, she never had seen him eat more than a bowl or two when he was paying. He only really pigged out when someone else was picking up the tab. Someone must be helping him to survive, at least a little.

“Poor Naruto…” she thought to herself as she entered the house. “I’m home,” she called out as she closed the door behind her. She walked into the living room where her parents seemed to be waiting for her. They both noticed the look on Sakura’s face. “Sakura? Is something wrong?” her mother asked.

“M-Mom…I…I…” she couldn’t finish before bursting into tears. She had stayed strong for Naruto as long as she could, and now that he wasn’t around everything came out. Sakura sobbed uncontrollably as her mother came and wrapped her arms around her shaking daughter.

“It’s ok baby…” she said to Sakura in a soothing voice as she ran one hand up and down her back. “Get it all out, then you can tell us what happened.” In all truth, her parents already knew what had happened, but they were reserving their judgment until they heard what Sakura had to say. It would have been a lie to say Sakura’s parents were anything but infuriated when they found out their daughter would be on the same team as the demon vessel, but over time they grew to respect him more and more. They had agreed to not challenge the grouping on the condition that they were allowed to read all mission reports that involved their daughter until they were sure Naruto was not a threat to her. After a bit of convincing from Iruka, the Third had agreed. After reading about the blonde’s fight with Gaara, they informed Iruka they no longer needed the reports. Their respect for the blond grew even more after hearing of Team 7’s mission in Tea Country, followed by the fact he had brought the new Hokage to Konoha with Jiraiya. They also heard that they had run into and fought Orochimaru while they were gone. Naruto had also fought a jounin-level medic nin to a standstill in order to protect Tsunade. Finally, the Fifth had personally recommended him for the mission to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke. That was an honor in itself. They hoped that they wouldn’t be proven wrong about the boy now.

After a few minutes of crying Sakura told her parents what had happened. She started with Naruto coming back to Konoha, and how injured he was because he tried to keep a promise to her. She then moved on to him being thrown out of his hospital window and attacked. She told them how an ANBU had stabbed Naruto through the heart even though he was helpless on his knees, and hadn’t even been fighting back. They paid closer attention when she told them about the Kyuubi escaping, and how he had started slaughtering the people in the crowd and fought Kakashi until she came along. She told him about how he had rushed her, then they thought they had killed him; about what Kakashi and Tsunade, and even the Kyuubi had said about how Naruto felt about her, then he charged her again.

“It was horrible, I was so sure I was going to die. But somehow, Naruto took over half of the body and blew his arm off with some weird blue ball. The Kyuubi kept getting up but Naruto kept ripping his own body apart to keep him away from me…” she started to sob again. “A-And then Kyuubi managed to stop one of the attacks by tearing off the arm Naruto controlled… I’d never heard him in so much pain,” she winced as she remembered the boy’s scream. “But then he told Kakashi-sensei to attack him… and made the Kyuubi stand still while Kakashi-sensei cut them in half with some kind of super chidori…” Her parents had a sympathetic look and nodded at her like they had been doing every once in a while during the story. “Then Kyuubi healed again, and that’s when Naruto took over. He started forcing chakra out of himself so hard it left a crater in the street. I didn’t know it at the time, but he told us he was trying to kill himself and the Kyuubi through chakra exhaustion. He said even if it didn’t work it might have weakened him enough to let someone else finish him off… H-He was trying to kill himself… really kill himself… just to protect me…” Sakura broke down again for a while unable to talk. Her mother cried with her a bit this time, knowing how upset her daughter was, and that the loud-mouthed blonde cared for their daughter very much. She was surprised when she realized that thought didn’t bother her at all; she was actually kind of… glad.

A little later Sakura had calmed down and finished her story. She told them about going to the Hokage’s office, how Naruto was ready to be punished for what the Kyuubi had done, and how upset he was about killing those people. She talked about the looks people gave Naruto on the street as he walked by, and how he seemed to be used to it. She told them about him not having a phone and her theories as to why. She even told them how bad she felt because she would blow her pay for missions while Naruto had to live on it.

“Sakura, why don’t you invite Naruto over for dinner tomorrow night?” her mother suggested after Sakura mentioned he pretty much survives off ramen. The pink-haired girl turned teary eyes to her mother.

“C-Can I really?” she said through her sniffles.

“Of course you can dear. Just tell him to come around seven tomorrow.” Sakura looked over to her father who gave an approving nod.

“I’ll go tell him right now!” Sakura squealed. She dried her eyes and was out the door a second later.

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She ran through the streets she knew went to Naruto’s apartment. She and Sasuke had to help him home from training more than once, so she knew the way fairly well. When the building came into view, she stopped dead in her tracks. Deciding she didn’t want to be seen yet, she concealed herself behind the corner of a nearby building in a very Hinata-like fashion. She watched as Naruto approached a smoking pile, and poured a bowl of water on it to put out the last of the flames. She watched as he pulled a few objects from the pile, dusted them off and turned to walk to his apartment building. When she was sure it was clear she started to follow him. She spared a quick glance to the pile and noticed it was garbage someone had set on fire. She couldn’t really make much out except and old pillow and bedding. There were some mismatched dishes and cookware – some broken and some not – along with a few boxes of unidentified things. Over to the side there was an old television that looked like it had busted when thrown in the pile, and an equally old and broken washer, drier, microwave, and small hotplate.

“Oh Naruto, don’t tell me you have to sift through garbage to get things you need…” Sakura said out loud as she felt a stray tear fall. “Why won’t you just ask for help?” As she reached up to wipe the tear away, she noticed something with the corner of her eye. She searched for it, sifted through the pile enough to reveal more of it, the picked it up for closer inspection. She felt herself start to cry again as she gripped it in her hands. She bolted through the building and up the stairs to Naruto’s apartment. She arrived to find the door open, with Naruto kneeling by a broken window in an empty room. There was graffiti painted all over the walls, and she could see the corner of a mattress that looked shredded. He was picking up pieces of glass and putting them in the bowl he had used earlier. On the small island that separated the kitchen from the living area, Sakura saw their team picture from before Sasuke left; a picture of Iruka and Naruto; a picture of Naruto, Shizune, Jiraiya, and Tsunade; and finally a picture of the Third carrying what she figured to be a four year old Naruto on his shoulders. The glass of all four frames was broken and the wood was singed. The bottom right corner of Team 7’s picture had been burned slightly as well and had started to curl up. This confirmed what she had feared when she found the bright orange piece of cloth she was holding in her hand. Those were Naruto’s things on fire outside.

She never said a word as she walked up behind Naruto, and he didn’t seem to notice she was there. She got closer to him and gently wrapped her arms around his neck from behind as she knelt down behind him. She leaned forward ever so slightly to let him feel her weight on his back. The blonde stopped picking up glass and reached up to grip one of her hands in one of his own. It seemed like they stayed that way for hours before Naruto spoke up.

“You shouldn’t be here Sakura-chan. They might come back,” he said.

“Even after everything that has happened, he’s still worried about me…” she thought. “You’re right Naruto. They might come back,” she said as she released him and stood. She walked around and knelt in front of him before she continued, “And you shouldn’t be here either,” she finished as she put her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes.

“It’s ok. I’ll be fine. Besides, this is my home.” Sakura nearly gagged at him calling this a home. A home is somewhere you go to feel loved, and safe. A home is a place that makes you feel welcomed and relaxed; where you spend time with your loved ones and feel that things are right in the world. This was not a home. She wasn’t going to allow him to call this personal hell that ever again.

“No arguing,” she said flatly as she started to stand. She gripped the shoulders of Naruto’s jacket tightly and pulled him up with her. “Get your things; you’re coming with me.”

“But Sakura-chan I…”

“What did I say about arguing?” she interrupted. This was the first time he noticed the unshed tears that had formed in her eyes. Not wanting to upset her further, Naruto picked up his bowl, then the four pictures on the counter and returned.

“This is it?” she asked. She knew it was bad, but did he not even have a change of clothes left?

Naruto seemed to think for a minute before he spoke again. He was obviously observing the graffiti that had been painted on the walls. It said everything from ‘Demon’ to ‘Go back to hell.’ Someone even wrote a haiku about how wonderful it would be if Naruto was dead.

“No. There’s one more thing,” he said after he seemed to come to a decision. “Will you hold these for me?” he asked as he handed her the objects in his hands. After she dumped the glass in bowl into the garbage, she followed him as he walked into the bedroom and moved what was left of his bed out of the way. Curious, Sakura watched closely as he knocked around on some of the planks of wood before prying four up with a kunai. He reached in and pulled out a mid-sized backpack and put it on. After he put the planks back in place he spoke again.

“That’s everything,” he said as he took the last of his things out of her hands.

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They walked a few minutes before they came to Sakura’s house. There was almost total silence, but it wasn’t really uncomfortable. It was more like they were both deep in thought, which they were. Naruto was thinking about tomorrow’s meeting with the Hokage, while Sakura was wondering what Naruto was thinking about. They arrived at her door and Sakura opened it.

“What took you so long?” he mother exclaimed. “We were getting worried!” she continued as she finally came into view. “Oh! Sakura, you didn’t tell me there was company!” her mother said a bit embarrassed.

“Mom, this is Naruto. Naruto, this is my mother.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Haruno-san,” Naruto said with a polite bow.

“The pleasure is mine Naruto-kun,” Sakura’s mother said as she returned the bow. “What brings you here this evening?” the woman asked. Sakura was about to speak, but Naruto interrupted.

“I just wanted to make sure Sakura got home safe. It was nice to meet you ma’am,” Naruto finished. He turned and began to walk toward the woods when he felt a hand firmly grip his shoulder.

“You just came along to get me out of your apartment didn’t you?” Sakura asked. Naruto didn’t respond.

“Sakura! Did you offend the boy in his own home! You should be ashamed!” her mother nearly yelled.

“No!” Sakura said.

“No ma’am,” Naruto spoke up as he turned back to them. “Your daughter is eloquently mannered.” “When she wants to be,” he finished in his mind with a snicker.

“Mom, Naruto needs a place to stay. I don’t want him to stay in that apartment anymore,” Sakura blurted out.

“Why is that Sakura?” her mother asked. She was sure that it was because Naruto couldn’t afford it anymore; the way she figured, if either Sakura or Naruto told her that, then they could help him without having to be afraid of offending the boy. About this time the phone in the house rang and Sakura’s father could be heard talking on it.

“Yes, he’s over here,” the man said. “What! When!” they heard him exclaim a moment later. “Yes sir, don’t worry about it… You’re welcome… Goodbye.” He had said other things, but this was all the group at the door could hear clearly.

They heard him hang up the phone and walk toward the door. “Naruto,” he started when he arrived at the door, “that was Kakashi-san. He was looking for you. He said he went by your apartment but you weren’t there.” Naruto seemed to tense for a moment then relax and look down. The older man noticed this but continued. “He said you could come stay with him tonight,” he started. Sakura’s face dropped at her father’s words. She didn’t notice the small smile that formed on his face before he continued, “…but I told him it wouldn’t be necessary since you will be staying here.”

Naruto flashed a thankful smile to the man and bowed. His face took a more serious expression as he spoke, “I appreciate your offer Haruno-san, but if I stayed here, or with Kakashi-sensei, it would only cause problems,” he finished. He turned to walk off toward the woods once again. He was stopped like last time, only now there felt like there were two sets of hands on him. He looked over his shoulder to realize Sakura and her mother both had a firm hold on his jacket. Her father had his arms crossed over his chest. “Don’t make me pull rank on you Naruto,” the man said. “You’re staying and that is final. It’s for your own good. Besides, as many times as you have protected our daughter, it is the least we could do,” he finished with a grin.

Naruto stared at him blankly for a moment, then smiled. “If you insist, Haruno-san.”

“I do, now get in here and put your stuff in the guest room,” the man said as he flashed another smile of his own.

“Are you hungry Naruto-kun?” Sakura’s mother asked. “I’ll bet you haven’t eaten all day…” The boy gave a sheepish nod.

“I haven’t really been able to. When I got back to Konoha I was put in the hospital and then…” he didn’t finish, but everyone knew what happened, “then I got home and…” he stopped again.

“And your apartment was destroyed,” Sakura’s father finished what the boy didn’t want to say. Sakura’s mother was horrified. She never thought that was the reason Sakura had brought him to stay in their home. “Well then. First things first, Sakura will show you to your room. I’ll try and find some of my older clothes you might can wear so you can wash your jumpsuit for tomorrow. I would take you to get new things, but everything is closed by now.”

“Thank you sir, but I have a set of clothes for tomorrow,” Naruto said as he pointed toward his backpack.

“Oh, good then. Well, go on and put your stuff down then come get something to eat.”

“Thank you Haruno-san.”

“And stop with that,” the man said in a soft rebuke. “Call me Jiro, and that is Yumi,” he said as he pointed to his wife.

“Yes sir.”

Sakura was stunned. Never in her life had she seen Naruto be this polite. Her father even hinted he was being a bit too polite and formal. “I never would have thought Naruto actually had manners…” she thought.

Sakura tugged on Naruto’s jacket and began to walk upstairs. He followed her, and she pointed out the rooms on their way. “That is father’s study and the library. Their bedroom is further down the hall that way.” she said as she pointed to the archway directly in front of the stairs, then motioned down the hall to indicate her parent’s room. After she had pointed out her parent’s room, Sakura turned and headed the opposite direction. “Our rooms are this way,” she said. After a few steps she pointed to another door. “That’s the bathroom we’ll share. My parents have one in their room.” At the end of the hall they came to two doors that were across the hall from each other. “That’s your room,” she said as she pointed to the door on the left then opened it. The room wasn’t lavish, but it was nicer than what he was used to. He was fairly sure he was older than this bed, which was a nice change. There was a small desk in the room and a chair, along with a nightstand and a chest of drawers. All four of the pieces matched the bed, which was something else he wasn’t used to. On the nightstand was a lamp and an alarm clock.

It sort of hurt Sakura to see the mild amazement on Naruto’s face. She knew this would probably be the nicest room he had slept in. Even when he had stayed in hotels while looking for Tsunade, Naruto said that he and Jiraiya had stayed in fairly cheap places… plus he had to share the room. “You really never appreciate what you have until you see someone without it…” she thought as she remembered the sage-like words her mother had spoken. She watched him put his backpack down, then place his pictures and bowl on the nightstand. The pictures she understood, but the bowl? She had to know.

“Naruto, what’s the deal with that bowl?” she asked
.
“It’s a ramen bowl the Third gave me for my eighth birthday,” he answered.

“I didn’t know you were close to him,” she said pointing to the picture of the two.

“Yeah. He helped take care of me. He came by to visit, he bought me presents for my birthdays; supported me until I became a ninja, he even snuck extra money into the bank for me after I became a shinobi.”

“He did?” The boy nodded his answer as he sat on the bed and looked at the picture Sakura had pointed out. “How do you know it was him?” she asked.

“Because after he died it wasn’t there anymore,” Naruto said flatly. He did smile a bit at the memory of how the old man made him feel wanted, even important.

“I’m sorry Naruto,” Sakura said as she sat beside him. She felt more pity than she let on knowing now that he did in fact live off of his mission pay alone.

“It’s ok Sakura-chan. It’s not like any of this is your fault.”

“I feel like it is though. I saw how cold the villagers are to you, and the looks they give you. I know that I wasn’t much better then them…”

“Don’t say things like that. Of course you’re better than them. I know we argued and fought a lot, but I was never mad at you for it. It was just the way our relationship was. I never thought you hated me or anything,” he said. “You didn’t right?”

“Of course not!” she nearly shouted at him. She settled for giving him a ‘How-could-you-ask-such-a-stupid-question’ look.

“Friendships take all kinds of forms Sakura-chan, ours was just… different. I always thought that somewhere deep down, you cared for me, whether you realized it yourself or not,” he finished with a grin.

“I know I did. It took me a long time to quit thinking about Sasuke long enough to act like it though. I’m sorry. All I ever did was step over you and run for him. I never even thought that you might have needed me.”

“Bah. Don’t worry about it. You couldn’t have known anyway. But, enough about that stuff. Let’s go eat!” he said with a grin from one ear to another. After a nod from his companion they started back downstairs.

They went through the door to the kitchen, and Naruto found what would be a banquet at his house, laid out on the table for him. There were chicken and beef strips, a few crab sticks, steamed vegetables, miso soup, and ohagi. It was obvious from the dishes they were in that this meal was leftovers, but Naruto didn’t care. This would be the best meal he had had in a long time. Sure, he enjoyed his ramen, but no matter how much you love something, you can only handle so much. Considering his very limited income, he ate ramen most every meal in Konoha, so he was very tired of it. Actually when he thought about it, the only times he ate anything but ramen in Konoha since the death of the third – who would take him out when he had time – was when there was a shinobi gathering or something else similar that was catered. Yes, this meal would be a welcome change indeed. He didn’t even bother with his usual protests of there not being ramen. It was part of another mask he wore; if people thought he loved ramen, they wouldn’t give any second thought to the relationship between his food of choice and poverty-level income.

“Come on Naruto, have a seat,” Sakura’s mother urged.

“Yeah, eat up Naruto. You haven’t eaten all day remember?” Sakura said as she pulled out a chair. She realized he had become more important to her than she ever thought he would. In the last few days he had proved more caring, considerate, and devoted to her than anyone she had ever met; and that’s saying a lot when Rock Lee has his sights on you. A moment later Naruto sat offering his thanks to Sakura and Yumi. Yumi left the kitchen to let the teammates talk. After she had let Naruto eat for a while in silence, Sakura spoke up.

“Naruto, can I ask you something?” Sakura asked. Naruto decided to nod instead of talking with his mouth full for once. “Why didn’t you tell anyone this was happening to you? The looks, the anger, everything… Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well,” Naruto said as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Not really much you could have done Sakura-chan. It wouldn’t have done anything but make you worry… or feel sorry for me. I never have wanted pity, so I kept things to myself. I appreciate your concern, Sakura-chan,” he said with a warm smile.

The girl smiled to herself. “So what happened to the old Naruto? You never had manners before,” she said grinning to him trying to lighten the mood a bit.

“Hehe, I’ve always had them. We learned at the academy remember? But, it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. It made me stand out more.”

“So it was for attention huh?” The boy nodded.

“But I didn’t want to offend your parents, considering how kind they were being to me… especially now. Besides,” Naruto said with a tense forced laugh, “I think I have all the attention I can want at the moment.”

“I suppose so,” Sakura said with a chuckle to herself. Naruto was right. Good or bad, all attention would be on him in the morning.

The two of them stayed and talked about nothing important for the next few hours. Most of the time was spent getting to know each other better, like they should have done long ago. Naruto was in heaven. He even forgot about his problems as Sakura talked. Never in his life had he imagined that he would be having a polite conversation with Sakura, in her home at night nonetheless. He had only dreamed about such things.

By eleven o’clock, they decided it was time for bed. Naruto and Sakura made their way out of the kitchen, and noticed that her parents had already gone to bed. Smiling at the obvious sign of trust, Sakura walked upstairs with Naruto to go to their respective rooms.

“Good night, Sakura-chan,” Naruto said over his shoulder as he opened his door.

“Good night Naruto…kun,” she answered. Naruto turned around to find the hall empty and her door closing. He stood there amazed at the obvious change of tone toward him. Usually, that was something the girl reserved for Sasuke alone. He walked into his own room with a grin. Once inside, he saw his backpack and returned to his less joyous state. He stripped down to his black t-shirt and boxers, then crawled into bed.

Sakura was having mixed emotions across the hall. Part of her still felt dejected about Sasuke leaving; another part had an almost overwhelming sympathy for Naruto; yet another piece of her was overjoyed at the prospect of her friendship with the blonde. She was very confused about the whole situation. She knew she should be terribly upset about Sasuke, and she was, but it didn’t seem as bad now that she and Naruto had become closer. Actually, when her blonde teammate was around, she completely forgot about the crush she had on Sasuke, and it was replaced by a deep loathing… almost hatred. The thought of what he did to Naruto infuriated her. It didn’t help matters to know that Naruto had tried so hard because she had asked him to.

She was pulled out of her thoughts after a few minutes when she heard something across the hall. She moved out of her room quietly, not sure what she had heard. She walked the few steps across the hall in near perfect silence as she approached Naruto’s door. When she got closer, she heard Naruto sobbing slightly before he began to speak barely above a whisper.

“W-Why did you have to do t-this to m-me? What did I d-do to make you choose me to put the demon in?” She heard Naruto say. She didn’t know what to think. Obviously Naruto was still trying to come to terms with what the Fourth had done to him. “And what good did it do?” he continued, “I ended up letting him kill people anyway…” Sakura was about to enter until Naruto said something that made her stop. “Why did it have to be me father?”

“Father? Did he just call the Fourth his father?” Sakura thought. “Is he delusional?” She heard him start sobbing again, then made a decision. She stepped forward and opened his door without knocking. She strolled into the room and sat beside Naruto on the bed. Neither of them said anything as she put her arms around his shoulders and held him tight. He kept crying, letting out all his years of sadness at once. Sakura could hear the occasional “Why me?” and, “I killed those people…” from Naruto. She tried her best to comfort him, reassuring him that it was the Kyuubi who had done it, and saying soothing words in a soft voice. She remembered how she had been in Naruto’s place not too long ago, crying in Ino’s arms after Sasuke left. It seemed kind of trivial to her now, seeing Naruto like this, and knowing what he was going through. She was curious about Naruto saying the Fourth was his father, but she decided to ask another time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
S akura woke up the next morning to a strange noise. She half opened her eyes, then looked to the door when she heard it again. (AHEM) She snapped awake when she saw her parents standing at her door. Her mother looked like she was giggling slightly while her father had a neutral expression on his face. The girl tried to get up, but noticed Naruto was holding her down.

“Wait a minute… Naruto!” she yelled in her head. But indeed, there she was, in Naruto’s bed. She still had her arms around his shoulders, and he had wrapped his loosely around her waist. Everything came back to her in a rush. She remembered coming into his room, letting him cry, and talking with him. She remembered getting tired, but deciding to stay since he was still upset. She must have fallen asleep. She looked sheepishly over to her father, whose lips had turned upward into a warm smile. She smiled back at him, then started to shake Naruto awake.

“Morning Sakura-chan,” Naruto said half awake. “SAKURA-CHAN?” he yelled as the situation hit him. “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to…!” he tried to say many things, apologies, explanations, but no words would come. Finally, after chuckling at the boy for a minute, Jiro spoke up.

“You two need to get up. You have to be at the Hokage’s office in a little over an hour,” with that he smiled again and turned to walk away. After a moment his wife followed. Sakura smiled again at how much her parents seemed to trust Naruto. She knew they trusted her, but for them to warm up to someone this quickly said a lot. Deciding to lighten Naruto’s embarrassed mood, she jumped up.

“Dibs on first shower!” she said as she ran out of the room grinning.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX After they had showered and eaten breakfast, the teammates began their journey to the Hokage’s office. Sakura looked over to Naruto, who had apparently changed his entire taste in clothing overnight. He no longer wore his orange jumpsuit, or his blue Konoha boots. He now wore a pair of black pants, a dark grey shirt, black tennis shoes, and an oddly familiar cloak that Sakura couldn’t seem to place. He wore the hood up, which mostly covered his face from view, and even if it was down he now wore a mask very similar to Kakashi, only a deep crimson color. The pants weren’t a glossy black, as a matter of fact the seemed to absorb light. The shirt seemed the same way. The cloak really looked out of place though. It was bright white, with flames coming up to about eight inches above the bottom of the garment. It seemed to be an interesting fabric; even though they were walking down a dusty road with a fairly strong breeze blowing, it never seemed to get dirty. The final touch was the Konoha headband Naruto wore as a belt.

After her examination of Naruto’s outfit, they arrived at the Hokage tower. The people didn’t seem to recognize Naruto now. “Heh, guess this is working better than I thought it would,” he thought. They kept walking up the stairs and were soon outside of Tsunade’s office. The chuunin guards that were usually by the door seemed to have been replaced today. Naruto did seem to remember Tsunade punching one of them into a wall, causing it to collapse on the both of them a few days ago. “Guess they’re still trying to recover.” He chuckled.

“What do you want?” one of the chuunin asked with a cold look.

“I have a meeting with the Hokage at eight thirty.” Naruto responded as he pulled back the hood covering his face and removed his mask.

“Too bad. She’s busy. Now go away.”

“Hmm… they wouldn’t usually be this bold because Baa-chan might hear them. Guess she’s asleep,” Naruto thought.

“Please gentlemen, we have an important meeting with Tsunade-sama, we don’t want to be late,” Sakura explained.

“We don’t care,” the other chuunin said. “That…thing... is getting no where near Tsunade-sama. We’re not going to let you add her to the body count from last night.”

Naruto flinched. That comment had really hit him. He still hadn’t been able to deal with the fact he had killed those people; whether he was in control of his body or not didn’t matter. In his mind he had killed them. He had always heard the first kills were the hardest, but he had never imagined this. He had been hearing their screams and seeing their faces at random since he woke up this morning.


Unbeknownst to Naruto, while he was thinking he had tuned out the guards remarks. He was drawn back from his thoughts when the guards had apparently moved on to insulting his companion.

“And you… people who associate with demons are no better than the monsters themselves! But I suppose every devil has his whore!” one of the chuunin said before they both burst into laughter. “I say we treat her like a demon should be…” Sakura was very angry, but also very scared. She had seen what people were willing to do to Naruto… would they do the same to her for being with him? She couldn’t heal like Naruto could… she wouldn’t have survived long at all last night if she had been in the position. Hell, the fall probably would have been enough to kill her. She nearly panicked when one of the guards took a step towards her. He didn’t realize what a mistake that was.

Naruto had listened to the men insult him. That was no big deal. He had grown to expect that. When they started to include Sakura, however, he started to boil. When one of them moved toward her, that was the last straw. In a flash he moved in front of the man. The chuunin was about to make a snide remark until he noticed Naruto had dragged the other man with him by the throat.

“You will not touch her…” Naruto said in a dark voice… almost a growl. Sakura swore he grew an inch as he spoke. Before the second man could react Naruto had him gripped in the same manner. Of course, Naruto was much shorter than these two, so each of them were pulled down and bent slightly at the hips. He pulled the second man a bit lower to look him in the eye.

“And you will not speak of her like that again…” With out batting an eye Naruto charged the wall in front him. He took off at such speed that the ninjas couldn’t react. He dragged them by their necks, and their heels were dragging behind the blonde. When he approached the wall he thrust both arms forward hard, sending the back of the men’s heads and shoulders into the wall. After a loud crack and the sound of falling objects hitting the ground, Naruto stood up in Tsunade’s office. He looked back through the hole in the wall at the stunned Sakura. Lee was the only other genin she had ever seen display such immense strength. She shook her head for a minute, then stepped through the hole. Naruto grinned sheepishly at Sakura, then turned back to the two men he had smashed. They weren’t there.

Panicking Naruto looked frantically around the area until he found them. There was one on each side of the Hokage… the very awake Hokage.

“H-Hokage-sama, I…” Naruto began to apologize. He stopped when Tsunade raised her hand. She looked at her two guards.

“Well?” she asked.

“Everything seemed fine Hokage-sama,” one of the chuunin answered.

“Ah. Good. You two are dismissed.” With a nod, the two men disappeared. Barely a second after they left someone else arrived. He lifted one hand and gave his typical “Yo.”

“Kakashi-sensei?” Naruto and Sakura asked together. “He’s on time?” they thought.

“So, I assume everything worked out Hokage-sama?” Kakashi asked.

“Yes. I was just about to explain it to them when you arrived.” Kakashi moved over and took a seat in front of her desk.

“Sorry about that Naruto,” Tsunade said. “Kakashi and I decided last night we wanted to know if you were completely rid of Kyuubi, or if there was still some of him in you. Please don’t be mad at those two men from earlier, they were under my orders to do what they did.”

“They actually have a lot of respect for you Naruto,” Kakashi added.

“But then why…?” Naruto started.

“I told you. We needed to see if there was any of the Kyuubi left in you. You usually force him out when you’re really pissed off. So, I told them to make you as mad as they could, and get you to attack them if possible, just to be sure he wasn’t hiding somewhere.”

“I see. But what if he was? I might have killed them!”

“I don’t think so Naruto. They were only dressed like chuunin. They were actually ANBU. I felt certain that they could have at least managed to get away from you without serious harm.”

“I understand Hokage-sama,” Naruto said flatly. Tsunade cringed hearing him say that. It was very… out of character for him. Still, she wouldn’t mention it, yet.

“Good. Now that there can be no doubt. I’ll issue a statement to the village, and institute a new law and…”

“That won’t be necessary Hokage-sama,” Naruto interrupted.

“What do you mean Naruto? We can’t have another incident like last night!”

“There won’t be one. I have made a decision that will stop that.”

“Decision? What decision Naruto?” Tsunade asked.

“I’m leaving Konoha.”

“W-WHAT!” everyone yelled, except for Naruto of course.

“You can’t just leave! Y-You have work to do, and… obligations… ninjas can’t just leave their village Naruto!” Kakashi said.

“True. But, I’m an exception,” Naruto said as he reached into his backpack. He pulled out a scroll case and gave it to Tsunade. “The Third gave me that, these clothes, and some other things after I became a genin.”

“So those clothes are…” Kakashi started.

“Yes, these were my father’s.”

“Your father? So you know Naruto?” Kakashi asked.

“Yes sir. After everything that happened with Mizuki, the Third talked with me about the Kyuubi, and my father. I know almost everything I suppose.”

“Then why didn’t you tell anyone? Why did you keep acting like you didn’t know anything?”

“Because, I assumed since I didn’t know earlier, it wasn’t common knowledge, correct?” Naruto asked. Kakashi nodded. “I figured if people didn’t know, there wasn’t any need for them to. It might make them hate him for being the father of a demon. So I kept it to myself.”

“You mean you didn’t tell anyone, to protect your father’s good name?” Kakashi asked dumbstruck. Naruto nodded.

A moment later Kakashi grinned. “Well, they look good on you Naruto. Perfect fit right?”

“Yes. Where did he get them?”

“Well, those clothes were made for the Fourth as a gift by a master tailor and his brother, who was a master of sealing techniques. They shrink or expand to a perfect fit for whoever puts them on. All pieces of the outfit have their own abilities, but I’m not really sure what all of them are.”

“I know. There was a book about the clothes in the things the Third gave me. It explained most everything I think.”

After a moment to recover, Tsunade looked over to Naruto. “So what is this?” she asked, changing the topic.

“Open it,” Naruto said simply.

Tsunade opened the ivory case and took the scroll out. It had the seal of the third Hokage on it. She looked at Naruto, and he nodded for her to break the seal. She read it out loud.

To whom it may concern,

I, Ukane Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage, hereby give Uzumaki Naruto the right and privilege to leave and return to the Hidden Village of Konoha as he pleases. In the event that I have passed, it will be the responsibility and duty of the current leader of the village to ensure my decree is upheld. Under no circumstances is he to be labeled a missing nin for this.

Furthermore, while Naruto is duty-bound to inform his superiors that he will be leaving, it is his decision if he wants to inform them why he has chosen to leave.

Ukane Sarutobi,

Sandaime Hokage

By the time she had finished reading, Naruto had removed the forehead protector from his waist. He stood and placed it neatly on the Hokage’s desk.
“Would you please ensure that is given to Iruka-sensei? I would appreciate it.”
“Naruto,” the Hokage started. She had to collect herself for a moment to keep tears from falling. “Are you leaving because of last night?”

“Not just that. I’m leaving because of it all. Last night was just the worst it has gotten. I’m tired of dealing with it Baa-chan. I’m going to go somewhere I can be treated like everyone else. I don’t want to be an outcast or demon anymore. I just want to be Naruto.”

“You’re coming back though right?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe one day, but no time soon.”

“What about your dream Naruto? What about becoming Hokage?” Tsunade asked, hoping to change his mind.

“We all have to grow up sometime Baa-chan. This village doesn’t accept me as a human being. There’s no way they’ll accept me as their leader.”

“Y-You just have to change their minds Naruto! You have to get their respect!”

“Honestly Baa-chan, I mastered the kage bunshin before I was a genin. I’ve saved my friends and sensei from danger even when I was told to run. I stood up to Orochimaru by myself. I killed one of his huge snakes after it swallowed me, and stopped a bigger one from killing Sasuke with two kunai. I beat Kiba, who no one thought I would be able to, then after that I even beat the Hyuuga prodigy in front of everyone. I saved the village from a rampaging demon by myself. I mastered the Fourth’s legacy technique in less time than it took Jiraiya. I stood up to Orochimaru’s right-hand man and fought him to a draw then brought you back. Now I’ve even destroyed the Kyuubi, all the while enduring this village’s hate and contempt. If I haven’t earned their respect by now, how will I ever be able to Tsunade?”

She hated talking to him like this. It wasn’t the fact that he had lost his enthusiasm, what really bothered her is there was always some truth in what he said. She didn’t know what he would have to do to win this village’s respect. She really couldn’t think of anything else he could do. As a thirteen year old boy, he had more to brag about than a lot of retired ninjas.

“Ok Naruto. I understand,” she said after several minutes of thought. “However, I want you to do some things for me ok?” she nearly pleaded. The blonde nodded and sat back down in the chair beside Kakashi. “First things first,” she continued. “Take this back,” she said as she tossed his forehead protector toward him. He caught it and placed it in his lap. “Next, I don’t want you to go off by yourself. It’s too dangerous. I want Kakashi to go with you.” Seeing no problem with that, Naruto nodded his agreement. “Ok then Naruto. Until you decide to return, you and Kakashi can consider yourselves on an A-Rank mission to keep the Akatsuki from getting you. You will receive regular pay like anyone on a continuing mission. I’ll send you missions sometimes so you can have something to do to earn a little extra money. Of course, if you fight any Akatsuki member or other missing nin you will receive the reward for it. I will expect REGULAR updates on where you are and how you are doing. Is that understood?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“N-Naruto…” Sakura said. This is the first time the others in the room paid much attention to her. No one noticed her getting very depressed during the exchange between the Hokage and Naruto. At this point she was nearly in tears.

“Sakura-chan? What’s wrong?” Naruto asked. The tears started to fall out of the girl’s eyes.

“Y-You’re leaving? You said you wouldn’t leave me! You said you would be here for me!” she said with an urgent voice.

“I’ll still be there for you Sakura-chan. I just won’t be in Konoha. It doesn’t mean we aren’t friends or anything.”

“But still! You’re leaving me! I-I don’t want you to leave…” she said as she fell into him. She ended up sitting on his lap with her arms around the rather confused boy. She had buried her head in the crook of his neck and gave up on talking. She just cried on him.

“Sakura-chan…” Naruto held the girl tightly. He breathed in the scent of her, which was some sweet smell he couldn’t quite place. He held her as she shook, until she eventually calmed down.

“I have to leave Sakura-chan,” Naruto started as she looked up at him. “There’s no place for me here. There never was. I have to go somewhere that I can be accepted. I want to see what it’s like to be normal for a change.”

As he was talking Sakura sat up straighter. If she had been calmer, she probably would have jumped up, considering she was still sitting on Naruto’s lap. He didn’t seem to mind though. “Fine,” she said. “But I’m coming with you.”

“What?” Naruto asked. He was sure he had misheard her.
“I said I’m coming with you.”

“Sakura, no. Your family needs you here,” Naruto said.

“And you need me where you’re going. I can’t have you going everywhere with that pervert unsupervised.”

“I’m sitting right here you know,” Kakashi protested.

“Your parents would miss you!” Naruto said, ignoring Kakashi.

“And I would miss you and Kakashi-sensei, Naruto!”

“But still! They’re your family!”

“I’m going. End of discussion,” Sakura said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Baa-chan, a little help here?” Naruto asked.

If anyone had paid attention, they would see the grin growing on Tsunade’s face the whole time. “So, she wants to go with him huh? Seems like Naruto has it better than he thinks. Now that I look, the three of them seem like a little family themselves.” She was drawn out of her thoughts by Naruto’s voice.

“Help huh? Ok. Sakura, you can’t go,” Tsunade said. Sakura looked heartbroken and slumped back against Naruto. She still either didn’t realize or didn’t care that she was using him as a seat. Naruto of course didn’t mind at all. He loved Sakura being this comfortable with him, not to mention this close to him. “That is,” Tsunade spoke again, “unless your parents say it’s ok,” Tsunade finished with a grin. “Come on Naruto, what would it hurt to let her go along? It will do you good to have some company your own age. Besides, how could you complain about Sakura wanting to spend more time with you?” the woman teased.

Naruto huffed and sat back in the chair. He started mumbling something to himself but eventually let out an “Ok,” that made Sakura dive at him. Even though she was sitting on the boy’s lap, she still hit with enough force that it flipped their chair over backwards. She didn’t let up the whole time they were falling, and when they actually hit the floor she seemed to be trying to break Naruto in half with her hug. “ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou!” she squealed from on top of the blonde.

Naruto couldn’t help but laugh. He thought the situation was hilarious; he knew they must look ridiculous on the floor like that. Not to mention Sakura was acting like a little girl. Most of the smiling and joyous laughter though, was because she wanted to go with him, wherever he was going. He never thought she would care this much for him. This was the kind of thing she would have only done for Sasuke. “Wait a minute does she… nah. No way.” Naruto shook his head a bit to get that thought out of his head. There’s no way she felt that way about him… right?

Finally realizing the compromising position she was in, Sakura bolted up. “S-Sorry Naruto-kun…” Sakura said with a bright red color on her cheeks.

“Ok. You can leave in the morning. Now, it’s almost time for the council meeting, so we should get going.”

The four of them left Tsunade’s office together. They walked up the stairs to the top floor of the tower. It was set up like a dining hall. There were several long tables in five rows that all faced toward a podium in the center. Tsunade directed her companions to sit in three of the chairs in the front at the left end of the table. A few minutes later people started to enter the room. Naruto pulled his hood back up to conceal himself, but left his mask off. The teens recognized some of the people entering as the parents of their classmates. They both recognized the older combination of the “Bossy-Lazy-Chubby” trio who were chatting with Sakura’s parents. After them came Hinata’s father Hiashi, followed by a man with a large dog and another man dressed like Shino. The two also recognized the jounin instructors that came in, and the three from their chuunin exam. After that no one else seemed familiar. Other jounin and some ANBU came in, along with some important civilians. Eventually, there were just under forty people in the room. Tsunade stood behind the podium and held her hand up for silence. A moment later the room was quiet.

“Good morning everyone. I have called this meeting to deal with the events of last night. As I’m sure many of you know, the Kyuubi broke free last night and…”

“And killed innocent civilians!” a man in the crowd interrupted.

“Some of the Leaf’s ninja too!” another man yelled. This led to an uproar of outrage and cursing. Tsunade would have motioned for silence again, but she needed the time to calm down anyway. When it finally died down, Hiashi spoke up.

“Hokage-sama, is the Kyuubi dead?” Hiashi asked. Since he had left with Hinata when Tsunade told them to explain everything to the younger ninjas, he didn’t know what had happened afterward.

“Yes, the Kyuubi has been destroyed,” Tsunade answered. Hiashi, along with a few others slumped at her words. They were glad Kyuubi was no longer a threat to their village, but were sad that Naruto, the one who had meant so much to so many of the younger generation, had to be sacrificed.

“HAHA! CELEBRATION AT MY ESTATE EVERYONE! THE LITTLE DEMON BOY IS DEAD! THE THREAT TO THE VILLAGE IS OVER!” another man yelled.

“YES! Our children no longer have to be afraid of leaving their homes!”

“We should be sure! We should burn his body to ash to ensure he can never come back!”

“No! We should hang his body at the gates to warn any demons what will happen if they enter Konoha!”

“No! We should…” this man (a ninja) was interrupted by a booming voice.

“BUBUN BAIKA NO JUTSU!” the Akimichi yelled as his arm grew to ridiculous proportions. He grabbed the man who was about to speak and threw him out the window… a twelfth story window no less. If he didn’t die in the fall, his career as a ninja was most likely over. “ENOUGH!” he yelled. “You will not DARE speak that way again!”

“WHAT! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU A…” the rest of this man’s sentence became inaudible. For some reason shortly after he stood and began to yell his voice became so high-pitched he couldn’t be heard anymore.

The explanation came quickly as people heard the growling coming from below the man’s waist. The large dog from earlier had its fangs sunk into everything that made a man, a man. “Kiran, release!” the dog’s companion said. The dog did so and returned to his master’s side.

“There will be no ill words spoken of Uzumaki Naruto,” Hiashi said as he stood. “He meant too much to our children to let trash like you dishonor him.”

“Thank you, Hiashi-san,” Tsunade said. The man nodded at her and sat back down. “Now, as I was saying, Kyuubi is dead, I never said Naruto was. The boy himself destroyed the Kyuubi, banishing it from our world forever. In accordance with the decree of the Fourth, he will now be rewarded. Naruto, please come forward.”

After shaking off the shock of people he barely knew defending him, Naruto got up and walked forward. He pulled back his hood to show his face to the group. He couldn’t help but grin at the people who were obviously glad he was alive.

“Naruto, as a reward for killing the Kyuubi, you are entitled the bounty of one million ryo,” the woman said as she handed Naruto an ornate box with money inside. “Also, in light of your great demonstration of skill, power, and selflessness, not to mention the obvious respect many high-ranking ninja have for you, I hereby appoint you to the rank of chuunin,” she finished as she gave him a neatly folded vest. “And finally, you may make one request of me. As the final part of reward for saving the village, the Fourth offered to grant any one request in his power. I will fulfill his offer in his stead.”

For a very uneasy few moments, Naruto pondered his options. More than a few people were afraid he was going to wish for the execution of everyone who had wronged him. A few of them obviously cringed when he opened his mouth to speak.

“I wish for you to repeal the Third’s law and tell everyone the whole truth about me… personally.”

Most people relaxed when they realized he didn’t say the word ‘kill’ or ‘execute.’ Tsunade was dumbstruck. She had imagined he would ask for vengeance as well.
“Heh. This kid never fails to surprise me,” she thought.

“Very well Naruto,” Tsunade said with a grin. “Your wish shall be fulfilled as soon as possible.”

“Thank you. You can write and keep me updated. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go shopping.”

“Of course Naruto.”

“I’ll meet you at the gate at eight in the morning,” Kakashi said.

“Just be on time,” Naruto answered. With a bow to the Hokage, and then the council, Naruto and Sakura started to leave the room. As he walked Naruto replaced his mask and pulled his hood back up.

Tsunade watched them go out the door. When she had given them a few minutes to get out of hearing range she turned to the council. “Now,” she started with an obvious look of rage, “before I do anything else, we need to take out some trash.”

With those words the crowd seemed to turn on itself. Hiashi struck a man in the chest who was sitting beside him. As he was dying the Hyuuga looked over at him, “You knew the punishment for breaking the Third’s law.”

Immediately after this, all hell broke loose in the room. Everyone who had spoken against Naruto, or had muttered agreements became a target. The large dog from earlier had once again pounced on his previous victim, this time not being so kind. Its master had rushed to another man and impaled him with a kunai. The original Ino-Shika-Cho combo was making a mockery of a jounin and three chuunin in the back of the room. The poor jounin was in the floor screaming during the effects of a genjutsu Inoshi had used, while the other three were acting remarkably similar to the three stooges. One would poke another’s eyes, then get bopped on the head, and so on. Eventually, when this was no longer entertaining, they were compelled to walk to the same window one gentleman had broken through earlier. With a quick jump, they found themselves falling into the middle of the street. With nothing for them to latch onto with chakra, they met their end with a unique crunch/splat sound. Gai had given one man a quick chop to the neck with more than enough force to snap it, and his eternal rival took out the final man with a knee to the back of his head, crushing his skull.

“Well, now that that is all over,” Tsunade said as she nodded her thanks to the ninja, “I have a couple of things to take care of.” Everyone gave the Hokage their undivided attention. “First, as Naruto wished the Third’s law is repealed. However, he is to be given the same respect as the Hokage from this day on.”

“Respect given a Hokage? Why would we give that to that…” Tsunade raised an eyebrow at the man who was speaking. Though the Third’s law was no longer in effect, the punishments for openly insulting the Hokage were almost as bad. The man noticed her look, and stuttered for a brief moment. “Umm… (ahem) as I was saying, why would we give that level of respect to that… child?”

Tsunade dropped her eyebrow back down – a little in disappointment – before she spoke. “Well, for one, I’m the Hokage and I say so. However, if that isn’t good enough, that brings me to my second point of business. As of today, I officially name Uzumaki Naruto as my chosen successor to the Hokage title.” This brought gasps from the whole room, even Kakashi.

“Ho-Hokage-sama! The boy is just a child! How can you name him to be Rokudaime at his age!” one man yelled.

“Well of course he won’t be Hokage for quite some time. He will be leaving the village tomorrow for an unknown amount of time. When he returns he will become a jounin quickly I’m sure. After a while of being a jounin, both independent and sensei, I will be ready to retire and let him take over. If anything happens to me before that, then Jiraiya has agreed to step in until Naruto is ready to take over.”

“But how can you know he will be suited to be Hokage! He is only a child!” another man shouted.

“He is a child with the power of a demon lord,” she said flatly. “I was not kidding when I said Naruto had killed the Kyuubi, and when he killed it, he absorbed its power. He already has more raw power than anyone this village has ever seen. He also has a heart that had him ready to kill himself to protect the village from the Kyuubi,” she continued. “Well, village – Sakura – village sounds better. She is a member of the village, so it’s the same thing,” Tsunade rationalized her lie in her mind. “His heart is in the right place, and he has more than enough power, so all he needs now is training to hone himself into what he can be. To that end Kakashi-san will be going with him on his journey. Now, if there are no more questions you are dismissed. Mr. and Mrs. Haruno, if you would please stay for a few moments.”

With that everyone but the Hokage, Kakashi, and Sakura’s parents left the room. “You wished to speak with us, Hokage-sama?” Jiro asked.

“Yes, please sit down,” Tsunade answered while motioning to one of the tables. She pulled a seat up and sat across the table from them while Kakashi leaned against a wall. “I’ll come straight to the point. Sakura has asked for permission to go with Naruto and Kakashi on their journey. I gave her permission as long as the two of you agreed.” Sakura’s father Jiro looked a little shocked while Sakura’s mother Yumi just nodded. “I won’t order you to let her go. She is your daughter. However, it would definitely be better for Naruto if she went. He is still trying to cope with killing those people last night. He doesn’t care that he wasn’t in control; as far as he’s concerned those were his first kills. Given the circumstances of why they attacked him, plus what happened afterward when the Kyuubi attacked your daughter, I’m afraid Naruto might be scarred from the experience. He isn’t acting like himself at all, and he seems to get depressed easily now. Sakura is all I have seen that will lift his spirits.”

“What about Sakura? What will happen to her?” Jiro asked.

“Given Sakura’s intelligence, I believe she would be able to learn from scrolls on her own with a few points in the right direction. I will be giving her everything I have on medical techniques if she goes. Kakashi thinks it would suit her. She will be considered my apprentice.”

“And with her chakra control and molding abilities, I will have her learning genjutsu as well,” Kakashi added.

“How long do you think you will be gone Kakashi-san?” Yumi asked.

“I’m not sure. Over a year at least. It depends on how quickly they learn, and when they want to come back.”

“Will we be able to keep in touch with her?”

“Of course. She will be able to write whenever she wants. And I’m sure we’ll stay in Sand Village often for Naruto to train. I also feel fairly certain we will visit the Wave and Tea countries every once in a while. You can come visit her whenever we’re in any of those places.”

“However,” Tsunade piped in, “I know you will be looking forward to seeing your daughter, but please, if you go to visit include Naruto. He won’t have family coming to visit him after all, and Iruka and I will be far to busy to leave for days at a time. I want him to find more reasons to return to Konoha, not leave it.”

“So, how about it?” Kakashi asked.

“Well, I suppose… I mean, it’s ok with me, what about you Yumi?” Jiro asked.

“I think it will be good for her. I think she needs to be away from Konoha for a while with all that has happened with the Uchiha and Naruto. As long as we can keep in touch.”

“Great. Everything is settled then,” Tsunade said.

“Well, even if we said no, she would find a way if she really wanted to,” Jiro said with a chuckle.

“Tsunade-sama, what about money for her?” Yumi asked.

“This journey is being marked as an A-Rank mission. Everyone will be paid accordingly. I will also be sending them missions sometimes. I’ll be setting up an account for each of them to put their pay in. I can put deposits in for you as well if you like.”

“Thank you Hokage-sama.”

“Thank you. I was hoping you would let her go. I know it will help them both.”

“You’re welcome Hokage-sama. I’m sure this will be good for Sakura as well. Besides, I wouldn’t want to try and separate those two now anyway. They’ve gotten very close in a very short amount of time,” Jiro said.

“Ok. So I guess I’ll see you two at the gate?”

“Yes, we will see them off. Now if you’ll excuse us, since they will be leaving in the morning we would like to spend some time with them.”

“Of course. We’ll see you in the morning.”

“See you then.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X
WITH NARUTO AND SAKURA
“So, you think your parents are going to let you go Sakura-chan?”

“Probably. I don’t know why they wouldn’t. I mean, it is training after all.”

“I guess. But still, you would be gone for who knows how long. They may not want you to be away that long; especially with me and Kakashi-sensei.”

“Nah. I think the two of you are the only ones they would trust me to go off with for so long… well and maybe Tsunade-sama. They know you guys wouldn’t hurt me, and do horrible things to anyone who did. Besides, we have a lot of lost time to make up for,” she finished with a warm smile.

“I suppose so,” Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head. “I’m glad you’re coming Sakura-chan.”

“Me too. So what are you going to buy with the money you have?”

“Well, all I know for sure is some clothes. Maybe a little new gear. I want to buy your folks dinner tonight too. Other than that I think I’ll put the rest of it in the bank or something so it will gain interest.”

“That’s it? You’re not going to spend much of it?”

“Hehe… well, I guess I’m used to saving money. Old habits die hard you know.”

“I suppose so. What are you going to do about a place to live though? You aren’t going back to your apartment are you?”
“Well no, but there isn’t any point in renting a place now. I’ll look for something when we get back.”

“So that means you’ll be staying with us again tonight right?” Sakura asked excitedly as she latched onto his arm and smiled at him.

“Heh, if your parents don’t mind yeah. If they do I’ll get a hotel room or something.” This earned him quite a glare from the pink-haired girl and a vice-like grip on his arm. This was the closest she had been to someone since her and Ino’s friendship had ended. She wasn’t about to let go of it – or him – anytime soon. She liked having someone this close to her; someone she knew cared for her no matter her faults. Yes, she now declared Naruto her best friend in her mind, and perhaps even more. She felt like she could tell him anything… well, almost; she wasn’t sure Naruto was ready for ‘girl talk.’

“Ok, ok… I’ll stay at your place,” Naruto quickly said. Sakura grinned a little then changed the subject.

“So Naruto, where are we going clothes shopping?” she asked as she let go of the boy.

“We?”

“Yes, we. You will have to get my approval of everything you’re going to buy. I refuse to be seen in public with someone who is anything less than the cutting edge of fashion,” Sakura said. As she talked she put her hands on her hips and smugly tilted her head up putting her nose in the air. She wasn’t sure how long she could keep from laughing at herself. She knew she actually used to be like this in some ways. It was fun to make fun of yourself sometimes she decided. She held the position for all of four seconds before Naruto broke her out of it.

“Sakura-chan, I can see the boogers in your nose.” He had to stifle his snickers as his companion went from jokingly arrogant, to horrified, to embarrassed, to annoyed in the span of about one-tenth of a second. She slapped him on the arm and gave an irritated “Hmph” as she turned her back to him and crossed her arms over her chest.

He tried to step in front of her to apologize to her face. He wasn’t really sure if he had actually offended her, or if she was playing around, but he didn’t want to take any risks considering their friendship was finally starting to take off. Finally, when she turned her back to him one more time he decided she had to be goofing off. If she was serious she would have really hit him by now.

“Ok then. If you’re going to be mad at me then it can’t be helped. (sigh) I guess I’ll have to ask Ino to help then.” Sakura’s ears twitched. “She always did say she had a better fashion sense than you. Plus she’s blonde too, so she would what colors would look best on me…”

“LIKE THAT BIMBO COULD EVER…!” Sakura began as she turned around to find a grinning Naruto looking at her. She grinned and blushed a little as she muttered “Jackass,” under her breath.

“Come on Sakura-chan. We have shopping to do,” Naruto said as he held out his arm at shoulder-level. When she was closer he put it around her shoulders and they walked on. By the time they were finished and headed back to the house is was nearly lunch time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
& #8220;Mom! Dad! We’re back,” Sakura said as she walked in the door. Naruto followed behind with several bags in each hand. Sakura had three in one of her hands as well.

“My goodness! Did you buy enough Naruto?” Yumi teased as she started taking bags.

“Hehe, well, I had to buy clothes and weapons and I bought some scrolls too.”

“Weapons?” the woman asked.

“Yeah. All I had were the ones on me. All the spare ones I had in my apartment were stolen. That’s ok though. Tenten’s dad made me a really good deal on this stuff.”

“Well that’s good. So come on, let’s see what you got!” Sakura’s mother said excitedly.

In a flash, boxes were thrown open revealing their contents. Naruto was obviously going for a much darker look than his old orange. Most of the pants he had bought were black or dark grey, and the shirts were similar. He had a few dark red and dark blue shirts as well. He had bought a new forehead protector, his old one carefully and neatly placed in a case to preserve it. It had been replaced with one that had a much longer black strap, and a metal plate made from an odd type of metal. It wasn’t painted, but the steel reflected no light. The final new addition to his outfit was a forearm and hand guard (like the third wore on one arm) on each arm. They were made from the same dark metal as his forehead protector. The main difference between these and the Third’s were that Naruto’s wrapped around his forearm instead of just being a plate on the top. On the thumb side there were two slits with locking devices at the end of each one and there were three on the pinky side.

“What goes there Naruto?” Jiro asked when he noticed. Naruto opened another box to reveal two strange objects and pulled one out. They were also made from the metal that seemed to be forming as Naruto’s trademark.

There were two curved blades joined in the middle by a handle 6 inches from one end. There were two strips of metal extending from one blade and three from the other that looked like they were made for the receivers on Naruto’s arm guards. Naruto took the strange device and slid it down his arm grabbed the handle. Several clicks could be heard as he slid the strips of metal into their respected slits on his arm guard. When he had locked it into place he held it up for them to inspect. There was a blade on the thumb and pinky sides of his forearm. The blade on the thumb side of his arm was much shorter than the other. One end of it was joined to the arm guard in the middle of his forearm. It came away from his arm, curved at a right angle and ran parallel to his arm. There was a second piece of metal joining it to the guard again near his wrist. It then continued over his thumb, joined the handle, and ended around six inches in front of his fist. The handle was joined directly to the blade so it was half an inch from his hand. The handle itself was about the same diameter as the handle on a kunai. The second blade started about six inches behind his elbow. It extended all the way up his arm and also ended six inches in front of his fist. It was joined to the guard with strips of metal and joined directly to the handle. The longer blade was held out three inches from his arm at the first attachment point, then angled in to end up a half inch from his hand like the shorter blade. The shorter blade was one inch from his arm at its farthest point.

“Wow,” Jiro began, “those are unique.”

“Yeah. That’s kinda why I liked them. Tenten said her dad had only made this one pair and no one had ever bought them since they’re a bit hard to conceal. I figure it won’t be a problem under my cloak though.” The boy then pulled his hand underneath his cloak hiding it from sight. He took the other matching weapon and hung it on his chuunin vest he now wore over his shirt.

“What are they called?”

“He never named them. I guess it’s up to me.”

“So what else did you get?” Yumi asked, eager to peruse the rest of Naruto’s purchases.

“That’s it. Just the clothes, these, and a few scrolls. Well, and some kunai and shuriken, but nothing special.”

“What about that Naruto?” Sakura asked as she pointed at another bag near the boy. Naruto looked at it, then over at her and grinned.

“Oh. This isn’t mine Sakura-chan,” he said as he took it and stood. He carried it over to her and held out the bag for her to take. “It’s a gift,” he said.

“Naruto you didn’t have to…”

“I know,” he interrupted. He just smiled at her and placed it in her lap.

Sakura smiled warmly at him and took two boxes out of the bag. They had been beautifully wrapped in pink paper and topped with a bright blue bow. She carefully removed the bow to save and tore off the paper. She opened the first box to reveal a beautiful dark green dress and the second one held a pair of matching shoes. She remembered looking at these while she and Naruto were shopping, though she didn’t think he had noticed her admiring the outfit. She sat dumbstruck, not really sure how to react. Aside from her parents, no one had ever bought Sakura something just because she seemed to want it. She felt very special. She was trying to think of what to say when Naruto’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

“Do you like it?” he asked.

Her body seemed to make all the decisions for her. She jumped up with the box in her hand and wrapped the other arm around Naruto’s neck pulling him into a tight hug. She pulled away after a couple of seconds.

“I LOVE IT! I’m going to go try it on!” she said as she bolted upstairs.

A few minutes later she cam back downstairs. She noticed her father and mother grinning from ear to ear at her, while Naruto smiled at her and looked down a bit. She still noticed the blush on his cheeks despite him trying to hide it. She walked down to reveal the forest-green dress that was made in a style similar to her usual dresses. It did not come up as high on her neck, it actually had a slight v-cut. It didn’t show below the front of her collarbone, but it was still more than usual. It was short sleeved, and quite a bit thinner and tighter than her usual outfits. Secretly, this is why she liked it; she wanted something to show off her latest changes. On the back was the swirl design that was present on jounin and chuunin vests stitched in bright red. The front was intricately stitched. There was part of a sakura tree sewn out of bright silver thread that covered the right side of the dress. On the tree were cherry petals ranging from bright red to light pink. Finally, several petals were stitched coming away from the tree as if there were a gentle breeze blowing them. The final parts of the outfit were two forearm sleeves and a pair of shoes, all matching green.

“Well? How do I look?” Sakura asked.

Her father whistled a cat-call until his wife hit him on the head and spoke for him. “You look beautiful dear,” her mother said. Sakura turned her attention to Naruto. He was still looking down at the floor.

“Naruto?” Sakura asked. He finally looked up at her when his blush started to fade. “So? How do I look?”

“You… um… I mean you’re…” he stuttered. It seemed no matter what he tried to say it stayed in his throat. Sakura waited patiently. “Y-You look incredible, Sakura-chan,” he said before looking down again.

“Thank-you, Naruto-kun. I’ll wear it to dinner tonight.”

“Dinner?” Jiro asked as he raised an eyebrow. “You two have a date?” he teased.

“Daddy!” Sakura said as she blushed. After she blushed a moment she spoke again. “Naruto wants to take us ALL out to dinner tonight! He wants to do it to thank you!”

“Ooohhh. You don’t have to do that Naruto,” Jiro said as he put a hand on Naruto’s shoulder. He leaned closer to his ear before he continued talking in a near whisper. “To be honest, if you really want to thank us, take Sakura out for a while to give me and the Mrs. some alone time. We don’t have much time to ourselves these days. Would you do that for us?” Naruto nodded eagerly. “Good,” the man said as he stood back up. “Your mother and I have plans already Sakura. You and Naruto can go though. Naruto, I want you to show me something while lunch is being prepared ok?”

“Yes sir!”

Sakura went back up to her room and changed. When she came back in her usual attire, she could smell nikujaga cooking (type of stew made from potatoes, thin sliced beef or pork, onion, sugar, soy sauce, and Japanese katsuo soup stock).

“Isn’t this a bit much for lunch Mom?” Sakura asked.

“Well, this will be the last meal we have together for a while, so I wanted to make something special.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome dear. Why don’t you come give me a hand? Your father and Naruto will be out for a while.”

“Sure,” Sakura said as she entered the kitchen. “What are they doing anyway?”

“I don’t know. Your father seemed interested in that technique you said Naruto used for some reason. Maybe he wanted to see it or something.”
“Maybe. Well, what do you need me to do?”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX< br>
WITH NARUTO AND JIRO AT A TRAINING FIELD

“So Naruto, Sakura said you used a strange technique against the Kyuubi. She said it looked like a blue ball. Mind if I ask what it was?”

“Of course Jiro-san. It was the rasengan.”

“Rasengan?” Jiro said as he nearly fell down. “Where did you learn that?”

“Jiraiya-sama taught me when we went to find Tsunade-sama.”

“WHAT!” Jiro yelled in astonishment. “B-But you were only gone a few weeks!”

“I know.”

“(ahem) Well, will you show me Naruto?” Jiro asked after calming himself.

“Sure,” Naruto answered. He looked around the training area for a suitable target. He locked his eyes on a large boulder fifty feet away and held out his hand. After concentrating for a moment the blue ball of chakra took form in his palm.

“Amazing…” Jiro said.

Naruto either didn’t hear the comment or didn’t care. Without so much as a glance toward Jiro he ran toward the huge rock and thrust his palm toward it. “RASENGAN!” he yelled. The sound of cracking and exploding rock could be heard as his attack collided with its target. The boulder finally shattered into over a dozen pieces, all of which left a cleared path and trench as they were blown back.

“Wow…” was all Jiro could mutter.

“Anything else?” Naruto asked as he walked back over. His voice snapped Jiro out of his thoughts.

“No, I just wanted to see that. You’re really something Naruto.”

“Thank you, Jiro-san,” Naruto said with a grin.

“Come on kid. Let’s go see if lunch is ready.” Naruto nodded, and the two of them went on their way.

“So Naruto, what other techniques do you know?” Jiro asked as they walked toward the house.

“Well, I know all the basics they teach at the academy, plus kage bunshin, kuchiyose, and rasengan.”

“Wow. Don’t have any low-level techniques do you?”

“No sir.”

“Very impressive though. You my not have many techniques to choose from, but the ones you know are incredible for anyone; even more so for someone your age.”

“So how many techniques do you know Jiro-san?” Naruto asked.

“Hmm… not many. Thirty-something I think.”

“That’s a lot more than me.”

“Yeah, but you have to think, I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have. And there are people like Kakashi-san out there who know hundreds. I’m sure when you three come back you will know more techniques than you will ever use,” Jiro finished as he smiled at the boy.

“I hope so. I’m going to need them.”

“Why’s that Naruto? Personally, I think you’d be fine with what you know already.”

“Maybe, but Sasuke has already seen everything I have right now. I’ll need something to surprise him with to beat him.”

“Sasuke huh? So you’re still planning on going after him?”

“Yes sir. I know Sakura doesn’t seem to mind, but I promised her. I will bring him back one way or another.”

Jiro put a hand on Naruto’s shoulder. “You’re going to be a great man Naruto.”

“Thank you Jiro-san,” Naruto said with a grin.

A few minutes later they arrived at the house. “Yumi! We’re home!” Jiro called.

“We’re in here Jiro,” Yumi said from the kitchen. The two guys walked into the kitchen to see Sakura setting the table and her mother putting the finishing touches on lunch. She brought the large pot over to the table and placed it on the stand Sakura had set out for it earlier. Sakura brought over chopsticks, and four covered bowls. After lunch they shared a conversation about nothing important, and after a while Yumi said that she was going to start cleaning. Everyone else said they would help as well. She had planned for this to occupy them all until Naruto and Sakura left her and Jiro to themselves. She never realized how much less time it took to clean house when she had help… especially with 15 extra blondes running around doing various things. It made her feel odd, never knowing which one was the real Naruto.

After the cleaning was finished, they all found themselves sitting in the living room again. They were all at a loss for what to do now. It was just after four o’clock, and they had literally already cleaned the entire house top to bottom, inside and out. Jiro spoke up after a while.

“Sakura, why don’t you take Naruto to that restaurant you like in Hiroi Shimon Village? I’ll bet he would enjoy it, plus you probably won’t be able to eat there for a while.”

“Don’t you think it’s a bit early for dinner dad? We just ate lunch a little while ago.”

“Of course, but you could go on to the village and look around; or see a movie or something.”

Sakura looked over to Naruto. “What do you think?” she asked.

“Sounds fine to me,” Naruto answered.

“Ok. I’ll go change then,” Sakura said. She then turned and went up the stairs. A few minutes later she came back downstairs in the outfit Naruto had bought for her.

“You sure you two don’t want to come?” Naruto asked to Sakura’s parents.

“We’re sure Naruto. You two have fun,” Yumi said grinning at the pair.

“Yeah. You wouldn’t want old folks like us crashing your first date after all…” Jiro added.

“DADDY!” Sakura yelled at her father as she blushed and turned her head.

“DATE!” Naruto nearly yelled in panic. He didn’t want Sakura to beat him for something her father said. He was so fearful in fact, he didn’t notice Sakura’s blush.

Sakura was pulled from her embarrassment as her parents ushered them out the door. “You two have a good time. Stay out as late as you want, just remember you have to get up in the morning.”

“Yes sir,” Sakura said as she stood on her toes. She kissed her father on the cheek and whispered “Thanks Dad,” in his ear. She turned and walked off with Naruto. Her parents watched their backs grow smaller as they walked away.

“They’re cute together, aren’t they?” Yumi asked her husband.

“Yeah. They are,” he responded.

“So what are we going to do while they’re gone?” Yumi asked with a very mischievous grin.

“Heh. I don’t know. I’m sure will figure something out,” her husband responded as he put his arm around her shoulders. They looked at each other, then went back in the house.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

WITH NARUTO AND SAKURA

The two teammates were casually walking down the path that led to one of Konoha's neighboring villages. While Naruto appeared calm and collected, in all truth he was ecstatic. Was this a date? Were they just going as friends? After a while he decided it was just as friends, but that didn’t discourage him any. He didn’t go out with friends often. Hell, until a few months ago he didn’t have any friends to go out with other than his team. But of all people, he was hanging out with Sakura! She was the last person he imagined would be hanging around him. One of the guys he could understand; he could even see Hinata going with him.

They all had their own strange relationship. He and Shikamaru had begun talking more after the chuunin exams. It all started as Naruto was ranting at him for giving up. Soon after, Shikamaru made the comment that Naruto was almost as troublesome as Ino. After a few minutes of yelling at him, Naruto calmed down. The two then began talking about the women on their teams, and what they thought of them. They both agreed that even though they were both loud, violent, and bossy, they liked having the girls on their teams. Naruto liked Sakura on his team for the obvious reasons, plus he admitted that if she was not there, any hopes of conversation would be dead in the water. Shikamaru said he enjoyed Ino’s company because it kept him from having to talk much as she usually did that for the team. Also, though he would never admit it aloud, he did find her quite attractive.

Chouji and Naruto had been passing friends in the academy, and with Naruto’s friendship with Shikamaru that was enhanced. Kiba and Neji were friends with Naruto mainly because he beat the crap out of them. That gave both the boys a new found respect for Naruto. After they quit teasing him so much they started to get close as well. Lee and Naruto were friends because of the rivalry they had. After Lee found out Naruto had beaten Gaara and Neji, he made an oath not to rest until he could defeat him. It was a strange rivalry, much like Kakashi and Gai’s, except that they had more of a friendship than the two jounin. Also, even though Lee challenged Naruto to some rather odd duels, both were willing participants. From being friends with Lee and Neji it was only a matter of time before Tenten was added to his list as well. They were nowhere near as close as Naruto was with his guy friends, but their friendship had just begun after all. The same was true with Ino, though she took a much longer time to admit she was Naruto’s friend than Tenten had.

However, out of all of them it was Hinata that surprised him the most. She had been his first real friend outside of his team. After their talk on the day of the chuunin exam finals, she had gotten over a bit of her nervousness around him and began to talk more. The two had actually become quite close. She had admitted to him how she admired his strength and resolve, and how she hoped to have that herself someday. He chuckled to himself slightly as he remembered her describing him as her ‘hero’ and how she wanted to be like him. After she had gotten over her hero worship and saw him more as a normal guy, the two had become the best of friends, and shared their deepest secrets. He had even told her about the Kyuubi long before that incident happened. She had taken it surprisingly well considering how many Hyuuga were killed during Kyuubi’s rampage. He had expected her to run away and avoid him for a couple of days at least. Instead, everything was almost the same. The only difference was she was a bit quieter for the next couple of days, as if she was examining him constantly deep in thought. After two days though, everything was back to normal. The only sign anything had changed was when Hinata would make references to the fox when they were alone. He remembered the first time she teased him about it; not that he minded. It was no worse than a sister picking on her brother.

FLASHBACK
Hinata and Naruto had just finished sparring on the Team 7 training grounds. Hinata was panting heavily, while Naruto was still ready to go.

“Tired already Hinata-chan?” he teased. He knew he had a ridiculous amount of stamina when compared to anyone.

“Ye-yes” she panted. “I (pant) can’t last (pant) as long as you (pant pant… cough).”

“Well, I guess we can stop then. I’m hungry anyway.”

He didn’t notice the devilish grin that grew on her face before she hid it and spoke. “Well, I’m going to the pet store to buy something for Akamaru later. You want a fox biscuit or something?” Naruto’s jaw dropped. She got him. Sure that kind of thing was out of character for the old Hinata, but he was rubbing off on her in more ways than one. Most important of which was the fact that Hinata could beat her sister now with no trouble. If she kept this up for another 6 months or so, he was sure she would be able to give Neji a good fight. He smiled at his friend’s progress, but decided she needed to be reminded that he was the master of pranks.

“Hmph,” Naruto grunted as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Keep teasing me like that and I’ll tell Kiba you have a crush on him.”

Hinata’s eyes bulged. “Y-You wouldn’t!” she nearly yelled in panic.

“I don’t knooowww,” Naruto drawled out. “It might… slip.”

“B-But you promised!”

“Hmmm…” Naruto stroked his chin with his right hand. He walked over to Hinata and looked her in the eyes. He grinned at her and put his hand on top of her head. “And I won’t take back my words! Gotcha!” he yelled as he ruffled her hair with his hand. He put his hands over his stomach as he laughed. Hinata looked dejected and beat for a moment before life seemed to return to her.

“Oooohh Naruto…” she called to get his attention. When he looked up at her his face met a ball of mud. It was Hinata’s turn to laugh. A moment later she had a muddy face of her own, and from there it became all-out mud wrestling between the two after Hinata tackled Naruto.

END FLASHBACK
He smiled at the memory of him and his friend that day. They were both covered head to toe in mud when they were through. He let her take a shower and change at his place so she wouldn’t get in trouble for looking so un-ladylike when she got home.

Now, Sakura was taking on a friendlier role toward him as well. Of course, he wasn’t as close to her as he was to Hinata, but their relationship was just getting started as well. Besides, he didn’t look at Sakura just as a friend anyway.

“Naruto-kun?” he was drawn back to the present by Sakura’s voice.

“Yeah?”

“I asked if there were any movies out you wanted to see.”

“Oh. I dunno. We’ll watch whatever you want Sakura-chan.”

“Ok. So what were you thinking about? You really zoned out for a while there.”

“Just thinking about some friends. Then I remembered a mud fight I had with Hinata.”

“Huh? You and Hinata? I didn’t know you were close.”

“Oh yeah. I’m closer to her than I am to anyone.”

“Really? So you two are like an item?” Sakura asked.

“Item? You mean dating?” Sakura nodded. “Heh. No, we’re just really good friends. We’re not interested in each other like that. What she really wants is to be my rival one day, so she’s working really hard and I help her train sometimes.”

“That’s really nice of you Naruto-kun,” Sakura said, relieved.

She breathed a sigh of relief as they walked into the town and approached the theater. Sakura looked at everything and finally picked out a movie.

“Well, it doesn’t start till six, so that gives us a little less than an hour to kill. What do you want to do Naruto?” Sakura asked. Naruto closed his eyes and sniffed the air a few times. “What is he doing?” she thought. Part of her still wasn’t used to this new Naruto. That part thought he might have farted and was examining its odor. “Eeeewwww…”

“Do you like coffee Sakura-chan?” Naruto asked as he opened his eyes.

“Well, I like cappuccino, why?”

“Cause there’s a coffee shop near here. We could hang out there until the movie starts.”

“Ok. That sounds great,” she said with a grin. Naruto followed his nose to the coffee shop. It was actually in a bookstore, so he could peruse for something to read as well. They went into the store, and found a small number of people inside. There were only about 20 people in the store, not counting employees. The teammates walked up to the counter and ordered their coffee. Naruto also bought a cookie for each of them since he loved the things and thought it would be rude to not get Sakura one.

Before long they had their orders and were sitting at a table. Naruto took the lid off his cup to let the liquid inside cool. Sakura followed suit, then broke a piece off of the cookie Naruto had bought for her and put it in her mouth. Naruto thought it was odd as he watched her do this; he never thought someone would look graceful eating a chocolate chunk cookie, but that was the only way he could describe Sakura’s movements and actions.

They remained fairly silent the whole time. Any topic they started to discuss didn’t survive very long at all. The last ten minutes or so before they would need to be leaving, Sakura seemed to focus her attention inward. Naruto thought it would be best to just let her think about whatever it was, convincing himself she would tell him if she wanted to. She stayed deep in thought until they left the coffee shop. When they were outside Naruto started to walk slightly in front of her toward the theater.

“Naruto-kun,” Sakura said then waited on the boy to turn. When he did after a moment she kissed him on the cheek.

“Sakura-chan?” Naruto asked as he recovered from his shock. She put her arms around him and pulled him into herself.

“Naruto, I never thanked you for saving me,” she said into his ear as she squeezed tighter. He put his arms around her waist to return the gesture.

“You don’t have to thank me Sakura-chan. I wasn’t about to let Kyuubi get you.”

“Not just that. I meant every time. From the chuunin exams, to Gaara, to Tea Country, I never did really thank you. So, thank you.”

“Anytime, Sakura-chan,” Naruto answered with a grin as he pulled her closer.

“Whoa, he’s taller. What’s going on?” Sakura thought as she realized she wasn’t much taller than Naruto now. He actually seemed taller than when he woke up this morning. That’s when she remembered the Hokage’s office ‘incident’ this morning. She thought her eyes were just playing a trick on her, but it seemed Naruto had actually gotten taller.

“Come on Sakura-chan, we’ll be late,” Naruto said as he started to walk off. He stopped when he didn’t hear footsteps behind him. “Sakura-chan? Aren’t you coming?” he asked as he walked back to her. She blushed furiously as she nodded, then took hold of his hand. They both paused for a minute at the contact.

“His/her hand is so strong/soft,” they thought about each other at the same time. After they blushed together for a moment at the new experience, Sakura squeezed his hand and began to walk toward the theater. As they walked Naruto bit his tongue to be sure he wasn’t dreaming. “Sakura-chan…” he thought. “I never thought I would be holding your hand like this.” Naruto felt a sudden wave of peace and content wash over him. For the first time since it happened, he could honestly say he wasn’t thinking about what had happened in front of the hospital at all.

As they approached the theater, they noticed a fairly long line outside. She reminded Naruto which one she wanted to see, and he went off to buy the tickets.

When he came back,they entered the theater. Naruto was a bit worried about the movie Sakura had chosen. He hadn’t heard of it, so he thought it might be a ‘chick-flick.’ He hated those movies. To his surprise though, she had picked a horror movie. There weren’t many people in the theater other than the two Konoha shinobi. After the first 20 minutes of the movie, they were the only two left. Naruto had seen one man escort out a trembling woman, and another woman left holding her hand over her mouth after a particularly gruesome scene.

“Hmm, maybe I should ask Sakura if she wants to leave…” Naruto thought. The movie didn’t really bother him. After all, he had dealt face to face with a demon more than once. He decided he should probably ask her if she wanted to go.

“Hey Sakura-ch…” he was interrupted as Sakura’s eyes widened at the screen, then after a yelp she had grabbed Naruto’s arm and pulled it tightly to herself, like she was trying to hide behind it.

After Naruto took a minute to calm himself and enjoy the feeling, he tried again. “Do you want to go Sakura-chan?” he asked. She shook her head, and ended up looking into his eyes. She gave him a small smile, and relaxed her grip. He was shocked as she let out a sigh, then laid her head on his shoulder as she turned back to watching the movie. She kept one of her arms wrapped around his own, while the other – which added to Naruto’s shock – slid down his arm and met his hand. She took it in her own and nuzzled her head on his shoulder.

Naruto was in heaven. He didn’t watch the rest of the movie at all. He simply enjoyed the feeling of Sakura’s touch. For the next hour and a half he breathed in her scent, held her hand, and listened to her heartbeat. He especially loved the apparently frightening parts of the movie, as they made Sakura jump. She would grip his arm and hand tighter, then try to bury her face in his shoulder. He didn’t want the movie to end. Sadly, it did.

She led him out of the theater and into the street. “That was sooo scary…” she said as she stayed latched onto his arm. Naruto blushed a bit as he felt her breasts pressing against his arm. Luckily, it would have been hard to tell through his mask.

“So, you hungry?” his companion asked.

“Yep. Very. Where is that restaurant your dad was talking about?” Naruto asked.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. It’s pretty expensive. We can go somewhere else,” she said as she smiled at the boy. He had already spent a good bit of money on her today, since she knew how much the outfit he bought for her cost.

“Isn’t it your favorite?” Naruto asked.

“Well yes, but…”

“Then let’s go,” he said with a grin. To normal people, his grin would have gone unnoticed, but since Sakura knew both him and Kakashi so well, she could tell he was grinning from the way his mask moved, and the tone in the boy’s voice.

“You sure?” she asked.

“Yep. Lead the way.”
The two walked down the main road of the town for several minutes. Sakura was deep in thought, remembering the way to the restaurant. She had let go of Naruto’s arm, and was now simply holding his hand. As excited as this made him, there was something else that Naruto was enjoying just as much. No one was glaring at him. People would smile as the couple walked by, some would even bow. “So is this what it would be like… to be normal?” he thought. “I like it.”

“We’re here,” Sakura said as she pointed to a building. Naruto looked over the relatively small building, and saw the people standing outside waiting on their names to be called. “Well, I’ll go put our names down,” he said to Sakura.

“Ok. I’ll come with you.”

The two made their way to the door and walked inside. There were even more people in here waiting their turn. They walked up to a relatively attractive woman, who looked about twenty-five that was behind a small podium.

“Good evening. I welcome you to the Sunset Café. How many in your par…” the woman stopped as she looked up. This made Naruto very uneasy.

“Does she recognize me? Is she going to kick us out?” he wondered.

“You’re a ninja?” the hostess asked.

“Yes ma’am,” Naruto answered as he showed his head protector, “We both are.”

“Follow me please,” the woman said. This earned a bit of grumbling from the crowd.

“Hey! Why do they get to go before us?” one man said. A man in a suit came out from an office to respond.

“Because, they are ninja from Konoha. Those two may be asked to give their lives to protect this town one day, and then it would be too late to thank them now wouldn’t it? I would rather thank them while I can, and not have to regret it later,” said the man curtly. “If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to go somewhere else.” With that the grumbling stopped. Most of the people felt the same way as the man in the suit – who the regular customers recognized as the owner – did; they just didn’t notice the two were ninjas. Naruto smiled at the man’s words.

“Wow Sakura-chan, does that always happen?” Naruto asked.

“I don’t know. I always thought my parents had made reservations before.”

“Your waitress will be with you in a moment, enjoy your meals,” the hostess said. She turned and walked back to the front of the restaurant.

A few minutes later, a young slender woman of about 17 came up to their table. She introduced herself as their server, and took their orders. Naruto let Sakura order for him since she knew what was good here. After a few minutes of small talk their orders arrived, and they began eating. About halfway through her meal, Sakura stopped and looked at Naruto.

“Naruto-kun,” she began, she continued when he looked at her, “why are you so protective of me? I mean, what makes you risk yourself for me so readily?” she asked. She was pretty sure she knew already, but she wanted to see if he would admit it.

“Shit,” he thought to himself. He didn’t want to have this conversation right now. He wanted to be absolutely sure that she was over Sasuke before he ever mentioned anything like this. As he looked at her though, it was obvious she wouldn’t let him off without an answer.

“Because I care a lot about you Sakura-chan,” he said in a serious tone. He hoped that would be enough to satisfy her, while being evasive enough to keep her unsure of his feelings.

“Care about me how?” she prodded.

“Guess there’s no getting around it then,” he thought. “(sigh) You know how I feel about you Sakura-chan. Nothing has changed.”

“I see,” she responded. “Naruto-kun I…”

“Don’t worry about it Sakura-chan,” he interrupted as he looked down. He didn’t want to hear her rejections right now. He knew she was just treating him like this tonight because she was trying to cheer him up. It wasn’t wrong of him to want it to keep going a little longer was it? “I know your feelings about me haven’t changed either. So don’t worry, I won’t get the wrong idea,” he finished as he looked back up to her. She smiled at him, and then looked down at her food once more.

“So that’s what he thinks huh?” she thought.

Dinner continued in relative silence. They were through in a matter of a few more minutes. Their waitress came and took Naruto’s payment for the food, then the two left the restaurant. Naruto seemed deep in thought most of the way home; he even forgot to put his mask back on. Instead, it stayed securely in one of his chuunin vest’s pockets. Sakura let him be, deciding he needed to think some things through. It was just before ten when they arrived back at her house. Sakura opened the door to find few lights on; obviously her parents had already gone to bed. Following suit, she and Naruto walked toward their respective rooms.

“Thanks for tonight, Sakura-chan,” Naruto said as he faced the door to his room.

“You’re welcome Naruto-kun,” she said. “-kun still?” Naruto thought. She walked over behind him, and put her arms around his neck and gently placed her chin on his shoulder and pressed her cheek to his. “Did you mean it when you said your feelings about me haven’t changed?” she asked while he still faced away from her.

“Yes.”

“Even after everything I’ve done to you?”

“Yes. I never held anything against you,” he said as he turned around in her arms.

“Well, the way I feel about you…”

“I know Sakura-chan,” he interrupted. “You still love… him. It’s ok though. I can…” this time he was interrupted as Sakura pulled him tightly to herself, then after briefly looking into his eyes, kissed him firmly on the lips. She moved one of her hands from behind his neck up to the back of his head, so it mingled with his blonde hair.

Naruto didn’t know what to do. Part of him felt like fainting, while another part kept him wide awake. He had dreamed of something like this for so long, and now it was happening. Unfortunately, this wasn’t exactly how he imagined he would be reacting. He realized, he had no idea what he was supposed to do. Luckily, someone seemed to be smiling on him as his body acted on its own. His hands reached out, and snaked around her waist coming to rest on the small of her back. A few moments later, Sakura broke their kiss and laid her head on his shoulder. She turned her face toward his neck.

“Don’t assume so much Naruto,” she said. “I realized what kind of person Sasuke is… and what kind you are. I know who cares for me, and who doesn’t. I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner. If I had, you wouldn’t have had to be alone for so long. But,” she paused as she pulled him tighter, “you will never have to be again.”

Naruto couldn’t take anymore. This was all too much for him. The last few days had been the most emotionally trying time of his life. And now, to top it all off, one of his dreams seemed to be coming true. His eyes began to water, and he didn’t bother to fight it. He let his tears fall, and silently land on Sakura’s neck. When she noticed, she pulled back to look at him. She placed one of her hands on each of his cheeks, and softly wiped his tears away with her thumbs.
When his face was dry she smiled at him. “Not exactly the response I was expecting. Is it that bad to know I care for you?”
He smiled back. It wasn’t his usual smile either. It was one Sakura had never seen before, it was sincere, and very warm as he spoke. “No, it’s more wonderful than I had imagined. But, it was surprising. Especially…” instead of speaking he brought a hand to his lips, as if looking for evidence she had actually kissed him.

“Yeah well, if I’ve learned anything these last couple of days,” she said as she pulled his hand away from his lips, “it’s that life is too short to put off letting people know how you feel.” As she finished she pressed her lips to his once again. Naruto was more prepared this time, so he readily accepted her affection.

After a short time, their contact broke again. Sakura reached behind Naruto and opened his door. The two walked into the room and sat on his bed. He propped his back up on the wall, and Sakura sat in front of him between his legs (don’t get any dirty thoughts you perverts). His arms were around her waist, and her hands were on top of his and interlocked with his fingers.

“You know, before he left I told Sasuke that I loved him,” Sakura said in a low, depressed tone. Naruto just listened and tightened his grip. “I was so stupid. I had a crush on him because he was good-looking and mysterious, but I thought what I felt was love. I never knew what love was, until recently. I knew what love was when I saw you fighting Kyuubi. Love is caring so much for someone that you would sacrifice anything for them, even if they aren’t grateful. I always thought you just had a crush on me. I was wrong wasn’t I? You really love me don’t you?” she asked. She felt his grip tighten around her as he gave his simple reply.

“Yes; more than anything.”

“I thought so. You know, when you came back so hurt, I would have traded places with you in a second. I didn’t want you hurting like that. It was the same way when you were fighting Kyuubi. I would have done anything to take your pain away or help you. You were fighting so hard for me. Then last night, when I heard you crying… I didn’t know what to do. It was like someone was pulling on my heart. I knew no matter what it took I never wanted you to be sad again. That’s when I realized,” she turned her side to him so she could face him. After a moment of being lost in his eyes, she turned her upper body more and leaned onto him. Her arms went around his chest as she laid herself against his upper body. “That’s when I realized, that I was falling in love with you.” She smiled as she looked back up to him. “It’s amazing how near-death experiences can change your outlook on things huh?” He smiled at her and she put her head back down on his chest.

After a few minutes of bewilderment, Naruto spoke. “A-Are you sure?”

“Mm-hmm,” she responded without looking up.

“So is that why you wanted to go with me?”

“Yep. I wasn’t about to let you go right after I figured out how I felt about you. Speaking of leaving though, we have to get up in the morning. We should get some sleep.” Naruto nodded, and – very reluctantly – let her go. She gave him a quick kiss, and left his room. After he put on the pajamas he had bought that day, he fell back onto his bed and put his hands behind his head.

“So she loves me,” he thought as he smiled to himself. “And tomorrow we’re leaving the village together. Do her parents know how she feels? How would they take it? ”

He was drawn from his thoughts as he heard his door open. He looked to see Sakura there, as she stepped through the door and closed it behind her. With few signs of hesitation she made her way over to Naruto’s bed and laid down beside him. He didn’t move as she turned her body toward him and draped one of her arms over his chest as she rested her head on his shoulder.

“Sakura-chan? What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I told you I wasn’t about to let you go. So, here I am.”

“But… won’t your parents get upset?”

“They weren’t this morning were they?” she replied.

“Well, no, but that was an accident.”

“Don’t worry about it Naruto-kun,” she said as she nuzzled closer to him. “My parents trust me, they trust you, and they’re very… laid back I guess would be the best way to put it.”

“Laid back?”

“Yeah. How many parents do you know that would let their kids go out on unsupervised dates when they’re our age? Or let a guy sleep across the hall from their teenage daughter? Or go to bed and leave the two of them up unsupervised?”

“Well…”

“Exa ctly, so don’t worry about it. As long as I’m polite and don’t make them grandparents before I’m married then they’re fine.” This comment made Naruto blush several different shades for several different reasons.

“Well, ok then,” he smiled. “As long as they don’t mind, I’m definitely not going to complain.” He moved one of his hands from behind his head and put it around the girl’s shoulders. She tilted her head up and kissed him softly.

“I love you Naruto-kun,” she said looking into his eyes. His hold on her tightened.

“I love you too, Sakura-chan. Goodnight.” She nodded, and laid her head back down on his chest. She let out a sigh that was a mix between relaxed and pleasured, then began to drift off to sleep. Naruto smiled to himself as he watched the sleeping form of the girl beside him, and felt the warm feeling inside him grow. A few moments later, he followed her to sleep.

==============================================
We ll that was long.

You bet!

Now you sound like the kit.

COOL!