Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Little Things In Life ❯ Return and Recognition ( Chapter 9 )

Yo suckas! What up in da hood? Okay, I'm really white, but can you blame me? (NOTE: if you answered yes to that question, turn of you computer now, find someplace really high up, and jump off.) right, next chapter… *dusts off disclaimer*

 

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto. If I did, they would use the word `shenanigans' a helluva lot more.

 

 

“I do hope you know what this means, Forehead.” Ino raised her eyebrows mischievously.

 

“Yeah Ino-pig, I know.” Sakura heaved a sigh, knowing that she had been defeated. “When Naruto gets back…I'll ask him on a date.” The blond Kunoichi nodded with approval, smugness oozing from her every pore.

 

“How's Sasuke gonna take this?” Sakura waved off the question, not at all worried about damaging Sasuke's seemingly non-existent feelings.

 

“I have the feeling he isn't going to mind, I mean, I haven't even seen him in like a week.” Sakura almost laughed. If she had the ability to go back in time and tell herself that she would be asked out with Sasuke, and after a little over 2 weeks, become completely fed up with him, that past her would almost certainly punch her in the face. And then there was the matter of going on a date with Naruto. Now THAT, her past self would have flat out laughed at, right before reporting her to ANBU as an insane person.

 

Why did she have the sudden urge to punch herself from 2 weeks ago? It just seemed to her that 2-weeks-ago Sakura seemed so…young, never looking beyond the appearance of anyone, especially Naruto. He really was just a nice, caring guy, wasn't he?

 

Yeah, nice, caring, and HOT… Wait, what? Where did that come from? She didn't really think Naruto was hot. Sure, he was muscular, tanned, and those eyes…

 

Oh god…Naruto was hot! Sakura shook her head furiously, trying to clear the rather suggestive images from her head. She couldn't like Naruto, could she? Physical attraction is different than actually liking someone, wasn't it? Wait, so now she was admitting that she found him physically attractive?! Just a second ago she was convinced that she liked him as a friend! Then again, it wouldn't be completely out of the question to-

 

“Yo, Forehead, you still there?” Sakura jumped, realizing that she was still in Ino's flower shop. Sakura laughed, embarrassed that she had been zoning for over two minutes.

 

“Yeah, sorry about that. See you Ino; I'm going to go for a walk.” Sakura hastily left the shop, hoping Ino hadn't seen her blush. As she left, she made a mental note to stay away from the flower shop whenever possible. Lately, it had been giving her a lot of headaches.

 

Sakura trudged down the street, trying to sort out her brain. Currently she was at a tie; half of her psyche insisted that she only liked Naruto as a friend, while the other half screamed that she liked him like the other side of the pillow. Why was this so hard!?! Why why WHY!!! No, seriously, why was this so hard to walk down the street?

 

“Um…hey, Sakura.” Rocketing back towards reality, the pink haired Kunoichi noticed that she was walking face first into Shikamaru. She quickly backed off, giving her and her roadblock some breathing space.

 

“Oh! Sorry about that Shikamaru, I was just concentrating on something and-”

 

“Hey you and Ino are friends now, right?” Sakura's temper flared at Shikamaru's interruption mid-apology, but the boy's strong suit had never been manners. She nodded, not trusting her tone to come out as anything but aggravated at the moment. Shikamaru shifted his gaze towards the clouds that he admired so much. “Then maybe you can help me out, what do I get a girl who works at a flower shop? So troublesome…” Sakura set her annoyance at the lazy genius on hold while she thought of some good advice. He did have a valid point, after all. What do you get a girl who works at a flower shop?

 

“Well,” the pink haired Kunoichi began, “you could always get her chocolates, but those kind of go with flowers. What about one of those chocolate flowers they sell down at the candy shop?” Shikamaru's face scrunched up as he thought about the suggestion, quickly followed by him returning his eyes to the girl in front of him.

 

“Alright, I think that'll do. Now, what's wrong with you? You look like hell.” Alright, anger is back off the sidelines, and heading full speed to Sakura's attention.

 

“EXCUSE YOU?!?” Sakura bellowed, getting ready to send Shikamaru to meet his precious clouds. Shikamaru shrugged, seemingly unafraid.

 

“Is it about Naruto?” Sakura's anger fizzled out of existence, draining her of her motivation to send Shikamaru into the wild blue yonder. The lazy ninja sighed, placing his hands behind his head. “I know how you feel. Hell, even I've started to miss the guy…how troublesome.”

 

“Yeah…troublesome…” Sakura said airily, not meeting Shikamaru's gaze, but instead opting to survey the ground. The two stood there in silence, a slight breeze blowing through their hair and kicking up the few stray leaves on the ground. Deciding that there was no point in just moping around in front of Shikamaru, Sakura began to excuse herself. “Well, I have to get back home, I-”

 

“Listen, I'm not good at this, so don't expect this more than once.” Shikamaru cut her off the second time today, walking towards her slowly and finally coming to a stop right in front of her. “Naruto…he'll come back. He cares about this village, about being Hokage.” Patting her gently on the shoulder, the lazy ninja gave her a slight smile. “And he cares about you, too.” After letting his final words linger in the evening air, Shikamaru turned and began his walk towards the candy shop. As she watched him leave, Sakura had the urge to say something to Shikamaru; whether it was a thank-you for the advice, or a death threat for saying she looked like hell, she wasn't sure. Despite her urge, Sakura decided to hold off; figuring that saying nothing would even out her emotions at the moment. Looking at her watch, Sakura noticed exactly how late it had gotten.

 

“Crap!” the pink-haired Kunoichi cursed to herself, “I forgot I had to return that summoning scroll to Tsunade-Sensei!” knowing first hand what happened when you annoyed Tsunade, Sakura sprinted full tilt towards the Hokage Tower, leaving a dust trail in her wake.

 

By the time she had gotten to the tower, Sakura was completely out of breath. Clumsily opening the large door, Sakura trudged up the flight of red-carpeted stairs, ambled down the winding hallway, finally coming to the door to the Hokage's office. Shizune sat behind her desk, completely unaware of Sakura's presence, until she was already turning the doorknob. Her head whipping around to the door, Shizune attempted to stop Sakura.

 

“Wait, Sakura! Don't-”

 

“OH MY GOD!!! THAT…YOU…IS THAT EVEN LEAGAL?!?” Unfortunately for her, Sakura had just bared witness to two of the Legendary Sanin doing things that could very well be illegal in Amsterdam, and just as easily blinded a weaker soul. Sakura quickly shut the door and shot Shizune a Stink-eye worthy of Sasuke. Shizune sweat-dropped, laughing nervously.

 

“heh heh, I tried to warn you…”

 

<!!@!!>

 

“Well, I'd say that I finally got the hang of it, huh Gaara?” Naruto laughed as he floated on his platform of sand. Gaara watched from the ground, a smile again finding it's way to his face. It was amazing how much he smiled when Naruto was around.

 

“I have to admit, I'm impressed with you, Uzumaki. Learning 5 sand jutsu in a matter of days is pretty astounding.” The leaf ninja floated back to the ground, his platform dissolving into the ground.

 

“Thanks Gaara! Hey, I know how we can celebrate!” The Kazekage sighed, knowing that this would no doubt lead to yet another ramen excursion. 8 trips to a ramen stand within 2 days was becoming daunting.

 

“Fine Naruto, one more ramen trip. But if it's alright with you, I think I'm going to get some rice balls from across the street.” Naruto nodded enthusiastically before rocketing himself towards town, ready to engulf the first ramen stand his found.

 

Once the two had found a ramen stand that hadn't been depleted of all its inventory, they quickly ordered their food. Gaara quickly unwrapped his rice balls, popping one of them into his mouth.

 

“Uzumaki,” he said through mouthfuls of food, “I don't think I'll ever eat ramen again because of you.” Naruto just laughed as he finished his second bowl.

 

“That's okay, Gaara.” He smiled while ordering another bowl, “That just means there's more for me!” the two ate in silence for awhile, just long enough for Naruto to finish his third bowl. As he placed the bowl to his side, the blonde looked to his companion.

 

“Gaara, I just wanted to say thanks for letting me stay here and teaching me all those cool jutsu.” Gaara looked up from his rice balls, picking a stray piece of rice off his face.

 

“You're returning home soon?” Naruto leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.

 

“Yeah, probably sometime tomorrow. It's like you said, I've got to fight for what's important to me, and I can't do that here.” Naruto flashed Gaara a grin. “Besides, Konoha probably needs it's future Hokage back!” Gaara smiled to himself. If it was his choice, he would have made the knucklehead Hokage before he was Kazekage. Fishing around in his pocket for a minute, Gaara's hand finally emerged victorious, prize in hand.

 

“Here Uzumaki, consider my contribution to your fight.” Naruto took the small, black box from Gaara, slowly opening the lid. Once he had removed it, his eyes went wide with wonderment.

 

“Jeez…” in the box was a fine pink diamond attached to a small gold chain.

 

“Pink diamonds are hard to come by, even here.” The sand ninja explained. “Here, it's said that when one is given to someone, that both people will spend the rest of their lives together.” Naruto sat, still looking at the amazing gift he had just been given. Suddenly, his face scrunched up, as if he had seen something gross.

 

“Wait, does that men we have to spend the rest of our lives together?” Gaara chucked one of his rice balls at his friend.

 

“Don't be an idiot, I was trying to do something nice for you.”

 

“I know, I was just kidding.” Naruto laughed as he placed the lid back on the box, then pocketed it. “Thanks a lot, Gaara.” The Kazekage crumpled up his wrapper and threw it into the trash across the room, then rose from the table.

 

“Please, don't worry about it. Now, lets get back to the tower, you'll need to be rested up for your journey home. Naruto nodded his head before rising from his own chair.

 

“Yeah, my journey home... to Sakura.”

 

 

#$#$#$#$

 

Sakura had finally recuperated from her near-death experience, and Tsunade and Jiraiya had finally made themselves decent for public. Cautiously entering the room, Sakura plopped the scroll onto the Hokage's desk.

 

“You're perverts, the both of you.” she growled as she took a seat on an available armchair. Tsunade gave her student a coy smile as she assumed her seat behind her desk.

 

“Sakura, Jiraiya-kun and I are grown-ups; we can be perverted from time to time.” The Kunoichi shuddered, the horrid memories from only minutes ago still plaguing her mind. “Now, is there anything else you wanted, because we really weren't finished.” Jiraiya chuckled lecherously from the side of the room. As much as Sakura wanted to leave that desecrated office, and believe me, she really wanted to, one thing stopped her.

 

“Tsunade, have we gotten any news where Naruto is?” Jiraiya walked over from his corner and placed a hand on the desk.

 

“Not yet Sakura, we haven't been able to find Naruto yet. ANBU's searched all of Konoha's surrounding villages, and found nothing. That means he must have traveled a very large distance in a short amount of time.” Seeing her worried expression, Tsunade placed a comforting hand on her arm.

 

“Don't worry Sakura; I'm sure that he's fine. In fact, when he returns, I'll be leaving him under your surveillance, just to make sure he stays put.” Sakura gave her sensei a smile, glad for the comforting words.

 

“Thanks you guys, I feel better now.” As she made her way to the door, she abruptly turned and pointed a finger accusingly at the two. “NOW STOP BEING PERVERTED!!!” Sakura stepped out of the room, intent on washing her hands. Scratch that, a full on shower was in order.

 

^****^

 

Naruto stood at the Gates of the sand village, Gaara, Kankuro, Temari and Higiru there to see him off.

 

“Well, thanks you guys! Don't forget to come and visit us in Konoha!” Higiru smiled at the boy.

 

“You don't be a stranger here, either, Naruto.” The leaf ninja nodded before turning his attention to Gaara.

 

“Thanks again Gaara, for the Justus, the ramen, everything!” Gaara just winked at him, letting the faintest of smiles surface. After one final wave, Naruto was off into the desert, the sun just beginning to set across the barren dunes. Once he was but a speck on the horizon, Kankuro looked towards the sunset.

 

“Well, That kid sure is something, Huh?”

 

“Yes, he surely is.” Higiru agreed, his smile still present on his face. Temari, turned to her brother, arms folded.

 

“Gaara, you didn't happen to just give away sand village jutsu to an outsider, did you?” The Kazekage shook his head.

 

“No, I got some jutsu in return.” Kankuro crocked and eyebrow.

 

“Yeah, like what? Show us one!”

 

“Well, I suppose…” after forming a few hand seals, Gaara disappeared behind a screen of smoke. Once it finally cleared, the other 3 sand ninja weren't met with the Kazekage, but instead with a very beautiful, very naked red-haired girl. “I believe he called this the `sexy jutsu'.” Temari's face grew red in both embarrassment and anger. She threw her fists into the air.

 

“God dammit, NARUTOOOO!”

 

 

 

viola! Another chapter finished. The longest one yet! Alright, now review, you no good communists! (just kidding, unless of course you are a communist).