A few years earlier "We got him!" Naruto exclaimed to the pink haired medical nin by his side.
"Now , what do we do?" She asked quietly, even though the boy they captured was knocked out.
"We have to take him back to Lady Tsunade I guess.." came the terse reply. After taking several minutes to get him back to the city, and the several ANBU who had to cuff him; they final made their way to the Hokage's dorm.
"Naruto..?" Tsunade asked inquiringly. Her eyes grew wide when she saw the ANBU enter after him, dragging in the limp form of the last Uchiha. There was sheer pandomonium as people whispered amongst themselves. Finally, Naruto quieted everyone down to ask Hokage a question. "What do we do now?"
Uchiha Sasuke glared at the overactive blond boy walking ahead of him. From the looks of everyone around him, he might as well have had a leash around his neck. He absolutely hated this!
"C'mon Sasuke!" Naruto whined. "We better hurry or I'm gonna miss the ramen special!"
Sasuke sighed heavily. It's been like this ever since he returned. The rules of his new life were this:one, he could not become higher than a chuunin, and two, must report to the Hokage every week.
They tried to hide it from him, but he knew he was being watched all the time, by Mr. Spaz himself. They didn't tell him this because they knew it would hurt his Uchiha pride but he knew Naruto had to pull many a string to make sure he didn't get put to death; and knew that if he screwed up royally, Naruto would also be punished, so he tried his best not to mess up.
But he didn't tell anybody this, of course.
"Hurry Sasuke!" Naruto yelled as they entered the ramen shop. Sasuke sat parallel to the blonde and couldn't hide his smirk. The boy, no man, was almost 17 and still acted like a child.
"What are you smiling at Teme?" Naruto asked with a string of ramen hanging from his mouth. Sasuke cringed.
"You, baka."
In the next instant, they were fighting on top of the table. Naruto had his hand on Sasuke's throat and Sasuke his elbow in Naruto's stomach when a soft feminine voice was heard from stopped abruptly.
"Sakura-chan...?" He asked hesitantly, noodle still hanging from his mouth.
"You have something on your face Dobe." Sasuke said before Naruto could race off in hot pursuit.
"Oh, thanks Sasuke." Naruto said, grasping a piece of Sasuke's vest and wiping his mouth on it; before Sasuke could blow up at him, Naruto was gone.
"Sakura-chan!! Ooh!Ooh!Over here!" Sakura rolled her eyes before turning to see the blonde mess run after her.
"What do you want!" She snapped, hoping he would get it. He didn't.
"I was just wondering, if you would like to... maybe..." Naruto's face flushed. "Go on a date with me...sometime." Sakura grimaced, but perked up seeing Sasuke headed towards them. "Well, maybe all three of us can go!" She said with a smile. "Here, let me get your phone..."
Suddenly Sakura's smile faded as she searched around for it. "That's odd. I had it right here!" She muttered. Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other when Sakura started to cry. "Oh no! My phone! I think I dropped it on my way to the sand village!"
Naruto grinned. "Don't worry, I'll get it for you." Sakura's eyes widened as she ran towards him. Naruto outstretched his arms to recieve her,only to have her sidestep him and try to grab predetermined that move, and moved to the left as he stuck his foot out so she fell face first to where he was standing.
"Oh no I tripped!" She exclaimed, pushing away Naruto's offered hand to help her up.
"Well" She stated from the ground. "I can't go on a date with you until I get my phone Naruto." He grinned.
"I'll get it. Believe it!" With that he turned and headed for the gates of Konoha.
"Alright." Tsunade stated, standing at the gate with the two men. "Go before Sakura annoys me since she can't call Ino."
Sasuke nodded and began walking out of Konoha for the first time since his capture. Tsunade grabbed Naruto's hand. "Watch him." Naruto nooded as they headed out
Sasuke walked alongside Naruto, amused at his happy-go-lucky attitude. "You know Naruto, I doubt you'll find it." Naruto glanced at him.
"Why do you say that?" Sasuke shrugged.
"Well, I'm just saying...besides, you're not manly enough for Sakura."
"What did you say?" Naruto stopped to glare.
"I said, you're not man enough" he said, eyes laughing as he glanced back. "Okay, I have an idea. The first one that gets Sakura's cell phone gets the date with her." Naruto glared harder.
"You're on".
With that both shinobi took off into the trees. While Sasuke was running, a rock mysteriously came out of nowhere and hit him in the head. "What the...?" Sasuke growled than yelled. "Damn Baka!"
Naruto grinned at himself for his sneak attack on the Uchiha. 'Hahahaha. How's that for manly?' Naruto stopped in the trees to take out his cell phone and dial Sakura's number. "Damn!" He muttered. Before he could get down however, Sasuke came up and punched him in the ribs.
"That's for the rock!" Naruto growled low and punched back, which Sasuke dodged but fell off the tree when Naruto sneakily managed to trip him. Grabbing his momentem, he opened his eyes to see Naruto jumping straight down, aiming for his chest with his body. Sasuke waited until he was close to roll to the side, causing Naruto to punch hard dirt.
"Oww! Oww!! Stupid mother fu..." Naruto mumbled as he pulled up his injured hand to find Sasuke gone. Slowly backing up into the trees, he saw the Uchiha scanning his surroundings; fortunatly his sharingan wasn't on. 'Hahahahaha'
Sasuke stood and scanned, unable to trace Uzamaki anywhere. 'Where the...' He thought, just as a familiar voice hit him.
"A thousand years of pain!" Naruto yelled; his pointer fingers in position and an evil gleam in his sparkling blue eyes. 'What the hell is that' was Sasuke's last thought before he found out.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed, leaping up almost a mile as Naruto laughed behind him.
By the time Naruto caught up to Sasuke, he was grabbing his butt and was heaving. "Are you ok?" Naruto asked with a smirk, before offering Sasuke water. Sasuke glared at the offending shinobi and pushed the water away.
They both sat down to take a breather; and to not have to bear the torture of walking. "Hahaha. I got you good." Naruto laughed while pulling out his phone. Black obsidian eyes watched him.
"What do you find so appealing in Sakura?" Sasuke asked.
"What don't i like about her? She's smart, has class, hot body... she's great!" Sasuke turned away as he saw Naruto type in her number. The man was so clueless sometimes!
Pressing the call button, Naruto turned his head to talk to Sasuke. He saw the man's head turned and pondered why he looked so out of it. "Sasuke..." Naruto began; and was stunned into silence when he saw the weird, mixed look Sasuke was sending him. They sat there and looked at each toher for a few moments, before they heard the soft ding of a response from Sakura's phone.
"Better go get that..." Naruto said, before quietly getting up.
TBC