(Narusaku) After the war Naruto feels bound to travel with Sasuke, helping him heal, helping him come back to the village. Five years pass before the two set foot in The Village hidden in the leaves again, and what they find isn't exactly what they expected. Kakashi back in full ANBU, and a name carved into the memorial, a name they never dreamed would be there. Ages in the fic. Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke are all 21. Kakashi is 36. And Tsunade? Just old. Old old old. A/n update as of 9-7-16: alright let me clear this up. I personally find the god level status of of Naruto and Sasuke frankly ridiculous. So yes. In this story I've knocked them down to believe able levels. So by tsuandes giant left flopping titty, stop here if you can't handle the boys at a reasonable strength and a strong sakura. I appreciate all feedback but the negativity and unwillingness to accept the changes I've made to cannon are aggravating. One last time. Sakura= strong. Naruto and Sasuke= still strong but not gods. Bless.
Update as of 02/04/2017: I'm doing a massive rewrite on this and so if anyone actually still follows this mess I'm so sorry for the random alerts. (There will be a shiny new chapter for the bother though.)
(Chapter one)
"It's changed." The words fell slowly, haltingly, past lips that never spoke without reason, past the lips of an avenger, even before the final syllable was swept away by the wind the dark haired Uchiha was turning to his best friend. Naruto simply tilted his head and squinted down at the village below. Five years. It had been five years since they had submitted their requests to travel as the Sannin had done. Five years since Sasuke's name had been cleared and they had put the village to their backs. Five years since Sakura had bid them goodbye with a smile and tears in her eyes. Tears that had never fallen.
"The people too, I wonder what's happened." Finally Naruto turned back to his dark eyed best friend and smiled with an enthusiasm that only Naruto could muster. "We better report in, if Baa-chan finds out we were wandering the village we'll be picking pieces of her sandal out of our asses for weeks."
"Hn." Was the only answer Sasuke gave, but they disappeared in twin clouds of smoke.
"Tsunade-sama! Tsunade-sama, there are people here to see you!" Tsunade picked her head slowly off of her desk, a report sticking to her cheek and a hangover sticking to her head. Blearily regarding her assistant she waved her hand impatiently.
"Shizune how many times do I need to say it, no shouting before ten, and no shrieking until at least noon. Who ever it is can wait, I've got paperwork piled up to my nose," Tsunade finally noticed the report on her face and peeled it away with a grimace. Fantastic, the villages income report from last month stuck to my face, why oh why did I agree to this job.
"Tsunade-sama, I think you really need to see these two," Shizune knew she was pressing her luck, but as usual she had to keep pressing it. At a glare from the Hokage, and a slight nod, the assistant spun and opened the door with a significantly strained smile. "Please, come in, so sorry for the wait."
Staring off into space, the fifth let her sake soaked mind roll over potential punishments for whoever felt the need to interrupt her hangover. Ibiki probably wasn't busy and he had a flair for the sick and unusual punishments. After all, anyone in the village knew better than to bother the Hokage today, of all days. She had been at her desk only half an hour earlier, her morning spent in front of the memorial staring at a name. Staring one name she had never expected to see in her lifetime. A name that had been engraved on this same day years ago.
"Baa-chan! Did you miss me?!" At the sound of a familiar, deeper, but painfully familiar voice her eyes snapped back into focus. I don't fucking believe it. Her hands tensed on the desk, taking in the sight before her. Naruto and Sasuke, back in the village, in her office, like nothing had changed. They were both taller, muscles defined and sharp, stances relaxed. Naruto was still wearing that God awful shade of orange his life seemed to revolve around, but his hair had grown longer, looking more and more like his father's, but his blue eyes still held the boyish enthusiasm and hope. The Uchiha had completely changed his look from the war, the open white shirt gone in favor of a black long sleeve under a blue shirt, and traditional black shinobi pants over his long legs. The sight of them, standing there, whole and complete, no worse for the wear sent the fifth's already shaken control completely off the handle. She upended her desk, reports flying around her in a maelstrom of paper, and proceeded to fling it at the two of them before leaping out of the window, through the glass and all.
Shizune sighed, and leaned against the wall. The two halves of the desk crashed to the floor, split by Sasukes ever present katana. While the last Uchiha had been fast enough to intercept the desk, Naruto simply stood there, stunned. In the awkward beats that followed, his blue gaze turned to rest on the one person in the room that could possibly hold an answer for that- whatever in the hell that had been- only to find Shizune standing at the broken window.
"Naruto, Sasuke, as good as it is to have you back, your timing is utterly terrible. I'll go speak to her, come back tonight, and you'll an explanation for this." Without another word, the Hokage's closest friend and assistant lept through the broken window after her mentor.
"Teme, I have a bad feeling," Naruto's previously jubilant manner had disappeared, and a world-weary frown was tracing across his face. Sasuke only nodded, briefly placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Probably indigestion dobe, come on, let's go see the village." The two friends turned, and Sasuke's teasing words aside, doubt and worry nagged at both of their minds.
Atop the Hokage monument, the fifth hokage was laying in abject misery on her own head. She knew that the two boys-men-children, would need to be confronted, but the sheer audacity of their return on this day… It was too much. Her mind buzzed as she drained her second bottle of sake, and part of her inebriated brain focused on the issue of what Naruto and Sasuke truly were. They were old enough to be men, but their decisions and actions had been those of children. A small amused smirk hit the older womans lips as she turned her face towards the village, and thought of the one person who would know exactly what to call them. Her pink haired apprentice, daughter in all ways but on paper. Tsunade sighed as she watched the two remaining members of Team 7 leave her office and head into the village.
"Tsunade-sama, I've cleared your schedule for the rest of the day, except for one small thing," Shizune sat down next to her mentors sprawled form. Tsunade's warm honey eyes flicked to Shizune's face in surprise. Her assistant never let Tsunade shrink her duties like this. Shizune's expression was full of compassion and understanding, and she held up a bottle of sake with a smile. "Your one duty for the day is to get utterly trashed with me."
Tsunade smiled back at her, "I accept that."
"Shika, I really don't know what you're doing, he's only two, I think it's a bit earlier for Shogi," Ino Yamanaka stood behind her husband, smiling down as he patiently reset the pieces their two year old son, Asuma, had once again knocked flying. It had taken the two less than a year after Naruto and Sasuke had left to find each other. Ino had given up on chasing the avenger, and Shikamaru had accepted that Ino was the type of troublesome he could live with. Ino had been lost in her budding romance, and hadn't noticed her best friend and rival, Sakura, steadily becoming more and more absent from the village. A fact the blond now deeply regretted.
"I just want to make sure he inherited my brains and not yours," the lazy genius turned and smiled at his wife, making sure she didn't take his words seriously, one because he didn't mean them, and two because his wife had a wicked left hook. Ino opened her mouth to reply when a slight sound behind her made her turn. The vase in her hands dropped to the floor in a shattering of clay. Asuma grumbled at the crash, but used to his rather loud mother he didn't even look up. His father on the other hand was up on his feet in a show of speed that undermined the claims of "lazy". His shadow was halfway across the floor before the two men in front of him registered. Dropping his jutsu he just sighed.
"Teme, I'm starting to think that people aren't too happy to see us, they keep breaking things."
"Hn. Maybe it's just you dobe."
Shikamaru's quick eyes took them in, from the mile wide smile on Naruto's face, to the slight smirk on Sasuke's. They don't know. Troublesome. Even as the thought passed through his mind, he was keeping an eye on Ino. She was trembling. Shaking with rage.
"You. Two. Assholes. Get out of my sight before I send you straight to hell where you belong," The woman already had a kunai in each hand and was advancing forward with pure murder in her eyes. Ino's tirade was cut off by Shika smoothly grabbing her around the waist and whispering in her ear.
"I'll handle it, take Asuma by my mother's, she misses him." Once he was sure that his wife was going to do as he asked for once, instead of raining blows on the collective heads of Naruto and Sasuke, he dropped his hands, shoving them in his pockets. Ino bent down and lifted Asuma into her arms, asking him if he was ready to go see baa-chan. She left the shop in a whirl of blonde hair and blue eyed glares, but she didn't say anything else to the two friends.
"Shikamaru, what the hell is going on, Baa-chan threw her desk at us, and Ino just tried to pummel us and told us to go to hell, what happened?" As always Naruto's words came out at a rapid pace. Sasuke's black gaze was pinning Shikamaru to the wall behind him. "And where is Sakura-chan, she wasn't at the hospital when we looked. And the nurse said she didn't even work there anymore. Hell the first one didn't even know who Sakura Haruno was."
If he could throw kunai like he throws words, the world would never survive. But, they are suspicious, they know something's up, but they haven't figured it out. The Nara genius simply shrugged. "I'll show you." With both his hands in his pockets he ambled out of the shop, not checking if they were following or not.
Sasuke tsk-ed, slightly annoyed at the reception he and Naruto had been receiving. Of course he felt that he deserved it, but Naruto? No, not him. Sasuke knew that his return would be less than welcome, after defecting, showing up at the end of the war, and taking Naruto out of the village, he wasn't popular right now. Even with the full pardon that had been granted him for his assistance in the war, the people of Konoha were sure to be anything but warm. But Naruto had become the villages hero, something terrible must have happened to cause this kind of hostility. The two of them had been the subject of many stares, most of them full of pity, many angry, and a scant few seemed happy. Following Shikamaru, he once again gently grabbed Naruto by the shoulder and pulled him along.
Wind lashed through the trees, sending leaves flying through the air and giving new meaning to the name, Konohagakure. Near training ground three, there stands a stone. On this stone, engraved with painstaking care, are the names of each shinobi that has died for their village.
Sasuke and Naruto followed their former classmate, each step closer bringing further confusion and fear into their minds. With the stone in sight, they knew a name would be there, a name that belonged to someone they knew. At the base of the memorial Shikamaru turned to the two, and dropped his lazy air. His eyes sharpened, his features becoming drawn and taunt, and adopting a manner that he only held on a battle ground. Both of the men in front of him reacted to it, spines straightening automatically.
"This is all I can do, we are all expressly forbidden from telling you two anything about the past five years, by the Hokage herself. However, she never said we couldn't show you a clue," here the Nara's eyes pinned each man's stare, holding it until he was sure the message had been received, "I'm sorry for this. But I am glad you are back. So is everyone else, you just need to give them time. This is a bad day." With that, his hands formed a quick seal and he was gone in a plume of smoke.
For a few minutes, all the two friends could do was stand, far enough back that the names on the stone were just harsh lines. The pit of dread that had opened in the their stomachs in the Hokage's office, widened by the encounter at the flower shop, had become a great canyon. The bottom of which was too black to tell if it ever ended. They didn't know who, but all they knew was that someone close to them, someone very dear to their hearts had given Konoha their all. Someone they were supposed to protect, one of their comrades had died, and they both felt that it was in someway their fault. If they hadn't left, if they hadn't been so damn selfish, and taken a five year hiatus, if they had just stayed, then maybe that name would still be a person, not a memory. They both immediately suspected Kakashi, before remembering catching a glimpse of him reading on a rooftop on their way to see Tsunade. Both of their minds churning, they glanced at each other.
The wind whipped higher, the leaves swirling faster, when they moved forward, in perfect sync with out a word to communicate their intention. As the writing on the stone became clearer, names began to leap out. Names from the past. Uchiha Obito. Hyuuga Neji. As their eyes, frantic now in the search went lower and lower, their world came to a crashing halt.
The wind died down as a single cherry blossom fell to rest on the stone surrounding the memorial. Naruto's blue eyes closed slowly, silent tears already marking his cheeks. Sasuke's sharingan activated subconsciously, looking for the lie, for the genjutsu, looking for something other than the truth. As Naruto's tortured howl reached the heavens, Sasuke's eyes faded back to black, and he fell to his knees. The one person who had always believed in him, the one person who he could count on most, was the person that he had let down for the last time. Sasuke's hand shakily reached out and traced the letters forming a name as familiar as his own.
Haruno Sakura.