Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters used in this fanfiction and the series 'Naruto' belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. This fanfiction is written purely for entertainments sake and is not used in any commercial purposes.
There was a huge difference between the Uzumaki Naruto from years ago and the Uzumaki Naruto that returned to Konohagakure no Sato after the years of training with the legendary sannin.
If asked what were the differences between the Naruto of back then and now, ninja's would claim that Uzumaki Naruto had become one of the strongest (trickiest) and most troublesome enemy to face on the battlefield with his insane stamina and large resource of chakra. Other than that, he would also be a number one choice for a comrade in arms due to his exuberant spirit and the quick breaths you could catch in battle when he spammed thousand and thousands of shadowclones upon the unfortunate enemies, leaving them to drown in pools of orange ("A trademark of his ..." a nostalgic Kakashi recollects).
Previously no ninja, except for the odd few and the Konoha eleven, would ever treat Uzumaki Naruto in such high regards. They both feared and scorned him for the burden he carried within his naval. However, time after time he continued to surprise them with his will and strength. Then Pein happened, and after Naruto defeated him in a rush of power and skills (some have claimed to have felt the brushes of wind on their cheeks when he had unleashed the shuriken like jutsu upon the enemy and tore them apart like paper) everyone could no longer deny that Uzumaki Naruto had surpassed most and had achieved his goal of making everyone acknowledgehim.
Henceforth, some years later after the fourth ninja war, it was no big surprise that his name was widely suggested and agreed, to be the perfect successor for the Godaime Hokage.
When the ninja and civilian population of Konoha heard of the potential successor through the gossip grapevines within the village, they were ecstatic. The village's local hero was finally on his way to his dream of becoming The Hokage, capital letters and all!
Ninja's smiled proudly when they thought of the neon orange once-brat and the combat poweress and experience he showed on the battle field. When asked by any unsuspecting victims (usually foreigners) about the (famous) Uzumaki Naruto the whole village seemed to be whispering about (they were a ninja village, and civilian or not, most knew when to be subtle when trading information in front of foreigners), they would launch into long-winding tales of his adventures and praise his achievements with vigour akin to a bard on sugar high. Occasionally though, some foreigners would have the misfortune of asking some particular ninja's about the much talked about boy, and that was when they would really suffer.
Maito Gai was quickly becoming a much feared name in the elemental nations not for his superior Taijutsu skills, but for his very vocal praises about the 'youthful Naruto - kun'. When popped a question about him, a literal dam would break and a flood of Springtime of youth filled speech would surf over the victim and leave them gulping for breathe beneath the oppressive aura of pride, joy, and youth. Convinced that surely everyone would want to know about the youthful Naruto - kun, Gai would repeat stories after stories completed with wild arm movements that would occasionally create holes in whatever obstacle (public property) that hindered them. This had the effect of successfully stopping any plans of escape by the unfortunate victim, leaving them to suffer for hours in fear that if they moved they would soon become a fellow member in the hospital. It also had the effect of creating massive property damage wherever possible.
But of course, what was the Green Beast of Konoha without his protégé?
Soon after the speeches started, Rock Lee would almost certainly arrive. Then, the true horror would only start. Till now, those who witnessed the manly embrace and tears between the two spandex clad men were still undergoing therapy to overcome a sudden fear of the colour green. On the other hand, ANBU were also still trying to convince Jounin Gai to impart his knowledge of unbreakable Genjutsu upon the forces.
Another contender for the title of 'most traumas induced' was the newly instated Jounin Sai. After being slowly broken out of his socially inept cocoon, Sai had decided that he wanted to learn more about the mysterious ways of human behaviour and had promptly transferred out of the reformed Root into the fidgety embrace of society. Day after day, society's patience would be challenged by whatever idea Sai would concoct about the expected behaviour from a respectable member of the world. This, however, did not mean that the well ingrained paranoia most ANBU possessed became smothered with inactivity.
One fine day, a curious outsider had decided to ask the pale young man walking along the road who was this Uzumaki Naruto that the whole village seemed to be raving about. For a while, conversation went well. Soon though, it went downhill.
Apparently, Root teaching did not mention that it was in human's nature for people to be curious. When the outsider had continued to ask questions about Naruto after Sai had told him the barest information he could divulge without endangering village security (in other words almost nothing), Sai became deadly convinced that the outsider was in fact an enemy spy sent to Konoha to obtain information about his friend. Determined to not let any harm befall his team mate, he swiftly swung his tanto out of its covering and placed it on the neck of the outsider to discourage extra movements. After a period of time in which he politely requested the screaming outsider to report his true identity and motive (Sakura had insisted that polite handling was the best way to convince someone to do something for you), he decided that a spy sent to infiltrate another hidden village would be a well trained one and less suptable to interrogation. Hence, through a quick application of logic (Sai did not want to hurt friends, enemy ninja with information can hurt friends, hence enemy ninja must be eliminated to prevent them from using information and hurting friends!) he decided that yes, it would be most important that the enemy ninja was now eliminated.
Thus, while hoping inwardly that the scenery surrounding them (wide eyed civilian and ninja's included) would not be too disturbed by the elimination of the surprisingly-slow-for-an-elite-ninja outsider, Sai prepared to silence the threat.
Fortunately for the presumed surprisingly-slow-for-an-elite-ninja outsider, at that very moment a certain pink haired blossom arrived in a fury of knocks to the head and much apologizing to bystanders and victims. Having dedicated herself to remedy any social faux passes that Sai would cause unknowingly in his adventure to deal with the human world, she rammed her fist onto Sai's head (without her monstrous strength) and bowed low apologizing to the terrified outsider at the same time. She then immediately dragged Sai off into the distance to presumably deal with him herself, leaving the whimpering man behind her on the dusty floor of the road.
The next day, the same scenario repeated itself. Except this time, instead of preparing for execution in the middle of an art shop despite the hysterical protests of the shop owner, the possibly innocent victim was dragged off to lunch with Morino Ibiki. Apparently, due to her lack of possible arguments against Sai's logic of enemy ninja's infiltrating the village, Sakura had chosen the next best option and had convinced Sai that no-really wouldn't it be better to send infiltrators to Ibiki first before deciding to off them?
The T & I Department would have a very busy time until the coronation of the next Hokage, courtesy of Jounin Sai.
There was also of course, Hyuuga Hinata, who was amounting to be a terror of her own. For a supposedly meek and shy girl, she was turning out to be quite a supportive (possessive) woman when anything to do with Uzumaki Naruto popped up.
Perhaps it was only paranoia, but the Hyuuga heiress became distinctively twitchy once the news of the Hokage successor came up. As all Hyuuga's were trained in the art of human behaviour (every twitch you made would be noted and recorded down by all the Hyuuga in the vicinity, there was no escape, they were just that observant), Hinata had became more and more aware of the occasional sighs that the females would give out Naruto-kun's name was mentioned. Alarmed, the timid Hyuuga started to subtly follow (stalk) her beloved Naruto-kun to observe the impact of the village population's female behaviour upon his daily life.
Was that a Flirty Kiss blown in his direction?
It was from that day onwards that the enlightened Hyuuga decided to assert her previously none existence dominance over the female population of Konoha. Dreamy eyes at Uzumaki Naruto were rewarded with death glares from the girl. Flirtatious touches (they rarely succeeded with Hinata now actively stalking Naruto) were rebuked with quick and small Jyuuken strikes to mysteriously numb one's nerves. Active communication with Naruto-kun without a chaperone was rumoured to be faced with a visit from the heiress in the middle of the night for a nice chat. Attempted seduction ... No one had yet been able to convince the fangirls of Uzumaki Naruto to climb down from the many trees in the village itself.
Some claimed that the Hyuuga Heiress was being too aggressive in response to this perceived threat. Others though (the Konoha eleven mostly), felt that it was admirable that Hyuuga Hinata had managed to rein herself in enough to avoid Jyuukening the entire cohort of female admirers into the sky. In her defence, she had after all, harboured a monster crush on Naruto for the past decade and more of her life.
With all this happening, Konoha was quickly becoming a very rowdy place.
Therefore, it was nothing short of a miracle that throughout his suddenly none existence social life, the increase of sudden assaults upon visitors in Konoha, and the shifty whispering and beaming smiles that the villagers and ninja's would give him (not to mention the frequent screeches of people being herded and trapped by the dynamic duo and their youthful speeches), Uzumaki Naruto had still not figured out that there was clearly something going on in Konoha that revolved around him.
Which then brought the question, how far would the situation have to proceed for him to notice?
Author's little mumbling spot:
Lol,
My first fanfiction of readable quality.
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Reviews will be much appreciated.