So this chapter is short.. Just more of a drabble yet.. May or may not add more. Lemme know what ya think!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto... If I did, Sasuke'd be dead already :)
Kakashi couldn't believe his eyes at what he saw.. A blonde haired blue eyed young man. It was no surprise of the young man's appearance, but the clothing he wore was so very... Unnatural. Light blue denim covered the blondes legs, tight from sensually made hips to mid calf, flaring comfortably to rest at his feet as he lounged, natural on his tattered old couch. A soft-looking button up of black material covered a well defined torso and chest, covering down to his wrists.
Kakashi had never seen the former goofball so.. Civilian. No hitai-ate adorning that serious brow. Serious... Kakashi frowned a bit. It had been years since anyone had seen the Naruto they had lost.. The new one just... Didn't seem the same. Traveling as Naruto had done for two or three years hadn't done that with Jiraiya... But alone? Kakashi still didn't know the full story.
No one did...
The blond had kept oddly silent about it all. Not even Iruka had been able to coax the blond into talking. What had seemed so abnormal to the rest of Konoha felt natural to the blond now though.
If only they really knew... But he rather they didn't, so they just would have to deal with it. He owed them nothing anyway. After Pein's interesting defeat, Naruto had taken off to.. Search. For what he hadn't said.. His request had just been a vacation time to see the world. The council couldn't deny him after what he'd done for Konoha. Tsunade wouldn't have let them if they'd wanted to.
So the small group of his close friends, mentors and adoptive family, as it were, saw him off, watching sadly as a smiling bright eyed goofball disappeared... And never returned.
At least not the same at all.
Kakashi smiled at himself for getting so distracted by his thoughts. Naruto was twenty two years old now, far old enough to mind himself but with the change, Tsunade had begged him, along with the others of Naruto's friends, to keep an eye on the far-too-serious blond. But this was the first time Kakashi had made much attempt to spy... Finding Naruto in such casual clothing-and no orange to speak of-had shocked him.
He wagered the blond would eventually grow out of the odd colour but even on missions, over bandages and fishnet was an orange vest of sorts, loose black pants tied with a thin rope finishing his new look.
The Jounin stared harder at the blond, curious to what his thoughts were. He used to believe Naruto was so easy to read but now? Now he was certain he had failed to see beneath the underneath before. He highly doubted just the traveling had changed the blond.
Naruto set about his daily routine, stretching his limbs and back before taking a brisk walk through Konoha, stopping here and there to gather basic necessities he had run out of in his home.
He ran into virtually no one that seemed willing to talk longer then a few minutes, discouraging his rare companionable mood. It wasn't often these days he felt like socializing but rarer things had happened. Maybe some day...
Tbc... maybe..