-1
Hey here's a story that I just wrote out of boredom, dunno how far I'm going to go with it yet (unless I get requests for wanting me to continue). This chapter's kinda confusing and alot of OOCness, but yea...enjoy. Alot will be revealed in the end hoping to end your confusion
A/N: In this story Naruto left after he killed the member of Akatsuki to train with Jiraiya again for a year, but instead of 1 year he left for 3 and comes back with a few surprises. NaruSaku story.
"Blah" Kyuubi/Inner Sakura speaking
'Blah' thoughts
"Blah" speech
blah flashback
oops almost forgot the disclaimer
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
"How much trouble do you think we're gonna be in for taking 3 years instead of 1?" Naruto asked the man he had taken his apprenticeship with. He was careful not to speak to loudly, after all he didn't wake up the small person in his arms.
"Well at first I bet we'd be screamed at and then beaten to a pulp, and then when we finally explain that we didn't screw anything up we would get another lecture for not sending a letter explaining it sooner." Jiraiya said in a matter-of-fact tone, before he started to shivering at the thought of what would happen when his former team mate saw them again.
Naruto sighed "At least I'll have a little pity advantage" he grinned a his teacher and gestured to what he was holding.
"Oi! No fair you know she'll already go easy on you, I need the leverage most!"
"Hell no! if you hold him your most likely gonna get him caught in the Old hag's wrath!" he whispered harshly. The sleeping form in one of Naruto's arms started to stir causing him to start to panic 'Kami not now!' The blond quickly stopped moving even holding his breathe. The figure continued to move until finally it settled down and fell back asleep. He breathed a sigh of relief causing Jiraiya to laugh at his students predicament. "That's not funny you know what would happen if he woke up!"
"Oh what's this the great Naruto Uzamaki afraid of a three year old?" he started laughing even more when his student gave him a glare.
"God this is so boring!" the young Chunnin complained
"Quit your whining, its so troublesome. Besides you're the one who asked for this Kiba"
Kiba growled at him "I figured that if someone like you liked this job so much there must be something interesting about it! But nooo all you do here is look at the clouds and check peoples passports every now and then! No wonder why you like it here Shikamaru."
The lazy Jounin just yawned and looked back up at the night sky and watched the snow fall. "Yep. Nothing like good ole' gate duty to get the B-rank pay" it had been about an hour since someone had passed the gates, a slow day. "Wake me up when something happens or when Sakura gets here to pick up the papers" With that said he decided to explore the inside of his eyelids
About 30 minutes later he was woken up by the sound of Kiba's loud voice and the happy barking of Akamaru. "Hey, Hey Shikamaru wake up! Look who's coming!"
"Dammit Kiba for the last time-" Shikamaru's eyes widened for the first time in..well a long time. "No way their back" He smiled and got up to meet his Blonde friend that he hadn't seen in three years.
"Konoha sure is cold in the winter, eh Ero-Sennin pass me the scroll with the clothes in it I'm gonna need a blanket."
After a few minutes of arguing about who had the scrolls, Naruto shifted the toddler he was carrying causing periwinkle eyes (light/pale purplish blue) to flutter open slightly. "shh go back to sleep its still nap time"
"its cold" replied the small voice as he snuggled closer to the blonde shinobi.
"That's what happens in winter around here" he said laughing slightly while wrapping the small boy up in the blanket. He fell back asleep while the two older men walked closer to their impending doom.
(30 minutes later)
"Oi! Naruto! Jiraiya-sama! Where the heck have you guys been!" Kiba ran towards his friend with Akamaru following closely behind barking like crazy. He was about to grab his friend and give him a punch in the face for making everyone worry and Akamaru was about to tackle him when something caught their shadows and prevented them from anymore movement.
"Idiots didn't you notice him carrying something, or more importantly a someone, a sleeping someone"
"What? Oh!" He blushed a bit embarrassed "sorry bout' that , but hey whos the kid?"
"um.. How to say this he's….."
"Did I hear that right?" Shikamaru said with his mouth agape
"er…long story, I'll explain it as soon as I tell the Baa-chan, you mind watching him for a while? I really don't want to wake him up yet."
"And if we do bring him to with us to see Tsunade-hime theres a 150 percent chance he will" Jiraiya finished
"um..okay" was Kiba's genius response still a little shocked by what Naruto had said.
"okay great, uh just be sure he stays warm, and if he wakes up before we get back he might freak out a bit, so don't wake him up. And if he does you know where'll be"
When they left Kiba raised a questioning eyebrow at Shikamaru. "you don't think Naruto was telling the truth do you?"
Shikamaru just shrugged "It isn't impossible, I mean they kinda look alike, if that troublesome idiot's hair was a bit more tame and brown that is. Still not impossible"
"Wow, I always thought he would end up with-" at that moment the toddler that Shikamaru was currently holding started to toss and turn in his sleep and then his eyes shot open. 'uh-oh'
"wheres my-" his eyes darted around the unfamiliar surroundings and started to panic, then cry.
"Troublesome" Shikamaru muttered while trying to calm down the three year old. "Hey Kiba don't get into any trouble while I'm gone, I'm gonna go take him back. And kid please calm down!" What surprised him wasn't that the kid did, but the look of fear in his eyes when Shikamaru yelled.
Kiba was left with Akamaru still not knowing what to think of what happened today, but he was pulled from his thoughts when a pink haired person greeted him at the guard post.
"Kiba? You there? Helloooooo?"
"Oh hey Sakura here's the papers you'll never guess what happened today!" Sakura thought wasn't listening she just saw the last name on the log of people entering Konoha that day and ran straight for the Hokage's office.
"Nar-" he looked around to find Sakura gone and smirked. "guess you missed him."
(meanwhile)
"oi! Naruto your brat woke up" Shikamaru came into the office carrying a crying toddler .
Naruto jerked his head up and smiled at the boy "hey Raiza whats with the water works?" he said taking the boy from Shikamaru, who then latched onto him as hard as a three year old can. "ahh I see had that dream again?" the blond asked hugging the boy and patting his back to help him calm down.
Tsunade watched as Naruto interacted with the boy and raised a questioning eyebrow at Jiraiya, that is until he heard a small voice speak. "daddy, I saw dose bad pewple again" and her eyes went wide.
Naruto just gave the boy a small smile and ruffled his hair affectionately. "You know that now that I'm here I won't let them hurt you"
"W-what did h-he just say?" stuttered the stunned Hokage. Naruto just responded by rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, and Raiza just responded by giving a yawn, it was past his bedtime anyways
Jiraiya decided to get involved with the conversation "Naruto I'll explain everything, just go home and put the brat to bed, but give him a B.A.T.H., he stinks" he spelled out bath hoping the toddler wouldn't catch it.
"hey! I'm not stinky ojiisan, jus' hungy" he said stifling another yawn.
"For once I agree with the old man Rai, you stink" he laughed at the face his son made "see ya later baa-chan, and Ero-Sennin tell her the real story not one of your fake fantasy 'research' inspired theories" he waved at Shikamaru who just stayed quiet during the exchange, and then left.
Once he left, and when the Hokage finally composed herself, Jiraiya cleared his throat. "Um, you Nara you can stay I don't really want to explain this more than once and you can just spread the word-" before he could continue Sakura walked in panting and carrying a stack of papers.
"Jiraiya-sama! Its true! So that means Naruto's back!" she smiled before getting a bit angry. "Where's the idiot he gonna pay for making me..I mean us worry." she said blushing a little, causing the Gama- Sannin to give her a quizzical look.
"He's at his apartment, but-" again he was cut off by the pile of papers that flew in the air, because of the sudden movement of Sakura rushing out the window.
"Well if there aren't going to be anymore interruptions, would someone tell me what the hell is going on here!"
"eh, calm down Tsunade-hime!" Jiraiya said while sweating in fear of his life.
"Raiza your getting me all wet" Naruto whined causing his son to giggle.
"daddy stinky to." he said splashing while he laughed "you take bath"
Naruto just sighed, then grinned at his son while he shampooed the mess of brown hair.
There was a knock at the door of the apartment. 'Wonder who could that be' Naruto thought as he rinsed the shampoo out. "hey fuzzy you mind watching him while I go see whos there" he said apparently to no one. A red-eyed fox suddenly appeared from out of no where.
"eh? Okay, but if I get wet I swear kid no riding on my back for a week" the fox said to the small boy who just nodded instinctively while playing with a rubber ducky and a toy boat.
Naruto left the bathroom telling his son not to make a mess while he was gone. When he answered the door he was surprised to see Sakura standing there. "Hey Sakura-chan, come in, its cold outside" he grinned at her.
She blinked. 'That's Naruto?! No way, what happened to that orange wearing shrimp.' Naruto was about 6' 1" now and had discarded his orange jumpsuit wearing habits. He was currently wearing his grey sweats and a white shirt that had the Konoha symbol on it. His home clothes. Also his hair was longer, which made him look almost exactly like the Yodaime, but Naruto's hair was a bit shorter and didn't reach his shoulders at the bottom and his hair drooped over his forehead protector a bit at the top. One other weird thing that Sakura noticed was that Naruto was a bit damp and soaked in some places. His hair for example was wet and his shirt had water spots on it.
Naruto also was taking in Sakura's changes. 'Wow she's even more beautiful than I remember' She wore a standard Jounin vest with the medical decal, showing that she was part of the med nin, she left it open showing a red shirt similar to her old design but with longer sleeves. She had on a white scarf arround her neck because of the cold weather. The pants she wore were black ninja pants with kunai pouches strapped to her right thigh. Sakura had also grown her pink hair back out and it was now halfway down her back.
"Naruto why are you wet?" she asked noticing he had a towel slung over his shoulder and a toy rubber duck in his hand.
"oh ya.. Um I'll be back Sakura-chan just wait in the living room, make yourself at home." he said before making his way to the bathroom. (A/N: In my story Naruto got a better apartment after the first time skip)
She watched him curiously as she sat on the couch where she had an easy view of the hallway Naruto had just gone down.
"Kami, you made a mess in here!" her brows scrunched up in confusion 'whos he talking to?' "stop giving me that face, your not getting off that easy and hugging me won't work either especially when your wet." Her eyes widened 'what?! Is he talking to a girl?! Wait why do I care!' She had gotten over Sasuke a long time ago when she saw how he had changed during their last encounter. Though that didn't mean that she had given up on retrieving her teammate. 'I mean I'm over Sasuke, but why do I feel this way.'
"Maybe because you just realized that the only one who ever felt that way for you moved on."
'I don't know' she really was confused, everyone was moving on in life but her and now it seemed like Naruto was too. It made her stomach ache and her heart sink.
She saw Naruto come out of the bathroom again carrying something covered in a towel, that was moving, a small something. 'A kid?' She filled with hope again. It wasn't a girl. 'Why am I feeling like this, he's just Naruto anyways' though her hopes were shattered again when she heard the living towel speak.
"daddy I'm hungey" the towel moved again while he was carrying it towards the bedroom, this time it revealed a face of a little boy around three years old. He had short brown hair that seemed spiky, but was weighted down by water and light periwinkle eyes that were staring up at the blond. He had rosy cheeks, that made her want to pinch him. 'So he did move on' she looked down at the floor. 'I shouldn't feel this way' but she knew why she did, after all those times she thought about why she liked Sasuke it always ended making her think about the way Naruto treated her. That was when Sakura had realized what was in front of her the whole time, now she was just left with the thoughts of what she could have had.
Raiza attempted to escape his father, he liked wearing as little clothes as possible at night but didn't like to go nude, so as soon as he had his pull-ups on he ran out of the room when Naruto wasn't looking. He got about 5 feet out of the room before Naruto noticed he was gone and went after him.
"Hey get back here! I told you its too cold to sleep in your pull-ups" he said with a slight smile on his face, this kid was a lot like him.
Sakura watched with a smile on her face as Naruto caught the boy before he had even made it past the bathroom and tossed him up in the air before tickling him. Causing the toddler to erupt in a fit of laughter. Naruto had a huge grin on his face the whole time he was doing it. 'at least he's happy' She saw that the boy was also wearing a miniature kunai on a string around his neck, the odd thing was it wasn't like any kunai she had seen before.
A few minutes later the boy had ran out of the room again, this time he wasn't stopped and he headed straight for the kitchen, but stopped when he saw a pink haired lady in the living room. He ran up to her "hello! My names Raiza , who are you?" he said as he climbed onto the couch before sitting with his legs crossed.
"My names Haruno Sakura, you seem really friendly" she said smiling back at him.
"Your daddy's teammate?" she nodded "He talks bout you guys a lot, mostly for bedtime stories. Is it true dat your sensei is a cyclops? How long you been a ninja? You tink I can be a ninja? Is being a ninja hard? Is ojiisan really a legendary ninja?
"Whoa, whoa, Rai don't talk Sakura-chan to death now" Naruto said coming out of the room wearing dry clothes holding a stuffed fox and a blanket. "time for bed"
Raiza shook his head "uh-uh" he pointed to his tummy "hungey, ramen pwease" he gave him puppy eyes. 'Just like Naruto' Sakura thought and started laughing
"No you know you had to much ramen yesterday" Naruto said, which made Sakura's eyes widen.
"but, but, pwease I'll be really good"
"no mister not tonight, how bout I heat up the soup that Ero-Sennin made you?"
Apparently Raiza liked the food that Jiraiya made and started to nod his head vigorously . Naruto turned to Sakura. "I haven't forgotten, I'll explain everything later." he gestured towards the toddler who was making his way to the kitchen table with blanket and fox in hand. "when he falls asleep" He went to his bag that was still by the door and took out the scroll he had the food in. He heated it up, all it was just a simple soup with meat and rice.
"Sakura-chan you want anything to eat?"
"No I ate before I got here" he nodded and looked over at the table where his son had finished half his food and was now laying his head on the table.
He walked over to him and picked him up making sure not to leave behind the blanket and fox behind. "time for bed, say good night to Sakura-chan"
"goodnight Sakura-chan" came a groggy reply. "can you tell me a story daddy?"
"sure you want me to finish yesterdays? You fell asleep before I could finish"
"yea" Raiza said with a yawn.
After 20 minutes Naruto finally came out of his room and gave Sakura an apologetic "Sorry about that he's usually asleep at 8 but he woke up right after we got here and wouldn't go back to sleep." He took a seat next to her "I didn't forget my promise I will still bring Sasuke back to you Sakura-chan"
She punched him in the gut. Hard. "You idiot you know how much everyone was worried about you! You were gone for three years instead of one! A lot of people thought you were dead! And you show up out of no where with a toddler, and all you care about is keeping that promise."
She started to cry and Naruto pulled her into a hug. She resisted at first and started to pound her fists into his chest, but he wouldn't let go. She eventually calmed down and let Naruto hug her. "I'm sorry I just had to deal with a lot of stuff, and I needed to get stronger so I could bring back Sasuke and stop Akatsuki. I expect you to hold me to the promise, it's a promise of a lifetime remember that. I just couldn't complete it sooner because of Rai and I told you before I wouldn't die until I become Hokage." he said softly
"Naruto you idiot I told you that you weren't going to do this alone, we are going to bring our friend back together."
"Yeah, I remember…its just I felt so powerless over the Kyuubi, when I hurt you I knew that I needed to control its power. I just couldn't stand to have anyone get hurt over me."
She pulled away and looked at Naruto for a long time. "you've changed a lot Naruto, who knew you could be responsible? Raiza's a good kid too, and who knew you would make a good father." She laughed, remembering the 12 year old boy who used to go around screaming about becoming Hokage and ramen.
"Heh, it didn't start out like that I didn't have a clue in the beginning when he was left with me. It took a while for me to even learn how to change a diaper, but I got through it with help." He said while looking out at the window
"what do you mean left with you?" she asked confused
"Oh come on now Sakura-chan you wouldn't really expect him to be my real kid?"
"Actually I did, you look alike, so I just figured he looked mostly like his mother."
"I wish I met his mother, you see his mother died giving birth to him and his father had died before that, so he was left with his grandparents." he sighed and looked at her "they were good people, but they were getting on in their years and when he was only a year old they asked me to take care of him and I couldn't say no they did a lot for me. They were the ones who helped me with the fox "
Sakura smiled at him "Naruto?"
"hmm?" he was looking out the window watching the stars and then turned to face he and smiled one of his true smiles.
"It good to have you back"
"its good to be back" his smile grew wider.
They sat for a while not saying a word, before Naruto finally turned on the TV. "Um, Naruto do you mind if I just stay here on the couch tonight?"
"of course Sakura-chan I wouldn't kick you out this late especially because its snowing, but don't blame me if you find yourself woken up at 6 in the morning by a three year old."
She laughed "he makes a good alarm clock eh?"
Naruto just nodded and laughed as well. 2 Hours later Naruto finally went back to his room after talking and catching up with Sakura. He saw his son sleeping where he had left him on the bed and the fox sleeping at the edge of the bed. Naruto climbed into bed slowly careful not to wake anybody up and put an arm over his son protectingly. 'Even if you aren't my flesh and blood, it doesn't make me love you any less' he thought before sleep over took him.
Sakura lay on Naruto's couch for a while thinking about all that had happened today. 'Naruto's back with a son, but it isn't his; and I was…jealous.. That he might have moved on? Why?'
"Sheesh aren't you suppose to be smart! Do I really have to spell it out for you!"
'Spell what out for me?!'
"Nothing, nothing, you have to find it out on your own" Inner Sakura smirked 'I hope you find out soon' she thought
'Your annoying you know that?' a pissed off Sakura told her inner self before finally falling asleep.
Meanwhile a stunned Tsunade had just been given a full report of what happened during Naruto's training trip. She massaged her temples, all ready getting a migraine "Someone get me some dam SAKE!"
"Hey its not that bad, he makes a great father" Jiraiya offered
"reminds me of another blond" Tsunade sighed glancing at the picture of the fourth
"By the way he knows" Tsunade's eyes went wide
"He's not suppose to know till he's-"
"16?, I know and he's 18 now if u can't remember." He laughed at the embarrassed face Tsunade made. "He's mastered it by the way."
"Impossible! It took Minato almost a decade total to create it and master it!"
At this point a certain masked ninja decided to make his appearance "Well, Tsunade-sama this is Naruto we're talking about, the number one most unpredictable ninja. And whats this I hear about him being a father?" he said his eyes never leaving his book.
"sit down Kakashi your gonna be here for a long time." Tsunade sighed pulling out more Sake for her companions.
So yea theres Chapter 1... still don't know what to do with this story it was really just a way for me to relieve some of my brain blockage.
Haha I bet i confused alot of people in the beginning
Flames, Praise, and anything inbetween accepted
Next Chapter: Catching up with New friends and meeting... Fox?