Travel over miles

Chapter 1: Some things (never) change

(A/N: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS IF YOU DON'T READ THE MANGA! I WARNED YOU!)

'You're late.'

'Old habits die hard, right sensei? '

'Who says I was trying to get rid of them?'

'So you admit you're always late on purpose?'

'I always have a purpose for being late, whether you believe my purpose is up to you.'

'So…what's your purpose today?'

'My purpose today was to help my plant to survive during these hot days before I would let him suffer from dehydration referring to my two weeks of absence'

'Sensei, Mr. Ukki doesn't survive…wait, what? Two weeks of absence?'

'Does this mean we already have a mission together?'

'Sorry guys, I know this was supposed to be our first day as a team after two years but an S-rank mission came up and they're a little short on jounin.'

Two 19 year old shinobi's and their 32 year old sensei were standing at the gates of their beloved home town. Finally reunited after the last great ninja war. The war between the gokages and the Akatsuki had splitted team Kakashi up. Naruto going his own way to control the magnificent powers of the kyuubi, Sakura as one of the head medics on the field, and Kakashi as a general of the third division.

The war had lasted much longer than predicted, a little over 2 years. Akatsuki had withdrawn several times to increase their numbers with the dead bodies of their enemies' friends. It not only had been psychically exhausting but also mentally.

There was a silence between the shinobi as they recalled memories of friends who had passed away during the war. The reason why they were short on jounins. But everyone knew they hadn't die in vain, they would be remembered as heroes of the village. And as hard as it seems, life went on. Especially for shinobi. Akatsuki might be gone, but that didn't mean they could just wait on their lazy bums until the end of days. Busy, busy, busy. That's life.

'Wait, do you mean we just waited 4 hours for someone who just came by to say he's leaving for another two weeks before we can actually be a team again?', Naruto said pointing an accusing finger to his sensei.

'Hahaha…wari wari,' Kakashi said, Scratching the back of his neck, 'I do have a few minutes to spare, how about we grab some lunch instead?'

'RAMEN!' Naruto's eyes beamed with enthusiasm. He needed to catch up 2 years of ramen.

Naruto sprinted ahead to his long lost love, while Kakashi and Sakura walked at a relaxed pace through the city, enjoying the peace.

'I guess you still don't treat us, right?', Sakura glanced over to her sensei.

'Of course not', he gave her his famous happy-eye crease, 'My wallet isn't that big I can afford your lunches, especially Naruto's'

'Yeah, sure', Sakura said sarcastically, but her eyes gave him a knowing smile. The lie was clear if you think about it:

The guy is single, has the smallest apartment in town, he's in the top 5 best ninja's in our city and has one of the best paychecks of all, he ALWAYS lets other people pay and doesn't have to pay for a hospital insurance. First off, ninja's get that for free, and secondly he's NEVER in the hospital. So that leaves him with a plant, his icha-icha volumes, his electricity and water bills (but he's half of the time away on a mission, AND he's a guy so that won't be very much payment either),and his clothing (he always wears the same outfit, probably his closet is full with these, not that he has to pay for them, it's a standard job outfit, ninja's get them for free). He probably doesn't need to buy batteries for his alarm-clock, he's never on time anyway. Didn't he also have a legacy from the Hatake clan? He did buy presents for their birthday, but doesn't have that many friends…

In other words, Hatake Kakashi's was a glutton, or Jiraiya had raised icha icha to a priceless sum of money, or Hatake Kakashi was just a very very rich man.

'Maybe you should make that clear to Naruto before he starts ordering everything on the menu, and no way in hell we're gonna pay for you this time.' Sakura replied afte realizing just how much the guy possessed.

'Neh, relax, my own lunch I can afford.' he replied dryly.

'Are you sure?' Sakura asked sarcastically.

Once arrived at Ichiraku's, Naruto had already ordered a double portion of his favorite dish, miso ramen with extra chashu. Sakura ordered the same and Kakashi ordered his own favorite dish, miso ramen with egg plant.

While waiting on their dinner, Naruto spoke happily about his improved skills,

'Next time we're training, sensei, I'm gonna beat your ass!'

'Sure, do try', Kakashi spoke confident, but he was no fool. Naruto had become stronger than anyone in this village, but he still lacked a bit on the brains department. Kakashi just wanted to let him know that even if he had improved his skills, there was no way he was being afraid of the kyuubi-container.

Kakashi couldn't see the look on Naruto's face as a bowl of ramen appeared in front of him, blocking his view.

Just as he was about to turn around to pull his mask down, he noticed four eyes gluing on him. 'What?' he asked suspiciously.

'Aw, come on sensei!' It has been 2 years!, you can't be serious about still hiding your face' We're all adults here, we don't care about your looks!' Naruto complained while slurping his own ramen inside.

'I doubt the adult part, Naruto….' Kakashi replied.

'Naruto's right sensei, why don't you just show it?, we're not going to laugh at you or anything' Sakura glanced at him.

Kakashi's eye widened in shock, but he regained his relaxed pose in less than a second. He really didn't know where they got the idea that he had something to hide, but he guessed he actually didn't want to know it.

'Maybe I'm just hiding my face because you can't handle my good looks'

'Yeah, right, like we believe that… but we'll never know if you don't show it to us' Sakura grinned, trying to bait him.

'Nice bribery Sakura but that won't work on me, but maybe it will work for that boy over there' Kakashi pointing his finger at the shop across the street. Sakura turned around, Naruto followed to see who his sensei had meant.

'Hey sensei, who do you…' Sakura quit mid sentence when her face turned around just to see that they just had been fooled.

Kakashi pulled a very happy-eye crease at them while the bowl that stood on the table was completely empty.

'Well, thanks for the lunch guys, but I do really need to go now, see you in two weeks!' Kakashi quickly raised from his seat and before his students could say anything, he disappeared in a breeze of leaves.

'What the…?', Oh no! He just didn't do that!' Sakura snarled annoyed.

'What is it?' Naruto asked, already back to his newly ordered third bowl of miso-ramen

'He just footed the bill!'

'Aww, no way! Baka sensei, he just keeps doing that!, we've paid already so many times for him, I think he could buy us a vacation for the money he robbed us.' Naruto whined.

Sakura grabbed her wallet to pay for hers and Kakashi's meal, Naruto probably was going to be broke by his own bill, and no way in hell she was going to pay for him too.

'Neh, Sakura-chan, now sensei is gone for two weeks, what should we do?'

'I think I'm going to ask Tsunade if I could work some extra shifts at the hospital, I could use the extra money', Sakura spoke seriously while checking her wallet.

'Awww, Can we at least do something together today?, training or something like that?', it's so boring on my own.' Naruto pleaded.

'Hey Naruto, Sakura!' a voice was heard across the road. Sakura and Naruto turned their heads to find an out of breath Genma.

'Have you guys seen Kakashi today?'

'Uhh, yeah he just had lunch with us, he poofed away a minute ago'

'Argh!, Genma growled 'Stupid man!, our mission supposed to have began nearly 3 hours ago', and with that last sentence he ran back in the direction of the gate. Where probably now their teamleader already was waiting for the poor senbon guy.

'Well, that explains the quick leave, Kakashi probably already knew he was coming' Sakura deadpanned, as they watched Genma run back to the gates.

'About the training, I'll first ask Tsunade about the extra shifts, then I'll meet you at the training grounds, ok?'

'Sounds fine to me', Naruto smiled ,'See you later then'

'Bye!' Sakura shouted as she made her way to the hokage building.

He really had planned on treating them this time, too bad faith kicked in. On the other hand he couldn't really feel bad at letting them pay. Sakura should have listened, he never told he was going to pay for his own lunch, he said he could afford it, and in the mind of Kakashi those were two different meanings. But he didn't got the chance to pay. When he was distracting Naruto and Sakura to quietly eat his meal, he overheard the conversation of two older women across the street:

'Youth, these days!, I just came back from the barber when this young guy just bumped into me!' one of them nagged. 'He just turned around, excused himself and grumbled something like: stupid copy-cat, while he still had that ridiculous straw in his mouth. No decency at all!

'Copy-cat? Is that a new term of abuse? I've never heard that one….

And that was all that Kakashi needed to hear. Within a second he had said bye to Naruto and Sakura and he was already on his way to the hokage building, where he had supposed to meet his team a small 3 hours ago. He had already been two and a half hours late when he met Naruto and Sakura, he presumed it wouldn't really matter to come another hour late or so.

'Senpai! You're awfully late today!, Shizune complained to the copy-nin who came walking towards them on a way to slow pace for someone who was 3 hours late.

'Well, I'm not the only I see, where's Genma?' Kakashi asked innocently. Glancing at his team as if he really had no clue where he could be. 'He really should be here by now….we really need to leave' Kakashi sighed as he rubbed his finger over his chin.

'..Hypocrite..' Shizune growled.

'What was that?' Kakashi asked suspiciously. But before his answer could be given, the brown haired jounin came running over and yelled: 'HATAKE!'

'Also good morning to you, Genma, or good afternoon, what you prefer.' Kakashi gave him his famous happy eye crease.

'Well you!... Genma replied but he was interrupted by Kakashi.

'Let's stop about this matter, we've already lost enough time' With his voice sounding awfully serious. Genma snorted loud at his reply but dropped the matter. He could have seen it coming. Some people never change.

'So who's got the objectives report?' Kakashi asked, looking directly at his team members. One of them probably already got it from Tsunade, they wouldn't wait for that, when they already had supposed to leave 3 hours ago. You only do that when you've a dead wish.

'I've got it here, senpai' Yamato, still a very chivalrous guy, gave the mission objectives to Kakashi.

The copy-nin glanced at the papers, 'Ok, two S-rank assassinations. Should take about a week to get to the location considering we need to go through desert terrain. Shizune, do you have the right supplies with you for that type of terrain? If one of us gets hurt I want to return here as soon as possible.'

To be honest, Kakashi didn't feel like going on an S-rank mission at all. He had just been a general for two years and now that he was back into his village they had already signed him up for a bunch of new S-rank missions. Of course that was the life of a ninja, and Kakashi didn't complain about that.

He just wished he could go on some easier missions with his own team, and a bit relaxing while reading his Icha Icha, which he hadn't read in a long, long time.

'I've got everything set' Shizune replied.

'Okay, well then, let's go!'

And with the small sound of quick footsteps the team disappeared into the streets of Konoha to travel through the dust of sand back to where they were always heading for, success or failure. That's the life of a shinobi.

'Man, Sakura, you've gotten strong like hell' Naruto whined as Sakura hit him with a fierce blow to the stomach.

'Well, you couldn't really expect me to go easy on you, right?' Sakura grinned at him.

They had been training for a couple hours now, at first it was just relaxing pace, nothing really serious. But after Sakura had made a small comment about how easy it was to hit Naruto, he had to show his best side, which was now heading towards a very serious battle.

'Hey!, that ain't fair! you used chakra in your punches!'

'Well, I said I didn't want to go easy on you'

Sakura gave him another blow to his shoulder with her left hand, already raising her right to hit him in the stomach .But she didn't see Naruto's feet coming up to hit her in her stomach instead.

'Gotcha!' Naruto shouted when Sakura landed a few meters away from him on her feet.

'Hmpf, just luck!'

She already was back into fighting-mode as Naruto stared daring at her.

'NARUTO NIIIII-CHANNNNN!' Sakura could see a brown haired kid came running towards them.

'Huh?' Konohamaru?' Naruto turned around.

'Finally found ya!' Eyes beaming at Naruto if it was that the most beautiful thing in the world had just happened to him. 'Hi Sakura' He smiled as he waved over to her.

'I did it!'

'Fantastic!, well show it to me, don't keep it for yourself!' Naruto was also beaming as he watched Konohamaru taking a few steps back. Sakura still didn't have a clue about what was going on.

I just added some extra length because my height is still too short,

What the heck are they talking about? Sakura wondered as she watched the two teens being a little too enthusiastic. They were acting like toddlers who were waiting in the queue to get themselves a lovely ice cream.

A little less cotton,

Cotton? Were they talking about making sweaters or something like that? At this moment Sakura had the most peculiar look on her face.

And different colours!

Okay… when did they start a sewing club?

And last but not least, I removed the lipstick!

'You did what?' Naruto blurted.

'I went to Jiraiya for some extra tips on how to improve the jutsu, and he claimed that most men prefer women with their natural beauty, so I decided to erase all the make-up. But her eyes fell away because of her hair locks, so I kept that and only erased the lipstick…. '

While Konohamaru was happily chatting with Naruto, on the other side of the field a pink haired kunoichi was starting to lose her temper.

It had been so obvious, height, cotton, colours and lipstick. Of course they had not been talking about a sewing club. That they still use that after 2 years! Unbelievable!

'Sexy no jutsu!' Sakura watched as Konohamaru transformed into for a guy probably a very beautiful lady. She herself was not the lady-type so she didn't prefer this behavior of the boys. Didn't prefer, didn't allow was more the right word. Because as soon as Konohamaru transformed, Sakura made her way to him.

Ofcourse Konohamaru realized too late for what reason the medic was coming over. Before he could even ask the perfect face of the girl was smashed into pieces and Konohamaru was backed into the three.

'Sakura-chan!, that hurt!' Konohamaru whined as he was rubbing his cheek which was bleeding.

'You earn it, I can't believe you still use that jutsu!'

'What's so wrong about it, Sakura-chan, It's only to distract enemies, and we're just improving it!'

'Only to distract enemies is fine, but the improving seems to happen a bit too often in my ears.'

'Well, we just like working on it….'

'Yeah, that's the problem. It's just plain perverted jutsu only to be used on perverted people.'

'No I t in't, if yu sa y that,.. yo u say that eve ryo n is a pervert!' Konohamaru tried to speak, but failed.

'Why?, it's not that I'll get distracted by your lady'

'No, of course not, we know that!, but we always have a male version to use on you, we just don't work on that because that would make us…' Naruto didn't need to finish the sentence. 'and we're not' he added.

'A male version?, yeah sure! Like that will work. It has to be a unbelievable handsome male if he wants to get a kunoichi distracted.' 'We, unlike you guys, don't get distracted by simply just a body, that's not what we seek in a guy, we need more'

'All high and mighty, we also don't only seek that in girls! It's just a nice extra on which we respond.' Naruto replied dryly. 'yerah!' or something like that was heard from Konohamaru.

'Oh you shut up! Sakura shouted to the boy, 'you're just a brat of 15, what do you know about it?'

'Hmpf! .thn u clearly! Konohamaru shouted, still in pain.

'Argh!' Baka's!' Sakura was agitated by their behavior because she knew they were right. Male may show it more, but female were also able to get distracted by a nice body. She just was too stubborn to admit it.

'Co…uld. u .mybe…..now…..eal me?'

'What do you think?' Sakura responded careless.

'Yes…?'

'Well then you thought wrong!' Sakura grinned, turned around and walked away. Konohamaru wasn't a crybaby, he didn't need her. Besides, she needed to get to the hospital. Tsunade had told her that she could work extra during night shifts, it was a bit more relaxed than by day, and she got paid more. It was now around 7, and she needed to start at 9. First she wanted to make some dinner and a shower, before Naruto dragged her again to the ramen stand. And how much she liked it to go out for dinner, ramen wasn't her favorite meal.

First chappy done :)

Next one I already started, but i've got no idea when i will upload it. I've got a busy life.

Reviews are nice :) :) :)

Thanks for reading!