Uzamaki Naruto ran alongside Uchiha Sasuke. They were running together around the village. They did so every morning before the sun rose. At first, people thought they were having one of their 'which one is better' modes, but after a month, it became clear that they were simply running together. Both of them were jounin, something that took both of them forever to accomplish. Rank wise, they were behind the rest of rookie nine. Naruto was always away training or on a long term mission, and Sasuke was a rogue ninja for most of the time. However, no one dared question their ability.

They came up on their last little bit and both of them just took off running as fast as they could without using any chakra. They matched each other step by step, so in sync that their footsteps echoed off in cadence with one another. They slowed down and came to a stop once they went past the Hokage mansion. They caught their breath and began walking over to the hospital, where Sakura was working.

"You know, Iruka wanted us to go over to his classroom and give a speech or what not" Naruto says. Sasuke raises an eyebrow.

"Us? I think you misunderstood, dobe. He probably just meant you. If you don't recall correctly, I was a rogue ninja who planned on starting a war on Konohagakure because of what Danzo and some of the elders did to my clan." Sasuke objects. Naruto glances over at the last Uchiha. Naruto stops at the vending machine and buys two waters. Tossing one over to Sasuke, Naruto says-

"I know what I heard, teme. Besides, I won't do anything without you. You've made me who I am. If they deny you, they deny me. Besides, Iruka didn't say names, he just said the old team seven. Apparently, because we've all received jounin rank, a new team seven is being formed and Iruka wants us to go give them a speech, sort of like mentors or something." Naruto explained taking a sip of water. Sasuke doesn't say anything but rather drinks some of the water. Naruto sighs.

"So, did you want to go?" Naruto asks. Sasuke hesitates.

"If Sakura will go, sure. I just don't think it'd be a good idea-"

"Shut up, teme. You're such a brooder." Naruto interrupts him. Sasuke glares at him. They walk into the hospital. Sasuke walks over to the front desk.

"Is Horano Sakura on break yet?" Sasuke asks. The girl drools at the sight of them. Two topless, sweaty, handsome, famous shinobi…

"Ma'am?" Naruto asks, confused why the girl suddenly went all red. The girl shook her head, trying to erase the blush on her face.

"Oh, SORRY. Miss. Sakura is due for a thirty minute break. I'll just page her for you." The girl says. Sasuke nodded. Both teenager walk over to the waiting room and sit down in the chairs.

"You know, I don't know why that happens. One minute a girl will be just fine, the next, they go all red. It used to happen to Hinata…" Naruto ponders. Sasuke couldn't help but shake his head at his best friend's oblivion to why girls went red around them.

"Dobe, it's because they think you're attractive." Sasuke explains. Naruto chokes on the water he was trying to swallow.

"Wha-"

"There you guys are! Nina said I had visitors. I never expected it to be you two. What are you guys doing here, and why are you shirtless?" A voice interrupts. Both men look over to the voice, recognizing Sakura.

"Hey Sakura, teme and I just got done with our run. We stopped by to see if you wanted to go out with us?" Naruto asks wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Sakura giggles.

"You never stop do you? Sure, I'll go with you guys. I only have thirty minutes though" Sakura informs.

"Thirty minutes will be plenty of- OW, TEME!"

Naruto yells as he rubs his arm from where Sasuke punched him. Although, not even Naruto blamed him, talking about his fiancé like he was he supposed he did sort of deserve it. Sakura laughs, not only at what Sasuke did and Naruto's reaction, but Nina's jaw was on the floor drooling!

"So where did you two want to go?" Sakura asks, smiling when Sasuke grabbed ahold of her hand in his. Naruto smirked, the teme only took a month after he got back to court Sakura.

"How about we just go to the chow hall and grab something there. Choji's cooking there today." Sasuke suggests. Naruto and Sakura nods.

"I wonder if Hinata-chan will be there." Naruto murmurs. Sasuke and Sakura looked over at Naruto.

"You didn't invite your girlfriend to lunch?" Sakura asks in a dangerous tone. Naruto sighed.

"She had to leave yesterday and head over to the Hyuuga compound. I totally forgot to ask her before she left…She said that she'd be back this morning but she didn't show up. I saw Neji this morning though, so I asked him to ask Hinata to meet me for lunch…" Naruto looked like a lost puppy.

"Did Neji say why Hinata didn't come back?" Sasuke asks feeling sympathetic.

"Yeah…He said that Hinata was working really hard. She had to go through several test for the clan elders. It sucks…" Naruto says. An expression of anger crossed his face.

"What has you so upset?" Sakura asks. Naruto glanced at her before looking up at the sky.

"When I become Hokage, I'll do something about that dove seal." Naruto says, his tone leaving no room for argument. Neither of his teammates says anything, both agreeing with his cause.

They walk into the chow hall and get in line. Several konoichi turn towards them and stare, drooling. Naruto blushed and did his best to avoid eye contact. Sakura chuckled at her teammate's shyness to attention. Naruto grabbed three trays and handed Sasuke and Sakura one.

"I'm beginning to think that we should grab shirts after our runs, teme" Naruto states holding out his tray for the first cook.

"I doubt that's going to help at all." Sasuke groans doing the same once Naruto moved down. Sakura chuckled.

"OI, Guys! What're you guys doing here?" A bellowing voice echoed the chow hall.

"We heard you got put on chow duty as punishment. Wanted to see how it was" Naruto grins motioning to the food. Choji laughs.

"So you heard huh? No surprise. Do you guys mind if I eat with you? I'm due for a fifteen minute break and I'm starving!" Choji asks.

"Not at all." Sakura pipes up. Choji grins and quickly makes himself a plate before leading the trio over to a separate table reserved for employees.

"Why are you two shirtless?" Choji asks.

"We went running this morning." Sasuke states shifting away from their onlookers. Choji nodded his head in understanding.

"Why don't you come running with us? You've lost a lot of weight when you did before" Naruto invites. Choji smiles.

"I'd like to, but I can't even think about getting into shape when I have community service duty here." Choji says.

"What exactly did you do, Choji?" Sakura asks not having heard the details.

Choji grinned sheepishly while scratching the back of his head.

"Well, you see…-"Choji trails off picking at his food.

"Choji, Shikamaru and Ino went over to that new restaurant over by the gate. After a few meals later, Choji ordered some more. The waitress, a skinny ol' broad, called Choji the f word when she was walking back to the kitchen. Choji heard her. Before Shikamaru or Ino could do anything to stop Choji, he had 'human bouldered' her." Naruto pipes laughing.

"It wasn't that funny. The waitress had to go to the hospital. I got arrested for attacking a civilian. Thankfully, Lady Tsunade was sympathetic and only gave me sixty hours of community service." Choji states.

"Well, if she was that rude to a customer, she deserved retaliation." Sakura says simply. Choji, Naruto and Sasuke all blinked in surprise.

"Besides, it's not like you got four hundred hours of community service and a seal placed on you so you can only use a certain amount of chakra…" Sakura says staring pointedly at Naruto.

"Wha-?" Choji asks wide eyed.

"How'd you manage that one, dobe?" Sasuke asks not hearing of it. Naruto went rigid in his seat, not to mention pale.

"Surprisingly, the only people who know is Lady Tsunade, Naruto, and whomever he did something to." Sakura whined a little. Naruto sighed and leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

"Do you remember when Pervy sage died?" Naruto asks his friends. The all looked solemn and nodded.

"Well, I had blamed baa chan for allowing his to go. Pervy sage loved baa chan with all his heart. If they had switched positions then I know pervy sage never would have allowed baa chan to go. The thing is though, the mission that pervy sage went on was organized by the shinobi committee. Normally the heads of each clan would be there, but they weren't invited. Instead it was led by Danzo…before Sasuke killed him." Naruto trailed off for a second.

"When I learned that, naturally I thought he had been responsible for my master's death. But Shikamaru had been tailing me during my investigations…and he went to the Hokage." Naruto pouted.

"Why would Shikamaru snitch on you?!" Choji asks mad at his best friend.

"Because, he knew that Naruto sought revenge…" Sasuke says calmly.

"I found Danzo in ROOT's old headquarters. Sai was kind enough to show me the way…long fight told short, right when I was about to kill Danzo, Lady Tsunade stepped in front of him…The jutsu I was using was exactly meant to be stopped until it came in contact with something. So I couldn't just deactivate it. Instead of taking the chance of hitting baa chan I had to turn the jutsu on myself." Naruto shudders.

"I can't believe we never heard of this!" Sakura says. Naruto wiped his face.

"If baa chan hadn't been the one to stop me from killing Danzo, I would have joined up with Sasuke. And if I couldn't have done that, I would have simply roamed around for a while. The jutsu I used was that for killing, not wounding. Almost died again…and because I almost died and tried to kill Danzo, I got four hundred community hours. The jutsu I used required a shit load of chakra, hence the chakra seal." Naruto summed up.