It was an ordinary day for the people of Konoha. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the banshees were wailing -
"Where the heck is he?!" screeched Sakura, as she pounded a fist against the wooden beam of the bridge she and her teammate, and in her own mind future husband, stood waiting. The girl had been yelling the same question several times over the past hour, and combined with her rather grating voice, it was driving Sasuke up the wall.
"Like i've told you every other time you said that, the dobe probably just overslept. He'll be here soon enough." Sasuke replied though his voice was clipped. But despite his irritation towards his pink haired teammate, he too was curious about the whereabouts of his idiotic rival. Naruto, for all his flaws, always arrived early to meetings, perhaps to gain some alone time with Sakura in hopes to score a date with her. Sasuke did not particularly care why, only that that was what happened.
His musing on his teammate's mysterious absence was interrupted however, as with a puff of smoke, their senses appeared, miraculously 15 minutes early. By Kakashi times. In real times he was 2 hours and 45 minutes late, which Sakura was quick to point out with a yell of "You're late!" that left Sasuke's ears ringing slightly.
After the typical Kakashi excuse and Sakura pointing out the obvious lie, their senses finally noticed a lack of a certain blonde haired prankster. "Hey, where's Naruto? He's usually here by now." He asked adopting what the pair believed to be his quizzical face, the mask making it understandably hard to tell.
"That's what we've been trying to figure out. He wouldn't be late without a good reason." Sakura stated, placing her head on her fist in a thinking pose.
"Well then I guess we'd better go find our wayward member." Kakashi said with his trademark eye smile.
The first stop for their search was Naruto's apartment. This proved to be a bust as the landlord of the building stated quite loudly that "The demon brat had left this morning!" before shooing them out the building. The ninja were so surprised by the venomous tone he had used when mentioning Naruto, as well as the way he had treated them, that they made no move to object.
After realising what had happened, as well as what the man had said, Sasuke raised an eyebrow to Kakashi, in question of what the hell had just happened. Kakashi simply waved him off saying that it was Naruto's choice whether or not to explain the behaviour of those around him, and that he himself had no right tell Sasuke anything, even if he wanted to. Then, ignoring the somewhat surprised look his pupils gave him regarding what he had told them, walked up the side of the building and up to Naruto's apartment window.
With him being only a simple genin and having no real enemies to fear, at least in his own mind, Naruto had only left a few gag traps around to prevent intruders, more to humiliate rather than harm. Disabling them was easy for the jounin as he quickly searched the apartment only to come up empty. Rejoining his students and informing them of his findings, the trio decided to ask around the village in hopes of finding the missing Uzumaki.
The Ichiraku Ramen stand was the first place they visited, but Ayame had been quick to say that she hadn't seen Naruto yet that day, him more often coming during the afternoon or evenings after training or a mission. This in turn gave them the idea to search the training grounds again coming up empty, though they had somehow shanghaied the rest of the Konoha twelve to assist in their search.
Ino having dragged her team to help in order to impress "her Sasuke-kun", Hinata due to her desire to help Naruto in case he was in danger, and no-one quite knew why Lee had forced his team to help but by his yelling it most likely had something to do with either youth or training. Perhaps both.
Regardless there was now a miniature manhunt for Naruto across Konoha. Buildings were searched, boxes and rocks turned upside down in case he had taken to hiding under a disguise, and the two Hyuuga made ample use of their bloodlines to attempt to spot any people under the effect of a henge. However no sign of the blond was found. The groups eventually met up again at one of the training grounds in hopes one of them had found Naruto, which sadly they had not.
"Grrr how hard is it to find one blonde orange-wearing loudmouth like Naruto is it?! We've searched the whole damn village." growled Kiba, particularly upset that his team, specifically designed as a tracking unit had failed to find him. Kiba just could not pick up Naruto's scent and neither could Shino's bugs.
"Let's go over everywhere we've been, see if we've missed anywhere big." suggested Kakashi.
All the teams took turns removing possible locations like the hot springs and Ichiraku, but Sakura was interrupted when she was saying that Naruto had not been at his apartment.
"Wait, you're saying he wasn't in his apartment right?" injected Shikamaru of all people. Getting a nod from the non missing members of team seven, he continued "Did you think to check the rest of the building, like the roof for example?"
It took a few seconds for his words to impact the rest of the group and soon they were rushing off to Naruto's apartment building. Only a few minutes later the group stood atop Naruto's apartment's roof, slightly surprised by the small garden that grew there, Ino in particular what with her family being florists in their spare time. They quickly found their missing friend kneeling on the ground watering some kind of plant, though the group couldn't see what it was.
Seeing as how the blonde was ignoring him, Kakashi loudly cleared his throats to draw Naruto's attention at least partially away from his plant. When he looked up he was met with the sight of a rather frazzled group of his friends giving him look of relief mixed with irritation. Sensing that he was in danger of having the crap beaten out of him, Naruto put all his speaking abilities to work. "Oh, hey guys." he said strangely calm given the death stares that were being sent by Kiba, Sakura, Ino, and Neji.
Kakashi looked ready to talk but was interrupted by Sakura screeching "Where the hell were you today!".
Waiting a few seconds for the ringing in his ears to stop, Naruto replied "Taking care of my plants, duh." gesturing around before picking up a small watering can he had using before the group had arrived and continuing with his work.
"So while we were running about the village worried out of our minds, you were here gardening!?" yelled an irate Kiba.
"Another day wasted, fan-frigging-tastic." muttered Sasuke with a role of the eyes.
Sensing a dip in the conversation and wanting to at least give his blond student some more time before he had the crap beaten out of him, Kakashi asked "What are you even watering Naruto?!" The question drew the attention of the others as Naruto's kneeling position blocked the plant's identity, and they were a little curious as to what the orange wearing knucklehead would want, and be capable of, growing.
"Pot." came the simple reply.
"Pots of what?" Ino asked.
"Pot." was Naruto's reply
Naruto was mildly put off by the strange silence that followed for the next few minutes. When he looked up from his "plants" it was to the utterly shocked faces of the group. It took another 5 minutes for the surprise to wear off, Sakura being one of the first to do so, her face turning a rage filled red as she opened her mouth to let loose a mighty yell before she decked Naruto upside the head.
However she was interrupted by Naruto saying "I'm not getting rid of it." a small smile on his face, and his eyes just the slightest bit red.
Sakura's inevitable yelling was interrupted by a rather gleeful yell from Kakashi who had picked some of Naruto's "crop" while saying "Are you kidding me? This stuff's great for my blood pressure!" Before forgetting about the rest of the group and leaping off the roofs to his apartment to enjoy some alone time with good old "Mary Jane".
Other members of the group were also given some as a gift to deal with their various problems; Sasuke and Shikamaru to help them sleep, Hinata, Shino and Neji to help them relax, and even Sakura was forced into having some to deal with her anger issues before she was shooed off by a high off his kite Naruto, who had managed to sneak himself another few puffs of a joint in between handing out his special crop.
Needless to say, the Konoha genin and their teachers were a lot happier, and hungry, after that day.
AN: this whole story was inspired by Team Four Star's Dragon Ball Z Abridged, specifically a scene involving Mr Popo and Kami. I do not own the series, nor do I own Naruto. Please rate and review.