RETURNING HOME

The sun was shinning as it arose from the horizon. Its rays peeking through the tree leaves above. It made everything glow to some extent. That is basically the way it is everyday in the Hidden Leaf Village. It was some sight to see, it was calm and beautiful. Being away from home for 6 years made it even more beautiful for two individuals. As they made their way to the village gates they took in the familiar aroma of their home.

"Good to be home huh?" said the tall man. He wore a tight net shirt under a dark green long sleeve jacket under some sleeveless red robes. He had traditional wooden sandals, which looked really uncomfortable. He had really long white hair and two red streaks down his cheeks. The thing that stood out the most was the huge scroll he carried on his back, which looked heavy as hell and a real weigh down.

"Yeah…" replied the other softly, while he looked to the peeking sun rays. He was shorter in size, about 5'8", but well built. He wore the traditional shinobi pants that went down to about half shin and bandages that covered the rest of his legs. He also had customized black shinobi sandals. He wore a short-sleeved net shirt under a short-sleeved black jacket and bandages covering the rest of his arms, also two scrolls tied to his chest. His hair was spiky and blonde, with a slight hint of brown highlights, which were barely noticeable, but gave the hair this unique glow. He had sky blue eyes, which seemed to draw anyone to them, and whisker-like scars across his cheeks.

Both of them had reached the gates by now and passed on through into the village after gaining permission from one of the chuunin guards. As they made their way to their destination they saw the daily lives of the villagers, whether it was fruit stands, restaurants, flower shops, entertainment, you name it, it was all here. Some may ask how the Leaf Village was so active this early in the morning, but that's just the way it was here.

The huge red building appeared, peeking through the rooftops of the village. It was nicely built with a round base and had many series of stairs and corridors. This is where the hokage's office was. As they reached the Sandaime's office the taller man knocked on the door. Hearing someone from the inside say 'enter' they opened the door and stepped inside.

"Jiraiya?" said the old man, "I wasn't expecting you to return so early in the morning."

"Hey old man how ya been?" said Jiraiya with a smirk, "I thought it'd be better to come by earlier, you know, to have more time before the exams."

"Ah, I see," replied the Sandaime, "so, glad to be home Naruto?"

"Yeah I guess so," replied the blonde with a slight smirk, "when do the exams start?"

"At noon," said the hokage, "so you have about three hours to spare."

"Alright then, mind if I go take a look around the village, to get myself reacquainted with it?" asked the blonde.

"Not at all, go ahead," replied the hokage happily, and just like that Naruto disappeared so fast that it seemed like only a blur, "I'm impressed Jiraiya, you have taught him well."

"Yes he is a lot stronger and smarter than most of the kids his age, but he does have his weaknesses and flaws," stated the sannin in return, "there are also some very important things you should know about Naruto."

Jumping from rooftop to rooftop the blonde made his way towards the hokage monument to get a better view of the entire village. It's been six years since he's seen his home after all. He made his way up the mountain as fast as he could, only to sit on top of the village's beloved fourth hokage's head. This was one of the things he remembered doing as a kid that really calmed him down. For some reason just sitting on top of the yondaime's head was very relaxing and helped him think a lot clearer. He used to sit there for hours on end when he was a child, looking at the sky and the clouds, feeling the breeze brush his skin, it felt so good. Naruto also felt this connection to the fourth whenever he sat there, its like he knew how he felt, and almost hear him.

After half an hour or so of relaxing, the blonde stood up and neared the edge of the fourth's head. He had the whole village under him, he saw the north, east, west, and south gates. He could also see the remains of the Uchiha section of the village, holders of the Sharingan. Jiraiya had told him many stories about the Uchiha clan and what had happened to them. One's lust for power is the destruction of many innocent lives. There was only one survivor that he knew personally, Uchiha Sasuke. He knew him from before he left the village all those years ago. Number one in the class, perfect shinobi skill, truly a prodigy to his clan. He was always so serious about everything, and he was supposed to be his rival. After reminiscing about all that, Naruto made a mental note to pay close attention to Sasuke when the exams started up.

On the opposite side of the Uchiha section, Naruto gazed upon the enormous Hyuuga compound. There was a Main branch house and a side branch house of the Hyuuga. They are well known for their Jyuuken style and their bloodline, the Byakugan, the all seeing eyes, or so they say. From what Jiraiya has told him, the Byakugan has the power to let the wielder see your chakra points and chakra coils. Basically the Byakugan completes the Jyuuken style. By pumping chakra into their attacks, the Hyuuga can close up the chakra points and damage your inner system, therefore defeating their enemies with the least effort possible. As for why they have a branch house, Naruto wasn't sure, but he knew he would find out sooner or later.

Seeing the whole village go about their daily activities, families walking around, all the happy people in this village made Naruto envious. He didn't have any of that stuff, a family, friends, loved ones, besides Jiraiya and the hokage…and also the chuunin teacher at the academy, Iruka, which he would get to see soon, he had no one. That's probably the only thing Naruto would wish for, a happy life, peaceful and full of joy, but he knew better. He had to fight for what he wanted. Even if he gets beaten, tortured, or humiliated, he had vowed to keep moving forward. He had left the village for one reason only. And that was for safety regulations after being horribly injured by some of the villagers six years ago. He had been the village's demon, but he had vowed to change all that and become the village's hokage. That was basically the only thing that drove him forward all these years. Pure determination, the guts to never give up, and a dream is basically all you needed to become what you want in Naruto's standards.

It was now 11:35am., which meant that the genin exams would start up soon. Snapping out of his day dreaming, Naruto took notice of this and started to make his way towards the academy. Jumping across rooftops, appearing and disappearing with a speed that made it look like a blur, he made it with 20 minutes to spare. Five minutes was a pretty good time considering he had to travel about 5 miles to get to the academy. Once there he saw that one by one students started to arrive. Some of them he recognized, like the pink haired girl, Sakura, she was supposed to be very annoying, as far as Naruto could remember at least. He also saw the Uchiha kid, Sasuke, he had decided to keep a close look on him. Also he saw a shy looking Hyuuga girl, with a big coat on. He somewhat remembered her, she was one of the not many people to ever be nice to him when he was a child. Unlike the other Hyuuga, her eyes weren't cold white and serious, they were a soft lavender color filled with kindness. As for her name he couldn't really make it out, that is until he realized that she was looking at him with a surprised look on her face.

"Hinata…" thought the blonde finally getting her name right.

"N-Naruto-kun…he's back?" thought the shy Hyuuga girl, "I-I thought I would n-never see him again, what do I do?"

"Hinata is that you?" said the blonde softly. Right now the girl was at a loss of words. She didn't even know what to do, finally being able to see the boy she liked after all those years. And not only that, but seeing him like this, all toned and looking more like a man, she was fighting to keep herself straight, "it is you! How ya been?"

"F-fine Naruto-kun," she finally said.

"Wow it's been a while hasn't it, I thought I would never see you again," he said with a smirk, which made her blush.

"N-Naruto-kun, where have y-you been all this t-time," she said forcing it out.

"Oh, well I've been away from the village for some reasons, but you're here to take the gennin exams right?"

"Y-Yes," replied the Hyuuga girl softly.

"Ah that's nice, we get to take it together," said Naruto happily, "I wonder if the-" Naruto was cut off by one of the chuunin teachers telling everyone to come inside for the exams. It was to take place in room 101, where two chuunins waited for them. As Naruto entered the room he gazed upon the chuunin named Iruka. At noticing that the blonde looking at him, he smirked.

"Naruto, my have you grown," said Iruka.

"Um, thanks Iruka-sensei, long time no see," replied the blonde.

"Indeed," said Iruka as the rest of the students took their seats, "well Naruto would you mind introducing yourself to the class?"

"Uh, sure," said the blonde, knowing that he hated doing stupid introductions, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, glad to be here."

"Alright thank you Naruto, now go take a seat while we start up the exams," stated the chuunin as Naruto took his seat, which was besides Hinata.

While Iruka explained the rules and regulations for the exam, Naruto noticed he was receiving glares from the rest of the class, mostly the girls. It was like the everywhere he went. He hated it with a passion, its like he was only followed and admired for his looks not for who he really is.

"That new guy looks pretty cute don't you think so Sakura?" questioned a blond girl in a whisper.

"Yeah, I guess so Ino, but he still doesn't compare to Sasuke-kun at all," replied the pink haired girl knowing that she has seen him before.

"Oh, yeah for sure," agreed Ino.

"I really wish they would stop talking about me in that manner," thought Naruto with a very annoyed look. With his heightened senses including, sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, he pretty much knew what was going on around him 24-7.

"A-Are you okay, N-Naruto-kun?" questioned the shy Hyuuga girl.

"I'm fine Hinata-chan," assured the blonde.

"Did he just call me…Hinata-chan?" thought the blushing girl.

This went on for a while, and not just with Naruto, but with Sasuke as well. All the girls were hovering over him all most the whole time the exams were going on. every time it was Sasuke's turn they would cheer him on like his own little cheerleading squad. Even though he didn't show it, Naruto knew he was dying in the inside. He knew exactly how he felt.

The exams consisted of the tests. First was the written part of the exams, which was 50 or so questions common for gennins. Second was the kunai/shuriken throwing test, where you got 10 kunai and 10 different targets. You had to get a minimum of 8 hits in vital areas of the body. Then there was the cloning test, where you had to create a minimum of 3 successful clones of yourself. The two top scores in from the entire group were Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto had a 94 in the written part of the exam, a perfect in the kunai/shuriken part, and an above perfect in the cloning part, creating over a dozen shadow clones, not just normal clones. Sasuke on the other hand got a perfect on the written part, only one miss in the shuriken/kunai part, and a perfect in the clone part.

The exams took a total of 3 hours to complete. Only about two fourths of the class passed the whole entire thing, which were told to meet back in the classroom in a half an hour after a lunch break. Naruto took this time to catch up with Hinata and share some stories on what's been going on all these years over a couple bowls of ramen. Although Naruto tried to limit on his own stories because some things were better off not mentioned, he still had to say something. All in all it was good to share a meal with one of the few people he considered friends, but all good things must come to an end as they were all called back in to be told which team they would be put into.

"I really hope I get put in the same team as Naruto-kun," thought Hinata.

"I wonder what'll happen now," thought a peeved Naruto, who was hoping to be put in a good team.

"Alright, first off I would like to say congratulations to those who passed," said Iruka as the graduates entered the room and took their seats, "there are going to be three teams of three gennin and their jounin instructor."

"Hold on a second sensei," said a blonde girl, "if there are three teams of three that means that only nine of us would be put into teams, there are twelve of us, how does that work?"

"Very good question Ino," replied Iruka, "you see right now there has been a lack of jounin instructors since they are all away on missions and other reasons, so we could only get 3 jounin, and the maximum number of people per squad is four people including the jounin and the three students. So we chose the nine with the highest scores in the exams to be put into squads, the other three will have to wait until there is another opening for a squad."

As soon as he finished explaining there were a large amount of complaints in the room from every corner. Naruto on the other hand could care less, one he knew he was within the top of the class and second he could care less if he made it or not, he just wants to fulfill his duty and dream.

"May I have your attention please!" shouted Iruka to gain control of the class again, "I am sorry, but I didn't plan for this, in the mean time those of you who don't make it, I strongly suggest that you tray excessively so that you will be very prepared for when there is an opening."

"No worries, I am positive I made it, I must stay with Sasuke-kun," thought two certain girls simultaneously.

"whatever lets just get this over with," thought a very lazy black haired boy.

"Hmm…munch…I hope I make it…munch," thought a chubby boy, eating potato chips.

"Alright I will now name those who made it and their teams," stated the chuunin, "first off is team 7: Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto."

"CHAAA!!! I'm in Sasuke-kun's team, take that Ino-pig," thought Sakura while Naruto and Sasuke just stared at each other with serious faces wondering what it would be like.

"I don't get to be in Naruto-kun's team after all…," thought a sad Hinata.

"Don't worry about it Hinata-chan, I'm sure you'll be just fine, I can tell you are a very strong person," said Naruto as if answering her thoughts, which shocked Hinata not knowing if he really did hear her thoughts or what.

"That's not fair at all, how come forehead girl gets to be with Sasuke?" said a very mad Ino.

"Because I rock and you suck," replied a very energetic Sakura.

"Oh just shut up already damn it!" thought a very annoyed Sasuke.

"Next up is team 8," spoke up Iruka, " Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba. And last, but not least, team 10: Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji."

"Oh great, of all people I get stuck with you two," said Ino.

"Who cares Ino," said Shikamaru, "this is such a drag."

"Again to those who did not make it, we will let you know when there is an opening as soon as we can, other than that you are dismissed. The nine of you who made it are to stay here for the remainder of the time and wait for your jounin sensei to arrive and once they do you are to do as they say. Other than that it's been a pleasure to have you in class and I wish you guys the best of luck."

With all that said Iruka took one last glance at the graduates and left the building to go report to the hokage. A few minutes after that the first jounin, Sarutobi Asuma, leader of team 10, arrived and took his squad. About five minutes after that team 8's jounin sensei, Yuhi Kurenai, arrived and took her squad. And then there was team 7 who were left waiting for their jounin for over an hour.

Usually Naruto was patient, but this was pushing it a little bit too far. Sakura looked like she was about to burst out and kill someone, which Naruto found it kind of scary because the killing intent she released was pretty big for her level. As Naruto looked at Sasuke he noticed that he too was getting annoyed by this, that is until they started to hear footsteps in the hallway. They kept getting louder and louder until you could almost feel them. Then finally the door started to open and suddenly…

"Yo," greeted the silver haired jounin, "sorry I'm late, but a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way."

"So you're the Hatake Kakashi I've heard so much about huh?" questioned Naruto ,while Sakura sweat dropped at the stupid excuse from their jounin sensei. Sasuke just had the 'shoot me now' expression on his face.

"Hmm, so you know who I am huh," said the jounin.

"Oh, I've heard much about you from sensei," replied the blonde, "you're always 2 to 3 hours late to everything, you use lousy excuses for everything, and you love that Icha-Icha Paradise book my sensei writes."

"So you know more than I thought you did," said the silver haired jounin, getting sweat drops from Sasuke and Sakura, "very impressive, well now that we have this out of the way lets move onto the roof of the building, see ya there"

With that said Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke followed by Naruto disappearing in the same fashion after him, making Sasuke and Sakura make their own way to the rooftop.

"Alright then, lets start with some introductions, you know as in likes, dislikes, hopes for the future, stuff like that" said Kakashi as the gennin took a seat on the stairs, "You pinky start us off."

"Well Sensei why don't you give us an example so we know how it goes," replied Sakura hiding her anger after hearing her little nickname.

"Well alright, My name is Hatake Kakashi, my likes and dislikes…well I don't feel like telling you that, as for my hopes for the future…eh, I haven't really thought about that yet," said the jounin receiving weird looks from the gennin, "alright now you go."

"My name is Haruno Sakura, my likes…(giggles and glances at Sasuke), my dream for the future is…(giggles slightly harder with a look at Sasuke), and my dislikes are people who don't treat other people right," she finished receiving a disappointed nod from Naruto.

"Very good, now you blonde," said Kakashi, receiving a scowl from Naruto.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, my likes would have to be eating, training, learning new jutsu, and becoming stronger, and there's someone special, other than that I don't really like much; I have too many dislikes to name, but one thing would be people who treat other's unfairly, and mistreat each other for their own pleasure; my hope for the future is more of a dream, I dream of learning who I really am and why I am what I am, and also maybe become hokage someday," he said getting everyone's attention.

"Hmm, very interesting, now you," said the jounin pointing at Sasuke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I don't particularly like anything, and I dislike a lot of things, and what I have is not a dream, but an ambition; I will restore my clan and kill a certain someone," he said giving them all goose bumps.

"Hmm, he must be talking about Itachi," thought the blonde.

"Alright then, you all have a very interesting story behind you and unique characteristics," said the silver haired jounin, "I trust you all know where the team 7 training grounds are so we will meet there tomorrow at 5 o'clock in the morning for a little test."

"Sensei, I thought that all the tests were already through, why do we need to take another one?" questioned the pink haired kunoichi.

"Because, this test will let me see if you all are worthy of being on my team or not, no questions asked," said the jounin, "I better see all of you there tomorrow, don't be late."

"He'll be late again, so don't be surprised if he doesn't arrive on time," said the Uzumaki, standing up, as the jounin left in a puff of smoke, "well I'll see you guys later I guess."

"Where are you going?" questioned the Uchiha as Naruto was about to jump off the roof's edge.

"Well I'm about to go training for a while, then meet with my sensei afterwards," stated the blonde.

"Meet with Kakashi?" questioned Sakura.

"No, my other sensei, Jiraiya," replied Naruto, making both gennins widen their eyes as they took notice that Naruto has been trained by one of the legendary three.

"Well can I go training with you?" asked Sasuke, with interest.

"Eh, sorry no can do," replied the blonde, making Sasuke scowl, "my training is umm, not really fit for others who haven't experienced it before, in other words it could end up drastic if you attempt it without having started from the beginning, but you can take this scroll right here for today if you want, it has some pretty helpful jutsu in there if you would like to study them, but you must return it to me by tomorrow."

"helpful jutsu?" questioned Sasuke as he caught the scroll Naruto threw at him.

"Yeah, I recommend you start from the beginning and work your way up, well see you guys tomorrow," said the Uzumaki as he jumped off and disappeared into thin air.

"This scroll has about 50 jutsu in it!" though the Uchiha, "there's no way he could know them all!"

"So, Sasuke would you like to go out to eat with…" said the pink haired girl before she realized that Sasuke had already left, making her hang her head in rejection once more, "Why does that always happen, ugh."

"So how did it go?" asked a long white haired man.

"It was alright," replied the blonde, sounding winded after his tough training, "so any sign of him yet huh?"

"No, not yet thankfully, but don't let your guard down," replied the sannin, "just remember what I taught you, when the time comes."

(What or who is Jiraiya referring too? And what is Naruto hiding to counter this phenomenon?) Next chapter: Testing to Build New Bonds.