Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with the author or owner of Naruto. This is a work of fandom and I am in no way profiting from it.

Peace

By: Mr. Patience

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Chapter 2

Fierce knocking on the wooden bedroom door woke Tsunade from her deep slumber. She rolled in her covers and drowsily looked her clock. The time read "1:15 AM." The hard knocking continued. She pulled herself from her warm bed and cracked open the door.

"This better be good…" she warned.

"Sakura needs to meet with you at the Hokage Tower immediately," Shizune spoke urgently from the other side of the door.

"If it's about those damn medical reports, I swear I'll-"

"She completed her mission."

There was a silence as the full weight of the words began to sink in.

"I'll be ready in five minutes."

-----

Sakura sighed as she caught herself glancing at Naruto again. She knew that she was only doing it because she was nervous, or in denial, about the whole thing.

Her pupils flittered towards him. Naruto's face was just as neutral as it had been when he had agreed to come with her. But she had noticed that he had been holding back a grimace since they had entered Konoha. But that didn't matter because they were sitting in the Hokage's office and everything would be fine.

She glanced at him again. Naruto would work for Konoha for month, get paid, and then go back to his monastery. One quick glance. Everything would return to normal after that.

"You worry too much, Sakura," he remarked without looking at her.

The kunoichi looked at her lap, mortified.

The opening of the door behind them dispelled the tension in the room. That is, until Tsunade entered.

The Fifth Hokage briskly glided past them and sat down behind her large wooden desk without looking at either of the other two occupants of the room. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. First she saw her apprentince who, to her trained eye, looked like a nervous wreck.

Next, she shifted her gaze to the man sitting beside her. For a moment, she felt her stern Hokage Hokage façade crack.

"Good evening, Naruto. I am glad that you accepted our request."

"Before we jump to conclusions, I would like to hear more on the matter that I am to investigate. I want to know what I'm getting myself into."

"Simply put, our sources have gather information that give a strong indication that there is a threat gathering in the west."

"'A strong indication?' It is probably just a small upstart group; many of those surfaced after the war."

"No, this has the possibility of being on the same level of Akatsuki."

"Hokage-sama," Tsunade shuddered internally at the address, "There won't be on a group on the same level as Akatsuki for many generations."

The weight behind the words caused Tsunade to hold her tongue. For a moment, it seemed as though Naruto would simply walk out the door and she couldn't afford to lose him… again.

"However," he continued, "It shouldn't be overlooked. I'll investigate the matter, but on a few conditions."

The Hokage didn't know whether she should be glad or not.

"First, I want access to intelligence in the Konoha network. Second, this is commission work so I'll only be here for one month, no more."

Tsunade started to protest, but Naruto cut her off.

"And when that one month is up and I walk outside Konoha's gates, I was never here. Any files on me that have not yet been destroyed are to be incinerated. And never send anyone from Konoha to contact me. Never."

She tried not to squirm under his hard gaze and sighed instead.

"Your demands, though high, are not impossible. I'll have a scribe draw up a contract and-"

"A verbal agreement will suffice."

There was no point in arguing with him; they needed him and he knew it.

"So be it."

They shook on it and the commissioned shinobi began to leave when Tsunade called out: "What about your payment?"

Naruto politely turned toward her and replied, "I am a monk, Tsunade; I have no need for excessive remuneration. I just need enough for living expensive while I'm here."

"What about accommodations? There won't be many inns open at this time of night."

"He can stay with me," Sakura piped up.

Naruto had almost forgotten that she in the room and now looked at her with mixed feelings.

"It's only for one night," she shrugged.

"Alright."

-----

Sakura was once again casting glances at Naruto. She had wanted run across the rooftops to her apartment, but Naruto had insisted that they walk saying that he needed to reacquaint himself with the village. It would have been quite nice had it not been for the torrential downpour that was practically drowning them. And of course, Naruto was oblivious to it.

Sakura rubbed her soaked arms as she glanced at her odd friend. His head was tilted back as he scanned the surrounding buildings with his wet blond locks clinging to his lean face and sturdy neck. The street lights illuminated the water that ran down his square jaw and angular cheekbones. The black whisker-marks were prominent, yet not out of place; a ghost of a smile curved them ever so slightly. His clear blue eyes analyzed everything and stirred with a multitude of emotions.

And that's when Sakura realized that they were looking at her.

She quickly snapped her eyes forward, embarrassed at being caught staring at him.

It was almost 2:30 AM, but she knew that dawn was still a long time away.

-----

Following Sakura through her apartment building, Naruto had the increasingly strong feeling that this was a bad idea. He didn't know if it was because of their past, the fact that he was fascinated by how Sakura's soaked clothing clung to her lithe figure, or a combination of the two.

"Calm down, it'll be fine. Besides, it's only for one night."

"Here we are," she announced as she opened the door, "It's not much, but it should do."

She led the way in and said, "You can take my bed for the night."

After closing the door behind him, he replied, "No need to inconvenience yourself because of me; I'll sleep on the floor."

Sakura quickly walked to her bedroom and out of Naruto's sight to her bedroom, but continued to talk to him, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," he replied while looking about her loft. It hadn't really changed over the past five years; tidy and clean with a touch of elegance.

"Are you hungry or anything? I can fix something, if you want."

"No, I'm fine," he called back with a small smile; it seemed that she hadn't changed much either.

"Well, at least let me get you some dry clothes," she insisted. She had come back into the living room and was standing behind him.

"That's alright, I can take care of-" he paused when he turned around and saw her. She had changed out of her saturated clothes and was now wearing just and oversized shirt that had slipped off one of her shoulders.

"I, uh," he looked down at his hands sheepishly, "Have this little technique to take care of it."

He then formed his hands into a tiger seal and closed his eyes in order to concentrate.

Sakura watched in curiosity as steam visibly began to float off of his clothing, followed by a soft hissing sound. Curiosity turned into amazement as Naruto's clothing dried before her eyes.

"How do you do that?!" she inquired eagerly.

"It's basically an extremely weak fire jutsu," he explained, enjoying the surprised look on her face.

"Instead of concentrating chakra to a single body part, you spread it throughout your entire body and push out just enough chakra that you get heat, but no open flame. See?"

He held his hand next to her cheek and focused a minimal amount of chakra to it.

Her lips spread into a smile and a soft "wow" escaped her lips when she felt the warmth of the jutsu flow over her cold cheek. She closed her eyes, enjoying the pleasant sensation, and moved her face closer to his hand.

Naruto smiled too and gently placed his hand against her cheek which she nuzzled into. He had forgotten how soft and smooth her skin was and instinctively caressed it with his thumb. She placed her palm on the back of his hand and pressed it firmly against her cheek.

He gaze tendered as it moved over the soft, curving features of her peaceful face framed by silky locks.

It seemed that he had also forgotten her beauty.

She green eyes opened slowly and looked at his, searching.

She took a tentative step towards him; he did not back away.

Her eyes continued to search his.

She took one last step; they were only inches from each other.

She wanted to find the thing that existed…

She leaned toward him.

…five years ago.

"No!"

He pulled away from her, averting his eyes from her shocked gaze.

"I can't… it's not right…"

Why couldn't he find the right words?

"Sakura, I…"

Were there even any right words to be found?

"I left Konoha… a long time ago."

There was silence as Sakura stared longingly at Naruto who had his head bowed.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

His exit was reflected in the lone tear that ran down Sakura's warmed cheek.

-----

"Tsunade," Shizune chided, "It's almost four o'clock."

Said woman did not reply for she was too busy poring over the multiple documents that were spread across her desk.

Her assistant sighed.

"Tsunade, you really need to get some sleep."

The phone on her desk rang.

"Who would be calling the office at this time of nigh-"

"This is the Hokage speaking."

Shizune watched curiously as her sensei's brow furrowed.

"Wait, you need to speak up, Sakura. Now, Naruto went where?"

Her body tensed and her eyes widened.

"Alright, just stay at your apartment and we'll discuss this later."

She hung up the phone and exhaled roughly.

"Shit," she cursed and then looked at her bewildered assistant, "Get all on duty shinobi to search for him and alert me when they find him. And be careful; he may be… temperamental."

Tsunade slowly raised a hand to massage her temple as Shizune rushed from her office.

Chapter End

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A/N: I was finally inspired enough to write this chapter a couple days ago. Needless to say, I'm inconsistent when it comes to chapter output. I'm finally feeling good about the direction of this story again, mostly because I don't exactly know where it's going; it makes writing it a lot more interesting.

Yep, I have no clue when the next chapter will be out. It could be tomorrow or three months from now, who knows? But if you don't like waiting that long, just leave a review telling me about it, or anything else about the story.

So, yeah, enjoy life.

-Mr. Patience

And make sure to check out my one-shots!