"Shichidamie Hokage maybe… but he is definitely a second Naruto."
Both Iruka and Tsunade watched the young boy's team laugh their ways down the bustling streets of Konoha. His stubborn and forceful dreams were all too similar of those of one Uzumaki Naruto, so much so that nostalgic smiles crept onto the adult's faces.
"It's about time that he came home isn't it?" Iruka questioned with that proud smile that only Naruto could bring.
"It is..."
"Will you tell him about Sakura?"
"I'm not sure yet... I need to see if he has matured. I need to know that the idiot won't tear himself in two, trying to fix his broken team."
"He's spent the last two and a half years training with Jiraiya-sama. I'm sure that he has matured enough for him to understand."
Tsunade placed a gentle hand on the window, watching the smiling Konohamaru carelessly living his life, "I really hope he has... worst case scenario could be another rogue on our hands.
The gates of Konoha stood proud as ever, all the tiny details were exactly like the ones that had been implanted in Naruto's memory. It was the exact same. His home hadn't changed.
"Wow... it's been so long."
"Well you're home now kid," Jiraiya gave a small chuckle as his precious student bounded up the closest lamp post to announce his presence to the world, "Always rambunctious."
Naruto stood tall and ready, arms open to the light before him and the memories floating in his eyes, "Uzumaki Naruto is back!"
Warm breezes blew through the golden hair and over the sun kissed skin; the idiotic Genin had clearly matured into the start of a bright young man. If only his mindset matched his outward appearance.
"No way..." a small chuckle forced the blonde to notice the trio the stood gaping beneath him, "NARUTO-NII!"
"Hey Konohamaru," Naruto leaped gracefully and in a few small steps stood before his follower, "Long time no see huh?"
"Yeah!" Konohamaru smirked evilly, and in seconds the young boy transformed himself into a voluptuous, curvy woman that could make any perv desperate to be beneath her, "Oiroke no Jutsu. What to do think, hm Nii-chan?"
"Konohamaru, I've grown well past those childish things..."
"Huh?"
"Yeah..." Naruto pumped his fist as fire began to burn in his eyes, "Just wait till you see my new perverted Jutsu! Ready?!"
Both Konohamaru and Jiraiya waited expectedly.
"Alright! Here we... huh..."
Being deprived of his sex-ready woman, Jiraiya nearly flew into a God fearing rage, "WHAT COULD POSSIBLY MAKE YOU STOP?!"
"I was just wondering... what Sakura-chan would do to me if she saw me doing that."
An odd silence fell over the young trio, immediately followed by three different excuses as to why they had to rush off suddenly. Naruto barely even noticed the strange behaviour of the children, the only thing on his mind was seeing everyone again. Getting to see his friends. Go to Ichiraku. Just be happy that he was home after those years away.
"Come on you," Jiraiya was still upset that he was deprived of the womanly goodness that Naruto could, weirdly, offer but he knew that he would be in trouble if he didn't get the boy to Tsunade soon, "I know a certain someone who will be dying to see you again."
"Yeah, Baa-chan. And I bet Sakura-chan will be there too!"
"You still have a crush on the little girl then?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Naruto chuckled and thought back to the missions he did with her, "Sakura-chan is awesome, and pretty, and she's my friend."
"I'm not questioning your taste in women or anything but…"
"But what Ero-Senin?"
"But she's been training with Tsunade for the past two and a half years hasn't she?"
"So what?"
"So I'm just warning you that she may have been influenced by the short tempered Hokage."
"No way. You don't know Sakura-chan," Naruto smiled into the warm sun and looked towards the Hokage Tower, "She'll be just the same as she was when I left. You'll see."
Tsunade was caught between the joy of Naruto's return and the fear of telling him that Sakura was no longer part of the village. He stood with his normal smile plastered on his face, and his blue eyes were searching for the pinkette that she should've been teaching. She could tell just by looking at him that while his body had matured, mind was still that of a hopeful child.
"Hey Baa-chan," Naruto chuckled and rubbed a hand through his mess of hair, "Long time no see. You haven't changed a bit haha."
Tsunade couldn't keep the small smile from crawling onto her face, "While you certainly have changed Naruto. Grown up but have you matured?"
"Of course I have! I'm so mature that I make Ero-Senin look like a child‼"
"So you haven't changed at all…"
"Hey‼"
She really couldn't tell him. Not yet. She'd let him settle back into the village and then she's break in the news as slowly and calmly as she could. Till then she'd just have to make sure he didn't find out what happened.
"So… where's Sakura-chan?"
"She… is… on a mission right now," Tsunade bit on her nail and gave an 'I'll tell you later' look to Jiraiya, "A mission. So you won't be seeing her around the village."
"Oh…"
"Yes, but never mind that right now. I have someone who I've been resting for the past few days in order to be ready for today. He's…" a knock on the door interrupted her sentence, "Come in!"
Even Naruto spun to face the duo that entered, without even looking at his face she could tell that his smile managed to increase tenfold.
"Hey Shikamaru‼"
"Na… Naruto‼ Wow it is you," Shikamaru moved forwards with an unknown smile plastered on his face, "When did you get back?"
"Just now actually. Ha-ha oh…" Naruto narrowed his eyes at Temari but just couldn't seem to place a name to the face, "Who are you again?"
"You don't remember me?!"
"Of course he wouldn't," Shikamaru chuckled, "I bet you haven't matured at all Naruto."
"I have‼"
"Didn't think so."
"Oh so… does this mean that you guys are my opponents?"
"Opponents? We're just dropping off a report…"
"Naruto‼" Tsunade called his attention back to her as she pointed out the window, "Your opponent is out there."
"Huh?" Naruto ran to the window and looked at, once again his smiling face managed to shine even brighter, "Kakashi Sensei‼"
While he moved out to give his present to Kakashi Tsunade waved over the shinobi who had just entered, she lowered her voice and kept it serious, "Naruto can't know about Sakura."
"He's going to find out sooner or later," Shikamaru advised, watching the blonde himself, "and then you're going to have to deal with it."
"Not now. I'll figure out a way to break him into it but until then she is on a mission. You are to inform all of his friends of this. Naruto will find out when I deem the time ready."
"Yes Hokage-sama.":
Tsunade could see the doubt in his eyes, in both of their eyes, but she was the boss and so she got to decide what happened in her village. Looking at Temari she got a clever little idea, he was friends with the Kazekage he could go take a vacation there after he had his test with Kakashi. That way he would be out of her hair while she thought up a clever scheme.
Tsunade swiftly wrote down her request on a scroll and handed it to Temari, "Mind giving that to your brother when you get home?"
"Of course not," Temari eyed the scroll with doubt, "What is it?"
"Just a little request. Nothing to worry about."
"Huh?"
Kakashi had vanished after receiving the present from Naruto, slowly the frustrated blonde came back inside with a childish pout, "He ran off…"
"Don't worry about that," Tsunade waved it off as casually as she could, "Why don't you take the rest of the day to just relax and get back to your roots."
"Can do," Naruto gave a small salute and started chasing Shikamaru out the door. At least we was distracted, she just had to keep him like that until she had figured everything out.