Legends Live Long, Idiots Die Young
Chapter 2
"It's me Sakura. I've come home", smiled a little the blonde, but that smile wasn't as genuine as it used to be. It was almost as if he was forcing it, and Sakura wasn't one to miss that little detail. But at this point in time, she didn't care, she was just happy to see him.
"Naruto!", she sat up quickly as she cried, wrapping her arms around him tightly and burying her face into his shoulder, letting the tears that had built up during his four year absence finally spill.
He had been expecting this, but it still surprised him a little. Her hold on him was strong, so he couldn't exactly break away without a struggle or having to use the jutsu that gave his father the name of Yellow Flash, but he didn't want to upset her.
"I've missed you!", he heard the kunoichi say through her tears, and it made his heart ache to hear that and realize just how much he had actually hurt her by leaving.
"I've missed you too, Sakura", he said lowly, but his voice wasn't its usual warmth, another detail Sakura caught on to and made a note of in her head.
"What's wrong with him? What happened to my Naruto?", she thought to herself, wondering why he was acting this way. And those scars, she was curious where they came from. What happened to him over these four years?
"I hope you realize that trying to get you removed from the rogue list will be as complicated as it was trying to do the same for Sasuke, right?", Tsunade interrupted their little moment, her tone serious and her arms crossed. "The council is stubborn, and it took them a little to accept Sasuke, but they've always disliked you for you-know-why".
"I'm aware, and I'm sure they were tempted to put a bounty on my head to make me a wanted man, but so far yet I've not run into any hunters that were looking for me", Naruto said once Sakura let him go, with an emotionless expression, but his tone was laced with coldness, as if by nature. This was beginning to make Sakura feel uneasy.
"Naruto…", she thought as she stared at him, realizing the change in his personality, not just his appearance. Was he sick? Only when he was sick did he not act himself, and she would know because she'd be the one to watch over him, but this…No, this was different.
"Oh they were tempted alright, but I wouldn't let them. However, as much as I protested that we not send hunters out to kill you, they respected my choice at a heavy cost. Naruto if you leave again, no matter the reason, you will be wanted. And the council won't hesitate to put a bounty on you this time", Tsunade said, still serious.
"You are staying, aren't you?", asked a voice that suddenly sounded frail, and both the blonde and Hokage looked down at Sakura who was the source. "Didn't you come back to stay?", she asked him.
"…", no answer, he only looked away from her. She held her breath, hoping he'd say yes. To see him leave again would shatter her already broken heart. She wanted him to stay, she needed him in her life, otherwise it just wasn't the same.
"She's waiting for your answer, kit", said the fox that was sealed within the blonde, though only Naruto could hear him, because it was in his own head. "Don't tell me you've come all this way just to leave again? I thought you missed home?".
"I did miss home, and I thought I could return no problem, but now I'm beginning to have my doubts. What if it all goes wrong?", Naruto spoke back to the fox in thought.
"Well brat it's too late to turn back, you're here now and she's seen you, and letting you go again would undeniably hurt her. You don't want to do that, do you?", unfortunately the demon was right. For Naruto, leaving the first time was hard to deal with because he didn't know when he'd be able to see Sakura again, if ever at all.
"You've got a point there, Kurama…", he thought, but his attention was drawn away from the fox when he heard a shaky voice of fear say his name.
"Naruto?", Sakura spoke, tears beginning to brim her eyes again as she still stared at him, still waiting for his answer.
"I'm staying", he said, and he couldn't explain the happiness that made Sakura's face light up like a Christmas tree, the feeling that he had at being the cause of it. That familiar feeling he remembered burying deep within him long ago, it was beginning to resurface, and it made him smile, but this time that smile was genuine, the first time in four years he had smiled like that.
"You can check out in a couple more hours", Sakura heard Tsunade say towards her. "In the meantime, I'd like to speak with Naruto alone of his whereabouts these last four years, on my own behalf. I'll need to know if I'm to fight against the council for keeping him", said the Hokage, and she left the room to her office in the Hokage monument building, just next door to the hospital.
Naruto nodded, knowing he'd have to explain sooner or later, and looked down at Sakura. "I'll come back once she's done with me", he told her, that same coldness returning to his voice and his face, but it wasn't a coldness due to a grudge or hatred. He was just…Absent.
He left the room, so that she was alone. Shikamaru and Ino had long since gone home, so she had nobody to talk to, or so she thought.
"So, the blonde idiot's come back, I see", she heard that stoic voice of steel, and looked over to see that raven-haired snake, standing in the corner. When he arrived, or even how, she didn't know. It had taken a while to warm up to Sasuke again, and eventually she had, but at times like now it still felt uncomfortable to be around him.
"Yes he has, and I'm glad, I missed him too much…", Sakura told him, watching the door she saw said ninja walk out of after the Hokage.
"You think he'll stay?", asked Sasuke, eyes closed with one hand on his hip, and the other nonchalantly resting on the hilt of his katana strapped to his side.
"I had doubts you even would, but I didn't give up on that hope, so I won't give up on him. I believe in him", Sakura shook her head and shot a small glare towards the Uchiha.
"Fine. But don't be so gullible", Sasuke opened his onyx eyes and looked at her with his usual stoic face, and before she could say another word he disappeared in a plume of smoke, so she sighed in annoyance and layed back down to rest.
"I'm not gullible", she thought. "I'm just hopeful". And with that in mind, she fell into a peaceful sleep, it had been a long and eventful night. First a long day at work, and then offered to go out for some fun with Ino and her date Shikamaru, then a confrontation with Naruto whom she'd hoped would return but thought she'd never see again, and now here in the hospital thanks to her friends who cared. Perhaps things would begin to turn around for the best, and her life wouldn't be so upside down without her favorite blonde unpredictable hyperactive knucklehead lovable ninja. It was indeed, a hopeful thought.
Back at the Hokage's headquarters, in Lady Tsunade's office, Naruto sat in front of her desk waiting to be questioned. He was again showing that eerie calmness from when Shikamaru had him pinned before. Tsunade found this to be a little odd for the blonde loudmouth she knew in him, because normally by this time he'd be antsy and unable to sit still, complaining about why he had to sit there to be asked, as he would put it, stupid questions. But this time he waited, and didn't speak until he was spoken to.
"Where were you these four years, brat? And why didn't you return sooner? Tell me everything you know", Tsunade posed, crossing her arms as she leaned back into her chair and gave him a stern gaze as she waited, half expecting him to whine about it, but he only breathed out a sigh as he closed his eyes to think of where to start.
"I was staying with someone who was from the Leaf himself", he began. "He trained me in the way of the ANBU. I didn't come back sooner because…I just wasn't ready to".
"Sakura showed to me the note you left her. Was it really because you were afraid of losing her to Sasuke?", Tsunade asked.
"Yes. As much as I was ready to support her one hundred percent, baring even the thought of such a thing was something I couldn't handle, and because of that I was letting my emotions get the better of me, which was making me more vulnerable to the fox's chakra. In that kind of state of mind, I was a danger to the village, so I had to leave", Naruto answered.
"I see…And this person you spent your time with, who was he?", the Hokage poked.
"His name was Setsu Hashima, an EX-ninja of Konoha. He had left the village seventeen years ago. ANBU was his last known rank", explained the blonde. "The day I left was a cold one, the last one I saw was Konohamaru, who watched me walk out of those gates. It had already been snowing when a storm blew in, and I had already gotten as far as passed the river, but that's about all I remember. Setsu told me he found me just half alive in the snow, so he built camp and set me in front of a fire to warm me up. At first I didn't trust him, after all he was a rogue, but he explained to me his story and that if he were to do harm, he would of done it when I couldn't defend myself. From that point I learned to call him sensei, and he taught me what he learned in ANBU, including how to bury my emotions so that I could better control when the fox's chakra takes me over. He was a lot like Jiraiya Sensei", Naruto said.
"Interesting. Do you still plan to become Hokage?", Tsunade raised a brow at him as she leaned forward and rested her elbows on the desk.
"I left that dream behind a long time ago…", Naruto sighed, looking away. "Things have changed. I'm different now. I gave up on becoming Hokage the moment I set foot outside Konoha four years from today. I didn't know if I'd actually come back, so at the time I thought it was pointless to still believe in that dream, if I wasn't here to fight for it".
"I was afraid of that", Tsunade let out her own sigh, shaking her head slowly, earning back the blonde's attentive gaze. "Sasuke has begun to compete for the rank of Hokage, but I'm afraid he's just not right for it, he doesn't have the same kind of compassion as you do. Shikamaru on the other hand, he's perfect with his genius thinking, but he's just too damn lazy to take on such a task, and he'd rather it not get in the way of his relationship with Ino to the point of neglect towards her", she explained.
"I understand", Naruto nodded.
"There's also Kakashi, but he's not as young, so he wouldn't serve as long. He seemed more interested in becoming ANBU again, given that's where Sasuke is and Sakura's working at the hospital where her medical skills prove valuable. Konohamaru is still too young, so it'd be a while yet before he's eligible for the role. None of the other Rookie Nine think they're fit enough for it either, Choji and Shino are helping out at the Academy with Iruka, Kiba is working to become a jonin so he can be eligible to mentor his own team, and he and Hinata are already expecting their first child", Tsunade told him.
"What about Neji, Lee, and Tenten?", Naruto asked a bit curiously.
"They are already out in an ANBU team, and they've already told me they didn't want to take it from you, especially Lee. Like Sakura, they had hope you'd return, and figured you'd want the spot, so they left it for you", Tsunade said, getting up and walking over to the window, seeing it was beginning to snow, which it hasn't for at least two winters prior.
"I see…" the blonde trailed as his gaze turned away again. He expected Sakura to be hopeful, but he didn't think his other friends would rely so much on his return as well.
"I fear the worst for the village if Sasuke takes the rank. Like I said before, he's just not compassionate, he wouldn't be as open to what the people want and their benefits like you would be. Your interest was the people, and bringing peace, Sasuke doesn't show that. He likely wants it so that he can restore his clan without any much hassle", Tsunade said, watching the floating white flakes fall.
Naruto was silent this time, as he looked up at Tsunade, and stood up to walk over to her side looking outside the window at the village that was soon to be covered in yet another quilt of snow this year. The two watched for another moment's silence, before one of them spoke again.
"What do I need to do for it?", asked Naruto, but kept his gaze on what he saw outside the window.
"Not much is needed to be done. In order to be eligible to become Hokage, you must have at least earned jonin rank and have been trained in the ANBU for at least a year. Then it's only a matter of how worthy you prove yourself to be, and I choose from there who is to be my successor", Tsunade told him, looking at the blonde that stood taller than her. She remembered when he was still shorter than she was, when he was sixteen. "You've really grown, haven't you kid? Twenty years old and already you're as tall if not taller than Lord Fourth was. You're a lot like Minato, no matter how much you've changed", she thought.
"But I've not technically been named jonin, and my training in ANBU would be listed as invalid by the system of the village", Naruto pointed out, bringing Tsunade out of her thoughts.
"That may be true, but if I reinstate you as a ninja now, I could legally rank you as jonin if I pulled a few strings. As for your ANBU training, I can enlist you into the program and have you take your first year, or test what you know and if you pass, you'll automatically earn the status. Sound like a deal?", the Hokage asked, smiling at him and sitting down back at her desk.
Naruto gave it thought, knowing very well that her offer meant cheating, which he was usually against. However, if he were to take the long way around, Sasuke could easily surpass him and be named first. And there was no way the Uchiha would give up the title so easily if he were to request it. So he had no choice, if he was to beat the raven-haired bastard to it.
"Deal", he nodded, turning to shake her hand on it.
"Good. I'll file your papers and have a headband ordered for you by tomorrow. I now reinstate you as a jonin ninja of Konoha, and by agreeing to this you must vow to protect your village at all costs, even if it's your life", Tsunade told him with a nod.
"I swear my oath to that vow. But don't worry about the headband", Naruto said, which confused the Hokage. By law a ninja needed a headband to even be a real ninja. "Because I still have mine", he said as he pulled a long black piece of cloth with a metal plate attached and a Leaf insignia engraved in it from his pocket, holding it up to show her. "It's a little beaten down though, worn and torn by time. These last few years have not been kind to it, but it'll due", he said as he looked down at the thing, running his thumb over the scratched cracked plate, which meant he still cherished it.
"You kept it even after these years?", Tsunade asked, looking from the headband to the blonde.
"It was the one thing of Konoha I couldn't let go of", Naruto nodded.
"I know you're an unpredictable one but sometimes kid", Tsunade chuckled, standing up with some papers in her hand. "You really surprise me", she smiled him, and then waved her hand. "You're dismissed".
Naruto nodded with a smile of his own, and headed for the door, as he tied his headband around his head, suddenly realizing how much he had actually missed the feeling of wearing it to show his pride as a Leaf ninja. "Thank you, Lady Tsunade", he said to her over his shoulder, just before he walked out of her office.
It pained Tsunade a little when he didn't call her grandma like he used to. "I didn't think you'd actually mature this much brat. Sadly I kind of miss the old you".