Naruto was on a mission. Not just any mission, a mission to save a very important bond. Well, a very important bond to him at least. At first he didn't know how to go about it, to have a conversation with him, but the visit from Ero-sennin gave him an excuse. He is going to ask Kakashi to... (drum-roll)... take care of a plant of his.

Okay so it's not the best plan but at least he has a reason to approach the older jounin.

So now we find our (dumb)blond hero standing in front of his sensei's apartment door. Standing there. With a plant. In front of this nice wooden door. And oh look is that a caterpillar crawling on the floor. Reluctantly raising his hand he prepared to knock but his knuckles froze two inches from the door.

"What am I doing?" he whispered to himself. He lowered his hand and walked away. Thrity seconds later he came marching back to the door and before he could talk himself out of it again he knocked.

Knock. Knock. Kno- BAM!!! "Kakashi! My Eternal Rival! You Have Bested Me Again! For Losing I Shall Run One Hundred Laps Around Konoha BACKWARDS!!!!" The Green Beast of Konoha was so wrapped up in completing his newest self-imposed challenge that he didn't notice the orange blob squashed behind the door he just barged through.

Kakashi casually walked out his door and stared after his (unfortunately) best friend with a bemused look. Sighing he pulled out his smut and started to read it as he pried the door from the wall. As he suspected, one of his 'cute, little genin' has come to pay him a visit and was met on the wrong side of Gai's exuberance. The swirly-eyed blond came to and looked up at him. They stared at each other awkwardly before Kakashi got bored and waved. "Yo."

Naruto shot up from where he was and went rigid. "Kakashi-sensei! Err, ahhhh, here." He held out the plant. Kakashi took it and stared at it blankly. "Its for you. I mean,... since I'm going to be gone for a while with Ero-sennin someone will need to look after it and,... well, I was wondering if you would."

Kakashi continued to stare at the plant. It was plain, only about a foot tall with leaves sticking out of it in a boring brown pot, but it looked healthy and well taken care of. He walked back in his apartment with the door still hanging open. Naruto took the open invitation and followed the older man in and shut the door behind them. Kakashi set the plant down on the window sill next to his pictures of his current and past genin team.

Naruto nervously scratched the back of his head, "So,... What was Gai's challenge this time?"

Kakashi had slouched into a chair and continued to read his Icha-Icha Paradise. Flipping a page he said, "A staring contest. I convinced him that it went against the rules to cover one of my eyes so I just hypnotized him to blink."

"...Kakashi-sensei you cheater."

He just shrugged.

"..."

"..."

Feeling uncomfortable just standing there doing nothing he decided to leave. "Just thought I'd let you know that I'm leaving in a week. So, bye. And be sure to take care of midori-iro-san (Mr. Green?) for me. He's my favorite." Annoyed that he was still being ignored he huffed and with a blush walked out the door.

When the door clicked shut Kakashi flipped another page before glancing over at the plant and eye-smiled. "'Cute, little genin' indeed."

"Seriously Naruto, you need to start eating better. I expect you to eat properly while you're gone and believe me I'll know. If we're going to get Sasuke back then we'll need to be as strong as we possibly can be. So that means no ramen." Naruto was just finishing up packing after Sakura had come over and freaked over the fact that it was his last day in Konoha and Naruto had yet to finish packing. So being the "kind" person she was she offered to help. But the package deal came with her lecturing him the entire time, mostly about his health. Seriously, He was beginning to think that Sakura learning from Tsunade was a bad idea because if she had changed this much in this short amount of time, he didn't even want to think what two and a half years would do. In the two weeks since she came to him excited about being Tsunade's apprentice, she has become more outspoken and a total health-freak. I mean, He knows she means well and he loves her dearly for caring, but,... NO ONE TALKS BAD ABOUT THE RAMEN!!!!!!

"But Sakura-chaaaaan! Ramen is good for the soul."

She immediately glared over at him, complete with ominous clouds and killing-intent. Naruto cowered in fear and went just a little faster in his tidying up as only one thought went through his mind, 'scary'. Satisfied that she got her point across she smiled in victory.

Naruto stopped when he got to his team photo that was sitting beside his bed. Picking it up, he brushed his thumb across the smiling face of their jounin sensei. He was still depressed about the total failure in having a decent conversation with Kakashi. But at least he didn't get any negative vibes from his sensei and that is what he had originally set out to find out. So Kakashi wasn't completely disgusted with him right?

His eyes flickered to the other face that has been on his mind. Sasuke. His body tensed when he thought back to what was done to him. He knew he should be angry and hate the Uchiha for what he did but he felt more betrayed than anything. And deep down, he knew that he still considered him family and if he was willing, he would take the bastard back with open arms. He knew that he loved Sasuke. But the problem was that he wasn't inlove with him. Either way it still hurt to be betrayed.

"Don't worry. We'll get him back." He looked up startled into sad green eyes.

He sighed before placing the picture facing down back on the table. "Yeah."

They finished on a much more somber note and after double checking (and Sakura made him triple check) everything to make sure that what he was taking was packed and what was staying was stowed away, they headed off in the direction of the gates.

On the way, they made an "unexpected" passing of Ichiraku's. Sakura stopped when she noticed that Naruto was no longer beside her. Looking back she saw him look longingly at the small ramen stand with his nose in the air as the sweet aroma surrounded him and a slight trail of drool forming at the corner of his mouth. Annoyed that he was already cracking on the no ramen diet, she marched right back to him and punched him upside the head.

"You baka! Weren't you listening when I said to stop eating so much ramen. We don't have time for this!"

Naruto slowly turned his head back around to face Sakura and when he finally faced her, her breath hitched. 'oh no! He's using IT When Naruto turned to face her, his eyes were big and watery and his bottom lip was jutted out just right to give off the saddest, most pathetic looking puppy-dog eyes that no sane girl that ever bothered to look directly at him would be able to resist.

"But Sakura-chaaan! This will be the LAST CHANCE for who knows how long that I'll be able to have Ichiraku's rameeeeeeen!"

"No." Of course who ever said Sakura (or any shinobi for that matter) was completely sane?

He grasped her hand in both of his and looked her straight in the eye. "Pleeeaaaaase?"

"I said no." She had to look away in order to hold her crumbling resolve.

The desperate blond dropped to his knees and hugged her legs. "PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAASSSSSEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Horrified, she looked down at the now sobbing blond. Big mistake. Seeing the sad and incredibly pathetic blond made her snap. "Fine! But only one bowl. We don't have time for one of your ramen eating contests."

"YATTA!" Naruto was nothing but a blur as he took his regular stool and smacked his palm on the counter top. "Occhan! One miso ramen please! And make it count. This'll be my last one before I leave."

Sakura just rolled her eyes at her teammate's actions then came and joined him at the bar.

Tsunade stood at the gate, impatiently tapping her foot. Every so often she would look up at the sun and check the time before glancing at her disgruntled ex-teammate. He would then glance at her for glancing at him and she would look away at all the others who have been waiting for the past twenty minutes for the blond wonder.

First was Umino Iruka, Naruto's academy teacher and being the punctual person he was, he was the first to arrive. He had a very disappointed look on his face.

Next was the genin of team Gai. She was surprised that the stoic Hyuuga was there or even a friend to the hyperactive brat. He had just been released from the hospital today and was being supported by his teammate with the bun's for hair. She looked more bored with the situation than anything. Probably just there to help her teammate get around. Lee had started doing push-ups to pass the time. She knew better than to try and stop him for being injured. He has been much more active with worse injuries and she just considered herself lucky that he is using a tame workout.

Next was half of team Kurenai. The Inuzuka and the Aburame had immediately taken a spot under the shade of a tree and after five minutes of waiting the Inuzuka started complaining loudly about Naruto being late to his own send off. She was curious about the Hyuuga heiress not being there because she knew that the poor, timid girl had a not-so-secret crush on Naruto. Expanding her senses she found the girl hiding behind a building not too far away. She had to cover a knowing smile.

The last to arrive was the next generation of the Ino-Shika-Chou team. They arrived fifteen minutes late with Ino yelling at her teammates for being late and that they would probably not make it in time but when they got there she started to complain (loudly) about others not being on time. Shikamaru just stared up at the clouds and his best friend Chouji just continued eating his chips (he needed to regain his weight after all). Them ignoring the irate blond just made her angrier.

The only ones not here was Naruto's own teammates, Hatake Kakashi and Haruno Sakura. She guessed that they were somehow related and that it was all that damn Kakashi's fault, but that theory was trampled and peed on when the jounin arrived and looked around in confusion aboutnot being the last to arrive.

"Hatake! Where is your team?!" The cyclops looked over at his leader and shrugged.

"Maybe they got lost on the road of life." Ignoring the dangerous tick of his Hokage's eye, he pulled out his book and walked away to a more comfortable spot.

It was several minutes later when Neji looked up and into the distance and said, "They're here."

As predicted, two blurs came rushing up to the gates, the pink blur dragging the orange blur behind it. When they stopped, Sakura was bent over to catch her breath and the knocked out Naruto laid on the ground behind her. "So sorry we're late shishou but someone (glares at the unconscious blond) was being incredibly annoying and refused to come when I said."

"Why wouldn't he want to come?"

She rolled her eyes. "He was busy savoring his last bowl of Ichiraku's ramen."

Everyone sweat-dropped at that. Tsunade walked over and placed a glowing green hand on his forehead. Naruto's eyes shot open and he jumped to his feet. He looked around in confusion until he noticed that he was surrounded by all his friends. When he saw Sakura his eyes widened and he pointed accusingly at her. "YOU ARE A CRAZY WOMAN!"

It took Lee, Kiba, and TenTen to stop the crazed girl from strangling her teammate.

Hinata looked on through the use of her Byakugan as Naruto finally arrived and said something stupid to get Sakura enraged and try to attack him. She watched as they all calmed down and he was wished good luck and everyone said their final goodbyes. She knew that she was being weak, to not even be able to approach him, but she made a promise to herself that by the time he comes back that she would be strong enough to welcome him back. She continued to watch and admire him as he talked to each of his friends.

As his chakra signature stepped away from the rest as the others began to leave she was able to get a better look at his chakra without all the others clouding her vision. What she noticed was... odd. His chakra had a strange pattern to it and she knew for a fact that it didn't always act like that as she has observed him through her byakugan before. The average person's chakra moves through their body at the same rate as their heartbeat and Naruto's, she had always noticed, cycled just a little faster than everyone else's. But now she noticed that as his chakra moved at a slightly slower rate than normal, the chakra near his stomach was moving in the opposite direction.

She didn't think it was anything dangerous, just... strange.

Naruto has said goodbye to most of his friends and they all started to clear out having other things to do. All that was left was Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, Tsunade-obaachan, and Ero-sennin. After a pat on the back from Iruka-sensei, Sakura gave him a shy, almost reluctant hug. He was immediately passed on to a teary-eyed Tsunade who gave him a bone-crushing hug. She whispered, "Please stay safe," into his ear before he was let go. Then last but not least was Kakashi-sensei.

You could tell that he was uncomfortable showing emotion as he gave his student a ruffle of the hair. "Take better care of yourself." Blue eyes looked up at him and before he could comprehend what happened Naruto had given him a quick hug around the middle and took off. He stood their still as a statue as he and Jiraiya picked up their bags and walked through the gate. With a final wave, Konoha's number one hyperactive knucklehead ninja left Konoha. Kakashi noticed that he was OOC and immediately fixed that by pulling out his little orange book and walking away as nonchalant as possible. ''Cute, little genin' indeed'.

AN- before you read too much into it, Kakashi is NOT in love with Naruto (yet). He has affectionate feelings for his entire team (now excluding Sasuke). It's just, Naruto IS incredibly cute.

Also I read on Wikipedia that the plant that Kakashi has in his room was a gift from Naruto and I found that incredibly cute but now I can't find it TT. I'm not sure if the spelling was right but meh, neither do you most likely.

The goodbyes was kinda rushed because it probably would have been boring.

Thanks for all the reviews. They are always appreciated.