A.N-). When I wrote this up at first, I only meant to make Sakura notice Naruto being more mature… her beginning to develop a crush on him wrote itself. I don't know whether I should nudge the story towards a threesome (Naruto will not get a ten girl harem under any circumstances) or not. I honestly don't really know what direction I want to take this story romance-wise… Naru/Hina is the only definite one, and I'll be trying to keep that as 'realistic' as I can. I need your input people otherwise I'm just totally going to wing it.
Also: I don't know how evil Naruto is going to be... at all. I'm mostly letting this thing write itself, but if you guys tell me whether you want him gray, dark, Evil, or EVIL, and I'll try to guide the story in that direction.
Oh, before I forget: I NEED A BETA
*ahem* Anyways, the prologue was just me seeing the Naruto/Overlord crossover part of the site and going 'Hey, that's a neat idea, why don't I give it a shot?' and promptly hurling up a mess onto the screen. I posted that thing about an hour after I finished it and gave it a once over for this site… I kinda need a beta.
If you're still with me here, just fair warning, Naruto doesn't do a whole lot of Overlording in this chapter, he will next chapter, but this is just a lot of him getting reacquainted with people. That and there's more stuff at the bottom.
Anyways, On with the fic!
Chapter 1 - Arrival
It was the day of reckoning.
He was home.
"It's been almost two and a half years hasn't it…" it wasn't really a question.
"Yeah… it has," the teen stopped in the middle of the street and took a deep breath.
The grin that spread across his face was contagious, and with barely contained joy, the blonde nearly flew up the side of a nearby building.
His black shoes were almost silent as they touched the top of the water tower, but he didn't stay that way long, because after another deep breath he shouted to the world with arms wide to embrace it, "I've missed this place!"
A small chuckle escaped the blonde as he stuffed his hands into his pockets, a serene smile settling across his face.
"I really did miss this place…" his blue eyes swept across the village… his village. His home- … was that…? "Heh… looks like they finally got around to carving Obaa-chan's face on the mountain…" the teen blinked, "…?!"
"You've grown a lot haven't you, Naruto," He turned towards the voice with a smile, even as the speaker raised a hand in greeting, "Yo."
"Kakashi-sensei! Hah! You haven't changed a bit!" The blonde hopped down from his perch, landing lightly beside his old teacher even as his face lit up, "Oh yeah! Got something for you," Naruto rummaged in the pack slung over his shoulder till he found the item he was looking for, presenting it to his former sensei.
The masked Jounin's eye widened, "Whaaaaa? Y-You… how-? But… but this is…"
Naruto placed the book in his sensei's hands, grinning unabashedly at the man, "Yep! Icha Icha Tactics, latest in the series," the grin became devious, "And it's a rare, signed, uncut version too."
When the older man let out a strangled sound of happiness, Naruto knew his job here was done.
---
"Right!" Naruto checked off the first box on his 'Things-to-do-upon-return-to-Konoha' list of the day, "Next stop, Ichiraku Ramen!"
It wasn't that Naruto didn't like the Minions cooking, it was actually quite delicious and probably a lot better for him… But c'mon, it was old man Teuchi's ramen and Naruto hadn't had it in years, literally!
The teenager took off down the street at a relatively slow pace, little more than a civilian jog.
Not too far behind him, Jiraiya spoke with Kakashi, "As promised, I'll leave him to your care…" the older man hesitated as they walked behind Naruto at a more sedate pace.
"You don't seem like the type to start him wearing armor… or using a sword…"
The Sannin frowned, "I didn't."
"Mm."
"Tomorrow… I'm going to give a full report to Tsunade at eight. You need to be there," Jiraiya didn't take his eyes off their student, "I'm going to be off gathering information by the end of this week at the latest. I'm afraid the Akatsuki are getting impatient… they might make their move soon-"
"GAH!"
The two older men's attention refocused on their blonde student a ways ahead of them, who'd just run into a certain pink-haired kunoichi.
"S-Sakura-chan…?"
"Eh?! Naruto?!"
---
Two Sannin, two apprentices, and one particularly lazy Jounin huddled together; arguably the five strongest ninja currently in the village, all in one spot.
Sakura did her best 'cute' impression, giving her old teammate a shy smile, "How do I look? Do I look more like a woman now…?"
Warning bells went off in Naruto's head, 'Danger-Danger! Tact required! Don't say something stupid! Neutral answer! Complimentary but true! Complimentary but true!'
He gave his friend as smile, a real one, and said with conviction, "You look like a true Kunoichi."
Her jaw dropped slightly before immediately closing, the young woman huffed and looked away, fighting to keep the scowl on her face even as a light shade of pink tinted her cheeks, "You still don't get women do you?"
Naruto chuckled embarrassedly as he scratched the back of his neck, accidentally drawing attention to something Sakura hadn't noticed before.
"Hey… you've… you've gotten taller than me?!" Naruto blinked, doing a double-take of his own before grinning wildly.
"Yeah, looks like it," while the blonde amused himself by trying to count the number of centimeters he had on her, Sakura couldn't help but smile affectionately at him.
'Naruto… you've gotten a lot stronger since the last time I saw you…' the girl didn't have to be a chakra sensor to feel the warmth of Naruto's chakra at this distance. Tsunade and her had bumped into him entirely on accident, and it was only within a couple feet of him that his surging field of chakra was readily obvious.
A loud BANG stopped any further conversation before it could start, "Naruto-nii-chan!"
Once the speaker was certain all attention was focused on him, he, became a she, "Sexy no jutsu!"
Jiraiya ogled, Sakura recoiled, Kakashi didn't care, Tsunade gave the boy turned girl a blank stare, and Naruto…?
Naruto smirked.
As the nude girl became a clothed boy once again with another loud BANG, Naruto almost chuckled, barely restraining himself as Konohamaru spoke, "Well how was that jutsu?! Had some real 'Oomph' to it didn't it?!"
Now he let himself chuckle softly and shake his head just a bit before giving the boy a serious look, "Konohamaru, I'm sorry, but I'm not a kid anymore. From now on, you shouldn't use that jutsu either."
As Naruto stepped closer to the now admonished boy, Sakura felt a peculiar warmth spreading through her chest, 'Naruto… you haven't just gotten older, you're more mature now too aren't you? It… it makes me feel a little sad. You've really become amazing in your time away haven't you…?'
"Konohamaru," Naruto ruffled the boys' hair with a hand, "That kind of jutsu has its place… mostly as a joke. But," a mischievous grin spread across his formerly serious face, "It would be pretty useful against someone like Ero-sennin. So don't go forgettin' it, 'kay?"
While Konohamaru smiled, Sakura scowled at Naruto without really meaning it, "Naruto! Don't encourage perverted jutsu like that!" the pink-haired kunoichi playfully smacked him in the back of the head, "Idiot."
The teen grinned, rubbing the not slightly sore spot on the back of his head, "Hey! I actually used that jutsu to take down a Hokage! It has its uses-ttebayo!"
Sakura went to Primary Anti-Pervert Response: Stage 1): Chamber the strike. Stage 2): SAKRUAAA-PUUUUNCH!!!
"IDIOT!!!"
Naruto's face met the dirt at a sizable fraction of the speed of sound.
Thankfully, Naruto's face won this particular confrontation.
Even as Konohamaru (quite intelligently) made a tactical retreat to a (questionably) safer position behind Kakashi, Sakura wasn't done.
The young woman dragged Naruto out of the ground by his new black scarf so she could berate him for his foolishness properly, "YOU ARE SUCH AN IDIOT! Only an imbecile like you would try to use that on a Kage!!!"
She began to shake the boy quite violently, "You just had to go and destroy that wonderful feeling of respect I had for you just now didn't you?! GAH!!!"
Kakashi held his hands up placatingly at his former student, "Hey, hey, Sakura… calm down…" as if on cue, the boy hiding behind him peeked around him, "You've got Konohamaru here terrified…"
Sakura huffed indignantly and let go of the blonde ninja, momentarily surprised when, instead of falling on his ass, he just straightened his legs. She barely had time to properly process the fact that not only was Naruto a half-head taller than she was, but that he'd recovered from her punch quickly enough to get his feet beneath him.
The reason she had so little time to process this was simple.
The Hokage was speaking.
"Right, the nostalgia ends now. Kakashi."
Said Jounin's book closed with a snap, "…it really has been a while hasn't it?" His students looked at him curiously even as he gave them a reasonably serious look, "From now on, the two of you will come with me on team-related missions. It's different from before, it's no longer teacher and pupils. Starting today, we're equal Konoha shinobis."
"But… well," the masked man lifted a hand, a pair of very familiar bells dangling from it, "First, I'm a bit curious as to how you've developed. The rules are the same as when we first met," their smiles were tempered by… what? Seriousness? Dedication? Kakashi couldn't put a name to it.
But he liked that look, "If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you will never succeed in getting these bells."
---
Training Area 3.
It really brought back memories.
"The rules are the same as before. It doesn't matter how, but you must get these bells away from me," he let said bells jingle to accentuate the remark, "You have till sunrise tomorrow."
"Man… I really missed this place," Naruto couldn't help the smile at the three training logs not far behind Kakashi.
"Yeah… me too," the was a bit of wistfulness in Sakura's tone as well, the girls eyes slowly sweeping over the forest beyond the logs.
"Ah… that's right," Kakashi picked up on the reason for their nostalgia even as he tore his eye away from the brand new book in his hand, "This is where you first trained isn't it?"
"Team 7…"
"The three man team…" Naruto scowled.
"… that time…" for a moment, Kakashi was just as caught up in the past as his students, "Sasuke was around too, wasn't he…?"
A melancholy silence settled over the team, Kakashi breaking out of the mood first to find Sakura curled up into a ball and sniffling while Naruto gripped his elbows so tightly that his fingers went white, scowling off into the distance.
'Sasuke's name is a taboo word for these two huh…?'
The Jounin shut his book with a snap, breaking the spell over the two teens, "Well then… shall we begin?"
Naruto grinned, his right hand going to grasp the hilt of Maelstrom where it rested over his left shoulder, "Heh… you're not going to try reading your book this time, eh Kakashi-sensei?" the blondes other hand came up into half of a ram seal.
There was the sound of leather flexing as Sakura tugged on the gloves meant to protect her hands from her own ridiculous strength, "You've already finished it?"
"No… I think I'll save it for later… besides, for some reason…" the book went back into his pouch, "I'm getting the feeling that I should take this a bit seriously too," the hitai-ate went up and out came the source of nightmares for many ninja.
The Sharingan eye, wielded by Copy-Cat-Kakashi.
For a long moment, one generation tried to stare the other down.
Then Kakashi deliberately let the bells make the slightest noise.
Naruto swung Maelstrom horizontally, a blade of compressed fire flying from the large sword and hurtling straight at Kakashi with a whisper of "Crescent Flame."
The older nin went low to the ground, dropping beneath the fire and loosing a trio of shuriken in the blondes direction.
Naruto hadn't been standing still.
He deflected the shuriken towards Kakshi with a spin of his sword even as he rushed behind his own flaming projectile. Naruto continued with his swing and spun on the ball of his foot, turning around fully just feet from Kakashi and thrusting Maelstrom at him in a single move, putting the full force of his spin behind the tip of his blade.
Kakashi blurred, his hand grabbing Naruto's blade hand and deflecting the sword into the dirt even as his other brought a kunai to the blondes neck.
Only to find another blade at his own.
'He created a clone in his own shadow, which then replaced itself with the shuriken that came closest to me after he deflected them… clever… I might've missed it if it I didn't have the sharingan…'
"Well…" the lazy copy-nin drawled, his voice not showing a hint of the pride he felt in his student, "It seems your haste hasn't changed."
They paused, both remembering the first time they'd had this test, with very similar results.
Then, Kakashi smiled, "Alright, start!"
And he was gone in a poof of smoke.
Sakura immediately went on the offensive, 'Behind…? Left…? Right…? Above…? No? Then it has to be-!' The kunoichi raised her fist high above her head, "Below!"
Boom.
Naruto leapt away from the still-forming crater at his friends' feet, an eyebrow twitching in disbelief, his thoughts unknowingly mirroring those of his suddenly exposed senseis'.
'Wha-What insane strength! Obaa-chan… you taught her more than medical jutsu didn't you-ttebayo?!'
"Found you!"
Naruto briefly wondered if it was wrong to be turned on by that a woman that could probably kill him-
The Jounin leapt out of the crater, the bells jingling slightly as he did, "Right… guess I should do something on my end this time…"
-butthatcouldwaitOHSHIT!!!
---
Naruto hunkered beside a sitting Sakura, his slow and controlled breathing a counterpoint to the girls panting, "I already knew the sharingan was amazing, but…"
"It sucks being reminded of it?" Naruto supplied helpfully.
"Yeah… and his speed at hand-seals… it's too fast for me to follow…?" the girl glanced at the blonde beside her; he'd surprised her at almost every turn in the fight, showing greater depths of knowledge than she could've guessed.
He'd apparently been working on the basics a lot during the past two years.
Naruto had been serious, insightful, and able to include her in his plans on the fly. Sakura honestly wouldn't have been too surprised if he could follow Kakashi-sensei's seals.
Sadly though, "Same here, I'm just picking out some key ones, like tiger or snake."
While Sakura nodded to acknowledge the blondes statement, she scowled, "If we could somehow stop him from using both hands…"
"We'd be able to get our hands on those bells… if being the key word… Kakashi-sensei is almost as much a monster as ero-sennin or obaa-chan…" Naruto huffed even as he rested a hand against Maelstrom's matte-black blade while keeping an eye and ear out for their opponent.
But neither of them were anywhere near giving up, "But even Kakashi-sensei has to have a weak point…! If we think it over," the kunoichi looked over at her partner, whose eyes narrowed in thought. Sakura caught the slight shift in his body, the blonde wanted to assume an exaggerated thinking pose, but restrained himself because of the seriousness of the situation.
'You really have grown, neh Naruto?'
They were silent for a long moment before Naruto spoke up softly, "Neh, Sakura-chan… you've got better memory than me… remember the first fight between Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza of the Mist?"
Sakura's face briefly scrunched up in thought before she replied, "Yeah, the one where we were all together and Kakashi-sensei got caught in a Water Prison right?"
"Yeah, that one… tell me, when sensei had Zabuza beat, was Zabuza heavily injured?"
Another brief scowl, "… yeah, he'd just been hit with a Grand Vortex right?"
"Well… did he seem particularly tired as well…?"
Her large forehead furrowed in thought. Zabuza hadn't been breathing hard or anything as he lay against that tree, just… beat up… beat up badly, but… "Not really… but, what does that have to do with anything…?" Sakura knew Naruto was going somewhere with this, and she knew she should see it damnit… but she couldn't figure it out!
"What'd sensei do right after Haku-" he noted her confusion, "The fake hunter-nin, left?"
"He collapsed from ex-haus…tion…" Sakura's eyes went wide.
Naruto turned and grinned at her, sending pleasant little shivers up her spine.
"Exactly."
---
'Those kids… they've certainly gotten better… I haven't gotten a single chance to read my new book even…' The Jounin sighed, 'I've got to be careful though… if I overuse the sharingan, I'll run out of stamina… that's my weakness… though… I'm surprised…'
His sharingan eye narrowed, 'Naruto isn't using his clones much… the most I've seen so far is five… why?'
'While Sakura's power is immense, her speed is only mediocre… it's been reasonably easy to dodge her attacks so far… no, the problem is Naruto…'
'Instead of spamming Kage-bunshin like I know he can, he's limited himself to support…? Why?' The Jounin actually scowled at that, a small frown appearing beneath his mask, 'Whenever I go for Sakura, a clone switches out with her and there's suddenly a sword in my face…
He's considerably faster than before… and his fighting style is far more refined… but, he never showed any inclination towards kenjutsu beforehand…
That, and he's been leading the attacks, falling into a '1-2-3-Ohmygodthat'sSakura'sfist!' pattern… it's actually been pretty effective… I've been hard pressed to dodge it every time so far… if they just kept that up, I'd be in trouble…'
Kakashi's frown became a small smile, 'But… that's predictable… and Naruto's never predictable.'
A pair of familiar smells hit the Jounin's nose, 'They're here!'
Two Naruto's burst from the trees not too far in front of Kakashi, Sakura close behind them.
But Kakashi saw the clone coming at him from his 7:30.
The heat of the Crescent Flame the Naruto behind him had fired was stopped cold when a wall of dirt shot up behind the Jounin.
There was barely a pause between the end of one jutsu and the start of another, his hands flew through the seals and before Sakura and the pair of Naruto's were half-way to him, a massive ball of flames was hurtling their way.
The Naruto's dropped to a knee, pulling Sakura down between them and presenting the armored plates of their shoulders onto the oncoming fireball, chakra surging out of the flat steel to form a pane of surging chakra to meet the fire.
It was actually quite interesting to see the chakra-fueled flames of his jutsu be repelled by raw chakra and some minor shape manipulation. It looked especially interesting with the sharingan.
Wait, didn't a clone of Naruto always switch out with Sakura when he put her in dange-
Kakashi moved.
Sakura's fist went through the wall of earth behind Kakashi as if it never existed and continued on through where the Jounin's chest had been only fractions of a second before.
Kakashi somersaulted away from the pink-haired-powerhouse, catching sight of three Narutos plowing right through his fireball towards his back, their flaming black swords held in front of them.
The kunoichi kept on coming before the debris of his earthen defense even settled back to the ground and Kakashi had to leap to the right to avoid the vicious punch from his former student.
One of the Naruto clones used the kunoichi's back as a springboard to launch himself into the air, the blonde then began to launch Crescent Flame after Crescent Flame at the Jounin, forcing Kakashi to dodge even further back to avoid the blades of fire.
His hands began to go through another set of seals when the other two Narutos somehow slipped through the rain of fire.
In that split second, Kakashi realized that Naruto had been planning to interrupt his hand-seals with something like this the whole time.
It would've worked if Kakashi hadn't begun a backflip at the last possible second, his feet passing through the space the clones heads would've been had they not pulled up short. He'd landed several feet back and finished his seals, "Suiton: Teppoudama."
The airborne Naruto managed to land after the sizable bullet of water had destroyed its companions.
All in all, it was a maneuver that wouldn't have worked if he hadn't still had reach on the boy.
Wait- Why was Naruto's scent so strong-?
Kakashi launched himself forward, dodging around Naruto's Ōdachi to land a solid punch to the blondes face. Kakashi wasn't surprised when the boy disappeared in smoke, nor was he particularly surprised when what he assumed to be the real Naruto finished pulling himself out of the ground where Kakashi had been only a second before.
Naruto… this boy… was he really making it up as he went? Or was he planning it all out? They both seemed equally unlikely.
Wait… the blonde was grinning wildly at him… shit…
Kakashi glanced behind him, worried that Sakura might've taken his distraction as a chance to get closer, but while the girl was approaching him, it was at a sedate pace and she was still a ways off.
The Jounin's eyes snapped back to Naruto, in the half second his eyes had been off the blonde, the boy had stuck his Ōdachi onto his back once again.
Both ninja tensed, but neither made a move for several very long seconds.
Then Naruto slowly took his hand from the hilt of his sword, starting to bring them in front of his chest, "Neh… Kakashi-sensei?"
"… Yes Naruto?"
"You're in the center of a pretty big clearing huh?" the blondes hands began to settle into a familiar cross seal.
Kakashi did not give the boy the chance. Because he understood exactly what the blonde was implying by that statement.
Shuriken flew through the air at the teen and Naruto had to leap high into the air to avoid them. Another set almost immediately followed the first, aimed right at the airborne blonde. What the boy did made Kakashi's eyebrows go up.
The boy created a clone in mid-air, and had the clone pull him out of the way.
'Inventive use of shadow clones… but it's not enough.'
The original grabbed the clone, turning in the air even as it turned into a massive shuriken. But the moment his feet touched dirt, Kakashi's foot touched his face, hard.
Only for the blonde to explode into smoke.
'It'd been a clone all along?! SHIT!'
The masked Jounin flipped and twisted in the air, pulling out a pair of kunai before he landed after his kick, facing the pink-haired kunoichi across from him.
His fears were confirmed when the pinkette gave him a foxy grin, bringing her hands up into a familiar cross-seal.
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."
For a moment, Kakashi felt as if the world had suddenly gotten blurry. He comforted himself that he wasn't going blind… it was just the absurd number of Sakura-look-alikes that were phasing into existence all around him.
'Damn… I'd be willing to bet the real Sakura is in there somewhere as well…' the masked man tilted his head to the side and drawled out, "Oh…? I was wondering when this would come out…"
"I was saving it for when I had the space Kak-a-shi-sen-sei," the first Sakura drew out the syllables of the Jounin's name teasingly, waggling a finger at him, "A hundred me's is all well and good, but there's no use if they get in each others way, neh?"
A quick scan of the crowd confirmed it, the kunoichi look-alikes were all reasonably spaced apart… that meant Naruto had intentionally created them in this pattern… it seems chakra control wasn't his worst point anymore, "A hundred times nothing is still nothing Naruto."
Several of the pinkettes blinked before that foxy grin settled on every face in the crowd.
"I know that sensei, but Shadow Clones don't multiply me… they divide… and you can't exactly divide by zero now can you?"
Kakashi paused to 'think' about that, "Hm… I guess not…" the sides of his eyes crinkled as he smiled into the crowd, "That must mean you're more than nothing then, huh, Naruto…?"
The momentary surprise that rippled through the crowd of 'Sakuras' was not wasted. Kakashi flew through them like a reaper through wheat, his kunais hitting shoulders and knees. Searching for a girl that didn't pop when cut.
Kakashi had taken out nearly thirty of the two hundred odd clones before they reacted, but react they did.
Apparently Naruto hadn't just been working on his kenjutsu.
The white haired man dipped and dodged and moved through the swarm, but it was suddenly a lot harder to hit them than before.
Every time the Jounin tried to get out of the clearing, get himself some space and limit the number of clones that could swarm him, several clones would burst at his him in a coordinated strike and force him to dodge back into the clearing.
Their speed was good, and while Naruto wasn't the powerhouse that Sakura was, Kakashi wasn't about to let himself get hit. One time a clone had him cornered against a tree, and while the Jounin had done a flip over the oncoming punch, he'd gotten a good look at what it did to the poor tree.
The blonde-turned-Sakura had torn off bark, splintered a portion of the trunk, and made a number of cracks appear in the wood. With a single punch.
No, Naruto wasn't on the same level as Tsunade or Sakura, but he was a powerhouse.
'This… this is taking too long…' was the Jounins thought as he ducked underneath a synchronized pair of punches and stabbed his attackers in the thighs, making them pop, 'Naruto is out there somewhere making more clones every time I destroy some… and I'm getting tired… he's forced me into his kind of fight, a test of stamina…'
Steel glinted in Kakashi's eyes, 'Well, we're not ones to play by the rules, eh Obito?'
The Jounin launched himself high into the air, rotating to face the ground as his hands flying through the seals, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu," he pinched his fingers in front of his lips, and blew.
The clearing became hell on earth.
Kakashi let the flames trickle off as he reached the apex of his jump; it looked like he'd gotten most of the clones, the only survivors being the ones that had ducked behind trees at the edge of the clearing.
His feeling of satisfaction was cut off by two whispered words.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei."
His sharingan widened and he twisted around in the air, there, behind him, was Sakura.
The real Sakura.
How'd he know? Well, the fact that the girl had just ripped a tree out of the ground and was about to use it like a club was a bit of a clue.
The tree came down fast. Kakashi didn't even get a chance to substitute out before getting caught in the limbs.
Thankfully, he was able to substitute out with a pre-prepared log before he hit the dirt.
Hitting the ground at that speed with a tree on top of you would not've been fun.
Unfortunately, the log he replaced himself with was at the edges of his range, and the moment the Jounin's feet touched dirt, he staggered. He immediately caught himself and straightened, but it had happened.
'Heh… I've been using a lot of chakra intensive jutsu haven't I…?' his gloved hand came up and tugged his hitai-ate back down over his eye, 'I'll have to be careful and pace myself… they're starting to wear me down…'
His nose twitched and his visible eye widened, 'They've found me already?!'
Kakashi turned towards the smell to find a fully armored blonde thundering towards him… in absolute silence.
Even he felt a little intimidated by that, but it didn't stop him from bringing his arms up in a basic defensive stance.
Ten feet away from him, Naruto launched himself into the air, hurtling like a missile towards Kakashi, 'Kay, I can handl-'
One blonde turned into forty mid-air.
'-ohshi-'
The Jounin's reflexes kicked in, Naruto's were smacked out of the sky like flies.
But there were a lot of 'em damnit.
One hit him hard, knocking the wind out of him, immediately followed by another, then a third and fourth. Within seconds the masked Jounin was on the dirt, covered in Naruto's. A blonde for every limb, three for his torso, and another covering his head.
'Well… okay… that… could've been worse… all I've got to do is make a snarky comment and switch out with one of the clo-… wait… Naruto's chest isn't that soft… ohshitheswitchedwithSaku-'
The copy-nin didn't get to finish his thought before a medical jutsu knocked him out.
Sakura couldn't help but smile warmly at her teammate.
They'd passed Kakashi-sensei's test fair and square this time. Together.
And if she was honest with herself, it had mostly been due to Naruto.
Even if it didn't look like it right now, the blonde had been the one to take point in every skirmish with sensei, leading the fight, making the plans, setting up the openings. Sakura had been surprised, pleasantly so, at the seriousness which he'd taken the test.
During one of their impromptu planning sessions, Naruto had given her his assessment of their sensei.
"Better at taijutsu than Fuzzy-brows, nearly as good a planner as Shikamaru, better sense of smell than Kiba, fastest ninjutsu I've ever seen, and that damn sharingan to top it all off. Heh, Kakashi-sensei's a beast alright."
'Well, Naruto…' Sakura couldn't help but smile wider as she watched her friend, 'If Kakashi-sensei's a beast, you're a monster.'
'The only member of the old rookie nine that beats you in taijutsu is Lee, you're almost as fast as he is with his weights on, and you match him in brute strength. You haven't shown a lot of techniques, but the ones you know, you really know. And your kenjutsu is better than some of the ANBU I know.'
She made a quick check of the prone form of Kakashi beside her to make sure he was recovering properly before returning to her musing, 'Your own tracking abilities are nothing to scoff at, your sense of hearing, sight, and smell are better than a normal humans. Your clones are so tough that you have to really hit them to make them dispel and your stamina is as crazy as ever…'
Heh… you might not plan out every step like Shikamaru, but your overall plans are good and still leave leeway for your trademark unpredictability…'
The blondes plans had gone something like this: 'Okay, let's push him into the clearing so I can spam Kage-Bunshin for a bit and tire him out. You'll come at him from the front with a pair of clones while I send another clone at him from behind.
The flanking clone's gonna attack him with fire, Kakashi-sensei'll probably block it with a quick water or earth wall before throwing a really big attack jutsu at the assault team. When he does, the clones'll grab you and drop to the dirt and 'protect' you. I want you to use that as a cover to switch out with the flanking clone and attack sensei from behind. Now, I don't expect you to hit him, but try to force him towards the clearing.'
Sakura had of course asked, 'And after that?'
He'd grinned at her, sending a pleasant tingle up her spine, 'Well, we'll figure that out when we get there.'
When she'd stopped to think about it, Sakura had almost been scared. Scared that the boy she'd known, hyperactive, naïve, eager to please, and a bit of a knucklehead, no longer existed. That… that the guy who'd asked her out every day (usually several times) for so long, had been completely replaced by this serious young man.
Then he'd taken a bell of Kakashi's belt and started doing this little dance that made her laugh.
He was still doing it actually.
It was still the Naruto she knew, just… grown up…
A small, affectionate sigh escaped her before she could stifle it, an embarrassed blush spreading across her face as she checked to make sure Naruto hadn't noticed.
Thankfully, he hadn't.
'Gah! Now I'm mooning over Naruto of all people!' Sakura berated herself as she forced herself to check over Kakashi once again, making sure the older man hadn't been unduly hurt by a suddenly induced change in his brainwaves.
Inner Sakura had to add her two ryo, 'Even though his butt looks real nice in those pants, and that chest-plate! Talk about a chest-plate! You can't get much more form-fitting than that!' the mental figure started to drool unabashedly.
Sakura's eyebrow twitched in irritation at the stray thought, 'So…? It's Naruto, he's still a bit of a blockhead and a pervert…' A quick glance confirmed that the object of her thoughts was still doing his victory dance, and had been for the past thirty minutes, 'Not to mention he's doing the stupidest dance.'
'A dance that does such wonderfully yummy things to his hips! And talk about stamina! Rowr! Bet he could go on and on all nig-'
The voice in her head was promptly silenced with the mental equivalent of a roundhouse kick.
"Neh, neh! Sakura-chan, any idea when Kakashi-sensei's going to wake up? I wanna rub this in his mask a bit before the warm-fuzzies go away-ttebayo!"
Sakura's eyebrow began twitching again as she growled, "Naruto…"
"What?" the blonde squatted down on the other side of Kakashi and gave her a grin, "You know you want to do it too…"
She huffed when he waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively, "No I don't Naru-"
"Yes you dooooo!" same Naruto all right.
Sakura shook her fist at the blonde and drew out every syllable of his name with as much warning as she could muster, "Naaa-Ruuu-Tooo…!"
Then Naruto's expression changed a bit, he became a bit more serious instead of teasing, leaning in a bit closer, his blue eyes boring into her own as he whispered, "Sakura-chan, it's not right to deny your feelings like that. Not really acting on them is okay, but don't deny they exist."
The kunoichi stopped in place, her fist still hanging in the air as she said his name again, unable to identify the emotion that she put into it, "Naruto…"
For a moment, she just stared at the serious and yet slightly smiling boy… no… young man, that was across from her. In that instant, she could truly see him as the Hokage.
Then he gave her one of his sillier grins and the spell was broken, "All those repressed urges can't be good for you! You might just, like, explode from sexual frustration or something-ttebayo!"
"Gah! Naruto!" Sakura smacked the chuckling blonde upside the head pretty hard, but they both could read the subtext.
I missed you Sakura…
I missed you too… Naruto…
Naruto sat quietly beside the prone form of his sensei, content with the world as it was.
He'd beaten his sensei in a fair fight, no tricks, no gimmicks, no Kyuubi, no Minions.
Just him, and Sakura-chan.
It was an amazing feeling.
He'd been tempted to try and perform the 'Thousand Years of Death' on his old sensei… but he wanted to show that he could be serious today.
Besides, Naruto knew he'd get another chance.
Either that or make one.
Naruto grinned at the thought.
At least until another voice broke into his thoughts, literally, "Sire?"
"Yeah Gnarl, what is it?" Naruto wasn't angry per se, just… unhappy to have his pleasant musings interrupted.
"Well… ah, I'm curious as to why you did not summon the Minions to aid you…"
Naruto schooled his external expression to keep from worrying Sakrua, but he let his irritation shine through his thoughts to Gnarl, "I've told you this before Gnarl, I will not use the power of the Kyuubi on allies, it's far too likely that I'll get too into the fight and actually hurt them."
Having to order people around had gradually changed Naruto more than almost anything else. The only thing that beat that was Gnarl's insistence that the boy think before he acted.
Naruto had never been able to interact with people on a regular basis. In Konoha, he'd been socially isolated to the point that he was actually in the process of developing mental problems, and traveling with Jiraiya, he'd often times left a place before having to really feel the consequences of his actions. And he'd never had the slightest experience with commanding others!
The minions might've been slavishly loyal, slightly sadistic, and dumber than a sack of particularly dull hammers… but they had personalities and minds of their own. It took a stern hand to rule them, and that stern hand extended to Gnarl as well.
It might've been amusing to see his Minions run around with pumpkins for hats, but people tended to have issues when they ran around with a gutted lamb as a helmet.
So, firm hand.
"I… don't understand Sire… how does not using the Nine-tails' power relate to not summoning your Minions?"
Naruto frowned momentarily before he caught himself, he'd thought Gnarl was smarter than that, "Gnarl, I won't use the Kyuubi's power because it's too dangerous, and Minions have very little self control. If I empowered them enough to be a threat to Kakashi-sensei, they'd do their best to kill him… and I'm not willing to take that risk just to speed up a fight. Besides," the corner of the blondes mouth twitched upwards just a hint, "It's good training to push myself every once in a while."
Naruto paused in his thoughts for a moment before adding, "And I'd rather you didn't contact me again during these first few days… I just want to enjoy meeting my friends again and savor being home for a while… no Overlording and stuff till then, kay?"
"Ah, I understand Sire," the tone to the Minion Master's 'words' said he did, but he didn't like it.
Well, that wouldn't do.
"Ah yes, Gnarl?"
There was a pause on the other end, "Yes Sire…?"
"If you ever suggest that I use lethal force against allies again, I will lock you inside Mortis' pool for a month. Fair warning and all that-ttebayo."
"S-Sure thing Sire, I'll endeavor to keep that in mind."
The mental connection was cut abruptly, making the corners of Naruto's mouth twitch again.
There wasn't much that scared Minions, they actually revered Minions that had died in creative ways in the name of their Overlord.
But they wanted to die in service of their Overlord, or not at all.
No Minion has ever died of old age, Gnarl himself has actually lost track of the years, so most Minions died either working on their Lord's projects (like redesigning the Netherworld) or in battle.
But to have their soul forced into the pool of the dead without dying for their Overlord? That absolutely terrified them. More so than the Kyuubi terrified Konoha.
It might take entire villages worth of life-force to bring the ancient Minion Master back from the pool after he'd been shoved in there… but Naruto would, could, and had done it before to make his point.
Naruto would not tolerate the Minions sadistic tendencies where allies were involved.
But enough of these darker thoughts! Naruto wasn't Sasuke or anything-ttebayo! So, what was it that had made him so content before that conversation again…?
Ah, beating the snot out of sensei, hehe… good times, good times.
---
Gnarl was happy that Naruto's darker side was truly starting to show… he really was! He'd encouraged and developed it in the boy himself!
But… that didn't mean the boy couldn't scare him sometimes…
The ancient Minion gulped to himself as he shuffled down the stairs that ran along the outside of the Spire. He would not willing let himself go back to that pool like that ever again!
He shook himself once to get rid of the heebie-jeebies he'd gotten remembering that place.
Now, there was no way he was going to just let his Overlord go unsupervised, threat or no! He just… wouldn't contact the boy…
The threat ran through his mind again and Gnarl shivered, he seriously hoped those beetles would keep his mind off that.
Kakashi was awake.
He didn't twitch, he didn't move, he didn't do much of anything other than wake up.
Then he remembered he wasn't on a mission and it had just been his own students that knocked him out.
His students were on either side of him, probably kneeling. While they were quiet, there wasn't any tension in the air. They'd probably taken him aside after they'd knocked him out, talked a bit, then settled down to wait for him to get up.
Taking into account Naruto's new level of maturity, that could've taken anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour.
"Hey… Kakshi-sensei?"
"Yes Naruto?"
Kakashi could feel the grin directed at him, "Just makin' sure you were awake."
The Jounin sighed, 'Well… there goes my nap…'
"You two have really become strong, huh? I'm surprised you were actually able to get the bells."
"Pft, of course Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto grinned at the Jounin in the growing light of the morning, "You didn't think we spent the past couple years slacking off did ya? I wouldn't be surprised if we'd even surpassed you-ttebayo!"
"Naruto!" Sakura admonishingly smacked the boys' armored shoulder; though there was a small smile on her face, "Don't be conceited!"
Kakashi chuckled, smiling at his charges and shaking his head a bit, "But anyway, I'm still young," he did not hear that disbelieving snort from Naruto, he didn't, "And I've recently developed a brilliant new jutsu…"
The Jounin was cut off by a particularly eloquent grumble from Naruto's stomach.
"Ah! I almost forgot! I've barely done anything on my list!" the blonde boy grabbed the sides of his head, "Crap! I haven't even gone to Ichiraku Ramen! … or home, but I haven't gone to old man Teuchi's place yet! Damn!"
Sakura actually considered that a moment, "Yeah… I'm a bit hungry myself from the exercise yesterday…"
Kakashi couldn't help the sigh that escaped him, 'Back then, they'd react to every little thing… they were cute back then…'
Naruto snickered and 'whispered' conspiratorially to Sakura, "Right! It'll be Kakashi-sensei's treat!"
The girl couldn't help but grin devilishly, "Alright sensei!"
However, the masked man had different ideas, "Sorry, I have to create and submit a list of formations of the new teams, so it's goodbye for now, ja ne."
And then he was gone.
"Ah! Bastard ran away…" Naruto huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. He honestly should've seen that coming when he'd volunteered the man to pay. Lazy bastard was pretty good at running away.
Sakura 'hmph'd, "Saying something like that, he's just trying to read that book more… probably…"
Something dawned on Naruto, "Heh, well… since it's just us, you still want to go?"
The girl shrugged, "Sure."
Naruto beamed at her, "Then it's a dat-"
"You're paying."
He blinked before shrugging himself, "Sure, it'll be nice to catch up with things-ttebayo," the teen pulled his frog wallet out of his pocket, checking to be sure he still had enough on him.
It was about then when Sakura recognized a pair of faces in the crowd and called out excitedly, "Shikamaru! Temari-san! Hey, who do you think this is?!" the pinkette gestured at the taller boy beside her.
It took a moment for Shikamaru to put a name to the face on top of the body of a samurai, but once he did a smile spread across his face, "Hey! If it isn't Naruto!"
Naruto barked out a short laugh, "Hah! Shikamaru! I missed you man!"
As the two pairs of shinobi approached one another, the blondes glanced at each other.
Temari's analytical mind performed an automatic threat assessment.
~170 cm. Built for power. High quality samurai armor, weak points in armor: head, inner bicep, thighs, groin, feet. Ōdachi, ~150 cm blade, 35 cm handle. Walks like a close-combat specialist, probably knows how to use his fists and the sword. Ally.
Relaxing marginally, Temari actually looked at the other blonde in mild surprise. Kid had been a midget before, now he had five or so centimeters on her. When she'd last saw him, he'd just been a punk playing ninja, beating Gaara aside, he'd been a joke… now? Now he looked like a serious shinobi.
The two groups stopped a couple feet from each other, and at this distance Temari could feel the chakra being dumped into the armor in insane amounts.
The young mans eyes flicked up and down Temari once, cool and analytical. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she was examined, then the feeling passed as his eyes flicked over her again, this time warm and appraising. The once over a young man gave an attractive woman and the Suna-kunoichi could feel her cheeks warm just a bit.
This entire exchange lasted about two seconds.
"Did you just get back?"
"Nah," Naruto laced his fingers behind his head and smiled at Shikamaru, "I only got back yesterday though."
"Heh, so, still an idiot or have you managed to change?" Shikimaru smirked at the blonde, expecting an explosive answer.
He didn't get one, instead, Naruto smiled warmly at him, "I like to think I've grown up at least a little, neh?" he shrugged some, his eyes closing as he smiled even wider, "But I've tried to keep a bit of my idiocy. People always underestimate 'idiots', y'know?"
One of Shikamaru's eyebrows went up and he glanced over at Sakura for confirmation. The girl just smiled a bit, "He actually hasn't been all that bad since he's arrived," she shrugged, "No idea how long that's going to last though."
"Hey…! Sakura-chaaaaan…!" Naruto pouted at the girl, earning smiles from the others before he shook his head and turned to Shikamaru, "What about you Shika? You stopped being lazy yet?"
"No."
Naruto chuckled and turned to Temari, "You aren't bothered that he's like this?"
She raised a brow at him, "Why would I be?" there was just a hint of accusation in her voice.
'Ah, so she's attracted to him but they're not together… still, backpedal,' "Well unless my eyes deceive me, you're the one hanging out with him… and you don't really strike me as the type to just accept his dedication to laziness."
The older girl acknowledged his point with a small nod, "Sadly, I've got to deal with this lazy ass," she threw a small glare at the uncaring Chuunin beside her, "There's a Chuunin exam soon, I'm just going back and forth between Suna and Konoha for meetings."
Shikamaru picked up where she left off, "And, it's troublesome, but I've become an examiner, so…" the teen sighed and let his head loll to the side, "I was told to go see off the messengers from sand or something…"
Naruto blinked before a pensive smile settled on his face, "Heh… a Chuunin exam huh? Man… that brings back memories…" the blonde hadn't missed the fact that Shikamaru had easily finished Temari's statement, nor that the Suna-kunoichi had almost expected him to.
They were closer than they would admit.
Shikamaru smiled at Naruto, "Yeah, it does. By the way, what are your plans?"
The confused look on Naruto's face almost spoke for itself, "Hm? What do you mean-ttebayo?"
The lazy nin rolled his eyes, "What you say, sheesh. It's a Chuunin exam…"
"Yeah…?"
Now Shikamaru scowled, "Naruto… the only one from our class who hasn't become a Chuunin… is you."
Naruto slowly blinked, "You're shittin' me."
"Nope."
The blonde turned to Sakura, "Even you Sakura-chan?!" his face became even more pitiful when the girl gave him a Victory-V, "Awww man! I didn't even know I could enter this one! Gah!" He ran his hands through his hair in agitation, "Man, and here I was planning on riding along with whoever was still a Genin… damn… this sucks-ttebayo."
Shikamaru couldn't resist adding onto the blonde's irritation, "Plus, Neji from the class above us, Kankuro of the Sand, and Temari here are already Jounin."
"Whaaaa~?! Man, you guys suck!" Naruto crossed his arms over his chest with a huff, an exaggerated pout on his face.
Temari couldn't resist either, "Not to mention Gaara's the Kazekage."
Naruto just tilted his head and gave her the 'What do you think I am? Stupid?' "Yeah… so? I already knew that. I've been training abroad, not living under a rock or in some secluded mountain-ttebayo."
"Sunagakure's been warned and are preparing. Their ANBU have been deployed to key points on the outskirts of the village… even so… I wonder whether they'll be able to forcibly stop someone like me from entering their country…"
Tsunade and Kakashi exchanged a glance before turning back to Jiraiya, Tsunade taking the lead, "Do you really think they'll start with something flashy like attacking the Kazekage?"
Jiraiya scowled, "Based on the members we've been able to identify, it's quite possible… about half of them aren't exactly, subtle…"
Kakashi's eye narrowed slightly in confusion, "We've…?
The toad sage nodded, "I've been helping Naruto learn how to build his own spy network and teaching him how to infiltrate, kid's actually pretty good at it. Naruto's actually better at maintaining an alternate identity than I am with his Transformation and all."
Tsunade nodded carefully, "Did either of you find out their objective then?"
Jiraiya scowled, "Nothing new unfortunately… all we know is that they're after the jinchuuriki…" He shook his head slightly, staring off into space, "Naruto was able to find and tag all of the other jinchuuriki so we'll know when and if they go after them…"
The Hokage scowled, but nodded, "You have a list of their members?"
Jiraiya nodded, "Some, but not all," he pulled his notebook and pencil out of his vest and began to write, "As far as we could tell, they operate in pairs."
"There's Deidara, former Iwa Nin, uses exploding clay, partner: unknown," Jiraiya ripped off the page and tossed the ad-hoc bingo book entry and rough sketch onto the table.
"Then there's Kakazu, former Taki Nin, seemingly immortal, takes something from his opponents' bodies, obsessed with money. His partner is Hidan, he's from Yugakure, another immortal, this one worships some bloody god called Jashin," two pages were tossed onto the desk.
Jiraiya scowled and put his notebook away, "The only other ones we know about are Hoshigake Kisame and of course, Uchiha Itachi…" the Sannin frowned, "Unfortunately we haven't found anything new about those two…"
Tsunade gave the pages little more than a glance before pushing them over to Kakashi, "What did Naruto contribute to this?"
"Names," Jiraiya leaned back in his chair, "The brat can play a woman surprisingly well… He had the brilliant idea to try and get the names and descriptions of all the villages missing nins and their ranks… whenever he was questioned about his curiosity, he played the guilty ditz and usually said something like," Jiraiya did a horrible impression of a woman's voice, "Oh, my boyfriend is kinda a bounty hunter… he sorta wants to know who to look out for and stuff… and… and I just wanna help him!"
The toad sage became serious again, "I don't know how the kid pulled it off, but he did, he actually got lists of missing nin to look for as well as their rank and some basic info on them," he shook his head, "Naruto worked the police and ANBU of every village we visited, hidden or not. I worked the seedier parts of town."
Tsunade nodded again, glaring a hole in her desk for a long moment before turning her gaze back to her old teammate, "You said there was something you needed to tell me in person."
Jiraiya nodded, his face hardening even further, "Naruto… he's…" the older man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I'll just start from the beginning. About two months into our trip, he made a new summoning contract…"
---
"That… I-… actually… I don't really know how to feel about that…"
Tsunade, despite her agreement with the masked Jounin, tried to get to the heart of the matter, "So… this boss-summon… Gnarl?" Jiraiya nodded, "It's been training Naruto as well?"
Another nod.
The slug Sannin scowled, "You also said this summon has been manipulating him… how and, more importantly, why?"
Jiraiya scowled as well, "I don't know exactly why, but I think he wants Naruto to be the kind of leader he wants…"
He paused, "The how is pretty simple. Whenever he wanted the boy to do something, it just told him that's what a good Hokage would do… at least, in the beginning." The toad sage frowned, "By the time I confronted him about it, the summon had already had several uncontested months with the boy…"
The Sannin hesitated, "By then, Naruto was considerably harder to manipulate… Gnarl had taken whatever urges the boy had to control things… and had done its best to blow them out of proportion" the man sighed, and for a long moment, looked his age, "I did what I could…"
That statement brought up a number of bad memories for the aged hermit, not all of them related to Naruto.
Tsunade knew that, and delicately coughed, breaking her old teammate out of his reverie.
He shook his depression off and continued, "The problem is… somewhere along the line, his goal shifted from become Hokage to be recognized… to be Hokage to better protect his friends…"
There was a brief silence before Kakashi hesitantly broke it, "I don't see the problem…?"
"…I never said he stopped having a control complex."
Tsunade's mind immediately went to the worst case scenario, "Is he stable?"
Jiraiya hesitated, really hesitated before answering, "… Yes."
"Jiraiya…"
"You asked if he was stable, and he is… the odds of him going crazy and defecting or directly damaging the village are almost nil… But…" the white-haired Sannin winced, "But I'm not sure he's entirely sane."
The sentence hung in the air for a long moment before the Hokage leaned back into her chair and began rummaging through her desk. Neither of the men in the room were particularly surprised when she pulled out a bottle of Sake and both were thankful that she'd gotten several dishes.
Her voice was tired as she poured the drinks, "How bad is it…?"
"… bad… but not horrible… the kid seems to genuinely care for his friends at least…" the white-haired Sannin accepted his dish of Sake with a nod.
The Hokage pushed Kakashi's bowl to him, considering her own empty dish for a moment, "What's your assessment…?"
"The boy's dependant on the people he considers friends almost to the point of being a disorder…" he paused, contemplating the Sake in his cup, "He's also shown signs of turning into a control freak…"
Tsunade decided to skip the cup and just sip Sake straight from the bottle.
"Right now, the kid's about as normal as any current Konoha Jounin, he's a nice guy who's got a couple mental issues and has his own way to cope with the shit he's done…" Jiraiya paused to take another sip of Sake, "The kid will be Hokage someday, and a damn good one if he keeps this up. But I'm worried…"
Tsunade finished his sentence, "… that he'll turn into Orochimaru." or, at least she tried to.
"No… not really… that boy's devoted to Konoha… I'm worried that he might become completely sociopathic in regards to his enemies, or worse… decide to control his friends 'for their own good'," Jiraiya shook his head slowly.
"I don't even know how many levels he works on at any particular moment…" anger tinged the Sannin's voice, "Sometimes, he's thinking ten steps ahead… others, he's just winging it and enjoying the moment… and I can't tell the difference."
The toad sage downed the rest of his cup, trying desperately to get the bad taste out of his mouth, "No… I'm not afraid the boy'll become another Orochimaru… I'm afraid he'll become another Danzo."
After a pause, Jiraiya held his cup out for more. Tsunade took it from him and filled it, she considered the cup for a moment before keeping the cup, and handed Jiraiya the bottle.
"Neh, Sakura-chan?"
"Yes, Naruto?" the young woman looked over at her friend curiously; it'd been the first time he'd spoke since they'd parted with Shikamaru and Temari. The two of them had actually been walking to Ichiraku Ramen at a comfortably sedate pace in pleasant silence.
"Just wanted to say, I'm glad to be back," the boy grinned at her and Sakura could feel a smile of her own forming. Naruto's smiles were infectious like that.
"I'm glad you're back too Naruto," that had come out more affectionately than she'd intended, but instead of tripping, shouting, jumping, or any of the other things Sakura might've expected him to do, the blonde just smiled at her with a hint of pink on his cheeks.
"Thanks… Sakura-chan…" and with that, he kept walking down the street, as if nothing had happened.
It was little things like that, small things that just kept popping up the longer she was around Naruto, that made her reconsider the image she'd labeled 'Uzumaki Naruto' in her mind.
In the past two years, she'd kept remembering Naruto like how he'd been when he'd left. She knew he'd change, but… had never really been able to shake the image of a blonde, blue-eyed brat, the runt of the class, that horrendous neon-orange jumpsuit, the dead-last and yet… the number one most surprising knucklehead.
Whenever she'd taken the time to daydream about the future, Naruto had always been included how he was. She'd thought he'd always be short, loud, obnoxious, and yet sincere. Nice, friendly, and a bit naïve, but always immature and kinda perverted…
He'd changed.
Sakura hadn't even realized she'd fallen in a half-step behind him until he'd glanced back at her. He'd lead, and she'd followed, it'd been instinctive… natural…
She'd known Naruto had a way with people, Gaara and Neji were proof of that… but she really hadn't experienced it until just then.
This Naruto… this Naruto was confident, self-assured, but not haughty or conceited, despite her earlier admonishments. He didn't swagger or strut down the street as he might've when they were younger; instead, he walked with a easy and controlled gait, his thumbs hooked loosely in his pockets.
He actually looked like a serious shinobi now… he might've kept the orange… but he didn't stick out like a sore thumb anymore. It wasn't that garish shade it'd been before, he'd gone with a darker, more muted shade of orange for the pieces of armor. That, combined with the intricate pattern of black stripes… almost made him look like a tiger.
He'd even kept that spiral he always wore, the stripes on the cuirass and shoulder-guards actually led into a black swirl.
The scarf was new though, she'd never taken Naruto for a scarf-guy, but after wrapping it around his neck twice and tossing the ends over either shoulder, it definitely offset his armor nicely… though she wondered why he wore it… especially considering how everything on the outfit had a use…
'Shannaro! I can think of a couple uses! It'd probably hold up just fine no matter how much we bucked and screa-'
Sakura pointedly ignored the voice in her head.
---
Naruto would've had a hard time being happier.
Here he was, going out on a pseudo date with the girl who wasn't just his best friend, but also his crush (and he'd admit it to himself, it was a crush at the moment, nothing more), and they were going to quite possibly the best restaurant… ever! (At least in his opinion)
The girl made a good showing against Kakashi-sensei, her raw power had been staggering. Her speed was lacking though… maybe if he got her to wear some weights…?
The blonde was about to make the suggestion when a flash of indigo and white caught his eyes.
'Neh…? Indigo and white…?' Naruto blinked, 'Why would I notice… oh yeah! Hinata-chan!'
A happy grin spread across his face as he changed course, Sakura'd understand, even if she'd roll her eyes or something, she'd understand.
In another time and place, Naruto had gone through his training worked to the bone, his body pushed to its absolute limits, pushed so hard that his clothes had literally frayed to the point of almost falling off… but he hadn't worked his mind.
He hadn't given a retelling of his life several times over. He hadn't had to describe every member of his class in as much detail as he could rack his mind for. He hadn't been forced to remember why he'd been so determined to fight Neji… and who had encouraged him when his confidence had faltered.
He hadn't remembered the kindness Hinata had shown him.
That Naruto hadn't learned that she'd almost been turned into a slave. Almost had her eyes plucked out. Almost been turned into a brood mare.
Thankfully for one particular Hyuuga, this was not that world.
---
Hinata was, put simply, having a small panic attack.
'N-N-Naruto-kun's back?!'
Okay, a big panic attack.
She'd been on her way to the Yamanaka Flower Shop after training to see if they'd gotten that blue rose she'd ordered for her pressed flower collection, it'd been a nice, simple day… until a shock of blonde hair had caught her eye from across the street.
Now, Hinata wasn't obsessed with a certain blonde gennin. Infatuated certainly, but she'd grown out of her admittedly borderline-stalker tendencies (that she wouldn't admit were more than borderline) by the time she'd graduated from the academy. However, blonde wasn't a common hair color in Konoha, let alone in that shade, and even fewer at that length, the Yamanaka clan usually wore theirs considerably longer.
So when a single splotch of bright yellow hair flashed through the sparse numbers of people, she'd looked over on the off chance that it might be Naruto-kun.
If it was, she might be able to walk over and start up a conversation, maybe give a hint to her feelings for him, or even ask him out! (She didn't really believe any of that, but it was a nice thought). And if it wasn't (which was far more likely) she'd just keep walking and forget about the whole deal.
She just hadn't expected it to actually be him!
There, within 17.3 feet, was Uzumaki Naruto. There wasn't a thing in the world that would make Hinata forget those whisker-marks and grin.
She wasn't ready! She hadn't even put on any make-up today! Her jacket still had grass stains and smudges of dirt! And she didn't know what she was going to say or what she was going to do or anything! And he was getting closer!
He'd turned slightly and said something to the person beside him, bringing her attention to his companion.
What little coherent activity in Hinata's brain came crashing to a halt. He was with Sakura-san.
She'd lost her chance, the pinkette had asked Naruto-kun out and was going on a date with him now and Naruto-kun was forever out of her reach. Her shyness had been her undoing, the boy she'd grown to love was now taken and she couldn't do anything about it. All her waiting all her training all the time she'd spent gathering her courage had been wasted because she hadn't gotten to him first.
Then Naruto-kun's head started to turn back in her direction.
There was no way she could face him now! She'd immediately ducked into a small alley to escape his presence.
With her back pressed up against the cold stone Hinata began to calm. The more rational part of her brain finally forced its way through her hormones and self-esteem issues, pointing out that Sakura-san was Naruto-kun's teammate, of course they'd be together if he'd just gotten back, it didn't matter whether they liked each other or not, they still had to catch up with the time they'd missed.
Then a little rush of happiness ran through her. Naruto-kun was back!
Obsessed…? Maybe a bit… but she was really just infatuated, really.
'Naruto-kun…' Hinata pressed her hands over her heart, trying to still the fluttering of her heart. She closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath, 'He's back…' Her rather meager courage gathered, she opened her eyes-
There he was.
"Neh, Hinata-chan… why'd you hide over here…?"
'… Hinata-chan…?!'
The poor girl promptly passed out.
---
"Naruto?" Sakura walked up and peered over the blonde's shoulder; he'd suddenly changed direction and started moving faster and she was curious as to why.
Naruto eased himself down to his knees and glanced back at her, "Neh, Sakura-chan?" he shifted, and there in his arms was an unconscious Hyuuga Hinata, "Could you check her? She just passed out when I said hi… I wasn't even that close…"
Sakura's eyebrow began to twitch, "Naruto…"
"What?" the blonde nin hooked an arm under Hinata's knees, the other wrapping around her shoulder blades, "I'm serious! That crap ain't normal," he stood again, taking the girl with him and shifting slightly as he did so the Hyuuga's head rested on his shoulder.
This time the medic nin blinked before giving Naruto a warning glare, "Naruto… what are you doing?"
The boy actually glared at her and Sakura took a reflexive step back, "No, no accusing me of being a pervert for this. I'm not about to leave a lady lying unconscious on the ground without real good reason. Especially not one of my friends."
Sakura's mouth pressed into a thin line for a moment before she nodded. He definitely had a point and it made plenty of sense… so why'd she reacted so… violently?
'Cause he's mine and I ain't lettin' no Hyuuga steal'im away! Shannaro!'
This voice was pointedly ignored.
"Sakura?" the girl shook herself just a bit and forced her attention back to her teammate, "Could you give Hinata-chan a once over, seriously?"
"Yeah Naruto… sorry 'bout that…" she put her hands over the unconscious Hyuuga, pushing the green medical chakra from her palms.
The boy smiled at her gently, "It's no problem… just… don't always assume what I'm doin' is pervy… kay?"
The corners of her mouth quirked up, "I'll try…"
---
"Mmmnnn…" Hinata shifted in the chair, she'd been having the most wonderful dream, she'd defended Naruto-kun from a horrible enemy and confessed her feelings to the blonde. Together, they'd been victorious over their foe and, caught up in the thrill of their victory, Naruto-kun had kissed her.
The dream had been winding down when she started to wake, Naruto-kun had swept her up in his arms and carried her off to get married, it was all completely impossible of course… but that didn't mean it was a bad dream.
The Hyuuga girl shifted in the chair, slowly waking up as she tried to remember when she'd fallen asleep in a chair.
She didn't really want to wake up though, the chair was warm and comfy, it wasn't too hard and it wasn't too squishy, it supported her back nicely and cradled her head just so.
A soft sigh escaped the young woman as she snuggled into the chair, it even smelled good! In her half-awake state, the thought of seeing if it tasted good too flashed through her head, but she dismissed it as being just a little too silly.
The chair's heartbeat even had a nice, steady ryth-
Wait, heartbeat…?!
Hinata's eyes snapped open and she stiffened, making her 'chair' chuckle, "Neh, Hinata-chan, don't pass out like that on me again, kay? You had me worried there for a second."
"N-N-Naruto-kun!"
"Oi, Naruto, be nice!"
He pouted, his bottom lip sticking out, "Neh neh Sakura-chan! I'm trying to be-ttebayo!"
Hinata pulled her head off of Naruto-kun's shoulder, swallowing down her panic as best she could as she stared at the blondes face. Naruto-kun was carrying her! Her! He was holding her to his chest and everything! She clenched her hands and made herself look away, fighting the embarrassment and mortification that threatened to overwhelm her.
"Neh, Hinata-chan? You alright?"
The Hyuuga squeaked and her eyes snapped back to his face, "Y-Y-Yes N-Naruto-kun! I-I-I'm fine!"
"Oh good," he smiled at her, not one of those fake ones she'd seen plastered on his face so often when he was younger, a real smile, directed at her no less! Then Hinata noticed the familiar twinkle in his eyes as his smile melted into a foxy grin, "Then would you mind easing up on your grip? You're kinda stranglin' me here."
Hinata blinked once in confusion before her eyes darted to her hands, which were fisted in the blonde's scarf of black silk and tugging on it slightly.
She squeaked, yanking her hands away as if they'd been burned and pressing them together between her breasts. She was absolutely mortified and could feel her cheeks heating up.
The boy chuckled softly, his eyes shutting briefly in his amusement.
A growl distracted the Hyuuga from her embarrassment, "Naaa-ruuu-tooo…!" Sakura-san was shaking a fist in Naruto-kun's direction.
The boy laughed just a bit at that before sticking his tongue out at his teammate, "Alright alright, sheesh…" he turned his cerulean eyes back to her, "Sorry 'bout teasing you like that Hinata-chan, any way I can make it up to you?"
'Hold me close and never let go?' "I-It's alright N-Naruto-kun… I-I understand…"
He pouted at her and a brief, irrationally bold urge to kiss his pouting lips surged through her before she squashed it down, "But I probably carried you off away from where you were going!"
"If you want to help with that you'll have to put her down, genius."
The pinkette's comment made both teens pout slightly, but Naruto still bent over and set the girl in his arms down.
---
"Neh, sorry 'bout that Hinata-chan… where were you going anyways?" the blonde tilted his head to the side as he took a step back to give her some space.
Though thankful that her crush had given her some breathing room, Hinata's still began to press together, though now at her waist instead of under her chin, "I-It's okay Naruto-kun… I-I was just going b-by Yamanaka-san's shop to check on something… i-it wasn't that important," she glanced away, unable to meet Naruto-kun's eyes.
Unfortunately for her, while Naruto had gotten considerably better at consciously reading people's body language, he misread the subtext as such: 'It actually was kinda important, but I'm honestly too nice to try and impose! Really! It's nice that you're trying to make it up to me, but I really don't need it, honest!'
Actually, Naruto was almost right on the money except for gauging the importance of what Hinata had been doing.
"Gah! That's in the complete opposite direction! Now I've got to make it up to you somehow!"
Hinata flushed, "N-N-No, i-i-it's okay Naruto-kun, y-you don't have to do anything!"
Naruto, however, was determined. He'd realized that even though Hinata had been nicer to him than anyone except for Iruka-sensei, Hokage-Ojii-san, and possibly Gnarl, Naruto hadn't done much of anything for her. He hadn't even properly thanked her for most of the things she'd done! And now here was a perfect excuse to be nice to the girl, no way he was going to just let this go!
The boy pouted as cutely as he could, putting on his best puppy-dog eyes, clasped his hands in front of his chest, and said with complete sincerity, "But I want to…"
Hinata didn't stand a chance.
"I-I… a-alright… Naruto-kun…"
Naruto's hands shot up into the air, making Hinata giggle, "Yes!"
Sakura chose this moment to interject, "Yeah… so how are you going to do that, genius?"
The Gennin's happy face fell, "Crap, hadn't thought of that…" his arms came down and he began to ponder. His eyes scrunched up, his left hand went to rubbing his chin and right cupped his left elbow, he stayed like that for a long moment before his strikingly blue eyes snapped open, "Neh, Hinata-chan… have you had lunch yet?"
"N-No Naruto-kun… not yet…?" a brief surge of hope ran through the girl before getting squashed by the more rational part of her mind. Naruto wasn't about to ask her out on a date if he was spending time with Sakura.
Man was she off.
The blonde smiled, pulling out of his 'pondering pose', "How 'bout I buy lunch then?"
"R-R-Really…?!"
Naruto chuckled, "Sure! Sakura-chan and I were going to be catching up over lunch anyways and I'd love it if you came along too," the Gennin hooked his thumbs in his pockets and smiled warmly at Hinata, "Paying for your lunch would be the least I could do since I'd be taking you away from your plans for the day."
HInata's mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before her attention snapped over to Sakura, the question in her eyes.
The pinkette shrugged, "Sure, why not? It'd be nice to catch up with you anyways… and it's not like we were on a date or anything…" Neither girl knew whether Sakura was simply stating a fact… or making a subtle jab at Hinata for intruding upon said 'not-date'.
Still, Hinata decided to accept the words at face value this time, and turned back towards the blonde, nodding happily, "I-I'd love to, N-Naruto-kun."
He beamed at the girls, "Great! To Ichiraku Ramen we go!" and with a short laugh, strode confidently down the street, the girls falling into step behind him automatically.
Then… Naruto hesitated, a pensive look crossing his face.
"What is it Naruto?"
"Did… did I just do what I think I did…?"
The girls exchanged a glance before turning back to the blonde, "W-What do you mean Naruto-kun…?"
Naruto stopped in the middle of the street, scowling into space, "Did I seriously just get a date with two beautiful women at the same time…?" he glanced back at each reddening girl in turn, "Ho-ly shit… I did…" His arms shot up into the air, "Awesome!!"
There was a very long pause as a similar thought went through both girls heads.
'A… a date?! With Naruto(-kun)?!'
"N-Naruto-kun-!"
*thud*
"Ah! Hinata-chan! Not again!"
"Naaa-ruuu-toooooo!!!"
"AHH!!! Sakura-chan!!! Not the face! Not the face!!!"
A.N.-). Well I'm just going to stop there while I'm ahead. I know exactly what I'm doing next, but I want some feedback on my writing when it's not... whatever the prologue would be considered...
Anyways: Holy shit. This story's been up what, three, four days? It's already got more reviews than any of my others, if the trend continues it'll have more than all my others combined by the end of the week! That is more than a little awesome.
Constructive criticism makes me happy, so do intelligent reviews. The whole 'lol, awsom stori, rite mor!!!' (even if it'd been spelled correctly and gramatically sound) stuff... it's just fluff. If anything, pick out your favorite part of the chapter/story so I at least know what people like.
Anyways, thank y'all so much for the reviews, hope this thing's up to snuff to the (apparantly) high bar I set first chapter. Ja ne.