Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Summary: Naruto returns to Konoha and reacquaints himself with his old friends, but no one's changed as much as he has...

Notes: Thanks for the comments, I appreciate the feedback!

Chapter 2 - Return to Konoha

Naruto looked down at the Village of Konoha from his high perch, standing atop a power pole he breathed in the fresh air and let his gaze settle on Hokage mountain. He studied the face of the 4th Hokage looking for something, "Well I'm back, I hope you didn't get too used to things being quiet around here, I plan on making a little noise." He whispered.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya called, "Get down here! Someone wants to see you!" Naruto glanced down to see a young girl standing next to Jiraiya with pink hair, smiling Naruto hurled himself downward and slammed into the hard ground below. With his chakra enhanced strength the landing was no problem, nor would it have been for most Shinobi, but the villagers nearby nearly jumped out of their skin. Jiraiya rolled his eyes at the obvious showmanship, but it did seem to elicit a reaction of surprise from Sakura.

"Sakura-Chan! Wow are you a sight for sore eyes!" Naruto called, as he rushed up and clasped her up in bear hug. Sakura squeaked with suprise and Naruto immediately felt awkward, he released her and jumped back with both of them looking a bit embarrassed.

Jiraiya giggled, "Well this has some promise now doesn't it? I bet now he wishes he had read more of my books!"

"Naruto-Kun!" Sakura blushed, had he ever changed! When she saw him standing on top of the power pole staring at the Hokages he seemed so different then she remembered, quieter somehow, with a strength that seemed to pour out of him even though he was doing nothing but standing still. She wondered what had happened to him these last 3 years to change him like this, and she suddenly found herself filled with a sense of regret as she realized how much she had missed him and how hard she had tried to bury those feelings of loneliness. It hadn't been easy losing both of her squad mates.

Sakura shook herself out it, that present had just evaporated into the past, Naruto was back! Sakura took a moment to study the new Naruto, he was taller, much taller. In fact he looked like he was taller than she was by a good 3 inches. His cloths had changed slightly, he but he still clung to his trademark orange and black. His face was a lot leaner and his hair was longer, thick blond spikes partially covering his bright blue eyes, adding a hint of mystery.

"Oh my God! Am I checking him out?" she though wildly, since when was Naruto attractive? She kept looking to make sure, he was no Sasuke of course, no one would ever be that good she told herself. But he was getting much better! Out of instinct Sakura shifted to the side subtly to show off her legs, "You're not the only one who's grown Naruto! Check this out!"

"You look so much older Naruto! It's been so long since I've seen you, do I look more mature now too?" she asked, hoping he would notice her.

"Wow Sakura you're just great, you look exactly the sam...", Naruto caught himself in mid sentence. He was about to say something really stupid, "Damn it! Think before you speak, you're not like that anymore! " he chastised himself.

"You look like you're an amazing women!" he blurted in a mild mental panic.

"Man I hope she buys that!" Actually she did look good, beautiful in fact. Gone was the long dress, replaced with knee high open toed boots, and a form fitting skirt that stopped above the knees. He thought it was plenty short, but even so it was slitted up the side to allow for better movement. She wore lycra shorts underneath that jutted out just below the skirt, but the shape of her legs was still easy to make out. He tried not to stare but his eyes didn't seem to want to cooperate.

Sakura followed his eyes and blushed even deeper, "He noticed!" she thought smugly. "Now I won't have to pile drive him into the ground for almost saying I look exactly the same! I have to admit, you're growing up Naruto."

Jiraiya for one was proud, the kid had come a long way in the last year since he learned about his past. He was so much more like his father now, no one would believe it. And smooth talking a girl! "Way to go Naruto!" Jiraiya thought. "He's doing great, I wonder if he knows she's checking him out?"

"I wonder if the pervy sage is getting a load of this!" Naruto beamed inwardly. "I told him I didn't need those stupid books! Sakura just checked me out, I'm sure of it!"

The awkward silence was broken by a distant call, "Hey! Naruto-san!" Naruto turned around to see the newcomers and saw two people approaching. The first was unrecognizable, hiding his face behind his tall collar and glasses, and the other was wearing a black jump suit and riding atop some kind of monstrous wolf. The rider predictably arrived first and leapt off his beast landing right in front of Naruto and Sakura. "Naruto! What's it been like 3 years?" he asked, obviously expecting a response.

"Uh, ya I guess..." Naruto stumbled. "Wait a minute! It can't be... Kiba?! Shino?! How have you been?! You two looked completely different, and that beast over there... is that Akamaru? He's huge! It seems like it's been forever! Wait..." There was another member of this team Naruto remembered, a girl, a weird girl, "Hey where's Hinata?"

Kiba rolled his eyes looking offended, "Hinata? Who cares? She's scared of you anyways! What have you been doing these last 3 years? Training like crazy I bet!"

Naruto smirked, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, just wait until you see what I can do now..."

Akamaru barked to Kiba. "No kidding, he's a lot different," Kiba thought. "Almost intimidating ... how interesting."

Shino was having the same thought, his bugs were whispering a warning to him that there was dangerous chakra near. If it was anyone else he would have thought that Jiraiya-sama's formidable presence was setting them off, but he could tell it was Naruto. "So Naruto, you seem a lot different than I remember, you seem much... stronger. I take it that your training with Jiraiya-sama was a success?"

"Success? You bet it was! I'm a lot stronger now then when I left. And I'm not just a brawler anymore either, Jiraiya-senei's been teaching me a whole lot of techniques that run in my fami... er," he stuttered, not wanting give away too much. "A lot of techniques that I seem to have an affinity for."

One of Shino's eye brows raised slightly behind his sunglasses. "Uh huh."

Something familiar ticked at the edge of Naruto's senses, he looked away suddenly searching for something down the street. "Ah ha! I know that feeling, it must be..." He made a quick sign with his left hand and with a puff of smoke he was gone.

"Whoa!" his friends all yelled in unison, they weren't expecting that!

"When did he learn that?" Sakura wondered. "A body flicker jutsu!" It was a deceptive jutsu that gave the user the illusion of teleportation but Sakura knew that wasn't really the case. A shinobi first concentrated a large mass of chakra inside their body and then preplanned out his or her route. Once the jutsu was activated the users body would perform the planned series of movements at an incredible speed, faster then they ever could hope to do normally. It was so fast in fact that the user couldn't even see during the jutsu's execution. This was both the techniques strength and its fatal flaw of course, it took a moment for the ninja to decelerate and gain their bearings coming out of a body flicker. That moment of confusion was all it took to get killed in battle, as a result only a handful of shinobi with the most exceptional reflexes ever used the technique in combat. The genjutsu portion of the technique was usually used to create a cover like smoke or some other confusion to help protect a ninja finishing a flicker.

Nearly all Jounin could manage a basic body flicker but Naruto had never shown much talent for such things. "He wasn't kidding when he said Jiraiya-sama had been teaching him some new things." Sakura looked around and opened her senses searching for him, there were some other shinobi nearby but she couldn't locate Naruto. "I don't have time for this!" she thought. "I'm supposed to bring him to talk to the 5th."

"Jiraiya-sama, do you have any idea where Naruto just went?" she asked exasperated.

His eyes flickered for just a moment then he smiled, "What, you can't tell?"

"Oh!" Hinata Hyuuga yelped. Naruto Uzumaki, the love of her life had just appeared in front of her, and she was absolutely paralyzed. She had hidden down the street and behind a fence when she saw him standing up on the power pole, she wasn't ready to see him, not after 3 years, she had no idea he was back! What was she going to say? "I still freeze up around him, damn it!"

Naruto nearly fell over after appearing in front of her, this was Hinata?! Her soft lavender eyes perfectly framed her button nose and delicate lips. She was chewing on her lower lip nervously trying not to look him in the eye, it was actually a lot like how he remembered her but instead of being odd and annoying it just seemed so irresistible now!

He continued analyzing her, she had traded in one oversize coat for another, but this one suited her much better, less a winter coat and more of a uniform. It was unzipped partway to revel her mesh top, hinting to what was beneath. Her hair was longer now as well, and wrapped around her shoulders leading down to her more than ample looking...

Looking up Hinata saw she was being undressed by Naruto's eyes, and she turned bright red. "Uh, Naruto-kun? Up here..." she whispered.

"Oh yeah baby!" her mind trumpeted, "he just looked me up and down and he liked it! Yes! My Naruto is back!"

"Well uh, hi." Naruto managed, floundering for his composure. He must have spent too much time with the pervert. "Uh, so how is your eye thing going?" She stared at him. "You Idiot." Naruto thought, "real smooth... how's your eye thing? Say something else!"

"You look a lot stronger Hinata-chan! You'll have to spar with me sometime and show me what you've learned!" he yelled, causing her to back up against the fence. "Oh hey, much better." He thought, "Sort of..."

"Well, ah, sure Naruto-kun. Whatever you say..." she mumbled, looking back to the ground.

"Well, she's still weird" Naruto thought. "But cute!"

"Naruto!" Sakura called, rounding the corner. She couldn't believe that Jiraiya was right, how could she have missed him just down the street? She saw the Hyuuga girl with her back up against the fence, and Naruto leaning in on her grinning from ear to ear. "What's this?" she wondered. "Naruto, the 5th wants to see you right away! You're to report to her and get your first assignment."

"Alright, alright. I'll be there in a sec." he responded. Turning back to Hinata, Naruto remembered how he had helped the girl with her fears before, and she still looked like she couldn't look him in the eye. "I'm serious about the sparring alright?"

"Y..Yes of course Naruto-kun" Hinata stuttered. She had gone completely red now. It was all she could do to keep from passing out.

"Man is she ever blushing. What is that all about? Just some training, geessh." Naruto thought as he turned to walk away.

"Well alright then it's a Date! Well, you know..."

Hinata stopped breathing for a moment and passed out, the momentary lack of oxygen being the straw that broke the camel's back. She landed with an audible thud.

"... what I meant." Naruto trailed off. "Man I can't remember a time when that girl stayed upright! So strange."

Naruto turned back toward his teammate, "All right Sakura you win, lets go see the Hokage, looks like I'm done here anyways."

Sakura stood there contemplating Naruto as he approached, it was easy to sense his chakra now that he was right in front of her and she knew it was him. "No wonder I couldn't find him! His chakra feels completely different! I was sensing his presence but I mistook him for someone else. But how is that possible? Chakra is supposed to be like a finger print, once you know someone's you always know it." She made a mental note to ask the 5th about it later.

"Are you done harassing that poor girl?" she asked as they started towards Hokage tower. "We need to get going, the 5th is going to wonder where we're at."

"Sakura-chan! I wasn't harassing her, I just said hi!"

"Sure, it was all my imagination! And she's not unconscious laying on her back on the sidewalk over there either is she?"

"Ya, I don't really know why she always does that..." Naruto replied.

"I swear Naruto, how could you change so much and still be this hopeless?"

Hinata's eyes fluttered open. "There she is!" Kiba teased. "Done napping? If you're still tired I can go and get Naruto again!"

Shino shook his head from side to side, sometimes he wondered if these two were ever going to grow up. "You still can't control yourself around him, it's very embarrassing..."

Hinata ignored her teammates, "He seemed really interested in me!" she squealed inwardly. "Naruto's finally back and he's interested in me! I've got to get ready for training with him, oh my God what am I going to do?"

Tsunade was staring at her desk as usual, and her inbox was now stacked just slightly above eye level, as usual. This annoyed her to no end, it made it impossible for her to see someone sitting in her office without looking around the stack or standing up, worse it made her look like a lazy ass. "Shit, I need some sake." She stated flatly. As she reached for her stash in the lower left drawer the door to her office swung open.

"Hokage-sama!" Shizune shouted as she barged in the oversize office. "Master Jiraiya and Naruto have returned!"

"Thank God!" Tsunade thought, "Now I can put this fucking paperwork off till later!"

Shizune looked at her sensei as she ushered in the two travelers and Sakura, "She's not going to get this paperwork done now is she?" She sighed, another late night.

Looking up she watched Jiraiya enter the office giving her a wink, followed by Naruto and finally her newest student Sakura. She noted the slight change in the air around Naruto, "Interesting..."

"Tsunade-sama!" Naruto beamed. "How are you?"

Tsunade's eyes narrowed, "Show some respect you lit... " Wait, did Naruto just address her appropriately? Where was the old lady insult?

She realized everyone was staring at her, "Naruto! Yes thank you for coming!" she said, maybe if she acted like she hadn't said that then the rest would play along. "I wanted to talk to you about your progress over the last 3 years, I trust Jiraiya has made a real Ninja out of you?"

"No need to be insulting." Naruto sniffed. He could see it was going to be a while before people stopped treating him like an idiot child. "Man, was I that bad?"

"What are you talking about?" Jiraiya yelled. "Of course he's progressed! He was taught by the great toad sage after all, Yeeeeaaaaa!"

Tsunade sighed, well at least Jiraiya was the same, big shocker. But Naruto was certainly different, bigger sure, but that was to be expected. It was his demeanor that had caught her attention, he was quiet, attentive, and his deep blue eyes sparkled with something deeper than before.

"Jiraiya, who is this and what have you done with Naruto?" she wondered. Still marveling at the transformation Tsunade continued, "Well good, then I have a little surprise for you, we're going to test your new skills at training ground number seven. Then I can figure out what to do with you."

"Awww come on Tsunade-sama!" Naruto whined. "You know you can send me on any mission! I'm way stronger now then I used be."

"No arguments Naruto, your opponent is outside..."

Naruto didn't understand at first, he looked out the window at the street, but immediately sensed the presence to his left, "Kakashi-sensei!"

"Naruto!" the lean jounin greeted. "It's been a long time, you sure have grown a lot since I last saw you. I take it Jiraiya has been training you well?"

"You bet! I guess the 5th wants me to beat on you for a while before she'll give me an assignment." He joked.

"Is that so? Looks like I'm going to have to give my old student one more lesson." Kakashi replied coolly.

"Ok, Ok..." Naruto threw up his hands in feigned defeat. "But this will be a good chance to show you some of my new talents, try to not act too surprised OK?"

"No chance of that Naruto..." Kakashi thought. He'd been studying Naruto since he entered the adjoining room. It confused him at first, but through a simple process of elimination he realized that the strange chakra belonged to Naruto. It wasn't like anything he had felt before and there was a lot of it. That alone seemed worrisome, but standing here talking to Naruto Kakashi could see the change in his personality. He was calmer now, more aware of his surroundings, even now the genin was sizing him up, he could tell.

"Well then, how about you show me what you've learned?"

Authors Notes: So here's the trivia answers from Ch 1:

For 3 points - What event was he thingkng about? The last time Naruto had to kill someone (I said that one would be tough, I know)

For 2 points - What image flashed in his mind? An image of the 4th Hokage's face carved in the mountains.