Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
I have been told quite a number of things about people's hopes for this story. Some say that my chapters nowadays are too long and I should shorten them. Some others say the opposite, and wish that they stay long. But somehow the most important thing—besides an understandably overwhelming amount of bloodlust for the ANBU team's death—is for smexy times between Sasuke and Naruto, which I personally find kinda funny.
Well, sorry to disappoint some in this chapter, but it's kinda long, no death, and no smexy times .
Onwards with the chapter!
Naruto was very excited about today.
Today was important: Naruto was going to see all his old teammates after all this time!
For him, the absence was about, like, three months-ish? But he knew that for them, it was more like two-and-a-half-ish years.
So he was totally excited to see them all again. He loved his Team Seven, Shizune, and Tsunade lots—like a lot a lot—but seeing the same people day in and day out for about two months had gotten kinda boring; not that he'd admit it in fear the wrath that would ensue.
But on the flip side that had made Naruto a LITTLE nervous, there was a reason that he hadn't seen them for about two months. Tsunade and his other lovely medical-nin had little to no idea how he would react to so many people at one time.
They knew that he could handle, like, five people at once; but that was with people who he was used to and Sasuke didn't count.
But they were willing to chance it because they also knew how much people missed Naruto—people actually missed him!—and how they would be hurt if there could only be a set number of people outside of Team Seven and they, who had fought to rescue Naruto, could not see him while others could.
Naruto couldn't bear to put others through the pain of being excluded, so he had begged Sakura and Tsunade to invite everyone he knew.
There were debates, but eventually there was a compromise of inviting Team Kakashi, Team Ino-Shika-Cho, Neji-TenTen-Lee, and Kiba-Hinata-Shino. Unfortunately, Gai was assigned on a solo mission before they had approved Naruto for this visit and was still away, and Kurenai-Sensei was busy with her little toddler.
Naruto was condiment that his friends would respect his meter-radius thing, and was therefor sure that there was no chance that he would switch.
So he was so looking forward to today. So much so, that he woke up two hours before normal!
He would have literally jumped out of bed, but he was embarrassed to find that he had awoken in Sasuke's arms as they shared Naruto's futon.
Naruto had made sure that his bright red flush was invisible to Sasuke as he snuck out of the futon for a shower. Sasuke seemed to stay asleep, but Naruto could swear that the bastard was pretending and secretly enjoying Naruto's attempts to get out of his grip and leave quietly. That bastard.
Naruto had taken a shower—wanting to look his absolute best for when he saw his friends again—and was impatiently waiting for the appointed time to go see everybody.
The blonde was never known for his patience, so he had gotten rather fidgety.
Not lets-clean-the-house-with-anal-detailed-work fidgety like he knew Sasuke would deny doing, but more on the lines of he tried time and time again to make a proper breakfast.
Before everything happened and he had lost two years of his life, Naruto did not know how to make breakfast.
To be honest, he never really tried to learn. He was always groggy after waking up so anything edible and quick/easy to 'make' was fine with him. His breakfasts were usually either instant ramen or cereal. And on missions, when he was alert after being awoken, if they did have breakfast it was some sort of power snack.
The only times he had real breakfasts were when he was traveling with Er-Sennin.
But thing were different now. Now, Sasuke made Naruto breakfast every morning; the good kind, too!
Usually, Naruto would either sleep until the smell woke him up, or he would chat with Sasuke and did not really pay attention to what the Uchiha was doing.
So that led to Naruto's current dilemma. He wanted to make Sasuke a proper breakfast since he was already so fidgety, but he had little to no idea how.
He tried imitating what he could remember from the meager memories of Sasuke explaining the process, but he could not remember if he was talking about waffles or the pancakes Naruto was trying to make.
The blonde knew that syrup went in there SOMEWHERE, but he didn't know where exactly…
So he was currently putting it on the batter while it was on the stove. That made it tastier, right?
"Usuratonkachi, what are you doing?"
Naruto held back a manly shout, that would have been in a manly voice, that oozed with manly testosterone. But a SMALL shriek might have escaped.
"BASTARD! Don't sneak up on me!" Naruto shouted—in his manly voice—after he had recovered. He then checked to see how his pancakes were doing after he put the syrup down on the counter.
"Hn." Sasuke grunted in all of his articulate-ness.
So in retaliation, Naruto stuck his tongue out at him. It was clearly the way to win any argument.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke repeated, standing next to Naruto.
"I'm making pancakes." The blonde answered with as much dignity as he could to Sasuke's somewhat disapproving tone. He couldn't understand the reason for the tone. Wouldn't the bastard LIKE being made breakfast, despite his being a bastard?
"No you're not." Sasuke said as he disappeared from Naruto's side.
"Yes I am!" Naruto retorted. Some people just couldn't accept when they've been beaten at their own game. Such a shame.
"No, you're making inedible goop." Sasuke said as he reappeared with cleaning supplies which he placed next to the sink. He then proceeded to take the pan over to the trashcan and throw Naruto's hard work away!
"NOOOOOOOO! MY BABIES! MY PRECIOUS BABIES!" Naruto weeped as he crumpled next to the trashcan with his pancakes inside.
"You were going to eat your own babies?" Sasuke asked, his tone border-lining amusement as he cleaned the pan.
Naruto flashed him a grin and said, "Hell yeah, if they tasted as good as your pancakes!"
Sasuke turned back to the sink and grunted, "Hn."
"Hey, Bastard! Since you threw my babies away, you have to make me some new pancakes!" Naruto declared, making his way to collect a plate and silverware so that there would be no delay between finishing the delicious pancakes and eating them.
"Hn," Sasuke grunted again as he made his way to the cabinets to get the needed things out again.
"Sasukeeeeeeeee," Naruto whined as the bastard was taking too long.
"What?" Sasuke asked in return.
"Hurry uuuuup! I need a proper breakfast before I see everyone again and YOU were the one who said that ramen isn't a proper breakfast!" Naruto tried to hold back tears as he remembered the blasphemic rule.
Sasuke didn't reply.
"Bastard?" Naruto asked. Usually Sasuke would reinforce the rule.
It took a moment, but Sasuke spoke again, "Are you sure you want to go?"
"Go? I don't havta pee." Naruto replied, a little confused.
"Not bathroom, usuratonkachi. To meet everyone today." Sasuke explained as he finished making the pancakes.
"Of course I wanna go! I haven't seen them in three months!" Naruto replied immediately.
"Two years." Sasuke corrected quietly.
"Even more reason to go! Why? Do you not want me to go?" Naruto asked, thinking he understood Sasuke's hesitance.
Sasuke sighed as he motioned for Naruto's plate, "It's not that I don't want you to go, but rather that I'm worried."
"Why? I know it's sad that we can't invite more people, but they'd understand, right? So no need to worry!" Naruto assured the other as he handed him his orange plate.
"Idiot, do you know why there can only be a limited number of people?" Sasuke asked in a tone as if he were talking to a kid as he placed some mouth-watering pancakes onto Naruto's plate. They were no ramen, but for breakfast's needs, they were pretty damn good.
Naruto accepted his plate with a smile, then squinted his eyes as he thought hard about the question, "Uhhhhhhh, besides the possibility of me flipping out, I can't think of anything."
Sasuke sighed and looked like, if he were human, he would hit his face with the palm of his hand.
"Wha—" Naruto asked, his mouth full of pancakes; all warm and fluffy pancakes. Delicious.
"THAT'S why I'm worried." Sasuke said in a slightly exasperated tone.
"Eh?" Naruto cocked his head to the side in his confusion. Sasuke was worried because Naruto couldn't think of many reasons to be worried?
Looking Naruto straight in the eye, Sasuke said slowly, "I'm worried about the possibility of you 'flipping out'."
Naruto's head snapped into place with a huff, "So you don't trust me?"
"I trust you." Sasuke said in a now patient tone.
"Then why worry?" Naruto asked heatedly. Everything would be fine! He hadn't really flipped in like, two weeks!
"I trust you," Sasuke repeated, "but it's the rest of THEM I don't trust."
Naruto groaned, "You're such a downer, Sasuke! Everything will be okay! Now eat your breakfast."
When Sasuke complied, Naruto felt a surge of happiness and almost did a happy dance. Sasuke would NEVER listen to what Naruto would order back in the glory days of Team Seven; every time he did was a new rush.
With that, Naruto returned to his own breakfast, explaining to the Uchiha exactly how awesome pancakes were because they were stackable and easy to dowse in syrup.
Sasuke grunted a lot, but that was his form of communication.
One day he might learn how to converse like humans.
After breakfast, Naruto bounded around the house, full of pent up energy. He couldn't help it! He was that excited!
He tried to tend to the garden, but he ended up running back to the house after watering every flower to check to see if it was time to leave yet. While it DID waste some time, it did not make it go any faster.
Naruto was not desperate enough to start cleaning, but he did resort to eating to pass the time and hopefully calm himself down.
He had made instant ramen—one of the few things he COULD make properly—and had already dug in when Sasuke had returned to the kitchen, all showered up and clean.
"So is it almost time to leave?" Naruto asked. Despite constantly checking the clock and being fully prepared to see everyone again, the blonde actually had no idea when that would be. Sakura had told Sasuke the time rather than Naruto, to his annoyance.
Sasuke shook his head in the negative and grabbed another cup of instant ramen from the cupboard because Naruto had already finished his first one.
The blonde groaned; he wanted to leave already!
As Sasuke started to heat up the cup, he said, "We should review possible exist strategies in case everything starts to overwhelm you."
Naruto groaned again. Why couldn't Sasuke understand that everything was going to be FINE?
"There's no need because everything will be fine." Naruto told Sasuke with a slight pout on his face.
Sasuke ignored him, "If you are feeling the least but strained, you should let me, Kakashi, or Sakura know. Kakashi and I will take you to a safe place while Sakura keeps everyone else away."
"But everything will be fine!" Naruto attempted to assure the other again. But like last time, to no avail.
"Even though have progressed to a meter radius, we'll make sure that the radius is doubled if not tripled."
"No need to. It'll be fine."
"Everyone has also been told they need to suppress their chakra and to definitely not allow it to flare."
"But it's fine."
"But if you are uneasy, we will take you to a different, isolated space so you can gather yourself."
"But I won't flip out because everything will be fine!"
"Kakashi and I will set up several barriers just in case—"
"SASUKE!" Naruto shouted to get the other's attention.
Said Uchiha was silent. His back was still turned to Naruto as the timer chimed, letting the two men know that the ramen was ready.
Neither of them spoke, but Sasuke mutely stopped heating the contents of the cup lest they overcook.
The blonde, not one for silence, spoke up again, "Sasuke, can you just…not? Please? I know about the chance of my flipping out, but I also know that you guys got it covered!"
The bastard still said nothing.
So Naruto continued, "Even if you don't trust everyone else, I do! And what's more: I trust you, Sakura, and Kakashi! I know that none of you will let anything happen. So just…chill, alright?"
Sasuke continued to show silence that he was the master.
Then Naruto's stomach rumbled.
Naruto blushed slightly because of his tummy's tendency to fill awkward silences with the song of its people.
"Uhhhhh, bastard? You have my food. My stomach is mad and is about to call you out on stealing its lover."
Finally, Sasuke grunted, "Hn," and grabbed the cup and placed it in front of Naruto who smiled. It may not have been much, but Sasuke was speaking—in Uchiha non-human language—again.
Taking a huge slurp of the orgasmic ramen, Naruto asked "Fo whe- 'o we 'lea-?"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow as a silent question.
After Naruto finished consuming the contents of the cup mere seconds later, he tried again, "So when do we leave?"
"Later," Sasuke answered as he collected Naruto's trash.
"Bastard! That's not a time!"
"Hn."
Naruto groaned, "You're such a downer, bastard! You need to be more excited! This is the first time I'm seeing everybody and I'm not all flipped out attack mode or in your arms all damsel-and-distress-y!" he exclaimed, crossing his arms and looking to the side, pouting.
Sasuke's demeanor seemed to change as he somehow suddenly appeared on the blonde's opposite side.
"It's your job to be the optimistic, excited idiot." Sasuke breathed into Naruto's ear, making him shiver a little.
"Wha—"
"And it's my job to be the pessimistic, bastard boyfriend."
Naruto's face had never flushed so hard; his previous blushes were no match for the mother of all red faces he was currently sporting.
"B-b-b-boy-boy-boy-boy-boyfriends?" Naruto stammered, desperately looking anywhere but at the bastard behind him, "We-we-w-we never a-agreed t-to be b-boyf-f-friends."
Again, somehow and suddenly, Sasuke ended up in front of him and enveloped him into a hug before Naruto could realize what was going on.
"Oh? We live together. We sleep together, like we did last night. And we acknowledge that we love each other." Sasuke spoke in a confident, low and somewhat seductive tone, all of which combined made Naruto on the border-line of shivering a little from it. That bastard.
"Gra-Granny Tsunade made me l-live here. A-and we DON'T 'sleep together'! I had a nightmare and you took advantage and decided to become a cuddle monster last night!"
Sasuke chuckled a little, "'Cuddle monster'?" he repeated.
Naruto nodded against the chest he was held in place against and whined, "What happened to the NICE Sasuke who said that we didn't have to rush things or define ourselves until I'm ready?"
"If you're ready to meet everyone else again, like you are so eager to, then you must be ready to admit that you are my boyfriend." Sasuke spoke in a slightly teasing—for Uchihas—tone. Naruto could practically hear the smirk that was sure to have formed above his head.
"BASTARD!" Naruto shouted and began attempting to escape in earnest.
"The 'Bastard' Sasuke has currently locked up the 'nice' Sasuke."
Confused, Naruto stopped struggling, "What?" he asked. Sasuke was locked up? But wasn't he the one locking Naruto up in this hug?
"The only way to let him out is with a kiss." Sasuke said, loosening his hold on Naruto enough so that the blonde could look up at him.
The Uchiha had a smug smirk on his face. That bastard.
If Naruto wasn't sporting a blush that made the mother of all blushes look like a little schoolgirl compared to the GRANDMOTHER of all blushes, then he might have glared at him.
The bastard, seemingly enjoying Naruto's fluster, then whispered into the blonde's ear, "Nice Sasuke knows when we're leaving."
DAMN THAT BASTARD! Naruto tried his best to glare at the other, but Sasuke merely smirked and rendered it useless.
So Naruto stuck his tongue out at him.
Take that, bastard.
Then Naruto obstinately turned his head to the other side; to which Sasuke chuckled again and cupped his hand against blond hair to press Naruto's head against his chest.
Naruto didn't pay it much attention as his mind was debating what to do. Bastard-Sasuke was all touchy feely! Naruto was still trying to wrap his mind that Sasuke was back in Konoha and going to stay along with the bastard lov-loving him. Touchy-feely Sasuke wasn't making the transition from mentally being sixteen to eighteen like everyone else.
He was severely tempted to just kick the guy's ass. But two things held him back: he was not allowed to actively fight and the bastard claimed that Nice-Sasuke was still here.
He would have ignored those reasons, but he knew better than to disregard the no-fighting rule because it was set for a very good reason and he did not want to give anyone any reason to keep him from seeing everyone today. Hey, maybe he WAS getting more mature-ish!
With a groan, Naruto fisted his hands on the side of his body and asked, "You said a ki-kiss will bring Nice-Sasuke back?"
"A kiss is the key." Bastard-Sasuke clarified for the blonde.
Naruto nodded, steeling himself for what he was going to do and pushed himself slightly away from Sasuke's chest so he could properly face him. Sasuke allowed this and did not hold onto him like he did when Naruto was trying to escape.
Taking a deep breath—though that did not help the steadily rising blush that neared Mother of All Blushes proportions—Naruto slightly puckered his lips and went in.
And he pecked the tip of Bastard-Sasuke's nose.
Then he backed away quickly to gulp down some water to calm himself down.
Naruto ran to the sink, grabbed a cup, filled it with water, and quickly began to gulp down the cool liquid.
Sasuke chuckled behind him, "That was your kiss?"
Naruto accidentally spit out his water and turned around while he pointed an accusing finger at the bastard, "SHUT UP! That was deeply erotic! And you never said it had to be on the lips!"
Sasuke smirked at him, "That is true."
"So-so shut up and be Nice-Sasuke!" Naruto shouted and turned his back to the Uchiha to refill his cup.
Suddenly, he felt arms wrap around his waist, "Alright, I can be Nice-Sasuke."
"Thi-this is N-Nice-Sasuke?" Naruto stuttered. Dammit, the water was NOT working!
"Nope," Sasuke said as he rested his chin on Naruto's shoulder "This is," he whispered before Naruto could call him out on his bastard-ness.
He kissed the nape of the blonde's neck and said, "We can leave now."
"REALLY?" Bastard-Sasuke forgotten, Naruto bounded out of Sasuke's hold and ran for the front door, "C'MON, SASUKE! WE DON'T WANT TO BE LATE! LET'S GO!" he shouted as he mashed his feet into his sandals.
Sasuke grunted, "Hn," as he calmly put on his own sandals.
It was hard not to jump for the rooftops to their destination, Training Ground Three according to Sasuke, like he would a couple of mon—YEARS ago, let alone not even run!
But Sasuke said that in his excitable state, it would be easy for him to accidentally use some chakra; and since they were not sure how he would react anyways to a lot of people, they did not want to test out how he would react when he was using his own chakra and thus be very sensitive to other chakra signatures.
So Naruto ended up walking directly behind Sasuke so he could focus on stepping exactly where Sasuke had stepped rather than their destination.
Sasuke stopped a lot, but that was because of their usual need to avoid the villagers. If Naruto was paying more attention, he would have noticed that Sasuke was being rather paranoid about running into others today. But as it was, Naruto was not paying attention to Sasuke; only his feet.
FINALLY after HOURS—thirty minutes—the two had arrived at Training Grounds Three.
It was Sakura who had suggested the area. She had said that it would be most fitting considering that Naruto always seemed to do his most intense training here and that it held so many memories.
Naruto was overjoyed when they had arrived at their destination. Not only was he going to see everyone again REALLY soon, but now that Sasuke was back, his memories of this area were no longer marred!
He and Sasuke—Naruto—had a great time remembering the good ol' days of Team Seven training here, and Naruto even re-accounted some stories of other times he had trained here.
Not long after Naruto told Sasuke about learning to split a leaf in half by only using his wind chakra, Sakura and Kakashi joined them.
Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi continued to remember good times in this Training Ground while Sasuke grunted every so often when Naruto demanded that he participate in the conversation.
They had somehow situated themselves in a reminiscent pose of when they had discovered that the three then-Genin had learned that that had passed. Kakashi was standing in front of the wooden posts, surprisingly with no book, as they talked. Sasuke and Sakura were leaning against their respective posts. Naruto, however, was not tied to his middle post but was rather sitting on top of it.
The old Team Seven—minus Sasuke—had gotten so lost in their memories that it was not until Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji had shown up.
Naruto greeted them brightly, and was enthusiastically greeted back, but was told both verbally or silently to stay where he was by the members of the old Team Seven.
Being unable to resist himself, he jumped off of the post he as sitting on, but did—could—not move forward because Sasuke was partially holding him back by his T-shirt.
The blonde was going to turn around to ask Sasuke what he was doing, but then he heard Sakura reminding Team Ino-Shika-Cho about Naruto's meter-radius boundary and figured that Naruto had probably forgotten his rule himself. Which he did, but he would never admit it.
Ino, speaking for the other two boys, had promised to stay at least two meters away just to be safe.
Naruto was a little disappointed, mostly because all of this boundary stuff reminded him of when he was a kid and people would avoid him like the plague, but Sasuke had started to rub tiny circles on the small of his back to let him know that he was not alone.
Not that it mattered all that much, because his friends that had just arrived began to speak animatedly with him.
"Ohhhhhh my gawd, Naruto! It is so good to finally see you again!" Ino exclaimed excitedly.
"It's good to see you guys too!" Naruto gave them his signature smile, which was returned gladly.
"It's great to see that smile again." Chouji admitted aloud to Naruto.
Naruto cocked his head to the side, "What?"
Shikamaru sighed, but he too was smiling a little, "He means that it was weird not seeing the smile we had gotten used to for two years."
Ino interrupted by saying, "It was SO weird! You're smile used to brighten up our days without our even realizing it! It wasn't the same without you." She finished with a little pout.
Chouji finished for them, "So that's why it's so refreshing to see your smile again after so long."
Naruto was brimming with tears of happiness, "It's no big deal…" he said awkwardly as he scratched the back of his neck.
"Are you kidding me?" Ino shouted out, but in a controlled fashion, "Without you here, this one here," she gestured to Chouji, "returned to eating his insecurities away and this one," a gesture towards Shikamaru, "spent more time than ever staring at the clouds! And not in the lazy way like usual, but serious thinking mode! And I was the only bubbly blonde around! It was so pressure filled because you left a huge gap in the fun side of being a blonde!"
Even though she had basically insulted them, Shikamaru and Chouji were smiling with Ino as she pretended to huff around about losing Naruto's fellow blonde-ness.
When Sakura started to laugh along with them, Naruto deemed it safe for he himself to laugh as well.
Soon afterwards, Team Gai—minus Gai—almost immediately followed by Team Kurenai—minus Kurenai and Akamaru—arrived in the Training Grounds to join everyone else.
Everyone was in good spirits; even Kakashi who was off to the side as a 'Naruto supervisor'.
For the most past, Naruto marveled at how much people had changed. Not only did they look a little older, but they held themselves differently. They were no longer crazed teenagers but rather young adults.
Naruto felt rather young at that point. He knew that he had lost two years of his life and that he was basically sixteen in an eighteen-year-old's body, but he never thought about it beyond occasionally reminding himself of that fact whenever he saw himself in the mirror or when he noticed Sasuke being especially patient with him.
But he had been surrounded by those who understood and adjusted their interactions accordingly, and since he had always thought Sasuke, Sakura, Shizune, Kakashi, and Tsunade to be more mature than himself, Naruto had not thought much of it.
Now, however, he considered himself young amongst those he had considered to be his relative equals in maturity levels, or close enough. It was all so surreal.
Sakura's voice broke through his thoughts and brought him back to reality, though.
"Alright, I know that we are all excited to see Naruto again, but you guys HAVE to remember to keep in mind his meter-radius! Make it two or three just to be safe!" Sakura barked out orders as she situated herself in front of Naruto.
Before anyone else could say a word, she began ordering about again, "And no chakra! We still aren't sure how he'll react to chakra and we don't want to take any chances."
Naruto wondered when it had been decided that Sakura would be in charge today as he looked between Kakashi and Sasuke. Kakashi had taken out on of his Ero Ero books to read, though Naruto knew that he would also be keeping an eye on everyone.
Sasuke looked like he couldn't care less about what was going on, which was probably true. Apparently, judging by his expression and his hand still on Naruto's back, he was only there for Naruto's sake.
"Who make you Queen of the world?" Ino demanded, though she seemed to be the only one. Everyone else seemingly decided to just accept it.
"I'm not Queen, I'm Naruto's medical-nin and have been assigned by Tsunade to make sure that the restrictions are kept." Sakura shot back.
That made sense, Naruto decided, but he could have done without so many restrictions. He was fine.
After a bit of small talk, greetings and such mostly, Naruto decided that it was best to give his friends a little knowledge of what had been going on since they helped rescue him from his old 'team'.
"So, uhhhh, yeah," he nervously laughed and scratched the back of his head as he struggled to find where to begin, "I, uhm, don't really remember much that has happened in the past two years. I mean, I wasn't really conscious when it happened, so when I woke up I thought it had only been about two or three weeks.
"But the memories keep popping up so now I'm in therapy for that. Also, the meter thing has been a result from my therapy because I used to flip out into my weird 'attack mode' when someone came within TEN meters! But now I'm fine, I think." Naruto finished lamely, making sure to not look at Sasuke, who he could SWEAR was glaring at him for saying he was fine.
"Troublesome," Shikamaru yawned after a pause, though the concern for Naruto was evident in his tone.
After that, Sakura had made each team give a rundown of sorts of missions and other things that had happened during Naruto's two year absence; minus the part about worrying about him of course.
Naruto smiled, truly enjoying hearing what his friends had been up to.
Most of his friends had achieved Jounin status like Sakura had, which made Naruto jealous because he still considered himself a Genin since he had no memory of BECOMING an ANBU, though had too many of the missions he had been on as one.
The world had apparently become a mostly peaceful one. The Akatsuki were mostly dissipated with Pain gone and Konan retired. Naruto was glad to hear that apparently the Eight-Tailed Beast and the Raikage had killed Itachi's old partner, Kisame.
But with the main threat gone, the villages had regained their mutual alliances or rivalries without any declared battles. That was normal now, but—like in his ANBU memories—more and more rogue groups were popping up, hoping to be the next big bad to fill in the hole Akatsuki had left.
Luckily, the status of the world was not all that was to be talked about.
Team Ino-Shika-Cho rarely went out on full-scale missions because of their respective duties either for the Hokage or their parents' shops, but they had one of the highest percentages of satisfactory completed missions.
The same could be said for Neji, TenTen, and Lee but rather than obligations keeping them from team missions, solo or specialized missions got in the way.
Kiba, Hinata, and Shino apparently did frequently go out on missions together, because they were the ideal sentry team. Other than that, Hinata was training to become the next Hyuuga heiress, though she insisted that Neji help lead the clan with her by leading the Branch House.
All of these stories were directed by Sakura, who decided who and when people would speak to Naruto. She was quite adamant about people speaking one at a time so to not overwhelm Naruto—though he saw no reason for that and let the others know by a shrug behind Sakura's back—but she had no qualms with Naruto interrupting stories with his exclamations.
Luckily, no one else did either. In fact, they smiled whenever he boisterously laughed or shouted his opinions about something.
Time flew by as different stories were told. Even though he thought they were boring, Naruto re-accounted some of his therapy sessions because Hinata had asked—with minimal stuttering—what they were like.
All of a sudden, there were loud noises approaching them.
Naruto tried to step forwards to get a better look, but Sasuke's hand flew out in front of him and Sakura stood in front of him as well.
When it got closer, people could see that it was Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi.
"BOSS!" Konohamaru shouted excitedly, waving his hand wildly to get the blonde's attention.
"Konohamaru?" Naruto asked, peeking his head out from behind Sakura's shoulder.
The now teenaged trio was about to respond when Sakura spoke up instead.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
It was Konohamaru who responded, "We heard that Boss was going to be here! So of COURSE we came!"
"Uhh, Konohamaru," Udon tugged on the other boy's scarf which was now only down to his waist, "I think we shouldn't have come here." He was trying to get the other boy to pay attention to all the older teenagers who were slightly glowering at them, but holding themselves from tensing lest they trigger Naruto.
"NO! You guys aren't the only ones who missed Boss! He's fine now, so why should we leave?" Konohamaru shouted, glaring at Sakura who was a couple of centimeters shorter than him now.
"Uhh, I don't mind them being here." Naruto declared. He heard Sasuke mutter 'idiot' behind him, but chose to ignore that.
"Are you sure, Naruto?" Sakura asked, her eyes filled with concern and worry.
Naruto gave her one of his signature grins to calm her down, "Hell yea! Like Konohamaru said: I'm fine!" He even gave her a thumbs up for good measure.
Sakura looked like she still had doubts, but stepped aside and turned around, but was still a human barrier of sorts so that the trio could not approach Naruto.
Once he got the all good, Konohamaru grinned mischievously at Naruto—who smiled back—and shouted out, "ALRIGHT, BOSS! I've been training for two years! So get ready to be out-done!"
Before anyone could ask what he meant, Konohamaru disappeared in a puff of smoke and had transformed into a very curvy woman. Then (s)he made a clone who transformed into a pole and (s)he began swirling around it in a seductive way. Then finally, (s)he stopped in a power slide with the lower regions pointed at Naruto while (s)he looked over the rather sizeable breasts to gauge Naruto's reaction.
Naruto was holding back a good laugh as he saw some of his friends trying to discreetly hide some bulges in the pants.
Before he could comment, Konohamaru transformed back to himself and began balling excitedly, "How about that, Boss? I remembered what you originally told me when you were teaching me the Rasengan and I decided to combine that with the Sexy Jutsu! So, pretty hot, huh?"
Naruto was going to compliment the creative side to it, but critique him on how he could have made it sexier, when Moegi started shouting as well, "YOU IDIOT! The first thing you do when you see Naruto-nii is show him THAT? That's DISGUSTING! I thought you stopped!"
"Uhh, guys?" Udon tried to get their attention, but his voice was too quiet and frightened to be heard over the shouting.
His input was not needed, however, as the object of his fear was making her anger known.
Sakura began stomping towards Konohamaru angrily.
"YOU BRAT! THIS IS THE REASON YOU WERE NOT ALLOWED TO COME! THIS IS A TRIAL RUN TO SEE IF NARUTO CAN BE AROUND PEOPLE AGAIN! AND HE SHOULD NOT BE EXPOSED TO CHAKRA!" she shouted as she swung her arm to attack the poor boy.
Naruto was in mid-laugh at the memories this brought when he saw Sakura physically attack Konohamaru.
Then it happened.
Naruto flipped.
All he was aware of was an enemy attacking someone else in front of him.
Not using chakra, but possibly dangerous.
The enemy must be eliminated before they attack him.
Quickly he sprung towards the enemy and elbowed them behind the neck.
They lost consciousness. Enemy out of commission.
Then several chakra signatures began to flair.
He swiftly ran behind the closest one.
This enemy was still facing where he was.
He grabbed their extended arm and pulled them from their crouch.
Then he kicked them in the back of the knee, effectively both popping the shoulder from the socket and dislodging the knee cap.
The enemy was writhing on the ground.
He kicked them in the head.
Enemy out of commission.
Another enemy without chakra quickly approached so he jumped out of the way.
The enemy whirled around with great speed, but he ducked underneath.
The enemy extended their arm too far, so he punched the enemy's elbow from beneath and broke the bone.
Enemy withdrew their arm, but it hung loosely. He would aim for that side.
Enemy jumped, aiming a kick for him, but he jumped as well.
He quickly grabbed the ankle before the speedy enemy could withdraw it and through the enemy down on his weakened arm's side.
Enemy winded, but not out of commission.
Another chakra signature flared from behind him, but it was not an enemy?
The one with the non-threatening chakra signature wrapped their arms around him.
They were not an enemy. They would not be thrown off.
The arms were warm…they felt…familiar…
".a….o"
What? What was that?
"Na—to"
What was that? Why was everything fuzzy? Why was the voice…familiar? Did he know the voice?
"Naruto,"
Naruto? What was that? It sounded like a name. Was that his name? Or was that the voice's name?
Then the non-enemy-maybe-Naruto chakra signature's arms wrapped tighter around him. That was okay, because it was non-enemy-maybe-Naruto and not an enemy.
He vaguely noticed that the other chakra signatures had either stilled completely or had diminished to dormant levels, making them non-threatening enemies. They would not need to be put out of commission.
But that was overpowered by the non-enemy-maybe-Naruto placing their lips upon his head. It felt nice. But it made things fuzzy again. His head hurt.
Enemy was approaching!
They had a defensive chakra signature; ready to turn offensive.
This enemy needed to be taken out of commission.
But the arms around him restricted him!
"NA-O!"
He could not pay attention to the voice! The enemy was right in front of him!
The enemy was only standing, bit was a possible threat. Enemy needed to be taken out of commission!
"Nar—o!"
No…couldn't pay attention to the voice…couldn't pay attention to the arms…but…but…
"Naruto!"
Was the voice from the non-enemy-maybe-Naruto? Wait—it was no longer only arms touching him…
Now there was also a body pressed against his back, the arms holding him in place.
It felt warm. But, but it was making things fuzzy again. He couldn't be fuzzy…fuzzy meant head hurting.
Oh, his head was hurting. It was also heavy. He didn't like it heavy. Maybe he could lean against the warm body behind him.
He slumped his body a little; the warm body behind him caught the extra weight. That shouldn't be good with the enemy in front of him…
But the enemy did not move. In fact, the chakra was less defensive and more dormant. Maybe it was a trick…but…maybe that was good? His head hurt…
"Naruto!"
Who was calling for him? Didn't they know that Naruto's head hurt? Ugh, and his body felt heavy as well. He was leaning against something; maybe he could put more weight on it?
Oh good, someone's arms had caught him. Wait…whose arms?
"Naruto!"
Sasuke? Why was Sasuke calling him by name and not by an insult? Woah, that was a weird thought to have.
Then Naruto felt arms tighten around him. They felt like Sasuke's arms, so he trusted them to support all of his weight.
"Naruto!" Sasuke said in a firm, but kind of loud tone considering how close he was to Naruto's ear and how much his head hurt.
Naruto squinted his eyes shut in an effort to make the headache go away. It was annoying and the sun wouldn't go off.
"Naruto!" Sasuke said in the same firm, but loud tone.
Said blonde groaned, "I head you, bastard, now shut up and turn off the sun! My friggin' head hurts!"
There was merciful silence, maybe a breath of…relief? But otherwise quiet. That was good.
"Naruto," this time, Sasuke sounded a little relieved. Not as in Uchiha-relief, but as in HUMAN relief!
That made Naruto open his eyes; anything that made Sasuke lose his Uchiha-ness—even for a second—must have been HUGE!
The first thing he saw was Kakashi-Sensei in front of him.
Not making much of it, because Kakashi did not seem to be on the offensive, Naruto turned his head a little, and as he did so, he felt Sasuke's arms slacken because Naruto was placing more of his weight on himself. Why he was leaning against the bastard was beyond him.
But looking beyond Kakashi-Sensei, Naruto saw Lee, but Lee was on the ground holding his arm.
To the side, Naruto saw something else that caught his attention.
Why was Kiba on the ground sleeping?
A little more to the side, Naruto saw something that made him freeze.
He saw Sakura sprawled out on the ground.
Instantly, he knew exactly what had happened.
He must have switched to attack mode.
Horrified by what he must have done, Naruto broke out of Sasuke's arms.
He couldn't be here. He couldn't be around people! He needed to get away!
Fearing what else he might see if he turned around, Naruto ran straight out of the clearing.
And that was the chapter!
There are some things that some writers do that kinda peeve me so I actively try to avoid. The number one thing that gets to me is when some writers make characters OOC by making them basically girls with penises. I'm not knockin' the stories that do that, sometimes they are just dandy, but whenever I see that I tend to leave the story unless given a reason not to.
Another small thing that I don't really hate but just am hyper aware of is when people say 'orbs' instead of 'eyes'. It makes me think they have perpetually open, glassy eyes that are uber creepy, or eyes like in Coreline. You know, the creepy movie with button eyes? Those are what I imagine when people describe eyes as 'orbs' *shudders*
Anyways, thank you so much to those who review! I updates this instead of a different story for you!