This is the second chapter of the newest revision of this story. The last chapter had no dialogue for a reason, though I will let the readers try and figure that out. This chapter is notably short and the first few chapters will be this way due to the lack of action and the buildup. I plan on the later chapters (I'd say past 10 or so) being at least 4-5k words each.

I meshed together chapters 2 and 3 because they end and start at close points in time. Enjoy.

"Nan-desu ka?" Naruto irritably asked as he turned around to face the person who had just tapped him on the shoulder and interrupted his forest-gazing. He came face to face- err- mask with Kakashi, a fellow jonin and former prodigy of Konoha, with whom he had spent most of his childhood and all of his adulthood. The man gave one of his infamous eye-smiles and patted Naruto on the shoulder, pointing over his own shoulder at the village behind them.

"Sorry to interrupt your casual staring contest with the forest, but it's Saturday morning. We always spar and then go out for the winner's choice of food on Saturdays we're both in the village, remember?" Kakashi referenced a habit that the two jonin had formed after Naruto was promoted to jonin. When they both realized that two prodigies existing at once was a bit of a rare and unprecedented circumstance, they started to compete for the "best prodigy" position, and thus their weekly spars were born. It helped form incentives for the two of them to grow stronger, and both of them had leaped and bounded even further forward in skill as a result.

"Right, right. Give me a moment while I wrap up some thoughts and I'll meet you at training ground seven, eh?" Naruto responded. he didn't have to hear Kakashi's affirmative to know that the man was already headed toward the training ground of his former genin team. As he gazed out across the clearing that he had made with a massive Rasengan twelve years ago, he spent the next few moments gathering his thoughts and feeling the ends of his headband flutter against the back of his head in the wind before he turned around and shot toward the village.

He sped through the trees of Konohagakure's village limits and bounded from branch to branch in a breakneck style of tree-hopping that was famous in Konoha for its ease of travel in Hi no Kuni. His method of tree-hopping was particularly famous because every step he took left a blazing black and white blur as an afterimage; it was a result of his unique chakra that came packaged with his doujutsu. He had yet to figure out exactly why his chakra always manifested as white, as his doujutsu was still mostly a mystery to both the medic shinobi of the village (half of whom stayed away from him due to the being inside of him) and himself (who tried to figure out what the best way to use his doujutsu was.

'This 6-month period's chunin exams will start soon. Kakashi really must be getting eager to get his team involved if he's jumpy enough to actually come find me for a spar instead of the other way around. I feel lucky that I didn't take on a genin team this time around; there's plenty of competition from just Konoha alone,' he thought, kicking off from a branch that was not particularly open to holding his weight and listening absently from the next branch in front of him as it crashed to the ground. He really should have turned off his training seals before he started jumping from branch to branch.

He arrived at the edge of the village proper with a great leap that almost put him beside the main gate, where Izumo and Kotetsu were playing a game of cards and propping their feet up on the gatehouse window. He sneaked up beside the window with a wry grin and pressed his back flat up against the side of the gatehouse silently. He heard the two chunin arguing over their card-game as he tiptoed to the very edge of the window. Without warning, he shot forward and grabbed the hands of cards out of the grips of the chunin, taking off immediately toward the village.

Neither shinobi knew what happened to the cards in their hands until they saw a blur of black and white shooting toward the village.

"NARRRRUUUTOOOOOOO!"

In Konohagakure

The poor woman that decided to cross the street the moment Naruto began to pop into existence in the streets of Konoha was unfortunate enough to also step right into his path. At incredible speeds, tunnel-vision became a bit of an issue for the shinobi who could manage to move so quickly. Fortunately for who Naruto thought was a young, beautiful, purple-haired civilian girl, when she began to occupy about ninety percent of Naruto's tunnel of vision, he forced his feet into the dirt and stopped within an instant...

Unfortunately for who Naruto thought to be a young, beautiful civilian girl, his massive burst in speed followed by his purely instantaneous stoppage caused a very, very large backdraft that continued to speed on down the main street for another hundred feet. The poor girl's groceries went flying into the air as she nearly shrieked in surprise and her civilian clothing flapped in the artificial wind as if it were right beside a tornado. The grinning blond, who was quite used to this sort of thing by now, caught the girl's groceries in one hand and stopped the girl from falling over with the other. As he righted her position, he looked down at who just so happened to have fallen due to his normal Naruto-like charades.

It was both his lucky and unlucky day, as he found himself staring not into the face of a beautiful civilian woman, but into the face of his friend of twelve years, girlfriend of four years, and probable future fiance, Anko Mitarashi. She had found a good companion in him after he had had what was inside of him forcefully stuck into his stomach. They both found that sharing company with someone in a similar situation was a great way to cope with being shunned by a village that used to love them, but that was completely irrelevant at that particular moment in time, because Anko was not pleased at Naruto's insane ability to somehow keep smacking right into her in the middle of Konoha's streets, especially right after she finished getting herself the ingredients necessary for her homemade tea.

Naruto scratched his neck with a nervous grin as the surprisingly civilian-clothed Anko glared up at him. It was unlucky for her that he found her face glaring up at him from inches below to be the one word that should only ever enter a man's vocabulary when talking about his significant other: adorable. It was also unlucky for her that even if she tried to stay angry or upset at him, the charming man's grinning face practically forced her to become happy and giddy. It was unusual for her, as she was well known in Konoha for being rather bloodthirsty (though most of that was just for show).

"Naruto-kun, this is the third time this week that you've nearly run me over in the street. Why is it that every time I take a walk outside of our manor, you somehow find a way to slam into me?" she asked with an (admittedly false) exasperated sigh.

"It's not my fault that I find you so attractive, Anko-chan," the blond cheekily replied, winking at the woman, whose eyebrow twitched at the terrible flirtatious pun.

"... If you weren't such a goddamned hotty, I would definitely beat your face in for that one, Naruto," she irritably replied, punching him in the shoulder with a faux grunt of frustration. Unfortunately for her, Naruto knew exactly how to sweep her off of her feet, which was to... literally sweep her off of her feet. He lifted her up in his remaining arm and swung her around in a wide circle with a grin on his face before placing her down on her feet and pecking her on the lips. Anko, who was outwardly very hostile and seemingly bloodthirsty, was actually in love with sweet things. This could be easily pointed out by anyone who knew her enough to know that she enjoyed serene tea ceremonies. There was also the fact that her two favorite things in the world- dango and Naruto- were both sweet to her.

"Naruto-kun, not in public! I have an image to maintain!" she not-so-seriously said, a tiny smile and a dusting of red that Naruto would never mention under fear of death lighting up her face.

"What an image you have, oh wondrous Snake-Bitch of Konoha. Seriously, Anko-chan, that's like saying that I have a good reputation. I don't think your image of bloodlust and violence is going to go away when the so-called Demon of Konoha gives you a kiss. Just think about it. Doesn't it seem like the civilians would only see us as a bloodthirsty couple instead?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and trying as hard as possible to make it seem as if he weren't just trying to gain permission to steal her away whenever he saw her on the street.

"You're lucky I know what love is, or else I would have killed you after the first sentence. But I see your point. You've got your permission, mister, now let go of me so I can take my dango ingredients back to our house," she chided, poking the shoulder attached to the arm that was around her waist. In a truly Naruto-istic spontaneous fashion, Naruto instead shoved the ingredients in his arms into her own and then picked her up into his arms.

"Nah, I don't think I will. I think I'll carry you instead," he gleamed, taking off toward their shared manor at top speed.

...

"NARRRUUTTTOOOOOO!"

At the Konoha Memorial

Kakashi had been sidetracked to the memorial stone like he was almost every time he had an event scheduled. He was notoriously late to everything for a reason, after all. The memorial stone was covered in flowers that day, being the morning of October 10th, the day that the Kyubi had attacked Konohagakure and the day that one of his best friends had had his life ruined by the event entirely. Every day, he came out to the memorial stone to run his hands over the names of his fallen loved ones. He had stopped letting tears flow after the first few years.

Uchiha Obito - Nohara Rin ...

... Namikaze Minato - Uzumaki Kushina ...

"NARRRUUTTTOOOOOO!"

He heard Anko shouting in the distance and couldn't help but chuckle. They were probably off to Naruto's inherited manor house to share some time between the two of them. Kakashi knew his spar with Naruto could wait a while. He wasn't particularly willing to spar after looking at the memorial anyway. He was actually kind of glad that Naruto hadn't shown up to share the moment.

He couldn't stand to see Naruto, a beacon of happiness, devastated in an instant.

The Next Day

The morning after the celebration, Sunday, October eleventh, Naruto woke up with familiar weight on his right shoulder and a heartily welcomed tuft of purple hair in his face. His right arm was wrapped around the lithe body of his more-than-girlfriend but less-than-fiance, Mitarashi Anko. With a serene smile that was only possible to find on Naruto himself, the blond snaked his other arm around the waist of his lover and took in a deep, satisfied breath. The calm and steady breathing of the woman atop his chest told him that his violette femme d'amour was still asleep.

The previous night had been the night of his twenty-sixth birthday. His birthday was a night that he and Anko always celebrated and mourned separate from the rest of the village, as the celebrations had different meanings. For the village, the date of October tenth symbolized the power of one of the Hokage, and the defeat of the Kyubi no Kitsune. For Naruto, it symbolized the day that he was born, but also the day that he lost his mother and father at the fault of the mysterious man. Along with those blemishes upon the namesake of the date, it was also the day that his father had sealed the Kyubi no Kitsune into his gut, which resulted in the village immediately spurning him to the side of the proverbial road.

For Anko, it wasn't just a good excuse to set up a lovely tea ceremony and eat as much homemade dango as she could; it was a way to show how much she cared about the half-genius, half-knucklehead blond that had been practically the only other person in her life since that October tenth, twelve years ago. Ever since that day, Naruto had entered her life and refused to leave no matter how hard she tried to force him away out of fear of rejection. On that fateful October tenth, Naruto knew what it felt like to wake up with a seal and a burden that he had no control over. In her, he found someone who was more experienced with what he was going through, but he also found someone he could help.

For four years, until they were both approaching a fully matured age, he showered her with heartfelt praise and compliments that he thought up simply from talking and sitting with her. Every time a villager or a Konoha shinobi managed to get to her, he would take her aside and convince her that they were wrong. Slowly, he began to build up her self esteem and confidence away from the prying eyes and ears within the walls of the village. By the time he was twenty and she was eighteen, she no longer had to put on a mask of confidence in front of her fellow Konohagakure citizens and shinobi. Instead, she let her confidence flow into her carefully crafted loud, boisterous, and bloodthirsty persona, reserving her more feminine, more romanticized thoughts for nights like the previous one. Instead of doing what she had planned on doing (she seriously did regret thinking of going around in nothing but a combat-mesh shirt and jacket), underneath her facade of violence and somewhat crude language, she was becoming a normal kunoichi, and a normal woman at that.

She could not help but jump giddily at the chance to have Naruto all to herself when he asked her on his twenty-second birthday. She was twenty, and had never held a relationship beyond the level of friendship, but with their minds and camaraderie, they managed to muddle through the beginning awkward stages of romance and find their comfort zone. In the blond prodigy, she found an anchor to hold down her feelings for her troubled past, a genuinely sweet man with all of the best intentions, and a romantic partner that (even with her limited experience with guys) she felt she was lucky to get to in time, before someone else staked a claim in his yellow-sunkissed mop.

Naruto's most recent birthday was no exception to the rule. With a strong sense of joy, Naruto started to go over the events of the previous night.

"Naruttooooooo!" Anko shouted as they sped through the streets of Konoha at barrier-shattering speeds, passing buildings and people in a black, white, and purple blur.

"Hush, Anko-chan. You know you love it when I do this. I know beyond a doubt that you secretly enjoy it when I carry you," the blond man teased back, still grinning as widely and as brightly as humanly possible. It was great to have a girl to do this with every day- and they even lived together!

"Euch... I can't lie to you and tell you you're wrong, you sadistic bastard, but you could at least warn me before you blast me through the village at the speed of light," she argued, glowering up at her preferred future fiance and wrapping her arms around his neck. He didn't reply, instead focusing on what was in front of them so that he didn't end up almost running into someone who actually was a civilian.

It was a short trip, Naruto being as fast as he was, and they were inside their manor before either of them could think about the length of the run. Closing the door behind them, Naruto gingerly placed Anko (whose hair was rather frazzled) on the ground of the foyer and pushed her forward with a hand on her rear, pointing her teasingly toward the living room. With a playful glare and a slightly-harder-than-normal slap on the wrist, Anko made her way to the living room and began to prepare the setup for their shared annual tea ceremony.

Meanwhile, Naruto headed upstairs to change into some more formal clothing (which would most certainly be flying around the bedroom later) and touch up his looks a bit for their nice evening at home. This was the routine of things on October tenth of every year: Naruto would sweep Anko off of her feet (literally- he didn't know why she didn't expect it by now), they would head home and spruce up for the later night's activities, Anko would set up a tea ceremony, Naruto would make Anko as much dango as she could eat, and they would end the day by falling into their shared bed for their nightly "rest."

That night would be no different. Naruto rounded the corner of the stairs with an excited and lopsided smile on his face. He entered the living room and that smile grew to a much more calm and proud version of his goofy trickster's grin. There, sitting by a short table with a tea set and dressed in her ceremonial dress, Anko awaited his return with an enthusiastic smile of her own. October tenth was her favorite night of the year, as it was his. The two of them usually tired themselves out sharing one another's company into the waning hours of the morning.

When his mind crossed into thought about the later portion of his upcoming birthday night, his reserved grin transformed into a naughty smirk.

From the looks of the smirk that Anko was returning to him, she was thinking exactly the same thing.

A soft stirring in his bed interrupted his reminiscing and he realized that he had closed his eyes and lost himself in deep thought as he gleefully committed yet another October tenth to memory, locked away tightly in a mental box of his happiest memories. The woman in his arms ruffled the bedsheets that barely rose above her uncovered waist as she put her hands on his chest and lifted her face to rest her chin on his collarbone, staring up at him with wide, pupil-less, hazel-brown eyes. A tired simper covered her lips and the same glee that he felt as he remembered the night could be seen behind Anko's eyes.

"Good morning, Anko-chan. What's gotten you in such a great mood, hm?" he teasingly asked, definitely already knowing the answer. This fact was compounded by the raised eyebrow that he gave her combined with the hands that he rested on the very lowest possible reaches of her hips, just barely above her rear end. With gentle but firm hands, he slid his fingers up and down her waist and kneaded at the flesh there, making Anko close her eyes and suck in a breath before replying.

"Mmh... Keep that up and I'll show you the answer to that question again, Mister Fishcake," she somehow managed to simultaneously make her voice sultry and drawl out her picking name for Naruto at the same time, something which Naruto described as "simply Anko."

"You know, every time you call me that in here, I want to toss you out through the bedroom window, but then I remember that I'm the luckiest guy in the world with you in bed next to me, and I wouldn't want to throw that away, even if it meant getting to see you fly through the air in nothing but the bedsheets and your birthday suit. I guess that just goes to show how much you matter to me, because anyone else would be halfway across the village by now," he jested back at his lover, who let out an uncharacteristic (in public) giggle.

"Aww, Goldie..." If she was entirely honest with herself, those words that were fashioned in such a "Naruto-esque" way were actually some of the most touching words ever said to her. It didn't surprise her that this was the case, however. All of the most touching things ever said to her had slipped out of the lip-and-tongue of Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto.

Her eyes were completely alight with the feelings of lover's joy for a moment, but then she saw Naruto's face become stock serious and she wondered what was wrong.

"Goldie?" she asked, but was shushed when he put a finger against her lips and looked her dead in the eye.

"Anko-chan?" he hesitated if only for a fraction of a millisecond, steeling himself and pushing forward.

"Hmm? What is it, Naruto?" she tilted her head to the side, unused to seeing Naruto this serious.

"I love you," Naruto said with steely confidence, his voice not wavering and his eyes surprisingly sincere for the Elemental Nations' best trickster.

The result of this confidently stated phrase, undeniably truthful if one were to look into Naruto's sky blue (for now) irises, was instantaneous. The first thing that happened was that Anko felt a flurry deep inside of her gut- the exact opposite of the sinking feeling one gets when one is scared or surprised. The next thing that happened was that she took in a much-needed and very surprised breath. Her mind then took a few seconds to process the three words that had just come from her lover's mouth.

While both of them had skirted around the phrase for the entirety of their four year relationship, neither had really said it to the other aloud, and while both of them certainly had thought it at times whilst gazing at their partner over a table or even the field of a mission, neither had put voice to their feelings. Over the course of their four year relationship, the both of them had made statements having to do with love, but never had they ever said anything closely resembling "I love you." No, the closest they had ever gotten was along the lines of what Anko had said yesterday: "You're lucky I know what love is, otherwise..."

Naruto knew what parental love felt like. He had grown up to the age of fourteen with a loving set of parents who cared for him and trained him. While they were not as forgiving as other parents, and their training regimes were recklessly dangerous and outlandish, they always had the best interests of their child and village in mind. He had known the love of friendship, having had loyal (or so he thought) friends amongst the academy students of the village, then later the shinobi force as he surpassed his class in the academy by nearly a full decade. However, despite recently turning twenty six years of age, Naruto had never felt the love of a significant other.

Since the sealing of the Kyubi into his stomach twelve years prior, his definitions of friendship and camaraderie had dramatically shifted and were dangerously unstable. His friends, who he thought to be loyal, had mostly shunned or spurned him either directly or through inaction. He lost his parents at the age of fourteen, and he blamed himself for not even being awake to say a final goodbye to at least his father. Thus, Naruto's experience of love was broken.

Anko had never really felt the love of a caring parent. She had been an orphan at the Konoha orphanage until the age of nine, when a strange but deceptively sincere pale-skinned man had arrived and taken her on a small adventure. Orochimaru had seemingly saved her from a dull life in an orphanage and then a civilian life as a shop clerk. From that man, she received the care of a paternal figure. Orochimaru was much like a father to her, and she acted as much like a daughter to him as she knew how. Then, she had received what she thought at the time to be a booster for her budding shinobi skills. Instead, it turned out to be Orochimaru's personal hellbrand.

She had never felt the love of friendship. The other children at the orphanage tended to keep to themselves unless forced to do otherwise, and most that were friendly toward her were adopted before she had the chance to really grow a lasting bond. After her experience with Orochimaru, Anko's chances of friendship with most of the village were shot. There was no possibility of her ever having a casual chat with at least ninety nine percent of the village after she was branded with Orochimaru's mark and he left her for dead. As a direct result of her lack of friendly contact with anyone, much less any male, Anko had no clue about the love of a romantic relationship. Her experience with Naruto was her first and only, and she intended for it to stay permanent.

So for Naruto, someone whose definition of "love" was shattered into millions of pieces, to say "I love you" to her, someone who never thought that she could be loved, as her knowledge of love had practically never existed, was like shining the full light of the sun into the single dark room that was her emotion called "love."

The flutters started in her stomach, but soon spread throughout her body, and eventually her face was turning a solid but light shade of red as her mind began to soar. Any Yamanaka looking into the mind of one Mitarashi Anko at that moment would have seen a tiny version of the woman dancing around in circles and performing a colorful and convincing rendition of any lovestricken girl. It was incredibly difficult for Anko to come up with the words to display just how joyful she was that Naruto had just said what he had.

So, instead of saying how she felt, Anko lunged forward and latched her lips onto the blond man's slightly pinker ones, tossing her arms around his neck and trying her best to squeeze his poor collar into a fracture. The message did not go lost on the incredibly surprised jinchuriki, who tightened his grip around the violette's midriff and rolled them over on the bed.

It seemed that they would not be getting out of bed anytime soon that morning.