Chapter Two:

Three years later…

Ages:

Sakura- 16

Ino- 16

Hinata- 16

Tenten-17

Rookie Nine Boys- 16

Neji and Lee- 17

Kakashi- 26

Kagome- 25

Four kunoichi suddenly appeared on top of the massive gates of Konoha, overlooking the village.

"It's good to be back." One figure said, her face hidden by a long black cloak.

"Yes. It is." A quiet voice agreed, also covered with a long black cloak. In fact, all of them were covered with cloaks, keeping their faces, and identity hidden. The only thing that you could see was that they were all relatively the same height and build.

"We have to go to the Hokage's office now." A third figure called to the other three who nodded and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. All that was left was an eerie silence and the guards at the front gates wondering why they felt the brief passings of chakra. They shrugged it off. After all, they did live in a shinobi village full of ninjas that had enormous chakra capacity.

Hokage's Office…

Tsunade sat in her chair, surprisingly sober, reading over the latest letter her apprentice had sent her. She could barely stop herself from shaking in excitement. 'SAKURA AND THE OTHERS ARE COMING HOME!' She screamed inwardly, not completely able to stop an insane grin from spreading over her face.

A tapping sound at her window startled her out of her reverie and she turned and scowled at Kakashi.

"What do you want Hatake?" she growled out, wanting him out of her office as soon as possible so that she could prepare for the kunoichi.

"What's the rush?" Kakashi asked, raising an eyebrow as he saw her clear out all the sake bottles on her desk and put away papers as fast as she could. She stopped and looked at him. She appeared to be contemplating something.

"Do you miss Sakura?" Kakashi let himself stiffen as he thought of his student.

"Why do you ask?" he asked her, suspicious. Tsunade shrugged.

"She's coming back." Silence. Then suddenly:

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT?!?!?!??!?!?!?"

The scream could be heard from all over Konoha and Naruto and Sasuke looked up from training briefly to wonder if someone had burned their sensei's books again, but shrugged it off and resume attacking each other.

Gai was screaming about how his rival had finally gotten into the 'youth' fad while Neji just rolled his eyes at his teacher and kept training with Lee.

Shikamaru and Chouji, along with Kiba and Shino just shrugged it off, not concerning themselves with the scream of surprise.

Back in the office…

"You mean to tell me that you have had contact with my student through all three of these years and didn't bother to tell me?!" Kakashi asked the Hokage, his voice deceptively calm. Tsunade had nervous beads of sweat rolling rapidly down the side of her face but nodded. "I see." Kakashi said. Then he bowed to her and said, "Excuse me for a moment Hokage-sama."

He walked out the office calmly, but Tsunade distinctly heard crashes, yells, screams for mercy and she swore she even heard the tell-tale clunks of kunai hitting…something.

Kakashi walked back in calmly and took a seat in the chair in front of Tsunade's desk. She scooted back in her chair a little to get away from the…dangerous man in front of her.

"When?" he asked. Tsunade cleared her throat.

"Today." Just before Kakashi could reply, both he and Tsunade sensed foreign presences in her office and leapt up, kunai in hand.

"Who's there?" Tsunade questioned harshly, directing her question to the small, dark corner right next to her door.

"Aw…shishou, didn't you miss me?" Only one person called her shishou.

"S…Sakura?" Tsunade asked, her voice barely above a whisper. A figure melted out of the shadows and stepped towards the Hokage and Kakashi, pulling down her hood to reveal stunning emerald eyes and shocking pink hair.

"I'm home." She was promptly tackled by a crying Hokage that was overjoyed. Kakashi stood back and watched the scene with a smile.

"No hello for us?" a voice chuckled. Tsunade turned around and faced the other three cloaked figures. They also lowered their hoods and she was faced with the familiar, nostalgic faces of Tenten, Ino and Hinata.

Tenten had let her hair stay down, which complimented her tan face and hazel eyes. Over time, it had grown longer until it was almost to her waist, and all the baby fat from her face had melted away, leaving graceful features.

Ino's blond hair stayed short but her blue eyes had changed. Instead of carefree, she was now more awake to the world, knowing that everything wasn't about a boy or safe.

Hinata seemed more confident, and everything showed that fact such as her stance and her smile. Her hair had grown out and her eyes seemed to examine everything in the room subtly but still managed to look as if she were perfectly at ease.

Sakura had changed a lot, instead of being cheery to a point where it was annoying, she was now more at ease and had more of a mischievous and mysterious smile on her elegant face.

The four kunoichi looked at Tsunade and spoke in unison, "We're home, Hokage-sama." Tsunade almost- AND I SAY ALMOST –cried but kept her cool, standing tall and proud like the leader of a village should.

"Welcome back. II assume your teacher came back along with you?"

"Teacher?" Kakashi asked, surprised. The four looked at him in disbelief.

"You thought we would go into the wild, alone, inexperienced…without someone to help us or teach us to be stronger?" Sakura asked, exasperated. Kakashi nodded, making them all sweatdrop.

"So where is he?" Kakashi asked, inadvertently drawing forth glares from all of the females.

"She," Ino said, emphasizing the 'she', "is right above us." Tsunade and Kakashi almost threw a fit, looking up and seeing a woman dangling lazily from her feet, reading a…familiar-looking book.

"Yo." Tsunade looked from Kakashi to Kagome, a knowing smirk on her face. Kagome flipped down from the ceiling and landed lightly on her toes, not making a sound.

"And you are?" Tsunade asked amusedly, raising an eyebrow at the mask that covered the bottom part of Kagome's face. In fact, from her clothes to her book, she was a female version of Kakashi.

Kakashi saw Kagome and did a double take. "Somehow…I feel kinda ripped off and cheated…" he mumbled under his breath.

"I'm Higurashi Kagome. Also known as the leader of the Band of Ten."

"THE BAND OF TEN?! THE ELITE ASSASSIN BAND THAT MADE A DEBUT PERFORMANCE IN THE LAND OF MISTS WHEN THEY ASSASSINATED ONE HUNDRED PEOPLE IN SECONDS?!" Tsunade questioned in a sharp voice.

The four girls nodded while Kagome stuck her nose back into her book. Tsunade was speechless for a scant few seconds while Kakashi took a page from Kagome's book…or his own…and also went back to reading.

"Ano…shishou…aren't we going to be tested or anything?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow and turned to Kagome who was regarding her with a calculating yet bored look out of the corner of her eye.

"What level would you say they are?" Tsunade asked, curious.

"ANBU at least. Sannin at most." Tsunade's eyes widened dramatically and her jaw hit the floor. Next to her, Kakashi had fallen over on the floor immobilized from shock.