Act 1: The Calm before the Storm
Chapter 2: Uzumaki Naruto

xxx

"Is this what you want?" the Hokage questioned one last time.

With the blond boy failing to detect the tone of irritation in his voice, he replied light-heartedly instead, "Hell yeah! It took me forever to come up with a good face! It took me three hours to get that pose right!" Jumping to his feet, he Immediately mimicked the posture in the photograph he used for the Shinobi Registration form.

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked up from the Shinobi Registration form in his hand, glued onto the form was the photograph of Naruto with kabuki face paint, striking a pose with his right palm up front.

"It's pretty artistic, eh?!" Laughing proudly, while scratching the back of his head with his hand, it took Naruto a while to notice the cold glare from Sarutobi. "What?!"

"Retake the photo. This Shinobi Registration book is a record of all Genins, the photos that come with the application will remain on record, until one is promoted. This is an important document for you, yet… What's with the face?!"

"God knows what he has learnt from his training trip with Jiraiya..."

Noticing that the Hokage seems to be staring at blank space, Naruto attempted a stealthy escape, only to be halted swiftly by the elder shinobi.

"Not so fast, Naruto-kun, I'm not done with you yet." Letting out a dry cough, Sarutobi continued, "Why don't you want to take this seriously, Naruto?"

Naruto got back to his seat, squishing his eyes shut, as if trying to think of a witty answer that would satisfy the old geezer. "It has been a long time since we left this village, four years hasn't it, Hokage-sama?" Sarutobi could sense the change of atmosphere in the room, Naruto had returned to his old self, he was glad that the old Naruto was back, this was the one the version of him that the old man missed the most. "And you know, most people have probably forgotten about me, the son of the greatest Hokage, might as well let it be. In the past, there was an image I had to maintain four years ago. I have to be this, I have to be that, but I can now be myself. But now I'm just a regular Genin who has just returned home from a long vacation."

The Hokage sighed. "Fine, let it be then. Is that why you are enlisting using your mother's family name?" Seeing Naruto let out a wide grin, Sarutobi could only smile along. "But Uzumaki Naruto, the new Genin of Konohagakure still has to retake his photograph."

x

After the brief reunion with the young boy, the Saidaime returned to proper desk work, a hard knock on the door of his office interrupted his train of thoughts. Looking up, he saw a large man entered promptly without invitation, and sat at the lounge chair opposite his desk.

Sarutobi Hiruzen appeared to frown a little, then turned it into a smile and said, "Could use a break."

Joining him at the other lounge chair, Sarutobi asked abruptly, "How is Tsunade?"

Jiraiya must had thought the Hokage would have asked something else first, but quickly dismissed it. "She's fine, just need to sleep it off, her exact words, not mine," Jiraiya replied with a shrug.

Sarutobi sighed with a hand cradling his crown.

"I wish she's here, we could use her here." Before Jiraiya could contribute, the Saidaime continued with the other troubling concern on his mind, "How was Naruto these past four years?"

Knowing the Saidaime was not referring to the actual training he and Tsunade gave him, Jiraiya said, "Though he appeared fine, I feel that four years are still a bit too short. Had we were not attacked, I was thinking of putting another two more years, Tsunade has some… interesting influence over him." Seeing a raised brow from the older man, he added, "Mostly good influence."

Sarutobi said with a jest, appearing to finally letting his guard down around his own trusted student, "Better than yours?"

"No way," Jiraiya denied jocularly with both hands raised. "But just having Tsunade and Shizune being around, softened him a little, besides, he likes Tsunade's pet pig."

"A pig...?"

Just as Jiraiya was about to elaborate about the pig, the Saidaime cut him off, "But in the case of meeting with Haruno Sakura again, is he mentally ready for that?"

"Are you going to pair them in a team?"

"Yes," a short and firm reply came from the Saidaime. "I believe it's time for him to learn and live with the fact that the girl will always be who she is, it's time for him to face her again."

"He was only eight years old then, but for a child to exhibit such anger against another… You and I know that it was a mistake of us to let our guards down, to let him found out about the truth about his father's death, and Haruno Sakura. He still have not tell us who told him about Sakura's secret. There are too many things we still do not know of, but you are right, we can't wait any longer."

"So be it then, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura shall form Team 7 together with a third member, and Hatake Kakashi will be their instructor."

"Who do you have in mind for the third member?"

"There is another twelve years old out there whom I'm getting worry about, our experiences with Naruto proved that kids can do the wildest thing possible while left unchecked."

"Let me guess… Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke."

x

"You, I challenge you to a duel!" The voice came from a young boy, standing on the same box that he was previously hiding in, a box with print designs of bricks on it, and two holes for the stealthy shinobi to peek at his prey.

Naruto quickly spun around to face his opponent, but his stance quickly melted from his battle stance to a more relaxing posture. "Konohamaru? What is the grandson of the great Hokage-sama doing out here? Wearing a stupid outfit, and standing on a box?"

"I saw you exiting the room with the Hokage! You must be someone great to walk side by side with that old man! Well?! I challenge you!"

"That idiot forgot who I am! It has been four years after all, how old was he back then?"

Once he regained his composure, he yelled, "Stupid! Have you really forgotten who I am?"

He had just left the building for not long, heading towards nowhere specifically, hopefully a ramen store nearby, and for the moment, Naruto almost thought that he could have some quiet moment for himself. There was a lot to think about, in fact, he was somewhat surprised he did not notice Konohamaru right away. Indeed he should be very surprised that he did not notice the moving box that was following him since he left Konohagakure's main governing building, the 'Hokage Tower' as termed by the locals… But he was glad in a way that Konohamaru found him, perhaps he had been thinking too much, he needed a break, coming back to Konohagakure was a lot more stressful than he thought would be, he knew that Jiraiya of his had something planned for him, but he just did not know what yet.

"Huh? You are… Naruto-nii-chan! You've returned!" The kid leapt up in excitement, crushing the box he was standing on in the process.

Without blinking an eye, he replied, "Come on, Konohamaru, show me the way to the nearest ramen place, my treat, we have a lot to catch up with!"

Forgotten all about the challenge, Konohamaru quickly grinned widely from one end of the face to the other, and led Naruto running off into the busy streets.

Nothing changed much around here, Naruto wondered what happened to his old teacher, Ebisu. From what he gathered from other careless locals' conversations, the incident twelve years ago was still on the minds of many adults. Haruno Sakura was still a taboo topic, he was probably the only kid in the village who found out that the demon was not killed as per told to all children.

Upon arriving at the stall, which Konohamaru was constantly bragging about while dragging him here literally by his sleeves, he ordered a bowl for each of them, and the two settled down. The two of them started to exchange their questions, asking each other of one another. Naruto asked mainly of Konohamaru's grandfather, while Konohamaru asked mainly of his adventures he had during his trip. But it did not take long for him to finally get down to the point, Konohamaru asked why he left, a question that he had been holding up inside him for a very long time, not satisfied with the answer given by his grandfather.

"I left… because I was weak. And I wonder now, if I was worthy to judge back then." Konohamaru did not understand what was just been told to him, but maybe even Naruto could not fully apprehend what came out of his mouth. "Am I right to judge at all?"