Well, here's another chapter. I tried to make this a little longer. Well, it seemed a little longer while I was typing it. Thanks for all the reviews. I notice I was getting a lot of hits. So, If you guys are reading, just drop me a review. I'd like to get some feedback, see what you think. Any questions, I'll try to answer them. Anyway, this chapter precedes the "Birth of Honoogakure" where the title of my story comes from. The festival that I will be writing about in the next chapter is called "Shinsei no Matsuri" which means "Festival of Rebirth" if I did it right. so, enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: still don't own Naruto

Chapter 4: Naruto's Worst Fear

Jiraiya just stared at his young apprentice as he finished his 12th bowl of ramen. 'He really puts that stuff away. Heh, almost as fast as I put the sake away.'

Jiraiya finished the last bit of his sake before hitting stop on the small time clock that was sitting on the counter.

"1 minute and 58 seconds, that's slower than last time. You lose the bet kid, now you have to pay."

"Dammit! I'm injured, don't I get some sort of handicap or something?"

"Uhhh, no."

"Dammit!" Teuchi, the owner of Ichiraku ramen, laughed as he watched his favorite customer stare angrily at the old Sannin.

Ichiraku was one of the first shops to be built in the new Hidden Village. After all, the workers and builders needed someplace to eat. Almost all the workers in the village came to Ichiraku for lunch. Ichiraku was, how you say, booming with business. Naruto had even cried when he saw so many people eating and enjoying ramen. He said something (more like yelled) like 'Finally, ramen gets the respect it deserves!'

Naruto pulled out his frog wallet and prepared to pay the bill, when Jiraiya grabbed his hands.

"Naruto, something's not right. We've got to get out of here, NOW."

A burning noise was heard inside the building, and the two shinobi looked up to see about 20 exploding tags preparing to go off.

"Damn!" Naruto put his fingers in a crossed position. "Teuchi-san, we have to get you and the customers out of here."

Teuchi nodded.

Sakura and Tsunade walked down the main path, looking at all the progress that had been made the past few days. During the war against Oto and Akatsuki, Suna had already begun to build a new village at the Hokage's request. She knew that Konoha would fall, and that they would need a new home, a new base of operation.

"The builders from Suna really work fast." Tsunade looked at her young apprentice.

"They have to, living in the desert. Buildings need to be finished in a relatively short time before all the work is destroyed by sand storms."

"Besides, I also told them to hurry so we could finish by tonight."

"Why tonight?" Sakura stopped as she and Tsunade let workers pass them.

The workers were carrying Statues of the previous Hokages to the Hokage tower. The statues were made from the stone of the destroyed Hokage Mountain. Tsunade chose to create a hall of Hokage's like that of Suna, to honor Suna for helping Konoha in it's time of need. Also, there are no mountains around, so they couldn't make another Hokage Mountain.

"Tonight is a special night, tonight is the first Shinsei no Matsuri."

"I know tonight is the night we announce the new Hidden Village. But why tonight? What makes tonight so important?"

"Tonight is also the anniversary of when the Kyuubi attacked, 18 years ago today."

"Oh," Sakura started to walk towards Ichiraku again, and stopped.

"Wait, Tonight's the 18 year anniversary of the Kyuubi attack? That means…."

Tsunade looked at her apprentice, and realized what she meant.

"It's Naruto's 18th birthday!"

"Shhh, keep quiet Sakura. I've already got a surprise in store for Naruto. Tonight in the celebration I plan on promoting him to Chuunin."

Sakura smiled at her sensei, "He'll enjoy that. But what should I get him for his birthday?"

"You can give him his new head protector."

"That's ok, I guess. But he's 18 today, I want to give him something really special."

"Well, how about you help get him his first girlfriend?"

"WHAT!"

"Shhh, Sakura, you're getting loud again."

"Sorry, but I really care about Naruto, I don't want to help him get a girlfriend when I care about him!" Sakura looked very upset.

"Sakura, for someone so smart, you can be as dense as Naruto sometimes."

"Oh? OOOhhh!" Sakura smiled. "Yes, I think I will help him get a girlfriend."

"That more like it, now let's go find those two."

The workers in front of them finished carrying the Kage statues across the path to the Hokage's tower. Bringing the last statue, the Godaime's, across the street. Tsunade glared at her statue.

"Wait, my chest isn't that big! You there, who was the sculptor of that statue?"

The man looked up, "Sorry, Hokage-sama, but I'm not sure who sculpted it. Maybe you should ask Jiraiya-sama."

"Why ask him?"

"Well, when the sculptor couldn't find you, he went to the medical tent and asked Jiraiya-sama where you were. He thought that, being a fellow Sannin, he would know. Jiraiya-sama didn't know, but he said he would help, since he personally knew how you looked."

"Oh, really…" Fire came from the enraged Hokage's eyes. The worker fled with the statue as fast as he could, terrified of the now angry Hokage.

"Here I was thinking about how much I cared about that bastard, and now THIS! The only date he's getting know, IS A DATE WITH MY FISTS!!!"

Tsunade stormed off towards Ichiraku with Sakura following behind her, laughing as they went.

Tsunade stopped suddenly, and Sakura (who wasn't paying attention) ran into her teacher.

"What's wrong Tsunade-sama?" Sakura looked up to see Jiraiya, Naruto, and Naruto, wait, clones. Why did Naruto create clones. Then she saw what had made Tsunade stop. The Ramen stand was covered in exploding tags.

She noticed a ninja behind the stand making signs with his hands.

Sakura yelled at her teammate as she and Tsunade ran towards the Ramen stand, only to be knocked down by a HUGE explosion.

Sakura and Tsunade looked up, trying to find their comrades through the dust and debris.

They saw that all of the people who had been inside the Ramen stand were ok, but there was still no sign of Jiraiya or Naruto.

Then, they saw them, Jiraiya was covering Teuchi, and Naruto was covering Ayame, Teuchi's daughter. They were cut up and bleeding pretty bad.

Tsunade was worried (surprising since just moments ago she wanted to kill Jiraiya) and Sakura was crying again. 'No, he's hurt again.'

The Sound-nin smiled at what he had accomplished. He would be rewarded for his efforts at injuring the Kyuubi container.

He had come on a scouting mission, mapping out the newly formed boundaries of the countries after the Fire Nation had fallen. His comrades had already left to give their report to the Otokage. He had stayed behind to scout out the border with Suna, because they had noticed a large encampment near the border. After arriving he found the Konoha villagers, or at least, what was left of them.

It was then that he noticed the Kyuubi's Jinchiruuki eating inside a small stand.

'Here's my chance to make a name for myself. If I can kill the Demon holder in front of me, the Otokage is sure to promote me.'

It was then that he placed exploding tags along the outside of the stand, and he set them off simultaneously.

He sat and watched, smiling as the smoke rose from the crater the explosion had created.

His smile turned into a frown, as he was clearly frustrated to see the Jinchiruuki get up after that. He was so frustrated that he didn't notice the sand that was slowly starting to gather around his ankles.

Naruto leaned over and helped Ayame up, Jiraiya doing the same for Teuchi. Teuchi sat on the ground, clearly upset that his Ramen stand had been destroyed.

Naruto, clearly angry, no more than angy. He was pissed that his favorite Ramen stand had been destroyed. Nobody disrespects Ramen like that while Naruto Uzumaki is around.

"Dammit, how did we miss that?"

Well, you did say you were injured, and I'm not faring any better. I guess we still have a while before we're back to 100."

"Well, at least no body got hurt." Naruto said as he started to dust off his pants (Naruto doesn't have a jacket or top anymore thanks to Sasuke, so all he's wearing now is his orange pants and sandals. His upper body is just covered by bandages.).

"Your back still looks like you lost to a cheese grater though."

Naruto just glared at his sensei, but he noticed that his sensei was pale.

"Oi, Ero-Sennin, what's wrong? You look like you just saw Tsunade obaa-chan." Naruto laughed to himself.

"Bingo kid, and she's not alone." Jiraiya pointed.

Naruto turned, and noticed Tsunade and Sakura were walking towards them. Sakura pulling on her gloves and Tsunade rolling up her sleeves.

"Oh," was all he could say before the beatings began.

Tsunade healed Jiraiya while Sakura did the same for Naruto

The two kunoichi stared at the two males, well, stared would be a nice way to put it.

"What were you thinking? You could have been killed!" The two kunoichi yelled in unison.

Naruto looked at Tsunade, "It's ok Obaa-chan, we're still alive."

Jiraiya shook his head, "I wish you hadn't said that."

A vein pulsed on Tsunade's head as she prepared to pummel the two again, only to be stopped by a wall of Sand.

"Kazekage-sama!" Sakura bowed in respect towards the approaching kage.

"Oi, Gaara, how have you been?"

"Fine Naruto, good to see your finally among the world of the living again. I would hate to see anything happen to my dear friend."

They turned to see a man covered in sand floating behind the Kazekage.

"Kazekage-sama, who is that behind you."

"This, I think, is the person that blew up Ichiraku."

'So this is the person trying to take away my Naruto, even before I've had a chance to make him mine.' Thought Sakura, as she cracked her knuckles and slowly started walking towards the Sound-nin.

"So you're the bastard. NOBODY DISRESPECTS RAMEN LIKE THAT!" Naruto screamed at him as he slowly started to reach for the Sound-nin.

As the Shinobi got closer to him, he started laughing.

"What's so funny you bastard. I wouldn't be laughing right now if I were you."

"Hehe, I took a suicide pill before your friend who plays with the sand caught me."

"Really," Gaara turned and raised his hand slowly.

The Sound-nin began coughing badly, sand pouring out of his mouth, and with it said pill.

"Well, so much for your little pill."

The Sound-nin, eye's open widely, just stared at the Kazekage in front of him.

"OH SHI…" was all he could get out before sand covered his mouth.

"Take him to interrogation, Ibiki will know what to do with him." Said the Hokage, somewhat disturbed by what she saw.

The Kazekage smiled, remembering the man from the Chuunin exams five years ago. 'This could be fun.' Gaara laughed to himself as he walked towards the proper building.

"I look forward to the festival tonight. Tomorrow I will fill you in on what's happening to the surrounding countries and what's become of the Fire Nation. For now, I wish to go and 'watch' the show."

They all just watched, slightly uneasy, as the Kazekage walked off.

"Heh, and here I thought he was weaker without the Shukaku. Guess I was wrong."

Sakura hit Naruto on the head, "Baka, don't laugh at the Kazekage. He may be a close friend, but he's still the Kazekage."

"Owowowowow."

They all just laughed at Naruto.

"Well, I think we should go get ready for the festival. I'll go take Naruto and help him get some new clothes. Suna donated a lot of supplies to us, so I think we should go take a look. Naruto needs to look good for tonight."

'That bastard, he knows what I have planned for tonight.' "Well, I think Sakura and I should get ready too."

"Well, come along Naruto. Let's go get a change of clothes, hopefully something that's not orange."

"What's wrong with orange?" Naruto ran after his sensei.

"Ero-Sannin, why do I have to wear this? What's wrong with my old clothes."

Jiraiya hit Naruto on the head, knocking him to the floor.

"1. You don't have your old clothes anymore, because your apartment was destroyed, 2. the clothes you had were shredded by a certain Uchiha, and 3. You're a shinobi, Orange draws too much attention. We need to get you better clothes so you can become a better ninja."

"Why?"

Jiraiya hit Naruto again, "You'll see later tonight."

Upset as Naruto was, he did like the new clothes. Made him look powerful, manly, and there was a great swelling of pride as he looked at himself. 'I'm really a ninja. I'm doing it, I'm living my dream.' Smiling as he looked in the mirror.

Naruto wore Black pants, with a long sleeved fishnet shirt. Over that shirt he wore a long sleeved black shirt. It wasn't Orange, but he wasn't complaining.

"Here, put this on too." Jiraiya threw a green Chuunin vest at him.

"Why, I'm still only a genin."

"Well, Tsunade and I both know that you should be a Chuunin. So, nobody is going to complain."

Naruto smiled from the recognition from his sensei. Putting on the vest, he couldn't help but smile.

'Heh, I look AWESOME!' Naruto cheered in his mind.

'Heh, he looks just like his father.' Jiraiya thought to himself.

Well, if you're done admiring yourself, oh conceited one, we should be going to Hokage tower, the festival is going to start soon.

"Hai, lead the way Ero-Sennin."

Tsunade, dressed in her Hokage robes, waited impatiently on her apprentice.

"Come on Sakura, we need to go. The festival is due to start any time now."

"Coming Tsunade-sama." Sakura came out wearing a pink dress that came to her knees, with cut off sleeves, and she wore black sandals. Her hair was pulled back with a red ribbon.

"You look very nice Sakura, going for the kill I see."

Sakura smiled evilly. "Tonight, Naruto Uzumaki will be mine. It's a cinch." She said holding up a Peace sign. "Nothing is going to stop me." Thunder crashed in the distance.

Sakura looked at the sky as she and Tsunade left their tents to go to the Hokage tower. (Since they just finished building the tower, Tsunade hasn't had a chance to move in to it yet)

Black clouds were gathering, and seemed to be coming this way. It all looked bad, as if something bad was going to happen at the festival.

'Nothings bad is going to happen. Tonight, I'll tell Naruto how I feel, everything will be fine.'

Thunder struck again in the distance as the two kunoichi continued walking towards the site of the festival. 'Everything will be fine, right?'

(A/N): Well, that's it. Hope you enjoyed it. It might be a while until I can update again. I've got finals Monday-Wednesday of the upcoming week. So, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'll try to update if I can. Next chapter, the festival. And, I'll try to make it a long chapter,maybe even a two part. A lot of things are going to happen, which set the stage for the rest of the story. Plus, NaruSaku-ness starts next chapter. Until then, please R&R. Peace to you all.