I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 7
"My dear Tora-chan!" the Fire Daimyo's wife exclaimed squeezing a medium-sized red-orange cat with a pink bow on one of its ear tightly to her chest. "I was worried to death about you! Where did you run off to?"
Konohamaru watched the scene before him, his arms crossed over his chest. He stood with his teammates standing on either side of him in the Mission Hall. At the other end of the room sat the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade. To her left was Umino Iruka, his old Academy teacher, and a woman that he didn't know. All three adult looked on with amused looks on their faces. He whispered to his two teammates, Udon and Moegi, "If I were that cat, I'd want to run away too."
Ebisu, his Jounin-sensei, rushed to his side, quietly saying, "Konohamaru-kun!" in that scolding tone he always used. The Fire Daimyo's wife was oblivious to all of this. She told the Godaime as she left that the payment for the completed mission was on the table. She continued to coo at the crying cat. Ebisu, now that the large woman was gone, began to scold his team. "Although it was only a lost cat, how many hours did it take?"
Udon whined, "But it was a really fast cat…" He was an average sized boy with a love for math. He wore big, round glasses, and he always looked like he was sleepy. He also had a constant runny nose.
Moegi added "It seemed pretty used to running away." Moegi was just about the same size as Udon, with red-orange hair that defied gravity and stayed standing up in two pigtails. She always a blush on her cheeks, and was generally happy.
Ebisu ignored them, saying, "I will hear no excuses! Currently, you should be able to handle missions of this level in a swifter manner! You're all lack strength!"
"I can't draw on my true power on such lame missions!" Konohamaru scoffed. "I should be doing much cooler missions than chasing some damn cat!" He ignored Moegi's quiet admonishment that he not curse in front of the Hokage. "Iruka-sensei, aren't there any better missions?"
"Konohamaru-kun," Ebisu said, beginning to him again, "you three have only just become Genins. There's no way that you'll be assigned better missions."
Iruka nodded from his seat behind the mission hall. Tsunade-sama added, "It's D-ranks for now, Konohamaru-kun."
Konohamaru dropped the ground, folding his legs Indian-style under him. "I'm not satisfied with that!" he cried. "I'm going to be the Seventh Hokage in the future!"
Tsunade quirked an eyebrow at the young Genin. "The Seventh Hokage?" she asked.
Konohamaru nodded fiercely. "I'll be Naruto-nii-san's successor."
Naruto leapt forward, grasped the tree branch in front of him, and then used it to swing himself onto another one some six feet away. Chakra glued his feet to the branch for half a second, and then gave him strength to jump forward again so that the process could be repeated again. A few feet above him was his Master and Father, Jiraiya.
It was amazing to think that a little less than three years before, he couldn't bring himself to think of the man as anything more than his sensei. Now, he thought of him as his father, as the man that showed him the world, the man that opened his eyes. Jiraiya was his Master, his trainer, his seal expert, his…Kami, Jiraiya was everything. If he needed a question answered, if he felt himself lost, if he needed any sort of guidance, Jiraiya was more than happy to help. And the best part was, he was never overbearing or annoying in the way that he did it. Jiraiya was more carefree, and thought that if he did anything differently than the way that Jiraiya suggested that it made an interesting reaction.
Jiraiya was a better dad than Naruto would have thought.
Tsunade was the complete opposite. She mothered him, beat on Jiraiya if Naruto made a (in her opinion) stupid decision, or acted remotely perverted. Naruto loved listening to her talk, to hear her ideas and advice. She was a little biased, but in a good way. She was open with him, letting him hear her regrets and lost dreams. She had a twisted, sort of patriotic, loyalty to Konoha, but she, and she told him this in (drunken) total confidence, loved each of the men and women that served under her for the good of the village.
In his opinion, Tsunade truly was the best candidate for Hokage, because she cared about the shinobi under her, and worried over every decision she made.
The fact that she complained constantly about the job was irrelevant.
Naruto glanced up to see that Jiraiya was no longer keeping pace with him, but was starting lag behind. He grinned widely. "Getting old, Ero-Tou-san?" he teased. "Too slow to keep up with me?" He stopped one of the branches.
"Shut up, you little gaki!" Jiraiya said, panting. "We've been running since this morning! I'm tired."
"I told you that we could've just had Fukasaku-sama reverse summon us to the mountain and then to the village."
"And I told you that Fukasaku doesn't like me as much since that time in Rain."
"He still insulted that you took Shima's side?"
"Yeah." Jiraiya shook his head. "I'm never taking part in one of their arguments."
"Hmm." Naruto grinned mischievously, and asked, "Wanna race? You take Gamaken, and I go on foot. Winner has to tell Kaa-chan that we went gambling without her."
Jiraiya grinned, and jumped from branch to branch to the ground floor. "Perfect. I'll see you at the Hokage Tower. I can't lose this way!"
Two and a half years.
They had passed achingly slowly for Sakura. Nearly three years of loneliness and heartache, of missions with different teams, of hard training, of wishing for a lost family back.
Sakura had grown in more ways than she'd imagined. Once she'd been a petite, flat-chested, vain, naïve Genin; now, she was an average sized Chuunin, apprenticed to the Godaime Hokage herself, and a damn good medic. She was told numerous times by Ino that she was beautiful, and that half the village boys wanted a date with her (the other half wanted to date Ino, of course), but she always laughed. Didn't they know that her heart was already set on one (lost) boy?
In the past two and a half years since Naruto and Sasuke had left, though, she was still without a team. Just before Naruto had left, Tsunade-shishou had disbanded Team 7. Kakashi had taken a position as the Head of the ANBU Corps, so, while he stayed at the village more often, he was usually working at the secretive ANBU Training Facility, while she moved from team to team on missions. Of course, because she was a medic-nin, and there was always a shortage of good, active medic-nins, she would be required to move from to team to team as needed. But it would've been nice to come home to a waiting team…It would have nice to have Sasuke-kun, and Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei all together again just like when she'd been fresh faced (petiteflat-chestedvainnaive) Genin.
Kami-sama, she hadn't thought about that in ages!
Kami-sama, she felt old, and she was only fifteen! There must be some kind of law against fifteen year olds feeling like they were fifty.
Sighing, she glanced down. In her hands she held Tsunade-shishou's schedule/agenda. It was amazing really. In her white, slightly calloused and scarred hands, she held the most important person in the village's life. She could write that the day after tomorrow Tsunade-shishou had to be in the hospital for two hours, instead of off being wherever it is that Tsunade-shishou went every second Friday night of the month.
Hmm.....
What was it that Tsunade-shishou did every month? Frowning, she flipped the pages backwards until she found the same date. There was no label other than the characters for 'fox' and 'toad.' Obviously, it was code for something else. 'Toad' might be Jiraiya-sama, but he and Naruto were both away on a training trip! No one knew for certain where they were! Tsunade-shishou had told her this herself. And what could 'fox' mean, anyway? Could it be Naruto? Why would Tsunade-shishou name Naruto 'fox'? Could she…be…Could Tsunade-shishou have feelings for Naruto?
"Sakura?"
Snapping the agenda shut, she whirled around. "Yes, shishou?" she asked, alert, trying to hide the guilt that she suddenly felt for thinking inappropriate things about her master. "Do you need anything?"
Tsunade-shishou smiled at her, before saying, "It's a beautiful day outside. Run to the gate and get me the afternoon report." The blonde haired Hokage hadn't aged a bit in the time that Jiraiya-sama and Naruto had been gone. If anything, on some days, she looked younger.
"Of course, shishou." She bowed her head minutely, before heading out of the door. She considered running over the rooftops of the houses and buildings, thus getting to the gates faster, but it was a beautiful day today, and shishou wanted her to enjoy it while she could, right?
"Hahahahaha! You're so slow, Tou-san," Naruto shouted excitedly as he raced passed Jiraiya and Gamaken. You'll never catch up to me!"
"You little cheat!"Jiraiya shouted as his son ran past them. "Hurry, Gamaken! I'm not getting stuck with telling Tsunade we went gambling without her! She'll beat the crap out of me!"
Gamaken grumbled as he jumped forward again. This was not how you were supposed to treat battle toads!
Sakura sighed as she glanced around at the sights and people around her. It had been a while since she had the chance to just walk through the village. It was nice to see everything and everyone again.
"I don't get him! He keeps telling us that we're stronger than usual Genin, and then he tells us that we're weak!"
Sakura paused for a moment. That sounded so much like…but it couldn't be! He was an Academy student, right?
"It's alright. You'll see, in time, he'll see your strength. Everyone in the village will!"
"Yeah—sniff—especially when nii-chan comes back. Sniff—He'll be so proud that we made Genin!"
Could it be Naruto's little fan club, the Konohamaru Corps?
"Konohamaru-chan? Moegi-chan? Udon-chan?" Sakura called, whirling around, trying to find where their voices were coming from. There—several feet behind her on the opposite side of the street, the three children, now Genins as Sakura could tell from the headbands wrapped proudly around their foreheads, were gaping at her.
"Sakura-san?" Moegi asked.
"Wow, Sakura-san," Konohamaru exclaimed. "Forget about nii-chan! I'm goin' to be the Seventh Hokage, wanna go out with me?"
"Konahamaru-kun!" Moegi accused, slapping the boy's shoulder while Udon snickered a little before wiping his dripping nose.
Chuckling to herself, Sakura crossed the street to join them. "Look at you! You're Genin now? I thought you were still studying at the Academy!"
Moegi said proudly, "We finished early. We're Team Ebisu, now, Sakura-san!"
Grinning mischievously, Sakura answered, "Not the Konohamaru Corps., anymore?"
Konohamaru grunted, rolling his eyes. Udon smiled, "Moegi and I thought that it was time to grow up, but Konohamaru-kun still thinks we should be called the Konohamaru Corps. Ebisu-sensei put his foot down though."
Sakura laughed. "Where are you guys heading?"
"Anywhere you wanna go, I'll go, Sakura-chan," Konohamaru answered sweetly.
Sakura rolled her eyes, while Moegi glared dangerously at the boy. "Wanna come with me to the gate? Tsunade-sama wants me to get the afternoon report for her."
"Sure!"
"I WIN!" Naruto roared, landing some feet past the gate. He heard Gamaken grumble something about battle toads shouldn't be used in races, and then puff out of existence. He turned to grin tauntingly at his father. "You old fart! I let you ride on a toad, and you still lose!"
Jiraiya snarled, "You used that stupid jump technique, didn't you? Or you used Sage chakra!" He made his way past Naruto, nodded at the two Chuunin guards who stood awed in their small station, and continued down the road towards the Hokage Tower.
"I didn't use anything outside of my usual chakra," Naruto said proudly. "Just admit it—I'm faster and all around better than you. It's okay to do it; the younger generation is supposed to be better than the older one."
Jiraiya glared. "C'mon, let's just hurry up and see Tsunade."
"Wanna race again?"
Laughing, Sakura stopped in front of the check-in station at the gate. "I'm here for the afternoon report," she said. The ninja stationed there nodded and started rifling around inside.
Konohamaru leaned against the station. "So, Sakura-chan, are you busy this Friday? I've got enough money for an all-you-can-eat-ramen-fest. I was gonna take Moegi and Udon, but…you wanna go with me? It'll be our first date!"
Sakura smiled at the younger boy. "That's sweet, Konohamaru-chan, but I don't think Moegi-chan, here, will like that, right?"
Moegi nodded as she glared at her teammate. Behind her, Udon just rolled his eyes. Konohamaru had been trying to flirt with Chuunin the entire time that they'd walked together. Moegi, of course, kept getting angrier and angrier at the boy with each attempt. Sakura-san, however, just laughed at Konohamaru, always joking with him that Moegi-chan might not like it.
"Here you go, Sakura-san," the ninja at the station said. "Oh, by the way, will you tell Hokage-sama that Jiraiya of the Sannin and his apprentice, Uzumaki-san, have both arrived."
Sakura paused and stared wide-eyed at the ninja. "N-naruto's here?" she whispered, before running straight for the Hokage Tower. Behind her, Team Ebisu tried to keep pace, but she just jumped to the rooftops to reach the Tower faster. Soon enough, she was nothing more than a pink and red streak rushing through the village.
In much less time that it had taken her to get to the gate, she reached the Hokage Tower. The secretary in front of the office tried to stop her, but Sakura ignored the woman, choosing instead to burst through the red double doors.
Inside, Tsunade-shishou was sitting behind her desk as usual. Beside her, looking exactly as she remembered him, was Jiraiya-sama. Gushing as she looked at a necklace was Shizune. In front of her, with his back to Sakura, was a tall man-boy in all black.
"Naruto?" she whispered. Gone was the little boy that she'd known. The boy with wild and spiky blonde hair; the boy who always dressed in a orange jumpsuit; the boy who was always proud of the blue hitai-ite that he wore around his forehead. In his place was this…this man. This man whose hair reached the middle of his back; this man who had broad shoulders and thick arms—this man wasn't her Naruto, but a new one.
He stilled grinned the same, though. And his eyes still shined brightly. "Hey Sakura-chan. Long time no see, ne?"
She ran forward and hugged him tightly. "You idiot—you never wrote!"
Naruto laughed loudly into her ear, but it was a comforting sound rather than an annoying one. She pushed him back so that she could inspect him better.
"Sakura-chan, I missed you," he said, smiling softly.
"Me too," she answered, returning the smile. "You grew!"
"Yup!" Naruto crowed, leaning back on his heels. "I got you something!" he said, suddenly, pulling out a box from his pocket. He handed it to her, as a light blush suddenly appeared on his face. "It's not much..but…"
She grinned. "Thanks."
"Aw, look at the two lovebirds!"Jiraiya crowed from beside Tsunade-shishou.
"Ah, shaddap, Ero-Sennin!" Naruto grumbled over his shoulder.
Sakura opened the box to see a small wooden pendant in the shape of a sakura flower. As she lifted it out of the box, Sakura noticed that it was attached to a leather string so that she wear as a necklace.
Naruto scratched the back of his neck nervously, saying, "One of the toads at Mt. Myobokuzan taught me how to carve. I just thought…well, you don't have to wear it or anything."
"It's beautiful," she told, smiling brightly. "Help me put it on?" Naruto ducked his head down, and grinned shyly. He was about to slip the necklace around her neck when, suddenly, the door of Tsunade-shishou's office burst open again, and the office was filled with the childish squeals of Team Ebisu greeting Naruto.
Tsunade looked on as Naruto greeted Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon. They badgered him about training, and convinced him to take them out for ramen later. Sakura laughed loudly and freely with them, and even Shizune seemed happier. Tsunade glanced over at Jiraiya. He couldn't tell the difference because he'd been with Naruto for the past two and half years, and hadn't seen how Sakura had moped for months after Naruto left. He hadn't seen how it hurt Sakura to return home without a team waiting for her. He couldn't tell the difference between the sad and moping Sakura that she'd trained with and this alive Sakura that laughed so freely.
Could Sakura tell the difference?
After a while, Naruto and Sakura were the only ones left as Team Ebisu ran off to tell everyone that they could that Naruto was home. They both turned to her attentively.
"Naruto, according to Jiraiya, you're a Sage now, right?" Tsunade asked, thinking, calculating.
Naruto nodded. Sakura asked, "A Sage? Of what?"
"It means that I can use natural chakra, now," Naruto answered. "It also means to the Toads, that I am worthy of being their summoner. I am an equal in their eyes. Unlike Ero-Sennin, here."
"Watch it, gaki," Jiraiya grumbled. "I can still beat you."
Naruto snorted. "I'm not too sure about that."
"That was a race. It doesn't count."
"I'm counting it!"
Tsunade rolled her eyes as she saw the beginnings of one Naruto and Jiraiya's arguments. "Enough, you two," she snapped. "According to Konoha's records, you're still a Genin. Now, you can wait around for the next Chuunin Exam and join a team—"
"What about Sakura-chan?" Naruto interrupted. "I want to take the Exam with her!"
"I've already made Chuunin," Sakura said proudly.
"Really?" Naruto squeaked, looking at her with a new light. "What about everyone else?"
"Everyone's become Chuunin, except for Neji." Sakura teased him lightly, "He's a Jounin, now, Naruto. How are you ever going to catch up?"
Naruto pouted at her. "Not fair! You guys didn't wait for me!"
"Excuse me," Tsunade interrupted in a less than amused voice. "I was still talking." When both Naruto and Sakura had given her the appropriate shame-faced looks, she continued. "Now, Naruto, you can take the Chuunin Exam, or you fight several one-on-one battles in front of the Council and myself. Then, we will give you a rank."
"Who would I have to fight?" Naruto asked, seriously thinking it over.
"You're actually going to do this?" Sakura asked incredulously. Naruto nodded silently, not taking his eyes off of Tsunade.
"A Chuunin or two, maybe a Jounin," Tsunade answered. "We'll make it into a sort of…friendly competition. It would be, more or less, like the last part of the Chuunin Exams."
Naruto nodded slowly. "When's the earliest you can set it up for?"
"Tomorrow morning," Tsunade answered.
Naruto grinned. "Alright, tomorrow morning it is. Send me your worst."
A/N: Okay, so it's more of a filler type thing, but...NARUTO'S BACK! lol...The AU-ness has begun, and it is rather slight here, but it gets more in the next chapter and the next and so on so forth.
Also, I'm VERY VERY sorry about the long update. I WAS going to update on Friday like I usually do, but Friday was the day of my last final (thank God!) and so it ended up being a really busy day. Saturday I spent most of it enjoying the day with my sister (got my hair cut REALLY short too!), and Sunday was Mother's Day so that ended up being really busy.
Hope you like the chapter, the usual questions have been asked (grammar, spelling, and what not), don't forget to review, and see y'all in two weeks!
