I just noticed that I forgot the disclaimer, stupid me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any character from the show.

I hope you still enjoy my story. Thank you for all the positive reviews. It means a lot to me. I didn't expect to get so many reviews. And for the people who think it wasn't fair that Sakura tied with Naruto in the chuunin exams. Neji and Lee had already worn Naruto out. He wasn't at his best anymore, while Sakura had only fought Tenten, so she had more left. So I made them tie ;p

"Hello": regular talking
'Hello': thinking
'Hello': Inner Sakura and Kyuubi talking

Don't forget to R&R ;)

Enjoy!

"Naruto!" She shot up and saw that she was sitting in her bed. "Damn, another nightmare. When are these stupid nightmares going to stop, I would love to get some sleep one of these days. And I can't shake of the feeling that something in these dreams is foreboding." Naruto was back now, so she had hoped that the bad dreams would end, but they didn't. They actually got worse. Most of the times Naruto would end up being killed in those stupid dreams.

She walked to the shower and undressed. She was sweating, so she decided to take a quick shower. Today she was going on a mission again with Naruto. They hadn't had a lot of time together, because all of her friends, and mostly Ino, hogged the boy for themselves. She still hadn't asked the boy out, because she was scared for some reason. She had hoped that he would ask her out, but he didn't. 'Maybe he doesn't like me anymore. He has spent a lot of time with Ero-sennin. Maybe he's a pervert now and now looks at girl for the size of their bosom and then I don't get in the picture…' She dropped her head.

'You know that kid isn't like his pervy teacher! And stop being such a wimp. Just ask him out, okay. You're driving me crazy!" Inner Sakura said. Sakura smiled when she heard her other self say that. "Since when don't you hate Naruto?"

'I still think he is kind of annoying sometimes, but he is nice! Have you ever looked at his ass!" Sakura saw that her inner self was drooling now. She sweat dropped because of this and exited the shower. She dressed herself and packed her backpack. She walked down the stairs and saw her mother sitting on the sofa. "I'm going on a mission now, mother. I won't be away too long, it's an easy mission, just a C-rank. We need to guide someone from the hidden sand village."

Her mother turned around and looked into the eyes of her daughter seriously. "Be careful out there, hun. Especially because that Naruto kid will be there with you."

A vein appeared on Sakura's forehead and she clenched her fist. "Why can't you stop that? I told you a million times now that I trust him and that he is my best friend. He would rather die than hurt me, mother. I am sad that you still can't see that. I always looked up to you, but now I'm starting to doubt what kind of person you really are!" She opened the door and ran out of her house. 'Why does almost everyone treat Naruto like this? It's not fair.'

She saw the two boys waiting for her at the gate. She started to smile when she saw that Naruto was eating some cup ramen. 'I wonder if he eats something else then ramen…' She reached the boys now. "Hey Naruto." She said with a smile. She turned to the other boy and started to frown. "Hey Sai…"

Naruto turned around and saw her. "Sakura-chan, great you're here. Now we can go. I want to get there as soon as possible. It will be good stamina training." She nodded and they jumped into the trees. Along the way Naruto made a lot of decisions, like where they should rest, which way to go, etc. She had never expected that he would be so good at that. It's true that he was still the immature Naruto most of the times. He had almost fallen down a waterfall, because he was doing something stupid. But he had become much more mature while he was away.

It was becoming dark now and they had been running the whole day. Naruto made a hand gesture to stop and the other two understood. "Let's rest here for the night. We're close to a river, so we can get some water. We are already close to the village. We can reach it tomorrow morning. I'm going to catch some fish and get water. Sai, I want you to get some firewood and Sakura-chan, I want you to guard this spot." Sakura was amazed that Sai immediately jumped into the forest and Naruto started to walk towards the river. 'He has really become amazing. He might really become hokage if he goes on like this.' She lied down the sleeping bags around the fire spot. Sai came back with some wood and he made a fire with a weak Katon jutsu. Naruto came back some time later and when she looked at him she saw a large bruise on his arm. He scratched the back of his head and gave her his grin. "I slipped when I was walking to the river." She sighed and started to heal him. 'Maybe it isn't quite the time for him to become hokage yet…'

They had eaten and Sakura decided to take the job to stay awake and watch for enemies. She wasn't able to sleep with those nightmares anyway. She looked over to Naruto and saw that he was lying on his back and a little drool escaped his mouth. He was snoring a bit too. You couldn't hear or see Sai. He had decided to stay awake too and he walked away from the camp. Sakura hated the guy more and more. 'First he calls me an ugly-dog and now he doesn't trust me…' She looked up to the stars. She did this sometimes after Sasuke left. "I hope you're okay, Sasuke-kun. You're a fool, because you left us. Naruto keeps insisting on bringing you back, so I am going to help him. I know you are an avenger, but you can become stronger in Konoha too. The next time we meet, we will take you back, even if we have to drag you back."

They reached the hidden sand village in the morning like Naruto expected. They looked around and couldn't help but think how ugly the village was in comparison to their own. Everything was made out of sand and some of the houses had really weird shapes. They reached the tower of the kazekage. It was a really big building, maybe even bigger than the tower of the hokage. The entered the building, because they needed to speak with the kazekage. Naruto knocked on the door and they heard someone say "Enter." He opened the door and let out of huge smile when he saw Gaara sitting in white robes. "How've you been Gaara." Sakura hit him on the head. "Don't talk to him like that. He is the kazekage. And he is still the same guy who tried to kill us, so watch your mouth." She whispered into his ear.

"Hey Naruto. I didn't bring you here for nothing. There's business to be done. I want you to bring my sister to Konoha with you. She is a jounin right now, but I don't want anything to happen to her, so I wanted the best to guide her. She is waiting at the gate of the village for you. That is all." They all nodded and turned around. Sai opened the door and exited the room, followed by Sakura. "Naruto, I need to talk with you alone for a sec." Naruto closed the door and walked back to the kazekage. "What's up?"

Gaara stood up from his chair and walked to one of the windows. "Now that I am kazekage, I have permission to go through all the documents of the village. I stumbled across a very interesting one a few days ago. When I heard that you got back to Konoha, I immediately asked the godaime to send you. I know that the Kyuubi is sealed in you." Naruto's eyes widened. "Yeah, you're right. The demon fox was sealed within me. But why is that so important?"

The kazekage turned around and gave the boy a serious look. "As you have seen, the one tail demon raccoon is sealed within me. You might say that we are the same. As the kazekage I get a lot of information from a lot of sources. I have heard that an organisation called Akatsuki is collecting these tailed demons." Naruto looked down and walked to another window in the room. He placed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, I know. When I was twelve two members of that organisation tried to take me with them. They were very strong. Ero-sennin, you may know him as Jiraiya, fought them off, but just barely. He told me that they are after the Kyuubi, but even he doesn't know why."

Gaara walked back to his office and let everything sink down. "I'm telling you this, because I have heard that they are on the move. They are moving in teams of two and so far two other demon containers have been killed by them. I won't be long until they find you or me. I have told your hokage this too, but we need to work together on this. We need to take care of them. We don't know what we will do just yet, but we're thinking. I just want to say: watch your back. If they get hold of all the tailed beasts, they will become unstoppable."

Naruto leaned against the wall with his back and nodded. "I know. I've been doing that for a long time. It's one of the reasons I have to become stronger and fast." Gaara sat down and sighed. "There is more I'm afraid. I have heard from my most reliable source, the one you call Ero-sennin that Akatsuki was spotted in the hidden village of mist. They were talking with the mizukage and he even saw them shake hands. He then got hold of one of the guards there and made him talk. It seems that they are planning an attack on Konoha." Naruto's eyes widened. "What! You're kidding right."

Gaara put his finger in his ear. "Damn, why do you have to be so loud? But no, I am not kidding. I have send spies to the village and it seems that they are preparing for war. I have told your hokage about this too and she is preparing for it. This is one of the reasons I am sending my sister over there. The sand village will help Konoha if they will attack. My spies will tell me if something happens and if I hear something, then I will let your hokage know. We need to defend our villages." Naruto was at a loss. Not only had Akatsuki befriended a village, but a war would be amongst them soon. I didn't want to believe it. But when he looked Gaara in the face he knew he was serious. The guy was always serious. "Okay, thanks for telling me."

Gaara opened one of the drawers and held a scroll in his hand. "Give this to your hokage. It will show her that we are willing to help when it is needed." Naruto took the scroll and put it in his backpack. "You got it."

"Now it is time for you to leave. They must be getting tired of waiting for you." Naruto started to think and suddenly realised something. His eyes widened again. 'Sakura-chan is going to kill me for making her wait…' Naruto quickly turned around and opened the door. "Naruto." He looked over his shoulder. "Be careful." Naruto nodded and started to run to the exit of the village.

'Where is that baka? We have been waiting for over an hour already. I hope nothing has happened to him. Maybe he encountered an enemy…Oh no…I have to go look for him.' Sakura started to run towards the village. "Hey Sakura-chan." She turned to her right and saw the noisy ninja standing there. She started to smile and she could feel a tear forming in her eye. "Naruto." Then all of a sudden she started to feel angry. "You baka! Where were you?"

'Damn, I can't let her know what just happened.' He began to scratch the back of his head and forced a smile. "I got hungry, so I went to find a ramen shop in the village and I kind of got lost." He started to walk to the rest when he suddenly saw a fist approaching him. "Baka! I am going to kill you!" He saw that Sakura was really mad. He started to run for his life. "Help me!" Sai and Temari just sighed and started to walk.

Sakura had finally calmed down and they were jumping from tree to tree. Sakura began to jump in step next to Temari. "So, are you looking forward to see Shikamaru again? I heard you guys share a strong bond." She said with her lips curled in a devilish way. Temari got beef red. "What are you talking about? What do I have to do with that lazy bastard?" Sakura knew she was on to something and didn't give up. "Then why are you so red, Temari-san." Sakura backed down when she saw that Temari was about to grab her fan. 'Party pooper.'

They reached the town and decided to go to the hokage immediately. There were more guards then usual around the village. Sakura looked around and saw that Sai and Temari saw it too. Then she looked to Naruto and he acted the same as always. 'He didn't notice it. It is still Naruto we're talking about.'

They entered the tower and climbed the stairs. Temari sighed. "Why does that woman need to be on the top? Build an elevator for crying out loud. This is so troublesome." She moved her hands to her mouth the moment she said it. She turned around and saw that Sakura gave her an evil smirk. "Nothing's happening between you guys, eh." Temari started to wave with her hands before her. "It's not what you think." Sakura walked right past her with a smile on her face.

Tsunade was sitting at her office with a troubled look on her face. She had heard the news from Gaara and she knew the situation was very bad. "Konoha is not ready for a war. We were weakened a lot by the sound war." She turned to the other person in the room. "Yeah, I've been gathering information and it seems that they might attack soon. So do you really think it is okay to tell him now? Is he ready?" Tsunade took a sip from her sake. "I don't know, but we don't have a choice. We need every bit of extra power that we can get." The white haired sannin was about to say something, when someone knocked on the door. "Come in."

Naruto entered the room, followed by Sakura, Sai and Temari. "Ah, I see that you completed your mission. Good job. I didn't expect you back until tomorrow, but that's fine. Take the rest of the day off. You are dismissed." They saluted the hokage and turned around. "Naruto, I want to talk to you." Naruto turned around and walked back to the hokage. Sakura started to walk back too. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I want to talk with him alone." She looked down and walked to the door again. "I'll wait for you downstairs okay." Naruto gave her a smile. "I'll try to be there as soon as I can." She raised her head again and walked out of the room with a smile on her face. The hokage couldn't help but smirk at the sight. As soon as Sakura closed the door, Tsunade opened her drawer. Naruto was surprised when he saw a box in her hands.

"Naruto, you've talked to the kazekage, right. So I guess I don't have to inform you anymore. We are in deep trouble. If the hidden mist decides to attack right now, I don't know if we are able to stop them. That's why I will do everything I can to make us a little bit stronger. And that's why I am giving you this box." Naruto looked at the box in confusion. "What's so special about this box, baachan?"

Tsunade said nothing and Naruto opened it. He saw some kunai and some scrolls in the box. "I was supposed to give this to you when you turned 16, but I decided that this is the best time to give it to you. It is from your father." Naruto's jumped into the air. "What, my father? Is he still alive?!" Tsunade looked down. "No, I am afraid that he died. He died while protecting the village from the Kyuubi. Naruto, your father was the fourth hokage."

Naruto took a few steps backward. He couldn't believe it. He had never known his parents, he had always been alone. He figured that his parents had died at some time and at other times he thought that they had left him, because they hated him just like the rest of the village. But now he was told that he was the son of the fourth hokage, probably the strongest ninja ever. He didn't know if he should be happy or sad. He wanted to be happy, because he was the son of such a great guy, but at the other hand he wanted to be sad, because his father wasn't alive anymore. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Tsunade kept silent and the frog tamer walked to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Your father wanted me to tell you this when you turned 16. I told you that I was his mentor before he became hokage. I knew that he had a child of his own. Not many people knew this. You were born just before he died. When the Kyuubi attacked the town he gave me this box and told me to give it to you when you were old enough to understand. He decided to seal the Kyuubi in you, his own son, because he wanted that the people would see you as a hero. He didn't want the people to hate you so much. He gave his life to save the village, but mostly to protect you, Naruto. Your father was a great man."

Tsunade was surprised when she saw tears fall down on the ground. She had never seen the boy cry, not once. She saw the boy as her own son and ran towards him. She wrapped her arms around him and let him cry in her bosom. Normally if he would do something like that, she would have killed him, but this was a special case. She did hit the white haired sannin however when she saw that he was jealous. She was surprised when he pulled back and wiped away his tears with the sleeve of his jacket. "What about my mother?"

Jiraiya looked away when he started to speak. "Your mother died when she gave birth to you, I'm sorry." Naruto felt the tears well up again. "She was a great woman. She had your eyes. She was truly the most beautiful woman of her time. She was a strong ninja too. When you were just born she looked at you and gave you your name. She was fond of ramen, so that's why you were named after the fishcakes in the ramen. Even though she could only see you for a couple of minutes, she truly loved you, Naruto. Don't forget that."

Naruto tried to be strong. He didn't want to cry anymore. He wanted to be happy, because his parents had loved him. "So what are these kunai and scrolls for?" The frog summoner walked to the boy and grabbed one of the kunai. "See this kunai. It has a seal on it. You can use these kunai to perform a jutsu that your father developed: The hirashin no jutsu." Naruto got a smile on his face now. "In that scroll you can read how to learn and perform the jutsu. I can't show you how to do it, because even I couldn't master the jutsu. So far only the fourth has managed to do it. We want you to learn this jutsu, Naruto. It will make you much stronger and we need your power. Your father did great things in the great ninja war, because of this jutsu. If you master it, you will be another step closer to become hokage." Naruto's face lit up now and when he heard that he could become hokage with this jutsu, his mind was set.

"Okay, I'll master this jutsu as soon as possible. I am a future hokage, so it shouldn't be too hard, right?" The old woman picked up a piece of paper and gave it to him. "You don't have to go on missions for a while. Just focus on learning the jutsu. I want you to come to me when you learned it. I'm sure you can do it, Naruto. I didn't acknowledge that you will become hokage for nothing. Now if you will excuse me, I have a lot of work to do." Naruto nodded and turned around. "Oh, and Naruto. Don't tell anyone about this. The people will only panic and we don't want that. Also tell Sakura to train on her own for a while. I need to plan how to deal with all of this, so I can't have her here."

Naruto opened the door. "Sure, baachan." He exited the room and closed the door behind him. Tsunade immediately opened a drawer and grabbed a bottle of sake. 'I hope that I have made the right choice.'

Naruto walked down the stairs. He thought back at everything that was said to him. He began to feel a bit sad again. He finally knew who his father was and he was really happy for that. But he had wanted him to be alive. He felt even more lonely now than he had ever been. He became even sadder when he thinks about the war that might begin soon. Wars were never good. It would mean that he could lose some of the people important to him. He could lose his most important person. He could lose Sakura. He clenched his fist. "There's no way that I'm going to let her die. I will protect her. That's why I am going to master this jutsu quickly." He opened the box and took the scroll in his hand. He tried to make sense of it, but Naruto wasn't the smartest person. In the academy he had always been the one with the lowest grades, he had always been the dumb, stupid boy. 'No worries, I always learn with my body, so why should this time be different?' He didn't quite convince himself though. The sad look on his face never left him.

Sakura was getting impatient. She wanted to spend some more time with Naruto today, but she had been waiting for over an hour now. 'Where is that baka? Maybe he jumped out of the window and is he sitting on his couch already. I hope that's not the case, because I'll kill him.' She was about to walk away when she heard something behind her. She turned around and saw yellow spiky hair. She was about to scold him for making her wait, when she saw the sad expression on his face. She forgot all about her anger and walked to the boy. She didn't see Naruto often like this. She only saw his sad face when things were really bad. She put a hand on his shoulder and saw that the boy was surprised. "Sakura-chan."

Sakura tried to smile a bit, but found it hard, because he was looking so damn sad. "What's wrong, Naruto?" Naruto hit himself in his mind. 'Why do I have to be so sad? I can't tell her and I hate to lie to her. Damn it, I've got no choice.' He removed her hand from his shoulder. "It's nothing, Sakura-chan. Baachan just told me that I have to do a lot of training. We don't have to go on missions for some time either." Sakura looked in his face and saw that he tried to smile a bit. She didn't buy it though, but decided to play along. "Bah, I don't want to train. Shishou wears me out with her so called training."

"She also told me that she will not be training you for a while. You have to train on your own. She has important business to do." Sakura was shocked by this. Her teacher never let her train on her own. Something had to be up. 'I'll go ask her later. This might be good. We can train together, just like before he left.'

'Yeah, I want to see that fine ass of him. Ask him, ask him! Shannaro!' Sakura once again sweat dropped because of her inner self. She couldn't help but think that her inner self was a big pervert. She agreed with her though on the point to ask him to train together. "Naruto. Let's train together." She said it with a genuine smile on her face. She was surprised however when the boy turned around. "Sorry, Sakura-chan, I want to train alone." He jumped into the trees and he was out of her sight before she could say anything.

Sakura just stood there for more than a minute before it finally hit her. She had been rejected by Naruto. He would rather train alone than with her. She became very sad and started to walk towards her home. 'So it is true. He doesn't like me anymore. He doesn't care about me anymore. I can't blame him. All the times that I've scolded him and hit him. He must think that I am a heartless monster.' A small tear ran down her cheek. She didn't know that she would feel this bad after being rejected by the boy. Although it wasn't a true rejection, he just didn't want to train with her. "I'm just jumping to conclusions. He just wants to train alone, nothing is wrong with that, is it. It doesn't mean anything." She wiped away the tear and walked home with a forced smile on her face.

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Naruto had been training his new jutsu for a few weeks now. There were a lot of craters around him and the boy was panting. His clothes were wrecked and he had bruises and cuts all over his body. He had a confident smile on his face though. 'I'm finally getting it. I need to focus all of my chakra on the kunai and then move it all at once. It is very hard and it takes a lot of concentration and chakra, but I think that I can use it. My range is still very small though. How did my father managed to do this move all the time. I don't get it. I guess my dad wasn't a genius for nothing, eh.' He tried to gather some chakra, but the moment he made a seal, he fell backwards and landed with his back on the ground. He lost consciousness not long behind that.

Sakura was walking home from one of the training grounds. She hated to train on her own. She ended up doing some stupid taijutsu training, but she knew that it wasn't helping her at all. She now walked along the training grounds of team 10. She knew that Ino and Chouji were out on a mission with Asuma. She did see two people sitting down by a tree though. She camouflaged her chakra and moved a little closer. Her lips curled into a smile when she saw that it were Temari and Shikamaru. They were sitting very close next to another. Sakura's smile became even bigger when she saw that Shikamaru used his hands to cup the girl's cheeks. Temari didn't seem to object and their lips touched. Sakura decided to talk to them about this later and left them alone.

She hadn't seen her team mate at all lately. It looked like he was avoiding her for some reason. Whenever she started to talk to him, he told her that he had to train and he left. She didn't know what was wrong. He said everything was okay, but she had known the boy long enough to know that he was lying. She looked around and saw that she was on the training grounds of team 7. She trained at the training grounds of the hokage nowadays, so she hadn't been here for a while. She remembered all the good times she had spend here. Her head shot up when she saw something on the ground. She walked towards the orange object on the ground and saw that it was Naruto. Her eyes widened and she kneeled next to the boy. He was out cold. "Naruto! Hey, are you alright! Naruto!" She saw that he heavily injured and started her medical ninjutsu right away. She saw the cuts and bruises heal very fast. She had never seen injuries heal that fast. She was amazed to say the least. She stopped with her medical ninjutsu when she saw that he slowly opened his eyes. "Sa…Sakura-chan?"

"Naruto, you're okay. Thank god!" Naruto sat up and looked at his friend. He was surprised when he saw tears in her eyes. "What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" Sakura became angry and hit the boy on his head. "When I saw you lying here, I though that you were dead. I healed you and I saw that you were alright. Of course I started to cry. Why do you have to be so irresponsible? I don't know what I would do if you would die." Naruto was happy that she cared so much for him. She was really precious to him. He put his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. "I won't die until I become hokage."

Sakura let out a small smile. 'At least he is the same baka as always.' She looked around and saw the destruction around her. 'Did he do all of this. Must be some workout he has been doing these days.' She turned to the boy again and saw that he was avoiding her gaze again. "Naruto, what kind of training are you doing here?"

The boy still didn't look at her. He wanted to tell her so badly, but he knew that he couldn't. "Nothing big, just the regular routine." A vein appeared on her forehead now. He was lying to her again. She couldn't take it anymore. She needed to have answers now. "Don't give me that shit! Tell me what you are doing!" Naruto turned to face her and saw that she was really pissed. He had ever seen her like this before. "It's noth…" He was interrupted by her as she pushed him away.

"Don't lie to me! I know that you're hiding things from me! Why won't you tell me anything! You've been avoiding me ever since we came back! What's wrong?! What did I do wrong?!" Naruto was completely stunned by her words. He really wanted to tell her, he really did. But he didn't want to make her worried. He saw that she was crying now. "Please tell me, Naruto. You can trust me!"

Naruto didn't know what to do. He didn't want to see her cry. He couldn't see her beautiful eyes anymore because of the tears. He hadn't been able to see her much lately and now that he did see her, she was crying. He felt a pain in his chest. "You didn't do anything wrong." She looked up and saw the sad expression on his face. "And I am really sorry, but I can't tell you. I made a promise to not tell you."

Sakura didn't understand. What could be so important that he had to hide it from even her? "You can tell me everything, Naruto. We're best friends aren't we?" He was surprised when she grabbed one of his hands with both of hers. "I'll be there for you, just like you've been there for me. So just tell me. I want to know if I can do something to help you." He saw the genuine look in her face. 'I can at least tell her about the jutsu.' He gave her a small smile and decided to tell her. "Okay, I will tell you why I have been training alone and with this intensity." Her lips curled a little bit and he could see that she appreciated it. He was about to talk when he spotted a bird with a scroll on his back in the sky. He thought it was nothing important, but after second look his eyes widened. It was the messenger bird from the hidden sand village!

He quickly stood up. "Shit. Not already!" He realised that he said it out loud and mentally hit himself. He looked down to see a confused Sakura. He reached out his hand to help her up. She smiled and accepted his help. She stood next to the boy and saw that he had a troubled look on his face. 'First he tells me that he will tell me what he has been doing and then all of a sudden he jumps up.' She didn't understand. "What's wrong, Naruto. You were about to tell me. Don't say that you changed your mind."

Naruto glanced to his side and saw a worried expression on her face. He was finally ready to tell her and now this. "The hell with it. You have the right to know." He grabbed her hand and started to run. Sakura didn't understand it, but she let herself get dragged along. "We are going to the hokage and we will tell you everything. We have no choice. It seems that it has already started. Come on, we must hurry." Sakura didn't understand any of it. His words made no sense, but she decided to listen to him. She got the feeling something bad was going to happen soon.

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I decided to bring Gaara into the story too. I have decided on most of the couples now. Next chapter will be a chapter with a lot of fighting and such. I am not rushing the narusaku and the other pairings. I want them to build their relation slowly. If I wanted them to get together right away, then I would have written a one-shot. But don't worry, they will get together.