One Summer's Day

Chapter Eleven

Enjoy

X-_X-_X

"Tch," Naruto swatted a hand through the air lazily, leaning forward to rest his arms on the rail to the bridge. "None of those Sound-nin will stand a chance, believe it."

"Gonna' take them all out on your own are you?" His father's huskier voice replied, the man chuckling some as he moved up to take position next to Naruto.

They were on the small bridge that Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke had spent hours of their childhood waiting for Kakashi on. It had a different purpose that night though; the warm summer air would suffice as a nice quiet setting for them to watch the fireworks of the festival.

Naruto jutted his chin out, eyeing Minato with one wide cerulean eye. "I'm going to be Hokage someday," he said "I can take them out all on my own."

Minato rubbed his chin as he laughed at Naruto's over confident tone. He knew that his son realized that he couldn't actually take out all of sound on his own, but his indifference to that fact warmed Minato's chest more than the burn for the upcoming battle.

"Konoha's the strongest ninja nation," assured Naruto, watching his whispered reflection in the water below "We've got more talent that they could dream of."

"I don't disagree," Minato smirked "We're definitely the most stubborn nation out there. Nations have been trying to destroy and infiltrate us for years, and not a single one had succeeded."

Naruto rolled his head sideways and looked at the old man for a minute, making a guttural noise of surprise when he nearly fell of the ledge he was clinging to. He'd never much paid attention to the lessons Iruka-sensei had rambled on about their history back at the academy, but he figured that was something his dad had needed to know as Hokage.

"Hmm," Naruto hummed to himself. It was a marvel that he got to have a father, but when he took a quick break from training, or when he found himself meandering back to the home that he and his father now shared, he realized that his mind focused on one aspect of that marvel. His father had been a Hokage.

His father had been one of the strongest ninjas in history, had been the wielder of a thousand jutsus or more, and was the one man that every member of the fire nation revered.

It was startling to Naruto's normally highly overactive mind. It made him pause made him want to sit and study the situation like Shikamaru might. One thing did always make itself known to Naruto when he thought about it though.

This made him even more determined to be Hokage someday.

Nobody could dispute his awesome ninja skills once they all knew that the Yondaime was his father. Once they knew that their hero was the outcasts father they'd all feel different about him. Every eye would look at him different, every chin would set at a different angle, and every mouth set in a different emotion. It would be different.

Naruto didn't really think he cared about that though. He didn't need the villagers to know his heritage to treat him different. One day he'd show them his power, and then they'd understand that he loved the village just as much as they did, and that he was just as much a part of it as them.

This battle would be a step in that direction. All that Kakashi-sensei and ero-sennin had ever taught him would be put to the test. He knew he was ready for it.

He'd make his heritage proud too, now that he knew he had one. He'd show the blood of his father, and his mother too he supposed.

Naruto pursed his lips. "What was Kushina like?" he asked in a quiet voice.

Minato had been tracing the grain of the railing's wood, waiting in silence for the firework show to start. He and Naruto had wandered out of the busy festival place, Minato finally able to take off the hood that he had been hiding himself behind. He tried to think very hard at Naruto's question.

"You can call her Okaa-san," was the first thing that he could think to say.

"It almost doesn't seem right," Naruto murmured back. He didn't feel comfortable admitting it either.

"You may not have known her, but she was still your mother, still the woman that loved you more that the world itself," Minato caught a clot of emotion catching itself in his throat as he spoke, and closed his eyes briefly.

The kid still had trouble calling him Otousan, most times opting for some sort of rude 'old man' phrase or the like. He figured they'd get there eventually, as long as they lived through the battle that the whole village was waiting with baited breath for.

Minato opened his eyes, smiling at the memory of the woman he had devoted himself to. "What do you want to know, Naruto?"

Naruto raised a hand to trace the symbol of the Leaf on his hitae-ate, and tugged on one of the long ends of the band before responding.

"Did she like raman?"

Minato stuttered a laugh, surprised. He swung his head to look at Naruto, his eyes glowing. Another short bark of laughter cut the quiet air.

"No," Minato said "She thought it was the foulest idea ever, a completely unhealthy meal that benefitted only the chef."

Naruto grinned but didn't say anything. He dropped his hands back to his side.

"She'd still go with me though," Minato continued, his mind almost sank into memories of the past, but he pulled himself out of that trap before it could, instead reading his memories like the stories they now were. "When there was an opportunity for her to be out and about in the village, she's sit at Ichiraku's with me, order a bowl of pork raman, and then pretend it was the foulest thing on Earth."

"Pork raman?" Naruto questioned "Awesome."

Minato nodded "She'd finish the bowl every time too, even drink down the broth."

Naruto laughed jovially, letting himself imagine the woman that sat next to father, protesting the noodles even as she ate them.

"What was her favorite color?"

"She didn't have one," Minato replied, he winced a little when he realized how much he hated using the past tense. "She hated brown though."

"Brown?" Naruto deadpanned "What kind of grudge is that?"

Minato shook his head some, grinning wryly "Said it was the most uninteresting color there could be."

Naruto hummed and sat his head back in his hands, his wide eyes reflecting the stars happily. He wanted to know the little things about this woman, the things that only mattered to people that were close to her. But, he figured he's have a lifetime to learn about them from his father.

Minato almost felt cheated when he thought about Kushina. Abandoning the most obvious reasons for this, losing her, losing time, and losing their son for years, there were the other things, the ones that burned in his gut when he thought about them. Not being able to be with her when she passed, that was perhaps the worst.

When he talked to the people that realized who he was and what had happened he knew they didn't really comprehend what he was experiencing, Yondaime supposed he really didn't care if they did.

He knew they just didn't understand. For him, it was like Kushina had just passed. He hadn't had years to get over the village's tragedy, when he woke he knew that time had passed, just like he had told the Hokage, but it wasn't as if he had lived that time. When he 'woke' in the present it was still as if Kushina had passed away only yesterday.

If he lived through the battle he would mourn her the way she deserved, with all the respect and dignity that her life demanded.

His son was a lot like Kushina, even though he knew everyone saw the similarities between he and his son more. Her drive was within him. Minato had always liked pushing the limits, seeing what he could do and how long he could do it. However, Naruto had Kushina's drive to make his goals succeed.

Like what he had told him after they unpacked a few boxes at their apartment.

"I always said I would become better than the Yondaime," Naruto had told him. He had acted like he expected Minato to scold him for this, but it only made Minato proud.

Naruto had told him about his want to be better than he, Minato, had ever been, because he saw Minato as the highest level of skill and power that the village had ever had. He'd told him about how he'd pledged that even as a kid, hated by the rest of the village.

"Naruto," he murmured, digging inside the summer robe he had decided to wear to the festival.

"Hm?" His son's care free smile directed his way, and widened with confusion as he watched Minato's actions. "What're you doing?"

"I have a present for you."

"Ah!" Naruto leapt to his feet immediately "A super fantastic secret family scroll that you're passing down to me, one that contains all sorts of cool and powerful jutsu?!"

Minato couldn't stop himself from grinning. Naruto had far too much energy and imagery in him. Minato supposed, as one half of Naruto's genetics, that he was partly responsible, and he smirked at Kushina being responsible for that as well.

He flicked his hand in Naruto's direction, sending a medium sized object through the air.

Naruto caught it…and then deadpanned.

"A book?" he said "Seriously, old man?"

Minato felt his limitless patience test itself, but just grinned back at his brat.

"You'll find a lot of great things in that book, Naruto."

"Tales of a Gutsy Ninja, huh?" Naruto said, weighing the book with his hand. "Least it's about Ninja."

Minato laughed, imagining the look on his face if he ever did actually read it.

Naruto huffed and tucked it into his own brightly colored festival robe. It wasn't important to him now, but Minato felt a swell of mischievous anticipation for when Naruto finally realized how important it was.

Minato walked over to Naruto's side, laying one hand on the boy's shoulder, and the other on the bridge rail.

"Finally!" Naruto exclaimed as the sky began to light up in brilliant displays of light.

The fireworks had finally started.

Minato had never felt more blessed. His ears rang with echoes of Kushina's laughter, and he smiled as color flashed across the sky.

"You know…your mother wanted you to stay away from girls. She said so."

"Ehh? I dunno', she sounds crazy!"

X-_X-_X

Shikaku resisted the urge to groan in exasperation, deciding instead to upturn the sake cup he was holding into his mouth. He followed the drink with a glare that would have made most men cower.

Well, most men weren't his wife.

"Don't give me that look, Nara!" She growled out at him. She planted her hands firmly on her hips. Shikaku supposed his wife didn't mind dragging him away from a much needed drink and into the busy crowded street of the festival. Seemed to be her specialty, really.

"You're supposed to be spending this time with your family!"

Shikaku scratched the back of his head, avoiding locking eyes with the incensed woman. He spotted the easily shadowed, slouched form of his son standing to the side and behind his wife.

Lazy grin affixed firmly to his face.

"Tsk, traitor," he muttered. The grin widened on Shikamaru's face, though Shikaku doubted he heard his statement with the crowd that swelled up around them.

"I have important work to do, woman," Shikaku waved a hand through the air, sending his sake cup to the ground, a splitting crack widening itself through the ceramic.

"Oh please!" Yoshino seethed. "First you had to look like a dirty, grungy, mongrel and refuse to where something decent!"

Shikaku lazily eyed his normal ninja garb; he didn't think it was dirty or grungy. After all, it's not like he forgot to clean off any blood or guts. He'd done that once, the resultant mess took hours to work out.

"And," Yoshino didn't seem to have lost any steam "Now you abandon your wife and son and sit in a sweaty pit of men and destroy your liver?"

Shikaku was actually quite certain that Shikamaru retreating in to the crowd behind Yoshino was actually evidence of his son abandoning him.

"Now, now!" He said heartily, sidestepping Yoshino and grabbing Shikamaru's arm. "Of course not, darling," he said in a loud voice, smiling nervously at his still fuming wife. She eyed him suspiciously.

"Boy," he hissed in an undertone to Shikamaru "You help me get out of this and when your mother goes on her retreat at the end of the month, I'll make sure you don't have a single thing to do for the entire week."

Shikamaru sized him up briefly, but then nodded once.

"Actually," Shikamaru said, shrugging at Yoshino. "I wanted to go to the charm stall with you; Tou-san said he'd let us go by ourselves."

Yoshino clearly didn't believe a word, but she did jump at the opportunity to get something she had been wanting for a while.

"You're going to go with me to the charm booth?" she clarified, advancing on her son.

He nodded, once, after a long moment of thinking. The look he threw his father clearly said that he owed him.

"Yosh!" Yoshino exclaimed, her voice going shrill with girlish delight "Finally I can get you that motivation charm. Oh thank Kami I won't have a lazy, good for nothing son anymore!"

Shikaku smirked when his son was brusquely wheeled off with his mother.

"Now," he said, turning and sizing up the seedy bar behind him "Back to important matters."

Choza noticed both the instant the fireworks began, and the instant his longtime friend re-entered the bar. Shikaku shrugged lazily at him, slouching his way over to the table, grabbing the sake jug from Choza's hands and pouring himself a glass.

"Maa," he said, his eyes darted around the bar quickly before returning to Choza "Women."

Choza half smiled at his friend's behavior.

"Where's Inoichi?" Shikaku murmured over the rim of his cup.

Choza waited a moment before responded, it seemed as if the larger man was staring intently at his friend, but his eyes were very clearly studying something over Shikaku's shoulder.

"Well?" demanded Shikaku.

"Entertaining," Chouza replied.

"Doko?" asked Shikaku. At Chouza's soft nod to the right Shikaku spun in his seat, putting forth an image of a very drunk man. He spotted the blonde he was looking for, and then slurred his voice as he raised it.

"Oi!" he shouted drunkenly "Inoichi!"

The Interrogation officer, and Yamanaka clan head, turned leisurely, waving a cup in their direction, the look in his eye just a bit too serious however. He was seated with four other men, two of whom were well on their way into a drunken stupor, the other man didn't have a drink in front of him, nor did the woman clinging to his side.

"Ne, come celebrate the festival with me and my new friends!" invited Inoichi. Shikaku scoffed and turned back to Chouza.

"Target?" he muttured.

"Hai," Choza returned, tracing a path of condensation on the table with his finger "The man without a drink is a chunin, works primarily back up on information gathering missions. Tsubarame Takaru."

"Eh?" grunted Shikaku "I know that name."

Choza nodded. "Inoichi wants us to join him at their table."

"Wait a second," Shikaku drawled "You got to this guy in the span of time that it took me to fight off my she-devil of a wife?"

Choza grinned, taking the opportunity. "Well, it is amazing what happens to getting work done when you aren't around, old friend."

"Tch!" Shikaku's eyes widened at the unexpected tease. "Whatever."

"Shall we join Inoichi now," Chouza suggested, standing and raising his large girth to his full height. "And find out was this Takaru is hiding?"

"Yeah," Shikaku said with a sigh "As long as there's sake involved."

X-_X-_X

"Ne, Sakura," Choji's booming voice said "That furisode is pretty."

Sakura smiled back at Choji, whose cheeks were far rosier than they should have been. Alcohol had been primarily banned, but many of the bars along the town proper were still flowing with sake, and the villagers had taken it upon themselves to provide their own stock as well.

Sakura supposed that as long as there was no attack, there were no reason to stem the festivities. The village anticipated an imminent attack, but if there were anyone within half a day's travel of the village, then there would certainly be no frivolity.

"Thank you, Choji," Sakura said, indulgently. Ino hid a snort of laughter behind her hand, before tugging on Choji's much larger arm.

"Come on!" she insisted "Let's go see the fire charmers before the fireworks end and it gets flooded."

Choji agreed, naturally, and Sakura smiled softly to herself as she watched the pair lumber through the massive Konoha crowd. Sakura shook her head and then turned, running straight into Naruto.

She smacked the back of his head, growling "Watch where you're going, Naruto!"

Naruto deadpanned. "Was Choji hitting on you?"

"Don't be ridiculous," she scoffed. "Anyway, what're you doing?"

"Well," he scratched the back of his head "I came to find you."

"For what?" she asked curiously, not looking around when a villager jostled her shoulder as he passed. "Weren't you spending time with Yondaime-sama?"

"Had something to ask you," he responded simply, shrugging his shoulders.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Sakura-chan, you think Sasuke might be here if Orochimaru does attack?"

Sakura's heart skipped a beat. She had gone over the scenario a hundred times in her head, of course she had considered the possibility.

"Yes," she said firmly. "I think he will be."

Naruto sighed "Guess we'll have another chance to get him back, ne?"

Sakura studied Naruto quickly; his statement wasn't followed with the usual air of confidence or conviction.

"Don't worry, Naruto," she said, borrowing his usual bright smile as she did so "Like you said, it's another chance to get him back. We'll do our best."

Naruto's face shifted expression, and while it wasn't his usual lightheartedness, some of his usual conviction was seeping back into his eyes.

Naruto closed his eyes briefly, emotion shifting behind them. "Believe it," he murmured, a hand clenched at his side.

X-_X-_X

"Konohagakure has obvious flaws," Takaru scoffed, taking his arm off the woman's shoulders and leaning forward. His air was that of superiority, and very subtly Choza moved in between Takaru and the woman, effectively severing her from view.

"Maa, such a cynical man," Shikaku said. "Perhaps you think the Godaime is simple taking her time in stabilizing the village?"

The shadow-nin was giving the man an easy out in the conversation, making a statement so that the man could turn his somewhat treasonous statement into something else. However, Shikaku was hoping that the man would take the lackadaisical atmosphere for granted, and delve deeper into his feelings towards the village.

While Shikaku was baiting the man they were suspicious of, on the other side of Choza Inoichi was leaning close into the woman, and very slowly he laid his hand on the back of her neck.

"What is your relation to Takaru-san?" he asked very genially, "I've not seen you in the village before."

While it seemed like polite conversation, in fact the chakra that he was funneling through his jutsu and into the back of her neck was turning the polite conversation into a very blatant verbal truth serum.

"I serve Takaru-sama, I am his loyal servant," she said quietly and demurely. She was rigid straight in her chair, her eyes locked very firmly into Inoichi's.

"Why do you call him Takaru-sama, why do you serve him?" Inoichi probed further.

"Because he's going to become a great lord of the nation."

Inoichi stilled, his fingers pressing further into the woman's apex.

"Why is he going to become a great lord?"

"Because," a smile broke through the tempering effects of the jutsu "He's going to be rewarded for all his hard work, he's going to be rewarded by Lord Oro—."

Choza was unfortunately on the receiving end of a robust friendly slap from one of the two returning friends of Takaru. Their drunken behavior only exacerbated by their time spent by the barkeep. Choza knocked into the woman, bumping Inoichi's arm, and severing the connection between the two.

"Damn," Inoichi said quietly, off put by not being able to gather anymore intelligence.

Choza sent an apologetic look over his shoulder, and Inoichi slowly waved it away. The woman looked around in mild confusion, Inoichi able to tell that she was wondering where the last few minutes of her life had gone, not remembering what had happened.

"Well," Shikaku was saying as Inoichi turned his attention back to the table, the overly noisy atmosphere of the bar returning to him. "That is certainly an interesting theory."

Takaru only grinned, nodding.

Before anyone else could move, or say anything else, loud popping noises could be heard from outside the bar. For a few moments there was silence, and then many of the patrons erupted in loud cheers.

"Well," Takaru said standing, reaching around Choza to nudge his companion, urging her to stand. "We're supposed to meet some friends when the fireworks finished."

Choza smiled, standing to wish them good luck.

Shikaku looked to the side of him where the other two companions of Takaru were joking with each other, paying no attention to their standing friend. "What about your friends here?"

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be fine on their own," Takaru scoffed at their drunken state. The woman was still looking as if she were upset or confused by what was going on, but then again memory lapses, no matter how small, were always troubling.

"Besides," Takaru's voice turned unnaturally cold. "They're not needed anymore."

No one member of the trio said another word as the two left the bar; simply watching them weave their way through bar patrons and leave. They did turn to huddle into a group; their voices intoning lower than the two men left behind would be able to catch.

"What'd I miss about Takaru?" Inoichi asked quickly.

"Nothin'," Shikaku responded "He simply blathered on about how Konohagakure isn't representing the true beliefs of the ninja world anymore."

"Rather treasonous thoughts to be speaking in the middle of the bar," Choza suggested quickly.

Shikaku nodded once. "It leads me to believe he's confident, and if he's confident then that means that he has something to be confident about."

"And if he has something to be confident about?" asked Inoichi, his eyes narrowing.

"Then that leads me to believe that he's a spy, that he knows more than he's letting on, and that if there is an attack it's going to be soon."

"But there's been no activity within the forest," Choza began, rushed and nervous. Inoichi raised a hand to stop him.

"What's worse," he said, leveling his glance between the two "Is that by what his companion was about to say, and what she did say, I believe he's acting as an agent of Orochimaru."

The other two processed the words.

"Damn it," Shikaku swore.

"We must report to Lady Hokage," Choza said, the other two agreeing "She must know an attack is even more immanent than we feared."

All three men moved to stand, but before they could choking noises made themselves known from the other end of the table. They turned their attention into the smoky haze of the bar, to the men at the other end of the table.

Takaru's two companions were choking on what appeared to be nothing.

They began gasping for air, one of the two falling into a seizure on the ground. Concerned patrons began to surround the table, and Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza watched the spectacle in stunned silence as nothing could apparently be done to help then men.

"Are they friends of yours?" one woman asked.

Shikaku replied quickly "No."

"I don't understand," said a man, holding onto the head of the second choking man "There's nothing blocking their breathing."

Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza backed away from the crowd some, exchanging dark looks and watching as two previously healthy men died before their eyes.

"What could it be?" Choza began to ask.

"There!" Shikaku exclaimed all of a sudden, his ninja eyes tracking two fast moving objects. Choza and Inoichi whirled, watching as two unnamable objects effortlessly weaved their way through the crowded throng of people.

"We must stop them," Inoichi said. His long grey interrogation coat swirled around him as he sped into action.

They moved to the bar door and with a quick motion of Shikaku's hands they broke out into the street, trailing Shikaku's shadow to the ally beside the bar.

"What is that?" Choza asked. His eyes were adjusting to the dim lighting, and they weren't liking what they could find.

Half way up the building next to the bar was a white ferret, frozen with Shikaku's Shadow Possession. A second ferret was disappearing over the rooftop.

Shikaku approached it quickly. "A ferret summoning," he pronounced, and then he made quick work of the garments it was wearing "From Sound!"

"Ferrets are poison carrying summons," Choza stepped up beside his longtime friend, watching as the beast attempting to writhe and hiss at them. "That must be what happened to the men in the bar."

"Takaru needed to get rid of loose ends," Inoichi surmised. "He said they were no longer necessary."

"And the summons aren't Takaru's," Shikaku said, motioning with his chin to the symbol of the sound on their back "They'd have the symbol of Konoha still."

"There's already a network of spies in Konoha, serving Sound," Choza continued the train of thought, aghast.

"The network has to be Konoha-nin," Inoichi continued, sending the theory back around their circle "There'd be no other way."

"That settles it," Shikaku said, almost regretfully "Our mission is complete, we've been betrayed by men of our own, and we're in more danger than we thought. We need to report to Godaime-sama, now."

He released his jutsu. Inoichi spoke as he did. "Shouldn't we follow the summoning?"

"Choza, follow it…" Shikaku trailed of as the ferret poofed itself out of existence, ending its summoning. "Follow the one that got away, if you can. See where the network leads you. Inoichi and I will report in."

"Hai!"

All three took off at once, Choza up and over the rooftops faster than his gait should have allowed the other two off in the direction of Hokage tower. The fireworks were reaching their peak in the skies above them.

"On second thought," Shikaku said to Inoichi as they raced through the village "Alert Ibiki, and get a squad of ANBU to coordinate with Choza, I'll let the Hokage know."

"Is that the best choice?"

"We have too," Shikaku assured "I have a bad feeling about this."

Inoichi didn't say another word, forming hand seals and disappearing to cover the necessary distance. Shikaku would report to the Hokage alone.

The scar tissue on Shikaku's face tightened, shining morbidly in the light of the last few fireworks. Something very bad was on the brink of occurring.

Shikamaru watched the next moment, from streets below, as he sensed, then looked up to witness his father's shadow disappear over the roof tops. He took a moment to process, and then started a sprint though the crowded markets, ignoring his mother's shouts for his return, he only thought of finding Naruto.

X-_X-_X

"B-section?" the voice was a quick whisper, firm in its intent. The owner of the voice was Hyuuga Hanako, and he was the current squad captain in charge of watching the perimeter walls. He was a cautious man, not overly known, and the Hyuuga family considered him a main branch shinobi without much more potential left to him.

He was dedicated to his nation though, and his dedication was feeding him a worrisome thought just then.

Hanako thought something was wrong.

"Clear, taichou," was the response from B-section.

"C-section?" he continued down the line of sectors, all the responses the same. 'Clear,' was what each of his squad fukutaichou reported. It left him unsettled.

He peered out from atop one of their walls, his Byakugan gaze seeing more than just the deceptively calm night. He peered leagues out into the forest, seeing nothing more living than their sentries at their check points.

He drew back into himself, settling his gaze closer to home. "Are you alright, taichou?" asked Hyuuga Hana from behind him. He turned slightly, intent to reassure her, but then the unimaginable happened.

"No!" he exclaimed, his full attention back on the forest. Similar exclamations and reports were being radioed to him the next moment, all of his squads seeing exactly what he saw.

"Hana!" his second in command had straightened a moment before, she too saw what he did. "Send an alert to the office of Hokage…"

The second before his eyes witnessed their sentries, five hundred meters out, die instantaneously. One of the peculiarities that became immediately known was that their sentries at seven hundred and fifty yards were undisturbed, still patrolling their areas.

A huge mass began to make its way at unimaginable speeds, towards the village. An army was appearing right before Hanako's eyes. He checked to make sure that the village's barrier was still in place, and then drew a kunai.

"…we're under attack!"

X-_X-_X

Naruto and Sakura watched the last firework end side by side.

Naruto was discontent though, his thoughts still tumultuous and as unnerving as they had been when he had first met up with Sakura to finish watching the fireworks.

"What's wrong, Naruto?" Sakura asked, concerned. She noticed his tense shoulders, and his clenched teeth.

"Nothing," Naruto replied, turning so that he was face to face with her.

Sakura raised a disbelieving eyebrow but didn't press the matter further.

"Ne….Sakura?" Naruto leaned further down, Sakura obligingly leaning forward so that she could hear him.

"What?"

Naruto didn't respond with words, instead he reached down and gently connected their mouths as he had watched others do on occasion.

Sakura froze, not able to believe or understand what Naruto was doing. She stared at Naruto, he had only pressed their lips together for a moment, and was already leaning away from her.

Naruto didn't look her in the eye; instead he glanced down "Gomen nasai, Sakura-chan."

"Naruto," Sakura put a hand on his arm and then proceeded as gently as she could "You know I don't consider us anything more than friends…"

However, shinobi did not have the luxury of extended personal interaction, because the next second the village around them erupted into chaos.

X-_X-_X

Thanks for reading! Sorry that this update took so long, there are several reasons for it. In apology I did make this chapter several pages longer than normal, so I hope that helps make up for it.

One of the reasons is I was finishing Naruto Shippuden, watching hours of episodes. I'm all caught up now, and I am positively certain there is no way I can make this fic more canon, lol. Also, for some reason college has been preoccupying me. Which is ironic because I began updating more regularly last year because college gave me so much free time.

At any rate, drop a review if you care to, I always really enjoy learning what the mood of the readers are towards each chapter, and where the story is going.

AnimeSiren