Special thanks to my beta Ocean23, who is clearly an awesome person for dealing with me:D Time to thank my lovely reviewers! Go further down for the chapter!

ULaurx: I like your reviews, some of them make me laugh! I am glad you are enjoying the story so far. In my opinion, I shouldn't of had to defend my works because I put what it was about in the description but, I am glad you liked it nonetheless. I am super sorry it rained! It rained here too so, I couldn't go out. I am sure your Jeff the killer costume looked amazing though! Keep reviewing please! I love them!

CherryTree230: I will try to make a completely awesome KakaSaku centered chappy for you! You have been here from the very beginning and I am glad you stuck around!

Laurie: I am really glad you keep coming back and reading the story. I see your name, read the comment and automatically approve it. Thanks a whole lot for reading Stuck in the Past!

Kashi: I am glad you think so!

Guest: See chapter 10.

And thats it! Thank you all for reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing this story. I love you guys!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and if I did, Kakashi and Sakura would be together.


After they were sure that Naruto and Sai wouldn't hear them, Kakashi and Sakura burst out laughing. Really, Naruto could be so clueless.

At least they knew he would treat Sai right, and teach him how to understand the new emotions Sai was discovering day by day.

Walking home hand in hand, they smiled, not only to themselves, but each other as well. Sure, they were in the past with no visible way of getting home, but somehow it had pulled them together instead of pushing them apart. They could die tomorrow for all they knew, but right now they had each other, and for now that was enough. It was a good thing that Naruto and Sai were together now. And after all, who better to understand what their team was going through than the members of that very team?

Glad that their plan had worked, Kakashi and Sakura walked on, enjoying each other's company and the silence around them. Neither dared to say a word; they knew what the other was mulling over. What would happen in the future? Things were fine at the moment; no one knew that Kakashi and Sakura had once been teacher and student. Naruto and Sai would be fine because there was no age difference between them; Kakashi, on the other hand, was fourteen years older than Sakura, and even though Sakura was fine with it, Kakashi felt like an old geezer chasing after a younger woman.

It wasn't himself he was worried about, either; it was Sakura and her reputation. Sakura was a world-renowned medic ninja, had received proposals from almost every clan and rich nobleman, and had even surpassed Tsunade in a lot of ways. Who was he to take such a woman from the market? He looked at her and noticed her smiling up at him. Not a care in the world. All that mattered in her eyes was that he was right there beside her; the rest of the world would deal with her fists if they had a problem with it.

Looking back, he could remember how little he had respected her when she'd been in her Sasuke-fangirl stage. After Sasuke left, she has grown into a wonderful kunoichi that any parent or teacher would be proud of. She never talked of boys or girly things. He was grateful for that, at least. He regretted how he'd not taken her very seriously in the past, but he hadn't been able to stand being close to young women or even girls after Rin's death. He had also regretted underestimating Rin the way he had.

Looking down at the pink head leaning on his shoulder, he told himself, 'I should really stop underestimating the women in my life.'

XxX

The next morning, Naruto woke up only to see Sai looking down at him. He was about to scream bloody murder when he suddenly remembered last night's events. Smiling sheepishly, he looked around and noticed that he was in Sai's bed instead of his own.

"You were so tired last night that you followed me here and fell asleep on the bed.I couldn't just throw you out." Sai told him plainly, smiling sincerely for once.

'Hope he smiles like that more often,' Naruto told himself. 'It's at least better than his old creepy one.' Getting out of bed, it didn't take long for an absolutely wonderful scent to fill his nostrils.

"RAMEN!" He yelled, springing up and running out the bedroom door, only to come face to face with...a wall. Leave it to Naruto to run into a wall in his rush to get ramen. Sai couldn't help but chuckle, which earned him a death glare from the one currently peeling himself off of the wall.

Sakura and Kakashi, of course, just happened to come around the corner at that exact moment. "Hahaha! Naruto, you clutz!" she said, almost falling over with how hard she was laughing. Kakashi, on the other hand, looked from Naruto, to the wall, and then back to Naruto, not a sound coming from him as he turned to Sakura.

"Sakura, it isn't nice to laugh at your team mate's expense." He scolded, voice clearly in sensei-mode. She glared at him, her annoyance quickly becoming clear from the veins starting to show on her forehead. Of course, she punched him upside the head for his comment, and then quickly punched Naruto for laughing when he laughed at Kakashi's plight. It wasn't the usual hitting-Naruto-because-he's-an-idiot punch either; it was a simple how-dare-you-laugh-at-my-boyfriend-you-will-die-fo r-that sort of punch. It was hard to tell the difference, though, considering just how much Sakura was doing that these days.

After getting up and going to get some ice for his sore cheek, it was hardly surprising that Naruto had completely forgotten about the ramen.

XxX

Minato was furious.

He had been waiting at the training grounds all day, waiting for Naruto. And the kid still hadn't shown up yet. Soon, he'd had enough of waiting; he knew where Naruto was staying, he knew how to get there, and he was going to go there and find out just what was holding up his new student.

He'd barely taken a step when a kunai whizzed out of nowhere...and flew right over his shoulder. He heard the thunk of the kunai hitting the tree behind him, and was just a little too slow in turning towards the sound to see the end of the rope the kunai had cut disappear into the tree top. Suddenly, he was hanging upside down, dangling from the most simple trap in the book, and the very same type of trap as what Kakashi had once used on Naruto.

'What the hell?' Minato laughed to himself. Such a stupid trick! So Naruto really think he could catch the Yellow Flash with a mere rope trap? Grabbing a kunai and cutting himself down, Minato was silemtly laughing at Naruto's overconfidence when...he found himself upside-down once more, courtesy of the the second rope trap Naruto had hidden underneath the first.

Throwing one of his special kunai to the ground, Minato was able to use his signature teleportation jutsu to get out of this second trap and back onto the ground. He quickly realized just how prepared Naruto had been, however, when his body ended up at the bottom of a deep hole the boy had somehow managed to dig without anyone noticing. 'He sure is persistant.' Minato thought. "Naruto the joke is over. Let me up now." Minato yelled.

He heard laughter and looked up to see Naruto grinning like a manaic. "Teach me an awesome jutsu Minato-Sensei and I will let you out." Naruto told him honestly.

"Okay, okay. I will teach you a justsu I have been working on; just let me out." Minato said back in annoyance.

"Tell me the jutsu's name first," Naruto asked him.

"Rasengan. Please let me out now." Minato pleaded. Naruto smiled to himself.

'Score!' Naruto thought before helping his father out. 'Now I can use it in the Chunin exams!'

With Minato out of the hole, he quickly taught Naruto Rasengan. Completely surprised that the boy learned it so quickly, he told him that training was over.

He really needed to get home before Kushina killed him.