Chapter 37: The Anniversary

It had been a long year, just another one tagged onto a long list in which things changed drastically and they still came out on top. After twenty years they had finally ended what had started the day Orochimaru showed up at the Chunin Exams.They had lost a lot of people during that time, good people and found some who were less than admirable. But none of that mattered now.
It had been twenty years since Sasuke walked out of the village, and this time they were celebrating; for more than one reason. Sasuke sat at the table next to Rōtasu smiling up at Naruto. He was standing before the Hokage Faces beside Tsunade and the Village Elders. The whole village had assembled to see the new Hokage take office.
Sakura was beside Lady Tsunade smiling at her husband, Isamu and Tsubaki were standing in the crowd with their teams, Sasuke could see both of them from where he was sitting. As soon as this was over they would all join at the table and celebrate. Celebrate Naruto becoming the Hokage, celebrate Sasuke's return to the Village and his promotion to Chunin; Sakura's promotion to the head of the Medical Unit, celebrate for Tsubaki's team, who finally completed a mission without Kakashi threatening them the whole time about working together, Isamu and his teammates were celebrating because they were learning chakra types and chakra natures and Tsunade was celebrating her retirement.
It was a good day that stretched into the night with all their friends present. They laughed as they reminisced and made plans about the future. The children talked and showed what they had learned and ended up playing tag before it was dark. Sasuke sat at the table and smiled watching them.
It had taken twenty years for him to find make his way back home, and he was not going anywhere.
The moon would be full within a week, its pale light shone brightly on the small group heading home. Just ahead of him Isamu and Tsubaki walked in the center of a group made up of their teams, in the lead were Naruto and Sakura, his arm wrapped around her shoulders as they led the way home.
"I'm proud of you," Sakura smiled resting her head on his shoulder.
"You knew I would be the Hokage, Granny probably told you years ago."
"Not about that," she laughed, "You finally did it, you brought Sasuke home."
"He's been here for a year Sakura," Naruto looked up at the moon, glad that it was not full.
"In that whole year weren't you worried he would leave again?" she asked looking up to moon with him.
"No, he wanted to come back; I could tell when I found him in that village last year."
"How?"
"Do you really need to ask me questions like that?" he asked hugging her tightly, she laughed.
"I'm telling you it's not possible to have two charka natures without training to develop one," Katashi huffed as Daisuke for what felt like the millionth time.
"Then what about the first Hokage, and his wood thing," Daisuke pointed out hoping he had found a flaw in Katashi's fact.
"That was using the earth element and the water element," Hideaki commented from behind the pair.
"But he used wood, which meant he had two chakra types."
"Because he developed one," Katashi nearly shouted.
"What does it matter? I mean you guys are still a long ways off from dealing chakra types, aren't you?" Kiku asked from her position beside Isamu. Katashi and Daisuke turned back to look at Kiku.
She had a point, they were still learning chakra control, they were far behind Tsubaki's brother's team skill wise. It would be months before they started working on chakra types and chakra nature and that was only if they managed to continue working together like they had been recently.
"It matters because it gives them something to fight about," Tsubaki smiled. Both boys opened their mouths to deny her accusation, but were stopped by the skeptical look she cast them. They snapped their mouth shut and turned back to the front.
"I bet the second chakra type came so easy to him it was like he had both form the beginning," Daisuke restarted grinning.
"You can't have two without developing one!"
"That's what he said," Hideaki laughed watching Katashi's face fall.
"He did say that the second chakra type was developed," Isamu agreed.
Katashi screamed giving up, "See, just something to fight about," Tsubaki smiled.
"Well, what are we going to do now?" Kiku asked looking between her teammates. "We're working on chakra types and nature, what comes next?"
"Whatever Haru-Sensei wants for us, we'll probably enter the chunin exams next time around," Hideaki commented falling back to walk beside Isamu and Kiku.
"And we could always work with our parents to learn some techniques between missions," Isamu added shrugging.
"Well then I want to learn from your parents Isamu, they're way cooler than mine," Kiku looked up to where Naruto and Sakura were walking, "I mean, your dad is the Hokage."
"Well whatever happens I hope we stay as close as Dad did with Sasuke and all the shinobi he graduated with."
The whole group looked over at Tsubaki, who had her hands deep inside her pull over and was looking up at the sky.
"Are you going senile?" Isamu asked mocking the skeptical look Tsubaki had used on Katashi and Daisuke.
"Maybe," she shrugged looking around at the others. "I mean look at what happened to us this year."
"So, we're shinobi for one of the five great shinobi villages, we're expected to risk our lives."
"Coming from one who didn't have some crazy thing happen," Isamu grinned at Katashi.
"Hey, we had stuff. Not as epic as you and Tsubaki, but it was still stuff," Daisuke defended earning a rare smile of approval from Katashi.
"Don't worry about it, we've done a lot. But so have our parents."
"I think that's what keeps them close. It forms bonds between them, and that's something we'll always have common."
"That didn't make any sense Daisuke," Katashi said rolling his eyes.
"It didn't?" he asked looking around to the others. "It made sense to me," he shrugged it off.
"Whatever, I get what he's saying, and that's good enough for me," Kiku and Tsubaki shared a look behind Isamu.
They both knew even if they faced a dozen years like this one what Daisuke said was true. As long as they faced it together it would bring them closer together because it would form a bond like their parents had formed in the search for Sasuke, during the war and the countless other things they did growing up as shinobi.

Sasuke said goodbye to Rōtasu at her door and headed for his apartment. He was sure that soon he would be dispatched into the ranks of chunin for missions. He could possibly get some good missions since his best friend was the Hokage. But he could not help but think about all that had changed in the past year.
It was hard to believe that a year ago he was alone in the Mountain Country wondering if he would be able to return to the Village and resume a life. And now he was a chunin, with a beautiful girlfriend and a life that was as good as his life had been before Itachi killed the entire Uchiha Clan. He smiled walking through the village taking short cuts to reach his apartment quickly; a year ago the whole village had been a foreign place to him and the people seemed distant.
"Hello Sasuke," a woman walking the opposite way smiled and waved. Sasuke smiled back and nodded. Now he was one of them, he was once again a member of the Hidden Leaf Village.
He smiled entering his apartment and turning on the lights, it was small and a little over crowded, but it was home; his home. The Village was home; he could forget the past and move on because he knew someone would always be around to back him up. He changed out of his clothes and sat down on the couch to read.
He had just settled down when there was a knock at the door. He got up and walked over to the door. A young kunoichi was waiting with a pack and a message; a hard, determined look in her hazel eyes.
"Sorry Sasuke, but it's urgent," she held out the scroll and shrugged with a half smile.
"I'll be ready in a few minutes," his eyes scanned the scroll quickly.
"We're meeting at the gate," she ran off to go inform the rest of the team.
Sasuke closed the door and started back to his room.
It was good to be home.