Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

36. Homecoming

Two figures walked toward the large gate that was the entrance to Konohagakure (Village Hidden in the Leaves). One of them, however, was carrying a sleeping blonde.

Sakura was strolling along heading for the hospital to start her day, she came to the gate and notice that Kakashi along with a kid walking in but soon she saw Kakashi carrying Naruto and quickly rushed over.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she said and he turned his attention to his other former student, "Is Naruto okay? What happened to him? Is he hurt badly?"

"Whoa, hold up there Sakura, let me answer." Kakashi replied. "Naruto's fine, he was just exhausted after a little fight he had."

"Fight?" she asked seemingly confused.

Kakashi sighed, "He'll probably tell you later, but right now I got to get him to Hokage-sama, he's kind of in trouble."

Sakura sighed, "That baka, always getting himself into trouble even now."

Kakashi couldn't help but laugh at that statement but quickly bid farewell and headed for the Hokage tower. Hiroshi was still following.

"Hiroshi, you can go home now."

Hiroshi nodded and began walking a different direction.

Tsunade continued to file through piles and piles of paper work impatiently waiting for Kakashi and Naruto. It was morning and they still hadn't returned. Shizune noticed her unease but couldn't think of anything to say to at least calm the woman down. Tsunade continued on while thoughts of Naruto becoming a potential missing-nin plagued her mind. Surely she was overeating? Naruto certainly wouldn't ever dream of betraying the village, right? And soon her worries would be put to rest as Kakashi walked through the door with Naruto in tow. A big wave of relief came over her but to be replaced by anger because of the blonde's stupidity.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi began, "I managed to find Naruto. Unfortunately he was engaging battle with the leader of the Tatsumaki."

Tsunade sighed, she knew it. Naruto ended up in bigger trouble than what he started.

"Hey baka, wake up!" she yelled hitting Naruto upside the head.

Naruto quickly woke up and began rubbing his head because of the pain.

"Naruto," a stern female voice said breaking Naruto's concentration on the pain at hand.

He looked up and saw Tsuande standing over him with a displeased look on her face. Naruto gulped, he knew what he was in for, but in the end it was worth it seeing how Naruto found out who is father was.

"You better have a good explanation why you went ahead and disobeyed my orders not to go after Totosai."

Naruto rose to her feet, "I do, because apparently this village likes to keep secrets from me."

Tsunade actually flinched at the venom Naruto had in those words, 'Does that mean he…?'

"Apparently my father was the Yondaime (Fourth) Hokage and not one person in this damned village felt the need to tell me. I had to freakin' find out from a missing-nin!"

'So he did find out.'

Tsunade looked sternly at Naruto, "Naruto, it's not our fault. Sarutobi-sensei made the rule not to tell…"

"He's dead, you could have told me then!" interrupted Naruto.

Tsunade sighed, "You're right, we should have told you but that doesn't mean this can't go unpunished."

"What?!" yelled Naruto.

"You did disobey an order of mine so I have to punish you for it." Tsunade said.

Naruto sighed, he couldn't believe this. First he was lied to all his life and now he was being punished because he engaged Konoha's latest threat.

"I'm suspending you from active duty for six months."

"What?!" yelled Naruto again, "Six months? Are you crazy?"

"No, you disobeyed and order. If the council had found out, they'd surely label you as a missing-nin." Tsunade replied.

"Kakashi, you'll be taking over Naruto's team while he's on vacation."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"You're dismissed."

Kakashi and Naruto walked out of the Hokage's office. Kakashi was about to speak and Naruto knew so he beat him to the punch.

"I don't want to hear it right now." Naruto said and walked off. All Kakashi could do was sigh and shake his head.

Hiroshi, Shiro and Himawari were waiting at Team Eleven's usual training area they'd meet at. All three wondered what their sensei wanted today as they knew they had a couple of days off. Soon enough Naruto along with Kakashi appeared before them.

"Hello, Naruto-sensei, what is it you wanted to talk to us about?" asked Himawari.

"I'm going on a six month vacation," Naruto half lied, "So taking over while I'm not here will be Kakashi-sensei here."

"Yo," he said holding his hand up.

"Hello Kakashi-sensei," Shiro and Himawari said.

"With that said, I'll leave you with him to get aquainted."

After that was said Naruto disappeared and retired to his apartment while he layed on his bed and stared at the ceiling and sighed.

'Six months of no missions or teaching my students anything. I hope Kakashi-sensei isn't to hard on them.'

Naruto stared at the ceiling and let out a bored sigh. Six months of no missions, no training his team, nothing, but the one thing that was on his mind was Totosai's voice echoing 'he was your father' over and over.

'I still can't believe they withhold information about my parents like that.'

Something told him inside to be angry but yet at everyone, yet he wasn't. He still loved the village very much.

'Still, they should have at least told me.'

After a few hours of staring at the ceiling and thoughts racing through his head he drifted off into sleep. He awoke to knocking on the door. At first he thought his mind was playing tricks on him so he turned over and tried to go back to sleep until the knocking came again. He groaned and forced himself to get up and slowly walked to the door.

'The person at the door better have a reason for waking me up,' Naruto thought as he sighed.

He reached the door and looked out the peephole only to see a blur of pink. After seeing pink he quickly opened to door to find Sakura on the other side. It was a bit of surprise to him

"S-Sakura-chan, what are you doing here?" he asked getting kind of nervous.

"I came by to see how you were doing," she replied.

"Just a little tired, that's all."

Uncomfortable silence set upon the two as neither didn't know what to say. Naruto was contemplating whether or not to ask her to get some ramen with him or not. He made up his mind but Sakura beat him to the punch.

"So, are you up for ramen? You can talk to me about the mission you, Kakashi-sensei and student went on."

Naruto sighed as she mentioned it. Truth was those two were sent to retrieve him before he got killed which would have been certain have not Kakashi shown up and scared Shinsui off.

"Uh, sure," he said. He was about to leave when he realized he looked like he just got out of bed, which was true to begin with. "Hold on, let me get ready real quick."

Sakura nodded. Naruto let her in and he disappeared into the bathroom to fix himself up. After a few mintues he came back in his usual attire. He didn't fix his hair all that much.

"Alright, I'm ready, let's go!" he said with a sheepish smile.

The two walked toward Ichiraku's in silence, but it was a comfortable silence. They were just enjoying the quiet evening and cool air. Soon enough they reached Ichiraku's and entered it and sat down.

"Ah, there's my favorite customer," the old man behind the counter said.

"Hey old man, one miso ramen please!"

"And for you miss?" asked the old man.

"Same." Sakura replied.

"Alright, two miso ramen coming up," the old man said as he disappeared into the kitchen.

Naruto's smile never left his face as he awaited his hot fresh ramen. Sakura decided to ask him about his previous mission.

"So, what was the mission you, Kakashi-sensei and your student went on that left you so tired?"

Naruto stiffened a bit, he had hoped she had forgotten about that so he wouldn't have to tell her but apparently luck wasn't on his side tonight.

Naruto sighed and began, "Well it wasn't a mission."

Sakura looked confused, "What do you mean not a mission?"

"I went out on my own to find a certain someone."

"Who?" the woman next to Naruto asked.

"A man named Totosai, a member of the Tatsumaki," Naruto answered.

The old man returned from the kitchen with steaming bowls of ramen and placed one bowl by Naruto and one by Sakura. They broke the chop sticks apart, said their phrase and began eating. Naruto hoped Sakura would forget about the whole thing since they got their ramen but luck still wasn't on his side.

"So why'd you got after this Totosai guy?" Sakura finally asked after a long silence.

'Damn.' "I figured out this village was hiding something from me and Jiraiya told me to seek him out, that he'd be able to tell me."

"How did you manage that?" Sakura asked slightly teasing him on his denseness.

Naruto didn't look fazed though, "Because when I fought him back in the Land of Waves, he was holding back, as if he couldn't kill me."

"That would make sense I guess," the pink-haired kunoichi said.

"I tried to get Tsunade-baachan to let me go but she didn't, so I ended up taking matters in my own hands."

Sakura eyes widened, "What?! You disobeyed Tsunade-shishou?"

"I-I had to, I had to know what they were hiding from me because when I asked it was as if they couldn't tell me to my face," Naruto replied.

"So what did you find out?" asked Sakura.

"Once I found Totosai, he told me who my father and mother were," Naruto said with slight sadness in his voice.

"Who were they?" Sakura dared to ask.

Naruto sighed, "My mother's name was Uzumaki Kushina and my father…" he trailed off.

"Who was your father?" Sakura asked.

Naruto quickly finished his ramen and waited for Sakura to finish hers. Once she did Naruto led her outside and started walking. Sakura wasn't going to question him, something was up. Once the mountain with the Hokage's faces was in their view Naruto stopped. He hesitated for a while then he raised his hand.

Naruto pointed to the Yondaime (Fourth) Hokage's face, "He is my father."

To say Sakura was shocked was an understatement. There were no words to explain just how shocked she was. This whole time her teammate was the son of the great Yondaime Hokage. Hell, she could barely comprehend it.

"T-the Yondaime i-is your father?" Sakura asked stuttering in surprise.

"Hai," Naruto replied.

"But why was Kakashi-sensei and one of your students with you when you returned?" asked Sakura getting out of her shocked state.

"Tsunade-baachan sent them to get me back so I wouldn't do anything stupid," he replied.

"Did you?" Sakura asked with a small giggle.

"Not on purpose," Naruto began, "I did get into a fight with the leader of the Tatsumaki, he wanted me to join or basically was forcing me to join."

"What?!" screamed Sakura.

"He forced me into a challenge, if I could beat him then I'd be free. If I lost, then I'd have to join."

Sakura was about to say something but Naruto began talking again, "I would have lost if Kakashi-sensei hadn't came in at the right time. Apparently battling more than one opponent is not his strong suit."

Sakura chuckled, "So much for a great leader of another evil organization."

"Yes, but if he catches you by yourself, you're pretty much done for," Naruto replied.

Naruto started walking Sakura home. Silence returned but the two were content. After about a ten minute walk they had reached Sakura's apartment complex.

"Well here we are once again," Naruto said with a big fox-like grin.

"Yep, well I'll see you later Naruto," Sakura said with a smile.

"Well I'll be around a lot for the next six months," Naruto said basically joking about his six month suspension.

"Why six months?" asked Sakura.

"Well," Naruto began nervously, "Since I disobeyed Tsunade-baachan, it came with a price, I got suspended from active duty for six months."

Sakura just had to laugh, "Baka."

Naruto laughed a bit too, "See you later, Sakura-chan."

"Bye, Naruto."

Sakura watched Naruto as he disappeared into the night.

Five months and twenty nine days had gone by too slowly for Naruto's liking. He spent most of the days keeping himself in shape and not allow himself dwindle in his abilities. And at least three nights a week he and Sakura went for ramen. Now Naruto was on his final days of suspension and tomorrow he'd return to active duty and he'd return to his team once again.

Naruto stared at the ceiling on his final day of suspension and spoke to himself, "Finally tomorrow I can return to my team."

Another mostly dialouge chapter, but the next chapter will start the next arc. Two major events will take place. The summary of the next arc is now on my profile. Until next time, see ya.