Chapter 35: Homecoming

I OWN NOTHING I KNOW NOTHING!

a/n: Just didn't know what to do other than just the homecoming, but all it will be is talking to a few people and getting settled in once more. So only a couple k sorry guys and girls

(September Eighth)

Naruto sighed as he stretched and smiled. He had spent a week with his parents and once they were gone, he had spent a few more days getting ready to leave. He was officially going back to Konoha today. He had shadow clones sent back a couple times and had snuck back to visit Kiba, but it was different when compared to being home.

Seconds later the blonde was standing in Konoha. He could feel the different chakra signatures from the world around him, from the people in Konoha, even from the birds in the sky. The world was alive around him and he smiled as he walked through the city heading towards the Hokage Tower. Soon enough the blonde found himself being followed, but he knew it was Kiba from the brunette's chakra signature.

Naruto activated his chakra cloud and pulse, no longer going only a small way forward, now that he was older, had more chakra, and was a sage, his chakra cloud and pulse could cover the entire chunin exams final arena. The different chakra that living things gave off gave them a slightly brighter color in his hue. He could easily 'see' Kiba from his position, as well as Akamaru who was now the size of a normal-sized full-grown hound, of course, the ninja hound would get about twice his current size over the next year or two.

In a blur of pure speed, Naruto was behind Kiba and Akamaru. The dog jumped and turned in the air look at Naruto and letting out a playful bark. Naruto wrapped his arms around the brunette's stomach. "I've been back in the village for less than five minutes and you are already following me around again Kiba-kun."

Kiba gave a grin at that. "Was headed towards you the moment I caught your scent. Your scent is so strong that I caught it from my compound the moment you appeared outside the village. I think that I could smell you anywhere in the village." Turning around the brunette kissed his boyfriend a little harshly for a moment before pulling away. "Come on, let's go-"

Naruto placed his right index finger across Kiba's lips to stop him from talking. "I have a few things to do today, starting with visiting Tsunade. You are still staying at the Inuzuka Compound as you are the clan heir now, so I will see you there sometime tomorrow after I finish everything that I need to do. We can actually catch up instead of just snuggling together for a night. I want to know how many of our friends have made chunin."

With that Naruto blurred away again and appeared on top of the Hokage Tower moments later. As a true sage, the likes of Haruma and Hagoromo even if he was nowhere near as strong as they were, his skills had increased more than he had expected them to when he had left. Walking down the stairs into the Hokage Tower he went into the Hokage's Office. Tsunade was sitting at her desk doing paperwork and gave Naruto a smile. "You should knock first Naruto, your chakra is strong enough now that my ANBU might think you are a threat."

Naruto smiled at that before sitting down. "Yeah, you have to watch the blind ones, really dangerous." Naruto spent several hours talking to Tsunade and getting his shinobi status changed from on-leave to active once more. Afterward, he left and did a little shopping before going to the Uzumaki Compound. Kiba had, of course, kept the place tidy, but the fridge was emptied out when the Inuzuka went back to his clan compound. Making a small dinner with the few ingredients he bought Naruto ate before going to his bedroom. He laid out his new outfit that he had made while in the Kitsune's Den before going to bed. He got up the next day and put on his new clothes.

The clothes were actually Kurama's idea and happened to be based on Hagoromo and his sons' attire as well as Naruto's own father. Naruto now had on a short-sleeved white cloak like his father's, but it had a high collar, black flames instead of red flames, and six black magatamas around the high collar. On the back of the cloak was an Uzumaki spiral made from rusty orangish-red fox tails instead of the kanji for Yellow Flash. The inside of the cloak was lined with seals to keep it from ripping, harden it when chakra was sent into it, and make it grow with Naruto. In fact, those seals were inside all of the clothes Naruto now possessed. His headband was now on a white cloth and the boy had on a black long-sleeve shirt with his green chunin vest between the shirt and cloak. Finishing the outfit was a pair of black pants and black boots.

Finished putting on his new outfit Naruto walked to his front door before opening it. Today he would be restocking his supply of ninja tools, checking on Hinata, and then spending the evening and night with Kiba. First stop was a weapon shop, which of course, didn't take that long. It only took a few minutes for Naruto to finish and then he was heading off towards the Hyuga Clan Compound.

Naruto got the gates and a guard addressed him. "Uzumaki-san, welcome back. Are you here to see Hinata-sama?"

Naruto nodded his head. "Yes is she busy? I can come back sometime in the next few days."

One of the guards shook his head. "I am not sure Uzumaki-san, but if you give me a moment I will go ahead and check." The guard went inside the compound and then came back out moments later. "Lady Hinata will see you now."

Naruto nodded and walked inside to 'see' Hinata. The girl was sitting in front of a koi pond within the compound's garden. All around her were different types of flowers, and with Hinata sitting there in her formal kimono she looked beautiful to the onlookers. "Good morning Hinata-chan, it has been quite a while hasn't it."

Hinata smiled towards the blonde. "That it has Naruto-kun. Has anyone else mentioned your chakra has changed? It is so beautiful, I have never seen golden chakra before."

Naruto smiled a little. "I may have had it mentioned to me once or twice. Kiba also told me I smell a little different, something about my natural scent being tied to my chakra."

Hinata nodded in understanding. "How did your chakra change Naruto-kun, if you don't mind me asking?"

Naruto explained to Hinata that it was a product of his sage training, and the two spent several hours talking after that. Hinata didn't tell Naruto anything too important, knowing that Kiba would want to be the one who caught the blonde up on most of the events that had been going on in the village. Naruto, in turn, told Hinata a little bit about his training and asked a few questions about Hinata himself. He wasn't surprised to learn that Hinata was now being officially courted by Haku. The ice-using boy had asked Hinata's father for permission to court her right after Naruto left.

Soon enough Naruto was headed towards the Inuzuka Clan Compound with a smile on his face. He got there and passed by Hana who was leaving the main house with her three ninkin. Naruto told them all hi before entering the building. Tsume was getting ready to leave as well with Kuromaru. "Welcome back pup. Try not to get into too much trouble with Kiba tonight. Kuromaru and I are going on a mission for a couple days though."

Naruto's pinked slightly at that. "Well stay safe Tsume and you too Kuromaru." The wolf nodded and Naruto headed upstairs where Kiba was laying on his bed. Akamaru was at the door waiting on Naruto to walk in the room and greet him. Naruto, of course, knelt down and rubbed his hand across the dog's head. "Hey there Akamaru, you been doing good?" The dog barked and Naruto could tell it was a bark of confirmation. As the blonde stood back up he moved over to the bed and crawled onto the bed to cuddle with Kiba.

Kiba wrapped his arms around Naruto. "Nice outfit Naru, you really look good. Maybe I am due for a change in attire as well. Been wearing this same form of jacket for a couple years now."

Naruto shook his head. "You don't need to change at all Kiba-kun, but if you want I can place seals in your clothes like I did mine. We can worry about that tomorrow though, for tonight why don't you tell me about our friends."

Kiba grinned a little. "Well as you know Sasuke, Hinata, and I had been made chunin at the same time as you. Around the day you left Sakura got a promotion to chunin for her work as a combat medic and started training a lot more with Tsunade. Everyone else got promoted these past two chunin exams. There has been some talk about some of us being looked at for jonin promotion, but it is just people talking at the moment. I admit that I can't wait to see what the jonin exams are like though."

Naruto nodded his head. "All I know about the jonin exams are they are something each village does individually and there are no teams."

Kiba nodded knowing that to be true. "Well to continue on, most of our classmates are clan heirs so many of us haven't actively joined any specializations. Neji has talked about joining ANBU, but from what I understand he is still Hinata-chan's bodyguard. Tenten and Lee both spend the free time they have being normal chunin training with weapons and taijutsu."

Naruto kissed Kiba on his fang marking as the boy continued. "Shino did spend a couple months tracking a few rouge ninjas as a hunter ninja, but it seemed like a one-time thing since he came back to the mission and stopped hunting. Ino is ready to start doing some work at the T&I, and Sasuke and Hinata are going to start working at the new ninja police headquarters. Sasuke as the head investigator and Hinata in some manner."

Naruto nodded his head. "So I know you're the clan heir now, so should we talk about our living arrangements?"Kiba frowned a little at that, he wanted to catch up and snuggle, not spend the night talking about serious issues. At least this was an issue that he had put some thought into. "I know it would be kind of weird with both of us living here with my ma and everything, but I will have to be here a lot to go over clan stuff. I was actually thinking off seeing about staying in one empty emtpy side-houses. We wouldn't have as much room, but it would give us our own space and I would still be close enough to handle the clan stuff. Not sure what we would be doing about the Uzumaki Clan Compound though."Naruto nodded at that. "We could do that unless you would rather have me set up some form of communications seal between the Uzumaki and Inuzuka Clan Compounds to where any information that needs to addressed that moment could be sent directly to you there, but if you take over the Inuzuka Clan it won't make sense for you to be there. So the side house would be the best option."

Kiba rolled over and pinned Naruto underneath him before kissing the blonde as harshly as he had the previous morning. "We will worry about it later. Tonight is for us to catch up, not to worry about the serious things we need to discuss." Naruto smiled and pulled Kiba in for another kiss.