Everyone had a seat around the fire getting comfortable to share their stories.


Kiba sat restlessly, Naruto was not anywhere near this powerful when he was still in Konoha. He had been given a small cup of tea by Hinata that he wasn't really interested in. He looked over to Sakura and Shino. He thought they had all gotten a lot stronger in the recent years but looks like their… friends… if he could still call them that… had gotten much further ahead.

Sakura was looking down at her cup, fidgeting with the edge of it with a solemn expression. She looked up to see that Naruto was sitting next to Hinata, she had her head resting on his shoulder. The two of them really had become close… she let herself glance over at Sasuke. He was drinking from his cup of tea when he caught her looking at him. He stopped drinking and glanced in her direction. Their eyes met for a moment before Sakura got a blush on her face and looked away, embarrassed she had been caught staring at him.

'He's just like I remember him…' Sakura thought, the blush not leaving her face. 'He's so cool…' She smiled slightly. Sasuke's stoic expression remained although with a slight air of confusion to it.

"Naruto…" Kiba asked, the blonde looked over to him. "How did you get so strong?"

Naruto smirked, "It just kind of happened. I spent the last three years training on Mount Myoboku with the toads and ero-sennin."

"Ero-sennin?" Kiba asked.

"He's one of the Sannin, Jiraiya-sama." Hinata interjected. Kiba nodded as Naruto continued.

"I can use every element conceivable… I've even invented a few…" Naruto said, the grin never leaving his face. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, this was new. He'd have to see what he had created.

Kiba's eyes were practically bulging out of his head until he started to squint at Naruto.

"I don't believe you can do that…" He said. Sakura looked to Kiba and then to Naruto. Shino remained quiet but interested. Naruto sighed, it would be fine to show them a few things. He held out his hand and a ball of water appeared.

"Big deal." Kiba said looking at it until it instantly froze into ice. Ok, that was impressive, ice element was rare. Naruto raised his other hand and a chunk of rock rose from the ground and started to float, it began to turn red in color until it was shinning before it began to melt.

"Was that… lava?" Sakura asked amazed.

"Yup!" Naruto said smiling. 'Ah what the hell, I'll show them something new.' He thought. He let the ice ball and lava ball fall to the ground. The ice shattered into pieces while the lava began to light the ground on fire. Naruto quickly released a small jet of water to put that out, a small sweat drop on his head as he grinned sheepishly.

"Now I don't have full control on this one yet, but I'll show you guys something cool!" Naruto said, jumping to his feet excitedly. Everyone was watching him intently. He brought his hands one on top of the other, with a foot distance between them, palms facing each other. He began to concentrate. Lightning chakra began to arc between his palms, as well as a small ball of flame appear in the center. The shocks began to intensify as the sphere grew, as if it was pure energy in his hand. Naruto began to sweat as he focused, mixing the two chakra natures together, but trying to contain the force. Small pebbles began to float from the ground, the ball began to brighten, brighter than the fire they were sitting around. Naruto breathed out heavily and with low yell as the ball continued to grow.

"Haaaa" Naruto said as he let the top hand loose and floating above his bottom hand, was a round ball of extremely bright energy, a perfect sphere.

"N-Naruto… is that…" Sakura was pointing in disbelief at the sphere in his hands. Small pebbles began to float around the bright orb.

"Yup. It's a small star." Naruto said beaming. He had mixed lightning and fire chakra to create plasma element and held it together with another force.

"B-but that's… Impossible…" Sakura said, in complete and utter disbelief. Naruto was visibly sweating as he carefully let the ball dissipate back down into nothing. He wiped his forehead and sat back down, seemingly exhausted.

"That was amazing Naruto-kun!" Hinata said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek. He rubbed the back of his head.

"What happens if you do not let the ball dissipate slowly?" Shino asked suddenly. Naruto's face turned serious.

"It… will sustain itself, for a while, but it starts to get bigger and change color before collapsing and creating…"

"A black hole." Shino finished the sentence. Everyone's face, minus Shino and Naruto, went a little pale. Naruto was essentially playing with the forces of creation. Hinata looked to Naruto with a look of astonishment and worry. He could easily kill himself doing that.

"D-Did it happen before?" Sakura asked, still trying to digest the information.

"Weelllll…." Naruto said rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah it did." Everyone's eyes, if it would be physically possible to get wider, did.

"Oi…" Sasuke said glaring at him. "Can you not try and destroy the planet?" He said, just as in disbelief as everyone else.

"Hey! I was able to control it!" Naruto said, everyone turned and looked at him.

"You… can control… a black hole…" Sasuke said, he needed to make sure he understood what was just said properly. Naruto looked around the group confused, was this something he shouldn't be doing?

"Sort of. It's another new element I created but… that one's a bit of a secret." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. Sasuke let out a sigh, the world's fate was potentially in the hands of an idiot.

"Great, we're all going to die." Kiba said, looking at Naruto with a look of exasperation.

"What's that supposed to mean, dog breath?" Naruto shouted. Kiba got a vein bulge on his head as he jumped to his feet.

"You wanna go?!" He yelled back at Naruto. Hinata stood up and stepped in between them, placing a hand on Naruto's chest. He immediately started to feel a calm rush over him. He blinked a few times before mumbling to himself, something about stupid dogs, and sitting back down.

"Calm down please. We don't need to fight any more." Hinata said, taking her seat next to him again and taking his hand. Kiba was still looking angry but seeing Naruto back down agreed and sat down.

"So… what was that flame you two had around you?" Kiba asked.

"Mine's just Kurama." Naruto said casually.

"Kurama?" Kiba asked.

"Oh, right, he's the Kyuubi." Naruto said, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Kiba looked slightly taken aback while Sakura seemed surprised while Shino did not react.

"The Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox demon that attacked our village?" Kiba asked, now pointing at Naruto, "Is sealed within you?"

"Yup." He replied, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Heh, I knew you smelled funny." Kiba said, closing one eye and grinning.

"What…" Sakura spoke up, getting everyone's attention. She wasn't looking at anyone, she had her head down. "What are you going to do about the village?" She asked.

Naruto could see her solemn expression and felt guilty. He wasn't sure why he did but it still pained him slightly.

"I don't really know. We do have some plans for the village." He didn't want to give anything away just yet.

"Please come back…" Sakura said, on the verge of tears, looking at all of them. "If you guys are that strong… please… help us…" She said, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Sakura…" Kiba said looking at her shaking shoulders, she was starting to cry now. He placed a hand on her shoulder.

Naruto looked to Hinata and then Sasuke with a worried expression. Hinata reflected his look and nodded, Sasuke just sighed.

"Is it really that bad?" Naruto asked, looking between them.

"It's horrible." Sakura said, clutching her pant leg. "He's closed off the village, even my parents were forced to leave because they were civilians. Academy students have to go through a year of special training, to help remove their emotions. We all got to skip it as we were already shinobi but… it's cruel. They come out with dead eyes, as if they don't know how to feel anymore." She let her tears come out. Kiba looked down with a mixture of anger and sadness as he clenched his fist.

Naruto was shocked, he didn't think it had been that bad. He looked over to Sasuke who nodded.

"We will come back to the village one day." Sasuke said, Sakura immediately looked up and started at him, her eyes still watery but she was no longer crying.

"And when we do, it will be the second coming of the Kyuubi." Naruto said, "Danzo had better be prepared."

They all turned to him with a look of shock. "But… you aren't going to hurt people, are you?" Sakura asked.

"Only if they get in the way. I don't like killing people, especially those from a place I once called home. But we can't promise our allies won't be as merciful." Naruto said with a sigh.

Sakura clenched her teeth. It was just a fairytale to assume that everyone would get out of this without any injury. Danzo would likely not just hand over the village.

"But right now, we have some things to deal with and we can't come back right away. I know it's been hard, but I promise you; we will come back and we will make things right. And you know me, I never go back on my word." Naruto said with a grin and a thumbs up. Sakura started to feel more at ease as her spirits started to lift. She nodded with a slight smile on her face.

"Thank you." She said. It had been so long since she had been truly happy. She felt like things would definitely be better.

"What have you guys been up to then?" Naruto asked.

"We're all chuunin now." Kiba said with a grin. "I guess we outrank you guys."

Naruto crossed his arms, "We're missing nin, we don't have a rank." Naruto said with a grumble. He hated to admit it, but Kiba was right, the three of them were technically still Genin. "I'll show you who's still a genin…" he mumbled under his breath.

"Sasuke-kun…" Sakura said, turning to the boy. He looked back at her with a bored expression. Sakura started to fidget under his gaze. "W-What did you do for training?" She asked.

"Nothing worth talking about." He said with a shrug and drinking his tea. She looked down dejected, a conversation with him looked to be difficult. Sasuke noticed her mood and sighed internally, maybe he could just feign interest.

"I trained with my brother." He said, setting his cup down.

"I see…" Sakura said. They both just sat there, looking at each. The silence was getting awkward. Sasuke looked away and took another sip of his tea. Sakura looked like she was mentally debating something before she stood up and took a seat next to Sasuke. He removed the cup from his face and looked at her questioningly.

"Tell me about it." She said, smiling at him. He looked at her for a moment, why did she care?

"We just trained. We worked on everything, I don't really have anything to say about it." He said again, but slightly more forceful. Sakura again had a dejected look on her face. He didn't like this look.

"W-what about you?" He said. 'I can humor her for a little while at least…'

"M-me?" She replied with a slight blush. Was he actually interested in what she had to say? "Well, there was a medical training program that was implemented. I trained hard under that, learning medical techniques. Tsunade-sama even managed to pay a short visit to the village to help get it started before leaving again…" Sakura replied. She looked across the campfire where Hinata and Naruto were sitting, hands entwined, having a conversation with Kiba.

"They look like they've gotten really close…" Sakura said, peeking at Sasuke out of the corner of her eye.

"Yeah… they've been practically inseparable since we left the village. It's rather annoying actually." Sasuke said with a huff. Sakura giggled.

"Why is it annoying?" She asked. Sasuke got a bit of a blush on his face.

"They're always kissing…" he said softly, looking away.

Sakura got a large blush on her face, kissing? She gently touched her lips and looked up at Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun…" she said, he turned to face her.

"I...have been thinking…" she began to play with her fingers nervously. "When you guys come back… and the village returns to normal...would you...go out with me?" She asked. Sasuke got a blush on his face. Had he heard that right? He knew she was part of his… fan club, back at the academy, but that was a long time ago, did she still like him?

"I… don't know…" he said, looking at the fire.

"Please… Sasuke-kun… ever since the academy I…" She began to trail off as he sighed.

"I can't think about anything like that right now." Sasuke said to her, cutting her off. She looked saddened that she got rejected. "But…" he continued, she looked up at him. "I'm not saying no…" he said nervously.

'Dammit, why am I so nervous?' He thought. Sakura's heart was about to burst out of her chest. She could feel a happiness in her she hadn't felt in a long time.

"We should probably get to sleep." Sasuke said before she could say anything else. He got up and went over to a sleeping bag he had set up earlier. Naruto noticed him leave the group.

"I guess I'll have first watch then…" Naruto said as a clone popped into existence. Hinata placed a hand on his shoulder, he turned to face her and she planted a kiss to his lips.

"Good night, Naruto-kun." She said as she began to approach her sleeping bag.

"Night, Hinata." Naruto replied. Sakura watched the exchange and blushed, she had just kissed him so casually and in front of other people.

"Damn Naruto." Kiba said with a grin.

"What?" Naruto asked.

"You are a lucky man." Kiba said grinning. Naruto grinned back. "I sure am. Hinata is the best thing to happen to me. She's been with me forever and has always been there when I needed her. Even if it didn't look like I needed help…" Naruto said, looking down with a sad smile.

"And she's hot…" Kiba said. Sakura walked up and punched Kiba on the top of the head, with an angry expression.

"Idiot…" Sakura said. Naruto just grinned as Kiba was rubbing his head in pain.


They had all gathered the next morning, each group standing across from the other.

"Sorry you had to fail your mission." Naruto said sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it. There's no way we can beat you guys." Kiba said grinning, his tone turned serious. "Keep your word man." Kiba said, holding out his first.

Naruto walked up and bumped fists with Kiba. "It's my ninja way." Naruto said with a smirk.

Sakura was looking at Sasuke. He closed his eyes for a moment before walking up to her.

"Don't forget about me…" She said, looking up at him nervously. Sasuke brought his hand up and with two fingers, poked her forehead. "I'll see you next time." He said with a small smirk. Sakura blushed and touched her forehead. Sasuke turned around and started to walk away when he felt something grab onto his shirt. He turned around to see a flash of pink before he felt something light on his cheek.

Sakura had been on the tip of her toes, she let back down after kissing his cheek. Sasuke blushed and touched the spot she had kissed before quickly turning and going back to his group.

Naruto and Hinata were looking at him with grins and knowing looks on their faces, a hand in front of their mouths. Sasuke just glared at them.

"Later." Kiba said as they began to turn and walk away.

"That was bold of you." Kiba said, grinning to Sakura.

"Shut up." She said with a small smile on her face.


Fugaku was glaring at the stone tablet in front of him. The words written upon it had not gotten any clearer since implanting Itachi's eye three years ago, but there had to be something. He had scanned every inch of the tablet with his eyes but he still could not make sense of it. There was a swirl of energy behind him, like a ripple in the air.

"What do you want?" Fugaku said without turning around.

"I have news for you." A figure spoke from behind him.

"And?"

"Your sons have become stronger, they may even pose a legitimate threat to you."

"This is news?" Fugaku replied harshly.

"No, that was a warning. They will come for you." the voice said.

Fugaku scoffed, he had one of Itachi's eyes, what threat could they possibly pose to him. "So what is the news then?"

"I have found the Uchiha artifact." Fugaku's eyes widened as he spun around to come face to face with a man wearing an Akatsuki cloak and an orange mask with a swirl centered around his right eye where a Sharingan was staring back him.