Hey. Sorry about the wait on my other stories. I lost all the info I had for them, including new chapters for them as well. I will update them as soon as my backup copies get to me via mail (Military Mail centers are kinda slow). Anyway, this story came to me from hearing something from a friend of mine. I can safly say that this story will be the most complicated and indepth story I have ever written including several side plots involoving other characters. I won't just stick with one pairing, but will be doing several. Also, this story does contain spoilers to casualties suffered at the hands of Pein. Alos, one major change is that Pein knocked Hinata out before she could confess her feelings to Naruto, so he still doesn't know. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and yes, I will update my other stories as soon as my backup copies of them arrive.

The sun shone brightly through the windows as the gathered group of young teens laughed and joked, catching up on what they had missed over the past few years. One of them, a tall blonde teen with whisker marks was grinning widly as he recounted another tale of his travels to his friends.

"...and he didn't even know that I had learned to cast a decent genjutsu. So, when I released it, he came face to face with an eighty year old grandmother who was very tempted by his offer to 'make her the insperation to his novel.' He screamed like a little girl and sprinted down the street with her chasing after him." The boy finished, grinning widly as his friends laughed.

"Man, that was brilliant. I'd have done that to Kakashi, but it was too troublesome." A boy with brown hair shaped like a pineapple said, wipping a tear from his eye.

The other a large boy, nodded, still trying to recover from the laughing fit as the only girl, pink haired and in red, shook her head in amusement.

"It's a wonder he didn't kill you." She said.

The teen grinned.

"He tried to run me into the ground with training the next day. Practically did too."

The crowd around him laughed as he shook his head.

"So what's new with you, Lee?" The blonde boy asked the green clad teen leaning against the back wall.

The green clad teen smiled and nodded his head.

"Nothing new has changed with me, Naruto. I am still the genius of hardwork who you knew three years ago. The only difference is that I have fully master the eight gates. And Gai-sensei has taught me his signiture move." Lee said proudly.

Naruto Uzumaki nodded his head and glanced around the room. He'd already been caught up with Sakura and this was his first chance to catch up wih the rest of his friends. They hadn't been able to talk much since he had returned because all of them had been thrust into one mission after the next and hadn't had any down time. Th village had only recently recovered from Pein's devastating assult on the village over a year ago. Naruto waited for the rest of the gathered teens to speak when the rest of the shinobi population entered the operations center, some tired looking, others well rested. After the last shinobi entered the room, the Fifth Hokage entered the room, a smile on her face as she stepped in front of the troops.

"Well, the time has finnally come. The debreifing of the largest shinobi mission is about to start. Will everyone take their seats."

xxxxx

Naruto sat at a table a distance away from everyone as they celebrated the comepleted reconstruction of the village. He smiled as he watched all the gathered shinobi laugh and enjoy themselves from his own table. He decided he had wanted to sit alone. Now he regreted it, seeing so many people enjoying themselves. He sighed and looked back out the window until a familar voice reached his ears.

"Heh. The mighty Naruto Uzumaki sits alone."

He looked over and saw all his friends headed his way. The owner of the voice was from a teen in a leather jacket with two red stripes on his face, grinning at him.

"Hey Kiba. Why's everybody coming here?" He asked, puzzled.

Kiba looked at him with a smirk.

"You dense idiot. We wanna hang out with you. We haven't been together like this in a long time." He explained as the other sat around the small table.

Naruto sighed and smiled as he looked at his friends. They looked alot older after the most recent tragidy to strike the Leaf Village.

"So. What are you guys planning to do?" He asked, curious to see if his friends had changed their goals for the future.

Sakura looked thoughtfully for a moment.

"Well. I guess I'll be concentrating on becoming a very powerful medic nin. I want to be as strong as Tsunade-sama."

Naruto and the rest of the group nodded. If there was one thing the village needed, it was healers. Naruto took a swig of his drink and looked to Lee.

"What about you, Lee?" Naruto asked pleasantly.

The green clad ninja paused before smiling a normal smile.

"I wish to become a Tai Jutsu instructor at the academy."

His friends gave their approval, all remembering how lax tai jutsu training had been in the village over the years. Naruto looked at each of the remaining nin in turn, each talking about their plans. Choji wanted to take over his clan when he became old enough, which was an admirable goal. Ino planned on taking her ninja career more seriously while Shikamaru was trying to get out of a three year duty station in Suna as an ambassador. His reason was because he didn't want to be in the same village as that "troublesome" woman, Temari. Shino was still obsessed with his bugs, stating that he was working on several advanced techniques with Kiba telling everyone how he would become pack leader in his clan. Hinata was hesitant when she answered, a blush on her face as she told them that she wanted to become strong enough to protect the people she cared for safe. The group sat in silence as they sipped their drinks until Hinata looked to Naruto,

"Ano...What about you, Naruto-kun?" She asked, her voice small, but stutterless.

All of the shinobi around he waited as he looked at the quater full glass in front of him.

"I don't know anymore." He said softly, a tired and worn look on his face.

A ripple of shock passed through the group as he picked up his glass and swished the contents. He held it out with a sad smile.

"To friends lost. Kakashi-sensei, Jiraiya-sensei, Asuma-sensei, and everyone else who cannot be here tonight, celebrating with us. Even that stubborn teme Sasuke who went and got himself killed destroying his twisted anscestor. Here's failing to keep those I held dear safe. Here's to failing to keep them alive."

The group watched in silence as Naruto finished his glass before setting it gently on the table. He rose from his seat, tossed a few notes on the table and left. Nobody knew what to say.