The trip home seemed to take a lot longer than the trip there. They didn't stop as many times and it still seemed like forever. Both Tsunade and Jiraiya were always watching them, waiting for them to make some sort of mistake that would prove their story to be untrue, while simultaneously dancing around them not sure what to do with the new information Naruto's story afforded them. Kimimaro, on the other hand wanted to look at every single thing that was around them. Sasuke couldn't blame him, knowing that the man had been kept in a medical coma for a long time, but it still did get kind of annoying to have to stop and wait every five minutes for the man to catch back up to them. Naruto didn't mind. He was actually enjoying the scenery too. It was only up until that point that he realized that he hadn't stopped to smell the roses in a really long time. Everything just seemed to be getting away from him. He needed this moment to enjoy his life while he still could.

When they finally returned to the village, the three in team seven were forced to explain their story to the Third Hokage before they were finally allowed to leave. Sakura immediately returned to her family, Naruto moved to show Kimimaro around the city before showing him to the mansion where he would now live, and Sasuke took the long way to his own home. It was nice to be back, but Sasuke couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen soon that would not be good.

"Hey sweetie," Mikoto smiled at Sasuke when he entered the house. "How was your mission?"

"Long," Sasuke sighed. He hadn't noticed how exhausted he really was until he sat on the couch right next to his mother.

"I'm sorry sweetie," Mikoto frowned. "Why don't I go and make you a glass of warm milk and then you can go and take a nap."

Sasuke smiled. No matter how old he got, his mother always seemed to be waiting to give him one of the childhood remedies. Warm milk was one thing that she always gave him before he went to bed and after he had a nightmare. Now it seemed to be the quickest way to get him to fall asleep. "Thanks mom," Sasuke smiled as he took the cup from her. He was already starting to feel drowsy.

"I'm home," Sakura called into her house. Almost immediately her crazy father came to greet her and her mother began to nag at her to put her shoes where they go. The nagging used to be much, worse but Sakura figured out that it was always better to just do what her mother said. After all, the woman was only looking out for her. "I think I'm going to go take a nap," she said as she walked to her room after her father's crazy welcome home hug was done, "this one really took it out of me."

"Is it really okay for me to stay here?" Kimimaro asked as they came upon the mansion.

"Of course," Naruto smiled. "I've already taken in a few people. I'm sure that you'll like them and that they'll like you."

"Thank you Naruto," Kimimaro said sincerely, "for everything."

"Of course," Naruto said again. "I will always help out my friends."

"Your friend?"

"Mmhm," Naruto nodded. "We're back," Naruto called into the house. He was almost immediately tackled by a very excited Kyusuke.

"How was your mission?" Kyusuke grinned even as he attempted to crush Naruto in his embrace.

"It was good," Naruto smiled and gestured to Kimimaro. "I brought someone home with me."

"Ooo," Kyusuke let go of Naruto in order to reach his hand out to Kimimaro. "My name's Kyusuke. What's yours?"

"It's nice to meet you Kyusuke," Kimimaro said as he took the much smaller hand into this own. "My name's Kimimaro." By now everyone was already in the room, including Gaara who was visiting, and Kimimaro took every joy in introducing them all to him.

"Now now," Irena said quietly. "What do you say?" She had been working hard to be like a mother for Kyusuke and it often times rubbed off on how she acted with everyone else but nobody really minded. Not even Zabuza and Gaara.

"Oh yea," Kyusuke realized. "Welcome home!"

Naruto smiled and Kimimaro jolted. It had been a very long time since he had been welcomed home. It made him feel so happy. Naruto was giving him everything.

"We're home," Naruto said.

Everyone talked for a bit and then they all sat down in the dining room, which had enough chairs for those that were there and more even though they made sure to all sit together with Naruto at the end. The meal that Irena made, with Kyusuke's help the boy reminded everyone with pride, was delicious. The chatter was just like that of a regular family. Kimimaro could not feel more at home. He went to his very comfortable bed that night as the happiest person he had been in a very long time.

Hey guys! Sorry about the short chapter. This was another one of those in-betweeners that didn't really go with the next chapter so I posted it separately.

Anyway, I'm very excited that this chapter officially marks the 100,000 words in this story. I know that this site has said it was at 100,000 for a while, but that was including AN and all that jazz so this is based off of my Word word count.

P.S. I realized that I hadn't really written about Sakura's family so I thought I would write a little scene with her too, but I was working off of the little I knew about her family from one of the Naruto movies so that's why its so short. I'm sorry about that.