Flashback: on

After stopping by his house to recover from the battle he had had (enjoying a few minutes of peace as well). Which consisted of taking another shower and putting on a change of clean clothes. Naruto went to meet up with his old and new friends (colleagues?), who wanted to celebrate his return to the village and having become a jounin (they were too insistent once they got around him after the fight). They would probably ask how he managed to defeat them all too, the thought made him sigh already from exhaustion for the future interaction. But it was what he needed to do, wasn't it?

Flashback: off

The place they had arranged to meet was his well-known favorite restaurant: Ichiraku Ramen, which, due to the years he had been away from the village he couldn't even remember the taste of ramen there. It was some time before the agreed time to meet, he had arrived a little earlier on purpose to be able to see how the village was since when he arrived in the village he didn't even have time to breathe properly, much less enjoy the scenery. All the fault of that crazy old woman!' thought Naruto as he arrived at that little square in front of the Hokage hill. This place brings back many memories...' he thought '... I remember that when I was sad, angry, or when I did something wrong I would come here...' he remembered.

"This place, for some reason this view..." thought Naruto aloud. "It always calmed me down..." he thought distractedly. Meanwhile, without him foreseeing, someone approached.

"Talking to yourself now, Naruto?" said the unidentified person. "Now I have no more doubts that you really are the Baka-Naruto I used to know, right dobe?" he said, although the words had a playful tone deep inside.

"Ah... You are extremely mistaken if you think I didn't sense that you were approaching," he said still on with his back turned as if determined to prove the other wrong. "Sasuke!" called as he turned and faced the surprised and slightly suspicious face of his friend, if they were still friends Sasuke wondered. "And I don't think you should speak ill of me since you don't know me as well as you think you do. I'll let it go this time, but if I hear you speak ill of me again, I don't think I'll be so merciful." the younger man looked at him coldly.

"Hm, as if I care!" Sasuke pretends.

"Whatever then." he shrugged and went back to looking at the mountain with the carved faces, 'Man his personality hasn't changed at all since we were younger!' thinks Naruto laughing internally a bit at the irony of the difference between them. "Hey, Sasuke?" calls Naruto already without the coldness in his voice.

"What?" answers Sasuke, still a little grumpy.

"Many things have changed in the years I've been away, right?" he asks with a neutral tone, without being cold or friendly.

"I guess so... But, Naruto, why did you leave?" Sasuke asked looking at the other, he always wondered that after the younger one left. "The Sandaime only said that you had gone on a trip, but I don't think that was it and..." he started to tell what he knew when he was interrupted by the shocked blond.

"What? That's what the old man said? I don't understand why he said that when the village people were probably happy that I ran away..." it was Sasuke's turn to interrupt Naruto.

"Ran away?! What are you talking about? And what's this stuff about everyone being happy you're gone?" Sasuke was outraged at the insinuation. "Of course, we missed you, you were our friend and..."

"Forget it, Sasuke!" says Naruto. "There's no point in talking about it now and..." as he said this Naruto made a face like he wasn't kidding to Sasuke who had half opened his mouth to interrupt him again. "Besides, everybody is coming," he added, pointing to the group that was coming. In this group were: Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Gaara, Shikamaru, Temari, Rock Lee, Neji, Tenten, Sai. When they greeted each other and checked if anyone else was going to meet them there, they all went to the restaurant where Tsunade and the other ninjas were waiting and placed their orders. While they were waiting for their orders they kept talking.

"Naruto, in the arena you were astounding!" speaks Rock Lee excitedly. "You really have the flame of youth!" says in the 'NiceGai' pose. With that everyone laughed. Except for Naruto who was deep in

"And the way he defeated all those ninjas and Anbus? Without taking even a scratch?" comments Temari. "Now that was amazing!"

"Yeah. It might have been amazing and all." Shikamaru looks at his girlfriend and then at the blond boy. "But it was still problematic." he declares, although he is intrigued by the questions the fight has raised. With Shikamaru's speech, Sasuke looks apprehensively at Naruto (and to check if the other's speech had been personal or if it was good for anyone), remembering what he told him about what would happen if someone spoke badly of him, but it seemed that the blond boy wasn't paying attention to the conversation.

"Ahh! I remembered something I wanted to ask you!" exclaims Ino, almost getting up from the table. "Naruto, where did you go these years when you were traveling?" Ino asks, pulling Naruto out of his thoughts and into their conversation.

"I wasn't traveling." he completely sneered at the idea, as if the suggestion was completely ridiculous. Only Sasuke, due to their interaction earlier, and one other person were not surprised.

"Huh? What do you mean you weren't traveling? But the Sandai-" Sakura asks but is interrupted by the blonde.

"Don't you think it's time to tell them the truth about me leaving the village?" demands turning and staring at Hokage Tsunade.

"Truth? What truth?" asks the young ninja, not expecting the Fifth to know anything.

"Naruto told the truth about not going on a trip..." started Tsunade half uncomfortable. "He... He ran away." reveals finally.

"He ran away?!" various people repeated in shock. "Why would he run away from the village? He liked the village and we all liked him and..."

"Don't even come with that everyone liked me!" Naruto practically growled, startling and surprising everyone. "It seems that you really know almost nothing about the village and its secrets. Come on, Tsunade! Tell them why I fled the village, why I was monitored by Anbus, and why the village people treat me badly! Or are you afraid of their reaction when they find out what I am?" faced the other with a wild glint in his eyes, as if expecting something, before teasing. "I don't understand why when I was a child my dream was to be Hokage if the Hokages are such cowards!"

"That's enough, Naruto! You've said too much already! You were not allowed to talk about this subject!" scolds him sharply. Most of the ninja present was not understanding anything of the sudden confrontation.

"What about you? What excuse do you have to hide this from them?" he replies without hesitation. "I wasn't even going to come back here now, I could still be training, outside the village and around the world! But no, I came back, only instead of people treating me better they treat me like before! As if I'm really a stupid monster or a demon, it's not my fault if they sealed inside me the..." was interrupted by the Hokage.

"Don't you dare mention it, or else..." she threatened, which made the boy almost laugh.

"It's okay as long as you tell them yourself!" Naruto demands in a tone of finality. "You're not even the one who created the secrecy law! It doesn't even make sense to keep it anymore!"

"Could you tell us what you are talking about?" all the young people ask, except Gaara, who suddenly finds himself uncomfortable.

"Here's your chance to tell them." says the younger blond, right on cue.

"Ok, fine!" she accepted, losing patience and giving in while assuming a serious face.

"Why am I under the impression that I know what you're going to talk about, Hokage-san?" asked the red-haired man, who until then had remained silent.

"Probably you do know about it, you must know as well as Naruto." confirms the Kage. "I believe that few of you know about the existence of bijuu's, beings like the nine-tailed fox that attacked our village years ago, and that the shinobi nations, to control them, seal them in people, these people are called jinchuuriki's," Tsunade explained, during this both the Uzumaki and Gaara took a rigid posture, it was a subject that was eternally uncomfortable for both for various reasons. Then she told the whole story of the bijuu's and the jinchuuriki's. At first, the youngsters didn't understand, nor did they accept the idea, but they soon got used to it. "Naruto? Why did you insist that I talk about this?" says to the young man.

"Because that would make it easier to fulfill my mission here." he calmly reveals, which caused a stir in those present.

"Mission?! What are you talking about?" Tsunade and Sakura ask together.

"You don't really think that I would come back here for no reason, do you?" he asks incredulously with a strange smile on his face.

"..." nobody had an answer to this question, they didn't even expect to have to think about something like this, although some knew that they should have seen something like this coming and that the whole return of the boy was strange in timing.

"Tsunade, remember when you said I had to be prepared for what was coming and I asked what it was?" remembers the young Uzumaki stopping to look at her.

"Yes, why?" she looks at him not knowing if she likes where this is going and what it could mean.

"I was pretending," he confesses. "I know very well what is coming. That's exactly why I came back. There is some information that I need to inform you about and..." he was interrupted by a light coming from a medallion he wore under his blouse, which until then had gone unnoticed. This medallion had been a gift. It contained the symbol of the Uzumaki clan, encrusted in some kind of ruby. Naruto stared at the medallion for a while when he spoke again "Is it time already? I thought I still had more time! Kuso..." he swore as he picked up the red and gold scroll (A/N: the colors of the Uzumaki clan in the fic) that his masters had given him. He opened it and placed it on the ground starting to make seals with his hands to begin the technique.

"What do you think you are doing?" Tsunade asks, alarmed by the sudden action with unknown purposes and functions.

"Bringing help! And someone who can better explain about the invasion that will take place in Konoha in a few days," he informed as he finished making the seals and then cut his finger and pressed his bloody hand against the parchment. Soon, the place where the parchment was exploded with smoke, allowing them only to see two silhouettes: one female and the other male.

Next Chapter: Help arrives and with it, information...