Yeah! Alright everyone, thanks a lot for the reviews, now on with chapter 5!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. He rocks though.

Naruto squinted through the haze at the person standing across the canyon from him. The third stage Rasengan blazed and swirled angrily in his hand like a trapped animal. The chakra scorched his skin, only to be healed instantly by the Kyuubi. He raised his hand, Rasengan leading him on like a beacon. He threw himself at the person. It felt as if his body was no longer his, as though he were flying through the haze towards that damned shadowed figure, though he still could not tell who it was. The person was flying towards him also. Naruto felt only hatred and an uncontrollable rage that seemed like it would devour his soul. He roared and shoved the rasengan into the figure's chest, feeling his palm shatter bones and destroy organs, his opponent's blood spattering all over Naruto's face. Naruto licked it off his cheeks, glowering down at the person he had slain. Two fading sharingan eyes stared back up at him. The raven hair was matted with blood, spread across the ground like a sacrifice to some vengeful spirit. Naruto grasped his arms and curled up on the ground, crying.

"AAAAAAAAAAUUUGGGHHH!" Naruto screamed and sat up, his body wet with cold sweat, the covers twisted around his waist, suffocating him. He wriggled out of bed and fell to the floor, tears coming to his eyes. The carpet fibers absorbed the moisture and tickled his cheeks as he thought. Why…why do I keep remembering that day…ever since I returned to Konoha…Naruto winced and forced himself to stand up. Feeling his stomach about to explode, he staggered to the toilet and vomited. He crouched, bracing his arms on the bowl of the ever-merciful waste receptacle as he hacked and coughed into the water. He leaned back against the wall, and closed his eyes.

"Naruto…are you okay?" said a cloaked ANBU guard standing in the doorway to the bathroom. "I heard a scream."

"I'm…fi-fine. Just leave…leave me alone, please." Naruto uttered in barely audible gasps to the guard as he feebly lifted his hand in a gesture of acknowledgement. The guard seemed to hesitate, then nodded and disappeared.

Naruto clasped his head and ran his hands through his golden-blonde hair. He got to his feet, testing his body to find out if he had regained his sense of direction. The dizziness was gone now, and he was left with a strained ache in his bowels. The awakening sun shone its feeble light through the window near his bed, and the silhouette of an ANBU flitted across the otherwise serene and peaceful surroundings. His house was dark, the bathroom gloomy. Naruto flipped the light switch and gazed at the boy looking back at him in the mirror. He was gaining rapidly on six feet, and his biceps and chest muscles were clearly trained and hard. He stood there in his boxers, looking into the blue, bottomless depths that were his eyes. Naruto dropped his arms to his sides and sighed. Walking out of the bathroom, he strode into the small kitchen and put some water on to boil, selecting a random box of ramen from the rapidly dwindling pile under the sink.

Naruto flopped down in a chair and leaned back. He put his fingers to his temples and groaned, thinking back to when the nightmares had started, when he first moved into this god damned isolated house. Tsunade had told him it wouldn't be so bad, that he could have visitors every day. The disturbing part was that he could not leave the house without an ANBU escort. And let me tell you, it didn't look too impressive to be sitting at Ichiraku Ramen with a bowl and surrounded by dark-cloaked tall guys with weird masks. Girls shied away from him and people stared. He wasn't allowed to go anywhere without the guards on his tail, and any attempts he made at losing them were useless. They had been warned by the Hokage that Naruto might try to escape, and had prepared accordingly. Whenever he had backed down a side alley and used a camouflage technique, or simply used Kawarimi no Jutsu and teleported, the guards were always one step ahead of him, one hanging back on rooftops and another lurking in shadows and blending with the crowd. Naturally, this infuriated Naruto because he was, of course, a professional prankster by his standards. Such a trivial problem as leading some worthless ANBU away from him should not have been very troublesome, but Naruto guessed that he was out of practice, having spent the last two and a half years fending off furious chicks from Ero-Sennin and training his ass off. And in addition to this embarrassment, the so-called great Akatsuki hadn't even showed their cowardly faces yet! There had been no word of any action of the aforementioned group in the week and half that Naruto had been living in isolation, which had begun to tick him off. If they were going to capture him, let them try. He was pissed enough to take all of them.

So most of the time, Uzumaki Naruto sat around in his house and small backyard, a highly serveillanced area, and became educated as to what had been happening in his beloved village in the years he had been away. He had seen all of his old friends, who had stopped by with the permission of Tsunade every once and a while.

Lee brought TenTen and Neji with him, pointing happily at Naruto when he burst unceremoniously through the door. "This is the man whose ass I kicked!" Lee had yelled, and smiled arrogantly in Naruto's direction as the tall and commanding figure of Hyuuga Neji stepped through the door. Neji's hand was grasped by a woman in a loose-fitting kimono whose hair was tied up in buns to the back of her head. Though Naruto had not noticed at first, he found out that the female was TenTen, who had become more mature and had a commanding sense of authority over her two teammates. She had sparkling eyes and she was beautiful in a way, her figure strong but womanly and her face serious and calm. Rock Lee explained that Neji and TenTen had been a courteous couple for the last year, and Neji narrowed his eyes and looked at Naruto, as if challenging him to make some rude comment as the teen normally would have. The Hyuuga's hair was tied back in its usual ponytail, and he wore Hyuuga clan robes. His eyes still bore the look of suffering and pain they had before, but they were incredibly fierce. Naruto saw in them a softness of late, undoubtedly brought about by his new female companion. But Naruto simply smiled and congratulated them, causing TenTen to blush and Neji's grimace to disappear. Neji was a Jounin with a busy schedule, and TenTen was due to take the Jounin exam coming up.

Shikamaru had brought his teammates, Ino and Chouji, a week ago right after Naruto had moved in. Chouji was as…uh, large as ever, but he looked more respectful and calm, his long hair tied back by his forehead protector, which he wore as a headband. He wore a traditional Akamichi cloak and beads. He had smiled heartily at Naruto and offered him a box of Ramen as a present from his clan. Having greatfully accepted Chouji's gift, Naruto was surprised to receive a bouquet of flowers from Ino, who was undoubtedly the most stunningly gorgeous female he had seen of late. Her hair had grown back fully, and she wore a violet in the white-blonde locks, which fell to past her shoulders, complementing her eye-goggling chest and purple kimono. Naruto had stared at her until she made a sound of disapproval and snapped her fingers. Shikamaru looked impatient that he still had to deal with these partners, but Naruto knew he enjoyed their company. He had talked to them about the goings-on of the village and gotten his ass kicked numerous times by Shikamaru in every game he could think up. The lazy Jounin had been visiting a lot on his own, talking with Naruto about girls, teachers and the villagers.

Kiba had brought Hinata along to see Naruto, along with Akamaru, who had grown a bit and had licked Naruto's hand when offered. Hinata was tall now, though not as tall as he, and she spoke more confidently and warmly, the burden of her childhood crush on the Kyuubi boy evidently no longer present. Her cheeks were rosy and her milky-white eyes were soft and kind. After he had wearily let them in, Hinata and Kiba smiled and looked him over. She had quickly kissed Naruto on the cheek and smiled at him, then strode into the kitchen to prepare tea. Kiba had wrestled with Naruto and Akamaru. His black hair shot out in random directions, and he wore loose fitting shirts and regular pants, no longer Eskimo-esque with his parka. He told him of all the awesome fights he had missed out on, describing the one where he had conquered Chouji's multi-size technique with gusto. His explanations were colorful and funny, and he acted out the scenes, or at least attempted to, sometimes knocking over furniture and stumbling over Akamaru. They had sat together and Naruto had asked Hinata how she had been doing with her training.

Throughout all this, however, Naruto's greatest boon was getting to see Sakura every day. Though he didn't know why, the pink-haired Kunoichi had seemed to be showing a great amount of interest in him since he returned. He smiled and remembered his lifelong crush on Sakura. It was different now. Him being older, he looked at her with more of a respect than admiration, and he had learned to get along better with her since their fight with Kakashi. She came over everyday to hang out, and they would simply talk about the things they had done in the years that they had been away from each other. The pair simply seemed to flow together, as if nothing strange had ever been between them. Sakura seemed comfortable around Naruto, and Naruto got along perfectly with her. Sakura told him how she became a Chuunin, what her battles were like, and how everyone acted nowadays. She told him what Tsunade had taught her, and even showed him some techniques when she felt like it was worth it. Naruto watched all this in awe, wondering how such a blessing could come upon him in the days of his isolation. Despite all this, the topic of Sasuke never came up much, and when a particular story involved him, the two teens could see the straining to keep back emotion in each others' eyes. Their partner was gone, and they had both accepted it, but for some reason they could not come to terms with their grief.

And so Naruto had gotten to know Haruno Sakura much better than he ever had before, having spent many hours of many days with her. He sighed at the table, hoping that she would stop by today so he could tell her about his nightmare. Hearing the water furiously boiling, Naruto got up and poured the ramen noodles in. He closed his eyes as the steam caressed his face.

Several hours later, our hero sat cross-legged on the carpet of his bedroom meditating. He heard her footsteps before she even came to the door. He leapt up, a smile creeping up to his face as he opened the door. Sakura gave him a faint smile. He ushered her in, and she sat down weakly at the table. It was at this point that Naruto, being his usual observant self, realized that something was wrong with his friend. She was crying. Naruto walked tentatively over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura…? What's wrong?"

"N-n-naruto, I don't want you-I don't want them to come here!" Sakura said, and sat up, her hands on her face.

"Sakura, I don't know what you're talking about. What happened?" Naruto said, his voice dripping confusion and worry.

"I heard Tsunade-sensei talking…they were talking about how they found a body…near here…Naruto, the Akatsuki are here!"

"But how do you know…" There was a knot in Naruto's throat as he sat down next to her. They had made their move…that poor person must have gotten in their way…which means…

"Sakura, quick, when did you hear her talking!" said Naruto hurriedly, clasping her hand.

"Right before I came here…I had to tell you that they're increasing the guard…Kakashi and the other Jounin are on their way. Tsunade had to mobilize quickly, but she fears that the Akatsuki are already near here. They may even be-be-be watching us right nowwww!" Sakura broke into sobs as her head fell into Naruto's arms.

This is bad…if the other Jounin don't get here on time…I don't know if I can take on Itachi…

"Nar-Naruto, I came here because I wanted to help you when they came! I-"

She stopped and her eyes went wide in fear. Naruto turned around, following her eyes.

An ANBU guard's limp body was plastered on the bedroom window, slowly sliding down and leaving a trail of blood on the weakened frame. CRASH! Another guard literally flew through the window on the other side of where they were sitting, over their heads and into a corner. Drops of blood splattered across Naruto's face as he sat there, gaping, staring at the guard who had checked on him that morning. He began to concentrate his chakra around them, trying to sense what would happen next. He felt something above them break. The ceiling…it felt as if it were groaning. Oh, shit! Naruto had a split second to think before he heard Sakura scream. He dove at the girl and they landed in a heap against the counter. The world was falling apart… The ceiling caved in, large chunks of plaster falling from the ceiling. Naruto placed a chakra barrier above them, where a medium sized chunk of ceiling exploded into a million bits. He held Sakura protectively against his chest and looked up at the pile of wreckage that was his house. All he could see were red clouds and red eyes.

Wahoo, long chapter. Okay, I got some comments. Man, it was painful to make Hinata so off character, but I believe it was somewhat necessary for her personality to change if she wasn't going to be infatuated with Naruto still. This fic was heading towards NaruSaku from the beginning, and I had to keep it that way, so I painfully made Hinata grow up and forget about Naruto. I hope my other characters aren't too off, and I hope that I can update in then next couple days. That's about it guys…REVIEW PLEASE!