Chapter 11:

As the leaves of the trees surrounding Konoha flickered in the wind, the white-haired man and his apprentice passed the threshold of the town's gate. Out of excitement of having returned home, the blond genin hastily mounted a stone pillar and looked over his hometown.

"The place hasn't changed." Naruto sighed, his gaze drifting towards the rock face and spotting the addition of Tsunade amongst the Hokages.

"I wonder how Hinata-chan is doing?" He thought, sliding down from his perch and running for the Hyuuga residence.


"Kabuto! Come quick, my body has escaped!" Orochimaru cried. "I knew I should have used a leash."

Obviously pleased, a wide grin spread over Kabuto's face. "Don't worry Orochimaru-sama, you may always use my body."

"Oh, I do enough of that as it is…"


"It seems… pretty safe." Kiba whispered hesitantly as he returned to Konoha. Akamaru let out a couple cheerful barks and began running around. "Really? You can't smell her at all?"

Another happy bark was his reply and he began shouting for joy.

"Alright, now I'm going to make that Aiyoru bastard pay!" He thought with a grin. "And I'll make him get rid of these damn marks on my forehead."


"Oi, Hinata! He's back!" Neji shouted, bursting into the room where Hinata sat.

"Really?" She asked excitedly, getting to her feet.

"Is that so? It's a shame…" Aiyoru sighed, appearing mysteriously from the far corner of the room.

"You're still here? I thought you left about the same time Naruto did." Neji commented.

A sweat bead rolled down his forehead. "I've… been living here all this time. I've passed you in the hall every day for the last two and a half years."

Neji stared at him blankly.

Aiyoru finished that discussion with a cough. "Moving on… I've got some regretful news for Hinata-sama. I've been hired by your father to prevent you from seeing Naruto. Not just dating, you may not even speak to him and I am to ensure that it happens."

The two Hyuugas stared at him, agape. At that moment, Aiyoru wished that he had been carrying a camera.

"Nani!" Neji screamed. "Didn't you go thought a lot of trouble just to get them together?"

He nodded.

"Then why the hell would you take this job!"

"I'll do anything for money. Even something I'm against." He said coldly before suddenly revealing an abnormally cheery attitude. "For example, I made an extra fifty ryou today for renting a bunshin out to Temari that allows her to remove its-"

"Whoa! Hey, isn't that saying a little too much?"

"No, saying that I'm fully aware of what she's doing to it and – oh! There's goes the mask. Eeah! That tickles!" He cried, blushing.


Kankuro and Gaara had first exchanged concerned looks years back when Temari had first been seen wasting money on clones. At that time, however, it seemed harmless enough (for an obsession). Now with the extra feature that she had chosen, it had become creepy.

"This has got to stop, Kazekage-sama." Kankuro commented, his head hung in shame.

Gaara nodded in agreement. "Someone needs to be the replacement for the bunshin. Kankuro-"

"Oh Kami-sama, no! Gaara, you are sick! Sick! She's my sister!"

A sand bead rolled down the redhead's temple. "I was going to ask you to go get that Shikamaru kid she seems to get along well with."

"Huh? Oh. Uh, well he seems to be going out with Ino."

"How about the Uchiha? No… wait… right, he's after Naruto. There's that dog kid."

"Kiba? He's after Hinata. That is, if he were still around. No one's seen him since Naruto left."

Desperation began setting in. "The fat kid?"

Once again, the puppeteer had to shake his head. "He's developed a bit of a fan club."

"I know Lee is with the pink-haired girl… who's left?"

"I'll go looking, Kazekage-sama."

"Very good… oh, and we'll discuss your odd behavior later."


The two patches of red clouds moved swiftly through the woods, the material billowing in the wind. All of a sudden, their attention was snared by an odd sight. Not far in front of them, there was a skipping, black-haired man in a dress.

"Isn't…isn't that your brother?" Kisame asked.

Itachi stared at the skipping figure a few seconds longer before moving into his path.

"Huh? Onii-chan?" Sasuke asked.

"Damn it… it is him."

"Sorry onii-chan, I'm not interested in you anymore. I just spent the last few years training for something else."

"Dare I ask what?"

"I'm not telling." Sasuke pouted. "Oh… wait for me my little daffodil!"

With that, he made his way around his brother and continued skipping towards Konoha.

Kisame walked over to his partner, who had an incredibly disappointed look on his face. "Looks like your clan really is screwed."

"B-but… does he have to be that weird about it? I mean sure, a number of people figured it out for me but… they were all mostly fan girls who didn't care otherwise…"

"Yeah, but there wouldn't be any normal people figuring it out if you stopped making all those jokes about catching my 'eel'."

"Come on, you know you like it."


Naruto reached the front gates of the Hyuuga residence and slowed to a halt. Closing his eyes, he took in a deep breath. After two and a half years, was she still interested in him? Had she found someone else?

With a shake of the head, all those thoughts were dispelled. "Hinata-chan isn't that kind of person. Now just calm down and-"

"Hello Naruto." An oddly familiar voice greeted.

Naruto opened his eyes and saw the same masked face that he remembered from the past. "Ah! Aiyoru-sensei. How's it going? You're still here?"

"Yes, I'm 'still here'. As a matter of fact, I've been living with the Hyuugas since you've been gone. The master of the house pays quite well."

"Pays? For what?"

"Nartuo, by the orders of Hiashi, you may never see your precious person again."


Sorry for not having updated last week. On the bright side, I finally got an account on FictionPress. For anyone interested, I've uploaded the first chapter of my story. Look for author 'Shintoshi' or Story 'Spirit War'.

It's an Action/Adventure/Romance story that will deal more with romance for the time being than fighting (not that there isn't any). The basis of the story is that there are some people gifted with (a) trait(s) that develops faster than with normal humans and can develop to super-human limits; the trait is known as 'Spirit'. If it sounds like your thing, check it out. If not, there's still this one.

Now for reviews:

theif-uchia: interesting theory about demons. Could very well be true. I'm glad you liked the whole Come Come Paradise thing. The Akamaru thing... I don't get it...

TimeShifter: Not quite what you expected, ne? All that he did was guarantee those 30 months (for obvious reasons).

KunochiDreamer: Glad you liked it.

writerlover101 & Gohen-fire: Sorry for taking so long, but I'm glad you're enjoying the story.