As soon as Naruto had reached his apartment, he threw himself on his bed, without changing out of his ninja garb.
He sighed as he stared at the ceiling for a while, trying to mentally review what had happened in the last couple year.
The first thing that came to mind was the day that Sasuke had escaped from Orichimaru's clutches. He and Jiraiya had literally ran into the young Uchiha on that day.
Naruto had progressed well by that time. The two years spent with Jiraiya had done wonders to Naruto's shinobi abilities, and the pair was about to make their annual trip back to Konoha. Naruto smiled as he remembered the eagerness he had felt that day, an eagerness that was caused by his desire to see Sakura.
After the failed attempt to capture Sasuke before he reached Orichimaru, Naruto and Sakura had gotten rather close, or, at least that's what Naruto had thought. They helped comfort each other over the loss of their comrade at first, and eventually began to hang out together whenever Naruto would make his month-long return. They had spent a lot of time together, catching up on events that had happened while Naruto was gone, training together, going shopping together, and generally becoming the best of friends.
Naruto was particularly anxious to get to Konoha, because he had thought the time was right to finally ask Sakura out on a real date. He had had everything planned out, and was reviewing it, when he was rammed into in the side by some unknown object. When he turned his head to look at the offender, he had found himself staring into a pair of red eyes; red eyes, with three commas in them.
"Sasuke?!" Naruto had cried, "Is it you?"
"Naruto, there's no time, we have to get him to Konoha, he's hurt bad!" Jiraiya had yelled.
It was then that Naruto had noticed a large, gaping gash on Sasuke's back.
"Right!" Naruto had responded, and they were off.
It seemed that they had reached the village just in time, for Sasuke had lost a lot of blood it seemed. Naruto recalled waiting in the waiting room with Sakura and Kakashi, hoping that the Godaime was doing a good job on fixing up Sasuke. When Tsunade had come out of the emergency room, telling them that he was fine, Sakura had cried herself silly, and Naruto had to hold back his own tears.
For awhile, Sasuke was in recovery, and afterwards, he had been sent to the Hokage's office to be questioned. Even though they were all delighted that Sasuke had come back, the fact had still remained that he had run away from the village, and was still a traitor. But that had soon been fixed, for it seemed that not only had Sasuke escaped from Orichimaru, he also was able to manage to steal some of Orichimaru's plans from his base. After that, Sasuke had been fully reinstated to a Leaf shinobi.
After that, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke spent all their time together, telling each other in turn what had happened to themselves in the past two years. Sakura told Sasuke about her training as a medical-nin, while Naruto related his training with Jiraiya. In the end, Sasuke told them about how he was able to escape from Orichimaru and his army of Sound ninjas.
"I snuck off during the night," Sasuke had told them, as they sat in a small restaurant, "And I actually had a smooth travel back here until I was a day away from the village. About twenty of Orichimaru's men attacked me all at once."
He related the battle, and how he had managed to kill all them, but not without sustaining heavy damage. After that, there had been an awkward silence between them that was suddenly ended by Sasuke, who abruptly asked Sakura to see him alone. Before Naruto had known it, Sakura was going out with Sasuke, and he, Uzumaki Naruto, was left alone, once again.
Naruto snapped himself out of the memory, and stared up at the ceiling again.
"It's my fault. I waited way too long, so stop bitching about," he muttered to himself.
No kid, it ain't your fault, it's that damn Sasuke's fault Kyuubi said slyly.
"Shut up. It's not his fault, so just shut up," Naruto told the demon fox savagely.
Heh the Nine-Tails snorted quit joking yourself kid. We both know it's pretty boy's fault. If it weren't for him, that whor...I mean Sakura would've been yours.
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!" Naruto screamed, as he quickly applied a sleeping jutsu he had created himself for these type of situations.
You know it's true... Naruto heard Kyuubi say before the jutsu immediately rendered both of them unconscious.
there you go, three new chapters, hot off my hard drive! hope you guys enjoyed, and please review if you can spare some! any questions/comments/concerns about the story so far, or any suggestions for the next chapter of the story, feel free to do so in your reviews