So, we saw a little Romantic episode last time. I hope you all liked it. I've not attempted such things and themes much at all, and I fear that I am really terrible at it. I was surprised to not receive as many reviews. Don't take this surprise for disappointment, mind you. I was only surprised.

Well, I'm having a little trouble with this story. I don't think it will be much longer. I'm just trying to find out how I'm going to end it. I have some ideas that I'm attempting to piece together. Unfortunately, as good as some ideas can get, not everyone can put every idea in and get something good.

This chapter will contain a version of Naruto's and Sakura's fight with Kakashi to attain the bells after he returns in the manga. I remember bits and pieces of that battle, and will try very hard to make this original and yet classic as possible. We're going to finally see just how much our boy Uzumaki has grown.

Hours later, it was mid-morning in Naruto's apartment, and Sakura stirred, awakening to the sound of the breeze outside his window. She kept her eyes closed as she pulled herself into Naruto more, breathing in his scent. Her face was buried in his unclothed chest as she had both her arms wrapped around him like a teddy bear… A very big teddy bear. Her legs were tangled with his under thin sheets. She smiled.

"You're awake?" asked Naruto. She jerked only slightly and looked up at him. He was looking down at her with a smile plastered across his face, his blue eyes swimming with emotion. "Good morning, Sakura."

"Good morning Naruto," she replied with her own, equally brilliant smile. "How long have you been awake?"

"About thirty minutes is all," said Naruto. "I didn't want to wake you up just yet, so I let you sleep a little longer." He hugged her warmly. "But seeing as how you're awake now, I think it's time to get up."

"I have an idea," said Sakura as she put on her sandals and tidied her hair. "Why don't I make you breakfast? I can fix you some of that bacon and eggs you liked. You still like that, right?"

"I'd love it if you would," said Naruto. "Thanks." Sakura went about making the promised meal, and not long after, they were seated at the table, eating happily, just like the good old days. When they were finished…

"Naruto," said Sakura. "If you don't want to answer, it's okay, but I wanted to know what made you come back?"

"What?" asked Naruto.

"Why did you return to Konoha?" asked Sakura. "I'm not complaining, so don't take it the wrong way, and it's okay if you don't feel like answering."

Naruto put down his fork and rubbed his belly. "It was concerning Akatsuki and Orochimaru's gang," he answered. Sakura's curiosity was piqued. "They are Konoha's biggest enemies, and recently, they got into a huge battle."

"Really?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah," said Naruto. "Now, I haven't told anyone but Tsunade, so you might want to keep this quiet." Naruto looked around, as though he expected someone to be listening in on their chat. "You see, Orochimaru was pissed off when he found out Sasuke was dead."

Sakura's face fell slightly. Naruto quickly pressed on. "He eventually found out that it was Itachi and the Akatsuki that killed his chosen host. Afterwards, he spent a long time apparently planning his next move. He found a new body in the mean time, and a couple months ago, he found and assaulted the HQ of Itachi's gang."

"No way," said Sakura with a gasp.

"Yeah," said Naruto. "It was a very bloody battle. Of course, Orochimaru's group was mostly nins from Sound, but he had a lot of missing nins in his crew as well from countries all over the world. Their entire force was met with a stalemate against the Akatsuki. Both sides suffered heavy losses, and I mean heavy. I came across the battlefield a couple days after the incident with Jiraiya, and I interrogated a dying nin under Orochimaru. He told me all that I've told you."

"That's so weird," said Sakura. "I mean, what if our enemies totally destroyed each other without us having to lift a single finger?"

"It'd certainly be convenient," said Naruto. "But no one knows what either of them are planning now… It's kinda scary. I tried watching things for a while and keeping tabs on them, but I couldn't find out anything."

"So you just came back to tell Tsunade about Orochimaru and Akatsuki?" asked Sakura. Naruto realized he made it sound like he wasn't there to do anything more than business. Honestly, that was the main reason. To him, it was just a plus that he'd have been able to stop by and see his Sakura again. His mission was top priority.

"Sakura," said Naruto. "I was so glad to be able to see you and be next to you again, that it clouded my mind almost constantly while on my way here." Naruto had in a way effectively evaded a direct answer. Again, he didn't lie. All he could think about was her on his way back.

"You're leaving again," said Sakura. Naruto froze. It wasn't a question. It was a statement. It was a truth. He swallowed hard, trying hard to ignore the sizable lump in his throat. "You didn't intend to stay here in Konoha."

"No," said Naruto simply. They sat for a minute in silence.

"You said you were going to be staying, Naruto-kun," said Sakura. "You told me you didn't want to leave again."

"And that's true," said Naruto. "I don't want to leave again. Believe me, Sakura, when I say I would like nothing more than to settle down here in this town for the rest of my days. I would love that luxury… but I've been cursed to live a less than easy life, and I have to deal with it in he best way I can. Itachi is still after me. I haven't met him yet, but I feel every day like he'll be just waiting for me around the corner. Every day I wake up thinking about it, knowing the time is coming closer."

"But you've been training," said Sakura. "I can see it, feel it in your chakra that you emit. You are substantially stronger than you were. You've grown so much."

"Sakura, my training, I'm afraid, is not close to enough to take on Itachi," said Naruto. "You are right, I am a changed ninja. Jiraiya has taught me much, and I've even taught myself my own tricks with lots of practice, but I am still not as strong as you make it sound.

"Sakura, I'll still be in town for another day or two," said Naruto. "Please, make my stay here happy. I don't want to think about any more sad thoughts. Let's enjoy the time we have and not worry about the future. Please?"

"Oh, alright," said Sakura. She couldn't believe what she was saying. Of course it's not alright. I thought I had him back forever. I thought he would never leave me again, that I'd always be able to hold him, that he could always be able to hold me! This isn't fair! No it's not alright!

"Greetings!" said the voice of Hataki Kakashi from his window. Sakura jumped at his sudden appearance. Naruto, however, had sensed his presence seconds before he arrived. His teleportation technique was detected by Naruto before he'd even arrved.

Kakashi didn't let on, but he knew immediately that Naruto was well aware of him being on his way before he even arrived. I knew he was stronger.

"What's up Kakashi?" asked Naruto with a smile. Kakashi smiled through his mask. His benevolence doesn't seem to have changed though… I somehow sense much angst in him though. Something troubles him greatly.

"I was wondering if you, and maybe even Sakura, would be interested in a little bit of a friendly exhibition," said Kakashi. "You know, for old time's sake, both of you against me."

"Really!" exclaimed Naruto, jumping from his chair excitedly. "Hell yes!"

"I'm glad to see you're still as excitable as ever," said Kakashi with a laugh. "Sakura?"

"Sure," she said, putting on a fake smile. "I'll tag along. I'm afraid I may be out of your league though. You two would overpower me."

"Come on Sakura-chan!" said Naruto, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her toward the window. "We'll follow you Kakashi!" Kakashi descended from the window with a leap, and Naruto followed him right off the ledge and into the street. Halfway through the jump, he curled Sakura toward him and maneuvered her into his arms, landing gently below with athletic agility she'd never seen.

He set her down as he noticed Kakashi had already taken flight. I see. H's already testing my ability. My ability to follow effectively. He was already several houses away, leaping rooftops with ease. "Sakura, how fast are you? Can you keep up?"

"With Kakashi!" asked Sakura. "Are you crazy?"

He scooped her into his arms again and took off into the street. His running pace was fast, very fast, especially for someone hindered by additional weight. Gaining speed, he caught up with Kakashi, still on the rooftops, and he jumped up to follow on his own turf. Kakashi glanced back and noticed the youngster was effortlessly keeping pace with him while simultaneously carrying Sakura in his arms.

Kakashi zigged and zagged along the rooftops, but Naruto was constantly on him, never a step behind. He couldn't loose the kid. He was already using chakra to run faster than he normally spared for running, but it looked like Naruto wasn't breaking a sweat in the least. He decided it better to end the chase now before he exhausted himself.

Landing on top of a large, flat-roofed building, Kakashi turned to see Naruto already standing behind him, setting Sakura down gracefully. She looked a little exhausted herself. Naruto just smiled victoriously. Kakashi realized that Naruto was a lot stronger than he used to be, and the boy knew it. Kakashi also realized that the kid knew he had just beaten him hands down in a chase. Granted, Kakashi wasn't trying too hard, but neither was Naruto.

"Well done Naruto," said Kakashi, regaining his composure. "You are very fast. You've trained well. Our exhibition will have to be held in the forest. I fear if we were to go at it here, the damage would be catastrophic, wouldn't it?"

"It would indeed," said Naruto, grinning. "I'll lead… Try to keep up, sensei"

Naruto disappeared, and Kakashi had to do a double take, straining himself to follow his trajectory. Shit he's fast… Too fast. Kakashi also realized that Sakura was gone too. He picked her up and then took off! My God, he's completely different!

Kakashi caught up with Naruto, straining and pushing himself harder and harder to keep up. He ran alongside the blonde boy, who was watching with a grin on his face still. Was he still playing? Kakashi hoped not, but at the same time, was very proud.

Naruto beat Kakashi to the woods by only a couple feet, about half a second altogether. They skidded to a halt and faced each other. Naruto again gracefully grounded the girl in his arms, whose hair was all over her face. She tried to brush it out of her eyes. "Naruto, you messed up my hair!" she said angrily.

"Gomen, Sakura," he said sheepishly. "You still look beautiful. Don't worry." Sakura instantly forgave him and gave him a peck on the cheek, thanking him for his compliment. Kakashi smiled to himself at his former students' affection for each other, but was at the same time saddened to know that Naruto would no doubt be leaving again. It was a shame, but Kakashi understood completely what he had to do.

"Let's begin," said Kakashi. He held up two bells and tied them to the belt of his flak jacket. "You remember the game. Retrieve the bells with intent to kill me in every strike. Of course, I'm in no position to punish you two for failure, but I'll reward you by buying dinner if you can snatch them from me.

"Ichiruka Ramen, here I come," said Naruto, posing for an attack, grinning. "Kakashi, you will be buying me a nice, steaming bowl of Ramen before the night is over… And my victory will be decided in five minutes or less." ( I do hope that I spelled the Ramen Bar's name right. I probably didn't. Since I'll be needing it in the next chapter, it'd be nice to get a review with the correct full name. Anyone who submits the review will have their most recent story read, reveiwed, and then advertised on my next chapter's author notes.This means I have to have the link to your profile page with the review Thanks.)

Such confidence! Thought Kakashi. Who does he think he is? Does he think he's that strong? I can't be sure about him, but I don't think Naruto's self confidence is misplaced… I better watch myself. Perhaps telling him to try and kill me wasn't a smooth idea.

"Just come and fight me," said Kakashi, taking his battle stance. "You have five minutes. That's your gamble. If it's not won in five minutes, no Ramen. If I beat you in five minutes… you buy me Ramen."

"Deal!" shouted Naruto. Kakashi was thrown off by the boy's confidence still. He wasn't in the least bit phased by Kakashi's return gamble. In fact, it seemed to fuel Naruto even more, assuring him a sure victory. This could get very ugly.

"We won't play around then," said Kakashi, moving his hand up to the headband around his forehead. He lifted it ceremonially from his left eye to expose the swirling Sharingan eye. It was blood red. Naruto smirked confidently again. This was going to be fun. He knew it.

Tsunade sat in her office, massaging her temples to try and alleviate some stress. Sure, they were I mostly peaceful times, but being Hokage was still very trying, and the recent news about Akatsukin and Orochimaru from none other than Naruto was troubling. She got out a crystal globe and peered into it. Where is that blonde abomination of insanity?

His image appeared to her in the ball. He was crouched, prepared to attack Kakashi, Sakura nearby. A friendly skirmish? No doubt this could be interesting. She stood up and jogged out of the office, opening the door and closing it loudly. The anbu and her secretary gave her a troubled look before asking what in the fourth's name had driven her to just leave.

"Naruto and Kakashi are clashing!" she called over her shoulder, starting to run. "it's bound to be a good match up." The two Anbu exchanged a glance at each other. A silent agreement was made. There's no point in guarding the Hokage's office now. Why bother? Perhaps a little trip to the woods to see the fight would provide a break from the monotony.

They ran away down the hall, leaving the stunned desk secretary in their wake. "Wait for me!"

Naruto made the first charge at Kakashi, and he leapt with a primal roar into the air. Kakashi waited for him to descend. Naruto's flying kick landed on the crossed arms of Kakashi, causing him to skid backwards on his toes. As Naruto recoiled backwards though the air, he tossed two kunai as quick as lightning.

Kakashi looked up from behind his defensively placed arms to see the kunai practically right on him. He turned his body 90 degrees as they soared past him. They would've struck his shoulders, not direct attacks. This sent off alarms in his head. Naruto had wanted his to turn exactly like he did, which meant he was already preparing something.

It was a basic distraction technique. Make your opponent focus on a thrown weapon while you make your charge from the side. Kakashi turned around as fast as he could to see Naruto running at him with a kunai in each hand… All six hands.

Naruto wasn't one. He was three. It dawned on Kakashi a little too late. Kakashi had been forced to look away for a period of time just long enough for Naruto to make the hand seals for the Kage Bunshin. He didn't see Naruto's trademark attack coming at him. They were just there, all three of them, their sharpened blades prepared.

Of course, the Sharingan was a huge helper. He saw where all three of the attacks would be placed a split second before they even happened. With amazing agility and flexibility, he arched backwards to avoid the horizontal lunge of the first clone. (Or was that the real Naruto?)

Bending up again, he jumped over a slide tackle attempt by the second. Again, Kakashi realized this was bad. Naruto had forced him to jump, and dodging in mid air was very difficult against a skilled ninja. There was still one Naruto left, and hiskunai drove up towards the copy ninja's chest.

Kakashi pulled himself into a roundhouse kick to smash the weapon out of Naruto's hand. Naruto himself hadn't been hit. All three were still there, now surrounding him, and he didn't know which one was Naruto or a clone.

This is where it would be nice to have a Byakkugan for a right eye, thought Kakashi amusedly. His reasoning, of course, was that the Hyuuga clan's bloodline eye had the ability to see chakra flows, and thus detect clones made of chakra, like a Kage Bunshin.

Tsunade and two following Anbu, of course, attracted the stares of many people in Konoha, especially other Anbu, who were always the most perceptive of nins. "What's going on?" asked a ninja to one of the trailing Anbu.

"Kakashi and Naruto are having a small fight. We're going to watch."

"Uzumaki?" asked the ninja. "He's back?" This ninja was Naruto's first instructor, Iruka. He stopped and watched them run off, tears welling up in his eyes. His favorite student was home. For what reason, he knew not. He had to see him. First, however, he took off into the village to find some people.

Naruto was little stunned when Kakashi took the initiative of attacking first. He targeted one of the Naruto's without any weapons. As soon as Kakashi moved, the other two closed in from behind with great speed. He had one shot at taking out the first clone before the other two were there.

He raised a fist to strike, and he saw where the Naruto was going to defend, courtesy the Sharingan. He drove his foot into the open spot under his chest. The clone exploded into smoke as he turned around and armed two kunai with blinding speed. Using each hand, he parried the kunai of his two opponents, and then he pushed them backwards, summoning the chakra into his arms for his bidding.

The clones skidded backwards and stood next to each other. Kakashi briefly wondered why they had stopped. An alarm went off in his head when they each started making hand seals he'd never seen before. They were fast… very fast. The making of the seals was perfect, passing in a blur. The series, he imagined, would've taken himself a fell two seconds to make. He noted that Naruto had finished them in just a little over one second.

"Chakra Release: Barrier no Jutsu!" they shouted simultaneously. Kakashi's swirling Sharingan went to work on the new jutsu technique he'd just witnessed. For a second, nothing chakra-related happened. However, this was just a slight delay. A transparent blue dome had sprang up, fifty feet in diameter, with Naruto as its center. This left Kakashi just a few feet from the edge. He looked around at the marvelous work or jutsu. He knew immediately that this barrier kept them in, while keeping anything else alive out. They were alone… All three of them.

"It is a technique that requires two people to activate in absolute symmetry," said the pair of Narutos together. "Which make it almost impossible to two individual beings." Kakashi was deeply impressed.

"Made entirely of chakra," said Kakashi, looking at the blue, wavy barrier. "Very nice."

"No stalling," said the two Narutos. "My dinner is on the line. I've got four minutes and ten seconds left."

(Yes, all that happened in lest than fifty seconds)

Unfortunately for Kakashi, both the Naruto clones disappeared into smoke. His eyes widened. Very seldom was the ninja shocked at anything. All three of them he had been fighting were clones. He knew Naruto was done this more than once, giving the impression that one of the people fighting was real, when all were in fact Bunshins.

But there was nothing else sealed in the barrier. If the real Naruto was outside, then he couldn't get in. Kakashi turned around, looking. They were in a clearing. There were no trees in the dome which could be used to hide in. Not even a rock laid nearby.

Perhaps a Genjutsu? But Naruto's not an illusion jutsu ninja. Granted, he's got all kinds of strange quirks, but I've never seen any illusion techniques from him.

Kakashi realized it wasn't an illusion. For one thing, the Sharingan made it significantly easier to avoid being fooled by Genjutsus when put up against a foe without a Sharingan of his or her own. For second, he didn't have time to contemplate the Sharingan's usefulness, for a hand shot out of the ground and grabbed his ankle.

Naruto was under the earth. Amazing. A second hand reached up and grabbed his other ankle. He was completely rooted to the ground, and Naruto was using some good chakra to enforce his trap. Out of the ground behind him burst Naruto…

But his hands were still holding him to the ground, so how could Naruto be up here still? More Kage Bunshins were in this fight than Kakashi had been under the impression. Kakashi had to summon a lot of chakra to his legs to jump out of the trap. Naruto's hand barely missed the bell tied to his belt.

Kakashi went soaring up and flipped so his feet landed on the roof of the barrier. He kicked off of it to the ground, soaring like a rocket as he charged in his left hand a sparking ball of blue lightning. It was roaring with power now. Of course, Naruto recognized it as the Chidori. The power was tremendous.

Kakashi struck not the space where the standing Naruto was, but instead targeted the center of the dome in the ground. His clawed hand hit with tremendous force, causing the soil to glow blue for half a second before it all exploded in a flash of blue light.

The chakra blast exploded the barrier. It was either that, or Naruto had brought down the barrier. When the dust dissipated, a clearly scratched and torn Naruto stood nearby. He'd been touched by the blast radius of the attack. "Of course, the barrier only remains standing if the two conjurors of it are in tact. That means there is no longer more than one of me."

The ground they had been on was a crater. "You weren't aiming for me. You just wanted all Bunshins gone. Good move."

"Got any new techniques you can show me?" asked Kakashi.

"This one's kinda unoriginal, but I think you'll like it," said Naruto. He powered a couple of simple hand seals. Kakashi knew all too well it was another Kage Bunshin technique. Ten Naruto's appeared in a row, grinning wildly. "Ready or not…"

Kakashi dropped into a fighting stance. The ten Narutos also took their fighting stance.

"HERE WE COME!"

This, of course, is my rendition of how the old test goes for Naruto and Kakashi. It's a bit more extreme, obviously, than the manga edition of it, but I'm trying to original. Oh, and these techniques will be used again in the future, like the Barrier no Jutsu. I'm sorry about the crappy names for the attacks to come, but I'm not fluent in Japanese(yet), and can only hand out when the English would be. There is more of this fight to come obviously.

Oh, and by the way, we will be seeing Orochimaru and Itachi soon. Probably very soon, like in the next chapter.

And on a final note, if anyone's searching for free downloads of all the Naruto mangas, head to It's a great website that requires only that you sign up with a username. They don't ask for money, and they don't send annoying emails either. All you do is register for a name and password, and you're in for all the free naruto music and manga you want. And if you pay them for a special membership, you can even download the anime eps as they're released in japan. Man, I wish I had money to spare.