The first thing Naruto noticed was that he couldn't see. He blinked once or twice but the room grew no lighter. He attempted to raise his hands to touch his face but was brought up short by a clink of metal and a sharp jab in the wrist. His legs were bound too. A chain ran between the shackles on his wrists to the shackles on his ankles. He struggled off his stomach and onto his knees.

His body protested the movement, the cold floor had stiffened his injured muscles and there was very little room to maneuver. He wiggled around more, kicking the stonewall then the soft body next to him.

For a fleeting moment, Naruto thought the person was dead and jumped away but only managed to bang his head on the wall.

"Stop moving," the harsh voice snapped and Naruto stopped moving.

"Who are you?" Naruto demanded. He had managed to get his knees under his body but held still as to not hit the person again. Only silence met his question. He dismissed the person for the moment and tried to stand.

He made it about half a foot up then smack his head painfully on the top of the cell and sent himself crashing back to the ground.

"Fuck," Naruto groaned but he couldn't even clutch his spinning head.

"I told you to stop moving," the voice rasped again.

"Who are you?" Naruto demanded through clenched teeth. "Where are we?"

There was only silence.

Naruto growled, frustrated. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. There. I introduced myself. Who are you?"

There was a long paused and Naruto fidgeted. He could only move a few short centimeters to the side and the ceiling was just above his head. He couldn't stretch out his legs because they hit the wall behind him so he wiggled forward on his stomach until he cracked his nose painfully on bars. Panting now, and feeling a tad claustrophobic, he struggled onto his back. His neck was bent uncomfortably on the bars and his knees were pressed into the ceiling but he felt more in control and could breath easier.

There was a sigh beside him as the person silently let his displeasure be known.

"Are you going to talk?" Naruto asked. He was much calmer now that he had taken stock of where he was. Not happier, but a bit more in control.

Blank silence was the answer, so Naruto went to poke the person but misjudged the distance and jabbed the boy painfully in the rib.

"Oi!" Naruto said louder. "Are you alive? Oi!"

"Yes," was the reluctant answer.

"You don't talk much do you?" Naruto chattered. The boy didn't answer. "That's okay, I talk enough for two people!"

The words echoed and fell flat. It was very cold and Naruto shivered despite the thick orange jacket he wore. Beyond the bars was an empty space and, while the small notch that he and the unknown boy shared was warm from their body heat, a cold draft wafted in and chilled his neck.

All he could remember was heading back through the woods towards Konoha Village. It had been five years since he had returned home. He had decided it was time to disappear for a while, grow a little before taking his Jounin exams. But the six month leave he had taken had extended into a year because he couldn't leave Kimura-san all alone during the winter with her baby and her husband missing. Then after that he had gotten sidetracked with Yamato-chan and her quest for her parents. Then it was Murai and the bandits near Sand Country. It was person after person, teacher after teacher, and for a while he had forgotten Konoha. It seemed easier out of the village and away from people who knew his origins and scorned him.

It wasn't until his travels had taken him close to Wave Country and he had seen the bridge that he had helped to protect and the spot where Haku had died when he realized he had been away from his precious people too long.

But, so it appeared, he would be away a mite bit longer.

Naruto braced his feet on the wall and slowly began to push on the bars with his shoulders. He gritted his teeth as the solid bars bit into his shoulders but pushed as hard as he could in the cramped space. The bars were embedded into the stone floor and melded deep so they didn't even budge. Naruto wasn't one to give up, so he pushed until his knees shook and his shoulder blades began to crack.

"Stop that," the voice grumbled.

Surprised, Naruto relaxed and, panting, turned his head to grin at the person beside him.

"Are you finally going to speak?'

"The bars won't move. The walls are too thick," the voice growled. "So stop moving."

"I might if you tell me your name."

Silence reigned, so Naruto shrugged and started to push again. He grunted in pain but the bars and the stone didn't even show signs of stress.

"Gaara."

"No, my name's Naruto," Naruto stopped pushing. He was starting to get overheated.

"My name is Gaara. And I remember you, Uzumaki Naruto."

Fear shot down his spine and he sucked in his breath. Gaara. That name still made his feet grow cold. It had been years.

"Gaara of Sand Country?" Naruto asked, trying to keep the waver out of his voice as he edged closer to the stonewall on his left.

This time Gaara didn't answer and Naruto spent a few tense minutes plastered uncomfortable against the wall as far as he could from the other ninja. He started to relax after realizing that if Gaara was about to attack him he would have done so all ready.

"Do you have any idea how we got here?"

Silence.

"You know, if you couldn't break out of here, and I can't break out of here, wouldn't it make sense to see if we can break out together?"

This time the silence was oddly thoughtful.

"I, for one, do not remember anything beyond walking. I didn't even sense anything. It was just outside of the Konoha border."

"Near the end of Fire country. I had completed a mission with Temari and we were attacked. I don't remember anything else."

"How long have you been awake?"

"Longer then you," there was a smirk hidden behind the remark and Naruto scowled. It seemed a common trait for ninjas to be competitive in the worst circumstances. "About half an hour," he complied.

Naruto was quiet for a while. "Do you think this has anything to do with us both having demons?"

"When is it ever about anything else?" Gaara shot back bitterly.

The darkness was good because Naruto couldn't see just how closed in he was. He hated small spaces.

"There has to be a way out, we got in here somehow," Naruto stubbornly kicked the wall his feet were pressed against and hissed as he banged his knee painfully on the roof. "Is there a door or something on your side?"

A pause. "Yeah. But I can't reach the lock. My hands are tied and I can't get them through the bars."

Naruto turned on his side and curled so his back pressed into the stonewall and his knees dug into Gaara's hip. This provided enough slack to bring his hands even with Gaara's. The Sand demon had jumped when he felt Naruto pressing into him but held still as Naruto ran his hands over the lock in the dark.

He formed three seals over the lock and they heard a small click. Gaara rubbed his free hands. "What was that?"

"I hate being bested by people," Naruto replied cryptically, remembering a day years and years ago when a certain Sasuke had known something about rope tying and lock picking jutsu he didn't. "Can you open the lock now?"

Gaara reached between the thick bars and easily lifted the latch. The door opened. He had to crawl out on his elbows with Naruto hot on his heels. Gaara stretched in relief, his back had cramped from being squeezed into a prison shelf for so long. Naruto, unfortunately, was still chained.

"A little help would be-" Naruto started but never finished.

He woke up some time later, in the woods where he had been walking, not far from the walls of Konoha.

Naruto sat up gingerly, a little embarrassed to be lying out on a well known trail where just anyone could walk across him. That would be a great welcome back, "Hey Naruto, how'd your travels go? Tripped over a root and knocked yourself unconscious did you?"

Did he trip? He glanced around and saw nothing.

A cold place…

…flash of light…

…red hair…

… shouting.

He shook his head and checked it for any bumps. Nothing. He stood up carefully and glanced around the bushes. Nothing. He started moving again, this time more then eagerness hurrying his stride. He didn't take kindly to people messing with his memory.

It was very anti-climatic. Naruto showed his hitane to the watch guards and found himself standing into the walls of his childhood home. Everything was exactly the same; he walked down the street and was struck with a weird sense of déjà vu.

Sure, the odd things changed. That corner shop used to sell books, not fish and the woman who worked at the vegetable stand now kept a watchful eye on two young children. But the structure, the atmosphere was the same.

Even the looks.

He resisted the urge to pull up his collar as he walked through the town. People openly gaped at him and he caught phrases like 'Isn't that-', 'He's back,' and perhaps the most hurtful of all, 'Damn, I thought he was dead…'

Wishing to be out of the stare of the people, Naruto ducked quickly into a shop, smiling as the teenager greeted him with a cheerful welcome. She was too young to know him, too young even to have been told stories or warnings to stay away from him. Naruto idly picked up a magazine and flipped through it. Perhaps this was why he stayed away for so long. He had been waiting for people to forget.

He stayed in the shop as long as he dared but the nagging incident in the woods forced him to hurry on towards the hospital.

It wasn't surprising that he hadn't run into anyone he had known. He suspected that most of them had moved on, perhaps were jounin or even ANBU now. They were probably all off on missions. That was all right, he would see them after he had his head examined.

The receptionist looked at him, frightened as she noticed his scarred cheeks, but took down his name with a shaking hand and darted off in the back.

It was a quiet day and the emergency room was empty so Naruto leaned against the desk and soaked in the sterile environment. He had spend an unhealthy amount of time in this place, usually unconscious or visiting someone. He grinned, the life of a shinobi, a few short minutes of glory then to your second home at the hospital for a patch job.

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

He turned back to where the pale receptionist had shoved a nurse in front of her like a shield. "Yes, that's me."

"It's been a while," the woman smiled shyly and Naruto blinked.

"Hinata? You're a doctor?" he knew he shouldn't have been surprised. She had always seemed out of place in the ninja profession.

"No, I'm practicing some healing jutsu. I'm a med-nin for my chuunin team," she explained.

Naruto frowned. If she wasn't a doctor or a nurse why was she examining patients? Then it dawned on him. Here he was, a dangerous demon who disappeared for five years suddenly back complaining of head injuries. Of course the woman would panic and drag the closet trained fighter to see him.

There was an awkward silence and Naruto's expression darkened. The woman trembled a bit but Hinata only looked bewildered. "It's good to see you," she said finally to break the silence. This was not the way she had expected to see Naruto again. When he hadn't returned after the six months she had gotten worried. Then years had passed and while she didn't forget him she had moved on with her life. She had always hoped to see him again but as time went on she had accepted that perhaps he had died.

But here he was, in the living flesh, and something swelled in her chest that she had been missing for years. Not the childish love she had one had in abundance, but happiness and relief. Naruto had glanced up with a small smile at her words.

"It's good to see you too, Hinata."

The receptionist had disappeared to the annoyance of Naruto and confusion of Hinata. She led him back to an examining room and left with a promise of a doctor.

It took longer then Naruto cared for so he fidgeted on the starch sheets of the examining bed. The thin blue cloth that separated him from the world didn't do a very good job and he could hear the coughs of the man down the hall quite clearly. Boxes of wrapped medical jargon were packed everywhere, the room was filled with things but they were in such an orderly way it looked almost empty. It made Naruto feel out of place.

Finally, Hinata was back with a young, skittish male doctor at her heels. She kept him company while the doctor first felt through his hair for lumps, the checked his eyes.

"Y-you say you don't remember anything? The doctor tried his best to be confident as he scribbled notes on his clipboard.

Naruto sighed. This was the third time the doctor has asked him this question. He was seriously starting to doubt his abilities. "I thought we went over this all ready."

The doctor let out a nervous laugh then stammered about talking to a superior as he bowed out of the office.

"That was weird," Hinata frowned from where she sat on a plain chair beside the bed. "Usually Dr. Murai is more outgoing. He's treated my team many times. That was how I got him down here, once I said your name most of the doctors left. I don't get it."

Naruto looked to where she was frowning slightly. She sat so properly on the chair, her hands neatly folding in her la and through her voice was still tiny and quiet she spoke with a confidence she rarely had exhibited before. Her hair was still short but less severely so, the layers softened out her child-like face and made her eyes seem more eager then stark.

"That's okay," Naruto sighed and flopped down on the bed. He propped his feet up on the sheets and Hinata winced as months worth of dried mud were shaken loose. Naruto only grinning in vengeance. "What have you been up to?" he asked. When he had left, she was getting ready for her third try at the chuunin exam.

"Nothing exciting," she smiled modestly. "Kiba, Shino, Chouji and I are assigned together for B-rank missions. My sister is all ready a jounin," at that her voice caught. "We are all very proud of her. I suppose you would like to hear about your old teammates, yes?"

"Sure," Naruto was actually extremely curious as to what had happened to them. Sasuke and Sakura had been chuunin when he left.

"Sasuke-kun is a jounin now," she said carefully, trying to gauge Naruto's reaction. To her relief he looked happy at that. "Sakura is taking classes at the college with me. We are both planning on taking the Level 3 med-nin test next week. She is very friendly, we often study together."

That was a tidbit of news he hadn't thought of. Sakura would have been perfect for a med-nin but the fact that she and Hinata got a long so well was surprising. Sakura and Ino had been friends since they were little and there had been very little time in Sakura's life to dedicate to other people.

"What about Kakashi-sensei, and Tsunade-baba?" Naruto questioned and Hinata stiffened in shock at the informal name.

"Kakashi-sensei is around, as far as I know he hasn't taken any new genin," she added when he asked. "Hokage-sama," she said sternly, "is healthy. Shikamaru-kun works for her now as an Advisor. Ino-san is taking the jounin exams next month, as is Shino."

"Wow, looks like our year has it good,' Naruto grinned. "But come on, you have to tell me the dirt! Who's hooked up with who? You gotta tell me Hinata, it's the sole reason I had to come back, the anticipation was killing me!"

Hinata blushed fiercely but had a wicked slant to her eyes. "Ino and Shikamaru are engaged."

Naruto's jaw dropped. "No way! I thought he would have been too lazy to deal with a high maintenance girl like her!"

Hinata started to relax and though her cheeks were still tinged with pink she started to gossip in earnest. "I don't know if he had much choice in the matter."

Naruto laughed at that and Hinata glanced at the ground, blushing at being so brass. They both stopped and looked up as the timid doctor opened the screens followed closely by a hooked nosed bald man who towered over him.

Without even talking, the older man formed several complicated seals on naruto's head then grabbed Naruto's chin with both hands to look into his eyes. Naruto snarled at the rough treatment but sat still. After a few minutes, the man released him.

"If it's a memory jutsu I don't know what one it is," the man snapped. "Perhaps you just fell, young man, and can't remember it. Now if you would stop wasting the hospital's time, we have real patients to treat."

Hinata looked shocked and embarrassed at the doctor's words but Naruto glared at the two men when they hurried out the door.

"Naru-"

"It's okay, Hinata,' he sighed and jumped off the bed. "I have to see Tsunade anyway. Catch you later?"

She nodded mutely, clutching the zipper to her vest nervously. He flashed her a grin and left.

He didn't even bother with the streets, instead traveling to the headquarters by roof. It was surprising how badly they treated him. He supposed that before they were used to him and thought of him as an unwelcome but harmless reminder. Now they had no idea if he was still harmless.

An overworked chuunin told him pointedly that 'the Hokage was very busy' and perhaps he should have made an appointment a few weeks ago. Naruto was about to plead his case, when the door opened and an equally harassed pile of folders stepped out.

"Umako, if you would please," the papers sounded stained and the chuunin hurried forward to take half of the files. Shikamaru's head was now visible. He started when he saw Naruto and almost dropped the rest of the folders.

"Naruto! You're back!" it was perhaps the dumbest thing Shikamaru had ever said in his entire life. Naruto grinned cheekily.

"Hey lover boy," Naruto waved. "How's Ino?"

Shikamaru was frozen on the spot, dumbfounded for the first time in years. "F-fine…"

"Nara-senpai," the chuunin, Umako, was staggering under the weight of his folder. "Where would you like these?"

"The filing room," he answered dismissingly. "Are you here to see the Hokage?"

"If she's not too busy," he snuck a glance at the rapidly turning red faced Umako. Shikamaru snorted, regrouping his dignity.

"The Hokage is never busy, not when she makes me do all her work," he scowled. "Surprise her."

To surprise Tsunade was incredibly easy, all Naruto did was walk in the door. She was busy cheating on the Go board Shikamaru had left behind when Naruto walked in and sat down across from her.

Of course, he was forced to endure her lecture about treating an old woman with respect as he helped her pick up the Go pieces and the stacks of paper that had once been in order. Shikamaru had shown up during the lecture but spent the time sitting in the chair Naruto had been seated in looking justified. After everything was cleaned up, Tsunade ordered Shikamaru out to buy her a coffee and he grumbled how it was coming from her pay this time.

"So you've finally decided to come back," she said after everything was settled. "I thought you had died."

"Thanks for your vote of confidence," Naruto scowled. "I just got caught up in things."

"For five years," she remarked then dropped the subject. She couldn't blame the boy for wanting a vacation from the villagers. "I suppose you need a place to stay, and for reasons we both know it is going to be hard to convince a landowner to give you a lease," she felt bad when he winced slightly but continued. "I'm sure we can find some one for you to stay with until we get it all sorted out."

"No one really knows I'm back," Naruto shrugged. "I can rough it in a hotel for a while. But I don't have much money," he grinned. "So I might need an advance pay, Tsunade-baba…"

Her left eye twitched. "I'm sure we can convince someone to take you in."

This was why he had come back, he decided. To make Tsuande's eye twitch, to be number one at surprising people and to tease people like Ino and Shikamaru. This was why he wanted to come home.

After a pay cut threat by Tsunade, it was figured that Naruto would stay with Shikamaru for the night as it was getting fairly late.

The genius chuunin shuffled away from the head office with his hands shoved in his pocket, obviously still debating whether or not it would be more troublesome to argue with the Hokage or with his fiancée. Because of the fading light he managed to avoid stares and whispers, especially since he was shadowing the highly respectable Hokage Advisor.

"We don't have a spare room," Shikamaru informed him as they climbed the stairs that wound up the apartment building. "So the couch will have to do. Ino is probably home now, ready to bitch about her day. But seeing you will probably make her bitch more."

Sure enough, Ino was in the kitchen, attempting to make dinner in a hurry because she had forgotten (again, according to Shikamaru) to go shopping after her shift at the school.

"N-Naruto!" she almost dropped the pan of vegetables. Shikamaru took it from her hands and placed it back on the burner. "W-what the hell- Shika- I mean, I'm glad you aren't dead!" she blurted out finally and shoved him into a chair around the kitchen.

"Do you want something? Water, tea?" then she turned and smacked Shikamaru on the shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me he was coming! I would have had dinner ready!"

Shikamaru grumbled under his breath as she ran around getting him a glass of cold tea. Naruto was a little uncomfortable with the fussing Ino did, but once dinner was served and they were seated the conversation was warm-hearted.

"Where have you been?" Ino was barely touching her food, too bewildered and shocked that Naruto was there. "I mean, Sakura and I had a bet going for the first year when you would be coming back but we kind of gave up two years ago."

"I've been all over," Naruto replied between shoveling food into his mouth. "I spent the first year in Fire country actually, on the other side near the northern border with a woman. She took me in for a few months when I was training because that place was horrible for bandits and her husband was away. Then he got stuck out of the country when he didn't make it back before the snow so I stay with them until he came back. They had the cutest little girl, Hitomi…"

They talked well into the next morning. Shikamaru and Ino finally went to bed around three and Naruto crashed soundly on the couch.

That was the way Naruto's life went for the rest of the week. During the day he spent the morning helping the prospective jounin with their casual training, went for lunch with them where he would meet an old acquaintance, then spent the afternoons in Tsunade's office playing board games while Shikamaru doodled unhappy faces in the margins of failed mission reports.

This peaceful little limbo existence would end, quite suddenly, on the eighth day of Naruto's return at around one o'clock in the afternoon when he was Tsunade were locked in a battle of wills over the chess board.

The front desk chuunin, the always harried looked chuunin, Umako, knocked on the door before uncharacteristically barging in. "Hokage-sama, please excuse the interruption but there is someone very important to see you!"

"Send them in," she said crisply. Shikamaru paused, his pen poised over the scroll and Naruto placed his king down carefully as three men walked past the chuunin into office.

"Sasuke-kun," she greeted one of the men. "Kakashi. Who is this?"

"Hokage-sama, sorry to be so late," Kakashi joked tensely. They were supporting a shorter body, probably in his late teens, who looked utterly exhausted. "But you see, we found this guy just lying there and-"

Naruto snorted and the two looked over at him. They dropped their bundle in surprise. "Naruto!" Sasuke gasped.

If anything, the jounin had gotten even more suave and mysterious while Naruto was gone. Kakashi looked the same as always, though Naruto suspected that once hair was turned grey it couldn't go any other colour.

The boy they had dropped groaned and dragged himself to his knees. The hood that had been covering his face fell off and revealed a shock of red hair.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Gaara's voice was gritty. "I'm going to kill you."