Disclaimer: I don't own 'em. Gimpy and Sora are mine… hehe

Summary: Takes place four years after the rescue for Sasuke. Of course he gets rescued. Everyone is at least Chuunin and Anbu rank/training. Naruto is sent to the future with a jutsu mess up… Created by Kabuto and Orochimaru.

Rating: PG-13 to R. And soon to be rated M for later chapters, but I will get to that eventually.

Pairings: Hinata/Naruto, Sasuke/Sakura…. More pairings to come! Everyone will be a little OC… Sorry.

' ' Are inner thoughts

" " Spoken

Bold is Kyuubi speaking

Warning: Contains some more Fluff! XD Yay

Chapter 4: A Date? Team Seven's Conclusion.

Staring at the trembling mass, Ino blinked several times. 'Chouji, when will you learn to not walk around transformed?' She inwardly sighed. Walking over to the Akimichi, she placed her hand on his head and ruffled his hair. Looking up at his teammate, Chouji swallowed roughly.

"Ino, I'm terrified of all those scary girls out there. They won't leave me alone." Shaking her head slowly, Ino began trying to talk some sense into her portly teammate.

"You should know better not to walk around in the open like that, especially without Henge no Jutsu activated. Otherwise, your rabid fan girls will find you. I don't think Sora would be pleased with all those girls drooling all over you."

Chouji grimaced at the thought of Sora pounding him for all he's worth. "Sorry, Ino."

Ino threw her hands up into the air and sighed, "Lets get you off the ground then." Nodding as he stood up, Chouji stole a glance around the store and spotted a familiar tuff of wild blonde hair.

"Naruto!"

The blonde shinobi turned around and blinked at Chouji before giving him a face splitting grin.

"Yo! How's it goin'?" Asked Naruto.

Chouji strolled up to Naruto and knocked fists together in greeting.

"What are you doing in a clothing store with Ino?"

Eyebrow rose, "I could ask you the same thing." Giving his foxy grin he patted Chouji on the shoulder. "Ma, I'm just shopping for an overcoat of some kind to load weights into for my training. I got to be ready for the Jounin Exam if I want to proceed."

Nodding his head silently, 'Naruto will do well in the Exam, I hope I don't have to fight him.' Grimacing on the inside, Chouji knew just what Naruto was capable of. He witnessed some of the lesser spars between him and the Uchiha. They leveled part of the forest outside of the training grounds one time. Naruto had more stamina and chakra reserves than the Rookie Nine and Gai's team all put together and then some!

Shaking himself from his thoughts, "Doing stamina and speed training? From what I've witnessed, it seems you have more stamina than the whole of Konoha. Probably rival that of Tsunade-hime."

Smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head, he thought 'if only they knew.' "I think Tsunade-baba would give me a run for my money, she is a monstrosity when it comes to raw strength."

Chouji and Ino sweat dropped, both thinking, 'how can he say that about Hokage-sama and get away with it?'

Naruto straightened himself and shucked off the jacket Ino picked out for him. "Thanks a lot Ino, I think I'll take this one." He gave a small wave of his hand and turned on his heel. Before he could take two steps he felt someone leap onto his and lay down. 'I almost forgot about him, he was being quiet for awhile there.'

Chouji blinked in surprise after he noticed what was on Ino's shoulder was now on Naruto's head. He was so worked up he didn't even notice it. The muscle clad shinobi squinted to see what was exactly on top of Naruto's head.

"Smack!"

"Ouch, Ino! What the hell was that for?" Screamed the Akimichi.

"Not very observant, are you Chouji?"

Rubbing his head, he gave Ino a disgruntled look and proceeded to turn his head to try and look at Naruto again. The blonde kit and his companion were walking out the exit by the time he got a glimpse of him. Sighing inwardly, he put his hands in his pockets and turned to Ino once again.

"I'm glad I found you here, Shikamaru wanted to talk to you. Something about a spy mission."

Ino brightened at the idea she loved doing spy work. Of course with her Clan's jutsu, it made her job easy. Team 10 was put together for the purpose of spy operations. Shikamaru used his families' jutsu to bind the opponent, Ino would possess them and they would conduct their mission as planned. If the mission were a failure, Chouji would be used as back up for a distraction so they could make an escape.

"What kind of mission is it?"

Chouji shrugged, "I have no clue, he just asked me to tell you to meet him in the field where he usually is."

Ino sighed inwardly 'that lazy bastard. He's always on his back looking towards the sky instead of what's in front of him. I swear I have to outright beat his ass until he realizes the fact that I'm really interested in him and not Sasuke.' Putting her hands behind her back, she retreats to the door calling over her goodbyes to Chouji and telling him to activate the jutsu or otherwise suffer the wrath of Sora.

Chouji sweat dropped.

Rounding the corner, Gimpy perked his ears and sniffed the air. Naruto was heading to the Butcher's stand to get some dried beef for Gimpy as promised. Wandering in a daze his thoughts turned to Hinata. 'I wonder where I should take her tomorrow? I don't want to take her to the Ramen stand because I want this to be special. Maybe I should ask Sakura-chan which restaurant would be good for a first date?' Arriving at the Butcher's stand, he signaled the only man working there. "Some dried beef please." The Butcher nodded and went about chopping so beef before wrapping it up in a paper package and handing it over to Naruto. "50 yen." Naruto paid the man and turned to walk off to a bench near the proximity.

Sitting down, Gimpy leapt off of his head and into his lap, sniffing the contents of the package. Smiling softly as he unwrapped the package, he gave a few pieces to his fox and watched him eat it greedily. 'He must be hungry.' Naruto thought to himself. 'I need to find Sakura-chan; she said she would meet me for lunch. I'm getting kind of hungry myself.' As on cue, Sakura and Sasuke walk up to Naruto and stand in front of him.

Smiling widely, "Speak of the devil. I was about to go looking for you."

"Oh yeah! But there's something I wanted to talk to you about to Naruto." Said Sakura.

Naruto raised one brow and nodded silently. "Come with us, we have a lot to discuss, especially after what Sasuke-kun just told me."

"Where do you want to eat?" Asked the half starved shinobi.

Sakura smiled warmly at Naruto's actions, 'he's all stomach.' "Come, I've prepared a bento for you and we're going to our training grounds for this discussion." Sakura leaned closer to whisper into his ear, "I don't need any prying eyes or ears to listen."

The blonde shinobi gave a confused look and glanced towards the smirking Uchiha, nodding silently he scooped up his kit and started to follow after his teammates.

Arriving at the training grounds all three were silent the whole way there, they sat beside a basket full of bentos. Reaching her hand inside the basket, she distributed their lunch and sat down easily. Clearing her throat she began to speak, "Naruto, Sasuke has informed me of your new piece of information. I have examined the scroll from your Father and I tried to look up the medical history of the Uzumaki's. But I found nothing, so I went into your medical file and looked up the most recent blood work samples we took from your last mission. As you know, you do have a speedy healing process almost regenerative, but I'm not sure. I would have to do some extensive tests, but that's not necessary at this moment. I was looking at some of the most collected cells and it appears the scroll was right. You have an abundance of protein than and combined with your vast chakra reserves. It's almost like a bloodline limit. But it stumps me to think; having an abundance of protein would be a bloodline limit? Also, I was looking to see how many times you have actually been to the hospital. All of them were injuries, but you've never been sick in your life. I guess that would explain the abundance of all the vitamins and nutrients you carry in your bloodstream. Its like you don't have to take supplements or eat foods with the amount of vitamins. I can't believe I haven't realized this before, but you eat nothing but Ramen and you stay so healthy." She thought to herself, 'I wish I could eat anything and not gain a pound like the human garbage disposal over here.' She fumed inwardly.

With his face full of food and a thoughtful expression on his face, Naruto nodded silently taking all the information in. 'So that explains why I never get sick and all I eat is Ramen.'

"Thanks Sakura-chan!" He exclaimed happily. Gimpy jumped off his head to sniff the lunch that Sakura had packed for Naruto. He took a tentative bite out of some onigiri, after swallowing; he licked his chops and dove in for seconds. Naruto watched amusedly as his fox ate his lunch. 'I guess he got tired of dried beef.'

Sasuke listened intently to Sakura's explanation of Naruto's bloodline heritage. 'I guess she's still in shock that she found out about him being the Yondaime's son.' Sasuke smirked watching Naruto's pet rat eat his lunch. He wouldn't dare say that out loud for fear of him getting a slobbery shower (again). Sasuke grimaced on the inside. He washed his face five times before he went to look for his pink-haired teammate. 'I think I'm a closet ergophobia.'

Sakura watched Naruto and his fox fight over the last onigiri. She chuckled quietly. 'It's like those two are brothers, like Sasuke and Naruto are to each other.' She picked a piece of shrimp from her onigiri with her chopsticks and whistled low. Gimpy stopped and perked his ears letting Naruto have the last of his food. Sakura held out the food to the little fox and motioned for him to come near. Gimpy laid his ears back and stretched his neck out to her and sniffed cautiously at the offered food. He took a nibble then proceeded to engulf the whole bite.

Laughing softly, Naruto looked towards Sakura and expression on her face was utterly priceless. She had her eyebrows raised and a disgusted look on her face as she watched Gimpy scarf the food. 'I think he ate part of her chopsticks.'

"Ne, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked softly.

"Yeah?"

"Where would you take someone you like out to eat?" Naruto blushed two shades redder.

"Awe, Naruto, did you finally ask Hinata out?" Nodding his head and blushed even harder.

"Well, if it was me I would take her to a nice place. Like that new restaurant on the corner of 6th and 7th Avenue. I haven't been there myself, but I heard good things about it from Chouji and Sora."

"Thanks Sakura-chan."

Sasuke watched his two teammates go back and forth over the dating matter. Eating silently, he wondered what it would be like if he had someone of his own. 'Pretty soon Naruto would have Hinata. Chouji has Sora and I've seen the way Shikamaru looks at Ino when she isn't looking in his direction and vice versa.' Sighing inwardly he also thought, 'I know Sakura has backed off quite a bit in the last few years, and I haven't exactly given her the chance. In fact, I haven't given any girl a chance. There are only so many females in this village I can actually tolerate, Sakura being one of them.'

"Poof!"

All three members of Team Seven looked up to see their former sensei. "Yo everyone." Everyone sweat dropped.

Jumping down from one of the training stumps, Kakashi sat in between Naruto and Sasuke. "How are you doing, Naruto?" Naruto and Gimpy side glanced his ex-sensei and gave a grunt of acknowledgment.

"Oh? What's this? A little red furball?" Gimpy hissed than snorted at the comment. "Kakashi-sensei, I really think he can understand you. Although sometimes I think he can read minds too." Gimpy winked at Kakashi. Kakashi's eyebrow visibly rose and gave a bored look to the red fox. "You don't say?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. "Anyway, I found him after you left me at the park bench, he was wounded." Kakashi pulled out his signature perverted book and started to skim over the page to find where he left off. "Uh huh."

A vein popped on Sakura's forehead, "How can you read that trash, Kakashi-sensei!"

"Hmm? Oh this?" Pointing to his book. "It's great reading material, the author is a genius."

Naruto's brow rose at his answer, 'he reads about the exploits of a very horny old man peeking in on women in the bath.' 'He's not a genius, he's a pervert.'

Sasuke sweat dropped and shook his head putting all the contents back into the box.

A wicked gleam appeared in Gimpy's eye. You could see it sparkle if you watched him close enough. Crouching low, Gimpy leapt up and pounced onto the infamous perverted novel Kakashi was reading. He snatched it from the Copy Nin and darted off into the woods.

All Kakashi could do was stare at the little red fox high tailing it through the foliage. If he didn't have his mask on, you would probably see his jaw drop considerably. The former members of team seven watched the exchange and broke out into hysterics.

"Ha, Ha. That's what you get for being a pervert, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi's brow twitched and his posture went rigid. Having recovered from his shock, Kakashi bolted in the direction of the little red fox. Seeing their ex-sensei take off, they got up as quickly following the other two.

Gimpy made it into the trees and started to leap faster across each branch gaining speed.

Little did everyone know there was a dark shadow looming about 3 meters ahead, watching intently. Gimpy paused and sniffed the air; he jumped up and did a half twist landing on the branch beside it. Then he plummeted to the ground and ran faster than he has ever before. It was kind of hard to do especially carrying a lecherous book almost the size of him. Scampering through the foliage, Gimpy glanced back in hopes nothing was following him. Sensing his master nearing him, Gimpy leapt into the air and landed onto his shoulder.

Startling his master, Naruto almost fell off the branch. As he secured the fox on his shoulders he leapt down onto the ground. Gimpy shaking violently deposited the book in Naruto's hands and crawled into his master's shirt. All you could see was a tail twitching outside of Naruto's shirt. Holding the shaking mass, the blonde shinobi began to stroke him in hopes of calming his little critter down. Luckily it did the trick; Gimpy stuck his head out of his shirt and whimpered. The rest of Team Seven backtracked when they sensed their blonde dobe was missing. Coming to a halt the rest of them looked on at Naruto with puzzled looks on their faces.

"What happened?" Sakura asked with a worried look on her face.

"I don't know, he just jumped on me and buried himself in my shirt, he seems scared of something." Handing his ex-sensei his book, Naruto turned around and headed towards the training grounds with his team in tow.

"Sasuke, give me 10 meter perimeter check." Commanded Kakashi. "Understood." Answering the Copy Nin, Sasuke bounded off in the direction of the forest.

"Animals are familiar with their surroundings, and the way that little guy is acting, this can't be good." Kakashi stated firmly.

"Akamaru can sense other's chakra." Sakura replied. "Maybe Gimpy can too, and from the looks of it, it scared him badly." Kakashi raised a visible brow, "Gimpy? Is that what Naruto named him?"

Rolling her eyes, "yeah, I swear he comes up with the dumbest names Kakashi-sensei."

"Ma, to each their own." Kakashi opened his precious book back to the spot where he was. Sauntering off, Sasuke landed next to Sakura. "I found no one, but I detected a foreign chakra signature. He was powerful, but he tried to mask it. Failed miserably." Smirking as he said this.

"Alright, I'll go make a report. See you later Sasuke-kun." Winking as she turned to head to the Headquarters. Sasuke blushed a light pink at her gesture, 'did I just blush?' Thinking that he just blushed, 'I need to train to get my mind off her.' Following his teammates he jogged up to where Naruto was walking trying to comfort his fox. He pulled the scroll out of his pack and poked Naruto with it.

"Here's your jutsu scroll. I need to get back to training, if you need anything you know where to find me, dobe." Nodding distractedly, with his free hand he took the scroll from Sasuke's hand and moved to put it into his side pants pocket.

Thinking to him, 'I wonder what got Gimpy so worked up?' Absentmindedly scratching behind Gimpy's ears, he wandered into town. Gimpy calmed down a little at his Master's ministrations earning him a purr.

Back to Ino –

Walking to the other side of town, Ino came to large open field with a variety of wild flowers everywhere. She scanned the site for a familiar dark brown ponytail. Sure enough next to a large tree, there on the ground was none other than the #1 laziest ninja in Konoha. Executing a number of seals, Ino prepared her transportation jutsu so she could scare the shit out of Shikamaru. Activating the last seal, she poofed from the spot where she was standing to the spot next to Shikamaru. The beady-eyed ninja was still looking up at the clouds didn't even acknowledge her presence.

A vein popped on her forehead as she looked down at the lazy bastard. "Shikamaru!" Yelled the blonde-haired kunoichi. Shikamaru winced and stuck his pinky in his ear. Rolling his eyes from the clouds to the side where the blonde goddess stood with her hands on her hips, he let out an exasperated sigh. Extending his arm he patted the patch of grass next to him, motioning for her to take a seat. Reluctantly she sat down with thud. Closing his eyes he rubbed the bridge of his nose, 'this is so troublesome, but it's got to be done.' Folding her arms in front of her chest she looked expectantly at her teammate.

"What's the mission?" Asked the blonde.

Shikamaru leaned onto his elbows and looked over at Ino, 'she is so hot when she dresses like that.' Clearing his throat he began to go over what he'd been instructed to do.

"This is a spy covert operation. We will be infiltrating the Sound. Word has it, Orochimaru wasn't exactly all happy when he lost Sasuke to Naruto. There's some activity going on and we are to find out what he's doing exactly and report to Hokage-sama." "We need you to go in and snoop around a bit and gather some information."

Nodding silently, she glanced over at the endless fields of flowers she come to love so much. Seeing her distracted, Shikamaru took the opportunity to take in all of Ino's "assets". His eyes roved up to her face taking in the beautiful detail of her angelic looking face and ocean blue eyes. Unfathomable depths no one would be able to find their way out of. Moving downward he came to her voluptuous lips and slender neck. Imagining how much his head would fit into the crook of her neck where he would gently nip at the soft snow-white flesh, kissing his way down to her collarbone.

"Shikamaru!" Snapped out of his reverie, he coughed and looked up at Ino's face. Blushing a light pink he averted his eyes and sat up with his legs folded. 'Women are so troublesome.'

"When does the mission start?" Inquired Ino.

"We start two days from now and it will be a week long mission, this will be a four man team, including myself. You will act as the infiltrating spy, I will lead the team, Naruto is the back up and our Medic Nin will be Hinata. I want to try for a no casualty mission and hopefully there will be no injuries as well. We must be careful, Ino."

Shaking her head she looked over at her lazy ninja, smiling to herself, 'he looks cute when he's all serious like that.' Shaken from her thoughts, she looked up to see Shikamaru had already stood up and was now offering his hand to her. Blushing slightly, Ino took Shikamaru's offered hand as she was pulled to her feet.

"Come on, we have to tell Hinata and Naruto. I'm sure they will be easy to find." Shoving his hands in his pocket he turned and started to walk off. Yelling over his shoulder, "come on Ino!" She started to jog to catch up to her teammate and strolled beside him through the field with her hands behind her back.

Back to Naruto –

Wandering aimlessly, lost in thought, Naruto came across the Hospital. By now it was close to evening, and the sky was turning a brilliant pink and orange color. Looking at the sunset he was interrupted by someone running into him. Whoever it was, they bounced right off of him and landed on the ground. Opening his eyes, he peered downward to see the familiar blue-black hair and black mesh top with very short red running shorts. Blinking rapidly, said girl was looking forward to see the familiar khaki pants and black shirt. She blushed lightly and followed the long torso up to the owner's head that was smiling lovingly at her.

"A-Ano, I'm s-sorry N-Naruto-kun." Blushing two shades redder she turned her head so she couldn't look at him; 'this is so embarrassing, every time I meet him, one or both of us ends up on the ground.'

"Are you alright, Hinata-chan?" Blue eyes shining vibrantly as he reached for her hand. Pulled from her thoughts, Hinata looked up at his face and smiled warmly. "I'm alright, just took a tumble to the ground." She grabbed his hand as he hoisted her off the ground a little to forceful as she came roughly against his chest. Her face was on fire as she realized how close she was to her Naruto. He didn't realize she was basically hyperventilating, so he pulled her from his person and peered down at her.

"Hinata-chan, your face is red. Do you have a fever?" He placed his hand on her forehead to feel for her temperature. She felt cool to the touch so he placed his fingers under her chin and tilted her head upwards so he could see her beautiful face. Her eyes were closed tightly and her breath was ragged, taking his other hand, he brushed the back of his fingers down her cheek in hopes of getting a reaction. Her eyes opened slowly at the soft touch, looking up she saw him smiling down at her. A soft smile crept its way onto her face. 'Hinata-chan, you have a face of an angel.' He thought. Leaning down towards the Hyuuga heiress, she slowly closed her eyes as Naruto did. Her lips parted as his breath ghosted across her skin. So close…

"Ehem."

Slowly closing the distance between the couple, Gimpy wriggled his way out of his Master's shirt.

"Yip, yip!"

"Well if it isn't Romeo and Juliet."

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Crimsonails