Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of the characters that appear in the anime/manga series. I like cake.
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"That Naruto kid… it seems he's returned to Konoha."
"Really? Wow… It's been over two years…"
"…"
"…"
"Sakura-chan… you could sit there and keep shuffling that paperwork you weren't assigned to do, or you could stop pretending it's not a big deal and just go see your old teammate…"
"…busted."
"He and Jiraiya just entered Konoha through the north gate a minute ago. I'm sure if we stood between there and that Ichiraku place he likes, we won't miss each other. Let's go."
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SEX AND SENSUALITY
A "Three Years Later" Naruto fanfiction story
Based on the anime and manga created by Masashi Kishimoto
Written by Enigma of Bishieness.
Chapter Two: Whoa, a reunion!
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"So you're telling me everyone from our old class was promoted? I'm dead-last again?"
Recent studies have shown that the average noise level of downtown Konoha decreases considerably whenever Uzumaki Naruto leaves the village. Nobody knows why. One, however, does tend to suspect certain reasons as soon as he arrives back. The Ichiraku, curiously enough, also happened to be the usual source of all this noise. Once again, the reason for this remains completely unknown.
"I told you, ero-sennin, I told you! I knew we should have stopped for that Chuunin exam over at the hidden Grass last year, but of course, you chose the perfect time to drag me halfway across the continent, to Rain country. Told me you were going there for a highly important meeting… funny thing, when I had to drag my drunken sensei out of a brothel! What kind of crappy teacher puts a bunch of prostitutes over his student's Chuunin promotion, anyways?"
Naruto turned, shouting at his unfortunate sensei. Unfortunate, because Jiraiya was carefully trying to remain discreet this entire time. Probably had something to do with the fact that he had carefully positioned his telescope perfectly, aiming between two stools and two pairs of legs, and centering directly upon a certain Hokage's robes, right where the cloth slipped a bit and happened to reveal a very enticing area of skin, for the delighted pervert.
"Oh, hush, boy. They were triplets, you wouldn't understand." Jiraiya hastily packed away the evidence of his guilt, although the new crimson color his cheeks were sporting undermined his attempts rather well. "Besides, what sort of lousy student yells at his teacher?"
Tsunade had, as all well trained ninja do, noticed Jiraiya's telescope, as well as it's target, very soon after it's emergence onto the table. Of course, it would have taken far too much shouting to break his perverted concentration before, but now that the other sannin had been momentarily distracted from his activities, she would be able to throw out a few choice threats, without expending unnecessary effort.
Jiraiya turned back to his bowl of ramen, which was still mostly full, due to the lack of attention it had been paid so far. As he started digging in, Jiraiya could feel a curious pressure on the side of his head, as if someone were trying to bore holes there.
His face still red from the telescope incident, Jiraiya chanced a glance out from the corner of his eyes, turning his head just the slightest to get a better angle.
He saw the Hokage sitting idly, as if in deep thought, and chewing on the ends of her chopsticks. Without so much as moving her head, she ostentatiously lifted her left hand, and swiftly drew her thumb across her own neck, mentally decapitating Jiraiya. He turned white, and decided sleeping outside the Konoha walls would be an excellent idea tonight.
Uncommonly known fact: Turning white while one was already red is a notably bad idea. The result… rosy pink!
Jiraiya turned back to his bowl, again, attempting to retain his remaining dignity throughout the rest of this meal. Which was made rather difficult by Naruto's repeated mutterings of "stupid sannin" and the like. The ranting soon died down, and Naruto attempted to start another conversation.
"So, Sakura-chan, who'd you take the Chuunin exams with?"
-----
Shadows danced over the stone walls, the fire from the apparently lone torch barely illuminating the stone, and distinguishing floor from stairwell. The staircase led down, into the abyss. A light pair of thumps was the only sign of someone ascending the steps.
"Kisame, you act as if you thought I was trained in medical jutsu."
A dark-haired figure was the first to reach the top of the steps, followed shortly by s much taller, more intimidating figure. The two were cloaked within a silky material. A dark, lifeless shade of blue was rather ruined by the blood red clouds embroidered onto the cloaks. Akatsuki. Hoshigaki Kisame. Uchiha Itachi. The two missing-nin's presence undoubtedly meant some blood was shed, somewhere.
"So we're just leaving him there, then? That's a rather… hateful thing to do to an old acquaintance of yours…"
The shedding of blood always had a bit of an effect upon Itachi. His unusual patience with people in general, and his partner in particular, was usually limitless, with one exception. Killing a man leaves him curt and the ever tiniest bit more snappish to those that annoy him.
"You've seen him. He is useless, broken. We're leaving this place. Konoha will most likely be here shortly, we'll leave them to dispose of the bodies."
Uchiha Itachi nodded, and then looked skywards. That was a sure sign that the discussion was over. Kisame followed suit, also glancing up. The two Akatsuki-nin looked at each other, then skywards once again, before nodding imperceptibly at each other. In one trained, fluid motion, the two shinobi reached behind themselves, and in perfect synchronization… put on their straw hats.
"Sunny day."
"Indeed."
-----
"Chouji and Ino? Yamanaka Ino? I thought you didn't like her…"
Sakura was hard pressed to find a decent answer. She hadn't allowed anyone to find out about the new relationship between herself and Ino, but if she let slip too many clues, people were bound to start putting the pieces together. Something about living in a ninja village with people that are supposed to be rather observant. Or so she heard.
"Well… with Shikamaru promoted to Chuunin and my team leaving, Asuma-sensei and Kakashi-sensei figured the numbers added up properly, and so that's why we took the exam together."
Whew. Barely dodged that one. Sakura had barely breathed a sigh of relief at giving a perfectly logical explanation, before Naruto demonstrated that, once again, he has the knack to say exactly the wrong things at the wrong times.
"So… Sakura-chan and Ino must have had really good teamwork… you know, because you both were promoted…"
Sakura was being backed into a corner. She didn't exactly like where this conversation was going, and told herself Naruto really deserved a good backhand for being unable to control his mouth. Of course, it's not his fault, and she knew it. Besides, she wasn't about to injure someone in front of her master, who just so happened to be the Hokage, and also had a fondness for the target in question.
No… it wasn't that. She was nearing sixteen years old now, and that's about three years too late to be blaming and shifting all the pressure onto Naruto, just because it was convenient for her. She had matured over the years, she tried to convince herself. It wasn't Naruto's fault for trying to start a conversation with his old teammate. It wasn't his fault he didn't know that this subject was strictly off limits, in her mind.
But that didn't mean Sakura just had to sit there and get unknowingly interrogated. So she thought. And planned, and plotted. And thought some more. And she hit upon a plan. A plot so ingenious, so simple, so perfect, that she knew it wouldn't fail.
It was a victory for Haruno Sakuras everywhere.
And it would forever be noted in history, as the Cherry Blossom Diversion Gambit.
-----
"Tsunade-sama! Tsunade-sama!"
A frantic Shizune burst into the Hokage's office, the door ricocheting off the wall and slamming shut right after she pushed through. She scanned the room briefly, before spotting a golden mop of hair splattered over the Hokage's desk. Shizune grabbed the robes by the shoulders and tried to shake the Hokage awake.
"Tsunade-sama! This is important! There's been a sighting, we have to…"
As the pillow tumbled out from under Tsunade's robes, Shizune stared blankly before yelling in frustration, one hand gripping the robes, the other hand throwing the blonde wig across the room.
"Tsunade-sama!"
A hastily scribbled note fluttered to the ground, the words 'out to lunch' undoubtedly in the Hokage's barely-legible scrawl.
-----
Uzumaki Naruto was in shock. He had no idea what just happened, but wow…
Sakura was staring off into the depths of her noodles. She answered his prompting with merely a shrug. He thought perhaps she wanted to tend to her ramen for a bit, before continuing their conversation. He could understand, but personally, he'd eat and talk at the same time. He never understood why some people didn't like to multitask while eating.
She yawned. It was distinctly catlike, the way she scrunched her face and extended her arms straight in front of her, stretching a bit. Naruto could see her legs were straightening, as well, Sakura on the edge of her seat, her legs forming a perfect right triangle with the stool and the floor. He caught more than just a slight glimpse of skin. A pair of beautiful, smooth, creamy limbs, with just the right balance of tan and thickness, were extended in front of him.
Naruto worked quite hard at keeping his jaw closed.
Content in her stretching, Sakura began rolling her head counterclockwise, slowly, while softly massaging her shoulders. The lighting inside the noodle shop illuminated her hair enchantingly, and Naruto momentarily forgot that staring so intently could be misinterpreted as lecherous.
Moving from her shoulders to the back of her neck, Sakura began massaging with just the middle and ring fingers of her right hand. Her left arm was wrapped around her body curiously, most likely stretching the shoulder blades in a less-commonly known technique.
It was stretching Naruto's self-control too. He had forgotten every time he was hurt for making an obvious pass at her, he forgot all the examples his sensei had inadvertantly set for him every time the sannin's perversion was discovered while peeping. All he could do was keep staring.
He shivered; Sakura's arm had forced her older, better developed chest into a very enticing position in front of Naruto. He was wrong. She had changed, after all.
Time? Surroundings? What are all these abstract ideas? The only thing that existed in Naruto's world right then was that she was slowly brushing one knee against the other leg and oh-my-god that was a lot of skin. Ankle to thigh, which was attractively bandaged, before the white cloth sneaked upwards into her dress. She had crossed one leg over her other, before slowly retracting her limbs, one knee perfectly thrown over her other leg.
She had interlocked her fingers, and rested one elbow on her knee, the other one on the table. Gently resting her chin on her fingers, she leaned in towards Naruto, and he couldn't help getting another glimpse of her chest, in a different angle.
Emeralds mesmerized him. Her eyes stared intently into his own, and for the first time ever, Naruto couldn't hold his gaze against someone, especially this someone. He stared away, embarrassed. For some reason, he felt like staring back into her eyes was wrong. It was too beautiful. It was… forbidden, somehow.
In the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard, Naruto could hear his own name being called. "Naruto…"
No -kun. He was still just Naruto. He evidently hadn't changed in her opinion.
"Naruto…" She started, her voice low, throaty, and perfect, so unlike the way she sounded years ago. So unlike the higher-pitched chirping that was supposed to be 'cute' in front of a certain Uchiha, this voice was softer, developed, mature. "You've been gone for three years. All your friends are just dying to know what you've been up to. Tell me a bit of what you were doing, hmm?"
Naruto was stuck. Her eyes, her voice, her body, they all entranced her in ways that he could not understand. For some reason, his thoughts unwillingly traced to Sasuke. Had she ever spoken to him like this? Ever looked at him like this, ever had this effect on him?
No, of course not. Naruto felt he could answer this question for anyone in the world. The woman sitting in front of him was not the same as she was three years ago. This couldn't be the same woman that pleaded with the Uchiha to stay, three years ago. Naruto couldn't imagine anyone leaving this Sakura if she asked them to stay.
Barely able to break himself out of his trance, Naruto started retelling of some of the adventures he and Jiraiya went on. "Well, Ero-sennin decided winter was a good time to visit snow-country..."
Naruto, focused on occupying Sakura's attention, barely heard the sound of familiar yelling.
"…nade-sama! Tsunade-sama!" Shizune gasped frantically, poking her head into Ichiraku momentarily, moving on, and doubling back once she realized the elusive Hokage was calmly eating in the stall.
"Tsunade-sama, Akatsuki…..sighted…..north-eastern caves…..hour ago… that place." Shizune panted, momentarily winded from running to every restaurant and food stall the Hokage was known to visit…in no particular order.
Tsunade, wearing a frown, chewed on the ends of her chopsticks, deep in thought. After a minute, she poked Sakura in the arm and handed her two slips of paper.
"Gather your team and stick these on Kakashi. Then pack your equipment and get to the tower. You'll be gone for less than two days, so pack light. Naruto, Jiraiya, come with me."
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A/N: Gah, I keep getting these errors while uploading the chapter, so eventually I had to export and type up the chapter there. What a hassle. Anyone know of a good way to fix this problem?
In other news, my story is pretty much planned. All the big arcs until NaruSakudom have been outlined (at least in my opinion, they're outlines. They look kind of like a lunatic's mad scribbling while trying to put out the fire he accidentally set onto himself.). Unfortunately for me, the true NaruSaku arc that comes after they get together is not planned, nor do I have an inkling of where to begin. Oh, the woes of planning ahead.
In other other news, I've came to a decision on those triangle omakes I promised. If I'm kinda satisfied with my reviews, then yeah, I'll write a couple. But I've got a very special surprise planned, if you guys make me really content with a big three digit number in my reviews section. That's all WAAAY in the future, of course.
Still more other news. As you've obviously noticed, no Gaara retrieval arc. I'm dropping the Gaara arc like a bad habit.
Chapter finished and posted on: March 27, 2006