It has been almost 18 months since Naruto left Konoha. His spiky blonde hair is almost touching his chin and he's grown a couple more inches. No longer bearing the fox whiskers on his face, Naruto grew a thin mustache and nice, smooth fuzz on his chin. He's changed his clothes to complement Ryo's style. He now wears a long dark blue cloak, white shirt, and black pants. He usually fully zips his cloak in order to hide himself in the dark. Howaito—the snow colored fox—usually travels by his side.
Landing on a thick tree branch, Naruto looks over the horizon where the noon sun is burning. Howaito lands by his side and gives a quick growl.
"You're slow today."
Howaito glares at him and barks. Naruto laughs at him but his ears perks up when he hears an explosion from afar. He puts his cloak over his head to hide his face and speeds his way to the site with the white fox beside him.
Naruto and Howaito reach the area and hide themselves behind a tree. The blonde peeks at the scene and finds a familiar pink haired kunoichi battling with 5 other jounins. Judging from their forehead protector, they're from the Mist village.
"Sakura-chan" Naruto whispers quietly.
Sakura was doing fine with the other ninjas until she got caught in a water caging technique. Naruto takes out 3 trident shaped kunais and throws them at the jounins closest to Sakura. Naruto looks at Howaito, nods, and disappears in a flash. He sees Howaito go for the other 2 jounins, while he attacks the other 3. Not fast enough for the yellow blur, Sakura becomes free of the water cage and finds her enemies on the ground. She looks behind her and finds a white fox annihilating the other Wave jounins. She returns her gaze to what's in front of her and finds a cloaked man towering over her. Naruto removes his hood but Sakura's expression doesn't change.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto tries to ease her anxiety.
Sakura squints her eyes and scans the man in front of her.
"Naruto?" Sakura's eyes go wide as she recognizes who's in front of her.
Naruto is attacked by Sakura's bear hug.
"You're alive!" cries the pink haired ninja.
Naruto is unsure about what to do. He's never been hugged by anyone especially by Sakura. So, he decides that it's best to just stand there and let Sakura hug him. All of a sudden he feels Sakura punch him in the gut with her monstrous strength, causing him to fall on the ground. Suddenly, Sakura finds a scary white fox growling at her.
"No, don't," Naruto holds his hand up and slowly gets to his feet.
The fox backs away from Sakura and goes to Naruto's side.
"You punch harder than before Sakura-chan."
"N-Naruto, where have you been!"
"Does it matter?"
"Hokage-sama made us stop searching after a year. There were even rumors that you died." Sakura holds back her tears.
"You shouldn't believe in rumors then," Naruto grins.
"Not knowing what happened to you, I started to think maybe…" Sakura lets a few tears out and hugs Naruto who hugs her back this time.
"I'm fine. I've survived." Naruto releases her.
"Why didn't you come back?" Sakura takes a step back and looks at his ruggedly handsome face.
Naruto remains silent and sees the scar on Sakura's arm that he imprinted on her when he let Kyuubi control his body.
"Naruto, you didn't hurt me. I know that you wouldn't hurt anyone. Please come home."
"I don't know Sakura-chan."
Howaito starts grumbling and Naruto bends down and playfully strokes the fox's head.
"How about we grab something to eat?" Naruto grabs Sakura's hand and leads her to Seishuku village.
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Kakashi makes his way around his house in the dark. He just came back from a mission and goes to his bedroom as quietly as possible. Standing near the bed, he takes off his clothes and slips under the covers and cuddles the sleeping woman. She stirs as he puts his arms around her waist.
"You're home late," Kurenai mumbles as she faces Kakashi.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."
"That's ok. I just worry sometimes." She smooths out his hair and finds a cut on the right side of his forehead.
"It's nothing. I already stopped by the hospital and they cleaned it up." Kakashi reassures her. "Let's just go to sleep."
Kurenai turns on her side and faces away from Kakashi who pulls her closer to him as they let slumber take over their bodies.
About 18 months ago…
Jiraiya and his jounin squad have entered Orochimaru's lab in the Mist village. The team splits up—Jiraiya takes Asuma with him to the east wing, leaving Anko and Kakashi to investigate the other side. Kakashi and Anko enter a door with a white window. Inside, they find children in liquid containers. Most of them were deformed from the experiments. One had the face of a snake, and one had the skin of frog. Kakashi hears the sound of glass smashing and sees Anko frees a child from her container. The child had scars all over her. Anko looks at the child's reptilian hands and looks for a pulse in the wrist.
"She's dead," Anko reports.
"I'm guessing the rest are not alive anymore." Kakashi observes the rest of the experiments.
"We should get going." Anko glumly states.
As soon as they get out of the door, Kakashi and Anko are quickly attacked by two ninjas. They suddenly become surrounded by mists as they avoid the attacks the mist ninjas are throwing.
"We have to do something about this," Anko yells.
Kakashi takes out a scroll from his pocket and puts his blood on it. With his earth tracking fang no jutsu, several large vicious looking dogs are able to attack the enemies. The mist clears up and Kakashi and Anko go on the attack. The mist ninjas avoid their attacks and they counterattack by sending a wave of kunai at the Konoha jounins. Anko throws a wave of snakes that swallows each of the kunai and they then disappear in a puff of smoke. Using the smoke to his advantage, Kakashi gathers up chakra in his hand to form the Chidori. When the smoke settles he thrusts his hand into the enemy who quickly dies. Anko uses her hidden shadow snake hand and the snake bites the Mist ninja's neck, releasing venom, and paralyzing the Mist nin. Anko sticks a kunai in the ninja's throat who drops on the stone cold floor.
The two jounins delve deeper in Orochimaru's lair and find themselves standing in front of a huge door. As Anko pushes the door, Asuma flies out of it and lands on his back. Anko helps him up and sees the new sound 4. Kakashi finds Jiraiya appear beside him.
"Kakashi, you, Anko, and Asuma take care of the rest. I'm going after Orochimaru. I was able to disrupt him from transferring his soul into the Uchiha. He's weak now and it's best to finish him off." Jiraiya runs into the direction of Orochimaru, leaving the rest to face the sound nins.
Tokage, the leader of the sound nins, looks at the 3 Konoha jounins and scoffs, "Although, it would only take a second to destroy you weaklings, the war would be more fun if you were around to fight it."
"War?" Kakashi wonders.
Suddenly one of the Sound 4 appears behind Kakashi and sinks her fangs in his neck. As she releases him, she bites harder and takes a small chunk of Kakashi's skin and spits it out.
"Was that really necessary Kobura?" Tokage looks on in amusement.
Kakashi falls to the ground and tries to stop the bleeding on his neck. Anko and Asuma attack the slithering female sound nin who avoids their attack easily.
"Stop!" An out of breath Kakashi orders Anko and Asuma.
Anko and Asuma stop pursuing Kobura and return to Kakashi's side.
"You mentioned something about war…" Kakashi weakly says.
Tokage looks at his teammate Ari, who pounds his fist into the wall.
"On second thought, it's best that you die now." Tokage laughs and disappears with his teammates.
"The place is collapsing!" Asuma shouts. Anko and Asuma prop Kakashi up and they run through the chaos.
A bunch of equipments and rubble block their path. A puff of smoke clouds them and a huge frog appears with Jiraiya standing on its head.
"C'mon!" The white haired saanin shouts.
They jump on the giant frog and bust their way through the rubble until they reach the outdoors. Outside, Kakashi collapses and falls off the frog but Asuma catches him before reaching the ground.
"What happened?" Jiraiya asks.
"He was poisoned and he's bleeding badly." Anko answers. "What happened with Orochimaru?
"Gone…escaped. We should take him back to Konoha." Jiraiya waits for Asuma to place Kakashi on the frog before moving to their next destination.
"Jiraiya-sama, one of the sound 4 mentioned something about war."
"Hmmm…we'll talk about it with the Hokage. Right now, we have to look after Kakashi."
After 4 days in Konoha Hospital, Kakashi finally opens his eyes.
"Finally, you're awake," Kurenai sighs as she says this.
"You were worried about me?" Kakashi inquires.
"No, I was ordered to guard you. It's Genma's turn tomorrow."
Kakashi sits up and places his hand over his mask and notices that it's a surgical mask.
"Don't worry; nobody saw your face except for the Hokage." Kurenai states.
"No, that's not it. I was just yawning."
"You're lucky. Hokage-sama and Shizune worked really hard to get all that poison out of your system."
Kakashi puts a hand on his neck and winces. Kurenai sees his loose bandage and sits on his bed to fix it.
"This is familiar huh?" Kakashi chuckles.
"Well, at least now we're even."
"It's never about being even."
"True."
"I should tell the Hokage that you're awake. She'll debrief you and fill you in on what's happening." Kurenai says with urgency in her voice. "Is there anything else you need."
"Maybe a kiss would take the pain away." Kakashi playfully states.
"You are such an idiot."
"Well you did ask what I wanted."
"NEED. I asked you what you NEEDED."
"What if I NEED you to kiss my pain away." Kakashi teases.
Kurenai growls in frustration as she looks at Kakashi. Then all of a sudden her expression changes from frustration to one that looks like seduction. She sits on Kakashi's lap and straddles his hips. She slowly runs her finger from his stomach, to his chest, and finally stops on the hem of his mask. Her lips lean in closer as she plays with the hem of the mask. Just as she's about to pull down the mask, she stops and gets off Kakashi. She leaves the room and a baffled Kakashi just stares at the door.
"What a tease." Kakashi lies back down and tries to get a hold of himself.
Kakashi was discharged the next day. He waits until night time before going to Kurenai's apartment. Kurenai opens the door and finds that there was no one there. As soon as she turns around, she throws a kunai, which almost hits Kakashi.
"What are you doing here? Kurenai is clearly irritated.
Kakashi moves closer to her. He removes his mask and kisses her hard on the lips. Kurenai finds herself being pushed against the wall as she kisses him back. Kakashi pulls back and looks into the Kunoichi's red eyes to predict her next move. She kisses him again, which ignites the passion in Kakashi. He trails soft kisses along her neck, which causes her to moan. His hands try to look for a way to remove her clothes as she captures him in a liplock again. Kakashi lifts up Kurenai's legs and wraps them around his hips.
"Which way to the bedroom?" He huskily asks.
Later that night, Kakashi removes himself from Kurenai and lies down beside her.
"You look good without a mask. You have nice lips." Kurenai complements Kakashi.
"You look good without clothes. Nakedness accentuates your beauty." Kakashi reitirates.
Kurenai lightly slaps him on the chest as she gets out of bed.
"Where are you going?" Kakashi inquires.
"I have a covert mission with Anko. We're leaving in less than an hour."
"You can skip and just stay here."
Kurenai continues dressing herself and Kakashi pulls her down back on the bed.
"Kakashi-"
Kakashi nuzzles her neck before kissing her again. After a couple of seconds, Kurenai pulls back and traces his lips with her finger.
"I should go but you can stay here for the night."
"Maybe we should get together again." Kakashi suggests.
Kurenai stands up and sighs.
"Maybe this should just be a one time thing."
Kurenai gives him a quick kiss on the lips before leaving. Little did she know how persistent Kakashi is into getting what he wants.
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Naruto puts his hands in his pocket as he, Howaito and Sakura walk through the village. Sakura looks around then looks at Naruto. It amuses her that he's oblivious with the girls' whispering, giggling, swooning, and pointing. An orange haired girl with a bag stops them in their tracks.
"Naruto-kun." She offers the bag to him.
"What's this Ariina-chan?"
"It's just some pork ramen. I'm guessing you haven't had lunch yet."
"Ah, that's so like you. You're always looking after me." Naruto charmingly smiles at her, causing the young girl to blush.
Sakura can feel herself turn red with anger as she watches the girl flirt with Naruto. She links her arm with his and smiles at the girl.
"I'm sorry but Naruto and I have to get going now." Sakura says with forced kindness.
Sakura pries Naruto away. She removes her hand from his arm when Ariina is no longer visible. They reach the home that Naruto shares with Ryo and invites Sakura in, while Howaito remains outside.
"Uncle!" Naruto yells as he sets the food down on the table. "He must be out on a date." Naruto considers.
"You live here?" Naruto nods at Sakura's question. "It's nice."
Ryo arrives and makes his way to the kitchen.
"Naruto, do you mind feeding the foxes?"
"Uncle, I have a guest."
Ryo comes out of the kitchen drinking a glass of water and sees the pink haired kunoichi.
"Hi." Sakura greets him while blushing.
"Hello. I'm Denkou Ryo."
"Haruno Sakura."
Naruto enthusiastically runs to Sakura's side as he further explains who she is.
"We were in team 7 together." Naruto tells his uncle.
"Ah, so you're from Konoha." Sakura nods and Ryo continues, "What brings you here?"
"The Hokage asked me to patrol the areas near Konoha for any signs of Orochimaru's allies. Konoha's preparing for war and we have sources that he's going to attack very soon."
"Orochimaru…" Naruto seethes. "That bastard snake, I'll kill him. (pauses) What about Sasuke? Have you heard anything about him?"
"No, but Jiraiya-sama was able to stop him from transferring to Sasuke."
"That's good." Naruto releases a sigh.
"I'm guessing you need Naruto back." Ryo says.
"Uncle…"
"Naruto, it's time for you to return. I've taught you a lot of things and it's time for you to use them to protect those who are important to you. It's time for you to chase your dream again."
"What about you? Why don't you come with us?" Naruto pleads.
"I can't. Besides, it's time for me to go to the Lightning country."
"You can't keep wandering around. You can come to Konoha with us and…"
"No." Ryo says with a firm voice.
Naruto moves closer to his uncle and quietly tells him, "Your brother is a hero in that village. You said it yourself that he loved Konoha. Maybe you can stop by and pay your respects."
"I honour him in my own way. Just leave it Naruto. I don't want us to part in bad terms."
The next morning, Naruto packs his stuff in the bedroom and heads to the living room. He finds Sakura and Ryo playing with Howaito and Shiroi.
"Good morning." Naruto says.
"Morning. Breakfast's on the table. I suggest you eat first."
Naruto puts his bag near the door and eats his breakfast while Sakura and Ryo continue to play with the foxes.
Naruto quickly finishes his breakfast and joins Sakura and Ryo in the living room.
"How did you find Naruto? Are you really related or is he just calling you uncle?" Sakura asks.
"I found Naruto wandering around the village and…Naruto and I…" Ryo looks at Naruto to make sure that it's ok to reveal more.
"That's a story I'll tell you another time." Naruto tells Sakura. "I guess we should get going."
Naruto gets up and looks at his uncle. Ryo smiles at him and grabs Naruto's shoulders. Naruto opens the door and Howaito runs to his side looking up at him.
"I guess he wants to go with you." Ryo explains.
Naruto smiles at the happy fox and follows Sakura out. When they near Konoha, they find smokes and explosions just outside the village.
"Orochimaru has attacked." Sakura utters.
Naruto and Sakura run towards the battle scene with Howaito charging at the front.
Author's note: Sorry for not updating sooner but it's been a busy week. I try to update as soon as I can and I hoped you enjoyed the chapter.
