NaruShika chapter 3

Third person POV.

After Hinata had slipped back into her set, once Shikamaru had left the three friends finished catching up before they went their separate ways for the and Hinata both had a team meeting to get to, and Naruko wanted to get some training of her own done in her new ANBU gear. But, before parting, Hinata told Naruko that she would be coming over later tonight for a girl's night with Sakura, to which she responded by saying she couldn't wait. Then the blonde ran off in the direction of training ground zero, a special one for ANBU that Jiraiya had told her about, while Kiba and Hinata went on their way to training ground 8 to meet with their team.

When Naruko near the edge of training ground zero, she stopped for a moment to check for chakra signatures and then made her way to the tree line of the clearing once she knew it was empty. Though she was slightly surprised to see that there were no other ANBU training here but guessed they might train out of their ANBU gear too, so they might be in other training grounds if they were in at the moment.

Stopping on a tree branch she quickly removed her jacket to reveal her ANBU shirt and vest that she had on underneath it, then she pulled out a sealing scroll and from it took out her gloves, arm guards and her mask to put on.

'Got to get used to fighting in this new gear' she thought as she finished securing her mask on her face then jumped down into the clearing to train.

==================LINEEEEE BREAKKKKKKKKKK=================

Four hours later Naruko had finally stopped, an hour into her training another ANBU had shown up but left pretty quick after seeing her training, though she didn't get a look at his mask she could recognize the chakra as her former sensei Kakashi.

"Hey!" She heard a shout come from behind her, as she turned around to face the voice it spoke again "How long have you been out here kid?" the voice now known as Jiraiya said as he dropped to the ground near her. A small tick mark appeared on her forehead at being called a kid by him again 'Should have known it was ero-sannin when I couldn't sense his chakra right away' Naruko thought as she pouted before answering him.

"Just about four hours, why?" she replied wondering if he had a reason for coming to find her or if he was just bored….again.

"It's your first day back Gaki! You should be out catching up with your friends not out here training you can do that tomorrow." Jiraiya yelled at her sweat dropping 'Sometimes this kid just doesn't know how to stop and relax' he thought as Naruko stood there with one of her hands on the back of her neck and a smile on her face after being scolded for training instead of seeing her friends.

"I had lunch with Hinata and Kiba before coming here though!" She said in a slight whine hoping that he wouldn't drag her from the training grounds again, which he's had to do before when she wouldn't stop trying to learn a new move.

"Well you should head home, I felt two chakra signatures headed that way on my way to find you," Jiraiya said as he patted her on the head, Naruko gave him a big smile then started to run off. "That's probably Hinata and Sakura, I'll see you later Ero-sannin!" she yelled as she made her way back to the edge of the clearing and into the trees.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Jiraiya yelled after her with a tick mark on his head, but it was too late she was already gone from sight. 'Sigh' 'That kid will be the death of me one day' he thought with a shake of his head and a small smile before he turned and jumped into the trees himself.

=================BBBBRRRREEEEAAAAKKKK===================

About halfway home Naruko felt Kakashi's chakra again and decided to take a quick detour to ask him about earlier. 'Hinata and Sakura won't mind if I'm a bit longer, they know where my spear key is anyway' Naruko thought as she made a quick turn and then stopped in front of a small restaurant that she's only been to once before she left the village.

Once she entered, she looked around for a moment before spotting the person she was looking for, walking over she sat down with a smile on her face.

"Hey, Kashi-Sensei! Mind if I join you for a bit?" she exclaimed as she sat down, then asking if it was ok even though she had no plans to move anyway. Sweat dropping at the fact that Naruko asked if she could sit AFTER she already did Kakashi just gave her a quick eye smile.

"Mahh, Naruko good to see you back in the village, is there something you wanted to talk about?" Kakashi greeted her first as he didn't get a chance earlier in the Hokage Tower before he was pushed out by Sakura along with Sasuke before asking why she was here. 'Is she here about the training grounds earlier? There's no way she could tell that was me. I'm sure I left before she could get a read on my chakra' Kakashi thought thinking of why she might want to talk to him 'well, it could just be because she didn't get a chance to say hello to me in the tower either really' he guessed…. Till she started talking again.

"Well, I wanted to ask why you didn't come say hi to me in the training grounds earlier? We could have even had a spar!" She said her voice getting more excited at the end and the thought of sparing with her old teacher and showing him what she can do now.

"Wha…but how did? How did you know that was me? I wasn't there long enough for you to get a read on my chakra or see me" Kakashi said stuttering a bit at first his eye a little wider before he collected himself again at the end. Naruko gave him a smirk as she leaned forward onto the table before answering his question 'wow I don't think I've ever seen Kakashi sputter like that before!' She thought laughing in her head while still smirking on the outside.

"Wow Sensei, I'm hurt that you don't seem to think I improved while I was away. Did you think I just spent my time with Ero-Sannin sitting around?" she said her voice starting of slightly sarcastic, her face had a more deadpan look on it by the end and Kakashi sweat dropped the way she was talking and looking at him now just screamed 'Idiot' at him.

Sighing, Kakashi just looked at her for a moment. After a bit, he started to speak again.

"Well, first I was surprised when I realized it was you under that mask on the training grounds, then I wanted to go talk to lady Tsunade about you becoming an ANBU right after you got back. I was hoping you wouldn't have realized it was me, but you've grown more than I thought you would while you were away" Kakashi had his famous eye smile on while he spoke. Kakashi's voice becoming a little softer at the end but Naruko didn't notice the change in his tone before he stopped talking and just looked at her with a small smile on his face.

"Maybe tomorrow we can spar some, and I can show you just how much I've learned while I was away! It would be fun to kick your ass!" Naruko exclaimed with a big grin on her face waiting for him to respond to her challenge, "Mah, mah Naruko, you may have learned a lot but don't get ahead of yourself there, you are still just my cute little student." He said with an eye smile knowing that the last thing would get under her skin, he missed her overreactions to little things like that, even though he would never admit it out loud.

With a tick mark appearing on her forehead, Naruko focused a small glare on her old sensei for a minute before a smirk appeared on her face that Kakashi wasn't expecting to see. Then she started to stand to leave knowing that she's made Hinata and Sakura wait long enough and soon they would come looking for her, and she didn't want that.

"Well, let's find out just who would win then. Meet me tomorrow at 8 am at our old team meeting place, and we'll have a spar and find out!" Narukos voice was challenging as she stood by the table and held out her hand waiting for him to accepted before she walked off.

"Ok then, we'll spar and find out. But don't get to upset when you lose" Kakashi said shaking her hand with his eye small then watching as she walked away from the table and out of the building. Sighing after she left Kakashi turned back around in his seat and raised his hand to signal a waitress over to his table.

"Can I have a bottle of sake please?" He ordered slumping back into his seat a little after the waitress took his order and walked away 'I'm going to have to talk to Jiraiya about what I just got myself into' he thought, happy to see his sake get put on his table and not wasting anytime drinking it.

====================BREAKLINE PEOPLES=====================

Once Naruko made it out of the small restaurant, she jumped onto the rooftops and started making her way home at a run. She could feel her two friend's chakra signatures in her apartment and could tell by the feel of them that Sakura was getting impatient while Hinata was much more patient while waiting for her to get there.

It didn't take long for her to get home at the pace she was going while running on the rooftops since she had gotten faster while she was away from the village training. She landed on her balcony, and she wasn't even out of breath yet! She could see both of the two girls through the glass door as they sat at her small kitchen table waiting, Sakura was tapping her foot impatiently, and Hinata was sipping on some tea. They had yet to notice her, and she felt kind of proud that Hinata couldn't sense her even though she was so close to them.

She slipped into her apartment quietly; she wanted to see how long it would take them to notice that she was there. She sat on her bed which was just out of both of there sight, because of the way they had the chairs that they were sitting in angled. She wasn't trying to hide her chakra signature, but she got more used to keeping it mostly hidden through her training, so it was almost instinct to keep it hidden now.

"If she doesn't show up soon I'm going to go find her and kick her upside the head for being late!" That was Sakura's voice, Naruko decided to pay more attention to what they were saying, but it mainly just sounded like she was mad at being kept waiting which was nothing new.

"Calm down Sakura, I told you, I didn't give Naruko a time to be here I just told her that we would be over later tonight so be more patient. I'm sure she'll be here soon" Hinata ever the level-headed peacekeeper she is said, and it sounded like this wasn't the first time she had to tell Sakura that either based on the sigh the accompanied her words.

By the slightly heavy silence that followed Naruko wondered what they were talking about before she showed up here and was kind of hoping that it would be brought up again before she let them know she was here or they noticed her sitting right behind them.

"THAT'S IT!" Sakura exclaimed as she stood up suddenly pushing her chair back.

"I'm going to go find her! I'm going to die waiting here any longer" She said turning around, as she turned she caught a glimpse of blonde hair in the corner of her eye, she gasped and turned the rest of the way quickly to see Naruko sitting there with a grin on her face and waving her hand at them. Hinata turned to see what made Sakura react like that when she also caught a glimpse of Naruko, her eyes just widened, and her mouth opened.

"Naruko! When did you get there!?" Hinata said as she stood up asking and put her cup in the sink before moving over the bed to sit next to her, Hinata sat down while Sakura picked up her chair to sit back down still staring at her wondering when she got there.

"Well, I've been here for about 15mins" she smirked, "I was waiting to see when you guys would notice me" she finished, and Sakura rolled her eyes at her friend.

"of course, you would do that Naruko! You know a normal person would have come in through the front door and not sat around like a stalker watching people" Sakura exclaimed with a sigh but had a small smile on her face.

Naruko laughed at Sakura "Good thing I'm not normal! Being normal sounds boring" She said her voice high as she got her self to stop laughing and a huge smile on her face, she had missed her friends, and she didn't know how much till she saw them again.

After that the tree girls happily started chatting with each other and gossiping together, Naruko made some fresh tea and snacks as they talked about what Sakura told Naruko in the Hokage office earlier and anything she didn't know about yet. Sakura and Hinata both found ways to sneak Shikamaru's name into their conversations now and then to try and find out how she's feeling about him now, after being away from him for so long. After learning about what had really happened that night, they both want to get the two back together but aren't sure how to go about it yet.

As the night went on the three slowly ran out of things to talk about after Naruko had told them all about her travels across the elemental nations, they all fell asleep around four o'clock in the morning with plans to sleep in the next day.

========================SLEEP BREAK=======================

Sleeping in that morning was going great till Sakura was rudely woken by someone knocking on Narukos front door, groaning as she sat up Sakura blindly reached over to smack Naruto's head.

"Naruuuuuuuuu, wake up and answer your door!" She wined and flopped back down onto her back with her arm thrown over her eyes trying to block out the morning sun that managed to make it through the blinds on her friend's window.

But Naruko didn't budge from her spot and just rolled over with a wave of her hand. Hinata was the next to sit up, as she rubbed her eyes she looked from her sleeping friend to the door that was still being knocked on. Sighing she got to her feet to answer the door knowing that it would be almost impossible to wake Naruko at the moment. At the door to her surprise was Sasuke, she then told herself that seeing Sasuke here shouldn't be a surprise since she was Naruko and Sakuras teammate.

"Is the dobe awake yet? And is Sakura here as well?" Sasuke asked, his voice the same monotone as always.

"they're both here, but they're both asleep right now as well. We stayed up pretty late last night" Hinata said as she finally fully woke up, she opened the door wider so Sasuke could see Sakura asleep on the futon that had been pulled out for the two to sleep on while Naruko was just out of sight of the door sleeping on her bed.

With a sigh, Sasuke walked past Hinata, who simply stepped to the side to let him in and walked up to his two sleeping teammates. "OI, Sakura, dobe. Wake up we have team training to do" he said as he kicked Sakura in the side gently and kicked Naruko in the side not so gently. At hearing Sasuke's voice, Sakura sat up once again and looked up at him.

"No one told me we had training today." She said as she stood up and started to put away the futon with Hinata

"Well, that's because you shoved everyone out of the Hokages office yesterday then ran off squealing "Narukos back!" Before Kakashi could tell us about it" He said with sarcasm heavy in his voice when he quoted her. Sakura flushed a little remembering that she had done just that, but she was just excited that she was back and went to tell Ino about her return.

"hehe, sorry about that Sasuke-Kun," She said sheepishly as they both looked over to Naruko who had yet to wake up.

"Stupid dobe" Sasuke muttered as he walked into the small kitchen and filled a cup up with water. Walking back over to the sleeping girl he poured the water onto her face, Sasuke quickly dodged to the side as Naruko shot into a sitting position and threw a punch in his face which he saw coming. This wasn't his first time waking up the stubborn sleeper whether it was on a mission and trying to get her up for training when they were all genin before she left. She only punched him twice before he started preparing for her punch through now its just instinct to dodge, even if it has been a few years since her last saw her.

"Get up, we have training in 30 minutes, and I don't want to be late because you two wanted to sleep in" Sasuke grumbled out as Naruko perked up at the mention of training, completely ignoring the fact that Sasuke had dumped water on her.

Hinata went into the kitchen to make a quick breakfast for everyone while Naruko and Sakura ran around getting ready.

"Would you like something to eat as well Sasuke?" Hinata asked as she made what looked to Sasuke to be a more western breakfast of eggs and bacon with toast. Sasuke said a quick no thank you that he had already eaten this morning before throwing Naruko her kunai pouch that she had been searching for, that was sat beside him on the counter.

After the two girls got dressed in only 10 minutes, they sat down to eat what Hinata had made and put in front of them.

"Hurry up; we're going to be late at this rate," Sasuke said as he tapped his foot waiting by the door, where he had moved to stay out of the two girls way as they both ran into the kitchen to eat.

"Well made if you can to get us earlier then we wouldn't have this problem, would we?" Naruko said as she and Sakura stood up and we to the door by Sasuke to put their shoes on.

"Thanks for the food Hinata, it was great," Sakura said as they ran out the door with Naruko and Sasuke arguing in the background.

"your welcome" Hinata replied with a smile on her face, and the shaking her head at Naruko as she yelled over her shoulder about staying if she liked but to please lock up when she does before she resumed her argument with Sasuke.

======================BREAKKKKKKKKKK=====================

Arriving five minutes late the three stopped in front of Yamato who stood next to Sai. Sasuke looks slightly upset at being late because of his two female teammates, but Naruko didn't seem to have a care in the world as she said good morning to the two males in front of them with Sakura apologizing for being hate.

"I don't know why you guys care that we were five minutes late, Kakashi-sensei isn't even here yet" Naruko exclaimed with a pout mostly aimed at Sasuke who made them wake up and rush through breakfast only for them to get here and have to wait on Kakashi anyway who is always late. You'd think they would have learned by now to either not show up on time or give Kakashi an earlier time, so they weren't waiting so long.

After waiting for another hour where they all did some training of they're own, Naruko and Sai had just started a spar when Kakashi turned up to the training field.

"Sensei you're late!" Sakura yelled at the late jonin, but never really took her eyes off the fight. Her, Sasuke, and Yamato had been watching the two closely trying to get a read on their teammate's new skills before.

"Nice of you to finally show up Kakashi-sensei!" Naruko yelled over her shoulder, never faltering in the fight. They hadn't been fighting long, but Sai already looked to be struggling against the blond kunoichi. With Naruko dodging everything he threw at her, deciding that he couldn't beat her with taijutsu alone he started to attack her with ninjutsu as well.

"Wow, Naruko has really improved with her training from lord Jiraiya hasn't she?" Sakura said with a smile on her face the slowly turned sad; she can see how much Naruko had changed over her time outside of the village in the way she fights and the way she talked last night when she told her and Hinata about her travels. But she's glad she had the chance to go and learn it helped her grow as a person and a ninja and it also gave Sakura the chance to grow in her own ways. Sakura has also come a long way in the two years Narukos been away; Sakura worked hard to become a teammate that can be relied on and not just one that relies on others to save her all the time like she used to and had put all her effort into her training with Lady Tsunade.

Kakashi gave a wave of his hand while looking down at his Icha Icha book but looked up as he heard a grunt and many crashes to see his blonde-haired student being thrown through several trees by one of Sais ink beasts.

Sai straightened his stance as he watched the dust settle waiting to see the blonde laying on the ground, what surprised everyone a bit was that when they could finally see, there was no one to be seen in the small crater Naruko had made with her impact. Sai went to grab a kunai when he felt one at his throat, looking over his shoulder Sai saw the grinning face of his new teammate staring back at him.

"I win," Naruko said happily, a big smile on her face before removing the kunai from the man's neck.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Yamato were surprised that they never noticed her move behind the pale ninja, but Kakashi looked unfazed having noticed her chakra moving in the trees behind Sai. Hiding a small, proud smile behind his book, even though nobody would have seen it under his mask, Kakashi stepped forward and slipped the little orange book into his pouch gave Naruko his usual eye smile.

"Good job Naruko, it looks like you learned a lot during your time away, training with master Jiraiya.

"Thanks' Kakashi-sensei!" The blonde Kunoichi beamed under the praise, then scowled at the man not a second later as he ruffed her hair. As she swatted his hand away with a scowl, though most would say it was more of a pout, Sakura just chuckled at the two as she walked over to Sai and gave him some water to drink.

'Tch' "you may have improved, but have you improved enough to beat me dobe?" Sasuke said as he walked towards his teammate and old sensei with a challenging look in his dark eyes.

"I can soooo kick your butt teme! You won't even know what hit you when I'm done!" Naruko shouted as Kakashi backed away not wanting to be in the middle of a fight between those two.

But before Naruko and Sasuke could get into a fighting stance, Sakura stepped in between them.

"First! Since Kakashi-San was so late, let's go and get some lunch, and then we can come back here and then you two can have your fun and beat the crap out of each other till you both collapse" Sakura said with a smile on her face that told they others this was not a suggestion.

"You can think of it as team bonding since Naruko doesn't know Sai or Yamato that well yet" she added when she saw that Naruko was about to complain anyway.

"Fine but we're getting ramen!" Naruko yelled before taking off in the direction of Ichiraku ramen. With a sigh, the others followed after her but at a much more relaxed pace knowing that the blonde would only be on her second bowl when they got there, and she would probably eat much more after they arrived at the stand.

To say they were surprised when they got to Ichiraku and didn't see the blonde anywhere would be an understatement.

"Hey Ayame, Teuchi. Have you seen Naruko? She should be here already since she ran ahead of us" Sakura was the one to ask the shop owner and his daughter about the missing blonde.

"No, we haven't seen her yet today" Ayame was the one who answered the group as they sat down.

==================A FEW MINUTES EARLIER===================

As Naruko ran down the streets of Konoha, she looked behind her once she realized she probably left the others behind when she took off like that and wasn't surprised when she didn't see them behind her.

"Oops, guess I got a little excited about getting ramen again," She said to herself as she came to a stop in the street. With a sheepish smile and one hand behind her head, shrugging to herself she decided that they would catch up soon and turned to keep heading towards her favorite ramen but at a walk this time.

Before she could walk more than two steps, she was pulled into an alley and out of view of the others on the street that may walk by the mouth of the alley. Naruko let out a small squeak that she would later deny as she felt her back get pushed up against a wall and one hand placed on either side of her head.

Looking up she locked eyes with a pair of chocolate brown eyes, eyes that she has been avoiding since she got back in the village, the eyes of the man that broke her heart and the reason she left Konoha for so long that night. Her eyes widened in her shock and with a slight tremble in her voice she spoke to him for the first time in four years.

"Shikamaru…"

A/N

HEY! I'm back; I promise I'm not abandoning this story.

I'm super sorry this chapter took so long to write! But I've been very busy with college then my laptop broke, so it been hard to find time to write and a laptop/computer to write on.

But I'm here now, and I'm going to try really hard to get the next chapter up a bit faster!