A/N: I want to say thank you to everyone who left such kind reviews for the last chapter, which was one of the milestones for this story. It helps a lot in keeping me motivated towards writing the entire story that is in my head and not taking an earlier exit.

I also want to say thank you to PotassiumNitrate for the recommendation you posted on your wall. I appreciate that very much.

Naruto heads to the far side of the small village and stops in front of what can be best described as a shack, bordering on hovel status. He shifts the bag he is carrying over to his left hand and knocks carefully on the thin wooden door, and when the door hesitantly opens he puts his best friendly smile on his face. "Hi, I hope it is okay that I dropped by while I am in town?"

"Naruto?" Kitara's grey eyes go wide at the unexpected sight of the blonde haired shinobi standing outside her home. Her initial shock over, the girl quickly remembers her manners and bows deeply to the hero standing outside her home for the first time since… "Please forgive my rude behavior. I was surprised to see you again. Your presence is always welcome, Uzumaki-sama."

Naruto puts his hand on the bowing girl's shoulder and gently forces her to look up into his eyes. "You said it right the first time. I told you that you can call me Naruto, okay. That offer will never change, believe it." After she opens the door further he steps inside and looks around guiltily. 'Man, this place isn't in much better condition than the last time I was here, and she looks almost as thin and tired.' He takes a seat and smiles, trying not to let his concern show on his face. "So tell me Kitara, how have you been doing?"

She kneels down at the fireplace, the places only heat source, to stoke the low burning fire enough to heat up some water for tea. "I have been doing well. I am happy that the spring is almost here, it is my favorite season. I love the smell of the blooming flowers, it takes me back to when I was younger and would run through a field of flowers barefoot and carefree." She looks hesitantly into his eyes for a moment before speaking. "You seem different than the last time you visited the village, you seem happier, I can see it by the way your smile touches your eyes." Unasked questions are heavy in the air as she averts her head to pull out some cups and put a scoop of tea into each one. "Are you here on another mission?"

Naruto chuckles nervously as he scratches the back of his head. "Yeah, a lot has happened to me recently and I am in a much better place than I have been in a long time. I wanted to talk about …"

"NARUTO!" Yells a young voice just before its owner slams into Naruto's side, nearly knocking him to the floor. As he looks down Naruto sees a pair of big blue eyes looking up at him happily. "I heard rumors that some Leaf Village shinobi were in town, but I didn't know it was you, I am so happy that you came to see us again." The young boy steps back and looks at Kitara. "Why didn't you tell me Naruto-san was in town?"

"Ryga? Look at how big you have gotten. I can't believe you are the same skinny kid that I saw the last time I was in town." He reaches out and gently squeezes the muscle on Ryga's proudly offered arm. "Looks like you have been working out too."

"Yeah, I got a job in the mornings helping to milk the goats at a nearby farm and the farmer lets me bring home some of the milk as part of my payment." He proudly points to a clay jug beside the door as proof of his job. "Hey, what's in the bag?" He curiously looks down and a smile crosses his faces as he smells the savory scent of food wafting up from the bag.

Grinning mischievously Naruto reaches the bag over. "I was on my way over here to see you guys when I remembered how much you like ramen, so I caught the old man before he sold out and bought a few bowls of his deluxe special. Just save one container for Kitara, okay."

Naruto can only shake his head and share a laugh with Kitara as the young boy lifts the bag over his head and shouts in celebration. "Ramen, ramen, ramen."

Naruto then gives the young girl a look that says he is not leaving till she eats something and smiles happily as she takes one of the take-out containers and sits at the low table across from where he is sitting. "Good, now both of you eat up before the noodles get too soggy."

It is as she is sitting down that Naruto notices one of the changes since the last time he was in the small shack. "Hey, you have a real floor now, not just packed dirt and woven reed mats, and it looks you have added some paneling or something like that to the walls."

"Yes, I have made some improvements to the house with the money you left for me and the kids." She looks down uncomfortably at her bowl of ramen. "You really didn't need to give us so much money Naruto-san, or any money really, I…"

He sighs heavily as he takes a more critical look to see more of the small improvements done to make this more of a proper place to live. "I should have sent you more, and then you could have moved out of this place and gotten something better for the three of you Kitara."

Kitara is about to comment when Ryga interrupts. "Naruto, guess what? Naruko likes ramen too. Every time I buy some instant ramen with my money she sits right down beside me and we eat the whole thing together. It is kind of funny how mad she gets when we run out."

Naruto nods approvingly and grins. "Well who doesn't like ramen? It is like the greatest food ever invented, especially if you can find somebody who really knows how it prepare it correctly." Naruto hears rustling coming from a nearby mound of blankets and all three of them stare at each other in wide-eyed amusement as the sound of a child's babbling can be heard.

Kitara lays down her chopsticks and goes over to the mound of blankets. "Look who is awake. We have a special guest tonight Naruko, and he brought some ramen for us to eat." She giggles as an excited squeal comes from the now furiously moving mound of blankets. "I thought that might get you going little Naruko."

Kitara sits down with a dark-haired toddler in her arms, who begins to flaps her arms excitedly when she sees the bowl of food on the little table. The toddler nearly knocks the bowl over twice before Kitara can get her under control. "Calm down and let me cool some of the noodles for you, okay. We don't want you to get your little paws burnt do we, Naruko?" The small child seems oblivious to the warning and immediately reaches for the noodles now dangling from Kitara's chopsticks, her big blue eyes seem to twinkle in delight.

Naruto, his food now forgotten, just sits there and watches the show as the small child grabs a noodle in both tiny hands and starts chewing on one end. To his left Ryga is shoving noodles into his mouth almost faster than his small mouth can chew and swallow. "Hey Ryga, slow down and chew your food a little more, it will taste a whole lot better if you just take your time to enjoy all of the chefs hard work." Naruto immediately chuckles at himself when the memory of Iruka-sensei saying those very words to him on more than one occasion comes to mind.

Ryga, a couple of strands of noodles dangling from his mouth, nods his head slowly. Both Naruto and Kitara have to cover their mouth to stifle their laughter as the boy's cheeks expand and retract as he slows down and chews his dinner more slowly. Once he is able to swallow Ryga lets out a sigh of satisfaction. "Ahh, you are right Naruto, the ramen does taste so much better when I slow down."

Looking at the small family sitting together eating reminds Naruto of how much he has come to enjoy sitting at the dinner table with Hinata and her family. It also reminds him of the reason he came by tonight to talk with Kitara, and about the events that lead to him spending most of a night in this very shack.

FLASHBACK

Naruto is lying in the bed at an inn, missing not for the first time the rapid recovery powers he used to enjoy when Kurama would lend him assistance. The hangover is bad, but not nearly the worse one he has endured recently. He lays there in the soft bed till he is sick of just staring at the ceiling and decides to take a long soak in the bathtub. As he is soaking away his aches and pains he thinks about the mission that his team had just completed.

The town had been under the threat of attack by a large organized group of bandits. The town's herbalist, who had been hunting for medicinal herbs in the forest, had overheard a scouting party for the bandits talking about attacking the town once the fall crop had been harvested. One of them even joked about attacking during the middle of the fall festival when people would be celebrating the year's harvest and would not notice their approach until it was too late. The town had asked the Leaf Village for protection and Naruto had been sent along with Tenten and Yamato to deal with the threat.

The village leader had been surprised that only three shinobi had been sent to deal with their problem. Naruto had taken quick offense and might have just knocked the old man flat if Yamato had not stepped up diplomatically and introduced who they were, and once the name Uzumaki Naruto was mentioned everyone took notice. It was obvious that the name of the hero of the Fourth Great Shinobi War had already made it even to this corner of the Land of Fire, and to be honest he did like the sudden change of respect on the village leader's face.

Once the villagers had explained their plight, Naruto and the others quickly came up with a plan, and being three highly experienced shinobi everything fell neatly into place. Naruto and Yamato had sent out clones in a rotation to watch the perimeter, and on the first morning of the three day festival nearly three dozen bandits, half of them on horseback, were spotted.

It was more of a slaughter than a fight. Yamato had used his wood style jutsu to essentially funnel the bandits into a kill zone where Tenten decimated the front ranks with a deadly rain of steel from one of her scrolls. As for himself, Naruto had attacked from the opposite end of the funnel, using sage mode since Kurama was still mad and not lending his chakra. Naruto cut off the bandits retreat, and leaped right into their ranks easily cutting them down. Within minutes of Yamato using his jutsu it was over and the only thing that made it out alive was a few frightened horses. After the fight was over they were asked to stay for the festival, and since Tenten had been injured by an arrow from one of the bandits they decided to stay and give her a few days to heal.

Last night he had drunk a lot and had of course been followed around by several of the young ladies of the village. Amongst them were a few of the usual girls who just wanted to bed somebody famous. Watching the girls jostle to be the one to get his attention, and maybe more, reminded him of how Sasuke had been followed around by his fangirls when they were in school, especially a certain green eyed girl. He had just ignored them the best he could and went back to the hotel to sleep off the prodigious amount of food and alcohol he had consumed.

The warm water feels good as he lays there soaking it in, letting the soothing warmth ease some of the aches and pains he is feeling this morning. He takes another sip of cold water from the glass on the edge of the tub before placing a cool cloth over his eyes and drifting back to sleep. Unfortunately, even his dreams do not bring any relief, as his dream is another variation of the same one that has been haunting him for a few years now.

He is in a nearly destroyed village and the corpses of people he knows and cares about, not just people from the Leaf Village but people he has made friends with all his life, are lying on the ground. Just like most of his recent dreams he is victorious, but he stands there all alone holding the dead body of a girl tightly against his chest. He wakes each time just as he looks down to see who is the girl who died in his arms with tears falling down his cheeks, and the tears in his dreams match those on his face when he awakens.

With the return of the dream, so does the loneliness of his life. It is an emptiness he has been trying to fill with extreme training, dangerous missions and more than a little alcohol. He feels that he now understands Pervy Sage better than he thought he ever would. The old man had embraced his perversions as a way to distract himself from the loneliness of being on the road without the one person he really did have true feelings for in his life. 'When he was really drunk Pervy Sage would sometimes talk about Granny Tsunade in a way that makes it seem that there was more to their relationship than just being old teammates. The way I understand it though, she was in love with that Dan guy, so…'

The sound of movement catches his attention, but he doesn't even bother trying to sense who it is in the other room. 'It is most likely Yamato, he has probably come to check and see how I am doing. I guess I should apologize for telling him if he didn't leave me alone and focus on Tenten's injuries that I am going to break off his wooden prick and shove it up his ass.' He closes his eyes in shame and pulls the cloth back over his eyes. 'I was starting to get the shakes from needing a drink when I said that, and I say mean stupid stuff when I get like that.'

Deciding that it would be best to apologize and make peace with his team leader before the long walk home, Naruto gets up out of the tub and wraps a towel around his waist before stepping into the bedroom. As he is stepping out of the bathroom, drying his hair, the sound of a female voice gasping in surprise quickly catches his attention. Naruto lowers his drying towel and instead of Yamato he sees a young woman with black hair and pale grey eyes, standing by his now neatly made bed, her mouth agape in shock and her face red as a ripe strawberry.

'Great, here we go again with another one of these damn fangirls. She is going to apologize and say that she didn't know I was here, and then she is going to ask if there is anything that she can do for me since she is here, anything at all. She will then strike some pose that she thinks will get my attention.' Naruto mentally says in a high-pitched mocking voice, and as he waits for the inevitable, he entertains himself with the image of physically throwing her out of his room, maybe even out the window for a change. 'Nope, we are on the second floor, probably not a good idea. It is kind of fun to think about though.'

She quickly bows and apologizes, "My apologies Uzumaki-sama, I did not know that you were still in the room. I did not hear a reply when I knocked, so I figured that you were away. I can come back later to finish cleaning your room." She looks up and her eyes linger for a moment on his bare chest before she looks back down to busy herself by smoothing out the last wrinkles on his bed covers before stepping towards the exit. Her whole body seems to hunch up as if expecting Naruto to yell at her or even become violent. 'He looks so angry that I disturbed him, I should probably get out of here fast.'

Noticing how her grey eyes were checking him out Naruto realizes that he is standing there with only a towel wrapped around his waist. Though the anger that this might be yet another fangirl trying to sneak into his room, quickly dissipates when he sees the genuine shame etched clearly on the girl's face and body language. 'She made an honest mistake; it is obvious by the way she shaking that she is really afraid that I am mad for the intrusion.'

Feeling guilty, and actually a little intrigued for some reason, he holds up both hands in a soothing gesture. "It's okay, I feel asleep while soaking in the tub." He grabs his clothes from the chair that they were haphazardly thrown onto and steps back into the bathroom. "Go ahead and finish what you are doing in here okay, and then you can do what you need to do in the bathroom after I get dressed. There is no reason for you to stop doing your job on my account."

The girl just shyly crosses her arms across her stomach and continues to stare down at the floor. "It's no problem for me to come back in a little while, so that you can have your privacy Uzumaki-sama. I guess that somebody as famous as you does not get a lot of privacy sometimes." She risks a fragile glance up at him as if to see if she needs to try and flee from the room before this great shinobi takes offense and tries to harm her, possibly in some demeaning manner.

"Call me Naruto, okay." He gives the girl a genuine smile, a rarity these days, and then shakes his head. "Nah, I would feel bad if I disrupted your work schedule, so go ahead and finish."

A little later, Naruto is sipping at some sake and sitting back in a chair with his feet propped up on the bed while the girl is cleaning up the bathroom. As he sits and watches Kitara nervously go about her job, Naruto has a thought cross his mind. "Hey, what is your name? You know who I am, but I don't know your name."

She looks out of the bathroom fearfully, afraid he is going to report her to the manager. "K-K-Kitara, Uzumaki-sama." She bows deeply and then quickly returns to her work.

The girl's timid demeanor continues to intrigue him for some reason. 'She is so shy, and I can see in her eyes that she seems to have a really gentle soul. Except for my teammates, who I have known since I was nothing but a loudmouth brat, most people's eyes I look into lately, who I am not fighting, look at me as if they want something. This girl seems different somehow, she has an aura of kindness about her like a gentle shroud. It's like I could ask her for anything and she would say yes without expecting anything in return. I have really only know one other person like that, three actually if you count that really nice lady I met on the playground when I was a kid, and her daughter.' Naruto steps up to the girl confidently and poses. "So what time do you get off of work?"

Kitara is completely shocked by the question, but cannot stop from answering the famous ninja's question. "F-F-Five, Uzumaki-sama. Why do you want to know what time I am getting off of work, Uzumaki-sama?" She bows her head deeply, fearing that she might have insulted him with her question. "That is if you don't mind me asking."

Naruto puts his hands behind his head and smiles. "Because today is my birthday and I don't like eating ramen alone on my birthday. The night will be more enjoyable with a pretty girl sitting by my side, and you have the honor of being that girl." That was a lie really, all he has done lately is to try and eat alone, and he prefers it that way, but something about her nervousness brings out his primal hunting instincts.

Naruto actually chuckles when right after he called her pretty, the girl begins to nervously twist the dirty towels she had just picked up off the floor. 'She is afraid of me, not in a way that she fears for her life, but something just as basic.' Watching her tremble makes him feels like a cat that has cornered a mouse, he doesn't plan on doing any real harm, but it feels good being the hunter for a change instead of the prey.

"So, I will see you outside the main entrance right after five o'clock, and don't be late, I get cranky when I get hungry." He doesn't even give her a chance to find the courage to protest, he just walks out of the room smiling the whole time.

At the appointed time he leaps off the top of the hotel, where he had been meditating, and lands in front of a completely shocked Kitara. "Good, you are here on time." She opens her mouth and he can see by the look in her eyes that she is about to give some sort of excuse why she cannot have dinner with him tonight. So he does what he does best, he gets loud and obnoxious. "Alright, show me where the best ramen shop in town is located. I haven't eaten all day and I am starving." He gives the girl an expectant look that immediately shuts down any protest.

As she quietly takes the lead he falls into step beside her and starts asking her questions about the town and its inhabitants as a way to channel her nervous energy. When they arrive he holds open the curtain for her, cutting off yet another way for her to excuse herself, and takes a seat beside Kitara. When the proprietor turns around he gives the man a big smile before ordering. "Hey old man, give me a bottle of your best sake and warm it up, plus a large bowl of pork ramen." He turns to Kitara with an expectant look. "How about you, what sort of ramen do you like to eat?"

Kitara glances back and forth between him and the proprietor a few times before shyly answering. "I'll have a small miso ramen please."

The look the chef gives the girl in return is unmistakable, it is a look of disapproval. Whether that disapproval was because she was there at all, or that she is in the company of someone of Naruto's stature is unclear.

Naruto waves his hand dismissively while shaking his head. "Hey, I'm buying so bring her a large miso ramen. You look like you could use a good meal Kitara, so just eat up and enjoy." Once the old man brings out the sake Naruto pours them both a cup, and after some nagging he gets her to take a drink.

A few drinks later he is starting to feel the warmth spreading up from his stomach, and can see that Kitara's cheeks are getting a little flush as well. It is when they are halfway through their bowls of ramen that a pack of six fangirls arrives. In that group are some of the girls that had hounded after him most of the night before. He had acted aloof and uncaring at their complements and adoring looks, which seems to have only made him even more popular amongst the group of girls. He sighs inwardly at how big of a pain this has been for him ever since the war ended. He had thought most of his life that once he was recognized by people for being an amazing ninja that his life would become better. Fame had really only made him more miserable because it seems to have made him a person to be with and seen with by others. Being hated it seems, is easier to deal with than those fake empty smiles people give when they want something that they think only you have to give, and don't want to give anything in return.

As they surround him he thinks, not for the first time, about Sasuke and how miserable all those fangirls must have made him feel. 'Just like those girls acted when he acted all aloof, these girls are doing the same damn thing. It's like the more distant I act, the more they seem to want something from me, as if getting anything at all is a great prize. Is that all it would have taken for me to get her… NO, its done, I don't think about her anymore. All she ever wanted was some self-absorbed asshole, well she got what she wanted, end of story.' He takes another drink as he turns and gives the girls a fake smile, and that is when an idea enters his head. 'Why not just promise them what they want so they will go away and leave me to eat my dinner in peace, or at least let them think they are getting what they want. I'll just use that new shadow clone jutsu I developed.' He glances over at Kitara for a moment. 'Well, it seems like most of the girls around here are like that, except one at least.'

He chats with the girls for a little while and picks out the twin girls with strawberry blonde hair and flirty dark green eyes, plus their friend who has green eyes as well with reddish-brown hair. As they praise and flirt with him, while giving Kitara nasty glares and a few harsh comments when they think he is not paying attention, he finds a chance with each of them to whisper one simple question. "Half an hour, where do you want to meet?" Each girl gives him a location and Tika blows into his ear so hard afterwards, in a lame attempt to be sexy, that his eardrum pops a little.

With some of the girls now being offered what they think they want, he turns back to his second bowl of ramen. "Hey ladies, let me finish my dinner and I'll catch up with you later." He hears a chorus of 'okays', some of them with obvious undertones, and then thankfully the pack leaves. He looks over and sees that Kitara is half asleep, her head propped up with one hand.

Naruto quickly finishes his dinner and orders some bottles of sake for the road before paying. He reaches over and helps Kitara to her feet. "Come on, I need to get you home."

Kitara gives him a drunken smile as her words come out slurred and barely audible. "It's... It'sss… okay… I know the way… home. You don't… know where I live… so you might get lost." It is the first smile he has seen on her face the entire day and he has to admit that she has a very pretty smile, but by the lines of worry etched permanently on her face he can see that she seldom does smile. 'Maybe it is the sadness I see deep in her eyes that makes her seem almost familiar for some reason. She's kind of like me in a way, as if some great burden is weighing her down.'

Seeing her smile makes him think about how his own smiles are mostly fake these days, like the one he gave the pack of girls earlier, not a genuinely heartfelt smile. "Nope, I am the reason you are drunk so I should make sure you make it home safely. Unfortunately, I need to take care of a promise real quick, or people might come looking for me later." He makes a gesture and creates three shadow clones to go out and meet the three girls from earlier. He chuckles as Kitara blinks and shakes her head back and forth at the sight of multiple Narutos suddenly appearing.

To be honest he had originally planned on standing those girls up, but he changed his mind as he sat there finishing his ramen and a bottle of sake. He can't exactly remember how many of the small bottles he had drank, but by the heavy feeling of his eyelids and how flushed his face is feeling he knows he has drank just about the right amount. He didn't like how those girls had jostled about and tried to almost shove Kitara out of the ramen shop like a bunch of bullies, and let's face it, bullies should not go unpunished.

He gives each shadow clone some sake and as they walk away, a little unsteady, he calls out. "Have fun, but…"

"We know, play safe." All three shadow clones yell in unison as they walk away in different directions.

After some wrong turns, due to her inebriated state and the distraction from the fireworks display going off above them, Kitara is able to direct Naruto to her home on the far edge of town. Home is really too generous a term for the slightly leaning shack with a roof that even in the dark looks like it is made of nothing but patches. The walls look so thin and dilapidated that Naruto would bet the building whistles and moans whenever the wind blows. "This is where you live?" He can't help but think about how this shack makes his apartment building in the Leaf Village look fancy, like where the Hokage resides.

Too inebriated to recognize the shock in Naruto's voice, Kitara nods happily as she takes the half-full bottle of sake out of his hands. "Yes, home… sweet home." She takes a long drink and then makes a face as she exhales loudly. "Wow, I never had sake before tonight… and at first I thought the stuff… was awful, but the more I drink… the more I like it… and the better I feel." She turns and looks closely into Naruto's face with half closed eyes and a big goofy smile. "You know what? I normally… wouldn't say this to a… man, especially a war hero… like you, but…" Her face is now so close to Naruto's that he can feel the heat radiating from her face. "…you have very nice… eyes." Her head slumps onto his shoulder as her whole body goes limp.

Naruto catches her and lifts her up in his arms before carrying her into her home. 'She feels so frail and light in my arms. It's as if her body is mostly just the clothes she is wearing.' He peers around inside the dark interior and can just make out from the moonlight coming through the thin curtains, what looks like a sleeping mat on the floor near a smoldering fire pit and a pile of blankets. He lays her on the mat and looks at her peaceful face in the filtered moonlight. 'She looks so peaceful right now. All those cares that she seems to be bearing have all been erased for the moment.' He reaches down and gently touches her face, where he had seen worry lines earlier in the evening, and brushes away a few strands of hair. He smiles as the warmth from her smooth flesh creeps its way up his fingers.

As he is kneeling over, his eyes trace down her body and notices that her yukata is gaped open and is exposing her legs high up the thigh. The binding bandages that cover her obviously small breasts can be seen as well. Now, as he looks down at her pale legs, nearly glowing in the moonlight, two voices go to war in his mind.

'Go ahead, do it, it's your birthday so why not indulge yourself just a little. Take her, and experience a woman for yourself, it's not like she is going to remember anything in the morning anyways.' The dark voice advises from one side.

'No! This poor girl has not done anything to deserve being treated that way.' An innocent sounding voice seems to speak from his other side.

'Don't listen to that crap, being a nice guy got you nothing but used by people. If you had been a little more selfish from time to time, then things might have turned out more like you wanted. Besides look at that body, how could you not want to touch something so soft and warm looking?' The darker voice does seem to make a lot more sense in his alcohol fogged mind. 'Besides, there are a bunch of girls in this village who would love to be where she is right now. In bed, with the man who saved the world, and they might just being doing that with a shadow clone right now. So why not collect a little of what you have earned, for yourself. If you think about it this girl has been too nice to say no to anything so far tonight and she would probably say yes to this too if she was awake.'

He places a hesitant hand on her knee, enjoying the smooth warmth of her flesh under his own hand, and he slowly caresses his hand a little way up her amazingly soft thigh. It is the thought of the secret treasure that lies not too much further away from his hand that causes his hand to start to tremble.

Feeling a little unsure, as his conscience begins to assert itself again, he stops moving his hand and instead kneels down closer to steal a kiss. This will be his first real kiss with a girl, so he can finally know for himself what it is like to kiss someone other than Sasuke. 'Just one kiss won't hurt anybody, right?'

A drunken smile crosses his face just before his lips meet Kitara's. 'Maybe it doesn't have to be just one kiss on the lips, but I'll start here and then maybe work my way down.' His eyes flicker for a moment to the wrappings showing from the top of her yukata before looking back at her face.

It is just before their lips meet that Naruto notices some movement from the far edge of the sleeping mat. A lump that he had thought was just a bunch of piled up blankets moves, and in the filtered moonlight he can just make out a small face with big blue eyes looking curiously into his own. As the young boy sits up and begins rubbing his eyes Naruto grabs the folds of Kitara's yukata and quickly covers the exposed parts of her body.

The boy looks back over as Naruto sits back up and gives him a big drunken smile. The boy then looks down at Kitara and then back at Naruto before holding up his tiny fists. "Were you trying to hurt Kitara?"

Naruto waves his hands back and forth. "No, no. I invited her to dinner tonight and… and… we drank too much sake, so… I brought her home." He reaches down and lifts up the discarded sake bottle as evidence before looking down at the sleeping Kitara, he now understands the worry lines on her face. "I didn't mean your mom any harm. It is my fault she drank too much, and I wanted to make sure she got home safely, believe it."

The boy grabs his stomach and starts laughing. "Kitara is my sister, not my MOM."

Naruto looks around expecting an angry parent to suddenly raise up and ask him exactly what he is doing in their 'shack' hovering over their unconscious daughter. "Oh I see. Uh, well I hope your parents won't be too upset with me for keeping her out so late." As soon as the word parents pass his mouth Naruto can see a change in the boy's demeanor. "Did I say something wrong?"

The boy looks up with a heartbroken expression that Naruto has seen so many times before looking back in his reflection and knows what the boy is going to say before the words leave his mouth. "Our parents are dead. Kitara has been taking care of us since dad was killed and mom got hurt and then later died."

Hearing those words from this small boy jolts him like a slap to the face. He feels a surge run through his body and clear most of the fuzziness from his brain, as if Kurama had suddenly stepped in and purged his body of alcohol. "I'm sorry, how was your dad killed?"

The boy runs the back of his hand across his nose and sniffs loudly. "Over a year and a half ago the farm we were working on was attacked by bandits. Kitara grabbed me, and hid with me in a secret room underneath the floor where we would hide food and stuff. The bandits killed my father and my two older brothers when they came to try and stop the bandits." Tears started flowing down both of the boys cheeks and Naruto could feel his own heart aching as he listened to the boys story. "They hurt my mom real bad too, so bad that she couldn't get out of bed much afterwards. My dad was a tenant farmer, and we couldn't farm the land anymore without him or our animals that were stolen, so we had to move into town to live. Kitara got a job and started taking care of all of us, and I stayed home with mom and did what I could to help her, until she died shortly after my little sister was born."

The sound of a small child whimpering interrupts the boy's story. He turns around and places a comforting hand on a small child till she goes back to sleep. "This is my sister Naruko. Some of the other kids keep calling her a bad name. I keep telling them that there is nothing wrong with Naruko and she is my whole sister, so they just need to shut up. I asked Kitara why do they say such things about Naruko, and she said that some people can't help but be mean sometimes, and we should not let them see that it bothers us, or they will just do it more." The young boy holds up his tiny fist and his face becomes an angry scowl. "You wait, one day I am going to teach them all a lesson for making fun of my sisters."

The boy's words hit Naruto so hard that he can only sit there in stunned silence. 'Orphans, they are orphans like me, they lost their parents too and are trying to do their best to survive.' He looks over guiltily at Kitara for what he was about to do to her and for the first time he begins to wonder what his shadow clones have been doing as well. 'I know they are nothing but shallow little fangirls wanting some sort of bragging rights, but do they really deserve to be treated like that and then tossed aside like trash? I should not have blocked the memories from all of those shadow clones, because I might have realized what I was doing sooner.' He looks away in shame as his stomach threatens to empty itself of all its contents. 'At least I like to think that, if I knew, that I would have stopped before I did something terrible to a completely underserving person like Kitara, but does anyone deserve that kind of treatment?'

Naruto reaches out with his mind to dismiss the shadow clones he created earlier and is sad to feel that they have already dismissed themselves. 'I'm too late to stop them, damn.' He looks down at the empty bottle of sake in his hand and drops it as if he had been holding a bottle of poison instead.

"Naruko is such a good, loving baby too and she has blue eyes just like me and our mom. Kitara says it was mom's blue eyes that caught our father's attention and made him fall in love. You see, they grew up in an orphanage together and when they were both old enough to leave they got married and father negotiated for a small piece of land to tenant farm. They lived there happily till the bandits attacked and took it all away."

The boy looks down and stares at the small child. "It's not her fault that mom died. I know at first I kind of blamed her a little, since mom only got weaker after she was born, but Kitara says that Naruko is our sister and it is now our responsibility to raise her as best we can to honor our parents, and all that they had done for us."

The mention of parental sacrifice makes Naruto think even more about his parents and what they did to save the village and the responsibility that they left for him to finish. He had done it all, saved not only the village but helped to save the entire world. 'Now look at myself, I have become nothing but a drunk that cares for nobody but myself. Hell, I was about to take advantage of this girl because I just didn't care what people think anymore. Sai was right, I have become nothing but a selfish asshole lately. I guess I really should apologize to him for breaking his nose, even if he deserved it for other comments he has made in the past." It was about then that something the boy was saying caught his attention. "What was that you just said?"

The boy peer through the mostly dark room at Naruto for a moment, and then just shrugs his thin shoulders. "I was saying that Kitara is right about me needing to be more responsible. Mom let me be the one to choose Naruko's name. So I named her after my hero, Uzumaki Naruto."

Seeing the stranger look at him curiously makes the boy smile brightly. "Yeah, after dad was killed and mom couldn't get out of bed she told me about Uzumaki Naruto. You see he grew up without any parents, like my parents did and how we are now, but he didn't let that stop him and he worked hard every day until he became the best shinobi in the entire world. She told me that I should never give up on my dreams, and if I worked hard at whatever I wanted to do that I too could one day reach my goal. You know what else, he has blue eyes just like me and Naruko." The boy puffs up proudly. "So that is what I am going to do. When I get older I am going to take care of both of my sisters so that Kitara won't have to work so hard and Naruko can just enjoying being a kid, and not have to worry about if she is going to be able to eat the next day."

Naruto has to smile at seeing the boy's determination and it reminds him of how he had once acted. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I went to bed hungry when I was younger, especially when my money ran out and I couldn't even buy instant ramen. Have you ever eaten ramen?"

The boy just shakes his head. "No, I have walked by the shops and it does smell really good. We usually eat whatever extras Kitara's job will let her take home and stuff like that, because she tries to make sure that we can get stuff that Naruko can eat. Now that she is old enough to eat the same stuff we do maybe we can afford to try some ramen occasionally."

Naruto pulls out a scroll from one of his pockets and unrolls it on the ground. "Lucky for me I always keep a supply handy when I go on missions, because you never know when you are going to be days away from a place to get some fresh ramen." He places his hand on the sigils and a moment later six containers of instant ramen pop into existence.

"WOW, how did you do that?" The boy's eyes are wide with awe, more at the sudden appearance of the food than the food itself.

Naruto just shrugs at the boy's question. "It is a simple jutsu really. All shinobi know how to use one of these scrolls."

The boy looks at Naruto as if for the first time and then shakes his head in disbelief that he had somehow missed the Leaf Village headband worn by the man that is in his home. "You mean you are a shinobi, like Uzumaki Naruto? Do you know him?"

Naruto chuckles for a moment. "Of course I know him, he's me, I am Uzumaki Naruto." He holds out his fist to the young boy. "It's nice to meet you, uh…"

The boy just sits there in stunned silence, that his hero is sitting right in front of him and talking to him just like he was just anybody else, not some dirty orphan. "R-Ryga, Uzumaki-sama."

"Hey my friends call me Naruto, so please call me Naruto, okay?" He can't help but smile as Ryga's face lights up from hearing Uzumaki Naruto call him a friend. "How about we boil some water and make some ramen?"

A few minutes later, after he pours the water into each of the containers, Naruto puts the lids back down and lets out a sigh. "Now is the hard part."

Ryga looks at Naruto and then to the containers in confusion. "What's the hard part?"

Naruto cannot help but chuckle. "Waiting three minutes for the noodles to get ready."

Ryga's lip curls up at how absurd that sounds. "What is so hard about waiting three minutes?"

"Just wait and you will soon understand." Naruto then nods back towards the containers.

With one minute left Ryga begins to wipe the drool away from the corner of his mouth. "Wow, that stuff is starting to smell real good."

Naruto laughs a little at the young boy and pats him on the shoulder. "Yup, and we have a whole minute left till we can eat."

Ryga's shoulders slump in defeat. "You are right, three minutes is so long."

Once the ramen is ready the two of them sit and talk to each other while they eat their meal. Ryga goes wild eating the ramen and after a second helping he is now laying on his side happily rubbing his aching belly. It is probably the first time since the bandits raided his home that he has been this full.

Naruto just stares at Ryga as the boy slowly drifts off to sleep, his heart full of longing, wishing that his life could be like this more often. It felt good just to sit and chat with Ryga, like he had sometimes with Konohamaru, but that life is gone now. He has no real desire to go back to the village and stay there anymore; there really is nothing there to keep him home. He has changed, and can see just how much by how his teammates look at him these days. He feels lost, without any real sense of direction, he just gets one assignment after another hoping that it will distract him, but his loneliness is always right there waiting for him as soon as he has time to think. Those thoughts are with him till the alcohol blurs things, and are waiting for him in the morning along with the throbbing pain right behind his eyes. 'It's better if I just stay away, because I swore that I would always protect the village, and I can do that best now from outside those walls.'

He looks over at the unconscious form of Kitara. 'Unfortunately, I have probably been doing harm to people outside the village and have been too blinded by alcohol and resentment to really care.' He picks up Ryga and puts him back under the blankets beside the tiny form of his little sister. 'Tonight you guys reminded me of the one thing I have truly lost, a sense of really belonging to something. I understand Sasuke a little better now, and how losing that comforting feeling of belonging can leave a hole inside you, and it is tough to fill it properly. I lost it that night when 'she' told me the truth and left the village. Hopefully, he is finally at peace and can move forward with his life and maybe make a new family for himself.'

Naruto stands up and walks over to the dinner table and completely unrolls the small scroll. He leaves a large pile of instant ramen covering the table along with a small pouch filled with most of his money. Before leaving he looks down at Kitara's sleeping form with admiration. She is far stronger than he pretends to be, because even after the death of her father and brothers, her mother's rape and later death she did not let that despair drag her down. Instead she has done the best she can to care for the people that she holds dear to her heart. 'That strength is something that I might have had once, but I lost it somewhere in a bottle of sake. They may be barely surviving, but they are a family and in the end isn't that more important than a bank full of gold or a library full of powerful jutsus?' He places a hand on the door and sighs sadly knowing that having that kind of happiness is not his fate. "I was born to save the world, but I guess fate had no plans for me being able to enjoy what I saved."

He had gone back to the hotel and woke up the others and left that morning. After that night he hadn't drank again, he found the taste of alcohol to be bitter and lacking any comfort. He just couldn't let himself get drunk and give in to those darker impulses ever again.

He kept to himself and became completely isolated; whenever possible he avoided walking through towns when he went on missions. When they did have to deal with people he would let his teammates do all of the talking and would stand in the back silently listening. He wanted as few people as possible to know who he was when he was on a mission, or anywhere else really. His signature looks didn't help him hide much, but he would just walk away from people at the first hint of a fake smile.

He filled his spare time with training, trying to use the rigors of developing and improving jutsus as a way to distract himself from it all. It hadn't really worked that well and things finally came crashing down right before that fateful fight with Gaara.

END FLASHBACK

Naruto looks up into Ryga's eyes as the boy's voice pulls him out of his thoughts. "What? I'm sorry, what did you say?"

With a mouth full of noodles the boy mumbles, "I said that I have decided that when I get older I am going to apprentice as a ramen chef. I want to be able to feed people and make them happy like I feel when I eat ramen."

Naruto grins at the boy's announcement. "That is a good dream. Old man Teuchi who runs Ichiraku's back home with his daughter Ayame, are some of the nicest people I know. Whenever I was feeling depressed I could go there and after a bowl or two my problems didn't seem as bad anymore, especially when Iruka-sensei would come along and just sit and listen to me talk. If you have a dream, then never give up or it will never come true, believe it. I nearly did give up on my dream, but somebody really special helped me to remember who I am, and that my motto is that I never give up." He looks down at his fidgeting hands for a moment before continuing. "It's hard for me sometimes when I look back at how lost I had gotten, that I could ever let myself get to a place where I would being willing to give up everything that I had dreamed about, and run away."

Kitara just smiles as she looks at Naruto, thinking just how different the person she met last time is to the person sitting across from her right now. This Naruto is someone who seems genuinely caring, not the angry shinobi who bullied her into going to dinner and got her drunk. "Is the person that you just mentioned the reason you seem to be much happier now?"

"Yes, she has saved me, body and soul so many times. I'm not sure where I would be now if I hadn't bumped into her again." He stands up and starts walking towards the door. "I had better be going, there are a few more people I need to see before I leave the village." He motions for Kitara to follow him outside.

Once outside Kitara takes his hands into hers and squeezes them gently. "I want to say thank you again for the money you gave us, if you hadn't we all might not have survived last winter. Naruko came down with a fever and if not for your gift I would not have been able to afford the medicine she needed. She is probably here today because of you, Naruto-sama." A tear rolls down her cheek and she bows gratefully to Naruto and kisses his hands. "Also, I know you are the reason that I got a sudden promotion and Ryga got offered a job at a nearby dairy farm a few days after you left the village. Thank you for whatever you said to my boss."

He looks about hesitantly, unsure how to say what needs to be expressed. "I feel like I should have done more, after what I… almost…" He looks away in complete shame, feeling completely unworthy of the young woman's praise.

"You didn't, and you honestly feel remorseful for what almost happened, that is what is important." Kitara let's go of his hands and steps back. "Ryga told me that when he woke up you were sitting beside me and looked like you were about to kiss me, not like you were intending… something else." Her face reddens in an almost pride filled blush, that after being pushed to the edge of society that somebody as famous as Uzumaki Naruto found her attractive, and has treated her and her family with so much kindness. That knowledge had renewed some of her self-worth, and had allowed her to daydream a little ever since the next morning when Ryga had told her about his night sitting and talking with his hero.

"Ryga also told me how you sat with him, and the two of you talked while eating some ramen that you had in a scroll. He became the envy of all the local children when he started bragging how you had sat and ate dinner with him that night. He still has the ramen cup you ate from, and treats it like is made of gold." Kitara places a hand over her heart as she laughs out loud.

Kitara doesn't mention that she got a reputation as well from his visit to her home late at night, but she knows the truth, as well as Ryga, and to her that is all that matters. "Ever since you talked with Ryga he has become more confident in himself and the anger he was feeling has almost completely vanished. It is all because you made him feel special again." She gives Naruto a light kiss on the cheek. "So, for whatever did or even might have happened that night, you have my complete forgiveness. The life of my little sister and joy returning to the heart of my little brother would have made it worth it, if something had occurred between us that night." Kitara bows deeply to Naruto before rising up and wiping a grateful tear from her eyes.

Naruto bows deeply in return. "Thank you, but to be honest Ryga helped me out more than I can really explain. It wasn't long after being here and talking with him that I stopped drinking, and I have not touched the stuff since. I realized that I was just using it as an excuse to act like an idiot and lash out like a child throwing a tantrum. If I had been that person when I met Hinata again I might have done or said something so stupid that it scares me to think about what I would have lost. She doesn't deserve the person that you met last time, she deserves someone better. I just don't completely feel like I am there yet. It is past time that I finally grow up and take responsibility for my actions and stop being that stupid brat that acted out in order to get people's attention."

He bows again before heading off into the town. "I need to go find a few more people before I leave town tomorrow, but if you ever need something send word to the Hokage of the Leaf Village. She will know where I am and I will be here as soon as I can."

He stops and looks back at Kitara with a smile. "Tell Ryga that I expect to get an invitation when he opens up his first ramen shop. I'll be coming hungry, so he better have plenty of noodles ready."

The next morning Hanabi is standing outside the door to Naruto's room, along with Tenten, her hand hesitates a moment before knocking on his door. "Naruto, I know you are in there so please open up. You didn't come down for breakfast and we are concerned." After a sharp look from Tenten she adds, "Plus, I need to apologize for what I did and said last night before we leave town."

Hanabi had used her byakugan when Naruto had not shown up for breakfast and had seen him sitting on the edge of the bed, with his back to the door, looking out the window. If she had not known any better she would have sworn that he was in the exact same place that she had seen him the night before. "I was out of line last night and I am very sorry for what I said and for slapping you in the face." Hanabi turns and looks over at Tenten with a, 'Are you happy now?' glare.

Hanabi had not really slept much last night after she heard what Naruto is capable of doing. Knowing her sister's penchant for fainting, especially around Naruto, she could not put the thought out of her mind that he might have taken advantage of her sister at some point. 'At least we have been sleeping in different tents while on our missions. Who knows who else he might have tried to touch while they were asleep. Maybe that is why he and Haruno Sakura had their breakup, she found out that he had done something inappropriate and threatened to tell the truth. It doesn't explain why onee-san is mad at Sakura, except that she just doesn't know the truth, and is mad because she is the reason he fled from the village.'

A few moments later Naruto speaks through the door. "Go on ahead and I will meet you on the edge of town in a little bit. I need to take care of something first." As if he could see the frown upon her face Naruto says, "Don't worry Hanabi, you said what was in your heart, and I don't blame you at all for being honest with me about how you feel about what I have done. I honestly feel like I deserve a lot worse." They hear Naruto mumbling something else but neither of them is able to make out exactly what he had said.

When Naruto lands in their midst just outside the town a little while later, Hanabi is the first to exclaim her shock at what she sees. "Holy crap, what happened to you Naruto?"

Naruto's face is badly beaten. His left eye is nearly swollen shut and his lower lip is slightly split, and as they look closer they can see some tissue stuck in his left nostril. "I went and apologized to those girls from yesterday. At first all they did was yell at me for being such a heartless ass. It took me a little while to get them to calm down, but eventually they let me talk. While they do not forgive me for getting them drunk, they at least accepted my apology, sort of."

"So what did you tell them?" Tenten asks curiously.

"How did you get beat up, and why are you still damaged? I thought you healed really quickly." Ookami asks as she comes to take a closer look at Naruto's wounds.

Hanabi looks back towards the town with a smirk. "Those girls beat you up?"

Naruto looks over at Tenten and shrugs uncomfortably. "I told them that I was really drunk by the time they found me that night, and I was really tired, so I used a clone jutsu to be in multiple places at the same time. It was either that or break a promise to spend time with them, and I also told them that I have no memory of what happened that night." He looks away guiltily. "I know it is not the whole truth, but it is not a bald face lie either. I'll need to talk with Granny… I mean… with the Hokage when I get home, and ask for her advice on the situation and what I need to do to make proper amends. "

Naruto gives Ookami a smirk that causes his split lip to start bleeding again. "So, I told them that if they were still angry with me that they could hit me all they wanted till they felt that I had been punished enough, or till they just got too tired to hit me anymore. As to why I am still hurt when Kurama could heal me quickly? Easy, I asked him to hold off a little while so that I'll have a small reminder while we walk home about how stupid I was acting the last time I was in this village. He seemed more than happy to oblige my request for some reason."

"So you just stood there and let those girls hit you, without hitting them back?" Hanabi is having trouble believing that Naruto would just let somebody beat him without mercy.

Naruto nods and immediately regrets that gesture as he touches his swollen eye. "Yeah, first I won't hit a girl unless it is a life or death situation, believe it. Secondly, I have been beaten up a lot worse in my life for stuff I didn't deserve." He looks at Tenten with a knowing smirk. "Or for my friends when they were not able to defend themselves, so don't worry about what those girls did to me for revenge. Come on, we have to get back to the Leaf Village, because I have powerful hunger for some Ichiraku ramen."

Paying no attention to the groans of disbelief going on behind him, Naruto picks up his walking pace and takes the lead so that nobody can see the concern etched on his face. 'I have finally realized that the missing piece of the future that I have always wanted is to be part of a real family, thanks to Hinata who opened that hidden door and showed me what a real family can be like.' He chuckles dryly as a thought crosses his mind. 'Who knows, that rigid lifestyle of being the head of one of the village's elite clans may not be too different from how a Hokage's life may be like. Keeping a strict lifestyle since your actions reflect that of everyone you represent must be tough sometimes, so I may need to start cutting Granny… I mean, the Hokage and Hinata's dad a little more slack sometimes.'

He risks a quick glance back at the troubled face of Hanabi. 'Unfortunately, some mistakes of my past have come back to try and tear it all away. I need to get home and do what I do best, face my problems head on.' He places a hand over his heart. 'Hopefully, the truth will not cost me the one thing that I need most, or the rest of it will just be worthless afterwards.'

Back in the Leaf Village Hinata is standing outside the headquarters of the Diplomatic Division clutching tightly at the small scroll in her hands. She takes a calming breath before entering inside and looks about the lobby of the building she has only visited a few times during her whole life.

This morning, during breakfast with her father she had tried to broach the subject of what she should expect, and what sort of plans that he might have in store for her future. Instead of any real answer he had just stared at her blankly while sipping his tea. She did notice that it had been some of the tea that Naruto had given him as a gift. A good sign maybe.

Finally, he did take mercy on her as she was slowly eating her breakfast. She hadn't really been hungry after the restless night she had after her altercation with Sakura, but she didn't want her father asking questions about her lack of appetite. He had finally explained that she would be undergoing testing to see exactly what sort of position within the division her talents would be best suited for, and once that was complete he would be given the report and make a decision on its recommendations.

It is just like her father to give a vague enough answer to stop any further questions without being rude, and to not give away enough information to put anything to rest. 'Father has always expected me to earn everything I get, and this is no exception. If I am not strong enough to take and hold what I want, then giving it to me would do far more harm. That is why he pushed me away so long ago, because back then I was too timid to try. Until I met Naruto-kun I never had anything that I wanted to give everything to possess, but my future is now in my hands and all I have to do now is hold on hard enough so that nothing can tear it from my grasp.'

"Hyuga-sama, we have been expecting your arrival." The pleasant sounding voice of the receptionist brings her back to the present. "Do you have your assignment papers?" Once Hinata hands over the scroll the woman takes a quick look and hands it back. "Everything seems to be in order, please head down the hallway on your left and go through the third door on the right. The proctor will be with you shortly to help get you started."

Hinata turns and looks down the indicated hallway that has been decorated in a manner that gives off an aura of authority. "Thank you very much." Hinata bows and walks down the hallway, her mind now swirling with questions about what is going to happen next. 'What sort of exams am I going to have to endure? Are they going to do something like the chunin exams? Maybe it will be more like the jōnin exams that Kiba and Shino took not long ago. They said that those exams were very tough and thorough.'

As she places her hands on the doorknob a thought crossed her mind and puts an excited smile on her face. 'Wait, it is possible that if I get a perfect score on the exam, and exceed everyone's expectations, that I might get my choice of assignments, one that keeps me close to home? Maybe I could apply to be a diplomatic aide to the Hokage, and of course the future Hokage too.' Both hands reach up and press tightly against her chest as she closes her eyes tightly and makes a prayer that things will turn out as she hopes.

With a new sense of purpose and excitement, Hinata opens the door to her future, determined to make her dreams come true, even if she has to knock a few people out of her way. 'This is for us, Naruto-kun.'

A/N: There we go, this concludes the reveal arc of what happened between Naruto and Sakura.

I will be taking a week off for the Independence Day Holiday and heading up into the mountains where I will have no internet or cell service. Hopefully I will be able to relax and recharge the mental batteries so I can move forward with the next arc. That recharge hopefully will give me a boost and help me to be able to get the next chapter out before the end of July.