A/N A familiar face returns to the leaf, a shadow if its former glory

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, there are owned by kishimoto-san

Summary: One fateful night in Konohagakure, the Yondaime Hokage chose his village over his only son; only time will tell if he made the right choice. Feral!Naruto, Pairings to be voted on.

Key: Normal, "Speech" 'Thoughts' "Demon Speech" 'Demon Thoughts'

Chapter 4

Return of the Hero

Konoha, 12 years since Kyuubi's attack

If there I one thing that is most underestimated in this world, it is the human need to survive. Men can survive for days under freezing snow, weeks floating on the ocean, they can drag themselves out from under a pile of rubble with only one leg, go head to head with savage beasts armed with nought but there bare hands, and win.

It's of no surprise then, that, upon finding oneself alone, naked, weak, confused and disorientated, instead of lying still trying to recover, with hints of vultures overhead, this man was, instead, slowly dragging himself across rocks, and mud, and…stuff,

He was barley recognisable, his hair was matted and damp, his skin bruised and bleeding, his mind empty of everything but one word

'Konoha…'

He ignored the flaring pain that danced across his battered torso, ever so slowly; inch-by-inch he made his way. He had been at it for a solid hour now, a thin trail of red gleamed in the sunlight behind him, insects bit at his raw flesh, and forest animals eyed him hungrily.

Nearby, two chunin where lamenting over the many mysteries of life

"So, keeping all possible variables in mind, and making allowances for any possible variables, what do you think?" One of them, a brown haired nin sporting an untamed head of hair and a bandage across his nose, asked.

"Well…I'd have to say…purple" The other, a more reserved looking nin with a much more respectable haircut replied.

"Bullshit Izumo! She wears white panties, I'm telling you"

"Sorry if I don't agree with you Kotetsu but I just don't see Anko-sempai as someone to wear white anything"

"Yeah but because you don't expect her to do so, automatically means she does, you know how unpredictable she is" He replied, waving his arms around for emphasis.

"If she's as unpredictable as you say, then neither of us would be able to guess her colour" A light smirked adorned his features, he knew he'd won this round.

"Yeah well-"

"Koo-noo-haa" A raspy voice called out.

"What?"

"It wasn't me"

"Ko-no-HA" It said again, more forcefully this time.

"Oh for love of-look at that!" Izumo exclaimed loudly, pointing wildly. The object in question was a moaning limp of flesh, a few metres away from the gate.

"I-I thinks it a man"

"He looks barley alive, quick! Get him to the hospital, I'll keep watch, he might have been running from something"

His partner nodded before jumping over to pick up the would-be corpse and shunshin'd away.

The Hokage Tower, some time later.

The Sandaime Hokage sighed at his desk, he had just finished sorting the academy graduates into teams and it had taken a lot out of him. He pulled out his pipe and put it to his lips.

"I'm getting too old for this" he said to no-one. Konoha had fallen on hard times since the Kyuubi attack and was only just starting to recover. Morale had been low ever since the blonde jinchuuriki had disappeared. Of course it had risen significantly for the first few weeks, however after the celebrations wore down, many found themselves missing the outlet his status as a living punching bag had granted them. At one point there was even whispers of mass departure to another village, possibly the only thing that had stopped it was his students release of his latest novel.

The old Sarutobi would never admit it, but the smut-filled books where quite the life-saver for his career, they gave the economy that extra boost, helped encourage tourists, and gave weary jounin something to keep their mind off the job.

"Speaking of which…" A lecherous grin adorned his face as he slowly reached towards the hidden compartment on his desk. It let out an audible creak as he opened it, revealing the treasure stored inside. To the Sandaime the Kami themselves where singing as he brought out his beloved collectors edition.

"Hogake-Sama!" A hospital messenger burst through the door.

"Damn you! I was so close!" The elderly Hogake quickly hid the orange miracle worker behind his back.

"What is it? I'm rather busy today, what with the new graduates and all" He said sternly, waving his hand in the general direction of the academy, only to realise he was still holding his book. He quickly thirsted it under his desk and tried to maintain a straight face.

"I know sure it's just, well, you'd better come down to the hospital sir, you'll see what I mean when you get there" The Hogake's features instantly set into a frown, he didn't like the sound of this.

Konoha Hospital

Doctors and nursed flurried around in hysterics over their latest arrival, gossip was spreading like wildfire and soon the whole hospital was in an uproar. Then, suddenly, all went quiet as the Sandaime strode past, ignoring the staff and heading straight towards a specific room.

He pushed the doors open and stepped inside, anxiety gripping his throat; he looked at the bedridden figure and almost had a heart attack.

'That same blonde hair, that same face, it really is him'

"What happened? How is he here?" He demanded.

"The guards on watch spotted him trying to crawl into Konoha, They say he collapsed just outside the gates."

"What's his condition?" His eyes never left the limp form on the bed.

"He had multiple lacerations on his front half, probably from crawling on the ground, nothing serious but we cleaned and bandaged them to prevent infection. However, that's not the concerning part"

"Don't leave me hanging, tell me"

"Well, he lacks all but the most basic muscle development, it's a miracle he was even able to move, he's like a newborn baby in more ways than one"

"How so?"

"Well, still have his medical records on file, and the blood test confirms it's definitely him, yet he seems to have lost all his recorded scars and old wounds, like they never happened"

"Will he live?"

"We can only hope, we've hooked him up to a concentrated nutritional feed to try and restore his body back to health, but we can't tell how long that will take, also there's a chance his muscles will never recover unless they receive appropriate exercise, which will be difficult if he remains unconscious, and it's anyone's guess how long until he wakes up, or if he'll even wake up at all, also we can't eliminate the possibility this is a clone created by Orochimaru so it may not even be him after all"

"I suppose all we can do is wait. I want to be informed if there is any changes in his condition, also, his presence here is officially classified an S class secret, and only a select few are to have access to this room,"

"Hai! Hokage-sama"

'Arashi my boy, I hope you're okay, this village has suffered without you.'

Too lazy to do Japanese translations anymore, look them up yourself.

A/N: Wanted to include more, but fingers are freezing in the night, and school tomorrow, can't help but feel unsatisfied with the overall quality of tis chapter, but then agin, everyone say that about their own work.

Pairings Poll: For the record, we don't see Naruto again till post time skip, keep that in mind when voting

NaruHina 7

NaruAnko 5

NaruTen 4

NaruKur 1

NaryHana 2

NaruShizu 1

The following are NOT options

Anyfiller girls

Temari

Ino

Anyones Mom

Any non-ninja

Any guys

FemHaku

FemKyuubi

Tsunade

Ayame

Tayuya

Kin

Rin