Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I really couldn't think of any clever way of going about this. Shame.

Notes: Sorry for the delay, I wasn't really sure how to go about this chapter, but I hope you enjoy! Also, if you see any typos or things that just don't seem to logically fit, let me know in a review. I reread the last chapter and had to fix several typos and word-choices, so feel free to point it out.

-- Chapter 4: The Short Battle --

Sakura stood timidly in the Hokage's office. Timid was the last word that anyone would use to describe her, but that's exactly how she stood. Her eyes wandered around the office. The walls were painted a strange green, much like the color that the Tsunade herself wore on her jacket. One wall was covered with the portraits of all the Hokages at their prime. The desk that was in front was made of a dark brownish-red wood, smoothed and glossed to perfection. On the desk sat stacks of papers, each one serving some different purpose, varying from mission requests to lists of students in the academy. Toward the site there were three picture frames, each containing the picture of one person. The first was Nawaki, Tsunade's younger, deceased brother. The second was Dan, Tsunade's deceased fiance. The third was Uzumaki Naruto, the number one unpredictable ninja that had left the village.

The guilt rose in her throat as she saw the photo of Naruto. It had been her fault that he had left and that she had been unsuccessful in her most recent attempt to bring him back. She had been in too much of a state of wonder to even attempt to do anything to stop him when she saw him. Instead of pursuing him when he fled, she went to Kakashi, and as such lost one of her chances to capture him. That had been only four months ago. Now she was in the Hokage's office, waiting for both Tsunade and Kakashi. Sai was already there, but his lack of emotion left only silence in the room with them. She was there to report on the status of her previous mission. She was puzzled by Kakashi's intermission of reporting the mission. Under normal circumstances he accompanied them and they immediately passed on the details. On their return he had received a messenger bird, and only he was allowed to view the details.

Tsunade entered the office, exhaling deeply to relieve her vexation. Sitting down at her desk, she asked "What are the results?"

Sakura responded, "The trip to the sand went well enough. Our diplomats were attacked by some remaining Sound-nin on the way, but Kakashi, Sai, and myself were able to fend them off. Upon reaching Suna everything went exactly as it was expected. The message was delivered and the proposal was accepted; the diplomats will explain the details of that business. No enemy ninja were encountered on the return to Konoha. In short, the mission was a success."

Tsunade nodded, and paid both of them for the mission." Remind Kakashi to pick up his pay, and both of you are dismissed." Sakura returned the nod and left. She had to become stronger, otherwise she could have been raped and killed. If Naruto had not shown up, she would have been screwed. Since then she worked twice as hard to develop her skills. His elemental recomposition was incredible, whereas hers could only be called fair. The speed of his attacks was just as incredible; one second she was about to be killed and the next her attackers were dead.

Sakura sparred against others to test just how good she was. She won against Sai, but only sometimes. Not once had she managed to defeat 'Copy Ninja Kakashi,' he was invincible to her. He could dodge all of her attacks with his Sharingan, and even without he was quick and had a huge library of jutsus in his head. Her superhuman strength just wasn't enough, and Sakura was beginning to realize this. She could summon slugs, like her sensei, but they weren't very practical in sparring or regular battles. The times they helped most were against other summons, which Sakura had yet to face.

Today, Sakura would train her primary element, water. While it did not have many uses in battle directly, because water does not deal damage, like fire, water, and wind. The only way to make it do large amounts of damage would be to create a flood, which took enormous amounts of chakra, amounts that Sakura did not have. However it did have many practical uses, it strengthened her water jutsus that Kakashi taught her, and it allowed her to use them away from a water source. It improved her healing abilities, but even those did not help her kill others.

As such, Sakura hoped to learn it so that she could use it in conjunction with the lightning element. Together her attacks would be far more deadly, and she would be able to use them in a direct form. However, she had yet to even master the water element, which would be necessary to do this, which is exactly why it was her training.

Sakura went to team seven's usual training ground. Standing in the field she looked down at her hands, which were held up with the fingers and palms slightly defining a semi-spheres. She focused chakra into her palms and imagined a wave-motion, which helped her to recompose it. After a minute water began to generate in each palm, filling up the invisible spheres that she had defined. Finally, two perfect balls of water floated above each of her hands. Sakura sighed in both relief and vexation, she had gotten the chakra to recompose, yes, but two balls of water couldn't do much more than soak someone.

A group of people was coming, Sakura could hear them. She turned to see who it was. There was Kakashi, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Shizune, and someone who she didn't recognize. She looked closer. 'Wait. Spiky blond hair, blue eyes, and,' she paused, 'whiskers? No way.' "Naruto?" The spherical container lost its control and the water fell, splashing on her hands.

The blond lifted his head up to look at the girl. "Sakura?"

Sakura ran over to the group and examined Naruto more closely, before proclaiming, "It is you!" She threw her arms around him and Naruto developed the most quaint look on his face. It was a mix of surprise, and relief for not being punched; it said what the hell is this woman doing with her arms wrapped around me. He began to return the hug, but as soon as he did, she pulled back. Her hand crunched into a fist and she swung at his face, yelling "Damn you Naruto!"

Naruto's face changed once again, dropping the relief and leaving just the surprise. 'Women,' he muttered in his mind, as he side-stepped. This caused Sakura to fall forward, as she put a lot of her body into the punch, and her momentum was too great. At the last moment, Naruto caught her, and put her back on her feet. "Careful Sakura," he said calmly.

'Damn, he is fast.' "Ehehe," sakura laughed nervously as she scratched the back of her head, much like Naruto used to do. She wasn't used to missing, and it kind of ruined the emphasis. "Seriously though Naruto, why did you go?"

"Let's just say I needed to get away for a while. Anyways, I'm about to spar against Kakashi and Jiraiya, you can watch if you want, or if Tsunade doesn't mind you can join in against me."

"Wait, you're sparring against Kakashi and Jiraiya at the same time?" Sakura seemed rather shocked, while Naruto looked completely nonchalant.

"Are you forgetting that I've been training for the last three years? With shadow clones included thats about a thousand years of training."

Everyone looked at him, not realizing that he had that much experience. "Well let's begin then," he continued, "Are you going to join us Sakura?"

As much as Sakura wanted to watch the battle that was about to happen, she got the feeling that Jiraiya and Kakashi would need as much help as they could get. "Sure." And with this, the fighters went to the center of the field, while Tsunade and Shizune stayed off to the side, near the wooded area. Naruto bowed, and his opponents returned the courtesy. Blue chakra armor began forming around Naruto immediately, which just left his watchers in shock. Sakura was familiar with this, only she was the one being protected previously. However, it was when Naruto began hovering that everyone completely lost it. Only Kakashi could see how Naruto was doing it, and he was impressed. 'The kid has come up with some really good jutsus,' he thought.

"Most of my own techniques are fatal," Naruto said, "so I'm afraid you can't see them yet. Since I don't want to injure any of you, I will be using mostly taijutsu. Be warned, even without most of my jutsus I am still dangerous. Watch out, I'm ready."

The trio each took a fighting stance, and grouped into a tight triangular formation. Naruto dashed forward at high speeds, readying his fists for action. As his swung at Jiraiya, it was Kakashi that blocked. 'It's that Sharingan. Only he can read my attacks enough to block, everyone else is helpless against them,' Naruto thought.

Jiraiya was forming seals, and Naruto wondered what he was preparing for. Finally, Jiraiya used the technique, it was the hell swamp. Normally Naruto would have been instantly trapped in its clutches, but the ability to hover stopped that. However, the swamp was tiring his energy, as it took a lot more effort to hover over a swamp than dry land. Naruto jumped out of the swamp. He once more rushed at the group. This time he created three wind kunai and launched them at the group. Kakashi managed to move the group away from the kunai that only he could see, but could not block Naruto's own attacks. Naruto disabled Kakashi with a few hits to the head and chest.

He danced away before Sakura or Jiraiya could counter-attack. Jiraiya and Sakura used earth and water techniques respectively, in an attempt to hit Naruto. However Naruto's shielding was able to take most of the attacks, and the ones that he could he simply cut through using the wind. His natural element really had been ideal.

Naruto could have knocked out the remaining two with only taijutsu, but he wanted to at least show some knowledge that he gained during his three year departure. It was one of his more recent techniques, and as such one of his less powerful ones. He ran toward the pair with his full speed. He began recomposing the chakra armor around him into another element, lightning. It was the third element that he learned to manipulate, but the first and second were far to destructive for this.

As he reached the two he struck them quickly, whether they blocked or not did not matter at this point. The jolt of the electricity temporarily paralyzed each one, and they fell to the ground. Naruto turned to Tsunade and said, "It's over. Kakashi needs to be healed and that is one of the things that I don't know about." Tsunade nodded. Both she and Shizune made their way toward the ninja. They quickly fixed any damage Naruto had done to Kakashi, which was mostly flesh wounds. After finishing, they turned to the remaining two. "It's alright," Naruto said, "They'll be able to move in another few seconds." He was right, each got up.

After the battle there wasn't a person there who wasn't shocked, aside from Naruto. He had just defeated three of Konoha's best, at the same time. "Well done Naruto," said Tsunade, "But don't think that you're getting out of that punishment yet. I've got just the job to make you regret having left at all." Hearing this, Naruto cast his head down in disappointment. 'How bittersweet,' he thought.

He congratulated the three on a well-fought battle, though they seemed to think that they did poorly, but Naruto knew better. Most ninja wouldn't have come close to lasting that long. He left alone toward Ichiraku's, as he had yet to even have the chance to grab some ramen. He would be glad to finally get some. 'This,' he thought, 'was definitely worth coming back for.'