Much like I had wanted, everything had gone back to almost normal. Kakashi-sensei still read Icha Icha Paradise every chance he got. Naruto-kun was still enthusiastic about his training. Sasuke-kun was still silent, cold. We didn't talk about him leaving, we didn't ask about who wounded him. We acted as if he never left in the first place. The rest of the village did the same. Nobody ever mentioned his absence.
Kakashi-sensei found out that we had been traveling close to the Sound on our way back. Naruto-kun was infuriated by this and the rest of the group was just freaked out. Hinata-san and Lee-kun had heard of Orochimaru and didn't really want to meet him.
The village held a memorial service for Ritsuki but only six people attended. Lee-kun tried to say something nice about Ritsuki but failed, as did the rest of us. Tsunade-sama said something about him being a good listener but stopped mid-sentence. I figured that she had remembered something particularly nasty about him.
Our team and Gai-sensei's team enrolled to take the Chuunin exams again, three months after Sasuke-kun had come back. They hadn't changed at all. We all made it to the final matches along with one person from the Sound and two people from the Sand. Before long only Naruto-kun, Lee-kun, and Sasuke0kun were left. But that is a story for another time.