I would like to thank everybody that has submitted reviews, it motivates me to keep writing. Well here is the 5th chapter I hope everybody enjoys and please review. Some of you may think you know where I'm going with this, but don't be fooled not even I know where I'm going with it. Lol that was a joke, please don't hurt me. If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to make them. Enjoy.

I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form, but if I did this is how it would go.

Arrival

The two strangers walked closer to the village of sand. They were coming to one of the guard outposts, which served as both the first line of defense and scouting post. They both wore black cloaks with red clouds decorating them, and straw hats that obscured their faces. One seemed to have a massive hunchback and had a squat appearance with what looked like a black bandanna covering the bottom half of their faces. His companion was much taller and thin. She looked up to reveal she had light skin and blond hair obscuring her light blue right eye.

"We're finally here... yeah? I take it you've taken care of our entrance here?" She asked still looking at the guardposts.

"It is done." Her companion answered. He looked at her and asked what was on his mind, "Will you be able to accomplish your mission with the amount of materials you brought?" He looked forward to see a lone sand ninja approaching them.

His companion looked down at him revealing her head guard. It was from the stone village, like Itachi's it also had a large scratch running across the stones. "You underestimate me? Yeah." she shifted her robe to reveal a bag (more like a pouch) around her waste. It was square in form, unobtrusive, instead of a zipper it appeared to have a mouth on top, and a zipper on the side. It was on her left side, she pulled her arm out of the sleeve so that the robe hung off her shoulder. She had pulled out her right hand and was holding a bag in it. On her finger she had a silver ring with a blue stone on it and some writing on it. She seemed to feed a substance from the bag in her right hand to the pouch. "It appears that you do not know the power of art yet. Do not worry I will not fail. I will get what we are here for... yeah."

Her companion simply nodded and went to speak with the sand ninja. She reached down with her left hand, as she reached down a mouth with teeth formed in her palm and the mouth on her palm kissed the mouth of the pouch. She then brought her hands together in a rapid succession of hand gestures. She finished her jutsus, poof. A large clay bird about twice her size was standing next to her when the smoke cleared. Her companion looked back briefly and went back to talking to the sand ninja.

"I've prepared something special for the village of sand, a work of art they will never forget. Yeah."

She jumped on the back of the clay bird. The clay bird started flapping its wings and took off into the sky.

The sand ninja and her companion looked at the departing figure. The sand ninja asked her companion, "Sir, will she succeed."

"She isn't taking this seriously enough, she could have prepared better, but I am confident she will not fail."

Back at Konoha, Temari and Shikamaru were still about a block away from the ramen stand when Shikamaru stopped. A thought was running through his head that he maybe should have put together a long time ago. He had been thinking about how to get Temari's smaller fan away from her without getting hurt, this lead him to think about the first time he had seen that fan. This was probably the first time that he allowed himself to wonder why she had bought it in the first place. Could it be that she liked him, he found it hard to believe considering how straightforward she was. He had always thought she was out of his league and to troublesome to ask out. He had stopped with this question on his mind and a solution to getting the fan away from her dawned on him. "T-Temari-chan?"

"Hmm, what is it Shika?" He had never addressed her like that and her cheeks turned ever so slightly pink. She opened the fan and pretended to fan herself while her cheeks returned to normal.

"That fan, you brought it for my birthday. I remember that day. I wanted to apologize for the way I reacted and would like to accept it now the way I should have accepted it that day." Shikamaru asked. The moment of truth had come, he had put his life and pride on the line. He didn't know what was going to happen, if this move succeeded it would serve many purposes. He wanted to sweat so badly, but knew his life would be forfeit if he did. The key to his survival was to not show any fear whatsoever, he only hoped he would be successful.

Temari was shocked, at first so many emotions ran through her. Fear that he was messing with her head, anger that he had the nerves to mess with her head, but overall what she really felt was a sense of happiness, because he had finally acknowledged her gift. A smile grew on her face and she closed the fan. " Hai, Shikamaru this fan was meant to be your gift from the beginning, I'm glad you are willing to accept it." With that she handed the fan to Shikamaru and turned to keep walking.

Shikamaru looked down at the fan lost in his own thoughts. He always thought Temari's temper was too short, but always seemed to enjoy her company. He started wondering about when he would see her again and decided to ask her. "Will you be back for the chuunin exams?" He couldn't look directly at her so he focused his attention on the fan while he waited for her response.

"I think only the Kazekage comes to see the fights at the end of the exams. I could see if I could come, but don't hold your breath." Was this his way of saying he liked her, she wondered, "Why Shika, would you like to see me again?"

Shikamaru froze momentarily, "No its nothing like that, ha ha I was just wondering." changing the subject before she could pursue it further he said, "Look there's the ramen stand we should get something to eat while we gather information on Naruto's whereabouts." He started walking briskly towards the stand leaving her to catch up to him. How troublesome he thought to himself, he looked down at the fan and thought, at least she won't beat me up with this fan anymore.

Sakura and Ino had gone to Naruto's apartment, but he hadn't been home they were leaving his apartment when Kakashi called out to them. "Ey you two where do you think you're going?"

They turned and Sakura answered, "We're going to find Naruto. What are you doing?"

Kakashi quickly jumped to where they were standing and replied, "I am going to accompany you two." He was about to start reading his Icha Icha book again when he noticed the bewildered expressions on their faces. "Oh, I guess I should tell you Sakura, the hokage told me she wanted me to get a team together and seeing as how Naruto just came back I thought it would be nice for us to work together again." Even though he could see they were still absorbing the information he had given them he started to read his book and said. "So just go on about your search for Naruto and I'll follow. This is a good opportunity to see if your tracking skills have improved Sakura."

"Nani, so team seven will be back together. Don't worry Kakashi-sensei we'll find him." Sakura eagerly said (BAKA! Tsunade sensei didn't teach you anything about tracking. If Naruto's not at the ramen stand you'll never find him..BAKA! I can't believe you're starting to sound like that Narutard with his false confidence.) Sakura grabbed the confused looking Ino and started dragging her along. "Let's go Ino, we'll show him." Ino and Sakura had been getting along better recently since they were no longer constantly fighting over Sasuke's attention.

"By the way Sakura have you run into Naruto since his return?" Kakashi stopped reading his book and stared at Sakura's back. Sakura froze at these words, her face turned blue and sweat started pouring down her head and body as Kakashi said the following. "It seems that on his first day back Naruto was brutally beaten and left for dead on the streets. I brought him home and laid him on his bed, however he never regained consciousness while I was here so I wasn't able to give him the news." Kakashi said in a cold voice. The sweat was really coming out of Sakura now. The next words that Kakashi spoke were spoken in cold, hard, calculating precision. "If we were to find the person who did that to our comrade, it would only be fair that we returned the favor. Wouldn't it Sakura?"

Sakura swallowed a huge lump that was residing in her throat. "H-Hai Kakashi-sensei, it would." (BAKA! Are you crazy you just said it was ok to die...AAAAHHHHH I'm to pretty to die! Why meee!) Ino was totally lost about what had just transpired. Looking from Kakashi to Sakura to see if she could get a clue.

Kakashi resumed reading his book and walked past the girls. "Let's get moving then. The sooner we find Naruto the better."

Temari and Shikamaru entered the stand to see two figures already occupying seats. Shikamaru recognized Konohamaru who was staring at the tall blond stranger in awe. Next to Konohamaru there sat 4 empty bowls of ramen. Shikamaru thought to himself, wow that's quite an appetite, this thought however was totally crushed when he looked over at the pile of empty bowls next to the tall blond stranger. There were 11 empty bowls next to this guy, Shikamaru thought nobody could ever match Chouji's appetite, again this thought was crushed Chouji's max was at 9 bowls. Who was this ramen monster Shikamaru wondered. Could it be? Even Temari's mouth dropped at seeing so many empty bowls. Naruto's ears twitched and he slowly turned around with noodles hanging out of his mouth. Shikamaru was shocked, his arm was in a defensive posture as if warding off evil. It is him, and where does he put all that food? That's a twelve bowl he's just finished. Temari's mouth just hung open and she thought, truly all noodles must have nightmares of this beast. Naruto recognized the pair and slurped up the noodles, and shown a smile that split his face.

"Shikamaru, just the guy I was looking for." Naruto said.

"Did you expect to find me at the bottom of one of those bowls Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.

"D-Did you finish off all those bowls by yourself, Naruto?" Temari asked.

Naruto looked behind him with a confused expression on his face. "Hahaha, yeah I guess I did, I even helped Konohamaru with one of his bowls. I guess I was a little hungry this morning?" Shikamaru and Temari were floored by this answer.

Konohamaru absently nodded his head in agreement, "so many bowls" Konohamaru quietly said.

Naruto kept talking as if he hadn't heard Konohamaru. "Don't worry they still have plenty of ramen for you guys if you're hungry."

In the background a giant sweat drop appeared on Ichikaru's forhead. As he thought, if we hadn't ordered those extra crates of ramen when we heard he was coming back we would be out of ramen. To think that he even had to hire Chouji's girlfriend to keep up with Naruto, that guy was great for business.

Shikamaru regained his composure and asked, "What is it you wanted to see me about?"

"We're going to enter the chuunin exams, so you need to put our names down!" Naruto pointed at Shikamaru, then busted out the good guy pose as if everything was taken care of.

A huge sweatdrop popped out on Temari's forehead, "You're still a gennin?" she hesitantly asked. Is that really possible I thought this runt was strong, she thought to herself.

Before Naruto could respond Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and said, "How troublesome, it seems you only have two members and the teams all require three people. I can't sign you up if it's only you two."

Naruto was growling at Temari, he didn't like the way she had asked him her question. Shikamaru made a good point though. Naruto felt obligated to respond with confidence. "Don't worry Shikamaru we'll get that third person and their information to you before you know it."

"Ok Naruto I know it now, so where is the information?" Shikamaru calmly asked.

"NANI? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Naruto had no idea how to react, but he knew he wanted to react somehow. Jiraiya had told him though, think before you act, Baka.

"Don't be so rash Naruto I was only making a joke?" Shikamaru crossed his arms in front of him and made Temari's gift more visible. He looked over to see Temari had brought out her other fan and was leaning on it, watching the events unfold.

Naruto was scratching his head, "Oh I get it a joke. Hahaha, that was funny Shikamaru." Sweatdrops appeared on everyone's forehead. Naruto noticed the fans and decided to change the subject. " So whats up with the fans? Are you two dating?"

Temari and Shikamura, blushed like crazy, their cheeks were so red you could see it on the infrared spectrum. Shikamaru couldn't answer, didn't know how to answer he had asked himself the same question on the way here. With Temari having her fan out it made him even more afraid of answering.

"BAKA! I'm just a messenger from the sand relaying information between the villages!" Temari stammered through the blushing sensation overwhelming her.

Naruto wondered what was wrong with them and decided maybe he should change the subject again.

"Ey, Temari I heard that Orochamaru had killed the Kazekage as well as the 3rd Hokage here. Who's the Kazekage now?"

Temari glad for the change of subject composed herself and prepared to answer.

In the village of sand, in the Kazekage's office Gaara let out a sneeze. Hirai looked up from her task and asked "Are you ok Kazekage-san?"

"Yes Hirai, thank you for your concern." Gaara responded. His mind wandered off again, Gaara had come back from his mission a few hours ago and was presently in his quarters putting up his puppets.

He and Hirai had been reviewing the missions the village had accomplished, making sure everything was in order when he had returned. He gave his report and headed to his quarters, but something he had said disturbed him. He remembered Kankarou's words.

"We received information on the way back in the form of a letter from one of the Sannin of konoha, I believe it was Jiraiya. He urged us to fortify our defenses and prepare for trouble, he said something in our village has been targeted by a powerful organization, called Aketsuki. We should discuss this as soon as possible." Gaara came out of reverie. He looked towards Hirai and was thinking of asking her something when he heard it. A series of muffled explosions going off in various locations in the village.

"Hirai, go fetch Kankarou tell him to be ready to fight."