The Party:
Sakura and Ino walked towards the inn where Naruto was staying. They had just met Temari, who was here on a mission to convey a request from Gaara to the Godaime Hokage of Konoha. They had both seen her with Shikamaru heading towards the gathering. As they neared the inn, Sakura's thoughts drifted towards the new stranger she met in the afternoon. She wondered what it would have been like if he grew up with them, maybe he would also have been a part of team seven, like Sasuke and Sai. She was jostled from her thoughts when Ino nudged her arm.
"What?" asked Sakura.
"Do you know what room he is staying in?" Ino was looking at the hallway lined with doors.
"No, let's just wait in the lobby; I am sure he will be out in no time." Sakura headed towards the lobby with a few empty chairs.
"Hey, this place is packed, looks like there is going to be a lot of people here for the chuunin exams this time too," said Ino as she looked at the amount people waiting in the lobby. Sakura nodded in agreement, usually the lobby is empty but today there were only a few chairs empty.
"I think we should ask the receptionist which roo-" Ino began saying when she saw Sakura staring in a different direction, her eyes fixed and her mouth slightly open. Ino also turned to see what she was staring at and was stunned too. Naruto was turning the corner where the hallway with the rooms connected to the lobby. He looked like a completely different person from when they met him earlier. It looked like he had shaved his face which showed a three-day beard earlier, it looked like he trimmed his hair down a bit, but the most eye-catching change were his clothes and the Konoha head band. He was not wearing the gray jacket and the black pants from earlier, instead he was wearing an orange robe with black flames, a black full sleeved shirt that was tucked into off white pants, which were being well complimented with the shin length black sandals. He looked around the lobby before his eyes settled on Ino and Sakura; he smiled and headed their way.
"So where is the party?" he asked shaking both Sakura and Ino out of their awe stricken stare.
"O-oh yeah, let's go," said Sakura as she quickly turned away towards the exit. "So Naruto, did you buy those clothes in Konoha?" asked Sakura as they made their way towards the food court. "Huh? Oh yeah, Shizune-chan took me to this huge shinobi store, they had everything you could think of, she chose these for me and Ero-sannin paid for it."
"Ooh! Did you go to the Shadow Armor! I have always wanted to buy clothes from there but my parents always deny saying that the place is over prized." Ino squealed as she clasped her hands and stared at Naruto with puppy dog eyes.
"Uh… ha ha. These clothes are sure expensive but the Kunoichi clothes were amazing, you should definitely go there," said Naruto rubbing the back of his head as he tried to encourage Ino.
"Oh please, don't get her started on shopping, she can talk about that for hours, can we just hurry up and get to the party," Sakura said in an exasperated voice as they neared the food court.
"Oh whatever, not like you were not bragging about that new Kimono that you are wearing." Ino said as she put a pout on her face.
"But that's because it's a gift!" said Sakura in a flustered voice as her face flushed crimson.
"And who gave it to you?" asked Ino in a mischievous voice.
"A guy at the infirmary said it was a thank you gift for taking care of his injured leg." Sakura said tentatively.
"Uh-huh, so he gave one to Tsunade and one to Shizune too cause they were the ones that helped with the success of the operation right?" asked Ino with a smirk on her face.
"N-no, he just gave one to me." Sakura had a deep blush on her face as she said that.
"Soooo what does that tell you?" Ino was really starting to make Sakura uncomfortable; all of this was direct hints from the guy that he might like her.
"Hey is that where the party is going to be?" interjected Naruto as he pointed at the huge pavilion where people were starting to gather.
"I am going to look for Sai, why don't you help him get acquainted with the others?" Ino vanished before Sakura could respond.
"So shall we?" asked Naruto as he held his hand out. Sakura was a little taken aback but when she looked at Naruto, she saw a genuine smile and a chance at friendship. She tentatively took his hand as she led him into the pavilion.
"Hey Sakura is that the new guy everyone is talking about?" Kiba, as boisterous as ever, came over to the duo as he sized Naruto up and gave him a smirk.
"Yes, Naruto this is Kiba Inuzuka, he is a member of the genin group team eight with Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame. Kiba this is Naruto Uzumaki."
"Hey, I suppose you have a pet canine right? What's his name?" asked Naruto as he looked around.
"Yeah, Akamaru is in the kennels back at the Inuzuka compound resting, we just got back from a mission today. Wait how did you know I have a pet?" Kiba was quite surprised at Naruto's knowledge of their clan.
"Oh I know quite a bit about all the clans and blood line limits that are from Konoha. After all I was bound to come back, I am from Konoha as well." Naruto was trying to judge Kiba just like Kiba was judging Naruto, only in a more subtle and intuitive manner. His skills at reading chakra signatures were first-class and it helped him determine what type and caliber of ninja the chakra belonged to. Kiba's chakra signature showed him to be mid-level chuunin, and belonged to the head of the Inuzuka clan. This guy was probably the future heir of his clan.
"Oh yeah, is that right? So what rank are you starting off as? Academy student or genin?" Kiba's behavior was starting to get on Sakura's nerves, as usual. Was he trying to pick a fight with Naruto, a ninja who was on par with Shikamaru?
"Hey, whoa man chill out! I'm just here to enjoy the party." Naruto had his hands up showing he meant no harm.
"Back off Inuzuka, he can beat you no problem." The Hyuuga prodigy, Neji just walked into the pavilion with Tenten and Lee.
"What do you want Hyuuga?" growled Kiba. Kiba and Neji never got along after Neji beat Kiba in the chuunin exams final round the first time.
"Just letting you know that he is Tokubetsu Jounin of this village and technically your senior officer. You better hope he does not make your life difficult." Neji said coolly as he looked at Naruto.
"Stop it both of you!" Tenten came in between the two quarreling teens just like she always did when there was a probability of a fight about to ensue between Neji and Kiba. "We are here to enjoy the day we graduated from the academy together, not renew old grudges."
"YOSH! Well said Temari-chan let us flourish our Flames of Youth for all to see!" Lee yelled, much to the dismay of his teammates. Naruto looked from Lee to Sakura, quietly trying to decipher the meaning of the green spandex clad teen's words.
"Oh yeah, he is a little weird, but he is the greatest tai-jutsu user among us, and one of the chuunins with the highest number of missions accomplished." Sakura whispered to Naruto, it was common knowledge in Konoha that anybody who did rounds around the village at five in the morning was definitely not in the right state of mind.
"Naruto? Is that you?" Temari had just walked into the pavilion with Shikamaru in tow.
"Temari! How are you? How are Kankuro and Gaara?" Naruto was pleasantly surprised to see Temari but he knew that Temari was the ambassador of Sunagakure, just as Shikamaru was the ambassador from Konohagakure.
"You two know each other?" asked Shikamaru looking between Temari and Naruto with a small frown on his face.
"Yeah, I went to Suna when I was twelve because my mentor thought it would be a good idea to see someone like me from a different village. So I went and met Gaara, he was quite different before." Naruto was keeping the fact that they were both Jinchuurikis because the people in Konoha did not know about him yet, and he did not know if they knew about Gaara.
"Yeah, because of him Gaara changed a lot and now the people of Suna see Gaara as a true leader even though he is a little young to be the Kazekage, he has the village's full support and respect." Temari knew how much Naruto had done for Gaara even though he did not know Gaara when they first met. This has brought all the three Suna siblings to be close friends with Naruto.
"Naruto, what a troublesome guy, knows everyone but the people from his own village," thought Shikamaru as Temari and Naruto hugged.
"Hello Sakura is that Uzumaki, Naruto. I heard he has just returned to Konoha after being trained by Jiraiya of the Sannin for approximately fifteen years." Sakura sweat dropped, Sai as usual has done his homework about the new ninja of Konoha.
"Yes Sai that is Naruto. Why don't you go talk to him?" Sakura and Ino both knew that Sai was the most awkward person socially. It was because he grew up in Root ANBU that he had no social skills whatsoever when he first joined Team seven as a Genin, he had come a long way but he was still a little off when it came to interacting with people normally.
"Hello Uzumaki, Naruto my name is Sai. I am a chuunin of Konoha and a part of team seven with Haruno, Sakura." Sai said to Naruto as he marched up to Naruto and stood directly in front of him, almost in a threatening manner.
"Uh-yeah, good to know," said Naruto a little uncertainly at the strange behavior of this guy. Ino came to the rescue by whispering to Naruto about Sai's childhood. Naruto nodded in understanding because he knew very well how Danzo treated the ANBU in the Root division. There was no place for errors and mistakes as the Root division handled the dirtiest and most covert operations where Konoha's name was not supposed to come at all.
"So Sakura, what stuff did you guys plan on doing?" Naruto was interested to know what the people of Konoha did for fun, he had been to other villages and most of the parties he attended had dances, fireworks, and incredible feats and displays of jutsus by ninjas.
"Well we usually talk about our lives and the new jutsus that we learned over the last year, and after dinner there is music so people that feel like dancing goes ahead and dance. Then we share stories about interesting missions."
"HEY DINNER IS READY!" Four really big men came over carrying huge trays that were heaped with food and delicacies.
"Whoa, that's a lot of food, how do you guys arrange something like that?" asked Naruto, he was surprised that it was in the budget of these ninjas to be able to order food of this quantity and quality for a small and casual party such as this one.
"Oh we don't have to pay anything, we get the food courtesy of the Akamichi clan and their barbecue is the best in the village." Sakura gestured for Naruto to follow and went to the tables that were set in a circle so that all of them could sit down and eat together. Everyone quickly gathered around and sat down as the four men put the food on the tables before going back.
"So Naruto tell us something about yourself, where did you grow up and what kinds of things have you been doing before coming to Konoha?" asked Choji, he was quite interested in the stranger mainly because there were very few strangers that came to the village and got enrolled as a ninja with a few hours.
"Hmm," thought Naruto for a few seconds before he began speaking "Well the day I was born was the day that the village was attacked by the Kyuubi. My parents were ninjas of Konoha and they died trying to fight the fox. Jiraiya-sama came to the village after the whole incident was over and he said that he found me on the streets. So he took me to Mount Myouboken where I trained under the tutelage of all the sages. Jiraiya-sama also trained me himself and taught me three of my strongest techniques that I know. I also did missions that Jiraiya-sama asked of me and worked with him occasionally on missions that he could not do by himself."
"Oooh what kind of missions did you do together?" asked Choji in an awed voice, here was a guy who claimed to have worked with Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin. The Sannins handled missions that were beyond the caliber of any other ninjas.
"Well most of them I cannot really talk about because they are really covert, but there is one that I did with him when I was eleven. He said that he had found out about an organization of S-class ninja criminals and he wanted to see where one of their hideouts was. We went undercover as tourists in one of the villages surrounding Amegakure. Jiraiya-sama told me to scout out the village and the surrounding areas and went to Amegakure for information gathering and scouting. I did as I was told and scouted out the village but found nothing suspicious other than a ruined hut. When I got closer to the hut, it had numerous booby traps set up around it. Intrigued, I went into the hut by avoiding the booby traps but found nothing inside other than four planks with pictures of frogs and names written under each picture. One of the planks was in a very bad condition and I could not make out the name on that one but the other ones had the names Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. I searched these names in all the village ninja catalogs and bingo books from all ninja villages, but these guys are definitely not official ninjas. Later Jiraiya-sama returned and said that he had gotten a lot of information from the villages and then I told him about the small hut. We went to check it out but didn't find anything that I did not already see, so we left. Later I found out that we were on a mission to find out that the head of the organization was the guy who was actually in control of the village of Amegakure, their kage has no real power." Naruto face held a very grave expression as told the group of his mission.
"BS, we do not get sent on S class missions at all for a reason, you see all chuunin level ninjas only do A and B-class missions, there is no way that Jiraiya-sama would take a mere eleven year old on a S-class investigation mission. If he wanted to he could have any number of ANBU accompany him, what is so special about you?" Many had the same thoughts going through their heads but Kiba was not the silent type so he challenged Naruto's claim, nobody outdid Kiba when it came to exaggerating a mission's difficulty and especially when relating it to the rest of the ninjas about how the mission went.
"He took me because I am really good at stealth and covert missions and also because at the time my skills were better than most ANBU squad leaders." Naruto had not realized that ANBU was a much respected organization that only took the best of the best that Konoha had to offer, challenging them in front of a group of young chuunins and jounins was a very bad choice.
"Oh yeah, I say bullshit to that because you are not a protégé of this village's best ninja like Kakashi Hatake and you don't have any bloodline limits (looking at Neji) to enhance your stealth abilities, so what do you have that allows you to be better than the ANBU squad leaders?" shouted back Kiba as he got more and more infuriated by the newcomer's excessive boasting.
"Better watch your tongue Inuzuka; you are talking to an official of a higher rank." Neji said with a very cold edge in his voice.
"I have speed," said Naruto in a very calm voice as he disappeared from where he was sitting and reappeared behind Kiba leaning against the wall, with a smirk on his face.
Kiba looked around frantically before asking out loud "Where'd he go?" Neji, Shino, and Shikamaru all pointed behind Kiba, while Ino, Sakura, and Choji were trying really hard not to laugh.
"It seems that his words were not just exaggeration, he is indeed skilled," said a new voice from a corner of the pavilion where a silver haired ninja was standing looking at the ground.
"Kakashi sensei, what a pleasant surprise!" said Sakura, it has been almost a whole year since she had talked to her previous sensei.
"Yo Sakura, Sai. Nice to see you both, it seems Tsunade-sama in re-deploying team 7 for a mission; we have a new member, Naruto. Ambassador Temari, you are to accompany us to Sunagakure we are going on a mission to help against the kidnap of the Kazekage. Mission details will be delivered to all of you at the Hokage's office tomorrow, please be there at exactly seven in the morning. Shikamaru Nara, please escort the ambassador to the Hokage's office immediately." Kakashi sushined away, along with Shikamaru and a very worried Temari towards the Hokage tower.
"Gaara has been kidnapped? Who could have possibly entered Suna and kidnap their Kazekage? Seems like an extremely powerful Shinobi's work." Naruto's frantic thoughts ran through the minds of many that were present there.
"Gaara is an extremely strong Shinobi, and given the fact that he was in Suna gives him a huge advantage, who could have been strong enough to abduct him from his own village?" said Shino in his usual monotone voice.
"Indeed, the Aburame's claim has credit, Gaara is the strongest among all of us, and Suna's security is first class, it must have been quite a fight to get Gaara out of there. These ninjas are definitely not your ordinary type criminals; they must have bounty on their heads." Neji said as he pulled out his bingo book and started looking at the missing Nins with the heaviest bounties on their heads. Naruto went over to Neji and also looked at the bingo book over his shoulder. "Whoever infiltrated Suna has to know the inner workings of the village that gives only one possibility, Sasori of the Sand."
"And he has got quite a bounty on his head, are there no more Suna missing Nins that are capable of kidnapping Gaara?" asked Naruto as he took the bingo book from Neji and flipped a few more pages.
"There are no more Suna Nins that are strong enough to single-handedly infiltrate the village and kidnap their number one citizen. This information could be useful, let's report to the Hokage tower right now."
"Yes, but is it going to be alright if we all just barged into the office right now?" asked Naruto, he was well aware of Tsunade's anger, especially her temperament when she usually relaxes and drinks sake.
"No choice, this is a matter of our ally's life as well as the protection of the ambassador, who is currently under Konoha's protection," Neji said as he stood up.
"Okay, Neji and I will go to the Hokage tower, maybe you guys should stay here and we will come back later," said Naruto before he and Neji both sushined towards the Hokage tower.
In Hokage's Office
Naruto and Neji ran up the stairs and knocked on the door of the office. Shizune opened the door and was quite surprised to find Neji and Naruto standing before her. "Neji-san, Naruto what is going on? Shouldn't you guys be at the gathering?"
"We have urgent and important information for Hokage-sama, we need to let her know of this immediately," said Neji and walked into the office when Shizune moved away from the door and let them in.
Neji marched right up to Tsunade's desk and said "I and Naruto have deduced a possible ninja who could have done the kidnapping of Gaara from within the walls of Suna; I think this can be valuable when we are preparing to go to Suna to investigate and retrieve the Kazekage from the kidnappers." Naruto walked in and put his hand on Temari's shoulder letting her know that he was also worried about Gaara.
"What have you two found out?" asked Tsunade very much interested, Neji's deductions had always proved valuable before and this one could be a good one as well.
"To be able to infiltrate Suna and kidnap the Kazekage, one has to know how the security of the village functions. Someone can do that only if he/she is a ninja of that village. The only missing Nin from Suna capable of doing that is Sasori of the Sand, unless this one is a new criminal that we have not heard of before," replied Neji, satisfied that he had covered all the aspects that could show that his deduction was wrong, or had any miscalculations.
"Temari, what are your thoughts on this?" asked Tsunade as she looked at the grief stricken girl's face.
"The red puppeteer abandoned Suna more than a few decades ago, we ourselves don't even know for sure whether he is alive or not, much less say with certainty that he was the one that actually kidnapped Gaara," replied Temari, she was not absolutely certain but it could have been the red puppeteer after all whoever took down Kankuro, a puppet master of the highest caliber in their village, had to know something about puppets and their disadvantages.
"There were reports that Kankuro had a fight and it was the result of that fight that he was poisoned. It looks suspiciously like a puppet was responsible for this poisoning because they found a wooden claw embedded in his arm which contained the poison. Tomorrow I will be sending Team seven mainly because Sakura is a part of it. She is the only one other than me and Shizune that has any hope of saving your brother from being poisoned to death." Tsunade said as she got up to leave the room. "Kakashi you better be here on time tomorrow or I will cut your pay for the rest of the year, you hear me?"
"Yes Hokage-sama, I can assure you that there will be no delay tomorrow," said Kakashi, reassuring himself more than the others in the room.
"Too bad," thought Tsunade "I could have bought a lot of fine quality sake with that amount of money!"
At the pavilion
Ino, Sakura, Tenten, and Hinata sat silently, all wondering how their friend Temari was feeling about this sudden and disastrous news about her brothers, her only remaining family. Choji, Lee, Shino, and Kiba on the other hand had very different thoughts racing through their heads. Sai just sat on an empty table with a blank look on his face (very Sai-like). Kiba was thinking of the best way to retain the very weak alliance with Suna would mean that a full reinforcement in helping find Gaara, something that they could not afford to give to Suna in their current situation. Konoha itself was in dire need of more shinobis as it is; they were already handing out C-ranked missions to the genins, how far can they go on like this? Lee was thinking what was taking his friend so long to return and give him hopefully a mission in backing up team seven, team seven was disbanded two years ago, re-deploying such an old team for such an important mission, what is the Godaime Hokage thinking! Choji had lost his appetite, (something that rarely happened!) Gaara was kidnapped. Gaara, the strongest ninja he had known in the chuunin exams, and now the current Kazekage of Sunagakure. It is impossible to believe that there are shinobis strong enough to overpower the kages like this, in their own village surrounded by guards and security, not to mention the fact that he was a jinchuuriki with full control over the Shukaku. How strong is this Sasori of the sand? What can an old team like team seven do against such an opponent, they do not even have Sasuke Uchiha anymore, he is after all the holder of the strongest Kekkei Genkai that the village had in over a century, the Uchiha force was one of the key factors because of which Konoha triumphed in the third Shinobi World War.
Two simultaneous whooshing sounds alerted the chuunins that their comrades had arrived from the Hokage Tower. "What happened?" asked seven anxious voices as soon as the two landed in the middle of the pavilion.
"The Hokage has taken into consideration that the kidnapper might be Sasori of the sand. Sakura, you are to pack all the materials needed for poison removal, Temari's older brother the puppet master Kankuro was poisoned in the skirmish that occurred when they were kidnapping Gaara. Tsunade-sama gave the ultimate threat that works against Kakashi, you guys better not be late. Lee, I need you to accompany me to Gai sensei's house; I want to ask him to see if he can acquire a back up mission to help team seven. Sakura, Tsunade-sama probably has everything you need at the hospital already; I suggest you pack right now. Ino, Choji, go to the Nara estate, the ambassador is need of companionship tonight. Hinata-sama, you must report back at the Hyuuga compound, it is past curfew for you, and please keep this mission a secret from the council and Haishi-sama, at least for the sake of Konoha. Uzumaki, since you have an early mission, my only advice is, get a good night's sleep. As far as experience goes you will need as much of it as possible."
Neji's commands were followed instantly as everyone went about doing exactly as Neji asked the others to do. Naruto, for his part, left the pavilion and returned to the room he was lodged in. He knew he could not sleep even if he had wanted to, so he quickly packed a few clothes in a small pocket scroll and pulled out the scroll that contained his armor that the sages made for him after he had learned enough sealing techniques to make good use of it. Next he sat down and made three clones so they could gather nature energy, he himself sat down into a meditative state where he would neither be completely asleep nor would he be awake. He would be in a trance-like state where his body and mind can rest but still be attentive to his environment; this was taught to Naruto by Jiraiya after learning what the Shukaku had done with Gaara. Jiraiya had told Naruto to use this only on missions, and the Shukaku was able to do that to Gaara only because Gaara's seal was weak and not nearly on the level of the seal that Minato had put on Naruto, but it is never bad to stay cautious, after all the more Kyuubi chakra Naruto used, the more his seal weakened.
Ok done! Ya I decided to follow the main storyline but don't worry I will make up my own as we go, I don't intent to rip off Kishimoto. To answer some of the reviews that I have gotten so far: No harem (eww) just Naruto/Sakura. Guys, Naruto does not know about his parents because I have planned a big plot that revolves around Naruto, his parents, and the Kyuubi. We will see a huge political side of things going on in the next chapter; it will be an interesting clash, Tsunade vs Council. There will be Tsunade/Jiraiya pairing but it will be light (NO PERVERSENESS I AM STRICTLY KEEPING IT RATED T). See ya guys later.