hey people, i'm sorry it took me so long to update, my life has been a mess lately, and school deciding to unload all it's crap on me doesn't help. so finally here's chapter 6! If it seems choppy to you, it's because i wrote it in like 4 different parts so, yeah. R&R please, t'would be highly appreciated. Also, yes at this point in the story Naruto is still technically a genin, Fang doesn't really do ranks.

Disclaimer: at this point if you think i own Naruto, then you need help, lots and lots of help.

Sakura's eyes flickered open. After a couple seconds, they focused on a white ceiling, looming 7 feet above her. She was lying in a rather comfortable bed, more than likely in a hospital. Grimacing she re-closed her eyes and recalled the devastating fight with Auoshi and his team. Oddly though, she didn't feel the slightest amount of pain. In fact, she felt good. It was as if she was waking up from a much-needed afternoon nap. The teen sat up and stretched, yawning in the process.

"It's about time, I was beginning to think you would never wake up." A vaguely familiar voice announced quietly, in a joking tone.

The kunoichi looked to her right, and straight into the bottomless blue eyes of Konoha's number one, hyperactive, knucklehead ninja. The girl couldn't help but simply stare at him. After three years of searching, she was five feet away from him. She didn't even look away when the humongous black fox, curled up in the corner, unraveled and jumped lightly onto the end of her bed, then proceeded to re-curled himself.

The blonde ninja laughed. "What, are you just going to stare at me all day? You could say something you know." He grinned at her. "Oh, and I think he wants you to scratch him behind the ears." The jinchuuriki added, gesturing towards the massive fox who had just moved his large head a few inches closer to Sakura.

Mechanically, the teen obliged. She still didn't dare look away from her former teammate. Her eyes barely blinked. She was almost worried that if she looked away, or closed her eyes, he would disappear. Several times she tried to speak, and several times the words died in her throat. Finally she managed, one full sentence, and the beginning of several others. "I-i…. Y-you…. W-what…. H-how?" She stumbled over her words, before finally saying, "Uzumaki Naruto where the hell have you been?"

Naruto was surprised. He'd honestly expected to spend the next week and a half in the hospital after this meeting. Her tone was what stunned him the most. Unlike the anger he'd been anticipating, it was filled with relief, and even a little sadness. Sighing, he stood up and walked across the room. He pushed aside the black animal's tail and sat down on the edge of her bed. "I have a lot of explaining to do don't I?" He said, half smiling, and staring at the wall opposite them.

"Yeah." The kunoichi replied. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

And so the blonde shinobi began the long explanation of why exactly he was there, and not in Konoha.

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Naruto lay back on the bed, stopping for a little while to let Sakura grasp all of what he'd just told her. Beside him, the kunoichi was sitting up in bed; absently scratching the ears of the enormous black fox whose head was currently residing in her lap. It was hard for the blonde to read her expression, but he'd stopped because she looked like she was a little overwhelmed.

The pink haired jonin was overwhelmed. She couldn't believe what Naruto had been through over the past three years. Her heart swelled with emotion just imagining the pain her former teammate had gone through. It seemed like the hyperactive ninja had done well after being found by the Fang patrol.

Glancing at the blonde, who was staring at the ceiling, she noticed how much his appearance had changed. He looked like a northerner. Instead of southern shinobi sandals, he wore close-toed boots. He wore full-length black denim pants that were slightly baggy, instead of his usual bright orange ones. His shirt was different as well. His torso was covered in a fish net shirt, with a plain white one over it. Around his waist was a light black jacket, and his Konoha protector was tied tightly around his upper left arm.

Naruto was also big. Sakura guess his height had to be nearing 6 feet at least, and while he wasn't body-builder big, he was definitely on the larger side of most teens. The ninja stretched out in front of her was a far cry from the boy who had once been on team seven. "He's matured too, I can tell by the way he talks. I wonder how much his personality has changed, I hope not much." The pink haired teen thought to herself, as she nodded for the jinchuuriki to continue.

Seeing her nod, the radical blonde continued. "So, after I woke up the first time, I spent another three weeks in the hospital, sleeping through most of it. After Rei finally deemed me capable of leaving, we went to see her father. Her dad is basically the Kage of Fang; only here it's a monarchy. It's a screwed up monarchy too. Gyro is one of the most stubborn; hard to get along with people I've ever met. He may be a good political leader but his people skills leave much to be desired.

Anyway, the people here don't exactly want to interact with the south. Fang's not the only city that feels that way; it's just a northern thing. They enjoy their seclusion. Because they enjoy it, they want to keep themselves separated. However, as you probably know that's nearly impossible. It's one of the many reasons why they have so many patrols running around.

"There is another problem with introversion, what to do if a patrol finds an injured ninja on one of their rounds. No one wants to just leave them there to die, or fend for themselves, but they don't want too much interaction with foreign shinobi. To keep the city a secret, Gyro developed a system. No one truly liked it, considering it's rather cruel, but they saw it as necessary for the survival of Fang.

"What Gyro proposed they do, was to take in the injured shinobi, giving them the appropriate medical attention. When they returned to full health, they would be given a choice. They could either join Fang, working as shinobi under Gyro and never return to their hometown, or... well, let's just say you would have to be suicidal not to take the first choice."

"So you're saying they could either join the city, or... die?" the medic ninja asked hesitantly, fearing the answer.

"Yeah." Was all the whiskered boy said in reply.

"Naruto, you had to choose, didn't you?" The teen asked, knowing the answer as the words left her mouth.

"Yeah" was all that the blonde replied.

Sakura couldn't believe what she'd just heard. "He can't ever go back? No, there has to be a way for him to come home." Suddenly, the kunoichi gasped, her eyes widening. "Naruto," She began fearfully.

"Don't worry" the jinchuuriki cut her off, anticipating her question. "I've already talked to Gyro about it, he's going to let you go back to Konoha."

The pink haired teen breathed a sigh of relief, then resumed staring at the blonde. The boy was leaning onto his massive fox, with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head. He reminded the jonin of Shikamaru, lazy and laid back. The genin couldn't quite pull of the entire act however; she could see his hyperactive personality was still there. "Ha," she thought, "He can't wait to get up and start moving around."

After mussing a moment more over her former teammate, Sakura's thoughts came full circle. Her mind searched for a way to bring him back with her as the two sat in silence. After looking for so long, there was no way she was leaving with out him. The teen inwardly sighed in frustration, and decided to change the topic of thought.

"So, you're the one who saved me from Auoshi and his, uh…'friends'?"

The blonde grinned, still keeping his eyes shut. "Yeah, it was funny too, I think Auoshi may have actually crapped in his pants when he saw me."

Sakura couldn't help but laugh. From the way she'd heard the smuggler talk about him, she didn't doubt for a second it was true.

"I was surprised to see you." The genin sprawled out in front of her continued. "It almost made me crap in my pants. What were you doing this far north?"

"Looking for you." The girl replied, stifling a burst of laughter. "I had been sent on a mission to gather information in a town near the foot of the mountains. I was in this restaurant getting something to eat and I overheard them talking, okay, yelling about you. They mentioned where you were so, I headed that way."

"And they knew you'd been listening, so they followed you to get rid of a witness."

"Yeah, that's pretty much how it went."

"Wow and I though I had a knack for getting into trouble with those guys."

Sakura burst out laughing again. It was something Naruto could always make her do; laugh. She hadn't had an outburst like this in almost three years, despite Ino and Chouji's best efforts.

Suddenly, she remembered the fox in her lap. "Ohhh, you must be the notorious Taka huh?" she asked, continuing the light-hearted mood.

"Of course. Who else would the blondie over here be summoning? If he didn't summon me, having a person who could summon foxes would just be plain annoying. And I don't like annoying. It's very annoying."

Sakura erupted in laughter. In front of her Naruto was laughing as well, a huge grin on his face as Taka wagged his tail, pleased with himself.

Ha, okay, this was a fairly lighthearted chapter, except for the whole, naruto can't go back to konoha thing. i hope you liked it. anyway; yeah, if my characters seem a little ooc to you then, well, please try and deal with it. By the way, Taka is not in this story to simply provide comic relief, just so you know. when the next chapter will be out i have no idea. i'm sort of getting some writer's block when it comes to this story. anyway, thank you for ready, (and review for pete's sake people! i mean come on, who here has met a pete they don't like? okay well i have but that's besides the point, REVIEW! please)

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