A/N: Hola! a new chapter, kudos for me. Thank you for everyone who decided to review on the last chapter, I'm not obsessed with getting reviews, but it's nice to know people like my work.

Here's the new chapter, I hope you enjoy it!

And for the record, foxes are, for a fact, canines. don't ask me why, but they are.

Disclaimer: If i could think of an inventive way to say i don't own Naruto, then I would but i'm afraid biology and algebra 2 have fried my brain.

And yes. i know Asuma is supposed to be dead but whatever...I like Asuma so Asuma will be alive for the remainder of the story, deal with it.

Sakura was still laughing as the pair of shinobi walked back to the heart of the city.

Naruto was still wet and sulking.

Taka was still hiding in an unknown location, probably still laughing.

The fox's revenge on the blonde genin had been very successful. Naruto, who wasn't paying attention at the time, had walked under a particularly snow filled tree.

Taka, who had vowed to get revenge for the many snowballs that had showered his black fur, took the open opportunity. With a powerful shove to the trunk of the tree, the branches dumped their suspended snow onto an unsuspecting jinchuuriki.

Quite a bit of cursing, laughing, running and chasing ensued.

Naruto had then decided it was best to head into town, away from trees. After Sakura stopped laughing hysterically and had picked herself up off the ground, of course.

After a minute or so of listening to half stifled laughs coming from the pink haired medic at his side, Naruto remembered that Sakura had yet to finish telling him about their friends back home. "What happened to all of our senseis?"

Sakura swallowed her laughter with difficulty, "Who do I start with?"

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know, how about Kakashi?"

The jounin grinned. "Oh, he's still as perverted as ever. He still wears that mask of his and goes on all kinds of crazy missions. Tsunade-sama keeps trying to get him to take on another genin team, but he always finds a way out of it."

Naruto smiled to himself, remembering his former sensei with a fresh wave of nostalgia.

"Oh, and he's engaged to Anko." The cherry blossom added nonchalantly.

Naruto started at her. "Anko? As in freakily-morbid-second-examiner-of-the-chuunin-exams Anko?"

Sakura nodded.

Naruto made a face as he tried to envision the couple. He couldn't. "That must be interesting."

She laughed, "You have no idea. They argue all the time; it's hilarious. They love each other a lot though, that much is obvious."

"Good for them then. What about Iruka?" He braced himself for any abnormal news the teen might have for him; so far the things he'd heard were rather odd.

"Oh, he's the same as always. He misses you like crazy, but he still teaches at the ninja academy. He and Konohamaru hang out a lot. He claimsto be bachelor." She added, rolling her eyes slightly.

"And what do you think?" The blonde probed, seeing, hearing and feeling the waves of skepticism rolling off of her.

"I think he's secretly dating Ayame from the ramen shop." She said confidently.

He arched an eyebrow at her, "And what proof do you have?"

Sakura glared at him for doubting her. "I saw them both coming out from behind the shop one time. Iruka had this really silly grin on his face, like he'd just had the greatest time of his life and Ayame was trying to button the top of her shirt."

Naruto felt his eyes widen in astonishment. "No way."

Sakura grinned, proud of herself for keeping up with the happenings of Konoha. "It's true, I swear."

Naruto chuckled as he looked away, he couldn't believe what he'd missed.

Sakura continued with her account of the lives of their senseis. "Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya spend a lot of time together now. Neither of them have been the same since you went missing. I don't know much about what Gai's been up to. To be honest I'm afraid to ask."

Naruto smirked. "I can understand why."

"Kurenai and Asuma are married now." She added, her mind jumping tracks quickly.

"I was wondering how long it would take them."

"Yeah, they're expecting a kid too, though not for a while. Kurenai's on her third month. It's just now starting to show, and it's driving her crazy." Sakura smiled as she remembered how the jounin had gripped about have to buy bigger clothes.

Naruto chuckled sadly, missing his home more than ever. There was one more person he'd yet to ask about, but he wasn't going to be the one to bring up the subject. He also doubted there was anything his former teammate could tell him that he didn't already know.

Naruto lead Sakura around a corner and onto a busy street. Despite the upcoming storm, people were still out and about, determined to get in a few more hours of useful time before all of the sane members of the population shut themselves up in their homes for the night.

Naruto stopped and turned around as he heard someone shouting his name. Sakura quickly followed suit.

Lina and Kai walked up to greet them. They had apparently reconciled their differences.

Lina cocked an eyebrow, seeing Naruto's still damp state. "What happened to you? You're all wet. You've got to be freezing; you should go inside and change."

"I'm fine, don't worry." He shrugged, rubbing off his teammate's concern. He instead turned to Kai. "Glad to see you're still alive, and hopefully re-thinking the water dumping hobby."

Kai grinned, a natural good humor surrounding him. "Don't worry, my self-preservation instincts are too strong for me to do that again."

Naruto couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Maybe the siblings could make it a few days without killing each other after all. He suddenly remembered Sakura at his side. "Oh yeah, you two haven't met yet. Sakura this is Kai, Kai this is Sakura."

It was the first time she'd gotten a good look at him. His semi-short hair stuck up and out at odd angles, expressing his many sided personality. It was a deep chocolate brown, the same color as his eyes. His features were sharp and angular, and his body was long and lanky. Sakura wondered briefly how he could stand being in the snow in a black T-shirt and black denim jeans like he was. Sakura smiled politely from beside Naruto as she shook Kai's out-stretched hand.

Kai grinned at her. "Nice to meet you Sakura."

Lina cleared her throat. "So, how was your afternoon? Where the clothes warm enough?"

"It was great, and yes I was warm enough. Thanks again for letting me borrow the clothes." Sakura replied, grinning in thanks.

Lina smiled eagerly, "No problem. Feel free to borrow as many as you like, although you might be more comfortable in something of your own. Oh! I have an idea!" She turned to the blonde, who had begun to stare out into space, his thoughts elsewhere. "Naruto-kun, can I take Sakura shopping?"

Naruto looked at Sakura, silently asking if she wanted to go or not. She nodded, wanting to get to know the girl who had been spending so much time with her former teammate.

The blonde shrugged at Lina. "I don't care, as long as Sakura wants to go. I'm not going though; I need to change clothes. I guess I'll talk to Gyro after that." He grimaced in anticipation of the unavoidable conversation.

Sakura frowned at the thought of separating from her newly found teammate.

Lina scowled slightly and turned to Kai, who immediately adopted a fearful expression. "Ummm, I'm going with him." He stuttered quickly, pointing nervously at Naruto.

Lina scowled deeper. They would have to carry their own bags.

A/N: Okay, i know, lots of dialogue, little plot progression. Just let me get all the conversation out of my system and then the plot will move very quickly, i promiss. Narusaku action is in the future as well...though you might want to notice that this story is not in the romance section (simply because i've never written romance before and am utterly terrified of trying to write it and am procrastinating as long as possible)

no garuantees on when the next up date will be, hopefully soon. If you feel so lead, then review, however if you don't, or are just to lazy, then I truely don't care. Flames are excepted, as long as the flamers except colorful replies.

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