So here we have it guys, chapter 4. Hope you all I had a good easter
Do I look like I own Naruto, several posters, yes, the real thing, no. That honour belongs to Masashi Kishamoto.
Enjoy.
Guardian Angel – Chapter 4 – Reunion
Naruto slowly uncurled himself, stretching out his stiff limbs, wincing at his bruised ribs. He looked out across the village, the sun was rising over the horizon, it was a beautiful sight, and made him feel at peace.
He watched as the village came to life.
The raven haired woke up, sunlight washing over him. He took a deep breath. He had faced many fearsome opponents since leaving with Orochimaru, and yet nothing scared him more than the thought of returning Konoha and facing the villagers and Tsunade. But what was on his mind most was, Naruto. What would he say to him? How would he react?
He made the correct hand signs, and his body disappeared with a poof and a puff of smoke, only to reappear besides the building where the Hokage was based.
He contemplated appear straight in Tsunade's office, but he decided against that. He wanted to appear polite, compliant, if he wanted to be readmitted into Konoha.
He approached the entrance door, and stopped before the two guards. They looked at him in utter shock.
"Uchiha" they said in unison. What had that bastard come back for?
"I would like to speak to Godaime" he said, as politely as his Uchiha pride would allow.
"We'll have to escort you" said one, taking his arm. The other guard took his other arm, and together they marched him to her office.
Sakura yelled up a good bye, before closing the door behind her. Slowly she made her way over to Tsunade's office. There were to be no Team 7 meetings until Naruto's ribs were healed, so she was helping Tsunade out instead.
She cheerily greeted the guards, and made her way to the office. But when she reached the door, Shizune was waiting anxiously outside.
"I'm afraid you can't go in yet, Sakura, Tsunade has an unexpected meeting" she said, her body blocking the door.
"Oh, okay, can I wait here then?"
The assistant nodded, and Sakura seated herself on the floor opposite the office.
"Readmission into Konoha?"
"You heard me" time to swallow your pride, Sasuke, "Look, I know I made a mistake, but what can I say, I'm only human"
"Well, I'll see what I can do, but if the Elders don't like it" she trailed off, letting the implications lie.
He nodded, understanding that the village had to be put first.
A little while later, the door opened a fraction, and Tsunade slipped out. She looked stressed and bewildered.
"Ah, Sakura, just the person I wanted to see. Go and get Kakashi and Naruto, and return here immediately" she ordered, not waiting for a reply before returning to the office.
Sakura saluted and marched out of the building.
The blonde boy looked up, aware of a presence behind him, looking up, he saw Sakura and Kakashi. He stood up, and raised his hand in greeting, making his way towards them.
"At last, we've been looking for you for ages, why on earth are you up here" she asked, grabbing him by the hand and leading him off the heads of their Hokage's, past and present.
"Just watching the world go by. So why were you looking for me, Sakura-Chan?" he asked, snatching his hand away.
"Because Tsunade-Sama told me to. Now get your ass in gear, we can't keep her waiting, it seemed urgent."
Kakashi knocked on the wooden door. It slowly opened, to reveal a flustered Tsunade.
She slipped through and closed the door behind her.
"Um, I feel I should in some way prepare you for what's behind the door." They looked at her, bewildered. It was unlike her to be lost for words.
"What is it, Tsunade-Bachan?" several different possibilities were running through Naruto's mind, each one worse than the one that came before it.
She mumbled something, before opening the door, and allowing them entry.
There was someone already in the room, their back to the door. They had black, spiky hair. All too familiar black, spiky hair. Slowly they turned, and stared at them with deep, onyx eyes.
It was non-other than Uchiha Sasuke. The final member who made up Team 7, a friend, a rival.
They looked at him, astonished. He looked back. But the eyes he sought out the most were Naruto's. He had missed the beautiful, shining blue.
But they had changed. He cocked his head slightly, trying to work out what it was he saw.
For the most part, they were still the same. But looking deeper he saw something. What was it, hurt, some sort of deep suffering?
There was an awkward silence.
"I'll leave you guys for a while" the door closed as Tsunade left the room.
Naruto clenched his fists. The walls felt like they were closing in, he couldn't breathe; he had to get out of that room. Suddenly he jumped out the window, and disappeared into the street.
"Well, that wasn't the welcome I expected" Sasuke said, after a few moments.
"You disappeared for three years, Sasuke, what did you expect, that you could come back, and everything would go back to the way it was." She said, not unkindly.
The raven headed youth hung his head, excepting that she spoke the truth. Stepping forwards she wrapped her arms around him.
"Welcome home" she whispered.
Through their brief encounter, Kakashi had hung back. But now he stepped forwards and ruffled his hair.
"I'll go find Naruto" he said, following the direction his student had taken.
There was another awkward silence.
"What's with him, anyway?"
"Who?"
"Naruto"
"You broke his heart, Sasuke" he looked at her, confused. She sighed and began her explanation. "There were so many retrieval missions. So many failures. When everyone else had given up, he refused to, he kept on looking. And each time we failed, or you refused to come back, a little bit of him died."
"Oh" was all the almighty Uchiha could manage.
For the next ten minutes or so, Sakura filled Sasuke in with all that had gone on in Konoha over the years since he had left.
Until Tsunade returned. They glanced up, and looked at her questioningly.
"I've been talking to the council of elders, and they've agreed to allow Sasuke back into Konoha."
"That's great" Sakura interrupted.
"But! You'll be under house arrest for as long as they deem fit." He nodded, showing that he understood.
"Now be gone, I tire of your presence." She said sarcastically. "Oh, and they're on the roof."
Together, they made their way to the roof of the building, where the rest of the recently reunited Team 7 was sat in companionable silence.
Naruto jumped up.
"Sasuke! I'm sorry about earlier, I, uh, had something really important I had to do" he finished lamely.
"Hn" was the only reply he got. They sat there well into the afternoon. Naruto tried making conversation with Sasuke, but he was unresponsive.
Eventually Naruto said that he was tired, and made his way back to his flat.
It was not long after that when the others all went their separate ways.
He approached the abandoned house slowly. He carefully put the key in the old, rusted lock, and the door swung open.
The place was exactly as he had left it; nothing had been touched, or moved. In fact, it looked as if he could have only left yesterday, if it wasn't for the thin layering of dust that covered everything.
He took a deep breath. It had been so long since he had last been here. The place was filled with so many memories, they all cam rushing forwards at once.
He went to the kitchen, and placed the bags of shopping he had just bought gently down on the table.
He opened the cupboards one by one, just like everything else in the house the contents were covered in dust. Sighing, he decided to skip dinner, washing the dishes just seemed like to much effort.
Instead he left the kitchen, and found himself in the overgrown garden. He sat down, amongst the long, uncut grass.
Staring at the sky, he was shocked to see that it was already dark. The stars were out, and he couldn't help but think how beautiful they looked.
A cloud shifted, and just like the previous night, he was washed in its milky light. In the peaceful evening, he found his thoughts retracing the day's events.
What Sakura had said had shocked him. He had been unable to continue any of the conversation's Naruto kept striking up, he just felt to guilty for what he had done to who he had always considered his best friend.
I just hope he doesn't think I was being cold.
Naruto was sat in his usual place on the window sill.
How often he had sat there, looking at the stars, and wondered if, somewhere, Sasuke was doing the same. How often he had sat there, and hoped for his safe return.
And now that he was back, he didn't know what to think. He so wanted things to return to way they were.
Whenever he had thought of Sasuke, he had longed for him to return, longed for friendship. And yet, when he had looked in his onyx eyes, it wasn't friendship he saw, but coldness.
He was so confused, he didn't know what to think anymore. Eventually he fell into a restless sleep.
"Why did Kakashi-Sensei want us to meet here, of all places" Naruto whined. They were at a clearing surrounded by trees, in the centre were three stumps of wood, and not far from them was the stone, engraved with the heroes of Konoha's names.
"I don't know, Naruto, we'll just have to wait and see." came Sakura's exasperated reply. Sasuke smirked, same old impatient Naruto.
With that, Kakashi arrived.
"You're late!" came the expected shouts from his students.
"Yea well, you see, there was this black cat" he trailed of "Hang on a minute, I don't have to explain myself to you guys. Anyway, do you guys remember the first day as Team 7? Good. Do you all remember the bell test? Good." He said, pulling out a pair of identical bells.
"Will you be okay to join in, Naruto"
"Yeah, I'm all better now, I'm only surprised they didn't heal quicker" he said loudly, smiling brilliantly. With that, Kakashi nodded, and darted off.
Sakura and Naruto looked at each other. This would be their third bell test, and they had passed the last one. The only thing was, they didn't have Icha Icha Paradise to distract their perverted teacher with this time. They would have to come up with a different plan.
But looking up, they were surprised to see that Sasuke had already gone. They sighed in unison, would he never learn?
Looking around, they found their team mate. Running over to the three posts where Sasuke was opposite Kakashi, in a fighting stance.
They stopped a few feet away from the scene. Just before Sasuke could start his attack,
"Stop!" Kakashi shouted. He walked forwards, and grabbed his student by the arm, tying to the post before he even had chance to blink.
"I have no doubt that you could have defeated me, but it seems that in your years with him, Orochimaru forgot to teach you one valuable lesson" he smirked at the confused look on the usually impassive Uchiha.
"What's the first lesson I taught you guys" he asked.
"Teamwork" came Sakura and Naruto's harmonious reply.
"Right you are" they all laughed as Sasuke hung his head in shame.
kekekek just had to put that ending in.
Sorry about all the scene changes.
Reviewys make me work all the more harder
I hope you enjoyed it, please tell me if you have any ideas of what you would like to see coming up.
Laters.