AN: You guys have been consistently pretty good about reviewing and leaving your comments. Thanks. I don't really have much to say in regards to this upcoming chapter outside of the fact it will bring in a new aspect about the plot that i came up with while thinking of a backstory for Rin. While it may be kinda stupid, i figured i i'll try it out. Enjoy!

Two forms fell upon the ground as they were huffing and puffing up a storm. The battle had indeed turned out to be an intense one, if not rather short. A simple sparring match between two friends should not have become so heated.

"Naruto-kun, didn't you learn any new jutsus while you were training with Jiraiya-sama all these years?" That made this match more unique than any other fight she had witnessed with that particular blond. Anytime he learned a new move he was quick to show it off in an overly flashy way.

Something must have been wrong. There was no possible way he could have been training with one of the three legendary Sannin and not have learned a single new technique. That only meant he still thought she was a helpless little girl who needed to be treated with kid gloves. If that was the case, much pain awaited him.

"Of course I did Sakura-chan." That was a dumb question of her to ask. How could he possibly have spent seven years training and not learned a single new technique?

Sounding a little cross, Sakura folded her arms across her chest and looked away from her sparring partner while sticking her nose up in the air. "Then how come you didn't show me any of your new moves? Think I couldn't handle it?" Truth be told Sakura was almost more than a match for Naruto during this little trial fight of there's, and even she had been holding back a great deal.

"I'm still feeling kind of weak Sakura-chan. Most of my new jutsus require a great deal of chakra and stamina. If I used the attack and missed, I would have lost." It seemed his brash attitude about rushing into every fight headfirst had evolved into something more. Using the same trademark ninja techniques he had before had still earned him a slight victory. The outcome would have been very different had the match gone on any longer. The demon container had a look of exhaustion spread rapidly throughout his face despite the fact he was now able to relax.

Slowly the pink-haired ninja looked back over at the tired boy looking rather confused. Many things had changed about Naruto since he came back. In many ways he was much stronger and far more mature than she ever thought possible for him. And yet in other ways he almost seemed weaker than before he left. Naruto always had this amazing ability to heal, which she attributed to the Kyuubi. That aside, she knew he had a freakishly large amount of stamina and chakra on his own. Apparently now he….just didn't.

"I meant to ask about that Naruto-kun. What happened? Before your body was able to heal itself at a ridiculously fast rate and you never used to tire so easily." Her questions weren't supposed to sound like a rude enquiry but that didn't mean it didn't.

With that same fake happy-go-lucky smile plastered upon his face, the orange clad ninja continued to stare up at the sky with a great deal of intensity. It was becoming more and more obvious why Shikamaru was spending his time like this. Surprising was the fact that his significant other let him.

"I know about the Kyuubi…" There, she had said it and he had heard it. Maybe now the tension building up in the air would start to release.

His two blond eyes rapidly turned to her direction while his face itself refused to move, similar to the way Kakashi's one exposed eye could follow you around a room yet no part of his body would move.

'So she knows and yet she is still here. No names, no random beatings. No wonder I liked Sakura-chan so much.' Yes there were times when even Naruto began to question why he carried so many feelings for her, and yet he could never deny that his feelings for Sakura only continued to grow.

"I can't rely on the Kyuubi's power anymore. The more I use it, the more control I can feel it have over me." The smile on his face was gone. No wonder. It was like voluntarily losing your one edge against your opponents. Imagine how Sasuke would feel about refusing to use his sharingan or Neji never relying on the powers of his bloodline limit.

"But…but you always had a freakish amount of chakra and stamina!" She wasn't getting excited in an angry way, but more a relieved one. Naruto was Naruto but the less of a connection he had with the nine-tails the better. Sakura believed in his ability to control the beast, but the problem was the rest of the village wasn't so sure.

"In that last battle, the one were I got so badly injured, An attack was used on me that had the seal that held the Kyuubi constantly suck my chakra away. Eventually I would have ran out and the Kyuubi's powers would have exploded out of me so fast it would have killed both me and the demon." Damn that Uchiha. It was a dirty trick and yet expected of a ninja to use the enemy's advantage against themselves.

"But Jiraiya-sama and Hokage-sama were able to fix that I think. I should be back to normal in a week's time or so. It's hard to tell. I'm not used to my body healing itself." That much was annoying. The ability to heal and regenerate was a handy little trick to have on the battlefield.

Except that much didn't sit right with the kunoichi watching Naruto. Was it possible that he was lying to her? Or maybe he didn't realize what was going on? Surely he wouldn't say he was refusing to tap into the Kyuubi's powers when he was healing right in front of her, ever so slowly.

"Um, Naruto-kun. Your wounds are already starting to heal. You may be losing control. Should I got get Hokage-sama?" She would at least give him the benefit of the doubt. As said before, Naruto was Naruto.

He lazily raised one hand and waved it off though he was deeply touched and thankful for her concern. It wasn't often someone willingly set out to help him out of concern, at least in Konoha. "It's alright Sakura-chan. For some reason, my body 'remembers' how the Kyuubi used to heal me and kind of picked up on it. It happens kind of slowly right now but I'm looking for ways to make it go faster." What Sakura couldn't see was that while his body may be healing slowly, his chakra was quickly returning. It was almost like his body copied and modified Kyuubi's ability to heal to suit Naruto's needs. It was just like how he picked up his own Naruto-rendan when Sasuke used his Shishi Rendan.

"Oh, ok." Sakura let go of her will and once again fell upon her back and onto the grass just a few inches away from Naruto. It was nice to be able to just pass the day away and watch the cloud's float bye. There were parts about childhood that she did dearly miss.

"Isn't there someone who could help? I'm sure Hokage-sama should be able to…"

"I've already soughtout Rin-Oneechan." The hell? There was no possible way Kakashi's girlfriend could be a more accomplished medical nin than the very Hokage of Konoha.

"Um, Naruto, that's nice and all but maybe you should still ask Hokage-sama for some help. Hey wait, you never did tell me how you knew her from before." No one was more surprised by their meeting than Sakura. Naruto had quickly rushed over and hugged the female blonde ninja when she came to visit, shocked that Rin was in this very village. And with Kakashi-sensei no less!

There meeting together left many questions hanging in the air as both Sakura and Kakashi stood stunned at what seemed like a family reunion. Once those initial 'how are you' questions had passed, Naruto's eagerness to spend some time with Sakura quickly returned as he apologized for a hasty departure and left with Sakura in hand for the training grounds.

And here we go. Time for some more of the plot behind this story to begin to uncoil as some of the mysterious background behind Rin and the years Naruto spent training becomes slightly more revealed.

"She was one of the ninjas that Jiraiya-sama sought out with me in order to become stronger." Jiraiya-sama? Naruto did refer to him that way, but only when he was sure that his sensei was no where near enough to hear it.

Naruto sat upright and brought his hand to his chin while his mind became engrossed in deep thought. "I think her and her sensei were the horse."

"NARUTO! It's not nice to call a lady a horse!" Dear god. He was picking up some of his sensei's bad habits. After Tsunade was done smashing him to a pulp, Sakura would show the legendary ninja the new meaning of 'puree'.

"Eh?" Naruto's hands immediately went up to a defensive position as his body was jerked up from his laying position by the mere ferocity within her voice. "No no! I meant like in the zodiac. The Horse."

Now it was Sakura's turn to be horridly confused. "Eh?" A far deeper explanation would be required, though the best Naruto could do would be to touch the surface of the matter.

"Jiraiya-sama had taught me about 24 ninja's that held extraordinary power in their fields, yet had no allegiance to any country. They were called the Hidden Ninja of the Zodiac." Naruto looked over at Sakura to make sure she was paying attention to what he had to say. This may become crucial later on.

Sure enough Sakura's eyes were filled with concentration yet her head was thoughtfully tilted to one side. He could have taken a beating and told her that he thought it was cute when she did that but that would have been a lie. He found it downright sexy. Saying that would have cost him more than he wished to bargain with.

"They are twenty-four ninja who exist in pairs. There is always one master, and one student. They exist to practice and improve upon their unique talents. I met Rin while searching for them. As it turns out, she is the student of the Horse pair which specializes in healing."

"Did you ever find out who her sensei was?" Maybe if Rin couldn't help, her sensei could.

"No. Rin wasn't allowed to tell us. Some kind of code to protect the senseis I think. The Horse specializes in healing alone. Some of their techniques could be used as offense I guess, but they lack the practice or experience to do so. Their overly specialize and are only really good at one field. That's why the Hidden Ninja's of the Zodiac aren't as powerful as the Kages." Naruto failed to add a far more obvious reason why they could never obtain such a high position and power within any country, but that is best left for later.

Sakura stood up and brushed some of the dust off of her clothing and slowly made her way towards Naruto. She sat down cross-legged in front of him and rested her head on top of her fist. "So you can use some medical jutsus now?" An eyebrow twitched. This could be painful. This was supposed to be the field Sakura had a monopoly on. Naruto never learned a new move in a manner that didn't exploit its full potential. If he was a better medical ninja than she was….

The blond slowly slinked back with his arms held up defensively again as he sensed his impending doom. "No no! I lacked the chakra control necessary to do it and Rin couldn't spend her time teaching me. I just wanted to learn more about my natural ability to heal from her!" Truthfully he had been taught how to do a few techniques, but he wasn't able to yet. The control and precision needed was absolutely absurd.

Sakura slid over to Naruto but this time sat at his side which allowed her head to rest upon his shoulder. Her eyes were open but they began blinking far faster than they normally would. "I wonder what Rin-san was doing out there. She wore a Konoha head band and if she knew Kakashi then she must have been from around here."

Naruto remained quiet about the subject. That meant there would be nothing further revealed on the topic as to why she left this village, or what brought her back…yet.

"So Naruto-kun. How many of these Zodiac Ninjas did you find?" She looked up at his face and found that goofy smile. He looked so much like a kid with his 'I'm not telling' face, but she would teach him that all kids do grow up.

Slowly she brought one finger to her lips just enough so she could nibble on the very tip of it. With big wide eyes she looked up at him and spoke in her cutest voice. "Please tell me Naruto-kun? It will be our little secret." If she kept this up, his arteries may clog from cuteness. He had no choice but to surrender.

"Four of them." But it wasn't an unconditional surrender. He would have some fun himself.

Finding no reason to continue her little ploy, Sakura resumed resting her head upon his shoulder and awaited his elaboration. When none came she had to offer up her own serious of questions.

"Which four did you meet?"

"Horse, Rooster, Dragon, and Tiger. I met the senseis for the last three." Hehehe. He would slowly build up tension till it was time to exact his revenge upon Sakura for her devious mind games.

"Oh" This could be trouble. If Naruto sought them out that meant he spent a good amount of time training with them. That wasn't as bad as the fact that Rin-san was actually quite pretty. That meant there could be attractive girls in those other pairings. "Were there any really cute gi-" She wouldn't be given the opportunity to finish.

"The Dragon and the Tiger." Haha! Success. Not only had he managed to lure Sakura into his trap, but his eyes took on a dreamy look as he appeared to recall fond memories.

Sakura's head rapidly lifted up off his shoulder yet again in order to look at him and catch his star-eyed gaze. "Naruto-kun?" she grabbed his collar and began shaking him. "Naruto-kun?" If a little didn't work, try harder. Soon her hair was being flapped about as she tried to knock him out of his daze. "NARUTO-kun!"

"Yes Sakura-chan?" Play innocent, play dumb to the situation. Very little acting would be needed.

"Sounds like they were very attractive then. Hmmfph!" Naruto actually seems like a twenty year old now, not just a child trapped in a man's body.

He would only continue his ploy for a short while longer. He had a feeling
Sakura understand the fact she was being played.

"Oh very. Especially the Tiger twins. Wow. Don't expect I'll ever forget Maya and Aya. Or all that special attention they gave." The smile he gave now was anything but fake. His adventures with them would make for great drinking stories to tell to his buddies, so long as the kunoichi of the village were all very far away.

With clenched fists, Sakura slowly tilted her head straight at Naruto.

"I mean what tigresses. Hehehe!" The time for little games had ended though. Something like this was very important to Sakura.

The pink kunoichi's anger diffused out of her as she adopted a more serious tone. Until she had a real reason to berate him, she had no right to get mad at him.

"So does that mean you…?" Just how experienced was he now?

"With Aya, for a little while." He held a little bit of a grin while doing so. It wasn't out of cockiness or spite, but something more personal.

He always, always wanted to know that he too could be considered a desirable guy. He needed to know that somewhere somehow he could be the one who gets the attractive girl to fall for him and that there was hope for anyone.

It should have been as simple as going to a village outside of Konoha to be treated just like any other man, but the Council elders were malicious in their hatred for the boy and the fox held within.

"So you guys broke up?" It's hard to say if the voice was really hopeful, more curious than anything else. Sakura reminded herself to be careful with her temper seeing as that it wasn't any of her business about what Naruto did in his past.

"I left. I learned from them what I needed to and Jiraiya-sama said it was time to move on and seek out some of the other hidden ninjas." That was true. Leaving those two was almost as hard as leaving Konoha. The difference was when he left the Tiger twins, he got over it less than two days later.

"So tell me about her then, this Aya. Was she pretty?" What did Naruto like in a girl? What did he like in anything? She knew very little about him outside of the fact he loved ramen, was going to be Hokage one day, and never went back on his word especially when helping a friend. She missed out on all those little tidbits of likes and dislikes that make up a person.

"Well I guess the part I like most about her was her unusual hair. That's one thing I love about different girls." Check! "She had this dark midnight black hair with streaks of orange going through it. It was so long and shimmers." Something dawned on the dimwitted boy. Why intelligence on the battlefield didn't mean intelligence off the battlefield is a mystery that's better left unsolved.

"Uh Sakura-chan, its kind of weird talking to a girl about another girl. Are you sure you wanted to hear this?"

"Of course Naruto. You're my friend and I want to know all about you." Was a half-lie half as bad as a lie or was it a lie where you were just kidding yourself and the other person?

"Oh ok well what else do you want to know?" Someone with his life experience should have realized he was walking right into a train wreck. All he had to do was get off the tracks but that would be doing things the easy way.

"Tell me about her eyes." This more than anything would mean something to Sakura. She had a basis for comparison.

"They were black." That seemed like a fair enough question to him.

"That's it?" Mentally she crossed her fingers while awaiting his response.

"What else is there to say Sakura-chan? They were eyes, she had two of them, and they were black." Simple. Why was it necessary to focus on a trait that everyone had?

'They are the most crystal clear version of emerald green that I have ever seen. It reminds me of those endless meadows found in the Grass Country, or the leaves from the great tree of Konoha but those aren't nearly as vibrant.'

That's why. She had a basis of comparison now. She was beginning to understand how that strange little mind of his worked. This time it was Sakura's turn to smile dopily at the dope.

Naruto squinted his eyes at her wondering what running through that cute little head she had on her shoulders when it suddenly became apparent. 'Of course! She must be remembering someone she dated while I was away. Well, turn about is fair play.'

"So Sakura-chan, have you met anyone special while I was gone?" He didn't have to worry about her falling back into a typical Sasuke freak. Someone at the hospital had 'accidentally' let it slip that the female ninja had become strong enough to get over certain emotions. It was a shame that it cost her the majority of her feelings in the process for a long while.

'There hasn't been anyone special in Konoha since you two left, baka.' But with Naruto home again, that all seemed to be changing. "No not really. A few guys have asked." Most were too afraid to do so. Only Lee dared to ask more than twice. "But I never felt like going. I had to work and stuff you know?"

Her hands found their way wrapping around her knees as her head bent down so she could look upon the floor. Sakura was still only telling half-truths at the moment. That was ok. Naruto could handle that for the moment.

"Have you had your eye on someone?" No girl could possibly ignore the entire male side of the species for seven years no matter how stupid men proved themselves to be.

"Naruto-kun…" He turned as pink as her hair. "…I didn't really mean it when I said you haven't shown me anything new when we battled. That was a sneaky little trick you did. I didn't expect you to come up with that. Looks like you are pretty good with strategy yourself."

It was becoming strange. First Sakura had inflated his hopes, than deflated it by talking about their match, and then reinflating it by praising him. What the hell was wrong with straight answers again?

He laughed a little while rubbing the back of his head with his right hand in his trademark Naruto style. "Well I had to get better at the basics at some point." It was how he won the battle actually.

He was fighting an opponent who knew him and his personality rather well, so he would have to use it to his advantage. When creating a massive amount of shadow clones, no one suspected that he would create normal replications as well. While using an attack to punch straight through many of the clones, Sakura overextended herself and lost her balance when she realized there was no pressure created from punching the clone. This allowed Naruto just enough time to deliver a blow to Sakura's midsection and thus claiming the battle.

What he had not counted on was the fact Sakura was able to deliver a similar blow to him at the same time. The match would have ended in a draw if Naruto wasn't able to maintain his shadow clones, but that had given him the edge.

"Thanks Sakura-chan, but you didn't answer my question." This wasn't fair. How come he was made to divulge his past yet hers was allowed to remain a secret. Stupid double standards.

"Come on Naruto-kun. I'll treat you to lunch. Got to keep you fed so you can heal faster. I want to see just how strong you really are so I won't have to hold back anymore." She winked at him slyly as she made her way up and started walking back towards the village. Her hand was stuck out expectantly as if she was waiting for him to come and take it as they head back.

Finding his Chakra restored he moved in the blink of an eye from his current position to her side leaving a blank expression upon her face. She couldn't follow him again. 'Damn! I will have to ask him about that technique again later. I guess it could be possible that…'

"So lets go then!" It didn't take much to make the blond ninja forget about the line of questions he had for Sakura.

"Alright, but one condition." Crap. These always tended to be painful.

"Next time we fight, you have to use some of your new techniques." Wow. This condition wasn't horribly unfair. Statistics finally worked in his favor.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours." He smiled semi-evilly leaving no doubt to what he referred to. Just when things were going peacefully, he had to screw it up with a line like that.

Sakura began walking while her hand was clenched onto Naruto's. "Promise?"

Of all the possibilities he hadn't expected that outcome and gulped. Simple stutterings were the only things his mouth could produce.

"Come on, baka." She said jokingly.

Together they walked back into town while one thought was shared between them.

'I wonder how long he has loved me.'

'I wonder how long she has loved me.'

I am still hoping to hear for more responces as to any pairings people will like to see. Please, no yaoi or incense. They will be ignored. But anything else i am open to hearing.

Also, seeing as i appreciate any help that may be given, if there is anythign you would like to see happen in this fiction, let me know. I can't promise you that it will happen, but it will be taken into consideration.

I like doing things were many people are involved in the process, kinda give the reader a greater connection to the story. I am curious to see if that will help you guys enjoy it more. I was thinking in having some of those nin visit Konoha, such as Aya, though i probably won't do a love triangle theme. Overdone if you ask me. Also more on Rin will be revealed in the next chapter.

As always i look forward to hearing your questions, comments, concerns, and general reviews, so please feel free to do so! Thank you and until next time, take care. :-)