Chapter 2

Naruto grumbled and rubbed his head trying to stop the oncoming headache. Paperwork was such a pain in the neck.

There was a knock on the door before it was cracked open and Sakura's head poked through. "Hey Naruto. You busy?"

"Ah, just doing the boring stuff," he replied. "What's up Sakura?"

"Konohamaru got into quite the pickle just a few minutes ago. You're going to have to go down and help him," his friend answered.

Naruto slapped his forehead. "Again? Man how many times am I going to have to save Konohamaru's sorry butt?"

The rosette giggled. "Don't worry, it's not half as bad as last time."

"Well can you stay here for a while Sakura? If anyone comes to talk with me, just tell them that I'll be back in a few minutes," the Hokage said rushing out.

"Sure thing!" Sakura called after him with a grin.

"Screw. My. Life," Cornelia muttered as she, Will, Irma, Taranee, Hay Lin, and Elyon made their way towards the village gates.

"Amen to that sister!" Irma agreed wholeheartedly.

"You two aren't really helping," Hay Lin said crossing her arms.

"Well do you wanna be back here, Hay Lin," Elyon replied crossly.

Taranee frowned. "She's just saying that you three could be a little more-"

"Will you all just be quiet?" Will yelled throwing her hands into the air in frustration. "None of us want to be here and we all know that, but we don't have a choice. This is a guardian matter and we have to do this for the Oracle. So right now let's put our personal feelings about this whole thing aside and deal with this like the adults we are. Alright?"

It took a few seconds, but eventually the rest of the guardians nodded their agreement.

"Good," the keeper said with a small sigh of relief. "Besides it probably won't be as bad as you think. We can just tell Tsunade why we're back, have her sign the scroll, send the other one to Gaara, and leave by this time tomorrow. We probably won't even see anybody else if we're lucky."

None of them said anything else as they continued to the village. When they reached the gates Irma, Cornelia, and Will swallowed hard, remembering that the last time they had gone through these gates, they had been part of a plan to destroy the village. They quickly threw on the cloaks they had brought with them to cover their faces and began to make their way through the village. It had been years since they had walked in the Leaf Village and none of them could stop glancing around to see what had changed and what hadn't.

Along the way Irma spotted the Yamanaka flower shop and clenched her fists, trying not to think about the times she and Ino used to goof off and make each other laugh when she had worked there. They also passed by Ichiraku's and Hay Lin smiled bitterly, recalling that it was a shared love of ramen that had started her friendship with Naruto.

It wasn't until they were almost to the Hokage tower that Taranee looked up at the mountain and froze. "Uh guys, we have a problem."

"What do you mean Tara?" the queen asked.

The fire guardian pointed upward and her friends' eyes widened in horror when they saw a carving of Naruto's face right after Tsunade's.

"Oh crap!" Cornelia said.

"That's it we're screwed!" the water guardian declared.

The redhead quickly straightened her shoulders. "No we're not. Like I said we will handle this as adults with no personal ties to this mission. Naruto being the Hokage is nothing we have to worry about. We can totally handle this."

Despite the confidence in her voice, Will couldn't help, but glance to Hay Lin and was proud to see a look of determination on her face.

"Come on guys lets hurry and get this over with."

"Naruto how you manage to get anything done is beyond me," Sakura muttered as she tried to organize the cluster of papers scattered all over Naruto's desk.

A knock on the door stopped her from what she was doing and she turned around to face the door. "Come in."

Sakura's eyes narrowed slightly when six clocked figures walked into the room. "What can I do for you?"

"We're here to see the Hokage," Will said, keeping her head lowered.

"He's not here at the moment I'm afraid. Something needed his personal attention, but he should be back in a few minutes," the pink haired girl told them.

"This is urgent," Cornelia blurted out impatiently.

"I can go and find him if you would like," Sakura said.

"Thank you, we would appreciate that," Elyon said trying to shoot Cornelia a warning look from under her hood.

The medic nodded. "No problem. Nar-Lord Hokage will be with you shortly," she said walking out and closing the door behind her.

There were a few minutes of quiet as the guardians looked around the room.

"Well it doesn't look like Sakura's changed much," the fire guardian observed as they all took off their hoods. "Wonder what she was doing here?"

"Who knows," Irma said shrugging her shoulders. "Maybe she and Naruto are dating."

Will was the only one who noticed Hay Lin's shoulders tense slightly. "Nah, no offense to Sakura or anything, but Naruto has better taste then that. Besides I remember him saying that he and Sakura were just friends."

"Pretty close friends apparently," The queen responded.

Again the air guardian tensed up.

"Yeah who knows what could've happened while we were gone. For all we know Naruto could be married by this point," Cornelia agreed.

"I can't do this!" Hay Lin cried suddenly. "Will I'm sorry, but I can't see him. Not now."

"It's okay, I really don't think I can either. Taranee think you can handle this for me?" Will asked.

"I'll try. Although I'm pretty sure Cornelia is going to try her methods of negotiating no matter what," The dark skinned girl retorted.

Hay Lin quickly made her way over to the door, but just as she opened it, there was a flash of orange and she suddenly found herself lying on the floor with a heavy weight on top of her. When she looked up to see what it was, she found herself staring into deep blue eyes.

"Oh crap, I'm sorry!" Naruto said quickly getting off of the woman he had fallen on. "I was just running so fast to get here and then you opened the door and I didn't have time to stop."

Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Elyon all watched the scene in front of them with their jaws dropped as Naruto rambled on about how sorry he was for having knocked Hay Lin down. What surprised them was he didn't recognize her, or see the look of total shock plastered on to her face.

"Ugh sorry, I'm totally running my mouth again. My friend said you needed to-" the spiky haired man trailed off as he took a closer look at the young woman in front of him. She had long black hair pulled into a high ponytail and with her pale, smooth looking skin and large, gentle brown eyes, she was probably the most beautiful woman Naruto had ever seen in his life. There was also something strangely familiar about her.

That's when he looked up at her friends. The second he saw Will, he recognized her immediately. He quickly glanced at the other guardians and his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"No freaking way!" he breathed. Then he whipped his head to face the air guardian. "Hay Lin? Is that really you?"

The black haired girl in a moment of pure panic bolted out of the room with Will hot on her heels. Naruto was just about to go after them to get some answers when Cornelia grabbed the back of his Hokage cloak and threw him into his chair.

"Alright Naruto listen up," the earth guardian said slamming her hands on his desk. "Yes it's us, yes we're back, but it's only temporary. For the record I don't really care if you're the Hokage or not you are going to listen to us and you're not going to interrupt us at anytime, got that?"

"Could you have been any more demanding?" Irma asked dryly from behind her.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and stood up to face Cornelia. "I'll listen when you tell me what the heck is going on! Why did you come back after so many years?"

Cornelia was about to yell at him, but Elyon and Irma quickly grabbed her and held her back.

"This is so not going the way we wanted it to," Taranee muttered putting her head in her hands. Taking a deep breath she turned to Naruto.

"Are you gonna tell me what's going on?" he asked.

The fire guardian held up the scroll and handed it to the Hokage. "Naruto listen, we didn't come back as a personal thing. We're here strictly on guardian business."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked taking the scroll and opening it to see what it said.

"This is treaty from Candracar. I assume you've heard about the Oracle from Tsunade?" Elyon asked.

Again the blonde man nodded. "Yeah, but what does he have to do with anything?"

"He wants us, as guardians, to go to the other worlds and have them sign treaties, aligning themselves with Candracar," Irma explained.

"We have one for the sand village too, so you're not the only one who has to sign this," the queen piped up.

Naruto was silent for a few minutes before looking up to stare at them with piercing eyes. "Why did you leave?"

"Not important," Cornelia replied coldly, matching his sapphire glare with hers.

The Hokage looked like he was ready to yell a retort, but Taranee quickly butted in. "What she means is it's not important because we won't be staying long."

"So you're leaving again huh? I shouldn't be too surprised," he said bitterly. "So will someone from this Candracar come get the treaty once it's signed?"

"I wish," Irma said without thinking. "But we can't leave until you-" She was cut off when Cornelia slapped her hand over her mouth.

Unfortunately for them Naruto figured it out what she had been about to say and very slowly a large evil smirk appeared on his face. "You can't leave until I sign this can you?"

The girls didn't say anything and their silence only confirmed his suspicions and he chuckled rather darkly. "Well ladies I'm sorry, but as Hokage I need to read any treaty very carefully and think over the conditions and considering the thickness of this scroll, I'd say it'll take quite a while until I'm ready to sign it."

The earth guardian made an attempt to go at him again, but the tight grip of Irma, Taranee, and Elyon held her back, though it was clear they were just as angry as she was.

"Naruto really," Elyon said through gritted teeth. "Act like an adult and don't do anything that will make things difficult for not only us, but your friends."

"Oh you mean like Kiba, Hinata, and Shino?" Naruto asked.

Elyon's back went ramrod straight and if looks could kill, Naruto would have died three times from her icy glare. "You little-"

"Please Naruto," Taranee tried again. "We just want to leave as soon as possible so we don't cause any trouble."

"As much as I'd love to keep arguing with you," the blonde muttered. "I honestly think it'll take me some time to read through this treaty. I'll sign it as soon as I can."

The four of them recognized the subtle dismissal and angrily put on their hoods as they made their way to the door.

"By the way the apartments you guys lived in the last time you were here are still available. You can use them if you'd like," the Hokage called after them rather bitterly. "Be sure to tell my sister that when you see her."

Cornelia was the last to leave, but she had one more thing to say to the spiky haired man. "Naruto if you so much as think about telling the other shinobi that we're back, I swear I will hunt you down and beat you to a bloody pulp."

"Well Cornelia you don't have to worry about that because I won't," he replied.

The two had another short glaring contest before she walked out, closing the door behind her.

The young Hokage then let a foxy grin appear on his face for, despite Cornelia's threat, his fingers had been crossed behind his back.

'I think I should get the guys up here pretty soon,' Naruto thought as his smirk got even wider.

END OF CHAPTER