On a cheerful summer day, after goodbyes were spoken, Naruto Uzumaki and Jiraiya of the Sannin walked out of the gates of Konoha.
Two and a half years later, dressed in shredded rags but looking no more worse for wear than the day he left, Naruto Uzumaki walked through the gates of Konoha alone. With barely-contained exuberance he leaped to the top of a long pole and shouted, "I'M HOME!"
He peered around from his lofty position, content with what he saw. "Man, this place hasn't changed a bit – wait! Look at that!" He laughed heartily. "Granny's ugly mug is stuck on the Hokage mountain!"
"Come now, Naruto. The first thing you do when you get back is to insult your Hokage? What about your dear teacher?"
Naruto laughed again and leaped onto an adjacent rooftop where Kakashi lounged, reading his signature book. He engulfed the older man in a bear hug before Kakashi could warp away. "It's so good to see you Kakashi-sensei!"
"That's great, Naruto. It's fantastic to see that your sense of fashion has gotten better on your journey."
With a sheepish smile Naruto scratched the back of his head and said, "Yeah, lots of stuff happened on the way back. I'll tell you about it later! Before that, I have a present for you!"
Naruto reached over his shoulder and, after a quiet popping noise and faint wisp of smoke, handed Kakashi a book nearly identical to the one he was holding. "That pervy sage couldn't make it back on time, but he gave me this to bring back to you." While Kakashi reverently took the book and began to read it, there was another popping noise and Naruto was suddenly holding some clothes: black sandals, pants, and an orange-and-black sweater, along with various pieces of under-armor that Kakashi peripherally judged to be masterfully crafted for Naruto specifically. Lastly, there was Naruto's headband – the blue cloth replaced with a longer black one, and the metal plate engraved with Konoha's symbol and polished to perfection.
"Well, I suppose we should head to the Hokage Tower and see Lady Tsunade and her new assistant, since you're looking proper," Kakashi said after his returned student finished dressing himself.
"No need!" Naruto bolted upright and squinted into the distance. "I can see them running over here. Geez, did I yell that loudly?"
"Loudly enough that I had to signal the ANBU that we weren't under attack," droned Kakashi over the pages he was absorbed in. He wasn't joking. Naruto had announced his presence with more than his voice. The sudden spike of chakra that appeared was more than enough to make his skin crawl. His one visible eye flicked up to Naruto before feigning disinterest and looking back down. "What have you been learning these last couple years?"
Naruto's grin was all teeth and secrets.
…
Ah, it was nice to see the fragmented Team Seven somewhat reunited, Kakashi mused. He stood in the center of their old training grounds, allowing a few more precious moments for Sakura and Naruto to catch up. He missed them, truth be told. With Naruto out of the village, Sakura mostly under Tsunade's tutelage and Sasuke doing god knows what in the recesses of one of Orochimaru's hideouts, a kind of depression had settled upon the Man of a Thousand Jutsu. He had felt reduced to redundancy. In one way or another his students had left him to pursue their own paths, and it was difficult to find a path of his own to follow until Lady Tsunade approached him.
Tsunade had promised him that he would be the leader of the reunited Team Seven when Naruto returned… if he got himself back into shape. Kakashi admitted with bitterness that he had fallen from grace. A decade ago only the most foolish and most legendary of shinobi would dare engage in combat with him. But after his discharge from the ANBU and S-Ranked missions, he grew out of practice and complacency settled in.
The last two-and-a-half years rectified that. He was better now than ever before, and finally worthy to lead the fragments of Team Seven towards becoming whole again. From a vest pocket he retrieved a scroll, which he artfully wrapped around his body before activating it, catching the attention of his two students. When the smoke dispersed he was clad in the light armor he inherited from the White Fang of Konoha, mixed and matched with pieces from his ANBU days. There was a sword holstered to his leg. His headband revealed his left eye, and the Sharingan slowly swirled as he regarded Sakura and Naruto.
He held up his hand, holding two bells dangling from their strings. "The rules are the same as last time," he said. His voice was sharper and more authoritative than anything his students ever heard before. "Come at me with intent to kill or you'll never succeed." He affixed the bells to his waist and waited.
In an instant Naruto brought his hands up in his signature hand seal, and Kakashi heard the clone materialize behind him accompanied by the sound of a knife cutting through the air. Faster than thought he reached down to the sheath on his leg and, for the first time in many years, drew the reforged White Fang and plunged it into the clone, dispersing it. He sensed Naruto approaching from above and turned upwards, pulling his mask down and unleashing a gout of flame into his face. That Naruto burst into an abnormally large cloud of smoke, and through it came a flurry of kunai and shuriken that Kakashi cut down with ease. When the smoke cleared, Kakashi stood within a ring of high-grade explosive tags. Naruto had not moved an inch; there was merely a smile on his face and one hand curled into the detonation sign.
Only ten seconds had elapsed.
Kakashi's eyes crinkled into a smile, and then he crumbled into dirt. Naruto felt cool steel against his throat and heard his sensei's voice from behind him.
"Nice try, Naruto, but you'll have to do much better than that."
"So will you, Kakashi-sensei."
Kakashi's instincts blared at him, and he leaped back just in time to escape as the clone detonated with lethal force. Sakura, caught in the blast radius, also vanished in a poof of smoke while giving Kakashi a cheeky wave.
Ah, he realized with a glimmer of pride in his blond pupil, the explosive tags were inert decoys. The Naruto and Sakura clones were the real trap.
"We're not done yet!" Sakura yelled as she burst through the settling dust inhumanly fast with her arm cocked back, fist glowing dangerously.
With no time to guard or dodge, Kakashi warped into the thick forest and let an unsuspecting log take the hit for him. When Sakura's fist connected with the wood there was a sharp crack and the log vanished, instantly vaporized by the contact. Kakashi felt his glimmer of pride become a wave, and he idly hoped that his students wouldn't actually maim him. He silently retreated into the forest, watching as Naruto and Sakura nodded to each other and split up in search of him.
The hunt was on.