Hello! I'm doing a bit of time skip, here, but only for the coupled months before the chuunin exam. This is where it should start to get really good!
Sarutobi took a deep puff on his pipe. 'The Chuunin Exams start tomorrow, so Naruto and his team should be coming back today…'
Flashback:
"Pardon?" The Hokage raised his wrinkled eyebrow at the jounin in front of him.
"I would like to request a brief training mission with my team for the upcoming chuunin exams," Himaru replied, still bowing to the Hokage. "I believe they're ready for the next stage of my training, but I can't do that here in Konoha." Himaru looked up to face Sarutobi eye-to-eye. "They successfully performed an A-rank mission. I believe they're ready for the next step." The old ninja seemed to mull it over. He didn't trust this man all that much. He showed up only recently, just before the genin exam and presented Sarutobi with a hog-tied A-rank missing ninja in exchange for a position as a Konoha jounin.
Himaru seemed to sense the old man's hesitation, and snapped Sarutobi out of his thoughts with a snap of his own. "Naruto!" As if he'd been waiting outside the door of the Hokage's office the entire time, which he probably was, said blond ninja rammed down the door.
"Oiroke no Jutsu (Do I really need to tell you?)!"
End Flashback:
Sarutobi mumbled something under his breath and blushed. "I thought I told him that was a kinjutsu…"
Konohamaru was bored out of his mind. He, Udon and Moegi were sitting out by Ichiraku's Ramen. "Ever since Naruto-niisan left, there's been nothing to do!" Konohamaru kicked a can for emphasis.
"You missed me that much? I'm touched." All three faces brightened and they leapt to their feet.
"Naruto-nii…san?" Naruto was grinning down at them, but it was almost hard to tell that it was still him. He was wearing night blue pants and a matching trench coat (think Dante's), his overall features had narrowed slightly, and his whisker marks were a little deeper and longer. He wore bandages instead of gloves and now wore black combat boots instead of sandals. An orange shirt was underneath the coat. Most surprising, however, was not the slight glow to his hair and eyes, but his size. Somehow, in only about a month, he had become tall. It was like his height had almost reversed. Instead of being a few inches to short, he was actually taller than average. His hitai-ate, however, was still on his forehead.
"Whoa…" the trio breathed at their new and improved hero. Naruto grinned at them, showing off fangs that would make an Inuzuka jealous.
"Wanna play 'Ninja'?" The three academy students nodded so quickly that it looked like their heads were going to fall of.
"A ninja playing 'Ninja'?" A short haired Sakura came up from behind him. She wore a black jumpsuit with emerald green gauntlets and dreaves (shin gauntlets) that turned into green shoes at the bottom. A practically emerald belt balanced the whole outfit out and her hitai-ate was worn in her usual style, on top of her head like a ribbon. Naruto rubbed the side of his head and grinned sheepishly at her.
"They enjoy it." Sakura sighed over-dramatically, but still smiled at her teammate.
"'They' enjoy it?"
"Who's the lady, Niisan?" Konohamaru asked. He narrowed his eyes at Sakura. "She's not your girlfriend, is she? I mean, look at that forehead!" Time seemed to freeze for moment, and the outside temperature quickly followed suit.
"Run, Konohamaru, run!" Naruto grabbed the Hokage's grandson by his collar and chucked him across the street. Once Konohamaru finally tumbled to a stop, he only paused for a moment to yell at Naruto before he saw the very pissed kunoichi coming his way.
"AHHHHH!" Konohamaru took off running. His legs burned as he practically flew past village blocks until he crashed into something. He had only looked back for a moment to check to see if Sakura was still following him, and he ended up slamming into someone's leg.
"Watch where you're going!" The black-clad stranger hoisted Konohamaru up by the scruff of his shirt and glared at him, eye to eye.
"Lemme go!" Konohamaru shouted and started thrashing around in the stranger's iron grip. Kankouro 'Tched' at the boy.
"I hate brats like you."
"I suggest you put that 'brat' down." Kankouro turned a lazy eye to the two Konoha genin, a blond boy and a girl. It was the blond who had spoken. A smirk found its way to Kankouro's face.
"And what if I don't?"
"Kankouro, don't start trouble." He didn't even bother to look at his sister.
"Relax, Temari. He isn't here yet, why don't we have some fun with these brats?" This time, Naruto was the one who smirked.
"Sounds good to me!" Kankouro barely had time to blink before he felt a fist in the side of his face. He didn't even notice dropping Konohamaru as he slammed right through a wooden fence. Temari was gaping as Naruto skidded to a halt from his previous charge and readied to attack once again.
"Stop it, Naruto. We don't want to cause an inter-village incident." The blond's fist stopped inches away from Kankouro's face.
"You just have to ruin my fun, huh Sasuke-teme?" Said ninja jumped down from his spot on the tree. He too wore bandages over his arms, right up to the sleeves of his black short-sleeved shirt and probably past them. He wore long black pants and thinner versions of Naruto's combat boots. He still had his trademark collar and fan and his hitai-ate was still on his forehead, but his most noticeable change was the katana strapped to his waist. The sheath was black except for a crimson dragon design wrapping around it, and the sword's handle itself was also black. The only other part of the blade that could be seen was the hand-protector: a crimson dragon's head with its mouth slightly open and a piece of sheath entering said open mouth in a triangle shape.
"Yeah, sucks to keeping the peace and all that," Sasuke replied with a nonchalant air. He turned his stony gaze on the Suna ninja. "What are you two doing here?" Kankouro gritted his teeth and pulled the bandaged case off of his back.
"Stop it, Kankouro." The Suna puppeteer froze as the icy voice. "Bring more dishonor to our village and I'll kill you myself." Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura all narrowed their eyes at the new arrival who was still perched on a tree.
'I didn't even sense him until just now,' they all thought.
'He's good,' Sasuke and Naruto added with excitement. Sand enshrouded Gaara and he teleported down to their level. Sasuke, meanwhile, continued on with his questioning.
"Are you three here for the Chuunin Exams?"
"Oh, I forgot about that!" Sakura punched Naruto hard enough to send him into the concrete. She glared at Naruto's twitching form.
"Idiot! Don't you remember the whole reason we came back?" Naruto curled up like a puppy under her hard gaze.
"Don't be like that, Sakura-chan!" At this point, all three Suna ninja were utterly befuddled, and Temari and Kankouro both showed it. The blond had just beaten the crap out of Kankouro without breaking a sweat, and now he was cowering like a whipped dog at the feet of this kunoichi. Sasuke turned back to the Suna ninja while Sakura helped her teammate up, scolding him about paying attention to Himaru-sensei, and Naruto just kept pleading that he did. Ignoring his sweat drop and his teammates, Sasuke spoke again.
"What's your name?" Sasuke stared pointedly at Gaara.
"My name is Sabaku no Gaara, and I must admit I would like to know all of your names."
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, the blond is Naruto Uzumaki, and the kunoichi is Sakura Haruno. See you in the exams." Sasuke turned his back on the Suna ninja and motioned for his teammates to follow him.
"What interesting prey…"Gaara mumbled as he watched their retreating forms with a predatory stare.
"That was so cool, Naruto-niisan!" Konohamaru was jumping up and down, and Udon and Moegi were avidly following his lead. "You knocked that make-up wearing weirdo all the way through the fence!" Naruto grinned and rubbed the now much shorter boy's hair.
"Yep. I'm just that awesome."
"As if, dobe." Naruto glowered at his brunette teammate.
"No one was talking to you, Sasuke-teme!"
"Be nice boys, there are little kids watching," Sakura reprimanded both of them more or less playfully.
"You're the one who tried to kill Konohamaru," Naruto mumbled, and Sakura quickly, without even so much as looking at Naruto, elbowed him in the ribs. "You'd think I'd be used to that by now…" he wheezed as he resisted crumpling like a sheet of paper.
"Enough fooling around, we have to hurry up and prepare for the exam."
"Isn't that what we've been doing for the entire month, Sasuke-kun?"
"I want to perfect that one kenjutsu (sword technique) before we go tomorrow." Naruto half-sighed and half-growled.
"Great, now I get to be your punching bag too."
"Not our fault you the one who heals really fast." Naruto mumbled something incomprehensible before both boys bolted.
"Bye guys!" Naruto's good-bye was an echo on the wind for the three academy students.
"Aw man," Konohamaru kicked at the dust.
"At least the scary girl left just now too," Moegi said in an attempt to comfort Konohamaru.
"Hey, you're right! I didn't get beaten up!"
Sorry this is so short, but I'll update again soon! Thanks for the reviews and keep 'em coming! Constructive criticism is welcome!