IMPORTANT: Sorry I'm still really late, but my sister keeps looping me into playing the Wii with her. Not to mention I had a huge case of writer's block. Also, I'm going to hold a poll for Naruto's kage name:

Enmakage: Devil/ Ruler of Hell Shadow

Shinikage: Death Shadow

Onikage: Demon Shadow

Akumakage: Devil Shadow

Naruto lay gasping within the tunnel. Even his massive chakra reserves were starting to drain. With a grunt of pain he pulled himself up to a sitting position and weakly pulled out the map. "Oh, man…" he moaned before collapsing again. "I'm barely even, like a tenth done!" He craned his neck to look outside. It was already pitch black outside. Then again, he was pretty far down.

"Well, haven't you been busy?" With the last of his strength, Naruto raised up his hand and erected his middle finger. The raven-haired avenger behind him sighed before heaving the large boy onto his back. "It's time for a break." Naruto made the barest of shakes with his head.

"No…I can keep…going." Without a word Sasuke dropped him onto the hard stone floor with a loud 'plop'. He waited for a couple moments before he picked the blond back up.

"Yeah, didn't think so." Sasuke poured chakra into his legs and dashed out of the tunnel. He emerged into the cool night air and bounded onto the nearby palm tree where he hopped from top to top until he reached the shore. "Now rest, you big idiot." Sasuke more or less gently dropped Naruto facedown onto the sand before sitting himself down next to him.

"Himaru-sensei says we're leaving back for Konoha tomorrow." Naruto let out a small grunt of disapproval. "Don't be grumpy, we have to do missions to save up money for the village anyway, and Zabuza-sensei and Haku will take good care of it."

"What about Toku and Ittou?"

"The other two Jinchuriki? Zabuza's drilling Ittou into the ground, and Himaru taught Toku and the other blind kids about very basic earth element manipulation." Sasuke shook his head. "I have no idea why he had earth element scrolls written in Braille in his pockets." The sand muffled Naruto's laugh into a chuckle.

"Well, he is a pack-rat." The pair just stared into the sky for a little while, sharing a peaceful silence. "I wonder if I can get Ichiraku-ojisan to move here?" Sasuke chuckled.

"Ramen-obsessed freak."

"Girly-emo freak.

"Dobe."

"Teme!"

"Baka!"

"Lovebird!"

Naruto adjusted his Hitai-ate and waved at the villagers. "See you guys later, we'll be back soon!" Some muffled moans of 'don't go Oniisan' came from the younger villagers but Naruto could only grin sheepishly. "Hey, don't worry! I'll be back with some gifts! And ramen!" At the word ramen almost the entire village broke out into deafening cheers.

"Convincing Ichiraku-ojisan might not be that hard after all," Naruto said as the cheers died down.

"Alright guys!" Himaru said, clapping his hands together to get their attention. "Time to go! Zabuza and Haku will take care of things while we're gone." All of Team 7 nodded. "Right then." Himaru cracked his knuckles before running through a few familiar seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" With a giant puff of smoke, Himaru's summon came into being. A hideous screech grated on their ears as a pair of leathery black wings blew the smoke away.

"Holy shit," was all Naruto or any of the other villagers could say as a giant pterodactyl came into view. Several heads turned their stunned stares at Himaru.

"What? So my summon is dinosaurs, I am the son of the Shinigami." While under the shocked stares, Himaru snapped his fingers and seemed to remember something.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot." He more or less handed a scroll to Zabuza's limp hand and gave Naruto several small seals. "Naruto, charge these with chakra, there for Kaisharu's clan. Zabuza, the scroll holds all the details you need." Naruto dumbly pumped some of his dark blue chakra into the seals before handing them back to Himaru who in turn gave them to Zabuza.

"Now then, all aboard!" Himaru leapt onto the scaly behemoth's back and motioned for his team to follow. "Whatever you guys do, don't look down." The genin only nodded as they pulled themselves up onto the gigantic lizard's back. A gust of wind blew across the whole village as the ancient creature rose into the air with another horrible shriek.

"I think I'm going to hurl," Sakura whimpered as the pterodactyl shot off. "Why couldn't we just teleport?" Her face was starting to turn as green as her gauntlets.

"Because this is so much cooler," Himaru replied as though it should have been obvious.

"But it's not like we can fly into the village with this thing," Sasuke stated while doing his best to not look terrified. Another piercing screech nearly rocked them off of their ride.

"He doesn't like it when you call him a 'thing'," Himaru explained.

"Got it." Sasuke was clutching the dinosaur's back for dear life.

"Himaru-sensei, how long is this gonna take?" If he'd been facing them, the rest of the team would have wet themselves at Himaru's smirk.

"Whining already? Well then, hang on tight!" Himaru kicked the sides of the pterodactyl's neck. With a sense-rending screech he went from a fast pace, to unholy speeds. Even with chakra to all four limbs the genin could barely hold on as the environment whizzed by around them. Soon the colors changed from blue to green, and the beast came to a grinding, mid-air halt leading to a not-so-gentle landing. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were all bucked off and sent skidding along the grass and into the brush, while Himaru merely dismounted before dispelling his summon with a pat on the head.

"Well that was fun. I guess we can just teleport the rest of the way."

With all the adrenaline pumping through his veins, Naruto didn't even notice the cold looks he received as their group entered Konoha. "So what's this Tsunade like, Naruto?"

"The old hag? Eh, she's not so special. Just a drunk and a lousy gambler."

"Ahem." Naruto froze in mid-step.

"And now I'm backing away from you." The rest of Team 7 practically leapt out of the way as a certain busty blond Hokage came stamping up to Naruto.

"H-hi, Tsunade-baachan." A vein bulged on Tsunade's head right before she sent Naruto through six inches of road. "Ow…" Tsunade snorted and turned to Himaru.

"So you're the infamous Himaru, hm?" The son of the Shinigami bowed deeply.

"A pleasure, Hokage-sama. Do you have any missions for us?"

"I think you've been busy enough lately," she replied. "And the donkey-headed council still doesn't trust Naruto on missions," she added too quietly for any of the nearby citizen's to hear.

"Thank-you for the reprieve, Hokage-sama. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go run for my life." The jounin was gone in a blur just as a pair of snakes shot out of the shadows.

"Dammit!" A purple-haired kunoichi leapt from the shadows before disappearing in a blur as well.

"She's almost as stubborn as I am," Naruto said from beside the others.

"How did you get out of the ground?" Tsunade asked. She'd expected him to be stuck like a turnip for another ten minutes at least. The other blond gave her a foxy grin.

"Nothing can dig like a fox."

"I challenge that!" Kiba came crashing down from the roof above them. I've been waiting for months to get you back, Naruto! I challenge you to a digging contest!"

"You really like losing that much?" The two glared at each other, little sparks of lightning shooting from their eyes.

"Well, the dobe's officially occupied for the rest of the afternoon," Sasuke said before scooting closer to Sakura. "And it has been a while since I took you out," he whispered in her hear, causing Sakura's face to match her hair.

"Just a moment, Sasuke-kun." She reluctantly pulled away from him and planted herself in front of Tsunade. "E-excuse me, Hokage-sama, but, um…well, Himaru-sensei has always used you as an example for my training, and I was wondering if…" Sakura gulped before steeling her eyes and leveling them at Tsunade. "I want to be your apprentice!" The older kunoichi smirked at her.

"Heh, why not?" Sakura's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Really!?"

"If you can survive my training, then you're worthy. Report to my office tomorrow morning, eh, let's make that afternoon, at four o' clock sharp. Got it?" Sakura nodded her head vigorously just as Tsunade disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Congratulations," Sasuke said before looping his arm around her shoulders. "How about we go celebrate?" Sakura turned pink again, but let Sasuke lead her away.

That was pathetically short for this wait, I know, but if I didn't end it now I'd NEVER get it done, trust me. Anyway, please vote, and I'm SO sorry. Once I got out of the loop, I never really got back in.