The forest of Konoha is always full of life, animals running freely, birds playing in the fresh air, all sorts of young animals running around, playing and feeling the freedom with every fibre of their body. Yes, the forest was full of life, sound and movement.
Except for a small clearing that stood alone, surrounded by the mighty forest, in that clearing, silence ruled. A tension so thick that you could cut it with a knife and not even the birds dared fly in. The only movement was the slowly breathing chests of the 14 people that stood there, looking like breathing corpses.
The deadly silence was broken when Naruto, who was still securely seated on the strong tree branch, started clapping, like he was giving them an applause, "congratulations in finding me, you did well" Naruto said in a calm voice as he stopped clapping and jumped down from the security of his high branch.
He slowly made his way to them and stopped when he stood about two meters from them, the larger group slowly walked around him so that they in the end created a circle around their prey. As Naruto looked at the circle with one eyebrow raised, Shikamaru took the liberty of answering the un-asked question, "just a precaution in case you decide to run off on us again" he said with a slight smirk imprinted on his lazy yet lively face, his features might have been as calm as always, but his eyes told a different story. As Naruto seemed content with the answer, they just stood like that, looking at each other, taking in the major changes that had happened during their time apart. (The rest of the gang looks like they did after the time skip).
The silence once again fell down upon them, none of them moved and none of them spoke a word, after all, what did you say to a friend that disappeared and reappeared five years later, and the only contact that had been made was perhaps one small letter once a year. The same went for Naruto, what did he say to the friends he left behind, the friends that had been waiting in five years just to see him again, the same friends that in that exact moment was placed in a tight circle around him.
Sasuke was the first person to break the tension between the group and walked forward over the thick and wild grass until he stood face to face with his old team-mate and closest friend, he stood there and looked into the deep sky blue eyes that looked just as deep as the oceans in water country, the eyes that belonged to Uzumaki Naruto. The same eyes looked into the dark onyx eyes of Uchiha Sasuke, his eyes seemed hard and unbreakable, but when he looked really closely he could see that the hardness was slowly going away, just like ice under the sun.
Suddenly Sasuke slowly reached out his hand towards Naruto and said with a soft voice, "welcome home Naruto, it's good to have you back", and a small smile adored the Uchiha's features when he received another hand firmly placed in his own and heard a small reply that meant more than a thousand good words he had gotten over the years, "it's good to be home".
The rest soon followed suit, hugging him and welcoming him home once again.
They settled down under the shade of the tree Naruto had been sitting in; they exchanged stories and just sat there, enjoying each others company. Naruto found out that Shikamaru was now dating Temari, who was the sauna ambassador in Konoha, and that he was the second in command of the strategy department under his father, Ino and Chouji was now also going out and those three (Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji) had practically throw their fathers out of their thrones and had taken over as the new Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Kiba had trained hard and had become one of the best trackers in the entire village together with Akamaru, and was also now dating Hinata who had recently been officially named the heiress of the Hyuuga clan. Neji was secretly with Hinata researching on a way to remove the caged bird seal, so that on the day when she was the new head of the family she could completely remove the seal and make sure that it was never used again. Shino was training under his own father to become the next clan head of the Aburame clan and Tenten had opened up her own weapons shop. Lee was still training like a madman together with Gai and had actually beaten Neji on a few occasions, and Sasuke was working on gaining back the respect and friendships that he had lost, with much help he had managed to get over the Uchiha massacre and was rebuilding the Uchiha compound. Later he even told Naruto that he had begun to see this girl from the village.
"What about Sakura?" Naruto asked after realising that none of them was going to mention her and he himself was getting tired of waiting, the soft look that had been in everyone's eyes turned to stone immediately and nobody wanted to face him anymore. It was obvious that nobody really wanted to talk about her and had avoided her for some time now, but Naruto was persistent and he wasn't going to back down from his question, "I said, what about Sakura" he said with a slightly more hardened voice, Kiba eventually spoke up and answered his question. "After you left, she almost got a hero status in the village for punching you when you got back with Sasuke; she also got known as the one who saved the last Uchiha from the demons grasps. Tsunade stopped training her, although it didn't take that long to find another teacher. Her popularity has steadily gotten lower since you left though, we guess it's because they finally realised how grey the village was without you and started blaming her for the fact that you left. She still hasn't given up on Sasuke here" he said while nodding his head towards Sasuke "but we have managed to keep her away this long and we even turned your old apartment into a hiding spot for all of us" at that Naruto gave him an odd look, confusion clear in his eyes, Neji answered Naruto's unasked question by simply saying "we guessed that was the last place she would ever look" in his normal attitude, but Naruto could still hear the humour that was lying underneath.
"So I guess she's not changed her opinion of me then?" Naruto said in the end, a small amount of sorrow could barely be heard in his voice, "no, but who cares about that banshee. On the good side, you got mostly of the village behind you now, and I'm sure they will be thrilled over the fact that you're back" Ino said with a warm smile. "Then...what happened to Kakashi?" most of the people present noticed the lack of the word sensei behind his name, but didn't think too hard of it, but a few stored it away for later research. A big "humph" came from the three senseis present; Naruto had actually forgotten that they where there so he got a little surprised by the sudden sound of disapproval for the person at stake (Kakashi). "that scumbag got exactly what he deserved" Kurenai started, "he's a disgrace to all teachers and shinobi" Asuma continued, " HIS YOUTHFUL FLAMES HAS BURNED OUT" ended Gai with tears in his eyes, the group almost didn't even react to the man's sudden outburst, obviously very used to it. Since Gai was in no condition to continue in his crying fit, Kurenai started again, "after you left he got punished by Tsunade-sama and was sentenced to a month of D-rank missions and two months of being Tsunade's personal slave, she wanted to strip him of his jounin rank too, but council didn't allow it" Kurenai finished with a grim look on her face. "Tsunade-sama wasn't very happy over the fact that he left you there at the gates and only took the Sasuke too the hospital, she threw a punch so hard that he flew through THREE walls. You should have seen how he looked when he got back up on his feet" Asuma said while he tried to contain his laughter. "And lets just say that he isn't very popular amongst the shinobi part of the village anymore, he's one of the most hated people in the village by now" Kurenai said in a serious voice.
At that point Naruto got confused, sure Kakashi had been a bad teacher and had abandoned him, but what on earth had he done to deserve that? "Why?" he simply asked the group in front of him. All he got back was shocked eyes that obviously didn't believe what their ears had just told them. "You got to be kidding me, are you serious?" Chouji said in a confused voice which seemed just as confused as his eyes. Again it was Neji who got back into teller-mode and said in his usual superior self, "after you left, the story about how he neglected you during training and how he had given Sasuke the honour for things that you had done, like defeating Gaara and beating Haku, slipped out into the public, after that people learned the truth behind the stories he wasn't mister popular anymore. That was one of the main reasons why many people stopped hating you; they couldn't believe that someone who had done so much good possibly could be evil and a monster". Naruto was deeply touched by this fact, people didn't hate him anymore, and they had finally found the light after being lost in the darkness for so long. Finally they had been able to let go of all that hatred that had been destroying them from the inside of their hearts for so long.
They all just sat there in the cool clearing enjoying each others presence until the sun went down and filled the forest and the sky with it's yellow and orange light. They where all lost in their own thoughts and didn't really notice how late it had gotten until a loud shrieking voice suddenly filled the forest and they could have sworn that they could hear them all the way to Suna. "NARA SHIKAMARU, YOU BETTER GET YOUR LAZY BUTT HOME RIGHT NOW, OR ELSE I'M TELLING TEMARI THAT YOU ARE STILL SLEEPING WITH YOUR TEDDY BEAR" yes...it was the dreaded mrs. Nara Shikaku --> Nara Yoshino, or as many knew her, Shikamarus mother.
Hidden snickers and bad attempts of hiding giggling and laughter was clearly heard through the training ground, in the end none of the people present where able to keep their laughter in any more and all of them fell to the ground in biggest laughter fits Konoha had seen in years, only the teachers managed to keep their laughter in check, barely. "You...sleep...with...a...teddy bear?" Kiba managed to get out through the laughter, barely managing to say anything at all. "NO" Shikamaru yelled with a face as red as Hinata's had been when she was around Naruto all those years ago, desperately trying to not look too guilty. "Well I guess it doesn't really matter anymore, since the entire village knows by now anyway" Naruto said after finally getting back into control, "but I don't get why she said it anyway, now she lost her bargaining chip" Naruto continued. Shikamaru just boringly into his eyes and said "that's exactly it, that troublesome woman has just embarrassed me in front of the entire village, but she didn't loose her bargaining chip. Since Temari is currently in Suna, she was the only one who DIDN'T hear it" in the end Shikamaru just looked down on the ground, fully aware of the fact that he had once again been deep and utterly defeated by his mother.
"well I guess I better start getting home now, before my mother starts telling the baby stories again" and with that Shikamaru got up and started walking home, that was the signal that everyone needed and they finally realised how late it had actually gotten. Before they left everyone got struck by the same thought, what about Naruto? Chouji had been the first to face him and ask him if he needed a place to sleep that night, the others didn't want to be any less, and soon Naruto had enough places to sleep to last him a lifetime, Sasuke had even offered him one of the buildings in the Uchiha compound. Naruto just turned down every offer he got, "I'm fine, really. I got a place to stay...really", they eventually believed him and left him standing there under the tree, but not before making sure he would be fine about twenty times.
When he was finally alone again he realised that Chigiri had left his normal spot on his shoulder, and was now sitting in one of the many thousand trees that surrounded the Konoha village. It was fast getting dark around him, and he decided that it was about time he went home himself. "Home...home...I really like the sound of that" Naruto thought quietly to himself while a smile was tryimg to take over on his lips and his eyes shined while thinking of the wonderful word, home.
He felt exited and hopeful when he finally pulled out the scroll from his jacket again and released the letter from his father and finally un-sealed the blood seal from his fathers letter. It only took a second and the normal smoke that mysteriously always followed these things (a\n: any others that are wondering about that?) and he found himself in possession of a map and a big silver key that was made in a complicated yet beautiful pattern
well, that was the seventh chapter, hope you liked it. The voting on marriage or not is still going on, but it's nearing an end.
Don't forget to review to me, it really helps :)