(Bows) I'm soooo sorry, I meant to update before this, but- um- hold on… (opens a book titled Random Excuses) Ah, yes, my dog got ran over. What?! My baby got ran over?! NOOOOOOO!

Disclaimer: Is it possible to base a story completely off of hot yaoi smex? Not unless it's the yaoi version of Icha Icha Paradise. And if I owned Naruto, that's exactly how it would be. =^.^=

Chapter 6

Recap

"I'm sorry, Inu, but I must go." It was time for Naruto Uzumaki to make a reappearance in the world. Word would be getting out from Sakura that he was back, and he had to beat it to the streets. First stop? Ichiraku's. He sighed when he realized he now had to take of the seven layers of clothes he had just put on. So, leaving his subordinate, he made his way back up to his rooms, ready to become Naruto Uzumaki once again.

~.~.~.~.~

Naruto plopped himself down on the stool minutes later and greeted Teuchi and Ayame cheerily. The first people to ever accept him held a close place in his heart, and the fact that they made ramen was only a plus. He would have come here just as often if he hated the food with a passion.

"Naruto-kun, welcome back." Ayame said as she set the steaming bowl of Naruto's usual order in front of him. "How was your mission?"

She didn't notice the slight pause as Naruto seemed to suddenly remember something, but then the boy shouted, "It was great, Ayame-nee-chan! I got to do a solo mission, without Sasuke-teme!"

The older girl just smiled and turned to another customer that had walked in, leaving the ninja to his thoughts.

'Every time I spend a long period as 'Kitsune', it gets harder and harder to slip back into the 'Naruto' persona!'

.:Then why separate the two?:. The voice was unexpected, but not unusual. Naruto showed no outward reaction.

'Because, Kyuu, if I suddenly start acting differently, I'll find myself in a one on one session with Ibiki.' Naruto grinned as he felt the demon mentally shiver.

.:I don't care that I'm supposed to be a fearless monster, that man's tactics scare the shit outta me!:. The demon proclaimed. The blond snickered, catching the waitress' attention.

"What's so funny, Naruto?" She asked.

"Oh, nothing, Ayame-nee-chan, just thinking of a prank I can pull on Sasuke-teme later." Naruto responded without missing a beat. The young woman just smiled and shook her head.

.:Although that actually doesn't sound like a bad idea…:. Kyuubi intoned, providing a series of images of Sasuke in traps and pranks for his kit's enjoyment.

Naruto was brought out of his conversation with his mentor when the shout of "Found him!" echoed around the street, and moments later he was surrounded.

"Naruto, when did you get back?" Ino, who had glued herself to his side, asked.

"Ah, actually, about an hour ago." He replied easily.

Sakura, who was standing next to Ino, froze. That was impossible. She had heard Naruto's distinctive laugh in ANBU HQ at least six hours ago. She sent a suspicious glance in his direction. He didn't seem to notice the green eyes trained on him, turning instead to talk to Shikamaru, who had collapsed on the blonde's other side with the usual sigh of "Troublesome."

"What's not troublesome to you, Shika-chan?" Naruto laughed, purposely turning away from Sakura. With the look in her eyes, it seemed as if his and Sai's little play hadn't helped much. Damn.

"Cloud watching and sleeping are about it." Shikamaru replied, also noticing Sakura's glances at his friend. Did she notice something he didn't? She knew the boy better than he did, was something off? Was this not the real Naruto? Time for some subtle probing.

"Of course." Naruto grinned.

"Hey, Naruto, do you wanna go where we usually meet. This place is getting crowded." Ino scowled at an older man over her shoulder. The man had the audacity to insult their friend where they could all hear him. Of course, Naruto just ignored it, like he always did.

"Sure, Ino. I guess I could come back later." Placing enough money to cover the one bowl he had managed to down before he was surrounded, plus a generous tip, on the counter the blond threw a farewell to the shop owners before following his friends out of the small stall.

"Wow, I'd never thought I'd see the day when you only ate a bowl of ramen, and then paid for yourself." Kiba teased, falling in step with his friend. Shikamaru added those abnormalities to the list.

"Well, I'd rather talk to you guys in a place where I don't have to worry, and no one ate with me, so there was no one to mooch of off." The teen answered, shivering when he felt the combined stare of Sakura's suspicious green eyes, and Shikamaru's calculating gaze. What did the genius suspect?

The group fell into light bantering and separate conversations, so while Naruto was trading insults with Sasuke, with Sai and Kiba interjecting every now and then, Shikamaru drifted back to walk inconspicuously with the pink haired kunoichi.

"What's wrong?" He asked finally, a simple question, though the undertone was deep, not that the girl would realize that until later.

"Wrong? No, nothing. I'm just confused." Sakura whispered to the boy.

The brunette dropped his volume too. "About what, Sakura?" Usually delving into the different aspects of a person's life like this was too troublesome, but as a jounin, he had a duty to the village, and as a friend, if that wasn't the real Naruto, they had to find him.

He had forgotten how smart Sakura was, though.

She turned her sharp gaze onto him. It seemed being in the tutelage of Tsunade-hime made a person extremely paranoid. "Nothing, Shikamaru, nothing at all." She answered, speeding up to attach herself back to the main body of their group, leaving the boy sighing in frustration. But that crossed one thing off the list.

If that was an impostor, Sakura wouldn't hide the fact if she knew, she would scream it out for all to hear. Which meant something else was bothering her about her slightly younger (1) friend. Troublesome.

At the small flower shop that Ino's parents ran, they met up with team nine, and the slowly multiplying group trickled into the building.

Inside, they found something shocking. Glancing at the price tag on a vase of peonies, as if he was actually interested in buying the delicate flowers, stood Hatake Kakashi.

It took Naruto a few seconds to keep himself from laughing when he saw that the older nin was missing his characteristic orange paperback. He supposed it was only minutes ago that the man found that not only the one in his kunai pouch was missing, but also the collection on the shelves in the older man's home were gone, too. Neko had somehow learned of their Taicho's 'naked romp' through his own room, in front of two guys, so true to his threat, Kitsune had stolen the elicit text and burned it to cinders. He had no doubt that it was actually Gaara that had told the nosy ANBU, but he just wanted to get rid of the books. Besides, he had bought them back for the man and would present them for his birthday, which was last week. In fact…

"Kakashi-sensei!"The boy called, happily glomping the silver haired man. The pack on his back clunked around a bit, and he pretended to remember something after releasing his victim. "Ah, Kakashi-sensei, your birthday was a couple of days ago, right? I got you something!" He took of the lumpy pack, and rooted around for a second, before drawing out a large, wrapped package. "Happy belated birthday, sensei!"

The poor jounin/ANBU didn't even get a word in before the box was shoved in his hands, and the over excited blond bounced away to talk to his friends again.

Kakashi drew the wrapping back carefully. You could never be too careful with gifts from Naruto, it could very easily be a prank in disguise. Instead of paint being shot out of the box, or any form of prank for that matter, he found a full set of Jiraiya-sama's books, paperback, and signed by the author himself. Kakashi almost started crying. Kitsune-taicho had torched all of is Icha Icha Paradise books. How did Naruto always seem to know what was needed?

Wait a minute.

How did Naruto know?

Then he found the note on the bottom of the box.

Kaka-sensei,

Heard about what Foxy-san did to your precious collection. I'll try to stop him from doing it again, but no promises. Good job putting up with that hard ass for so long. Keep up the good work!

Naruto Uzumaki!

Kakashi looked over at the seemingly oblivious boy, not really sure what he should be more shocked about, the fact that Naruto knew Kitsune-taicho well enough to call him Foxy-san, or the fact that the blond had the nerve to address the letter 'Kaka-sensei'. Score that another tally for the mysteries that surrounded the young chuunin like a cloak. Unpredictable was one thing, enigmatic was by far another. What else was there about his former student didn't he know?

Shikamaru caught sight of Kakashi's measuring gaze on his sunny friend. Another person that is noticing something off about the kid? The only Team Seven member that seemed oblivious to the fact that the fair-haired boy was hiding something was Sasuke. Hell, even Sai seemed to be acting different around the teen, and he was the most socially oblivious guy there was! What the hell was going on?!

Naruto felt another pair of eyes join the original two, and his grin widened. It was time to have some fun.

"Oi, Sakura-chan, I'm sorry you had to see Foxy-san go uber protective. He just doesn't get that I'm not interested." Naruto sighed dramatically, watching Kakashi's eye go wide behind his pink haired friend. He heard Sai snicker beside him. Sakura blushed.

Ino laughed, having already heard about the incident from her friend. "You know, Naruto, I've heard a lot of rumors about that guy, but none of them suggested he swung that way."

Naruto met Kakashi's stunned gaze with his own mischievous smile, though to anyone else it would seem like he was smiling at Sakura. "Ah, really, I don't think he swings any way. Mostly, I think he's Naruto-sexual. And besides, Ino, most of the rumors you picked off the grapevine are exaggerated or faked for the benefit of a mission."

"N-naruto. Are you sure you should be talking about him like that?" Hinata was getting better, she only stuttered once, Naruto noted.

"Hinata-chan, what's he gonna do. It's not like I'm revealing any secrets that are S-classed or anything, just telling you guys some little tid bits about a friend." The foxy teen grinned. And it was true. He wasn't spouting his team's secrets, and he wasn't talking about anybody behind their backs. It was a bit hard to do that to yourself, and would entail some seriously painful yoga.

Any mess he made as Naruto, he would clean up as Kitsune later. Besides, things were getting a bit dull after he had dragged Sasuke back, and it was time to stir up some fun, if just to get a few rises out of the people he loved like family.

He wasn't surprised when a large hand clamped over his and he was dragged out of the shop by the silver haired jounin, the only explanation he received was a hurried 'Need to talk to you'.

A few roof tops later found Naruto rubbing his wrist with a petulant look on his face. Finally, when the red handprint had faded a bit, he let the older man ask his question.

"Is it really true, are you and Kitsune-tai- er, are you guys really that close?" The copy-nin demanded.

"Well, Foxy-san saved me from the villagers when I was little, and we've been inseparable ever since." Naruto told a version of the truth.

And it was partially true. That fateful day he became Kitsune was the day he saved himself from the vengeful civilians, and now the personas were entwined, the dobe cover and the silent ANBU captain.

"And he's really not attracted to you?" Kakashi asked.

"Nah, Kaka-sensei, that's just an inside joke between me and him. Is there anything else, or can I go back to people who aren't going to drag me to rooftops?" Without waiting for an answer, Naruto ran down the wall of the building confidently, and made his way back to the shop, leaving his former teacher to his own thoughts.

'Why do I care who Kitsune-taicho is attracted to?' Kakashi wondered.

The End… of the chapter anyway. I know it took me a long time, too long, but I've had a lot to do. This that and the other, you know how it is. So, now that I posted one of the chapters y'all were waiting for, I won't feel so bad posting a one shot I cranked out at midnight one night! ^^