Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto.

Legend:

"Naruto" - talking

'Parents' - thinking

Flashback – Flashbacks

"Kit" – Kyuubi talking

'Naruto' – Kyuubi thinking

Chapter 5: Funeral

After Naruto had left the hot springs he slowly walked home only to be surprised by a note on his apartment's door, saying that he was to meet his team in five minutes. Realizing that he would be late, if he didn't take off immediately, Naruto jumped to the roof and took off running.

As he arrived at the meeting point he saw that Sakura was already standing there waiting for their new team mates. "Hey, Sakura-chan!" Naruto called out as soon as he dropped on the ground and began to walk over to her. Stopping besides her Naruto looked around. "This is where we were supposed to meet up, right?" he asked and continued not waiting for a reply. "But no one's here yet."

"There's still some time left before we're supposed to meet up" Sakura replied even though Naruto knew that this wasn't the case as he had been just in time, so there couldn't be more than a few seconds left until they were supposed to meet.

"Well, I hope they're not late all the time, like Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said remembering all the hours they spent doing nothing but waiting for their sensei to arrive.

"Hiya!" a new voice cut in as someone walked out of the building they were standing in front of.

"You!" Naruto quite loudly recognizing the person instantly, having fought against the black haired teen only a few hours ago together with Shikamaru and Chouji, as the stranger had attacked them out of nothing.

Just then another person, clad in a standard jounin outfit, stepped out of the building and addresses the three teens. "Um… From now on team Kakashi" he said catching their attention. "I'll be taking Kakashi's place as leader of this team."

"Naruto, do you know this person?" Sakura asked referring to the black haired teen, ignoring their new team leader.

"Sorry about before" the black haired teen said to Naruto. "I just wanted to gauge the ability of my new team member. I just didn't know how much I'd have to look after the little prick with no balls."

Angered by the teen's words Naruto appeared behind him, kunai pressing against the stranger's throat. "What did you say?" Naruto asked quietly.

"Hey! He's our team mate now! Calm down!" Sakura yelled at Naruto.

Pressing the kunai just with enough strength to call blood Naruto took it back and put it back in its holster, as he stepped back next to Sakura.

"Anyway, from now on the four of us are a team." The jounin said as if nothing just happened. "But look at you, there's no time to toss you all in a cage and get you used to each other. So introduce yourselves."

"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto stated simply.

"I'm Haruno Sakura" Sakura said impassively.

"My name is Sai." The black haired teen, now identified as Sai, said.

"Well now that we know each other, that's the end of that." Yamato said simply. "Now I'll explain our mission."

"From here, the four of us will proceed to the Tenchi Bridge. There we will intercept the spy Akatsuki has in Orochimaru's organisation and bring him back. This is a chance for us to find out about Orochimaru and Uchiha Sasuke. We can gain a valuable source of information which may lead to formulating a plan to assassinate Orochimaru and take Sasuke back. So stay focused!" the jounin explained.

"We will leave tomorrow evening at seven pm straight." The jounin said before he disappeared in a swirl of leaves, followed by Sai who vanished in a swirl of ink, leaving Naruto and Sakura standing there alone.

Naruto awoke early the next morning, already knowing what would be happening today. He got out of his bed and took a shower before he put on his clothes, not his normal orange outfit, but rather he dressed all in black.

After he ate a bite Naruto left his apartment walking to his destination like a civilian. He reached it and entered through the arc, stepping into the graveyard that held a monument to the deceased Hokage's that has been built shortly after the Sandaime's death. The graveyard was filled with graves, all shinobi graves as the civilian's had a separate graveyard.

Naruto gave the graveyard a once over, seeing the hole in the ground which would soon be his sensei's last bed. He stood there silently for some time, having come several hours before the funeral was scheduled to begin.

He slowly walked over to the wall on the right side of the graveyard, the wall with the most distance between it and Jiraiya's soon to be grave. As he reached it he stopped and sat down on the ground in front of it, his legs crossed and his eyes closed. As he sat there he began to get in tune with the nature, as he gathered as much natural chakra as he could, also drawing as much chakra from the Kyuubi, as he could without losing the precise control the gathering of the natural chakra needed.

A few minutes of gathering and mixing the chakra's together, the blond haired teen opened his normally blue eyes, which were now yellow, with a small tint of red and a red outlining. The yellow eyes looked like those of a toad, a sign of a true sage. He bit his thumb drawing blood before he put his hand on the ground besides him, pushing as much chakra as he could into the technique he was about to perform.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu." He said quietly and a second later nearly the whole graveyard was covered in a big cloud of smoke. Naruto stood up, already feeling the signs of exhaustion, so he had to force himself up, the cloud of smoke not even mattering to him. Using the strength that was still left in him he jumped on the wall and sat down on top of it so that he could overlook the whole graveyard. It would take a while until he would have recovered enough to move around freely again.

As the smoke cleared slowly it revealed a lot of toads, probably every toad there was, from tadpole, to normal sized toads, to the huge fighting toads, to Gamabunta himself, the toad boss. They all stood at the sides of the graveyard, careful not to step on the other gravestones, leaving a big space around Jiraiya's soon to be grave free, for the ninjas and civilians that were sure to come to the funeral.

As Naruto overlooked the toads he realized that it truly were nearly all toads, only the ones truly needed at Mt. Myobazu and the ones unable to come themselves, like the eldest sage, hadn't followed his summon. He felt exhausted, more so than he ever remembered and sweat was running down his face. That had taken a lot out of him and even though he was already gathering small amounts of natural chakra to try and get his reserves back up, he could feel that he truly needed some rest.

He sat there silently not moving an inch, not even when he felt a team of ANBU nearing. They had most likely felt the enormous amount of chakra he had put into the technique and came to investigate. Finally a long time later he saw four ninja enter the graveyard, carrying what appeared to be Jiraiya's casket to his soon to be grave. They looked truly surprised at the sight of all the toads filling up the graveyard, but carried out their task anyway, putting the casket down next to the grave waiting besides it.

As he looked to the grave, Naruto saw that Fukasaku and his wife had moved closer to it, standing only a few metres away from it. They waited knowing that the funeral would begin shortly.

It was then that people started to enter, all dressed in black. Naruto recognized Tsunade enter as first and saw her walk over and stand between the two toad elders. Naruto stayed sitting there, even as more people began to fill in, many of them known faces to Naruto, having seen most of them around the village some time. There were most of his friends together with their families, the people from the village council and a lot of the older ninjas, mostly jounin. But Naruto also saw some people he had never seen before, here to honor his dead sensei.

He could see that some of his friends wanted to come over to him, but they all stayed with the crowd, some like Kiba had to be held back. Naruto was thankful for that, not wanting to deal with his friends now of all times.

The people stood in rows behind Tsunade and the toad elders, waiting for the ceremony to begin. The ceremony began as Naruto saw Tsunade say a few words, but her voice didn't reach his ears. The four ninjas that had carried the casket here began to slowly let it down into the grave and began to cover up the hole with dirt as soon as the casket reached the bottom. When the hole was filled up a stone plate was laid over it and on top of it a stone was put, a stone like on every other grave on the graveyard, with the name and the Konoha sign on it.

After the stone was laid down the four shinobi retreated and left the graveyard, leaving the ones attending the funeral by themselves. Slowly but surely everybody went up to the gravestone to lay down a single flower, first of all Tsunade followed by the two toad elders.

Naruto silently watched the proceedings, as they were all paying their respect to his sensei, without even knowing how he died, as Tsunade had declared it an S-class secret after hearing the full story from Fukasaku. They paid their respect without even knowing that it had been him, the hated demon, who had done it.

After they had gone up to honor the dead Sanin, the people began to leave. Naruto saw Yugao walk to the exit her eyes focused on him for a few seconds. Their eyes met for a split second, drawing a ghost of a smile on his face, before she turned her head and walked through the arc and out of the graveyard. 'Arigato, Yugao-chan.' Naruto thought as he remembered her words from two days ago. The words that had set him straight, back on his path he chose to walk.

Naruto remained in his position even as all the people had already left, leaving him alone with all the toads and Tsundae.

With one last look at Jiraiya's grave Tsundae, too, began to leave walking towards the exit, before she stopped and turned towards Naruto. "Are you going to be alright?" she asked concerned, just loud enough that her voice would reach his ears.

Naruto nodded slowly. He couldn't see a single tear on Tsunade's face, but also knowing that she had to appear strong in public, so she had probably buried it all deep inside. Seeing his nod Tsunade wasn't sure if he really would be alright or not, but seeing that there appeared nothing that she could do about it, she turned around again and left.

Several minutes later Fukasaku and Shima were walking towards Naruto stopping in front of the wall he was sitting on. They looked around the graveyard before they looked at Naruto. "Arigato." Shima finally said looking Naruto straight in the eyes.

Naruto of course knew what she was referring to; she thanked him for summoning them all to their summoner's funeral and for the chance to say their final good-bye to him. "It's the least I could do." Naruto said his voice barely above a whisper.

The toad elders nodded and looked at Jiraiya's grave for a last time, before they vanished in a cloud of smoke, slowly followed by all the other toads as they returned to their home. As the whole graveyard was engulfed in smoke, Naruto finally stood up and jumped down the wall, to make his way to Jiraiya's grave.

He made his way through the many rows of graves and as he finally reached Jiraiya's grave he kneeled down in front of it, glad that he was finally alone and able to say his good-bye to his godfather on his own.

As he kneeled there his thoughts went back to a few of the many memories he shared with the late Sanin. Their first meeting; Jiraiya showing him the Rasengan for the first time; them sparing during their training journey; Jiraiya peeking on the women in the hot springs; Jiraiya ruffling his hair; him saying that he was proud to have him as his apprentice and finally their last conversation, where he told him about his parents and later the promises Naruto had made over Jiraya's dead body.

A single tear left both of his eyes and went down his cheeks, before they finally dropped down on Jiraiya's gravestone.

He didn't know how long he stayed there just like that, memories flashing in front of his eyes, totally unaware of his surroundings. Finally Naruto reached into one of his pockets and put out a book. He placed the book among the flowers the other people had laid down. It was 'The Legend of the Gutsy Ninja', the first book Jiraiya had ever written.

Naruto had read it after Fukasaku had given it to him during his time spent at the toad's mountain. 'I hope you don't mind, but I still need the others' Naruto thought knowing that Jiraiya would probably have smiled at that and said that Naruto finally saw the light, realizing how great of an author he was and recognizing his writing as the great pieces of art the actually were.

One might ask why he needed the others. It's simple, because not only had he finally understood what was so great about the female body, but also because he had finally been able to get a date. Not a date date, but a date nonetheless. And after seeing the lovely woman naked yesterday, Naruto couldn't help himself but to feel drawn to her.

Flashback

After Yugao had agreed they walked out of the training ground and into the village. Naruto let her lead the way not knowing the way to a good restaurant nearby, having only eaten at Ichiraku when he had been younger.

They had walked in silence until they reached a take-out restaurant, where they ordered dango for two people. They jumped on the roof and settled down on a bench, enjoying a great view of Konoha in the dark. Sitting there they enjoyed their meal, eating in silence both not really knowing how to begin a conversation.

"You know, you've gotten a lot stronger." Yugao said finally breaking the silence. "I remember how we used to chase after you, when you pulled a prank, when I was still a rookie ANBU." She paused, a smile on her face. Naruto remained silent as he chose to look at her waiting for her to continue.

"You were very good at escaping. Always trying to get away and succeeding a few times, too." She said as she chose to overlook Konoha rather than looking at him. "You've come far. I remember you were still in the academy then; nobody there to really teach you; always trying to get attention. Always acting non-ninja like."

Naruto looked at her intentionally, as she still looked away from him, but talking about him like that. Now he knew that she was right, but he still didn't like being talked about like that. Thinking for a second Naruto decided to remain silent, waiting to hear what she was trying to say.

"You've grown a lot stronger since then. And it's all thanks to your time with Jiraya-sama." She continued causing Naruto to flinch and to look away.

"So I was right." Yugao said much to Naruto's confusion. "It was because of him, wasn't it?"

Naruto returned his glance to her and asked: "What?"

"It was because of him you visited the memory stone." Yugao said as she looked him straight in the eyes, seeing everything she needed to know in them. "So it was him you lost." She finished, her voice showing a hint of sadness.

Naruto remained quite, not making a single sound. He had known that it would soon be found out that Jiraiya was dead, but he hoped it would take longer, so that he could have had more time to prepare.

"It's hard, isn't it, to lose someone so close to you." Yugao said after a few moments, as she realized that he wouldn't talk about it by himself and just like that. She realized that she had to help, to get it of his hear, as she had needed that help back then, too.

Naruto didn't make a sound as he stared into her eyes. He never had someone to talk to like that, so he didn't know what to do. He never had someone that he could talk to about everything; his childhood; the Kyuubi; his thoughts. Never had he had someone to talk about these topics.

"I know it's hard" Yugao said quietly. "Nearly three years ago, just before the invasion I lost someone very close to me." As she said this she turned her head and stared at the dark Konoha gain, as memories began to resurface.

"I swore to kill the one who did it. I nearly lost myself. But I had people who helped me and after some time I came to peace with it." She paused turning around to face him again. "While I do still miss him sometimes, I now know that there is nothing I could do about it."

"While it hurts, you've to accept it. When you lose someone he will never come back. Yet your memories about him and your feelings still remain, but he just vanished." Yugao said pausing after she finished the sentence, as she saw Naruto lose focus for a second.

Hearing her words Naruto remembered Iruka's words at the funeral of the Third Hokage. 'When a person dies, they lose everything … As we grow, these bonds also grow and become stronger … Anyone with these bonds would be like this because they cherish it.' Having remembered his sensei's words Naruto understood and returned his attention fully back to Yugao.

"While it hurts, the only thing that helps is talking about it to someone." Yugao continued as she saw that she had his attention again. "I know it's hard to talk about it, especially to a stranger, but I will listen if you want to."

Yes, she knew that this was all she could do to help him; the rest was up to him.

They remained sitting there in silence as the darkness finally settled down fully, lights already starting to switch off in some of the houses. Naruto, for his part didn't know what he should do. Should he tell her or not? 'What will she think about me if I tell her?' he asked himself afraid that she would see him as the monster he sometimes thought himself of.

Yugao waited patiently for a while. After about ten minutes she came to the conclusion that he wouldn't talk about it to her and decided it would be for the best if she left him alone for now.

"I understand" she said as she got up and began to step away. "I will leave you alone, but it really helps to talk about it." She continued quietly, as she put another step between them, nearing the side of the building.

Finally picking up his courage, Naruto spoke up, just as Yugao was about to reach the side of the building. "It was me" he whispered, his voice so low he didn't really know it she would hear it.

Yugao heard it, despite it being so low in volume and stopped dead in her tracks, waiting for him to continue.

"It was just before we planned to return. He told me …" Naruto paused, not being able to talk about it normally and as such not being able to tell her about it in much detail. "I got angry and lost control."

"The Kyuubi began to take over and before I could fight it, it had taken control." Naruto said before he stopped pausing for a few seconds. "When I woke up again, everything was destroyed and Ero-Sennin was lying on the ground, blood pouring out. So it was me, I killed him." Naruto finally got out, as tears made their way down his cheeks.

Much to his surprise two arms wrapped around him a moment later, as Yugao hugged him as he sobbed on her shoulder. "Its okay let it all out." Yugao whispered in his ear, as she patted his back.

It took Naruto a few minutes until he calmed down again and Yugao drew back. "Arigato." Naruto whispered to her, as he began to feel better once again.

"You are welcome" Yugao said, as she sat down besides him again.

They sat in silence once again. Naruto, while he was grateful towards her, also wondered what she was now thinking about. 'She thinks I'm weak, doesn't she?" he asked himself. 'Better weak than a monster.' His 'other-side' replied.

Losing track of time as they remained seated in silence, both lost in their own thoughts, it was Yugao who finally stood up and broke the silence. "It's already late" she said simply.

Realizing what she meant, as he was brought out of his thoughts, Naruto, too, stood up. "I'll walk you home" he said to her.

"You don't have to." Yugao replied.

"Yes, I do." Naruto cut in before she could say more. "You've helped me so much today, so it's the least I could do"

"If you insist." Yugao said after a moment, thinking about it.

They walked to the side of the building and jumped down, landing on the street below. The street was empty of people, all already at home. As they walked down the weak lit street, Yugao decided to help him some more.

"If you live up to the promise earlier, you will make him proud, you know." She said to him as they walked side by side. "Grow stronger and become Hokage like you always wanted and remember him if you actually make it."

"Yes" Naruto whispered as he thought over her words. "I will become Hokage and I will remember Jiraiya, Jiji and all the other heroes of the village if I make it." He said with such determination, that Yugao knew that he would make it someday.

"You've already come quite far." Yugao said. "From our spar earlier I would say you are already on a higher Chuunin level. So I guess you would be somewhere on low jounin level in an all-out fight."

"I've told you this earlier, all that you really need now is experience and time to hone your skill." she said. "Skills that are quite wanted by the ANBU." She added after a few seconds of silence, much to Naruto's surprise. "Your skill, mostly your sensing and kage bunshin, would take you far in the ANBU and there you would gain experience a lot faster than as a normal shinobi."

"ANBU?" Naruto asked in a low voice. "You think that I would do well in ANBU?"

"Yes, but not yet" Yugao replied and decided to explain when she saw his questioning glance. "While you could easily make ANBU within a few weeks, I don't think it would do you good. ANBU are trained for quite some time to be the best in what they do. You would have to train to be an ANBU and only that. So you wouldn't have the time to learn the more important things that you should learn first."

"So you think I should wait until I have improved my other skills?" he asked, already understanding what she was trying to explain.

"Hai" Yugao replied hoping that he had understood.

"Is there another way into ANBU without all that training?" Naruto questioned her.

Yugao thought about it for a few moments, before she replied. "Normally no. But the ANBU is directly under the command of the Hokage, so it could be possible if the Hokage approves. But I don't think Tsunade-sama would agree if you didn't know what you need to know to be an ANBU."

Naruto thought about her words as they stepped before her door. "Would you be willing to show me what I need to know, if I'm ready?" he finally asked before she could open the door.

"Yes." She replied. "You would do well in ANBU and I would help you to get in."

Naruto looked her in the eyes trying to read her intentions and couldn't find any deceit, so he trusted her words. "I will think about it." He finally said, not sure if he truly wanted to be an ANBU. While they were the elite, they also acted in secret and he wouldn't be able to go and get Sasuke back, like he had promised Sakura he would.

As silence once again began to settle between them, Yugao opened the door to her apartment and took a step forward, stopping when Naruto took her hand in his. "Arigato" he said as their eyes met once again. "For everything."

"It was nothing" she said as she moved forward and kissed him on the cheek, before she drew back. "I'll see you around, even if you don't see me." With that said she stepped inside her apartment and began to close the door, but was stopped by Naruto.

"Would you at least tell me your name?" he asked as their eyes met once again.

"Yugao" she said with a smile. "Yugao Uzuki." After she said that she closed the door as he had withdrawn his hand that had blocked it a moment ago.

"Yugao Uzuki." Naruto whispered in a low voice as he stood there stunned before her door. She had kissed him on his cheek, even after everything she knew about him and everything he had told her today.

That night, after he finally came back to his senses, Naruto went to his apartment and thought about everything for a long time, as sleep didn't seem to come and claim him. As he lay in his bed thinking about his ninja life; the past, his thoughts often went to the beautiful woman he had met that day. As he thought about everything long and hard, he never came to a single solution as sleep finally claimed him.

End of Flashback

A smile made its way to his lips, as Naruto remembered this and his thoughts went to the promises he had made to his dead sensei. 'I will make you proud of me and I won't lose control ever again.' He repeated his promises in his mind intending to never break them.

"Arigato" Naruto whispered, continuing in his mind. 'For everything you have done for me Ero-Sennin.'

Naruto stayed there for another while, before he finally stood up. "Good-bye" Naruto spoke, before he turned to the exit and left the graveyard.

He made his way to his home, stopping only to get a bite to eat. When he entered his apartment through the door he saw a scroll lying inside on his table. Walking over he picked it up and opened it. Reading the scroll, which had been written in a fine and beautiful hand, he realized that it was the scroll Yugao had promised to write for him. "Arigato" he whispered even though he knew she wouldn't be able to hear it.

Naruto strolled down the street on his way to the gate to meet with his team for their mission. He knew that he would be early having more than half an hour still to spare, but he hadn't found anything to do in his apartment, so he had decided to go early. He had read through the scroll Yugao had left, several times already, but wasn't in the right frame of mind to train at the moment.

While he had tried to remain impassive during the funeral, not showing any emotions, it had been really hard for him. A part of him just wanted to break down and cry, but he had realized, thanks to Yugao's help, that not only wouldn't Jiraiya have wanted him to do so, but that he also had other things to do. Like protecting everything he and his sensei held dear to their hearts, namely the village hidden in the leaves.

He had thought of reading the books his sensei gave him, but realized that then just wasn't the time for it, so he had sealed them inside a scroll and pocketed it, just before he readied himself and left his apartment.

That's when we find our young hero strolling down a street, lost in his thoughts. He was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't perceived any of his surroundings and as such it didn't take long until he bumped into someone. Snapping out of his thoughts he saw that he had bumped into a black haired man and he had knocked the bottle out of the man's hand, which then had shattered from the impact on the ground. "Whaaa…." The man yelled out, his breath stinking from the alcohol, which Naruto recognized immediately standing only inches apart.

"You" the obviously drunken man said, as he turned his focus from his broken bottle towards Naruto. "Watch where you're going brat! Now go, buy me a new bottle." The black haired civilian said angrily, drawing the attention of the few other people walking on the street, who stopped to look at the scene the man, was creating.

Naruto let out a low growl. He had been in such a situation a million times already, as a child, but since becoming a shinobi it had stopped, as people slowly started to see him as the person he was.

Hearing the growl the civilian backed away a bit, for the first time actually looking fully at the one he had bumped into. Realizing who had bumped into him his eyes widened, but taking a quick glance around he saw all the people watching the scene and assumed that it was just like all the other times, all these years ago and decided to give the demon what he deserved. "How dare you" the black haired civilian said, trying to sound terrifying, but to Naruto it didn't sound terrifying at all, having dealt with a lot worse.

Having learned early on to not engage in such a situation, Naruto took a step to the side and began walking, passing the black haired drunk, who only turned around when Naruto was already a few steps away. The crowd around them, too, was beginning to clear up as most of the people thought everything was over and went their ways.

The drunk, getting even angrier by the demon's lack of response, kicked the remains of the shattered bottle in Naruto's direction, actually hitting Naruto's foot with a rather large splinter of glass, making a small cut in Naruto's pants. But Naruto didn't seem bothered by it at all, continuing to walk away. "It was you, wasn't it?" the drunken man bit out angrily.

Hearing the words, Naruto stopped and looked over his shoulder curiously, not even knowing what the man was referring to, but fearing the worst.

"Of course it was you" the man said, satisfied to have once again caught the attention of the people on the street. "You're the one who killed Jiraiya-sama, you monster."

These words hit Naruto like a bolt of lightning, as he stopped dead in his tracks, freezing on the spot he was standing, not moving an inch. His mind seemed to shut down, as it was once again reminded of what he had thought he had put behind him and moved on.

The man seemed to be happy by Naruto's reaction, interpreting it as prove for his theory. "Not even defending himself" the man said, his tone taking on the happy note his face was already showing. "First you took Yondaime-sama from us and now Jiraiya-sama." He continued, his voice lanced once again with anger and hate, his happiness from seconds ado already forgotten in his drunken rant.

Around them the people looked on completely stunned. 'Was it true, or is the drunk ranting some shit?' was the thought that was in most of their minds, as they were reminded of their own hate, which most of them had already forgotten in the time of Naruto's absence.

"You deserve to die!" The drunk yelled as he picked up the largest splinter lying on the ground and ran towards Naruto trying to attack the blond with the weapon made of glass. But before he reached the still frozen blond, an ANBU appeared in the way of the drunk and stopped his advance.

"You should leave, Uzumaki-san" the ANBU said in an unemotional voice, as they have been trained. The drunk so shocked by the ANBU's sudden appearance dropped backwards to the ground, his rage against Naruto all but forgotten, facing the elite ninja standing in front of him now.

Naruto snapped out of his stupor, when he heard the ANBU say something. Not caring for anything he jumped away, even if his mind hadn't truly registered the ANBU's words. He just had to get away. He had thought he had gotten over it with the funeral, but the man's words had hit him hard.

Stopping on a roof of a building, Naruto came to the conclusion that he wasn't in the right state of mind for any mission at the moment, yet alone a mission as important as the one he was supposed to go on. But at the same time, Naruto wasn't one to back out. He would go on with it no matter what.

'I've to calm down.' Naruto thought. 'In … Out … In … Out …' He tried to calm himself focusing only on his breathing, while it helped a little, there were still several thoughts popping up in his head even if he didn't want them to. '"You have to stop your flow as an animal. Find your balance and become utterly still, at one with nature!"' Fukasaku's words flashed in his mind.

Settling down cross-legged, Naruto closed his eyes as he tried to meditate like Fukasaku had taught him to master the sage techniques. As he felt himself becoming one with the nature, wind blowing around him calming his mind and body, Naruto began to feel at ease for the first time since his training on Mt. Myobazu, where he used the training to get his mind of the things. He even felt more relaxed then he had been at the hot springs that day before, where the hot water had felt so relaxing.

At seven pm that evening: we find our favorite teen standing at the main gate of Konohagakure, wearing his orange-black jumpsuit, with the small cut in his pants. He had changed back into it as he didn't have the time, or the state of mind to go back and buy something new, as he had originally planned and said to Yugao at their 'meeting'.

He had come here only minutes prior, having meditated the whole time, finally finding real peace. He had arrived just after Sakura and began to check his equipment, as he realized, that he might have easily missed something earlier in the state of mind he had been in.

After a quick check he realized that he had everything he needed. He had two kunai holsters, one strapped on each leg, an item bag and another small bag with different scrolls in it. He recognized one scroll as the one Yugao had written for him and another as the sealed 'Icha Icha' books. There were also scrolls containing spare-clothes and several other things, which might come in handy.

Finishing his quick check, Naruto's attention switched back to his team mates, who were now all present, having arrived while he had checked his equipment.

Yamato looked back at his team, seeing them all ready to depart. "Right then! Team Kakashi departs" he said as he began to walk down the road, the younger shinobi's following him.

After a while Yamato decided to pick up the pace and jumped into the trees, preferring the ninja's way of traveling, jumping from branch to branch. He took off followed by his subordinates.

Author's Note (A/N):

Well there you have it.

I'm sorry for the long wait, but I just didn't have any time to write last month. But I'll try to make it up with a fast update for the next chapter. Next chapter will hopefully be epic (or as I have planned I think it is epic), but I make no promises.

Now on to this chapter, there are several parts with which I'm not really happy. First the Flashback: I know I had to do it sometime, so it was either like I did or it could also have been last chapter. When I wrote the last chapter I decided to place it where it is now, but I'm still not happy with it.

Next I'm not sure if I hit over the top with the confrontation by the drunk civilian, but I thought Naruto had to be confronted with it before he could actually move on.

Now on to other matters:

Once again I've a poll in my profile. So go there and vote. The question is what mask Naruto should get when he actually becomes an ANBU.

So go and vote!!!

Next chapter, as I'm sure all of you can guess will be about the confrontation with Orochimaru. Happy guessing on what will happen and make sure you don't forget to leave a review, I appretiate them all.