Disclaimer: Naruto is a product of Masashi Kishimoto and another component that may just be a touch of awesome mixed with the blood of the innocent.
Naruto's avid movements within a dream woke Sakura from her own. The Haruno sent a kick in his general direction with a drowsy whine even though his sleepng mat was on the other side of the room. Having gotten that out of her system, the kunoichi attempted to reclaim her slumber only to find that she had no ability to go back to sleep. With an insomniac's discomfort, she peered out the nearest window to recognize the earliest streaks of dawn, giving her about two more hours before Kakashi woke them up officially.
"Damn it, Naruto." she cursed quietly, barely hearing herself over a new strain of energetic movements from her sleeping blonde comrade. Curiously, she looked over to his bedroll to see a variety of expressions cross his whiskered face. Sakura couldn't tell what kind of a dream he was having, but the loud-mouthed idiot truly was giving it his all. She didn't know how long she had been watching him when his eyes suddenly shot open, but the awareness within them startled her. Insinctively, she pretended to be asleep.
For whatever reason, he was fully awake, panting. His hands reached out and patted the ground around him as the Uzumaki felt the floorboards and blanket. Like a disoriented animal, he looked around himself frantically for about thirty seconds before taking a deep breath and saying something softly enough that she couldn't pick up on it. His sleep-flushed face then relaxed, making way for a smile that was one she was familiar with. She felt his cobalt eyes turn to her, Sasuke, and all the others in the room in turn before he said something else and laid back down, something that she could almost make out. It sounded like a promise.
Within a few minutes, she could hear Naruto's rhythmic breathing again, telling her that the blonde was asleep once more. While Sakura was confused, she felt she had witnessed something she shouldn't have, and continued to pretend to be asleep for a decent hour and a half before Kakashi's hand pulled her pillow out from underneath her.
Naruto woke up feeling abnormally refreshed when Kakashi woke him up with Sasuke's pillow smothering his face. Without so much as a muttered protest, Naruto shoved the jounin's gloved hand back and shot up like a plant created by a jutsu.
"Morning, Sensei." he greeted, rubbing his eyes to help alleviate the headrush sitting up so quickly had caused, feeling a hand reach over him to reclaim its owner's pillow. The motion was intrusive, and Naruto instinctively caught the arm and twisted it into submission before hearing the pain of the person it belonged to. Of course, that was followed by a counter-kick by said person, and before long, the regularly-scheduled early argument between Sasuke and Naruto began. Granted, it was ended within about thirty seconds by the otherwise scheduled blow to the back of their heads from another source(Iruka).
Sakura watched the proceedings with a faux haggard expression. Normally, she would have immediately chosen to side with Sasuke and yell at her less fortunate teammate. This time, however, she just let the sound of their bickering sink in as she went about her early morning business. Somehow, it seemed like music to her ears.
Breakfast was set before long, and the ninja from Konohagure ate with the bridge-builder's family one last time before packing up and saying their farewells. Naruto beamed at Inari's transformation into a hard worker at that point, and he lost no time with emparting some of his 'wisdom' to the younger boy. Despite the not-so-subtle hints his grandfather dropped, Inari had to practically be dragged away so that the group of shinobi could take their leave.
Team seven bickered pleasantly on the bridge, and Naruto's political predicament was all but forgotten as his company was enjoyed where it was missed. The Uzumaki's heart welled with a reluctant joy that had been in place ever since the first time it had been revealed that he meant anything to anyone. After a few rounds of picking fights, Naruto opted to change the subject to one he needed to become familiar with as he travelled.
"So, eh... what did I miss back home, then?" Naruto blurted out, causing the topic to do a backfip from the heated discussion over dessert foods that had occupied it before. In turns, Iruka and Kakashi explained how all of Konoha had been faring in his absence, from a few isolated crimes to the state of his house. Naruto's reaction to hearing his house had been looted was not one they were expecting, either. The young ninja just calmly asked if his floors and walls were still in place.
Guilt colored Sakura's face when that question surfaced. Hesitantly, she explained what she had done with his secret stash, and neglected to mention the more...questionable things within the pile she had uncovered. Naruto looked scared when she first mentioned she had taken out his envelopes, but when she explained that she hadn't opened them, he visibly calmed.
"Do you have them with you?" he asked, eyes somewhat hopeful.
"I left them with the hokage." Sakura replied, seeing the fear within Naruto reinvent itself. Fortunately, she decided it was shame from having more naughty pictures in his posession being taken in by an elder instead of the truth,"-but I wouldn't worry. I don't think he cares."
"I thought he said it was a grocery stipend. Scared of losing your allowance, moron?" Sasuke added, and Naruto gave him a nervous laugh. If the hokage had identified it as a grocery stipend, then he was safe, for now.
"I guess I have bigger things to be worrying about." Naruto stated, and changed the subject once again to avert suspicion. "Will I be able to move back into my apartment?" the boy asked, prompting a thoughtful expression to grace Kakashi's features.
"Probably not, to be honest with you. Once something is legally reclaimed, it's hard to undo it. Bureaucracy tends to be like that." the man admitted, silently cursing the paper-based system for being born.
Naruto didn't admit that he didn't know what the term 'bureaucracy' meant, but he got the gist of what Kakashi was trying to say to him. "So... where will I live?"
"I'm sure the hokage will take care of it, Naruto." Iruka assured him with a mature smile, "-but until then, you can stay at my place, if you want."
"Really?!" Naruto asked, his spirit rising both visually and verbally before the moment was disturbed by another voice-Jiraiya's.
The infamous toad sage was not one to wallow in regrets. He was one to run away from it. It was to his credit, then, that he was still with the group once they crossed over the bridge. Even now that his short-term promise had been fulfilled, his long-forgotten vow sometimes stared him in the face.
The ridiculous expressions the child gave while bantering with his peers were like echoes of the past, haunting him with his biggest mistake(which was, amazingly, nothing involving the jugs of another sannin). Now, a chance set itself before him. He could let things drift back to how they used to be and continue his prodigal son lifestyle, or he could redeem himself in his own eyes.
"I... I think I may have some business in Konoha, as well." the older man said, sounding very self-important.
"Good for you." Kakashi said nonchalantly, patting the larger man on the back as Naruto beamed at his chuunin mentor. "-but you do know that Naruto probably will be spending the night in ANBU custody when we get back."
Iruka rounded on his superior with a grimace. "Kakashi, Naruto hasn't done anything illegal! Durely, the hokage can convince the ANBU to..."
The Hatake remained unfazed. "The council will probably be predisposed to believe he has returned as a criminal. You know this as well as I do, Iruka."
Naruto watched the adults bicker impassively. He had been so enthusiastic about living with Iruka that he had forgotten about the standard procedure for his return. He would be interrogated, to be sure... and if he happened to be assigned to a grudge-carrying interrogator, or worse, somebody who could probe his entire brain, he'd have a lot of explaining to do. Thankfully, there was another option. Knowing that the Sandaime had seen the inside of his envelopes already, Naruto could only hope that the truth would set him free.
"I'll talk to the old man about it, Iruka-sensei. Don't worry." the boy assured his first friend with conviction; not conviction in his statement, but conviction in the fact that his future rested in the hands of an old man's reaction to a few pieces of paper.
Author's note: I moved. Divorce displaced me. I no have computer. I also have no grammar here now in this place. Paper is neat. I missed you all.