Alright thanks for the reviews everyone... and please to all the Guest reviews and a few of the people PM'ing. I have not stopped writing this story, if I ever truly stop writing this story you will all get a nice notice so don't trip. A lot of you need to understand I- and many others- have a life outside the internet, this is more a hobby than anything else.

So anyway, I will post the second part of the NaruHina chapter sometime later, for now I shall continue on the story as normal... we get to meet a few more people in this chapter. And this is more a filler chapter than anything else.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Sakura sighed as they stepped out of the Hokage's mansion- her first non-medical mission in nine years- she was worn out! She noticed that unlike the times with Kakashi when they were kids the team didn't split their seperate ways. Instead they all continued walking down the street until the familiar signs of Ichiraku's came into view. Sakura stopped and placed her hands on her hips.

"Really?! Ramen?"

"Naruto-sensei always treats after a mission!" Hitomi smiled.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to Sakura-san," Keiko said "but, this is the only time Sensei treats us."

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded. "You only treat your students after a mission?!"

"What? Have you seen these two eat ramen?! I can only handle so much." he reasoned.

Keiko and Hitomi looked away and blushed. Sakura cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes at Naruto.

"You're telling me... that these two put away more ramen than you?" she asked.

"Yep... little brats." he mumbled the last bit.

Taking offense to the comment Keiko gave him a quick swat to his thigh. He hissed and jumped away from his student before continuing on like nothing happened; Keiko and Hitomi close behind making Sakura scramble to catch up with her teammates. Naruto held the curtain for them to sit, it seemed that Teuchi had improved his stand once again. Nothing too fancy, just a bigger counter and a few extra seats, at least they weren't squished together like sardines anymore.

"Aha! My three favorite customers!" the kind elderly man said. "What can I get you today?"

Keiko and Hitomi each ordered two large bowls of some kind of super flavor Sakura had never heard of before. Naruto, surprising all of them, ordered a medium beef with Sakura doing the same. Teuchi nodded and went to work leaving the four ninja in relative peace.

"Are you okay? Naruto-sensei?" Keiko asked. "You seem kind of distracted."

"Yeah, I'm alright... it's just... I can't help but think I forgot something... something important..." he trailed off.

He shrugged when his ramen was placed in front of him. Sakura was barely on her second bite when Keiko and Hitomi tipped back their bowls for the broth. Mouth wide open she dropped her chopsticks in the steaming bowl as she continued to watch the twins devour their seconds.

"Told you," Naruto said.

She quickly fished out her eating utensil and resumed her moderately paced consumption. She looked over at Naruto- he had barely touched his food- his face was scrunched up in thought.

"Ah jeez, this is gonna drive me nuts..."

She chuckled and continued eating; he gave her an annoyed stare before following her example. Keiko and Hitomi nodded to eachother before attempting to signal Teuchi for another bowl.

"Do it and I'll make sure you get nothing but D-ranks for the next year." Naruto threatened.

The twins stopped their hand gestures and hung their heads as they waited for Naruto and Sakura to finish their food. After some peaceful conversation and the proper amount of money placed into Teuchi's hands, Team 3 was once again walking down the streets of Konoha. Naruto rubbed his chin in thought... there had to be something- anything! He looked up and smiled.

"Hey! Kurenai!"

The dark haired woman turned around at the mention of her name. The years had been kind to her, if not for the few wrinkles around her mouth, one would never think she was a day past thirty-years-old. She was wearing her "civilian" clothes, a simple faded pink kimono. At first a smile came upon her face, but upon seeing who had been calling her a dark look entered her eyes. She stomped up to Naruto- still oblivious to her mood- and raised her fist above his head.

The solid "Thwack!" had Keiko, Hitomi and Sakura cringing.

"Ow ow ow ow!"

"Where the hell were you?!" Kurenai yelled at him.

"Say what now?" he asked.

An angry red vein popped out on her head. "You missed Hikari's graduation!"

"That was today?!"

"It was yesterday!"

Naruto smacked a hand to his forehead and groaned. Of course! How could he have forgotten about sweet Hikari's graduation from the academy?

"She was so excited when she ran out of the building with her forehead protector! Then completely devestated when you weren't there!... You promised her." Kurenai said.

"Oh man..." he mumbled.

Kurenai looked past him and smiled again.

"Well... here's your chance to make it up to her."

Smiling Naruto turned around to see Hikari running towards him. Her usual crimson turtle neck sweater and matching leg warmers made spotting her among the people easy. Not bothering to try and be quiet had her black shinobi sandals slapping against the ground as she sped up to him.

"Hikari-chan!" he shouted excitedly.

"Naruto-jisan!" she shouted back.

Naruto went into the fetal position as the light around him seemed to darken into a depression. He kept mumbling something along the lines of "I'm not that old.", Sakura actually had to stop herself from giggling. The sweet little nine-year-old jumped onto Naruto's back while wrapping her arms around his neck, that brought an end to his little depression bit. He smiled at her then threw her in the air in front of him, she laughed the whole way up and down.

"I'm so happy you're back!" she beamed, "check it out! I'm a Genin now!"

"Yeah you are!" he smiled at her.

Hikari quickly turned her head towards Kurenai.

"Can we go to the park Mama?"

"Yeah, can we mom?" Naruto imitated.

"I dunno..." Kurenai said.

"Please?!" both of them begged.

"Well... alright," Kurenai smiled.

Hikari and Naruto high fived then started walking towards the park, well Naruto walked, Hikari enjoyed the ride in her Uncle's arms. Sakura heard Keiko and Hitomi sigh before they started walking in the opposite direction.

"What's wrong you two?" she asked.

"Naruto-sensei is going to spend the whole day with Hikari-chan and Kurenai-san... we might as well go train by ourselves, right Keiko?" Hitomi said.

"Yeah...," her sister agreed.

She didn't know what it was but Sakura decided to follow Naruto to the park. Surprisingly no one was there today, it was barely two in the afternoon! While Naruto and Hikari started playing around the playground equipment, Kurenai and Sakura took a seat on the bench closest to them. Naruto and Hikari were playing "Ninja" pretending with shurikens and kunai made from paper.

"So, how have you been Sakura?" Kurenai started.

"I've been good, you?" she asked.

"Good... is what I've heard around the village true? You and Sasuke...," Kurenai trailed off.

Sakura let out an annoyed huff. "Yes... I swear I'm gonna have to tell everyone before people stop asking me that..."

"Well, with our village gossip no longer with us news travels slowly," Kurenai chuckled.

"True... so, how is Hikari doing? Its been a long time since I gave her a check-up," Sakura said.

"She's fine," Kurenai smiled again, "I've been getting her regular check-ups but, its been a different doctor everytime."

"My leg!"

Kurenai and Sakura quickly snapped their heads over to Naruto and Hikari. Naruto was holding the point of a paper shuriken in his leg while he tried to hobble over to the slide that was designated as base. Sakura watched the little girl cock her arm back, much like the way Naruto did, with another "shuriken" ready to go. She had inherited most of her looks from Asuma, skin tone and slightly different shade of black hair than her mother. Her eyes, Sakura noticed, were all Kurenai; that interesting shade of crimson which screamed Kekkei Genkai but from all the discussions with Kurenai it wasn't.

Sakura giggled when Hikari jumped on Naruto's chest to deliver the kill blow. Playing the role to the end, Naruto made a dramatic death scene with him falling back and his tongue hanging out.

"Hmhm," Kurenai chuckled, "those two... Ah, I'm so glad to have them."

Sakura looked over at the older woman finding that last bit interesting. "So, Kurenai, are you and Naruto... you know...?"

"What?! Oh heavens no!" Kurenai blushed, "but, I'm sure Hikari would like that."

She looked back over to the pair to see Naruto standing up with a giggling Hikari sitting on his shoulder.

"Would you believe Shikamaru wanted to be that person whom Hikari looks up to?" Kurenai asked.

"Really?" she asked back.

"Yes, and he's tried on numerous occasions. Their personalities are just much too different, but he just may get his chance with Hikari being on his team," Kurenai said.

"Here ya go, wanna be an airplane?" Naruto laughed.

"Jisan!" Hikari pouted, "I'm not a little kid anymore!"

"Sure ya are! Alright here we go!" he smiled.

Hikari pouted and refused to show any signs of enjoyment at first, but soon she was giggling and going along with it.

'Wow... Naruto's great with kids... or at least this one.' Sakura thought.

"Naruto's going to be make a great dad someday," Kurenai said, which caused Sakura to look over at her, "And be a great husband to some lucky woman."

Sakura looked back over at the two and couldn't help but agree. Naruto was spinning them around until he lost his balance and fell to the ground while holding Hikari in the air.

"Heh, crash landing," Naruto smirked.

Hikari wiggled her way out of Naruto's arms and sat down on his chest. An evil glint entered her eyes as she produced a marker from her shorts. Uncapping said tool she inched it closer to Naruto's face until.

"Hikari!" her mother snapped.

"Fine!" she pouted.

Naruto quickly stood up with Hikari under his arm struggling. He walked over to Kurenai and placed her daughter down in her lap, extending a hand towards Sakura. The pink haired woman took it and allowed herself to be lifted up, she was curious as to what was happening.

"Jisan?" Hikari asked.

"Sorry sweetie," he smiled, "I really need to train, we'll play some more another time okay?"

"Fine...," she pouted.

"You up for a spar, Sakura?" he asked.

"Um... okay, go easy on me," she smiled nervously.

He smirked at her then shrugged; now she was definitely nervous. Waving their goodbyes to Kurenai and Hikari they made their way towards a vacant training ground.

"You realize of course," Naruto began, "I'm going to run you into the ground."

She gulped and started to sweat.

So I plan to have Sakura and Naruto, for a lack of better words, GET IT!... okay maybe not that intense but I do plan to have them start a relationship in the next I'd say about five or six chapters.

Just for the record, there is a difference between Jiisan and Jisan. Jiisan is grandfather while Jisan is for Uncle... and unless my Japanese girlfriend is lying to me, I'm 100% sure about that.

Somewhere in between there I shall add both the second part of the NaruHina past and add the NaruIno past. Anyway, stay tuned for the next installment and be on the look out for a new story I've started working on.

-Raidori