Hey everyone, thesaiyanjedi is back with the latest chapter of this story. I'm happy you all liked the last one, and I hope this one is also enjoyable, and maybe even tugs at your heart strings a bit.

With that said, let's get to reading!

Chapter 2: A Long Overdue Visit

Naruto was making his way through the village. He was merely walking around, minding his own business, and he headed towards the outskirts. He kept his head low hoping people wouldn't recognize him, but lets face it, that blonde hair and that iconic orange jumpsuit made blending in impossible.

So Naruto did find himself waving to some of the local villagers who noticed him. He also signed yet more autographs for his fans. Most of the fans in question were children still in the Academy, so greeting them was perfectly fine, in fact, it actually made him feel good about himself...

...But then there were his numerous female fans. Some of whom were reasonably within Naruto's age group, others were way, way too young!

Naruto could not resist the cold shiver that ran up his spine as he recalled this one time, not too long after the war, before he and Sakura started dating. Iruka had asked him to come into the Academy as a guest speaker to deliver a lecture on working hard, perseverance, determination and all that jazz, figuring that the young hero of the village and his former favorite student would be the perfect role model for the kids who were already big fans of his.

The lecture went fine, Naruto even worked on preparing a speech for what he was going to say. It wasn't the best, but it was better that nothing and it got him through the experience. But over midway through his lecture, he noticed that several of the little girls in the audience were staring at him very intently, with what appeared to be hearts in their eyes.

And then there was this one girl, what her name was Naruto didn't know and, frankly, didn't want to know. She was sitting in one of the front rows staring at Naruto and the young man ended up stopping himself he caught her intense eye contact. The girl closed her eyelids, revealing that she had written the words "Love You" on them.

Naruto was...well, speechless. Had that really happened? Had a freakin' minor just come onto him?! Growing up Naruto always wanted to get some kind of attention, but this was just...wow! This was just creepy!

Anyway, moving on from that unpleasant memory, Naruto had signed his usual autographs and posed for his usual photos. Some of the girls tried to hug and kiss him, but he flatly refused stating that he was in a relationship now, much to their disappointment.

As the boy continued his walk to the edge of the village, he eventually made it to his destination. He looked up at the sculpture at the front of where he was, meant to represent the Will of Fire of his village, with the kanji for the Hokage at it's base.

He sighed and got a tighter grasp of the gift he had brought with him.

'Okay,' the young man thought to himself, 'here it goes.'

Sakura was searching the village in desperation; she needed to find her boyfriend soon, or else Kakashi was going to throw a fit.

'Damn it Naruto! Where the hell are you? You know it's not polite to keep the Hokage waiting. Do you want to get us both in trouble?!'

The pinkette let out a sigh, She loved that boy, but that didn't mean that his faults couldn't still get under her skin sometimes.

And yet, that wasn't what was really worrying her. She'd known Naruto since they were little children, when both of them were very different people. She knew everything about him, or so she liked to think, and it was never like him to just disappear like this without telling her first.

All of this sent a dark shiver down her spine. She remembered that night, that dark night when Sasuke left the village all those years ago and she was powerless to stop it. The last thing in the world she wanted was for Naruto to leave her too.

'I have to find him! But damn it, where can that doofus be! I've asked Lee, Chōji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Tenten, everybody!'

She was broken out of her thoughts when she noticed where she currently was. She was standing right in front off the Yamanaka Flower Shop.

'Ugh! Do I really want to deal with Ino-pig right now!' She let out a deep sigh, 'Whatever! Its not like I've got any better ideas.'

Sakura entered the flower shop and went straight to the front counter. Sure enough, her best friend was at her usual post and ready to greet customers.

"Hi! Welcome to Yamanaka's! How may I—" The blonde bombshell was cut off when she noticed who had come in. "Oh hey Sakura! What brings you in today?"

"Hey Ino, I was just in the neighborhood."

Ino noticed that the girl seemed tense, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Its just that Kaka—I mean, Lord Hokage wanted to see me and Naruto for a private meeting and I can't find him anywhere. He wasn't at Ichiraku's, he wasn't at the training grounds, he wasn't even surrounded by any of his damned fangirls! I'm running out of ideas here!"

Ino giggled to herself at her best friend's frustration and smiled cutely. "Well why didn't you just say so? He came in here this morning."

Sakura reacted in surprise. "He did?"

"Yeah, he came in and picked out a bouquet of flowers and I assumed they were for you."

Sakura couldn't help the cute blush that appeared on her face.

"But when I asked him, he said the were for somebody else."

And right away the blush disappeared and was replaced with narrowed eyes and a clenched fist.

"He...said...WHAT?!"

Ino waved her hands in the air to get her to calm down. "Easy! Easy! He's not cheating on you, I swear! He said they were for someone he hasn't had a chance to visit until now. They were for his—"

The platinum blonde stopped herself before she could say any more. Sakura calmed down just enough to notice a change in her demeanor.

"Ino, what's the matter?"

"I'm sorry Sakura, but Naruto made me promise that I wouldn't tell anybody. He said it was something personal and that he needed to be alone."

Sakura put your hand on the girl's shoulder. "Hey, you can trust me. Besides, I need to find him so we can go see the Hokage. So please, where's my boyfriend right now?"

Ino sighed, "Alright, I'll tell you what he told me..."

Naruto walked through Konoha Cemetery, passing by several stones and markers representing the final resting places of the village's lost, both shinobi and civilian alike. He was looking for two stones in particular and he had no idea what they looked like.

As he was looking, he could not help but take notice of a few the headstones that belonged to some old friends.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, was buried here in a place of honor. Even now he owed the old man a lot. He was one of the few who held out support and belief in him during the days when nobody else but Iruka did.

There was another grave planted in the yard as well; he stopped briefly to visit the grave of one of his closest friends. The only one of Naruto's peers, or at least the one's that he was especially close to, that ultimately gave his life in the war. Neji Hyūga proved in his dying moments that we all have the power to change and shape our own destinies, just like Naruto himself had taught him a long time ago. Neji made the ultimate sacrifice just to save him and Hinata, and he will always be indebted to him for that. He had no idea what Neji would say if he lived to find out that he and Hinata didn't end up together—most likely he'd come after him with vengeful fury in his Byakugan eyes. But in all seriousness, he just hoped that his friends, all of them, were in a better place right now.

Naruto didn't know how long he searched for, but eventually he found the graves he was searching for. It was a pair of fairly simple headstones like the others with inscriptions and the Konoha symbol emblazoned upon each of them. The deceased name's were inscribed on the stones and there were messages that came with their names.

The first grave read: Minato Namikaze, The Yellow Flash, The Fourth Hokage, The Savior of the Village.

The second grave read: Kushina Uzumaki, The Red-Hot Blooded Habanero, Beloved Kunoichi, Wife, and Friend.

Naruto could not help but frown. No where on either of their graves did it mention their connection to him. Still, he understood why; after the events of his birthday his true parentage needed to be covered up or else his young life would be placed in too much danger. Merely placing their graves next to each other with her last name being the same as his was risky enough as it was.

With a content smile, Naruto kneeled down and then placed his hand on his mother's grave.

"Hey mom," he said softly. "Sorry I haven't come to visit you since...well, never actually. But I didn't even know about you until recently and I've been kind of busy with a war and all—You know what? It doesn't matter. I came to see you and I brought you something."

Naruto pulled one of the two bouquets of flowers he purchased from Yamanaka's and placed them at the base of his mother's headstone.

"I hope you like them, they're roses. I know its kind of lame, but their red color reminded me of your hair."

The boy turned his head to the other stone and he touched it as well. "Hey dad, it's been a while. I know we said our goodbyes after stopping Kaguya, but I wanted to stop by and say hi."

Naruto set another bouquet of flowers, yellow lilies, at the base of his father's grave.

The orange-clad ninja then addressed each of his parents at once. "I don't know if you know, but a lot of things have changed for me . I've been promoted to Chūnin now, and I didn't even need to take the exam either! Granny Tsunade sure went out on a limb with that one! Actually she's retired and Kakashi-sensei is Hokage now...Hey, sensei used to be your student, didn't he dad? Anyway, I'm apparently pretty famous now, I even have fans come up to me every day asking me for my autograph! I've never had that kind of attention before! My best friend Sasuke finally came back and I helped to get him pardoned for everything he did...Of course, then he had to go and leave the village again for some crazy redemption quest."

Naruto smiled warmly to himself before he continued on. "But you guys want to know the best part? I'm in love! I'm in a relationship now! Yeah! Me! With the girl I've loved since I was a boy too! Her name's Sakura, you remember her dad? She's the same girl with the pink hair that was healing me during the war. I love her so much! Mom, I wish you could have met her, she's a lot like you actually...Hey! I guess I did fulfill you're last wish after all, huh mom?"

He paused before continuing. "Listen, I just wanted tell you both that I'm sorry again for not coming by sooner. But I want to tell you both thank you. I wouldn't be alive today if not for you. I wish...I wish that things could have been different and both of you could have lived to enjoy all of this with me. I can't imagine what more you two could have done for me. I—"

Naruto was forced to stop as he was getting choked up. He couldn't find the strength to stop the tears from flowing. All of this was too much for him as he was laying his life and his feelings out to two people he'd only gotten to meet once or twice in his life, but who were nevertheless two of the most precious people in his life.

"I...I love you mom, dad. I love you both so much...And I miss you."

Still crying, he stood up, wiped the tears from his eyes to get a hold of himself and then put on the warmest, most genuine smile he could muster.

"I'll come see you guys again some time, I promise."

Naruto stopped when he sensed something. He did not need to activate his Sage Mode to feel that he was no longer alone.

He turned around to see that he was joined by none other than the woman of his dreams. Sakura looked nervous, as if she was scared to interrupt him in what was obviously a very private moment.

"N-Naruto?"

"Hey Sakura," he said. "How'd you know I was here?"

"Ino told me...I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt—"

"No, no, its fine, really. I could use the company actually."

He extended his hand, offering it to her. She got over her shyness and took the hand.

Of course, once she had come within range, he surprised her by planting a deep kiss right on her lips. Despite her surprise, she quickly relaxed into the kiss and returned it with equal passion, wrapping her arms around him also.

When they broke the kiss, she blushed as Naruto turned back to his parent's graves. "Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend Sakura."

"Hello," she said sweetly.

As much as she hated to ruin this moment, duty called. "Naruto, listen, I came looking for you because Lord Hokage—"

"You can still call him Kakashi-sensei, y'know."

"Kakashi-sensei ordered us both to visit his office, and we're already late."

Naruto turned to his parent's graves one last time, the turned back, sighed, and put on a serious expression. "Okay, let's go."

There you have it, another chapter down and more to come.

Incidentally, the memory of the girl in Iruka's class that wrote "Love You" on her eyelids was taken from a scene in "Raiders of the Lost Arc" where one of Indy's female students flirted with him in the same way, and Indy was no less stunned by it. The difference, of course, is that the kids in Indy's class were all college students while Naruto was speaking to a bunch of little kids...yeah.

In my original draft of this chapter I also had Jiraya's grave in the cemetery also, until I did some research and realized that Naruto had set up a memorial for him in the forest outside the village.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that little get-together of the Uzumaki family. I also hope I made it touching and enjoyable to read.

Well, until next time, see ya!