Sunrise.
Over the course of his life he'd seen a countless number of risings and settings of that flaming orb of burning gasses floating out there in space, and yet he noted that never had he never found two sunrises that were exactly alike. It was as though the light was burning away the old to supply a new hope for the future.
Looping his three foot long blonde ponytail loosely about his neck he sighed and started heading into the city to gather supplies for the coming week. It still marveled him how much stayed constant throughout the centuries. His few meager ryuu had translated into a substantial amount of gold and silver, which in turn turned into a larger amount of yen, and then he had converted half of that into credit at a bank which expanded upon the amount within yearly. He had found shortly after that, that he could live easily off of the strange addition of money that the bank called interest for an entire year, when they added more.
He had always been a rather frugal person however, and so felt that it was only fitting to live off the margin instead of the majority. Walking past his vast mountainside fields that served as his garden he smiled, remembering the care and tenderness he'd used to start each and every field. At first he could do all the work by hand, and then he began summoning clones to aid him, but now it was all nature's doing that shaped the fields. Many were the school hiking trips, that he sponsored, that came to enjoy the beauty of the mountains and his hospitality at the campsite.
They often marveled at the ease he started fires with, how he gathered roots and herbs to spice up the meal while they walked along. Long ago a child with a curious scar across his nose asked him why he didn't have a car or a truck or something to go into town. Naruto had simply sat the child down and told him to be silent. As the night closed in around them, the child had experienced it too, the singing of nature, the gentle smells of the woodlands, and the warmth that comes from being one with nature. Thinking about the boy, he wondered what had become of him, and what exactly his name had been.
He had long since forgone asking names, after all, a few centuries in, and he found he still remembered every single name of his village caused him a lot of pain. But that was in the past, and his mind returned to the present, turning the final twist in the path before the city, he ran over the list in his mind of what he would have to purchase for the next couple weeks. If he got lucky and found a sale, he might just be able to pick up some ramen while in town. That little thought added an extra bounce to his step.
His first stop was the postal office, for mail and his yearly bank statement. As he was exiting, he nearly ran into someone walking towards the entrance to his path home. Apologizing, he was about to continue on when the man asked him to wait a moment.
Turning back around, he looked at the man fully for the first time. The scar across the bridge of his nose was oddly familiar, but beyond that, in the deepest recesses of his memories, the image of Iruka-sensei overlaid this man. His musings about the fox waking up early to play tricks with his mind were interrupted when the man spoke. "Uzumaki-san, I'm glad I caught you while you were in town. I was actually just about to head up to your house. I'm Iruka Umino, and I visited you several years ago... Don't know if you remember or not..."
"You were the one I sat down at night to experience nature," Naruto answered to Iruka's shock. It helped him cover his own shock at having met the reincarnation of his favorite teacher twice in the same natural lifetime.
"That's right!" Iruka responded in surprise, his eyes visibly widened, "That night changed a lot about me, helped me to settle down and become a teacher. I even helped to start an after school club for the boys and girls of my school district to spend time in, rather than alone since many parents are working..."
Naruto nodded with a smile. The centuries may have changed, but Iruka was Iruka, was Iruka. It was nice hearing that he'd gotten involved in children again, since he was always good with that. "And recently a group of them just graduated from the scouts into the Shinobi and Kunoichi programs, to celebrate they asked that a few of us teachers take them for a camping trip at the Uzumaki mountain from my stories. So I was wondering if you wouldn't mind us visiting for a week sometime next month..."
Naruto's laugh was as bright and dancing as the early morning sun through a crystal wind chime. He loved having kids around his mountain, and hadn't made any plans for so early in the year, since the spring had just settled in. But if his calculations were right, it was just about time for the summer vacation season to begin. "Sure thing Umino-sensei, I'd love to have them. Tell the train station to bill my account for the tickets, and I'll pick you all up when you come."
"Oh wow, thank you," Iruka gushed as he shook Naruto's hand, "We'll be in on the first of next month, it's the Saturday after our school lets out."
As the two parted ways, Naruto felt like celebrating the good news. Pulling out an ancient, battered looking frog shaped wallet, he opened it to pull out a couple thousand yen, heading for the nearest ramen stand, almost as good as the original Ichiraku ramen over a thousand years ago, and began his feast.
A month later, he was back in town, smiling like the fox that had just entered the hen house. He had several of the best campsites prepared for the kids to chose from, and had a great harvest of his spring garden. Now he just had to wait for Iruka and company to arrive.
After a few minutes he found them making their way over. The kids he could have sworn were hand plucked out of his memories of the original Konoha 12, and Sai dressed up in more modern outfits and carrying uniform packs that looked to be military surplus. He almost laughed when he saw the Sakura and Ino pair hanging off a very embarrassed Sasuke's arms. If they were anything like their ancestors, they were barking up the entirely wrong tree. The Hinata stand-in hung back with what seemed to be an overly protective cousin and his friends, the girl who'd have passed for Tenten was holding the younger's hand and talking with her. What surprised him was that it seemed Team Baki had joined the others, as Temari was pestering a rather annoyed Shikamaru while Gaara and a brunette boy that reminded him of Kankuro without the war paint seemed to try and distance themselves from her.
Behind the kids where the adults, first came Iruka, who was trying to save Sasuke, then the Kakashi clone, who was wearing an allergy mask for some reason, trying to tease the boy into doing some fun things. Gai and Asuma were trying to horde the kinds in something of a unified direction. Anko and Kurenai were hanging back to net the stragglers, which included a chip munching Chouji and a Shino that seemed more interested in following ants then anything else. Kiba and his very attractive, if wild, older sister brought up the rear with a small white dog in an animal carrier he assumed was for the train.
Iruka pulled away from the group and rushed over, again he shook Naruto's hand before speaking. "Thank you again Uzumaki-san, the kids have been very excited to come ever since I told them I met you. Kiba insisted on bringing his dog Akamaru, I hope that's alright."
"Of course it is, I should have told you that pets were welcome to come along, so long as the owners cleaned up after them," Naruto explained with a smile as Kiba all but ripped the travel case's door clean off to get at his dog. "And that must be Kiba there, and his sister? Is she staying too?"
"Yes, that's Kiba and his older sister Hana, she has a veterinarian conference in town this week, and would have taken Akamaru if you had said no," Iruka explained, before indicating the adults. "These are the others that help run the program, save a couple that opted to stay back for the other groups. Kakashi Hatake's the one with the mask, I searched him, but he'll probably be reading porn before we make it onto your path home..."
Kakashi merely waved lazily at the insinuation, as though it was all too common and true for him to care. "Next to him is Maito Gai, don't ask about the green spandex bodysuit, nor the one on his ward Rock Lee. You don't want to know..."
The green duo merely gave joint nice guy smiles and thumbs-up, which while nostalgic, made Naruto cringe inside. For some reason he heard old foxy whimpering and cowering in his cage. "Then there's Asuma Sarutobi, he's promised to not smoke for the week we're here... and brought the patches and gum to help him. He's also promised to clean up after himself."
Naruto could already see the tic of a nicotine fit in the corner of Asuma's eye. "And his wife Kurenai Sarutobi brought her friend Anko Mitarashi to help us keep an eye on the entire group."
The two ladies nodded their heads towards Naruto, however the blonde could almost swear that Anko was sizing him up for leather shorts and fuzzy handcuffs. He might just want to use the locks on his tent this week, lest he give the impressionable youth a lesson that Iruka would likely kill him over. "Our sister school had sent over a group that was interested in joining, unfortunately their teacher got a rather nasty case of pink eye, and won't be joining us. The three are Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari." At their name, the three waved politely.
"And our students are Tenten Mizuno, Neji Hyuuga, his cousin Hinata Hyuuga," Iruka continued, indicating the older two students and the shy one. "Hinata is rather shy, so don't be too offended if she doesn't talk to you."
After an indication of that being fine from Naruto, Iruka continued on. "Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka are the ones latched onto Sasuke Uchiha's arms... Girls, mind your manners and let go of him!" Iruka bellowed, pulling off the Demon-head no jutsu with such precision that Naruto almost wanted to go find a chalkboard to write he'd be good on a hundred times. Almost.
"Behind them is Chouji Akamichi, who has promised to keep his litter picked up, and Shikamaru Nara, one of the top students in his grade." Naruto couldn't help but smile as Shikamaru simply rolled his eyes and grumbled about troublesome teachers bragging. "And the two loners are the artist of the group Sai Tanto, whose step father Yamato Tanzo wanted to come, but had to stay back with the others. He is a little socially awkward, but means well..."
Naruto nodded, barely keeping a smirk off his face as Sai set about sketching a bird he saw sitting on a branch. "And finally, over to the left is the future entomologist of the group, Shino Aburame, be careful or he might just clean out your garden of insects."
The shades wearing boy turned his head and studied Naruto silently for a moment, a faint buzzing noise coming from inside his coat. After a moment he spoke, "I won't take any of your insects Uzumaki-san... their natural habitat would be best for them. You are... different..."
The entire group seemed shocked that Shino had spoken, let alone to a complete stranger, especially the teachers, but Naruto took it all in stride. "Yes... yes I am, but you'll never know how different unless you ask questions Shino. But let me introduce myself, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to be your guide on Uzumaki mountain for this week. I hope you all can enjoy your stay."
Little did he realize just how much he would be revealing about his long secret ninja skills in the following week, nor that he'd end up as the instructor for the teachers and students in the way of the shinobi, and some of the kunoichi skills. He'd been really bored for about two hundred years and spent a couple lifetimes learning the kunoichi way of life, but that's another story.
He never did figure out how Gaara was sealed with Shukaku again, but it was a blessing that this time it was done right. Maybe he should have taken the meeting of the reincarnations of his former friends as a sign that fecal matter was going to impact the rotary impeller, but for now he was just going to enjoy a couple days camping.