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Naruto stepped into the village and Jiraiya sighed knowing without asking what Naruto wanted.
"After we see Tsunade," Jiraiya stated.
"Alright," Naruto sighed. "I'm sending a clone to see Mom though."
"Fine," Jiraiya nodded. "Now let's go."
Naruto, now dressed in his new outfit witch was much the same but with black shoulders and sleeves and the black extending down his front around the zipper, a black headband, and his Double-Edged Sword where he always wore it on his waist and now with Temujin's sword on the back of his waist, sent a clone to his house while they headed toward Tsunade's office. He usually didn't use Temujin's sword since he could have two at once using his Double-Edged Sword but he had trained with Temujin's until he could use it as well as his own blades. His Garian Sword was still under his shirt where he always wore it but hadn't seen very much use recently.
"Naruto?" A voice called from behind him.
He turned around and smiled seeing Sakura. She had grown over the years but he now stood half a head taller than her. She now wore a red top with the same design as the upper-half of her old outfit, with black gloves, black, low-heel, calf-high boots, black shorts underneath a short pink apron skirt, and pink elbow protectors and forehead protector which was now on a red cloth. She was now also armed with a tanto which she wore above her medical pouch.
"You're back!" Sakura exclaimed happily. "Hey, you grew taller than me didn't you?"
"Not at all," Naruto grinned. "You're just hallucinating."
Sakura rolled her eyes then grinned.
"Remember that thing you and Sasuke didn't want me to do?" Sakura questioned.
"No," Naruto shrugged.
"Then you better hope your heart doesn't stop," Sakura grinned walking away.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at Jiraiya who shrugged and they continued to the Hokage's office finding Tsunade working on paperwork and not happy about it.
"You know my dad had his clones do it for him," Naruto stated, his clone having disappeared letting him know that his father was still in a coma but alive.
"Naruto!" Tsunade said happily standing and smiling. "Welcome back! How was the trip?"
"Long," Naruto stated. "But helpful. After the Gelel debacle, Jiraiya helped me with a few things but focused mainly on my Kekkei Genkai."
"How did it go?" Tsunade questioned.
"I suck at it," Naruto sighed. "But now my mother can teach me."
"Fair enough," Tsunade nodded. "You're free to go Naruto. Go see your friends. Jiraiya can fill me in on the specifics."
Naruto nodded then jumped out the window and darted through the street searching for his friends. Out of all of them, he still had to find basically everyone except Sakura and Sasuke, who was still training with Orochimaru. After a few minutes, Naruto reached the Third Training Ground and found Neji, Tenten, and Lee training and grinned. He couldn't resist screwing with them.
He spread his clones through the trees around them, seeing Neji grin and nod ever so slightly. Then Naruto's clones all transformed into three dimensional shadows with matching kunai then darted out of the trees at them. Tenten screamed and Lee and Neji tore into them, the clones vanishing without the smoke to keep Lee and Tenten from realizing what they actually were. Naruto kept the clones going for a minute before Neji appeared beside him grinning, intent to watch Tenten fight, since she had begun.
"Cheap trick," Neji stated.
"Good training," Naruto stated.
Finally Tenten rained weapons onto the clones and Naruto stopped creating more. The two ninja in the field began breathing hard and Naruto walked out of the trees, clapping.
"Very good," Naruto smirked. "My clones didn't know what hit them."
Both stared at him then Lee grinned and Tenten glared.
"Thanks for the help training," Lee grinned.
"You attacked us!" Tenten shouted.
"I would have stopped him if he had actually tried," Neji promised stepping out of the trees. "Sorry, I saw him coming and wanted to see if you two could handle it."
Tenten suddenly unrolled her massive scroll and Naruto teleported away before he got skewered. He appeared in an alleyway that had a tree where Kiba and Shino were waiting with Akamaru who was now the size of the average panther or lion and had Kiba sitting on his back.
"Is that Akamaru?" Naruto questioned.
"Of course," Kiba scoffed. "What did you go blind over the last two years?"
"No but when I left you carried him around on your head!" Naruto stated.
"It's good to see you too Naruto," Shino interrupted.
"Hey Shino," Naruto sighed. "Where's Hinata?"
"I don't know," Kiba said looking around. "She was here a few minutes ago. Guess you missed her."
Naruto nodded and glanced over Kiba's shoulder in time to see a face disappear around the corner before he could see who it was and grinned. There was a seal just before the corner and Naruto teleported to it then stepped around the corner and stopped seeing Hinata staring at her feet looking apologetic for something. Naruto looked at his friend for a moment smiling, happy beyond belief to see her again. She wore loose blue pants, low-heeled sandals, a light, loose-fitting, sweatshirt that had a lavender torso, white hood and sleeves with lavender cuffs, her forehead protector now on a black headband, a mesh armor shirt visible under her sweatshirt which was open just enough to give a small glimpse of the cleavage that had developed and which Naruto had to struggle to not continuously glance at, and her hair was still in a hime style but with shoulder-length strands framing her face and the back being waist-length. There was also a slight blush on her face, as there usually was when she was around him. The last thing Naruto noticed about her was the ninjato slung across her back.
After a moment of not being able to think of something to say, Naruto stepped forward wrapping his arms around Hinata. After a moment, she wrapped her arms around him as well and rested her head on his chest.
"I'm back," Naruto smiled.
"You're home," Hinata muttered hugging him a little tighter as tears threatened to leak from her eyes.
She fought them back and pulled away smiling at him.
"I see Itachi taught you," Naruto smiled.
"Yes," Hinata nodded.
"Good," Naruto smirked. "Then we're going to have to spar sometime."
Hinata nodded smiling but Naruto noticed the tears in her eyes that she was still trying to repress.
"You okay?" Naruto questioned.
"J-just happy you're back," Hinata smiled.
Naruto smiled as well and hugged her again. She hugged him back for a moment then he pulled away and teleported away taking her with him. A moment later, they were standing outside Itachi's house appearing just in front of said Uchiha who stopped and grinned.
"Look at that, my two best student come to ask who's better," Itachi smiled.
"Well how about it?" Naruto questioned.
"She showed more promise than you because she learned almost as fast without clones," Itachi stated. "She could likely rival you in skill now."
Naruto grinned just as Fugaku stepped out of the house.
"Welcome back to the village Sir," Naruto greeted bowing. "Even if I am a little late to say it."
"Thank you," Fugaku said smiling. "Itachi's told me a lot about you. Hello Hinata."
Hinata smiled and bowed and Fugaku muttered something to Itachi who shook his head and Fugaku walked away.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I must attend to some family matters, namely keeping my father from tracking down Sasuke," Itachi sighed. "If you'll excuse me."
He left just as Jiraiya appeared.
"There you are," Jiraiya sighed. "I'm heading out. You're going to meet with Kakashi and Sakura in the Third Training Field in about twenty minutes."
Naruto nodded and Jiraiya left.
"You should probably get going," Hinata sighed.
"Don't worry," Naruto smiled. "If I know Kakashi, he'll be late anyway."
Hinata smiled but shook her head.
"I'm going to be late for my own training anyway," Hinata smiled.
"Want a lift?" Naruto questioned.
Hinata shook her head smiling and hugged Naruto again before turning and walking away. Naruto teleported back to his house and his mother met him with a slap.
"You are gone for two years and you send a clone!?" Kushina demanded before sighing and hugging her son. "I'm so glad you're home."
"I can tell," Naruto grinned. "Usually you punch me."
They both laughed and Naruto went to his room, replacing his old clothes with his new ones and taking out his father's cloak and putting it on. It fit. He reluctantly put it away and sighed. He wanted to wear it but decided to wait until after his father was up and about. He suddenly remembered he had forgotten to tell his mother his plan and walked out into the living room to tell her.
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