WHY I'M SO STUPID?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Warnings from the last couple of chapters still apply.

Tsunade is looking out the window of her office, thinking about what to do next. The sun was starting to set and everybody was recovering from all of the chaos that they had to endure throughout the day. From learning the truth about the heritage of the boy they treated as a criminal to the truth behind the massacre of one of their strongest clans all the way to the true colors of those who they thought was looking out for them.

The battle has barely lasted half an hour before word spread that the Foundation troops are now following the orders of one Naruto Namikaze due to the defeat of their original leader, Danzo, giving the villagers one more good reason why they should start respecting the blonde even more, although the civilian council and the die hard anti-Narutos decided to try and raise a big stink about how he was just trying to get on their good side before stabbing them in the back.

Casualties on both sides have been rather light, amazingly enough no deaths but plenty of injuries. Right now they decided to give the entire village the rest of the day off to spend time with their families, with Naruto having the clan heads keeping the secret about him using Izanagi, especially from their families, since its something they don't want to risk alerting the other elemental nations about something that would cause even more unrest between them.

At the moment Naruto and Jiraiya are at the Foundation Headquarters trying to help the ninjas there regain their humanity while also trying to figure out how to remove the seals that were placed on them to keep them from spilling any secrets involving their organization and Danzo, plus finding anything in his personal files that would help them find out his secrets or which families each one belonged to in order to help with the healing process.

Both Sasuke and Itachi went to their home to catch up since their first meeting was mainly about the truth behind the massacre and what they had planned for bringing down the corruption and hatred created by the council. Kisame has became fast friends with Ibiki and Anko and decided to join them in the torturing of Danzo and the other two. As for the rest, right now they were all getting ready for tomorrow when they decided to implement some changes that her, Naruto and the clan heads plan to make, wither the civilian council likes it or not.

A gentle knock on the door got her attention. "Come." Tsunade said while turning around, to be greeted by her first apprentice, "What is it Shizune?"

Shizune, like most of the villagers, got a rude wake up call when they found out that the people who were suppose to be protecting them, especially Naruto, were only too busy making sure that they were in control while making sure the Hokage didn't have a say in the matter.

"I just wanted to apologize for going behind your back by telling the council everything." Shizune said with a small bow, with a few tears coming out of her eyes "Naruto tried to warn me in his own way that the council might not be who they appear to be and now I realize that he was right, if the council were looking out for the best interests for him, then they would have been working with both you and the Third, not trying to undermine your authority because they don't like it."

If this matter wasn't so serious, she would try her hardest not to say those four little words used for a mean form of bragging. "I know," Tsunade said instead, "And what makes it worse is that they were sensei's teammates who were taught by my granduncle who was the Second Hokage and yet sensei was the only one who didn't let it go to his head, like Kakashi didn't keep reminding people that he was Minato's student." Tsunade couldn't help but chuckle "Although Naruto would have kicked his ass all the way to Kumo and back if he insulted his father's memory like that."

Shizune fidgeted a bit, "Speaking of Naruto, why didn't you agree with the council about keeping him confined within the village?" She asked, "Wouldn't he have been safer then being out their where the Akatsuki are looking to take the kyubi from within him?"

Tsunade looked at her first apprentice and shot back "You mean safer in a village where most of the population wants him either dead for containing the kyubi, or outsmarting them in more ways then one, or turned over to the council so that he can be turned into both a breeding factory for super ninjas and their own little weapon like Suna tried to do with Gaara?" When she saw Shizune's eyes grow wide at this, "That's why I refuse, because then I'll be spending the rest of my life questioning my own humanity just like damn villagers have been doing to the brat since day one."

Shizune realized what else she needs to do. "Looks like I owe Naruto an apology as well." She said, "But I'll have to wait awhile since Sakura told me that he wanted to speak with her tonight."

Tsunade had a pretty good idea what Naruto wanted to speak with her about, "I just hope Sakura remembers my advice if it doesn't go the way she wants it to." She said, before deciding to call it today.

Uchiha Compound . . .

The Uchiha Brothers are in the living room, enjoying some time together as brothers instead of enemies. They could recall all of the times where things went from bad to worse of the kyubi attack when the villagers were treating them like common criminals to when both of their lives have changed completely because their clan got tired of being treated the same way Naruto was treated and Itachi was forced to choose either help his clan or protect his village.

"So I've noticed you finally found a girlfriend." Itachi said, with a smirk "Care to tell me a little bit about her?"

Sasuke couldn't help but blush at being put on the spot by his older brother, "Her name is Karin and we've met about a few weeks after Naruto left to go on his journey." Sasuke said, "She used to be one of Orichimaru's lab rats until she snuck out and now she works here as a medic-nin. The only thing that I have to be careful about is the fact that she has a libido that would probably even put the kyubi out of commission. Plus she is kind of like a mixture Sakura and Anko." When he seen Itachi give a little shiver, "What's wrong?"

Itachi looked at his brother and said "Let's just say that in Naruto's own words, that if I didn't drop the stiff act before we returned, he was going to hook me up on a date with Anko as a more direct approach."

Sasuke couldn't help but shiver at this as well, "I don't blame you. One time while Kakashi was reading that book of his, she must have been in a pretty foal mood since she tried to use her snakes to take out his book and his manhood at the same time." Causing both of them to shiver, "Although when it was revealed that he used a substitution jutsu to get out of it, I hurried on out of there before she decided to turn on me."

"Smart move." Itachi said. Deciding to change the subject as quickly as possible, "I see that you managed to keep the place looking somewhat decent."

Sasuke looked around, "Yeah well for some reason, I just can't seem to find myself to leave this place." He said, "At first it was just to help fuel my desire for vengeance, now I'm not sure anymore."

Itachi had a good idea why, but he decided to wait until he was use to being in Konoha again before deciding what he wants to do.

Kakashi is sitting at Ichiraku's, deciding to enjoy some ramen since Naruto was the one to introduce him to it. Normally he would be busy reading his favorite book somewhere without a care in the world, but now he felt like the past was once again kicking him in the ass. Even though Naruto told him to forget about it, after seeing Naruto pull off one of his sensei's most famous move, and finding out he was strong enough to kill a Sannin, reminded him on how badly he missed up.

"Everything going alright with you Kakashi?" Teuchi asked the masked ninja.

Kakashi gave a small sigh, "Let's just say that no mater how hard I try, I don't think I would be able to truly know Naruto Namikaze." He said.

"Oh, you finally found out about his heritage huh?" Teuchi asked, while getting ready to close the shop down for the night.

Kakashi choked at this, "You *cough* already *cough* knew about his parents?" He asked, while punching his chest.

"Oh yeah, it wasn't that hard to figure out since his parents were among my best customers," Teuchi answered, while sending an empty pot towards the back, "He might have Minato's looks and Kushina's attitude, but the one thing that he gained from both of them was their appetites."

Now Kakashi was starting to feel like the masked Naruto. He spent plenty of time with both the Fourth and his wife, and yet he goes off to become one of things he told his team what they would become after they passed his little test. "Considering that you and the Third are probably the only ones in this entire village to know the real Naruto, can you tell me a few things about him?" He asked, deciding to do something he should have done on day one.

Teuchi was more then willing to oblige

Up on the top of Minato's head stood a very nervous Sakura. When Naruto told her to meet him here, she wasn't sure what to expect. Ever since that day when Sasuke set her straight about how her feelings for him was just her imagination and that the person she should of pay the most attention to is the teammate she paid the least attention to. For the past five years she spent not only improving herself as a ninja, but also as a person because after seeing the real Naruto, and doing D-ranked missions with him, she came to realize that she was still lacking somewhere.

'I wonder if he still has that crush on me?' She asked herself.

'How do you know it was a crush?' Inner Sakura shot back.

'What do you mean?' Sakura asked.

'What if it was really love not a crush?' Inner Sakura started to explain, 'He said so himself that he stopped pursuing you because the only person you wanted to be with at the time was Sasuke and he didn't want to keep getting in your way.'

Sakura couldn't help but feel sad at being reminded the words she kept using on the blonde while he was wearing that mask, from trying to cheer her up to just plain old saying hi. 'But what about after the Chunin Exams when I . . .'

'When you what, finally noticed him?' Inner Sakura intercepted 'God I swear you spent more time either keeping your nose in the books or trying to woo the Uchiha then you have in real life. Don't you remember what he said at the flower shop, he wasn't going to take anymore crap from anybody, especially us, and we have to earn his trust by giving him a good enough reason to give it.'

Before she can respond to that, Sakura turned around just as she heard footsteps approaching her. When she saw the blonde approaching her location, "Hey Naruto . . ."

Well, here is the latest chapter, and to tell you the truth I wasn't planning on ending this with a cliffhanger. To give you a heads up, I'm just going to try and update my other stories and take a break from fanfiction for about a week due to the fact that I've been writing and reading it for about almost a year straight and I'm at the point where I need to stop for awhile or else I might end up getting sick of it. Hope you understand. Read and Review.