A/N: Just in case you guys were curious: Iruka wasn't supposed to find out the truth until book 2. I had a whole scene planned.

Then he just flucking wrote himself into Ichiraku (originally, once he decided he would be present, he was just gonna be extra support – it was sort of going to be an, "everyone important in Naruto's life was there to support him" kinda thing (Kakashi was gonna join them originally too, but instead he just sorta… hid and watched from further away) and while Naruto does consider the Hokage a precious person as well, they were gonna have their own talk about it privately later, so this was an everyone else talk where they all made sure Naruto knew they supported him… *sigh*) and lemme tell you, Natsu was NOT supposed to blow the secret that hard. Like. Ugh. THIS WAS PLANNED FOR BOOK TWO. BOOK TWO YOU GUYS. BUT NATSU AND IRUKA BOTH HAD THEIR OWN AGENDAS AND IT DIDN'T WORK OUT AND NOW I GOTTA FIGURE OUT HOW THIS IS GONNA CHANGE THE REST OF BOOK ONE OR IF IT EVEN WILL CHANGE THE REST OF BOOK ONE AND AAAAAAAGH!

This whole thing would have been easier if Kakashi had stuck to the original plan of being there for the talk instead of just keeping an eye on them from a distance. It wouldn't have spiraled out of control so much. Now I'm a whole book early for the Iruka-finds-out scene and my original plan for it isn't compatible at all and now I'm kinda worried about the OTHER people who were supposed to find out in book two BECAUSE IF IRUKA DECIDED TO LEARN EARLY WHO'S TO SAY THEY WON'T?!

Yes. Anyway. Last chapter was just that car meme – you know the one, with the road signs, and straight ahead would be "Stick to the plot!" and the right-hand one the car skids into would be "Frustrate your author by suddenly having a key reveal take place an entire book sooner!" and now I'm just like… you guys this is why I hate myself.

Anyway, in other writing-related news, a post I shared from 4 years ago on Facebook showed up in my newsfeed memories again. It was a beautiful picture of Ed Elric and Zidane Tribal having fun fighting each other and the first time I saw it I was like "I SHIP IT!" and it showed up in my memories and again I was like "I SHIP IT" and now I wanna write a fic of this pairing and I already have a little bit of an idea of how it would go and YOU GUYS ITS HAPPENING AGAIN MY BRAIN WANTS TO START NEW FICS I ALREADY STARTED ONE NEW FIC I SHOULDN'T HAVE AND NOW I WANT TO WRITE ANOTHER I NEED TO LIKE, HIRE SOMEONE TO BE MY IMPULSE CONTROL I HAVE NONE SEND HELP.

If I actually write that fic feel free to yell at me. Pls. Too many people encourage my bad habits so they just get worse and my sister yells at me but she's my sister, and like, my 5th sibling at that. I'm used to being yelled at by siblings it does no good.

Right. Anyway, thanks for reading! Apologies for the delay! Pls enjoy my desperate attempts to get my plot back on track.

I'm stuck on a team with two idiots.

He'd die before he ever admitted it to Naruto, but the only reason Sasuke doesn't just get up and leave them to their misery is because the ramen really is good, and doesn't taste half as cheap as the stand makes it look.

He listens to his teammates panic and babble at Iruka as he slurps the noodles, utterly disappointed.

He'd thought Natsu was just… gathering all of Naruto's favorite people together, that he knew what he was doing.

Clearly, he was wrong. Sasuke sighs, setting down his chopsticks and drinking up the rest of the broth. He has half a mind to just… leave the two idiots to deal with Iruka's ever-growing ire by themselves, but their attempts to convince the Academy sensei that he's mistaken are just giving the man an increasingly worse idea of what happened, and if Sasuke doesn't step in the misunderstanding will probably get dragged before the Hokage and he is not missing any more training time, and especially not because Natsu lost what was left of his brain cells the moment he opened his mouth.

He sets the ramen bowl onto the counter with a solid clack, drawing everyone's attention over.

"Wha- Sasuke, were you seriously still eating?!" Naruto half-leaps off his stool, pointing, and Sasuke nearly regrets trying to help the idiot.

He offers the blond a disdainful glare.

"You're the one wasting free food."

Naruto practically squawks, turning around to shovel in ramen so fast Sasuke's not even sure how the blond is tasting it, but the ridiculous eating habits of the dobe are not something he wants to contemplate, now or ever.

He looks past his two teammates, to meet the suspicious stare of Iruka, and nearly sighs again.

They're both absolute morons.

"It's not as bad as you think," he starts, because if Iruka rushes off to the Hokage he is going to throttle both his teammates and then he'll be in trouble and he definitely won't get to train, so he tries to find the most reassuring way to explain everything. "The way Yamanaka-san explained it to us, there were some 'unusual jutsu interactions' that led to Natsu's spirit being trapped inside Sakura's body. They've been like this since the final genin test. Yamanaka-san has private meetings with Natsu in an attempt to undo it. In order to keep people from panicking, the Hokage requested it be kept quiet. Outside of Team 7, the Hokage, and Yamanaka-san, I believe only Sakura's parents knew before now." He pauses for a moment, before realizing he left out the thing Iruka was probably really worried about, and adds on as an afterthought, "To the best of my knowledge, Sakura herself is unharmed."

The two people he's stuck calling his teammates stare at him, and Sasuke stares back. "Did I forget something?" He knows he hasn't, but clearly none of them are going to say anything and he has no idea why they keep staring.

Natsu reacts first, chuckling a little as he glances between Sasuke and Iruka. "T-that's probably about as much as you can summarize it, yeah. Uh. You don't have to stick around if you don't want to."

Sasuke nearly wants to laugh. "You two were doing such a great job before. Are you sure you don't need help?" He asks as condescendingly as he can, grinning at both of them. Natsu just groans, leaning back against the counter to stare up at the canopy of the ramen stand, as Naruto jumps up again.

"Teme! We were handling it just fine, 'ttebayo! We totally don't need your help!"

"Hn. Well then." He turns to offer the chef a polite bow. "Thank you. The ramen was adequate." He walks away quickly, Naruto practically exploding behind him - he catches a glimpse of Natsu desperately holding the blond back, Iruka scrambling to restore order, and the old ramen chef laughing, calling out a distant, "Come again!" as he walks away.

Ridiculous.

He only said it to piss off Naruto.

Natsu sighs in relief as Naruto finally stops screaming after Sasuke to turn back to eating the rest of his own ramen. Teuchi-san doesn't seem to mind the barely-acceptable compliment, happily collecting the Uchiha's dishes, whisking them away as Iruka settles back into his own seat.

"It seems Naruto isn't the only one who's happier lately…" Iruka muses idly, and Natsu nearly refutes that on instinct, because Sasuke's never happy, with anything, but when he actually thinks about it…

The boy he first met, with his head sticking out the ground, constantly acting as though nothing Natsu did could be even worth the time to waste even acknowledging…

He really has changed since then, huh?

He's just such a jerk I never even noticed the difference!

Naruto hums an assent through mouthfuls of noodles, and Natsu can't help grinning. Sasuke's… like Laxus really, maybe closer to Laxus before their fight in the Cathedral, and he was always family, even back then, but sometimes so hard to get along with - the image of Sasuke glaring up at Laxus before he left the guild springs into his head, and Natsu starts laughing.

"Wha- hey, what's so funny?" Naruto smiles, so clearly happy that Natsu is happy the mage can't quite understand why anyone can hate the kid, demon or no demon.

So he smiles back. "I just thought it'd be a little bit funny to see Sasuke and Laxus in the same room… Laxus could probably get him to throw a fit. It'd be hilarious!"

Naruto stops smiling, face sliding closer to bemused. "You… don't talk about your friends much. From where you were before?"

From back home, is what Natsu wishes he would say, because that's what Fairy Tail is, what Earthland is, they're home, and…

He gets the feeling Naruto doesn't think about that part much anymore, if he ever did.

Natsu doesn't know what to think about that part either, honestly. Because Fairy Tail is where his family is, home in every single way, but somehow, even though he didn't want to, he's started to find friends here too, friends who could be family the way Fairy Tail is family, even if they aren't yet, and…

He can't blame Naruto for deliberately not thinking about what 'fixing' this situation actually means, when Natsu already knows he's going to miss Naruto, and Mebuki and Kizashi and Sakura-chan and even probably Sasuke, when he goes back.

He's not sure on Kakashi yet.

The man sics demon cats on him for fun, after all.

"Natsu?"

Natsu shrugs a little, because…

How does he even talk about them? About home, in a way these shinobi would understand, about their hodge-podge family of misfits and rejects with powers that, as far as he can tell, the shinobi world can't even imagine?

There aren't any clans, and even among mages who study the same magic it's never actually the same, and guilds might be sorta like smaller villages but they're so different too, and…

Sometimes he thinks that if he talks about home too much he might do something ridiculous. Like cry. And like hell is he gonna cry over Gray-!

The teacher-guy, Iruka? Looks at him consideringly. "Did you have a team back home?"

"What makes you think that?" Natsu shoots back, because he's pretty sure this guy's not a mind-reader like Inoichi, and he's pretty good at detecting that stuff now, but he was just thinking about them, and it's creepy!

Iruka laughs a little. "Well, I can't quite imagine someone 'taking on a demon' without one, though I could be wrong..."

The emphasis alone makes Natsu think that's probably what tipped the man off in the first place. He winces just a little bit, laughing nervously. "Ahaha, yeah, we did that as a team… the demon crushed a building and we got stuck with the bill! Can you believe it?! It was utterly ridiculous, and then they arrested Erza 'cause of it, and they interrupted our fight to do it! They could have at least let us finish! It was so rude!"

Iruka blinks, wide-eyed and startled, as Naruto scooches forward. "You mentioned Erza before! She's the scary one, right?"

A cold shudder travels down Natsu's spine, and he grins nervously. "Erza is Erza. Yeah? But- well, Lucy and Gray and Happy are on our team too. Happy's a talking cat!"

"Really?! That's so cool! I know some of the Inuzuka ninken can talk, but I haven't heard of any cats! Ne, ne, have you heard of talking cats Iruka-sensei?"

"Well, if you'd paid attention in your histories, Naruto," Iruka trails off with a grin as Naruto groans in dismay.

"But history's so boring! And you can just tell me! Right?!"

"Oh, I'm not sure, perhaps you'd remember it better if you had to look it up?"

"Iruka-senseeeeeeei!"

Iruka laughs, passing Natsu to ruffle Naruto's hair. "I suppose, just this once… there are a lot of summon clans outside the three the Sannin made famous. There are rumors that the Inuzuka ninken might actually be descended from a summons clan, or that they might have been normal dogs taught how to use chakra by a summons clan, no one outside the family knows which, and even the family might not know, I couldn't say. But you can forge summoning contracts with pretty much any sort of animal if you have the scroll, or if you're compatible and they judge you worthy. Since summon animals live in a different dimension to ours, I'm sure there could be a cat clan, Hokage-sama summons monkeys so it's hardly unlikely."

Natsu's never 'summoned' Happy before, they're partners, but if shinobi summoning calls animals from other dimensions…

"Can you teach me?" Naruto blurts out, grinning. "That sounds so cool! Where can I find a contract-thingy?"

Iruka sighs, dragging Naruto into a half-hug and rubbing his knuckles against the blond's head. "I know I covered this in class! Stop skipping so much! Summons contracts are held by trusted summoners, you don't just find them in a library or something!"

"S-senseeeei!"

Natsu joins into the easy laughter between them as Teuchi-san drops another serving of ramen on the counter. He was pretty worried but…

Naruto's gonna be okay.

Digging into the fresh food, he wonders who he could find that might know the handsigns…

Both of Sakura-chan's parents are home, by the time Natsu leaves Naruto and Iruka to catch up together. He hears them talking inside and hesitates on the doorstep, before glaring and reminding himself that he's known them for a month and he's got no reason to be nervous!

The door opens easily when he turns the handle, and he wonders if they knew he came back today or just planned to go back out.

He wonders if they'd expect him to call 'tadaima!', after being gone for so long, but the words stick in his throat. Sakura-chan's family might want Sakura-chan to say it, but Natsu can't.

The door closes on its own behind him as he methodically slips off his sandals, and Sakura-chan's parents stop talking.

It's Kizashi-san who turns the corner, less casual and more dangerously relaxed than Natsu's seen him act before, and he realizes they didn't know he was back.

It doesn't hurt.

It doesn't!

"Natsu-kun! We hadn't heard you were back yet!"

Natsu grins a bit sheepishly. "I hung out with everyone for ramen first…"

"Really?" Kizashi turns towards the kitchen and sweeps back out with cups of water. "Come on and tell us about the mission, how did it go?"

"Eh…" Natsu hesitates, taking the water and settling into the sofa, not really sure how to start. He takes a sip of water, and a second, before the hem of his outfit makes him realize. "I'll probably need to go shopping again," he groans, thinking about the crazy clothes-maker Mebuki-san dragged him to before. "I totally ripped up the clothes!"

"How did that happen?" Kizashi asks, voice full of amused curiosity, though when Natsu looks up Mebuki looks concerned.

"I got stabbed." He shrugs his scarred shoulder and only realizes seconds after that he should not have said it like that. Mebuki-san leaps up with a yelp, darting over and nearly knocking the water out of his hands as she tries to make sure he's okay, hands lingering over the nearly-faded marks on his face before her eyes lock onto the thin line peeking out from under the edges of his left sleeve.

"It's… okay, really," Natsu offers, only to have his words smothered as she wraps him into a hug, tight enough he's fairly sure Sakura-chan's ribs start to squeak.

When she finally releases him, he grabs her hand, because there are some things more important than his discomfort.

"I haven't really had a chance to talk to Sakura-chan since it happened, so I was going to tonight, and I know we had to leave before you could talk to her…?"

Kizashi walks forward, resting his hand on Mebuki's shoulder. "It's okay. We can reschedule dinner for another night. I'll be upstairs, hm?"

"I wish I could just take both of you," Natsu grumbles under his breath, and Kizashi chuckles.

"If Inoichi-san says it's too dangerous for Sakura-chan's mind, I believe him. It's alright, I'll wait my turn. You two take care, I'll see you after?"

"Sure!" Natsu offers the older man a quick smile, before turning sideways and pulling his feet up. Mebuki-san sits across from him, knees practically touching, and Natsu carefully goes through the handsigns and touches her forehead gently, letting the chakra wash over them, pulling them down into black.

And for the very first time, he smells more than just sakura.

Fire and pinewood and just a hint of magnolia flowers, almost but not quite buried under the pervasive scent of cherry blossoms.