Chapter 43

"Naruto." The voice of Shikamaru was muffled by the front door of Naruto's dwelling within the Guardian Ninja Quarters. A trio of knocks came at the door that stirred the slumbering blonde within from his very pleasurable dream, "Come on. Get your ass up. It's almost noon."

"Go away Shika… take someone else today." Naruto replied from his bedroom, pulling the covers of his bed over his spiky mop of hair and turning over to try and get back to sleep, "I'm still healing from the last mission."

"Your lies suck. You got back from that three days ago and Tsunade told me you were fine. Now come on, we've got work."

"No, you've got work." A disgruntled Naruto finally chose to sit up in his bed revealing himself to be a few years older than he was previously, "You just want me to go with you." Though he still had spiky blonde hair of the same length and the same blue eyes and whisker-marks on his cheeks as ever there were a few changes in his appearance.

His body had grown into that of an average-heighted teenager from that of the shrimpy little boy he had been years prior. His torso had faint outlines of abdominal muscle and his arms had a bit of clear power in them as he sighed and scratched his hair with a yawn as he climbed out of bed in his boxers.

Continuing to yawn, Naruto walked his way to the bathroom and brushed his teeth as he started his shower. Before shedding the last remnants of his clothing and stepping inside he looked in the mirror over the sink, checking himself over before looking down at his belly-button, internally molding some chakra to force the seal that held back his inner demon to form on his stomach, "S'up?" He said to seemingly no one.

"Don't speak to me this early in the morning weakling."

"Stop calling me weakling damn it." Naruto muttered, punching himself in the stomach a bit as if it would hurt the Kyuubi as he began letting the water of the shower hit him to begin getting him clean, "How awesome do I have to get for you to stop calling me weak?" He asked aloud as he started washing himself

"You call it 'awesome' when I have to patch your pathetic body up after every single time you face the slightest hint of adversity? Wow… what high standards for excellence you keep."

"You're such a dick…" Just what was it going to take for the Kyuubi to stop being a jerk to him? He had done everything he could have possibly thought of over the last three years to get its respect. Fuu even stopped in and managed to give him some help. And still it wasn't enough, "Whatever."

He had tried to learn how to work with its chakra, but then it just accused him of relying on it and using it for its power. He had trained himself expressly with the intent to get by purely on his own skills as a shinobi to prove he didn't need the Kyuubi, but that only served to irritate it as well as it claimed that Naruto was just going to keep it imprisoned for no reason as if it didn't exist. Pondering this conundrum during his shower was making his head hurt.

"Useless-human-says-what?"

"Huh?"

"Close enough."

The dark chuckle of amusement from within him let Naruto know that he had just been had, "Ugh… it's too early for this crap." He said to himself, turning the shower off before he heard another knock at his door, "Are you still out there?" He asked loudly as he grabbed a towel and dried himself off.

He could just feel Shikamaru's smirk from behind the front door, "Do you really think standing still for a few minutes bothers me? Now get dressed and let's go on the stupid mission already."

"No. Take Sora. He needs more missions under his belt." Naruto replied as he went back into his room and started going through his dresser to get his clothes for the day. When he heard no response from Shikamaru when it came to his request to take one of their other teammates he rolled his eyes, "…But you're not going to do that because it's just another Naho escort mission isn't it?"

"Yep. And she requested us both specifically this time. She'll know if we send clones again."

Outside in the fourth floor corridor, Shikamaru stood, his hair still in his pineapple-looking ponytail. Over the years he had come to wear a long-sleeved mesh armor shirt and olive-colored pants with his Guardian Ninja sash around his waist. Over the shirt he wore an open black jacket that his hands were currently shoved in the pockets of.

From Shikamaru's side of the door silence reigned in the hall for a few minutes until he started getting a bit antsy. He personally didn't like the 'escort' missions for the daimyo's young relative Naho. She was their age and for some reason found both him and Naruto very cool. The escort missions were really her attempts to get them to take her on glorified dates around the capital city.

Even Naruto's ever-growing hidden inner pervert found her annoying even if she was kind of cute.

Shikamaru knocked again repeatedly, "If you don't open the door I'm going to pick the lock and let Kotoko into your apartment." The threat went as unnecessary as Naruto opened the door fully dressed.

Naruto now wore an orange pair of pants with bandages around the ankles that ran to his black shinobi sandals. Around his waist he wore the sash of the Guardian Ninja group to go with a blue short sleeved armor-knit shirt that fit tight on his person with his clan crest on the back. Over the toughly designed shirt he wore a brown leather harness that held his trusty machete on the back, still with its attached chain and the keepsake bells from his genin days of training with Jiraiya on the grip of the weapon. His arms were covered from the top of his knuckles to his elbows with a pair of blue arm-warmers that covered the business portion of his armguards. One could see the black material of the armguards going over his fists underneath the top of the arm-warmers.

"Let's go and get this over with." Naruto said in a defeated voice, resigning himself to having Naho try to touch and feel all over whatever part of his body she could grab, not limited to his arms in the least. He wished she would at least pick just one of them to crush on and spare the other one, but she seemed to like them both.

At times he felt if he could literally see what the girl was thinking when he caught her staring at the two of them at the same time he'd bring himself to the point of retching because it probably involved lewd acts that they would never do, it was like some kind of reverse-Jiraiya stuff. Naho kind of gave him the creeps whenever she got that certain dreaming look on her face. Noble girl was bored…

Shikamaru watched his friend pull his goggles around his forehead and place a green jewel necklace around his neck as he slinked down the hall in a dejected manner, "Come on cheer up. There's a silver lining around the cloud of being Naho's designated arm candy again today."

Stopping in the hall and turning to face Shikamaru who would usually be even more down in the dumps than himself at having to escort Naho, Naruto gave Shikamaru a deadpan look, "Oh yeah? And what's that? Are you finally throwing in the towel and letting her have her way with you? Kami you're lazy. I always knew that was how you'd end up giving it up."

"No." Even the jab from Naruto didn't get Shikamaru to revert back to back and forth insults with his brother-in-arms, "This is our swan song Naruto." Naruto's eyes went wide as if to ask him if he were serious, "Yeah. The contract is up today."

A grin slowly began to spread across Naruto's face before he jumped victoriously in the air, "Whoo! Yeah, Konoha I'll be back before you know it!" He started running through the halls, still loudly celebrating that this was their last day before they could go home.

And seeing Naruto take off with so much energy seemed to drain Shikamaru's as he palmed his forehead and decided to head down at his own pace, "Upbeat idiot… I swear he's bipolar." He then froze as if he were an animal being stalked down by a predator, and he wasn't that far off either.

"Aw, it's your last day Shika-kun?" The dark-haired musician and all around kimono-wearing psychopath of the Guardian Ninja draped herself over Shikamaru's back with her smile and constantly closed eyes, "Are you sure there's anything I can't do to make you renew your deal with the daimyo."

"Unfortunately not." Three years had given Shikamaru the necessary experience with the woman to take this calmly. Still, despite that, after having seen Kotoko actually work in combat against people she actually had the clearance to kill he still found her to be utterly terrifying. At least he managed to deduce why she seemed so partial wearing such dark patterned clothing.

Because when the blood of her enemies wound up dousing her in battle it could be disguised by all of the black.

He was quite certain that she was the epitome of the original definition of what a troublesome woman was supposed to entail. All the way.

A wistful sigh came from Kotoko as she let Shikamaru go and slipped casually to lean against the wall, tucking her hands behind her back, "Oh well… If there is anyone out there that understands what a contract expiration means it would be someone like me from a clan of freelance mercenary shinobi. I will compose a song in honor of Naruto-kun and yourself."

"You already have like three of those."

"Not of the two of you my dear Shika-kun."

XxX

(With Naruto)

A grinning Naruto jumped down the full flight of stairs from the second to the first floor of the building, having stopped to grab himself a quick bite to eat. Today would surely be bittersweet as he'd have to leave his hard-earned friends here in the capital, but that would give way to being all kinds of just regular sweet when he returned to Konoha.

"Where are you going dumbass?"

Naruto stopped in clear sight of the training ring, pushing himself halfway over the railing to speak more closely to the person within, "Hey Sora." He said before grinning widely, "Are you going to miss your senpai when he's gone? There's not going to be anyone else around here to show you what a real jinchuuriki is supposed to be like."

"Juuha Shou (Beast Tearing Palm)!"

A blue blade of wind flew at Naruto that missed him when he leapt over it and landed on one of the pillars surrounding the training ring with one arm and one foot sticking him there with chakra, a frown on his face, "Seriously, you're going to stop doing that. Don't make me kick your head in again."

Sora was a young man Naruto's age with shoulder length blue hair and brown eyes. He wore the long white uniform of the monks of Fire Temple along with their customary black front dressing that draped over one shoulder and covered most of the outfit. Around his waist the sash of the Guardian Ninja group rested marking his status as one of them. The arm of the shoulder his black uniform dressing sat over had one large sleeve that concealed his right hand, but his left was in clear view and showed him holding up a three-bladed claw with chakra circulating through it.

"You might have vouched for me to be allowed to join the Guardians… but you can't ever get me to like the leftover Kyuubi's chakra in my system so stop going there." Sora warned with a bit of an edge as his eyes drifted momentarily to his hidden right arm.

Still, Naruto was unconcerned. Sora was mostly talk when it came to trying to hurt him and they both knew it. Naruto had way too many advantages, both naturally and in the ninja arts, "Yeah, I understand monk-boy. Just keep the sealing arm braces that me and Ero-sensei made on your arm and you can't have anymore outbreaks. It's on isn't it?"

Sora just gave him an expressionless look and lifted his right arm, letting the sleeve drop to show that his entire right arm was thoroughly bandaged thickly and around the bandages sat multiple metal braces held tight with thick bolts, inscribed with the chakra suppressing seal that was meant to stop berserk outbursts of the Kyuubi's chakra on Naruto, "Do you know how hard it is to take this thing off?"

"Duh." Naruto replied flatly, "I made it. It's supposed to be like that." He then dropped from the pillar onto the dirt floor and punched into the palm of his hand, "But I'm leaving with Shikamaru after our job is done today."

"Are you going to tell Naho that during the escort mission today?" Sora cracked, a sharp contrast from his normal attitude, but when it came to picking on either Naruto or Shikamaru when it came to the clingy noble girl, it was fair game and an inside joke for all, "She might sweet talk the daimyo into mobilizing his soldiers to barricade you two into staying."

"Shika'll find a way out even if he does." Naruto replied semi-jokingly, really hoping that the aforementioned scenario was purely hyperbole for humor content on Sora's part. Naruto had found over the past three years that the Fire Daimyo could be easily swayed by an influential enough force, relying on his ministers and loyal advisors to keep him from being coerced. Well Naho was his family and nobles weren't above using their power for trivial reasons.

A teenage girl's crush was a very trivial reason to blockade the premises and the capital city, but not to someone that usually got everything they desired.

"Do you want one more good spar before you go?" Sora asked, setting himself in the taijutsu stance of the Ninja Monks as he was banking on a yes from his comrade.

Naruto immediately reached for the hilt of his sheathed machete on his back with one hand, grinning as he stood in his own fighting stance with his unarmed arm leading the way, "Oh, so you're a good spar now?"

Before the two could begin to fight, a clearing of someone's throat attracted Naruto's attention to the front doors of the building where Shikamaru stood seemingly waiting, "Come on Naruto. The sooner we get this mission over with the sooner we can come back and get ready to leave tomorrow. You can fight Sora this evening."

Both Naruto and Sora were still set on fighting each other, but the wet blanket of the hour, Nara Shikamaru had a point. The mission came before leisure, no matter how asinine the mission was, "*sigh* Later…" Naruto said as he trudged over to the door and Sora returned to his own daily exercises.

XxX

(A Few Days Later – Konohagakure no Sato – Hokage Tower – Hiruzen's Office)

"He should be here any day now you know." Jiraiya said, leaning against the side of one of the bookshelves in his village leader's office, "When I told him I'd be getting here before he would a week ago he told me to tell the old man that, 'When he got back he'd be kicking your ass and taking that hat.'"

A hearty chuckle came from Hiruzen as he sat in his chair looking out onto the village. While it seemed an unassuming act, the fact that he was willing to sit with his back turned to the door and to the only other person in the room showed the amount of trust he had in Jiraiya, "You know, these days I'd more than likely welcome such a thing. Koharu and Homura are getting on my case to find a successor."

"And?" Jiraiya responded with a raised eyebrow.

"There are many strong shinobi within these walls Jiraiya, but Hokage material?" Hiruzen said before a frown adorned his face, "I need to see more. You are still the number one candidate. You know this."

"Yet I still don't want the job." A sighing Jiraiya said. They'd been through the same song and dance for years now, "Sarutobi-sensei you know I'm not cut out for being Hokage. I'm not that guy. Someone will step up soon. And if not, hey, you're no older than the Tsuchikage and he's still squatting his gnome frame in his chair." At least he was able to get a chuckle out of Hiruzen with that last statement as he himself started looking out the window at the village as well, "Kami, this place never changes does it?"

"Let's hope it never does for a long, long time." Hiruzen remarked as he gazed upon his beloved village.

XxX

(Elsewhere in Konoha – Hot Springs District – Amaguriama)

At a small shop frequented by many passing by for its sweets and beverages sold within clear view of passersby that could select what they wanted almost on the go, out front on one of the benches sat a pair of Konoha kunoichi. This was actually a very common thing as many kunoichi visited the shop for its goods, but the people of interest happened to be the two kunoichi sitting there on this particular day.

On one particular bench outside of the shop itself sat a young woman sipping a sweet drink. Her long blonde hair sat in a ponytail that went down to her waist with a red clip in it, her blue eyes shut as she enjoyed her beverage. She wore a purple sleeveless blouse that buttoned up the front that showed her developed curves and exposed her midsection, no more bandages concealing her exposed body and fishnet covers on her elbows and knees. She also wore a purple apron skirt that was open in the front with a shorter black skirt underneath it and fishnet shorts beneath that still, black sandals down on her feet.

Next to her sat another girl with a more womanly figure that complimented her growth in age. She had long pink hair, green eyes, a sleeveless red top, black sandals with guards around her ankles and shins, black shorts, a short pink apron skirt, pink elbow protectors, Her headband was done up in her hair to frame and accentuate her face in order to attract attention away from her forehead, "So Ino-pig… fought Hinata lately?"

Ino stopped drinking after fixing Sakura with something of a glare and replied handily, "They're not fights Forehead… they're just spars. Friendly training between comrades." She defended rather weakly on her own end.

"Uh huh." Sakura said before taking a bite of her rice cake from Tsuchi no Kuni, "Is that why you two aren't allowed to 'spar' without supervision from someone that can stop you two from maiming each other? I could just feel the camaraderie when I saw your face after the last time. What the hell happened? It's like night and day with Hinata these days. What'd you do?"

"I blame myself for starting this again…" Ino muttered quietly to herself so that Sakura didn't hear her. She didn't need her best friend to know that she had repeated the cycle of fighting over a boy only in a more subtle manner with a different girl. She'd never hear the end of it if that bit of information broke, "Well at least we can talk to each other and work together. We're not always at each other's throats… just when it's convenient."

Well it was more than could be said when Ino and Sakura were in their little one-upping phase back in the Academy so there was that. And there wasn't any need to dwell on such a thing on a beautiful day like the one they were out and about in.

Noticing Ino's sigh of comfort, probably at not having to work that day, Sakura brought that topic up to talk about, "It's nice not being busy for once." She noticed a slight growl come from Ino at that statement, "And now you're upset. I'm sure you want me to ask you why."

"The Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force is the worst job…" Ino remarked with disdain at her current job, "I'm the only girl in there, none of the guys are worth a damn to look at, I hate the stupid grey uniform I have to wear… I mean, it's totally not cute at all. I can't even make it look good. I only really joined because daddy wouldn't let me learn any of his mind reading techniques unless I did." And now she was sorely wishing for an excuse to quit after six months. She liked doing missions way more.

"So… quit." Sakura commented, taking a sip of her own drink as the two girls continued to converse, "I know, you can work in with me, Chouji, and Sasuke-kun if you really want to. Ever since we all got promoted Kakashi-sensei doesn't come with us on many missions so we usually have a free spot open that we have to fill."

"I guess…" Ino said, though she didn't sound that excited about it.

In truth she had been working with Team 7, Team 8, and Team Gai as they were the closest groups to her in Konoha, and she had led teams of her own over the last three years, but in the end it just wasn't the same. How many people could say that their first team was as good as hers was? It was just unfair to compare any other team to her original one, but she simply couldn't help it.

"Well don't sound so happy about it." Sakura said, rolling her eyes as she finished her drink and saw that Ino was through with her snack and beverage as well, "Come on. Today's a day to relax and I say hot springs. Let's go." That sounded as good of an idea as any at the moment and the two girls got up to make their way to the baths.

XxX

(Sometime Later – Konoha Hot Springs District)

It was a familiar scene, if anyone knew that much about just how common an occurrence this happened to be, as Jiraiya sat crouched on a roof overlooking the women's side of the hot springs from a distance via the use of his trusty telescope.

The lecherous grin on his face didn't drop even as he felt a familiar presence land behind him, "I knew you'd get back sometime around today." He commented matter-of-factly before taking note of the silence and letting out a sigh while shaking his head, "You didn't tell Tsunade-hime or Shizune that you two left did you?"

A few seconds later, Naruto crouched down right next to Jiraiya with a mischievous smile on his whisker-marked face, "Nope. I want to see how long it'll take for her to realize we're not there and if she'll come back here when she does."

"She'll come back." Jiraiya said full of certainty on the matter, "She'll come back just to punt your ass over the monument for getting one over on her when she realizes you're not there anymore. Kami kid… you're so dead."

"Tsunade-baachan loves me too much to kill me." Naruto responded confidently before realizing that this wouldn't stop her from trying to hurt him. It wasn't like she didn't know without a shadow of a doubt that he could survive it, "She doesn't know where my apartment is does she?"

A shrug came from Jiraiya as he continued to peep through his looking glass with no shame whatsoever, "Shizune does, and that's the same thing. Speaking of houses I'll bet your lazy-ass friend went home." Naruto nodded, not that Jiraiya could see. Shikamaru trudged his way home right the second they walked through the gate, "Why didn't you go home?"

"Because I don't want to sleep, and it's not like my house changed any while I was gone." Naruto defended, standing up on the roof, crossing his arms over his chest almost childishly, "I want to see the village again, and maybe catch up with some friends… but I haven't found any yet." They must have had missions.

Fully understanding Naruto's desire to want to see his friends again after being gone for so long, Jiraiya let out a humming noise of thought, "Well that's sensible. You should definitely do that, as long as you go see Sarutobi-sensei when you get the first chance too. Fancy a look before you go?" He offered nonchalantly, holding out his telescope for Naruto's benefit, 'Come to the dark side boy! You've been halfway there for three years already! Join me!'

Naruto just gave Jiraiya a deadpan stare in return that actually got the man unnerved a bit at how dull it seemed to be. At least it did until Naruto's arm robotically moved towards the scope and grabbed it, his body turning towards the hot springs visible in the distance to glance at it through the device, adjusting its distance accordingly, "Twenty seconds, and that's all. That's not even enough time to focus the-. Oh sweet Kami…"

Yes! Yes! Jiraiya was beside himself at this point, feeling victory running through his mind. All it would take in addition to the years and years of wearing down his defenses was some time away from the village to drive home the final fact into Naruto's skull that there was no place on the face of the planet with more beautiful women than a hidden village.

A hand planted itself on Naruto's shoulder from his proud teacher. While this might have been just a baby step towards the crevice of the lecher that he wanted to drive Naruto towards, it was still a huge victory, "They don't build women like that at the capital do they kid? You've only been around five kunoichi regularly for the past three years. Welcome home."

Naruto nodded and kept staring despite the fact that his mind was screaming at him that it was wrong, "…It's good to be home Ero-sense-." He stopped and his eyes widened, jaw dropping as well.

Jiraiya wondered just what Naruto saw because he immediately stopped peeping and turned to walk away with that same stunned look on his face that had never fallen away, "What's the matter? What'd you see? Give me the telescope back."

'Oh… Ino-chan definitely grew up. Sakura did too, but… seriously, Ino-chan's got to be sporting C's at least. Damn you sensei… I shouldn't be able to tell that from this far away.' Naruto thought to himself at the showstopper he had just borne witness to. What exactly were the chances of that being the first time he saw Ino upon his return; losing her towel and getting into the hot spring? That had to be some kind of foreboding. He tossed the scope back over his shoulder to Jiraiya who caught it as Naruto continued to walk away, "I'm… gonna go do stuff. Later Ero-sensei."

Watching his latest student disappear in a swirl of wind and leaves, Jiraiya just shrugged and left to find another spot to get a good look from. The never-ending search for proper research material had to continue.

XxX

(A Few Hours Later – That Evening – Naruto's Apartment)

Well he had spent some time traversing about the village, getting his lay of the land back and endeavoring to visit Hiruzen in his office as requested by Jiraiya to be returned to active duty and to just say hello to the old man. After sharing a warm greeting, Naruto told him to keep that hat and those robes handy because it was only a matter of time at that point before they became his.

From there he visited his mother's grave and talked to her for a bit about some of the things he had done over the last three years as he touched it up and before he knew it the sun was preparing to go down.

After grabbing a meal at Ichiraku Ramen where he said hi to Teuchi and Ayame, he figured that then was just as good a time as any to head home and get himself settled back in. The place probably needed a damn good dusting after years of negligence… thank goodness he had clones to do that manual labor for him.

As he reached for the doorknob he stopped and palmed his face before digging through his belongings and cursing at the fact that he didn't have his key. He forgot that he had given it to Ino so that she could watch his place until he came back, "…So now I've got to run over to her place just to get the key." After what he had seen earlier that day, he didn't think he could stand in front of Ino and keep up eye contact.

But it seemed to be unnecessary as he grabbed the doorknob and turned it to find that it was unlocked. He blinked confusedly at that before pushing it open to find the lights on, his curtains keeping him from seeing this outside.

Naruto walked inside of his home and sighed in contentment as a wave of nostalgia washed over him. Yeah, he was definitely home.

Looking around the place, Naruto walked over to the windowsill by his kitchen sink and marveled at how good the plant he had been growing there looked. It was looking healthier than it happened to look when he left, and even then he had taken good care of it.

A soft gasp came from behind him, diverting his attention away from his plant as he turned around and looked across the room at the very grown up Yamanaka Ino who seemed to be in shock as if she had seen a ghost, "Wow…" She said quietly, and were it not for just how quiet the apartment was he wouldn't have heard her at all, "…You're back. Shika's here too isn't he? In the village I mean."

"Yeah…" Naruto said rather lamely, not knowing what to say at that moment. Seeing Ino with clothes on, it was still hard to keep the memories of what she looked like without them from pushing forward, but he kept his head for the most part, "Damn it, it's good to see you again." He uttered as the first thing that came to mind.

Hearing him say that put a small smile on her face as she walked forward and paced around him to get a good look, "Well look who decided to go and get taller than me." Not only that, not only the change in clothes, but he had an air about him that she only got from certain shinobi like Neji or Sasuke, or most experienced combatants that showed they had seen their fair share of fighting.

She wondered if he'd talk about some of it, but that could be saved for later. What had gone on then during his contract with the daimyo was not important. What was important was that Naruto was back, Shikamaru was back, and that meant that they could be a team again.

Walking in front of him again, Ino simply threw her arms around Naruto's neck and hugged him closely, "Kami, it's so good to see you again you big yellow-headed dummy." She let him return the gesture before pulling away to look him over fully, "You could have wrote more letters you know. I mean five letters in three years? Really?" And he could have sent some damn pictures, because seeing him again as he was turned out to be quite a shock to the system.

Likewise for Naruto, but that was another thing altogether. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as Ino walked over to his table and sat down on the corner of it, "Aw come on. Using Shizune like a messenger wasn't fair. She had her own friends to come see when she came back to Konoha."

Playing as the go-between for kids couldn't have been fun when she had been asked to do so. But against Naruto's pleading eyes she was a total softie… until puberty slapped his physiology across the face and he got too old for that to work.

Ino glanced at him skeptically and blew the bang of her blonde hair from out of the way of her right eye before smirking and posing for him provocatively while still sitting on the edge of his table, "So Naruto… do you think I look different now?"

'Yes! Yes! Kami yes!' The little voice in Naruto's head shrieked, but for once he didn't say the first thing that came to mind. Doing such usually got Tsunade to punch him across the daimyo's property or got Kotoko to chase him with her shamisen wind blades, "Well you still look like the Ino-chan I remember." He said, getting a frown out of her before he continued, "But wow… you seriously grew up."

Apparently his mind still had enough spontaneous control to get that much out of him involuntarily.

"Aw…" Ino said, hopping off of the table to walk over and pinch Naruto's cheek, "I'm so happy you think so." She grabbed him by the hands and forced him to sit down at the table before taking a seat across from him, "So come on then. You've got a lot to catch up on and there's no time like the present for it. It's time to get you up to speed."

Blinking in confusion at just what he needed to know that he couldn't pick up via walking around and running into certain folks, Naruto simply shrugged. It wasn't like he was against the idea at all, but he figured that Ino would much rather go home and allow them to pick this up the next day once she would be able to wrangle Shikamaru up as well and kill two birds with one stone, "Alright. So tell me what's new?"

He should have known that once he got Ino started it was simply impossible to stop her. Yamanaka Ino with over three years of pent up gossip that had yet to be told to someone close to her? It was to have been expected that the two didn't part ways that night until well after midnight.

Well, some things didn't change at least.

XxX

(Border of Cha no Kuni/Hi no Kuni)

As peaceful as things would seem at a first glance in the tranquil night along the infinitely forested countryside, things were never as calm as they appeared on the outside.

Swiftly moving shadows darted through the trees in hot pursuit of another that was further out in front of them and steadily pulling away in a remarkable fashion. This was made even more impressive by the fact that the person under pursuit had been on the run for over three days prior to this point and still seemed to be able to move at such a speed.

"Fucking bitch! How's she still moving this fast?" An older, but still similar in appearance and temperament Tayuya blurted out as she continued a chase with twenty Otogakure ninja following the lead of her and her partner, "She actually got out of Degarashi Port lands in one piece! We sunk her fucking ship at the cove outside of town!"

Next to her was an equally older and mostly similar Sakon, who also seemed to be rather impressed at the resilience of their quarry from the looks of the smirk on his face, "Oh come on now Tayuya. How many times have we dealt with her back in Mizu no Kuni by now? Enough times to know that we can't underestimate her."

"She's fucking Kiri trash. One of the ones left over from that idiotic war they were fighting." Tayuya asserted, not willing to give up the thought that the girl they were after was merely lucky to get as far as she had, "Come on already! I'm not the one that going to tell Orochimaru-sama that she got away again… or Kimimaro either." The girl they were chasing was too far out of range for Tayuya's flute-based genjutsu to take hold of.

The thought of their target's escape wiped the smirk off of Sakon's face as he certainly didn't want to deal with Kimimaro after failing a mission. They had managed to kill the rest of her squad that had been sent with them by themselves before they ever made it off of Mizu no Kuni, but this last girl was an annoyingly tough rundown.

Both of them knew just how much Orochimaru loved his bloodline experimentation, and hers was rather unique. Aside from that she was a noted pest when it came to dealing with her in combat as many Otogakure ninja knew by then.

And from where they knew she was going it was of the utmost importance to capture her before she arrived past the point of no return where they couldn't safely follow. It was getting close to that point on the map.

Due to his utter domination of the maritime trade routes after buying up the Oceanside property in that town, Degarashi Port was Oto's gateway to the sea. It was what allowed them to so easily move as many forces into Mizu no Kuni as they could three years ago to begin capturing ninja with bloodlines, something that started Kiri's civil war in earnest as it was done with the Mizukage Yagura's consent.

Along with Ta no Kuni, both Cha no Kuni and the outlying islands of Mizu no Kuni were safe for them to operate in. While most of the Cha no Kuni countryside was safe for Otogakure forces to roam freely as long as they stayed low-key enough that the village communities didn't find them enough of an issue to send out requests for assistance from Konoha, they knew full well that things with the village in question were tense.

Thanks to Kabuto though, they were able to avoid many attempts over the years to find out what they were doing, and Kiri mostly kept itself isolated during its period of domestic trouble.

But now the new regime wanted Oto influence out of their country, and Orochimaru wasn't willing to go so quietly into the night after sinking his fangs so deeply into their lands. He had long been coiled around it, this close to establishing his control over one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, the gem of them as far as he was concerned.

It was far enough away from Konoha that he could anticipate any moves made against him after they figured out how close he was to taking power away from Kiri, but he could still plot his moves directed at Konoha from there with little to no fear of something missing his sight, not with his agents all over the mainland. It was perfect for him.

Thus another secret war was being waged in those lands similar to the one that had begun three years ago in regards to kekkei genkai extermination. One that wouldn't stay a secret for long unless they captured the runner from Kirigakure before she got too far.

XxX

(Two Days Later – Konohagakure no Sato)

Naruto was ready and raring to get right back into the mix of things as far as mission work in Konoha went. He was back, he felt great, and he had a ton of pent-up excitement that he needed to put to good use.

Only he and Shikamaru had made Ino a promise the day before when they had all met up; that they would hold off on taking a mission until she was able to clear her leaving of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force.

Naruto whined aloud for over an hour on how that could take days and he was ready to go right then, but the combined efforts of Shikamaru lazily agreeing to put off work for any reason and Ino giving him the seemingly revamped version of her begging look forced him to give in. Apparently she had three years to practice and refine her technique.

Being in the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force probably helped out with that a lot once he stopped to think about it.

But in the meantime until the green light was given by the higher-ups in Ino's department to let her end her obligatory duties to her current station of work there was the matter of what in the world there was to do around town until then.

"Well I'll be damned. Would you look at who decided to drag himself back to the village after all."

As he walked down the street, Naruto's attention was obtained by the voice of a man calling out to apparently get his notice since it was loud enough to do so. Turning towards a nearby dumpling shop, Naruto's eyes widened and a grin spread across his face as he identified who it was, "Asuma-sensei hey!"

Naruto's old Team 10 sensei looked just the same as ever, not changing a bit over three years. Same old beard, same uniform… same cigarette hanging from his lips, lit and burning away. Yeah, nothing on him really changed at all.

Asuma grinned as Naruto got close and gave him a second to see what had changed about the blonde chunin, "Ha, still taller than you." He chuckled at the frown that formed on Naruto's face at that before he continued the conversation, "So how'd the Guardian Ninja treat you and Shikamaru?"

"Great." Naruto replied in kind, arms posted behind his head in a relaxed manner, "After I almost died the tenth time I started actually liking it there." To be honest, Asuma couldn't tell if he was joking or not because he had a completely straight face the entire time.

"Uh huh…" Came the placid response from the longtime jounin ninja, taking a minute to blow his smoke out of his mouth.

Seeing the smoke reminded Naruto of something, getting him to snap his fingers before he started feeling around on his person, smiling when he was able to pull out a small box from his supply pouch, "Here you go. It's a present from me and Shika. We got these when we had a mission out towards Kusagakure's way."

Asuma gratefully took the box and opened it to find a row of neatly packed cigars inside, obviously painstakingly rolled and of very high quality. With that he then eyed Naruto with suspicion, "Alright kid, how in the world did you find out?" Ino must have read his or Kurenai's mind or something. But how did she even figure to do that? "We just did ourselves and we did a great job making sure nobody else-." He trailed off when he noticed that Naruto was completely and utterly confused as to what he was talking about.

"What the hell are you talking about sensei?" Naruto said, scratching his cheek as he felt lost as to the context of the conversation, "You don't want them?" That was strange. He thought Asuma would enjoy them as special occasion cigars.

So it was just a kind gesture from a pleasant young man. How ironic. Usually cigars were handed out to celebrate the birth of a baby by a father and his friends. For a minute Asuma thought that Naruto was on to the fact that he had gotten Kurenai pregnant recently, but that was just paranoia, "Ahem. Yeah, I want them. Thanks Naruto, I really appreciate it." He said earnestly, stashing them in his own supply pouch for the time being, "I'm looking forward to seeing how much stronger you are now."

"You won't believe some of the things I can do now." Naruto assured him wholeheartedly, "I used to be just plain awesome. Well now I've ascended to a whole new level past awesome… that I don't have a word for yet, but when I get one…" He just let that statement hang in the air on its own, "Either way, Akatsuki can bring it now. I'm ready."

Naruto would in the near distant future be noted to have punched himself in the stomach for such an unapprisedly confident statement when he remembered saying this.

But for the moment, he let his own normal extremely high amount of self-confidence carry him through his first conversation back in Konoha with Asuma, "Seriously sensei, just wait and see. You're gonna be telling your kids about how cool I am."

"Who said anything about kids to you?" Asuma hissed suspiciously, having lunged forward to grab Naruto's harness in a very shaky grip, "Nobody said anything about kids! Who's having a kid here?"

Used to crazy people that were categorized as his friends grabbing a hold of him in a similar manner for saying less over the course of three years, Naruto calmly removed Asuma's hands from his harness and pacified the unstable man, "It's alright Asuma-sensei… it's okay. Man, have back-to-back missions been kicking your ass or something?" He himself was no stranger to the PTSD of nonstop work.

Again, Asuma let out a sigh. Seriously, his whole paranoia over his currently secret offspring was messing with his head and it had only been two weeks since he had found out.

And speak of the devil herself, at that moment Kurenai walked out of the dango shop holding their order, "Well I was wondering what made you walk outside while we were waiting on lunch." Still looking as intimidatingly lovely as ever, she gifted a warm smile towards the youngest shinobi amongst them, "Hello Naruto. Welcome back."

Naruto gave her a big grin in return and waved at her, "Hey Kurenai-sensei. Asuma-sensei's taking you out on a date huh?" He finished, turning a roguish smirk towards the bearded jounin's way, "You really can't say anything otherwise this time, so don't even try it."

Asuma just gave Naruto a bit of a harsh look while Kurenai on the other hand looked thoroughly amused, "…I'm going to take that for now, and then I'm going to take the first opening you give me to make fun of you, and I'm going to drive it straight into the ground." The male jounin of the pair said.

Taking Asuma's 'threat' with a grain of salt to say nothing else, Naruto cleaned out an ear with his pinky nonchalantly, "You make it seem like it's some big issue that I know you and Kurenai-sensei are together. I think it's cool really. I wish I could get a girlfriend as pretty as Kurenai-sensei… that didn't come with serious baggage."

"You're saying that you had a girlfriend while you were gone Naruto?" Kurenai asked, an eyebrow raised in interest for more reasons than just her own curiosity. That would be some interesting news to someone that was rather close to her.

Instead of confirming this, Naruto let loose a shiver of sorts at the topic being brought up, "No… I said a girl without baggage. Every girl I met on the job that 'liked' me was crazy. Shika didn't have that problem… bastard."

"How crazy?"

"'Kill me so I couldn't leave her village' crazy. Or my personal favorite, 'If you don't marry me my father will declare war on Hi no Kuni' crazy." Which was strange because he didn't say anymore than two sentences to those women… and she wanted Shikamaru too.

Nobles…

Good thing the Fire Daimyo had his back though. He would have had no problems starting a tiff with Tsume no Kuni over keeping one of his elite guard free and clear to his own will. The man was loyal as hell to the people he liked, and it was a good thing he liked Naruto.

"That's the bad kind…" Asuma mused while Kurenai palmed her face in response, "Well there are no more crazy international women to worry about now. Just the crazy domestic ones." He got a slap to the back of his head from one of those crazy domestic women who happened to be standing right next to him. Naruto nodded in agreement but stopped once Kurenai gave him a chiding glance.

Well Naruto figured he had held them up enough and was about to let off one last verbal jab at his former sensei before letting them go on their way when he heard a ruckus being raised by shinobi that were clamoring towards one of the outlying gates of the village.

Being their duty to be on point for such things as Konoha shinobi, Asuma and Naruto ran off along with them to see just what the issue was, with Asuma lagging behind Naruto to spare a moment to give Kurenai's hand a squeeze prior to leaving.

As they ran and went past many of the shinobi going to get others in order to respond at the gate, Asuma was pleased to realize that keeping up with Naruto was something of a chore. He actually had to try since Naruto was moving so fast… mostly because he was excited to get into whatever action was awaiting him at the gate.

With no need to slow down for Naruto to keep up with him the way he had to when he was younger, Asuma and his former charge managed to reach the site of the gate entrance ahead of basically anyone else… or so it appeared until they stepped outside of the gates and saw several Konoha shinobi littering the ground in a trail with metal needles sticking out of their bodies.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto ran over to one of them and turned them over after making clones to do the same with others. There was no blood or visible wounds on the man's person, but he seemed utterly lifeless. The same went for the others as well. The closest thing to a fatal wound he saw in each of the fallen shinobi happened to be senbon placed in their necks in very precise spots.

Wait. He'd seen that before.

Like a robot, Naruto stood up and looked down the path where the trail of sorts went off into the forests surrounding the village. Without saying anything and not making a sound as Asuma was busy informing the arriving investigative force of what they found, he took off in a burst of speed directly into the trees to chase down the perpetrator of this incident.

It felt like déjà vu if Naruto were to be quite honest with himself, for more than one reason.

He found another person of Konoha citizenry on the forest floor in a similar manner as the previous ones, only strewn with more senbon than they were; the cost of his attempted pursuit it seemed.

Naruto paid him no mind. If he was right there wasn't anything to worry about as far as that went.

But it helped him in the end. In slowing down to put away the persistent previous pursuer, it allowed Naruto the time to catch up and close enough of the distance between them to get sight of just who he was chasing.

This was close enough to do something about it.

Drawing his machete from the sheath that was harnessed on his back, it became apparent that the chain attached to the end of it ran underneath the long blue arm-warmer on his right arm.

Taking careful aim, Naruto hurled the weapon forward in a long, sweeping arc as he jumped forward and spun in a circle, swinging the chain and revealing it to be extremely long and not seeming to stop its extension at all. The entire time though, Naruto had been channeling his finely honed wind chakra through both the machete and the chain and the moment the chain touched the trunk of a tree, it was clear just how much he had progressed.

He wished Asuma could have been there to see it so he could get his opinion on it.

"Setsudanki Hassha (Slingshot Guillotine)!"

Because the metal chain and the machete cut right through the tree trunks in a perfect semi-circle. If one were to be looking from directly overhead with a bird's-eye view it would have looked like a counterclockwise hand of a clock clear-cutting the landscape, before the chain retracted back to Naruto instantly.

Catching his machete back into his hand, Naruto stood upon the stump of one of the trees he had cut into two segments as he looked out at the opposing ninja that he had been chasing.

They wore dull colored body armor tougher than a flak jacket that even protected underneath the groin area. Underneath that they wore a black bodysuit, the sleeves of which went into grey fingerless gauntlet-gloves. They also wore black shinobi pants, sandals with shin guards, and on their face a porcelain mask with thin curved eyeholes, a red wavy design in place of the mouth, and the symbol for Kirigakure on the forehead. Long black hair was held up in a white bun-holder with the exception of two bangs framing the face.

'This can't be who I think it is.' Naruto thought to himself. He didn't want to just categorize all hunter-nin under one particular person that he had met years ago. But that mask.

They didn't make masks of the same type in that design right? They had to use them as some way to identify the separate shinobi beneath them somehow didn't they? Having hunter-nin was a Kiri thing so he didn't know much about their protocol.

Even so, this person had attacked village comrades on gate duty and he couldn't let that slide. They didn't seem to be surrendering at all.

"What did you attack the guys out front for?" Naruto decided that it couldn't hurt to just ask. A fight would make it really hard to get answers, so nothing ventured nothing gained in this instance, "You can't be trying to destroy Konoha can you? You're just one person." He hadn't sensed anyone else around during the chase at least.

He heard the person murmur behind their mask but he couldn't particularly hear them to make out what they had said.

At a second glance though, the person looked like they had been through hell. The armor had smudges of dried blood on it from something that had obviously happened way before that day, their fabrics were torn and ruffled, and the hunter-nin's entire body was shaking steadily, especially at the knees.

Thus he decided to take a more internal look and focused intensely on the person directly in front of him, pulling his goggles up over his eyes to help him do so. Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu (Chakra Echolocation Jutsu) had taken a step up as far as Naruto was concerned, allowing him to actually feel a person's vitals; such as the beat of a heart or their flow of chakra.

And his little scan brought up some alarming facts, "Holy crap, how are you still walking around like that?" Naruto asked aloud in an alarmed manner. It was actually the weakest response pulse he had ever gotten back from a living person that was still standing. The feeling he had received was usually received for the dying.

He still couldn't hear anything but the soft murmurs from behind the mask and he couldn't tell what was being said, but the person wasn't aggressive at all. Maybe it was because he had put up his machete by this point, not seeing the use of attacking someone so hurt anyway.

At that moment, a dozen of Konoha's finest sprang from the forest behind Naruto into the cleared out area, standing with him as they had their kunai and weapons drawn. Before they could lunge into action, Naruto moved preemptively and jumped between them and the hunter-nin, stopping them all right there from approaching further, "Wait!" Naruto shouted as he blocked the foreigner from harm with his own body.

They all drew to a swift stop before anything catastrophic could happen, though many of them were noticeably and understandably heated at Naruto for his actions, "Naruto move! This person killed our ninja!"

"If I'm right about who it is then no they didn't…" Naruto tried to reason, still using his body as a shield, "Look, let me just see something okay? We've been here for a few minutes and we haven't fought at all. Just trust me. Please."

They stopped because if Naruto was wrong the ninja behind him would have killed him or used him like a shield by then. They all lowered their weapons and gave their silent consent to allow Naruto to do whatever he was planning on.

Giving them all a grateful smile, Naruto turned around and put his hands on the shoulders of the hunter-nin. He snapped his fingers in front of the masked face before finally moving his hand to remove the concealing piece of porcelain. What he found behind it got him to smile slightly, "Long time no see… Haku-chan."

He'd never forget that face, but now it was paler than was healthy for a person which he expected from what he had sensed from her. Her eyes were completely expressionless as it was a case of the lights being on but no one being home. Despite being able to stand and do all that she had done since arriving at the gates of the village she had been unconscious the entire time.

A sigh escaped Naruto's mouth as the very docile Haku collapsed and would have fallen from where they were had he not caught her beforehand. He looked up at everyone else that had gathered closer after her collapse and explained, "She's an old friend of mine."

At that point, medics that had caught up managed to inform the lot of them that the defeated ninja were indeed still alive as Haku had merely placed them in a false-death state. This got a lot of them to calm down, but rules were still rules, "We've got to interrogate her after all of this." One of the jounin in attendance said.

"I know." Naruto replied, really not wanting to hand Haku over to the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force. Maybe he had a way to keep things from being as bad as they could be though? After all, he did know someone that worked there, "Well I caught her, so I want Yamanaka Ino to interrogate her."

But what was Haku doing there in the first place? And who did all of that damage to her to begin with?

Jutsu List

Setsudanki Hassha (Slingshot Guillotine). Taijutsu, kenjutsu, chakra flow, offensive, mid-to-long range. Naruto hurls his machete in a wide sweeping pattern, keeping control over it via a very long chain that extends from underneath his right arm-warmer. Naruto's use of chakra flow to funnel wind-based chakra through the two metal tools turns them into a sweeping reaper, cleaving clean through most things that come into contact with them in this manner.

Ongoing Stats (Out of 5)

Post-Three Year Timeskip

Guardian Ninja

Sora

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 3.5

Genjutsu: 2.5

Intelligence: 3

Strength: 3

Speed: 3

Stamina: 4

Hand-Seals: 2

Total Score: 24

Konoha Ninja

Team 10

Uzumaki Naruto

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 4

Genjutsu: 2

Intelligence: 3

Strength: 4

Speed: 4

Stamina: 5

Hand-Seals: 3.5

Total Score: 29.5

Nara Shikamaru

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 3

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 5

Strength: 2.5

Speed: 3

Stamina: 3

Hand-Seals: 3.5

Total Score: 27

Yamanaka Ino

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 3

Strength: 2.5

Speed: 3

Stamina: 3

Hand-Seals: 3.5

Total Score: 24

Sarutobi Asuma

Ninjutsu: 4.5

Taijutsu: 4.5

Genjutsu: 3.5

Intelligence: 4.5

Strength: 4

Speed: 4.5

Stamina: 3.5

Hand-Seals: 3.5

Total Score: 32.5

Kirigakure Ninja

Haku

Ninjutsu: 4.5

Taijutsu: 1.5

Genjutsu: 2.5

Intelligence: 4

Strength: 2

Speed: 4.5

Stamina: 2.5

Hand-Seals: 4.5

Total Score: 26

And that's that for now. Rather slow, yes, but Naruto and Shikamaru are back in Konoha. There were a few character interactions, and I've set up a bit for what's to be the first big happening of the post-time skip period. Like I believe I said before; Orochimaru and Gato are actually going to be bigger deals than they were allowed to be in canon because I find them to be very good villains, and we're going to have Akatsuki too in some big three-way swirl of violence and treachery with sides against each other and double-crossing and whatnot.