Chapter 2

AN: Holy shit! I expected that you people would like the chapter, but man! The responses blew all my expectations! Now I'm getting kinda nervous about disappointing you guys. But I did say that I would try my best, so I won't back down from that.

For those of you who noticed it, yes, I did bring some real taekwondo kicks for Naruto's taijutsu. I really am a big fan of Scott Adkins martial arts stunts, and I was kind of inspired. I'll bring some more when I can.

I've got quite a few complaints about the OC and the name though. I won't remove him from the story. I also won't change the name. I'm quite confident in my writing so as to not confuse the readers. As long as you can keep track of a conversation, you won't get confused.

Also, I know that Kurama can give his chakra to others, manifesting it in a form of a cloak. But I'm a bit surprised and frankly, disappointed that no one picked up the reference from how Naruto froze Jiraiya by trapping him in his own energy.

Anyways, I've said enough. One last thing, I hope ya'll are keeping safe.

That said, let's move on to the story!

The sun rose up ever so slowly over the hills, casting its glow over the earth. Wildlife slowly woke up from their sleep, getting ready to hunt for the day. It was the kind of day that was rather rare, but the feeling that anyone would get was always positive.

Such was the case with the shinobi sleeping in a tent by the riverside. Jiraiya kept snoring away like a pig, never having cared whether his heavy snoring would disturb other people in the vicinity. Naruto had heavily stuffed his ears with cotton, for Jiraiya might very well be running a chain saw right next to him, his sensitive hearing not allowing him to ignore the snores.

Haruto was in the same boat as his cousin, his ears almost overflowing with cotton. At first, he was quite annoyed when he slept with Naruto and Jiraiya for the first time since leaving with them. But due to the fear of being left behind because he annoyed them, he kept quiet. It was Naruto who discovered his problem and silently offered a solution. Since then, both the Uzumaki slept peacefully as if Jiraiya wasn't even there.

The sun rays hit the wall of the tent, causing it to glow a little. Naruto's eyes crinkled as the light hit his eyes, fluttering open slowly. He released a groan as he pulled the covers over his eyes, wanting to sleep only a little more. He had been experiencing quite a pleasant dream of being back with Temari, in their bed and trying out a new move that he-

His eyes snapped open and he shot up like a spring.

That's right! Today's the day we go back! I get to see my Temari again!

The mere thought itself had him vibrating in excitement. Shooting up from his bed, he exited the tent to go over his morning rituals. Knowing Jiraiya, he would be up shortly. And that man never allowed anyone to sleep once he had woken up. He was stingy like that.

In his excitement, it took him a mere fifteen minutes to get ready. Just as he was tying up his headband, he saw Jiraiya exiting the tent, Haruto following shortly. He greeted them cheerfully, knowing it would only annoy Jiraiya more. "Top of the morning to you, ero-sennin!"

Jiraiya grumbled, eyes still droopy and posture still a bit stiff. "Kami, it hurts to even look at him. Where does he get all that energy?"

While Jiraiya was still a bit graceful in his walk, Haruto was more or less wobbling, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Geez Naruto, how can you be so cheerful so early?"

Naruto adjusted his arm bands a little. "We get to go home today! How can you not be excited?!"

Haruto gave a small, sleepy smile. He was excited in his own way, because he would finally have a proper home for the first time in his life, close to his family. He started walking towards one side of the riverbank when Naruto called out to him. "Jiraiya's on that side."

Without a word, he turned and walked the other way. Just as he passed Naruto, the blonde heard some muttering. "Definitely don't wanna see that."

Naruto watched with bemusement as his cousin walked away to complete his morning rituals. Out in the forest, they were never a problem for him, but that was because he had marked a public restroom in the nearest town. Turning around, he set to pack up their camping supplies.

He couldn't wait to everyone back home.

XXXXXXX

Tsunade sighed as she filled out her signature on another paper. Honestly, she knew that the job of the Hokage was taxing, but she was beginning to wonder whether her grandfather and granduncle got killed themselves in the field just to get rid of the damn paperwork.

It also did not help that her sensei kept smirking whenever he visited her and saw the pile of paperwork. He always vanished before she could ask him what was so damn funny.

A knock on her door interrupted her from her musings. "Come in!"

The door opened to reveal her apprentice, Sakura. Tsunade was proud to say that Sakura had grown a lot in the past three years. Ever since she told the remaining rookies that Naruto had left the village to train with Jiraiya, every single one of the rookies had thrown themselves into training, determined to close the gap between them and their friend.

But Sakura was the biggest surprise of all. At first, Tsunade was slightly taken aback when Sakura had come to her and asked her to be her apprentice. At first, Tsunade wanted to refuse, excusing that she already had Shizune. But it was the determination in the pink haired girl's eyes that got to her. Curious as to why Sakura was so determined, Tsunade agreed to train her. Only over the years she came to learn why Sakura was so determined to improve herself.

She wanted to prove herself worthy of being Naruto's teammate.

Sakura walked forward and placed the report she was carrying on Tsunade's desk. "Momo-sensei said that some minor incision adjustments would have to be made, but nothing else that required major correction."

Tsunade picked up the file and skimmed it over. Being the best medic-nin in the world, she had set the bar for Sakura quite high. For every theoretical or practical test, Sakura was required to score no less than 98%. Tsunade knew that she was being a bit more tough on the girl than required, but seeing as Sakura had a knack for the more sophisticated side of Ninja arts, she managed to reach the bar Tsunade had placed for her.

Tsunade put the file back on her desk, nodding in approval. "Well done Sakura. Momo-sensei was right in her remark, but I don't want you repeating this mistake again. Got it?"

Sakura stood up a little straighter. "Hai!"

Tsunade nodded and after thinking a little, she offered her a suggestion. "Take te rest of the day off, Sakura. You've earned it."

Sakura gave a small smile of accomplishment and happiness. She bowed and quickly left the Hokage tower.

Tsunade smiled as she reached for another paper. She didn't know why, but suddenly she had a good feeling about today.

Sakura smiled as she strolled in the crowded market street, picking up the vegetables that her mother had asked her to bring home. It was always good to receive an early off day from Tsunade-sama, because she pushed her hard every day. While Sakura craved rest sometimes, she was glad that Tsunade really pushed her hard. The amount of improvement she had gone through no longer made her feel like she was a weak link in the chain of team 7.

Team 7…..now that I think about it, it has been three years since I saw Naruto. Shouldn't he be returning by now?

XXXXXXX

Izumo yawned as he stared up at the sky with a bored gaze. Beside him, his partner was soundly snoring, oblivious to the world's happenings. Izumo always told himself that being a gate guard was important, since it was their duty to stop any enemy from entering the village.

The truth was, that the only reason he and Kotetsu had chosen this duty was because they were damn lazy.

Pretty much nothing interesting happened at the gate, so there was no need to stay alert all the time. Besides, ANBU were posted here as well, to pick up anything that they might miss.

He caught some movement out of the corner of his eye, both eyes automatically drifting towards it. And then both the eyes grew as large as saucers, his right arm moving to shake his partner awake. His eyes never left the sight before him. "Oi, Kotetsu! Wake up!"

Kotetsu immediately woke up, head darting from side to side to scan for any threat, as was his reflex. Not finding anything, he turned an annoyed gaze to his friend. "What is it, Izumo?"

Izumo said nothing, only pointing a finger in front of him. Kotetsu followed his gaze, and his face adopted a similar expression to that of Izumo's.

Seeing Jiraiya-sama was not a new sight for any of them, but the blonde and the redhead were. They didn't know who the redhead was, but there was no mistaking on who the blonde was.

As if sensing their gazes, the blonde turned to face them and grinned. "Izumo, Kotetsu! Hey, what's up guys?"

It was Izumo who caught his tongue first, grinning back and standing up to greet the Uzumaki. "Naruto! Man, it's been a long time since I saw you! You've gotten big!"

The two of them shared a hand hug. "Growth spurt kicked in, thankfully. How've you been?"

Izumo shrugged. "Oh, you know how it is with us. Nothing interesting."

"The fact that you chose this dull life makes it easier to pity you," Naruto fired back.

Kotetsu finally recovered to reply. "Better than doing something all the time."

Izumo then turned his gaze towards the Sannin and bowed. "Jiraiya-sama."

Jiraiya smirked and nodded back, but said nothing. Finally, Izumo turned to face the redhead, who was eyeing them with a bit of nervousness in his eyes. "So who's your friend here Naruto?"

Before Naruto could speak anything, Haruto stepped forward, extending a hand with a small smile. "Uzumaki Haruto, pleasure to meet you."

That caused a short-circuit in the chunin's brain. "U-Uzumaki, you say?"

The redhead nodded with a smile. Izumo looked at Naruto, who was conversing with his partner. The confusion in his eyes was barely hiding the shock. "Is he related to you, Naruto?"

Naruto turned towards Izumo and nodded. "Distant cousin. Found him in during my second year of training."

Izumo tried to get at least some of his bearing, if not all. "Then it's safe to assume that he's permanently going to live in Konoha, right?"

Naruto frowned a little in thought, then answered. "Yeah, he'll be a permanent resident of Konoha from now on."

Izumo took out a paper from the drawer beneath his desk. "Well, good for you. You need to fill out this form though. The Hokage will have to sign this for you."

Haruto shook his head. "No problem."

Quickly filling out the necessary details, they bid their byes to the gatekeepers and slowly made their way into the village. Haruto looked around in wonder, "Kami, look at this place. The people here look so happy, and the forests…..it feels like the trees themselves are breathing."

Naruto laughed as he put a hand around his cousin's shoulders. "Well, scientifically speaking, trees do breathe." In a softer tone, he continued with a secretive twinkle in his eye, "But the trees of Konoha are special, unlike any other in the nations."

"How so?"

Naruto smiled. "Because they were grown by the Shodai Hokage, Senju Hashirama himself, through his Mokuton. They carry the very essence of his chakra, which was said to be so powerful that its density has yet to be rivalled by anyone else."

Haruto looked amazed by this information. "The Shodai hokage could grow trees with his chakra? I've never heard of anyone who could do that!"

"The Shodai was special that way. Mokuton was exceptional to him, and nobody can replicate it. You would think that only those of Senju blood would be able to use it, but no." It was then the hokage mountain caught his eye. "Oh, so they finally added Tsunade's face to the mountain. My clone didn't see that last time it came here."

Jiraiya smiled. "It must be only at the end of your second year." He then waved a hand towards the Hokage tower. "Shall we?"

As they walked through the village, they gathered many stares from the villagers. The civilians broke out in intense whispers, before not so subtly pointing at the trio. Jiraiya and Naruto gave no indication that they were paying attention to that, but Haruto was getting a bit uncomfortable. Naruto never told him that he was this popular in his own village.

Unknown to the redhead, Naruto was feeling uncomfortable as well, but he was doing a better job of hiding it. He loved his village, he really did, but he never liked it when attention was focused solely on him. Perhaps it was his ninja instincts, because it was difficult to blend in when everyone was focusing on you. He knew Jiraiya had no problem with it. Hell, the man actually lived for attention. That ridiculous kabuki dance of his was meant to divert all the attention to him. The man was the writer of the most famous porn series in the entire nations, which was why men like Kakashi almost worshipping him made sense.

The shinobi, on the other hand, were giving him nods of respect, which he returned with a smile. No doubt they knew of his bingo book entry. Some were even rubbing their eyes like some civilians to make sure that whatever they were seeing was true.

Naruto bit back a snicker upon seeing an old man collapse into his chair, clutching his chest. He leaned over to whisper to Jiraiya, "It's almost as if they can't believe it really is me."

Jiraiya snorted. "Yeah…...more like they might be seeing someone else instead of you."

This time is was Haruto who snorted. Naruto gave his cousin a dirty look before sighing. "Let's hurry up. I want to see Tsunade and get his papers finalized-"

"Naruto?!"

A feminine voice, but not the one he wanted to hear but he knew it by heart, made him turn around. His lips automatically widened into a smile when he saw the pink hair and green eyes. Her hair was still cut short, by her shoulders. She wore a sleeveless version of the red top that she used to wear three years ago. Beneath that she wore black biker shorts underneath a grey apron skirt with knee high shinobi sandals and elbow protectors.

Physical appearance aside, Naruto could instantly tell that his friend hadn't wasted the last three years. It was just her body language that told him.

Finally, she looks like an actual kunoichi.

His smile widened into a grin as he opened his arms for a hug. She was taken by surprise when she noticed that Naruto was a full head taller than her. She stepped back to take a good look at her teammate. It had been three years after all.

Standing at five feet ten inches, Sakura could instantly tell that Naruto was now the tallest member of the original rookie twelve, an inch above Shino, who was the next tallest member. Naruto had cut his bangs into a much more normal hairstyle. His frame had grown wider at the shoulders, and the V-cut of his body had become more pronounced. His muscles had gotten much more defined from the way how well his clothes fit him. He still wore the same jonin uniform from three years back, with the exception of the color of his arm bands. The azure eyes glowed with intelligence just like three years ago, but now they held a level of maturity beyond their age.

Sakura faintly realized that Naruto was perhaps the most handsome person in the entire village.

"You've really grown, haven't you?" She asked in a wry voice.

"I'm not the only who has. I can tell you've been working hard for the past three years, Sakura," Naruto complimented back.

It was only then Sakura noticed the redhead beside him, watching her interaction with Naruto with a small smile. She blushed faintly, partly because of not noticing him earlier and partly because of how handsome he was. He was a redhead, a shade of red that she thought was quite exotic, for she had never seen it before. He had an angular face with purple eyes, two spiky tails hanging in front of his shoulders. "Naruto, who's this?"

The redhead stepped forward, extending a hand. "Uzumaki Haruto," he introduced himself, "a real pleasure to meet you, Sakura-san."

He held her hand a bit longer than handshakes lasted, but she didn't notice that. She was gazing at his purple eyes so intensely that she almost missed his introduction. With a snap, she came back to her senses. "W-Wait, Uzumaki?!"

"I'm a distant cousin of Naruto from Uzushiogakure no sato, home of the Uzumaki clan," he elaborated.

Sakura slowly shook her head, having a hard time believing what she was seeing and hearing. Then again, this was Naruto. All kinds of weird things happened to him. She commented in a dry tone, "Only you, Naruto."

Naruto understood what she was saying, and grinned. "Yeah, only me."

She spotted Jiraiya of the Sannin and watched with a light scowl as he tried to flirt with some women. Tsunade-sama had told her what he was like, and she could only hope Naruto hadn't picked up his bad habits. Quickly forming a bright smile, she asked in a cheerful voice. "So, are you going to the Hokage tower?"

Naruto nodded in affirmative. "Yeah, need to report our return and get his village citizenship finalized. Haruto's going to stay in Konoha from now on." He saw the cloth bag in her hand. "Buying vegetables?"

Sakura lifted the bag. "Yeah, Tsunade-sama just gave me the day off, so I'm just doing some buying for the home."

Naruto nodded with a smile. "Well, enjoy your day off."

Haruto waved at her. "I'll see you later, Sakura-san."

With that, they left, with Naruto dragging an indignant Jiraiya by the collar. Sakura smiled as she watched them walk away. She didn't know there were any Uzumaki left, but she was happy for her teammate that he found a surviving member of his close family. And she had to admit, but Naruto's cousin was just as good looking as Naruto, if not more.

She continued smiling on the way home. She had a feeling that today would be a good day.

XXXXXXX

Tsunade was taking a small break from paperwork, drinking sake from a small cup. A knock on the door interrupted her, and she reflexively spread out her senses. She paused drinking, purely out of shock because there was an obscenely large chakra source, bigger than anything she had ever sensed, standing right outside the door.

Readying herself in case it was an enemy, she called out. "Come in!"

The door opened, and she was thankful that she had put the cup down, otherwise it would have surely fallen out of her hand, shattering on the floor. A very familiar blonde greeted her with a grin and a wave. "Yo Hokage-sama! What's up?"

Tsunade found herself grinning back as she got up and walked around her table to pull the Uzumaki into a hug, not even minding the way he addressed her. In the back of her mind she realized that Naruto was much taller than her now. "Oh, it's so good to see you Naruto!"

Naruto struggled to keep from wincing, because damn, Tsunade was strong as hell, in spite of his enhanced durability. He hugged her back nonetheless. "It's good to see you too. And I'm back for real this time."

Tsunade pulled back from the hug, smiling warmly. "I know. You and Minato could pass for twins at this stage."

Naruto chuckled as he ran a hand through his locks. "I'm pretty sure I look better than him."

They both chuckled at that, and then she noticed the redhead standing behind Naruto. "You must be Haruto then."

Haruto bowed. "Uzumaki Haruto, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade nodded, speaking with slight nostalgia in her voice. "The only Uzumaki I ever knew were Naruto's mother and my baa-sama. It has been a while since I saw a redheaded one, and I wasn't aware that there were any survivors from Uzushiogakure."

Haruto nodded with pursed lips. "Naruto told me what happened to my village. While I'm sad that it happened, it's no use pondering over spilt milk."

Tsunade nodded. "Right you are. However, you must understand that Naruto holds a lot of political power as the head of two clans, one of them being Uzumaki. If there is even one person claiming to be related to him by blood, I have to thoroughly make sure the claim is true."

"I could give you my blood for a DNA test, I suppose," Haruto half offered, half suggested.

"Or we can make this faster easier for all of us if you just show her your chains," Naruto counter proposed.

Tsunade sharply turned to face Naruto, a serious frown on her face. "Chains?"

Naruto smirked and simply turned to his cousin in response, who brought out four, blood red chains from his back. Tsunade watched in awe as they floated around him, the sharp, arrow like tips looking ready to pierce someone on Haruto's command. She had no doubt that they were identical to Kushina's chains in all but color.

"You inherited the special chakra," she faintly murmured, still staring at the chains in utter fascination.

Haruto pulled his chains back, looking satisfied. "Do I pass?"

Tsunade smiled and nodded. "I acknowledge and accept your claim of being an Uzumaki. Naruto already arranged for a permanent residence for you here beforehand a few months ago."

Haruto nodded. "I told him to do that."

Tsunade extended her hand. "For anyone who wants permanent citizenship granted they have to fill out a form by the gates. Did the guards give that to you?"

In answer, Haruto took out the folded form from his pocket and handed it to her. Tsunade went back to her chain and sat down, reading it over. She nodded in approval and spoke. "I'll have your citizenship and residential papers prepared by tomorrow. You have the option of joining the Konoha shinobi forces, if you want to."

Haruto nodded. "Hai."

Tsunade tore a small slip of paper and wrote something on it, putting it inside the form. "I'll prepare an evaluation for you latest by day after tomorrow. Welcome to Konohagakure no sato," she added with a smile.

Naruto then stepped forward, a hopeful expression on his face. "Baa-chan, is Temari…."

Tsunade smiled and nodded. "She's in the village right now. In fact she-"

It was at this moment that the door was knocked again. Naruto spread his senses and couldn't control the grin on his face when he instantly recognized the chakra signatures.

"Come in!"

The door opened, and Naruto turned around to face the newcomers with his cheerful grin. Shikamaru had grown just like he did, only he was a couple inches shorter than him. He dressed more like a chunin now, the vest coming to fit his larger frame. He was still skinny, but at least he no longer looked that he was gonna topple to sleep any second.

It was the second person that caused his breath to get caught in his windpipe.

She wore a black, sleeveless blouse with a collar that wrapped around her neck and a small window for her chest. The blouse stopped just below her significantly larger breasts- 36D, he mused- and was followed by a fishnet that stopped just before her belly button. Her shoulders were bare, and she wore long, dark blue sleeves that reached her mid bicep, with a finger hole. She wore black ANBU pants with small slits on the sides of her thighs, with a holster strapped to her left thigh and black shinobi sandals. Her hair was now worn in two ponytails instead of four, and her face had lost some of the baby fat. Her signature war fan was nowhere to be seen, but Naruto did catch a storage seal on the cloth of both of her wrists.

All this checking out took him less than a second, and his eyes rose up to meet his wife's, which were shining with happiness.

Temari had grown so beautiful in the past three years that Naruto actually failed to bring any words to his mouth.

Temari smiled upon seeing Naruto, her eyes catching his roaming her figure quickly before making eye contact with her. She was internally busting with joy, wanting nothing more to grab his collar and pull him into a steaming kiss. But there were people present, and she had much more dignity than that.

She wanted to laugh when she saw her husband's mouth move, but no words coming out. She was very much pleased with his reaction, finding it rather out of nature for him to not have any words. Instead of laughing, she walked up to him and gave him a warm hug, whispering right into his ear.

"Welcome back, Naruto."

That snapped Naruto out of his daze and he immediately wrapped her up in his arms, in a much tighter hug. Her breath left her in a huff, but she smiled wider and hugged him back equally tight. It felt good to be back in his arms again. Naruto then noticed something as he hugged her tight.

"No bra?"

Her eyes lit up at the whisper in her ears, and she whispered back. "Change of style."

They stepped back from the hug, smiles never leaving their faces and eyes never leaving the other's. Naruto noticed that she was about the same height as Tsunade.

"Ugh, didn't I teach you not to be mushy about this stuff, Naruto?"

The whine came from none other than Jiraiya, who was not even looking at them. "You're just jealous that you don't have a partner to be mushy with, ero-sennin," Naruto easily returned, finally turning to face him.

He finally turned to face his old friend, who was smirking at him. "Finally noticed me, have you?"

Naruto smiled and drew him into a bear hug. "It's nice to see you too, Shika. It's even nicer to see that you don't look eternally lethargic anymore."

"Oh trust me, I just got very good at hiding that."

They drew back, and Naruto turned to face his cousin, who was looking at them a bit awkwardly. "Shika, this is my cousin from the Uzumaki clan, Haruto. Haruto, this is one of my childhood friends, Nara Shikamaru."

Haruto stepped forward with a smile to shake hands. "Pleasure to meet you, Shikamaru-san."

"You too, Haruto-san. I hope we get along."

Naruto then put an arm around Temari, and his smile turned warmer as he gave her a one arm hug. "And this, Haruto, is my wife, Temari."

Haruto gave a deep bow. "It is an honor to meet you, Temari nee-san."

"The honor's mine, Haruto. Now look up, family doesn't act so formal towards each other," Temari smiled, giving her cousin-in-law a quick hug.

Haruto straightened up and smiled. Naruto had been right when he told him that his wife quite beautiful. Haruto himself thought that her looks were quite exotic, her sandy blonde hair and teal eyes. "Naruto was not exaggerating when he said that you were beautiful, nee-san."

Temari turned to smile at her husband. "Is that right? Well, thank you Naruto."

Tsunade clapped her hands. "Well, now that the introductions are over with, let's get to business." She turned towards Shikamaru, "Do you have the documents?"

Shikamaru just put a folder on the table, after which Tsunade dismissed him.

Turning towards Naruto, who was conversing with Haruto and Temari, she addressed him. "Naruto, I want you in training ground 7 in three hours. I want to see how much you have improved."

Naruto smirked cockily. "I thought my record speaks for itself."

Tsunade turned a bit more serious. "While that is true, and I have seen your bingo book entry, I want to see it with my own eyes. You'll be fighting an opponent of my choosing."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. He had a pretty good idea who she was going to choose, but spoke up regardless, pointing a thumb at Jiraiya. "I hope it's not him. I just kicked his ass yesterday, after all."

Tsunade held back a gasp, and Temari wasn't looking any different either. "Y-You beat Jiraiya?"

She looked towards her former teammate for confirmation. Upon his proud expression and nod, she fell back in her seat.

To think he's become capable of defeating Jiraiya. I thought Iwa just put his entry as SS-rank because of Hiraishin, but it seems that it might be true after all.

"Well, in any case, I want you to fight this evening. I want to see just what Jiraiya trained you in," she announced after some thought.

Naruto shrugged, "Fine by me."

"Good. Dismissed!"

Naruto then walked out with Temari and Haruto, happily conversing about how strong she had gotten. Once the door was closed, Tsunade turned to Jiraiya and asked. "Did he really beat you?"

Jiraiya snorted. "Beat me? He destroyed me is more like it. Even sage mode didn't work against him."

This time Tsunade really did gasp. "You used sage mode against him? And lost?"

On his nod, Tsunade let out a slow breath. "Kakashi doesn't stand a chance, does he?"

Jiraiya smirked and shook his head. Tsunade leaned forward and put her chin on her hands. "Tell me everything."

XXXXXXX

"Wow, I thought wind users were pretty rare in Hi no kuni," Haruto commented after hearing how Temari fights.

"They still are. I can count on one hand the number of wind users in Konoha and still have fingers left," Temari replied, holding hands with Naruto and walking towards their home.

"So what did you train in these three years Temari?"

Temari smiled. "I actually finished my training in two years. And I trained in Tessenjutsu."

"But didn't you already use a large war fan, nee-san?"

"She must mean folding fans," Naruto said after a second of deliberation.

"Maybe you can fight me as a warm-up for your evening fight?" Temari suggested.

"Hm, we'll see. We have a lot of catching up to do," Naruto suggested coyly.

"Well, we'll have to be more careful now that we have your brother living with us," she lightly admonished him as they arrived at their house.

Naruto gave her a confused look. "Tsunade didn't tell you?"

Temari narrowed her eyes. "Tell me what?"

Haruto decided to speak for his cousin. "Well, I'm actually going to live separate from you, in a different home."

Naruto didn't flinch when Temari directed her gaze towards him, silently asking why. Haruto continued, "This was actually my suggestion, nee-san. I didn't want to intrude upon your hospitality-"

"It's no big deal. We can work something out-"

"-and your privacy as a couple," Haruto finished with a knowing look.

"…..I see," Temari slowly said, crossing her arms under her bust. "And here I was going to question you about how useful would a private, backdoor hot spring be when Haruto would live with us," Temari revealed, raising an eyebrow at her sheepish looking husband.

"I'd rather call it a jacuzzi, since you can't just build a hot spring. It was actually Haruto who pointed that out to me," Naruto said, scratching his cheek bashfully. "But he only pointed that out when Tsunade informed me that it was finished. He was the one who convinced me that he would find a separate place for himself. That was the reason why I contacted Tsunade to find a place for him near our home."

"Why would you even build one?"

Naruto looked a bit disappointed. "You don't like it?"

Temari quickly reassured him, "No no no no honey, I didn't mean it like that. I loved it, but why did you build it?"

"For one, I missed three of your birthdays, so I thought the gift should be good enough to account for all three. Two, because I simply can. Kami knows how much money we have and I have little idea what to do with it all. Three, I love you, which should be reason enough," Naruto recounted his reasons, giving a quick kiss to Temari in the end.

Temari smiled against his lips, but pulled back before it could get heated. "Well, it was a very thoughtful gift I see."

Naruto turned to face Haruto, who was looking a bit uncomfortable. He made an apologetic expression, "Sorry, that must have been awkward for you."

Haruto waved a hand, "It's alright. It only proves that a separate residence was a good idea."

Temari turned to Naruto. "I'll take your scroll inside, while you show him his house," she offered.

"Or you can come with us," Naruto said, a shadow clone popping up beside him. It took the scroll and vanished. Naruto waved a hand down the lane to the right of their house.

XXXXXX

Haruto's residence was a modest 1bhk apartment half a mile away from their house. After helping him settle into it, they bid their goodbyes and returned to their house.

"Alright, I've got two hours," Naruto said as they went to their backyard's open space. He and Temari faced against each other, a challenging grin on their faces. "Show me what you got."

"With pleasure."

Without wasting any moment, Temari rushed into Naruto's guard, not giving him any time to prepare. Naruto's reflexes were perfectly on point, ducking right beneath the jump spinning round kick that would have taken his head off. Naruto straightened up, only to lean back when the other foot rushed at his face in the momentum of the same spin.

"Not bad at all," Naruto praised, blocking a punch and countering with his own. Temari smirked as she dodged it with a backflip, attempting to kick Naruto's chin with the flip. Naruto avoided that and rushed into her guard, hoping to throw a punch into her gut. He was pleasantly surprised when instead of landing on her feet, like he expected her to, she flipped once more and landed perfectly on her hands and upper back. Naruto formed a cross guard with his hands when Temari attempted to kip up into his chest. The force of the double kick was enough to make him stumble back a step.

He smiled in approval. "That was impressive, Temari! You read my movements!"

Temari smirked as she went back into her stance. "How about we stop playing around now?"

Naruto smirked. "Let's kick it up just a notch. Match goes to the one who lands the first clean hit."

With that, he settled into his stance. He noted that Temari's legs were spread wide, but not too wide. Which meant that most of her attacks would be hand based. Most probably, it would be lightning fast punches or elbow attacks, with some knees thrown in. Leg attacks could be limited to straight kicks, mostly to break guard or create an opening for the hands.

Simultaneously, they both vanished so fast that it was a blur. Their forearms crashed, and the crash pushed both of them back. Just as Naruto expected, Temari's taijutsu focused mostly on the hands. They were very quick, he had to give that to her. Just as he caught her wrist to prevent the punch from connecting to his face, her leg came up to slam into his stomach. Naruto jumped back, but rebounded with a spinning hook kick. The seal enhancements worked in his favor, as Temari was barely able to avoid the kick to her face.

She jumped up, attempting a triple kick combo which Naruto blocked. What's more impressive is that she has yet to break her momentum in the fight, he observed as she used the momentum of the spin to land a punch to his face. That was the opening he needed.

Using his right hand to deflect the punch, he bent low and slammed an elbow to her gut, making sure to hold back his strength. Due to the hit being directly below the sternum, it hurt quite a lot. Temari stumbled back, a hand on where the hit had landed. Naruto rushed to her, landed a side kick/back kick combo that sent her to the ground.

"That was really good, Temari!" Naruto grinned as he walked up to her, leaning down. Temari's hand was glowing green as she used iryo-ninjutsu to lessen the pain. "There was hardly an opening in your form!"

"But there was, wasn't it?" Temari grunted as she clasped Naruto's hand to get up. She yelped, however, when Naruto pulled her directly into a kiss.

There was no other word for it. Naruto ravished her mouth as his tongue entered it without giving her a chance to fight back. It was like a hungry animal eating for the first time in days, or in this case, years. Temari had missed the taste of his mouth just as much as he had missed hers. Her hands came around his neck as they both pulled each other closer.

Naruto relished the feel of her waist, since there was nothing to cover it. His right hand moved back and forth, softly massaging her waist. His thumb pressed against her taut stomach, feeling her abs. He smiled against her mouth as he disengaged the kiss, leaning his forehead against hers. He started landing small, quick kisses against her, talking between them.

"Sorry, I missed that."

"It's ok, I did too."

The kisses did not stop until five minutes later, and even that happened reluctantly. They both stepped back, smirks on their faces. "We will continue this tonight," Naruto stated, as if it were final.

Temari smirked, "I look forward to it. I always knew you couldn't resist me."

"Same goes for you too, dear."

In a flash, she brushed her hand on the storage seal on her right wrist. In a small burst of smoke, two blades appeared in her hands. Only upon a closer look, Naruto realized what they were. Grinning, he nodded to her. "Nice steel fans."

Temari smirked, saying nothing. She folded open the fans, and Naruto had to admit, they were beautiful. A combination of black and teal, they really suited to the color of her eyes. They opened like a lotus, but only half. The shape of the dagger made up the longer blade, while there were small, kunai like blades in the middle.

Very deadly.

"Is it safe to assume that you use them for both close quarters and futon ninjutsu?" Naruto asked her, gesturing to her fans.

"Your intellect frightens me sometimes."

Without another word, Naruto whipped out two of his special kunai in his hands, one in reverse grip. They stood across each other, not making a single move, no doubt studying each other. Temari knew how skilled her husband was in a knife fight, but there were little openings in the way of the fan. Her teacher taught her how to fight not just one, but multiple opponents, close range and far. But fighting Naruto might as well mean fighting multiple opponents at once.

Naruto knew that he was venturing into the unknown. If Temari was any good with those, he would have a hard time against her. Due to the large surface area of the fans, most of the attacks would be slices. But thinking back on how quickly those fans had unfolded from their knife forms, she could fold them back into knives just as quickly.

Naruto smirked, which was the only warning Temari got. Before she knew, she was turning around on pure instinct and reflex, blocking the stab with her fan. A brief flicker of surprise passed in his eyes upon seeing her block his strike, but the smirk remained.

"Nice reflexes."

In answer, Temari brought the other fan up in a slice to his head. Naruto ducked, swiping her legs from under her. Temari jumped over his legs, countering it with a combined swipe from both of her fans with a front flip.

The result of that was it sent both of them flying in the opposite direction. Temari didn't waste any time upon landing; as soon as her foot touched the ground, she swiped her right fan hard to the right. A large gust of wind, powerful enough to be visible, rushed towards Naruto.

Naruto simply charged his legs with chakra and jumped high, letting the gust pass from beneath him. He threw his kunai at her, which she let pass by her head. She then turned around, expecting him to flash right behind her.

That cost her the fight.

"Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions," his voice came from behind her, a kunai point resting on her neck.

Temari's voice was puzzled. "How did you…?"

"Well, I knew that you were aware of how I used Hiraishin, so I expected you to react the way you did, turning to defend your back. Only I decided to stir away from that line this time," Naruto explained, taking a step back.

Temari smiled, retaking her stance. "Nice strategy. Let's see if it works a second time."

Naruto internally was very proud of Temari. He always admired her never-say-die attitude, and it suited her personality very well. Taking out another kunai, he retook his stance. "I don't know about that," he said in a thoughtful tone, completely contrasting with the smirk on his face, "Maybe I'll flash behind, or should it be the front?"

"As if you'll even get the chance," Temari muttered, before launching into offense.

The next five minutes Naruto saw what exactly Temari was capable of now. Her strikes with open fans were very deadly, easily capable of landing fatal cuts or even cutting someone's head off. Her form seemed impeccable, not stumbling between attacks at all. Most of Naruto's attention was on dodging or deflecting Temari's strikes, for she was seamlessly able to switch between folding and unfolding her fans. Whenever he attempted a strike, she would either deflect or block it with her fan, or catch it with the small, knife like window in her fan and follow it up with a taijutsu attack.

Nice to see that I'm not the only one who's made improvements in leaps and bounds. She is easily mid to high jonin at this point, Naruto thought as he leaned back from a strike, flipping sideways to avoid a jump spinning side kick. He threw his kunai right at her, knowing he would have to create his own opening.

Temari folded her fan swiftly to knock away the incoming kunai, as was her reflex, when Naruto disappeared from in front of her. She didn't even finish her curse when a foot connected to the back of her head, knocking her to the side. She got up swiftly, but Naruto was already moving.

He backflipped, landing right on her shoulders. He then backflipped again, this time with her. Temari grunted as she was slammed on the ground, hard. She knew she had lost when there was a kunai resting on her throat.

"I have to say, that was damn impressive, Temari," came Naruto's pleased voice from behind her.

Temari just grumbled as he pulled her up. "How come I didn't see that coming?"

"Come on Temari, that was awesome! There were hardly any openings in your form for me to exploit," Naruto tried to cheer her up.

Temari didn't feel any satisfied with Naruto's cheer, walking to towards their house with a huff, folding her fans and putting them in her storage seal. Naruto internally chuckled- Temari was a sore loser. "The next time, you won't make the same mistake. Think of it this way- I just helped you improve a little," he offered.

Temari sighed. "I'm not upset at you, Naruto. It's just that…I've trained my ass off in those two years-"

"I can see that. It's a really nice ass."

"-and even then you didn't have much trouble in taking me down," Temari finished, turning to face him with an unreadable expression. "You were simply testing me, weren't you?"

Naruto twirled his kunai. "Well, I did want to see how you improved, didn't I? Besides, I did improve as well. I wasn't going to just sit around."

Temari didn't seem very convinced with his reasoning, but accept it with a small smile. "Well, you did beat Jiraiya-sama after all, so I shouldn't be surprised too much."

"Now that that is over," his voice suddenly whispered in her ear, "how about we have some fun?"

Temari jumped in surprise. Just how fast had he become?

Before she could reply, Naruto was already placing small kisses on the side of her face. His hands were roaming her front, rubbing her stomach. She sighed in pleasure, leaning back into him. "I thought you wanted to do this tonight," she breathed.

It was hard for him to pause. Three years going without sex, and now it was coming back to bite him. Temari's scent was driving him crazy, and he wanted nothing more than to pick her up and lock themselves in the bedroom. His waterfall training was the only reason he could restrain himself at this moment.

"Oh, we will, trust me. I going to enjoy every bit of you when we're alone tonight. But I didn't say anything about not making out," he growled before turning her around and picking her up, her legs wrapping around him.

He walked inside, with Temari giggling at his impatience.

XXXXXXX

Naruto arrived on the ground exactly on four pm, with Temari in tow. "So just because the asshole tried to hit on you, you almost cut off his dick?" Naruto asked incredulously.

Temari scoffed, rising to her feet. "Honestly, he should have known not to mess with me when I killed all those bandits single handedly, without a problem."

Naruto whistled. "That's harsh. Pity we can't wear our rings in the field."

Temari nodded, completely agreeing with him. "A pity indeed."

"Why weren't you with a team again?"

Temari shrugged. "I discovered that I like working alone. Which is why I refused it when Tsunade offered me a team to lead. As a jonin working alone, I'm much more efficient."

"But being in a team has its advantages, and you know that."

"I do, but working alone is so much better for me."

Naruto shrugged, not wanting to argue with her anymore. Jonin had the choice of either working alone, or with a team. If Temari preferred to work alone, he wasn't going to stop her. And with how formidable she had become, he would have to worry less about her. It wasn't as if there was a bounty on her head, after all. Expanding his senses, he sensed Jiraiya, Shizune and Tsunade in the trees. No doubt they were here to watch the fight. He lowered the gravity on his person to three times that of Earth, feeling significantly lighter.

"Temari, why don't you join our audience in the trees? Better view from there."

"Sure, why not? Just give me a good show!" With that, she jumped away.

He sensed Sakura coming to the ground, and he turned around. She walked up to him with a smile, tightening some gloves on her hands. "Tsunade-sama called you as well, Naruto?"

"Yeah, apparently she wants to test both of us. I can see who the conductor of the test is going to be."

Just as he finished his sentence, a burst of smoke appeared right next to him. Naruto was shaking his head as the figure emerged from the smoke that cleared away. "I saw that coming from a mile away."

"Considering that you can't physically see that far, I find that to be impossible."

"Kakashi, you are the strongest jonin in this village. Why won't Tsunade send you?"

Kakashi gave an eye smile. "Good point, though I don't know about the part of "strongest jonin" anymore, now that you're here. You've gotten quite tall by the way, Naruto."

"And you're still as perverted as ever," Naruto shot back.

"Come on Kakashi-sensei, Naruto couldn't possibly be better than you," Sakura argued, but then she caught Naruto's smirk. "Could he?"

"I suppose all will be proven shortly," Naruto said in a breezy way.

Sakura still looked doubtful, but didn't say anything. Naruto remembered something, his hand going to his hip pouch and pulling something out. "Oh, before we start, have this."

Kakashi's eyes looked at the cover, and went wide with disbelief. "No way! Is it….oh kami, it is!"

Pocketing the other book, Kakashi greedily opened the newest edition of Icha Icha. "The first one in three years! Oh, the smell of a new book….."

Naruto was a little disturbed by Kakashi's enthusiasm, but didn't show it. Everyone had their ways of getting off, and was Kakashi's eye shining with withheld tears?

"Thank you Naruto…..this is the best gift anyone has ever given me."

Naruto waved the thanks away. "Don't mention it."

Sakura on the other hand, was suspiciously looking at Naruto. "And why were you in the possession of that book, Naruto?"

Naruto held up his hands. "Don't look at me like that, ero-sennin gave it to me."

In the forest, Temari whacked Jiraiya across the back of his head, much to Tsunade's approval.

"And you didn't read it?"

"Alright, that's enough Sakura," Kakashi stopped her there. Once Sakura seemed calmed down, he spoke. "Alright. Godaime-sama called me earlier, informing me that I was to test you two. Probably because she is interested in reforming team7, without Sasuke this time."

Kakashi carefully watched his two former students for any reaction. Naruto simply narrowed his eyes a little, but nothing else. It was Sakura that surprised him. He expected her to slump into depression, or show some sign of sadness, but there wasn't any. Instead, her eyes told him something else. Something unexpected.

Sakura no longer felt anything for Sasuke.

Looks like Tsunade-sama did a really thorough job of beating the fangirl out of her, he observed mentally. He had imagined that Godaime would be a tough teacher, but to stomp Sakura's infatuation for Sasuke out of her?

She must be damn vicious.

"I still can't imagine how the bastard escaped from this village," Naruto muttered, looking towards the sky.

Kakashi sighed, "He was taken when he was being transferred to Hozuki castle for his prison sentence. Short version is, the Konoha ninja were ambushed by an unknown party while on the way to the prison. No one was killed, but Sasuke was taken from right under their noses."

"Why would you even transfer him?"

"Because it's the best criminal containment facility in the world? That place has a record of zero prisoner escapes and to be honest, that's a very good incentive to keep a prisoner there. From what I heard, the shinobi council was in favor of it."

Naruto pursed his lips. "Better than our ANBU here?"

"The prison in our village is not much of a prison than it is a holding facility. Plus, ANBU is susceptible to attacks and break ins, as you have so repeatedly proved when you were younger, Naruto," Kakashi reminded him. Naruto scoffed lightly at that, but didn't deny the claim.

"Please tell me at least you know who took him away."

Kakashi sighed, looking unsure of his answer. "There is no official evidence as to who might have taken him, but we know of one person who had shown a disturbing amount of interest in him."

"Orochimaru."

Kakashi shrugged. "That's what many suspect. Bu as I said, we don't have any proof."

"Anyway, back to the test. At first, it was going to be you two against me, but there has been a change of plans by Tsunade-sama."

Sakura looked confused by his words. "Why would she change it?"

Kakashi put his book away, implying that he was serious. "I don't know the exact reason, but I'm not going to speculate. The test is actually quite simple," he said, pulling out not two, but three bells.

"Three bells, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Patience Sakura. Yes, it will be three bells this time, with two for you both, and one for me," he explained, giving the bells to Naruto and Sakura. "The test is essentially a battle royal, with every man for himself. The last ninja to remain standing with all three bells in his possession wins."

Sakura looked like she didn't know what to make of the test, but Naruto had a smirk on his face. Clearly he was excited. "That's actually rather unconventional of her, but I'm not complaining."

He walked towards Kakashi and held out a hand. "Give me your wrist. I'll remove my mark to make this as fair as possible for you."

Kakashi snorted. "So nice of you," he commented sarcastically, but gave him his wrist. Naruto put his hand on the mark and removed it, revealing unblemished skin.

He then turned around and walked away, putting a bit of distance between them, around 40 meters. He put the bell in one of his vest pockets and then faced both of them, waving a hand. "Whenever you're ready, Kakashi."

Sakura too, put some distance between her teammate and sensei, tying the bell to her hip. She tightened her gloves one last time and gave a challenging smile to Kakashi. "On your go, sensei."

Kakashi chuckled, reaching for his hitai-ate. "Even I'm a bit excited about this. But I have a feeling that I shouldn't hold back too much this time," he said, exposing the sharingan.

That eye won't save you this time, Kakashi, Naruto thought as he put his hands in his pockets.

It was then that the atmosphere in the field changed. Kakashi and Sakura simulatneously tensed, eyes darting towards Naruto, who was intensely staring at the two. His posture was still relaxed, but something about him had clearly changed, something that screamed dangerous.

A bead of sweat rolled down Sakura's cheek. Her fists tightened as she gazed at Naruto's relaxed form. What is this feeling? Why does Naruto seem so dangerous all of a sudden? Whenever he looks at me, I feel like he could beat, no, crush me in an instant. Why? Just how much have you improved, Naruto?

Kakashi was much more practical in his analysis, despite being tense. To intimidate by using one's aura is an extremely difficult skill. I'm not surprised Naruto managed to learn it from Jiraiya-sama. A very effective psychological attack if one has a reputation deadly enough.

Kakashi had been informed by Tsunade that Naruto had beaten Jiraiya at his best. Kakashi knew then and there that Naruto was way out of his league. If there was a shinobi that could beat the strongest of the Sannin, he was among the most dangerous in the world.

"I think we all know that this fight isn't an "each person for himself" anymore, is it?" Naruto questioned in a nonchalant tone.

It went unsaid, but Naruto was right. Naruto's sudden change of presence put all of them on edge, even the audience. Even though it was a test, it felt more like a battle for survival. Humans were afraid of those who were stronger than them. Kakashi and Sakura instinctively knew that in order for either of them to win this fight, they would have to knock off the strongest piece off the board. They both knew from their gut instinct that they couldn't beat Naruto on his own.

It was pure instinct that their bodies angled slightly more towards Naruto than each other.

They both flinched, Sakura more heavily than Kakashi, when Naruto suddenly erupted in smoke. They were instantly looking around, trying to find Naruto, but their eyes returned to the smoke that was rapidly clearing. When it cleared, they were looking at two Narutos.

Dammit, now there's no way to tell which one's the real one, Sakura cursed mentally. She still wasn't going to make the first move. She just couldn't. She knew Naruto would only have gotten faster in the past three years. She couldn't match his reflexes then, she couldn't do it now. It was as simple as that.

In her observation of Naruto, she forgot about Kakashi.

Kakashi was keeping a close eye on both of his pupils. With Naruto having cloned himself in dense smoke, he was unable to tell which one was the real one. He knew if he attacked Naruto, he would no doubt be countered. He had no idea what Naruto was capable of now, and he was unwilling to risk himself in order to find out.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sakura turn a bit more towards Naruto, her expression becoming a bit conflicted.

Even if we were about to team up against Naruto, this is still a battle royal.

With that in mind, he changed targets. Kakashi was trained by the fastest man of all time, Namikaze Minato. So it stood to reason that he was no slack in terms of speed. In ANBU, he was among the fastest, his only competition being Shisui and Itachi. Even now, there were few who could match his speed. With that in mind, he moved.

Naruto was carefully watching his opponents. Sakura was concentrating purely on him, but Kakashi was still keeping her in his view. He knew that neither of them were foolish enough to attack him straight on, but only Kakashi was smart enough to account for Sakura along with him as well. If he couldn't attack Naruto, he would focus on the next one.

To be honest, it really wasn't Sakura's fault to focus her entire attention on him. If he had one of the hokage for an opponent, he would do the same. He had his own agenda, and that was to see how strong Kakashi really was. He was his father's best student, so he would no doubt be quite good. Seeing how far Sakura had come was just a bonus.

His danger sense had been activated as soon as they entered the standoff. His perception was heightened, allowing him to see things in relative slow motion. He moved in the next instant that Kakashi did, and he had chosen his target.

Kakashi had moved in Sakura's direction, hoping to catch her off guard and chop her neck, putting her out of the fight. His sharingan allowed him to see her reaction, but unfortunately for her, she was still slower than him.

His eye widened, however, when Naruto suddenly appeared in front of him, wrapping his arm around her stomach. It was his flash step, and he was still faster than Kakashi.

Kakashi's chop hit nothing but air as Naruto vanished again in his flash step. Inside, he marveled at how fast Naruto had become. The speed at which he had rushed Sakura was close to his top speed, and Naruto had just casually out sped him.

He landed on his feet and instantly turned towards where Naruto was still standing. It could be possible that this one is the real one, seeing as he probably wouldn't send a shadow clone against an opponent that could easily punch it out of existence. But it's purely speculation at this point, he theorized.

"I'm surprised that you saved her. I was about to spare you the trouble of taking her out," he pointed out.

Naruto smiled, taking his hands out of his pockets. "I have my own reason for saving her. But for now," he pointed at Kakashi, "you are going to show me just how good you really are. No holding back."

"I fear that holding back against you really isn't an option, Naruto," he muttered, readying himself.

XXXXXXX

Sakura blinked as she came to her senses. One second, she was standing in front of Naruto and Kakashi. She had caught a flicker of movement from Kakashi's side and was about to react, when she found herself being grabbed and brought here.

She immediately fell into her fighting stance, facing the blonde in front of her. "Kakashi-sensei attacked me, didn't he?"

"I'm surprised you could tell. I thought we were rather fast," Naruto commented, walking to the side.

Sakura kept her eyes on him the entire time. She smiled wryly, "I might be slow compared to you speed freaks, but I'm not that slow. I was just unable to react to him in time."

Naruto circled Sakura like he was a predator, and she was the prey. "So are you the clone, or the real deal?"

Naruto smiled in the way that gave the impression 'I know something you don't' and replied. "Why don't you find out for yourself?"

Sakura smiled challengingly at this. "Don't mind if I do."

With that, she yelled and punched the ground, her fist sinking into the earth. Only, sink wasn't quite the word for it.

Naruto flipped far back, onto the branch of a tree. He found himself restraining a shit eating grin, because Sakura just rearranged a good portion of the earth around them. Large chunks of rocks flew up into the air, with a gigantic crack and boom. Even a few trees were completely uprooted from their place.

"So Tsunade taught you the secret to her super strength. Consider me impressed," he complimented, clapping in praise.

Sakura grinned. This was the first time she felt that she was worthy of Naruto's compliment. "I've got a lot more."

Naruto grinned. "Show me then."

He appeared behind her in a flash step, kicking her away. Sakura rolled mid-air so that her feet met the bark of a tree instead of her front. She pushed herself off back towards him, a punch ready.

Naruto simply moved out of the way, allowing her to roll on the ground and then come back to him. After that, they engaged in taijutsu, with Naruto simply dodging all the punches she threw at him.

His expression went from smiling to disappointed fast, once he saw that she was just punching him. "That strength of yours is useless if you don't have the speed to back it up," he chided her, dodging her hits as if he had all the time in the world.

Sakura grit her teeth as she increased her efforts. He was mocking her!

"Don't let your temper get the best of you," Naruto said as he saw her frustration increasing. To prove his point, he deflected one of her strikes and landed an elbow right in her gut. All breath left her in just a second as she folded in on herself, hand going to clutch her stomach.

Naruto followed his elbow up with a jump, a knee to her chin. Her head snapped back as she stumbled back, ultimately falling to the ground. Sakura groaned in pain as Naruto stood above her, looking at her with a frown.

"Don't tell me that's all you have. Tsunade taught you how to dish it out, but not take it?"

Sakura grit her teeth as she fought through the pain. Naruto's hits were a lot harder than she expected. He reacted so fast that she didn't have any time to brace herself. She eventually pushed herself onto her feet, still clutching her stomach. Her jaw was still rattled from the knee to her chin. "I'm not done yet," she managed to get out.

Not far away from their spot, Tsunade watched with a frown as she saw how easily Naruto put Sakura down. If Naruto were an enemy, he could have ended the fight right when Sakura fell down. Instead, he allowed her to pick herself up, just so he could see what else she had to offer.

"Nice job teaching Sakura your super strength, Tsunade!"

Tsunade smiled a little at the compliment. "Thanks, but it's clear that she isn't ready for an opponent of Naruto's caliber, isn't it?"

Jiraiya put a hand on her shoulder. "Naruto is in a different league than her, Tsunade. To compare her to him would be unfair to her."

Temari watched with pride at how easily her husband handled Sakura. For the past year, a lot of talk was going on about how Sakura was the strongest chunin. Naruto didn't even look like he was putting effort.

Haruto, who had arrived at some time before the fight started, winced when he saw Naruto driving his elbow into Sakura's gut. Ever since he saw Sakura, he had instantly developed a crush on her. Which was why it hurt him a bit to see her getting destroyed by Naruto.

His hits always hurt.

Back to the fight, Sakura had managed to get up, healing some of the damage caused to her. Naruto was still looking at her without any expression on his face.

"What will you do now?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes. It was clear that Naruto was way out of her league. If she had managed to climb the mountain of improvement, Naruto had just shot up to the clouds. There seemed to be a whole world of difference between them.

Naruto spoke again, walking around her once more. "Well, you proved your physical strength, Sakura. But what about your mental strength?"

"What do you mean?"

Naruto grinned. "You see, I developed the ultimate ero-ninjutsu while I was on my trip. I observed that some perverts are able to resist my Oiroke no jutsu, so I sought to create a variation that was much better than that. I even developed a variation that could weed out women perverts. Would you like to see it?"

Sakura was steadily getting angry as her feminine fury kicked in. She should have known that Naruto wouldn't have been completely spared from Jiraiya-sama's perverseness. As was her reaction to any pervert she spotted, she cocked back her fist and charged towards him, intent on knocking a tooth out. "NARUTOOOOOOOOO!"

Naruto kept grinning as she charged towards him. Just as her punch reached his face, he just tilted towards his left. Grabbing her punching hand, he twisted it to behind her back and used his leg to kick out her feet from under her. In the span of a moment, Sakura was slammed on the ground painfully on her face, with her hand twisted behind her back in a tight grip.

"Ma ma, your temper tantrums have actually gotten worse," Naruto commented in a light tone. When she twisted her head to look at him, she froze. There was not a speck of the grin from earlier. His face was stone cold.

It was a ploy to lure her in.

"Why such a violent reaction Sakura? Was it something I said?"

Naruto twisted her arm a bit more, causing her to wince. "I hate perverts, and you know that!"

He leaned down to whisper in her ear. "So your reaction is to punch them? Did it never occur to you that you might seriously injure them with your strength?"

Sakura's eyes went wide at that. "I would never do that?"

"Don't kid yourself. Three years of rigorous training have brought you to the point where you don't need to concentrate on augmenting your punches anymore. You do it unconsciously," Naruto shot back.

Sakura was starting to panic a little. "What's your point, Naruto?"

"My point is, you need to start acting like a shinobi. You are a damn chunin, yet you throw childish temper tantrums and punch someone because you don't like something about them," Naruto snarled.

Sakura snarled back at this, attempting to get out of Naruto's hold. "So I have a temper, big deal! Everyone does, Naruto!"

"Not everyone's temper is augmented by super strength punches that can knock someone's head off," he shot back. "You need to learn to control your emotions, instead of your emotions controlling you. There's a time and place for you to vent you anger, and the field is not it. "

Sakura had no counter for that.

Naruto continued in a softer voice, but didn't let up his grip. "Trust me, if you can master your emotions, you will go far. But you will be held back by them if you allow them to dictate your actions."

Sakura stopped struggling at that. She never really thought that her problem was this bad. In fact, she never really thought it as a problem before because no one pointed it out to her. The behavior of punching perverts in her righteous anger was only reinforced by Tsunade, Naruto deduced.

That woman has no emotional control whatsoever.

Sakura was clearly conflicted in her views by now. "What do you propose I should do?"

Naruto smiled slightly. At least she was willing to change her ways. "The next time you see something perverse, politely tell them not to do so in your presence. If they don't listen, leave. If they don't let you leave, then kick the crap out of them," Naruto sagely advised.

Sakura snorted, having stopped struggling beneath him. "It'll be difficult."

"If it were easy, Tsunade would do it."

Naruto released her from his hold, pulling her up. He grinned at her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "In time, it will be second nature to you. Emotional control will be one thing you will have surpassed your master in."

Sakura laughed at that. "When you put it that way, it's sort of makes sense."

Naruto nodded. "Right? Well, I'll take your leave then. Still gotta fight Kakashi. Come as soon as you can."

Sakura blinked at the sudden change of pace. "But the bell…?"

She checked her hip, and lo, the bell wasn't there. He must have taken it when I was down, she realized.

She smiled as she looked up, seeing no one. Just when I thought that I might have closed some of the gap between us, you drift further apart. Can I ever close the gap between us, Naruto?

Her expression was wistful as she gazed up to the sky, which was beginning to darken. An explosion caused her to turn around, seeing smoke in the distance. A determined expression set across her face, and she took to the trees.

"I will improve, Naruto. Just you watch."

XXXXXXX

The fight on Kakashi's end wasn't going too well, to be honest. As soon as one of the Narutos' had taken off with Sakura, the remaining one had engaged Kakashi by firing off a jutsu.

The power behind the fuuton jutsu was a sight to behold. It was a near hurricane-level gust of wind covering a large area. Kakashi had substituted with a broken branch to avoid being hit head on, but was hit anyways when the wind continued on into the forest. Trees swayed dangerously, threatening to fall, but thankfully held. Kakashi took cover behind a particularly large tree, hid himself as best he could and re-evaluated Naruto's threat level.

He had always known that Naruto was never lacking in power, but he didn't even look slightly winded after throwing such a jutsu. Meaning, Kakashi would have to be extremely careful when throwing jutsu. Because Naruto wasn't one to keep throwing large scale jutsu at his enemy.

While he was contemplating on how to approach this fight, Naruto had snuck up on the tree Kakashi was on and planted a customized level three explosive tag on it. Kakashi had managed to jump of just in time before the tree blew to smithereens.

It was a game of hide n' seek after that. Naruto never confronted Kakashi directly, but he let him know that hiding from him was near impossible. The use of indirect attacks was what tipped Kakashi off that he was fighting a shadow clone. Making a shadow clone of his own, he tried to corner Naruto.

But even that didn't work out. Naruto would either flash step away as soon as he felt something suspicious, or simply flash to a spot that he had previously marked.

Kakashi had dispelled his shadow clone, deciding to just avoid the clone and wait for the original. If the clone was such a hassle, the original was bound to be more, and Kakashi wasn't going to waste his stamina on just a clone.

He didn't have to wait long. Even though he was alert while sitting on a branch high above, he still wasn't fast enough to react when Naruto suddenly appeared in front of him, without anything alerting his approach, and kicked him off the branch. Kakashi was able to substitute with a broken piece of wood in time before he hit the ground.

Naruto stood up straight. "Alright, I'm finished with Sakura. It's your turn now, Kakashi."

Kakashi walked out from behind a tree, an eye smile on his face, "Maa Naruto, that was a very good surprise attack. How did you do it?"

Naruto jumped down to the ground. "Now why would I tell you that?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I'm just curious. My senses didn't pick up your chakra, there was no smell from any direction, no sound, no mark on me, and I avoided the places where your clone had been in case he had marked them."

Naruto smirked. "What gave it away?"

"Well, he never directly attacked me."

Naruto nodded. His clone had told him what he had been doing. "Figured. As for how I did it," his smirk widened, "we all have our secrets, Kakashi."

Instead of looking disappointed, there was actually a proud glint in Kakashi's eye. "Good, never give away your secrets. You never know if they might be used against you in the future."

Naruto fell into his stance. "Still giving me lessons, Kakashi?"

Kakashi fell into his own stance. "A teacher is a teacher, no matter how good the student gets."

Naruto scoffed. "Now you're just spouting old man wisdom."

With that, he was in Kakashi's space within a second, his fist being blocked by Kakashi's forearm. Kakashi internally winced at the impact. His blows are too heavy to tank. I'll have to either deflect or dodge.

With that, Kakashi began fighting his former student. The sharingan was good when it came to predicting the opponents, but it could only help so much. Kakashi could see what attack Naruto was going to use, but had a hard time believing that his body was barely reacting in time. He had trained his body for a long time to match the predictability of his sharingan, so that he would be fast enough to not fall behind the eye.

Naruto deflected a jab from Kakashi, then leaned back to avoid the back roundhouse. Kakashi used the momentum of his kick to throw a left punch towards Naruto's ribs. But Naruto saw it coming, and in a lightning fast reaction, slammed his own left hand's fist to the inside of Kakashi's forearm. Kakashi felt his muscles and nerves rattle on the inside by the sharp jolt of pain, sending him back a step.

Naruto took the opportunity to execute one of his favorite kicks, the Feilong roundhouse. He spun on his right foot, his left leg lifting and passing right over Kakashi's head. Kakashi avoided Naruto's leg by ducking, but was not in a position to avoid the follow up. His sharingan picked it up, but he was unable to react in time. Naruto's right foot slammed into the side of his face, throwing him sideways. Kakashi felt the world spinning rapidly as he landed on the ground none too gently.

For the first time in a long time, Kakashi felt that his body was too slow to keep up with his left eye.

And judging from Naruto's smirk, he likely knew it as well.

Jumping back to put some distance between them, he threw several shuriken at Naruto, who simply flash stepped to avoid them. Kakashi's sharingan caught movement to his left and he ducked, Naruto's kunai swipe missing his head. Spinning on his left heel, he launched a side kick which Naruto blocked with his arms.

Instantly, five shadow clones popped into existence, surrounding Kakashi. The copy ninja mentally cursed and made to run away, knowing that there was no way he could take on five Narutos' whose skills were as good as the original. His hand sped through seals faster than the eye could blink.

"Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu!"

The great fireball that erupted from his mouth sped towards the clones, seeming to consume them, but Kakashi knew better. At least two, if not all, had to have survived.

His thoughts were proven right when a horizontal vortex of fire rushed towards him from his right, while he was mid-air. It was a combination jutsu, of katon and fuuton.

He substituted with a broken piece of wood again to dodge it just at the right time. It was his reflex, to use kawarimi at the last moment to give his enemy the impression that he succeeded. It not only drove them up the walls when they found out that they missed him, but also allowed Kakashi to study their ways of combat.

Just as he appeared where the stick of the wood was, Naruto appeared right beside him. "That's not gonna work anymore!"

Kakashi took his fist right in the jaw, flying back through two trees and burying himself in the third. He just pulled himself out and jumped away, because Naruto was right behind him.

Kakashi went full speed to put some distance between him and Naruto. Hopefully, he'll take the bait and follow me, he thought as he glanced backwards, only to see three Narutos' following him.

This might give me some to come up with a plan.

Just as the clones bounded away after 'Kakashi', the original came out of the ground, having used Earth release: hiding like a mole technique in the moment that he was out of Naruto's sight after breaking through the trees.

His sharingan scanned his surroundings thoroughly, because there was a high possibility that only clones followed his shadow clone. He found nothing in his immediate vicinity, both with his eyes and nose. That, and Naruto was too good to let him hear anything. He tried to sense anything, but nothing came to him. Naruto's prowess as a sensor must have allowed him to hide his chakra from him, he realized.

He was on edge, his sharingan darting around continuously to make sure he didn't get ambushed.

Looks like I can sit for a bit and-

"CHA!"

Kakashi knew that cry too well, and he whipped around to see Sakura driving a fist into the ground. He watched in horror as the ground got ripped apart, chunks of earth flying into the air. To avoid being caught into the devastating shockwave, he jumped far back, sporting a look of petrified alarm as he watched his once weak student completely change the landscape.

Godaime didn't tell me she taught Sakura her super strength!

Sakura smirked as she stood up on her feet, smirking at Kakashi. "I didn't miss much, did I?"

Kakashi nervously laughed. "Not much, Sakura."

Up high in the branch of another tree, Naruto watched as Sakura made her entrance. "She's got a potential, one hit kill in her arsenal. If only she could land it on her enemies," he muttered.

His plan was to lay a trap for Kakashi to walk into, but he would have to account for Sakura now. She wouldn't last long against Kakashi.

He watched their fight, and had to admit, Sakura did fairly well against the borderline S-rank ninja. However, he summoned her to him through Hiraishin as soon as he saw that Kakashi was about to make his move. He slapped a hand on her mouth as soon as she appeared beside him to prevent her from making any noise.

"Ssshhh," he urged her.

Only when she had calmed down did her remove his hand. "You probably shouldn't have attacked him alone," he said.

Sakura blushed a little, standing in such close proximity to Naruto, but argued. "Well, there's little I could have done by hiding against him!"

Naruto tilted his head, acknowledging the point. "That's true as well."

"What do you propose we do?"

Naruto crossed his arms. "I've laid a trap in a small clearing, about a hundred meters to the east. We're gonna drive him to it. You up for it?"

Sakura smirked, slamming a fist into her palm. "Say no more."

XXXXXXX

Tsunade and her entourage were closely watching the fight. Shizune came up to her smiling, "Both Naruto-kun and Sakura have grown tremendously, haven't they Tsunade-sama?"

Tsunade had a small smile on her face as she chose not to reply to Shizune's question. She was too busy watching Naruto fight Kakashi and she had to say, Jiraiya was right. Naruto was easily pushing Kakashi into corners, letting him out just so he could see Kakashi's full range of skills.

Jiraiya, who was sitting on a branch above, smiled with pride. He knew very well that Naruto would win, it was just the question of when. Now that Sakura was with him, it was back to teamwork tactics. Three years of working alone, he wanted to see whether Naruto was comfortable working in a team again when he could easily do it by himself.

Temari was starting to get impatient by now. She knew Naruto would want to play with Kakashi a little, by not this much. All she wanted was for Naruto to finish it so that they could spend some time together back home.

Haruto was smiling with enjoyment as he saw his cousin push Kakashi back. From what nee-san had told him, Hatake Kakashi was the leaf's strongest jonin and a feared name across the entire nations. He was also Naruto's teacher at one point. To see the student push the teacher back a second time was highly entertaining.

But his attention soon shifted to Sakura when she arrived with a literal bang. He loved women who had a strong personality, like Hokage-sama, nee-san and now Sakura. The way she arrived sent shivers up his spine at the mere thought of going against her.

Back to the fight, Naruto and Sakura had engaged Kakashi once more. Naruto would send a shadow clone to fight Kakashi, and have Sakura push them in a certain direction with her devastating attacks. Just as Kakashi would land on his feet, a shadow clone would engage him once more.

It was only a matter of time Kakashi figured out their ploy. Naruto was certain of that.

Interestingly, Kakashi had managed to turn them in the direction of the lake that Naruto had previously avoided earlier.

Naruto joined Sakura in the fight as they both came to stand in front of him. Kakashi wasted no time talking as he blazed through seals at a speed that would put his flash step to shame.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu!"

Oh no you don't, Naruto thought as he performed his own seals. The dragon that was rapidly forming in the air behind Kakashi fell apart because Kakashi was suddenly pulled inside the water as a whirlpool appeared right underneath him. He was unable to get his footing in time was the water sucked him inside. Sakura looked at Naruto in shock, not knowing Naruto could form whirlpools.

"Suiton: Uzumaki!" (Water style: Whirlpool)

Sakura raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Seriously? Uzumaki?"

Naruto shrugged. "It seemed fitting."

Their attention was drawn to the water that was moving once more. This time, the dragon completely formed and rushed towards them, intent on sweeping them in a tidal wave.

Naruto took a deep breath, formed the tiger sign and breathed out.

Katon: Ryuka no jutsu!

The fire crashed into the dragon, being hot enough to evaporate it completely. Naruto smirked when he saw the steam rapidly spreading. "We have the advantage of a cover now, Sakura. Best make use of it."

Behind him, Sakura seemed ready to react to anything. "How though?"

Kakashi silently crept out of the water, taking stock of the steam that was in the area now. He tensed, ready to react to anything, because the sharingan was defenseless against steams and mists.

He countered my dragon with fire so that a steam cover could be created for him and Sakura, knowing that my sharingan would have difficulty in seeing through this. Nice.

But Kakashi had worked hard to correct this weakness of his, sparring with Gai while being blindfolded. Instincts long refined from being in ANBU and in the war warned him of the person approaching him from behind. He turned at the very last second, catching the hand of the attacker by the wrist.

"Not so easy to sneak up on me, Sakura," he said in a hard voice.

He caught her other fist by the wrist to, when she tried to punch him in the face. He was slightly taken aback though, when Sakura flipped and locked her legs around his neck, spinning to slam him onto the ground. It was her who was surprised when it turned out to be a shadow clone.

"He's starting to annoy me now," she muttered as she got back up. The steam was starting to clear now, so she decided to make her way back to Naruto.

On the other side of the steam, Kakashi smiled as he received the clone's memories. "It should take a while for her to track me," he mused to himself.

He suddenly jumped, and right on time because two hands erupted from the ground, trying to pull at his feet. "You can't get me like that!"

He was unprepared, however, when Naruto appeared right above him and delivered a brutal axe kick to his back, slamming him into the ground and shaking up his ribcage. There was a footprint of Naruto on his back now, not that he could see.

He also didn't see Naruto's Hiraishin mark on his back. Naruto had figured out a way to slap his mark on targets with his foot as well.

Kakashi struggled to ignore the pain his entire front was feeling. Naruto had known he would easily dodge that, which was why he was waiting for him to do it. He pushed himself to his feet, panting heavily as he eyed Naruto standing a few feet away from him.

"I'm surprised you managed to get up from that," Naruto sounded impressed.

Kakashi snorted. "This isn't the worse I've been dealt with."

"Good, because I would hate it for my trap to go to waste."

Kakashi had no time to react when Naruto flashed behind him, put a hand on his back and flashed him to a previously marked location. He blinked, "That was easier than I thought."

"Or maybe you're just that good."

Naruto turned around to see Sakura walking up to him with a smile. "That was really well planned, Naruto."

Naruto returned her smile. "Thanks, now how about we see how he's doing? My trap was designed to cripple."

He grabbed her shoulder, flashing them to where he had flashed Kakashi.

When they appeared on the location of the trap, they found Kakashi on the ground, groaning in pain and clutching his ears, eyes shut tightly.

Sakura looked a bit worried. "What did you do to him?"

Naruto bent down, putting his knee on Kakashi's chest and putting his weight onto it. Kakashi released a grunt of pain and started taking short breaths, but Naruto ignored his pain for the moment. He untucked the bell from his hip and put it in his vest pocket, along with others. "Mission accomplished."

He then stood up. "You can heal him now."

Sakura immediately bent down and gently prided his arms away, and asked in a soft voice. "Kakashi-sensei, can you hear me?"

When there was no response from the groaning ninja, she put her hands over his ears and activated her healing jutsu. "What did you do to him?"

Naruto took a deep breath and replied. "It's a customized stunning seal tag. I designed it to disorient the enemy. It emits a blinding flash and a bang loud enough to cause temporary deafness. Overall effects include flash blindness, temporary deafness and inner ear disturbance, causing loss of balance."

Sakura didn't reply as she continued to heal Kakashi. A noise to their right caused them to see Tsunade, Shizune, Temari and Haruto walking up to them. Tsunade came up to them and asked, gesturing to Kakashi. "What's wrong with him?"

When Naruto repeated what he told Sakura, Tsunade's eyebrows touched her hairline. "That's…..interesting. A very efficient way to take down an enemy."

Sakura finished healing Kakashi's ears and gently put her fingers on both of his eyes. They watched as he slowly relaxed and opened his eyes, boredom back in them. "Ah, I lost, didn't I?"

"Quite badly, if I say so," Jiraiya added bluntly, but with a grin on his face.

Kakashi pulled himself to his feet, covering his eye once more. "Well, can't say I'm surprised."

He turned to Naruto, looking slightly annoyed. "That was a bit much, don't you think?"

Naruto grinned, looking a bit apologetic. "Sorry, but it worked, didn't it?"

"Yeah, it did. Very ingenious, those tags. Any chance that the ninjas of the village could have them?" Tsunade asked with a bit of hope in her voice. It would make the ANBU's work a lot easier.

"Take my entire toolbox, why don't you," he muttered, slightly annoyed. "Sure, you know my deal."

Tsunade nodded. "I'll draw up a contract for them then."

"Then are we done here?"

"Not yet. As of now, from what I've seen, you have two choices Naruto. You can either work alone, like Temari," she nodded back at his wife, "or you can remain on Kakashi's team, like Sakura. I would prefer if you chose the latter, though."

Naruto frowned in thought. His eyes found Temari's scrutinizing ones, and they held a conversation with just their eyes.

What do you think?

It's your choice, why do you need my opinion?

Naruto rose an eyebrow. We would make a great team, you know.

Temari shook her head slightly. Maybe an occasional team up, but I prefer to work alone, Naruto.

You break my heart, dear.

I'll make it up to you tonight.

Naruto turned to their audience, who were watching him and Temari with amusement. Working alone wasn't that bad, but it was somewhat monotonic. Boring, without someone to bicker with or exchange ideas with. "I think I'll stay on Kakashi's team," he said at last.

"Good, with your presence, the team won't be unbalanced."

Sure, a team with a borderline S-rank ninja and an SS-rank shinobi, with a barely B-rank chunin is not unbalanced at all, Naruto thought sarcastically.

He turned to Kakashi with a smirk. "So, anything you got to say to us? I'm getting hungry."

Kakashi turned serious, even though his hands remained in his pockets and his posture didn't change. "From now on, we aren't teacher and student anymore. We fight as fellow shinobi. We meet together in the missions office at eight in the morning."

Naruto nodded and pulled something out of his hip pouch. "Before I forget," he tossed the book to Kakashi, "here's the real one."

Kakashi looked confused as he caught the book, taking out the one in his back pocket to check. His eye widened when he saw that the book Naruto gave him previously was indeed a fake. It was empty after seven pages. His head whipped up to stare at Naruto, something akin to betrayal in his eyes. "Why?"

Naruto held up a hand to placate him. "Don't take it personally, man. It was supposed to be my back up plan in case my trap failed."

Kakashi shook his head slowly. "You are evil."

Naruto waved the comment away and was about to walk off with Temari, when he saw something interesting. He saw his cousin eyeing Sakura, who was talking to Tsunade and Shizune about something. He noticed the faint blush on his cheeks as he kept gazing at her. With a snap, he realized that Haruto might have a crush on Sakura.

A truly evil grin manifested on his face. He was going to have so much fun teasing him!

He was about to go up to him and rib him about his crush, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Temari with a deadpan on her face. He shrugged, trying the innocent act. "What?"

Temari didn't let up her deadpan.

You are not going to do what I know you want to do.

Naruto raised an incredulous eyebrow. "What? He's my cousin! I just wanna poke some fun!"

"How about you help him instead? He's your family, isn't he?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, but didn't argue with her. "Spoil my fun, why don't you?"

He went up to Sakura, who had just finished talking with Tsunade. "Sakura, can I ask you to do something for me?"

"Sure, what is it?"

To make sure that Haruto didn't eavesdrop on their conversation, he put an arm around her shoulder and led her away. "Since Haruto is new to the village, can you show him around?"

Sakura looked a bit suspicious at his approach. Her lady senses told her something else was at play here. "Why don't you do it yourself?"

Naruto easily replied. "Trust me, I really want to, but I don't think Temari would forgive me if I avoid her anymore. Plus, he doesn't know anyone else in this village besides me, Temari and you. A familiar face would really help, along with someone he can trust."

To his relief, Sakura looked convinced with his argument. "Sure, I don't mind."

Naruto smiled. "Thanks Sakura." Then he paused, then added. "Don't tell him I suggested this to you."

Leaving Sakura a bit perplexed, he walked back to his wife, who was smiling in a self-satisfied way. Naruto just grabbed her hand and flashed away to their house. Sakura on the other hand, was still confused over Naruto's last statement. There was something he wasn't telling her, that was for sure. But his ulterior motives didn't seem to be anything malicious, or mischievous. She internally shrugged, seeing no harm in showing Haruto around. Besides, she was quite interested in knowing more about him. He was Naruto's family, after all.

Haruto, having seen his brother talk with Sakura for something discreet, was perplexed as to what they talked about. But he figured it was something about team business.

Now that Sakura was alone, he could maybe ask her out for a-

"Haruto-san?"

He was knocked out of his musings by the subject occupying his thoughts. Sakura was looking at him, a bit confused. "Are you alright?"

Haruto shook his head and smiled. "I'm fine. But please just call me Haruto."

"Then you can call me Sakura."

There was a brief, awkward silence between them, which was broken at the same time by both of them.

"Listen, I-"

"I was wondering-"

They both stopped, then chuckled. Haruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry, you go first."

Sakura tucked the left side of her hair behind her ear. "Since you are new to this village, I could show you around if you want. I still have some time before I have to go home."

Haruto almost stumbled his words. "I don't- I mean- sure! I would appreciate it!"

"Great, then let's go!"

Haruto just stared at her as she walked past him, towards the exit of the training ground. Only then he pieced it together what Naruto might have been talking to Sakura about.

I owe you one, you son of a bitch, Haruto thought with gratitude as he followed her out of the grounds.