A/N: So for almost a year of not updating my first fic, I have finally come around to submitting the latest installment! I apologize for not updating quickly, but I was having the longest case of writer's block. I had the introduction to this chapter saved onto my computer for a year, opening the document up constantly to add more. However, I just didn't know what to say; I was running out of ideas. So without further ado, I present to you chapter five! R&R :)

Btw, for those of you who have read To Win Their Hearts (another fic I wrote), I'm also working on finishing chapter two as well. If you haven't read that one yet, please do so! Out of the stories I have written so far, it's my favorite.

Three years later…

"Oi, Sakura! Wait up, will you?" a very lazy student called. He placed his hands behind his spiky ponytail, strolling slowly while his pink-haired friend was practically jogging.

The pink-haired girl then turned around, glaring at Shikamaru Nara. Shikamaru gulped, suddenly frightened by Sakura. After a few summers with Ino at medical camp and the gym, she entered sophomore year as a completely different girl. She appeared more independent compared to three years ago when she was obsessed with a certain Uchiha.

"Stop slacking off, Shikamaru! As part of Tsunade-sama's welcoming committee, we are to greet the Sunagakure transfer students," Sakura Haruno growled at the incredibly lazy genius following behind. She continued her rushed pace, ditching Shikamaru right when he caught up with her.

"How troublesome," he huffed to himself, speed-walking now.

When he met up with Sakura, Shikamaru found her fixing a red headband sitting on top of her short hair. It was still a surprise to him to see her once waist-length locks chopped off so that they rested atop her shoulders. Ino Yamanaka, Sakura's ex-rival, informed Shikamaru that Sakura cutting her hair was part of her Sasuke recovery.

"Shikamaru, quit looking so bored and fix your posture," Sakura demanded, slapping his back. Shikamaru flinched, straightening his back. He muttered something that probably went like 'what a troublesome girl' and shoved his hands down his pockets.

Soon after, the sophomores heard the sound of the school's front doors opening, followed by a couple of gasps and squeals coming from groups of girls near them. This signaled the arrival of the transfer students that Sakura and Shikamaru were expecting.

The girlish squeals increased when the welcoming committee finally got a good view of what the new kids looked like. There were three of them – two being males. One of the boys had scarlet-colored hair and pale green eyes. He had a tattoo slightly hidden underneath his hair. The other boy was taller than the first, sporting a black hoodie. As for the only female, she had blond hair divided into four ponytails and cold, teal eyes that did not look at all friendly.

"Hello and welcome to Konoha Academy! I'm Sakura Haruno and this is—"

"I can introduce myself, Sakura," Shikamaru intruded, not caring about first impressions. He also didn't notice Sakura's glare for interrupting her. "I'm Shikamaru."

"Yo. I'm Kankurou," the student wearing a hood over his head announced. "I'm in the twelfth grade. These two are my siblings." He flashed the welcoming committee a grin which a few girls passing by noticed and practically fainted at.

"I'm Gaara," the redhead brother said, emotionless. Sakura expected him to say more, but he remained silent after his introduction. His older sister, the blond, spoke in his place, revealing that Gaara was a tenth grader.

"And you are…?" Sakura asked the girl.

The sister's teal eyes widened, obviously surprised to hear such words come out of the sophomore's mouth. She cleared her throat, alerting the welcoming committee and her brothers that she was about to speak.

"I see no reason why my name should be shared, but since that Shika boy is cute, I'll tell you," she said. Shikamaru blushed, but not too much that people would notice. However, the girl (who acted a little too arrogant) saw his cheeks change color and smirked. "I'm Temari and I am no longer in high school. In fact, I graduated last year."

Sakura nodded in amazement and asked if she was at school to escort her brothers which Temari said yes to and added that she wished to speak to the principal, Tsunade-sama. Without hearing the pink-haired girl's answer, Temari walked off in a different direction, dragging a very irritated Nara and asking him which way to go.

"Um, Temari-san!" she tried calling after her. When it was clear that Temari wanted to be with Shikamaru, Sakura realized that there were two students that she had to guide. She turned to face the Suna boys, Gaara and Kankurou, and gave them her perky Sakura grin. "Okay then. It's just the three of us now! The first thing I'll do is show you two your classes."

"Ero-sennin," a spiky-haired blonde groaned from the back of a car. "Are we there yet?" The fifteen year-old was getting impatient. He fiddled with a strand of blond hair, waiting for his godfather to answer the repeated question.

"Geez, Naruto. We're almost there," replied the Perverted Hermit.

"But, Ero-sennin, that's what you said an hour ago!" The boy grabbed a hold of the back of his godfather's seat and shook it violently. After spending five hours cooped up in the back of the car surrounded by bags and suitcases, Naruto was almost ready to explode. The excitement of returning to Konoha was building up inside the fifteen year-old. And according to Jiraiya, he and Naruto (plus their driver) would be arriving home soon.

Naruto's continuous whines went through the perverted godfather's ear and out the other. He hoped that Naruto would realize the suddenly increased amount of trees on either side of the highway, meaning that Konoha was only a few miles away. Unfortunately for him, Jiraiya's idiot of a godson didn't recognize anything and just continued pestering him with his nonstop whines.

Within the next ten minutes, the driver pulled up in front of an apartment complex. The building looked a bit old yet decent enough to house a few denizens. Jiraiya opened his door and climbed out, stretching his arms and sighing with relief. He stepped towards Naruto's side door, tapping the glass to let him know that they had arrived at their destination. When no one replied, Jiraiya peered through the window to find his godson drooling all over the luggage. This caused the old man to mutter a curse word under his breath as he grew impatient.

"Naruto, I'm going to kill you if you don't get up!" Jiraiya threatened, opening Naruto's door. Suitcases fell to the ground, resulting in a drowsy boy to whip his head up in bewilderment. Naruto scanned the scene surrounding the car, finding himself in front of a familiar building. He stepped out of the vehicle, lazily wiping the drool escaping from the corner of his mouth. "It was about time you woke up. I should have known that your constant yapping would eventually make you fall asleep," Jiraiya huffed, shoving a suitcase into Naruto's arms.

"Where are we?" the blonde asked in a dazed tone.

"What are you talking about, fool? We're in Konoha!"

"Indeed we are," the driver finally uttered a sentence.

At the sound of Jiraiya's words, Naruto's visage brightened and his expression went from exhaustion to excitement in just a matter of seconds. Dropping the luggage, the eager boy darted away from the spot and towards something far more important to him.

"Where are you going?" the white-haired man called after Naruto, flailing his arms in the air in hopes of retrieving the boy. He had an idea of where the boy was going, but he figured that he would somehow return to help settle back in to their former apartment.

Instead, Naruto Uzumaki continued running down the road and shouted, "I'm starting my sophomore year today – I'm going to Konoha Academy!"

The distance between the school and Naruto's apartment complex was short. Back when he was a small child, Naruto would often walk by himself to the elementary school that was later renovated to hold grades kindergarten to twelve. Something simple like getting to school wasn't an activity that required Jiraiya's help so Naruto made sure that he wouldn't intrude his so-called "busy" day set for writing a novel.

Miniscule groups of students were waiting outside for class to begin while others casually chatted with their buddies as they walked through the entrance. Okay, that's good. I made it with a few minutes to spare. The teenager sighed, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead. Starting a new school year on the right foot, Naruto opened the double doors leading into the Academy and held a giant grin.

Until he bumped into a total stranger and fell to the ground, landing on his butt.

The spiky-haired tenth grader rubbed his butt, feeling the pain from the fall. With his free hand, he used it to ruffle his blond hair a bit, not even aware of the irritated female getting up and brushing the dirt off of her outfit. She glared at Naruto, waiting for him to notice her and give her an apology. But since this was Naruto that she was dealing with, he didn't.

So the girl cleared her throat, putting the spotlight on herself.

"Um? What?" Naruto inquired, getting up and shoving his hands in his pockets. His butt no longer hurt so he wanted to go to class, but the girl before him obviously wanted something to do with Naruto.

"Since your barbarous self rammed into me, I want an apology," the female proclaimed, a snappy tone escaping from her lips. While Naruto just stared at her, dumbfounded, she adjusted a dirty blond ponytail – one of many she had.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders and simply said 'sorry' before heading off to a place that he missed. As a result, Temari, the eldest sibling amongst the transfer students, glared daggers at him and stormed out the school. Naruto, with little care towards the irascible stranger, skipped to a place where most students would label as horrifying. However, after being gone for three years, it became as one of the student's most missed places.

The principal's office.

"Please, Kiba. It's the first day of school. Why are you doing this to me?" Tsunade-sama said to one of the students, a brunette who used to be one of the biggest troublemakers alongside Naruto. When Naruto approached the principal's office, he heard Tsunade's voice, followed by a bark.

"Akamaru?" Naruto said excitedly, opening the door to the office rapidly. Sitting behind a humongous mahogany desk was Granny Tsunade, accompanied by Kiba Inuzuka and… a dog? No really – a large white beast was in the chair beside Kiba.

"Naruto?" Tsunade-sama's voice sounded confused with a slight perk to it.

"Whoa, Naruto! Is that you?" Kiba and the creature jumped out of their seats.

The Uzumaki chuckled, pulling Kiba in for one of those "manly" hugs. He turned to face Akamaru before the dog attacked him playfully, sending Naruto falling on his butt once more. At once, Akamaru slobbered all over Naruto, covering him in saliva. Naruto groaned, but laughed it off. Meanwhile, Tsunade-sama did not look pleased anymore as she overlooked the mess created in her office.

"You've gotten so big!" the blonde praised Akamaru, trying to push him off of his chest. Akamaru leaped back onto his original seat, leaving white fur on Naruto's clothes. Naruto got up right away only to discover the horrid look on Tsunade's visage. "H-hey, Granny!"

"Na-ru-to," the principal growled, adding an extra emphasis to each syllable in the blond student's name. "How could I have been so foolish," she said, shaking her head. "This is a brand new school year. I thought my plan would follow through and the day would run smoothly and in a nice, orderly manner. But Kiba just had to bring Akamaru along and you—"

"Me?" Naruto asked, pointing at himself guiltily.

"Yes, you!" Tsunade-sama continued. "You just had to pop into my office all of a sudden and ruin my surroundings." The principal concluded her rant, plopping into her chair with a hefty sigh. Naruto and Kiba blinked a few times while Akamaru pouted. Tsunade glanced at the rowdy trio, thinking for a second that they actually felt guilty thanks to her venting.

"Now that you all have settl—"

"It's okay, Granny. I missed you too!" the biggest troublemaker declared, running behind the principal's desk to give her a bear hug. Tsunade took a deep breath and gave up, hugging the student back.

"So, Naruto, when did you get back?" Tsunade asked when Ms. Inuzuka retrieved Kiba's dog much to his dismay. She organized a stack of disheveled papers, looking at the sophomore in curiosity.

"Not too long ago," recalled Naruto. "Actually, I ditched helping out Ero-sennin to come to school."

The principal stifled a small giggle, remembering her friend. "You are so considerate, but do you realize that you can't stay in my office for the rest of the day? If you came to school, you need to do what everyone else came here to do – learn."

"But—"

"Who knows, you might even have a class or two with Sakura," said Tsunade with her pupils glued to her paperwork. She was already aware of Naruto's crush on her apprentice; most of the Academy's faculty did after observing the troublemaker during his elementary school days years ago. Without looking up, the principal already knew that Naruto darted out of the office to pick up his class schedule and search for his best friend. "That idiot," she mumbled.

"Kakashi-sensei teaches high schoolers now? Cool," Naruto said to himself, scanning his schedule. He spent nearly half the day in the principal's office according to the piece of paper. It said that he was supposed to be in third period at the moment and third period was almost over. It was to be the students' lunch period soon then fourth period where Naruto would spend with his former teacher, Kakashi Hatake.

After wandering around aimlessly, Naruto decided to wait beside the cafeteria doors until the dismissal bell rang. Whistling to occupy his time, the spiky-haired boy didn't notice a certain Hyuuga panting just around the corner.

"N-Naruto-kun is really, really here?" Hinata Hyuuga whispered. She needed to use a rest room so her teacher dismissed her five minutes before the bell. She didn't realize that on the way to her destination, she would see her long-time crush.

Hinata's heart beat three times as fast as it normally would. Her face, which was usually pale, turned a bright shade of red. If someone passed by and spotted the girl, then he/she would deduce that Hinata was ill when really, she wasn't. It's been three years since I've seen Naruto. I need to gather up the courage and say hi. Okay, Hinata? That's all you need to do is smile and say—

"Hey, Hinata-chan!" a cheeky teenager greeted.

"N-N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata stammered, fainting.

Naruto stepped to the side, careful not to accidentally step on Hinata. The poor girl laid on the wooden floor, her visage beet red. Naruto picked her up and propped her against the wall so she wouldn't remain in an uncomfortable position. He then stood up, putting his arms behind his head, and grinned. Man, she never changes, huh?

All of a sudden, the bell rang, ending third period. Students filed into the vacant hallways to gather around for lunch. Due to the loud rings, Hinata regained consciousness and freaked out again when seeing Naruto's grown self. Oh my. Can three years away from town make someone so handsome?

"Sweet, Naruto. You found Hinata," the dog lover called. Kiba Inuzuka approached them with Shino Aburame closely behind. "Do you remember this guy?"

Shino stood before the blonde, showing no expressions whatsoever. He was wearing dark green clothes (a hooded jacket and shoes) and black shorts. He still owned glasses, using them to cover his face along with the hood.

"No, not really," said the Uzumaki with an apologetic tone.

If Shino actually revealed his face to others, the group would see a frown appear as well as his eyebrows furrow. However, Hinata and Kiba didn't need to witness those signs to tell that their beloved comrade was upset.

"I can't believe you forgot about me," Shino spoke in his deep voice. "Why? Because if a friend runs off for three years, he would usually remember the people he calls his friends."

Naruto cocked his head, raising his eyebrows. What did this guy just say? "I feel like I do know you… Hm. Deep voice, annoying way of talking…" Naruto said with no intention in being rude. Too bad he sounded that way. In response to his words, Shino roamed off to the cafeteria.

"I got it! You're Shino!" Naruto turned to face the boy, but he was already gone. "Where did he go?"

"He probably went to sulk," answered Kiba, shrugging his shoulders. "Let's go, Hinata." The duo abandoned the blonde, searching for their sensitive friend in the lunchroom.

Right when Naruto was about to make another move the sound of his stomach grumbling echoed throughout the corridor. Mortified, he clutched his belly which kept growling as if put on loop. "I need some grub!" he stated, hurrying to the doors.

The sophomore picked up his speed almost as if he needed to use the rest room and could not hold in his "number two" any longer. Unfortunately for him, when people rush things, there are negative outcomes. Plunging in through the double doors, Naruto had no time to stop himself before he crashed into a crowd of students – one of them having light pink hair.