Yo yo. I know this isn't what most people expected who run across this story, but for a long time I've wanted to do a story of straight NaruHina fluff or at least a story derived solely on the basis of Naruto and Hinata forging a relationship.

I think I've made it pretty clear that my main story NaruHina will be the main pairing, but I'm not going to drown out a story about the life of Naruto with an excessive amount of fluff/romance.

I'm not saying it won't be there, but it definitely won't be every chapter and for the most part will only be a subplot. Trust me. I LOVE Lemons. But, I'm not willing to wash out the main plot of the story by having hot, steamy NaruHina time somewhere in the middle of every chapter.

There's a possibility that one day I will write a straight up Naruto harem story that has no real point to it other than Naruto fucking every attractive woman (meaning no Sakura, I have no real hate for her, but you can't sit there with a straight face and tell me that at certain points in Shippuden she didn't look slightly masculine. NEJI looked more feminine than Sakura. In my opinion, the short hair thing really didn't help) from the various lands in the Elemental Nations as well as maybe female characters from other anime I've seen/read about.

As you'll see in this story Naruto's behavior will be altered slightly as well as Hinata. For the most part, every other character should remain true to how they'd act if presented with the same situation in the regular Naruto-verse. It's just to make it more interesting ^.^ .

Anyway, I'm rambling. This story takes place right after the time skip in Naruto and will follow Naruto as he comes home from the training trip with Jiraiya. Enjoy!

A Blonde in the Sunshine

Fresh Wounds

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It was a gorgeous day for Konohagakure.(Village Hidden in the Leaves) A beautiful mid-summer day that had most non-working shinobi and civilian alike just basking in the presence of such tranquility.

It was here that we find our favorite blonde-haired hero casually walking along with his white-haired sensei back towards his home village, a smile on his face that could power ten football fields if needed.

As he continued the trek along the main path towards the village he let his mind wander on what he thought might've changed in the last three years since his departure.

'Hmm… I wonder if everybody will still see me as the little boy who annoys everybody…' Naruto thought with a thoughtful tone.

See what most people from the village obviously wouldn't know is that while his main purpose for leaving the village a few years back was to acquire the strength needed to fend of his enemies, he'd also been spending a lot of time on the road with Jiraiya constantly wondering what he could do to change the perception of his person once he got back to the village.

While Naruto may seem thick-headed to many of the populace of Konoha he personally knew that he was given an express pass to come back home and have almost a clean slate with the friends he'd made before left.

He knew that his friends knew that people change, and he planned on using that to his full advantage.

For starters, one could look at his state of dress and already tell that he'd at least matured in that facet. Instead of wearing around that hideous orange monstrosity that he'd once claimed to be stylish, he and Jiraiya had found a nice clothing store in small town not too far off the border with Kumogakure(Village Hidden in Clouds) after his jumpsuit had been just about shredded to smithereens.

He sported a striking, electric-blue long-sleeved V-neck shirt that was a very similar color to his sky-blue eyes and had the sleeves rolled up, accentuating the hard work he put in on his body as the definition of his biceps were enough to make the shirt tighten slightly to his now well-built frame with every step he took as well as slightly reveal the six-pack that he'd also trained hard for. The shirt also had the Uzumaki swirl on the back and the right sleeve in black.

Along with his new shirt he'd managed to ditch the orange pants he'd worn and instead opted to go for a simple pair of long black ANBU-styled pants that had a singular orange stripe running up each leg.

What can you say, old habits die hard?

He rounded out the new ensemble with a pair of black shinobi sandals, a small, singular golden hooped earring in his left ear as well as still proudly wearing the necklace of the Shodaime(First) Hokage that was entrusted to him by Tsunade under his shirt.

He'd also decided to grow his hair out slightly during the three years and his now already messy mane had grown and fallen to just above his shoulders with two spiky bangs framing his now more mature face that was more defined a clear of any baby fat.

This wasn't even mentioning the type of growth that he'd undergone while he was on his training trip. In some MAJORLY unprecedented events Naruto had managed from going from the shortest of his rookie class to being DAMN sure he was the tallest.

Standing at a height of six foot three inches he towered over most men that'd he come across recently and had even passed Jiraiya by an inch or two in the past few months. A feat that made the white-haired ninja pout slightly as he enjoyed teasing Naruto for being a shrimp just a few short years ago.

'Hehehe, but that's all in the past now.' He thought with some pride as he looked over his godson once more. He just knew that when the kid got back to the village there was sure to be some perfect… 'research' material that he would get out of the blonde heartbreaker.

All in all, even he knew he would make for quite the look, and if the looks he received from many younger kunoichi and civilian girls in other villages meant anything then he was sure that he would finally get his long-time crush to see him differently and he would blow her away with his change in personality.

You see, Naruto hadn't done this all simply because he had nothing better to do. He had hopes that this whole change in clothing and demeanor overall would make Sakura finally forgo her feelings for Sasuke and at least give him a chance by going out on a date with him. That's all he was truly hoping for.

Those were the thoughts currently running through the heads of both ninja as they finally approached the large gates of Konoha and looked towards the seemingly forever guardians of said gates, Izumo and Kotetsu.

"Ughhhhhh" Izumo started with a groan, "nothing ever happens around this boring place. Here I am stuck here every day since I've become chuunin guarding a gate that no fool would ever truthfully try to just come right through." He said with a disinterested sigh.

Kotetsu, however, was just about to agree with his fellow gate watcher, when his eyes managed to catch a flash of yellow before two tall men stood almost imposingly over them at the gate. His eyes then widened in shock as he realized just who the man was that was standing in front of him with Jiraiya, his throat almost going dry at the thought of this man being the boy who just a few years ago was seen as nothing more but a little runt.

"Hahahaha!" Jiraiya started with boisterous laughter, "What's the matter Kotetsu? Frog got your tongue?" He said as he tried (and failed) at making a clever pun.

"Hai Hai." Izumo said with a bored tone, still having yet to actually look up at whom he was speaking with as he just buried his face in his clipboard, to sign these two men into the gates so he could get back to complaining about it. "What are your names and what's your purpose for visiting Konoha today?" He said in a slightly less bored tone, thought it could still be heard.

"Jiraiya of the Sannin and I'm here to finally woo Tsunade off her feet."

"Ha ha. Very funny mis- "It was at this point that Izumo had finally looked up from his clipboard, and like his fellow gate guarder he too was stunned in disbelief as he saw the Toad Sannin and what looked EXACTLY like the Yondaime(Fourth) Hokage accompanying him.

"Naruto Uzumaki." The blonde stated with a large smile on his face before he added his famous words of,

"Believe it."

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A certain platinum blonde-haired shinobi yawned as she walked up the market streets of Konoha, a disgruntled look on her face as she stated with irritation,

"Man! Nothing EVER happens around this place!" the blonde-haired girl now revealed to be Ino said in a very annoyed tone.

Two nods were all the affirmation she got as she continued to walk down the street with her fellow female companions Sakura and Tenten.

During Naruto's absence from Konoha Tenten had really started to bond with the two younger females as she also started to experience the same unrequited love that the two had shared for quite a while.

She'd started to have real feelings for Neji, and while he may be a prodigy in the shinobi arts, he still proved to be a just another average joe as she'd given him hints time and time again about how she felt about him and every single time he seemed to either ignore them or flat out not notice at all.

The idea of him having "all seeing eyes" seemed to just further irritate her.

"Yeah… believe it or not this place was actually a lot livelier when Naruto was around." She stated as she tapped her finger on her chin, thinking about the blonde-haired shinobi and all of the silly pranks and antics he would get himself into before he'd left on his trip.

"Hahahaha, yeah they may have been annoying at times, but if there's one thing we can all agree on it's that he certainly had a way of making sure that there was really never a boring day in Konoha." Sakura laughed with a fond smile thinking about her teammate who was sure to be back any day now.

"Now that you mention it Tenten, Naruto should be back around here soon." She yawned again and attracted the attention of several young males to her heaving chest that had a very nice bounce when she stretched and fell back into place.

"Hopefully he can bring some life back into the village. I'd sure hope for anything at this point."

At this comment, all three girls nodded their heads again as they continued walking through the market streets of the village walking slowly as they were just enjoying the company of each other.

Just in that moment Ino was bumped into slightly by a very young boy who accidentally placed his small foot right where her foot was landing causing her to stumble and start falling towards the ground before she was held up by a strong pair of arms that encircled her.

'mmmmmmmm… feels nice.' She thought with her eyes closed as she got wrapped up in whoever the random man was that saved her from falling flat on her face.

It was when the arms slowly put her back in an upright position and lightly dusted her off that she finally opened her eyes and they widened to the size of saucers as she noticed the… hunk… of a man who'd saved her from a mild amount of embarrassment in public.

Ino, Sakura, and Tenten all had their jaws to the ground in shock as they tried to process where such a fine specimen of men happened to just appear out of nowhere!

After about a minute of staring the man finally started to lose a little bit of his cool as he now scratched the back of his head awkwardly, hell he'd figured that the women population of Konoha would treat him differently, but he didn't expect that to STILL not speak to him!

It was only when he finally cleared his throat that the girls seemed to snap out of their trance and fix their facial features so that they no longer looked completely head-over-heels for this Adonis.

'W-wow… he makes Neji look like a preschooler.'

'WHAT A HUNK.' Guess who that was.

'He's so handsome! I wonder why I've never seen him before?! Although he does look a bit familiar…'

Ino, being the very vocal and forward woman, she was, decided to finally break the ice between them all,

"Why HELLO there handsome…" she said as she slowly encircled the man and gave him a full once over look at his toned body and handsome face. She then slowly came back around to the front and placed two fingers on his chest as she ran her fingers up and down.

"What might your name be?" She said in a husky tone.

"My my, Ino. Before I left I never received this type of attention for you. All I did was help you up!" He said with a small chuckle.

This made all the girls pause, he'd met them before? When? How? Was he using an invisible jutsu?

"I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I would never forget seeing such a… fine man like you." Ino said breathlessly with half-lidded eyes. Was it hot out here? Or was it just her?

"Interesting." He started as he put his thumb up to his chin in a thinking posture.

"I didn't know it only took three years for a person to forget about somebody." He said in mock hurt as he dramatically put one hand near his forehead and the other by his heart.

Now all of the girls froze. There was only one person they knew of who'd been gone for about three years and that the ALL knew…

'THERE'S… THERE'S NO WAY! T-THAT… THAT'S NARUTO?!' thought a very confused, yet aroused Ino.

'N-Naruto…? Is that actually possible?' thought the bun-haired girl with a faint blush of her own.

'W-what?! Since when could Naruto have gotten this… this… HOT?! There's NO WAY.' A very conflicted Sakura thought as she stared at her long-time teammate and friend.

Naruto made a very low sweeping bow as he re-introduced himself to the girls.

"Naruto Uzumaki at your service." He said with a face-splitting grin.

"Hope I didn't make you miss me too much." He stated with a chuckle.

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Done! I think that's a pretty solid start to what should be a somewhat long series. Especially when you consider that I just spent the last two hours STRAIGHT at my desktop writing this and it's currently going on 1 AM. Don't plan on this being a huge story, but it will definitely be long enough to show some real growth and character development as well as show how the characters would react to everything Naruto does if he actually were to come back to the village like this instead of being relatively the same person he was when he left.

As always if you liked the chapter and you want to see more of this new series please review! It really helps me in getting out a new chapter plus I just like the idea of somebody reading this and going out of their way to actually write how they feel about it instead of just keeping that information to themselves for the most part.

I WILL be writing the chapter for The Way Things Should've Been.

I promise.

Think of this as a little incentive for me to continue to keep that spark of writing inspiration under me.

Like I said I've truthfully always wanted to do one of these considering it seems like there are A LOT of NaruHina fluff fanfictions, but they always seem to be either one-shots or incomplete. I really just want ONE story where it's based around the relationship of NaruHina realistically while actually having story to it.

Anyway, I'll keep trying to stay inspired for those who want to keep reading what I'm putting out.

Until next time everybody!

-A1