Chapter One: Homecoming

Author's Notes: I know what you're all thinking … again. "Another one? Really? Again? Stop it, and go finish your other stuff." Well, I'm coming along on everything at this point, and this is a gift for my good friend.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the cast and crew. I don't own the rights to the song 'The Heart and the Shape' by 36 Crazyfists either.

For: SpiffyCaptainJ, my JenJen, and my friend. Well, surprise. XD

Chapter One: Homecoming

It had been a long time since he had been home.

Thirteen weeks he spent getting yelled at. Thirteen weeks he had spent getting pushed to his mental limit. Thirteen weeks he had spent getting pushed far past his physical limit. Four in the morning wake up calls, the fire watch he had been put on for a damn month and of course the unforgettable Crucible.

Ten days at home.

He forgot how to speak for awhile. He forgot how to stand comfortable. He forgot how to do things without being told. Everything was always ending and beginning in 'sir'. Only speak when you're spoken too. Always a proper posture. At ease or attention. Never a hair out of line. Ten days to get back into a routine you signed up to get out of was impossible.

Then he went to where he was stationed. He did his job as assigned, and he kept in shape and trained. He did everything he was supposed to for the years he had been in the core all while his family and few lingering friends stood behind him.

It took him awhile to get in the habit of driving home on weekends from his station two hours away to visit his family and friends. He didn't mind, and actually, it was nice to spend time around non-military personnel from time to time.

It was nice not to hear his Sergeant beg for a fight every five minutes just because 'there was something about his face', and because Naruto refused to take off ranks for a few minutes.

It was nice not to be around a bunch of loud mouth drunks or guys cooing to their girls on the phone. Naruto didn't mind the pranks, hell; he was the one pulling most of them.

So, when Naruto Uzumaki returned home, he was pretty grateful.

A pair of green eyes landed on a bright head of blonde hair and face of tan skin, whisker-like scars painting his cheeks, and unforgettable blue eyes.

She couldn't help it.

"Naruto!"

Blue eyes quickly snapped to the voice that called out his name before arms wrapped around his neck and attempted to strangle him while he tried to fend his friend off.

"Sakura!" He coughed, "You sure you didn't go through basic training behind my back? How are you, the love of my life?"

The girl pulled back with a laugh and a hard smack, "Well Corporal, someone has jokes for not coming home in eight damn months!"

The crush had died, but Naruto wasn't embarrassed that he once had it. He still had one of his closest friends after all.

The man waved his hands in defense, "I can explain! Spare me, I beg you. You're scarier than Gunny Frey."

She crossed her arms and pursed her lips, "This better be good."

"Well, can we at least go get some food? I'm dying for some junk." Naruto batted his eyelashes, and before the girl knew it, she was leading him towards the nearest eatery.

The blonde tugged on Sakura's pink hair lightly while they waited to be seated, and the girl turned to beat him senseless before he stopped her.

"For someone who wants their hair long, you sure cut it a lot."

The girl giggled, "It takes too long."

Naruto laughed while they followed the host, "Sakura, I do believe you are sounding like me with that patience crap."

The girl let her green eyes roll as they both sat in a booth to face each other, the two of them ordering drinks and attempting to sink into the stiff cushions.

"Alright, let's hear it." She demanded.

"Ma'am, yes ma'am…" Naruto mumbled while scrunching his face up.

The girl sent him a mock salute and a laugh when he straightened in the booth with a goofy face; his tongue hanging out of his mouth and eyes crossed.

The blonde relaxed before squirming lightly, his blue eyes glancing over the table top instead of the menu, "I just…Hmm...Marines can get nervous."

Sakura sent him a small smile and reached across the table and squeezed his hand gently, which made him chuckle, "And my violent friends can be gentle."

"Stop stalling."

The blonde turned to eye the door where they were expecting the rest of their friends to walk through any second, "I heard he moved back."

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Chili's was louder than usual, even for a late Friday night.

Naruto's laugh carried through the place when he retold stories from Boot Camp, and everyone laughed along, barely remembering hearing these stories a dozen times already.

"So here I am, right? The DI's tell us to do the three mile, and of course, they just tell us to run off and play and be good little kids. They give us their stern ass looks like usual, yell at us because they don't know otherwise, and tell us they'll be watching."

"I love this part!" The man next to him cackled.

Naruto reached over a ruffled short brunette hair to his right, "You always do Kiba."

"So, we're running – obviously – and I'm just thinking why our DI's are giving our ears a damn break when all of a sudden a damn pinecone was thrown at my head!"

The group laughed loudly, a 'troublesome' thrown in the air which Naruto turned to his left, "No, Shika, "troublesome" is the Gladiator pit. We'll get there." The blonde flicked at his high ponytail with a smile.

"The damn DI's were in the trees, posted up to throw those dastardly cones at our heads. So, of course, when I get home, I'm paranoid. And of all people, who pulled the prank?"

Kiba snickered while he reached across the table to high-five a laughing Sakura who spoke through giggles, "You had it coming! Besides, Kakashi was the one who roped us into it!"

"He was also the one," The dark haired man chimed in with a practiced smile, "that convinced us to send the cards."

The blonde sent his friend a foul look, "Yeah, by the way Sai, I still haven't lived that down."

A giggle lit the air, a blue eyes met light gray, "Naruto, we all were in on it."

The blonde grumbled, "Yeah, Hinata, I know. But cologne laced, guy covered cards sent with poems, love notes, and sexual comments didn't help my stay."

The group roared with laughter while the blonde threw up his hands with a smile at the sound, "I mean really? And Ino! Did you have to take pictures of everyone playing basketball shirtless and send it my way? I thought my damn bunkmate's paranoia was going to be the death of him. Seriously, that poor guy thought I was going to molest him."

There was a snort, "Till he got a card of his own."

Naruto waved the blonde off, "Temari, that's not nice. His boyfriend missed him."

"And then you made a friend." Shikamaru mumbled.

"Would you rather hear about how I get Spartan kicked in the chest?" Naruto chuckled to the bored man next to him.

Shikamaru rolled his head that sat propped on his head, "Maybe."

Naruto turned back to the group, "Okay! So! Here we are at the pit. The same stupid thing you see in all the movies. Man oh man was I pumped right? Everyone was. So we're listening to the DI's yell, like usual…"

"And then you got your ass kicked, brat."

Naruto looked over the wild hair of Kiba to see a large breasted woman with honey eyes and blonde hair, and his smile finally split his face to the painfully limit.

"Granny!"

"Damn you! I'll destroy government property if you call me that one more damn time!" The woman threatened with clenched fists.

"You're just still mad I just so happened to have a picture of you at work, that just so happened to be given to me by Jiraiya, and I just so happened to let it circle around."

The woman growled when the group blinked, not having heard of this, "I knew you two could plot together, but that-"

"Is funny!" Kiba howled.

Tsunade sat with the group after knocking Kiba around enough to almost get them kicked out, before making up an excuse and setting down.

"Anyway," Naruto stressed, eyeing the angry woman who was eyeing a whimpering man, "The DI was like, "I'm guessing everyone here has seen the movie 300", and everyone nods and does all that manly shit. Personally, for a 'manly' movie, there sure was a lot of guys running around in underwear."

The guys glared, all having seen it, and the girls gave a few appreciated giggles.

"So, the DI asks "What's the best part of the movie?", and all of us surrounding this Gladiator pit are shouting out lines and shit. And this guy walks up to me, and goes, "No! The best part was 'THIS…IS…SPARTA!" And fucking Spartan kicks me and sends me flying!"

The guys laughed and the girls gave a worried look.

"And I do believe I got a letter about not sleeping do to fire watch because of a careless mistake!"

The blonde turned towards the door to see a wild head of grayish hair that shined with a silver air, and the blonde frowned, "I thought the safety was on! And how to you always manage to show up where we are Kakashi?"

The man shrugged, "I was passing by after helping a stranger jump their car when I noticed my stomach rumbling with-"

"I called him." Tsunade sighed, "An hour ago."

The blonde rolled his eyes, "Late as usual."

"Typical." Sakura muttered, sounding almost exactly like Shikamaru.

Sakura and Naruto were blessed with Kakashi not only as a high school teacher, but having grown up with him living in the neighborhood. They heard the excuses and knew about the tardiness. Sai happened to have his class when he moved to the neighborhood late in their high school career, but he didn't seem annoyed.

So, the man settled in, and they all carried on. They talked about pointless things that had everyone laughing and drove everyone in the restaurant absolutely crazy. The waiter looked like he was about to drop from exhaustion by the time they left, and they just barely heard the unmistakable sound of applause when the last of them walked out the door.

Most went home to turn in and made promises of getting together once again tomorrow when everyone was up and ready. Tsunade left to prepare the kitchen with instant ramen for Naruto that she didn't know she needed to stock, and needed to head to the twenty-four hour store before he got home. Kakashi held up a little more conversation before promising to see him once more before he left again.

Naruto noticed that it was once again just him and Sakura and he sighed with relief once all the chaos died down. He realized he'd soon be home with Tsunade nagging him about things, and yelling at him like no other Drill Instructor could before making it up to him with ramen. He'd be asleep in his own comfortable bed again with his sleep cap.

The girl looked up to him with a worried expression before she shook her head, "Yeah, Naruto. It wasn't a rumor, Sasuke came back."

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When Naruto was sixteen, his best friend left.

They were less than friendly friends, but it was all there underneath the insults and the fighting. They knew each other since they were little. It was still pretty fuzzy to Naruto, but he was pretty sure Sasuke was his first friend, and vise-versa. They had classes together starting in their preteens throughout some of high school when he up and left.

No word, no rhyme or reason.

At least to Naruto.

Neji, a mutual friend, told him that Sasuke wanted to go find his last missing relative that had been spotted somewhere, and the blonde could understand. Who was he to argue? He was still hanging on to his, his aunt.

Slowly, days dragged on, then weeks, then months, and a year turned past, and Sasuke didn't come back. Something about that stung. Naruto remembered once saying to Sakura he was his 'most precious person', and he remembered avoiding Sakura like the damn plague after saying it. Not because his pink-hair friend vowed her love for Sasuke every five seconds, no, because something about that seemed different.

It sounded like it meant something more than a friendship. When he analyzed every part of their friendship, the moments he could remember of them together, he realized that it might just be. So he stuffed it down and ignored the feeling.

He tried listening for rumors of Sasuke, wanting to hear if he was alight, waiting to see if he was coming back, but he never heard or saw a thing.

When he was eighteen, he made the choice to join.

He still wasn't sure why. A challenge, a purpose, a desire?

He simply claimed all three when he decided to tell his rather upset aunt and worried friends, but, they soon relented and relaxed and got used to the idea.

Now he was home. Now, he was faced with the fact that Sasuke Uchiha was back in town with him.

Author's Notes: It's short, and well… short. It's introducing everything.
I hope no one is getting offended over this, really. I say anything I haven't heard personally. Anyway, I used my friends Boot stories in here, because well, they were funny. I used the least amount of 'Military Slang' as I could. Honestly, I don't want this revolving around his time in the core.
I know some of you are thinking "Doesn't that mean his hair got cut?" Well, technically, it does. And technically, I'm changing that little regulation. LOL.
If you have questions, put them in the review, and well, I'll answer them if I can.