Taste Of Poison

Chapter 2

By: AvalonNakamura

A/N: Hey everyone sorry for my disappearence, I know you all have been waiting for this, at least a good bit of you have. Here is my next chapter for Poison. I hope you all enjoy it, And blame my muse for leaving on a vacation without me.

Three years, Is a long time for someone to wait. But wait they did, And recently Shizune even began to train her own little pupil, One who wanted to learn more about poisons to protect herself and protect her little friends. Currently sitting with her was said pupil as they awaited for Anko to get out of her most recent mission, That being the interrogation of one of the low ranking members of Hebi-Pedo's little minnions. Sighing softly the dark haired Kunoichi looked towards her Pupil who was simply sitting there in the shade seeming to be hiding from the sun light that beamed in from the outside. She took a small breath and prepared to speak before she was interrupted by the loud shouting voice of Anko.

"Oi~ Shizu~ There you are! OH! I didn't know you had Bug Butt with you today!"

At that nickname the young girl who had her head covered with a large hood glared slightly towards Anko, as she adjusted those goggle like glasses she wore. Before letting her own slightly deeper voice be heard.

"I told you...Anko-san...I don't like that nickname..."

As she spoke Shizune gently patted her shoulder and smiled serenely towards her. Her own voice coming out soft and gentle.

"Ma~ Ma~ Don't let her get to you Shino-chan..You know Anko only calls you that cause she likes you. Remember I told you this after the last time...when you covered her apartment with your bugs?"

At that the reserved quiet girl lowered her head slightly, yes it seemed that Shizune had managed to get of all the different people in the village, Aburame Shino, the Bug Queen as she became to be known in the Shinobi world, As her pupil.

"Wait! That was you Bug Butt! Damn it! Do you know how fucking long it took me to get those little bastards out of my apartment! Not to mention they ate my damn panties!"

At that Shino couldn't help but let out a small almost unnoticeable giggle as Shizune couldn't control it as well and had to cover her mouth with the small snort she let out at the thought of Anko's panties becoming bug food.

"It isn't funny Shizune! Do you know how expensive those are! I mean come on. They ate like thirty pairs!"

The Snake Mistress grumbled as she sat down with the two other girls and ordered a small plate of dango and a little bottle of Sake to wash them down. She then turned those chocolate colored optics towards both of her friends.

"So...What's the plan? I finished getting the little shit from Hebi-Pedo to talk. Didn't take much..A couple senbon in the finger joints and he was spilling everything."

At those words Shino shivered lightly at that description, She hated when Anko would talk business when she was with them, and during a meal at all times. It seemed Shizune wasn't as bother by it though as the medic quickly ordered herself a set of dango herself, but with an order of green tea.

"Well I was training with Shino earlier, those Kikaichu of hers are getting stronger and stronger, They are finally able to eat the poisons we use, So she is certainly worthy of her rank! Oh she also passed the test recently! She is a Chunin now!"

At that Anko let out a small whistle, she hadn't been involved in the exam that Shino had passed in, But she had heard about all of the Rookie Nine managing to get their promotion, except for one.

"Well done Bug Butt! Good to see ya in that Chunin vest! It looks good on ya. I guess only one person remains...a Genin huh?"

At those words from the Snake Mistress, both herself and Shizune got a bit downcast, the only remaining one who hadn't gotten promoted, was the little blonde nutball. At seeing both her Sensei and the friend they shared seeming depressed Shino began to speak softly again.

"Thank...you Anko-san, And I know who your talking about...but he went..with Jiraiya-sensei didn't he? He is probably way stronger than a Chunin by now..."

As they heard her the two Jounin's began to cheer up, she was right, If Naruto had been taking his training seriously he would be probably easily a Special Jounin in rank. They started to laugh lightly as they both nodded. Soon then Shizune spoke up now at that moment.

"Yeah that's right, He has been training. So he will easily pass any test that is needed for him to get his rank!"

She grinned as the waitress brought the food they ordered and raised her well maintained eyebrow as she watched Shino be given a small plate of salad, not sure when the girl ordered anything, but after all the girl was more mysterious than anyone she seen before.

As the three kunoichi started to dig into their respective meals, a strange feeling began to wash over each of them, like something big was going to happen. As they quickly brushed it off, they tried to finish their meals quickly.

Meanwhile, A small distance from the village, a very visible pair of people slowly were walking towards it, One tall white haired man, covered in red and green was writing on a small scroll, which he handed to a little purple frog who quickly disappeared heading to the village through the passage way of the land of Summons, Before he spoke lightly.

"Gaki! I am proud of you! You passed everything I ever threw at you. And look at you now! I am so glad I managed to get you to stop just wearing orange."

At that the blonde who was walking along side the tall man, grinned brightly before he chuckled, He had grown well in the last three years, He had finally lost all the baby fat on his face and stomach, and left in its wake was a rugged young man, his face was sharp but still had that playful smile on those lips of his, his arms easily showing his muscles as his outfit had indeed changed from that hideous orange suit, to a pair of black baggy shinobi pants, with a burnt orange strip down the outside of each leg, and a sleeveless long shirt, allowing his bandaged chest to be seen, the twin orange ribbons wrapped around each of his bare biceps fluttered slightly in the breeze, And on his hip rested the new weapon he began to use since his training.

"Yeah yeah, I know Erosennin, I looked like a sore thumb screaming. 'Come kill me!' And it wasn't just you, I learned a lot from the toads too as we trained!"

Naruto spoke lightly, his voice had dropped in tone from his younger years, now a soft baritone in volume, though he still had the playfulness in his voice it could be easily told that he had matured quite a bit.

As they continued their walk towards the village the young blond rested his arms behind his head as he gazed towards the sky watching the clouds float by as well as a few cawing birds.

"Hey. Erosennin? Do you think everyone got stronger? I mean I know Sakura and all them would have...but do you think anyone else did?"

The white haired man grumbled at being called Erosennin by the boy but didn't correct him, as it had almost become like a term of endearment to him now. Though as that question was posed he thought for a few seconds and then nodded.

"Mmm, If I was a gambling man, I would say yes. With Tsunade in charge, and knowing what we will be facing in the future I would think she got them all training to get better. We got to deal with Orochimaru, and you still want to try and bring back Sasuke don't you?"

"Yeah...I am gonna bring the Teme back, Even if I have to break his arms and legs to do it. I promised everyone I would get stronger, and I don't break my promises."

With that the blonde smirked lightly as he went a bit wide eyed seeing the ever present gate guards. Waiting for them with smiles on their faces, Kotetsu and Izumo. As the two approached the men smiled and nodded to them. Before Izumo spoke up in greeting.

"Well this is a sight for sore eyes! We got word from Tsunade-sama that you guys would be arriving. We thought it was only right that we were standing to greet you."

As they spoke the two older Chunin shook hands with both Jiraiya and Naruto before starting to guide them into the village. Kotetsu this time spoke up lightly.

"Yeah, Tsunade-sama wanted us to make sure you stopped and visited her first to file a report. She has been wanting to see just how well Naruto has gotten in these years."

Sighing softly at the thought of having to report to Tsunade-baa-chan and probably spend a good few hours doing that was not what Naruto planned on doing. He smirked slightly as he looked up at Jiraiya and then nodded before speaking.

"Sorry Erosennin, I will let the report and stuff be handled by you! I got to look around for a bit, I just got home after being gone for quite a while!"

And with those words, the blonde vanished from sight, leaving the old Sanin to lower his head in defeat, as Izumo and Kotetsu's jaws dropped as they watched his disappear, he certainly got faster. At that Jiraiya let his voice be heard.

"Damn brat...Oh well, He hasn't been back for a while, So let him be. Let's go Izumo, Kotetsu, Don't wanna keep Tsunade-hime waiting too long. Last time I did, I ended up with a broken jaw..."

With that the white haired man followed the two Chunin who were shaking their heads at the sheer improvement that the boy had shown just with his speed alone. As they approached the Hokage tower, They were spotted by Anko who quickly poked Shizune, who turned and had her jaw drop. Jiraiya was back? That meant, she rose quickly and shouted towards the Chunin and Jiraiya, the latter simply smiled and waved to her as he entered the Tower, Kotetsu and Izumo moved over to the small little restaurant.

"Jiraiya-sama's back! Does that mean?"

As she inquired owards the two men, Izumo simply gave her a thumbs up before Kotetsu answered for the two of them.

"Oh yeah, He's back too. Wait til ya see him. Grew up nice. And he is stronger too, You can tell simply being around him."

With that Anko shot up out of the chair she was sitting in and grabbed Shizune and Shino, before quickly tossing a small bag of Ryo on the table, as she dragged them out of the small shop intent on finding their little blonde knucklehead, though why Shino was being dragged along, the quiet girl pondered to herself.

As they began their hunt, Perched on top of one of the large water towers, Naruto looked over Konoha, those icy blue optics of his glinting with happiness. He was home again, Though it did change a bit, there was a few new businesses and Tsunade's face had finally been added to the momument, but it looked fairly the same as he left it those three years ago.

He didn't bother trying to hide his chakra, he knew people would have already found out about his return, those two Chunin never kept a juicy gossip topic like that to themselves , so when he felt a few familiar chakra signatures approach him, he took off towards the nearby training grounds. If they wanted to find him, he figured that would be the best place. After all that is where he made the promise after all.

Anko and Shizune growled slightly, they know they just sensed his chakra, it wasn't hard to miss, not his anyway, It was like a huge beacon half the time. So when it disappeared for a short few seconds they were confused, then they picked it up again. Turning to face each other Anko and Shizune blushed slightly, the training field from those three years ago. They looked to Shino who was still tagging along and smiled, perhaps it would be interesting to see how Naruto would react to seeing her after all these years as well.

As the blonde stood in the training ground he looked out towards the woods waiting for them to come, he knew this would be a nice meeting again, after all he was sure they would like how much he had grown up. His waiting though was soon brought to an end as he heard three pairs of feet arriving at his location, slowly turning around the young man smiled happily towards Anko and Shizune, but soon raised his eyebrow slightly at the sight of Shino, Wow, she grew up cute. His mind thought quickly before he spoke softly to them.

"Hey! Long time! Told ya I would be back, Sorry to keep you waiting this long, Anko-nee-chan, Shizune-nee-chan. And It is a surprise to see ya Shino-chan. But...I'm home."

At those words, Shino got to see not only her Sensei but one of her newer friends act more female then she thought possible at first, as the two older women all but tackled the blonde in a tight hug, tears streaming down their faces at his return. Before both of them said at the same time.

"Welcome...home Naruto-kun!"

To Be Continued...

A/N#2: Well there ya go, Chapter 2, yes I left it at a bit of a cliff hanger but I wanted to add suspense damn it, I hope you all enjoy it, and I am announcing it here, I have decided to finally do it, I am making a sequel to Love Of Leaf And Sand. So stay tuned for that! Anyway again Read and Review, love all of you guys.