Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Hi everyone, my first Naruto fic.

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GO!

Chapter One:

Past and Present:

"I have waited long enough!"

~TtT~

Peace really was something as an illusion of sorts. It was enjoyable, but constantly fleeting; one had to work constantly for it to be maintained.

It resembled glass; one could always see through it clearly, but it could be shattered beyond repair at the slightest mistake.

The current peace being experienced by Konohagakure was exactly like this. Fifteen years had passed since the death of the fourth Hokage, and the widowed village was still on the verge of war.

Dealings with Iwagakure were still shaky at most, and, with the new existence of Oto, things only got worse.

Over the past few years, the Five Great Elemental Nations have been on the brink of aggression, only the Land of Rain, by preventing any hostility along, and within, its boundaries, was able to prevent a fourth, great shinobi war.

Being situated in the center of three, out of the five countries certainly had its benefits.

But, despite all the efforts that were placed, the existing peace was still questionable.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was seated at his desk in the Hokage tower, trying to make sense of the world around him; from the questionable peace to the letter from Ame, which he received less then a week ago. He held the letter in his hand, trying to see if he could find any ulterior motives hidden between the lines.

Amegakure had just proposed to an alliance with the Leaf.

It's not that an alliance with Ame would not be useful, after all. Hiruzen mused. We are already at war with Otogakure, although neither of us have made any moves to make use of the 'at war' status, and the fact that Ame already has strong relations with the Sand, the ties Konoha has to it, though, are questionable, at most.

Ame has always been an independent nation, never needing to rely on anyone else for protection, so it doesn't add up. That was the main reason the third leaf Hokage was trying to check the letter for signs of trickery.

As he did this, Hiruzen took the opportunity to look back, thinking of all the things that have happened in the past three years, his memory drifting to the thought of the last chuunin exams, and aloud-mouthed blonde.

It was during the last leg of examination, the leg where the Sound were about to attack, that he disappeared.

Yes, Uzumaki, Naruto had disappeared during the third part of the chuunin exams.

Thinking about it more, Hiruzen remembered how Konoha had averted the war with Otto:

During that particular chuunin exam, not that there were any held afterwards since the other nations were too wary of each other to host, they received a letter from Ame's newly declare Kage,

… the Shodai Amekage, to be exact.

Hiruzen was impressed that Ame made a move on an international level just after the ending of a civil war.

What surprised Hiruzen even more was the fact that it was Salamander Hanzou who lost.

The letter said that Ame patrols had spotted a large contingency of Oto-nin en route for Konohagakure.

Hiruzen promptly sent a reply asking why the new Kage had warned them of the impending danger, while thanking him all the while.

The Amekage didn't seem to have been insulted as he sent a reply only a few days later. It was very brief, and only said the following words:

~ "I still have my genin there, Hokage-sama, whether some of them are dead or not, cannot be helped, but I do not wish to put any of my remaining ninja in any form of danger. Be careful, and be safe." ~

Hiruzen took action immediately, sending Jiraiya on a mission to track down Tsunade; a mission which was completed fairly quickly.

It was shortly after their arrival, when Hiruzen explained why he needed Tsunade to return, that the three began their planning, making sure that no one, no one, knew of Tsunade's return, as to keep the present Oto-nin from sensing anything wrong. Anko had already informed the old Hokage of Orochimaru's presence in the exams, the old man deducing that he was after the last Uchiha.

It was only during the third exam, when Naruto was supposed to fight Neji, did Hiruzen make his move:

For all the things he planned, the prodigal Sannin most certainly did not expect to be attacked by the Hokage, two of the Sannin, one hundred, or so, ANBU, and several hundred shinobi.

Needless to say, the invasion never occurred, and Sunagakure immediately declared war on Otto after learning of the Kazekage's demise at the hands of the snake while Konoha broke off all remnants of its old alliance with Suna.

Hiruzen was surprised at how bad the situation could have become had he not received the Amekage's warning, and sent another message, thanking him for the alert, and offering the assistance of Konoha in stabilizing the region.

The mysterious Kage only replied with the words:

~ "I feel that it would be best that Konohagakure concentrate on its own recovery. I am certain that all the other villages that attended the chuunin exam are now paranoid of attack, and my not be disposed to meeting each other again, as of the moment.

~"Not to mention the fact that you still have to deal with the unease of your own subordinates and citizens; I highly doubt that you can spare anything for an unknown country right now. Not that I am not grateful; it is an honor to be offered assistance from the legendary Konohagakure, but it would be in our best interests to place our full efforts into rebuilding our own respective villages.

~"Besides, I would look bad as the Shodaime Amekage if I was asking for help, only a month in office." ~

Hiruzen had to agree, and, with a light heart, joined in the festivities.

It was only after all the euphoria died down did he notice it, nearly a month after the failed exams:

Uzumaki Naruto was missing.

Hiruzen then took it upon himself to search for the young blond, accompanied by Jiraiya, who claimed to have enjoyed training the boy in the period of a month.

They asked around, first assuming that he was training, or doing something of the mischievous sort as he was prone to.

But after two weeks of searching, and a lot of convincing, Hiruzen had no choice but to declare the blonde boy as having been Missing in Action, as the last sightings of him were after his fight with Gaara of the Sand, the former leaving to assist in the main battle, leaving Gaara, Sakura, and Sasuke at the hands of Temari, Gaara's older sister.

Shortly after the declaration was made, Jiraiya took his leave, saying that he had another appointment to keep. Ironically, it was Tsunade who remained, claiming to have found something interesting in Konoha, in the form of a certain Haruno Sakura, whom the Sannin took as her second apprentice.

Returning to Hiruzen's original dilemma, he read the letter one more time before registering that the guest was due to arrive that day.

"Well," the old man said to himself. "I might as well get ready to meet him at the gates. It would be unseemly to have him brought before me rather than welcoming him as an honored guest."

As Sarutobi, Hiruzen left, he recalled the last line of the letter he received a few days previous:

~"As an act of good will, and a show of trust, I, the Amekage of the Hidden Rain, will personally come to Konoha to discuss the treaty terms with Hokage, Sarutobi, Hiruzen."~

~TtT~

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu)" was a cry that resounded through the training field as Konoha's resident prodigy breathed a large flaming ball that flew across the river to strike at his opponent.

Haruno Sakura simply punched the ground, sending large chunks of rock flying into the air, and, thereby, achieving several things:

She obstructed Sasuke's view of his opponent.

The fireball's power was reduced considerably, as the rocks took most of the damage.

Sasuke ran across the river between them to check out the damage, and to see where his teammate was; he found no trace of pink hair or read battle garb when he arrived at the scorched area, leaving him to one conclusion:

He attempted to block Sakura's incoming blow when she struck at him with a right back-hand fist.

Unfortunately for the Uchiha prodigy, he forgot about his friend's monstrous strength.

The mistake resulted in Sasuke's flying across the clearing, putting him back where he started:

…-Across the river.

He rubbed his right wrist as the pain settled in.

"Remind me to never block you when you are seriously trying to hurt me." He told her when she had crossed the river to his side. "It's dangerous."

Sakura just smiled at the implied compliment. Sasuke had become quite different in the past three years.

Oh no, he had not given up on his quest for vengeance, but he still managed to discover several things that made him decide to put such foolish plans on hold.

After all, he thought. It's useless to be able to get revenge if it will become pointless anyway right?

"Here," Sakura took his injured hand. "Let me take care of that." Her hands glowed green as she began to heal her friend's injury. Sasuke remained silent during the healing process, but looked around to survey the damage done by their spar:

There were many fallen trees with different forms of damage, ranging from cracks caused by fists to holes made by electrical lightning bolts. Sasuke noted that Sakura was no longer the annoyance she used to be.

"So, Sasuke-kun," Sasuke knew that tone, gods damn him he knew that tone. "Maybe you'd like to get a bite to eat when we're done here? Well, just in case you were hungry, that is." The tone was casual, She managed to make it sound like she was just inviting him for some food, but he knew too well the implications of saying yes.

She's getting better at this. Sasuke was impresses, impressed and amused but made it a point to look contemplative as not to give anything away. If she keeps this up, and, maybe, ends her fan girl streak, I just might say yes some time…

… just not now…

Oh yes, Sakura was no longer the thorn on his side,

…-But that didn't stop him from acting like she was.

"Hmm… Not now." He put down, flatly. He turned, and began to walk back to the village, but stopped. "By the way: thanks." He continued walking.

"Why not?" Sakura asked, acting more annoyed then desperate, as oppose to her attitude when she was twelve. Back then, she would whine if he said no.

Now, well, it was quite different.

She glared at Sasuke, her hands resting on her waist, she looked a lot like an angry mother.

She was very different indeed.

Sasuke looked back at her, his expression blank, but his eyes danced in amusement. Though it wasn't like he didn't want to go, he just had other priorities as of the moment.

I heard that a small group of Ame-nin was to arrive today, accompanied by the Kage's son. I think Kakashi-sensei said that the Amekage is coming over to negotiate a treaty with Konoha. Sasuke told himself

"I heard the Amekage is arriving from Rain today, and I wanted to see him." Sasuke told her. And maybe see his son as well, from what I heard, the kid's a prodigy.

"Ah, Really?" Sakura asked, in a fake interested tone.

"Don't give me that, pinkie." Sasuke glared at her as they entered the village, although the said glare was never intended to insult her in any way. "I can tell you know; you're the apprentice of a Sannin, for Kami's sake."

Sakura fake-pouted at her teammate's comment. "Must you be like that, Sasuke-kun? It was hard enough to get you out of your shell, two years to be exact, and your going to go all 'too cool for you' on me again?"

Sasuke just rolled his eyes as they passed the gate, when he noticed another person walk in at the same time.

He wore a large, black coat with a high collar, high enough to cover his face till the bridge of his nose; the coat's train falling to his knees. Sasuke recognized the uniform of Ame's royal guard, also known as Storm, but, unlike many Ame-nin in the organization, who wore their coats closed, and a wide-brimmed hat over their heads, this one wore his coat opened at the front, revealing what was underneath. Sasuke noticed another coat underneath, the same kind he had seen on depictions of the legendary Namikaze Minato, albeit of different design an color. While Minato's was white with red flames at the trim, the person's was blue with black waves; underneath, Sasuke saw a plain, black polo shirt, and black pants, over all, a plain attire under the two coats.

Sasuke stopped walking when the person approached the two guards at the gate. The Uchiha looked to the girl beside him to notice she was looking intently as well. He looked back to see the person reach to his head to remove his hat.

~TtT~

Since the disappearance of Uzumaki Naruto three years ago, Haruno Sakura could never help but feel slightly guilty whenever she saw something that reminded her of the blonde. Anything that made her miss his odd quirks, like ramen, the color orange, and other things as such. There were even times that she saw a wild fox in the forests of Konoha, and couldn't help but remember the Nin's fox-like attributes:

His mischievous attitude…

His great talent in trickery…

-His ability to hide his emotions behind that cheery mask of his. Well, in the few times that she felt it might have been fake.

… There were just so many things that Sakura could point out that made Naruto so much like a fox.

But it just gave Sakura a reason to avoid foxes.

She didn't like to remind herself of the blonde. She always became overcome with guilt when she thought of Naruto. When she was twelve, she never treated him right. She shot down all his advances, as innocent as they may have been; she called him a failure, dead last, drop-out, fool, and so many other things that she had called him.

But worst of all, Sakura was guilty over never giving him a fair share of her attention; it was always Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke to her. Naruto was just there, the dead last who would never amount to anything.

And he never did. Sakura's voice was shaking in her mind, she felt like she could just break down there and cry. He never did amount to anything 'cause he got himself killed three years ago. He was always there, ready to help if he was needed; ready to make sacrifices to protect others. He was seen as the weakest among us, but his last act was saving us from something that not even Sasuke-kun could beat. His last heroic deed: to save someone who didn't even acknowledge them.

Ironic isn't it: that he decided to save me, the real weakling in the team.

But why was she thinking all of this now? Oh, that's right, she just saw something that reminded her of the boy:

A fox.

A little red fox was following the Ame-nin who entered the village at the same time as she and Sasuke did, bringing the guilt-ridden emotions along with it.

Of course, Sakura never showed anyone this, not even Sasuke. She felt that she had to bear it, to at least honor the sacrifice that her friend had made for her and Sasuke.

If one were to look at her now, one would see her just standing there looking at the Ame-nin as he removed his hat.

A tear rolled down Sakura's cheek.

No…

It can't be.

There, in front of her, wearing the forehead protector of the hidden Rain, was the spitting image of the boy she had lost.

Through all the minor differences, she saw him.

His purple eyes…

His unblemished, whisker-free face…

The black earrings…

Through it all, she couldn't help but see it, see him.

She was now consumed by bad feelings, and she felt like she could not bear them anymore. She looked to Sasuke, who had a dumbstruck expression on his face; he was pale as a ghost, as though he had seen one. Sakura finally gave way; calling out the name, ethereal as a whisper:

"… Naruto…"

and that ends the first chapter of the "Prince of Rain."

first, questions:

Who's the kid who looks like Naruto?

Do you think he is Naruto?

Who is tha Amekage?

What do you think of the characters, are they OoC?

If yes, would you please be so kind as to leave me some suggestions?

To those that are reading my Code Geass fics, don't worry. And to those who are waiting for me to update this fic, please bear with me as i still have two fics to update, and, quite frankly, they take my priority.

hehe,

Toph the Trickster