Disclaimer: I own no aspects of the Naruto Universe...*cries*...

Just Reward

A Naruto Three-Shot

Chapter 1: 'October 9th'

Peace.

For a hidden village in the world of shinobi, the word was one that fell from the lips of people as but a dream for the future, a farfetched desire that very few could achieve. Times of the modern age had made some figures wonder just what would have to be done to achieve any kind of civil relationship that wasn't instigated through bloodshed. Peace, as a word, is vague unless specified to an area. Could it mean world peace? Momentary peace, such as when one lies upon soft grassland and gazes towards the sky without a care for the world before its reality is thrust back into their lap? Internal peace, where one's inner demons are finally resolved through self or third party action? Such a simple word…so many different implementations.

In today's age, only two words were needed to explain the peace that had blanketed civilisation for the past year-and-a-half: Uzumaki Naruto. The teenage shinobi from Konohagakure, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko, and a potential future candidate for the position of Rokudaime Hokage. Even now, it amazed the villagers that the once loud, idiotic knucklehead with fetishes for the colour orange and ramen had brought about a new era of diplomacy between once warring countries and opened new relations with villages that had once held violent vendettas for the actions of legends passed.

But what kind of event had happened to allow this once hated young man to stop the seemingly never ending violence and bring about this harmonious age? In reality, it was two people, and two different events.

The first person was the man that had brought about the horrific event that almost destroyed Naruto's home village and took the life of its most honoured Hokage and his lover. He was the man that had turned Naruto's best friend into a murderer and mindless avenger. Lastly, he was the man that started the Fourth Shinobi War, which itself was one of the two aforementioned events.

Uchiha Madara. Even the mere utterance of the murderer's name made the blonde shinobi's jaw clench shut in anger.

The Fourth Shinobi War had already been and gone. While it lasted a grand total of only eight months, the Allies' losses were tremendous. There was only so much that could be done against one hundred thousand Zetsu clones, which themselves had a higher damage threshold than a normal human and unbelievable skill to boot. Combine them with the reanimated members of Akatsuki and Madara himself…it would take every moment of strategy, concentration and determination for the Allied shinobi to stop from succumbing.

It was during the end of the eighth month that Madara's patience broke, and he initiated a solo head-on attack on Naruto's new hiding location near the location of the once prosperous Uzushiogakure…his mother's home village. Interestingly enough, Naruto had not been permitted to return to Konoha after initially usurping his destructive tenant of its chakra, instead he was repeatedly moved to new hideouts away from the fighting so that he could not be found or, at worst, captured. The resulting fight had created a whole new landscape of charred earth and deep craters that would require a redraw of all world and local maps, as well as destroying two abandoned settlements from the shockwaves of some of the massive attacks that had been used.

The explosions and inhuman battle cries raged on for three hours before one final, massive sphere of purple enveloped a stretch of coastline two kilometres from the nearest Allied squad, a small platoon belonging to the Fourth Division, the long range combat specialists.

Excerpt from a surveillance report, written by an Allied Jounin:

"Stood in a twenty-metre deep and one-hundred-metre wide crater of black and burnt earth was a…I would probably be wrong to call it a man…enveloped in chakra flames of bright orange. It was easy to tell from his swaying stance that he was on the brink of collapsing, but still looked to stand tall over the figure lying by his (its?) feet. The darkness of night almost made us blind to the dark colours the second body wore, but none of us had trouble in telling that the second person would not be getting up…considering there was only half of them left…literally…"

Further according to the report, which was corroborated by accounts written by the other squad members - including both Nara Shikamaru and Subaku no Temari - the entity covered in orange flames collapsed as they closed in to confirm the situation. They had quickly identified both bodies as that of Uchiha Madara and Uzumaki Naruto.

The former: Confirmed deceased after extensive and multiple tests. Body incinerated and ashes spread in six different locations across three countries. The latter: Unconscious and bed-ridden back in his home village for three weeks due to extreme chakra exhaustion, even when backed up by the chakra of the Kyuubi.

It was the first time in eight months that Naruto's friends had seen him. Before he left, they had barely any idea of neither where he was going nor what he was doing. So it was no surprise that upon regaining consciousness he was verbally berated by Tsunade for his recklessness, and physically slapped by the…once proclaimed…love of his life, Haruno Sakura, for making her and the rest of their friends worry themselves to proverbial near death. The week after Naruto's return, the word had reached every ear in the village that their jinchuuriki had gained full control over his literal inner demon. The remaining 7 members of the Konoha 11 (Sasuke and Naruto not included) were, to say the least, stunned. An amazed reaction from Hyuuga Hinata was expected, as was the same from Rock Lee, but everybody had to do a double take at how both Sakura and even Yamanaka Ino seemed awestruck into silence by the revelation that Naruto was now, in essence, more powerful than any of the world's kages.

Thus, the Fourth Shinobi War ended, and the leaders of the Allied nations and villages all vouched to remain in said alliance for the sake of future peace. Peace on a grand scale was achieved…thanks to Naruto. However, his own search for internal peace had one more battle to partake in: The fight to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke.

It was that one promise that hung over him like a single plaguing rain cloud. It was an unnecessary weight that had gradually sunk him further into the ground over the years, and its effect on his own patience had shone through when the young avenger directly attacked Konoha on his own. What he once thought to be a deep connection of friendship with the – now last - Uchiha, Naruto suddenly realised had twisted and transformed into a dark, underlying hatred.

However, it was now the week in which Konohagakure had its own internal war...against Naruto himself.

The current date: October 9th.

Tomorrow, it would be the hero's eighteenth birthday. Now when one thinks of the coming-of-age milestone, images of alcohol, dancing, lots of socialising and even more if the beneficiary got lucky come to one's mind. But for the jinchuuriki, it was none of those things. In fact, it was the total opposite. It was Naruto's plan, much like every year, to stay as isolated as possible between the 8th and 12th of every October so that the individuals that still lived in the past could simmer angrily without any problems to themselves, Naruto, or any bystanders. The irony of the situation sang all too loud for Naruto in a familiar and derogatory tune. The annual festival was implemented to celebrate the 'death' of the Nine-Tailed Fox, a 'death' that a less-than-two-hour-old Naruto had helped to achieve. It was this simple fact that lead to his father's dying wish: that his son be hailed as a hero, one who through great strength and courage would keep the demon at bay.

'So much for that plan…' The blonde mentally huffed to himself as he looked out over his home from the top of the Yondaime's massive head of stone, 'Sorry, Tou-chan. But some of these idiots still refuse to let go of the past.'

That much was true. But that didn't mean that the situation hadn't changed for the better. As the years moved on, more and more people became sympathetic to Naruto's cause, and those who looked at the good the blonde had done would quietly commend him for putting up with his…burden. It also made Naruto curious as to how people would approach him once his heritage was let out of the bag. The young blonde had discussed it with the Hokage, and after much deliberation, they agreed to reveal just whose son he was on his eighteenth birthday…tomorrow. But in order to not make such a large spectacle of it, they decided upon slowly letting the news trickle out. First to Naruto's friends and other close acquaintances, and from there the word would only spread throughout the village, upon which Tsunade would have no choice but to confirm or deny any rumours that sprung up in the mean time. On top of that, Naruto knew he had friends, but his selfless side kept telling them to enjoy the festival instead of hang around him in his cramped apartment.

On the matter of friends, there was one person that had begun to interact with Naruto far more than others over the course of the past year. The thing that made his increase in popularity with this person less believable was that she was one of the first people Naruto had pegged would ignore him and chase Sasuke once he had been retrieved.

This young woman, however, was not Sakura as some would have thought. It was her rival in the chase for Sasuke's heart: Yamakana Ino.

Their first proper interaction was a tense one. Naruto had actively, and rather loudly confronted Sakura over a love confession she had made in the Land of Iron soon after the war had been declared. Long story short: Naruto lost quite a bit of trust in Sakura thereafter, she was still his friend, but she had been shoved down the list of closest friends to the extent that she knew how much it damaged their once unbreakable bond. Sakura was naturally upset at Naruto's outburst, and confided in Ino. Within an hour, the two blondes ended up exchanging harsh words at training ground 3, words that eventually turned into a no-holds-barred sparring match. The things that they said to one another before, during, and after their confrontation had built new levels of understanding between them. Naruto saw the romantic and physical insecurities that birthed Ino's mask of outer confidence; while Ino saw how Naruto held a saddening loneliness and desire for somebody to love him like he had loved Sakura. On top of that, they could also share their feelings over the loss of a close friend and mentor of one kind or another: Ino lost Asuma and Naruto lost Jiraiya, it was one of the few pieces of common ground that they shared, but it was enough to start. After inadvertently opening themselves up to - and finding confidants in - one another, the two blondes strove for an active friendship.

It was currently nearing one o'clock in the afternoon, and the mass of people trudging through the streets below looked like uniformly marching ant colonies as they carried all sorts of decorations and equipment in preparation for the next day's festival.

The whole situation brought mixed feelings from the demon container. On the one hand he was pleased that it was a time that could bring all the villagers together…well, all but one. And that was the exact reason as to why he didn't like the festival window; the stares, the whispers, the occasional drunk who had nothing to live on bar memories and plots of vengeance. Regrettably, the blonde teen had already been forced to run away from one of those people a few hours ago.

"I wonder if baa-chan did anything about that request of mine…" Naruto quietly pondered in enough of a volume so that he could hear himself over the wind that whooped past his ears, blowing his face-length bangs of sunshine blonde hair back across his mouth.

The once annoying, noisy and immature little squirt that everybody looked down upon – mostly due to his size at the time – had now grown into a tall and rather striking man, enough so that he had caught the eyes of numerous women equal to, below, and even above his own age. Naruto's sharp jaw line, piercing cerulean eyes and lengthened hairstyle of exuberant bright yellow were the main features that adorned his head, which topped off his toned 5'11" body. Even as his body grew and his mentality matured, he would refuse to leave his apartment if he didn't have at least some form of orange on his clothing. While almost everybody thought it to be because of his obsession with the colour as a child (which was partially true), he also wore it as a permanent tribute to the two people he knew loved him the most: his parents, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, the 'Yellow Flash' and 'Bloody Habanero' respectively. Though at the moment, Naruto himself was the only person who knew of this reason, and he hoped that within the next few weeks that would no longer be the case. The modern Naruto's get-up comprised of a short-sleeved cloak that flapped around his ankles, similar to the Hokage's, but the body was black and the flames around the hems of the sleeves and cloak were a conventional orange, slightly darker than his two original jumpsuits. He kept the standard dark blue shinobi sandals, above which was a pair of black pants with tape wrapped, as usual, around the right thigh; both legs had a long strip of the same orange tint running down the side seams. His first upper layer was a finely woven, long-sleeved mesh shirt underneath a seemingly tight fitting and long-sleeved navy blue muscle shirt. A green Jounin vest, however, restricted the view of the shirt.

It even surprised the jinchuuriki that only six months ago he was still a Genin. But Sasuke's surprise attack, born out of the avenger's hate and arrogant belief that his own power was enough to annihilate an entire village, forced Naruto into a higher position of authority. At the time, Naruto had been approximately ten miles to the north of the village, training in solitude in his full jinchuuriki form to maintain secrecy. By the time an ANBU had found the blonde and ordered him to report to the Hokage, half of the southeastern quarter of Konoha had been reduced to debris and corpses. Naruto had basically destroyed the door connecting the Hokage's office to the corridor outside in a mix of anger and impatience, determination flaring in his eyes. Even though Tsunade hadn't yet explained anything, Naruto claimed that he had felt an overwhelming wave of negative emotion whilst in his chakra form. Tsunade explained the situation, fully aware that the man she viewed as a younger brother wanted to stop the last Uchiha by himself, as well as the danger that would come with the order she was about to give him. Even to the current day, Naruto could remember the words Tsunade had said to him in the office, syllable for syllable.

'I am giving you only one order: Stop Uchiha Sasuke by any means necessary. Whether you kill him or not is completely up to you, but either way, he must be stopped. If possible, and I know you'll try your best at this one, apprehend him alive for interrogation. Finally, because of the unfaltering determination you have shown in training and missions, your unwavering loyalty to both the village and its people in your service career to date, and your high level of skill as a shinobi in multiple areas…I am enforcing Konohagakure Wartime Decree number sixty-two, subsection B. Uzumaki Naruto, you have now been temporarily field promoted to Jounin. If you successfully quash this attack and subdue the perpetrator, I may decide to make the promotion permanent. Now GO!'

Naruto made well on his promise to Sakura, Sasuke and himself on that day. However, only two people knew exactly what happened during the three-hour gap between the time in which Naruto forcibly led Sasuke away from the village and eventually walked through the gates with an unconscious Uchiha over his shoulder, teetering on the precipice of consciousness himself. Those two people were none other than…Naruto and Sasuke. Despite the explosions that could be heard to the north and the occasional inhuman wail (which most believed to be from Sasuke's Susanoo), the Hokage forbade anybody but Naruto from engaging the village's attacker. While the fact that Naruto had successfully stopped Sasuke made the peoples' mouths gape open in awe, they were befuddled as to how Naruto forced the Uchiha out of the village in the first place. Some shinobi actually bore witness to Naruto's technique, but it was almost indescribable. The two most credible reports came from Hagane Kotetsu and ANBU veteran Uzuki Yuugao, and they both used exactly the same words:

"Naruto teleported the both of them away."

'Teleported' was quite the extreme word. Very few shinobi had any knowledge of advanced space-time transportation jutsu; Kakashi had Kamui, Madara had an advanced version of that, and the Yondaime Hokage had his Hiraishin, but that was where the list dramatically thinned out.

Only a select few people knew the identity of Naruto's father. The first was Tsunade, who knew because Jiraiya would never shut his trap over how proud he was that his best student would be having a child. The second and third, sadly, were Koharu and Homura. On the up side, both council elders – somewhat reluctantly – agreed to keep quiet until a necessary time after the next tenth of October. Naruto's heritage became yet another secretive conversation topic between the four after the end of the war, and it concluded with Tsunade willingly handing over Minato's technique scrolls, scrolls that rightfully belonged in the possession of his son and not the village. This was the main reason for Naruto's hidden training area. He would travel by foot to get there at first, and after three months of constant revision of the same three scrolls and accompanying prototype kunai, Naruto managed to transport himself from one side of the training field to the other. Slowly but surely, the maximum travel distance increased, as did Naruto's skill with the intricately shaped kunai in both combat and beacon proximity sensing. Almost instant transport from seal to seal was not the only advantage of the kunai, if the user were to concentrate hard enough on one specific seal, they could sense nearby shinobi presences by their chakra. In order to avoid suspicion, Tsunade made a request to a weapons maker in an undisclosed village in Wind country to create a second Hiraishin kunai minus the seal. Once obtained, Naruto used both kunai as a means of quick travel between Konoha and his personal training ground. What the shinobi witnessed on that day was the jinchuuriki taking Sasuke away from Konoha by way of the Hiraishin in order to save the village from further danger.

The next day, Tsunade was asked on more than one occasion as to how Naruto 'teleported' the way he did. She played the simpleton act and denied any knowledge of the matter, playing the technique off as something Naruto learned during his time with Killer B. Naruto spent three days recovering in the hospital under almost constant watch by three of his four favourite medics: Tsunade, Shizune, and Ino. Why the latter focussed on him so much was something that puzzled Naruto even in the present. He was half expecting both her and Sakura to immediately forget he existed, since Sasuke was being held in a secure room guarded by no less than eight elite ANBU, six inside and two outside. Ino at least had the sense to tell Naruto of her desire to continue being his friend despite his scepticism, she even admitted to having lost her feelings towards the Uchiha, mostly because she had the misfortune of watching him burn a civilian house to the ground…with the family still inside it.

Naruto's friendliness towards Sakura, on the other hand, had deteriorated. Ever since he felt used by the one he loved, he began to lose more and more respect for the kunoichi, and the fact she tried to kill Sasuke behind his back only sought to make his feelings worse. As well as himself, Naruto was also bringing Sasuke back for her, his promise constantly weighing him down. With that weight now lifted, he felt free. Besides, he was pretty confident in his belief, even stubbornly so, that Sakura was now out of reach, that she would put up a massive 'Sasuke only' barrier around herself once again, but he was sure that would have happened anyway. It was one of the reasons he aimed to get the Uchiha back in the first place. Sasuke's return would make Sakura happy, and in response, Naruto would feel happy as well.

On the contrary, Naruto surprised everybody around him when he unceremoniously dumped Sasuke's bloodied and bruised body at the feet of two young women without a single hint of a smile or happy visage; they were the two young women he believed would contend for the traitor once again. He quietly said a few words to both of them and simply walked away; words that only those in closest proximity would hear, words that made both medics show a wince through their eyes…words to clearly show that the jinchuuriki no longer cared. He didn't bother looking behind him when he laboriously limped in the direction of the Hokage tower, everybody looking on in shock-induced silence; if he did, he would have seen Sakura staring at his kunai-pierced back with rapidly tearing eyes, almost completely ignoring the limp sack of meat lying by her ankles.

Naruto quickly opened his eyes and focussed on the horizon, hoping to let something else occupy his mind before he started thinking of Sakura once again. He preferred not to have his mind burdened by the girl he still admittedly had a small amount of feelings for, but every time he thought of or saw her face, he kept seeing the lips attached to it confess a fake love. He should have been happy once she said those three words; he knew he should, but there were so many things about her body language that screamed insincerity. It was always about Sasuke, he made that promise so that he could bring Sasuke back to her. But from what Naruto had heard, Sakura hadn't gone to the Interrogation and Torture building at all, where Sasuke was currently held day and night, and had been for the past six months. Naruto didn't know Sakura's reasons, but her lack of drive to talk to Sasuke was making the blonde impatient.

The blonde teen's sigh was lost on the wind as he brought his left hand up to his mouth and sharply bit on his thumb. Swiping the small amount of seeping blood across his right palm and bringing both hands together in front of his chest, he quickly flashed through five hand signs.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu", he said in a firm but calm tone as his right hand landed flat on the stone of the Hokage Monument. The following smoke plume briefly covered Naruto's vision, indicating a successful summon and for the blonde to retract his hand. As the smoke cleared, he looked down at his feet and saw a toad similar to the size of a young Gamakichi. Its body was red with three blue markings surrounding the face, and around its neck was a small pair of goggles almost like those Naruto used before he received his hitai-ate.

"Hey Naruto!" The small toad happily shouted up to its summoner. Naruto smiled at the cheeriness of his company. Ever since he had become a fully trained sage, Naruto tried his best to maintain relations with the majority of the summoned toads, and not just those who seemed the most effective in a battle. Aside from Gamabunta and his children, Fukasaku and Shima, the sage did his best to interact more with summons like Gamahiro, Gamaken and the little messenger now sat smiling at his feet.

"'Sup Kosuke-san?" Naruto nodded in greeting and quickly stooped down to just above his summons' height, sitting down and crossing his legs. Despite the major height difference – amongst many other differences – Naruto always made sure to show proper respect to those who trusted him with their contract, hence the honorific. The messenger toad put his…hands…up in a 'don't know' gesture, palms facing upwards.

"Ehh, this and that. But I can't say I'm not surprised that the great sage Naruto would choose to summon me at such a time of such a wonderful day." The toad spoke in a light-hearted tone and took a second to look over the sun-soaked Konohagakure landscape, admiring how almost nothing was left in shadow. The little toad enjoyed the imagery, but it had taken time to re-accustom himself to it. After all, Danzo killed the poor guy during Pain's invasion. Even after Nagato's jutsu managed to resurrect him, he refused to leave Myobokuzan for a very long period of time, even defiantly returning home the second he found himself summoned inside Konoha limits. Eventually, Fukasaku put the figurative boot in and forced the worried messenger to stay in the Hokage's office for a week. Soon enough, Kosuke started to return to normal, even though the office, his place of death, still made him slightly nervous to that day. Naruto followed Kosuke's eyeline and took a moment to soak in the sight of the village once again.

"I simply have a favour to ask of you", Naruto began as he reached behind his back with his right hand, leaving his left to rest on his knee. Kosuke looked on patiently as he saw the hand come back into view holding a long object. Upon making out its shape, his eyes widened and he brought his mouth into as much of an 'O' shape as his absence of lips would allow.

"Oooh", Kosuke let out the noise in surprise. He looked back up Naruto, locking their eyes to one another's once again.

"Would you mind going to Tsunade baa-chan and telling her I'll be paying her a visit? It doesn't matter if she's got company; just tell her she's got thirty seconds." He handed the object over to the awestruck toad. He had heard his fellow kin talk about Naruto being in possession of such an object, but he had yet to confirm it with his own eyes. Slowly, the toad reached out and took the sleek piece of metal, quickly bringing it into a tight hold so as not to drop it.

"No problem! See you in half a minute!" With that farewell and a short wave, the place in which the toad stood was replaced with more thick smoke and thin air soon after that. On his own once more, Naruto looked to the Hokage tower below and briefly pondered what his 'big sister' would be up to around this time. Quickly concentrating, he began to feel chakra responses from the object now inside his room of destination.

'Tsunade baa-chan…Ino-chan? And…' His small smile slowly dropped, "Great…" He huffed once again with a crooked frown. Keeping his mental countdown going, Naruto propped himself onto one knee, placing his arm on his right thigh and preparing to make his move.

"Three…two…one…"

In as much time it took to blink, Naruto was no longer on top of the monument; vanished, as if he dissipated into thin air.

"So you've already started work on an antidote?"

The Godaime Hokage was sat at her desk looking at a data chart on the heart rate of a hospitalised shinobi. From the sharp peaks and troughs in the chart, the patient's BPM early on was horrendously high and never dropping, it was equivalent to someone undergoing intense physical exercise. According to the two kunoichi giving the report, a poison in the patient's bloodstream was forcing their heart to deliberately overwork itself into premature failure. Fortunately, the two medics in question had successfully driven the poison towards a non-lethal artery and physically purged it from their system. A large enough sample was retrieved to leave only trace amounts inside the patient, and also enough to start examining the toxins so that an antidote could be formulated.

"Hai. Based on the simple enzyme and glycoside structure of the poison, it shouldn't be too hard to reverse engineer to find a suitable countermeasure. If I'm honest, Tsunade-sama, I'm surprised we haven't come across such a simple concoction in combat before." Tsunade listened attentively with an equally focussed stare as she looked over the sheet in front of her to pay attention to the first (and admittedly better) of her two apprentices.

Haruno Sakura had grown into a woman with a beauty befitting her literal name, despite still being six-and-a-bit months away from turning eighteen. Over the course of a year she had gained a few inches, just like her teammates, and also filled out slightly more in her hip and chest area. She had let her vivid pink hair grow so it now ended between her shoulder blades. Her pink-fabric hitai-ate was still in its usual place, tied over the top of her head so that her bangs framed her face, the bangs themselves coming down to her collarbones. Because this day was one of her shifts at the hospital, Sakura had taken to wearing her standard medic outfit of half-thigh-length purple skirt, beige t-shirt and dark red tank top.

Stood at Sakura's side was Tsunade's second apprentice down the ladder rungs, Yamanaka Ino. Just like Sakura, time did nothing but accentuate and greaten her beauty, but that was mostly attributable to still being in her teen years. While she kept the same hairstyle and clothing that had worked for her since she turned fifteen, she had also filled out to look like a goddess reborn. It was no surprise to anyone that she was one of the most chased after girls in the village, but it was also no surprise that she had a tendency to harshly shoot down those who thought they were something special.

Well…there was one guy Ino had considered accepting – on numerous times at that – should he ever show a more than friendly interest in her. He didn't have black hair, a permanent grimace on his face, or a monotone voice. No, this man was loud, blonde like her, very active, permanently smiling, fun to boss around, and one of the best listeners and comforters she had ever come to know.

Before her daydreaming went any further and made her face muscles slacken in laziness, the current conversation in the office was sharply cut by the 'poofing' sound and smoke plume created only by a summon. The small plume on the portion of the desk to Tsunade's right cleared, revealing a Fukasaku-sized red and blue toad protectively holding a long metallic object to its chest. Both Hokage and toad stared each other down for but a few short seconds before the higher authority spoke up.

"Can I help you, Kosuke-san?" Tsunade threw the medical chart on to the desk and instead opted to link her fingers together in her trademark pondering position, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. She remembered having to put up with the little creature's nervous quibbles as it was forced to sit in her office for a week as it re-accustomed itself to being in the room in which it was once killed. There was still some slight nervousness in the toad's eyes that she could see; either, she figured, it was the room or her sharp gaze.

"Eh, forgive the interruption Hokage-sama, but Naruto sent me ahead with this." At his sentence's end, Kosuke held out the object his summoner had handed him. While Ino and Sakura had looked towards each other, no doubt to complain about the toad's tenacity to butt in on their discussion, their heads were immediately snapped back as Naruto's name was mentioned. Tsunade looked at the object with indifference, but it's dark grey glossy finish and yellow handle had caught the eyes of both young kunoichi stood before the desk.

Ino and Sakura took an inquisitive step forward, curiosity controlling their movements, in order to see the object better. The triple-bladed kunai glinted in the afternoon sun, further emphasising the smooth body of the handle and the outer sections of the blades. The actual blades themselves were a much lighter grey, worked over and over in a furnace and folded until an edge so sharp that it could cut air had been achieved. Both girls had puzzled looks on their faces as their eyes looked along the handle to see complex calligraphy written vertically between the hilt and loop. Even as Tsunade's calm grasp claimed the kunai, the girls' eyes never left it.

"I see…" Tsunade's smug tone shook the kunoichi from their stupor and forced their views back to her, eyebrows crooked from a mix of confusion and curiosity.

"How long?" Tsunade looked back at Kosuke after taking a moment to admire the weapon herself. The summons turned its eyes towards the ceiling in thought.

"I'd say about another ten seconds, give or take." Nodding in acceptance, Tsunade looked back to her protégés and felt her resistance against an emerging snicker crumbling away as she saw yet more confusion written across their faces. Tsunade waved for the two girls in front of her to move to the side, which, for some reason, they obeyed without question nor argument.

"Typical Naruto, he can't even wait until after tomorrow to start showing this off", the Hokage cryptically - at least to her company - said before forcing the point of the kunai into the desk. Removing her grip, the kunai stood completely vertical on its own, using the desk as its anchor. Sakura minutely raised her hand like she would have done in her academy years.

"Er, Shishou…what are you talki-" Sakura quickly stifled her question as Tsunade raised her hand for silence. The Hokage kept her eyes pasted on the floor space in front of the desk, the floor space that the two medics had occupied mere seconds before. Sakura dropped her hand, as well as her shoulders, with a nasal sigh before looking outside the windows behind her master. The colour of the sunlight streaming into the room through the glass kept reminding the pinkette of a certain teammate's hair.

'Naruto…' Sakura's eyes subconsciously drifted to the floor as that soul-lifting and over-toothy smile appeared before her mind's eye, an image that had swam inside her head for almost a year now. It actually hurt the young woman to realise and admit to herself that while Naruto's admiration of her had taken a steep drop because of her actions just less than two years before, her admiration of him had grown significantly. She let her head hang in minor upset before remembering that she was in the company of others. She had plenty of time to think to herself later. As she looked back to Tsunade, she saw the busty Hokage having a staring contest with the floor, and looked over to the spot roughly indicated by her master's gaze.

With no forewarning, no sound, no visual hint of any kind …the floor space supporting nothing but air was suddenly supporting the weight of everybody's favourite knucklehead. The way his coat flapped and quickly but calmly wrapped around his back gave the illusion of an indoor gust, the nonexistent chill of which seemed to make the hair on Sakura's neck stand on end. What a coincidence it must have been for the object of her immediate thoughts to have instantly appeared in front of her.

Wait…how did he do that, exactly?

Ino was in as much of a state as her friend. Finding her fellow blonde absent from the room one millisecond and seeing him right in front of her eyes the next caused her to question her internal clock. Because of that, she thought she had fallen asleep with her eyes open while Naruto had walked through the door and randomly crouched in the middle of the office.

While the pair of young medics on the right side of the room looked on in silence, comprehending just how in the world Naruto made his entrance, the teenager in question had already given them a quick glance and was now flashing a peeved pout in the direction of the village leader.

"Baa-chaaaan", Naruto let the title drone out like a child's whine, "I wanted to make it look at least a bit cool. Getting everybody to stand on ceremony and wait just kills all the fun!" Ignoring the fact that one of her best shinobi just complained to her like a crybaby, Tsunade looked more at the positive part of the reunion and smiled at her 'little brother's' playful face. She didn't see Kosuke turn to face Naruto and raise his hand.

"But Naruto, you kind of made it obvious by sending me." Naruto's cold glare promptly forced the toad into making the wise decision of closing its mouth.

"I was hoping you'd at least exercise some basic knowledge of stealth", Naruto murmured under his breath, deciding to remain knelt on the floor.

"Says the guy who runs head first into every battle", Kosuke crossed his arms and fired a distasteful frown back at his summoner. Naruto shot up and took a single step in the direction of the cheeky toad, faux bloody murder written across his face.

"Why, you-", Naruto begun, but his attempt at an insult was thrown off by Tsunade's commanding tone.

"Enough!" Even when the tone sounded powerful and most certainly movement halting, Tsunade's fingers were still linked together and supporting her chin as if she were quietly listening to a verbal mission report. Naruto, intelligent enough to stay away from an unnecessary argument, did the first thing that came to his mind…he pouted again. Tsunade looked totally unfazed by the blonde's antics, and sought to include her other company – both of whom happened to be looking at Naruto with a look between surprise and exasperation – in the shifting conversation.

"Naruto, I'm in the middle of a meeting right now. Couldn't this have waited until a time that was more convenient?" Tsunade made the obvious hint by pointing out the two kunoichi on Naruto's right, which in turn made the blonde look across and meet two pairs of eyes: one jade and one teal.

As he looked over Ino, the young man could feel his shoulders relax. Ever since their first fistfight nearly two years ago, Naruto had become a much closer friend to his fellow blonde. Although the pair didn't have much time to talk before Naruto was shipped off to control his tenant, they found plenty of time after the war's end to catch up and further their knowledge of each other; but even then Naruto was unsure as to how he was suddenly on such good speaking terms with the co-founder of the Sasuke Fan Club. Initially he pinned it down to their common ground of losing a sensei, but soon they came to enjoy the shenanigans that came with their clashes in personality. Ino, much like Sakura, had the ability to put Naruto in his place (usually with a fist), but Naruto always seemed to make the experience fun by means of his unpredictability and minor immaturity.

Naruto's eyes caught a red object sitting in Ino's hair over her left temple. It was a rose. A single blood red rose that healthily stood out as if Ino's scalp itself were a fertilised flowerbed. The imagery, and the memory behind the rose, caused Naruto to smile, but he tried to pass it off as a smile of greeting before giving a small wave in the girls' direction.

"Hi, Ino-chan", Naruto said in a cheerful tone that certainly didn't reflect a care for the fact that he'd just figuratively barged into the Hokage's office and broken up a meeting. Ino, still dumbfounded by the fact that Naruto had just teleported into the room, could only flicker a smile along with a nervous chuckle and a minute wave in return. But it wasn't just Naruto's sudden appearance that made her laugh in such a way.

From a woman's perspective, Naruto, to put it simply, was hot. His skin was completely unblemished and maintained a light bronze tan. His elongated canines flashed with every smile, and only sought to bring out an animalistic look when combined with his whisker marks that screamed danger. His sapphire eyes shone brighter than the world's oceans, and contrasted beautifully with his shining blonde locks. Although his Jounin vest restricted the view of his body, everybody could get the jist of his build from his arms, the muscles of which flowed with each movement underneath his tight shirt. His coat only served to make him look bigger and more intimidating, which in itself was quite an attractive perk. Somewhere along the line, Ino had found herself looking at Naruto in this way more and more, which explained the extremely faint and almost unnoticeable blush that spread across her cheekbones.

Knowing she was already in the room, Naruto looked to acknowledge the other girl that he had yet to address: his teammate and…friend. He couldn't peg as to why, but Sakura held a small smile that, joined with her upturned eyebrows, made her face appear like it was holding a look of hope.

"Hey there, Sakura", Naruto's voice had lost a lot of its excited tone, but it was still cheerful enough to sound legitimate. Naruto took no time in looking back to his Hokage, but not before stealing a glance at Ino, a glance that wasn't lost on any of the females in the room…especially the one with pink hair. If he had paid any attention to Sakura's face after his less-than-enthusiastic greeting, he would have seen it twist with apparent hurt and her eyes fall to the floor. It was obvious to everyone how the tension between the pair had remained taut since Sakura laid down her false confession, so much so that Naruto hadn't added the 'chan' suffix to his teammate's name for almost fifteen months.

Tsunade caught the temporary fall of Sakura's pleasant visage, and it made her pity the young woman; not from the perspective of a damaged friendship, however, but because both medics knew a certain piece of information that Naruto had stubbornly and subconsciously refused to believe. Tsunade could only watch her apprentice face Naruto with the all too familiar look of longing, but remain silent. All the Hokage could do was sigh as she knew Naruto wouldn't turn up for no reason; she rubbed her forehead with her right hand, closing her eyes in the meantime.

"Is there something I can help you with, Naruto?" She asked with a tired expression, "While I'd love to just chat and procrastinate on the paperwork, I do have other important matters to attend to." Naruto swiftly dropped the smile and adopted a serious business face.

"I won't beat about the bush, then", Naruto looked out the window behind Tsunade and could still make out civilians erecting stalls in the streets and putting up hanging lanterns in preparation for the coming celebrations. He sighed at the image; while he was glad it was a time that the villagers could be happy, he didn't like how the happiness came with the price of his own physical well being.

"And I'm not going to pretend that you don't know what kind of things are waiting outside for me just like every other year." Fully aware of what Naruto was referring to, Tsunade frowned in anger, anger at the villagers; Sakura and Ino, meanwhile just sighed and let a wince show through their eyes. Naruto quickly brought them back to the present as he made his enquiry.

"In light of that, have you and the old geezers made any decision about my…request?" Tsunade narrowed her eyes in reluctance. Aside from keeping Naruto's parentage a secret for the meanwhile, the Yondaime's son had also made a single negotiable request regarding his personal safety. Just to sway the potential decision that Tsunade and the two council elders would come to, Naruto subtly insisted that he would go along with his idea even without permission, regardless of the penalty.

"It just so happens that those old bags gave in. Consider yourself lucky, brat." Tsunade kept her right hand under her chin whilst reaching across to a draw on her left with the other. She pulled out a single thin scroll, indicating only a small amount of paper was necessary for…whatever was written on it.

"But know this." She let out in a low and menacing tone, "If you go over the top with this, I will be forced to demote and even suspend you." With one swipe of her arm, the scroll was flying across the room in a gentle arc with a small amount of spin. Naruto's hand was already in place to catch the airborne scroll without having to ever take his eyes off the Hokage. His sight shifted from Tsunade and down to the scroll as he unwrapped and unrolled it with two fast movements of his right hand. Ino and Sakura watched silently but curiously as Naruto's eyes scanned over the three paragraphs of writing before he quickly sealed it back up to stop anybody from reading over his shoulder.

"Got it…" was all Naruto said before he slid the scroll inside his left pants pocket.

"I mean it, Naruto. You can get in a lot of trouble if you're reckless." Tsunade spoke authoritatively. Naruto waived the warning off with the flick off his wrist.

"I said I got it, baa-chan." Tsunade's eyebrow twitched at the repetition of the nickname; but even though it annoyed her, it was one thing that made Naruto special to her. She took a second to look at her 'little brother' and couldn't believe how similar he looked to his father, their hair was almost exactly the same style, his eyes were of equal if not better vivacity, and he even managed to hold the same bright smile. She could make the comparison easily because a picture of Namikaze Minato had been hung up on the office wall to her right, near the door for the sake of the festival. Speaking of Namikaze…

"Oh," Tsunade's eyes widened slightly before she fished through the same drawer in her desk, gnawing on her bottom lip in concentration. She pulled out an almost identical scroll with a small smile and noted Naruto's name across the lip opening. She quickly shot a mischievous look towards Sakura and Ino before throwing the scroll at an almost unaware jinchuuriki. Naruto, taken by surprise, moved his upper body as if to dodge a flying kunai, but caught the scroll in his left hand nonetheless. The blonde teenager saw his name on the second scroll and used his raised eyebrow to ask the obvious question of 'What's this?'

"Homura and Koharu came to me with this little proposition; I suggest you read it and have a good think about it." She made out the obvious scepticism on Naruto's features, and sought to ease his uncertainty, "It's not an order, consider it more of a…suggestion of sorts. You don't have to do anything about it if you don't want to; but take it from me, it's probably worth a thought." Naruto shrugged his shoulders and nodded, not bothering to read the scroll before pocketing it.

"Right, I'm heading home." Naruto sighed dejectedly, taking a moment to look at the floor before turning around. "I guess I'll see you all in a few days, then." Just as Naruto set off, he looked up to see a portrait headshot of the Yondaime. Quickly stopping, Naruto turned to face the framed image and quietly stared at it for at least twenty seconds before speaking up. To Sakura and Ino, who had yet to know about the link, it looked like their friend was silently juggling his thoughts and opinions about the man who put the burden of the Kyuubi upon him in the first place. Was he angry, honoured, upset? The best they could do was assume. Naruto spoke up, but kept his blue eyes locked onto those of his father in the picture.

"Ne, baa-chan." Tsunade already had an idea as to where Naruto was going to go with this. Her eyes were already focussed on the side of Naruto's face, and she allowed him to continue without any objection.

"How d'you think Tou-chan would feel…if he found out just how badly his village treated his own son, and all because of something the boy had no control over?" Even though Naruto asked the question as if it were common knowledge, time for both of Tsunade's apprentices seemed to permanently freeze. The girls' expressions mirrored one another's: mouths agape, arms hanging limply by their sides and looking on with unblinking eyes as they numbly stared at Naruto's back.

'Oh, no.' Inner Sakura's panic button had suddenly swollen to three times its original size and flashed in neon red, somewhat imitating the paranoid frenzy she had suddenly become engrossed in. 'Please don't tell me…all these years…we…we've been beating up Yondaime-sama's son! Oh, Kami help me! We're gonna have to reap what we sow!' The surprise seemed to have an even bigger effect on Ino, mostly because her own verbal thought process had just been erased. She couldn't even think about the situation in words.

Naruto, paying no attention to the shocked girls behind him, turned his head and sought out Tsunade's gaze. Tsunade's eyes fell to her desk in thought, but the list of answers she had started to put together was stopped by Naruto's continuance.

"He didn't say much about it to me. But if I had to guess, I'd say he'd be like the parent who found out his kid broke a precious vase or something. He'd be disappointed, maybe angry as well, but what else could he do? The past is the past, after all." Tsunade understood what Naruto meant. In basic terms, what had happened was what had happened, and there was no way in reversing time to change it; it basically took the phrase 'No use crying over spilt milk' to the extreme. Naruto shrugged his shoulders again and left for the door without a word. Just as his arm extended towards the handle, Naruto called out with another cheerful tone.

"See you around baa-chan!" Once Naruto's feet passed the threshold and he walked out of the office, Sakura turned to face Tsunade. She had just watched her teammate walk out the door without saying a word; what kind of friend did that make her? Not to mention it was Naruto's birthday tomorrow, and she felt that the least she could do was offer her support.

"Tsunade-sama, may I be excused?" Sakura's eyes clearly told the Hokage that she was more than eager to leave, not so that she could flunk her duties, but because she needed – almost desperately at that – to talk to her teammate. Tsunade flashed a sympathetic smile before waving the two girls off.

"I think our business was finished anyway. Good work, you two." As Tsunade leaned back into her chair to have a small moment of relaxation, she saw the speed at which Sakura had bowed and urgently marched to the door, so much so that she almost rattled the floorboards with her heavy footfalls. The sigh that the Hokage let off wasn't lost on her remaining company, who herself started to approach the desk with a somewhat hesitant expression.

"Tsunade-sama…" Ino slowly started, "Is…is what Naruto said…" Tsunade immediately knew where this was going and felt no need in giving the long explanation, ergo she followed Naruto's lead and went straight to the point.

"Is it true that Naruto and the Yondaime are related by blood?" Ino, still astounded by the news as well as the fact that the Hokage had her so easily pegged, simply nodded, making Tsunade smile.

"I'm surprised you didn't see it the second he stood in front of the picture." Tsunade pointed to the framed image of the late Hokage in case Ino had forgotten its existence, "Trust me, Naruto looks so much like his father that it's not even funny."

"But…why didn't he say something earlier? If we'd all known then maybe…maybe he could have been spared so much pain. People would have paid more attention to him. His life could have been so much better!" Ino's voice gained power as she felt an unknown source of determination drive her thoughts. Tsunade's eyes opened further at her second apprentice's unexpected outburst, but even so, the Hokage had an easy answer.

"Simple. Naruto never knew in the first place. In fact, he didn't find out until almost two years ago." Tsunade, in no real mood to elongate her answer, left it as it was; nor did she feel any real need to keep the line of discussion going. However, she had noticed on more than one occasion that Ino was seeing Naruto in a different light. Because of this, she waited patiently as she watched Ino's mind churn through her eyes, filing through the most appropriate things to say. Ino looked down to her hands, which were now being wrung between the fingers of the other as she racked her thoughts together. She looked up at the Hokage with an almost pleading face, nearly reluctant to part her lips when she was ready to speak.

"Tsunade-sama…can you help me with something?"

Tsunade raised an eyebrow with curiosity. She was expecting a question, yes; but she was most certainly expecting it to be about the third member of their blonde triplet. This was going to be interesting.

He knew she was there. He felt her chakra the second it had emerged from the Hokage's office and headed in his direction. The jinchuuriki kept walking at his brisk pace, telling himself not to mind if his teammate caught up with him. However, this whole situation was annoying him.

Why now, of all times, would she decide to start chasing after him and try to talk?

Sasuke was back, albeit chained to a wall in a dark cell, but wasn't that half the ending that Sakura had wanted? For Team 7 to be reunited once more? For Sasuke to be brought back to her…for her? Wasn't this the ending that Naruto had shed so much blood and so many tears for? Granted, that wasn't exactly the ending that had been achieved, but it was definitely near as damnit.

Naruto could always count on his only female teammate to voice her faith in bringing her precious Sasuke-kun back to the village…with Naruto's help of course. That is…if by 'help', one meant 'blood, sweat, tears, and endless emotional stress'.

But now, Naruto no longer understood Sakura's thinking process. The girl he would once give the world for wanted nothing but to see the blonde walk away from her, for the countless ramen invitations to stop, and for the silly wooing attempts to cease. For almost two years, Naruto watched as Sakura pined for the other member of their team and punched the innocent one when her advances failed. All that time, she had cemented the fact that she wanted only one person; the one person who happened to be emotionally stone cold - bar anger and unbridled rage – and apparently completely uninterested in the opposite sex. She wanted him, plain and simple.

And since that day in the Land of Iron, Naruto couldn't see why the one he once loved was trying to throw so much of that fact in his face. As far as he saw it, Sakura's lie was nothing but a sick joke, he couldn't understand why she'd do such a thing. And according to other sources, she knew about his feelings; she knew how he felt about her, and yet she felt it necessary to play him in order to, as he later found out, 'keep him safe'. That one thing struck Naruto as being quite off.

Since when did she see fit to try and subvert his own goals by playing on his feelings?

Part of the blonde teen wanted to let it go like he usually would, but only so much of Sakura's treatment could be taken before a certain part of him refused to let it slide, and this was the last straw. It was then that Naruto began to tell himself that Sakura had little to no respect for him. After all he had done to help her, support her and even save her, she still needed somebody to act as her kicking toy.

'Not anymore, Sakura', was what he soon thought to himself.

And that was when he had confronted her face to face about it. The result: A slap in the face for the jinchuuriki, and a painful insight into the angry and emotional side of a boy that he kept to himself for Sakura. That, however, was what had brought Ino into his midst.

As far as he was aware, once Sasuke was back within the confines of his home village, Naruto wouldn't be seeing Sakura any time soon. Of course, she'd be too busy kissing the traitor's boots to care about anybody. Naruto's confidence in – and slight anger over - that single hypothetical scenario was the reason for why he decided to almost completely bury his feelings for his teammate. It was also the reason for why he just dumped Sasuke at her feet on the day of his reclamation and simply walked away. Sakura was surely bound to give him no time from then on, so why should she have the pleasure of his company anymore?

But if that was the case that Naruto had played out in his mind so many times, then why in the name of Kami herself had the pinkette not logged a single visit to the bastard's cell since the time of his incarceration?

It also raised the question he was currently asking himself: 'Why is she coming after me?'

The problem was that Naruto had a small niggling idea right at the back of his head as to why. But his stubbornness refused to let it be anything more than a fleeting thought that would drift by every few weeks. He didn't have any proof to back up his hypothetical notion, but the thought was still there, and it was something he didn't like.

"Naruto!" He heard the source of his follower's urgently toned voice only a few metres behind him down the corridor, and yet despite the proximity, there was still a distinct echo. Preferring to avoid any large-scale confrontation, Naruto pulled the safe card and gradually slowed to a stop, already giving off a slight air of impatience. Judging from the sound as well as how he could feel the floorboards shake a small amount as she drew closer with every hard step, Naruto could tell that Sakura's pace was rushed, but not enough to break her out into a jog; it felt like she was trying to win a walking race.

Although the pressure of Sakura's boots lessened for every metre she gained on the now stationary Naruto, the rattling of the floorboards from the man's perspective always stayed the same. Naruto's hands fell motionless by his side, showing his willingness to stay; yet the fact his back was still turned said the complete opposite. Sakura noticed the multi-messaged posture, but said nothing as she came to a stop just two metres away from her target.

The silence, bar the birdsong outside a nearby window, felt deafening to the medic-nin. Naruto's frigid posture unsettled her all the more, and it suddenly made her hesitate even longer. As she locked her gaze onto a crack in the floor, she didn't catch her teammate's head turning to the left, exposing a small portion of his whiskered cheek through his bangs.

"Do you need something, Sakura?" The jinchuuriki's voice held neither malice nor cheer. It was flat, giving off no signal as to the speaker's inner thoughts. Sakura looked up, still seeing only orange, black and yellow as her eyes traversed from the bottom of his cloak and back up to his shining hair, which blocked his face.

Another five seconds of silence. Naruto still refused to move from his position while Sakura looked between the floor and the wall to her right in a desperate attempt to find something that would kick-start her into talking. She knew their friendship was already strained thanks to her past discretions, and she felt another worry that not speaking now would make her seem worth even less of his time.

"I, er…" Sakura hooked her left arm behind her back, and used her hand to grasp onto the elbow joint of her right, forming a popular 'nervous schoolgirl' posture.

'Say something before he wipes you off the slate for good! You can tell that he's getting impatient!' Inner Sakura screamed. The boost from her alter mentality suddenly made Sakura's head snap to attention. Finally, she had an idea as to her opener, and took a deep breath.

"Naruto…" As she looked back up, she could see his head turn a few more degrees in her direction, angling his ear towards her, but still keeping his features hidden behind his massive blonde curtain of hair. "I…I just wanted to say something. Something I know is long overdue, and…probably too late as well. But if I don't say it now then it'll be too late, and I don't know what'll become of us in the future otherwise." The reaction to Sakura's leading line didn't say anything about Naruto's concern. He simply tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling, almost as if he knew what was coming. Naruto knew it was going to be one of two things, but he'd just have to listen on in order to find out. Sakura's hands swiftly readjusted themselves to land in front of her stomach and grasp at each other before she looked up and spoke, putting her whole heart behind her words.

"I'm sorry."

Naruto's shoulder's visibly tensed. Yep, that was the first thing he was expecting to hear, the first thing he knew people would say to him after he let his heritage be known to them. Before he could respond in the way he had planned to, his teammate - whose voice started to crack from a sudden release of dammed emotion - started to speak once more.

"I…I've seen the person, the hero that you've finally become, the one you always wanted people to see you for, and for a while it's made me think back to...worse times." Both teenagers quickly thought of different dark moments in their history as a team. For Sakura, her first thoughts were of Sasuke's defection, and then moved on to Naruto's transformation at Tenchi Bridge; Naruto on the other hand, thought of only one thing:

That confession…

"Almost every day I was…so cruel…to you, mostly; blinded by an obsession that slowly tore me away from my logical thinking. All that mattered was him." The way she hissed out the word wasn't lost on Naruto, whose curiosity of such was apparent in his eyes but could not be seen, and stood silent in waiting. "But I was so stupid to not see how much everything was hurting you; we were young and naïve, so how were we supposed to understand? And now every single time I think back, it hurts more and more to realise how badly I treated you, before and after you left with Jiraiya-sama…" Sakura's cracked voice tailed off as she saw Naruto's hands clench at the mention of his master and godfather. Even now, it wasn't news to anybody that the old pervert was a sore subject for Naruto to handle.

Sakura felt it all knotting up in her throat: the guilt, the self-hate…and the desire to see that gleaming smile from her favourite blonde, the hope that her words would make him see a new Sakura. She knew now that she'd come too far to bail out and cut her speech short, and slightly raised her voice with a single tear trailing down her cheek.

"I know what you're thinking, Naruto. But I also know that you're wrong. I'm trying to mend a battered friendship and make it stronger than before. There's been something missing in my life for a long time now, and I realised months ago that it was you! I just want my teammate back; I want my friend back!" Although Sakura couldn't see it, Naruto shut his eyes tightly; as much as he suddenly wanted to interrupt the monologue, his body remained frozen to the spot in defiance, as well an apparent eagerness to hear his teammate continue.

"I'm not the Sakura I was, Naruto! I've seen how much I've hurt you and hardly a day goes by that I wish I could change what happened, especially in Tetsu-" As soon as she had said started to utter the location, Naruto had forced his hand up.

"That's far enough, Sakura, please don't talk about that place again." Naruto's voice had fallen considerably; both at the mention of Iron and the fact his emotions were now hammering his mind. How should he feel? Compassionate? Angry? Sorrowful? He talked unexpectedly gently as he turned around and faced a teary-eyed Sakura, who found herself being lifted as she saw Naruto's amazingly bright sapphire eyes rest their gaze on her orbs of emerald.

"You know how I felt about what you said to me that day, and I'd rather not have a repeat of our…conversation." Sakura quickly looked down to the floor with a small nod of understanding, but looked back up as she heard Naruto's footfalls close in on her. He was now a metre away, just out of arm's reach.

"Sakura", the young man said inside a dejected sigh, "I don't know what to think around you anymore." Sakura's face fell at Naruto's words, and yet she could understand his reasoning.

"You say one thing and do another; you tell me you're sorry, but all I'm hearing right now is 'I'm sorry, Yondaime-sama'." Sakura's painful expression spread further across her face, and forced more tears over her eyelids as she viciously shook her head in denial.

"That's not true…" The pinkette whispered to her feet. Naruto did nothing as he watched his teammate slowly fall into another bout of self-induced upset. As per what Sakura was referring to earlier, she had a feeling that the man before her would believe her apology to be somewhat an ass-kissing manoeuvre. In actuality, she had been meaning to approach Naruto for this exact reason for a few weeks now. But there was only one problem, she couldn't find him, and any time she could he was happily talking with Ino.

That suddenly made her wonder, just when had those two had all that big of a connection? The question was put aside as Sakura heard Naruto's clothing rustle as he took a step back.

"I mean it, Naruto…I'm sorry…for everything, and I want to make amends. I want us to be like we were before…" Sakura shrugged her shoulders with a humourless chuckle, "…just without the unnecessary violence."

While Naruto was surprised by his teammate's words, he didn't let it show on his face…he couldn't afford to, otherwise he would be giving himself hope, and all he had ever done in the past was give himself the hope of a happy ending. Too often had he dreamed that retrieving Sasuke would make Sakura see the blonde in a much better light; but from all their time together, it was nothing but 'Sasuke this' and 'Sasuke-kun that'.

"Erm, well…can I start by taking you out for some ramen later? Consider it an early birthday present." As cliché as the notion was, Naruto could tell from Sakura's locked gaze and barely noticeable smile that she was nothing but serious. Her demeanour hadn't suddenly jumped as if the preceding three minutes had only been an act, and it confused him as to what the young woman across from him was thinking; and that, he felt, was the exact reason why he didn't want to accept.

"As much as I hate to say it, Sakura, and no matter how shocking it is to hear it from me of all people; a bowl of ramen doesn't solve everything." Sakura's eyes shot open.

'What? Did he seriously just turn down a bowl of ramen? Oh sweet Kami, the world really is coming to an end!' Inner Sakura essentially fainted from the notion with arms flailing, but the Sakura on the outside just widened her eyes in shock and confusion, and she didn't lose the expression as Naruto stepped forward and returned to his previous position.

"Seriously, Sakura, I have no idea what goes on in your head anymore. I can't tell what you want until it's far too late, and either I'm getting stabbed in the back, or somebody's inevitably getting hurt. I've got a rough guess as to why you're suddenly being so chatty, even though you've seemingly denied it, but what I can't understand…" Naruto began to step closer, but the way his posture held himself above his teammate made the pinkette slowly step back. She noticed that he had suddenly adorned a small frown, indicative of his impatience.

"What I can't understand is why, after six months, after bringing Sasuke back to you, for…you…" Naruto began talking through clenched teeth, emphasising the 'for' and 'you' in his sentence by lightly poking Sakura in the shoulder, "…You still haven't visited him in his cell at I and T." Both teenagers seemed to have an ironic synchronicity in their movements as they both ceased their bipedal movement on exactly the same step, keeping the same amount of air between both of them as when they had moved. Naruto pushed his head forward a few extra inches until he could smell Sakura's fragrant shampoo.

"Why?" He demanded in a menacing tone.

Sakura suddenly felt pressed to answer. Unfortunately, it was a question that asked of an answer that would force out that certain fact that Naruto had denied to himself. She didn't want to risk saying anything at the moment.

"I…because…" Even as she was trying to build up an excuse by stalling, Naruto had already become impatient and straightened up, swiftly turning on his heel and increasing the gap between them.

"It doesn't matter now. I gave up on that bastard the second I dropped him at your feet." Sakura was briefly reminded of the moment Naruto had let the Uchiha slip from his shoulder and fall with a crunch onto the gravel below. It was at the moment she knew that Team Seven was broken beyond repair.

"You say you're not the Sakura that you once were, well let me tell you this; I'm not the Naruto you once knew and punched, either. I've seen and felt so much that I finally realised I was just wasting my time on a dream." Naruto shook his head and raked the fingers of his right hand over his scalp before turning around. Sakura was surprised to see a look of sorrow and regret on his face, but respectfully remained silent nonetheless.

"While I may still feel something for you despite our history, and that's the honest truth; there's…somebody else who's starting to take your place. But for that, I'm not sorry, since you and I are just friends; and I was an idiot for thinking we'd ever be anything more." Sakura felt a wave of numbness drench her insides, while her heart felt a definite pain, as if a miniscule senbon had punctured it. She could only watch as Naruto turned back with a farewell and began to walk away once again.

"I'll see you around, Sakura." Naruto murmured unenergetically. Suddenly, Naruto remembered something that could have let him avoid the entire conversation altogether.

'Wait a second…I've got a Hiraishin kunai sitting in the apartment!' With a tiny growl and a light smack to the face from his hand, he continued to walk around the curved corridor until he knew that nobody could see him, including Sakura, and vanished mid step, as if he had never been in the building.

POV SWAP: First Person – Haruno Sakura

That's the second time I've watched him turn his back to me and walk away. Even though it's already happened twice before now, it still hurts deep in my chest, having the one you've come to admire turn away from you. One person did that to me a long time ago (and knocked me out in the process), but he doesn't exist anymore; no, he was dead to me the moment he tried to destroy my village. It's obvious that nobody can predict the future, but it's funny how things change against how you hope and yet you can still enjoy it happening…most of the time at least.

Naruto…

Such an idiot in the academy, and someone I felt had been given life for the sole purpose of making mine miserable. But that was when I didn't have a working brain so to speak; the boy I claimed to love was controlling it. Honestly, what would a twelve-year-old know about love? That blonde knucklehead was just so…so…

Either way, I didn't treat him like I should a teammate, but it's really painful to hear him reject my apologies like that. And I know what he's thinking: 'I'm oh so sorry Son of Yondaime-sama, please forgive me and let me have your babies!' Total nonsense, for a few months now I've been seeing him for his true self: a kind, cheerful, reliable, dedicated, sometimes funny, determined shinobi of a proper calibre. He's no Uchiha Sasuke, thank Kami, but that's…that's what I admire about him the most. He's Uzumaki Naruto, and that's why I…

But despite this, he's always been cold-shouldering me, subtly pushing me aside like we haven't known each other for almost ten years now. My only regret…is that I brought it upon myself. Obviously, he still hates talking about it, but what I said in Tetsu no Kuni…it was the only thing I could think of that might have worked. But because of it, I lost his trust…big time. And when we ended up screaming at each other's faces about it…I finally saw how badly it hurt him, realised how foolish and selfish I'd become. He'd always been looking for recognition, from me more than anybody according to Sai, and I only helped in making him feel worse. Some person that made me look like to him.

There's one question I've asked myself many, many times since that day, the day I thought that he'd given up on me: Was what I said a lie? I'm getting closer to a definite answer with every passing day as I see him walking through the village or sparring with his clones at the training grounds. I figured that apologising would be the best way to start rebuilding what we once had, but he still thinks I'm the Sakura long-gone. That's not the case anymore, but it's as if he refuses to see it. I…I just want my Naruto back…

I'll never forget that day, the day they both appeared at the main gate; it was then that I knew that after all this time I was paying attention to the wrong teammate.

Myself and Ino were already near the gate, tending to wounded civilians in the wake of Sasuke's beginning of an intended massacre. Even I could tell that he let the anger and desire for blood get to his head, did he seriously think he could destroy an entire hidden village on his own? Knowing him, he'd probably trained non-stop with just that goal in mind. I never thought he'd actually go that far, though; at least 50 civilians and 13 shinobi were already dead, and I just…refused to believe it. But there comes a time in somebody's life where they have to let logic take over and ignore their heart, Sasuke made his own choice to come here and murder our people, and for that I'll never forgive him.

Every wound I tended to, my mind made it look like it had happened to Naruto. Nobody had seen anything for three hours, and every distant demonic scream we could hear made my resilience to my emotions crumble. I was scared, scared for Naruto. I remember the last time he and Sasuke spoke, he said they'd end up killing each other, but I was hoping against all the odds that I'd see them both again. I no longer cared about whether he was dead or alive, I just wanted to see that smile once more, that massive grin that never ceased to cheer me up on a bad day…not that I ever told him that.

As I tended to a deep burn wound on a civilian sat next to their damaged house, I wasn't ignorant of a Jounin that ran behind me and came to a stop in front of an aimless Chuunin and spoke in a hurried manner.

"Send word to the Hokage, Uzumaki's approaching the main gate-"

That was all I needed to hear. I was finishing up on my current patient and running to the gate before my mind could catch up with my body. Apparently, Ino heard it as well, since she was running right beside me. I couldn't understand it, why was she so adamant to get there as well, and why were there tears in the corners of her eyes? As far as I was concerned, she was still thinking about Sasuke; I could remember how she cried when they told us he'd been branded a criminal. The sight that greeted us when we finally arrived was what started to bring the tears for me.

Both of 'my guys' were there, but only one was standing, slowly limping towards us. Even though he felt a mile away, I could still hear his heavy, laboured panting as he had the weight of his opponent slung over his shoulder. His jumpsuit was almost non-existent, his jacket and fishnet top were gone, giving me a front row view of his body, watching his chest rise and fall with every breath, and how his abdominal muscles slowly slipped against one another as his upper torso swayed. His pants were torn from the knees down, exposing his bleeding shins and blackened feet. It was a sight that brought both happiness and pain to my heart, to see someone you cared about in such a dire state, but alive nonetheless.

I could see the reluctance in his face, the frown hanging above his eyes told me of some kind of pain outside what his body was feeling at that moment. I was soon to find that out…

Every step he took garnered a heavier pant, as he seemed to rebel against his body's wish to collapse and lose consciousness.

It was unbelievable…he'd done it. He'd brought Sasuke back, both of my teammates were right there in front of me. A wish I'd had for years had finally come true. Even so…the man who had left wasn't the same anymore, I couldn't say he was the teammate I once had, not anymore. I couldn't help but smile at our long-awaited reunion, but Naruto's face told me he was thinking otherwise. He was so close, close enough that I could reach out and hug him, feel him against me; just to make sure it wasn't all a genjutsu.

But it was the look in his eyes that could only make me imagine all that I wanted to do. He looked distant, reserved, and even angry. He just stood there and stared at me, looking over to Ino once or twice for clarity.

"Promise fulfilled." He said to me, as if the very life had been sapped out of him. Only then did I look to the body lying over his right shoulder.

Dark and wild hair obscured Sasuke's face, but I could tell from the glossiness of some of its strands that he had a head injury of some kind. His limp arms were severely grazed and slightly blackened, indicating chakra and fire-induced burns. I didn't have time to concentrate as the body I was gazing at fell to the floor, landing against the gravel with an uncushioned cracking sound. I didn't even have to look at his body in order to tell that it was a wrist bending the wrong way. I guess I had Tsunade-sama to thank for all that training. As my eyes remained pasted on Sasuke's body, simply because I still couldn't believe he was finally back where he belonged, I could feel Naruto's eyes on me as he spoke again.

"I promised that I would bring him back…" He said in a tone that would rival Neji's sincerity, "…not that he'd be in good condition once I did." He still looked so unhappy, even as I looked back up to him with my restrained tears finally carving wet valleys down my cheeks. This Naruto stood before me…I had no idea how to act with it, so I opted for silence once again.

"Now you can finally go back to way you were six years ago…both of you." He looked over at Ino as he said this, but the accusation in his tone made me narrow my eyes and shiver in unease. Is that what he thought? That we'd instantly turn back into ignorant ewes that'd push him away again? I wanted so desperately to speak out at that moment, to prove him wrong, but once again he spoke before I could part my lips.

"I'm done with this. I'm done with him, and I'm done with the two of you as well." That hurt. That sentence stung me right to the core. That's why he was suddenly so angst-ridden; he seriously thought we were the same mindless drones from the academy (then again, I can't speak for Ino…). It was only later that I took slight offence to that, but at the time, my chest felt constricted at his hidden rejection. Wait…did he say 'the two of you'? What did he mean by that?

"Have fun chasing him like you always did. I don't care anymore. Just don't get too upset that he's only got one eye left." That was last thing he said to me that day as he started to move again. I didn't give another second of attention to the – apparently one-eyed - body at my feet as Naruto limped on, alone, past Ino and me and in the direction of the tower. And then we saw it: three kunai still lodged in his back, each one a source of a dark red vertical river of blood that disappeared down the waistline of his pants. I can't believe he…he walked all this way with such injuries, was he trying to get himself killed?

The shock of the moment still forced me to freeze to the spot, with one teammate lying half-dead behind me, and the other turning his back to me like he hated me. Even as Tsunade-sama was jogging towards him, and he soon collapsed into her arms after finally succumbing to his tiredness, I couldn't move until my mentor rocked me out my stupor with her powerful voice. I was ordered to tend to Sasuke even though, inside, I wanted to leave him to his pain. Unfortunately, circumstances always went against me from there. By Tsunade-sama's orders, and against my fully voiced wishes, I was to tend to Sasuke until he was conscious and fit for a trial. Shishou herself stayed at Naruto's side for all three days he was out, and occasionally asked Ino to help with duties. I could see it all in my master's face and actions…she loved Naruto like he was a true member of her family, but not as mother and son, more like siblings; blood was the only thing denying their having a proper brother-sister relationship.

Even though Tsunade-sama hadn't known Naruto for as long as myself, I saw how he had that important impact on people's lives; and as I saw how he made other people feel, it made me realise just how much he had actually done for me. Once Sasuke had been transferred to ANBU I & T, I didn't want to see him again, and I knew that his place in my heart had been taken by someone much more special to me…

And yet, just like on that day, he's walked away from me…away from what we had as a partnership. I miss seeing that smile, but I want to make it shine out once again, just like it used to whenever he looked at me.

Tomorrow, Naruto-kun…you'll see just how much I've changed.

I said in my profile I'd release this on New Year's Eve, but my impatience got the better of me and the special something is taking quite a while to write. Instead, I've decided to release what's already been done. That way you'll be understanding of the setting. Don't worry about the Sakura-centric chapter, it folds out with some substantial Naruto and Ino interaction time.

Don't take this fic too seriously, it was something I felt like writing, but the fact I take my released work seriously has made this fic more serious than I intended. Never mind, I hope you enjoy it either way! Reviews welcome etc etc

P.S. If you're hoping for Naruto to fully blow Sakura off next chapter...you're going to be disappointed.