Hey everyone, thesaiyanjedi here with the first chapter of his latest story.

This is yet another prequel/spin-off of "Shinachiku's First Adventure," and it is basically just a fun little idea I had set up in some of my previous work that now, with the recent events of Chapter 22 of "Shinachiku's First Adventure," I decided that now was a good time to put it out there.

As with all of my stories, Naruto does not belong to me but to it's creator, Masashi Kishimoto.

With all of that said, let's get to reading!

Chapter 1: Where's Naruto?

It was the dawn of a new day. Naruto Uzumaki woke up in his bed feeling like he was on top of the world. The war was over, he was now a world famous Chūnin, and best of all, he had finally gotten the girl of his dreams.

Sakura Haruno, the pink-haired angel of Konoha with the temper of the devil, the perfect woman for him, and she was finally his! He loved her, and she loved him, he had no doubts about that anymore.

"Yep!," Naruto thought, "my life's going just about perfect! Believe it!"

As the young man got out of bed he made his first stop of the day...the bathroom. After spending a fair amount of time, err...unloading some excess weight, he washed his hands and made his way to the kitchen.

The blonde opened up the refrigerator and pulled out his usual breakfast, instant ramen with a glass of milk. After waiting the usual amount of time it takes for the ramen to get ready, something Naruto hated ever since he was a child, he poured his milk, grabbed some chop sticks, and dug in.

"Mmm! Delicious as always!" he proclaimed to the heavens. Normally he would settle for just eating alone in peace while inside his own apartment, but his current luck in life has put him in a very good mood lately. This meant that Naruto's already infectious overly positive and enthusiastic attitude was running on overdrive now.

After a few minutes of eating, he put his glass in the sink and threw the carton of ramen in the trash...which he just realized needed to be taken out and that there were plenty of dishes in the sink that needed to be washed.

He also noticed the state of the rest of his apartment. Clothes scattered everywhere, books and scrolls out of order, a floor that hadn't been swept in days—it was pretty much the definition of a bachelor pad.

It was funny, growing up he always took his apartment for granted. How couldn't he? It was the only home he could get with the entire village looking down on him as the scum of the Earth, and with the kind of pay he was used to receiving for his missions it also came cheap.

'Thank God one thing's changed at least!' Naruto thought as he looked through his trusty frog wallet Gama. The childish wallet was filled to bursting now, recent events having earned Naruto a substantial raise for his duties...the Sixth Hokage no doubt had something to do with that.

Naruto took one more look around his apartment before sighing and accepting the truth. "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to clean it some time this week. Can't have Sakura see the place like this."

"Why not? The girl has seen your home before." a familiar voice spoke in his head.

"This is different fox! We're dating now! Sakura deserves better than to be seen with a guy living like a bum!"

"You talk like you've become ashamed of your own home all of a sudden, kit. Why?"

Naruto sighed again, "I don't know Kurama. I guess I just...with everything looking up for me lately...I kind of feel like I deserve better is all. I know that's silly and selfish but—"

"Whatever you say kit!" the Nine-Tails retorted rudely within the young man's mind. "In the meantime, I'm gonna go back to sleep!"

Naruto smirked at that, "Thanks for the pep-talk fur ball!"

Stretching his arms for his morning warm up, he decided to open up the door to his balcony and look over the village he swore his life to protect. The reconstruction was nearing completion now and life was as bristling and lively as ever. Naruto had to admit, the village looked beautiful now, almost as much as it did at night, with the lights all ablaze from the Hokage Monument.

In speaking of which, Naruto turned his head to the iconic landmark of the village. There were six gigantic stone faces carved into that mountain (how they continued to find room to add more of them he had no idea), including the current Hokage, his former teacher.

But for the moment, his eyes zeroed in on one face in particular. The stone face of a man fourth in line. The Fourth Hokage. The Yellow Flash. Minato Namikaze.

"Dad..." Naruto thought out loud to himself, "...Are you proud? Is my life going the way you'd like? I wish you and mom were here to see all that's been happening to me."

Naruto appeared in deep thought for several seconds before raising his head back up to the Hokage Monument, now having made a decision. He realized that even now, after everything that's happened, there was still something very important that he needed to do, two people that he owed a long overdue visit.

Sakura Haruno was making her rounds at the hospital, and she was clearly in a good mood. The best mood that she had been in a while in fact, and everyone at the hospital knew why.

Ever since she and Naruto had finally admitted their feelings for one another, the two of them have been virtually inseparable. Everyone in the village could only look in awe at how in love the two teenagers were.

For her part, Sakura felt like she was on cloud nine. She was one of the most respected medical ninjas in the village, she was regarded as a hero from the war, and she was in love with the most wonderful, selfless, kindest man she'd ever known. Her only regret was that it had taken her so long, so many years of chasing after the wrong man, to realize how much they were meant for each other. No, Naruto was far from perfect, but those faults, ironically, were a big part of who he was, and she wouldn't have him change for the world.

But, sadly, now was not the time for romantic daydreaming; work needed to be done. Maybe she and Naruto could get together for lunch this afternoon, but first she needed to deliver her latest rounds to Lady Tsunade, stat.

Sakura knocked on the former Hogake's door and heard the sounds of something rapidly being but away.

'She must be hitting the bottle again," Sakura thought as she rolled her eyes.

"Come in," she heard from the other side of the door. Sakura promptly opened the door and entered the Sannin's office.

"Good morning m'lady," she said, "I just came by to deliver today's rounds."

"Aw, thank you Sakura," Tsunade said as she took the paperwork. Sakura was already turning to leave when her old master spoke up again.

"So, how have you and the brat been getting along lately?"

"You mean Naruto? We're doing great m'lady! Couldn't be better!"

"That's good. Just remember that if the brat ever tries anything fresh, don't be afraid to punch him a new one."

"LADY TSUNADE!"

The old woman laughed, "I'm just kidding. But seriously, you know I'm proud of you two. I can't recall the last time I've seen a couple of kids as in love as you two are."

Sakura smiled sweetly, with a bit of blushing as well. "I know...I'm a lucky girl."

Suddenly there was another knock on the door. "Come in," Tsunade said in annoyance.

The door opened to reveal another Leaf shinobi, most likely Jōnin rank, who appeared to have a sense of urgency to him.

"Excuse the interruption Lady Tsunade, but I've been ordered to locate miss Sakura Haruno."

The pink-haired girl turned to address the ninja, "I'm Sakura Haruno."

"Ma'am, I'm here on behalf of Lord Sixth. He is requesting that you and your boyfriend please report to his office."

"Kakashi-sensei wants to see us? What for?"

"He did not say madam; he only specified that it was for your ears only."

Sakura was a bit suspicious, but who was she to argue with her old sensei, let alone the Hokage?

"Alright, I'll be right there. Where's Naruto?"

The ninja actually scratched the back of his head in some odd sense of embarrassment. "Actually ma'am, I was hoping you would be able to help me with that."

"Excuse me?"

The ninja got serious again as he continued. "I already paid a visit to Naruto's apartment but he had already left for the day."

Sakura merely rolled her eyes, "Head on over to Ramen Ichiraku's, you'll find him there stuffing his face as usual."

"I already looked there miss, old man Teuchi says he hasn't seen him in all day."

Sakura was genuinely surprised. "Oh...well, then he's probably at the training grounds."

"I looked there two ma'am, nothing."

Now both the girl and her master were curious; it was Tsunade who spoke up next. "Did you try asking any of his friends if they'd seen him?"

"I asked a few," the ninja said, "but they had nothing to report. By any chance, is Naruto listed as one of your patients today, m'lady."

Tsunade quickly scanned through her paperwork to see if she could find the young man's name anywhere. "No, I'm afraid not."

Sakura decided that she would interrupt this conversation. "Tell you what, please tell Lord Hokage that I will personally look for Naruto and bring him with me to his office when I find him."

"Very well, arigato Lady Sakura," the shinobi said as he bowed and left, closing the door behind him.

"And just how do you plan on finding him Sakura?" Tsunade asked.

"I don't know, I guess I'll just start asking around."

As she bowed to her former sensei and took her leave, exiting her office, a single thought ran thought her mind, 'Naruto...where are you?'

I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter, and I hope I've caught your interest. Try and guess for yourselves where you think Naruto has gone.

This was also the first time in any of my stories that I have given Kurama a speaking role. I'm not sure why I chose to do it here, except that I thought that it would be a funny exchange.

That pretty much all I have for this chapter. So, until next time, see ya!