Naruto 1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **I don't Own Naruto

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**.:. Warnings/Notes .:.**

This story isn't like anything I've written before. My other series, "Stay With Me", was a bit angsty, but this goes beyond angst as far as my FF writing goes. Also, there will be a lot more fight scenes than there had been in "Stay With Me". =D

This story features many mentions of character deaths, some that have truly happened in the manga, others that I have fictionalized for the purpose of this story. There will be a lot of 'bad guy' bashing and apologies goes to fans of the Akatsuki (cause I love them personally), Sasuke (again, love him as well), Orochimaru (okay, I don't love him, but he's just creepy), or anyone else whom is ranted on in this story.

*Flashbacks will feature mostly official quotes from the regular Naruto and the Naruto Shippuuden series.

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In the destructed streets of what remains of Konohagakure, 16-year-old Haruno Sakura gave a long, sad stare at the ruins of a place she once called "home". Her blonde teammate, Uzumaki Naruto, was the only person whom could be seen at the pinkette's side during such a pained time in both of their young adult lives.

It was a time that would surely haunt them both forever, as well as guarantee more hardships to come throughout the rest of their lives. The entire place held such a strong sense of death all around. The two shinobi stood there in the ruins of it all, just barely holding whatever was left of their home village together. As they glanced up at the hokage monument, Naruto felt Sakura tense beside him as she glanced at the hokage whom had such a large impact on her own life – Tsunade.

The village had truly become a pure masterpiece of ruins. So many buildings—homes, restaurants, and shops—had either been burned to the ground or set afire during the prolonged battle that started with an attack by the Akatsuki, to other enemy villages attacking Konohagakure's weakened state and ultimately leading to the official Fourth Ninja War—a battle that had actually been able to rival all of the Ninja Wars that had come before it.

The battle against the Akatsuki was won, all thanks to their "undying Will of Fire" that the entire country and particularly Konohagakure had become known for holding in their hearts. However, at the same time, so much had been lost—no, sacrificed—in the process. Was it truly a victory?

Leaf and it's allies, Sunagakure, had been put to war against Rain, Cloud, Stone, and Sound—or at least, what remained of it. Everyday had become endless hardships of attacks, battles, death, destruction, arson, and pain.

"Heh," Naruto thought to himself grimly, "this is just what that Akatsuki bastard once mentioned, right? Pain throughout the world?"

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**.:. ****Flashback**** .:.**

"_This is nothing…Compared to the pain the world will suffer."_

**.:. End of Flashback .:.**

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Naruto glanced up at the one remaining structure that hadn't caught sight of all of the terror—the hokage monument. He glanced at all of the faces the structure held and his eyes finally rested on the the figure of his father, Minato Namikaze.

He stared up at the man who looked identical to himself and his lips almost tilted into a smile—_**almost** _being the key word, since too much had been terrorized to smile over anything else, no matter what it happened to be.

Everything had been lost that had ever been held dearly to him—Sasuke was gone, yet again, though this time, Naruto didn't care anymore.

How could he? Sasuke was, after all, one of the one's responsible for all of this. He attacked the entire village, foolishly holding innocents responsible for the slaughter of his clan. Shinobi and civilians, many whom were not even born during the time of the Uchiha massacre, had been slain, all because of Sasuke being so hellbent on getting revenge.

Sakura's teacher and parental-figure had been defeated, her last words being towards Naruto, as she appointed him as the Rukodaime hokage to take her place. Sasuke had killed all of the elder council members first during his attacks, leaving the final duty of passing the title of Hokage down to anyone Tsunade found fit.

"Heh…What good is a hokage to a village in ruins?"

Naruto inwardly chuckled grimly to himself at the thought. He had failed them.

Kakashi and Jiraiya had both died at the hands of Pein, a thought that seemed to always make Naruto's fists clench in fury at the memory.

Things shouldn't have ended this way, he thought. Not only one, but both of his former sensei's had been taken from him, and now he felt utterly lost. Had it not been for the help of his friends, he was sure the village would have completely fallen apart.

Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon—the youngest and toughest shinobi that remained in Konohagakure to boot—had all been immediately promoted to Chuunin and were thus far the youngest unstoppable team the village had to offer. It was their efforts alone that had offered a great deal in some of Konoha's finest elder shinobi to be able to rest some and replenish their energy.

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He looked over at the broken woman standing beside him. Her face was covered in a heavy mixture of dried blood, sweat, tears, and dirt. They all had that look now. Wounds and scars had painted all of their bodies as lifelong reminders of what they had to go through. And this time, Uzumaki Naruto was going to pull them through.

But _**could**_ he pull them through successfully? That was the question now. But it was a question holding an inevitable answer. Could he do it? You're damn straight he could. And why? Because he never gave up. He didn't give up to Pein, he sure as hell didn't give up on the four territories that declared official war upon the village, and he would never give up on anything else.

As Naruto always boasted, never going back on his word was his nindo—his ninja way. Even with all of that said, however, these battles seemed endless as the war raged on. Naruto and his friends were strong, but things were getting more hectic nonetheless.

In a way, he felt lighter having gained the ultimate respect by what remained of the village's residents. He was the new Rukodaime Hokage and that was how it was going to remain as long as he had a say in it.

It was very hard, protecting what remained of your village from nearly-constant attacks. His shinobi barely had a chance to eat regularly let alone rest and bathe daily. It was truly becoming a foul scene as the best of what remained of Konohagakure was gradually wearing out.

Smoke was all that could be seen from the village from a far enough distance. You would think that they had truly lived in the Village Hidden in the Smoke. But arson had become just one of the many casualties of this endless war.

Naruto had been certain that had it not been for Shikamaru's assistance in strategical planning, the war would have ceased long ago and Leaf would have been no more. He was glad that the genius had aided him so much and he knew he was forever in his debt for doing so.

Naruto glanced back at the newly formed crowd of shinobi crowded around him, their expressions all serious and exhausted, yet silently understanding and sympathetic towards their new leader. They all looked as if they were truly coming to the end of their ropes. Some of them took the liberty, however, to cover for one another while allowing their squadrons bathe and grab something to eat. Teamwork was constant among the shinobi and Naruto was extremely proud of his friends and precious people.

His glance returned back to his father's carving up on the hokage monument and he pondered something to himself, truly believing that Minato could hear his thoughts.

"What do I do now, dad?" he mused thoughtfully. "What in the hell do I do now?"

A firm hand is felt being placed upon Naruto's shoulder, causing him to turn around to meet the face of the person standing behind him. Draped in his blue and white Kazekage robes stood Sabaku no Gaara, his face sympathetic and Naruto couldn't help but force a sad smile to his face.

Gaara had called forth many Sand Shinobi to aid Konohagakure in their battle. In fact, the entire Sand Village had managed to relocate itself to Konohagakure, including the Kazekage. It was strange but necessary. The more strength, the better.

At least both Kage's could keep their eyes on their villagers at the same time and support one another in more ways than just sympathetically. Gaara looked up at the Yondaime's statue before speaking.

"You look like him. You know that?"

Naruto nodded his head and smirked a bit.

"Yeah, I do, don't I? Who would have thought that the Yondaime's only son grew up to be the Rukodaime of the very same village?" His unspoken words added to that had been "the very same village that shunned him for being the container of the nine-tailed fox."

Gaara looked at his friend's pained eyes, and his grip tightened on his shoulder, silently telling him that he understood his unspoken words, having shared with him a pain that no one else could ever know.

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**.:. Flashback .:.**

"_The only one who can understand a Jinchuuriki…Is another Jinchuuriki."  
_—_Tsunade, referring to Gaara and Naruto_

**.:. End of Flashback .:.**

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Naruto knew that Gaara was there for him whenever he needed him. He looked down at Sakura who was watching them both blankly.

"Sakura, c'mon. Let's go to our apartment for a little while. You need to rest and so do I. Hey, guys," he spoke to the crowd of shinobi behind them, alerting everyone to focus their attention on him.

"Can we…do we have time to rest up for about an hour? I'm exhausted and Sakura needs to rejuvenate her energy as soon as possible so that she can continue her medical tasks."

Everyone nodded their heads in an equally silent 'yes'.

"Arigato. We'll return here in an hour. I expect you all to return as well. Also, half of you can switch off shifts and rest up yourselves. A lot of you look like you could use it."

Sakura, whose home had been caught in the crossfire of the frequent arsenic fires, had been living with Naruto ever since. She had also been over using her chakra beyond her own limits anymore.

Being Konoha's only top medic remaining alive and well, she had to be constantly on her feet – teaching Suna's medics as much medical ninjutsu as she could, as well as Konohagakure medics and also shinobi whom were willing to stop and listen.

The war brought her many injured patients, all of which required more healing chakra than she could handle at times. Naruto learned enough basic medical ninjutsu to lend her some of the Kyuubi's chakra whenever her own reserves were near death points. He truly had become a great Hokage and she was proud of his accomplishments.

The two walked to his apartment, their arms hanging weakly in exhaustion. Sakura noticed that Naruto had just been as dirty and tired as she was. Not caring at this point about her own modesty, she looked up at the blonde whom was looking back at her attentively.

"Wanna jump in the shower with me real quick? It'll be faster if we just shower at the same time." She asked.

He nodded silently and the two walked towards the bathroom side-by-side.

Before, the site of the two showering would have angered Sakura to no end as she longed for it to be Sasuke whom joined her. She used to dream of being taken in the shower roughly as the two passionately made love, but everything changed the day he almost killed her.

It had been right after his main attack on Konoha but it still remained fresh in her heart and that was the day that she stopped loving Sasuke completely.

Sakura and Naruto began taking their clothes off at a snails pace, both suddenly growing aware of what was about to really happen. Finally, Naruto had stripped down, and Sakura had become motivated to quickly do the same.

The water was warm and the two faced opposite directions from one another, both respectively not invading the other's privacy perversely, but instead truly making their joint shower session become as "professional" as they could.

"Naruto," Sakura alerted the blonde whom spun around on his heel in surprise to be met face to face with the pink haired kunoichi. Trying to avoid averting his gaze south, he fixated his eyes on hers as he nodded his head in silent questioning acknowledgment.

"Is my face cut up very badly?"

Naruto looked at her puzzled before reaching a hand forward, wiping away some dirt and blood from her right cheek. She flinched at the painful contact, before Naruto smiled softly at her.

"Just one scratch is all that I can see. Don't worry. You're still as beautiful as ever, Sakura."

He smiled at her in reassurance. Sakura smiled back at him before reaching her own hand forward, smudging some dirt off of his left cheek running the pad of her thumb along his whisker-like scar lines. She picked up a bar of soap and lathered some on her hand before resuming her hand to the former position on his face, rubbing and smudging away the dirt and grime.

Naruto winced at the sting caused by the soap coming in contact with a wound of his own, and he reflexively gripped Sakura's small wrist looking down at it softly, causing her entire hand to go limp beneath his touch.

Sakura took in a deep breath the moment she felt Naruto's soft lips brushing over her soft skin in a tender kiss, his eyes closed as the water continued beating down on his head. Her face became heated from her slight newly found modesty.

Naruto seemingly had snapped back to his senses and released her hand before turning off the water, reaching out to grab them each a towel. Sakura thanked him and the two got out of the shower, completely forgetting the little "moment" they had just had back there with one another.

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**.:. Flashback .:.**

"_Way back, I used to hate Sasuke…But once I got used to being with him I realized he's really a lot of fun to be around…he's the person that, more than anyone else, accepted me and my existence. Sasuke is my friend and he represents bonds that I waited so long to receive, so that's why…still that's not much reason…no if it means facing someone like Orochimaru…If my arms get ripped off, I'll just kick him to death. If my legs get ripped off, I'll just bite him to death. If my head gets ripped off, I'll just stare him to death, and if my eyes get ripped out I'll just curse him to death. Even if it means getting torn into pieces, I'm going to take Sasuke back from Orochimaru no matter what!"  
_—_Naruto, in reference to his determination to bring Sasuke back to Konohagakure_

**.:. End of Flashback .:.**

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Naruto let out a long sigh, though immediately regretted doing so after the speculative look that Sakura gave him from across the room as she towel dried her pink hair.

"Is something wrong Naruto?" Sakura asked hinting towards a small smile before deciding against it.

"No. I'm just thinking is all…Ne, Sakura-chan, do you ever…you know…regret looking for Sasuke-teme so much?"

Sakura wasn't expecting that question at all but immediately knew the proper place to search for the answer—her heart.

"Yes, quite frequently, actually," she responded softly looking down at the ground.

"Oh?" He asked uncertainly and curiously, silently asking her to please elaborate.

He realized it not long after the attack on Konoha happened. He tried so hard to bring Sasuke back and now, was it even worth it? He just had to know how she felt about all of this. Sakura was a bit distant lately. He couldn't tell how she was truly handling this, but he figured he might as well ask anyways.

"I guess that I realized it after everything that had happened with him attacking Konoha. After all of this, I realized that honestly, you and I had focused way too much time and energy on somebody who…honestly, never wanted to be found," her gaze averted towards the wall at her left, as she continued.

"I mean, I know that we did it because we cared so deeply for Sasuke as our teammate…But I realize now that…you person can only be betrayed so much before you have to stop giving out forgiveness…Especially to someone who doesn't want to be forgiven…What about you?" She asked.

"The same, actually," he responded.

"So, how do you feel about him now?"

"What do you mean?" She asked uncertain of his meaning behind that question, though she had a hunch.

"Well, I mean you did love him at one point. How about now? Do you still love him despite all of this?"

Sakura gave a sad smile and shook her head 'no' before elaborating.

"No. I don't love him, and I never really did. I only had a crush on him and mistook that for love. I cared for him in the same way you did and confused that for love. But even that was wiped away completely after what he did…I don't hate him but I don't care for him either. It's just something that cannot do anymore."

Naruto nodded his head silently. "So you don't love him?"

She nodded her head in confirmation.

"Why love someone like him when I have others to love right here in Konoha."

She smiled at him sadly. Several moments passed before Sakura blinked forcing a stray tear to fall from her eyes.

"Sakura," Naruto whispered as he wiped the stray tear before it completely fell down her cheek.

"Naruto," she gasped his name out looking up at him, "I'm so sorry," she whispered absently.

Naruto looked at her in confusion and tilted his head to the side slightly.

"For what?" He asked causing the now fully teary-eyed woman to look up at him, her lip trembling as her eyes were filled with pain.

"Everything…I'm sorry for always treating you like I was better than you…Back when we were Genin, ya know? …I'm sorry for always hurting your feelings when all that you ever tried to do was make me happy…I'm sorry for being such a bad friend and…And I'm…I'm just…I'm just so sorry for everything!"

Naruto wrapped his arms around Sakura whom was trembling as she wept. Guilt had finally caught up with her after all of these years and honestly, Naruto didn't know what to think of her apology. Of course he forgave her, but at the same time, he honestly wasn't angry or upset about any of it anymore, especially since they had gotten so close over the last year.

"It's okay, Sakura-chan. Don't worry about it, I'm fine…really," he whispered running his hand in circles on her upper back, trying to soothe her sadness.

Sakura pulled back a bit from his embrace and looked up at him through tear-filled eyes.

"Naruto…Arigato," she whispered before resting her cheek against his chest again as her tears slowly stopped flowing.

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The sounds of what appears to be a massive explosion is heard outside of Naruto's apartment. He and Sakura rush over to the window to locate the source of the sound and both widen their eyes in unison. Five Rain shinobi are seen fighting hand-to-hand combat against Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Kiba, and Shino. Naruto's eyes darken as he looks a bit to the right to locate the source of the explosion.

The Rain shinobi had placed several explosive tags on a nearby building. Naruto's eyes narrowed into slits and he let out an angry growl.

"Dammit, already?!"

Sakura had already begun strapping her weapons holster to her leg, along with her medic's pouch to her hip as the two darted out the front door, Naruto grabbing his Hokage robe and Sakura grabbing her hitae-ate on the way out, tying it around her forehead.

As soon as Naruto and Sakura ran outside of their apartment, they are cut off from the battle by four more Rain shinobi. Both grabbed two kunai, one for each hand, and got into a battle stance.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Sakura and Naruto shouted in unison causing two clones to appear at each of their sides.

Both shinobi's clones headed off in different directions, hiding out in the shadows, as the real figures darted towards the attackers.

Sakura's gaze becomes intense as she pulls two kunai out of her holster, each of her shadow clones doing the same. Holding a kunai in each hand, Sakura and her two clones all charged towards one Rain nin, hoping to have an even cut to his throat to kill him as quickly as possible, but at the last minute, he had managed to just barely dodge them.

Tumbling in attempts to stop their speeded movements, Sakura and her clones finally slid across a dirt path, their sandals skidding in a long trail, causing a large pile of dust to form around them.

Using the dust storm as an opportunity to attack, Sakura and each of her shadow clones threw several kunai towards the shinobi, all aiming from different directions, and thus successfully hitting their target.

Naruto created a Rasenrengan and took out two more of the Rain nin. Meanwhile, the remaining two Rain nin had attempted to attack Naruto from behind. Using the Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto created another Rasenrengan and managed to kill the two shinobi. However, he fainted afterwards from chakra depletion.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed as she ran towards him. His eyes opened slightly.

"I'm fine…I just used too much chakra…"

"C'mon, let's go back home. You need more rest now!"

Sakura hoisted him up over her shoulder using her inhuman strength and began infusing her chakra into the heels of her feet as she darted back towards their apartment.

When she got inside of the apartment, she gently laid Naruto's barely-conscious form down on the bed and began checking his vitals just to make sure that he hadn't caused himself any internal damage from the overuse of his chakra.

Pressing her index and middle finger up towards his pulse point on his neck, she sighed in relief noticing no abnormalities in his heart rate.

"Naruto, you have to be more careful."

"Sorry, Sakura-chan," he responded weakly, his eyes open to slits as he struggled to contain consciousness.

"It's fine…I just worry about you, is all."

Naruto chuckled grabbing her hand that was resting on his chest, entwining her fingers with his.

"Heh-heh…You don't need to worry about me, Sakura-chan…I'll be…fine," he blinked and smiled a bit at her, "I just need some…some sleep, that's all," and with that, he let out a content and comfortable sigh as he drifted to sleep, his firm grip on her hand never wavering.

She tried to pry her fingers from his but his grip on the appendage never was released. Giving in, she laid down beside him. Soon after, sleep claimed her as well, and the two remained trapped in their slumber.

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**A/N:** R&R!


	2. Ch 1: Official: Let the Games Begin!

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**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto.

**.:. Notes .:.  
**I am really sorry that it took so long to update, I just wanted to write a really long chapter and got totally blocked somewhere along the way. However, don't worry! I'll try updating as soon as possible from now on, with nice, long chapters, too. I just got done watching like ten episodes of Shippuuden (I'm behind a bit on my anime hehe). I'm on episode like eighty-something and was randomly inspired to write strategically in this chapter.

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**Chapter 1 – Official: **Let the Games Begin!

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Several hours had passed since Sakura and Naruto succumbed to their slumber. The moon shone a pale blue across the bedroom as shadows from the treetops nearby covered the walls and bed. The two are having two completely different subconscious images playing back to them in their dreamlike states.

Naruto's subconscious spared him of the night terrors that Sakura's own subconscious plagued her with. Naruto slept still and calmly, while Sakura was covered in a thin layer of sweat. Her body tossed and turned about the sheets and her breaths came out in long, hard pants. She remained this way throughout her horror-filled slumber—distraught, traumatized, afraid. Nightmares plagued the young woman more now than ever before. Tonight, was no exception.

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**.:. Sakura's Dream .:.**

"_Sakura, huh?" A familiar, deep, and husky voice emitted from the darkness of which Sakura has found herself completely engulfed in. Everywhere around her, no light could be found and it felt as if she were blind. However, she knew that she could see perfectly fine, and that simply, all she would see for now was black._

_The voice calling her name could easily be recognized to be Sasuke's back on the day when Sakura, Naruto, Sai, and Yamato discovered Orochimaru's hideout and seen their teammate for the first time after two long, painful years. That was the second time he truly broke her heart and yet she still managed to desire bringing him back to Konohagakure in whatever way she could manage. However, this was completely different from that painful day, because she wasn't at Orochimaru's hideout. Instead, she was in the darkness._

_Chills rushed down her spine as she felt his aura surrounding her, even though she could not pinpoint his exact location. She wasn't in a room, or at least, she wasn't from what she could tell. It was far too spacious seeming to be a room. However, it couldn't have possibly been outdoors either, because there was no grass beneath her feet, nor nature around her. It was almost as if she had been cast into another dimension or something. She figured that was simply just in a large, wide, open space because of the fact that Sasuke's voice had echoed once he had spoken her name._

_Sakura finally responded to the voice and called out his name uncertainly as to whether or not he would actually respond. However, she had been truly hoping to get some sort of response after a haunting silence engulfed her the moment that the sound of his voice left the room. _

_However, she received no answer. Suddenly, everything in the dream went from black to a bright white glowing. Everywhere she looked was as if she were staring up into the sun on a hot summer day. Her eyes couldn't adjust easily so she shielded them with her hands, trying to block the bright intrusion from blinding her further._

_Finally, her eyes adjusted and her eyes roamed the place. It was a white room with white lights, and on the floor was a large puddle of blood stains, along with blonde hair. Wait…blonde hair? That could only mean…_

_Sakura approached the battered figure and looked down at it, her eyes widening in horror as her heart clenched in agony. She screamed Naruto's name at the top of her lungs and fell to the ground landing roughly on her knees. Suddenly, the room filled with an almost-sadistic type of laughter that echoed all around, but the source was nowhere to be seen._

"_Sasuke! You bastard!"_

_She screamed in tears, her eyes roaming around the room trying to spot the Uchiha, though she failed to do so. She held Naruto's corpse in her arms and cried into his chest after checking to find a heartbeat. She discovered none and wept over his body holding him close to her broken heart._

"_Dammit Sasuke, where the fuck are you?!" She screamed, her voice hysterical and her cheeks stained with tears. _

_Still searching the room frantically, she heard the loud, echoing chuckle coming throughout the room, though she had absolutely no clue where it was coming from. It was faint but continued growing louder until she felt the memories flooding back to her._

_Images flowed back to her mind and replayed themselves in front of her. To her right, she saw the bench near the village gates, as her 12-year-old self stood there in tears, Sasuke speeding behind her before hitting her pulse point on the back of her neck, whispering his final words—arigato._

_After that moment, the vision of the two disappeared and another began to play. Kakashi had just passed them by on the street, late for their usual meetings with Team 7, as usual. A young 12-year-old Naruto appeared, along with a younger version of Sakura gawking over Sasuke, whom was simply smirking devilishly and as calmly as ever._

_That image faded as well and in came another one. Kakashi's corpse as they brought it back to Konohagakure for a proper burial. Her eyes welled up with tears as she saw Tsunade go to remove his mask, but stopped her hand and requested she didn't, as it wouldn't be right to do so without his permission—a virtue they will never have now that he was gone. Kakashi was buried in his mask and Sakura and Naruto had agreed that they would leave the mystery alive as it shaped who their teacher was._

_As the sight of Kakashi's coffin lowering into the ground disappeared, the sight of Tsunade's appeared and Sakura's heart wrenched with pain at the memory._

"_Shishou…" she whispered, reaching a hand out as the coffin of the Fifth Hokage was lowered into the Konohagakure shinobi memorial site. As soon as she reached for the image, it vanished as another began to distort into view._

_Standing before her now, in all of his glory, was Sasuke Uchiha, wearing his new outfit consisting of head bandages, a black sleeveless top, black pants, and his purple Sound Village belt. His Akatsuki robe was dawned on his shoulders loosely as he began approaching the pink haired woman, whom had become frozen to her spot knelt down on her knees on the floor._

"_Sakura, huh? I figured you would have gotten yourself killed by now. You always were the weak one of Team 7, ne? I'd have never thought I'd kill the dobe before you."_

"_I'm a hell of a lot stronger than you think you, Uchiha-scum." She spat venomously at him, her eyes filled with disgust and hatred._

_He vanished then, leaving her and Naruto's corpse yet again._

"_Naruto!!"_

**.:. End of Dream .:.**

* * *

Sakura screamed Naruto's name aloud, her upper body rising mechanically from the bed as she ran her fingers through her hair with one hand, clutching the bedding beneath her with the other. She looked down and saw a sleeping Naruto in the shadows. Hesitantly, she placed a hand atop of his chest. Noticing his steady and healthy heartbeat, she let out a long sigh of relief. Her relief, however, was short-lived as Sakura froze at the feel of a hand clamped tightly around her wrist.

Naruto whispered Sakura's name groggily before sitting up in bed, his eyes heavy from his sudden awakening from his slumber and he turned to face the woman in question. Sakura's eyes remained opened wide as she looked at what she had done – she woke Naruto up with her screaming. She mentally cursed herself for disrupting his sleep but still hugged him tightly nonetheless.

She thanked kami that Naruto was safe and alright from the hands of the Uchiha traitor that they had actually once called a friend. Sakura hugged him tightly and had caught him off guard, so when he turned his head to react, his lips brushed across hers. She felt his warm breath upon her and froze, her arms abruptly holding his neck in place as she stared at him, their faces merely inches apart from one another.

Naruto spoke the name of the woman in front of him, her breathing hitching a bit as her body became a bit heated due to their proximity. She tightly closed her eyes for a moment, trying to determine if she was awake or dreaming—everything still felt too unreal from her nightmare. When she opened them back up, he was still there looking back at her quizzically.

Sakura's grip on his neck only deepened, and she seemed to have forgotten their actual closeness and wound up pressing her lips firmly against his. Unconsciously, she closed her eyes; a reaction completely opposite of his, as his eyes had been widened with sudden confusion and nervousness. After a moment, he had pretty much mentally said 'screw it' and his eyes also lidded closed as he deepened the kiss as well.

Wrapping his own arms around Sakura returning her hug, he gently urged her to lay back on the bed, her head resting gently against the pillows. It was the moment that his hands started roaming down her sides that she parted for air. Snapping back to reality, she placed a hand on his chest, urging him to stop.

"Naruto…We shouldn't do this…"

Naruto looked back at her, both confused and hurt from her words, but obliged and nodded. He should have figured that she wouldn't have wanted to be with him. He kept repeating the phrase "Never In A Million Years" over and over in his mind and he mentally scolded himself for thinking anything beyond it.

He was hurt, however, because he knew that he still loved Sakura with all of his heart. That is, after all, why he turned Hinata down after she expressed her feelings. Well, at least, that was one of the reasons, the others being that he was focused on getting stronger and becoming the hokage. Even after he managed to do that, he still couldn't return her feelings and she took it pretty well, he figured. She only wanted his happiness, and for that, he remained good friends with her.

Truth be told, however, that there is always one person standing in his way whenever it comes to love, which was Sakura. The reason for that was simply because he had loved her since they were 12-years-old, and still would love her until the day he died. That wouldn't change ever, and he knew that. He stood up from the bed and walked out of the room, hoping to clear his mind which was now cluttered with thoughts of her and his seeming rejection.

In the process of walking out of the bedroom, he left a guilt-stricken Sakura in the wake, mentally chastising herself for hurting him yet again after she had sworn that she would never do it again. But she had to stop him.

It just didn't feel right. Something had clicked in her mind and sprung her back to reality in the heat of the moment—_**their**_ moment—and she didn't know why, but she choked at the last minute. This was Naruto after all. He was her best friend and she was afraid that if they continued what they were doing, things would change for the worst. She wasn't sure how or why that would happen though, or if any change, even a good one, would be worth it.

She knew pain as she gave Sasuke her heart and he shattered it over and over again. Now that she was barely holding all of the pieces together, she was afraid to try love again because love had betrayed her before.

There was once a time when Sakura thought that love was the most important thing in the world, and that without it, life wasn't worth living. Then she realized that love was a haphazard for a shinobi, one which should truly be avoided before it can be used against you.

Sakura stood up from the bed to feel a cool breeze blowing in through a nearby open window. Clad only in her sleepwear, which consisted of a purple tank top and shorts, she picked up a long robe that rest on a chair in the living room. She noticed his hokage robe was gone, meaning he had left the house. She grunted in frustration.

She walked outside and channeled her chakra to her feet as she darted off into the night, her long, purple bath robe flying about her figure as the wind picked up along with her speed. She knew where he went because he always went to the same spot to think—the hokage monument. For some reason, he found comfort sitting atop of the Sandaime's head, instead of the Yondaime's.

She had actually asked him once about why he preferred to sit on the Third's, and he simply replied by stating that the hair of the Yondaime's statue was too spiky and uncomfortable to sit on. Finally, she had reached her destination. Pulling the ends of her robe around her as the wind picked up, Sakura slowed her pace to a light stroll as she channeled chakra to her feet and ran up the side of the monument. Surely enough, sitting atop the structure was a sitting Naruto, whom was staring up at the moon above them.

Naruto wouldn't look at her however, and instead stared off ahead at the village below him. Sakura hesitantly walked towards him, the wind whipping her robe ends all about as she shivered a bit involuntarily. It was rather cool that night and Sakura mentally scolded herself for not dressing warmer before leaving the house.

She called his name once but he didn't answer. Figuring he didn't hear her, she called it again, this time only louder. Finally, he turned his head to look at the woman heading towards him. Otherwise, he said nothing in response to her, and simply looked at her.

She tried her best to wrack her brain for some kind of explanation to give him for her strange behavior that night; to explain that she didn't stop things from continuing because of him, but because of herself. However, she couldn't reach any other conclusion other than being afraid. So, that's what she told him.

She told him that she was so afraid of their friendship being compromised for their relationship going further, though even slightly, she didn't fully trust her words and reasoning. She brushed her doubt off, however, and apologized sincerely if she had hurt him in the process of being afraid, which she clearly had done.

Naruto just brushed it off and told her that it was okay and he shouldn't have pushed it further than it had gone. She felt even guiltier though having initiated the kiss in the first place. She knew how Naruto felt but honestly, she had no clue of what her own feelings were as far as romance went. She often wondered if there was any part of her that still loved Sasuke and somehow, she sometimes thought that she did. But remembering all that he had done to her—to Konohagakure as a whole—made it a bit easier to realize in all truth that she no longer did love him.

Out of the blue, Sakura began to explain what had happened in her dream that had caused her to wake up screaming. She told him that she was sorry for waking him up in the process and he forgave her, realizing just how troubled she was by all of this. Besides, he could never stay too angry at Sakura for too long.

She thanked him absentmindedly and Naruto chuckled a bit before asking her what she was thanking him for exactly. Her only response was simply for him being there. She smiled, attempting to reassure him that she would be okay, but that wasn't _**his**_ Sakura's genuine smile, the one that he had always prided in her. No, this smile was the same smile that she had seemed put up more often than not anymore. It was fake and he knew it full and well. He knew it because her eyes darkened over with heart wrenching sadness and pain every time she forced it out.

"Sakura, why is it that you are always thanking me for just 'being there' anymore? I mean, you already know that I'll always be there for you and yet…I don't know, it feels like you've been thanking me on a daily basis now for it. What's going on with you lately? I mean, you look so lost anymore. You just don't look like the Sakura I've always known – always so sure of yourself and stare at me like you're never going to see me again. It's rather disturbing, to be honest."

"That's because I might _**not**_ ever see you again someday, baka!" Sakura screamed at him, though the insult was highly insincere and more choked out, if anything. It would kill her if anything happened to Naruto. He was her everything now. He was all that she had left to hold her up now. Everyone else was gone. Kakashi, Tsunade, Sasuke, even Sai and Yamato both went back to their positions in the ANBU.

Sakura pulled her knees tighter to her chest, gripping her calves so tightly that all of her knuckles turned a ghostly white tint.

"It's because…If I lost you Naruto, I would die and…I would truly be all alone." She finished at barely a whisper, and had it not been for their closeness at that very moment, he would have probably never heard her.

Naruto gave her a sad smile and began to go into his 'wise Naruto' stance that was good for quite a few serious occasions now. Truth be told, the man was wiser than most people gave him credit for and his words…Well, they truly made him live up to his reputation by assisting him in making friends with everyone he encountered just about.

"I remember how when we were Genin—back when Sasuke-teme was still with us, I mean—it seemed like all we ever did was rival one another. At first, I always thought it was only Sasuke and I but…Later on, I seen that you were struggling for your own strength as well—different strength, albeit—but in the end, our intentions always were the same. That's what made us such a great team, ya know? We were so alike and yet, so different at the same time."

Naruto paused to run his fingers through his long blonde hair as he sat up on the bed bringing resting on his knee, which was now bent and facing upright in the bed, similar to Sakura's position.

"Sakura, I've had to deal with so much that I would have probably never achieved had it not been for you being there for me…I'll admit that, yeah, you've had to kick my ass most of the way here," he chuckled lightly, "but I've turned out pretty good, ne?"

Sakura chuckled sadly through her tear-filled eyes. She nodded her head in agreement and finally spoke in response.

"You know, it's funny, I spent all of our time as kids chasing after Sasuke, always trying to get his attention…Hell, I stuck with being a ninja just because of him. Along the way, I had given into my weaknesses so much over time that…I don't know, I guess it's shaped all of who I have become, you know?"

Naruto cocked his head to the side in his lack of full understanding and so, she explained a bit better.

"It's like…I've always had to battle my own personal demons and barriers to actually try to put forth some effort in achieving who I have become today. If it hadn't been for Tsunade-shishou's training, I'd still be the same as I was back then—afraid and weak to try to catch up to everyone else's strength. I was the weak one back then…Pathetic even…"

"Sakura-chan…"

"No, let me say this, Naruto…Please…"

He nodded his head slightly giving in to her wishes and she continued speaking.

"I was so stupid back then, Naruto—focusing my everything on a boy, it's a wonder I never got killed on a mission or something. I broke the main rule of being a shinobi and I let my emotions take control of my abilities. I only blinded my vision by doing that and restrained my potential. Does that make me stupid? Ya know, regretting it all now that it's way too late?"

Naruto shook his head no and looked into her eyes, his own bright blue orbs shining with his signature sincerity.

"I don't believe in the rule about destroying a shinobi's emotions because…my emotions fueled me to become hokage. I've always had such strong emotions…I loved, I got hurt, I got angry, and I cared so much…I mean, it's all lead to this and if I had hardened my emotions and feelings all of those years ago, I would have never cared enough to fight back and get stronger."

"Yeah," she smiled again a bit looking down at the bed below.

"Ya know, you always were the big softy," Sakura giggled along with Naruto as she ruffled her fingers through his shaggy hai, "but I'm glad you were."

The two walked back to their apartment and got back into bed. She recalled the events of her nightmare and told him everything that had happened, word for word. Afterwards, Naruto asked her what she thought it meant, and she simply shrugged her shoulders before giving him her answer.

"I have no idea what it could have meant. But I do know this…if he ever tried to hurt you, I swear to kami that I would fucking kill him myself."

Sakura's words were colder than ice and yet her tone was calm and serene. She spat the last bit out with sincere and genuine malice as she narrowed her eyes a bit, more heart wrenchingly than anything.

She wasn't absolutely sure if she stood a chance in hell against the Uchiha but she would have to just die trying, right? At least she would be able to rest peacefully knowing she did _**something **_rather than nothing at all.

They were sixteen now, which meant that considering their careers, they had been considered adults not long ago. They understood the concepts of war and peace—because peace was a foreign concept a good eighty percent of the time. They knew that in the concept of life and death, death was generally an occurrence to reach a shinobi before the age of forty.

* * *

**.:. Flashback .:.**

"_When a person dies, he disappears, along with his past, current lifestyle and his future. Many people die in missions and wars. They die easily and in surprisingly simple ways. Hayate was one of them. Those who died had hopes & dreams, but everyone has something as important as those: parents, siblings, friends, lovers; people who are important to you, they trust and help each other. The bond between the people important to you ever since birth and the string that binds them becomes thicker and stronger as time goes by. It's beyond reason. Those bound to you by that string will do that because it is important."  
_—_Iruka, referring to the Third at his funeral._

**.:. End of Flashback .:.**

* * *

The children born to the shinobi world were tools—born _**as**_ tools, _**by**_ tools, raised to _**be**_ tools, and **_died_** as tools.

* * *

**.:. Flashback .:.**

"_Don't look away…When you live like a shinobi, this is how it ends."  
_—_Kakashi_

**.:. End of Flashback .:.**

* * *

Often times, Sakura found herself wondering if she would ever have children in her lifetime. She doubted it, though. Several years back, she had hoped to marry Sasuke and have a family with him.

Now, she wished his death for what he had done. The wound in her heart was larger than she let on, but she focused on hiding how large the wound was so that Naruto—or anyone else, for that matter—worried about her.

He had enough on his plate now as the hokage of a village barely surviving by a thread. The last thing in the world that Sakura wanted was to burden him any more with her problems. She wasn't a genin anymore and had vowed never to be a burden again.

So instead, she would help him out with whatever she could. Who knew? They might actually be able to pull Konoha out of the gutter that Sasuke had attempted to bury it in. Together, they were a team – an unstoppable force, both of which had surpassed two of the Legendary Sannin's, Tsunade and Jiraiya. That thought made her smile. No matter where they end up in the future, they will always be Team Kakashi in their hearts.

The two passed the time talking about intimate things—secrets, hopes, dreams. Sakura told him how proud she truly was that he had fulfilled his goal of becoming the hokage. She knew he had it in him for so long now, despite all of her belittling him throughout their childhood. That alone was something she would always regret until she died and she knew that apologies would never be enough.

Naruto told her that the only reason he continued pursuing Sasuke for the past two years or so was to simply fulfill his promise to her so many years ago. She was shocked, to say the least, but more sorry for all of the time that had been wasted pursuing their former teammate and friend.

The _**traitor**__**.**_

The two reminisced back to their former grey-haired sensei, whose hidden facial features, neither had ever gotten to see. They laughed as they thought back on the memory of the time that they had tried to see his face and failed miserably to do so.

* * *

**.:. Flashback .:.**

"_Maybe it'll snow…No! Or are you guys hiding something?"  
_—_Kakashi_

**.:. End of Flashback .:.**

* * *

Eventually, the two fell back asleep at around three in the morning. Sakura awoke the next morning still fully clothed as she sat up in the now empty bed looking around the room for Naruto, but he was nowhere in sight. The entire room was dimmed a bit, so she figured that it must have still been early morning.

"Naruto…?" Sakura called out, her voice echoing loudly throughout the apartment, but had received no response from the blonde.

"Hmm, I wonder where he went?" She whispered softly to herself, biting down on her thumb nail deep in thought as she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"Hmm…I know that he was lying in here when I fell asleep…And I'm generally a really light sleeper so…how in the world did he manage to get out of bed without me moving? It just makes absolutely no sense."

Sakura sighed and stood up from the bed, her arms raising high above her head stretching the sleep-stiffened muscles in her biceps, shoulders, and upper back. She then walked towards the bedroom door and turned the handle, before poking her head out the door and calling Naruto's name out through the silent apartment.

Finally, the bathroom door down the small hallway cracked open and a shirtless Naruto poked his head out of the doorway, his eyes searching around a bit before landing his sights on the source of his name being summoned throughout the apartment. He had a toothbrush handle sticking out of his mouth and his lips were covered in white toothpaste, so he nodded his head indicating that she had his attention.

"Oops. I'm sorry, Naruto. I was just wondering where you were. I'll let you finish while I wait in the kitchen, okay?" Sakura replied apologetically while blushing a bit, mostly feeling silly for getting so concerned.

Then again, he was the hokage now. He was the most valuable asset that the village had at the moment and they certainly needed to know where he was a good ninety percent of the time, even it if was just one of his shinobi and/or advisors.

Hokage. Man, that would definitely take a lot more time to get completely used to, she mused. He had only been appointed Rukodaime Hokage a month ago and after all of that time which had passed—between the deaths of the Fifth, Kakashi, and Jiraiya; the Akatsuki's Invasion of Konoha; and the now constant wars among the surrounding territories—it still hadn't quite sunk in completely that Naruto had actually succeeded in his childhood dream to become the next hokage. Sakura had always assumed that surely, he would have matured out of that idea, but with Naruto being Naruto, his determination had brought him there.

She knew how hard the job of Hokage was, especially now with all of the conflict going on, and the fact that the entire village was now resting in his hands. She was grateful for all of his advisors whom were lending him all of their support and aid.

The ANBU members, of course, had remained loyal to their hokage and completely remained their strongest in handling and eliminating more elite ranked enemies.

Sakura and Ino both took up roles as medical instructors to shinobi of lesser rank whom held a special interest in medical ninjutsu.

Shikamaru, a genius capable of forming over two-hundred battle strategies a second PLUS choose the best one, had been assisting in commanding the Chuunin, Jounin, and even a few ANBU squads with their battle against any enemy shinobi whom found it opportune to randomly attack.

Naruto walked back into the bathroom and rinsed his mouth out with a small cup of water. When he left the bathroom several minutes later, he looked at Sakura who was sitting patiently on the kitchen counter top, her legs dangling freely as she stared down at her fingernails with seemingly great interest.

"Ah," Naruto stretched, "I feel better now. Sakura-chan, did you need to use the bathroom?" Naruto asked while nervously scratching the back of his head.

"I really am sorry I just kinda disappeared like that." Naruto chuckled a bit, his cheeks tinting in a pinkish-toned blush just below his eyelids. Sakura stared back at him attentively, blinking a bit before smiling sweetly at him.

"No, no. It's fine, Naruto…Really. Besides, it's your bathroom – you can take as long in it as you want."

Sakura placed a hand over her mouth as she giggled a bit before jumping down off of the counter top and strode towards the bathroom door, which remained open.

"Ne, Sakura-chan. But you live here too now, ya know. Even if it's not permanent, it's still _**our**_ bathroom, not just mine."

Sakura giggled a bit more before halting before him. Staring up into his blue eyes she smiled at him sweetly.

"Thanks Naruto. I'll only be a minute or two. I need to freshen up and then we can leave. Okay?"

Naruto nodded his head smiling back at her as he walked towards the couch, picking up his long, red and white hokage robe that rested along the back of it. He draped the long cloak over his shoulders and sat on the couch, patiently waiting for Sakura to come out so that they could resume their work.

The two walked out of the house without breakfast as they began walking towards their jobs – His at the Hokage tower and hers at the Konohagakure General Hospital. On their way to the two buildings, they were met up with Team 10.

* * *

"Well, well, if it isn't forehead girl!"

Yamanaka Ino smirked at her pink-haired best friend who clenched a fist in response to the childhood nickname. Honestly, she finally manages to grow into her forehead and the blond nitwit still can't let that crap go?

"And look, it's Ino-pig. What a pleasant surprise." Sakura glared at Ino, her voice dripping in sarcasm as she placed her hands on her hips and stared seriously and intimidatingly at Ino. Ino, in turn, smirked and also placed her hands on her own hips as she stared back at the pinkette.

"You're both such troublesome women, I swear…Must you **_always_** start arguing with each other?" Shikamaru asked irritatedly as he took a long, hard drag on his lit cigarette, which he was holding between his index finger and thumb.

The girls averted their gaze to the lazy genius, before both bursting into small giggles at his statement. Ino took the cigarette from his mouth before putting it out on the ground and throwing it off somewhere.

"Shikamaru! You baka! You know that smoking is bad for you! How many times do I have to tell you that?!" She shouted angrily at her teammate, giving him an authoritative stance and gaze. Shikamaru growled a bit in frustration at the blonde before making his retort to her statement.

"Yeah, yeah – I remember exactly what you said about it. I know this because you tell me it every day, even when I'm NOT smoking."

"Well, that's because I can smell the cigarette's on you! Just because you don't always smoke around me, doesn't mean that I don't know you've done it when you wreak of tobacco! Besides, I've explained to you a thousand times that smoking is—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Smoking is bad for me, blah blah blah, I'll probably get some fatal, life-threatening disease like lung cancer or something, eventually have to quit being a shinobi as said disease progresses, and slowly, I'll die at a young age."

Ino grinned matter-of-factly and nodded her head once in confirmation.

"Right! So why the hell do you insist on doing it still, baka?!" She shouted as he fumbled in his weapons holster, trying to get another cigarette. Finally finding his pack, he removed it only to let out a frustrated groan.

"Dammit, Ino! That was my last one!" Shikamaru whined, which was rather rare for him.

Complained? Sure he did that quite often. But whining and bitching fall hand in hand – something rare for the genius. If something was, as he put it, 'troublesome', he complained about it but ultimately submitted and did the deed. However, bitching on about anything, especially something as trivial as a cigarette, it was certainly a rare site to behold.

"Well, good for you! You need to quit that smoking, you lazy-ass!"

Ino scolded his actions and chastised him as if he were a mere child. He shrugged his shoulders before tossing the empty pack of cigarette's into a nearby trash can before stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Shikamaru scowled at his blonde teammate before greeting Naruto and Sakura. Chouji also greeted the two, totally ignoring Ino and Shikamaru's bickering beforehand, and once the five were re-acquainted with one another, they split up and treaded off into two separate directions. The three men waved the girls goodbye to Ino and Sakura who waved back in their farewells, and the two groups set off out of one another's sight.

Not long after, Ino and Sakura had arrived at the old Ninja Academy, preparing to begin their teaching sessions among a new group of about twenty to thirty students, depending on how popular the outcome had turned out to be. The girls remained rather quiet during the rest of their trek, too deeply concentrated on their nervousness about their first day as medical sensei's to really think, let alone talk about something else.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Naruto made it to the hokage tower. As the men slowly walked up the spiral staircase that surrounded the building, Shikamaru finally spoke up.

"Naruto, we need to discuss some issues involving the surrounding shinobi countries." Naruto stopped walking and a few steps later so did Shikamaru and Chouji, whom looked back at Naruto.

Naruto's head was down a bit, deeply into thought as he already knew what needed to be discussed.

"I know. I've been thinking about it too." He responded exhaustedly. This was going to be a long discussion.

* * *

"Alright. Everyone? Listen up!" Sakura chimed loudly, alerting the attention of about fifteen young shinobi whom were all gathered inside of an academy classroom.

"My name is Haruno Sakura and this is my friend and partner, Yamanaka Ino. Today, the two of us will be teaching all of you basic medical ninjutsu. Now, in order to be able to perfect medical ninjutsu, you must have fairly good chakra control. Okay, by a show of hands, how many of you are able to walk on water using chakra channeled into your feet?"

All of the young students' hands went up high into the air.

"Alright," the little hands left their positions in the air, "since you all seem to have that technique down, obviously, you guys have some chakra control. Okay, I want you all to focus your chakra to the palms of your hands."

The students began staring at the palms of their hands deeply in concentration. Some hands emitted with a blue glow while others struggled a bit to maintain the chakra.

"Okay guys, you're doing good. Just remember, focus all of your chakra into your hands."

The students who didn't quite pick up as easily before simply continued to attempt to focus their healing chakra, while those who had caught on easier maintained their chakra channeling. Slowly, more and more of the students were becoming able to maintain their chakra. After several moments, all of the young chuunin's palms were glowing in a steady shade of blue.

"Alright, you can stop now," the students did as told.

"Okay then, do any of you know about the art of chakra molding? Let me see a show of hands."

Sakura smiled sweetly at her young class while Ino sat to her right on a stool doing her best to keep from attracting attention away from Sakura's lesson. The two joked around a lot as friends, yes, but their teaching of medical ninjutsu to the young Genin was something the two girls prided themselves in. After a slight hesitation, only one chuunin female's hand raised into the air.

"Ah yes, you? What is your name?" Sakura asked the young and shy little girl.

"Um…My name is Hina," the small, brown haired girl responded softly.

"Okay, Hina. Could you explain to the class what chakra molding is?"

"I think so…Chakra molding…Isn't that what Naruto-sama needs in order to do his complex Rasengan jutsu?" The young girl asked uncertainly.

"Hai. Naruto-kun is a great example of this. However, do you know what chakra manipulation actually means?" Sakura asked grinning at the pupil who was trying to show her cooperation to the class, as well as a true desire to learn whatever Sakura and Ino had wanted to teach. Sakura beamed at the girl with pride, adoring the sight of the determined youth before her.

"Isn't chakra manipulation where you focus your chakra to take the form of a particular shape or object?" Hina's voice still held a bit of uncertainty and lack of full understanding in her answer. However, her self-doubt had eased the moment that Sakura said announced that her answer had been absolutely correct.

"For medical ninjutsu, we have to mold our chakra to take the figure of a glue, as well as a needle and thread. Whenever medics heal an injury, they must completely seal a wound rather than stitching it. In order to do so, they must do what is known as 'molding' and re-seal the two separated ends of a wound together. The human body has a total of eight layers of skin. Now, the depth of a cut caused by, lets say, a shuriken…It would generally only go about three layers deep, cutting enough to draw blood and leave a visible wound, but not quite deep enough to reach muscle or bone."

A small boy in the second row back raised his hand.

"Ah, yes. A question?" Sakura answered while pointing her index finger towards the tiny hand that was raised into the air. The boy in turn nodded his head in confirmation.

"Yes? What is your question?" Sakura asked, showing off a sweet smile to the pupils whom all looked to be nervous wrecks having met their new sensei's.

"What would cause an injury to reach the eighth layer?" The blonde haired boy asked curiously as he cocked his head over to the side.

"Well, typically, those kinds of wounds are caused by direct stabs from large weapons, such as katanas and swords."

"Oh, hai." The young boy responded in understanding. Sakura smiled at the young boy.

* * *

**.:. Meanwhile, at the Hokage Tower .:.**

"Naruto, we need to make some peace treaties with at least four other villages."

"Hai, hai. I already know that much. But I have absolutely no updated documents from Tsunade-baa-chan. I know nothing of the affairs of the other countries or hidden villages, and every document that exists is only basic. Do you have any suggestions or…well, what do you know about the other nations, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru pulled a fairly long scroll out of his back pants pocket. Naruto gestured towards his empty desktop with his hand, indicating that Shikamaru could use it to place the document upon if need be.

Shikamaru accepted the offer and laid the scroll down before gently untying a thin string that had been binding the contents neatly in place.

"Just make it as simple as possible, okay?" Naruto stated as Shikamaru smirked at him.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Naruto."

Shikamaru unraveled a map outlining all of the countries, as well as all of the hidden villages located in each. First, he pointed to the Fire Country.

"These are all of the shinobi countries, as well as their hidden villages. Currently, Konohagakure is the only official shinobi village located in the fire country. However, there are other cities located here as well, such as Otafuku Gai, Tanzaku Gai, and Crater City."

Naruto nodded his head in silent understanding. Shikamaru then pointed to The Bear Country.

"Alright. There are many ninja countries known to be, as well as rumored to be, in existence. The first on the list is known as The Bear Country. The Bear country is one of the few countries in the world that has a shinobi village. It is the home of The Hidden Star Village, which is already allied with Leaf. However, the village is small and must rely on outside help when their manpower is not enough. Basically, this village is of little to no help to us whatsoever for the time being."

"Hidden Star, eh? I've been there before once for a mission. You're right – it is a small village and as of now would be rendered of no use to us. Go on."

"The next village is The Bird Country. The Bird country is a remote impoverished nation but it is making strides to improve. It was once led by Daimyou Oowashi, but he suddenly died of an illness. He was replaced by his daughter Toki. The country itself shares borders with Wind, Earth and the Rain countries. It doesn't appear to be currently allied with any countries, though country administrators have come here to Konoha in the past to request our help. Who knows? Perhaps they would be willing to become allies now that you're in charge."

Naruto shrugged.

"Perhaps."

"Well, anyways. The Bird Country maintains no standing ninja army, but guardsmen trained in the shinobi arts work under the leadership of the Daimyou's chief strategist Koumei. That could pose a problem again and thus, they truly wouldn't be of any aid to us either."

Naruto nodded his head in agreement.

"The third country on the list is The Claw Country."

"The…Claw…Country…?" Naruto blinked in confusion and Shikamaru nodded his head in agreement.

"Hai. Not much is actually known about The Claw Country. It is apparently a small nation that has had testy relations with the Fang Country. I would like to get to the bottom of what the cause of such testiness between the two has been, as well as check out whether or not they would even be worth approaching. Honestly, Claw is a fifty-fifty chance either way since nearly nothing is known about the actual country itself."

Naruto nodded his head in agreement.

"Try to find out as much as you can and make an immediate report back to me whenever you do. I'm interested in Claw now that you've brought it up. Eh, I like a challenge."

Shikamaru chuckled slightly before continuing his long strategical speech.

"Next on the list isn't an actual country, but it is actually a Hidden Village located in an unknown country. It's called The Takumi Village, or The Craftsmen Village."

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"I've never heard of this place either."

Shikamaru shrugged.

"Neither did I before now. Takumi Village resides in an unknown country. Takumi is known for its skills in making weaponry. Many of which are sold to the ninja villages of the world. When the village faced hard times they requested help but they were ignored by the other shinobi villages. Certain skilled Takumi villagers grew resentful and felt the villages didn't respect them for all the help their weapons provided in the past. In fact, The Hidden Craftsman Village isn't actually an official shinobi village, which makes Takumi a dead end. The fifth actual country is The Demon Country. The country is allied with the Fire Country so we have them on our side definitely."

Naruto smiled a bit in reassurance.

"The sixth country is a major problem. Although we aren't at war with Earth Country as of now, we could very well go into one. Back before the Fourth became hokage, Earth Country and Fire Country were at war with one another. They're a very vicious country, or so I've been told. They have a lot of warlike tendencies that could pose a threat. I'd like to ally with them but at the same time, it is uncertain of their acceptance. Denial could very well lead to them joining in this war on a 'just because' type of basis, and we certainly do not need that. However, next to the Fire Country, they are the strongest choices for allies. We should really focus on allying ourselves with Earth and Mist."

Naruto raised his thumb and index finger to his chin thoughtfully as he furrowed his eyebrows.

"How do we ally with a village that once hated us enough to be at war with us?" Naruto asked the shadow using nin.

Shikamaru repeated Naruto's thoughtful action, his mind racing at top speed trying to find a solution to such a problem.

"Someone very persuasive."

Naruto looked up at Shikamaru, his eyebrows raising in surprise at the answer's bluntness.

"That helps. Any suggestions on who?"

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders and sighed loudly.

"Not yet. Give me by the end of the day. I got a lot of stuff to analyze as far as some upcoming battle strategies are concerned."

Naruto dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

"Hai, hai. Take as long as you need. Arigato, Shikamaru."

"No problem."

And with that, Shikamaru walked out of the hokage's office, gently closing the door behind him, leaving a puzzled and now overly stressed out Naruto alone to think. The village needed rebuilt. In order to rebuild a village, you need strong finances to pay for it. However, you cant get those finances without allies whom you can contract paying missions with when your in a multiple-village war. Besides, even if they did have the money, all efforts would be futile if the village would only get attacked again and again, putting it back into ruins. He was puzzled, that was for sure.

He wondered briefly what Sakura was doing right about now. Chances were, whatever it was that she was doing was more interesting than what he was doing. Then again, worrying is never any fun for anybody.

* * *

"Like this, Sakura-senpai?" One of the younger chuunin asked, her hand glowing dark blue with her regular chakra.

"No. Like this," Sakura said as she emitted her green healing chakra before she released her focus on it, the green glow disappearing as she looked back at the student in question.

"You have to apply the technique I showed you guys earlier! You're focusing your regular chakra and not applying it to convert into healing chakra! Thus, you will only cause more damage than you could repair."

The chuunin nodded and resumed her position with her three-member group over on the opposite side of the classroom.

"Sakura, are you feeling okay? You look pale." Ino asked, her concern for Sakura's health becoming evident as her pink haired friend had a deathly appearance about her.

"Hai…I'm just a bit low on chakra. That's all." Sakura replied wiping a stray trail of sweat from her pale forehead.

"Are you sure you don't want me to take over? I still have a full reserve of chakra and I can handle the class if you need to—"

"NO! Uh, I mean…No, Ino. Arigato but it's fine. I can handle it…"

Before Sakura could say much else she began to lose consciousness, falling backwards only to be caught by a pair of strong, suntanned arms.

"Sakura-sensei!" One of the chuunin students worriedly shouted upon seeing their teacher lose her consciousness. He looked at the man now holding Sakura's limp form in his arms.

"H-Hokage-sama…" Naruto gave the young man who addressed him a small, sad smile of reassurance.

"Sakura-sensei has…Overexerted herself for today. She should be as good as new by tomorrow but in the meantime, Ino-sensei will be taking over your class today. Is that alright with you Ino?"

"Hai! I told her that she should have gotten some rest but she never listens to good advice when it comes her way. Tch."

Ino scoffed trying to hide her extreme concern for Sakura's well being by playing it off as though she didn't care, despite the fact that really, she did.

* * *

Sakura's heavy eyes lidded to the feel of wind brushing against her face. She suddenly realized that she was being carried and…moving?

"N-Nani…Naruto-kun?" She whispered, stirring in Naruto's arms as he lept from rooftop, the wind blowing against the both of them roughly as his speed kept up at a fast pace.

"S-Sakura-chan. We're almost back to the apartment. Hey, don't move too much! I might drop you or something..."

Naruto spoke as he glanced down at the hazy eyed woman whom was looking at him confusedly before ultimately, deciding to just give in and allow her sleep to overtake her again, too tired to do much else otherwise.

Sakura awoke what seemed to only be ten minutes after as she felt her back making contact with the couch. Naruto began to walk away from her, not realizing her awakening from her state of exhausted unconsciousness, and was suddenly stopped by a small hand gripping his wrist in an effort to make him stay. Naruto turned around and looked down at Sakura, who was now leaning up on one of her elbows as her opposite arm was outstretched holding him in place.

"Ne, Sakura-chan? What is it?"

Naruto gazed down at the young woman in confusion, as her gaze was focused on the floor. Generally, it would seem as if she hadn't disturbed his actions at all, but instead was too deep in thought. However, the fact remained that she had his wrist gripped in her hand.

Silently, she begged him to stay. That much, he knew already. However, what Naruto couldn't figure out was why. What was bothering her if she needed him as desperately as she had seemed to be needing him right now? Of course, he would lend her support and be there for her no matter what, but he still wished he could figure out what the problem is.

Finally, after a minute or so of silence, Sakura finally answered Naruto's question.

"Stay here…Please? I don't want to be alone…"

Sakura brought her knees to her chest and sat upright on the couch as Naruto took his place sitting beside her, his body turned sideways so that he almost completely faced Sakura's direction.

"Okay, I'll stay," he whispered with a reassuring smile. And so, he stayed.

**

* * *

A/N:  
**Rawr, cliffhanger!!! R&R. I actually wrote two different renditions of the second chapter and managed to merge them. Hehe. 18 pages. Woot!!!!!!! Enjoy :)


	3. CH 2: Sudden Interruptions

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto.

**.:. Note .:.  
**Okay there are a lot of things that will need to be cleared up before I begin this chapter. This entire story takes place AFTER Pein invades Konohagakure and almost destroys it. Meaning that yes, Naruto has mastered Sage mode by now, and Sasuke is still technically MIA.

I'm trying so hard to stick with the plot line of the actual series while giving it my own twists, so if some things are confusing you guys, don't hesitate to mention it. I've been answering a lot of questions and I will try my best to make this chapter as detailed and clarifying as possible. :)

The rest of my Author's notes are at the bottom.

* * *

A rather large group of shinobi were scattered about throughout Naruto's office, some standing while others sat. The entire room was amok in chaotic searching, the floors and surfaces all covered in countless different scrolls and documents, as well as maps, graphs, and charts. The large office's occupants included the Rukodaime Hokage—Naruto, of course—as well as Sakura, Shikamaru, Gaara, Shino, and Neji.

Drawers filled with different documents were hanging open and everyone was busy at work forming their strategies for an upcoming mission to The Earth Country. The current mission at hand was to find documents – anything humanly possible regarding the past shinobi wars, hopefully giving them perhaps an idea of what their enemies strengths and weaknesses are, seeing as most of them had been involved in at least one of the Great Shinobi Wars.

Sakura sat in a corner surrounded by scrolls of different sizes. Some were open while others were still folded up and unread, awaiting to have their contents surveyed. Naruto scowled in frustration as none of the nin—whom had all been held up in that office for the past five hours now—had been able to find anything of valuable information regarding the enemy villages, or past wars for that matter.

Where in the hell were all of the documents of the past mission reports? Where were the witnesses statements'? The accounts of the events from the villagers? Where the hell was _**anything**_ of use?!All of these questions lingered throughout Naruto's mind as the shinobi searched the room top to bottom for something of use.

Shikamaru noticed Naruto's frustration and a large part of him was agreeing. He knew that Naruto was wondering where their jackpot-of-all-records lie, as he himself was asking the very same question. The room was silent for the most part, alongside the occasional rustle of papers, the shuffling of feet, and the long exasperated sighs coming from different directions. Finally, breaking the silence, Sakura shouted out holding a scroll up in eye level as she glanced down at the contents.

"I found something on the Second Great Shinobi war!" She exclaimed excitedly, glad to finally have found some source of documentation that the damn war even took place (which she had begun to doubt from the lack of records).

She supposed it made a little bit of sense though. Perhaps the hokage's of the past had destroyed all accounts of the war for the very same purpose that they were searching for them? Perhaps they didn't want any secrets to be learned from it? No, that couldn't be it; it just wouldn't make any sense for them to have done that. They had probably just hidden things pretty well, or wrote them in codes or something.

Shikamaru glanced sternly at her, silently urging her to read whatever bit of information that she had managed to find. She nodded her head in a silent understanding before clearing her throat to speak. She glanced down at the older looking document, the paper tan in color from age and wear.

"Well, it isn't much but, it says here that, 'The Second Great Shinobi World War involved a majority of the shinobi villages and countries. During this war, Konohagakure, led by the Third Hokage, had fought against Sunagakure—which at that time was most likely being led by the Third Kazekage—as well as Amegakure—led which had been being led by Salamander Hanzo. Eventually, Konohagakure were the victors of this war.' Man, you guys would think that they would put some more details in it since we actually won the damn war, eh? Anyways, what do you think guys? Is it useful or not?"

Shikamaru nodded his head in a silent yes and she smiled triumphantly in return before neatly rolling the scroll up and handing it to him. Shikamaru then placed the scroll in a small pile filled with several other scrolls similar to it, all containing information that they had deemed "useful".

There hadn't been much that was useful though, to be honest. A few scrolls summarizing the wars that had once taken place was as far as they had gotten, and Sakura's newly-discovered scroll was no exception. However, on an upside, it was the first useful documentation regarding the Second Great Shinobi War, as all others had been regarding the Third and most recent one. Information regarding the First Great Shinobi War had yet to be found.

Naruto continued scowling at the wreckage of his office, though his concern wasn't towards the mess. It was the time taking to find anything useful in the heap that Tsunade-baa-chan had actually called "organization".

You would think that the Godaime would have at least kept everything in a neat order or something, but everything was instead jumbled up and out of order. Some other documentations had even gone missing, which concerned Naruto greatly. He really would have to get one of his underlings to organize all of this stuff later on. For now, he wasn't worried about that as there had been a much greater task at hand—Find Something Useful.

Hours passed throughout the slow, agonizing night, as the shinobi had managed to turn the entire Hokage's office into a giant train wreck. The pile of scrolls had grown greatly and there had been about thirty different documents in it now. Shikamaru looked down at the pile carefully and cleared his throat loudly, trying to get everyone's attention.

"Oh man, what a drag," Shikamaru whined a bit as he looked down at two separate piles, the scrolls having been re-organized and separated by the war that they refer to. There should have really been three piles, one for all three of the Great Shinobi Wars, but for some strange reason – unknown to them all – No such documents about that particular war had been located.

"What is it Shikamaru?" Sakura asked as she glanced up from the filing cabinet she had been re-sorting through trying her best to reorganize it better than it had been previously. Shikamaru brought the tip of his thumb towards his mouth and glanced thoughtfully at the empty spot located beside the two small piles of documents.

"We've been through this entire office," he began as he glanced around the room at the faces of his subordinate shinobi whom had stopped their searching to glance up at him, giving him their undivided attention.

"We have searched this entire office, and yet all that we have been able to find is documents on the Second and Third Great Shinobi Wars," he paused to sort his thoughts and words before continuing.

"Even with that said, we have yet to find barely anything about the Second and Third Wars and have come up with absolutely nothing on the First. Don't you guys find that to be a tad bit odd? I mean, judging from all of the information we already know, Konohagakure no Sato had been a part of all three of these wars, and yet there are little-to-no documents detailing them."

Everyone paused a moment, obviously allowing his words of logic to channel through their minds before they all nodded their heads in unison. Shikamaru let his hand drop to his side as he stuffed both of them in his pockets.

"Perhaps the documents had been accidentally destroyed. You know, from like a natural disaster or something?" Ino cut in as she entered the office unannounced, causing everyone to look up at her in surprise.

"Hey Ino, what are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked raising an eyebrow at the blonde who simply shrugged her shoulders.

"Things have been moving slow at the hospital so I figured I'd stop here real quick to see how the search was going. But, after what you just said, there isn't much progress being made, is there?"

Shikamaru shook his head 'no' and let out a long irritated sigh. "It's so weird though, I mean, okay – suppose what Ino said was right, then why is there documents dating back to the founding of the village. There is unlimited information about the early disputes between the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan, as well as Madara Uchiha's battle against Hashirama Senju at the Valley of the End. If there had been some sort of 'disaster', wouldn't those have been destroyed as well?"

"You know, Shikamaru has a point," Neji spoke, "the whole 'natural disaster' idea would certainly be correct had it not been for the founding documents."

"So then, what do you guys think happened to them?" Naruto asked looking up from his hokage's desk at the shinobi whom had struck up the conversation. Shikamaru, whom was biting on his thumbnail deep in thought once again, remained silent for a moment before he finally spoke.

"Well, my guess would be that either A, someone either had stolen the documents, or B, somebody either had destroyed the documents themselves or had the documents destroyed for them. Either way, this whole thing looks like a cover up, but none of the former hokage's nor the elders council members are alive now to confirm or deny the notion."

"Who would want to destroy Konohagakure's document's though? Any official village documents are heavily guarded and it would take someone on the inside to even be allowed withing the vicinity of them." Gaara responded.

"Maybe that's just it," Shikamaru stated as he began to pace back and forth slowly in front of Naruto's desk, his mind working top speed to calculate a theory that would hopefully seem correct to all of the mystery that had been created from these missing documents.

"What? You mean that it was an inside job?" Naruto asked confusedly. Shikamaru stopped his pacing and looked up at him with an expression that clearly was indication that he had figured something out.

"Exactly. Nobody would suspect it as Konoha hasn't been in need of those documents. Had the documents been taken and/or possibly destroyed after they had been filed away, nobody would really need to look at them because the village had been at peace for quite some time. If this was done form the inside, the documents could have been replaced with fake ones, such as the summarized versions that we have thus far come up with."

"Shikamaru's right," Sakura cut in.

"I mean, all of those document's had one thing in common, which was that each contained simply the basic details of the wars. The information was summarized to basically state that 'war was declared, we fought, we won, a few other places won equally with us while others had lost, a few peace treaties were made, the end'. There hadn't been a single thing that was too specific, but rather it was all extremely blunt, if ya ask me."

Everyone nodded hesitantly in agreement and Shikamaru responded to Sakura's statement.

"Exactly. So the questions we should really be asking now are—"

"Who stole the documents," Sakura cut in.

"Why they stole them," Naruto interrupted.

"Were they covering up something," Neji stated.

"What would they have to cover up," Gaara added.

"And when did they disappear in the first place," Shikamaru finished, emitting everyone to nod with him in agreement. Shikamaru scowled.

"This is so troublesome though guys. The only people who could possibly know one of Konoha's secrets are the ones who were witnesses to the events that had been being covered up. But anyone alive that long ago is either dead of old age, was killed in action, or exiled from the village and is well into their old age as it is."

"So what do we do?" Sakura asked.

"The only thing we can do – we have to find a name of all of the persons exiled from Konoha; find out if they are still alive and if so, hunt them down; and then ask them what they know ourselves."

Everyone practically raised their eyebrows at his statement. It made sense to pursue missing nins, but at the same time, it would be next to impossible. The mission would be B-Ranked at best, and Naruto's best bet for shinobi whom could be spared for a mission while still protecting themselves is…

* * *

"So you summoned me, Boss?" Konohamaru chimed with a grin stretching from ear to ear as he entered the hokage's office, Moegi and Udon following closely behind the Chuunin. Oh yes, he certainly would be getting his first official mission as a Chuunin and he just knew that it was something awesome, judging from the urgency of Naruto's request to Ebisu for the three to be brought to his office.

Naruto scowled a bit at the mere thought of having to send his youngest chuunin out on such a dangerous mission where they would be extremely vulnerable to being attacked, ambushed, or possibly even killed by enemy nin. But these three were the only ones who weren't doing their part in assisting him with rebuilding the village back to at least half of what it once had been.

Everyone else was either training to do something, doing some sort of political work, or fighting off enemy attackers. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. He could spare one of his subordinates working directly to help him out, right? Besides, this mission would be simple enough, so it wasn't as if there was too much risk involved!

Naruto inwardly grinned as he looked up from his desk at his newest and most recently appointed Jounin, whom had been leaning on the oak desk as they all awaited the arrival of his apprentice, along with his own teammates.

"Shikamaru," Naruto spoke looking at said man whom was leaning against his desk lazily with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Hm?" Shikamaru asked looking back at Naruto, his eyebrows raised.

"Can you go with them on this mission as their captain? You have more experience and I really don't want to send them out alone. I've got a very eerie feeling about it, ya know?"

"Oh, come on Boss! We can handle this ourselves you know!" Konohamaru complained scowling at his teacher and friend with a look of pure unsatisfied frustration.

"No, Konohamaru. It's way **too** risky."

Just as Konohamaru was about to further protest, he looked up at Naruto's stern gaze, clearly receiving the message loud and clear that any argument would not be advisable right now. Submitting to the hokage's demands, Konohamaru reluctantly agreed, but not before declaring the role of team leader to himself, and thereby appointing Shikamaru as simply just a member of the team.

Shikamaru would have protested that too until Naruto gave him a look that simply told him to silently go along with it, but still lead the team as indirectly as he could. He didn't feel like dealing with Konohamaru's complaining right now and he wondered a bit how Kakashi had put up with his own for so many years.

"Okay guys, then it's settled. Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon – you guys leave first thing tomorrow evening. We need to give everyone here some time to rest throughout the day since we've been pulling an all-nighter."

The three young chuunin nodded their heads in understanding and left the hokage's office. Once their chakra could no longer be detected, Naruto finally returned to the previous task at hand.

"Okay guys, now that that's settled, where were we? Shikamaru?"

"Well, all that's mainly left to do in the meantime until tomorrow would be organizing what little information we have uncovered, and we can add on to the timeline once tomorrow's mission is over." Shikamaru responded.

Everyone nodded their heads in a hearty agreement, relief washing over their exhausted faces and Shikamaru picked up a giant poster board.

"Sakura, can you read me some of those scrolls summarized as best as you can?" Shikamaru spoke again, urging the woman towards the stack of scriptures and scrolls.

"Hai!"

Sakura randomly picked a scroll up out of the pile. Unraveling it, her eyes scanned the contents before she spoke.

"Akasuna no Sasori defected over twenty years ago from Sunagakure no Sato. Years after his defection, he had abducted, battled, and defeated the Third Kazekage of Sunagakure no Sato. This event was likely to be one of the leading causes of the Third Great Shinobi War, at least, on Sunagakure's side."

Gaara nodded his head in agreement, having been previously informed of the incident and recalling the details he had received, which had generally been the same as what she had just read. Sakura neatly sat the scroll in a nearby basket, reminding everyone that it had already been read of, but was still of use. Shikamaru finished writing Sakura's summary down on a scrap of paper before pinning it to his timeline on the bulletin board. Sakura picked up another scroll at random and began to read it's contents.

"Sixteen years ago, after the end of the Third Great Shinobi War, the Kyuubi attacked Konohagakure. Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, sealed the fox into his newborn son, Naruto. The Nine-Tails as well as the Eight-Tails, Kirabi, are the only two known remaining Bijou to have not been extracted by the S-Rank criminal organization, the Akatsuki."

Shikamaru wrote the summary down on another blank scrap of paper before quickly pinning it after the last event, because it was more recent. Just as before, Sakura safely discarded the scroll into the basket and pulled out another. Shikamaru readied his pen and a fresh sheet of paper and she began reading.

"Over eighty years ago, the world was in a time of war and the ninja clans were nothing more than assassins for hire for the various feudal lords." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her, to which she shrugged.

"That's all that it says here." Shikamaru shook his head and continued writing before placing the new note beside the Third Kazekage's abduction summary.

They continued doing this throughout the entire night. Naruto had just fallen asleep at his desk at around four in the morning. Neji was almost at the same point, his pale white eyes lidded heavily with exhaustion. Sakura was pinching herself occasionally to keep herself from falling over where she stood, and Shikamaru was wired on caffeine, though his "caffeine high" was slowly wearing off as the hours passed them all by.

Finally, they were finished. It took all night and late into the early hours of the morning, but sure enough, they had everything organized in terms of a timeline of the Shinobi Wars and Shikamaru had already come up with a plan. It was risky because of the circumstances involving Rain and Naruto's relations to the Fourth Hokage, a fact and secret that if revealed, could lead to future assassination attempts.

They needed a peace treaty with Cloud, that was definite. Any attacks that would be made upon the village in the meantime would be handled as quickly as possible, which meant that Naruto would have to go into Sage mode a bit more frequently than he normally did. The girls—as in, Ino, Tenten, Sakura, Hinata, and Temari—would have to keep their strength up.

Hinata, Temari, and Tenten would begin medical training as soon as Sakura's full chakra reserves were restored and they would have to pitch in at the hospital. Sakura's health was at risk because of her frequent drainages of her chakra reserves and it would eventually take its toll on her overall health and lifespan if she didn't avoid driving her body down to empty.

Everyone finally left the office around seven that morning and headed back to their respective homes. Naruto and Sakura, ridden with exhaustion, practically dragged their exhausted bodies to their apartment. All they'd need was a few hours of sleep and they could be rejuvenated.

Finally, the rounded the corner and saw the apartment building, to which they let out a long sigh of relief. They walked up the stairs and opened their apartment door, before treading back towards Naruto's bedroom.

Naruto and Sakura couldn't find an ounce of rest, despite their sleep-deprived bodies' protests and so, engaged in a casual conversation. They began talking over the nights events, both equally glad to have found resolve after everyone's hard work and efforts and then things shifted to a topic Sakura was dreading to be brought up.

"Why did you stop me the other night?"

Sakura inwardly groaned, knowing that she would have to give the blonde a honest and full answer, just as he deserved one. She knew it had been bothering him but he had yet to mention their little "moment" the other night.

"I was…afraid…" She replied calmly, though her mind and heartbeat begged to differ. She was certainly not calm on the inside, because the feelings of fear by simply _**talking **_about it made her panic a bit. Sasuke was…well, what the hell was Sasuke then? A crush? Love? Fondness? A family-like bond? She honestly did not know anymore.

If it WAS just a crush, then why did his betrayal and defection from the village break her up inside as badly as it did? After all, it wasn't as if they had ever been anything than beyond friendship. She supposed, however, that since she had mistaken her infatuation with him for being love for so long, the lesson learned had sunken in deep enough for her to want to avoid falling for someone again.

"Afraid?" He asked still not in full understanding. She nodded her head in agreement before sighing in defeat. She might as well explain everything.

"I was afraid of getting hurt again. I don't know what I felt towards Sasuke back then, I mean, I thought I loved him but now I highly doubt it was love. I cared deeply for him but that's about it. I guess I'm just afraid of being abandoned again."

Naruto stared at her in surprise.

"So, you're afraid of being abandoned?"

Sakura shrugged. "That would be my best guess. I mean, that is something that truly does scare me all of the time. I don't wanna have my heart broken and I don't want to die alone."

Naruto chucked a bit causing Sakura to furrow her eyebrows in confusion.

"What's so funny?"

"Heh, I've been alone all of my life, Sakura-chan. You think that I wasn't afraid to…Afraid to fall in love with you back when we were kids?"

"Naruto…"

"…Because I was afraid, Sakura."

"Huh?" Sakura asked confusedly.

"…I was scared to death of loving anyone because I never had any family around growing up, at least not until I met you, teme, Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei, and pretty much everyone we knew after that…Before any of that, I was completely on my own. For years, I never knew who my parents were let alone what had happened to them. All that anyone ever told me was that they were dead. What was worse was that the entire village hated me for some reason and I never understood that either. When I met you guys, I finally felt cared about for the first time in my entire life."

Sakura smiled sadly. "I don't see how you could feel cared about, at least from me, because I was so horrible to you when we first met…God, I was such a bitch…"

Naruto put a hand firmly on her shoulder causing her to look up at him. His gaze down at her was sincere and serious.

"Hey, don't say that. You've never been a 'bitch', Sakura-chan. I understand anyhow. You liked the teme and…I was in your way."

Now it was her turn to put a hand on his shoulder.

"You were **never** in the way, Naruto. I was to just blind to see what was there for me all along and Sasuke would never be what I needed him to be. I was too stupid to see how much you cared for me and I was too damn weak to force myself into ever noticing anything that I did have until the thing I wanted left without a second glance back at me."

Naruto said nothing but allowed her to continue, sensing she had more to say as her hand began trembling.

"When you came back without Sasuke that one time, back when I begun training under Tsunade-shishou, I vowed never to be weak again. But I failed myself because I have been so weak up until this point and I was too weak to finally open my eyes up and see you. But here we are Naruto and even still I tried pushing you away and now? Now I have absolutely no idea why."

"Hey, Sakura-chan, will you do me a favor?"

Sakura resumed her gaze back at him, her face holding a questioning expression that urged him to continue asking her the favor.

"Give in."

She blinked her eyes several times in confusion. Give in? What does he mean by give in?

"What do you—"

"Just give in. Don't be afraid of me, Sakura-chan…I know that you've been hurt by the teme but…I promise, I'm not like him. I will never hurt you. If you give me your heart, even just a little bit, I'll protect it with my life. Just like I protect you and this entire village with my life. That is a promise of a lifetime Sakura-chan."

Naruto flashed her his trademark foxy grin and she just looked at him in awe. Truth be told, however, that Naruto's words instantly made Sakura's heart sink to her stomach.

She **knew** that he would never hurt her, but even so, she was still afraid. A part of her wanted to be with someone, to be truly happy and love someone unconditionally without a single worry. But it wasn't so simple. She didn't even know if she loved Naruto, at least not like that. How could she ever know, however, if something kept holding her back from trying to let him inside to see her soul for the flaw filled being that it was?

"Oh, Naruto…I know that you're not him. You're more of a man than he'll ever be. At least you've never ran away from a challenge. Sasuke was nothing but a coward for what he had done to Konohagakure and to us."

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. If it wasn't Sasuke that had left the kunoichi before him in fear of feeling love again and giving her heart away, then what was the problem? As if reading his mind, she answered his confused expression.

"I never loved Sasuke, Naruto. But that doesn't mean he didn't hurt my heart all the while. You're different and maybe that is what has me afraid of trying again, ya know?"

Naruto nodded his head slightly before making deep eye contact with Sakura, her jade orbs staring back at his blue ones deep in thought.

What **was** Sakura afraid of anyhow? Maybe it wouldn't hurt her if she let Naruto in. After all, he **was** the one who had always been by her side, no matter what. It wasn't as if he were a stranger. Hell, he was her best friend.

But a womans heart is so delicate and doubtful. It is raw with many feelings—pain and anguish; love and hatred; compassion and resolve. Because of all of these strong emotions and feelings, it was something that could be considered more fragile than glass, more delicate than a feather, and more sensitive than anything beyond reason. Once that very heart is hurt badly enough, it can freeze up and vow never to feel such pain again.

One does not truly know the hurt of a woman scorned unless they are either that woman herself or the one who has hurt her. Sasuke was the one who inflicted the deep wounds in her heart from her childhood crush and loss of a friend, but now, she decided to finally just let go. She wanted something—_**someone—**_in her life and here was Naruto offering to be that person. Should she turn him away?

Absolutely not. So, for once, Sakura gave in to her temptation and said 'to hell with it all'. She pulled Naruto into a deep, passionate kiss, which he eagerly returned.

Placing a tanned hand behind her pale and slender neck, Naruto cradled her to lay back on the bed and get more comfortable, his body climbing atop of her own and placing a knee between her legs with the other on the opposite side of her small figure.

He towered over her delicate form, his hands roaming up and down her sides hesitantly, practically screaming for her permission to continue. She granted the permission with a curt nod and a small smile, which Naruto returned with his famous foxy grin.

Suddenly, somebody was heard frantically pounding on the front door of Naruto and Sakura's apartment. Both of them parted from their intimate positions and ran towards the door to see a frantic looking Ino.

"Sakura! We need you at the hospital, now! Several of our shinobi have been severely injured by a group of Otogakure ninja! I'm almost out of chakra so come on, we need to go **now**!"

Sakura's eyes widened as her brain processed the information that Ino had just given her. She wondered to herself what the hell was going on, but Naruto managed to beat her to asking the question.

"Ino, calm down. What happened exactly?" Naruto shook Ino who was in shock and staring wide-eyed ahead at him, her expression pale and frightful.

"Look…" Sakura whispered, her eyes widening in shock as she pointed her index finger in front of her.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry for the sudden ending (and the lemon interruption), I'm getting writers block on this story and like I have no idea right now where I'm taking this. Next chapter should be a decent battle scene, as well as the beginning as Konohamaru's Team's mission with Shikamaru and some other things like that. It wont have too much NaruSaku development, however. Sorry ahead of time.


	4. CH 3: War and Enemies

**Disclaimer: **Don't Own Naruto.

* * *

**Opening A/N:**  
Writer's block is a bitch, ne? Sorry took so long, I totally got stumped. I hope I wrote these jutsu scenes out correctly…For those of you who have forgotten some things that have lead up to this point, here's a bit of a recap for you (An idea I've gotten from a few other FF's I've read recently).

* * *

**Recap:  
**_"Sakura! We need you at the hospital, now! Several of our shinobi have been severely injured by a group of Otogakure ninja! I'm almost out of chakra so come on, we need to go _**_now_**_!__"_

_Sakura's eyes widened as her brain processed the information that Ino had just given her. She wondered to herself what the hell was going on, but Naruto managed to beat her to asking the question._

"_Ino, calm down. What happened exactly?" Naruto shook Ino who was in shock and staring wide-eyed ahead at him, her expression pale and frightful._

"_Look…" Sakura whispered, her eyes widening in shock as she pointed her index finger in front of her._

* * *

Sakura's entire outstretched arm began to tremble in sheer horror at the gruesome site that stood before them. Finally, she could understand the meaning behind Ino's horrified expression and the reason for the intensity of her panic at the terror that had become The Hidden Leaf Village.

The fires had begun again, and the entire village was in chaos. The sun had been setting and the sky looked as though it were burning, a hellish glow of orange and reds painting across the horizon.

The hokage monument in the distance had been surrounded with explosive devices that were detonated the moment that their front door swung open. Naruto gazed up in horror as the only remaining—but currently crumbling—face of the Yondaime Hokage was the last of the bits from the monument to fall.

"Otou-san!" Naruto screamed in anger and sadness as he watched the last bit of his father's statue falling down to the remains of the village below. The few buildings that had remained standing were now covered in the debris and rubble of the stone faces of the hokage's before him. Naruto's fists clenched in anger as he and Sakura stepped outside the front door.

Had all of that happened in such a short period of time? When had they come in? What village were they even from? None of them had headbands on their heads, but from the looks of it, they were all very powerful shinobi, most likely rogue ninja.

What looked like tens had turned to hundreds in number, the newest attack to boot coming from Amegakure's armies, as well as their new allies, Otogakure—Sound. Sakura grimaced at the the site before her, the blood of many more of Konoha's villagers and shinobi alike being shed throughout the village streets in both fights of defense and fights for their lives. The villagers were dropping faster, however, than the shinobi, as expected. Sakura could see at that point that there had been about twenty stray bodies, most of which were either dead or near-death with fatal wounds, strewn about the streets.

Nearby, Shikamaru had managed to catch about ten of the attacking Rain Nin in his Shadow Sewing Technique, several ANBU agents forcing them into submission by knocking them unconscious and binding them.

Shikamaru seemed to be drained from the multiple capture though as he was panting heavily. Ino ran from Naruto and Sakura's apartment pulling several medic tools from a pouch strapped to her hip. Among them were soldier pills. Ino shoved one of the energy-replenishing drugs into her teammates mouth and he dry-swallowed it quickly, his energy replenishing to its fullest.

Shikamaru gave his former teammate a small smile and thanked her for giving him the pill. Ino nodded her head in a silent acknowledgement and the two averted their gazes back on the attackers. Ten down, several hundred to go, Shikamaru mused to himself as he stood from the ground, Chouji joining his side and getting into a battle stance.

Ino and Sakura began running towards the hospital at a speed that could rival a pace enhanced by chakra. The two women ran into the emergency department to see a frantic staff pacing about as the rooms began filling up with injured shinobi and villagers.

"What the hell happened in here?!" Sakura shouted at one of the medical shinobi whom had been sprinting past the pink-haired woman, before Sakura grabbed her shoulder and pulled her backwards.

"Haruno-san, they've all been attacked by the enemy Rain shinobi! Please, I have to get to one of the rooms! I have a critical patient to attend to!" The brown-haired nurse pleaded.

The nurse was going to treat a 5-year-old child whom had been merely a bystander during the attack and had been hit with several shuriken in several dangerous locations on her small body.

The nurse truly needed to get to the child. Sakura, understanding the urgency, released the woman's shoulder with an understanding nod and the brunette ran towards an examining room.

"Ino, go get our two Genin teams! We need extra staff members stat! You're almost out of chakra from taking on so much of the healing and we need our teams as back up for the both of us!" Sakura shouted at the blonde shinobi.

Ino, however, had no reason to object. Her friend was a completely different and professional person when it came to being a medic and she honestly could say that she trusted all of Sakura's decisions—or at least the hospital ones.

"Hai!" Ino shouted as she ran out the door and towards the Academy where their female students were supposed to be having "Kunoichi Training" at the time, had it not been for the attack. The male students weren't many so she had no problem with grabbing them after getting the many females for assistance.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the center of the attack, stood Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji, whom had been joined by the Sand Siblings and the rest of the Konoha 11, minus Ino and Sakura, of course. This attack was definitely a surprise attack and was well planned out. The forces were most certainly there for revenge on Pein's death and there would most likely be a bloodbath if Naruto didn't intervene.

"Byakugan!" Neji shouted several feet from Naruto as he scanned the area.

"Dammit," Neji cursed as he looked at the chakra channels of the enemy shinobi. He had been hoping for at least some shadow clones to be within the large army. But of course, they were real. Who would fight shadow clones in a war?

"What is it nii-san?" Hinata asked her cousin before activating her Byakugan herself and looking at the enemy shinobi.

After understanding her cousin's concern, she inwardly groaned at the site of the apparently rigorous battle ahead of them all.

"Hinata, Neji," Naruto began, but before he could finish his question, Neji cut him off mid-sentence and gave him the answer.

"None of them are shadow clones – each and every shinobi out there appears to be actual individual shinobi. Their chakra paths are also fully primed for this attack. This is going to be a difficult task for us to complete. Do you think that there are enough of us, Hokage-sama?"

Naruto's eyes scanned the area quickly before he nodded his head once in confirmation.

"We've done good so far, haven't we? How hard can it be?" Naruto chuckled a bit, though the gesture was obviously forced and not at all genuine. In fact, it was more sarcastic if anything, but even so, Naruto was confident about his shinobi's skills.

"Shikamaru, how is your chakra supply?" Naruto asked looking over his shoulder. Shikamaru was now standing next to Chouji, his features looking completely composed and lazy as usual, as indicated from his hands that were shoved into his pockets.

"I'm good for a bit longer. Ino gave me a soldier pill, so I should be able to last for a bit longer. I don't know how much longer though. Otherwise, I feel pretty okay sans the sudden energy kick. This is going to be troublesome."

"Alright. Good." Gaara noticed that nobody seemed to be attacking and realized the urgency of the need to attack the enemy nin.

Gaara knelt to the ground in front of the Konoha and Suna shinobi, his hands coming in front of him. His hands clapped together once, indicating that he he had begun performing hand seals for a jutsu.

**Boar. Monkey. Rat. Horse. Monkey. Horse. Ram. Horse.**

Gaara clapped his hands together a final time and the Earth beneath him began to rumble and erupt into grains of sand. The sand rushed in front of them, all of the other shinobi both ally and enemy looking at the jutsu in wonder as a large mountain of sand resembling a waterfall rushed towards the front line of the army, though Gaara knew it wouldn't be enough to eliminate them all.

The large waterfall of sand that had just formed before the shinobi lunged forward at the enemy shinobi standing in the front line of the large pack of enemy nin whom were looking at one another in surprise, though mostly underestimating the technique.

"Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral!" Gaara said with a glare towards the thirty Rain shinobi before him whom were all clearly underestimating his attack. As he released the jutsu's name, he slammed his palms onto the ground which had turned to sand beneath him, the Earth's particle's of rock and dirt being crushed to form the sand he needed for his attack.

The enemy shinobi of the frontal line were crushed by the sand as Gaara fell into a choking fit, exhaustion of having reached his limits on his own chakra quickly taking place. The technique could have eliminated that entire army had the Shukaku not been extracted by the Akatsuki. But now, Gaara's chakra had been put to a limit and he would most likely be bedridden for using this technique just once.

"Gaara!" Temari shouted as she ran to her brother's aid. Gaara was panting heavily with exhaustion barely even able to sit up on his own and Temari threw him up over her shoulder just as he lost consciousness. She looked at Naruto and the rest of the shinobi and informed them that she was taking the Kazekage somewhere safe (and hidden) so that he could rest, his body holding no further injuries other than exhaustion. Naruto nodded his head in understanding and turned forward to the enemy.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto shouted as five shadow clones appeared beside him, all of them darting different directions; all three getting heading out of harms way. One of the shadow clones went to the Hokage monument nearby and to go into their meditative stance to perform his Reversal Summoning Technique, sending itself to Myobokuzan.

Bright orange rings formed around Naruto's eyes as the iris's of his eyes turned to yellow slits. Naruto had finally had to resort to Hermit Mode, but considering the situation, it was necessary. There were simply too many enemy shinobi to risk his own task forces.

Shikamaru put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, his eyes holding unspoken yet apparent concern as he silently questioned Naruto of the necessity of the extreme technique, to which Naruto nodded his head in agreement.

Shikamaru responded by releasing his shoulder and resuming his battle stance, but not before nodding his his head and silently telling Naruto that he would be watching his back.

Naruto glanced back at Shikamaru in acknowledgement before refocusing his gaze on the enemy nin before him. He pulled a scroll from his hokage robe, before unraveling it and biting his finger. Fresh droplets of blood seeped from the tiny wound as he made his blood contact the paper, contracting his two large summoning toads Gamakichi and Gamatatsu.

* * *

"Toki, Shiro, Amaya, Mara – you four cover patients in rooms four, seven, nine, and thirteen!" Sakura shouted at the four Genin students. Toki and Shiro were both her personal students, while Amaya and Mara were Ino's. However, everyone in the hospital was directly under Sakura's command at the moment.

"Hai, Sakura-senpai!" The four students shouted in unison as they all scurried off in different directions towards their patient. Sakura had assigned them the patients with the most minor injuries due to their shortened medical knowledge.

"Ino, Hana – you two go directly to trauma room two! Are there any ANBU agents here with any medical training at all?" Sakura shouted loudly among the crowded hospital corridors as stretchers holding wounded shinobi rushed past her. Three masked ANBU stepped towards her dawned in the standard ANBU uniform.

"You three, go into rooms one, three, and five. All three of those rooms have basic flesh wounds."

"Hai, Sakura-sama!"

Slowly but surely, the chaos was gradually becoming a bit more handled, and Sakura had assumed that the others had been taking care of getting rid of the Rain shinobi efficiently without getting injured. Suddenly, the main emergency room doors burst open in the hospital with a frantic looking head of blonde hair holding a limp body dawned in Kage robes.

Wait—Kage robes? Gaara!

Sakura ran towards Temari and took helped take Gaara's unconscious body from her grasps.

"Kami, what happened to him?" Temari was panting heavily, and Sakura could tell that she had obviously ran the entire way to the hospital with Gaara in her arms. Finally, after a moment of panting and regaining her composure, Temari responded.

"He's okay…he's…just exhausted…He needs somewhere…Safe to…Rest…" Temari said between deep breaths as small droplets of sweat dripped down her forehead before being wiped away by the backside of said woman's hand.

"Hai. Come on, there's a special room reserved for the Kage's in these situations."

Sakura began walking down a long hall and made a sharp turn into what seemed like an endless, dim tunnel.

"This is it?" Temari asked warily looking at the narrow pathway as she hesitantly followed Sakura, whom had still been carrying the unconscious Kazekage with his arm wrapped around her shoulder for support.

"Hai. It's at the end of this hallway. Come help me, we'll have to walk at an awkward angle for a bit but I can't carry him alone. Damn, Gaara, you're heavy." Sakura mumbled that last bit a tad bit more to herself than anything. Temari giggled a bit and rushed towards the pinkette to assist her in taking him to the isolated hospital room.

"My apologies Sakura-san, I didn't realize that you were so weak," Gaara mumbled but Sakura heard him and stopped abruptly. Temari's eyes widened a bit at his words, clearly able to tell he was attempting to make a joke from his sickly and forced chuckle. Sakura, having realized his intentions, laughed a bit herself.

"Oh har, har, Gaara-kun." Sakura rolled her eyes at the barely conscious Kazekage as she and Temari continued walking down the long corridor. Finally, they reached the end of the tunnel-like hallway and came to a room that had been painted a robin's egg blue. There wasn't much in it other than the basics – medical supplies, a hospital bed, and things like that.

The room was created as protection for the Hokage's if they had been by chance injured during warfare. It's purpose was to keep the Kage's whereabouts secretive and keep them out of potential further harm until their injuries had been healed. But, considering the living arrangements among the Sunagakure shinobi and the Konohagakure shinobi, the room would be occupied by Gaara if need be, like now.

"So, how many did you get since you've used a technique that obviously left you nearly running on empty?" Sakura asked as she and Temari hoisted Gaara up onto the hospital bed.

"Thirty, more or less." Sakura's eyes widened in surprise before she nodded her head.

"Nicely done. How's everyone else holding off the rest?" She asked hesitantly, her voice laced with worry and obvious concern for her friends, but most importantly, Naruto. Her question directed more to both Gaara and Temari this time, but both simply shrugged in unison.

"I have no idea. Naruto was about to perform some technique when I ran off with Gaara to come here." Temari responded. Sakura nodded her head in silent understanding, her mind drifting to the well-being of her friends.

_Naruto. Be careful…_

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto's pair of shadow clones had been Reverse Summoned to Myobokuzan by Gamakichi, where they currently were now alongside himself and Gamatatsu on standby. Naruto had told them to wait there until he signaled them through a third shadow clone, that would disperse as his way of relaying the information between the two locations.

Naruto glanced up at the numerous shinobi whom seemed to be in an army that went on for miles and miles. Something seemed a bit off though about this entire encounter. From what the village's intelligence had told them, Amegakure wasn't that large of a village.

In fact, Konohagakure had been the largest shinobi village in the five great nations, so how was this army all original versions of the Rain shinobi, and at the same time, quadrupled in number? Did Rain build up reinforcements or join with another village? What was going on here?

Shikamaru had been thinking the exact same thoughts as Naruto. Albeit, he was racking his brain at top speed for quite a bit of time now, but ultimately, even the commonly-proclaimed genius couldn't locate a proper answer. What _**was**_ going on?

Neji and Hinata's pearly-white orbs glanced around again, both of their byakugan's activated and observing into the depths of as many of the enemy's chakra channels as the could see, trying to hopefully find some sort of answer to the questions that had been pondering all of the shinobi's minds by now. The two failed, however, to notice any abnormalities, but that didn't stop them from continuing their trek to find something.

Chouji decided to make a move and charged in front of the thoughtful shinobi. Apparently, standing around wasn't working for him and he decided to tear a page out of the book of Naruto and be spontaneous for a change.

"Spiked Human Bullet Tank!" Chouji shouted as his tumbling body began to swirl towards the shinobi army, abruptly hitting about thirty shinobi in his path before he had become exhausted and returned to the group of Konohagakure shinobi. Naruto looked at Chouji in amazement before his eyes softened with gratitude at his shinobi's efforts to protect their village using their everlasting Will of Fire.

"Chouji," Naruto said in more acknowledgement to his action rather than to gain his attention. Chouji grinned at Naruto as he tried to regain his composure, having been a bit out of breath from using his jutsu for too long.

Tenten looked up at the two shinobi's exchange and decided that it was her turn to charge forward. She pulled out the large scroll that she usually kept strapped to her back and but her thumb, signing the summoning contract as she shouted out her jutsu's command.

"Dragon Scattering Destruction!" She screamed and a downpour of weapons ranging from kunai, senbon needles, explosive tags, and to shuriken erupted from the air, hitting about thirty more of the enemy targets. However, the army still looked strong, though there had been a clearly visible decrease in the number.

Finally, a bold enemy shinobi stepped towards Naruto, causing all of the other shinobi to get into a defensive position around him, guarding their precious hokage from any attack said enemy might be planning to make on him.

The enemy shinobi happened to be an older man with grey hair, indicating that he was probably in the same role as Shikamaru – observing the enemy mostly, deriving plans and moves for his army, and giving commands, also while attacking when absolutely necessary.

"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes," the old man said as he looked at Naruto nonchalantly and calmly.

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed with frustration as he racked his brain to try and grasp what the hell the old fool was talking about.

"So easily you could be mistaken for Konoha's Yellow Flash, but you're far too young and I'm way too old to make such a mistake."

Konoha's Yellow Flash? Naruto thought questioningly to himself as he stared at the old man in confusion.

"However, I heard that The Yellow Flash died seventeen and a half years ago, after the Third Shinobi War ended. But that resemblance…there's no mistaking it…that you must be the Jinchuuriki for the Kyuubi no Yoko, eh? The Yondaime Hokage's son?"

Naruto's eyes widened. The old man clearly seen the resemblance in Naruto that he held to Minato and wondered if Naruto held even a fraction of his father's skills. This could be very bad, or very successful; the outcome, however, could be anything at this point.

"Well then boy, let's see what you've got. Water Style: Shower Of One Thousand Senbon!" Suddenly, a downpour of senbon needles occurred that was similar in resemblance to Tenten's Dragon Scattering Destruction jutsu, only the senbons were laced heavily with the elder gentleman's chakra.

This man was clearly a Amegakure elder at best, and if any of the Konoha nin were to be hit with those senbon, they would inevitably be killed from the force of them.

"Mushi Kame no Jutsu!" Shino shouted his bugs created a large shield around the Konoha shinobi, guarding them from the attack. Once the bugs dispersed, Naruto is seen crouched down on the ground with his bleeding finger hovered over his summoning scroll. Flashing the old man his foxy grin, he swipes his signature across the scroll in blood, his eyes gaining orange rings around them as Gamakichi appeared in a puff of smoke.

"You summoned boss?" Gamakichi asked as he looked ahead at the army standing behind a frightful looking old man.

"Summons, eh? You really are the Yondaime's son. I haven't seen the likes of Toad Summoning in roughly…I'd say, eight and a half years. The last one was that old fool, what was his name? The Sannin guy? Oh yeah, Jiraiya." The old man scoffed. He clearly had no respect nor common sense, from the looks of it.

He obviously feared Minato's skills and he was aware of Jiraiya's—to what extent, Naruto did not quite know at this point—but even so, the old man spoke to him as if he were a mere child. He was the friggen hokage for kami's sake!

"Sensei," Naruto whispered to himself as he glared at the old man—hard—who in all honesty, was probably about Jiraiya's age, or at least in that age group.

"Well you old fool, you wanted to see my skills huh," Naruto chuckled darkly to himself before continuing, "then your wish is my command," he finished as the rims around his eyes turned bright orange and his irises slanted into yellow slits.

Smashing his fist forward, his feet never moving, Naruto emitted his sage chakra and sent the only man flying.

"Y-Y-You're a—B-But how?" The old man stammered slowly easing himself away in terror. He had heard of very few capable of being able to do Sage Techniques. Adding to the fact that Naruto was a Jinchuuriki, plus the fact that he had mastered True Hermit mode, as his eyes were a dead give away in itself, the old man realized that he was no match for the son of the Yondaime Hokage and Kyuubi-container.

"Everyone! Retreat!" He shouted at his army, and they did so. Naruto smirked as he thanked Gamakichi for his assistance. Naruto dispersed his clones and his eyes returned to normal as Gamakichi disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto began to walk towards the hospital to alert everyone that it was safe to leave now.

Villagers hiding in their homes and stores peeked their heads out as the Rukodaime Hokage walked down the streets of Konoha. Naruto had a smile on his face, but couldn't help but be slightly disappointed at the Rain shinobi's sudden retreat. After all, Naruto was always one for a good fight and had been looking forward to kicking some ass. However, his village's well-being mattered more and he felt comfort in knowing that his precious people were out of danger.

When he arrived to the hospital, he found Sakura sitting in the lobby with her chin resting on her hands. When she noticed Naruto she sat upright and he waved at her and grinned.

"What happened?" She asked, her face etched with worry as her eyes scanned his entire body for signs of injury.

"They retreated." Naruto shrugged his shoulders in disappointment at the easily-won battle, still unable to completely brush off the easy victory.

"Retreated?" Sakura asked in confusion. "Why?" Naruto scratched the back of his head and chuckled a bit.

"It's a long story. Can we go home? I drained a lot of my regular chakra for nothing and I'm beat." Sakura looked hesitant but decided to comply, understanding how he felt, but keeping the fact in the back of her mind that he would be recuperated and as energetic as ever in a short amount of time. Either way, she walked with him outside of the hospital and to their apartment.

* * *

**A/N: **So, how was that for Sage Techniques for someone who doesn't read manga (I research)? Did I do good? Lemon in next chapter due to A) my stupidity (on not being able to figure out how the hell you work the document manager) and B) Because I can. =P

Promise ^_^ So sorry for keeping the update so long too, I've been totally writers blocked on this story (its a toughy, trust me).


	5. CH 4: Healing Deeper Wounds

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. I don't even know why I bother putting this damn thing up. I doubt anyone reads it.

* * *

**.:. Opening Notes .:.**

**.:. **It's time for…the beloved lemon! Gasp! Oh my goodness! -Mischievously Grins at all of you- Well, you've all been "warned" about that, or whatever.

I'm not going to mark the lemon so you're on your own from here. Read at your own risk (but honestly, if you looked for an M-Rated story, you obviously want something good, hm?)

Cha!

* * *

**Recap:  
**_Villagers hiding in their homes and stores peeked their heads out as the Rukodaime Hokage walked down the streets of Konoha. Naruto had a smile on his face, but couldn't help but be slightly disappointed at the Rain shinobi's sudden retreat. After all, Naruto was always one for a good fight and had been looking forward to kicking some ass. However, his village's well-being mattered more and he felt comfort in knowing that his precious people were out of danger._

_When he arrived to the hospital, he found Sakura sitting in the lobby with her chin resting on her hands. When she noticed Naruto she sat upright and he waved at her and grinned._

"_What happened?" She asked, her face etched with worry as her eyes scanned his entire body for signs of injury._

"_They retreated." Naruto shrugged his shoulders in disappointment at the easily-won battle, still unable to completely brush off the easy victory._

"_Retreated?" Sakura asked in confusion. "Why?" Naruto scratched the back of his head and chuckled a bit._

"_It's a long story. Can we go home? I drained a lot of my regular chakra for nothing and I'm beat." Sakura looked hesitant but decided to comply, understanding how he felt, but keeping the fact in the back of her mind that he would be recuperated and as energetic as ever in a short amount of time. Either way, she walked with him outside of the hospital and to their apartment._

* * *

The sky was brightened with hues of orange and purple, indicating the sun was almost fully set. The air was cool and the breeze felt nice after everything that had happened today.

Despite all of the terror that had been hitting the village lately, children could still be seen running about the streets of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, playing and conversing with one another without a care in the world. The site was humbling to see, how innocent and free the children looked at the end of the day. If only this peace would be a constant thing, but unfortunately, it wasn't.

Finally, after about ten seemingly-long minutes of walking from the hospital, Sakura and Naruto finally reached their small apartment on the opposite end of town.

Naruto put his key into the door and unlocked it, before pushing the door open and ushering Sakura to go inside ahead of him. She did so and looked around the kitchen/living room area.

The room was dim from the lack of sunlight outside and everything seemed to be just as they left it. The two didn't have much—by choice of course, only the necessities. The walls were a pale shade of white and the carpet was a cream color. They had a small maroon sofa and a fully stocked bookcase in the living room area; in the kitchen area, they had the basics – a refrigerator, a table and chairs, and a stove, as well as several small other appliances.

Everything in the apartment was comfortable for the just the two of them. They were rarely at the apartment much anyhow so what was the point in filling the house with things that would rarely (if ever) get tended to? Thank goodness they didn't have house plants.

Sakura's bright jade eyes glanced around the large room and stopped on the Team 7 photo that Naruto had always kept on his kitchen counter.

The site of the picture was very painful to stand to see, but she never was too affected by it for Naruto's sake. She knew he loved that picture and never made a fuss about it being right on the kitchen counter.

However, today, she was feeling more pained from the image than usual. Glancing at it, she couldn't help but feel a familiar pang of grief in her heart at the loss of Team 7 so many years ago. The hurt was still so fresh and she just did not want to see that picture.

So, Sakura did something that puzzled Naruto to no end. She walked towards the picture and turned it face down, causing Naruto to look at her quizzically and she simply shrugged her shoulders at his unspoken question before specifying.

"I just don't want to see it today…at least, not right now. I've had a lot on my mind at the hospital today, Naruto and I just don't want to remember anymore…At least, not for now, Okay?"

Naruto nodded his head hesitantly, still unsure what she meant by that statement, but going along with it anyways just to please her wishes. Obviously, something was bothering her, and he could notice it before they had even reached the apartment. She was too quiet today and obviously something had been troubling her.

Naruto stared at the pink haired woman in front of him silently, his mind contently lost deeply within in his musings, his thoughts of her haunting his mind like a shadow; echoing his feelings into words and reminding him how pained she looked. His gentle blue eyes gazed at her full of affection and love, his heart silently breaking in two at the site of her pain and his obvious inability to take it all away.

Lost deeply in his thoughts, he missed a lot of the current activity taking place right in front of him, such as how Sakura's hands began trembling while she presumed to clench and unclench her fists, her knuckles turning white as she tried her hardest to contain her emotions and keep her pain in check. But something was plaguing her mind and she couldn't seem to be able to contain her sadness much longer at this rate.

**Shinobi must never show theiremotions_._**

Heh…That seemed so distant of a rule now, especially since Sakura had first met Team 7. It seemed that everyone in this team had always thrived on their emotions at some point or another; most of them using their very emotions as a way of life, and a way of battle. It became their life supports and without them, Sakura wasn't quite sure how they would have turned out.

Sasuke was always so hellbent on fulfilling his goal of revenge on Itachi for the murder of his clan. His heart was full of loss and grief, as well as so much sadness and anger.

Naruto, on the other hand, was carefree despite his whole life being spent lonely. He loved everyone and yearned so dearly to be acknowledged that he had to become the best of the best—hokage—just to get the respect that was long overdue. He spent his whole life lonely before later on in the years of Team 7 as he was looked down upon by the entire village for the Kyuubi within him.

Kakashi emphasized teamwork and cared deeply for his teammates. He felt regret for the deaths of his two former teammates, Obito and Rin, and he hated himself for it deep down. He took their memory with him to his death – and Sakura knew all about it.

Sai was emotionless, though he wasn't a part of Team 7, but rather Team Kakashi, which was all that was left in the end. In a way, that served him as an emotion (or rather, his lack thereof) and he had thrived to understand them.

Yamato was always such a compassionate and caring person, who respected and honored his comrades no matter what, despite being an active ANBU member.

And finally, there was Sakura. Sakura spent so many years head over heals in love with Sasuke and felt absolute and total despair at his departure from the village, that it had encouraged her to become the apprentice of the Godaime hokage.

All of them had become the new generation; the sannin-apprentices and the new pack to fulfill the goals set by those who came before them. They would continue things as always because life went on and their own lives were no exception.

Before Naruto knew it, he finally fled his thoughts and noticed Sakura's sadness had intensified ten-fold. Carefully, he walked towards her, hoping to console her pain-filled heart for whatever reason it now ached, and for a moment, he believed her pain involved Sasuke. He wasn't quite sure why, however. He supposed it was because that had always generally seemed to be the reason Sakura ever shed tears. He wouldn't ask about it unless he absolutely thought it necessary. However, when he noticed the tears streaming down her cheeks, he decided to ask her what was bothering her.

"…Sakura-chan? What is it? Why are you crying?" He asked softly as he rested both of his hands on her shoulders.

"I really must be a cold and heartless bitch, Naruto-kun." She mumbled through her sobs, her eyes leering at the ground shamefully as guilt wrenched over her entire face, leaving her features dark and lost looking compared to the beauty that Haruno Sakura generally always was. Naruto stared at the pinkette confused.

Was this girl crazy? He was beginning to think so, because Sakura was none of those things, at least, not to him. To him, she was a warm person, who was kind and had a heart of gold. Sure, she could also pummel most men into the ground deeper than he would like to imagine, but that was besides the point.

"Sakura-chan," he whispered, his tone so low that she had to force her sobs to silence as best she could just to hear him, "why would you say that about yourself? I don't think of you to be any of those things."

Finally, the fought off tears erupted to the surface and streamed down her face, her jade orbs darkening with such pain and sadness, all of which she had held deep inside of her heart so very deep for far too long. Her life was a mess, to say the least, and she wasn't even paying attention to it all until this very moment. Finally, everything she had been supressing was surfacing to her mind at full-throttle. And it hurt. So, she cried.

"Because! Everyone who has ever bothered to show they cared about me, I treated them all like shit! You, Kakashi-sensei, Yamato-senpai, Ino… All because I've been too selfish and thought of my own feelings and my own problems. This whole time, I was being self-centered and I ignored everything that was going on around me; everything important." Naruto was still confused beyond all means, but he remained silent, urging her to continue, which she did.

"Naruto, whenever you went to train with Jiraiya, you never even told me goodbye. I know that you had to do it for you and I'm glad you got stronger, honestly, I am, but why didn't you say goodbye to me?" Naruto stared at her in shock, both of his eyebrows

"I miss Kaka-sensei so much, Naruto," she choked between sobs. Naruto's eyes widened in absolute shock and confusion. Well, that was certainly unexpected, he mused.

"I never even cried after he died because, well…back then, I figured he would have wanted me to be okay and just move on as best as I could. I stayed so strong for him because I never got to show him how strong I had become while he was alive. I was always weak back when we were Team 7. Then, I got stronger but we never worked with him as much as a team once we became Chuunin. But I…I can't hold it in anymore, Naruto! I miss him…I…"

Unable to speak any longer atop her sobs, Sakura bowed her head as tears poured down her cheeks and fell to the floor, the drops splashing into tiny puddles at her feet. Naruto walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. Sakura's legs gave way and Naruto eased her sobbing form to the floor. Finally, she let it all out.

Death is incredible in a sense of what effect it can have on you. Realization dawns on you after someone close to you dies, and regret and suppressed feelings will surface, filling your life, heart, mind, and soul with guilt and pain and grief. It was incredible, because it could change a person. It usually always does, if the person who dies was close enough to those they left behind to grieve.

Kakashi had never been there for Sakura during Team 7's time as Genin. For so many years, she had blamed her weaknesses on his lack of attention paid to her from the Copy Nin, but now that it was all said and done, she realized that he _**would**_ have trained her, she just never _**asked**_ for his assistance. She never showed interest in being a ninja as a Genin – only Sasuke was on Sakura's mind. She felt so guilty now for distancing herself from him the last year or so before he had died for reasons that now seemed so selfish and trivial.

Naruto and Sakura sat like that for awhile as Sakura tried her best to regain her composure while at the same time, being unable to do so and just letting out all of her suppressed sadness. It had been several months since Kakashi's death, and lately thoughts of him, as well as her guilt for never properly mourning his death, had been plaguing her mind more often lately than not.

Naruto was at a loss for words at this. He had assumed that she was thinking of Sasuke, as that was where her mind often used to travel during any of her thoughts of Team 7, but this? This was a shocker beyond the necessity of speaking and so, all he could do was hold her and try his best to be there for her now.

* * *

Finally, her sobs had ceased and her breathing had evened out as she pulled away from him, looking up into his eyes.

"Arigato." She whispered and he smiled a sad smile at her.

"Huh? What for? Being there?" he asked with a soft smile, as that was usually why she thanked him anymore. She giggled at his response and nodded her head.

"That and, for just being _**you, **_Naruto-kun."

Now it was his turn to chuckle aloud.

"I'll always be me, Sakura-chan." He flashed her a toothy grin and she giggled a bit rolling her eyes as she leaned forward to kiss his cheek. Caught off guard, Naruto froze as he felt Sakura's lips gliding along his cheek towards his mouth before she gently pressed her lips up against his.

As Sakura pressed her lips against his a bit, adding some pressure, he finally began returning the kiss as his eyes slowly lidded shut. Naruto glided his tongue along Sakura's bottom lip and she obliged his silent request for entrance. He slid his tongue past her parted lips and she in turn wrapped her arms around his neck deepening the kiss.

Their tongues experimentally battled one another for dominance until their oxygen supply ran low and they had to part for air. Naruto took that opportunity to speak, his breathing coming out shakily and deep.

"I guess we're picking up where we left off before we were so rudely interrupted, ne?" He chuckled again and she smiled at him before kissing him again, this time, more roughly and full of need. Naruto pulled away again to speak again. "Wanna get up off the floor?"

Sakura rolled her eyes playfully and nodded before standing up, Naruto following in suit. The two stood in the middle of the kitchen in front of a counter top for about a second before Naruto stepped towards Sakura and placed his hands on either side of her, leaning against the counter top.

Sakura looked at Naruto, her eyes glazed over with desire. Naruto leaned toward her and planted a passionate, chaste kiss on her lips, to which she eagerly returned.

Moving his hands from the counter top, Naruto placed his palms underneath of Sakura's thighs and hoisted her up to sit on the counter top, his lips never leaving hers.

Finally, realizing how far this was going to go, Naruto pulled away from Sakura and looked into her eyes to get some sort of final confirmation.

"Sakura…Are you sure about this?" He whispered whilst silently fearing her answer would be a 'no'. However, he was yet again taken by surprise by the pinkette who simply smiled at him before speaking softly her reply.

"Absolutely. Naruto. I…I love you and I want this to be with you…Nobody else so don't stop." Sakura's cheeks tinted a pale pink color as she finally admitted aloud the things her heart had been trying to show her for the longest time.

She did love Naruto and it took her far too long to realize just how much. He had been the one who was there for her when Sasuke was gone. He held her when she cried and made her laugh whenever she felt her worst. Did she love him for real? Absolutely, and now, having said it aloud, she finally didn't have a doubt in her mind that it was anything but a true kind of love.

Naruto looked into her eyes and saw her genuine gaze that was pooled within her green orbs. And so, he leaned forward again and captured her lips in a urgent kiss more passionate than the last. Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck and he wrapped his own around her lower back.

He pulled her closer towards him and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Taking this gesture as his 'cue', Naruto lifted Sakura off of the counter top with ease and began retreating towards the hallway leading to their bedroom.

Sakura's legs dropped to the floor as she continued walking backwards, Naruto leading her way to their bedroom. Once they reached the door, Naruto turned the handle and practically slammed the door open in his efforts to open the stubborn thing. He continued backing Sakura into the room until the back of her legs reached the mattress of the bed.

Giving her one final nudge, Sakura's tiny body hit the mattress with ease as she began inching backwards further onto the bed, giving herself and Naruto both more room to get comfortable. Having reached the pillows at the top of the bed, Sakura laid her head down upon them, never once breaking her kiss from Naruto other than to get air.

Naruto's hands came up to the zipper of her medic uniform and he pulled it down, revealing a plain, black bra. Sakura, however, wasn't going to let him have all of the fun, and she reached her hand up to his Hokage jacket and unzipped it, sliding the sleeves off of his shoulders. She also noticed his orange and black jacket underneath and began to giggle a bit, erupting a confused look at Naruto.

"You wear your orange jacket under the hokage jacket?" She asked, answering his silent question of confusion. He looked down at her blinking a few times. He hadn't expected that. How random of her, he mused. Silently, he nodded his head in confirmation to her question before crushing his lips down onto Sakura's, erupting a mewl of excitement to erupt from the pink-haired shinobi's lips.

Sakura pulled Naruto's white t-shirt up over his head, not wanting to be the only topless partner here. Naruto's hands expertly glided fingertip-first down Sakura's silky waist, his fingers grasping the band of her medic's skirt. As he roughly traced her bottom lip with his tongue, his hands quickly yanked the skirt down to her knees.

He broke the kiss to sit up, his body kneeling between her legs as he moved out of his own way to fully remove the skirt from her body. Sakura bent her knees to help him remove the skirt easier. Once the annoying clothing article was gone, Naruto resumed his original position with his body pressed closely up against her own, his lips claiming hers in a heated and passionate kiss.

Sakura's own thin fingers made their way to the opening of Naruto's orange pants and she trembled a bit as she tried to unfasten them. Truth be told, she was nervous. She was nervous about so many things.

She was nervous about being seen naked for the first time, and by Naruto nonetheless. She was nervous about things between the two friends changing forever once the deed was done and over with. She was nervous about the war never ending, and the possible comrades whom very well might lose their lives in the near future because of it. But all of that seemed so distant right now because her nerves had just been washed away from the passionate kiss that Naruto placed upon her swollen, rosy lips.

Sakura finally managed to get Naruto's pants unfastened after several moments of struggle due to the damn button being stuck, which she had cursed several times under her breath before finally getting the stubborn thing unclasped.

From there, Naruto did the rest of the work, stepping out of his pants to be left only in his boxers. Sakura's eyes traveled down Naruto's chest and rested on the Kyuubi seal that resided there.

The pale fingertips of one of her hands traced the seal on his abdomen, the other hand running along the whisker marks on his cheeks.

Naruto was a bit self-conscious about the Kyuubi markings on his body, but was soon relieved to see Sakura's astonishment at them, rather than disgust as he had expected. Hell, it disgusted him sometimes, looking like a damn fox-boy or something. But that was all besides the point. Right now, the point was the brilliant jade orbs gazing up at him in wonder and obvious shyness.

Naruto took the pad of his thumb and ran it across Sakura's blush-covered left cheek as he smiled at her and whispered "beautiful".

Sakura pulled Naruto down towards her and gently pressed her lips against his in a deep and passionate kiss, both pairs of eyes closing in the heat of the moment as they both just let their instincts take over.

Sakura was so lost in the kiss that she didn't even notice Naruto's hand reaching down towards the hem of her panties, nor did she notice that he had tugged them down and off of her legs, leaving her entire body exposed beneath his own.

Finally focusing back on the moment, Sakura felt Naruto's fingertips gliding down her stomach to her waist, the feather-like touches traveling lower until they reached their destination. Sakura gasped into the kiss as she felt one of his digits enter her, only to be followed by a second one.

"Damn Sakura-chan…You're so…tight," he whispered huskily between his heavy gasps of breath. Sakura's cheeks reddened at his blunt statement and wasn't quite sure how to respond to it.

"Umm…Sorry?" She mumbled as she shifted her eyes away from him. However, Naruto wasn't going to have any of that, and catching her off guard, her inserted a third finger into her hot wet folds. Sakura's eyes widened as she took in a sharp breath of air, her eyes locking onto Naruto's as the two began staring at each other intensely.

The only sounds that were heard at that moment were the shifting of their two bodies. Sakura's body was continuously writhing beneath Naruto's, her entire being filled with ecstasy in that very moment. Naruto's only movements were the thrusting of his two fingers, as he had found that three were just too tight of a fit for the time being.

The site of Sakura being sprawled out nude beneath him was enough to entire his arousal to erupt to it's fullest, his erection growing painfully hard as it pressed up against her entrance almost instinctively.

Naruto continued to glance down at Sakura, who was panting heavily and disgruntled because he had stopped his movements. However, this irritation soon faded when she felt the tip of his shaft poking at her entrance. She continued to look at Naruto intensely before nodding her head in approval and ushering him to enter her.

Naruto entered Sakura slowly, his body gently easing himself inside of her until he was in to the hilt. Sakura's only sign of physical pain at that very moment was a sharp hissing intake of breath, which slightly confused Naruto, simply because he had assumed she would be in pain during her first time. But she seemed fine right now and it had him curious.

Obviously, the questions in his mind had been etched all over his face because though he didn't speak a word about it, Sakura answered his unasked question anyways.

"It doesn't hurt because I'm a kunoichi. I have years of shinobi training to thank for that." She stated with the smallest of smirks.

Naruto chuckled a bit at her comment before pulling himself almost completely out of her, only to slam himself back into her. He did the same thing twice more before pulling almost all the way out and leaning down towards her ear to whisper in her ear, "Well, Sakura-chan…it may not hurt yet, but I can guarantee you that it'll hurt after when I'm done with you."

Sakura involuntarily shivered at his words and felt him slam himself deeply into her again, this time more roughly than before. She felt a heat beginning to build into the pits of her stomach, the more deeper he entered her, the more the pleasurable feeling intensified.

After a few more deep thrusts like that, Sakura was arching her back upwards, her bare breasts pressing tightly against Naruto's sweating, muscular chest. She stifled her moans by biting on her bottom lip for awhile but soon found it impossible to restrain her cries of bliss any longer. Her moans were practically enough to send Naruto over the edge, but he refused to stop just yet. No, he wanted to make this last and he fully intended to.

His movements quickened after several long, hard thrusts, his body no longer holding out the patience he had once mustered, and soon, he began slamming himself in and out of her mercilessly and quickly, her screams of ecstasy echoing throughout the room.

When he heard her moan his name aloud, it was nearly enough to send him over the edge right there. But, he restrained just a little bit longer for her sake. Naruto pulled Sakura towards him to kiss her roughly on the lips, and the moment their lips met, he tightly wrapped his arms around her waist, his body pinning her own against the tall, wooden headboard of the bed.

Pinning the headboard to the wall, Naruto continued thrusting into Sakura with full force and soon, he felt her inner walls clenching down on him. Sakura raked her nails across Naruto's back roughly enough to leave a lasting trace in their wake.

Sakura's entire body went rigid as she arched herself towards Naruto, loudly moaning his name as she reached her peak. From there, all of his self-control had simply shattered and she took him right over the edge with her.

Naruto held Sakura's lithe body in place once their simultaneous orgasms had ceased, and they both desperately tried to regain control over their breathing, at least enough so that they could move to actually lay on the bed.

Finally, Naruto felt himself coming off of his high and he lowered Sakura onto the bed beneath them. He pulled himself out of her and wrapped his arms around her slim waist. Before the two had finally succumbed to their much-needed slumber, they each whispered "I love you" before their eyes lulled to rest.

* * *

**A/N:**  
You know what's fun? Trying to find an un-cheesy and appropriate word for 'vagina' and 'penis' without being A) derogatory, B) blunt and actually saying 'vagina' and 'penis', and C) that keeps the story moving :P. Oodles of noodles of fun =P

Ja!

R&R lovelys!!!!


	6. CH 5: Stand In The Rain

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Disclaimer:** You already know it. I own nothing. :) Except this story! =P**

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A/N: **Sorry took so long! Writers block! o.o

* * *

Sakura's well-rested jade eyes fluttered open behind her delicate, curled lashes, as she was awoken by a blinding tint of sunlight that had been shining through the blinds of a nearby window.

Squinting to avoid the sun's brightness, she slowly sat up in the bed holding one of her hands up to the level of her eyes to shield herself from the intrusion.

She stretched her entire body out with a feline swiftness before looking over to the spot where Naruto's sleeping form had once been.

At that moment, she noticed said spot on the bed was empty, and also it was rather cool, indicating he had been gone for some time now. She wondered to herself where Naruto was.

Deciding to investigate the apartment to try to find him, Sakura stood up wrapping a long, white sheet around her body before stepping out into the hallway and looking around. The entire apartment was dead silent.

Sakura called out his name loudly, but received no response. She wandered down the hallway a bit more and yelled his name once again, though she still received no response. Now, her heart began racing a bit.

Forcing herself to calm down from her paranoia, she scanned the kitchen/living room area with her eyes, and noticed upon the counter top a note lie awaiting Sakura to take notice of it. She raised an eyebrow before walking towards the note hesitantly.

From her first glance, she noticed that it was indeed Naruto's handwriting, and so, she began to read it silently to herself.

"_Sakura, I had a meeting at the hokage tower. Sorry I didn't wake you and let you know about it. It was kind of unexpected…Don't worry, it's nothing serious, they just needed me to assign some chuunin different missions and stuff like that. It's such a pain really…Anyways, I didn't wanna wake you up over something minor like this so just meet me there whenever you can. Okay? I'll see you later on."_

Sakura sat the note back down on the counter and walked back to the bedroom. Placing her middle and index fingers on each of her temples, she made a feeble attempt to will away the migraine that she felt coming on.

She blamed the damn intruding sunlight at such a early hours – but, speaking of which, what time WAS it? She didn't have a clue. So, she looked around the room for a clock of some sorts and finally, spotted the one hanging on the wall of the living room area.

She looked at the time with a shocked expression on her face. It was eleven in the morning, meaning that she had slept straight through her Genin and Chuunin medic class.

She inwardly cursed obscenely at herself for her tardiness and irresponsibility. Then, she recalled that Naruto had left her sleep in, so she shifted her blame towards him. This was all that baka's fault.

Then again, she felt a bit relieved upon noticing just how exhausted her body truly felt after last nights "activities". She didn't feel any different now that her virginity was gone than she did while it was still in tact. She had often heard women saying that once you lose it, you change.

_**Tch. Shows what they know.**_

Letting out a long sigh, Sakura forgot her impending migraine and it eventually willed itself away as a result. She headed back towards the bedroom to get dressed for work, realizing that she really shouldn't be wasting time to shower (although she really _**really**_ wanted to take one now).

Oh, what the hell? Nobody knew she was awake. She'd just hurry up and jump in and out of the shower. She knew if she didn't shower now, she'd regret it later. Most likely, the hospital was going to be busy, yet again, and she very well couldn't be dirty in a hospital, now could she? Of course not! So, it was settled then.

* * *

"Konohamaru. Moegi. Shikamaru. Udon…Today is the day for your big mission. This mission is A-Rank, and your first A-Rank as newly appointed chuunin. It is because of this that I have appointed Shikamaru to co-leader, right next to you Konohamaru."

Konohamaru was about to protest before Naruto cut him off with a sharp stare of firmness that his rare former on-again, off-again student rarely got from the blonde; one that clearly stated 'you'll-listen-to-me-and-you'll-like-it-because-I'm-the-hokage-and-what-I-say goes', as well as 'listen-to-me-or-else-you'll-really-regret-it-later', only in less harsh terms.

"Don't, under any circumstances, take his words lightly. I know that you want to be in charge of this team for this mission, **Konohamaru**," he spoke the younger male's name with clear indication that although he understood Konohamaru's point of view at that moment—as he, himself, was at one time (and still is at other times) the same way.

However, this mission was beyond important. The Raikage's approval of this treaty offering could very well decide Konoha's fade—whether it be finally rebuilding the Hidden Leaf Village to its original glory, or having what remained of it destroyed.

Indeed, this mission needed to be approached with the ultimate delicacy. After he regained his composure and broke away from his thoughts, he began speaking again to the encouraging shinobi all glancing at him expectantly for further details of this mission.

"Heed my warning – being promoted to chuunin without a proper examination was a privilege which can easily be stripped away from you should you disobey any last-minute orders from Shikamaru."

Konohamaru did nothing to conceal the scowl towards Naruto's statement, clearly having been under the impression that HE was the team leader, NOT Shikamaru.

Naruto smiled warmly and understandingly before speaking further.

"Hey…don't think of him as your superior…think of him as…well, as no more than just another teammate. After all…in the end, he is just that…the only difference now is that he holds a bit more authority over all of you than any of your other teammates do."

Konohamaru's scowl intensified and Naruto let out a frustrated sigh running his hands through his golden, spiky hair. This was certainly going to be difficult, Naruto mused to himself.

"If Shikamaru advises something regarding tactics or the mission itself—just generally anything at all—you are to oblige him without a fuss. As I'm sure you know, Shikamaru has the most tactical experience in the entire village."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes at Naruto's praise and what he strongly felt was an over-exaggeration of the lazy nin's skills.

"Therefore, he is one of Konoha's most precious shinobi. Keep him protected with your lives, as well as keep one another's lives well guarded. Don't buy into that rule book crap about 'putting the mission first'. If something is too much to handle, turn back. Protect one another, and just do what you must. Don't make this into a suicide mission for any of you."

Naruto's eyes scanned across the four, reaching each of their now jittery looking expressions, inwardly glad they were taking his words a bit more seriously.

"This is about teamwork and you know for a fact that I've always taught you that, Konohamaru. You are all prized shinobi of this village, not to mention four of our best chuunin. We cannot afford to lose any of you. So, having said that, just…be prepared to use your best techniques if need be. Your duties are to convince the Raikage to become allies with the Leaf. Any questions?" Naruto asked, his tone firm and clear.

Every one shook their heads 'no', however, and Naruto nodded his head once in confirmation.

"Alright, you'll be expected back in approximately one week. Dismissed!"

"Hai!" The four shinobi shouted in unison before exiting his office.

Naruto smiled a small smile at the respect that his shinobi showed him. He was so glad that his original reasoning for becoming hokage had actually worked. He received now not only acknowledgement, but also respect among the villagers and shinobi.

A knock was heard at his door just a moment later, and he ushered the visitor in. There, he was met by Gaara who was carrying some paperwork with him.

"Gaara…What are you doing here? Is everything okay in your office?"

Naruto frowned slightly hoping that everything was, in fact, okay. He tried his best to make the makeshift office as comfortable as possible for the Kazekage to do any and all of his paperwork in and yet, here he was.

Gaara nodded his head in agreement before speaking softly.

"Is it okay if I do some work in here? It's rather lonely back there without Temari poking and prodding at me like some guinea pig."

Naruto raised one of his blonde eyebrows before flashing a mischievous half grin at the statement, the thought of Temari poking away at the Kazekage flashing throughout his mind.

"And where is Temari-chan today?" Naruto asked, not having any recollection of a mission assigned by himself or by Gaara to the Sand kunoichi.

"She's helping the staff out at the hospital," Gaara simply replied.

Naruto gave Gaara one of his signature foxy grins before ushering him into his office, himself glad to be around a friend as well.

Hours of paperwork had passed in what seemed like minutes. Naruto and Gaara had been in the comfortable silence of filling out village documents, occasionally striking themselves up in random conversations with one another from time to time. However, Naruto's patience—and attention span—was growing thin, and it was pretty obvious to Gaara.

"Wanna take a rest for a bit?" Gaara asked.

Naruto pressed his forehead to his desktop in a very Tsunade-like manner before letting out a groan in agreement, as well as in boredom.

"Hell yeah, dattebayo! This is so nerve wracking, Gaara! How do you do this all day?!" Naruto asked in an overly-dramatized manner.

Gaara gave the blonde a small smile before softly answering his question.

"Someone has to do it, right? Besides, it comes with the job of being a kage. You should know that by now, Naruto-kun."

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed in frustration at Gaara's words of truth.

"Ja ne, Gaara! I know that, its just…Ugh, I wish that it wasn't so boring doing all of this paperwork though!"

"Hai, hai…It does bother me at times too…Hmm, how about this – why don't we take that break then?"

Naruto's face lit up at Gaara's proposal, having completely forgotten that Gaara had offered it once before already. Naruto heartily nodded his head in agreement and the two kage's walked out of Naruto's large office towards the Ichiraku Ramen Bar.

* * *

Sakura looked up at the sky as she stood alone in the old training ground where Kakashi had first given Team 7 the Bell Test as Genin. The sky was growing dark with impending rain but she could care less about that right now. She was too busy indulging in her own thoughts.

Memories, regrets, hurt, pain, bottled up emotions – all of which are weights and burdens a shinobi must carry upon their shoulders above all else.

Sacrifices must be made for the good of many, or so they had been telling her for as long back as she could recall. But why? Why must it come down to the end of one's life just to bring goodness to the world? Perhaps, she would never know.

The rain began to sprinkle from the sky as it gradually became a downpour. Sakura, on the other hand, ignored the foreign wetness that had caused everything—both clothing and hair—to dampen.

Instead, she stared at nothing in particular so lost in the memories of what once was Team 7. It was such a great time, wasn't it?

_**Team 7…**_

Sasuke would be there with his typical stoic face, looking completely carefree and unfazed by the world around him, living in his own dark thoughts of revenge and power.

Sakura would be firmly scolding Naruto for one of many things – usually involving him pulling pranks, saying something to infuriate her, performing his Sexy no jutsu, or bantering on and on about his beloved ramen.

And Kakashi would show up about an hour too late for their training, to which all three Genin would strongly scold him for.

But that wasn't the case any longer. Out of all of Team 7, only she and Naruto remained. That truth alone broke her heart into a million pieces.

With a sudden newly found resolve, Sakura decided to work on some training. After all, she was in the training grounds.

So, she pulled her hitae-ate down over her eyes and took out a handful of kunai and shuriken. Feeling her hands out around her, she began training four of her five senses, excluding her sight. Her body went rigid standing straight into a meditative state. Using her chakra to feel around her, she observed her surroundings and used that alone.

* * *

**.:. Feel .:.**

* * *

The rain poured down upon Sakura's body and hit the ground in soft drops. It was cold, wet, and slippery. The weather itself was absolutely horrible to be weapons training in, though it was in fact perfect for her sensory heightening.

* * *

**.:. Smell .:.**

* * *

The entire area smelled musky with the copper-like scent of the freshly fallen rain, the Earth beneath Sakura's feet soaking deep within the roots of the ground, nourishing the grass below.

**

* * *

.:. Taste .:.**

* * *

The rain's fragrance was so thick she could actually taste the vapors around her. It was a thick feeling and one that you didn't even need to open your mouth just in order to taste it.

**

* * *

.:. Hear .:.**

* * *

Sakura could hear the sounds of countless pitter-patters of raindrops as they hit the ground around her, everything in it's wake not going untouched. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, her body on edge having been reduced of one of it's five senses, her eyes partially opening behind her hitae-ate desperate to find some source of light, though instead, they were only met with the darkness.

**

* * *

.:. Trust It .:.**

* * *

She stood into her battle stance, her rain-drenched legs crossing one another as the heel of both of her sandals sunk firmly into the mud below, gripping the Earth as much as possible.

**

* * *

.:. Let Go .:.**

* * *

Sakura's body spun with chakra-enhanced speed as her kunai and shuriken all went off in different directions. Most of them landed in the trunks of nearby trees while several actually hit their targets dead-center.

Only two of the four training posts had been dead-centered hits, and Sakura was certain she had thrown over a dozen kunai and shuriken knives.

Two out of four in a real battle could cost you your life and second best just would not do. Channeling chakra into one of her fists, Sakura punched a nearby training post, the wood splintering off into different directions as the remnants of the post stood firmly in the ground.

* * *

**.:. Flashback .:.**

"_Tch. You're so annoying. Just stay out of my way, Sakura. I mean it. Man, you don't even deserve to be called a shinobi. Your just too weak."_

_Sakura's eyes widened and filled with tears as the boy she had proclaimed to love endlessly spat those harsh and cruel words at her. It was like getting a cold slap to the face. For the first time in her life, she felt cold. His coldness had actually managed to radiate from the hate in his eyes and the hiss in his voice and quite frankly, she just went numb._

**.:. End of Flashback .:.**

* * *

_**I'm not good enough…**_

Sakura fell to the ground in defeat, having lost the inner battle with her memories.

_**I never was good enough…**_

How often did those words echo in her mind, haunting her subconscious? How long had she felt worthless over him? Defeated by his prodigal ways?

_**I couldn't save them… **_

Perhaps if Sakura was stronger during Pein's invasion, she could have saved everyone precious to her who had been killed.

**…_Tsunade-shishou…Kakashi-sensei…Mother, Father…I'm sorry…_**

Perhaps if things were different that day, she could have finally shown everybody how strong she was. But instead, she watched her loved ones die from the sidelines.

_**I am worthless…**_

* * *

**.:. Flashback .:.**

"_Shinobi who break the rules are trash…but shinobi who turn their back on their friends are worse than trash…"_

**.:. End of Flashback .:.**

* * *

_**I am trash…**_

Sakura screamed out in frustration at the top of her lungs, the sound reverberating throughout the training grounds. Startled birds flew from their shelter within the tree branches but Sakura paid them no mind. Instead, she lowered her head to the ground, the water pooling around her body continuing to make tiny ripples in the puddled grass.

_**I can't keep crying over it though. No matter what happens, I can't show my emotions. Wow…For once, rule number twenty-five is coming in handy. Who would have thought, eh? I've spent so much of my life weak and overly-emotional over stupid things. Now, it's my time to get stronger, so no matter what, I will not cry ever again.**_

Sakura's features instantly became determined and she resumed her training.

* * *

"Ya know, you keep training out here, you're gonna catch a cold," a soft voice spoke from behind Sakura. Startled, she spun around on her heel to get a glimpse at whoever spoke to her, and a grin instantly graced her face.

"Naruto!"

Sakura ran up to Naruto and hugged him, neither of them seeming to notice—nor care—about the fact that her clothes were drenched from the rain.

Finally parting their embrace, Sakura noticed that Gaara was with Naruto and looking rather irritable due to his disliking of rain. Then again, what sand wielding shinobi would enjoy the rain? After all, rain—or any other form of water—does render sand completely useless in battle.

"Ohayo, Gaara-kun," Sakura greeted the Kazekage whom in turn nodded his head in greeting. Gaara was standing beneath a nearby tree as a means of shelter from the intruding liquid.

"What are you guys doing here? Shouldn't you two be at work?"

Sakura placed a hand on her hip and raised a suspicious brow at the two kage's whom were seemingly slacking off. From Naruto, she would expect this, but Gaara was certainly a surprise to her.

"Uhh…Well…Gaara and I were taking a break from doing our paperwork…and so…we went to Ichiraku's for some lunch…We were on our way back to the hokage tower when we heard a scream. So, we decided to check it out. Are you okay?"

_**Oh damn**_**…**

"Scream? I didn't hear a scream. Maybe you were mistaken," Sakura managed with a straight face. This time, Gaara responded to her statement, indicating that there couldn't have been a mistake as he had heard the loud scream as well.

_**Double damn**_**…**

"Well, I didn't hear anything as I've said. But yes, I am fine." Sakura said with a smile, though it was a bit more forced than usual. However, Naruto and Gaara didn't pay much mind to it.

"Sakura-chan, you're gonna get sick. Come on, lets get out of the rain, ne? I think Gaara's going to have a nervous breakdown if we don't get out of the rain soon," Naruto said with a chuckle.

The result being a small glare from the Sand shinobi, though it wasn't very threatening as Gaara had taken it as it was intended to be taken: as a joke.

The corners of his lips upturned in a small smile momentarily, and Sakura, whom had been observing the little silent interaction between the Kyuubi container and former Shukaku container, hesitantly agreed to join them in the shelter of the Hokage tower.

The short trip to the tower wasn't very far, much to Gaara's relief, and Naruto had given a shivering Sakura his orange and black jacket to wear in order to make her more warm. The three ran into the building once the rain picked up and began to pour down, barely allowing the three shinobi time to react and seek shelter from the downpour.

Gaara's hair was the wettest part of his body, while Sakura and Naruto were more thoroughly drenched. Albeit, the main reason was probably from their earlier embrace, but either way, they were both more wet than the Kazekage.

Thunder crashed outside of the hokage tower as the three shinobi were soon engulfed in darkness, the only light shining into Naruto's large office being that from the outside bolts of lightning.

"Dammit. The electric is out," Naruto cursed while rummaging around in one of his desk drawers for a candle. Finally, he found it along with a pack of matches. Moments later, the lights flickered back on and Naruto raised a blonde eyebrow but said nothing in response.

* * *

"How troublesome," Shikamaru mumbled as he, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon continued to hop through the trees.

He was complaining this time of the fact that during their trip of three hours (thus far), the team had made seven rest stops, eight bathroom breaks, four snack breaks, and they weren't even at the border yet. He swore in the back of his mind that these three were trying to punish him. Although Shikamaru was well-known to be a lazy procrastinator, this mission was deemed "extraordinarily troublesome," as he had put it.

"Oh quiet you, you've been saying 'troublesome' every five minutes since we left the village," Konohamaru scowled in a mocking manner.

"Well, I wouldn't be saying how 'troublesome' this situation is if it wasn't troublesome but it IS indeed troublesome," Shikamaru responded. Replaying what he said in his head, Shikamaru realized he had probably just confused the hell out of the young chuunin but at this point could care less. The Konohamaru Corps were tolerable to a degree, that being when Konohamaru wasn't with them. Yes, that is precisely what Shikamaru had concluded at this point.

Konohamaru ignored his retort and continued quietly hopping through the treetops along with his two teammates.

Shikamaru resumed his thoughts about the troublesomeness of this mission. Alongside those thoughts, he was also thinking of strategies on how he would to present Konoha's ally proposal. After all, Naruto hadn't given him much information to work with on this matter.

_**Okay, so what do I know about the Hidden Cloud Village…**_

Images coming to his mind in the forms of maps, blueprints, documents, and all other information he had stored in his memories, he recalled one detail at a time.

_**Alright, the Hidden Cloud Village is the enemy of Konohagakure for the mere fact of a personal dispute involving the Hyuuga clan. That dispute alone was the sole reason that they had went from being our false allies to actual enemies. Now, surely this is going to come up during the discussion, so I need to come up with some way around it…Hmm…Maybe if I'm lucky, it won't even come up…Ugh, and if it does, I need a Plan B…This is too troublesome…**_

Chances are, they wouldn't arrive until the next day. Letting out a long, irritated sigh, Shikamaru and the Konohamaru Corps continued their journey a bit longer before they would set up camp for the night.

* * *

**A/N:  
**I'm sorry I haven't updated in a long time. Things have gotten kinda (okay, extremely) hectic in my life. I'm a senior and since it's the last month of school, I've really been focusing on my school work. Plus, I've had writers block on this story and have no idea where I'm going to take it. I don't even know if this story sucks or what… I mean personally, I think that as far as being self-judgmental goes, it could be better. But then again, I've had a lot of support for this story. But, it's chapter five at this point, so there's no turning back now. Hopefully, this story has a good outcome at the end. I may not update for a good while as I am still extremely busy with my school work. But, I'll try my best to update it somehow and sometime before the end of May. Bu, I'm not making promises.


	7. CH 6: A Change in Events

**

* * *

.:. Author's Notes .:.**

* * *

I apologize for such a late update. I've been so busy (more mentally than literally) this entire summer that I haven't had much of a chance nor inspiration to finish writing chapter seven.

This version of chapter seven is one that I have been forced to start completely over from scratch seeing as my laptop has recently broke, taking with it my 10 page long first half of chapter seven.

It sucks cause I was really doing some good things with that damn chapter. But, no use crying over spilled orange juice (I don't wanna say the "M" word because I'm still feeling a bit nauseous from drinking a glass of it earlier today).

My goal originally for this story was to keep it up with the Naruto manga. When I wrote chapter one, I killed of Kakashi and Tsunade, as the two had been technically declared both "dead" and "near death/comatose". Then, I was reading the Narutopedia, and damn near choked on air upon reading the revival of Kakashi, along with all of that Danzo bullshit. -_- Ugh, thanks a lot Kishimoto!!! x_x

Anywho, here's my completely redone, and hopefully still good, chapter seven.

* * *

**.:. Disclaimer .:.**

* * *

I do not own Naruto. That much is obvious. I hate writing disclaimers. I love you guys though for reading this story :)!

* * *

Shikamaru, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon traveled swiftly through the treetops, their destination: The Hidden Cloud Village. Everything seemed to be growing more tense among the disgruntled teammates as time progressed in their travels.

Shikamaru was aggravated that he had to actually do a form of physical activity; Konohamaru was aggravated because he truly believed that Naruto had cheated him over as the "team leader" by placing Shikamaru in the team; Moegi was aggravated at Udon because he kept falling behind; and Udon was aggravated because he was being the center of her blame.

To Konohamaru, it seemed that every five minutes, Shikamaru complained about something being troublesome, and in a sense, he was right about them all. Somehow, he had managed to find just about every little thing involving this mission to be completely and utterly… "troublesome"—an opinion which he made note to enlighten on every five minutes or so.

However, despite the troublesome factors in this mission, in the back of his mind, he knew the necessity of the alliance between the two villages. In fact, that is what was motivating him to keep the team traveling at such a rapid pace.

In his mind, he replayed different strategies and scenarios of how this mission should go, as well as what may potentially happen along the way. The possibilities were seemingly endless, and considering Cloud's track record with loyalty to Konohagakure as allies, the allegiance was going to be risky probably throughout it's duration. He knew that merely hoping for the best of things would never actually work, so he didn't even try.

He knew what could happen on this mission as well. In fact, there were a number of things that could happen, both during their travel as well as after they reached their destination. Potentially, they could be ambushed, injured, taken as prisoners, or even worse, killed.

Also, the Raikage could deny the treaty request, which might also result in them being killed, and their deaths would only fuel the joining of Cloud in this shinobi world war as yet another enemy, especially with Naruto as the Hokage.

It was all ironic really: Naruto becoming Hokage; the village nearly getting blown to smithereens; a Fourth Shinobi World War breaking out—nobody certainly seen any of it coming, and yet it still did. It truly is amazing: the large amount of things that could happen in such little amounts of time.

* * *

"_**One day I'm going to get the Hokage name... AND THEN I'M GOING TO SURPASS ALL PREVIOUS HOKAGES!!"**_

—Naruto, giving his infamous Hokage speech

* * *

Shikamaru smiled inwardly to himself, remembering how once upon a time ago, nobody in the entire Leaf Village would have dreamed that Uzumaki Naruto—the village knucklehead and prankster of his youth—would ever stand a chance at having succeeded in becoming the Hokage, but alas, Naruto was made the Rukodaime.

Naruto becoming Rukodaime Hokage, however, had truly shown Shikamaru and pretty much everyone else that Naruto truly has always cared deeply about his village and always will, no matter how poorly he had, or in the future may be, treated due to the Kyuubi caged inside of him.

The villagers had been cruel, that much Shikamaru was aware. On a personal note, he avoided conversation with generally anyone as a child, save for Chouji and Ino. It was nothing personal—he was just too lazy to do otherwise, really.

His lack of conversing with Naruto back during their youth, before they became the Rookie 9 and later the Konoha 11, wasn't at all related to the elder villagers' hatred towards the beast who had nearly destroyed their village. Then again, to all of them them, Naruto WAS the beast. Kyuubi was Naruto. They were one in the same. And the villagers? They were too damn stubborn to see things in any other way.

Naruto had true spirit though, and followed through on his words and promises all the way to the role of Hokage. And here he was, ruling his village honorably, just as his father had done once upon a time ago. Times were getting harder on his village. Shikamaru had been awake the last two days in a row now, too anxious to sleep, to thoughtful to dream.

So lost in his thoughts, Shikamaru failed to hear the sound of several leaves rustling from behind him, though Konohamaru was ready and alert. Holding out his arm, Konohamaru set Shikamaru right up for a clothesline to the throat, which he performed perfectly, nearly causing Shikamaru to lose his footing on the branch he had landed on.

"Baka, pay attention!" Konohamaru whispered to Shikamaru rather loudly, the genius ninja's eyebrows raising in confusion before furrowing in anger towards himself, finally being able to notice a chakra signature.

Everyone in the group stood perfectly still, each with a kunai gripped tightly at hand as they waited on their new "guest" to make their appearance known, ready now for just about anything.

"Team Konohamaru, I come with orders directly from the Hokage."

A male voice erupted from the leaves, before a man wearing a Konohagakure headband appeared from the foliage, landing in a crouching position on a branch several feet away.

"This mission is to be aborted immediately." The man said, panting heavily having trailed them all so far at a fast pace.

Shikamaru was utterly surprised at the news, the man being someone he did not personally recognize for one thing, and the abrupt news also coming to him as such a shock, considering the importance of the mission at hand. Something was certainly going on, and Shikamaru was about to find out what it was.

"Abort the mission? Are you sure? What's going on? Naruto—I mean, Hokage-sama—said that—" before he could finish his statement, the messenger shinobi cut him off.

"Cloud has joined the war…Against Konoha. You have new orders sent directly from the Hokage himself: Change direction and head directly to Amegakure as soon as possible. The new leader has requested you come as the ambassadors of Konohagakure to sign an official allegiance treaty with them. The new Amegakure leader, has already gotten approval from the Hokage for shinobi from our village to come for the signing in substitution of the Hokage due to the circumstances at hand, and he had sent me here to inform you of the change."

Shikamaru's face completely paled at the mere thought of Cloud having joined in plotting against Konoha, as well as the other villages already taking part in this war.

Things were only getting worse from here, Shikamaru was certain. Two powerful allies were an excellent resource to have, but would it honestly be enough? Shikamaru wasn't too sure.

"Another thing Hokage-sama has requested I inform you of personally Shikamaru-san…Yamanaka Ino has been severely wounded after being caught in the crossfire of a random ambush on the village. She's been unconscious for the last several hours now, and the Hokage requests that you do not allow that to hinder your mission at hand—"

CRUNCH!

Shikamaru punched the tree that he had been leaning on, his body trembling from head to toe with worry, anger, and feeling completely powerless now. A part of him wanted to return to the village to be with Ino, though another part of him wanted to high tail it to Amegakure. He knew the latter was his only choice however, and the part of him wishing to return to the village wasn't the least bit pleased about it.

"Anything else?" Shikamaru said through gritted teeth, trying his best not to lose his cool completely and have a breakdown of some sort. The messenger shinobi, simply shook his head 'no' in response before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Shikamaru looked back at his three teammates who were all looking from his form to the tree beside him, which was now wielding a rather large gaping hole in it from Shikamaru's punch. Shikamaru's eyes shifted towards the gape before closing in attempts to calm himself.

"Well, you heard the man. To Amegakure it is…" He said suspiciously and calmly, yet very sharply. It was painfully obvious that it wasn't a decision he was pleased with, but nonetheless, it was one he knew he had to do for the sake of the village.

And so, they darted off into the treetops into the opposite direction, their new destination—Amegakure. The Land of Rain, however, was a good two days travel away, and everyone was obviously exhausted from traveling so far, only to begin re-traveling the same distance halfway back.

Nightfall would soon come as the sky was beginning to fade from bright blues in shade to a mixture of reds, oranges, pinks, and purples as the sun began to slowly sink down to the Earth.

Shikamaru looked around before spotting a small cave nearby that would serve as a perfect place to safely rest for the night. He gradually stopped his pace, holding his arms out to indicate to his teammates to do the same, which they all obeyed gratefully. Having been running the entire day without many rest stops, they were all equally exhausted.

Shikamaru pointed to the cave and the team shared a silent understanding. All nodding their heads, they dropped from the treetops, landing on their feet with feline swiftness, as all shinobi were capable of. They walked at a normal pace towards the cave and began setting up a fire, Shikamaru and Konohamaru scouting the perimeter for any nearby people.

* * *

Naruto sat alone in his office, his paperwork all finished, and he was left with nothing left to do. He was growing restless, he knew, but he remained hopeful, just as he always did. Sakura had been spending more time at the hospital lately, so he hadn't had much of a chance to see her for the last few days.

He was beginning to miss her, and was reaching the point of not being able to stand being away from her any longer, despite it only having been a few days to have passed since they had last seen one another.

But, like always, there was never enough time to break away from being the Hokage. At least, not with an on-going war raging about the village among several opposing shinobi villages. Attacks, killings, injuries, loss, and suffering seemed to be the burden his village must for now suffer as the Fourth Ninja World War continued its paces with seemingly no end.

Nobody wanted to surrender—every opponent wanted to see Konoha fall completely. Villages that were seemingly "in the clear" from a future possible enemy list had turned on them, joining in a series of attacks which were slowly wearing the village down even further.

Shinobi whom had been worn out before due to over-extension of their work were nearly wiped out at this point. Things did not look good.

Even with the Sunagakure shinobi serving Konoha as backup at the moment, it still wouldn't be enough. Amegakure's alliance would definitely help the village greatly. He just hoped that Shikamaru and his team would make it on time, and safely, of course.

During his time spent as Hokage, Naruto had come to realize something about himself. The role of village leader has hardened him—a lot.

He seldom acts on impulses anymore on his decision making abilities because he knows that he can't afford to mess up. He's a lot more calmer; quieter; and he's found himself thinking things through a lot more than he ever had in his life.

Being Hokage had truly matured him in ways he didn't even know needed maturing. But his heart still was in the village that had once upon a time shunned him for his tailed beast. He still loved his village more than his own words could express and to him, the changes were worth it all.

His dream had come true, and for that he was happy. Now, his only wish was that he could somehow solve this war and finally allow his villagers to once again live in peace rather than warfare.

One thought had been plaguing the back of his mind however since the day he had met his father—who was his mother? His father never did say. It was a question that had been plaguing him for awhile now, though he didn't quite feel comfortable voicing those thoughts aloud to anyone—even Sakura.

He knew that she had to have been an Uzumaki because his father's last name was Namikaze, but the only Uzumaki records Konoha had were on him and his progresses made with his tailed beast.

He wondered what kind of person she was and felt even more longing now than he had in his entire life, just wishing to know her name, or anything at all. It seemed as though all possibility of ever finding the answers to all of his unspoken questions were at a pretty 'slim-to-none' chance at this point. But even so, he was just as determined as ever to hopefully find out who his mother was someday, even if it took him a lifetime to search for the answers.

As a child, he hardly pondered upon knowing the identities of either of his parents; having never known them his whole life, thus no mystery about them. Now that he had met Minato, however, questions were beginning to spew about his mind and surface themselves more and more by the day, and now it was really starting to fluster him.

The sky was fading to darkness as night reigned over the Five Shinobi Nations, the nighttime stars making their usual appearance, though above all of the smoke, fighting, and damages, they seemed to shine a lot less brighter than they used to.

* * *

Shikamaru, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon had finally finished setting up camp, and all were asleep at this point save for Shikamaru,who was currently staring at the ground deep in thought, as well as Konohamaru, who also remained silent whilst occasionally poking at the campfire with a stick, he too lost deep in his thoughts. It wasn't until after about an hour's worth of silence that Konohamaru decided to speak up.

"Hey, do you really think that this is going to work?" Konohamaru asked Shikamaru, causing the genius shinobi to break away from his thoughts and look at him strangely as he furrowed his eyebrows, confused by the younger shinobi's question.

"Huh?" Shikamaru asked in an almost-immediate reaction, causing Konohamaru to merely rolled his eyes in retort to the well-known prodigy's simple response.

"I mean, do you think that allegiance with Amegakure will be enough to help us end this war?"

"Hopefully. Since Amegakure is such a strong village, alliance with them should make the other ninja villages back off…hopefully, that is…It's really a fifty-fifty shot that we'll be taking but there's still definitely a strong chance that it will all work out successfully in the end." Shikamaru replied whilst shrugging his shoulders in response.

After that, Konohamaru went silent once more, resuming his thoughts of the following day's travels, inwardly groaning upon realizing that even though they will be traveling all day, they'll still have at least another day's worth of travel until they'd make it to the Hidden Rain Village.

* * *

**.:. Meanwhile, In Amegakure .:.**

* * *

The rain never stops. That's what Konan thinks to herself as she gazes out of her large office window, watching over the entire village of Amegakure. Always rain and rarely sunshine, that is all her life has ever seemed to be.

She felt so lost without Nagato around. Losing Yahiko was one thing, but that was ages ago. Nagato was different. But perhaps the main difference was that all along, she had been in love with Nagato, but never openly took the chance to tell him. Now it was too late, and she was left to suffer. And suffering, she was.

Day in and day out—paperwork, politics, Pein—her pain. Did anyone see it behind her blank, deadened eyes? Did they see how lonely she was now without her lifelong friend and soul mate? She doubted it. But even if they did see, honestly, who would say anything about it? If she didn't want to talk about it, nobody around her would press the subject.

She was feared now; respected as a leader and former member of an elite criminal organization. Who would be honestly stupid enough to upset her? She could end a life with a simple piece of folded paper. That's power within itself. And power is what she had. Power is why she is standing in her office, alone. She hated power.

* * *

**.:. Flashback .:.**

* * *

"_Yahiko!" a young, 10-year-old Konan yelled at her friend as she tried suppressing a giggle at her friend's goofy antics. Nagato, on the other hand just twirled a flower in his hand indifferently, seemingly ignoring the two. Konan nearly missed the gaze that Nagato sent her out of the corner of his eye every so often. Just as he nearly missed the gaze that she was giving him, just the same._

_Affection. Trust. Yearning. Respect. Care. Admiration. Compassion. **Love**."_

* * *

Perhaps that was what kept them apart their whole lives. The signs were there the entire time, they just kept missing them until time ran out for them both to act on how they felt. They may have been cold people, but even the coldest heart has loved someone at some point. That is what makes us able to be cold—our ability to love. Both are equally strong as one another and can be equally reversed on one another.

And love like that, never goes away. It's the kind that sticks with you and haunts you for your whole life. It's the burden that tears you to pieces if you are separated from the person you love the most. It is the pain that you feel when you lose that person, in life, as well as death.

It was rainy days like this when Konan would reflect on her relationship with Pein, or rather, lack thereof. She regretted so much now—time wasted, time lost, and time she'll never know again. She was now truly and completely alone.

Then again, sometimes you just need to let the rain fall on your world to wash even a little ounce of pain away. It may not always help you feel better, but it helps with your burdens in ways you may take a lifetime to notice. And so, it rained…

* * *

**TBC**

* * *

**AN: **Whoa, talk about a metaphoric cliffy, eh? It's only 8 pages long but... I figured I'd update SOMETHING for you guys and gals. Hope you enjoyed. R&R! *hearts!*


	8. CH 7: Passion Through The Darkest Hour

**Opening A/N: **This chapter is going to have a huge cliffhanger just to spice things up a bit. :P You know you love me anyway.

* * *

**Disclaimer: **All that I own of Naruto's is a stupid wrist warmer. -_- GIMME MORE STUFF, PEOPLE! D: Lawl. Oh yeah, I also have Itachi hair. :D and I'm a girl! Epic Ownage for me :3

* * *

Shikamaru, Moegi, Konohamaru, and Udon all darted through the treetops, Amegakure finally coming into eye view. The moment they began to near the gates of the Village Hidden in the Rain, as if the heavens were giving a sardonic welcome to them, rain began to heavily pour down upon them.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Konoha, Sakura and Naruto were just getting ready for bed after yet another long and exhausting day at work.

"Naruto?"

Sakura gazed out amongst the darkness of the bedroom she shared with Naruto, whom was standing on the balcony just ahead looking at the village below with a glazed over look containing a mixture of adoration, care, love, and pride.

However, in that gaze, there was also a mixture of a little something that both warmed her heart, and unsettled her. Thus she decided to finally, after about an hour and a half of simply watching him silently, call out and beckon him to return to their bedroom. She was now wondering just what he was thinking of so sternly that it had kept him awake so late.

* * *

"_**N-Naruto! P-Please! You're my only h-hope! Please bring Sasuke-kun back for me!"**_

* * *

Naruto shook away the haunting thoughts that seemed to have plagued his heart from the first day of his relationship with Sakura. Those thoughts being simply this – was he truly the one she wanted, and was he finally good enough for her to truly love him as much as she said she did?

Awhile back, Sakura had managed to convince him him that as of now, Sasuke was simply just a figment of their pasts that they had finally decided to let go of. However, even so, Naruto still had these moments where he speculated and wondered amongst himself—considering the fact that Sakura and his relationship, as it was perfect on the surface, was never really a subject of debate or needing spoken about—if she was true to her words when she said her feelings for Sasuke were gone 100% and that she was truly his.

Because truth be told, due to their history, what with all the arguments—usually Sakura initiated, argued, and ended considering Naruto never had the heart to oppose her views on roughly anything—Sakura changing her mind about him so suddenly left plenty of space for his own personal speculation.

After all, love isn't just a simple word that you can put out out there on the line, let go of, and then forget all about it one day, as if it never occurred. No, love is something that when someone says it aloud, as they pour out their heart and soul to another person in desperation of showing them just how much they care; at that moment and forever, that love is true love. And true love cannot be replaced by anyone or anything, no matter what.

Speaking of replacements, there were some moments that he wondered to himself if that was all that he was? Sasuke's replacement now that all hope for bringing back their former friend and teammate has been both lost and simply given up on? Honestly, he wasn't sure half of the time. After all, this was Naruto's first and only romantic relationship in his entire life.

And the fact of the matter still and always would remain—that he was still a jinchuuriki. Half man, half beast. He knew how the villagers once saw him and it still hurt considering that he always had loved them just as he does now in spite of it all.

It was times like this when he truly longed for someone to talk to about his feelings of doubt, considering that he couldn't turn to Sakura about it, too afraid of what she would think—or do—if she ever knew he doubted everything good that he had going for him now. But then again, considering his whole life, good things had a horrible tendency to end for him. That's just how his fate and luck was.

He was so lost without Jiraiya being around to share with him the guidance and rare wisdom—despite the elder man's own general perverse flaws—that Jiraiya had finally begun to share with Naruto around a year into their two-year training session and afterwords.

It was never really in front of people that the old man let his wisdom and advice towards Naruto shine, but being his godfather, Jiraiya knew in his heart that every bit meant a lot more to Naruto than he could imagine. And it did just that now that Jiraiya was gone. Naruto missed that—missed HIM—and the thought of the fact that he could never see nor hear the old man's voice again, brought tears to his eyes.

Back before becoming the hokage, he had wanted Jiraiya to be around to help him out and advise him during these times when he wasn't quite sure what to do anymore. Times like these. But now, he was practically alone.

But it seemed that all of his once-advisers were gone now—Jiraiya, Kakashi, hell, even Tsunade…

Everything in both his life and in the village was resting upon his shoulders, though, considering the fact that he was the Rukodaime, technically, it was.

* * *

It was a little past midnight already and they both had a lot of work to do in the morning. Naruto had turned around upon hearing his name, just as he always did whenever Sakura would call out for him. He was still wrapped up in his thought, however, and it left him too fogged to give a verbal response. And so, he said nothing, but instead began walking towards the bed they both shared, his face both still very serious and hardened with something Sakura just couldn't quite place.

"N-Naruto-kun…?"

Sakura was a bit nervous now judging by his solemn expression. Truth be told, she still wasn't completely used to this more matured side of Naruto, despite it having shown itself more and more frequently ever since he had been elected Hokage.

Before she could manage another word to him, he reached down and cupped her cheek in one of his hands, as he locked his cerulean blue eyes with her jade ones, the intensity of his stare stopping her mid-sentence.

Without saying anything, Naruto knelt onto the bed, his face coming closer to hers swiftly as he pressed his lips up against hers, passionately kissing her for the first time in days. And all thoughts were lost to the kiss.

They had both been so busy lately that they had neglected each other; going to work during the day, wearing themselves out into the evening, and coming home at night far too exhausted to manage to budge until the morning.

But today, was a good day. No heavy injuries at the hospital; no new developments in the current war against Konoha. Everything was solemn at their jobs and for once, they had a chance to be alive again with one another. Naruto surely wasn't about to let such a moment slip away because it was uncertain when another would arise.

All insecurities aside, he knew in his heart that she loved him, simply because she told him so. He trusted her and cared enough for her to believe in her words. His moment of doubt came still every so often, but just as now, it fades away every time with just one look at her.

And Sakura didn't object his kiss, but rather, welcomed him with open arms, allowing him to gently ease her back onto the bed as he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace, his lips never once parting from hers.

Both of their eyes remained closed and they allowed themselves to slip into ecstasy as they explored one another as if it were the first time again. Finally, needing a break for oxygen, Naruto broke their kiss ever-so-slightly, just enough to catch his lost breath.

His eyes were glazed over with a passionate desire that Sakura hadn't quite seen before, and in her own eyes, Naruto could clearly see traces of her unspoken questions that had begun to race through her mind.

"I just wanna do this right this time."

Naruto pressed his lips softly back down against hers, his bottom lip moving slowly and experimentally against her own as he took his time in exploring her mouth with his own.

Their first time—as he had been mentally noting upon to himself, quite frequently lately—was a lot more rushed and lust-filled than he had preferred, now that he looked back back on it all. He found himself wondering now how things could have been different; perhaps even better, for both himself and Sakura. He didn't regret that night at all, but he wondered about the 'what-ifs' sometimes.

He hadn't been with Sakura sexually ever since that night a few weeks back, as their daily lives had been keeping them practically torn apart at the seams from making any form of intimate contact with one another. They certainly weren't 'going at it like bunnies', so to speak, and it really didn't bother Naruto all that much. He didn't need sex regularly when he had much more bigger things going on in his life, what with being the leader of a war-targeted village and whatnot.

But, even with all of those things aside, he still missed Sakura, and the closeness that he had felt on that night when they gave themselves to one another. That night was intense and perfect to him, and he was yearning to feel complete like he did when he was with her.

He wasn't sure of her views on how their first time had went. It wasn't exactly something they discussed out in the open with high levels of comfort surrounding them.

He wondered if she regretted it and the thought of her actually doing so made his world feel as though it would end. He hoped and prayed that she didn't regret him, that night, or anything else they've ever done, both together and in general. Regrets aren't worth the effort. Living is much more precious than regretting.

And so, Naruto didn't like to believe in regretting things. However, he was still simply a mortal man, Kyuubi aside, and unfortunately, he had quite a few burdens of his past that would haunt him most likely forever. Those things, he hated the most, because they continued to impact him even when he didn't want them to.

"Naruto-kun, are you alright?" Sakura asked, her head still a little frazzled by Naruto's odd expression and even more bizarre actions.

To be honest, it was all making her nervous while at the same time, she trusted Naruto with her life, which reassured her on another hand. To be honest, she didn't know what to be feeling right now.

Naruto's only response was a soft smile and a nod of his head before he closed his eyes again and dipped his head towards Sakura capturing her lips in another breathtaking kiss. Every single time that they kissed, both pairs of eyes closed automatically and their hearts beat several beats faster than usual – the way it should be when two people truly love one another.

The two were so caught up in the romance of one another, Sakura hadn't even noticed Naruto crawling into the bed with her and resting above her. However at this point in time, she honestly could care less about something trivial such as that.

"All I want right now… is you," Naruto whispered to Sakura at the one short moment he stopped for some much needed air.

So surprised and taken off guard, all Sakura could do as a response was to nod her head at him in acceptance. Naruto simply smiled warmly at Sakura again before resuming his passionate kiss with her, his hands growing more bold as they began stroking her sides sensually. Meanwhile, her own hands had snaked themselves around his neck pulling him closer towards her and deepening his kisses, which were starting to slowly travel southward towards her neck and jawline.

She whispered his name aloud softly once, allowing the word to hang in the air, only now to be discarded by herself, but not missed by Naruto, who responded to her sweet whisper with his hands growing even more bold than before and unzipping her medic's vest slowly.

Gently sliding the garment of clothing off of her shoulders, Naruto tossed it aside, leaving her clad in only her chest bindings, which were very scarce in amount, considering how hot the day had started and remained. Rather than tearing the bindings off of her body, Naruto took his time and slowly unwrapped them. Once they were off, he gently leaned down taking one of her small peaks into his mouth, sucking gently on the rose-colored nub.

Meanwhile, Sakura's thin fingers were inching towards the zipper of his usual orange jacket, which was partially zipped up. Tugging the zipper downwards, she unzipped it and slowly slid it off of his shoulders, leaving him clad in only a thin white t-shirt. With the thick jacket now discarded onto the floor, Naruto's tanned arms could now be more easily seen propped on either side of Sakura's head as he leaned down kissing her tenderly on the lips.

Readjusting himself so that he was leaning on his elbows, Naruto leaned forward breaking their kiss to whisper something into Sakura's ear. Pausing from their intimate kiss, Sakura tried to regain control of her breathing, though it proved to be difficult at that particular moment in time. Naruto noticed this, however, he still had to ask...

"Sakura-chan," he whispered gently in her ear, surprising her a bit. His voice sounded scared and shaky, as well as stern and thoughtful.

"Yes, Naruto?" She responded, tilting her head so that she could get a better glimpse of him. He pulled his head up to meet her at eye-level as he asked her a question he was hoping to kami above that she wouldn't deny.

"Do you really love me?"

The expression on his face distorted into pain and furthered fear. Expecting disappointment in the areas of love was something Naruto couldn't help but expect from anyone. After all, he was the container for one of the most powerful bijou in the world, a factor which most considered would make him a monster himself.

"Of course I do, Naruto…Why are you asking me this?"

He paused, not really sure how to respond to that question, as he wasn't one-hundred percent positive himself. Instincts were red-flagging everything that had transpired between he and Sakura over the last few months, their rapidly growing relationship scaring him more than anything, simply for the possibility that it could all be unreal, or worse, actually exist but soon would have to come to an end.

Self-doubt is normal for any human being, and it wasn't entirely out of the blue for him to ask her if her feelings for him were genuine.

His pause seemed to be taking longer than he had planned, and Sakura was beginning to worry about him, thinking that the Kyuubi might be filling his head with lies about her feelings towards him, or that his thoughts regarding her were just drifting to a negative place.

She assumed he didn't believe her, so just to reassure him, she wrapped her arms around his neck gingerly and pulled him down towards her, pressing her lips gently and tenderly against his own. That seemed to be all the reassurance that he needed, because the moment their lips met, the rest of his body relaxed against her own as he gingerly returned the kiss.

"I'm sorry," he whispered in between breaths, and her only response was to shake her head in reassurance that everything was and was going to be okay both between the two of them, and in general.

She leaned forward capturing his lips once more chastely in a kiss, the world around them slipping away as ecstasy took over, leading them into a world of pure bliss and passion. As their kiss deepened, Sakura's hands unconsciously inched themselves towards the hem of his white t-shirt, slowly pulling it along the length of his torso before finally discarding it from his body entirely.

Sakura wrapped her arms tightly around Naruto's neck, engulfing him in a tight, genuine hug. As she continued passionately kissing his lips, one thought continued running throughout her mind, that being just what exactly was going on inside Naruto's head? Was he honestly doubting her love for him now, after everything that has happened between them? If so, why?

Lost in her thoughtful reverie, Sakura failed to notice her skirt being unzipped and slid off of her legs until she felt a cool breeze hitting her pale thighs beneath of Naruto's body. She silently cursed herself for not focusing intently enough on everything they were doing right now, but quite frankly, that was nearly impossible to do at the moment. Her head and judgment was being entirely engulfed by her worries over Naruto.

Naruto leaned forward, hovering over Sakura, his necklace from Tsunade dangling against Sakura's collarbone, chilling her a bit with the stone's coolness. Sakura slowly began to unfasten Naruto's pants but was experiencing major difficulty considering the fact that he continued kissing her all over her upper body—starting with her lips and moving along her jawline, her neck, chest, shoulders, collarbone, and finally, moving down to her breasts.

Naruto was proving to be a major distraction for Sakura, whom was trying desperately to simply unfasten his pants. Naruto realized this fact, of course, and chuckled at Sakura's dismay as she tossed her arms up into the air in a silent surrender. His amusement didn't go unnoticed by Sakura, however, and in retaliation, she stopped his silent mission of undressing her to push him onto his back.

She pulled his black tank top up over his head and tossed it to the side of their bed, in the pile of her discarded medical uniform. Immediately, Sakura launched herself forward, planting herself firmly in Naruto's lap as she began kissing his exposed neck roughly.

"Sakura-chan..." Naruto mumbled, his words falling on deaf ears. Immediately, Naruto's hands resumed their original position of discarding Sakura of her clothing, his fingers fiddling with the zipper of her skirt.

Unzipping the seams in the back of the garment, Naruto immediately discarded the clothing, leaving Sakura wearing nothing but her panties. Sakura was growing aggravated with the fact that she was less clothed than Naruto, and smirking, she decided to change that fact.

Climbing off of Naruto's lap, she began unfastening his orange pants, much to his amusement. She immediately began pulling the troublesome material down his legs, and he complied by stepping out of them. Now that Naruto was clad only in his boxer shorts, Sakura felt a bit more triumphant that the two were equally lacking the same amount of clothing.

Before she was granted an opportunity to boast in the fact, Naruto had nudged her to lay back down on the bed beneath him, his lips immediately covering her own in a passionate kiss. Sakura wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck as she pulled him closer towards her, deepening the kiss.

One of Naruto's hands had managed to make it's way from being tangled in Sakura's pink locks of hair, to traveling down her torso. His fingertips ghosted along the way in their path causing goosebumps to appear on the skin left behind in their wake. He was really taking things as slowly as possible right now, and Sakura was very aware of this fact, not that she was complaining.

She was painstakingly aware when Naruto's hand made its way beneath the hem of her panties, and even more so when his index and middle fingers began drawing circles along the folds of her nether lips. Sakura's hips twitched forward, nearly bucking towards Naruto's hand and he smirked. He was going to make her wait a bit longer for what she wanted.

Still circling her with his fingers, Naruto broke the kiss and gazed down lustfully into Sakura's eyes.

"What do you want, Sakura-chan?" He asked, his voice fanning over her abandoned lips. Sakura didn't respond to him, not willing to submit to him so easily. Naruto smirked, applying a bit more pressure to his ministrations, which caused Sakura's eyes to widen a small fraction.

"Mmm... Naruto_-kun, _stop teasing me!" Naruto chuckled and feigned innocence at her.

"Sakura-chan! I don't know what you're talking about." He responded as he applied even more pressure, his thumb brushing roughly against her stiff bundle of nerves. Sakura's hips bucked towards Naruto's hand, his smirk turning into a full-on grin.

"Naruto!" She groaned irritatedly. Now he was just playing _**dirty**_ with her.

"Tell me what you want, Sakura-chan, and I'll give it to you."

Sakura gazed up at his hazy eyes, noticing the pure lust laced all over his face. From his eyes to his voice, his entire stature was dripping with desire. Just for good measure, Naruto began rubbing her tiny bundle of nerves more fervently now, causing her back to arch slightly as she clenched her eyes closed.

"I-I want you! Naruto-kun, please! I need you to be inside of me, now!"

Naruto didn't need to be told twice. Immediately he pulled her panties down around her ankles, discarding them off to the side somewhere. Next was his own boxers, which were also immediately discarded. Lining the tip of his pre-hardened manhood up against her soaked womanhood, Naruto immediately pushed himself inside of her swiftly, enticing a silent moan to barely escape from Sakura's lips.

Immediately, he pulled out almost entirely before slamming himself back inside of her to the hilt, causing her to scream his name aloud in passion, along with many other inaudible phrases and words that he couldn't quite understand. She was breathing heavily, her chest heaving up and down as he continued to pump himself in and out of her quickly and roughly.

Originally, Naruto had wanted things to be more slow between them this time, but soon found his resolve wavering greatly. He wasn't far off from release, and from the sounds of it, neither was she. Sakura raked her nails down Naruto's back roughly, emitting a grunt from him in response. Wrapping her legs around his waist, Sakura began pulling Naruto deeper inside of her.

"Sakura-chan, I'm not going to last much longer..." Naruto made out barely between thrusts and Sakura merely nodded her head in understanding. The deeper he pressed himself inside of her, the closer she felt to reaching her own release.

The two continued their passionate love making a bit longer before finally, the dams of their passion broke and they reached release in synch with one another. It amazed Naruto to no end how beautiful Sakura looked as she came down from her high—the high that HE brought her to. All he could do right then and there was smile at her happily. Right now, he had all he'd ever need with Sakura.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, so this chapter might have been completely random as hell, and not as long. But this story has been throwing me at a complete and utter loss of plot line considering the latest Naruto updates. Damn Kishimoto _ Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyways and feedback would be nice ^.^


	9. CH 8: Allies

**A/N: **Updates, updates, updates... Well, where can I begin? I started a second story... I have no idea where I'm taking this one... And I just started reading the current manga. Which, this story should have you confused if you are also reading the current manga. So this is now an AU story. I can't keep up with where they're at; the plots clashed far too much already.

* * *

But moving on, yeah... I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update this story, but as some of you know, I've started another story, "Don't Ever Let Me Know", which is a Slipknot song fic.

I know, I know, I neglected this story for far too long but honestly? I'm A.D.D., don't hold me accountable for anything. But the point is, I'm back. Who knows when this will be updated... and if you're mad at me, I get it. And I DO apologize for everything. But without further ado, chapter 9.

Shikamaru, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon finally reached their destination—The Hidden Rain Village. The entire mission thus far had been a total disaster. He had no contact with Konoha other than a messenger chuunin being sent to him to deliver him village updates. Being the ambassador of the village, he had a lot of political and aristocratic affairs to handle when it came to his village, and protecting so many people was always his top priority.

But honestly, the last thing that he needed to hear was that Ino had been seriously injured in battle. That news alone had managed to throw off his entire mission strategy and he had become incredibly unfocused. But why? Surely, Sakura would be able to handle Ino's condition fine enough on her own. After all, she was the best medic in the Fire Country. But Ino was her second in command, and her being injured so fatally would surely put a dent in the village's medical team.

_'Why Ino?' _He wondered to himself as he slowly approached the village gates, his team following him closely behind. Amegakure wasn't on unfriendly terms with Konohagakure, but the village still had it's share of hostility towards the Konoha ninja from the Third Shinobi War. The brutal attacks his country performed on the Hidden Rain Village were nothing worth forgiveness over, but honestly, it had been over fifteen years. They had to forgive the village **sometime**_._

The moment the team stepped inside of the village, there was an aura of hostility the likes of which none of them were used to, even despite the war currently going on. Musing the past events, nothing seemed like reality and Shikamaru had to ask himself if any of it were actually real, or one big nightmare. He wished it was a nightmare, for if it was, Ino would be fine, Tsunade would be alive, and everything would be at peace. But alas, there he stood in Ame, hoping for a peace treaty that would strengthen Konoha's ties with the other countries and bring about peace.

_'How is it that in less than 5 months, everything that could possibly go wrong, went wrong?' _Shikamaru pondered idly to himself.

_'Our leader was in her prime.. she didn't need to leave yet. And I mean, Naruto is a wonderful Hokage and all, it's just.. Gah, what am I saying? My head isn't straight..'_

And then, his thoughts drifted to Ino. Her smile, her laugh. He recalled mental images of visiting her in her family's flower shop, a building in Konoha which, like most of the others, was wiped out during Pein's attack on the village. The construction workers offered to rebuild but after Ino and her father discussed it, they realized it wouldn't be the same.

Even if they had rebuilt, Ino never had time to be anywhere but either asleep, fighting, out with himself and Chouji on missions, or at the hospital treating patients with Sakura. And now, he was in an enemy country, with his younger and less experienced teammates, with offers of peace.

_**

* * *

.:. Flashback .:.**_

"_Naruto, are you sure that the Amegakure leader will consent to this peace offering?" Shikamaru hesitantly asked, his hand behind his head, scratching the back of his neck nervously. They were standing at the gates and Naruto was seeing them off. Naruto, in response to Shikamaru's question simply grinned and also scratched the back of his head, his hokage robes swaying in the wind._

"_Absolutely! I know Konan-chan will be thrilled to accept this peace treaty!" he shouted before his tone took a more serious tone. Naruto went into 'Hokage-mode' and Shikamaru's arms dropped to his sides as his expression took a more serious tone as well._

"_Besides," Naruto continued. "This treaty has been long over do. We have a country fighting us that never should have been fighting us in the first place. Amegakure was meant to be our allies from the beginning. Without them, Konohagakure WILL be crushed in this war. The odds are just too against us right now." _

_Naruto's eyes shifted off to the side as he paused dramatically, waiting for Shikamaru to give some sort of input, which, of course, he gladly did._

"_Understood. What took so long though?" Shikamaru asked, his eyes never leaving Naruto's face._

"_The war has been rough and we've been under-numbered. We haven't been able to send out a capable enough squad of shinobi before now because we've been constantly fighting against attacks. But we're in a more peaceful period, for the time being, it seems. The attacks haven't been as constant, the death rate has dropped, as well as the injury rate... the timing is right."_

_Shikamaru nodded his head in understanding and turned towards the gates, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon having already gotten a head start on him._

"_Later," Shikamaru lazily said giving Naruto a simple wave over his shoulder._

"_Be safe.." Naruto muttered to himself softly enough that only Shikamaru was able to hear, and even then, he had to strain his ears to hear his words._

* * *

And so, here he was. He had heard stories about the new Ame leader, Konan, though he never actually laid eyes on her himself. All he had was a simple description – lavender hair; thin, athletic build; fair skin; and she would be sporting a type of origami accessory, more specifically, a flower in her hair. Much to his surprise, he was met at the gate by Konan, whom was wearing her traditional kage robes. The description, however, seemed to be a little off, because the woman he was met with was around...six months pregnant...

"Konan-sama?" Shikamaru hesitantly asked and Konan acknowledged him, bowing her head respectfully.

"Hai. You must be the squad that Naruto-kun sent out." she replied softly, one of her hands touching her stomach. Her voice was graceful, he noted, and she seemed to be very proper.

_'So she's withchild. I wonder who the father is..' _Shikamaru idly wondered before something in his head clicked together, almost instantly.

_'Six months along... Pein attacked Konoha five months ago... Don't tell me...'_

Konan must have noticed Shikamaru's eyes shifting towards her stomach and she smiled softly at him.

"It's not really conventional, but... it's all I have left of him..." she said softly, drawing Shikamaru's attention to dart towards her face as she spoke.

"But...how?" he asked, recalling having heard that Pein was controlling corpses, and his real body was rendered in a fragile state.

"Medical ninjutsu works wonders." she simply replied and he grew less tense.

_'Ah, so there was some sort of...artificial insemination performed? Interesting..'_

"Aa," was all he responded with, not too interested in her pregnancy any longer. He had to get back to Konoha as quickly as possible.

"Konan-sama, I'm sorry to rush things but I need to get this treaty signed and returned as soon as possible. Surely, you understand..." he said clearly, causing her to respond instantly in a serious tone of voice.

"But of course. Where do I sign?" She asked, her eyes darting towards the scroll in his hand.

Shikamaru unraveled the scroll and pointed to a blank spot, indicating for her to sign anywhere in that general region. She quickly signed it and smiled at him as she handed it back to him. Shikamaru pocketed the scroll and bowed to her.

"Arigato, Konan-sama. You have truly helped out our nation in an incredible way today." Konan smiled at Shikamaru and indicated for him to head off with a wave of her hand.

"Shikamaru-kun, was it?" she asked before he turned to leave. Shikamaru nodded his head in response and her smile never faltered.

"Give Naruto-kun my regards. I'll make the treaty announcement to my shinobi before the day is over, which, from the looks of it," she paused to look at the sky. "Wont be much longer. Good luck on your travels home!" she said and Shikamaru smiled at her.

"Arigato. Goodbye." He said and Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon also said their goodbyes. They felt as though they should have chimed in somewhere, but honestly, this was more of a political issue—something that they, as young shinobi, knew almost nothing about.

They were chuunin, he was a jounin, and despite their different opinions on squad leadership, ultimately, he was older, he was wiser, and he ended up in charge all the same. It was a silently acknowledged fact that they had to deal with.

The trip home was urgent and rushed, mostly due to Shikamaru's insistence, and they were there within a three day time span. It was unconventional, albeit necessary, and the first place Shikamaru went—after speaking to the Hokage, of course—was to the hospital. He was shocked, however, when he found that she wasn't there to greet him.

"Sakura-chan, where is Ino?"

Sakura, whom was currently sitting on a stool looking at a chart, looked up at Shikamaru with brilliant green eyes and raised a slender eyebrow at him.

"Ino?" she asked him in confusion, her eyebrows furrowing low towards her eyes. "Ino is at home. Ah—Shikamaru?" He was gone in a flash, it was almost as if he had teleported away from her. Was he in that much of a hurry to see his teammate? Well, it was just as so. If anything had happened to Naruto or Sai, she'd be in a state of panic. Speaking of Sai... Sakura wondered what he was up to right now.

* * *

"Ino!" Shikamaru screamed from outside of the Yamanaka girl's bedroom window. "Oi! Ino!" his voice was frantic and hoarse, and it was so out of character of him to lose his cool. He knew she was home. He knew she was fine. What was so different about now? Why did he have to see her?

Shikamaru didn't have much longer of a wait, however. It was midnight and he was screaming at her apartment building, which, surprisingly, was one of the few buildings that was still standing after the attack on the village, compliments of Captain Yamato.

Suddenly, a head of long blonde hair poked itself out of the window and he was met with an angry looking Ino.

"Who the... SHIKAMARU?" She yelled, angry that she had been woken up up.

"Yeah..." his voice softened upon seeing her alive and well. "Can I come up?" he asked and she blinked at him a few times before nodding her head. Shikamaru walked up the stairs to her house and she met him at the front door, nearly dragging him inside by his flack jacket.

"The hell are you thinking?" she asked, smacking him on the back of his head. "Baka... you could have woken up my neighbors! And do you not realize that we are literally right next door to the hospital?"

She was lecturing him. Good. That was so good, he thought to himself as he walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her, abruptly stopping her mid-sentence.

"Sh-Shikamaru?" she asked, her voice a bit worried.

He didn't say anything; he just held her there for a moment, glad that she was alright.

"I heard that you were injured while I was on my mission... I'm not gonna lie, Ino, rational thought left me for a moment and I contemplated turning around and coming back..."

What was he saying? Abandon his mission and put the village in jeopardy? And for what, her?

"Why would you do that?" she asked him, confused to hell and back as to what he was going on about. It was a simple injury and she had no idea why they even told him about it. She was in and out of the hospital in three hours. It wasn't a big deal...to her.

"You... Ino..." Why was it so hard to tell her the truth about everything? Oh, that's right. Women were troublesome. That was his lifelong mantra, right? He wasn't going to worry about women until he was older; until there was some peace among his world. The peace that only Naruto could bring them.

She pulled away from him somewhat to look at him but his arms still remained around her waist, he refused to let her go for the world.

"Why?" she asked again. Shikamaru avoided her gaze, unsure of an answer. But then again, did he really need an answer? Couldn't she just figure it out on her own? Ino was smart... she may have been blonde, but she sure as hell was smart. She was his freaking teammate, for crying out loud.

Before either one of them knew what was happening, Shikamaru had Ino pinned up against her kitchen wall with his lips covering hers frantically, his arms pinned above her head, giving her enough room to escape if she so wanted to. But she never moved. And perhaps that was all the answer he needed.

* * *

"Shikamaru-kun!" Sakura shouted out the doorway of the hospital, her eyes darting all around the room. She wanted to ask him about the mission, dammit! This mission was vital for the country's state and dammit, she was curious. Blame Ino for her interest in such gossip.

Suddenly, Sakura's eyes lit up as she began darting towards the Hokage tower, her clipboard landing on the desk of the hospital in her wake. Her shift ended ten minutes ago, anyhow.

Reaching the Hokage's tower, Sakura had to stop for a moment to catch her breath. The distance between the tower and the hospital were quite far spread apart and she hadn't used any chakra to help her sprinting. As soon as she finally was able to breathe normally again, she ran up the stairs of the office and made her way to the door. Straightening her clothing out and making herself look 'professional', she knocked on the door. She was met by a raspy voice, one which she'd recognize anywhere.

"Come in," the voice said. It was Gaara. He was sitting on the opposite side of the room at his own desk, Naruto was nowhere in sight.

"Gaara-kun? Why are you in here all by yourself? Where's Naruto at?" she asked, looking confused. Gaara looked at her boredly from over _two_ large stacks of paper. Letting out a sigh, he ignored her question and asked one of his own.

"Sakura-chan, have you ever considered becoming an assistant for the join Kage tower, yet? My offer still stands, and I promise the pay would be worth it."

Sakura blinked at him a few times before letting out a soft chuckle. Poor Gaara, he was always stuck with so much paperwork.

"You know I don't have the time to do _your _paperwork. Why don't you have Temari-san do it instead?" she asked. Gaara wrinkled his nose in response.

"That would be a flat no. You know how Temari feels about being on the front lines of shinobi duty."

Sakura let out a sigh.

"And you know how I feel about being a medic. What about one of the Chuunin? Surely there's someone out there who is looking for extra cash. Or even a Genin..."

Gaara let out another sigh. Must this woman be so difficult?

"We have been – none of them are interested in desk work. Anyways, it's Naruto's turn to bring back lunch. He should be at Ichiraku. But perhaps there is something I could help you with in the meantime?" he asked. Sakura blinked a few times in response.

"Well, actually... do you know anything about the Ame peace treaty assignment? I was going to ask Shikamaru about it but he rushed out of the hospital to find Ino-pig." Gaara nodded his head.

"Ah yes... the agreement was signed by the leader of Ame and they have agreed to dispatch troops to our village, this time, in peace. However, I don't think the shinobi will be too pleased to have switched sides so suddenly... they are, after all, enemies of the Leaf."

Sakura nodded, absorbing all of the information. She thanked him and walked out of the office, unsure of what to do with herself. The day was progressing pretty slowly with no attacks of the village, nor injuries, and she decided to just go take a rest from it all and let her chakra build itself back up. After all, even though there were no fresh injuries, she still had several surgeries which she had to perform earlier that day and she was almost halfway drained of her chakra.

**

* * *

A/N: **Okay, I'm sorry if that was confusing so let me clear some things up. Ame is no longer an enemy (duh?) but the other villages are. Konoha's allies are limited and the Amegakure peace treaty was the most necessary treaty Konoha needed to get their strength back up. However, Amegakure has had a lot of problems in the past dealing with Konohagakure due to the past shinobi wars, so I just wanted to make it a little more apparent of that.** R&R!**


	10. CH 9: Decisions

**A Relatively Long Note From the Author:  
**Hello everyone, I would like to start off by apologizing for the lateness in updates in regards to both this chapter of "Yours To Hold", as well as the update for "Don't Ever Let Me Know", which—for those of you who aren't following both stories and/or myself as an author—is my only other currently "active" fanfic.

For those of you who ARE indeed subscribed to myself as an author, I am sure that you are well aware that as of this past month, I have been writing a good bit of different oneshots and/or songfics that haven't been, in any way, relevant to either of my two active stories.

There is a good reason that I have been writing these, however, the main one being that as of lately, I have been getting some (in my opinion) rather GOOD ideas for different pairings to use in different oneshot/songfic stories and I've felt the need to simply put those out there as a means of clearing them from my head!

In a sense, I guess you could say that it's had a positive impact on me updating my current stories, considering the fact that NOW, my mind is nice and clear so I can come up with some plot developments for "Yours To Hold" and "Don't Ever Let Me Know". But alas, I have been writing a lot of oneshots and songfics and thus, I've been neglecting updates for my active stories. There is just no way around admitting that and thus, I am fully aware of it. I apologize to those of you who have been waiting on some sort of an update on these two stories.

With that being said, I'd like to bring into light a few things in regards to the plot of this story. Considering the fact that "Yours To Hold" is now on it's ninth chapter, along with the fact that we are almost finished with the year 2010, if you happen to be up to date with the current Naruto manga... well, simply put, you are by now well aware of "what is taking place with that" (I worded it this way as a means of not putting in any spoilers before giving off an actual spoiler warning). And so, I digress...

**The Relevance Of This Story Versus The Current Happenings Of The Naruto Manga Series:**

****WARNING: THIS SECTION OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTES MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE OF YOU NOT UP TO DATE WITH THE CURRENT MANGA SERIES. IF YOU WISH TO AVOID READING ANY SPOILERS IN REGARDS TO CHAPTERS 516 UNTIL THE PRESENT (Chapter 521), SKIP THE FOLLOWING AUTHOR'S NOTE AND JUST READ THE STORY! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!****

For those of you who've been following this story from the beginning, I'm sure that you are well aware that I began writing "Yours To Hold" in April of 2009. At that time, the manga was taking place in the Invasion of Pein arc, and in other words, the series wasn't even remotely CLOSE to entering the Shinobi World War arc, and thus, I was writing this story out of PURE imagination alone.

In a sense, I guess you could say that I came up with the idea for a war long before Kishimoto himself had (and if you don't believe me, you can match up the dates – the proof is all there). For this, I am rather proud of myself hehehe, and it's almost as if I had (GASP!) predicted these things to happen, or something! Actually, the coincidences are all rather strange to me, really. -.-"

Now that we have reached the end of 2010, the manga (which I am NOW actively following and well up to date with) is taking place during a real Fourth Shinobi World War, and due to the vast differences in plot (vs the manga), I must now officially dub this story as an AU (aka, Alternate Universe) fic.

Now, personally, I do not _like_ writing TOTAL alternate universe fics, but considering the circumstances, this is now officially AU. However, the characters are **still** shinobi, they are **still** relatively IN CHARACTER, and the only difference in plot lines is the fact that this is **entirely** my own fiction.

I'm also sure that as of now, you've noticed the differences in the plot vs the manga, but I still would like to take the time to point them out again regardless, because there are surely going to be a lot more differences in the chapters to come. So yeah, the differences in the war and other events taking place in this story, vs the ones happening in the current manga, are as following:

1. The Plot Line...  
Of course, there are differences in the plot line: the pairings are different, the details surrounding the war are different, the character shinobi rankings are different in several cases, and etc.

2. The War's Purpose...  
In the manga, the war is on a basis of the Allied Shinobi Forces (aka Leaf, Sand, Cloud, and Stone) versus Madara Uchiha, however, None of these events have, or ever will, take place in **my** story, due to the fact that MY war is completely and utterly, different.

In **THIS** story, the purpose for the war originally was that the nations surrounding Konohagakure—not including The Land of Wind (i.e. Sunagakure)—had decided to use Pein's attack on the village as a weak point, giving them an excuse to attack and try to finish of Konohagakure during their time of vulnerability.

Also, Pein's attack on the village ended slightly differently prior to the events in this story (i.e. the character deaths were different, and the aftermath of his attack contrasted greatly with the actual manga). So, in other words: Danzo was never appointed as the Rukodaime Hokage, Tsunade _somehow_ died during her comatose state, and Kakashi and the other killed villagers couldn't be revived by Pein due to his battle with Naruto leaving him too weakened in the end... However, in the end, both Naruto and Konan had ended up coming to a mutual "truce" with the hopes of Naruto someday succeeding in bringing about world peace. This is why Naruto eventually sought out Konan upon hearing news that she was recently appointed as Amegakure's first official Amekage and requested the alliance between the two villages later on in this story.

3. The Allies...  
In the mangaverse, Konoha's allies are: Sunagakure, Kirigakure (although it has yet to be shown in the manga that the shinobi of Kiri are taking place in the war, they still are a part of the alliance), Kumogakure, Iwagakure; and the lone samurai nation of the Land of Iron.

In this story, however, Konohagakure only has a few allies aiding them during the war. Mentioned, are both Sunagakure and eventually, Amegakure, though as a mistake on my own part, I have left out the (assumed) alliance Konohagakure has with Kusagakure (the Village Hidden in the Grass). My bad...

4. The Enemies...  
In the manga, the enemies are Madara and his growing allied forces versus the Allied Shinobi Forces, and they are all fighting for a completely different cause. In this story however, the competitors start out as Konohagakure and Sunagakure versus not only the remaining members of the Five Great Shinobi Countries (i.e. Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Iwagakure), but also, Amegakure (pre-alliance), and a few other smaller surrounding villages whom have made several smaller attacks on the Hidden Leaf Village during its state of vulnerability.

5. Some Mistakes That **I** Have Made...  
As of recently, I've noticed a few [minor] errors in the plot of this story that I would like to have been able to fix, but in order to do so, I would have to re-write the entire story (which I actually have been considering a LOT lately).

One mistake in particular that I have made early on was **not** reviving the villagers after Pein's attack, but as I've already said, whenever I had started writing this story, the manga was still in the middle of the Invasion of Pein arc, and Naruto was still fighting Pein. Thus, the events that followed had yet to take place: Kakashi was still technically dead, Tsunade had just been put into a coma, and the battle wasn't even remotely close to commencing. Of course now, the manga has long since progressed from the time I had began writing this fic, but the plot has already progressed far too much for me to fix everything that I **wish** to.

Other mistakes were just some **minor** detailing, though I really don't feel like being **too** elaborate about them considering it was just a few simple, mistakes that were hardly noticeable (except to myself). If I could re-do this entire story, I would greatly change a lot of things in it, but for the time being, I've decided to just continue this story as best as I can and hopefully, end it soon.

****END OF SPOILERS!****

Alright, I've just said a **LOT** (three pages worth of Author's Notes, specifically lol!) about this story, and I've _possibly_ wasted a lot of your time by having you read all of that (if you actually did read all of that). For this, I once again apologize, however... I DO feel that going over these details before continuing with this story was absolutely necessary as a means of clearing up any confusion I may have caused some of the more newer/recent followers of this story, and now – having accomplished that – I can FINALLY start the ninth chapter of this story. So now, without ANY further ado, I hope you enjoy this chapter! :D

* * *

For the first time in what seemed like ages, there was a finally a sense of calmness and serenity sweeping itself across the Land of Fire. It had been an entire month since Shikamaru and his team had returned from their mission, and now that both Konohagakure and Sunagakure were considered mutual allies with the Hidden Rain Village, the inhabitants of the Hidden Leaf Village—both Konoha and Suna shinobi and civilians alike—could be at ease from the constant attacks upon the village.

Due to the constant attacks on the village prior to this newly found time of peace, the citizens were unable to focus too much on rebuilding the majority of destroyed homes and buildings that made up the Hidden Leaf Village, and all that was left standing up until this point was a few spared apartment buildings, the Hokage tower, the hospital, and a series of numerous makeshift shelters scattered among the battleground.

Because of the constant need for defense against the attacking nations, most of which usually ended up leaving at least one building aflame afterwords, efforts at rebuilding the village to it's former glory seemed pointless. Why rebuild homes and shops if they would only be destroyed again later? At least, that's how everyone looked at things. And so, the only buildings being constantly rebuilt during the ongoing war were limited in numbers.

Among these few structures were temporary homes and battle shelters for both the shinobi and civilians alike. For the most part, the battle shelters seemed to be destroyed more than anything during the village attacks, but luckily, Yamato's special wood element was put to good use in rebuilding them afterwords.

Aside from housing, a series of small huts were scattered among the village, and due to them being located more off to the sides, they stood a greater chance at surviving each blow to the village. Most of these smaller hut-like buildings consisted of supply buildings, each one specializing in supplying the shinobi with different necessities during the war, such as weapons, food, and first aid. In fact, the number of first aid medical units outnumbered all of the other supply units due to the constant need of treatment to the battle-injured shinobi.

In the end, Konohagakure—a village once notable for it's various shops and homes—had become a true battle site confined within the same old surrounding gates, whose doors were now constantly closed to the outside world as a means of further protecting its inhabitants. Despite the attempts at keeping enemies out, however, there was still a large number of attacks occurring within the confines of the village.

A vast number of these sneak attacks were sometimes performed from the sky, the enemy shinobi performing them often specializing in long-range fighting, as well as containing specialties in flight. These, however, weren't as frequent, though not entirely rare. It was lucky for the Hidden Leaf Village that a great majority of it's shinobi were skilled in long-range fighting, and all enemies attacking from the sky were often quickly eliminated.

Another majority of the fighting was performed through infiltration, the enemy shinobi somehow making their way past the village gates and usually, directing attacking the few buildings scattered among the wreckage as a means of weakening Konoha and Suna's defenses. A lot of time, these infiltration attacks were performed in groups, and they were the ones who had proved to be most difficult in defeating.

For the most part, the war battles forced both the Konoha and Suna nin to fight using their numbers, and this often times affected them greatly during moments of casualties. Despite the use of their outnumbering manpower, the merged villages still somehow made it out triumphant after each battle, despite sometimes just barely making it by a thread.

The alliance with Amegakure helped dwindle the number of random attacks on the village greatly during the past month, word quickly spreading of Konoha's forces strengthening among the enemy nations. The alliance hadn't resulted in something as drastic as the Hidden Rain's shinobi relocating their troops to Konoha, as the Sand Village previously did, though news of the alliance did spread among the other shinobi nations and it was made very clear among the village leaders that if needed, Amegakure's forces will not hesitate to back up Konoha and Suna in battle.

To be quite honest, the enemy villages were afraid of Amegakure's assistance, considering the fact that due to the village being closed off from the other nations for so long, their strengths were still quite unknown which could result quite drastically for them should the opportunity arise for Ame to move in and assist the Hidden Leaf village shinobi, as well as the Sunagakure shinobi.

The war wasn't over, but the constant attacks had halted almost immediately following the signed alliance treaty earlier on in the month. But the shinobi within Konoha's walls knew that despite this newly found peace, things weren't guaranteed to remain as such, and were thus always on their guard as they waited for the attacks to begin.

After the first three weeks had gone by without a single attack, the village leaders had started having numerous discussions about finally making an effort to rebuild the Hidden Leaf Village, considering the village's current on-going state of "peace" as the perfect opportunity to finally go about making a real effort at re-creating the former Leaf Village. It would certainly take a good bit of discussing before any definite plans would be made, but it remained hopeful that someday soon, the village could finally begin returning to being just that – a village, rather than a giant battleground covered in huts and makeshift homes.

As a matter of fact, it was this subject in particular that had brought forth everyone of "authority", in terms of Konohagakure's best interests, together at the Hokage Tower on this particular day, all of which were now gathered to discuss the future of Konohagakure, it's restructure, and it's rebirth as the powerful nation it once was.

So now, a total of sixteen people—both men and women of various ages alike—were all seated quietly around a large, round table located within the largest of the Hokage Towers' many conference rooms. The group of shinobi were all expectant on the arrival of the final two members of the meeting, which was technically supposed to begin twenty minutes ago, but was instead currently on hold due to the absence of the village's two joint leaders, the Rukodaime Hokage and the Godaime Kazekage. And now, the present sixteen people were left with nothing to do _but _wait for Naruto and Gaara to finally show up in order for the meeting to commence.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of town, a very anxious and nervous looking Gaara was currently dragging the blonde hokage behind him by the wrist. A small trail of several noodles were currently streaming out of the protesting blonde's mouth, though he did nothing to stop Gaara from dragging him throughout the streets of the town towards their destination. Although Naruto was running extremely late for the meeting, Gaara, on the other hand, was quite punctual on being on time.

Due to the fact that Gaara himself was considered one of Naruto's more relatively "close" friends, aside from the blonde's lover, a now irritated Sakura. If it wasn't for the pinkette's history of violent outbursts towards the blonde hokage, she would have been the person sent to retrieve Naruto. But keeping Naruto's safety in mind, eventually, it was Gaara who was awarded the task of, as Sakura had so _colorfully_ worded it, "drag Naruto's sorry ass back to the tower" for the meeting.

Sakura was certainly not the _loveliest_ of women when angered, and currently, her face was twisted in a scowl as she glared hard at the center of their meeting table, her arms tightly crossed over her chest and her eyes narrowed into tight slits as she silently ranted to herself about Naruto's punctuality, or lack thereof.

_'The nerve of that damned baka!' _Sakura angrily thought to herself, in regards to her her blonde lover. Instantly, a vein had become visible in the corner of her forehead as she glared hard at the table before her, her arms crossed tightly over her chest in irritation.

_'I mean, I love him and all, but seriously? He calls us all down here, **a week in advance**, and he hasn't even shown up on time? Seriously? Where the **hell** is he?' _

Sakura's silent brooding wasn't left unnoticed by her surrounding counterparts, and Ino took the first opportunity to chide in and jab the pinkette in the arm, a mischievous grin on her face as she silently whispered to her longtime friend and rival.

"I would have thought that you of all people would be the one to make sure that Naruto-kun was here today, Forehead," Ino whispered, her mouth hidden behind her open palm in attempts at keeping her voice as hidden from the surrounding people.

Ino's words caused the pink-haired kunoichi in question to stiffen visibly, the tiny hairs on the back of her neck now standing sharply on edge as Ino's words registered through her mind loud and clear. The blonde woman's two-cents hadn't gone unheard, however, by Shikamaru, who was currently sitting on the opposite side of Ino, and he let out a long sigh before quietly whispering to his blonde teammate.

"Ino, don't make it any worse than it already is," the young shadow-user whispered, his words causing Sakura's body to slightly lessen it's tenseness, though not entirely.

Ino immediately smirked at his words, the mischievous glint in her eyes, as well as her current fox-like grin, never leaving her face. The blonde's bright blue eyes shifted over to Shikamaru as she responded to his words, the mischief on her face not once faltering as she quietly retorted.

"Tch, don't give me that crap, Shika-kun. You and I both _know_ that Naruto **would** **have** been on time today if **_someone_** here had forced him to be. He may be our Hokage, but we both know what kind of hold Sakura has on him," Ino whispered before chuckling softly, her words only serving to further irritate Sakura.

Sakura was desperately trying her best to cling to whatever self-control she had left as a means of not pulverizing her blonde friend. The pink-haired woman leaned forward with an irritated expression written all over her face. She immediately placed both of her palms flat against the table in front of her, her eyes dangerously shifting towards the blonde next to her. Shikamaru instantly letting out a soft groan upon realizing that a conflict was definitely about to occur between the two kunoichi.

"Well PIG, I don't know how you could expect me to do that considering you and I **both **spent the entire night on a hospital shift!"

Sakura's voice was still soft enough to evade the attention of most of the other shinobi surrounding the room, her tone forcibly silent as she mustered up all of her strength to **NOT** cause a scene between herself and her annoying best friend. She wanted to present herself as professionally as possible, her relationship with Naruto being no secret to a single person within the village. Sakura knew that the way everyone looked at it, the only reason she was on the village committee at all was due to her relationship with Naruto, though in all actuality, it was due to the fact that both she **and** Ino were in charge of the village's medical team.

From the glint in Sakura's eye, however, Shikamaru immediately knew that things were going to end up way too out of hand if he didn't do something now to break things up between the two temperamental kunoichi. He pressed a hand against Ino's shoulder and prevented her from leaning forward as a means of starting an argument with Sakura, and in response, the blonde-haired woman glared hard at him as she quieted down.

Sakura, who was still staring intensely at Ino, watched as Shikamaru somehow managed to defuse the blonde-haired kunoichi and thus prevent her from continuing the argument, and getting the picture, Sakura eased herself quietly back into her seat, her face now resuming it's previous scowl as a response to the near-fight between herself and Ino.

_'I've just got to keep my composure,' _Sakura thought quietly to herself as she forced herself to calm down as best as she could, her thoughts echoing over and over in her mind like a mantra, reminding her of what was necessary in order for her to be taken seriously by everyone else in this room.

_'I know exactly what a majority of these people think of me and I have **got** to appear as professionally as possible, which means – no fighting with Ino, no random outbursts at that **damn** baka Naruto... I've got to keep my cool for my own sake. Hopefully, their opinions of my professionalism will change sometime in the future, so until then, I've just got to keep presenting myself **as **a professional.' _

Sakura let out a long sigh, her arms remaining crossed over her chest as she slightly slouched in her seat. Slowly, her thoughts were draining her self-confidence, even though she wasn't intending to do so. She knew that she would just have to do her best to get through this meeting without **too** **many** of her temperamental outbursts, but the fact that she knew how the older participants of this meeting looked at her most of the time caused Sakura's pride in herself as a kunoichi to slowly decrease.

Doing her best to regain her confident stature, Sakura forced her back to straighten in her seat, her arms and hands dropping from their crossed position over her chest as she settled for folding her hands neatly in her lap. Sakura's sole intentions were simply to successfully give off a complete appearance of self-confidence and professionalism, despite how uncertain of herself she was actually now feeling.

Shikamaru's hand never left Ino's shoulder, his grip lingering as a silent effort of preventing the blonde-haired kunoichi from starting another confrontation, and it didn't take long for Ino to discard all intent to cause a scene with Sakura, her bright blue eyes watching the uncertainty in her pink-haired "rival's" expression.

Letting out a soft sigh in a silent understanding, Ino's hand reached over and squeezed her friend's own hand, the gesture causing the pink-haired woman to look over at her friend with a shocked expression before immediately softening her features and offering the blonde a small smile.

The two young women, though usually at each others throats about the most foolish of things, both held a silent understanding of one another, and despite their occasional differences, in the end, they always seemed to somehow pull through for one another.

Ino's actions didn't go unnoticed by Shikamaru, due to him having been watching Ino like a hawk, mentally preparing himself to stop her from starting another conflict again if need be. As he watched her take the pink-haired medic's hand, as well as the soft smiles between the two women that followed, he finally relaxed significantly and released his grip on Ino's shoulder.

Averting his attention away from Sakura and Ino, Shikamaru's eyes scanned the other people in the room, mentally taking in all of their presence's. Across from himself, Ino, and Sakura sat Hinata Hyūga, who was quietly seated next to her father, Hiashi. The young Hyūga clan heiress seemed uncomfortable as she forced her posture to remain upright and proud—something she had hoped would gain her father's approval. Hinata's eyes constantly shifted between the center of the table to her father's figure beside her, her eyes full of hope and uncertainty.

Hiashi, for the most part, held his head proudly, his eyes often closed as he conveyed an inhuman amount of patience. However, during the few seldom moments his eyes would open, he would glance towards his daughter with an expression akin to shame and disapproval, his harsh gaze causing the young woman's forced confidence to falter significantly.

Next to the two Hyūga's sat both Kiba and Tsume Inuzuka, his mother. Kiba, who was seated on the opposite side of Hinata, was currently present due to his position as one of Naruto's few hokage advisers, his ranking, though less significant from all of the others currently present, was still necessary regardless due to his role of being one of the many supporting beams taking part in Naruto's success as the village hokage.

The younger Inuzuka's eyes remained on his female teammate, and it took all of his will-power not to lash out at Hiashi for treating Hinata so poorly. He knew that it wasn't his place—both as the member of another clan, as well as her friend—for him to have any input in regards to the Hyūga clan's affairs, and the fact that his mother was currently sitting next to him was all the proof he needed to show him that their presence was also a representation of the Inuzuka clan. In fact, that was the sole reason his mother was present at this meeting, and should he make a fool of their clan... well, he didn't want to even imagine what she would do to him.

Shikamaru's eyes continued to scan the room, his mind processing every detail of the people currently present for this meeting. He mentally acknowledged the presence of Inoichi Yamanaka, Ino's father, who was seated directly across from Ino at the table, his appearance holding a great amount of authority and power. Shikamaru knew exactly why Inoichi was present at the meeting, and it certainly wasn't due to his position in the Yamanaka clan. No, Inoichi was also notoriously known for his status on the Konoha Interrogation Unit, and that was the true reason for his presence today.

On opposite sides of Inoichi sat both Chōza Akimichi and Ibiki Morino, both men serving completely different purposes for their presence, though of course, Shikamaru knew both reasons. Chōza was there serving as a figurehead of the Akimichi clan, and Ibiki was present due to his position as the Commanding Officer of the Konoha ANBU Torture and Interrogation Force.

Ibiki's face currently had a smirk plastered to it, and with crossed arms, his eyes also was currently glancing around the room. Like Shikamaru, Ibiki was currently making a silent assessment of the room's inhabitants and it was in that moment when Shikamaru realized one thing—despite the older man having a truly sadistic nature, the two were equally calculating as shinobi. With that thought in mind, Shikamaru visible shivered at the thought of having something in common with Ibiki Morino, and so his eyes immediately looked onward as a means of distracting himself from his newly found morbidity.

Sitting next to Ibiki was Baki, whose purpose today was solely as one of the members of Sunagakure's Advisory Committee. Alongside Baki sat Temari of the Sand, who was currently whispering something incoherent to her younger brother Kankuro. The sand siblings were rather important in ranking not only due to their relation with their youngest brother, Gaara, but also, they were both Gaara's main political advisers and supporters.

Shikamaru's eyes were just about to drift further around the room before he was pulled out of his silent calculations by a soft nudge coming from his right. Immediately turning his head to look at the source, he was met by his father, Shikaku's, smirking face as the older man leaned a bit towards his son to whisper something in his ear.

"What are ya calculating there, son?" Shikaku asked, and Shikamaru let out a sigh.

"Nothing much," the younger Nara said before continuing. "Just taking in everyone who's here right now. Where do ya think Naruto and Gaara are?" he asked causing the older man to chuckle in response.

"Beats me. I figured you would be the one to know the answer to that considering you're such good friends with the Hokage."

Shikamaru's shoulders dropped in a shrug as he leaned back into his chair, abruptly ending the brief conversation between himself and his father. Crossing his arms, he closed his eyes.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in the middle of town, Naruto could still be seen being dragged by his wrist by a now-irritated Kazekage. Naruto was following the young Kazekage in a slight jog, both young men's Kage robes fluttering wildly about them as they rushed towards the awaiting meeting at the Hokage tower.

"Matte, matte, Gaara! Take it easy, will ya? We're not **THAT **late for the meeting..." Naruto muttered from behind his red-haired friend, said man turning around to look at the blonde without slowing his pace.

"We're already twenty minutes late for the meeting because of your inability to ignore your appetite. I cant believe you were so reckless, Naruto. After all, you _**are **_the one who arranged this meeting last week, I would have thought you'd be one of the first people to arrive." Gaara lectured and Naruto let out a long mixture of a sigh and a whine, his feet still moving as quickly as he could in attempts to keep up with Gaara's rushed strides.

Both men were donned entirely in their Kage robes, and their free hands were firmly holding their Kage hats tightly atop their heads, not wanting them to blow away from their quick-paced movements in combination with a mild breeze blowing about the village. Naruto pouted slightly at Gaara's scolded words, the immature action immediately hidden behind the chin-length cloths of his Hokage hat, the only part of his face left visible was through a parted piece of the fabric which revealed one of his bright blue eyes, his nose, and a portion of his pouting lips.

Gaara had finally succeeded in finding Naruto after having first had to ask a number of shinobi around the village about the Hokage's whereabouts. When he finally approached the blonde hokage, he was quite irritated to find his blonde friend stuffing his face in ramen at one of the few standing food stands on the opposite end of town. From the looks of things, Naruto was currently only on his second bowl of ramen, but too aggravated to care, Gaara immediately began to drag Naruto away from Ichiraku by his wrist, leaving a small trail of noodles hanging out of Naruto's mouth.

Naruto's Kage hat had been sitting on the counter of the ramen stand, but thankfully, Naruto made it a point to never allow the garment within ten feet of himself, and instincts drove him to make the hat the first thing he grabbed in attempts at anchoring himself to the ramen stand. When he finally realized that it was Gaara who was dragging him away, he let out a grateful sigh that it wasn't his pink-haired lover, who he was positive that by now, she was beyond furious with him for his tardiness.

After Naruto gave up his protests to being so roughly _dragged, _the two Kage's silently made their way through the crowded streets of Konohagakure, both making sure to avoid accidentally bumping into someone during their violently quick paces. As they climbed the stairs of the tower, making their way towards the meeting location, Naruto was finally able to catch up with Gaara's speed, the red-haired Kazekage releasing Naruto's wrist as soon as they had entered the front doors of the Hokage tower.

Both young men sprinting down a small, round flight of stairs to a lower level of the Hokage tower, Naruto immediately slammed the conference room's doors wide open upon their arrival, both Gaara and himself panting heavily as they were met by sixteen irritated faces. Forcing himself to even out his breathing and stature, Naruto chuckled and scratched the back of his head sheepishly, his usual grin plastered to his face.

"Eh-heh, sorry I'm late?" Naruto said with humor tinged in his voice, doing his best not to seem intimidated by the other inhabitants of the room despite their gazes making him inwardly nervous. Gaara walked past Naruto and returned to his seat alongside Kankuro, his eyes carefully observing Naruto the entire time. Sakura was the first to truly react to Naruto's apology, her palms slamming roughly against the table as she leaned forward.

"Naruto! Where the hell have you been?" she said, a vein once again becoming visible on her forehead. Watching his pink-haired lover's angry expression, Naruto visibly paled as he once again sheepishly scratched the back of his forehead.

"Ano... never mind that," Naruto said as he turned around to close the double-doors behind him.

As he walked towards his awaiting, empty chair, Naruto didn't immediately sit down as he slid a small pile of papers towards himself from the center of the table, straightening them immediately out of habit as he cleared his throat.

"Ahem... Well, I'm sure most of you are aware of why I have called this meeting today, and I apologize once again for my lateness."

Naruto's voice immediately went serious the moment he began to speak, his tone causing Sakura's anger to immediately fade into pride as she watched her blonde lover speak with such authority in his voice. Aside from truly being proud of everything Naruto had accomplished, Sakura also was grateful that he had finally gained everyone's respect—her own included—and now, she watched him from the sidelines as he lived out his childhood dream as their village's hokage.

It amazed her to no end how things had came about during the course of the past year, but despite all of her losses, Sakura truly felt that the village had made a great accomplishment upon making Naruto the Rukodaime Hokage. Before Sakura was given too much time to muse on how proud she was of Naruto's accomplishments, however, she was immediately torn from her musings as he started to speak again.

"It's been an entire month since there's been an attack on Konoha, and I'm sure all of you know why."

Everyone in the room visibly straightened themselves in their seats as they leaned forth to listen to Naruto speak, the mood of the room going serious as the meeting finally, after twenty whole minutes of irritated waiting, began.

"Both Gaara and myself have been quietly discussing this amongst ourselves for the past week now, and we've eventually decided that it would be in the village's best interests to take this time of peace as the perfect opportunity to begin restoring the village to it's former glory."

Naruto's bright blue eyes scanned the room quickly before resting on Gaara, who was currently staring at him from where he currently sat with a serious expression on his face. Exchanging a brief, knowing glance, Naruto closed his eyes in thought as he spoke again.

"But really, that's up to all of you to decide, because I'm not 100% sure if it would be in Konoha's safest interests. So what do you guys think?"

There was a brief moment of silence, the inhabitants of the room all taking a moment to let Naruto's proposition sink in before stating their opinions. You could hear a pin drop as everyone sorted their thoughts out, each visibly glancing at one another for some sort of clues. When Ino decided to break the silence, everyone was left in shock.

"I'm not sure if that's entirely safe, Naruto-kun. What if during the rebuilding, an attack on the village occurs?" she asked, her blue eyes staring intensely into Naruto's own blue eyes, a questioning look gracing her soft features. Naruto let out a sigh as he finally sat down, his arms crossing on the table as he took her words into consideration.

"If that were to happen, it would certainly undo any progress that would be made. But I would think that considering nothing serious has occurred during the past month, we're in a safe zone at this point, don't you think?"

Once again, the room was quiet as everyone took in Naruto's words, everyone weighing the possibilities as they evaluated some sort of safe solution to Naruto's suggestion. Of course, everyone present wanted to begin rebuilding the village as soon as possible, but they had to plan doing it carefully, because one wrong move on their behalf could potentially end up leaving things worse off than they had been prior.

Finally, Shikaku Nara was the first to speak up, first clearing his throat to gain the attention of the rooms' occupants. Everyone's eyes were immediately on him as he opened his closed eyes to speak.

"I think that it's certainly worth a shot. The worst that could happen in the instance of an attack is minimal in comparison to us doing absolutely nothing to restore the Hidden Leaf to its former glory. I believe the Hokage is right in saying that it's worth a shot."

Shikamaru's eyes were immediately on his dad's form, a skeptical brow raised at his father's words as he weighed those options over in his mind. Finally, letting out a sigh in defeat, Shikamaru parted his lips to speak.

"I am implied to agree," was all he said, and soon after, a series of nods and slight words of agreement were softly heard about the room. Naruto's arms were crossed as a large grin graced his features.

"Alright then, it's settled! We'll start the rebuilding process ASAP, dattebayo!" Naruto said cheerily, and in response, Gaara allowed a small smile to grace his features. But Gaara wasn't the only person smiling in response to Naruto's positive attitude; Sakura too allowed a small, proud grin to grace her delicate features as she stared at her lover and hokage.

"This meeting is adjourned!" Naruto said finally, enticing everyone to finally stand to leave, but not before bowing to their blonde hokage respectfully.

* * *

**A/N: **Well, I figured I'd get this chapter in now, just shortly after christmas. Sorry for the delay, and I hope you enjoy the chapter ^_^


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