Chapter 5

Neji awoke with a heavy intake of breath. He scanned his environment, and he recognized it as the battlefield he had died on. When he looked down at his clothes, they still had holes in the areas where he was impaled.

"What is going on? I know I was killed." Neji thought as he slowly stood up. "I was talking with my father, then suddenly I'm back here."

Neji started to walk around. He spotted many other confused shinobi in the same position as him. They were positive they died, but then how are they back in the land of the living.

As Neji walked a sudden thought came to his mind.

"Hinata-sama! I must find her and make sure she's alright," Neji thought.

But just as Neji was about to take off running he heard someone call out to him.

"Neji-niisan! You're Alive!"

When Neji spun around, he was met with a crushing hug from Hinata.

"I can't believe you're alive." Hinata said as she cried tears of joy into Neji's shoulder.

Neji, never having been really good with emotions, awkwardly wrapped his arms around Hinata.

"How are you alive niisan?" Hinata asked her head still on his shoulder.

"I-I don't know. One second I was talking with my father, then the next I'm back here." Neji said as Hinata released him from the hug.

"It must have something to do with Naruto-kun." Hinata said as she felt Naruto's chakra approaching.

"Naruto, so he did it after all." Neji said as he turned around.

On the horizon three figures approached, as the rising sun framed their figures. The heroes of the shinobi world had returned. But wait, where was the fourth?

Naruto helped support Sakura as they walked back towards the battlefield. As they slowly made there way back Naruto and Sakura were discussing a few things.

"So are we gonna tell people right away?" Sakura asked as she leaned her head against Naruto's.

"Tell them about what?" Oh Naruto had matured, but his denseness still was very present.

"I'm talking about us being together, you baka!" Sakura yelled as a vein bulged on her head, but she couldn't help the smile that spread on her face.

"Ugh Naruto, you'll never change. But that's one of the things I love about you." Sakura thought as she pulled Naruto a little closer.

"W-well I don't..." Naruto started to say, but he stopped dead when he noticed something he had missed before.

"Naruto what's wrong?" Sakura asked wondering why he stopped mid-sentence.

Then Sakura noticed Naruto was trying to avert his gaze, while he was trying to fight off a massive blush. When Sakura followed his gaze, she was mortified at what she saw. There was still a gaping hole from where Sasuke had stabbed her, and her left breast was clearly visible through the opening.

Sakura let out a loud 'eep' before she quickly let go of Naruto and covered her self up.

"Oh my Kami, I'm so embarrassed." Sakura thought as her face turned beat red.

"He was gonna see eventually, so what's the big deal." Inner Sakura said with a dirty smirk.

"They're bigger than I thought they'd be." Naruto thought as he tried to pry his eyes away. "Oh shit, I better act fast, or Sakura is gonna kill me."

Acting quickly Naruto took off his tattered orange jacket and handed it to Sakura.

Just as Sakura was about to pummel Naruto, she saw him take off his jacket.

"Here take it." Naruto said as he looked another way.

"Well at least he's not a total perv." Sakura thought with a smile, as she took the jacket and put it on.

Both still red-faced they turned to see Kakashi staring at them with a red streak in his mask.

"SENSEI!" They both shouted knocking Kakashi out of his perverted thoughts.

"Huh, what?" Kakashi said, but before he could continue he felt a fist impact his stomach. But the punch didn't come from Sakura.

As he clutched his stomach Kakashi looked up to see Naruto looking back at him with anger visible in his eyes.

"I can handle your normal perversion sensei, because to be honest I'm not much better. But if I ever see you looking at Sakura-chan like that again, I won't hold back next time." Naruto said as he got in Kakashi's face to make his point clear.

"S-sure thing Naruto." Kakashi said as he rapidly nodded his head.

"Note to self, NEVER piss off Naruto ever again." Kakashi thought as he stood up, still holding his stomach.

"Wow I never thought Naruto would stand up to Kakashi-sensei like that." Sakura thought with a smile on her face.

Naruto walked back over to Sakura, and let her lean on him again as they continued to walk.

After walking for what seemed like hours the sun was starting to rise. As Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi walked over the crest of a hill they were met with the sight of thousands of shinobi waiting for them.

Instantly the three of them were surrounded, as the shinobi alliance cheered and congratulated the returning heroes. Naruto and Sakura were quickly separated from Kakashi as they made their way through the crowd. As they walked Naruto spotted someone he was looking for.

"Neji, Hinata!" Naruto yelled as Sakura and him made their way over.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata yelled as she ran up to Naruto and hugged him.

Sakura looked at the scene with a twinge of jealousy.

"It's alright, she's just happy to see him." Sakura thought as she forced a smile on her face.

"Hey Hinata-chan it's good to see you're okay." Naruto said as he returned her hug.

Hinata sighed happily as she felt Naruto's arms wrap around her. But something felt slightly off about him. She released Naruto and looked him in the eyes, but she was shocked to see a rinnegan in his left eye.

"Naruto-kun why do you have a rinnegan." Hinata gasped as she gazed into the blue rippled pattern eye.

"Well that's a long story, Hinata." Naruto said with a sigh. "Long story short, Sasuke...Sasuke killed Sakura."

Hinata and Neji went wide eyed when they heard this.

"So I went after him, and fought him. I ended up killing him, but I was overcome with grief and didn't know what to do. Then when I looked at Sakura, I remembered that Sasuke had recieved the rinnegan," Naruto said as he felt Sakura's hand intertwine with his. "So I had Kakashi-sensei replace my left eye with Sasuke's rinnegan."

"So it was you who brought all these dead shinobi back to life, myself included." Neji said with a small smile on his face.

"Yeah that was me!" Naruto said with his usual foxy grin. "I wanted to save Sakura, but seeing all those other shinobi. I knew I had to help them too."

"So can you turn the rinnegan off?" Neji asked.

"I don't know, let me try." Naruto said as he stopped channeling chakra to his eye. For a second nothing happened, but after a few moments his eye returned to its normal bright blue color.

"It worked." Sakura said getting lost in Naruto's deep blue eyes.

Naruto was about to say something, but the rest of the Kohona 11 showed up.

"Naruto you bastard, you did it!" Kiba yelled as he playfully punched Naruto in the arm.

"Yeah great job Naruto!" Choji chimed in as he patted Naruto on the back.

"YOSH! You're amazing Naruto-kun! No wonder you're my eternal rival!" Lee yelled giving Naruto a thumbs up.

"You're so troublesome sometimes Naruto, but you really pulled through on this one." Shikamaru said as he offered Naruto a smile.

"Great job Naruto." Sai said with a genuine smile on his face.

"I must concur with everyone else, Naruto. You did an exceptional job." Shino said in his usual monotone voice.

As the remaining Rookie 9 praised and congratulated Naruto and Sakura, Tenten hesitantly made her way towards Neji.

"N-Neji?" Tenten said hesitantly as she walked up to the stoic Hyuuga.

"Yes Tenten it's me, no thanks to Naruto." Neji said as he was once again hugged by a crying Tenten.

"Thank Kami you're alive." Tenten said as she hugged him tighter.

"NEJI! YOU'RE ALIVE!" Lee yelled as he to hugged Neji along with Tenten.

Neji just cringed and accepted the threeway hug.

"Naruto where's Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked looking for the Uchiha. This caused everyone to stop and turn to Naruto.

"Well..." Naruto was about to explain again, but Sakura stepped in front of him.

"That bastard is dead." Sakura said harshly causing Ino and everyone else to gasp.

"W-What!?" Ino said as she tried to fight off tears.

"Don't you dare cry for him!" Sakura yelled causing Ino to flinch. "Did you know that asshole killed me!?"

This caused Ino's eyes to shoot open.

"H-He what?" Ino asked not believing her ears.

"He was gonna try and kill Naruto, all the Kage, and the bijuu," Sakura said as she relived the awful experience. "I tried to talk him out of it, but he wasn't gonna listen to me. He called me annoying, then he stabbed me in the heart with his Chidori." Sakura said as she placed a hand over her heart. "It's only thanks to Naruto that I'm here right now."

"B-But he wouldn't.." Ino was cut off when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Ino-chan I'm sorry that I had to kill Sasuke, but he needed to be stopped. If there was any other way to stop him I would have taken it," Naruto said as he pulled Ino in for a hug. "If you need to cry, do it."

Ino was hesitant at first, but Naruto was being so sincere and kind. So with a loud sob she let out all her grief. The pain of losing her father, then the man she thought she loved came crashing down on her.

As Ino cried into his shoulder, Naruto slowly started rubbing her back.

"Ino-chan I know you're sad now, but there will be a surprise for you back at the village." Naruto said causing Ino to stop crying.

"What do you mean?" Ino said as she wiped her tears.

"You'll see when we get back to the village, but I promise you'll love it." Naruto said with his trademark grin.

Then Naruto looked to Shikamaru.

"The same thing goes for you, Shikamaru. You're in for a surprise when we get back to the village," Naruto said.

"Man this is such a drag." Shikamaru lazily drawled out.

"Well I guess we should look for baa-chan, then make our way back home." Naruto said as he held onto Sakura as he walked.

Sakura never noticed the jealous looks she was getting from Hinata and Ino.