53. Returning to Konoha

"Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sama and the army have arrived in Konoha!" An ANBU agent informed the Sandaime.

Hiruzen smiled immediately after hearing that statement. The aged Hokage reached inside his desk and pulled out his pipe. He proceeded to stand-up from his chair and walk towards the window of his room. He then proceeded to make a gesture with his right hand.

"Thank you very much. Please inform Jiraiya to come over here and deliver his report about the invasion." He requested. "Also, please ask for Anko-san and her team to come with him."

"Of course, Hokage-sama!" The shinobi stated before disappearing in a poof of smoke.

With the shinobi gone, Hiruzen opened the window to his room and looked outside. His eyes were focused on the Hokage Mountain as he lit his pipe and breathed in and exhaled the smoke.

The past few weeks have been incredibly stressful for the Sandaime. Ever since he heard of Anko's involvement in Mizu no Kuni in the Kirigakure Civil War, he had been incredibly stressed about what was the correct action to take. He began second-guessing himself after sending Jiraiya out to the country with an army, wondering if he had made a grave mistake. Today, however, was the day where he can finally relax.

He remained standing by the window, smoking his pipe until he heard a knock on the door. The Hokage turned his head in time to see Jiraiya enter the room. The Sannin was followed by Anko, Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru, and Dosu. Hiruzen smiled as he walked back to his desk.

"Sarutobi-sensei." Jiraiya greeted respectfully as he pulled out a scroll his coat. "I sent a toad with a synopsis of the events of the mission, but I assume you are going to want the full report now."

"I do. And I'm going to want to discuss it with you in detail." He nodded. He then turned his head towards Anko briefly. "Anko-san, when you sent me the message about you getting roped into the Kirigakure Civil War, I must admit, I nearly had a heart attack. You do know what your actions could have done to Konoha if this war ended differently, yes?"

Anko looked down slightly at his comment. While she did not regret her decision to fight in Kibō against Jinpachi's army, she knew about the repercussions and the situation it had put Konoha and the Hokage in. If could have proved disastrous to Konoha if her intervention led to something such as provoking Yagura to lead an assault on Konoha. Everything worked out in the end, but that didn't remove the fact that her actions could have had major consequences for the village.

"… I stand by my actions." She said quietly, yet firmly. "And even if things didn't go as positively as they did during the war, I would have done them again."

"I understand that. And I respect that." Hiruzen noted. His comment caused the jōnin to look up to face him as he continued to speak. "Ultimately, your involvement helped motivate me to send Jiraiya and his army to Kiri to finally do something about the Mizukage's regime. While we can spend time thinking about hypotheticals and how things could have gone right, I am going to focus on all of the things that went right. Job well done, Anko-san."

A proud smile developed on Anko's face: "Thank you, sir!"

"You're not the only ones I should be congratulating, though." Hiruzen turned his head to face Hinata, Shikamaru, and Dosu. "Shikamaru, Hinata, and Dosu; you three handled the situation incredibly well. I would have normally not sent chūnin as fresh as you all, but you were forced into the situation and handled it marvelously." He then turned his head to face to Naruto and smiled. "I took a risk sending you out there, Naruto-kun, and I'm proud with how you were able to handle it. Congratulations to you four. All of you did well."

"Thank you Hokage-sama." Shikamaru, Hinata, and Dosu all said in near unison.

"Yeah, thanks a lot Old Man." Naruto added.

"Based on the brief report Jiraiya had sent me earlier, you all performed well over the standards for chūnin." The Hokage noted with a chuckle. "I'll begin making paperwork. Promotions for you all may come sooner than later." The smile on his face grew as he focused on Naruto. "Especially for you, Naruto-kun. Not many people can say they have killing a kage on their record."

The smile on Naruto's face dropped slightly and the boy shook his head slightly. Hiruzen turned his head slightly in confusion.

"Something wrong?" He questioned.

"There's a few things we need to discuss in person, Sarutobi-sensei." Jiraiya spoke-up, diverting attention to himself. He tossed the scroll in his hands towards the Hokage, who caught it. "Things I wasn't going to risk sending ahead in case if somebody intercepted the message. There's still more to report."

"… I figured there was, but I can tell that this is going to be more serious than I previously had thought it would be." Hiruzen sighed. He sat his pipe down on his desk and opened the scroll. "Then let's see and hear this report, Jiraiya."

'… Much more serious.' The Hokage shook his head.

Hiruzen had finished reading Jiraiya's scroll and listening to the verbal report from him, Anko, Naruto, and the rest of the group. Both reports dropped two major 'surprises' on him that he was having difficulties processing.

The first major surprise was the news of Yagura's survival and the truth about his reign as Mizukage. He understood instantly why this information had to be given verbally; if news such as Yagura's survival were to ever be leaked, Kirigakure could potentially erupt in civil war once again if any of the rebels decided that Mei was wrong for sparing him. The story sounded unbelievable to a degree to him.

However, the explanation that made it believable was tied into the second surprise; Uchiha Madara was still alive. Naruto confessed to him the truths he learned from the Kyūbi about what had truly happened. He then explained that Madara, who had been controlling the fox on that fateful night that killed his successor, was the one who had possessed Yagura and created his bloody reign in Kirigakure.

'I want to question the legitimacy of the Kyūbi's information. It could be trying to deceive Naruto-kun, but I do know that the power of the Sharingan could control it. Madara already displayed that ability before against Hashirama-sensei. He could easily do it again to the fox and probably do it to Yagura. No, the fox is probably right. Naruto apparently confronted his essence when fighting Yagura.' The Sandaime Hokage shook his head and closed his eyes. 'But Madara is alive? That should be impossible. I was certain that my sensei had managed to kill him. Even if he hadn't, Madara should be well past a normal human's life expectancy. Not even an Uzumaki, with their incredible life expectancies, should be alive for as long as he would have to be.'

A thought came to Hiruzen's head as he questioned how Madara could be alive. His eyes widened and a deep frown developed on his face. 'Does he… Has Madara found the secret to immortality? Orochimaru was experimenting with that. If my student could come to close to finding out how, then surely a man like Madara could as well. That man… he's going to try and destroy the world, isn't he?'

"Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen snapped out of his thoughts. Jiraiya, Anko, Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru, and Dosu were still present in the room. All six shinobi were looking at him in concern. The Hokage proceeded to shake his head.

"My apologies. You all just gave me a lot to process." He bowed his head slightly. His eyes then narrowed. "I will honor Mei-san's request and keep Yagura's survival as an S-Rank secret. I will also place that same priority on Madara's existence. I trust the six of you, but keep those facts secret under penalty of death."

The shinobi all nodded their heads. Hiruzen then turned his attention to Naruto and frowned.

"Naruto-kun, I understand that you are going to be uncomfortable taking credit for 'killing' Yagura, but you must accept it." He informed him. "News will travel fast. I'm sure even the civilians here in Konoha will know of it. If you are confronted about it, you can't clam up like that and try to deny it. In doing so, you may place suspicion on the whole event."

"I know, I know. I'm not going to blow the secret." The blonde crossed his hands over his chest. "I'm not going to like it, but I'll keep it a secret."

"You can express your distaste, if you wish." Hiruzen offered. "Say that you felt upset having to kill a jinchūriki, but you must not give anyone the reason to question it."

Naruto gave no verbal reply; he simply nodded his head. Hiruzen proceeded to sigh in response.

"The more troubling thing to me, though, is the fact that Uchiha Madara is somehow alive. Jiraiya, this has become top priority. We'll need to do research on him and his actions." He declared.

"I'm already on it." Jiraiya nodded his head. "I've already sent out toads with messages to my main contacts across the elemental nations, urging them to look into and listen for anything. I was careful with what information they had, but I'm sure if Madara so much as breathes the air, I'll have something on him."

"Good. He is somebody who I do not want to have free reign. He was supposed to be somebody who died long ago and, if he somehow found a way to return to the land of the living, he needs to be killed once again." Hiruzen stated. He then turned his attention to Naruto and allowed a small smile. "As troubling as that news is, I'm incredibly impressed you were able to destroy his essence, Naruto-kun."

"I-" Naruto opened his mouth.

"Take the credit, Naruto." Kurama's voice boomed inside Naruto's head. "I don't know how happy he will be to hear that you relented full control to me for even a moment. Just accept the compliment and move on. You performed well against him when it was just you, anyway."

"… Thanks Old Man. Thanks." Naruto, taking the fox's advice, smiled brightly at the man.

Hiruzen's eyes widened as a realization occurred to him: something he needed to discuss with Naruto.

"Naruto-kun, by the way, I should inform you that your rent at your apartment was due while you were away." The Hokage informed him with a chuckle.

"… It was? Oh, shit." Naruto mumbled, rubbing the back of his head uneasily. He had honestly forgotten about the day of the month when he headed out to Uzushiogakure, let alone when he was rushed out to Mizu no Kuni right after. "Um… I-I assume the landlady is okay with me paying a little late, right? I mean, I was on a mission! She's gotta understand!"

"That depends on the person, Whiskers." Anko commented with a sigh. "However, it's usually considered the custom that shinobi pay for their rent before going out on a long-term mission. I paid for mine in advance before the mission, for example, just in case the mission extended for longer."

"I did the same." Dosu added.

Hinata and Shikamaru, both living on their clans' estates, couldn't comment on the situation. However, the two of them looked at Naruto in concern.

"You should probably go talk to her right away, Naruto." Shikamaru suggested.

"I… um… yeah…" He gulped.

"Relax, Naruto-kun. I already took care of it for you." The Sandaime Hokage spoke, laughing slightly. The sigh of relief from the blonde was instantaneous, causing him to laugh. "I actually took care of it in a different way, though. I hope you don't mind, but I moved you to a new location."

"What?" Naruto's eyes widened. "Y-You moved me? Where do I live now?"

"It's an old building and hasn't really been used in much recent years, but it got a few new residents recently, so I figured it would be a fine place for you." Hiruzen said with a smile. "Jiraiya, can you please escort Naruto and his friends to the Uzumaki Clan estate so they can see it?"

Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru all gaped at the statement.

"Uzumaki Clan estate?" Hinata repeated the name in shock.

"Where is that?"

"I… I have an estate?" The blonde questioned.

"It's been out of use for many years, but it's finally being used again. I'm sure you will enjoy it." The Hokage said with a smile.

'I have an estate? An actual family estate?' Naruto repeated the thought in his head.

"You said that there were other residents there." Dosu noted. "Do you actually have others living there?"

"You'll see." The Hokage said dismissively. "Jiraiya, escort everyone over there please."

Jiraiya nodded in understanding. The six shinobi in the room proceeded to leave the Hokage's office, leaving Hiruzen alone. The man waited a few seconds before picking up his pipe and lighting it again. His mind returned its focus back to Uchiha Madara.

"I am too old for this shit." Hiruzen told himself as he breathed out smoke.

'And this time, I mean it. It's time this hat had a new owner…' He made a mental note.

Jiraiya escorted Naruto and his friends towards the Hokage mountains. After about twenty minutes of walking through the village towards the mountains, the road started to look a little more archaic. The buildings began to look a little older and less-and-less people were seen walking down the road.

"You know, I don't think I've been this way in Konoha." Anko commented nonchalantly as she looked around. "No reason to. Does anybody actually live out here?"

"Only a few people do. It used to be booming at the beginning of Konoha's foundation, according to what I heard." Jiraiya responded with a shrug. "In addition to the Uzumaki clan, the Senju clan compound was in this direction."

No one else said a word as they focused on walking. Another five minutes passed by before they reached a red, wooden gate with the Uzumaki 'swirl' clan symbol printed on the top. A small series of old, clan-style buildings could be seen behind the building. The buildings were painted dark blue, but the paint seemed faded on some buildings. One building, the building closest to the gate, however, looked as if the paint had just been applied earlier that morning.

"Is this it?" Naruto's eyes were wide as he looked from building-to-building.

"Yup. It's not as big as either the Uchiha compound or the Hyūga compound is, but both clans added on to theirs." Jiraiya commented with a sad smile. "Honestly, I haven't been to this place since Kushina lived here when she was growing up."

Realization seemed to dawn on Naruto's face. His eyes widened further.

'Mom grew up here when she moved here…' A smile developed on his face. 'I'm home, Mom.'

"Hokage-sama said he moved you in, right Naruto?" Shikamaru spoke-up. Naruto turned his attention to his friend and nodded. "Guess we can explore a little bit and try to find your room."

"You all do that." Jiraiya stated as he started to turn to walk away. "I got some other things I need to discuss with the old man, so I'll catch you all later."

The group said their goodbyes to Jiraiya before turning their attention to the compound. Naruto led the way and opened the door to the first building; the one with fresh-paint.

The building's opening room was, surprisingly, furnished. There were several scrolls hanging on the walls, each of them with various different seals. The room itself was relatively large that had three hallways, one on each wall. The tatami mat floor of the room was also durable and looked as if it had not been old and unused.

"If this is how good the condition of the place is when it's not being used, I wonder what it would've been like being used." Shikamaru mumbled to himself.

"Recall that Hokage-sama said something about other residents." Dosu reminded the Nara. "We should probably expect that the building looks nice due to them."

"I wonder who they are." Hinata commented as she brought her hand to her face, as if trying to process the answer.

Naruto was about to respond, but a faint sound entered his ears. He could hear it coming from one of the hallways. It sounded as if somebody was playing the flute. A grin developed on his face as he quickly turned to the hallway to the left and start running down the hall.

"I know who else is here!" He exclaimed.

Hinata, Shikamaru, Dosu, and Anko rushed behind him. Naruto ran through the hallway, making sure not to knock anything over. After a few seconds, he found the door where the noise seemed to be coming from. He opened the door and entered what appeared to be a bedroom.

The bedroom had the walls painted a lighter shade of blue. It was incredibly messy with various scrolls and sheets of music scattered on the floor. There was a brown desk in the corner of the room that had more sheet music on it and a hand drawn picture of a young girl with what appeared to be her parents. Sitting on the bed was the presumed occupant of the room, Uzumaki Tayuya. The young woman was practicing her flute, focusing all of her attention on it and the sheet music she was reading from.

"Tayuya-nee!" Naruto called out her name.

Naruto's shout caused the kunoichi to mess-up; she produced an incredibly sharp note from her flute. The note was enough to shock her from her practice. She looked up from her music and glared at Naruto.

"What the fuck? I'm trying to-" Tayuya's words cut short as she realized who exactly she was talking to. A grin developed on her face. "Hey! Naruto!"

She quickly placed her flute down on the stand where she was reading her music from and walked towards the blonde. The two shared a brief hug for a moment. This allowed Naruto's friends to catch up to them. Hinata and Shikamaru eyed the girl out of curiosity, Dosu seemed surprised to see her, and Anko appeared to be making an effort to keep her face neutral.

"How's it going? I didn't know you'd be living here!" He exclaimed.

"Course I would be. I'm an Uzumaki!" She replied with a grin. "How'd that mission go? The Hokage informed me that he sent you out on one after we gave our debrief from Uzushio."

"That's… a long story to explain." Naruto shrugged in response. He then gestured over to his friends by the door. "Guys, I'd like you to meet my cousin, Tayuya. Tayuya-nee, this is Shikamaru, Dosu, Anko-sensei, and Hinata-chan!"

"Yo!" Shikamaru greeted, waving his hand.

"Hi there." Hinata bowed politely.

"Whoa, no need to bow." Tayuya chuckled. "Nice to you meet you two. Naruto told me a lot about you two on the way to Uzushio." She then turned her head to face Hinata and a smug grin developed on her face. "A lot of things about you, mind you."

The Hyūga's cheeks brightened red at the comment. Naruto quickly shook his head.

"Hey, I talked to her already, so you can't tease me about that anymore!" He stated quickly.

"I can tease you about anything whenever the hell I want to." His cousin retorted. "Still, props on you for growing some balls and talking to her." Tayuya's grin grew as a blush had now developed on Naruto's face. She then turned to face the other friends in the room. Her eyes narrowed on Dosu. "You… You look familiar. You wouldn't happen to have been from Oto?"

"Formerly, yes. As were you." Dosu noted bluntly.

"Yup." Tayuya replied. "Heh. Good to see another person managed to move on. Good for you. Nice to properly meet you."

"Nice to meet you." He replied curtly. "I had heard a lot about you back in Oto."

"Probably not many good things, am I right?" She questioned. When Dosu did not answer, she took that as a sign of affirmation and snorted. "I had a reputation of being a bitch there. I was proud of that, mind you. Oto was filled with a bunch of jackasses, so who cares what they thought."

"I thought you would've still been in prison, Tayuya." Anko commented. "Not to be rude, but how did you convince the Hokage to allow you to leave?"

"The Uzushio mission was part of some assessment that Jiraiya was doing on my character. Before going to the mission in Mizu no Kuni, he gave the man a positive report that I wouldn't be a threat to Konoha." Tayuya answered with a shrug. "I was supposed to get released and allowed to move-about in Konoha in about a week or two. However, that process ended up occurring a lot faster than it was supposed to."

"What made it go by faster?" Naruto asked.

"A certain someone argued for me and got me out." Tayuya proceeded to chuckle. "A certain man who was pretty pissed that one of his few blood relatives was missing from the village and the other was locked up."

Naruto's eyes widened immediately after that statement: "W-Wait, is he-"

Just as he was about to ask his question, the sound of approaching footsteps filled the area. Naruto turned around and walked out of the room. His friends, along with Tayuya, did the same. They saw Uzumaki Masakado approaching, yawning.

Masakado appeared different than Naruto had recalled; the man seemed to have finally taken care of his appearance. His long, unruly red hair had now been cut and stylized, looking both shorter and styled into a ponytail. His clothes were clean and no longer covered in holes and tears. His overall body looked cleaner, as if he had finally started taking care of himself. However, he was still wearing the Uzushiogakure forehead protector over his forehead.

"Tayuya, what the hell was up with that noise? Were you running back-and-forth for some reason? I was trying to take a nap!" Masakado grumbled, rubbing his eyes slightly.

"Masakado-jī-san!" Naruto exclaimed.

The voice snapped Masakado out of his tiredness. Naruto rushed forward to him and basically tackled him into a hug. The former Uzukage looked completely stunned by the action, but after a few seconds, a smile developed on his face as he returned the hug.

"Naruto, you're back. It's good to see you!" He said politely.

Hinata, Shikamaru, Dosu, Anko, and Tayuya had rushed over to their side. Anko, in particular, was gaping at the man in front of her.

'That's Uzumaki Masakado. That's him. That's one of the world's leading experts in fūinjutsu.' She realized. '… Holy shit!'

"When did you get here, Masakado-jī-san?" Naruto questioned as he broke the hug.

"About a week after you all left Uzushio. Just a few days after you left for your civil war." Masakado said with a chuckle. "Yeah, I was pretty pissed when I found out I missed you. Even more pissed when I found that Tayuya was being treated like a criminal here!"

'Technically, she was.' Anko mentally corrected him. She did not vocalize her correction, however. Being in the presence of the Sandaime Uzukage intimidated her.

"That's an understatement." Tayuya snorted. "Didn't you get into a scream fest with the Hokage?"

"You yelled at the Hokage?" Hinata's eyes widened at the statement. 'And he didn't get in trouble?'

"In my defense, that was more so me ranting about my grievances with Konoha and not helping us. I had a lot of shit I needed to get out." Masakado admitted with a sigh. "… Also, I wouldn't call that a 'scream fest'. Hiruzen just simply took it. After I was done and calmed down, I almost felt bad for the old monkey. I think I aged him a couple years with that, and since he's close to my age, I know that's something he didn't need."

"Yeah, you shouldn't do that to somebody." Tayuya replied, smirking slightly. "You're old as dirt. You shouldn't make somebody feel that old."

"Go screw yourself." Masakado rolled his eyes. He then turned his attention to the people around her; Naruto's friends. "So, who are these people?"

Naruto quickly introduced the aged-Uzumaki to his friends. They all greeted him politely, which he returned with equal politeness.

"You all were on a tour of this place, right?" Masakado questioned. "I can show you all around, if you want."

"You know this place well? Are you living here too, Masakado-jī-san?" Naruto asked excitedly.

The former Uzukage nodded his head, smiling lightly.

"You all convinced me after you left Uzushiogakure." Masakado admitted with a sad smile. "I… It was so nice to finally have family. I missed that. I hadn't had real connection and time like that in over twenty something years. Once I had even just a taste of it, I missed it. So, after debating about it for a few days, I decided to finally try and put the past to rest for a little while and spend time with what little family I have left." The man let out a laugh. "I think my arrival here gave Hiruzen a shit ton of paperwork, but a kage is a glorified secretary anyway. He was able to take care of it."

Naruto seemed to ignore the man's joke and focused on everything else he had said. A warm smile developed on his face.

"I'm glad you decided to come, jī-san." He said.

"And I'm glad I came." The man replied with a smile.

A few seconds passed by before Shikamaru proceeded to cough. Masakado quickly remembered the presence of Naruto's friends and started to walk forward.

"Anyway, if you all were getting a tour of the place, let me show you all around. I can probably show you all everything, including your room Naruto." He commented.

"That'd be great!" Naruto grinned as he and his friends began to follow.

"While you show us around, Naruto-kun can tell you all about Honoka!" Hinata suggested with a smile.

"Ah! You're right Hinata!" The blonde exclaimed, a grin developing on his face.

"Who is Honoka?" Tayuya questioned as she started to walk and follow the group.

"Guess I gotta tell you two about the other Uzumaki we ended up meeting in Kiri!" Naruto answered.

Both Masakado and Tayuya immediately turned their full attention to Naruto: "What?"

"I'm back, Sarutobi-sensei." Jiraiya greeted the Hokage as he entered his office through the open window.

The Hokage shook his head, chuckling slightly: "The moment you lost your company, you enter the room that way. Can't you be a respectable person all the time and just use the door?"

"Eh, it's more fun this way." The Sannin shrugged.

Hiruzen let another chuckle out. He placed his pipe back down on his desk as Jiraiya walked forward and stood in front of him. A serious expression then developed on both of their faces.

"So, you finished reading my scroll, I take it. Do you agree to the stipulations Mei-san put in our alliance?" He requested.

"I don't see why I would disagree!" Hiruzen exclaimed. "She was incredibly generous with her requests and even gave us stuff, such as plenty of ryō and even one of the seven swords passed down to the Seven Swordsmen. The fact that we can point to Anko-san as a member of the organization is incredible."

Jiraiya nodded his head in agreement: "It is. She did well during that whole mission. She's definitely grown as both a shinobi and as a person since the days of Orochimaru being her instructor."

"Orochimaru… it's unfortunate things went the way they did with him." Hiruzen sighed. "I still wish we could have done something about him. But, considering everything that has happened, I'm glad that he has finally been put down." His eyes narrowed. "However, now there's a bigger threat: Madara."

"I understand. As I said earlier, I'm already preparing everything possible to get any information about his whereabouts and actions." Jiraiya informed his former sensei. "We'll track him down and kill him."

"Good." The Hokage sighed.

Hiruzen closed his eyes for a moment. His hand went to his hat and he put it down on the desk, feeling as if he had taken off a physical weight that had been attached to his body. The man proceeded to let out another sigh.

"Jiraiya, it's time for me to settle down again. The Suna Invasion, dealing with Orochimaru, the Kirigakure Civil War news, and now news about Madara… I don't think I've felt older in my entire life." He admitted with a frown. "I took back the hat when Minato passed away, but it's time I finally return to my retirement and let new leadership to take over."

A frown developed on Jiraiya's face and the man started to feel uncomfortable in the room.

"Who are you thinking of choosing for a successor?" He asked.

"… In a perfect world, I have two ideal candidates." Hiruzen sighed again. "You should know who I would be referring to."

"… Heh." Jiraiya shook his head slightly and forced a smile on his face as he started to walk towards the door. "Well, I can go on a mission for you if you want and try to get Tsunade to come back here. Maybe she'll take the position."

"Jiraiya, while I wouldn't object to Tsunade being the Hokage, you know very well that you are also a candidate." The Hokage noted with a frown. "You should also know that you'd be my ideal candidate."

"Yeah, well, I don't think I'd be the ideal choice." The Sannin said dismissively.

"Jiraiya." Hiruzen said the man's name sternly.

Jiraiya stopped walking. He turned his head and looked back to Hiruzen. The Sandaime Hokage was looking at his former student with narrowed eyes. He pulled out a scroll and tossed it to Jiraiya. The man proceeded to catch it.

"Tomorrow, I want you to go out to find Tsunade and bring her back. I know you've kept tabs on her location and know where she should be. Have her read that scroll and she will come back without a fight." Hiruzen informed him sharply. His eyes narrowed even further. "And when you both are here, I would like to speak with you both. And after our conversation, one of you will understand and take the hat from me."

Jiraiya did not say anything for a moment. He simply looked down to the scroll. A few seconds passed by before he let out a chuckle and opened the door to the office.

"Well, I'll come back with Tsunade then. After that… well, we'll see." He replied before leaving.

Hiruzen remained standing as Jiraiya closed his door. Nearly a minute passed before he sighed once again and took his seat. His eyes proceeded to focus on the Hokage's hat.

'Jiraiya, Tsunade; I like to think I haven't asked you two for too much in life. Please; one of you… take the hat from me.' He silently pleaded.

It didn't take long for Naruto to explain Honoka to both Masakado and Tayuya. Both Uzumaki were excited to hear that they had another family member alive and well in Kirigakure and were both incredibly proud to hear that she had become a member of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure. Tayuya had grumbled something about her not being with the family, but the two accepted the news about Honoka with great happiness.

After the explanation, Masakado showed the group around the compound. He showed them where the extensive kitchen, dining hall, study, and other rooms throughout the building were. He showed them a room he had placed in the building where he kept a record of the genealogy of the Uzumaki clan, descended from the Rikudō Sennin to the modern generation. He also showed them the other bedrooms, including Naruto's rooms. All of his belongings from his apartment were still present. Hiruzen had, indeed, moved him out!

Masakado admitted that he was doing renovations on the other buildings, but he claimed that he would be done hopefully before too long. He was frustrated to see the poor condition the estate had been in and has made it his current focus to repair it and repair the image of the Uzumaki in Konoha. Naruto offered to assist with the repairs, which Masakado immediately accepted. They immediately made plans to work the next day on them.

With the tour done, Naruto decided that he wanted to go eat ramen. Tayuya and Masakado remained at the compound, but Naruto and his friends hurried over to Ichiraku's Ramen. The blonde was salivating as Teuchi served him his first bowl.

"I have been missing this stuff for way too long." Naruto exclaimed as he quickly brought his miso ramen to his mouth and inhaled it. Within seconds, he finished the bowl and signaled for another bowl. "The ramen in Mizu no Kuni wasn't bad, but it just doesn't compare to here."

"I'm glad to hear that." Teuchi stated with a chuckle. "It's good to have you here, Naruto. It hasn't been the same with you gone."

"And it hasn't been the same without my ramen!" Naruto replied with a chuckle.

"Really, though, things have changed here." Dosu commented as he ate his bowl of shrimp ramen slowly. "Masakado-san seems like a polite man."

"He's mellowed out a bit since when I first met him." Naruto admitted. "I'm glad, though. I like that he seems to be a little bit better."

"I'm just glad you have more family here." Hinata admitted with a smile as she pushed her now-empty bowl to the side.

"And you now have a clan estate." Shikamaru noted as he picked at his food, not really eating much of it.

"Family…" A small smile developed on Naruto's face. "I got family, yeah. I have people I can come home to."

Anko bit her lip, resisting the urge to comment. Instead, she turned her attention to her own bowl of miso ramen and started eating.

"Speaking of family, I probably need to be heading out." Shikamaru said as he pushed his mostly-uneaten bowl to the side. "It's been a while since I've seen my mom and dad. I need to go see how they are doing."

Hinata nodded her head in agreement: "I should probably do that too. I've been meaning to go see father and my sister for a while."

Her mention of her family immediately caused Naruto lose his appetite. Teuchi came by and placed the bowl in front of him and Naruto made a signal to him, suggesting this was going to be his last bowl.

"Y'know… I-I probably should go too with you then. I need to talk to your dad about, well, us…" Naruto mumbled as he quickly started to shove his bowl of miso ramen down his throat.

"You want to ask him now?" Hinata turned her attention to him in surprise.

"Hmm?" Naruto finished his bowl and looked at the Hyūga in confusion. "Is now not a good time?"

"Oh no, now's fine!" The Hyūga shook her head. "I had just thought you wanted to wait a little bit."

"You going to do the standard 'Can I date your daughter' thing?" Anko questioned as a teasing smirk developed on her face. "Heh. Hiashi's a well-known killjoy. Have fun with that conversation."

"He's my father, Anko-sensei." Hinata frowned in response. "I'm sure he'll be understanding and accepting."

"Heh… y-yeah." Naruto mumbled uneasily.

With those words, Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru paid for their food, said their goodbyes, and proceeded to walk off in different directions; Shikamaru towards his clan estate and Naruto and Hinata to her estate. Dosu and Anko remained sitting, eating one more bowl of ramen each.

"It's weird listening to them talk about families." Dosu admitted with a shrug, putting his chopsticks down. "I don't have any family in general and I have no friends that I did not have on the mission. I suppose where life will have changed for them, life in this village will remain the same."

"You just became a shinobi here, though. Give it time and you'll make more friends. Then you two can join them and talking about seeing what has changed here in Konoha when away on a mission." Anko snorted. She put her chopsticks down as well and gave Dosu a serious look. "… By the way, since Naruto isn't here, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Anko-taichou." He replied.

"Okay, first; we are not on a mission." The jōnin reminded him. "You don't have to call me –taichou anymore if you don't want."

"Sure thing, Anko-taichou." Dosu repeated the expression with a small smile on his face.

"… You think you're so funny, don't you?" Anko shook her head, resisting the urge to laugh. "Anyway, what have you exactly heard about Uzumaki Tayuya when you were in Oto?"

"A couple of things." He commented as he brought his hands to his face in thought. "She was higher up in Orochimaru's service than me and most of the people I interacted with, so a lot of people I knew were jealous of her. My own squad mates, Kin and Zaku, despised her. Kin was jealous that she was the first kunoichi to enter Orochimaru's Sound Four while Zaku, due to some innate misogyny he had, simply thought she was a bitch."

"But is that all you got on her?" Anko continued to question.

"Honestly, yes. I've only had maybe two personal interactions with her back in Oto and they barely stand out in my mind." The boy shrugged. He gave Anko an inquisitive look. "Any particular reason you are asking? Do you think badly of her?"

"… Honestly, sorta." The jōnin admitted with a sigh. "I don't know what you know about my time with Orochimaru, but I don't know how much I can willingly trust somebody who was that high-up in his organization and someone who did not leave him willingly."

"I wouldn't inherently call Tayuya a loyal person to Orochimaru." Dosu spoke-up. "One more thing that I can comment on about her is that it was well-known that the members of the Sound Four weren't inherently loyal to Orochimaru. I'd say only Jirōbo was, as well as Kimimaro if you counted him." A small chuckle escaped the boy's lips. "She, Kidōmaru, and Sakon and Ukon, however, were only working for Orochimaru for blatantly other motives. That was another reason why most of the foot soldiers did not like them. They weren't fully loyal to Orochimaru and had his best interests in mind, as far as they were concerned."

"I can believe that, but I still don't like the fact that she stayed working with him for that long and didn't try and quit." Anko frowned. "I just don't know if I can trust her."

"That's understandable. I don't know how trustworthy of a person she is." Dosu commented. He let a small frown develop on his face. "However, Naruto seems to trust her and, while I don't know if she'll be loyal to Konoha, she seems loyal to Naruto and the Uzumaki. I got that impression from her during our conversation with her."

"So you don't think she'll ever do anything to Naruto?" Anko questioned.

"Based off my own intuition, I believe so. She seemed to have a good relationship with him." Another chuckle managed to escape Dosu's lips. "Naruto-san has that type of effect on people. He seems to bring people towards him and make them want to be his friend."

"… Heh." Anko let out a chuckle as well. "That's something I can agree with you on at the moment at least. That kid has some incredible charisma and is just a nice, good-meaning person. He'll make a great Hokage one day."

Anko's and Dosu's conversation turned a lot more casual and friendly as they finished their final bowls of ramen. It took them a few minutes before they finally paid and went off on their separate ways towards their apartments.

Shikamaru walked through the streets of Konoha on his way back to his home. His eyes wandered back-and-forth from building to building. Most of Konoha seemed to have been repaired since the invasion. Construction had seemingly stopped in the areas he was walking through. Everything looked the same as it had prior to the Chūnin Exams and the invasion.

The Nara also paid attention to every person that he passed. Everyone, whether civilian or shinobi, was going along with their day as if nothing had happened. There was an overwhelming sense of sameness rushing through his body as he took everything in.

'It's almost alarming how normal everything is here.' He told himself. 'With all the construction done, it feels like nothing has changed. Everything seems so peaceful.' He then proceeded to let out a small, bitter chuckle. 'It's almost crazy to think that just south of here, a nation was just in a bloody civil war.'

"Oi! Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru looked to the sound of the noise and noticed that he was just passing the barbeque restaurant, Yakiniku Q. Sitting at a table outside the restaurant was Team Ten: Chōji, Ino, Shino, and their sensei, Asuma.

A smile developed on Shikamaru's face as he focused on Chōji. He walked over towards them.

"Yo, Chōji. How are you doing?" He greeted his old friend.

"Doing great. Just getting some good food after a long training session." Chōji replied with a warm smile on his face. "It's great to see you again, Shikamaru. I was getting worried about you being gone for so long."

"Yeah, I've been gone for way too long." Shikamaru let out a sigh. He then briefly turned his head to face the other three shinobi at the table. "Good to see you all too."

"Glad to see you got home safely from the mission." Asuma commented with a smile. "We have room for one more, if you want to join us."

"Thanks, but I really got to see my parents." The Nara shrugged.

"Understandable." Shino nodded his head. "If I were away for so long, I would also-"

"Shikamaru, is it true?" Ino questioned, interrupting her teammate.

The chūnin blinked in response at her question: "Huh?"

"That Naruto killed the Mizukage!" Ino exclaimed. "Is it true? It can't be true, can it? I mean, Naruto's just a chūnin and the Mizukage was, well, the Mizukage! He can't possibly have done it!"

Ino appeared as if she was going to go on, but Shikamaru's mind seemingly stopped at her statement. She already knew about information?

"How do you know about that?" He questioned, a frown developing on his face.

"News travels quickly, Shikamaru-san." Shino spoke-up. "How do I know this? The shinobi that were sent on the Mizu no Kuni mission arrived and briefly started sharing information to close confidants. And if any information is leaked, even for a little bit, Ino will surely find out."

"I've got connections. When there is gossip to be heard, I'll know it before anybody else." The blonde said smugly. A second passed by before she noticed the phrasing to Shikamaru's question; 'how do you know about that'. Her eyes widened immediately. "Wait, so it actually did happen? Like literally?"

Shikamaru nodded his head in confirmation: "Naruto had some help, with the Godaime Mizukage and another shinobi backing him up, but he played a part in killing him, yeah."

"HOLY SHIT!" Ino nearly shrieked, her eyes wider than they had ever been. "That's, um, that's… well… WOW…"

The news had stunned her; she was expecting to get some type of joking comment from Shikamaru and her to go out and refute the rumors that she had heard. Apparently, the rumors were true. Someone in her graduating class, a former dead last even, had managed to kill the Mizukage.

"Wow…" Chōji mumbled to himself, looking downward slightly. "Naruto's in our graduating class. To think he could go head-to-head with a Kage…"

"Shikamaru-san, what was your sensei's training regime?" Shino questioned, getting the Nara's attention. "Why I ask? I'm now seriously considering trying to up my own personal regime so I don't fall too far behind from your team."

"Anko-sensei had a pretty hellish training system when we started and it only got worse as we moved along. You sure about that?" Shikamaru questioned.

"More than sure." Shino nodded his head in affirmation. "You already proved yourself superior to me during the Chūnin Exams. Therefore, I cannot allow you and your team to get too far ahead of myself and the rest of my team."

"Yeah." Chōji nodded his head in agreement. "It's serious business from now on. Sasuke got promoted to chūnin from Team Seven and your whole team got promoted. And now, you all apparently did great work on a tough mission… and Naruto managed to…" The Akimichi shook his head for a moment. "We're behind. We're way behind and we need to catch up."

'Heh. Guess some good came out of this.' Asuma chuckled.

The jōnin had heard the information being spread about the mission to Mizu no Kuni and, thanks to Kurenai being sent on the mission as well, he knew that they weren't rumors. He didn't enjoy Ino taking the chance to gossip about it with others. However, seeing the confirmation of the information seemed to have dumbfounded Ino and apparently ignited a spark in Chōji and Shino; a spark that he had been trying to ignite for a while.

'They're behind for now, but they won't be for too long.' He told himself.

"I just can't believe it is all true… yeah, Chōji's right. We suck compared to you all." Ino mumbled, her mind still trying to process everything.

"Well, if you just look at Naruto being a part of killing the Mizukage, then yeah, I guess we all look good." Shikamaru commented with a shrug.

"Yeah, but I heard things about you and Hinata as well. You both did awesome on the mission too." Ino shook her head, once again. "God, first there's Sasuke-kun and then there's your three. Our graduating class has way too many strong shinobi, it's insane!"

Shikamaru recognized the compliment, but his mind seemingly shut down at the comment Ino made about his success during the mission.

"YOU'RE MY LEGACY TO THIS WORLD!" Karitoriki's voice still screamed in his mind.

"No, that's not true." He shook his head.

"Hmm?" The fire and determination that had been in Chōji's eyes had faded slightly. He looked at the Nara in concern. "Are you alright, Shikamaru?"

"… I'm alright." Shikamaru shook his head. "I'm just kinda tired. I probably am going to head back to my place, say hey to my parents, and pass out."

Shikamaru said his goodbyes to Team Ten before continuing to walk towards his clan's estate.

'I wonder what exactly Ino had heard about my performance on the mission?' Shikamaru shook his head almost immediately after the thought entered his mind. 'Scratch that; I don't want to know.'

His mind almost went back to Karitoriki and his voice. He almost envisioned the man screaming at Shikamaru as he was just about to die. Before he could hear his voice in his head, however, he recalled something else.

"Don't let whatever any douchebag said or whatever happens get you down. Use it all to grow. You're a great person Shikamaru and a great friend and I'm lucky to know you."

A smile developed on Shikamaru's face as he recalled the note Kurotsuchi had written for him.

'She… Kurotsuchi's honest. I have to trust her. Not Karitoriki.' He told himself, shaking his head slightly and resisting the urge to think of the bloodline executioner.

Shikamaru returned his focus back to walking through Konoha. It took him another five minutes before he arrived at his family's estate. He walked inside and headed through the hallways, towards his family's personal kitchen. Inside, Yoshino and Shikaku were sitting down, prepared to eat dinner.

They immediately noticed Shikamaru's presence and stood up. Yoshino rushed forward to her son and pulled him into a hug.

"Your back! Thank goodness!" She exclaimed cheerfully, hugging him tightly. Tears threatened to run down her face. "I… I have to admit, I got worried when I heard Hokage-sama was sending an army to Mizu no Kuni. I was concerned something had happened on your mission. But I'm so glad everything worked out! I'm so glad that you're here Shikamaru!"

"If you can't tell, Shikamaru, your mother was worried about you out there." Shikaku spoke-up as he walked over. He didn't want to break the hug between his wife and son, so he simply put his hand on Shikamaru's shoulder and gave it an affectionate squeeze. "As was I, but you clearly showed us old folks that we shouldn't be stressing out about you, regardless of the mission. Welcome home, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru felt more tears develop in his eyes. He had many things he wanted to talk to his parents about. He wanted to just talk to them about the mission and see what they had to say about Karitoriki. However, finally being with his parents, he simply just wanted to talk to them about nothing in particular and see how they were doing. He was just enjoying being with them and wanted to focus on that before anything else.

"… I'm glad to be back home." Shikamaru smiled as he finally let the tears fall from his face.

"Welcome home, Hinata-sama! It is nice to see you. You too, Naruto-san."

Hinata and Naruto, upon arrival at the estate, were greeted by Neji. The branch clan prodigy had been sitting in the entrance to the building, reading a book when the two arrived. A smile was on his face upon seeing them. He then bowed in their direction.

"Nice to see you as well, Neji." Naruto greeted him.

"Neji-nī-san, it is good to see you." Hinata smiled at her cousin. "How have you been?"

"Very well. Training has gone excellently, both with Hiashi-sama and Gai-sensei." Neji answered. He then let a curious look develop on his face. "I assume the mission was a success?"

"Yeah, it was." Naruto spoke-up with a grin.

"I'm glad to hear that." The branch-clan member commented.

"We were actually wanting to discuss something with my father. Is he free now?" Hinata questioned her cousin.

"Yes, he is. He should just be in his study." Neji said as he started to walk away. "I can lead you both there, if you wish if you want someone to talk to along the way."

"That would be appreciated." Hinata smiled in response to his offer.

Both Hinata and Naruto followed behind Neji as he started to walk towards Hiashi's office. Both Hyūga talked about various manners related to the clan as Neji informed Hinata on the specifics of his training and new developments within the clan. Naruto was unable to properly participate in the conversation, so he simply walked and listened.

During their conversation, however, he noticed Neji would look back to him, as if he was studying him or sizing him up. Confusion developed on the blonde's face.

"Any particular reason you keep staring at me, Neji?" Naruto questioned him.

Neji frowned at Naruto's question and shook his head: "Forgive me. I just can't help but be curious about something Tenten had informed me. Some news and rumors have spread from your mission, so I can't help but be curious to a degree."

"Eh, don't worry about it." The blonde shrugged. The confusion on his face, however, turned into curiosity. "What rumor, though?"

"I'd rather not say. I'd rather not participate in gossip too much." Neji dismissed his question. A small smile developed on his face. "Just know that I've heard good things about you, Hinata-sama, and the other Konoha shinobi. You in particular, Naruto-san."

"Um… that's good?" Naruto replied, his curiosity turning back to confusion. 'What rumor?'

Before he could ask again, the trio arrived at Hiashi's study. The head of the Hyūga Clan was, as Neji had stated, in the room, sitting at his desk and doing some paperwork. Neji took this as his sign to leave. He bowed to Naruto and Hinata before walking off.

Hiashi remained focused on it for a few seconds before finally looking up to greet the arrivals in his room. Upon seeing Hinata in the room, a smile developed on his face as he stood up from his chair and walked forward to her.

"Hinata, I had heard the mission ended and was awaiting your arrival." Hiashi stated. "I'm relieved it went over well and that you are unharmed."

"Thank you, father." Hinata bowed in response to her father's comment.

The Hyūga Clan head placed his hand on his daughter's shoulder. She looked back-up at him for a few seconds before pulling him into a hug. The action surprised him, but he quickly returned his hug.

"I'm proud of you, Hinata. Very few shinobi could have handled a mission that evolved into something as dangerous as yours did. You've done your clan proud, as well as myself and your mother." Hiashi informed her.

"I… Thank you!" Hinata tightened her hold on her father, resisting her urge to cry.

Naruto smiled as he watched the father-and-daughter hug each other. He remained to the side, letting them interact. The thought occurred to him that maybe he should wait outside for them to finish, but as soon as the thought came to his mind, the two Hyūga broke their hug and Hiashi was now looking at him intently in a way that Naruto could not read his emotions or thoughts in any way.

"Uzumaki Naruto, correct? You are my daughter's teammate and friend." He noted.

"Um… yes!" Naruto nodded in affirmation. He was trying his hardest not to sweat under the gaze of Hiashi.

"It is nice to finally meet you. Hinata has told me a lot about you and I am pleased to finally meet one of her teammates that she speaks so highly of." Hiashi greeted him.

"Ah." Naruto blinked for a moment before a smile developed on his face. "It's nice to meet you two."

"Were you just escorting my daughter back home or did you want to discuss something with me?" He questioned.

Naruto's smile nearly dropped at Hiashi's comment. His eyes focused on Hiashi, who had seemingly not changed his facial expression since their conversation started. He had absolutely no read on the man and that scared him.

Seeing Naruto trying to come-up with exactly what he was wanting to say, Hinata proceeded to giggle.

"Naruto-kun mentioned he had something he wanted to talk to you about." Hinata commented, speaking for him.

The blonde's eyes widened almost instantly. 'HINATA-CHAN, DON'T RUSH ME!'

"Okay." Hiashi nodded in recognition. "What do you wish to talk about?"

Naruto took in a deep breath for a moment. He closed his eyes for a second before re-opening them. He calmed himself and narrowed his eyes intently at the man in front of him.

"I was hoping to ask if I would have your permission to date your daughter." He stated.

Hiashi's eyes widened ever-so slightly at the request. Seeing some form of a reaction on his face, Naruto let a small smile develop on his as he started to continue.

"I know you are a traditional person, so I wanted to ask you. Hinata-chan is very important to me. She has always been since the day we first became friends and it's only grown over time." He confessed. He turned his attention towards Hinata's face, his smile growing a little wider. "It took me sometime to really piece together my feelings. I… I wasn't the best with identifying what my feelings were. But after being away when I went to Uzushiogakure and reuniting with her back in Mizu no Kuni, I finally figured them out." He turned his attention back to Hiashi and bowed slightly. "Your daughter means everything to me and, if you are willing, I would really love the honor of being her boyfriend."

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata's cheeks were bright red after Naruto's speech. A wide smile was on her face as she resisted the urge to rush over to him and give him a kiss.

She was in her father's presence, after all. Later though…

Hiashi remained silent for a moment. The shock from Naruto's request seemed to fade and he closed his eyes in thought.

The Hyūga Clan head was not ignorant of his daughter's feelings. He could clearly tell a difference between how she described Naruto to him versus how she described Shikamaru. She had clear feelings for him. He was, however, unaware that Naruto reciprocated those feelings.

'… They've probably already agreed upon a relationship, based off they approached this. He's just asking for the formality's sake.' He noted.

Naruto and Hinata turned their attention to the elder Hyūga, awaiting his response. After a few seconds of silence, the Hyūga opened his eyes and nodded his head.

"I approve of this." He informed them.

A grin developed on Naruto's face: "You do?"

"Thank you father!" Hinata clapped her hands together for a moment before pulling her father in for another hug.

Hiashi returned his daughter's hug: "Hinata, if you wouldn't mind, could you maybe rush to the kitchen and get some tea for us? There should be some already prepared. I would like the chance to enjoy some tea and get to know Naruto-san."

"Sure thing!" The Hyūga heiress broke her hug and smiled brightly at her father. "Once again, thank you!"

Hiashi returned his daughter's smile with one of his own. Hinata quickly bowed before rushing out of the room, having an extra 'skip' to her step. Naruto proceeded to turn around and prepared to follow her.

"You can stay here, Naruto-san. I would still like to talk to you, if you do not mind." Hiashi spoke-up.

Naruto turned around and nodded his head. He proceeded to relax his posture. While he was still going to be respectful towards Hinata's father, now that he had apparently been given his approval, he was no longer worried about being around the man and what he could possibly say or do.

"Naruto-san, I don't really have a question, but I feel I should inform you of something while Hinata's away." Hiashi commented.

"Okay." The Uzumaki nodded his head.

"Hinata… is not the most appreciated person in the Hyūga clan." Hiashi admitted, shaking his head slightly. "I must say, I did not originally help much with her reputation. Hinata did not appear to be the standard Hyūga in regards to the clan's traditions and fighting style. Her attitude towards our traditions, however, has made her a particularly disliked person by some of the elders in the clan. They think her status as heiress to the clan, as well as her attitude towards the branch clan, is a disastrous combination to the order of the clan. Personally, I am okay with her attitudes. They are the beliefs I hold and I have belief that she, along with her cousin, Neji, will be able to change our clan together. However, I assume that the elders will not make life easy for Hinata as she grows as a shinobi and potentially grows into her position of taking over the clan."

"Hmm…" Naruto frowned. He had never met any of these 'elders' before and was uncertain how dangerous they were. However, based on Hiashi's tone, he could feel they were something to be worried about and he was concerned for Hinata.

"The elders aren't your battle, Naruto-san." Hiashi, realizing what Naruto was thinking, quickly spoke-up. "They are for Hinata. And I'm confident in her abilities. However, one thing I have noticed in Hinata's character ever since she befriended you, is that you have been a great source of confidence for her." The man narrowed his eyes on the Uzumaki. "If you really wish to date my daughter, then I ask of only one thing for you; be by her side. Hinata is in the process of potentially changing the Hyūga clan for the better and I want to make sure she remains as strong and confident as possible for her to reach her goals. Please, if you care for her, stay with her and comfort her if she ever needs it."

Naruto immediately nodded his head: "I promise. I meant everything I said; Hinata means the world to me. I'll always be by her side when she needs me."

"I believe that." Hiashi let a small smile grace his lips as he looked at Naruto. "You are a fine man Naruto and I can tell you are going to be an even better shinobi. Take care of my daughter."

"I will." The blonde replied, returning the smile.

"Also, remember; Kyūbi or not, and accepting the possibility of becoming a missing ninja, if you hurt my daughter, I will hunt you down and kill you myself." The Hyūga Clan head commented, still smiling.

His comment caused Naruto's eyes to widen. Hiashi had said that sentence with the same, slightly-cheerful tone he had just been in. He didn't even release any killing intent with the sentence. However, that somehow made the threat even more sinister in his mind.

The blonde's eyes wandered towards a sword that was on a display in the study. He briefly envisioned a scene in his head of Hiashi hunting him down with it. The image brought a shiver to his mind.

"I-I promise to never hurt her." He stated with a slight stutter, the threat still on his mind.

"Good." Hiashi's smile seemed to slightly grow a little wider.

Before either shinobi could say anything, Hinata entered the room. She was holding a teapot in one hand and a tray that had three cups on it in the other.

"Do you need any help?" Naruto questioned as she walked in.

"No thanks, I'm alright." Hinata replied with a smile as she sat down the tray on Hiashi's desk. She then proceeded to pour tea into the three cups.

"Thank you, Hinata." Hiashi told his daughter as he took one of the cups. He brought it up to his lips and made a gesture to Naruto. "Take one, Naruto-san. Let's talk a little more."

The blonde nodded, albeit slightly hesitantly, as he walked over and took one of the cups.

'That went over much better than I thought it would.' Naruto told himself.

Sharing tea with Hiashi ended up being actually pretty fun. The man was stoic, yes, but that wasn't something he was unused to; both Han and Dosu could be pretty stoic when they wanted to be. Naruto quickly figured out which topics he could bring out some form of emotion from Hiashi and he found him enjoyable company. He wasn't fully certain if the man liked him as much as he hoped he did, but he received his approval and had fun with him and Hinata.

After saying goodbye to the Hyūga clan, Naruto walked out of the estate, smiling. He left the building and began to start walking in the direction of his new home, the Uzumaki Clan estate.

"There you are, Naruto."

The Uzumaki turned his head in time to see Sasuke approaching him. Sasuke now wore the Konoha shinobi jacket, but left it unzipped, showing off the black shirt he wore underneath. Other than that, Sasuke still appeared the same to him.

Naruto had to admit, he was not necessarily friends with Sasuke. They never got along at the academy and they had both acted like jerks to each other. However, Naruto was in a good-enough mood after his night with Hinata and Hiashi that he actually smiled and gave proper respect to his former classmate.

"Yo, Sasuke. What's up?" He asked.

"I've been looking for you all day." Sasuke replied with a huff. "You're surprisingly difficult to find. I had to find out that you went to go see the Hyūga Clan head or something from a ramen chef."

"I am? You were?" Naruto blinked in confusion. "Uh… sorry?"

Sasuke grumbled something to himself in irritation before he shook his head. "Forget about it. I just wanted to confirm something from you. Did you kill the Mizukage?"

Naruto's smile dropped at the mention of Yagura. He sighed before nodding his head.

"Yeah. I had some backup, I must admit, but I helped with killing him." He admitted.

"It's true, then. That rumor is true." Sasuke shook his head in disbelief.

When Sasuke had heard the rumor from Sakura, who had heard it from Ino, he could not believe it. While he recognized that Naruto had indeed grown stronger, this was still Naruto that was being talked about. Besides being the former class dead-last of his year until he managed to overtake Kiba at the last second, he was still a chūnin. It seemed impossible that someone of his skill level would be able to take on the Mizukage, of all people.

"How did you grow so strong, Naruto?" The Uchiha questioned. "There's no way you normally should have been capable of that. How did you do that?"

"Training with Anko-sensei and Jiraiya helped." Naruto answered. "It helped especially that I had back-up in the fight, though."

"You had back-up, yeah, but I still just find it hard to believe that you were able to train to a level where you could fight a Kage-level shinobi and not die immediately." Sasuke noted with a smirk on his face. "You found power, Naruto. That's good. You'll only grow stronger from here."

Naruto shook his head. The conversation was starting to frustrate him and he knew it was only going to get worse from here if Sasuke started asking him about the specifics of his training method. He decided to end the conversation and began to walk away.

"Sasuke, I'm kinda tired and I don't want to talk about this. Talk to me some other time." He said dismissively.

"Don't want to talk about it?" Sasuke nearly scoffed at the statement. "Why not? You should take pride in killing someone like the Mizukage. You killed a powerful shinobi and made a name for yourself."

Naruto tightened his hands into fists and grit his teeth. The boy was officially over the conversation and simply wanted it to end. He quickly turned his head back to Sasuke and shook his head.

"I can't take pride in killing someone like me!" He shouted.

Sasuke opened his mouth to reply, but Naruto's sentence dawned on him. He looked over at the blonde in confusion.

"What do you mean 'someone like me'?" He questioned.

Naruto's eyes widened, realizing what he had said. He quickly shook his head in frustration.

'Dammit, me and my mouth.' He cursed at himself. 'How do I explain this?'

"Naruto, what do you mean?" Sasuke took a step-closer to Naruto, his eyes narrowed. "I've been keeping up to date with everything that's happened in Kirigakure, you know? I know a few things about Yagura and I know just what type of person he was. In what ways were you two alike?"

The Uzumaki's eyes widened at Sasuke's declaration. If Sasuke did know anything about Yagura, then he most likely could piece together that he was a jinchūriki if he bothered to think about it.

'Dammit. Why did I say anything? Why?' Naruto continued to curse at himself. '… I guess I have to tell him. I'd rather just say it and see if I can help him not think too badly of me instead of him coming to the realization himself.'

"You know what a jinchūriki is then, right? If you know anything about Yagura, then you know he was one, right?" Naruto questioned.

"Yeah, I know what one is. Yagura had the Sanbi sealed inside of him. What of it?" The Uchiha questioned. Almost immediately after he finished the question, Sasuke realized what Naruto was implying. His eyes widened. "Wait, the Kyūbi?"

Naruto nodded his head, causing Sasuke's mind to run rampant and recall everything he had learned about the nine-tailed fox.

It made sense; Sasuke had to admit that the academy's explanation of the Yondaime Hokage's defeat of the Kyūbi seemed too farfetched. How was it possible to kill a bijū? The Uchiha had accepted it to a degree, believing that Minato was a good enough seal expert that, if it were possible, he would be the person to do it. However, it still always felt odd to him. Naruto had seemingly confirmed his suspicions.

'It also explains Naruto's life growing up.' Sasuke realized. 'He must've been chosen because he was an orphan with no family that would object to it. It explains why people walked past him and why people would give him dirty looks. It explains why some of the teachers at the academy never answered some of his questions. It explains why some restaurants or stores wouldn't service him…'

Naruto looked at Sasuke's expression and sighed: "So yeah, I'm assuming by your silence you figured it out. Yup, I'm the Kyūbi jinchūriki. Now, do you understand why killing Yagura was hard? Because no matter what he has done, he's a person like me who grew up just like me. And it fucking sucks that he ended up becoming the person that he did and that someone like me was forced to put him down."

Sasuke didn't say anything. He remained quiet for roughly a full three minutes. Naruto remained still, watching him. He couldn't get a read off Sasuke's disposition. Eventually, he decided that this had effectively ended their conversation. With a sigh, the blonde started to walk off. This seemed to trigger something in Sasuke, who finally opened his mouth to speak.

"… So you've always been strong then, huh?" He finally commented.

Naruto stopped walking off. He turned around and looked at Sasuke in confusion, urging him to elaborate.

"I've seen the way some of the villagers treated you growing up. I had assumed it was for some pranks you did or something and that you probably deserved it. But it's over something like being a jinchūriki? Something you had no fault in? And something that you're doing that should technically be seen as an honor?" The Uchiha let a smile develop on his face as he looked at the blonde. "If I was hated for that reason, I don't think I'd be able to contain myself. I'd call out the people on their bullshit. You clearly have strength if you can resist that urge."

"Heh." Naruto let a smile develop on his face. "In fairness, I only learned about the reason why when we graduated from the academy."

"My point stands, though. The fact that you still want to be Hokage for a village like this says something about you." Sasuke said, still smiling.

Naruto's smile grew wider at the comment: "Thanks Sasuke."

The Uchiha nodded in recognition of the thanks. A pensive look then crossed his face as he crossed his hands.

"You asked if I understood why it was difficult for you to have to kill Yagura because both of you were Jinchūriki. Honestly, I understand. More than I wish." He commented, a scowl developing on his face. "Because I'm going to have to kill my brother one of these days after everything he did to my family. But, even though I know I'll be able to kill him and will enjoy doing so, I still know that, deep down, there's a part of me that still seems him as my brother."

Naruto nodded in understanding, his smile turning into a frown. He knew about the Uchiha Clan massacre and how Sasuke's brother was responsible for it, but he had never brought the subject up with Sasuke. He knew it was a sore subject for the boy. Naruto remained quiet, giving Sasuke the chance to finally talk about it.

"Wonder if I'm going to be like you when I finally get a chance to kill him?" Sasuke mumbled. "Because like Yagura, he's an evil person with a lot of blood on his hands. And I recognize that. I know he needs to die. I know he needs to die by my hands. But still… it's my fucking brother."

"… What needs to happen will happen." Naruto said, shaking his head.

"I know." Sasuke sighed. "I normally don't like spending too much time thinking about Itachi like this. I'd like to keep thinking about him as my clan's murderer. If I think too much on other things about him, I'll remember the older brother that always seemed to be watching out for me. And while I know I will enjoy killing my clan's murderer, killing my brother is going to be harder…"

"What helps me is the fact that I have friends back here." Naruto commented, finally letting his frown turn back into a smile. "I have Shikamaru and Hinata-chan to talk to and help me get my mind straightened out. And I had Anko-sensei and Dosu and a few others. Talking to friends can help."

"I don't have many friends." Sasuke replied with a shrug.

Sure, he had positive relations with his team, but he wouldn't call any of them friends. Kiba was a friendly rival at best, Sakura was an affectionate stalker at best, and Kakashi was an occasionally wise instructor at best. He had never opened up to any of them and had never felt comfortable opening up to any of them either.

"Well, if you want, when you do fight and kill Itachi, if you are start remembering him like your brother and start having mixed feelings about it, you can always talk to me." Naruto suggested, holding out his hand. "I know we don't always get along Sasuke, but I think I'll understand what you may be going through."

"… You will. I'm sure of it." Sasuke let a smile cross his lips as he took Naruto's hand and shook it. "I'll be sure to come to you."

The two chūnin seemed to finally come to an understanding of one another. No longer were they the 'Dobe' and 'Teme' in each other's eyes; they were somebody that they could talk to.

After a few seconds, Naruto and Sasuke broke their handshake. Naruto then turned around and started to walk back towards his clan's estate.

"I am getting tired, like I said earlier, so I'm probably going to go get some sleep." He told the Uchiha. "If you ever want, though, you can find me usually at Ichiraku's or something. Ask if you ever want to spar or talk or something."

"I'll take you up on that." Sasuke replied with a nod of his head. He stood still, watching Naruto leave, before he decided to speak up: "By the way, Naruto?"

The Uzumaki stopped walking. He turned his head and faced Sasuke.

"I heard that you finally had some Uzumaki's come to Konoha and that you are all living together. Guess you can call them family." He noted. "… From someone who lost his family to someone who's just getting a family, cherish your time with them. You don't know when it'll end, so just enjoy all the time you have."

With that comment, Sasuke waved goodbye before starting to walk off towards his own home. Naruto remained still for a moment, processing Sasuke's words. After a few seconds, a smile developed on his face.

'Sasuke… you really aren't that bad of a guy, huh?' The Uzumaki realized.

Naruto continued to head towards the Uzumaki Clan estate. His talk with Sasuke seemed to motivate him to return home, as he started going noticeably quicker. Within five minutes, he managed to return back to the estate. He entered the main building and was greeted with the sound of arguing.

"For the last time Masakado, shut up! He's going to appreciate it!" Tayuya shouted.

"He literally said he was going to go eat ramen with his friends when he was here. Didn't you catch that?" Masakado yelled in response. "Why the hell would he want more ramen? We should be making something different?"

"Have you ever had a fucking conversation with him? Naruto breathes ramen! He'll want it above anything else we could make!" Tayuya fired-back.

The two Uzumaki proceeded to get in a back-and-forth. Confused by the shouting, Naruto followed the noise until he reached a kitchen-area of the estate. Inside, Tayuya and Masakado were arguing with each. There was a pot situated on a table with some type of broth inside of it. Tayuya was rolling out noodles and Masakado was getting extra ingredients. The two, apparently, were making some type of ramen.

"Guys?" Naruto blinked in confusion.

Both Tayuya and Masakado looked towards Naruto in surprise. They then immediately turned to face each other.

"And he's back before we finished. Fantastic." Masakado shook his head.

Tayuya rolled her eyes in response: "This wouldn't have happened if you just went with my idea in the first place instead of arguing like a little bitch about it for nearly an hour before finally helping me prepare it!"

"What's going on?" Naruto questioned, drawing the attention back to him.

Both Tayuya and Masakado looked back-and-forth from Naruto, themselves, and the food. The two finally turned their full attention to the blonde Uzumaki, smiling lightly.

"Well, we know you just got back and technically moved in, so we wanted to make you something to celebrate the new place for ya." Tayuya answered.

"Like a 'welcome home' present, if you will." Masakado offered. He then proceeded to glare at the kunoichi next to him. "The only issue with that, however, was that Tayuya was insistent on making something that would require more time than something quicker."

"Oh my fucking god, are you really seventy-seven?" Tayuya turned her attention to the former Uzukage. "Cause you're acting like a goddamn seven year old!"

The two seemed as if they were about to argue with each other again, but they stopped at the sound of sniffling. They turned their attention back to Naruto, who was now openly sobbing. Tears of joy were falling down his eyes as a wide-grin developed on his face.

"I… I have a home. I'm finally home." He stated.

Naruto quickly rushed forward to the two Uzumaki and hugged them. Tayuya and Masakado were quick to return his hug, making a family group hug.

The trio eventually broke the hug and continued to work on making some ramen to celebrate Naruto's arrival. Unfortunately, Tayuya made the noodles too hard, Masakado put too much egg in the ramen, and the broth had a weird taste to it that Naruto could not describe.

Still, it was the best ramen he had ever had in his entire life and he got to enjoy it with a family – his family!

"Come in." Hiruzen said.

The door to the Hokage's office opened up and Koharu and Homura entered the room. The advisors to the Hokage bowed to the man and walked over to his side.

"Thank you two for coming. I've been meaning to talk to you both for a little while today." The Hokage admitted.

"Think nothing of it." Homura replied dismissively.

"I actually have to apologize about making you wait this long for me." Koharu replied.

"I understand that it was your granddaughter's birthday, Koharu. No need to apologize. It's why I didn't force you to come earlier." Hiruzen let a chuckle. "I do need to discuss with you both about the events of the Kirigakure Civil War, but I actually have a proposition I want to talk to you both about first."

"What proposition?" Homura questioned.

"As you both are aware, we are old. I certainly am too old for this position, at least." Hiruzen sighed as he pointed to the Hokage's hat, which was still placed on the desk. "I'm already making arrangements to pass the position down to either Jiraiya or Tsunade."

Both Koharu and Homura frowned at the statement.

"… Jiraiya is such a perverted figure. I would despise having to call him the Hokage." Koharu shook her head.

"Having said that, between the two, I feel he would be the most appropriate choice. At the very least, he's stayed loyal to Konoha and did not bother leaving the village like Tsunade did." Homura stated, his frown turning into a scowl.

"I'm going to make up my mind once they are both here. However, that's not what I wanted to talk to you two about." Hiruzen stated, drawing the attention of his former teammates back to him. He coughed before continuing. "Our village, I feel, has potential in this upcoming generation. I want to take a more proactive involvement with them. One group, in particular, feels like it has the potential to be the next 'legendary team' of the village."

"You are referring to Mitarashi Anko's team, are you not?" Homura noted. "Uzumaki Naruto, Hyūga Hinata, and Nara Shikamaru?"

The Sandaime Hokage chuckled in response. "I'm impressed that you knew it was going to be those three."

"It's fairly obvious that's who you were referring to." Homura replied with a slight shrug. "Disregarding your relationship with Uzumaki, they all were promoted to chūnin at the first possible exam. The Nara clan heir and the Hyūga clan heiress is in the group, as well as both an Uzumaki and the Kyūbi jinchūriki. The team, on paper, has a lot of positives to them."

"I suppose it would be obvious to someone like you. You have a good idea for details like that, Homura. That's why I called you two here." Hiruzen stated, his eyes becoming determined. "I think it's important that are village gets stronger with each passing generation. Therefore, I think our village would benefit from another legendary three shinobi. After Jiraiya or Tsunade replaces me, I'm going to offer my services to these three and offer to train them. I would like to know if you two would like to assist in training them."

"Train them?" Koharu questioned.

"That seems like a frivolous use of both our time and yours, Hiruzen." Homura noted.

"I stand by my point. Our village needs another legendary team to rally around." The Hokage informed them. "The last team was the Legendary Sannin. And before them, it was us." A small, nostalgic smile developed on his face. "What did they call us again?"

"Tengoku no Shinobi; the Heavenly Shinobi." Homura replied, closing his eyes.

"You had me, Utatane Koharu, Konoha's Grim Reaper, and you had Mitokado Homura, Konoha's Guardian Angel. We were the right and left hands of you, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the God of Shinobi." Koharu noted.

"The Sannin have officially died with Orochimaru's betrayal and subsequent death. There's a hole for a new legendary three. And, to be honest, I would like to have a say in trying to help this team grow to become this team. I firmly believe that this decision will help Konoha grow as a village and have a new trio of shinobi that the village can look to." Hiruzen explained. "I am going to be working with them and train them. I am simply asking if you two would like to join me in helping them become the team that this village will need."

Koharu and Homura both remained silent. The two advisors seemed as if they were thinking about his proposition. Both had seemed hesitant at first, but after Hiruzen's explanation, they now were seemingly considering it.

After a minute of silence, both of them nodded their heads.

"I will offer my services briefly. If I think they aren't worth my time, then I'll stop working with them." Homura noted.

"Likewise." Koharu added. "I'm not a patient sensei, Hiruzen. These kids better be willing to move at my speed."

"I don't want you all to move slow for them. I surely won't." Hiruzen let out a small chuckle. "Good. We'll make arrangements with these three once I have chosen my successor. I thank you both for agreeing." His facial expression then turned serious. "Now, it's time I fill you both in on the results of our involvement in Kirigakure in further detail."

Both Koharu and Homura nodded as they prepared to hear what the Hokage had to say.

"… Sai, you're dismissed."

"Of course, Danzō-sama."

With a poof of smoke, Shimura Danzō, an older man with shaggy black hair, bandagers over his forehead and right eye, wearing a white shirt with a black robe that covered his right arm and his lower body, and holding a cane in his left hand, was left alone in a dark room. The man began to walk away, processing everything that Sai had informed him.

'I knew it was a good idea to make sure that I sent at least one agent to Kiri. Sai was unable to confirm any foul play in the new government, but he believes he found reason to suspect that Yagura is still alive. If I can one day confirm this, this could be a vital blackmail tool against Terumī Mei and the Kirigakure government.' He told himself. 'Not that we may need it. Thanks to how the war ended, Kiri is now in Konoha's debt. Still, the blackmail may prove to be useful if there is ever a time where that village tries to gain power over us.'

'That day will come eventually.' Danzō noted as he finally left the room and the area. He was now outside of Konoha and was walking through the village. 'Alliances won't last long. They never do. Kiri will betray us one day, as will Iwa. I don't understand what Sarutobi is doing with aligning with a man like Ōnoki, but it is his mistake.'

'We need to show these 'allies' of ours that Konoha is indeed the dominant village. I'll begin the preparations to my plans immediately.' He thought clearly.

Danzō proceeded to return to his home, walking under the moonlight of Konoha.

'It's finally time for answers.'

Standing in a cave in the middle of Ta no Kuni, Yakushi Kabuto ran through a series of hand signs. A smug grin developed on his face as he finished his jutsu.

"Summoning Jutsu: Edo Tensei!"

A coffin arose from the ground. The coffin opened-up and disappeared, revealing his former master, Orochimaru. The man looked the exact same way he did when he passed away, only his head was reattached to his body. His eyes, however, were colored black and lacked their pupils.

Seconds passed by before Orochimaru's body began to move. The Sannin looked around at the environment around him, his eyes wide in surprise. He finally turned towards Kabuto.

"Kabuto?" He questioned.

"It's been a while, Orochimaru-sama. Too long." Kabuto replied, still grinning. "Welcome to your temporary return from the dead."

Orochimaru attempted to walk forward to his apprentice, but he felt himself unable to move his body. He tried to muster all of his power to do so, but he was unable to move.

"Forgive me, Orochimaru-sama, but I did not summon you at full strength. I didn't want you breaking free from my control, now do I?" Kabuto questioned, his grin still present on his face.

Orochimaru remained still for a moment. After a few more seconds, the Sannin proceeded to laugh.

"You used Edo Tensei to summon me and now I am under your control? My, the tables have turned. Are you wanting me to call you Kabuto-sama now?" Orochimaru questioned.

"That's a tempting offer, but I don't wish to make you my servant, Orochimaru-sama. You mean too much to me." Kabuto commented as he started to walk towards the man. "You were the man who gave my life purpose. I finally had somebody I could stay loyal to and work for. Your research gave me ways to develop as both a shinobi and as a scientist. I must say, I like to view myself as your successor. I recognize the impact you had on me, Orochimaru-sama, and would not demean you into becoming a servant."

"Flattery was always your strong-suit, Kabuto-sama." Orochimaru replied tauntingly.

Kabuto frowned at Orochimaru's tone and the honorific he had used, but the frown was gone almost instantaneously and was replaced with the same grin that had been present earlier.

"I've made excellent progress based on your research, by the way. I do think I've developed on the work you've established. I was able to learn how to use Edo Tensei rather quickly and I believe I'm getting the hang of it. I've also started doing research on things to do with bloodlines and bodies and I believe that, once I finish all of my research, you will be impressed." Kabuto informed him. "I'll make sure to re-summon you once I finish."

"My, my. I will look forward to that day then, I suppose. Not like I have much to look forward to in the afterlife." Orochimaru noted with a chuckle. Orochimaru's face then proceeded to harden, his eyes narrowing at the shinobi in front of him. "So, what was the purpose of summoning me? Were you just testing to see if you could use the Edo Tensei and wanted me here to see any progress you've made?"

"I have to admit, that was part of it." Kabuto nodded his head. "However, I did choose you for a particular reason, Orochimaru-sama. You know something that I really want to know."

"Oh?" Orochimaru's face softened once again and returned to its taunting demeanor. "Did you not say you were making progress on my work, Kabuto-sama? What could I possibly know that you haven't already figured out or are going to figure out?"

His comment caused Kabuto to frown: "You seem bitter, Orochimaru-sama. Why?"

"Why? Oh, Kabuto-sama, I'm not bitter." Orochimaru mentioned with a chuckle. "I am merely curious about things. I know you know ways to revive me in a more permanent manner using any of the curse marks that still exist. You could make plans on reviving me, but based on your language, you seem to have no interest in it. I'm just curious why you seemingly have no interest."

"I must admit, I did think of planning to revive you. I really did." Kabuto admitted with a sigh. "You really were everything to me, Orochimaru-sama. When the invasion failed and you passed on, I thought my life lost its purpose again. Throwing myself into your research was the only way I could reclaim some purpose again."

"Then why not try and bring me back?" Orochimaru continued to question.

Kabuto did not answer immediately. He had a blank look on his face, as if he was processing something from his memories. A few seconds passed by before he finally turned to face Orochimaru. A smug grin developed on his face; a grin wider than any he had previously during their conversation.

"Because I realized I could make headway in your studies. I could do them better." He declared with a loud, confident laugh. "I came to the realization that my purpose wasn't to be your servant for eternity, Orochimaru-sama. That was only my beginnings. My goal is to be greater. My purpose is to achieve what you had attempted to, to become immortal and learn every jutsu, and surpass it."

Orochimaru remained quiet for a moment. His taunting demeanor seemed to fade and it was replaced with a scowl. Kabuto noticed the scowl and his grin grew even wider. He then proceeded to get into his face.

"So, as you know how the Edo Tensei works, I can make you say something by controlling you, or I can just make you willingly say something." Kabuto noted smugly. "And, considering our relationship, I felt it would be more appropriate if I didn't have to force you into it and allowed you the opportunity to willing pass on your information. So Orochimaru-sama, I have one question that I want you to answer for me."

"… And that would be?" Orochimaru's eyes narrowed at his former right-hand man.

Taking his response as confirmation that he would give an answer, Kabuto got directly in front of Orochimaru's face. His grin seemed to disappear and a serious-looking face took its place.

"Where is Ryūchi Cave?" Kabuto demanded.

Quick Notes:

1: Masakado is back! I almost thought about writing at some point during the Civil War arc a scene of him arriving in Konoha, but I thought it would be a fun surprise for you all to see him, just like it was for Naruto. I have plans for him after the Uzushio temple arc and wanted him in Konoha! If you all are truly interested in his arrival in Konoha, let me know and I'll see about eventually writing it in as an omake.

2: I just wanted to confirm something, because I'm always worried about how things get presented; yes, Sasuke is still revenge-hungry and wants Itachi's head on a platter. However, I still like to believe that if Sasuke ever thought too much (or had the topic presented, like Naruto's comments about Yagura), he would eventually think about Itachi as his loyal, caring brother. I'm pretty sure thinking of that side of him would make him feel at least 'mixed' in regards to his need to kill Itachi. I'm just addressing this, because I don't want to present Sasuke in a way that's not-canon. I hope you all like my interpretation of him, by the way, even though I know he hasn't been featured too much in my story yet. :P

3: Lancecomwar's reviews about wanting to see the rookie's reaction inspired the Shikamaru/Team Ten scene. I just wanted to address that and thank him for leading to the inspiration for it :) Also, feel free to write about any scenes that you all may be interested in seeing. Who knows? If I hadn't thought about writing it, maybe they'll inspire me :P