Sabaku no Naruto

- I am Naruto, Sabaku no Naruto... nice to meet you...

Everyone froze upon hearing that name ... Naruto? That name rang a bell on them, yet non of them did recognize him and apparently he didn't recognize them either. Until one of the three youngsters opened slightly surprised his eyes and silently communicated with his mentor, whom had apparently taken the wordless message and nodded.

They contemplated the boy who shared the same name as their childhood "friend". He had the same blond hair but they could not see his features since a cute mask, usually used upon the Sand Anbus, with the shape and features of a raccoon covered his entire face, preventing them from identifying him as the lost child: Naruto Uzumaki. When they first encountered him, the teacher had already had his doubts about the identity of the young Sand Anbu, however, he needed more than a hunch to confirm it.

But, as soon as he heard his voice, he couldn't help but ask the blonde his name and now... He deeply regretted it. What if he had returned to take revenge on the Leaf Village? They were finished if he had learnt how to control the monster hidding in the depth of his entrails.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourselves?" Said the blonde taking off his mask showing them a cold smile that sent a shiver down the spine of the leaf ninjas. Naruto had changed too much since the last time they saw him, many years ago.

"Sasuke Uchiha..." Said a black haired boy with same dark eyes, probably the same age as the Sand Anbu, fixing his gaze on Naruto, whose heart jumped as if he had met this ninja from the Leaf Village before. He quickly composed himself and with disinterest that seemed to annoy the boy named Sasuke, he looked at the pink haired girl who introduced herself:

"Sakura Haruno." He glanced at her with disdain as she stared back at him, and passed his curious yet cold eyes to the last visible member of the group: the silver-haired teacher:

"Kakashi Hatake, nice to meet you..." Immediately he felt how the cloth that covered the lower part of the professor moved in an almost imperceptible movement. He shouldn't have given himself away so quickly but... was that hideous man laughing at him? He frowned quite annoyed before asking him:

"What's so funny?" The mentor opened his little eye with surprise as the blond boy crossed him arms over his chest. How could he have noticed the soft curl of his lips? Among his own students, Sasuke barely caught them and let's better not talk about Sakura's cluesness... He narrowed his eye analyzing the young Anbu named Naruto: he was surprised, that body hid more than what was seen at first sight. "As you're not going to answer me, can you tell the boy who is hiding in the trees on my right to come forward?" Said the blonde drawing a scary smile within his feline features. "...Or do I have to go and introduce myself?"

Kakashi was astonished, as he had more than once whatched over the sweet little boy that Naruto had once been, now there was nothing. The Hokage had assigned him more than one night of watching over the little boy, about ten years ago, before he disappeared into the woods, and he had always been a cheerful and honest boy. But he had changed, and a brand new boy was in front of him.

"Sai," He ordered, raising his hand to make a signal to the third member of the team. "Come out" Said Kakashi without lowering his guard as the Naruto he knew ten years ago was nowhere to be seen. He could no longer be considered a friend or even an ally of the Leaf Village.

"Cheap copy..." Sasuke greeted with a nod, as the mentioned one stood in front of Naruto, leaving a few safety meters of margin. Then he introduced himself with one of his pettish fake smiles:

"My name is Sai..." Before he could finish introducing himself everyone collapsed on the ground.

"You didn't have to knock them unconscious ..." Naruto said turning over to his best friend and boyfriend, Gaara, who was holding a tube with sleeping darts.

"You took a long time..." Naruto took a deep breath as he scolded himself for not remembering that Gaara was always worried about him. He still was a ninja of the Sand Village so he couldn't accompany him on the secret missions send by the Kazekage. Then he nodded and turned around once more to observe how the ninjas of the Leaf Village were sound asleep within the grass and rocks of the forest road.

"Will they remember me?" He asked to his overprotective boyfriend.

"They will only remember having fulfilled their mission." Clarified the short-tempered boy, walking over next to Naruto and taking his hand softly.

"Let's go back." The redhead whispered as he gently tightened the grip on Naruto's hand, silently pushing him back to the dark shadows of the forest.

"Let's go home" Finally Naruto said, breaking his curious gaze from those foreign ninjas and followed Gaara until they reached the sand village.

- TO BE CONTINUED-