- Month Later, Official start of Shippuden, the return -
"Hey, stop right there. Take your hoods off."
Izumo ordered, his hand instinctively dropping toward his weapon pouch. Beside him, Kotetsu shifted his weight, ready to signal the hidden Anbu team if the three cloaked figures in front of them tried anything at the village gate.
Instead of a hostile movement, the tallest figure simply raised a single, broad hand.
"What a warm welcome," a deeply familiar, boisterous voice rumbled from beneath the heavy fabric.
With a fluid motion, the man threw back his hood, revealing a mane of spiky white hair and a grinning, weathered face. Before the two guards could even shout the Sannin's name in relief, the figure to his left reached up.
The hood slid back, and a curtain of vibrant, deep red hair spilled over her shoulders. Izumo and Kotetsu blinked, momentarily stunned by the transformation. The quiet girl who had left the village years ago was gone; in her place stood a striking, beautiful young woman who carried herself with an entirely new level of confidence.
But the final shock was enough to make the air leave their lungs entirely.
The last figure reached up, pulling the fabric away to reveal a face that felt like a punch to the gut of Konoha's history. Spiky sun-kissed blonde hair, a sharp jawline, and piercing blue eyes. He was a near carbon copy of the Fourth Hokage, looking so much like the face carved into the mountain above them that it made the guards' breath catch.
The two chūnin stood completely paralyzed, staring at the ghost of their legendary hero, until their eyes finally tracked down to the three distinct whisker marks on his cheeks.
"N-Naruto...?" Izumo breathed, frozen in place.
"The one and only, Nice to see you two haven't changed all that much."
Naruto replied, watching as the two flinched as if struck by arrows.
"Hey, we have too changed!"
"Yeah, what Kotetsu said!"
The three just shook their heads at the eternal gate guards, showing them their ninja registration papers before flickering away, roof jumping all the way to the Hokage's office, walking in through the front door to see Tsunade behind her desk, a certain silver-haired jonin leaning against the window behind her, showing no shock at their return, having sensed them when they entered the Land of Fire.
"You've both grown up so much."
Kakashi spoke up, noticing their height and the way their faces no longer had any of the lingering boyish and girlishness that they previously had.
"Sensei," Naruto said, walking up to Kakashi.
He was actually an inch taller than his sensei now, his voice a bit deeper than when he left. Naruto held out a hand, which Kakashi slapped away with a laugh before pulling him in for a hug. Kakashi threw his other arm out and caught Karin too when she leaped into the group hug.
The office door clicked open, and a pink-haired girl walked in. Her hair now reached down to the middle of her back, and a distinct violet diamond mark rested on her forehead.
She froze, dropping her clipboard the second she saw the group. A massive smile broke across her face. Closing the distance in a blur, she scooped both Naruto and Karin completely off the floor as if they weighed nothing at all, locking them in a crushing bear hug.
Tsunade chuckled before she spoke up.
"Alright, Sakura, enough before you break something."
"Ohh, sorry."
Sakura pulled back; Karin and Naruto landed lightly on their feet, rubbing their sides with grins.
"You sure have gotten strong, Sakura."
Naruto complimented; Karin nodded in agreement.
"She just might be stronger than you, Naruto."
Tsunade commented, catching their attention before continuing.
"I've trained her to the bone, and Kakashi's techniques have perfectly melted with her."
"Maybe, but I'm confident in my strength. I wasn't napping the whole training trip, you know?"
Naruto's eyes twinkled with a playful challenge, Tsunade's gaining the same before she stood with a smirk.
"Want to make a bet, brat?"
"I distinctly remember you losing horribly the last time we bet, but sure, if you're so willing to lose again, who am I to decline?"
Naruto retorted, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Karin, and Sakura watching the exchange with amusement.
Tsunade made her way to the door without another word, the rest following her to the private training ground behind the Hokage's monument that Tsunade had trained Sakura at.
Naruto stretched, still wearing the cloak, looking over to Tsunade.
"Well, what do you have to bet?"
Tsunade scoffed.
"The pay of four A-Rank missions from my pocket if you succeed in being the first to land a blow, but if Sakura lands the first hit, the pay you got from the missions you've done become mine, including the high-ranking ones you've completed outside the village."
Naruto wagged his finger playfully.
"Do you take me for a moron? Even a monkey would know how lopsided that deal is; sweeten it a bit."
Tsuande's brow twitched.
"Fine. Four A-Rank missions worth of pay from my pocket and a jutsu from the scroll of sealing."
Naruto thought about it; he didn't really know the jutsu inside the scroll, but he might find something worth his time in it, nodding in agreement as he took his place across from Sakura, holding up the sign to begin the spar, Kakashi stepping up and raising his hand, bringing it down with a chop.
"Begin!"
Naruto leaped back, a fist cratering the ground where he stood and creating a 50-foot-wide crater.
"Great, another Tsunade."
Jiraiya muttered, cold sweat rolling down his back as he felt eyes on him, turning his head to the left slowly.
"Something wrong with another me, Jiraiya?"
"Haha, n-no, of course not, you're great, another you is great."
Jiraiya stammered, looking back to the fight.
"Hey, it's getting interesting."
Tsunade rolled her eyes at his sad attempt at reflection before looking back to the fight just in time to see Naruto flick a Flying Raijin kunai as Sakura closed in, his figure appearing above Sakura in a flash.
Sakura reacted on instinct, her left leg snapping back, a crescent slash of chakra leaving her foot and heading for Naruto.
'Seal-less jutsu?'
Naruto had no time to think about what that was, creating a giant Rasengan in a flash and slamming it onto the slash, carving it up and dispersing the energy into sparks, hearing a weird sound, looking to see Sakura walking on air up to him.
'What the hell.'
Naruto flashed back to the ground as Sakura's fist came within a hair's breadth of his stomach, two clones appearing behind him and weaving one seal before Naruto jumped up, the clones thrusting wind jutsu at the bottoms of Naruto's feet, sending him back up to Sakura like a missile.
Sakura turned in the air, raising her arms above her head in an 'X' as an axe-kick was already upon her.
'Iron Body!'
The muscles in Sakura's arms and the rest of her body tensed as the kick slammed onto her arms, sending her down to the ground so hard that the air seemed to whistle.
Landing in a stance resembling a crouch, Sakura lowered her arms and smiled up at Naruto.
"That was an interesting way to use Wind Release; where'd you get that?"
Naruto flashed back to his kunai and snatched it up.
'My son, but that'd kill the spar.'
Naruto thought before answering.
"Picked it up from a talented kid."
"Oh, must have been interesting."
Naruto nodded.
"You have no idea; I'll tell you later if I can."
Sakura nodded, taking a deep breath before her body erupted, enveloped in a yellow aura, her skin darkening to red.
"Seven Heavenly Breaths, Third Breath."
Naruto smiled, feeling his blood pumping as Sakura took a step and vanished in a blur of speed, leaning to the side as a shockwave of pure air pressure uprooted the ground in the path of the attack.
"I guess It's time for me to get a bit more serious."
Naruto dodged the strikes from Sakura, taking his full focus, as Sakura wasn't just fast and strong, but very smart.
Naruto rolled to the right after palming the inside of Sakura's calf, deflecting the kick, and standing and leaping back, 6 Flying Raijin kunai flying out and trapping Sakura in an encirclement.
'Which one will it be?'
Sakura's aura increased, ready to close the distance the moment he appeared, but something unexpected happened; her body suddenly felt like a mountain was weighing her down, a kunai placed against her neck.
"Winner, Naruto."
Kakashi announced, Naruto taking off the gravity seal on Sakura and putting his kunai away, going around and collecting the others as Sakura looked down, seeing Naruto's Flying Raijin formula on her calf.
"You placed this when you deflected my kick."
Sakura muttered, letting her aura recede, her skin going back to its normal color.
"That was a very good fight, Sakura. If you had gone further, I'd have had to use Sage Mode."
Naruto complimented, storing his kunai back in his pouch.
"You can use Sage Mode?"
Naruto nodded, looking less excited about the fact as he thought of the bugs he was forced to eat.
"Yeah, I can use it."
Naruto shivered before changing the subject.
"Enough about that, what were those strange moves the flying, the kick, and your muscles tensing?"
Sakura blinked in surprise, having not thought Naruto would have noticed Iron Body while fighting her.
"In order, Moonwalk, Tempest Kick, and Iron Body. These moves are a part of 6 moves, the Six Styles; it's something Kakashi sensei came up with. Lady Tsuande can do them too."
"Well, brat, I guess you won."
Tsunade produced a scroll from the storage space known as her cleavage and handed Naruto the money in a scroll with a fake sour look on her face.
"Come to the Office when you want to see the Scroll of Sealing."
Tsunade, along with Jiraiya, left to get a drink, leaving the others to their reunion.
"So, Sasuke, you going to come down from the tree?"
Naruto asked, turning to the left to look at Sasuke as he dropped down with a
"Hn"
Walking up to Naruto and holding out his fist, Naruto bumped it.
"You've gotten strong too, I can tell."
"We all have, even Shikamaru, though we had to rotate who was going to go get him every day."
Sakura retorted, shaking his head with a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Good, we'll need it."
Naruto said, a hint of seriousness that no one there missed.
"Let's have this conversation at the house, everyone; grab on."
Kakashi said before everyone grabbed on, and they vanished.
- Chapter End -