One of the reasons Sasuke wanted Naruto back – just for a day – was to show the fox how much Konoha had changed. After Naruto’s death – death, because, well, only the high-ranking officials and ANBU knew about his defection – the villagers realized that Naruto wasn’t demon. Hindsight, though completely and utterly useless in many cases, is twenty-twenty. (If only foresight could be that way.)
Of course, this rather drastic change of view could have been helped by the fact that Naruto had ‘died’ helping Konoha by bringing Sasuke back. If a survey was taken, most people would probably say they wouldn’t mind if Naruto returned – of course, he couldn’t. The dead don’t come back to life, and Naruto’s name inscribed upon the memorial stone - an action that Tsunade had fought hard for – made the death more… permanent. Ignorance is bliss, one that the Hokage and high-ranking shinobi and officials were granting the villagers.
Sasuke hoped that if Naruto saw how much better Konoha had gotten, maybe, just maybe, he would be compelled to return.
‘Ha. Wishful thinking,’ the raven thought contemptuously, disgusted with himself.
Sasuke had never been one of those people who had dreams and wishes. Ever since the massacre, life had always been what he made it. But just this once, the Rokudaime Hokage wanted to believe he could make Naruto come back with a simple wish upon a shooting star.
That feeling was intensified by the fact that tomorrow would mark the day that Sasuke confronted Naruto a year ago. For the past year, Kakashi and Sasuke would brood at the memorial stone together monthly. And tomorrow, everyone who was once close to Uzumaki Naruto would join them.
-
Everyone in the dark room knew the purpose of their group; to spread chaos amongst the nations. To make a name for themselves. To gain the fear of all. To avenge themselves upon the villages that hurt them.
No one protested when the Leader declared that their next goal would be to spread chaos in Suna and Kohona, by killing the Kazekage or the new Hokage and framing the other village. The alliance, though strong, would deteriorate instantly if either of the village’s kages was assassinated by the other. No one protested out loud, though Itachi, face as impassive as always, managed to convey his doubt concerning Naruto with a passing glance. Said blond stared back levelly, arching a challenging eyebrow.
It seemed that the ex-leaf had buried his feelings for Konoha as well as Itachi. Still, Kisame didn’t understand why when both Itachi and Naruto had the perfect opportunities to kill Sasuke… they didn’t. Just as he didn’t understand why both held back slightly while fighting their own; it was barely noticeable, but they both did it. (Well, Naruto he could understand given the blond’s past, the shark-man supposed, but Itachi had never exactly been a cuddly teddy bear, and certainly wasn’t now.)
Neither gave an explanation. Maybe Konoha just produced overly-feeling, defective shinobi. After all, nobody else held back against their own villages. In fact, most of them actually went harder on them.
Kisame made a mental note to ask Itachi or Naruto later, but he had a feeling that if he asked Itachi, the Sharingan-master would give him a “This Subject is Taboo” glare, and Naruto would probably just laugh the question off in that special way of his.
The question managed to puzzle Deidara as well. Though every last one of the Akatsuki had a horribly twisted past, none of them were the type of gushy people who opened up and spilled out their emotions. Deidara, though, knew he could always talk to Naruto, and Naruto to Deidara. Then again, two were the most empathetic of the psychotic group, and the only two who would seek out someone to speak to shamelessly.
Only, Naruto didn’t speak to Deidara about Konoha as often as Deidara spoke about Iwa, and the times Naruto did speak about Konoha was because a curious Deidara poked, prodded, and generally annoyed the blond into answering.
When Deidara had asked Naruto why he hadn’t killed the Sasuke kid, Naruto had shrugged, before answering slowly.
“It was clear Sasuke thinks he can bring me back. If I killed him, he would’ve thought it was a noble death. But I’ve got a chance to watch Konoha burn to the ground, and he’ll be helpless, thinking I’ll change. Sasuke was always stubborn. This time, I’ll make him and his pathetic village pay,” the blond hissed.
Deidara could understand where his partner was coming from, but it still seemed rather cold and calculated. It seemed like something Itachi would pull, not Naruto. Deidara knew that if he had had such a beautiful chance to kill the Tsuchikage, he would have taken it happily, and blown Iwa up afterwards.
Deidara didn’t know of anyone else in the Akatsuki who would be so… merciful, especially towards a kage. But then, Naruto had been a pupil of the Copy Nin. It was well known that Hatake-san valued teamwork and a strong bond between teammates before everything else – including the success of the mission. Perhaps, there was part of a bond left between Naruto and his former partner. Doubtful, but plausible given the fact that Naruto’s explanation was very out of character.
Normally, Deidara didn’t give himself such a headache over his partner’s motives (not anymore, at least), but this day merited special attention. Naruto had given absolutely no clue as to what he was thinking when Leader-sama had announced his intentions.
He hadn’t spoken up when Leader-sama deliberately assigned Itachi and Kisame, and Naruto and Deidara the task of creating chaos in Konoha, either. Deidara knew that Naruto knew ‘creating chaos’ entailed killing a bunch of people and perhaps razing a few buildings.
-
Naruto and Deidara had been sent to ‘scout’ as both Kisame and Itachi were too well-known. Neither wore their cloaks – at this point, that would be suicide. Everyone knew to fear the black cloaks with red clouds. Everyone.
Nobody would find two blond-haired civilians dressed in Sand garb strange if they both walked into Konoha, especially since said civilians traveled with the proper documents (forged, of course, but neither of the chuunin at the gate could tell the difference). After all, Sand was allied with the Leaf.
There were some minor problems with sending Naruto, though. The blond had been well loved by the few friends he had made, but the blond promised to do his best to stay out of the sight of his old friends.
He hadn’t noticed Hinata walking a little behind them because she’d had her head down as she thought – not an uncommon sight. The results of the rather stupid mistake would be, as Shikamaru would say, ‘troublesome.’
Out of all of Naruto’s old friends, Hinata might have had it the hardest – she lived with the pain of Naruto’s ‘death’ on her conscience, and she constantly berated herself for being too shy. She mourned the fact that she had been too shy to confront Naruto… and before she could gain enough courage, he had gone and died retrieving Sasuke.
After Naruto’s death – to those who knew her – she became more withdrawn and quite than ever, but insanely determined in training. She had become a lovely young woman – a lovely, single, young woman. She turned down all dates until the men of Konoha no longer bothered with her, knowing their answer would be a ‘no’.
Hinata’s family had taken the matter into their own hands, and chosen a man of the appropriate age for their heir. The marriage would be in three months, and Hinata spent most of her time brooding – a most unlady-like habit, as her family constantly told her – and watching the memorial stone, though always hidden. She never joined Sasuke and Kakashi in their silent grieving sessions, though both sensed her presence.
Despite this, Hinata was not the first to see Naruto, though she made the biggest commotion.
It was Sakura, with Rock Lee. Both of them had been eating at Irachiku ramen in honor of Naruto’s supposed death. Neither of them were ANBU though both were jounin. Sakura knew of Naruto’s defection – after all, she had fairly recently helped to keep Sasuke-kun alive after Naruto’s attack – but she couldn’t find it in her to enlighten Lee.
It was Sakura who had glanced at the spiky-blond walking with another guy with girl-like hair as they walked by, though her gazed slid past them in favor of settling on Hinata.
“Hinata-chan!” she called, waving the Hyuuga over. Hinata looked up, caught sight of Sakura and Lee, and made her way over slowly.
Sakura smiled at the Hyuuga as she changed course and headed over. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the blond Sand civilian look back at them in surprise, his eyes flicking between Hinata, Sakura, and Lee before quickly turning back.
The oddly familiar blue eyes and the child-like surprise of the Sand civilian were too similar to one Uzumaki Naruto.
‘Naruto…’ Sakura thought, and the tears poured out, as she stared at the two blonds’ backs.
“Sakura-chan?” Lee asked, worried. It wasn’t like Sakura to just burst into tears out of nowhere, and in public at that – she usually hid her tears for when the two were alone, or with others who understood her pain. It had been three months since the two were married, and Lee was still – and probably would always be – very protective of Sakura and empathetic towards her.
Hinata blinked in confusion, before following Sakura’s line of sight to a blond civilian’s back.
‘Blond,’ Hinata thought. And that was all it took before the spiky, unruly blond hair caused her heart to suddenly ache, and it all clicked in her mind.
“Naruto-kun!” she cried, running for the man.
Her cry drew the attention of Sakura, Lee, and many others, including the two civilians. The shorter one, the one that had brought Sakura to tears and prompted Hinata’s startled cry, stared at the shy kunoichi with a look akin to incredulity on his face. Something flickered in his blue eyes before it was immediately quelled by a disturbing coldness. His face smoothed out into a blank, terrifying mask.
Hinata caught up to the Sand civilian, breathless.
“N-Naruto-kun?” She asked, barely audible, not daring to look at the man’s face, even though she was literally inches from it. She was afraid that it wasn’t Naruto, and she’d be absolutely mortified if she had mixed up a random Sand civilian with her long-dead crush.
Naturally, this sparked murmurs among the other people. Hushed whispers of "Naruto?" and "He's back!" and "I thought he died..." could be heard.
Sakura and Lee caught up to Hinata.
“Hello, Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan, Lee. It’s been awhile, yeah?” Naruto said casually in an amiable voice, one hand scratching the back of his head sheepishly. (Deidara caught the insulting ‘yeah’ at the end, and kicked his partner’s shins.)
Sakura lunged at the blonde, fist raised, screaming, “YOU FUCKING LEFT US, NARUTO! WHAT THE HELL?!”
The hand dropped suddenly, as the blond dodged her. His friendly, sheepish aura was replaced with cold amusement, and his tone became considerably harsher.
“Don’t try to hit me, Sakura-chan. I’m not the boy you used to know… and, unfortunately, Deidara and I weren’t to be seen. We didn’t quite plan on being recognized by everyone...”
"Naruto, yeah, so many people know you! You seem so loved; it makes me wonder why you left, yeah." Deidara commented sarcastically.
Naruto glared at him and retorted good-naturedly. "And the people of Iwa only thought you were a monster with those mouths on your hands. It makes me wonder what drove you to blow up half of it in a dramatic exit." Despite their – seemingly – easy-going banter, something flickered in Naruto's eyes again - anguish could be clearly identified but the other emotion... longing?
"Point taken," Deidara grinned.
The people were getting excited. Clearly, this was the brave Kyuubi-vessel who had died to protect Konoha and bring back Uchiha Sasuke back from the dead!
“Now would be a good time to leave, yeah.” Deidara muttered quietly.
“Agreed.” Both missing-nins disappeared quickly in a puff of smoke.
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Story notes: sequel to Bonds not Broken.
Chapter notes: Disclaimer: I tried to bribe Kishimoto for Naruto. He refused. I cried for a year. Oh, come on, I know you've always wanted to know where that river near your house came from.
Chapter end notes: -teslyn