Chapter 1 - Welcome Home, Dattebayo!

NOTE: My OC, Ekyt, is replacing Yamato, because…well, because I hate Yamato. So, Ekyt’s in^^


“AGHHH! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! EVERYONE’S A CHUNIN BUT ME?!”
Sakura sighed deeply. “Welcome back Naruto-kun,” she muttered, “I hadn’t noticed how…quiet it had gotten around here…” (Sweatdrop)
“Well, it’s only a matter of time! I’ll be Hokage! Hey, how’s Granny Tsunade doing?! Is she ready to give it up yet?!” Naruto asked in excitement.
“Of course not! Tsunade-sama is doing fine, the village is getting better! Or, it was. Now that you’re here…” Sakura murmured.
“What?! HEY!” Naruto shouted. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY”
“I thought I heard a familiar shout. Welcome back Naruto-san!”


Naruto looked to his right. Ekyt leapt down from the tree he had been sitting in.
“Looks like you’ve grown,” Ekyt pointed out.
Naruto put his hands behind his head and grinned.
“Yeah. Well, ya know, it happens to guys my age. Looks like you’re different too…but I can’t place it…”
Ekyt’s change was more subtle. He was taller, and the bags under his eyes more defined, but other than that, he looked the same. Except…
“Your eye!” Naruto shouted, nearly poking said eye with his outstretched finger. “It’s fixed!”
Ekyt closed both eyes, clearly grinning under his mask. “Well, you have Sakura-san to thank for that.”
Sakura blushed and shrugged, a pink color rising on her cheek.
“It was nothing, really! And it’s Sakura-CHAN, you’ve known me long enough!”
Ekyt shrugged. “I have a hard time adding that honorific to a chunin’s name. You still outrank me, but I’ll get it right eventually. Anyway, I’ve got a name, too. Kaguya.”
Ekyt looked up at the sky, then suddenly back down, as if he had remembered something important. Sakura remembered it first.
“That’s right! Iruka-sensei, can’t forget that! Naruto-kun, come with us. Iruka-sensei wants to see you!”
Ekyt coughed suddenly. “Sakura-san, I have to go, I have that meeting…”
“Ekyt-san, you and your work! Oh well, not like you had a choice. Good luck,” Sakura told him.
“Thank you. And, Naruto-san, good to have you back!”
Ekyt leapt off, using the trees as a road.


“So, Sakura-chan’s a chunin now?” Naruto asked the pink-haired kunoichi, his face etched with lines of surprise.
“That’s right!” she replied happily, flashing a peace sign.
“Naruto, will you slow down?”
Jiraiya came up to them, panting from exhaustion.
“Come on Pervy hermit, couldn’t you keep up?!” Naruto taunted.
“S-shut up already,” Jiraiya managed around a deep breath.
“Jiraiya-sama! Good to see you!” Sakura exclaimed, giving the Toad Sage a hug.
“You, too Sakura-chan! My, you’ve grown! Into quite the lovely young lady…” Jiraiya gulped, getting a familiar look in his eyes.
Oh, it would be so wrong to do research on her…but it would be SOOO good! No, no, she’s not old enough, and it’s wrong! Maybe a little peak…no, no, no!

Sakura and Naruto watched this strange, wordless battle.
“Is he okay Naruto-kun?” Sakura asked, a sweatdrop forming on her head.
“That happens a lot, dattebayo,” came Naruto’s reply, coupled with a sweatdrop of his own.
“So Naruto-kun…you’ve grown…am I…more womanly?” Sakura asked, blushing.
“You look the same Sakura-chan!” Naruto declared with a thumbs up.
Sakura’s face contorted into an unmistakable mask of rage.
“WHAT?! HOW DARE YOU?!” WHAM! Sakura punched Naruto, sending him hard into the ground.
Jiraiya gaped, but kept his thoughts to himself.
Between the rage and the power, she’s like another Tsunade…I pity the Shinobi who crossed her…



Ekyt sat rigidly before the council. Tsunade-sama, Ebisu-sensei, and Kakashi-sensei. Ekyt knew all of them, but each was imposing nonetheless.
“I’m sorry, we have to deny you,” Tsunade-sama sighed.
“I had a feeling. Sorry for bothering you.” Ekyt tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice, knowing he was failing miserably at that.
“It’s nothing personal, you know,” Tsuande told him, “It’s just not easy to bend the rules.”
“It’s not personal on your part Tsunade-sama, I understand that.”
Tsunade rubbed her brow. “And why do you say that?”
“I get the feeling that someone is working against me…and I’m sure I know who it is, and why. But I have no proof, so I won’t offer an accusation. Do you have a mission for me today?” Ekyt’s tone had become dry by the end. He had said all this before; just not to Tsunade-sama.
“I’m afraid not, only A and B ranks today. Unless you don’t mind delivering this…” Tsuande offered a scroll to Ekyt. She noticed his hesitation before he took it.
“Right, of course. To Iruka-sensei?”
“That’s right.”
Ekyt got up and left the room, his back military-straight as he walked out. The doors clanged closed behind him, leaving Kakashi, Ebisu, and Tsunade.

“We denied him again…and he knows why. This is ridiculous, but there’s nothing I can do,” Tsuande told them, looking at Kakashi for approval.
“Rules are rules. There are, of course, ways around them, as Ebisu is all too familiar with,” Kakashi muttered, casting a dark glance at Ebisu.
“If I thought he was ready, I would say yes!” Ebisu almost shouted, his voice indignant at the thought of the accusation of bias.
“Ebisu, if even Kakashi thinks he’s ready…he’s ready. What, exactly, do you have against him? You know how hard-pressed we are for chunin…” Tsunade’s tone went lower, more menacing.
“He has no team, and he is disrespectful towards me!”
Kakashi shook his head. “That young man doesn’t have a disrespectful bone in his body, and you know it. We need another opinion, one that will decide this. We can’t hold him back without a real reason…’



Ekyt made his way to Ichiraku, taking the seat at the end of the counter. It was clear that his meeting hadn’t gone well.
“Hey, Sakura-chan, what’s his deal?” Naruto wanted to know.
“Oh, that…well, I shouldn’t be the one to tell you…hold on…” Sakura walked over to Ekyt. After a brief discussion, she dragged him over to the table.
“So, how did the meeting go?” She asked.
“Same as the last four years…no dice.” Ekyt closed his eyes until they were half-lidded, giving him an air of unconcern.
Sakura, Iruka, even Naruto knew better.
“Ebisu-sensei?” Sakura asked gently.
Ekyt nodded, closing his eyes the rest of the way and balling up a fist. “But this is nothing, no big deal. Naruto-san just came back, we should be celebrating, not brooding!”
Sakura gave Ekyt a small smile, knowing full well that he was one Shinobi who NEVER partied. Faking it for Naruto’s sake was a rare kind of friendship, to be sure.
So the party began, and Naruto was bombarded with questions about what he had learned and seen in his time with Jiraiya.
“Iruka-sensei, I got you something…” Naruto reached into his backpack and rummaged around.
“Well, thank you Naruto. What is it?” Iruka asked.
Ekyt and Sakura exchanged glances. Naruto- being thoughtful? Too good to be true…
It was.
“Ekyt-san, I have something for you, too!”
Naruto stood up, his hands empty. Then, he made hand signs.
“Haremu no Jutsu!” he called. POOF! (English: Ninja Harem Jutsu)
Twelve naked, giggling girl Naruto’s popped up, taking their places around Iruka and Ekyt.
“Iruka-seennseeeiiiiii…look at you! The look on your face is so adorable!”
“Ekyt-kunnnnnn…do you think I’m…cute? Pretty? Beautiful? Oh, the strong, silent type! You bad boy!”
The twelve girls threw themselves at the stunned Shinobi, blowing kisses, posing, and hanging around their necks.
Iruka cracked first. His eyes widened, his mouth dropped open…
Ekyt followed suit. At the same time, they both had geysers of a nosebleed. The blood rocketed them backward, out of Ichiraku, and sent them high into the air, like bleeding Roman Candles. They both arced high, then fell hard, eyes twitching on the ground.
“OH YEAH, I MISSED THAT! I GOT YOU GUYS GOOD, DATTEBAYO!”


A few hours later, Naruto recovered from the beating Sakura gave him.


Meanwhile, as Naruto was laughing, someone else was more somber than usual.

“Kazekage or not…I need to gauge my strength.”
Temari gulped. “Gaara, is there really any need? You’re the most powerful, no one can stand up to you, you know that!”
Gaara closed his eyes. “The chunin exams…almost four years ago now…do you remember my opponent?”
Temari’s eyes grew wide. D-does he know? About how I treated him? That…that would send him into a rage…
“I do Gaara. The name was Ekyt. But he’s a genin, he offers no threat to you, not anymore!” Temari said, putting her hands up beside her head.
“The one opponent that I’ve never had a definitive victory over…Now I will get that victory…”

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