The everyday hustle and bustle of the Village Hidden in the Leaves betrayed nothing out the usual because, for the most part there was nothing out of the ordinary about this day to anyone currently living it. Merchants still cried out their wares for sale in the market, shinobi still trained, and a certain pink-haired kunoichi was going about the daily tasks. Sakura Haruno had just finished inventory of the ICU in the hospital, and was currently doing the last of the paperwork Tsunade-sama had been avoiding, and then she'd be going from the hospital on her way to the check-in post by the village gate to get the daily log from the past two days.
At the same time as the beleaguered pinkette sifted through her errant master's paperwork trail, two figures walked the main road to the main gate, approaching the village. At first indistinct to the perpetual chunin guarding the gate, they could eventually make out a tall man with a long mane of hair and a scroll strapped to his back and young blonde boy, nearly the same height as him walking beside him.
"I keep telling you," Jiraiya complained, "it's just not fair that at your age you're nearly as tall as me!"
The boy groaned at the repetition of a familiar gripe from his mentor. "And I keep telling you to cram it, Ero-Sennin!"
As they approached the gates to the village, Naruto heard a voice in his head. 'So...they'll make good subjects?'
Naruto mentally warned his companion not to take any action against them. He inwardly sighed; it was bad enough that his friend Checkers had used his powers on Jiraiya. He'd only just gotten Jiraiya back to something like normal, and it was an annoyance to have the pervert try and use him to spread the 'Gospel According to Hentai' with 'His Majesty's divine benificence'.
Jiraiya was still somewhat under his command, and for some reason was one of the only people who could see Checkers. Naruto mulled over his thoughts on the matter until Izumo cleared his throat.
"Need to get you to sign in here; no time for daydreaming about your team-mate" Naruto growled at that, but held his temper. He quickly scribbled his signature in the required spot as he and Jiraiya entered the village.
Naruto's prankster nature, however, got the best of him. Checkers power flared and Izumo and Kotetsu found themselves bowing before him. "Yes, your eminence" they intoned.
Naruto grinned a sinister grin as he imparted his only command. The next thing Izumo and Kotetsu knew, they were staring at each other before they suddenly burst out clucking and squawking as Jiraiya and Naruto entered the village and they continued on impersonating chickens until a certain pinkette marched over to them and asked them what the hell they were doing.
"You're embarassing us, out here on display, and worst of all you're embarassing the village!" The two men looked at her confused, not remembering doing anything wrong. "I swear I'm going to get Tsunade-sama to reassign you two or give you vacation time; being on the gate for two long has made you two insane!"
Neither of the two were going to complain about that! Anything to get them away from the drudgery of gate duty. As Sakura started to march back to the Hokage tower, Izumo called out laughingly "Oh, by the way, you might want to check the most recent entries in there".
Sakura, confused for a moment, did as they suggested. As soon as she saw the entries she slammed the book shut and took off into the village to find her wayward teammate.
"Heh, guess she's in a rush to see him again huh?" Izumo asked, though he was confused by the strange look on his co-worker's face.
"Pwuckaw!"
Izumo look at Kotetsu for a moment. "Man, maybe she's right: you DO need a vacation!"
As the pair argued amongst themselves, Sakura headed off through the village. After a few moments she spotted her quary atop a telegraph pole.
"NARUTO!" she called out. Seeing who'd been calling out to him, he lept from his lofty perch down to the ground in front of her.
"Hey Sakura-chan! Long time no see!" he enthused. She nodded, noting how he'd become more handsome over the years...even if he wasn't at the same handsomeness level as Sasuke. She quickly shook away the morbid thought of their renegade teammate as she noticed a few things. "Hey...you're taller than me now. And you look heaps different too"
"Really? You think?" Naruto asked, scratching his trademark whisker-markings. "Most of the time it was just me and Ero-Sennin on the road, so I guess I never really noticed"
"So...," she began, "what about me? Have I changed at all?"
"Nah Sakura-chan, you haven't changed a bit!" She deadpanned at that and internally held at bay the urge to slug him; he was only just back in the village after all, no need to give him a concussion straight off the bat.
By the time she'd done calming herself, she noticed him talking to Konohamaru. The bond between her blonde teammate and the young grandson of the Sandaime Hokage and his teammates was quite endearing. At least she thought that way until he perfomed his own variation of the 'Oiroke no Jutsu'.
She admitted to being stunned that Naruto reprimanded his friend over the use of 'that technique'. Maybe he had become more mature?
Any illusion of maturity was thrown to the wind when he announced his new 'even pervier' jutsu. She was just about to slug him in the head and send him flying when she noticed that she was unable to follow through on the punch. Every time she tried, it seemed like her arm refused to follow the signals her mind was giving it. Suddenly, her mind followed on and was flooded by new thoughts...thoughts of Naruto as her monarch, her ruler, her sovereign. Without any more resistance she dropped to her knees and bowed to him.
"What is your command, my sovereign?" she tonelessly inquired.
Thoughts of rescue were absent, especially in the case of the three team members of Team Ebisu, who looked at Naruto with a dazed reverence.
"Well...this sorta got out of hand" he said, rubbing his forehead in hopes of dispelling a frustration headache. However, as he looked at Sakura he noticed that his feelings for her were supressed behind his indignation at the fact that she'd not changed at all, and despite his absence she still resorted to attacking him for the slightest things. He almost felt as if love, the love he'd felt for her before hand had become tainted, if not died. She would never stop lashing out at him.
Looking down at her before him, he suddenly sported a sinister grin.
"I think I have a plan for you Sakura" he mused. She looked up at him with a worshipping gaze "My Lord?"
"Here's what's going to happen. You will..."
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