Starting over

#45 Konoha's Spy

Naruto POV

I waited for Kurama to stop being so stubborn and tell me what troubled his mind. While I was waiting I took the time and thought about how my life had progressed compared to the other timeline. I smiled at how my life had improved; I had a loving family, teachers that would actually teach me something and I had more knowledge about my parents than before when I was the same age. My move to Suna also saved me from a lot of beatings and pain courtesy of the villagers of Konoha. I had become friends with Kurama earlier in my life and also I had already begun mastering the bijuu-cloak. I was smiling as the sound of Kurama coming out of his cave caused me to open my eyes.

"You are still here?", he asked with no emotion in his voice. "You know that I won't leave until you tell me what is up.", I replied. The big fox sighed and sat down next to me. "You know, I don't like to talk around so I'll just come straight to the point. I have watched you get stronger and stronger over the years and you have gradually stopped to ask me for my help, whether it be in a fight or for training. I am just worried that you will forget me sometime and that you will stop talking to me.", Kurama said, trying not to let his voice crack. I was shocked hearing Kurama's concerns. "Why would you think that. I could never forget you. You have helped me so much over the past years. And I mean, I know that there will be enemies that I can't beat on my own, with whom I need your help. And most importantly you became a good friend to me and you know I don't just forget about my friends.", I said, petting the big foxes ears.

After a few more hours of talking to the nine tails I left, seeing that I wanted to get at least a few hours of sleep.

"Naruto, wake up.", I heard Temari say, while she was shaking me awake. I opened my eyes smiling and looked at my girlfriend who was smiling at me. I put my arms around her neck and pulled her down capturing her lips in a kiss. After a few minutes we got out of bed and changed into our shinobi outfits, going down to the breakfast buffet and meeting up with Gaara.

At the training ground we sat in a circle, with Akira joining us as well. "Well, yesterday, before we got interrupted, we had our little fight and I have found a few things that would need work on the two of you. Naruto, you should try to have a better teamwork with Akira. You also have to practice your taijutsu since you didn't use any and I think it was because you knew that I would be stronger in it than you are. For Temari, you need to work on your ninjutsu and on your speed so that you can dispell attacks easier.", Gaara said relaying his results from yesterday's training. Temari and I nodded, taking in this criticism. Gaara looked at us waiting for Temari or me to give him something to train in the next week. "Well, in the short time we had fought I only noticed one thing, you need to work on your abilities without the use of Shukaku.", I said earning a nod from Temari. We now knew what we had to do and got to work to fix the mistakes that we had found.

As the sun had set, Gaara went to the hotel to sleep. He still had to catch up on his missed sleep from the first few years of his life. Temari and I went into the bathhouse of Konohagakure, the receptionist looked awkwardly at us when Temari requested a private bath. We still got the room and went to the changing rooms.

I already was sitting in the pool when I heard Temari coming in. I turned around and smiled at her. She was wearing a beautiful red bikini and winked at me before slipping into the pool straddling my hips. She put her arms around my neck and leaned into a kiss. I let my arms roam on her back and enjoyed the love she was giving me.

I was surprised when she suddenly grabbed my hands. I feared that I had gone too far down, even though I didn't do anything I hadn't done before. But I saw her smile as she put my hands on her lower back before putting her hands behind my back. I leaned forward to capture her lips again.

The next morning I woke up with Temari's head on my chest. Then I remembered the previous evening and smiled. Nothing had happened after we had went out of the pool. Temari stirred in her sleep and tightened her grip around my back. I caressed her cheek and closed my eyes smiling.

Over the next week we trained, in the evenings Temari and I went to the hot springs while Gaara slept in his hotel room. After a week the exams finally approached. We went into the academy where the first portion of the exams was held.

We went into the halls and followed the signs saying that the exams would be held on the third floor. We saw a lot of kids our age, almost all of them standing in groups of three. After we had climbed two floors up we saw a large group of genin standing in front of a door. The sign above the door said that this would be the third floor but Gaara, Temari and I knew that we only had went up two stories. We laughed at the two supposed chunin-exams blocked the genin who didn't see through the genjutsu, before we went up the next staircase and gave the shinobi, that was standing outside of the classroom, our entry slips. The man looked at the slips and nodded at us, opening the door and letting us pass. We got a lot of looks when we entered, more exactly Temari got a lot of looks. I saw a lot of guys whispering to their teammates staring at my girlfriend. I put my hand in hers putting out a bit of killing intent, making all the genins in the room sweat. Then I saw the genin from Konoha standing next to Orochimaru's assistant Kabuto. I shot an alarmed look at my teammates and they came to me so that we could discuss how we would handle the situation.