The Good Witch [Naruto Shippuden Fanfiction]

Tsunade

+ So I recently got into digital art so I drew what I imagine Iris looks like. I hope you all like it. :) +

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We finally made it to the Land of Fire. After a day long boat ride and a few more days of walking, we made it closer and closer to the Hidden Leaf Village. During our voyage, I've gotten to catch up with Naruto while also learning interesting things about his sensei, Jiraiya. Apparently he is the writer of that orange book Kakashi sensei loves so much. I didn't delve much into the contents of the book, but when Jiraiya was beat up by a large group of women at a bathhouse we stopped by, and justified his perversion with the excuse that it was for 'research' for his new book, I didn't need to ask any further questions.

The path back to the village brought me back to when I had to escape when my secret was revealed. I clutched Nyla in both of my arms and held onto her firmly as I remembered that somewhere in this forest I brought her back to life, and she was been by my side. Her and Masaru were the two greatest things to come out of my absence from Konoha.

Naruto snapped me back to reality. "Ohn man, I'm so excited to get back to the village," he said enthusiastically. I smiled at the back iof his head, since I was a few feet behind him and Jiraiya.

"Do you feel the same, Iris?" Jiraiya asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Of course," I answer unsurely.

"You sure? Because your walking speed has been slowly decreasing as we get closer to the village."

I sighed heavily and stared down at my feet, damning them silently. "I'm just a little nervous, that's all. I havent seen this place in years, and I didn't leave in the best way possible, you know?"

"You got that right," Naruto chimed in. "Everyone was scared out of their minds after you got carried away." I'm not sure if Naruto's intentions were to make me feel better with that piece of information, but it didn't make me feel less uneasy about going back.

"I don't think she needed to know that, Naruto," Jiraiya adds.

Naruto turned to me and laughed nervously. "Oh yeah, my bad. But don't worry! I'm sure they all forgot about it by now." I still felt nervousness inside of me, but I kept that to myself and sent him a reassuring smile.I wistfully looked down at Nyla and stroked her fur, trying to find some kind of peace from this action. We turned a corner, and I lift my head up to see the gates of Konoha in the distance.

I sped up my walk to catch up with Naruto and Jiraiya while trying to keep my cool. I inhaled and exhaled deeply in order to calm myself down. You'll be fine, Iris. As Naruto said, him and all the other people who care for me, who know me, defended me. The villagers should know that I'm not a threat to them, but even if they don't all feel that way, I still have the people who accept me for who I am.

I smile softly as we made it past the gates and entered the Hidden Leaf Village. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the man who brought me here for the first time and his partner. It hurt my heart that I couldn't bring myself to formaly greet them out of fear that I'll be rejected. I kept my head up, facing forward and continued to walk past the two men.

We reached this tall pole, which Naruto proceeded to run up after dropping his bag. I watched him in awe and thought back to when Kakashi sensei taught us how to walk up a tree using our chakra. "The village hasn't changed one bit. Oh, wait! They added Granny Tsunade's face!" I turn to the rock faces and realize that there was another face that I don't remember seeing during my time in the village. Naruto proudly puffed his chest and stretched his arms horizontally before announcing "Naruto Uzumaki has returned to the Hidden Leaf Village!"