Naruto: The return of the lost child.

Ch-4

Night time.

At Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

" *laughs* I can't believe it, it's so hilarious. You both ran out of there because of some girls" after a heavy day Neji finally had a heartful laugh at Sasuke and Naruto.
Sasuke, Ino , Sakura , Neji , Kiba and Naruto were having their dinner at Ichiraku's together.  The idea of dinner was decided by Sakura so that everyone could get acquainted with Naruto. They had a long chat with Naruto wherein Naruto explained them how he entered the village and how he was helped by Hinata. Naruto was warmly welcomed by the everyone and accepted in the group as one of them.

"I didn't know that they both would actually start running. Just thinking of that scene makes me laugh" said Ino leaving  embarrassed Sasuke and Naruto.

"It was this guy who started running first. It was a surprise to me" Sasuke defended himself. "You know what was a bigger surprise to me? To know that everyone in this group is an heir of a clan. I mean I feel so out of place here" said Naruto as he washed the dishes in the shop. "Don't worry none of us in the group actually act like that, we all behave like normal teens. Especially you should meet Menma and Narumi, they both are son of Hokage still you should see how they behave" said Sakura.

"Oh my god so we have Hokage's children in this group too. Well whatever finish it fast we are about to close the shop" Naruto soon finished his work and sat next to Sasuke. "Talking about Menma, is his mother doing well?" asked Neji.

"Haven't heard from him for a while. I think we should go and meet her" suggested Sakura to which everyone nodded in agreement. Soon the group was disturbed by a faint commotion coming from the gates of the village.
"Security unit huh...I guess they are reinstalling village barriers" murmered Sasuke. "The peace brought after the Third Great Shinobi War is being destroyed by few people. It so unacceptable." The frustration on Kiba's  face as he said those words was shared by everyone in the group. Naruto was sitting with an confused face as he tried to figure out what the conversation was about. He was curious to know but he decided not to interfere in their personal matters.

Sasuke noticed the confused face of Naruto which asked the questions on their conversation "Naruto you are lucky you know?. You were able to enter the village because there were no barriers yesterday. No one outside of the Konoha can enter the village when these barriers are installed. One day late and you might have been locked in the prison for infiltrating the village".

As Sasuke cleared his one question Naruto had more and more question popping in his mind "Why are barriers needed though?".
This time it was Neji who answered his question " *sigh* there is a lot happening last few years Naruto. Everything seems to be nice and peaceful but only we shinobis know the tension inside. Now that you are one of us I shall explain you about everything from the start." The air around the group was no longer a chilling one...it was dense. Neji's humorous tone he had earlier turned into a deep one which indicated Naruto just how important the topic was.

"It all started 10 years ago Naruto. Out of nowhere we heard the news that Kage of Iwagakure, Ohnoki-sama has died. It was a shocker for every nation. The reason of death was said to be heart attack. After his death he was replaced by other Kage. What surprised us was it was not his granddaughter who replaced him but someone from their Anbu. Then after a year Raikage, Kage of Kumogakure suddenly went into a coma. Same thing happened there and he was replaced by Kumogakure's Anbu head.

Same sequence of events were followed in Sunagakure wherein Gaara, The Kage of Sunagakure was replaced by their Anbu head. Now as the situation stands it's only our village which has a true Kage. Other all the villages have the substitute Kage." Everything Neji said was totally new for Naruto. He didn't know what all has been happening in outside world. "Naruto do you know what are Tailed-Beasts?" asked Kiba. Naruto's muddled face was enough for him to understand so he began explaining him.