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It was, in fact, an all but perfect fall day when Naruto returned to the village. The air was crisp, though not cold, and everything smelled clean, thanks to the thunderstorm that had rolled through the day before. The entire Konoha Twelve were even in the village at the same time, which was increasingly rare these days, as they had all gained enough responsibilities that often called them away.
Well. The entire Konoha Twelve were there, but neither Sasuke nor Shikako were anywhere to be found.
Meanwhile, on a standard ANBU patrol around the village with Team Red, Bat tried hard not to fidget noticeably as she delicately started working on wrapping the patrol up as quickly as she could manage. She could feel Hawk giving her suspicious looks from the side, though neither of their other teammates seemed to have noticed anything odd about Bat’s behavior.
By the time the patrol was finally over, though, Towa and Komachi were both also side-eyeing Bat with deep wariness as the team reached headquarters.
She was probably showing how excited she was. Oops.
Puzzlingly, everyone in ANBU headquarters was giving Bat a wide birth as she bounced through on her way out, followed by a world-weary Hawk, , who was being given many sympathetic nods and shoulder pats as he grimly trailed her out of the area.
Shikako barely waited until they were clear to whip off her mask and throw it, along with everything else that marked her as ANBU, into Hammerspace.
“Naruto’s back!” she blurted out. Sasuke came to sharp attention next to her, and removed his ANBU markings almost as quickly as she had. “He’s reporting to Tsunade right now, and I don’t think he noticed that we weren’t around before, but come on, we have to meet him at the tower!”
No one looked twice at the two of them as they bounded across the rooftops towards the tower, Shikako almost vibrating with excitement. They didn’t hesitate to show up at Tsunade’s window, either, and wasn’t that just something. If someone had told Shikako when she was younger that she would get to the point where she could just burst in the Hokage’s window, like only the most elite and trusted of the shinobi were allowed to actually do, she would never have believed it.
At the moment, though, she didn’t care much. The only thing she cared about at that moment was the way that Naruto lit up with a beaming smile the second that he saw her, and lunged forward to grab her in a hug, clapping Sasuke on the shoulder while he grabbed her up.
None of them said so much as a single word, it was just the three of them pressed close, Naruto wrapped around Shikako, and Sasuke pressing in to the side, one hand closed tight on Naruto’s shoulder as well.
“Oi, brats, get out of my office!” Tsunade thundered from right behind them. All three of them jumped a little, shifting guiltily.
“Just. Go.”
“Right! Bye Baa-chan!” with that, Naruto pulled Shikako out the window with him, Sasuke on his heals, even as Tsunade bellowed angrily in the background.
It had only been a few minutes, but it was already so good to have Naruto back. Shikako could only smile as they fled.