I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

"Sasuke, Naruto."

The door creaked open slightly, and Itachi Uchiha blinked when he saw no bundles in the double bed.

"Mornin' Itachi," Sasuke's voice said, slightly muffled.

Itachi's eyes quickly scanned the room and he mentally laughed slightly when he saw Sasuke kneeling in front of the fan which was blowing right in his face. His hair was wild and his mouth was open, giving him slightly resembling that of a dog.

"Good morning otouto. Where is Naruto?" Itachi asked as he sat cross-legged on Sasuke's left.

"Probably out at Ichiraku's. Why, is something wrong?" Sasuke frowned as he shifted his head to face Itachi.

"No, just need you to be extra careful with Danzo on the loose," Itachi answered as he adopted the typical Uchiha sitting pose, fingers interlaced in front of his mouth. "Don't want him stealing your eyes now, do you? Also, there have been some rumours circling around about you and your friends. . ."

"What rumours. . .?" Sasuke asked warily. Damn, what had they started now?

"Rumours about how the thirteen of you met, rumours on how you managed to take down the Snake Sannin, Orochimaru, rumours on how you found out about Danzo, how you removed the curse mark, how you knew of the invasion, how you and your friends managed to take down so many shinobi at the invasion." Itachi's eyes bore unblinkingly into Sasuke's. "You need to be more careful and stop leaving tracks. People are becoming more and more suspicious."

Sasuke gulped slightly, moving his eyes downward. "W-We've already accomplished a lot of things, and the stories about my eyes are already given since the invasion. Maybe for a week or two, we can start. . . pretending to be normal kids again," he mumbled.

"You better, at least until the rumours die down," Itachi frowned disapprovingly. "I understand your need to correct things as this is our second chance, however doing too much while you are still six is too suspicious. Try to wait until you are at least twelve before making your next correction, alright?"

"We'll try," Sasuke said, "but we can't promise anything. And by we, I'm speaking on behalf of the Leaf Legion. If another attack comes, we won't be standing idly by, that I can promise you."

Itachi poked his little brother in the forehead. "Well, to start your small piece of normalcy, train with me."

"What," Sasuke said flatly.

Itachi's face twitched. "You don't need to look at me like that Sasuke. . . remember how you used to beg me to train you all the time? I can tell Mum thinks it's a bit strange for you to be spending so much time "playing" with your friends instead of training with me."

Sasuke scoffed, crossing his arms. "No offense Itachi, but the only person alive who can actually last in a spar against me is Naruto."

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Don't underestimate me, otouto. Don't forget you are still in your little six-year-old body."

Sasuke grumbled, "Oh yes, no need to remind me of that."

Itachi sighed, his little brother was being especially. . . pissy for lack of better terminology. "May I ask why you in such a bad mood today?" 

"Why wouldn't I be? Danzo is on the loose, Ruto is still kind of mad at me for not restoring Jiraiya's memories the moment he came back to the Leaf, and now there are rumours spreading around about us! This is so troublesome," Sasuke complained as he flopped back onto his bed.

"You sound like a Nara," Itachi quipped. 

"Maybe because I hang around a lot of with one," Sasuke shot back.

"Sasuke -"

"Oi, Ke! One bowl of steaming hot tomato soup noodle coming right up!" Naurto's voice was heard hollering as Sasuke visibly brightened.

"Coming Ruto!" the Uchiha shouted back as he scrambled out of bed. "Talk after breakfast Nii-chan!" Sasuke called over his shoulder as he raced down the stairs.

"Him and tomatoes," Itachi groaned, but a smile was making its way across his face. While Sasuke sometimes irritated him with how obsessed he was with tomatoes, Itachi couldn't deny that it was one childish perk of his little brother that he had missed.

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"So, what time did you wake up this morning anyway?" Sasuke asked as he slurped up some noodles in a very un-Sasuke-like way.

Naruto, who was about to eat his own ramen, laughed. "You're eating like me, Ke!"

"I always eat like this when tomatoes are involved," Sasuke frowed he sucked up a single noodle.

"Geez," Naruto smiled. "And to answer your question, I went to fetch my jacket from Hinata-chan. She was fixing it after it got a rip in it from the battle. I was also talking with Pervy Sage, and didn't Sakura say you could finally use your Mangekyō today?"

"Yep, she did. So we can restore his memories."

"Great, and I have a question for you."

"Hn?"

"Tell you when the Leaf Legion is gathered, okay? I need an explanation."

"Oh great, this is when the dobe side of you shines," Sasuke grinned.

"Shut up," Naruto smiled as he tipped the bowl up to drink the soup that was left.

'I need to talk to all of you guys with a problem too. . .' Sasuke thought, frowning at the red liquid that he had yet to drink.

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Around ten to fifteen minutes later, all of the Leaf Legion was gathered at Training Ground 7, as well as Team Minato.

"What's up, didn't we just have a meeting yesterday?" Kiba asked lazily, Akamaru yapping in agreement.

"I was planning on just having a peaceful day of cloud-gazing but I suppose I won't be getting that today," Shikamaru sighed.

"So, we have two problems," Naruto said. "First is one that is personal to me, which can come later. Apparently Sasuke has a more urgent problem."

Sasuke jumped. "How the. . . I didn't even tell you!" Sasuke yelped.

"You forget, my dear brother, Kurama can activate the link whenever I want," Naruto smiled.

"You hacked into my mind," Sasuke said flatly. "You know how I feel about that."

Naruto shrugged. "Sorry, but you were glaring very intensely at your soup, I was wondering what was running through that brain of yours."

Sasuke scoffed but let it go. "So, my brother told me something very important this morning, something we have to shut down immediately."

"What, another training facility that is growing without the Hokage's knowledge?" Kiba snickered softly.

"No," Sasuke glared, "there have been rumours spreading around about us. About how we met, how we managed to defeat Orochimaru, how we found out about Danzo, about the invasion at the Chuunin Exams. We need to shut the rumours down or we're gonna get interrogated sooner or later."

"Is that all you're worried about?" Neji frowned. 

"It may not seem like a big threat, but it really is one," Sakura frowned slightly at Neji's tone. "For the next week or two, or at least until the rumours die down, we should try and act like normal kids. Okay?"

Everyone shrugged, choruses of "Yeah, sure." and "No problem." replied to them.

"Naruto," Kakashi called, "was there a reason you called us here? Surely it wasn't just to tell us of the rumour, was it?"

"No, I need you to help shut down the rumours with people you talk with, or maybe find out what the rumours say. It could be useful information, because then we can act accordingly to counter those rumours."

"Gotcha," Obito smiled as he grabbed his old teammates and dragged them off.

"Now about the second matter," Sakura turned to him, as did everyone else in the Leaf Legion.

"Well," Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I need you guys to help explain something to me. Yagura and Utakata tried, but they didn't really make any sense."

Naruto's blue orbs darted around anxiously. 

"Go on," Sakura said softly.

"Could you. . . Utakata mentioned something called "romantic love". Could you explain that to me?"

Everyone immediately anime-fell backwards, even the energetic Lee, lazy Shikamaru, gentle Hinata and the stoics. The "stoics" being Neji, Shino and Sai.

Sakura groaned to herself. 'All those years of explaining to Naruto. . . gone the minute we travelled back into time! I guess this is what happens when your "crush" turns out to be brotherly love.'

Lifting herself back up, she saw Naruto looking at all their friends in confusement. Sakura chuckled internally when she saw their reactions.

"Naruto," Sakura said, forcing a smile on her face, "don't you remember what we talked about numerous times in the former future?"

"Huh?" Naruto scratched his head. 

'How can he not understand when there are so many examples all around him? ' Neji thought with a twitching eye as he glanced at Kiba and Hinata, at Ino and Sai, and then at Tenten who was still lying on the ground.

Sakura sighed. "As I explained many times in the former future, there are two types of love -"

"Obviously that went in one ear and out the other," Sasuke snorted as he sat upright.

"Naruto, there are many examples of that. . . "romantic love" around you," Neji finally voiced his thoughts. "How can you not understand?"

"Whaddya mean?" Naruto frowned. "You and Tenten love each other right?"

"Do you even understand what the word "love" in our situation means?" Tenten asked as she shifted sideways so she was lying on Neji's lap.

"Well yeah, you guys wanna get married and have babies," Naruto said with a perfectly straight face.

Everyone except Kiba, even Sai, Shino and Shikamaru, immediately went bright red, but none more so than Tenten and Neji. 

Choji started coughing violently, evidently having choked on his chips. Ino's eyes were wide as her face coloured up. Sakura and Hinata both were the same as Kiba kept laughing. Sasuke was gaping at the sky, crying "Why Kami why?!" as Lee gawked at Tenten and Neji. 

"T-That's not what we're talking about!" Tenten spluttered at last, still bright red.

"R-Right!" Neji agreed hastily.

Naruto frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. "Why did you guys get so embarrassed? It's common knowledge."

Neji went Curry-of-Life red as Tenten went Hinata's-gonna-faint red, their eyes becoming mini white saucers.

(Pretend that's Tenten)

Naruto once again looked confused as everyone shook in either embarrassment or laughter.

"N-Naruto, you don't tell people that so bluntly," Hinata tried to fight her blush but it was coming up full force.

"Why not? It's obvious, that's why they're together right? So they eventually marry and -"

"Okay that's enough!" Ino cut in, her face only a mild shade of pink. "Naruto, do you know the difference between Neji and Tenten's love for each other and you and Sakura's love for each other?"

"I think so," Naruto said, ignoring Neji's cry of, "Why are we the examples?!"

"Good," Ino breathed a sigh of relief. "What's the difference?"

"Well, I think of Sakura as a sister, but I don't want to marry and have babies with her."

Everyone facepalmed as Sakura grew slightly green at the mental image.

"Y-Yeah. . . well if you understand Neji and Tenten's situation of love, think of it with you and Fuu."

"Huh? I don't want to marry and have babies with her either," Naruto said in confusion scratching his head.

"WOULD YOU STOP SAYING THAT?!" Sakura roared. "IT'S EMBARRASSING!"

"But I don't want to," Naruto said, more confused than ever.

"NOT THAT YOU IDIOT, THE LAST PART!"

"Marry?"

"THE OTHER LAST PART!"

"Have babies?"

"YES! STOP SAYING THAT!"

"Why? What's so embarrassing about that?"

A hand was laid on Naruto's shoulder, and the blonde looked to his right to see Sasuke who was shaking his head.

"Oh my poor, innocent Naru," Sasuke sighed, "you have yet to understand the ways of this world."

Everyone was nodding solemnly in agreement.

"Okay, moving on," Naruto looked at them as if they had grown another head. 

"Oh yes," Ino nodded vigorously. "So while you may not want to. . . marry Fuu, she wants to marry you. . .?" Her brain was working overdrive as she thought of a way to dumb the explanation down.

"How come you guys haven't married yet then?"Naruto wondered aloud. 

"We're too young," Ino explained. "You can't have six year olds marrying each other. You have to be an adult to marry. Sometimes, in very rare cases, children do marry but that is when they are forced."

"So what do you do if you don't marry?"

"We date," Ino said simply. "We do lovey-dovey stuff with each other, such as hugging or kissing, and then when we feel the time is right, we get married."

Naruto scratched his head. "So why does Fuu want to marry now?"

"Basically," Shikamaru cut in, "from what I can tell, Fuu loves you the same way Tenten loves Neji, and if you love her the way Neji loves Tenten then you eventually wind up dating. Troublesome Uzumaki." 

Naruto frowned. "So basically. . . Fuu wants to date?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru drawled. "Any more questions, go ask Ino, this is too much of a drag."

Naruto turned back to Ino. "So why doesn't she just date?"

"You have to love her," Ino clarified. 

"How do you love someone? As in, not the way I love Sakura and Sasuke."

"Well, it's not really a choice. You meet the right person, fall in love, confess, start dating, and if things work out you eventually marry!"

"That all seems very complicated and silly to me," Naruto confessed as he scratched his head for what seemed like the thousandth time.

"It's not silly," Hinata said patiently. "When you finally meet the right person, you want to spend the rest of your life with them. You want more than just friendship. That's how girlfriends and boyfriends come to be, and that's why you marry."

"And have babies," Naruto nodded sagely.

Everyone anime fell backwards again.

"I give up," Sasuke moaned, "Naruto is officially the most hopeless case concerning the area of love."

Naruto tipped his head sideways, blue eyes questioning.

"Huh?"