"O-okay...uh..." Naruto scratched the back of his head "P-Pacific Ocean"
"Good, what about this one?" Athena pointed to another area on the huge map she was using to teach Naruto about their world, around them was multi books and various kind of comics, which were all for children half of his age.
Of course, Naruto couldn't depend on Kurama all the time, so he asked Athena to help him with English since she was the most friendly one among the immortal group.
But it wasn't make her an easy teacher, quite opposite to say the least. Naruto totally forgot that this woman was the goddess of wisdom and his normal behavior wasn't tolerated by Athena in the slightest. This goddess made Iruka's strict teaching looked like teaching children how to count from one to ten.
But he learned fast, Athena said that herself. Even the goddess of wisdom was surprised by this.
Artemis, however wasn't...what Athena was teaching was pretty simple so of course the simple-mind-idiot understood it pretty fast, it would soon change when they get to the complicate things.
Speaking of whom, the huntress along with her lieutenant already went hunting at the forest outside of Konoha.
In just a few hours after Naruto and his team returned to Konoha and told Tsunade about his upcoming leaving, the news somehow spread all over Elemental Nations like fire on hay.
Of course, the information about Naruto's real parent and his true origin, as well as the immortal group with him right now was kept at the triple S top secret information. It would cause chaos all over the countries if they found out that Naruto was the son of two powerful gods and the two women staying at Konoha right now was goddess, not to mention Zoe being an immortal. What the people of Elemental Nations knew was that he was about to leave for a very long time, going to the faraway lands that were even outside of the Elemental Nation and became a wanderer like his late sensei.
"I heard that you dream to become this village's leader, the Hokage right?" Athena asked as she put the book down and asked Naruto.
Yeah, to be Hokage…that's my dream" Naruto smiled slightly "at first I just want to be Hokage in order to have people acknowledge me, grow up and I found it is more than just acknowledgement"
"True" Athena nodded her head. She of all people was too familiar with the word 'leader' "you know, you don't have to leave this village forever. With your father's power he can teleport you to this place whenever he wants, it just that he can't come to this world due to the oath he made with the Styx long ago"
"Is the Styx that terrify?"
"For us gods, we won't be affected by her curse. But the curse itself will go to our children" Athena explained "so if they broke that oath, bad fortune will get to you and that will be the last thing they want to do"
"Is that so?" Naruto nodded his head and stood up.
"Hey where are you going? We're still finish this yet" Athena tried to grab him but the boy already got to the front door of his apartment.
"Hey what is the big deal, I already have the clones study for me" he pointed out. Clones filled the every single area of his apartment, with a book in each of their hands his copies were helping him speeding up the language learning process. With the speed they were learning and the amount of clones Naruto summoned, he would more or less have the basic grab of the world he was going to come to.
To say Athena was shocked was an understatement because she'd never seen such useful technique before in her immortal life, both in daily learning and war's strategies. Athena could read dozens of books per days and perfectly understand them, but the idea of Naruto with his clones could read hundreds maybe thousands of books depend on the amount of clones he summoned then at the end of the day all knowledge transfer back to him when the clones disappear, was truly terrify.
It wasn't like she didn't believe in this method of learning and she could teach the clones if she wanted to, but she preferred to teach the original, since everything gone to him anyway.
Plus, teaching a whole class with the same face was a little bit creepy, even for a goddess like her.
Naruto put on his jacket and opened the door.
But the moment he opened it
"Naruto-sempai, please don't leave!"
"Please, our village needs you"
"You're our hero, don't leave"
"Please give me your child first before departing"
"If you really have to go, please except my gifts first
The hero of the Elemental Nation instantly slammed his door closed and used his back to block the door. There were a lot of people waiting outside of his apartment, most of them were girls and young women and some of them even had gifts in their hands, from foods to various kinds of gifts that he could think of.
"Well, don't let Artemis see that girls are swooning over you." Athena advised wisely while explaining a few details to a clone of Naruto.
"You don't have to tell me" he quickly escaped through the window and headed to the hospital, where Tsunade was waiting with his new hand.
Line Break
"How do you feel Naruto?" Tsunade Senju asked as she held a small board with a pen in her hands, looking at Naruto who just went through a surgery just fine.
Naruto looked at his new hand made from the Shodaime Hokage's cells, which was wrapped completely in bandages. Tsunade thought it would be best wrapped his new hands by bandages, since her grandfather's cells combine with the flesh of other could get a very unhealthy feeling for the one who saw it. At least he didn't have the Shodaime's face poked out of his arms like Madara or Danzo
The blond moved his index finger and saw that it reacted to him immediately. Naruto then turned his hand around and tightened his hand into a fist, gripping it tightly and smirked.
"Well Baa-chan, this is as good as my original one" He grinned at the former Godaime Hokage.
"Good, but we still need to run some more tests on your arms" the blond groaned making Tsunade glared at him "Shut up brat, this is for your own good"
"Ya ya! What about Sasuke?" He asked, if Tsunade had finished with his right arm then she probably finished with Sasuke's left arm.
"Sakura is taking care of his hand" Naruto wolf-whistled before receiving a light swat on the head by Tsunade's clipboard.
Naruto quickly gathered his things and got out of the hospital before the fifty three years old lady in disguise could grab him, heading toward Ichiraku Ramen to grab a hot and delicious meal. The surgery took him three hours in the morning, it could take longer but since Tsunade was a professional she made it way faster than normal medic nin, so Naruto particularly very hungry right now.
Thank to Naruto's reputation, in just a few days after the world, Ichiraku's Ramen had become one of the most popular restaurant in the entire Elemental Nations. The place literally overwhelmed with costumers twenty four hours. What made him supper glad was that the Naruto topping had become the most popular topping now and every Shinobi and Kunoichi of Konoha came to eat a bow of ramen before missions in hopes of getting success on mission like Naruto.
"Now just wait a minute" Ichiraku Teuchi even hired some of the shinobi team of the village to become the entrance guard for his restaurant, so it was the common sight to see some of the new graduated teams of Konoha standing in front of the entrance and stopped the massive crowds of costumers trying to get into the place "Please step in line, please"
Maybe it wasn't a good decision for coming to a crowd place like this, remembering what happened this morning at his apartment, but Naruto was craving for an extra big bowl of ramen with ramen topping so he decided to take the risk.
Stood at the end of the line with both of his hands in his pocket, Naruto waited patiently for his turn until…
"It's Naruto-sempai!" he heard the shout and turned behind to see a young boy pointing at him with the brightest smile ever. Instantly those words reached everyone's ears and they turned around and soon got to see the familiar hero of Elemental Nations.
"Uh yeah…" He chuckled nervously "that's me" soon, villagers surrounded around him and tried to ask him for his signatures or even trying to convince him to not leave the village at this timing.
Luckily for him, a certain teacher of Ninja Academy came into rescue as he pulled Naruto out of the crowd by his collar, making everyone yelled out in disappointment.
"Sorry guys, let me borrow him for a moment" Naruto turned around and a smile made it to his face when he saw one of his most favorite teachers, Iruka Umino standing behind him with a smile on his face.
"Iruka-sensei!" The blond grinned widely
"Let's come in Naruto, my treat this time" this day couldn't get any better.
A few minutes later, sitting at a table in the middle of the crowded ramen restaurant, Naruto and Iruka were eating their foods which the former more or less gulping down bowl after bowl of extra big ramen served by the restaurant's waitresses. The blond ate his food with a happy smile on his face, happy that he didn't have to worry about his Gama-chan became thin because of him.
"So Naruto, when are you going to go?" Iruka started the conversation, slowly eating his ramen.
"Well, after Sasuke go I will go too" Naruto nodded his head, putting the empty ramen bowl down and grabbed another one "he told me something about traveling the world to see how it works, so more or less we both will leave Konoha in a day or two" Iruka was one of a few people knew the truth behind Naruto's departure.
"Can't say that I'm not sad when you are about to leave" the teacher smiled at him.
"Don't worry Iruka-sensei, Athena said that I can visit Konoha from time to time if I can ask pop help me with the transportation" he pointed out with a grin "plus I don't think that world ramen is as good as Ichiraku" the brown haired chunnin laughed at that. To say Naruto was glad when he found out the Earth also had ramen was an understatement.
Artemis or any gods could summon foods and really delicious at that, but he prefers handmade more than magical-made like what the goddess did.
"I never got to say this to you Naruto, but I thought it was just yesterday that you're still a gennin and I treated you at the small ramen restaurant like usual" Iruka said, looking Naruto with soft eyes "but now you sit here, the hero of the Fourth Great Shinobi War, adores by many and love by all. I couldn't be more proud of my little brother" the teacher smiled and rubbed Naruto's head, making him grinned.
A few minutes later, Naruto and Iruka existed the ramen restaurant with the brown haired chunnin's wallet literally broke, but he didn't have anything against it. The owner of the restaurant, Ichiraku Teuchi wanted to treat his favorite costumer free ramen but the both of them quickly shut down the ideas and paid for the meal…Iruka paid for the meal.
"Naruto-nii chan! Oi!" the blond turned his head and saw Konohamaru running toward him while waving his arm "Hey Iruka-sensei!"
"Konohamaru?" he asked in surprise before grinning "how are you?"
"I'm great" the grandson of the late Sandaime Hokage grinned before saying "Hey check this out! There is something I want to show you"
"Really?"
"Yeah" he nodded before running ahead "Hurry"
"Oi, wait for me" Naruto quickly followed behind, not forgot to wave goodbye to Iruka "see you later Iruka-sensei"
The two of them got to Konohamaru's house and the gennin leaded Naruto into a room looked like a storage room with a lot of stuffs and boxes and things that looked pretty old and untouched for a long time, though the place was well kept and tidy.
"I found this while cleaning the place" the smaller gennin grabbed a big box and put it down to the ground, opened it and showed Naruto a grinning monkey wearing the Hokage's hat as well as the costume of the Sandaime Hokage.
"What is this anyway?" he looked at it with curious eyes, glancing into the box and saw lot of things inside too "junks?"
"It's not junks" Konohamaru shook his head "they are all remembrances of Oji-chan"
"Oh" Naruto nodded his head "so what is this stuffs all about?"
"Ah, I think this is your mother's things Naruto-nii chan" his eyes widened in surprise "Oji-chan keeps all her things here" he then reached his hands into the box and pulled out a blue scarf with white stripes "here, I think she made this for you"
Naruto gently took the scarf from Konohamanru and held it in both hands.
"Mother" he whispered in English.
She made this for him, Kushina Uzumaki or better known as Hera, made this for him…
"You should keep them, this is your mother's belongings after all"
"Okay, thank you Konohamaru"
Line Break
"YOSH NARUTO-KUN! The Flame of Youth within us is burning brighter than ever so let's party until both of us can even walk anymore" Lee shouted energetically, with a voice full of power(youth) and put his hand on Naruto's shoulders, leaning against the blond while holding a bottle of water in his hand.
"Hehe, alright" Naruto chuckled nervously, glad that Guy had changed the bottle of sake with the bottle of water from Lee's hand, or else he would be screaming and using drunken fist to destroy the whole place.
They were at the Ichiraku's ramen again, but this time the place was used to give Naruto the farewell party. He had tried to explain to Tsunade that he wasn't going to go forever and would visit the village from time to time, but the busty Hokage shook it off and forced him to go to the party against his will. All of Naruto's friends and close people were here, from the rookie twelve and Team Guy to Konohamaru and his squad with Ebisu sitting at the round table in the middle of the street, which had been closed at both sides in order to have enough spaces for the people invited to the party for the party, laughing with each other. Guy and Kakashi and the teachers of each team with Iruka were talking with each other, with the former sitting on a wheelchair and still hadn't fully recovered yet but still came here, which Naruto very grateful about.
Even the Kages were here, sitting at the table while talking with each other. The sand siblings were having a hard time trying not to get suck too much into the party, but he could see that Shikamaru and Temari was pretty close with each other now.
The immortal maidens were also invited and they currently sitting at a lone table at the corner. They would never come here if not for Naruto forcing them to come, with Athena was the first goddess since she was curious about the villages and Artemis and Zoe had no choice but followed her as well, since Athena was the only one who could speak Japanese, misunderstanding in language could cause unnecessary trouble.
"Here you go Naruto" Ino and Sai approached him and gave the blond a small box, a departing gift "this is from the both of us"
"Thank you, Ino, Sai" he nodded gratefully and opened his scroll to store the next departing gifts his friends gave him, which he had received all night.
The party continued for the next three hours with a lot of things happened, Lee finally got his hand on sake and the next things they knew, Guy's favorite student was dancing around while moving his body wildly in the drunken fist, destroying everything he caught sight of and sent anyone who tried to stop him flying until Artemis snapped her finger, turning him into a creature that resembled a rabbit and antelope horns much to everyone's shock.
But she did turned him back to normal after everyone secured him, to make sure he wouldn't destroy the restaurant if he is turned back to normal.
Naruto sat opposite from Sasuke, who liked him already had a new hand. They talked about their own intention in the future, separating themselves from the wild party.
However, when the party was about to end, Naruto caught side of a young woman sitting at Team Eight's table, unlike everyone who had already drunk and laughing, she was having her head down and her eyes looked sad, hands gripping a small box tightly on her lap.
Since the funeral, he'd never seen Hinata Hyuuga looked so sad like that.
"Excuse me, Sasuke, Sakura-chan" he stood up from their seat and walked toward Hinata's table.
"Where are…" but Sasuke was stopped when Sakura put a finger on his lips, she was smiling while looking at Naruto.
Naruto stood at Team Eight's table for a moment, it seemed that Hinata still not realize he was standing behind her yet so he spoke up.
"Hey Hinata, can I sit here?" the girl's head snapped up and she turned around to look at him with wide eyes.
"N-Naruto-kun…" she stuttered in surprise "of course you can"
And he did, sitting at the chair next to Hinata. They stayed silent for a moment as neither party decided to be the first one who start the conversation.
Getting uncomfortable with the silent between them Naruto decided to speak up first.
"So Hinata"/"Naruto-kun"
However, Hinata also decided to break the silent as the two looked at each other for a moment.
""You"" once again they said at the same time, but the light lavender eyes beauty quickly said.
"You go first Naruto-kun"
"Oh, alright" he nodded "Why didn't you enjoy the party and sit here all alone?" he asked, looking at her.
"I…I don't feel like partying tonight" she whispered "Naruto-kun"
"Yeah?"
"Are you…really going to leave?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah…" was all his reply "I…don't know for how long…but I will make sure to ask my dad bring me back to visit you guys every chance I got" even himself was unsure of that.
"Sorry Nar…uto-kun, but I n…eed to go now"
Hinata then suddenly stood up and ran away with the box held close to her chest, in just a moment Naruto could see a small glint of light from her eyes.
It was tears.
Dumbfounded Naruto sat there questioned himself about what just happened, scratching the back of his head in confusion, his eyes stayed on Hinata.
"Sigh…" Naruto turned around and saw Sasuke and Sakura standing behind him "you will never learn do you?"
"L-Learn what?" Naruto asked with a slight force smile.
"Follow her dumb ass!" Sakura shouted and slammed her hand on the table, making it broke into pieces and made the foods and plates fell down to the ground.
Naruto flinched and jumped out of his chair
"HAI!" he shouted, spinning around and went after Hinata as quick as he could.
With his speed he quickly caught up to her, but Hinata already got into her house and closed the door behind her.
"Oi Hinata" he shouted, slamming his hands against the door rapidly "Please open the door" there was no answer "If you don't open the door I will break in!" he was going to be in so much trouble with Hiashi after this, but then again, he wasn't going to stay in this village for long so luckily he would escape the usual stoic Hyuuga's wrath.
And it was about time he test his new hand's ability to use ninjutsu
Bringing his hand back Naruto summoned an orange Rasengan in his hand. It was a lot easier to do it with only one hand than before and the blond couldn't help but grin at that.
"I will count to three if you don't open it I will break in" Maybe this method was a bit extreme "one…two…three" he thrust his hand forward.
However right at that moment the door opened.
But the girl who opened it wasn't Hinata, but her sister Hanabi.
"Shit!" he stopped midway and deactivated the jutsu before it could touch Hanabi.
"N-Naruto-sempai?" the girl looked up "what was that?"
"Nothing" he hid his hand behind his back quickly while the other scratching the back of his head, laughing forcefully "nothing at all Hanabi-chan"
"I heard your voice so I came to open the door" she explained "You want to come in? Nee-sama just returned home"
"Oh alright" he walked in and followed behind Hanabi.
"Sorry for not coming to the farewell party Naruto-sempai" Hanabi glanced at him and said apologetically.
"Don't worry about it" he shook his head and followed Hanabi until they were in front of Hinata's room.
"Nee-sama, Naruto-sempai is here to see you" she knocked the door slightly "nee-sama"
"She is not inside" Naruto suddenly said, he could feel somebody else in this mansion other than Hanabi, but they wasn't in the room "I will go to her, you go to your room alright Hanabi"
"Uh…alright then" the young Hyuuga waved slightly.
Naruto got to the place appeared to be a garden of the Hyuuga Mansion, the place filled with plants and all the kinds of flowers he could think of.
He could hear the faint sobbing sound and moved toward that direction as quickly yet gently as he could, knowing full well that Hinata was there and he didn't want her to run away again.
True enough the girl was having her head resting against her arms, with both of them put on her knees as she was sitting while leaning her back against a tree. The box was being held closely to her.
"Hey, Hinata-chan" Naruto kneed down next to her and said with a gentle tone "you alright?"
The dark blue hair Hyuuga princess looked up and turned her eyes at Naruto, showing her beautiful lavender eyes, which were full of tears to Naruto. Looking at her now, the blond felt like he was really an ass now.
Then suddenly, Hinata threw herself into his chest, crying out loudly. Naruto was surprise by her sudden action but his eyes then softened and gently brought his arms around her, hugging her tightly to his chest.
"It's okay now, I'm here" He said gently, gently running his hand through her hair.
This is going to be a long night, he thought.
Line Break
"This is for you Naruto-kun" Hinata said with her head resting on his shoulder, the both of them was sitting close to each other while leaning their back against the tree. She handed him the small box, which Naruto took it with both of his hand.
"Thank you…Hinata-chan" he smiled.
He had decided to wait until he got to the new world, but everything had it exception so he would make one with Hinata's gift.
He reached his hand inside and felt something very soft, like clothes or something like that. Naruto then grabbed a whole of it and pulled out.
It was a long red scarf.
And it looked very familiar…
"This is…"
"You remember Naruto-kun?" she asked quietly, closing her eyes "that is the scarf you wore many years ago. On a snowy day, when we were both preparing to enroll the Academy, you came and saved me from a group of bullies" memories returned to his mind, now Naruto remembered that day and the scarf in his hand "though you failed and easily beaten...and your scarf trampled over by them"
"I asked you to keep it right?" Naruto asked, chuckling to himself. He was so weak back then "since it was ruined"
"Yes"
"And you kept it till this day" he looked at the scarf "and you even knitted it back again"
"Yes, Naruto-kun" she whispered.
"Strange, in just a day and I got two scarf" he chuckled, pulled out from his pocket the green one of his mother, showing it to Hinata "my mother made this to me before…you know she died and returned to her world."
"Is that so…" Hinata put her hand on the scarf and gently moved her hand on it. She could tell that the person who made it put a lot of effort into making the scarf…just like her when she knit Naruto's scarf.
"Thank for the gift again Hinata" he smiled at her "thought it would be weird if I wear them both at once" so maybe he would change them to a regular basic.
"Naruto-kun, you said you will return" she then moved her head back slightly to look at him "are you really mean it?"
"Of course Hinata, I mean it" He nodded "no matter where I go this place will always be my home. To me, there are a lot precious people here, those that I consider my family…Sasuke, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, Baa-chan, Iruka-sensei…you…" he looked up, leaning the back of his head against the tree "so of course I will be back, there is no way I can leave this place for long. Every weekend if I can help it"
"I'm glad" Hinata smiled softly and leaned her head against his shoulder once again.
The two of them stayed like that for the rest of the night, enjoying each other company.
Line Break
"All set?"
"All set"
Naruto nodded his head, gathering the rest of the scrolls which was containing his Ninja's gears, weapons and of course the gifts everyone gave him and put it into his backpack.
He walked to the table and took the old picture of the Team Seven when they were just passed Kakashi's bell test ad put it into his bag, checking every drawers to make sure he didn't leave anything back.
Naruto opened the last drawer and saw Sasuke's old head protector, freezing for a moment he then reached his hand out and grabbed the thing, put it into his pocket and threw the backpack on his shoulder after zipping the zipper up.
"Alright let's go" Naruto said to Athena, who was standing by the door waiting for him.
The two of them walked to the main gate of Konoha in silent. He was going to leave the village very soon in the morning, so there weren't many people currently on the street of Konoha.
The two re-grouped with Artemis and Zoe after the two of them had finished packing up their things, some of which were the fur of animals Artemis said could only be found at this world.
When they got to the main gate, Naruto caught sight of his best friend, standing with his back leaning against the gate.
"Can't say I'm not surprise to see you here Sasuke" Naruto said with a slight grin, his hand reached into his pocket and grabbed Sasuke's forehead protector.
"I thought I would be the first person to say goodbye" The Uchiha said "but I guess I was wrong" he stepped forward and stood in front of Naruto "So I guess this is it huh?"
"Yeah, when I return to visit Konoha," Naruto said "I doubt that you will be here to greet me"
"Do you really have to leave?" Naruto asked, pulling what he was holding out of his pocket "Sakura-chan will be sad you know"
"I know I have to do this" Sasuke shook his head "to see how this world really work, and redeem for my sins"
Naruto sighed before his face spread out a small smile, he then brought the forehead protector up and gave it to Sasuke.
"I think this is yours" Sasuke grabbed it with a nod.
"You can leave this world to me, Konoha, Fire Country, Elemental Nations" Sasuke then smiled "if you need any helps, you know where to find"
"I know"
"Take care Naruto" Sasuke said loudly.
"You too"
With the final nod, Naruto stepped up and stood beside the Immortal group. Sasuke the took a few steps back to make some distance with them.
"Let's go" Naruto said, earning a nod from Athena.
"Okay then" she then looked at the sky "we're ready, father."
"Father?"
Naruto asked in confusion, but the next moment, a lightning bolt shot out from the sky and struck the four of them.
In a blink, the group was gone.