Author's Note (A/N): Hello again people! First of all, thank you very much for the 1k+ views and 16 reviews of chapter 1. Honestly I didn't think it was that good, what with the mood being all over the place which is the case in this chapter as well. Sorry about that. The only way to fix that is experience, which I don't have yet.

Now I really recommend that you people read the first chapter one more time. I made some tiny changes here and there and it would be best if you read it. At least to remember the plot again after these weeks. One main change is that I removed the waterfall from the training ground. No matter what anyone says, that would be too damn convenient even for me.

Next, I will be putting a good number of Original Characters (OC's) in my story and might also put them as a main (very small probability). This includes changing some existing characters to better suit my tastes. I'm actually referring to the matriarchs of the Ino-Shika-Cho clans, and Sakura's mom. I didn't like them in canon so this is what I got.

Now, on to the story!

Disclaimer: I'm too far away from Japan to own anything related to Naruto, so I don't.

Chapter 2: Seals and Siblings

Naruto hid near the entrance to the park trying to understand what was going on in the sand pit. Three boys who seemed a few years older than him were standing around a single girl who was cowering in fear.

He then saw another girl in front of the scared girl, who seemed like she was defending the one behind her. With some focus, he found out that it was actually Ino. Naruto moved in for a better view and finally saw the pink hair the other girl had. His eyes widened and then a smirk formed on his face.

"Get out of the way, blondie. We got some business with forehead over there." said the boy in the middle, seemingly the leader of the three.

"No, go away. I won't let you hurt Sakura." Ino said trying to defend her friend, all the while shaking in fear herself.

"Hah! As if you can stop us, girl. We're from the ninja academy and you're just kids." another boy on the side said. He then pushed Ino away, who fell on the ground rather harshly. They didn't realize what they were getting into until that happened.

Immediately, the park was flooded with Killing Intent and became eerily quiet. The three boys were sweating considerably at the moment and were on the verge of losing their breath. The girls though didn't feel much of anything and watched with confusion the boys who were bullying them a second ago.

"Oi"

The boys flinched and turned shakily towards the voice behind them, and regretted that they did so.

Behind them was a blond boy shorter than them and a few years younger as well. But what he lacked in size and age, he had with his presence. His face clearly showed barely contained anger towards them with a twitching eye but had a calm expression, making the silent rage even more profound along with his ice cold blue eyes with slit pupils, looking at each of them like he was about to pounce on them. His hands were twitching as if holding himself back to not kill them accidentally.

The bullies, for their part, fell on their butts and emptied their bladders. The young boy's face turned to disgust along with the anger he was holding in.

"Get lost." the blond said with narrowed eyes. The three boys didn't need any more initiative as they took off towards the exit, rolling and tumbling along the way.

The two girls stared in awe at their savior who was looking at the exit. He had just driven off three boys, all older than them, without even lifting a finger.

Suddenly, whatever heavy mood was in the air lifted and the blond turned to the girls with a foxy grin on his face. "Yo Ino-chan!"

Ino though jumped on him and he fell on the ground with her in tow. The platinum-blonde haired girl held him tightly in her arms, not letting go. "Arigatō, Naruto... Arigatō..." she muttered with closed teary eyes. Naruto smiled and rubbed her back gently, calming her down.

After a minute or two, Ino got up and rubbed her eyes. She then turned to the pink-head, who was sitting on the ground watching them, and grinned. Naruto also got up and dusted himself off.

"Naruto, this girl is my best friend, Sakura." Ino gestured to the pink-head, and then towards the bright blond "And Sakura, this is Naruto."

"Yo! My name's Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you." he greeted as he extended his hand towards her.

The shy pink-head took the hand slowly "I'm... Haruno Sakura... Nice to meet you too..." she greeted back as the blond pulled her up from the ground.

Naruto gave her a grin and then turned to the other girl "Ino-chan, what were those guys doing here?"

Ino's face saddened and she put a hand on Sakura's shoulder "Those boys come here sometimes and bully on us. Well, mostly Sakura, because of her wide forehead and shyness."

'That's it? They bully her just for that? And they call themselves ninja academy students, pff. If kids like that become ninja, they'd be a nuisance to society.' he turned to the downtrodden pink-head. "Don't worry about it, Sakura-chan! Those guys are just idiots. If you have a big forehead, then that means you have a big head, then that means you're really really smart!" he told her with a happy grin.

Sakura looked up at him with a kind of puzzled expression "Really?"

"Of course! Very smart people have bigger heads, then you must be too!"

The pink head's face lit up with happiness and nodded vigorously.

He gave her a foxy grin and turned back to Ino, who was looking at them with a surprised face. "By the way Ino-chan, where are Shika and Chōji?"

Ino shook herself out of her thoughts and looked back at Naruto "O-Oh, they're not coming today. Their clans have a meeting so they're a bit busy. I didn't have any work today so I came here to play with Sakura."

Naruto shrugged "Well it's ok. They'll be back tomorrow. Anyway, why don't we play for a while then?"

The three of them nodded happily and played in the park for a while. Sakura chatted happily with Naruto, while Ino was pleasantly surprised that Sakura opened up to someone else so quickly. When it was nearing half past three in the afternoon, they were all a little tired and sat down at the bench.

While the two girls were talking to each other, Naruto appeared to be thinking about something. The two girls turned and looked at him confused.

"What's wrong, Naruto?"

Naruto smiled and turned to Sakura "Sakura-chan, I want you to come here tomorrow in the afternoon at around two."

Sakura frowned slightly "Why?"

The blond boy smirked "I know a way to prove you're smart."

Both the girls tilted their heads while Naruto got off the bench. "Well then, I'll see you two again tomorrow." he said and ran off while waving goodbye before the two could say anything.

They just stared at his back as he ran off "I wonder why he left so early today." Ino thought out loud.

After a few minutes, four people came rushing into the park and looked around until they found the two girls. The four dashed towards them and hugged them immediately. The girls realized after a second that they were being hugged by their parents.

"Ino-chan/Sakura-chan!" the four of them shouted.

"Wh-What's wrong, otō-san, okā-san (mom)?" Ino asked her parents.

"I heard some people saying that you and Sakura-chan were being bullied in the park. So we came here." Inoichi said, letting go of her.

"So, where are they, Sakura-chan? Where are those boys that dared to bully my daughter?" Chiharu asked angrily, looking around.

Haruno Chiharu was a petite woman with pink hair in a round bob cut. She had a cute face with dark green eyes and was known for two things. One was her impressive patience and self-control. The other was the moments when she would lose said control and destroy people's ears with her voice when she was angry. She was also one of the members of the civilian side of the council and the mother of Sakura.

"Otō-san, they're gone. Our friend chased them away already over an hour ago." Ino replied to her father. The four parents looked at the two girls skeptically.

"Really? Who is that friend?" Mana asked her daughter.

Yamanaka Mana was a beautiful woman with long silky brown hair which reached just above her thighs. She would usually let it hang free while one of the long bangs would cover her right eye. Her eyes were a light blue and almost always had a glint of playfulness in them. She was a retired jōnin kunoichi who was famous for her combination of sensory and trap setting skills, a deadly combination if any. Unknown to people outside her family, she had a bit of a perverted side which led to amusing situations sometimes. She was the matriarch of the Yamanaka family and the mother of Ino.

Ino grinned brightly "He's a kid that me, Shikamaru and Chōji met a few days ago and Sakura met today. His name is Naruto."

The four adults frowned slightly "What does he look like?"

"Well, he has blond spiky hair and pretty blue eyes. He also has some kind of whisker marks on his face." she replied happily 'I think they look cute though.'

The parents' eyes widened as they recognized who their daughters were talking about. They were even more surprised when they saw Ino grin happily and even Sakura smile. All of them knew that Sakura was very shy and doesn't open herself up to people easily.

"What... did he do to those bullies?" Chiharu mother asked nervously.

"I don't know actually. He just called them from behind and when they looked back, they just fell down and their pants became wet. He told them to get lost and they just ran away as fast as they could."

Inoichi raised an eyebrow "Did you see anything else?"

"No nothing. But now that you mention it, I felt that the air back then was kind of... heavy, I think."

Inoichi and Mana's eyes widened at the revelation 'Killing Intent? Such a young boy used killing intent to drive them away? And he was careful not to affect the girls either...' Inoichi thought and then frowned 'Something's not right. No normal five year old should be able to do that.'

"He comes to play with us every day in the afternoon. He has some matches of shōgi with Shikamaru and plays with me and Chōji too." Ino continued, snapping Inoichi from his thoughts. He smiled at her and patted her head.

"Well, I guess I have to thank him for saving my precious daughter."

Inoichi released her as Mana hugged her again. Meanwhile, Chiharu and her husband Kizashi were making sure their daughter was safe and unharmed. Sakura thought for a moment then turned to her parents "Otō-san, okā-san, is it okay if I come here again tomorrow?"

The parents glanced at each other then back to Sakura "Alright dear. You can come."

Sakura smiled, then said goodbye to Ino and left with her parents. Ino and her parents also left the park soon after. Inoichi though was in thought 'Last time I saw the boy, he was just roaming around the village with nothing on his mind after getting kicked out of a store. Hmm... I should meet the lad again some time. I hope that doesn't have anything to do with this.'

'Phew. Managed to get away just before they came.' Naruto thought to himself, wiping away some imaginary sweat.

"Why did you do that anyway?" asked the confused goddess in his mind.

'I sensed Inoichi-san coming there. You see, he works in the Torture & Interrogation department. He's also the best mind reader Konoha has. And if he sees me acting this different in only a week, he'd probably know something is going on and do things that I don't exactly need right now.' he clarified to her.

"Ooh. So that's why you did that." she said in a bored tone. Naruto raised an eyebrow at her voice.

'Kami-chan? What's wrong? Did something happen?'

The goddess yawned and rubbed her eyes "Hm? Oh, no. Nothing's wrong, Naruto-kun. It's just that the last few days have been pretty boring with the repetitive schedule of yours. I'm actually surprised that Kurama-chan managed to keep quiet all this time." she looked around for the fox and sweat-dropped upon finding him.

Said giant fox was currently climbing one of the mountains in the mindscape to relieve himself of his boredom.

"On second thought, I take that back. Maybe I should climb a mountain too."

Kurama just snorted at them "It's not a big deal. People get used to it after spending about four decades in a sewer. Right now, I'm actually pumped up get to the top of this thing. It's been more than a century since I was freely exposed to nature, except the times the kid let me out for a while to enjoy myself. When he does though, it's always in the weirdest places. Once he released me on the moon then told me write something on it. What the hell, kid?"

The goddess' eyes gleamed for some unknown reason and she immediately ran towards one of the nearby mountains. Naruto sweat-dropped at the two entities in his mind and shook his head. 'I never will understand the thinking of bijū and goddesses.' He then decided to go Ichiraku's to grab ramen after so long and then back to training.

The next day, Ino brought Sakura to the park to meet the three boys. After the introductions, Naruto asked Sakura to play a match of shōgi with Shikamaru. Though reluctant at first, she relented and played a match. The match lasted nearly an hour and needless to say, Shikamaru was fairly motivated as well. Ultimately, it ended with Shikamaru's victory who was understandably happy that he finally won a match after so many days. Sakura was a little bitter at her loss but cheered up with Naruto's help. Later, they all played around the park except Shikamaru who opted to cloudgaze instead.

This continued for about four days until Naruto remembered a certain detail of his past.

The next morning, Naruto got up and finished his morning jog and shower, quickly ate a cup of instant ramen and dashed off to his personal training ground. Upon reaching there, he created 40 shadow clones and put them to work with refining his chakra control, calligraphy, hunting and sparring to readjust his taijutsu to his younger body. After they settled into their tasks, the original Naruto rushed off to the Hokage tower.

Upon reaching his destination at around ten in the morning, Naruto walked up to the secretary and asked for an appointment with the Hokage. The woman behind the desk raised an eyebrow at the young boy's newfound manners, who instead usually burst into the Hokage's office without taking shit from anyone. She got out of her thoughts and nodded to the young blond, then went away to talk to their village leader.

Naruto was also moderately fond of the short-brown haired woman since she was one of the people who didn't care about his tenant and instead treated him like a normal person, not too familiar with him but definitely didn't hate him.

The secretary woman came back and told the blond that he can visit now. Naruto thanked and bowed to her, then walked to the office. The woman was now fairly shocked that the usually disrespectful blond actually bowed to her and thanked her. She went to back to her desk in a slight daze and got back to her work.

Naruto opened the door to the office and saw his grandfather figure behind the desk with a few short stacks of paper on it. Hiruzen saw his surrogate grandson enter the office and smiled.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun. What brings you here today? And how come you're actually entering in a normal way?" the old Hokage greeted and asked the blond. The blond chuckled and took a seat, then faced him.

"Good morning, jii-chan. I actually came here to ask for the weekly allowance you used to give me. As for my way of entering, well, I just wanted to stop being a nuisance to some people. Especially the secretary lady, the ANBU here and you. Though if you want, I'll find some other way of entering dramatically." he said to his grandfather figure who chuckled in response, then took out two envelopes from a drawer and placed them in front of the blond.

"That is fine. Here is your allowance for this week as well as last week's. Though I must say, I'm surprised that you forgot about it. Are you eating well, Naruto-kun?" he asked in a worried tone.

Naruto grinned then got down from the seat and stood straight. "I'm fine, jii-chan. I actually hunt my own food in the forest around my place. I eat something besides ramen now too! See? I think I've grown taller an inch or two."

The old Hokage looked at the blond with a calculating look, then smiled and shook his head. Naruto's face turned into one of horror, then got back to his seat with fake dejection and took the two envelopes.

"I am happy with that, Naruto-kun. A balanced diet is important for a healthy body." Hiruzen said and got back to his paperwork. Naruto looked at him with a confused face then voiced his thoughts.

"Hey jii-chan, why aren't you using Kage Bunshin for the paperwork?" he asked.

The old man just sighed in reply "Well you see, I did use them for the first few days. But then, they just got fed up of it and dispelled themselves."

Naruto looked at the old Hokage with a deadpan look "Let me guess. You put your clones to work while you read your porn, is that right?"

The Third coughed loudly with a tinge of pink on his face while the three ANBU in the room snickered audibly. The goddess in Naruto's mind also laughed lightly. "W-Well, something like that."

The blond sighed and shook his head. "Jii-chan, you have to treat them with more respect. If you want them to help you, then you have to help them as well. You can't just dump your work on them and enjoy yourself." he said, while the Hokage hung his head slightly. The others were quite amused that their village leader was getting lectured by a five year old.

"Anyway, are you free today jii-chan? I want you to come with me for some shopping. Those guys don't let me buy anything and I'm pretty tired of using Henge all the time." Naruto said while his surrogate grandfather looked confused. Naruto then pointed to his stomach and the old Hokage realized what he was talking about. He frowned, but then shook his head.

"I see. But I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I have to finish all this paperwork first." he said. Naruto looked at him blankly, then put his palm to his face and shook his head. Hiruzen blinked once and looked around to see the others doing the same thing. He blinked again then realized.

He facepalmed himself then nodded and got up from his chair, and walked towards the door while Naruto followed. The old Hokage turned and made a cross seal and summoned three clones. The original then bowed to them. All the others looked at the awkward sight of the Third Hokage bowing to three more Third Hokage's, then left. The secretary was about to say something when she came near the two, but Hiruzen pointed into the office. She saw the three clones working inside the office then turned back to the two. Hiruzen continued to walk while Naruto waved back at her. The brown-haired woman looked back to the office, then shrugged and waved back to the blond with a smile.

"So what exactly did you need to buy, Naruto-kun?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked his surrogate grandson, while both walked through the streets of Konoha.

"A lot of stuff actually. Training equipment, cooking utensils, ingredients, fūinjutsu supplies and some other stuff." Naruto replied while Hiruzen nodded for each item in the list, until he heard the last one. He snapped his head to the blond with a surprised expression.

"You know fūinjutsu, Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, I do. I know a lot of formulas too. Probably even more than Ero-... I mean Jiraiya. But with my handwriting being what it is right now, I can only use the lower grade ones that aren't too dangerous. I'll have to wait until I get my calligraphy perfect before I can use the better ones." the blond replied.

The old Hokage turned forward and smiled 'It seems the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.'

The two reached their destination which was a ninja shop which looked mediocre in all aspects. Hiruzen frowned and turned to the young boy, then stopped him before he entered the store. Naruto looked at his grandfather figure with a puzzled face while Hiruzen shook his head.

"While I am happy that you are not spoilt with a life of luxury, Naruto-kun, I have a better idea. Follow me." he said and walked off while Naruto looked at him then shrugged and followed behind him.

They both walked for a few minutes while Hiruzen observed the occasional glare sent at the young blond, who did not even notice them or ignored them. Hiruzen speculated that most people were behaving themselves only because he was there at the moment. Eventually, they reached the store which looked like a normal ninja shop named 'Shirobuki Ninja Tools', but Hiruzen assured Naruto that the shop was anything but normal.

They entered the store and immediately Naruto raised his eyebrows in surprise. The shop consisted of numerous aisles, many of them filled with weapons of different shapes and sizes. There were seemingly countless weapons there and Naruto's thoughts went to a certain weapon crazed girl he knew of. Some other aisles consisted of paper tags and scrolls, while another one was dedicated to shuriken and kunai. He also managed to spot some clothes hangers at the far end which he assumed to be the clothing part of the shop.

He returned his attention to his grandfather who was walking up to the counter and followed behind him.

"Good morning, Shigure-san." Hiruzen greeted the bored man behind the counter.

The now named man, Shigure looked up from the counter and instantly straightened himself and brightened up "Oh! Good morning, Hokage-sama. Good to see you. What brings you here today?"

Shigure was a fairly tall man with a well built body and light brown skin. He was wearing what looked like a black sleeveless china traditional shirt and tan pants. He also had red bracers on his wrists and was wearing a pair of geta. He had spiky brown hair which was neatly kept, along with a stern looking face, but was smiling at the moment.

The Third Hokage nodded and gestured to the young blond boy who was viewing the weapons on a nearby shelf. "We are here today to get some training equipment for Naruto-kun here."

Shigure looked at the boy and widened his eyes, then turned back to the Hokage "Hokage-sama. Naruto... is he Minato's...?" he asked in an unsure tone while the old Hokage nodded in affirmation. Shigure calmed himself down while Hiruzen called Naruto over.

"Naruto-kun, this man is Shirobuki Shigure. He is the owner of what I believe to be the best ninja store in Konoha." Hiruzen introduced the man, while said man rubbed the back of his head in response to the praise. The man offered an extended hand to the blond.

"Good to see ya, kid. My name's Shigure." he said, while the blond took and shook his hand with his own tiny one.

"Nice to meet you, Shigure-san. My name is Uzumaki Naruto." he greeted in response.

The Hokage cleared his throat and turned to Naruto "Naruto-kun, from now onwards, you can buy anything you want from here. This place has a range of weapons, tools, scrolls and shinobi clothes." he said and the boy nodded. The blond then turned back to Shigure.

"Shigure-san, I need some practice shuriken and kunai, along with some durable clothes for training. By any chance, if you have any training weights for someone my age, I would also like a set of those. I also need some basic fūinjutsu supplies." Naruto said to the owner of the store. Shigure though just stared slack-jawed at the blond before turning and looking at the Hokage who was watching the man with an amused expression.

"Hokage-sama... I thought the kid was five years old?"

Hiruzen smirked in amusement "Yes. Yes he is... So?"

"So? So, I mean... I..." the man then sighed and went towards one of the racks of weapons "Fine. I'll get those items. You just wait there."

Naruto turned to his grandfather in confusion, while said grandfather was chuckling.

After a few minutes, Shigure came back with two small boxes and one bigger box. He put them on the counter and turned to the blond. "Alright kid. These two smaller boxes have the practice kunai and shuriken with 10 kunai and 20 shuriken. The bigger box has the fūinjutsu supplies, which is actually ten bottles of chakra conductive ink, three brushes and a whole lot of paper. We have better quality ink and brushes, but I ain't gonna sell them to you until you get better with fūinjutsu, you got all that?" Shigure asked, expecting the boy to get a head ache from all the information. But he was pleasantly surprised when the boy just nodded to him without asking a question. He turned to the Hokage who just shrugged his shoulders, then turned back to the blond.

"The chakra ink is for novices really. A true fūinjutsu master can create a seal anywhere, anytime. Even from thin air. Though there aren't many people like that anymore. I don't think even Jiraiya-sama can do that. But I could be wrong. Anyways, we have some clothes which are suitable for training, but we don't have any that can fit you, what with you being a kid and all. So you can come back and get one when you grow up a bit, alright kid?" he asked. Naruto's eyebrow twitched but he nodded regardless.

"Alright. Practice kunai and shuriken cost 1000 ryo a box each. Ten bottles of basic chakra ink cost 10000 ryo, three brushes for 1500 ryo and two hundred sheets of paper for 500 ryo. So, total price is 14000 ryo." Shigure said tallying the price behind the counter.

Naruto frowned at that and reached for his pocket, but Hiruzen put a hand on the boy's shoulder and shook his head. "I'll pay for you this once, Naruto-kun. Consider it a gift from me." he said and Naruto hesitantly nodded. He knew he couldn't win an argument his jii-chan at the moment, so he just relented.

Hiruzen paid for the items and took the bigger box, while giving the smaller two to Naruto. Naruto bowed to Shigure, who nodded his head, and then walked out of the store.

"You can shop there from now on, Naruto-kun. He's one of the men that I trust who wouldn't judge you by your tenant." the old Hokage said to the blond, who smiled and nodded. He then looked around and went into a nearby alley. Hiruzen followed the boy into the alley out of curiosity.

Once there, Naruto looked around again and two shadow clones puffed into existence without any warning. Hiruzen blinked in surprise at his surrogate grandson's mastery over the technique. The two clones then Henge'd themselves into two random people. Naruto told them to take the boxes back home, as they nodded and took the three boxes, then walked off. Hiruzen smiled at the blond's ingenuity as the two walked out of the alley.

The two walked to a cooking store where they bought some kitchen tools then visited a general store to get some other essentials, this time paying with his own money. Naruto made another clone and told him to take the stuff back home as well. The two then continued to walk towards the market to get the cooking ingredients the blond said he needed.

While walking, the blond wanted to clear a certain doubt that he had in mind.

'Kami-chan?'

The goddess was sitting on her bed in her house in Naruto's mindscape, brushing her silky violet hair. She twitched suddenly at Naruto's voice, but continued to brush her hair.

"Hm? What is it, Naruto-kun?"

'I wanted to ask something, Kami-chan.'

The goddess raised an eyebrow but nodded "What do you need to ask?"

'I... wanted to ask if it's okay to live a completely different life than before. I mean, is it okay if I start making major changes from my original life?'

The violet-haired goddess smiled and shook her head at her host's worries "It's alright, Naruto-kun. You don't have to worry about anything happening if you do something very different. I mean you've already made many changes than before already, haven't you? You've befriended Ino-chan and her friends and also told Hiru-kun your secret."

The blond nodded hesitantly while he and Hiruzen were still walking.

The woman smiled, and put the brush down. She put on a silver clip on her hair just above the left side of her face. "I'm really serious, Naruto-kun. You need to stop thinking of this as a replay of your previous life. It isn't a thing like that. This... is in fact a second chance for life to you. You can live however you want without caring for any non-existent laws, Naruto-kun."

Naruto smiled at her assurance and thanked her 'Arigatō, Kami-chan.'

"I don't mind, Naruto-kun. I don't mind." the goddess said, while the blond nodded. The goddess then smiled brightly as she got out of the house 'He thinks that I didn't notice it, but in fact I did. Even though he's given so much freedom, he was still making sure that he doesn't create any problems for me by doing anything unnecessary. Even after everything, he still wants to keep other people's wishes before his own.' she thought as she walked off into the fields.

Naruto took a deep breath, then turned to his surrogate grandfather. "Jii-chan, I have a favor to ask."

Hiruzen turned to his surrogate grandson with curiosity "What is it, Naruto-kun?"

"I... want to meet Jiraiya, jii-chan. Jiraiya of the Sannin. Your student." he said with some uncertainty in his voice.

The old Hokage raised an eyebrow "Why?"

Naruto looked down sadly "Because..." he paused once, then continued "Bad things happen in the future, jii-chan. To you... and to him."

The old man widened his eyes, then looked forward again "When do you want to meet him?"

The blond sighed and looked forward as well "After an year, I guess. Preferably, my next birthday. The only reason I told you now is because I know he's always busy with his spy network, so I wanted to make an... appointment of sorts."

Hiruzen exhaled and looked at the bright afternoon sky "I understand. I will contact him and ask him to return on that day then."

Naruto nodded and continued to walk. He then caught sight of a restaurant on the way and drooled uncontrollably. The old Hokage chuckled and led him there to get some lunch. The owner glared at Naruto, but the Hokage 'convinced' him to let the boy visit and made sure that they wouldn't ever restrict him from visiting again. Naruto grinned at his surrogate grandfather and the two finished lunch around two in the afternoon. They later continued on their way to the market district.

Upon reaching their destination, they found a rather interesting event at the spot. A ninja, presumably a chūnin, was trying to extort money from a vegetable vendor. The vendor was a near ten year old girl with dark-green shoulder length hair.

"Hey dammit! Give me the money you owe me, girl." said the near twenty year old male ninja.

"W-What? What money? I've never even seen your face until today!" said the dark-green haired girl behind the counter. The people around her were whispering that her father, who was the owner of the shop, wasn't there when her daughter needed help.

The man slammed his hand on the counter and threw away some of the vegetables on it "Your father owes me a hundred thousand ryo from yesterday night, girl! Now I want you to give it to me."

The girl looked at his face for a few seconds then gasped "Y-You! I know you! You were there yesterday at the bar. I saw you from outside, playing cards with the some other people and my father. I saw him win fairly and you just slammed the table and walked out. My father won that money fair and square. He doesn't owe you anything!"

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes dangerously at the ninja and was about to move, but noticed that his blond grandson was not beside him anymore.

The ninja clicked his tongue and glared at the girl, who winced at his gaze "Dammit girl! We ninja are the ones who protect you from all the bandits and idiots who try to kill you! You owe us your lives because of that. It was also us ninjas who protected you from the K- GAH!" he suddenly spit out.

The man, girl and everyone else around noticed that his throat was being crushed with a leg belonging to a young blond boy. The blond dropped to the ground while the man grabbed his own throat and coughed violently. He glared at the young boy and recognized him instantly.

"YOU!" he spat out between coughs.

The young blond glared right back at the man "You're a disgrace for a shinobi of Konoha. I can't believe scum like you even managed to become one."

The man's coughing calmed down and then spat at the young boy, who tilted his head to avoid it "Ha! And what're you gonna do about it, huh? Stupid dem-"

"You don't deserve to be a shinobi of Konoha, much less a chūnin." Naruto cut him off while the man glared at him "Isn't that right..." the blond turned his head to the side "... Hokage-sama?"

Everyone present snapped their heads to the direction the blond turned to and saw their village leader, the Third Hokage, glaring at the man who now started to tremble in fear. He walked towards them and everyone around seemed to have their hair on end, and were standing ramrod straight. Such was the aura of the man known as the God of Shinobi. "You are absolutely right, Naruto-kun. Scum like this isn't needed in my forces." he said and extended his hand with his palm facing upwards.

"Give me your forehead protector." the Hokage simply said while the man whimpered.

"B-But I was just-" he stopped when he saw the Hokage's gaze intensify. He reluctantly removed his Konoha forehead protector and handed it to the Hokage.

The old Hokage pocketed the item, then snapped his fingers. Immediately two ANBU appeared, bowing beside him. "Take this filth to T&I and have him locked up for an indefinite period of time. Have Ibiki play with him if he wants." he said and the two ANBU proceeded to drag the man off who was struggling against them. The man scowled at the blond who ruined his life in a matter of minutes.

Said blond turned his eyes into red slitted ones and glared back at him with total ferocity. The man saw the crimson eyes and started to sweat, then fell unconscious. The ANBU carrying him looked at him, then at the blond who had reverted his eyes to blue, then back at the man. They simply shrugged then disappeared with a Shunshin along with the man, happy that their job became easier.

While the villagers were thanking the Hokage for helping them, the girl who was being extorted walked up to the young boy and bowed to him. The blond jumped in surprise as the other villagers turned to look at the two.

"Thank you. You saved me from that man. I don't know what he would have done to me otherwise." she said in a grateful tone.

The blond asked her to stand up straight, then shook his head "It's nothing. Don't think anything about it. That guy didn't deserve to be a ninja in the first place."

The dark-green haired girl smiled while the blond also smiled at her and continued "You know, ninja should protect the people without demanding unfair things from them. Me, I'm gonna grow up and become an awesome ninja, and protect the whole village. I won't let anything happen to anyone in this village and I'm gonna be Hokage! again" he told her with the last part in his thoughts.

"I'm gonna be the best Hokage ever. Everyone in the village will look up to me, and they'll be happy knowing that whatever they do, I'll protect them from everything with my own life!"

The girl as well as everyone else present stared at the young five year old boy, listening to his declaration of future greatness. The girl smiled warmly and patted his head.

"I'm sure you will. I leave my life in your hands then." she said while ruffling his hair, while the young boy gained a tiny spot of pink on his face.

"Yeah! Leave it to me!" he said with a foxy grin.

The other villagers and vendors looked at each other and thought it out. Is this really the demon that killed their loved ones five years ago? Is this really the person who will someday destroy the village? Is this really the person they hate?

After a few seconds, a man snickered and stepped forward from the crowd, and patted the young boy's head. The blond turned up to see one of the vendors from another nearby shop.

"Sure you will, kid. When you do become Hokage, buy me a drink will ya?"

The blond grinned and held his thumb up, signaling his intent to do so. The man shook his head smiling and went back to his shop. The others chuckled at them and went back to their own businesses. The blond grinned again and held a hand to the slightly taller dark-green haired girl.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto." he said to her. The girl looked at him, then smiled and shook his hand.

"My name is Manami Yui. Nice to meet you too." she greeted in reply.

"Ok. Yui-neechan, can I buy some vegetables from you?"

"Of course, come to the shop. You take what you want from the shelves while I clean up the mess." she said while the blond nodded and both of them went towards the shop. They both tended to their own work while Naruto offered to help her but she refused. The two of them spent quite a while just exchanging words while Naruto picked out a large selection of fresh vegetables.

Hiruzen in the meanwhile, was watching all this from a distance with a smile on his face 'It seems he managed to improve his reputation in the market district with his actions, if only a little. With time, they may come to see past the fox within him and see him as a person. This is a good thing for him.' he thought and turned to the direction the male ninja was taken away 'Though I must say, that chakra-enhanced kick was pretty strong for a five year old. Granted, I've never seen a five year old do that before anyway.'

After a few minutes, Naruto returned to the Hokage where he grinned at having made another new friend.

"Good job handling the situation back there, Naruto-kun. Also, I am sorry for harboring such a man within my shinobi ranks." he said in an apologetic tone.

Naruto waved it off and looked back at him "It's alright, jii-chan. It's not your fault. Anyway I'll see you later, jii-chan. I'm going back." Naruto said while his surrogate grandfather nodded his head and waved at him. Hiruzen watched him go off, then smiled and Shunshin'd back to his office.

As Naruto came back to his apartment, he created a shadow clone and immediately dispelled it, transmitting his orders to the clones at the training ground to dispel themselves. He sat on his couch in a comfortable position and processed the memories flowing into him from the clones. After that was done, he went on to check out his new equipment.

Naruto now had some kunai and shuriken he could use to practice and readjust his throwing accuracy to his new perspective. Along with those were the new cooking apparatus he had bought which would no doubt help in making better meals. For some reason, once he began learning cooking about a week ago, he began to look forward to his own homemade food, as odd as that was.

He also had the fūinjutsu supplies that he could use to further refine his skills, as well as make the one type of seal he needed the most right now. A gravity seal.

(A/N: Alright, here we go. A detailed explanation of my version of one of the popular seals in Naruto fanfiction. You can skip to the next A/N if you want.)

The gravity seal was one of the few seals that his father had invented and no one had learned, not even Jiraiya. After the war, Naruto had visited his parents' house and found many many useful things. Even though Konoha had been destroyed twice, he was only lucky that the house was outside the range of most of the destruction, and even more lucky that his father's notes and important stuff were kept in an underground basement, which was also heavily fortified with seals.

One of the things he had found was the gravity seal. His father's version simply made the object or body part it was applied on seem a little bit heavier. For significant effect, many of the seals would have to be applied on the same object.

Naruto's reinvented version took the base concept and expanded it further. He stacked hundreds of them into a single seal then systematically optimized it, reducing the size to a comfortably smaller one. Topping that off with a control seal, one could potentially possess a seal that could increase the gravity on an object to any number of times needed. This is done by the control seal increasing or decreasing the number of base gravity seals in effect at a given moment, while the rest would remain inactive.

Naruto had designed the seal to go up to a maximum of two-hundred and fifty-six times normal gravity, which no human could possibly hope to withstand and would most likely drill a hole through the earth. But such danger was made to be avoided by putting in some restriction seals, which would lock access to higher levels unless the correct combination of hand seals are performed.

When the gravity seal is used on a person for training purposes... Needless to say, Boruto and Himawari had improved by leaps and bounds in the physical aspect of their training.

The downside was that it took quite a bit of time to make alone. Since he already knew the finished product, Naruto would only need to make the final seal instead of making hundreds of them and optimizing them again. The thing is that the seal is actually quite a large one which consumed five whole sheets due to its intricate array of lines and symbols, then with the help of a reduction seal would shrink to the size of a baby's palm, and lastly an application seal which would apply the seal from the paper to the target surface.

If a single person with master class calligraphy and experience sat down to make one of them, he would take at least two hours to make it. In Naruto's case, he was lucky that the seal only took time to draw it and wasn't difficult in and of itself. So he would simply need to focus and draw slowly to get the desired result, which for Naruto would take a total of four hours for perfect results.

True, four hours was not much. But for a single person to train effectively with gravity seals, he would need five of them along with a linked control seal, and that's excluding the security measures. One gravity seal on each arm and leg, and one on the torso. The linked control seal would link all of them and provide a central command seal to tweak them simultaneously.

The control seal was similar to a chakra storage seal, except with sensors. The sensors would check the level of chakra in the seal and produce a result depending on the amount. In this case, more chakra means more gravity acting. Though practically, even maximum chakra was comparable to the chakra of a newly admitted civilian ninja student.

Another downside was that its activation was slow. It takes about an hour to activate completely. But this could also be an upside, in terms of security. On the other hand, the deactivation was almost instant, meaning that its effect would disappear instantly once the chakra in the control seal was absorbed.

(A/N: And the description ends. Thank you for your patience, and not destroying your monitor or cell phone in irritation.)

So ultimately, Naruto would need twenty and odd hours to make it available for training. He could use shadow clones, yes, but he wanted to have the satisfaction and sense of security of making it himself. And because of the time needed for that, he would need a silent environment with no disturbance. He knew of a room in the Hokage tower which was dedicated to the art of fūinjutsu and was therefore a soundproof environment. He decided to ask the old Hokage for access to the room.

By the time his thinking and planning was over, one of his shadow clones returned from the training ground carrying the day's catch. Naruto widened his eyes while the clone grinned widely. They had caught a single boar and nothing else. Naruto was surprised to see good game, after a week of seeing hares and rabbits. Even more surprising was that it was a five year old that caught it. This would probably last a few days if he used it resourcefully.

It was now near four in the afternoon. So Naruto decided to get used to the new brush and ink for sealing. He spent the rest of the day practicing his calligraphy by making some storage scrolls and fragment parts of the gravity seal. Around eight in the evening, he stopped and then went to work on making dinner. He, along with another clone, skinned the boar carefully then cleaned it, and put the cut meat in the refrigerator. Though they still used a small batch to make some side dish to go with a bowl of ramen.

He then went to bed with a smile on his face, happy with the progress he made today.

The next day, he woke earlier than usual and finished his normal routine. Naruto packed all the necessary fūinjutsu equipment into some self-made storage scrolls. He then dashed off to the training ground.

Upon reaching, he created 40 clones again and instructed them to train in the usual fields but exclude hunting. Instead he told the five hunter clones to start the preparations for a small vegetable garden in the training ground. He gave them some money to buy the necessary tools and seeds as well.

Even though hunting was a good way to get meat, he would most likely endanger the animals in the forest and they would migrate away. He figured that after some time, he could eventually persuade the guys in the market district to sell to him normally. This way he could also make some money by selling leftover vegetables and animals skins.

After things settled down, he left to go the Hokage tower. He purposefully went through the market district and went to Yui's shop. When he reached there, he felt his heart wrench painfully.

A few people were gathered around the closed shop and trying to comfort a crying Yui. She was sitting next to the shop with her legs pulled in and her head tucked between them. Naruto went up to one of the people and called him.

"Excuse me. What happened to Yui-neechan?" he asked one of them.

The man turned to look at the five year old, then frowned on seeing him, but sighed and told him the story.

"You were here yesterday during that little incident, right?" Naruto nodded in response "Well, it seems that Yui-chan's dad was scared of that ninja after winning his money, so he abandoned his daughter and left the village with a trade caravan. Yui-chan never knew her mother, and now she's all alone. Poor kid. She's such a good girl and that bastard ruined her life. She doesn't deserve this." the man said while clenching his fists.

By the time he heard the entire story, Naruto was glaring at the ground beneath him with his own fists clenched tightly. He took a deep breath and walked to the crying form of Yui. He went up and sat down in front of her with his legs folded.

"Yui-neechan ..." he called out to her. The ten year old, four and half foot tall, dark-green haired girl twitched at his voice and slowly raised her face. Naruto's own eyes were on the verge of leaking tears at the sight of her weeping face. Despite only knowing her for a few hours and actually talking with her for even less than an hour, Naruto considered her as one of his precious people already, and would protect her no matter what. Seeing her in this state made his body tremble ever so slightly.

"I... heard what happened... Please calm down, Yui-neechan. It hurts me... to see you crying like this." Naruto said to her in a shaky voice.

As soon as Yui recognized the person in front of her, she immediately clung onto the three and half foot boy. She wept uncontrollably while holding him tightly.

"D-Daddy... he... he abandoned me to... to keep some money. He was the only... only family I had. What am I supposed to do now?" she asked him in between sobs.

Naruto looked down, then rubbed her back gently while whispering soothingly in her ear "It's okay, neechan. It's okay. You still have me. I'll be your otōto (younger brother) for you, and you'll be my neechan. I won't let you be alone."

"Mm.." she just nodded and tried to stifle her sobs. She then asked Naruto something he did not ever expect.

"Can you... can you come and live with me?" she asked shakily.

Everyone around heard it and they, as well as Naruto, widened their eyes in surprise. Naruto tried to look at her face, but she wouldn't let go of him and hence couldn't see her. He frowned to himself and tried to think a way out of this situation. If Naruto, the so-called 'demon brat', lives with a civilian, people would start gossip and things could possibly go downhill for him, as well as for Yui. Bad rumors would start spreading about her and she'd become a social outcast. Not to mention the fact that he only met her a day ago, and things can't possibly go this fast. It would most probably turn out horribly for both of them in the end.

Naruto tried to pry her off him, but was unable to do so. He gulped and tried to talk her out of it "Y-Yui-neechan ... I-I don't think that's a good idea. People would think that I'm taking advantage of you and talk about both of us badly... S-So it's bett-" he was cut off by Yui who furiously shook her head.

"NO! No... It's not like that. You... You are a good and well-mannered boy, Naruto-kun. I see you as my otōto and I know you wouldn't do anything bad. I won't let anyone say anything bad about you..." she said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Naruto started sweating lightly at the situation he landed himself in. He shakily looked around to see the others' faces, and what he saw surprised him. He expected to be glared at and whispered bad things about. But instead, the people around the two were frowning in thought. He saw some of them talking to each other about something then all of them turned back to him.

A minute later, a tall and muscled man came up to the two children on the ground and kneeled down on one leg "Listen kid, I'll be honest with ya. I accept that not all of us here are very happy with you. But all of us love Yui-chan a lot more than we dislike you. So on behalf of all of us," he bowed lightly to Naruto "we ask you to keep her happy. And if that means she wants you to live with her, then we'll suck up our dislike of you and accept it. Please... help her." he said and the others also bowed their heads to him (please keep in mind that they did not prostrate, instead they just bowed their heads).

Naruto's eyes were bulging out of his head by now. The villagers who he knew to hate him from his birth actually bowed their heads to him in order to keep this girl happy. Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. Things were going too fast and it was unnatural. He had to find out what was going on. But before that, he needed to resolve the situation he was in at present.

Naruto slowly pried Yui off of him and held her hands, while looking at her face "I understand, Yui-neechan. I will live with you from now on and I will be your otōto. You are my neechan from now on and I will keep you happy... as a part of your family." he said, looking straight into her jade eyes with his own cerulean blue orbs.

Yui's eyes lit up in happiness and she immediately glomped him again, with wet eyes but not crying. She closed her eyes and only one phrase kept coming from her soft lips "Thank you... Thank you..." Naruto smiled and hugged her back as well. The people around them smiled at the sight of the two youngsters and Naruto rubbed her back soothingly until she fell asleep right on him.

After laying Yui down to sleep in her house, which was conveniently right above the shop and Naruto entered using the key in her pocket, Naruto asked one of the neighboring shopkeepers to tell her that he will come back in the evening after making his preparations.

Naruto then left the area to go to the Hokage tower with a different objective in mind than before. His mood though was not as happy as expected, instead he was a bit concerned at this sense-defying development, thus he wouldn't be able to make the gravity seal with his current state of mind.

'Kami-chan...'

The violet-haired goddess was sitting on the branch of a tree watching the giant fox sleep peacefully when she heard her host's voice.

"Yes? What do you need, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto kept walking through the streets while continuing his mental conversation with his divine tenant.

'What's going on, Kami-chan? Something's not right here. Just because I helped Yui-neechan once yesterday doesn't mean she'd become this attracted to me. I only met them yesterday, but the people in the market were even willing to put aside the matter with the fox and bow their heads to me. Now that I think of it, Ino-chan and the others also became familiar with me way too fast. I just don't get what's going on!'

The woman breathed out calmly and answered her host's worries "I know, Naruto-kun. I know that's not natural and I also know why that's happening as well."

Naruto widened his eyes 'Really? So why is it then?'

"You see, when I entered your mind that day to stay here, I unconsciously let a very tiny bit of my energy slip into your chakra stream. Usually my aura has many properties like attraction, calming and in some cases - healing. The energy that mixed with your chakra enhanced the very source of your chakra itself and now it has an unnoticeable aura of attraction. Luckily enough, the energy wasn't enough to produce very significant effects and hence you are only a little bit more attractive than your usual self."

"So what I'm saying is... It's not a big deal and people will like you a little bit more. That's all."

Naruto took a deep breath and exhaled 'Well, I won't say no to people liking me better. I don't exactly like the glares sent my way anyway. Though I do hope people remain normal to an extent. Hey wait! If what you say is true, why did that drunk guy attack me that day?'

"..."

"Because he was drunk?"

'...'

'Point noted. Is there any real problem with this then?'

The goddess tapped her chin in thought, then shook her head "No. I don't think there's any problem."

Naruto nodded in reply 'Good then. Thank you, Kami-chan.'

"You are welcome, Naruto-kun."

Naruto reached the Hokage tower at around eleven in the morning and asked the secretary for an appointment with the Hokage. The woman simply nodded and went off to the office. She returned a minute later and told him to go ahead, which he did after bowing to the lady. She went back to her desk thinking she's never going to get used to that.

Naruto entered the office to see the Hokage was standing beside the window with his pipe, watching over the village. He then turned and greeted the blond.

"Good day, Naruto-kun. What is it that you need today?"

Naruto inhaled deeply and exhaled "I want permission to move to a new place, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen noticed the use of his formal title and understood that this was a serious matter. He took a puff from his pipe, then went and sat on his seat.

"Explain." he said in a serious voice.

Naruto nodded and explained the situation to him. Yui's father abandoning her, her clinging onto Naruto as a lifeline, the people themselves requesting him to help her and his own political view of the situation. The old Hokage took in every detail of the story and kept nodding. He was more surprised with the boy's forethought regarding the civilian side of the council, but managed to hide it nonetheless.

"So, in my opinion, it's better to get the support of a large number of civilians first and then inform the council of the situation, if at all needed. Though personally, I think it's better if you don't say anything at all until they find out themselves. This would most probably not cause too many problems for you, and they can't say anything because you'd already have the support of the people by then." the boy concluded.

The Hokage rubbed his chin in thought then nodded. He took a paper from a shelf along with a brush and ink, then wrote something on the paper. After finishing, he channeled some of his chakra into it, then handed the paper to the boy.

Naruto read through the nearly blank document which only had some words at the top and bottom, which basically said that the signatures in the sheet attest to supporting him in moving in with the civilian Manami Yui, along with the Hokage's own signature at the top of the blank list. Naruto looked up from the document in his hands and saw the Hokage smiling at him.

"Naruto-kun, you go and get as many signatures as you can from the civilians and I will let you do what you want."

Naruto nodded and looked at the sheet again, then decided to try his luck "Hokage-sama, could you give me some more of these?" he asked, gesturing at the sheet.

The Hokage shrugged and made two more of those documents and gave them to the boy. The blond got up from his seat, then bowed to the village leader and left the office.

Hiruzen went back to the window and looked down at the village 'This is an interesting development. Though it is wrong of me to use that poor girl like this, one of two things will happen in regards to this situation. Either the villagers will claim that Naruto threatened and did something to the people supporting him or they will come to understand that he isn't a bad child and treat him better. I strongly hope that the latter would occur.' he thought and took another puff from his pipe.

The moment Naruto got out of the tower, he dashed to the market district, skillfully avoiding all human obstacles in his path. He then spent the rest of his day collecting as many signatures as he could from the people there. Not so surprisingly, word had already spread about the situation.

What was surprising was that a lot of people knew Yui. She was a happy girl who used to work at the vegetable shop for a year along with her father. Many people had a soft spot for her and hence they wanted to help her any way they could. Naruto skipped lunch and playing with his friends today, and instead tried to get as many people to sign the document as he could.

Around half past six in the evening, Naruto returned to the Hokage's office and gave him the documents. Hiruzen took the documents from the blond and glanced over them. He widened his eyes and turned to the blond, who was grinning widely and shrugged. He turned back to the sheets and quickly counted the number of signatures.

"Kami..." the old Hokage breathed out.

"Yes?" the goddess replied happily.

Naruto chuckled and shook his head "So, can I move now then?"

The old Hokage nodded dumbly "Yes of course, Naruto-kun. With this many, even the civilian council can't say anything."

Naruto grinned happily then ran towards the door "Well then, see you later, jii-chan." he said waving his arm and went out of his office.

Hiruzen sighed and put the documents in a secure file, then walked back to the window "Looks like people may see his true nature after all."

Naruto was walking home with a big smile on his face when he remembered the clones he put for training in the morning. He facepalmed himself and ran to his training ground.

There he saw that all 40 of his clones were practicing calligraphy. He ordered them to dispel five at a time, as he got into a meditative position under a tree. Once all of them were done, he found out that the clones that were doing chakra consuming exercises, namely control and sparring, stopped and went to calligraphy to not get dispelled after using up all of their chakra. Practicing handwriting consumed their chakra at a slower pace and hence they did that, in order not to waste any training time. This helped to refine his handwriting a lot more than usual, and with some experimentation, he found that it was good enough to be able to make some higher level seals like security seals.

With regards to the vegetable garden, he learnt that his clones made all the necessary preparations except planting the seeds themselves. They even built a makeshift fence for the time being.

He went back to his apartment and began packing all the things he would need in his new abode. What he realized was that there weren't that many things he would need except his fūinjutsu supplies, training equipment, cooking ingredients, cup ramen, the newly bought stuff and his clothes and toothbrush.

After everything was packed in his storage scrolls, he stuffed them into a bag and took one last look at his apartment. Even in the past and now, it was a pretty dirty place which he never bothered to clean up. He locked the door and walked off to his new place with his new sister.

It was a quarter past eight by the time he reached his new home, and he knocked on the door. A few soft footsteps neared the door from the other side while Naruto's heart started beating faster. In a few seconds, the door opened and Naruto finally took a good full view of his new sister.

Manami Yui was a ten year old, four and half foot tall girl with jade eyes. She had a little longer than shoulder length dark-green hair covering her ears, with two straight bangs framing her cute face upto the chin. She had bright tan skin and was wearing a white one piece dress which reached her knees, whose bottom half consisted of green leaf patterns. She had a curious expression on her face which soon turned into happiness.

"Naruto-kun! You came!" she said gleefully.

Naruto instead pouted in response "Of course I did. I promised my neechan that I would."

Yui giggled and let her new otōto in, which Naruto gratefully accepted. Though he was here once in the morning, he now took a good look around the house. It was a fairly spacious house with a large living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small balcony.

The living room had a good-sized couch along the far right wall from the main door. In front of it was a coffee table, and along the walls beside the couch were some shelves with decorative figures and flower vases, and a few bookshelves. To the left of the door was the dining room which simply had a dining table for four, and some extra chairs. The kitchen counter took the place of one side of the room, whereas the far left wall opened up with doors to a small balcony overlooking the streets. The kitchen was modest with counters and a number of cupboards, a sink and a refrigerator.

Along the hallway in the middle of the rear part of the house were one door on the left in the far back, and two doors on the right. The first half of the left hallway was open to lead to the kitchen, and the second was the door to the smaller bedroom, which had a small two-person bed with other simple furniture. The first door on the right was that of the main bedroom with a large queen-sized bed with white pillow and mattress, and jade covers. Along with the bed were two bedside tables, shelves, wardrobes, mirrors and a table with drawers. The last door on the right was a simple bathroom with a spacious shower, a wash stone and an enclosed toilet.

After seeing the entire house, only one thought raced through Naruto's mind.

'Was Yui's dad retarded?'

"He must have been. There's no other explanation." Apparently, the goddess in his mind was thinking the same thing.

'Yeah, I mean come on. This place is like a king's palace compared to my apartment! Who in their right mind would abandon this place for a little bit of money? Yes, this house would probably cost about one and a half million ryo. But still, no one would give this up and a daughter for a few hundred thousand ryo.'

"Maybe there were circumstances we don't know about."

'That or he's stupid.' Naruto summed up and the goddess shrugged in reply. Kurama was still in the middle of a day-long nap and didn't notice anything.

Naruto proceeded to walk to the smaller bedroom before Yui called out to him "Naruto-kun, wait... Could you... maybe..." The blond turned back and looked at his sister questioningly.

The girl fidgeted at her spot with a red face until the young boy questioned her "What's wrong, Yui-neechan?"

"Could you..." she took a deep breath and looked at the blond "Could you move into the same room as me? I... I probably won't be able to sleep easily for a few days without daddy, so..."

Naruto looked at the girl for a seconds, then blinked. He turned around and went for the main bedroom instead "Sure, neechan" he said with a quiet voice which she heard anyway. But she still couldn't see the slight shade of red the boy's face had gained.

After unpacking his things and settling in, Naruto suggested that the two of them go and eat dinner at Ichiraku Ramen, which Yui had no real problem with though she wasn't particularly fond of the food item either. And so, they finished their meal at Ichiraku's with Naruto eating ten bowls, compensating for skipping lunch. Yui finished her two bowls by the time Naruto had finished eight, mainly because she was awed at seeing a five year old gorge through them so fast. Carefully avoiding some teasing from Ayame and paying the bill, they both returned home at around ten and went straight for bed, exhausted from the day's activities.

Both of them shared the same bed and pulled on the covers. Naruto was too distracted by the feeling of sleeping in a comfortable bed after ten days to even notice the blush on his sister's face. Eventually, he calmed and let sleep overtake him, but not before saying one last thing in the night to his sister.

"Good night, Yui-neechan."

Yui stared at the boy, then smiled and touched her forehead to his and closed her eyes "Good night, my otōto, Naruto-kun." she said and both drifted off into sleep.

In another house, a platinum-blonde haired girl suddenly sat up straight on her bed and stared off into space "Why do I get the feeling that something I don't like is going on?" she asked to no one in particular and went back to sleep again.

Meanwhile, a fair distance from Konoha

"So, are we done?" asked a person in merchant garbs.

"Like hell we are! We told you to get the girl, not this fatass!" said another crude looking person.

"What's so special about the girl anyway?"

"HAH! What do you know? That girl has a 'special' body that no one except this fatass and the boss knows. He said that if she's given the right training, she'd be very useful for our group. The fatass found out about our plans and ran away with the girl. We looked for them for an year and found she was here, Konoha, of all places."

"So what do we do then?"

"You go back and get the girl, while we take care of this idiot. Pff! He thought he could buy us off with some pocket change."

"Huh? What about our payment?"

"YOU DON'T GET ANY PAYMENT UNTIL YOU BRING THE GIRL!"

"Damn you... If I wasn't about to go bankrupt because of low sales, I'd never associate with the likes of you."

"Yeah? Well you are and you don't have any choice. Now go get the girl and we'll talk about your precious payment." the crude man said while the other went off. The man walked over and removed a sword from a suspicious looking mass of flesh on the ground.

"OI! Get over here! Take whatever he's got and throw his body into a ditch. Get going!"

Two more men came and started looting the body of any valuables. They then carried the body to a natural ditch and threw it there, and walked off dusting their hands. The body which was now lying in the pit, could be seen having a tightly wound chain around his fist. Connected to the chain was an open locket with the photo of a thirty year old man and a nine year old girl standing in front of a vegetable shop, smiling happily.

A/N: And that's a wrap. Yeah I know you probably have a lot to complain about in this chapter, some of which I know as well. By the way, for now I'm not planning to give any big role to that energy in his body but maybe I will in the future. Also, I apologize for not putting in any action type stuff in there yet. I'm waiting for a good chance for that.

I really wanted to replace otōto with some other word, but unfortunately, in direct translation, 'little brother', 'younger brother' or 'kid brother' are way too long.

Thank you for reading this chapter. Please remember to REVIEW below. Most of you don't know how much it helps.

For example, reviews encourage us to continue and also makes it ever so easier to find this fic among the thousands of others. Anyway bye now. Blaze Out!