Chapter 3

You found yourself in the main shopping district of Konoha. The main reason being of course the constantly writhing and energetic form next to you.

Naruko had recently convinced you to not only go to the shopping district, but to go with her. Normally you'd have shut down any such attempt. At bare minimum you'd have refused to even be within ten feet of Naruko.

But…these were special circumstances.

Tomorrow was to be Kushina's birthday. Naruko wanted to go shopping with you in order to get her something nice. Naruko's appearance with you was for Naruko to help you pick out something she'd actually like.

And of course you'd be getting her a present. She was a very respectable clan member who had not only saved you but took you in. For that you were grateful and would be returning the favor.

But besides even that, she was a part of your clan. Which meant she was family.

And there was nothing more important than family.

Nonetheless that didn't really remove the fact that you weren't actually sure what Kushina would really want. Gifts were easy to give, but meaningful ones were much more difficult. Which is why Naruko was here with you. Who better to consult than her own child?

You couldn't help but notice that Naruko would get the occasional shifty look from others. Nothing blatant, but there were definitely people throwing frowns around in her direction. Though the girl in question didn't even seem to notice.

Simply dragging you every which way to look at what each store had to offer. Despite being here for Kushina's gift, you couldn't help but notice a lot of the things Naruko was showing interest in were things she herself liked.

And you very much doubted Kushina would appreciate a whoopie cushion.

At the very least you did get an idea of what Naruko herself would want for her birthday. Which served to remind you.

"Hey, when's your birthday?"

Naruko looked up in surprise but then quickly looked away, not meeting your eyes. Finding her attention on something else before sprinting towards it.

"Oh, it's not that important."

You rolled your eyes at the obvious staged reluctance before asking again.

"Alright, but when is it?"

She glanced at you this time and seemed a bit…worried? Anxious almost?

"Honestly it's hard for me to even remember it…"

You somehow doubted that. For a few seconds Naruko gets quiet before deciding to once again speak up.

"To be honest…mom usually gets really sad on my birthday. She tries to hide it, but i can hear her cry at night…"

There…wasn't much you could really say to that. So you simply didn't. Naruko focused on her legs as she seemed to test them out on the ground.

"But…that's okay though! I just won't have a birthday this year."

…Hmm.

You…didn't like that. Naruko immediately took off to look around once more. Though you weren't sure what to do even if she hadn't took off. What, tell her it'll all be okay and you'd somehow get Kushina to stop crying? Such a thing can hardly be promised and would only serve to have her mood plummet if you failed. Hell, that was even if she believed you in the first place.

It was an unfortunate truth that you didn't seem to have any real power. An unfortunate and rather aggravating truth.

Perhaps…

Yes, that does sound like a good idea. You received a decently sized weekly allowance from Kushina, so if you were just careful with your money you'd be able to do it…

But of course that required you to get good gifts in the first place. Something you were starting to doubt that Naruko was actually good at.

…Whoopie cushions? Again!? Why are people selling these!?


*~o~*




When you went back to the Uzumaki compound you came bearing gifts. Of course there were a few that you had to hide due to Naruko's insatiable curiosity at checking no less than three times the gifts that you bought. It was difficult to pull away long enough to get gifts quick enough that she wouldn't notice, but thankfully it had gone off without a hitch.

Well, not too many hitches really.

Naruko was exceedingly nosy but at least she didn't touch the gifts themselves. Otherwise she'd notice that there was more than there seemed in the bag.

You both continued to set up party ornaments around the house as you awaited the return of Kushina. Placing it across through the ceiling was a new experience and one that required many attempts due to it's height, but thankfully you and Naruko were able to get it to work.

Naruko invited herself into the kitchen to cook both dinner and a cake for Kushina. You had half expected Naruko to be…well, Naruko when it came to cooking. But surprisingly enough she was a competent chief. Kushina was a good teacher it seemed.

It was about 11:00 when Kushina finally came home. She stumbled a little in the house. Which made it seem that she was a bit tipsy. Not exceedingly so as you didn't even see a hint of blush on her face. You almost second guessed your original assessment until she hugged the two of you. Getting you close enough to smell the faint scent of alcohol on her breath.

It wasn't long until she noticed her surroundings. Her lips making a wide O as she took a look at the bannister in the hall. As well as the myriad of decorations.

In truth, only about half of them went up. You both had underestimated the amount of time and effort that was needed to put up all of them. As well as thumbtacks. Naruko advised using Kunai's but that was likely a bad idea.

Kushina was lead into the kitchen where she was greeted by both dinner, a cake, and gifts. During dinner you had difficulty eating due to Kushina hugging the two of you to herself when she wasn't digging in.

Naruko on the other hand seemed to have no difficulties. Abandoning using her sole hand she just face planted into the food to eat. Something you had reservations about doing.

Afterwards came the gift giving event. First was Naruko's. Kushina opened her's to find…

"Oh…thank you Naruko. I…wanted one of these."

Kushina held a fake looking smile towards Naruko. You were certain the smile couldn't fool anyone, but Naruko seemed exceedingly happy at her 'reaction'.

"No problem! I even got myself a few!"

Kushina gave another half baked smile before continuing on through the gifts. This time with much less enthusiasm. Next of course was your gift.

She opened your gift slowly before figuring out what it is. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise before looking towards you in an almost touched motion.

Thankfully you hadn't fully put your faith on Naruko's gift giving abilities. So even before it had come up you prepared a back up gift of sorts.

A framed picture of the three of you. It wasn't exactly perfect due to the secret nature of the photo, but it came out decently enough you suppose. It had been on a time delay and Kushina seemed half asleep in the photo. You were also pretty certain that Naruko's hand was going towards her nose as well.

After a few seconds of looking at the photo you think you saw a tear run down her face as she pulled the two of you in for another bear hug. You were surprised at how nonchalant Naruko was at having the very life squeezed out of her.

Naruko seemed tired, and intent on going to bed. But before she could, Kushina pulled out the next gift in the bag. Of which you motioned for her to give to you. Then you faced Naruko who was looking around all tired.

In your hand was a whoopie cushion. It was one that was a tad more expensive than the ones Naruko got. The main reason being that this one actually came with a gas that would be released when used. Making an actual stinky smell pervade the area.

Naruko had looked at it earlier, but when looking back at her frog like purse decided against getting it. So you got it instead.

…you'll deal with the repercussions of your actions at a later date.

"Happy birthday, Naruko."

Naruko looked at it, then you, then it, then you. Her face deformed into a plethora of emotions before finally settling on crying. You felt rather awkward as Naruko was quick to wrap you into a hug. But gradually you learned to return the hug back to her. Kushina seemed a bit confused but seemed to not question it.

"Alright guys, i think it's time to head to bed."

As both you and Naruko started to head in different directions, Kushina stopped you.

"No, no. Since it's my birthday, i want us to sleep together. Like a family."

There was a bit of a vulnerable side of her that she showed briefly while talking. You weren't sure why exactly, but you decided that there was no harm in doing so.

So the three of you got into Kushina's bed together. Naruko situated on the left, Kushina in the center, and you on the right. You couldn't help but notice after the three of you got into your pajamas and into bed, that Naruko seemed to hog most of the sheets.

Kushina turned to you and smiled. Her face got closer to yours as she seemed prepare to say something before Naruko suddenly slid over her body to get to you. Her face quickly met your cheek as she gave you a kiss.

"Your the best…brother."

You blinked a few times as Naruko slowly slid back over her own mother. Making sure not to look away from your eyes as she did so.

…Weird.

Kushina giggled a bit as she adjusted herself to be closer to you. You decided that if she wanted to to say something you needed to get closer. She seemed surprised at how you scooted up closer to her before giving you a small smile. She leaned over her head a little before whispering in your ear.

"Thank you, Aoki. I'm…very happy that you're part of our family."

You blushed and were about to respond when her lips found themselves planted on the side of your cheek. Then she adjusted herself to get comfortable before going to bed. Naruko was next to fall asleep.

You?

You only got two hours of sleep due to the massive amount of heat Kushina generated somehow. You couldn't get away either as her hands were wrapped around you. That wasn't even touching on how loud Naruko snored.

The only thing holding you back from strangling her was Kushina's hold on you. It was…well…

Despite the circumstances it was…

Nice.


*~o~*



The end of your academy years was on the horizon and simply couldn't come fast enough. The annoyance of your classmates only increased with time. Every time they seemed to learn a new trick or a new way to combat a problem they saw hope.

Hope in defeating you.

A naïve sentiment that you were quick to stomp the life out of. But it was one that kept popping back up alive when you looked away. Especially that one kid…whatever their name was.

Thankfully there existed a hope for you. A way out of your desperate situation. To graduate to genin. To finally be rid of your less than useful classmates who only served to drag you down.

In their defense, they hadn't asked to be born into poverty. But the simple fact of the matter was that they weren't skilled. They didn't have nearly the same training or learning environment that you had. And if they weren't skilled, they weren't competent partners to test your skills against.

It's a known fact that it's easier to get stronger when comparing your skills against someone of a similar caliber. To learn the ins and outs of combat through foes who could stand longer than five seconds in a spar with you.

Unfortunately there was nothing like that. Which meant your growth was stunted, and all the clanless kids that went up against you learned nothing except how to handle pain better.

Even your teachers knew this fact. Which is why you had the least amount of opponents in each sparring session. The only part of it that didn't make sense was two fold. One, why on earth didn't they just move you into another class, hopefully one with clan kids. And two, why did the clanless kids get mad at you for this?

Especially the ones with the worst amount of talent. They seemed to look upon you rather bitterly. Which was rather odd. Why would they hate someone who was just better? What was the point? It's not as if hating you would somehow make you less strong or them stronger.

In fact it was rather the opposite way around. The ones with anger and hate would quickly burn out and simply leave the academy. To do…civilian stuff, you imagine. Help out their families in order to get by. Or farm crops and the like.

Regardless, the most important thing to you currently was graduating. Of which you still needed to master two other jutsu's in order to pass.

Well, it'd be one other jutsu after today.

You flickered through your hand signs and concentrated. The image was imprinted onto your mind as you slowly felt your self change slightly. Upon opening your eyes you realized you had done it.

You were now a log.

You quickly broke the henge in order to start experimenting. That had been simply too easy. It was time to henge into more complex shapes and sizes. To find your limit.

So you experimented.

Getting to things that were smaller or larger than your actual size was a bit challenging, but not impossible. You henged into a more adult looking form with your face on it. But looking closer at your face it was very…mismatched with your body.

On the other hand, henging into another student around your age was a piece of cake. Unfortunately you didn't really remember any of your classmates faces so instead you had to rely mostly on your imagination. But even then it was still rather a decent change.

In your opinion, at least.

After you finished up mastering the jutsu, you made sure to put it to responsible use. That of course being waiting outside Naruko's room as a large log.

She most certainly deserved it after that whoopie cushion explosion a few weeks ago…

*~o~*

You were surprised by the fact that Naruko had invited you out with her. Perhaps even more surprising was the fact that you had accepted. Carrying a bag for her as she leads you towards her destination.

It was only half way through that you realized you didn't actually know where you were going. You had assumed it was towards the shopping district so you hadn't said anything. So when you winded up half way across all of Konoha you got a tad bit confused. Still, you hadn't said anything.

That was until Naruko seemed to step into an empty alleyway. On the right was a building a good distance away while the left had a rather large and pristine white wall. Probably some clan grounds or something.

Naruko quickly gathered some tools from the bag you were carrying and got to work. By that you meant she started to pull out spray cans and start recoloring the wall.

It was at this moment you realized what she was doing.

"Naruko, why are you spray painting a clan compound's wall?"

You gingerly approached her cautiously. She looked back with a sly grin before facing back to the wall. Already small bits of paint flecks were on her hands.

"I like painting. It's…calming. And this is a pretty big canvas."

You nodded in understanding. Some people had singing, others had drawing, and you had gardening. It took a few minutes for you to remember where you were.

"Uh, Naruko? You do know if you're caught you'll get in trouble right?"

Naruko waved a hand at you lazily. A paint fleck landed across her nose.

"Bah, they never come down this way anyway. There's no harm."

She sounded very sure about that, exceedingly so. So you chose to put your faith in her. You relaxed and laid your back on the neighboring wall watching her work. After a while you started to close your eyes…

"Hey, who's over there?"

Well you certainly weren't going to take a nap now. You bolted up looking at the direction of the noise. Two men with black hair were entering the path at a quick rate. The fact that they wore chunin vest told you that it was probably a good idea to run. You went to grab Naruko only to realize she had already disappeared.

…son of a-

You were quickly caught and apprehended by the two chunin. It wasn't long before they also found the graffiti on the side of the building. As Naruko had just started it was difficult to make out what it was suppose to be.

"Damn kid, you really had to choose the Uchiha compound for this huh?"

The other chunin Uchiha snickered.

"Not the smartest prankster, are you?"

The other chunin simply shot a look back at his companion to get him to stop laughing. He then turned his head seriously to you.

"Where are your parents?"

Uh oh.


*~o~*

You sat in a Uchiha compound room getting punished for your supposed misdeeds against the Uchiha. Said punishment was watching at least three different Uchiha members walking in and give you a half hearted dressing down in response to your 'graffiti'. As well as a promise of community service to the Uchiha compound itself.

The first man who came in was stern and a serious sort. Despite his demeanor, his thoughts were obviously elsewhere. He didn't even confirm what your supposed actual crime was first before simply telling you to not do it again. And then quickly left, as if he had something better to do.

Well, that was a tad rude, but better than you had expected.

The next person was a lady who made sure to point out your graffiti was a bad act. As well as getting a confirmation from you that you'd clean it as well as serve community service for your 'infractions'. You knew better to simply say you didn't do it so you simply nodded in acceptance.

Besides, you'd much rather it was you dishing out the punishment than someone else.

The third person was…an actual teen. Which was enough to intrigue you.

"Hey, you're the kid who spray painted the side of the compound right?"

You nodded your head slowly. While he seemed to scratch his jaw.

"Hmm…is that right? Well, your mom is here for you."

You grew slightly confused before realizing he must have been talking about Kushina. It wasn't long before both Kushina and Naruko walked in. Kushina with a slight frown while Naruko had her mouth open in surprise.

"Aoki, what have you done!?"

You gave a flat stare to Naruko who reacted in an over the top way. Kushina on the other hand simply sighed as she talked softly to one of the other adults nearby.

Naruko shook her head in shock as she was quick to look at you with an almost sympathetic look.

"It's okay Aoki. We'll get you out of there, but you need to promise to not do something like this again."

Your stare narrowed onto Naruko as a lip started to quirk itself into a smile. Naruko pointed at you to continue until her hand was grabbed by the teen next to you.

"You know, something's been bothering me."

Naruko looked up in surprise at the teen who nonchalantly grabbed her hand as he rubbed the back of his head.

"The crime was graffiti, yeah? Usually if your messing around with paint and spray cans you're bound to get paint on yourself. Yet there's nothing on his hands or any gloves."

Naruko's eye lit up as she seemed to understand where this was going. Attempting to drag her sleeve down as fast as she could before Shisui stopped her.

"So why is it you got paint on your hands, little miss?"

He pulled up Naruko's sleeve much to her chagrin. Exposed the few paint stains that she had hidden from view. Kushina looked over with a flat look before palming her face. The adult next to her seemed lightly surprise while the teen that seemed keen on finding the truth was smiling.

"It would seem to me that-"

"I did it."

Your words seemed to capture everyone's attention as they looked at you. The teen released Naruko's hand as he gazed at you. Naruko on the other hand had a guilty look on her face as she faced ground. The teen was the next person to disrupt the silence that hung over the room.

"Well then, i guess that's that. You'll just need to get rid of the paint and do some chores. Afterwards you'll be a free man."

He waved his arm, signaling that you guys could go. Before you left with your family he placed his hand on your shoulder.

"Just wanted to say, you looked pretty cool back there. Name's Shisui, I hope we meet again."

You were going to say your own name until he decided to walk away. You shrugged, it wasn't likely you were going to make this a habit anyway.

After the trip Kushina treated you to ramen. Saying she was very proud of you. Naruko on the other hand was crying. Whether or not it was out of guilt or not getting ramen was unknown to you.

It didn't matter either way. You had simply decided to pay back Naruko tenfold for her actions. If she got in trouble instead of you well, you wouldn't really be in the right to do such a thing, would you?

All that you knew was that Naruko was going to be in a world of pain.

And the ramen was just the beginning…