A/N: I want to thank everyone who reviewed and added this story to their favourites. I also want to thank everyone who reviewed.


"Mum! Dad! Wake up! Wake up! It's my first day of school!"

Nodding her head at her son's words, Naru groaned, rubbed her eyes and took hold of the alarm clock beside her while Sasuke just grunted and burrowed his face into the pillow. Why couldn't Takao remember the rule of not disturbing Mum and Dad before nine o'clock? Sasuke and her barely had any sleep last night because Takao wanted to spend most of the night watching the movie that the people made of her and Sasuke.

Okay, he wasn't the root of the lack of sleep. Naru took advantage of Takao and Katsu sleeping to have a little bit of a private time with her husband. It had been so long since she could do things with her husband when their kids were sleeping like a baby.

"Is Katsu awake, Takao?" Sasuke asked, stopping the little boy from bouncing up and down on their bed.

Takao shook his head. "Katsu is still sleeping! Dad, why does he sleep so much? He's been sleeping since seven o'clock last night! I want to play with him."

"Because he's a two year old, Takao," Sasuke answered, ruffling Takao's hair. "All two-year-olds sleep a lot."

Their son wrinkled his nose, reminding Naru of the amount of times she caught Sasuke doing the same thing when they were his age. It barely been four years since they came back from their journey but Naru could see a lot of similarities between her adopted son and Sasuke, one of them being the way they wrinkle their nose when they were annoyed. Sometimes, Naru thought that was seeing a mini-version of her husband in that boy.

Though they were now two mini-versions of her husband, Naru thought, giving a peck on Takao's forehead as she slipped out of the bed. Barely a year old and her youngest son took after his father in the looks department, having the same hair style and hair colour as her husband. The only thing Katsu inherited from her was her blue eyes, everything else reminded Naru of her husband.

"Mum?"

Naru twisted her body around and gazed at her oldest son, who stood there with a worried look on his face. Takao was worried? The world must be ending, Naru mused, smiling at her son. In the two years since she came back home with Sasuke, Takao had been nothing short but confident in their presence. Though that only happened after she pushed the little boy to do things he had never done before. No child of hers was going to be a nervous child.

"Yeah?"

"Will the kids like me? Will I make a lot of friends?" Takao asked, leaning back and forth. "Will I fit in? What if people hate me because I do weird things? What if people become my friend because you're my Mum? How do I know if they are my real friends? I can't play with Katsu or Inojin or Shikadai since they're still babies and can't enter the Academy."

Naru sighed, knelt down and stared at the emerald eyes of her oldest son. What could she tell him? Did she tell him the truth that no matter what happened, people were going to try to be his friend because of her? If she did that then Naru was going to make him paranoid, which was the last thing she wanted from him. At the same time, she didn't want to lie to him. Rubbing her chin, the red-haired woman smiled and ruffled her son's already messy hair.

"If the kids doesn't like you then they aren't very smart because you're the kindest, sweetest and most of all the smartest boy that they could meet," She answered, staring deeply into his eyes. "But I'm not going to lie to you Taka, people will become your friend because I'm your mother. They'll try to use you and will abandon you the moment they have the chance to save their lives. If you want to know who your real friends are then find out how truthful they are, find out if they're saying things because they mean it or if they think it's what you want to hear."

"How do I do that?"

"Play them," Naru answered truthfully, smiling. "It sounds wrong kiddo but it's the only way to find out. Y'know your father had a lot of girls asking him out but he never gave them the time of day."

Takao stared wide-eyed at her. "Why? Was it because of you? Aunt Hinata and Aunt Sakura said that Dad has been in loved with you since you guys were twelve."

Twelve? Seriously, what the hell were her friends thinking? Naru thought, rubbing the back of her neck. She never thought of Sasuke in that way until they were fifteen years old. The same went for Sasuke, though with her husband it might had been later since he had been obsessed with getting revenge until they were fifteen.

Shaking her head, Naru answered. "No because, one your father was twelve and had no interest in girls until he was fifteen...I think. The second thing was the fact Sasuke knew those girls didn't really like him, they like the idea of him but they never really liked him for who he was."

"How did he know?"

"By watching them and having me confirm it," Naru admitted, poking her finger against her son's forehead. "Y'know if I asked them why they liked him? It's because they thought he was cool, his aura was just so mysterious and they wanted to heal his broken heart. All of these things were to do with what they thought he was, not who he was. They thought he was a genius."

"What was Dad like twelve?" Takao asked as they walked towards the crib.

Naru pursed her lips. "A very arrogant boy who needed to get a smaller head, though he's still arrogant but he's gotten better He was a lonely kid, I won't deny it, but unlike me your father didn't mind not being surrounded by people. Your father wasn't mysterious, he was only mysterious because they didn't try to get to know him. Most of all, your father wasn't a genius, everything he did was due to his own hard work."

"What does arrogant mean?"

"It means they have a big head."

"If you thought Dad had a big head then why did you marry him?" Takao asked, staring wide-eyed at her.

Naru laughed and gazed down at the crib, where she could see her sleeping two-year-old clutching the stuffed dragon that Sasuke bought for him during one of his journey around the world. "Cuz he understood me better than I understood myself. He respected me when no one else did and even though your father doesn't look like it or act like it, he does make the funniest jokes. With your Dad, I never ever have to pretend. He's been there for me...most of the time."

"When hasn't he been there for you?"

As much as Naru knew how smart her son was and how understanding he was, Naru knew better than to tell her six-year-old son the story between her and Sasuke. Takao would be confused, would wonder why Sasuke did the things he did and asked her questions that she didn't know how to answer. She didn't want him to look at Sasuke the wrong way. She wanted him to mature a little bit more before they tell him the complicated story of Sasuke and her.

"I can't tell you kiddo but ask me again when you are ten and Sasuke will tell ya."

Her son pouted. "I've to wait four years to find out why?"

"Yup," Naru answered, ruffling his hair. "Now get ready for school, you don't want to be late for your first day of the Academy do ya?"

"Do you know who is going to be teaching me?" Takao asked.

"No idea."

"You're not going to spy on me like you always do whenever you hire genins to look after Katsu and me?"

"Why would I do that? That would be a waste of money," Naru answered, smiling cheekily at her son. "Now don't question me and start getting change, I want to take a picture of you!"

Her son groaned and shuffled his way out of her youngest son's room. Naru shook her head and gazed down at her only biological son. When that little boy of hers slept like this, she found it hard to believe that the boy was a little hellbringer. Kami, she hadn't gotten any proper sleep since the boy was born or had any special time with Sasuke since her son would always cling to her.

She loved her son with all of her heart but she was a person with needs too.

"Katsu is still sleeping?" Her husband asked, drawing her attention away from her son.

Naru nodded. "Yes and I feel almost guilty for taking him away from his crib but, I'm not letting any genins watch him while we take Takao to school. This is a family event that needs every family member here, which reminds me...if you ever try to do a mission that is very close to any family event again, I'll personally try to make your life hell."

Sasuke winced but made no attempts to tell her that she couldn't actually do it. She pursed her lips and grabbed hold of Katsu, who slowly blinked his blue-eyes open. The little boy smiled widely at her, grabbing hold of her red-hair like he always did whenever he caught sight of it, before burrowing his head against her chest, letting out a small yawn.

Naru just smiled softly at this.

"As soon as Takao gets in here, Katsu will stop acting like this and we'll have to deal with chasing after your two-year-old son," Sasuke declared as the two of them walked towards the living room.

"My two-year-old son? Katsu is your carbon copy," Naru declared hotly, tickling her son. "The only thing that confirms he's my kid is the whisker marks and my blue eyes, other than that he's your kid to the bone. He has a brother complex just like you used to."

"I didn't have a brother complex."

"Get away from my Nii-san," Naru said, curling her lips at him. "Nii-san, has only time for me! He's not your nii-san, he's mine! Hmm, I wonder who said that to me when I asked to play with his big brother. I think he had your hair and eyes...oh wait, that was you."

"I was six."

"No excuses, you had a brother complex from such a young age."

"Naru, I was six."

"Still no excuses."

"You followed your brother around like a lost puppy, Sasuke! No matter how anyone looks at it, you were a lost puppy without him," Naru reminded him, shaking her head. "Now there's nothing wrong with that but don't ever deny about something that I've a good memory for."

Sasuke grunted while her young son just stared at them with his eyebrows furrowed. Naru shook her head and smiled softly at the boy before glancing up at the stairs. Why was Takao taking so long? She wondered, pursing her lips. He just needed to pick some clothes to wear, which wasn't that hard to do. He would never take this long unless he was reading one of his favourite books again.

A quick glance at the living room table confirmed that her oldest child left his storybooks in the living room after playing a couple of games with Katsu.

"Takao Uzumaki! What is taking you so long to get change? If you don't come down in ten seconds, I'm going to tell your classmates about how you used to cling to my clothes whenever we used to go out. I'm going to start counting: One."

Her son appeared right in front of her before she could even utter the second number. He breathed in and out, looking at her and then to Sasuke before glancing at Katsu, who giggled and tried to wiggle his way out of her grip. Shaking her head, Naru placed her youngest son on the floor. The black-haired toddler quickly run towards Takao, waving his meaty hands at the older boy.

"Hug, Big brother!" Katsu declared, smiling widely at Takao.

Takao laughed and wrapped his slim hands around Katsu's body before picking the boy up, earning giggles from her youngest son. Naru shook her head as Takao picked the boy up and down, declaring that he would try to make Katsu fly like the hawks that Sasuke told them about.

She hoped that those two would always be the best of brothers, that they would never let anything stupid destroyed them. She wanted things to remain this way but Naru knew things didn't always go to plan.

One day something was going to destroy her family but if that day ever happened, Naru was going to make sure that the person who destroyed her family paid for it.


Today was going to be his first step of becoming a ninja, Takao thought as he walked with his parents and little brother to his new school. He was going to follow in the path of his parents, of his grandparents and ancestors but was he going to be fine? His father had trained him, had taught him how to use his chakra already and Takao could read a book perfectly fine but what if he was far behind everyone else? What if he was a terrible ninja.

He didn't want that especially since he was suppose to be a role model for Katsu. Takao wanted his little brother to be proud of him because Takao knew his mother and father would always be proud of his choices but, it would be Katsu who had to deal with the consequence. What if his little brother became bullied because he wasn't the best ninja there was? No, he would deal with the bullying if that happened. He would find some way to make their lives horrible if they hurt Katsu.

"You're still worried about school?" His father asked softly, keeping his dark eyes fixed on the shops around them.

Takao pursed his lips and nodded his head. "What if I'm no good in becoming a ninja?"

"You won't be a bad ninja."

"How can you be sure Dad?" Takao asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

His father curled his lips and stared right at him. "Because you're our kid, Taka. Your mother and I are training you so that you know how to survive the ninja world, if you don't become a good ninja then I won't ever complain about your Mum making ramen."

Takao laughed but his laughter died down when his mother twisted her body around and narrowed her eyes. Did his mother hear what his father said? Please god no because as much as Takao loved his mother, he didn't want to hear another lecture about how wonderful ramen was. He loved ramen but he didn't love it to the extent that his mother did.

"I don't know what you two said but I hope it's about your first day of school."

"Takao is just worried about not being a good ninja," His father said, placing his large hand on top of his head.

His mother nodded her head. "Of course he's going to be a good ninja! He's our kid!"

I'm just your kid by name, Takao thought, gazing at the smiling face of his mother. His mother might not know it but Takao knew very well his parents adopted him after seeing his aunt ignoring him. The memory of his mother playing with him was one of the first things he could remember, the other being another red-haired woman and a black-haired man giving him to some old man while a boy, who looked similar to him, watched it happen.

He didn't know who those people were nor did Takao want to find out because as long as he had his mother and father, everything was going to be fine.

"What if I'm far behind?" Takao asked, furrowing his eyebrows at them.

His mother snorted. "Far behind? Kiddo, I think you're far ahead compared to everyone else in your class...well at least compared to the civilian kids. There needs to be work done for them to catch up because while I respect Iruka-sensei and the rest, it doesn't cut the fact that most of the kids are far behind compared to those who were born to ninja parents."

"Why do you think they're far behind?" Takao asked.

His father sighed. "Because civilian don't know our techniques or send their kids to the Academy, thinking that their kids might be able to catch up or hoped their kids never become ninjas."

"Why wouldn't they want them to become ninjas?" Takao asked, blinking his eyes. "Being a ninja is awesome! You do more awesome things then a civilian does."

His father snorted. "We're also more likely to die Takao then a normal civilian. How many shinobis do you know who survived past the age sixty? Not many and those that do, well they are the lucky ones."

"Then why do people become shinobi? Why did you and Mama become a ninja even though you know it's a dangerous job?"

He had never really question his parents about their choices until now. Ever since he was three, Takao had always wanted to become just like his adopted parents. He wanted to be like the people who saved him from his loneliness, be like the people in the stories his parents told him of. He had never considered death but then again, his parents didn't talk about death only unless they went to his uncle's grave.

Takao remembered gazing at the grave of Itachi and wondering why the man wasn't waking up. He remembered tugging his father's sleeves, asking him why he wasn't waking up even though they were visiting them. That was the first time his father explaining to him what death was, telling him how it was the one time that people were never going to wake up from their sleep.

"I don't know about your mother but I wanted to become like my brother," his father explained. "He was a very good ninja, one of the best of his generation, and I wanted that for myself. It also didn't help it was expected of me to become a ninja since my father was the Head of the Uchiha clan."

"Did you regret becoming a ninja?" Takao asked, tilting his head at his father.

"Never," his father answered. "But Taka don't think that you have to become a ninja because of us. If you don't want to be a ninja that's alright with us."

I want to be a ninja, Takao thought, smiling widely at his father. He wasn't doing it because he felt like he was being pressured but because, he wanted too. He wanted to be like the people that everyone looked up to. He wanted to become apart of ANBU, protecting everyone silently without people knowing it was him. He wanted to do something productive with his life, wanted to reach the top and have people respect him and look at him as someone who wasn't the child of his parents.

There was no way he could have any of that if he didn't become a ninja.

"I want to be a ninja," Takao answered, gazing at his little brother who smiled widely at everyone who watched him. "A ninja is someone that protects the village right? And you, Mum and Katsu are a part of this village aren't you? I want to protect you guys like how you always protect me and Katsu."

"Only just us? What about everyone else?"

"I won't mind protecting them but they aren't like you guys or like Aunt Sakura, Aunt Ino, Aunt Hinata and everyone else," Takao answered sincerely. "They treat me differently because I'm Mum's kid, they don't know me. I don't know if they'll have my back if I wasn't your kid."

"You don't trust them huh?" His father asked, smiling wryly.

"I trust them but I don't like how they look at you, me or even Katsu," Takao answered. "Sometimes, it feels like they are waiting for something. It's like they want us to mess up or something but I don't understand why. They don't do this to the other clan kids, except us and even then...only when Mum isn't with us."

His father stared at him for a good couple of minutes before glancing at Katsu, who furrowed his eyebrows together. His mother just smiled at them but Takao noticed how his mother kept flickering her eyes at the civilians around them as if debating to do something about them. His mother would never harm them but Takao knew his mother might find a way to make their life hell.

He didn't know how but if his mother knew someone wasn't being treated right then she would find someway to fix it or do something about it.

As much as Takao hated how people stared at his father, he didn't want his mother to deal with his problems.

"Y'know I can't believe that you're going to the Academy this year," His mother said cheerfully, changing the subject. "It seems just like yesterday you would crawl into our bed, telling us that you have a nightmare about some bald man before asking in your cute little voice if you could sleep with us."

Takao flushed red at the reminder while his little brother stared wide-eyed at this. The dream that he had wasn't a nightmare, it felt more like a memory but Takao would never tell this to his mother. He could still vaguely remember seeing a bald man with no nose gazing at him and then to another boy, pointing a wooden stick at them as if debating which one to throw the stick at.

He remembered a flash of green light and then waking up to find a black-haired man and red-haired woman gazing at him and his brother with relief. Takao remembered being hugged by the woman. He distinctly remembered an old man, who stared grimly at him and another little boy, before saying something to the woman.

He remembered a lot of things about that night if you asked him but Takao had no idea who those people were.

"Big brother, okay?" Katsu asked, snapping him out of his thought. "Was bad dream really bad?"

Takao shook his head. "Of course not, little brother. It's a bad dream, bad dreams go away when you wake up or don't you know that Katsu?"

"Sometimes bad dreams don't go away," Katsu answered, flickering his blue eyes at him. "I dreamt you left Katsu and Katsu is scared of that. Big brother won't leave Katsu right?"

Takao shook his head and ruffled the boy's dark hair. "Nothing in the world would make me leave Katsu. It's my job as your big brother to protect you Katsu! I'm always going to be there for you?"

"Promise?"

"I promise Katsu," Takao answered, not noticing his mother's soft smile. "I'll keep that promise if that is the last thing I do."

One day you would have to leave Katsu, a small voice whispered in his mind as his baby brother stared at him. Uncle Itachi died and left your father alone, despite the fact that they were close. Who is to say you won't leave Katsu too? Who is to say you won't abandon him like your biological parents did? Don't you want to know why they abandon you to those awful people?

My biological parents are dead, Takao snarled as he tightened his grip on his father's hand. Aunt Petunia said so and while I hate her, I can't deny what she said is true. Why would my real parents abandon me to people who hate me? They can't do that to me if they were alive. That isn't how family works.

Not everyone is as good as our adopted parents, the voice answered silky. Despite what you think, you know as well as I do that no one could ever compare to them, to Mum because no one understands loneliness like she does.

The sad thing was that Takao knew the voice was right. No one could ever compare to his mother because Takao knew from the whispers in the village that his mother forgave everyone who treated her badly even when they didn't deserve it. No one was like that except for his mother. Sometimes, Takao wondered how she could do it.

He might be six but Takao knew how hard it was to forgive people.

"Takao."

Was he in trouble? Takao wondered as his mother stopped walking and fixed her blue eyes at him while everyone else passed him. His father frowned and raised his eyebrows but his mother waved him off and gestured for his father and Katsu to go ahead without them, signalling that she wanted to have a private talk with him. For the first time in his life, he could see the seriousness and weariness in his mother's eyes, showing him the shinobi that his mother was. He always saw her as the fun parent, as the mother but he always forgot that just like his father, his mother was a shinobi.

"Once you get through those gates and hear Kakashi-sensei's speech, your life as a shinobi will begin," His mother said, kneeling down and staring right into his eyes. "You're going to meet a whole range of people, who will either pretend to be your friends or say bad things because certain people don't like our family. You might start to hate them, you might even get into fights with them or heck you might prank them but, Takao don't let them think that their words affect you. If anything else, avoid fighting them."

"You want me to stand there and let them talk about me?" Takao asked, staring wide-eyed at his mother.

"No but I don't want you to get into fights that could have easily been avoided," His mother answered. "I don't want you to make any enemies in school because one day, the classmate you argued with might just be your teammate. Teamwork is important Taka and I don't want your teamwork to be affected because someone talked bad things about us."

"Mum…"

"If you want payback then do it in a way that no one could truly trace it back to you," she smiled. "Give them a smile and talk nicely to them because the best form of revenge is showing them that their words don't really affect you. It'll frustrate them because nothing they could do can affect you, pretend that you know their secrets because if you do then they'll fear you."

"Did you do that in school?"

"Me? Never," his mother smiled wickedly. "I pretended to be dumb so that no one could take me seriously, which allowed me to learn a lot of things about my classmates, things that I could use against them if I really wanted."

"Mum?"

"Yes, Kiddo."

"Did anyone tell you that you were scary?"

"Me? I'm just the goofball," His mother declared, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "Though I'm a goofball that knows how to play her cards right to get the things I want. Y'know it's never a bad idea to have a mask on, Taka but make sure that the mask doesn't truly become a part of you...you might just regret it."

"Did being a fool become a part of you?"

"Eventually it did," his mother admitted. "I kept pretending to be something I wasn't that eventually I became that person because it was easier that way. People do things, things they don't want to do because that is the only way to make friends. Taka, don't do that. You can have a mask to hide your emotions but don't ever let that mask become a part of you."

"Yes, Mum."

It was left unsaid but Takao knew that his mother regretted playing an idiot in school and letting it become a part of who she left. Though Takao wasn't going to make the same mistakes as his mother. He would play nice and keep his emotions in check just like his mother told him, but he was never going to put on a fake smile or play dumb.

Takao wasn't going to dumb down his intelligence for anyone's sake or be the dead-last. No, he was going to reach the top without showcasing his true skills that would be the way a true ninja would go about.

After all, a shinobi greatest skill was his skill in deception wasn't it?

It was a skill that Takao was planning to master because Takao was going to become the best ninja even if it killed him.


Three years, Professor Dumbledore thought as he rubbed his temple, it had been three years since Harry Potter's disappearance and Dumbledore was no closer to finding him then he was three years ago. What caused the boy to disappear? He couldn't help but question as he gazed down at the papers in his table. Arabella had no idea on where the boy had run off too, saying that Lily's sister didn't like talking about it but that might be due to guilt because the boy was her nephew.

Still, where on Earth could the boy run off too? Did someone kidnap the boy? Did one of Voldemort supporters found where the brother of the boy-who-lived live? No, no one knew that Samuel had a brother except for the Potter themselves and their closest friends. It was the least he could do to make sure that young Harry was safe. He rubbed his bearded chin at this thought.

He grimaced. Perhaps, he should have had someone kept an eye on the little boy to make sure he was safe after all, it would be a disaster if the heir of the House of Potter was missing. He frowned. Then again, they couldn't be certain if Harry was going to become Lord Potter. The night Voldemort attack had seen most of the boy's magical core depleted, making him essentially a squib. A squib could not become the heir of a noble house as far as the law goes but that law might need to change if it turned out that Samuel died from his future battle with Voldemort.

Things weren't going to be easy especially once James and Lily started to ask about their oldest son. It had been a miracle that the last five years that the parents hadn't once asked or demanded that they go see their eldest son, which was odd as they had been quite reluctant to let the boy go. Professor Dumbledore sighed. Then again, those two wanted to spend as much time preparing Samuel for his future against Voldemort.

It was a terrible thing once a parent had the fear that their child might die before them but, Professor Dumbledore wondered if perhaps by not asking about their other child that it might start to build resentment for Harry. The boy was going to find out his parents were alive eventually and Professor Dumbledore knew no matter how kind a child was that knowing their parents left them would cause an emotional scar that could never heal. If Harry Potter turned out to still be a wizard, which was highly unlikely since his magical core was depleted since the last time he checked him, then Professor Dumbledore knew they would be a lot of questions to be answered, especially for the boy.

He had no idea what Lily's sister had told the boy or if the boy even remembers it but Dumbledore had a feeling that when Harry was reunited with his family that things were going to go downhill. He just hoped that the boy was willing to understand the choices made by his parents.

It hadn't been easy for Lily and James to send their child to the Muggle world to be raised.


A/N: Please review and tell me what you think. Here's a random question to ask, which house do you think members of Team Seven would have been sorted in if they have went to Hogwarts? Also, what house do you think Takao should be in? And is Professor Dumbledore out of character to you?