It seemed a long time before their tour of the Library of Scrolls came to an end. Sarada had been worriedly biting her lip for the whole tour, despite Chocho's advice against doing so. She had a worried feeling about this, and as soon as the bell rang to go home, she did exactly so. Bolt just shrugged, trying not to show he was worried, and told them he's be hitting Ichiraku's for supper before heading home.
Of course, that's where Shikadai, Sarada, Chocho and Inojin found him after checking their homes. Bolt easily read their alarm, and jumped down from his stool.
"What's wrong guys?" he said, knitting his eyebrows.
"None of our parents are home!" Chocho moaned. "I mean I know they're probably not even my parents or anything but-"
Sarada rolled her eyes. "Shut up Chocho, of course they're your parents! You look exactly like them! And before we panic, let's check Bolt's house for any clues."
They were at the Uzumaki household ten minutes later, having run from one side of the village to the other. Panting heavily, they climbed the stairs and called for their parents.
"Mom? Dad?"
"Mami? Papa?"
"Yo old man? Mom?"
There was a sound from upstairs and they hurriedly followed it. They reached the top floor and stared around, not seeing anything out of order.
That is, until they heard a throat cleared from behind them.
They turned around quickly startled and saw each of their parents sitting on the coach with their arms crossed sternly, and their faces questioning.
Just one problem. Each of their parents looked about twelve years old.
The boy is the middle with spiky, blond hair - not cropped short like it used to be - but wilder, and stern blue eyes too mature for the impish face that wore them, spoke.
"We're assuming you are the ones who know the meaning of this?" young Naruto said. "We've looked at the news and no one else seems to be experiencing our… problem. When your parents found themselves like this, they all came here and realised we all have one thing in common. You."
"Yeah… About that -" Bolt said, rubbing his head uncomfortably.
The short, green eyed pinkette who sat next to him turned to them with fierce, fiery eyes.
"Sarada, do you have any idea what's happened to cause this?"
Sarada gulped and looked at them.
"We went to the Library of Scrolls today, and we accidentally bumped a book shelf and a scroll fell down and opened."
Bolt almost hugged her in gratitude for not mentioning his name, for their parents weren't the only unhappy ones.
The small, black haired girl who sat next to Naruto, looked at Bolt with a disappointed face. Her hair was now cropped short, almost a pixie cut - with two long pieces sticking out the front. She leant forward slightly so her bangs hid her eyes, and frowned.
Sasuke looked unimpressed, but Bolt had to give it to him how calm he looked. The man, now a boy about his age, wore a brooding face. His hair was now well out of his face and was spiked up, stylish and out of the way.
"We assume you brought the scroll with you?" came his surprisingly deep voice.
"Y-yeah," Bolt said, pulling the scroll from his pocket.
Shikadai was staring wide eyed at a boy who looked almost exactly like him, except for his eyes which were black. His eye inheritance belonged to the pretty blond next to him who hardly looked different at all - except she was shorter and wearing a 'you are so grounded when we get home buddy' face.
And Chocho finally could see the similarities between her and her parents. Mostly her father who had her exact shape and build. Though she noticed her mother was still stick thin, she had much lighter skin and her hair was much longer. Though Choji didn't look as bothered as his mother did, he may have been distracted by the chips in front of him - usually his comfort food. Karui looked seriously pissed and was shoulder to shoulder with an equally pissed, blond, long haired Ino. Sai, who looked exactly the same, had on his poker face - so Inojin knew he was upset, but he wanted to run out of the room right now from the aura his mother was ejecting.
It was really weird now to call these children their parents. They were their age, maybe younger. But their expressions were very parent-like and so were their words.
Sasuke examined the scroll and nodded his head.
"This is a pretty simple sealing scroll. It had trapped a youth jutsu inside and it hadn't been properly shut, judging by the rust around the clip. So I don't believe it was really their fault."
Immediately, the stern expressions were released and everyone grinned. Except Naruto.
"How am I supposed to go out there and be Hokage in the state I'm in?" Naruto said crossly. "I'd be the laughing stock of the village, let alone the country!"
Sakura seemed slightly confused at his serious behaviour. He was usually the one to relieve the tension, not apply it. And then it clicked.
She didn't say anything until he left the room to make a cup of tea for them all.
"I know why he's so cross," she said. "It's because, when he was around that age - he didn't get any respect from anyone. So I guess he's kind of remembering that and it's making him upset. He feels like he's lost progress."
"That sounds pretty spot on," Ino said admiringly. "Jeez Sakura, when did you get so good at reading people?"
"After Sasuke said I was annoying," she said, giving Sasuke a sarcastic smile. Sasuke immediately stiffened. "I said I was sorry," he muttered. Sarada was surprised to hear a… sulky tone in his voice? Sakura ignored him.
"Yeah after he said that, I started trying to pay more attention to people," Sakura said with a shrug. "Anyway, enough about me. Should there be a reverse scroll for it dear?" she said, referring to Sasuke. Sarada cringed at the sight of a twelve year old using such an old people word. Sakura winked at her and laughed.
Sasuke straightened. "There should have been a reverse scroll directly next to this scroll. The scrolls seem to have some kind of link. When one scroll deducts our age, it goes straight to the other scroll and sits there in individual folds. We simply need to open the scroll and our age should be recovered."
"So these guys need to lead us back to where they found it," Shikamaru said, eyeing them.
"Can we do it without telling Shino Sensei?" Inojin asked. "We told him we hadn't touched the scrolls, so we'd get in trouble." The others nodded in agreement.
Karui sighed. "We've reared a bunch of troublemakers."
Naruto quickly ducked back into the room. His spirits seemed to have brightened.
"You kids - out of here while the… er - big kids work."
As they walked out of the room, they couldn't miss Naruto saying, "We can't let this pass without trolling people with it."
