Chapter Four

Naruko age seven

Sarutobi Hiruzen finished his paperwork at the office and headed home. Today was the day that he would tell Naruko of her engagement to Nara Shikamaru. He was apprehensive, after all she was quite close to Itachi and probably wouldn't take kindly to Hiruzen making agreements without her permission; he sighed, it was going to be a long day.

It was a quiet mid-afternoon in November. The air was crisp and Sarutobi had the sudden thought to pick up some Ramen to share with Naruko before he broke the news. Ramen always made her happy. A quick detour to Ichiraku's Ramen Stand and four large miso ramen to go; Sarutobi was all set.

At home he made his way to his Study and asked the Matron on the way to send Naruko in right away. He sat and waited and all too soon He and his young charge were slurping on their snack.

Once done, Sarutobi turned to the young girl. Today she was wearing a white and pink kimono tied with a red obi; long blonde hair spilling over small shoulders mid way down her back with two dragonfly clips holding her bangs out of her face; she had crystal blue eyes that seemed to stare into your soul and a smile that could melt the darkest of hearts.

"Naruko I have something to tell you. It's very important and I don't want you to interrupt until I've finished, okay? You'll probably have many questions." The girl perked up, listening attentively.

"Because you are the last of your clan, you have to marry at least 4 men by the time of your nineteenth birthday. This ensures that your clan will not die out and your children will become your new clan." He paused to let that sink in. Sarutobi had actually given her almost an extra year to marry her 4 chosen, instead of 4 before eighteen; he had the council agree on before nineteen, she would still be eighteen, so it was kind of a loophole to give her more time. Naruko's expression had darkened somewhat, but she didn't interrupt and he continued on.

"You already know that you and Itachi are engaged; but there was another proposal made that day as well that I have not told you about. His parents had wanted to adopt you, but I had told them it wouldn't be possible with the engagement. However I told them that they would be able to adopt you when you turned seven." Naruko was glaring at him now; she was angry, very angry.

"Next week you will be moving in with your fiancée and his family–" the old Hokage was cut off here, as Naruko had jumped up from her seated position on the small couch. She stared at him for a few more moments and then ran from the room with tears in her eyes.

"Naruko! Wait, Naruko," but she was gone.

Hiruzen decided that he would leave her be for now; he would explain the rest when she had the time to cool off.

He made some hand seals using a jutsu to call a particular ANBU. Immediately there was a puff of smoke and Inu was standing in front of the Hokage.

"You called, Hokage-Sama?" Inu questioned.

"It's Naruko, I've upset her Kakashi, and she left the estate just a little while ago. I want you to go with her. She'll come back when she's ready to."

"Yes, sir," came the reply and with another 'poof' the ANBU was gone.

Tailing Naruko hadn't been very hard. And if one knew her as well as Inu did, then they would know she was heading to the Uchiha compound. Sure enough, when he found her she was a quarter of the way there, stumbling a bit with tear tracks running down her whisker marked face.

The silent ANBU dropped from a roof, landing lightly in front of her, blocking the way. "Ohayo, Naruko-chan, going somewhere?" he waited for her reply.

"Go away, Inu-chan! Ojii-chan sent you to get me, didn't he? I won't go back, I can't!" Fresh tears leaked out of her eyes.

"Yes, he sent me, but not to take you back, just to watch over you while you're out around, that's all," Inu soothed, holding his hands up in a placating gesture.

Naruko looked at him for a few minutes. It was almost impossible to tell if he was lying or not with the mask covering his face, but to her knowledge he had never lied to her before; in fact most of the time he was brutally honest; painfully so.

"Well, I'm going to see 'Tachi-chan," she said and the Shinobi fell in step behind her.

The girl wondered what else her Grandpa was keeping from her. How many more of these men were she engaged to? She was seven! Being engaged to Itachi was overwhelming enough; but if other boys doted on her the way that Itachi did then maybe—No, she had to be loyal to her first love.

She made her way through the compound in a daze, ignoring the entire goings on around her; Inu walked along in silence.

Fugaku wasn't home and neither was Mikoto or Sasuke, so the sun kissed blond decided to go out back to Itachi's training area, listening for signs of Itachi's training.

Naruko found him sleeping underneath one of the larger trees in his usual training area. Itachi had grown much taller, standing at the height of 5'3 at the age of twelve. He had kept his hair long, continuing to keep it in a low ponytail he had had ever since she could remember.

He was an ANBU now, and had been one since last year. It made Naruko jealous that he was already so far away from her in strength. Ever since joining ANBU, he was always more tired after missions and they had not seen each other as much. Naruko was glad he was here now though.

Inu stayed a distance away; and Naruko ran up to Itachi falling to her knees on the mossy earth next to the young man. He had woken up upon hearing footsteps entering the clearing, looking up at his fiancée he instantly noted that she had been crying.

"What's wrong, Naruko?" Itachi asked, alarmed that something could upset the usually cheerful blonde.

"I don't want to, 'Tachi-chan," she sniffed, "He can't make me!"

"Who's making you do something you don't want to do?" was his reply, trying to grasp the situation.

"It's Ojii-chan! He said I had to marry other people and that I was going to move in with a boy I don't know, and I don't want to and I want to stay with you and I don't wanna marry anyone else!"

Itachi was always amazed when she talked that fast, how could anyone possibly have that much air in their lungs?

"Oh, I see," it had dawned on Itachi what she was talking about. He had known for a long time that he wouldn't be alone in marrying her; and he had accepted that. If she was just now finding out she must be shocked and afraid of his rejection, to come to him crying.

"Naruko, I've known all along that you would have to marry others. Don't let it bother you, okay?"

"You knew!?" Fresh tears started all over again.

Itachi hauled her over onto his lap; brushing the hair out of her face, he spoke again.

"Have you met the other boy yet?" Itachi had no knowledge of who he was.

"I left before Ojii-chan could say anymore," said Naruko, guilt taking over her cute features.

"Well, maybe it won't be so bad, and if it is bad you'll still have me, and I'll kill him for you, okay?"

The blond sighed, "Okay."

Itachi smiled at her then. "Naruko, I have a mission in an hour, can I leave it in Inu-san's hands to get you home?"

"Yeah, thanks for talking to me about this, 'Tachi-chan."

Itachi hummed in response. They both made their way to the front of the house, Naruko's tears had dried up, but her eyes were still puffy and red from crying.

"I'll be gone for a few weeks this time so stay safe, I'll let you know when I've returned."

They hugged goodbye, and the young girl made her way home, intent on hearing the rest of Hiruzen's explanation.

Sarutobi was sitting on the doorstep when they returned; Inu left in a puff of smoke and the old man motioned for Naruko to take a seat beside him.

"Naruko, I know you're upset but I only did what I thought was best. I never meant for it to hurt your feelings."

The girl sighed. "I know,"

"Nara Shikamaru," he said suddenly.

In the year since that first day when Shikamaru and Naruko had eaten lunch together they had become best friends, they played Shogi and they played pranks and they trained together and the list went on. The pineapple haired boy had even introduced Naruko to Chouji and Ino as well.

She had come to understand that the Nara wasn't very motivated, and loved to watch the clouds, but she also had noticed how very smart he was and had convinced him to put effort into his studies. She had said 'if you want to spend the rest of your life being lazy, you have to be smarter and stronger than everyone else first'; of course he had just looked at her funny, but eventually he had begun to put forth more effort and his grades were no longer scraping passes but were now climbing to be in the top 3. Naruko was the top in their year, tied with a boy named Hyuuga Neji.

"What about Shika-chan?" Naruko questioned.

"He is your fiancée."

"What?"

"I was going to tell you earlier, but you ran off before I could."

"But—, that's not—, are you sure?" Naruko asked dumbly.

Sarutobi chuckled, good naturedly. "I assure you I'm sure. Are you still angry with me?"

"Does he know about this?" she asked.

"I would imagine so," replied the salt and peppered haired man.

"Well, then, when I get my hands on him, I'm going to beat that sneaky bastard into the Hokage Monument." She looked quite serious.

"Ah, ah, ah," the man chided, "I had asked for them to keep it a secret, I had wanted to tell you myself, when you were old enough. Don't blame Shikamaru." He had to cool her down before she shot off half-cocked.

"Fine, but why do I have to live with them? Shikamaru and his family are great, but you and Konohamaru are my family too." Naruko looked very sad at the thought of leaving the home she'd always known. Truthfully, Hiruzen had grown much attached to her and wanted her to continue to live with them as a family; even though the blonde girl wasn't blood related to them, he thought of her as such and always would.

"Don't worry so much, Naruko, you'll get wrinkles." She scrunched up her nose and Sarutobi laughed. "This place will always be your home, and you'll always be welcome here, I don't want you to get the wrong idea about this, but a promise is a promise, and Yoshino and Shikaku have been waiting for you for seven years. Let's not make them wait anymore."

She looked like she wanted to argue the point, but seemed to change her mind at the last moment and pouted instead.

The next day at the Academy, Naruko met up with her new fiancée. First she smacked him over the back of the head, and then she drew him up in a big hug and forgave him for keeping the secret of their engagement; the both of them then went to class, everything back to normal with no hard feelings.

Over the next few days Naruko packed her belongings with the help of the maids at the Sarutobi estate. It was harder than she thought to pack, leaving her family behind while she went somewhere else, but she knew in her heart that everything would all work out in the end.

Naruko and Shikamaru entered the room with the last of the boxes and set them with the others. The sun-kissed blonde had finally moved her belongings from the Sarutobi estate to her new bedroom at the Nara Compound.

It had taken the whole week to pack and move everything; Shikaku had gotten most of it himself in a storage scroll, but Naruko wanted to do the rest herself. So with school at the academy and training with Jiraiya, she hadn't had much time to spare for moving.

Her new room was nice, spacious, and had a large window overlooking the grounds where the numerous deer grazed.

By far her favorite thing about the room was that there was a large sliding door connecting her room to Shikamaru's, they had decided to keep it open so that it would be one large room between them.

Yoshino had been very kind and motherly to Naruko; they had first met some time after she and Shikamaru had become friends and Naruko liked her very much. Yoshino was a strict woman, who made sure Shikamaru did all of his chores, but underneath the stern expression there was always kindness in her eyes. She had long dark hair that she tied back in a low ponytail, dark eyes and fair skin.

Shikaku was a different story though. He was a busy man so she hadn't had much of a chance to get to know him. He was like an older, larger version of Shikamaru. He had two deep, long scars on the right side of his face, the same pineapple hair style, a goatee along with the nearly always tired expression. He wore his standard Shinobi outfit most days, with a deer skin vest over his green Jounin vest. He was a tall man, lean but muscular, with the same brown eyes as his son. Shikaku held a very important position in the village as the Jounin Commander of Konohagakure's Shinobi forces; he was also a Clan Head, so he attended meetings with other Clan Heads, the village council and the Hokage often.

Shikamaru's voice interrupted her thoughts. "I have to go and visit Chouji today,"

"Hmm, it's gonna take a while to get all of this unpacked, you go on ahead Shika-chan", Shikamaru scowled at the 'chan' suffix, but left the room leaving her to her own devices.

Two weeks passed and Naruko was enjoying her time living with her new family. Last week she had finally spent some time with Shikaku during a game of Shogi. She had lost quite badly, but was happy for the chance to get to know her father-in-law.

It was nice out today, so while Shikamaru was out with Chouji, the young blond found herself sitting atop the Yondaime's head, gazing down at the Village.

"Peaceful, isn't it?" said a quiet voice from behind.

Naruko shrieked and jumped up, kunai in hand, ready to defend herself, only to realize that she recognized the voice that had spoken and lowered her weapon.

"Itachi!" Naruko nearly tripped up in her haste to get to Itachi as fast as she was able to. He scooped her up into a tight hug, chuckling lightly.

"How've you been Naruko-hime?" Itachi asked setting her on her feet lightly and moving to sit down and pulling his fiancée onto his lap.

"Great! You'll never guess who I've been engaged to all this time." She sounded excited.

"Me?" he deadpanned.

The blond giggled, "Shikamaru. I'm all moved in now, too."

"Oh? Do you like it there?" he asked.

"It's not the same as Ojii-chan's, but I do like it. You have to meet Shikamaru! I think you two would get along."

"Maybe some other time, Hime; I've only got today to rest up before I'm deployed on another mission."

"M'kay," the blond responded, sounding sleepy.

Itachi looked at the young girl in his arms and watched as she slowly fell asleep. It was hard for him to be away from her for so long during each mission. He endured only to see her bright smile again and again. The young prodigy knew that he would be promoted to ANBU Captain very soon; and knew also that he would have even less time with his young love and his younger brother Sasuke.

The young man let out a mournful sigh and stood up with Naruko still nestled in his arms, deciding to take her home to the Nara Compound.