Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO, ONLY MY OCs

Chapter 4: New Year

"Kaa-chan! Tou-chan! I'm home and I brought my friends!" I yelled into the house as I took off my sandals. I motioned for Naruto and Sasuke to follow me as I walked into the living room.

"Your back just in time Harui-chan, I was just about to make something to eat. Hello, Sasuke-kun," Kaa-chan greeted. "Oh, who's your new friend Harui-chan?"

"This is Uzumaki Naruto, Kaa-chan! Sasuke and I saved him from this really mean old man, so now he's our friend!" I told her.

"Hello," said Naruto, giving Kaa-chan a shy smile.

She looked him over for a moment before moving forward and placing a hand on his head, ruffling his messy blonde hair. "Nice to meet you, Naruto-kun, I'm Takihana Kana. Now, there's no need to be shy. Any friend of Harui-chan is always welcome in our home."

"Hai!" Naruto's face brightened with a smile.

Suddenly, there was a loud rumble. I looked over to where the sound came from only to see Naruto blush, holding his stomach. I couldn't help but giggle, Kaa-chan and Sasuke joining in as well.

"How about I make you kids something to eat really quick, since Naruto-kun must be hungry." Kaa-chan said with an amused grin on her face.

We followed her into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"Harui-chan, you're back already? Oh, and I see you've brought your friends." Tou-chan said, entering the kitchen with Natsuo-nii right behind him.

"Hai, Tou-chan! This is Sasuke and Naruto." I pointed to each boy respectively.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun. I'm Takihana Jiro, Harui-chan's father. You can just call me Jiro." Tou-chan smiled.

"Yo, Sasuke," Natsuo-nii greeted. "I see your little gang is growing, imouto. Nice to meet ya Naruto, I'm Natsuo."

"Nice to meet you Jiro-san and Natsuo." Naruto grinned.

"Here you go kids," Kaa-chan placed a bowl of instant ramen in front of each of us and a plate of leftover gyoza from last night in the center of the table. "Would you like some too, Natsuo-kun? Jiro-kun?"

"No, that's ok Kaa-san. Tou-san and I are going to go train first then get something to eat later." Natsuo-nii replied.

"Ok," Kaa-chan sent Tou-chan a look. "Just make sure you two eat something nutritious and not just sweets again, Jiro-kun."

"Why of course, Kana-chan! What kind of parent do you think I am?! Only giving my child sweets…" Tou-chan spoke dramatically, causing everyone in the room to laugh except for Kaa-chan.

"Natsuo-kun, if you make sure your father doesn't drag you to a dango shop after training, I'll teach you that jutsu you've been asking me about." Kaa-chan proposed.

Natsuo-nii perked up at this. "Really Kaa-san!? You'll teach me the flaming fist jutsu!?" Kaa-chan nodded. "Deal! Sorry Tou-san."

"B-b-but Natsuo-kun, today is all you can eat dango for only 500 ryō!" Tou-chan protested.

Natsuo-nii gasped. "What!? No way, only 500 ryō?!...but…the flaming fist…" He looked pleadingly to Kaa-chan, but she just gave him a stern look. Natsuo-nii sighed, "…Sorry Tou-san, I-"

"It's ok son, I know." Tou-chan sighed. "Come, let us go bury our sorrow in our training!"

"Hai, Tou-san!"

"We'll be back before dark, Kana-chan. Nice meeting you, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun. Ja ne!" Tou-chan said, then he and Natsuo-nii walked out the door.

"Geez, those two are so dramatic when it comes to their sweets." Kaa-chan sighed.

I giggled. "Yep, Tou-chan and Natsuo-nii are definitely dango maniacs. One time I saw Tou-chan eat nothing but dango for almost a whole week!"

"That's impossible. There's no way he could have ate only dango for that long." Sasuke scoffed.

"Yea! I'd probably be sick of it by the second day!" Naruto added.

"Heh, you two haven't had good dango then. If I had as big of a sweet tooth as Tou-chan I could probably live off of it too." I said.

"Ne, Harui-chan, why don't you invite Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun over next week to celebrate the New Year with us? I'll make sure to buy plenty of dango for you all to try!" Kaa-chan suggested.

I turned to the boys excitedly, "Ya guys wanna come over for New Year's?"

"I'll have to ask my parents, but I think I can come over." Sasuke replied.

"I'll be here for sure, dattebayo! I usually spend the New Year alone, so I'll definitely will be here!" Naruto said happily.

Alone?... "Well you can spend New Year's day with us every year from now on! Right, Kaa-chan?"

"Of course, Harui-chan! You are welcome to come over whenever you'd like, Naruto-kun." Kaa-chan replied.

Naruto's face broke out in to a huge smile. "Hai, Kana-san!"

One week later, New Year's Day

My family and I had woken up early to go to the shrine to say our prayers for the New Year. It hadn't been that crowded at 6:30 in the morning, as expected.

Now I was helping clean the house since Naruto and Sasuke would be arriving soon. Tou-chan and Natsu-nii had left a while ago to pick up some last minute things, while Kaa-chan finished cooking.

I was re-arranging our shoes when the front door suddenly swung open, causing me to jump back in fright.

"We're ho- Oh! Harui-chan! Hahaha, did we scare you?" Tou-chan laughed.

I looked up at him, my heart still pounding in my chest. "Tou-chan! Couldn't you have knocked first or something?!"

"Hehe, sorry my little tea leaf." He chuckled. "Anyway, look who we ran into on our way here. He said he was on his way over, but got a little lost so it was a good thing we ran into him, ne?"

I peered around Tou-chan to see Naruto and Natsuo-nii talking to each other behind him.

"Naruto!" I smiled.

He turned to me, "Hey, Harui! I was so worried I wasn't going to make it here in time for the party, but luckily Jiro-san and Natsuo-sama found me, hehe."

I stared at Naruto for a moment, "Uh… Natsuo-sama?"

"That's right Harui! Naruto-kun has realized how truly awesome I am and has become my disciple in hopes that he too can become as totally cool as me." Natsuo-nii raved, eyes glistening with egotistical joy.

I swung an arm around Naruto and quickly walked him inside. "Naruto, it's best if you just ignore people like that. Natsuo-nii is the farthest thing from awesome you could possibly get, trust me." I said seriously, then whispered, "One time I even caught him trying on one of Kaa-chan's frilly dresses…"

We both looked back at Natsuo-nii, who was still in a daze, and pictured him posing and making kissy faces in a mirror. Naruto and I shivered in disgust.

"Oi, why are you two looking at me like that?" Natsuo-nii asked.

"…I see." Naruto said in disappointment.

"It's ok, Naruto. Now you know what Natsuo-nii's really like so you won't fall for his tricks again." I reassured him.

"Wh-HEY! Harui, what did you say to him?!" Natsuo-nii reached out to Naruto but he just turned and walked in to the house.

"Hehehe, nothing but the truth Baka-nii!" I laughed, throwing up a 'v' for victory before following after Naruto.

.

.

.

About 30 minutes later

"Bwahahaha, what is that supposed to be, Harui?!" Naruto laughed at my newest creation.

We had been playing fukuwarai for the past half hour and for some reason each face I arranged on the paper head cut-out seemed to get worse and worse. This one had ended up with two different eyes, one round and the other a tiny crescent shape. The thick, bushy eyebrows had somehow ended up below the mouth which was turned so it ran from top to bottom instead of side to side. And the ugliest nose out of all of them was placed upside down in the center of it all.

"Hmm, I take it back, this one definitely looks like you when you wake up in the morning, Harui!" Natsuo-nii teased.

I glared back at him, about to say something back, when I heard a knock on the door.

"Oh, I bet that's Sasuke, Naruto!" I said, getting up from the floor.

Just as the three of us stood up, Tou-chan walked into the living room with Sasuke and his family behind him.

"Ah, kids, the Uchiha-sans are here!" Tou-chan announced.

"Sasuke! You made it!" Naruto cheered.

"Of course." Sasuke said. "Kaa-san, Tou-san, Itachi-nii-san, this is Naruto. He's a new friend of ours."

"Hello, Uchiha-sans! I'm Uzumaki Naruto nice to meet you, dattebayo!" Naruto greeted with a bright smile.

Fugaku-san gave a grunt for what I guess was hello and Itachi-san just smiled and nodded his head.

However, Mikoto-san walked forward and bent down in front of Naruto, placing a hand on his head. "Nice to meet you, Naruto-kun! I'm Uchiha Mikoto, Sasuke-chan's mother. Thank you for becoming one of my son's friends. I'm sure you too will become one of Sasuke-chan's most important people."

Naruto's cheeks reddened a little. "Hai, Mikoto-san!"

"Kaa-san, you're embarrassing me…" Sasuke mumbled, his cheeks red as well.

"Oh, sorry, Sasuke-chan! That's just what mothers do." Mikoto-san laughed

Fugaku-san cleared his throat. "Jiro-san, your daughter informed me that we are overdue for a game of shōgi. I believe now would be the perfect time to settle that."

"You're right!" Tou-chan grinned. "Just a fair warning though, I've been working on my game lately and I've gotten pretty good."

"We'll see about that." Fugaku-san smirked, then the two walked off towards the back of the house, bantering back and forth.

"Those two always get so wound up when it comes to shōgi." Mikoto-san chuckled. "You kids have fun, I'm going to go see if Kana-san needs any help." Then she disappeared in to the kitchen.

"Yo, Itachi, sup?" Natsuo-nii greeted Itachi-san.

He chuckled, "Hello, Natsuo."

"I've been doing what you suggested and my aim has improved a lot, but I'm still lacking in speed and agility though." Natsuo-nii commented.

"I'm glad my instructions helped. If you'd like, I could show you some kata's that could help you with your other problem." Itachi-san offered.

"Really!? That'd be great!" said Natsuo-nii happily.

"Since when did you and Itachi-san become such good friends, huh?" I asked Natuso-nii.

He smirked at me. "What, are ya jealous?"

"Pft, no. I'm just worried about Itachi-san, since your stupidity is highly contagious." I scoffed.

Naruto burst into laughter, even Sasuke and Itachi-san had a hard time keeping it in.

I could see the vein in Natsuo-nii's forehead pulsing. "HARUI!" Then he pounced, grabbing me in a headlock and grounding his fist into the top of my head.

"Everyone! Come and eat!" Kaa-chan called out from the doorway, then she sighed when she spotted us. "Natsuo-kun, let go of your sister."

"Hai…" Natsuo-nii grumbled as he released me.

"Pft- your hair looks like a birds nest, Harui!" Naruto laughed, I frowned.

I felt a hand on my head and turned to see Sasuke trying to smooth down my ruffled hair.

"T-thanks, Sasuke." I could feel my face heat up.

"Your hair was annoying me." He responded, I giggled at his seriousness.

"Guys, come on, let's go eat! I'm starving!" Naruto whined, following Natsuo-nii and Itachi-san in to the dining room

"Wait for us!" I called out, grabbing Sasuke by the hand and following after Naruto.

Author's note

Sorry about the delay everyone! I got lost on the road of life!

Anyways, so this chapter was originally supposed to be longer but I decided the second half would be better as its own chapter since something big is about to happen to Harui and her family….

So stay tuned 'cause Chapter 5: Change will be posted shortly!