A/N: *sniff sniff*

Hmm, what's that smell? It smells like… burning…

Oh lookie, it's an anon flame! The joys of flaming. :D

Anyway, I'll leave my rant for later.

Oh my Log, it's been FOREVER. Trust me, I feel so guilty. Hopefully this will never happen again, because it's annoyed the hell out of me not having any ideas/time for my stories. :(

Don't blame me for the crappiness and lateness that is this chapter, I'm getting over writers' block, I'm busy decorating the house, and I've been stupidly busy preparing for exams and other school shiz. So forgive me, my brilliant readers.

Thanks for all your reviews and praise, it's the only thing keeping me from discontinuing this story at the moment, so keep it up! ^.^

Enjoy the chapter, anyone who isn't a flame :D

Naomi lifted bowed with a smirk and waved her hand towards the door. "I grant thee permission to enter The Treehouse of Awesomeness."

Naruto raised his eyebrows at the name. "Treehouse of Awesomeness? Really? That's the best you got?"

"Yep!" Naomi grinned. "So, you gonna come in or not? I'd be more than happy to leave you two alone in the woods, but I get the feeling that you'd prefer it if I didn't."

The two still gaping genin slowly edged through the open doorway, Hinata still clinging to Naruto's back for dear life. Both of them were swiveling their heads around to get a better view of the massive wooden construction behind them when Naomi slammed the door shut and brushed her hands off on her black skirt, snapping them out of their daydreams.

"You going to stick to Naruto like that forever, or do you think you can get off him for a little while? It might give him a bit of a problem when he needs to shower or whatever."

Hinata squeaked for the umpteenth time that day and dropped from Naruto's back with a rush of blood to her face. Naomi snickered at the practically glowing blush of the girl.

"So, what do you think?" she asked, looking around the room they were currently in with her arms folded over her chest.

Passing through the middle of the room was presumably the trunk of the tree, but huge planks of wood had been set up from ceiling to floor around it, successfully hiding it from view. A few paintings and pictures were hung randomly on the planks, most of them depicting a grinning Naomi with different people, some of whom the children could vaguely recognise. They supposed they must have been quite well-known for them to be able to remember them, even slightly, but neither could put names to the faces. The walls of the room were painted a matte white, and the ring of wood in the centre was left unpainted. Straight ahead to their right and their left was two matching black sofas, both of them shaped to snugly fit the circular walls. They each had a small table next to them with a pile of random mangas and magazines stacked on top of each. A few spotlights were installed in the white ceiling, and there were a few potted plants on the windowsills. There wasn't really any other furniture, just a rail with hooks for hanging coats, bags, and other things on the wall next to the door, three windows, a handful of wooden shelves, and a huge rectangular tapestry with a pattern that looked strangely like a seal printed on it. However empty it seemed, it was still quite impressive for a treehouse.

"How did you find sofas that fit the walls so well?" Naruto asked with wide eyes.

Naomi performed the same hand seals she had for taking the key out of the tree and slammed her hands into the door, letting it re-absorb the key. "Random question, but I know a guy who's good with unique furniture. He takes requests and makes them cheap, so that's where those came from. Come on, this is just my version of the hallway. Let's get up to the main room, I need to sit down. Even us Jonin need to have a break sometimes." she chuckled.

She walked around the room, eventually coming to a stop in front of the opposite side of the wooden planks, revealing an opening about the size of an average doorway. Inside was a wooden spiral staircase, and she stepped up onto the steps and began the walk up, Naruto and Hinata traipsing behind her. A few seconds later, they came to another opening that lead to another room, and this one looked a lot more homely, and definitely wasn't minimalistic in decoration.

Naomi skipped over to a deep plum beanbag leaning against the wall and flopped into it. "Ooh, finally! I've missed my beanbags so much!" she groaned with a contented smile.

The Konoha ninjas cautiously followed her into the room. For some reason, it seemed larger than the hall room, even though from the outside, it looked exactly the same size. Yet again, the walls were painted white along with the ceiling, but the ring hiding the stairs was decorated with white wallpaper with sparse black and purple flower prints. There were some spotlights in the ceiling like the floor below, yet there was a tall lamp next to the beanbag Naomi was in, and a small indigo lamp on the windowsill on the other side of the room. There were three beanbags in the room in total; the one Naomi was sprawled on, a black one, and a navy blue one, along with another pair of black curved sofas. These sofas, however, had cushions in different shades of purple scattered on them. In front of Naomi's beanbag was a black wooden coffee table with a pile of scrolls and manga books dumped messily on top, and there were odd sheets of paper thrown around the room with various coloured pens and pencils. A sleek flatscreen TV hung on one of the planks encasing the stairs, and there was a stereo system on one of the windowsills with a large collection of DVDs and CDs stacked next to it.

"Grab a cushion or a beanbag and bring them over here guys, and I'll try and explain how life's gonna be while you're here, and I'll set a few house rules." Naomi said, gesturing to the cushions on the sofas.

Naruto dragged the black beanbag over and fell into it, while Hinata picked up a blue cushion and knelt on it in front of the table.

Naomi began her explanation. "Okay. First thing I'm gonna do is tell you the basic structure of these buildings. This is the main building, and in it is the bedrooms and bathrooms, this main room, and the hall room. My bedroom is the top floor, and you guys are only allowed in it when I'm in there of if I give you permission. If I'm in there, knock and wait for a reply before you enter. I'm pretty sure you don't want to accidentally walk in when I'm getting dressed or something." she snorted. "Now that would be awkward. If you knock, I'll do the same thing for you. I respect the privacy of any of my guests. Any questions?"

Naruto and Hinata both shook their heads.

"Good. There are four spare bedrooms, all the same size, and you can choose whichever one you please. You can decorate them how you want, and I honestly don't care how messy they get because mine must be the most untidy place in existence, but I'm warning you. Your room is your responsibility, so you will pay for any damages to the room or replacements for the things in it." she said. "If I were you, I'd choose the bedrooms higher up, since the view is awesome from up there, and it's warmer in the winter, heat rising and all. One of the buildings is a heated swimming pool, another is the dojo, the third is the kitchen and the dining room, and the last is the library. You can go to any of these at any time, but don't leave the complex unless I'm with you, or I give you permission. We'll start basic training tomorrow because it's too late to get anything worthwhile done, and I genuinely cannot be assed doing anything physical for at least 14 hours." she stood up and stretched her arms over her head, cracking her back. "For now, I'm going to take a nap. Feel free to explore the place and think about anything you might want to ask me. I'll be in my room if you need me, and by need me, I mean enemies attacking or someone died, but wake me up at about six so I can make dinner. I'll explain everything else over food. See ya."

And with that, Naomi disappeared with a handsign and a puff of smoke.

"Well that was weird." Naruto sweatdropped. He paused. "On second thoughts, that was weird for anyone who isn't Naomi."

Hinata giggled. "Sh-Should we go and l-look around then?"

"Sure. Where to first?" he replied.

"C-Can we go to the l-library?"

Naruto's smile dropped and was replaced with an extremely disappointed expression. "The library? Why? I hate books!"

"Oh, w-well we could j-just take our things to our r-rooms then. W-We don't have to go." Hinata said dejectedly, directing her pearly eyes down to her feet.

Naruto sighed in defeat. "Ah whatever, there's nothing better to do anyway. Let's just be quick then."

Hinata smiled up at Naruto. "Thank you, N-Naruto-kun!"

"No problem, let's go before I change my mind." he replied, starting down the stairs at a fast pace.

Hinata followed quickly behind him, and it wasn't long before they both reached the room they first came across. Naruto opened the door and was about to head out when Hinata stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Wait! Th-There's a note here." she said, gently pulling him back in.

Hey Midgets,

Here's a set of house keys for you each so you don't get locked out. I'm trusting you here. If you lose them, then you're in big trouble. You know how overprotective I am of mine (I keep them in a goddamn tree, for Kami's sake), so I hope you're careful too.

The keys go in size order; the biggest opens the door to this building, the second opens the library, the third opens the dojo, and the last opens the pool. The kitchen doesn't have a key since it hasn't really got anything valuable in it, so I leave it unlocked.

Except marshmallow fluff.

Whatever, I'll explain that later. For now, enjoy my house. :)

-Naomi

Next to her name was a small stick figure in the vague shape of a winking Naomi.

"Marshmallow fluff?" Naruto asked once he had finished reading the note. He squinted at the chibi. "And what kind of drawing is that?"

Hinata shrugged her slim shoulders slightly. "L-Let's ask her later, N-Naruto-kun. D-Do you mind if we still go to the library?"

"Nah. Come on." Naruto grabbed Hinata's wrist and dragged her along the rickety bridge, earning yet another squeak from the heiress.

Along the way to the library, the pair observed their surroundings. From the air, the forest was breathtakingly beautiful. Surrounding them was the sounds of life itself; birds singing, leaves rustling, trees creaking gently in the wind. Through the gaps in the treetops they could see the clear blue sky with the odd fluffy cloud floating past every now and then. The forest floor was hidden by the foliage, and by the time they'd taken everything in, they had arrived at their destination.

The front door had a metal plaque attached to it, with the word 'Library' engraved neatly into it in Naomi's rounded handwriting, next to an engraving of a stylised version of the kanji for 'book'.

"Looks like this is the right place." Naruto said, pulling out his keys, and searching for the right one. "Which key did she... Crap!"

The keys slipped from Naruto's grasp and fell to the floor of the wooden platform they stood on with a loud clatter. He bent over to pick it up, and Hinata, due to her automatic politeness drilled into her since she could walk, reached out for them at the same time. Their hands briefly met, and in the split-second of contact between them, Hinata's skin felt like it was on fire. They both jerked away quickly like they'd been struck by lightning, and a blush coloured both of their cheeks, Hinata's obviously more prominent.

Hinata shot up and stepped away, bowing her head and clasping her hands behind her back. "I-I'm so s-sorry Naruto-kun! I-I didn't mean it!"

Naruto snapped out of the daze he was in and looked up at her with his usual happy grin plastered on his face, but even that couldn't hide the awkwardness underneath. "Ah, don't worry about it. You were just being polite."

He picked the keys back up and slid one into the lock on the door. A blast of warm air came through the open door, and both genin peeked inside. Naruto's mouth dropped open, and Hinata gasped.

"Wow." They simultaneously said.

On the outside, the building was quite small, and with the tree trunk running through the middle, you'd think it was tiny. In reality, the library was huge - for a treehouse anyway. It had one floor about the size of a large garden, and it was full of bookcases and shelves from ceiling to floor, each one stacked with books, manga and scrolls of all shapes and sizes. Each wooden case was engraved with a different category, so even though they were piled seemingly randomly, the contents of the library were obviously somewhat organised.

"I wonder how she got it to be bigger on the inside..." Naruto said thoughtfully. "If it's a jutsu, she'd better teach us it, because this would be so awesome!"

Unfortunately, his thoughts were voiced to thin air, because Hinata had already began looking through the shelves. Some seemed to interest her, but eventually she gave up, walking back to an impatient Naruto with a single book in her arms and a massive blush on her face.

Naruto tried to peek at the cover of the small book, but the title was hidden by one of the sleeves of her oversized hoodie.

"What's that?" he asked curiously.

Hinata gripped the book tighter to her torso and looked down at her feet. "...A-A m-manga."

Naruto grinned. "Really? What one? Do I know it?"

"P-Probably n-not," Hinata said. She quickly decided to change the subject. "Sh-Shouldn't we be g-getting back s-soon anyway?"

Naruto, with an attention span the length of a five-year-old's, took the bait and nodded. "Yeah, I'm getting hungry, so let's go!"

They took off back towards the main building, Hinata hurriedly tucking her book inside her coat pocket as she ran. Naruto fiddled with the set of keys again as he got to the front door, quickly unlocking it when he found the right one. The genin padded up the stairs, passing a few wooden doors on each level, until they reached the top level, with another wooden door painted a bright purple, with a black swirl pattern on the doorframe. Hinata gently knocked, and a few seconds later, Naomi pulled open the door in a pair of loose black shorts and a navy t-shirt with her still brown hair tied up in a loose ponytail, rubbing her eyes.

"Six already?" she yawned. "Aw, I was enjoying that dream too."

She turned the pair in front of her around by their shoulders and pushed them gently forward, indicating that they were going first. "Forward to the kitchen, my Leaf minions."

"Naomi?" Naruto began, Naomi grunting sleepily in return. "What are we having for dinner?"

She scratched her head. "Eh, well I haven't got that much in at the minute, so for tonight, we'll have to have some instant ramen."

Naruto whooped. "Yes!"

Naomi looked at Hinata. "I guess he's a ramen fan, huh?"

Hinata nodded vigorously.

Soon they crossed over to the kitchen building, and Naomi shuffled forward to a cupboard, pulling out a few cups of ramen and setting them on the counter, after asking Hinata to get the water boiling. She turned around as she waited, leaning on the counter with her hands holding onto the edge as she surveyed the genin with tired eyes. "So, while I was sleeping, did you two think of anything to ask?"

Naruto nodded. "What's with the library? It's bigger on the inside."

Naomi smirked. "Ah, that's the Interior Expansion Jutsu. I made it up when I was younger and pissed off that I couldn't fit all of my clothes in my closet, so made it bigger inside."

Naruto grinned and hopped around in his seat a little. "Cool! Can you teach us it?"

"Eventually, but Hinata will probably be the only one able to do it properly," Naomi raised her hand to silence Naruto's protests. "That's because it's a weird combination of genjutsu and ninjutsu, so needs great chakra control to perform, and you're shitty with genjutsu, right? Hinata, you got anything you want to ask?"

Hinata raised her hand. "I-I was just wondering, why d-do you still have your h-hair g-genjutsu up?"

Naomi blinked like she hadn't even noticed that she didn't have blue hair. "Oh yeah, forgot about that for a second. Basically, it still scares the crap out of me whenever I wake up and look in a mirror to see bright turquoise hair, so I keep it up whenever I take a nap. Pretty scary shit when you're half asleep, honestly. Anything else?"

"Yeah," Naruto said. "What's marshmallow fluff?"

A glint entered her eyes, and she turned around to pull a jar of white goo (A/N: Can't think of a better word for it, go google 'Marshmallow Fluff' or something if you want to understand what I mean) and showed it to the pair in front of her. "This."

Naruto sweatdropped. "That? You call a tub of white crap like that valuable?"

Suddenly a spoon was in his mouth, and when he pulled it out angrily, he noticed the remnants of a sticky white substance on it (A/N: Heh... You guys take that sentence any way you like, if you get me ;D), and realised that Naomi had shoved a spoonful of fluff into his mouth.

"White crap, huh?" she said.

Naruto closed his eyes as he ate the spread with a blissful smile. "Forget I ever said that, this is amazing."

Naomi nodded victoriously as she began pouring the water into the ramen. "I know. And I can only buy it in the Land of Grass, so that's why it's valuable. Quite rare stuff, surprisingly."

He swallowed then turned to Hinata with a grin. "Hey Hinata, wanna try some? It's really good!"

"O-Okay," she answered quietly.

The Hyuuga opened her mouth to ask Naomi for her own spoon, when Naruto shoved his between her parted lips instead. Her face erupted in a furious blush, and her eyes widened comically before rolling back into her head as she fell backwards in a faint.

Thanks to ninja reflexes, Naruto caught her just before she hit the floor, and Naomi face-palmed.

"Naruto, you absolute dumbass," she sighed. "Give her here, I'll carry her up to her room, and you can go pick yours."

He gently passed Hinata's unconscious form over to Naomi, but then pouted at the older ninja. "But we didn't get to have the ramen!"

"Just pick them up and take it back to the main room to eat there," she said. "Hurry up, she isn't as light as she seems you know, muscle weighs more than fat."

Naruto grabbed the cups and a few pairs of chopsticks before following Naomi out the open door and closing it behind him. "Neh, Naomi? Why did Hinata faint again?"

Wow, the kid is as dumb as he looks... "She's probably just tired from travelling or something," Naomi said over her shoulder. Naruto 'ah'ed and nodded to himself, while she rolled her eyes at his gullibility. "I'll take her up to her room, and you just eat your ramen and then head to bed or something. You're up early tomorrow so I can get started on your training."

"We're starting the training tomorrow?" Naruto asked giddily. "Aww man, this is going to be so cool! Are you gonna teach us jutsu? Or are you going to be a lazy bastard like Pervy Sage and just leave us with instructions and equipment?"

"No jutsu yet, but no instructions and neglect either," she replied, opening the front door and heading up the stairs. "Learning jutsu might be a while in the future because you need to learn all of the basics first, and I need to know you better to find suitable things to teach. But it'll be worth the wait, trust me."

Naruto groaned. "Ugh! I was getting excited then too!"

As they passed the door to the main room, Naomi looked back over her shoulder. "Aren't you going to eat in there?"

Naruto looked down at his ramen cups. "Nah, I think I'll eat in my room."

Naomi shrugged. "Alright, whatever floats your boat. Do you want the room below mine or the one underneath that?"

"Hinata can have the highest one," he said. "She'd appreciate it more than me."

"Here's your stop then."

They stopped outside a plain wooden door, and Naruto opened it to reveal a bare room, with only a wardrobe, bed, side table and a window on one of the walls.

"How come there's hardly anything in here?" Naruto asked.

"Well I thought I'd leave it like this so you can eventually make it your own," Naomi replied. "Treat it like a blank canvas, do what you want with it. We'll be going to lots of different places while you stay, so when you pick things up there, you can bring them back and put them in here to remind you of what you did and where you went."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "Okay, well here's you ramen, before you go."

Naomi performed a single handsign and a clone popped into existence beside her, and took the ramen from him with a grin, since the original's hands were full of Hinata. "Thanks."

Naruto gaped at their disappearing backs. "How- How did you do that? You need to teach me that!"

Naomi cackled from up the stairs. "Now that is for me to know, and you to find out in about three months. Night-night, Naru-chan!"

Naruto slammed the door shut and seethed silently to himself, before heading over to his bed and violently inhaling his ramen. Damn kunoichis...

As Naomi gently lay Hinata down on her bed, she felt something hard and rectangular in the girl's pocket, and from curiosity, pulled it out. A book?

After reading the title, she broke out into a wide, knowing smile, trying to contain her laughter by covering her mouth with a hand. She replaced the manga, and turned out of the room, switching the light off as she did so. "Nice choice, Hinata. I might get to like having you around."

Lying innocently in the blue-haired heiress' pocket, was a heavily battered and dog-eared copy of the first volume of You Are My Love Prize In Viewfinder.

Fellow yaoi fangirls are always welcome in the Treehouse of Awesomeness, dear Hinata-chan. Kukuku...

A/N: TA DAH! Finally finished, phew.

Okay, rant time. You may skip to the bold part if you really couldn't care less about my reply to the flame, and my reasons for hating anon flames.

So, Mr Anon, aka Jasper, here's your reply. For one, it is not a copy. Do you see any part in this which I have literally copied from Wren's story? Sure, the basic plotline is similar, but the way I've planned it out, it will completely change somewhere near the middle-end, thus, the sequel will be completely different too. Let's just say the sequel is going to be as humour-based as this story is.

Personally, I agree with your opinions on my OC. Sora is a top class OC, and I couldn't even hope to have a character as well-written as her, but I try my best to get as close to that standard as I can. She's nineteen, and she's supposed to be like that at this point in the story. She is immature, and seems to think that she's younger than she actually is, and there's a reason for that which I'm not going to say just yet. Probably in like, 10 chapter's time or something, I dunno. I don't think it's a spotlight thing really, there will be less focus on her soon, it's just that I need to get some background on her, and as soon as they begin training, it'll be all badassery from our little Konoha people, and lotsa fluff! :D

Thanks for the sort-of compliment there. You seemed reluctant to even type that to be honest. In case you'd forgotten, in the original series, Naruto was the definition of 'big fat idiot', as you put it. He matures in the timeskip, which if you haven't noticed, is what this fic is about. So gradually, he will grow up a little.I put emphasis on GRADUALLY.

About the 'poorly written' comment. I'd like you to take into consideration that I'm only 13 years old, so obviously my writing isn't going to be up to the standard of those like J R LeDoux or DameWren. I've not even started my GCSE's for God's sake! Also, if you don't like, don't read. You were one of the many causes of my writer's block, just thought I'd let you know, but yes, I appreciate your opinion.

Thanks for saying 'good luck' though, that totally makes the message just that much better. (Sarcasm, you asshole.)

I personally hate anon flames because author's like this happen from them. I can't reply via inbox, so I have to piss off the other readers by doing this. So yeah, from the other readers, thank you very much for being an inconsiderate ass. :)

Right, rant over. As a future warning, no anon flames please. Normal flames aren't welcome, but are acceptable. Everyone's opinion matters to me. :3

Crap, 600+ word author's? Oops. Got carried away in rant mode. :/

Last thing now. I have exams coming up in a few weeks, so yet again, it'll be a while for an update, revision and all. To the Paws readers, chapter 7 will be up soon, about 3/4 done, I think.

Sorry again, and the fortnightly update schedule is being scrapped for the foreseeable future. :'(

I'm such a crappy authoress. :(

Bye!

~Neko