Naruto refused to pack. He'd let Sasuke boss him around so far since he was his cousin, and most of what he said and did seemed to make some sort of sense. He was Uchiha, so he wore the Uchiha fan, even if he thought it looked totally stupid. That he understood. Moving to the Uchiha district when he had a perfectly fine apartment that had been his home for years however...

He wouldn't move to the Uchiha District even if Sasuke offered him the biggest house in the place. Besides being fucking creepy, and almost completely empty, someone had seriously been neglecting the upkeep there. He should know, since he'd wandered around the place a few times after dark. No matter what his jerk of a cousin said, he would be staying in his nice cozy rat-free apartment that was located somewhere where there were people and there was noise to distract him from the lonliness. Seriously, the rats in the Uchiha district could eat Kiba's dog. Heck, they could eat Kiba. And, nobody would be there to hear them scream if they did.

Sasuke ordered him to pack once again when he'd failed to get a move on the second Sasuke had said "jump". He'd been quiet about Sasuke's demands because he was trying to be nice to the only family he had in the village, or at least the only family he had in the village that was willing to acknowledge him. He would be quiet no longer.

"Uh-uh, not doing it. I'm staying here where I know I won't get my face gnawed off in my sleep dattebayo." he said. "The Uchiha district's got rats the size of Akamaru."

Sasuke looked stunned at this for some strange reason, or at least stunned in that oddly apathetic way Sasuke managed. He had vague memories of an older boy who did that, one of the ANBU if he remembered correctly. Some bastard had given the unfortunate sod Monkey's shift on the day he'd finally gotten the prank for that jerk set up, and ponytail boy who, now that he thought about it, could have been a Uchiha ended up getting caught in it. The poor bastard had actually landed in the same dumpster that that other ANBU guy landed in earlier. His landing was a bit softer though since it was full at the time though.

"Rats?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, big honkin' ones. They're effing everywhere dattebayo." he replied, wondering why Sasuke didn't know this since he actually lived in the Uchiha district. "How could you have not seen them?"

"Would you care to show me these rats?" Sasuke asked as if he didn't believe him.

"Sure. Meet me at the gate at, say eight or so." he replied.

"I'm usually in bed by eight." Sasuke said.

"Why?" he asked, wondering why someone would go to bed that freaking early.

"It's my bedtime." Sasuke replied.

"Tch. Whatever." he said.

Kiba did a slight double-take when he saw Naruto as he was heading home. The boy was wearing a new jacket. A jacket that didn't look like the one he'd worn for the last two years straight. There had been a time when he'd believed that Naruto had only one outfit since his clothes were always dirty, but Shikamaru had somehow figured out that Naruto had three identical copies of the same outfit like most of the rest of them. Sakura had five identical copies of that red dress of hers, and Sasuke had the most at seven identical copies of that stupid shirt and five pair of those dumb shorts.

"Hey Naruto, I see that you finally decided to change your clothes." Kiba said. Naruto usually changed the style of his attire at a rate of about once every two years or so as opposed to once a year like the rest of the class, which made today's change of attire a complete surprise, since it was way ahead of schedule.

"Yeah, neat huh?" Naruto said as he spun around so he could take in the entire outfit.

One little detail stood out immediately, namely the big honkin' red and white uchiwa on the back of Naruto's new jacket.

"Naruto, why the hell are you wearing the Uchiha Clan symbol?" he asked, wondering why Sasuke hadn't pummeled him for it already considering the news of what Naruto was wearing had to have gone around town at like the speed of light.

"Because I'm a Uchiha." Naruto replied, as if the answer were patently obvious.

"No you're not!" he said, wondering why the hell Naruto was pretending to be a Uchiha. Naruto was always chasing around after Sasuke, trying to be as good as him, but to go this far...

"Yes I am!" Naruto yelled back.

Naruto's eyes turned red. Red with black dots in them. Sharingan. He really wanted to know how the hell the other boy managed to do that, since Naruto sucked royally at Genjutsu.

It was at that point that one of the Hyuuga that had been wandering around the marketplace that he'd been cutting through when he'd encountered Naruto took one look at Naruto and yelled "Holy Shit!". Several people turned to see the source of the outburst, and upon noticing the Hyuuga's active Byakugan a mob of rather pissed-off women chased him out of the marketplace. After the Hyuuga pervert was duly chased off, several people turned to look at Naruto. Oddly enough, many of them didn't look surprised to see that Naruto seemed to have the Sharingan. His sensitive ears picked up several hissed whispers of "Madara's eyes" as Naruto walked off to some appointment he had after excusing himself.

Just what the hell was going on?

Naruto met Sasuke at the Gate of the Uchiha district at the appointed time. From the looks of things, Sasuke had been training practically since the moment he'd left his apartment until it was time for the two of them to meet.

"So, let's go and see these alleged rats." Sasuke said, still not looking like he believed a word Naruto had said about the monstrous creatures that he was convinced had to be mutants or something.

"Okay." Naruto replied. It was just dark enough for the creatures to be out and about, so Sasuke would have to see he was telling the truth.

As they wandered through the silent and dark district, Naruto asked about the buildings he and his cousin passed, trying to overcome his nervousness. One thing he was afraid of besides the ginormous rats were ghosts. He didn't know why people didn't believe him when he said he saw one. He saw the ghost back when he was eight. He'd woken up one night to find a dark haired man in a strange mask with only one eye hole sitting there staring at him. When he threw the kunai he kept under his pillow just in case one of the villagers who gave him those hateful looks all the time got any big ideas at the man, it had gone straight through him and into the wall behind him. Somehow, he could tell that the man - or ghost rather - was exceedingly pissed at him for throwing the kunai at him as he vanished an instant later.

"What's that building over there?" he asked as he pointed to a rather nondescript building near the middle of the district.

"That's the Clan Library." Sasuke replied.

"I'll bet it has a ton of awesome jutsu inside. I can't wait to learn them all!" Naruto exclaimed as he imagined himself learning some sort of super-secret Uchiha technique that had previously been lost to the mists of time.

Sasuke sighed deeply at this for some reason.

"Why does everyone assume that the Uchiha clan library is chock full of Jutsu scrolls?" Sasuke practically moaned.

"You mean it isn't?" Naruto asked.

"If you could remember practically every jutsu you ever saw for the rest of your life, would you really write the information down and leave it where some Outsider could sneak in and steal it?" Sasuke asked.

"When you put it that way..." Naruto muttered, feeling embarrassed for yet again speaking without stopping to think. While he still wanted his name on the KIA memorial so he could be remembered as one of the village's greatest heroes, he didn't want that happening until he was old and gray like the Old Man and had several decades as Hokage under his belt. That way, the entry on the memorial stone would have the title Hokage next to it, just like the ones for the Shodai, Nidaime, and Yondaime. Uzumaki, er Uchiha Naruto Godaime Hokage had a nice ring to it.

"So what is in the library?" he asked, honestly curious to learn what his and Sasuke's clan had considered worth keeping in their library.

"Clan records, genealogy charts, some of our ancestors' journals, books on just about everything under the sun." Sasuke replied.

It was at that point that the scurrying that Naruto had been both anticipating and dreading finally started. A rat that would give one of the larger Inuzuka nin-dogs a run for their money popped out of a hole near the foundation of one of the houses. All over the district, the rats went on the move, prowling their territory for the night, hissing, fighting, mating, and gnawing on just about anything and everything.

How could Sasuke have not known about this?

Hyuuga Hiashi sat impassively listening to the report one of the Branch members was giving him. He'd heard the rumors that had been flying through the civilian population. If certain civilians were to be believed, the Kyuubi's Jinchuriki was a descendant of none other than Uchiha Madara himself. He'd learned to take such rumors with a grain of salt long ago however, and had been waiting on more concrete evidence before he would believe something so unbelievable.

"How were you able to discern this?" he asked. According to the Branch member, he'd only gotten a glimpse of the Sharingan, and that left the question of why he'd had his Byakugan active at the time.

"I was um..." the Branch member said, sounding slightly embarrassed.

"You were looking through people's clothes again weren't you?" he said, doing his best not to sigh and break his act of intimidating impassivity.

The red flush and squeak that was oddly reminiscent of his elder daughter was all the answer he needed. Most Hyuuga seemed to go through this phase during their teens. It usually passed by the time one reached their mid-twenties and their hormones began to settle. Most Hyuuga were discreet about this, and didn't get themselves caught. The particular Branch member in front of him however was usually caught at least once a week.

He would have to deal with that later. For now however, he had to ponder the latest revelations about Uzumaki Kushina's son. That woman had packed quite a punch when they were children, and he'd rather quickly learned that it was best to not get caught looking through her clothes a second time.

Edited 8-8-17