I should probably proofread this story. I have a horrible habit of not doing so.

FUck it.

Here ya go!

The good news of staying behind was that he healed much faster than what the medics had predicted, had he actually made the journey back to Konoha on foot. Less stress on the repairing muscles and fractured bones would mean quicker recovery, and he was glad to ditch the cast and crutches.

The bad news was that once the report had come out, Mountain Man decided that it was time for him to pull his own weight around the base. Namely, by making him run errands around the compound.

That was why Sakusen was currently struggling, red-faced, under a pile of boxes as tall as he was. He was given the privilege of staying within the general sphere of duty of the supply room, where his mother worked, so that he could be around her more often, which he was thankful for. Of course, it meant more work than some other stations, but at least it wasn't like, bathroom cleaning duty. That would have sucked, big time.

Kicking open the door to the supply room with his foot, he dropped the boxes on the tiled floor, kicking up a cloud of dust. Today was busier than usual, because it was restocking day. Konoha sent frequent supply teams to its bases to deliver food and supplies, as well as to check up on the status of the inhabitants. This was better because hunting for food while near a surveillance outpost was not the wisest thing to do, apparently. It was hard to differentiate between hunting teams and attackers, not including the mess that was created when scouting teams were added to the mix.

"Having a fun time?"

Sakusen looked up dully through sweaty bangs at his mother smiling at him, perched on top of a stool. "It's so much work," he groaned, limply hanging over a box like a noodle. An eerie rattling noise echoed through the room, and he was picked up off the ground from the hood of his jacket by a glowing golden chain.

"Now, now, that's not the attitude to have," Kushina tsked, not looking away from her notepad while checking off items. "Work is important here at the base! We can't have one person slacking off, or it affects everyone else!"

"Like the system that Jiji has in his office," Sakusen mused, still hanging like a puppy. His mom looked up, confused, and he elaborated. "If the Chuunin don't do their work filing papers, then Jiji can't stamp them, and things can't get approved!"

"That's right," she nodded encouragingly. "I'm impressed. My baby is smart!" When he grinned back in response, she unhooked the chain point from his hood, dropping him to the floor in a heap. "But, my baby still has to do work. Later, if you show them how smart you are, then they'll promote you! Then you can do less work, and more of the stuff I do."

Privately, Sakusen didn't think his mother had gotten the managing job out of being super smart. Not that she wasn't, of course, but of all the department managers he'd seen, his mother was the most effective. Because she was scary. Super super scary. That kind of thing was probably a better qualifier than being smart.

The chain point still floating in the air wiggled at him. "Lunch is in a quarter of an hour, so it's not that far away. Did you do everything on your list?"

Ignoring the question, he looked up from his vantage point on the floor. "How do you do that? The chain thingy," he specified with a wave of his hand.

His mother hummed, and looked thoughtful. "I don't know, I guess I've never really tried to explain how I do it. It's an Uzumaki thing. We have the ability to manifest our chakra in chains, and they're really good for hitting stuff, or for using our fuinjutsu through them. Personally, I use them more for fuinjutsu purposes, 'cause it's more fun to hit stuff with my hands, y'know?"

Sakusen laughed nervously. "Yeah..." He cleared his throat. "Does that mean no one else can do it? Is it like a bloodline then?"

Kushina shook her head. "No, it's just something that only we know how to do. It's a technique that can be taught, but it's super hard, and our clan has a certain affinity for making the chains. Other people can do it, but it would take a lot more work."

"So it's like learning a nature transformation that you don't have an affinity for," he summarized. Kushina blinked. How did he know about nature transformation? He was smarter than he let on. Ooh, her little boy was a genius like Minato!

Staving away her bubbling pride, she corrected him. "That's a good leap, but I think it's actually harder than learning a new nature transformation. I guess it's as hard as learning an S-rank technique of an affinity you don't have."

He propped his head up on his hands. "Do you know any S-rank techniques? Really cool ones?"

Kushina grinned. "Yep! Your Kaa-san is pretty strong, y'know? I know a couple!"

Sakusen let his mouth form into an O. "Wow, really? What are they? Tell me, please?"

His mom deflated a little. "Well, one of them is really big. And I can't use it when I want to, only when I get mad... But it's really big! It can blow this whole place up, and then some!" She picked up some more steam when she saw the silent whoa form on her son's lips. "And the second one can rip out someone's soul and seal it away! Isn't that awesome?"

Sakusen started sweating a little nervously. He could see why Sensei and her were friends now.

"Ah, but," she interrupted, "you die at the end of it. So, you won't be seeing me use that one soon, hopefully."

"Yeah, that sounds bad," he agreed. He took a quick peek at the clock. "What else can you do? I tried looking you up in the village register, but I couldn't really find a lot. How come?"

Kushina paused a little, and quickly started talking again, but he had already noticed the slight hesitation. "Ah, yeah, they classified some of my information. But now that you mention it, it does look a little suspicious if a lot is missing or gone... I should probably have them update it soon..." She paused again, brow furrowing in thought. "I'll tell you when we get back home, okay? Kaa-san has a lot of things she has to keep secret, so that's why we can't talk about it here, okay? I promised to tell you," she assured him.

Secrets? Was it because she was a foreigner? That was weird, but it did make sense. "What about Tou-san? What things can he do?"

"Well," Kushina began, "he can do Hiraishin and Rasen-"

The buzzer sounded, startling the red-haired woman. "That's the lunch bell... when did time pass so quickly?" she muttered, checking the clock. A thought occurred to her, and she looked down at her boy, who had a smug smile plastered on his face. "Oh you!" she exclaimed, hands on her hips, "Did you start all that just to stall for time after I told you to work?"

"Well, you did tell me to be smart," he said, still grinning. "So I just thought of a way to pass the time. It worked, too."

Kushina couldn't hold back her laughter and nearly fell over, clutching her stomach. "Oh, I should have known something was off. Asking me all those questions just to stall until lunch," she grumbled, picking herself off the floor. Grabbing her bag, she turned around to search for something in the boxes, when she heard the plaintive voice behind her.

"Well, it wasn't just to stall... I really did want to know more, but we never really have time. Once we get back to the rooms, you're always really tired, and so you need your sleep."

Looking back over her shoulder, Sakusen was now sprawled out on the floor, staring up at the ceiling sadly. Something in her broke, and Kushina quickly enveloped him in a hug.

"Sorry, sweetie," she mumbled into his hair, "I'm so sorry. Really. I was planning to go home after the war was done and start things from there, once I had time, but I'm just not good at this," she confessed. "It's like I'm meeting you for the first time - which is a little true, I guess, since I'm sure you don't remember me too much from before. I guess it's like I'm just meeting a stranger, and I'm just getting to know them. And," she added, " you wouldn't know it, just by looking at me, but I'm really bad with meeting new people."

He laughed. "Really? I thought you would be really good with meeting new people."

Kushina smiled ruefully, and tugged on a strand of her red hair. "It's because of this. My hair was almost always an insecurity for me, until your father made me love it." Her smile turned into something more genuine then. "But still, other people think it's a little weird. Because it's so bright, and it stands out a lot."

"Well, I like it," he said firmly. When she looked down at him, surprise written on her face, Sakusen reached up and twirled her hair between his fingers. "I wish I had your hair. It's so nice and pretty. I don't get why you would feel bad about it. It's beautiful."

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she wiped them away just as fast as they came. "There are some important words I say to the men who compliment my hair, and I want to share them with you too." She kissed his forehead. "I love you."

Sakusen sniffled a little, hearing the emotion clouding his mother's voice. He hugged her back, rubbing out his eyes on her shirt. "I love you too, Kaa-san." Pulling back, he stared into her eyes. "I don't care if you're not good at this. Just, if you can tell me things about you, that would be nice. I always wanted to meet you, so that's why I didn't go back to Konoha with them. I really like spending time with you."

She sniffled too, and soon enough both of them were bawling their eyes out, and they probably would have gone on for a while if a familiar gravelly voice on the loudspeaker hadn't interrupted them. "Alright, break it up. It was cute at first, but now the guys want to throw up. Hurry the hell up and get lunch before the food is out."

"Mountain Man," Sakusen grumbled. He must have been watching through the security camera network.

Kushina was not so complacent. "The hell, Taicho?" she screeched. "We were having a bonding moment! And you ruined it! Who are you showing this to?"

"Oh, it's only being broadcasted to the entire lunch area," Mountain Man's voice crackled with an amused air. Laughter could be heard in the background. "Nothing too big."

Kushina groaned and glared at the offending surveillance camera. "And," Mountain Man added, "I'm disappointed. Is that all it takes for you to fall for someone? For them to compliment your hair? I thought I taught you better than that. I'll have to test Minato again, won't I?"

Sakusen watched as his mother's face burned crimson. "It means a lot to me, y'know!" she shouted. Grabbing up her stuff with a huff, she stormed out of the room, with Sakusen trailing her with a grin. He wouldn't miss what came next in the dining area, not for all the taiyaki in the world.

As it turned out, the wreckage in the dining area was contained to a minimum. Through a group effort, everyone present assured Kushina that they thought it was sweet, especially the women. Only Mountain Man suffered any damage. And the doors he was thrown through. Kaa-san had monstrous strength when she wanted to use it.

Lunch in the outpost was not as bad as many would have assumed. It was curry with rice today, as well as Kushina's baked sweets for dessert. She was an extraordinary cook, and a lot of people teased her, saying that if she kept spoiling them like this, they would have to learn how to use Akimichi techniques. Sakusen agreed, munching down the sweet anpan. He would have to ask her to try making taiyaki later on.

Kushina was in the middle of conversing with her other friends when a thought struck her, and she turned to point at Sakusen. "You," she said sternly, shaking her finger, "are not doing that again. I know it's hard work, but it has to be done. You have to do it."

Was it was too much to ask that she had forgotten that already? He scratched his head and laughed nervously, then groaned and sunk down on the tabletop. "If I could like, split myself, this would be a lot easier," he bemoaned. The proverbial lightbulb went off in his head, and he shot up. Split himself in two? The clone jutsu did that, didn't it?

He took a look at the clock. He still had a good amount of time left for lunch break, and his next errand wasn't due for a while now. If he could get this right, his life would be exponentially simpler than before. Stuffing some more anpan into his bag, he waved at his mother and dashed off to his room.

"Where's he going?" one of Kushina's friends asked. She shrugged, then smiled. "He's probably going to do something really smart. You know, my son is a genius?" Kushina proclaimed smugly. They all groaned, one of them smacking her on the back. "Your kid? A genius? Must be all Minato, then, eh?" Baring her teeth in a vicious smile, the red-haired woman playfully growled. She could do for a fight, she supposed.

Sakusen was proud of himself. It had only taken an hour to get the Clone Jutsu right, and only because it was hard to funnel chakra into such a developed and intricate construct. He'd considered changing up the hand seals, like the time when he'd climbed trees, but was quickly discouraged from the idea. Finding hand seals for a jutsu that sent chakra outside the body to form a construct identical in form to the user's own was much, much harder as opposed to finding seals to a jutsu that helped channel chakra flow. He would just have to do it the textbook way for now, and experiment later once he had more time.

That was about where his happiness ended, because as it turned out, the reason the Clone Jutsu was so damn hard was because the construct was fragile. Scratch that, it wasn't even there. It was literally so watered down that it was like a small cloud of chakra. Chakra smoke, basically. And that's what it actually turned into when he dispelled it. In short, useless for his purposes.

He literally felt like crying. An hour, wasted. Sure, it would probably help him in the academy, since it was a basic go-to jutsu, but it was still useless. Okay, so maybe not completely useless as a sort of diversion, but any ninja worth their bounty would probably be able to tell which was an illusion, and which was real. Plus, the fact that these were intangible? Grass didn't crush beneath them, sand didn't carry their footprints, rocks didn't move with their feet. Experienced ninja would be able to tell right away.

He laid down on the bed, and was about to call it a day (ha, who was he fooling, he still had duties) when he remembered that big scroll in Jiji's office. Soon to be his father's office, if what Kaa-san said was true. Anyways, the scroll had some interesting content in it, and he probably wouldn't have remembered most of the stuff if he didn't have copied down in a separate scroll.

Lunging for his bag, he rifled through the contents, until - victory! He knew he wouldn't forget it. Unfurling the scroll, he pored through the contents. He thought he remembered something about clones. Better ones, hopefully, since he couldn't imagine anything less useful than an intangible clone. It would be seriously hard to disappoint him at this point.

Sakusen scanned the list, going over each jutsu he had recorded, while letting out occasional pulses of sensing chakra. It... probably wouldn't do for someone to see him with this. There had to be a reason why the big scroll was there, right? It was even hidden in the corner of Jiji's desk. That meant there was some good stuff in it, and he didn't exactly have a lot of time to go over it in detail. Come to think of it, that was the day before he had met Shisui, too, so he never really thought of using the scroll.

"Different sealing thingies... Dead Demon Consuming Seal? Sounds weird and badass... Eight Trigrams Sealing... Multiple - that's it! Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He had no idea what a shadow clone was, so maybe it was easier to start with the actual Shadow Clone jutsu... but when did he ever do things by halves? No going back now. There was a little guilt in him for using this, especially since it was safeguarded, but this was important. He would just burn the scroll afterwards or something.

"There's only one hand seal. That's not right, is it? It's a pretty good jutsu, so why only one?" he wondered. Oh well. He knew he didn't make a mistake. Except for spelling. Three-year-old him had atrocious spelling, and while current four-year-old him wasn't much better on that front, at least his handwriting was neater. Perks of learning how to use a sword, he supposed. Finer muscle movement, and muscle buildup - oh, he was getting off-track again. This was becoming a bad habit of his.

The seal was a weird, cross seal. That only reaffirmed his belief that seals weren't limited to just the basic 12. New ones could be made. He sucked in a breath. Here goes nothing...

Kushina frowned. Sakusen was late. Very, very late. Did he forget that he had those boxes to take over to the maintenance room? Those guys were shifty folks, and if they didn't get their daily prescribed dose of sugary snacks, something may very well fail in the outpost's power supply system. Then they would start pointing fingers at her, and it would just spiral downwards into a big mess. So. Where the hell was Sakusen.

"Sorry I'm late!"

The sound of a foot kicking the door open alerted her to the arrival of her son, and before he had a chance to say anything else Kushina shoved boxes of sour candies and whatever-the-fuck those guys ate into his unprepared arms. "Go! Maintenance room! Now!" she hissed.

A muffled mmmMMF came from behind the cardboard, and the pile grew short legs and ran itself out the door. Kushina leaned back and sighed. Disaster averted. Now, how could she motivate him into doing all his other chores? They were boring, but by no means was Kushina going to raise a lazy child. He would be taking care of his own responsibilities in their house, dammit, since Minato was going to be so busy. Besides, it's not like he had a way to replicate himself. Even if he did, that would be catastrophic to his developing mind.

Suzuchi-senpai glanced at him from over her glasses. "Saku-chan, shouldn't you be helping Kushina right now?"

"Nope!" the blond-haired boy grinned. "I'm done already! Just finished with the maintenance room. What can I do here?"

Well, he was certainly a fast one. The maintenance room and power plant were on the other side of the outpost, weren't they? While the place was by no means big, it still took some time, didn't it? Oh, she was getting old now, wasn't she? Kids these days, she thought with a nostalgic half-smile. So much energy.

"Well, I need you to start packing all these excess pieces of armor and the masks away. Green box for uniforms, blue for armor pieces, and white for masks. Don't forget!"

"You cannot be done already."

Mountain Man glared at him suspiciously, and he scratched the back of his head. "No, really, I am!" he said, totally not in a suspicious manner. "I'm all done with those."

"Well, then," he said, swiveling his chair around in a graceful pivot, "here's what you can do here. I've got," he pointed to a mountain of old television sets, "outdated equipment that needs to go. Dump it in the pits, let the burners take care of it. Don't breathe it in, got it?"

Sakusen nodded vigorously, hair whipping back and forth. "Yes, sir!"

Mountain Man turned back to face his paperwork, which littered his desk area. "You won't be able to take that on your own, so bring help, or take multiple trips - I don't care."

A small poof and the sound of a door slamming shut was the only answer he received. He snorted, turning back around. "Stupid kid, never listens to what... I... what?"

The pile of broken television coms had mysteriously vanished into thin air.

No one knew it, but all these events and more happened simultaneously. All at the same time, Sakusen was in multiple places.

He snickered from his viewpoint on top of the guard tower, munching on the rest of his anpan. The multiple shadow clone jutsu was easy as heck. It was like the clone jutsu, but... easier? Less control was needed, so all he really needed to do was shove more chakra out of his coils and not care about the amount. Well, maybe just a little. But not the fine, surgical detail he had to put into making some illusionary clones. No, shadow clones were easier.

He could feel them, they could respond, think for themselves, and it was amazing. Plus, they wouldn't pop as easily as illusionary clones dispelled. Only by physically harming the shadow clone enough to destabilize the chakra making it up would pop it and turn it into chakra vapor. And on the plus side, he got some back when he popped the clones. Best jutsu ever. It wasn't even that bad on his reserves. Sure, he was a little low, but not dying low. And he would get it all back soon enough.

He hopped down, the gravel crunching under his feet. He ran out of the gate, shouting a quick "I'll be back" to the guard, despite his protests, and took refuge behind a tree. Close to the outpost, but far enough so that no one could see him.

Sakusen actually had no idea what would happen if multiple clones dispelled at once. He probably should have tested it, but his time was basically out. Kaa-chan would come storming the base just to find him. He didn't know if the chakra sent back was visible, or sense-able, or if there was some sort of big notice, so it was probably best to lie low before whatever would happen happened.

It was about half an hour, right? That should be enough time for everything to be done with. His clones should be hiding somewhere by now, as per his last orders to them. Something told him that his mother would probably not approve of him stealing jutsu from a protected scroll and using them. So, if he didn't want to get caught, now was the chance to dispel them and see what happened. If something did, well... he would be returning from a short walk in the woods, and have no possible way to be involved in whatever had happened. Perfect plan.

Nothing could go wrong.

Making a seal, he muttered, "Release!"

In the future, he would look back on this incident and be immensely appreciative of his lucky streak, or whatever kept his brain from immediately frying like a burnt egg.

A literal wall of chakra and memories slammed into him, disorienting him and forcing him to throw up his latest anpan. His head throbbed, like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Fuck it, this was even worse than that. Or was it? The

Sakusen collapsed, and the last thing he saw before blacking out from the pain was a pair of boots, or two, or three...

The first thing he felt was the cool feeling of a damp towel placed on his forehead and over his eyes. He could hear voices, muttering in the back, and before he could raise himself up, a large hand pressed him back down.

"Easy, kid," a light voice said. "You were pretty messed up back there. What did you use? Can you tell me about it?"

He tried speaking, but the words came out garbled and confused, and he had to try again and again until he could pronounce the letters correctly.

"Used... Shadow Clones... Lots..." he managed to slur, and the voice sighed.

A deep sigh. "I thought so," it muttered. "Why is it always the stupid ones I get?" A green light filled his vision, and suddenly he was standing up. Somewhere. Was he here before?

Sakusen was standing in a corridor, lined with green and purple leaves, like ivy. Lots and lots of doors filled the hallway, and the ground was... not there. A literal abyss of blackness filled the space where the floor was supposed to be, and it took all his willpower to not cling to the ivy like a squirrel. Where the heck was this?

"This," said the voice, startling him, "is your mind." A hand ruffled his hair, and he jumped as a figure materialized out of the emptiness. He had blonde hair, and blue eyes. Blonde hair. Blue eyes.

"Are you my dad?" he blurted out without thinking. The man raised a single eyebrow, then laughed. Already, Sakusen knew the answer. He was too different, not the same shades of blue and yellow. Washed out, not as vibrant.

The man looked mildly offended. "Washed out? I'll have you know that I'm much better looking than Minato." He coughed, and continued. "Yamanaka Inoichi. I was passing through with my team, and we found you on the ground. Not a pretty sight. You were completely out of it."

What was up with the mind-reading he was experiencing lately? First Okami, now a Yamanaka mind walker. Was his mind that interesting?

Sakusen tried to open his mouth to say something, but the Yamanaka cut him off. "Now, I don't know how you got ahold of a kinjutsu, and I don't particularly want to know either. Just know that you aren't supposed to be using that. You actually could have had a stroke and died if you had used even one more clone, so count yourself lucky."

His mouth went dry, and Sakusen didn't even know how that was possible if he was currently inside of his mind, but he swallowed and nodded. "What do we do now? Patch up the damage?"

Inoichi shook his head. "No, I'm the one doing the patching. You stay here. And don't break anything." He disappeared into the gloom that was apparently his mind, and Sakusen was left alone in the corridor.

He looked around glumly. He had a weird mind. Did other people have leaves growing on the walls? Why were some purple? And why was he floating? Could he fall through? He could actually see little bits and pieces of the walls crumbling away into the abyss. No matter what mind you were in, that couldn't be safe.

I want a floor, he decided, and immediately clusters of multicolored vines shot out from the ivy, intertwining together below his feet to form a pretty, woven patterned floor. That was unexpected. But it was his mind, right? So he could customize it?

"Not in the ways you might be thinking of," echoed Inoichi's voice. "The amount of influence one has over their mind is quite limited. The fact that you actually willed something else into existence is quite impressive." He rematerialized next to Sakusen. "I'm done. Let's go back. You might have a bad headache, but that's just part of the recovery. Now, wake up."

Before he could ask how, Sakusen was painfully ripped away from his brand new vine floor and stuffed back into his actual body. He winced, bringing a hand up to his head. Inoichi was right, the headache was painful. Not to mention, the whole experience did not do wonders for his mind. Some parts of his skull felt slightly more toasted than others, like the Yamanaka had taken a laser and cut away the bad portions of his brain or something. Hopefully not.

Someone peeled off the towel (now it was dried, when did that happen?) and Sakusen found himself squinting up into sharp black eyes. Not Inoichi, but he looked a little familiar. This guy looked like the pictures of some of the mercenaries he'd seen posted outside of the jail - shifty, mean-looking, with wild spiky hair. He even had the scars to match. But a smile broke out on the man's face, and suddenly he didn't seem so scary.

"Glad you're up. We got a shock when we saw you just laying there outside of the outpost. Thought it was attacked," the man said gruffly, leaning back to recline in his chair. He extended a hand. "Nara Shikaku. Nice to meet ya, kid."

Behind him, a veritable giant of a man with a mane of red hair and clad in armor with the kanji for "food" slapped on the belly appeared and pushed Shikaku's hand away, offering a bar instead. "Shikaku, the boy's tired. He should eat. Growing children need their food, after all."

Sakusen took the bar, and recognized it as the Akimichi variety. He knew who these guys were now. Yamanaka, Nara, and now Akimichi. Of course. "You guys are the Ino-Shika-Cho, aren't you?"

The Akimichi beamed, patting the boy on the back with a large hand and glancing at Shikaku. "See, I told you. We're still famous! Even this kid here knows us. I'm Akimichi Chouza, by the way," he added.

Another hand laid itself on Sakusen's shoulder, and he looked up at Inoichi, who had apparently been behind him the whole time. Creepy. "Kid's all fixed up now," he drawled. "But I have to talk to his mom about something real quick." The boy missed the three exchanging brief looks.

As if on cue, the door burst open, and Kushina ran into the room and stopped at the sight of her son. Sakusen winced, shielding his eyes. The room was pretty dark, with only a single dimmed lamp, and Kaa-chan opening the door sent a flood of light crashing in. His headache was sending him painful reminders that it still existed.

Kushina made as if to move to her son, but Shikaku deftly swept his arm out in front of Sakusen, while Chouza stood in the light's path, shielding the boy. "Sorry, Kushina, but he's still healing up. Inoichi's got something to talk about, why don't you two talk outside?" Inoichi was already escorting the woman out of the room as the Nara was talking, and the door closed on his final word. The whole altercation took less than 5 seconds.

Now that was teamwork.

Chouza sighed, and gave the boy a sympathetic look. "Bright lights are pretty painful after a mind walk. We usually only expose patients to them if they have to be interrogated, you see. Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Sakusen said, removing his hands from his face. He opened the wrapper of the nutrition bar that Chouza had given him and took a bite. Hot pot flavor, one of his favorites. There was some magic going on in those Akimichi back rooms to make an energy bar taste like hot pot, but he wasn't complaining.

"So," Shikaku grunted, a gleam appearing in his beady eyes, "care to say why you were messing around with the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu? Inoichi might have skirted around that topic since he's used to keeping his patient's privacy, but I have to admit, I'm pretty curious. That jutsu was locked away in the Scroll of Sealing."

Sakusen caught the knowing tone in the man's voice, and looked up with a guilty grin, accentuated with crumbs lining the edges of his mouth. "Sorry?" he offered. Shikaku raised a single eyebrow. Did he want an explanation or something? "I, uh, borrowed it from the big scroll while no one was looking. And I used it here because I wanted to do my chores quickly."

Shikaku wore a dumbfounded look on his face, then broke out laughing and keeled over in his chair. Next to him, Chouza was doing his best to hold in chuckles. "I approve, kid," the Nara snickered, slapping a knee. "Work smart, not hard. That's the key to life."

"Shikaku!" Chouza scolded, "don't encourage him! You saw the aftereffects of what happened."

He sobered up immediately, nodding seriously. "That's right. I'm sure Inoichi told you, but try not to use that in the near future. Not until you're a few years into the academy, at the very least. You don't have the mental capacity for it. Although," he added, frowning thoughtfully, "I would have thought that the effects were more serious than this... How many clones did you use?"

Before Sakusen could answer, three quick raps on the door alerted Chouza, who quickly stood in front of Sakusen's line of vision, and the door opened and closed quickly. Inoichi appeared behind the Akimichi, followed by a nervous Kushina. She immediately knelt in front of Sakusen's bed and held his hand, looking concernedly into his eyes.

"Are you okay? Does it still hurt anywhere?" she asked, searching his face intently.

Sakusen tightened his grip on her hand and shook his head, wincing slightly from the echoing pains. Shaking was a bad idea. "I'm fine, I think. Just a headache, nothing else. And I'm a little tired, too."

In response, Kushina dropped her head on the bedsheets, sighing heavily. "Thank goodness. You have no idea how scared I was when they brought you here." She glanced up at Inoichi. "Inoichi-san here is very good at fixing injuries like yours. Tell him immediately if anything starts hurting, okay?"

He nodded, reclining against the pillow. Inoichi chose this moment to speak up. "Like I said, everything is under control now. I recommend no strenuous mental activity for the next 12 hours, just to be safe. The headaches should disappear soon after. Children's minds are resilient, so you shouldn't have any problems with recovery." He was answered by twin snores from both mother and son, and a subtle eye twitch was the only indication of his slight annoyance.

Shikaku smiled at the scene, then turned to his partner. "Hey, isn't he-"

"I know, I know," Inoichi answered. He absentmindedly propped an arm up against his other to scratch at his beard stubble. "This kid is supposed to be a veggie. Quadriplegic," he elaborated at Chouza's confused expression. "He's not supposed to be coherent, or even capable of movement."

The reasons why the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu were sealed away were simple. It forcibly divided the user's chakra into multiple segments, making it dangerous for people with low levels. A lesser known reason was because of the mental strain. Undeveloped minds couldn't handle the influx of information from multiple sources, and some just collapsed.

Which was not really a problem, Inoichi mused, because usually it wasn't a 4-year old boy trying to use the technique. This kid obviously had no problems with the former danger, but the latter...

"You guys remember that time that the genin tried splitting himself 15 times?" Chouza recalled somberly. Both of the other members grimaced at the memory.

"Not a pretty sight," Inoichi said, rubbing his face. The split had screwed with the chakra levels of the boy, and the shock of losing so much chakra at once, coupled with the sudden memory return, had been enough to kill the genin. He was dead before Inoichi could scour his mind, though he had a good idea of what would have awaited him had he gone in.

Utter destruction of all his mindways.

"Now, trust me when I say that this kid ain't your average kid," Shikaku started, stroking his goatee thoughtfully. "He's a lot smarter than he looks, yeah? But I read his little chore list," he produced Sakusen's crumpled list of daily errands, "and he had to make at least 6 of them. Add to the fact that judging from what Yamate told us, he made even more of them to do whatever, that means he had maybe around 10 clones running around."

"A genius, even one like Hatake, wouldn't be able to recover from that trauma," Inoichi agreed.

Chouza hunched over, in a poor imitation of Shikaku's thinking pose. "But you found something, right? You've been a bit bothered this whole time after coming out of the mind walk."

Inoichi suppressed a smile. They were so familiar with each other to the point where the Ino-Shika-Cho almost knew their teammates better than they knew themselves. The unspoken bond had saved them more than a couple of times in previous experiences.

"That's right. You won't get this, but his mind is... old. I can't describe it very well, but it's old and it's new at the same time. And he has such a precise control over it. Very strange."

Shikaku leaned back. "Describe it for us. Do your best."

"Well, for starters, the mind usually reflects the age of the user. Shikaku, your mind is filled with young trees and a sun bright overhead. Relatively young, for a shinobi. This kid here," he gestured to the sleeping Sakusen, "has this weird purple ivy crawling all over. It's aged well. Not old old, but older than it should be. The rooms and walls, on the other hand, reflect his age. Brand new."

Shikaku frowned. He liked a good puzzle, but minds were difficult to solve, and not everything in there represented a solid clue. "Have you seen this before?"

Inoichi smiled. "There's only a few, very rare cases recorded throughout Yamanaka mind walking history where that's happened."

Both Shikaku and Chouza leaned forward. "And?" they asked. "What about those cases?"

Inoichi paused dramatically. "And... nothing."

"Nothing?" they echoed.

"That's right. Nothing unusual happened to them. Their success rates as ninja were varied, and nothing was abnormal, really. Just a little more developed, a little more mature than they should have been. That's all."

Chouza folded his arms, Shikaku following suit. "How interesting," the large man murmured, casting quick glances toward the sleeping couple to make sure they didn't wake up, "he seems like a normal kid. An old soul, huh?"

Inoichi put up his hand, like he was in a classroom. "Hey guys... you know how we're on a relatively non-lethal, danger-free mission?" At Shikaku's suspicious nod, he pointed at Sakusen. "I've always wanted to study new psychological cases, and finding this kid is like a golden opportunity... how do you guys feel about some babysitting for the next few days?"

(A/N)

It is very very funny. I decide to write another chapter for this story. I sit down. Prepare myself. Crack my knuckles. Grab a snack. Get ready to type. Aaaaand...

Nothing. No ideas, nothing. Whatever I try to come with, fails.

Now. Fast forward a few hours later, when I try to do actual homework. Guess whose motivation to suddenly start writing starts knocking at the door again?

I am a cursed being, doomed to being unproductive.

... I can't be the only one who does this though, right?...Right?