Naruto, Sai and Hinata all looked around them curiously, they'd never been outside of the orphanage or Iruka's house other than the night they ran away, which they still didn't see much because it was so dark.

They took in everything they seen. All of the colorful houses, tall buildings. They ooed and aahed at all of the flowers inside and outside of the Yamanaka flower shop. Hinata was particularly interested in the flowers. As they walked on they marveled over the different appearances of passerbys, and cheered when they saw a shinobi flying on the roof tops.

After about 20 minutes of walking, the scenery got duller, and they entered a new part of the village.

"Ok, we're here I think..." Kurenai said and the four of them looked at the house ahead of them.

"This place big..." Naruto said looking at all of the houses "but this not one house?"

"I know. The house were looking for will be the biggest, it's the clan leaders house. According to the Hokage, they need someone to babysit their son, but didn't want to send a genin, so I get stuck babysitting." Kurenai sighed, heading into the compound.

"Babies are so cute," Hinata smiled meekly.

"Yeah, but I hate babysitting though," Kurenai sighed again.

"I no like babies either," Naruto complained.

"Well you talk like one," Sai deadpanned, causing Kurenai to laugh.

"What was funny?" Sai asked.

Kurenai just laughed and said "Nothing."

The three children let it go.

Slowly the quartet made their way through the compound, looking at the people as they passed by. Their unique looks struck curiosity to the three kids, but Kurenai was used to it. Finally they arrived at the clan leaders house, the largest house in the middle of this town with in a town.

"Stay behind me, and let me do the talking," Kurenai said quietly, and immediately, the kids got behind her in single file order, Naruto being first, and Hinata cowering in the back.

Kurenai knocked on the door lightly three times and stood back and waited. Foot steps could be heard before the door opened.

"Hello," the woman on the other side greeted.

"Hello," Kurenai started "I am Yuhi Kurenai, and I have a mission from the Hokage at this address." she said, pulling the mission form out of a mysterious pocket and handing it to the woman.

The woman examined it and smiled "Wow, that's the first time in awhile I actually had a shinobi- well kunoichi in your case show me the mission form, good job, come in, please," she smiled.

"Thank you," Kurenai bowed with a smile and walked in, putting the mission form back in the mysterious pocket.

"Awe, who are you guys?" the woman asked, leaning over with a smile.

Before they could speak, Kurenai interjected, she hadn't thought it over, but she wasn't sure how this family would react to having the Kyuubi jinchuuriki in their house "They are some orphans that are interested in being ninja, so I figured I'd show the lil' guys what a mission's like, the Hokage confirmed it was ok, but just to be sure its ok with you, right?"

"Oh no, no problem! What a good idea though. And you know what, you guys and my youngest seem about the same age!" the woman smiled.

"Honey, who's this?" a mans voice deadpanned.

"This is the babysitter, and some kids the Hokage suggested come along," the woman smiled.

The man looked at the group skeptically "Ok... We should be going, lets go." He said, glaring at the four and wrapping his arm around his wife.

"We'll be back around 10, if anything happens, just send a messenger, its no problem, we're just going to dinner to celebrate our sons promotion to chunin!" she semi-bragged.

"Nothing better happen," the man murmured.

"Itachi, honey, are you read to go?!" the woman shouted.

"Yes mum," a boy not a day over 10 shunshined into the room.

"Be safe!" the mother called out the door.

Once they were gone, the group sat on the tatomi mat on the floor.

"Where this boy you babysitin?" Naruto asked impatiently.

"I'm not exactly sure, he's an Uchiha, so I doubt he's we'll see much of him," Kurenai said.

"What makes you say that?" Sai asked curiously.

"Uchiha aren't particularly... friendly," Kurenai informed Sai.

"Please, explain," Sai insisted politely.

Kurenai sighed, she probably shouldn't be telling kids this, but she thought of it as her job to make sure these kids know everything they could before they entered the academy, to ensure their time there is short. "Uchiha are raised in their own compound typically, and basically are only around their families until they go into the academy."

"So what's that mean?" Hinata asked.

"Well Uchiha are a bit... different from the rest of the village, they have different.. views and opinions from the rest of the village, they aren't always as friendly, and raised differently." Kurenai said slowly, careful to not say anything that shouldn't be said, though she shouldn't have really opened her mouth about it.

"I no understand..." Naruto said, his eyes downcast.

"Don't worry, you'll understand when you're older," She smiled, rubbing the blondes head.

"What do you mean?" a small voice voice said from the door frame.

Kurenai jumped slightly, this boy must have some talent to be able to sneak up on her like that.

She decided to change the subject best she could "Hi honey, you must be Sasuke?" She smiled.

The chibi nodded.

"Who are you?" he asked hesitantly.

"I'm Yuhi Kurenai, I'm your babysitter for tonight," she smiled.

"I see," the boy said and walked closer, sitting in between Kurenai and Hinata.

"H-hi," Hinata greeted the boy meekly.

"Hello, I'm Sasuke, what's your name?" he asked softly.

"I'm Hinata."

"Its nice to meet you," he said observing his surroundings.

"I'm Sai," Sai offered his hand to shake.

Hesitantly, Sasuke shook it, "Sasuke," he said.

"I Naruto! It nice to meet you Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, causing the nervous boy to jump.

"Y-you too, Naruto..." Sasuke said, looking at the mat.

"What's wrong?" Kurenai asked softly.

"Its... just nothing..." the boy finally said.

"Come on, Sasuke, I'm a Leaf ninja, you can trust me, what ever it is," she told the boy, for being a Uchiha, he was different, he was meek instead of arrogant, but then again, he was still young.

"Its just Mom and Dad took 'Tachi out to dinner to celebrate his promotion, but left me here..." he said not meeting her eyes.

"I see," Kurenai said with a frown " But hey, cheer up, we can have fun here,"

"Yeah," Sasuke said, still downcast.

"Sasuke, listen to me," she said her eyes meeting his " Itachi's promotion is something that only happens once in a shinobi's life, do you plan to be a shinobi?" Sasuke nodded "well you see, when you get promoted I'm sure they'll take you out too, it's his special night, just like it'll be yours," she told him.

"I see," Sasuke sniffled.

"Do you guys wanna play ninja tag?" She asked them all enthusiastically.

Sasuke nodded, standing up, but the other three just sat there dumbfounded.

"What is this 'ninja tag'?" Sai finally asked.

"Oh it's great!" Sasuke shouted "One of us is a bad ninja and the others are good ninja, and then the bad guy chases the good guy and tries to tag them but anyone can set traps!" Sasuke was jumping on his toes.

"And this is fun?" Sai asked skeptically.

"Sounds great! Lets go!" Naruto shouted jumping up.

"I'll try it," Hinata said with a smile.

"I suppose I will attempt the game," Sai said and stood up slowly.

"Is there a yard we can play it in?" Kurenai asked with a smile.

"Oh yes!" Sasuke shouted and ran to the door he had come from "Its right through here, there's woods and all its so cool, come on!"

Naruto was the first to follow, running to the doorway with the other three walking casually after him.

Once in the backyard, the orphans couldn't even move, they were too busy marveling over the scenery in front of them. The yard looked more like a court yard. The grass was as green as possible. On one side of the yard, there was sparring equipment set up. The other side of the yard were woods, where the leaves were every imaginable shade of orange, red, and brown, with some green mixed in. In the center of the yard was a crystal clear rectangular pond, about 10 feet long, lined with vibrant flowers. Looking into the pond it seemed bottomless, just asking someone to dive into its crystal clear depths and see where it went.

"Ready!?" Sasuke shouted happily, breaking the three orphans focus on the marvelous yard before them.

"It... It's so beautiful..." Hinata said quietly.

"Yeah, it is," Sai smiled.

"NOT IT!" Naruto shouted and started running in circles, presumably to avoid being tagged.

"Just because your running in circles doesn't make you untouchable," Sai informed the hyperactive blond, looking away from the view.

In return Naruto just pulled down his eyelid and stuck his tongue out.

Kurenai rolled her eyes and laughed at the two's behavior.

"I'll be it then!" Sasuke huffed, walking to the porch leaning his head against the wall of the house "GO!" he shouted closing his eyes with a grin.

"Why are his eyes closed?" Naruto whispered loudly to Kurenai.

"Because you have 30 seconds to run!" She told him with a smile, at that moment, everyone but Hinata disappeared.

Hinata looked around, her friends were nowhere in sight, she would have to handle this on his own. Quickly, she tore off one of the flowers tube-like stems turning it into a straw. In one fluent motion, she slipped quietly into the clear pond, poking the straw out at the ledge and breathing through it.

She smiled at how clearly she could see through the pond, but then realized that anyone could probably see her in there too! That put a bit of a damper on her plan. She pushed herself up against what should've been the edge of the pond under the water, but instead it was more water. Careful to maintain her 'straw' above water, she swam a bit deeper and saw that indeed there was no end wall at that part of the pond, the water proceeded to fill a rather long section under the ground, and possibly all the way under the house.

Did Sasuke know this? Because it was pretty cool.

Maybe it was more of a pool.

Carefully, she pushed herself against the roof of the extension pond, and breather through the straw.

Sai sat quietly in the opposite type of cover than his friend, though neither of them knew that.

He looked around for his friends, though Hinata was no where in sight, Naruto was. Sai winced and facepalmed at the blondes antics, nonetheless, he carried on. Carefully balancing himself, he pulled a pencil andd paper out of his bag. That aho would never find him.


Naruto smiled, this was fool proof!

Sasuke turned around to check the steps behind him, Naruto slid quietly to the opposite side of him, when Sasuke quickly turned to check what was behind him, Naruto ran quickly behind the other boy.

Then a leaf fell off of Naruto's 'disguise', and Sasuke saw it immediately.

Scowling and looking around again, he looked to the only other place the leaf could've came from: up.

Kurenai groaned, what was Naruto thinking! He had the potential to be one of the most powerful ninja alive one day and here he was, waltzing with his opponent!

It took a moment for her to realized, that to the blond, this wasn't a fight, it was fun. She supposed he was challenging himself, by seeing how long he could keep up his plan.

Though she hoped it didn't catch on for his real career.

Sasuke groaned. Who was messing with him!?

He had figured that beating these kids wouldn't be too hard, but he couldn't even find the one standing over him. Then he saw a leaf fall, and careful leaned over to pick it up.

As he reached for the leaf with one hand, he did the handsigns with the other and when he came up, spun quickly, shouting

"Fireball Jutsu!"

A small fireball sprouted from the Uchiha's mouth, going directly behind him in the blink of an eye.

As he saw the fire inches from him, Naruto ran as fast as he could, literally running from underneath his leaf disguises, leaving it to singe on the ground before Sasuke.

The Uchiha growled, narrowing his eyes.

'What a dobe!' he though, charging for the boy running full speed away from him.

Kurenai face palmed as the two ran right past her, not noticing at all, she looked up to the tree she had earlier spotted Sai in and saw him too rubbing his temple.

Naruto ran and ran, looking back to see the blue clad ninja panting behind him.

With a grin and a snicker, Naruto threw a 'peace' hand gesture at the boy, and ran right through into the woods.

Right into a tree.

The blonde chibi's face smashed against the hard bark as he slid down it in a dramatic motion.

Sasuke carefully walked over to his 'opponent'. His eyes wide, he reached to touch the boy but pulled back before reaching his skin "A-are you ok Naruto?!" he asked worried.

Naruto didn't move.

"N-Naruto?" Sasuke tried again.

In one quick motion, Naruto's face went from a sheer look of pain to a grin as he hopped up and ran back into the forest, laughing at the Uchiha for being fooled the whole way there.

Sasuke scowled, and chased after the boy again, throwing a blunt kunai after him


Hinata on the other hand was still under the pond. Had she known about her Byakugan, she could've used it and seen the secrets lurking under the Uchiha head household, but that wasn't the case. Instead she stared blankly into the distance, her imagination going wild, dreaming of what could be yonder. Hinata closed her eyes and sighed through her root air mask and started to relax. Was this really that great of a hiding spot? A small proud smile graced her lips.

Then a something fell into the water and she nearly drowned.

Calming herself she held completely still, trying to see what it was. After a few seconds she identified it as a rock.

Then someone fell into the water.

Panicking slightly Hinata looked closely at the intruder. Black hair. Red eyes.

This, though could be mistaken for an Uchiha, was not. Hinata let out a sigh of relief as she realized it was only Kurenai-chan.

The woman motioned for Hinata to come out of the water, and she obliged swimming behind her.

"You scared me..." Hinata said as her pulled herself out of the pond.

"Sorry," Kurenai said with a warm smile "you ok now?" She asked.

Hinata nodded, "But why did you come down to get me?" She asked politely.

"Well," Kurenai started, "Sasuke is in pursuit of Naruto in the woods right now, so its safe out here for you, I just didn't want you being down there forever when he was no where around," the woman chuckle.

"Thank you," Hinata blushed, poking her fingers together, she had never known people could be so... thoughtful.

"Yep," the red eyed chunin smiled, patting the girls head softly, "I must admit, hiding there was genius, you had a great system for air too, if I hadn't seen you, I think that you could've got that passed me."

Hinata just blushed a deeper red at the praise and quietly replied "Arigato Kurenai-chan."

That moment shuffling could be hear followed by multiple yells. Both girls looked up, immediately alert to their surroundings. That's when Kurenai laughed. Squinting, she could see a blonde head running full speed their way, multiple blunt kunai flying passed him. In a mater of seconds, Naruto sped past them, shouting a greeting on the way. Not far behind ran Sasuke, a scowl on his face as he shouted curses at the other boy, not even noticing Kurenai or Hinata.

Kurenai rolled her eyes and stood up, Hinata following suit. "I have a feeling they turned this into a two man game," the elder chuckled.

Hinata nodded with a smile.


Ok, kind of long A/N coming your way.

First off, SORRY FOR THE LOOONNNGGG WAIT! I may or may not have been so caught up in life and completely forgot to update *laughs nervously*

On another note, this chappie doesn't really cover much, just the intro of Sasuke, and his interactions with the others... Kind of filler-ish... sorry. On another note, I could not at all figure out how to end this one... Sorry.

Thanks for reading, and I promise to not let this story die, even if updates take a bit... Review please!

**On a completely unrelated note, Iruka will be working on speech with Naruto, but I don't feel the need to include much of that in the story, so that's why his speech will become increasingly better, maybe one day I will make an omake about it, or if one of you want to and to and send it to be, I'd LOVE that c: