I want to thank my new beta SAMPSON12187.

This will be the first beta'd chapter. Enjoy


Chapter 10

"You look funny, little big brother" Nina said, hanging from her adoptive brothers shoulders. The reason for her comment was because of Naruto's current outfit. He had decided that she couldn't just go around in his oversized shirt, so he donned a large trench coat and hat.

"That's because we are going shopping" he said.

"But why are you wearing a coat. Aren't you hot?" she asked.

He sighed and said "Some stores don't sell to me and I can't change my appearance. If I wear the coat, they might not recognize me."

They were currently walking down the street of the shopping district. Luckily for Naruto, the Hokage had given them the day off after their mission. This gave him time to set things up for Nina. He had chosen today to pick up Nina some clothes. The day had gone fairly well. As long as he wore the trench coat, none of the shop owners had known who he was.

"Hey Nina, are you hungry?" he asked

"I don't get hungry" she answered.

"I mean, do you feel like eating?" She seemed to ponder this for a minute, before nodding her head.

He smiled and headed off for his favorite Raman stand. Setting Nina down to stand next to him, he readjusted the bags in his arms. She seemed normal enough. Just another little girl, who wanted a family. He had given her his room, opting to sleep on the couch.

She had her little quirks though. She would stare off into space for a small amount of time. She also seemed to be constantly thirsty, drinking countless cups of water at a time.

His previous suspicions had been proven when they were shopping. She had come out from the changing room in a summer dress. He saw the tattoo that proved what she was. A homunculus. Just like him. He had told her that she couldn't get clothes that showed off that mark.

She was also incredibly naive. For something that was supposed to be a monster, he had never seen anyone who was as sweet as her. She seemed oblivious to half of the stuff that went on around her.

"Little big brother?"

"Hm?"

"Why is there a box following us?" she asked

It was true. Behind them was a square box, crawling towards them. Naruto sighed, while Nina smiled amusedly.

"You can come out now Konohamaru. Your disguise isn't fooling anyone." he said.

As he said these words, the box suddenly exploded. Out of the smoke came three coughing children. Naruto had met Konohamaru shortly after he had graduated from the exam. The little kid was annoying, but fun to be around.

"So you found us out –cough-, Boss" the supposed leader said. This was Konohamaru. His two friends stood behinds him, getting over the coughing fit.

"I'm Moegi"

"And I'm Udon"

"Boss! You promised you'd come play ninja with us!" Konohamaru yelled. He had met the kid a little after he graduated. It was something about attacking the Hokage. The only good thing about the kid was that he was able to pass on his ideas for the perverted ninja skills to him. Good memories.

"Can't this wait guys, I'm hungry" he pleaded.

"No. You promised ages ago. Hey… who's she?" He asked.

Nina, who had hid herself behind Naruto when they had introduced themselves, stuck her head out and smiled nervously.

"Oh. This is Nina. She's sorta my little sister." Said Naruto, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Hey, little big brother," Nina said "I want to play ninja"

"See, even she wants to play" Udon shouted.

Naruto sighed before finally nodding his head. Damn kids.

"I'll be it. You have until ten." He said

The kids quickly ran off, with Konohamaru grabbing Nina's hand and pulling her along. The whole object of the game was to hide as quickly and stealthily as possible. He began his count down as Konohamaru and Nina rounded the corner.

5…

4…

3…

2…

WHAM

"That hurt you little brat" someone said. Naruto stopped the countdown and ran around the same corner. Nina was being held up by her dress and Konohamaru was stuck underneath the foot of a man in what looked to be a cat suit.

"Hey, let go of them!" Naruto yelled. The man- no boy- looked back from Nina and straight at Naruto. He only looked to be a few years older than Naruto himself.

"These two ran into me. They need to be taught a lesson." He said. The girl behind him sighed. From the looks of it, this must have been an ordinary occurrence with him.

"Don't do it, Kankouro, you don't want to start trouble." she said.

"They deserve whatever happens to them" he answered.

"Little big brother, help" Nina said, struggling to get away from the boy. Konohamaru turned his back as far as he could and bit the boy's leg, causing him to lift his foot. He was able to get away, but the boy still hadn't let go of Nina.

"Get-off-me, you big meanie!" she yelled. Naruto stepped forward with a warning growl. That was his little sister he was dealing with.

As he was about to charge the boy, the weirdest thing happened. Nina melted. Her entire body, clothes included, just seemed to melt away into water.

'That guy melted Nina!' was his first thought. Not the brightest.

As soon as the water hit the ground, it swarmed around itself and started creating a form. As quickly as it happened, Nina was on the floor with wide eyes. As soon as she regained her sense, she darted up and ran over to Naruto.

The two ninja's, from the Sand judging from their forehead protectors, looked in awe at the girl hiding behind Naruto's leg.

"H-how did you do that?" Naruto asked. She looked up at him and shook her head. Even she didn't fully know.

Before he could ask anything else, another person decided to make his presence known. He was using his chakra to keep himself attached to the underside of a tree. He had red hair and a tattoo that read 'love'. The oddest thing about him was the fact that he carried a large gourd on his back.

"Kankouro, you are an embarrassment to the village. Stop now before I kill you." Both ninja froze at the arrival of this third person. Even Naruto had to admit, he had a dangerous presence about him.

"Look who decided to show his flea ridded face." said the Kyuubi, chuckling in the back of Naruto's mind.

"You know this guy." asked Naruto.

"Yes and no. I don't know the red head, but he's actually just like you"

"How so?"

"He's a demon vessel"

There was a long awkward silencebetween the two. This was the first time that Naruto had seen another vessel. He had heard that there were others like him, being given the burden of a demon, by the Kyuubi. This boy in front of him, looked about his age, if not a little younger.

"What demon is in him? Is it as strong as you?"

"It is the demon raccoon, Shakaku. And no, he is not as strong as me." He said proudly. "That damn raccoon was always a little crazy. If you look at the vessel, it seems like he hasn't let the boy go to sleep. If he did fall asleep, Shakaku would probably possess him and go on a rampage."

"Shakaku…" he murmured to himself.

The redhead swiveled around, glaring at the blond, but Naruto could see a hidden fear in his eyes. The redhead was about to ask him something but Naruto just put on his largest grin.

"I guess you guys are here for the chunin exam. Maybe I'll see you there" he then turned to the kids who were still standing behind him, looking warily at the foreigners. "Come on you guys, where go away from these psychopaths. We wouldn't want to get in trouble with the Hokage." The kids nodded and ran in the other direction.

Naruto was about to follow when the redhead called out to him. "My name is Gaara of the desert. I hope to face you in the exams …"

"Uzumaki. Uzumaki Naruto. I'm not sure if I'll be in the exams this year, but hopefully we'll meet again. We're more alike then you think" he said and went off after the two, leaving the redhead, Gaara to ponder his words.

"Come on, lets go back to the hotel room" said Gaara.

"That was so cool!" yelled an excited Konohamaru "How did you do that?"

Nina looked away sheepishly. She really didn't know.

"Hey guys. It's getting late. Me and Nina are going to head home." said Naruto. They had been playing ninja all day after the encounter with the foreign ninja. The other children waved goodbye and headed off.

Naruto turned to Nina, a serious expression on his face. "Nina, how did you do that before?"

Once again Nina looked down nervously. "I don't know. It just happened."

"It must have been like a defense or something. Kinda like me and the sword thing."

"I agree. She didn't seem to know what she did until after she regained her original form."

"Do you think she could do it again?"

"Maybe. But you should ask her, not me"

"Nina, could you do it again?" he asked her.

She looked up at him, and nodded her head. She looked back down and raised her hand in front of her face. Closing her eyes, she tried to picture water, but nothing happened.

"I can't do it" she said.

"Um… try to think what you felt like when you did it last time. You know, when the kid in the suit grabbed you." He suggested. She closed her eyes again and concentrated. She thought back to the boy in the cat suit. He didn't really scare her though, but his eyes reminded him of something that did. He was scared.

She wasn't sure of what, but he was scared for his life. It must have been bad. From what she could remember of the Gate, the others that were still trapped there always had a look of either fear of anger. It was the fear of the unknown. They didn't know what would happen to them. Sometimes, a few of the eyes would simply close, and the rest would never see them again. That was what scared her the most.

"Nina! You did it!" Naruto yelled. Indeed she had. Her hand and most of her arm had turned a clear liquid. Naruto reached out his hand to touch her arm. It went right through. He retracted his hand, to find that it was wet.

"That's amazing Nina, you should practice that." He said, still examining her arm.

She lightened up at the compliment and nodded her head vigorously. If it made her brother proud, she would work on it. She concentrated again, this time on the happiness she felt, and watched as her arm returned to normal.

'For little big brother. I'll protect him with this power.' She thought.

"How about that Ramen I promised." He said while smiling. She grabbed his hand and pulled him off towards their favorite place to eat.


"You have to stay here, Nina" trying desperately to unattached the little girl on his leg.

"You said you wouldn't leave me, little big brother" she shouted, gripping his leg even tighter.

"I'll be back a little later. I have to go meet my team." Naruto tried to explain. The girl had thrown herself at him and attached herself to his leg as soon as he mentioned leaving to train.

"B-but… I'll come with you then" she said, crying.

"You can't. It's official business. It's my job, not to mention it might be dangerous" he said 'Though most of the time we're stuck with weeding missions and stuff like that.' "I promise I'll be back in a few hours, there are plenty of things to do while I'm gone. You can go out and play, just make sure you don't show anyone that trick with the water, Okay?"

She sniffled a few times, but never the less, let go of his leg. "Don't worry, I will be back" he said

He went through the door, looking back at the girl who had gotten up and went back to her room. Sighing, he closed the door and made his way over to his usual training spot. Coming closer to the bridge, he saw Sasuke and Sakura standing there. Kakashi wasn't there, but that wasn't really a surprise.

"Good morning!" he yelled.

Sakura, who had seemed to have been trying to talk to Sasuke, turned around looking annoyed, but waved to him. Sasuke just grunted in response. He knew he was late by there standards, but he was busy and as long as Kakashi wasn't there, he was fine.

They waited for about an hour before they heard the familiar poof that signaled their sensei had arrived.

"Yo!" Kakashi said. In one hand he had that orange book, not even looking at them.

"You're late!" yelled Sakura and Naruto.

"Sorry, sorry, but I have good news." He said, "I recommended you guys for the Chunin exams."

Naruto jumped up and down as he grabbed the form from his teacher. This was his chance at moving up in the ranks.

"In other news, I have also managed to get us a mission," said Kakashi.

'Please don't be a D-ranked mission' they all thought.

"The mission is to clean up Konoha Main River. It might take a while so let's get moving." All three faces turned downcast at the thought of another low ranked 'mission', if you could even call it that.

'At least I'll get to go up against that Gaara guy with the demon. This could be fun' Naruto thought, as they walked towards the river.


Another chapter out.

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