And another chapter done. Enjoy.

Store Opening

Siri looked around the store he had set up with pride. It had been two months since he had arrived in Konoha and his life had definitely turned for the better. He was a free man again, he got to see his godson grow up, well, at least in the physical way, as the mental part had mostly happened during the year at Hogwarts in time distortion, and he was part of a family that he could rightfully call that. The new Uzumaki clan was working out well and the three boys were taking care of giving a good impression for the villagers. Team nine was known to get their missions done quickly and successfully, as far as you could really talk about successes with D-rank missions. But for those it was more important to do them carefully and not overlook things than with much flair.

He knew that they would soon be allowed to go on C-rank missions, which would let them leave the village for short periods of time for missions like protecting merchants from bandits or delivering non-classified messages and goods to or from Konoha. And Genma was thorough in the training of his team. Naruto had improved by leaps and bounds under the man and Haru and Nev also had many good things to say about him. It hadn't taken long for any of them to get used to thinking of themselves by their new names. For him and Nev they were just shortened forms of their names, and Frank and Alica were mostly differently pronounced forms of their normal names. The most different was Haru, but he was the one to most easily deal with it. Probably because he didn't associate being Harry with many good memories.

The shop had been an idea that all the adults had come up with. They knew that to really integrate into the village they needed to also take up a profession once they were well enough again. Siri, as the one with the least physical problems, his were more mentally and he got counselling sessions twice a week for them, which really helped in dealing with the nightmares he still had, had agreed to start the shop and the other two would work from home until they could take working at the shop for a few hours. They all knew that it would take years for Frank and Alica to work full days without having problems again and a strenuous profession like an auror or a ninja would never be possible for them.

But having a shop where they sold specialised products and offered a repair service for all kinds of things was something they could do. The range they offered went from common household potions to toys for children and clothes that were charmed to never wrinkle for example. They were working on other things that they came up with after seeing something and thinking of ways to find a product they could sell that would be helpful. For example letting a mother take care of the house while always knowing where the child was playing. It was a watered down version of the Marauder's Map, but it was something Alica said would be invaluable to a parent with an active toddler.

The opening of the shop would take place soon and they hoped that the advertising that they had done over the last two weeks would bring them many curious customers. While people might not like Naruto for his connection to the Kyubi, they all hoped that the uniqueness of the products would overcome the stigma of the Uzumaki name over time and allow them to help with having Naruto more accepted in the village.

The boy was great and it was a shame that so few people truly saw that. Siri actually felt like Naruto was the son he had never had. Naruto certainly didn't mind that Siri took the position of a father for him, as he had never had a family and was over the moon to finally have one. While it would take time and patience to teach Naruto some basic things in terms of how to behave and how to react to things, the blond was eager to please and too happy that he wasn't scolded for his pranks too much. Siri had played too many of them himself when he was a teenager to ever do something like that. And he still liked pranks. Therefore there was an assortment of prank items available at the shop. The one thing Naruto had to make sure of was that his pranks didn't interfere with his ninja career. That wasn't too hard.

Naruto had decided for himself that with being a ninja now he needed to be a little bit more serious and thanks to Genma, Haru and Nev, he felt really good in his team. Contrary to the academy, where he had been mocked for not being good at things, they showed him how to do things right and helped him train. That worked wonders for Naruto. Siri knew how much it hurt to feel like you weren't welcome. Like you didn't belong and that people ignored you or insulted you. He had experienced it with his own family, for whom he had never been good enough, as he didn't behave like they expected it from him and then dared to be sorted into the house of the known enemy. Gryffindor.

Team nine stood in the mission hall where the Hokage was giving out new missions. Over the last one and a half months they had done lots of D-rank missions and now had thirty of them to their record. All of them done exemplarily. Now they had been told that they would be asking for a C-rank, as Genma was convinced that they could take it. And honestly, if there was any rookie genin team that was ready for a C-rank it would be team nine. The next closer one would be team eight under Kurenai Yuuhi. Teams seven and ten, under Kakashi Hatake and Asuma Sarutobi respectively, weren't as far in their development yet.

"Well, team nine, your mission record is impressive," the Hokage commented while Iruka looked over the sheet with the performance of the new genin teams to get an idea how they were doing.

Seeing that this team had already done thirty D-ranks and all exemplarily, was indeed worthy of praise.

"Thank you, Hokage Sama. I would like to request a C-rank mission for my team. I am sure that they are ready for one," Genma said.

"Are you sure? I mean, I fully agree that you've a splendid performance and mission quota, but they have only been genin for one and a half months," Iruka asked.

"Completely sure, Iruka. They have learned all the basics I can teach them inside the village and have exemplary teamwork. An easy mission like escort of a merchant or delivery of non-classified things won't be any trouble at all. I want them to get experience outside the village now," Genma answered.

"Well, I have no problem with that. Let's see. This would work. A group of three merchants needs an escort to Mira Town, a town at the south of River Country, where they'll sell their goods. The protection will cover the whole journey to Mira Town. The only opponents expected are desperate bandits, as there are no really valuable goods in that caravan. All their goods are basic things with small individual value. Not really a target for bandits, but the amount they transport is too large to let them travel unprotected," the Hokage read out, "The expected length of the mission is about a week. If nothing happens, you should reach Mira Town in four days, as you need to travel at civilian speed."

"We take the mission, Hokage Sama," Genma stated and took the mission scroll, "Pack for two weeks, boys, then be at the gate in an hour. I'll check your equipment before we leave."

"Yes, sensei," they answered and left to get their things.

In the corridor they came across team seven.

"Oh, the idiot team," Sakura commented.

"Look who's talking, the fan girl that neglects her training for following an emo around," Haru countered, "I wonder why you didn't put her into her place already, Sasuke."

"Have you ever tried to talk sensibly with a fan girl, Haru?" Sasuke asked back annoyed, "I gave up on that years ago."

"Point. But perhaps she would listen if you made clear that you won't date any of your fangirls if they can't keep up with you in training?" Haru suggested.

"Didn't work either, they then started that nonsense about me being too shy to ask them directly," Sasuke grunted, "Do you have a mission?"

"Yes, escort of a few merchants to River Country," Nev now spoke up.

Since the results of the graduation exams Sasuke at least treated Haru and Nev somewhat politely and he had even stopped calling Naruto a dead last. Their results spoke for themselves after all. Sasuke didn't respect much, but skill and power was among the things he respected.

"But that is a C-rank mission. You can't have got one of those yet. You are only rookies like us!" Sakura protested loudly.

"Doing thirty D-ranks perfectly tends to get you permission to take a C-rank," Naruto now told them.

He had got much better in his boasting and was on a good way to realise that he didn't really like Sakura and only had started his crush on her to get attention. With his new family now finally giving him the attention he craved, his obsession with Sakura had lessened.

"How can you have that many missions yet?" Tai asked now, "We only did about twelve so far."

"Genma sensei set our training plans up in a way that we included a mission every afternoon after the initial training phase. And the missions are used to train in basic ninja skills as well. Perhaps your sensei has a different method to train you," Nev offered.

The three genin of team seven looked at their sensei dubiously. Not only was he always late, he mainly trained them in teamwork and some sparring.

"Well, each team progresses differently. Let's get a new mission," Kakashi stated.

The two teams left in different directions, but it was obvious that Sasuke wasn't happy that team nine was ahead of him in what kind of missions they got.

Team nine was at the gate at the arranged time and had to present their sensei with their packed equipment. Genma sensei always made sure that preparation was done properly. His opinion was to not coddle his students, but to give them all the means to be successful on their own. He was a strict teacher, but fair. After accepting the presented supplies of his three students, which Haru had sealed into storage scrolls for each of them, he introduced his students to the clients. They were all from the Panakara clan, a clan of civilian merchants that did business in all of the Elemental Nations.

The clan had branches in each country that cooperated with the others to optimise profit for them. The three men that would be their clients for the mission were called Haruo, who was the oldest of them and about fifty years old. He wore basic brown, sturdy travelling clothes. The next one was Isao, who was in his mid-thirties and had a scar on his right shoulder, from an attack a few years ago he told them. Then there was Ryusuke, who was just starting to learn his family's business. He was sixteen and Isao's oldest son.

The group had two large waggons of goods that they were going to take to Mira Town to sell. The waggons were pulled by two large and strong-built horses each. The group signed out at the gate and then started the journey towards River Country.

During the first few hours the three genin talked a bit with their clients while keeping a protective formation around the group. Genma secured their back, Haru was taking point and Naruto and Nev walked to the right and left of the group. It turned out that Haruo was the one in charge of the clan's operations in Fire Country, as his father had decided to retire from active business. Isao was Haruo's nephew and well-included in the business operations. He was mainly responsible for putting together the goods they sold on each trip.

Other members of the clan worked in production of the goods that the clan sold and arranging for raw materials. As an apprentice in the family business, Ryusuke only had simple duties so far and this was his first trip with his father and great uncle to see how selling of the products was done, how to achieve the best prices for the offered goods and so on. He was quite excited to finally be allowed to start.

The first two days of travelling were easy. Nothing happened and the genin were told that it was often the case on C-rank missions that bandits would think twice to engage with ninjas, as it was known that no normal bandit was a real challenge for even a well-trained rookie genin. The third day they had some trouble with some officials that wanted to get more fees for the space of the stand than had been contractually agreed. The genin saw how their sensei solved the conflict by pointing out that trying to go back on agreements of a contract wasn't good for business, especially as in those cases others could decide that they didn't need to fulfil their contracts with them anymore and that he, in their position, wouldn't want to be known for breaking contracts.

It led to them retreating and the genin were told that sometimes a ninja also had to dissolve conflicts among civilians without violence. It was why learning about history, economics and politics was so important for a ninja. All three nodded, accepting that as a truth. Once the stand was set up, the three merchants thanked the Konoha group for their protection during the journey. They would stay in Mira Town for two weeks to sell all their products and would then ask for another escort back to Konoha. The trip back was always more dangerous, as money was more tempting for bandits to steal than products that they couldn't use themselves.

Genma allowed his students to walk around the town for the next three hours and to meet him back at the market place after that to return to Konoha. He would be collecting a bit of information how things were going in this part of River Country, which the Hokage expected the chunin and jonin to always do on missions into other countries to get a good idea of the political mood in Fire Country's neighbouring countries.

"Look at this, I think Mum would like that," Nev told Haru and Naruto when they were looking over some things that were offered at that market.

"Hm, it's definitely pretty," Naruto commented, "Does she have her birthday soon?"

"No, her birthday is in March, the ninth to be precise, I just wanted to give her a gift," Nev explained.

He held a set of pretty combs and brushes in his hands, showing them to his friends.

"I'm sure she'll be happy about that, Nev," Haru agreed.

He knew how happy Nev was to even be able to give his parents some presents that they could consciously notice. He had been separated from them for too long. And thanks to having Siri around now, he didn't feel too envious of him. While he was mentally older than he was physically, having an adult to turn to with problems was just great. So far he had only had Nev, which showed in how easily both understood the respective other. Naruto was kind of a little brother for both of them now.

"When do Frank and Siri have their birthdays?" Naruto asked.

He knew that Nev and Haru's birthdays were only one day apart, as they had celebrated them shortly after they had come to Konoha. Nev's birthday was the thirtieth of July and Haru's the thirty first.

"Dad's birthday is the twenty fifth February and Siri's is the tenth December," Nev answered.

"Okay, I wanted to know to make sure I don't forget them accidentally," Naruto told them.

Both nodded. Naruto was over the moon to have a family after years of being alone, so he wanted to make sure to not mess up anything. It was something that both Haru and Nev fully understood, as they had been alone in their childhood as well. Not in the same sense as Naruto, but close to it.

The trip back to Konoha was without anything mentionable happening. They practiced their tree hopping ability, as there wasn't any reason to keep to civilian travel methods anymore, and they reached the village after one day. It was the middle of the morning and they had had four hours of sleep during the night before going on the last part of the journey. Which meant that they were wide awake to give the report about a successful mission to the Hokage. Genma led his students to the mission hall, where the Hokage was giving out the day's missions again. They patiently waited for an older genin team to get their mission and then they could step up.

"Team nine reporting back after successful C-rank mission to River Country," Genma announced, surprising the chunin sitting next to the Hokage, who was on duty today.

"Very good, Genma, I didn't expect you back before tomorrow actually. Your students seem to be advanced in their travelling abilities," The Hokage commented.

"We could use the tree route on the way back, as we didn't have to take the waggons and the merchants into consideration anymore, Hokage Sama," Genma informed him.

"They can already travel by the trees? Aren't they one of the rookie genin teams?" The chunin asked surprised.

"I wouldn't have let my team take a C-rank mission without them having mastered the first two chakra control exercises," Genma stated, "You never know what kind of situation may arise on a C-rank after all."

"That's true," the woman acknowledged, "It's just very early for a green team to be allowed on missions outside of the village."

Genma simply nodded at that.

"Well, Genma, please continue with the report," The Hokage asked and Genma gave a brief overview of how the mission had gone and how his genin had performed.

The detailed report would be given in written form later on. But as the Hokage couldn't read them all and wanted to stay in the know about the development of the new genin, he always had the jonin senseis give some information about missions when they returned. For D-ranks it wasn't really much that he wanted to know, mainly if there were problems in a team and if a genin acted out. They were a military village after all and insubordination had to be taken serious if it reached a certain level. Some grumbling and moaning about boring missions didn't count. They were teenagers after all."

"Alright. Your payment will be transferred to your accounts by tomorrow, team nine. Take one day off of missions and report back the day after tomorrow," The Hokage told them.

All three genin bowed and left, knowing that their sensei would tell the Hokage some other things he had observed while being in River Country. When they walked down the corridor towards the exit, they met team eight, which was coming in to get a new mission.

"Hi Kiba, Shino and Hinata," Naruto greeted cheerfully.

"Hi yourselves," Kiba replied, "Are you already done with your D-rank mission for the day?"

"No, we just returned from our first C-rank mission," Haru answered, "It was a simple escort of a merchant group with basic goods to River Country. But it was nice to get to see something outside of Konoha."

"What, why did you get to do a C-rank already?" Kiba complained.

"Team nine has the best record of perfectly performed D-rank missions among the genin teams, Kiba," Kurenai informed him, "You will be allowed on a C-rank, as soon as you reach the thirty D-rank missions that were done acceptably too."

"That means three more D-ranks," Shino commented.

"We better get a go then. I want to do something different than these chores already," Kiba declared enthusiastically.

Knowing that his team wasn't too far away from being allowed a higher ranked mission certainly soothed his annoyance at another team progressing faster than his.

"Did anything interesting happen on your mission?" Shino asked, always interested in valuable information.

"No, the journey was peaceful, there were no attacks and the merchants arrived at their destination without any bandit interference. Though Genma sensei had to remind some overseers that contracts for fees that had been negotiated and agreed upon beforehand had to better be followed, as they tried to get more money of our clients for setting up their stall than agreed upon," Nev answered.

"I-It's good that you didn't have p-problems," Hinata commented, "I'm happy that your first C-rank mission was a s-success."

"Thank you, Hinata," Naruto replied smiling.

Hinata blushed a little before Kiba demanded that they got going to catch up to team nine and their mission record. They said their goodbyes and went home to inform the other three clan members of their return and successful mission.

The opening of the shop of Siri Uzumaki had been taken in with great interest. Few really knew all the members of the re-established Uzumaki clan, the most well-known ones were the genin of team nine. They had been seen around the village a lot during the large number of D-rank missions that they had done in the past one and a half months. While Naruto Uzumaki had a bad reputation, thanks to the Kyubi, people were too curious what kind of goods the store would sell, thanks to the advertising that had been done during the weeks leading up to the grand opening.

Siri had pushed the opening back a little to have the three boys present to help out with the opening event. Their first C-rank mission had been waited for to end before he set the date. When he stepped out of the shop to greet the curious villagers, he was in a basic set of clothes that looked good on him, but also allowed him to move around easily and would take up sweat like the clothes for ninjas did. After all, he would be very busy today. Haru was behind the cashier, Naruto was in charge of putting replacement products onto the shelves if they were nearly empty and Nev would hand out drinks to the customers.

Alica and Frank had stayed in the backroom to take on repair jobs that were handed in for a few hours. But going around at the front would be too strenuous for them right now.

"Welcome everybody to the opening of the Uzumaki Department Store. Here you will find all kinds of goods, ranging from clothes to decorative articles for your homes. We have an area for everyday healthcare as well as beauty products. Please enjoy yourselves and take your time exploring our assortment of products. We also have prepared catalogues for you to take home to study our product line in more detail," Siri greeted them all and then Haru and Naruto pushed the doors wide open and the first curious customers entered.

They had enlarged the store by using runes, meaning it was far larger on the inside than it was on the outside.

"Wow, I didn't expect the store to be this large," Ino Yamanaka exclaimed.

All the genin teams had been given today off to see the opening for themselves.

"We used some Uzumaki fuinjutsu to increase the space," Haru informed her from his spot behind the cashier, where he had returned to after opening the doors.

"Incredible. This seems to be much larger than the normal shops that sell different kinds of things," Ino commented, "Even the larger ones."

"Well, we didn't really have any restrictions for space thanks to the fuinjutsu allowing us to create as much space as we needed. And we have a lot of products that can be created by using our clan's bloodline limit. So we decided to go for the wide range," Haru explained.

"I'm going to have to take some time to see everything. Oh, this is so exciting," Ino squealed and took off towards some clothes racks.

After fifteen minutes Haru had to ring up the first purchases. A man had bought himself some shoes with all kinds of comfort charms on them. Then the next one came, a woman with two small children that had stuffed animals in their arms and she was carrying an assortment of potions for children sicknesses in her arms.

Haru rang everybody up while Naruto started to have to work after one hour. Siri walked around everywhere and talked to the visitors and Nev passed out water, green tea and apple juice, which were the only drinks that they had decided to hand out today. After all, they only wanted to keep the customers in a good mood, not pay too much for the drinks. Some people filled out requests for repairs and Naruto took the items to the back to Frank and Alica, while Haru told people that they would be able to get their repaired items back later in the day or for the ones that came in later in the day, the next day. Frank and Alica weren't back to full health after all and had to rest regularly after doing some magic. But the constant use helped them recover faster.

The day was over and all Uzumakis were really tired. They had worked at the shop all day and they were truly surprised with the early success. Seemingly after the first customers had got an idea what the shop offered, they had spread the news to their friends and they had come to see for themselves.

"I didn't expect such a mass of people on the first day," Siri admitted.

"Me neither, but it's great that the shop is accepted this well," Frank agreed.

"True. We have orders for repairs for at least one week already and will have to brew a lot of potions to restock our shelves regularly. Especially as the hospital also wants some next to the families living in the village and they even asked for the more advanced ones that we promoted in the catalogue only," Nev commented.

"How will you manage all the work on your own, Siri?" Naruto asked concerned.

"Magic is useful for a lot of things. I have also hired one helper for the shop from tomorrow on, which will lessen my own workload. It's a shame that I don't have large enough reserves to learn the shadow clone jutsu, but I will manage," Siri stated, "And once Frank and Alica area back to full health they will help out as well. And I don't expect the masses of customers that we had today all days. Once the initial curiosity is satisfied, the numbers will decrease to more manageable levels."

"We better work in shifts for the potions. At least we can prepare the deliveries for the hospital by schedule and as long as nothing really bad happens, it should be easy to keep up with demands. After all, normally you only need a few doses of potions to deal with a problem," Haru commented.

"That's true. I wonder how ninjas are going to take having to drink skelegrow," Nev pondered.

Siri, Frank and Alica shuddered, having had to take the potion in the war against Voldemort. It really tasted horrible.

"Not well, but if it's between that potion or losing a limb, they will take the potion," Alica declared.

"Definitely," Haru nodded.

"So, what is your schedule for your next missions?" Siri asked the boys.

"From what Genma sensei said, we will use the next week for training inside the village with an occasional D-rank mission thrown in. We will get the next C-rank next week, as he wants to work on a new set of taijutsu katas with us before going onto the next week, as it would take that time to get them properly integrated into our existing styles," Haru answered.

"That will be great," Naruto nodded, "I really want to get better at taijutsu. It's not really my best area, but it's always needed in a fight. I really wish that I didn't have Mizuki for a taijutsu instructor at the academy. I wasted so much time trying to learn wrong katas."

"Don't worry, you will get to where you should be in no time at all, little bro, and then you will show them all what you can really do and make them eat their words when you become Hokage," Haru encouraged Naruto.

"Thank you, Haru," Naruto replied happily.

He loved that Haru had adopted him as a little brother.

"Well, I suggest we turn in early today, as today will be busy again," Siri suggested and everybody agreed.

And that was it for this chapter. Until next time.