PROLOGUE: OF SNEAKING PEEKS

Konoha was celebrating. It was the annual Foundation Festival. A century or so ago during the Warring States Era, three of the most powerful clans of the time – the Uchiha, the Senju and the Hyuga – founded the village and established the first milestone towards ending the era of wars. The weeklong festival is celebrated by civilians and ninjas alike during the first week of July.

While everyone was busy enjoying the festival, a certain someone was busy running amidst the crowd for his hiding place as he was being hunted for his latest pranks. Or one of his latest pranks. As always, he was laughing while running because he knew he won't get caught in Hideout #3.

He looked back to see his pursuers. They were good five or so yards away. He smirked. Couldn't even catch him, and they were supposed to have some kind of freaky eyes that gave them 360 view – at least that was what the kids at the orphanage said. Or maybe he was just that good at stealth. Or running away. Either way, freaky all-seeing eyes can't catch a five-year-old brat.

As he was taking a turn that would get him closer to his Hideout #3, he saw a mini landmine explode a few feet away from him. He chuckled and increased his speed. This was the reason he was running away in the first place. Well, not exactly. Initially, he was in the crowd to hide from the freaky eyed police because he knew they would start searching him all around the village the moment the first landmine went off. But the reason they got his trail was completely different one… he stopped himself from thinking about the blasted reason, his was mood way too good to be spoiled by such trivial things.

The night before yesterday when he was yet again kicked out of the orphanage, he wandered into the Market district, to find someplace good enough to get a decent sleep. But his eyes caught a weapon's shop – it was closed like all other shops due to the late hour – and he entered it, hoping to find something interesting. And find something he did.

He saw some bundles of modified explosive tags – they were larger than normal and, guess this, they didn't even need chakra to go off. They were designed like landmines – they would go off when sufficient weight was applied on them. The bulb in his head went off and he knew the festival will go even more amazing that he originally planned it to be.

He mentally calculated his funds and realized he would have to go on just two meals per day for the whole month for four bundles of the tags. It will be worth it, was what he had thought at that time, and God knows he hadn't regretted a thing yet. He picked up four of the bundles and put in correct amount of money on the counter, taking extra care to ensure that the tags were set at the least power possible – he hadn't joined the academy yet so he couldn't regulate the power and he knew, from experience, that collateral damage was never worth it.

He first tried one tag in a place where he wouldn't get caught, and quickly judged how deep he would need to bury them to get the desired effect. By that experiment he knew they needed at least sixty kilograms to go off, so he can be rest assured that children won't be harmed by it – well, at least children who aren't in Akimichi clan.

Working quickly, he buried all the tags all over the field, some deeper than others as one bundle was set at more power than other three. By his estimation, it would take at maximum three days for all of them to be set off – or get discovered and diffused by the police. Then, on the fifth day he would go set up the phase 2 of his prank – the phase he was originally going to complete that night but was now postponed four more days. Thank heavens he didn't prepare the super glue he was going to paint all the benches with in advance. He didn't have enough time to do it that night nor did he have enough money to get all the supplies again.

So far, it's the second day and he still wasn't caught. Well, technically, he wasn't. He had spent most of the first day sleeping in his Hideout #7 – he wasn't dumb enough to go back to the orphanage when half of the police force was out for him and have the caretaker hand him over to them. Then first night was spent relishing in his handiwork, the second day was spent hiding from the police – he tends to that a lot – and now second night. It went better than he expected. Honestly, he thought he'd get caught hours before the second night even started. Though, he still would have lasted at least 15 more hours if only that mean old hag didn't out him when he tried to take that one Takoyaki – just one! – which was clearly stale and on way to dustbin in a few hours. She was giving them to other kids for free anyway.

Back to the present, he looked back again and saw only two freaky eyes still on his trail. He huffed in annoyance and took a roundabout way to mix into the crowd to avoid giving out the position of his hideout. He took a few more turns and finally entered the alley to the place. Checking once, he saw no presence of his pursuers and slipped into the space between two buildings. He caught the pipes and climbed up to the first floor and jumped through the window.

As he straightened from his crouch, his bright blue eyes met two pale lavender orbs and he froze. It took him more than two seconds to move his eyes enough to make out a faint child-like silhouette from the moonlight. He silently moved a couple feet right and switched on the table lamp he kept for convenience.

The Hideout #3 was a small abandoned warehouse. According to what he heard, a factory or something was started here by some retired shinobi, but was bankrupted and quickly shut down. Since then, it's abandoned because others areas were being developed and no one wanted to invest their money in the Old District.

The boy, having stumbled across the warehouse nearly two years ago when he was hiding from some bullies found it to be his safe haven. He knows the warehouse better than he knew his room in the orphanage, and the room was not even a twentieth of the warehouse. Overtime, he filled it with his prank supplies and some packaged foods, as he did with his other hideouts and maintained the bare minimum of it. He also paid its electricity bill, though there was only one working bulb in the whole warehouse.

Because his bills were in name of Hokage, the police couldn't track it to him. Really, more than half of his monthly pocket money given to him by the Hokage was spent in maintaining his hideouts and prank supplies. Good thing not all of his hideouts required much maintenance. Hideout #3 was the most expensive one.

And the hell it was worth it. The freaky-eyed police could never find him here. Really, they would walk right past it and would never suspect him to be here. He first noticed it when he was, yet again, running away from them like, seven months ago. He usually avoided the warehouse when he was running away so as to not give away one of the best and most stashed hideouts of his. But that day he really had no other place to go and he was forced to take refuge in it. He was more shocked than relieved when he saw his pursuers pass right by the warehouse like it was not even there. He had no idea why that happened – and the same thing happen every time – but he wasn't going to look the gift horse in the mouth.

Since then, this was his favourite and most secured warehouse.

So, saying that after recognizing the silhouette in his hideout as one of the freaky-eyes, he had a minor heart attack will not be an exaggeration. The figure, not even a yard away from him, quickly came closer and put a hand over his mouth to keep him from screaming. It removed the hand after a few seconds as the boy calmed down enough.

Once his mind was working properly, he noticed the figure was a small girl, around his own age. She had midnight blue hair that fell just below her shoulder blades and her forehead was covered with bangs. She wore an ivory kimono that was littered with small lavenders from below and on the sleeves, with a pure white obi. It gave her a somewhat regal look. The said look was only intensified by her expression – stoic and stern but still somehow retaining the childlike glow.

When he noticed her eyes, he saw curiosity in them, not the sternness he unknowingly expected from the look on her face, or the emotionless gaze he saw in each and every pair of the same eyes he had seen, and not the fear or anger or disgust he was used to seeing in almost everyone. Though now that he was really seeing those eyes, he could see they were not harsh as he was used to. In fact, they were nothing like anyone he had ever seen in the police force. Maybe it was because she was just a kid like him, but then none of the other kids had ever looked at him like that. It reminded him somewhat of Hokage-Jiji.

He decided he liked a look like that directed at him.

The more he looked into those eyes, the less freaky they looked. Honestly, he would almost call them the prettiest eyes he had ever seen.

"Hi, uh, I am Naruto Uzumaki. Nice to meet you, uh…" Naruto started, hoping to break the ice.

"Do you live here?" the girl asked, ignoring to introduce herself. She had a soft yet stern and authoritative voice.

"No. This is just, um… my hideout," Naruto answered. Then kicked himself internally for babbling his stupid mouth. What if she rats him out?

"Are you here often?" the girl asked.

"No, not very often. Only like once a month or two," Naruto answered nervously. Not much else he can say to take it back.

"I will be taking my leave now. Hinata Hyuga. It was a pleasure to meet you, Uzumaki-san," the girl smiled and bowed slightly to introduce herself.

She straightened and spoke before Naruto could respond, "I would appreciate if this meeting is never mentioned to anyone else. Good night." Even though her voice was still soft as silk, her tone demanded total obedience.

Naruto nodded dumbly and saw her go out the way he came in. She climbed up to the window using a ladder he had fixed below the window for convenience and jumped out of there. His eyes widened when she jumped and he ran after her to catch her before she fell, even though he knew he would not be able to. But when he climbed up the ladder, he just saw her kimono as she turned around the corner and disappeared.

Naruto chuckled breathlessly and spent the rest of the night in his favorite hideout.

He wasn't caught until next night. He was kept in detention for ten hours – not that it made the landmines stop exploding.

But he was caught within 12 hours of starting his Phase 2.