A/N: IMPORTANT - So I had an error with uploading this chapter as some people could not see it so I am re-uploading this chapter. I will not delete the previous update yet in case this one has an error too so please, if you want to leave a review on this chapter let me know if you can see it or not. Thank you!

After switching with Sasuke for his shift, Naruto sat on the rock Sasuke was previously sitting on. Sasuke turned around just before he got into the tent. "Don't goof off, we might be dealing with dangerous enemies."

"I know that already! Geez! Have some trust in me, will ya?" Naruto replied annoyed.

"And don't be a cocky idiot. If we get attacked don't try to handle it by yourself." Sasuke warned him again.

"Will you stop that? No one attacked us while you were keeping watch, what makes you think that they will attack now?"

"You just answered your own question, idiot." Sasuke replied passively.

"Huh?"

"They didn't attack because I was on watch, meanwhile, you don't look like a threat."

"Oh? And you do? Not even chickens are scared of you!" Naruto yelled back.

Sasuke snarled but before he could reply he felt a firm grip of someone's hand on his mouth. "Will you two shut up!" Sakura shushed them before pulling her hand away. "It's the middle of the night, you'll wake everybody up. It's a miracle that Hinata's still asleep."

Sasuke slightly blushed in embarrassment while Naruto furiously apologized to his angry comrade. "Don't tell me you two argue in your sleep too?" Sakura remarked. Naruto just gave her a confused look to which she just shook her head in annoyance before going back into the tent. Naruto and Sasuke just looked at each other for a few seconds before Sasuke sighed and retrieved back into the tent leaving Naruto in silence. But this time the complete silence was a good sign because it suggested that there was nothing around to be worried about. Naruto pulled a kunai out of his pouch and spun it around on his finger. Keeping watch was boring but he needed to keep everyone safe so the small amount of adrenaline caused by waiting for something to happen kept him alert.

Luckily, the only thing that interrupted the dark and quiet atmosphere was the sunrise. He looked up at the orange light peeking out from the mountains and looked round again. His mind went to many different places yet he could not remember anything we had been thinking about let alone how long he had been sitting there. It must have been hours since it was nowhere near sunrise when he switched with Sasuke. He heard the sound of the smooth slippery fabric of the tent and turned to look at it. Hinata walked out of the tent and smiled at him. "Is it time for my shift yet?"

"I don't know." He whispered back. "I lost track of time. But the sun is rising so no need for another shift, you can go back to sleep."

She blinked and looked at the sunrise and smiled. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah." Naruto agreed.

"Are you sure you don't want me to take over?"

"Positive." He replied.

She walked over to him and sat on the rock next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. She then saw the kunai in his hand. "Did something happen last night?"

"Maybe." He replied. "When I got up to switch with Sasuke he told me that whoever has been following us might be dangerous. I don't know how he came to that conclusion though."

"I'm sure he has a valid reason for thinking that." Hinata added.

"Yeah. I just hope that they are actually some scummy thieves and not someone who wants to hurt the family."

Hinata nodded. "We have to keep a constant eye on Amai and Yuna."

"Amai especially." He agreed.

"Mm-hm." She wrapped her arms around his bicep. "Poor little guy. I hope he gets well soon."

"Yeah."

"…"

"…"

"Naruto?"

"Hm?"

"Do you… h-have you… ever thought about… y-you know… having k-k-kids?"

His eyes widened in surprise and he blushed. "W-what's that all of a sudden?"

"Uhh…j-just asking." She stammered awkwardly pinching his jacket sleeve.

He smiled. "Well… yeah. I mean, I don't have any relatives so I'd definitely want kids some day."

"K-kids… plural?" She blushed.

He chuckled. "Yeah, plural." He looked at her. "I've always wished I had a sibling so I'm definitely not letting my first kid be an only child."

She smiled. "I thought you would say that."

"And you?" He asked her. "Do you want plural kids?" he grinned.

She laughed. "Yes. My sister means so much to me. I don't know how it would be if we didn't have each other so…"

He nodded slowly before grinning. "Can you imagine if I had a sibling? There would have been twice the amount of paint on the Hokage monument."

She giggled. "I would feel so bad for Iruka-sensei."

"Hey!"

She laughed again.

"What are you two laughing about?" Sakura asked coming out of the tent with a yawn.

"Nothing much." Naruto replied. "Whatcha doin' up so early?"

"I usually get up fairly early." Sakura replied. "Plus, I couldn't really sleep. Especially after what Sasuke said last night."

"Hey, this is nothing we can't handle." Naruto encouraged her. "Just don't let your guard down."

She smiled weakly and nodded.

"Speaking of Sasuke, is he still asleep?" Naruto asked her.

"Yeah." Sakura responded. "It doesn't surprise me though. After he got back in the tent last night he was awake for quite a bit I think. I kept waking up during the night and I could see that his eyes were open."

"He was probably over thinking about these guys following us… as usual."

"Still, we don't even know who they are or how many of them there might be or even why they are after us." Sakura added. "They might actually be dangerous."

"I know, I know." Naruto rubbed his forehead.

Sakura sighed and silence prevailed for a few moments before she spoke again. "Ok... we'll wait for Sasuke to wake up then we'll go and gather wood to make a fire and see if we can find something for breakfast. Then when the others are awake we can eat and set out. We'll keep an eye out for these guys and not get the others worried in case they might not even be after us, alright?"

Naruto and Hinata both nodded in agreement as Sakura took a seat next to them.

A few hours later Sakura's plan was put into action as Sasuke and Naruto took care of catching some fish and preparing it while Hinata and Sakura made a fire and cooked some rice they brought with them. Once the Nagai family woke up, they all ate while the genin were on the lookout and the family was completely oblivious about the people following them. Once they packed up their tents and set out again there seemed to be no trace of the supposed thieves. None of the young ninja noticed anything out of the ordinary amongst their surroundings. They walked through the woods in silence for a few minutes before Amai caught up to Naruto and tugged on his sleeve.

"Hey,hey! Can you tell me some cool ninja stories?" The boy asked eagerly.

"Sure! I've got a ton of those!" Naruto grinned at him. "Too many to choose from even. Anything specific you wanna know?"

Amai rubbed his chin for a second. "Oh! Tell me about the very first mission you ever had! What was it like?"

"Oh, right. Well you see, the first mission we ever went on was kinda like this one." Naruto began telling his story. "We were guarding this old man who needed to go to the Land of Waves to build this huge bridge…"

The boy listened carefully at the blonde's story, exclaiming in awe ever so often when the story got heated. Umi and Korashi listened as well while Yuna tagged along a few feet away from Naruto. However, she gradually got closer to the blonde and seemed to stare at him ever so slightly. Naruto was too engrossed in his story to notice but Hinata, who was walking behind him, sure did. She even spotted the girl's eyes move up and don't Naruto's figure. She frowned at the girl but was confused by her actions at the same time.

"And then I glared straight into the criminal's eyes after I beat the crap out of him and they were so scared they told us everything they knew! They didn't dare to fight me after that, they just ran like cowards! I was totally awesome!" Naruto exclaimed continuing his story while Amai cheered in excitement. Hinata smiled at her boyfriend's bragging while Sakura listened a bit annoyed and Sasuke rolled his eyes and sighed. After a while Naruto finished up hi s story. "And then as we were leaving they had put up a metal plaque on the bridge and guess what they named it? The Great Naruto Bridge!" He put his hands in front of his face and slowly spread them out as he dramatically announced the name of the bridge.

"Woooaahh! No way!" Amai yelled out in amazement.

"It's true." Naruto gave him a proud smile. "If you ever go there you can ask anybody what the name of the bridge is and they'll tell ya!"

"Unless they changed it…" Sasuke added. "It's a stupid name…"

A vein pooped out of Naruto's temple at Sasuke's snotty remark. "Hmph! You're just mad cuz they didn't name it after you!" Naruto shot back at him.

Yuna giggled before raising a brow at the blonde. "So it really is true?" She looked back at Hinata. "Did they really name a bridge after him?" Hinata smiled and nodded. Yuna discreetly looked back at Naruto with a slight blush on her face which made Hinata's smile instantly drop.

After about half an hour of walking, Amai's legs were at their limit again so he complained about not being able to walk anymore. Wanting to hear more of Naruto's stories he asked the orange ninja if he could carry him to which Naruto gladly said yes.

"I'll carry you all you want. We can give your dad a break, huh?" Naruto said. "But someone's going to have to carry my backpack for me though."

"Give it to me." Yuna offered to everyone's surprise. Feeling all eyes on her she quickly retorted. "You're carrying Amai, it's the least I can do."

Hinata quickly took Naruto's backpack into her hands. "I will carry it. You are the client and we are shinobi so you shouldn't carry unnecessary weight."

Yuna looked at her puzzled and a tad annoyed. "O…k." She then slowly turned away from her and walked in front of everyone.

Hinata frowned slightly at her while Naruto didn't understand the situation at all and let Amai climb on his back. After the boy was comfortably riding on Naruto's back the blonde continued his stories throughout their walk until the boy fell asleep on his back. Umi smiled at her sleeping son and rubbed his hair. Yuna took the final silence as an opportunity to strike up a conversation with the ninja. She slowed down her pace so that she was now walking beside him while playing with a lock of her hair. "You seem to be quite good with children." She commented.

Naruto chuckled bashfully. "Well, your brother is a good kid." He replied. "There are a few kids back at home who like to play around with me but I don't deal with kids that much on missions."

"So how many missions have you been on so far?" She asked.

"Oh, tons of them." He grinned at her. "That's how it is when you're an awesome ninja, ya know."

"Don't you ever get like, badly injured?"

"Oh yeah, all the time. I've been to the hospital a million times but I hate it there so I get out as soon as I can. I heal pretty quickly so it's not hard for me to get back on my feet."

"And you still want to be a ninja, after all of that?"

"That's nothing! My dream is to become Hokage someday and I won't get there unless I get super strong. I never give up no matter how hurt I get. A little scratch here and there is nothing, believe it!"

Yuna stared at him wide-eyed. But before she could say anything else she was interrupted but Sasuke's sharp voice.

"Naruto."

The blonde turned towards his teammate and saw the firm frown on his face.

"You sense something?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke nodded in response and prepared to pull out a kunai before he turned towards the Hyuga girl. "Hinata."

She nodded and activated her byakugan and scanned their surroundings.

The sudden burst of veins around the girls pale eyes made Yuna step back in surprise and a bit of disgust. She heard the girl activate her dojutsu before as her brother made a fuss about it but she didn't actually see it before. "What the hell is that? That's creepy!"

The sudden insult made Hinata's eyes snap back to normal before she even got to see if someone was around. "W-what?" She looked at Yuna a bit hurt. It had been a while since someone has commented on the look of her byakugan.

"Why would you want to have something like that? Couldn't you have picked another jutsu?"

Sakura looked at the girl in confusion. "Picked? You can't pick a dojutsu to have. It's in your blood."

Yuna blinked at her. "You can't?"

"No." Naruto answered. "And don't call it creepy." He looked at his shy teammate. "It's pretty cool looking to me."

Hinata blushed and turned her head.

Yuna exchanged glances between Naruto and Hinata before just crossing her arms. "Whatever."

Sasuke looked at Hinata. "So did you see anyone?"

Hinata's head snapped upwards. "Oh no, I-"

Suddenly Umi gasped as a group of three men appeared from the trees to their left. Naruto and Sasuke immediately jumped in front of the family while Hinata and Sakura stayed close to the children. One of the men stepped forward and cracked his knuckles with an evil chuckle.

"Well, well… isn't it the Nagai family out in the woods being followed by a group of children."

Korashi stepped in front of his wife. "Who are you and how do you know who we are?! And what do you want from us?"

"Who we are is none of your business." The man replied.

"Yeah!" A slightly thinner man from the back added. "We all know you guys are rich so just hand over all of your money and we won't hurt you too bad. Heheheh."

"Yeah, that ain't gonna happen, pal!" Naruto replied. "You guys aren't getting past us!"

"They won't get anything even if they do…" Korashi added with his head down.

"Huh?" Naruto looked at him puzzled. "What does that mean?"

"We always planned to just walk back home, we don't have much money on us anyway."

The larger man sputtered a few words in anger before shouting at Korashi. "Do you think we are dumb? That we would just believe you don't have any money on you? Rich people don't go anywhere without their money! Now hand it over!"

"But it's the truth!" Korashi shouted back. "We don-"

"AHAHAHAHAH!"

Another menacing laugh was heard as another group of men appeared from the opposite side behind some rather weak smoke bombs. They landed onto the dusty ground and the larger two men took a pose behind the much smaller man whose laugh was heard earlier.

"We are the shadows that follow you by day and haunt you by night!" He smaller man spoke while covering his face with his hat. "We are the most famous bandits around and no one can match out strength and cleverness so give us all of your riches before we-"

The man interrupted himself as he revealed his face at the climax of his dramatic speech, however, when he saw the other group of bandits he froze and yelled out while pointing at the large leader of the group.

"TOZOKU! WHAT IN HELL ARE YOUDOING HERE?!"

Tozoku pointed right back at the smaller man. "SUKOSHI!"

The other men just looked at their opponents in bewilderment while their leaders continued to argue.

"Get the hell out of here! These guys are mine!"

"No! All their money is going to me!"

"Absolutely not, you dwarf!"

"What did you say to me you bigass tub of lard?!"

"How dare you insult me you shrimp! Now go back to your rat holes!"

"Out of my way, fatso! Their money is mine!"

"We got to them first! Finders keepers!"

Naruto and Sasuke just looked at each other awkwardly.

"What in the hell is happening right know?" Naruto asked completely confused.

"So… two different groups of thieves are trying to rob as at the same time?"Sakura deduced.

"And they didn't know that their rivals were following us too." Sasuke finished Sakura's thought.

"So what do we do now?" Naruto asked looking at the terrified Amai hugging his mom's legs.

"I don't know but we sure have time to come up with a plan while these two idiots are going at each other." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Then how about this!" Tozoku yelled out suddenly. "We unite forces and take these guys down together and then who ever finds their hidden stash first gets to keep it."

Sukoshi looked at the genin with an evil grin. "Fine by me."

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" Naruto pulled his kunai out.

"Hinata, Sakura… you protect the family." Sasuke proclaimed. "Just leave these guys to me and Naruto."

"What could a couple of brats do to us?!" Tozoku laughed pulling out a sword.

"Nothing!" Sukoshi said pulling out a sharpened kunai and twisting it in his hand. "It won't be my first time defeating a couple of lousy ninja."

"That's a shinobi kunai…" Hinata whispered.

"You guys be careful." Sakura reached for a kunai herself. "These guys might not be such a joke."

Hinata took her stance and activated her byakugan. Sukoshi glared at her for a minute before laughing. "Well, what do you know… a Hyuga."

Hinata's eyes widened in surprise.

"Don't tell me… you're Hiashi's daughter?"

"How…" Hinata stammered in shock.

Sukoshi cackled. "Your father took me on a long time ago and humiliated me in front of my men! Killing his daughter sure sound like a good payback."

Sukoshi was suddenly blocked from Hinata's vision as an orange flash appeared in front of her. "If you dare even touch her…" Naruto threatened.

Sukoshi was still grinning proudly until the blonde lifted up his head… and the bandit froze under the glare of two blood red eyes.

"You…" Naruto growled. "Will be the one who's going to get killed."