"Naruto!"

'A headache is starting to form, I could feel it,' Naruto grimaced. Sighing, the blonde trudged grudgingly to the dining hall. The walls were white-washed stones with two windows on each side. A long red oak table was centered in the middle of the hall. At the far end of the table sat Naruto's only family. Tsunade, his step mother, sat at the head in all her blondish glory. At her right was placed Ino, the 2nd oldest. On Tsunade's left, the youngest, Sakura was fuming over her plate.

"Yes?" Naruto stated. Dressed in mild everyday villager clothes, he could probably be pointed out as a servant or slave. Wearing black pants with a loose white shirt and having black boots on his feet. He was the oldest and he was the man of the house but that didn't matter, not in this house. Not with these women.

"Naruto! My food taste like shit! And how come my toast is dark brown! I hate burnt toast! Take it away! Now!" Sakura screeched throwing a dish at the wall right beside Naruto's head. It shattered and the bread slid down the wall leaving a buttery trail.

"But, sister dear, you told me yesterday that you preferred your toast a little burnt. I was only trying to fix it the way you liked it to be." Naruto commented, trying to defend his actions, but to no avail.

"How dare you speak back to her," Tsunade hissed, "I think that sharp tongue of yours will do good while you clean the tapestries."

"But, mother dear, I just cleaned those yesterday…"

"And you will clean them again. Also, since you talked back for the second time today, you will also scrub all the floors spotless, chop 200 pieces of wood, clean all the windows and wash every stone that makes up our walk to the front gate! And for the last time, you will refer to me as mistress, IS THAT CLEAR!"

"Yes mothe… mistress." Naruto bowed slightly and began his retreat. He could never win with her. Damn that darn Tsunade-baba and her spoiled brats.

"Serves you right," Ino sneered as she stuck her nose up in the air, " And while your at it, clean up my dresses. They're getting a bit tattered."

"Mine as well," commented Sakura.

"While you are doing your chores, we will be out in the market buying some more jewelry and pretty pointless other nothings," Tsunade chimed. All three rose and strode in single file to the door. Tsunade first, wearing a casual yet stylish white dress, followed by Ino in a purple long dress and Sakura trailing in a red dress lined with green lace. They all boarded a black carriage with brown horses. The horseman clicked his tongue twice and they rode out the gate.

The door slammed in slow motion as Naruto was left the desolate room all on his lonesome. Looking like the epiphany of loneliness as he stood there with door closed inches from his face. A sad distant look over came him and who could guess what was on his mind at that moment.

"Oh well," said Naruto solemnly, "This wouldn't be the first time I was left behind."

Sadness crept into the room until it filled it with deep emptiness. It grew cold and damn as if sensing the torment of the child left behind. If a pin would have dropped at that very moment there would have been no sound when it hit the ground for it would not dare break the silence that had settled in the room. Though a dog and a couple of daring mice did. The dog came and tugged on the boys pants while the mice tagged along behind him. Naruto looked down and then a smile slowly crept on his face as he laid his eyes on his disturbers.

"What do you think your doing Kiba?" Naruto taunted while picking up the chocolate brown husky dog. The thing that was unique about Kiba was that he had two wide red marks on the sides of his face and no one knew how they got there. This was one of the reason Naruto liked him because he reminded him of himself. The scares on his cheeks seemed similar to Kiba's somehow.

Then Naruto looked down to spot three little mice. The first on was Lee who was a light brown mouse with a small green spandex-like shit. Next to him was Choji who was a big dark brown mouse with a blue scarf around his neck. He also seemed to be chewing on a chip that was daintily placed in his mouth. Choji was dragging a very tired looking mouse Naruto named Shikamaru. Shikamaru was a black mouse with very little distinguishing qualities except for the fact that he was very lazy.

"Ah…So the whole fleet came to visit me." Naruto cheered up a bit that at least he mattered to someone. Even thought they weren't exactly human, they were still important to him in his world. Right at that moment, a black cat started to stalk from the shadows behind the mice. Kiba started barking like mad but it was too late. The black blur rushed forward, headed straight for the mice.

"Orochimaru…" Naruto breathed quickly before he dashed and snatched the mouse the black cat was about to swallow. Dropping the little devil covered in fur, it dashed off down the hall but not without leaving a few battle scares on Naruto's exposed hands. The brown pup gave chase to it down the hall and out of sight.

"That was close," a relieved blonde looked down at the bundle in his scared hands. The mouse just happened to be Shikamaru. "It just had to be you, you lazy mouse."

Choji and Lee came out from under a nearby chair. Choji's chip was intact and the little rascal was still chewing away like the recent ordeal was just a trivial matter. Lee was already out from under the table leg and in a fighting stance toward the direction in which Orochimaru had just fled.

"Oh… I see you finally are getting brave once the trouble is over." Naruto grinned. Lee turned around and did a chibi blush. Kiba returned triumphantly with a piece of black fur hanging exquisitely in his mouth.

"Way to go Kiba! But I still have to get started on my chores or Tsunade-baba will have my head for slacking off and I won't see day for a week!" Naruto sarcastically drawled. Sighing the blonde looked around at what he should start to do first.

"Let's get started on the damage than…You three will start cleaning the stones on the sidewalk," Naruto designated jobs while handing the mice three small toothbrushes. "And you, Kiba, will dust all the windows and all the floors so I can clean them later." The boy handed Kiba a duster while tying a hand sweeper to his tail. "I'll get started on their dresses so they'll be dry by the time they get back or those two sister dears of mine will throw a fit," a mischievous smile crept up his face, "We wouldn't want that now, would we."

All the animals went to work throughout the house while Naruto trudged up to his sister's rooms to get their dresses, grabbing tapestries on his way up. Both of their bedrooms were pretty much alike. They both had vanity mirrors, huge dressers and queen sized beds with tapestries hanging down. The only difference was that Ino had lavender tapestries while Sakura had pink. Tsunade's bedroom was pretty much similar except she had a king size bed with turquoise sheets.

Naruto walked through each room and opened the tall wooden dressers. God he hated doing laundry. The thought of taking these damn frilly things and being careful for house so he wouldn't tear anything was almost too overwhelming. In the end, he would only be sore but his hands would be all pruney too. Collecting the dresses to rinse and hand wash by hand he frowned.

'Oh well… better get started.' The blonde pulled a blue headband out of his back pocket and tied it around his head. While he looked down at the tub of suddy water, sparing a glance over to the axe stuck in a stump with a pile of wood sitting next to it he could only think of one thing. Placing both hands on his hips he challenged himself, 'It's on!'