Mrs. Uzumaki had set Himawari to work on her homework at the kotatsu while she washed the dishes from their snack. Currently, the seven-year-old little girl was working on what she said was vocabulary. Apparently, vocabulary meant copying characters ten times each on the paper. Himawari was talking to herself as she worked, which was starting to get really annoying.

"One. One line means number one. Two. Two lines means number two." And on and on she went, talking herself through her homework for each and every character she copied every single time.

Most of it seemed easy, as if it was something she'd already learned and had been told to review. "Wood. Wood looks like a tree."

He was quickly losing his patience. Did she really have to say 'wood looks like a tree' every single time she wrote it?

"Will you shut up already? Talk in your head. Stupid brat." He growled.

She startled, jumping and nearly dropping her pen for a moment.

"Huh? But I'm just doing my homework." She replied, confused and taken aback at his reaction.

"Well do it quieter. You're annoying." He answered.

"B-but this is how the teacher taught ..." She replied nervously.

"Leave her alone, Kawaki. She needs to do her homework." Mrs. Uzumaki interrupted, drying her hands on a medium size towel. "Why don't you come help me with the chores?"

"Fine." He grunted.

He got up and followed her across the hall, past the Uzumaki's bedroom, and into the laundry room where two drying lines had been put up due to the weather. One was full of clothes still drying, some of which were his, and the other was full of dry towels.

"Could you pull down and fold the towels for me?"

He shrugged. "Not like I have a choice, do I?"

"I just wanted you to have some time away from Himawari, that's all." She replied. "Since you don't have a bedroom to go to."

"What, so you'd lock me up instead? Bitch." He growled.

"No, that's not what I meant!" she exclaimed. "I just mean that if it was Boruto, he could choose to go to his room and play a video game or go visit his teammates."

He shrugged. "Whatever. Just show me how to fold the damn towels already."

"Sure, here. I'll start with the bath towels." She replied, taking a large bath towel off the hooks and demonstrating how to fold it. She showed him out to fold each of the three sizes of towels and then left him to it.

"Thank you, Kawaki, I appreciate your help."

He grunted and ignored her, and got started working instead. She left to go do something else, presumably to clean more before dinner.

It was while folding the towels that it occurred to him he hadn't actually bathed since he got here. The idea of getting undressed and bathing in someone else's house was a very uncomfortable thought so he had avoided it thus far, and nobody had said anything. Personal hygiene had never been on the top of his priorities list growing up when most days had been a struggle just to get enough to eat and to avoid getting beat up or locked up by his father. Even after his father sold him for liquor money, it was Jigen doing all that to him.

These people are so average, though. They'll bring it up eventually.

Plus, with Kara after him it was hard to relax enough whenever someone called out that the shower's free after they were done. He couldn't get the thought out of his mind that any second they could show up to attack and take him back. He couldn't afford to be in a vulnerable position.

It's obvious that the Hokage's presence is what keeps Kara from taking Boruto back. Does his protection really extend to me, too? Would he really protect the both of us at the same time?

Then another thought occurred to him.

Is Boruto lying or does he really know nothing about Kara? How young was he when he was kidnapped, then, if he doesn't remember it? And why didn't his body get deformed? From what Garo said, most incompatible survivors lose limbs. Eitherways, I need him to work with me so I can get this karma off and live my own life already. Without the karma seal, he has no reason to come after me.

His thoughts swirled round and round in his head, racing, as he finally finished folding them and gingerly put them in the empty basket by the washer. Well, he assumed it was meant to wash clothes. He'd never actually seen one before.

Better do it right the first time or face the consequences.

He found Mrs. Uzumaki at the entryway putting Himawari's winter clothes in the wardrobe by the door for her.

Why's she cleaning up her mess for her? Is that all she does, clean and cook?

"All done?" she asked, closing the wardrobe door and turning to him. "I apologize for the misunderstanding, Kawaki. You're our guest here and I want you to feel like this is your home, too. I want you to know that I don't intend to ever trap you like that, okay?"

"You already are!" He growled, getting really pissed off with her facade. "You guys are forcing me to stay here when I'd be much better off if I could put as much distance between me and Kara as possible!"

He heard Himawari walk over to the kitchen door to try to spy on them. Upstairs, he heard Naruto get up and walk across his office.

"Kawaki, you're safe here. Naruto is the Hokage. He's the strongest person in this village. You're safe here, he'll protect you. I'll protect you." Mrs. Uzumaki replied, her expression softening into something like pity.

Naruto walked downstairs and gave him an unusually serious look. "She's right, Kawaki. I promised I would do everything I can to protect you, and I never go back on my word."

"Tch. Words are cheap." He replied. "Am I dismissed?"

"Yeah." Naruto nodded. "I mean it, Kawaki. You can trust me."

He stalked off back towards the living-dining room, roughly pulled out a chair and sat down. He saw Himawari just barely make it back to her seat at the kotatsu to finish her homework in time for him to walk in and close the door behind him. Glancing over, he noticed that she put aside her unfinished vocabulary to start on something else.

Liars. Why would they do that? All I am to them is intel and bait. Although…I'm surprised he didn't ask me about Kara. I said too much right there.

He listened, trying to hear what Naruto and his wife were talking about, but he couldn't make it out this far away. All he could hear was indistinct whispers.

Maybe they aren't that desperate for information after all. Kara will come looking for me, they just have to figure out how to get in undetected. They know that, too, and yet they haven't tried to force the information out of me yet. Why? I'm no ninja but wouldn't it be smarter to do that and try to find their base instead of waiting for just one or two Inners to show?

A short while later, Mrs. Uzumaki walked back in and started to prepare dinner in the kitchen. "Himawari, would you like to help me cook dinner?"

He looked up and watched the exchange, interested and confused. It was a familiar enough request, but to him it had never been optional. After his dad taught him how to cook what little variety of food they had it had been up to him to cook his own dinner if he was allowed to eat that night. But here, Himawari was choosing to help cook? It just didn't make sense to him.

Is it just a girl thing?

There she was in the kitchen, seven, the same age he'd been. She was smiling as she washed the vegetables at the sink. She laughed and talked with her mother as they cut up vegetables, opened packages of something that smelled like seafood, and started making what looked like soup.

It's so strange.

All he remembered was being afraid. One wrong move, one loud noise, one dropped utensil and he'd get dinner taken away from him.

Author's Note:

Thank you so much for reading! Please leave a review and let me know what you think! Also, would you be opposed to a few random omake from Naruto or Hinata's third person POV? I have some ideas, but because they'll jump around timeline I thought that it might be confusing.