Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does, so thank him for Naruto.

A/N: This it the third part of that extra long chapter I mentioned. This one is a year later and the children are about eight years old now and been living on their own for a year.

"Speaking"

Thinking

"Inner self/ Demon talking"

Demon thinking

The Burden of Three

7. Academy Years, Part 3

The next year when by rather quickly for the three. After the move the would spend most of their time either training together or working on their new hobbies. They went to their library and looked over some of the information in there and spent some time studying since most of the instructors didn't help them with the exception of a chunin with a scar across his nose name Iruka. Most of the year in the academy was spent learning about chakra and history, within the last two months they began to learn the first of the three basic jutsu, Bunshin(clone) no Jutsu. It seemed that the triplets could not perform the technique and were looking over their parents' scrolls to find answers. It was there that they learned that their chakra was very high, even for upper genin, because of their heritage and the demons sealed inside them. Also, because of their their high chakra they would need the chakra control that rivaled upper jonin just to reduce the amount of the chakra needed to create at the minimum of twenty clone.

Their training with the Kunoichi Four(as most of the other ninja called them) was progressing nicely. The three went to Kurenai for chakra training exercises when they learned about their problem. She had them fist try levitating a leaf a few inches above one of their hands indoors with no wind disturbance and later outside where wind was a factor within two weeks, then they tried one in each hand and that proved to be more difficult. Once they mastered that they tried it with a leaf over their forehead. At the current point they each could levitate a leaf from one of the three points at the same time easily and had chakra control of that of upper genin.

The three were now wearing fifty pounds (22.7 kg) vests and twenty pounds (9.1 kg) per limb, they were beginning to regret doubling their starting weight and Anko show no pity for them at wearing so much. Yugao was impressed that their taijutsu and weapon training was progressing so much, she was so impressed that she began to have her boyfriend Gekko Hayate begin to train them in the finer points of wielding a sword. Their medical knowledge was steadily improving under Rin's care, they each had basic knowledge in medical skills and jutsu, but Tatsuma had excelled the most like many kunoichi have been known to do.

Their personal training was going well to, when they went to their parents library about learning another way to create bunshins about a week prior. There they found several clone techniques, four that was based on another one on the list and one that even their parents couldn't learn. It took them less than a day to learn the Kage Bunshin (shadow clone) no Jutsu and its compliment of Taju (multiple) Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. It would become one of the most advantageous jutsu that the three would ever learn. They read the notes that said that the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was a jonin level technique because of the amount of chakra used to sustain it and the Taji Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was a forbidden jutsu because there were few that had enough chakra to preform it without suffering chakra depletion. The notes also explained that anything that a clone learns or sees will transfer to the originals once the clone is dispelled. With that in mind, the three would began to leave each two clones in the library to study while they went to the Academy, they read that creating too many clones can lead to a bit of information overload and cause them to fall unconscious.

They each had hobbies that were kept them busy as well. Naruto showed a fascination with gardening and had plenty of space because of all the land their parents owned. One of their parents must have had the same affinity to gardening because there were already rare flowers and fruit trees located around their home, they just needed someone to properly care for them. Naruto now had everything from decorative flowers and medical plants to healthy apple trees.

Tatsuma found a room full of art supplies and proved that she had great skills with a pencil and paintbrush. She spent a lot of time sketching her their home, Naruto's different gardens, and things around the village. So far she had created seven of her painted masterpieces. The first one was based off one of their few baby pictures with their parents, the picture had their father in basic jonin clothes holding a baby Naruto (she added their whiskers) and her mother in her ANBU clothes without the mask holding herself and Hariken in each arm, that was placed over the fireplace in the living room. The next one was of the three of how the three of them looked now and their parents standing behind them, that was placed on the wall across from the first. Her third one was of the three of them sitting on a sofa with the Kunoichi Four behind it and Asuka and the Hokage were sitting in a chair on either side of them, this was hung in their old home as a gift to their former guardians. Others included her and her brothers standing together, the Hokage and Asuke alone, and the Kunoichi Four standing with their full former teams in one picture(I stated that the three were shown old team pictures before). One of her and her brothers' personal favorite had the three of them with the demons (the size of a large dog) each held standing beside their container. She was a little embarrassed when even the demons complimented her. She also liked to cook, which came in handy to make sure that her and her brothers didn't stuff themselves on ramen all the time.

It seemed that somehow Hariken began to take a liking to weapons. Because of Anko, Hayate, and Yugao, he began to read everything he could on weapon (much like Naruto did to take care of his gardens). He liked them so much that he began to learn how to make weapons from a local weapon-smith since there was forge and tools on their property from when their father made his special kunai. It took some work but the weapon-smith warmed up to the demon host and he was becoming good friends with the man's daughter, Tenten. The man was a widower and took care of his daughter alone, but he worried because he was a semi-active ninja and didn't want to leave her alone. The two children developed a relationship similar to what the blond had with his slightly older sister. They were somewhat rivals, wanting to see who would have the better weapons when they grew up. Several weeks after their meeting, Tenten's father gave Hariken a katana when he was progressing well in his training, a katana that the blond helped make.

Speaking of friends, the three had gained a few over the previous year. Because of their initial meeting, Hinata and Hikari were good friends with Tatsuma. They all became friends with a lazy boy by the name of Nara Shikamaru, a somewhat large boy named Akimichi Choji, and a seemly bossy girl named Yamanaka Ino. It seemed that the Inoichi had felt sorry for them when he had to help repair their minds and convinced his friends to let their children become the Uzumaki's friends. The three usually avoided Sasuke and the older boy Neji, those two seemed to always have a problem.

At the very moment, the three children were all separated, something that was very rare. Naruto had challenged Choji to a ramen eating contest at Ichiraku Ramen Bar, Tatsuma was with Hinata and Hikari in the park, and Hariken was walking Tenten home as they were discussing the sword he was carrying. He had wanted to ask her father if a seal to make it a chakra sword needed to be engraved or placed on with a jutsu. The shop that the man owned was located about seven blocks from the Uchiha sector because they were his best customers and he was one of the best smiths. When they entered the blond boy stopped the girl from calling out for her father.

"This is weird, I smell blood. A lot of blood." The boy had said. It seems that the demons being inside them gave them enhanced animal-like abilities. Their hearing and sense of smell was stronger than a canines, their sight was better than a hawks, they were all as agile as a cat, and had reflexes quicker than most chunin. Of coarse few notes their fang-like teeth and the fact that their eyes were slitted.(yes I know that wolves don't have slitted eyes, but I think a demon can cause any side effects on the children)

Tenten was worried, she was hoping that her father was alright when a kunai was suddenly thrown straight for her. Hariken pushed her out of the way as it stabbed him in his shoulder. He fell to the floor with Tenten looking terrified, she may have been training to be a ninja, but she wasn't ready for life or death situations yet.

"Well what do we have here? I come looking for my mother and cousin to finish what I started and what do I find you may ask. A foolish weapon maker, his pathetic daughter, and one of my favorite targets." An older voice said. The two looked to the direction it came from to see Uchiha Itachi in ANBU uniform coming from the back room holding the broken bloody body of Tenten's father in one hand and a katana still dripping with blood in the other. Hariken knew him because he was suspected to be one of the Uchiha that would always use fire jutsu on the triplets and Tenten had seen him in the shop many times. "As you can see, this old man was no match for me." He then dropped the dying man on the floor and charged Hariken.

The young blond had used the time heal a little when Itachi spoke. He instantly drew his blade and canceled the jutsu on his weights. The swipe of the ANBU had sent the young boy through a window and into an alley. The blond began to defend himself as best he could from his training, because he knew that he had absolutely no chance against Itachi. Without the added weight he was a little faster and much lighter, but that did little to help him against an opponent that he heard was near S-rank from what Hikari told him.

Hariken had no choice but to call for help while he tried to stay alive with them teen that was obviously toying with him. Naruto! Tetsuma! Get help to Tenten's shop quick! You might need the Hokage. Something is wrong with Itachi, I think he might have killed Tenten's dad and he's trying to kill me now. That thought instantly stopped the two from what they were doing. Naruto just put his money on the counter when he was midway through with his fifth bowl and left. Tetsuma stopped talking to the others and began to run toward the Hokage's tower, with the Hikari right behind her curious about their friend's actions, while Hinata went home.

Hariken did his best to hold his own until he was stabbed through his stomach. Itachi then removed the blade from Hariken's stomach and picked up the katana that the boy dropped. The young boy caught out blood as he looked up at Itachi eyes and saw the strange from of sharingan that was different from the ones he say before. "Pathetic demon vessel, I can't believe that I wasted my time on you. Well let me introduce you to the the Mangekyo Sharingan, I can use this to make a few seconds seem like three days of physical or mental pain. So for the next three days you will be stabbed continuously." Itacha said as he took the blond boy into the color inverted Tsukuyomi world with him tied to a wall.

As the many men that Itachi created were about to stabbed the boy, each and every one of creations disappeared and Hariken was released. They were both a little confused by that development.

"You know, I'm really tired of people always saying that the cub is me. I mean he has no fur, nowhere near as powerful as me, and to tell the truth I'm a lot better looking." A voice said as the two looked around. They soon saw an average sized tiger with a black collar that had a blue swirl on both sides and a tag that said seal on it. The strangest thing about the tiger was that it had seven tails behind it instead of one. "I mean if I looked like you I could understand the mix-up cub, but how do you look anything like me? Well other than the whiskers of course."

While Itachi was a little stunned by the appearance of the demon, Hariken decide to answer, "Well how should I know, I been trying to figure out how the village confuses use for you and the others for a couple of years now. By the way, I'm cuter. Anyway are you here to help me out of this mess?"

The tiger laughed at the cute comment before a predatory grin appeared on his muzzle as he licked his lips. "Oh yes, that's what I'm here for. I don't feel like cleaning up your mind again just because someone wanted to have a little fun. But now that I think about it, it has been a long time since I had fun and this guy seems to be the perfect chew-toy." As the demon said the last part he began to walk over to his new prey and grow in size.

Now Itachi isn't one to normally fear for his life, but there are few that are crazy enough not to fear one of the most powerful of the Biju. He worked fast and canceled the genjutsu. Once they were back in the real world, Itachi was breathing hard and Hariken was struggling to get up now that his wounds slowly healing. Itachi was weakened from using the Tsukuyomion both his little brother Sasuke and the demon container, but he knew he had to kill the boy since he was able to counter the Tsukuyomi with the help of the demon. Just as he was about to raise the two swords, he sensed the Hokage and several ANBU coming his way.

"It seems that you have lucked out this time, but be warned that you may not be so lucky if we should meet again." With that Itachi disappeared.

Moments later the Hokage, several ANBU, the Kunoichi Four, the older two of the Uzumaki siblings, Makoto, and Hikari arrived to help the hurt Uzumaki. Soon after, it was determined that Hariken would be fine in a day or two because the stomach acid that was released when he was stabbed had caused more damage and slowing his healing. The ANBU began their investigation in the Uchiha district as the others walked into the weapon shop. Inside they found Tenten crying over her father, who was dead according to Rin. The Sandaime was about to tell Tenten that she could move into an apartment if she chose to no long stay in her current home(the shop was in the front and the home was the upstairs and back parts), but he was interrupted by the Uzumaki triplet who nearly begged for him to let the sad girl move in with them. After about fifteen minutes the elderly man allowed it, explaining that it was adult that were not allowed to live with them, but he also said that they would have to share their secret with her sometime after she move in.

Soon the the ANBU returned with a traumatized Sasuke. The captain spoke to the Hokage "According to the boy, Itachi had killed all the other Uchiha. Also that Itachi stated that he was going to be waiting in the weapons shop for his mother and cousin because he knew they both had some errands that included some new kunai and a katana. What we don't know is why he's in this state."

Hariken then coughed a little as he was still recovering. "Well there was something weird about Itachi's eyes. I seen the sharingan several times from...unfortunate incidents and his were different. He called it the Mangekyo Sharingan I believe, whatever it was he took me somewhere with all the colors looking weird. He..umm...used too much chakra before he used it on me and sensed you coming, so it didn't really affect me." He didn't want to say that his demon had helped him since only the Hokage knew about the demons being helpful and the fact that two of their friends were there.

The Uchiha females were very sad when they heard that. Not only was their clan almost completely wiped-out, but it was done by Makoto's oldest son and Hikari's favorite cousin. The Hokage knew this was going to be a problem. We are still recovering from the loses caused by the demons' attack and the war prior to that, now we have one of our most powerful clans killed by one of the strongest and most promising ninja to every bare their name, except for three. Not only that but one of our best weapon smiths is dead at the hand of that teen and his daughter is moving in with the triplets , where she will most likely learn their biggest secrets. I remember Fugaku once telling me about the Mangekyou Sharingan and that the only way to get it is for an Uchiha to kill his best friend. As I recall the Konoha Military Police and Yugao were telling me that Shisui was killed the other day and he was Itachi's closest friend. Also it seems that Hariken isn't telling us everything, the Shichibi must have helped him but he is unable to say that around the others. This is not going to be taken well by the rest of the village, maybe I can keep the fact that Hariken was part of the reason Itachi ran a secret. The Sandaime Hokage would have thought more on the subject had his thought not been interrupted by the blond he was just thinking about.

"Hey! I just realized something. That bastard Itachi stole my sword! It's bad enough that I was stabbed by him, but he had the nerve to take the katana that I worked hard to get. If I ever see him a gain I'll teach him a lesson about taking things that doesn't belong to him!" It seemed that Hariken's outburst was just what was needed to relax everyone just a little bit with the grim situation.

I don't know if they purposely do it, but those three have a unique way of changing most situations. It may not have caused anyone to laugh, but it did relax everyone's stress a little. The Hokage thought as he was thinking of what to do next.

A/N: Well that's it. This is going nicely, but still a little slow. Hopefully the next chapter will be the last of the academy years. I don't remember who came up with the idea of a vessel to a powerful demon would have a bit of resistance to the Tsukuyomi since it's mental, but I liked it. Genjutsu still works on them, just that ones similar to the Tsukuyomi will backfire if used on any vessel of a starting with the five tail on up since a vessel has two conscious minds, meaning that there are only five that it can't work on.

The training is going well to. I will say this now, I plan on having them master most of their parent's jutsu by the time they are genin, after all a less that intelligent Naruto did it pretty quickly, so three of them working with all the notes shouldn't take that long. I will also improve their chakra control a lot too. The part about their chakra amounts I believe is accurate. I think that in Naruto's younger academy years their chakra was upper genin/lower chunin, that by graduation and the wave country arc that he was mid/upper chunin in chakra since kage bunshin was a jonin skill, and he probably has the highest chakra of anyone short of S-rank or Kage level. But you know what they say, it doesn't matter if you have a huge amount if you can't use it properly.

As for Tenten, I heard that she acted kind of sisterly to Naruto in one of the filler episodes. Personally I liked the hobbies that I gave them. I wanted to give Hariken the a blacksmith ability and make weapons, as well as be a weapon's master. That is where he connects with Tenten and they will make a good team when together, but no couple, if you haven't guessed I will have him with Hikari. You will have to wait to see who Tatsuma will be with. As for her hobby, I'll admit that Zidra's My Family was the one that inspired that idea when I was thinking about a skill to give the sister. I been read the story and remembered the artist idea, so I figured that might be a good idea.