You guys, the love and support I have received for this story is a bit shocking really. It has to be the fastest story I have ever written to get to 300 Followers…ever! Thank you so much for the support! Love you all!

Disclaimer: I own Naruto. There! I said it. And if Mashity Shitymoto has a problem he can PM me, so I can punch him and make Naruto my own. Then, I can finally makee my dream of a detailed prelude of the Naruto universe set during the Warring States a reality.

Chapter Three: Family

The sound of rain pelting a window pane was all Naruto could hear when his mind came out of his dreamless sleep. He slowly got out of his bed and sauntered over to the window. Peeling the curtain open, he was able to get a good view of the terrible weather outside. Sighing to himself, the boy let go of the curtain, knowing it would correct itself, as he quickly left his bedroom.

He left his room and went into the upstairs bathroom of his parents' house. He was back here, at the house where he was born, for the weekend. It was his first weekend back home, and his parents' plan of spending the day outside with a family picnic had just been shoved down the drain. He did not really care, though. Whether it was inside or outside, he just wanted to spend some time with his family.

Quickly taking care of his morning rituals, he left the bathroom and went back into his room. He quickly sorted out his bed, making sure that it was neatly arranged for when he returned later on at night for his sleep. He left the bedroom not long after.

Walking into the living room, he found his father sitting there with a deck of cards laid out in front of him. His father, a man he had inherited his looks from, looked up at him as soon as he made his presence known.

"You're up now; finally!" the blue pants and green kimono top-wearing man said to his son.

"How long have you been waiting for me?" Naruto asked his father as he sat down on cushion that was on the opposite side of his father's table.

Minato placed his right index finger on his chin and lightly tapped it, "Mmh, ten minutes, I think?"

"I see." Naruto said as he took the cards that were laid out in front of his father and he started shuffling them, "Well, what are we playing first?"

"Your call, kiddo." his dad answered. Naruto loved his father to bits. The man was, without a shadow of a doubt, the most calm individual Naruto had ever seen. Naruto sometimes entertained the fantasy that his father would have made for a truly frightening shinobi had he been introduced to the art from an early age instead of being a carpenter.

"Alright." Naruto proceeded to lay out the cards he had just finished shuffling in front of his dad for a game of crazy eights, before a question popped into his head, "Where's mom?"

"She went shopping for things you would need for the upcoming week." Minato answered as he picked up his playing cards and smiled a little at seeing his favourable hand.

"Don't tell me she was seriously considering buying all of the material I needed for my next invention?" Naruto asked in a flabbergasted manner.

"Oh, she is…" Minato said with a smile on his face.

"Let me guess…" Naruto spoke with a deadpanned expression as he looked at his hand, and picked up a card from the deck-in-waiting, "She wants it too."

"Yep." was all Minato said as he played his card. He then looked at his son in the eyes and said, "So tell me something…"

Naruto looked up at his dad and said, "Yeah…"

"How's that bastard, Jin, treating you?" Minato said, barely able to keep the venom out of his voice. He honestly did not like the leader of the Uzumaki clan. He was always so pompous and had a holier-than-thou attitude that made Minato hate him. Yes, he hated the man.

Naruto did not make a single move for a second, trying to formulate the right words in his head. His father, upon seeing his hesitation, came up to his own conclusion.

"He's bordering on the line of being abusive to you, isn't he?" Minato said in a deathly whisper. His son's non-response prompted him to think of the worst things imaginable. He saw an image of his son being whipped on his back while being made to run on broken glass.

"No, he isn't." Naruto answered, "There is no such thing as abusive when it comes to shinobi training, Tou-san."

Minato did not like what his was implying. Has that bastard not only abused his son, but also brainwashed him into believing that a thing such as abuse did not exist? This was one of the may reasons why he hated almost everything related to being a shinobi. His eyes had a cold edge to them that Naruto rarely saw whenever he spoke with his father, as the man spoke in a very quiet tone, "What do you mean?"

"Exactly that, Tou-san." Naruto answered a bit fearfully, his father's tone not sitting well with him, "Shinobi, in order to achieve perfection, put their lives on the line, even when they train."

"But that's wrong." Minato said almost instantly, his cold edge gone, and now replaced by a warm glow of concern, "People shouldn't risk their lives that much that their convinced that abusing their own bodies is the only way forward for them in terms of being a shinobi. And besides, there is no such thing as perfection."

Naruto, upon seeing this, realised exactly why his father was not a shinobi and why the man might not really have been cut out for it, even with his overly-calm nature. He was just too damn soft. He may have been young, but he could tell that his father had a bit of a naïve view of the world.

"Tell that to those that don't know it." Naruto said, continuing with his turn. He always knew that there was no such thing as perfection. He never truly aimed for it. Only idiots did that.

"Look at that, even my eight year old son knows that there's no such thing as perfection." Minato said animatedly. His son also happened to be a genius among geniuses, but that was beside the point.

"But there is near-perfection." Naruto said bluntly as he watched his father play.

Minato froze for a second at what his son said. Once again, his son said something he did not like one bit. It meant that his son was willing to put his life on the line as well, like every other shinobi out there.

Before he could voice his concerns however, their front door slid open, and in walked in the lady of the house.

"Boys, I'm home." Kushina said as she made her way towards her two favourite people in the entire world.

"Hey, kaa-chan." Naruto said as he watched his mother walk into the living room barefoot. Her shoes, Naruto guessed, were probably left outside due to the rain. The bottom part of her dress was damp from the rain. Her umbrella could not thoroughly protect her from the water that came from the heavens.

Kushina walked all the way up to Naruto first, since he was the closest, and she bent down and hugged him with one arm, before she kissed the top of his head, "So, how are my favourite people doing on this very, very annoyingly wet day?"

Minato smiled at his wife as she came up to him and kissed him on the lips, getting Naruto to elicit an, "Ew!" before he said, "A lot better than you, that's for certain."

"Ow!" Minato was hit by a punch on his left shoulder as Kushina sat beside him, "What was that for?"

"What do you think it was for, you sissy?" Kushina said, closing her eyes and sticking her tongue out at her husband.

Minato quickly reached out and grabbed hold of her tongue with his thumb and index finger and lightly tugged it.

"Hahahahaha…" Naruto was laughing out loud from the sidelines, watching the heart-warming interaction between his parents.

"Minatho, leth go os my thangue." Kushina asked nicely.

"Nope." Minato said sweetly as well, all the while looking at his wife with a matching smile on his face, "Not until you apologise."

'Let it be known, universe, that I asked him politely first.' Kushina mentally intoned, before she quickly reached out and did something that made Minato scream like a little girl.

"Yeeheeheehee!" Minato said as he instantly let go of his wife's tongue and tried to pry off her vice grip-like hand from his family jewels.

"Apologise for what, sweety?" now it was Kushina's turn to speak with a sweet smile on her face.

"Nuh-nuh-nothing!" Minato said as he tried to back away from his wife in order to lessen her grip on his nether region. He was feeling a lot of pain at the moment, and he would be willing to do anything to make it end.

"Now, lemme ask you this." Kushina said, sickly sweet smile still plastered on her face, "Who's a sissy?"

"I am." Minato's voice was almost inaudible as he squeaked out his answer.

"Good." Kushina said, as she let go of his family jewels, "And don't you forget it."

Kushina stood up and walked up to her son, who was looking at his father cradling his private part while rolling on the floor very slowly, tears streaming down his face, with a very horrified expression etched onto his face. Upon reaching her son, Kushina grew an amused expression when she saw him cover his private part.

"Don't worry sweety." Kushina said as she reached out and ruffled Naruto's hair, "I won't do that to you, just so long as you promise not to be an idiot like my dear husband."

Naruto did not say anything, instead he chose to just shake his head in affirmation at her thinly veiled threat to him.

"Oh, before I forget…" he heard his mom say above him, "Here."

Naruto heard a small pop, a sound he had come to know as one that only occurred in two events. Number one was during an unsealing ritual, and the other was during the usage of the Kawarimi no jutsu. A second later, a scroll the size of his forearm had made itself known to him as it was placed between his eyes vertically, thus leading him to conclude that the sound was probably from a wrist seal being used.

His hands left his crotch and they humbly accepted the scroll, all the while he did not really look up to his mom as she walked away. He was still too transfixed on the scene he had just seen. His mother was absolutely dangerous. No one was safe from her, not even the man that had impregnated her almost nine years ago.

"Thanks." he said in a dead voice before his mother came back to bonk him on the head for forgetting to say so. The first time that happened was all the necessary reminder that he needed.

"No problem, sweety." his mother's muffled voice came from the passage, most probably on her way to change out of her slightly wet clothing.

"Whyyyyyy?" Naruto watched in shock as his father kept cradling the most sensitive portion of his body, "Why did I have to marry an Uzumaki?"

'Why indeed?' Naruto wondered to himself.

Warmth. That's the feeling that one would get as soon as they stepped into the home of the first family. A warmth that was so pleasing that it would make you forget that you were in a shinobi home and that you were within the confines of one of the most secure houses throughout the world. The warmth washes over you, like a fountain of warm water, caressing your skin, making your mind go numb for just a second…

"I see that you're back."

…All before the cold hard reality of this being a shinobi home brings you back to reality, courtesy of the leader of the Uzumaki clan, Jin.

"Hai, Jin-sama."

"Good. Then stop standing in the door way like an idiot. You're ruining the warmth in the house." the man's awfully cold and off-putting voice droned from a few feet in front of Naruto.

"Gomen, Jin-sama." Naruto proceeded to close the paper screen behind him, set his shoes to the side for one of the servants to pick up, and walk into the house of his illustrious clan.

"How is your mother, boy?" Jin asked, with his arms crossed over his chest, and peering down at his student.

"She is fine, Jin-sama." Naruto replied, looking at his clan's leader in the eye.

"Good." was all the man said, before he turned on his heels and quickly left the boy to his own devices.

As soon as the man had disappeared from his sight, Naruto let go of sigh he had been unconsciously holding in. Jin, despite not truly striking any fear in Naruto, had a powerful and oppressive aura. It took all of Naruto's stubborn willpower that he had inherited from his mother to not cave and look at the man's feet whenever he spoke to him. He would never, ever, truly bow down to anyone.

After all, to him, there was respect, then they was complete slavery and servitude. He always strove for the former, never the latter. His latent Uzumaki stubbornness would never truly allow him to do so.

"Naruto? You're back?" Naruto heard the soft, heart-warming voice of his friend calling to him. It withdrew him from his thoughts and placed him back in reality.

Looking over to the entrance to the hallway, Naruto saw Mito standing there, wearing what was a rather simple plain white kimono, with her hair tied into their customary double buns. She had a rather large smile on her face, not really what Naruto had been expecting to see on the face of the young girl.

"Hey, Mito." was all the blonde could say, before his friend had covered the distance between them and swallowed him in her arms.

'What the-? Is she no longer mad at me?' Naruto thought, feeling utterly confused by what Mito was doing. Deciding on not looking a gift horse in the mouth, Naruto hugged her back, feeling the warmth that she radiated. It matched her smile, and it was all thanks to the fact that she had been in doors the entire weekend, while he had not.

"Soooo, how was the weekend at your parents place?" Mito asked, pulling back from the slightly taller blonde haired boy and looking at him up and down, as if trying to see if he would physically metamorphose in front of her.

'My weekend was awesome! I didn't want to return, but I'm obligated to do so. Why? Because your dad's a dick and I am the sorry unlucky bastard blessed with a genius intellect that he has set his sights on!' is what he wanted to say.

Instead, with a small smile, he said, "My weekend was awesome. I got to spend some quality time with my parents, and while it was sad leaving them, I couldn't wait to come and see you!"

Mito brightened up as soon as she heard the last part of what he had said. She brought forth a megawatt smile that illustrated just how happy Naruto's answer made her feel.

"Well, I'm glad you feel that way, because I missed having someone to play with." the girl said, smile still in place.

"What do you mean?" Naruto said, feigning ignorance, "I thought you had mister Plank-plank."

Mito grew red in the face at the mention of mister Plank-plank. She could never truly get over the fact that Naruto had caught her playing with a wooden doll, despite the fact that it was frowned upon by the shinobi world at large for a child her age to be indulging in toys.

But then she was the Uzumaki princess, thus she just got to do nearly anything she wanted, so long as if her father or grandfather approved. And mister Plank-plank was something they both approved. of.

"Hehehehe." Hearing Naruto chuckle, she looked up just in time to see him ruffle her hair a little before he added, "I'm just messing with you…oh, and tag. You're it."

Without wasting another second, the blonde haired boy had disappeared from her sight.

"Hey, no fair!" Mito shouted as she ran into the hallway, "You didn't warn me. And you're faster than me!"

A few seconds later, footsteps could be heard all over the Uzumaki household as the two youngest inhabitants of the house chased each other back and forth, not caring about the loud ruckus that they made, for they were children after all. Even the one with a high-level IQ.

"Ginrei-sensei?" Naruto said, sitting down in a lotus position as he practised different symbols on a piece of paper.

"Yes, Naruto." his Fūinjutsu teacher said, keeping a vigilant eye on his young protégée.

Today, it was just Naruto and Ginrei in the study. According to Ginrei, Mito was a bit too behind Naruto in order for them to have Fūinjutsu lessons together, as Mito would just hold him back, and he would inversely make the girl strive for things she was not ready for. So from today onwards, Mito had Fūinjutsu in the morning, while Naruto was being taught either Kenjutsu or Taijutsu.

"The other day…" Naruto made an upward stroke with the brush he held in his hand, "…when I returned from my parents' house…Mito was…happy to see me."

Ginrei didn't move a muscle as he continued observing Naruto's hands. The boy's technique was nearly perfect, and that was when comparing him to professional sealers.

"Oh, and how is that a bad thing?"

"Well, the thing is, when I had left for the weekend, which you know I spent at my parents house…" Naruto curved the brush down, before he received a light tap on his brush holding hand.

"Ow!" he said, drawing his hand back from the stinging sensation that he felt in it, all thanks to his sensei's cane.

"Focus. You curved it too much. One small, slightly off-key curve could, or rather will, mean the difference between life and death." Ginrei spoke in a reprimanding manner, as Naruto rubbed his hand in order to sooth the stinging sensation.

'Still too green to have perfect technique.' Ginrei thought to himself.

"I know that already, sensei." Naruto grumbled, before he looked at the sheet next to the one that he was practising on and saw just how he had overshot the curve. That was the problem with Fūinjutsu, too little or too much of a curve or an ink blot can result in you creating a dud, which is always the best case scenario in this field.

"Then focus." the elderly Uzumaki statesman said, but he did not really have to because his student had already seen his error and had gone about correcting it already.

'That's much better, my boy.'

"You were mentioning something about Mito." the elder said after a minute of silence between him and his student.

"Oh, yes…it's-it's just that she had been angry with me before I left." Naruto admitted.

"Oh, and what brought this on?" Ginrei asked. His granddaughter had the emotional propensity of a-a … there was nothing quite like his granddaughter. One moment she was happen, and then the next she was mad about something.

"I think…" Naruto stuck his tongue out of his mouth as he drew a perfect half circle, before he placed two perfectly parallel ink blot-dots within the half circle, "I think it's because I said something about your grandson. Something that, while I did not mean any offence with, she took it as such."

"I see." Ginrei said as his eyes darted through the rice paper that Naruto was practising on at the same speed his hands were moving, which was not very fast, "Let me ask you this, Naruto…"

"Hai?"

"Have you ever been mad at someone before?"

His so-called friends in school that secretly hated him came to mind.

The boy shook his head at Ginrei as he placed a very long line from the left of the page to the right, "I've only ever been disappointed in people before."

"Well, I guess that's the problem here." Ginrei said, watching as Naruto got to work on the final symbol on the rice paper, "You see, you're a special child, Naruto. You did not, and maybe will never, ever, go through some of the more… tedious stages of child hood."

Naruto was quiet for a second as he mulled over his sensei's deduction while also looking at the seal he had to copy.

"You mean mood swings like Mito's?" Naruto said after a few moments.

"Not really mood swings, but rather uncontrollable emotions that are just all over the show." Ginrei corrected his charge.

"I see." was all Naruto said as he went about working on the final seal. His hand moved in perfect fluidity, never leaving the paper unless if its to dip the small brush in more ink. After a short while doing this, Naruto quickly put forth the final symbol on the paper, before he placed his brush to the side and leaned back from his copied seals.

Ginrei took one look at them all for his final verdict, before he spoke, "Naruto, do you know what I just made you copy?"

"Hai, sensei. It's the code for each of the twelve hand signs." Naruto answered.

Ginrei, for the first time since the lesson began, smiled, "Yes…yes, yes yes!"

Naruto watched in avid fascination as his teacher stood up and jumped for joy while he kept on intoning, "Yes, yes, yes!" over and over again. He honestly wondered what was so special about the answer that he gave him that it could make the normally calm and quite reserved Uzumaki jump for joy.

"Yes! I finally have a student that isn't a complete idiot!" Ginrei's proclamation had Naruto face-faulting almost immediately after he said it.

"Naruto, my boy…" the man spoke in a very excitable manner, "Not only do you know how to perfectly write kanji and Fūinjutsu symbols at such a young age, but you can read them too!"

"Hai." Naruto said, picking himself up from the ground as he went back into his kneeling position, "I've been able to do so for the last year now."

"Really!" Ginrei asked, with a very happy expression on his face. He was beaming at the prospect of all of the things he could teach Naruto.

"Hai." Naruto said calmly, knowing that at least one of them had to remain calm in this rather awkward situation.

"That's amazing! So you understand what most people don't about the basics of Fūinjutsu?" Ginrei asked in his very excitable manner.

"That every seal is just basically the twelve hand signs written down in coded format." Naruto answered with a small smile on his face.

"Exactly!" Ginrei exclaimed as he faux-pulled out his own hair, "How come you can understand that, but my idiot sons could not?"

"Huh, sons?" Naruto asked, catching on to what Ginrei said.

"Yes, sons." the man answered, "What? Did you think I only had one prick-head of a son?"

"Pffft!" Naruto couldn't stop himself from laughing when Ginrei said that, completely catching him off-guard with how he called Jin a prick.

"There's another idiot roaming around the world carrying my genes." Ginrei informed the blonde, "His name's Ashina."

"Hahahaha." Naruto wasn't laughing at Ashina, whoever that was. He was instead laughing at Jin being called a prick-head, something he couldn't get off his mind since he whole-heartedly agreed. The thing that made all of this that much funnier to the blonde was the fact that it was Jin's father that had said it.

Ginrei just smiled seeing the boy finally break off into a full fit of laughter. He joined in too a second later.

Ginrei, in Naruto's opinion, was finally showing that he was a true Uzumaki. Despite being so highly respected, he did not really give a damn about status. If he was willing to jump for joy and make himself a fool in front of his student, then the man was awesome in Naruto's books.

After the duo had calmed down from their collective fits of laughter, Ginrei looked at Naruto and said, "Naruto, I want you to do something for me."

"What is it, sensei." the boy said, schooling his features back into his neutral facial expression.

"Smile more often." the wizened man said.

He then proceeded towards the door that lead out of his study and opened it. After doing so, he turned to his still kneeling protégé and said, "Tomorrow, after your training with my son, I want you to meet me by the front gates."

Naruto's face gained a questioning appearance to it, not even having the slightest idea as to why his teacher wanted them to meet outside. It wasn't like they could practise Fūinjutsu outdoors, especially since it's so windy, "Huh? Why?"

"Because we're going somewhere, you idiot!" the man said, before he shut the door behind him, leaving the boy in his study.

" …O-okay."

Naruto trudged towards his room feeling slightly refreshed after a day of training for the first time in – since his training stint had begun here last week. Upon walking up to his door, he noticed a shadow that looked like a giant silhouette of the only person younger than him that was within the confines of the house dancing on the paper door.

Sliding the paper door open, he was greeted by an empty room, not seeing a single follicle of Mito's red hair anywhere, before he walked into the room. Quicker than most would expect an eight year old to move, Naruto's arm shot up, catching broom stick that nearly hit him on the head, before he pulled on it really hard.

"Whoa!" he heard Mito's voice say as she was pulled from the ceiling she had been clinging onto with the soles of her feet. He quickly caught her, making sure that he held on really tight, while also making sure that he didn't fall to the ground.

"How?" Mito asked in an annoyed voice, "Every time I do this. You find a way of seeing me."

Naruto just smiled at her as he patted all of the wrinkles off her kimono, "Well, just as I have told you before, I can sense you. Remember?"

Mito huffed and said, "I don't believe you."

Naruto just smirked at her and said, "How else are you going to explain me being able to catch you every single time?"

"I don't know!" Mito threw her hands into the air in exasperation, "But it definitely cannot be because you can sense me!"

"…Maybe you're right." Naruto said with a sly smile on his face, "Maybe it's not that I can sense you, but rather that you're so bad at stealth that I don't need to."

Swoosh.

Naruto was gone quicker than Mito could throw a punch. By the time the girl had realised that he had evaded her, he was already plopping himself down onto his futon.

"You know, Tou-san designed this really cool thing called a bed. It's way more comfortable than a futon. You guys should get one." Naruto said as he crossed his hands behind his head while lying down on his back.

"Bed?" Mito said in confusion, previous verbal-turned-slightly-physical spar already forgotten, "What the heck is that?"

Naruto answered the girl as she plopped herself next to him, "Okay, you know how my dad is a carpenter, right?"

"Yes?"

"Yeah, well, he came up with this really nice piece of furniture that's meant for sleeping purposes. It's called a bed…"

"That's a terrible name." Mito said.

"I know, I was waiting for you to say that before I continued. Every one, kaa-chan and I included, think it's a bad name, but tou-chan doesn't really care. His invention, so he's naming it as far as he's concerned." Naruto said.

"Okay…" Mito drawled out a bit, "But you still haven't told me about what makes it so special that it could beat out a futon."

"Oh, it's simple." Naruto said, quickly jumping to his feet, startling Mito a little with the action, before he placed his hand at his waist and said, "Image a futon this size."

And then it all dawned onto Mito exactly how much better a bed was. She may have been seven, but even she understood what Naruto was implying.

"Oh Kami-sama…" Mito exclaimed.

"Exactly." Naruto said, plopping himself down onto the futon once more.

"So how much does your father sell this…bird-"

"-It's bed."

"Yes, bed – thing of his?"

"Um…I'm not really sure. I just know that he made it for every room in the house and he's trying to find a way to mass produce it so that everyone can have one." Naruto answered honestly.

"That all sounds complicated." Mito said.

"Not really…I guess I understand where he is coming from." Naruto said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's just that I'm an inventor as well, so I kind of understand what he's going through." Naruto said.

"You invented something?" Mito had eyes as wide as saucers at this point.

"Yeah – but do not tell this to anyone. Okay?" Naruto quickly warned his friend, and she nodded in response to his warning.

"Show me." the girl said excitedly.

Naruto saw the look she had on her face. It was one of wonder and awe. She was desperate to see his invention, and while he may not be very skilled in the art of forgery and inventions, he had his own unique knack for it. And he wanted to show off a bit.

"All right."

"Yes!" Mito fist-pumped the air in victory.

"But remember, you can't tell anyone." Naruto warned once more. This time though, Mito made the motion of a zip closing over her mouth, before she opened it and swallowed the key.

"How are you able to swallow the key if you just zipped your mouth?"

"What?"

"Never mind." Naruto got onto his feet once again, and this time he brandished something. Something that he had been tinkering with since he first gained full mastery of it in its original form.

"A yo-yo?" Mito asked him as she saw that he held one in his hand. In all honesty, she was let down. She expected something she had never seen before, not a worn-out yo-yo.

"Shhhh!" was all the warning Naruto gave, before he lightly tapped his thumb on the yo-yo's surface, before he threw it at the wooden door of the walk-in closet and it embedded itself onto it.

Mito's eyes went wide when she saw just how it had embedded itself onto the door of the closet. The yo-yo's once smooth surface, now had metallic spikes jutting out in every direction.

"H-how?" was all Mito could say as she stared at the yo-yo in awe.

"It has a few problems." Naruto said, not really answering Mito, "For one, in battle someone could cut the string I use and make it useless."

Naruto lightly pulled on the extended string of the yo-yo as if to emphasise his point.

"Two, the blades don't know when to retract." At this, he pulled out the yo-yo in earnest, getting it to clunk dully on the wooden floor boards, before he walked over to it, picked it up, and inspected it for a second, "This means that simply pulling it back towards me in the heat of battle for when I want to use it again would make it next to impossible because it means that it could end up cutting me."

"Which kind of makes it useless." Mito surmised, getting Naruto to nod at her.

"Yeah, pretty much." Naruto said.

"You know what, your yo-yo has lost all of its cool points." Mito said cheekily

"Cool points?" Naruto said questioningly, "How are you and I friends again?"

Swoosh.

Once more Mito had missed her blonde target as he had evaded her and had proceeded to sit down on his futon and work on his yo-yo once again.

"I'm going to sleep. You suck." Mito said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"So says miss I-Suck-At-Stealth." Naruto answered without looking up as he worked the string of his yo-yo.

"Whatever, mister – uh...Rrrrraaaah! Come on!" Mito said in frustration, "One day I will develop a good comeback for you."

"And I'll be waiting." Naruto spoke without looking up once more.

There were a few moments of near-perfect silence, with the only thing that could be heard being Mito's feet shuffling, before Naruto heard the unmistakable sound of the paper door being slid open, and Mito's feet shuffling some more.

"Good night." she said to him.

He looked up and smiled at her before he waved out his own good night.

Then she shut the paper door.

To be continued

And so ends another chapter, one filled with good ol' Uzumaki family dynamics. This chapter featured a one week time skip. I wonder how long the next chapter's time skip shall be?

Chapter four will definitely get your blood pumping, that much I can attest to. I'm editing it out and I really want to post it along with this one, but I can't. It's still too rough. So you'll have to wait a few days before it drops like my imaginary mixtape.

As always, like, share review people. I need this to feed my kittens!

Just joking, don't own any kittens. But I want at least one.

Anyway, I guess that's where I'll leave things for now.

I'm out.