Naruto wakes up and is instantly alert. There is only one thing on his mind: he needs to find Iruka niisan. Naruto is afraid that Iruka niisan will not come back after his argument with Naruto's grandma. Naruto cannot feel Iruka niisan's chakra - it is so familiar now that he only knows what Iruka niisan's chakra feels like by its absence. It's easier to tell when it is not there than when it is.

Determined to find Iruka niisan, Naruto thinks long and hard about how to find him. He wishes there was a grown up he could ask for advice. But so long as Naruto cannot control the anti gravity seal he is stuck inside unless there is someone to hold the leash and keep him from floating away. So who can Naruto ask for help? He could ask Grandpa. But what if Grandma finds out? She probably doesn't want Iruka niisan to come back, even though she said she would let him teach Naruto again.

Naruto wishes Joe were there. Wait a second! Naruto grins when he realizes: he can ask Joe for help. That is, if he can actually summon Joe.

Naruto pulls himself down the furniture and grabs a piece of paper and a pen. Then he draws a seal that (hopefully) will summon Joe. Once he is sure the seal will definitely summon a shinigami and not blow his face off, Naruto activates the seal.

Sure enough, a shinigami appears.

"You're not Joe!" says Naruto, disappointed.

"No," says the Shinigami. "I'm Dave. Joe is in timeout because he done goofed. What do you want kid?"

"I wanted to talk to Joe!" Naruto whines and reverses the seal, sending Dave back to wherever he came from.

Disappointed that he could not summon Joe, Naruto wonders what to do next. Joe can't help him, so who can? Eventually, Naruto decides to help himself. There is a tree close to the kitchen window. If he can get to it, maybe he can get to the fence and after that… Well, there are buildings and plants and fences all over the village. Maybe he can get himself to the Hokage tower. Then he can ask Grandpa Hokage for help.

Firmly decided on following that particular course of action, Naruto makes his way to the kitchen. Once there, Naruto opens the window and squeezes out, attaching himself to one of the tree's branches like a sloth. Naruto starts inching his way towards the nearby fence.

He almost falls off the branch, and suddenly this does not seem like a good idea at all. Naruto hangs onto the branch for dear life. Feeling overwhelmed, Naruto starts crying, howling quite loudly.

A few minutes later, both his grandparents come running, both still in their pyjamas and looking like they just woke up. "Naruto what are you doing?" asks his Grandma. "It's five in the morning, you should be in bed!"

"I'm stuck!" Naruto cries.

Naruto's grandpa climbs up the tree and tries to pull Naruto off the branch. Naruto hangs on tighter. "Naruto, let go of the tree," says Naruto's grandpa, refusing to relinquish his hold on Naruto. "I can't get you down if you don't let go!"

"But I'm stuck!" Naruto insists, too scared he'll float away to let let go.

"Naruto, if you just let go, you won't be stuck anymore," says his grandpa patiently.

"I caaan't! I'm stuuuuuck!"

"Hi!" calls a girl's voice from down below Naruto.

"Ah, hello Hinata," says Naruto's grandpa.

"Can Naruto come out to play?" asks Hinata.

"It's five in the morning," says Naruto's grandma. "Do your parents know you're here?"

"Yep!" says Hinata. Then her tummy growls loudly.

"Did you skip breakfast to come here and see if Naruto can play with you?" asks Naruto's grandma suspiciously.

"Yep!" grins Hinata.

"Help me, Hinata!" whines Naruto. "I'm stuck!"

Hinata glares up at Naruto, her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. "You are being silly!" Hinata snaps. "Now deactivate that seal and get your ass on the ground!"

"Hinata! Language!" snaps Grandma.

Naruto tears up some more. Hinata is mad at him! Sometimes Shikamaru gets mad at him, and sometimes Choji gets mad at him, but Hinata has never got mad at him before! Naruto is not sure whether to be pleased or upset. In fact he is so surprised he nearly cuts off the flow of chakra to the seal. It is then that he realizes: chakra controls the seal. To shut it off, he needs to cut off its chakra supply. But how? "I don't know how!" whines Naruto. "I can't shut off the seal!"

"Yes you can!" Hinata snaps, stomping her foot. "I've had enough of the stupid seal. Shut it off right now!"

Naruto thinks. How do you shut off chakra? He remembers a lesson they had at the Academy a few weeks ago - something about suppressing chakra. Maybe if he tries that, it will cut off the flow of chakra into the seal. Screwing up his face in concentration, Naruto tries to suppress his chakra. After much effort, he eventually succeeds, and the seal turns off. Naruto can now feel the weight of his body, he feels so heavy, but just to be sure the seal really is off, Naruto lets go of the tree.

Before Naruto has even started falling, his grandpa catches him. "Wow, you are heavy," says Naruto's grandpa.

Hinata giggles.

Naruto's grandpa carries him down from the tree and sets him on the grass. Feeling a bit unsteady on his feet after so long floating, Naruto falls over. Then Naruto laughs, because he can actually fall over now.

"Soooooo…." Hinata says, her arms behind her back. "What's for breakfast?"

Much later, after Naruto and Hinata have unearthed some breakfast and Naruto's grandparents have gone back to bed, Hinata drags Naruto back outside to sit under the tree he was stuck in not half an hour ago.

"So what were you doing up in that tree?" asks Hinata.

"I wanted to talk to the Hokage," admits Naruto.

"Why?" Hinata crosses her arms.

"Because Iruka niisan and Grandma had a big argument and Iruka niisan ran off afterwards and didn't come back!" Naruto blurts out.

"He'll be back," says Hinata. "He probably just needs time to cool off. My uncle and my dad fight and argue and once they're done they storm off in opposite directions, shut themselves away from everyone and re emerge several hours later and it's like nothing happened." Hinata shrugs. "Iruka san will be back, trust me."

Naruto smiles, feeling much better. Then he says, "Let's go tell Shikamaru and Choji that I stopped floating!"

Grinning, Hinata helped Naruto to his feet and drags him through the village to the Nara compound. The gate guard, who knows Hinata and Naruto, lets them in straight away.

"So you're back on the ground, I see," the guard grins as he waves the two kids through to gate.

Hinata and Naruto scurry through the Nara courtyard and Shikamaru's bedroom window and climb inside. Shikamaru always sleeps with his window open a bit, so it is just a matter of prying the window open and climbing in. Naruto and Hinata fall to the floor with a crash. Shikamaru wakes up, sees them, mumbles, "Troublesome." and rolls over to go back to sleep.

There are five seconds of total silence, then Shikamaru sits up faster than a bolt of lightning and says, "When did you stop floating?"

"An hour ago!" says Naruto, grinning from ear to ear. "Come on, Shikamaru, we're going to tell Choji, and then we can do whatever we want, 'cause you guys don't have to stop me from flying away!"

"Troublesome," mutters Shikamaru and rolls out of bed.

"So...what's for breakfast?" asks Hinata grinning.

About half an hour later, Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru set out for Choji's house. All three are full of the breakfast they scrounged from Shikamaru's kitchen cupboards after Shikamaru's mum told them to find their own breakfast - it's too early to be up, dammit!

When Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru finally arrive at Choji's house, he is sitting in his living room with a bowl of cereal watching Saturday morning cartoons on television. Hinata, Shikamaru and Naruto wait until the ads come on before revealing their collective presence to their friend.

"Woah! You're back to normal!" Choji yells upon seeing Naruto standing with both feet firmly planted on the ground.

"What cereal is that?" asks Hinata.

Shikamaru facepalms.

Fugaku is sitting in his office trying to solve an interesting case wherein an old lady's cat went missing for an entire week and came back as if nothing had happened. Of course, it was hard for the cat to hide the fact that it went from being small, black and having a bow around its neck to having slick fur, a pair of awesome shades and a leather jacket. But the thing that is bothering Fugaku is that this particular cat is just a normal house cat. What happened to this cat? It went from normal to…

"Mr Nice Police Chief!" Naruto and his posse crash into Fugaku's room, interrupting his train of thought.

"Hello Naruto," says Fugaku, taking a calming breath.

"Look! I stopped floating! With a bit of help from Hinata, but I STOPPED FLOATING!" Naruto jumps up and down in excitement.

All Fugaku can think is; There goes the village's peace and quiet. The Prankster Gang is back in full force and they have lost time to make up for. Great.

At around midday, Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru and Choji turn up at Ichiraku Ramen. It's been awhile since the four of them have come in together, Ichiraku reflects. Ever since they started at the Academy started they haven't had much time for goofing around. Besides that, with Naruto's floating he is very much at the mercy of his grandparents' wishes.

But it looks like that has changed. "Naruto you managed to switch off that seal, I see," smiles Ichiraku.

"Yep!" Naruto grins. "One bowl of miso ramen please!"

Ichiraku smiles and says, "It's on the house to celebrate your return to earth! You and your friends can have all the ramen you want today!"

Amid the cheers and whoops and 'thank yous' Ichiraku smiles and thinks that it is about time Naruto's grandparents saw for themselves what a cunning little prankster the boy can be.