I do not own Majestic or Naruto, DC and Kishimoto do.

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The Librarians

Foundations Of The Future

The ceiling was one that Naruto didn't recognise. Rather than the cracked, peeling painted wood that he normally awoke to, this one was smooth white plaster, almost glowing in the morning light that shone in between the gaps of the fabric blinds which seemed to cover an entire wall.

Sitting up on the bed which was firmer, less lumpy and far more comfortable than his normal bed, Naruto looked around curiously, his sense of unreality increasing as he took in his surroundings.

The bed he was on was located against one wall and the floor was wooden, with a woven rug covering most of it. The far wall had multiple shelves mounted on it, shelves which held items that Naruto knew couldn't be there since they were his own belongings.

Swinging his legs to the floor and standing up, Naruto continued his exploration, noting that his bed had open wardrobes at either end and shelves above. One wardrobe contained his clothing while the other one, at the foot of his bed, held bed-linen and a spare futon stacked in the lowest section.

A knock on the door interrupted Naruto's reverie and he made his way over, pulling it, then pushing as it refused to open.

"What the…?" He grumbled as he looked at the recessed handle in confusion, then the door slid sideways as the person on the other side opened it for him.

"…Sasuke? What are you doing in my dream?"

The boy that Naruto considered his rival gave him a flat stare, then shook his head. "Dream, huh? More like a nightmare."

"Boys, behave." A firm voice cut in and Naruto peered round the doorframe to see an amused Majestros looking down at them. "Naruto, this isn't a dream. Sasuke, show Naruto where the bathing area is. Once you're both showered and dressed, come to the kitchen for breakfast."

"…and explanations?" Naruto prompted, causing Majestros' amusement to grow.

"Yes, Naruto. And explanations."

Both boys watched the man descend the stairs, then Sasuke sighed.

"Great. Grab a couple of towels and come on."

"Towels?"

"Above the bedsheets."

"How did you know that? Have you been peeking?"

"I know because it's where they're meant to go." Sasuke growled. "Towels. Now. Get."

"Sheesh." Naruto grumbled as he spotted the incredibly fluffy towels neatly folded in the wardrobe. "What a grouch."

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Majestros chuckled as his hearing allowed him to listen to the boys bickering. Eucrastia smiled as she also listened to them, then she turned her attention back to her cup of tea.

"So, I was thinking pancakes for breakfast." Majestros pulled a frying pan out from the cupboard, then moved to the pantry to collect the basket of eggs stored there. "Did you want some?"

"That would be nice, my love." Eucrastia replied as she looked at Majestros' bare arms and the rapidly-fading teethmarks on his wrist. "I never tire of being able to actually eat."

"It's almost a shame that normal food isn't as effective as blood at helping to empower you." Majestros noted as he retreived the milk from the fridge, then collected the ceramic jar of flour.

"But at least you have the option."

Eucrastia nodded in agreement, then took another sip of tea as Majestros lit the stove with his eye-beams before drawing his fingernail around the first egg, breaking the shell into two pieces. As the first egg dropped into the pan, Majestros reached out, only to pause as Eucrastia handed the second egg to him before collecting a second pan.

"We now have two young boys to feed." She pointed out with a smile. "Let me help."

"Always, my love."

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After towelling his hair dry and dropping the towel into the wash hamper, just as Sasuke had done, a fully-dressed Naruto followed the dark-haired boy down the stairs, his eyes darting round as he tried to take in everything at once.

"Where are we?" He finally asked.

"On the stairs." Sasuke replied, using the fact that he was in front of Naruto to hide his amused smirk.

"Very funny." Naruto groused. "I mean, where are we?"

"Majestros' house." Sasuke replied, inwardly chuckling at the groan from behind him.

"Sasuke, so help me, I'm gonna…"

"Sit down and have breakfast." Majestros' voice interjected and Sasuke stepped into the large kitchen, sitting down at the table. Naruto followed him and took the next seat round the square table as Majestros slid plates full of some food that Naruto had never encountered before in front of the two boys.

"Pancakes!" Sasuke exclaimed. "Thank you!"

"You are welcome, Sasuke." Majestros replied as he sat down with an even larger stack of pancakes in front of him. Naruto looked quizzically at the dark-haired woman who only had a couple of pancakes on her plate, then he watched as Sasuke accepted a jug of some odd gold-tinged thick liquid and poured a small amount over the stack of pancakes before him.

"What is that?"

"Syrup." Sasuke replied, putting the jug down, then noting the look that Majestros was giving him. "…I don't normally like sweet things, but it's nice with these."

Naruto accepted the jug and carefully poured a little bit of the odd liquid over the food, then he gave the odd metal thing beside his placemat.

"What is…"

"It's called a fork." Sasuke noted, using the side of it to cut into the pancake stack, then spearing the top one with the implement in question. Naruto watched as Sasuke ate, then turned his attention to his own food, prodding it cautiously before gingerly using the fork like a kunai to slive off a tiny fragment. As the other three watched in various amounts of amusement, he lifted the small morsel to his mouth.

"I think he likes it." Majestros deadpanned as Naruto suddenly started almost inhaling the pancakes, causing Eucrastia to laugh while Sasuke simply rolled his eyes.

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"Have a good day at the Academy!" Eucrastia gave both boys a quick hug as they stepped out. Sasuke simply gave a long-suffering sigh, but relaxed into the hug while Naruto went as stiff as a board, not knowing how to respond. "Try not to cause too much trouble."

"I'll keep an eye on him." Sasuke half-promised. "Come on, let's go."

Naruto let himself be towed along, glancing back at the house until they made it round the corner, then he extracted his sleeve from Sasuke's grip.

"I didn't know that you lived with them." Naruto finally admitted.

"I do." Sasuke replied curtly, then he saw the confused look that Naruto was giving him. "They took me in after He killed most of the Uchiha. Majestros has been helping me to become stronger so that one day I can avenge the dead of my clan."

"He got someone called Hiashi to help me with my Chakra control." Naruto offered and Sasuke tripped on something that Naruto couldn't see, landing full-length in the dust. "Hey, you okay?"

Sasuke picked himself up and gave Naruto a disbelieving glance. "Hiashi? As in Hyuuga Hiashi?"

Naruto nodded. "Yep, that was it! He got me walking on water, it was easy! The tree-walking wasn't so easy, though… they had to catch me quite a bit."

"…what about the leaf exercise?" Sasuke finally prompted and Naruto sighed.

"Still can't do it. The last time I tried, the leaf exploded!"

Sasuke shook his head in disbelief. "…what?"

"What?"

"I… never mind." Sasuke shook his head and resumed the interrupted journey. "I guess that Majestros is going to make you his ward too."

"What's a ward?"

The artless question caused Sasuke to stumble, but unlike the previous time, he managed to not measure his length on the path.

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"First!"/"First!"

The twin shouts echoed through the classroom as two girls, a blond and one wih pink hair, piled through the door in a manner which most impartial observers would have sworn blind violated at least two laws of physics. Coming to a stop, they both eagerly scanned the room, then sagged.

"He's not here, Ino…"

"I can see that, Sakura…"

Both girls seemed to sag without actually moving, then Ino gasped. "What if he's sick?"

"He'd need nursing!" Sakura responded without stopping to think. "Where does he live?"

"I'm not sick." A voice stated coldly from behind them and both girls bounced away from the door with startled squeaks. "Naruto, stop lagging."

"Na…" "…ruto?" Ino and Sakura looked at each other in horror, both of them reaching the same conclusion simultaneously. "Sasuke's gay?"

"Nah, he's just asexual." Naruto shook his head as he was dragged past the pale girls. Sasuke slammed to a halt, then turned to look at Naruto in confusion.

"Hang on, you had no damned clue as to what a ward was before I told you, you know pretty much nothing about the various Bloodlimits of the clans and yet… how?"

"Whenever I got bored in the evenings, I'd go out and talk to the women who liked to stand on the street corners." Naruto shrugged. "I even earned some ryo for giving them massages in their shared flats. Standing around like that can give them backaches, so I helped them relax."

Sasuke stared at Naruto, his expression a peculiar mix of confusion, disbelief and shock.

"Why would you talk to them?" One of the other girls in the classroom asked, having managed to connect the mental dots faster than most of the other students present.

"They don't glare at me." Naruto replied in a it's obvious tone of voice and Sasuke growled in frustration.

"Come on. You're sitting next to me. Perhaps that'll stop the damned wannabe kunoichi from trying to cuddle up to me."

"Okay?"

Ino and Sakura watched the two boys move to one of the two-seat tables by the window and sit down, Sasuke keeping Naruto between him and the rest of the class like a shield.

"…what just happened?" Ino finally managed.

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"Naruto… you seem to be having trouble with that." Sasuke noted as Naruto squinted at the page in front of him.

"Well, what does this mean?" Naruto pointed at one of the kanji.

"Intercept."

"…really?" Naruto blinked. "…that sorta means block, meet or tackle, right?"

"Who taught you to read?" Sasuke shook his head, then paused as Naruto looked away. "No-one taught you?"

"It's tricky!" Naruto protested. "I get some of it, but then there's all these new words I don't know and…"

Ignoring Sensei Iruka's expression of horrified understanding, Sasuke looked at Naruto. "You're going to owe me hugely for this."

"…for what?"

"Majestros and Eucrastia are busy people, you need serious one-on-one help and thanks to Yamanaka-san, I know that I don't have the patience to do it myself at the moment."

"You what?!" Naruto protested, but Sasuke ignored him as he stood up.

"Your attention, please!" He spoke loudly, getting the attention of everyone in the class. "It would seem that the person assigned to teach Naruto how to read when he was younger decided not to do it, so Naruto needs help with remedial reading. If anyone can help him, then…"

"I'll do it!" A voice interrupted him and all eyes turned to the speaker, who blushed furiously under the sudden scrutiny, but nodded to confirm the offer.

"…what just happened?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Are you free the day after tomorrow?" Sasuke asked, receiving another nod. "Will you need an escort?"

"I… I'll be fine." Hinata managed.

"…what are you talking about?"

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"Eucrastia? Majestros?"

"Eucrastia is at the archives, they discovered that there had been a clerical error that requires quite a bit of re-sorting." Majestros stated from the kitchen. "What happened?"

"Naruto can't read." Sasuke stated as he racked his shoes.

"Can!" Naruto protested.

"Naruto can't read very well." Sasuke expanded his previous statement. "Hyuuga Hinata has volunteered to spend some of her free time teaching him."

"…interesting." Majestros mused as he emerged from the kitchen, drying his hands with a towel. "Naruto, there is no shame in admitting when you are weak or do not understand a situation. Knowing your weaknesses means that you can then fix them or at least protect against them being exploited."

"He's right." Sasuke interjected as he opened the pantry to grab a tomato from the bowl within. "Eucrastia had to quite literally drag me to my first few therapy sessions with Yamanaki Inoichi."

"I can only imagine what you would have been like without them." Majestros joked, causing Sasuke to stick his tongue out at him. "Naruto, have an apple or a tomato, then both of you change into your sparring clothes."

"…sparring clothes?" Naruto asked in confusion. "I have sparring clothes?"

"Wardrobe furthest away from the window, underneath your hanging jackets." Sasuke supplied before taking another bite of his tomato.

"You have been peeking in my room!"

"Yours is arranged the same way mine is." Sasuke protested. "It's how Majestros arranged things when he brought your stuff over."

Naruto looked at the white-haired man, who nodded in confirmation.

"…oh."