For the first time in a month the villagers were unsettled. Unsettled because there was a smile on the blonde's face. Which blonde as there were many Yamanakas in the village? Well, there was only one blonde which could cause this sort of reaction from them. And he was no Yamanaka.

For more than a month, the general populace of Konohagakure had been spared from being targeted with a prank by their resident prankster from hell. And as history had shown them time and again, whenever there was a hiatus in pranks, it was always followed by one of greater intensity. For that halt meant that the hellion was plotting. And given his unpredictability, that was never a good thing.

But it was not only the smile on his face, but the date. And that coinciding was making the populace even more unsettled than usual. Their tension and anxiety were almost palpable as they gave him a wide berth on the streets. It even had the unexpected consequence of lessening the usual glares he was subjected to. Lest they be the unfortunate targets of some sinister prank.

Not that the boy knew or cared about the reason for their anxiety. As far as he was concerned, they were more fidgety than normal because of party from Kiri had been staying for a couple of days, with no sign of leaving.

He wasn't a complete ignoramus though. He knew, or rather had read recently, that Konoha's history with diplomatic parties wasn't the best. The most recent, of course, was Hinata's attempted abduction by Kumo ninja.

But he didn't let their suspicions get him down as he walked in the middle of the town square, hands behind his head, and smiled his mischievous, happy foxy grin for the first time in a month and meant it.

Because Naruto Uzumaki – well, contested Uzumaki for now – was happy. He wasn't happy because of some epiphany or a sudden confidence in his abilities. He wasn't happy because a few days ago he had learned to stand on water. He wasn't happy because the day before yesterday, he had finally mastered watered walking. Because Shadow Clones were much more useful for things other than researching topics.

Naruto wasn't happy because of a sudden realisation of who his parents were, because that was still very much a mystery to him. No, he was grinning like a loon because today was October 10th. Today was his birthday. And unlike a few years ago, where he used to hate this date, it had changed when he was eight going on nine.

Now, he actually looked forward to it. And the reason for that, was his mysterious well-wisher. The first time he had been visited by the person, he was over the moon and had cried for half a day. And every birthday since then – sometimes even halfway through the year – he would receive a package from the benefactor.

And Naruto treasured those more than anything. He cherished them more than the goggles the Hokage had gotten him for his fourth birthday. He treasured them more than his forehead protector which Iruka had given him – which was still lost and he had to get a new one.

Naruto knew he would get home tonight and find another package today. A sealed scroll. And Naruto couldn't wait for the day to be over. For they always leave them at nights. Naruto had tried to stay the day inside his apartment but even then, they would appear suddenly and magically, without anyone visibly appearing.

Of course, he now knew that they were using some invisibility jutsu. But now, he could perhaps sense them with his new abilities. More than that, Naruto hoped that this year, his gift would be something to do with training. Or be more useful.

Although, he had to admit that the customised sealing wallet, which only his chakra and blood could open, was pretty handy.

Naruto looked behind him and sighed but he didn't allow that to ruin his mood. Seriously? Did they really think that was enough to fool him? He was the king of pranks in the village!

'That is a good disguise, you guys', Naruto called out and almost immediately, the curtain painted to look like a fence split apart to show an explosion of a flash bomb, making a few civilians jump back in surprise.

The girl came first with orange hair tied with red ribbons into two very large pigtails, striking up a flirtatious pose, 'I'm Moegi, the sassiest kunoichi in pre-school. Check me out!'

'I love algebra! Call me Udon', the other boy exclaimed, striking a similar pose.

Naruto chuckled at his two shadows, shaking his head at their obvious attempt to copy him. To be honest, he was a little proud of them. Their stealth had gotten better. Much better than last time. At least they weren't using a square box of rocks to hide in now.

But where was the third shadow? He spied a familiar brown hair coming towards him hurriedly.

But then again, maybe their stealth needed more work, he mentally revised his statement seeing the 'boy'.

'Konohamaru', Naruto narrowed his eyes at his third shadow, who seemed to have attached his name to Naruto's own as a rival, without even asking for the blonde's opinion whatsoever.

Ah there he was, rushing towards them. 'I'm the number one ninja in town! Konohamaru, and when we're all together. We are the Konohamaru ninja squad.'

Naruto laughed out loud at their attempt at collaboration. Well at least they got the name same this time.

'That was an almost good transformation, Konohamaru.'

The nine-year-old boy sighed, 'Thanks boss. I know I still have to work on the technique.'

Naruto agreed, 'Maybe next time don't try to sneak up on me as a half-naked woman', he said with a smirk just as Moegi burst out laughing. Seriously, in what world would a woman be out on the street naked.

All four of them however ignored the muttered whispers of the 'demon brat ruining the honourable grandson'.

'So, whatcha doing here?' Naruto asked the three stooges. They were clearly up to something if the puppy dog look, they were preparing had anything to do with it.

And as expected, the three children all huddled together, put their hands together and gave him the puppy dog look, trying to their eyes look as big as possible.

'You're very busy these days, boss', Udon said, sniffling back his well… whatever it was.

Naruto sighed, knowing what they wanted, yet again. 'Well I am a genin now, you guys. Work comes with the job.'

Moegi looked sad for a moment before she asked, 'Well are you busy now?' with sparkling with hope.

'I am a little Moegi', Naruto wondered if he had ever been this innocent and carefree in his childhood. Probably not. This fucking village had driven it all away. He'd never had a childhood to begin with.

'What?!' Konohamaru exclaimed, eyes narrowing down. 'But you promised you'd play ninja with us.'

Naruto paled considerably, wincing as he remembered he actually did promise it to the kid. He chuckled, one hand scratching the back of his head, 'Hehe… that's right, I did. Didn't I?'

He didn't even know what the hell 'playing a ninja' meant. When he was younger, all the times he had wanted to play it with the other kids, they had all let him hide and never even bothered to find him. Maybe he should try one of Kakashi's excuses on them.

He was more sore than normal given that he had upped his training weights again. Guy had told him multiple times that for physical training, he needed to keep surprising his body by changing up his tactics. Otherwise he would plateau in his gains.

And even though he hadn't improved in his taijutsu yet, he refused to let his gains in stamina and endurance be halted just because he got lazy.

One at their hopeful and childishly innocent looks scraped that idea. But then another, better one popped into his head. It might even be fun and teach these brats something, if it didn't require him running around. He didn't thin his jellied legs and aching arms could handle it. Judging from the time of day, academy was still in session. Which meant they were truanting, yet again.

'Aha!' Naruto pointed to the three kids. 'I got it!'

'What, what?' Moegi pushed Konohamaru out of her way as he seemed to be blocking her view of Naruto.

'Did you think of a game boss?' asked the scarf wearing academy kid.

'As a matter of fact, I did', Naruto nodded sagely. But he couldn't explain it to them out in the open. 'Come, let's go somewhere private.'

The three kids trustingly followed their boss into a less crowded behind the town square market and into an alley, looking at him as if he was about to tell them the meaning of life.

Well, too bad. He had no intention of answering them a forty-two. 'I have a stealth game for you three.'

'Ahun ahun!'

'How do you play it boss?'

'Well that's simple', Naruto started. 'It means going into a place, or spying on someone without them finding out. We'll see how long it takes for you guys to be found out.'

'So, we'll be hiding from you?' Konohamaru asked, wondering what was different about this game from hide-and-seek.

'Yep. And not just me but also every other person who might suspect it's you', Naruto smiled at the three. 'Use your creativity. You can't just hide like that,' he pointed to their clothes.

The children had a brief look of confusion on their faces. But unsurprisingly, Konohamaru, who had the most pranking-oriented mind immediately piped up, 'Aha! So, we can use henge!'

Moegi's eyes lit up, 'You are so smart, Naruto-niichan', completely forgetting that Konohamaru had done just that not ten minutes ago.

'Yes, but this time, don't be naked', Naruto reminded the three. 'And here', he showed them to his secret stash of items that he had hidden carefully behind a dumpster, for a rainy day when the mood struck him.

'What do we do this, boss?' Konohamaru asked, holding up a little paper seal which was not unlike an explosive seal but the kid didn't have to know that.

Naruto grinned and let them in on his plan, causing them to snicker at the deviousness of it.

'Good. Now you have two hours and I'll be constantly trying to find you', Naruto said and instantly, the three kids had grabbed a handful of the paper slips and bolted, stuffing them into their pockets.

It wasn't until ten minutes later that Naruto even realised, he had never taught the sexy jutsu to either Udon or Moegi. Ah well, they would just have to make due. He seriously doubted the closet pervert was teaching them anything useful. After all, the perverted jonin didn't even know that they weren't in school.

'Okay, time to begin', Naruto made the most familiar hand-seal and a couple of dozen shadow clones popped out. As usual, he sent a few into the library to continue their research. By now the chunin's who had guard duty their had gotten used to multiple Naruto's browsing the genin and theories sections.

Much as they disliked the idea, they couldn't do anything to stop him. The rest were however doing much the same as the three kids earlier: stuffing their pockets with seals.

As one, they all put their hands in the ram seal and called out, 'Sexy Jutsu' and in front of him stood at least thirty-six different looking women, all quite beautiful in their own regard.

With a feral smirk, they dispersed into the market from different angles and Naruto himself snuck out, intent on finding the three children.

It was ten minutes later that he found the first one. At first glance it looked to be one of his clones who was looking at women's clothes in a shop. However, a closer inspection told him the girl was showing more skin than any of his clones did.

Hiding himself as he was in the guise of old man, he couldn't just walk up to woman's shop and not expect to get beaten up. Closing his eyes, and concentrating on the sensing chakras, it took a couple of minutes to focus because of the multitude of signatures present.

Getting rid of that headache would be a pain. But eventually, he could focus his 'mind's eye'. Ah, so it was Konohamaru, the Ero-gaki. Well, a little might be Naruto's fault since he did try to sneak him into the women's baths last time.

Two shops down, it was Udon in the guise of a brown-haired woman, with a decidedly manly face. Hmm. His sexy jutsu needed work. But Moegi's, who was looking at some fruit at a stall, was nearly perfect. Though the hair was still the same colour and shape.

Still, he needed a way to tell them they'd been caught and try again. But he couldn't just do the shadow clone jutsu here in the middle of the street. Hmmm…. This was trouble. If he gave it away here, there's no telling what the damn villagers would do.

And he was liable to give away the rest of his clones who were wandering the town square anyway. He mentally groaned looking at the number of men ogling his clones. Why the fuck is Konoha full of such perverts.

He quickly ducked into a bookshop, keeping an eye on the kid's chakra signatures albeit it was hard to focus on two things at once.

Distracted as he was, he didn't see where he had decided to hide. 'Adult section, hmmm… Interesting. Very interesting.'

Well, might as well make use of this opportunity and browse. Naruto's old man eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he saw the third shelf.

There, shining like a gold trophy in the middle of all the other trash, the book was calling to him. The little orange titled book nestled in between other romance novels might as well be the forbidden scroll of seals.

'Hehehe. Maybe I can teach Konohamaru a thing or two to take out Jiji', Naruto let out a perverted giggled as his hand reached towards the book. Finally, he would get to see what his sensei was reading in this book all the time. Just when he was to grab it, Naruto's hand halted.

'Uh oh', he mentally winced. He could recognise this feeling anywhere. The dangerous, lingering threat of female retribution. He didn't need to turn to see a few civilian women glaring at him from behind him. 'Shit!'

How the fuck was he going to get out of his one without being pummelled yet again. As subtly as he could, and without making it look he had noticed them at all, he shifted his hand slightly towards the title immediately on the orange book's right.

Holding the hideous bright blue cover, he said, 'Ohh! Pardon me young ladies. Let me get out of your way.' Naruto inched sideways and turned around, thinking he had actually gotten away with it when a resounding punch was delivered to the back of his head.

'Oh no you don't you perverted old man!' came the shrill yell of a very familiar looking pink haired woman.

However, what he failed to notice was the mirror right in front of him where they saw what he was doing. Including his perverted giggle.

'Wait wait… hold on a second', Naruto put his hands up in submission. 'Surely we can talk this….'

But it was no use talking to this rabid flood of oestrogen and throwing his book sideways, he quickly ran out of the shop, the women right on his tail. Swerving through the crowd, he subconsciously pushed chakra all around his body, willing the change and picturing the woman in his mind, moulding it so he can get his hands in the ram seal when he found the opportunity.

The women within a few more seconds ran up to him and he made every possible attempt not to look stressed.

The pink haired leader urged forward, 'Excuse me miss. But did you see a perverted old man with a bleeding nose running this way?'

Naruto was stunned for a second. What in the hell was going on? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the reason for their apparent mistake.

Nodding his head fervently, he replied, 'Ahun! That man groped my ass and ran that way!' he pointed towards the opposite direction.

'HE WILL PAY!' the woman yelled, in a voice disturbingly similar manner to Sakura when she yelled at him for doing his sexy jutsu.

The rabid group of women took off, intent on teaching the pervert a lesson to the old man who dared think he can corrupt the honourable grandson.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief as he took in his reflection in the glass of a nearby shop. He was about five feet tall, with long blonde hair and big green eyes, with a sizeable chest. He had made no hand-sign at all, when then did he look different?

Why then had he executed a sexy jutsu? Closing his eyes, and focusing inward, Naruto was instantly able to tell this wasn't the sexy jutsu. The chakra output was different than the sexy jutsu, and he had a layer of chakra covering his body, distorting the image.

So… this was the henge! Naruto was stunned and speechless. For the first time ever, he executed it perfectly. Although there was no smoke when he had done. Deciding to see if it was a fluke, he let go of the chakra he had been maintaining, and the woman's features slowly reverted to the twelve-year -old boy he was, as if melting into the boy he was.

Grinning at the progress he had made albeit unknowingly, Naruto set out to get the three children and decided to see their progress. In the two hours they played the game, Naruto had found them six times all in a different location, all as different sexy jutsu girls.

Moegi had even gone further and changed more clothes on top of what she transformed, and a headscarf to cover her hair. That is why he was able to find her the last time otherwise he would have passed her by if he was being honest.

Unlike what he had thought before, it didn't end up being a waste of time. He was able to use this 'game' to sharpen his observation and stealth skills for he only resorted to chakra sensing when he needed to confirm his suspicion. Otherwise it became too easy and rather pointless for him.

In the end though, Naruto parted from the three children but not before the three had haggled another promise out of him for playing with them again.

Just as he left the streets, multiple explosions of smoke occurred in the village proper, eliciting loud shouts and cursing from merchants to vendors to even shinobi. When the smoke cleared however was when the real commotion and hysteria began.

Yells of 'demon brat', 'monster', 'damn menace', and 'hellion' could be heard from various corners and shops.

'Oops', Naruto said as he got the recent memories of a shadow clone having dispersed in the crowd. It seems he had forgotten to tell the three kids which tags to put where.

The insides of various shops, and the streets were covered in an explosion of dispersing pink smoke, revealing everything in sight dripping with thick multicoloured paint.

'MY CABBAGES!' one street vendor screamed in panic, looking horrified at his collection of now pink vegetables.

'NARRUTOOOO!' came the instinctual shout of a Chunin teacher.

An enraged scream sent him scrambling as far away from the village proper as he could get, as fast as his subconsciously chakra laden feet could take him. He could recognise Iruka's yell anywhere, anytime and it usually spelled a terrible consequence for him.

Naruto let out a loud, belly laugh as he ran towards his isolated training ground towards the edge of the village. Too bad they couldn't prove anything. They hadn't even seen him anywhere in the village today and there were no eye witnesses unlike every other time he had successfully pranked the idiots.

Well, it's not like he did it himself. Naruto's mischievous chuckling died down as he sorted out all the memories of his clones. The ones in the library had gathered enough material to study and research for weeks.

What he neither saw or nor sensed was the auburn haired ANBU vanishing in a Shunshin from on top of a roof, having a report to deliver to his master. Danzo-sama would be pleased, given what he had just witnessed.