~Chapter 2: In Which Naruto Fails and Maru Can't Stand it~

"Well, here we are," Chi said cheerfully as he stopped in front of the orphanage.

Naruto looked at the building, and then down at the sable fur clutched in his hands. He had been enjoying the ride so much, he'd forgotten where he was going. Back to the place where he lived. He would never think of it as home. Home was warm and inviting. Home was where families were. Where people were happy.

The orphanage didn't make him happy. He didn't have any family there (or anywhere, as far as he knew). The attic where he was usually sent to sleep as punishment when he did something really bad certainly wasn't warm. And it most certainly was not inviting.

"What's up, kid?" Chi asked, looking back at him. The look on his face was one of genuine concern. At least, that's what it looked like to Naruto. He'd never really seen concern for him on anyone's face, let alone a ferret's. In fact, could they even show concern?

"I just..." Naruto didn't want to really tell Chi the truth. It made him look like a whiner. Every orphan in the village probably didn't like living in the orphanage. It was a sign of what they didn't have. But Naruto somehow felt more justified in his misery. Wasn't that wrong? Wasn't he supposed to be grateful for the roof over his head?

So, he did what he usually did when he wanted to divert attention from his real feelings: he gave a big dumb grin and deflected his little heart out.

"It's fine!" He said, maybe a little too loudly (it wasn't like he had any volume control anyway) "I just had so much fun, I didn't want today to end!"

Chi laughed and sat down on the ground, "Dinner with Maru-chan was fun? You sure are a weird one."

Naruto got (fell) off of Chi's back. He stood in front of the amiable weasel.

"Hey, it was free food!" Naruto grinned.

"Hah! A kid after my own heart," Chi chuckled as he stood back up. Naruto knew that he was small, he was a little kid, but next to Chi he felt even smaller. He was as long as the fence around the orphanage was tall. His shoulders passed just above the spikes of hair that topped Naruto's hair. His back was at least another six inches higher.

"You're really big," Naruto commented dumbly.

"I'll take that as a compliment!" Chi replied, "Now off you go. I don't want Maru-chan missing me too much."

"Okay..." Naruto tried to hide his disappointment by turning away from Chi. The day had been a happy one, no sense ruining it by bringing anyone else down. As he got closer to the gates, though, Chi called out to him.

"Hey, you wanna help me with groceries again tomorrow?"

Naruto grinned and shouted, "Hell yeah!"

He ran back over to Chi and threw his arms around his neck. Then he ran straight through the gates and into the orphanage...

...and right into the waiting arms of Mana Mi, demon headmistress of Konoha's orphanage.

Pots. Naruto hated scrubbing pots. Unfortunately, Mi-obachan had decided the scrubbing of pots would be his punishment for "worrying everyone". Yeah, like they had actually been worried. She was probably just mad that she could have gotten in trouble with Jiji.

Naruto scrubbed a particularly stubborn spot on the bottom of his fourth pot. Had they burned the food just to spite him? Ah, who was he kidding, the food was always burned. The cook was terrible.

"When you're done with those, Mi-san wants you to do those dishes as well," the kitchen attendant told him, pointing at a stack of dishes to his left.

"Whatever, I'm not that hag's slave," Naruto grumbled.

This was, apparently, a very wrong thing to say.

"How dare you!" the attendant said, grabbing his arm, "Mi-san breaks her back taking care of ungrateful brats like you!"

Naruto struggled against the attendant's grip, "Let go!" But her grip only tightened.

"Her kindness is more than a monster like you deserves! Especially after what you did to-!"

"I said let go!" Naruto shouted, shoving the crazy person away. They slammed back into the counter, knocking a stack of dirty bowls over. There was a loud smash as they fell to the ground and broke. The attendant stared at Naruto with wide eyes.

Naruto took advantage of the attendants shock and made a break for the exit. He ran through the hallways, past other, happier children and grumbling employees. They shouted at him to "slow down" and "be careful" lest he break something, but Naruto didn't care. He just wanted to get away.

So he ran through the streets of Konoha, bumping into passers by, (who were always happy to scold him for doing anything wrong) but not caring in the slightest. He passed through the marketplace where he had met Chi the day before. He passed through the outer housing districts, where he had spent an evening eating "poisoned" soup with a grumpy stranger. And he kept running still, everything scrolling past him in a teary blur. He never wanted to stop running.

Unfortunately, a very well placed tree had other plans. He slammed into it full force, his face taking the brunt of the attack. With a cry, he tipped backward and, unable to catch himself, fell flat on his back. For a few moments, he sat there in stunned silence. He could feel something leaking running down his upper lip. He brought a couple fingers up to his nose. They came away red.

That was fine, he thought. It wasn't like he'd never seen blood before. Nothing to cry about...Yet he could feel the tears leaking from his eyes, sobs coming from his own mouth.

Maybe it was the pain. Maybe it was the scare the kitchen attendant had given him. Maybe it was the stress from being lost (which he most certainly was). Or maybe it was just everything. The treatment by the village, the lack of empathy from the people who were supposed to be raising him, and any other reasons his saddened mind could conjure up. Thinking about it just made him want to cry harder. So that's just what he did.

For how long he sat there bawling, Naruto didn't know. By the time his loud, snot-infused cries had dulled to quiet sniffly whimpers, the sun hung high overhead. It must have been sometime around noon. Noontime meant lunch. Lunch meant food. Sweet, delicious food. His stomach growled.

Naruto pushed himself up from the ground and shook the dirt from his hair. If he was lucky maybe he could get the old guy, Teuchi, who ran Ichiraku's to give him a free bowl of ramen or two. It was either that or go back to the orphanage for lunch, but there was no way in hell he was going to do that. Mi-obachan, the old hag, would be on the warpath and there was no telling what kind of terrible punishment should would dream up. Whatever it was, it would be much worse than doing the dishes.

Either way, he'd have to find out where he was before he could even think about where he was going to go.

Trees. A lot of trees. So he wasn't in the city. Well, that was juuuust peachy.

"Gah, where the hell am I!" Naruto yelled, mussing up his hair. The only thing it accomplished was scaring away some birds.

Naruto huffed and decided to just pick a direction and start walking.

There was a bounce in Chi's step as he made his way to the orphanage. After all, it wasn't every day he had company while he ran errands. Besides, Naruto was a pretty cheerful kid. A breath of fresh air compared to Maru-chan.

He cut off his train of thought. Today he was going to have some fun. No need to bring down his good mood with unhappy thoughts about unhappy people.

With one final bounce, Chi stopped in front of the orphanage and looked around. He had expected Naruto to be waiting outside, but he wasn't. Come to think of it, they had never set a time to meet. He probably thought that Chi went shopping later in the day, which wasn't the case. Yesterday had been a bit of a fluke. Maru had needed him to run a few more errands than normal, so he didn't get done until late in the day. Today certainly wouldn't be as bad.

Chi strolled up to the gates and called to the adult watching the children playing in the yard.

"Excuse me, miss?"

The lady jumped when she saw him.

"Y-yes?" she asked, carefully placing herself between him and the children. Chi laughed internally at her reaction.

"I'm looking for a little boy named Naruto Uzumaki."

The suddenness and severity of her frown made Chi flinch a little.

"Oh, him. He ran off earlier today," she spat, "After he assaulted one of our personnel. Honestly, I don't know why Mi-san puts up with him."

Chi frowned a little bit, "But, isn't it your job to look after the kids?"

"Not to look after him," the woman said. Then she turned away, clearly finding the conversation too disgusting to continue.

Chi's frown deepened. Well, that was troubling. He knew who Naruto was, of course, and why that might put people off. He had hoped, however, that the people who had been watching him would at least do what they were being paid to do and keep Naruto safe.

'Come to think of it,' Chi thought, 'He had been running around the marketplace unsupervised yesterday. They really don't care about him do they?'

That thought brought up a tidal wave of indignation. Treating a kid terribly just because of something he had no control over. Ridiculous.

Well, he'd just have to go find Naruto and console him. Maybe buy him some lunch to make up for the mistreatment.

Naruto passed yet another tree. Had he seen that one before? He rubbed the back of his head in frustration.

"This whole damn place looks the same!" He grumbled as he plodded along.

Thankfully his nose had stopped bleeding, but it still hurt a little. Not to mention it was hot. His shirt was pasted to his back by sweat and Naruto seriously considered just ripping it off. But then when he got back to the village people would probably yell at him for being "improperly dressed". If he ever got to the village, that is. He was seriously beginning to doubt his navigation abilities.

It appeared that the powers that be felt he hadn't been punished enough, however. Naruto tripped. He sprawled out across the dirt, thankfully not smacking his nose this time. It still wasn't a particularly pleasant experience. In fact, it was just unpleasant enough to bring Naruto's ire to a boil.

"Darn it!" Naruto shouted, whipping around in search of whatever he had tripped over. He had half a mind to kick it into submission (not that that was a good plan, but he was an angry six-year-old, the least rational form of human being).

The offending object, he discovered, was the handle of a kunai. It must have been there for a long time because the bandages that had been wrapped around the handle were so tattered that they were nearly falling off. Naruto grabbed it and gave it a sharp tug. The kunai did not budge. He grabbed the handle with two hands and tugged again. Nothing. With a frustrated growl, Naruto braced his legs on either side of the knife and gave it the strongest pull he could.

This seemed to do the trick. The kunai came loose, showering Naruto in dirt. He tipped backward but managed to shift his feet in time to catch himself.

It was pretty beat up from its time in the dirt, but it didn't seem too damaged. Maybe not very sharp but he wasn't picky. Naruto decided to take it with him. Who knew what kind of creatures lived in this place...

As if hearing his thoughts, a bush ahead of him began to rustle. Naruto's heart jumped in his chest. He held the kunai tightly in his hands. If there was a creature in there that was going to eat him, he would kill it with the kunai. Yes...He could definitely do that.

Something long and brown wiggled out of the bushes.

'Snake!' Naruto thought. He threw the kunai at the creature, but it flew wide. The kunai made a light thump as it bounced sideways off of a tree trunk a good three feet away from the "snake".

Naruto cursed his terrible aim and considered running over to retrieve his weapon. But that would mean going near the snake. Without a weapon, however, he would not have any way to defend himself with against a vicious animal.

It soon became clear that he need not worry, however, when Chi stumbled backward out of the bush. As it turns out, the "snake" Naruto thought he had seen was really Chi's tail.

"Chi?" Naruto asked, trying to stave off his embarrassment at having made such a ridiculous mistake.

"Hey, kid!" Chi said cheerily as he shook some leaves from his fur, "Did I hear something fall?"

Naruto found that he couldn't meet Chi's glittering little eyes.

Chi looked around. Finally, his eyes landed on the kunai on the ground. He looked to Naruto, then back at the kunai. Then back to Naruto again. The boy was blushing bright red and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Did you throw a kunai at me?" Chi asked, small ears pricked in curiosity.

"N-no..." Naruto still couldn't bring himself to meet Chi's gaze. Instead, he stared at the tips of his toes.

"Oh my gosh, you did!" Chi laughed.

"Sh-shut up!"

"Oh, that is hilarious!" Chi said, laughing even harder.

"I thought your tail was a snake!" Naruto shouted crossing his arms over his chest.

"What kind of snake has fur on it?" Chi chuckled.

"I-I don't know! I've never been out here before," Naruto mumbled, kicking at the dirt.

Chi laughed for a few more seconds before he finally composed himself.

"Hoo, that was one bad throw, kiddo," he sighed as he padded up to Naruto (who was still pouting).

"Yeah, well, I'd like to see you do better!" Naruto retorted petulantly.

"I can," Chi returned and he moved over to the wayward kunai.

Naruto watched as chi picked up the kunai in one paw. He leaned back on his haunches, balancing the kunai carefully. With a smooth flick of his wrist (do ferrets even have wrists?), he let the knife fly. It landed with a loud thunk in the tree just opposite him.

The amazement Naruto felt at watching a ferret throw a kunai outweighed his indignation at being outclassed by an animal.

"Whoa! Could you teach me?" Naruto begged, his eyes shining in admiration.

"Heh, sure," Chi said as he pulled the kunai from the tree, "After groceries."

"Aw, but that's no fun!" Naruto groaned, puffing out his cheeks in indignation.

"Hey, you promised! Besides, I'm sure Maru-chan will make us lunch if we make good time," Chi handed Naruto the kunai he'd pulled from the tree, "Here, I promise on this kunai that I will train you after lunch."

Naruto grinned and accepted the promise.

"So how did you find me?" Naruto asked as Chi bounded from tree to tree. It felt so nice to be able to stretch his legs again.

"How do you think?" Chi replied turning back to wiggle his pink nose at him.

"Oh! You can do that?"

"Yeah. My nose is just as powerful as any ninken's" Chi said with unmasked pride.

"Really?!" Naruto questioned in unabashed awe, then he asked, "What's a ninken?"

"Well, the truth is in the name: it's a dog that's a ninja," Chi replied.

"Dog ninjas? That's awesome!" There was a pause, and then "Wait, does that mean you could be a ninja?"

"Not only can I be a ninja, but I was a ninja! I'm retired now," Chi replied, "Hey, look, civilization!" He hopped down out of the trees onto a large dirt road with small buildings flanking it.

"Why did you retire?" Naruto asked.

"Because Maru-chan retired," Chi answered. He could see where this line of questioning was going and he didn't like it, but honesty is the best policy...

"Why did she retire?"

Ah, there it was. He knew he'd get in trouble for telling the kid, so he decided to give a vague answer.

"Ninja life wasn't suiting her all that well."

"Why?"

Chi sighed. Leave it to a kid to ask the wrong questions.

"Look Naruto, it's not really an answer for me to give. Maru-chan's a really private lady. She wouldn't appreciate me talking about her behind her back." Hopefully, the kid would take the hint.

"Ugh, she's so boring," Naruto whined, burying his face in Chi's fur.

"I can see why a kid your age would say that," Chi chuckled, "But really, she's a good person. She's just...always thinking about sad things."

"Why?"

Chi let his answer roll around in his head before he let it fall out of his mouth. Maru's psyche was a bit hard to put into words, especially words that a kid Naruto's age would understand.

"Well, it's...how she is," he hated how simple it sounded, but it would have to do for now.

"But doesn't that make her unhappy?"

"Sometimes," Chi replied.

"So why does she do it so much?"

"She can't help it, sometimes," Chi sighed, "It's like...It's like having a really nasty mosquito bite: you know scratching it will make it worse, but you just feel such a need to scratch that you end up doing it anyway."

"...That sucks," Naruto mumbled into Chi's fur.

"Yeah, it does."

They finished getting the groceries shortly before 1:30 and were at Maru's house in another fifteen.

"Just set those on the table. Maru hates it if she can't organize the fridge herself," Chi instructed as he closed the door behind him, "And take your shoes off!"

Naruto pushed off his sandals and tossed them over towards the door. Chi had to nudge them up against the wall so that they weren't in the middle of the doorway.

"Hey, Maru-chan, food," Chi said.

Maru was sitting in the middle of the empty living room, legs crossed, breathing even. Normally, Chi wouldn't interrupt her while she was meditating, but Naruto was hungry. So was he, for that matter. Yet Maru was not, thus she did not move from where she was sitting.

"C'mon Maru-chan! Naruto's here and we're both hungry!"

Maru didn't budge.

"Fine, I'll just use the stove, then," Chi knew it was a bit of a gamble. He would never actually try to use the stove by himself after what happened the last time, but maybe the threat would be enough to motive Maru to get off her butt and be helpful.

Just when it seemed like it wouldn't work, Naruto decided to join in.

"Yeah! We'll just make the food ourselves!"

Maru let out a heavy sigh and stood from the floor.

"No you won't," she stated.

She walked into the kitchen and pushed Naruto away from the stove.

"Hey! I want to help!" he groused, crossing his arms.

Maru dug around in a drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors, "Open the package of noodles."

Naruto happily grabbed the scissors and began stabbing at the plastic wrapped around the noodles. He eventually managed to make a hole in the bag, spilling a few dried noodles onto the floor. Then he proudly presented the package to Maru. She took it from him without a word.

There was a pot of water on the stove, slowly working up to a boil.

"Soup again?" Naruto whined, looking up at Maru.

"Yesterday we had Butajiru. Today we're having Udon," Maru replied like that would alleviate Naruto's grievances.

"But that's still soup!"

"Yes, your observation skills are admirable."

Naruto crossed his arms and pouted, "Ugh, you're so boring!"

"It's a good thing I'm not here to please you, then."

A tense silence passed between the two as small bubbles began to form at the bottom of the pot. Chi, feeling intensely uncomfortable, decided to try to break the quiet.

"So...Uh...Naruto managed to get lost today."

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!" Naruto loudly protested, "I just, got really mad after that mean kitchen lady yelled at me!"

"Kitchen lady?" Chi asked.

"Yeah. After I came home late yesterday, Mi-obachan made me do the dishes. One of the ladies in the kitchen yelled at me when I called Mi-obachan a hag," Naruto mumbled, looking down at his bare feet.

"Why did you call her a hag?" Maru asked as she dumped some instant dashi into the now-boiling water.

"Because she deserved it!" He yelled, turning back to Maru, "She's always being mean to me! Telling me I'm a pain, calling me a brat! I hate her..." He said the last part so quietly that ears weaker than Maru's and Chi's wouldn't have been able to hear him.

"Hm," Chi mumbled just as quietly as she dumped the udon noodles into the boiling broth, "Would you kill her?"

"Maru!" Chi yelled, scandalized.

"No!" Naruto also yelled.

"Then you don't hate her. You hate the way she treats you," Maru said simply. She turned to Naruto, "How do you go about changing that?"

Chi could practically see the gears turning in Naruto's head as he searched for a response.

"Come on, Maru, that's not a fair question," he scolded. Honestly, sometimes she was just so...Maru.

"There isn't anything I can do," Naruto mumbled, "she hates me. I don't know why but she hates me. Everyone does. They just look at me and...Their eyes are just so mean."

Maru stirred the soup, tapped the spoon twice on the edge, then placed it on the counter next to the stove, "It saddens me to hear that the village is so small minded."

"Huh?" Naruto questioned, looking up at the beanpole of a woman.

"To dislike someone because of something they cannot control is just," she sighed, dropping her arms to her sides, "it's just unfair."

Before Naruto could comment, Maru walked away from him. She grabbed a cluster of green onions from the shopping bags and began to chop them up.

"Can I help?" Naruto asked.

"Stir the soup," she instructed, still chopping.

Once the food was made, eaten, and cleaned up, Chi brought Naruto out into the backyard. It was a simple space, mostly sand and grass, with a wooden porch spanning the length of the house's back. There were three big rocks sitting in the middle of the sandy part, each one had swirls going around it. The grassy part was mostly plain, the only break really being some gray paving stones leading to a shed. Next to the shed were some targets and a straw dummy for practicing with weapons.

"Oh, cool!" Naruto exclaimed, fixing to jump off the porch and into the sand. Unfortunately for him, Chi grabbed him by the back of his shirt, so he just ended up making a strangled cry before falling backward.

"No stepping on the zen garden! Use the stairs," Chi scolded, directing him to the stairs at the end of the porch.

Naruto grumbled a bit about rules being stupid but obliged. He bounded down the stairs, towards the targets. Chi followed.

"Okay, stay right there. I'll go get some kunai and shuriken," Chi said as he disappeared into the shed.

They spent at least two hours working on Naruto's aim and well...

Well, Naruto wasn't very good at it, to be frank.

It wasn't that the kid wasn't trying. On the contrary, he was one of the most resilient people Chi had ever worked with. Every time a kunai went awry or a shuriken flew over the fence, the kid just kept going. He'd brag about how next time would definitely be the one where he hit the target.

But he never did. And while Naruto refused to let his training spirit wane, Chi's certainly was.

'Is it my fault? Am I doing something wrong?' he thought, tendrils of anxiousness slowly forming in his mind.

Chi had never really taught anyone before. It had always been Maru who did the teaching and he would be the training dummy...Which might have been why he had so much trouble. Admitting that to Naruto, however, seemed to be a problem.

He was just so forward with his admiration. Whenever he looked up at Chi with those big happy eyes and asked "what next?" it was like someone was taking his heart in their arms and giving it a great big hug. This was also hurting Naruto's progress, though, and that felt like he was hugging his own heart so tight that it was going to explode at any second.

His heart-based thoughts were interrupted by the back door sliding open. Chi looked over to see Maru step out onto the porch, a steaming cup of tea in her hand. She jumped from the edge of the porch to one of the rocks in the zen garden. Then she sat down cross-legged on top of it.

'Geez Maru-chan, way to put more pressure on me,' Chi grumbled internally.

He pried his gaze away from Maru. He'd be damned if he'd let her cow him into failing this.

"Argh, I don't get it!" Naruto shouted, "I swear I did what you said, but it just doesn't come out right. What am I doing wrong?"

'But he's clearly not,' Chi mused, 'otherwise it would be flying straight. Maybe if I have him do it again, I'll catch whatever mistake he's making.'

"Try it again and-" Chi was cut off by a shout from Naruto.

"Whoa, lady, when'd you get there?!"

Apparently, Maru had been bothered enough by Chi and Naruto's mutual failure to alight from her sparkly pedestal up in heaven to help the little peons.

"About ten seconds ago," Maru replied. She set her tea on the windowsill of the shed, "Pick up a kunai and hold it like you're ready to throw it."

"Wha?" Naruto asked, looking pretty dazed from her sudden change in heart.

"Pick up a kunai. Hold it like you're about to throw it," Maru said it much more slowly this time, which seemed to irk Naruto.

"I know! You don't need to say it like I'm stupid."

Thankfully, Maru didn't reply to that.

Naruto picked up a kunai from the pile that they'd slowly been whittling down throughout the day.

"Okay," Maru began once Naruto had a kunai at the ready, "I'm going to touch your hand to see if it's in the correct position. Please don't freak out."

She did just as she was going to say, running her fingers over Naruto's hand. She moved his fingers around a bit and then closed her whole hand around the handle.

"Okay, now, I'm going to show you the proper motions," she brought Naruto's arm out to the side and back, "You need the proper amount of power behind your throw: too much and you'll overshoot, too little and you'll undershoot. Having your arm back like this helps with that, but you also have to be careful about cutting yourself. That's why you keep your elbow in like this." Maru let go of his arm. "Okay. Throw it."

Naruto did as he was told. The kunai didn't land in the target, but it did bounce off the side. That was more than he and Chi had managed in two hours.

"I hit it!" Naruto cheered.

"But you didn't land it," Maru reminded him, "It's important to acknowledge failures as well as victories. Now, I think you moved your thumb at the last second and that's why..."

The lesson went on like that until the sun began to sink below the walls of the village. By then, Naruto was reliably hitting the target, though he was still a far cry from making consistent bulls-eyes (which is what he had really been hoping for).

"Alright. Time to call it quits for today," Maru said, standing from her position in the grass behind Naruto. She had long since ceased needing to guide him by hand.

"Aw, but I've almost got it!" Naruto whined. He gave her his best pouty face, not really realizing that it was useless against a blind woman.

"You and Chi clean up, I'll get dinner started," Maru told them. Chi knew better to argue. Naruto on the other hand...

"Just a few more minutes!" Naruto begged, grasping Maru's bandage-covered arm.

Maru shook him off, "If you clean up now, I'll agree to teach you tomorrow."

That seemed to be the motivation Naruto needed because the yard was spotless before Maru had even finished making dinner.

Naruto devoured his meal with the kind of gusto only a starving young boy could. Soon afterward he fell sound asleep at the kitchen table.

"He's a pretty cute kid," Chi whispered, careful not to wake the child.

"I'll take your word for it," Maru mumbled into her fresh cup of tea.

"He looks a lot like Minato when he was a kid," Chi knew he was entering dangerous territory by bringing up the past, but he just had this feeling.

"Too bad he got Kushina's skill with a kunai," Maru sighed.

Chi made a sound akin to laughter, "Yeah, too bad."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, interrupted only by Naruto's loud snores.

"He shouldn't sleep on the table," Maru murmured once she had finished her tea, "We still have a spare futon, right?"

Chi didn't need any more of a hint to go and get it. He set it up in the empty living room and Maru carried Naruto over to it. Chi pulled the covers back and Maru set him onto it gently. Chi placed the covers over him. Maru removed the bulky green goggles from Naruto's forehead. Her hand lingered in his hair.

"It feels like Minato's," she noted, before quickly removing her hand and rushing down the hall.

A/N: This chapter turned out waaaaaay longer than I ever expected it to be! I'm kind of proud of myself!
Anyway. Naruto's gotten himself a couple of new buddies! Or at least one buddy and one reluctant sensei. Also -le gasp- Maru knew Minato and Kushina! How interesting...

Edited: 1/8/19