A harsh cross-wind had swept down from the mountains of Lighting, swinging around the water and back into the Land of Fire while leaving a thick sheet of snow. The large country accustomed to the hot dry winds from the west or warm humid winds from the southwest was caught unprepared. The state of bustling emergency in Konoha was largely overwhelmed by the pallor of white-washed torpor.

Caravans and merchants struck by the sudden blizzard were either found by the shinobi quickly galvanized by the Hokage or lost until the following week when the snow started to clear and the local militia and civilians started the searches in earnest.

The smarter (or luckier) travelers were able to survive after hurriedly finding a homestead or bunkering down under their wagons or hastily found shelter, but several travellers and even an ill-prepared caravan were found too late as the cold and elements overcame them. Only the northwest of the land survived unscathed-ironic as it was the most prepared due to the frequent winter flurries coming from the Land of Iron through Earth.

Naruto, stuck in a small house except for occasional forays into the snow, had started to go crazy for lack of movement-thus Kosuke was also starting to waver in his sanity.

The last two days had seen both resident's patience wain.

At first Kosuke had put the constantly running oven in the corner to good use-smoking and drying various herbs, meats and fish. Naruto decided, after only ten minutes, that this was about as exciting as watching grass grow.

Oddly enough Kosuke was getting cabin fever as well.

While Kosuke was naturally quieter than Naruto (who wasn't?) he was no less active in his own way. Even if he were inclined to sit and read for the countless hours of each day, he didn't have a single book in his house-eschewing even the Bingo book in preference to letting his opponents merit speak for them.

Once he finished tying up the last batch of herbs over his counter he looked over at Naruto who lay spread-eagled in the middle of the floor muttering to himself. (At least Kosuke knew one way to tire Naruto out now-do nothing.)

It would be a few years before Naruto joined the academy but they both needed to do something now!

"Naruto?"

The boy lifted his head slightly before it heartily thumped back onto the matted floor, "mmh?"

"I'm going outside to train, put something warm on if you want to join me."

That had him sitting up smartly.

"Train? What kind of training?"

"If you get dressed and join me you can see for yourself."

They both hurriedly dressed in their warmest clothing, Naruto's Hanten probably wasn't up for the job but Kosuke threw him some scraps of binding cloth to use as a hat and mittens. After Naruto clearly showed he had no clue what to do with the cloth, Kosuke showed him how to bind his hands and head with the wrappings without loss of function. Kosuke also suggested Naruto bring his blanket with him before grabbing both heated bed rocks from the oven in a small pail.

Once they were both as prepared as they were going to get, Kosuke opened the door and peered outside. A drift of snow sat nicely stacked up to his chest where the door had been while the wind pushed flurries around in circles just beyond.

"Woah, that is so cool!"

Konoha usually didn't get more than a dusting of snow once or twice each year. The beauty was captivating and the child-like wonder shown by Naruto while he jumped up and down to look over the drift only made it that much more endearing.

After a moment of taking the scene in, Kosuke quickly moved the drift to the side before he picked Naruto up and walked around to the back of the house.

"Alright Naruto, want to make a snow fort?"

The wandering eyes snapped back to his new grampa and nodded happily.

Kosuke placed Naruto gently down on the snow, where he promptly sank down to his knees.

Naruto looked at Kosuke and then at the snow around him. Experimentally he pushed down on the snow with one hand and then tried taking a step with his foot.

Once more he looked at Kosuke before pointing an accusatory finger at the man. "Hey! You're cheating!"

"Am I hurting anyone?"

Naruto took a moment to think that over but when his eyes fell on his accusatory finger his eyes glinted and he opened his mouth to speak,

"Before you say anything," Kosuke interrupted "would you rather I had to tramp through the snow like you or that you could cheat like me and walk on top of the snow?"

The question caused a renewed pondering of the subject as the outstretched arm returned and scratched his head.

"Instead of thinking someone else has cheated I prefer to think of how I can improve." Kosuke briefly thought on how he could turn the conversation to affect Naruto the most, "Master Inoichi cheats using his mind healing to try to help your mother. You and I can't do what he can do, but we can learn how to find the right ingredients to help other people who are also sick or in pain-in the end everyone benefits."

Kosuke hadn't ever actually put that thought into words, but now that he said it he realized he had often tried to act with that in mind. Whenever he had become jealous or thought someone else was lucky or cheating he had made rash choices.

Like when he wanted to take charge of his platoon to prove that he was just as smart as they were-and caused the death of his friends.

He wasn't smarter than them. He wasn't as talented as them. He became jealous and wanted to be like them! Nobody could possibly care about the few things he was good at when they could see the awesome things they could do.

He had ignored the work he was best at because it was easier to compare than harmonize.

Kosuke blinked and came back into the current reality. Comparing the past with the present and future could be just as disastrous if done improperly.

Naruto also blinked before looking at Kosuke with a speculative look-head slightly tilted with one eye half closed while the other eyebrow arched upwards.

"Um?"

Kosuke tried another way to explain it.

"The only way to really cheat is to forbid someone from doing what you can do. If you didn't hurt anyone you are simply thinking creatively and using your skill to achieve more."

That was only part of the equation but Naruto nodded deeply in serene contemplation and intoned "That is wise."

With a few accoutrements and a lifetime of aging he would have looked appropriately like a monk. Instead Kosuke let the subject go and bent down to feel the weight of the snow,

"Shall we start building our snow forts?"

Naruto near-instantaneously transformed from an old monk to a young puppy.

The snow had stopped falling sometime overnight and as the cold air pushed inland and slowly retreated back to the north the warmer air from the southwest was drawn in from the southern gulf.

The exuberant child certainly seemed to be doing his best to make it snow again (this time from the ground up) as he pushed and piled and threw snow everywhere. Slowly a mound started to resemble a… well, it still looked basically like a mound of snow.

He occasionally glanced back to see what his gramps was up to but it looked boring. He would occasionally move his hands into various shapes or bend down to touch the snow or look vacantly up into the sky.

Naruto industriously continued his goal to create an awesome snow fort where he could fend off the evil monsters.

He had found that he could roll the snow into a big ball and had stacked several of the snowed balls on top of each other to form his fearsome opponents. His inventiveness astounded even him as he bet no one had ever done that before!

Casting his keen eye over his creation, Naruto turned to declare that the fort was ready to repel all invaders.

"Gramps, my-ayai."

Naruto's mouth swung ajar in the breeze while his eyes stared vacantly at the scene before him.

Kosuke simply stood next to a doorway and waited, enjoying the silence.

Finally the eyes focused and an arm snaked forward, a finger pointed accusingly at the older man.

"You cheated!"

"Oh?"

He casually turned to look behind him.

A large ice dome a little more than thrice his own height glistened beautifully in the midday sun.

Fire was strong and useful-Kosuke certainly wouldn't mind a little heat right now! But water and earth could be used with a lot more diversity.

He turned back to the child and, closing his eyes, smiled disarmingly, "I don't recall putting any stipulat...any rules to how you could build your fort."

But because he could actually harm Naruto if he completely ignored the work that had been put forth...

"I suppose it doesn't make much of a fort though does it? Maybe this is the palace where the princess lives? We'll have to use your fort to defend her while we fight those evil snowmen."

Naruto was sufficiently distracted with the scenario unfolding in his head that he nodded and turned to face the, snowmen? Not very creative, but the name would suffice.

The two spent the next thirty minutes thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Kosuke showed Naruto how to make smaller snowballs and how to throw them at the targets.

If anyone saw them playing against their imaginary foes neither of them really cared. Kosuke had never cared that much about protocol. He was older but that was all the more reason to be out enjoying everything life had to offer!

It was surprisingly difficult to defeat the sturdy snowmen Naruto had made. Before either of them got to cold, Kosuke mixed a few techniques into the snowballs and soon little explosions accompanied the assault as Naruto pelted the mighty foe into submission.

"To the palace for our reward!"

Naruto cheered and marched in a most dignified (overly dramatic high steps and energetic pumping arm swings) towards the ice palace.

For a brief moment Kosuke reflected on how quickly he had adapted to having Naruto become part of his life. He quickly shrugged away the rumination and simply lived.

The 'palace' had taken almost all of his skill to create. The intricacies of working both earth and water in quick succession to build the spiraled ice dome had put his years of training to the test-a good reminder that training in the same way all the time resulted in diminishing returns.

While the weather had improved, the insulation provided by the snow was still noticeable. His eyes were also grateful for the reprieve from the snow-glare.

The two made their way to a small circular snow bench Kosuke had constructed.

"Catch."

Kosuke threw Naruto one of the blankets that had been sitting on the warm pail.

Carefully he moved one of the hot stones for Naruto to curl around, "Here, put the blanket underneath you. It's more important to keep yourself dry and warm from the ground and snow than to feel warm from the air."

After a moment he grabbed the second blanket and draped it over Naruto while the boy practically hugged the hot stone.

"I don't suppose the hero could possibly want anything hot or sweet after his valiant defense of the princess?"

Naruto simply turned his eyes up pitifully and nodded while his teeth chattered and he continued to try to warm up.

A brief trip to the cottage and back resulted in tea boiling over a small fire in the middle of the circle along with some green tea gelatin and mochi for the 'victory feast'. He had also procured another blanket for himself as he was unable to master the fire trick of body heat regulation.

Having forgotten to put a hole in the roof for ventilation and air circulation, Naruto watched in avid fascination as Kosuke carefully formed a spear of earth to pierce the top of the dome.

Kosuke smiled brightly at the awe on Naruto's face, "How would you like to learn how to cheat?"

Righteous indignation and genuine curiosity briefly scuffled for dominance before curiosity overwhelmed the boy. However, before he vocally responded he reverted back into obvious thought.

"I don't wanna cheat if it hurts someone. But I would like to learn how to…" his voice trailed off and his face scrunched up as he tried to remember the right word, "be creatingly."

Kosuke was taken by surprise at the shrewd parsing of words (even if he did use the wrong word). First, he didn't think Naruto had understood the explanation he had given earlier and if he had it was surprising the boy had remembered it after the excitement. Also selfishness was a predominant feature of most children and only morphed into a selfish greed for the majority of adults-although adults were generally more skillful at placing a veneer overtop their greed.

Morality wasn't exactly a trait that was promoted in their world-for shinobi it was often replaced by patriotism, imperialism or duty. Even the Samurai generally focused more on honour and duty than righteousness. Monks and priests perhaps showed the strongest affiliation and thought towards ethics and morals; Wandering monks were generally the best bet for anyone but a noble to receive a fair trial or hearing over a dispute. Nobility and merchants, well… there were always exceptions but morals rarely motivated their actions.

As depressing a thought as that may have been, it hardly bothered Kosuke. He was a good ninja; shinobi from the bloody mist were bad ninja... The gray of right and wrong was a long path when you grew up in a hidden village-true righteousness was often replaced with indoctrinated righteousness.

Still, Kosuke found Naruto's empathy and straightforward right and wrong attitude to be refreshing.

"Awesome." Kosuke used one of Naruto's favorite words to affirm his choice, "You'll have to prac…" no real point in making something hard work when it could be fun work, "train and play a lot to learn how to become more skillful and creative."

"Now, the first step is finding your chakra."

The blank face continued to stare expectantly with excitement and a total lack of understanding.

Facial and body communication really would be an interesting field of study.

"Toss two of those Mochi over to me would you?" "Please." He was, after all, trying to teach Naruto some basic manners as well.

Naruto compliantly left his warm nest and threw the requested desserts to his grampa.

"Thanks."

Kosuke took a bite from one of the gelatin rice cakes. He wasn't sure why the sweeter red bean was so popular when the bitterness of the green tea was so much more flavorful combined with the already sweetened rice paste.

"Now, how did you pass the food to me?"

Naruto didn't miss a beat as he stated the obvious, "Threw it to ya."

"Yes, but how did you throw it?"

A quick glance at his hand was followed with a quick wave. Such a stupid question didn't need a verbal answer.

"So you used your hand to throw it? But how did your hand and arm know where it was? Or how to throw it?"

Naruto froze for a moment as he puzzled over the questions.

Without actually telling Naruto the answer Kosuke looked at the fire and held his hands out to feel how warm it was, after a second he rubbed them together to generate warmth. Clearly the fire wasn't warm enough so he took a moment to look at the fire and then at some extra firewood he had brought should they need it. With a tilt of his head and a twitch of his mouth in deliberate thought, he grabbed a couple extra sticks and placed them on the fire.

"I used my eyes and I throw really good." Naruto looked pleased with his answer.

Kosuke took another bite from the tea flavoured rice paste and tried to think of another way to let Naruto figure it out on his own.

By the time he swallowed he still hadn't thought of anything that Naruto would likely understand on his own. This wasn't turning out to be such a good analogy to explain what chakra was or how it worked.

Kosuke was running a bit low on chakra after making the enlarged igloo palace but he held out his hand with the second Mochi ball and carefully sent a repelling spike of chakra through his hand. The light green orb sailed straight into Naruto's lap as he was too surprised to disentangle his arm and catch it.

"Chakra, like any other action, uses both physical energy-like a hand throwing a ball-and mental energy." Kosuke continued his simple analogy (which so far clearly still wasn't engaging Naruto's child-like brain), "When you throw something your mind tells your arm how to throw where your eyes are seeing."

The confusion on Naruto's face didn't dissipate at all. Truthfully, Kosuke almost confused himself with that stilted explanation. At least the demonstration had been effective in gaining his attention.

Kosuke also wasn't sure how to go about teaching Naruto.

Most people discovered their own chakra through quiet meditation like he himself had done. A few were prodigies and were able to access their chakra naturally-they generally were the second best sensors. Oddly enough, the best sensors often initially struggled to isolate their chakra as they were forced to attune themselves to the slippery energy source.

Many of the clans would facilitate the flow of chakra in their offspring so that they learned what it felt like to bring out and use their chakra from the time they were a baby-but that took a specialist and Kosuke had only learned the most basic medical techniques.

Meditation was likely pointless with Naruto and there was no sign that Naruto had any intentional use of his chakra as a prodigy might.

And finally a solution (hopefully) popped into Kosuke's mind.

The old man got up from the fire and poked Naruto's bicep.

"Wow, you've got some muscle there."

Naruto grinned and flexed, "Oh yeah! I was one of the strongest and fastest in the orphanage."

'So you've mentioned before.'

Kosuke poked Naruto's left arm, "What about this arm?"

Naruto showed off his muscle in both arms. The fact that they retained the exact same shape within his hanten as before he flexed seemed to go unnoticed by him.

This time Kosuke poked his slightly chubby stomach, "Can you flex your stomach muscles?"

"Hua."

Naruto pushed his abdominal muscles out as his face scrunched together and a short breath was forced out of his nostrils.

"Chakra comes from," Kosuke tried to format the concept in a way Naruto could understand, "a muscle called the Chakra Coil."

So it was more of an organ that spiraled around the lower rachis of the vertebrae and, well, he was being very imprecise but Naruto was starting to look like he was understanding the concept.

"The first step to being able to use chakra like I can is to find your chakra coil muscle so you can flex it."

Naruto proceeded to absently munch on his mochi while he haphazardly tried to flex various muscles throughout his body.

Blue light saturated the dome as the sun struck the ice at the perfect angle on its descent while red light flickered out from the small fire; The air wasn't tainted at all except for a tinge of smoke that whorled around until it found the hole in the roof; The snow muffled any sound from the city and both occupants of the room were largely silent and so Kosuke felt his muscles and mind relax as he simply watched Naruto.

It turned out watching Naruto could be highly entertaining.

The child was ensconced on a bed of hard snow and an old sable blanket. He further cocooned himself in a muted brownish-red blanket around a hot brick while facing the fire.

Despite the cocoon of blankets, Naruto was managing to move around as much as he always did while going nowhere. The cloth around his head had started to unravel with the movement and bits of yellow hair poked through here and there. His reddened cheeks puffed in and out as he tried to flex various muscles in order to isolate his chakra coil.

Kosuke gave a few pointers as Naruto continued to train but he mostly just let his mind wander.

For instance, it was odd that chakra wasn't used by the more general civilian population. Sure, it took a little work to train chakra to a usable standard but it was still something everyone could use. It was very similar to the heart or spinal cord in that, you knew it was there, but it was very difficult to force it to act according to your own will rather than follow the natural pattern it was designed for. The end result would be well worth the work though. Both earth and water manipulation served Kosuke well-it was one of the reasons he was able to have his garden despite his long absences. Farming could be revolutionized if farmers used some of his more mundane gardening techniques.

A history lesson under Lord Senju Tobirama made more sense now that he thought of it in relation to chakra assisted farming.

A small province called the Arid Plains situated west of the Land of the Mountain Lake and south of the Land of Pillars had largely been neglected by both nations. In the span of a few years the province had transformed from an unprofitable wasteland into an agricultural powerhouse.

Exotic fruits, herbs and spices flowed out of the province while money and goods flowed back into it.

When the Daimyo in the Land of Pillars decided that they were part of his lands they protested. He had never bothered them before they had started to acquire wealth, they saw no reason he should reap the benefits of their work now. So they hired the Senju clan to defend them.

The clashes had been brief but violent.

The Land of Pillars hadn't taken their losses gracefully and decided to instead expand north to the sea and west through the plains and eventually became the Land of Earth.

The Land of Grass and Land of Waterfalls were formed as buffer-states while the Land of the Mountain Lake and Arid Lands allied with (and were eventually subsumed by) the Land of Fire to counter the growing threat-but not before many of the inhabitants of the Arid Lands had been slaughtered in a surprise attack.

The two nations remained embittered towards one another and eventually clashed in both the second and third great shinobi wars.

Kosuke imagined that since the founding of the Hidden villages the general use of chakra in the civilian populations were largely discouraged in part because of that conflict.

Kosuke did not imagine Naruto starting to shiver as the hot brick lost its heat and the fire started to die down.

"Tea and mochi is good for a snack but I'm hungry. What do you say we head back to the house and make dinner?"

Naruto nodded eagerly as the promised food, and heat, had great appeal to his smaller frame while his boredom had been temporarily quenched.

Kosuke quickly placed the hot stones back in their pail and put out the fire while Naruto tripped along the ground trying to carry all three blankets.

The child had managed to impair his own sight with the blankets piled in his arms while still trailing a corner of one of the blankets under his feet. Thankfully, he had several blankets and a solid foot of snow between his face and the ground-had he managed to complete his face-plant.

"Shadow Paralysis: Complete."

Naruto's inexorable momentum was arrested with his face inches from the ground.

"Master Nara, I hope you haven't come all this way for tea." He gestured at the snow-covered fire pit with a teapot laden hand.

Kosuke kept his voice serious but his eyes crinkled in a smile. Nara Suzaku was his nearest neighbour. Still, for a Nara, such a short distance might be considered arduous if there was no reward for the effort.

Suzaku contemplated the situation slowly before yawning while he released his rat seal and extended his arms outward in a slow stretch.

Naruto issued a short, high bark before realizing his hands were already touching the ground and holding him up.

The Nara converted the stretch to the back of his head where he linked fingers and stared absently at the large dome.

"I was wondering if it wouldn't be too much trouble to let one of our herds use your structure over the next few days?"

Kosuke didn't mind at all, "Sure."

A sharp whistle pierced the air and only a few seconds later Yōshoku rounded the dome with his herd following close behind. The large brown deer nodded courteously to Kosuke after unobtrusively examining the structure and led his troop within. Another, smaller male pulled a sled with straw and hay along with a pile of blankets along behind it.

'ah-huaaa,' An extended yawn followed by a sigh invited attention, "If only I had someone who could help make the deer comfortable in there." The Nara looked around and right over the staring child.

"I guess I'll have to do it all myself."

Incongruously with his statement, the man didn't actually move at all. He simply moved his hands to his pockets.

"I'll help mister!"

Suzaku waved his hand casually towards the enclosure, "Ok."

Naruto scampered back into the large igloo, leaving the blankets where he had (almost) fallen.

Kosuke knew that Suzaku's idea of someone 'helping him' was to let them do it all together and motioned to the house, "I can get a pot of tea boiling while we wait. I was just going to make dinner if you want to bring Dazaifu over there should be plenty."

"I wouldn't say no to that."

Kosuke made to leave but when Suzaku continued to stay where he was he quietly raised a questioning eyebrow.

"And, three, two, one…" Suzaku turned towards the entrance as if expecting something.

Nothing happened for a moment and he looked hesitantly torn between waiting for whatever it was and heading to the warm cabin.

"EEEK!"

The loud cry was followed by a chestnut coloured ball barreling out of the igloo.

Naruto skidded to a halt and pointed behind him, "It can talk!"

Suzaku looked at the child thoughtfully before pointing at him, "It can talk."

Naruto blinked, shrugged in acknowledgment, and curiously turned back inside.

As Kosuke rounded the corner of his house, he called behind him "You can at least bring the three blankets in with you."

Dinner had been delicious and very entertaining.

The three adults had been regaled with every minute detail concerning Yōshoku's herd and their temporary relocation. Naruto had quickly gotten over the shock of hearing a deer giving him orders on how to assist the herd-after all, to a child of Konoha, the impossible and common were often interchangeable.

Nara Suzaku had snickered at a few of the points when he heard how much his Shadow Stag had manipulated the child. Come to think of it, maybe Naruto would be interesting in assisting with grooming on a more regular basis.

Nara Dazaifu was a very entertaining conversationalist as well as she related the story of a merchant who had visited the cultural museum she worked at. This started a lighthearted argument between the married couple concerning the relation between merchants, nobles and shinobi. Kosuke joined in on both sides of the argument as he was genuinely interested in the difference between how a shinobi and (nominal) civilian thought.

Naruto started to fidget half-way through the conversation.

The meal itself had been a southern curry as Kosuke knew it was Yōshoku's favorite.

Kosuke briefly interrupted the conversation to fill a bowl with the curry, "Naruto, can you bring this to Yōshoku?"

Naruto happily left the small table, able to actually do something again, and shortly had vanished out the door.

Dazaifu poked her husband before turning to Kosuke, "I think my husband would like to make Naruto a pair of waterproof moccasins as he had so much time on his hands tonight after all the work you and young Naruto have done today for his herd."

"That would be very kind of him Lady Nara, thank you."

Suzaku sighed but didn't complain.

With the meal finished, the three further relaxed around the short table. Kosuke had made some mint Lassi, a novelty for the Nara couple, rather than the usual tea.

"So."

Kosuke looked towards Dazaifu. He didn't spend a lot of time around the fairer sex outside of missions, but even he could hear the teasing intonation related to gossip.

"Who's the kid?" Knowing full well how responsible Kosuke was she made a light jab, "Don't tell me you've been holding out on us Kosuke…"

Konoha was a pretty large town and everyone had some secrets they would zealously guard, but the tight camaraderie forced through military kinship allowed certain categories of gossip to travel quickly.

Of course, Shinobi should be able to use gossip as a weapon against others or security for themselves and their comrades.

"Uzumaki Naruto became an orphan following the Kyuubi attack. I was asked to safeguard him from any harm and take care of him as he grew up."

Dazaifu looked a little confused, unsure what kind of harm the child would need to be guarded from; Suzaku remained quiet on the matter but gave a respectful nod of acknowledgment to Kosuke.

"He seems like a nice young fellow. A shame about his parents, were they someone you knew?"

"I worked with both his mother and father occasionally but I didn't know either of them well."

Dazaifu once more nodded, not hearing the undertone of the gossip. Suzaku raised an eyebrow as Uzumaki Kushina was well known, but there was only speculation as to the father of the sacrifice. His bet was on a Yamanaka after meeting Naruto. He was outgoing, had certain features such as the blond hair and love of plants and of course the discipline of mind-walking seemed appropriate for his burden-the adverse argument was that he wasn't being trained by the Yamanaka (unless the rumours concerning Inoichi were true.)

He decided to probe a little into the matter himself, it was, after all interesting as well as pertinent given his proximity to… Naruto.

"Anyone I know?"

"You may have worked with Naruto's father. But due to certain enemies his father made and his special abilities Naruto remains under his mother's name-It keeps him safer both physically and politically."

Suzaku acquiesced.

"Bah, children should have no enemies." Dazaifu was a little more outspoken on the matter, "He seems like such a helpful child. A number of the woman have noticed how much you seem to enjoy working in that garden of yours together."

Suzaku allowed his wife to steamroll through the conversation, at least it wasn't about him this time.

"I tell you what. If you ever need to have a babysitter just hop on over and ask, I'm sure young Naruto can stay with us after work. There is also a preschool everyday that the kids can be dropped off at if you have an extended job." She nodded firmly as she added, "We understand the difficulties of being a single parent with a full time job."

And that was the problem with acquiescence. By the time Suzaku knew where the conversation was headed he'd just been roped into allowing the Kyuubi container into his house. The possible fallout of having him running around with the other Nara children could be...bad.

Not to mention 'we understand the difficulties of being a single parent with a full time job?' Suzaku thought he remembered quite clearly that it was Dazaifu who wanted to concentrate on her career for now rather than have children of their own.

Thankfully at least Kosuke noticed the wild-eyed plea to talk about this later.

Cold air brushed the back of their necks as the door was thrown open and Naruto stepped in from the snow. He stomped the snow off his sandals before removing them and his hanten and moving towards the oven.

Dazaifu poked her husband, reminding him that he would be making the child some moccasins for the winter.

Suzaku would at least give Naruto a chance he supposed; he did seem to be a nice enough kid. Then again, Kushina had been a solid companion before the previous disaster.

He did enjoy the lively conversation that ensued after Naruto declared how 'awesome' Yōshoku was.

The snow kept everyone busy for several days doing nothing but as the snow melted Konoha went back to work.

Without any precedent set, Kosuke wasn't sure how to proceed. His first month caring for Naruto had been very simple as the two acclimatized to one another.

Kosuke had kept his charge nearby as they did some shopping for things that children apparently needed, some gardening to prepare for the winter, and a few missions for the hospital. Naruto accompanied Kosuke everywhere he went, even on the short missions.

On the one hand, they were both very comfortable with the other-the awkward tension Kosuke had assumed to occur with adoption was thrown to the wayside by Naruto's personality.

On the other hand, Naruto wasn't really spending any time with people besides himself. The kid's social interaction had improved drastically...up to a point. But without other children or even adults to interact with Naruto was unlikely to continue improving. Not to mention Kosuke was missing the work he actually enjoyed after this short holiday.

"Naruto, I'm going over to talk to Master Nara for a couple minutes. Do you want to come over and visit Yōshoku or stay here?"

Naruto looked up from the blocks he had built into a fort and grinned. Grabbing his hanten and brand new moccasins at the front door he hopped impatiently from foot to foot, "Come on gramps!" he whined.

Kosuke unhurriedly followed behind Naruto as the child ran to the woods behind their neighbours house and whistled.

Kosuke had shown Naruto how to find a thick piece of grass from the newly melted ground and use it as a whistle just yesterday but he had picked up on it quickly and loved the ability to see if Yōshoku was available to play with.

Surprisingly, the Shadow Deer had taken quite a liking to the bundle of energy known as Naruto and often played tag or hide and seek with him.

It wasn't long before the large brown deer appeared and greeted Naruto before nodding to Kosuke.

Technically, Kosuke's main job was to watch over Naruto as his bodyguard. He was still trying to find the line between keeping the child safe at all times, allowing Naruto to live a semi-normal life and living a normal life of his own. So while Naruto played in the mud, he planned on discussing the idea of leaving Naruto with the Nara daycare Dazaifu had offered.

"Have fun." He called out before turning and knocking on the door.

When no one answered, Kosuke tried to sense if anyone was at home.

"Hey Kosuke, just a minute."

Nara Suzaku strolled out from the woods his Shadow Deer and Naruto had just entered and waved.

As the man strolled up to the side of his house, he carefully took off his muddy overalls and boots and placed them in a small basin. He applied a small amount of chakra to a seal cleverly worked into the wood and the basin soon filled with water.

It might have surprised some people, but watching Suzaku warm up the water with a little fire chakra and carefully work the leather with a nearby brush made perfect sense to Kosuke. A little maintenance now would keep the leather work clothes in perfect shape and save a lot of work later.

Finally finished with his chore, Suzaku invited Kosuke to join him for tea.

"It's nice to have the sun and some warmth again but the mud isn't doing anything good for the herds."

Despite the proclamation of 'warmth', both men cradled the hot tea in their hands as they settled down.

"One thing or another, there is always more work to be done eh?"

Suzaku nodded sadly at that fact of life before taking a sip of his tea.

"Speaking of work, I was actually wondering if you had talked to Shikaku concerning Naruto. Obviously, placing him in a normal pre-school or using Genin for babysitting could prove dangerous for reasons we all understand."

"I did..." Suzaku took a moment to form his answer while slowly enjoying his hot tea. "Naruto will be allowed to join provisionally. However, Lord Shikaku asks that you give prior knowledge for any planned days he will be joining in order that the caretaker be one who understands the unique… issues concerning your ward."

Suzaku smiled innocently, "I suppose this means that you are not planning on retiring anytime soon?"

Kosuke raised an eyebrow at the inquiry, "I wasn't planning on it."

"Excellent, I may actually have a job for you soon. After the large snowfall the deer will be needing certain nutrients. Also," his smile turned crafty, "I think I'll have an extra thousand y…"

Suddenly Suzaku's face paled as he turned blank eyes towards the city. Before Kosuke could ask what was happening, the Nara's eyes cleared and he turned towards the small woods behind them and cursed quietly.

Neither Shinobi stopped to ask questions after that as they raced out the door to insure their charges safety.

Suzaku reached them first.

Naruto was covered in mud where he lay limp beneath the protective form of Yōshoku. The Shadow Deer was wild-eyed, barely noting that the approaching humans were his partner and the human-friend Herb Hermit. Slowly he calmed down and poked the child beneath him with a nose before limping over to Suzaku.

Kosuke slid in, checking Naruto for any obvious injuries and thankfully finding none.

"Kosuke, can you help me here?"

Suzaku was holding Yōshoku's foreleg where a long cut with burn marks sluggishly bled.

Kosuke pulled out a first-aid kit he always had on his person and started to bind the wound with gauze and some anti-infection lichen.

Knowledge was important to keep the injury from worsening before a real veterinarian could arrive, "What happened?"

The deer shivered in pain and shock but managed to give a pleading look towards Suzaku, "It wasn't his fault."

"What wasn't who's fault?" The deer jumped skittishly away from Kosuke's care as Chimera suddenly arrived with Boar and Moth forming a defensive position behind him.