Through a Child's Eyes

One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination.-Sam Levenson

It was a small house her grandparents had picked. Once an antique store, after moving in they had converted the storefront to a living and dining room with all the bedrooms were upstairs. Moegi sighed tiredly as her stiff muscles pushed open the swinging door. Immediately she found her face planted in the bosom of her beloved grandmother.

"My Moe-chan! How has your day been? Have you gotten in good training? Hmm?" The old woman asked as she held her granddaughter tightly. The pony-tailed girl's cheeks were so cute when red!

"Oba-san!" Moegi cried and wriggled. Everything was training to her grandparents. Even welcome home hugs. She had descended from a long, though not prestigious, line of shinobi. All of her family had made chuunin, half Jounin, but only a select few ANBU. Her grandparents were among those few and though they often were overprotective of her, they didn't allow for slouching.

Moegi twisted, and disgusting herself with the action, she used her own sweat to loosen Oba-san's grip. The small girl fell free and rolled between the larger woman's legs before side-stepping the imposing form of her grandfather and calling 'base' as her hand slapped against the arm of the couch.

"Very good Moegi-chan." Her grandfather clapped appreciatively.

"That's my girl." The old woman called with a smile as she headed to the kitchen for refreshments.

Moegi slumped on the couch exhausted. The Shinobi Academy classes had finally resumed on a constant basis. On the downside, their teachers were erratic and random from kind Iruka-sensei reviewing their chakra control to the eccentric Gai training their stamina. All in all, it had come from the parents that their children receive a much more rounded education than they did, but the students screamed for reprieve. Moegi had to run no less than 60 laps before she was allowed to come home.

Her grandfather's gray eyes twinkled as he sipped his tea. Moegi opened her mouth and let her grandmother feed her cookies. She needed the sugar. "So, how were things today?"

"Simple, but tiring. Gai-sensei had us do pushups for an hour; I lost count of how many I did, and then made us run. He left his apprentice in charge halfway through. Rock Lee I think. He was a bit easier… at least he wasn't timing us." Meogi answered around her cookies. As the food metabolized, she sat up and began eating faster.

"That's good. I've always worried about teachers being too soft on you young'uns; not preparing you for real life."

"Huh?"

"Take that Sasuke brat. He should have known some people go crazy, and everyone dies. Not his fault. If he had been taught this fact, I bet he'd still be with us today. Like the Kyuubi boy. He knows what's what."

Moegi paused in her cookie eating. Even after the purge, she never heard anyone refer to Naruto as "Kyuubi boy". He was either Naruto, Naruto-kun, or Naruto-sama. "Why do you call Nii-san Kyuubi? He isn't the fox demon."

"That's where you're wrong girl." The old man leaned back and lit a pipe. "See, when the forth sealed the Kyuubi, he used a seal that, well, if the technique hadn't killed him someone else would have. The seal is designed to leak demon chakra but doing so also weakens the seal. Eventually it will no longer exist. Doing so will cause one of two things to happen, either the boy dies from using too much demon energy, or he becomes the Kyuubi. As he isn't dead yet I can only assume he is becoming the demon."

"No! Nii-san is not a demon! He didn't kill mom and dad!" Meogi screamed and slammed down her plate of cookies. Her grandmother hissed in a disapproving manner at the outburst but rested her hands on the girl's shoulders in what she hoped was a comforting gesture.

"We didn't say he did, dear." The old woman spoke. "Yes your parent's died in the Kyuubi attack, but that doesn't mean anything. They were proud shinobi of Konoha. They fully expected to die in battle and couldn't have wished for anything more. If anything, the Kyuubi helped them; he granted them their hearts desire."

Moegi sniffled. "So then that means… killing is good?"

Her grandparents shook their heads. This is what they should have been emphasizing in the academy, not teamwork. "Killing is not good, but it is natural. Without death, the world would not grow. Those who can avoid death are lucky, unimaginably so, but they see everything they know crumble around them. We mourn those who die, but not because they are dead. We mourn the time we can no longer spend with them." The man joined his family on the couch and kissed his wife's cheek.

"There are only two things you can do in this world, Meo-chan. You can sit on the sidelines and watch everything around you change, or you can learn how to make things change. That is why we are shinobi. We want to make a difference. Do you understand?"

"No. Not entirely but I… I think I'm getting there. I'm going to train, and then I can help protect my friends and maybe… maybe I can change how the world see's things. For mom and dad."

"That's my girl."

Udon wiped his nose for the fiftieth time before giving it up and searching his pockets for a tissue. Ever since his father had been killed in the Sand-Sound invasion he lived in the orphanage by choice. There was no way in the seven hells he would go to that woman for help. She wasn't his mom; granted he didn't know who his mother was, but defiantly not her, and he never liked her attitude anyway. Was it wrong to be glad someone died?

"Welcome back, Udon!" The new mistress of the place greeted as she swept the sidewalk. Her hair was deep purple and very long. Her frustrated and angry demeanor had done a one-eighty since the old orphanage and mistress burned in the purge. Now instead of a cramped old house they lived in a rather large one. There were enough rooms so that only two people shared one instead of five. The food was better, and it was warm.

"'Afternoon Naomi-san." Udon politely replied. His father had taught him that good manners could get one into places that raw power could not.

"Dinner will be cabbage stew with rolls."

"Sounds good."

Udon wandered till he found his bed and climbed onto it. He shared the room with a four year old. The smaller child wasn't too annoying. I wonder what Moegi and Konohamaru are doing?

Udon rolled over and began tossing sharpened pencils at the board across the room. So used to the fluid motion and snap of the wrist, he didn't even have to look at his target. The pencils thudded into the cork one after the other, slowly revealing themselves to be the symbol of Konoha.

"That's a leaf, right?"

Udon shifted so he could see the little boy. "Yeah."

"You got snot running down you're chin."

"I don't feel like dealing with it."

"Oh… can you teach me how to do that?"

"Wait till next year. Then you're body will be developed enough not to fall apart under the training."

"Okay. Why do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Fight. I always get scarred when people yell at me."

"Because if I don't I won't get better."

"Why do you need to get better?"

"Because I'll get left behind if I don't."

"Who would leave you behind?"

"Everyone else who is training."

"Why are they training?"

"Because they want to be better."

"Why would they want to be better?"

This is going to be a looooong night.

Konohamaru sat with his chin in his hands from the balcony. The wind blew harshly and threatened to take his scarf away but he simply tugged it closer. The young boy - youngest of the Sarutobi line - reached up to remove the skull cap topping his head. Long ago, it had been a gift from his grandfather. "Oji-san…" Konohamaru lamented as a few tears slid down his cheeks.

What drove the old man to ignorance? Had he not seen the corruption within the village he had named his grandson after? Did he not want to see it? "Konohamaru-kun?"

Konohamaru wiped his nose quickly and twisted to see Moegi standing with Udon, each of them held spears reduced to their height. "Hey guys..."

Moegi tilted her head to the side and watched as the wind blew her friends now-free-hair. It was surprisingly dark beneath the skull cap, and very fine. The strands lay flat along his head and slowly turned sun-dyed brown. "Are you alright?"

Udon walked forward offering a handkerchief. For some reason, he had inherited his father's constant state of illness and always carried with him various painkillers, bandages, tissues, and cough drops. Konohamaru accepted the thing and blew hard while trying to maintain his happy exterior. "I'm fine. It's just a little cold up here that's all."

"Umm." Moegi rested her staff against the wall and sat down beside her friend. She knew something was up. Konohamaru was practically always energetic, a trait he and their 'leader' shared. The girl slowly removed her two hair ties and ran her fingers through the red strands in an attempt to make them lie flat.

"You know, this whole thing has been kinda crazy." Udon muttered as he pocketed his now used handkerchief.

"What do you mean."

"Well, I'm an orphan. Moegi is raised by her grandparents, but what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Ebisu-sensei used to watch over ya… but who now?"

Konohamaru gripped the leather hat so hard it squeaked. "No one. Just like Nii-san… I've been taking care of myself."

Moegi curled her toes and fidgeted. She couldn't understand what it would be like to not find Oba-san and Oji-san waiting for her every night. Now that I think about it… who did Konohamaru live with before? Ebisu only picked him up in the morning for lessons, Sandime-sama worked as Hokage all the time… "No you're not." Moegi wrapped her arms him, and a glare was all it took to get Udon to do the same. "Nii-san has his friends, you have us."

Konohamaru froze and let the words sink in. Udon and Moegi had never seen him as the Third's grandson. In their eyes he was just Konohamaru, their friend. Companion. To protect my precious people, Nii-san, that's my way of the ninja. While enveloped by the two bodies of his friends Konohamaru released his death grip on the skull cap and let it blow away. The past was the past for a reason. They couldn't change it, the future on the other hand…

"It's good to see you, Konohamaru."

"Hinata-chan!" The three friends cried in surprise as the Hyuuga walked toward them, a small spear in her hands.

"Moegi, Udon." She nodded at each in turn. The two children smiled and gripped their own spears anticipating what was to happen. Hinata had a plan. She wanted them to be apart of it, and this one had less immediate bloodshed. "Are you feeling alright, Konohamaru-kun?"

"Yes." He eyed the weapon she held with a small amount of jealously. The wood was darker than that of Moegi's and Udon's, with faint seals painted in blood. The impaling end was some sort of glass or crystal and when it caught the light Konohamaru could see a tiny blue flame within it. "What is that? Moegi and Udon have one, is it new weaponary?"

"In a way, but only a small few will receive it. Too difficult to make."

"Oh." Konohamaru sighed in disappointment.

"Konohamaru-kun, how much do you care for Naruto?" Hinata asked while spinning the weapon.

"Much." He rocked forward with the word and grinned. "Nii-san taught me what it means to be a shinobi and… how to find true friends."

Moegi blushed and Udon coughed.

"Would you die for him?"

Konohamru blinked, before getting angry. "Of course I would die for Nii-san! We're Konoha shinobi aren't we?!"

Moegi held her hand out to calm Konohamaru. "That doesn't mean we have to die. I think she means, would you put everything on the line to protect Nii-san."

"Why would Naruto nii-san need protection?"

Hinata sat on her ankles and addressed the boy. He came from a line of strong shinobi, one of which was a Hokage. He would be instrumental in her perfect world. "Sometimes one skilled person can take out an army. Sometimes that army can take out the person. What I'm asking you to do is train. Train until you are that one person, and then become Naruto-kun's personal guard. Moegi and Udon have already made their choice."

Konohamaru looked into the blue flame that danced in the crystal tipped spear. It called to him. "I want to protect Nii-san."

Hinata held out the spear. "Good. This is a chakra spear. It's unbreakable, and it will be your primary weapon as Oni-sama's personal guard. You can channel chakra into it, and it shall naturally form it to you're affinity as a weapon. For example, Moegi has fire affinity and she was able to shoot a fireball from the tip."

"Naruto doesn't know about this yet. Don't tell him. I've set it up so you will get separate training for half your school day. Can you do it?"

Konohamaru gripped the weapon and smiled as it tuned into his chakra. Sparks burst from the tip and Hinata smiled in surprise. "We can do it!" He grinned impishly. "Dattebayo!"

END.