Chapter Four

Dinner Dilemma

Disclaimer: Once again, I do not own Naruto or any related subject. That all belongs to the original Author of the graphic novel series, Masashi Kishimoto.

Summaries:

Ch. 1-Enter Tsurikeku, Arrive in Konoha, Enter Sakura, Enter Ino

Ch. 2-Move in begin, Enter Naruto, Enter Al

Ch. 3-Naruto invited for Dinner, Enter Tsunade, Enter Kakashi

Enjoy!

Naruto collapsed in one of the many comfy chairs that surrounded the family table, and waited for the early dinner to be ready. Tsuri's mother had come home earlier to help Tsuri finish preparing supper while Al explained all that had been accomplished during the afternoon to his father all while Tsuri's seven year old twin brothers Kō and Shō, ran around the house playing hide-and-go-seek tag holing small pinwheels that spun wildly as they ran. There was also a baby chair in the corner of the dinning room, but Naruto paid no attention to that. He'd not had very pleasant experiences with children before, so therefore, he didn't care to see a baby anytime soon.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. He had much on his mind, and was exhausted from his day of lifting and fixing and scrubbing. Yes, Al even made him scrub the floors, and the toilets, which were much to Naruto's dislike. He also wondered why this family didn't shun him like every other person in the village. He figured that it was because they had not been told about his fox friend sealed inside him.

"SUPPERS ALMOST DONE! GET TO THE TABLE!"

This cry through the house disrupted Naruto's train of thought. He opened his eyes to see who was screaming about what, just in time to see Kō and Shō stampeding towards his chair on the way to their seats.

'Oh no' thought Naruto.

BAM!

Naruto had been trampled by the two young ruffians, and was now under his toppled over chair, just in time to be seen by Tsuri who was carrying in one of the dishes she was going to serve.

She gave him a look that said 'do I even want to know' and then hesitantly asked, "Why is your chair sitting on top of you?"

Quickly getting up, he straightened out the chair, and tried to think of an excuse that would make since. "Uh. I …" nothing was coming to him. 'Oh! I'll use Kakashi's excuse! He always seems to make it work!' He thought. "I," started the now confident Naruto, "got lost on the path of life."

Tsuri looked at Naruto, cocked her head to the side, and pondered this for a moment. She put the bowl of what looked like some kind of veggies on the table and cautiously asked, "Excuse me?"

Naruto's confidence was immediately shattered. "Nothing…" he trailed off. "Just leaned back to far I guess."

"Oh."

ANOTHER AKWARD SILENCE

Tsuri then silently left the room while Naruto began to pummel his head into the table to remind him how stupid he was and how he should never speak again.

---------------------------------

The early supper finally began at five o'clock sharp. Naruto was still embarrassed of what he has said earlier, so he hadn't spoken, or even dared to look Tsuri.

Supper started off normal for Tsuri, but Naruto was about to die from all the chaos.

Tsuri was the only one who ate normally, but as for the rest of the family, Naruto thought that Kakashi's ninja dogs could have eaten more mannerly. Kō and Shō were battling each other with their chopsticks, the youngest of the bunch, Nako, Tsuri's little sister, was avoiding the food her mother was trying to feed her and laughing as she did so, and Al and his father were deep into a conversation, leaving Naruto lost in the chaos.

Suddenly out of nowhere, he heard a voice "So, what kind of ninja squad are you on?"

It was Tsuri, and she was talking to him! 'Ok. Don't say anything Kakashi would say.'

"Well, kind of a crazy one." He said. Tsuri hadn't given him a funny look yet, so he continued. "We have four people, including me and my sensei, so three guys and one girl. We took the chunin exam, but none of us passed it, so we are back to regular missions."

"So your sensei isn't a jonin?" she asked, slightly shocked.

"Oh! He is! I meant that the other three of us didn't pass the exam when we took it a while ago." Naruto corrected. "Although our sensei is kinda perverted." Naruto laughed. "He reads these orange books and--" Naruto stopped talking. He noticed that the whole table was looking at him and saying with their faces 'what!?'

"I didn't realize that they let ninja who were into that sort of hobby train younger ninja." Tsuri's mother said coldly.

"Well," Naruto started. "I have never really seen the book, so I wouldn't know…" he ended muttering.

"Oh Mom! I'm sure that it is just a nasty rumor." She said smiling at her mother.

"Oh, I'm sure that you are right Tsuri. One can never be too careful though," she said unconvinced, and went back to unsuccessfully feeding Nako.

Tsuri turned back to face Naruto and gave him a fierce glare saying 'what the hell were you thinking!?'

That was the second time that he had been glared at by a member of Tsuri's family. Naruto thought that glaring must run in the family, although Tsuri was closer to perfecting it by far compared to all the others. Hers was icy, and chilling, and even better than Sasuke's which Naruto hadn't thought was possible until tonight.

Dinner then commenced as usual; twins fighting, random topic conversations, occasionally food being eaten, until Nako said something completely unexpected.

"Tsuri!" the two year old commanded. "Fly!"

The table was silent.

"What?" asked Tsuri, unsure of what her sis said.

"Wanna fly!" whined Nako. "Wanna fly like yo- -" she was silenced by a spoonful of veggie mix stuffed into her mouth by her mother.

"Mom, have you been reading her too many stories before bed again?" Tsuri asked.

"Oh, yes! That's it! I think that they are going to her head!" and she started laughing, followed by the whole rest of the table, except Naruto.

He looked around, thinking that he had missed a joke, and just smiled and nodded with his mouth full of food.

Then the phone rang. Al's father left the table, so Al had no one to talk to. He took this opportunity to begin to lecture Naruto, again; this time on how the idea of chopsticks came to be.

Naruto took this opportunity to ignore Al and think more. He thought that this family sure acted strange, but he didn't really have any other family to compare them too, so he decided to just forget about it.

"I'm sorry everyone, but I am going to have to go meet my new colleges for a while, so I must leave."

"Ok!"

"Don't get lost."

"Bye Dad!"

"Bye bye dada!

"Yeah! Don't get lost!"

"See ya."

Supper proceeded for a few minutes before the twins asked to be excused, Tsuri's mother went to go put Nako down for a nap, and Al went to go finish unpacking his room. This left Naruto and Tsuri at the table, meaning that they were the ones to clear it.

"So, what was your sister saying before?" Naruto asked, trying to starts a conversation.

"Oh, nothing important! Ya know. Baby babble." She laughed.

"Heh." Naruto snorted as he followed Tsuri into the kitchen, when something caught his eye. On Tsuri's back, there were a pair of what looked like a cross between scars and tattoos to Naruto. He didn't know what it was, so, as she turned the corner, he moved his head to try to get a better look when,

BAM!

He walked into a wall.

Once again, Tsuri turned around and just shook her head. "Are you always this clumsy?" she asked, helping to pick up the dropped utensils and dishes.

He shrugged, sheepishly and bent down to help her pick up.

With Naruto's assistance, the dinning room was cleared easily, and the two genins were on the porch saying their goodbyes.

"Well, I'll see you around!" Tsuri said as she gave him a slight wave.

"You bet!" Naruto agreed.

Tsuri had turned to go back inside when Naruto had an idea.

"Hey Tsuri!" Naruto said.

"Hm?"

"Uh. I. Uh." Naruto choked. He had wanted to ask her to the upcoming Konoha festival in a few weeks, but found that he couldn't get the words out. "Yeah, see you around…"

Tsuri nodded and turned, flipping her hair into the breeze. To Naruto, she was gorgeous, no matter what other people said.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and turned from the house to walk home, but not before he saw a crow with a scroll heading for Tsuri's house. 'Probably from her Suna boyfriend' he thought sadly, and continued home, hands in pockets, eyes down.

From the author:

Yay! All done with chapter four! Ok, so I know that I said that I wouldn't post another one for a week. Well, I lied. Ok, I don't think that I am going to post Chapter five until, well, later...

Teaser: What was in the Mysterious scroll? Does Tsuri have bf? Will Naruto fall again? Read on next time to find out!

Thanks guys! Review and pm (private message) me if you want! And I know that I did say to give me constructive criticism, well, I don't handle that very well, so if you are nice please send it. Otherwise, tough.

Review please!

Sincerely,

You author who wants more reviews and nice constructive criticize, Konsoli