What's up guys, thesaiyanjedi here with the latest chapter of "Naruto and Sakura's Twelfth Anniversary."

This chapter will be an interesting mix of different ideas and tones. You'll see when we get into it, and I'll speak in more detail about it at the end of the chapter.

With that said, lets get to reading!

Chapter 4: Time and Punishment

"So how much time do you really think we have until they come back?"

"Hey, don't panic alright. Those two have a reputation for partying. Trust me, we've got plenty of time."

Tetsuo simply wasn't feeling as confident about it. "I don't know Kaneda, I just can't shake this feeling that we're being watched."

"That's just your imagination. Now shut up and get back to work."

Shinachiku remained perfectly quiet, hiding in his shadowy spot on the steps, away from the two thieves. He held his kunai in hand, it was a suicide mission, but he was the man of the house now. His and Hanami's lives hung in the balance unless he did something, and did it fast.

'Alright Shina, here it goes!'

The boy was about to take his first step off the stairs and make a mad charge off the stairs, when suddenly he stopped, again without making a sound. He stopped himself not out of fear, but out of inspiration.

'Wait a minute...' He thought again about the gear he had in his supply bag, and about the incidental knick knacks he knew they had throughout the house. He grinned in the darkness, a grin of sick, sadistic evil. 'I've think I've got a few ideas. This is gonna be fun.'

"Okay, I think we ought to start with the second floor next."

"Whatever you say Kaneda."

Shinachiku slowly unzipped his bag and pulled out a thin, metal tube, one that shinobi often use to blow darts at their enemies. He unfortunately did not have any such tranquilizers on hand right now but he did have something else. He then pulled out a small metal ball bearing. He loaded the ball bearing into the tube and placed it at his mouth...

The one that was being called Kaneda was turned in the boy's direction, but was still unable to see him in the darkness.

'Ready...Aim...FIRE!'

The boy spit the metal ball bearing at quick speed through the tube, where it shot out in a perfectly straight line and at rapid speed...and collided directly with the burglar's crotch.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Kaneda grabbed his crotch with both hands in pain and he hopped around the room before falling to his knees, cursing profusely under his breath.

"What?!" Tetsuo asked about his partner. "What happened?!"

"Something got me in the crotch!"

"Huh? Did you drop something on it?"

"NO! No I did not drop something you idiot! Something came out and shot me!"

"What?"

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT! Go find out you moron!"

Tetsuo, still confused, looked in the direction of where his partner was facing before he started acting weird. Slowly, he creped in that direction, having no idea what it was he was looking for.

Shinachiku loaded another ball bearing into the tube and right when he feared it was close enough, he spat out another ball bearing, this one landing directly in Tetsuo's temple.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Tetuo fell down to the floor grabbing his forehead. "Son of a—!" Something shot me in the head!"

Kaneda was really ticked off now. "Somebody else is here!"

"It's got to be Uzumaki's kids," Tetsuo reasoned.

Kaneda finally managed to get back up, after giving his groin one last massage, and got determined expression of his face. "I'm not letting some punk kid get the best of me! Get up and grab him!"

Tetsuo did just that. He stood up and dived for where the ball bearing had struck him from. However, all he did was land belly flat on the solid wood floor. "OW!

"Where's the kid?"

"I don't know, he's gone!"

"That's it! You go look in the dining room, I'm looking in the parlor!"

'Perfect,' Shinachiku recollected from his hiding place, which he could reach only thanks to his ninja speed. 'They're splitting up. Now I can really have some fun.'

The boy made a quick hand sign with his fingers. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Two puffs of smoke appeared in the room, and out of them appeared two identical shadow clones of himself, both of whom were already fully aware of the plan.

"What was that?!"

Wasting no time, both the boy and his doppelgangers dashed away in time before Kaneda came back into the living room. When he did, he had not found whatever it was that had made that popping sound, but only traces of smoke that was already dissipating in the darkness.

"Alright," Kaneda said, "I've had enough of this. Games over kid. Come out where we can see ya!"

Kaneda went over to the wall to flick the light switch on, but to his annoyance, the lights did not come back on. "What the hell?" He tried flicking the lights on and off several times, but it was not accomplishing anything.

'Brat must've shut off the power,' Kaneda reasoned, but then he smirked. 'Dumb move kid, now I know exactly where you are.'

Kaneda took his first step towards the stairs that led to the basement level, but then he slipped on a rolling toy that one of the boy's clones had covertly planted on the floor.

"WHAAAAAAAA!"

Kaneda flipped over and landed on his back on the solid wooden floor. It hurt...A lot! It hurt so much in fact that he was unable to do anything but stare up at the ceiling for several seconds.

Tetsuo heard his partner's cries from inside the kitchen. He'd already searched the dining room and could not find anyone or anything. "Kaneda? You alright?"

He'd tried taking a step, when all of a sudden he slipped on a fresh puddle of tap water that the boy's other clone had spilled on the kitchen floor.

"WHAAAAAAA!"

Now it was Tetsuo's turn to slip and fall back first onto the floor. "OWWW!"

"TETSUO! GET IN HERE!"

Tetsuo shook his head and tried to regain his bearings. "Yeah, yeah I'll be right there."

He tried to get back up again and, wouldn't you know it, he slipped on the puddle a second time. "OW!"

Getting back up again, he was this time wise enough to avoid the puddle, even in the darkness, but as he went back through the dining room, he slipped and fell on his back a third time! The cause? ...A banana peel.

Shinachiku's clone could not help but giggle from his hiding place as he watched the two idiot thieves making total fools of themselves. So far this was turning out to be a lot of fun.

Down in the basement, the real Shinachiku could hear all the pratfalls and blunders and he knew that the plan was working, almost regretting that he wasn't up there to see it. But he needed to beeline to the basement level first and head for the furnace and electrical room to shut off the power, otherwise none of this could possibly work.

'This is working out pretty well,' he thought. 'My ninja speed and training gives me the edge over these idiots. Plus, as a ninja I'm much better at seeing in the dark then they are. But no more time reflecting, one of them is going to figure out I'm down here. I better get to work on something.'

He ran into the storage room across the way, where the family stored much of their junk and so forth. He also turned his head and remembered that this was also the floor where his father's workshop room was; he kept his toolbox and many other knit knacks for house repair in there.

Turning his head back to the stuff in the storage room, he saw that they had a can that contained...tar?

'What the heck do we have tar for? Wait!" The boy smirked evilly again. 'I've got another idea..'

Back upstairs, Tetsuo had finally gotten himself back up and made it to back to where Kaneda was. "Did you find him?"

"No, but I think I know where he is."

"Where?"

Kaneda led his partner over to the stairs that went down to a lower level. "He shut the power off so we can't see where we're going. I betcha' he's stuck down there right now." Kaneda turned to his partner. "Go down there and get him."

Tetsuo did nothing for several seconds, then he turned back confused. "Now?"

Kaneda rolled his eyes. "No, tomorrow egghead. NOW!"

Tetsuo took the message and started walking down the stairs. Not wanting to take any more chances, he started moving very, very slowly. He even grasped the sides of the stair rail for balance.

'That kid's as good as dead when I get my hands on 'em!' ...Hey, what the?'

Tetsuo suddenly found that he could not move his foot. He could feel that his shoe had gotten stuck on something.

"What the hell? What is this? Tar?!"

Whatever he'd just stepped in, his shoe was stuck and not going anywhere. He tried moving the other foot on the next step, but now that shoe had gotten stuck also!

"Shit!"

He had no choice, he stepped out of both shoes altogether. He tried going down two more steps, but then his socks got stuck too!

Tetsuo was now climbing down the stairs in just his bare feet. Even that was a struggle to free his feet from whatever it was that the kid had lined these stairs with.

And then it happened...He took one more step and felt something going through the soft underside of his foot. It was thin, small, and very sharp. Tetsuo looked down...a large nail had just gone half an inch inside of his foot.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Poor Tetsuo kept screaming nonstop as he literally fell the entire way down the rest of the stairs. He could not stand up, all he could do was grab his poor foot as he screamed in utter pain.

Kaneda could hear the horrific screaming from above the stairs. "Tetsuo? Tetsuo, what's going on?"

"AAAHHH! AH! MY FOOT!"

"You're foot? What about your foot? What'd that kid do to ya?"

After hearing only more screaming, Kaneda rolled his eyes and was about to climb down after his partner. But then, all of a sudden, he heard what sounded like a child's voice coming back from the kitchen.

"There you are kid!"

Kaneda stormed over into the kitchen. There he was, a twelve year old boy with blonde hair and green eyes, wearing a mischievous, shit eating grin as he waved his hand at him.

"YOU!"

"Oh no, I'm really scared."

"The games up kid! I've got ya now!"

"Okay, come and get me."

Kaneda was furious. The kid was standing right there and he had the audacity to egg him on! Well the hell with that!

"AH!" With a furious yell, Kaneda charged right at the boy to grab him. But then, at the last possible second, the boy disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Kaneda had no time to react before he fell through the lingering smoke and fell onto what the boy had been standing behind...a live stove!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The thief's hands received third degree burns as he stumbled to push himself off of the fire and against the back wall. He kept screaming in agony from the pain, desperately running over to the sink to hastily turn the cold water on and diving his hands underneath the cascading flood.

Kaneda let out a huge sigh of relief as he let his hands soak for at least two full minutes. When he finally pulled his hands back out, he saw how bad the burns really were, which only further ignited his own inner fire for revenge.

"THAT'S IT!" He stormed back into the hallway, fuming with anger. "Tetsuo! Get up here!"

Down in the basement, Tetsuo had finally gotten over the nail in his foot, although now he had a seriously bad limp whenever he took a step with that foot. "I'll be right up Kaneda."

Tetsuo limped his way towards the stairs again, but then he stopped. Instead, he first turned back to the furnace and electrical room and felt along the wall until he found the power switch. Flipping it back on, several of the lights within the house came back on again.

Tetsuo smirked to himself for his forethought. But then he panicked when he felt something like a swoosh of air zip past him. Tetsuo panicked and he looked back and forth around him, but he could see nor hear nothing.

Convincing himself that he must have been imagining things, he took a step back up towards the stairs, when all of a sudden he felt something crack and break under his now bare feet.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

Tetsuo fell down to the ground yet again, grabbing his poor feet, when he saw that he'd just stepped on and crack glass Christmas tree ornaments.

"I'M GONNA KILL THAT KID!"

Wiping his feet clean of glass, Tetsuo stumbled, very much, to stand back up again as he limped his way forward towards the stairs. As he did so, he stepped on yet another glass ornament, causing him to scream in pain again.

Shinachiku was fighting every urge in his body to laugh his butt off. So far this plan had been going exceptionally well. These idiots had fallen for every single trap and prank he'd laid out for them. Yeah, he knew there were at least a dozen other ways to deal with this more quickly, but none of them were nearly as fun.

Still, the time for said fun was over now. He was still trapped down in the basement with the one they called Tetsuo and he needed an escape plan.

Quietly, he looked through the box he'd opened inside the storage room that contained the family's Christmas decorations. He found an old snow globe in there, along with a few cans of paint that were stored nearby. That gave him an idea.

Sneaking out as Tetsuo's eyes were directed elsewhere, once again under cloud of darkness, Shinachiku readied a pitch and threw the snow globe over to the far wall, causing it to shatter in a heap of glass, water, and imitation snow flakes.

Tetsuo turned around in the direction of breaking glass. "Where are you, you little creep!"

Shinachiku snuck up behind Tetsuo while he was distracted and grabbed a paint can. Holding it by the handle he swung the can and whacked the thief in the back of the head with.

"OH!" Tetsuo fell right to the ground from the blow to his head.

That gave Shinachiku just the opening he needed to make a dash for the stairs. He was careful to jump over the steps he'd previously tarred up and especially steered clear of the stepped he'd imbedded the nail into. The boy had his bag on ninja gear still on his back and a can of paint in his hand. Why? Because he had not forgotten who it was waiting for him at the top of the stairs.

"There you are you little—"

The thief did not get a chance to finish his threat. Shinachiku put all of his shinobi training to good use once again and leaped over the head of the incompetent crook, whacking him in the face with the paint can while doing so.

Kaneda, like his partner, fell directly to the floor, but in his case his punishment was even worse. Why? Because the paint can the he'd been hit with actually popped open when he'd gotten hit, drenching him in a flow of gold paint. Shinachiku quickly used that opening to rush up the stairs to the second floor.

Wiping the paint that was covering his eyes and face, and spitting out the paint that had gotten into his mouth, the now super ticked off Kaneda stood back up, just as his partner had finally made it back up the stairs.

"Tetsuo?"

"Kaneda?"

The (allegedly) smarter of the two thieves noticed his partner's current state. "Why the hell did you take your shoes off?"

"Why the hell do you look like you're from the Gold Man Group?"

Kaneda could only stand there and groan at his partner's stupidity before he finally got over it. "Come on, the brat ran upstairs." Kaneda noticed that his partner was staring at his face like an idiot. "What?"

"You're missing both of your front teeth."

Kaneda felt the inside of his mouth, stupidly getting still more paint in there, and found out that, yes, something was missing. He ran over to a mirror hanging on a nearby wall and saw it: both of his front teeth had been knocked out from getting hit in the face by that damn paint can.

"I'll kill him! I'LL KILL HIM!"

The two thieves stumbled up the stairs after the pest that had put them through so much trouble tonight. When they both made it up the stairs, they found the boy standing right there at the end of the hall.

"Hey! You morons give up, or are you thirsty for more?"

Kaneda pointed his finger right at the boy in anger. "It's too late for you kid! We're done with these games!"

"Okay! Come and get me!"

The two thieves charged at the boy in full fury, but they then tripped over themselves in a heap, literally. Shinachiku had laid yet another trap for them in the form of a common ninja tool, a strong but thin wire, so thin that it often appears invisible, that he'd strung across the hallway.

Tetsuo, however, was able to get his bearings quickly enough to grab hold of the boy's leg. "HA! I got 'em Kaneda! I got 'em!"

The boy pulled a kunai out of his bag and slashed Tetsuo's arm with it. This forced the thief to let go of him in pain, allowing the boy to duck into a nearby room.

The two crooks quickly got back up and ran inside the room. It was a spacious room with padded walls and two sliding doors on the back wall. Inside the room were things like simple weights, practice dummies and punching bags.

The door slammed shut behind them. They turned their head to see the boy that had caused them so much pain tonight.

"Get him!"

Kaneda's command instantly triggered his and Tetsuo's latest ambush of the boy. Within inches of their approaching him, Shinachiku leaped over both of their heads, causing both of them to collide against the padded walls of the dojo. The boy landed on his hands and did a spinning kicking that hit both of them in the face.

Getting right side up again, he addressed them. "Alright you guys, this has been fun and all, but you were right before, this game is over." Shinachiku's tone suddenly got very serious. "You two break into my house, steal our stuff, frighten my sister...Well, now you're both going to—AH!

Shinachiku suddenly found himself tripped over his own two feet. For once, one of the two thieves actually did something smart and instead of letting their preteen torturer finish his little speech, Kaneda instead kicked his left leg and made him loose his balance. Tetsuo was quick to react in turn by pinning himself over the boy's body, holding him to the ground. "Let me go!"

"SHUT UP!" Tetsuo shouted in anger at him. "You shut your mouth you little brat!"

Kaneda got himself back up and took command. "Pin him up against that wall there."

Tetsuo did so as Kaneda stood beside him. "What are we gonna do with him Kaneda?"

"We're gonna do to him exactly what he did to us. I'm thinking...burn him alive over a stove!"

"Yeah!" Tetsuo agreed as he too glared at the boy with hate. "Or we could shoot him in the head with a blow pipe!"

"Or hit him over the head with a paint can maybe!"

"Or shove a friggin' nail through his foot!"

Kaneda noticed Shinachiku's eyes glance over to the far wall. Looking in that direction, Kaneda saw that the boy was looking at a door within this dojo room.

"Go ahead and have fun with him for a sec."

Tetsuo did not hesitate to do so. He furiously started punching the boy in the face and the chest as he had him pinned to the wall. When the beatings were enough to make it too hard for the boy to stand up anymore, Tetsuo let him fall to the floor, before he immediately started kicking him in the stomach over and over again.

"HUH?! How do you like it, huh?! Hurts don't it kid?!"

Tetsuo would not let up as he laid out every bit of his rage on the boy.

Kaneda opened the door and what he found made his eyes glow. It was a small room filled with all kids of shinobi weaponry: katanas, nunchakus, bow staffs, sais, shuriken, all of it. This room was clearly an armory that Uzumaki and his family used to help with private training.

Had this night gone the way it was supposed to, the sight of this room would have meant quite a score for the thief. But right now, all he could see was a surplus of options to take his swift, brutal revenge.

"Tetsuo!"

"What?"

"On second thought," he grabbed a weapon off of the wall, "lets just make this fast and sweet."

He walked back over to the boy and allowed him to see the weapon he was holding, a single edged katana blade!

"You know something kid," Kaneda said, "you really shouldn't have left your left side open and went on a big speech like that, at least not without tying us down or something first." He held the blade directly against eh now terrified boy's chin. "You could have just stayed quiet up in your room and pretended to be asleep. But nooo...you had to play games with us and get us totally pissed off instead! I should thank you though, do you know why?"

The boy shook his head to indicate no, to which the criminal continued. "Because we came here tonight to rob your house and get revenge on you parents, but now, what better revenge can we have for the years of our lives they'd taken from us than by taking both of the things they love most in all the world?"

Shinachiku's eyes widened in terror as he realized what that meant.

"That's right, if you're home, that means that sister of yours must be here too. I'm thinkin' after we're done with you, we might as well take her and hold her for ransom. Just remember kid, all of this is your fault."

Shinachiku could feel a tear falling from his eye. He was supposed to protect her, keep her safe, and now he was going to die and she was going to suffer, all because of him. 'Hanami...'

Kaneda took the sword and placed it right against the boy's heart. One quick thrust, that was all it would take. "Sayonara kid..."

...

...

"Sir! I've found something!"

In a dark cave far away in the Land of Water, an archaeologist and his apprentice were doing an expedition to study the ancient history of the country. In particular, they were on a quest to find the lair of Seiryū, the Legendary Dragon of the West. One of four legendary beasts that resided in each corner of the world, it is believed by some that this creature will grant a single wish to anyone who encounter it, and yet no modern record exists of any Iwa ninja actually seeing it.

The archaeologist came over to his assistant excitedly. "What did you find?"

"This sir."

The assistant handed over what he'd found. It was a small jewel, a gem to be precise, an orange one that emitted an orange glow.

"Fascinating..."

The archaeologist examined the artifact with intrigue. He tapped it once, and that was when something happened.

The gem released a pulse, a spark of orange light that washed over not only the two archaeologists, but the entire area, the country, the entire ninja world.

"What the—?!"

The flash of orange light washed over everything, it was as if time itself had stopped...

...

...

Naruto and Sakura had left Tobirama's after their last round of drinks. Now they were both enjoying the moonlight from the top of the Hokage Rock, the place where they first confessed their love for one another.

"This village always looks so gorgeous at night."

"Does it? I wasn't looking at the village."

Sakura turned to her husband. "Jeez! Twelve years of marriage and you still rely on corny pickup lines?"

"Only when I know they'll work."

Sakura huffed in annoyance, before she smiled in amusement and leaned her head on his shoulder. "This was a lovely night."

"Yeah, it was. And I'm sure Shina and Hanami are sound asleep right now with no problems whatso—Hey, what's that?"

Naruto saw a very fast moving wave of orange light wash over the entire village, both he and his wife tried covering their eyes with their arms to shield themselves from the approaching orange light, but it was to no avail. It was like that one, singular moment was permanently frozen in time...

...

...

"Sayonara kid...Hey, what the—?!"

Before Kaneda could complete his vengeful act of murder, the house was suddenly consumed by a bright, orange light.

"What is that?!" Tetsuo asked in a panic.

Shinachiku had no idea what was going on. First he was just about to get himself gutted clean through with a katana blade, and now some bright, orange light was engulfing everything.

As the light consumed everything, the boy couldn't help but feel his mind drifting back, wishing things could somehow go back to how they were before this whole mess started.

Go back...go back...go back...

...

...

...

...

...

"ONIICHAN! ONIICHAN!"

Shinachiku was roused from his sleep in semi-grumpy mood. "W-Wha? Hanami? What are you doing? I'm trying to get some—"

"Oniichan! There are two bad men in our house!"

"H-Huh?" He asked still not fully awake or able to comprehend the sudden seriousness of the situation.

"Yes! There are these two bad men downstairs and their stealing all our stuff!"

"WHAT?!" ...Yep, now the boy as wide awake!

Shinachiku practically leaped himself out of bed and placed his hands on his sister's shoulders as he looked her right in the eye. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

"N-No, I'm okay."

"Did they see or hear you?"

"They almost heard me, but they didn't see me."

"You're sure?" The girl nodded yes.

At the moment, the boy found his mind to be lost in thought. 'What a minute...why does this...? Why do I feel like...? There's something weirdly familiar about all of this...'

Shaking his head clear of the sudden sense of deja vu, he got himself serious again and looked directly at his sister. "Hanami, I want you to go back to your room and hide under the bed. Don't come out for any reason unless I tell you to."

"What are you going to do?"

Shinachiku went back over to his ninja gear, including the freshly sharpened kunai he'd worked on tonight, and gathered it all with him. "I'm going to go put a stop to this."

"Oniichan! Please be careful!"

"I will. I promise. Now go hide."

Hanami was about to leave to room to go do what she was told, but first she ran back in and gave her big brother a quick hug. Shinachiku knew how scared she must be for him, and so he did not resist returning the hug for her.

"Be careful oniichan."

"I'll be fine, I promise."

When Hanami went to her room closed and locked the door, she hid underneath her bed just like she was told.

Meanwhile, Shinachiku took a deep breath, bracing himself for the potentially dangerous mission that he never thought he would have to embark on this night.

'This is my house. Hanami is my sister. I have to defend it. I have to protect her.'

Very quickly, he slipped on his old clothes from earlier so he did not have to go down in his sleeping clothes, picked up all of his stuff, and very quietly sneaked out of his room and headed downstairs.

Sneaking down into the front hallway, he carefully peaked around the doorways and found the two thieves had moved into the parlor room. One of them was dumping everything on the tables into his sack, while the other was busy raiding the bar set up in the corner of the room.

"Wow!" Tetsuo exclaimed. "This is some darn good sake! Great year too."

"Hey Tetsuo!" Kaneda protested. "How 'bout instead of spending so much time on the best way to get yourself wasted tonight, why don't you come over here and help me load more of this rich people crap so we can start heading upstairs?"

"Yeah, whatever you say Kaneda."

Shinachiku studied the two thieves intently. The one called Kaneda was clearly the leader of the two, and the one called Tetsuo was the follower. Despite the one guy being slightly more aware, both of them clearly were a couple of idiots. They had to be if they both were stupid enough to try to rob the Hokage's mansion for any reason!

"So how much time do you really think we have until they come back?"

"Hey, don't panic alright. Those two have a reputation for partying. Trust me, we've got plenty of time."

Tetsuo simply wasn't feeling as confident about it. "I don't know Kaneda, I just can't shake this feeling that we're being watched."

"That's just your imagination. Now shut up and get back to work."

Shinachiku remained perfectly quiet, hiding in his shadowy spot on the steps, away from the two thieves. He held his kunai in hand, it was a suicide mission, but he was the man of the house now. His and Hanami's lives hung in the balance unless he did something, and did it fast.

'Alright Shina, here it goes!'

The boy was about to take his first step off the stairs and make a mad charge off the stairs, when suddenly he stopped, again without making a sound. He stopped himself not out of fear, but out of inspiration.

'Wait a minute...' He thought again about the gear he had in his supply bag, and about the incidental knick knack he knew they had throughout the house. He grinned in the darkness, a grin of sick, sadistic evil. 'I've think I've got a few ideas. This is gonna be..."

...All of a sudden, that weird sense of deja vu took a hold of him again. Somehow, for some reason, some part of his brain was telling him that having fun with these two was a terrible, terrible idea. He may have bee a kid, one with some deep-rooted itch for some real adventure, but these were professional criminals and he and his sister were home alone. Seriously, he'd have to be a damned fool to even think of dragging this out!

'NO! No, I have to end this clean and fast.'

Shinachiku quietly opened up his bag of ninja tools and pooled something out. It was a pair of solid oak nunchakus that Konohamaru-sensei had given him for his training one time, not because he was good with them necessarily, but because training with them would help strengthen his concentration. If he did not pay close attention to the other half of those nunchakus at all times, then it was only a matter of time before he ended up hitting himself in the head with them...which did happen from time to time.

Getting the nunchakus out, he very quietly approached the back of the two thieves, who were facing away from him.

"Hey Kaneda," Tetsuo said, "I feel like we're being watched."

"That's you imagination, that's all."

"I don't know, I feel like something bad is supposed to happen right about now. Its almost like I'm remembering it somehow."

"How the hell can you remember something that hasn't happened?"

"...I have no idea."

Kaneda shook his head, "Just shut up and keep working will ya Tetsuo?!"

The two of them went on doing what they were doing.

"Psst!"

Tetsuo turned around to hear some strange noise coming from behind him.

WHACK!

The boy swung the other end of his nunchuckus right into Tetsuo's head, causing the petty crook to collapse to the floor unconscious.

"What the—!"

WHACK!

Kaneda never got a chance to finish before he two got hit in the head and fell to the floor. Both of the home invaders were out like a light, just like that.

"Whew!" The boy wiped his brow and breathed a sigh of relief. 'Thank goodness that worked. Now to tie these guys up and call the Anbu to get them out of here before mom and dad get home.'

The boy did just that. He opened up his bag and pulled out some rope. After binding their hands and legs tight, he got on his cell phone and spoke to the authorities.

"Hello...Yes, this is, umm...an anonymous tip. I'm calling to report two robbers that were caught breaking into someone's house. They're bound up and waiting in the forest just outside the village...They're names? Umm...Kaneda and Tetsuo I think they're called...Yes, those are the ones. Here, let me tell you where you can find them...

"Captain! I think I see them!"

The Anbu captain came over to where his lieutenant was calling from and saw where he was pointing his torch. There they were, Kaneda and Tetsuo, two of Konoha's most consistent annoyances, convicted for multiple petty thefts and arrested three times by none other than the Seventh Hokage himself. They were bound and left unconscious in the woods, just like that anonymous tip had informed them.

"Take them into custody. I want these two back in their cell again before midnight. And somebody make sure they don't pull anything to escape this time."

"HAI!" All of his squad shouted as one.

As the two crooks started to stir awake, they could feel their bodies being hauled away by the Anbu Black Ops. They could also feel that they were tied up somehow. But how the last thing they remembered was that they were inside Uzumaki's house.

"What the heck happened Kaneda?"

Kaneda thought about it as they both were being taken away. "...I think we might have chosen the wrong house Tetsuo."

"Well, I hate to say 'I told you so,' but—"

"Don't! ...Even! ...Start!"

Tetsuo hung his head. "Sorry."

Hanami was still hiding under her bed, too terrified to come out. What if those bad men were still in their house? What if Shinachiku was hurt? What if—?

Her door suddenly opened. 'Oh no, they're here...'

"Hanami? Sis, are you in here? It's me."

"Oniichan?"

"Hai. It's okay, its over now."

The little girl with pink hair rushed out for under her bed and like a flash of light was inside her big brother's arms. "Oniichan! I'm so glad you're not hurt."

"I'm alright sis. They didn't hurt me."

"What happened to the bad men?"

"The Anbu are taking them away right now. Its all over."

They girl smiled brightly in relief. "Wow! Wait until I tell mommy and daddy about how you stopped a couple of robbers!"

Suddenly the boy's face went dead white, and he could feel a cold sweat running down his spine. 'Oh crap! If mom and dad find out about all this, mom will be too terrified to ever trust me to stay home alone ever again, even if I am a Genin!'

"H-hey sis?"

"Yes oniichan?"

"Umm...how about you and I, err...how about you and I just keep this a secret between the two of us, okay?"

The girl cocked her head in confusion. "But why?"

"Its just that...well, I'm just worried that if mom hears about this then it might scare her. She might get really scared and that could mean some bad things for all four of us later."

"I don't understand."

"...I know. Listen sis, mom and dad trusted me to take care of you tonight and I gave them my word I'd keep you safe. If they found out that a couple of goons broke into our house, then they may never trust me again."

"But you did protect me oniichan. You took care of the bad men all by yourself."

The boy smiled. "Thank you sis. So, can you help me keep this a secret."

She darted her eyes to the side. "I don't know. I don't like having to lie to mommy and daddy."

Shinachiku sighed. "I understand."

"But okay, I won't tell them oniichan."

"R-Really?"

She smiled. "I promise."

The boy smiled back, hugging her tightly in gratitude. "Thank you so much Hanami! You're the best!"

"You're welcome oniichan."

Breaking up the hug, he decided that it was only right that he try to make it up to her. "Tell you what, how about this weekend your big brother takes you out for candy and ice cream? My treat."

"YAY!"

"Alright, its a deal. Now get yourself to bed, and try not to have any bad dreams." The body made a familiar hand sign. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Four identical clones of Shinachiku appeared in the room, each of which was cracking the necks or knuckles to get themselves ready for all of the work that was ahead of them.

"What are the shadow clones for?" Hanami asked.

"Your brother's got some work to do."

"What do you mean?"

The blonde scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Well...lets just say that those bad men made an awfully big mess downstairs."

"Kids? Kids are you up?"

"Shhh! Quiet down you idiot. They're probably asleep."

"Yeah, well if they're asleep, then they'd be up on the top floor, now wouldn't they?"

"Yes, which means that they could never have heard you calling for them anyway."

Naruto's face faulted in defeat. "Must you prove me wrong about everything?"

Sakura smirked, "Of course, I'm your wife." She turned on the lights to find the house spick and span. Everything was in its proper place and nothing seemed damaged or dirtied up. "Everything looks clean to me. I guess Shina took good care of the place after all."

"See?" Naruto chimed in. "I told you he could handle it."

"Okay, okay, I admit it, this time you were in the right."

"Come on, its been a long night. Let's head upstairs."

As they ascended the staircase, both of them still feeling just a bit buzzed from the alcohol, they made it to the top floor and peaked in on both of their children, each of whom appeared sound asleep in their beds.

Naruto couldn't help but feel a sense of fatherly pride swell through him. 'Good job son, I knew I could count on you.'

Well, that's the end of that chapter, I hope you were all entertained by it.

To start off, as I promised last time, the main inspiration for the first half of this chapter was "Home Alone." That is why these two guys take so much physical violence in the name of comedy. I freely admit that I borrowed a lot of same traps that Kevin plays on Harry and Marv during the third act of that movie, with a couple of spins that I added myself.

After that, the tone suddenly becomes much more dire once Kaneda and Tetsuo actually do capture him...But that's when I dropped my real surprise.

Yes, after getting away from this for a while, I decided to introduce yet another one of the Chakra Gems, which I explored throughout "Shinachiku's First Adventure." As you've seen, this one was the Time Gem, which, obviously, allows whoever uses it to travel through and control time itself. What happened in this chapter was that the archaeologist was merely examining it and when he tapped it, it set off a sort of 'time pulse,' a brief ripple that turned back time about thirty minutes.

Okay, let me get this out of the way before I get at least a dozen comments about it in the review section: yes, I admit it, I used the Time Gem as a deus ex machina. Am I proud of it? Not particularly, but I had a reason for it. In addition to planting seeds for future stories, I wanted to give this odd sense of, in some bizarre, almost divine way, Shinachiku has been exposed to the power of the chakra gems even longer than he realizes he has. More importantly, I decided that I wanted someone to unearth this specific chakra gem before the events of SFA so that time could pass and it could then journey from party to party by the time I get around to working on a sequel. Where will the gem wind up? Well, I can't very well tell you that, now can I?

Also, I decided that, as fun as the Home Alone stuff was to write and explore, it does leave the obvious logic question of why doesn't he just knock them out super fast and be done with it like any of us would do. Well, this goes back to the very beginning of SFA, where Shina is a young Genin itching to see some real action during peace time, which was a big part of why he was so excited to get to go looking for the chakra gem with his 'Uncle Sasuke.' So, him deciding to play with (i.e. torture) these guys was him allowing that side of him to come through.

But of course, that moment of fun did ultimately turn against him and very nearly cost him his life. Which is why, but sheer perfect timing or the will of God (i.e. a deus ex machina), the discovery of the Time Gem granted Shina a second chance. I remember in the Dragon Ball Z movie, "Resurrection 'F'", Whis called this a 'temporal do-over.' So the second time around, I did have him do the smart thing and take them both out fast. In other words, I got to write both the fun version in the beginning, and the smart version at the end.

Some of you might be wondering why I didn't have Hanami show up and save Shinachiku's life instead? Well, as fun as that would have been, I unfortunately felt that it would have been at odds with her role in SFA. Don't get me wrong, Hanami is a surprisingly strong and formidable girl in that story, but the fact is that, before then, Sakura is the only one who knows that. If she were to display her potential here, then it would be at odds with Shianchiku's surprise over in in SFA. Also, he would not be nearly as overprotective of her as he is in SFA either, if he knew how much she was capable of doing herself.

Besides introducing another chakra gem, I got to do a bit more world building too with an angle I have been thinking about for a while. Remember Genbu, the gigantic Island Turlte in the Land of Lightning where Naruto trained under Killer B to control the Nine-Tails? That creature is based on a real Japanese myth where Genbu is one of four guardian beasts that reside in the four corners of the world. I'll leave it to you all to theorize what might or might not come with the suggestion of Seiryū in this world.

I think that's about all I have for this time. Thank you all so much for reading you guys, and I look forward to seeing you back for the next one.

Until next time, see ya!