Chapter 4: Hiro's Adventures in Konohagakure

By: DemonClowSorceress and Red

Standard Disclaimer. No ownage of Naruto by me. Us. Anyone but Kishimoto.

Red: Damn......

DemonClowSorceress: I hear that. Oh, and be warned - random crack from Red to follow.

Later that night Hiro scurried up a tree and sat in the second-tallest branches (now that he was very big, the tallest thin branches couldn't hold his weight) looking in the general direction where his fathers had left a week ago. Blinking many times, he tried to see in the darkness, but he had no night vision, so everything looked dark blue or black. He tried to listen to the night noises, but it was a confused jumble of sounds. He had nothing to work with.

This Kono-nest place was very different, Hiro thought. It was like its own forest, but one of hard-stone and cut-wood than the forest Hiro had previously known. These tall-humans were as confusing as a squashed anthill, scurrying every which way to get done many jobs at once. Many had stony faces, others stone eyes hidden behind smiles. The tall-humans here had seen many things, much more than Hiro had ever seen in his short, if indeterminite lifetime.

And some of these things, the boy thought, had not been good things.

His young mind was swirling with several confusing questions. He knew that his Papa and Tou-chan were beyond the forest, doing something dangerous, if what the nii-chans and nee-chans said was true. Why weren't they helping? Why weren't Papa and Tou-chan back yet?

The new nii-chan - Sai - had not been a good person. Hiro had smelled something foreign on his clothes that had made his nose wrinkle. It had reminded the boy of when he'd stumbled across a rabbit after a wolverine had finished with it. The sight and smell had given him shakes and scary-sleep* for many days.

Sai had smelled the same as the dead rabbit. He'd smelled of blood.

Hiro snuggled against the tree trunk, inhaling the pine scent. He missed the forest. There, his mind was uncluttered with thoughts that hurt his head. He could summon food all he wanted, run all he wanted, get as dirty as he wanted, and sleep all he wanted. The only things he had to worry about was falling out of trees and becoming a target for wandering panthers - the usual meat-eaters of the forest knew him and wouldn't attack him.

"Chi," he sighed. Holding out his hand, Hiro caught the acorn that fell from the sky above his head and cracked it open. Chewing, he looked at the shell. He'd always had this power, this knack for making nuts come from nowhere when he was hungry or scared. Sometimes it worked when he wanted it to, sometimes it just happened. The first time it had happened, he'd been close to being eaten by a bear. A huge nut had appeared and crashed down, smashing the bear's jaws shut and letting Hiro escape.

The moon rose, casting a little light over the blackness. Hiro yawned, noticing how late it was, and climbed down the tree carefully. He would go to Sakura-nee-chan's house and fall asleep on her fluffy-silky-blankie, and tomorrow he'd worry about the thoughts that made his head hurt.

********

Another two weeks passed. Hiro grew another five inches. Now he was about two and a half, almost three feet tall standing straight up.

He missed his Papa and his Tou-chan. Three weeks seemed like forever to the little boy. Despite everyone saying that they would be okay, Hiro was worried about his adoptive parents.

Not that anyone would think it. To the rest of Konoha, Hiro seemed to adapt to his rotation between his twelve adoptive nii-chans and nee-chans. Through his interactions with them, the boy soon learned words and concepts simply by paying attention to the conversations around him. He learned manners, polite behavior, and other human traits. Little by little, he acted more human with every passing day.

To everyone else, Hiro appeared to be a normal, albeit fur-wearing, child. And even that was changing. One day, Hiro woke up and found his fingertips showing through his fur. Another day, he felt wisps of hair poking out from under his furry cowl that weren't fur. He had no idea why this was happening, but it was. So he adapted as best he could.

A month after Naruto and Sasuke left for Iwa, Hiro was lying in a field playing with a ball when his sharp nose picked up the scent of Ten-nee-chan and Neji-nii-chan. Sitting up, he bounded over to them and jumped into Ten-nee-chan's arms. "Chi!"

"Hey Hiro-chan!" The panda-haired girl hugged him tightly. "Are you amusing yourself?"

He nodded. Neji-nii-chan spoke next. "Hey, I heard from some incoming patrols that Naruto and Sasuke were spotted near the Iwa-Konoha border. They should be back in two days, isn't that great Hiro?"

Papa and Tou-chan are coming home?! "Chi!" exclaimed the little boy, too excited to find the right words.

"What should we do for them when they get back?" Ten-nee-chan asked the Hyuuga genius. "Maybe cook some dinner? They'll be too tired to make anything, after a month-long mission..." And the conversation wandered along from there, but Hiro was stuck back on cook some dinner. In his experiences, cooking involved taking different foods and making something new and tasty with them. Fire and metal plates were part of it too, and a big book, if his stay at Choji-nii-chan's house told him anything.

Hiro smiled as he realized he was on his first mission. He was going to learn how to cook!

Unfortunately, young squirrel-boys are just like small children learning to cook without supervision - they have no idea what to do, so they tend to ignore the cookbook and experiment.

After six hours of mixing, heating, chopping, and five low-grade explosions, Hiro had to take a break. The kitchen looked like a blast field, with food streak marks on the walls and cupboards, cracked bowls and plates, and a sinkful of broken dishes. A strange smog floated above Hiro's head, almost like smoke, but not, and it smelled like crusty old socks.

In the bathroom, Hiro winced as he put a Band-Aid on the small cut on his finger and splashed water on the red welt on his palm. Now Hiro-chan knows - metal over fire gets hot, he thought, cleaning up his sticky face. Cooking is harder than Hiro-chan thought. But since he was Naruto's kid, he was stubborn as a mule once he started something, so he was determined to finish. Hiro-chan will complete this mission, and Hiro-chan will make Papa and Tou-chan proud!

Four hours later, Hiro surveyed the damage to the kitchen. On the one hand, there were decent-looking foodstuffs on the table (the only part of the kitchen area that wasn't broken, dirty, or otherwise maimed). On the other hand, the kitchen looked even worse than before. The stuff from before had dried and cracked, and now there were broken eggs and spilled food on the floor. The smelly-sock stench was worse, because now it stank with something rotten. It was so bad, it took another two hours to clean up the kitchen and return it to its original shine.

But Hiro, only concerned with results, covered the food up, put it in the fridge, and went to bed, confident his fathers would be home when he woke up.

When they weren't, he wasn't daunted. Hiro merely got up and set out to have another adventure. He made it perhaps five blocks when he saw the scary nii-chan sitting by himself in an alley, using a paintbrush on a scroll. Hiro paused for fifteen seconds, his curiosity fighting his fear. He wanted to know what the nii-chan was doing; he wanted to get as far away from him as fast as possible. And where Hiro is concerned, that's pretty damn fast.

Curiosity won in the end. Fur bristling, he edged closer, trying to see at the greatest possible distance so he wouldn't have to come any closer. "Chi?" he inquired, not brave enough to use human words.

Sai looked up and saw his furry little watcher. "Oh, Hiro. Hello." He made to smile, but didn't. "What am I doing?" He looked to the scroll on his lap, then the brush in his hand. "Just painting. Nothing more or less."

Hiro crept closer to peer over the top. On the white parchment was an intricate ink painting of a many-branched tree, its gnarled roots growing down a cliff. The foliage was elegant and spattered with flowers, and in the background was a sunset. But what fascinated Hiro the most about the scenery was the fact that it was painted in black ink. No colors other than black. But Hiro could tell every detail perfectly, right down to the occasional whorls in the trunk and the shadows on the ground.

But there was no name in the corner. Even Hiro knew that every piece of art had the artist's name in the corner. So he pointed to the corner and said, "Chi?" in a questioning tone.

Sai looked surprised, then he looked almost subdued. "I don't......feel anything," he admitted. "My training......it's made me good at what I do. But now, I don't have emotions like you or the others. So why name a picture to which I hold no attachment to?"

So people will know Sai-nii-chan's work, Hiro thought, then stopped, blinking. The idea of calling the scary fake-faced person in front of him a nii-chan would never have crossed Hiro's mind before now. But it was true. He wasn't as scared of Sai-nii-chan now as before, possibly because he hadn't known the truth. Sai-nii-chan wasn't trying to give fake smiles - he just didn't know how to smile right.

Hiro was about to encourage Sai-nii-chan some more when he heard a noise. Focusing on his hearing, he could discern shouting from the village gates. And he could hear several of his nii-chans and nee-chans yelling several funny jokes at someone. A grin split his face; Sakura-nee-chan would only call two people "complete idiots for leaving Hiro-chan for so long!"

Papa and Tou-chan are back!!

Pulling Sai-nii-chan's hand until the older boy stood up, he started running. But then he realized he'd take too long on the streets, so Hiro improvised. Crouching low, like he'd seen Shika-nii-chan and Sakura-nee-chan do, he jumped up as high as he could. His outstretched fingertips grabbed a windowsill, which he used to lever his small body up so he could jump to the rooftop. Now all of Konoha was visible to him, as were the village gates. With a "Chi!" of joy, Hiro started bounding towards them on all fours.

When the gates came into unobstructed view, Hiro saw that they were creaking open to allow the Konoha Twelve to exit and greet Naruto and Sasuke. The little boy's heart was ready to burst from excitement, so instead of stopping, Hiro barrelled through everything in his path on all fours. Those who caught a glimpse of him later described the child as a furry brown comet, coming from nowhere to leap straight into Naruto's arms.

"Hiro-chan!" cried Naruto, surprised as well as pleased; he'd been looking for the squirrel-boy ever since the welcoming committee arrived. "Look Tou-chan, it's Hiro-chan!"

Sasuke slung an arm over his boyfriend's shoulder, looking at the child. "A bigger Hiro-chan," he admitted, ruffling between Hiro's ears. "Looks like he's sprouted up some. We've been gone for a while."

When he said that, Hiro suddenly felt angry. His cute face scrunched up as he frowned at his fathers for the first time. Everyone present dropped their jaws in shock as what erupted from Hiro's mouth would forever be known as "Hiro's first rant".

"Papa and Tou-chan took too long!" said the boy. "Hiro-chan was worried! Were you going to come home ever again? Hiro-chan is changing, and Papa and Tou-chan weren't here to explain why! Hiro-chan was lonely! Where were you?!"

And not a "chi" to be heard.

Naruto and Sasuke stared at their small charge, surprised that in the month they'd been gone, Hiro had gone from a shy little one-word squirrel to a somewhat larger squirrel with a larger grasp on vocabulary skills, as well as a small temper. Pride was predominant in their emotional scope, as well as surprise and exhaustion. Being chewed-out by their kawaii little squirrel only added to the exhaustion of having to evade capture during their mission in Iwa.

Naruto hugged Hiro closer, smiling happily at the familiar warmth in his arms. "Let's go home."

"Hiro-chan made dinner," announced the little boy proudly as they headed off, secretly glad that he'd cleaned up before leaving.

"Really?" said Sasuke, clearly impressed. "Then we'll eat first and then go to bed. Okay?"

"Okay!" And Hiro snuggled in his Papa's arms, happy that his family was together again.

********

Naruto burped happily, patting his bulging belly. "Wow! Hiro-chan's cooking is so good!"

"Hiro-chan learned while at Choji-nii-chan's house," said the squirrel-boy proudly, standing on tiptoes on his stoold to wash the dishes in the sink. "It's easy."

Sasuke admitted that it was good food. "Now we know you can take care of yourself, Hiro. Good boy." This made the small boy smile happily, his fur fluffing and settling in satisfaction. Sighing, the black-haired boy lay back on the sofa, practically sprawling on it. "Whew, that was a long mission."

"What was it?" Hiro asked. "The mission."

"It was very important and very dangerous!" Naruto sat up and threw his arms open for dramatic effect. "We had to go to Iwa and we were all undercover, and we had to assassinate this evil guy, so that it could be all peaceful, and we thought that was that! But noooooo, we had to fight hundred of evil ninjas, and there were landslides left and right!" The blond thrashed in his chair, creating a dramatic re-enactment of them dodging certain death. "And then Deidara - he's from Akatsuki, they're a bad group of dudes who want to take over the world - anyway, he shows up, with the mouths-in-hands and the clay, BOOM! BOOM! It was like, explosion!" Dramatic arm motions followed. "And then Sasori, they're partners, and he's all like, 'Ah-ha! I am puppetmaster, I have chakra puppet strings!' and like 'Now I have your Tou-chan!' "

"No! Tou-chan!" Hiro squealed, covering his mouth with his fingers.

"Yes!" said Naruto, way into the story. "And then Sasori was all like, 'HA! Dance, my little puppet-boy, dance!' And Tou-chan was all like - " Random sound effects followed as Naruto's arms and legs thrashed around in an uncoordinated way. "But then Papa came and saved the day! And used his chakra-scythe-blade of winged death to sever the puppet master's strings over Tou-chan! And then Tou-chan electrified Deidara, and he was all like, 'LIGHTNING POWER!' " Naruto made bzzzzing noises like touching a live wire. "And then Tou-chan electrified Sasori, and then - "

"Tou-chan Chop." A swift chop of Sasuke's hand made Naruto assume the fetal position of pain, gripping his blond head. "Dobe, that didn't happen. We just went in and got out."

"Owwwwwwiiieeee, Tou-chaaaaaaaaan," whined Naruto. "That huuuuuurt!"

Grabbing a handful of the blond's hair, Sasuke leaned in and planted a kiss right on his protesting lips. When they broke apart, he asked, with a satisfied smirk, "Feel better?"

"Yes!" replied his Naruto while Hiro clapped happily.

And then an explosion rocked the quiet, shocking all three boys out of their little peace. Shouts were heard across the village, high and panicked.

"It's Akatsuki! Akatsuki have been spotted outside the village!"

"It's Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi!"

Both boys froze. Hiro watched completely different expressions cross his fathers' faces. Sasuke's became one of contorted fury and hate; Naruto's whiskered face scowled into a ferocious snarl. Hiro saw the fox and the wolf so often mentioned by everyone else and felt very frightened.

"Hiro-chan, you stay here," said Naruto, his voice extremely light and calm despite his facial features. "Don't open the doors for anyone. Go straight to bed."

"We'll be back later," Sasuke promised, patting his kid's head. "Don't worry about us." Catching the slings of weapons Naruto threw him, the black-haired Uchiha cracked his knuckles. "Let's go," he said to his boyfriend. Both boys disappeared into the night, leaving a very concerned Hiro behind in the doorway.

The squirrel-boy really wanted to listen to Papa and Tou-chan. He really did. But again, he was stubborn. And he didn't want to lose his fathers again.

So, despite having no night vision and only a glowstick taken from his stay at Ino-nee-chan's house, Hiro leapt in the trees and across the rooftops, heading once again for the gates of Konoha.

Please review!

A.N.

*Hiro means nightmares.