A/N July 30, 2013: Lol this chapter took forever.

"Normal Speech"
'Normal Thought'
'"Talking within mindscape"'

"Tenant Speech"
'Tenant Thought (rare?)'
*"Tenant Outside Speech (probably never, just setting precedent)"*

"Are you not afraid little girl? Grown men pray for nothing to do with me,
Nations fear my name and Demons call me master. Why then, do you not tremble?
Perhaps there is something to the bliss of ignorance.
It has made your death much less painful, after all."
-- Orochimaru in Rice Country

Summer quickly faded...

'Crap crap crap CRAP!' It was early morning, and Naruto was hanging by his fingertips; using the frame of a window at his old apartment, the blonde swore under his breath as his backpack began to drag him down. He wasn't used to the weight of it, yet. It was only a few days after the excitement had died down, and he'd decided that it was time to retrieve his more private belongings - his appliances and furnishings having long since been burned or stolen.

However, a complication had arisen, when he spotted a shadow inside - 'Who the ^#& $ is snooping around my house?' Normally it wouldn't have mattered; civilians and police could be told to shoo, or scared away. But the mysterious intruder had made no sound entering the building, made no sound moving around, and tripped none of the traps that had still remained after the apartment's casual looting.

'This guy must be serious business!' Naruto's 'Ninjas for Dummies' crash-course - set up by the smirking, sadistic bastard Mizuki - had taught him about the basics of a ninja's arsenal. Excerpts such as "Assassination" and "Pitched Battles", of course, had caught the blonde's eye - but what Naruto had almost hyper-focused on during his instruction had been the ninja's basic abilities - the ones that didn't need to be memorized, or use Chakra control - or Chakra at all. Perhaps because of his constant pranking, stealth (and more importantly, the entire idea behind being invisible) appealed to him most as a ninja.

'A ninja works for a lifetime, enduring many hardships to master these principles,' Naruto remembered, almost verbatim, 'leave no trace, look beneath the underneath, strike from the shadows... Well, this guy is stepping without sound, moving through my room without leaving the shadows, and has so far avoided all my traps while noticing every hiding spot I set up.' The blonde had kept a large assortment of items hidden around his apartment, but whoever was in there was clearing them out as if they'd been marked in bright paint.

When he heard the trap spring on his most secret hiding spot - where Bull's books, amongst other things, were hidden - he dropped to the ground without hesitation. This entailed lowering himself a few inches, as the window had been on the ground floor. 'Heh... One too many pranks, I guess.' More than a few had hinged on his ability to hang from the bottom of a window sill by his fingertips, and now he felt a bit sheepish for reacting out of habit.

Placing his feet almost soundlessly on the dirt, Naruto pulled out a kunai. He didn't seriously think he had a chance. 'If I run, they'll hear me - no way I can outrun a real ninja this far from any kind of cover... Gotta fight!' His adrenalin was pumping at this conscious triggering of fight-or-flight, and the blonde dove through the window, a kunai launching from either hand as he rolled to the floor, another short blade thrust behind him in case the enemy had decided to appear there - a trick he'd used on Mizuki, when the silver-haired Chunin decided he'd wanted to fight dirty. 'If I can't keep up with them, at least I can anticipate them!' A ninja deals in absolutes, after all - either you lived, or you died.

The ANBU simply allowed the kunai to hit him, the weapons bouncing harmlessly off his armour. 'That shit's tough! What the hell?!' Even Bull's armour had parted to his kunai once or twice, and Naruto didn't think he'd ever thrown them that hard at his sensei. The intruder raised a hand in some foreign seal - fingers stiff, thumb towards palm. Naruto waited for death.

...

"Yo." Dog waved a hand lazily with his usual greeting, stepping from the shadow. "Care to help me clean up? Hokage-sama said not to leave anything important for the civilians to find and steal." Dog didn't have to worry about shattering the boy's confidence with his nonchalance. 'Unlike those who become depressed when their efforts meet with a wall, Naruto seems to thrive on obstacles - Or at least, obstacles he can fight.' As the ANBU mentally corrected his previous statement, Naruto apologized for having thought he was an intruder. Dog said nothing in response, as usual - he didn't trust himself beyond the basics, with his sensei's child.

"Right! That makes sense. You totally didn't just scare the shit out of me, Dog-san." The two shared a nervous chuckle. 'First thing's first - Gama-chan, where are you?' His wallet, which he'd had since forever, was a merrily smiling toad, bright green and orange. He didn't even remember how he'd gotten it - only that it never ripped, and never seemed to be gone for too long when it got stolen or lost. He found it resting on a bedside stand. The blonde chalked it up to good luck, and tried his best to take care of it, by keeping Gama-chan full of delicious Ryo.

Then they gathered, from all over the apartment, small bundles of money and food, trinkets such as shiny rocks, or feathers that Naruto had found and decided to keep. He gathered his plants, and dumped his meager gardening supplies into the bag Dog had - like a tiny Reverse-Santa. Finally, they gathered the objects from his most secret hiding space; the other book Bull-sensei had given him - carefully wrapped, the boy kept it under his arm instead of in his sack; next was a small, rainbow-hued bauble he'd found - it was the most entrancing, beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

He sometimes stared at it for hours, when he was mad or depressed. Finally, he pocketed his first kunai - it was one he'd spotted in the dim evening light, long ago, and snatched after an arduous climb up the face of the Hokage Monument. It had been the first time he'd ever thought that maybe he could be a ninja - that he could be something more than an orphan, hated by the world.

The two eventually managed to clean out all of Naruto's hidey-holes - small trapped compartments, including over a dozen fake bricks in the walls, almost all of the fake knots in the floorboards, an entire fake crossbeam, two fake burnt-out lightbulbs, and a zippered pillow; and that was after the ones Dog-Anbu had already cleared out. They also recovered most of Naruto's instant ramen - even the villagers hadn't deemed it important enough to steal or defile. "Ya! Ramen!"

No tears were shed as he left his old home of cold disregard and isolation. Instead, the last setting rays of the sun lit up the boy's golden hair, revealing Naruto's signature grin and a steely glint in his eyes. From the road, he watched as the Hokage Monument caught the final few seconds of light in the day, before the land settled into true dusk. No one watched as he returned to the compound. The guards there saw only the joy in his eyes, watering at being welcomed back - welcomed home.

In one hand, a boiling cup of instant ramen. In the other, a surprisingly heavy backpack. Naruto set the pack - full of ramen and trinkets - on his bed, and quickly piled through it until he found the most important pieces he and Dog had recovered. 'Bull's books! And they're alright!' He channeled Chakra into the book of forms, eager to see what he could pull off before lunch. The blonde began to read aloud in his room, taking care not to splash the tomes with any noodle juice. The book was sparse on words - 'completely visual, Bull-oniichan said!' - but there were enough instructions scattered throughout the first few pages to get him started.

"First Principle, the study of self." The blonde struggled through certain words - anything with more than a couple of syllables was still especially difficult, but there were only two other lines on the page. "Focus inside" - below a picture of a meditating Naruto-look-alike, and, "Breathing motions" beside a slowly stretching Naru-clone. The blonde groaned, complaining inwardly as there was no one else to take up the difficult task of pitying him. "Of course Bull would make me do something bo~r~ing!" He skipped ahead.

"Fifth Principle, the study of forward motion." The pictures were all miniature Narutos, sliding gracefully forward on the balls of their feet, ending their motion in simple strikes or guards. "ALRIGHT! That's more like it! I can do this, 'ttebayo!" The blonde bounced to his feet, leaving the book on the bed, propped upright against his bag.

Bending over to channel Chakra into the initial animation, he watched as it moved from a relaxed pose, to a simple guard; the heels were ready to pop off the floor, the knees were bent, the back slightly curved. The image disappeared, and reappeared in the relaxed pose.

Naruto watched the process repeat itself, mimicking the motions with just his body. Something about the stance didn't feel right, but the blonde figured he'd had it down close enough. He initiated the next animation, stopping the first. The Naru-clone stepped forward once with his right foot, and that's when the blonde remembered - "Of course! I'm left-handed, so I bet I'm left-footed, too!"

He quickly tried to adapt a southpaw stance, before remembering Bull's lessons. 'Learn with your right, train with both. Keep your advantages hidden - that's the way of the ninja.' If his enemies weren't expecting him to strike from an awkward angle, he'd have an advantage. 'And a ninja uses every advantage! Hey, I think I'm starting to get how this whole 'ninja' business works!'

The step turned into a graceful slide forward, using the heels for momentum and balance, while keeping the ball grounded during movements in order to spring away. Naruto took his shoes off to practice, the smooth hardwood floor cool beneath his feet.

He stumbled when trying to maintain the stance and the movement, however, unable to keep the balls of his feet from catching, gripping, or bouncing. After the fifth or sixth time he'd failed, it occurred to him to adopt another training method to help with this one. 'Deep breaths - visualize the Chakra where you want it, and expel...'

When Kiba came to grab him for lunch sometime later, he found Naruto wobbling in place, in some kind of weird pose; an occasional blue puff added further embarrassment for the jinchuriki - even Kiba's Chakra control was better than this. "Hey whiskers, what kind of dance is that?" The feral grin on Kiba's face as he imitated broke the blonde's concentration, and Naruto's balance was lost to a Chakra-induced spin. Both boys fell to the ground, laughing. "That's it, runt! You're gonna get it!" Naruto was about to jump his aggressor, when his stomach growled. "...Right after lunch - race you to the mess!"

Naruto's cheek was pressed right against Kiba's, as they eyed each other balefully; forced into close proximity by circumstance, they barreled past other Inuzuka members about their daily business. When they met an obstacle, one went under and the other over. When they hit a fork, one took right and the other left. But when there were people to rush by, it seemed that they both tried to fit through the smallest, most inconvenient route possible. Finally, thinking like a ninja - or perhaps a ninken - Kiba tripped Naruto on the final stretch...

...Only to find his legs tangled in the blonde's backpack! "Art of substitution, sucker!" Naruto hadn't learned the Kawarimi yet, but it didn't stop him from easily keeping up with the less obvious ninja arts - After stepping, throwing, and climbing, came substitution and misdirection, among others. Between Iruka, Bull, and Mizuki, everyone had been surprised at how easily the blonde took to the arts. Sarutobi, who received a multitude of reports from the aforementioned, was less surprised - privy to the boy's lineage and history as a prankster. Almost the same thing had happened with Kushina, after all.

Taking his rightful spot ahead of Kiba in the food line, Naruto made faces until the raven-haired Inuzuka managed to catch up. They piled on food when they reached the selection, trying to out-do each other even in eating. Both boys were growing fast, and working hard - such mountains of food piled up on the plates of ninjas-in-training were a common occurrence in the Inuzuka compound.

They shovelled food down until they could glare over-top of it at each other - Naruto managed to finish this task first as well - and then they off toward the training grounds, Kiba following with half a drumstick still left in hand.

Naruto managed such a lead that he'd garnered a brief respite. When Kiba arrived - tailed by his older sister, who he'd gotten to agree to overseeing their fight on his way out of the compound - he was already pretending to be asleep in the middle of the clearing. The blonde's nose twitched as Kiba approached - before he pretended to be woken by some foul stench. "Ugh, Kiba - did you trip in the kennels on your way here?" Sparks flew as the two began their friendly back and forth.

Normally, Hana would've explained the rules. However, she could see how badly the two wanted to go all-out - and she could handle anything they threw at each other if things got rough. More than that, her own simple curiosity led to the match being a brawl 'Let's see how they fight!'

"Begin!" Hana jumped back in time to avoid the two young trainees crashing into each other, fists and knees flying. Naruto gave up the first hit by dropping his guard and letting Kiba tag his torso with a swipe - but this allowed him to retaliate with a heavy knee to the chest, with his balled fists driving the Inuzuka's stomach further into his strike. Hopping back, the blonde dipped back into the stance he'd been practicing - he only knew a single punch and kick - a combination that had seemed easy enough to memorize and practice in the short time he'd had - but he was itching to try them. In fact, he was just itching.

"Hah!" Kiba launched forward with a gasp, legs still wobbly from Naruto's attack. The blonde in question was vigorously scratching at his back, where Kiba had dropped a handful of fire ants he'd picked up during the initial charge. He got in a couple of swipes - scratches, really - that quickly disappeared as Naruto shook out the rest of the stinging insects. "That was dirty!" With a grin, the jinchuriki stepped up the speed of the fight. 'I'll have to get him back for that one! No one pranks the prankster king!'

Chakra hummed through his body, and everything seemed clearer. 'You're moving in slow-motion now, fleabag!' Or at least, the Inuzuka had been - right up until his own Chakra began flowing. The two sprinted at each other like Olympic athletes, skipping across the packed dirt. Kiba dropped low, hoping to perform a whirling sweep that incorporated his claws and shins. Naruto played leapfrog. 'Doesn't matter if I heal stupid-quick, it still hurts!' He launched a donkey kick after landing, but Kiba stepped dizzily out of the way.

Momentum spent, the two tussled in a battle of imperfect blocks and sneaky strikes, before Naruto decided again that it was again time to try what he'd been working on. 'If I can't use it in the heat of a battle, then it's useless - right?' Throwing a couple blunted sparring kunai to open a gap, he jumped backwards to the edge of the clearing. There was nothing special to what happened next - charged with Chakra and moving with practiced determination, Naruto executed a high punch and a low kick. Kiba didn't know what to expect, so when his block was shattered by the punch and he was sent reeling, the kick knocked him prone, his legs thrown backwards while his torso fell forward.

Kiba could've gotten up afterwards and continued fighting, but Naruto had sat on him with a kunai in-hand; "Winner, Naruto!" Hana helped her brother up, adrenaline and Chakra fading after the first round of fighting. The two moved back to their respective starting positions - This was Naruto's favourite, and Kiba's least favourite part - the following rounds would see Naruto come out on top, more often than not. 'Stupid blonde... how does he do it?'

The remaining rounds saw traded wins back and forth, until both boys were thoroughly tired. Hana stepped in once she saw the combatants slowing down considerably; ninja battles were about quick engagements, not childish brawling. "Now, we'll go through those spars together. Play by play, I'm gonna point out what each of you did wrong." This pretty much entitled beating the crap out of her brother and his friend - correcting tired and sloppy stances, forcing their muscle memory into submission - until they learned to stop bothering her on days off. "Who wants to go first?" Her knuckles cracked, and a terrible smile formed on her lips.

Naruto and Kiba had to support each other on their trip back to the compound. Both boys were sporting black eyes, swollen lips, an assortment of scrapes, cuts, and bruises - and in Naruto's case, missing an entire handfull of baby teeth.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING BABY? HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THEY FELL OUT, 'TTEBAYO?"

Naruto had been carefully nursing his wiggly teeth for days, scared out of his mind that he'd done something horrible to deserve such a curse. Kiba had made fun of the blonde's situation until he felt better about it, showing off his own recently regrown canines - Naruto couldn't feel foolish for long when he was this sore, in any case.

Their walk was interrupted as Hana's Jonin-sensei came to pick her up; words were spoken in hushed tones, and a small argument ensued. The Jonin left, and Hana hurried to gather her ninken. Naruto and Kiba trundled home; they were sore, but knew better than to ask about ninja business by now - at best they'd be ignored, and that was something Naruto didn't want to risk, if he could help it.

Too tired for training, the boys fell quickly asleep, another day on the horizon.