I was sick for a bloody long time peoples. it got to the point where I said "fuck it" and just started typing while crapping my life out for about 8 hours. am I progressing to fast? because the next chapter is going to be a timeskip to the graduation. sorry this took so bloody damn long to get out. on a sidenote, donate to the nintendothon of the Hellfirecomms twitch page! its for charity to help those with mental diseases. that or watch the stream. its pretty good stuff either way. listened to the madworld ost while typing this.

I don't own shit. besides this story and my OC's.

chapter 3: insert tree pun.

Words could not describe the state of mind of our three heroes. As they lye in a triangle formation, back to back, a dead look in their eyes. They sat in the living room of their apartment building dead to the world.

What could have caused this? What could have sent our heroes into such a state? What kind of fiend could do this to our trio of optimistic, adorable, and badass heroes?

Well if one would look outside they would see…snow. Hell there's freakin frosty out there giving little hinata a hug! No, the source of the near comatose state that our heroes are in lie in the calendar that is stuck to the left kitchen wall. Specifically the date that is yet to be crossed out…December the 30th…today was the twenty eighth…and there was no Christmas tree.

It should be noted that there was a small pile of presents over to the side on the couch. It's just that all three of them had never had the chance to experience an actual Christmas mass-opening-presents-thing-with-the-family. Probably because all three were orphans and all but…they had wanted to invite the third hokage over due to how he was pretty much their adoptive grandfather. Only problem it…they wanted it to be special. And what kind of Christmas is it without a Christmas tree?

"Everything's closed…what are we going to do?" whined the leader of the trio.

"It's no use…where would we even get a Christmas tree out here in konoha…?" came the green haired voice.

It was then that the gears in Naruto's brain started to work.

'Wait…konoha…Christmas trees…that's it!'

It was then that the energetic blond jumped up into the air while shouting out "guys! I have an idea!"

This, naturally, grabbed the attention of the other two members of the trio as the raised a questioning eyebrow towards the Uzamaki.

"And what would that be/and pray tell what is it?" was the reply.

The blond then pointed to the map of konoha that was over by the door to the bedroom. More specifically he was pointing to the words 'village of the leaves' that was in fine bold print ( size 18, times new roman) at the top of the map.

Luke then facepalmed at the obvious fact that they were trying to shop for a Christmas tree in the village hidden in the leaves.

Athena was a bit blunter in her realization of her own stupidity. She started face-desking. Yes that's right. She psychokinetically grabbed a desk from across the room, brought it over to her, and started slamming her own face into it. That is the art of face-desking. Minus the whole 'psychokinetically dragging a desk over to your location'.

While this was going on Luke was discussing with Naruto where they would find a Christmas tree.

"There must be a closed off place that they grow these things at…"

"Yeah but what are we going to do? Sneak in, cut down a tree, and then sneak out with it?"

"Yes…that's the plan. But first we need to find it…think that some business has got a monopoly on these things?"

"The hells a monopoly?"

"It's a…business term. Look it up in a book."

"I don't have time to read! That's time I could spend practicing my water manipulation to become stronger!"

"You know a complicated word like 'manipulation' but you don't know monopoly? What's the deal with you Naruto?"

"Oh sure, says mister 'get punched in the face'. Do you know how many times we get dragged to the Hokage's office just because you have to punch a jerk in the face…with ice?"

"Hey, the candy man deserved it. I mean, how can you have paydays, but not a snickers?"

"Is there any reason you're obsessed with snickers?"

"I'm not myself if I don't have a snickers!"

"How does that even work? They're just candy!"

"You see, its much like you and that blasphemous cuisine you call 'Ramen', once you eat the select food of your chosen god, you automatically restore any, and all missing energy in your body."

"You know, that makes a lot of sense and-WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO CALL RAMEN BLASPHEMOUS!?"

"I became the one when you stole most of my allowance to go and buy twenty cups of chicken Ramen!"

"You wanna get beat down!?"

"Speaking of beat down…"

He turned toward the form of Athena

"…when did she stop?"

"A little while ago actually…she's on the floor unconscious."

"…think we should help her?"

"…"

And then the two synchronized.

"Nah."

It would be three hours later, after Naruto and Luke had left that Athena would wake up with the worst headache she had had ever. As well as the urge to deck her two roommates in the snoz.

Minato was having a normal day, there was practically nothing to do, no paperwork, no kyubi attacks, no invasions from the leafs runaway pedophile, and no-

"Minato-sensei you have got to control Naruto."

-Interrupting Kakashi.

Sighing as he put down his coffee mug, Minato Namikaze turned to his former student. And raised an eyebrow at his state of dress.

Kakashi Hatake, the last living student of Minato's gennin squad, and currently one of his top ANBU. Known for being 'Kakashi of the sharingan, the copy-cat ninja who has copied a thousand ninjutsu' as well as being the son of the white fang of konoha, Sakumo Hatake.

And he looked like he got run over by a stampede of fangirls. Uchiha fangirls specifically

"Kakashi, what the hell happened to you?"

The silver-haired ANBU simply said one name "Naruto"

Minato felt a headache coming on. He rubbed his temples as he told Kakashi to elaborate.

"Well to start of I was walking out of the bookstore with the newest volume of icha icha…"

"Uh-huh"

"And then the kid walked up to me…"

"Yes…"

"Asked me where all the Christmas trees are planted…"

"Go on…"

"I asked him why and he said he needed to steal one…"

"Hmmm…"

"When I told him no he…did this to me."

Now that was didn't answer Minato's question. All that he got was the fact that somehow his…son…had done this to Kakashi. "What exactly did he do?"

"Well he…slapped the ass of a women that was passing by."

Minato's jaw dropped. Did jiraiya get his hands on the boy when he wasn't looking or something?

"That doesn't explain how slapping some random women's ass did this to you Kakashi…"

"I was getting to that, you see the moment she turned around he pointed at me…and she immediately noticed the book that was in my hands and well…you can guess what happened next." He seemed to tear up at the end too. If he sobs were any indication of his emotional state.

"…she teared up your book after she finished beating the shit out of you didn't she?"

And then he started openly bawling. Minato just sighed as he got out of his chair and began to hug and comfort his surrogate little brother.

'Honestly…why do all of my best ninjas have to be so damn weird? But wait, if Naruto is looking for a Christmas tree then maybe I could invite him and his friends over to my house for Christmas…that would help the effort of bringing him back into the family…'

Being content with that idea he decided that he would find Naruto sometime later and invite the trio over to his house for Christmas tomorrow. After all, Christmas is thing to celebrate with friends and family right?

MEANWHILE: WITH LUKE

Luke was sitting on a bench with an old man out in the park that the trio had befriended Hinata at. And the matter of discussion was that of the old man's past exploits in thievery.

"So what your saying is that there is a hole in the fence up in the northern part of the area where they keep all of the Christmas trees that it just perfect for sneaking a tree out through?"

"Yep, that's right sonny, and with the current management of the company, they're too damn lazy to patch-er-up."

"That has to a pretty big hole."

"Twice m'size and bigger 'round!"

"And it's been there for how long?"

"Twenty 'ears!"

"…and how do you know this?"

The old man gained a smile "Now you listen here boy, you didn't here nothin' from me, youz da one who wanted to find out how to steal one of dem trees for yaz family. And I be willin' ter help ya out…"

Luke's eyebrow rose "Now why would you, a fellow thief, be willing to help out me, while possibly running the chance of getting caught yourself?"

The old man gained a faraway look. "I remember me first heist. It be the same damn thing you be planning to do. Plus it help that ya punched ma debt collectors golden tooth out a few days ago!"

"Ah, I remember that guy. He was an ass."

A snort came from the old man. "That he do be is." He then turned his attention back to Luke. "Now listen here, I canz pull some-o-there strings to give you da list of the da patrol routes. Nothin' more, nothin' less. You just steal the best damn tree yaz see. Deal?"

The old man held out his hand. Luke pondered it a bit. It was a win-win deal. He may be a ninja in training, and distrusting others was a big part of being a ninja, but there is honor among thieves. So why the hell not agree to the deal?

He shook the hand.

"Good, now meet me back 'ere at around seven, okay?"

A nod later and the two split. One to call in a favor, the other to let his two partners in on the game.

And when Minato went to the trio's apartment room at seven thirty he would wonder just where the hell the three of them went. And then he would remember that he had put a hirashin seal on his sons back after the three of them were brought to his office because of Luke punching a tax collector in the face.

With a sigh he then activated the hirashin seal, and was gone in a flash.

"Papa, what are we doing out here?" came the voice of a baby Manaphy, 6 months old. And that was the first thing Minato heard as he hid himself in the trees…Christmas trees that is.

"We're here because we're doing a heist." Came the voice of his abandoned son.

'The hell has he gotten himself into this time?'

"Uncle Luke, what's a heist?"

"A heist is an organizing thieving on a location like a bank or a corporation. You brought the chainsaw Athena?" asked the leader of the trio, and the one who brought them all to the closed off zone that they were in.

"You said a lot of big words I don't know uncle"

"The one with silencing seals on it? That we got from the old man last year? Yep, it's right here!"

And she whipped out a chainsaw, and let'er rip…only for the blades on it to move and make no sound. Silence seal chainsaws, who said you can only apply seals to ninja stuff?

'Dear god, my son is taking part in organized crime! Kushina's gonna kill me! Or worse…she will send me to the couch!'

Athena had to suppress a chuckle from the surface thoughts she picked up, but being bonded to a member of the ralts family, Luke could see the muffled action. "What's got you chucklin' about 'thena?"

There was a slight twitch as she continued sawing through the tree of their choosing. And then the mask came out, as she spoke in a chilling tone that promised pain "don't you ever dare call me 'thena' you foolish mortal und-stood?"

The nods of everyone present showed just how much they shit themselves, except for baby Manaphy, she just thought that her aunt was the coolest and wanted to learn how to summon the 'super-cool mask of coolness'. And yes, even Minato shivered at the voice, it was the same voice his wife used on him a total of four times…and he still has nightmares of first time.

And then the tree fell down, with Luke putting a hand over Naruto's mouth so that no nearby patrols could hear him shout out-"TIMBER!"

All eyes present turned to the resident baby Manaphy. Who had a confused look on her face due to her ignorance to the concept of stealth. Pretty soon alarms began to blare as searchlights began to…search for them.

Luke was the first to break out of stupor. "Shit! Naruto, make a few clones to carry the tree, we need to bail!"

"got it!" and five puffs of smoke later, the group began running towards the giant ass hole in the gate, with Athena grabbing the baby Manaphy as Luke led the way, and finally the five Naruto's carrying the tree behind Athena as the original started to make clones to go in different direction henged into different people to make some noise.

As the group was running through the trees and the snow, a patrolling guard who was running around looking for the intruders came upon them…and was hit by a 'drive-by' electric punch that knocked him the fuck out.

"Was that really necessary Luke? An electric punch?"

"Athena, I have a reputation of punching people with ice, he didn't see my face, but only one person knocks people out via fist to the face…with ice."

"Good point. Moving on."

"Papa, why is there a person sleeping in the snow?"

"He likes the place so much that he decided to make a bed out of snow."

"That's pretty silly." The baby then faced the unconscious man "you're a silly person"

"That's adorable and all, but can we get moving boss?"

And thus the group of thieves (plus an adorable blue baby) had a successful first heist. And no one would know about it, except for the yondaime hokage and a kleptomaniac old man who has lived past his glory days.

THE NEXT DAY

Minato sighed as he read the damage report from yesterday. Honestly, if he just sent those three to any one of the hidden villages he could probably conquer said village in a matter of weeks.

But seriously? Floating water balls? A flooded Christmas tree forest? Multiple animals with party hats? A, yet again, defaced hokage monument? Anbu headquarters being, yet again, snuck into and the entire inside of the underground complex painted orange? And now he was getting reports about sightings of a fat old man using a compression ninjutsu on himself to go down peoples chimneys, and if he can't do that he just goes through the window, and leaves people presents in the middle of the night.

Minato did a double take.

What. The. Fuck.

Santa clause?

He's real?

Had…had his daughter been naughty or nice?

'Well with her pranking streak…although it's not as bad as Naruto or that floating sentient key ring…'

Sighing at the implications of Santa clause actually existing, Minato looked at the clock to see that is was around 5:30. It would be at this time that Naruto and his friends would return to their apartment, the perfect opportune to pop the question of whether or not they would like to spend Christmas time with his family. They were pretty close after all, what with Aiko dragging them to their house for dinner every opportunity she could get.

He had to suppress a shiver from the amount of chaos those dinners brought. Never again would he hold a spoon the same way ever again…

And with a flash, the yondaime hokage hirashined over to the trio's apartment door.

Luke could only stare at what was once their stolen tree.

How the hell did this happen?

They never had the objects…

So how…?

How had, or rather, who had decorated their stolen Christmas tree?

"IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!" came the voice of a light purple-ish creature with mickey-like ears, and a loud as all hell voice from his left.

"Dammit Loundred, do you have to yell so damn loud?"

"YES, IT IS VERY YOUTHFUL TO SHOUT MY JOY FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE!"

There it was…the dreaded words about 'youth'. Back when Loundred was still a Whismur he had been very impressionable. So of course the most impressionable thing that would happen to him would be coming into contact with the 'youthful' fashion disasters themselves, the green beasts of konoha.

The bowl cut hair, the horrendous green spandex, the shouts of 'youth', and the eyebrows that were, according to Athena, actually alive. Luke feared that such an experience had actually scared the Whismur for life, but as it turns out, he only caught the youth disease, not the eyebrow or spandex disease.

With a sigh Luke went and told Loundred to go out to the playroom for the other Pokémon that the three teared down the wall to another room to make.

Seeing as how they didn't really have a room specifically for the growing Pokémon that liked to be in their summoners realm more than the summon realm, the three of our heroes decided to tear down a wall and convert an entire apartment room to a Pokémon playroom. Funnily enough, the apartment owner couldn't give two shits considering that he was getting no business due to the 'demon brat' living in his apartment.

He tried to swindle them into paying for two apartment room, but you know how dicks and Luke interact.

He punched the dick in the head.

It was just after Loundred went through the hole in the wall that led to the playroom that a knocker knocked on the door.

'The old man was supposed to come by in a few hours, so who is it?'

Of all people to be at his door at this time he was expecting Hinata, Iruka, or maybe even Danzo with an offer to join his root.

He most certainly wasn't expecting the fourth hokage of all people to be at his front door.

And it seemed that Minato didn't know how to react either, basing that speculation on his awkward fidgets and shuffling feet.

Luke sighed. "Well…don't just stand there, come on in…mister Namikaze."

Naruto was not a morning, much like his biological mother, he absolutely hated sunlight in the morning. And who could blame him? The infernal beams of light carved through the general ninja door known as windows and hit us in the eyes while they are closed, and yet they still somehow manage to penetrate the final defense that is known as the eyelids! Sometimes the boy wishes that he could live feeling nothing but the night.

But it was not his mortal foe that had awoken him. It was a water balloon that Luke threw at him.

Growling, Naruto jumped out of the bed and began to swing his arm from behind his head, pulling water out of the air to be thrown at Luke.

When the water ball came his way, Luke raised his hand, palm and fingers outstretched, and froze the water. Creating an iceball that fell down the ground with an audible *pink* and cracked upon impact.

"What is it?" Naruto growled out. His face still in a scowl.

"We have a guest. Get out of your jammies and look decent." The gray lad said curtly.

Wiping his eyes, Naruto looked more closely at the blurry form of Luke. He was wearing a long-sleeved light blue and dark blue striped sweater, dark blue jeans with fur lined in, and fluffy house shoes. He was currently standing up straight with his hands in his pockets.

"…you just woke up yourself didn't you?"

A scowl wove its way onto the ice user's face.

"I caught something from yesterday…I don't think that guy was healthy. Considering what I got in me, I should be immune to disease."

Naruto moved over to his clothes draw on the left wall, and pulled out a pair of black linen pants. "Well that sucks for you; luckily we Uzamaki's are pretty resistant to sickness."

Luke maintained his blank look as he turned around and walked out the door. Still using those clones of yours eh Naruto? Wonder if he sent a water clone or a shadow clone to the academy?

When Naruto put on the black linen pants that came down to his 9 year old ankles, he then put on a red sweater before getting the knots out of his hair with a hairbrush (don't do it with a comb, it's not worth it), slipped on fox themed house slippers, and walked out to the living room of the apartment.

Whereupon he saw a surprise. There was the yondaime with a mug of coffee sitting on the couch that the three of them stole two days after they moved into the apartment. Luke was over in the kitchen grabbing a Dr. pepper from the fridge (pepsi and coke suck!) and Athena was sitting at the table reading pride and prejudice to baby Manaphy.

Athena was dressed in a simple light green Kimono with a white ribbon being used to hold it together. She had on bunny slippers.

Naruto raised an eyebrow as he watched Minato was looking at the interactions between Naruto's Dieno and Luke's fletchling. Hasn't he spied on us with a crystal like the old man does every now and then?

Naruto decided that he didn't like the curios looks that Minato was giving his Dieno and decided to get to the point of the yondaime's surprise visit.

"Hokage-sama"

The yondaime's attention was shifted over to Naruto who was, to Minato, was looking very pissed. But it kinda reminded Minato of the overprotective big brother glare of death. Sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and smiling, Minato put his half-empty coffee mug on the leaf pad to the bottom left of the coffee table.

"Naruto, good to see you…I wasn't aware that you took afternoon naps."

A yawn escaped Naruto's lips "actually I slept through the day. Sent a water clone over to the academy in my place."

Minato raised an eyebrow as Naruto went to retrieve a cup of instant Ramen from the pantry, by this point Luke had sat down at the table and fletchling had gone to his arm so that Luke could feed the baby firebird from his hand. Athena had closed the book that she was reading to the baby Manaphy, who was now sitting in her lap, and was now scratching the baby's head.

"You do realize that you don't earn what your clones learn right? They're separate from you." Minato stated calmly as he stretched his arms.

Athena spoke in his defense as he poured water into the insta-cup. "What he academy teachers don't know won't hurt them sir."

"Besides" Luke spoke as the firebird left his shoulder to go outside via the open balcony door "you already know about our plans to be put on the same squad."

Minato had to agree that they had a point there, despite being nine-year old academy students; they had planned ahead, did research on the team formations, and made the initiative. That and he thought it was a good idea for those three to work together considering the synergy that they already had. There was also the fact that Kakashi had spied on their elemental training, and according to him, their abilities combined together beautifully.

"That still doesn't excuse not going to the academy Naruto." He reprimanded, although only half-heartedly.

"I was really tired and I didn't feel like going. What's one day on my spotless record?" he spoke in between mouthfuls of ramen.

Luke turned around to look at the younger of the two blonds in the room with a confused expression "How'd you heat up the Ramen so fast? Normally it takes three minutes."

In response the questioned boy simply created a ball of water the size of a baseball and floated it above the palm of his outstretched hand. Making sure that he had all eyes on him he then returned his attention to the ball of water. Seconds later the ball began to shrink as steam arose from the edge of the sphere before the entire ball was no more.

Seeing the confused expressions of everyone in the room, sans Athena, he began to elaborate. "I simply began to vibrate the molecules of the liquid to cause an increase in energy, which in turn, created heat in the water."

Upon noticing the shocked faces of Luke and Minato, Manaphy just looked even more confused, he simply shrugged. "It's nothing really hard. Athena threw the theory out and I put it to the test. It worked, and now I don't have to deal with the three minutes it takes to heat up Ramen."

Picking up his jaw from the floor Minato sank into the couch for a bit, took a sip of his coffee, and continued with chewing Naruto out for not going to the academy. "Well is there any other reason you didn't go to the academy today? I can't exactly accept a lazy excuse for not showing up. Luke's excused because he's sick."

"Well…" Naruto put his finger on his chin "I wanted to decorate the tree we got yesterday before Christmas tomorrow." He then pointed at the stolen decorated tree in the corner with his thumb.

"But someone beat us to the punch." Spoke Athena as she cooed at baby Manaphy.

"Manaphy over there keeps on saying it was Santa Clause, but we think it might have been someone else." Spoke Luke as he scratched a Vulpix's back, being mindful to avoid pulling on one of its tails.

"But its tur! I saw him! He had a white beard and he was wearing all red!"

"True, not tur child. Speak properly child." Athena chided.

"Yes Auntie Athena." The child pouted.

Minato had to smile at the scene. It really is like Naruto, Luke, and Athena are a family. They really have carved a life for themselves in this village despite the hate and prejudice against them. Hate and prejudice that's my fault. I won't ask you to come to our home, what should have been your home. But that doesn't mean I won't invite family over to spend the holidays.

"yondaime-sama" Minato turned towards Luke, who was now scratching the belly of the Vulpix. "what was the purpose of your visit? I doubt that it was just to bring up Naruto's technical absence from the academy today."

Curse you for bringing things back on track. With a sigh minato straightened himself. Now that he had the attention of everyone present, he began. "Well to start, you three have been having dinner with my family a number of times these past months and well, kushina has kinda taken a liking to you three."

Naruto finished off his ramen, Athena began to pay more attention to the conversation and Luke fixed Minato with a bored look.

"When I was you three's age I was living on my own, an orphan like you three. I didn't really have anyone to spend the holidays with, so I can kinda emphasize with you three to an extent."

"And well, how do I put it?" he began to scratch the back of his head, a reflex that happens when he became nervous "Well, me and my wife wanted to invite you over to spend Christmas with our family."

Silence reigned.

And then the three of them got in a huddle.

Minato sweatdropped.

"Think we should take it?" whispered Athena.

"Considering the trouble we went through to get that tree? I don't think so."

"Naruto, think of how Kushina will react, you remember how bad her temper was the last time you swapped out her underwear for bondage outfits."

All three shivered unconsciously.

"Yeah but that was a prank! This is completely different!"

"Naruto, this is an invitation to celebrate the holiday with the Hokage's family, this isn't something you reject."

"Athena's right Naruto, this isn't something we can ignore."

"Fine, but we switch their tree with ours tonight."

"Won't be too hard, it's not like we've had Athena teleport us in there before."

"Right, badaboop?"

"Schadoop."

"Let's go." And with the greenets final checkphrase, the three broke the huddle.

They then stood side-by-side facing towards the seated yondaime. "we accept your invitation." Spoke Athena as she bowed.

This of course made Minato happy, but before he could say anything he was interrupted.

"On one condition" said Naruto and Luke in tandem.

"And what condition is it?" Minato said, curious about what they wanted.

All three smiled before baby Manaphy jumped out of her seat and yelled out "YOU HAVE TO CELEBRATE WITH ALL OF US!"

And with that, all the Pokémon came out of the big-ass hole in the wall before they all gathered at the feet of their respective summoner.

The fletchling landed on Luke's left shoulder, and the froakie jumped onto his right shoulder, and the Loundred went and stood in front of him.

For Naruto, the baby Manaphy jumped into his arms, while his Vulpix and Dieno went to stand at his left and right respectively.

And for Athena, a Scyther walked calmly out of the hole and stood behind her, a little to the left as a buneary and a meditite went to her sides.

Minato was shocked; he had never seen animals like these before, much less summons. Did each of these three possess multiple contracts? Never mind, I'll ask later. It's obvious that these animals are a form of summons. I'll have to talk to jiraiya about this later.

"And these are…? They look like summons."

It was Luke who spoke up. "They are our partners, our comrades. When we feel pain they feel it too. When you attack one of us, you attack all of us. They are our life partners and family. We do not reject or abandon our family, because family always protects their own. Society and status be damned."

To Minato he saw the obvious message. "I know, I won't forgive you, and I won't forget it anytime soon." And Minato had to give it to the kid, that glare of his sent chills down his spine.

"I can accept that condition. At least with all the extra company my youngest daughter will have a lot of people to play with."

All twelve of them nodded at once. It kinda unnerved Minato as he turned to leave. "We normally wake up around 9-ish for Christmas. Kushina will expect all of you to be there on time unlike one of my Anbu. See ya'll then." And with that final statement, he closed the door before hirashinning away.

And then Luke sneezed. "I'm going to sleep this sickness shit off. You guys can do whatever." He said with a yawn as he walked over to his hammock bed that was located just above Naruto's bed.

Just before he went to bed he looked at his reflection in the mirror, only to see the visage of Kyreum gazing back.

"Still not going to help me with learning the full use of these powers?"

"It is still too soon. Your body is not yet ready." The ice dragon spoke in a tone of finality.

And with that the gray haired lad turned away from the Mirror to gaze at a hand drawn picture of the hall of origin made by Athena. With a sigh the ice user went to sleep after getting comfy with his positioning. Vowing to protect his newfound family.

like it? hate it? don't give a shit, imam keep on typin.