Author's Note: Can't sleep, clowns will eat me... frankly, i was bored at ten at night, so I wrote this in bits rather than waiting till after my test. so here you go, it's a little short, but it gets the job done.

Shirou was beyond frustrated. The second archive room held a great deal of data on other countries, but none of them were filled with information he needed. The latest scroll told about the skills of some group called the seven swordsmen..

Shirou skimmed the information but none of it was deemed important to his mission. He had to find data out about Naruto and the summoning scroll. Hours of fruitless searching lead him to believe that while this room was a font of knowledge for the village enemies, what he really needed was hidden elsewhere.

The information, Shirou concluded is in another building. This would require many nights of scouting to find the information. He decided to first scout the rest of the building in case of another archive room.

Two hours later, Shirou discovered a third archive room hidden behind a closet. He had only discovered it when he phased through the wall. 'This has to have something it it's this well hidden' he thought. Unfortunately, he had run out of time for the night. He still had to finish the rest of his agenda for the night.

Shirou ran back to the Hyuga residence to check on Hanabi again. Right at the entrance, he heard a scream. Heedless of protocol and possible reproductions, Shirou dashed to Hanabi's room. Inside, he found her clutching what looked like her relative. Shirou felt a sense of deja vu when he saw the relative, but he was concerned for Hanabi.

Hanabi screamed again at the noise he made approaching her. It was only when she looked at the source of the thundering steps did she see who it was.

"ONII-CHAN" Hanabi yelled. She threw herself into his embrace shivering. "Where were you? It was so scary." Hanabi cried.

"Shh Shh, don't worry, I'm here" Shirou said softly "The bad men are dead, no ones going to hurt you" Shirou began rocking her in his arms. Shirou could feel hostility from some people behind him, but he could care less at the moment. Hanabi needed him, he had no time for arguments.

Hanabi was soon sleeping in his arms. Shirou softly tucked her back in bed and looked at the other girl "How many times has she woken tonight?"

The girl stuttered "T-two" the girl was either terrified of him, or had a speaking issue.

Behind Shirou, a man grabbed his shoulder, but he shook it off. Turning, Shirou said, "I'll be with you in a bit"

Looking back at the girl, "Is her mother around?"

The girl looked down, "Mother passed away two years ago"

'Mother?' Shirou thought

Shirou asked "Are you her sister?"

"Y-yes, I-I'm Hinata"

"Hinata, she's going to be like this for many nights, I can't stay, but I'll do what I can. I need you to help her get through this."

"Wh-what can I do?" Hinata asked

"Read her stories, hold her hand, any physical contact would help. Hugs are especially good." Shirou thought back to Illya's experience. She had always been clingy, but after the Grail war, she had spent months practically glued to him.

Shirou calmly stood up and followed the guards to the courtyard. The guards were prepared to have Saber arrested for trespassing, but Hiashi, looking tired, stopped them.

He indicated for Saber to follow him to the entrance. "Thank you for checking on her again." Hiashi bowed.

"I was running errands in the area when I heard her scream."

Hiashi ignored the fact that there was no reason for errands in this section of the village. It was enough that Saber had come. "You are always welcome here" Hiashi said quietly. Some of the elders would be upset for allowing Saber so much freedom, but Saber had earned the right in his eyes.

Saber bowed again and headed off for his next location.

Uchiha compound

Shirou placed his hands on the pipes and analyzed their composition.

He had been checking out Naruto's soon to be new home with his unique abilities for the past hour. It appeared that all the primary functions and features were unaffected, but there were several things than needed to be corrected.

On wall had little insulation and needed replacement. Mold and mildew covered a section of the main bathroom. Shirou wrote down Bleach to the shopping list of things that he would need. In the end, Shirou was happy for choosing this house.

While some of the roof tiles would need replacing, nothing major had affected this house. It would take a day or two and the house would be in decent condition.

Shirou was even more optimistic in how defensible the Uchiha compound was. It was clear that this place could be used as a fallback position for the former clan. This suited Shirou fine, Naruto's apartment was too easy to enter and from there endanger his Master.

An even bigger surprise was the house held a hidden underground room.

This room would be perfect for storage of anything of value Shirou located. In fact, there were several artifacts already in the room. One of them was a strange katana that had been clearly used to focus energy through it.

It was fascinating. It appeared to be tuned to the fire element. Shirou remembered that Sasuke had an affinity with fire during the test and sparring sessions. If Sasuke improved himself, Shirou decided, this sword would be perfect for Sasuke.

In the room also, was a strange standing mirror. Shirou was unable to identify what it was for, but it was clearly magical.

He tried to analyzed it, but its internal structure was too strange for him. 'Rin could have figured this out' Shirou mused.

As he gazed at the mirror, he swore he saw it swirl and begin displaying a picture. Shirou quickly jumped back from the mirror. Whatever it was for, Shirou was not risking it. The Dark Pyramid had taught him that magical mirrors were a bad thing to look at. All kinds of nasty things can occur 'Like summoning a horde of monsters, or drive someone to near insanity.' Shirou quickly covered the mirror with a cloth, and gazed at the rest of the room.

The only other things of value were scrolls, and they were coded. It would take months of research to crack the code, 'Like I don't have enough to do these days' Shirou thought. Shirou quickly left the hidden room and replaced the floor tile. He left the house and looked to the east.

Shirou gazed into the horizon for a minute. He figured he had about an hour before the sun rose. Shirou decided to hold off on Reinforcing the house later, he still needed to locate hardware and home improvement stores. While Naruto's house was fairly untouched, several buildings would take months to repair. Shirou decided to hold off on his other tasks for later and headed back to the apartment.

Unknown to Shirou, microscopic lines began forming on the mirror. It was slow, the whole process would take months, maybe yeas to finish, but the original purpose for the mirror was activated for the first time in several millennia.

Naruto's Apartment

Today, he decided that a quiche would be a good way to start the day. Shirou finish cooking just as the sun rose and the alarm went off. Naruto quickly hit the alarm and went to the bathroom. After Naruto washed up he settled down for breakfast. When Shirou asked about what Naruto dreamed about, Naruto smiled and pointed at Shirou. "You're in trooubleee" Naruto said in a singsong voice.

Shirou blinked, tilting his head he asked,"Why?"

When Naruto told about his dream Shirou turned pale. Naruto didn't even know Saber's skin could turn as white as his hair. 'What the hell?' Shirou thought.

"That wasn't me Naruto." Shirou declared, Naruto narrowed his eyes at.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, "You wrote that."

Shirou shook his head violently.

"I've only ever made one Jeweled Sword, it knocked me out for two days. There's no way I could create a better one. The only person who could do that..."

Shirou suddenly glared death 'Zelretch. That bastard's going to get me killed...again.' This wasn't the first time that man's humor had nearly gotten Shirou killed. Shirou now was half expecting Rin and Luvia to burst through the door at any second.

Naruto was terrified at the look Shirou was giving him.

Seeing what he had don, Shirou apologized, "Sorry, it's just...I know who sent that letter."

"Who?"

"A very powerful, very nasty old man." Shirou said. If he ever saw Zelretch again he swore he'd shove Excalibur up his ass. Four times now, Zelretch had used Shirou like this to push Rin and Luvia to new heights; and each time, Shirou had paid dearly. Shirou shuddered at the memories.

Regaining his calm, Shirou looked back at Naruto. "We're going to have to tell the landlord you're moving and get some change of address forms."

Naruto nodded and finished his breakfast. After the two cleaned up the mess the went to meet the landlord. It was an elderly couple on the first floor. The two were surprised at the news of Naruto leaving. Shirou was surprised how neutral the couple acted towards Naruto.

It was as if they were uncaring or ignorant of Naruto's condition. Shirou placed bets on the latter. The couple were sorry to see Naruto leave, but were happy he was getting a house. When they asked about how he gained a home so early Shirou said, "We're rebuilding it. No-one wanted to live there, so it was cheap."

The couple smiled and praised the ambition of the two. Naruto gave the old lady a hug goodbye and promised to be out in a week or so.

The two then went out to look at the prices of paints and tools. Shirou found a decent supplier if he ran short of anything from the compound. The owner, a jolly fellow though the idea of fixing up a rundown home as a dream job.

According to him, that had been what he had done when he was younger. The man also told Shirou that the address change forms were in the post office four buildings down. Shirou nodded his thanks for taking up the owner's time and headed off for the post office. Inside, the bored attendant handed them the forms and called for the next customer in line. Shirou had Naruto send a clone home to deliver the papers and headed off to the training grounds. Before they got past the gate, Kakashi appeared.

"Yo," he said. "Head on over to headquarters for your first assignment."

"Alright!" Naruto yelled, "Our first mission."

Shirou smiled at the enthusiasm Naruto displayed. "Let's go Naruto."

At the headquarters, they waited for the others to arrive. Sakura and Sasuke soon arrived, but Kakashi was late. They had to wait thirty minutes for Kakashi to show. When he appeared in a puff of smoke, Naruto and Sakura yelled, "You're late."

"Sorry, Sorry," Kakashi said, his tone clearly saying otherwise, "A black cat crossed my path, and I had to go home to pray"

"LIAR" the two responded. Shirou suppressed a sigh. 'I think this is going to be a habit'

The team entered the Hokage's office.

"Hey old man" Naruto yelled "What's our first mission?"

Sakura bonked Naruto on the head, "Show some respect"

The Hokage looked up from the pile of paperwork and said "I've got several missions lined up. There's a fence that needs repairing, weeds that need pulling and a house that needs a new roof."

Naruto was shocked at the low level jobs. He opened his mouth, but Saber covered his outburst.

"Perfect," Shirou said, "Naruto and Sasuke are going to need the practice"

Everyone looked at Shirou. "Practice?" the Hokage asked.

"Yes, Naruto, Sasuke, and I are going to be repairing the Uchiha compound." Shirou explained

Everyone but Sasuke and Naruto were surprised by the announcement. "Why are you two helping Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, taken back and confused by this.

"We're neighbors now" Naruto said. "I've got my own house there"

The Hokage and Kakashi both raised an eyebrow at that information. Sakura was almost frothing.

"Neighbors?" Kakashi asked, "I thought you lived a good distance from him?"

"I'm moving" Naruto said not realizing how unexpected the whole thing was.

Shirou shook his head slightly as Naruto's impulsiveness. "In exchange for helping him fix up the place, Sasuke has been generous enough to give us a home in the compound."

Looking at the Hokage, Shirou said "We're going to need a legal adviser to make the transaction legal."

The Third was surprised, but said "I'll send someone to help you three with that"

"Wait!" Sakura said, everyone looked at her. 'Chance' Inner Sakura thought. She was about to ask Sasuke to let her live near him when she saw Saber shake his head.

It suddenly occurred to her that she was starting to sound like a fan girl again. Realizing that she would be doing exactly like Saber warned, she said quietly, "Shouldn't we...do that together, as a team? You know...for bonding purposes?"

Shirou smiled at that, "Sure, any extra help is welcome"

Sasuke grunted 'At least she didn't try to move in'

Shirou rapped Sasuke on the head. Sasuke looked to glare at Saber, but paled at the evil expression on his face.

Mumbling, "Thank you," Sasuke looked away from Saber.

The team went to their assignments and went to work. To Shirou, the whole experience was nostalgic.

He hadn't done domestic work in ages. He had spent too many years as a hero, he had forgotten how much fun it was to do such simple things.

To everyone else, the work was hard and boring. Sasuke and Naruto both spent a great deal of time arguing as they worked. They had, at first, stopped working while they argued, but a few whacks on the head with Torashinai, Fuji-nee's old kendo sword, and the two learned to argue while working.

Secretly, Shirou was pleased, it's hard to focus on revenge when you want to hit the annoying guy next to you.

The day passed by slowly. After all the missions were done, Team Kakashi returned to the Hokage who informed them that there were no other jobs available at the time. Kakashi was about to leave when Shirou grabbed his shoulder.

"What is it Saber" Kakashi asked

"Could you please train the three today, sparring is all fine and good, but they need to mix their routine up" Shirou asked

Kakashi considered it, he had hoped to go visit the memorial in peace, but the look in Shirou's eyes said that that had not been a request. Kakashi sighed and nodded. Shirou turned to the three genin and said, "I've got a few things to do today, I'll see you three later" with that Shirou left to begin his next set of errands.

Shirou thought absently to himself 'Saber would never have let Naruto out of her sight...I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but I have to get these things done.'

His first stop was the Hyuga residence. The guards had resigned themselves to the fact the Saber would be appearing often to check on Hanabi.

Shirou quietly followed one of the guards to the dojo. There, he watched as Hinata and Hanabi were sparring. Shirou watched Hanabi falter and shudder often. 'It looks like she was better at this once, the kidnapping has dulled her and made her timid.' Shirou observed

Shirou quietly entered the dojo behind Hanabi, Hinata was about to speak, but Shirou held a finger to his mouth. He motioned Hinata to continue.

Hinata began the next sequence in the Gentle Fist style. Hanabi never noticed the pause. Again, Hanabi tried to counter, and again she found herself trembling. Suddenly, two familiar hands held her arms.

Looking up, she smiled "Onii-chan"

"Relax," Shirou instructed quietly "don't force the motion, flow with it."

Holding her hands, Shirou slowly followed what looked like the correct motion. Hanabi stopped trembling and performed the correct sequence.

Hinata smiled at Shirou's attempts to calm Hanabi. Truthfully, whenever he wasn't around, Hanabi was more timid than Hinata these days. Only when Saber visited did her sister act like her old self.

For an hour, Saber worked with Hanabi. At first, he steadied her hands, then he offered to spar with her. Hinata was amazed by Saber's skill. He was able to dodge both Hanabi and Hinata's attack effortlessly.

After an hour, Shirou gave Hanabi a parting hug and excused himself.

Hinata watched as Hanabi became discouraged again when he left. She once again reverted back to her timid self, but as soon as she did, Saber was suddenly back again steadying her.

"I am watching you more than you think Hanabi. Relax, you're safe. If anyone dares to harm you, I'll deal with them." Saber promised. He excused himself again and left for real this time. 'This is the best I can do today, but she will get better this way'

Hinata was impressed by Shirou's foresight, Hanabi was now a lot less intimidated. Hanabi kept expecting Saber to show up. For the rest of the day Hanabi was laughing and smiling.

Her knight was watching her, she just knew it. The elders were also impressed by Saber's ability. There had been fears that Hanabi would flounder after the kidnapping, now they saw her excel once more in her abilities.

Elder Sakuya said it best, "As long as that man keeps coming back, Hanabi will be the strongest person in the Main branch in four generations."

Elder Hitomi wistfully said "If only he were available, he'd be perfect for matchmaking." Several others nodded feeling the same sentiment.

Uchiha Compound

Sensing no-one in the area, Shirou began Reinforcing the walls of the house.

While he still had problems with glass, walls were easier for him to work on. When he was done, the thin walls were stronger than four feet of rock. Shirou continued to work on the roof strengthening the structure. The plan was to make the house so strong, that it would take a large assault force to harm his Master.

Of course, for an enemy Servant, the whole thing would last only for a second or two. It was that one second, however, that could be the difference between life and death. Once he finished Reinforcing the house, Shirou moved on to the next project. 'Have to hurry, dinner time is approaching fast'

Shirou walked back to the apartment and began cooking home-made pizza as a celebration for the first mission of Naruto's career.

When Naruto arrived, he looked worse than when Shirou sparred with him.

"What happened?' Shirou asked, He knew he'd feel something if Naruto was in danger, but this looked bad.

"We were doing tree climbing exercises" Naruto said,

Shirou blinked "Tree climbing exercises?"

Rather than tell him, Naruto decided to show Saber by running up the wall. He made it almost to the ceiling when he fell. Shirou dashed to catch him.

Looking at the wall, Shirou said, "I see...you do realize that you're going to be cleaning the footprints off right?"

Naruto smiled weakly, "Heheh, sorry Saber"

Shirou sighed and directed Naruto to eat the pizza. Naruto's reaction to the food was hilarious. After one cautious bite of the unfamiliar food, he began shoving whole slices in his mouth.

That night, Naruto dreamed of normal things, Sakura confessing to him, Shirou beating him up, swimming in a giant bowl of ramen, not one thing about Saber's past or the girls. This would continue for some months.

Shirou helped Hanabi to bed and told her another story then dashed off to the headquarters in spirit form trying to find out more about Naruto's past and how Saber had been summoned.

The next day, Naruto and Shirou moved all their stuff to the new home. Sasuke was quickly volunteered to assist with the move in. The team continued various D rank missions with the usual bickering. After the mission it was Shirou's turn to train the team.

The group fell into a form of routine for several months. Every morning, Naruto and Sasuke would wake up at dawn and eat breakfast made by Shirou.

They would then work a bit on the compound before reporting in for missions. After the missions, either Kakashi or Saber were responsible for the teams training.

When Saber was in charge, the teams would work on sparring, teamwork, and physical training. On Kakashi's turn, the team would work on chakra control and development.

Sakura was found to have a great deal of control, but little reserves. She was instructed to walk up and down the tree until she collapsed.

Naruto and Sasuke had to spend weeks refining their control before the whole team moved to water walking. Again, Sakura grasped it easily, but had to work on her reserves.

On the days where Shirou was free from training, he would visit Hanabi. He would either help her and Hinata train, or tell them various tales of his world.

Hanabi's favorite was the story of the lovestruck vampire and the boy who saw death. She fell in love with Bern as Shirou called her. Hanabi dreamed she was the vampire princess, and she kept thinking maybe Shirou was Shikigami as Bern's lover was called. Saber had been death incarnate to the Cloud ninja. Strangely,the way Shirou talked, it was as if he knew the two. When she heard about the boy who gave them the elixir of immortality and youth, she cried in happiness. Hinata thought the ending was beautiful because by saving the boy, the two were able to be together forever.

Every now and then, Shirou would train TenTen on his off days so that she didn't become frustrated at Shirou's supposed neglect on his promises.

To Shirou's eye, she was still too different from him to learn his own style, but he could help her improve her own style. TenTen relied on her stores of weapons from her scrolls, while Shirou could create infinite weapons from nothing.

The biggest flaw he worked on was the protection of her scrolls and her defensive stance.

TenTen was too oriented on being a long-range fighter for Shirou's liking, TenTen was forced to work between short, mid, and long range attacks and defenses.

After the team would quit training for the day, the genins would work on the compound some more fixing up the various things. Shirou was pleasantly surprised that he received a pay for the missions.

He used the money for three basic things. The first was various groceries for the meals, the second was supplies to repair the compound. The last part of the money Shirou discretely hid, he had plans for the money later, but what he desired would take a time to accumulate enough funds. Dinner time was becoming lively. Sakura would try to eat dinner with the group as often as possible, both to be with Sasuke, and to enjoy Shirou's cooking.

Every now and then, Kakashi would join them for the meals.

Once a week, Naruto would go with Iruka for their 'bonding' time as Shirou liked to call it. The two of them would go and enjoy their free ramen from Ichiraku. From what he had heard, Saber's special was still a big hit, not only was it tasty, but it was a lot lower in calories than anything else on the menu. According to Naruto, the old man had once joked about Ayame marrying Saber making her blush. Shirou merely shook his head and told Naruto," I'm taken."

When Naruto went to bed, Shirou would quickly leave to check on Hanabi.

At first, she would only go to bed when Saber tucked her in, but eventually, she went to sleep on her own. Shirou figured it would take about another year before Hanabi could sleep without the nightmares.

After getting Hanabi to sleep, Shirou would raid the archives for any information, but it was all fruitless. He learned much about past missions, rouge ninjas, political turmoils, but none of it was what he was looking for.

Before dawn, Shirou would head back to the Uchiha compound and begin making breakfast before the cycle started anew. The peaceful life was not to last, however, it was soon disrupted on the day that the team caught the Daimyo's cat for the third time...

Author's note:

Sorry bout the filler, but it had a function. The problem with Naruto was the huge time skip between the bell test and the wave arc. I needed to cover the time difference the best I could, as quickly as I could to move on to the wave arc. I have been wanting to type that arc for some time now. At this point, The team has better chakra control than the story, because Shirou won't let Kakashi be lazy. The team is also more physically fit, but do not know any other jutsus than what they knew before. Yes, Shirou is spending lots of time with Hanabi, but only because he has a soft spot for little kidnapped girls. I repeat, Shirou will not develop a love interest in Hanabi, she is only seven or eight, he's somewhere between twenty eight and thirty five.

Bet you weren't expecting Zelretch's role in this chapter. That was my favorite thing about this chapter. I have to thank L33t Horo for inspiring that plot twist.