# Action Pack Issue 7
July 2, 10 am- Uzumaki Residence
Naruto walked down the stairs to the kitchen with the three scrolls under his arm and he sees in confusion that there's no smell of breakfast. He found this strange as Kira was always up before him to make him breakfast, even though his brother was not a morning person and wouldn't generally talk to him when they were eating.
He shrugged as he remembered his brother saying he'd be in late the night before and thought that he was just tired.
Naruto's train of thought stopped and backed up. Since when did they get tired? Sure, it happened, but only after hours and hours of training or... The blond frowned to himself and he looked over at the calendar hanging beside the phone and his expression turned guilty when he realized what today was.
'I'm such an idiot.' He admonished himself before walking over to the freezer and took some waffles out and put them into the toaster before grabbing a packet of pop tarts out of the cupboard and headed down into the basement silently. If his brother even did wake up today, he should at least be able to reach his food before falling asleep again.
Naruto looked around the sparsely decorated room as the only things in the dwelling were a bed, desk, and various things they'd bought at the store yesterday for school. He saw that on the bed there was a lump under the covers and a hand over the pillow on his head. The blond gently set the packet down on the table as he knew that even as a human Kira would still be awake at the slightest sound.
Naruto went back up the stairs and quietly closed the door behind him and went back into the kitchen. He grabbed a plate and readied his breakfast, wondering how he could have forgotten about his brother's…'condition.' But again, he knew it wasn't possible that Kira forgot about it since he found the prospect of being nearly catatonic more disturbing than actually becoming human.
This had left Naruto befuddled still as Kira hated humans-he and Kushina not included in that generalization.
After Naruto had finished eating, he put the plate in the sink and seeing as there weren't that many dishes, he opted to wash them later in the evening before grabbing the scrolls and headed outside.
#7 "A Day in the Life of Naruto Uzumaki"
The blond looked around the surroundings and concentrated on the surrounding area and sensed the chakra still powering the surrounding Genjutsu from the day before and Naruto berated himself for doubting Kira's ability with keeping up a large scale technique.
Naruto put down two scrolls before looking over the Light-Weight-Rock Technique and reread the basis of what he had to do. This could also be useful for making things that would otherwise be too heavy for him to carry. He remembered the first time Kira gave him that piece of chakra paper and told him to push some of his chakra on it, thinking it had just been Kira's idea of a joke before seeing the paper split three ways, one edge get soggy, and the other turn to dust.
It had been at that point he'd asked (as he knew better than to demand things from his brother) an explanation. Which Kira had given him, cutting down most of it as being too boring or unnecessary; thought the gist of it was that Naruto could learn jutsu that were water, earth and wind based as they were his elemental chakras.
Naruto had further inquired as to how he got them and Kira revealed that their mother had water and earth based chakras (not to mention a rather abnormal sense of strength) and their father had wind. His brother had then told him of his own chakras that were lightning, fire, and wind, only one of which he could positively identify as being from Kyuubi, but wasn't sure how he got the other two.
It was also at that point Kira had gotten uncomfortable when Naruto asked how Kyuubi could have given him his elemental chakra if he was sealed inside their mom. His brother obviously knew how it happened, as he mumbled something about chakra being involved and had quite hastily changed the subject.
In the present time, Naruto once again pondered why his brother got so agitated when his conception was called into question and resolved to ask his brother more directly when he was coherent and conscious as he knew that Kira obviously couldn't have been made the 'normal' way.
Naruto shook his head as he gathered his earth chakra and concentrated on spreading it over his skin, though unlike the earth armour, this was going to make him lighter instead of giving him a defense and super strength. He jumped into the air and was disappointed that he could only just as high as the roof, but he had to keep his focus when he noticed his descent was a lot softer and bent his knees before jumping up into the air again and while he was still only made it to the roof, his descent this time was nearly weightless.
'That is so cool.' Naruto thought as he remembered what Kira said about others still being able to hear him even though they couldn't see him.
The blond tried the technique several more times before he looked out at the buildings and felt a strange sense to go out and investigate his new surroundings. He only found this feeling strange as he while he knew that he wouldn't get glares sent at him, he was still a little shy to actually go out before.
Making up his mind, Naruto flashed through several hand seals and a dozen or more Shadow Clones appeared. "Okay, group one takes the Tunnel Technique, group two takes the Light-Weight Rock one, group three takes the Ice Disk, and one of you sits out and waits for Kira-nii to come upstairs to tell him that I'm going out to explore, got?"
"Hai, Boss!" They all chorused.
Naruto held up his hands quickly. "And most importantly, please dispel yourselves one at a time so I don't get a headache, and don't make any noise, as Kira-nii is still asleep and no one can see us, alright?" he questioned and the clones all nodded. "Good, now hop to it." He commanded before walking into the house and went up to his room before grabbing his new pack and headed back down stairs and going out the door and he transformed himself into his disguised form.
Naruto walked down the street as he while he forced himself not to be so cautious, but after spending so much time seeing people glaring at his brother or ignoring him, he was still just a little suspicious. After all, the psychological abuse he'd suffered and the physically abuse Kira had suffered wasn't going to go away overnight.
The 'redhead' stumbled onto a park and after making sure no one was looking at him, walked over to a bench and reached into his pack to pull out a book on Science. He liked Math, he was good, very good at Math, but he'd taken something of an interest in science as he found a parallel to the jutsus he did.
They both required precise directions or at best they just wouldn't work, or at worst it could be fatal if careless.
Kira had come to such a mess when he'd dispelled every shadow clone he'd used when he'd been training and had knocked himself out. And while Naruto could freely, and cheerfully at that, admit Kira was much stronger than him, he knew better than to assume that Kira was invincible or infallible.
He knew that his brother had so many faults that he'd just been accustomed to since he could remember, like he was vaguely controlling and very paranoid, but then again, since people actually were out to get them he'd let that pass.
Naruto had long since accepted that while Kira was a rather distant and displayed rather psychotic tendencies when his fuse finally reached its end, he also knew that his brother was the way he was because of how awful his life had been.
The 'redhead' could see the part of Kira that no one knew existed as his brother had hardened his heart to never be hurt again, but him and their mother were the exceptions. Kira was a good person, all faults aside, and while morally ambiguous at times, he'd always put Naruto above himself.
It got to the point where Naruto had worried if Kira even wanted to protect himself.
The pre-teen shook his head of the unpleasant thoughts that his brother might actually have some suicidal tendencies to add to his list of problems and began looking through the book. He was on page two of the introductory when he another person sat on the bench and he blinked. "Hey, didn't I meet you in the shoe store yesterday?" he asked tactlessly.
The brunette girl looked over at him in bewilderment before seeming to recognize him. "Yeah, you were the kid with the cool sandals." She said before looking at his feet and seeing said sandals. "What a coincidence we'd both at the park?"
Naruto resisted pointing out what his brother said about not believing in coincidences, but he didn't want to freak her out. "Uh, you go to school around here, I'm just starting this fall and any info would be useful."
The girl looked interest in the conversation at this point. "You just got here? I was the new kid last year as I transferred from Illinois, where are you transferring from?"
Naruto scratched the back of his head as he tried to figure out how to word it. "I'm from Japan, the name's Naruto Uzumaki, you?"
"I'm Kitty Pryde." The girl replied smiling. "So you're from Japan? How exotic, but," she looked at his head and seemed nervous about something, "do you happen to dye your hair?"
Naruto didn't blink, nor was he offended. "No, it's all natural." He said grinning, though it was really a lie as his hair was naturally the way it was. Naturally blond that is. "So about Middle school, do they have a science class I could take?"
The girl brightened. "You like science, no way, I like science too!" she replied cheerily. "And yes, they do have a science course."
"Oh," Naruto said as he was caught a little off guard by Kitty's fast talking, but he didn't really mind it as he could really get off track when talking about something he likes, "anything else? I'll need options to weed through so I can pick the best option."
Kitty put a hand to her chin in thought. "Well, I know that you have to take English, Science, P.E, and Math, but the ones you can chose from are Drama, Music, Art, Language Studies and Computers."
Naruto thought over the ones he had to take as areas he was already versed in, then over the ones he could take. "Drama and Art sound cool, and I'm really good at acting too." He said as he'd spent all his life acting like everything was okay with the place Kira called a living hell.
"You know, most kids would balk at the idea of taking Math or just going to school in general." Kitty pointed out.
Naruto shrugged as he smirked a little. "Well I'm not most kids." he replied.
"So since you're new here and all, I can show you around if you want." Kitty offered. "I know great places that us 'not most kids' go instead of an arcade."
Naruto smiled a real true blue smile. "Sure." He said before confusion overtook his features. "What's an arcade?"
Land of Fire Outpost, 11:45 am
Jiraiya looked over the scroll in his hand that he'd gotten him his informant in the Akatsuki, an organization of S-rank criminals' intent on extracting the tailed demons out of their hosts and using them for some nefarious purpose that had leaned toward the inclination of using the power of the demons to take over the Elemental Nations.
Jiraiya was torn on wondering if Kira and Naruto being out of the Nations was a good idea. He'd already faced Tsunade's wrath the day before about his own shortcomings with not being there for the kids while she had berated herself for the same thing.
It was a very awkward conversation.
With Kira and Naruto not being around, it meant that the Akatsuki couldn't find them, and while they only needed Naruto since he held the actual Kyuubi, Jiraiya doubted they'd pass up the chance to rip Kira's soul out of his body to power the last statue in Naruto's place.
The bad part of this came when he found that they'd both been placed in the Bingo book with bounties on their head, and from Konoha's own Civilian council. Sarutobi had ripped them a new one and tried to get them to take back the offer, but even under the threat of treason they wouldn't budge, smugly saying that since neither Kira nor Naruto were legal citizens of Konoha anymore that they were fair game.
Jiraiya had wanted to curse them all out himself because of the things set in motion because of this bounty. He knew that no one would be able to pass this much money up thinking they'd be easy captures, and while Kira was admittedly strong, people still knew he was a baby demon compared to the likes of the older ones and wouldn't know enough about himself to fully understand what he was capable of.
The old sage had no idea what the Civilians had been thinking or why could possibly want either of them back after they finally leave. Was it because the combined threat was out there now, and out of their reach? Or was it because that power was out there and at any time they (or more precisely Kira) could come back and have no problem with burning the village to the ground?
Whatever the reason, the Akatsuki were taking no active part in looking for either of them as there would be all these bounty hunters on the Uzumaki's looking to cash in and swoop in if either of them was ever caught.
Jiraiya though had told his informant to alert him if this changed though as he wasn't taking any chances with their safety. Neither may want to accept him, and he wouldn't blame them, but he was still their godfather and he knew he had to start acting like it.
Better late than never after all, and he had a lot of things to make up for; this being one small step to earning back their trust.
Konoha Academy, 12:25 pm
Iruka picked absently at his lunch as his class had been let out to go and enjoy their lunch time and he had time to reflect over the Chunin Exam proceedings and his previous students that we in the exam. He'd thought they were all still too green to take them, not because he didn't think they weren't going to do fine, but about the different aspects of the exams.
The fact there was killing in the exams was a major factor and he didn't think any of them were prepared to actually take another life. He remembered how young Kira had looked next to Anko when those two went off to Kusa for the exams he had to take and when they came back Anko had bragged to anyone in hearing distance that her Genin had decimated the competition with his unique Dojutsu.
He had of course been skeptical about this until he heard what exactly it could do and his own fear of Kira had risen. Kira could cause pain, just by looking at someone; it was the ability he'd inherited from his mother, a term not many were willing to acknowledge and just believe that the boy really had just sprung up from nowhere.
It had only come at a later date that Anko hadn't meant Kira killed anyone, only just rendered them all unable to continue to fight from the amount of pain he'd put the other Genin in with his Dojutsu.
In fact, no one from Konoha had actually seen Kira use this Dojutsu Anko told them about until she revealed that Kira's eye color, the burning orange he'd looked at everyone with, was his active Dojutsu and it took some control to not use it.
Iruka was still scared of Kira, but his respect for him rose as while he knew that Kira probably hadn't learned to control his pain-inducing power for the villager's safety, so much as Naruto's. It showed that Kira at least cared about Naruto and wasn't going to risk hurting his brother in favor of making everyone suffer.
He knew Kira didn't like him, just like with everyone else in Konoha, so he tried to stay out of his way.
When Kira got done his exams, he was just as moody as he'd been before, when he saw his former students after the exams, they looked worse for wear.
He tried not to think about the fact that unlike Kira, none of them had ever experienced such a hard life that Kira had, as even Sasuke hadn't gone through what Kira had. Yes, the boy tragically lost his family, but he never had to deal with the searing hatred of the village hating him for just breathing.
Iruka realized that not even Naruto had gotten such treatment; the only exception had been the one attack on him from a mob that had wanted to kill Kira but settled for Naruto. And even then Kira made them all pay for hurting his brother.
It was only after that incident did everyone just try and pretend Naruto simply didn't exist. It proved to be a lot safer than facing Kira's wrath.
Well for those who had any sense of self-preservation that is.
Restaurant District, 1:00 pm
Kurenai looked over her students and felt a torn sense of pride and worry. Shino had won his match, as had Kiba, but Hinata had forfeited her match against her cousin. And as much as she saw the girl as a surrogate daughter and wanted her to succeed, she even knew that the girl had no chance of beating her cousin.
While Hinata's cousin Neji had won their match by default, neither of his other teammates had beaten their opponents.
All of the other Genin had fared well during the second exam, but she couldn't help wondering how Kakashi's team would have fared in the exam. From what she'd seen, they didn't look like they actually belonged on the same team, as there was nothing but animosity between them.
Or, the animosity both Sakura and Sasuke had for Naruto at least and Naruto's slightly overbearing tendencies. Then again, at least he had a reason seeing as he wanted his teammates to be his friends. Then there was the glaringly obvious subject that seemed to bring out the worst in the blond.
His family seemed to be his only weak point.
While Naruto was cheerful, nice, and generally a good person, it took only one mouthy student telling off his mother and brother for everyone to be reminded that he had been raised by someone that was considered a living nightmare.
All she knew was that since Naruto wasn't here, they'd never know what Team 7 had really been capable of.
New York Science Center, 11:50 am
"Wow, this is awesome!" Naruto exclaimed looking around the exhibits in awe. "I've never seen anything like this before."
"Are you serious, you've never seen anything like this?" Kitty asked raising a brow.
Naruto shook his head. "No." he replied as he thought about how his chakra worked. While he knew chakra was a mixture of spiritual and physical energy. He seriously didn't want to think about how much control Kira need to keep not only his human chakra, but demonic chakra in check.
Especially since the demonic one had actually made him sick once when Kira had shown him a Ninjutsu powered by demon chakra. He had no idea how his brother could stand using it as he'd used Kyuubi's chakra on the bridge back in Wave and had thrown up when he was by himself and had slept half the day.
It was actually scary for him to think of Kira's own chakra hurting him because of his human half.
"Naruto, you okay, you look kind of worried about something." Kitty pointed out, a frown creasing her brow.
Naruto looked up from his gaze on the floor and blinked. "Oh, I'm fine." He said plastering on a convincing fake smile.
A surprisingly bitter thought reminded him he was really good at acting.
Their nice time looking at the exhibits was cut short as there was a crash in the ceiling and the people moved away with a start. In the mist of the fallen debris was a female shape in metallic yellow armour and had yellow tinted glasses on while her hair was pulled back in a dark-haired ponytail. The woman grabbed a huge chunk of the debris and threw it at a group of people, who were falling over themselves to get away.
'Light-Weight Rock Technique!' Naruto thought holding out one hand concentrated on making the debris lighter so that when it hit the people wouldn't be harmed.
The debris practically bounced off the group and the woman looked over suddenly in Naruto's direction and he started to back away, pulling Kitty with him. "Uh, we should go; like now!"
"How could that rock not hurt those people?" Kitty wondered aloud as they went out the door and was separated by the crowd also rushing to get out.
"Naruto, where'd you go?" Kitty shouted over the crowd as she saw a speck of red hair on the other side.
"Don't worry about me." Naruto called back before ducking into the side alley and transformed into his Black Fox persona, which was just taking his henge on his hair and skin off while making the clothes appear in place of his regular clothing.
He knew better than to think he could use this all the time as it took focus to keep the henge up, and while he could pull off his disguised civilian appearance, it was because he wouldn't be trying too hard to keep it up, unlike now where he had to worry about fighting someone and making sure they don't know what he looks like.
Naruto ran up the wall and fell in through the skylight. "Hey, what's the big idea, people are trying to learn here!" he snarled.
The woman smirked as she actually stopped in her senseless rampage. "Hello, Uzumaki-san."
Naruto flinched as he was addressed by name. "Who…who are you, and whose this Uzumaki you speak of?"
"You can call me the Iron Maiden," The woman replied, "but don't play dumb with me, I know exactly who you are; son of the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, and the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune and the younger brother to the demon bane of Konohagakure." She recited smirking in an odd gesture that reminded Naruto of a vaguely feline expression.
Naruto had been growing increasingly nervous with every sentence the woman said. "How do you know all that?" he asked quietly.
"I know my prey well when I'm being sent after them," Iron Maiden replied, her smirk only widening at seeing the boy's eyes widen in shock, "surprise? Well don't be, you left your village, your fair game." She said taking a stance.
Naruto took one of his own, and since this woman seemed to know about the Elemental Nations, he knew that she must have some jutsu up her sleeve. "I left legally. Hunter-nin shouldn't be after me or my brother!"
"Well your village doesn't seem to think so as they put a bounty on both your heads to be brought back to Konoha; dead or alive it said." Iron Maiden replied as she took a pair of shuriken out of her belt and threw them at the blond.
Naruto dodged before his hands flashed through several hand seals. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he yelled and a dozen clones appeared. "Kick her ass!" her commanded as they attempted to do the same technique against Joystick; overwhelm her until he could get a shot in.
It was too late when Naruto remember that this woman knew jutsu too as her hands flashed through a set of hand seals. "Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder!" she shouted and electricity shot out of her hands and decimated all his clones.
Naruto winced as he felt the clones taking the hits from their memories and held his head briefly before glaring at the woman and flashed through one hand seal. "Wind Release: Air Bullets!" he shouted before firing off one of the techniques Kira had taught him before he'd gone off to Wave.
Iron Maiden took several hits as she dodged the rest, her exo-metallic suit seeming to be much sturdier than he realized. "Hmm, wind against a lightning user, not bad." She said complimentarily before shooting off a fire technique that had Naruto stunned for a moment before dodging it by a hairs-breath. "But not good enough." She said appearing behind Naruto and kicking him in the back, sending the blond flying into one the walls.
Naruto got back to his feet as he felt his muscles start to heal back up and put one hand on the wall to steady him. "Just what rank are you?"
"Why, I'm Jonin of course, too much for a kid like you to handle." Iron Maiden retorted smirking as her hands started crackling with electricity. She was about to fire it off at him before the sounds of sirens hit both their ears and the electricity faded. "Oh well, looks like this is wear out fun ends, sayonara." She said flashing through several hand seals and disappearing in a body flicker.
Naruto crushed the gravel in his palm and scowled at the spot the woman had been in before reluctantly flashing through a set of seals as well and disappearing in a puff of smoke and appeared back outside the alley. The blond dispersed his clothing transformation before changing his skin and hair again and a 'redhead' walked out of the alley as paramedics and the police arrived on the scene.
"Where were you?" Kitty asked as she started Naruto from showing up unexpectedly from behind him.
Naruto would have jumped if he wasn't still recovering from his wounded pride. "I was pushed back into the building by the crowd of people clawing to get out and I couldn't find you." He said easily.
"Well don't do that, I don't want my new friend to get killed in one of these crazy Super Villain fights." Kitty replied.
Naruto looked up at that as his eyes started to shine suspiciously bright. "Friends?" he repeated softly. "You really mean that?"
Kitty nodded. "Why wouldn't I mean that?" she questioned before she was pulled into a hug by the 'redhead.' "Oh." She said startled before relaxing and felt the other pre-teen's bicep and the developing muscle on it. "Oh." She said flushing.
Naruto pulled back with a frown. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked feeling suddenly worried that he might have over-stepped some invisible boundary and was going to lose his first real friend.
Kitty blushed and shook her head vigorously. "No, no you didn't do anything wrong. You just…surprised me."
"Oh." Naruto said as he started flushing himself, the bruised pride he'd suffered as Iron Maiden beat him like he was nothing starting to fade, but he wondered if it was a good idea to tell Kira about the bounty; not because he didn't want to tell his brother, but because of the fact he'd have to tell him how he knew this.
And that would lead to an awkward discussion about him sneaking out at night to fight crime.
So for now he wouldn't say anything until he had smoothed over the idea of being a costumed superhero with his brother before dropping the bounty thing on him.
Kitty took out a strange looking device from her pocket. "It's after noon; you wanna go get something to eat?"
Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Well, I don't exactly have any money on me to pay…"
"That's okay, I heard from my friend Jubilee that there having an all you can eat buffet just down the street." Kitty piped up.
Naruto raised a brow before grinning. "All you can eat, then what are we still doing here? Lead on!"
Hotel, 12: 19 pm
Yugito Nii let the armour fall off and revealed her clothing underneath it a she let the Genjutsu over her hair faded and it went back to blonde. The woman took off her glasses and made her way over to the desk in the room before grabbing the journal on it and started to write in it.
"Day 1; used the younger Uzumaki's need to help against him by attacking rec building and forced his hand. It was a success and I have been able to gouge some knowledge that he is capable is using a Jonin ranking jutsu and has an affinity for wind, a rare one found in Fire country.
"Mission to convert both Uzumaki's to Kumo's allegiance still in the working stages. Too soon to tell anything discernible and the elder one will be much more difficult to approach as his half-demon senses will alert him to my neko tenant by the scent that all hosts give off. Plan though must be well thought out before deciding to approach the elder one. And I will continue to gouge the strength of the younger one as Iron Maiden." Yugito read aloud before closing the journal and started to think over her two targets.
Neither would be easy to win over, and being Iron Maiden certainly wouldn't help matters, but all she needed to do was work her way into their relative good graces and convince them to side with Kumo. She wasn't asking for loyalty on the Raikage's behalf, as he'd been certain neither Uzumaki would be too happy with any Hidden villager after Konoha, but merely to be allies, as he's also realized that both would be incredibly powerful if given enough time to learn.
Yugito had her reservations about the last part, but she did admit that Naruto had shown some promise, even if he did have a thing for banter. But oh well, so did she when she could cut lose. And giving her rank was on purpose should he tell his brother about their encounter and he come after her himself to see how they measure up.
Yugito was damn certain though that boy was no Chunin level ninja, no matter what his rank was. And if it took an actual fight to gouge his power level, then so be it.
Forest Hills, 1:15 pm
Naruto walked down the street, going home after having lunch with Kitty and he could honestly admit he'd had a great time. Though a frown did come over his face as he thought about his fight with Iron Maiden and what rank she told him she was at.
He knew he couldn't have beaten her even if the sirens hadn't interrupted them. He couldn't even beat Kakashi, so he had no chance against her. Kira probably did, but since even Naruto had no idea just what level his brother was at, he couldn't be sure.
It wasn't that he didn't take an interest in his brother's life, or vice versa, but after Kira attained Chunin, he just seemed to stop caring about how powerful he got or what his rank was as he just wanted to stay strong enough to keep his own power in check.
Naruto had seen only once what Kira was like when he lost control, and he was in no hurry to see that again.
The 'redhead' stopped in front of their mail box and saw that the flag was up. He opened it and lowered the flag as he took the mail out, showing that they were from the schools Kira had registered them in. He was about to go up the walk when an elderly woman came outside and seemed to be going over to the mail box in front of his house.
Naruto made his way over to the box and held one hand up. "It's okay, I'll get that." He said taking the mail out and walked over to the woman.
"Oh, what a kind young man you are." The woman said smiling kindly.
Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Thank you," he said before realizing what house was next to theirs, "and are you Peter's aunt, the one who made the cookies?"
"Oh, you know Peter?" The woman asked.
"He seemed nice enough." Naruto replied shrugging. "And I'd just like to thank you for the cookies."
"Oh, you and your brother have such good manners." The woman said smiling. "Would you like to come inside for some tea?"
Naruto blinked, and while Kira told him not to go with strangers, he felt he should at least make an effort to know their neighbours as they both seemed nice enough. If it had been out in the city he'd know better, but he wasn't stupid enough to think that danger could be anywhere.
The villagers had taken any shots they could to remind him that he lived with a very real danger, one that Naruto knew could be very dangerous if pushed to it, but otherwise they never saw the side only he saw.
"Sure if you don't mind some company." Naruto said following her inside and took a seat at the table while the woman went over to the stove and poured two cups of tea.
The sound of feet descending the steps was heard and Peter came into the room. "Hey Aunt May…" he said trailing off as he spotted the 'redhead.' "Oh hi there Naruto, how are you?"
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Can't complain, you?"
Peter also shrugged. "Same."
Aunt May sat down at the table and put the other cup in front of Naruto. "And how is your brother?"
"He's…tired." Naruto answered carefully. "He's just been really worried about our mom and deserves some time to rest."
"Oh, is your mother ill?" Aunt May questioned sympathetically.
Naruto shook his head. "She's in the hospital, but she just woke up from a coma." He answered quietly. "She's been in one since I was born, and my brother was the only one who was ever there."
"What about your dad?" Peter asked softly.
Naruto let out a sigh. "He died an hour after I was born." He said wryly. "So my birthday is never exactly a happy reminder of what happened." He said morosely before blinking. "Oh, I'm sorry for bringing you both down. I didn't mean to, it's just that…"
"No, it's understandable to miss someone you care about." Aunt May said kindly.
Naruto nodded absently before Peter blurted out, "Is that why your brother's so cold?"
"Peter!" Aunt May admonished sharply.
"No, he right; Kira-nii was never a nice person since I could remember. Well, not that nice, but he just isn't a people person." Naruto replied. "And yet I wonder how he's going to deal with being in Midtown for the fall."
Peter's eyes widened. "Your brother's going to Midtown?"
Naruto nodded. "You go there?"
"Uh, yeah I do." Peter replied awkwardly. "And, I wouldn't mind showing your brother around the school if he doesn't mind hanging out with me."
Naruto thought hard about how to answer this. "Kira-nii…wouldn't mind hanging around you, but don't expect him to talk to you."
Peter shrugged. "Hey, it's high school."
Naruto had no idea what the brunet was talking about, but nodded along with it anyway.
(#Action Pack Issue 8: As both Naruto and Kira try and find a way to talk to each other about the bounty on their heads as they visit their mother in the hospital. Meanwhile, Yugito takes a step up in her mission to test Naruto's strength.)