(12/13/2014) Hey everyone! Still in Hong Kong and I've finished 2/3 finals! Since I'm pretty relaxed this Saturday, I thought I'd go ahead and post up chapter 3! I'm really enjoying writing this, so I hope you're all enjoying reading! Lately, I've been reading a lot of the old Naruto fanfiction by Link and Luigi, and they're cracking me up just like they used to. Due to this influence, this chapter was interlaced with more humor than the previous, so I hope you're into that! Since Naruto is a show that can make you laugh, cry, and make your jaw drop during the same battle, I hope this chapter will do it justice.

Anyways, enjoy!

"Big Brother?" asked Himawari as Bolt ran out into the street holding her hand, "Where are we going?"

"Anywhere we want, Himawari!" exclaimed Bolt, "we're free!"

Himawari smiled at the sentiment, but suddenly a confused expression manifested on her face.

"But…where are we going specifically?"

With that, Bolt stopped dead in his tracks, reality sinking in. It was evening time in the village and there was not exactly a lot to do since the festival had diverted the attention of most of the citizenry.

"…You wanna go get ice cream?" asked Bolt, earning the cheerful approval of his little sister.

"Yay!" exclaimed Himawari as the siblings walked awkwardly toward the nearest ice cream vendor.

When they found one, Bolt made some orders while Himawari watched. She had let go of her brother's hand and was looking around at the happy people walking around her. She really did love festivals. It all seemed like a dream to her. As she looked around, she noticed a firefly pass her by. Interested, she followed the little glow bug as it buzzed down the road, all of which was taking place while Bolt's back was turned.

"Okay Sis," said Bolt turning around with the cones in his hand. "They didn't have rocky road so I got you strawberry. I know that it's pretty random but the chocolate one was…Himawari?"

Bolt watched as his sister skipped down the road chasing a bug. "Himawari!" he called, "come back!"

Bolt chased her down the street, careful not to drop the cones. Although Himawari as young, she was surprisingly fast, and having had a good five minutes head start while Bolt was occupied, was a good ways away from her brother. Enthralled by the little bug, Himawari continued skipping down the road, oblivious to the people, animals, and carts that surrounded her.

Eventually, the bug, realizing that a frightening giant was chasing him, decided to fly upward as to avoid being engulfed in the giant's grubby hands. As the bug flew, Himawari stood in in the middle of the road looking up.

"Come back, Mr. Bug!" she called to the night sky, "I want to see what makes you glow!"

As she stood there, a horse cart began moving fast down the road. The cart driver, doing his best to force the horse to the side, was unable to stop the momentum of the cart as it headed straight for the little girl.

"Himawari!" cried Bolt loudly, "Get out of the way!"

Himawari quickly looked back to earth to see the cart coming at her quickly. The little girl let out a loud scream that filled the parade ground and CRASH! The cart fell over, letting a plethora of goods spill out onto the city street. Bolt shook in fear at the thought of his sister being run over by a cart, until he noticed that the scream was still audible a good 10 seconds after the supposed crash.

"Hi…Himawari?" exclaimed Bolt looking around for the source of the scream. His search ended when he looked beside the overturned cart to find his sister holding the hand of a black haired, bespectacled girl wearing a pink yukata.

"Himawari!" cried Bolt, running to his sister.

"Big Brother!" the little girl shrieked out, still shaken by almost being run over by a cart.

"Are you okay, Sis?" Are you hurt?"

"No," said Himawari as she clutched onto her brother's clothes. "But I was really scared…"

"Good thing this nice lady was there to save you then, huh?" smiled Bolt. "Here's your ice cream."

Still wiping the tears from her eyes, Himawari took the ice cream cone and mustered up a smile toward her brother. "Thank you, Big Brother."

"No problem!" smiled Bolt. With that, Bolt looked up. "And as for you," said Bolt smiling, "oh wait! I know you!"

"Hey! This is strawberry!"

The girl, who you all probably correctly guessed was Sarada, pushed up her glasses and approached the Uzumaki siblings.

"You're in my class, right? With Aburame-sensei?"

The girl scoffed. "Ha, if you can call it a class."

Bolt was puzzled at an insult toward their teacher, especially one that didn't really seem to point out any factual evidences to question the class's identity. Eventually, he just shrugged. "Uh yeah…well…thanks for saving my sister!"

Sarada smirked and looked down. "Well, you know, you do what you have to…"

"Um…yeah…" said Bolt, not really sure how to respond to Sarada's remarks. "So…thanks…"

The two just stared awkwardly at each other while Himawari licked away at her ice cream cone which was not rocky road. At least, they did stand in silence until Bolt came up with something to say.

"Oh!" he said, "if you ever need anything…well…I'm in your debt, I guess."

Sarada just kind of looked around as the silence persisted.

"Well…" said Bolt, "…goodbye…"

"Wait!" exclaimed Sarada, causing the Uzumakis to jump in place. "Give me that!" she said, pointing to Bolt's ice cream.

Bolt, surprised, didn't really know how to react. I mean, he did promise to pay her back somehow, but he certainly didn't think she'd want his ice cream cone.

"Uh…okay…" Bolt started, "Oh yeah! Sure! Take it!"

Bolt handed the ice cream cone to Sarada.

Sarada was also at an impasse. After all of her remarks which were supposed to be witty laugh inducers had failed, her attempt at a joke had also fallen flat on her face. She didn't really want the ice cream cone, but fettered by the situation she had created, she had no choice but to take the cone into her hand.

"Well…" said Bolt, kind of at a loss for words, "enjoy the ice cream…I guess."

"Thanks," was all Sarada was able to think of.

"Well…bye," said Bolt as he turned away. "Thank the nice lady, Himawari."

"I can't…" said Himawari, taking another lick of her ice cream.

"Why not?" asked Bolt, surprised at his sister.

"I don't know her name," said Himawari, "how am I supposed to thank her properly if I don't know her name?"

"Good point!" smiled Bolt as he looked back up to Sarada with a smile.

Sarada just kind of stared at them for a little while, staring at the eager Uzumaki faces that stared right back.

"What?" she finally said.

"What's your name?" asked Bolt.

"You mean you don't know?" exclaimed Sarada.

Bolt kind of blushed and rubbed the back of his head with his hand. "Well…" he said, "to be honest…I forgot."

"Hmph!" exclaimed Sarada in an offended tone. "Well fine Bolt! If that's the way you're going to play it!"

Sarada turned around and began to walk away, leaving Bolt and Himawari just standing there not really knowing what to do.

"Wait!" exclaimed Himawari in her adorable little voice.

"What?" said Sarada, turning her head around with a sassy look on her face.

"Thank you mystery lady!" smiled Himawari, "I'm glad you saved me! My name is Himawari! Himawari Uzumaki!"

Sarada smiled gently at Himawari's innocent face. How could anyone stay mad at her? "My name's Sarada." She gave a quick frown to Bolt and continued walking away from the two.

"Well, thank you Sarada!" continued Himawari, "I hope we will meet again!"

Sarada couldn't help but smile listening to the little girl, but after catching sight of the dumb expression on Bolt's face, she continued walking away from the two.

"…Enjoy the ice cream…" Bolt said stupidly.

Meanwhile, Naruto's speech beginning the festival had ended and, after a tedious amount of greeting citizens, Naruto met up with his old classmates.

"Hey Hinata!" exclaimed Naruto, "where's the kids?"

"Oh…" began Hinata, feeling slightly embarrassed, "I let them go off on their own."

"What!" exclaimed Naruto, "You should have sent Sai with them!"

"Yes," smiled Sai, "then at least I would have some role to play."

Naruto rolled his eyes as he heard the ANBU captain speak. "Are you still on that?"

"Honestly Naruto," said Ino, who was obviously not pleased, "Sai is your teammate, isn't he?"

"Look!" exclaimed Naruto, "don't start blaming me! I was just sitting peacefully in my desk working, when all of a sudden the event coordinator comes up to me saying 'Lord Hokage don't forget, you need to be accompanied by your teammates' and there I was just choking on my ramen!"

"I thought you were working?" said Kiba.

"I can work while I eat!"

"So let me get this straight," said Sakura, "you were working, eating, and having a meeting at the same time?"

"I'm the Hokage! I have a lot to do!" exclaimed Naruto.

"Why didn't you just make Shadow Clones?" asked Kiba.

"What do you think they were doing?"

The group laughed as they were able to rile up their friend, who even though he was their superior was still the same old guy who was so much fun to mess with.

Meanwhile, Bolt and Himawari were wandering the streets of the Leaf Village, trying to think of something to do.

"Well, Big Brother…" began Himawari, "do you think we should go back?"

"No!" exclaimed Bolt, "why should we go back? There's plenty to do out here."

Himawari finished the last of her ice cream cone. "Well, whatever it is, I think we're doing it wrong," she said.

Bolt sighed. He had to think of something. He didn't just want to wander around the village streets not doing anything. His mother had let him side step boring formalities to have fun, with only two conditions: take care of Himawari and don't pull pranks! As he wandered the streets, his eyes perked up when he noticed a familiar face wandering by.

"Hey!" he called, "Inojin! What's going on?"

Inojin jumped up at the mention of his name. He turned around to find Bolt and Himawari running up to him. Inojin kind of wanted to get out of there. His mother, although familiar with and respectful of the Uzumaki family had always told him to stay away from Bolt as she thought he was a bad influence on him. He knew that if his mother saw him with Bolt, he would get a scolding, and Inojin really wasn't looking forward to that. On the other hand, he did notice that his mother was quite fond of Himawari. Eventually, Inojin decided that since it was both Bolt and Himawari, it would be alright to speak with them.

"Um, hi!" said Inojin as he greeted his classmate and his classmate's sister.

"Hi!" smiled Himawari with her face shining like a sun ray.

"Boy," laughed Bolt as he gave Inojin a sharp slap on the back, "you must be really bored without Shikadai and Chocho to boss you around!"

Inojin shrugged his shoulders and rubbed the ache in his back. "Well, I'm used to it," he said, "they've been leaving every summer for as long as I remember."

"Yeah…" said Bolt, "anyway, what are you doing here alone?"

"Oh…" said Inojin, "just playing a game. I actually did pretty well, see."

Inojin showed Bolt his prize: a set of two Demon Wind Shuriken!

"Whoa!" exclaimed Bolt looking at the two large weapons. "You won this! But these are expensive!"

Inojin smiled. "Well," he said, "Ms. Tenten isn't able to sell a lot of these, so she donates them to a bunch of random causes."

Bolt chuckled. "Yeah, pretty random."

"So…" said Inojin, "what are you two up to?"

Bolt shrugged. "Nothing really," he said, "just thinking of something to do."

"Oh," said Inojin a little cautiously. "Well, good luck with tha…"

"Hey!" said Bolt suddenly, "I got an idea!"

He got on his knees and stared at his sister face to face. "You want to be a ninja someday, right Himawari?"

Himawari nodded excitedly. "Yes! I want to be strong like Mommy and Daddy!"

"Well," smiled Bolt, "Do you know where all ninjas start their exciting lives?"

Himawari thought for a moment. "The Ninja Academy!"

Bolt shook his head. "Nope! Well…I mean…yeah, I guess, but that's not what I meant!"

Bolt looked up to Inojin. "Why don't we show Himawari our training ground?"

"Oh…" said Inojin, "I don't know…I should actually get back to my parents soon and…"

Himawari's eyes began to shine. "Big Brother's training ground!" she exclaimed, "I want to see where big brother got so strong!"

"Oh, come on Inojin!" exclaimed Bolt, "how can you say no to this face?"

Inojin looked down at Himawari's excited face that was something between a puppy and Hello Kitty wrapped in sunshine and sprinkles (jimmies if you're from the American South) . Inojin, knowing there was no possible way he could resist, gave a look that said, "Oh gosh, what am I going to do?"

"But…" said Inojin, "why do you need me?"

"But I want to see Big Brother Inojin get strong too!" said Himawari.

"Then it's settled!" exclaimed Bolt with a smile on his face, "let's go to the training grounds!"

"I don't know about this, guys…" said Inojin, "I mean, it's pretty late and the sun will go down soon and the grounds are on the outskirts of the village, and…"

"Ah, don't be a stick in the mud, Inojin!" exclaimed Bolt, "let's go!"

With that, the three of them set of for the training grounds, bubbling with excitement. Well, at least two of them bubbled with excitement, one of them just kind of oozed with excitement.

I hope you enjoyed this installment! Chapter 4 will be posted soon!