Hello again everyone.

Thank you once again for being so patient, but I am once again in the throws of revision for my GCSEs, but that period is now coming to an end and I will soon be able to update quicker than I usually do – hopefully.

Enjoy,

Industri

Chapter 4

Naruto

I sat up and looked around. I was surrounded by… well, nothing. Everything around me was white. Empty.

I squeezed my eyes shut as a bright light filled the room. When I opened them again, I gasped at the sight in front of me. In front of me was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She had long black hair that fell in gentle waves down over her shoulders, contrasting with her pale skin. I looked to her obsidian black eyes and felt myself becoming lost.

"Naruto," she said. Her voice felt like someone was dragging a length of silk over my skin. A shiver travelled up and down my spine.

"H-how do you know my name?" I asked.

"A Goddess knows the names of all her subjects, Naruto." A goddess… this woman was a goddess. "What you told Sasuke today was true. You have both endured many hardships in your lives, so you've been given a second chance."

I was right. This was no jutsu, or a trick. I had really, finally, been given my chance to have a family. And so had Sasuke. Both of us, able to be friends. I wasn't alone and he didn't have to focus on getting his revenge. Finally, we got what everyone else had had for the rest of their lives.

The light intensified and the woman started to fade away. I reached a hand out in front of me.

"No, don't go," I begged. "Please don't leave me." The goddess laughed. A high tinkling laugh.

"You don't need me, Naruto," she said. "You have your family now." And with those final words, she disappeared.

I sat up in my cot and looked around. My heart was pounding hard against my ribcage. I had no idea what to do, so I gave into instinct and did the first thing that came to mind: I cried. It felt good to an extent, but I still felt empty inside.

I opened my eyes as I was lifted out of my cot and, very briefly, cried a little louder until I saw it was my dad who had lifted me up. He held me close to his chest and some of the emptiness disappeared. Yondaime went over to the chair in the corner of the room and sat down, sitting me on his lap.

I continued to cry as he rubbed his hand up and down my back and through my hair. I reached my arms out, trying to wrap them around his neck. He shifted me so I was resting against his chest and I wound my arms around his neck, pulling my body close to his and pressing my face into his shoulder.

"It's OK, Naruto, calm down son, everything's OK," he said gently into my ear, calming my cries a little.

Eventually, I stopped crying and just sat there – still holding onto my dad, hiccupping every few seconds.

"You OK now?" Yondaime asked. I nodded, reaching up a hand and scrubbing at my eyes. "What happened?"

"Nothing, just a bad dream," I told him, trying to act calm about it. Truly, I didn't even know why I'd been crying.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked. I shook my head. "OK son, so long as you're all right." He stood up and headed back over towards the cot. When he tried to lay me back down on the mattress, I held on tighter to him.

"Please don't leave me," I said. I was expecting him to tell me no, but instead, he stood up straight again and headed over to the door that led through to his bedroom and went over to the bed. He sat down on it and lay back into the mattress, balancing me on his chest and pulling the covers up over the two of us.

"Love you Dad," I mumbled, snuggling into his warm body. Yondaime's hand came up to rest on my back, holding me in place so I didn't roll off.

"Love you too, Naruto," he replied, and I fell into sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, the bed was empty apart from me. I was on my back, covered with a thin cotton blanket and lying on top of the rest of the covers, as the bed had been remade since last night. I wondered how I hadn't woken up whilst they'd been doing that.

I sat up and pushed the blanket off myself, looking behind me to the clock on my dad's bedside table. It was just gone nine o'clock. How had I managed to sleep that late? I was never up any later than eight normally.

Next to the clock was a baby monitor. I pushed myself onto my hands and knees and crawled over to it, leaning over so my face was close to the microphone.

"DAAAD," I yelled into it, then continued speaking normally, "I'm awake and stuck. Please come and get me." I looked around when I heard a popping noise to see my father standing there, a few stray leaves swirling around his ankles.

"Good morning, Naruto," he said. He came over to me, lifted me off the bed and carrying me back into my bedroom through the adjoining door. "We need to get you ready; you're spending the day with Sasuke. Itachi's looking after you."

He lay me down on my changing table and disappeared from view for a bit. I sat up and watched as he started searching through my drawers and reappeared holding one of the weirdest items of clothing I'd over seen. It was a one piece in the same colour as the chuunin and jounin flak vests – though I think it was made of a softer material to make it softer against the skin – and had pockets of the same style on the front. There was also a pair of shorts to match the jounin pants, that had a little shuriken style holster that clipped onto it with little popper buttons.

"What do you think, Naru-chan?" he said, a massive grin spreading across his face.

"Okay, please never call me Naru-chan again," I told him. "And that clothing is a little stupid. It actually looks rather weird and I can honestly say that if you try to dress me in it, I will bite you." Yondaime's smiled only grew as he picked up a couple of items off the table next to me.

"I'll have you know, Naru-chan, that these outfits are very popular among Shinobi parents, and that you'll look very cute in it. Also, look how handy these are." He held out the items he'd picked up off the table. One was a dummy, another a little toy and plastic thing in the shape of a shuriken. "Now for some instructions. Don't suck your thumb, use the dummy." He held out the plastic shuriken. "You're teething, so you're gonna end up chewing on any available item; use this instead. It's a teething ring."

Yondaime pulled the little holster off the shorts and stuck the items into it, then reattached the holster again.

"See," he said. "This outfit is so handy." He continued smiling as he came over to me and lay me back down again, removing my pyjamas and nappy – I still refused to use it, even though I was desperate for the toilet right now.

"Dad, before you put the nappy back on, I really need the loo," I said.

"I already told you Naruto, you need to use the nappy and I will take you into the bathroom this time, but won't again," he said, lifting me up and carrying me through to the bathroom, holding me over the toilet seat whilst I went. Then, he took me back into the bedroom and finished dressing me. I will admit – though only to myself – that it was rather comfortable.

After a quick breakfast, my dad packed my bag put my into the baby carrier – attached to his front – and started the journey to the Uchiha compound.

Itachi was waiting for us at the gates, holding Sasuke in his arms. He smiled at us and waved when he caught sight of us, walking over to meet us.

As we walked through the compound, Yondaime and Itachi chatted with each other. Sasuke and I had to remain silent, other than making baby-like noises. When we reached the main house, Yondaime took me over to a blanket already laid out on the floor and sat me down. Itachi put Sasuke down next to me. Then, they went over to the other side of the room to talk.

Yondaime

After going through the same instructions I'd given Naruto with Itachi and adding some more.

"Okay, don't let Naruto near any fires – I know you like them in this clan but Naruto seems to have some weird kind of obsession with them and it never seems to end well. Also, don't let him eat any chunks of cheese, he always ends up choking on them and—"

"Yondaime-sama, it's OK, I know what I'm doing. I have my own seven-month-old to deal with too, it's okay," Itachi said, cutting of my speech. I grinned, a little embarrassed that I'd gone off on one, and lifted my hand to rub the back of my head.

"Right... Thanks again Itachi, for looking after Naruto, I really owe you," I said, heading over to Naruto. "I'll see you later on, son. Be good for Itachi," I told him, pressing a kiss into his forehead.

"Yep, sure Dad," he said, sticking a thumb in his mouth. I opened up the pouch and pulled out his dummy, sticking it in his mouth.

"Don't suck your thumb," I said with a laugh, then turned around to leave. Right; off to see my sensei and predecessor. I wondered how they were going to take this.