AN:

As always, thanks to Sakiku for her hardwork, and to all of the people who've taken the time to review. I should have replied to everyone, but if I missed you, then I apologize. As always, reviews/criticisims are welcome. Without further ado, I give you chapter 8 of Naruto: Shadows of the Mind.

LINEBREAKS=CHANGE OF SCENE/POV

'THOUGHTS'

Chapter 8

Two Years Later

Dawn crept slowly over the village of Konoha. As darkness gave way to light, the guards at the gate and around the walls breathed a little easier. In the early morning illumination, the village began to awaken as its streets became host to a variety of people. Traffic increased at the gate as ninja began heading out on or returning from missions. Others prepared themselves for an early training session, or to relieve ninja coming off of the previous night's shift. Shop owners and merchants exited their snug homes, intent on opening their stores or stalls.

As the sun rose still higher, the streets became more crowded with villagers venturing out into the late morning sunshine. Children laughed and played in the streets, running between the legs of the adults, completely innocent and carefree. Tiny voices begged and pleaded with family members for treats or toys. Others demanded that older siblings play with them. Still others whined for ninja training.

However, there was one child who did none of these things. When the sun streamed through the window of his bedroom and landed on the blanket-covered bundle, there was no movement. Not even a sleepy shuffle. It would be more than an hour before the apartment's sole occupant stirred from his slumber. Anyone watching would be surprised when the movement came not from the bundled form, but from a small figure crawling out from the dark space beneath the bed.

Yawning sleepily, Naruto rubbed at his eyes before looking around his room. Seeing nothing out of place, he went about fixing his bed and removing the pillows he had covered with the blankets to make a vaguely body-like shape. Once everything was in order, Naruto opened the door connecting his bedroom to the living room.

Glancing around the room, Naruto slowly stepped out of his bedroom and into the open. When nothing happened, he made his way into his bathroom and started the shower. Stepping in, he sighed as the hot water cascaded down his back. After a good twenty minutes of standing in the spray, Naruto finally went about cleaning himself. Once finished, he toweled off and stood in front of the mirror. Staring into his own slit eyes, Naruto thought about what his life had become since coming here.

He had thought that he could take care of himself. And he was right…mostly…kind of…a little bit.

There had been an incident or two with the laundry.

Flashback

Naruto dragged the clothes filled basket into his laundry room. Dumping it over with some difficulty, Naruto went about sorting the clothes into their respective piles. This would be the first time he did the laundry himself. For the last few weeks, his laundry had been done by the Old Man, or Yoshino, or one of the Old Man's ninja. This happened despite Naruto's rather vicious protests.

Sadly, there hadn't been much he could do about it. Despite how much he despised being in the same room as the Old Man, Naruto couldn't exactly force him to leave. So he had decided to prove to the Old Man that he could take care of himself. That way, he wouldn't come around as often.

So he had dragged out all his clothes and brought them to the laundry room. When he had lived with…those people…he had often helped sort the laundry, both before and after it was washed, so that part was easy enough for him.

However…he had never really done the actual washing before, though he had watched and it didn't look very hard. Just dump some of that laundry detergent in, spin the dial a few times, and close the lid. 'Piece of cake.' Naruto thought as he pushed his clothes into the washer. Grabbing the detergent, Naruto took the cap off and stared inside the container. 'Hmm…how much should I use? ' Naruto mentally frowned before shrugging and tipping the container upside down. After a few moments, Naruto nodded in satisfaction and put the detergent away.

"There we go, that oughtta do it." Naruto said happily, as he closed the lid and spun the dial to a random setting. Once that was done, Naruto returned to his living room, grabbing a piece of fruit on the way.

Sitting on his couch, Naruto picked up one of the storybooks that the Old Man had brought from the Sanadas' place. Naruto had been surprised at the things the Old Man had packed while Naruto had been busy grabbing scrolls.

Though he would never admit it, Naruto was grateful to the Old Man for grabbing all the things he did. 'If he hadn't, I'd be bored out of my mi- what's that sound? Sounds like…water?'

Walking into his kitchen, Naruto was surprised to see… bubbles? Quickly moving into the back room, Naruto gasped when he saw the washing machine was overflowing, spewing bubbles and water everywhere. 'Oh no! If that Old Man or one of his lackeys saw this, they'd never leave me alone.' Naruto thought in horror. Rushing forward, Naruto desperately tried to scoop up the water and bubbles with his hands, only to realize that he had nowhere to put it.

Thinking quickly, Naruto ran back into the kitchen and grabbed a small bucket from under the sink. Rushing back in, Naruto scooped up a bucket of water and suds, then threw open the lid of the washing machine, intending to dump the water back in. Unfortunately, he forgot to turn the washer off first.

"Blah!" Naruto cried as he received a face full of water and suds. Flailing his arms, he tried to use the bucket as a shield as he franticly looked for a way to stop the water. After a few frantic minutes, Naruto finally managed to shut off his washer, though he was left coughing and spluttering for his efforts.

Now soaking wet, Naruto gazed around the disaster ar- er- the back room with a frown. A frown, which quickly turned to wide-eyed horror when someone knocked on the door to his apartment.

"Naruto-kun, it's Yoshino. Can I come in?"

'Shit! What do I do, what I do?!' Naruto thought desperately as he whipped his head back and forth between the door and the back room.

"Naruto-kun?" came Yoshino's voice, along with a new set of knocking. "Are you in there?"

'Nononono, I can't let her see this mess! She'll tell the Old Man, and then I'll never get rid of those "babysitters". What do I do, what do I do?!' Naruto thought frantically as he desperately tried to salvage the situation.

Running around the kitchen, Naruto stopped in his tracks when he saw the scroll sitting on his living room table. As bad as it would be for the mess in the back room to be discovered, it would be worse if the Old Man found out that Naruto was learning jutsu. Who knew what he would do? At the very least, Naruto would lose the element of surprise.

Hearing another round of knocking, Naruto called out, "Just a minute!" as he ran into the living room and grabbed the scroll. Dashing into his bedroom, Naruto quickly put the scroll back in his bag.

Tucking the bag under his bed for good measure, Naruto returned to the living room just as Yoshino opened the door.

"Naruto-kun?" Yoshino called as she walked in through the door. "Are you alright?" she asked worriedly as her eyes fell on him.

Naruto tilted his head in confusion, "Whaddaya mean?"

Yoshino closed the door and put her bag against the wall. "You're soaking wet!" she said as she knelt in front of him.

'Oh…right, that.' Naruto mentally cringed. He had completely forgotten about that piece of information. In his panic to first hide the evidence of his little misadventure with the washer, and then to hide the scroll that he wasn't supposed to have, Naruto hadn't done anything about his clothes.

"Er… I… I fell in a puddle." Naruto said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible.

Yoshino raised an eyebrow at that. "You went outside? By yourself?" she asked.

"Yeah. It's not like it was hard or anything." Naruto quickly answered.

"Naruto-kun," Yoshino began as brushed some of his hair back out of his face. "You've refused to leave this apartment since you got here. Not to mention, it's summer, and it hasn't rained in over a week. So what really happened?" She asked with a gentle smile.

"Oh…uh, yeah, I actually just had some trouble with the sink is all." Naruto tried again. 'Who knows, maybe she'll buy this one…'

Yoshino sighed slightly, "You don't have to lie to me Naruto-kun. I promise, I won't be mad." When Naruto didn't answer -cough couldn't think of an excuse cough - she said "Alright, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. But you do need to get out of those wet clothes. I'll get the laundry started, so you go ahead and get changed."

Naruto was frozen as she walked into the kitchen. His mind was racing, trying to find some way to keep her from finding the mess. Sadly, he couldn't think of anything before she reached the back room.

He had expected her to yell, or shout, or get angry or something. So he was mildly surprised when she just turned and smiled at him.

"Oh, I see what happened. So what went wrong?" She asked gently.

Naruto blushed slightly in embarrassment. He furiously tried to think of a solution. 'What should I do? If I tell her, she might tell the Old Man…but I can't hide it now that she's found it…'

Seeing Yoshino waiting for an answer, Naruto quickly threw together a foolproof response. "I dunno." Yes, a perfect excuse.

"Oh, I see." Yoshino said with a slight trace of laughter in her voice. "Well, we better get this cleaned up then, shouldn't we? And you still need to get out of those wet clothes."

Naruto nodded, still slightly red in the face, and went back to his room to change. When he came back, Yoshino had somehow or other cleaned up the worst of the mess, and was waiting patiently for him.

She smiled and took his wet clothes from him. "Come along Naruto, let me show you how this washer works. This is a newer machine, so it might be different from the one you're used to."

Naruto quickly agreed. Not only could he learn how to use the machine, but he also could use that excuse for the mess if the Old Man brought it up. After all, the machine is different from the one at the Sanada's house. So, he couldn't be blamed for it not working. Not that Naruto had ever actually used the washer at the Sanada's place.

In fact, the only way Naruto had really helped with the laundry had been sorting and folding clothes. A rather important detail that he hadn't mentioned to the Old Man.

Flashback Ends

Yoshino ended up teaching Naruto how to do the laundry, and then they had spent the rest of her visit working on a puzzle together.

Of course there were a few other snags after the whole washer incident. To this day, Naruto could still detect a burnt smell whenever he went in the kitchen. Oddly enough, no one else ever said anything about it.

Another problem was the general attitude of the village towards him when nearly a year later he had started going outside.

The reason for that was an interesting story. For the first year, the Old Man or Yoshino were usually the ones making and sharing his meals. Oddly enough, whenever they did, they had put all the food in one dish. That is to say, all the beans in one bowl, all the meat on one plate, etc.

Then they each took their own share and put it on their own plates. Naruto never knew why they did that, but he never complained either. Since he didn't know anything about acquired immunities, Naruto had assumed that the food wouldn't be poisoned since they were eating it as well.

However, at the beginning of the second year the Old Man started sending "babysitters" to make his meals. These men and women (rarely the same person twice) did not follow the previous method when it came to serving the food.

They rarely ate with Naruto, and as such, he couldn't be sure they weren't putting things in his food.

So Naruto had taken to eating sandwiches and canned foods, usually an hour or so before scheduled meal times.

The problem was, Naruto quickly ran out of those kinds of food. So he took his allowance and ventured out on his most daring escapade, grocery shopping.

He earned more than a handful of headaches from that. Some stores refused to serve him, never giving him a reason why and as he wasn't inclined to return to them, never noticed that their owners had received a...lecture...and would now serve him, even if they didn't hide their distaste for him. As for those who hadn't refused him, they treated him like he was some kind of rabid animal; one that might snap at any second. Overall, the service he received wasn't all that great. And while he couldn't prove it, Naruto was sure that he was charged more than others in some places.

Still, Naruto made quite a bit of progress in the last two years. Since he spent the majority of the first year inside, he did quite a bit of reading. Yoshino would bring him new books from time to time, and he studied the scrolls he had taken from the Sanadas.

This resulted in him having a fairly impressive reading level for a six year old.

Speaking of scrolls, Naruto had been more than a little upset that he failed to get any powerful jutsu out of the Sanadas. Really, you'd think there would be at least one strong jutsu in the pile that he grabbed.

In reality, he only had two real ninjutsu scrolls. One was the Kawarimi, and the other was the Bunshin jutsu. Of those two, he had only been able to use the Kawarimi so far, as he had hit a snag with the Bunshin jutsu. While he had finally been able to use it, for some odd reason he could only make it work three out four times.

There was another - mostly theory based - scroll that talked about the Henge jutsu.

Naruto smiled to himself as he thought about that one. He had been going over that scroll for the last four months, and it was finally ready to be field tested. Really, out of the three jutsu, the Henge was the one that interested him the most. The description was a little vague, but Naruto had been able to piece together what the jutsu was supposed to do. Transformation. The ability to turn himself into anyone he wanted.

Just the thought of what he could do with that was enough to drive him into a frenzy. If this worked, he wouldn't have to worry about the strange looks he received at the stores. He might even be able to relax a bit and really enjoy being outside.

Naruto giddily finished his morning hygiene and went into the kitchen. Ignoring the burnt smell, he went about making himself a simple breakfast of cereal and toast. His cooking skills were…restricted…to simple meals. Instant meals, sandwiches, an egg every now and then. That was about as far as his culinary skills went.

Still, he could survive, thrive even, without outside interference so long as he had the food to do so. The problem was, the ones who bought his groceries were usually Genin, and the list they were given usually came from the Old Man. Because of that, close to half of his food required at least some real skill in cooking to prepare.

Naruto didn't have that skill, and he didn't trust his "babysitters" so it more or less went uneaten.

However, if today's test went well, Naruto wouldn't have to worry about that ever again.

Grinning in anticipation, Naruto finished his meal and cleaned the dishes before putting them in a rack to dry.

Returning to his living room, Naruto grabbed his wallet and checked his hidden kunai. The kunai was held in a makeshift holster tied to his lower back. There was only one kunai, so Naruto had to make sure not to throw it until he was sure he could hit whatever he was aiming at.

That was something else he had improved on in the last two years. He had carved a makeshift target onto one of his walls that he kept covered with a poster he had bought.

He practiced on that during his breaks from the scrolls and dealing with his "visitors".

When he had first started throwing kunai and shuriken under Takashi's tutelage, Naruto could barely hit his target two or three times out of ten. Now he could hit at least nine out of ten, with the occasional ten out of ten.

Satisfied with the kunai, Naruto put his hands together in the Hitsuji seal and focused his chakra. When he felt he was ready, Naruto softly called out, "Henge." In a burst of smoke, Naruto was replaced with an ordinary looking ten year old boy with plain brown hair, and dark eyes.

Looking down at himself, Naruto nodded thoughtfully and walked into his bathroom to check himself out in the mirror.

More specifically, his face. The first few times he tried this, his new form had still had his birthmarks as well as his scars and slit eyes. This time though, it seemed that he had succeeded.

Now there was only one test left before he headed out. Naruto headed back into the kitchen and stood in front of the sink. Staring from his hand to the glass he had used that morning, Naruto remembered the one problem that he had been working on for the last month.

Every time before this, Naruto hadn't been able to keep his shape "solid" for lack of a better word. When he tried to grab something, his Henge would fall apart. What's worse was that Naruto didn't have the actual scroll for the Henge, so he hadn't been sure what he was doing wrong.

Ironically, if he'd had the scroll, he would have known that the actual Henge technique wasn't a ninjutsu, but a genjutsu.

The technique was only meant to create the illusion of a different person or object instead of the user, not actually transform as the name suggested.

So rather than learning an academy level genjutsu, Naruto had instead been attempting to create his own ninjutsu.

Reaching out, Naruto laughed triumphantly when his hand grabbed the glass and his Henge didn't collapse.

"I did it! I finally did it!" Naruto cackled madly.

Rushing out the door, Naruto barely paused to lock it behind him before heading out into the village.

Translations

Bunshin=Clone

Kawarimi=Body Replacement

Henge=Transformation

Well there it is. It's a little shorter than usual, and alot shorter than the last few chapters, but like I said at the top, the next two chapters have already been sent for proofing. And before anyone says anything, yes, I am aware that in canon, henge is a ninjutsu that creates a physical transformation and the whole it's actually a genjutsu but Naruto accidentally created a solid henge is fanon. I am also aware that in canon, Henge is one of if not the most powerful, useful, and underrated technique ever. As always, all reviews/criticsism is welcome.