Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.

Warnings: AU for parts of both worlds (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), mild character bashing, mild to moderate violence (there are shinobi involved after all), and a few others that will be announced as they crop up.

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

Chapter 27: The Hokage's Grandson

Saturday, May 10, 2003, Early Evening
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni

Eight year old Sarutobi Konohamaru (or as most of the village called him, Honorable Grandson) was the only grandson of the Sandaime Hokage. He was also an orphan; his mother had died from injuries she had received during a kidnapping attempt two hours after she'd given birth to him and his father, the Sandaime's oldest son, had died on a mission just two months later. Due to how busy his grandfather was running the village and the fact that his ojisan (Sarutobi Asuma, his father's otouto) had only recently returned to Konoha, meant that he had been raised by nannies.

Through the years, he'd had no less than eight nannies; each and every one of them trained shinobi. The reason why he was not being raised by civilians was due to the kidnapping attempts from people looking to hurt his grandfather or use him as leverage to make his ojiisan dance to their tune. Out of those eight babysitters, only two of them were still alive; one of them was his current minder and the other one had been permanently crippled less than a year ago when there had been yet another failed attempt to steal him away from his bed.

Once Konohamaru was old enough to understand that his nannies were more guards than guardians (right around his sixth birthday), he'd begun to resent their presence. Oh, most of them had been nice to him and they had been rather good at their job (no one had ever managed to get their hands on him, after all) but he hated the way they smothered him. He also hated the fact that they were not his family and that they refused to call him by his name. The eight year old was still young enough that he didn't quite understand why his grandfather couldn't take care of him.

He knew his grandfather was the Hokage and that running the village took a lot of work (or so he'd been told) but that didn't tell him why his only family couldn't spend time with him.

Konohamaru had latched onto the idea of becoming Hokage in place of his grandfather shortly after his seventh birthday so that he could make the rules and make his grandfather spend lots and lots of time with him instead of holed up in his office with mountains of boring paperwork.

And as soon as the Hat was his, he was going to order everyone to never call him Honorable Grandson again.

Ever since the day he swore to take the Hat from his grandfather, Konohamaru had plotted, planned, and executed well over a thousand attacks upon his grandfather. Many of them had been carried out within hours of each other but some of them had taken him weeks to plan and set up. So far, none of his attempts had been successful, though.

Tonight, when his grandfather had been late for supper (again!), Konohamaru had set into motion his next attempt to take the Hat when his plan had been derailed before he even made it inside of the Hokage's Tower. He'd been all set to sneak into the Tower through the main entrance after he'd given Ebisu (his current nanny-guard slash supposed elite trainer) the slip but he'd slammed into a brick wall the moment he tried to run inside. He'd promptly bounced back and fallen on his butt when the wall hadn't even had the decency to stumble backwards!

Said brick wall had then manhandled him! Dared to pick him up by the back of his shirt!

And he'd called Konohamaru a pipsqueak!

Him!

The Honorable Grandson!

A pipsqueak!

Konohamaru had been all set to take his attacker down until he looked up and found himself staring up at a blond haired boy that couldn't be more than three or four years older than him. It was the shiny hitai-ate boldly displayed on the boy's forehead that had stolen his tongue though. The brick wall he'd run into had been a shinobi! And a kid.

It boggled the mind.

One of his grandfather's shinobi had manhandled him and called him a pipsqueak.

And then he had walked off without apologizing for being in his [Konohamaru's] way!

The other boy with him had even dared to call him [the Hokage's favorite (only) grandson] a snot-nosed gaki.

All thoughts of ambushing his grandfather and forcing him to come home for supper (after handing over the Hat to Konohamaru, naturally) had fled as he watched the trio of young shinobi walk away from him without another word. They hadn't even given him a second look once the blond had stepped around him. And aside from the strange wordy admonishment for him to watch where he was going, those shinobi hadn't really even spoken to him.

For one blessed moment, Konohamaru had known what it was like to be normal and insignificant.

As he watched, the three shinobi (kids like him, even if they were older) left the Hokage's Compound and leapt up onto the nearest roof before they disappeared in the blink of an eye. Stars filled Konohamaru's eyes; those shinobi had been so cool!

Especially the brick wall.

He just had to know who they were.

It had taken Konohamaru the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday to put together a plan to find out the name of the blond brick wall. Once he had a plan, it too him all of five minutes to sweet talk his ojisan into squealing like a stuck pig. All he had to do was threaten to tell his uncle's 'not-girlfriend' that he'd seen him chatting up another kunoichi on his lunch break while she was out on a mission. And it was even true; though, the kunoichi he'd been chatting up had been the Hokage's secretary and Asuma-oji had merely been trying to get her to let him in to see jijii without an appointment.

That didn't mean his laid-back uncle wanted to deal with the hassle of trying to explain that to his 'not-girlfriend'.

Konohamaru conveniently overlooked the fact that the information he was seeking wasn't actually classified and that his uncle had been amused (and not terrified) by his threat. His uncle had also been curious as to why the eight year old had suddenly been so keen on learning the name of a certain blond haired, blue eyed, bewhiskered Genin. Konohamaru didn't really care that Asuma had only been 'playing along' with him to satisfy his curiosity.

He had a name.

Namikaze Naruto.

Now, Konohamaru wasn't stupid. He knew all about the Namikaze Clan. Everyone knew about the Namikaze Clan. The return of the prestigious clan with ties to the Yondaime Hokage had been big news. Still was big news, actually. The eight year old just hadn't been all that interested in them because the clan's return had taken his grandfather's precious time and attention away from Konohamaru. It had therefore surprised Konohamaru that the son of his grandfather's late successor was the brick wall that had stood in his way the other day.

At the same time, Konohamaru only felt it was appropriate that the first shinobi to acknowledge his [Konohamaru's] ordinariness was the Honorable Son of the late Konoha no Kiiroi Senko.

Who else could truly understand Konohamaru's plight but another boy raised under the shadow of the Formidable Hat?

It was a rather simplistic view but give the kid a break, he was only eight. (Almost nine, if you asked him; his birthday was only six months away, after all.)

Armed with a name and a starting point (the Namikaze Wheelhouse) to find his adversary, Konohamaru spent the rest of Sunday night packing his 'mission' pack and making plans. The moment his classes at the Academy had ended on Monday afternoon, the industrious eight year old had bolted home to put his plan into action.

The first step of his little plan required him to bait his fishing pole (with his grandfather's gold edition of Icha-Icha Arts: The Collection of Icha-Icha Models). The second step had been to distract Ebisu by dangling said bait in front of the closet pervert's nose to distract the man so that Konohamaru could sneak out. Once his nanny-guard was preoccupied, Konohamaru slipped out the backdoor, snuck across the courtyard of the Hokage Compound, and hurried out into the village proper with an amused (and unseen) ANBU Guard in tow.

Monday, May 12, 2003, Mid-Afternoon
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni

Twenty-two year old Uchiha Shisui (aka Shunshin no Shisui and ANBU Code Name Kawauso) smirked to himself as he trailed the Hokage's grandson out of the Hokage's Compound. The little twerp was certainly entertaining. He could also be rather creative when he put his mind to it. Shisui was certain the little gaki would grow up to be a right proper little prankster if he didn't break under the stress of living in his grandfather's shadow.

And if Shisui had subtly… encouraged and nurtured the little gaki's efforts; well, the Hokage wasn't likely to complain when said encouragements only increased the kid's chances of surviving to see his next birthday each year.

Half an hour after sneaking out of the Hokage's Compound, Shisui watched as his charge hunkered down in the middle of a flower bush right beside the staircase that led to the private apartments above the Namikaze Wheelhouse. The elite Jounin barely suppressed the urge to palm his face when he realized the Hokage's grandson was staking the place out for some absurd reason. The kid could not have picked a worse family to spy on. The volatile Head of the Namikaze Clan had quickly earned a reputation for being intolerant of those that targeted his family for any reason.

As he took up a perch on the roof of the Namikaze restaurant (so that he could quickly drop down to extract his charge if necessary), Shisui noticed one of the highly intelligent and half feral cats that belonged to the Yondaime's Clan slink up to the bush where Konohamaru was hiding. A feeling of impending doom filled Shisui; those damn cats were not mere 'pets', no matter what the Namikaze Family claimed. As the member of a clan that worked closely with shinobi trained felines, he knew a 'ninken' when he saw one.

Shisui was just seconds away from using the Shunshin no Jutsu to swoop in and rescue the youngest Sarutobi when the cat sneezed out a laugh and sauntered away with its tail-tip wriggling in obvious amusement. Bemused, Shisui relaxed when he realized that the cat had just categorized his charge as 'not a threat'; something that he only recognized due to his Clan's long-time association with the Cat Clan (by virtue of their ownership of the Feline Summoning Contract). He was still worried that the Hokage's grandson was going to get himself in trouble but he no longer thought there was a chance that his charge might be mistaken for a true threat.

The masked shinobi was just settling in to watch Konohamaru watch the staircase when he caught sight of Namikaze Takeshi strolling around the corner. Letting out a soft sigh of resignation, Shisui prepared himself to intervene when the dark haired shinobi Chuunin slowed to a stop a scant three yards away from Konohamaru's hiding place in order to stare at the pair of sandals that were peeking out from the base of the bush. As his Sharingan blazed to life, Namikaze snapped his eyes upwards to briefly meet Shisui's gaze through his porcelain mask.

The slightly older man then let out a thoughtful hum before he resumed walking. Shisui tensed the moment the man drew even with the bush where the eight year old was hiding but remained where he was when the man merely continued past the shrub without giving the hidden child another glance. Shisui reluctantly let go of his Sharingan as soon as Namikaze was halfway up the staircase since it was obvious that the man wasn't going to do anything to Konohamaru. The man was just passing directly beneath Shisui's perch a moment later when his voice floated up to the on-duty ANBU Guard.

"You know, I do believe that the azaleas are looking a little dry."

As if the phrase was a trigger, the sprinkler system installed in the flowerbeds below sprang to life and drenched the young Sarutobi from head to toe before they shut off again. Shisui let out a soft snort of amusement when he got a brief glimpse of the smirk on Namikaze's face just before the man disappeared inside of his apartment. Down on the ground, a soaked Konohamaru crawled out of his hiding place looking something like a drowned kitten. If not for the man's soft words, Shisui might have thought the impromptu shower mere coincidence instead of the prank it actually was.

Konohamaru shook his head to get rid of the excess water before he attempted to wring the water from his clothes. The eight year old then sent a determined glare at the Namikaze Apartment before he moved to hide under the stairs; the kid entirely unwilling to give up his stake-out. Shisui had to give the kid props for sheer stubbornness; he was not the type of gaki to be easily deterred by a simple prank.

Of course, that only made Shisui curious about why his charge felt the need to spy on the Namikaze family in the first place. As far as he was aware, the Hokage's grandson had not had any contact with the family since they had arrived in Konoha almost two years ago. And Shisui should know; he'd been assigned as one of the gaki's unseen guards for two and a half years ago (officially assigned to Konohamaru's protection detail on the kid's sixth birthday a mere two days after an assassination attempt on the child had been foiled by the boy's nanny and previous guard).

The twenty-two year old would receive a partial answer some eighteen minutes later when Namikaze Naruto (formerly Uzumaki Naruto) exited the apartment with the young Namikaze Satoshi happily perched on his shoulders. Like his cousin, Naruto quickly noticed the presence of both Shisui and the poorly hidden Konohamaru; only the Genin didn't bother to prank the hidden eight year old. No, the bewhiskered blond had the little gaki perched on his shoulders do that; the miniature blond with green eyes dropping a paint-filled balloon through the stairs.

Naruto had then given his little passenger a high-five before he bounded the rest of the way down the stairs and headed off towards the newly built Namikaze Estate; the five year old on his shoulders shrieking in laughter. Konohamaru had crept out from under the stairs coated in bright pink paint and Shisui had to smother his snickers of amusement least he give away his presence to his charge. The kid wiped his face clear of paint a moment later before he took off after the two blonds; a look of fierce determination on his face.

Shisui easily kept pace with his charge from the rooftops while his thoughts turned to the past.

Uchiha Shisui was the youngest son of Uchiha Kagami and his second wife, Uchiha Junko. He had two older half-brothers; Obito and Inabi. As the 'baby' of the family, Shisui had been doted on by his parents and Obito but Inabi had resented both of the younger boys; Obito because their mother had died giving birth to him and Shisui just because their father had married Shisui's mother just two months after their mother had died. Inabi would only grow colder towards Shisui when it became obvious that the youngest brother had inherited all of their father's talent.

Inabi, on the other hand, was an all around average Uchiha; he had graduated from the Academy around the middle of the class at age eight, awakened his Sharingan at age ten, and promoted to Chuunin at age seventeen with no hope of ever achieving a higher rank. By contrast, Shisui had graduated at the top of his class at age six, awakened his Sharingan a month shy of his eighth birthday, awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan at age nine (during the Kyuubi's attack), promoted to Chuunin at age eleven, promoted to Jounin at age twelve, and inducted into the ANBU Corps at fourteen.

On top of that, Shisui had earned himself the nickname Shunshin no Shisui for his Kage level mastery over the Shunshin no Jutsu and had a reputation as a highly skilled Genjutsu user. Inabi, on the other hand, had not earned any special titles or recognition and had been shunted into the Konoha Police Force the day after he'd earned his flak jacket. Of course, part of the reason why Shisui grew so fast was because the Third Great Shinobi War had erupted before he turned three and all of Konoha's children were pushed; especially those that showed any talent.

Shisui's middle brother had not done as well under the pressure. The general consensus of the clan was that Obito was a failure who had graduated at the bottom of his class at age ten, was promoted to Chuunin (by sheer dumb luck, according to Inabi) and awakened his Sharingan at age twelve, died shortly after awakening his Sharingan and broke Clan Law by gifting a Sharingan Eye to a non-Uchiha teammate.

Inabi had sneered and proclaimed their brother worthless but Shisui had been proud to call Obito his brother and had greatly admired him.

Sure, the older boy had been something of a klutz and he was always late to everything but he'd had a heart of gold and a proper sense of humor (something most Uchiha seemed to lack). Obito saw the good in everyone; even those who tended to act like jerks (like Inabi). He'd also had a soft spot for the elderly, young children, and pets. Especially cats; Obito had always been obsessed with cats and the goofball would have just loved the Namikaze cats. The cats, in turn, had loved Obito and they had followed him everywhere.

If he had lived, Shisui was certain that his favorite brother would have eventually signed the Feline Contract the moment he had the chakra reserves to handle the contract. Even if he couldn't sign the Great Contract, Obito probably would have settled for a Minor Contract with the Cats just for the privilege of having cats he could call his own. If not for Inabi being allergic to cat dander, Obito probably would have brought home every single stray he ran across. Shisui still fed the strays that lived on the Clan's Estate in honor of his brother.

Shisui had also done his level best to fill his brother's shoes when it came to protecting their younger cousins the same way that Obito had once protected him. Those had been some pretty big shoes to fill though and Shisui eventually ended up sharing them with Itachi. There were times when Shisui felt as if he'd failed both his brother and his cousin; if he'd been stronger and smarter, then maybe Itachi wouldn't have been forced to take up the mantle of Uchiha Clan Head at the tender age of fourteen.

Pushing away the guilt he still felt over what he considered his greatest failure, Shisui took the time to insure that there were no threats approaching his charge (who was still trailing after the Namikaze pair) before he allowed his thoughts to drift back to his older memories.

Shisui was not ashamed to admit that he had bawled his eyes out the day he'd learned of Obito's death. It was as if someone had ripped the sun out of the sky and Shisui couldn't stand the Obito shaped hole that had been torn out of his heart. The loss of his favorite brother had cut so deeply that there were still days when he felt like he couldn't breathe; though those days didn't come as often as they once had. Obito's death had also broken something in their father and while he didn't seek death, he also didn't live any more.

His mother had tried to keep Kagami grounded but as much as he knew his father had loved his mother, his father had loved Obito and Inabi's mother first and Obito had been part of his first wife. Uchiha Akemi had died bringing Obito into this world and losing him had meant that their father had lost another piece of his first love. That Inabi had been steadily growing further apart from their little family had only made things worse because it meant that their father was losing the last link to Akemi.

It was the pain that Inabi caused to their father that made Shisui grow resentful of his oldest brother. Well, that and the insults that the teme had heaped upon Obito both before and after his death. Inabi's decision to side with Fugaku on the matter of Obito's surviving Sharingan (which had been transplanted into his teammate) hadn't exactly endeared him to Shisui either. Unlike most of the Clan (and Fugaku – the Uchiha Clan Head at the time – in particular), Shisui had been thrilled to learn that Hatake Kakashi had been given one of his brother's eyes because it meant a part of his brother still lived.

It meant that his favorite brother could still see him and Shisui embraced his inner prankster in his brother's honor so that Obito would know he hadn't been forgotten and that he was missed.

Once he'd awakened his own Sharingan (just a few weeks after Obito's death), Shisui had secretly helped Kakashi train his second-hand Sharingan; meticulously copying all of the Sharingan scrolls for the older boy. If he had been caught, he would have been harshly punished by the clan but his father had shielded him from discovery and provided him with appropriate training material to pass along. Kakashi had in turn taught Shisui a number of jutsu that he'd been taught or that he would later copy through his Sharingan out of gratitude for much needed training.

The war had ended not long after Obito's death but the village remained uneasy and tense for several months longer. The Yondaime Hokage was sworn in about the same time and the charismatic Jounin had soon lifted the village out of its depression. For two years the Konoha had thrived beneath the leadership of Namikaze Minato and a grudging peace had settled over the Elemental Nations.

And then their world had been torn asunder when the Kyuubi had attacked the village out of the blue.

If losing Obito had ripped a hole in Shisui's heart, the night of the Kyuubi's attack had gouged out pieces of his soul.

So many people had died that night and over the course of the next two or three months.

A number of them people he'd been close to.

His father had died trying to stall the Kyuubi so that the civilians could be evacuated. His mother had died of chakra poisoning a week after the attack. His kunoichi teammate had been crushed beneath an apartment complex when one of the Kyuubi's tails had struck the building just as they were running past it on their way to the emergency shelters behind the Hokage's Monument. Shisui had pulled his other teammate out of the way in time to save him but Yamanaka Inoko had tripped over a piece of rubble and her hand had been torn from his.

Shisui's eyes had burned when he'd turned around in time to see Inoko's pupil-less blue eyes fill with terror seconds before she had disappeared beneath a wall of concrete. He probably would have died that night as well if not for his other teammate, an orphan by the name of Mitate, dragging him to the shelters. He would later learn that he'd developed the Mangekyou Sharingan as a result of his belief that it had been his fault that his teammate had died.

Fugaku had been thrilled over the development when Inabi had told their older cousin; his oldest brother jealous of the fact that Shisui had once again surpassed him. Shisui had been horrified once he had learned that the man (and a good portion of their entire clan) was pleased that he [Shisui] had profited from his teammate's tragic death. The crushing guilt he felt over his failure to save Inoko was what pushed Shisui grow stronger (and faster) so that he'd never again have to watch someone precious to him die.

And he still hadn't been good enough to prevent the clan from tearing itself apart in another man's useless bid for power that would have destroyed the village.

Shaking his head in irritation, Shisui once again pushed away his memories of the failed Uchiha Coup so he wouldn't have to remember the hate he'd seen in Inabi's eyes when he'd killed his brother to save Itachi.

Keeping his mind firmly on the present, Shisui focused half of his attention on the unfolding drama below as the two Namikaze boys finally confronted their stalker just outside of the Namikaze Estate. The rest of his attention was on the immediate surroundings since this part of the village had significantly less traffic than most other sections; though that was slowly changing thanks to the Namikaze Clan building their new estate there.

"Is there something I can help you with, pipsqueak?" Naruto asked in an exasperated tone as he swung the younger blond off of his shoulders.

"How did you do it?" Konohamaru demanded and Shisui nearly winced beneath his mask when he heard the sheer level of desperation in the eight year old's voice.

"How did I do what? Fill the balloon with paint? That's was easy; I used a funnel."

"No, not that; I already knew how to make my own paint bombs!"

"Then what…?"

"How do you make them see you? You're the son of a Hokage but they don't call you Honorable Son. They know your name and they see you instead of the Yondaime. Please…? I have to know how to make them see me before I forget my own name because people won't stop calling me Honorable Grandson!"

Shisui swore the bewhiskered blond aged decades by the time Konohamaru had finished pleading with him. Hell, even Shisui felt older than he was after hearing the raw pain in his charge's voice.

"Ignore them."

"Huh…?"

"Ignore the people that call you names you don't like to be called. It doesn't matter if they are calling you Honorable Gaki or if they are calling you dobe; ignore them all. When they start turning blue in the face because you won't listen to them, tell them your name. Don't yell at them though, that never works; they'll just call it a temper tantrum and ignore you instead. If that still doesn't work, you can always try the Namikaze Approach."

"What's the Namikaze Approach?"

"Prank 'em till they bawl like babies," Naruto replied with a smirk and Shisui felt amusement bubble up inside of him as he recalled the descriptions of some of the pranks that Naruto had pulled both before he'd disappeared and after he had returned with his cousins in tow. If those two teamed up, the Hokage wouldn't know what hit him.

"Naruto-nii's pranks are the bestest; they're second only to my otousan's pranks," Satoshi chimed in from where he was clinging to the older blond's left leg.

"That's only because Keshi-nii cheats," Naruto groused before he picked the younger boy up and held him upside down with one arm while tickling his stomach with his free hand.

"Oyabun," Konohamaru gushed as stars of admiration formed in his eyes. "Teach me!"

"I don't know; what do you think, Satoshi? Should we teach this nameless pipsqueak the proper way to prank?"

"Are you sure we should, niichan? He looks awful girly covered in pink paint like that."

"That's because you dropped a paint bomb on me!" Konohamaru yelled as he visibly twitched in annoyance over being called girly by the five year old.

"We could always test him," Naruto suggested in a thoughtful tone.

"Test? What kind of test?"

The two Namikaze exchanged a single glance before Naruto smirked at Konohamaru and replied, "We'll play a little game of tag and if you can catch both of us, then I'll teach you one of my favorite pranks."

"Yosh! I'll catch you both no problem; I'm the fastest kid in my class!"

"Alright; what's your favorite color?"

"Blue, why?"

"I hope you have good aim," Naruto stated as he pulled a large bag of blue balloons out of his jacket pocket that he handed to Konohamaru and Shisui did a double take as he tried to figure out how the gaki had fit that bag in a small pocket; it hadn't been a storage seal – there had been no flare of chakra as he pulled out the bag. Frowning at the blond, he watched as Naruto pulled an orange balloon from a different pocket and promptly broke it over Konohamaru's head. "Tag; you're it, pipsqueak."

Naruto and Satoshi both laughed manically in response to the prank before they split up and took off running. Orange paint dripped down over Konohamaru's head as the eight year old stood unmoving for a long minute before he let out a war cry and took off after Naruto with a blue balloon in each hand. Shisui didn't bother trying to silence the small laugh that slipped through his lips in response to the way Naruto had goaded Konohamaru into losing his temper. He would laugh several more times over the course of the next two hours as the three boys waged war against one another with the paint filled balloons that two Namikaze gaki kept pulling out of their clothes.

By the time they had worn themselves out, all three of them were covered in a mess of pink, orange, and blue paint. They were also grinning widely and Shisui couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Konohamaru that happy. He started smirking a moment later as it occurred to him that Konohamaru's pranks were probably going to show a marked increase in both effectiveness and originality. His heart ached for a brief moment as he thought about how much Obito would have loved to have witnessed this moment.

Hell, Obito probably would have been right in the thick of it.

Shisui's thoughts were pulled away from his absent brother when he sensed someone approaching the small clearing where the three boys were practically asleep. Half a minute later, Namikaze stepped into view and Shisui watched as the Chuunin paused to pull a camera out of his pocket so he could snap a picture of the trio. He then tucked the camera away and did something with one of his daggers that drew the paint from the youngest Namikaze, formed it into a large ball, and turned it green before it was promptly dropped onto Naruto.

Namikaze then put away his dagger, picked up his son, and wandered out of the clearing whistling a jaunty tune while Naruto loudly called him a cheater. Namikaze's laughter drifted back on the wind a moment later.

"Can we prank him back?" Konohamaru asked as he eyed the globs of green paint that had hit him due to how close he'd been to Naruto when the older boy had been tagged by his cousin.

"Most definitely, pipsqueak."

"I'm not a pipsqueak!"

"Well, what else am I supposed to call you? It's not like you ever introduced yourself."

"I'm Sarutobi Konohamaru and I'm going to be the next Hokage just as soon as I can take the Hat from jijii!"

"Heh, that's brings back a lot of memories, dattebayo. I used to want to be the Hokage too."

"What do you mean used to? Why wouldn't you want to be the Hokage anymore?"

"I'm far too young to face the greatest evil in the world."

"Nani!? What are you talking about?"

"One word; paperwork. There is nothing more evil than having to face endless piles of paperwork that always threaten to bury you alive."

"Paperwork really is evil; it keeps jijii from spending time with me," Konohamaru sadly agreed. "He's always missing supper because he's always working late."

"So, do something about it."

"What do you mean?"

"If the evil paperwork is keeping him from his supper, then pack up his supper and take it to him. Make a picnic out of it and then you'd get to spend time with him while he eats and he gets a short break from his paperwork."

"That's… that's perfect, oyabun!" Konohamaru proclaimed as he tackled the blond. "Can I come play with you and your brother again after I finish my classes tomorrow?"

"Sure."

"Would it be alright if I bring my friends?"

"Sure; we can even drag my teammates along and have a proper paint war next time."

"Yosh!"

Shisui mentally snorted in amusement over the fast friendship the two boys had formed over a single afternoon as Ebisu finally turned up to drag Konohamaru back to the Hokage's Compound. As he trailed after his charge, Shisui tuned out the lecture that the older Jounin was trying to give the eight year old about the dangers of running off. It was a lecture that Ebisu had given the kid at least once a week since the day he'd been assigned as Konohamaru's guard and Shisui wondered why the man never tried to approach the matter from a different direction since it obviously wasn't working.

Shisui dismissed that line of thinking a moment later as they reached the busier streets so that he could focus on not losing sight of his charge as Ebisu dragged the boy home.

Translations: Japanese to English

Kawauso – river otter
Konoha no Kiiroi Senko – Konoha's Yellow Flash
Ojisan/oji – uncle
Ojiisan/jijii – grandfather
Oyabun – boss
Shunshin no Shisui – Shisui of the Body Flicker
Yosh – an enthusiastic affirmative; can be translated as yes, okay, alright, etc

Techniques/Skills:

Shunshin no Jutsu – Body Flicker Technique

Notes:

Icha-Icha Arts: The Collection of Icha-Icha Models – Author created Icha-Icha picture book featuring bikini shots of the kunoichi that inspired Jiraiya's research (those that didn't try to kill him for spying on them, at least).

OOC'ness – I'm pretty certain that I horribly maimed Konohamaru's and Shisui's characters in this chapter and the only thing I will say in my defense was that this was my first attempt at writing both of them. They are both characters that I like but I know so very little about them. That is especially true in Shisui's case. Still, I don't think I did too badly based on what I do know, even if how I portrayed them isn't exactly canon. Their background stories are mostly cobbled together as well; simply because at the time I wrote this chapter, there wasn't really all that much information on them.

So, any complaints about how there are far too pranksters in this story [Harry, Weasley twins, Naruto, Izumo, Kotetsu, Housei, Midori (because Naruto & Harry were a bad influence on them), Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon (because Maru-chan dragged him with him), Obito (prior to his 'death'), Shisui, Iruka, and the Marauders (of course)] will be ignored since most of them are pranksters in canon. I will also ignore complaints that snipe at my decision to orphan Maru-chan from birth or make Shisui Obito's younger brother.

AN: You know, this chapter was originally supposed to be all about Konohamaru (hence the title) but it some how ended up being more about Shisui's personal history. Damn Shunshin no Shisui swept in so fast that I didn't even know he was taking over the chapter until he'd already done so. Well, I suppose I should at least be happy that Konohamaru had his five paragraphs of fame. I also managed to have a bonding moment between Naruto and Maru-chan.

Anyway, just a few things before I end this note here. First, I'm going to ignore any complaints about me having Shisui activate his Mangekyou at age nine or how it happened. I'm also going to ignore any demands to know more about what happened during the attempted Uchiha Coup; that story will be explored from another PoV later in the story. And no, I'm not going to tell you who's PoV it will be from since I haven't actually decided yet. For those who have complaints because I didn't give Ebisu any lines I will apologize; he was too wrapped up in Icha-Icha Arts to cooperate.

I think that covers everything I needed to cover. If not, well it will probably come up within the story at some point. ~ Jenn

11-21-15: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.