Chapter 18 - Family.

Pairing: Naruto x Uchiha Mikoto.

THIS WILL NOT BE A HAREM

A/N: For the past couple of chapters I've tried to stay one chapter ahead so that there would still be a chapter finished by the time I release one. I just now realize that it's kind of a tough job to accomplish when you have the attention span of a goldfish. I mean, I get distracted way too easily. There are too many shows and videos I end up watching and recently reading Light Novels as well. I should have been productive at work today, but instead, I ended up reading three volumes. Oh well, what the boss doesn't know won't hurt him.

Streets of Konohagakure no Sato.

By the time Sasuke had come back down to earth again and was in a seemingly better mood, Mikoto had arrived with the homework that he was supposed to complete for the academy. Apparently, he was going to receive a week's amount of work to go through, which seemed fair enough. All the books and supplies needed to do so were also made available for him.

So at the moment, Sasuke was walking beside Naruto with his bag swung over his shoulder as they made their way through the streets of Konoha. Sure, they could just jump across the roofs and make it there in record time, but the older one figured that there was no point in rushing. They'd take the time they needed, and perhaps a change of atmosphere would be just as beneficial for Sasuke at this point.

There was one thing that was bothering him slightly, Sasuke seemed to be a bit anxious as they walked the streets. And he was starting to figure out why, because as they waltzed through the spaces with more and more people, it was like it got worse. So addressing the elephant in the room, Naruto tilted his head down and asked.

"Something wrong?"

Sasuke blinked in surprise at the sudden question, and tilted his head upward to meet the blond's gaze, "I don't like the way they all looking at me…"

Ah, so he had been right. It had been the most likely thing to be the issue, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Reaching down to ruffle his hair, causing the raven-haired boy to pout lightly, Naruto responded, "Yeah, it's a real pain. Isn't it? Trust me, it's the worst thing to endure in the beginning, but it's better to get used to it from the start."

Looking a bit confused, Sasuke kept his focus away from all the prying eyes, "How so? Wouldn't it be better if we just… ran there? Or you just like, took the shinobi highway across the roofs and to the Hokage tower?"

Naruto just shook his head in negative, "Afraid not, the problem is that you and your mother have been kind of isolated at the house since it happened. The villagers know as little as we do about it, and frankly, their only way for them to make theories and assumptions is by seeing us. I had to go through the same thing, just ignore them and it'll eventually either stop being an issue, or it'll bother you less since you became used to it."

"What if neither happens?"

Naruto just chuckled a bit at that, "Do as I did, prioritize learning how to access the damn highway. That's the easiest way to avoid all the stares, I didn't remember seeing it stop anytime soon, so I just avoided them all the time. Before I knew it, they didn't look at me like this anymore."

Sasuke nodded his head briefly, "Can you teach me how to do it?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto nodded, "Sure, I don't see why not. Psychical exercise is just as important as studying, and we can't have the top cat at the academy lose his place on the pedestal." The blond teased and clapped the younger boy on the back, despite the disapproval from said person.

With a pout, Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest, "What's the point of being the best in the academy, if I can't even graduate early as you and Itachi did…"

Naruto raised a brow and shook his head at that, "You don't have to graduate early to be good Sasuke, you should see this as an opportunity. Not a lot of good comes out of graduating early, you see, you have the best potential to gain a lot of friends and comrades that's your age."

"Do you… not have any friends your age?"

That made Naruto snort with a chuckle as he felt a pang of pain in his chest, "I do, but not a lot. I think the only real person left at my own age that I speak to, is Hana-san. Even though we're more acquaintances than friends, so I suppose I don't actually. I speak better with people like Kakashi-nii and Gai-san anyway, even though Gai is always yelling about springtime of youth…"

"What's the springtime of youth?" Sasuke innocently asked, intrigue building when he saw Naruto flinch with a look of pure fear on his face.

Grabbing Sasuke's shoulders, Naruto looked him dead in the eye, "Pray to Kami that you'll never find out. Once you've seen it, you can never unsee it. It'll be burned into your mind, with or without the Sharingan, like a thousand suns, and it'll haunt you in your dreams till the day you die.

To say that Sasuke felt like Naruto was over exaggerating would be the understatement of the century, but if he seemed this traumatized, then there was probably some truth to it... So he hesitantly nodded, to the blonde's relief, as the two made their way into the Hokage tower and up the stairs. As Naruto unlocked a door after greeting the secretary with a polite smile, Sasuke looked inside the room and was really impressed. The place was quite big, and there was so a lot of room.

Placing a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, Naruto nodded at him, "Go on, take a place at one of the chairs in front of my desk. It appears that my work hasn't been delivered yet, so Imma go see Oji-san and see what he's got for me today."

Sasuke briefly nodded and waltzed inside and pulled out a chair to sit in, with a small sigh he unpacked his bag on the desk whilst making sure it wouldn't take up too much space. Naruto-nii was going to be working here, so it would be counterproductive and probably a real pain if he decided to steal the desk for himself.

Before Naruto could even enter the Hokage's office, the secretary had already pulled out three large books and handed it to him. Apparently, Hiruzen was in some kind of meeting or conference, whatever you'd decide to call the annual nagging by the other elders, and shouldn't be disturbed at the moment. It made him sigh with an apologetic smile though. 'Sorry Oji-san, I guess I can't save you this time. Hang in there, and I'll let you borrow the newest volume of Icha Icha that my perverted godfather sent me.'

And with that thought, he joined Sasuke again and took a seat in his new office. The boy was already working on his assignments, so he figured that he should at least make an effort of being a good example as well. Even if it meant dutifully completing his paperwork after finishing and checking up the seals of the day. What a drag, but oh well, at least he'd have company throughout it all.

Sighing, he opened up the books in front of him and took a look at the matters he was supposed to attend to today. There was one from the hospital, and one from the academy, and the last was apparently a request submitted by the Jounin Commander. Konoha, of course, had a place to house criminals that hadn't exactly done crimes bad enough to either be executed or contained in an ANBU holding cell. So, there was the prison building located in the outskirts of the village, but the problem with it was that somehow two prisoners had managed to escape earlier this month. The criminals had been caught not too soon after their escape, but still, it was troubling news.

Apparently, they wanted him to come to check the facility since they feared that there may have been some security or alarm seals that weren't working properly anymore. Seals, like any other thing in the world, faded over time, though the ones in constant use would most likely be worn out quickly even if they could last for a couple of years. And if he recalled correctly, he had never done any kind of maintenance in the prison before.

This really had become troublesome quite fast, and he hadn't even formally started working yet. Oh well, if they were aware of the issue then there should be more guards around the place. So he could afford to wait to take care of that until later, especially since he'd promised to help Sasuke out and he honestly didn't want to face the wrath of an angry kid.

The issue with the hospital wasn't really an issue, but more like a routine check. The hospital was one of the most important places in the entire village, so its safety and functions always needed to be top-notch. So in the book there were reports of which seals were used, as well as how much the seals were being used from the staff, as well as the other seals, just in case they needed to be checked. Additionally, the current seals that seemed like they might be problematic were showcased, so that Naruto would be able to analyze it ahead of time, and maybe create a better solution aside from just fixing up the chakra flow. The hospital also had more than one backup seal for each area, most places did. It was made like that so that the place wouldn't have to be vulnerable during the time that a seal master would either set up new seals or reconstruct the old ones.

The academy one was kind of the same thing. This being that it was mostly annoying maintenance work. However, this one was a bit different, along with the book was an apologetic letter from some Umino Iruka, that apologized many times because they had been too busy to notice that the detection barrier surrounding the academy had stopped working. Seriously, how did they even miss that? Troublesome.

Anyhow, aside from just going over the documents, he was also going to have to duplicate everything, himself, so that he knew which areas had which seals, and the general status of the seals, and also go over any potential additions that each area could potentially need...

'It's times like these that I actually miss getting these random jobs, where Ibiki would summon me at late hours to actually go check on things. This is just paperwork, damn you Oji-san, you planned this from the beginning.' He pouted and put aside the book regarding the prison, and the one regarding the academy. Those two would most likely need him to be there in person, anyway, so why bother with those first.

"Ne, Naruto-nii?"

Blinking as he heard Sasuke call out his name, Naruto stopped pouting at the books before him and raised his head to meet Sasuke's gaze, "Hm?"

Scratching the back of his head, Sasuke looked down at his books, "I'm not quite sure I get this, or I think I do, but it's like I'm missing something."

A smile morphed onto Naruto's features as he moved his chair a bit to the side and raised his hand to pat the free space on the other side of his desk, "Well, come on over here then. Hopefully, I can help, but keep in mind that it's been ages since I went to the torture- I mean the academy."

"You sure? You seemed a bit busy before, I don't wanna interrupt your work." Sasuke mumbled out.

Waving his hand with a sigh, Naruto felt tempted to move the chair for him and just place him there, "Mah, mah, you'd be doing me a favor by doing so. Now get over here, don't force me to drag you along." He smirked.

"If you're sure…" Sasuke trailed off, and dragged his chair along with his homework, and sat down beside the taller boy. "It's just that the question here asks what the Shodaime was known for, and I know that the Shodaime Hokage was known for his wood release, that's correct, right?"

Naruto gave a nod at that and rested his cheek on his hand while probing his elbow on the desk so he could get a better look at the book Sasuke was answering questions in, "Hai, Hashirama-sama was quite famous for that, but that wasn't the only thing he could do of course. He's also known as the founder of the village, that should also be notable enough to write down as an answer."

"What aside from his wood release? I mean, it gave him enough power to battle Uchiha Madara back in the day, right?" Sasuke asked as he quickly wrote down what Naruto had said.

Scratching his cheek briefly, Naruto smiled slightly and pointed at the picture of Hashirama beside the question referring to what he was known for, "Hashirama-sama was of course known for the wood release, but the things he could do with it was just as impressive as the ability itself. He could suppress the Kyuubi and the other Bijuu with it, and as you just mentioned, one of the biggest things that went down in history regarding him was that he fought Madara and won. It's also quite awesome that he managed to do so while Madara controlled the Kyuubi. So it was essentially two against one, and yet he came out victorious."

Sasuke looked really impressed with that, he had of course paid attention in class and all that, but they had never really gone this much into detail about the Shodaime. At least not yet, perhaps they would in the future. "Shodaime-sama must really have been amazingly strong then..."

"Yeah, the only people that came close to matching that power was the other Kage, but mostly our own. Nidaime-sama was no joke either, even if he did create an entire scroll filled with forbidden techniques, he was awesome in his own right. He's the reason we have an education system, the academy, and he also created the ANBU." Naruto trailed off, a bit unsure of whether or not all this history would bore Sasuke, but the look on the boy's face said he was paying complete attention to what he was saying.

Perhaps he should be an instructor if he was this good at getting kids to listen? Bwah, no way. If he even dared to voice that joke, then Oji-san may make it happen. And that would certainly be the end of him. As much as he loved Sasuke and Karin as if they were his own siblings, then they could be a real handful.

"The Nidaime did all that? He created the ANBU and even the academy?" Sasuke asked with a bit of awe.

Naruto just nodded at that and eyed the book over before pointing at a picture of the Nidaime. "He created a ton of techniques too, he was quite something else. While Hashirama had been the strongest, there was no doubt that Tobirama was by far the smartest of the two. He even created the basics of the technique that made my father the factor that caused us to win the last war. The Hiraishin."

The rest of the afternoon was spent like this, Naruto managed to finish the work he needed for the Hospital and the academy, within his office, so the only real place he'd really have to spend time at later on or some other day, was the prison. He did all of this while doing his best to answer any questions that he could for Sasuke, and to say that the boy had been more than happy to listen was an understatement.

Somewhere down the road, the two had even started discussing people that weren't part of the questions. Not that it could hurt if there were any other questions in the future about these people, then Sasuke would be well prepared. And speaking from experience, Naruto knew that these questions would come up eventually.

Sasuke was still young, so stuff like the bingo book was still new to him when Naruto mentioned it. So the blond had gone into detail about what it meant being placed in there and even went as far as to talk about Shisui and a few others that had managed to get their names written in that book.

Before they even knew it, the sun was setting in the background. Time had flown by, right under their noses. So as they packed up their things, and left the office behind them, Naruto ruffled Sasuke's hair with a kind smile on his face. "Go on ahead, I have to go see Oji-san real quick about something. I'll be home for dinner."

Sasuke pouted lightly, but nodded nonetheless, "Alright! See you at home Naruto-nii!" He waved, with a bigger spring to his step than earlier this morning. Seems like this day had made the boy a bit happier and improved his mood. Which meant that the blond had been successful.

Naruto stood there in place as he watched Sasuke jog down the stairs, and out of his field of vision. When he couldn't see the young boy anymore, the smile fell from his face, revealing the frown that had been hidden beneath. Clenching his fist lightly, he took a deep breath and turned around, and walked towards Hiruzen's office.

With a sigh, he raised his fist and knocked on the door, and when he got permission to enter the office, he did so. Shutting the door behind him, he came face to face with the Hokage sitting behind his desk in the dimly lit room, the sun going down in the background behind him.

"Naruto-kun, what're you still doing here? I'd have thought you'd leave with Sasuke-kun. I saw that you brought him along with you today, I assume you've been quite busy then?" The Hokage questioned and leaned forward in his seat.

Naruto nodded his head slowly, and answered, "Hai, Sasuke-kun had some homework from the academy and asked if I wanted to help him. So killing two birds with one stone, I brought him here as I worked."

Hiruzen nodded his head, accepting the answer while putting aside some paperwork on his desk, "I take it that this wasn't what you came to discuss with me?"

Shaking his head, the blond looked up into the dark corners of the room, "Could you clear the room? I'm going to put up a silencing seal."

The old man's eyes narrowed slightly at that, but waved the ANBU hiding in the office nonetheless. As the presence disappeared, Naruto idly touched the door frame as a glowing seal appeared, signaling that the room was indeed now soundproof.

Hiruzen sat behind his desk and eyed Naruto carefully, resting his elbows on the desk as he put his fingertips together in front of his face. "So?" He questioned, his eyes inspecting every feature of the blond's face. He had watched as he brought Sasuke along in the morning and seemed to be in a fairly decent mood. Yet, the look on his face was far different now.

Looking up at the pictures of the previous Hokage, Naruto sighed and turned his gaze back to Hiruzen, "You know what I plan to do. And, I'd honestly feel better if I had your backing in it. I know that what I want to achieve is dangerous, but I can't just turn a blind eye to it. Not this time."

The older man gave off a deep sigh and lit up his pipe, letting the smoke flow from the end and to the ceiling, "I see. With our previous talks during training and in the hospital after the massacre, I kind of figured it would come to this. At first, I had hoped it was just some anger you had to get off your chest, but you're quite serious about it. Aren't you?"

Naruto's face was completely serious, though there was burning anger and a raging fury behind his eyes. Which honestly scared Hiruzen. Naruto had usually been this bright boy that he had high dreams for. He expected a lot from this young man, yet there was something unsettling about that gaze in his eyes.

"I can't just let Danzo get away with this. No, I can't let anyone get away with the things they are doing. Danzo has been a thorn in everyone's side for far too long, and he crossed the line! Without authority he ordered Itachi to murder his own family, he didn't have the right. He stole Shisui's eye and forced him to commit suicide. I need to stop it before he hurts anyone else." Naruto spoke out in a matter-of-fact tone.

Taking a deep breath, Hiruzen moved the pipe away from his mouth again and exhaled a small cloud of smoke, "I take it you plan to go through with it, no matter whether or not I support it. You know I won't stop you, but I can't protect you either. I just hope you know the risks."

"Yes. No matter what it takes, I'll take care of Danzo. His time of corruption is nearing its end. I'm done just sitting around and letting that fool do whatever he wants, thinking that there are no consequences."

Nodding his head slowly, Hiruzen leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, "I agree. Danzo has been having way too long of a leash, but there is a huge risk in going after him as you are now. You're not strong enough to take on Danzo."

"Danzo is but a crippled man," Naruto argued with narrowed eyes, feeling a bit hurt that his mentor and grandfather figure was thinking so little of him.

"That's true, but you fail to realize that taking on Danzo also means taking on the entirety of root. Every single henchman of Danzo's will be after you, and they won't care whether or not you're following my orders. And should you fail, then Danzo will know Itachi told you the truth. That would mean that Sasuke and Mikoto would be in danger. Are you truly honestly ready to face that risk?" Hiruzen countered, making Naruto's eyes narrow even further.

Clenching his fist, Naruto calmed himself down through a couple of breaths, "As long as Danzo lives, they'll be in danger. They may be safe in my family's estate, but what about when they are outside of it? Sasuke will eventually be a Shinobi, I can't protect him from Danzo when he is out on missions. And Mikoto, I can't always be around to protect her either. Even though I respect her with my entire being,I doubt that she, as a Kunoichi that has been retired for years, could take on Danzo's root alone."

"That may be so indeed." Hiruzen sighed. "Very well, I shall support your decision. At the very least I can train you so that you're ready to face him. Danzo has committed treason on many fronts so far, but he is a slippery man with way too many people inside Konoha. If you plan to take out Danzo, you need to take care of the entirety of root as well. That way, there won't rise another one like him from its remains, and finish what he started. Only then, can Mikoto and Sasuke truly be safe."

"I'm not going to stop at Danzo."

"What?"

Naruto blinked slowly, and looked out of the window, walking over to stand beside Hiruzen's sitting form. Closing his eyes, he raised a palm and placed it against the cold glass of the window, "There are too many people like him out there. So many people are suffering because no one is doing anything. And then there are people that work with Danzo, or have worked with him. As long as they remain alive, I can't sleep peacefully at night."

Hiruzen looked up at the blond from the corner of his eyes, "That's a long list of people. There may even be certain international political figures in that bunch. Are you willing to take that risk? You should know that if you're caught then Konoha can't be affiliated with you. You'd have been working alone."

"If it means that they are safe, and that Itachi can come home… Then I'll do whatever it takes of me to achieve it. For far too long, people have been miserable all over the nations. I can't help but ask myself why nobody is doing anything. It's all politics, the fear of war. No one is willing to play the sacrificial pawn to get things done. Aside Itachi, that is. I'm starting tomorrow." Naruto finished and moved away from the window, and toward the door slowly.

At the end of Naruto's sentence, Hiruzen stood up from his chair and placed his palms on his desk, "I won't allow you to go after Danzo so soon."

Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit at that in confusion, turning his head around to look at the old man from over his shoulder, "I thought you said you wouldn't stop me."

"I won't stop you from going after Danzo, but I will stop you from committing suicide. At your current state, you can't take him on alone. So until you can, I won't allow it." Hiruzen said sternly, raising his killing intent a bit to get his point across.

The blond teen sighed at that and softened his gaze, "Fine, I won't go after Danzo, but there are still plenty of people like him that deserve to die. Missing nin, bandit camps that are beyond what even experienced chunin squads can handle. And I won't stop going after them, if they are below Danzo, then I'll do it."

"Are you sure this is how you want to go about it?"

"This is the way to change things."

When he arrived home that evening, an amazing smell entered his nostrils. The scent of home-cooked food was spreading all throughout the house, and he could feel the aroma control his body, almost having him levitate through the air and into the kitchen after getting out of his sandals.

Standing in the doorframe, his eclectic azure eyes roamed over to see Mikoto standing by the stove, steam rising up from the pan, as she hummed a gentle tune to herself with a small smile on her face. Which made him happy, she seemed genuinely at ease at the moment.

So leaning in against the doorframe, he crossed his arms across his chest and smiled, "Something smells lovely." He noted loud enough for her to hear, watching with a grin as she blinked and turned around to face him.

A surprised, yet excited smile spread onto the woman's features as she clapped her hands together, "Naruto-kun! You actually made it, that's great to see." She commented, with a hint of teasing leaking into her tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He pouted and pushed off the doorframe and waltzed into the kitchen, to rest against the kitchen counter beside the place that she was cooking.

Mikoto raised a brow at him and tilted her head, "Pray tell, what do you think it means? It's not like you're never here for dinner, live off ramen and take out food, and way too often skip the most important meal of the day. Oh wait, you do!" She giggled.

Naruto's face fell more and more by each comment, and finally, at the mention of skipping the most important meal, which he assumed was breakfast, he was about ready to melt onto the floor out of embarrassment, "Hai! Hai! I get it, I get it, no need to point it out like that. I'm here now, aren't I? And I was here this morning too!"

The velocity of her giggles just increased as she placed a hand in front of her mouth, and waved him off with the other one, "I know, I was just messing with you. It's good to see you, it makes me happy to see that you're here."

While the words had hinted that she meant she was happy for him being there for the meals, the words themselves caused a blush to morph onto his cheeks. Shaking his head, he chuckled, "Whatever."

Snorting at his response, the older woman turned back to her cooking so it wouldn't burn. "Dinner is ready in ten minutes, so if you want to take a quick shower or anything beforehand, then you've got time for it."

"I'll take that suggestion then, be down in a minute!" Naruto grinned and, and shunshined upstairs, leaving a small gust of wind and a pile of leaves in his place.

The veins in Mikoto's forehead popped out at the sight, her hand clenching tightly around the handle of the frying pan as she sneered to herself, "I'm so hitting him with this frying pan when he comes back… I just cleaned the floors..."

After dodging several vicious attacks from a flaming frying pan, Naruto sat at the dinner table and ate with his family for the first time in a long, long time. He talked and laughed with the people around the table, talking with everyone with a big smile on his face. It made him happy to see that during dinner everyone came together and talked about what they did.

Sad circumstances may have brought this family together, but they made the most out of it. And at this time, there was actually a peace treaty between Karin and Sasuke, and they seemed to actually get along. Even if they had their mini fight about how Karin too would have wanted to go with him to his office as Sasuke had.

So he of course had to promise that he'd bring her along next time. Which seemed to calm her down, and ease her mind. She at least smiled a lot at the offer and exclaimed quite loudly in the traditional Uzumaki way she'd take him up on that the first chance she got. Kids would be troublesome.

Even if he didn't visibly show it, there was something that saddened him. He had thought he'd been fine with living on his own, taking care of himself in his apartment for the past few years, but now that he was sitting here… He realized that the consistent feeling of emptiness was because he had missed this. Not just eating dinner with people, he could do that pretty much anywhere.

No, it was the feeling of actually being part of a family again. To eat, and sleep in the same household with people you considered precious to you. To wake up in the morning, and have someone say good morning to you. Returning home, to see people happy to see you. A family that welcomed you home, and prayed for your safe return.

It made him feel extremely guilty. He had almost abandoned all of this, in a quest for more power so he could be stronger. Leaving every chance of ever getting something like this again behind, just so that he could destroy Danzo.

Not that he would quit on that. Danzo needed to die. And Itachi had to come back. This family wasn't complete without him, and he felt that everyday.

He just needed to find some better way to go about it, he had to. He couldn't sacrifice the life he had finally been given for anything, these two things just had to exist side by side, but never intervening with the other.

'I can't tell them about it either. It won't be fair to them, to know what I'm doing. It would just bring unnecessary confusion and pain, worry and sadness. I won't allow that. I won't ruin this family, no matter what.'

So, chapter 18. All done, hope you liked it. And thought it was entertaining enough to know more about the kind of seal work Naruto is doing and to see him interact more with Sasuke and his family. And I want to give a quick warning before I let you go, the next chapter may be a bit delayed. I'm terribly busy, and despite having tried to have one chapter ready ahead of time, I've failed to do so in the past week, so I'm currently a chapter behind. This means I'll have to write chapter 19 in record time, compared to what I'm used to. Which will be hard, especially when I have so little time. Work is a pain in the ass, so Monday to Friday I barely have any energy.

Question of the day:

Do you think that despite his best attempts at hiding it, that Naruto will be successful in keeping his mission a secret?