Professor Violet: Hello, Hello! A lot of you may not know me, but I am Violetthecutiegrimreaper, and I am not a Naruto person. Not even remotely. But my brother and well-known Naruto fanfic writer CaptainBluesoftheFleetingDream is. While he is starting to re-watch Naruto to reignite his love for the show and start his journey into writing again, Much like Blue-Eyed Avarice, I asked if I could have United I Stand since I figured it would be a fun little fic. With his permission of course, he gave me this as well.

Title: United I Stand

Summary: Sarutobi thought he had seen it all but on the night of the Forbidden Scroll theft, instead of meeting with thieving prankster known as Uzumaki Naruto, he finds himself meeting with two blond boys and a blonde girl, each only having one whisker mark on each cheek. He doesn't know what's going on but he does know that he's getting too old for this. AU

Pairings: Naruto/Harem but with a twist

Rating: Rated M

WARNING:

1. So right now, I did tweak the ages. Naruto and gang entered the academy at ten years old and is leaving the academy at sixteen but the canon events (such as Wave for example) will not happen until Naruto he's out of the academy. While I do not usually mind the canon ages when Naruto becomes a Genin (Which is thirteen), with some of the things could happen in this fic, this would be somewhat best.

2. While I am unsure about Lemons for now, I am putting this warning up to let people know in case I do decided to do them but even if I don't, this story is a mature one all the same.

3. The twist to this fic you will see below and the pairings, like I mentioned, is a harem with a twist. Now unlike Blue-Eyed Avarice, this harem will have strictly females in it this time around. The Harem will consist of Hinata, Shizuka, Ino, Sakura, Tenten, Karui, Fu, Tayuya, and Temari. But how will this harem work out? You'll have to see!

4. This will not be a fic where the romances will just pop out of nowhere. I didn't like that aspect with Blues version so this will be more of a slow burn and more of a poly, but again, you'll have to see how it breaks down.

5. There are other pairings in this story that I will leave as a surprise

Disclaimer: I do not own me aka Naruto. Enjoy the show!

United I Stand
Prologue

Sarutobi Hiruzen thought he had seen it all.

He had been the student of the legendary Senju Hashirama, the Shodaime Hokage.

Survived the First Shinobi War and was sworn in as the new Hokage by the Nidaime Hokage, Senju Tobirama.

Survived the second Shinobi War which ushered in peace between all of the Shinobi Nations.

Survived the Kyūbi attack only to be sworn back in due to the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, being killed by the demon.

But this had taken the cake.

Sitting before him were three individuals.

Sitting in the middle was a blonde girl with long pigtails and also one whisker mark on each cheek while on the right and left of her respectfully were two boys with spiky short blond hair, both also having one whisker mark on each cheek but while the one on the right wore a hiate-ite, the one on the left looked bored.

"Naruto…" Sarutobi said.

The three looked at each other but the blond on the left rolled his eyes and said with a bored tone "I think he means you," to the boy on the far right.

"Oh! Thanks," The fair left blond boy said. "What's up Jii-san?"

"Nice start," The blonde girl said with a sigh. "Obviously he's in shock over this."

"Well excuse me for trying to make this normal as possible," the right blond grumbled out. "How was I supposed to guess this was going to happen?"

"By reading what the jutsu did moron," the left blond said with annoyed expression on his face. "Instead, you decided to go into headfirst and now look at us."

"I didn't hear any complaints before I did it," the right blond said.

"Its called having second thoughts. Y'know, that thing you ignore at every chance," The left blond replied.

"Oi! You take that back!" The right blond exclaimed.

"Guys!" The girl exclaimed, which caused the two blond boys to look at her. "Can we just calm down. No use arguing with each other…our our self...This is confusing."

"Yeah, yeah," The left blond said as he leaned back on his chair. "Sorry old man. Continue with your questioning."

Sarutobi let out an exhausted sigh as he murmured "I'm too old for this," before he spoke up with "Tell me from the beginning, what happened?"

"Like…When we stole the scroll or the very, very start?" The hiate-ite wearing blond asked.

"How about the beginning of the day," Sarutobi said with a tired groan.

"I think we can handle that," the girl said with a cheerful expression on her face before she looked at the two boys and asked "Who wants to start?"

"How about I start," the blond on the left said with a raised hand. "Okay old man, this is how it started…"

Naruto let out an exhausted groan as he slapped the desk beside his bed twice trying to reach his alarm clock. The blond raised the upper half of his body off the bed and stared at the clock and sighed.

It was 7:45 AM.

Naruto's eyes closed as a despondent sigh left his lips. He swung his legs to the floor and sat there and stared at the clock for a moment before he reached for it and switched it off,

There was so much he had to do today but admittedly, he couldn't will himself to start it. Was it just nerves that he was doing the Genin exams today? He had failed that exam twice already, would he be looking at a third?

Or maybe it was the villagers. They had been more brutal to him lately. He was barely able to get three day old milk without being harassed and nearly kicked out.

But then again, this was his life.

Living in a condemned apartment building with only his dreams of becoming Hokage to keep him going. No friends or family to call his own.

Just him.

'I don't need to go down this road again...' Naruto thought to himself before he stood up and walked to his window to the view the Hokage monument.

It was then an idea began to form in his head.

As well as a mischievous smirk.

This'll take his mind off of things…

"Naruto, are you out of your mind?!"

Naruto looked up at the pissed off expression of Umino Iruka and couldn't help but flinch from the look. "You had ANBU chasing after you Naruto. ANBU! If I hadn't caught you, they would have eventually and you would have been in serious trouble."

"So…Does that mean I'm not in serious trouble?" Naruto asked with a sheepish grin on his face.

The glower from Iruka and the chaotic yelling from civilians in the distance told him otherwise.

"Well that answers that," Naruto grumbled out. "Had to give it a shot at least…"

"You are going to clean the monument from top to bottom," Iruka told him with crossed arms before his gaze softened slightly. "And if you finish fast enough…I'll treat you to some Ramen."

Naruto nodded with a small smile.

"I don't think the old man needs a full play by play of your day," The left blond boy said with a frown on his face. "He probably already knows how shitty your…well our life is."

"You got a point," the hiate-ite wearing blond replied with a sigh. "Let's just skip to after everything was said and done."

"Now now," Sarutobi said with a frown on his wrinkled face. "I do care about your welfare…All three of your welfare. It's important I know."

"What does it matter?" The left blond asked with a scowl. "Shit hasn't changed from last week. People still treat us badly, sell us old shit and then expect gratitude for doing it. Even after you talking to them, they are still doing it."

Sarutobi frowned.

"That's not fair," The blonde girl in the middle said with a frown of her own. "He's doing the best he can. He has an entire village to look after."

"Yeah, yeah…I know. He's taken good care of us. As much as he could anyway," the left blond murmured.

"But he..we…also have a point," The hiate-ite boy countered. "Jii-san is busy, I get that but it seems like nothing is changing for us. He at least needs to know that. Even if he is too busy to work on it now, he can always do it later."

"That's a good point," The blonde girl admitted with a nod. "Well then Jii-sama, you take that down?"

"I took it down," Sarutobi responded with a small frown. "Now continue."

"I'll take it from here. No sense in repeating shit," the left blond said.

Naruto was heartbroken.

He had lived through his worst nightmare.

He had failed the Genin exam for a third time.

'I truly am pathetic…' Naruto thought as tears fell down his eyes. He had tried hard to accomplish that stupid fucking Bushin technique but he couldn't do it.

If only he was better! He could have aced it. But now he had failed and with this being his third failure, the Hokage will ban him from becoming a shinobi period. But the worst part of it all was watching everyone celebrate their success in front of it.

He would never have that life. Being the succeeding child with proud parents watching him on. He was destined to be alone the Naruto the failure.

Just like he had said so long ago.

'Maybe it is fate…' Naruto thought to himself sullenly.

How stupid was he to fight against it.

"Hey, Naruto-kun," a voice said from behind him. Naruto turned around to see a sympathetic Mizuki behind him, "I heard about what happened. I'm so sorry…"

"I tried my best and it didn't work out…I'm just a failure…" Naruto murmured softly.

"Not quite. You see, after I heard you failed, I went to Iruka and convinced him to give you another shot," Mizuki said with a smile.

"Don't do that," Naruto said.

"Do what?" Mizuki asked.

"Give me hope," Naruto replied softly.

"I am telling the truth Naruto," Mizuki told him before he leaned close to the blond and whispered "He said if you are able to get the forbidden scroll and learn a jutsu from it, he will pass you."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise.

The Forbidden Scroll...That thing was locked under several locks and keys. He would have to defeat the Hokage in order to get the keys and he doubted the old man would allow him to grab it.

But the allure of this challenge peaked his interested.

Get the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage's clutches and actual escape with it…

"I don't know…It's a huge risk," Naruto admitted lightly.

"High risks for high rewards," Mizuki whispered. "You've said many times that your wish is to become Hokage, right? This could be the ultimate chance for you."

Naruto remained silent for a moment before he began to nod. Mizuki was right, Naruto's dream was becoming the Hokage and this would definitely show his skills was up there, especially if he was going to learn from the scroll itself.

"Alright, I'll do it," Naruto answered finally.

Mizuki grinned.

"So that is how he got you to steal the scroll," Sarutobi said with a cross of his arms. "How deplorable."

"Yeah, it was really bad but what can I say, I was desperate," the blonde girl admitted.

"Okay, we're going to have to sort this out. I need names," Sarutobi said suddenly, confusing the three blonds in front of him. "I can't keep calling one of you Naruto then having one of you three answer. It's confusing."

"I mean, sure but we're all Naruto," The hiate-ite wearing blond said sheepishly.

Sarutobi stared.

"Jii-sama has a point," the blonde haired girl said. "It's pretty confusing for us as well…"

"I guess…" The two blond boys said in unison.

"Well, since this was a henge to my Oiroke no Jutsu which I named Naruko, I'll go by that," Naruko said with a smile.

"Naruko. Alright," Sarutobi said before he eyed the two blond boys. "What about you two?"

"I'll stick with Naruto," the hiate-ite wearing blond said.

The left blond was quiet for a moment before he said "Menma."

"Menma? Really?" Sarutobi asked.

"What? It's a name. I never really liked "Naruto" as my name anyways," Menma said with a frown on his face. "But no one bothered to ask me what I would like my name to be."

"Very well. Naruto, Naruko, Menma…Easy to remember," Sarutobi said.

"I don't even see why it matters. We'll be one person again anyway," Menma stated as he glanced at the Hokage.

"Let's just continue," Naruto said.

"Holy hell, I can't believe I did it!" Naruto exclaimed as he sat down in the middle of the forest with the big Forbidden Scroll in his hands. He didn't realize how easy obtaining the scroll would wind up being.

All he had to do was perform his "Oiroke no Jutsu" and it took the Hokage down.

If he was an enemy shinobi, he could have killed the old man right then and there. Naruto shook his head of the surprisingly dark thought and opened the scroll and couldn't help but drool.

"So many jutsus…" Naruto moaned out. "Man, all of these look so cool! I wonder what I should learn first. Oh! Kage Bushin No Jutsu…Seems useful as hell. Guess you're first."

Twenty minutes went by and Naruto soon found himself face to face with a perfect clone. "He-he, success. Now I'm a guaranteed Shinobi…But…the scroll is still here…Let's see what else we got…"

Naruto peered down at the scroll and pulled out a notebook and copied down several more jutsu that would no doubt be awesome for him to try later but then his eye caught an interesting one.

Oh! What is this?" Naruto asked himself as he eyed a strange jutsu.

"Tamashī no Cerberus: Bunretsu (Soul of the Cerberus: Fission). This is a powerful Kinjutsu that allows the user to triple their power by splitting into three separate beings. So it's like cooler Kage Bushin Jutsu? Heh, I'd stupid enough to not try it out."

But something gave him pause.

There was a reason this jutsu was in the Forbidden Scroll. Maybe he should read more in its passage instead of just going through it.

Naruto tapped a pen against his notepad as he said "I did spend a lot of time on the Kage Bushin no Jutsu and there's no telling when Mizuki-sensei will show up. Not to mention I did learn a jutsu from it already to become a Genin. Maybe another one will bump me up to Chūnin. Oh fuck would that be awesome. From not a shinobi to a Chūnin in one night! A little greedy but fuck it, let's do it!"

Naruto nodded and looked down and said "Okay...The user must cut both of his palms and summon all of his chakra while performing these hand seals. After finishing, the user must slam his hands against the ground…Okay, seems simple enough."

Naruto took out a kunai and sliced open both his palms with a wince before he clapped his hands together and began to form the necessary seals and with a shout of "Tamashī no Cerberus: Bunretsu!" he slammed his bleeding palms into the ground.

At first nothing happened, which made Naruto believe that he had performed the jutsu incorrectly until he felt a pang deep inside himself. "What was th-" Naruto was immediately interrupted as another pang hit him but this one was sharper than the last.

Naruto hunched over as pain began to spread through his body as he began to pant rapidly, the pangs getting closer in length until his entire body was vibrating from them. Chakra began to swirl around Naruto, small wisps at first before thickening into large strands that rose high into the air.

The pain was beginning to be too much as Naruto balled his fists up tightly and gritted his teeth so hard he was afraid they would crack. Finally, Naruto lurched back and let out a bloody curdling scream as chakra exploded from his body, beams of chakra shooting from his eyes and mouth as he wailed.

Then two small white orbs with flecks of crimson with them shot out from his right and left side of his body and hovered in the air as he continued to scream. The chakra began to form around these two orbs, which began to take the shape of two humanoid silhouettes.

And with another burst of overwhelming pain, Naruto blacked out.

Thirty minutes passed and Naruto finally came to, his body, both inside and out, feeling sore beyond belief. "W-What happened?" Naruto mumbled out, unable to even open his eyes due to the intense pain he felt.

He then heard two people breathing. He turned his head to see an unconscious and very naked blonde girl with twin ponytails, curled in a small ball, sleeping soundly. He then turned his head to the right to see…himself, naked as well and also curled up in a ball sleeping.

Naruto stared up at the sky and murmured "Okay…I don't think clones are supposed to be naked…but I'm too tired to check...Fuck it." Naruto struggled to lean up from the ground but his body was still in so much agony from performing that jutsu so he laid back down on.

Naruto took a breath and rose up from the ground with a yell of pain but this time, he was able to stay up. He crawled over to the blonde haired girl and placed a hand on her shoulder and gently shook it.

"Oi…Wake up," Naruto urged in a whisper.

The blonde girl groaned and murmured "I don't wanna get up Iruka-sensei…Let me sleep…"

Naruto narrowed his eyes and shook her again, which caused her to groan and open her eyes only for her to become extremely aware of where she was. "Holy shit…did it work? Wait…Why do I sound different?"

"That's for me to ask," Naruto said.

"You to ask? You're just clone, not the real thing," the girl said with a confused tone.

Naruto snorted and replied "Sorry but I'm the real Naruto. Besides, you aren't even a guy. You're a girl."

"What?!" the girl exclaimed before she looked down and blushed in alarm. "W-What in the hell?! Why am I naked…And a girl?!"

"I don't know!" Naruto exclaimed. "I just woke up and you were here like this!"

"Can you both kindly shut the fuck up!" another voice screamed, which caused Naruto and the blonde girl to look back at the now awake naked blond boy.

"Like seriously, can I get a second of rest? I'm fucking drained after performing that jutsu," the blond huffed out but then he seemed to realize something and said "Wait…I'm the clone, aren't I?"

The pair nodded.

"Explains why I am naked," the blond replied. "Well fuck…But that doesn't explain why I'm naked. Don't Bushin copy whatever the user is wearing?"

"That is the least of our worries. Why am I a girl?!" The blonde girl yelled.

"I would think both of you being naked would be the main issue, especially since its night and if you both are my clones, you would know how the villagers treat me…us…at night."

The trio then grew quiet.

"Shit. When is Mizuki-sensei supposed to get here?" the blonde girl asked.

"No idea," Naruto replied.

"We need to look at that jutsu. Something is not right…" the naked blond boy said as he stood up only for his legs to shake and fall back down to the ground.

"I got it wobbly," Naruto said as he stood on two feet and walked towards the scroll and said plopped down in front of it and said "Found it…Oh fuck…"

"That doesn't sound good," The blonde girl muttered.

"I kinda stopped reading after reading the beginning part…" Naruto winced. "Tamashī no Cerberus: Bunretsu. This is a powerful Kinjutsu that allows the user to triple their power by splitting into three different copies of themselves."

"So…we're not clones but different copies of one another?" the blonde girl asked.

"Keep going," the blond boy said with narrowed eyes.

"Skills divided more or less equally in terms of power but usually share a single lifeline…Wonder what that means," Naruto said.

The other two shrugged.

"The split beings will age like normal and has the ability to grow stronger separately but when able to recombine, all skills and power will triple in power. So we can combine back together and we would be stronger than ever!"

"Does it say anything else?" The blonde girl asked.

"Yeah, it says-"

"Naruto!" Iruka's voice shouted, which caused the three to look to the left, where Iruka came into view. "So this is where you a-" Iruka paused as the three gave a sheepish grin.

"Hey Iruka-sensei," the three said in unison.

"He nearly had a heart attack at the sight of us three. Especially Naruko," Naruto said with a snicker while Menma and Naruko smirked in amusement.

The Sandaime was less than pleased.

"Do you know how dangerous and reckless you have been tonight?" Sarutobi questioned with an angered tone, instantly wiping the amusement from the trio's faces. "You performed a Kinjutsu without reading it in its entirety! Many of died from misreading a jutsu they were learning!"

"Look, to be fair, we were looking at a pretty dim future already," Naruko said with a frown. "Nothing could have beaten out what we've already been through."

"Yeah, did you forget that little tidbit?" Menma asked with an angered expression on his face. "Then again, you probably didn't forget and just withheld that information from us, like you did the Kyūbi."

Sarutobi paled.

"Oh yeah, that's right," Menma said as a vicious smirk appeared on his face. "Yeah we weren't privy to that information despite it being about us!"

"It explains so much," Naruto murmured. "How everyone ignores us or glares at us with hate in their eyes, sells us old food…"

"How we live in a condemned apartment, paying outrageous rent and the dozens of graffiti that is calling us "Monster" or "Demon" and the like," Naruko added.

"And the beatings…Especially if we're seen at night by the drunkards or the brave men of the Konoha shinobi corps," Menma finished with a glare. "When were you going to clue us into that bit of important fucking information?"

"I know you three are upset about me withholding that information but I was keeping a promise from the previous Hokage not to tell you until you reach either Chūnin rank or a certain age," Sarutobi stated.

"Funny that because if Iruka-sensei didn't give us the rank of Genin and instead kept his word and failed us, we would have never found out for years while being subjected to this abuse by the villagers and some shinobi," Menma said before he let out a harsh scoff.

"But do you know the worst part?" Naruko asked. "That the adults knew this and instead of anyone telling us why, they just despised us. Hurt us physically, mentally and spiritually. Since as long as we can remember!"

"So they were able to know but we, the ones this impact, don't get to know anything about ourselves and why we're treated like trash? How is that fair?" Naruto finished.

Sarutobi looked at the betrayed expressions on the trio's faces and sighed. "I apologize to you…All three of you. I should have told you the truth earlier. And I should have been stricter with the villagers and how they treated you all…"

"Whatever," Menma said with a sigh. "It happened and we know now…Might as well not be so pissed about it."

"Yeah," Naruto and Naruko said in unison before Naruto said "After that, Mizuki came, spilled the beans. Iruka nearly died to save us. We performed Kage Bushin no Jutsu and sent Mizuki to the Shadow Realm and now we're here."

"Well…Despite the way it was done, I agree with Iruka's choice in making you three Genin. Now to deal with the main issue …The jutsu you performed to cause this complex problem was a Yamanaka Kinjutsu that was created during the turbulent era before Konoha was founded so while you three were getting clothing, I had the Yamanaka clan leader Inoichi study the jutsu. I'm waiting for him to return with results."

The door opened and Yamanaka Inoichi walked inside with a grim look on his face. "Ah, right on time Inoichi-san. So, is there any way to reunite them?" Sarutobi asked curiously.

"Before I begin, I should explain more about this Jutsu. Tamashī no Cerberus was developed by my great-great grandfather during the Warring Period. In order to keep our clan strong during that era, the jutsu was used in abundance to keep up our numbers as death was swift and very often," Inoichi began.

"It works like this. This jutsu allows us to make copies of ourselves. It is different from clones however. While certain clones, like the Kage Bushin for example, can use jutsu, they can be dispersed willingly or after taking a few hits. This jutsu is similar where it can create two copies of yourself but there is a big difference. These are infused with your soul and life-force aka your blood, which makes these copies remain."

"So we share a soul?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. With these two things and with a large amount of your chakra, it creates living, breathing beings with their own will and mind, despite sharing the same soul," Inoichi explained.

"Whoa," the three chorused out in unison.

"Right?" Inoichi asked with a grin. "They become a real human being. With your memories, skills and chakra levels intact. Our clan would take the recently deceased, heal all the wounds and then perform the jutsu and our copied consciousness and soul would go into them, effectively recycling them but they could also do it the way you did it Naruto, although that way uses a lot of chakra. Best part is that those copies could do any jutsu, this one included, without any drawbacks," Inoichi said.

"Sounds too good to be true admittedly," Naruto said.

"You're right because there is a huge risk and that is this. If one of you dies, all of you die," Inoichi said, which caused the three to blink.

"What?" Menma asked with shock.

"That can't be!" Naruko stated.

"It is true," Inoichi said. "Your three share a soul between you. Two technically due to the Kyūbi being sealed within you. A soul cannot live without a part of itself. If one of you died, the other two will only have minutes before their soul is forcefully ripped from their bodies. It's the risk of the jutsu…"

"Okay! That's a huge fucking risk!" the trio shouted in unison.

"It is. The peak of this disadvantage came near the end of the Warring period. Our clan leader at the time had over seventy of these copies and many different bodies. A powerful Uchiha came along and managed to kill him…Our clan's power was crippled significantly…" Inoichi said softly. "It nearly wiped us out."

"That's bad," Naruko said with a troubled expression on her face.

"Yes but I explained it this way to tell you that there is no way you can permanently re-unite. Once this jutsu is done, it's done," Inoichi said.

"So we're stuck like this forever?" Menma asked.

"Yes…However, there is a way you can reunite for a time and this is where the Jutsu truly shines. Tamashī no Cerberus: Gattai (Soul of the Cerberus: Union) is the jutsu you would perform to become stronger being. This jutsu not only reunites the three souls and bodies into one, the power that each holds triples. So for example, if you three are Genin level now separately, together, you would be low Jōnin."

"Whoa…the stronger we get separately…The stronger our combined form. The combined form, how long does that last?" Naruko asked.

"Reading the scroll, It depends on how strong the user is. Not just chakra levels but mental levels as well because it takes a lot of mental energy to keep the fusion going. It can be fifteen minutes at Genin level. Low to mid Chūnin would be thirty minutes. High Chūnin to Low Jōnin would be forty-five minutes and finally, mid Jōnin to Hokage level would be an hour, maybe an hour and a half."

"That seems worth it," Naruto said with a clap of his hands. "Wait, this fusion could only work when performing the Tamashī no Cerberus?"

"Yes. We've tried to create a version where two separate people could fuse into one but…That didn't turn out well…" Inoichi replied. "But that jutsu wouldn't benefit you now due to you just performing that jutsu to create the two copies. If you were to try now, it could fail and your soul would be destroyed."

"Well, that answers my next question," Naruko grumbled with a pout before her eyes widened. "Oi! Question, do these copies, when not done with a corpse, look exactly alike?"

"Sometimes, why?" Inoichi asked.

Naruko gave him a long look, which made Inoichi realize why she was asking. "A-Ah I see. Well, when doing this jutsu, it takes three of your strongest personality traits and attributes and splits them amongst the three. Sometimes a certain attribute can take on a different gender."

"Oh? Like what?" Naruko asked.

"I don't know. This is the first time I've actually seen this Jutsu in action. It was classified as Forbidden immediately after the Warring Period ended due to its risks. I just read this from the notes this jutsu had in our clan's history books," Inoichi told her.

"Maybe it could be because of the Oiroke no Jutsu. It was the only jutsu I did today before this one. Maybe it was able to draw that as inspiration for one of the bodies?" Naruto suggested.

Inoichi shrugged.

"Regardless, that's all I know about this jutsu Hokage-sama," Inoichi said.

"Thank you for coming out this late to assist," Sarutobi said with a nod.

"You kidding me? Looking at one of Forbidden Jutsu in action is amazing. It was the least I could do," Inoichi replied before he looked at the trio and said "Every so often, I will monitor you three for any changes and will teach you that fusion jutsu when its time. Until then!" Inoichi bowed before he walked out the door.

"Well shit…" Menma said. "Welp, this has been a long night. I am beat."

"Ditto. I'm really hungry too," Naruko said with a sigh.

"Is Ichikaru's still open?" Naruto asked.

"I hope so. A bowl of ramen would be beautiful right now," Menma said as the trio began to rise from their chairs.

"Hold up you three," Sarutobi said.

The trio groaned in unison before Naruto asked "Yeah Jii-san?"

Sarutobi stayed quiet for a moment before he shook his head and said "There is a lot I will need to do because of this incident so rest up. Be at the Academy first thing in morning."

"Yes sir," the three said with a salute before the trio ran out the room.

Sarutobi then lit his pipe and took a puff before he sighed and pressed a button on his desk. "Can you send for Umino Iruka? We need to have a talk."

"Right away Hokage-sama," his receptionist replied.

Sarutobi nodded and let out a long sigh.

What a night.