A:N This story is in the POV of a future observer telling the story. So when you see the two instances when there is I; it could be that. It could also be a mistake so please inform me if it is. For fun let's give him a name. Jim. Basic name, I know but it works. Side note: I think Jim is a fantastic name. I didn't mean it like that.

Also I guess Jim is omnipotent, cause he can see the thoughts and stuff. That's related to omnipotence right? Anyways on to the chapter. Enjoy the angst:

Their home was modest but impressive. It was three stories high and very wide. It was marble columned and very Greek based. They even had an entire room of art depicting Ancient Greek times. The rooms were quite spacious and decked out.

OK maybe modest wasn't the best word to use.

Most of the third floor was a training room that Naruto seldom saw. He wondered what kind of training his mother did to have an entire room dedicated to training. Especially since she owned a pottery studio.

When he reached home he felt like dropping dead on the floor. That fight took a lot out of him. He resisted the urge and approached his mother.

He hadn't asked her if Persea could come. Not by fear but by wanting to stay alive. His mother had a rather annoying habit of pinching his cheeks when he did something cute. This would definitely fit in that category.

If that wasn't bad enough; she would immediately drop everything to do it without any regard. When she was driving… you see how that could be a problem.

"Um," he said, for some reason now being nervous. "Can Persea come over?"

Like he predicted she immediately dropped everything and rushed to pinch his cheeks. He blushed from embarrassment. She smiled, "Little man finally got a friend." He felt the instinct to shout she wasn't his friend but that would bring up the question of why he wanted Persea there then.

"It's cool with me," she agreed, "But I'll have to ask her mother. Can you ask Persis if she can give you her mother's number?"

"Sure!"

The next day he set out to do just that. He arrived at the same time he usually did. Persea wasn't waiting at the entrance like yesterday. Actually Naruto couldn't see her at all.

It wasn't anything weird and he assumed that she was already in, was late or was in the hospital. The last option was the most likely.

A part of him twisted in fear. What if she got attacked? What if she was hurt? Naruto shook his head. No use worrying. Not yet.

Before he could say anything a dingy 78' Camaro rolled up to the parking lot. The car was a sickly shade of orange. Persea jumped out of the car immediately it stopped moving, looking very peeved.

"You should be thanking me brat!" yelled someone from the inside of the Camaro. A hideous man, almost three feet wide. He was completely bald other than three hairs on the top of his scalp that were pushed back like that helped his looks.

Naruto furrowed his nose. The dude reeked too. Ew. He could smell him from all the way here. He smelled worse than a garbage truck stacked to the brim with moldy stuff in the middle of summer.

The guy snarled. "If I wasn't such a nice person you wouldn't have even been here!" At this moment Persea slammed the door and started storming off. The man let out a few curses at Persea but probably noticed he was making a scene in a Kindergarten parking lot and left.

Persea walked up to him. She smiled but it wasn't her usual brighter-than-the-sun smile. It had something wrong to it. He waved out the thoughts when she engulfed him in another hug. He idly noticed that her hands had been bandaged but not well. Actually they were bandaged really badly.

"You didn't go to the hospital?" he asked, frowning heavily. His mother frowned next to him too.

"I did. I was just messing with it in the car and I spoiled it."

Naruto pursed his lips. Even so, the dude who brought her should have done something. He could feel a dislike already forming for the guy.

"Who is he anyway? Where's your mom?"

Persea frowned as if she had a sour lemon. "She's busy with work," she said, "That's smelly Gabe."

Naruto lifted an eyebrow, "That's his name?" Persea smiled a genuine smile, as if liking the idea. "No. His name is Gabe Ugliano."

Naruto smiled. He didn't know if she was joking but it was funny either way. His mother let out a little chuckle and squatted so she was face to face with Persea.

"Hey girl. Can you be a team player and give me your Mommy's number? If you know it."

Persea nodded uncertainly, probably wondering why an adult would want her mother's number. Or in other words she was furiously fussing over what she might have done. "No cap?" asked his mother. Naruto had the sudden instinct to slap his forehead and drag it down his head slowly. Persea looked confused but shrugged it off and gave his mother her mother's number.

Soon after his mother left and he was in class with Persea. When the day was done Naruto approached Persea and told her of his mother's agreement. As expected she was excited. Naruto had a full view of her exaggeratingly moving around, badly mimicking his attacks and making a lot of boom and crash sounds with her mouth.

Naruto felt the corners of his mouth quirk up against his orders. He couldn't help it, Persea just had this effect. The effect he used to have when he would pump up and shout out his dreams. Some people found it annoying but now, on the other side, he could tell how others could find it endearing.

The dingy Camaro was back and Naruto imagined that the fat smelly guy from earlier would be back too but instead the lady who'd handed him the cookies yesterday was there. Persea's mom. She parked and came out. She had on a 'Sweets on America' sweater and blue jeans. She ran up to them while calling Persea's name.

Persis turned to her with a slightly confused look. "Mom? What are you doing here?"

"I asked my boss for an early day. As an apology for not seeing you last night."

Persea smiled at her mother. She put her hands behind her head. "It's fine, you're here now." Naruto felt like clearing his throat to bring attention to the fact he was still here but Persea's mother gasped and interrupted that thought.

"What happened to your hands?" she asked, aghast. Persea blinked away her shock and made a motion to hide her hands. Her mother was quicker than he gave her credit for and grabbed them midair.

Naruto guessed she didn't know and based on the personality of Persea's dad he didn't take her to the hospital and she lied to him and had bandaged it herself. He was really starting to hate this guy.

Persea fumbled through an excuse about stairs and falling. It was an excuse so bad that Kakashi would take notes. Now that he thought about it the excuse did sound something along the lines of Kakashi's excuses but with an actual prediction that people would believe it.

Persea's mom sighed and rubbed her sinuses. She shook her head incredulously. "Well we need to get you to a hosp-"

Whatever she was going to say was stopped when she saw Naruto. Her body relaxed and she smiled. "Naruto," she said, "Your mom called me and explained. Thank you for inviting Persis over. We should be heading there now."

Weren't they going to the hospital? Nonetheless he wasn't going to get into the car of a stranger, no matter if it was his not-friend's mother.

He waited until his mother was called, heard her horrible impression of modern lingo and was told it was fine.

A part of him did wonder if it was fake and this was a kidnapping attempt. Another part of him squashed that part down saying he was being cynical. He decided to believe the latter and get into the car.

Sally put a car freshener pack on the back of the rearview mirror and grabbed a strawberry scented perfume bottle and sprayed it in the car. It managed to get rid of most of the smell of the dude thankfully. Naruto had to wonder why a woman like Persea's mom would settle for someone like Gabe, someone way below her level.

The car ride was mostly silent with a few attempts of small talk from her mom. None of them stuck for longer than a few seconds and each one added to the awkwardness of the situation.

Naruto's mother was at the door of the house when they arrived, smiling widely. "Yo," she said. "Hi. Thank you for inviting us. I hope we aren't intruding," her mother said politely.

Naruto grabbed his bag and got out of the car. "Hey," he said to her. "Let's go check out my room."

Persea smiled and looked to her mother for approval. When she got a nod in response she followed Naruto into the house. An old lady was mopping the entrance so Naruto and Persea had to dance around the wet area, so as to not get the floor dirty.

They passed through the area without touching the wet floors and continued to Naruto's room. Persea thought the building was very impressive. Naruto's room was even more impressive in her eyes.

It was probably bigger than the apartment she lived in but no space ever felt unnecessary. The walls were painted orange and blue anime waves, clashing furiously for space. The only part that they didn't clash was an area where a blooming cherry blossom tree was. There all the three colors just existed.

It was rather beautiful in Persea's opinion. Persea wasted no time in jumping on Naruto's bed. The mattress was soft but not too soft that she would bounce off it and to the ground.

Naruto didn't fight her and did the same thing. "So your training.." he said. Instantly Persea was on attention. "My mom has a training room. We can use that."

'Naruto's mom trains?' she thought. A bulb lit over her head. She had an idea. The last time she had an idea this brilliant was when she suggested tug of war the other day. She wanted to surprise Naruto so she didn't tell him and waited.

The rest of the day was spent with Naruto trying to explain the concept of chakra to Persea. It was hard since until the land of waves mission he didn't even know how to say 'chakra'. Only about seven months after that he died on the Sasuke recovery mission. All this to say: he didn't know how to explain chakra well. He managed though and explained it halfway decently.

The hours passed with no show of the adults. Naruto once took a break to look for them in case they were worried. They were talking and laughing and barely acknowledged his presence when he entered the room.

Persea hadn't unlocked her chakra yet which rattled his brain. Maybe he was right and people couldn't access chakra. He hoped that wasn't correct because he didn't want to break Persea's spirit. She was still going strong at seven o'clock. Naruto wished he was paying attention to the academy so he could help.

Most kids would unlock their chakra after a few hours of trying to but they had the good instructions of the academy teachers.

His lamentations were interrupted when someone knocked on the door of the training room. The door was opened and the head of his mother poked out. She was laughing uncontrollably. "Sally you are too funny!" she aimed outside and wiped a tear. "Hey little guys. Dinner is ready," she said to them, her laugh dying down to only be replaced with a blinding smile. Naruto wondered if it took her a long time to figure out they were up here

Naruto looked up and smiled. 'Food,' he thought, suddenly very hungry. He wiped his mouth because he realized he was drooling. She followed his mother and Persea's mother to the kitchen.

They made chicken curry. And goddamn good one at that. The curry was golden and tasty and the rice that accompanied it was perfectly cooked. Naruto was in the middle of putting a spoon of the heavenly meal in his mouth when Persea dropped the bomb on them.

"Can you teach me and Naruto chakra?" asked Persea at Naruto's mother, shocking her with the abruptness of it.

Naruto almost spat out his food but his Shinobi training stopped him. You had to instantly assess any situation in a battle. He still couldn't stop himself from letting out a shocked "What!?"

A piece of rice got caught in his windpipe and started choking him. Persea's mother hit his back and that successfully got the piece of rice out. He gave the woman a thankful smile and turned to her daughter and gave her a glare. "What?" he asked again. He hadn't told her not to tell anyone but come on he thought she would still understand without words. Guess she wasn't as smart as he thought

Hopefully his mother would brush it off and go back to laughing with Persea's mother. Speaking of her; she was looking mega confused and Naruto could relate. If his daughter wanted to learn about spirit stuff he would be confused too

"Persis. Why would you want to learn about that?" she asked her daughter. "Took the words out of my mouth," said his mother.

Naruto started racking up an excuse to give them. But Persea interrupted by making the situation so much worse. "But I need it! Naruto can't help me and he can't even do it anymore," she said. Naruto could almost see an idea forming in her brain and dread filled his gut. She was making the situation so much already, he didn't want her to make it worse. "Sorry," he said to the two adults, "We were doing a play today on spirit guru stuff."

The excuse was stupid and Naruto could see it didn't work on either of them. "No!" Persea protested, "Tell them about the one eye guy and the-"

Naruto slapped his hand against the mouth of Persea's. It looked suspicious as hell but she couldn't reveal anything extra if she couldn't speak. "We said, Persea, that we would not recite our lines today," he said, gritting his teeth. Persea seemed to finally get it and looked down to her lap. Naruto felt slightly bad when he saw the tears flowing from her eyes. He sometimes forgot she was just four. She couldn't handle the confusion like he, a reincarnated twelve year old (technically 16 at this point), could.

"Sorry," he whispered. He looked at his mother, catching a glimpse of a look that her and Persea's mother sent each other. A look of fear.

His mother sent him and Persea to his room, saying about them practicing their lines. He left but paused after he got out of sight. He could hear whispering from their parents. It was going in the opposite direction of where he was. Like they were walking away

"... Gabe… smell…"

"... Training…tomorrow…sleepover?"

At that point their voices had basically vanished. He turned to Persea, who was just standing there. "Um," he said nervously, "We should probably go."

Persea nodded and he started leading her to his room again. He couldn't explain it. Seeing Persea upset it hurt him. It was like a weight against his chest. He would do anything to turn her frown back to her childlike smile. He couldn't do anything to change it though and silently led her to his room.

When they arrived Persea was still frowning. "Sorry," he said again. She didn't respond and just sat on his bed. A beat. Naruto wanted her to just say something. He knew she was just sulking but it hurt. He was right, he knew it. She was four, this was a temper tantrum at its finest. He knew all these things but it still fucking hurt.

Growing up alone Naruto had always tried to keep the few people that cared for him close. He had no parents, no siblings- nothing. So those few people that did put some effort in making sure he wasn't alone. They were his family and he tried showing it, in his usual Naruto way.

That's why Sasuke's betrayal hurt him so much. He felt like Sasuke had taken that family love he'd shown him and threw it right back in his face.

When his family was taken from him he'd attached himself to the new piece of family he'd gotten. His mom. He'd stubbornly refused to get any other family because they could be taken from him. But Persea, he could feel her making way in his heart. But now, he'd probably ruined it. Persea was smarter than most people her age. She acted older. Older age usually meant bitter feelings ran longer than a few seconds. For the first time, Naruto wished her child side would win.

The silence continued for a while. Each moment felt like a knife against Naruto's chest. "Why?" she asked, breaking the silence, "You didn't take my side. Why are you hiding it?" she whined. Truly no reason to be that upset really but he couldn't help but feel bad.

So in a moment of stupidity. A moment of utter recklessness, the type that was associated with him: he explained. Everything. Not one thing left out. His backstory, the academy, land of waves, Sasuke- everything. He hadn't even told his mother these things and yet here he was spilling it all out to someone he'd met like two days ago.

He hadn't told his mom more from the fear that she would hate him for not really being her child and not out of distrust. Look if the villagers of the leaf could hate him for having a fox in him, something not of his choice; his mother could hate him for pretending to be her child and having a fox in him that could kill her easily that he didn't mention about.

Persea listened the entire time and didn't interrupt him once. She hummed after he was done. "Makes sense," she said, like it hurt her to admit it and have to get out of her sulking. The weight on Naruto's chest lightened. He was about to say something when a knock hit the door.

His mother peeked her head in and then opened the door fully. Persea's mother was there too, holding pajamas. They were a size too small for him so he knew they definitely weren't for Persea's mother.

That left one person: Persea herself. Oh. That's what sleepover meant. Persea was having a sleepover at his house. Cool. He wanted to talk to her more anyways. And their training would be able to commence again. If Persea even wanted to do it knowing she could possibly never get access to it. He hoped she wanted to. Though he fumbled through most of it; it was rather enjoyable to hang out with her.

He also hoped she didn't hate him or fear him like everyone who did back in the leaf village once they found out. That was the reason he had never told his team of it. He had wanted to believe that they wouldn't be that way but there was always something that stopped him.

Maybe if he had known Persea better he wouldn't have told her.

"Sleep for tonight. Tomorrow, meet me at the training room. Seven o'clock," his mother said. "Here." She pushed a bundle of clothes towards them. They were sleek white robes with black lines rolling in a straight line through the clothes. In the middle of the back of the clothes was a large sign. The sign looked like a z interconnected with an upside down female sign, the ones with the cross thing and the hole- wait, I didn't mean it like that.

The shoulders had patches of two massive lions roaring at each other from across his shoulders on similar wheat farms.

Persea had a similar set of robes. They were a baby blue instead and her back had a symbol of two C's facing the opposite way of each other with a black horizontal line cutting through the centers. Her shoulders had bulls on the patches instead of his lions. Her attire also had extra details where his didn't. His sleeves were mostly bare, with only a few black stripes while hers were decorated with- and I kid you not - clouds. Puffy white cloud pictures ran across her arms in a vaguely snake like manner.

One thing they both shared in common was a trio of pale skulls that made a V-shape from their collarbones to their chests. The skulls all had green torches inside of the vacant heads making them almost permeate this green mist effect. It was really creepy.

Naruto had to wonder why his mother was giving children this especially when they would undoubtedly tear it or would just grow out of it quickly. The embroidery was so good and polished so it had to be really expensive.

(There was also the fact his mother had given a four year old a costume with skulls on it.)

Persea didn't seem to mind. She was back to her usual self; she was bouncing around with excitement. Naruto smiled but told her to calm down as she would be going to bed and he didn't want her to be too pumped. Persea calmed down and sat on his bed, waiting for his mom to take her to whatever room she was going to sleep in.

They sat in comfortable silence, the only noise being the slight creak of the bed as Persea swayed her legs back and forth. His mom came back for Persea only a few moments into the silence. "The room is ready," she said, without her usual lingo. In totality she looked a lot more serious. Persea smiled and got off the bed. She shyly blushed and gave Naruto a hug. Naruto reciprocated and melted into the hug at the same time.

Persea pulled back and gave him a toothy grin and gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek. She pulled back and walked off with an embarrassed blush adorning her cheeks. His mother's serious look cracked long enough to coo at the sight.

Naruto didn't lurch out of bed as he probably should have done. He woke up, lying on his sode with cold sweat dripping down his face. Tears from his eyes were dripping down with them.

Nightmares.

The same ones that happened every time he was reminded of Sasuke in any way. The squelch of blood as Sasuke pierced him through the shoulder. The familiar crackle of lightning. A sound that Naruto had come to dislike after. The taste of iron in his mouth and the stench of skin being fried

The moment when he'd known that he wouldn't get to Sasuke through just talking.

He waved off the memories and got up to go and wash his face. Immediately he opened the door, he was assaulted with a whole lot of Persea. She was standing at his door bouncing on her feet, hand balled up to knock. She was dressed in the attire that she was given yesterday by his mom. Did she want to get it dirty while she ate?

He vocalized the thought and she cocked her head to the side. "I ate before I dressed up. You haven't eaten?" she asked while raising an eyebrow. "No," he said, looking at the alarm clock at his bedside, "It's only-"

The time on the alarm clock registered in his mind. 6:55. The fear that all kids got when they were nervous they were going to miss a deadline acted up. Naruto started sprinting to his closet. He started changing, removing his shirt in one fluid movement before he remembered the other occupant in the room.

Persea was blushing and looking anywhere but at him. He blushed too and dashed back to slam the door. He was still a blushing mess when he got out of his room, hair all frazzled up and a few bruises from where he had fallen over while trying to put on the damn clothes.

The thing that his mother had given them was a training gi. The inside layers had a thin layer of mesh armor similar in kind to the one the proctor lady from the second stage of the chunin exams had.

He wondered what training they were going to do while running down the stairs to the kitchen. He wanted a glass of milk at least. If training with Kakashi had told him anything it was that he needed to eat before any type of training.

He bumped into someone and saw the old lady who worked for them fall down the stairs. He tried catching her but she was too far. She didn't need his assistance as she flapped her hands like she was a bird and red wings, he had never seen before, carried her to safety.

The red wings weren't connected to her back but to her arms. They didn't sprout out but we're just there, like they'd been there forever. Now that he'd thought about it, he'd never been able to look at her arms really but he would have noticed the wings.

The owner of said wings wasn't fazed by them and just snarled in his direction before walking off.

The Greek Mythology nerd in him sprung forward (side effect of the bedtime stories) and he matched the image of the old lady to the Greek monsters known as harpies.

Was the cleaner who occasionally acted as his nanny a harpy? I mean- if the cyclops was real why couldn't harpies be real? Naruto decided to continue on his quest and ask his mother questions later. She wasn't attacking him or trying to eat him so it wasn't a super crisis.

He drank a glass of milk and headed back upstairs to the training room. A daunting task with his child body.

When he arrived his mother was teasingly smiling at Persea who was blushing rather fiercely. He ran up to them, nervously fiddling with his hands. He was definitely late.

His mother thankfully wasn't annoyed and clapped her hands. She looked kinda nervous and Naruto couldn't discern why.

She gulped so loud that Naruto was sure that people across the world could hear it. With her nervous looks at him; he could discern it had something to do with him. Was she going to announce he was adopted?

Wait no. He remembered, unfortunately, his birth and as much as his mom loved embarrassing him, she wouldn't tell him in front of Persea.

Maybe an arranged marriage. Did people still do that? He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he almost didn't hear his mother's statement but the words cut through his mind like butter.

"So," she said, "We'll be learning about this thing- um you might have heard of it- Um well it's called chakra?" she said while wincing in preparation for Naruto's reaction. Persea was blinking to the side, clearly not knowing about chakra while Naruto was furiously trying to understand the situation cause:

What?

When humans do not get what they expected, like seeing a romance movie when going to see a horror movie, the first reaction is confusion then they replay the event, then to the sensation we're all familiar with: anger. White hot anger.

"You lied. To my face," he whispered incredulously, still processing. His mother looked apologetic but he didn't care. "I could have died."

If he hadn't had the Kyuubi he would have died and so would Persea. Persea. The pieces of the puzzle started to connect. The previous night she wasn't surprised by the cyclops, just horrified.

The final puzzle piece slotted in. The reason his mom must have been helping now. The reason she was helping them wasn't fear for Naruto, she didn't care for him, but for Persea. Think about it; just when she came is when they needed training. Just when she came is when his mother introduced chakra

His anger clouded out the fact that other conclusions could be true. He exploded, making an actual effort to not let the Kyuubi's chakra out. "You don't care about me! The only time you're concerned is when someone else is in danger!"

His mother looked appalled. "No I would never-"

He interrupted her, "No when my life is at risk you're oh so willing to stand by but when someone else is in danger that's when you want to step in. Funny coincidence don't you think?"

His mother actually looked offended, "Look Naruto I love you. I-"

"Doesn't seem like it to me!" he said, voice growing hoarse as he yelled out.

"Cut down on the disrespect. "Don't you dare speak to your mother like that," his mother said harshly. The part of him that was her son immediately backed down but Naruto Uzumaki, the orphan, didn't.

"Well it doesn't seem like I have one!"

"Don't you ever-"

"Well it's true. You could have helped me. It would have been so easy too but nooo."

"I couldn't," she said, her voice sounded like she was straining not to shout

"But you can do it now!?" he yelled. He wasn't really processing what she was saying other than to shout back and make his opponent, mother , hurt

"I was ordered, okay?! I was ordered not to tell you!"

"By who!?"

"I can't tell you!"

Naruto growled and searched for something to use for ammunition. "But now you can tell me!? I thought you were ordered not to!?"

"Things have changed. You're in danger an-"

"Oh you mean Persea!?" he asked, mockingly. She snarled at the disrespectful words. "It's not about her. The only reason she's here is because they wanted her here too. I don't want her to die but I don't care as much about her as I do with you!"

"They? Who's they!?"

"I can't- I can't explain. I just can't"

Her voice was wavering. Naruto knew.if he asked anymore questions she would cry and that forced Naruto to calm down. Calming down and the silence also meant he had time to think about what was being said. His mom wasn't at all confused by his knowledge of chakra. Since he was apparently not supposed to know.

"You know. You know about the reincarnation thing. Everything." It wasn't asked. He received a small nod in return. The betrayal that came up was overshadowed by want- no, need.

"Then help me. Help me get to them. Help me find them please?" he sobbed.

"I can't. They are dead." And with that she walked off. She forced herself not to go back and comfort her wailing child.

A:N: You find out what's on that Gi and you know everything. Try not to use the internet but even with it I doubt you'll get everything. See you next week, hopefully. Good day!