We sat together inside Homura's house.

Well, Kyubey and I sat down. Homura seemed to be attempting to fuse herself to Madoka with how close she was to her.

An exaggeration, sure, but she hadn't been more than a meter away since they'd finally broken the hug.

Madoka was now wearing the gloves I'd made over her previous gloves, chewing on her bottom lip as she wrote down on the notepad, pen delicately grasped between her fingers.

It was oddly cute. And an interesting thing to note; that despite her now-immense power, and her changed existence, she was still a young, small girl.

Kyubey was currently devouring some sugary snacks, while I was currently fiddling with a piece of corrupted paper. Not doing anything in particular, just experimenting.

And, despite the very, very weird collection of a Heartless, a talking bunnycat, what's more or less a Goddess and a magical girl, there wasn't much talk going around the table.

Kyubey simply hadn't said a word at all, Madoka couldn't speak to them and Homura was simply content not to. As for me, I didn't really have anything to say. It wasn't a silence that I particularly minded, however.

It was a comfortable silence.

This was going to be a trainwreck, I can just tell.

A beautiful, fiery trainwreck which I am just going to enjoy watching.

"We have several options," Shikaku started. "First option; we train Naruto directly. Doing so will be effective in making sure that he gains a considerable amount of strength and skill, assuming he has any measure of talent whatsoever. Doing so will also throw up giant red flags, since training him directly will inevitably get out somehow, and prompt a considerable amount of foreign interest. I'd prefer not to, since that very same foreign interest possesses the chance to attain the same information as Iwa now possesses, which defeats the purpose."

"Second option; we remove Naruto from the public eye and keep him hidden and safe. This is nonviable for obvious reasons, and should only ever be considered as the last possible resort."

"Third option; We make sure that Naruto receives training, discretely."

I watched from the rooftops as a seemingly normal woman walked up to a seemingly normal apartment building.

Of course, she wasn't a normal woman. She was ninja, a powerful and skilled one at that.

The apartment building was considerably more normal, unless one happened to be able to see past the cloaking veils of Chakra concealing the four ANBU overwatching the building.

Then it just invites curiousity.

"Naruto is a young and curious boy who has already expressed an intense desire to learn ninjutsu. If he were to 'stumble' upon a ninja willing to guide him, he'll be able to learn enough to defend himself, without attracting too much attention. While he likely wouldn't become as strong as he would if he were being trained directly, it will still likely be enough for him to survive when Iwa makes an attempt on his life."

"Do you have a ninja in mind?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

The purple hair cascading down her back made it blindingly obvious who this particular ninja was. The fact that I had seen her around before only helped, despite the fact that all of those times, she had been wearing a Neko mask.

Fitting, of course, since Yugao Uzuki was an ANBU level shinobi. Although her ANBU tattoo was conspicuously absent.

Yugao Uzuki, super-serious 18 year old ANBU, now assigned to look after and discretely train the loudest, most annoying, unpredictable knucklehead in the entire village; one Naruto Uzumaki.

This can only end in tears, and hilarity. Mostly the latter.

But it's nice to know that I now have a living soap-opera to drop by on any time I feel like it.

Yugao, it turns out, has a wicked sense of humor. And a rather nasty sense of revenge.

Rather predictably, the second Naruto found out his new neighbor was a Ninja, he had promptly proceeded to bug the ever living hell out of her, in that way that only seven-going-on-eight year olds could really get away with. Too cute to stay annoyed at, but too annoying to ignore him.

I had a rather sneaking suspicion that, even if Yugao hadn't been assigned to actually teach him, she probably would have given in eventually.

Also rather predictably, Naruto, having only recently started the Academy, and having had no one else to teach him anything, had absolutely no knowledge on how to be a ninja. Something Yugao had set about correcting, though progress was rather slow-going.

What he did have, however, was a rather extensive knowledge of pranks, an equally extensive experience in planning and engaging in them, and a mentor that would only discourage him from getting caught.

And given the sheer amount of enthusiasm with which Naruto went about his work, I couldn't help but think that she'd tossed in a promise of teaching a jutsu to him.

He was very enthusiastic.

And, coupled with Yugao's gentle guidance, Shikaku 'accidentally' saw the worst of it. Not that Naruto had any clue about that.

"Shikaku sicced the brat on me, so I sicced the brat on him." Yugao told me.

"One might note that as seeming rather rather petty, Yugao-san."

"Perhaps," she acknlowedged. "That doesn't mean I'm going to let him stop just yet."

"Oh, I hope not. I haven't been this amused in months."

"One might note that as being a bit cruel."

"Perhaps. But it's not like a few harmless pranks have ever hurt a shinobi of Shikaku's caliber. Or, for that matter, that Shikaku himself isn't capable of putting a stop to it anytime he wants. It doesn't bother him, so I'm going to take the opportunity and laugh."

"True, true."