~~~Prodigal Problems~~~

In the vast meadows of Fire Nation, a small village exists under the near blinding cover of leaves named, quite ironically, the Hidden Leaf village. It was in this gloomy, concealed village that he and his mother lived, or in his mother's case, were imprisoned in. Sometimes, even he had to tell himself that his mother had a fine taste for theatrics, more so when it came to words.

He loved the Leaf, especially the sun and blistering heat of summers it's tropical climate had. The vigorous, sprawling people that resided within were certainly a bonus, but he loved them all.

"Naruto…"his mother said - the last of what felt like a thousand times now - before he finally swallowed the bitter pill and went in, "You don't have to do this." she urged.

"But I really want to go mom." he lied. He'd always been a bad liar, especially in front of her. She could see through him as if he was made of glass, and it annoyed him to no end. But having said this lie well in advance for over a week now, the frequency must have made it almost convincing now.

Almost.

"Tell the teachers I said hi." he rolled his eyes. As if he couldn't already see what she was trying to pull with that particular card , "I will."

"I'll see you soon," she insisted. "I'll be right there at the communications desk, and we can go back home whenever you want - I'll come back as soon as you need me to, just give a small pulse and;"

She didn't say anything further, much more aware of the blabbering mess she was turning into before he had to take the matter in his own hands. But still, he could see the sacrifice in her eyes at what this was pressuring her into. So, letting his tiny arms snake around her neck, he pressed his lips on her cheek tightly.

"Don't worry about me," he urged her. "It'll all be great. I love you, mom."

When she looked at him, he noted how much his own features resembled her own. She really did look like him, or the other way around he supposed, except with longer hair and contrasting honey brown eyes. Seeing her wide, childlike eyes - he felt a shudder of panic run down his spine seeing that subtle glitter of fear. He hated leaving his loving, adorable, erratic, birdbrain mother by herself, even if only for an hour - but still - he had to do this.

He had promised after all.

And Naruto never broke his promises, ever.

She hugged him tightly for a minute or two, squeezing him like a plush toy quite a few times before finally letting him free. He started going forward, glancing back a few times to see her still standing there - staring at him expectantly as if he might just run back in her arms - before he finally went in and closed the door behind him. Hearing her muffled footsteps from across the door until his ears couldn't pick it up anymore, he sighed.

She was finally gone.

It was only for an hour that he was to scout this dank looking place before she would have access to see him again, but it really did feel long now that he thought about it. This was the first time she had ever let him out of his sights, it felt strange, a bit uncomfortable yet refreshing at the same time. It was just confusing, he supposed.

Being alone didn't bother him, he had been, after all, alone at home quite a few times now. But his mother being alone, with him in a place that wasn't their house - now that was a different thing altogether.

Hiruzen had been fairly nice about this whole endeavor, a bit too nice in his mother's mind, but nice nonetheless. The man always was nice, no matter the situation Naruto believed. He seemed genuinely pleased that his offer to come and see the Academy for the first time hadn't been met with complete denial - on his part - and that he had even considered joining this place with some degree of permanence.

As if.

His mother, as was custom, had thrown a fit and nearly snapped the elder man's neck - and their house - in half. Her strength wasn't legendary only in tales, quite a few men had witnessed it first hand, unfortunately. The old man had already gotten him registered for a tour before even coming to visit them, and had even gone as far as to gift him a dozen new kunais to sweeten the deal even more.

A sly, old coot - his mother would say.

But it sure was awkward with that bodyguard of his. Neither of them two were, as one would call, verbose. It was much more due to the fact that she wore a full body cloak and a face mask to conceal herself in his case, though as for her problems, he wasn't quite sure of it to be honest. He knew she must have been a bit flurried out by his decision to come, as had been his mother, since she hadn't really made her distaste for ninjas a secret to anyone.

That was the only reason he could come up with given the ANBU's concealed nature.

In a sudden turn of surprise, Kakashi was waiting for him by the entrance hall. This he had been expecting too, his primary motivation to come here despite the fierce abomination his mother considered this place. The man was getting quite a few awkward glances from other kids he saw, small wonder there, though he smiled.

Kakashi gave his head an awkward, only a tad bit cool, pat on top of his head when he stumbled his way over to him.

"It's good to see you kiddo." smiling, as he automatically crouched down and started messing with his silky tresses, "You haven't changed much since the last time I saw you." baby blue eyes rolled back, bemused.

"You saw me last week." the blonde stated dryly, the man eye smiled.

"You know how quick kids grow, don't you?" he inquired in earnest. Though, the sarcasm behind that statement wasn't lost to the boy in the least.

"I'm five." Naruto stated flatly, the jonin eye smiled.

"You haven't changed much, how's Lady Tsunade?" he asked. Naruto's face fell, he chewed his lip a bit before nodding.

"Mom's fine too. It's good to see you, Aniki." he wasn't allowed to call him Kakashi to the face, overbearing mom's and all that…

He had on only a simple white shirt and blue shorts, the rest of his clothes were way too tacky to wear outdoors. His mother loved dressing him up like a clown apparently, she must have pooled a significant amount of circuses to conjure up so many colors in one damned place to supplement his wardrobe. It was still scanty to find anything decent, this had been a gift from Kakashi, if that said anything about her taste in clothing.

"I found a good little toy for you." the man said as they started trudging in.

Naruto eyed him suspiciously. "What kind of toy?" the way he had said 'a good little toy for you' instead of a simple 'toy for you' rang alarms in his head.

"Well it's a hard treat to scour actually…" the man rummaged his pockets before finding his little gift and handing him slickly, being discrete so as to not be seen doing the deed by anyone.

Yet another bad omen.

Finally getting a good look at his 'gift', Naruto's eyes went wide, "Mom would kill you if she finds out about this." he whispered, quickly pushing it down his pocket.

A delicate eyebrow raised in curiosity, "So, you don't want it?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto looked at him, offended, "Of course I want it, I'm just saying that she will afterwards." he pouted.

Scowling, Naruto slapped the man's hand away to stop him from ruffling his hair anymore, "We'll cross that bridge when it comes." he said. Naruto had to admit that this man was the definition of cool when it came down to, well anything, "Now I'll go, no one's supposed to meet you kids until it's eleven. I'll be around kiddo…"

Before Naruto could so much as nod, the scarecrow vanished into thin air as if he weren't even there in the first place. Naruto decided, he absolutely had to learn that jutsu as soon as it was humanly possible.

It was just that cool.

"Hey kid…!"

Naruto turned around, perturbed, "Hmm, me?!" he asked.

The man, clad in a green vest with bright silver nodded. "Yeah, would you be interested to, perhaps, take the lifting test?"

Now this peeked Naruto's interest, "A lifting test, what's that?" he tilted his head aside in honest confusion. The silver haired man smiled warmly and urged him to follow his lead, having nothing else to do, Naruto scooted along for the ride.

He had time to kill anyways.

They trudged the hallways full of bubbly children, it was getting boring pretty quickly though if Naruto was to be perfectly honest, "Iruka…!" the man by his side called another instructor, one with the same green vest and an odd looking scar plastered over his nose, "I brought another volunteer."

Being in the spotlight now, Naruto nodded politely, a courtesy the man was more than happy to reciprocate, "Your name, if I may ask?" he inquired.

"Senju Naruto."

"...!"

"...!"

A strange silence seemed to have enveloped the entire room, Naruto fiddled nervously, "…What?" he asked oddly.

Shaking his head, Iruka mentally slapped himself for such blatant rudeness and smiled, "Nothing, sorry. You want to take the lifting test, correct?"

Naruto nodded, "Yes." he affirmed.

"Alright then, I'll give you a demonstration and then you can try it out for yourself." nodding again, Naruto stood back and let the man do his thing.

Iruka asked for a new kunai and dropped it on his feet, "See this?" he asked. Eyes narrowing, Naruto saw him balance the kunai on it's hilt right on top of his toe before bobbing it up and down repetitively, as if it were a could sense no chakra being used for it so it was purely done through balance, the blonde surmised.

"This is it, simple yes?" the silver haired man, one whose name Naruto had yet to know, asked. Naruto nodded wordlessly, it was indeed pretty simple.

"The more repetitions you do, the higher your score is. Ten grants you a C, while a hundred grants you an A." he explained.

The blonde raised an eyebrow, clearly not impressed, "That's it?" he couldn't help it, it just sounded so damn stupid.

The man, Iruka, if Naruto remembered correctly, chuckled. "It's not as simple as it looks kid, not even a single one has crossed 20 all morning long. It's because I'm doing it that it looks easy."

Naruto frowned, the man was clearly looking down on him. "…alright, I'll give it a go then. It doesn't look that hard no matter what you say though…"

The last part was more to himself than to the two instructors, though they did catch his drift. Giving him knowing smiles, Iruka offered a new kunai.

Naruto politely declined though, much to his surprise, "I have my own."

"Ah."

Plucking out the one he had gotten from Hiruzen and had decided to bring it along this morning, he dropped it on his toe and balanced it's hilt on his toe, "Start."

And so the test started, it was as easy as Naruto had expected. After a couple dozen reps, Naruto yawned. "This is boring…" he drawled inwardly.

Pocketing his hands out of boredom, he glanced around to see other kids failing to even get it to balance out. He sighed, "Look look, it's the lifting test. Only Sasuke-kun and that kid could do it properly." a voice called out.

Now that he shook off the cobwebs in his mind, he saw quite a large crowd had gathered around them, "At least he gets it…"

Indeed, the boy taking the test with him was doing good. But he looked like he was concentrating for his life, and by the looks of sweat on his forehead this wasn't even his first try, something that baffled Naruto to no ends;

"203, 204, 205, 206…"

"I can already do this after seeing it once. If anything, I can't believe there are guys who can't do this…" he drawled out tiredly. Glancing sideways, Naruto's eyes met the onyx ones of his 'rival' who seemed pretty damn annoyed by something. "It must be this test. Anyways, didn't that instructor say we'd get an A if we do it a hundred times?" he remembered and mentally slapped himself for it.

Putting more force than was necessary, Naruto lifted the kunai straight in front of his eyes. He shot off the ground and twisted in mid air, slamming a roundhouse heel on the hilt of the kunai. The kunai slung past the stunned chunin's ear and embedded itself in the wall behind him with a large thunk, "So I guess, I'm done."

It was all Naruto chirped happily before making his way out of the shell shocked gathering of people, still staring at his kunai owlishly, "Man, that was so boring…" he whined childishly.

Had he turned around, he would have seen the looks of disbelief and some of complete outrage glaring down at his back for that obliviously snark comment.

"Physical portions were okay, the tests were okay, and the Academics were pretty okay too I guess…" Naruto dragged his feet around the hallways tiredly. That hour seemed like the longest of his life, his expectations for this place hadn't exactly been met in the slightest. "…but I'm so bored."

The blonde had breezed past almost all activities the instructors had conjured up for this day, and aced them - all of them. "I liked the physical portion, especially the games. But I always master them so quickly, if I play long enough no one wants to face me let alone play anymore."

Sighing softly, he ran a hand through his hair, "Anyone, please light a fire in me." he whispered, "I wonder if there's anyone, so amazing, that I won't even stand a chance against them."

Giggling, Naruto started whistling a joyful tune, "Of course there isn't. Come on out, come on out, wherever you are…" he called out to no one in particular, a new way to amuse himself. "…ready or not. Here I come."

"A-Ano…?!"

Naruto's whole body stiffened up, he snapped his neck back with a start. "Eep!"

"Wha~" the blonde gasped at the fallen person behind him. It was a girl, his age by the looks of it. But that wasn't what had peeked his interest, it were those weird eyes of hers that truly did him in. "Are you blind?" he asked excitedly.

"...Huh?" her intelligent reply earned a scowl on his part.

Shaking his hand in front of her eyes to test his doubts, the blonde looked disappointed when her pupils did follow said movement. "You're no fun." he pouted.

The girl looked lost, as if he was a puzzle she couldn't quite solve. Poking her nose to elicit yet another squeak from her, "Just kidding!" he laughed and walked away.

Seeing him walk away, she twiddled her fingers sadly, "I'm Hinata, will you be my friend?" she whispered more so to herself than to him. Yet another failure, she wondered, since he too hadn't so much as noticed whether she was even;

Seeing a pair of azure blue eyes right in front of her own, she gasped. "Kyaaa!~"

"I'm Naruto." he clasped her hand in his own and waved it up and down vigorously as if it were a mechanical lever, the girl moved back and fro as well. "…and I'll be your friend." he stated loudly.

She blushed, "Y-You heard that?" she articulated, it was so embarrassing!

He gave her a look that screamed stupid, "Of course I did."

"Oh."

"..."

"..."

"...So," Naruto drawled dramatically, all in an attempt to break the awkwardness. "Want some help?" he offered the fallen angel a helping hand. She thanked him silently with a nod and got up.

"Arigato." her mumble made him smile, she looked away from it to hide her own.

"Let's go, I want to try something new now." she let herself be pulled away, eyeing the hand holding her own tiny one with a fond smile.

Hinata had finally made a friend.

"Where's your next test?" he asked.

Hinata had to check her flyer, Naruto peeked in when curiosity got the better of him. He hadn't gotten one of those, "Um, the second floor. With Iruka-san, it's a lifting test." she whispered, awfully aware of how close he was to her face. There really was nowhere to look without meeting his curious eyes.

"I took it earlier, I can show you the way if you want?" he was so helpful, she noted, "…well?"

"Ah." she squeaked, realizing she had spaced out, "I would like that very much," she smiled tentatively.

"It's pretty boring, you know." he muttered, arms crossed behind his head. She tilted her head aside, clearly not getting him, "…the test I mean. All we have to do is bounce a stupid kunai on our toe for a minute or so. I mean, it's so easy right?"

Realizing it was her cue to speak up, she looked down, "Hmm, I suppose so."

How was she to tell him nothing was really easy for someone like her, when in stark contrast to her he seemed like some sort of genius, at the very least on par with her cousin. "You're really smart, Naruto-san." she complimented him.

He smiled boisterously, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "Aren't you the best Hinata-chan?" he returned the favor with one of his own.

"-chan?" she asked, trying as she might to escape his hug without making him aware of it. Not that it wasn't nice, she wasn't quite used to such things.

"Yeah, and what's with adding -san to my name. Do you not like me very much?" he pouted. She, blissfully unaware of his playful teasing, panicked.

"N-No. I like you very much Naruto-" her tongue twisted at the end, she had probably bitten it since it was hurting so much. Her face was flaming madly, now really conscious of what she had just admitted out loud. "When did I get so bold?" she wondered.

The boy either hadn't caught her words, or probably just couldn't care less. She decided it was the latter, "That's great Hinata." he smiled.

Her jacket was slung over one of his shoulder, she had taken it off for her physicals and hadn't put it on due to the heat. He had been adamant about holding it for her, "Such a gentle personality." she thought, sneaking shy glances at him.

Looking back, she could have sworn that even though she wasn't of age for her clan's prideful visual prowess yet, that some people were constantly walking behind them. Not close enough to be noticed, just enough to eavesdrop.

"You noticed it too, didn't you?" he asked offhandedly. Her lilac eyes wide, she stared at him with a gobsmacked look.

"He knew all this time!"she screamed in her head, though relieved was she as well that it wasn't just her paranoia talking.

"So, this is a lot different from your clan grounds, right?" he switched topics.

"Yes, very much so." she answered curtly.

"You don't have many friends, do you?"

"Um. Three or four." she lied, already knowing how fake her voice was. She clenched her eyes shut, nigh on the verge of crying, "I don't have any either, you're my first." he admitted honestly.

Her worries lay forgotten, she turned her face to see him looking at the ceiling with a pout, "Wow, but you're so nice Naruto-kun." she whispered.

"-kun, eh?" he teased, poking her crimson cheeks knowingly.

She blushed madly, all the while trying to paw his hands away like a kitten, "I'm sorry, it's just -"

"Don't sweat it." he told her. "I like it that way, actually, I really like people like you."

Her feet stopped dead, she stared at his walking form in a trance, "He likes, people like me?!"her thoughts were pierced by a loud echo in the hallway.

"Hurry it up Hina-chan, I'll leave you behind if you stay so slow." she blinked away the tears she hadn't noticed were falling, smiling like an idiot.

"I'll stay by your side, Naruto-kun."

"You better."

"Hai, Hai…!" her sarcastic syllable earned her a gentle nudge of his shoulder, she nudged him back equally playfully.

"I'm glad I met you." he confessed.

"Me too." Unconsciously, the distance between the two walking kids became smaller by a few inches;

Their smiles could have lit entire cities for weeks.

All morning he had been dreading lunchtime. It was just as his mother had feared, everyone was eyeing him with bizarrely speculative stares. Part of him wanted to just walk up, confront them and demand to know what their problem was. But he knew himself too well to know he did not possess the guts to actually go through with it.

It wasn't shyness or any inferiority complex of some sort that held him back, far from it. It was just that, he knew it would be rude - and therein lay the problem - the fear that he may embarrass his mother in front of such a large crowd was just too much for his heart to bear.

Though when he walked into the cafeteria with Hinata - trying to keep his eyes from sweeping the entire place for a sign of her, and failing entirely at that - he saw some faces he knew all too well sitting together on the same table, but more importantly;

She was not with them.

Kakashi intercepted the duo and steered to them to that particular table. Hiruzen seemed elated by the attention, and many people - most of which he did not know - were way too quick to notice their vague presences and huddled around them. Try as he might to listen to their pointless banter, he was terribly uncomfortable, anxiously waiting for the moment she would arrive. The unexpected presence of Minato was already making this way too awkward than he might have liked, but his mother's absence was creating a hollow void in his chest.

He had sincerely hoped that the man might simply ignore him in favor of all the 'important strangers' trying to converse with him, but sadly, that hadn't been the case and proved his intuitions false. He gave timid nods at whatever the blonde Kage was asking off of him, having absolutely no idea what anyone was saying.

Sheen glistened his forehead, subtly wiping his palms underneath the table, he gave a strained smile to everyone around him, trying to focus on eating his lunch in favor of every little ounce of fear in his mind. Idly circling his chopsticks on the tray, he gnawed away at his quivering lip when by the end of their meals;

She still wasn't there.

Kakashi, his brother in all but blood, was chattering away on the qualities of some technique - the Lightning something - to drift his thoughts over whatever it was that was bugging him and explain the technique's qualities while faithfully sitting by his side as a supporting pillar.

Sadly, that support didn't quite seem to be working at present.

He started talking to Hiruzen with a bit more confidence when the bell rang, marking the end of lunch time - and she still hadn't showed. Hiruzen, realizing he wasn't particularly invested in the conversation, exhaled and went to sit with some crippled acquaintance of his. Kakashi had lingered on by his desk until the bell had rung, though he had smiled at him wistfully for some reason and went on ahead to sit with some girl who - even after being clothed considerably - seemed almost naked to him.

Naruto held his breath realizing it was only him and Minato left, and it looked like he was going to either have to bolt away or do something about this absurd situation he had trapped himself in. In a hidden village like his own, where everyone lived on top of everyone else diplomacy was essential, that was what his mother had told him. He had never been immensely tactful, having no practice beforehand dealing with overly friendly adults who he wanted nothing else but to disappear from the very face of the earth.

Finally getting an urgent summon, Minato had left.

He was relieved that he had the desk to himself, devastated that his mother was still absent and absolutely blank at what he should do next. The baby blue eyed toddler couldn't get rid of the nagging suspicion that he was the reason she wasn't there, it was ridiculous, and egotistical to think that he could affect such a charming person as his mother so much. It was impossible;

And yet, he couldn't stop worrying that it was absolutely true.

When the Academy's event was finally done and over with, a faint blush was creeping up on his cheeks from the frosty evening winds blowing at his face. The kitchen's staff and a chunin instructor had come in an hour ago, demanding that he leave since the Academy was now shutting down it's doors. Dread had coiled within his chest, shivers creeping up his spine like a snake;

How could he leave when his mother was supposed to meet him here?

He had politely requested that he be allowed to stay here for a while longer and even be assigned the kitchen staff for some dinner. The two had been left befuddled by his request, but having given the thick roll of bills his mother had handed him as 'Food Money'; the two had been more than happy to oblige.

The distant chirps of crickets and hoots of owls had signified how late it truly was, the bugs crawling on the light over his head were the only thing that looked anywhere near alive in that place.

The silence was deafening.

He clutched his little hands into fists, knuckles whitening, and only now noticing that he had started playing with his kunai as a way to deviate his attention. The lustrous bladed edge of his weapon looked so refined and alluring; it had the power to take all his worries and lay them to a rest in an instant. All he needed was to just press it in a little more and then;

"My baby,"

His vision wasn't clear for some odd reason, but he could feel the familiar sense of warmth and safety he had been so accustomed to since his birth encircle him. He let his fingers be gently unrolled, the kunai dropping with a distant clang.

"Mom,"

His whisper was hoarse, voice faint. Clutching her kimono in weakly balled up fists, he nestled his nose in her warm neck to let himself drift away in the pleasant domain of blissful unconsciousness. Only two words managed to slip past his lips while he adoringly stared at the understanding hazelnut orbs, her eyes gazing at him with nothing but love and concern in them. She looked as mesmerizing as ever;

"You came."

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