It all started with the most simple of things. One event that would change the world...and that of the worlds around it.

That event...was a break in.

The Tsukino family lived in one of the more well protected neighborhoods where the cops patrolled at least once an hour, even if it was only off duty. However that day their idea of safety was shattered so thoroughly that something in the family changed.

Usagi was barely six when it happened, and her baby brother had just been born a few months previous. The family had been out at the time, but the devastation they found when they returned home stuck in her mind for months after.

So when the patriarch of the family found a mysterious flier for a large village where break ins were not only stopped but prevented by an elite force of fighters...

Well, the family made all the arrangements in less than a year and moved to a place called Konoha. For some reason the flier went missing as soon as the family left Tokyo...not that they were aware of that fact since the daughter had accidentally left it on the table right as they left their home.

And so the winds of fate began to turn into two different directions.

Usagi watched in awe as the shinobi jumped from roof to roof. She was so impressed that she convinced her family to let her enroll in the ninja academy. It was there that she first met Itachi.

Itachi was a bit of a loner, and he was soon to be an older brother. Unfortunately, his looks combined with his clan and attitude created a large horde of fan girls after him. Or would as soon as he got a little bit older.

So when he saw Usagi come sit next to him, he was understandably wary about the event.

"Hi! My name's Tsukino Usagi! Want to be friends?" she asked with a cheerful chirp.

"I've told you lot at least a dozen times, I don't like fan girls," he said irritated.

She cocked her head, the dango styled hair moving with her, and said "Who said anything about that? I just wanted to be your friend!"

Itachi took a good long look at the cheerful blond who could put an Yamanaka to shame with the color. While she did appear to be one of his fan girl horde initially, closer inspection proved her to be telling the truth. She showed none of the other signs he had of the other girls. Plus there was this odd energy that kept spilling off her in waves.

His mind took all of this in in less than a minute. He slowly raised his hand and she shook it with a smile. For the first time since joining the academy, Itachi had made an actual friend.

Usagi jumped, avoiding the practice kunai Itachi was using. Because of an odd quirk, Itachi had learned the hard way that Usagi had a most painful wail that she could and would use if in any true danger. If provoked it tended to rupture ear drums in a three block radius.

Fortunately for him, she never used it around him without giving him a warning first after the initial discovery.

They still high tailed it out of the district they were in when someone came to investigate why all the windows were ruptured and the people were on the ground though.

In what had become the biggest shock of the village (particularly to the rumor mongers) Itachi had struck up an interesting friendship with a girl from a strictly civilian family that had recently moved to Konoha because of an incident in their home. When asked, Usagi told her friend of the break in and the fact that quite a bit of her room and her younger brother's nursery had been rummaged through and disturbed.

It had freaked out her parents so much that the moment they found about Konoha and it's almost nonexistent crime rate (mainly because those with any real pickpocketing and break in skills were good enough not to get caught in a bloody shinobi village while those who weren't got taken in rather quickly) they decided to move.

For some odd reason, Itachi felt the need to strangle whoever had caused them to lose their peace of mind...even if the end result was that Usagi had come to their village in the first place.

He could honestly say that she was the only female his age that he willingly allowed around himself or his brother. Of course the speculative looks his mother kept sending his way whenever Usagi came to hang out with him did give him the shivers.

He shook his head. The two went back to training. While Usagi was more into actually being a kunoichi compared to her peers, she did face a serious disadvantage because she came from a primarily civilian background without any warrior heritage.

So she had to train twice as hard just to be able to survive in the field once she became a genin. Fortunately once Itachi managed to get her to only use the 'wail of pain' (that was the nickname he gave her odd ability) during missions outside the village, he had been able to get her up to par with most of the classmates.

Though in an odd quirk of fate, Itachi learned that Usagi didn't really have any elemental affinity...but what she did have was an extremely rare type of chakra that was only seen once in a blue moon.

Usagi possessed the extremely rare Light chakra, something that had baffled Itachi and most of the academy instructors. It opened an entirely new direction for her to use when fighting...but it also meant her abilities would be very limited due to it's rarity.

Luckily for her one of the Uchiha had come across a few people with similar chakra, because Itachi had no issues lending her a few family scrolls no one would be able to use because of that problem.

Itachi could only hoped that they were placed on the same team, because he had graduated a year previous and she was just now about to take the final exam.

"Tsukino Usagi, Pass!" the instructor called out.

Usagi grinned and walked out to see her parents and Itachi waiting.

"Passed!" she said with a grin.

Two years of training and a lot of practice time with Itachi had caused the girl to go through a bit of a growth spurt...and her skills were good enough that she could claim to be shinobi trained.

That didn't mean she was going to stop training. After watching the Hyuuga and Uchiha in her class surpass her in skill (which she narrowly made up for in book smarts, making her the second best kunoichi in her year to her parent's relief) she swore to never stop training except for vacations.

Itachi smiled at her, and she was proud to say that she had done what many had claimed was impossible.

She had somehow managed to remove the stick from the ass of an Uchiha. The heir of the clan no less! It was part of the reason the instructors called her an unstoppable force of nature when it came to converting almost any enemy force.

Fortunately for her parents, Usagi had no desire to join the seduction corps.

It had been a year since taking the true final genin exam, and Usagi could honestly say that she had improved in leaps and bounds. For starters Itachi was on her team (mostly as a secondary instructor since he was a chunin) and because of her personality the three had just barely passed.

No one could say no to her puppy dog eyes when it came down to it. And she had perfected that on Itachi years ago.

The longer she stayed around Itachi, the stronger she got. Her genjutsu was shoddy, her chakra control was very good, but her taijutsu just barely kept from being labeled poorly.

Strangely enough, her ninjutsu was almost second to none on her team.

Since she was the youngest on the team barring Itachi, they rarely left the village for missions. Aside from a few random D ranks (one involving a certain feline who shall not be named but may very well be a descendant of the two tailed demon cat...which has killed any desire Usagi had for felines as pets) they mostly improved on their skills.

Usagi in particular since she had yet to find her niche.

Usagi turned to Itachi with a grin and casually asked when he would be bringing Sasuke with him to supper. The stoic boy had become something of a familiar face in the Tsukino house, and there was no doubt in the minds of the parents (both sets) that the two were on the fast track to being a couple once they hit puberty.

"I will be there around seven. Think your mother will be making that tomato dish again? Sasuke really seemed to love it."

"Probably. I asked what we were having and she mentioned spaghetti."

Itachi grinned. He rather liked the western dish. Then again he had something of a secret addiction to noodles. His sweet tooth was well known, the noodle issue wasn't.

Sasuke kicked at his chair while his brother tiredly kept him from irritating their hosts. It was something of a joke between him and Usagi that the two younger siblings got along as well as they did.

Usagi got the boy to finally sit still with a look she had patented for use on her younger brother.

Itachi hid a grin at that.

"Dinner's ready!" said Usagi's mother.

By the time the food was devoured (with a lot of extra sauce for Sasuke, who had already developed a love for tomatoes) the older children went to discuss jutsu and tactics while the two younger were allowed to watch TV for a while before they had to go to bed.

"So if we do this here..."

"Bigger boom."

Usagi grinned. It had come as a real shock to Itachi to learn his best friend was something of a pyro like most of the Uchiha. She was also a budding seal mistress, which he learned quite by accident while teaching her how to make explosive tags.

Two hours later...

While Itachi took his brother home, he paused when he heard crying. The owner of that voice couldn't be more than the same age as Sasuke.

He cautiously walked towards the sound...and found a small child barely Sasuke's age with bright blond hair that resembled Usagi's own. But it wasn't until he recognized the trademark whisker marks that he realized who the kid was.

Naruto Uzumaki, the child almost unanimously hated by the entire village. Why, he had absolutely no fricken idea. But it was clear that the orphanage had kicked out a five year old child and that annoyed him greatly.

Sasuke shifted on him, and Itachi decided to cheat. He made a shadow clone (one of the rare techniques he had successfully blackmailed out of Kakashi by threatening to send Usagi after him with her wail...) and had the clone take Naruto to the one place he would be protected and actually loved.

While almost the entirety of the civilian population hated the boy, there was one family that wouldn't.

The clone took Naruto (who was soothed to sleep by the rocking motion) straight to the Tsukino family. He knew for a fact the parents were still awake. Usagi might be as well, if he knew her.

"Hello? Itachi, who is that?" asked Ikuko. She saw the bruises on the child's face.

"His name is Naruto from what I remember. I found him on the way back home crying. As far as I know he doesn't have any parents and he's the same age as Sasuke. I couldn't leave him outside in the middle of the night for who knows how long."

"And where is your brother?"

"The real Itachi is currently taking him back to the compound. He couldn't carry both boys and for some reason the Uchiha and a good portion of the civilians don't like Naruto at all."

She frowned at that, but picked the boy up with ease. The clone dispelled, and she went to doing what she could for his wounds.

She would bring this up with the Hokage the next time she saw him at that charming ramen stand he frequented.

To the shock of Usagi's mother, the Hokage was aware of the fact that Naruto wasn't in the orphanage. He was near frantic trying to find the boy!

By the time she left the Hokage's office, a few things had changed.

First off, Naruto had officially been adopted by the Tsukino family...one of the extremely rare civilian families in the village who not only didn't know about his tenant, but had nothing against the boy. Of course by the time the council finally caught wind of the fact that a civilian had adopted the demon container, it would already be too late. Especially since said family had a daughter with an extremely rare affinity and was thus more valuable to the village.

Naruto looked up at the nice lady who had fed him that morning and made sure his wounds were really healed. Ever since her daughter became a kunoichi she had become better at first aid.

Even the daughter was nice to him, which was a first.

She even promised to help him learn a few jutsu once she was back from training!

Naruto went to the playground with Shingo...and to his surprise he actually had someone to play with him.

The kid threw the ball at Naruto who cheerfully kicked it back. It was easily the most fun he'd had ever...at least until some of the clan kids tried to shoo his new friend away.

Only to find his annoyed older sister running towards them chasing a cat that for some reason absolutely hated him. The moment that cat saw him, an idea popped to mind. He threw a smoke cloud, confusing the clan kids...and reappeared right behind them. Without warning the kids started yelling because of the claws the cat had.

By the time Usagi caught up to the two, Tora was dealing with the bullies.

"What's going on here?" demanded one of the mothers.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but Tora decided to attack them for some reason," said Usagi.

She discreetly hid Naruto behind her, and the boy wisely kept quiet. As a safety precaution she grabbed Tora by the neck and managed to get both boys away from the park before anyone realized the blond boy was behind her.

She had seen the looks, but she had never actually paid attention to the kid. After coming across him being over charged and then kicked out for no reason other than the fact he couldn't pay the large prices, she had decided to treat the kid like she did her own brother.

"You two alright?"

"We're fine Usagi-nee-chan! They always show up whenever it looks like someone is willing to play with me..." said Naruto.

Something about the way he said that made her angry. Angry enough to actually strangle someone, which was highly unusual. She was normally the voice of reason in her team. Even Itachi calmed down when she was around, and he was more level headed than she was.

"If they try to do that again, let me know. As soon as I learn where they live they'll be in for a nasty surprise..." she said darkly.

Seeing the confusion on Naruto's face, Shingo explained.

"Sis has this nasty trick where she can blow out the windows just with her voice."

"Ah, like Council woman Haruno then," said Naruto sagely.

"Unlike her I try not to blow everyone's hearing away simply because I find something offensive," she sniffed annoyed.

Naruto snickered.

Iruka stared at the paper in his hand.

"Naruto Uzumaki-Tsukino?"

"Just Tsukino," grinned the boy.

"I thought there was going to be another boy," said Mizuki.

"Nah. Shingo heard about the fact that new genin hafta chase after that evil cat and decided against it," grinned Naruto.

Iruka didn't think twice about that. It was a fact that new genin were stuck doing D ranks for at least six months...and that included chasing after Tora the evil cat demon that belonged to the Fire Daimyo's wife.

"Alright then...Naruto Tsukino?" he continued with roll call.

"Here!" said Naruto waving his hand up in the air.

"Sasuke Uchiha?"

"Here!"

Iruka continued until he got to the bottom, and then started class. Ever since Naruto had officially been adopted by the newest civilian family, he had been smiling a lot more often. And not the fake ones that Iruka saw on his face so often either.

Iruka hid a grin as he watched the boy finally making actual friends. Ever since Naruto had been adopted by the Tsukino family (and by extension the Uchiha once Itachi and Usagi were finally old enough) Naruto had been making friends.

Mostly because Sasuke viewed him another brother.

"Neh, Naruto-kun, what's Ikuko-san making tonight?" asked Sasuke.

"Well, since it's pretty obvious you and Itachi-nii are coming... Something with tomatoes! Though it might just be a salad with tomatoes and something else..." said Naruto.

"Either way, tomatoes!" cheered Sasuke.

"What a drag," said Shikamaru.

"Is your new mom a good cook?" asked Chouji.

"As good as old man Ichiraku! I think she borrowed one of his recipes because she makes awesome ramen!" said Naruto.

"Any chance you could invite us over some time, Naruto?"

"I'll have to ask Ikuko-kaa-san first," said Naruto.

"Any way, have you seen the way Itachi-nii looks at Usagi-nee-chan?" grinned Sasuke.

"Yeah, they're practically dating already!" grinned Naruto.