Naruto met with Shikamaru, Kiba and Choji at their usual meeting place. A secluded rooftop that was easily accessable for budding Shinobi. When they saw him walk up to them, they gave him a serious look before all breaking into laughter. "Oh, my Kami, it always amazes me how easily you can get Iruka-sensei distracted!" Shikamaru said between laughs. "I thought today of all days he'd finally notice! Anyway, what are we going to do now?" All three boys looked at Naruto. Even Shikamaru had admitted that when it came to pulling pranks, nobody was as much of a genius as Naruto was. That is, when Naruto felt like it. The mischievous glint in his red eye told Shikamaru that Naruto was indeed feeling like it, which meant that the afternoon was going to be entertaining.

"How about we play with his mind?" Naruto grinned.

"How, though?" Kiba asked.

"With a little bit of magic and a lot of imagination." Naruto said, pretending to spread fairy dusk around the area, an air of sarcasm around him. "A Genjutsu, idiots." He added when they all stared at him like, well, idiots.

"What? A Genjutsu?" Choji asked dumbfounded. The others shared a glance before looking back at Naruto. "You can do that?!" Kiba exclained, looking both excited and impressed.

"Yes, a Genjutsu, want me to try it on you first?" Naruto raised his gaze to meet Kiba's. At seeing his red eye so lively, Kiba held up his hands in defeat and backed away a bit. "Nope, I'm good." He grinned. It's not that he didn't trust Naruto, but being at the receiving end of Naruto's attention was always scary.

"Aw, too bad. Well, let's get going!" With a flourish Naruto pointed in a random direction, not exactly sure where the new merchant had set up shop. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and set out in the right direction, mumbling 'troublesome' under his breath and pushing Naruto's extended arm in the right direction as he walked past. Naruto had heard his mumble nonetheless and retaliated by jumping on Shikamaru's back. "Carry me!" He said happily, clinging to Shikamaru like a monkey and giggling. Shikamaru sighed once again, but kept walking and Kiba and Choji followed them while laughing. They knew Naruto well enough to know the upcoming prank was going to be the best one yet.

They arrived at the shop. It was a small shop at the end of the less desirable district for shops, but the small store seemed to be quite busy. People were standing in front of the window admiring the display of a daishō, a perfectly matched pair in stunning sheaths. The katana had perfect balance, showcased by only having one support at the point of balance. The handle was wrapped tightly in red leather in perfect symetry. Gold details finished the hilt. The wakizashi handle was the same, only decorated at the end of the hilt by elegantly braided leather strips with bells at the end of it. The sheaths were matching, red leather with intricate symbols on them used in fuuinjutsu arranged in such a way they looked to be dancing over the surface. It was quite mesmerizing and it drew quite a few eyes.

The crowd made Naruto pull up his lips in disgust. Crowds had always been an issue for him and that wasn't going to change anytime soon. He didn't need the attention, so without saying a word to anyone he turned and walked away. He hoped he hadn't caught the eyes of any of the window shoppers. Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru didn't follow him. They too were drawn in by the craftsmanship of the daishō, studying it and pointing out details to each other.

He turned into the alley that would lead to the back door of the shop. He figured he might as well push on with the plan despite having lost his possé literally at the doorstep.

As quick and easy as normally opening a door, he picked the lock and silently stepped inside. Quietly he took in the room. The back room was small, as small as you would expect in such a small store. The room was used as storage, mostly thin boxes that probably contained swords of different makes. There was also a small table with a single chair. A half empty bottle of water and the leftovers of a lunch were still standing on the table. It seemed the owner had been called away from his lunch, probably in order to see to a costumer. There was also a bowl of wrapped candy, of which Naruto helped himself to a hand full, stuffing them into his pocket.

An idea popped into Naruto's head, looking at the neatly stacked boxes. Whoever was the owner evidently took pride in his stock and items. How ever would the poor owner react if all the merchandise were to, say,  suddenly disappear..?

He silently snickered as he placed a Genjutsu over all the packages in the room, making them seem to disappear. It was the first time casting a Genjustu without eye contact, but he had read several books on it that Cat had brought home, so he knew the principle behind it.

As quietly as he entered the room, he made his way out. Silently he closed the door and walking back towards the front of the store.  He saw that Shikamaru, Kiba and Choji were now standing a little to the side. Apparently, their curiosity was satisfied and they were now waiting for him, because they waved him down as soon as they saw him. With a skip in his step Naruto made his way over, smiling.

"So?" Kiba prodded.

"So, what?" Naruto asked innocently.

"So, what did you do?" Kiba asked excitedly. He already knew it was going to be good.

"Well, I went into the back room, and everything was so neat and well-organised it made me think the owner really valued his merchandise, so the next time they walk into the storage, all they'll see are empty shelves." Naruto had a happy twinkle in his blue eye as he talked.

"Don't you need eye contact for a Genjutstu?" Shikamaru was a bit sceptical, raising an eyebrow.

Naruto nodded his head with enthousiasm. "Yup! That's what I wanted to test. Genjustu with eye contact I can do, but what about using items to cast it on? We'll see soon enough if it is as efficient as a direct Genjutstu." He grinned, leaning against the wall opposite of the store. It might not be his best work, but he still felt excited about testing a new skill. The other three relaxed with him, and they waited for something to happen.

It didn't take long for a loud yell to be heard from the store. Angry shouts followed and people quickly left the store. It was more like they were being kicked out. The crowd dispersed quickly and the only ones left in the street were their little gang and a few people that couldn't surpress their curiousity. Then a large muscular man stepped out of the store, looking the street up and down to see if anything was out of place. He lookes furious, red faced and a vein popping on his forehead that could be seen even from across the road.

When he didn't find anything suspisious, he turned around to go back inside, mumbling provanities and even yelling at a passerby that dared to pass too close to the store. The poor sap hadn't even known why he suddenly got yelled at by a large, red faced man. All four of them broke into laughter as the passerby scurried away, apologizing for just being there at the wrong time. They were laughing loud enough not to notice that they didn't notice the shop owner noticing them. He turned on his heels and stormed over to the boys. Since Shikamaru was with his back towards the store, it was him the owner grabbed in the collar, almost pulling him clean off his feet.

"You boys wouldn't happen to know what happened to my stock, now would you?" He sounded calm, but his eye brow was twitching in annoyance. "N-no, sir!" Shikamaru said, while Kiba, Choji and Naruto were shaking their heads frantically.

The man dropped Shikamaru on the ground with a sigh and glared at them. It was quite clear he didn't believe them, but since he had no proof to the contrary, he couldn't do anything. With a growl, he turned around, once again setting out to move back to his store when he noticed the Hitai-ates they had on. "What luck, you are Shinobi. That means you'll come help me fix this, right?" He didn't wait for an answer, but grabbed Shikamaru's collar again and dragged him into the store. The other three followed him, not wanting to abandon their friend in such a situation. Naruto only lingered for a second before following as well. For anyone outside the friend group, it would have looked like Naruto was debating running away, but they knew better. He had undone the Genjutsu.

The man didn't stop until he was in front of the door to the back room. "Why don't you four go in and tell me what's wrong?" The man was smirking, thinking he got them cornered, but as Shikamaru opened the door and it became evident that nothing was out of place and all the boys gave him were well practiced confused looks, he stuttered random words of confusion, pushed them aside and started frantically checking over his stock.

"Sir, what's wrong?" Naruto asked innocently, while unwrapping a candy and popping it into his mouth. The man snapped his head up. "I-It was all gone! The shelves were empty not minutes ago! Someone took it all, I'm sure!" The man was flustered and didn't know how to make heads or tails of the situation. Not to mention he felt kind of awkward having accused the boys for something that never happened, apparently...

Naruto was chewing rather loudly on the particulairly crunchy candy, waiting and hoping the good man would notice, but alas, the man was too occupied by the sudden disappearence and reappearence of his stock that he overlooked the boys in favour of checking his stock over and over again.

Shikamaru nudged them, motioning towards the front door and beginning to back up. "Well, I'm glad everything is alright, so... we'll leave now." Kiba said as they all backed up slowly towards the front door. They closed the door and ran for it, only stopping when they reached the entrance to the Academy. They were panting and laughing, trying to cool down enough to not look too guilty when it was time for their parents to pick them up.

The bell rang a few minutes later and within a second, Cat appeared in front of Naruto in the standard bow an ANBU always did when appearing in front of someone. He stood up, smiling behind his mask. "Well done, Naruto, congratulations! I knew you could do it!" He said happily. Naruto smiled at him in return. "Boys, you too, well done! When are they going to announce the teams?" They looked at each other, realising they bailed before Iruka had told them. "Uhm, well..." Shikamaru started, letting himself get interrupted by the commotion of students leaving the school in masses and parents arriving to pick up their children. Kiba took advantage of the commotion to quickly ask Shino about the time and was back in a few seconds. "Tomorrow at ten." He said with a grin.

"Good, that means we get to sleep in a little tomorrow. Ready to go home, Naruto?" Naruto shrugged and nodded, said a quick goodbye and followed Cat through the streets of Konoha to their home. Dog joined them along the way, abandoning her watch from afar for the day.

After dinner, Naruto went to his room a little earlier than usual. From time to time he needed some actual alone time. He knew he wasn't allowed to, but on some nights he would sneak out after convincing Cat and Dog he was sleeping. He'd wander Konoha a bit and usually ended up on top of the Yondaime's head. Tonight was no different. The night sky was calm as he stared up at the stars. The streets had been empty save a few stragglers, which he skilfully avoided.

He could breathe here, the cool evening air settling the turmoil that was always in his mind. He always felt like he needed to step out of the way so another part of him could be themselves, but enjoying the quiet nights was something he wholeheartedly agreed on and it made him calm down. Nobody would ever know how tiresome it was to constantly need to balanse yourself,  keeping yourself centered and under control, just so you can function in society as others saw fit. So he sat on the Yondaime's head, almost as if meditating, silently enjoying himself as he was. Different, unique, complicated, but for the most part still a twelf year old trying to fit in.

The ancient knowlegde of Kurama combined with the pure heart of Naruto made for an interesting train of thought. The give and take, the mutual respect that had found its place and the realisation there was little to no difference between them except the passing of time was mindblowing and gave a sense of peace, of not being truly alone even if there was no one else with him.

The usual quiet night was interrupted by the scream of a woman. It was close by, closer than Naruto would have liked, because it was close enough to get him curious and after a second of doubt, he decided to go check on the woman. With skills far beyond a newly graduated Shinobi he jumped and ran through the streets. More lights turned on in the houses around him, indicating that he hadn't been the only one have to heard the scream. He was the first one to arrive, though. The first to walk into a dark alley filled with crates and boxes, obscuring the end from view. He felt nervous and excited at the same time, wondering about what he might find. Part of him hoped the woman was alright, that she had just spooked herself in the darkness of the alley, but another part wanted to find something different.

With slow steps he made his way to the end, past the last box that obscured the view. And it... was... glorious! The part of him that loved tormenting people revelled in the image in front of him. The woman was cut open, from her throat all the way down to her lower abdomen. The organs had poured out, forming a grotesk puddle on the ground and her blood was sprayed all over the wall, like a beautiful painting telling the story of a lost love. It had been a swift and deep cut and Naruto didn't think the woman lived much longer then her scream had lasted.

It was mesmerizing and it brought back vivid memories of the incident in the woods six years ago. Without thinking he ran his hands through the blood and held it up, watching it coat his fingers and drip down his wrist. There was something about blood that made him feel... whole. It was such an essential part of someone and to be able to take that from them, to draw that out, it was power in a most pure form. Power he, Kurama, had longed for for most of his life. To find understanding for it, even though it was only partial, within Naruto, the shunned and abused child struggling for recognition, made him feel he was a part of something. For a long time, he had missed that.

He remembered the pure power of his chakra in that moment in the woods. It tore through the people, seperating their very cells from each other as he tore them apart. For a moment, a haze of red, supported by his red and blue charka, hung in the air, before he pushed the chakra to form a barrier in the form of dust, to protect him as much as to perserve the sancuary he had made with blood. The red had rained down, covering him from head to toe. The feeling of Cat's hand caressing the barrier before pushing his whole arm in felt like he himself had been carassed and penetrated, right through his very heart and soul. It had been thrilling and exhilarating and he would never forget that feeling.

Again he pushed his hand into the still warm blood of the woman, adding a fresh coat to his already stained hands. It shimmered in the cold light of the night. There was only one word for this. Beautiful...

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