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chapter five

Walking in, they followed the tour guide, but the minute they were inside, they were split off from the group. They each decided on fake names for if they were caught, and went on their way.

"What are we looking for?" Sasuke said, swinging on Kakashi's hand like a normal five year old would do. Sakura was holding onto Kakashi'a pant leg, and his hand was placed atop her head. She was playing the shy girl this time.

"We're looking for the mountains on the other side of the village." She pointed. Those were the highest, fullest mountains Sasuke had seen yet. They weren't skinny and short like the rock island mountains. "Meaning we have to go through this place undetected."

Kakashi sighed, roughly holding Sasuke against him so he could stop wiggling. Sasuke pretended to whine. "You are more of a handful than Naruto when you want to be," Kakashi said, making Sasuke stop being a brat immediately, cover be damned.

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"She's gotten so secretive so quickly, we don't know what to do." Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno sat in front of the Hokage. "We really don't know what else to do with her but put her in the Academy."

"Are you sure, Mebuki-san, Kizashi-san?" Minato asked, leaning his chin into his hands. "She's so young. Just five years old, you say?"

"Yes, my lord." Mebuki said, nodding. "I don't want her to be in the Academy, but it looks like she wants to. She leaves us behind with a shadow clone - how did she learn the shadow clone jutsu anyway? - and goes out training every day. When she comes back, she is quiet. She gives us a tight hug, then eats a little bit of dinner, and goes to sleep. She's worrying us, but we can't stop her, Lord Hokage."

Minato lifted an eyebrow. "Is she a prodigy?" So young... she's Naruto's age... speaking of Naruto, he knew his son was listening in outside the window.

"We don't know, my lord. She never trains in front of us. But she doesn't sleep much, either, we know that, and she's smart." Kizashi told him.

Naruto chose that moment to step in. Apparently, he had walked around and gone through the door. "Hey! I couldn't help but overhear, I was coming to see my dad. My name's Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, and I'm gonna be best friends with your daughter."

The three adults looked at him like he had grown two heads.

"Naruto-chan... what?" Mebuki asked, looking confused. Of course she knew he was the son of the Hokage, but other than that, this outburst was completely random.

"You said your daughter needed help, right? Well, how 'bout this. I'm five, and I'll join the Academy at seven. If we start bein' friends, will you hold off on putting her in until I get to enroll?" Naruto asked, in his cute little five year old voice.

Mebuki and Kizashi exchanged a glance, not really knowing what to say, or how to resist Naruto's big blues. "Sure," Kizashi said. "Thank you, Naruto-chan."

Naruto's eyes sparkled as he left the Hokage's office. He'd just established a way for himself and Sasuke to see Sakura-chan more, and solved things with Itachi-nii-chan over the course of two days. He was good at this. Minato beamed in pride at his adorable, friendly son. He just hoped the little girl would be open to his son's vibrant personality.

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"Yo."

Sakura bumped nose first into the man in front of her, gasping in pain. She looked up to apologize to the man and noticed him already looking down at her. He wasn't that much older than Kakashi, maybe in his twenties. Sakura's mind was currently aged at twenty-two since she had been 17 when she was born into this new body and was now five years old. Sakura recognized him immediately as Killer B, Naruto's jinchuriki friend and mentor in their last life. Sakura didn't know what to say, so she just gaped at Killer B. Kakashi noticed her gasp, and walked over slowly, bringing Sasuke with him.