Chapter 103 It’s getting lively

"I've never been to a ninja village before," the child admitted. "A wandering ninja merchant suggested I come here."

"That's a good suggestion," Kakashi said firmly, agreeing with Genma. He reached forward and selected a harness with a shoulder strap, an attachment that could be easily modified to carry a scroll.

"For Naruto?" Genma guessed. "It's much better than the standard stuff you can buy. And it lasts longer..."

An hour later, they had cleared out half of the poor vendor's stall.

They walked back to the Hatake clan's territory, readjusting the rice paper rolls on their shoulders.

"Oh, I want to ask you something." Kakashi suddenly said. "You don't have any mission today, right?"

"No." Xuanjian said firmly. "I'm free until tomorrow night. What's the matter?"

"Can you do some training with my team while I work on the construction in the yard?"

Xuanjian snorted.

"Are you asking me to babysit for you, Kakashi?"

Kakashi grimaced.

"Not so easy, unfortunately. My students can be... a little stubborn. Consider it a reward for the wrist brace."

"Deal." Genma agreed. He was always reluctant to turn down a deal. "If you want some cheap labor to help, Kojitetsu and Izumo don't have any missions today."

"I'll keep that in mind." Kakashi said thoughtfully. "Thank you."

……

By the time Sasuke managed to wake himself up, the sun was already casting a golden glow through the windows, which on any other day would have been a sign that he was late.

But on that particular morning, he suppressed the urgency and sank contentedly back into the state of half-sleep he'd fallen in. From the chakra signals buzzing nearby, he could tell Naruto was awake, if only barely.

"Is Kakashi-sensei gone?" he asked, his face still buried in the pillow with one forearm underneath.

"Urusi said he was out doing some errands," Naruto replied sleepily, followed by a long yawn.

Sasuke turned his head and opened one eye, noticing that Naruto's face was not far from his own. Naruto was lying on his back, rubbing his eyes with one hand and resting the other hand behind his head.

Urushi slept beside him, the Shiba Inu snuggling close to Naruto.

"Should we get up?"

"Maybe," Naruto agreed glumly, dropping his hand from rubbing his eyes to rub his dark back.

Sasuke rolled over, careful not to disturb Souhei. Almost at the same time, Naruto turned his head towards him, causing their foreheads to accidentally touch.

This elicited a warm, slightly sleepy laugh from Naruto, and Sasuke felt a flutter in his chest despite himself. The action reminded him of their promise, the one they made as the sun was setting and the day was about to end.

"A promise to keep," Naruto muttered, and as if reading his mind, Sasuke allowed himself a small smile.

"A promise to keep," he agreed, turning over and sitting up.

Naruto gently nudged Souhei to wake him up, and the shinobi yawned before jumping off Naruto's chest and accidentally stepping on the shiba's flank.

Sasuke shook Sakura's arm, trying to wake her up, and nimbly dodged her unconscious elbow.

"Let's go," he urged. "We've had enough sleep."

Sakura grunted in displeasure but sat up straight without letting go of the still sleeping Bisque, cradling her favorite ninja dog in her arms as she stood up.

A brand new morning, a brand new routine begins.

At first it felt strange because they suddenly had a lot of space they didn't have before, they weren't tripping over each other every three steps anymore, there were elbows and knees and tight spaces everywhere.

This significantly reduced the amount of bickering they had in the morning, though the space between them was now filled with the scratching of their sensei's ninja dogs, which jumped around, both helping and causing trouble.

The kitchen was much more spacious compared to Naruto's cramped abode, with a long open countertop and appliances along one wall, separated by a large L-shaped island that separated the kitchen from the main living space.

Windows above the countertops look out over the woods towards the village, and at the other end of the room is a sliding glass door that leads to a terrace and then to what was probably once a garden, now wild and overgrown.

Beyond that was a series of jagged rocky ledges that dropped dramatically over the edge of the cliff.

Naruto left the door open, letting the breeze flow through the freshly cleaned house.

Despite the bright sunshine, the weather was still cool, but Sasuke found himself not minding. It seemed like a perfect start to a new day.

"You three should invite your summoned beasts over for breakfast," Blue said vaguely, dragging a bag of ninja dog food after Sakura.

"All of them?" Naruto asked from the countertop.

"Why not?" Wu Hei reasoned. "It's good for improving relationships."

"We should have enough food," Sasuke affirmed, shrugging and opening the fridge to check. "It's the food Iruka-sensei has stockpiled."

They brought out plates of raw meat cut into various lengths and cuts, after filling the ninja dogs' bowls with food and preparing breakfast for themselves.

Naruto was the first to summon, as his summon limit was still two, and as usual, the two little foxes were fighting each other.

"Oh my god. Stop it," Naruto muttered, reaching out expertly and grabbing the two little foxes by the scruff of their necks.

They were now somewhat larger than when Naruto first summoned them, about the same size as a Shiba Inu, and each had grown three tails instead of two after a week of nourishment from Naruto's chakra.

As a testament to their new rank, foxes can now generate foxfire; if only they could control it.

Sasuke sighed as Sakura used a low level water jutsu to put out the fire that was happily burning on the floor.

The little foxes are now able to seemingly light anything on fire - from waxed bamboo floors to the side of a fridge - from the strange flames they create around their mouths and paws and from their tails.

Sasuke put out that particular fire with a wind style vacuum jutsu.

However, when food appeared, the foxes' anger subsided, and Sasuke took advantage of the moment of peace to summon his Divine Eagle.

In a puff of shimmering, sand-like smoke, Chikli landed easily on his shoulder, her golden ivory feathers gleaming in the morning sun.

She was followed by two rather confused God Eagles, both much larger than she was. The smaller of the two, a juvenile with golden wings and feathers as large as a large eagle, was Krel, a member of the Chikri family, born a litter earlier than her. Next to him, almost twice his size, was Valkla, a slender black figure of a Stormwing of similar age.

Sakura summoned Lavia and its twin, Saveri, both of which were much larger than when Sasuke first saw them - though they still tended to wrap around Sakura's arms like long, scaly scarves.