NARUTO 4

After that evening where she broke down crying, Naruko moved in with them. Carl was happy to see his parents in action in this instance as they took in and comforted the young orphan, it made him proud of them for stepping up. Now that she was a friend of their children, Hiashi and Himari weren't going to just stand by and let things go on as they had been and let Naruko run wild with no guidance.

Naruko began joining Carl, Hinata, and Neji in their daily training schedule. She joined them in the mornings for their exercises in a spare set of Hinata's workout clothes at first, which mostly fit her. Their parents had already arranged for a new wardrobe for her, which would take a bit of time to make.

When asked what colors Naruko liked, she admitted that the orange monstrosity that was her jumpsuit was the only thing she could get to wear. As a result of her stubbornness, she had convinced herself she actually liked the bright and obnoxious orange.

"Orange isn't too bad a color, Naruko." Himari patiently began explaining her opinion on the matter. "But too much orange just doesn't look good, either. Having some orange mixed in with other colors will look much better. And if you are serious about being a ninja, you should know that ninjas shun colors that are too bright. They make it too hard to hide from enemy ninja when you need every advantage."

"Okay. I'll listen to you about the colors." Naruko thought about the issue for some time before giving in and agreeing to follow Himari's lead on the colors and styles of her clothes. Despite being a wild child, she was still a girl and had those same impulses and desires for pretty things that any other girl did, even if it had been carefully buried under the imperative to survive in a hostile environment.

After breakfast at their morning workout, Carl was amused to see that while Naruko's strength was only slightly above average for their age, she had speed and endurance to spare. She was like a little energizer bunny that kept going and going.

He figured it was the physical boost she gained from being the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox. The Fox's chakra that leaked from the seal it was imprisoned in had quite an effect on her physical body, breaking it down at the same time it was healing her. It was also probably where the three whisker marks on each cheek came from, which was one of her most distinctive features.

In addition to her stamina and speed, she had a health regeneration ability that made it so any nicks and scrapes she got in training were fully healed without scarring very soon after they finished training. It was truly impressive.

Despite joining the Hyuga in their physical training, the Gentle Fist was not a martial art that would be a good fit for Naruko, since she didn't have the Byakugan or body type for the martial art. So their tutors got Naruko started on the basic academy martial art that would be taught to all the students. It would give her a good foundation for building on when she began learning other, more advanced martial art styles.

After lunch Carl and Hinata dragged Naruko along behind Neji to the study where they would continue to train their mind with scholarly studies and the arts.

"Uh." Naruko uneasily blurted out when she hesitated to enter the study/library full of scrolls and books. "I don't know about me being here."

"Why?" Carl asked her after looking at her for a bit.

"I was always told that I was a natural disaster and would ruin any scrolls. So I don't wanna do that to your scrolls." She almost whispered in response. She didn't want to ruin the hospitality they had given her.

Carl and Hinata exchanged glances. With a subtle nod, Hinata grabbed Naruko's hand and pulled her in and sat her down at the desk.

"Naruko, whoever told you that was a bad person. Don't pay any attention to what they say, okay? We want you here, and want you to learn along with us." Hinata gently said, with Carl nodding along and adding his 'yes' to what Hinata was saying. Neji even gave a serious nod along with them.

"R-really?" Naruko asked in disbelief, looking from one to the other, still having a hard time believing that someone could be so…nice, to her. That they wanted her around.

Carl internally tsked at yet more evidence that the girl who should be an upbeat and never say never kind of ninja was so…uncertain and tentative.

'Well, I guess it makes sense, really. If she had to live another six years all on her own with the hatred of the civilians all around her she would have developed bigger and stronger emotional walls to hide behind. Her public mask would be nearly impossible to get past, and it might have developed into her actual persona. Right now she's still at that vulnerable stage where she still has some small amount of hope that things could get better.'

Needless to say, Carl realized that if they betrayed her at this point, she might never trust anyone else ever again. He had no intention of doing that to Naruko though, and judging by Hinata's look, his cute six year old sister would make anyone who harmed Naruko her enemy of a lifetime.

"Really, really." Carl sincerely answered Naruko's question, unable to keep himself from quoting Shrek.

"Yes." Hinata replied at the same time. "Now, come. Tell me what you know about reading and writing."

"Uh…nothing." Naruko awkwardly scratched the back of her head. "No one had any time to show me anything."

Carl could tell by the clenching of hands and grinding of teeth that Hinata didn't like what that answer said about Naruko's life. His twin sister took that as a declaration of war, of sorts. She soon had her new blonde friend digging into the trenches of academia, determined to do battle with the helpless ignorance that Naruko was forced to battle every day of her life!

'Well, that's what it feels like at any rate.' Carl chuckled inside as he watched Hinata tutoring Naruko on the basics.

Looking over at Neji's face where he was studying in his own corner, Carl saw that his cousin had been tracking the conversation. While Neji hadn't been putting a lot of effort into interacting with Naruko, he had been following the conversations and learning what her life had been like.

Carl saw the realization hit Neji that even with how much it sucked to be a branch member of the Hyuga clan, there were people out there that had it worse than him. It was that realization that soon proved to Carl that Neji was just as invested in seeing Naruko excel in her training and studies as he and Hinata were.

Carl thought it was a sort of vicarious victory over fate that drove Neji on. If Naruko was able to overcome the fate that the civilians tried to foist on her, then he had hope that his fate could change as well.

While intellectually Neji knew the obsession with Fate was foolish and had simply been a malicious plot that the dead Hyuga elder had preached to him to ruin him, emotionally he hadn't been able to overcome yet how deeply it had been embedded in his psyche.

So Neji desperately hoped to see Naruko turn her Fate around, which would give him hope that Fate had no real hold on him.

And from then on in their afternoon study, the three Hyugas would take turns tutoring Naruko, trying to get her caught up to where they were in their studies.

In the evenings while Carl and Hinata trained their Byakugan eyes, Naruko started learning to access her chakra and practice control exercises. With her enormous chakra reserves, Carl knew that she would need all the control exercises she could get to be able to tame her chakra.

Now that Naruko was doing those chakra control exercises, Carl realized that the Hyuga's eye training exercises basically did the same thing as the leaf floating chakra control exercises. It was no wonder, really, that the Byakugan training served more than one purpose. The Hyuga's martial art, the Gentle Fist, needed a great deal of skill and control to accomplish.

If they didn't have an exact control over their chakra, they could accidentally inject too much chakra into their strikes and kill or permanently disable their opponent when they were simply trying to incapacitate and capture.

It was also important of the Hyuga members to start very young. They could gain control over their chakra and practice the Gentle Fist style before they really gained enough chakra to accidentally paralyze or kill their practice partners.

Carl felt lucky that even though he had unusually high chakra reserves for a Hyuga, he was able to learn control so quickly. Well, he felt lucky but it was probably the result of perks that he still didn't know about. So, he still felt lucky, just in a different way.

After the first few days of Naruko's stay, Carl saw the third Hokage visit Hiashi for a meeting. He wasn't able to see exactly what they spoke about, their anti-spying measures were quite good. But his Byakugan training was quite advanced so he was able to at least see them while he channeled chakra to his eyes. After the two men sat down in his father's study, Carl watched his father pass a report to the Hokage.

After reading the report, the Hokage slumped a bit in his seat, apparently disheartened by what he read. Carl could only assume it was a report on an investigation into Naruko's life and all the things the civilians put her through. The reports the Hokage received were probably not that accurate or detailed. Either that or the old man didn't have the time to read everything when he was swamped with paperwork.

As a result of that report and whatever else Hiashi and the Hokage talked about, there were no more obstacles in the way of their having Naruko live with them. The Hokage actually seemed quite relieved and pleased with their help for the young blonde Uzumaki.

But a few things did change in their weekly schedule. Aside from their regular play time meetings with their friends in the park, the Hokage came by at least once or twice a week to spend time with Naruko, talking about their lives and getting to know her better. He even sometimes came to their training sessions and took over for the tutors to train Naruko.

Carl, Hinata, and Neji were allowed to sit in on the training, as long as they didn't try to take over the focus of the lessons the Hokage gave Naruko. Each of the lessons were quite good. The old man's teaching methods were quite good for getting them to learn. He did train the three Sannin. And whatever else they became, they were highly skilled S-class ninja.

In regards to the Hokage's renewed vigor in being a part of Naruko's life, Carl could only assume the tired old ninja felt guilty over how he allowed Minato Namikaze's daughter's situation to degrade so far and was trying to make it up to her. Minato Namikaze was the fourth Hokage, and he had sacrificed his life and soul to seal the Nine Tailed fox away in the seal in her stomach to stop its rampage across Konoha.

Minato had summoned up the death god Shinigami at the cost of dying and having his soul be sealed in the Shinigami's stomach for all of eternity. Apparently the death god thought souls were tasty? Who knows.

Naruko's mother was Kushina Uzumaki, which was where Naruko Uzumaki got her last name from, rather than her father. She was the last member of the Uzumaki clan (as far as anyone in Konoha was aware of). The Uzumaki clan of Uzushio had been staunch allies of Konoha for years, and were cousins of the Senju clan.

And Kushina had been the previous jinchuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox, holding the demon fox back from going on rampages. She had left her home in Uzushio at a young age to come to Konoha to take up the burden from Mito Uzumaki.

So with those two people as Naruko's parents, Carl could see how the old man Hokage would have felt some guilt over letting their daughter fall into such abuse. It was a poor way for Konoha to repay those two ninja who literally gave their entire lives to making Konoha a better place.

Three months passed since that day that Naruko came to live with them, and another packet of Carl's memories were restored. This time it was his memories from the Against the Gods world.

'Well, at least now I know what happened to Rover, or Feng Ra now.' Carl chuckled, relieved. His earlier panic on finding out he was missing his familiar was kind of funny now that he knew what happened.

Aside from his suddenly restored control over his profound energy cultivation, the time pearl, his sword Blue Orchid and his armor, his pocket dimension, the inner world and all the energies stored there, and remembering his relationship with Caiyi; the best thing aside from all those best things was that in this round of memories coming back was his knowledge of medicine and healing.

He was positive he could help Yakumo now with her problem. She hadn't been showing up at the park with his other friends, which was something that concerned them all. From what they had been told, her physical frailty had taken a turn for the worse, so she hadn't been able to join them.

Since he hadn't heard about a fire or her parents dying, he was sure he still had some time before her tragedy occurred. And since he had no idea about just when it happened, he figured now was the best time to help her before something bad happened.

That very night, instead of going into his Warehouse to train in the Hunting Grounds, Carl teleported out of the clan grounds after putting up his SEP field on his room. He had only ever been to Yakumo's clan house for her birthday celebrations before, so he didn't know where her bedroom was. He teleported outside their clan housing to do some recon, floating in the air above the buildings.

Channeling a bit of chakra to his eyes to activate his Byakugan, he scanned through the walls of the Kurama clan housing, looking for his friend. Once he located her, and saw that she was alone, Carl teleported into her room.

The moment he arrived in Yakumo's room, he could sense the wrongness. Something smelled foul to his senses, and it felt even worse to his magic.

That feeling wasn't something he was likely to forget. He had sensed it a lot in his time in the BtVS world. It was the presence of a demon.

Instead of following his first plan of doing a medical diagnostics, Carl cast a sleep spell on Yakumo to give him time to work. He then cast an SEP field on the room, as well as silencing charms. He didn't know how loud this was going to get.

After a series of diagnostic spells, Carl found out what kind of demon he was dealing with. It was similar to Eyghon the Sleepwalker, in that it was a possessing demon. But since Yakumo hadn't invited the demon into her body, it was limited in what it could do. But still, it was ruining her health and messing with her mind, and it needed to go now.

Some third party had apparently performed a ritual that caused her to be possessed by the demon, since the demon wasn't the kind that was powerful enough to wander around the physical plane on its own power.

And the possession was draining her life force, which was causing her weakness. It would also eventually give the demon access to her illusions based bloodline at some point if it wasn't cast out soon, which would allow it to affect the real world and act as if it was a split personality. Everyone would think she was mentally unstable, and her situation would get even worse.

Carl scowled at seeing his friend in this situation, being schemed against by unknown parties.

There was a memory he had of something like this happening in one of the Naruto fanfictions he had read. He had no idea if it matched up, since that story had a male Naruto, not a female Naruko. But it was something that could be checked up on at some point, probably.

He cast another series of diagnostic spells, took her pulse and inspected her body with profound energy. And he found out that in addition to being possessed, she was also poisoned.

He hadn't ever run across that particular poison, but he could see what it was trying to do. It was trying to suppress and destroy her control over illusions that her bloodline gave her. Once he saw that, Carl scowled even more.

In the story he remembered, this poison was aimed at the Kurama clan to weaken them and lessen the influence they had over Konoha. And eventually kill them all off. Yakumo had such a strong and concentrated version of their bloodline that the poison couldn't affect her control over illusions.

So the perpetrators had performed a minor summoning of a demon to possess Yakumo to continue to destroy the Kurama clan.

And the clan that was responsible for the poison and the demon in the story was none other than the Uchiha clan.

While Carl didn't want to jump to conclusions and immediately label the Uchiha as the perpetrators, he was at the very least incredibly suspicious. He would have to investigate and figure out what really happened.

For now, it was time to get rid of the demon and the poison in Yakumo's body.

Carl first pulled out a bezoar that he had enhanced to be much better at dispelling poisons than normal. Thank goodness he now had access to his dimensional storage space. With Yakumo unconscious, he forced the small stone down her throat.

A brief smile appeared on his face when he force fed her a bezoar, despite the seriousness of Yakumo's condition. He had thought of an amusing scene from the movie The Princess Bride.

"You're not even mostly dead, Yakumo. But it is a miracle I've got this stone, I'll admit. It's even chocolate covered."

After waiting for a few minutes Carl ran another diagnostic spell and was relieved to see the poison was being neutralized. It was breaking down and being passed from her body by her normal biological functions.

With the poison gone, he focused on getting rid of the demon.

He retrieved the items he needed from his Warehouse and set out the ritual that would cast out the demon. Carl set out two circles, both in blessed silver. The first one he placed Yakumo in. It was connected with a line of magically infused stone crushed into powder. Various herbs and candles were set around at key points.

Once he had the ritual prepared, Carl began the chanting that invoked the magic. He felt the metaphysical gears of the world being shifting as he continued to employ the ritual. After a few minutes, he felt the spell anchor enter Yakumo and fish around for the target. A short time later, the ritual's probe hooked the demon, like a fish.

It slowly began pulling the demon out of Yakumo. The demon reacted like a fish would, flopping around and struggling to escape, which caused the host, Yakumo, to begin yelling and screaming in pain. Carl ignored the thrashing and screaming of his friend to continue the ritual. He couldn't finish until the demon was out of her.

It was good he had remembered to put up silencing spells. He didn't need her clan member to come mobbing him during the ritual.

After several minutes of struggle, the demon was finally completely separated from Yakumo. Carl changed the pitch and cadence of the ritual, and his magic that powered the ritual pushed the demon along the path of the magically infused stone dust from one circle to the next. The moment the demon arrived in the silver circle that Yakumo wasn't in, Carl brushed away the dust and charged the prison circle the demon was in. It wouldn't be able to escape now.

Carl looked over and finally saw the appearance of the demon. And it was ugly as sin. It's vaguely humanoid body stood only four feet tall. Its poison green skin looked festooned with boils and warts and cancers. Its arms and legs had at least four, no five joints. No, it was back to four again. And now three.

Well, however many joints it had at any one time, the way it moved around the inside of the blessed silver circle that was trapping it was unnatural. It's "face" had a mouth that was very similar to the Predator alien, with side mandibles. It had no eyes, but it did have restless tentacles for hair as it sought some way to return to Yakumo's body.

Carl began another chant, starting up a ritual to tear the demon limb from limb and scatter its essence back to the demon realm it came from. It would be torn into so many small particles that it would never be able to reform. While the demon was annoying, it was so low level in power that he would waste more magical energy in powering the ritual to suck out its essence and power out and cleansing it of taint than he would gain for storage and later use. So he decided to simply destroying it.

After several minutes, the inhuman screeching from the demon stopped, as it was finally destroyed and cast out.

"Carl? What's happening? What was that thing? Was that inside of me?"

Carl's eyes snapped over to the circle that Yakumo was in. Apparently the ritual also got rid of the sleep spell Carl put on her, and she had seen everything.

So he had two choices, either wipe her memory of the event and act like nothing happened, or tell her a bit of the truth.

Looking into her nervous brown eyes, Carl caved. He couldn't callously erase his friend's memories like that. His shoulders slumping down, Carl sighed as he began to explain.

"We were all worried about your sudden declining health, Yakumo." Carl began as he sat next to her in the circle he had laid out. "And I happen to have some special abilities, don't ask about them for now. I could tell there was something really wrong. So I snuck in and got rid of the demon that was in you that was making you sick."

Carl kept it simple, no long explanations. Even though she was a smart ninja kid, she still wasn't even 7 years old yet.

"So, like another bloodline besides your Byakugan?" Yakumo asked as she leaned closer to look in his eyes.

"Yeah, it's pretty much like that. But, you've got to keep it a secret, please." Carl requested.

"Of course!" Yakumo loudly declared as she nodded her head vigorously. "I already feel a hundred times better, now that that thing is out of me." She shuddered in disgust at her memory of the demon. That disgusting thing had been inside of her!

Carl put an arm around her shoulders in comfort, and she leaned into him for a few minutes.

"So, how can I be sure that it won't come back?" She asked him eventually.

"The…jutsu, tore it to pieces. It won't be able to come back." Carl reassured her, though she still didn't look comforted.

"But…what if another one tries to get inside of me?" She asked in a tiny voice.

Ah. He should have thought of that. Carl pulled out an amulet from his storage and presented it to her. The metal was filled with magic and charmed to be unbreakable and so that it couldn't strangle the wearer even if someone tried to choke them with it. The amulet would prevent any demon from possessing the wearer.

"Here, wear this to protect yourself from any other demons. They won't be able to possess you while you wear it." Carl explained the properties of the amulet.

"Thank you!" Yakumo hugged Carl fiercely for the gift.

"You're very welcome."

Carl really didn't want to tell her at this point that it was most likely not happenstance that she was possessed by a demon. He had no proof who the culprit was, yet. And causing her to worry about enemies that she couldn't do anything about right now would just cause her unnecessary worry.

So he needed some way to protect her, beyond the amulet, from subsequent attacks. He couldn't be sure that whoever sicced the demon on her would not find some other method to attack her once they found out the demon hadn't worked out properly.

He discreetly made the chain of the necklace into a portkey that would bring her to safety at his room if someone were trying to kill her, and alert him to what happened.

It might take some time, but he would have to figure out if it was the Uchiha that was to blame or not for Yakumo's condition. One thing for sure, if the Uchiha were responsible and they were doing the same things to other clans in order to try to gain supremacy in Konoha, he was feeling a lot less motivated to prevent the Uchiha Massacre from happening.

Who cares if stopping the massacre would prevent Sasuke from becoming an emo? If the Uchiha clan was behind it all, then they deserved to be massacred. Well, all the adults anyway.

Especially because if this kind of treasonous sabotage and killing of Konoha's clans was done by the Uchiha, then they definitely wouldn't stop until they won the entire board. Which meant they would be looking to end his own Hyuga clan at some point in the future. And he wasn't about to let anything happen to his family.

As flawed as the Hyuga were, they were still his family.

"Your health should restore back to normal, Yakumo." Carl finally told the little girl that was hugging him. "Try to get some sleep now to recover better. And you should join us at the playground in a couple days. Everyone has missed you."

"Thanks again, Carl."

While Yakumo had been distracted with hugging him with her eyes closed, Carl had discretely cleaned up the ritual, storing everything in his dimensional storage. Now he got up and tucked Yakumo into bed.

He slipped out of her bedroom door when he saw the coast was clear, dropping the spells that kept anyone from investigating the happenings in her room that night. He silently apparated back to his room, and sat down in thought.

If it wasn't just Yakumo that was poisoned, but all the members of the Kurama clan, then that was something that would be hard to counteract without alerting the poisoners. And how did a whole ninja clan get poisoned anyway? That was definitely something that needed investigating.

He wasn't sure how or even if he was going to do anything about healing the Kurama clan anytime soon. There were too many things he didn't know the answers to. He wouldn't make any decisions until he got some solid answers.

Investigating would be annoying. He had the skills to do so, but he was going to have to spend a lot of his time sneaking into different high security record locations. And chances were that the secrets weren't written down, so he would have to spend plenty of time trawling through ninja's minds for those secrets.

And he still didn't know how good the average ninja's mind defenses were, let alone the Yamanaka clan who specialized in mind based jutsu.

Sighing at the thought of how much work his investigation would entail since he only had free time at night to do it, he settled down to meditate the rest of the night away. He had a lot to think about and plan for the future.

XX

The next day Carl went about the normal routine of training with Hinata, Naruko, and Neji. It was another day where the third Hokage, Hiruzen of the Sarutobi clan, came to teach Naruko.

The man who, before he became the Hokage, earned the nickname The Professor for his incredibly varied knowledge on the Ninja Arts never came at the same time of day more than once in a row. One day he would show up for the morning physical conditioning. The next visit he would be there in the evening for chakra control training. And then he might come to guide Naruko's martial art practice, then he might show up for an afternoon study session.

Carl thought the Hokage was trying to set an example for Naruko of how a ninja must be unpredictable to stay alive. They must vary their routine and never allow their guard to drop.

Either that or he was just fitting in the lessons in between meetings. Carl hadn't completely made up his mind on that. There were always mundane explanations that could be the reason rather than sneaky ones and conspiracy theories.

The Hokage's visit came in the morning, and they spent a bit of time going over different traps that ninjas were expected to know. And there was a lot.

A trap that a ninja sets for any other ninja chasing them through a forest. A trap for the same thing in the open plains, or the desert. A trap for when one is ambushing a caravan, or even a trap when one is defending a caravan. A trap for a quiet assassination with poison, or a loud and public assassination.

There were no end to the amount and types of traps. And all of them required one to get in the head of the victim of the trap and see the world through their eyes. What kind of bait would get the target of a trap to dive willingly into said trap? What kind of things would heighten their vigilance to cause them to veer away from false traps and into the real trap? What kind of things would let them relax their guard and so not see the trap before it was sprung?

While Carl had a great deal of knowledge in utilizing traps for hunting beasts, the lecture the Hokage gave them about how to set traps when their targets were ninja was a welcome and thought provoking lesson for Carl. Especially since it came from such an old and experienced ninja, whose skills had lasted the test of time.

When the Hokage left that day, Carl saw an unholy gleam in Naruko's eyes. Carl chuckled inside. It appeared that Naruko wanted to make use of all the civilians that treated her poorly as a means of gaining experience in laying traps.

Carl even helped Naruko convince Hinata that it was the right thing to do, since even the civilians needed to be kept on their toes. Hinata wasn't completely convinced by that argument, but by the remembrance of all the hate filled glares that were aimed at her best friend. That was enough to get her on board. Carl himself never had a problem with it. It would be good experience, especially anytime they needed to escape from ninja forces that might try to catch them.

A few days later, the trio had just arrived in the park to meet up with their friends when they heard a loud cry of soul rending agony coming from behind them.

Turning around, on the far side of the market, they saw a most amusing sight. A civilian man in his 40s was covered in some sticky solution and had feathers stuck to him. But he was completely ignoring the feathers while he was jumping up and down, trying in vain to reach a book with a red cover that was dangling from a rope that was just out of his reach.

"Huh, never expected to see Mr. Sato, the clothes retailer that will only sell me ugly orange jumpsuits for 10 times what they are worth looking so…unkempt in public." Naruko sniggered.

"Yeah, who knew he had such weird hobbies." Carl chuckled.

"What's the book he's trying to grab?" Hinata wondered.

"That's one of those books of smut all the perverts love reading." Naruko stated.

Carl looked sideways at her, seeing that apparently she was just repeating what she had heard from a number of gossiping women.

"Smut? What's that?" Hinata asked.

"Things like kissing and naked wrestling." Naruko stated.

"Hmm, weird. We should really start carrying a camera with us to immortalize moments like this." Carl tried to change the topic. He didn't want to listen to his six year old sister and friend talk about smut. They were still at least six years away from starting puberty and their opinions were bound to be a bit off kilter and embarrassing.

'Hmm. On second thought, I should be treasuring these conversations so I can bring them up as embarrassing blackmail later on.' Carl chuckled internally.

"Yeah. I would like to treasure this moment for all time." Naruko agreed with a huge grin as she watched the huge crowd gathering and laughing at the feather man. It felt pretty darn good to practice her ninja skills and get some payback at the same time.

"Well, let's go meet up with everyone. I heard that Yakumo is doing much better and planning on joining us." Hinata said as she turned back around.

"Alright!" Naruko turned around and started running, grabbing Hinata's hand as she pulled her along. "We'll see you later Carl! Have fun with your lazy, stinky, and boring friends!"

Carl chuckled as he waved bye to the girls before he left to find Shikamaru, Choji, Shino, or Kiba to hang out with. Ever since Naruko had met Kiba she loved calling him stinky, since he positively reeked of dog. It's like he slept with the dogs in the pound and didn't bathe in the morning.

And since Naruko was now following Carl and Hinata's schedule, she had grown used to the family bathing situation and bathing at least a couple times a day. At the very least they had one bath after each morning exercise and one just before bed.

So now that she was used to regular bathing, running into Kiba who always smelled of dog, she gave him the nickname "Stinky".

Shino didn't talk very much. Carl thought it was because he was always "chatting" with his hive. Since he easily filled his quota of daily communication, he didn't feel the need for idle chatting and joking, usually. And Choji was always chowing down on his snacks, so he usually kept his mouth busy. Either that or he was too shy to be a proactive talker. So they were both nicknamed "Boring". They didn't even get their own nickname, that's how boring they were.

Carl wasn't the only one who laughed at that. Even Shino and Choji weren't bothered too much by it, since it was obvious that Naruko was just teasing them.

And of course Shikamaru was the only one among them who could gain the title of "Lazy" because he was the stereotypical Nara.

It was strange to Carl that they never saw Sasuke at the park meetings with the other clan heirs. Maybe that was another reason that Sasuke got such a fan following; through his anti-social ways he earned the reputation with the brainless fangirls of being "mysterious".

It was certainly a reason that Carl didn't feel bad about not helping him more. He wasn't a friend. He was barely an ally.

Carl usually spent most of their park time hanging out with the guys. Because of Kiba's inability to sit still, if he was around they would push at Shikamaru until he finally gave in and joined them in playing some kind of active game, like the combination of hide-and-seek and tag that was called playing 'ninja'. Sometimes playing ninja was like a game of kick the can. Other times it was like assault the fort. There really were unending variations on playing ninja.

If Kiba couldn't make it then they would most likely play some cerebral type game like Go, or just relax and chat.

And after spending most of his time with the guys, he would go join Hinata and Naruko in hanging out with Ino and Sakura, getting to know them. And now Yakumo was included in that, now that Carl had freed her from the demon and her health was recovering.

Today was a sedate day, with no Kiba present. They just sat on the hill and talked about some of the things they learned in the past week. Carl had a good discussion with Shikamaru and Shino about traps. Shikamaru and Shino had a lot of good ideas, since one of their clans had the shadow manipulation bloodline, and the other had hives of chakra eating bugs that nested inside them. Both the boys had their own ideas and takes on how to cause people to fall into their traps, which expanded on the basics.

Choji, on the other hand, was from a clan that was quite straightforward and focused on pure strength. Their idea of a trap was to grow their hands really large through their body expansion jutsu and clap them to death. Trap, successful!

Eventually Carl said his goodbyes to the guys and moved on to chill with the girls. Unlike the other guys his physical age, he didn't find the topics of conversation among the girls to be off putting or troublesome. And they would be working to be ninja as well, so it was important to have good relations and be able to work together.

Not to mention that he was hoping that by making friends early on with Ino and Sakura, he could keep them from making the mistake of becoming fangirls. It really was an insult to their intelligence and potential for them to fall into the category of brainless hormone factories.

"How's it going girls?" Carl said when he was still a few feet away.

"Carl!" Naruko and Yakumo called out his name excitedly.

"Brother." Hinata nodded at him with a more sedate smile.

After Carl sat down next to them, Ino and Sakura greeted him in turn.

Carl just lay back in the grass and watched the clouds while letting the conversation of the girls wash over him. They were talking about some of the things they had overheard some female ninja talking about being important.

"So I overheard this one kunoichi, who was talking to another about how important it is to diet so they always looked good while they were completing their missions." Ino was just gossiping.

Carl started coughing, trying to stop himself from laughing out loud.

'I was just thinking about how to head off the stupidity that the fangirls spread, and here it is. The perfect opportunity.'

After he finished coughing, he looked up at the five sets of eyes looking at him. Two sets seemed to be glaring at him, Ino and Sakura, for interrupting them. The other three sets, Hinata, Naruko, and Yakumo, were looking at him quizzically.

"Yes, Carl?" Ino said in what she thought was a tone of voice laden with danger, but Carl just thought the little girl was amusingly cute. Little chibis were so innocent, even with their ninja training.

"Well, funny you should mention that word diet." Carl started. "I ran into this kunoichi who was berating a couple of girls who had just graduated the academy. She was a jonin and she had an entirely different thing to say about the word diet."

"Oh, and what would you know about the needs of a kunoichi?" Ino queried haughtily.

Carl chuckled on the inside. Just because female ninjas, or kunoichi, had a different gender didn't mean that their food intake and exercise requirements were fundamentally different from a male. Food was energy in, and exercise was expending that energy. It was like an equation, balancing the energy requirements versus the food intake.

But obviously saying something like that would be dismissed out of hand. Since he was a boy and was their own age, he didn't have any authority on the subject, in their minds. So a different approach was needed to drive home the lesson.

"Me? Nothing. But this is coming from that jonin kunoichi that I overheard. She was saying that there are two meanings to the word diet. One of the meanings is simply what you eat regularly. It's a descriptive term to mean what kinds of food and what amounts you eat on a daily basis."

"The other meaning of the word diet is used by civilian women and lifelong genin corps kunoichi to describe how they starve themselves to try to make themselves look better to pick up a guy to be their sugar daddy."

"What's a sugar daddy?" Sakura interrupted, followed by all the girl's looking interested in the answer.

'Ugh…I should have used a different word. How to explain to six year olds what it is?'

"Well, from what I heard, some girls use only their looks to get guys to buy them everything. Like, they don't have any useful skills other than their looks. They can't cook, clean, file paperwork, and they can't throw a kunai, or do a jutsu, or anything. Sugar daddy is the term for the guys that pay for her to look good." Carl tried explaining.

"But what does the guy get out of it?" Hinata asked.

"Is it like the smut thing?" Naruko asked. Whatever else she was, she had basically lived in the streets for six years, so she had overheard a lot more of such things than Hinata, Ino, or Sakura.

"What's smut?" Sakura asked.

"It's when a guy and girl do some naked wrestling in bed." Naruko promptly answered.

"So the girl doesn't know how to do anything but gets some guy to buy everything for her and does the smut with him?" Ino asked.

"Yeah, it's like the whores down in the poor section. They do the naked wrestling smut thing, then the guys give them money." Naruko added on.

"Anyway." Carl desperately interrupted. He was hoping the girls didn't bring these particular conversations home, but he was pretty sure they would at some point. Not his problem, unless he got the blame from their parents, somehow.

"That jonin I was talking about went on to lecture the girls that if they want to be an actual kunoichi then they need to exercise daily to build up the strength, flexibility, and speed to be able to fight. And if they starve themselves with their diet, then they will be weak and probably get injured due to lack of nutrition. And if they are weak on a mission when their teammates are relying on them, then they could cause their whole team to die because of their weakness."

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the girls exchanging sober and shocked glances. Even though they were in ninja training, as six year olds they didn't often dwell on the topic of death that was all too common to the ninja profession. Either dealing it out or receiving it.

'Huh, now that I've got a Byakugan, is anything really in the corner of my eyes anymore?' Carl pondered a totally unrelated idea for just a moment before returning his attention to the girls. Before plowing on with the topic.

"Oh, and when she saw me being interested in what she said, she passed these pamphlets off to me. She ordered me that if I ever heard any kunoichi hopeful saying the word diet then I was to pass them a pamphlet to combat the number one Killer of Konoha Kunoichi: Diets." Carl pulled out some pamphlets that he had prepared earlier

The Dangerously Sexy Kunoichi's Guide to Kicking Ass and Looking Good While Doing it.

Carl had spent some time over the past few months, ever since he got his Harry Potter memories, seeking out and making memory pictures of the fit and powerful jonin kunoichi that looked curvy and sexy, and then comparing them to the life-long genin corps kunoichi and civilian women that looked weak and stick thin.

The contrast between the two categories was shocking.

After a bit of an interview with some of those jonin kunoichi he had included in the pamphlet, Carl had all the information he needed to compare the two kinds of kunoichi: those who took the job seriously versus those who didn't.

And he had put all that information into the pamphlets for this exact situation, to visually show the difference between the dedicated and sexy kunoichi that didn't starve themselves and took their training seriously versus those life-long genin kunoichi who barely exercised and dieted and looked ill, weak, and not sexy.

He handed five pamphlets to the girls and watched as their eyes grew wider and wider as they looked over the visual evidence. Everything was laid out, plain as day, that if they wanted to get strong, powerful, and look good doing it, they needed to eat enough food and exercise regularly. Otherwise they would be the laughingstock of the ninja world, languishing in the bottom of the ninja totem pole: weak and unappealing.

Upon seeing the fires of determination burst into flame among the young girl's eyes as they found real kunoichi to be their role models, Carl patted himself on the back. It had been worth it to spend some extra time hunting down and interviewing some of those scary jonin. But they had certainly gotten a laugh out of his pamphlet when he passed them their copy. They certainly had zero respect for fangirls.

"Carl, Hinata. It's time to return home." Ko said from his positions standing over them. He was looking at Carl in a disapproving manner for lying on the ground so casually.

"Hmm. Since that's not all of us in the group who are to go home together, I guess we can't go yet." Carl laconically stated while staring steadily in Ko's eyes. Nuo was standing nearby, but making sure by his body language that Carl knew he wasn't of the same opinions as Ko.

Despite his casual manner, Carl was feeling quite a bit of irritation and even anger with Ko. The man had never accepted Naruko, and he occasionally did things like "forgetting" to add her name in when telling them it was time to go home. A little passive-aggressive means to try to let Naruko know he didn't approve of her and that she was an outsider that wasn't welcome. As if Ko's approval of Naruko really meant anything. But the petty actions pissed Carl off, since it was designed to hurt his friend.

If the man wasn't so damned loyal to his father, Carl would have asked for a replacement for Ko already. But the man was getting on his last nerve with his subtle digs at Naruko. And since Naruko was their honored guest, then Ko's digs were a stain on his family's honor.

Not to mention the bastard kept trying to police Carl's behavior. Kept trying to stick that stiff stick up Carl's ass so he would act like a stiff pompous douche in public; like the "proper Hyuga heir". Carl wanted none of that.

Carl got a little bit of pleasure from seeing Ko's face stiffen at the implied rebuke that Carl sent his way.

He jumped to his feet, looked over at the girls, and told them he would be back in a moment.

"Ko, come with me. We need to have a little talk." Carl strolled away from everyone else so no one could hear them. Once they had gotten out of sight around a nearby wall, Carl turned around and stared at the man.

"Ko, you have been giving loyal service to my family for many years. It is very commendable. And so it is with respect for your service that I say this to you now. Your behavior has been getting more and more unacceptable. Naruko is an honored guest. She is a close friend of both me and my sister. My parents have accepted her into our homes with open arms. So whatever problems you may have with her, you need to figure out how to get over it if you wish to remain in the position you are in."

Carl left it unsaid that he would be replaced as he eyed the man as he watched him struggle with the issue. It was very obvious what he meant, and Ko wasn't exactly a dumb person. Just apparently stubborn and blinded by hate of the Kyubi.

"So what is your problem with her anyway?" Carl finally asked when it looked like Ko wasn't going to say anything anytime soon.

Ko looked away in both shame for being chastised by a six and a half year old and anger for the same thing. As well as whatever his problem with Naruko was that was making him stubborn.

"I cannot speak of it." Ko said while looking away. "It is a high rank secret."

Carl snorted loudly, causing Ko to look at Carl in question.

"If that is the excuse you use for having a problem with Naruko, then you are more of an idiot than I thought you to be." Carl bluntly told the man. "She is the jailer, not the prisoner. And if you can't comprehend that simple fact and can only see the prisoner, then think about how powerful that prisoner is. You really want to keep poking it with a stick until it gets angry enough to snap back at you?"

Ko looked quite shocked at Carl's veiled words that showed he clearly knew that Naruko carried the Nine-Tail Fox and didn't care. It was an open secret among the adults, but the children were not supposed to know about it.

Even without his enhanced senses, he could have easily heard all the civilians muttering about the "demon girl" when they were out walking with Naruko. So even if he didn't have some prior knowledge of the world, he would have been quite suspicious of just how his friend was treated.

"But if you are so stupid and full of hate that you can't see the girl that Naruko is and act accordingly, then I suppose we need to move you to a position that will allow you the distance you need from her. Because I'm telling you right now, Naruko is not going anywhere. And I won't put up with your passive aggressive attempts to make her feel bad. You have one day to think this matter over. If you can't fix your attitude and behavior, then I'd appreciate it if you were up front about it so everyone can be happier from now on."

"Understood." Ko was looking down, and Carl was happy to see the man actually looked like he was thinking about it.

'Huh, looks like I might not have to actually beat someone up to induce a bit of decency in them with that perk from the ATG world.' Carl thought in wonder as it looked like Ko was reevaluating his attitude and outlook on life.

Satisfied with a job well done, Carl turned around to return to the group of girls, and saw that they were piled up just behind the wall listening to his rant at Ko.

Carl sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He really should have been a bit more careful about what he said and where. Having awesome X-ray eyes didn't give him any advantage if he didn't channel chakra to them and use them. And he had been so focused on what he was going to say to Ko, that he had neglected his other senses that would have told him they were being followed, since the girls didn't exhibit any malice towards him.

Looking at the girls staring at him, he saw a number of different reactions. His sister had a smile that told him how proud she was of her brother, and that it had been fully expected he would act in such a manner.

Ino and Sakura were gaping at him and looking like they were quite impressed by his defense of their friend, and shocked that he would chastise an adult like he had.

'Damn, I hope those two have enough motivation to avoid the trap of the fangirl, and that they don't fixate on me if they don't.' Carl muttered in his mind.

Yakumo was looking quite…fixated on Carl. He may have screwed up his opportunity for her to treat him like a normal friend when she discovered him exorcising that demon out of her and he let her keep the memory. Well, nothing to be done for it.

And Naruko had tears in her eyes as she looked at Carl in near worship for him actually standing up for her!

"Well, shall we go grab a snack before going our separate ways?" Carl offered. He knew the possibility of them forgetting what he'd ranted about to Ko due to being distracted with snacks was unlikely, but he had to try. A token effort, at least. "My treat?"

He was almost pulled off his feet as the girls snapped out of whatever thoughts they were in as they pulled him along to the nearest snack shop to the park.

It would be just his luck if a report got back to the Hokage about him skirting around talking about an S-rank secret.

Well, at least Carl had a cinnamon roll to console himself with. Yummm, cinnamon rolls…