Sorry that this came out late. I had to vacate my university dorm room a few days ago since the university decided that only final year students would return. I had to endure a road trip with my parents as we drove for 6-hours to get to the university, twice. And I finally decided to give in to my curiosity and downloaded Fate/Grand Order.

For some reason, my country still doesn't allow the game to be downloaded here and I had to go through several hurdles just to download it.

Also, I rolled a five-star Okita Souji (Alter) and a four-star Heracles in the same 10-roll summon last night. And this is my first week playing. Safe to say that I am now addicted. Now if I could only get a Saber then I will have a Servant from all seven regular classes.

Also, decided to give Dark Sakura a name, since calling her that was a bit tedious. It is not the most original name but meh...

Chapter 5 – Uzumaki Naruto

Shirou struggled with several awkward bundles as he made his way back to his home from a late morning trip to the marketing district.

He had picked up the standard array of rice, fruits, vegetables, spices and meats he used in his cooking, as well as some less day to day things. Grounding cloths and metallic threads were hard to come by, as most people didn't have any use for them, but they were key in several forms of complex magic arrays. Shinobi's seemed to prefer to use what they called sealing paper and chakra infused ink to do their Fuinjutsu, but the paper was more delicate than the cloth, and would burn if too much magical energy was absorbed into it. Rin had been making him keep an eye out for anything that would work for a while and a few out of town traders had brought in some.

Ever since he had reconnected with Rin and Sakura, he had been helping supply them with the things they needed for their magecraft. Well, more Rin than Sakura. The first thing she had done was make new clothes for herself, sewing in several runes and Fuinjutsu formulas that would allow her to be able to mask her chakra presence by funnelling it into the seals. Through this she had started to sneak out of her families compound nearly every day to meet up with Shirou. Things really did feel like old times as they worked to turn the small Toko compound into a virtual fortress through a variety of seals and Bounded Fields.

Sakura had less problems with coming to meet him. She just told her aunt that she was coming here and that was about it. No need to sneak out under the disapproving stares of elderly clansmen. Though she sometimes brought her cousin and his little friends along. He had a distinct feeling that Shikamaru-kun did not like him.

Not all the things that Shirou had bought were for the girls. He himself had to buy some chakra infused sand for his forge. The orders for custom made weapons came in not long after word got out that he re-forged the White Light Chakra Sabre. From actual weapon users to would be kenjutsu masters, he had no shortage of requests.

It was a whole lot more work. Where someone could pop out a couple dozen kunai in an afternoon, a chakra blade took weeks to make. Though the price and number requested were also different. Ever ninja seemed to have somewhere between ten and a hundred kunai and shurikens provided to them by the village armoury. However, more high-quality weapons were more limited and had to come out from their own pocket. So, most shinobi only had one or two if any. This was probably because of the price difference.

Non-clan shinobi were just simple mercenaries who didn't have the most money, most lived on a sort of village subsidized plan. A kunai cost around five hundred ryo a piece, you could buy five of them for the same cost as a fancy meal. On the other hand, good katana could be compared to the price of a one-bedroom apartment. A chakra blade was closer to a house, and the village wouldn't help pay for those kinds of expenses.

At first Shirou considered just sticking to making the kunai. He wasn't all that comfortable giving people such blades. Unfortunately, Rin was a little too insistent on him taking the higher paying jobs, and long experience had taught him to simply not fight her on such things. Something to do with gaining more experience and quick cash.

Sakura was at first upset that Rin was making him work to pay for her research, but after some explanations, she accepted it. She began helping him with their funding issue. Who knew that Sakura was so well read on stories, not just Japanese ones but a lot of stories from other cultures as well.

Their plagiarizing of other authors hard work had yet to bring in the money she wanted, but according to the editor of the publishing company when he met 'Emiya Kiritsugu', the shinobi version of 'King Arthur' was bound to be a best seller. The Henge was really a useful jutsu for setting up fake identities. The three of them were even considering turning the Holy Grail War into a story but decided against it since it would reveal a lot of their abilities and the story just did not work without an in-depth explanation of their abilities.

Till the cash started rolling in, he would have to make do with making swords for shinobis. Luckily, because there were a large number of requests, he was able to be pickier about who he chose to make weapons for. He categorized the people who he saw into three main groups, two of which he wouldn't make blades for. It was easy enough to tell the people apart. Just one look at their current weapons told Shirou novels about the people that came to him.

The first and largest group were the people who believed that having a powerful blade would make them strong. These people were idiots. They reminded Shirou of an old proverb about putting pearls on a pig. It doesn't matter how beautiful the pearls, the pig is still a pig and won't look any prettier, you'll just be wasting good jewellery. Powerful swords that ended up in the hands of people like this usually didn't stay in their hands for very long, as they would be killed, and the weapons simply taken off their corpse.

The second were the people who were too good at what they did. People who killed more than was probably necessary and took innocent lives. Giving a powerful blade to them would be like giving an already dangerous dog rabies. Shirou had no desire to help these people be more efficient killers.

But if the people asking were actually of a decent sort, only taking jobs that helped people or took no enjoyment in killing, then Shirou would usually consent to making something. Sadly, this group seemed to be in the minority. So far, in the five months since he re-forged the White Light Chakra Sabre, he had made four other blades for three different people.

Two of them were katanas for Sakura's aunt and her boyfriend. They were nice people who despite their career, did not let it turn them into monsters. He even sparred with the two, surprising them with his skill despite his young age. His young body, refraining from using his suicidal dual wielding style and the full scope of his skills and abilities meant that he loss easily, but for such a young age, it was still remarkable.

The last was a pair of trench knives for Sarutobi Asuma, the Sandaime's youngest son. He had an interesting fighting style, coating his blades with wind natured chakra for increased cutting power and reach. Nice man, smokes too much though and was obviously in denial that he and that red-eyed lady friend of his were not a couple. Some people just did not see the obvious.

Across the village, Rin and Sakura felt the urge to slap Shirou over the head for being an idiot.

Shirou was wondering just what he would be making for lunch when a now familiar scent came into the range of his sixth sense. He looked towards a park bench and saw the source, Uzumaki Naruto.

Shirou had long since realized what the boy was. There was no mistaking that scent. The disturbance that lingered in the air around him, something that distorted nature, but also seemed to be a part of it. Any magus would be able to sense it, and nearly any magus could tell you exactly what it was.

A spirit of nature that has been contorted by hate, a true demon. Not just any demon, but the Nine Tailed Demon that ravaged the village.

Shirou had seen the boy running around dozens of times, and each time he had done his best to simply ignore it, but today something was different. Shirou couldn't sense any of the ANBU who usually tailed the boy, acting as secret guards. He was all alone, sitting on the park bench, nobody watching.

Shirou put down his shopping and started to walk towards the park.

Naruto was not the demon itself. Shirou knew that. Demons, just like with most spirits, were non-corporeal beings, masses of mystical energy. Only the most powerful among them ever gained a physical form, and that was usually through a contract with Gaia. However, there was little doubt in Shirou's mind that the boy's body was playing host to the demon. The whisker marks on his cheeks were signs of the demon influencing its host's body.

He might be wrong, and this world might operate on different rules when it came to demonic beings, but Shirou had no doubts that the fox was not a benevolent being.

It was really sad. The child was innocent. However, Shirou was all too aware of how possessed human were. They could exist completely normal lives without anyone having a clue, until something causes them to feel blood lust. After that they would go berserk.

Shirou had a few dozen swords in his Unlimited Blade Works that had been used against these half breeds in the past. He could scan their history and remember those horrible battles. A human body possessed by a demon could be compared to a Servant in terms of raw power, and the added healing factor from the demon's nature made them hard to kill. That was with a normal demon. With one as strong as the Nine Tails, it would be an entire Holy Grail War level of dangerous.

"Kill one to save a hundred," Shirou mumbled to himself, steeling his heart for what he was going to do.

Killing demons was no easy task. Even if the vessel was destroyed, it wouldn't truly kill the demon. Through its connection to nature, the demon would eventually regenerate, which was probably why the boy had been allowed to live. However, there were ways of severing that connection.

Usually a normal Black Key would do the trick, but Shirou wasn't taking any chances. He loaded up Gae Buidhe, a fairy made weapon, into his Unlimited Blade Works, preparing to Trace it. The short spear would be fairly manoeuvrable, even with Shirou's shortened height, and would easily sever the demon's bond with nature, destroying it forever.

However, right before Shirou made to plunge the spear through the back of the boy's chest, a low growling sound filled the air, giving him pause. It was... the child's stomach. Looking closer, Shirou saw that the child was holding his stomach and sobbing softly.

He didn't show most of the usual signs of neglect or abuse. He wasn't all that thin, and he didn't have any bruises covering his body. Though even if he was being starved and beaten, the demon inside of him would keep him alive and unscarred. It would provide him with all the energy he needed without having to cannibalize his own body, and it would heal any obvious injures. However, there were things that the demon wouldn't provide.

The boy was small, even for a three-year-old. Even with the demon providing him with energy, it couldn't replace two of the most important things for the growth of a young body, sustenance and human contact.

His clothes were a mess, the black shirt with the leaf symbol on the front made it hard to notice until you got closer, but it was covered with holes and looked like it had been a long while since it had a good washing. A few small blood stains spoke of injures that his body had received. There was also a good deal of dirt in his hair, and he was shivering slightly, the late fall air being rather cold for a worn-out t-shirt and shorts.

There was also the mere fact that the boy was out there all alone. Shirou, Rin and Sakura weren't exactly your normal children but even they were hardly left all alone for more than a few hours. It was actually quite annoying to the thirty plus year old children. Well, for him and Rin. Sakura was just happy at the concern that was being shown to her by responsible adults.

Sympathy started to erode away the steel Shirou was trying to erect around his heart. He tried to maintain his focus and hold fast to his ideals... but rather than Tracing his weapon and finishing the demon off, he called out to the boy.

"Hey," Shirou said, causing the kid to snap up and look at him with deep blue eyes filled with fear. It hardly registered with Shirou that even though his cheeks were stained with tears, the boy's eyes weren't at all blood shot. Demon regeneration must have guarded against even that. "You hungry?"

'Well, it's not like he's going to lose control right away. I can at least give him a last meal,' Shirou tried to tell himself. He hadn't given up on the idea of killing the boy. It was still the option that insured safety for the greatest number of lives. He was just... delaying it a little.

Shirou knew damn well that neither Saber nor Archer would have hesitated for a second in ending the boy's life. They wouldn't have even felt the slightest bit conflicted about it. Lancer might have said it put a bad taste in his mouth to kill such a young child, but he would have done it. They would have all realized it was a necessary evil and done their duties as heroes.

"Are you sure it's okay?" Naruto said, standing back a bit as Shirou moved up towards his home, giving the barrier around the house his command to let Naruto through. "Won't your parents be mad at you for this?"

"Hm?" Shirou mumbled, being dragged out of his thoughts. "No, its fine. I don't have any parents."

"You don's!?" Naruto half shouted in surprise, his blue eyes widening as he stared at Shirou, as if seeing the slightly older child in a new light.

Shirou ignored the boy's surprise as he opened up the door to his house and carried in his shopping. "I'm home!" He shouted out of a half-ingrained habit. That's not to say he didn't get a response.

"It's about time, Shirou-chan!" The grinning face of a purple haired female ninja said as the owner of these features idly played with a few kunai. "I came all the way here to see you, and there wasn't even a hint of a free lunch. Good thing Sakura-chan was here to correct that!"

"Shouldn't you be at work, Anko-nee?" Shirou said in a disapproving voice.

Mitarashi Anko was somewhere between fifteen and sixteen, though she wouldn't actually tell them her exact age. Her purple hair was usually worn in a sort of spiked up ponytail and her brown eyes were as featureless as Rin's white and Sakura's purple.

She had first shown up two months previous, under the pre-tense of her house being messed up in a large-scale plumbing accident and needing a place to crash for a while. Unlike the other shinobi he hosted who were usually field ops, Anko worked in Konoha's Intelligence Division.

The older girl had been sent to spy on the three of them. When Rin confronted her about it, she didn't even both denying it. The Hokage had ordered for the three of them to be watched, and Anko had been assigned to both act as a sort of guard and to report on their activities. Young as she was, Shirou would admit that she was highly skilled.

She considered it to be the best job she had ever been assigned. She was getting paid to live in a nice house with someone else doing all of the household work, being given three home cooked meals a day, and got to tease Shirou all she wanted.

After the whole 'you're spying on us' was out of the way, Anko and Rin ended up being fairly friendly with one and other. It was probably due to their mutual pass time of teasing Shirou, though the fact that Anko was knowledgeable about various techniques and willing to share didn't hurt.

She and Sakura got along well enough. Then, Sakura baked a chocolate cake and Anko declared that she was her favourite among the three. Anyone who could bake a cake that made her seriously reconsider dango as the food of the gods was a keeper.

That she later went to make heavenly homemade dango for her merely cemented Sakura's status as her favourite little minion. Who knew that four-year-olds could put most five-star chefs to shame?

Shirou also didn't mind Anko's presence. It was actually a lot like having Fuji-nee around. Maybe even disturbingly like it. Ravenous appetite, love of teasing him, if she was a teacher then the similarities would be eerily apparent. At least Fuji-nee did not know various ways to get you to spill your guts without touching you. Though Fuji-nee never paid him rent for mooching off him either.

"Oh, don't be like that, Shirou-chan. I'm supposed to be watching you, Yugao's mini me and the princess. How am I supposed to do that if I don't swing by during the day to make sure you three precious little monsters are alright," Anko said with a wide grin.

Sakura entered from the kitchen. "Shirou, your back. I was thinking of making pasta for lunch, since you managed to build a working pasta machine. Is that alright?" Sakura had to consciously remind herself that calling Shirou 'senpai' now was not the best idea. They were both the same age. In fact, all three of them were born within days of each other on the first week of June. Funny thing was that Rin was the youngest among them, being born on the 8th of June, Shirou on the 6th and her on the 4th. She now had older sister privileges, much to Rin's annoyance.

"Sure. I think Bolognese since we don't have any cheese."

Anko salivated. The two of them often experimented with recreating food from their old world and Anko was a willing judge of their efforts ever since she first took a bite of Sakura's triple layer dark chocolate cake. This really was the best assignment she ever received.

Looking past Shirou and at Naruto, Anko raised an eyebrow slightly. "Hey, looks like a stray followed you home."

Naruto bristled a bit at that. "I'm not a stway!" He said angrily. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm gonna be the greadest shinobi ever!"

"My, my, listen to it hiss," Anko chuckled as the young blond fumed.

"Naruto will be joining us for lunch, so try to play nice." Shirou said as he put down his bundles on the table.

"Hmm, I'll go make some more pasta dough." Sakura, bless her heart, did not question why Shirou brought back a boy that her darker half, whom we shall now dub BB, said was possessed by a demon. Yes, BB, real original I know. Sakura went back into the kitchen, presumably to make more pasta dough.

*In the distant alternate future on the moon*

BB-chan sneezed. That was odd. She was an A.I., how did she get sick? She would have to run several anti-virus checks later. Digitally shrugging, she went back to being the best kouhai ever! Now where was senpai again?

*Back to our regular program*

"You know if you feed it, it won't ever leave. That's just how strays are," Anko said with a sly smile.

"You mean like you?" Shirou said dryly.

"Ah, that wasn't very nice. I thought you loved me, Shirou-chan," Anko fake pouted.

"I'm going to help Sakura start making lunch now. Any allergies?" Shirou asked Naruto, doing his best to ignore Anko's antics at the moment.

"Uhm... can you make ramen?" Naruto asked, seeming to forget about Anko rather quickly.

"Ramen?" Shirou repeated, wondering how a question regarding allergies turned into a request for ramen. Kid probably did not even know what that was, the demon likely not going to let his host die from something as mundane as a nut allergy.

The little boy's face light up like a bonfire. "Yeah! Ramen is the most amazing food ever! There's this nice man, Teuchi, he sometimes gives me some whenever..!" Naruto's enthusiasm faltered before he merely continued on a different train. "Teuchi said that ramen is the food of the gods! It is the best food ever and it could be used to solve all the world's problems if you got enough of it!"

"Is that so? Well, I'm not sure how spaghetti compares, but I can see what I can do," Shirou said, leaving Naruto with Anko as he went into the kitchen to help Sakura start preparations.

Shirou let himself be lost in the mundane task of cooking with Sakura. Rin never really understood why Shirou liked to do such things. The half mechanical tasks that took up just enough concentration to stop you from thinking about the great world. The kitchen became his universe, and nothing outside of it could matter.

Rin sometimes joined them. The mundane act of cooking was apparently beneath her status as the heiress of the Hyuuga clan, so she took every opportunity to spit in her clan elders' faces. Fortunately, her ability to cook, learnt out of necessity by having Kotomine Kirei as her guardian, was still up to snuff.

Shirou didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to consider what life must be like for Naruto. The kind of hardships that the small child had to endure with the world at large being willingly ignorant of his suffering. That or causing it

It reminded him too much of Sakura. One of the things in his past life that he felt worst about. He had been so close to the girl for so many years but hadn't noticed the hell she had been put through. The guilt of it ate away at him. He knew it did the same to Rin.

"You're thinking about 'that'," Sakura idly said as she cooked the spaghetti. "Don't. You two didn't know and when you did, the two of you fought your way to save me like avenging angels."

Shirou spent the next twenty minutes decompressing as he made the sauce while Sakura grilled the meatballs. Sakura really was too perceptive at times. But the moment he exited the kitchen, the fact that the world he was in was a strange one was brought right back to his attention.

"Anko-nee, what are you doing?" Shirou asked dumbly.

"Babysitting," the kunoichi replied in a matter of fact manner as she sat on Naruto and filled her nails.

"Shirou-nii... help me..." Naruto gasped as he was crushed underneath the young woman's butt.

Shirou sighed. "Lunch is ready, so just get off of him."

"You're no fun, Shirou-chan," Anko said in a disappointed manner, though she did get off of Naruto so that she could grab her meal.

Shirou set the table as Anko and Naruto took their seats. Though Naruto did look uncomfortable with eating at a low table. Must have never done so before.

"Hey! Why are there five plates here!" Naruto asked.

"Oh, that one is for the princess," Anko answered, fork and spoon in hand as she waited for Sakura to come in with the food.

"Princess?" Naruto said.

As if on cue, the door to the room Rin had claimed as her personal study opened up and the girl herself came walking out holding a cup of coffee and a sheet of papers. "Hey Shirou. I smelled lunch. Did you grab my things for me from the markets?" she said in the manner of a lady addressing a servant.

She was dressed in the clothes she had prepared to help her sneak out of her house. The long-sleeved red top and short black skirt with stockings were very much alike the clothes she had worn in high school, though without her older figure, they didn't produce the same drop jaw response out of anyone but true perverts and lolicons.

She half stopped on her way to the table when she noticed Naruto. "Shirou, why is there a possessed boy at the table?" Rin asked, switching to speaking in English.

The native language around the Elemental Nations was more of a dialect of Japanese, so whenever they needed to speak to each other while others were watching, they decided the best course of action was to switch to English. It always shocked the people who were trying to listen in on them, who believed that the three four-year olds had somehow managed to set up an entire code language without them noticing.

Their research notes were even harder to decipher. Rin wrote in cuneiform, Sakura in Sanskrit and him in English, because unlike those two, he did not know a dead language to write down his notes in. Though he did find himself able to understand old Japanese.

Ah, the remnants of their time as Pseudo-Servants. Figures that those two were compatible with several gods, none of them Shinto. Their memories of their time at Chaldea was a bit blurry since they did not retain control, they were in the passenger seat while the goddesses, or blacksmith in his case, were the drivers. They did leave behind knowledge and information that they felt they could handle though. His Tracing improved greatly after Muramasa left behind all his skills and knowledge of forging.

"He... was hungry," Shirou responded, a little bit embarrassed.

Rin sighed as she took her seat at the table. "Only you, Shirou."

"Are you really a princess?" Naruto asked, looking Rin up and down suspiciously.

"Of course, I am," Rin said with a smile as she sat in a very dignified manner. "Haven't you ever seen a princess before."

Shirou sighed, knowing full well that she was trying to brainwash the little boy. It was at this time that Sakura came in with a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs with Bolognese sauce and served their portions.

All talking ended abruptly as Naruto practically attacked his plate. Anko was only slightly better, though Rin controlled herself, eating in a civilized manner.

Shirou held off, watching everyone as they ate his food, taking a little satisfaction at how people seemed to like it. Sakura did the same, smiling serenely at their enjoyment. The two of them dug in as well, eating like normal people with actual manners, unlike those two who seemed to think manners were pointless.

"Uhm... As usual, your cooking is at an acceptable level, as to standard," Rin said in her high and mighty fashion.

Anko snorted. "Your words of praise are too overwhelming, Princess. You should be careful, or it might go to their heads."

Naruto didn't say a word. He couldn't, not with the rate he was eating. It wasn't until he finished the noodles and was using the spoon to scoop in the remaining sauce in his mouth so fast that some of it spilt out onto his shirt that he finally said anything. "That was amazing! Maybe even better than ramen!" He said with a satisfied sigh and he seemed to dissolve down into his seat.

Anko nodded in agreement. Oh, how her colleagues envied her for her assignment. She just had to babysit three kids that could not only look after themselves, but cooked meals fit for the daimyo. Now if only they were willing to let her exploit their cooking to bribe people. The princess at least seemed receptive to the idea, for a price of course.

"Maybe it's just hunger making you say that." Shirou said before asking the question that had been bugging him. "Naruto, why were you out there in the park alone?" The intelligence officer in the room pricked up her ears, though tried to pretend she was still interested in her food. No doubt Anko was going to go sell out or blackmail whoever it was that was supposed to be keeping an eye on the demon host.

Rin and Sakura turned their attention on the youngest in the room, taking in everything their eyes could see about him. Rin's eyes soften, no doubt already making a conclusion on why Shirou invited the boy back for lunch.

Sakura felt her heart go out to the boy. She could already tell the boy was not cared for properly. Her kind nature compelled her to do what she could for him.

'What about the boy's tenant?' BB asked.

'That can be dealt with. Between nee-san's intelligence, my power and senpai's versatility, we'll figure something out,' Sakura replied.

Naruto's face momentarily twitched into a sad expression before he sat up and puffed out his chest in a fake pride. "Oh, one of those cranky old farts at the orphanage was PMSing or something. I didn't want to put up with him anymore, so I left."

Shirou frowned. Ignoring the obvious fact that Naruto didn't have a clue what PMSing meant, Shirou could read between the lines well enough. Since Naruto didn't have anything but the clothes on his back, the people running the orphanage must have thrown the boy out onto the streets the night before. Whether that was a permanent thing, or if it was the first time it had happened, Shirou didn't know. Naruto must have been forced to sleep out in the cold and had missed breakfast, perhaps dinner to.

"Did you manage to eat dinner last night or..." Shirou tested.

"Um... well no... but that doesn't matter! A guy like me can go days without eating anything!" Naruto tried to boast. Sadly, his stomach growled in disagreement, causing his face to fall.

"Stupid kid. Don't pretend you are more okay then you are. Doesn't do you any good to lie to anyone here," Anko said, her face more serious than normal. There was probably a story there, but Shirou wouldn't pry. Not when the person involved was someone who was a master of daggers and poisons.

"Here," Sakura laid out a slice of her infamous chocolate cake. It was originally going to be dessert for tonight, but Naruto was obviously still hungry.

"But this is your food," Naruto said, eying the cake. Poor boy had probably never even eaten chocolate before. Poor thing.

"And we would be poor hosts if a guest went home hungry," Shirou said, waving the boy off.

"Just eat the cake kid. You don't know what you're missing," Anko told him, staring at the cake with want. Sakura literally had the Akimichi clan at her beck and call the first time she baked it. All she asked for were ingredients for her and Shirou's cooking, some ingredients were hard to get from countries that did not exactly have the best relations with Konoha, but Anko knew that Chouza would happily murder the Hokage for a full cake.

Naruto grinned wide. "Thank you!" He said before digging into the cake. His eyes widened as he took a bite, before dissolving into bliss. Sakura's desserts were better than even Shirou's, though their cooking were about on par. Sakura was better at Western cuisines while Shirou was better at Japanese cuisines along with the cuisine from China and Korea. Between the two of them, they never ate the same meal twice in a month.

Rin watched the boy eating before a smile grin passed over her face. "Alright, I've decided," she said, getting the others attention. "Naruto-kun is going to be living here from now on."

"Huh!?" Naruto shouted, accidently getting some cake on his shirt, much to Anko's dismay. Such a waste of perfectly good cake.

Shirou himself tensed up. "You do realize this is my house?" he said, locking eye contact with the girl, trying to send the message that this was not a good idea.

"Hm? Did you say something, Shirou?" Rin replayed, her warm smile not masking the fact that she was going to ignore all his complaints from this point on.

Sakura sighed. Just like nee-san to decide for all of them. Their time in the Gobi Desert came to mind. At least she got some rare ingredients from there. Though she did agree with her, the poor boy obviously needed all the love he could get. She wondered what Yoshino-oba would think.

In the Nara household, the Nara matriarch felt that her motherly affection was needed. Then, Shikaku opened his mouth then she went on to scold her husband and son on how lazy they were since Sakura-chan was not here to do the chores for them.

'Yeah, I think we both know how she would react. Think she would react differently if she knew about 'you-know-what'?'

'It's Yoshino-oba.'

'Good point,' BB coincided.

"Just what I needed, another brat to look after," Anko said, though she didn't seem that opposed to the idea. "I'll go tell the old man. I need to be heading off to deliver my reports anyways. They better increase my pay." She got up and left before Shirou could stop her.

"Hey! What if I don't want to live here!?" Naruto shouted, still in shock.

"Makes no difference. I am a princess and I have decided. You are just going to have to deal with it. That's the way the world works after all," Rin said with a soft chuckle, confusing the actual child. "Now, if you are going to stay here, the first thing you will need is a bath. You're filthy. Some of Shirou's old clothes will probably fit you and he can get you some new things later."

Rin hurriedly forced Naruto to go and take a bath, leaving her, Sakura and Shirou alone together as she helped them with washing the dishes. After doing a quick sweep for people listening it, they got to talking.

"Rin, he's possessed by a demon. He needs to be put down before he goes berserk," Shirou said trying to maintain a level of professional calm about it. Something he was finding difficult to do.

"I doubt he will go lose himself to the demon immediately. I'd give it another ten years or so. Who knows, it might never happen," Rin said, waving him off.

"It might never happen if he spent his entire life livings in peace. With how things are, I doubt he will make it till he is ten. Especially if he actually tries to become a shinobi and is exposed to killing," Shirou counted. "Every day he lives comes the risk that something might happen. Another incident, just like three years ago. I'm not going to take those kinds of chances."

"We're not even sure if this world works on the same rules as our old one. Our magecraft is easier to use and way more powerful than it ever could be in our old world except during the Age of Gods, and from what I've read, Naruto isn't even the only demon container in this world," Rin countered.

"BB said that she could sense two different chakra signatures inside Naruto's seal. Maybe their seals for demon containment are better than what magecraft could ever do?" Sakura added.

"I'm still not sure about this," Shirou said.

Rin rolled her eyes and smiled. "Alright then. How about a bet. If you can bring yourself to do it, then kill him. I won't stop you. But if you can't, I get to observe him as research material," Rin said tapping her chin. "I doubt that a demon as powerful as the Nine Tails actually willingly took on a human host. It is probably bound to the child with a seal of some kind. It would be interesting to take a closer look at. Not to mention the demon itself. I wonder how the changes in Gaia would affect those spirits that are connected to nature. So many questions."

Shirou's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious."

Rin turned to him, giving him a sly smile. "Oh, I am serious, and I know I'm going to win. You won't kill him, because you aren't Archer, and you never will be." Then she walked out, returning back to her clan and leaving Shirou to take care of the three-year-old time bomb.

Sakura smiled at Shirou. Trust nee-san to explain her decisions as a desire to research when she really did not want senpai to turn into his Counter Guardian alternate future self. Drying the last plate, she excused herself to return to her clan as well. Hmm, maybe Shikamaru could make a new friend his age. She would have to bring him over tomorrow.

Closing his eyes, Shirou tried again to steel his heart, only to find the steel crumbling at the memory of Naruto's hopeful blue eyes. "I'll... kill him next week," Shirou mumbled to himself, before running off to fetch some clothes that would fit the small boy.

*Omake*

It was a fine day that morning and in a section of Konoha's Intelligence Division's building, the Konoha Cryptanalysis Team were enjoying an easy day. Responsible for creating the village's secret codes and deciphering the codes of other villages, they were one of the most important and respected branches of the Intelligence Division.

The current head, one Ibuka Shintaro was drinking his morning coffee as he read through his paperwork.

'Hmm, looks like Kumo changed their codes. Looks simple enough, if I just use the old cipher and add a few adjustments... This is good coffee. Wonder what brand it is?'

Sadly, his quiet day deciphering codes of other villages was interrupted when his office door was kicked opened.

"The Sexy and Single Mitarashi Anko is here!"

"Sigh... Good morning Anko, what can I do for you this morning?"

He was not even surprised. Anko had the habit of barging in on anyone who was not in an important meeting. Curious though, this was remarkably early for her since she liked to come in late ever since she was given that assignment to watch that Toko boy.

"Say, Ibuka. You guys can solve any code you lay your hands on within a week right?"

"Yes. There hasn't been a code we haven't broke that took longer than 6 sleepless nights," Ibuka answered proudly. That was one hell of a week during the height of the Third Shinobi World War.

"Well I bet that you can't solve my code within a week!" Anko challenged.

"Challenge accepted!" This was no longer a mere bet. This was a matter of honour! To say that his team, with whom he had spent sleepless nights breaking the codes of Konoha's enemies with, could not break a code within a week? Preposterous!

"I need you to decipher this. Think you can do it?" Anko waved a sheet of paper in front of him.

Accepting the paper, he looked it over and felt his eyes widen.

"What is this?!!"

"I know right? I had my cute little monsters write down a message in that code of theirs for you to decipher. Figured that you guys could use the challenge since the codes coming out from the other villages are kind of getting predictable. Wouldn't want you guys to get rusty now would we?"

The thirty-year-old man read through the code. Fascinating. Three four-year-olds came up with this. Still, how hard could it be? Geniuses or not, they were still four years old.

"And best of all, they agreed to bake you all cookies if you break it within a week!"

Ibuka felt his mouth salivate. Anko had once brought a bento that her little wards made for her lunch. The smell from her lunch was heavenly and worst, she ate it in full view of all of them and did not share! There were even enough cookies baked by Shikaku's niece for the whole division, but the glutton ate them all!

"Well, see you in a week!" And with that, Anko left with as much flamboyance as she came.

*A week later*

Ibuka felt like a failure. His whole team felt like failures. The entire Intelligence Division felt like failures. It had been a week since Anko gave him that code and they had not even managed to figure out what the first sentence said.

Day one, confidence that the team would break this code before lunch.

Day two and one sleepless night later, an intern was sent out to bring back enough coffee to overdose an Akimichi several times over.

Day three, they had caved and brought in outside help. Surely, Inoichi-sama could help them figure this out?

Day four, Inoichi was seriously considering having Shikaku's niece and her friends create a code for their own use.

Day five, Inoichi brought in Shikaku-sama.

Day six, they got the entire division to help out after promising to share the cookies.

Day seven, it had been six sleepless nights and they still hadn't broken it!

Day eight. "I'm back! Well?"

Somewhere in the back, the youngest member of his team was sobbing quietly.

Ibuka, who after seven consecutive nights without sleep, was less proud than he was a week ago. "We can't break it. What does it say?"

Anko grinned. "Three sentences. 'Sorry, about this but Anko-nee kept pestering us to help her. She promised to teach us about the more subtle uses of poison. If you can't break this, don't worry, we're sure you'll figure it out someday.' The sentences were written by pinky, violet and the princess in that order." She read the last one with the patronizing tone that Rin told her too as well.

Ibuka was on his knees. Here they were, Konoha's finest when it came to intelligence gathering and interpretation, beaten by three four-year-olds.

Inoichi sighed and raised a bag he brought in with him that morning. "If it is any condolence, Sakura-chan decided to bake the cookies anyway for all of you after I asked her to. Figured you all could use a treat to raise your spirits after such a crushing defeat."

The entire division was in tears. Best boss ever!

I accept omake ideas. They don't have to be canon, and I will use them if I like them. Also, I would really like someone to help me beta this since Grammarly isn't all that it is cracked out to be. Peace out! Stay safe! Now, back to my gacha!