Them Is Where the Home Is

Prologue

“Nii-san!” Sasuke suddenly jolted up from his seat when he heard his mother announced that his older brother is finally home after being a week off from a mission. Fugaki Uchiha cleared his throat that made Sasuke realize that he's still in front of his Otou-san, which made him shrink back to his seat and tries hard to hide himself using the dinner table.

“Itachi-chan, I'm sorry but can you buy me some stuff from the grocery store? The stocks were not enough for us and we need them for dinner.” Sasuke heard his mother, “Where's Otouto?” Sasuke's eyes brightened when he heard his older brother mentioned him and bowed to their father when he heard his mother call for him. He ran to the kitchen trying his hardest to ignore the way his father paid no attention to him.

“Nii-san! You're back!” Sasuke crushed his older brother's lower side with his hug due to excitement. Itachi smiled softly and tapped his index and middle finger between Sasuke's eyebrows which made him pout unconsciously and held on to the place because of the surprise he felt from the impact.

“Be careful you guys, off you go.” Mikoto Uchiha, their pretty mother set them off by the entrance door as they tucked in their feet in their shoes. Itachi bowed to their mother and let himself get dragged by his energetic brother who's only like that around him. Mikoto leaned on the door as she watch her boys disappearing backs in their compound with a soft smile on her face and went back in once they were gone.

—

“Naruto! Take your hands off that food right now!” A loud booming voice echoed throughout the Namikaze/Uzumaki Compound, “Okasan~, can't you hurry up? I can't take it anymore, believe it!” A child's voice as loud as the former echoed. Inside the dining room, Minato Namikaze the fourth hokage is sitting by the dinner table reading a newspaper seemingly unbothered by the situation as if he was already used to it. In front of him, is Naruto Namikaze their one and only son. Kushia finally entered the dining room and set the last dish on the table. “Naruto, you should wait for others to settle in before digging in, it's disrespectful. ESPECIALLY to your elders.” Kushina scolded Naruto just as soon she settled down beside Minato.

Naruto didn't say anything and only pouted, Kushina helplessly looked at Minato who got the message and cleared his throat to get their son's attention. “Naruto, you should listen to your mother. She only wants the best for you.” He sternly said with an obvious gentleness with them making Naruto's pout deeper and sat properly on his seat and grumbled an 'okay' which made Kushina's expression turns into a satisfied grin, she clasped her hands together, “Anyway, itadakimasu!” The other two followed after her and they dig in their food.

“Your cooking skills are the best Okaasan!” Naruto praised his mother with his widest grin that made Kushina reflect it and smirked to the other blonde beside her which made Minato sweat dropped but soon turns into a warm hearted smile by witnessing his own family enjoying their dinner.

—

“Go wash up before going to bed dear.” Mebuki Haruno told Sakura while cleaning the dining table, “Hai Okasan.” Sakura cheerfully and went upstairs in less than a minute, Kizashi Haruno barked a laugh about their daughter's excitement but didn't even question about it thinking that it was just some little girly stuffs going on.

Little did they know, their little baby was already outside somewhere near a lake trying out a jutsu she doesn't even know what, but as someone with the age like that, curiosity really does get the best of them.

She formed the hand signs she saw on the scroll in her father's drawer, Tiger, Snake, Rat, Snake, Tiger. And focused on the river water in front of her while holding her breathe feeling nervous on what's going to happen. By the time she gasped for air, a pout formed on her lips when she realised that the water remained still. She tried it again for the second time leaving her with the same result. She tried again, again, and again. So by the time of her 5th failure, she pursed her lips as she came to think about what was she missing for the jutsu not to work. After a few minutes of processing, she realized that her parents might have already noticed that she was missing and quickly fled from the river. She will save this curiosity next time when she finally has the opportunity to try it out again.

Little does she know, two witnesses nearby saw a little bump on the water that was in front of her with her 5th attempt. Unfortunately, she didn't have the sharp eyes and time to notice when her eyes were close as she was trying to do the jutsu.

—

“Sasuke, what are you looking at?” He heard his older brother asked, he looked up finally breaking his sight of the girl, “Nothing nii-san, what was that again?” He excitedly asked, Itachi smiled at him and repeated his story about his last mission while they continued walking back home.

Sasuke looked back one last time at the girl who was by the river holding a tiger hand sign, if he wasn't observant enough, he would've missed the tiny bump in the water in front of her. A glint flashed in his eyes before turning completely back to his brother's side and swore to himself to find her one day and asked about what she was doing.

Across the river, a person sitting on a tree branch leaning on the log comfortably behind him. Under the shadows of the thee, the wind blows heavily making the leaves dance that gave the moonlight an opening to reflect his shinning eyes. He just witnessed a 6-7  year old kid from an unrecognisable clan that is maybe perhaps a civillian clan try to execute a C-B rank water protection style jutsu with a sloppy hand signs and the wrong stance.

His figure went blurry where his shadow went from on top of the tree branch and on to the ground. It could be a teleport or he was just too fast and swift with his movements, his footsteps not making any sound even when he's stepping on the grassy yet dry field indicating that he is a someone who is skilled to be able to do those without any efforts. He went deeper inside the forest completely disappearing into the woods.