Uninvited Guest

The inner gate opened, and Sasuke arrived at an unhurried pace.

Naruto greeted him enthusiastically. "Nanny Sasuke!"

Shadow Clone Sasuke walked up and gave him a sharp knock on the head. "That sounds awful. I told you not to call me that!"

Then he turned to the other three.

"You came early. Please come in and rest for a while. My original body is still training and probably won't be back inside for another ten minutes or so."

Akamaru sniffed around Sasuke's feet, then turned to Kiba and barked twice.

Kiba understood. "You're not the original?"

Shikamaru caught the key point as well. "So you're a Shadow Clone? Your training progress is really fast."

Choji went crunch, crunch...

Shadow Clone Sasuke spoke seriously. "Sorry. I didn't know when you would arrive, so I wasn't home to wait for you personally. Please forgive me."

"Would you like something to drink? Juice, milk, or tea?"

Naruto volunteered. "I'll help."

Shikamaru clicked his tongue. "Naruto really is something. He doesn't treat himself like an outsider at all."

"Ta-da! Want to try this? Sasuke's failed cake!"

On the plate was a rather ugly cake, crooked and sunken in places. The Shadow Clone made one or two cakes every day as kitchen experiments. Otherwise, there was too much secondhand flour to finish before it spoiled, and the eggs could be used up too. Of course, if it could not all be eaten...

Shadow Clone Sasuke: Ta-da my ass.

Naruto received his second knock on the head of the day.

Sasuke brought over some fruit. "Sorry for the embarrassing sight. I'm still practicing. Please have some fruit if you don't mind."

Compared to fruit and cake...

After finishing a bag of chips, Choji's eyes never left the cake Naruto had brought out. His sharp gaze seemed ready to see through the cake and discern the proportions of its ingredients. "Can I try it, Sasuke? It doesn't look burnt or scorched, so it should be edible, right?"

He looked so serious, even though it was just a cake. Since the guest had asked so earnestly, Sasuke could hardly refuse.

"Of course. Would you like jam and cream, or chocolate? How about I decorate it a little first? Just a few minutes..."

Choji replied as if it were only natural. "Please do."

When Kiba heard that cream would be added, he made a request too. "Could I have a plain cake without anything added? Akamaru can't eat too much sugar or cream."

Shadow Clone Sasuke readily agreed.

Naruto was disappointed that he had failed to get everyone to eat the plain cake. "What the heck? When I ate it for the first time, you didn't say anything about adding cream!"

"You didn't even ask me. You just said, 'Let's eat,' so what was I supposed to do?"

Shikamaru muttered softly, "What the heck? Seriously."

He had been the one to suggest visiting Sasuke first, yet everyone except him had somehow quickly become close.

The cake was sliced horizontally into two layers and soaked with honey water. Chopped fruit and cream were placed in the middle, then the layers were stacked together. The entire cake was coated with cream, simply drizzled with jam, cut and plated, then topped with a few berries. It looked nothing like the bare cake Naruto had taken from the refrigerator.

Choji ate while giving a serious assessment. "It barely compares to what you'd get at a dessert shop, but the ingredients aren't very good..."

Kiba asked in confusion, "Sasuke isn't eating?"

Naruto was already used to it. "Sasuke's clone never eats."

Shikamaru explained, "A Shadow Clone is still essentially Chakra. It can do more than the Clone Technique, but it still can't digest food."

Kiba suddenly understood. "I forgot Sasuke is still a Shadow Clone."

Naruto looked at Shikamaru with a face full of confusion. "Shadow Clone? Isn't a Shadow Clone also a clone? Is it different from the Clone Technique we learned?"

Shikamaru knew Naruto was a poor student, but this still felt absurd. "You've been with a Shadow Clone for so long, and you still don't know how it differs from an ordinary clone?"

Naruto answered as though it were obvious. "Well, I can't even use the Clone Technique anyway. Hehe."

The wooden door creaked open, and Akamaru barked twice.

Sasuke, dressed in workout clothes and drenched in sweat, came home. Steam seemed to rise from his whole body, and his face was still slightly flushed from exercise. Fortunately, everyone here was a boy, or there would have been shrieking everywhere.

"You're all here? Sorry to keep you waiting. I'll take a shower first. I'll be right back."

After cleaning up the kitchen, Shadow Clone Sasuke casually joined the conversation with a question.

"What do you usually do for fun? What are you planning to do later? Go hunting? Pester a jonin to teach you ninjutsu? Or find somewhere scenic to do homework?"

The moment he said that, the four children, Akamaru included, all broke out in cold sweat.

Shikamaru put on a puzzled tone. "Don't you get tired from training all the time? Playing is just playing. You can even do nothing at all. Just bask in the sun and waste time..."

Shadow Clone Sasuke sighed and murmured, "Wasting time... that's really rather luxurious."

"Let's go fishing!"

Naruto eagerly offered the idea, gesturing with both hands.

"There's a huge, huge pond behind Sasuke's house!"

Such exaggerated gestures could not possibly refer to the little pool in Sasuke's backyard. Shikamaru and Choji guessed what Naruto meant and looked awkwardly at Sasuke.

What could he do? It was not like he could lose his temper with a child. He only hoped Choji would not eat too much.

The artificial lake at the training grounds on the edge of the Uchiha Clan Grounds.

The Uchiha had diverted a river flowing into the village into the artificial lake, setting up a barrier at the outlet where it overflowed back toward the village to filter it.

It could be considered a semi-natural, large fishing pond.

In theory, it was Uchiha private property.

Naruto had a good eye. A very good eye.

This was Sasuke's living winter food reserve. For the sake of appearances, he could not show how much it pained him.

But how could he hide his reluctance? Shikamaru and Choji might have been young, but both were thoughtful children. They noticed Sasuke's expression stiffen for a moment and decided they would pick another place next time. There were three rivers in the village, after all. It really was not right to keep stripping the same place bare when they were all peers.

The artificial lake was very deep, and its bottom could not be seen. Still, they were all children who would become ninja. Though they had not yet mastered Water Walking, swimming in the calm lake was no problem at all.

Playing in the water, fishing, and barbecuing.

Since it was closest to Sasuke's home, there was naturally no question of who would provide the other ingredients.

Two of the Great Clans under the Hokage had come, along with two orphaned clan heads from the Upper Five Clans. Without any surprises, every one of the five children would become the head of a clan in the future. How could such an occasion lack the Third Hokage, who liked mingling with the people and making unofficial visits in his Sacred Robe Official Robes?

The kind old man whose identity had once been unknown could no longer hide it after Naruto entered the Ninja Academy. Even if he did not go every few days, he still had to visit the Ninja Academy once every ten days or half a month to sow the seeds of the Will of Fire.

Every child would ask about their parents' backgrounds, and the person to ask was naturally the village's top leader.

If he refused to tell them?

The sweet "Grandpa" would become the resentment-filled "Old Man Hokage."

"Are you eating? Is there room for an old man like me?"

Everyone except Naruto greeted in unison, "Hello, Hokage-sama."

"Woof."

"Old Man Hokage, aren't you ashamed of stealing food from kids? You should go catch your own fish!" Naruto's dislike for Hiruzen Sarutobi was impossible to miss.

"Come on, Naruto. We caught plenty of fish. There's enough even if more people come!"

Sasuke smoothed things over, specifically picking out a grilled fish for Hokage-sama.

"Hokage-sama, this one has tender meat. It just came off the grill."

(Offscreen voice: This one has lots of bones.)