Naruto : Struggle Of Childhood

Hermits and Choices

"This is a hermitage?" Kimimaro asked, looking surprised.

"Our place looked like a dump compared to this," Neji grumbled.

"It's not a hermitage," Gaara said admiringly, "It's a palace!"

Naruto had to agree.

They had been forced to climb a fairly large and very steep mountain. It had taken about three days to do it, and all they had expected a small hut or even a house waiting for them at the top when they heard that Tsunade's old teammate was a hermit. What they saw had all nine children wondering just what the purpose was in working if they could be hermits and live in houses that put daimyo's castle to shame.

The house was huge and brightly colored with ornate gold designs crafted all around it. Two stone frogs about the size of ponies sat at the entrance. Marble steps led up to a pair of ornate and extremely large red doors. Everything about the house was grand and out of place for a hermit's hut.

"Some hermit," Sasuke said bluntly.

Naruto nodded.

He had been a little quieter then usual after the fight in the forest. It wasn't that he was unhappy about anything that had happened while they were there, actually he was very happy with his new name, and thought that the others' suited them as well. The dream that he had had stuck in his mind. The monstrous creature that had been in that cage stayed in his memory, and it didn't fade like most dreams did. Every night he had been having trouble sleeping because, like Gaara, he was afraid that if he slept, something bad would happen to him. Sleep would win out in the end, but he was always worried that the next time would be his last.

He looked normal, and tried to act like nothing was wrong, but he couldn't help quiet. It wasn't really noticeable anyways, after all, everyone was more quiet then usual since they had all been climbing a large mountain.

"Is he home?" Naruto asked.

"I don't think so…" Hinata said, "I don't sense any Chakra signatures."

"Aw crud, so now what do we do?" Sakura complained, "I don't to go down that stupid mountain! We already went up it."

"Well, it should be faster going down then it was going up," Sai told her with a smile.

"I don't want to go down!" Sakura almost yelled in his face.

"You're not going down that mountain again for a while," Tsunade told them all, "Eventually, he's going to come back here, if he's not here now and just wandering around in the wilderness confirming some stupid little superiority complex. He'll come back to this house, and will be waiting for him."

Naruto thought he heard her mutter something like: "and in the meantime, I get some saki…" and saw a slightly gloating smile on her face.

The look that Shizune was giving her master told Naruto that there was no way on this earth that she was going to have any sake. Naruto didn't even know what was so wonderful about the stuff. He had tried some once when it was spilled, and he had found it slightly revolting.

He wondered if he had just had some bad sake.

"Come on, mudpuppies," Tsunade called, "There'll be some food and nice beds in there, but don't poke around too much, and stay out of the library for the sake of your sanity and innocence."