Naruto: Mind over matter

-3 hours later-

*knock knock*

"Doors unlocked come in!"

I hear the door unlocking and shoes being taken off before I see Kiba, Hinata and Shino enter into the kitchen.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm busy finishing up the meals here, you want to sit in the Livingroom?"

"Hey! Alrighty we will wait, smells good in here!"

Hinata says, kiba and Shino greet me with a Yo and a nod before leaving the kitchen.

*knock knock*

"Ill get it!"

I hear Kiba get up and run to the door, the voices of Choji, Shikamaru and Ino enter the house and follow Kiba to the living room, Choji pops his head into the kitchen.

"Need any help?"

"Yeah sure, thanks!"

Me and Choji chat while cooking and eventually Anko-sensei and Yamato-sensei arrive and enter the living room.

A few minutes after that I hear Kurenai-san and Asuma-san enter. Are they dragging a grumbling Windoor man too?

Eventually we start setting the dining room table and I hear a knock, walking to the door I see seven people, Team 7 and Team 9 with there sensei.

"Hey come on in! Take a seat at the table, we are just about to serve some food~"

"MOST EXCELLENT HOUSE YOUTHFULL RIKU!" - Lee

"RIGHT ABOUT THAT LEE, A GREAT BUILDING! MOST YOUTHFULL" - Gai

"Riku! I got you a housewarming- hey is that a wooden monkey in a waiters uniform!? Awesome!" - Naruto

"Hn." - Sasuke

"Hey Ancho- Riku, thanks for having us" - Tenten

"Hm." - Neji

"Hello again, I brought cookies!" - Sakura

I usher them in and Jewel helps them to there seats- no I didn't go crazy and buy my monkey puppet a suit, I used the costume jutsu. should I buy the monkey a suit...?

And before I can even return to help in the kitchen I hear another knock, opening the door I see the Sand trio, dapper as ever and still in town.

"Hey! Didn't think you guys could make it, heard you were awfully busy!"

"Yes, its been absolutely dreadful, lucky that the man we were supposed to have a meeting with decided to come to a dinner party, Asuma-san here yet?"

"Oh yes he is, lucky indeed Temari"

Gaara nods his head to me and we shake hands before he enters.

"Bah- I can smell fresh wood and varnish, show me your workshop when you get the chance, hopefully its better then your 'puppets'"

I chuckle and pat Kankuro's shoulder as he enters.

-10 minutes later-

We are all sitting at my very nice and big table and enjoying the spread of foods, enjoying the talk and surroundings, everyone but Sasuke that is, he looks... sweaty and pale.

He looks at me and asks for the bathroom. Getting up I walk him upstairs.

"You alright? You don't look the best if I'm being blunt."

He shakes his head and sits at the top of the stairs. The muffled and loud voices below stopping any talk we have reaching them

"I wanted to kill Naruto... I thought I had broken out of that Genjutsu and I saw the opportunity..."

Shocked I ask.

"Why?"

"..."

"Take a breath Sasuke... this conversation is for you and me only, not another soul will hear"

He takes a breath and releases it.

"My brother... that man told me the way to get the next stage of sharingan was killing your best friend... he had gotten his from slaughtering Shisui and the clan.."

Ah. Power. He always wants it, Itachi did a number on his mind.

"Did you regret it? Or did you not?"

"I laughed. I laughed like I had everything I ever wanted."

"Did you?"

"No"

"Heh, softie"

He grumbles calling me an idiot

"I-I don't know what I want... power yes.. but is there no other path? No 'cup' as you said"

I chuckle and pat his back

"Absolutely! All you have to do is take the path un-treaded, it may be thorny and long, tiring definitely, you most certainly will shout at yourself to walk the paved road but at the end... you will have paved the road for your future clan... a clan without the killing of brothers for power. A clan stronger with your journey, that is half your dream no? To revive the Uchiha clan? Maybe tilt the scale and stop focusing on Itachi right now... maybe take a breather and work on the future"

He trembles before letting go of the fist he was balling.

"Your right, ill go wash my face, thanks for the talk"

"Thank you for opening up to me, I'm always here and happy to help. No matter what."

I walk downstairs and sit back down enjoying my meal. Naruto asks me a question.

"You're going out with someone right? Did you invite them here! Can we meet them!"

Chuckling I answer.

"Unfortunately not, we had lunch together though, she also had to spend dinner with her parents today, so maybe another time ill introduce you"

He chuckles and eats through his second bowl of ramen- glad I made five for him damn its been what? 10 minutes?

Sasuke returns to his seat and picks up his chopsticks, gives me a nod and starts eating, he looks much better and less pale, good! I return the nod.

The meal flies by and the sensei's leave due to having to work early, and Kakashi got roped into a duel with Gai at sunset.

But the group of us child soldiers stayed to hang around my place.

I showed those interested my Workshop which Kankuro immediately combo dissed- I will never recover~

But around half an hour later we are all sitting in the living room discussing various topics.

"Surely he didn't? I would of never imagined Neji saying that!"

Tenten nods her head and Neji puts his head into his face.

"Yep~ if he didn't the merchant would of realised he was spying!"

Neji's head goes lower and Naruto does his best impression of Neji.

"Hahahaha- 'Of course I'm a collector of Icha Icha- are you testing my honour as a perverse individual?' -Hahahahaha"

The room erupts into laughter and chuckles.

"Alright now that everyone has had there embarrassing stories aired out can we-"

Neji is interrupted by Ino saying.

"Riku has not shared anything~ he has no team to snitch!"

They all nod there heads seriously and I laugh before finishing my drink.

"Well~ I don't have many interesting stories actually, perhaps the time I entered Gaara's mindscape?"

Gaara sighs and shakes his head.

"You would not stop singing."

"I had to! Your mind neighbour has some serious Genjutsu!"

Sakura chuckles and asks

"What were you singing?"

Gaara sighs and slumps into his seat.

"Please don't I still hum it every now and then, its stuck in here"

Everyone laughs but ushers me to start singing. Taking a breath I sing Escape (the pina-colada song)

"I was tired of my lady~ been together too long!"

"Like a worn out recording! Of your favourite song~"

"So while she laid there sleeping~ I read the paper in bed~"

"And in the personal columns! There was this letter I read~"

"Oh god.... why?" -Gaara

"IF YOU LIKE PINA-COLADAS!"

Gaara slumps further into his seat and puts his fingers in his hair, accepting it he starts humming along and the night eventually turns dark.

"Thanks for coming guys! Stay safe and all that nonsense"

I wave at team 7 who left last and head inside to clean, then wash myself and finally sleep, today was a good day.

---

-one week later-

Pov: Rocks

...

---

Pov: Riku

You know what I love about my powers? The fact that I can train without doing much of anything with my main body.

Sure I'm passively exercising but that's it, I have two other me's to handle other stuff as I lay in the park, enjoying a picnic with Eiko- she had expressed relief upon hearing that I can do that, apparently there are a whole lot of civilian/ninja relationship horror stories that end due to constant time restraints.

Oh yeah! Eiko isn't a ninja, her blood disease thing makes her unable, but she is very great at internal logistics and is learning from her parents when she eventually takes over as the 'money manager' for the Hyuga's, well at least that's what I call it, she said it is more than just managing money.

I also caught her multiple times this week doing very.... odd things, for example I left her in my room when I was giving a tour and went downstairs right beneath my room for something I had left- my Telekinetic sight caught her leaping onto my bed and rolling around in it... then I have caught her with her Byakugan on staring at my torso... then other times she has been caught trying to... take some of my clothing...

I asked Hinata if they knew about anything up with her and we discussed it and decided that she may have been too coddled under the stern Hyuga household all her life especially so when she has a sickness, leading her too be very excited- too excited at the opportunity to be outside and have a fiancé. That's the leading theory anyway.

For a test we are now having a picnic and she is the most polite and caring individual, now all I need to do is bring her home and see if she acts differently in private, why am I testing her? Because if she likes privacy more ill make most our dates a private venue when she can be herself, simple as that.

Eventually we finish the picnic and head inside my house, and just as we thought- she starts giggling more and being less formal... that settles it. Home dates are the best dates.

"Do you wish to stay for dinner? Hinata, Sasuke and Naruto are dropping by"

Yes Sasuke has become more open recently, while still the quiet kid he definitely has upped his social prowess, or so Naruto tells me- apparently he asked if he could have ramen with Naruto the other day and shocked the hell out of Naruto.

"Ummmm.... I-I do you think- are they- umm"

I watch her struggle to find the sentence she wants and I stand up to sit next to her and pat her back.

"Take a breath, whatever you say isn't going to kill me"

She fidgets.

"Do you think that they will like me? What if they don't? What if you-"

I cut her off with a laugh

"Ahahahaha~ sorry, sorry you made it sound so important for a minute there"

She starts hitting my arm playfully before mumbling 'it is important dummy'

"I don't care~ you don't need to like each other, just tolerate for those special moments or gatherings, I have all the time in the world, ill spend some with you and then them if you don't like them or vice versa"

She nods.

"Id like to stay for dinner please Riku"

"Alright! Want to help? Or just talk in the kitchen? Ill get you a chair and a blanket, its colder in there"

We move to the kitchen and eventually the guests arrive, we all sit at the dining table as I hand out the spaghetti (funky not-ramen naruto calls it)

"So you must be Eiko-san! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage! Dattebayo!"

"Ah yes, nice to meet you Uzumaki-san, I am Eiko Hyuga, ummm I'm going to be the next manager of Hyuga internal affairs"

"Hn. I am Uchiha Sasuke, you may call me Sasuke and no need of Honorifics for the dobe"

Naruto nods furiously.

"Nice to see you again Eiko-san"

Eiko nods back to Hinata.

"Of course Hinata-san, it is pleasing to see that my f-fiancé has great friends"

"Where's your rings? Don't Fancy's have rings?"

Chuckling to Naruto I reply

"Yes but our agreement was more of a paper thing- its also Fiancé not fancy, I can get rings if you wish Eiko, could go together and make it a date~"

She blushes and nods her head.

"Of course I would love that"

Hinata speaks up.

"S-so, h-have you two gone on many d-dates? Anywhere uhhh- c-cool?"

I smirk at Hinata's attempt to find the next spot to take Naruto.... what one would they like the most?

"Only a few, you guys would definitely like the view over Hokage mountain, very beautiful there"

She nods her head dead serious as Naruto eats his funky not-ramen.

"Hm. I suppose my favourite was the one yesterday, we went to this theatre and watched a play. It was very enjoyable"

Eiko speaks up and I mentally take notes on her favourite date.

"Ooo~ favourites huh? Hmmm. I'd have to go with our second, the kitchen did not like that day however"

She giggles and Sasuke asks.

"Hn?"

"We tried making something new (I had no idea what a soufflé was and tried my damnedest to figure out its recipe from an image in my head), and got eggs everywhere when I decided to multitask four things at once in one body- I'm way too used to doing so many things at once~"

Sasuke nods and Naruto laughs.

"How have you three been, I heard you two did another C-rank, upgraded again?"

Sasuke sighs as Naruto tells the story

"...and that's when we ran into the giant bat again!..."

I watch as Eiko listens intently, worry over meeting them gone.

"...Boom, bam then Sasuke went Shwam! And the bat went down and did a final Shaka!"

She smirks and replies.

"That is amazing Naruto-san, ninja life seems so scary"

"Hahaha nothing too scary for me and Sasuke to handle though!"

Eiko asks a question.

"Are you three strong? Is Riku?"

They look at each other before Sasuke speaks up.

"We are all strong yes. Some in different areas, but if your looking at who could win in a fight? Me of course"

Sasuke says with a confident smirk and Naruto starts his rambling about 'nuh uh' and I'm better 'cause', causing both Eiko and Hinata to laugh- I of course join the argument

"Well~ one if us in this room is a chunin~ while the others are lower in rank~"

The discussion is playful and everyone eventually agrees to disagree, meaning me and Naruto tied because I had Eiko and he had Hinata, poor Sasuke.... if only Sakura wasn't busy then he would of tied with us~

Soon however the guests leave for the night.

"See you later guys! Sleep so snuggly that the bed bugs don't even think about biting you!"

Eiko chuckles next to me and bows before putting her shoes on.

"Tomorrow as well?"

"Uhhm actually I have to start working under my parents again, they gave me a week of fun... but I can still do dinners and weekends?"

I smile at her as she gets up to leave.

"Sure drop by whenever you want some dinner, I'm always available when I'm home~ better not spoil ourselves too much, I will be doing missions again when Naruto leaves in two weeks. Weekends sound great though"

Following her out the door I walk her home.

Coming back and entering my home again, I had Jewel clean for me so all done~ now to relax with my secret sake storage and bath.

---

Thanks for reading :)