Chapter 24

"Hokage sama, can I ask a question?" I asked

"Sure, ask away" The Hokage was quite easy to talk to.

"Ashe said that his power guided him to us, is it true? Then why did you pay him?" I asked.

"Ahh, it's true but Ashe needs money so he took it as a chance to make a deal with me. He said that you're geniuses so I decided to give him money in exchange for recruiting talented kids." He said. I sighed in relief hearing that, so he would still look for us no matter what. He just took it as a chance to earn money.

We waited for our guides. Minutes later, 3 kids about 12 years old arrived. The Hokage told them about the mission.

We introduced ourselves and they started helping us tour the village. Being our last destination as the market.

While walking, we saw a yellow-haired kid with a black-haired one. I heard our guides call the yellow-haired boy a demon.

Naruto went to us and asked

"Are you new here? I'm Uzumaki Naruto! It's the first time I've seen you! White hair is eye-catching so I'm sure about it" A noisy kid huh, doesn't sound like a demon. Is it because of the whiskers?

"Don't talk to him, everyone said that he's a demon fox." one of the guides said.

I saw Naruto got saddened hearing it but hid it well while the black-haired boy got angry, the black-haired boy was about to talk when I intervened.

"Don't care, Hey Naruto, can you help us shop?" I asked him as I somehow remembered myself in him, getting Isolated because of our differences.

"Sure!" Naruto agreed excitedly.

"He can't join us!" The guide said angrily so I immediately rebutted the guide.

"Then your mission ends now. Don't worry, you'll still get your pay. Just say that we found a friend to help us tour." I said, The guides angrily left but of course, I first asked the directions to the apartment.

"Isn't that the direction of my home?" Naruto said, is Naruto our neighbour?

"Are you our neighbour? But Ashe said no one lives there" Jugo said.

"You know Ashe?! Perhaps you're the friends he said before!" Naruto said excitedly.

"Let's go meet him now, I gotta show him the results of my training!" Naruto began pulling us.

"We need to buy things first," Haku said.

"Right! Then let's go buy your things" Naruto said.

"What do we need to buy? We never saw our room" Jugo said.

"I took a peek at the other rooms and it's empty except for the wooden bed" Naruto said

"And it's about to collapse" the black-haired boy continued.

"I'm Sasuke" he said so we introduced ourselves too.

"So we need to buy everything? We can't carry it all" Jugo said.

"We have a storage tattoo but a wooden bed can't fit inside" Sasuke said.

"We don't need to buy a wooden bed, for now, we can just use a futon," I said.

We began to shop and I noticed that they were giving prices beyond the normal range.

"The money the Hokage gave us isn't enough," the innocent Haku said but when the shopkeeper heard the word Hokage. He suddenly changed the price to a more affordable one so we managed to buy pillows, buttons, blankets, bedsheets, and pillow covers in the 1st shop we entered.

The shopkeeper just thinks of us as an outsider who doesn't know Naruto so he 'kindly' reminded us.

"Sorry, It's probably because of me. I'll just wait outside next time," Naruto said, is the monster rumor that bad?

"I'll wait with him" Sasuke continued. We just agreed as we can't tell that it was the Hokage who gave us money every time we entered a shop.

We shopped for clothes and some daily necessities. We let Sasuke and Naruto put it in what they call a Storage Tattoo.

We went home after buying everything.

I saw Ashe standing in front of a door, he seemed to be waiting for us.

Naruto ran and was about to jump towards him but he dodged.

"I'm just a clone, you might accidentally dispel me" A clone huh, The original is probably sleeping. I have the feeling that he's an irresponsible Guardian.

He just let us introduce ourselves to each other while he did his things. I heard from Naruto that Ashe taught them chakra control Techniques and left them on their own.

Although I understand that he's busy, but looks like we need to depend more on ourselves.

I almost forgot that he's younger than me as he acts beyond his age.

"This is my room, choose from these four. One kid will arrive soon, her name is Karin. The room remaining will be hers." The clone said

We chose our room, next to Ashe's room was Haku then for Karin's...next was Mine then Jugo's.

"Here's your key. This is an air freshener, put chakra in it then think of the smell you want. It can be anything, then spray it in your room" He gave us the keys and a bottle before dispelling.

We helped each other organize our things. I chose a mint smell, Haku chose an unfamiliar smell of a flower, and Jugo chose a woody smell.

Even Naruto put some in his room, A refreshing smell. I can't describe it properly, he said that it has the same smell as his clothes.

Clothes? Yeah! The same as the clothes cleaned by the seal.

After we finished organizing our room, we went to Ashe's room as he didn't lock his door.

I saw a grey wooden bed with a black fur futon in it, with grey fur pillows and a grey fur blanket.

Beside the bed is a white Study Table and a fur-padded Chair. There's a grey fur mat on the floor. It's obvious that Ashe likes soft things and the color grey.

And there's a sweet smell. Just seeing his room, I feel relaxed. It looks warm inside but it's cool. Even though his window is closed.

Naruto immediately ran and jumped toward Ashe with Sasuke following behind.

"Wake up! wake up! Wake up already!" Naruto shouted. Ashe opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings.

"Looks like you already know each other, Good then. Play or train, do whatever you want. Just don't disturb my sleep." Ashe said and without waiting for a reply, covered himself with a blanket.

Naruto was about to complain when Haku stopped him.

"Let him sleep, he guarded us for the whole journey. He must be super tired." This girl- I mean boy is soft-hearted.

"Alright then, sister! Let's introduce ourselves properly!" Haku's face twitched after being called sister while Jugo laughed without reserve.

"I might look like this but I'm a boy" Haku explained.

Naruto and Sasuke's reaction is epic.

"Just like Ashe?!" they yelled.

We started telling our own stories. Each one of us has a sad story because of our power (except Sasuke).

We also talked about our meetups with Ashe.

We talked till dark until Ashe woke up. We ate Ramen and then slept in our room.