Sasuke?

"STOP SCREAMING!!!"

Maybe it was hypocritical of Madara to say that in a roar that nearly deafened Ren, but hey! At least that stopped the boy from tapping around looking for Sasuke, drawing the attention of half the orphanage in the process.

His colleagues were sure he had lost his mind.

But that still wasn't the most important thing right now, no! No way! Being dragged downstairs to sit at the breakfast table (which happened to have no treats left, just a loaf of bread and a cup of bitter coffee, but Ren was too distracted to notice that ) wasn't the most important thing either! The caregiver asking how the hell Ren doesn't have vitiligo anymore, too!

The most important thing here is: Where is Sasuke!?

He stared at Madara fervently, eager to get some answer, but to his misfortune, the man just continued in his brooding pose (which he had lost at the time of the roar) in silence.

Ren is even more anxious now.

He chokes on his coffee and almost swallows the bread without chewing, only to run to the backyard as quickly as possible, heading for his little private corner (which wasn't all that private) between the part where the wall had no more paint and the fence. Crouching down, Ren insists on trying to poke the Uchiha's arm with his fingertip, fully aware that he couldn't really poke him, but his stubbornness seemed to keep him from giving up, causing his fingertip to cross the image again and again.

"Madara! Madara! Where is he? Come on, tell me!"

It seems to work at some point, as Madara finally stares back at him, his eyes dark with anger at being interrupted yet again, after all, meditation was a very important thing these days.

But what could Ren do? The feelings of a three-year-old child were also very important!

"Don't make such a fuss, it feels like it's the first time this happens!"

"But this is the first time this has happened!"

And an up-and-down look is payment for that comment, the older man's face turning neutral when he didn't find what he was looking for, making the boy even more anxious.

Perhaps he should start meditating himself.

"Oh." He ends up saying, still in his lotus position. "So you don't remember."

"'I do not remember'?"

"It's not the first time this has happened, in fact, it's happened thirty-six times in the last three years."

"... What?"

• • •

It's weird to know that Sasuke disappeared in the middle of the night in the blink of an eye. It's weirder to know that this has happened not once, not twice, but thirty-six times. And it's even weirder to know that he saw it happening, but he doesn't remember anything, even with his frequent backups.

Sasuke returned to his homeworld at the end of each month. Madara was the one who told him this, and we'll leave the grumbling of complaining about himself not being able to return aside for now.

Once a month for three years, and Ren doesn't remember any of those times.

Strange, very strange.

But nothing to worry about.

Sasuke will return, in how long Ren isn't sure, but he knows the Uchiha will return.

When Sasuke falls asleep in the other world, Madara also comments, that's when he comes back to this place, alongside Ren as a "spirit". It doesn't look like anything complex, in fact, it looks pretty simple, but Ren still finds it very difficult to understand.

Time runs different between Konoha and this world. A night there is equivalent to a month here. It makes the boy imagine that world moving in slow motion, he looks at Madara and tries to think how long an attack would take to complete there. He can't help but keep imagining, and it's frying his brain.

All those System codes seem to be much easier than understanding this.

But one worry lives on among the boiled, fried, and baked brain cells floating in oil inside his skull now. One night to a month… Sasuke would be in his world for a whole day, until night fell and he ended up going to sleep, right? So... would he be away from this world for a month?

It was already making Ren's hands sweat. He was about to open his mouth to ask if his theory was right, but was interrupted by a bird-headed boy, who was waving energetically as he smiled in his direction.

"You're back!"

"Of course, I couldn't abandon my best friend!"

And the other child's face seemed to light up once more through the feathers at the mention of "best friend."

"And oh, I almost forgot!" The boy exclaimed in alarm as if he had just barely committed the worst sin of all the sins on Earth. "Here, I made it especially for you."

So he pulled the red ribbon out of the pocket of his shorts and instantly noticed that one of the purple pebbles had come loose, probably stuck somewhere in his pocket now.

"Really? Thanks, but…" Carefully, Fumikage took the gift in his hands, noting how precious it must be for Ren to be so considerate in handing it over. "Hm... is there any reason for this? It's not my birthday..."

"Once, two heroes with ribbons on their costumes helped me through a difficult time, after that I promised that I would give a ribbon to people I considered kind and friends of mine." He explains, his tone showing all the sincerity in the world while his goofy grin was plastered to his face. "So I'm keeping my word by creating and delivering this ribbon to you!"

"I... kind... heroes... ?"

"Yes! You're not a hero yet, but if you ever turn out to be, then wear this ribbon on your costume, then everyone will know how kind you are! But if you end up losing her, I'll make another one, but try not let that happen, that would be a tragedy! Ah... Fumikage! Why are you crying!?"

Madara just sighed, kids are so weird... better go back to meditating.

Fumikage's mother didn't go shopping for ice cream today, she was there, sitting on a bench and watching her clumsy son from afar; that, however, wouldn't stop them from running away from the sand rectangle, an area that was still being dominated by All Might's stuffed thieving kids, but that doesn't matter as the fun doesn't reside exclusively in sand or colorful swings!

If you're very involved with this idea, you may never notice the flower buds that grow inside the brick squares that surround the tree roots, and how their adorably red colors attract a beautiful butterfly with bright blue wings...

And maybe you also don't notice that Fumikage's mom got distracted, going to talk to a green-haired woman who has a little boy who looks a lot like her clinging to the hem of her pink skirt.

Well, if you didn't get a chance to notice all this because of a mere rectangle of sand and a swing, then that's a shame, as they both noticed it all, and they noticed it right away!

The boy-bird held up two fingers on one hand and made a "zero" with the other, and Ren, without much effort, got the message.

"I knew he was going to do it again…" He was sure he heard Madara mutter.

Physical touch is a great chain for the files, they come together side by side in the same instant, and it takes just one more touch for the next action to work for both of them, and what's more common than two tiny kids holding hands? The coordinates were dumped into the search area, and the map loaded the information before pulling its two passengers to the destination area, the world closing in white with that blink that would come to be all too familiar if the two continued on their travels through some more time.

And in the next second, here they are, in the same park where they were kicked out by the villain and the police yesterday...

Well, not to say it's at the exact same point, they were a little closer to the fence...

Ren needs to train his landing sites, doesn't he?

And if the chameleon villain threw something while he screamed... they were both too busy jumping over the fence and running to realize what it was.

• • •

There are ups and downs to being a kid, but that's true of all things in life.

One of the advantages, without a doubt, is being able to play.

Fumikage is the best at hide and seek, this is due to his size and his almost natural gift for sneaking into the shadows, yet Madara still manages to keep him on his radar with ease, probably three years of a natural gift doesn't work against thirty-eight years of experience with life in war and another eighty-one years of studying scrolls while connected to Gedo Mazo; Ren, on the other hand, had an awful lot of trouble finding his friend, even when he was in a pathetic hiding place.

Madara hurried to add one more item to the needs list: Sensory training.

By contrast, Ren is the best in tag; his short legs might not do much against a chameleon villain or a trained cop, but he sure beats Fumikage and other common people; it's not a natural gift, however, it's just force of habit, you run home to escape a group of angry teenagers who are about to hit you, run to your uncle's house on the other side of the village to deliver the message from your mother, you run to church so you don't miss Mass, so your legs will be tougher and it's easier to ignore your aching feet and sprained ankle that threatens to break on the next trip.

Play, a positive point of being a child.

Now, not being taken seriously was definitely a downside.

At least in this situation.

Well, in defense of the elderly couple, it should be common not to believe a couple of children who claim to come from another state, and they are hurrying to say goodbye to their brief conversation as they need to get home before the mother notices.

After Ren teleported along with Fumikage right in front of the two, the story was totally different. They would have laughed if they could see those open mouths and wide eyes.

And as Tokoyami waved one last time as he walked away from the park with his mother, it was very difficult to describe the twisted expression that spread across Madara's face.

• • •

Sasuke is… different.

Whether that's good or bad... Kakashi can't say, not exactly.

Sasuke has had a gigantic advance compared to his other teammates, this should be normal, after all, he was a prodigy...right?

Kakashi doesn't think that.

One day, Sasuke still struggles to properly distribute his weight to get the best out of his high kick, and the next day, he manages to kick so well that he comes close to perfection...

No, it's not the perfection of being a prodigy, it's the perfection of the experience as if he's trained a lot to correct it.

But how did he have time to practice this if the clumsy kick happened yesterday? How, if he slept in the next room along with his classmates?

How did Sasuke have time to practice?

Naruto froze when attacked by the Demon Brothers, Sasuke dropped one, needing Kakashi's help only for the second.

Sakura was shivering in the fight against Zabuza, but Sasuke activated his Sharingan and aided him during the battle with agility, throwing a Fireball at the Demon of the Hidden Mist moments before the man managed to perform his Water Prison Technique against the teacher.

Kakashi is suspicious, but he just smiles and lifts his thumb in approval as the Uchiha reaches the top of the tree in his chakra control training.

One day... it's a day before Kakashi gets back to his normal self, if his thoughts are correct, they'll be about four or five days ahead of Zabuza's recovery.

"Children..." Who knew his first students would give him such a headache?

• • •

At first, Ren doesn't know why the boy sleeping on the bottom of the bunk is waking him up with a pillow right in his face, but as the insistent whispers about getting up soon and going downstairs continue, he stretches and sits, rubbing sleepy eyes.

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to stay up late to bemoan the lack of a cell phone or computer to research the heroes of the head and neck bows.

And maybe it hadn't been a good idea to try to descend the bunk stairs with a sleep-dazed mind, because when the boy saw a second Uchiha shadow on the side, he missed his step and fell down the middle of the stairs.

It is the second day in a row that starts with strong emotions.

"Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! You're back!"

"What are you talking about now, you idiot?" The boy, unaware of the Uchihas' presence (and ignorant of personality) growls under his breath, sighing and turning to leave. "Just come downstairs soon!"

But Ren, completely ignoring the annoyed tone, sat down on the frozen ground and turned to Sasuke, who was slapping his hand to his forehead after seeing the little boy tumble. "You came back! You did come back! Good heavens, I thought it would take a month for that to happen!"

"Wow, I didn't know you were so happy to have me away, thanks."

"Oh, no, no, no! You got it all wrong! I felt very worried about that idea! I felt my neurons were firing just thinking about how time would run in slow motion there and make you linger so much, but I'm glad to hear I was wrong!"

In fact, today was a day full of emotions. Whispers and more whispers were coming from downstairs, and Ren strained to see what was happening as he struggled to descend the stairs with his sprained ankle.

The kids were all sprawled shoulder to shoulder, making a neat little row from largest to smallest, they shifted and fidgeted, almost taking up the space that was still being saved to hold Ren, near the tip of the little ones.

"Oh my god, they really came!" A little girl, two little houses away from the taller ones, commented to the child beside her.

"Yeah, I can't believe it! I think I'm dreaming!" She commented back, and Ren, slipping into his vacant seat, started to pay attention, looking curiously to their side as the girl got a pinch on his arm. "Ouch!"

"See? Not dreaming!"

"Who will they choose?" The boy near the end of the taller ones, the same clueless one who had snarled at Ren earlier, asked his friends, the whisper too loud for even Ren, near the far end of the line, to hear.

"What is going on?" He muttered under his breath, looking at Madara and Sasuke, who were right next to him.

"...Someone came to adopt a child." Said the older man, walking forward and looking at who was being attended at the door by the owner of the orphanage.

Ren wrinkled his nose at such a thing, however. He had planned to run to the square to meet Fumikage, not wait for a couple to decide which child to take home. But if he said he wasn't curious about who would be chosen, then he would be lying.

"...But of course, feel free. Kids! Come and welcome the Yamamotos."

And the welcome is given by all the children, the voices mingling and forming a chorus with different levels of mood and anxiety. Three people entered, the first was a man, who as soon as he stepped inside, stood in the corner next to the door, waiting for the other two people to enter, his steps and his whole being seemed very nervous, shifting his weight on his feet and squeezing the brim of the hat he had in his hands, his long clothes covering as much of his bluish skin as possible.

Just behind, came a young woman, unlike the man next to her, she was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts that ended just before her knees, showing the dragon tattoo on her left arm and the rose on her right leg; Her posture was hunched forward, and she looked incredibly bored, barely glancing at the kids as she pulled the little white earpiece from one ear, returning her hands to her pockets right away. They should be married.

And the third, and the most excited to be there, was an old woman with brown hair, the white one not yet having taken care of the strands; she was smiling as she watched the children, fiddling with the hem of her pink dress and once again moving her dark bag out of place. She should be the woman's mother, her eyes are so alike.

As soon as he saw them, Ren thought the three of them were a very interesting and funny combination, so much so that he didn't even call when the owner of the orphanage started presenting their quirks even before their names.

"This one is quirkless." She announced while pointing to the third child at the top of the tallest. "His name is Kiki."

And Kiki muttered something Ren couldn't hear from his place, very different from the comments too loud for a whisper before the visitors arrived. He had his head down and barely looked at the lady in front of him, his hands clasped in front of him.

"Oh, I see." The old woman said, laughing and touching the boy on the shoulder. "Don't worry, darling. My daughter has no quirks either, and she's an amazing woman! Don't let yourself be shaken, that's nothing to be ashamed of."

With a comforting smile, she patted the top of the child's head, which was covered by her usual blue beret. The daughter, however, didn't look too happy to have her lack of peculiarity revealed in front of an entire orphanage, as she clicked her tongue and got an even worse frown, but that didn't stop the little boy from lifting his head with a hopeful gleam in his eyes.

Ren, however, didn't feel the slightest empathy for Kiki when Mrs. Yamamoto went to meet the next child, leaving him behind and not choosing him right there.

If he were an ordinary child then it could be said that Ren was resentful of being woken by a slap of a pillow and being insulted like an idiot in the morning, but if that were so, then he would have held an eternal grudge against the chameleon villain, who cursed him and threw him over a fence. But that wasn't it at all, Ren just has a hard time empathizing, and someone like Kiki, ignorant of personality and knowledge of the Uchihas, doubled that difficulty of his.

Just troublesome.

"This one has the quirk of 'Gardening', it can help with the growth of small plants. Her name is Mika."

And even with his natural difficulty in recognizing the emotions of others, Ren could sense that the old lady seemed very interested in Mika. She crouched down in front of the little girl, who still had her arm the vermilion from the pinch of minutes ago, the short puffed sleeve not covering that part; but if that hadn't been enough, then her compliments for her curly green hair, and the little yellow dress with lots of pink bunnies would be enough to note that Mika was her favorite so far.

Ren turned to face the Uchihas, they looked ready to die of boredom as they watched the scene unfold, and he almost, almost announced that he was betting Mika would be the one.

"This one has the quirk of teleportation, and he's only three years old!" The orphanage owner spoke, puffing out her chest in pride, and Sasuke squinted at her, wondering where this pride might be coming from, as Ren didn't come from inside her womb nor receive any care from her other than a compliment one day ago. "His name is Susumo."

'I'm not Susumo, I'm Ren...'

And the interest of the woman with the headphones seemed to be pulled, but the old woman just gave that same smile she gave everyone else and greeted him. And after the last two kids got the same treatment, Ren was sure he won the unspoken bet.

Mika was chosen.

"I didn't say it out loud as you would be furious." He explained, limping away from the other children. "But I knew she would be the one."

"Anyone would know." Madara said, arms still crossed. "I don't know why you're so proud about this."

"I didn't want a child, she's the one who keeps insisting on having a grandchild, dammit." Miss Yamamoto said annoyed to her husband.

"Because despite that, I still got it right. And if I had a bet, I would have won something!"

"If she was really going to choose one, she should have chosen the one with the rare peculiarity." The man tightened his grip on his hat, not knowing whether he should put it back on his head to cover his cyan hair at his wife's comment or not.

"Yeah, but you didn't bet, so stop making noise!"

"Alright, alright, don't be so mean!"

Jumping a fence with short legs is a difficult task, jumping over it with a sprained ankle is even more complicated, and this is a fact. Ren is used to pain in his legs and feet in general, and that was the only thing that kept him walking. Even so, it was uncomfortable to feel that little ache bothering him with every step, and when he lowered his head to look, he saw a terrible dark purple area, which the boy was forced to pull his sock up a little higher to cover it before continuing.

It would be a tragedy if Fumikage saw that.

Luckily, Sasuke gave him an illumination that would serve him a lot for every time his ankles sprain: Use the teleporter to get to the square!

"I hadn't thought about it!" He admitted without shame, opening the System and putting in the coordinates. "I just remembered to use it when going out and back with the Fumikage, never to go to the square straight from the orphanage!"

"Maybe you should start thinking about using it for a lot of other things." The young Uchiha says in a serious tone. "It's super useful, it's amazing how you just forget."

"Heh, it's hard to remember when you're super excited about meeting your best friend, Sasuke." The little boy explains smiling, letting the world blink and letting out a painful 'ah' when he lands.

"Uh?!" The woman who stepped on his feet jumps so high she almost takes flight, looking wide-eyed at the child who just appeared there. "Where did you come from!?!"

"I came from a block away from my Orphanage." He answers sincerely, not whimpering for the foot that was now suffering from the stomp beyond the ankle.

The woman blinks, looks straight ahead, and continues to walk, as if in a trance. "Years ago it was a baby..." she whispered to herself. "Now it's a child... I'm going crazy...no, the world is going crazy!"

• • •

A sore foot might not be enough to shake Ren, but it is.

He'd been waiting for an entire hour, sitting on the wooden bench where Fumikage's mother sat yesterday, but his friend still hadn't given any sign that he was going to show up.

Ren didn't mind waiting, he was too used to being obedient about it, it came from his previous life, his parents weren't exactly punctual, and there was a time when his uncle forgot him at the church door, he had to wait from dusk until dawn the next day, when the priest came to open the doors to receive the faithful and found him there, perched on the top step, his back wet with the early morning mist. It still took a few hours for his relatives to arrive at the church to pray, and there was some uproar that they thought Ren had fled and not been forgotten there.

An hour of sitting on a bench under the shade of a tree on a sunny day was nothing compared to more than twelve hours of standing on the steps in front of the church on a windy night without a decent sweater. But what really embittered him was the idea that the Fumikage had already left, perhaps because of his delay caused by the Yamamoto's visit to the orphanage.

Or worse, that the Fumikage hadn't gone to see him because he didn't want to walk with him in other states anymore!

"You've only known him for two days and you look like this?"

"That is not the main question." He tells the man beside him, his chin resting on his little hands. "It's just that exploring these places alone doesn't have the same impact as exploring with a friend. Also, you say our game is a kind of training, it's much better than the training you do with Sasuke, that's beautiful to look at, but it seems too tiring, don't you think it would be a shame to lose my friend and have to train this way?"

"I think you're making excuses."

"But I'm not..."

And like the good obedient boy that he was, Ren waited for a few more hours, until the sun was at its highest point in the sky, marking noon. His unlucky foot didn't hurt as much now, and that was a relief, as it wouldn't be pleasant to limp like he was sick all over again in front of his friend.

Just half an hour after noon a familiar voice reached his ears, interrupting his comments about how he had nearly fallen off the church tower while trying to help the dear priest ring the bell, that day was a scare, and Sasuke seemed very interested in hearing such a story.

"Ren! You came-" Before he could even finish his sentence, the boy was attacked by his friend who jumped in front of him.

His ankle hurt again with this jump.

"Good afternoon, Fumikage! I thought you weren't coming today!" She greeted, hugging him tightly enough to lift him off the ground.

"And you still say you were worried just because of the training... but what a terrible liar..."

"Look, I told you your little friend missed you." The mom said, covering her mouth as she laughed.

"Oh, of course...I would come...see you..." His voice trails off as he tries to draw air into his lungs, still being squeezed and his feet a few inches above the ground. "Too late today...because it's...Monday, I had to...go to school."

"I see, but it was hard to think about it after almost four hours of waiting." The woman's laugh freezes. "Still, thank you for coming!"

"Four....hours...?"

"How long?!"

"Four, but no problem! Let's go ag-"

"Darling…where are your parents?"

"Parents?" 'They're in another world,' he almost lets out.

"Mom!" Fumikage widens his eyes. "He... lives at the orphanage."

The whisper-warning is received and it is the woman's turn to widen her eyes. She bows apologetically, and quickly walks away towards the same green-haired woman from yesterday, who is now accompanied by a blond, red-eyed woman.

"Her eyes look like yours!"

"What?"

"Stop talking to us while there's someone around, you're just going to look crazy." Madara shakes his head in disapproval, and Ren just lets out a mischievous giggle, which makes Fumikage even more confused.

Today, in the sand rectangle, there was a new king who ruled, he looked much like the blonde woman, and his most faithful squire with wild green hair stood beside him, stumbling over a small bucket and burying his face in the sand.

"Do you know them?" Ren asks, pointing to the two kids.

"No." He follows his friend, walking away. "Mom talks to their mom once in a while, they almost never show up here because they live far away, I never talked to any of them."

"I see…oh, I have news to tell you while she's not completely distracted!"

And so, the course of the conversation is completely changed.

Ren tells about the unexpected visit that ended up causing breakfast to be postponed, the man trying to cover as much of his blue skin as possible, and the woman who seemed interested in his rare "quirk." He also tells, and proudly, about how he guessed who would be chosen to be adopted, even with all his difficulty reading people. And finally, he tells without much interest about Kiki and her "creative" ways of waking him up, and how her blue beret looked badly wrinkled after Mrs. Yamamoto gave it a few more gentle pats.

"He's the idiot, not you!" Fumikage accuses, shaking his head negatively at the taller boy's nasty behavior towards his friend. "But it's a shame he doesn't have a quirk, people like that can't become heroes."

"But they can become villains!" He exclaims smiling, and his three companions stumble at the same time.

"Why… do you seem so happy with this idea?!"

It's about ten minutes until the green-and-blond-haired children come to their mothers holding something covered in sand, thus distracting all three women sitting on the bench. This was the indication for Ren to reach out his hand to Fumikage and open his System, looking for a coordinate while listening to Sasuke's tired sigh.

"Are we going to see that blond boy again?" The birdboy looks thoughtful, remembering the child who had spied on them on the last two explorations, fleeing as soon as he was spotted.

Was he shy?

"I do not think so."

"Why?"

"Because we're going to go somewhere else."

"...Wait, what?"

Unfortunately, there was no time to get an answer, as the world blinked and his feet landed with a low "thud" on what appeared to be wood.

"Oh my, what have you done now!?" Madara was the first to complain, seeing the darkness of the tight place where they were.

"Aff, one day you will kill this boy!" Sasuke says next, stepping forward and stepping out of the darkness. "Uh? What's this place!? Ren! What have you done!?"

Fumikage had placed a hand on his chest, taking a deep breath to recover from the shock of having his vision covered in shadows from one moment to the next. Ren, however, didn't look the slightest shaken. Cheerful as a chicken, he tries to walk forward, but his foot hits the wood and stops him from moving forward.

"I think it's a door, let me see..."

Standing on tiptoe, he looks for a doorknob, but in the end, he didn't even have to find it, as the door opened with just a little push, letting the light in and revealing the other side.

It was what looked like a bedroom, not like the orphanage bedroom, with several bunk beds, nor like Tokoyami's bedroom, full of toys. It was very simple, and followed the pattern of traditional Japanese.

The floor was covered in tatami, light came in and illuminated everything with a plaid shadow pattern like the wood in the window, the white curtains swayed gently, no toy was in sight, a paper lamp was on the bedside table next to the bed, a small red carpet in front, and....

And there was a little boy on the bed, eyes wide as his reading was interrupted by two people who came out of the closet like they were hauntings.

"Oh." Ren ends up saying after five seconds of a fixed exchange of glances. "Hi!"

And a scream reaches the entire residence where they had been teleported.

•

"I don't believe this…" Madara says at last, running his gloved hands over his face as he looks at the mess. "First kidnapping, now home invasion... what's next?!"

"Is that what you're worried about?" Sasuke asks, his indignation overflowing his being and becoming so palpable that even Fumikage almost felt it. "Why the hell is this kid covering up for two strangers who popped into his closet out of nowhere!?" He said, almost bouncing as he pointed to the little boy at the door. "This world doesn't make any sense!!"

"Are you sure nothing is wrong?!" The girl at the door asks, almost falling as she peeks into the room.

"Did he do something? Did he show up here?!" Another boy squeezes through the crack in the door, almost falling in, his clothes half-smeared with dirt.

"No, I just had a bad dream..."

"...I'm sorry." It seemed to be the only thing the girl could say at that moment, her face filling with sad regret, and unable to find anything else to say, she just reached out to pet the smaller boy who still kept the door half closed.

Sasuke and Madara were the only ones who could stay out of the closet, without having to worry about being seen; they watched it all in silence, trying to figure out exactly what was going on (besides a crime and a cover-up). This made Ren even more uneasy from his hiding place in the closet, as everyone at the door was talking too softly and he wanted to understand what was going on, luckily, he wasn't reckless enough to get out of there, and this stuffy space full of folded clothes seemed to have been created to be the perfect hiding place for a birdboy who trembled from head to toe and a boy kidnapper and home invader .

In short: The world is in chaos and Ren needs training to improve his hearing.

"Go downstairs for something to eat if you can't sleep again."

"Be well." The girl, forcing a smile, waves goodbye, and the little child waves back at her and the other boy.

And the moment the door closes, he turns on his heel and, on tiptoe, heads toward the closet, looking at the door as if it might bite him. Her round eyes gleamed with fear, nervousness, and curiosity, the latter trumping all other turbulent feelings in her little self.

"Hello?" With a light knock on the closet door, he takes a deep breath to stop his heart from beating so hard. It doesn't work. "Is anyone there?"

"Yes! There are both of us!"

"Waah!" The little boy lets out a squeal that doesn't go through the walls this time, he covers his mouth and gives desperate hops to one side and the other.

"Hey… it's really hot in here, can we go out?"

"Why are you talking so casually to the person you broke into the bedroom!?"

"Y-y-yes! It's t-too hot... c-can we go out?"

"Fumikage, you're sweating and shivering at the same time! Control your self!"

"W-why are you so c-calm!?"

And with one hand still covering his mouth, the boy reaches up and pulls the locker handle, opening the door and revealing the two other children inside.

"!!!" He lets out what should have been another scream, but it sounds muffled and too low because of the hand still covering his mouth. And while trying to get away, he trips and falls backwards, hitting his head with a 'thum' on the ground.

"Oh my…" Madara covers her face.

"People in this world can be stranger than in Konoha…" Sasuke sighs regretfully.

"Wow, watch out! You're going to get hurt! Here!" Ren lunges forward, reaching down and taking the boy's hand and pulling him up. "Don't be so careless!"

"Y-you hit your head… did it hurt?" Overcoming his fears, Fumikage ends up asking, and the answer he gets is a negative nod, which makes him breathe a sigh of relief. "Phew..."

"Well, I feel like we can introduce ourselves now that we're not locked inside a closet. My name is Ren!"

"Hm... my name is Fumikage, sorry for the scare..."

The room owner still spends some time with his mouth covered and his eyes wide open, he then takes a few more seconds to rescue the courage from the bottom of his heart (and perhaps from his other organs), lowering his hands and answering in a low, cracking voice: "My name is Shouto."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Ren says, grabbing the boy's trembling hand shamelessly and giving him an energetic greeting. "By the way, I love your hair! I've never seen a person half white and half red."

"Th-thanks."

"You're welcome, oh! Your eyes are different from each other too! How amazing!" And a hesitant nod was the answer to the new compliment.

"Ren…I think you're scaring him." His friend warns helpfully with a whisper hidden by the small hand, which doesn't do much good, since Shouto could hear the same way.

"N-no! This is nothing!" He says, his voice rising at the beginning of the sentence and then lowering like a withering flower. "But...er...how...why are you...hm..."

"How did we end up at your closet? This was an accident! I put random coordinates inside our current state, and it looks like we fell here."

"... Coordinates?"

"He teleports, but he doesn't quite know where we're going to land."

"Oh...sounds cool."

"Isn't it? But then... what's your last name?"

"What?"

"It's just that I usually call people by their last name until I consider them my friends."

"Hm... Todoroki."

"Nice to meet you, Todoroki! Oh, your bedroom is very nice, by the way."

"Thanks..."

"Are you trying to create some attachment with your new victim?"

And indeed, Ren grew attached to his victim, as the boy was kinder than he might have looked.

He not only hid them in his room, he started talking to them both as soon as his initial fear (dread) had passed. He was an ordinary and cute child, despite his hair that was still the target of Ren's hands, who patted and ran his fingers between the strands, they were so soft!

It also turned out that the Fumikage had a new companion for their hero talks, this one who knew how to respond and had very savvy comments on the tip of his tongue, unlike Ren, who didn't even have any interest in All Might and its heroic deeds that saved hundreds of lives.

Seriously, how come he didn't gape at it?

"You really don't like All Might?"

"I don't know him, I prefer the bow heroes."

"Heroes of what?"

The question of villains wasn't something Ren could say with priority either. He met the villain chameleon, but he didn't even have an official name and did nothing but annoy the cops by camouflaging himself among the trees and living stealing the sweet apples, the wait for the ideal quirk hero to arrive was still going on, and the park didn't seem to be important enough for an efficient search operation to actually take place, which is a shame as Ren couldn't take Fumikage or Todoroki to see the path of the tulips without being all expelled by man.

There was also the villain with the red wings, of course, and his son who gave him a scare while running away for his life. And in his opinion, no other villain commented on by Fumikage could be as cruel as this one, for no one in this world called him a Dalmatian but that car thief, not even Kiki, with all his ignorance and anger.

"I can't believe you hit him with a board!"

"But I did, and it cracked in half!"

"Oh my, you can be a hero already!"

In addition to stories about villains and wooden boards, there was the sincere curiosity of the pair of friends manifesting itself once again when a female voice came from downstairs, muffled by the walls of the house, but still arriving in the child's room.

She was saying something they couldn't fully understand, and a second voice answered her, it was farther away, as if in another room.

From the conversation, only loose words and phrases were taken: "... training... eat a little... in the closet... not at home... ."

And Ren, like the good boy who doesn't mince his words that he was, was responsible for expressing aloud about the curiosity mentioned above, which made Fumikage almost fall off the edge of the bed where he was.

"She is my mother." Answered Todoroki, stretching his legs and pulling them through the cold sheet. "She must be talking to Touya-nii."

"Oh, Touya-nii is the one who showed up at the door just now?"

"No, that was Natsuo, my other brother."

"And the girl was your sister?"

"Yes, her name is Fuyumi."

"Is it cool to have so many brothers?" The curious bird-boy leans forward, staring into the other's heterochromatic eyes.

"Yes! They are amazing!" He said at once, thoughts circling his mind, of Fuyumi telling him about school in her spare time, of Natsuo mischievously showing the comic books he got from a classmate, and how Touya, with his fresh bandages around his face and arms, would sneak into his bedroom on rainy nights, telling a story full of fairies and cute dogs until he fell asleep.

His brothers are amazing. Shouto loves them to death.

"I had brothers too." Ren comments, as his hands insist on pulling his legs into their curiously lying lotus position on the bed, and Madara doesn't know if he should consider that a sign of good flexibility for future training or a tragedy that makes Sasuke want to laugh. "One big and one pretty small."

"Really? Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I had forgotten them..."

"How can you forget about your own brothers?!" Todoroki exclaims in astonishment.

"It's just that they died so long ago... and it's hard to remember to tell your friends about long-dead brothers, right?"

"..."

"..."

"What?"

Yes, with Ren here, the conversation could always go from loving brothers to dead brothers with just a second gap between the two.

Nothing new under the sun.

"Oh my!!" Fumikage, unannounced, jumps up from his seat, looking around the room, searching the walls and the bedside table for something he hasn't found. "What time is it!?"

"Um… three-thirty." Todoroki, being the owner of the bedroom, quickly found the small clock that sat by the door.

Hearing this, Tokoyami's feathers ruffled and he almost fainted right there, on his new friend's bed. "My mom will kill me! Ren!! Take me back!!"

"Oh, are you guys going?" The little boy sits up, looking worriedly in their direction.

"Yeah, if we don't go, I'm afraid the Fumikage will be impaled alive by his mommy."

"W-what?!"

"What are you talking about? Is she going to make him a roast chicken now?" Sasuke ends up not being able to hold back the laughter of his own joke, losing the look of disappointment from his spiritual partner.

His sense of humor is worsening with each passing day. He urgently needs to get away from Ren.

"Don't worry, we'll come back tomorrow, if we can come back tomorrow, of course, you won't turn us over to the police, right?"

"You sound so suspicious saying that..."

"Of course not! You guys can come tomorrow yes!" And if the twinkle in his eyes was anything to go by, then it would be the excitement little Todoroki felt at the thought of having them there again the next day.

'Stockholm syndrome.' It was thought in unison, apparently this could manifest in children too.

"Well, if so, I appreciate it!" He walks over and takes the Fumikage's hand, who is still bouncing around in a hurry and imagining the different screams and speeches he might get from his mother when she gets back. "We're leaving then!"

"B-bye... Ren! Ren! Hurry up!!"

"Alright alright, see you tomorrow Shouto!"

"See ya!"

And in the next second, the bedroom is as silent as ever, as if those two rather noisy presences had never passed by. But it was only now, after almost a minute, that Todoroki finally realized: Ren called him Shouto to say goodbye, not Todoroki.

And Ren said he only called friends by their first names.

Friend... a real friend...

Compared to the contemplative silence of that simple bedroom, Mrs. Tokoyami's screams filled the duo's ears and hearts, and Ren would have been impressed by his friend's powers of divination if he could, for the first shout and speech was exactly right.

Well, maybe Ren isn't such a good influence on your son.

"I know I said about being happy you have new friends," said the woman on the way home, still holding the little birdboy's hand, "but I didn't want him to take you to strange places whenever I got distracted for a second!"

"But mother..."

"No buts! A week without going to the park!"

"Ow..."