Naruto sat down next to Garou as they both ate pan-fried pork belly. The crunch of the fried fat made Naruto's mouth water as he continued to gorge himself on food. Garou, meanwhile, didn't care about the flavor, as he just ate whatever was in front of him.

As they ate, Naruto looked at the giant boar carcass, wondering how they killed it. He could make a few assumptions that his sensei killed it or maybe Shizune, but the closer he looked at it, the more he realized that Shizune was picking bone splinters out of the meat before putting it on the cast-iron pan.

"Hey, Shizune, how did you guys kill the giant pig?" Naruto asked, popping another piece of pork belly into his mouth

"Oh, funny story about that, Baku killed it," Shizune replied with a smirk

"Wait, Baku killed it?"

"Yeah, just as the sun was coming up, Baku landed in the forest and accidentally squashed it... along with those," Garou said, pointing at the back of the cave. Naruto turned his head to see a few more dead boars, a bear, and a deer, all of them almost flattened as Naruto sweat-dropped.

"Wow, guess breakfast was really easy this morning, huh?" Naruto stated

"Not quite, I'm still picking the bone splinters so that we don't get holes in our stomachs," Shizune explained, reaching into the pig and pulling out a pork loin with what seemed to be a few of the vertebrae in it, making her frown and slump forward.

"Eh?" Naruto gave her a strange look.

"*Sigh* Eating pork bones can cause you to get holes in your stomach, like fish or chicken bones. This causes intestinal perforation and peritonitis. In other words, they poke through the stomach lining and cause a bacterial infection leading to a life-threatening disease," Shizune explained, still removing poke bone fragments. Meanwhile, Naruto was lost when she started using big words, much like his sensei.

They both stared at her for a while before they took another bite of their food and said: "What?"

Shizune just looked at them both as her eyes twitched and she just grunted in anger, "Why do I even bother," she mumbled under her breath.

Mikoto slowly opened her eyes, only to see more darkness. Feeling the texture of the bag on her face, she quickly deduced that her head was covered in a burlap sack.

'Huh, almost like my genin years,' she thought as she found that her hands were tied to her sides, 'they didn't even bother to tie my hands behind my back? Urgh, amateurs.' slowly reaching for her feet, she stuck a finger in her sock and pulled out a small razor blade. Pulling it out, Mikoto moved her arm around to start cutting the rope but stopped when she heard people speaking.

"I'm gonna go take a whiz, be back in a bit."

"I need to go too."

"Alright, come back soon. The food may be gone when you get back."

'Wait, that last voice... Naruto?' Mikoto waited a few seconds before continuing to cut the rope. Once she managed to cut the rope, Mikoto quickly unwrapped herself and took off the sack. Looking around with her eyes still adjusting to what light was in the cave, Mikoto saw a giant sack next to her and at the entrance of the cave was Naruto, eating what smelled like pork to her. Turning back to the sack next to her, she opened it to find Sasuke sleeping soundly.

Closing the bag, Mikoto threw the sack over her shoulder and ran to Naruto, catching him by surprise when she scooped him up and handled him like a suitcase as she jumped out of the cave and into the trees.

"Hey, you're finally awake," Naruto said, looking up at Mikoto with a piece of pork in his mouth.

"Don't worry, Naruto, I'll get us back home," Mikoto stated, huffing whenever she jumped

"Home? Back to Konoha?"

"Yes, back to Konoha," Mikoto replied. But as she went to jump to another branch, Naruto stretched out his arm and latched onto a nearby tree, causing her to let go and fall. Naruto, catching her open arm, stopped her from falling as he continued to hang onto the tree.

"W-Wait, what?" Mikoto stuttered as she looked up at the young boy

"We're not going back," Naruto stated, looking her in the eye

"W-What are you talking about? A-And how can you hold me? I'm 108 pounds! Not to mention Sasuke is at least 50 pounds! H-How can you hold the both of us?!"

"We can't go back, auntie. Not after everything we've done." Naruto squinted his eye as he let go of her. Mikoto's face was full of shock and surprise as she started to fall to the ground. Pulling the sack containing her son to her front, she hugged him as she reached the ground, only to be caught by someone.

"108? Really? You feel like 105 to me," Garou said as he held Mikoto in his arms.

"Y-You, y-you're the one wh-"

"Rescued you from a fate that's worse than death? You're welcome," Garou replied.

Naruto dropped down from his spot on the tree and landed next to them, rolling his shoulders.

"Just what I need to start my morning," Naruto took a deep breath before pointing back in the direction of the cave, "can we go back to eating?"

"Yeah, sure, let me put her down first." Garou put Mikoto on her feet as he started to walk back with Naruto.

"I-I'm confused, w-what's going on?!" Mikoto asked, but Garou simply made a 'follow-me' motion with his hand.

Tightening her grip on her son, she reluctantly followed them back to the cave, where Shizune was wondering where everyone had gone.

:

Mikoto, holding her sleeping son, who was now out of the sack, sat in front of the dying fire with a small plate of pork loin in front of her.

"So... I-I don't know what to say." Mikoto stuttered, stroking her son's hair

"Don't say anything. Once we get to Japan, you'll be able to do whatever you want," Garou looked at her, "except marrying your son,"

"I'm really sorry about this, Mikoto-san. But I was dragged into this by this little brat," Shizune said, grabbing Naruto's cheek

"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Hey!" Naruto argued as Shizune pitched his cheek harder, "since I don't have to act like you're some weak little brat, I get to do this to ya! Thinking that you can get away with everything! I outta beat your ass!"

"Shizune, stop beating my student, that's my job,"

"Fine, but he at least deserves to be thumped," Shizune removed her hand from Naruto's cheek, the latter rubbing said body part.

"*Sigh* it's not the worst idea I've ever heard of... but thank you," Mikoto bowed her head as her body started to shake and her eyes started to tear up, "thank-you for saving my son and I."

Menma was in the middle of the Forest of Death, punching a tree as he cried his eyes out, "WHY?! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE HIM?! WHY?! WHY? WHY?!?!" he shouted in anguish, punching and hitting the tree. But he stopped once he felt a sharp pain go up to his entire right arm. Pulling back his hand, he saw that he'd punched the tree long enough to have his knucklebones show. He was bleeding badly as he cried even more, but they slowly started to heal with an audible hissing sound.

"Stupid fox,"

'Hey, why are you calling me stupid?'

"Because you are!" Menma shouted, the world around him vanishing to reveal another forest, with smaller trees and a giant fox with dark-red fur and nine-tails, snarling at him.

"You little shit!!" the giant fox shouted but was restrained by a bunch of chains around his hands and feet, along with a collar around his neck.

"Kami, some days I wish I had the Yang half!"

"Well if you did, you wouldn't have me to talk to." the fox grinned, making Menma huff

"At least I would be able to think by myself, Kurama."

"Tch, that's a dangerous thing," Kurama replied, laying down while blowing on Menma, causing him to do somersaults

"Hey!"

"What?" they both stared at each other for what seemed like forever before they both burst out laughing. They laughed and laughed, Menma rolling on the ground and Kurama shaking said ground. When they stopped, Menma was on his stomach, looking up at the giant fox who was also laying down.

"Hey... you'll see him again," Kurama assured the young Namikaze, who smiled

"If you say so, fox," Menma replied, the fox vanishing and the tree's growing back to monstrous sizes. Looking at his hands, they had healed completely without any sign that they had been punched to the bone. Making a fist and punching the air, he smirked with tears in his eyes.

"I'm gonna find you, bro, just you wait!"