Team 3 just parted ways with their sensei after completing a D-rank mission.
"Man I hate cats now" Anko said with an exhausted expression while rubbing her hands covered with bandaids, she got affirmative nods from her teammates.
"I pity the cat" Itachi added which got a sympathetic nod from Hiroto with his female teammate almost agreeing with that 'almost'.
"That cat Tora can give a ninja cat a run for its money" Hiroto quipped in his opinion.
"Are you free now Anko?" Hiroto asked which made Itachi raise his eyebrows with amusement at his childhood friend.
"Does little Hiroto want to say goodbye to his single status like our little Uchiha prince here?" Anko shot back not forgetting to take a jab at her black-haired teammate.
...
...
*** Flashback ***
Itachi wanted to have Dango after a good day's training and Anko sharing the same love towards Dango accompanied him, Hiroto also followed his teammates.
Team 3 soon arrived at the Dango shop.
"Izumi?" Itachi called out in surprise seeing a close friend.
"Hey, Itachi it's good to see you" Izumi greeted with a small blush on her cheeks.
Hiroto and Anko were ignored by the Uchihas and they are engrossed in conversation.
"Uchiha Izumi, Itachi's girlfriend" Hiroto answered in a low voice after getting an inquiring look from his purple-haired teammate.
"HAHAHAHA... our Itachi has grown up" Anko laughed out loud bringing the kid Uchiha couple's attention to her.
Itachi suffered teasing at the hands of Anko for the next few days.
*** End flashback ***
...
...
"Sorry to disappoint kiddo I know you can't bear to lose this sexy girl but you're not my type kiddo" Anko answered without waiting for a reply.
"Don't keep your head in the clouds, I don't see you romantically" Hiroto shut his narcissistic friend's mouth.
Itachi shuddered at the plight his childhood friend have to suffer if his guess was accurate, thankfully he is wrong and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Anko heard her Uchiha teammate's sigh and raised her hands to punch both of her teammates.
"I asked if you wanted to meet both of our brothers, as I can bring Naruto along today" Hiroto said.
Anko hearing that lowered her hands and looked down as she heard rumors about Naruto in the village and she felt close to the toddler as she is also facing a similar situation.
Anko nodded her head after a few seconds agreeing to it.
"Why don't we bring Shikakmaru along? all of them could make new friends" Itachi suggested.
"Anko you ask sensei or Yoshino-san's permission and bring Shikakmaru to Ichiraku's, I will bring Naruto there, Itachi bring Sasuke directly to our training ground" Hiroto said.
Everyone agreed and dispersed.
...
...
Shikaku's house
Anko knocked on the door and barged in directly without waiting, announcing her entry "Hey Shikakmaru, where are you? Come to your big sis".
Yoshino got used to her husband's purple-haired student's antics and called out "Hey Anko".
"Yoshino-san can I take Shikakmaru out? Hiroto and Itachi's brothers and Shikakmaru are the same age they could become great friends" Anko said her reason to take the Nara clan heir with her.
"SHIKAMARU!!!" Yoshino called out loudly which woke up her son from his afternoon nap.
Anko saw a small pineapple head popup and she dragged him with her "Don't worry Yoshino-san I will bring him back by the time sun sets" she left those words behind and left the house.
...
...
Shikamaru can only sigh at the troublesome woman who is dragging him with her and came to a stop at a small restaurant named 'Ichiraku ramen'.
He can only look around to find a place to take a power nap as his abductor is looking around waiting for someone probably his to-be new friends.
Shikakmaru found a spot nearby on a public bench under a very good tree shade he moved in that direction with a smile but had to stop in his tracks when he heard a familiar voice "Anko, Shikakmaru".
He looked in the direction of the voice to see his father's red-haired student with a blonde kid around his age in tow exiting from the Ichiraku's restaurant, he noticed the same eyes as their common feature.
...
...
Training ground near Uchiha clan
Hiroto arrived with everyone at their regular training ground which can be considered their private training ground thanks to the Uchiha clan patriarch, in the training ground he saw Itachi and Sasuke resting under a tree.
Everyone went towards the tree's shade. "Shikamaru they are Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, and guys Nara Shikakmaru and Mitarashi Anko" Hiroto made introductions.
Hiroto and Itachi watched on as Anko played with the younger kids both the genin boys looked at each other and smiled at seeing their friend forget all her troubled past and play with them, soon both of them also are dragged to join by their snake summoning teammate.
After sometime,
All the genin moved away to let the kids have their own interactions.
Team 3 sat a good distance away from the toddlers and Hiroto took out a few fūinjutsu seals and passed them on to his teammates.
"Here, these are the storage scrolls, I recently made" Hiroto said to his teammates and both accepted them.
Hiroto observed as Anko fidgeted nervously for a few moments and say "Hiroto can you help me with a fūinjutsu seal?".
"Yeah, sure. Let me see it" Hiroto agreed to his friend.
Hiroto watched on as Anko let him see her neck. The fūinjutsu learner looked at the seal and can only shake his head in denial.
"Sorry Anko, I can only identify the Evil sealing method but I can't identify the other thing" Hiroto said with a dejected tone, "I don't have many books on fūinjutsu give me sometime a few years by the latest, I will figure out something" he continued to make his friend come out of despair.
"It's okay Hiroto, Hokage - sama looked at it and said it's a type of Juinjutsu, he told me only an expert at fūinjutsu can see what's wrong with it" Anko consoled her friend.
Hiroto hearing that could only look at Naruto holding his tears back.
"Did I say something wrong?" Anko asked Itachi.
"No, it just brought up a few sour memories back" Itachi replied, " The last expert at fūinjutsu Uzumaki Kushina is Hiroto's mother, he lost all his family the day of nine tails attack with Naruto taken away from him" he said with melancholy seeing his teammate's confused expression at the previous statement.
"But, when Lord Hokage gave the file with my team details I saw another name" Anko said.
"It's a long story I will tell you some other time" Itachi said and moved to his childhood friend's side to support him.
...
...
A few weeks passed since then and Team 3 completed a few C-rank escort missions without a hitch.
Team 3 arrived at the Hokage's building to take on a new mission.
"Shikaku, C-rank mission to deal with a few bandits" Hizuren handed the details of the mission to Team 3.