Hey all! I'm back with a larger chapter. My messages are at the bottom as usual.

Without holding you back, please read, review and enjoy!

Morning had rolled around and Naruto awoke slightly later than usual. Lucy had inexplicably vanished since the last time he was awake, and Naruto figured that she had simply returned to her room. Even with his frustratingly annoying headache and sleep still glazing his eyes, Naruto managed to find his way into the kitchen, where his mother and father were.

Rita was busy cooking up a storm. Bacon and eggs flew about in the pan for her dozen children while Lynn Sr. was busy reading through the morning paper and catching up on the news.

Lynn Sr. noticed Naruto first and lowered his paper, throwing a smile his son's way. "Hey there, kiddo! You doing alright?"

"Hey dad, hey mom. And yeah… I'm feeling alright." Naruto prodded the lump at the back of his head, still hidden behind some wraps, and hissed softly in pain, "Kind of. Just a bit of a headache, but I'm still ready to go to school."

Lynn Sr. stared at the clock that hung on the wall of the kitchen. "Uh, you've still got an hour, kiddo." He then continued after giving his son a quick once-over and pointed out the obvious. "And you're still in your pyjamas."

"Huh?" Naruto threw a glance down at his own clothes and groaned. With the way his head was acting up, he must have forgotten to take a shower which he was normally the first to reach.

"Oh right, right. I should probably get changed." Though now… Naruto cast a look up to the second floor, where he could hear his little sisters bickering over who was going to shower next. Judging by the sound of how many of them he could hear, it was probably a long line. In a family as large as his, lines for the toilet could take a while.

"Naruto, honey, you won't be going to school today." Rita spun around, hot pan in hand. With impressive swiftness unexpected in a woman of her age, she slipped two eggs with a side of bacon to a nearby plate. Dropping the pan off at the stove, she picked the plate up and made her way over to her son, steering him towards the breakfast table with a tender hand on his shoulder. Directing him to his seat, she placed the plate in front of him and filled the cup in front of him with a cool glass of orange juice.

"Thanks, mom. But — whaaat?" Naruto whined as his mother walked off to make more breakfast, "I'm fine to go to school, and more importantly, I want to go to school!"

"You shouldn't even be out of bed, let alone heading off to school where your condition might worsen." His mother gave him a slight, worried frown, "If anything, you should be heading to the hospital to get your head checked." Then his mother clicked her tongue at the thought of the hospital, "But then again, that creepy doctor that always harrasses you is there."

"Dr. Stein is not creepy, mom. And I-" Naruto made a move to argue, but his father peered at him from over the newspaper with wide eyes and slowly shook his head as if to say — 'You're not going to win this one. Best give up now.'

"Alright… But I'm not going to the hospital! All they'd do is wrap my head up like Luan and Luna have done and slap me with a thousand dollar bill. I'll at least stay at home." With a sigh, he began to dig into his food, munching down into the bacon. Then he seemed to brighten up a bit as he hummed in delight. "Mmm, the food's good, mom. Thank you."

"Thank you, darling." Rita smiled kindly at her eldest and quickly dished out another eleven plates of food. Once done, she began to wash the pan, speaking to her son as she did. "Why are you so insistent on going to school anyway?"

His dad nodded, sipping from his cup without looking up from the paper. "Most kids would rather not. I mean, a day off is practically celebrated."

"I mean, not when I'm so close to flunking out of school." Naruto groaned as he chewed his bacon roughly, "You guys know how badly I'm doing, and I really don't want to miss out on any more lessons." Then he blinked before shooting glances to both of his parents, "Speaking of which you guys seem pretty nonchalant about me failing my classes and dropping out, which is slightly worrying."

Rita wiped the pan and set it aside before facing her son, a look of apprehension on her face as if she was trying not to bring the subject up. "Well… I suppose that your father and I are unconcerned about your grades mostly because…" His mother trailed off before Naruto had to prompt her.

"Because…?"

His father nearly choked on his coffee at that. "Because, uh, we don't think that you'll be short of a job when you get out! Isn't that right, dear?"

"Yep. And I do hear that ramen shop's trying to recruit you back into their ranks. Mr Teuchi, was it?" His mother chuckled at that, "You left quite the impression on him!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at that. His parents were definitely hiding something from him, and that left him rather disappointed since he figured that he was already old enough to be considered as an adult.

"Yeah, I guess." Still, if they weren't ready to talk to him about it, he would wait. His parents weren't fools by any measure, no matter how naive they sounded sometimes. They had to have some reason why they were keeping this topic a secret from him.

Deciding to drop it, Naruto slumped back into his chair, still somewhat worried about dropping out of school. While he might not have performed well in regards to the academics, Naruto did excel well on the physical side. With almost as many clubs as his sporty younger sister, Naruto had consistently won trophy after trophy for his school. As a club member of Judo, Taekwondo, Karate, Baseball, Football, Basketball and, strangely enough, even Table Tennis, Naruto knew his fair share of trophies.

People wondered why Naruto still fretted over grades when he excelled in almost all of the sports previously listed —and even more that he just didn't join the clubs of— since he was bound to get scouted. But Naruto found himself weary of the idea of going pro in any sport. The last thing he'd need is to get himself hurt in some stupid manner as usual and costing himself a scholarship. With nothing to fall back on, he'd end up screwing his family and himself. And he did not like the idea of that.

Not to mention the idea of competitively playing a sport for years would probably end up burning up his love of the sport.

As Naruto polished off the rest of his breakfast, he silently went through what he was supposed to do today. 'Speaking of… I'd better text Marco and tell him that I won't be able to make it tonight.'

Shortly after that though, the rest of the Loud siblings began to pour into the kitchen, one after the other. Every single one of them went over to check on Naruto before engaging in breakfast, already dressed up and ready for school. Naruto stayed back for a bit after his meal to spend a little time with them.

"Thanks for last night, Lucy." Naruto smiled at the young Goth, "It was fun to have a séance." The Goth nodded, and though her face was bare of any emotion, there seemed to be a ghost of a smile on her face.

"A séance? What for?" Lynn asked, prodding her fried egg with her fork.

"Um…" Naruto frowned a little, remembering why they had done it in the first place. And after sharing a quick glance with Lucy, he decided that it was best his sisters didn't need to know about the ghost his sister said haunted them. "The spirit of… uh, Bruce Lee? You know how much I love those moves of his."

Lynn stared at him with a piercing gaze, her eyes drilling into Naruto's defences and observing his still visage for any breaches. Then, almost as sudden as she had begun her assault, she pulled back. Kicking her feet up onto the table and leaning back in her seat, the jock slurped at her juice.

"Yeah, that seems like a reasonable answer. I'd do the same."

Lori, who seated next to Naruto, looked away from her phone for a minute and stared at her sister's feet, placed next to her food. "Ugh. Feet off the table, you gremlin. That is literally so gross."

"As gross as… your boyfriend?" Lynn made a face that made it seem as though she had just found the ultimate insult to her older sister, whose face was now twisted in confusion.

Naruto blinked and stared at Lori, "Ho? You have a boyfriend?" He smiled slightly, cocking a brow at her, interested in the topic. "This is a first. Who is it?"

"What?! No, it's no one!" Lori felt her cheeks burn and she turned away from Naruto and back to Lynn, who was grinning victoriously at her. The younger jock fired an imaginary gun her way, and Lori felt her blood pressure spike. "And that doesn't even make any sense! I don't even have a boyfriend!"

"Oh? And just who are you texting all this time?"

At Naruto's expectant look, Lori felt herself nearly crushing her phone in her grip.

"No one important…" Lori trailed off, her anger slowly fizzling off as she collected herself. She gave a quick look to her brother and Leni, who seemed to be trying to figure out how to eat her breakfast, before rolling her eyes. "Just… Just an old friend of ours, that's all!"

Lynn shrugged at that and got her feet off the table. As much as she liked pushing Lori's buttons, she didn't want her sister getting a stroke over a bit of teasing.

Luan ignored her sisters and leaned in close, interested in the topic of a séance. "So did you guys succeed?"

Naruto scratched his temple, trying to remember as best as he could what had happened last night. "Well, I'm pretty sure we made contact…"

His sisters made sounds of awe and interest. "Ooooh…"

"…But I can't quite remember how it all went down. Just Lucy and I holding hands and then falling asleep." He rubbed his chin, deep in thought. Naruto then looked at his séance partner last night for help, "Lucy? Any thoughts? I'm sure you remembered something."

"Nope." Lucy shook her head, her black tresses following suit. "Didn't meet any ghosts. Just fell asleep next to Naruto."

The rest of his siblings groaned at that. Although Lori, Luan, Luna and Lynn all groaned for a different reason. While Leni showed her fondness for how adorable the scene that she had stumbled upon had been with an endearing squeak.

Naruto chuckled at their responses before checking the time. They didn't have long before they needed to head off to school, thus Naruto decided that it was about time that he took his leave.

"Mom, let me help with cleaning up." The blond said as he stood.

"Oh no, dear. It's fine." She shooed her son off with a soft smile. She definitely raised her eldest right. "I'll handle the dishes, you'd best get back to bed."

"Right. Thanks, mom." He pecked his mother lightly on the cheek. "Bye mom, bye dad. Bye guys, see you all later!" Hoping that he could rid the pounding in his head soon, Naruto snagged an Advil on the way up to his room, giving his family one last wave goodbye.

As the family returned Naruto's farewell, Lincoln watched as his brother vanished up the stairs. Glancing towards the camera, the white-haired kid rubbed his chin in thought. "I hope he's alright. I still feel pretty bad about it. I can probably make him a Get Well Soon card at school. Speaking of school, I'd better get going!"

Lincoln grabbed his bag and raced out of the door, behind his sisters, hoping to make it to school in time.

Naruto awoke a few hours later at the feeling of something lapping at his face, leaving behind a thick, viscous substance on his cheek.

"Huh? Wha-?" Jerking upright, the blond swiped the substance off his cheek with the back of his palm. Cracking open his eyes, Naruto caught sight of Charles by his bed, the tiny dog's tongue hanging out of his mouth and appearing quite worried. "What's wrong, boy? You don't usually come into my room."

Charles barked in response, albeit softly, as if trying not to draw attention to himself. Naruto wasn't sure what to make of that, but he shrugged and figured that perhaps his family had just shut the door to the backyard and Charles just wanted to pee. Grabbing the bathrobe that hung at the back of his door, Naruto slipped it over his shirt and boxers and headed down the stairs.

He had just made it down to the foot of the stairs when he heard the distinct sound of the fridge being opened, the glass jars of condiments rattling against each other as the door swung to the side. Understandably, Naruto felt slightly on edge as he could not recall anyone of his family members still being at home. If this was an intruder of some kind then Naruto was in trouble.

Normally, he would have been able to take down a grown man without much hassle. But with his head still hurting, albeit in a much better state now thanks to the Advil, he knew he was at a disadvantage.

Hell, just the thought of going up against someone was making him weak in the knees. He might have had numerous wins against some of the best in their age-group, but those had all be regulated fights. Naruto didn't know if this intruder was armed, and if they were, it would be bad news for him.

He could have chosen not to act now and go upstairs to hide, but Naruto didn't think that this person was going to stay on the ground floor for long. And since he knew that they were still rummaging through the fridge since the door had yet to be closed, Naruto wanted to get the jump on them. Bundling up his nerves and gathering his bravery, Naruto turned the corner and lunged without hesitation…

…Only for time to crawl at what, or rather who, he saw.

There, standing at the door of the fridge, was a young girl in a deep purple hoodie. Light brown skin and jet-black hair that had been bundled up into a ponytail, she looked to be about the same age as Lincoln. The girl clearly had not expected anyone to be at home, judging by the terrified look on her face. Either that or she was just scared at the sight of a large blond teen in the midst of silently pouncing on her — which, granted, was a terrifying sight indeed.

It took every ounce of control Naruto had over his body to tighten his muscles and freeze his actions in the air, causing his momentum to stop abruptly. Naruto stopped just short of the girl and the open fridge, narrowly avoiding a huge disaster.

His arm above the girl and against the freezer portion of the fridge, Naruto stared down at the girl with relief, confusion and a slight tinge of anger in his eyes. Their faces were close enough that Naruto could feel her ragged, terrified breaths brushing against his nose.

"H-Hello…" The girl said meekly, her eyes wide as saucers.

Naruto's response was simply a low growl and a baring of his teeth as he stared down the poor girl.

Now standing in the living room, the youth was flanked by Naruto, who kept a keen eye on her movements lest she tried anything. Though, judging by the way her hands nervously shook, she wouldn't dare to.

Naruto gestured to the couch, "Please, sit. I insist." The girl obediently did as she was told and hurried over to the couch, while Naruto positioned himself across from her in the recliner. Naruto had calmed himself from the incident that had occurred earlier.

"So… should we talk about how you scared my dog?" Naruto asked as he stared at the young girl that was currently made to sit on the couch. "Oh, and maybe also about you breaking into my house." Two buck teeth poked out of her upper lip as she gave Naruto a nervous smile.

"Well," She coughed into her hand awkwardly. "It was more like no one answered the door… aaaand so then I let myself in."

"Maybe knock a little harder next time. Or better yet, maybe use the doorbell?" Naruto muttered in disbelief before he jabbed a thumb at the far wall, where a window was left suspiciously ajar. "So I'm just gonna assume that you let yourself in through the window."

"Yeah… Sorry about that." The youth's chagrined look made Naruto sigh. It was the same type of face the younger bunch of his siblings would pull on him when he caught them in the act of causing trouble.

Still, a sad puppy-dog face was no excuse for committing actual breaking and entering.

"So, how about we get to know each other?" The girl was obviously hesitant to give up her information, and rightly so. She probably didn't want to end up in Juvie, and neither did Naruto want that to happen. A promise that she wouldn't do something this foolish ever again was a win in his book. Besides, he could imagine one of his sisters or brother in her shoes doing something like this for some stupid reason, and he'd want the victim to give them a second chance too.

"You can relax. I know you didn't take anything and I forgive you. But you also have to make sure never to do something this stupid ever again."

The girl's buck teeth bit down on her lip. "You promise?"

"Promise." Naruto held up both his hands, with one drawing a cross over his heart, "Cross my heart and hope to die."

Seeing that Naruto had promised her that much, the girl felt much more at ease. "Um… My name is Ronnie Anne Santiago. I'm eleven… and I, er, have an older brother?"

"Well nice to meet you, Ronnie Anne. I'm Naruto Loud, eighteen, eldest of the Loud children and I'm from Royal Oaks High School."

"Oh, well, I'm from the same school as Lincoln." Ronnie Anne coughed, "Y'know, Royal Oaks Elementary."

Naruto's eyes widened up slightly and a short laugh escaped his curled lips. "Oh, that explains it. You're in love with my brother."

"Wh-What?!" Ronnie Anne's mouth hung ajar as she stared at Naruto, her eyes about as wide as her gaping mouth. "How'd you know-? I mean- Dangit!" Naruto had to stifle a laugh at how flushed her face was getting.

"I mean, I was just joking but you seem to have revealed yourself." Naruto had a full-blown grin at the reaction he had received from the young girl. She didn't have to make a sound to let Naruto know that she was internally screaming. "You did go through the trouble of breaking into our house. Maybe to get some dirt on him to tease him with?" Naruto laughed as he headed into the kitchen, "Can I get you something to drink? Tea? Milk? Water?"

It took a second but Ronnie Anne managed to compose herself, shaking her head in shame at being called out on her crush on Lincoln, by his older brother no less. "No thanks."

Naruto vanished for a minute in order to grab some warm tea, while Ronnie Anne stayed in her seat, glancing about the living room. Numerous photos were framed, some on the walls and others on the mantle of the fireplace. Most were group photos of the large family while others were simply of the kids hanging out together. Ronnie Anne could tell from the pictures that Naruto was obviously loved his family and that his family felt the same way about him.

She sniggered at the sight of some of the photos of Lincoln. There was one where he was a tiny baby, tufts of white hair poking out from the top of his bald head, dressed in an orange jumper. He was giving a toothless grin to the camera as he climbed atop his brother's head, tugging at the young blond's spiky hair. Naruto, although appearing in quite a bit of pain, still managed a pained smile at his younger brother's enthusiasm. Then there was another picture of a nine-year-old Lincoln, this time riding a bicycle with one of his sisters beside him, and Naruto standing far off in the background looking quite proud of his younger brother.

As she was looking through the pictures, Naruto returned, a mug of warm tea in hand and a plate of cookies in the other. Glancing over her shoulder to take a peek at what she was looking at, Naruto cracked a smile at that particular picture.

"I remember that day. Lincoln's first time riding the bicycle without needing any help. It was all laughs and smiles from him until Lynn, his sister, knocked him into a tree." Setting the cookies on the table, Naruto returned to his seat.

"Anyway, should you be skipping school for something as trivial as a crush?" Naruto asked with a stern voice, but the slight smirk that came after gave him away. "Granted, it's a crush on my little brother — so I am a little excited for him. But your grades are still pretty important."

Ronnie Anne shrugged as she took a cookie, now feeling much more comfortable in Naruto's presence. If he was cool with her sticking around and was even nice enough to get her cookies, then he was more than okay in her book.

"According to the school, I should be at home, sick and in-bed resting. But skipping a day isn't gonna cause me any trouble. I'll have you know that despite my 'troublemaker' look, I'm a straight-A student." Naruto's smile seemed to widen at that little bit of information.

"Good." The boy muttered, his lips spread out against his the rim of his cup before lowering it. "As much as I cherish him, my brother isn't exactly the brightest star out there. So I wouldn't want my brother dating someone who's failing grades like he is." Though it was ironic that Naruto was one to talk about failing grades. "Plus, I think it'd be nicer if he could go on dates with his girlfriend to the library and have her tutor him or something." Naruto chuckled after a brief thought. Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes at that, but the light dusting of colour on her freckled cheeks told Naruto that she rather fancied the idea.

"And you seem to be the type who wears the pants in the relationship, so I figure you could smack some sense into him if he tries something dumb."

The young brunette's eyes turned to narrow slits as she stared at Naruto. Said blond wondered if he had said the wrong thing. But before he knew it the young girl lost her current look and replaced it with a laxer one. "You know, Naruto, I'm liking you more and more by the minute."

Naruto simply raised his mug to the girl in salute, managing an amused smile. "Same to you."

They fell into a momentary silence before Naruto picked the conversation back up again, "Say, now that I've gotten a good look at you, I feel like I've seen you before."

"Yeah, I know a bit about you too actually." Ronnie Anne said between bites of her cookie. "Before you formally introduced yourself, of course."

"You do?" Naruto asked inquisitively, "Where from?"

"Your community classes. Sometimes I come by to watch."

"You're a fan of martial arts?"

"I guess you could say I'm a fan of being able to kick ass. Thanks to you, I've learned a thing or two from watching that have come in handy in the past." Ronnie Anne said vaguely as she started to work on another cookie, "Also to support my cousin."

Naruto furrowed his brow at that as he began to compare her looks to one of his most obedient and loyal students. The previously aforementioned Marco. "Your cousin wouldn't happen to be Marco Diaz, would he?"

"What gave that away? The fact that he's the only other Latino there?" She said with a wry smile, and Naruto shrugged.

"That might have been a giveaway, yes." Naruto chuckled before he glanced towards the clock, "Huh, look at the time. It's almost two. My sisters and brother should be coming back any minute now."

At the mention of his brother, Ronnie Anne seemed to stand in a hurry, "Then I should probably take my leave. It's been nice chatting with you, Naruto. We should hang out some more next time." Then she threw him a glance, "And please don't tell Lincoln I was here."

"Thanks. You too, Ronnie Anne." Naruto chuckled, "And don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. Buuuut you could stay for a few more minutes y'know."

"No, it's fine." She protested vehemently.

"I'm sure Lincoln would want to-" Before Naruto could say anything else, Ronnie Anne was already leaping out of the open window she had entered from. Naruto didn't stop her, merely watching as the girl landed in a bush before picking herself up and running off into the distance. The blond's nose twitched as he sniffed slightly before taking a small sip of his drink.

"Heh… I'll take that as a 'no'."

Chapter End

Authors Notes: Sorry if you found the first part of the chapter a bit clunky and stuffy. I found it a little hard to write sometimes and it shows, but I'm trying to refine my writing as best as I can and I'll accept any positive constructive criticism head-on!

PS: I forget to add this in after uploading, but there will be other appearances of characters from different shows as well. (Any guesses?) Nothing that should bring about alarm as they will most likely just be cameos. Believe it or not, I had it already planned about the same time Mumei revealed minor crossovers in their own fic. I just didn't get to put mine into action until now since I've been gone so long.

And no, Jackie will not be with Naruto! Nor Star!

But besides that, I'd just like to give a sincere thank you to every single person who left a review in the last chapter wishing me well. It really made my day when I woke up and went through the numerous reviews that supported and understood what I was going through.

Anyone who is going through the same emotions should not feel ashamed to share how they feel, and crying isn't something that makes you weak. Just know that even half-way across the world, someone, a complete stranger, is willing to hear you out and ready to listen to you vent.

Once again, you all have my thanks and I wish you all the best in whatever you do. You can get knocked down, and you can stay down, but just remember to pick yourself back up and dust yourself off once it's over, with the knowledge that you've overcome that obstacle.

Take care, and, like, drink lots of water and stuff.

(This next part is just a short explanation if you were curious about what happened in my life)

Someone mentioned that I should take a break and learn cooking, which left me chuckling since I was actually in culinary school during the last year and a half. Going through the internship was actually the reason for my depression since the working conditions and hours were just plain hellish, especially for someone with so many health conditions. Let's just say eczema and severe flat feet do not go well with that. The intense heat, stressful environment and long 12-hour shifts with only one 45 minute break left swollen rashes across 70% of my body and mentally broke me.

Whenever I was at work and I went to the toilet, whether or not it was to change, I'd open up my uniform, look at my reflection and start to tear up and cry. I asked myself why I was so weak and pathetic and would have to pull myself together to get back to work. I know it seems petty and trivial, but seeing my eczema, which had been plaguing me for over a decade, worsen to such a point just left me in shambles.

Any chef out there working this kind of life has my respects.

Of course, all is better now thanks to a fantastic doctor I was introduced to, but I'm still itching here and there.

And some of you might be wondering why I chose to even spend time, or even consider it a waste, to have gone and learnt cooking. But I'm glad I did. I know how to make a decent meal for myself, and a little bit more, and I can now fully appreciate food placed in front of me, just knowing what people behind the scenes are going through.

But that's all for now. I'll see you all when I see you!