Welcome to the Scrap Box. The place where stuff all the plots and story ideas that won't leave me alone, but that I also have no motivation to continue...

So, without Further Ado...

ANBU:

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed to himself, feeling the weight of the years on his shoulders as he sat in his office as the sun slowly crept over the horizon in the distance, heralding a new day. He hadn't slept a wink the night before if the bags under his eyes were any indication, but he wasn't afforded that luxury considering the events of the previous night.

It had been nearly two years since he had seen neither hide nor hair of the boy who by all rights should have been considered a hero for the burden he carried, outside of fleeting rumors. That in itself was troubling, seeing as he had sent out his best and most trusted ANBU team to track the boy down when the Sandime Hokage had learned that the matron of the orphanage that one Uzumaki Naruto had been placed in had "Locked up early" one night after "Forgetting" that the boy was still out roaming the streets… He growled momentarily at the memory and how, due to the incessant meddling of the civilian council, he hadn't been able to "discipline" the women for her ineptitude.

The Sandaime considered it nothing short of a miracle that the, now six year old, boy had survived for even this long on his own if even half the things the medics who examined the child once he had been recovered were true, but his joy at finally finding Naruto was squashed under the weight of the dire circumstances surrounding how the boy had actually been found… He had been sitting in his office late the night before, finally finishing up the latest battle in the all out war he had been waging with that blasted paperwork since earlier that morning, and hoping to be able to get some shuteye for a few hours before continuing the battle the next day when Inu came running into his office and promptly informed him that his team had finally located the boy. His previous wariness instantly forgotten he leapt to his feat and all but demanded the ANBU captain to lead him to the boy. Shortly thereafter the aging Hokage found himself standing on top of a building in one of the shadier areas of Konoha staring down on the scene with both absolute rage and fascinated horror clearly written on his face…

Standing in the middle of a wide side street, surrounded on all sides by and angry mob of both civilians and ninja alike, stood a short blond haired boy with whisker marks on his cheeks. His tattered and dirty cloths hung loosely off of his rail thin frame as he stood with his shoulders slightly hunched over and a dead look in his cerulean eyes . Blood steadily streamed out of the many wounds he had received before the apparent stalemate between him and the mob had occurred, adding to the spatters that died his cloths and hair crimson. The apparent cause of said stalemate was held loosely in his right hand, with its tip dragging on the ground, was one of the standard issue ninjato commonly used by his ANBU forces with sanguine liquid slowly making its way down the edge of the blade. As to how the boy had gotten his hands on the weapon, one only needed to look around his feat in the roughly five-meter wide void in the mob that surrounded him, where several bodies lay, one or two wearing the animal masks that marked them as ANBU. He could see Inu's teammates, Neko, Dolphin and Wesel monitoring the situation from a distance.

Suddenly there was a shift in the crowd and Sarutobi watched in horror as an either particularly brave, or particularly drunk, chunin lost his head and charged at the child in the center of the ring with a kuni in each hand screaming that if the other's wouldn't kill the "demon" then he would. As soon as he reached striking distance though, a spray of blood suddenly erupted from his back tracing a line from his right shoulder to his left hip, and he promptly fell over to join the rest of the corpses with Naruto standing behind him, the ninjato raised in the position it's deadly arc had stopped at and a slight fire burning behind the boys eyes, only for the blade to lower once more to the ground and his eyes to once more take on their seemingly unseeing gaze...

After witnessing this the Hokage had quickly signaled to Inu and his team using hand signs that he wanted this situation contained yesterday. While his ANBU were subduing the mob he cautiously made his way towards the young Naruto and stopped when he saw the boy's posture unconsciously tense upon his entering the ring of bodies. Moments passed as they silently stared at each other until recognition dawned behind the boy's eyes and he relaxed and mumbled a quiet "Jiji" before passing out as Sarutobi quickly ran forward to catch him before he hit the ground…

For those who are interested, this snippet would have gone on to having Naruto covertly inducted into ANBU at an early age, and properly trained in secret while he attended the academy while maintaining a "cover" for being the loud idiot we all know and love. The story would have gone on to feature a somewhat more unhinged Sasuke than in Canon, and Naruto's mission after graduation would have been to monitor him alongside Kakashi (who would also be an undercover ANBU), buy while Kakashi's mission would be to try and rehabilitate Sasuke to the best of his abilities, Naruto's would be to assassinate the "Last Loyal Uchiha" should he ever become too unstable or go complete rouge.

Would eventually be Naru/Hina; other pairings and details (such as whether or not Jiraiya takes his role as Naruto's Godfather Seriously after the scene above) are undecided...