The Shinobi Way
A/N: I do not own Naruto or its characters I just like to twist their lives around for amusement.
Chapter 1: Orphans
The snake masked Anbu looked around the massacred village with a detached air. She and her team had not made it in time to prevent the annihilation of the small Nomadic Shinobi clan living there; the nomads had been ambushed by an unknown enemy. The clan had possessed a rare Kekkei-Genkai, similar to the Inuzuka, as they bonded with an animal, yet different in the sense that they were not exclusive to canines.
The ground was muddy from blood and rain and the Snake Anbu, Anko, grimaced as she picked her was through the bodies searching for any possible survivors from the clan. The purple haired ninja froze as she came upon a large and clearly dying panther in a side alley, leaning over a shallowly breathing woman with long, blood matted, Plum colored hair clutching a bundle of dirty blankets weakly to her chest.
There were two other dead bodies, mauled beyond recognition, not far off and Anko could vaguely make out the slashed symbol of grass ninja on their bloody hitai-ate. The dying woman recaptured her attention by opening bleary gold eyes and hissing weakly at her, showing a bloody set of Inuzuka like teeth, the panther mimicking the gesture but not having the strength to attack in defense of his partner; so instead he slumped closer.
The purple haired woman eyed the masked Shinobi warily until her weary eyes set upon the leaf insignia. Anko watched as an obvious wave of relief and resignation washed over the dying woman, she reached out and gestured the Shinobi closer. The younger woman stepped forward and knelt by the dying one only to be surprised when the reaching hand pushed her mask partially away from her face.
Anko received a second surprise as the two stared at each other for a long moment before the woman pressed the bundle into her arms and pulled her close, "Take care of … them, Shinobi." The woman rasped out.
Anko nodded dumbly as she glanced down at the bundle that was now quite obviously a sleeping baby girl with wild violet hair and a small spotted kitten of some kind. "I will take them to the Hokage; he will find a safe place…"
The dying woman let out a hiss of displeasure, followed by a rattling bloody cough, pausing Anko's words, "No. you will raise my cub. She is yours now."
Anko blinked down in shock at the woman but couldn't bring herself to throw a dying Shinobi's wish back in there face. So she merely nodded her consent, deciding that she would figure out the details later. "Does she have a name?"
The dying ninja gave one last weak fanged smile, "Suzume." Before she was wracked with vicious, bloody, hacking coughs as her damaged lungs finally gave out. Anko stared down at the still pair for a moment longer before she bowed her head in respect. She glanced down at the infant and cub in her arms and slid her mask back into place with a new determination.
The young purple haired anbu stood mask-less before her leader, the baby still bundled awkwardly in her arms and now silently blinking up at her with big amber eyes. "You're very sure about this Anko?" she looked down at the mask she had placed on her Hokage's desk.
"Yes, Hokage-sama, it was her mother's dying wish. It is my duty to honor that. I'll do my best but Anbu responsibilities on top of raising a child are definitely outside my skill range." Anko grinned at him, "'sides I'm sure Kurenai will help me out if I really need it." The Hokage nodded.
"I will set you up in an apar-"
"No need," Anko grinned.
The Hokage had to fight not to gape at his now (temporarily) retired snake anbu. "You're not actually considering raising a child in that forest…"
Anko shrugged "If it were any other child I wouldn't even consider it, but because of her Kekkei-Genkai it might even be for the best. She will be safe from the villagers and the council until she can defend herself, and we know the animals won't hurt her…"
The Hokage nodded at this accepting her argument as valid. "And her name? What should she be registered under?"
Anko stared down at the baby, her baby now. "Mitarashi Suzume. She'll be my daughter; the majority of the community hasn't seen me in the last year or so, aside from Kurenai and the pregnancy itself could have been covered up with concealing jutsu's. And she looks similar enough to me for it to be believable."
The Hokage nodded, "You realize her being your child will make her a target of ridicule…"
Anko smirked "Well she'll just have ta' be a tough lil' runt won't she?" As Anko turned another thought occurred to her, "How's the fox container… Will you be assigning another anbu to him now that I'm pulling out?"
The old man sighed, "I'm not entirely sure, you were one of the few how had the time and without a grudge. We still can't convince the orphanage matron to take him in and the hospital is just not the place to be raising an orphan like Naruto."
Anko nodded feeling pity well up in her gut as she realized what life would probably be like for the little jinchuriki, "I might as well take him too."
The Hokage raised grey eyebrows, a look of surprise coloring his face, "Anko I'm not sure you know what exactly you're getting yourself into…"
Anko turned and looked over her shoulder at the Third, "If I can help it, no kid is gonna grow up like I did."
Sarutobi sighed and nodded. "You can pick him up at the hospital on your way home. I'll mark you down as being his current guardian." Anko nodded and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. "Good luck."
Anko sneered viciously and the whispering hospital attendants and they glared back distrustfully. She handed a note to a nurse at the front desk, "I'm here to pick up Uzumaki Naruto and get a pediatrics check up for two. Hokage's orders, so you better do it right." The nurse sneered and pushed a button on the intercom labeled pediatrics. A few minutes later a young woman with short minty green hair and happy blue eyes walked up and reached out to shake Anko's hand.
"Hello my name is Kato Miharu; I will be the pediatrician for your…" Miharu looked down at the bundled baby in Anko's arms.
"My daughter and another kid I'm taking in, who we need to pick up from the nursery for his appointment." The pediatrician nodded with a gentle smile, leading the way to the nursery.
Anko glared over the too small basinet the almost two year old blond was crammed into. Big blue eyes blinked up at her from the boy's whiskered face and tentatively as if expecting to be rejected tiny chubby arms reached out for her, asking to be picked up.
A sad smile crawled over Anko's face as she saw the affects of neglect already presenting themselves in the not quite toddler personality. She adjusted Suzume in her arms and scooped up Naruto as well turning to Miharu, who stared in surprise. "This won't be a problem will it?" she half glared at the petite green haired doctor as she awaited her answer.
"Oh no of course not, I always thought it was just dreadful the way people treated that baby. I'm glad he'll finally have a home." Suzume looked over at the blond in her new mothers arm and the pair watched each other curiously as the adults talked. The baby and toddler blinked as they began moving again the small kitten poking its head out of the blankets and catching Naruto's attention.
The trio was lead to a small exam room where Miharu closed the door and picked up a clipboard. "Set them on the table please." Anko sat Naruto down first then un-wrapped Suzume and set her down next to him scooping up the tiny kitten so it wouldn't be in the way. Miharu smiled and ruffled the children's hair, she checked Suzume first running a chakra covered hand over her tiny body.
"Well Suzume is a little underweight, but her chakra coils are developing beautifully in fact even a little larger than they really should, her eyesight and hearing are fantastic, she has a healthy skin tone, and her teeth seem to be coming in well too; though it seems she needs a higher than normal protein level in her diet…"
Anko Nodded "Her father was from a clan similar to the Inuzukas." The doctor nodded in understanding before turning to Naruto with a smile and repeating the procedure.
Miharu frowned making Anko nervous, "well this certainly is interesting; Naruto has abnormally large Chakra reserves, they're about the size that a healthy six year olds should be. From what I understand being the fox jailer will probably give him a strong healing factor, The Hokage asked me personally to be Naruto's pediatrician, so I had to do my research on the jinchuriki." She smiled at the retired ANBU, "He seems healthy as far as I can tell but all the jinchuriki are a bit of a medical anomaly..."
Anko sighed in relief that both kids were healthy and she thanked the doctor as scooped up both of her runts before heading out of the hospital with the little spotted kitten sitting on her left shoulder. "I think I should go see if Kurenai wants to help me shop for you two." The toddler and baby just stared up at their guardian before going back to looking curiously at their surroundings.
Anko walked up to her best friend's apartment with a grin already painted on her face, She kicked the door a couple of times seeing as her hands were full, and waited for the door to swing open. When it did a ruffled and sleepy Kurenai stared out at her slowly taking in the children in her arms. Anko just grinned wider at her friend's obvious confusion. "Ne, Kurenai you wanna go baby shopping with me?"
Kurenai's scarlet eyes widened "WHAT?!"
TBC…
