Mirror, Mirror
Ch. 1
Once there was a small boy
Some say that magic doesn't exist in this world; they are fools for I have seen it with my own eyes, many years ago.
They say that there are two sides to everything. I always wondered if this might include even worlds perhaps.
One day a small child, his age somewhere around five or six was jumping and laughing and running around his house as such small children do. He was short for his age only a little over two feet; he had just escaped his mother's attempts to comb his wet hair down and was currently hiding in the closet.
Seeing his mothers shadow pass him by, and knowing his hiding place wouldn't be long undiscovered he quietly exited and took refuge under his bed, which his mother had already checked, looking for him.
Sneaking a look out from under the bed he saw to his surprise a new addition to his room. From his place under the bed he looked up upon a beautifully made standing mirror taller than him. Probably somewhere between five to six feet tall and almost three feet wide; it was set into wood so red and dark as to be black, and the frame itself had carved into it upon its creation five dragons each surrounding a different symbol.
Getting up and staring at it in awe. 'Cool lizards'
"GOTCHA" his mother it appeared, had finally caught up with him grabbed him around the waist.
"AHHHH!!! PUT ME DOWN, PUT ME DOWN, PUT ME DOWN" he squealed not wanting his mother to know he was actually enjoying it. Not like she didn't know though.
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"Hmm…" sarutobi wondered. The anbu in a genjutsu charged with the Hokage's safety began to worry, he had heard of others who the Hokage had questioned on matters of science and philosophy as well as the universe in general, and they had needed Anko and Ibiki to help pull the poor sap back to sanity, or as close as those two could bring someone. Regardless of what people thought they could just as easily bring someone back from madness, almost as well as they could break their mind. Yeah right.
However it looked like the poor ninja wasn't going to escape it. "What all do you think is out there Zuku?" Zukuarimoto Tekarukiari thought of having mind shattered, and decided to take the safe way out and dodge the question. "Ninjas sir."
The Hokage chuckled. He always enjoyed talking to zuku, as it made time seem to pass by when he was waiting that much quicker, while he was doing paperwork. Besides he was a good person to bounce ideas off of due to the fact that since he wasn't a native of konoha and had traveled abroad he had a broader scope of thought than most. Speaking of people not as broad minded brought his thoughts to Naruto. He sighed, blinked and realized something, he had never spoken to Zuku about Naruto, he smiled.
Idly looking up he saw the Hokage smile and began to squirm behind his mask. That was the same look he saw on the old mans face as when they'd found those villagers rioting over that poor kid they'd chased into an alley. He was patrolling nearby when he'd heard the Hokage call out "ANBU" fearing for the old village leaders life he'd rushed in headfirst AGAIN, the old man was always lecturing him about traps and whatnot and, trouble he could be walking into or whatever.
And trouble he walked into. Again. He was always walking into trouble. He'd run toward the shouted summons at top speed over the roofs easily spotting the mob trying to get into the bottleneck of the alley. He arrived to the sight of the old man in full Hokage mode releasing enough Ki to worry him. The shivers of terror didnt happen until he'd landed and looked up at the Hokage for orders. That's when he'd seen that smile as the old man had looked out at the crowd. "FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO BROKE MY LAW YOU WILL BE PLACED INTO THE " CARE" OF IBIKIS DIVISION" he looked over at me and said round them up and give them to Ibiki. GO! By now more of the patrols had arrived. HAI! Was our only reply as we went about our job. I looked back as I was going about it curiously as I hadn't heard what law they had broken, and I saw the old man trying to comfort a kid trying to fade into the alleys shadows, despite the orange of his coat. or jacket?… maybe it was…. Was that an ORANGE JUMPSUIT??? I shuddered knowing that the only thing possibly more hideous than that was Might Guys green spandex suit.
"Huh?" snapped back to the present by a question, the Hokage was looking at him as he repeated his question. "Do you know of Uzumaki Naruto?" he said it in such a way as he felt as if he was missing something. "Um… I don't think so… should I?"
"No, and I shouldn't really expect you to either. In fact I am rather glad that you don't., so that you'll have an open mind about him. In fact I think I hear him now." He said the last with a satisfied smirk."
"Uh oh." I thought as the door exploded inward and a cry of "HEY OLD MAN WHATS THE MEANING OF THIS?"
"Hmmph… hehehehe… " if this is him, I think we'll get along just fine… I just couldn't seem to help it the way this kid had just busted in on the most prestigious, high-ranking ninja in the village at the top of a tower filled with highly trained ANBU everywhere under cover of disguise both Physical and genjutsu and at least 15 upper chunin as well as all of the civilians here to pay for missions. I could think of no immediate way that anyone who could infiltrate this tower. Besides that, just from the looks of him he wasn't even old enough to have a grasp on his charka yet, much less know any jutsu.
SO. HOW. HAD. HE. GOTTEN. INSIDE?
Having been able to bring his voice down to a more tolerable level of yelling the boy was now, dare I think it?
Interrogating THE Hokage?
Well this was going to be fun!
Now that I had gotten over my shock I decided to take some measure of action. "YOU THERE WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? BARGING INTO THE HOKASGES OFFICE! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" I did my best until the very end to make it sound convicing. Convincing to me was making me sound just like everyone else. And I knew I had heard this response to "disrespect" to the Hokage.
The boy looked up at me and with a look of utter disgust, as if everyone should know this. He told me. "IM NARUTO UZUMAKI AND IM GONNA BE THE NEXT HOKAGE!!!" "Oh really, you?" "HECK YEAH IM GONNA BE BETTER THAN ALL OF THE HOKAGES!! IM GONNA BE MAKE EVERYONE RESPECT ME AND QUIT LOOKING DOWN ON ME!" as a snide remark he finished it off with, " AND WHO ARE YOU TO TALK, YOUR HIDING BEHIND A MASK!!
The Hokage chose this moment to intervene, " naruto you know anbu aren't to take their masks off when their on duty, and this was the boy I was telling you about naruto uzumaki, id like you to watch over him. He said the last part quietly, but I caught it like he knew I would, and I nodded. I didn't want a reason to do it. Somehow it seemed I had taken a shine to the boy in the old mans eyes. Well we were a lot alike in the way we acted. I sighed and asked "starting when?"
"Immediately"
"for how long?"
"until he graduates the academy"
This seemed to be the opening that naruto was waiting for to leap back into the conversation. His eyes got real big and he happily cried out " SO ITS TRUE THEN? I CAN BE A NINJA! IM GONNA BE THE BEST ONE EVER JIJI. BELIEVE IT!
I blinked. Well that had happened quickly. I blinked again a bit slow on the uptake
"What am I now, a bodyguard?"
"no you are still anbu your simply you are simply to watch over naruto at the academy and intervene if something bad happens. You will still receive regular pay grade. All that's changed is that instead of guarding me is now your guarding him.
I shrugged, after all I was still getting paid and despite the kids big mouth, honestly how much trouble could he get into? "Alright sir,
hokage-sama sir Ill be right on it immediately sir kitsune is on the case sir!"
("I chose kitsune as my ANBU name because frankly people in this village didn't like foxes, man I never did understand that really")
"hmmph, well alright then, but take this job seriously kitsune or have ibiki tack your hide on my wall!" he said as I herded naruto out of the room following him out I placed my hand on his shoulder and moved to a designated spot where ANBU could shushin in and out of the tower and despite his confused protests as to what I was doing I took him to the outskirts of the village via shushin.
After all I was taking my job seriously, what with all the traps and patrols that the kid had outmaneuvered or somehow tricked I figured with all of those ticked off ninja probably flooding into the office looking for an intruder I figured getting him via a way no one else outside of ANBU knew would doubtless confuse them further. And how I loved to mess with my fellow ninja.
And so my first day with Naruto Uzumaki, self-proclaimed future Hokage of Konoha began.
My only thought was well it can't get any worse at least.
He..he…haha…..haha…ha. I looked up the sound had come from the trees around us it seemed, I looked over my shoulder at Naruto and asked offhandedly; hey'd you hear someone laughing? He looked at me kinda funny and replied, of course not there's no one around here.
Yeah. That's what Im worried about."
Inwardly I thought, "Hmm I wonder why I get the horrible sinking feeling in my gut that is telling me that the universe just laughed at me"
"Friggin' cursed" He muttered.
"You say something?" Naruto asked looking up.
I grinned and replied with what I once heard another ANBU say, "nah don't worry about it, lets go take a walk on the road of life, kid."
Naruto grumbled "as long as the road has restaurants", as they walked away.