4 ½ Years After the Kyūbi Attack
She was small, that much was obvious. Her hair was snow white and her skin was a delicate pale color, but her cheeks had a rosy tint. The Hokage remembered the day she came into the village—a young woman, covered in dirt and dried blood, had come into his office carefully carrying a basket. The woman said she was a survivor of an attack of a small village in Yukigakure, and she had very precious cargo that needed to be delivered to the Leaf.
Needless to say, the Hokage had been surprised to find an infant inside the basket.
The woman explained that the infant's father was a Konohagakure ninja—an ANBU.
The Hokage listened to her story, trying to see if she was lying to him. She had given the best description she could of the infant's father, but she said the only noticeable thing about him was his hair. The father never spoke to her, so she had no idea what he sounded like.
When the Hokage asked if the woman would like to stay in the Leaf to watch over the infant, the offer was declined. The woman said she had a relative in Amegakure and she planned on moving there.
And, after a week of the infant being delivered to the village, the Hokage made sure that a detailed medical history was made—but it was difficult without knowing who the infant's mother was. As far as the Hokage knew, she was healthy—the only thing that might come across as concerning would be that the infant was blind.
Once the proper medical treatment and evaluations had been completed, the Hokage put her in the local orphanage. Not only that, but he assigned Kakashi to watch over her when he couldn't. It had been four and a half years since Konoha had been attacked by the Nine-Tails, and while the community was in its final stages of recovery, there were still a small handful of things that just couldn't heal.
For Kakashi, it had been the death of his teacher.
But, for the meantime, it seemed like watching over Rio was keeping Kakashi occupied. Which was certainly a good thing.
Kakashi couldn't really understand why the Hokage wanted him to look after a baby. Every day was the same thing—when he wasn't going on missions or recovering from one, he'd be looking after the baby, visiting her for a couple hours a day while avoiding the other children. Occasionally, he'd catch himself looking at the hyperactive blonde the other children actively avoided.
An ache burned in Kakashi's chest whenever he saw Naruto.
At such a young age, he was being severely mistreated. Kakashi saw how the children treated him, how some of the adults treated him. Naruto would be ignored, bullied, ostracized. The young Uzumaki was only four years old. He had no idea why he was being treated that way.
But Naruto Uzumaki wasn't Kakashi's assignment.
There would be a couple moments where Kakashi felt an urge to put some of the kids who bullied Naruto in their place, but he didn't. He saw something in Naruto's eyes that suggested he could handle what everyone was throwing at him.
So Kakashi would watch over Rio while observing Naruto from a distance.
Maybe watching over Rio wouldn't be so dull after all.
Author's Note:
This is the rewritten, altered version of 'Iridescent'. Since that story didn't really turn out so well, I decided I'd try something else. This story will be loosely written around the anime version of 'Naruto', so please bear with me. For any of you who read/reviewed/followed/favorited 'Iridescent', if you've got any feedback for this chapter, let me know.
I own nothing in the 'Naruto' universe, that all belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I own Rio, any other characters I add the story, and my fillers.
Let me know what you think of this chapter. Hopefully this story turns out better than 'Iridescent' did. If you've got ideas for possible side-plots, if you've got ideas for OC's, let me know. I'm all for ideas.
A reminder for the reviewers: There will come a time where whenever I update a new chapter, it'll show up as a repeat of the previous one. Please, do not review to tell me I posted the same chapter twice. So if you want to review, please let it be something important.
Leave a kind and helpful review, please.
Thank you.
Susan Strong