Summary: Who raised and took care of Naruto during his first few years of life? Certainly not anyone in the village. And the third Hokage is pretty busy being Hokage. What if Minato had a sister (Naruko) who took care of Naruto? The relationship between a boy and his guardian. A ninja and a non-ninja.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Note: My first fanfic. Hit me with reviews guys, give it to me straight, hit me with all you got. Don't expect an update soon though, my life has got other stuff that I need to do right now, but expect me to continue this.

"You have to do it in secret?" Naruko asked, surprised.

Minato scratched the back of his head with a goofy grin on his face and a blush of embarrassment over his face. "Yeah, complications with the seal Kushina's got, that's all."

Naruko sighed in relief, "Oh, I thought it was something a little more serious."

"Hey, this seal IS serious!" Minato said with a little laugh, trying to ease the anxiety, not just in Naruko, but in himself as well.

"Well I know that! I was thinking that since you're the Hokage and all, that might mean that all this secrecy meant that they were afraid that you'd get attacked. Like, there was an assassination attempt on the baby or something!"

"Great Naruko," Minato thought, "I didn't think of that until you brought it up. Now I have more to worry about."

Minato, the fourth Hokage, was about to become a father. Kushina, his wife, was about to give birth to their first child, and that first child would also be Naruko's first godchild.

Naruko was Minato's little sister, but just because she was his little sister didn't mean that she was a child. She was only younger than him by two years.

"I'm pretty sure no ninja keeps track of his targets' child births." Minato joked, trying to ease the added anxiety he felt from her previous statement.

Naruko looked at her old brother and squeezed his face into her hand playfully. "Well excuse me, Mr. Hokage! It's not my fault that I don't know what ninjas know!"

"Ah! Let go of my face you witch!" Minato cried, playfully pretending to be in pain and trying to pry his face from her hand. This earned a laugh from both of them. Despite all of the extra worries Naruko gave him about the birth of his child and how it could possibly take a turn for the worst, Minato was glad to have talked to her before departing. She could always find a way to put a smile on his face or a make a laugh come out of his mouth. The same could be said for Naruko.

Despite their chemistry, the two held two totally different lifestyles. While Minato aspired to be a ninja growing up, Naruko had settled for the quieter life of an average person. While it was Minato's dream to become Hokage and bring peace to the world in a big way, and fight for peace as a shinobi warrior, Naruko had dreamed of a simple life, finding her prince charming and bringing peace one small step at a time, with small kind acts.

If you were to compare them from their youth to now, you would say that they had fulfilled their dreams somewhat. Minato was literally fourth Hokage, one of the greatest titles a shinobi could every dream of having, and Naruko had blossomed into a woman that had stolen the hearts of many men, and was popular among the women of the village for her kind and gentle spirit. This arrangement had worked well for them. After a mission, Minato would come home and be greeted with a dinner Naruko had made, waiting for him to eat to his stomach's delight, and with Naruko at home, he didn't have to worry about paying the bills and just went on living his ninja life, and with Minato being one of the best ninjas in the village (and the slightly overprotective big brother he was), no man dared to hurt Naruko in any way.

After they had stopped laughing, Naruko asked, "So, have you decided on a name yet?"

Minato nodded, "We'll be naming him Naruto."

Naruko smirked, "How do you know it's a boy already? I may not be a ninja, but I at least know none of you can predict the future."

Minato shrugged, "I don't know. A gut feeling I have."

Naruko shook her head with a laugh, "Okay fine, but why are you naming him Naruto?"

Minato grinned, "We decided to name him after you!"

Naruko's eyes grew in surprise, "Seriously?"

Minato nodded, "What's the problem? If you both have similar names, than he's more inclined to be interested in what you're doing, and if he's interested in knowing about what you're doing, then he'll follow you around, and if he follows you around, your personality would spread onto him and he'd be a good boy! I'd be raising the kid without raising a finger!" After the explanation he had a smug grin on his face.

Naruko almost screamed, "SERIOUSLY!?"

Minato laughed, "Ah, of course not. But still… you've been a big part of my life and a good friend to Kushina, even while she was pregnant and her hormones went wild. But in all seriousness," Minato quickly added as Naruko gave him a displeased look, "we really did want to name our child after someone we admired, and there's no one else I can think about except you sis."

Naruko looked at her brother in shock, and then cast her glance to the floor in embarrassment, even blushing a little bit, "You too, bro."

With that statement, Minato also felt his head look down in embarrassment. They may have had a close relationship, but they still seldom ever said anything so sentimental to each other.

"Hey," Minato began, trying to break the awkwardness between them a little bit, "I have your word right? That if anything happens to me and Kushina… that you would take care of him, right?"

Naruko looked at him and nodded with a big smile on her face, "You bet!"

Minato smiled, but then looked down at the floor again and asked, "Naruko… do you think I'll be a good father?"

Naruko had a gentle smile on her lips, "You've taken care of me all these years, right? How hard could it be to do it again? And besides," she sat down next to Minato and looked up at his face, "you have Kushina and me to help you out this time."

Minato smiled, "I'm really too lucky to have you two in my life."

Naruko looked down in embarrassment once again. "Then you'd better treasure it, or else we'll clobber you in your sleep," she joked.

Minato laughed a little. She was right. He wasn't alone on this. He looked out the window, "I should probably get going right now," he said.

Naruko took her brother's hands into hers, "Then go."

Naruko was in their house right now. It had been a while since Minato had left to go with Kushina to give birth to their child. She wondered what was taking him so long to give her the news. Didn't it happen yet? And if it did, why didn't Minato notify her yet? You'd think a ninja nicknamed "The Yellow Flash" would be able to tell her the news in a blink of an eye.

Suddenly, she heard a tremendous boom coming from outside. As she looked out the window, she screamed. Outside, she saw a gigantic fox with nine tails and orange fur, practically destroying the forest of the Hidden Leaf Village. For some reason, she couldn't stop staring at the bloodthirsty eyes of the Nine-Tailed Fox; she was lost in them, frozen in fear. She was awakened from her trance by an urgent knock on the door. She ran toward it and opened it, and saw a fellow shinobi.

"Naruko, we need you to evacuate right now!"

"What's going on? How did this happen?" Naruko asked, panic apparent in her voice.

"We can't say right now. Right now, the safety of the villagers is the most important thing. Please, you need to evacuate right now!" The shinobi reached out his hand, imploring that she take it.

Naruko took one more look out the window and after a brief moment of hesitation, nodded and took the shinobi's hand.

"Minato," Naruko thought, "please be okay."

(Moments Ago)

"So," Minato thought, "that masked man wants to release the Nine-Tailed Fox, destroy the Hidden Leaf, and had the nerve to attack my wife and son?" Minato's eyes grew sharper, "No way am I gonna let him get his way! I'll protect the people I treasure!"

As Naruko was waiting at the evacuation site, she saw a familiar face in the distance.

"Kakashi!" she cried, waving her arms to signal where she was.

Kakashi looked at her and slowly walked towards her, with a look of sadness on his face. Naruko, now wanting to wait any longer, ran towards him, and they met halfway.

"Kakashi, what happened?" Naruko asked.

Kakashi shook his head. "I don't know," he answered, "one moment it was an ordinary day, the next, that giant fox came out of nowhere and attacked the village."

Naruko looked at his distraught face, and asked, "Why are you here?"

"The old ninja wanted the younger generation of ninjas to be evacuated. I guess they thought that if all of them died, at least the village would have its next generation to protect it."

Naruko nodded in understanding, and as she looked around, saw many other ninjas close to Kakashi's age. As she returned her attention to Kakashi, she was startled to find Kakashi close to tears.

"Kakashi," she asked in a gentle voice, "what's wrong?"

Kakashi was wiping his eyes with his arm. In bitter sniffles he answered, "First Obito… then Rin… am I going to lose Minato sensei too?"

Naruko's eyes softened as she enveloped Kakashi in a gentle and reassuring hug. "Don't worry, Minato will be alright. He's the forth Hokage after all."

"Yeah, but… the situation… it's just so hopeless…."

" Don't say that!" Naruko interrupted. She lowered herself so that she and Kakashi were face-to-face. "Never lose hope Kakashi! I believe… if you have hope… then anything can happen!"

Kakashi gasped. There was such determination in Naruko's eyes. After staring at her for a while, Kakashi's expression relaxed, and he nodded. Naruko smiled.

"That's right," she told herself, "as long as you have hope, nothing can stop you. Isn't that right… Minato?"

After a long time, Naruko saw the third Hokage and a large group of ninja walk slowly toward the evacuation site. She didn't see Minato with them. With fear sprouting in her, she ran towards the third Hokage, who had something in his arms.

"Third!" Naruko cried.

The third Hokage raised his hand to stop her and gave her what he was holding. Naruko looked at what she had been given and gasped. There, in her arms, was a baby boy, with blonde hair and whisker marks on his face, just like her. He had cuddled up in her arms and was sleeping peacefully.

Naruko looked at the third Hokage and asked, "Who is this?"

The third Hokage sighed and answered, "Your godchild."

Naruko gasped, and after a while, realization rose from within her. "Wait," her voice was faltering, "does that mean…."

"Yes Naruko," the third Hokage said sadly, "Minato and Kushina are both dead."

Naruko was trying to fight back tears, "This is… Naruto?"

"Yes."

Naruko looked at the baby and kissed his forehead, and after caressing his face, looked back at the third Hokage and asked, "What happened?" It seemed like she was asking this question a lot today.

The third Hokage let out an exasperated sigh. "A man in a mask ambushed us. His target was the Nine-Tailed Fox. He succeeded at releasing it and Minato fought hard. In the end, all he could do was seal the Nine-Tailed Fox into the baby you see before you."

"Wait a minute." Naruko and the third Hokage, startled, looked to the side, to see a villager had listened in on the conversation. "Are you telling me that that demon is in the kid right now?!" he screamed, obviously frightened and paranoid after today's ordeal.

"Well yes," the third Hokage began, "but you see…."

"If the demon is inside that kid than we should kill him!" The previous scream from that villager had directed everyone's attention to the scene, and many others were joining the man's side.

"Yeah, who knows when the demon will come out again? Let's kill it while we have the chance!"

"What are you waiting for third Hokage?! Kill it!"

"That thing needs to die!"

"Are we just going to let it live and risk another attack on the village?!"

"My husband died fighting that thing! Let's avenge everyone's deaths!"

"Yeah Naruko! That thing killed the fourth and his wife, right?! Don't you want to avenge their deaths?!"

"No," Naruko began, "you don't understand!"

"We don't need to understand! We know enough to know what we SHOULD do!"

"Silence!" The third Hokage commanded. Everyone got quiet. "We will not kill the boy. The demon may be inside him, but he's still him. I will let him live his life." There was grumbling among the people.

"The Third Hokage and Naruko are too nice! Can't they see that no matter what it looks like, the child is still a demon and a threat?!"

Naruko felt a hand rest firmly, but reassuringly on her shoulder. She looked behind her to see the third Hokage looking at her.

"Naruko," he said, "we might have to talk about this in private." He made a hand sign and the next thing Naruko knew, she was teleported to the Hokage's office.

The third sat down in the chair that was previously his. He stretched a little bit and sighed. "Now then, we need to know what to do with the child. With the fourth dead and no current replacement available at the moment, it's to be expected that I would be re-elected as Hokage. If that does happen, then I'll be too busy to raise the child on my own. Now what should we do with the child? Obviously the village will ostracize him, and if given the chance, they might kill him as well. And after fighting the Nine-Tailed Fox, I doubt that they'll be too willing to raise the boy as one of their own. And if you take care of him, who knows what'll happen to you, a regular person. Obviously if the village decides to take an aggressive approach against the boy, you won't be able to stop them, and they might kill you too," he sighed again, "What a predicament."

Naruko looked at the baby in her arms. Then she looked up at the third, with determination in her eyes.

"It should be obvious, right?" she said. "I'll take care of him, I'll raise him." She held the boy close. "After all, we are family, aren't we?"

"But Naruko, the consequences of having him are too great."

"That doesn't matter," Naruko said. "Naruto is family now, and I treasure my family, and I'll make sure nothing happens to him." While she was saying this, she was looking at Naruto's sleeping face the entire time.

The third grinned. "I was hoping you'd say that."

Naruko continued to look at Naruto, and said with a grin, "Hope can make anything possible."

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