Ch. 2

Naruto watched with trepid fear as his caretaker of only two months had a butcher knife in his had with a hard glint of hatred in his eyes. His footsteps on the creaking boards seemed to heighten his fear.

Creeeeak… his heart skipped a beat.

Creeeeak…

Creeeeak…

Creeeeeeeeak…

His heart was trying to jump out of his throat as the man was only a meter from slicing his throat open for his heart escape. His mind flashed through the events that took place that day. The hokage taking him outside to play with a few of the village children, ramen with the village boy, Haru, and the birthday present of a stuffed bear with a Konoha headband covering one eye.

There was a flash of lightning before the rumble of thunder only a second later. That seemingly was like the signal for what the caretaker was looking for. Naruto felt a sharp pain go across his throat as cried out. Trying to cover it with his hands, he felt the hot, sticky, red, wet substance come from under his skin.

The caretaker backed up as he saw Naruto's blood start to gush out of his throat and from his mouth. He didn't want the blood to spread any further than where it already was, and he readied himself with another lunge towards the two-year-old's heart. The caretaker had almost made it only to have six kunai sticking into his vital organs. A little blood dribbled down from his mouth only to fall forward dead.

Naruto, by this time, had crawled half way to the bathroom before he was picked up by an Anbu. The two year old blinked slowly as the buzzing in his ears had started to get overwhelmingly loud. His eyes made out the Dragon mask before his shallow breathing brought spots to his eyes.

Dragon watched as Naruto's eyes had rolled up into his head only to curse softly. 'Shunshin no jutsu' he thought as everything blurred moving at incredible speed towards the hospital. At the Anbu entrance, he pulled a medic-nin into an available room.

"Heal him." The voice distorter made his voice deep and threatening.

"Why should I? He's just a demon." She spat in distain. She got her answer in the form of Dragon grabbing a handful of her pink hair before shoving her head into the nearest wall.

"Do you need another reason?" He said with deep anger.

Her forehead bruised and a possible concussion, she took her shaking hands over to the dying boy. Her hands went through rapid seals before turning green. She started to knit the boy's throat muscles and skin back together through rapid cell regeneration before going through a diagnosis jutsu.

She scanned the boy for any abnormality and found the boy's stomach was filled with time delayed poison. She had thrust her hand towards the boy's stomach only for the Anbu catch her wrist. She winced as the Anbu tightened his grip while growling out to her.

"What the hell are you doing woman?!? Speak quickly before you lose you hand."

"I – I – need to induce vomiting otherwise the poison will kill him." She grounded out as the Anbu was almost to the point of snapping her wrist before letting her go.

He didn't apologize, and she wasn't looking for one. All she wanted to do was finish before taking a long shower to get feel of demon off her. She thrust two fingers into the two year old's stomach and quickly turned the boy to his side. She did this all in one second before the boy vomited blood, his ramen supper, and bluish poison.

The Anbu recognized the poison by look as it was the only poison that mercenaries liked to use for keeping the body intact and relatively unharmed except most of their inner organs (heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and intestines). It was also inexpensive to get your hands on since it was common in nature. The most important thing was the poison was harmless unless it interacts with stomach acid. The amount of poison Naruto had ingested was enough for a fully matured adult to feel the poison instantly when it activated and eat away at their organs, dying in brutal agony.

The medic-nin cleaned up the mess before wiping away most of the vomit and blood away from Naruto. She did the diagnosis jutsu again just to double check she got every since she didn't want to come back to the demon if the Anbu though she did an insufficient job. She nodded to herself before speaking to the Anbu behind her.

"He'll be fine. All he'll need is some rest, Anbu-san." She said in a clip tone.

"Go," He said coldly.

She didn't need to be told twice. She opened the door only to see the Hokage standing at the door. She bowed to him before mumbling a greeting as she passed him onto her way for the changing station.

The Hokage gave a small glare towards her back as he entered the room. Sitting in the available chair, he looked at Dragon.

"Report," he said in a cold, hard voice.

"Your caretaker had almost taken his life." He said in the same cold tone.

The Sandaime Hokage glare grew fiercer as he addressed his subordinate. "Watch you tone with me, Touson."

"I merely state that the selection of caretakers had failed to protect him Hokage-sama." Touson spoke with hidden distaste. "It would logically be either in the caring hands of someone who will raise him correctly, give him to Danzo-san, or kill him. You, instead, rather torture him…" Touson couldn't finish as he felt his body freeze in place from the KI that Sandaime was emitting.

"Enough, I don't care if my predecessor held you in high esteem, but you have no worth to me with constant questioning you do. I'm beginning to wonder if you're a spy from another country." Sandaime said standing up with full fury on his face. "In which case, you have committed Treason!"

Naruto, at this point, had already cracked an eye and heard everything Dragon had said. He watched with horror and fear again as his protector/savior had his head fall off his shoulder with his own blade that Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi "The Professor" Hiruzen had taken with impressive speed. Closing his eyes before the elder Hokage could notice, he listened as the hokage mutter to the dead man.

"My weapon is mine to do with Touson Kaname. No, and I mean, no will stand in my way in how I develop the blade of my weapon."

The elder's eyes narrowed onto the two year old but were satisfied that Naruto was still unconscious. He snapped his fingers. Two Anbu appeared in the room and knelt before the powerful kage. Their heads bowed in submission as they listened for their orders.

"Get rid of the body, strike Touson Kaname's name from Konoha records," the Sandaime said a stern tone. He walked to the door as to exit then paused, "dump the boy into his apartment, and keep the mobs at bay for a few days so the boy can heal." He left the room with Shunshin with a faint hearing of "Yes Hokage-sama."

---

It was only for three days that Naruto was kept alone in his apartment with a piece of mind. His two year old brain couldn't yet comprehend what all was said, but knew in his subconscious that he couldn't trust anyone from the village, especially the Hokage.

Naruto had went outside on the third day, not perceiving time as his understand of things were still only from a two year old perspective. He didn't make it far from his door when he saw a gathering of people. Nervousness was present on his face as he watched as the angry buzz of villagers. He turned around to go back into his apartment only for himself to be thrown off the staircase.

Crying, he watched with large fear as the villagers were coming closer, encircling him. He screamed out for someone to help. Just as people threw rotten food, rocks, rusty kunai, and other available material to them it was stopped by a deep roar, "Impedimenta."

Everyone watched as all their thrown objects were slowed down to a standstill. The shinobi villagers were looking around for the person who stopped them only to find him picking up Naruto and cradling him like the toddler that he was.

He had royal blue robes with a golden three-headed Cerberus actively roaring and moving around the robes. Its fur on the spine was standing on end. The deep cowl covered the stranger's facial features except his glowing emerald green eyes.

"How dare you attack him?!?" Harry roared.

"He's a demon!" One of the braver/stupider villager exclaimed.

Harry gave the deepest glares that he got from combining Voldemort and Snape's. Everyone gulped in fear as Harry's released his full magical aura mix with KI. Many of them already were running in an opposite direction but the villagers were deeply rooted the spot and either soiling themselves or vomiting.

Sarutobi arrived only to feel fear from the stranger's KI and power. Squashing it down with his will power, he spoke evenly as he couldn't muster up enough to try to intimidate the stranger.

"What is your business here, Nanashi-san?"

He got the full front of Harry's fury when he spoke in an icy cold voice. The elder Hokage got the feeling that his voice could shatter metal in that tone. "What kind of place tries to kill a toddler? As far as I knew it, Hell on Earth was still a figurative phrase."

"I am Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure. I feel it would be prudent to discuss this in my office for the answers you seek. If you would follow me," Sarutobi purposely used Shunshin no jutsu in trying to get the upper hand as he assumed that his Anbu would have to take him to his office.

"I am not amused," Harry said still in control as he appeared from a hazy gray mist the same time Sarutobi appeared in his office.

Sarutobi tried another tack by sitting behind his desk only to be matched by Harry. His wrist flicked as he mentally conjured a grand chair out of thin air before sitting in it.

Harry, inwardly, was growing more impatient with the political maneuvering that Dumbledore and McGonagall taught him in his fourth year. He face outwardly was stony as his eyes were still the only thing visible to everyone around him. It served two things, he showed that he didn't trust or respect the elder Hokage authority and purposely kept other on constant edge.

'Imperturbatus,' Harry thought as he flicked his oak wand in a sweeping motion.

Sarutobi was on edge as he watched the stranger flick a wooden stick and a thick energy was covering the room. He could see his Anbu trying to get past it only to bounce off. If the stranger noticed, he didn't give any indication.

Swallowing hard, he started. "I am Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen."

"You already stated that earlier before you disappeared off. Now, I want some answers." Harry said in an even tone.

Sarutobi gave a small glare before answering, "Two years ago, the village was attacked by the Kyuubi no Youko. Yondaime Hokage, my successor, had to use a forbidden jutsu to seal the Kyuubi no Youko into a living container. The boy before you is that container. The villagers unfortunately cannot tell the difference between the container and the bijuu. Also because he is a jinchuuriki, he has no family nor is anyone willing to adopt him." Harry's passive legilimens found the Hokage lying in his last statement.

"So this boy has no family to speak of, correct." His voice was even. The Sandaime Hokage nodded only for Harry to realize he was lying again. "Then, I will adopt him."

Sarutobi was sweating as he knew Jiraiya was still Naruto's godfather but the stranger had put him in a precarious position. He tried mentally to find a reason as to not let the stranger adopt him only to remember one of the laws of the village.

Putting on a sympathetic look, "I'm sorry stranger, but its one of our village laws that you must be a resident of Konohagakure to adopt from the village orphanage."

Harry's shadowed eyebrow twitched with irritation but his magic was practically screaming at him to adopt the blond. His mind went through what he could do only to smirk. "I have no problem with staying here to raise my future son. It is, after all, his first home."

Sandaime screamed mentally. 'No you can't have my weapon, you stupid fuck. I'll…' "I will need your name, your place of residence, and sufficient trade skill or wealth to take care of a child."

Harry frowned before nodded. "Yes, my name is Aries Evans. I have my residency at the end of the day…"

"Nonsense, the apartment complex that Naruto stays in is vacant I'm sure the landlord would be willing to rent one to you." Sandaime had already tagged all the rooms in the complex so he could observe Aries-san.

Harry could see that something was wrong with the complex, his mind made plans to buy out the landlord. "That's very kind of you." Harry said evenly. "As for wealth, I have traveled far and wide. I have enough to keep Naruto comfortable for years to come. Now, may I have the paperwork for the adoption?"

"Yes, but I would need my secretary to retrieve them and your citizenship papers. That leads me to the necessity of a sponsor from one of the citizens to allow you residence." Sandaime said with a concealed smirk.

Harry, on the other hand, had a tick developing trying to find someone to sponsor him. He cursed in his mind at the manipulative bastard. Not only was he giving as much red tap as possible, but it was raising red flags as to why he didn't want Naruto to be adopted.