The Desert Fox
I don't own Naruto, etc, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anko smiled as she woke up and looked down at Naruto, who was still asleep. Being careful not to wake him up, she climbed out of bed, got dressed, and headed out to the kitchen to make some breakfast for her and Naruto. She dug around the refrigerator for a while, trying to figure out what to cook, before she finally decided on eggs and toast. She pulled out the carton of eggs from the fridge, and a pan from the cabinet before going to the stove to begin cooking.
As the eggs were finishing up, Anko put four slices of toast in the toaster and poured two glasses of milk. She had just finished putting the food on the table when she heard Naruto coming out of the bedroom. "Hey, Naruto-kun," she greeted, "come on over and grab a plate. Did you sleep well last night?"
"Yup, sure did," Naruto said as he sat down and took a bite of his egg, "the food tastes really good Miss Anko."
Anko smiled at the last part and ate a slice of her toast as she thought of a reply. "Since I did adopt you, how about just calling me mom?"
Naruto's eyes started to tear up and when he couldn't contain his excitement anymore he launched himself onto her and pulled her into as tight of a hug as his tiny arms could manage. "Thanks, you're the best. I've never had a mother before."
"Watching this little display made some unknown emotion swell in her chest, but it was quickly replaced with sadness for the boy when he reminded her that he had been without a mother for the first part of his life, and all she could think to do was hug him back and assure him that things would be better from now on.
-------------break---------------
After breakfast was finished, Anko took the dishes over to the sink to wash them. While she washed, Naruto sat and waited patiently at the kitchen table for her to finish, and once she was done, they both left the house to go buy some new clothing for him. On the way to the store, Anko and Naruto just talked an got to know each other better. They were so caught up in their conversation that they didn't even notice all the glares they were receiving and, because of this, were able to have an enjoyable walk for the first time in Naruto's life and the first in a long time for Anko.
"Well, here we are," Anko announced as they arrived in front of a clothing store that was popular among the ninja population. "Anyways, Naruto," Anko began, but stopped as she noticed that Naruto had suddenly disappeared. Looking around, she found him hiding behind her leg, but before she could ask him why he was hiding, the shopkeeper stormed up to the two of them.
"Hey, get out of here you demon, we don't allow-" he started, but was cut off when Anko slammed him against he wall hard enough to leave an indent.
"Say another word," she began, holding a kunai to his neck, "and I promise you that you won't live to see another day." She then dropped him onto he floor and walked back to Naruto, taking his hand and walking out of the store. "Come on Naruto, lets go. I know the owner of a shop down the street that won't act like a jerk."
After leaving the shop, it was only a ten minute walk before they arrived at the shop owned by Anko's friend. They walked in and Naruto, once again, went back to his hiding place behind Anko's legs. Anko put a hand on his back and brought him back to her side. "Don't worry, Naruto," she comforted, "these people are nice, I'm sure they won't try to kick you out too." Her words seemed to relax him a little bit, but he still looked around to make sure no one was closing in on him. Anko noticed this and sighed, it seemed this would take a little longer than she had thought; the villagers must have really scarred him for him to always walk around afraid like this.
"Hey Anko," the shopkeeper called, "what can I do for you today?" He then noticed the small kid walking next to her, "well hello there, who are you?"
"Hi, I'm Naruto" Naruto answered.
Anko turned to face the shopkeeper, "hey, I'm here to get some clothes for Naruto, and preferably ones that aren't orange."
The shopkeeper stared at Naruto, sizing him up for a minute, before flipping through a notebook. "We have plenty of pants that will fit him, but the smallest size in shirts we have is one size too big for him. Is that alright?"
"Sure," Naruto answered, "I don't mind if the shirt is a little big."
"Well, follow me then and we'll get you some clothes," the shopkeeper replied and they both disappeared to the back of the store. Anko waited patiently, and soon they came back out, Naruto holding crimson, black, and midnight blue shirts and dark gray and black cargo pants. "As with all of our clothing, these are heat resistant, so you won't run the risk of overheating in hot environments, flame retardant, an cut resistant." As the shopkeeper explained what all the clothes could do, Anko took the clothes and went up to the register.
"Hey dad," a young girl about six years old called out as she ran out from the back room of the store, "I finally learned how to make a proper kunai! Mom saw it and said it looked good." As she came towards the front of the store, she noticed Naruto standing there, waiting on Anko to finish buying some clothes. "Naruto-kun," she excitedly called, tackling him and wrapping him in a hug, "where have you been? You said you'd practice kunai throwing with me, and when you didn't come I checked with the orphanage but they said you didn't live there anymore."
Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "sorry about that, ten-chan, but I kinda forgot after the orphanage kicked me out."
The little girl (Tenten, as you've probably guessed) gasped as she got up off of him, "you were kicked out? Where are you going to stay now?"
"Don't worry," Naruto replied, getting up as well. "Ms. Anko's going to be my mom now, so I live with her. She adopted me last night."
"That's so cool," Tenten said, "you still want to practice with me?"
"Sure," Naruto answered, "I'd love to." And with that decided, they both went out into the yard that was behind the shop to practice with their kunai."
Anko looked on at the little display with a smile on her face, "well, it seems that Naruto has a couple of friends at least. So how long have those two been friends?"
The shopkeeper looked at Anko with the remains of a surprised look on his face, "You know, I've never seen those two together before, even though I'm her father. By the looks of things though, they've been friends for all their lives."
Anko chuckled, "that doesn't surprise me, after all Naruto seems to be terrified of most of the adults in the village. After all, most of the people who know about him can't tell the difference between him and it."
The shopkeeper smiled, "so she promised him she wouldn't tell me or her mother about him, that way we wouldn't try to keep them from being friends. So that's it, is it? Makes since, especially since she doesn't have that many friends around here."
"Hey, I have an idea," Anko said, after a bit of thinking, "how about I could teach Tenten and Naruto ninjutsu, and you could teach them both how to use different weapons."
"Really," the shopkeeper asked, and when Anko nodded he grinned, "sounds like a good idea to me."
"Good," Anko replied, "we can ask them if they want to do it when they come back in from their practice."
---------------break----------------
"Alright, I'll go first," Naruto announced as he threw a kunai at a human shaped target, missing it completely. "Aw, man, that didn't even come close."
"That's because you aren't holding it right," Tenten corrected, "you have to hold it like this. And throw it like this." She pulled a kunai out of a pouch on her leg and threw it slowly at the target, nailing it in the throat.
"Wow, your good," Naruto replied, pulling out a kunai. "Okay let me try now. Ok, lets see. Hold it like this," he said as he got into a loose stance, "and throw it like this." He threw the kunai and nailed the target in the stomach. "Yeah, I got it!" he cheered, jumping up and down.
"Okay, try to hit them in the arms now," Tenten instructed, "it's a harder place to hit so we'll get better at throwing, plus if you disable their arms they can't attack you."
"Wow, you're good at this," Naruto complimented, "you must have to practice a lot to be able to know as much as you do about weapons."
"No, not really," Tenten admitted, "I just like weapons, so I can learn how to use them quickly. Of course, since I do like weapons I spend most of my free time practicing with them."
"Well, I don't think that I'm cut out for this kind of fighting," Naruto complained, "I'd much rather fight close ranged battles."
"I know, but you have to know how throw a kunai to become a ninja," Tenten reminded.
"Oh, fine, fine," Naruto pouted, "but lets hurry up, that way we can get to fighting with kunai."
---------break-------------
An hour later.
"Hey, you two," Anko called to Naruto and Tenten as they came in from their practice, "how would you like for the two of us to teach you ninjutsu and the finer arts of weaponry?"
"Really?" they both asked at the same time, to which Naruto quickly added "that'd be great!"
"When would you like to start?" the shopkeeper asked, after clearing his throat to draw the room's attention to himself.
"How about tomorrow?" Tenten suggested.
"Alright," he replied, "tomorrow it is. But first, Naruto needs a weapon, so think about it and let me know your choice by tomorrow."
Naruto nodded and scanned the room, looking at the weapons on the walls, before quickly making his choice and pointing at one of the weapons on the walls. "I want that one."
"The Nunchaki?," the skopkeeper asked, as he went over and took the weapon off of the wall and gave it to Naruto. "Interesting choice for a weapon. Consider this a gift from me, and I suppose that I'll see you two tomorrow. Meet me here, an hour before the shop opens for your first lesson."
----------break-------------
Six Months Later
Anko walked home, thinking over the past six months she had spent with Naruto. The kid had really grown on her, and that was saying something. Now she had trouble thinking of what life would be like again without Naruto with her. He also showed a lot of potential, and he had perfected his aim with the kunai as well as being able to fight hand to hand with it, he had learned the basics of using his weapon, and he had learned the tree climbing exercise. Plus she had him wearing ten pound weights around his arms and legs. Needless to say, she was proud the kid had made it so far when most other kids would just be fresh out of their diapers.
Their time hadn't been completely good though, even though it wasn't his fault. On his sixth birthday, he hadn't wanted to come out of his room all day. When she had finally got him out of the house, they'd been attacked by another mob. She was getting sick and tired of having Naruto get attacked every two weeks by some brainless group of ingrates. It had gotten so bad that she'd had to have seals put into the house so that whenever someone broke in a seal on her arm would get... warm.
"Shit," Anko hissed, channeling chakra into her forearm to shut off the seal as she raced towards her apartment. Three minutes later she walked through the already open front door into the house. Already she could see a broken lamp and a flipped table with three kunai embedded in it. Silently, she crept through the house, eventually coming to Naruto's bedroom to find three chuunin, one of which was dead thanks to a booby trap she had set and shown Naruto how to activate, one of which was pulling a kunai out of his side, and the third of which was raising a sword in preparation to cut off Naruto's head.
In the time it took most people to blink, Anko had drawn her sword and cut the chuunin's head off before continuing her swing around and stabbing the other one through the heart. Anko then bent down and checked naruto to see if he was okay. He was knocked out, but other than that he was fine. She didn't want to think about what would have happened if she was even one minute later than she was. It was getting to the point where she couldn't even leave the house anymore without worrying for her son's safety. It was at that point that she decided she wasn't going to take it any more. Instead of gambling her son's safety every time she left the house, she was going to find somewhere where they could live in relative peace. Picking Naruto up, she set out for a new destination.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Naruto woke up in what appeared to be a sewer. Looking around he couldn't see anything but pipes and water. He walked down the tunnel until he came to an area where another path branched off from the original. For some reason he felt like he should go down it, so he did. He walked down it until it terminated at a giant steel cage door. The room behind it was dark, so he couldn't see what was in it.
Just then a huge pair of eyes opened up and looked down upon him. "Who dares disturb my sleep? Oh, it's just you, brat. So I suppose you want to know who I am and what you're doing here?"
"You," Naruto started pointing at him, "you're that damn furball Kyuubi! That means I'm... inside myself?"
"So, even a brat like you has heard of my greatness," the giant fox laughed. "Yes, you are inside of you're head. You were brought here after you lost the fight to those two other pathetic humans."
"Shut up you stupid puffball," Naruto shouted at him, "you're the reason I'm in this mess in the first place. You've got no reason to be acting so high and mighty! If you haven't forgotten, you're sealed inside of me."
"You've got some guts to stand up to me, brat," the Kyuubi replied, laying down in its cage. "You are right; however, even though this may be my doing, it isn't my fault. My one weakness is the cursed eyes that your kind calls the Sharingan. The one called Madara Uchiha used those accursed eyes to control me, driving me into a rage and sending me to attack Konoha."
"So, it wasn't really your fault?" Naruto hadn't considered this possibility before, that the Kyuubi himself might have been overpowered. It somehow seemed against the very laws of nature that a human should have been able to do that to him. Those Uchiha did have freaky eyes, though, so he wouldn't have put it past them. He'd seen firsthand what they could do. "Right, so if I ever see this 'Madara' guy, I'm going to punch him in the nose for you."
This made the Kyuubi start laughing. "I like you, kid, you've got guts, but if you ever meet him, pray that he lets you live long enough to run. Anyone who can do that to me is much too powerful for a runt like yourself."
Naruto grumbled at being called a runt, but he had to admit that the Kyuubi had a point. "Okay, so is there anything else I should know?"
"Not at the moment, kit," the Kyuubi replied, "but it is time for you to awaken."
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
The Hokage sat behind his desk, wondering how there could possibly be so much paperwork to take care of, when he heard a loud noise in the lobby. It sounded so chaotic down there, he wondered if Konoha was being invaded. Then he heard someone scream and a crash. Whatever it was, he could hear it getting closer. Then the door flew open and off the hinges and revealed Anko, and boy was she pissed.
The Hokage wondered for a moment if he should take cover, but then figured it was too late for that anyway. "Is there something wrong, Anko?"
"You're damn right there's something wrong! I'm tired of always having to worry for our safety, and I won't put up with it any more! I refuse to protect a place that tries to kill me and my son every two weeks for no reason at all." at this point Anko reached up and ripped off her headband and threw it down on the desk, "I quit." Anko then spun around and walked out of the room, leaving a shocked and confused Hokage behind, wondering what had happened.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Anko left the Hokage's office to see that Naruto was starting to wake up on the couch she had set him on. She walked over to him and pulled him up. "So, how are you doing, kiddo?"
"My head hurts," Naruto complained, "but other than that I'm fine. I would have done better if the third guy hadn't crept up on me."
"Naruto," she started, more quietly as she led him out of the office, "I've decided that we're going to move out of Konoha. It's been my home all of my life almost, but it's too dangerous for us here. I hear that our allies in Suna have nice weather this time of year. What do you think?"
"I'll go if you want to," Naruto agreed, "but first I have to tell Kyo that I'm going to be leaving. I can't leave without saying goodbye to her first. Oh, and we have to tell Tenten and her dad!"
"Okay," Anko said, "but do you know where she is? We don't have a lot of time before someone comes looking for us."
"Yeah," Naruto replied, "she should be training today. She usually trains in that area by the lake, with the memorial rock nearby it."
"Okay," Anko said, picking Naruto up and taking off towards the training ground as fast as she could. Once she got there and saw Kyo training, she set Naruto down. "Don't be long."
"Kyo-nee-chan," Naruto called, running over to her. "I need to talk to you for a moment."
"What's up, Naru-chan?" Kyo stopped her training immediately and went over to Naruto. For him to stop her training instead of stand there watching her until she was finished, something big must have happened.
"I was attacked again today," he said sadly, "but mom says that we're leaving Konoha."
"Leaving?" Kyo asked, shocked. "Are you alright with that? You have been living here all your life, after all."
"I- I'm really going to miss you," Naruto started, "but if mom thinks it isn't safe for us here, I guess I should go."
"Okay," Kyo said, hugging him. After she let go of him, she got up and walked over to Anko.
"Where are you two going?" Kyo's voice was completely serious as she spoke to Anko, a tone she usually reserved for her subordinates or for prisoners.
"I think I'm going to take him to Suna," Anko replied, crossing her arms. "After him being attacked every other week, I don't think he'll live to be a gennin if this keeps up."
"I understand," she said, a tinge of sadness entering her voice. "Let me at least send a clone along with you guys to make sure that you get there safely." She didn't wait for Anko's approval before she ran through a short string of hand seals and whispered "Tsuchi Bunshin no Jutsu."
"We need to leave now," the clone said, "I sense three high level people coming this way."
"We still need to see Tenten-chan, though," Naruto protested.
"Don't worry about it," the real Kyo said, "I'll go tell her. If you want to leave, though, you have to move now."
"Hop on my back, Naruto," the clone said, bending down. Naruto reluctantly agreed, and as soon as he was on her back, the clone took off, not waiting for Anko, who was only a moment behind her. Kyo shrugged and went back to training, so she wouldn't look suspicious when the three that were coming her way got there.
"Kyo-san," three nondescript ninja, most likely whatever ANBU were assigned as the Hokage's personal guard that day, greeted. "We are looking for Anko and Naruto. They were seen coming this way; have you seen them?"
Kyo stopped her training once again and turned towards the three. "Naruto? No, I can't say that I've seen them today. Why are you after them, is something wrong?"
"No," one of them said, "but Anko has quit her position as a ninja of Konohagakure, and had made clear her intention to leave with Naruto. Hokage-sama wants us to find them and bring them back to question her about this."
"I see," Kyo mused. "I'm sorry that I can't help you three, but you should get back to your mission at hand. I will speak with Hokage-sama later about this to see what is going on." The three were already gone as she turned and left the training grounds, no longer in the mood to train.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
A/N: That's all for this chapter, ladies and gentlemen. I didn't change much content-wise from the old version of this chapter, but you can see that with Kyo's clone escorting them the fight is going to go a bit differently. See you in the next chapter.