A/N: ok, so i'v updated both my main stories today, this chapter is sort of pointless, though it marks Naruto's first friend. from now on its not going to go on a day-to-day sort of story but weeks and months are going to pass in each chapter of the story line so it wont be so boring only goin bck to this way when he's older and the the real Naruto story starts.
well hope you like it
Ceri
i dont own.
Chizuru glanced down at the boy clinging to her, an arm around her neck while the other clutched his fox plushy to his chest as he faced forward, his blue eyes trying to catch sight of everything as it passed by them and the wind mussed his already wild blond hair. But those weren't the things that made her heart swell with the beginnings of love and the stirring of pride.
It was the joyous smile he wore on his face that had only conveyed his fear before and the carefree laughter he would let loose every time they vaulted over the wider gaps between the taller building that framed the streets instead of the alleyways as he looked down at all the people passing below them.
Fearless.
Her boy, her son was fearless. He didn't cling to her while crying for fear of falling no he barely held on, his grip loosening by the minute leaving her to clutch tighter to him as they bound over the rooftops of the large village. She could tell he had run before he could walk and if she didn't watch him closely he'd be leaping out the window before he'd even learned who land. Chizuru felt a wide smile stretch her cheeks. She couldn't wait for him to show the world what Uzumaki Naruto could do.
They had finally reached her desired destination, touching down on one final rooftop before preforming a flip from the top of the building to land on the street below, little Naruto laughing all the way.
"Alright," she said, standing up from her crouch, "I think we should buy you some new clothes." Chizuru poked him playfully on the nose.
Naruto giggled again, scrunching up his nose while looking wildly around. This was his first time outside the orphanages grounds, and the prospect of getting more stuff was overwhelming; in a way it was like giving pixie sticks to kid already on a sugar high.
Chizuru pointedly ignored the looks the civilians were flashing them, ranging from shock to scandalous to out right disgust; paid no attention to the way people practically leapt out of the way when they came too close to brushing up against them. Naruto didn't notice them so there was no reason to react. She ignored the whispers as she entered one of the clothing stores she had memorized from the list Sarutobi had given her.
Bells chimed as she opened the door to the building, bringing and elderly from the back.
"Ahh," he said in and old, weathered voice, "Hokage-sama said to be expecting you."
Chizuru studied the man. His pasture was relaxed and she didn't feel any animosity coming from him. She looked into his fading gray eyes. There was no contempt there. She smiled.
"We're here to pick up some clothes for him." Chizuru said in her soft voice, bouncing Naruto on her hip playfully.
"Well look around and take your time, feel free to ask any questions you need answered." he said with a smile before walking back into the back room.
Chizuru set the little boy down, his small hand grasped in her larger one as he looked around in awe.
The clothes ranged from every day civilian clothes to full blown ninja armor.
"This way, Naruto." she said, gently leading him over to the civilians children section, letting go of his hand one they reached it.
Chizuru watched silently as he walked off towards one of the lowered racks filled little boy pants and smiled softly when he reached out to touch a pair only to jerk his hand back and look at her guiltily.
"Go on," she said, "you won't be able to pick out what you want unless you touch them."
Naruto's eyes widened.
"I can pwick out what I want?" he asked disbelievingly.
"Um-hm, that's why were here."
He was hesitant at first, only touching, never pulling anything off the rack but gradually he got bolder until he knew she wouldn't get mad at him and finally picking out clothes he liked, Chizuru joining in.
"How bout this?" she asked, holing up a frilly girls shit.
"Noo!" he laughed, his hands covering his smiling mouth.
Chizuru found that he didn't like any of the civilian boy's pants, saying they were itchy and uncomfortable when she asked why, though he did take a liking to some of the T-shirts made out of the looser, more mobile materials. If that didn't scream ninja-to-be she didn't know what did.
She had finally led him over the little ninja's section and was eyeing a double layered shirt with a light wire mesh in between the two sweat and rain resistant fabrics when he running over, making it look more like a waddle.
"I want dis." he said, holding up his find proudly with his chubby little arms, a wide smile stretching the tiny whisker marks on his cheeks.
The first coherent thought that came to her mind was that it was orange. The second was that it was made of some sort of fuzzy yarn while the rolled back cuffs, inside of the hood, the two pockets on either side of toggles that held it closed and the bottom two inches of the hem were a darker slightly less fuzzy material.
Chizuru vaguely wondered if he got it from te girls' section.
One look at his happy face yanked the no that was about to crawl out her mouth back down her throat and put it in a sleeper hold just in case it tried to climb back up.
"Sure, you can pick out anything you want." with that he disappeared into the jungle of ninja clothes.
Chizuru decided now was as good a time as any to get back in touch with God.
'Kami, she prayed, ' I know I haven't really talked to you in, well, never- but I swear I will light incense everyday I'm in Konaho if you make it so he doesn't pick anything neon green, various shades of pin, hot red or electric blue for the rest of his life.'
When Naruto came carrying a few pairs of ninja short pants (like Kiba's ) in various shades of black, navy, dark green and brown she rolled her eyes to the ceiling with a silent, 'Great doing business with you,' before leading him to the sandal section.
Finally, after picking out a pair of orange sandals- and mentally berating herself for not adding the color to the list on the agreement- Chizuru took the eight pairs of short pants, three pairs of shorts, the twelve T-shirts in numerous colors and designs, a couple packs of boys' thighty-whities and that fuzzy orange pull-over to the old man that had popped up behind the cash register. Chizuru silently wonder why they just didn't recruit these guys to be ninjas, they were just as good at stealth as any ninja she knew.
"Leisure or business?" the old man asked.
"Business."
He nodded with a smile and pulled out the plastic bags. The difference between the two was that the leisure bags stayed open at the top and were made of thin plastic while the business bags sealed at the top and were made of stronger more durable plastic for the ninja's way of travel.
After paying with the money the Hokage had given her, though being in ANBU paid just fine, she led a smiling Naruto out the door and down the street by the hand; ignoring the people once again and glaring down the bolder ones who made a move to make a scene while listening and commenting on Naruto's endless chatter.
With a final stop at the weapons shop for practice kunai and shuriken they made their way to their new apartment, Naruto giggling all the way as they hopped across town.
The building was nice, not the nicest, but nice. What Chizuru thought was best about it though was that fact that the majority of the tenant were ninjas. Which meant security was better here than at a normal complex, due to paranoia. Which meant that the majority would only feel indifferent about the little fox container because they were ninjas.
Ninjas she didn't have to feel slightly guilty for beating up if they weren't indifferent towards Naruto because they were ninjas, and ninja's can fight back. It felt too much like pushing down a two year old if she had to beat up a civilian, hence the slight guilt.
Living in a shinobi complex meant that almost all the stairs squeaked, the elevator made loud noises when in use, each door had at least three locks, the inside walls were non-stick, mailboxes had blood activated seals as well as were wallpapered with exploding tags, and bathrooms were booby trapped.
Nothing left a ninja (be it male or female) feeling more paranoid than an unguarded bathroom.
Chizuru led Naruto to the elevator and let him press the button for the top floor. Once they got out of the clanking and screeching box of death, which Chizuru dubbed it after spending the whole ride up eight stories praying to any God listening to "please don't let me die, I'm still a virgin," over and over, while blond ball of energy named Naruto thought the ride was fun.
Once she was pretty sure she wouldn't throw up, she vowed they'd be taking the stairs in the future.
When Chizuru opened the door, she was glad that they were on the top floor. Top floor meant that their ceiling was also the buildings roof, and they would hear the muffled noise of ninja traffic so top rooms were often cheaper.
It was long and narrow, but not large. It was... cozy. It had an open living room with a large window that curved around the outside walls corner with the shape of the building in an arch with medium sized squares of checkerboard glass. The walls were painted a nice, soothing olive green with a brownish-red trim and the floors were wood.
There was an open kitchen the only thing separating it from the living room were a row of floor cabinets that also served as a bar (if the low backed stools were any indication) and a row of hanging cabinets, both of which made a ninety-degree turn to form a boarder along the hallway until the ran into the kitchen wall. These helped to box off the living room making it look more square instead of rectangular like the room was.
Each of the two outside walls had one large checkerboard window filling the room with natural light, one running into the inner wall. Chizuru mentally noted that it would be a perfect place for plants. The wall that the apartment door was on was uneven; while the part it sat on to the right ran all the way into the kitchen wall, about two feet to the left it jutted out about two feet before ran into the outside wall making it so while you were standing on the lower tiled entrance where the shoes went, you only really had a clear view of the kitchen, which was only a few feet away, partial view of the hall and the majority of the living room.
The apartment came fully furnished, complements of the Hokage, and Chizuru was thankful for that. Trough the glass of the kitchen cabinets she could see stacks of bowls and plates and cups in various colors, and she assumed that the drawers had all the other utensils they'd need.
Running parallel with the bar was a narrow kitchen table that had fold down leafs to make it bigger for company, what company Chizuru didn't know, but thought it nice anyways. Separating what was the dinning room from what was the living room was a soft looking orangish-brown love seat with fat red-brown pillows on it, it sat adjacent to the outside wall across from them. Only a couple steps away and si Sitting in the curved window as if it was made to be there was a curved light rust-red love seat. Running along the far wall of the little couch area was a low, narrow rectangular table, for what Chizuru didn't know but she was sure they would figure it out as they went.
Sitting at an angle so that it was in view of both the couches was an average sized T.V. and jutting out of the wall right next to it, though how she missed it she didn't know, was a roughed iron spiral stare case for one disappearing up into the ceiling.
Scanning the room one last time Chizuru looked down at the little boy next to her to find him staring patiently up at her with a look that said, 'ok, can we go look now?'
She sighed and nodded saying, "Go on."
The kid was off like a flash, having kicked off his worn sandals at some point while she was surveying the room. He ran around giggling and touching everything; jumping on both couches, sitting in every chair, opening all the drawers and cabinets he could reach before shooting off down the hall, his laughter echoing behind him.
Chizuru followed at a more sedate pace, first setting both their shoes aside neatly before venturing further into the room and setting the many bags down on the orangish couch before going after Naruto down the hall.
She found another door along the way that led to a small tiled bathroom, complete with the shower with its little stool on one tiled wall, the deep tub on the adjacent wall and a door leading to the toilet sink room.
At the end of the hall, where she could her the sound of little feet jumping on a mattress, was a single door that was half open, the light from the smaller matching hall window shining warm sun rays off its wood.
Pushing it fully open she saw a good sized room and two dressers, a closet, and a previously made bed with a monkey (Naruto) jumping on it, grinning like an insane man. On further inspection Chizuru was surprised to find yet another bathroom, small like the last one, but the toilet room wasn't connected and had much more counter space. Usually families all shared one bathroom.
Hearing a high pitched war cry She spun catching her little ball of energy in mid attack, laughing as he yelled 'hiya's and more battle noises while mock kicking and punching her.
"Ne, Naruto–"
"I'm not Nawuto, I'm the Hokage and you'w the bad Ninja." he said, punctuating it with another 'hiya!'
"Okay Hokage-sama, lets go check out where those stairs go."
Chizuru was surprised to see another bedroom up there, just a tad smaller than the other one, already decorated for a little boy. She was surprised to see a that the arched window led to a rusty balcony, just like the numerous other ones around the village.
'Better seal that till he's older.' trying to explain how Naruto went splat to the Hokage was not something she wanted to do anytime soon.
The two had a fun time putting all his new things away before having dinner and sending
the tuckered out boy up to bed.
Over the next couple days Chizuru and Naruto generally stayed to the apartment or shopping district buying what little they needed, and some things they didn't, for their new home.
"What's that?" Naruto asked, pointing at something as they were walking back to the complex; there was too much for them to carry for Chizuru to jump them back.
Chizuru turned to see what had caught the boys attention. In the fading light of day she saw the deserted jungle-jim, swing and other playthings of the Konaho park.
"The park?" she said looking down at the curious boy.
Naruto scrunched up his brows and pouted, blue eyes filled with confusion at the word he didn't know.
"Parwk?" he asked.
"Yes, park. It's a place to play in when your outside."
At the mention of the word play, which he had refamiliarized himself with after she adopted him, the little blond got excited.
"Can we go now?" he asked eagerly.
"No, we've got to bring these things home." she said, shaking the bags in her arms.
At his downcast look she felt a twinge in her heart for denying him. Stopping she crouched down before him.
"Hey," she said softly looking in his big sad eyes, "how 'bout this: if it's not raining tomorrow, and you help me put all this stuff away, we'll go all day."
"All day?" he asked, hopeful.
"All day." she smiled.
Before she knew what was happening Naruto had launched himself at her, wrapping his chubby baby arms around her neck with a giggle.
"I love you Kaa-chan." he said.
Chizuru froze. He called her Kaa-chan. He'd told her he'd loved her, neither of which he had ever done.
Squeezing her eyes shut as she felt her heart constrict, she slowly wrapped her arms around her boy.
"I love you too, Naruto.
The next day the sun was shining brightly in the clear blue sky as Chizuru waited for Naruto to come flying down the slide and into her arms, big cheesy smile on her face.
Bracing herself as he shot down the metal slide and into her arms, she spun him around in a circle.
"You did it!" she laughed, surprising herself with the pride she was feeling at her boys first trip down the slide. She looked up as his smiling face as he held his arms out, his joyous laughter echoing out on the open playground as they continued to spin.
"I did it, I did it!" he cheered for himself as the slowed to a stop.
"Oh, you did so good my Little Naru." she said tickling him in her arms.
Just then, out of the corner of her eye, Chizuru saw one of the civilian fathers pull away from the group who had been huddled, watching them with angry and scandalized looks.
The phrase oh shit flitted through her mind for all of two seconds before she put Naruto on the ground and said, "Why don't you go play in the sand box for a sec and I'll be over in a moment." she told him, not even noticing the lazy half asleep boy already occupying the box.
"Okay," he said not even looking back as he ran off.
Hearing the angry footsteps getting closer, Chizuru spun to face the threat, feeling her ANBU training kick in.
The man was a good six inches taller than her and used it to tower over her in what she supposed was an intimidating way. Mentally snorting, Chizuru tilted her head back to look up at the man's angry face.
He had mussed brown hair just starting to get peppered with gray, the beginnings of what would be deep crows feet, morning fuzz along the lower half of his face, a scowl, pissed off brown eyes, and just a hint of a pouch.
He, clearly, wasn't a ninja.
"Can I help you?" Chizuru said blandly, tone much different from her normal soft one.
"Where do you get off bringing that here?" he growled at her.
Chizuru cocked one of her almost non-existent brows up in the air. So he was a straight forward man.
"Bringing what, Civilian-san, it's just me and my son." still in the same bored tone.
If possible, the mans scowl grew deeper. Tack on frown lines to his features for the near future.
"That boy, that thing," he said, now pointing at the oblivious blond who now had the lazy dark haired kid engaged half heartedly in building what looked vaguely like a sand castle.
She felt her eyes go dead at the comparison of Naruto to a thing. She looked behind the man at his group of buddies who had smug looks on their faces while they watched their friend try and tell her off. Chizuru narrowed her eyes before turning back.
"That thing, you put it, is my son, and he has every right to be here as any other child." she crossed her arms.
"No, he doesn't. He's a monster."
Chizuru felt everything inside her go still and quiet.
"You better watch what you say, Civilian-san," she said sending him a sliver of the killer intent she was feeling his way, sending the man reeling back, "you don't want me to have to take this up with the Hokage, do you?" she asked once he had regained his footing, his eye filled with fear.
"You should go now, and I don't want to see any of you," at this she sent her killer intent at his friends, "around my boy again."
The man stumbled away, pushing his now shaking friends with him, grabbing their kids as they went.
Chizuru let out a tense breath, loosening up her tight muscles as she did so, calming her self before tuning to check on Naruto.
Fuck, she thought as she found him still in the sand box, but there was a ninja there as well. Hopefully he would treat him with the indifference that was expected of him. With a smile plastered on her face, Chizuru mad her way over to where her son was talking animatedly with the man.
"I'm herw with my mommy," she heard Naruto say, "this is my firwst time at a parwk."
"Naruto." she said in her soft voice, getting the attention of all three. She now saw that the man was the nameless boys father. She braced herself, ready to kick his ass if she had to.
Shikato looked at the young girl that had joined their group. Her smile said that she was harmless but her stance said otherwise. She didn't like trust him, nor did she like that he was virtually alone with the little blond boy. Which he could understand, all things considering.
"I'm Nara Shikato," he said in his smoky voice, "This is my son Shikamaru, he was just
wondering if your son could join us for dinner."
The two adults, well, one adult and one semi-adult, looked down at said boy and even Shikato found it hard to believe when he saw the lazy put-out expression his son was wearing, even if it was the truth.
The girl raised an eyebrow, only marked by one red dot going down while the other went up.
"Can we Kaa-chan, can we?" asked the little blond boy excitedly.
Shikato watched as she had an inner debate, before the decision was settled with one look at the pleading boy.
She sighed, "alright."
The kid raised his arms in the air with a cheer and Shikato could have sworn his saw the corners of his sons lips twitch up.
Shikato just looked at the girl with a nod, clearly reading the expression on her face that stated she'd kick his ass if he was lying.
He had the strangest feeling she could too.
Yoshino stared in awe at her sons new friend, not comprehending how such a thing could happen. The two were literally opposites.
While her boy wore all dark, none descript clothes, the other boy they had brought home had on a fuzzy orange pull over and when that had come off he was wearing an equally bright yellow shirt with a black spiral along with cute little short pants and orange sandals.
Uzumaki Naruto, as he had introduced himself to her, was a constant flow of words and smile, heck even his hair had more energy than her son.
And the girl he had claimed was his Kaa-chan was gorgeous, though she didn't understand how the Hokage could entrust such a big responsibility to such a young girl. Yoshino just itched to dress her up and do her hair and make-up. She always blamed Shikato for not giving her a girl.
After the meal had ended and Shikamaru had led a bouncing Naruto up to his room to play for a little while, Chizuru stayed behind to help.
"Really Chizuru, there's no need." Yoshino told her.
"It's no problem Yoshino-san, I want to help." the girl said with a soft smile.
"Please, it's just Yoshino, the -san makes me feel so old."
"Hai, Yoshino." she said going back for more dishes.
"Shikato told me what happened at the park today." Yoshino remarked watching as the girl froze for a moment.
"It must be hard taking care of him."
Chizuru shrugged as she set the plates down.
"Not really; once you've spent a few years taking care of yourself, taking care of a child isn't that much harder."
Yoshino made agreeing sounds, "You did the right thing, scaring them off, not making a scene in front of the kids."
"I wanted to hurt him." the girl said quietly.
Yoshino waited for her to continue, setting a now clean dish aside.
"I don't understand how this village can treat such a sweet little boy the way they do over something he had no control over. When that man called Naruto a thing and said that he had no right to be in the park, I just wanted to pummel him into the ground for even thinking such a thing."
"The villagers," Yoshino set another dish down, "and some of the ninja are too ignorant to understand such thing, and blame the only thing they have to blame for what happened. Naruto will show them some day that all their thoughts were wrong." she said turning off the water and facing the girl.
Chizuru flashed her a smile, "Hai, he's going to be the best ninja ever."
Laying and exhausted Naruto down on his bed and tucking him along wit his two plushies, Chizuru kissed him good night and got up to leave.
"Kaa-chan," Naruto said, "Shika's got a nice family, huh?"
"Yeah," she said remembering Yoshino's words, "He does."
"Kaa-chan?"
"Yes?"
"'love you."
"I love you too."
well, for those of you still awake, do you like it? review please.
