He snapped his eyes open, all his senses rushed back to him. Different smells assaulted his sensitive nose. It was as if the rest of his body just seemed to appear. He could feel the dew ridden grass beneath his body and the soft flesh of a girl under his head. Light blasted through to his eyes and he could barely make out the shadowy figures of four people above him. The sound returned if silence was deafening then sounds of breathing, birds chirping, people going above their days with booming voices. The suddenness of it all was enough to all but burst his ear drum. Then the pain of his returning senses faded away to a dull throb and was then gone.

'That's my boy…I knew you could do it son' his father's voice faded away like an echo.

The rest of team seven arrived shortly to see Sakura with a small child lying with his head on her lap. His face was smooth and cute, chubby in the cheeks and bore an expression of peace. He wore a shirt that was yellow in the middle and had green sleeves folded back exposing pure white cuffs. The shirt went down just above his knees and his legs where clothed in the same green material, his feet clad in black pointy boots. A red had trimmed in yellow with a smallish orange ball imbedded with four red stars adorned his head. His hair was solid black and barely stuck out in front of his hat.

"Who's that?" Kakashi questioned. The boy peaked everyone's curiosity. They surrounded him and Sakura. She looked up a weird expression on her face of not understanding. She looked back down not knowing why she felt so protective of this little boy. It was as if he was now hers, her baby. The boy's face scrunched up and then…

"I don't know. I came and found him laying here." His eyes opened.

"W-where am i?" his voice was soft and raspy. His small eyes were a deep onyx like Sasuke's, but darker somehow. As if he'd been through the many levels of hell and fought his way back up. Naruto blinked

"You're in Kohana's training grounds. Where'd you come from?" the boy sat up and looked around when they saw his face again the hard look in his eyes was gone as if it had never been there, instead were the gentle eyes of a child.

"I'm Gohan, I lost my mom and dad and little brother. Who are you? Where is Kohana?" Gohan asked. Because he was a 'child' no one noticed he didn't answer Naruto's question.

"I'm Sakura, that's Sasuke, Kakashi- Sensei, and Naruto." The boy put his hands in front of him on the ground and rocked forward until his feet were sole to ground and his bottom was in the air. He pushed off the ground with a small grunt. He stumbled to the side and caught himself with his hands again. He pushed off again and this time spread his chubby little hands out to keep his balance. She just couldn't hold it any longer. Sakura lunged forward wrapping her arms around Gohans small form. She rubbed her face against his cheek and neck,

"Waaaah Arrgggg!" She held him up in her arms as she stood. He kicked and waved his arms around his eyes were huge and his mouth was wide and open in a smiling grimace.

"You're just so cute!" The men there sweat dropped and stood.

"Um…. Sakura I think you're killing him." Naruto pointed out. Sakura stopped shaking Gohan and her Face got big the pupils of her eyes were gone so her eyes were white and lined in a scratch black circle, her mouth got huge and she tick marked 4ways. Killing intent radiated from her, her fist was bunched up veins popping out (I'm describing her angry anime face if you didn't notice).

"What did you say Naruto?" Naruto gulped "I don't think anyone asked you to talk!" she punched him and sent him flying head over heels. His body whizzed past and broke a tree with a sicken crunch. "Sakura, Naruto was right." States the bland voice of the youngest Uchiha. Sakura looks down to see Gohan limp in her arms his eyes swirling.

"Oh! Gohan I'm sorry are you ok?" he shook his head to snap out of his daze and looked up at the pink haired girl.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just please don't do that again." 'It would be a shame to save the world- universe more times than I care to count only to be killed by shaking baby syndrome and I'm not even a baby!'

"How'd you get here?" Kakashi asked.

'Play dumb as of yet they can't be trusted and if they could they wouldn't believe me.'

"I don't know, all I remember before I got here is darkness."

'It's not a complete lie…'

"How old are you?" the pink konochi questioned.

'18 old enough to sacrifice myself for the world…but you don't need to know that yet. I think my body is 3.'

"Three."

"You are really smart to be three and hold such an intelligent conversation." Sasuke said.

"My mommy makes me study all day. She wants me to be a scholar."

"Ow Sakura, did you have to hit me so hard?" Grumbles everyone's favorite blonde ninja (I don't care if he's not your favorite ninja he's probably everyone else's) as he walks toward them with a small limp in his step.

"Are you ok?" Gohan knew he was but asked anyway, whatever energy these people had, had flared up in the boy just before he hit the tree, like a protective barrier. The blonde shinobi-in-training smiled and nodded, take his hand from behind his head where he'd been rubbing it.

"Yeah, she hits me a lot, you get used to it after awhile."

'I know what you mean' Gohan thinks as he remembers the painful pan.

"Oh, ok. Where do I go now?"

"We'll take you to the hokage."

(Time skip)

"He can stay with me old man, I have plenty of room." The man behind the desk studied his favorite pupil. He knew Naruto was just seeking a friend that was untainted by the village's prejudice….but still.

"Do you honestly think that's a good idea Naruto? Taking care of a baby is harder than you'd think. Plus there are other factors you need to consider that deal with your ability to protect the child." Gohan wanted to say he wasn't a baby but he held his tongue, they wouldn't believe him anyway. Naruto looked down sadness glistened in his eyes a sadness that went deep to his core. Gohan was the only one who could see it but he was quite sure the adults knew it was there. He recognized this sadness it was akin to the sadness in his own heart after the cell games. Naruto looked up with a smile and placed his arms behind his head.

"Yeah, I guess so. Besides I wouldn't be good at changing diapers." Gohan sweat dropped.

"I was potty trained before I could walk. If I may choose I wanna stay with Sasuke."

The ninja's blinked and looked to the third to last Uchiha who was staring down eyes wide, mouth slightly agaped.

"w-why?" the Uchiha questioned. 'Because Sakura won't leave me alone, she'll probably kill me with hugs and kisses and Videl won't be too happy about that. Naruto would have been good but he can't and Kakashi would study me when he was around.' The demi-sayian thought, but he said,

"Cause you need a friend." Then he pretended to lose inters in them, being as how a 'child' of his 'age' has a short attention span. What he was really doing was snooping around he needed to know what was going on here if he was to stay for a while. So he jumped up into the hokage's lap and started sorting through his papers, speed reading them while making it seem like he was just pushing papers around. He let out a giddy laugh, if he was somber while doing this; he knew the ninja's would think something was up. Besides being around Goten and Trunks enough let him act the role superbly.

"No, No Gohan. I can't have you messing up my papers… it'll give me more work." Sarutobi chuckled lightly before picking the small boy up and putting him gently on the floor. The 'child' looked around then, with his hands out he trolloped around the room poking around and looking at books while the 'grown ups' talked.

"Sasuke are you okay with keeping Gohan until his parents come back?" The duck butt haired boy stuffed his hands in his pockets and glanced at the only other black haired kid in the room.

"Depends, what do I have to do?"

"Feed him , give him a bed to sleep in, and take him shoping for clothes. I'll double your money for missions so you'll be able to take care of yourself and Gohan."

"Wait, but wouldn't it be better if Gohan stayed with me? He'd have a mother and father figure and you wouldn't have to pay me any extra money!" Sakura blurted her face wide and hopefull. Unknow to her Gohan had frozen in place one foot off the ground book in hand shoulders hunched. His head slowly turned he had a smiling grimace and his eye were white round and pupil-less. Shrouds of darkness surrounded him and he was sweating bullets.

"I think Gohan would rather stay with Sasuke as he requested but you can take him shopping, seeing as how Saskue didn't seem too thrilled about that. So Saskue what do you say about letting Gohan stay?"

"Hn…" The Uchiha started toward the door he stooped in the door way.

"You coming kid?" Gohan let out a deep reliefed sigh and slid down the book shelf. Sakura started coming toward him he bolted up and ran out the door taking Sasukes hand out of his pocket he proceed to drag the young avenger out of the building. Sakura stopped and looked after them with a small smile.

'Now I can play house with Sasuke-kun like I always wanted. I'll be mommy he'll be daddy and Gohan will be our baby!'