YAY, this thing has been sitting on my desktop for ages and now that the internet of the apartment I'm living in cuts out on me every now and then, much to the amusement of my roommates, I've had time to finish this chapter and avoid doing my chemistry post labs; only two more weeks until I'm done with the series! Happiness. As always, I have little faith in my skills so please point out any grammatical errors or things that don't make sense so I can go back and correct it.
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Hatake Kakashi had requested to guard the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki when the child was about a year old. On his first night of duty he'd been shocked and little disgusted when he crouched outside the child's bedroom window, unconsciously focusing chakra to his feet to stick to the crumbling outside wall, and spotted the boy gnawing on the carcass of a rat. It was only the third time he saw the child.
Kakashi hadn't, for some strange reason, reported the child's stomach churning eating habits but he couldn't help but note the boys full set of teeth and his pronounced canines.
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For a long time he had hated the child, only seeing the rampaging fox that had attacked the village and stole away the life of the man he had come to see as a father and the last remaining member of his team.
After seeing the child cradled in the stiff arms of his sensei, Kakashi had donned his ANBU mask and disappeared into darkness, taking high class assassination missions and solo hunting and tracking jobs. He shot up in rank and quickly closed himself off from his comrades, hoping that he'd find an opponent that would finally be able to take his life and reunite him with the teammates he never knew he needed until they were taken from him one by one.
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Kakashi second time seeing the child had been when he was leaping from rooftop to tattered rooftop towards the Hokage's tower, to give a briefing of his last mission to the Hokage himself. He still remembered how he felt when he rushed to the stiff corpse of his sensei and had seen the squalling child crying even as the burning seal on its belly settled to a deep pulsating black.
He dodged around a water tower and paused for a moment, taking in the destroyed south village wall, Kakashi cursed softly to himself. The devastation of trees and the path of destruction the Kyuubi had torn through the lush forests of Fire Country cut a glaring scar that would take years to heal and fade.
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The boy had been sitting in a puddle of water caught in the bent roof of a dilapidated apartment building splashing and squealing in joy. The child's caretaker was a harried and severe looking woman with frown lines, ashen skin and long dark hair pulled into a messy bun. Her mouth was a thin twisted line and she clutched a lit cigarette in a boney fist. She had probably been beautiful at some point.
"Naruto." The woman didn't make an attempt to hide her contempt for the child.
"Come on, brat, up, get up and come on." She clapped her hands sharply to draw the child's attention. " Bath time is over."
Normally, Kakashi wouldn't have taken the time to stop and would have simply continued on and ignored the blatant abuse the child suffered. He stood from the crouch he had fallen into and turned.
Then the child had turned towards the building Kakashi was crouched on.
Kakashi's mouth lost the sneer he had unconsciously pulled it into and he gaped, his single uncovered eye widening behind his painted mask.
There, in the place of the child he had condemned stood his teacher.
"Sensei?" An almost silent broken whisper.
The child- no, Naruto- was a miniature copy of his dear teacher. Tall for his young age, the sealing happening only about ten months earlier, with chubby dirt smudged whiskered cheeks.
His blue eyes, Kakashi felt his chest tighten ever so slightly at the familiar shade, were wide and shining, happy in the face of his caretakers scorn.
Kakashi stopped himself from leaping down onto the rooftop and pulling that sunny blue-eyed boy into his arms. He clenched his fists as the boy turned and waddled on oddly gangly legs towards his caretaker, the face so much like his Sensei's scrunched in concentration as he attempted to balance himself.
The sneer on the child's caretakers face as Naruto tripped over his own bare dirty feet twisted Kakashi's insides; didn't she see that this boy was his Sensei's, the celebrated Yondaime, son?
Was she blind?
The boy pushed himself up, knees bent, palms and toes flat to the uneven roof; the child looked more comfortable crouched that way, more natural. Naruto shuffled forward tentatively, keeping low to the ground and a wary eye on the woman by the door.
She looked murderous.
"You brat! Freak! Beast!" She shrieked, spittle flying from her twisted mouth. "What have I told you? You little bastard?"
She strode forward, face thunderous, and snatched the cowering child up by his dirty blonde hair, her thin arms belying her strength.
Naruto yowled like a kicked dog and flailed wildly, trying to free himself desperately.
The woman pulled a short thin branch from her threadbare obi and threw the boy down, he curled into a ball pulling long limbs in and making himself as small as possible.
"Demon." She hissed, " I've told you to walk like a human! Not like the filthy beast you are!" She raised her hand high over her head and swung, striking Naruto hard in the side.
He gave a keening wail.
Kakashi's face hardened behind his painted mask. He whistled sharply and the woman froze mid blow.
She turned and Kakashi glared, his killing intent bubbling under his tight control, she straightened, face locked in a sneer, and tucked the rod back into her obi.
"You'd protect a monster?"
The woman didn't wait for his reply or perhaps she wasn't expecting one.
She spat towards Naruto's trembling form and strode away, leaving the roof and slamming the already bent and dilapidated door with the faint click of a lock.
Kakashi contemplated turning and continuing with his trip to the Hokage's office for all of a split second before he leaped down onto the sagging roof silently.
Naruto flinched, and curled into an even tighter ball, refusing to uncurl himself even as Kakashi crouched over him and gently pulled the boy up by the collar of the his threadbare shirt.
Kakashi hoisted the tense child under his arm and straightened, face resolute under his mask. He'd talk to the Hokage and request a transfer from the borders and into the village to keep an eye on the trembling child he cradled under his arm.
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The Hokage rubbed his eyes tiredly, a worn sigh bubbling in his throat as he gazed at one of his best ANBU agents and consequently the unkempt child that very agent held in his arms.
When Sarutobi first held the child as a tiny baby he had been unsure of how he should handle the situation surrounding the beast sealed into the flimsy flesh and blood cage the boy appeared to be.
After he had established his law and made sure Danzo would have no overt influence over the boy's development he had handed the tiny peach skinned baby over to a women who had lost her husband in the war and was unable to bear children of her own.
Sarutobi had dutifully ignored the way the drawn woman's face had tightened as she held the wiggling child to her breast and had spotted the deep whisker scars on the boy's plump cheeks, a gift from the beast he jailed.
He simply hoped the woman would nurture the boy and think of him as her own and not the beast that had threatened the village mere weeks before. He should have known he was being foolish and selfish, hoping that if he turned his back the boy would simply vanish; out of sight out of mind.
His false hopes had apparently proved fruitless as he spotted the way Naruto quaked in Kakashi's firm hold, eyes squeezed shut tightly and dirty knees tucked tight under his chin.
The child was startlingly developed for his very young age, a happening that wasn't likely to go unnoticed in the village seeing as many children his age or only a year or so older were still tiny things with uncoordinated stubby little limbs. His growth, no doubt, would be attributed to the Kyuubis influence and The Council would likely call for an examination of the child's seal sometime shortly.
Kakashi dropped the child lightly into one of the plush chairs in front of the Hokages vast desk -- Naruto immediately buried his head in the cushion-- and straightened before turning to the aged man sitting hunched over his desk.
Kakashi bowed deeply, removing his painted mask in the same motion, " Hokage-sama"
Sarutobi sighed, " Kakashi-san."
Kakashi stood and looked the aged and exhausted man in the eye, " Why wasn't I informed?"
Sarutobi sighed and reached for his pipe and tobacco, he didn't look Kakashi in the eye as he packed his pipe and lit it, "You know why, the scorn of the villagers pales in comparison to the hatred that will be leveled against the child if his heritage is revealed. I can protect him with my laws but if our enemies, or allies for that matter, got wind of the fact that that man's legacy survived that night." Sarutobi watched Kakashi carefully. "He had many enemies and vengeance is not something many shinobis are above resorting to."
Kakashi clenched his fists and glanced down at the quaking child who refused to so much as turn his head from the cushions, unaware in his terror of the proceedings going on around him. "Sir, He's a child, his child…how could I, and how can they, not see it?"
"The villagers only see the beast the Yondaime sealed into the boy and I encouraged the belief of the Kyuubis defeat at the hands of the Yondaime in our enemies. The boy is considered a nobody and, unfortunately, that works in my and Narutos favor."
"But, sir!" Kakashi began, displaying a passion Sarutobi had not seen in the teen for almost a year. "The boy needs a proper guardian. That woman had him bathe in stagnant water! If I hadn't stopped her, the boy would've been beat bloody, who knows how many times this has happened!"
Sarutobi smiled at the impassioned young ANBU before him, " Then, Kakashi, I thank you for volunteering to guard Naruto, I will reassign you to active village patrol duty post haste."
Kakashi seemed to deflate before he could take another breath to continue his tirade, surprise written plainly on his face despite the fact more than half of it was covered by dark cloth. " Excuse me sir?"
Sarutobis chuckle rumbled deep in his chest, "You've convinced me. The boy needs a guardian, and you're perfect for the job. By what I see Naruto is perfectly capable of caring for himself due to the lack of care provided by the woman assigned to him, despite his young age."
At this, Sarutobi sighed deeply, "All you must do is watch the boy and make sure he is healthy and at the very least happy, look after his wellbeing, that is now your mission. Understood?"
Kakashi glanced at the child curled into the couch for a moment, face drawn, before he nodded resolutely, " Yes, Hokage-sama, I will keep him safe."
Sarutobi nodded gently, "Good, take him home, he lives in apartment 14 B, I trust you know where?"
Kakashi nodded as he went to scoop the child once again into his arms, unsurprised to find him asleep, "And what of his caretaker?"
"She will be taken care of." Sarutobis tone was deadly and Kakashi had to stop himself from trembling as he bowed.
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Naruto had slept the entire journey back to the decaying apartment building he called home, even as Kakashi reluctantly tucked him into a bed made of what appeared to be shredded sleeping mats and rotting blankets.
Despite being struck dumb by sheer terror, Naruto would never forget the smell of dogs and crushed leaves that, in later years, would become a source of comfort and protection.