Hey everyone

I'm sorry that I didn't post last week.

My documents that I can post only goes to 50 max, and I had no space. I decided to take last week off.

Here's the next chapter, and I'm trying to move it faster, but these next few chapters won't be like that for awhile.

Anyways enjoy

I don't own Naruto

Chapter 14

It's been one week since the dinner at Itachi's house. So far Takeru's tou-san was still on a mission. The tree climbing exercise was completed the second day, and even though both Hikari and Takeru had wanted to practice the water walking exercise, the workouts their sensei would get them to do, and missions of two to three a day that had resumed, had made any additional training too exhausting.

Itachi had noticed his Tou-san keeping a closer eye on him whenever he was in the house. Itachi was certain it was because he had mentioned that he cared about his teammates. His Kaa-san had begun to ask him how his teammates and sensei was, and even though Itachi wanted to just keep his silence, he knew that his Kaa-san was being sincere in her questions, so he would tell her. Sasuke had finally managed to say 'Itachi' without the cut offs. His kaa-san was both ecstatic that Sasuke finally said his first word, but sad that it wasn't 'Kaa-san' or 'Tou-san'.

Sometime during the week, after their sensei had dismissed them for the day, Itachi had gone to locate Naruto. If Sasuke was able to talk and recognize people at this age, then perhaps Naruto would be able to, even if he's younger.

Itachi had located the orphanage that held Naruto. Although he couldn't simply just waltz in there and ask to see him, Itachi stated to the ones running the orphanage that he just wanted to look at the kids. He stated he felt there were some people that would adopt them. Itachi had found Naruto's crib far away from everyone else's sleeping place.

"It eats quite a lot doesn't it? That's only expected considering what it is" one of the workers whispered to one another.

"Don't worry about that one, would you like to see everyone else?" one of the people who ran the orphanage had said. Apparently Itachi had been staring at Narruto's direction.

He was surprised, even though he shouldn't have been, that even at the age of one Naruto was getting treated the way most jinjuriki's do; no one went to Naruto when he started crying.

Itachi ignored the people and went to see Naruto for himself. Naruto had stopped crying once he had spotted Itachi, and tried to reach for him since he couldn't crawl up the crib. Itachi carefully picked up Naruto, and Naruto had automatically started to smile and giggle. It was as Itachi suspected; Naruto had just wanted attention.

"How did you get it to stop crying? We usually just leave it alone until it tires itself out from crying" one of the people had asked.

"I have a brother about his age. All he wanted was some attention and that's why he stopped. You see, he's smiling and laughing" and no doubt Naruto was giggling and pointing at the two that had approached Itachi.

Itachi looked, and saw the look they were giving Naruto; the look of wanting him to disappear. It amazed him how Naruto had to live with people looking at him the way they do, and still chose to care for the village instead of wanting revenge the way his brother had.

He gently rocked Naruto, the way he would with Sasuke, and Naruto drifted off. He gently placed him back in his crib.

"Finally some peace and quiet from that crying it did. Thank you young man" one man said.

"What's his name?" Itachi asked.

"Who's name?" the lady asked.

"His" Itachi pointed towards Naruto.

The lady stiffened, but replied, "Its name is Uzumaki Naruto. Is there anyone else you would like to see today?"

"No thank you. I will be coming by to visit when I get the time to" then Itachi turned towards Naruto, who was drooling in his sleep, "Bye for now little Naruto-kun."

After Itachi had left, he went to a shop close by to buy a small, orange, stuffed fox. He had it covered in a present form. Although Naruto never told Itachi, he guessed that orange may be his favourite color.

The next day was Itachi's day off with the team, and after some convincing to his Kaa-san, he took Sasuke with him to the village. Itachi was planning to visit Naruto with Sasuke this time. The present was being held by Sasuke.

It was the same people from yesterday. They seemed pretty surprised to see him again, but left him alone this time when Itachi went over to Naruto's crib.

"Hello Naruto-kun, how are you today?" Itachi said.

"Hi" Naruto was waving his arms around. It looked like Naruto knew some words after all.

"Hi" Sasuke decided to copy Naruto since Itachi's never heard him say that one before.

Naruto hit his chest, giggling, "Naruto, you?"

'It seems he is better at talking than Sasuke' Itachi thought.

"Skue" Sasuke said. Naruto is defiantly better at it than Sasuke.

"Skue?" Naruto was giggling.

"It's Sasuke Naruto-kun." Itachi decided to supply.

"Sasu-keee" Naruto tried to say, putting an emphasis on the ke.

"Hai, he has a little present for you. Go ahead and give it to him Sasuke" Sasuke looked like he was pouting, but followed his brother's advice and pushed the small bag with the gift inside it towards Naruto.

Naruto was observing the mini bag, then started shaking it, flipped it over for the orange fox to fall out.

"Whaaaa" Naruto cried out as he moved back for a second, then crawled forward and picked up the orange stuffed fox.

"It's a fox Naruto-kun, I hope you like it" Itachi said.

"Fo-oo-ox? Fox?" Naruto repeated.

"Yes, fox" Itachi said back.

"'ox ni?" Sasuke tried to say. Itachi was finding it so amusing at how Naruto seemed to pick up speaking better than Sasuke. He guessed it has to do with the people here not baby talking him the way his Kaa-san does to Sasuke.

"That was certainly kind of you Itachi-kun" Itachi turned his head to see it was the Hokage speaking to him.

"Hokage-sama" Itachi bowed.

"None of that; you're not on duty right now so just be casual. Anyways, how did you and young Naruto-kun meet? Seems strange for you to be visiting the orphanage on your day off" the third said as he approached the crib that both Naruto and Sasuke were in.

"Ojii! Fox" Naruto squeaked.

"It certainly is Naruto-kun, do you like it?" The third asked.

"Yes!" Naruto said enthusiastically.

"Thank you Itachi-kun; it's the first gift he's gotten from someone, besides me" the third said.

"Why is he separated from the rest of the kids here?" Itachi said.

"Unfortunately, I don't know the reason for that myself, but I can't force them to make him stay close to the kids here; it's there orphanage. At least he's being taken care of; his parents died during the nine-tails attack" Itachi figured the third wouldn't mention about the fox within Naruto, but he felt he had to act like he didn't know to throw off any suspicion from himself.

"So it looks like young Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun are getting along" Itachi looked back at the crib to see both Sasuke and Naruto holding each other by the shoulders, and jumping up and down, giggling.

"Alright Sasuke, we should leave before both you and Naruto-kun here break the crib" Itachi says as he picked up Sasuke; Naruto tried to reach for him once they separated.

Itachi placed his hand on Naruto's head, ruffling his hair, "don't worry Naruto-kun, I'll try to make my days off a visit to you" Naruto had a pout on his face.

Itachi almost forgot that the third was there when he heard him chuckle, "don't worry Naruto-kun, I'm still here for a bit longer."

"OJii" Naruto's pout was immediately replaced with a smile.

"I should leave and get Sasuke back for his meal. It was nice seeing you hokage-sama" Itachi bowed.

"It was quite interesting Itachi-kun; I hope you continue to come by with young Sasuke-kun to see Naruto-kun. He seems happier with your visit" and Itachi didn't doubt that; he wouldn't be surprised if only the Hokage was the one who showed any affection towards Naruto currently.

Itachi was debating if he should tell his Kaa-san about Naruto-kun, but just thought for now he would only tell part of the truth so no one finds it suspicious that an Uchiha was having any interactions with the nine-tails sacrifice.

"Alright you three today were going to do something different" Yamato-sensei said. All three of them had met at their usual meeting place at training ground ten.

"Something different sensei?" Hikari asked.

"Yes, today were going to start with missions since the other genin team that graduated with you are in the village. In the afternoon we'll be doing group training with them. We wish to see how far you've improved by facing someone that you're not used to sparing against" Yamato-sensei said.

This got Itachi to raise his eyebrows; he hadn't bothered to find out, but it seemed that apart from his team, the only other genin team that had graduated was Team 6; Sora's team.

'This should be interesting' Itachi thought. Ever since Itachi and Sora had become genins, they barely saw each other or the three from the academy (apart from the few times the three would visit them separately). Itachi was curious on how Strong Sora had gotten.

"Well, come along you three; we've got to head to the hokage tower to get our mission for the day" and with that all of them proceeded to the tower.

"Itachi!" Itachi looked straight to see it was Sora with his two teammates.

"Hello Sora" Itachi said.

"Hey, this is the first time seeing you here in the morning; you here for a mission?" Sora asked.

"Yes. We usually train first before doing missions, but today it's going to be reversed" Itachi said.

"I see, it's opposite with us. First we do missions, then train. Our sensei is very strict with being on time, unless there's a good reason for it. Were actually meeting later than usual today for some reason" Sora said.

Nodding, Itachi saw that his team was waiting for him, "We'll talk later" and he proceeded to follow his team.

"Itachi-kun, were they the other genin sensei was talking about?" Hikari asked.

"Hai, they were in the graduating class this year" Itachi explained.

"Wow. We've been together for the most part that I forgot that the other genins are 12 years old. They don't look too big though" Takeru said, sounding a little nervous.

"Were not all tall like you Takeru; give it a few years and I'm pretty sure Itachi-kun here will reach your height. You forget that he's the youngest one out of all of us?" Hikari said sternly.

Takeru looked at Itachi as if realizing that he did indeed forget, but Itachi just shrugged; it didn't really make a difference to him since he was technically in his twenties, mentally at least.

"Were here guys, focus" Yamato sensei said as he opened the door towards the missions room.

"Ah, team 10, here for missions" The third said.

"Hai Hokage-sama" Yamato said.

Nodding, he pulled out a mission from the D-rank pile, "This should be a simple mission; some supplies for one of the businesses here were just dropped off at the side of the gates. Just get them for the merchant and place them where he wants it to. You can come in" the man, who appeared to be in his sixties, came forth.

"Hello young'uns. My name is Sangi. I wouldn't bother asking you for assistance, but as you can see I'm not as young as I once was. The merchandise is waiting at the front gates at the village, and my business is near the academy" the old man replied.

"It's not a problem Sangi-san. When would you like to start?" Yamato sensei askes.

"How about now; the sooner we start the sooner we can finish" Sangi says.

And so, team 10 once again begins a D-rank mission; Hikari and Takeru looking with faces of disappointment, and Itachi with a blank face.

That's it for now.

Next week it will be in Sora's Perspective, just a heads up.

Naruto has been found, and Itachi is going to be trying to get the two to be friends early on.

Cheers everyone