"Normal speech"

"Bijuu and Sakura's inside voice"

"Thoughts"

Jutsu Example: Katon: Gokakyo no jutsu

-Chapter 1-

It was morning and the sun had only been rising for a couple of hours at most and there only a few clouds in the sky. The birds were chirping outside in the beautiful village of Konohagakure and the townsfolk were all up and about, whether they were salesmen selling their goods, or merchants from far and wide coming to buy said goods.

Kaize was still sleeping as his sister had decided to let him sleep in for a bit, while she made breakfast for Naruto and her brother as a thanks to Naruto for letting her brother and herself borrow his bedroom for the night. After making breakfast she would go see the Hokage about the cruelty she and her brother had witnessed the night before. While she was thinking about who could've done it, Naruto was slowly stirring in his sleep, a sing that he was about to wake up.

He awoke with a tired groan and found himself on the couch in his apartment. Remembering the events of the day before and how he had let two strangers sleep in his bedroom out of his kindness of his heart, he started noticing the pleasant smell of homemade breakfast. He didn't recognize the smell, but it made his mouth water with anticipation. He looked to his kitchen and found the nice lady he had found in the park with her brother making breakfast and setting the table for all three of them. He got off the couch and went to brush his teeth in the bathroom. When he was done he went over to the nice lady and stared in awe at the table she had set. For her this was very normal, but for him this was a whole new type of experience. He had never woken up to someone making breakfast for him, nevertheless a young female doing exactly that. It made him so happy that he ran and hugged the girl whilst repeating the words, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." He couldn't recall anyone ever doing something so nice for him.

Rikane was a bit shocked when she sensed someone coming at her from the bathroom, but when she noticed it was Naruto meaning to hug her, she let him. She knew who he was. He was the kid all the adults seemed to despise. "Oh Naruto-kun this is nothing special at all, it's the least I could do as thanks for letting me and Kaize sleep in your apartment." She told the happy child hugging her. Soon he let go and sat down on one of the chairs at his little dining table. "Say Rikane-Nee? Why didn't you and Kaize sleep in the Uchiha district? You guys have your own compound right?" He asked with a mixed face of genuine curiosity and happiness. "Well something truly terrible happened last night Naruto-kun. In fact, I'm heading to the Hokage himself to speak with him about it." Was all she told him on the matter. He still seemed curious but now also a little confused. "Okay, but what about Kaize? He asked her. "I'll come and pick him up after I've spoken to the Hokage. It shouldn't take long." She told him. While Naruto was still curious, he didn't ask any further questions regarding the matter. He figured that since it was important enough for her to talk with the Hokage about it, he probably wouldn't understand it.

Rikane put her sandals and hitai-ite on and opened the door. "Say hi to Jiji for me Rikane-Nee and thank you for making breakfast!" He exclaimed a little loudly in an excited manner. Shortly after Rikane left and when he was about halfway done with his own breakfast, Kaize came out of the bedroom looking mildly confused. "You're Naruto right? Where am I?" He asked in a tired voice while rubbing one of his eyes groggily. "Yeah that's me. You're in my apartment where you and your sister slept after I found you in the park last night." He explained. At that moment, the memories of what transpired the day before began flooding Kaize's mind. Starting with the memory of finally mastering the Katon: Gokayko no jutsu and ending with him cradling his dead parents in his arms helplessly, while wondering who could've done something so despicable like killing his parents and the rest of the Uchiha clan. His face twisted into a pained expression as his tears started slowly streaming down his face.

Naruto didn't know what had happened and didn't know what to do so he just stared at the boy in front of him. Soon though, Kaize wiped his tears and sat down at the table and started slowly eating the food on the plate on the other side of table. They sat there in silence for about 15 minutes when Rikane suddenly came back with the Hokage himself accompanying her. They both left their sandals at the door and came into the kitchen area where Kaize and Naruto were sitting. "Kaize-kun, it truly pains me to hear what you and your sister went through yesterday." Hiruze said. "The culprit has been found and rest assured that I will do everything in my power to find and punish him. I know it's going to be hard and you and your sister will have as much time as you need to grieve your lost ones, but know that there is one other survivor. His name is Sasuke Uchiha and I think you know him." He said. "An apartment has been assigned to you, your sister and Sasuke. I'll pay for the expenses so don't worry too much about that. I'm truly sorry for your loss and none of us could've foreseen what happened yesterday, but don't let this stop you from becoming the strong ninja that you're aspiring to become." Hiruzen said, deciding to end his short speech on a more positive note. Kaize didn't say anything, he just listened and took the Hokage's words to heart. He decided right then and there that he would become a strong ninja so he could protect the last of his clan, and make sure that anything like what happened to his parents and the rest of the Uchiha clan, with the exception of Sasuke, would ever happen again. The Hokage gave Rikane a key and went over to Naruto. "Naruto-kun I want to thank you on behalf of Rikane-chan and Kaize-kun. Come to my office later at 6 and I'll treat you to some ramen as a reward for your kindness." He said with pride in his eyes and a sad undertone to his voice.

The Hokage left after that. Rikane thanked Naruto once more and cleaned the plates and the utensils she had used to cook breakfast for her and the two boys. "I don't know what happened to you guys yesterday, but you're always welcome to come over anytime dattebayo!" He exclaimed. Rikane had a small smile on her lips. "Of course Naruto and the same goes for you too. When you see Kaize again in the academy in a couple weeks, he can tell you our address and I can help you with your studying and maybe teach you a thing or two." She said, knowing from the Hokage that Naruto was doing very poorly in school. "Thank you Rikane-Nee. I'll definitely come visit you guys, even though you're going to be living with Sasuke-Teme." He said with happiness clearly showing on his face.

The two Uchiha soon left and Naruto was genuinely happy that he found two more people he could include on his short list of precious people, right after Hokage-Jiji, Teuchi-Jiji and Ayame-Nee. He was so happy that the next following weeks, the villagers whispering and harsh treatment towards him didn't even bother him one bit.

He soon started visiting Rikane and Kaize at least once a week, and he tried to befriend Sasuke after Rikane enlightened him on what happened that night. She had told him everything about the massacre and that it was Sasuke's older brother that had killed majority of the once great Uchiha clan. Sasuke was very cold to his two clansmen and Naruto the first couple of months, but soon started warming up to them enough for him to talk to them and train with them. The four of them grew very close and Naruto now had another precious person on his list, even though he still had his rivalry with Sasuke. It was just on slightly more friendly terms now. Rikane believed that it would help them both grow stronger and that they would be closer because of their little friendly ravalry.

The help he got from Rikane-Nee with his studying made his grades a lot better than he used to be, and the training he did with the three Uchiha made his chakra control and his taijutsu much stronger than it would've been. He no longer was the dead last in class and was both smarter and stronger than he was before. Sasuke and Kaize were both contenders for Rookie of the year when their class would eventually graduate and Naruto was not long behind them.

Two years had passed and Rikane had made it into ANBU. She was now a lot busier than before and didn't have as much time to train and keep tabs on the boys. She wasn't out on missions as often as other ANBU were because of her duties as a pseudo mother for the three boys but that was to be expected and the Hokage understood that she had a lot of responsibilities for someone as young as her. She was only fifteen after all. Kaize, Sasuke and Naruto had become very close in the time that had transpired after the massacre. The three of them were all 10 years old now.

Sasuke wanted to avenge his fallen brethren and Kaize did too. The difference was that Kaize was more focused on protecting his loved once compared to avenging them. The reverse could be said for Sasuke. He wanted to protect his loved ones, but his goal was still to kill Itachi and avenge his fallen clan. He wasn't all alone and he knew there were people that understood his pain, but he still felt differently than they did since it was his brother that killed the clan. The other Uchiha couldn't relate to that since they hadn't been as close to Itachi as Sasuke had.

For Naruto it was different. He wanted to become Hokage to make sure noone would ever disregard him as most of the villagers still did and instead gain their respect and acknoledgement. He also wanted to help his two best friends with their goals, but like Kaize, he mainly focused on protecting his precious people and becoming strong enough to do it.

Rikane knew how strong Itachi was supposed to be, but couldn't believe why he would do what he did. She felt that there were some missing pieces to this puzzle, and she was dead set on uncovering said pieces and fully understanding why Itachi did what he did. She didn't know him very well, but she had considered him as a kind individual and had a hard time believing he would kill most of his own clan just to "test his own strength" as he had told Sasuke. She Loved Sasuke and Naruto just as she did Kaize and would protect them from anyone no matter the cost or the strength required. She too strived to become a strong ninja in order to do that, and she trained even harder than her little brothers did in order to achieve the power to protect her family. She was very protective of her brothers and although she was a somewhat levelheaded person, if anyone laid fingers on her brothers, all hell would break loose and no one, not even their mothers, would recognize them when she was done with them. She would make sure of that. All three boys had a lot of respect for Rikane and wouldn't dare mess with her unless they wanted a very painful death, but they also loved her and would protect her as much as she would protect them. They were a family and if anyone messed with just one of them, they were messing with all four of them and would be wise to flee the country and change their name unless they wanted to be their next training dummy.

After two years, all four of them were a lot happier than they had ever been in the past. Naruto finally had a family, Sasuke still had family left so all wasn't lost to him, Kaize was just happy that he wasn't alone and had the two other Uchiha left with him and Rikane was happy that her little brothers were doing good and almost forgetting that the massacre even happened. No one would mention it around them and the villagers didn't dare mess with Naruto anymore because of fear of angering Rikane. Everything was going well for them and it would continue to be like that for the next two years to come.

END OF CHAPTER 1

A/N

Okay this chapter is a bit longer than the first. I decided that I want to get to where canon starts within the first couple of chapters and we'll start close to that in the next chapter. There are already 2 favorites and 5 follows for this story only a day after I posted the first chapter. I can't promise that I'll update the story every day or that it'll reach epic length, but I'll try my best and at least complete it. I still have to focus on collage and I'm currently trying to get a job, plus I spend most of my time with my friends and family or doing homework so I'm gonna be even more busy after getting a job. I'll try and make a schedule after these first couple of chapters are done. That way I can make the chapters longer and have a couple ready in case I'm not able to write for a week or something like that. For now, expect the next chapter a week from now at the most and I'll try my best to make them longer. This chapter was about 2300 words so I'll try and make the next one 3000 words, but no promises. Anyway that's all I have to say (write?) so I won't take up more of your time other than by letting y'all know that I will still consider ideas and appreciate reviews. Please follow and favorite if you like it so far, it'll push my story more and increase my motivation to write it.

-Donateio