A/N: Before we get on with the story... I changed Itachi's age a bit so he's about 10 (cause he's apparently 7 years older than Sasuke who's currently 3) but it's not really that important to the story.
The news that Kakashi now had full legal custody of Naruto didn't come as shock to anyone. Everyone involved had expected it and even if he hadn't gained that right, they sure as hell would have done something about it.
It was the morning after the Hokage made his decision and Kakashi had hoped he would have a quiet, peaceful morning. He woke Naruto up, placed him in the kitchen, made breakfast ramen (recently, Naruto was refusing to eat anything but ramen) and made himself coffee.
He went outside to his garden to enjoy its tranquillity without the blond chibi bouncing about but soon found his plan foiled. He quickly turned around to go back to the garden, hands twitching to take out one of the many kunai he kept on his person.
"Oi, Genma, Raidou! What are you doing in my house?" he asked them and stood with crossed arms as he walked in.
He sensed two chakra signatures in the kitchen where he had left Naruto and for a split second panicked as he got ready to slit whosever throat it was that dared entered his home with the intention of harming Naruto, until he realised who they were. The killer intent that Kakashi let out immediately subsided and in its place, annoyance made itself present .
"We heard the news from Obito, Taicho. So we came to visit Pup," Raidou answered nonchalantly before resuming the game with Naruto.
"Did it occur to you to inform me about your visit?" It was annoying him that they just brushed off the fact that they were disturbing their captain's would be peaceful morning and suddenly his urge to use his kunai, still held firmly in one of his hands, strengthened.
"Well Taicho it was a spur-of-the-moment type of thing," this time it was Genma.
A red tick mark appeared on Kakashi's forehead. His kouhai were beginning to act like Obito and he did not like it. Not. One. Bit.
He weighed his options: he could a) kick his forward little underlings out and show them what happens when they annoy the authority or b) he could ignore their intruding for Naruto's sake and let them go on with whatever they were doing. Punishment would come later. It took him a second to decide that actually, there was another option.
They had interrupted his morning with a happy Naruto as he ate his ramen in peace and Kakashi drinking his coffee in his garden taking a well-deserved break after Naruto bugged him the whole night about what 'chatra' was.
"Naru-chan have you finished eating your ramen yet?" he sweetly asked the child. Genma and Raidou stopped playing their game, noticing the change of tone in his voice.
"Hai Kashi-nii!" Naruto, once again oblivious to his surroundings, answered.
"Good. Then why don't you run outside. I'll play with you after I speak with Genma and Raidou."
Naruto nodded and ran outside excited that he didn't have to beg Kakashi to play outside with him. Kakashi would usually play with him inside since he was almost certain that Naruto somehow got more energetic in the sun, increasing his ability to tire anyone out tenfold.
"I'll give you a five second head start to run," Kakashi told Genma and Raidou who gulped. They immediately accepted his offer and shunshined out of his home. He scoffed. How naïve of them to believe a simple shunshin would throw him off track. They disturbed his morning and would pay.
The rest of the morning was uneventful for both Kakashi and Naruto. This led to two reactions; Kakashi was glad that he would finally get a moment of peace after his disturbed morning and playing with the hyperactive Naruto and chose to lounge on his couch and sleep, while Naruto was bored out of his mind and close to tears.
Kakashi chose to ignore him knowing full well that it was just another ploy to get him to bend to the child's will. Said child was annoyed by Kakashi not playing into his hands and began to formulate a new plan.
If Kakashi refused to pay attention to him, then he would just do something that his onii-chan wouldn't possibly be able to ignore, he would whine. While it seemed like a plan that was bound to fail Naruto knew that it was the opposite.
Something that he had often overheard while playing with what he thought of as his friends was that he could be quite annoying. He didn't understand what this meant, annoying not being a part of his three-year-old vocabulary, but he did know that he could use it to his advantage.
With a slight cough to prepare his small lungs for the what he was about to put them under he opened his mouth as wide as possible and let out the loudest shriek he could manage.
The ear piercing sound immediately woke Kakashi up rather ungracefully (he fell off his couch) and the ninja got up to glare at Naruto. This fucking brat.
He stood up from the ground and placed his hand over Naruto's mouth to shut him up, stopping his shrieking. Naruto stared at him as if daring him to make a move and Kakashi, after having just about enough of this shitty morning, picked him up and shunshined the both of them to Konoha's forest.
Itachi, on the other hand, was having what he considered to be a great day. Despite his young age, the Uchiha had few of these. He had his clan constantly breathing down neck, the ANBU that wasn't part of his squad watching him and a little brother, who he loved to pieces, that would constantly bother him.
That was why he absolutely loved mornings like this, just him and his best friend-slash-mentor-slash-older-brother-figure, Shisui.
Shisui was already a Jonin and although Itachi wasn't that far behind in terms of skill or age, he greatly admired him. The two sat perched on a giant rock, eating dango in Konoha Forest while Shisui was telling Itachi about his latest mission.
"It was over too soon though; I wish it took longer 'cause that way I could've spent more time in the Land of Waves. It's great there really, peaceful unlike here. I'll take you there next time."
Itachi took a bite out of his dango, "That will be great, Shisui… say do you think that there will ever be peace in our clan?"
Shisui sighed, "Our clan's always been at odds, against the rest of the village and ourselves. We'll probably reach a point where there'll only be two option left; total destruction or submission."
"Is that really our only two options, Shisui?"
"It's useless sugar coating anything, Itachi. If worse comes to worst, then you'll be the deciding factor. I just hope it never reaches that point, at least not in our lifetime." He took a bite out of his own dango before handing the remainder to Itachi, "Aargh! This stuff is so sweet, how do you manage to eat this?"
Itachi took the dango with wide eyes, "It's a gift sent from the Heavens! Why me though, why am I the deciding factor when it comes to the clan?'
"You are the genius heir to the clan, of course you going to be involved. Especially with those elders and your dad," Shisui stood up and ruffled Itachi's hair affectionately. "We should get up. Expect some company soon."
Before Itachi could question what he meant, Kakashi appeared in front of two looking exhausted and holding a tear stained Naruto. The child in question hopped out of his guardian's arms and looked around the forest with wonder, not noticing the gaping Itachi or the surprised Shisui.
"Itachi as your captain, I have a small request that you are unable to refuse."
"Kakashi-san, why do you have a child?" Shisui asked. He certainly could sense Kakashi's chakra but what he didn't expect was to see Naruto.
"Huh? Oh Shisui-kun, didn't see you over there. This-" he gestured to Naruto who was chasing a butterfly- "Is Naruto, I adopted him. I am sane, well not really but enough to make a decision like this, if that's what you're wondering."
"I see…" Shisui looked at Itachi who coughed.
"Taicho, I hope this isn't what I think it is. Today's my day off."
"That's funny 'cause today's my day off too but it's already been disturbed by Genma and Raidou and Naruto's been whining the entire morning about being bored. I don't have enough energy to deal with him so you, my young underling, now have the task of entertaining him."
"Wait Taicho-"
Kakashi called Naruto over, "Naru-chan meet Shisui, I like him enough so you can trust him, okay? You'll spend the rest of the day with them so be good. I'll pick you up later." Without waiting for Naruto or either Uchiha to reply, he shunshined out of the forest leaving two awkward teens and an unsurprisingly cheerful Naruto.
"Can we play a game?"
Naruto received a groan from the both of them as a reply.
"Say, Itachi, what are we going to do about Naruto?" a tired Shisui asked. It had been less than fifteen minutes and he was far more exhausted than he had been on his mission and that had lasted a week!
Itachi sighed. Sasuke had always been energetic when he somehow managed to find time to play together but this was on a different level, Naruto was behaving worse than when Team Rou were training him. Damn it, Taicho.
"We can take him to my place. Tou-san is out on a mission with most of the higher-ups in the police force so there shouldn't be too much disturbance. Kaa-san would enjoy spending time with him and Sasuke needs friends of his own."
Shisui nodded. "Though I doubt that it would be a good idea to involve Mikoto-san or Sasuke for that matter. Won't things just be more chaotic?"
That is true, Itachi thought. But what other choice did he have?
He had a feeling that this would be the right choice. Sasuske needed companionship and Naruto… well he needed to be around people his own age, preferably children who didn't have blood on their hands before they turned ten. He shook his head; this was not the time to remember Tenma.
That memory, though it was the reason he awakened his sharingan, he didn't want to revert to his old self, the one before Shisui and Team Rou. It was just too painful.
"Kaa-san would be able to handle it. Besides, I know you wouldn't want to babysit Naruto after just coming back from a mission."
Shisui sheepishly laughed and scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah…"
It was at that moment that Naruto decided to run up to Shisui and present to him his latest findings.
"Shisui-san, this is for you," Naruto handed him a small flower, though it leaned awkwardly to the side and a few of its petals were gone, Shisui took it.
"Arigato Naru-chan," he replied, and he swore he never saw a smile as big or as radient as the small child in front of him. Helplessly, he looked at Itachi who had a small smile of his own.
"Naruto expresses his delight physically. He likes you, just don't tell Taicho he gave you a flower. Taicho was jealous when I picked Naruto up and he didn't protest."
"Ha," he bent down to ruffle Nauto's hair, "You're pretty cute kid. You'll be a good influence on Sasuske, he'll need it when things with the clan takes a turn."
"Clan?" Naruto asked him.
"Nothing for you to worry about. Let's get going. Itachi?"
He nodded, "Hai."
Somewhere deep inside the forest, far from where Naruto and the two Uchihas stood, lurked two shadows.
"Seems like things have taken an interesting turn ever since your departure, Master," a squeaky, masculine voice said. His master laughed.
"Who would've thought that after all this time Kakashi would finally grow some compassion, too bad that it won't last long."
"But Master our plan won't be put into motion until he is ready."
"It's a figure of speech, you take everything too literal. Ahh the joy I'll feel! It's going to fun, the look of confusion on his face when he finally realises the mistake he made all those years ago. Makes me a little sad that I'll have to wait so long… nevermind that, the reward is in the wait after all."
"Master, won't you feel even a bit of regret though? That copy nin-"
"Is the reason I am where I am now! He's the one who caused my pain, I can't even look into a mirror without being reminded of the monster I am. It's his fault, all his fault and that horrid man who taught him. Death was too simple a punishment."
"Master…"
"Enough talking. Our purpose was only to investigate a rumour and now that it has been confirmed, we'll best be on our way lest you want to be left alone here?" His master looked at him with a single brow raised and a glare that sent shivers down his despite the heat of the forest.
"H-Hai. Tobi is sorry."
"As you should be."
With that, the two figures left the forest.
Reviews:
Syluk: Hope you read the intro and also this is fanfiction? And it's an au canon divergent? But I'm glad you like Obito and Pakkun's bickering. Also Naruto was confused most of time so he didn't get the gist of what was going on around him, especially not about the Kyuubi.
TigrezzTail: Glad you liked it! And i imagined that Tenzo, cause of his personality in shippuuden would have more to say about naruto in this kind of situation so yea...
