Chapter Seventeen: A Fragile Boy

No one spoke of Orochimaru's defection publicly. Through the Anbu grapevine, Team Ro eventually learned that the Third had confronted Orochimaru after he traded blows with Kakashi and Rin. The bold few dared to voice that the Third was too soft on his student and should have stopped his student a long time ago. Should have killed Orochimaru and not let him escape the village.

They weren't wrong, but Rin knew they never been in that position either. How would have sensei reacted to fighting the masked man, if he knew it was Obito? Would sensei have the heart to kill him?

Since then, the kidnappings stopped. The real cause of Minato's death remained under wraps, as the Hokage didn't want to open up old wounds once more. Kakashi and Rin could finally rest easy after uncovering the truth, even if Orochimaru was out there somewhere. They vowed to train harder, so that the next time, they would be prepared to take on Orochimaru.

When all of the jonins received a newly issued bingo book, everyone was reminded of the Orochimaru incident. It was hard not to, when he was listed in the missing nins section of the book, under an S ranked classification. The section of the list of jutsus that he could perform took up a good chunk of the page, so much that it continued onto the back.

Reanimation jutsu...that reminded her that she needed to work on a counter jutsu to his forbidden technique.

For the next two years, the complete Team Ro went back to their normal duties, taking on S ranked missions again, much to Fugaku's disapproval. Everytime Itachi geared up for a mission, Fugaku would rant about how much time he was spending away from the village and consequently, away from his duties as clan heir. If being clan heir meant that Itachi had to concede to whatever ridiculous notion to rebel against Konoha, then Itachi wouldn't.

No, he would much rather get away from the clan.

The only reason why Itachi even bothered to return home in the evenings, on the days that he was in the village as he knew Kakashi wouldn't question it if he wanted to stay over, was his younger brother, Sasuke. The only person to keep Itachi sane from the mounting pressures from the clan.

During one of their sparring sessions, when Rin actually landed three consecutive hits on Itachi, it became clear that something was distracting him. She called the spar off.

"What's eating at you?" Rin plopped down next to Itachi, who began to polish his weapons just to keep his hands busy. Shisui and Kakashi both stopped their own spar under the guise that they needed a break too, but really they were both concerned about Itachi as well. Only Shisui had an inkling of what was bothering Itachi.

"Fugaku san is on your back again?" Shisui ventured to guess.

"Ah." Now fifteen year old Itachi Uchiha was currently in his prime for Fugaku to groom to become the next clan head. At the ripe age of eighteen, Itachi was expected to marry another Uchiha girl, a very distant, but a talented kunoichi and take over as head of the clan.

First, it had been Itachi's refusal to become the Anbu captain of his own unit, as Danzo offered when he had been thirteen. That caused a rift between his father and him, Fugaku believing that Itachi had been stupid to pass up an opportunity for promotion. But Itachi was adamant in staying on Team Ro, having grown attached to all three members and accustomed to working with them.

Second, it had been the amount of time that his missions took up. Itachi ended up being away more often than not. Fugaku hated that Itachi was rarely home for more than an hour at a time and when he was, Itachi took Sasuke out to avoid him or pretended to be asleep. There was no time for Fugaku to train Itachi to become the clan head.

Third, his missions and training regime often conflicted with clan meetings. In the early days of their Anbu careers, Itachi made an effort to go to the meetings, but as he stopped going, Shisui figured there was no point in going as well. Both of them consistently cited missions to explain their absence, even if there wasn't a mission. It wasn't like Rin or Kakashi would ever rat them out anyways.

Their lack of presence at the Uchiha meetings put a damper on their plans. There were whispers, passing along the idea of a coup, the Uchiha were divided on the matter. Half of them wanted to stay out of trouble, to just live peacefully. After all, the snide remarks and contempt looks had slowly waned over time, until there were hardly any left. The only ones that showed blatant contempt towards them was the old geezer Danzo. Within the other half that were open to the idea, a quarter of them were either civilians or retired shinobis, so they wouldn't be able to contribute manpower. Most of the remaining quarter wished to have the two strongest Uchihas on their side, including Fugaku.

Yet their consistent absences seemed to be a sign to the Uchihas that they wanted no part of the coup. Less than ten Uchihas wanted to continue to carry out the coup, regardless of whether or not Itachi and Shisui were on their side, but the more rational Uchihas talked them out of it. Just the two of them alone could stop the ten of them if they wished. Easily.

Fourth, none of the Uchihas were fond of the fact that Itachi spent more time with outsiders than within their own clan. Shisui Uchiha, they could tolerate as he was a formidable shinobi, but Rin Nohara and Kakashi Hatake? One who possessed the eye of one of their own and the other not from a prominent clan? The more stubborn Uchihas always liked to conveniently forget about the time when both shinobis saved their clan heir's life.

Fifth, Itachi had blatantly rejected marriage between himself and Satsuki Uchiha. Rather than spending time with his to be bride, Itachi seemed to care more about spending time with a black sheep of the Uchiha clan, a girl born from a non-Uchiha parent: Izumi Uchiha. They were more often than not seen together at the dango shop or on the training field. An average chunin, the Uchihas tried to dismiss, no longer able to hold the fact she didn't have the Sharingan over her head. No when she unlocked it during the Kyuubi attack and seemed to be proficient at using it. Of course, that was all due to the clan heir's help, the stubborn Uchihas would argue.

After Itachi unloaded all of his frustrations onto his three teammates, he instantly felt better, even if nothing had changed.

"And what did Izumi say of the latest meeting?" Shisui inquired.

"Same old. They want to plan a coup, but not enough Uchihas are standing with them. Mostly the older and more stubborn shinobis are the ones who want to. The younger generation prefers to stay out of conflict."

"And your father's opinion?"

"He will follow the clan's wishes," Itachi revealed. "But I believe that his heart is telling him to avoid conflict."

"Perhaps you can convince your father to stop this madness."

"Convince him?" Itachi repeated. "When he is not pleased with me?"

"Ah right. You stood up a meeting with Satsuki," Shisui said. "I heard she wasn't happy at all. What's wrong with her anyways?"

Itachi frowned. "...she told me that eating dango was childish."

The three of them burst out laughing, knowing that was the closest that Itachi would ever get to a pouting face. And for his reason to be something as simple as that...was highly amusing, especially when they had been expecting a serious answer, something along the lines of not wanting to be stuck in an arranged marriage. Rin even secretly hoped that Itachi would admit he already liked someone else, namely Izumi, as she had seen the two together more often lately.

"Are you sure it's not because you like Izumi?" Rin teased. Itachi's cheeks turned slightly red, ducking his face so that Rin couldn't see it.

"We simply discuss clan matters, that's all."

No one believed him.

Itachi and Shisui supposed that they couldn't avoid clan meetings forever. Not when Fugaku went to the Hokage and specifically requested that they were free for tonight's meeting. Thus, only Kakashi and Rin were sent on the mission, while Itachi and Shisui were forced to stay in the village.

Reluctantly, the two of them showed up to the clan meeting, a couple minutes later, pulling a page of Kakashi's book. However in their case, no one asked for an explanation because no one cared. They were more concerned with the fact that the two of them finally showed up.

As clan heir, Itachi needed to sit next to Fugaku at the front, even if he wanted to sit down below with Shisui and Izumi. Shisui didn't bother to take any of the seats offered to him by the other clansman; instead, he made his way towards the many empty seats around Izumi, who was sitting in the back corner. He greeted her, making sure that the other clansmen were paying attention as he did.

A warning to them to not mess with her.

They wisely didn't say anything regarding the matter.

The agenda started off with the normal things, regarding minor issues concerning the clan. At the very end, the issue of a rebellion came back up, having tabled the discussion week after week.

It was still the same old argument. The discontent at being suspected for the nine tailed attack. Some felt that they had drawn the short end of the stick and allowed the village to kick them into the corner like they were obedient rats. A rebellion would remind Konoha once more that the Uchiha clan weren't to be messed around with and reclaim some of their authority in the village.

The Uchiha's voice on the council had practically been reduced to nothing, not with Danzo and the Elders contradicting everything they said. More often than not, the Third would side with them, with no apparent reason.

"And there were people who fought for us when we were assigned to another plot of land after the attack," Itachi mentioned, practically countering all of their points. "If the village was against us, then they would have stuck us in the original plot of land and stripped our powers as the Konoha Police Force as they originally intended."

"But they still had the notion of doing it," someone argued.

"That was Danzo's doing. Only he seems to have a problem with the Uchiha clan, not Konoha as a whole. Even the Hyuga stood up for us during that council meeting."

The Hyuga haven't since then, but that was besides the point. The Hyuga stepped in when it was necessary, as did the other clan heads.

"But-!"

"Regardless," Itachi cut him off with a sharp look. "I will not stand by the rebellion. As citizens and shinobis of Konoha, we protect the village, not attack it. If there are any additional rational grievances, you can take it up to me and I will inform the Hokage. Good night."

And just like that Itachi managed to shut down the debate in less than twenty minutes, when the discussion of the matter had taken at least an hour in the previous council meetings. On the way out of the council room, the dissenters watched as Itachi met up with Shisui and Izumi, the former giving the clan heir a fist bump for a work well done. Izumi was smiling, happiness and relief shining in her eyes.

Outside, Izumi stretched her arms. "Thank Kami. That was the fastest council meeting. I didn't fall asleep this time."

Itachi resisted the urge to laugh.

The two of them walked Izumi to her house, bidding her a goodnight. When Izumi entered her house and was finally out of earshot, Shisui turned to Itachi, the light hearted mood set by the younger Uchiha quickly disappearing, replaced with a somber mood.

"How long will the peace last?"

Itachi didn't have an answer for him. "We'll make it last."

"I see." The two of them went their separate ways, minds plagued with the worst case scenarios and all of the potential aftermaths of a coup against the village.

Make peace last...Shisui hoped he would be able to achieve that.

The three year old boy sat on a branch of a tree near the Academy, swinging his legs in the air. He knew the crabby, old lady would scold him when he came home with various scratches on his body and leaves stuck in his blonde hair and clothes, but he didn't care. Being in the trees kept him away from the bullies.

The mean people in Konoha markets often hurled insults his way and kicked him out of their shops. His three year old mind was unable to comprehend what they were saying to him, but it couldn't have been good. All he knew was yelling meant he should leave. So he left.

The Academy students spotted him using pebbles to test out his aim. They had taken to tell him all sorts of things, the most popular being that he would never become a shinobi. The boy had taken it as a challenge and vowed to become the best shinobi that he could be. Yet when he went back to his caretaker that day and told her all about his dream, the old woman simply told him it wasn't going to happen.

That disheartened him once more.

The old lady was mean to him too, but at least she didn't kick him out of the house. And she always fed him, even if she forced him to eat the icky vegetables.

So the boy had taken to sitting on the branches, after many failed attempts at climbing trees, where no one could reach them. If the other kids couldn't reach him, they couldn't hurt him physically. On the rare occasion when he was spotted, the most they could do was yell words that he didn't understand.

From his view, he could see the students practicing throwing with real weapons. He wished that he had some real weapons of his own so he could start his own target practice. However, with no money and no adult shinobis in his life, the boy simply settled for throwing rocks.

Each day, the rocks were thrown further and further until one day, the boy accidentally clocked one of the older students on the back of his head with one of the rocks. When the brown haired kid started sputtering and shouting words that the boy had never heard before, he knew he was in trouble.

The boy scrambled out of the tree, carefully scaling down the tree before preparing to run. Only to be halted by a larger shadow looming over him and a hand grabbing the back of his shirt. The hand shoved his tiny body forward, sending him sprawling face first into the ground.

The boy coughed, rubbing the dirt out of his eyes as he slowly picked himself up and turned to face the bullies.

The brown haired kid that he had hit with the pebble was the one closest to him, with two more kids, slightly shorter than the brown haired kid, flanking him on both sides. The brown haired kid had been the one to laugh the loudest at his demise.

"How are you going to pay for hitting me on the head, kid?" As he spoke, the brown haired kid cracked his knuckles in an effort to look more menacing. The three year old boy crawled backwards, fear evident in his blue eyes.

In that instance, he wished nothing more than to disappear.

"I'm sorry. It was an accident." His words were slightly slurred, stumbling over the pronunciation, but it got his point across. At least he hoped.

The brown haired kid still continued to advance on him as the smaller boy kept backing away. "An accident, you say? I don't think so." The small boy saw a fist coming his way, instinctively raising his arms to block the blow. He shut his eyes, not wanting to see it coming.

But he never felt the exploding pain in his arms. In fact, nothing even touched him. Hesitantly, the boy cracked an eye open to see the brown haired kid was relatively far away from him now.

"...so you find delight in picking on little kids? That's what cowards do," the new voice was saying. A woman's voice. The boy opened his eyes fully to find himself staring at the backside of a woman with long, brown hair, who had stood in front of him to block the advances of the bullies.

"But he-" the brown haired kid protested, but the woman was having none of it.

"I don't care what he did. That's no excuse to attack a kid less than half of your age. Now scram and if I ever see you picking on him again, you'll face dire consequences."

Huffing out of anger, the brown haired kid kicked a stray pebble on the ground before motioning his lackeys to leave. The trio stomped away.

Once the woman was satisfied that they were gone, she turned towards the boy, squatting down on the ground to meet him at eye level. The boy found himself staring at a pretty set of brown eyes and a soft smile.

No one ever smiled at him like that, not even the mean old lady that he lived with.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" the woman asked.

The boy was at a loss for words. No one had ever asked him that question. Without waiting for a response, the woman gently reached for his arm. The boy watched in awe as green chakra coated her hand. It felt so soothing, so gentle and suddenly, the pain from the scratches were gone. It was like it was never there in the first place.

"My name is Rin," the woman told him kindly. "What's your name?"

No one had ever asked him his name, so the boy rushed at the chance - his first chance - to properly introduce himself.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, dattebayo!"

Just like Kushina, Rin mused as she extended a hand to help Naruto off of the ground. The boy happily took it, wrapping his small hand around her fingers. He held on tightly, having no intention of letting go of the hand of the only person who had been remotely nice to him, save for the Old Man Hokage.

And Rin had no intention of telling him to let go either.

Along the way to her apartment, where Rin had promised she would make him food, Naruto pestered her with a million questions. Rin answered each and every one of them patiently: yes, she was a shinobi, yes, she knew how to throw a kunai, no, she wouldn't lend him a kunai to practice with, you need to start with wooden ones, yes, she lived alone, even if a certain someone showed up at her place more often than not, and so on. While answering all of the curious boy's questions, gently correcting his pronunciation at times, her observant eyes were on the villagers.

Rin didn't miss a single dirty look that they tossed at the boy, only averting their gaze when her eyes met theirs. With a reputation that preceded her, it was understandable that none of the civilians wanted to offend the kunoichi. She was especially disappointed to see that some of the owners of her favorite shops exuding the same attitude towards Naruto.

She made a mental note to never visit any of those shops again.

Rin regretted not checking up on the boy much earlier, now knowing the extent of their villager's discontent with Naruto. Under the Third's orders, no one was to talk about the Kyuubi attack or who the new jinchuuriki was. However, someone leaked the word out that the blonde boy was the new jailor of the Kyuubi.

Maybe she was naive, but she didn't think it would have been that bad. Perhaps she had it well, when none of the older generation scorned her for being the daughter of a missing nin.

"Nee chan, why are you being nice to me?" Such a loaded question asked in such an innocent voice. "I mean, everyone else is mean to me. Are you going to be mean to me too?"

If Kushina was still alive, she would most definitely threaten to skin everyone who looked at her son the wrong way. Rin was considerably less violent than her, but still felt obligated to do something about it. But how? Clearly seeing her with Naruto didn't make the villager's respect for her extend to him.

"Just ignore them," Rin told him, tugging him along, moving faster to her apartment. At her apartment, at least he will be away from the glaring looks from the villagers. Naruto protested at her change of pace, struggling to keep up with her pace. Reaching down, Rin lifted Naruto her shoulders, allowing him to sit there as she took towards the rooftops.

Naruto wrapped his tiny arms around her forehead, laughing in glee at the exhilaration of flying through the air. Along the way, Rin spotted a couple of Anbu, tipped her head in greeting before continuing on her way.

Finally, she landed in front of her apartment, inserting her key into the door. Twisting the door open, she entered, kicking off her shinobi sandals and flicking the light on. Squatting down onto the floor, Rin let Naruto scamper off of her, ready to explore her apartment. She didn't even bother chasing after him to get him to take his sandals off.

The first thing that she did was open the kitchen window, like she always did. Just in case he wanted to stop by, which he almost always did.

Besides, Rin really wanted him to meet Naruto too.

While she cooked, she kept tabs on Naruto by tracking him by his chakra signature. It was barely there, being only three years old, but the Kyuubi's chakra was very overbearing, making it hard to miss.

As if right on cue, Kakashi slid into her apartment through the open window right as she finished making dinner. Like he always did, he took off his shinobi sandals, padding his way across her apartment to set it neatly next to hers. Then, Kakashi removed the Hound mask, stuffing it in his weapons pouch, followed by the arm guards and his sword holder. Both of those items were set near his sandals.

A childish laugh could be heard through her apartment.

Kakashi shot her a questioning look. "You have a secret kid?"

Rin laughed at his ridiculous accusation. How could she have hid a secret kid if he saw her practically every day? Poking in her head in the hallway, Rin waved to catch Naruto's attention and waved at him to come into the kitchen. He bounded towards her, running right into her arms.

She caught him, setting him on one of the chairs around the table. Kakashi mutely stared at the mini me of his sensei, his heart constricting at the thought of how much the kid had grown since he last saw him as a baby.

Kushina's personality, she mouthed to him.

"Nee san, who's the old man?" Naruto asked, pointing his tiny finger at Kakashi.

"Who are you calling old man, gaki?" Kakashi huffed in response, but judging from his slight eye roll and definitely an amused smile under his mask, Rin knew that was just his way of dealing with kids.

After all, Kushina did call him an "emotionally stunted kid, so I wouldn't expect you to know how to raise a kid," in her final letter to Kakashi.

"That's Kakashi," Rin told him. "If you want to learn any cool jutsus from him, you should probably stop calling him an old man."

That had suddenly done the trick for Naruto to start addressing him as Kakashi nii san and start his barrage of questions of what cool jutsus Kakashi knew. Naruto's eyes were wide as saucers as Kakashi casually mentioned that he knew over six hundred jutsus.

"Can you teach me, nii san? Please? Please? Please?"

Rin took the opportunity to shove a bowl of rice and veggies under Naruto's nose, much to his dismay. "You can't become a ninja if you're a picky eater."

"Really?" Naruto was doubtful.

Rin motioned for Kakashi to start eating and he happily obliged, angling his face away from them so Naruto couldn't see his face. She had seen his face on numerous occasions already, the first time being when he needed medical treatment back when they were still on the same genin team. Gradually after they became a team in the Anbu, Kakashi figured there was no point in hiding his face anymore. Not that she understood why he ever did to begin with.

"See," Rin said, pointing at Kakashi. "He's a super strong ninja and he's eating everything."

As if on cue, Kakashi slammed his empty bowl back down on the table, mask already in place. Naruto watched him with wide eyes and began to dig into his own bowl.

Rin chuckled to herself; everything was so easy when kids were naive.

Kakashi stayed a bit longer before mouthing the words "memorial stone" to her and taking his leave. Naruto had been sad to see him go, but Kakashi merely ruffled his hair and told him they would meet again. That had been enough to put him in good spirits as she spent the rest of the night teaching Naruto how to write basic kanji.

Kami, the kid couldn't sit still if his life depended on it, but Rin wouldn't have it any other way. Looks like sensei and personality like Kushina nee? He was a combination of both of their legacies.

During the entire evening, Naruto bugged her to do target practice instead of writing, but Rin insisted that writing was just as important. Any mention of doing this to become a great shinobi immediately got Naruto's attention and he tackled writing kanji with a greater intensity than before.

After all, how was she supposed to teach him fuinjutsu if his handwriting turned out atrocious? That also depended on his ability to sit still to learn the intricacies of fuinjutsu…

Naruto looked visibly disappointed when Rin told him it was time to go back. It was already much later than she would have liked to keep him out, but she had conceded to let him stay a bit longer every time he asked.

"Nope," Rin interjected before Naruto could open his mouth to plead with her. "You need to sleep if you want to grow up to be strong."

Naruto nodded in defeat, tugging her hand as he led her back to his house. For the first time, Rin met his caretaker, an older woman who shot Naruto a stern look before shooing him inside the house.

"Sorry if the brat was bothering you," his caretaker told her. "That gaki has no manners at all."

Rin bit her lip, preventing herself from saying that Naruto had no manners because she didn't teach him any. Still, she was still willing to take him in while the rest of the villagers scorned him, even if she was a bit crass with her words.

"Oh he's no problem," Rin told her. "Would you mind if I came by to visit him occasionally?"

The caretaker waved off her request. "Do what you want. The gaki is rarely here during the day anyways."

Then the door slammed into her face. Well then.

She retreated back to her own apartment, where Kakashi had already returned, sitting on the couch and pouring through one of Kushina's many books on fuinjutsu. He snapped the book shut when he heard her entering the house.

"Reading in the dark isn't good for your eyes, you know," Rin told him as she flicked on the light to the living room.

"Didn't want you to go broke from all the electricity I use."

Rin snorted at his stupid excuse.

"If you were that concerned, you can split my bills with me."

"If it was actually an issue, why don't you just move in with me." He said it so casually, like it was a completely normal thing to ask a girl to move in, that Rin would have missed it if she hadn't been listening.

"Why do I have to move in with you? Why don't you move in with me?" Perfect, deflecting his suggestion with a question to find out if he was joking or not.

"Well my place is equipped to house the dogs if the ninken want to stay with me."

"Well my place is more child proof if Naruto ever wants to come over."

"It hardly is. You don't even have a booster seat."

"My place is bigger." Barely, it was a few centimeters of difference, but that still counted.

"You're just arguing for no reason."

That, as Kakashi would come to learn, was something to never say to a woman as Rin promptly hurled the closest thing to her, a medical textbook, in his direction. Kakashi had the foresight to poof out of existence, seeking safety in his cold, lonely apartment. It was only then did he finally remember why he went back, wanting to discuss Naruto with Rin. Oh well.

Meanwhile, Rin was huffing at her own apartment, plopping down in the spot that he had vacated moments before.

The nerve of the man.

A/N: Hi again. :)

I'm updating early this week, so you'll get two chapters instead of one this week! It's a combination of me being excited to share this particular chapter with you all (well the second half since the first part is just doom and gloom), plus I got some writing done this weekend. I hope you enjoyed this little special moment.

I know some of you are huge advocates for Rin or Kakashi adopting Naruto, but I don't see that happening, not while they are both in the Anbu and dealing with their own problems. Doesn't mean they can't be around tho :)

Next chapter will be called Emotionally Stunted which will feature our favorite emotionally stunted ninja :P

Thanks for reading! Until next time!

-MM