Naruto: Internal Affairs
Chapter: 2
The next day Naruto was running from some Chunin, some of which were covered in orange paint. He turned a corner and the Chunin all past him by. Sighing a breath of relief, he walked out of the alley way feeling quite smug about himself when he almost bumped into a Jonin he had never seen before. This man had weirdly spiky silver hair, a face mask that covered his nose and mouth and his headband covered his left eye. He was about to sneak off thinking this Jonin was after him for one of his hilarious pranks, when he turned around and said calmly, "Oh, hey Naruto. I've been looking for you."
Now, this was very confusing for Naruto for many reasons. The first was, 'How does this man know my name?' The second was, 'Why has he been looking for me?' And the final one was, 'Who is this guy?' All these thoughts were going through his head when the man started talking to him, "I'm sure you have a lot of questions about me but first, we need to report to the Hokage. Don't worry, this isn't about anything you did."
At this Naruto got a bit relieved. He thought, 'Thank Kami, I'm not in trouble.' On the way there they both had completely different thoughts. Naruto was thinking, 'This guy, he's not like the others. He… he doesn't seem to hate me. He treats me like everyone else.' Kakashi on the other hand was thinking, 'Hokage-Sama was right, Naruto is in danger.' He could sense the ninja, that he could only assume was Root, following them to the Hokage Tower.
Naruto and Kakashi had made it to the office door without incident other than the receptionist being quite cold towards Naruto and Kakashi being just as cold in return. Kakashi knocked on the door and they both heard the Hokage say "Enter!" After seeing them Hiruzen got a kind smile on his face and said, "Ah, I've been waiting for you two."
Naruto beamed at seeing the Hokage and said loudly, "Hey old man! How'ya been?!" The Hokage took a long drag of his pipe and said, "I've been fine Naruto. Now let's get to business, shall we? Sit down and we'll talk." As they sat down, Hiruzen spoke to them again. "So, Kakashi, I think you should introduce yourself to young Naruto here." Kakashi nodded and looked at Naruto and said "So Naruto, I'm Kakashi. I'll be your Jonin Sensei and…" He looked at him with a smile in his eyes and said, "I'm adopting you."
Naruto, even though no one realized it yet, acted more like Minato than he did Kushina. As such, he was much more intelligent than he let on. From a very early age, he noticed he wasn't treated like the other children his age. The adults didn't pay much attention to him. They also did the absolute bare minimum to teach him the basics in school. Not only that but whenever he was bullied and he told the adults, none of them wanted to help him. So, he had just resigned himself to a life of unfair loneliness. Never knowing what having a family was like. Then he heard from a man, that not only seemed to not hate him but also seemed to like him, was adopting him he had felt everything go numb and his mind stopped working for a full minute.
Then the information sank in, and he felt, honestly, the happiest he had ever felt in his life. He broke out into an infectious smile, and he yelled out, "You're really adopting me!?" Neither had been surprised by this outburst and Kakashi smiled under his mask. He responded to Naruto coolly but also happily, "Yup, now all we have to do is go pack your things and we'll move you in to my house."
As soon as he finished that sentence, he was glomped by a crying Naruto. Kakashi wasn't used to this, but he was a father figure now and he had to comfort the boy he was looking after. He slowly patted the boy's back and returned the hug. After a while Kakashi cleared his throat, getting the attention of Naruto. Naruto looked up at him with a teary face and said "Sorry" quickly before backing off.
The Hokage chuckled at the two before signing off the papers and sending them off. After they left, Naruto led Kakashi to where he lived, and they spent the day packing his stuff and talking about each other trying to get to know one another.
As they were moving Naruto out and getting him situated, Kakashi felt several people following them. One was really weak, only a little stronger than Naruto and not hidden very well. 'Could be that little Hyuuga girl that has a crush on him. How adorable.' Two others were obviously ANBU, so that was fine. What worried him were the other three that weren't ANBU. The Hokage had warned him of ROOT, and how they were interested in Naruto. Which was bad because it meant that Danzo wanted him in their ranks. 'Not if I have anything to say about it.'
By the time they were finished packing and were all moved in they had decided to relax by going to Ichiraku's. When they got there Naruto asked Kakashi something important, "Hey Kakashi. You're a ninja, right?" Kakashi had an idea as to where this was going. "Yeah, I'm an Elite Jonin so I'm pretty strong." Naruto got excited at this, "Could you train me then!?"
Kakashi saw this coming a mile away, "Sure, but it won't be easy." Naruto yelled out a "Yeah, I'm one step closer to being Hokage, Dattebayo!" And with that, they finished their meal, paid for it and left. Kakashi making sure Naruto was asleep, decided to sleep with one eye open, just in case ROOT decided to try something. Yup, tomorrow they would start his training and things would get interesting.