It had been almost two months since Konoha gained another Uzumaki, and for the first time since they'd shown up, Naruto was heading home alone. Iruka hadn't been keeping as close a tab on them this past weekend but was sure he'd have heard if they went missing. Deciding to stick his nose right into this, he went after Naruto.

"Hey wait up" to not seem like a weirdo, Iruka decided to call out to him. "Shouldn't you be waiting for your mom instead of heading off alone?"

"Yeah I'm heading to visit mom and then going home" this meant Rōzu was still around somewhere.

"Well I'll just come with you to make sure you stay out of trouble" he hoped this sounded believable enough.

"Why does everyone think I'll go five minutes unsupervised and cause mayhem?"

"Is that a paint can in your bag?"

"Just because you're right to think that doesn't mean it's not rude" he handed the can over.

"And the other one."

With an annoyed sigh Naruto pulled out a spray paint can as well. Iruka left them by the academy to put away later. With his mischief halted Naruto led Iruka off. It took him a good while to realize they weren't headed to the Hokage tower.

"Where is your mom exactly Naruto?" Iruka had admittedly made an ass of himself.

"Hospital."

"For work?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, alright" he couldn't think of a reason the Hokage's secretary would be at the hospital for work but figured Rōzu could answer that.

With a few dismissive looks and waves in directions from the staff at the front desk they ended up on the second floor. As they entered the recovery wing Iruka realized he may have the wrong understanding as to why they were here.

"How am I supposed to recover" the voice of Rōzu coming out of a room ahead of them got his attention. "Without good day time television? Seriously, if I wanted to watch broadcast tv I'd have gone home!"

"Mom!" Naruto ran into the room.

"Naruto!" Iruka watched them pull him into a half hug from the bed, their other arm wrapped up in a cast. "And you have a chaperone, you weren't trying to pull some prank while I was in here were you?"

"I would do no such thing."

"He had two cans of paint on him" Iruka tried to play it cool and hide how unexpected this was.

"Narc" they got a laugh from Naruto. "But this violates the one prank a month rule young man."

"I didn't even get to do it! That's not fair!"

"Wait what was the first prank?" he did not like being unaware of prank related activity.

"Ok it can slide since he didn't notice it."

"Yes!"

Iruka made a mental note to check any and everything for this prank, if it went under his radar he was getting slow.

"Alright if you two can grab a doctor I can get dressed and we can head home" Rōzu stood up from the bed and stretched their good arm.

"Is that a good idea?"

"Yeah I got my stitches and my cast, just gotta take it easy while I heal."

"How did you end up here exactly?"

"Later, get outta here while I change already" they waved him off and grabbed some clothes from a counter.

"Sure" not sure what to do he took Naruto and left. "Any idea where the doctor is?"

"No but this usually works" he headed to the closest person. "Hey where's a doctor?"

"Well I could've done that" Iruka followed him over.

"But you didn't."

"Shut up."

The nurse who they'd wandered over to and just ignored after asking a question watched them bicker for a few seconds before sneaking off.

"Well now that nurse is gone" Naruto looked around for someone else before walking off. "Hey you!"

"Huh?" some woman in a lab coat looked over as she shut a door.

"You a doctor?"

"I am yes."

"Great, come with us."

"Uh" she looked over at Iruka confused.

"His mom needs a doctor to get released, could you help us real quick?'

"Oh sure yea" she followed them back to Rōzu's room. "Doctor coming in."

The two waited outside the room overhearing some muffled conversation. After a few moments the doctor came back out followed by Rōzu. The doctor was now holding a clipboard and looking over some papers on it.

"So yeah just bring this form to the front desk" she pulled one free. "And you'll be on your way."

"Great" they grabbed it with their good hand. "Thanks doc."

"Mhm" she wandered off in a way that made Iruka unsure of what she actually did in the hospital.

Another thirty minutes of hospital bureaucracy later and the three of them were walking out of the hospital. As far as Iruka could tell they only seemed to have the injured arm; given their overall aloof demeanor about the whole thing he assumed it was caused by something mundane.

"Alright since I don't want to cook we can grab something on the way" Rōzu pulled their wallet out and handed it to Naruto. "You can pick."

"Oh decisions decisions" Naruto hesitated for a single moment before making a b-line towards Ichiraku.

"Yeah that figures, you have to get your own today" they followed after Naruto.

Still curious about what happened, Iruka did go after the two of them. Ordering his own bowl to go he helped carry theirs so Naruto could get the keys. He watched Rōzu struggle with the togo bowl, he'd never noticed before but they must have been right handed.

"Do you ne-"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yar" they were now also using their mouth to open the bowl with moderate success.

"Right" he tried not to laugh as they ended up splashing the ramen onto themself after opening it.

"Dammit" they frowned at the now ruined shirt. "No one eat my food while I get a new shirt on."

Iruka managed to eat his own bowl and keep Naruto off of theirs. The occasional banging and yelled half swear from the other room did get some laughs from him.

"Ok" Rōzu came back out, finally having put on a tank top. "Naruto later we will be cutting the sleeve off some of my shirts."

"Is that a good idea mom?"

"No but I can't fit this stupid cast through most of the sleeves so were doing it."

Iruka was doing his best to look discreetly, now that more of their chest was revealed he could see scars covering it. Most of them were too faded to be from this weekend, he'd have to try and ask about them some other time. His thinking was interrupted by Naruto poking a chopstick into his ear.

"What the hell!" he swatted it away annoyed.

"Our record is one chopstick now" Naruto wrote that down.

"Well now that you're done zoning out" Rōzu started to eat their food. "I can fill you in on what happened."

"Wow no hoops to jump through?"

"I can add hoops if you'd like."

"No, a normal explanation would be nice."

"Got in a fight with some drunk guy, he smashed a bottle on my head and I landed on my arm when I fell."

"What?"

"What?"

"That's it?" Iruka had expected something a little less, well, believable.

"Yea? Unless you know something I don't about how I broke my arm?"

"I just kind of expected something more out of the ordinary I guess?"

"Can I tell my version of it?" Naruto was raising his hand.

"Does your version still include a dragon?"

"Yep."

"No you cannot."

"Fine" Naruto did an exaggerated pout and put his hand down.

"Well, do you know who it was?" Iruka realized he probably should be more worried about some violent drunk in the village. "So you can press charges?"

"Uh nope, just some random dude" the tone their voice took let him know there was more to it. "Gave his description to those ninja police or whatever and they haven't gotten back about it. Probably some visitor or something who left already."

"Uh huh" he would have to press them more about this too.

"Oh gosh I just remembered" they got up and headed to the door. "I had to get some stuff for work, Iruka you wanna give me a hand?"

"I can help out!" Naruto ran over to get his shoes.

"Sorry kiddo" Rōzu slid his shoes away. "But I can only assume you have homework to do. Right Mr. Teacher?"

This set off an alarm for Iruka. Ever since he'd met Rōzu they always seemed to want to keep Naruto nearby.

"Yeah you've got that assignment for tomorrow Naruto" he wasn't sure what they wanted, but knew they clearly wanted to be alone with him.

"What but, can't I get an extension since my mom was in the hospital?"

"It was due on Friday and you said you'd get it done by today, so if you can have by tomorrow that'll be within two extensions."

"Crap" Naruto ran over to his bag and started pulling out some papers.

"I'll give you a hand with it once I'm back" they put on some sandals and motioned for Iruka.

"Alright just don't take too long!" he had dumped the bag over and was now looking in the pile he'd made.

Once the door was shut Rōzu led him to the building stairwell instead of to the exit. He made sure to keep his guard up even if they were down an arm.

"Alright, so my question first" they leaned against the door to keep it shut. "Do you know anything about Naruto's family?"

"Uh" he did not expect a question like that. "No I can't say I do why?"

"Alright what I'm about to tell you, stays in the stairwell got it?"

This only put him on more of an edge, but he nodded.

"So that guy the police are looking for, hopefully they don't find him. He is currently buried in the woods I think."

"I'm sorry, you think?"

"Well I was little out of it at that point and was kind of just following this random guy's lead. In case you're wondering, digging a hole with a broken arm is a really bad idea."

"So this guy broke your arm, and then you killed him?" Iruka was a little confused by this series of events.

"No, I didn't" they sighed and looked at him for a few moments before continuing. "Naruto did."

"What?" he couldn't believe that. "You expect me to believe that Naruto would do something like that? Hell that he even could do something like that?"

"No I really don't because I'm still not sure I do, but he did. It was definitely not normal, he was glowing like a reddish orange."

With that Iruka's heart sank. He knew exactly what that meant.

"What happened after that."

"He attacked the guy, he looked like some kind of feral animal. By the time I could get back up and pull him back the guy's head was already cracked open."

"Then what."

"Well the glowing stopped, which was nice. I turned him away from the body and panicked for a good long minute. Then that other guy showed up. Well maybe he's some kid I dunno?"

"What'd he look like?"

"Black hair, red eyes, kind of a bad vibe if I'm honest."

"Ok definitely a Uchiha, he helped you hide the body?"

"Yeah he did something to make Naruto pass out and forget what happened, or I guess distorted his memory of it. Then he helped me clean up the scene and get rid of the body."

"Now, that has its own very bad implications if I'm honest, but do you know why he helped you?"

"He really didn't say? But he also must've seen the glowing and didn't ask about that so, I guess he knows stuff I don't."

"Well if you don't know a lot that's pretty easy" Iruka would have to figure out which Uchiha this was.

"Do you have any idea what the hell is going on with my son?" their tone shifted slightly, he could tell they were afraid.

Iruka paused. He was pretty sure that it was related to the Nine-tailed fox, but if they didn't already know about that should he tell them? How would they react to that, would it change how they treated Naruto? He knew he had to say something.

"No" he made a choice. "I really don't know much about his birth family, but it must be related to them."

"Great. Guess I'll add this to my list of questions that don't have answers."

"This is coming from you?" he tried to lighten the mood a little.

"Listen, I need you to swear to me that this stays a secret" the mood was evidently not lightened.

"I can't d-"

"Iruka, I will protect him" they locked eyes with him, and he could see the fear in theirs. "If this gets out, his life is going to end, and I will not allow that to happen. So I need you to keep this a secret, for me and for Naruto."

"If I do this very illegal thing for you, you have to give me answers as well."

"Fine" they held their good hand out to him.

He shook it. This was by no means how he wanted to get more information out of them, but if Naruto was using the powers of the nine-tails he couldn't let an unknown risk be his parent. Being a ninja of Konoha meant doing things to keep the village safe, even if it meant bending his own morals along the way.