Chapter One

Arrival

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Light.

Bright light and concerned voices.

Konohamaru inhaled deeply, then opened his eyes. For a few moments, his eyes refused to focus, then the moving shapes slowly resolved themselves into a heartbreakingly familiar figure.

His mother, Eri.

Konohamaru grinned. It had worked! He was back, everything could be fixed!

"You see, nothing wrong, dad. Probably just a nightmare. Now, I think it's time to change his nappy."

Konohamaru froze.

His nappy?

How far back had he gone?

Kami, this was going to be embarrasing!

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Konohamaru lay in his bed, considering things as much as he could. He needed to somehow meet Naruto and change things enough that Naruto would learn more of what he really needed. From the long discussions he had had with Boss, he had learned that Naruto had suffered from poor chakra control because no-one had actually taught him the exercises he truly needed, the tree-walking and the water-walking. And even after he had learned the Kage Bunshin, it had been years before he had been informed of the learning portion of the jutsu, something that he had taken great pains to inform Konohamaru about when the younger boy had learned the technique.

There was no helping it. He needed to find Naruto and get him help.

But how? And who?

Ebisu was the obvious choice, but it had been several years after they had first encountered each other that the black-clad Jonin (if he was one yet) had finally admitted that his early appraisal of Naruto had been wrong. Hatake Kakashi was out, he may have been a great ANBU and fighter, but his teaching skills were not appropriate to the circumstances. In addition, he was chronically late, something that Konohamaru did not want Naruto to pick up.

Maito Gai… Konohamaru shuddered at the thought of Naruto in green spandex. He had seen it once, as the result of a bet, and it had just been… wrong. Just… wrong.

Uncle Asuma was currently in the Daimyo's court, so he was out.

That left Yuuhi Kurenai, who probably wasn't a Jonin yet. Team 8 had been her first team, so she was still a chunin.

Konohamaru sighed. This was going to be even harder than he had thought.

But he would see it through. He had given his word, and he never went back on his word.

It was his nindo, his ninja way, as taught to him by Naruto.

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Konohamaru scampered down the hallway on all fours, mentally cursing his underdeveloped body. As soon as he could, he was going to learn to run properly again, dammit! And for more than a half-dozen steps at a time!

His thoughts came to a sudden halt as he heard a familiar name.

"…so why didn't you tell me the orphanage had thrown you out?"

Orphanage? Naruto! Boss!

Konohamaru scrambled through the door as fast as he could and paused, looking at the familiar blond-haired figure. He looked just like the picture of him and jiji, the picture taken on the day that Naruto had been placed into the fourth orphanage, about a year before he enrolled in the academy.

Well, if he had anything to do with it, that would change.

Before Jiji could get up from his armchair, Konohamaru stumbled across to Naruto and grabbed onto his legs, pulling himself upright and looking up at him. After a pause that seemed to last an eternity, Naruto reached down and pulled him up onto the sofa. Unwilling to lose momentum, Konohamaru promptly dived onto his future Hokage and embraced him as tightly as he could.

The room went silent for a moment, then Hiruzen chuckled.

"Well, it would seem that my grandson has taken quite a liking to you, Naruto."

"Nii-san!"

A shocked silence echoed through the room, then Hiruzen coughed to hide his chuckle. "Well, this is… unexpected. Naruto, what have you done to my grandson?"

"I… I haven't done anything!" Naruto protested and Konohamaru grinned without relaxing his grip.

"Konohamaru!"

"It's alright, Eri." Hiruzen laughed. "I think he just made a new friend."

Konohamaru's grin widened. Now he could see Naruto more and… oh hell. How could he train his boss without it looking suspicious?

This was going to be so troublesome.

Troublesome? Had he really just used the word troublesome?

Maybe he'd spent too much time around Shikamaru before he had been sent back.

Well, he had an opportunity to get to know Boss again, and he damned-well wasn't going to waste it.

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Konohamaru curled up in Naruto's lap, smiling. He'd managed to get Naruto to spend the whole day with him, admittedly by refusing to let go and by using the puppy dog eyes no jutsu whenever Eri or Yahiko had said something about seperating them, and his parents had given in.

Naruto was moving in!

Yahiko had already found out that the orphanages hadn't bothered to teach Naruto to read and had in fact tried to sabotage his early learning, and the scholar in him was beyond furious. When he had thought no-one was paying attention, Yahiko had nipped out and returned with a load of books to help teach Naruto what he needed to know. Of course, he had claimed they were meant for Konohamaru as he grew older, but that until then Naruto was allowed to borrow them as needed.

Jiji had managed not to laugh, but the twinkle in his eyes had been obvious.

Eri herself had been unconvinced until Konohamaru had accidently spilled some food onto Naruto, making him take of his t-shirt so that it could be wiped clean. The sight of Naruto's scrawny, underfed body with its obvious ribs had appealed to all the motherly instincts that Eri possessed, and her stance had done a complete turnaround from "are you sure he isn't dangerous?" to "no-one does that to a child while I'm around!"

A gentle pair of hands picked Konohamaru up and he looked into his mother's face as she smiled at him.

"Come on, Ko." She said quietly. "Time for bed, Naruto'll still be here in the morning for you. I promise."

Konohamaru smiled and hugged her as she carried him out of the room. As they left, his smile widened as he watched his dad gently pick up Naruto, making sure not to wake him, and move towards the guest bedrooms.

Sometimes, it seemed that Kami smiled on him.

He would take all the help he could get.

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Naruto woke up in confusion.

He was lying on something soft. Not just a normal mattress like he normally got, one with lumps and sharp springs poking through as well as suspicious smells, but a soft, padded one which felt like he was floating on a cloud.

Several blankets kept him warm. Again, they were smooth and soft, not stained, holed and ragged like he was used to.

And no-one was shouting at him, or hitting him.

"Nii-san!"

A weight descended on Naruto's stomach and then a small pair of arms wrapped around his neck.

"Glrk?"

"Mornin' nii-san!"

Naruto blinked and looked down at the face grinning at him. He recognised that face, it was… Kono… Konohamaru? Yep, that was it. Looking round, he felt his confusion deepen, then what happened the previous day flooded back.

He owed Konohamaru, the little kid had somehow made Jiji take him in rather than move him to another Kami-damned orphanage to be ignored and abandoned.

"Okay, Ko." Naruto said, inadvertently solidifying his position as Konohamaru's number-one precious person, "I'm getting up. But you'll need to get off me first."

After a moment, Konohamaru released his grip and slid back down to the floor. Naruto got out of his bed and walked over to where a pile of clothing had been left. Picking up the topmost item, he donned the kimono and held out his hand for Konohamaru to take.

"Maybe you can show me where we get food, I'm hungry."

Konohamaru grabbed Naruto's hand, grinning widely.

Things were going well.

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"Father, we need to talk."

Hiruzen looked up at his son, one eyebrow raised.

"It's Naruto… Eri and I have been talking, we've seen how Konohamaru acts around him over the last few weeks and vice versa… we'd like to adopt Naruto if we can."

Hiruzen sighed. "I considered that myself, but… there are reasons that he cannot be adopted. Political reasons. Having him living in my house is going to cause real problems by itself when it is revealed to the council."

Yahiko frowned. "Is it because he's the son of Kushina and Minato?"

"How did you know that!?"

Yahiko smirked slightly at his father's reaction. "I was friends to both of them. Naruto has her chin and personality, as well as her clan name. In looks, though, he looks just like a young Minato if you ignore the whiskers. Anyone who knew Minato would see it. And what's with the rumours of him being a demon?"

Hiruzen sagged back into his chair.

"What do you know about Jinchuuriki?"

Yahiko looked thoughtful. "He holds the Kyuubi, like Mito did?"

Hiruzen nodded, reminded again that Yahiko was not the head of the archives just because of his family connections. "Yes. And Kushina."

"I always suspected that, given when she arrived in Konoha." Yahiko nodded. "So, Naruto's the third Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. I see."

For several moments, both men sat in silence, then Yahiko snorted.

"What?"

"Konohamaru needs someone to keep him out of mischief, and Naruto needs some serious remedial education and training. I think we should… employ… Naruto. We have that small guest-house at the bottom of the garden that we never got round to fixing up or tearing down. Take a few pictures of it now, use a genin team to repair it and Naruto gets a place to live, even if he's going to spend most of his time with us. A growing boy needs some room and occasional privacy, after all. It's not like the Namikaze mansion is habitable, after all."

Hiruzen nodded. The house had been stepped on by the Kyuubi on the day of Naruto's birth. While the vault was still intact, it was bloodseal-locked and only Hiruzen and a few select others even knew of that it still existed.

When Naruto reached Chunin, he'd take him there to let him reclaim his heritage.

"Why the pictures?"

"For the council." Yahiko explained. "Show them the pictures of the barely-livable building and they'll think nothing of letting Naruto stay there. And since you are Hokage, you can choose teams who don't have any connection to the Council to do some fixing up, thus the council won't know that we're helping Naruto rather than abandoning him like they want us to."

Hiruzen nodded. His son was making perfect sense.

"That… could work." Hiruzen mused. "At least it keeps him out of the orphanages and the council's hands. And if we're showing them the photos… we don't need to tell them where the building actually is."

Yahiko smirked.

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Konohamaru was exhausted.

Admittedly, most of the day had once again gone well.

So well, in fact, that he was starting to get nervous about what was lying in wait in the future.

In the morning, Naruto and Yahiko had taken him to the daycare center where Moegi and Udon were, before they had gone off to buy some things that Naruto needed for his new house. Moegi had welcomed him with a hug, like always, but Udon… Udon had looked at him curiously and mentioned that he seemed different.

Fortunately, Konohamaru had been able to divert him with the explanation that he'd got a new big brother who was helping to look after him.

Damn, Udon was incredibly observant.

After a Ramen lunch at Ichiraku's. Yahiko had introduced them to the newly-promoted Tobesku Jonin Ebisu, then had proceeded to demonstrate that even though he had chosen not to become a nnja, he still had the skills needed. Ebisu had been very apologetic about sneering at Naruto… after finally regaining consciousness and giving Eri (and her frying pan) a very wary look.

Yahiku had then started Naruto's chakra-exercise training himself, muttering about finding another person to help who wasn't an idiot. Konohamaru had joined in on some of the more physical-oriented exercises. His chakra wasn't yet at the level that would allow him to start using it, but learning the exercises in advance had seemed like a good idea.

And besides, by joining in, he could encourage Naruto to push himself further.