Chapter Three: I Would Burn the World

When Naruto had been first marked, he hadn't known what it meant. He hadn't known that he would suddenly gain a friend, a family, a home. He hadn't known that he would be cared for like a son, like a brother, like someone who mattered.

When Haji had taken him to their home, he was scared. He had heard rumors about the Dragon family, how anyone who entered their district never came back out, and he'd thought that the minute he had crossed that red line on the road, he would be devoured and never seen again. But instead of being devoured, he was embraced with kindness and love. And that scared him even more, because no one had ever showed him such kindness before, not even the Old Man Hokage. He treated him nicely, but he never went out of his way to make him feel loved.

And he wondered if the Old Man had ever even cared about him before.


Haji was his father.

Sakura was his sister and best friend.

Mebuki, the current Empress, was his mother.

Even the Dowager Empress, Niko Haruno, was his benevolent grandmother.

And all the other members of the clan, every single one, they were his family, too.

Naruto loved his new family, he loved them with all his heart, and he would do anything to protect them, because he knew that they would do the same. He was one of them now, and they protected their own, especially the young, which meant if any of the other villagers tried to hurt him, they would fill the air with their ashes. And Naruto would do the same.

He would burn the world for them.


Niko-obaasan, whenever she could visit them, would pinch their cheeks and call them her little treasures. Her eyes, so bright and jew-like, would look at him with a certain fondness in them that would make his heart hurt. It was the kind of fondness that only a grandmother could hold when they looked at their grandchildren. The first time she had looked at him like that, he had started to cry. He couldn't stop himself, the tears just kept coming and his vision blurred from them. Niko-obaasan started to blur around her edges, making her appear even softer than she already was. He didn't think he had deserved such love from her, when she barely even knew him. He thought that she would stop loving him when she saw how quickly he cried, that she would curl her lips up at him in disgust and have him taken away. But no, instead she had shooed everyone out of the room and pulled him into her lap. She had rubbed soothing circles on his back and sang him a lullaby from her childhood. She had let him cry, waiting patiently as she sang. When Naruto cried himself out, he snuggled closer to her chest and listened to her heart beat. It grounded him, hearing that thump, thump, thump inside her chest while she continued to sing.

After she'd finished, she had asked him what troubled him so. So he told her; told her of how he was scared that this was all a dream, that he would wake up and find himself back in his rundown apartment, alone and tired. He told her of how he thought she would hate him, that they would all hate him, because why not? That's what all the other villagers did, and he hadn't done anything to deserve that animosity!

Niko-obaasan had simply smiled at him, pinched his cheek again, and told him that he would never experience that hatred again, that he would never be alone again, and that he would always be loved by her, and by the clan.

That was when Naruto had decided he would do everything in his power to protect this old woman who cherished him so, and kill all who went against her.


It was the day after his marking that he met Mebuki, Sakura's mother and the Dragon Empress. To say he had been starstruck would've been understatement. She had arrived in the morning, smoke and ash falling in her wake (he later learned that when Sakura was ready to take her place, she, too, would leave trails like that) and her terrifying guards close behind. Naruto had hidden behind Haji's leg; their masks reminded him of the yokai who stole children when they were bad. They wore all black, their masks polished silver. They were so different from the Anbu that would watch him when he played.

Haji introduced him by simply stepping aside and nudging him forward. Naruto had been nervous and bowed too low, too fast, and fell forward. He whimpered in fear, and stayed there, shivering in anticipation of the cold remarks.

Mebuki, instead, had knelt down and picked him up, brushing the dirt off his shirt and face before smiling at him.

"Welcome, Naruto, to my family. Please take care of my dear daughter." Her smile had blinded him, just like Sakura's had, and he couldn't help but smile back. Her blond, nearly white hair, was elegantly styled on top of her head, making her look like a goddess.

After that day, Mebuki had raised hell with the Hokage and his Elders, demanding they give him to her, since they had been nothing but be cruel to him since his birth. They had tried to refuse, only to be reminded that everyone bowed to the Dragon Empress or suffered her wrath. Not even Danzo was willing to risk her ire, as she could easily have the village reduced to scorched earth with nothing but ashes floating in the wind to remind the other villages of her absolute power. Hokage-sama reluctantly allowed her to adopt him, thinking he would become a ward to them. None of them had expected her to make him her son; he was practically a noble overnight.

Her fierceness and devotion to him made him promise to protect her smile, as it was the only thing he treasured more than Sakura.


Haji was perhaps his fiercest protector, second only to Sakura, of course. He followed him everywhere, even when Sakura was back home learning the courts and how to navigate them.

He would watch over him as he played, his dragon eyes following his every movement. Nothing went unnoticed, everything was calculated and watched closely.

Villagers and shinobi alike kept their distance and kept their gazes down, none daring to challenge the god-like man. He was the only one outside of the sacred line who could summon a dragon, and he would not hestitate to burn his enemies to the ground if they so much as looked at Naruto wrong. He may not have the same level of attachment to him as his little dragon did, but that didn't stop him from loving him just as much. Naruto was the first marked for Sakura, something that Haji approved of and cherished.

So when Naruto was approached by a drunkard on their way home, Haji had felt fire flood his veins. He stalked over to the man and stood behind Naruto, making sure no one else would dare approach. The drunkard hadn't even noticed. His mind was far too gone to realize the danger he was in.

"You're tha lil' demon brat, ain't cha, boy?" His words slurred together, his hot breath fanning over Naruto's face, smelling like stale ale. Naruto chose to say nothing, wanting to bow his head in shame, but the presence of Haji behind him gave him a surge of confidence. "Heard ya got marked by tha lil' pink hair'd bitch, huh?" Haji's blood boiled, no one talked about his little one like that.

"Her name's Sakura-chan," Naruto spat out, his own anger rising. He clenched his fists, his nails biting through his skin. He felt the pain and grasped onto it, holding it close.

"Don't care, she's a bitch, jus' lik' 'er motha," the drunkard grinned, it was ugly and dark and spoke of something awful. "Bet tha motha would squeal lik' a pig, though."

"Don't you dare talk about them like that." Naruto growled, his anger spilling over the edges. There was a dark voice in the back of his mind, whispering to him, telling him to do horrible things to the man, and he wanted to. He wanted to do everything that voice told him to do, he wanted to make that man hurt. He wanted to protect his family.

"I bet chu she would squeal if som'un threw 'er down an' gave 'er a good fuck-" Before the man could finish his sentence, Haji had reached forward and grabbed his throat. The man gurgled and struggled to remove his hand, but Haji had reached his limit. He felt the man's erratic heartbeat underneath his palm, and he wanted to do nothing more than feel it stop. So he did just that.

With a quick twist of his wrist, a sickening snap was heard before the man was dropped. Naruto flinched at the sound of a body being dropped, but he didn't do anything else. He just stood there and stared, wondering if he could ever do that one day; just kill a man without a second thought because he spoke of doing terrible things to his family. He looked up at Haji and saw him glare at the body, wishing it to go up in flames.

"What he said wasn't right," Naruto said softly, drawing Haji out of his mind. Haji blinked once, twice, before looking down at the young one. He sighed before kneeling down so he could scoop Naruto up into his arms.

"No, my little warrior, and I'm sorry you had to hear him speak such terrible things." Haji felt a presence stare up at him, but he ignored them. They would make the body disappear before it could be found by someone, disposing of it without a care. Like the man never even existed.

"He wasn't a good man, was he?"

"No, he wasn't."

"Is that why you killed him?"

"No, Naru-kun, I killed him because he insulted the Empress. He was making a threat to do something horrible to her, and I couldn't let him finish, not with you listening."

"Oh," Naruto rested his head against Haji's shoulder while the man walked away, heading back home where Sakura would be waiting to practice katas with him and tell him how boring the courts sounded. He wondered if he should tell her what happened, then he began to wonder if she would be angry at Haji for killing him, or at him for telling her. "Haji?"

"Yes?"

"When that man was speaking...when he was saying those mean things about Sakura...I felt really angry...and I wanted to do really bad things to him...like really, really bad things," he trailed off, not sure if he should continue. Luckily for him, he didn't have to, as Haji knew exactly what he was thinking.

"And you want to know if that makes you a bad person?" Naruto nodded his head, "No, it doesn't. It makes you human, just like me, and just like him. Naruto, that anger you felt, you felt it because you care about Sakura as a friend and as a sister. But you also felt it because you are her marked one."

"Wha'd'ya mean?"

"You know Sakura would do anything to protect you, and you've seen how she's reacted to someone hurting you. The anger, that desire to hurt those who hurt your precious people, that need to do horrible things out of fear; all of those feelings are what makes Sakura a dragon, and when those feelings are fierce, they create the mark on that person. You become part of her hoard, so to speak, and dragons will always protect their hoards. No matter what, and no matter who stands in their way." Haji crossed over the red line in the road, the line that marked their territory and home, "Those same feelings that she feels, you too shall feel. Every last one, you will feel all of them. Whenever someone threatens her, you will want to do everything in your power to destroy them. You will want to light the world aflame." Haji stopped walking and looked at the little boy he cradled in his arm, how small and soft he looked when compared to him. He knew in his heart that he would protect Naruto like his own flesh and blood, like he was his son. "Do you understand, my little warrior?"

Naruto nodded and smiled brightly, reminding Haji of the sun on a clear summer's day. There was so much hope and happiness in that one smile, that Haji solidified his previous thought.

Whether blood or not, Naruto was his son.

And he vowed to burn the world to smoke ashes if he was ever threatened.


AN: Bada bing, bada boom. What cha think?