It was close to 5:40 pm when the evening soured.

Satoshi took a routine visit to the Ichiraku Ramen Stand for a small bowl of the monthly special. While eating, he'd talk to the owner's daughter and listen to her stories about the wild customers who came to the stand before he did. After finishing, paying and saying good-bye to Ayame, Satoshi would go home to find Naruto in the middle of something crazy and ready to talk all about his day.

Except for today.

"Naruto always comes by this stand, he'd die without one bowl a day."

"I don't know what to say Satoshi. He may have been at a friend's house."

That was when Satoshi remembered where Naruto had been. He complemented Ayame's dress and started for the Uchiha Estate. Naruto should've been on his way home by now or he's still with Sasuke having forgotten the time. Either way, Satoshi was certain to meet the boy on the way to the Uchiha sector of the village or within it.

5:40 was when he found Naruto on the ground being stomped on by a member of the Konoha Military Police.

"Excuse me?" Satoshi asked in false obliviousness to what was happening, "Why are you stomping on that kid?"

"I'm teaching this kid a lesson!" The Officer, Inari Uchiha shouted before stomping on Naruto again, "What's it to you?"

"That kid is my ward." His back turned, the Uchiha couldn't react when Satoshi kicked his side and sent him flying onto the street, "Doesn't this count as police brutality? Which is strictly outlawed?"

"Who the hell do you think-" Inari recovered and stood up to face the boy who had just attacked him, "Satoshi. Oh...I know who you are...you're the one who adopted this demon? I thought you were smart."

"Smarter than you at least." Satoshi said to the shinobi ten years older than him, "I'm going to have to beat you."

"Guess you don't know who I am." Inari's eyes turned from brown to scarlet red while Satoshi gulped, "Didn't you know that every member of the Police Force is an Uchiha?"

"And you happen to belong to the 1/6th of members who can use a sharigan?" Satoshi asked as he charged and threw punch that Inari lazily blocked before delivering a series of blows into his right shoulder and chest. Pushed back, Satoshi spat out blood while chuckling about his oversight, "Lovely..."

"Isn't it?" The Officer said with a confident smirk as he charged and Satoshi swiped at his face. The Shadow clone vanished in an instant before Satoshi felt the Uchiha kick him in the right side of his back and send him flying into the ground, "You're not so tough."

"Satoshi!"

"Quiet brat!" Inari kicked Naruto onto the street and stomped his foot into the boy's stomach, "I'm not even finished with you yet."

"Satoshi." The Off-Duty ANBU felt himself boil as he heard Naruto protest and whimper in pain, "Focus your boiling emotion. Don't let it override your thought patterns or training. Focus."

"Don't turn around, his sharingan is active." Satoshi's mind reminded him as he stood on a knee, "First, vacuum palm to create a debris screen to obscure his vision." Focusing chakra into his palm, he slammed it into the ground. The chakra flowed through the surface of the soil and blew a cloud of loosened dirt into the air around him and Inari.

"As you approach target, use handful of dirt to negate occular capability and disrupt prepared counterattack." The Anbu turned, scooping dirt into his right hand and throwing it into the Uchiha's eyes before the Officer could strike with his kunai, "Now block blind jab and counter with cross to the right clavicle." With the left hand, he blocked a fist from Inari's right hand and used the right to deal a focused punch into the top of Inari's shoulder. The Uchiha cursed in pain and swung towards Satoshi's head with his free hand.

"Accept left hook into right side of cranium." Satoshi grit his teeth as a painful blow was dealt to the side of his head. His vision shook from the blow of the attack, but it left his target vulnerable. "Elbow to the Ulna." Bracing off of the man's shattered shoulder, Satoshi drove his elbow into the Uchiha's lower forearm.

"Left Full Force to the lower cervical vertebre and Right Full Force to the Larynx." His speed and reaction decreased by his painful injuries, Inari's pain was only increased from the calculated and parallel blows to his throat and the back of his lower neck, "High Kick Front Cranium." Satoshi hopped and brought his foot into the Uchiha's forehead and causing the man's body to point upwards.

"Sweeping Kick into right patella." Satoshi crouched and swept his leg into the bastard's right knee. Causing the Uchiha to lose balance and fall towards the right, "Let Gravity do the rest." Naruto grimaced as the man's head impacted the ground and sent blood out of his nose and mouth while Satoshi stood over him.

"Victory Achieved." Satoshi grimaced while rubbing the sore spot on his head, "In Summary...heavily irritated eyes; broken right clavicle resulting in temporary inability to use right arm; broken left ulna and shattered left radius rendering left forearm useless; fractured cervical vertebre; ruptured larynx; damaged right patella resulting in damaged right knee; and a cranium with cracks on it's front and it's right side. Ability to harness and utilize chakra: stunted and otherwise disrupted. Nervous system: pain threshold overwhelmed. Respiratory system: air intake clinched due to throat damage."

"Chances of survival: regretfully 88%. Time for physical recovery, minimum of two weeks. Psychological trauma, minimum of two months." Inari shook in pain and perhaps fear while Satoshi walked over to Naruto, "Ability and Willingness to antagonize and brutalize Naruto, neutralized."

"Whoa..." Naruto stood on his feet and lightly chuckled, "How does the dirt taste Officer?"

"You little brat..." Inari managed, "I'm a member of the Konoha Police..."

"Fuck the Police!" Naruto yelped when Satoshi slapped the top of the boy's head, "Ow! What was that for?"

"Watch your language, Naruto." Satoshi reprimanded his charge as the fallen Uchiha's comrades appeared, "Tekka? Koga? Yashino? Whose next officers? Or is the prowess of Uchiha exaggerated?"

"You've got some nerve..." Yashino growled with the reds of the sharingan activated in his eyes and his comrades, "You may have gotten Inabi with your tricks, but you'll never lay a scratch on us!"

"Do we have to fight? Inabi kind of had it coming by picking on some kid-"

"That child is a demon!" Tekka shouted angrily while Naruto stared back at him, "And don't think because of your family that we're afraid of you. Uchiha wiped your clan like it was sweat-"

"You were warned." Satoshi exhaled and closed his mouth as his mind continued to speak, "Disadvantages: Numerical, one chunin-level anbu against three chunin level officers with prior history of teamwork and combat excellence; Tactical, compounded by previous disadvantage is the fact that a frontal assault will be difficult against three trained sharingan users; and Collateral, various civilians are watching the scuffle and Naruto is closest by. The Uchiha have little regard for collateral damage and I do."

"Advantages." Koga Uchiha spat as he and his friends charged on the off-duty ANBU, "Trademark Uchiha Arrogance and posessing a shorter height than my targets."

"I can work with this." Satoshi fell into his standard melee stance and waited for the closest target to enter his threat range, "Target 2: Feint to pelvic and Shoryuken to the Mandible." Satoshi dashed forward, waiting until the last possible second to divert his fist away from Yashino's pelvis and thrust upwards into the Uchiha's open jaw.

"With Target 2 momentarily stunned, block low kick from Target 3 and catch fist from Target 4." Satoshi crouched down, performing a swift spin to see and intercept Koga's kick and Tekka's fist in each of his hands, "Accept Target 3's kick to Humerus and use momentum and adrenaline to apply pressure and twist Target 4's wrist." It took all of Satoshi's resolve to keep the pain of Koga's chakra enhanced kick into his right upper arm. Anger and Adrenaline caused his grip to tighten on Tekka's fist and he twisted with assistance from the momentum of Koga's strength. Tekka screamed as his wrist was twisted and dislocated from it's appropriate place in his arm.

"Twist jump behind Target 4, dislocating right arm entirely." Satoshi lifted himself up and over Tekka, twisting the man's arm along with him due to his unloosened grip. A sickening crunch was heard when Satoshi landed behind the Uchiha, "Palm to the Vertebral Column." Satoshi grit his teeth and brought up his right arm, driving his right palm into the man's spine in spite of the growing pain from his fractured upper arm.

"Throw Neutralized Target 4 at disoriented Target 2." Satoshi gripped the stricken Uchiha and threw him at the partially recovered Yashino. The Anbu turned to see Koga draw out a kunai and dash for Satoshi, "Swerve under kunai and spin kick into Target 3's Sternum." Satoshi entered a swift spin, ducking under the Uchiha's strike and delivering a momentum powered kick into the Uchiha's chest. Bringing the Uchiha to a halt as he grabbed his chest in pain.

"Vacuum Palm now." Satoshi pressed his palm into the ground, creating another screen of debris, "Deceive and further Discombobulate Target 2." Focusing to ignore the pain that burned throughout his right arm, Satoshi made a swift series of handsigns at the same time that at least one of the Uchiha did...

"Katon! Searing Ignition!" Yashino fired a stream of light air into the cloud, a column of ember flowed through the stream until it entered the cloud and set aflame the oxygen within the cloud, "Alright! Where are you!"

"Little bastard got away." Tekka noted while rubbing the right side of his head and saw himself emerge on the other side of where the cloud once stood, "Wait a minute...the bastard's trying to turn us against each other!"

"Wait Yashino! He's the imposter!" The Other Tekka shouted and pointed to Tekka while Tashiro dazzily looked from one to the other, "Use your sharingan! Damn it!"

"Okay..." The Uchiha's eyes went from one Tekka to the other. Neither moved as Yashino chuckled and turned towards his intended target, "Nice try! Katon! Feather Fireball!"

"Yashino wait!" Tekka watched as his imposter was surrounded by a small ring of feathers that stuck to his body. Just as the feathers ignited and caused the imposter to cry out in agony while being burnt alive, Yashino saw Tekka's eyes turn pale gold.

"Deception Complete." Satoshi dispelled the transformation jutsu and dashed for the enraged Yashino, "Poke left Occular Socket." Caught in the throes of anger and still slightly dizzy from ruptured jaw, he could not register his sharingan's warnings about the finger that violently jabbed his left eye.

"Full Force, Left Clavical Vertebre." Still reeling from the previous attack, Yashino was unable to defend against the powerful chop to the side of his neck, "Follow through and Knee to Pelvic Girdle." Applying pressure, Satoshi knocked Yashino off of his feet and positioned his knee so that the momentum of the Uchiha's fall would send his lower hip into a violent clash with his knee.

"Take Fireball to the left side." At his limit, Satoshi didn't even try to avoid the fireball that the remaining Uchiha had concocted and allowed it to sear into his left side, "Impact right scapula onto hard wooden wall." The force of the fireball knocked the Anbu into the wall of a nearby abandoned apartment, adding more pain to his right arm than was already there.

"Accept Heavy Kick to the Face." The singed Tekka cried out as he ran at Satoshi and the Anbu prepared to have a fractured face. To Satoshi's surprise and amazement, the kick was blocked by the very child that he'd started this mess to protect, "Naruto!"

"Leave Satoshi-niisan alone!" Naruto growled while holding Tekka's leg with both arms, arms that were covered with a red chakra that made Satoshi's eyes widen with concern for Naruto. Tekka tried to pry his leg from the boy, but cried out when Naruto tightened his hold and the man's leg bled as a result of their tug-o-war, "What's wrong? I thought you liked kicking demons around?"

"You're right!" Tekka used his other leg to kick Naruto's face, sending the boy landing in front of a recovering Satoshi. Naruto sat up and watched as Tekka charged with a kunai in hand. Before the blade could strike, Satoshi's arm impacted onto the man's face and sent him backwards onto the floor, "Damn it!"

"Naruto has bought a valuable opportunity, use it. Low Kick Right side of mandible and apply pressure to fractured tibia to break it." Satoshi stomped on the man's lower leg at where Naruto had previously held it, causing it to be disalligned from the rest of the leg as Satoshi swiftly kicked in Tekka's jaw, "Due to lethal threat to Naruto's well-being, deadly force is authorized. Remove Kunai from loosened right grip, due to previous injuries from B-level Fire ninjutsu, ability to protest will be...lessened." Tekka breathed heavily as Satoshi easily wrenched the Uchiha-made kunai from the downed shinobi.

"Mderate incision across the left radialis longus." The Uchiha weakly raised up his arm before Satoshi slashed open his left wrist, "Finishing strike, aim for the heart. No hesistation. No mercy."

"Block and parry kunai from emotionally compromised comrade." A katana blocked and then knocked the kunai from Satoshi's hand, "Then smile and jab his forehead." Itachi Uchiha smiled as he jabbed two fingers into Satoshi's forehead.

"Naruto, Satoshi." Itachi happily greeted in apparent unawareness of what had transpired barely a minute beforehand or that four of his clan members were lying on the ground in varying states of pain and injury.

Or he just didn't care.

"Situation defused." Satoshi closed his eyes and allowed his focus to decrease back to normal levels. With Itachi here, this meant that someone had called...the police, "Show off."

"Itachi-"

"Yashiro, be silent." Itachi coldly commanded as he walked into the middle of the four uchiha, "You and your squad have brought disgrace upon Konoha and our clan. You have willfully and knowingly committed multiple breeches in your code as military police officers and as shinobi of the Leaf."

"What took you so long?" Satoshi asked, "Another few minutes and I'd be done for if not for Naruto."

"Speaking of whom. This incident started when he kicked and antagonized you, no?" Itachi asked Naruto, who nodded as Satoshi pointed to the one of the alleys nearby. Itachi nodded and walked towards one of them, "Come out child. There is no need to hide now."

"I'm...sorry..." The young Hyuga heiress muttered as she walked into the open and ran towards Naruto when she saw the bruises on him, "Satoshi-san...Naruto-kun...are you alright?"

"We're fine, what about you?" Naruto asked the girl as Itachi looked on questionably. Seeing that Itachi and his guardian wanted answers, Naruto pointed to Inari "He kicked me and I would've let it go. But Hinata told him to stop and he grabbed her and called her a bitch. So I kicked him in his shin and then he kicked me again!"

"That explains the limp on his right side." Satoshi said to himself, "When I came to the scene, the boy was getting stomped and called a demon and then...a fight broke out."

"I see." Itachi stated, "Well then Inari, it appears as though you must be executed."

"What!" Inari cried out before painfully coughing, "Itachi...please...I wasn't going to kill the little brat! I just wanted to put him in his place-"

"You mean like I'm doing to you?" Itachi asked as he brought his sword over the officer's face, "Attacking and brutalizing a civilian unprovoked and without a warrant...Threatening the heiress of a shinobi clan...Defying the Sandaime's Decree...all of this warrants at least an expulsion of your shinobi rank and your expulsion from the military police."

"As accomplices to these actions and provoking a fight with a fellow shinobi where a civilian's life was threatened and causing much property damage." Itachi continued referring to the rest of the downed squad, "You risk the same penalties if not death itself."

"Wait!" A panicked Naruto shouted, "I know that they're mean...and ugly...but don't kill them! Please!"

"Are you sure Naruto?" Itachi asked without any expression on his face. Hinata was held back by Satoshi, who wanted to see if his ward would continue through with this act of mercy, "Sparing them won't change their minds about you. If I killed them, the Hokage will not hold it against you or Satoshi. I would face no repercussions for I was acting as I should."

"I don't want them to die!" Naruto shouted before looking down at the men whose very eyes spat into his face, "Next them that they try this...they'll wish that they were..."

"What's going on!" Naruto jumped as a dozen Shinobi, some chunin and others police force members appeared on the scene led by a man in his mid-thirties with a heavy face, "Itachi..."

"Father." Itachi greeted Fugaku Uchiha, "The situation is taken care of, could you take Yashiro and his unit into custody."

"It looks I should be taking those two instead." Fugaku noted, recognizing how the four Uchiha could not stand and that Satoshi and Naruto were battered but still mostly healthy, "Very well, take them into custody."

"Thank you for your assistance father." Itachi bowed reverently as the downed police squad was lifted from the ground and the platoon vanished before Naruto's eyes, "I must hurry, Sasuke is probably wondering where I am."

"Tell that teme that I still need help with the Uchiha stuff alright?"

"Of course." Itachi happily replied to Naruto, "In fact...would it be alright if Sasuke stayed over your house tonight?"

"Satoshi?"

"No problem," Satoshi replied while grabbing his right armpit, "Thanks Itachi."

"No need." The Uchiha said as his body fell into a flock of crows that flew into the air.

"Show off." Satoshi murmered and looked down at the amazed Naruto, "You've seen him do this before."

"It still looks cool..." Naruto admitted and remembered something, "Hey Hinata! We'll walk you home!"

"That...that won't be necessary-"

"Come on, your father is about to burn down the village to find you anyway." Satoshi chuckled as Hinata's face paled, "I kid! Your father isn't that irrational."

"Lady Hinata!" A Hyuga with light hair in traditional cloth cried out as he ran into the district with his active byakugan, "Thank Kami! Your father was about to burn the village looking for you!"

"Ko-san." Hinata said as she bowed her head to her caretaker, "I'm sorry, but I had to help Naruto."

"Naruto..." Ko looked over to where Naruto sarcastically waved, "Hinata, how many times have I told you...your father doesn't want you to be seen with him."

"But he protected me..."

"What do you mean?" The Hyuga asked and turned to the eleven year old, "Well? What happened Satoshi?"

"Hinata was standing against Uchiha arrogance and a misuse of police authority." Satoshi replied, "For her trouble, she was grabbed and threatened until Naruto saved her. Receiving a brutal beating as a result."

"I see..." Ko stated and hesitantly bowed to Naruto, "Thank you for saving Lady Hinata. I assure you that Lord Hiashi will be grateful for your actions."

"I'm not counting on it." Naruto waved his hand and turned his back to the Hyugas, "Let's go home Satoshi."

"Naruto..." Hinata started, redness returning to her face as she continued when Naruto turned back, "I am grateful for what you did. Thank you..."

"Anytime Hinata." Naruto replied with a bow, "Least someone's grateful in this village."

"Don't worry about him, he's still a little shaken by this fight." Satoshi assured Hinata when Naruto started back for home, "Like I'm one to talk. Have a good evening Lady Hinata."

"Hai..." Hinata stated as Ko gently guided her into the opposite direction, "Bye...Naruto..."

"Hopefully, Ko will keep his word and animosity from the Hyuga Clan should lessen. If only temporarily. Either way, doors of friendship are fully opened between Naruto and Hinata." "Wasn't that fun? We beat up four police officers and didn't get punished."

"That first guy won't get punished for beating up a demon." Naruto listlessly stated as his smile completed faded, "But he'll be in the hospital for a little while, right? With those other guys too?"

"Two Weeks at least." Satoshi told the boy with a sense of satisfaction, "Another guy has a dislocated or shattered spine...another has a crushed pelvis and a disrupted spinal column and the last guy has a cut tendon, a broken leg, various third and second degree burns all over his body and a ruptured-"

"You could just say yes." Naruto muttered and saw Satoshi wince from the pain in his right side, "That looks like it hurts."

"It's not as bad as it looks kid." Satoshi partially lied to Naruto, "Fractured right scapula, third degree burns across left side of chest and hip, bruised rib cage on right side, ruptured and by now-overtaxed humerus and a crack in the right side of my cranium. Chakra amount...40% depleted. Minimum Time for recovery...two days, maybe three." "It was worth for you though."

"Thanks..." Naruto said with a small but genuine smile, "Next time, I'll be the one saving you. I promise."

"No hurry kid, I'm the adult. I'm supposed to protect you."

"But you're only eleven-"

"Shut up." While Naruto laughed and Satoshi laughed with him, it was a small truth about the shinobi world that outsiders would find horrible. Once one becomes a genin, they are considered a true adult in the eyes of the shinobi world. But even before he graduated alongside Itachi, Satoshi hadn't be a child since he was five years old...

Something that he hoped Naruto would never have to go through.

Author's Notes:

I think this chapter firmly establishes Satoshi's main role in the story. He'll act as Naruto primary caretaker and, until Naruto learns to do so for himself, his protector against whatever little boys shouldn't have to deal with. Be it parental neglect to bullies to hateful shinobi who want to hurt Naruto for reasons beyond his control.

It'll still be a hard life for young Naruto, but he won't have to wait until he's 12/13 to know that someone cares about him.

PS: Yes, the fight was influenced by the Sherlock Scan from the Sherlock Holmes movie.