(Time skip- three years)
"Daddy!" yelled a little girl, her long white hair blowing in the wind. She was waving toward a man that was leaning against one of the trees that grew in the park.
The man looked up, his white hair was cut short. He had been reading a scroll but was now expertly rolling it up in one smooth motion. He stood into a crouch just in time to catch the white haired girl that had rushing into him and was now give him a large hug. He smiled and said, "Looks like it's time to go, Akara."
The girl nodded and yawned while rubbing her eyes.
"Are you tired?"
She nodded and wrapped her arms around the man's neck as he picked her up. The man waved as best he could that the other parents that waved his way on his walk out of the park. The man stopped by the market for a quick purchase and then was walking again. He nodded in the direction of some women that were eyeing him but continued walking out of the market. The only thing that was on his mind at the moment was getting home and getting his daughter to bed. Little did he know that that would be the farthest thing on it in only a few minutes.
-The Choice-
"Inu," Hiruzen Sarutobi said to the ANBU that was standing next to him, "have you ever seen that man before?" He pointed to a white haired man who was carrying an equally white haired child and a bag of groceries. He himself was passing through the market on a walk when he had noticed the man.
"No, Hokage," the ANBU answered, "I've never seen that man before."
Hiruzen frowned. While it wasn't strange that he didn't know every villager in the village it did stick him as strange that this man and child had white hair, not a normal hair color, and he couldn't remember even seeing them once. "Let's go have a talk, shall we?"
-The Choice-
That white haired man stopped walking as he watched to swirls of smoke and leaves appear in his way. Out of the smoke came an ANBU wearing a dog mask and the Third Hokage. The Third gave him a questioning look before saying, "I'm afraid we never met before."
"Not that I can recall, Hokage-Sama," replied the white haired man.
"Call me Hiruzen, you're not one of my Shinobi so no need for formalities..."
"V.T."
"V.T?"
"That is what my friends call me, Hiruzen-san."
"Daddy?" came the soft and tired voice of the little girl that V.T. was carrying.
"Yes, little one, we're almost home. Daddy's just talking to someone," V.T. said as he adjusted his grip somewhat. She nodded into his shoulder and went back to her sleep. "I'm sorry, but I have to get her home."
"Then I guess I can't beat around the bush, mind telling me why your under a henge?" Hiruzen asked, his voice was ice. The ANBU next to him pulled out a kunai slowly.
V.T.'s face didn't change when he looked at Hiruzen and he said, "If you want to know then come with me to my home, other whys I'll have to leave you wanting."
"I'll just have you arrested-"
"For what? For walking around in a henge? Did you ever think that I might be hiding something embarrassing."
"I think you're hiding something."
"I'm a village of Konoha, I don't have to show you anything, Hokage. You have control over the Shinobi but the Civilian Council has control over the villagers. Now," he fixed the Third a glare, "if you want to know whats under this henge, then follow me."
Hiruzen stared hard at the man before he nodded and stepped to the side so that V.T. could pass. He whispered as the man walked passed, "Try anything and ANBU will be all over you."
V.T. glanced at him and said, "Do you really think I wold put my child in any danger?"
V.T. walked down the road, taking the occasional turn before he walked into an alley way. Hiruzen got ready for the man to turn and attack but was mystified when the man put his free hand on the wall of the dead end and a seal flaired to life for a split second. With a slight push, V.T. opened a door and stepping down some stairs. Inu went in first and Hiruzen followed after and closed the door. If it was opened again he would hear it and know that people were coming.
V.T. walked the two into a kitchen living room of sorts and pointed to the couches and said, "Make yourselves comfortable while I put her to bed."
"Inu, follow him," Hiruzen commanded.
Inu nodded and followed V.T. out of the kitchen and into a hallway. V.T. took a right turn into a room and when Inu walked in he found it to be a bedroom, a little girls room to be exact. He watched V.T. set the girl on the bed and take her shoes off. He watched the clear fatherly love as the man brought the covers over the girl and gave her a kiss on her forehead. Inu backed out and let V.T. close the door softly and then followed him to the kitchen to see that Hiruzen had taken a seat at the bar.
"Mind removing your henge now," Hiruzen said as he took out his pipe.
"You had better not smoke in my house, Jiji," V.T. said as he walked around the bar to the fridge.
The Third dropped his pipe which landed on the counter. "You can't be, Naruto?"
A puff of smoke enveloped V.T. as he opened the fridge and when the smoke dissipated Naruto was standing in his place. He didn't look away from putting the groceries away and said, "Yeah, it's me, Jiji. Nice to see you too, Inu."
"You remember me?" Inu asked.
"How could I forget, you were the only ANBU that was assigned to watch me hat did your job," Naruto answered with a fleeting glance at Inu.
"But, Naruto, okay, stop. First, what are you doing here and not in the orphanage?" Hiruzen asked.
"Jiji, I was kicked out of that place when I turned four years old. I found this place when I was about six."
"Where did you go during those two years in between?" the Third asked slowly, not sure he wanted an answer.
"I lived on the street but I slept alright, the mobs made sure of that," Naruto answered as he closed the fridge and pulled a cutting board out form a cabinet. He began to wash some the veggies he had boughtn and said, "Granted I didn't loss a bit of blood in the process."
The elderly Sarutobi swallowed the lump in his throat and said, "I'm sorry, Naruto. If I had known-"
"You didn't so not your fault."
"But I could have done something."
"Yeah, you could have. You could have visited me, actually visited me, and don't give me that crap about you being to busy. You and I both know that if you really wanted to visit, you would have. You're the Hokage, who's going to question you? Besides, I know that you didn't want that to happen to me," Naruto said, not in an accusing voice, but he said it like facts that had happened.
"I'm sorry-"
"Don't apologize. You didn't know, so if anyone should apologize it's the council. I've no doubt that they knew about my being kicked out of the orphanage."
Sarutobi started to talk again but his voice caught in his throat. Naruto noticed and got him a glass of water while saying, "Take a breathe and let it out."
Hiruzen accepted the glass with a thanks and toke a drink. This time his voice didn't fail him and he asked, "Where did you learn to preform the Henge?"
"I learned it on my own," Naruto answered. He finished cleaning the veggies and set them on the cutting board and started to chop them slowly and carefully.
"On your own?" Inu asked.
"Yeah, in the room to right when you first walked into the entrance hall is where I keep all of my scrolls."
"Your scrolls?" Inu asked.
"You wouldn't believe the kind of things that people will throw away. Elemental jutsu scrolls, Sealing scrolls with stuff still in them, I found a katana in one of them, Taijutsu scrolls, Kenjutsu scrolls, and I have even found clan jutsu scrolls in the trash. Before ether of you two say that I'm not allowed to have any of that I'll repeat myself, I got them all from the trash. There's a law stating that once something is in the trash anyone can take it and I did."
"Don't worry Naruto, no one's going to talk your scrolls," Sarutobi assured him and he smiled when he saw the boy visibly relax.
"What about the girl?" asked Inu and Hiruzen felt like hitting him when he saw Naruto tense up.
"She's my daughter."
"You're daughter?" the Third asked.
"I found her when she was a newborn. She was in an ally with her umbilical cord still attached and a news paper as a blanket. I've raised her, she became my daughter the day I found her."
"Naruto, you're only ten. You can't raise a child much less yourself," Inu insisted.
"I was only seven, Inu, when I picked her up off the street."
"Hokage-sama, are you going to allow him to raise a child much less himself alone?"
Sarutobi felt both of their eyes on him and he felt a bead of sweat go down his back. He straightened himself and said, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to take-" He stopped speaking because of a knife stabbing into his cloak's collar. He looked at Naruto and saw that he still had his arm extended from the throw and had another kitchen knife in his other hand. Inu appeared behind Naruto and swiftly put a kunai to the boy' throat.
"Do you have any idea what you just did, Naruto?" Inu said roughly.
Naruto's eyes borrowed into the Thirds and he said evenly, "I'll kill any one who dares take my Akara away form me."
Hiruzen looked at the boy for a few seconds before saying, "She really means a lot to you."
"She gave me a home when I had none. A place that I could feel loved and I'll destroy anyone that tries to hurt her," Naruto said, his voice was lower and more menacing than before.
"Fine, she can stay."
"She can what?" Inu asked as Naruto relaxed in his grip. He let the boy go and watched him go back to cutting the veggies.
"She can stay. I clear tom that she love Naruto, who am I to separate them?" Hiruzen asked Inu. Inu didn't answer and instead nodded slowly and went back to his set at the bar. "Now, I have another question f you, Naruto."
"Shoot," he said as he picked up the cutting board and dumped the cut veggies into a pot that was full of water. He set it on the stove and turned it to a boil.
"Why aren't you at the academy?"
Naruto turned to him and Hiruzen nearly chocked. Instead of the grin that he usually saw on the boy's face it was a soft smile that held true humor and happiness in it unlike the silly grin. He had never seen Naruto smile like this ad it warmed his heart that the boy still had the ability to have such a smile with the life he had lived. "I guess I can tell you, Jiji. I ran that problem when I first found Akara. Tell me Jiji, how was I at the academy and watching Akara at the same time?"
Hiruzen thought about it and the his jaw dropped open and he said, "Shadow Clone."
"Exactly right, you really are the Professor, Jiji."
"But that's a kinjutsu, who do you know it?"
"One of the oldest scrolls I've ever found contained it along with a man by the name of V.T.'s notations on it. Those were a life save, let m tell you."
"It must be very old if it contains the Shadow Clone Jutsu. V.T. was the name you went by under you Henge, do you know what the initials stand for?"
"No idea, but who ever he is, I've got to thank him and maybe try to find more scrolls that he might have written in or written himself. There is something I wanted to ask you, Jiji. hat is this place, I mean it's my home but...what was it made for?"
The Third nodded and said, "I was amazed the you were able to open it because I hd thought they were all destroyed. This was a base for a troop of enemy nin that were spying on us during the last Shinobi War. I've no doubt that you noticed that you have electricity, water, and all other essentials. This is because the spys, that's what they were, tapped into the main electric grid and water line. With the amounts of each that are used in the village daily we never noticed that they were using it."
"I'll start paying for the electric and water I use this month," Naruto said as he pulled some meat out of the fridge and began cutting it into strips.
"I sure Konoha will be fine with missing some water and electricity. Besides, you've used it this long with out anyone noticing, I don't see any problem."
Naruto gave Hiruzen a look before nodding and saying, "Thanks."
Naruto and Hiruzen talked long after that and even Inu got involved in the conversation. When Naruto offered them supper they gladly accepted and were touched as they watched Naruto wipe Akara's, whom he got up to eat, face with a napkin anytime she was a little messy. Hiruzen was impressed by how quiet the girl was, even when she was talking, and when he asked Naruto about it he had said that she even cried softly as a baby. The only reason he would get up to feed her was because he was an incredibly light sleeper. It was easy to tell he love he held for the girl was far past sibling and that he truly did think of himself as her father and she his daughter. Hiruzen smiled brightly anytime she would call Naruto daddy, him Jiji, and Inu Doggy and it was at those times that he knew he had made the right choice in letting her stay with Naruto.
Hiruzen smiled as he and Inu walked back to the Hokage Tower. It was dark out now, they had spent a fair amount of time at Naruto's and Hiruzen felt better then he had in years. Things were finally looking up.
-The Choice-
Naruto closed the door after Hiruzen and Inu stepped out and shook his head at how fast Inu had eaten the veggies and beef soup. Did the man even take the mask off or did he just absorb the food through it? He walked into the kitchen and found Akara sleeping at the table with her head on the table. He smile and picked her up. After getting her pajamas on and tucking her in for the night, he went into his scroll room. He walked down the middle ally that his scroll shelves made and when he reached the wall, he reached down, and pulled a short strand on ninja wire. The wire pulled up a space of the floor and when he looked in he saw a ladder going down to an underground dojo. These spy guys had thing great, only thing they needed was food. That was one thing that NAruto never forgot. He may have had to pay for food, clothing, and what ever else he needed but he didn't have to pay for housing and by the graces of Jiji electricity or water. He may have found the place but he will never take what was given to him for advantage.
Naruto climbed down into the basement and saw his three Shadow Clones working. One was working on Taijutsu, the next was working on chakra control, and the last was throwing kunai and shuriken. He had two up in the scroll room and during the day he sent out two to make money and one to the academy. That came to eight clone before he dared not make anymore with his level of chakra. He had made one more once and was out cold with chakra exhaustion the next two days. He breathed deep and began his work out. When he finished, he dispelled his clones, took a shower, and went to bed thinking of the next day.