Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...still. This was written for entertainment purposes only.

Raidou stood up as Naruto sprinted to the nearest door. "Hey, this one," he shouted, pointing to a different door. The boy hurried to the right exit, grinning madly.

"Knew that," he chirped.

Raidou lifted an eyebrow. Naruto had never been in ANBU before, so he obviously couldn't have known. "If you're going to lie, do it believably," he advised.

Naruto pushed at the door. It didn't budge. Raidou smirked. "Pull, Naruto-kun."

"But I did that before, and I had to push it!"

"This one's different." A flight of stairs appeared behind the door, wide and brightly lit. "The quartermaster's office is downstairs. That's where we're going." They started down the steps. At the first landing, Raidou stopped, reaching for the door. But Naruto continued leaping downwards. "Hey!" Raidou shouted.

"Can't catch me!" Naruto squealed, giggling madly and taking the turn of the stairs at an unhealthy speed.

The boy slammed to a halt when Raidou appeared in front of him, without even a whisper of air. "You're going to have to get a lot faster if you want that to be true," he informed Naruto. "And this level is off-limits."

Naruto pouted. "Why?"

"Because the torture division is down there," Raidou said matter-of-factly. "They don't like being interrupted."

Naruto listened to the explanation, decided he didn't get it, but that these people didn't sound nice. So he ignored the issue. "You're fast," he declared. "Teach me to be fast."

Raidou began walking up the steps again, his arm extended to push Naruto back up as well. "It's not quite that simple," he began. "There's a lot of other stuff you have to learn first. You sure you want to do that?"

Naruto nodded. "I'm going to be a ninja. And ninja have to be fast! So teach me."

Raidou shrugged. "Maybe if you're good."

In the hallway, finally, Raidou pointed out the various rooms of the first basement level. "Mission room—that would be where the squads go over mission assignments, so if the door is closed, don't go in--another mission room, storage closet, mission room, storage closet."

Naruto was bored. Finally, "Quartermaster's office. Here we are." Raidou knocked lightly on the door, then pushed it open.

The quartermaster of ANBU was thirty-two years old, and one of the most feared members of the organization (excluding the head of T and I, and his favorite apprentice, Morino Ibiki). The quartermaster's office was sacred ground, and he ruled absolutely in his kingdom. Raidou knew fearless hunter-nin who would refuse to pick up their own armor from him after they got on his bad side.

He looked up when the door opened, and smiled at Raidou. "Come on in," he offered, waving a hand in invitation. "I just have to finish this, then I'll be right with you." He then proceeded to ignore his visitors completely as he finished rewrapping the hilt of a battered katana.

Raidou put a hand on Naruto's shoulder to drag the curious boy back from the shelves lining the walls. He pouted, his hand grasping the air in front of a particularly shiny set of shuriken. "I want to see them!" he protested. "I won't break them, I promise."

"See the yellow box?" Raidou asked, pointing at the dot of paint adorning the wooden container.

Naruto nodded. "So?" He wriggled under Raidou's hand. "Stop grabbing me," he protested.

"Stop doing stupid things," Raidou shot back. "Yellow means poison."

Naruto's eyes lit up. "That's so cool!"

Raidou snorted. "You need to meet Yuugao." Creepy poison specialists. He yanked Naruto back from the box again. "Don't touch them, idiot."

"I'm not an idiot!" Naruto screeched. "I'm going to be a better ninja than you!"

Raidou flinched. "Be quiet," he shushed. Apparently he needed more practice addressing children.

The quartermaster finally moved, sheathing the katana and sliding it onto a shelf next to the table. Then he stood with the dull clunk of wood. "What can I do for you, Raidou-san? And..." He peered at the child's whiskered face, recognizing him immediately.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said proudly, sticking out his chest. "Greatest ninja in Konoha!"

"Is that so?" Quartermaster said with a grin. He caught Raidou's wry face, and his mouth quirked a little more. He did save the village.

Raidou thought he could tell what the older man was thinking. Quartermaster was one of the reasons he had been so certain ANBU would be better for Naruto than a civilian home. The man stumped around the table, stopping in front of Naruto. "You must be great if you're in ANBU so young. I don't think I have a mask small enough," he joked. "Even Hatake-brat waited until he was fourteen."

Raidou flinched a little at hearing his captain referred to as 'Hatake-brat.' Not because it wasn't true—it was actually a good description—but because Kakashi would sulk if he heard. Sulky captain was not good for the rest of the team.

Naruto had puffed up even more if possible. "Yeah, I'm going to be super-great," he proclaimed, waving his arms animatedly.

Quartermaster nodded amiably. "So what did you want, Raidou?"

"Naruto's going to be living here awhile. Is there an empty set of rooms he could have?"

"412 is still open," he said promptly. "If you want him close to you."

"That's great," Raidou said with relief. "I thought Aoba's new guy might have gotten that room."

"Nah," Quartermaster shrugged. "I gave him 307. Hey, any news on a replacement for your team?"

Raidou shook his head. "Not yet," he said tersely.

A sudden crash caught the two shinobi's attention. "Naruto!"

The boy poked his head up from under the heap of black shirts. "Hey, ANBU-nii-san!"

"I'll pick it up," Raidou insisted, as Quartermaster turned towards the mess. He piled the shirts back into their box, Naruto's folding more of a hindrance than a help. Quartermaster waited patiently for them to finish. Naruto sat on the floor, grinning up at the man as Raidou slid the box back onto the shelf.

"Ah!" Naruto exclaimed all of a sudden. "You have a wooden leg!" With his back to the room, Raidou lifted his eyes to the ceiling. He wasn't the only one who needed to learn tact.

"Yep."

"Why?" Naruto shimmied across the floor to poke his nose closer.

"Because my other one fell off."

"How?" Naruto breathed, his eyes wide.

Raidou tensed. But Quartermaster just grinned. "I didn't eat my vegetables."

The ANBU agent relaxed. He had been right to trust in his friend. Naruto was gaping at the tall man, unaware that it was not a lack of vegetables, but the monster sealed in his abdomen that had ripped Quartermaster's leg off the day Naruto was born, cutting short the promising career of a man everyone said would be a Captain someday.

But Quartermaster had always blessed the Kyuubi's container. He had been a good friend of Yondaime, but more than that, he credited Naruto with saving his life, the life of his daughter, and the rest of the village.

Raidou bowed slightly to Quartermaster. The man flashed a quick smile, then turned to a locked cupboard and fished out a set of keys. "Here, room 412."

"Thanks. See you later, sir."

"Of course. And come see me again, Naruto-kun."

Raidou held open the door for the little imp to exit. He tossed Naruto the set of keys. "Don't lose those. Quartermaster might be a nice guy, but he's hell if you lose stuff."

Naruto nodded. "He has a wooden leg," he whispered. "I didn't know vegetables could do that."

After a lunch of ramen, Raidou brought the boy back to headquarters. He gave Naruto the full tour, excluding Ibiki's extensive and mentally scarring basement lair. Naruto's eyes were wide by the time Raidou stopped in front of the cafeteria. "It's huge," he repeated, having expressed the sentiment several times in the last few hours.

Raidou just nodded, ushering Naruto towards the food counter. It was early yet for dinner, though ANBU rarely ate at scheduled times, and the cafeteria was mostly deserted. Over in one corner, someone had fallen asleep next to a cold bowl of soup, his mask askew. Raidou gave him a cursory glance, checking for blood. But the man was just tired, not avoiding the medics after a mission. Next to the windows, two kunoichi talked in low voices, a scroll spread out between them and their trays.

Naruto peered at the food offerings with a little disappointment. "No ramen?" he queried, putting on puppy eyes.

"You had ramen for lunch," Raidou said, unmoved. "Try the stir-fry." That, at least, was usually edible. Naruto wisely avoided the brown lumps in the strangely green sauce, but Raidou did dump a pile of cabbage on his plate. When Naruto grimaced, he said wickedly, "You want your legs to fall off?"

Naruto paled, and when they sat down, he shoveled the cabbage into his mouth like it was an S-ranked mission.

No one disturbed them during dinner, and Naruto was tired enough afterwards that he agreed to go straight to bed. All of Naruto's things were still at Maeda's house, so Raidou found him an old t-shirt to wear to bed. The yellow shirt reached to the floor, but Naruto was too exhausted to complain. Raidou stood awkwardly by as he climbed into bed, pulling the dark blue blankets over himself. "Well, good night," he offered. He had heard parents sometimes tucked their kids in at night, but he wasn't sure how to do it.

Naruto didn't seem to expect anything, however, so Raidou waited stiffly in the center of the room, until the boy mumbled "G'night," his eyes already closed and mouth slightly open against his pillow.

Hayate was waiting in the hall when Raidou shut Naruto's door lightly behind himself. Raidou acknowledged his teammate with a glance, then pulled two scraps of paper from his hip pouch. A character was drawn on each, and he pasted them carefully to the doorposts. Now, if anyone tried to get into Naruto's room, he would know.

Raidou crossed the hall to his own door, three steps down to the left. Hayate followed him, leaning casually against the wall as Raidou unlocked his door. Uninvited, he followed his sempai in.

"What do you want, Hayate?"

The younger ninja sat down cross-legged on Raidou's bed, the only remotely soft piece of furniture in the apartment. Raidou rested a hip against the desk against one wall, and crossed his arms. Hayate pasted a grin on his face. "Yuugao and I had breakfast with Genma today."

"Uh-huh."

Hayate decided to drive straight to the point. "He said Uzumaki is living here."

"Yes."

"Is that wise?"

"Yes." Raidou looked coolly at his teammate. Gekkou Hayate was barely seventeen years old, just past his rookie year in ANBU. He had been a genin when Kyuubi attacked, but Yondaime had kept the genin away from the main fight, where they would have been slaughtered. Hayate had no personal grievances with the Kyuubi, beyond the friends that everyone had lost.

Hayate didn't have anything against Uzumaki. But Genma had been on edge the whole day, and while that was not odd in itself, he hadn't complained once about his mission. That was when Hayate began to worry.

He had finally pried the information out of Genma, reluctant to speak about it, that Raidou's new ward was the jinchuuriki. But once that had come out, Genma had emphatically warned him to be careful, and to stay away from the Kyuubi.

However, when Hayate returned to headquarters, after walking Yuugao home, he had gone down to Quartermaster's office to pick up a new set of armguards. Quartermaster had been in an especially good mood, even as he rubbed the aching stump of his leg. "You should have seen Raidou," he had said confidentially. "I've always said that man needs to relax some." Hayate nodded, adjusting the straps of the guards. "That kid is like a little brother to him; he was grinning the whole time he was here."

"Raidou was?" Hayate had asked incredulously.

And it was true; standing in the hall tonight, Hayate had seen how soft Raidou's face was when he looked at the little boy. And now Hayate was confused, because Raidou was rarely truly happy and showed it even less, and he wanted his friend to be happy.

So he didn't argue with Raidou about the Kyuubi container, Uzumaki-kun. Hayate offered a quiet warning to his friend, and decided to wait and meet Uzumaki himself before he made any more judgments.

Raidou was up at five, his usual waking time. A few quick stretches later, he headed towards the cafeteria. Naruto was still sound asleep, drool trailing down his chin to moisten his pillow. Raidou had smothered a smile; if he wanted to be a ninja, Naruto would have to learn to sleep without sprawling his limbs all over. That was a good way to fall out of a tree.

The cafeteria held a varied crowd of early risers and the few insomniacs or agents just returned from missions who were just now heading up to bed. Raidou ladled out a bowl of the rice porridge that was hard to make wrong, and sat down across from a sleepy hunter-nin. The man was half in uniform, and complained to Raidou about his captain's crazy idea for all-night training sessions.

When the man left to get some sleep, Raidou got a second bowl of porridge. He was about to sit down again, when an arm intruded into his field of vision.

The arm was attached to a man, who leaned insolently on the table, hand smack in the middle of Raidou's spot. Raidou lifted his eyes slowly, leveling a cold glare at the face. He knew it, and was not happy to see him.

It was Matsuda, as it usually was. He was twirling a kunai in his free hand, and the sneering lift to his lips made even that innocent gesture a threat. "How's your pet demon doing, Raidou?"

The porridge was placed silently on the tabletop. Ignoring the man's comment, Raidou never took his eyes from his face. "Still on probation, Matsuda?"

The sneer twisted into something nastier. A few heads turned at the sudden spike in tension, not quite killing intent yet, but not far from it. "Intel realized their mistake already," Matsuda answered, seemingly calm. "I'm back on active duty."

"Our loss," Raidou said pleasantly.

Matsuda's expression became a snarl. "Maybe the Kyuubi's corrupting you, Namiashi. You should be careful, lest you have to be put down."

The shift from tension to killing intent was palpable. Raidou bent his knees, not quite in a fighting stance, but ready to move. The handle of the kunai thunked into Matsuda's palm, its spin arrested.

An attack was prevented by the sudden insertion of a naked katana blade between the two men. Matsuda spun around, eyes spitting fire. "What the hell are you doing, brat?"

Hayate smiled politely. "I'm sorry for interrupting your conversation, Matsuda-sempai, but I need to ask Namiashi-sempai a question about this katana." He moved to stand subtly beside Raidou, the odds now two to one. The rest of the cafeteria was carefully not watching, though no one was unaware of the brewing fight, and several hands rested inconspicuously near thigh holsters. Hayate's katana glittered.

Matsuda wasn't stupid, and despite the two inches he had on Namiashi for height and the confidence that he could beat both Namiashi and his scrawny teammate, Matsuda did not want to be dragged in to answer to authority by the rest of the breakfast crowd. He backed down, and left the cafeteria.

The tension bled away as the tall jounin exited. Hands picked up chopsticks once again, and the soft hum of casual conversation returned. Confrontations were not unusual in ANBU, but it was a relief to avert unnecessary violence, especially so early in the morning. Raidou gave a short nod to Hayate, as the younger man sheathed his sword, all the thanks he would give. "I had it under control."

Hayate shrugged, passing over the obvious lie. "Is this about the right size for Uzumaki?" He stuck out the sheath.

For a moment, Raidou was speechless. Then he took the proffered weapon, measuring its length with his eyes. "You're the expert," he said wryly.

"Yes," Hayate agreed amiably, "But I don't know Uzumaki's size."

"It seems right," Raidou admitted. He drew the sword carefully, examining it with a practiced eye. "This is high quality," he said, impressed. "Where did you get it?"

"It was mine when I was his age." Hayate looked at the blade with fondness. "My second katana."

"Are you sure about this?" Raidou asked, quietly amazed. The Gekkou family, though a small clan and not particularly prestigious, passed their swords down through the generations, and the katana he held had to be worth more than he could repay with a year of S-class missions.

Hayate nodded. "It's a loan," he clarified, "But Uzumaki will grow out of it soon enough. Child's katana are hard to find in good quality."

"But he doesn't know how to use a kunai, let alone a katana."

Hayate froze. He hoped Raidou wouldn't raise that. No such luck.

"Would you teach him, Hayate? Just the basics," Raidou added quickly, catching the flicker of panic. Shit, was that too much to ask? He hoped he hadn't just destroyed any chance of Hayate accepting Naruto.

Hayate pushed away the irrational impulse to run. Teach the Kyuubi container? But if he wasn't going to, why had he offered the katana? I don't know, he admitted to himself. I'm an idiot. But Raidou's face had that hard look again, and Hayate plunged in. "Sure. I'd be glad to."